As wonderful as children's religious books can be, none that I know of cover and explore as varied a range of religious topics as does "Emmanuel McClue and the Mystery of the Shroud." Emmanuel McClue takes the reader on an adventure into the roller coaster relationship between science and religion, and my students were able to identify with an adolescent boy being put in difficult circumstances, having to make tough choices when confronted with the truth. With my class reading Emmanuel McClue, family relationships, exorcisms and the on-going debates between science and religion were discussed with great enthusiasm. I only hope that Emmanuel will return, again and again, with many more mysteries.

"Emmanuel McClue and The Mystery of the Shroud" is a wonderful book. Mr. McCaffrey does an excellent job of presenting the world as seen through the eyes of an eleven year - and making it interesting to adults also. The book investigates the relationships between Theology and Science in ways children and adults will understand. And to top it all off, the book is a very enjoyable read! I hope that there will be another book with Emmanuel McClue and Speagle, his beagle!

Move over Harry, Emmanuel McClue is on the case! Finally a kids series that deals with spiritual questions in the real world. Tony McCaffery has done a great job of combining mystery, adventure and education into a fast moving story. It's refreshing to see a series that tackles the question of good and evil using modern metaphors. I'll be collecting the future books in the series for my neice and nephew, but only after I read them myself.

When I first picked up this book, I was interested in it because it was so old. As I read it, especially the first few chapters about his adventures in elementary school (I teach fourth grade) I was pleased. I feel better about the antics my students have gotten into. The rest of the book is an entertaining, yet infomative first hand account of the growth of the medical profession. We have come a long way. I am looking forward to seeing where we go.

I just finished this book last night. I have an interest in medical history, particularly american. The author gives a detailed insight into early american medicine. He was truely a wonderful man and physician. I am a physician and am surprised how many problems he experienced that are still currently problems in medicine. This book is a must read for anyone interested in early american medicine.

This book is excellent for understanding life in the mid to late 1800's, for understanding the speed with which the "practice of medicine" has grown, and growing in honesty with oneself. The humor and joy is the best! And I empathized with the pain and difficulty.

What exactly is a Victorian murder case anyway?

There's a mystique about "Victorian murder cases" that is possessed by devotees of true crime non-fiction, but it sounds as though all that must happen for a murder or series of crimes to be so regarded is that they take place during the Victorian Era (1837-1901).

Of course, the Jack the Ripper murders from 1888 are regarded as the best and the darkest of all Victorian murder cases. The brutal serial killings of prostitutes, the sexual nature of the crimes themselves, accentuated by the certain body parts which were particularly violated by the Ripper's knife, the exposure of proper British society to the world of prostitution and the seaminess of London's East End - even today, all of these cause right-minded people to solemnly nod their heads and remark on how atrocities are regularly caused by the hypocrisy of blue-blooded aristocrats toward sexual matters. But does the Theo Durrant case, circa 1895, really fit neatly into this same criminal category just because of its chronology?

For the most part, Virginia McConnell is to be commended for her well-researched and comprehensive presentation of the Emmanuel Baptist Church murders. Durrant was regarded by his contemporaries and by many later researchers simply as a monster, and McConnell's contrary theme, as hinted by the title, is that Durrant was a decent man and a genuine religious devotee of decidedly non-murderous disposition for whom these two murders were isolated acts that likely would not have been repeated.

Notwithstanding her moral judgment, she is unsparing in her examination. She marshals the facts impressively and in chronological order, particularly the testimony of the witnesses who observed Theo Durrant in the company of Blanche Lamont as he escorted her to the church, in which belfry her body was later found. The circumstantial evidence which led to the quick conviction of Durrant for the murder of Blanche Lamont (in light of the death sentence imposed upon him, he was never tried for Minnie Williams' death) is impressive for its volume and its probity. The evidence proffered by Durrant and his attorneys in defense is shown to be wanting; and there is even a suggestion of one or more aborted private confessions by Durrant.

McConnell also provides several interesting scenarios as to how and why Durrant murdered the two young women and plausibly maintains that neurological influences (Durrant had suffered from bacterial meningitis) and biochemical influences (she diagnoses Durrant as manic-depressive) likely accounted for his uncharacteristic behavior. But she also seems inclined to portray the murders as peculiarly Victorian crimes - erotic bloody affronts to a repressive 19th century society, in which some elements were struggling for freedom.

