"The more I read the Bible as a secular book, the more holy it becomes." (John Peck.) So begins this masterful work by Peck and Strohmer. In a world reeling from various "isms" (modernism, post-moderism, Marxism, socialism), Uncommon Sense lays the framework for biblical response to the culture and the world. Instead of running in fear from the corruptive influences of culture, this books provides a comprehensive, practical guide for genuine, faithful engagement. This book is for anyone involved in the arts, politics, education, ministry, business; ultimately this book is for thinking person.

This collaborative venture is a call to usher the Bible out of the Church and into the marketplace. Arguing that Christians require a knowledge of our contemporary struggle before they can faithfully engage the "radical questions" that beset us, Peck and Strohmer challenge us to rediscover the framework of thought which underlies the Gospel as new paridigm for meeting these questions.

This is an important, provocative and highly readable book which carefuly balances content and complexity with a connection to and signifigance for, a wide audience.

The 1990 edition went out of print and people were scouring and hunting for this one a few years later. Thank goodness a reprint has been issued. Yes, it's pricey, but if you are a graduate student in literature or library science, don't miss this beauty. The scholarship is incredible; the amount of information is amazing.

Winslow Homer's watercolors perfectly complement Thoreau's works. For someone new to Thoreau's poetry, it is an enchanting collection sure to engage, capturing the essence of New England nature, and Transcendentalist philosophy. It is a beautiful tribute to two who were masters of their crafts.

The text is written in a simple pattern. Each sentence begins "I see patterns on . . ." This makes it easy for ESL students to follow.
Since the book uses only one verb, this will be a good starter for a lesson on the present tense. For lessons on other verb tenses, you can modify this book.

Watch the price, though; the book is only 8 pages.

I am in awe of George Eliot. She has constructed a narrative that is uncommonly perceptive and literate about both the subtle and quirky level of individual motivation and the larger forces of society which form the arena in which human lives play themselves out. Middlemarch is a provincial English town during Victorian times and Eliot selects a broad range of characters from every level of society to illustrate her themes. Prominent among these themes are the way in which the ambitions of potentially extraordinary achievers can be constrained by a poor choice of affiliation, most notably bad marraiges. She also addresses the role of women, the way that wealthy landowners determine the quality of life for the poor, and presents insightful portraits of a number of personality types. It is often a very funny book as well, as she exposes the foibles of the pompous and self-deluded which subtle and unerring accuracy.

This is not a light read. This is a long, dense novel, but I found something fascinating on nearly every page.

It's comparatively easy to describe things as we wish them to be than to describe them as they really are. With "Middlemarch", George Eliot has accomplished one of the truly difficult tasks in literature: to describe things as they really are and still hold the reader's interest with less than exceptional characters.

"Middlemarch" was Eliot's attempt to describe a pre-reform English country town. Within the novel we run across the typical characters like the wealthy land owners, clergymen, polticians, etc. The book primarily revolves around the actions of two families, the Brookes and the Vincys.

The main characters are Dorothea Brooke and Tertius Lydgate, a newcomer to Middlemarch. Dorothea has an independent mind at a time when women were supposed to be openly subservient to men. She intends to do much good in the world and is constantly drawing up 'plans'. Lydgate is a physician who wants to make improvements in the medical field. He has a solid idea of what he wants to do with his life and how to accomplish it.

Through these two characters, Eliot presents the frustrations and joys to which we can be driven because of an idealistic mind. Both Dorothea and Lydgate are idealists. Both encounter many trials because of their idealism, trials that they overcome in their own ways.

In "Middlemarch" Eliot also makes a statement about marriage. Dorothea and Lydgate's problems stem almost entirely from bad marriages. They each go into their own marriages with distinct impressions of how married life will be and both are very disappointed when the reality of the situation becomes obvious.

"Middlemarch" is one of those novels that it is difficult to explain why one likes it. The plot is predictable, the characters are unexceptional, and the time period isn't particularly interesting. However, Eliot has constructed a masterpiece with this novel that few have matched. Perhaps the genius of George Eliot is that she could do so much with so little.

Middlemarch is probably the best example of nineteenth century British literature. I felt the first book called "Miss Brooke" was long and laborious to read, however after the setting was established and the characters were thoroughly introduced, I had trouble putting the book down! I am a graduate student and I was able to read the novel in 4 nights. George Eliot shows all degrees of human nature and circumstances in this tale. Love does not always beget love and vice versa. Love does not always conquer all. This book will keep you interested from cover to cover with a vast array of characters and situations and you will swear you know some of the people involved! I highly recommend this book for anyone who loves nineteenth century literature!

