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Book reviews for "Ranz,_James" sorted by average review score:

Mies Van Der Rohe: European Works (Architectural Monographs, 11)
Published in Hardcover by St. Martin's Press (1986)
Authors: Frank Russell, Sandra Honey, Academy Architecture Books, and James Gowan
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Early works of van der Rohe
A somewhat essential book for the interested student, it lists out what I believe are the great master's early works before the Nazi era ended his days in Europe. Though the texts are brief in description, the black and white photographs screams for hours of close attention and observation, for though unclear they are, eaten by the hunger of time, they offer the reader a different scope about his works. From traditional masonry to steel and glass, the book offers little stand about van der Rohe's lines and designs. It doesnt offer much argument if his steel and glass structures are very much derived from the proportions of the Romans (the conventional school of thought today offer this as the truth), nor does it explain much about his calculated dealings with Hitler's architectural department before he got caught up and subsequently branded a degenerate, nor does it elaborate anything on the communist-related projects he had done before. His later collaborator Ms.Reich does get a brief mention, but as in the rest of this rather thin monograph , everything's brief, but makes a good quick reference into the almost unknown timezones of this 20th century, and perhaps of all time, greatest master architect.


Millville, NJ
Published in Paperback by Arcadia Tempus Publishing Group, Inc. (01 May, 1998)
Author: Nancy Van Doren James
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Entertaining
I actually bought the book as a X-mas gift for my father and was pleasantly surprised when after opening the book I couldn't put it down. Growing up in Millville, NJ it was interesting to look in the book and actually see the history of my hometown. The book is filled with facts about how Millville started out. It was also interesting to recognize some of the names of families that still live in town. Overall the book is filled with a colorfull history that is entertaining to read.


Sci Fi TV: From the Twilight Zone to Deep Space Nine
Published in Paperback by Harper Mass Market Paperbacks (1995)
Author: James Van Hise
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The opinionated guide
The sub-titles to define the essence of the book: authoritative, magnificently, opinionated (stout?). That of "magnificently" something exaggerated, (maybe correct: abundant). The book is a wide itinerary for the first 50 years of the science fiction in the television. They are abundant the anecdotes, bizarre data and rarities, (but, for the beginners). The experts know about these items, but, not of all shows. The chapters are: Introduction, (remembering to Serling Rum, Gene Roddenberry); 1 The world of Sci Fi TV, (from Captain Video to Gerry Anderson and Star Trek); 2 Enter The Twilight Zone, (the highlights and tragedy of Rod Serling and the resurrection of show in the '80); 3 From Inner mind to outer limits, (monsters and make-up in the sixty); 4 Emergency! Lost in space, (the comedy arrives to the science fiction), 5 Where not man. Star Trek, (the show that show the measure); 6 Gothic Soap: Dark Shadows, (the true television epic), 7 Number Six: The Prisioner, (a inusual story could be captative), 8 SF Holocaust: V, ( the epic holocaust to the final resistance, final, final), 9 SF Romance: Beauty [and] Beast [the], (a romantic obsessive novel); 10 The Next Generation of Star Trek, (somebody said: not going to work and work seven years); 11 Taking to Quantum Leap, (another try); 12 To Trek different: Deep Space Nine, (Star Trek after dying Rodenberry), 13 SF Failures: Space: 1999 and Battlestar Galactica, (the producers and the audience is not the same). In the chapters is interesting the stories of main players and of their characters. Also see like an actor repeat and recycle in different shows.


Hinduism, TM and Hare Krishna
Published in Paperback by Zondervan (01 March, 1998)
Authors: J. Isamu Yamamoto, James Bjornstad, and Kurt Van Gorden
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Fundamentalist drivel - stay away
The previous review certainly says it all. There is no question that the authors are severely biased and their scholarship is rather non-existent. I was born and raised a Catholic, and later learned the protestant variant, so I am familiar with part of the christian spectrum. I have also read several of the classics of the Vedic literature, and they seemed quite reasonable and profound. In fact, they seemed better than anything produced by western thought. It is a pity that some christians criticize something that they don't understand. It seems that as a group, christians err on the side of being narrow-minded. Throughout history, people have been persecuted, tortured, and even executed in the name of religion. It should be simple to understand that religion (any religion) is for constructive, not destructive, purposes. Something that harms anyone or anything can't be classified as a religion anymore. We also must remember that human beings are highly individualistic. Everyone interprets his relationship with the Divine in a different way. The Bible, the Gita, the Koran... they have many different and contradictory interpretations. Who is right? Here is where we see that religion is not a matter of priests, doctrines, and books, but a personal relationship with whomever you think the Creator is. Ultimately, God must be One (however, you are free to challenge this presumption). If the Hindu people think that the One has many manifestations, what harm is there in it? What right or authority do you have to contradict such belief?. And as far as 'evangelizing'...have christians produced such a beatiful world? Have christians erased from their hearts, pettiness, envy, greed, arrogance, egotism, bigotry, and all others forms of ignorance? If yes, by all means, go and evangelize all and sundry. If not, then better worry about reforming yourselves, not others. Because others may be in much better shape than you. Now, wouldn't that be a kick?

