This is the only book I have ever seen that touches upon what is for me the most important impetus to pray the Liturgy of the Hours: it is a prayer of unity for the whole church, and next only to Holy Mass, unifies believers, even those praying it in isolated circumstances, with the rest of the Body of Christ. This is an exciting book, and the chapter on apostolic prayer is easily worth the price of the whole. It may not make praying the Liturgy of the Hours itself exactly exciting, but it will clarify your reasons for doing so and make the discipline seem worthwhile.

Fr. Charles Miller's wonderful little book, "Together in Prayer: etc" was my textbook for a class entitled: The Psalms: the Prayer of the Church at St. Charles Seminary, outside Philadelphia, PA. I highly recommend this for the layman who would like to appreciate the psalms better, but have had trouble connecting to them in a meaningful way. Fr. Miller speaks, with great love, about the beauty and timelessness of the psalms by relating them to everyday situations. Fr. Miller shows how our everyday situations have a voice in these ancient poetic expressions. Although there are many Psalm scholars who will appeal to individuals involved in more serious study (such as Walter Bruggermann), Fr. Miller's "Together in Prayer" offers an accessable entrance point for the neophite. Anyone who reads this book will come away with a new appreciation for the Psalms.

Sticker Stories Trains

By Edward Miller
This paperback book tells a little story about trains (well, a loose story). There are 75 "reusable" stickers showing cartoon-like trains. There are all different trains, coaches, box cars, diesel engines, subways, steam engines, etc. The text is vague so the child can use their imagination and their own creativity to create their own trains and I think that is great. There are lots of different scenes that the children then paste the train cars onto the rails.

My complaint is that these stickers are not really re-usable. Even when we tried removing a sticker within minutes of putting it on the page it curled up onto itself, got all stuck, and had to be thrown away. Other times when we tried to re-stick it to the paper, it simply would not stick fully and peeled up by itself and made a mess. I really resent the marketing of these so-called reusable stickers (by this company and other publishers) when really they are not reusable. Also my 4 year-old son got very frustrated with them rolling up and getting ruined when he did not cause the problem! He wanted me to "fix it" but I simply could not.

Once the stickers are in place the book can be re-read and browsed as a completed book which is great.

Overall my children have played with this enough to have gotten good use of the 75 stickers for the low price... so I am granting it a 3 star rating. Other books with similar issues charge a much higher price and/or don't allow as much creativity as this book. This would make an excellent project for long car trips or air flights.

My four year-old son LOVES trains, and this book is fantastic. Tons of realistic stickers that can be placed on various landscapes. He absolutely loves this book. I highly recommend this book and any others in this series. They are an excellent value!

North Dakota State Univ uses this in its intro to American Gov't course. It is an easily readable text that covers everything that a government text should. Lots of links to the Internet are included as well, and the info is very up-to-date. Covers impeachment and everything else. I'll bet that the next edition includes the whole 2000 election fiasco. I only noticed one error, but that's probably due to the fact that I live in the state referenced.

I've been using the photos in this book with elementary art students for several years. We do value studies with black and white tempera paints, looking for the progression of values, and nature's shapes, patterns and textures (like rippling and branching). Then we compare our paintings with some by Georgia O'Keeffe and other artists. While I've never actually read the text, the photos have been a good springboard for discussions of aerial perspective, and erosion by wind and water, too.

This book is a real treat for those looking to introduce the younger set to the workings of the human body. The illustrations are clear and vivid and the text explains concepts simply, but well. Several simple experiments are included to illustrate the workings of the lungs, muscles, etc. My only beef is the use of some crude language when discussing the digestive system - I thought it just didn't fit with the tone of the rest of the book. The last page is also a bit odd when speaking of future technology and the artificial replacement of body parts such as the brain. These minor quibbles aside, the book would be an excellent introduction for elementary school students...

Although General Hunter wasn't an abolitionist in the sense that Frederick Douglass or Garrison were, he may have been the highest ranking military officer to have issued orders freeing southern slaves without authority (before the Emancipation Proclamation) because he believed southerners who seceded were traitors and he needed every soldier INCLUDING BLACK SOLDIERS he could get. Hunter's bland history as a "paymaster" during the Mexican war and the Frontier Indian wars is an added bonus, as the job was much more than it seems. Miller's recounting of how Hunter decided which of the homes of "rebel sympathizers" to burn down is also highly instructive of what it must have been like to conduct a "war" in your own backyard, with family names you know. Hunter was a personal friend of both Jefferson Davis and Abe Lincoln and routinely went around normal military channels to make his points. Miller doesn't try to present Hunter as a hero, but an interesting character in the Civil War who was well in front of his fellow Republicans on the issue of freeing the slaves and enlisting them into the war. (They didn't all want to be free, nor did they all want to fight.) The prose is a little dry, but the story carries it along well. Civil War buffs should particularly like this viewpoint of the Virginia campaign. Recommended.

