Yes, it's about the Civil War and how it touches the folks of a small Kentucky town. But this story wouldn't interest me with just that description--I cherish a tale that engages me so fully that hours after finishing the last page I'm still thinking about the characters and their world. And that's just what "A Still Small Voice" offers to readers.

This is not simply a book for female readers, although it's written from a young woman's point of view. Men will enjoy the book for the same reasons any reader will--insightful character development; descriptions that, while detailed, are so delicately offered that they never overwhelm; and a story line that engages the reader instantly.

I began reading this book on Dec. 24 and it kept "calling" to me from my bedroom throughout Christmas Day until I gave in under the pretense of taking a holiday nap and returned to its pages. While I treasure holiday time spent with my family, I still don't regret the time spent on Christmas reading this book. It just added to the day's delights!

This book is written so beautifully that at some points I found myself reading pages over and over again just for the simple beauty of the words! This book is about love, loss and the hardships and the simple pleasures of life just before and after the Civil War. It is a poetic, funny, sad and romantic story about enduring love and how it haunts us. At times I did become a little frustrated with all the "horse talk" however, the "horse talk" does set the mood so one feels they are sitting on a old farm house porch in Kentucky staring at the horses grazing on the blue grass of that beautiful state! I recommend this book to readers who are tired of the same old historical romance books that grace the shelves of every bargain department store! READ THIS BOOK!! YOU WILL BE CAPTIVATED BY IT!!!

As a woman, as a southerner, & as a passionate reader of both hhistory & fiction, I cannot praise this remarkable book enough. Is it really truly possible that man wrote this utterly convincing civil war novel, set in Kentucky and feelingly told in the feminine first person, and a New Yorker at that? What a feat of empathy, to recreate the passions & true fabric of a bygone American experience so that it springs alive like a great movie. This is an ennobling book which should be read by every American who wants to understand our past & our inner possibilities.

I enjoyed this story, read the next book in the series and have ordered the third. However, I have never in my life read a book that had so many glaring spelling, grammar and other editing errors. It's as if an early draft was accidentally printed or, if this was a final, it was proofed by a not very well-trained chimpanzee. There are errors on almost every page. It's very distracting. If you can ignore that and finish the book, the second book has fewer appalling editing failures. The protagonist in this series is a rather fascinating character - interesting enough to make me curious to read his continuing adventures.

If you like the ancient Rome centered mystery novels of Lindsey Davis, John Robert Maddox, and Steven Saylor and want to try a different locale, read "One for Sorrow". It takes place in sixth-century Byzantium and takes place in the streets, docks, cisterns, and Great Palace. Scenes occur at the Hippodrome, the Church of Holy Wisdom (Hagia Sophia), and even atop a column with a stylite. While this ancient capital is officially Christian, Mithraism and Egyptian religions influence the tale. Details of life in the capital of the Eastern Empire include references to Kollyba, Liquamen, and even an early type of organ, the Hydra.

The hero is John the Eunuch, once a mercenary but now Lord Chamberlain in Justinian's court who seeks to solve the murder of the Keeper of the Plate. Bodies turn up and John seeks to find the answer that ties together a soothsayer, a red headed knight from Britain, and the victims while protecting his former lover (from before the incident that gave him the appellation) and daughter.

Mary Reed and Eric Mayer provide a great detective story set in a different time and place. The copy I read from Poisoned Pen Press was crisply printed with a very readable type setting. It includes a small map of Byzantium and ends with an 8 page glossary (in case you don't know who Zeuxippos was).

Mary Reed and Eric Mayer's One For Sorrow kicks off one of the most entertaining, thought-provoking new mystery series I've read in a long time. It takes place in 6th Century Byzantium, is rich with period detail and character. The main character, John the Eunuch, is the Emperor's chief advisor, a job that requires intelligence, tact and guile; many a chief advisor for the Roman emperor has had his head removed from his body for not accommodating his boss.

The second in the series, Two For Joy, is a treat as well. You don't have to be a fan of historical mysteries to like this book or this series. (I'm not, in particular). You just have to like well-written mysteries with terrific plots, even better characters and a depth of texture and detail that makes many, many other novels seem anemic by comparison.

As I read this work, it became so compelling that I couldn't
wait to wake up to read more. I found myself yelling at Terry
and his wife throughout the book - "No, don't do that!" Knowing
not exactly what was waiting for them in the future - but knowing
it wasn't going to be good.

What was amazing was how they "played his ego", "played his
ambition" and generally opted out when questions that made sense
were asked. Who is ever to know if any or all of this story
is or was true. What is important is: It makes too much sense!

The methodology and policies Mr. Reed explains about the Agency
is terrific. Especially, the Barry Seal flights - which tends
to explain a lot of other "so called" mysterious plane crashes
around the world.

