If you have been looking for a plain, simple Bible, you know how hard it is to find one (The Milkmen's Edition anyone?). I wanted a Bible that is full of the Word of God, not of the word of man! Don't get me wrong, I read plenty of the "word of man" works, but I didn't want any IN my Bible. After some research and some comparisons, I settled on the NKJV version. It reads almost like the NAS, which I was used to, but a little more fluid, I thought. And the translation work is very scholarly. This IS the update of the Classic King James Version.
So, I looked at several versions of the NKJV, and this Slimline was the only one that had the text, and very, very little of the other stuff. It doesn't even have the cross references, which I feel forces you to memorize more, which is good. If I had my ways, I would get rid of the Words of Christ in red feature, aren't they ALL God's words?? But, I can't have it all, apparently.
I found this version to be of very high quality, and very plain and simple. I made sure to get the Genuine Leather version, because my previous experience with Bound Leather was a disaster. If you read your Bible a lot and take it places, the Genuine Leather version is the only way to go, if you want it to last.
So, in conclusion, if you are looking for a Bible that is plain, of compact size, yet still very easy to read (the text size is just perfect), this is the one.

It was exactly what I was looking for. Small size, not a lot of notes and other junk on the pages. Great Bible with a great price.

Not too small nor too large. The print is just the right size as to not give eye strain to the average person This is the one I like to take to church because of compact yet very readable size. Has a ribbon marker, christ words in red, gold page edges. Its a must have for anyones bible collection.

As an elementary education major, presently studying Children's Literature, I was thrilled when I encountered Denise Brennan-Nelson's Buzzy The Bumblebee. To accompany my course work, I have been spending time at a local elementary school reading to children during their weekly library hour. Buzzy arrived in a shipment of new library books for the children, and immediately grabbed my attention. I quickly read the book, finding it to be thoroughly entertaining, as well as educational. That very day I read Buzzy to first and second grade classes, and their reaction was amazing. The children were enraptured with Buzzy's extraordinary journey. The beautiful and brightly colored illustrations only further enhanced their literary adventure. The children responded eagerly to the social lessons of believing in yourself, and rejecting stereotypical labels and limits. Furthermore, the text is appropriate for beginning readers, and makes reading fun with its lilting rhyme. I have

since purchased Buzzy, hiding him safely away, as he will one day become a most valuable asset in my classroom.

I bought this book a year ago for my 1 year old granddaughter, since reading it to her, it has become her favorite book. I'm a fourth grade teacher, so I carry the book to school and read it to my classes, they loved it. I have to read it at least once a week my classes.

The book has a lot of ryhming words and it's easy for the students to understand and enjoy. I've recommemded the book to many of my co-workers and friends.

What a great book for children of all ages. We read it to our salespeople last night at our weekly sales meeting and it was thoroughly enjoyed by all. What a positive impact it will have each time it is read. I thoroughly recommend this book for self-esteem building.

The logical conclusions of this excellent book are about to play completely out. As murder mastermind Markham Duff Smith was strapped to a gurney and rehabilitated several years ago, triggerman Allen Wayne Janecka will now be strapped to a gurney and rehabilitated this coming July 24, 2003. That pretty much takes care of all the players -- except for Walter Waldhauser, who will probably spend the rest of his life in prison for some sort of embezzlement schemes he operated in Dallas, years after the events depicted in this book. Did anyone really think he would ever turn his life around?

As someone who was not mentioned in the book but still close to this case,I assure you that Johnny Bonds was unrelenting in his pursuit of Allan and all who were involved in this heinous crime.Allan was my roommate for a few months,after the murders occured,and although I had no idea about his involvment in the crimes,I knew he had a deeply hidden agenda.This is a book well worth reading.You will see a crime that leaves you baffled because of how the Houston police played it out to the press.You will see one man,Mr. Bonds,who just wouldn't stop in his search for an answer.And finally,you will see justice,justice for one beautiful litte baby boy.

This book reads like a Stephen King novel. Rick Nelson is a phenomenal writer. He throws you head first into the story - and this is one amazingly frightening story.

This is a guidebook for parents seeking simple ways to guide their children, friends and family to new levels of spiritual awareness. It encourages better communication, contains 165 family magnets, and many practical activities to explore getting to this new awareness.