A booklet depicting Hinduism in a very negative tone
A very frail attempt to depict Hinduism as a religion of confusing doctrines and Christianity as a very unified religion with all true answers.

This booklet[ 87 pages] has picked up facts and figures from Hindu scriptures [ written thousands of years apart] at random and tried very hard to prove Hinduism as a religion of confusing concepts and ideas and Christianity as a religion of God and truth. . At the end of each chapter there is a column of "how to evangelize Hindus / Evangelistic suggestions". There are even sub chapters like WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOGA? even though AMA and other medical institutions have only found positive results in people after practicing yoga. This book is very scary, since it states on page-19 that "In 1923 the US Supreme Court ruled that "Hindus" were ineligible for U.S. citizenship" What exactly the author hinting making that statement??? I have no idea. With right wing fundamentalism taking grass roots every where in this country, Indians in fact anyone who comes from orient should be wary of booklets like this.

Author failed to explain the fact that HINDUISM IS THE ONE AND ONLY CULTURE OF INDIANS IN INDIA and not an organized religion like Islam or Christianity. Since the Book was written to portray Hinduism in a "negative tone", book failed to discuss about Hindu mathematics, Hindu astronomy, Hindu astrology, Hindu cosmology, Hindu classical dances, Hindu music, Hindu moral codes, Hindu alchemy, etc Before the onslaught of Moslems from North [7th century AD] as well as the rule of British empire, India was abundant in material and spiritual wealth as reported by great Chinese travelers like HSUAN-TSANG.

LET US HAVE A REALITY CHECK. There are only two cultures in the world. One is Hinduism and other is Judaism. All modern religions like Islam and Christianity came out of Judaism. Similarly Buddhism,[ to some extent Jainism], Sikhism, and Zoroastrianism came from Hinduism. Hindu scriptures deal with the CULTURE and HISTORY of Indians in India like 66 books of the Holy Bible deal with the CULTURE & HISTORY of Jews.

Hinduism is a very ancient CULTURE and so it has the GOOD, the BAD and UGLY things in it. Similarly Judaism has the GOOD, the BAD and the UGLY things in it. Naturally modern religions like Christianity which has gone through many periodical cleansing in its 2000 years history, do not have the baggage of those two ancient cultures. NEWER THE RELIGION IS, THE BETTER IT LOOK. That is why religions like BAHAISM, UNITY and A COURSE IN MIRACLES look far better than Islam and Christianity.

By the way, Holy Bible does not deal with Chinese civilization, Mayan Civilization, Greek Civilization or Indian civilization. It only deals with the trials and tribulations of Jews. In HOLY BIBLE ONE CAN ONLY STUDY ABOUT JEWISH CULTURE AND JEWISH HISTORY. Holy Bible does not even mentions AMERICAN CONTINENT. Believe it or not, Holy Bible theologians as well as the west came to know about AMERICAN continent only when a very devout Christian Christopher Columbus accidentally stumbled upon it on his way to a very prosperous India!!! For Columbus to beg Spanish queen for money to go to India, alone make us wonder about the greatness of India at that time.

Hinduism and Judaism do not believe in conversions since both are essentially cultures. Have you ever heard of converting to a new culture? Whereas Christianity and Islam are cults of Judaism and that is why they are after forcible conversions of every one on earth to their religions. TRUE--Hindu scriptures were written by many authors and they are in thousands and have many concepts. Authors failed to state that unlike in Christianity, where writings which are different from churches teachings were burnt and authors killed, in Hinduism not even one scripture is burnt nor any author is killed since they preached a wrong doctrine or wrote a wrong book. To start with, in the history of Christianity, Bishop Arius of Alexandria was killed and his books were burnt when he proclaimed that JESUS CHRIST IS A CREATED BEING AND NOT A PROCREATOR during the Council of Nicaea - 325 AD, in which church under the Roman emperor Constantine elevated Jesus Christ to be the 2nd person of Trinity.

