Textbook format with interesting highlights of the world's major religions. Not as focused on doctrine as Huston Smith, but indicates the cultural impact and use of these eastern and western religions. Good reference tool.

Mr. Herman documents a case of western disinformation surrounding the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II. He provides a service by documenting the participation of a diverse set of players including Fascists, the CIA and Italian Freemasonry, which has been implicated implicated in the Vatican Bank scandal and the assassination of Pope John Paul I in the book "In God's Name" by David Yallop. Mr Herman drops the ball and, perhaps intentionally, masks larger issues when he tries to promote the notion that the P2 Masonic Lodge's actions were "against the longstanding tradition of Italian Masonry that excluded political discussions." In her book "In Banks We Trust" Penny Lernoux touches on the broad role of Italian Freemasonry as a network used after WWII by Americans, who promoted Fascists to fight Communists. She notes, "Membership in a lodge was reliable evidence of the anticommunism required for a successful career in a NATO military force." The P2 Masonic lodge wasn't an anomaly. It reveals the essential character of organizations like the Masons.

This short manual of pistol shooting includes many pointers that would serve the novice as well as the expert shooter. For me, the most helpful chapters were the first three that focus on proper stance, grip, breathing and sight picture. Shooting is somewhat of a zen experience in that you need to put together lots of different parts into a coherent whole. It helps to break down the process into each component in order to analyze what you may be doing wrong. If you start with proper technique, it is much easier to correct problems down the road. That is why the opening chapters are so important to study. Once an improper technique is learned, it is very difficult to unlearn it. Many shooters never properly learn how to make an accurate sight picture. Though the pictures in the book are somewhat outdated in terms of style, they are current for technique. If you can ignore the flared pants and 70's outfits, you'll have no problem figuring the proper technique.

The second half of the book is devoted to different types of competitions with helpful tips for every one. Obviously you can't use the exact technique for rapid firing shooting as for slow fire shooting. The book is written for a British audience, but the author includes all the major American and NRA competitions as well. Very helpful overall and well done.

This book has a great amount of wisdom within it's pages. It really unveils the Serenity prayer from a Christian viewpoint. Each devotional focuses on one of the key words in the Serenity Prayer (God, Grant, Serenity, Accept, etc) and has a discussion topic around that word. The words are cycled throughout the year. Why is this book out of print - I don't know!?!?!

PS- The only negative point is a lack of a good subject index.

This is a religious book. It offers no useful suggestions on how to overcome anxiety. It is basically a "trust in the lord, and you will overcome this." Not helpful, if you're not particularly religious.

I was given this book by a wonderful friend when my son was diagnosed with cancer. Each night as I lay down to attempt to sleep, I would open this book and read until I found something that made me feel better.

I was never disappointed. Each night I was greeted with words of comfort.

What a wonderful gift for anyone who is facing difficulties in their life! What a wonderful gift for anyone who wishes to seek peace through God!

I read this book when it was first published a few years ago. I return to it often to find comfort and peace for my anxiety. I think that this book is a great one to carry around with you. It can be read at anytime and can help you distract yourself during a anxiety attack. I like how the verses and the comentaries on each verse is intergraded with biblical principles. I think that everyone should own this book.

Your view of this book is likely to depend on your religious outlook on life. The book is full of Bible-Quotes. It uses biblical personalities and settings as examples for burnout and the things that bring burnout about. Of those examples that do not figure biblical personalities, at least half have some strong connection to the church.

Personally, I feel that a book that deals with a clinical psychological issue, such as burnout, should rely on academic research and reasoning. That is missing here. Time and again the bible is taken as the source of all truth and the author's interpretation as our guiding line for doing things in life. Especially the latter makes it very difficult reading for people with academic training who are used to take a critical view of unsubstantiated statements.

This book is practical, readable, and worthwhile. Even if you're so burned out you can hardly face another book, this one is worth the time! Lots of case histories and real life examples, so you know the authors have dealt with real people. Very solid biblical foundation. Non-technical explanations make it easy reading for anyone. Solid, practical suggestions for avoiding or escaping burnout. This is two books put together in one volume. Reading this book helped me identify the strengths and weaknesses, as well as the potential hazards of my own personality type. Best book on the subject I've seen.

I'd give this book -2 stars if I could. This is a very poor book written with the author's biased view of Mormonism. If you're looking for an accurate and factual book on Mormonism, I suggest you not waste your money (and time) on this book.

I was looking for a book that would give me an insight into mormonism - this is just not that - it is just a sad persons view
that tries to dismantle something the author simply does not understand. I suggest that this is not the book you are looking for.

