This book is beautifully produced in every way. If you can imagine poetry translated into a visual language, Arreguin's paintings are that... and more! Surely Arreguin is one of the NW's greatest living artists. This book is a truly wonderful introduction to his work.

Alfredo Arreguin's paintings are spectacular. Arreguin is one of the most important and awe-inspiring artists of the age. This book does an excellent job of detailing his life and art, as well as duplicating the intense colors of his canvasses. I cannot recommend this book enough. It would be a delight on the coffee table or as a gift.

If you want intense color, intricate patterns and a forever drifting, shifting visual experience, then this book is the Intro to Arreguin for you! There is a color plate on most pages and the text is in English and Spanish in side-by side columns.

This book is so low-priced because 1) the publishers found donors to underwrite this first edition 2) Arreguin is not making a dime in royalties off this book.

If you don't know Arreguin's work yet, just type "Alfredo Arreguin" into your browser's search box and you will get several relevant hits.

Try it, you'll like it!

I bought five copies: four copies for gifts, and one copy for me.

The story of Arreguin's childhood and family turmoil will add some optimism and empathy for troubled children of divorced parents, I hope.

chris matzen
Bremerton, WA 98312

What a wonderful idea! So many good suggestions that I am able to use daily with virtually no cost in dollars or time. Had I known before that getting in shape could be so easy I could have saved years of frustration. I like Joan's advice so much that I am ordering books for all my customers (I am a business owner). Highly Recommended. :-)

I have all of Joan's books, because she actually makes exercise fun, but this may be my favorite. I kept thinking I was too busy to exercise and have instead found that I can add together exercise "minutes" to make up a great fitness program. Who knew I'd be exercising in the shower with my wash cloth???? P.S. This book is my new favorite gift item. I bought it as a birthday gift and for both mothers and fathers day gifts, and everyone loves it.

I just got this book yesterday and I am really enjoying it. I didn't expect it to be so funny! (I always like a bit of humor along with my exercises.) I am an aerobics instructor so I read a lot of exercise books. I can already tell this is going to be one of my favorites.

I think I'll just go and "floss" my thighs now...

All too often Church Growth books seem to be written more from a theoretical perspective. It is most refreshing to read a Church Growth book written by a practitioner. Because this book was written from within a vibrant Cell Church ministry it is filled with practical helps. Pastor Khong was quick to share not only what was working, but things that did not work! A must read for anyone wanting to grow a church based upon relationships.

This is the kind of book that you will highlight and underline until your highlighter runs dry! I highly recommend this ground breaking book on the cell based church.

The Apostolic Cell Church is one of those rare books that I have read that made me say: "This is it! This is what church ministry should be like!"

This book presents the view that there is great different between a "church with cells" and a "cell group church." What the author advocates is a "cell group church" in which all the ministries of the church exist to support the cell group ministry. For example, the Bible study class does not exist to attract more people to that particular department (and in the process competing with all other departments), but it (along with all other programs of the church) exists to support the ministry of the cell groups.

Some of the inherent weaknesses of the traditional model of the church are discussed: equipping the lay people for ministry, sustained evangelism, and fellowship and community life that results in value changes. Then the author goes on to show how these are all a natural, everyday outworking of a cell group church. The cell group in a way forces all believers to live out their Christian lives in a community with security and trust. Worship, the exercise of spiritual gifts, discipleship, evangelism and missions all take place through the cell groups.

The author then gives an overview of how the cell leaders are trained, how the church is structured for maximum effectiveness, and how training for evangelism and training in spiritual gifts takes place.

The author is transparent in showing the mistakes along the way and not just the successes of his experience so that the reader can learn from both. This is definitely a "must-read." Even if you don't follow all of the author's convictions, you will be challenged to rethink what ministry is about and how it should be done. The author's clear gift and insight into church leadership and passion for the lost comes out through every page. Thank God for such a precious tool in the ministry!

