This new title by Roger Day, 'The Life of Sir John Moore' provides the reader with an interesting view of a man who the author categorizes as "the classic tragic British hero". This is the first biography I have read of Sir John Moore although I have come across him in many previous books. The author's view of Sir John Moore differs from many other accounts, the most recent being in 'The Peninsular War' by Charles Esdaile.

Regardless of these differences I found that the author's biography of Sir John Moore was well presented and a delight to read. His campaigns were covered in enough detail to allow the reader to form an opinion on the man and his achievements. The narrative runs to only 220 pages so it could not be considered an exhaustive study but more of a general overview of the man and his times. According to the publishers much of the primary research material has previously not been utilized.

Upon finishing the book I felt that Sir John Moore was a brave man who actually felt some responsibility towards his troops welfare and did all in his power as a leader to ensure that they were well looked after and used in an intelligent manner. At times it appeared that these concerns and his forward thinking, taking in the 'bigger picture', did not sit well with both his superiors and politicians in London nor with some of his subordinates.

Once again I was amazed and disgusted to read of the political backstabbing and cover-ups conducted by some of the politicians at the time. This appears to be a constant thread throughout history, the soldiers doing the dirty work while the politicians find some way of appearing to be squeaky clean when things go wrong. Overall this is an enjoyable book and should find acceptance with those who have read little on the subject, a good primer for further reading.

This very short book aims to explain Gibson's ideas about risk and return in investing. Essentially he suggests that investors can afford to put more money into equities if their "time horizon" is a long one.

He has extracted a number of the earlier chapters from his longer work " Asset Allocation". These chapters focus on the time horizon argument.There is no new material in the book.

The book is a good one for the novice investor, worried about the short term volatility of the market. It would be an ideal book for financial advisers to give to intelligent clients nervous about the market.

Spong has the courage to review the Bible and find areas that need to be discussed . The Bible was written by a society who stoned women , thought the world wes flat, thought the earth was the center of the universe . Anyone who would say the earth was round could be put to death by the Pope of ancient times . Left handed or people who had an original idea were burned by puritans in the name of God . The same christians who hate and I men hate Spong are of that same school. If you know people so shallow do not drink the coolaide as this is the same people Jim Jones would have as friends . Jerry Farwell and his crowd have become millionaires tickling your ears and I don't think people want to know . The truth that the bible gives you the right to kill your first child , remove any woman's right to even speak in a house of worship as well as give a man the right to kill his wife if he becomes jealous should . People who think it is OK to kill and danm in the name of a god should move to Pakistan and never read Spong as it take 3 digits in your IQ to understand his work . Stupid people should read books written for their level of thinking and enjoy it as entertainment .
Rev. John Evers

The book, a collection of essays from many different Episcopal Bishops, takes on the task of refuting some of the wild and unscholarly writings of Retired Bishop John Shelby Spong. The book receives an average rating because the writing styles from so many different writers (10) doesn't flow naturally.

Further, while some authors do a good job refurting Spong's theology, others are not as good at communicating their position. The book does a good enough job in refuting "Spong theology", but lacks a coherent focus because of the many different authors. The book would have been better if only two of the Bishops wrote this book seeking editing and assistence from the others.

I confess-- I have something in common with most of the Rt. Rev. Spong's fans. Like them, I've read very little of what he's written. (For example, "Can A Bishop Be Wrong" has two five-star reviews from Spong fans who are under the impression that Spong wrote this book-- apparently, they feel comfortable praising Spong's work sight-unseen).

Don't get me wrong. I've tried to read Spong. But, alas, the Rt. Rev. S. is a ghastly writer. After a while, the charms of Spong's writing-- his relentless self-congratulation, his presenting of hackneyed 19th-century pop-biblical-criticism as his own daring innovation, his use of the passive voice to hide sweeping and questionable assertions ("...there is surprise at how insignificant were the theological issues dividing the two sides [of the Reformation]"), his utter lack of a sense of humor, his unforgivably poor skill with words-- begin to pall. I haven't yet met someone who can read an entire chapter of Spong at one sitting.

That's where this book comes in handy. They don't exhaustively categorize the intellectual sins of the Rt. Rev. Spong-- such a task could never be worth the trees killed. But they provide a good survey of his looking-glass kingdom. "Can A Bishop Be Wrong" isn't a work of Christian apologetics, because it doesn't have to be. Spong's main contention-- the foundation of all his work-- is his claim that no intelligent person of the twentieth century can be an orthodox Christian. To respond, one doesn't have to prove Christianity-- one just has to provide a counterexample. This book categorizes his errors and logical lapses with admirable thoroughness. Not an exhaustive thoroughness, to be sure, but sufficient to the silly task at hand.

This book has its flaws. As others have noted, it is a collection of essays, and they repeat some of the same points over and over. The authors sometimes let Spong goad them into anger. And they don't argue much against Spong's theological outlook-- but since Spong's outlook is just rehashed nineteenth-century "modernism", you can find plenty of orthodox arguments against heavier intellectual forces than Spong. (Try Chesterton's _The_Everlasting_Man_, for starters.)