However, apart from chronology, it's difficult to see why the Bell Tower murders would be thought of as Victorian crimes. Apparently, it's not even necessary that a crime be committed in Victorian ENGLAND to be so classified. The Emmanuel Baptist Church in San Francisco's Mission District was a good 6000 miles away from Windsor Castle. More importantly, 19th century San Francisco, with its gin joints and Barbary Coast dens of iniquity, frequented openly by all classes, must have been equally distant from Victorian London in the cultural sense.

While McConnell delves extensively into Durrant's family life, she seems to largely overlook its significance. Papa Durrant was a weak impotent father figure, and Mamma Durrant was an overbearing overly-possessive mother whose affection for her son (as well as the affection that she demanded in return) was unhealthy and unnatural, just the sort of mother that has produced monsters on many other occasions. Yet McConnell barely acknowledges these elements as contributing factors to the murderous personality that Durrant temporarily developed.

The fact is that as over the years that have elapsed since the Bell Tower case, as fatherlessness has become more and more prevalent, the combination of overbearing mothers and weak or absent fathers has been the cause of many thousands of particularly brutal murders and perhaps at least one presidential assassination. The Durrant case isn't a Victorian murder case at all; it's a 20th century murder case reflecting what would become that century's principal social epidemic.

On the other hand, what exactly was Theo Durrant's precise role in the deaths of the two women? As convincing a case as the author makes for his guilt, she passes lightly over the possible role played by a figure whose shadow never seems entirely absent from this case: the mysterious Reverend J. George Gibson, pastor of the Emmanuel Baptist Church.

A man of very peculiar tendencies, a man who seemed overly eager to protect the church's reputation by hiding the murders from the authorities, a man who brought in handlers from the outside specifically for the purpose of handling inquiries from a suspicious press, a man who indeed should have known the contours of the church at least as well as Theo Durrant (though he denied this in his testimony), Reverend Gibson was widely suspected at the time and was named by Theo's partisans as an alternative suspect.

And as unlikely as that might appear, McConnell runs too lightly over Gibson's tendency to "hide, ostrich-like and pretend that nothing had happened". She runs too lightly over his flippant and suspicious testimony at the inquest and preliminary hearing and passes these things off as products of his fragile and eccentric nature. This is particularly faulty in light of her own curiosity as to how Durrant managed to carry Blanche Lamont's body to the belfry by himself. Her later explanation that adrenaline gave him the strength to do so is not necessarily satisfying. Was Blanche carried to the belfry by two men?

McConnell's book is an impressive work whose narrative delivers slightly less than the research promises. But it may yet prove to be the Warren Commission Report of the Bell Tower murder case - a weighty tome that is the start of all inquiries but which raises at least as many questions as it answers.

Well researched and cleanly written, Sympathy for the Devil relates the events of 2 murders in San Francisco in 1895. The author painstakingly recreates the events leading up to the murders, the media coverage to rival that of the OJ trial, the trial itself, and the subsequent appeals. You can tell the author did her homework. Each chapter is filled with footnotes that provide not only the source of the information, but at times additional facts about the time period, the city, and the mores of the time. It was fascinating to read about a city I visit regularly and recognize some of the places mentioned.

However, the most fascinating part of this book was the trial itself. The media circus surrounding the trial was phenomenal; the 3 major newspapers took turns printing sensational accounts of the murder, the trial, and the defendant as well as out and out lies in the form of forged letters and false testimonies of people involved in the case. Additionally, the differences between trial procedure and proper behavior then and now are astounding. For example, in the trial, jurors actually stood up and asked questions of the witnesses.

The only negative comment I have is that the author waited until the very end of the book to discuss the possible reason behind the murders. Granted, this was her opinion (though backed by facts) so I can understand why she placed it outside the narrative of events from murder to trial, but it was frustrating at times to read the story without any idea why these murders occurred.

Despite this one drawback, I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in mysteries, history, and human behavior.

This author is so good. She is amazing in the scope of her details and the depth of her research. I certainly hope she acheives her goal of becoming "The Ann Rule of Victorian True Crime."

