How to Get Into the Bible is a wonderfully laid out book that really brings the messages of the Bible home. Each book of the Bible is reviewed. Timelines and maps of the surrounding areas, found in the first page or so of each review, help the reader keep straight complicated chronological and geographical data. Also at the end of each review is the encore section. This tells the reader where they can find similar material in other books of the Bible.

I really liked the way the book is set-up. I enjoyed the shaded boxes, which highlight famous lines and ask, "did you know" questions about each book of the Bible. The section titled, How We Got Our Bible, is helpful. That is followed by a section highlighting the main points of Bible. This can help those who may not be familiar with many Bible stories. Moreover it serves as a good overview.

This book is great because it is written for a variety of readers from different age groups. Teenagers on up could enjoy this book. You can choose to use the book as a reference book, read it as novel, or just read each review and then read the accompany book.

This book is an excellent companion book for Bible study. It's a great startup book for someone who's new to the Bible and can also serve as a handy quick reference for someone already familiar with the material.

Each book of the Bible is addressed in terms of plot, main characters, the book's relationship to other Bible stories, and more. It's like a well fleshed out study outline in many ways. What I particularly liked is that even the very short books of the Bible are given equal treatment. You'll get ample material about 1 Peter, Micah, Obadiah, and other small books along with the big boys like Isaiah and John.

Time lines help you keep a mental picture of what's going on around the events of each book. Where multiple opinions and theories abound, the authors introduce the reader to a variety of interpretations and the merits of each.

While many of the author asides and comments may prove uncomfortably liberal for evangelicals or fundamentalists, I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in digesting the Bible. It's entertaining and captivating enough to read straight through like a novel, educational enough to use as a supporting study text, and consistantly useful enough to keep it on your reference bookshelves.

I bought this book to be a companion in my bible study, but ended up reading it cover to cover. I like the way the writers have compared in timeline form, known world events and biblical events. They have also included archaeological facts for biblical events.

My (10 year old) daughter got interested in '20,000 leagues' after reading the "Wishbone" version (go ahead and laugh). I went searching for the real thing to read with her, and came across this edition. With all of the missing content recovered, plus the annotations to fill in all sorts of additional information, the result is fascinating for adult readers. If you read the usual (butchered) version as a kid, you really owe yourself this one. All of the critiques of Verne over the years that tried to belittle his knowledge of science turn out to have been based on translations that whacked out what Verne really said -- they thought it was too dry and boring. Reading what he really said, plus the extensive footnotes that describe the state of knowledge at the time, make Verne's brilliance tripling astonishing. Just consider that he wrote about the Nautilus at a time when the Hunley was the state of the art!

One of the great problems with Jules Verne is that in the English speaking world he is relagated to the category of "Boys' Own Adventures". On the Continent, however, he is considered a brilliant social commentator, and biting satirist, AND a man who predicted the future. This is a volume that helps set matters to the right.

If you know of "20,000 Leagues" already, you will find little different at first. The plot is still the plot. Nemo is still Nemo, Prof. Aronnax is still pompous and fascinated by the Nautilus and Ned Land....

Ned Land is a flaming socialist.

This is one of the major shifts between the original French and the "cleaned up" English editions. Most of the science of the day was pulled out as a "dull read" and all the Socialism, anti-English remarks, and other commentaries of a "questionable nature" were excised. We Americans have unfortunately been until only very recently only able to find these poor early translations, or translations based on these poor translations. There is much more to Verne than submarines and diving suits. He is a man with a vision of his times, both scientific and political, and his books underline this strongly.

English readers, demand your Verne well-translated! Do not allow yourself to be fobbed off with bowlderized versions! To be able to read as he wrote himself (well, in English, for those of us who don't read French...) is a greater pleasure than merely an amusing old science-fiction story from the 19th century. Reading this book, as Verne /meant/ it to be read, if a pleasure, but also a struggle to understand ourselves and our relationship to the oceans themselves.

The best translation in English. Satisfies the intellect and imagination. Translated to show the truly beautiful qualities of Verne's writing that no other version can equal. The adventure comes alive by not omitting the breadth and depth of Verne's aesthetic ability originally entrenched within this masterpiece.

