Este pequeño manual es ya un clasico de muchos Pastores y Ministros. Es una guia práctica y concreta de las diferentes doctrinas y además compara las filosofías Orientales y las deformaciones de sectas que utilizan la Biblia como una cortina de humo para engañar y confundir al pueblo de Dios. Excelente herramienta para nuevos creyentes que quieren comparar las bases y fundamentos Crsitianos con otras culturas y religiones del mundo.

"The Duration of the Voyage: Selected Poems," makes available in English some of the work of Luisa Futoransky. This is a bilingual edition, with Futoransky's Spanish originals and the English versions on facing pages. This volume is edited by Jason Weiss, who also did the English translations. The poems included are drawn from 6 books, originally published from 1972 to 1997.

The back cover information notes that Futoransky was born and raised in Buenos Aires, the child of Polish-Jewish immigrants, and has lived in many other nations all over the world. Her poems reflect this international, multicultural personal and family heritage. Futoransky takes us from the Rue de Charenton to Masada, from the coasts of Portugal to a Buddhist cemetery for samurais. In her poems we encounter "knicknacks from Byzantium," "a tune by Piaf," "old Hebrew tombstones," and a host of other cultural phenomena.

Figures from Jewish scripture, legend, and history sometimes appear: Lilith, Noah's Ark, etc. A number of poems evoke the people and culture of Japan.

Futoransky's language is at times passionate, at times ironic, at times cryptic. My favorite poem in the book, "Robotics," draws connections among the Egyptian ushebtis, the golem of Jewish folklore, robots, and automatic teller machines. This poem is an intriguing document from a place in space-time where technology, myth, and history intersect. Overall, I recommend this book to those interested in Latin American or Jewish literature, or to anyone interested in experiencing a unique and challenging poetic voice.

i'm an art historian, from Naples and I study relationship between Italy and Spain between 1540- 1560

Although I had to read this novel for a Spanish literature class, I found myself enjoying it immensely. There are so many questions that we have about what happens after death. This novel shows you one possibility.

Ana Maria is in limbo between life and death, and although she is dead to our world, she can still hear, see and feel. As she lies on her deathbed, she has memories of her life with each of the people who come close to her bedside. Her tumultuous and unhappy life leaves her unable to die and rest peacefully until she has released her anger and sadness in this world. Through her memories and seeing those at her deathbed for the last time, she is able to die in peace and rest for all eternity.

This novel is captivating as it leads you through her life post-mortem. The narrator is sometimes Ana Maria herself and sometimes another force. At times, she even has the spirit from beyond pulling her closer to her final resting place.

The novel is not always exciting, but it definitely makes you question religion's take on what happens after death.

I really enjoyed the set up of this cookbook, it was easy to work from and understand and the recipes have all been sucessfull. Potatoes are such a versatile medium and this book helps a chef capatalize on that fact.

Luisa Tetrazzini is arguably the most famous Italian soprano of the "Golden Age" of opera. Listen to any of her records, and the voice and style are utterly unique and immediately recognizable. That being said, she had a somewhat erratic career, singing here and there for almost twenty years before making it 'big' one little-promoted night in Covent Garden in 1907. From then on she became a celebrity, as well known for her singing as for her eating habits (yes, she loved food), her flamboyant personality, her disputes with managers, her husbands/lovers, her jewelry, etc.
Like many opera singers "Tet" had many rather unglamorous, not altogether 'proper' years as a singer (seems she ran away from her husband to pursue a singing career) and thus she talked about food, jewelry, dresses, anything except her personal history. For this reason information about who she really was and where she came from has been scant. Gattey's biography is well-researched, although even he cannot fill in all the holes. He mentions almost nothing of her childhood. How she felt about the many tumultuous events (and lovers) in her life and career is unknown also. Maybe she was one of those people who only really came alive when she sang. Like so many divas (Patti, Melba, Callas) there is indeed something artificial about her whole life -- despite all the lovers, husbands, managers, friends, colorful interviews, Tet never comes alive as a personality in this book. The pictures are poorly produced and disappointingly few.
Still, despite the reservations, fans of Tet (among which I count myself) will want this book just to know more about her life. Gattey's writing style is drily witty and as I said, very well researched. There is a discography, analysis of her recordings, and chronology of all her appearances. But for my money if you want to know what Tet is all about, buy one of her recordings.

The excellent Cornerstones of Freedom series provides more information about key events and people in American History book than students or teachers will find in their textbooks. The scope of the series has expanded as evidenced by this particular volume, which actually came out the year after "The Mississippi Flood of 1993." This book offers stories about the places flooded and the people affect during what was the worst flood in U.S. history. The book is filled with photographs of flooded homes and businesses as well as people trying to fight the river and help each other survive. I was surprised they did not include some of the satellite photos I remember showing the Mississippi before and during the flood; even from space the difference in the river was astonishing. Karin Luisa Badt provides a nice cross-section of what happened along the 2,340 miles of the river. Also, because the book came out so soon afterwards, young readers will not find complete statistics on all the damage caused by the flood.

The authors persuasively argue that social indicators deserve more recognition among politicians and the media, and make several useful suggestions on how to accomplish this. The authors believe a growing disparity between the country's economic growth and social conditions since 1973 is not adequately measured by economic statistics but can and should be tracked by a national social health index. For this purpose, they present the Index of Social Health developed by the Fordham Institute for Innovation in Social Policy.