I wouldn't recommend this book to the beginning student of textual criticism, but it is a very well done work. Burgon died in the late 1800's, when people in general could read beyond a 5th-grade level, so the language and sentence structure used within do not yield an easy-to-read book for the modern reader. Not that that is a detriment, of course, but many readers might find reading it too much work. While not necessary, an ability to read Greek and even Latin would be helpful in getting maximimum benefit from this book.

That said, this work does an excellent job of discrediting the "revised text" that has in many circles replaced the Traditional Text of the New Testament (from whence came the King James Version of the Scriptures). The reader will also get a lesson in some of the methods scholars (and quasi-scholars) use to determine which of two variant readings is the one that the Holy Spirit insprired.

This book is a truck themed book which is one of many published by Grosset & Dunlap.

There are 7 2-page spreads, which consist of background for placing the stickers. Each spread has a few sentences to tell a story or act as a guide for the sticker placement. The backgrounds are creative and well done. There are backgrounds of city streets, gas station, construction site, forest/logging site, suburban snow scene, a city building fire and a supermarket parking lot. Stickers depict construction vehicles, pickup trucks, campers, delivery trucks, logging trucks, and fire vehicles.

The stickers are billed as "reusable". The stickers stick very well the first time around. A bonus "pro" is since they are "reusable" stickers, if they are accidentally stuck onto floors, walls, or furniture they remove easily and effortlessly. The "con" is that (after using 5 different books in this series and having this consistent in every book) I must say that once a sticker is peeled and placed in a different spot, it does not lie flat. The sticker curls at the edges and is a mess. This has frustrated and annoyed both of my children and I don't like activities that are supposed to be fun to end up causing tantrums and frustration--especially when it is caused by "false claims" by the publisher of the stickers being reusable! Also in the sticker removing process, they tend to tear, especially if the shape of the sticker has protruding parts or small pieces sticking out. The tearing occurs when I peel them as well as my young children. This tearing has resulted in tears and disaster-"my favorite space shuttle ripped---AAGHHH!"

The graphics themselves are high quality and I am happy with the book graphics and the sticker graphics.

There are 75 stickers. If one were to buy 75 single use stickers of a theme without a book, the price would be higher than the price of this book with the stickers. I like the book and the stickers except for them being billed as "reusable" when they really are not. I'll rate it 4 stars since I really like the product but wish the stickers were more reusable than they are. The low price also is appreciated.

I did come up with an idea that once the stickers are shot, to discard them and you would end up with a blank book. You can then present this to your child and have them draw in the book using their imagination as a guide.

This is an interesting, small (95 pages) book filled with funeral and related humor. It's not for everyone, but many readers will enjoy the humor as related by "funeral workers." The major topics include Quaint Quotes, Ridiculous Removals and Funeral Arrangements, Wacky Wakes, Funny Funerals, and Hilarious Headstones. There are about 120 different stories, jokes and miscellaneous included. It makes for interesting reading and can bring you some smiles. Those who are offended by humor related to death and dying will not appreciate the book. Other readers will enjoy it. It's a change from the ordinary.

Well, there have been 6 reviews of 'Underground Humor' before me. With the obvious contrast of the reviews being all or nothing. I can only speculate that those negative reviews are from persons who have never worked in the funeral industry. My wife and I are both from the death care background and we both loved it as well as many of our associates. The only friend of ours that did not appreciate the book has never been part of the funeral biz, nor does he ever want to be part of it. So go figure. Well, as I see it, if you're in the biz, you'll love it, if not, oh well..... I give it two well-embalmed thumbs up.

What a witty and clever fellow this Ed Bergin is to have put together such a unique collection of funny funeral-related stories, headstone epitaphs, and quotes about death. While death isn't a laughing matter, this book proves that funny things happen when you're dealing with people, dead or alive. It's great to see that funeral professionals working under the most stressful conditions have occasional reasons to laugh. If you have an advanced sense of humor, you will appreciate this book. It's not for stiffs.

Other reviews have described the plot, so I won't spend much time on it. A man, Julian West, goes to sleep in 1887 and wakes up in the year 2000. He finds a socialist utopia.

At first, the book is quite interesting. Bellamy does a good job of capturing the protagonist's surpise and confusion at the new world he discovers. The fact that Edith Leete looks like his fiance back in 1887 Boston is a neat twist. The socialist state the author describes is appealing to me, and as someone who believes that socialism can work, I found it thought provoking.

The problem is, there is not enough story or character development here. Bellamy's ideas aren't really suited to the fictional form. He'd have been better off to write a solely political tract. Because the author can't seem to decide if he wants to write a novel or a political essay, both the narrative and the politics are oversimplified, and given short shrift. The introduction by Cecilia Titchi (pardon my spelling), was excellent. In fact, the book fails to live up to it. If you know nothing about socialism, this book my enlighten you as to the philosophy. If it is an option for a political science class, it would be a good pick because it is easy and quick reading. Otherwise, I wouldn't rush to read it.

I grew up on science fiction, and many years ago read this book and was utterly unimpressed. Over the years, at SF conventions, I would ask other fans if they had read this book. Now these are fans who could regale you with quotes from Star Trek, or Star Wars, and who often had read most of Larry Niven or Andre Norton. But "Looking Backward"? Bellamy? Many had never heard of the book or the author. Those who had read the book often shared my opinion. By comparison, all I asked had read "Time Machine" by Wells, and had seen the movie.