I enjoyed reading this book. My son enjoys playing with the magnets that came with the book. This book is quite an original book. Lisa Marie conveys her thoughts about parenting by telling us about her real life experiences with her own children. It is truly an inspiring book. I think I will read this book few more times! Now I look forward to reading Lisa Marie's next book, 'Getting There with Grace'.

Getting there by Lisa Marie Nelson is a must have book for parents who are searching for a book on parenting. A spiritual parenting handbook which deals with many of life's child rearing questions answered in a wonderful anecdotal and problem solving way. A huge help in steering your children through life's journey. This book is brightly colored, spiral bound and filled with wonderful family activities, projects and solutions to some of the difficult problems parents face in raising children in these times. The book also includes magnetic words to stick onto your refrigerator and ideas on how to use them in the teaching and learning process with your children. This book enables families to work on a spiritual level with their children. Giving insight, help and encouragement to families seeking to add the spiritual elements to their children's upbringing.

I would definitely buy this book for any parents I know. I loved the family project ideas, how to teach children about life in a spiritual way and great ideas for family togetherness. I really can't say enough about this book! I feel it is a wonderful tool to assist parents in their difficult job of raising children. I wish this book was around when my son was small. It would have been very helpful to me in briging him up with a more reverent and spiritual approach to life. I would have loved to do the projects and activities with my son. So, as a service to all parents out there looking for help, purchase this book for them right now!

The NKJV Women's Study Bible is a must-have for all women who wish to be closer to God. Written by women for women, you'll find this Bible beautifully written and an excellent study aid.

The Woman's Study Bible leads with the words" Opening the WORD of GOD to WOMEN", I cannot define it better. I have found that I am able to develop a relationship with the LORD. It has helped me to open a once closed heart jaded by our times. We do not always want to discuss with others certain issues as we may feel isolated. All these issues have been addressed and have made it easy for one to dig deep within to stoke the fire of GOD in us. The topical notes are inspirational. I am blessed to have a diverse ethinc background. Still, this Bible spoke into my life, it will into yours.

This bible is in the New King James version and is more "readable" than other versions. In addition, the excerpts on the Women of the bible are superb. It gives in depth analysis of the women of the bible, and how to pattern your life as a Christian woman. Excellent.

There is no waste in this little book. The general information on muffin baking is precise and informative. The recipes are unique, but not off the wall--in contrast to most one-item cookbooks, every one of them is appealing. Definitely try the Pumpernickel Raisin Muffins. They are a great breakfast treat. This is definitely the one book to have on this subject. Also try Totally Teabreads by the same authors for the same consistent excellence. Can't praise them enough!!

I have a lot of cookbooks on my shelf, but this tiny volume is one of my favorites and packs a lot of punch for its size. I have made the blueberry and banana muffins. Both were excellent. The value of this book is outstanding.

You can count on all the recipes in this book being tried and true. My copy is held together by a rubber band because I use it so much. The corn muffin recipe makes the best I've ever had (I add just a little extra sugar, and sometimes use buttermilk) and the cappuccino chip muffins are fantastic (try adding toffee chips). Be sure to try the new "More Muffins" as well as the other books in the series -- Totally Teabreads, Simply Scones, etc. All are reliable.

The book was very informative and insightful. It contained poems written by Zen masters from China, Japan and Korea. There was a briefing on the lives of Zen masters but over all it was very interesting to read. It helps you understand Zen a bit better. Who knows maybe you'll realize that "it is useless to pray to the gods about your destiny" What will happen will happen. We as humans have no control over it, so it is best to accept things as they are.

I began reading this book as a vehicle toward understanding the history of Zen. As the pages slowly passed, so did my perception of what it means to be a student of the way.

Zen study is a study of the present moment, nothing more. While reading The New Zen Reader, I was constantly faced with the reality that there is truely no way. Through the ever changing ways of being presented by the relationships these teachers, hermits, polititions, poets, warriors and monks shared with the divine, it is clear that there is truely no formula or method to the madness of Zen.

The beauty of this book is that it provides a silent retreat in the shade of the Zen tree of ancestors. Filled with love and pain, it represents all the flavors of our ever changing world in the timeless dance we humans share with the process of search and discovery.