Compromised has changed my life, because it not only brought
lots of new information, but confirmed all my worst fears!

This is the third book I've read on Mena and is by far the best. It links the feds and Bush's end with Clinton's Arkansas. It explains much about the mysterious Barry Seal and the uneasy partnership between Clinton's Arkansas, Bush's people, and North's people. I've read about LD Brown and his experience with the contras. I've read about Pritchard's train deaths case(not discussed in the book. Reed didn't personally deal with it.), and his interview with Bill Duncan and Russel Welch. And this book ties Clinton's Arkansas techniques of reputation ruinment, the drugs at Mena, and the assassin squads trained there by Felix Rodriguez. It is a must read, and a good reason why we must vote libertarian.

I read this book twice when it was first published. The deals described in this book anticipate many events, such as the political elevation of George H. Bush's sons (yes, I voted for George W. Bush)and the protection enjoyed by Clinton during his presidency. Terry Reed is an American hero with the guts to reveal the truth.

Just ordered my second copy of this book.

John T. Reed covers the basics of coaching youth football from A to Z, in an easy to read format.

I read the first copy and passed it on to my son's coach last year. Reed doesn't pull any punches when he points out the mistakes that many youth football coaches make.

Any "How To" book is good when you find 3 or 4 gold nuggets you can use. This book is great. It's an absolute gold mine of information for the youth football coach!

It goes beyond X's and O's. Should a youth football program serve as a feeder program for the high school team? Are high school offenses and defenses appropriate for youth teams? How many of the kids on the youth team will actually play football at a higher level? These questions and many more are answered.

The book itself isn't made of the highest quality materials, but the solid content more than makes up for this shortcoming.

Buy one for your coach. Buy one for yourself!

I was looking for a book for my husband, and found Reed's website. I was impressed with the articles I found there. I bought two of his books for my husband. Thing is, I can't put them down! I've read them both cover-to-cover. I like Reed's style of writing. I like his attitude toward youth sports. He is practical and realistic. It isn't all about winning, but about bringing out the best in the kids. (That may, in fact, result in a winning team!) I wholeheartedly recommend this book. Even for a mom who isn't much interested in sports! This book will make you interested in youth football if you weren't before. And make you wish every youth coach were a John Reed.

I have bought three of Mr. Reed's books. all of them are perfect for the first time or experianced coach. He tells it like it is and pulls no punches. If you want to fit in with the other coaches in your league and don't want to cause waves don't buy these books. If, on the other hand you want to win football games and give the kids you coach the best chance to win, remember winning is more fun than losing, then buy these books and read them over and over. Use them as a coaching guide all season long. ..

Buddenbrooks is an astonishing novel from a 25 year old Thomas Mann, showing deep and mature insight into his characters and the world of a 19th century Baltic city (modelled on his native Lubeck). It is Mann's most directly engaging novel, a pleasure to read and re-read. However, translations of Mann have always been problematic. The early Helen Lowe-Porter translations are clearly inadequate, and more recent translators such as David Luke and John Woods have attempted to remove the layers of obscurity added to the texts by Lowe-Porter (as well as some obvious errors). This recent translation of Buddenbrooks from John Woods succeeds in providing a more direct entry into the world of Buddenbrooks, and removes the linguistic complexities and purple passages that clearly belonged to Lowe-Porter, and not to Mann. However, in doing so, Wood has also removed some of the poetry from the novel. Not the least part of this is the translation of much of the novel into American vernacular, much of which is inappropriate in a novel of 19th century northern Germany. For example, characters who speak in Bavarian dialect are translated into a kind of Texan slang which reminded me more of the wild west than than a Baltic trading town. Wood's choices are often doubtful, and the persistent inappropriateness of some of these detracts from the experience of reading this undoubtedly great novel. In summary, I rate the book as 5 stars, with a star lost for the translation. (By comparison, I rate the Lowe-Porter translation as 3 stars.) We are still waiting for an ideal translator of Mann.

Considered by many to be the greatest German novelest of the 20th Century, Thomas Mann, in his first great novel, Buddenbrooks, chronicles the life and decline of what must be taken to be a typical 19th Century German middle class family. The Buddenbrooks, a conservative and traditional mercantile family (Johann Buddenbrooks, the family patriarch, sells grain for a living), live in a smallish Northern German town in which they, among other characters in the book, figure prominently as both local notables and political players. However, while this is a family chronicle that is reputed to mirror the joys and travails of Mann's own family, what is glaringly absent from Buddenbrooks is any concern or mention of, other than one in passing, any of the great events which forged the fate of modern Germany. While more than likely an intensional omission on the part of Mann, an omission that may be a telling signal to the reader of the insularity of upper middle class life in 19th Century Germany, the chonicle itself seems to suffer somewhat from the fact that the family seems to be relatively unaffected by the wars, the plebian revolutions of the 1940s--or by the great Franco Prussian war of 1870. Beginning in the 1830s, the family sees its business rise in the wake of the chaos brought by Napoleon 25 years earlier: children are born, grow up into different fates and pursuits, and this mirror of the mercantile classes of German hints at the wonders of an essentially modern era that since has been hailed as a national renaissance. Fashionable, comfortable, concerned with reputation, the Buddenbrooks family is not all that unlike many of the upper class families in America. Like the rise of a new nobility that has come to bear upon the ages in the footsteps of industrialization and the democratic impulse, the Buddenbrooks chronicles reveals just how modern in spirit Germany was in an era its people dominated the European spirit.