This giant of the 20th Century, will be known as John Paul the Great by future historians. Today, his teachings are considered "out of touch" with the modern world by the mouth pieces of worldly power, especially on sexual morality. He is considered worthy of derision by them, how wrong they are.

The thought of JPII is trans-modern, it is a bold and sophisticated philosophical approach to the problems that afflict our world. His insights penetrate into the philosphical and spiritual roots of the modern crisis and has found the solution. His approach is a rigorus engagement with modern thought and transcends the dead-end thought that has emerged among intellectual eliets and poisons our universities.

For those who would gloss over his writings, they would miss the mystical import and profound depth of this thinker and leader. So subtle, so rich, it is easily missed.

John Paul II is a prophet to the world, a prophet whose message has largely been ignored.

In the not too distant future, when our need for the TRUTH presses upon us ever more heavily, those who search will find John Paul's writings and be liberated and ennobled by this man's potent seed.

Take this and steep yourself in the truth and allow this man's spirit, the spirit of the Father, Child and Love to fill you.

Here they are, in one collection. Why buy them individually when you can have them all in one place?

This important book provides a study of 12 of Pope John Paul II's encyclicals, from the first of his pontificate, Redemptor Hominis, through the much discussed Evangelium Vitae and Veritatis Splendor, the not-to-be-overlooked Redemptoris Mater, and Ut Unum Sint.

Scholars and non-scholars will be pouring over the Pope's gifts for the next century to come. The encyclicals offer Pope John Paul II's brilliant blueprint for the third millennium. It is a blueprint fashioned from Scripture itself, but with modern insights to carry us forward across the "threshold of hope."

J. Michael Miller, C.S.B. offers an excellent introduction to Papal encyclicals and helpful notes prior to each chapter. In addition, an exhaustive index makes this a superb reference for pastors, teachers, writers, theologians, researchers, and the average layperson desiring to know more about the Church.

Father Miller has captured an entire set of the most significant written works of the Papacy of John Paul II. Clearly the present pope has been a religious and geopolitical figure of first importance in the past 22 years, as has been amply documented in such works as Weigel's 'Witness to Hope' and Bernstein's 'His Holiness.' The universal intellectual achievement however of JPII is understandable most readily in his encyclicals. These documents speak from and reveal a philosopher and theologian of the first quality; indeed, as with Leo XIII, it may take at least a hundred years for the importance of his work to be understood. Fr. Miller has the qualifications on all fronts, as a philosopher, a theologian, and his former employment in the Papal Secretariat of State, to gather and remark on these works. Students of the times and their deepest roots will doubtlessly find here a collection of primary source materials that are indispensible to their understanding.

This is an incredible book that not only reaches to the depths of the heart by capturing the amazing, incomprehensible love of Jesus, but at the same time convicts us of how short we fall in loving others. This is one of the most impactful books I've read about the reality of Jesus' love for us and how that can be applied as we desire to love others. Paul Miller's transparency and real life examples result in an ease of reading many books lack. This is a must read! Expect to be transformed!

Wow! Throughout this entire book you'll find yourself walking in other people's shoes, feeling what they feel. Understanding what true compassion really is. Knowing what real Love is! All my life I felt I had an understanding of what it meant for Jesus to bear the cross for me. But, after reading "Love Walked Among Us" it has taken on a whole new meaning for me. Understanding that He was just a man, a physical human being I was able to put myself in His shoes. I could feel the mental pain of being betrayed, abandoned, alone. This alone would be enough to give up. But then, to have to endure such physical pain is unbearable! This book will help you see the outcast at work, feel compassion for him/her and reach out with the love of Jesus.

As an acquiring editor I have the privilege of reading many book proposals and manuscripts, as well as published books. As I read through this one, I found myself stopping to pray, stopping to repent, and stopping to cry. I found myself so convicted by the example Christ gave us of the godly way to love!

Paul's journey to understand how Jesus loved others is well written with a vulnerability and transparency that lets you know it's okay to be on the path of learning to know and understand God. It's an eternal path, and one that doesn't come easily. We have to set aside all of our preconceived notions about others, "crucify" the very voices of our inner being that cry out to be right, to be loved the most, not to be inconvenienced or misunderstood, and instead to love as Jesus loved.

