This is a very well written, photographed and illustrated book that reveals many little known truths about the origins of Kentucky and the migration west through Cumberland Gap. It is a must read for all students of early Kentucky history. Virtually every other page contains either a map, illustration or beautiful photograph. The photography by world-renowned photographer, Adam Jones, is simply stunning! In truth, it is the photography of Adam Jones that first attracted me to this outstanding book. As a student of early Kentucky history, I consider this book in particular to be indispensable to understanding the truth surrounding the opening of Kentucky and all points west. This is a truly great historical work, replete with bibliograhical references, indicative of the author's extensive research. Therefore, I highly recommend it!

I think this is a good one for basic reading and it is very helpful for more understand when you try to comprehend the contend. The purpose of this book is very unique and it is a first english book that I had read with cheerful and can not put it down. Hopefuly, you will write this kind of text book soon. May be it is the second one and more advance, for example how to read journal or time magazine effectively.

«I have ever judged of the religion of others by their lives» - Thomas Jefferson.

Thomas Jefferson was a private man, and nowhere more so than in religious matters. A believer in the «eternal divorce» of religious opinion from civil authority, he was just as wary of the curtailment of individual freedom of conscience by the tyranny of public pressure, castigating the tyrants with clean hands who «altho' the laws will no longer permit them... to burn those who are not exactly of their Creed, ... raise the Hue and cry of Heresy against them, place them under the ban of public opinion, and shut them out from all the kind affections of society.» Afraid of any undue influence on other people's opinions, and jealous of any interference with his own much abused tranquility and reputation, this man who was «in a sect of my own» refrained till the end of his life from any public disclosure of his beliefs in divine matters.

However, his silence did not extend to those among his closer friends whom he suspected to be receptive to his unorthodox opinions, and in addition to his correspondence with them, time -seconded by the efforts of the editors of the present volume- has preserved for us two remarkably revealing documents : «The Philosophy of Jesus», which he composed in 1804, and «The Life and Morals of Jesus», which produced about fifteen years later.

These two pamphlets, the former in English, and the latter in four languages (Greek, Latin, French and English), evince Jefferson's enduring dedication to what he believed to be the restoration of Christ's authentic life and message. Their method of composition, matured after reading and rereading Joseph Priestley's radical, Unitarian treatises on the subject (such as his *History of the Corruptions of Christianity* and his *History of the Early Opinions Concerning Jesus Christ*), was simply to rewrite the Gospels by cutting out anything smacking of the «idolatry and superstition» of the «vulgar», any reference to the supernatural or to Jesus's divinity, and retaining only the «diamonds» that were his sermons and parables.

These two pamphlets tell the story of a child, born to a Jewish couple, who grows up in wisdom, preaches for a short while a reformed (one is almost tempted to say «Enlightened») version of the wicked faith and morality of his people, and is put to death by the civil and religious authorities, a martyr of the unholy alliance of church and state. This man never rose from the dead nor performed any miracles whatsoever, and if he ever claimed to be divinely inspired, the error was excusable : «Elevated by the enthusiasm of a warm and pure heart , conscious of the high strains of an eloquence which had not been taught to him, he might readily mistake the coruscations of his own fine genius for inspirations of a higher order.»

Jefferson deeply regretted his revered Jewish reformer died «at about 33, his reason having not yet attained the maximum of it's energy», but he nonetheless considered the system of morality he had begun to develop to be «the most benevolent and sublime that has been ever taught ; and eminently more perfect than those of any of the antient philosophers». He saw in this system the ultimate guarantee of the one value that seemed to matter to him above all others : social «utility» or harmony, the state of generalized peace and goodwill which is achieved when men refrain from initiating force against each other and love each other as Jesus loved them. And he saw in it too, the one common denominator in all the preachings of the myriad Christian sects, the one hope of their ultimate reconciliation and of an end to centuries of religious wars and persecutions : for only dogma, that crazed concoction of corrupt, «overlearned professors» and priests, divided them.

