I have read many, many books on Arctic Exploration and Franklin's "lost" expedition and found this to be one of the best. The photos are hard to look at and yet haunting. Franklin's mens saga is one of the great real life mystery story ever.

This book is very interestings because lets you understand how corageous were people more then hundred years ago. Life was completely different and you feel that difference. I would say, people went to an expedition, almost knowing they were not coming back. This makes you wonder.

This was a book I could not put down until I had finished reading
it. An excellent book with elements of history, exploration,
archaeology, forensics, and mystery, all concerning the courageous and tragic Franklin expedition. I was inspired to read this book after seeing Sir Franklin's
epitaph in Westminster Abbey: "Not Here, The Frozen North Doth
Have thy Bones. And Thou Heroic Sailor Soul Travels Onward
Toward No Earthly Pole."

This is a great set of books for the serious Hebrew student. but not for the Bible teacher or pastor who is rusty on Hebrew.

There are two flaws in these books. One is that the editors have taken so much trouble to give so much information about the structure and meaning of the Hebrew, and yet have provided often mediocre, and even often, lousy, inaccurate translation. They have relied on the RSV, and have stated that where they felt necessary, they have given a more literal meaning. The interesting fact is that in many cases, they have let stand those translations of words which have NO basis in the Hebrew text. They have, in fact, gone beyond dynamic equivalence (conservative paraphrasing), and used straight paraphrashing. Why would one go through so much trouble to get to the root of the langage, and then provide a translation that misses the mark virtually or totally. So keep your Hebrew lexicons available, because you are going to need them.

The second error shows up mainly in the verb descriptions. Just looking at the 7 major verb stems, they are clearly classified in error quite frequently. I have found that this is usually between the Qal and Hiphil stems, and often on weak verbs which loose a consonant (e.g., hollow verbs). The pointing of the text will usually be a clear Hiphil, but the editors have classed it as Qal. This is quite a problem, both for understanding the emphasis of the verb stem, and at times the actual meaning of the verb.

I do not recommend this set except for those who are studying Hebrew seriously, using, for instance, Waltke & O'Connor, Gesensius, and other authoritative works. One without a decent knowledge of Hebrew grammar already in the brain will end up teaching inaccuracy in certain areas.

Moving through every Hebrew word from Genesis to Malachi, this work provides for each word its grammatical identification, its page number in the BDB Lexicon, and its English translation.

If you are like me, your Hebrew skills aren't where you would like them to be. Owens gives an abundance of help in this area.

Word-by-word, the masoretic text is analyzed and translated. Especially helpful is the verb analysis. However, one should not expect to see any commentary, since that is not what these volumes are designed to give.

This set of books won't teach you Hebrew, but it you are a little weaker in that area than you would like to be, these books will help you out greatly.

Failure analyst Owen Allison plans to return to Palo Alto to reconcile with his ex-wife Judith though he was delayed by his need to be with his mother in West Virginia when she underwent chemotherapy (see DISMAL MOUNTAIN). However, further problems in West Virginia postpone Owen's trip to the West Coast.

The dam by the Canaan II mine erupts, killing four and filling DRYBONE HOLLOW with coal sludge. Owner Anson Stoke hires Owen to persuade environmentalist Judge Carter Vereen that despite the toll, his operations remain safe and should stay open. Judge Vereen orders an investigation of all impoundment dams sitting on mines, which leads to state attorney general Hayes Boyer asking Owen to head the inquiry, but demanding a kickback of 15% of Owen's fee. Owen rejects the offer, but turns to his friend Sheriff Thad Reader to set a trap to expose those using fixed contracts, but the law enforcement official deals with a full plate already as a local has probably been abducted. So Owen plunges ahead knowing he will receive limited support from his buddy, but mine engineer Emily Kruk makes it worth while to stay in West Virginia a bit longer.

Though the "will he reconcile or not" becomes a bit annoying, readers will appreciate the latest Owen Allison investigative tale. Most of the audience will kick themselves when they see how obvious John Billheimer's plot solves the mystery as the clues are all provided, but so devilishly done that most fans (including this sore reviewer) will fail to see it. The cast is a delight with the hero at his best when he investigates.