I think it is instructive to compare the two books. Written within a few years of each other, with Bellamy's actually being the first, why did "Time Machine" live on, and the other being relegated to a well deserved obscurity? In fact, "Time Machine" is generally considered the first famous novel that describes the concept of time travel.

Try reading the two books consecutively. Well's story is gripping and dramatic. Bellamy's seems stilted and ponderous. Part of this is just the differences in literary style in the intervening century. But "Time Machine" is still a dashing read. Bellamy's text is a thinly wrapped polemic; a hosanna to his vision of a socialistic utopia. Most of the book is a hectoring lecture as to how late twentieth century Boston is a secular paradise, with the evils of capitalism just a historial curiosity. For one thing, books on utopia do not sell well. Regardless of your personal political beliefs, a book that is soothing and tranquil lacks a certain vivacity and drama.

This book is significant today, but NOT as science fiction. Rather as a guidepost to the socialistic beliefs of a certain subculture of a past century.

Don't hold your breath waiting for the movie!

Having never really heard of this novel or its author before, I was rather surprised to discover how immensely popular it was at the end of the nineteenth century. Edward Bellamy does an excellent albeit sometimes pedantic job of communicating his socioeconomic views and provides an interesting and informative read, despite the fact that the utopia of his fictional creation is a socialist nightmare in the realm of my own personal philosophy. It is very important to understand the time in which Bellamy was writing, especially for a conservative-minded thinker such as myself who holds many of Bellamy's views as anathema. It was the mid-1880s, a time of great social unrest; vast strikes by labor unions, clashes between workers and managers, a debilitating economic depression. Bellamy, to his credit, in no way comes off as holier than thou; his wealthy protagonist recognizes his own responsibility in seeing the world in the eyes of the more prosperous classes, basically ignoring the plights of the poor and downtrodden, having inherited rather than earned the money he is privileged to enjoy, etc. This makes the character's observations and conclusions very impactful upon the reader.

While I do respect Bellamy's views and understand the context in which they germinated, I cannot help but describe his future utopia as nothing less than naïve, socialistic, unworkable, and destructive of the individual spirit. Indeed, it sounds to me like vintage Soviet communism, at least in its ideals. Bellamy is a Marxist with blinders on. I should describe the actual novel at this point. The protagonist, an insomniac having employed a mesmerist to help him sleep through the night, finds himself waking up not the following morning in 1887 but in a completely changed world in 2000. His bed chamber was a subterranean fortress of sorts which only he, his servant, and the mesmerist (who left the city that same night) even knew about, and apparently his home proper burned down on that fateful night and thus his servant was clearly unable to bring him out of his trance the following morning. It is only by accident that Dr. Leekes of twentieth-century Boston discovers the unknown tomb and helps resuscitate its remarkable inhabitant. 20th-century life is wholly unlike anything the protagonist has ever known, and the book basically consists of a number of instruction sessions by the Leekes as to how society has been virtually perfected over the preceding 100 years. There is no more war, crime, unhappiness, discrimination, etc. There are no such things as wages or prices, even. All men and women are paid the same by virtue of their being human beings; while money does not exist, everyone has everything they possibly need easily available to them for purchase with special credit cards. Every part of the economy is controlled by the national government, and it is through cooperation of the brotherhood of men that production has exceeded many times over that of privately controlled industries fighting a war against each other in the name of capitalism.

Bellamy's future utopia is most open to question in terms of the means by which individualism is supposedly strengthened rather than smothered, how a complex but seemingly set of incentives supposedly keep each worker happy and productive, how invention or improvement of anything is possible in such a world, and how this great society does not in fact become a mirror of Khrushchev's Russian state. Such a society consisting of an "industrial army" and controlled in the minutest of terms by a central national authority simply sounds like Communism to my ears and is equally as unsustainable. Of course, Bellamy wrote this novel many years before the first corruptions of Marx's dangerous dreams were made a reality on earth. As I said, I disagree with just about everything Bellamy praises, and I think almost anyone would agree his utopia is an impossibility, but I greatly respect the man for his bold, humanitarian vision and applaud his efforts to make the world a better place. In fact, many groups organized themselves along the lines of the world Bellamy envisioned, so the novel's influence on contemporary popular thought is beyond question. Looking Backward remains a fascinating read in our own time.

I should make clear that the novel is not completely a dry recitation of socioeconomic arguments and moralistic treatises. Bellamy makes the story of this most unusual of time travelers a most enjoyable one, bringing in an unusual type of old-fashioned romance to supply the beating heart of a novel that had the potential to become overly analytical and thus rather boring reading otherwise. He also managed to grab me by the scruff of the neck and shake me around a couple of times with his concluding chapter, quite shocking me with a couple of unexpected plot twists. This great humanist of the late nineteenth century can teach us all something about what it means to be truly human, although I fear that his socioeconomic theories are themselves far too romanticized to have much practical relevance in the lives of modern men and women.