If you want a good read and some insight into Jesus, you will want to read this book!

This is an extremely educational and informative piece of work, especially regarding the details of the Nixon, Ford, Johnson and Carter administration, along with extensive information about the Vietnam War, WWI, WWII and the Watergate crisis. The literature section was fascinating. It was exciting to read the brilliant poetry of Adrienne Rich and John Ashbery. Rich's poetry touched my heart because it focused on the suffering of women who lacked a voice in their defense against discrimination. Rich emphasized what women desired socially and in the workplace. Her poem titled, "Sources," begs for women's freedom and democracy. It plans to break away from the silence and to end female discrimination. What was inspiring about poet Ashbery was that he instructed his students to write poems based on paintings. For example, Ashbery's poem titled, "Self-Portrait in a Convex Mirror," was very intriguing, due to the idea that one does not see one's reflection when looking in the mirror. The painting depicts how we long to change, yet we must accept ourselves as we are. Sometimes we feel trapped with ourselves and isolated from the exterior world. We are on a constant strive for acceptance to be in unison with the outside world. What impressed me a great deal was artist, Jasper John's crosshatching paintings. For example, his painting titled, Cicada, (1979), encouraged individuals to analyze a painting, uncover the mystery and meaning behind the drawing and to focus on the unseen. I especially enjoyed reading about the unique fashion of the 1970s, the beginnings of disco and punk music and popular films like: Carrie, Pulp Fiction, Taxi Driver, Jaws and Saturday Night Fever. The book grabs the attention of readers who have experienced the 1970's and those of a later generation who wished that they were there. I liked the idea behind Toni Morrison's book titled, The Bluest Sky, because it reeducates away from white ideals and beauty that imprison African Americans. Stephen Paul Miller's work help readers remember the early forms of self-expression in the 1970's and the courage of women on their road to freedom. The title of Stephen Miller's work, The Seventies Now: Culture as Surveillance, is appropriate because the 1970's was a time of renewal and change and an exchange of new ideas, freedoms and individualism. American culture was under surveillance because people wanted to be themselves by stressing their uniqueness. Alteration in people's speech, behavior, and in other forms of expression is the reason why our culture was under surveillance. Stephen Miller demonstrated a creative style of writing by gradually moving from one topic to another, which added variety to my reading. This is an excellent source of relevant information for students who want to relate to or explore the era of the 1970's. Stephen Paul Miller has displayed his imaginative side. His splendid choice of words describes the 1970's in full accuracy and makes this piece a true learning experience.

Dr. Miller has succeeded not merely in creating a wholly fresh analysis of America in the 1970's, but in developing a new set of critical aparati. Very impressive and useful work.

Miller elucidates his thesis brilliantly and concisely in the book's introduction. His "micro-periodizing" of American culture deconstructs and relocates the seventies decade with reference to the sixties cultural revolution and the Reaganomics of the eighties. Now that we have the hindsight of the nineties...this book was just waiting to be written! Miller micro-periodizes cultural phenomena within the political context of the Nixon Era. While Miller is indebted to Foucault's theory of periodization, he takes his departure from Foucault's grid to account for changes between epistemes. The first chapter defines the concept of "rippling epistemes" to account for the fact that epistemes are always in transition. This serves as a very coherent and insightful thesis for the book.

Specific strengths of the book are the critiques of literature, painting and cinema. The points of view regarding the works of John Ashbery, Andy Warhol and Jasper Johns are radical and creative. Miller's sophistication with poetry and painting is truly impressive. Also, the feminist critiques of the works of Toni Morrison, Adrienne Rich and Sam Shepard present new ways of looking at the texts which would benefit students and scholars alike.

It should be emphasized that the book will have value to the public at large (and not just scholars and students). The references to popular culture make the book quite appealing to the general public.

Miller knows his subject! Clearly, the book is the result of a lifetime of enthrallment with the subject matter. Highly recommendable! A tour de force!