The other two reviews are so insightful and accurate, in my opinion, I should have little to add. Yet, after reading "Auschwitz and After", I felt I had to express something of how the book made me understand and grow. As a convert to Judaism (born in 1951, I was on the pathway my whole life, I realize now), I have read many, many books/memoirs/histories on the Holocaust. Many of them have been very moving, indeed, beginning with Anne Frank's Diary, on through to "Maus". Though I acknowledge that these words have been said before, I still believe that Charlotte Delbo's words put me into that Hell more than any other survivor's testimony to date. Delbo's words do more than say "this happened and that happened". They are poetry...yet how can poetry apply to any experience in a death camp? Surprisingly, scarily, the poetry transports the reader there more truly than any film, any historical analysis, even better than any well-written survivor account. At first I thought I would not like it; my sensibilities were offended that someone would write in poetic format about an experience at a death camp ("Maus" was different; it was a cartoon, yes, but drawn by the son of a survivor, not a survivor). After finishing Delbo's triology, I feel that her words (not all in poetic form) made me understand as much as anyone who did not experience a death camp, how it felt, how one survived, what one endured when one "came back" to the "real world".

Due to the passage of time, we are losing the remaining Holocaust survivors. Hence, Spielberg's and others' efforts to record the testimony before it is too late. There has been more attention lately paid to the children of the survivors' and how their parents' experiences affected their lives. Delbo's words transcend the words of one survivor - she really makes the reader understand what happned to those who "came back", how little they had to give, in some cases, to their spouses, to their children. American culture puts a lot of emphasis on "getting over, moving on". To some extent, I believe this is usually a healthy thing to try to do; but some experiences fall outside the realm of being able to "get over it". I would suggest that some experiences are so traumatic that one cannot "process" them and get over them. How is forgiveness possible when the entire world is affected as a result? Some experiences mark a person and maybe a culture permanently, and to deny or to try to repress this is unhealthy. At the end of their lives now, most published Holocaust testimonies report that the death camp experience "never leaves you" - something "survivors" probably didn't believe when they were first liberated. The fact that the Holocaust survivors are becoming fewer and fewer makes Delbo's book all the more important because it conveys the true horror, the true evil of human degradation and genocide - and explains why the Holocaust, as well as other genocides have and will reverberate from generation to generation. Her book made me realize that understanding and vigilance, not "processing" and forgiveness is the answer.

This book is a translation of the famous postwar trilogy of Charlotte Delbo, a French Resistance fighter who was caught and sent to Auschwitz, then transferred to Ravensbruck. She was, and is, quite well-known in France. Though she is now deceased, the translator, Rosette Lamont, knew Delbo personally and is the foremost expert on her work, having written a number of articles on Delbo. Another who has written sensitively about Delbo is Nathan Bracher. Like all translations, there is a little something lost in the English rendering. If you are able to read the French, the original titles are "Aucun de nous ne reviendra," "Une connaissance inutile," and "Mesure de nos jours." Other books by Delbo you might find interesting are "La Memoire et les Jours," and "Le convoi du 24 janvier." She also wrote a number of plays, and poetry that isn't in this trilogy.

Thanks to the work of the Video Archive for Holocaust Testimony at Yale University, the Survivors of the Shoah project by Steven Spielberg, and the efforts of the new National Holocaust Museum, there is no shortage of testimony from Jewish survivors of the Holocaust. But Jews were not the only victims of the Nazi regime, and there is surprisingly little testimony from non-Jewish survivors. Delbo is probably the only non-Jewish victim who became an important literary figure in the postwar era, and her position as victim along with her eloquent indictment of Christianity and Christian culture for their complicity in the extermination of the Jewish victims with whom she feels strong kinship and empathy make her work an absolutely unique contribution to post-Holocaust literature. Feel free to e-mail me at schnaibl@fas.harvard.edu for more bibliographical references.

I have never read a book on the topic of the Holocaust that grasped it quite as well as this one has. Other books make the Holocaust sound 'too good' compared to her stories and accounts that are portrayed in this book. If you want to get a real grasp or feel of the Holocaust experience in a poetic and creatively written path, then this is a book you should read. Also, for anybody interested in the Holocaust, this is a definite must. It is basically as true and real as an account on the Holocaust can possibly get. It is simply an amazing piece of work.