Harriet Klausner

Another great Owen Alison book. As usual, we get to meet an array of quirky, well-drawn characters, including the larcenous Cable Stokes, his brother Anson, and mining engineer Emily Kruk. Billheimer's book are always a fun blend of humor and excitement--the book really races along.

One of the pleasures of this series is watching Owen's relationships with other characters deepen an grow as the books progress. Though you don't need to have read any of the other books to enjoy this one, if this is your first Owen Alison book you'll want to go back and read the others just to find out what's happened in the past. These books are one of my favorite mystery series.

Fans of John Billheimer's Owen Allison series will enjoy this latest episode. Billheimer's talent for dialog reveals more about the West Virginia psyche in this book than all the others combined. And the action is fast paced from beginning to end. I could not put it down. Especially interesting is the re-emergence of characters from earlier books who play a key role. Billheimer character development continues to an unexpected ending. You come away asking if there could be other scams this region of the country could suffer. I expect we will see this answers in upcoming books from this fine author.

This book made me realize that radio is not just about playing music. It is about sending and reciving waves to make the public happy.

This book focuses on the history of radio from 1899 to 1954 and thus has nothing to do with RCA's CED VideoDisc system, but one of the key figures in the account is David Sarnoff, so a lot of the early history of RCA is covered. In addition to Sarnoff, the book focuses on the technical radio pioneers Edwin Howard Armstrong and Lee de Forest. In some respects this book is a reflection on the development of the modern computer, as parallels can be drawn between these radio pioneers and computer industry figures Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Larry Ellison.

Read some years ago & book now lost. Fascinating in that it vividly displays the genius, sometimes luck, unstinting effort, inspiration, and often the "happy" accident that is part of basic effort when one breaks ground in a new quest in pursuit of a dream. Much of this history could not be repeated in our 2000 world because those opportunities no longer exist. An example is Sarnoff's success in getting meaningful work at the tender age he did in the story! Mankind's unflagging quest goes on but in different ways. The first way of making news available at the instant it occurs certainly shrunk the world. The process continues. Recommended highly for the radio buff of any age!

October 2, 2000

By Steve Forbes Editor-in-Chief

ROAD RAGE

Highway Robbery--by John Billheimer (St. Martin's Minotaur, $24.95). A wonderful blend of numerous, superbly developed--and often eccentric--characters; wry, politically incorrect humor; surprises and suspense, spiced with some of West Virginia's legendary skulduggery-encrusted politics makes for an always interesting murder mystery. Our California-based hero, Owen Allison, is suddenly called home to West Virginia by his mother. She suspects that a skeleton uncovered by a road construction crew is that of her late husband (and Owen's father), who supposedly drowned in a flood decades ago. Owen's father was that true West Virginia rarity--an honest highway commissioner. He and his scruples didn't sit well with plenty of pols and contractors. The mother's hunch about the body is wrong, but she's dead right about her husband's having been the victim of foul play. As Owen discovers, several people have skeletons they'd like to keep hidden in the closet.

This is Billheimer's second mystery. Read it, and you'll be looking for his first--and praying he turns out more like these.

Billheimers books are fun and suspenseful. His West Virginia settings make his books unique.

Highway Robbery is even better than Contrary Blues which was outstanding. Mixes life, mystery, humor, and romance with almost perfect pitch. Usually I am a little disappointed with the answer at the end of a mystery novel. This time I was not. The twists and turns were cleverly constructed. And the tale is witty and insightful with out the mystery.

This book is great. It not only provided me with numerical statistics on colleges, but it also gave students' commentaries on colleges. The only thing it didn't do -- and it's not a fault, but not in the scope of this book -- is explain what the basic philosophy of college education is supposed to be all about in the USA. It's what I didn't know, and I think what most people don't know. For that, I found and read an interesting book called "West Point" by Norman Thomas Remick. It was important because it saved me from making lifetime mistakes down the road when I got into the nitty-gritty of specific colleges. You should read it. Then, dig into "The Best 331 Colleges". It's definitely a five star reference guide.