There is no word TRINITY in the entire Holy Bible and TRINITY DOCTRINE was added to Christianity [ during the Council of Nicaea -325 AD] after Roman emperor Constantine became a Christian. The Council of Nicaea was called by Roman emperor Constantine who even took part in the discussions as per the Encyclopedia Britannica [ book 8 page 675] Believe it or not emperor Constantine promoted TRINITY DOCTRINE to fuse pagan Romans worshiping many gods with Christians who were worshiping Jesus Christ If you look at SCHAFF-HERZOG ENCYCLOPEDIA, TRINITY was not established until 363 A.D. It says that TRINITY is the result of three centuries of doctrinal development. The New Catholic Encyclopedia adds that devotion to Trinity had begun in monasteries at Aniane and Tours, in the 8th century. The very first author of English translation of the Holy Bible, WILLIAM TYNDALE was killed at stake and his works were burnt since church did not like his translation!!! In 1536, after spending many months in prison, WILLIAM TYNDALE was burnt at stake crying, "LORD, OPEN THE EYES OF THE KING OF ENGLAND." Justin Martyer [ 100-165 AD] founder of the very first the very first Christian school of Theology was very straight forward about reincarnation, when he wrote in his popular book DIALOGUE WITH TRYPO, how the souls inhibit a succession of bodies, but they could not remember their previous lives. But his ideas on reincarnation were thrown was thrown out by the church. Time and again Christian church expunged people and doctrines.

In the interest of protecting truth as they see, Christian church for centuries have persecuted anyone who came with new theories. Any one who study world history will know what happened to GALILEO, Copernicus, Martin Luther etc in the hands of church.

GOD IN HINDUISM. On page 55, authors discuss about Hindu concept of God. But they failed to mention about BRAHMAN - the ONE and ONLY God of Hinduism. Author may not know that JOHN 1:1 [70 A.D.] came from Hindu [ at least 5000 BC] Long before John 1:1 was written Vedas wrote the same thing. "prajapathi vai agre asset" IN THE BEGINNING WAS PRAJAPTHI, THE BRAHMAN-THE GOD, "Tasya Vag dvitiya Aseet" WITH WHOM WAS THE WORD; "Vag vai parama Brahman" AND THE WORD WAS VERILY THE SUPREME BRAHMAN -THE GOD John 1:1 states: IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE WORD, AND THE WORD WAS WITH GOD AND THE WORD WAS GOD.

Hindu scriptures state THERE IS ONE AND ONLY GOD WHICH EXPRESSES ITSELF IN TRILLIONS OF FORMS. In fact, they wrote confused between BRAHMAN [ the Absolute] and BRAHMA [ the creator]. They wrote, Brahman or Krishna was the beginning of all things without stating that Krishna is an avatar of Lord Vishnu. Of course, Vedas mention many gods, since Vedas are the every first books written. Old Testament similarly mentions many gods like BAAL and EL, until Moses killed every one who worshiped any other god than Jehovah.

Authors quote so many scriptures to state that Jesus Christ is God. But failed to state that Judaism [ mother religion] does not see Jesus Christ as God or as Son of God. Islam [ sister religion ] does not see Jesus Christ as God or Son of God, even though Koran mentions the name of Jesus Christ many times in the Koran. Jehovah Witness does not see Jesus Christ as God!!!!!! All of them read the same Holy Bible!!!!!!!!!!Amazing!! JEALOUS GOD IN THE BIBLE---authors forget to mention that God said I am a jealous God in the Bible since he was fighting for territorial rights with BAAL [ horn god] and EL. God in the Holy Bible was not fighting with Hindu gods!!! That concept did not originate against Hindus worshiping gods. Jews used to worship many gods until the time of Judges. Joshua 22:22 states, GOD OF GODS IS YAHWEH, GOD; GOD OF GODS IS YAHWEH. SELF WORSHIP IS SELF-DECEPTIVE AND IDOLATROUS [ page 58] authors fail to recognize the fact that a Hindu is not worshiping body as God but the IMMORTAL SOUL WITHIN THE BODY AS GOD. It is stupid and egoistic to worship body as God and no Hindu scripture advocate that. Again, a Hindu is not worshiping SELF, but realizing that he/she is not the body but the immortal soul. Since there is no word IMMORTAL SOUL in the entire Holy Bible, author's attacking SELF-WORSHIP is understandable. Hindu salvation and Christian salvation concepts are totally different. Hindu salvation is known as SELF REALIZATION. Hindu scriptures state that Man's problem is that he believes that he is the body and not the immortal soul within. So a man has to realize that he is the soul within, then automatically he achieve salvation. I really wish people who read this book also read books like AM I A HINDU? [ISBN 1-8799