Since other reviewers have covered the contexts of this monumental book in detail, I guess I'll have to be content just to list a few of the most important ideas that I learned from reading it. 1) The whole command structure of the Confederate army in the West from Davis down, was ineffective, nearly hopeless, and this book chronicles its sad demise about as well as it can be chronicled. 2)Bragg, who got reasonably high grades for his impressive but ultimately pointless invasion of Kentucky, becomes a pathetic, bitter general in charge of a nearly mutinous army. The fact that Davis could not or would not replace him until after Chattanooga says volumes as to why the South ultimately lost the war. 3)Joe Johnston, who I always rather admired, becomes The General Who Always Ran Away. And Connelly proves it. Talk about a change of attitude. He also gets alot of the blame for failing to relieve Vicksburg. 4) The famous cavalry commanders like Wheeler, Hunt, and Forrest did little to nothing to stop Sherman from marching on Atlanta and are therefore completely overrated, despite their often specacular tactical successes. If you have to read one book on the Confederate effort in West, read this one. It's eye opening.

Connelly was one of the best western Civil War historians and the expert on the Army of Tennesse. This Army with so much promise in the heady days of Perryville and near success at Stone's River experiences a costly but hard won victory at Chickamaugua only to have the master of personal conflict General Bragg throw the lost opportunity away by having volitile arguments with his Generals. Bragg was a very good organizer but had conflicts with his leadership that caused a cabal to build asking for his ouster. Connelly captured all the conflicts that finally require Davis to hold a council with all the generals. Amazing that Davis asked all the leaders of the army to express their feelings about Bragg with him present and then keep Bragg on causing a rupture of command. Several generals are reasigned, Longstreet and Bragg don't get along causing a serious coordination loss while the seige of Chattanoga is in process. As a result Longstreet and 1/3 of the army is sent to east Tennesse while Grant's swollen forces wash away the Army of Tennesse and taking Bragg's command away. Connelly not only covers the poor condition of the confederate soldiers, great detail on the campaigns but also the political manuevering. Joe Johnston replaces Bragg but in turn he is undermineed by Hood's letters to Davis. The cautious Johnson is replaced by Hood outside of Atlanta resulting in frontal assaults that weaken the army severely losing Atlanta in the process. Hood tries to lure Sherman on a wild goose chase which Sherman gives up but then Hood oddly leaves Sherman in Georgia while he marches back to Tennesssee. As Connelly vividly writes, after a lost opportunity at Spring Hill, Hood retaliates against his command by ordering the destructive frointal assualts at Franklin. Connelly covers the weak attempt to capture Nashville, the army's virtual destruction and the story of the sad remnants moving to North Carolina in a valiant but pathetic attempt to stop Sherman. The all star command is made up of many of the lost generals of the Confederacy, Johnson, McLaws and even Bragg. Connelly gives you the full monty, the story of the Army and politics within. What would have been had Davis not been so hung up on Bragg and if Hardee had stepped forward to command.

In the sequel to Connelly's superb "Army of the Heartland", "Autumn of Glory" follows the Confederacy's largest Western army from 1862-1865. The work picks up after the Kentucky Campaign and deals with some of the more dramatic moments of the war in the West-Stone's River, Chickamauga, Chattanooga, The Atlanta Campaign, the 1864 Tennessee Campaign, and the surrender in North Carolina. Connelly's real gift is weaving the story of battles, conflict between army leaders, the political aspects of the war, and the story of the common soldier. He weaves everything together in a highly readable, entertaining book. I feel this book is superior to "Army of the Heartland" and the chapters on the Atlanta Campaign are truly great. This book, along with the previous volume, is the resource on the Army of Tennessee to this day and will most likely remain that way for a long time to come. It is no wonder that Civil War Times Magazine named this book on of the top 100 books on the Civil War.