"Pope Joan" or "Papissa Joanna" was originally written and published in 1886 by the Greek author Emmanuel Royidis. The book tells the story of Pope John VIII, the purported female Pope who ruled Christendom for a period of two years, five months and four days in the middle of the ninth century. "Pope Joan" is a comic masterpiece of irreverence towards the medieval Church and the accepted pieties of its revisionist historians. Indeed, insofar as Royidis continued to propagate the legend of Pope Joan, to claim that the work contained only "facts and events proved beyond discussion", the text itself ingeniously combines history and legend, as well as brilliant wit, to subvert claims of authority. As Lawrence Durrell notes in his Preface to his brilliant English translation and adaptation, "the authorities of the Orthodox Church were horrified by what seemed to them to be the impious irony of its author-and no less by the gallery of maggot-ridden church fathers which he described so lovingly." Not suprisingly, Royidis was excommunicated from the Orthodox Church and his book was banned in Greece.

The first three parts of "Pope Joan" tell the story of Joanna prior to her arrival in Rome, before she became an historical personage. Set in the ninth century, the narrative captures the European world in disarray after the death of Charlemagne, captures a time when civilization was tenuous and the Church provided one of the few viable social structures. It is this part of the narrative that is unambiguously fictional, the imagined story of Joanna's life in Germany and then in Greece. After her parents die, Joanna clandestinely enters a monastery where she meets the monk Frumentius and develops a romantic relationship with him. When her true sexual identity is surmised, Joanna and Frumentius flee one monastery and then another, eventually ending up in Greece. Joanna soon becomes tired of her romance and her intellectual brilliance attracts the attention of Church leaders throughout Greece. She leaves Frumentius and departs alone for Rome, where the legend, some say the history, of Pope Joan begins. She becomes a papal secretary renowned for her intellect and, when Pope Leo IV dies, she ascends to the papacy. Pope Joan becomes pregnant and dies after giving birth during a procession through the streets of Rome.

While the general outline of the narrative may seem only mildly interesting, the brilliant translation and prose of Lawrence Durrell, together with the biting, irreverent wit of Royidis, make "Pope Joan" an unsurpassed work of comic genius. A flavor for this wit and style can be found in a short passage describing what ensued after Pope Joan gave birth: "Great was the consternation when a premature infant was produced from among the voluminous folds of the papal vestments . . . Some hierarchs who were profoundly devoted to the Holy See sought to save the situation and change horror and disgust to amazement by crying out 'A miracle! A miracle!' They bellowed loudly calling the faithful to kneel and worship. But in vain. Such a miracle was unheard of; and indeed would have been a singular contribution to the annals of Christian thaumaturgy which, while it borrowed many a prodigy from the pagans, had not yet reached the point where it could represent any male saint as pregnant and bringing forth a child."

While the apologist position has consistently denied the historicity of Pope Joan, there is at least some suggestion that the legend is indeed a fact. As Durrell suggests in his Preface, one telling point is that Platina includes a biography of Pope John VIII in his "Lives of the Popes". And no less an authority than The Catholic Encyclopedia states that Platina's "Lives of the Popes" is "a work of no small merit, for it is the first systematic handbook of papal history." Historical disputation aside, however, "Pope Joan" stands as a brilliant work of comic writing and masterful translation, a masterpiece of Royidis and Durrell.

People that buy the Cross version are buying the wrong book. Look instead to the beautifully written, gleefully and irreverently funny version by Emmanuel Rhodes, written over a 100 years ago, translated from the Greek by famed author Laurence Durrell.

Truly, there is no comparison between the Cross and Durrell versions. Jane Austen chided her gullible heroine in "Northanger Abbey" for indulging in pulp Gothic novels that were "all plot and no reflection". The Cross book is all plot and no reflection. Or even worse, it is all agenda and no reflection. It is unabashedly, tediously revisionistic, hell-bent on making Pope Joan an idealized, religiously progressive proto-feminist. Cross projects all our late-twentieth century values onto her, time and place be damned. And it bludgeons you with its purpose for hundreds upon hundreds of pages. Joan never emerges as a character, just a cause. This is a book that in 50 years we will be able to look back upon and say, "Oh, how '90s". Plus, the writing is cliched and really rises no higher than that of "genre" level prose.