This book goes even more indepth than the Princeton Review's web site. How they talk to not just the people that run the colleges, they also talk to current students. Also, how they rate the different schools is very interesting. A great buy for selecting a college!!!!

I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is beginning his or her college search. It not only gives you the facts, but student opinions too. That combination is the best jumping off point to make your college choice. You won't need another college reference book as long as you have this one.

I have recently graduated from the college I found using this book. I probably never would have made the choices I did or attended the college I did, if it hadn't been for this book. I am completely happy with my college choice, and it has gotten me into Harvard for graduate school.

When I began my college search, I felt overwhelmed by all of my choices. After buying this book, I narrowed my search to only the colleges listed in this book. I figured 306 (a lot less in my day than the 331 of today) colleges provided enough choices, and if a school didn't make the cut for the book, it could be skipped in my search. From that point I began looking at schools that kept popping up in the lists for good things (students happy with financial aid, dorms like palaces, schools run like butter, happy students, etc). I never thought I'd attend a women's college, but after I saw all the wonderful things students had to say about their own women's colleges, I started to visit a few. In the end, I attended the school that first drew my interest in this book.

Again, with this book, you won't need any of the other books out there. This one will be the most valuable resource in your college search.

Owen's deals with the entire scope of the death of Christ. Who it was for what it accomplished etc. This book is not for those who, as most are in the church today, wish to be entertained or be force fed. Owen himself adivses his reader, in his introduction, that if he wants to be entertained you have been stop reading and move on. However for those who truly desire to wrestle with the great doctrines of God's Word and base their views on the entire witness of Scripture and on sound reason this is the book for you. Owen not only presents a clear view of what the Bible teaches concerning the death of Christ but also refutes numerous false views. Many of these views still plague the church today.

Portions of this book actually brought me to tears while others challenged me to think and bring every thought captive to Christ and His Word. The introduction by J.I. Packer, as are most things written by Mr. Packer, was very thorough and helpful. In this age where God is viewed as nothing more than a glorified fortune teller or a cosmic santa claus Owen's classic work is desperately needed.

The Death of Death in the Death of Christ is a polemical work designed to show among other things that the doctrine of universal redemption (or universal atonement) is unscriptural and destructive of the gospel. The introduction by J. I. Packer is worth the price of the book.

Owen is not light reading and this work is no exception. It will require no small effort on the part of the reader. It must be read slowly and carefully, and then re-read again. However, as Packer says, "Nobody has the right to dismiss the doctrine of limited atonement as a monstrodity of Calvinistic logic until he has refuted Owen's proof that it is part of the uniform biblical presentation of redemption, clearly taught in plain text after plain text." And nobody has done that yet.

I rate it 5 stars for content. But if readability is the measure, then you best move on to something else.

The day that this book is refuted is the day that the TULIP shrivels up and dies--the day that God's free grace in salvation is shown to be a farce.

But Owen's thesis, that Christ did, in fact, save His people from their sins (Matt. 1:21), is nothing less than pure, undiluted Gospel-truth, and shall remain so as long as God Himself is Truth.

There is no work written by any Calvinist throughout the ages that can begin to compare with Owen's treatment of the death of Christ, and His procurement of eternal redemption thereby. And there is no work written by any Arminian throughout the ages that can begin to answer Owen's book. To do this, it would be necessary to show that the Scriptures present Christ's death as obtaining a mere possibility of redemption, instead of having actually obtained eternal redemption (Heb. 9:12), an absolute impossibility.

Owen's argumentation and exegesis are simply outstanding. Before reading this book, I had actually never read an exegesis of John 3:16. He spends ten pages of a detailed, Puritan examination of that passage alone. He also examines virtually every text cited by the Arminians in this controversy, coming to the same inescapable conclusion every time: "No Universalism Here."

J.I. Packer's "Introductory Essay" is not to be missed, either: It's already considered by many to be a classic, a "masterpiece in miniature."