Metaphor abounds in the words of these diverse teachers, and surprise lurks with ever turning of the page, as noone can know what will arise from the relationship these individuals nurtured with truth.

I encourage the reader to take this one slow. One word at a time. Think back to the time of each writing and enjoy the complexity of human experience and relationship. Here is an opportunity to see some of the unfolding of the great mystery, at the hands of a few committed to full expression in the moment. And remember, sometimes not knowing is most intimate.

Stories about zen masters and anecdotals are all very well. However, a view of their original work is needed to provide a well-rounded view of Zen. After searching for a simple book which did not dwell on the esoteric nor the speculative, I find this book very refreshing. Read the works expecting nothing, and their very meaning will jump out and hit you with the power of their simplicity and frankness. At a time when Zen has assumed such a complicated personna, and people are inundated with terminology which drives them away from such a great practice, this book comes across as a place where one can lay down under the shade of a big friendly tree,take the shoes off and wonder at the simple wisdom of the masters.

While recently on a retreat to the Abbey of Gethsemani in Trappist, Kentucky, I visited the guest library looking for some heavy-duty theological works. Quite by accident, I happened to notice this cute little book that someone had left laying out on a table. The full title reads: "Serenity: A Companion for Twelve Step Recovery." I'm personally not involved in any of the twelve step programs, but I know a few people who are, and they have nothing but praise for how well they work.

The Serenity New Testament comes complete with the Twelve Steps made famous by Alcoholics Anonymous. However, it just does not reiterate them, but cross-references every single step with multiple biblical references that speak about the particular topic. For instance, Step Two: "come to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity" is cross-referenced with a passage from the Gospels: "Everything is possible for him who believes" (Mark 9:23).

The format is very simple, and extremely easy to follow. The Twelve Steps are listed in the very front of the book, with a short commentary and a long list of verses (with page numbers!) that you can look up. Or, you can go directly to the New Testament, Psalms & Proverbs, and read the various books in a normal fashion. But unlike a typical Bible, the authors have highlighted all the verses that speak directly to the Twelve Steps, and have placed the step numbers next to the verses. For example: when you read the ninth chapter of Mark's gospel, you will see "Step 2" placed next to Mark 9:23.

There is also a chain reference system, so that you can go through the New Testament, Psalms & Proverbs reading all the verses that pertain to the particular step your interested in. So when you read Mark 9:23 there will be a note in the margin telling you a page number where you can find another verse reference for Step 2.

The authors wisely chose the New King James Version for the basis of their work, which is far easier to read and understand than the early 17th century English of the old King James Bible. There are also lots of helpful notes spread throughout the Bible passages, helping the reader to understand the close relationship between the Steps and Word of God.

While I have more than enough Bibles in my home, I've never come across one as fascinating as this little gem. I seriously considering buying a case of Serenity New Testaments to have on hand for giving to people who could use a little encouragement.

An outstanding New Testament. Highly recommended, whether or not you're in a Twelve Step program.

When I first got into the 12 step program in 1990 12 step literature only took me so far in my program and I needed more or else I was in danger or returning back to active addiction. In 1993 the company I worked for went out of business and we had to take all of our personal items from our office. In my office were certificates of awards,personal and family pictures gifts from friend and many others items of importances. The only thing I made sure I took with me the day I left was this book. Without Serenity and the divine inspired wisdom that it imparts I know I probally would have returned back to active addiction and would have died. If you are in the 12 step process get Serenity it will give you a true picture of what recovery is all about and like me it might save your life.

I will never again think that AA is a program for recovery apart from God's holy word! This Bible makes it so very clear that God directed Bill Wilson and the founders many years ago (1934) to be instruments of healing power. God is the Healer, Jesus the Great Physician and the one in recovery stands in awe of miracles in his or her own life. That is of course, if one follows the Steps "one day at a time". I will always be a recovering co-dependent. Pleasing people was what I was taught to do from childhood. I thank the counselor who guided me right down the Twelve Step path. Please add this book to your library. Everyone needs healing from time to time. God bless you.

Well written though this is, ...City on the Make' does require a good knowledge of Chicago's history to keep going with it and to understand the connections.

I gave up after chapter two because of my lack of background knowledge and because I felt that this was a piece of writing that had been worked at till it was little more than an exercise in style.