Unfortunately, the authors fail make a case that their particular Index has any meaning whatsoever or a place in the national dialogue on social conditions. Despite this, the book is a worthwhile read. Its sixteen indicators of "social health" (infant mortality, child poverty, drug use, life expectance, crime, child abuse, etc.) are carefully researched and succinctly presented. Environmental, racism and quality-of-life indicators are missing, but this is possibly because they lack satisfactory statistical measures. The component data is fully referenced in extensive numerical appendices. Unfortunately, relevance of the individual measures departs when blended into the authors' single Index of Social Health. And, the authors surprisingly fail to provide the magic formula showing how these disparate statistics are weighed to produce their conclusion that social health has deteriorated manifestly since 1973.

Based on their Index, the authors assert the nation's social health peaked at 76.9 (out of a possible 100) in 1973 (during the Nixon/Ford administration), collapsed rapidly during the Carter Administration and has been bumping along around 40 ever since, with a slight upward trend towards 43 in1996, the most recent date presented.

The authors reveal an agenda early in the book with a misleading graph titled "Index of Social Health and GNP" (Chart 3.1). This shows GNP steadily climbing from $2.5 trillion in 1959 to $7 trillion in 1996 plotted against a version of their Index starting at 50 in 1959 and ending at around 40 in 1996. The two lines start at the same point in 1959, travel upward together for a while and then, of course, diverge (since GNP grows each year while the Index is constrained between 0 and 100). Miringoff states that the Index "tracked" GNP until the mid-70s, however "the relationship between the two measures has changed dramatically in the past twenty years." He calls this "growing wedge" between the always climbing GNP line and his almost horizontal Index line a trend that reflects "separate dynamics in society". I found this a misleading depiction of data by the authors on a critical point. Given the precision reflected elsewhere in the book, this is not easily explained.

Reviewing the component indicators in Part II is quite interesting. This is the real meat of the book and has many useful charts and graphs. Most of the indicators show positive and negative developments in line with common perceptions. One big exception is "child abuse." The authors chose to use data on the number of children reported for maltreatment, which skyrocketed from 10.1 to 47.0 cases per 1,000 from 1976 to 1996. As most people realize, there has been a sea change in attitudes towards reporting child abuse in the last generation that may have nothing to do with the underlying amount of child abuse occurring during the period. This indicator appears to be a major contributor to the reported decline in social health since 1973, yet the authors fail to explain how they addressed the obvious data limitation. The "poverty" percentage data (someone earning less than 1/2 of median income) is vivid, but no attempt is made to compare the actual standard of living of person living at the "poverty level" in the USA versus other countries. Disappointingly, the authors do not present data more recent than 1996/1997, which is readily available for many of the indicators. This makes the book less relevant to policymakers.

In reading the book, I couldn't avoid a gnawing disagreement over the authors' generally dark conclusion about social conditions. I perceive social conditions to be better today than the early 70's; possibly a lot better. I would like to think that efforts in our lifetime, by private groups and the government, have been worthwhile and, in part, successful. Miringoff disagrees.

Luisa Valenzuela penetrates censorship once again with her unnerving novel Bedside Manners.

Author of The Lizards Tail, Symmetries and Clara, and described by Julio Cortazar as "the heiress of Latin American Fiction", Valenzuela never fails to provide the goods. This time she brings us a Kafka-esque tale which delves in to the psychology of the Argentine Dirty War.

The protagonist, a thinly disguised Luisa Valenzuela, goes to an Argentine country club to escape the stresses of life. Not only does she fail in her endeavor to block out reality, particularly the stark political reality of her native Argentina, but she achieves quite the opposite. Far from being a safe haven, the hotel room becomes a stage on which the country's troubles are played out.

Neurotic military generals, terrified soldiers and an inflation obsessed maid, form the cast of a surreal black comedy in which the line between spectator and protagonist is blurred.

This promises to disquieten even the most devout Valenzuela reader and is a must for everyone interested in Latin American politics.

In "Bedside Manners," Luisa Valenzuela tells the story of a woman who returns home to an unnamed Latin American country after having lived away. The protagonist's visit to a country club soon becomes a surreal comedy in which sex, politics, militarism, and economics are all mocked and deconstructed.

Along the way, Valenzuela satirizes the U.S. military presence in Latin America, the use of television as a narcotic, and other aspects of 20th century culture. A bizarre cast of characters--the imperious maid Maria, a megalomaniacal military commander, and more--enact scenes that are often funny, often disturbing. And throughout the unsettling refrain is repeated: "Don't think. . . . Thinking's bad for you."

Luisa Valenzuela just might leave you thinking. This is an important work by a major writer of Argentina.

This book contains some excellent points and vocal tips given by two great singers of their time. One must however disregard much of the negativity and arrogance with which the book was written - there is no "foolproof" method for singing and each person must unlock their individual potential. It is true, however, that essentially, one must sing naturally and comfortably, as this book emphasizes.

I liked hearing from Tetrazzini herself how she achieved such a wonderful sound, what her "secrets" were. This book was a very nice change from the usual technical material. I thought the personal information and insights were interesting. I'm even re-reading it now with my highlighter, just to make sure I get every thing I can out of it.