The grand drawn-out scale to Herbert's novels are daunting. New civilizations take birth that challenge us and our definitions of absolutes. The engine of his novels is a network of politics for a power struggle. In the Godmakers a man is pushed to his limits and forced to take a larger part into something he knew nothing about. In most of his novels religion is used as a toy to manipulate (or subue) a race or class of people. But religion is also a connector to the feats of human possiblity which Herbert dreampt up. The book is not as damanding for our attention as the Dune series. It is a more casual and relaxed Herbert telling a simpler and tight story.

As a truly loyal Ludlum fan, from his first books, I was mezmerized by his attention to detail and his building of logical plot development. I read quickly to finish his books, and then read again to enjoy the prose and that "well turned phrase".

I'm disappointed the Prometheus Deception fails on all counts. Too many holes; too many "fits 'n' starts". While many of his involve impossible situations or revolve around almost super-human abilities that win out the day, it was nevertheless, somehow, believable because of Ludlum's skill in weaving a full & rich tale.

The heros "magically" escape every death-dealing situation with an abundance of weaponry without any thought to the "how", "when", and least of all - the "probability". Unfortunately these lapses are all too obvious and glaring; enough so that it prevents the reader from a continuous building of enjoyment and anticipation.

What makes this so personally dis-satisfying is remembering how so very much I enjoyed Ludlum's previous works, and how much I looked forward to "feeding the need" to relish a great "read".

Maybe because I do so much flying for work, I've read a lot of Ludlum, but "The Prometheus Deception" really blew me away. For one thing, I happen to work in the tech sector, and the book was really smart in the way it touched on that world. I guess Ludlum's been writing books for three decades, but it turns out he really keeps up, the way a reality-based novelist ought to. Tom Clancy, watch your back! For another thing, the plot is incredibly inventive: the story elements in the first forty pages alone would have sufficed for a dozen run-of-the-mill thrillers. And then it just doesn't stop. Nobody's going to confuse Ludlum with Henry James, or Graham Greene for that matter. The writing is strong and vivid, but this is more of an amusement park ride than a wallow in existential despair. "Brighton Rock" it ain't, and thank god for that. I did have some complaints: the hero, Nicholas Bryson, is actually too skillful - hell, he's practically invincible, to the point that plausibility is a bit strained. I miss the slight cluelessness of some of Ludlum's earlier protagonists, like Noel Holcroft or Joel Converse. But these are minor misgivings. Overall, this novel--which I started on a plane from Seattle to New York and finished on the back again -- left me with a great buzz. As a Ludlum fan, I also found it heartening to think that there might be more like this one to come. This summer I read "The Hades Factor," or the first half of it anyway. It was shockingly bad. And since "The Apocalypse Watch" and "Matarese Countdown" were sort of lame, I'd begun to worry that Ludlum had run out of steam. "The Prometheus Deception" put that worry to rest. The guy's back, and at the top of this game.

I must say it was a relief to have an intelligent hero. I get very sick of what seems to be standard operating procedure among authors; 'the lead character must be *believable* so we must dumb him down' notion. It drives me batty when the heroes make stupid mistakes, especially when you know they are supposed to be smarter in this area than you, the reader. It's no fun to read a book where the hero constantly makes you want to knock sense into his head, and Bryson doesn't. The mark of a good author is a plot that is strong enough to hold a reader's interest without tacky plot devices like a bludering hero to add tension and action. And it was a strong plot indeed. It was subtle and ambiguous, and went in so many directions that I could empathize with Bryson when he feels confused and dazed. What is fact and what is fiction? Who really are the bad guys? Ludlum gives us just enough information for the reader to feel smug that they're figuring it out, but keeps the clues subtle enough that you don't feel you're being spoon fed. It drives me nuts when an author makes it impossible to solve the mystery because they hold back all the clues, and then they spring the entire plot in the last few pages. Or they present the clues in such a blunt fashion you can feel no satisfaction at having caught them. I will admit one theme in this book has been worked to death by other authors, which I won't mention, because it isn't revealed until about half way through, but I don't feel it detracts at all from such a wonderful book.

This book was recommended to me by my physician. He wanted me to learn about different types of depression, their causes, and possible treatments. I read the review here and thought, "Well, I can take a little Christianity along with the psychologically helpful information the book will provide."

Boy, was I wrong! This book is a little bit of the basic psychology of depression and a bunch of Christian propaganda along with it...

This book ended up making me more depressed than before I read it. It's depressing to think that the majority of our country is populated with people who share his biased opinions about humanity.

If you're asking God "Why (me, my child, spouse, parent)?", read this book!