What carries this novel is its writing. Mann's style is exceptionally malleable: The descriptions are not only evocative, they are often powerfully emotional, full of the spirit of the times and revealing in themselves of the 19th Century German character. The dialogue is impeccable, the characters memorable and, like all family chronicles, the mundane events are not only entertaining and often funny, they are universal as well. All in all, Buddenbrooks was a much more rewarding book to read than I had expected.

LIKE Goethe, to whom he devoted a novel ("The Beloved Returns") and several thoughtful essays, Thomas Mann published his first and most enduringly popular novel at the age of 25. Unlike "The Sorrows of Young Werther" (1774), Goethe's brief epistolary account of the frustrations of life and love leading to the troubled hero's suicide, Mann's "Buddenbrooks" chronicles four generations in the history of a prosperous North German bourgeois family.

The saga picks up the tale of the Buddenbrooks in 1835 at the peak of their financial prosperity and family stability. Old Johann Buddenbrook, son of the founder of the family firm, has just moved the family and the business into one of the most handsome houses in town. By the time the novel ends 42 years later, the aging yet still spirited Tony is almost the only surviving member of the family. Her parents and grandparents, as well as Thomas and a younger sister, have died. Christian is confined to an asylum, and the only male heir is dead. The house has been sold and the firm liquidated. In the course of hundreds of pages we have witnessed a succession of marriages, births, divorces and deaths punctuating the decline of the initially robust family -- a decline brought about by the weakening of business acumen and ethics as the family succumbs to the enticements of wealth, with its inevitable concomitants of sickly religiosity, artistic inclinations and disease.

"Buddenbrooks" constitutes a remarkable achievement for a first novel. Incisive characterizations are achieved through a witty use of German dialects and the adaptation of leitmotif techniques borrowed from Wagner. And the fast-paced narrative is tightly controlled by a structure evident in the parallel between the first chapter and the last: both take place on rainy evenings in the fall, and both feature Tony Buddenbrook in conversations about religion -- first with her rationally skeptical grandfather and at the end with her aged teacher, who has always waged the good fight "against the onslaughts of reason." "Buddenbrooks" encounters a work that is close in style, vocabulary, idiom and tone to the writer's intent and can thus appreciate more fully the monumental achievement of the artist as a young Mann, this is a powerful read!

This short book is one of the wonders of journalism of all times. John Reed takes us into a journey of Revolutionary Mexico and we end up enjoying every minute of it. The description of the "hombres" is touching and Pancho Villa is great. Very recommended! But when you buy it, be sure you will have time to read it, because you won't be able to put it down.

In this account of his adventures in the advance to Mexico City with Pancho Villa's armies, John Reed gives an excellent account of what it was like to have been there. Luckily enough for him, historians, and adventure lovers alike, he was on the winning side and survived to tell his tale. His tale is his aspect of the venture among the soldiers who fought the battles, rode the trains, suffred the hardships of civil war, and tasted the glow of victories won on the way to the capitol city. It's gritty, putrid, rough and tumble and the food isn't great but at the end you get a heck of a kick from surviving it all.

This book was written over 80 years ago, so as military journalism it is quite dated. However, the author's portraits of people and places are so vivid that the characters and events seem to come alive. The author displays a novelist's talent for description. It is a very sympathetic portrait of Pancho Villa. I don't know how historically accurate it is, but it is certainly interesting reading.

Active man loses leg in motorcycle accident. During his convalescence, (and while he is feeling sorry for himself), he recieves a troubling communication from his cousin. Retarded, forty, and institutionalized, the cousin has worse problems than the pain of prosthesis. Thrilling, insightful, a newly handicapped man's struggle to overcome the evil in a closed world that has no compassion or respect for differences.

Bill Reed, a recent leg amputee, has to abandon the self-indulgent life he has fashioned to accommodate his disability and try to unravel the reason his cousin, a Down's syndrome victim is being mistreated in the private institution where he has resided for a number of years. In so doing, Reed learns to triumph over his disability in order to save his cousin's life. This is a fast-paced and engaging yarn, although the skulduggery seems based on a rather doubtful premise. The writing is good, and action outweighs introspection by a good deal.

