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Book reviews for "Pennekamp,_John_David" sorted by average review score:

The German Atomic Bomb: The History of Nuclear Research in Nazi Germany
Published in Paperback by DaCapo Press (1988)
Author: David John Cawdell Irving
Amazon base price: $14.95
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Well reseached a technically thourgh, excellent.
This book tells the story of German nuclear research from 1930's to 1945. This book shows the history of the nuclear chemistry germane to the nuclear bomb and then tells the story of experiments and internal politics in the third reich. For instance an error was made in an experiment to test the suitability of CARBON as a moderator in reactors. This forced the germans to rely on heavy water, and the only large scale production in the world at that time was in norway (british commandos saw to that in 1943, a good chapter of the book). More frightening is the lack of safety with nuclear materials used in those days. One photograph shows british and american intellegence officers dismantling the last secret german atomic pile. They are handling everything with bare hands and are wearing normal lightwieght army clothing (not a gas mask in sight even). The first few chapeters of this book give a good history (and explanation) of nuclear chemistry. The author must have been trained in chemistry/physics to write this clearly on it. PS the ENGLISH edition is titled "THE VIRUS HOUSE" (this was the name put up on the door of the first german reactor in the MIDDLE of berlin, the sign was to keep people out !)


Gods and Pharaohs from Egyptian Mythology
Published in Library Binding by Peter Bedrick Books (1992)
Authors: David O'Connor, Gerladine Harris, and John Sibbick
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Great Book on Ancient Egpyt
This is one of the best, most informative books I've ever read. I am teaching my son about ancient civilizations and came across this book. I picked it up and couldn't put it down until I finished it. The book contains serially related myths from ancient Egypt and is written in a very engaging style. The author is clearly an expert on ancient Egyptian civilization and writes very well. The chapters are of a length appropriate for bedtime story reading as well as for school-related activity. Furthermore, there is a nice taxonomy of the ancient Egyptian "pantheon" and an interesting, if too short, discussion of glyph writing. The text is beautifully illustrated and has interesting footnotes about many of the illustrations.


Grandmother's Garden: A Read-Along Story
Published in Hardcover by Silver Pr (1996)
Authors: John Archambault, David R. Plummer, and Raul Colon
Amazon base price: $23.00
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A beautiful book about "oneness" throughout the world.
I heard Mr. Archambault in SC a year ago at two different reading conferences. His presentations were fabulous! Our entire third grade presented a beautifully successful school program centered solely around Grandmother's Garden. Wish he could have been there...many compliments...great book!


A Guide to Starting Psychotherapy Groups (Practical Resources for the Mental Health Professional)
Published in Paperback by Academic Press (1999)
Authors: John R. Price, David R. Hescheles, and John Randolph Price
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Invaluable reading for group psychotherapists & counselors.
In A Guide To Starting Psychotherapy Groups, editors John R. Price, David R. Hescheles, and A. Rae Price have collaborated to assist psychologists, social workers, psychiatrists, nurse clinicians, pastoral counselors, school counselors, and other trained therapists in the process of forming and maintaining therapy groups. Included is all the basic information and necessary steps for getting groups started (beginning with the first mention of group therapy to clients); clarification of differing theoretical approaches to doing group therapy); helpful guides for tracking referrals and billing; analysis of group psychotherapy's effectiveness; attention to special groups and co-therapy leadership; and authoritative articles by international leaders in group psychotherapy. A Guide To Starting Psychotherapy Groups is essential, invaluable reading for anyone contemplating or currently conducting a group counseling activity.


Guides for the Journey
Published in Paperback by University Press of America (19 March, 1996)
Author: David G. Creamer
Amazon base price: $33.00
Average review score:

Outstanding introduction to Lonergan and Macmurray, & Fowler
I read a review elsewhere on the Web that said that this book had one of the clearest, most succinct introductions to Bernard Lonergan's thought ever written, and I was not disappointed - this book opened up the whole world of Lonergan's thought for me, and provided a great foundation for exploring it further. (If you haven't discovered Lonergan's thought yet, let me encourage you to do so - whet your appetite at the Bernard Lonergan Web Site...by reading the Introduction to 'The Lonergan Reader' - and then buy Guides to the Journey).

Even more exciting was discovering the thought of John Macmurray, the first thinker that Creamer profiles. (The book consists of two chapters for each thinker - one an introduction to their life, and the second to their ideas, and concludes with a chapter exploring common themes).

Macmurray firstly proposes action, and not thought, as the fundamental basis for understanding what it is to be human. When Descartes says "I think", he is then already divorced from the world. One can ONLY exist in interaction with others and other things, it is absurd to imagine a person as existing in a universe where there is nothing else whatsoever. Action is the full state of the human being, and thinking is a lesser, abstracted state. As Creamer puts it, "Action is a full concrete activity of the Self employing all our capacities whereas thought is constituted by the exclusion of some of our powers and a WITHDRAWAL into an activity which is less concrete and less complex... a theory of knowledge is derived from and included in a theory of action."

