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Incidentally, the woman buys the house. She discovers a stairwell that can only belong to the "missing level." As she ascends, her consciousness raises. She becomes more than herself. Of course, there is more to the second floor than that! I will tell no more!! When she returns to the first floor, the stairwell disappears. And she forgets all that has happened.
The story is special and original. It will send chills down your spine, not unlike the Blair Witch Project. I myself was curious as to what would happen. I wanted to know just what was up the stairs. If you want to know what is up the stairs, you will have to read this book. It is one of the most original books I have ever read, along with "The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde and "Cosmos" by Witold Gombrowicz.
I found the book intense and suspenseful.
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The writers of this excellent series have smartly chosen to keep story arcs fairly brief lasting about five issues. This allows each trade paperback to contain two arcs. The two in this volume are excellent.
The first arc finds the JSA being attacked by the Injustice Society and Johnny Sorrow. The Flash winds up accidently travelling back in time to ancient Egypt in his efforts to defeat Sorrow. (Time travel isn't something treated lightly like in Dr. Who.) This ties the two arcs together nicely and also relates the origins of three legends: Dr. Fate, Captain Marvel and Hawkman.
Other surprises wait as Black Adam joins the JSA and the exploration of Hawkman and Hawkgirl's relationship deepens. Kendra discovers she's really Hawk's wife reincarnated, but everything isn't peachy keen. All in all, it's well written and art is top notch. Enjoy!
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I consider it required reading for anyone dealing with or about to deal with a lawyer.
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The work, started in the late 1920, captures the essence of the Harvard Forest approach to environmental science, in which a solid understanding of the landscape history provides a basis for interpretation and conservation of nature.
Lifelike and detailed, the dioramas' historical and ecological approach remains relevant today as it becomes more apparent that changes in nature can only be assessed through long-term perspectives.
In the late 1920s, Harvard professor Richard T. Fisher joined with a philanthropist, Dr. Ernest G. Stillman, and talented artisans in the studio of Guernsey and Pitman in Harvard Square to develop a remarkable series of dioramas to capture conservation issues for future generations of silviculture students to study. These dioramas are the basis for the text and illustrations in this book.
New England was mostly ancient forest when the European settlers arrived. The small Native American population cleared only a modest portion of the forests, and used the game from the forests rather more than the timber. With immigration, New England rapidly became one big farm. So much for the original forests. Next, the New England farms were put out of business by richer, midwestern farms shipping their goods to the east. Within a few decades, new forests arose to cover the temporarily cleared and abandoned fields. With rapid growth in pines, a second wave of clearing occurred about a hundred years ago, leaving the forests to start to regrow again. The current hardwood-dominated forests are a result of this man-driven process. These experiences provide many lessons for understanding the impact that people have on forests, and for suggesting better practices for the future.
In one sequence of seven dioramas depicting the same place over time, you can see the whole historical process take place. I found it fascinating. I recognized in each image places that I had visited in New England. Now I can connect each site to what it represents in terms of environmental circumstances. That is like learning to read nature in the way I can read a book to get a message.
Today, we think ahead further (but probably not yet far enough) to consider the implications of our actions on future generations and other species. These dioramas show the importance of capturing the natural history of an area to begin to draw those lessons.
Another set of dioramas were designed to exemplify the conservation issues in New England forests, including loss of old-growth forests, habitat needs for wildlife, natural losses due to hurricanes, erosion from cutting forests, imported pests that feed on forests, and the impact of natural fires and fighting forest fires.
To me the most fascinating part was in the suggested good principles of forestry management. Each stage of forest growth and regrowth is displayed, along with what needs to be done for each stage. This reminded me of being asked about what to do by a client with very large holdings of forests in Maine a few years ago. If I had known about these dioramas, I could have given much more appropriate and valuable advice. I do feel quite a pang of regret at the missed opportunity, as a result.
The final section of the book shows the detail of how the dioramas were created.
The book also tells you about the history of the Harvard Forest and how to reach the Fisher Museum where the dioramas are displayed. I recommend the visit!
The reference to Bullough's Pond in the title of this review is for the highly regarded book that slightly preceded this one, about the ecological history of a man-made pond in Newton, Massachusetts. If you have not yet read that fine work, you have a real treat ahead of you. Anyone who is interested in understanding the rhythms between humans and nature can learn much from these two books.
Having read these two books, a new question occurs to me. At one time, forest fires were aggressively avoided in New England. The current view is that these are a natural process and should not be so aggressively countered. Where else do our views need to be shifted to reflect the long-term best interests of all?
How should use of forests and water reserves be adjusted to reflect optimum benefits for the next ten generations? How would our use change if this question were stretched to cover twenty generations? Do we even know how to think about these questions? Do we have plans to be able to learn how?
Overcome the presumption that only the here and now is important. What we do here and now is very important, but our decisions need to be much more independent of momentary needs and perspectives.
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These sermons have to deal with, as the title says, marriage and family life. A real knockout is Chrysostom's sermon on how to choose a wife. Although it is set in 4th-century proto-Byzantine culture, the basic principles still stand. If only more preachers would offer such frank counsel on this issue from the pulpit today....
This text is inexpensive, so I would recommend giving a copy to someone who is at the stage in life where they are forming their ideas of marital/romantic relationships. Chrysostom's voice provides a good -- and well-articulated -- counterpoint to the dreck that passes for relational counseling these days. If nothing else, this volume may make them think critically about the cultural assumptions of our modern society, so they do not merely get swept along in the current of trendy mores.
St. John, as always, lays forth an eloquent (yet simple & easy to understand) convincing argument for his views on marriage. He doesn't advocate marrying for money or looks or social position (something I'm sure is way more common than most people would want to admit) he advocates marrying for virtue. St. John argues that virtuous and poor is a million times better than excess gaeity & wealth.
He lays out criteria for selecting a wife, as well as traits that husbands and wifes should display. Not only does he discuss the institution of marriage, but he also talks about wedding celebrations themselves. Other topics such as sex are discussed as well (he doesn't hold negative view of it.)
He greatly stresses EQUALITY OF RESPONSIBILITY of both partners to make a marriage work. Children are also discussed in great detail. St. John Chrysostom is not only a great writer, but a holy man whose words we should try to incorporate into our lifestyles.
Highly recommended book.