This book has a limited market. Spong's fans will not be moved by what they read here, if they were inclined to try reading it. But to the traditional theist of whatever religion, who wonders whether he ought to read Spong and find out what all the fuss is about, this book offers a strong and well-reasoned answer: "Nope."

For a true beginner this course is not truly user-friendly. I have been to Viet Nam and was married to a native in Ho Chi Minh City. This series did nothing to prepare me to communicate in the language. The tonal system is not explained, practiced, or heard in the attempts given. Vietnamese without true tonal understanding is unintelligible. The audio version leaps into full conversation with little to no preparation. It was necessary to take another course in a classroom type setting to understand what this series was trying to get across. The book is fine, but one would need a native speaker to record the lessons in lieu of the audio portion.

This book offers a lot of useful words and phrases, but for the person who has never studied Vietnamese before, these words and phrases become very hard to learn, as Vietnamese pronunciation is almost skipped over at the beginning of the book. Having skimmed through the book, it looks to have a very good content, but this is brought down by the lack of explanation of vowels and tones. For someone who has had to study both Thai and Chinese before, the lack of pronunciation provided a major barrier to this language, which in itself is not impossibly hard to learn. If you can find a good introduction to reading Vietnamese, then this book would give a solid base to learn this language well.

I should start off by saying that I already spoke Vietnamese pretty well when I picked up this course. In general, I thought the book was a pretty good introductory text (a fair amount of typos in the first half dozen chapters though).

The one comment I did want to make was on the tapes. The hardest thing about learning Vietnamese is (by far) pronunciation. Some of the earlier reviewers complained about the tapes and I think that their complaints are somewhat unjustified. It took me (literally) years to be comfortable hearing and understanding Vietnamese -- it's not quite like learning Spanish. If the expectation was that the neophite could listen to these tapes (or any VNese tapes) in the car and start picking up words, then yes, these tapes (and any tapes) are going to be disappointing. On the other hand, the tapes follow the printed material very well, are professionally produced, and use speakers with good pronunciation.

I guess my point here is that you really need to be prepared to spend a fairly considerable amount of time if you want to hear and speak VNese well. If the previous reviewers didn't find these tapes useful, I suspect there are no sets of tapes (or any other audio aids) out there that would meet their expectations.

I heard the author on public radio. He talked about Sir John Templeton, who I admire. This wasn't a book about how to invest like Sir John -- (i.e., how to examine a company both financially and socially). You won't find a balance sheet, income statement, or P/E ratio anywhere in this book. But, if you are looking for a feel good book, that accomplishes little in helping you towards becoming a more socially responsible investor, then perhaps it suits your needs.

The Ten Golden Rules could be summarized as four : 1.)Realism - no optimism or pessimism to the economical and political facts. 2.)Diversification - a right mix of different financial securities. 3.)Patience - long-term view can help you pass those emotional highs or lows happened in the market. 4.)Investing for good - love, giving and faith to God. Only having spiritual and ethical foundations, you can have a long-term success.

Those of us who love Douglas Moore's opera "The Ballad Of Baby Doe" have had to wait over 45 years for a book devoted to its creation. "The Ballad of Baby Doe: 'I Shall Walk Beside My Love'" by Duane A. Smith is a very slender volume which falls short of this goal. Although it is interesting, there is not very much depth to this text. It reads more like an expanded program guide. There is no in-depth analysis of the score, nor of the structure of its libretto. It does leave you with the impression that there might be a fascinating story behind this opera's creation and it's creators, but you do not learn much about what this story is. Too much material is repeated from one chapter to the next. Nevertheless, it does contribute something to the scant literature about what is arguably "The Great American Opera".

Mandy moore is GREAT. but this book... I dunno just like the backstage pass another junk has came out. But nice cover picture though :) Instead of buying this book, try this instead. *Donate the money to charity* WAs that helpful?

Of little interest to the average reader, this work, while reflecting enormous work, does little to entice or offer anything we didn't already know.

My high school history class uses this book, and I'm very disappointed with it. I have not noticed any outright mistakes, but the authors tend to imply things that aren't quite true. Take one of their statements from a chapter on the presidency: "Despite their unhappy experience with George III, the creators of the American political system perceived the need for a single person to serve as both the symbol and the leader of the new nation, and so they created the presidency" (87). They go on to talk about the powers granted the president by the Constitution, conveniently ignoring the Articles of Confederation. This type of oversight is common in the book, as are the poor placement and the overuse of footnotes. And the authors' use of exclamation points is amusing. ("Ford had not even been elected vice president but had been appointed to the office by the now deposed Nixon less than a year earlier to replace Spiro T. Agnew, who had been forced to resign when evidence emerged that he had taken illegal payoffs while vice president!" (89).)

As a high school student, I am certainly not qualified to judge this book. When a person as unschooled as I catches problems with a book, however, I worry that there are other problems--deeper problems--that slip by unnoticed.

This X-Men story takes place in an alternate history where Charles Xavier died before he formed the X-Men and where humans and mutants have waged war for decades. It focuses on Scott and Alex Summers, two brothers who are mutants and who must confront a deadly mystery on the fate of their father, Chris Summers. It contains a shocking ending which makes you realize that this world has little reason for hope.