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The book includes charts, tables, photographic tips, and much more useful information. The only drawback I see is that it has no color pictures.
This book is more than solar eclipses, however. It also gives me new appreciation for lunar eclipses as well. There is a beauty coming up in January 2000 that will be visible right from my backyard. I'm now ready for that one, too!!
This book answers the what-where-why, as well as capturing the awe of total solar eclipses, and also covers the related phenomenon of lunar and partial solar eclipses.
The book has the technical integrity to not "talk down" to the audience while still being interesting to the non-scientist.
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It's also in some ways easier to use than a typical thesaurus, since if you just need a different word and can't recall one, it's easiest to just look it up and get a quick alternative, instead of going through all the extra words you'd get in a thesaurus, but which aren't exactly what you want. Overall, a fine reference work and one that deserves to be better known.
It is important to understand that this book is NOT a thesaurus, but a completely different, yet equally useful, reference work. A very good essay at the beginning of this book explains this, and gives an interesting history of how books of synonyms developed over the past centuries.
The best thesaurus is Roget's International Thesaurus -- the original work, now in its 6th edition, not one of the ones in "dictionary format." Roget's provides long lists words of similar meaning, grouped under conceptual headings. Its purpose is to jog your memory, spur creative thinking, or help you realize what you are really trying to say. It is absolutely the best thing for easing writer's block and helping you to find a word.
The purpose of this book, on the other hand, is to help you understand the differences between similar words. It explains nuances of meaning and compares words that mean approximately, but not quite, the same thing. It has a number of long entries that discuss 5 or 6 similar words together, explaining when to use each and giving examples (usually from good literature) of the correct use of each. When you look up one of the other synonyms, it will point you to the main article in which it is discussed. For example, the entry for "prim" dicusses and differentiates the near-synonyms "priggish, prissy, prudish, puritanical, and straitlaced." It explains the differences in meaning, and the contexts in which each word is appropriate. If you look up any one of those words, it will list the synonyms briefly but refer you to the main discussion under "prim."
I highly recommend this book to high school, college, and graduate students; to people learning English; and to people who write for a living. I suggest that a writer get this book and Roget's International Thesaurus (as well as a good dictionary, of course). Look up a word in Roget's to find some synonyms, then look them up in the Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of Synonyms to see which of those words are really correct in the context.
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As other reveiwers mentioned, Boice does a good job on the easy texts and leaves some wanting on the hard texts (see Michael Horton instead). Also Helpful are the verses of the hymns that Boice composed before each chapter. In the final chapters Boice (and Ryken) attempt to refute the claim that Calvinists are the "Frozen Chose" and points to history and the example of 10th Presbyterian Church as signs of a lively Reformed faith.
Final Analysis.
If one is a seasoned Calvinist or Arminian, then this book probably will not be anything new for you. However, for a new Reformed or an Arminian wishing a debate, this book will be interesting. For those more seasoned, try Michael Horton's Putting Amazing Back into Grace.
presentation of the Reformed faith. The church today generally does not read church history and are therefore not aware of the doctrines that were preached and died for. This effort plainly
expounds the profound deep truths of the Bible without losing its
audience. I highly recommend this as the beginning book for anyone dealing with the issue of God's sovereignty. The question truly is "Who birthed you into the kingom; yourself or Jehovah God?" If "every good and perfect gift comes from the Father of Lights", salvation is one of those gifts and comes "from" God and not ourselves. The question that this book helps answer is this: is man TOTALLY depraved or partially wounded? Ephesians 2:1,5 says "you who were dead, God made alive". This book explains in simple language one of the deepest truths of the Word of God.
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I found this is THE book,which meets my needs.
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This book had plenty of color photos including shots I had never seen before or expected (such as one showing the development prototype fitted with an experimental EFIS instument panel!!) and plenty of reading and facts to keep you busy.
Read it, it's fun.
Read it, it's very smart.