I borrowed this book and read it for the first time about 15 years ago. How could such a slim volume have so much wisdom and power and poetry in it? Both my wife and I found it deeply moving and enlightening as we explored what it meant to be Jews in a modern world, while part of a faith and tradition that had deep and ancient roots. When I tried to buy a copy, I learned that it was out of print and had been for a while. We decided that this was an unacceptable situation. We heard about so many people who loved this book and wanted to share it with others. So, we started Jewish Lights Publishing to bring it back into print. Read it and you'll understand why, whether you are Jewish or Christian or just seeking. And, the whole thing is in calligraphy from Larry Kushner's own hand -- just the icing on this mystical treat.

This is a beautiful book. I look at it from time to time and remember the beauty of the hebrew alphabet and words that can be formed. We all need to be reminded of the beautiful creation of the world from time to time.

Though I have returned to this book again and again, it always seems fresh. Pure gestalt! Kushner's design and words are elegant in their unassuming simplicity, often inducing the mental equivalent of a double-take. This book is full of wonderful inspiration for use in a meditative practice.

This book was really excellent. I picked it up because I'm a fan of Schimel's other work, and I found it to be lighthearted, fun, and FUNNY. All the stories kept me entertained, especially Schimel's own "Tom, Dick or Harry." I want to give this as a gift to lots of my friends because I think they'd also enjoy it. If you're looking for amusement and a bit of wry humor, this book is for you!

I laughed (a lot), I sighed (a lot) and after I finished this hilarious book of war stories from the dating game, I just wanted to dive right back into the dating pool. Anybody who thinks that dating stories can't be funny and sexy at the same time should check this book out and see how it's done.

You ought to buy the book for this story, "Skin Deep", alone. All the stories are great, but this one is a classic!

I love David and Marc Muench's photography and this book is a treasured addition to my library. The color and production values are exquisite and up to the high standards I expect from Muench.

These photos capture the awesome beauty and fantastic variety in California's natural landscape through the seasons. The book is divided into sections for the mountains, forests & plains, coast and desert.

Muench has brought new life to many often photographed landmarks with his mastery of light and detail. He has also uncovered many beautiful but less known places; dawn & dusk skies, vibrant flowers, delicate waterfalls & more.

James Lawrence's accompanying text touching on a wide range of topics relating to California's natural history is fascinating and entertaining. I have loved spending hours with this magnificent book.

This book confirmed my feeling that David Muench is, for lack of a better description, the Ansel Adams of color photography. I already owned his Appalachian Trail book, "Uncommon Places" (I think it's called), but my brother wanted a California-related book for Christmas, so I picked this up, sight unseen. Quite simply, it's breathtaking. The photos span the length and breadth of the state, from Humboldt County's misty redwood stands to the La Jolla coast, to Yosemite and the mountain passes and lakes of the Southern Sierras along the John Muir Trail. There are even a handful of urban photos that make downtown L.A. look quite nice. If ever you doubted that we live in the closest to a natural paradise as there is, take a look at this book, and doubt no more.

The most beautiful book with California's photos I've ever seen. I have already one book by Muenches and when I so this one I didn't have to open it to make sure it's gorgeous. But it was even better then I expected. It has 4 parts: Mountains, Oak and Grass, Coast and Deserts. So, you are not gonna miss any detail of nature in California (of course poppies, redwoods and spanish moss on the trees are there too). If you want to make somebody going to California give him this book :) I promise anybody will fall in love with California and Muenches' books.

This was exciting and adventurous, but the ending was slightly unsatisfactory.

This book blew me away the first time I read it, and even now as an adult I still love reading it. The characters feel like real kids with real problems and imperfections. The descriptions are vivid. The science fiction aspects are thrilling and not dumbed down for kids. What I loved most was the question of what's real and what's hysteria, how the kids decide who and what to trust when they can't turn to adults anymore. Also check out Moonwind by the same author, which is almost as good.

Calling B for Butterfly is an absorbing science fiction story about a survivors from a space ship that was hit by an asteroid. The space ship was out of control and the survivors boarded a life ferry and were trying to get back to Earth. At first they thought it was hopeless, but they regained their confidence when they found the radio and called for help. The other space ship received the call and decided to rescue the life ferry. Even though it wasn't very exciting, it still has an interesting plot. If you like science fiction, you will like this book.