Before reading this book, I knew Daniel Defore only through his exciting fiction: Robinson Crusoe, Moll Flanders, etc.

It turns out that Defoe also has an exciting life: struggling merchant in and out of bankruptcy, political pamphleteer, pilloried for slander, government spy, and so on.

Sadly, though you can pick the interesting elements of Defoe's life out of this work, it takes some effort. Novak's book is really a lengthy analysis of Defoe through his writings and spends much more time discussing the polemical meaning of various poems than, say, Defoe's relationship with his wife, or his travel, or his education.

In fact, all aspects of Defoe's life are really only described in this biography insofar as they can be accessed through Defoe's writings. This makes the book -- whose scholarship I do not fault -- tedious and not very easy to read as biography.

I think the title expresses my opinion. Get it from the library.

Professor Novak's book is an attempt to bridge the gap between the Jewish and Christian religion from a Jewish point of view. The fact that he called it a Jweish Justification in the subtitle is telling because it implies that such a dialogue is not looked upon with favor by his co-religionists. The discussions range from the Noahide laws, of which Christians unless they are Mormons or theologians, tend to be unaware of, through medieval views including those of Maimonedes to modernity. Novak also devotes a chapter of what he calls "The Quest for the Jewish Jesus," which attempts to find common ground where none can exist in orthodox Judaism.
It is furthermore of interest that the only real dialogue the author presents is that between two friends Rosenzweig and Rosenstock both of whom born into the Jewish religion but Rosenstock had converted to Christianity. The fact that their correspondence took place during World War I and was published in the nineteenthirties reduces its relevance for today.
In "A New Theology of Jewish-Christian Dialogue" Novak emphasizes the primacy of listening to God's voice. "Scripture is concerned with removing the thought that God can be seen, but encourages the the thought that God can be heard." Unfortunately in human life those who actually hear, rather than think about, God's voice tend to be in the vast majority mentally unbalanced. Hearing voices is a rather reliable hallmark of mental illness. This is not to deny that a few individuals throughout history have had this genuine religious experience but it cannot be expected from the majority.
The book represents the author's personal philosophy and as an individual steeped in the physical sciences I found it somewhat difficult to read.

Third graders recognized immediately that this is a story of inclusion and exclusion; a tale of learning to appreciate all people. When two witches begin planning their annual monster party, they find photo after photo of troublesome friends at last year's event. One-by-one they eliminate the mischief-makers until....
The eight and nine year olds enjoyed this picture book from the daffy dedication to the crazy conclusion. They commented on both the author's silly sense of humor and the illustrator's interesting use of animals. The third grade students loved the artwork style and found the font easy to read. They recommend this book for olders readers, as the pictures might be "too gross" for the pre-school set.

A rather long read, though the case studies are supremely useful. Dosen't have the CD-ROM full of useful programs that other books in this field have. Useful, but generally long-winded.

This text is very poorly written and proved to be an impossible study guide in my initial medical transcription course. I would not recommend it to anyone.

I too found this book to be hard to understand at first. I thought I'd never get done with it. I decided not to let a book get the best of me so I really applied myself and soon I had the hang of it. The only thing I would have added to the book is more tests at the end.

I was in a class where this book was required by one of the authors. This was alright with me because I thought I was getting a good deal---the book and the author. I came to find out that this particular professor (author) has never been a cop! He talked about cops as if he knew the life of a cop, but he couldn't answer even simple questions about what it was really like, for 'police and society.' The book isn't very good because it's impossible to believe the word of professors who haven't 'been there' like most of us in the classroom.

While this book is an adequate general overview of the general topic "police and society," and appropriate for a high school class or a freshman-level college class, I find it is not very interesting beyond skimming the surface of what is surely a fascinating topic.

Other books (such as Vila and Morris, 1999, The Role of Police in American Society, just off the top of my head---and also the several books in the "Policing and Society" series) provide a much meatier, much more intriguing and substantial treatment of the topic.

Unless you know absolutely nothing about this topic and want to just know the general, most rudimentary basics, I'd suggest looking at other books written by seasoned law enforcement practitioners.

Priest's book isn't a good transposition of Cronenberg's eXistenZ, in my opinion. I'll give you some short items: 1. there are many different things and episodes between them 2. the author describes characters' feelings in a way that has no correspondance with their behavior 3. the book explains really EVERYTHING! The readers should have the chance to try to play their own game! 4. why in the end TranscendenZ and not transCendenZ? Anyway, I'm not a writer, only a reader, and I hope you will not get angry for my comments! Bye, Paola