It had a lot of energy but lacked the spontaneity to make it seem fresh. And it read like preaching to the converted, as opposed to being persuasive.

The city of big shoulders is my home, so perhaps I am too biased to write an objective review. In my opinion, however, I think this is one of the most gorgeous pieces of literature ever written.

I saw this performed live on the rooftop of a South Michigan Ave loft as the sun set over the west side and is started to rain. The little intertwined stories and metaphors and moments of beauty make the book a read that tastes tremendous on your tongue.

THE WARNING: yes, here is is. This is a prose poem. It's not a collection of short stories or a novel. It reads quite easily, but if you are turned off by that sort of thing, skip this book. There are moments of slightly inaccessible, albeit wonderful, language and it helps to know your history..

That said, if you love Chicago as I do, you will love Algren's City on the Make...

Nelson Algren expresses a vision of a city in Chicago: City on the Make like no other New York or Los Angeles had been envisioned. Chicago is shown as a city of two natures. Algren magnifies this duality of his town through the imagery and diction of his description of Chicago's physical appearance, historical figures and the divisions of the hustler and the square which show how this twofold nature creates Algren's ambiguous admiration for his city: Chicago.

A better book could not have fallen into my hands! An American professor in Venice recommended it, and after I read it I was only sorry I had not read it before going to Italy. The mystery of its medieval, rather Renaissance cities (Florence, Venice, among others) would have been clearer; even today's Italians' ways and personality. So much a product of Renaissance Italy...and its wonderful heritage from Ancient Rome. I truly recommend this book for Italy lovers, anyone going there soon, or for the sheer joy of reading a good history book. Jacob Burckkhardt is one of the most intelligent, enlightened historians I know.

I was around twelve when my grandmother mentioned having heard a speech delivered by Woodrow Wilson.

For me, until that moment, Woodrow Wilson had been in the same category with Julius Caesar: people who lived a long time ago. But for my grandmother, only Caesar could be in that category: Wilson was an early contemporary of her own. I began to realize that the citizens of the past were real people, that the lives of the past were lives as large and rich and strange as our own.

Everybody who survives high school can remember at least one teacher who made the study of history look like a matter of memorizing names and dates. Such teachers often manage to create in their students a permanent allergy to the study of history. But it has been two hundred years since they could do so with a good conscience.

Voltaire was the first modern writer of history--we might say, the first historian of culture. Chiefly through his masterpiece The Age of Louis XIV, he established the principle that history is not just about who ruled when and who killed whom--that it is about all the aspects of human culture, all the means--arts and entertainment, philosophy and religion and science, as well as economics, politics, and war--by which we seek to create permanent triumphs of mind over the natural forces of chaos and entropy.

We need not fool ourselves: those forces will finally destroy us and all our works. But while we live, we can make life richer for ourselves and for those who will follow us. The writer from whom I first learned that historical writing could be such an enriching force was Burckhardt.

The Renaissance was indeed the modern rebirth of ancient culture, but what makes it important is that through that rebirth people rediscovered a truth that the ancient Ionians had known and that had been lost sight of for more than a thousand years: that the natural world, and people as part of it, were worthy objects of study and understanding--not just creatures and tools of God. With this discovery, made permanent because it could now be broadcast by the new technology of printing, begins the process of modernity--the process that still continues to increase our world's psychological distance from the ancient and the medieval world.

Jacob Burckhardt had one of those rare minds who could construct a new synthesis out of thought, government, art, and culture -- and who, for the first time, made it possible to talk about the Renaissance as a moment in the history of Western man.

This is a very dense work with flashes of genius as well as long scholarly footnotes with extensively quoted Italian and Latin. In a book by a dullard, this would be excruciating. But Burckhardt is anything but as he manages his material like a Moscow taxi driver: by accelerating and then coasting. When you least expect it, another epiphany draws you in.

Burckhardt's Renaissance was an incredible high in the history of mankind. The Medicis, Sforzas, and Malatestas strut their way through the history of the period; Dante, Michelangelo, Raphael, and Bramante create works of the imagination that still overpower us; popes like Julius II, Alexander VI, and Leo X combine worldliness with spirituality (sometimes); and even the average man has a face and a voice for the first time.

This book will make your blood race.