The Durrell translation of the Emmanuel Rhodes book is everything the Cross book is not. The prose simply sings, even in translation -- there were passages that were so beautiful, they gave me a palpable headrush. It is filled with gleeful black humor, the plot is tight and well-constructed, and the book, though irreverent, is filled with respect and affection for the character of Joan. Rhodes has no agenda for Joan, he depicts everything with honesty and clarity. For example, he does not attempt to make apologies for anti-Semites, and even adopts their views in casual references as a device to voice the world views of the characters that is required to immerse the reader in the time and place of the book. And Joan's baser impulses driving her actions are never gilded over into something more heroic than they are. Plus, the Rhodes book is simply fun.

I enjoyed Cross's version of this story, especially the historical detours into the state of law and medicine in the Dark Ages. But, I'm glad I read it before I opened the Lawrence Durell/Emmanuel Royidis' version.

This is the funniest book I've read since Fried Green Tomatoes! It's a hilarious, irreverent, bawdy, sacreligious saga at the expense of every prudish, hypocritically pious notion ever spawned in Christian history. It's a scream! I wonder if my neighbors have been disturbed by my uncontrollable howling. As an example, there's the bit where Joan uses the leg bone (sacred relic) of a martyred saint which she and a group of monks are transporting, to fend off the overly-amorous monks during an episode of gluttenous over-indulgence!

This very literate debauchery is the work of a genius.

I am disappointed in this book, which is an introduction to the platitudes of psychoanalysis. It contains no new thought -- a combination of banal comments and efforts to be witty. You will learn nothing. I am surprised that a physician would waste his time writing this type of book.

I am one of those people that EVERYONE likes to come and talk to me about their problems. Our busy season is during the summer and I tell you, there are times when I thought about charging a fee!

This book has given me some insight on why people are the way there are. It will give me some better ideas on what people need to hear when they come to me for help. I am putting this one on the shelf...it is a good *quick look* reference/idea book.

I found this book at the library and think I may have to go buy it as well. This is a basic primer of psychological principles but they can provide profound insight to your own psyche and the psyches of the people you know. It isn't a self-help book although it can lead to positive change. Sometimes things that are obvious to analysts and therapist aren't obvious to us. I had SEVERAL a-ha moments reading this book. It will lead me to investogate some matters in more depth, which I am certain is one of the intentions of the book. If you don't have a-ha moments reading this it is most likely that you already knew the info. Simply put, this book can actually help you change our life!

If you are reading this review, it is because you are supposed to read it and to read Emmanuel's Book. In this book is the wisdom you have longed to remember and is deep inside you. All of it will seem hauntingly familiar and your heart will know it to be true. There will be times that your mind, suffering from the confusion of conventional wisdom, will rebel at and distrust what is written. At such points, put down the book and listen to your heart. It will be dancing with joy at finally remembering the truth it once knew. In the light of this wisdom, I rest more comfortably with a greater sense of Life, the Universe and everything.

After a long search for true wisdom, this book was the pure gold at the end of the rainbow. If you were to read only one such book this should be it.

Emmanuel's books are some of the best books I have found. They contain real, deep spiritual truths. They present a vision of humanity and God which is totally compassionate and loving. The question is not whether these books are true. The question is whether you are ready for this truth? Many similar books are hard to digest, but this series is not. Emmanuel means "God with us," and God is truly in this series. I strongly recommend this series if you are a seeker of Truth like me.

God bless.

The simplicity of the incredible wisdom imparted in the book's pages is food for the hungriest soul. It changed - and sustained - my life for ever. It helped me raise two children lovingly and sensitively, it has seen me through the darkest hours of my life, it has soothed my spirit. All three Emmanuel books have become my "bibles". There is so much gentleness and truth in Emmanuel's words that one cannot help but feel the connectedness with All That Is. If every home has but one book, it must be one of the Emmanuel books. I am certain that allowing Emmanuel's words to flow through us and heal our sad/stressed/angry/searching hearts would bring an end to war and violence on our planet. From the bottom of my heart, thank you, Emmanuel, for coming into my life.

This book dedicates two or three pages to each of about fifty ways to depart this life. Some of the entries are quite interesting, but very little is done in the way of developing a story that might be of interest to the reader beyond the morbid. While a more narrow subject, Peter Capstick's stories of death by maneating animals are much more visceral and downright frightening.