What a wonderful way to spend a hot summer day. Watching a man come to terms with his disability and the disability of his cousin made an engrossing read. I highly recommend this book. It is one of the best I have read this sumer.

I just wanted to let readers know that there are several other books and resources out there with much better content and organization for less money

Having been involved with my own kids in different facets of kids baseball I am always on the lookout for new or original material. Unfortunately this very pricey book does not fill the bill.

After coaching youth baseball for sixteen years, after reading numerous books on the subject, I can now say that it's refreshing to read a book that tells it like it is! Mr. Reed identifies the coaching incompetence in us all and tells us how to correct it. I personally can accept this, many other youth coaches may not. If you are a youth coach and have a high opinion of your coaching talent, I do not recommend this book. However, if you are opened minded and seek to greatly improve not only your coaching abilities but also overall enjoyment of the game, I strongly suggest this literature.

I found this book recommended in the Amazon review of ANOTHER BOOK! I'm so glad I did. I've had kids in youth baseball for 6 years, and have had my various complaints regarding coaching and league rules. Everything Reed writes is extremely logical, reasonable, and practical. All well-organized, well-written, and with just the right amount of wry humor. He suggests ways to bring out the best in players. He outlines exactly how to prepare players for each position. He explains why it doesn't make sense to spend a great deal of time practicing things you aren't likely to improve (like batting) but to spend a lot of time working with players on things they can improve, such as intelligent baserunning and correct understanding of rules. His emphasis on safety is terrific. I bought this book for my husband, but I read it cover-to-cover myself. It makes me want to coach a team next spring. But even if you weren't interested in coaching, the information in this book could help you be a better "baseball parent," too.

This work is enormously well-researched, and contains clear, concise tactical and strategic discussions. Reed, however, goes too far in trying to establish McClellan as the author of joint strategy for the war. Apart from the general conclusions, quite a useful tool for researchers and students of military history.

Rowena Reed's book stands first in a field of one as an analysis of (Union) combined Navy-Army operations in the Civil War. She may go too far in praising the strategic vision of McClellan, but her discussion of the strategy and tactics of combined operations is first-rate.

Not only is this the definitive study of combined ops in the CW, it is the definitive study of George McClellan, the grand strategist of 1861/62 and the only general in the war who maximized naval cooperation. Her insights are brilliant and her premature death is much to be regretted.

When a person leaves a loving organization such as Jehovah's Witnesses and becomes bitter, an objective person can easily detect that the author is focused primarily on tearing down with negativity rather than constructively dispensing anything valuable to build faith. So much so in fact, that his bias gets revealed by his lack of honest presentation. For example, in the (above) presentation of the resurrection of the men of Sodom and Gomorrah, there have only been two real adjustments. First in the 1965 WT and the second in the 1988 WT. The "Insight" volume and "Revelation Climax" books were published before the 1988 WT and so were reflecting the understanding of the 1965 material. But do you notice how it is presented to "shock" the uninformed reader to impress that perhaps it was adjusted more?

What is also missing is the reasonable explanation of why these adjustments were made. It became clear with time that Jesus' words were hyperbole rather than literal. The adjustment in understanding (1988) reflects the humility of the Governing Body of Jehovah's Witnesses who adjust to increased understanding of the bible rather than dogmatically and proudly sticking to century-old and biblically erroneous creeds.

Therefore, I must caution the potential purchaser against what is presented as "shock" material designed to disturb faith without an underlying and honest portrayal of dates and explanations of why material changes. Rather than get your information from such a questionable source (as demonstrated with the above example), why not contact one of Jehovah's Witnesses and ask them? Another fine option is to purchase Greg Stafford's book _Jehovah's Witnesses Defended : An Answer to Scholars and Critics_ ... ... and read the chapter "False Prophet - An Undeserved Reputation". Mr. Stafford presents a reasonable and balanced view, but more importantly an *accurate* view of the occasional adjustments made by Christian Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses.

Mark Taylor

Wonderful how this book uses the watchtowers own hand writing to expose their bad history and how they had distorted Gods word.Hope David Reed updates this book to the present.The UN,child molestation and etc

I've learned a lot about the Watchtower Organization from reading this book. I'd like to get my hands on some of their works just to find out more since I've just recently been studying about them. I've learned that arguing with Jehovah's Witnesses won't help. It'll just go back and forth. So posting an argument will only result in a refutation. I don't have any hatred towards any Jehovah's Witnesses. But some of their teaching seems....I don't know....contradictory to what the bible teaches. This is definetely a very hard but important subject. If you want more information about the Watchtower Organization, then get this book. But remember to research what both sides have to say, know the bible, and come to a conclusion as to whether or not this organization is what it claims to be. I pray that we all may see the truth clearly.