Lacan's seminars are superior to his articles because he clearly is addressing an audience, and needs to make himself understood, but he has already anticipated all of his students questions, as if he could read their minds: "I know what you're thinking." The argument of the third seminar is easy to summarize: the psychotic, because foreclosed from the father, faces a hole in the imaginary that is filled by the symbolic (or is it the other way around?), hence the hallucinations and voices. The psychotic always imagines that somewhere the big Other resides, in this world, like the man who broke into the US capital because there was a time machine inside that was trying to control his mind. The psychotic is in fact unable to distinguish the small from the big other. Lacan is always thought to be a little mad himself, something of a fraud, "il gagne beaucoup d'argent," and even Heidegger gave up reading Ecrits because he couldn't make sense of it, and he does make something of a display of his learning (not so much in this seminar). That said, there is something to Lacan, and eventually he will get his due, and outside the narrow circle of his devotees.

The work of Jacques Lacan is infamous for the often obtuseness of its language and presentation. It is often said that the reader must work hard at Lacan to reach a glimmer of understanding. The work of Dr Russell Grigg as translator to this edition certainly gives the reader a head start. Dr Grigg address the work of Lacan from a new perspective of the 21st century, nolonger happy for the work to remain arcane and cloistered from the reading public, but he throws open the windows of further understanding for those willing to look and read closer the work of this French master. An excellent work.

What's nifty about this book is how it contains many "long" poems that never get slack. As a result, in addition to appreciating the narratives, there are many great lines or brief excerpts that make you pause and appreciate them on their own; for instance, "there's a certain/ S and M bureaucratic attitude/ going around." Or, "It was as if he was in the/ dead center of sanity and/ the moderns and ancients/ were playing with mirrors." Or, "I have had nothing to say/ since Italy." (Granted, I love Italy but still!)

Also, while tempting to consider this "wise guy" poetry (and it is), there is an (often subtle) undercurrent of lyricism (e.g. the lines "It touches every facet/ of our lives in a way/ punch cards never could" or "The color of the day expands and springs through the checkerboard/ Where a truck twists in the wind") that is just one of the many ways this book offers a long-lasting, enjoyable resonance through multi-dimensionality.

Again, N. Ritkowsky has put together an excellent text. Whether you use it in a classroom setting or as a programmed text designed to teach yourself, you won't be disappointed. It covers everything you need to know to be proficient at WordPerfect in a "student friendly" manner. She doesn't leave out steps like other authors I have experienced. I buy all of her books.

In "After Sorrow Comes Joy", Cherie Clark opens the pages of history to a subject heretofore overlooked -- the war in Vietnam from the perspective of it's tiniest, most helpless victims. In an amazing story of selfless dedication to a cause greater than her own, Clark has literally given life to what were society's throwaways and joy to the thousands of adoptive parents who have brought these children into their homes.

Her story is nothing short of amazing. An anti-war activist, Clark was not content to merely protest her government's action, she felt that there was something she should do. She packed up and moved to Vietnam, in the middle of the war, with seven children in tow. From her arrival, through Operation Babylift and the fall of Saigon, "After Sorrow.." is one woman's testament to love, faith, and courage.

For this reader, the book was a total page turner, and I was sorry to see it end. Fortunately, with two more volumes in the works, there is more to come.

After Sorrow Comes Joy is the incredible story of a woman who discovered her inner strength in war-torn Vietnam and directed that strength towards a resolute purpose: helping the smallest victims of the war. Facing hurdles and obstacles that would cause most people to quit and return home, Cherie Clark refused to give up hope for the children that had been entrusted to her care. I found the account of events leading up to the fall of Saigon impossible to put down once I started reading.

Cherie describes her experience in such a way that I feel as though I lived through it all with her. My emotions ran the gamut from despair to hope, anger to determination, exhaustion to joy. And in all cases there was an overwhelming awe that Cherie was able to stay so focused on her one purpose of saving children - and through that find peace.

I found myself sitting quietly as I finished reading and reflecting on the glimmers of hope from people like Cherie Clark that shine through the tragic consequences of war.

This book was a total sensory experience and I'm anxiously awaiting the next two books in the trilogy!

I've just finished After Sorrow Comes Joy and I still haven't caught my breath. I'm crying and gasping for air!