Andrew Ahring June 24 READING SUMMARY

Something For Joey, a book by Richard E. Peck, about a young kid named Joey aged 9 who has leukemia, and his brother who is a star football player for Penn State Lions. This book is based on the actual events in the lives of these two people. It takes place in Pennsylvania around 1972. John becomes Joey's idol, for who he is and the talent that he has , playing football really well. The best part of Joeys week is when he gets to see his brother play. One day Joey asks for a present from John that would be all most impossible for John to do. Soon enough Joey's older brother John becomes inspired by what Joey must endure as he goes through a painful treatment for leukemia. When John excepts the 1973 Heisman Trophy, he stands up to give a emotional speech about his brother Joey which touches the heart of everyone in the room. John does something that his parents will never forget.

I thought this book was all right. I certainly would not read this on my own time because its just not my kind of book. I choose this book because of the fact that it had something to do with football. Its one of those typical books about a kid and his struggle against leukemia to survive. Other than that I read it because I had to, once I choose this book. All in all it comes close to being a boring read, and the only thing that kept me interested were the football games.

The story is about Joey who is dying of leukemia and fighting for his life while his brother is becoming a superstar. Joey and John share a special bond that John embraces by giving Joey the Heismann Trophy that he won. I read this book in a day which shows how much I enjoyed it. You will end up crying at the emotional and physical battle Joey puts up. You must read this book!

Something For Joey was a very inspiring and interesting book. Joey is a young child trying to cope with a disease(leukemia) and only has one hero in the world...his older brother John. John is a football player who attends Penn State and is the star of the team. Joey lives to see John play and score touchdowns. The book is the true story of the emotional hardships and triumphs the family goes through with Joey's treatments and his undying love for his brother. The book ends with a great symbol of the love the family shares that I will not unveil to you. This book will make you laugh as well as cry and will make you realize just how important your family is.

This debut novel finds its essence in a postmodern distortion of time, space and characterization. The title characters, Martin and John, appear as different people in different situations in each chapter of the book, forcing the reader to re-evaluate his/her notions of personal identity. In one chapter, Martin and John may be a happy, newly-established couple living fabulously in New York City; in another, they remain together tenuously while struggling with life in a small desert town. There is an underlying continuity, however, and the end result is a compelling statement about human character and the myriad facets of our personalities. Peck's brutal honesty and perfectly-crafted descriptions can make the reader wince with empathy and well with emotion. This is a triumphant book, to be read and shared as widely as possible.

The first time I came across this book was its chinese version, which I bought for its attractive book cover. It was difficult for me to follow the stories at first, because it isn't a conventional type of fiction, but a group of stories all with the characters named John and Martin.

But I was gripped as I read on. The stories are naturalistic and dark. I don't know how much they reflect the truth (I'm a girl, so what do I know?) but they feel real and it's really moving, esp. the part about lover dying of AIDS. I love this book, and I lent it to a friend (who is also a girl) and she liked it too.

Of course it is not sitcom, but it is not boring. Most of the book is about the not so happy parts of life, but the people are not feeling miserable about themselves.

Martin and John is an extraordinary novel. Thank god we have people like Dale Peck around. He is an honest and brilliant writer. Thank you Dale for saying what needs to be said.

JOHN GOWER -Confessio Amantis Gower`s contribution to the developement of English literature is very important . Though he spoke French and Latin ,two languages very popular in the fourteenth century he found it important to write in English . In "Confessi Amantis "Gower leaves behind the morality and admitting with honesty that he was not born to set the world right starts telling stories about Love . Anyway , he tries to mingle the parts of a lover poet and that of a Christian moralist ; the lover must learn to be a good and virtous man . The book is a collection of more than a hundres stories of various length and of very diverse origin , from Ovid to the Bible , all told in a captivant and pleasant style .

Gower`s contribution to the developement of the English literature is very important . Though he spoke French and Latin , two languages very popular in the fourtheenth century he found it important to write in English . In " Confessio Amantis" Gower leaves behind the morality and admitting with honesty that he was not born to set the world right starts telling stories about Love . Anyway , he tries to mingle the parts of the courtly lover poet and that of a Christian moralist; the courtly lover must learn to be a good and virtous man The book is a collection of more than a hundred stories of various length and of very diverse origin , from Ovid to the Bible , all told in a captivant and pleasant style .

This book is a very important tool for any organization chart designer. It provides organization charts of a vast number of businesses and organizations. There is a significant oppportunity that you will find a benchmark to what your company is doing. One word of caution - this book is only one of a number of tools that should be used in desigining (or redesigning) an organization chart: it does not provide full explanations on what each department is responsible for and what staffing levels are appropriate.