These are some good stories. A few of them--literally--do make you feel a little queasy. An enjoyable read, but not as good as Last Breath, since the tales aren't developed quite as well.

It's weird to say that it was enjoyable to read a lighthearted book about terrible ways that people have gone through pain, but it was. Beyond doing a lot of research, the author has a good sense of humor. I read it pretty quickly, but it also seems like it could be a good book to keep next to the toilet: you can read one or two of the descriptive vignettes when you go.

HELP FIND THE HENRI RONDEL FRENCH PAINTING HISTORY 1857 PARIS, 1919 GVIGON MUSEUM

The Benezit is the definitive biographical and bibliographical work for art historians, dealers, and collectors. Entries in the Benezit briefly describe the artist's life and summarize major shows and awards. Occasionally an example of an artist's signature is provided. To say that an artist is "listed" usually means that there is an entry on the artist in the Benezit.

This compilation is wondrous. One is not educated in art history if one is not familiar with the Benezit. Caveat: the Benezit is written in French.

This will be THE source for biographical information on artists for years to come. Twenty three years after the last edition, this updated version will be welcomed by anyone seeking this type of information.

Eze hopes to spur, among researchers, teachers, and students, a "critical engagement in the area of race" following the model of feminist critics of the Enlightenment. This collection, which contains the central primary texts for that project, demonstrates the value of delving into the heart of (to use Eze's working title for the book) "the racist Enlightenment."

Eze argues that the Enlightenment's racial legacy was a philosophical vocabulary ("race," "progress," "civilization," "savagery," "nature") that reinforced and presupposed important "analytical categories" adopted by subsequent scientific, philosophical, and anthropological studies of race. The book focuses on texts from the last decades of the seventeenth century; only four (by Linneaus, Buffon, and Hume) were published before 1770 and just one (Hegel's Lectures on the Philosophy of World History) after 1800. Eze is mainly concerned with the triumvirate of Hume, Hegel, and (especially) Kant: the other readings provide background to and display the influences on and the influences of those philosophers.

Unfortunately, most of Eze's selections are too brief to help readers understand the "analytical categories" of race that are central to Eze's racial critique of the Enlightenment. Many crucial theoretical notions are passed over or covered in little detail in the primary texts and in Eze's editorial material. Teachers or students pursuing a deeper investigation will have to look elsewhere, and they will lament Eze's editorial practice of alluding to important passages without providing citations, the absence of detailed citations of the texts anthologized, and the lack of a comprehensive bibliography of primary and secondary literature.

This book collects, for the first time, writings by all of the major authors during the period of Enlightenment. Most readers will be shocked by the severe lack of politcal-correctness displayed by these writers, but none-the-less it gives one an accurate idea of what Europeans first impressions of non-whites were. Africa, the anarchaic tribal continent, was seen as both a wonder and a threat. Philosophers like Hegel were at once amazed and revolted to discover that these "strange creatures" on the "myterious continent" had yet to develop the wheel at the time of European expansion on that continent. Fascinating, shocking, but above all, a must for any true student of The Enlightenment.

I read this book in my African-American Philosophy class. I couldn't believe the writings of Hume, Kant and Hegel. I never stop to think that their philosophical systems were exclusive to Europeans. The Enlightenment philosophiers attitudes were shaped by travelers stories, geographical location, and lack of understanding about other cultures besides their own.

Hegel give a justification for "colonialsim" and "imperialism" that will "knock your socks off." Kant and Hume recognizes Africas as "inferior to whites."

This book is a must for philosophiers. I believe it will help students to understand the "exclusive" and arrogant attitudes of Enlightenment philosophiers.

This book is pretty good to study DSP with C language. It contains many practical example C source code but this book has many misprint I'll expect that misprint will correct next edition!

I'm studying EE couse in Chung-Ang Univ. at Seoul Korea.

Is a practical book, I used it during my DSP course in University (UPM), and now it is useful also for my current design job. Only one topic should be included, Data converter - ADC, DAC such as sigma-delta converter. from Penang

Is a practical book. I used it for my DSP course in University,UPM. It is very useful also for my current Design Job. Only one topic should be included, Data converters - ADC, DAC, such as SigmaDelta converter.