Secondly, Macmurray proposes another enormous paradigm shift for Western philosophy by saying that we cannot fully understand individuals in isolation, but only in relation to others. "Relationship is constitutive of human living for Macmurray: 'We need one another to be ourselves. This complete and unlimited dependence of each of us upon the others is the central and crucial fact of personal existence.' The idea of an isolated agent is self-contradictory; any agent is necessarily in relationship."

These two central tenets are explicated respectively in Macmurray's two major works, "The Self as Agent" and "Persons in Relation" (also published together as "The Form of the Personal") which I immediately went out and bought and read after reading this book. Macmurray's writing is crystal clear, and filled with other fascinating points, such as his distinction between intellectual and emotional representations, in chapter 9 of "The Self as Agent", that I found immensely valuable for my own work...

The book also contains a well-written introduction to the much more widely known James Fowler and his theory of stages of faith. The concluding chapter lays out fascinating parallels between the works of these three thinkers. Each chapter is also followed by extensive footnotes, which I found to be extremely useful as well.

Highly recommended.


Handbook of Sustainable Building: An Environmental Preference Method for Selection of Materials for Use in Construction and Refurbishment
Published in Paperback by James & James Science Publishers (1997)
Authors: David Anink, John Mak, and Chiel Boonstra
Amazon base price: $40.00
Average review score:

Priceless
This is probably the most comprehensive book on design and materials selection. The Europeans have been forced to use these design practices due to shortage and expense of resourses. With the focus on this type of design having renewed interest in the States, this book helps to prevent designers from "reinventing" the wheel.

Only issue would be an updated version. In this field, a 5 year old book, while years ahead of design in America, is not quite the cutting edge.

Great reading and very thought envoking...I have paved my driveway with oyster shells....its great.


Healing the Wounded King: Soul Work and the Quest for the Grail
Published in Paperback by Harper Collins - UK (1997)
Authors: John Matthews and David Spangler
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Healing the Wounded King
I found this a thought-provoking book which suggests a deep awareness by the author of modern psychology and the way that psychological issues can be addressed by using traditionally occult or mystical approaches. In the book, John Matthews describes the Grail legends in an allegorical context, and takes the reader through a series of self-healing 'Path-Workings', which would be instantly recognised by students of the Western Esoteric Tradition (particularly those familiar with tecniques developed within the Golden Dawn tradition).

While not a book about occultism or mysticism, 'Healing the Wounded King' contains elements of both and combines them into a wonderfully accessible approach to self-healing. A very good read and extremely worthwhile.

Dave Brook


Health Care Ethics: Critical Issues for the 21st Century
Published in Hardcover by Jones & Bartlett Pub (15 January, 1998)
Authors: John F., Ph.D. Monagle and David C. Thomasma
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a superb text
This book is a necessity for practicing health car professionals. It covers all relevant issues of ethics in medicine from the past, present, and the future. Every chapter is a gem. Superb!


Heirs to Merlin: The Stonehenge Tribunal (Ars Magica)
Published in Paperback by Atlas Games (01 December, 1999)
Authors: David Chart and John Kasab
Amazon base price: $22.95
Average review score:

A wonderful resource for a British Ars Magica Saga!
I own many Role-playing gaming books, and this one has to be one of the best supplemental tomes I have. I am a fairly new Ars Magica gamer, but when I decided to create a saga located in Wales, I bought this book.

This book lays a lot of groundwork for any GM wishing to run a saga in either England or Wales. David Chart does a fine job detailing regional history, the politics of the Stonehenge Tribunal, the medieval British economy, the church, and the nobility.

Within this handsome book, the artwork is quite impressive, you will find maps of various towns, prices of goods and buildings, a list of various covenants of the order, and a few solid NPCs to use.

If you are going to play Ars Magica in England or Wales and you are trying to obtain an authentic "feel," buy this book now. It will be money well spent.


A Helpful Alphabet of Friendly Objects
Published in Library Binding by Knopf (1995)
Authors: John Updike and David Updike
Amazon base price: $17.99
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A unique children's book with playful photographs
This is not just an ordinary children's book from this Pulitzer Prize winning author. It's Updike's fifth children's book. I think it is his best. A delightful alphabet celebrates everyday objects children know and love. In this father and son collaboration, renowned author John Updike's cheery poems and David Updike's direct, playful photographs provide a guide not only to the alphabet but to the charms of the world around us.

The action color photographs are supherb, some of them depicting Updike's grandchildren and Updike himself is pictured on Y for YOU along with all his grandchildren on one page. Twenty-six stunning pictures and poems you have to read and savor: apple, bird, cat, dog, egg, flowers, garbage can, hubcaps,icicles, jam, knot, lamp, mirror, nickel, oatmeal, pie plate, Q-tip, rabbit, shoes and socks, toy, umbrella, vacuum cleaner, window, xylophone, you, and zero. Ordinary words perhaps but the poems and photographs are not! A must read for ages 4-8 but also for the child in all of us.


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