For most of us whose lives were, in a large part, dictated by events in Vietnam during the late 60's and early 70's, the Vietnam war remains a mystery. We didn't understand it then; all these years later, we still don't understand it.

This book does NOT de-mystify the war. It simply gives a day-to-day, blow-by-blow account of how it affected the smallest victims of that war--the children, and the least of these--the orphans.

Cherie Clark, a normal, middle-class housewife caught up in a decision to adopt a child from the war zone, lived this story and has written, not a political treatise, but a heart-wrenching, heart-stopping diary of what happened as the government and the very fabric of Vietnamese society unraveled in those last awful days. How she has managed to write this with such honesty and detail without seeming to sensationalize any of it, or appear as if she's nominating herself for sainthood, is an amazing accomplishment.

I can hardly wait to read the rest of the story, the next two in the trilogy, about her work in India and her return to Vietnam.

"Children of the Night: Vampires" is the first in the "Children of the Night" series, which also includes "Children of the Night: The Created," "Children of the Night: Werebeasts" and the out-of-print "Children of the Night: Ghosts." "Vampires" revolves around imaginative variations of that favorite bloodsucker; it is suitable for use in Ravenloft and in other campaigns, and is intended as a complementary volume to the various Van Richten's books. As with others in this series, Vampires presents 13 mini-adventures, each a story centered around an interesting individual or unusual type of vampire.

The books in this series are a great buy, presenting 13 well-written and potentially expandable adventures in a single accessory. In this volume we are offered quite a variety of creatures, some tied more or less to Ravenloft and its special creatures or cities, others from an "anywhere" background or originally from one of the other AD&D campaign worlds and dragged into the Mists of the Ravenloft Domain of Dread by evil circumstances. In either case, these adventures are readily adaptable to fit the flavor of any campaign, though the style of this first of the "Children of the Night" series seems to assume a greater familiarity with Ravenloft than the other volumes do.

Don't think that becauses vampires are so popular a subject that the possibilities are burnt out: In these adventures we are offered a scarred and wretched man divinely cursed to wander the desert in thirst, only able to briefly quench his thirst through fluid from his victims; a druidic vampiress whose thirsty habits run to tree sap; and a "penanggalan," a horrid female creature whose head flies free from her body and zooms around at night dangling a long black tail, looking for folk to drain. Demihumans and nonhumans are not exempt from the vampire scourge: Here we meet an elf originally from the Forgotten Realms who loathes all vampires--his problem being he himself has become one; an elven vampiress from Dragonlance's Krynn, whose terrible twisted face can stun or kill on sight; a greater vampiric Ixitxachitl; and a dwarven scholar, a "Vampire Sage" with unusual powers who once served the lich Azalin. In the entries specifically tied to Ravenloft are a vampiric slave who was once a Ravenloft Vistana, or gypsy; a sea vampire and his crew of undead pirates; a sadistic, permanently invisible vampire trickster; the scheming vampire niece of Ravenloft's powerful Count Strahd; a "vorlog," a vampiric monster who stopped just short of becoming undead; and a crime boss vampire with sewer alligators for friends. The cover art is good and so are the interior maps, though in general the interior art is not quite up to usual Ravenloft quality. All in all, a choice collection of adventures, tricks, and traps.

Highly recommended for vampire fans running any AD&D 2nd Edition campaign.

--Sharon Daugherty for Skirmisher Online Gaming Magazine

This book is full of short encounters with the denizens of the night. Looking for something to throw your party off track or a way to get them moving? With this accesory you'll easily be able to complete the task. In my first Ravenloft Campaign I was hesitant because I didn't think I knew enough about the realm. Using this accessory I was able to keep the campaign fun and exiting for the players without having to jump in over my head and end up ruining the experience for myself. I would recomend this book for all Ravenloft DM's and others as the adventures are designed to be easily used in any realm.

When I bought this book, I was interested, but cautious. I had never run Ravenloft, and even though I knew the setting, I was afraid I didn't have any good campaign ideas. This book changed that. The characters described within are colorful, interesting, and deadly, if done right. The mini-adventures included with each character are easy to adapt to whatever Domain you set you players in and useful as guidelines if you don't want to run them as is. I can't wait for the next Children of the Night book!