This diverse collection of letters by Ron Owens to the church and various individuals and leaders of worship is challenging, gut-honest, and inspiring. Owens takes an honest look at worship in the church of America today and is calling the church to a higher standard. He helps us look beneath the surface issues of worship styles and music programs to the heart of worship.

Owen's fundamental starting points are that God alone is worthy of our worship, and that we were created to worship God. Worship begins and ends with the sovereign Lord. We must learn to come to God on his terms and embody this worship in our everyday lives.

While the letters in part one of this book address the church and its worship, the letters in part two are addressed to worship leaders. These letters take on a more practical tone and offer great wisdom regarding worship issues ranging from how we should understand and practice baptism and communion to the appropriate place of applause in worship.

This book is a wonderful resource for worship leaders not only for personal and professional challenge, but for use with worship boards, teams, and choirs. These letters are thought-provoking and convicting and could inspire tremendous change in the hearts of readers willing to make changes in their worship of God.

In "Return to Worship" Owens writes thirty-seven "letters" to the church, worship leaders, pastors, and ministers of music. The letters express a deep love and passion for worship and addresses concerns facing the church today in relation to worship. Owens' letter-writing style creates a sense of personal identification. It is as if the author addressed these letters to me! Owens calls the church to focus upon God and forms of worship must not cloud that focus. In fact, Owens confronts the issue of music in worship and says, "to many, worship is music, and music is worship, and many worship music" (1999:6).

Broad ranges of issues are addressed including music, audiovisuals, sacraments, applause in worship and many others. In addition to raising these practical concerns for worship Owens concludes with four helpful appendixes (a choir covenant, a checklist for worship leaders, twenty-four questions to ask yourself in preparation for the Lord's Supper, and an article entitled "When Church Was Just Church: Worship Center or Theatre?").

"Return to Worship" is a wonderfully practical book; a must-read for pastors and those responsible for providing worship leadership in the local church.

Convicting and prophetic, Ron Owens challenges pastors, worship leaders, choirs and congregations to ask hard questions about their worship. Owens writes thirty-seven "letters" addressing key issues facing worshippers today. Return to Worship is unashamedly biblical. Owens calls the reader to keep God absolutely central in worship. Here are some of his more convicting concepts. One of the root problems in worship is: "We don't know our God" (1999:9). "The church today is being shaped more by our culture than by the cross" (1999:21). "...How we respond to what comes to us each day most clearly reveals whether we are worshippers at heart" (1999:42). "There is no redemption without an attitude of worship" (1999:47). "We cannot claim for ourselves the glory that belongs to God alone and expect our worship to be acceptable to Him" (1999:54). "Some pastors view their responsibility as: "to keep everybody happy rather than pointing the people to God and teaching them to be holy" (1999:58). "No revival in history has begun with a self-satisfied people" (1999:68). "He who will not serve does not worship" (1999:71). "Research has shown that much of the growth of our larger churches has been at the expense of smaller churches" (1999:79). "Often the only scripture read during the gathering is the few verses read by a pastor before he preaches" (1999:99). "Use the choruses but don't deny this generation the riches of its past" (1999:107). "We are not called to be entertainers of the people; we are called to be ministers of the gospel" (1999:137). Additionally, in Appendix 3, Owens includes a 19th century list of 24 questions to ask in preparation for the Lord's Supper. This book brims full of wisdom and insight. I highly recommend it.

One of the undisputed classic reference works for the old-time radio enthusiast, first published during the original wave of nostalgia over 25 years ago, "The Big Broadcast" lists many network and syndicated radio shows that ran in the timeframe of the 1920's-50s, more commonly referred to as "the golden age of radio". A great source for cast lists (if you can't put a name to a voice) with informative articles on genres and more technical matters (sound effects, "independent" networks, etc.). This type of thorough reference work is usually frustratingly hard to find for the old-time radio. This book has been out of print for years, and when you found a copy of the first edition, you could expect to pay premium prices, especially if the seller knew what he had. The introduction, by radio comedian Henry Morgan (not to be confused with the guy who played Colonel Potter on "MASH"), is a beauty.