Hinduism Exposed!
Shows the falsehoods of Hinduism! Great Book, Buy it. Yamamamoto is a first class author, his prose is unmatched by any contempory author!


Fundamentals of Engineering Examination Review 2001-2002: Examination Review (Engineering Press at Oup)
Published in Paperback by Oxford University Press (2002)
Authors: Donald G., Phd Newnan, David R., Phd Arterburn, E. Vernon, Phd Ballow, Gary R. Crossman, Fidelis O., Phd Eke, James R., Phd Hutchinson, Lincoln D. Jones, Charles E., Phd Smith, and Lawrence H., Van Vlack
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So-so guide, lots of room for improvement
Here are my thoughts on this book.

Pros: 1. Very reasonably priced as a comprehensive review book and supposedly a money back guarantee.
2. It is current and up to date (as of the April 2003 exam)
3. It has a pretty good variety and quantity of examples and practice problems.

Cons: 1. There are a large number of errors in the example and practice problems. I found at least 50 errors in using this book as a review guide and it is difficult, especially on some of the example problems where I would wonder for half an hour where I went wrong. Some of the errors are obvious, others are difficult or near impossible to spot if you are trying to relearn this material and remember very little. I am sure there are significantly more errors since my review did not cover the book comprehensively and I'm sure I missed a lot as well.
2. The text is not very well written. Some sections go into too much detail while others simply scratch the surface. There were times when I learned more from reading the EIT handbook than from this review book.
3. Lastly, I was a little disappointed when I went to take the practice exam and I found several identical questions to the practice problems provided in the different chapters. The least they could have done was make sure not to reuse questions so that when we'd like to take the practice exam we haven't just seen the questions from review sections.


Serpent of Eden
Published in Paperback by Soho Press, Inc. (1995)
Authors: Gene A. Wolf, Eugene A. Wolf, and James B. Van Treese
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OK Plot, but Terrible Editing
It was a challenge to read this book in its entirety. The plot was compelling, reminiscent of a Clive Cussler novel. It moved fairly well and offered interesting twists along the way.

The editing, however, was simply awful. There are so many grammatical and punctuation errors that I could not believe this book was actually published in its current state. Example: many times the contraction "who's" is used, when the context clearly calls for "whose." Many questions are punctuated with a period instead of a question mark. There are myriad errors such as these.

Overall, it is an entertaining story for beach material.


Tuning into: Healing Forgiveness
Published in Audio Cassette by Penguin Audiobooks (1998)
Author: James Van Praagh
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I can't believe this got published what a waste of paper:
Fakey Flakey James did it again, wasted valuable ink and paper, in an attempt to now play new age therapist


The 22 Biggest Mistakes Managers Make and How to Correct Them
Published in Hardcover by Prentice Hall Trade (1973)
Author: James K. Van Fleet
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The 23rd Mistake
The 23rd Mistake is buying this book. I bought the unabridged audiotape. If you have been to b school, have managed for more than a couple years or manage in a professional service business, do not waste your time with this book. It was all I could do to get through the first tape but since I had spent good money I forced my self to listen to the whole thing. The advice is not only pretty elementary, the tape is put together with so much preview--what we're going to tell you, and so much review--what we just told you, that unless you have a very short attention plan, 2/3ds is repetitive.


Ancient Sites of Oahu
Published in Spiral-bound by Bishop Museum Pr (1992)
Authors: Van James and Bishop Museum Press
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Documentary Series: James Dickey (Dictionary of Literary Biography, Vol 19)
Published in Hardcover by Gale Group (1999)
Authors: Judith S. Baughman, Gale Group, Margaret A. Van Antwerp, and Mary Bruccoli
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