But the "Essay" is undoubtedly the easiest reading in this volume. Owen was a 17th century Puritan, and can be difficult reading. It's definitely not a book to give your non-theologically-minded Arminian friends to convince them of Particular Redemption. But for an in-depth study of the doctrine, this book cannot be missed.

This book was so boring it totally sucked.I mean who wants to read about the depression.The Joad family could have been alot more intresting. Add some major charchter traits!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Owens is a fine Steinbeck scholar, and this text is one of Twayne's best sellers due to his careful examination of the text and generous interpretive skills. One wonders how the dim bulb in the next review managed to read this entire book to reach such an unwarranted conclusion. For fans of Steinbeck who require scholarly discussion for their research, Owens is excellent.

Many literary reviews and criticisms are so technical they are almostunapproachable, but Owen's analysis of The Grapes of Wrath is accessible, clear, andprovides many useful bibliographical resources. Stolen from many university libraries, it is so useful. Buy your own; let the library keep its copy!

My mother gave this book to me when I was ten, which was a very long time ago. Those images of the mummies, so well-preserved that they don't look like mummies but like still-living human beings in some eternal pain we can't imagine -- they gave me nightmares then and they can still chill me to the stomach.

My mother gave this book to me when I was ten, which was a very long time ago. Those images of the mummies, so well-preserved that they don't look like mummies but like still-living human beings in some eternal pain we can't imagine -- they gave me nightmares then and they can still chill me to the stomach.

After seeing a clip on the Franklin Expedition in a documentary on mummies, I rushed to the library to see if there was a book on the subject. The only one available was this book in the juvenile section. At first I was disappointed, but, noticing a photo of the preserved body of one of the sailors, I checked it out. For a kids' book, this one is pretty cool. The first part of the book is a fictionalized (and very sanitized) story of life for the average seaman on the doomed expedition. This story leaves the reader with questions that the author will answer in the second section describing the disinterring of three buried crew members and the information their well-preserved remains revealed. The photos are amazing and make this book fascinating for all ages (I don't remember juvenile books being this cool when I was a kid). The reading level and, at times, disturbing content is probably appropriate for kids 5th grade and up.

Some wonderful and successful writers gather their thoughts in this book to bear light on the magic of Tolkien's writing. Being a fan myself, I enjoyed the individual tales of discovering "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings" for the first time. I related to the same sense of awe and dread, of wonder and inspiration. Surely, Tolkien has inspired many.

Unfortunately, the praise gets to be redundant and--may I say it?--almost hollow, without the balance of some thoughtful criticism. Personally, I wouldn't have much negative to say regarding Tolkien's work, but I found very little that was genuinely fresh or enlightening in this collection of "meditations." I did discover an interest in some of the authors included (not a bad reason for their involvement in the project) and in earlier 20th century writers that I have never familiarized myself with. Lord Dunsany, E.R. Eddison, Fritz Leiber, and Mervyn Peake are only a few of the old standbys mentioned repeatedly.

Although interesting, a quick read, and well-written, this collection might best serve those curious in unearthing the inspiration beneath some of their favorite authors. I was hoping for something with more vitality, but overall I'd recommend the book.

MEDITATIONS ON MIDDLE EARTH is a collection of essays focusing on J.R.R. Tolkien's works, especially the Middle Earth saga. Some of the more renowned fantasy authors of today evaluate the series that made fantasy a household name. Surprisingly, though everyone agrees that Professor Tolkien opened up the genre to the middle class, not all of the contributors are fans of the actual novels. Insightful and entertaining, each essay is well written with the writer's particular spin. However, this anthology will be loved by those readers analyzing the various cultures in a way that cultural anthropologists would envy or by those fans who cherish Beowulf, which Tolkien felt is the forefather of the genre.

Harriet Klausner

I borrowed this book from the library and enjoyed it so much I asked for it for Christmas (and got it). The different authors writing about the influence LOTR had on their lives reminded me of the first time I read the story and the effect it had on me. The drawings that illustrated the book were very well done. I think this should be in every fan's collection and is a must for anyone contemplating following in Tolkien's footsteps and writing a fantasy novel.