Henry Horenstein, who teaches photography at the Rhode Island School of Design and who has authored books on everything from color theory to horse-racing, offers us a wordless 80-page portfolio that will simply take your breath away. These are black and white "portraits of all manner of living things, made in zoos, aquaria and in the wild, shot on Agfa's wonderfully lush Scala black and white slide film, then translated into equally lush Ilfochrome, or on occasion, platinum prints. These, in turn, were printed in tritone to maintain the wide range of tone in the originals. You never have seen creatures portrayed like this, or in such wonderful juxtaposition: the graceful feathers of a flamingo in close-up on the left; a seemingly identical image on the right--only it is an overhead view of a school of carp. If Horenstein had relied only on closeups of hides or feathers, or on tortured abstracts, I would not be so ecstatic about this work. But he manages to capture the "animalness" of each creature while bringing a fresh perspective to it. Only the wildlife photographs of Frans Lanting have affected me as much. --Frank Van Riper, photography columnist, the Washington Post

This is the seventh book in the Queens of England series by the author, a masterful storyteller, who is also known as Victoria Holt to her fans. It is a well-written novel of historical fiction that tells the little known story of Katherine of Valois.

She was a French Princess, daughter of King Charles VI, the gentle, but mad, King of France, and Queen Isabeau, an evil, self-absorbed libertine, who cared little for her children. After the famous battle of Agincourt in which King Henry V of England vanquished France, Katherine found herself married to this warrior king and living in England. She was to become the mother of King Henry VI of England.

Shortly after their son's birth, King Henry V died a premature death. Young Queen Katherine saw their son Henry taken from her to be raised by others. Retiring to the countryside, she fell in love with a Welsh squire, Owen Tudor, who had faithfully served King Henry V, and now served Katherine as part of her household. Theirs was to be an illicit love affair, carried out in secret, as the alternative was to be the recipient of charges of treason.

Try as they might, no amount of secrecy could prevent the vicissitudes of life from raining down upon their happiness. Political intrigue would serve to bring their illicit love to light. It would act as the catalyst for a turning point in history. What happened to Katherine and Owen would give rise in the future to the house of Tudor, one of the greatest dynasties ever to rule England.

The book grounds their love story in the context of the period, which saw England as the conqueror of France. It covers that turbulent time in history that saw Joan of Arc rise from the remote French countryside to ensure the crowning of the Dauphin of France as its rightful King. It is a spellbinding account of the struggles between England and France and those who would rule these two countries. It is a book that will be enjoyed by all those with a fondness for well-written, historical fiction.

This book is indeed a masterpiece and it is great for someone who is studying to be an engineer or is interested in architecture. It is fantastic and has everything from the Lovely Louvre to the palace at Petra, from the Great Golden Gate to the construction of the Chrysler. It shows fine examples of art deco, modern, classical, Greek, Muslim etc. architectural wonders. It not only explains and shows the construction of these great buildings, but for certain buildings it also shows their plan, it's legends, along with information about who built it, why did they build it, whom did it build it for, when was it built, and where it is. It also has sections showing the greatest styles of architecture ever used along with a series of historic sites in the world. All in all this is a fantastic and very useful guide to the masterpieces of Architecture and Engineering.

-------------------------AHMED MASHHOOD--------------------------

I really enjoyed Walden, it's a very deep philosophical book. Thoreau is very insightful, and he is also very intelligent. I admire his capability to digress on different subjects and expand on the topics. His profound statments make an individual contemplate and search his inner soul for his true identity. This book, if read carefully and with much thought, can really impact one's life. It can help one search themselves and think differently about life in general. I would encourage people to read this book if they have a good grasp on their life because it could be confusing and somewhat depressing at times, depending on the maturity level of the individual. If one has an interest to read this, it can be very enjoyable, and challenging at the same time.

Mind you, this isn't idle worship - this book is a masterpiece of American Literature, and along with 'Civil Disobedience', represents one of the greatest literary minds America has ever known. Thoreau stands with Dickinson, Emerson, Hawthorne, Melville, and Whitman as one of the greats of his era. Indeed, in the 1850's when 'Walden' was originally published, it occasionally sat beside 'Moby-Dick' and 'Song of Myself' on book shop shelves. In reading Thoreau, one comes to understand the scholar and the naturalist that have so profoundly come together next to Walden Pond; their combination seems to express some of the most basic underpinnings of American life. More than that however, their intertwining through insight and spiritualism evokes a thoughtful reverence for life in its entirety. Thoreau's ruminations are striking, not merely for their deep beauty and sentiment, but for their delving examination of the human soul. The way in which he blends the substantive and the sublime, bringing the reader to Walden Pond in mind, body, and soul, deserves praise as one of the highest forms of art. One cannot help but wonder at the depth - of Thoreau, of the spirit, and of Walden Pond.