But *Jefferson's Extracts From the Gospels* contains much more than reproductions of his heretic selections from the Evangelists. It also includes a highly competent and sensible introduction to Jefferson's religious evolution, from the influence of Bolingbroke to that of Priestley; and, perhaps my favorite section of the volume, a one-hundred-page collection of letters written by or to Jefferson from 1800 to 1825, and revealing his opinion of Plato («a Graecian sophist... dealing out mysticisms incomprehensible to the human mind»), Epicurus (whose doctrines «contain everything rational in moral philosophy which Greece and Rome have left us») and Calvin («a madman... on whom reasoning was wasted. The strait jacket alone was [his] proper remedy») ; of the Quakers (whom we should all imitate, opting to «live without an order of priests, moralise for ourselves, follow the oracle of conscience, and say nothing about what no man can understand nor therefore believe») and the Unitarians (whose «advances towards rational Christianity» would soon convert the whole nation) ; of the Apocalypse («the ravings of a maniac») and the «incomprehensible jargon of the Trinitarian arithmetic, that three are one, and one is three.»

I would not recommend this book to anyone seeking answers to the ultimate questions, but if all you want to know is what Jefferson believed in, I cannot imagine a better source.

The Ledgend of Grizzily Adams and Kodiac Jack is a great book. I'm not one to read, I just never really liked it, but I got this book as a gift and I couldn't put it down. In fact I liked it so much that I read it a second time to pick up the details I missed the first time around. Grizzily Adams is a mountain man that moved from Boston MA, to California. While he's out there he makes friends and enimies. Most of his friends out in the wilderness are animals, like his pet bear Ben Franklin who he rescues from hunters after Ben's mother was shot at and left. This book has it all, action and some fact behind it since Grizzily Adams is a real person. I would recomend this book to anyone that likes the wood and enjoys books about men who opened up the west. Thomas L. Tedrow knows how to write a good book.

Open City consistently publishes great stories, poems, essays, and artwork. I look forward to each issue, because each one is so different, and because this magazine continues to be vital and relevant, esp. because many literary magazines are so staid and dull....

If you are involved in any way with setting up the church for Mass and if you work in the Sacirsty this manual is a God send!

There is a good history of the sacristy, excellent directions and guidance for each celebration, and it is well prepared.

The story of a young Plains Indian who traveled to Europe in Buffalo Bill's Wild West Rodeo, this book is extraordinary and moving. The story is fun, but it is the illustrations that bring this book to the level of genuine art: the pictures are completely magical. This book transformed my day after reading it: I felt renewed by it's beauty and innocence.

Though I have never read Thomas Hardy before, I shall again very soon. I greatly enjoyed Far From the Madding Crowd. I kept associating Bathsheba, the heroine, with Scarlett O'Hara. They are both women from the past who are struggling for a place where only men typically tread. Unlike Scarlett, Bathsheba's emotions are more restrained. She's so young, but matures through the book. The reader yearns for the day she finally matures to the point that realizes she needs a partner in life, and her perfect partner is Gabriel Oak, her steadfast mate of fate.

I definitely recommend this book for one of those cold rainy weekends curled up on the couch.

I am looking forward to diving into my next Thomas Hardy novel, Jude the Obscure.

I've always condidered myself to be sort of an optimist; so it is really odd that I've always really loved Thomas Hardy's books. I count Tess of the D'Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure among my very favorites, and whether or not it is my favorite, I think that The Mayor of Casterbridge is marvelously written. Still though, reading all of that fatalism and cynicism can be a little much. It was really nice to pick up this novel and not read so many grim scenes.

Far From the Madding Crowd is a pretty simple love story driven by the characters. First, there is Bathsheba Everdeen. She's vain, naive, and she makes the stupidest decisions possible. Yet, you still like her. Then there are the three guys who all want her: Troy who's like the bad guy straight out of a Raphael Sabatini novel, Boldwood who's an old lunatic farmer, and Gabriel Oak who is a simple farmer and is basically perfect. The reader sees what should happen in the first chapter, and it takes Bathsheeba the whole book to see it. The characters really make the book. The reader really has strong feelings about them, and Hardy puts them in situations where you just don't know what they're going to do. The atmosphere that Hardy creates is (as is in all of Hardy's novel) amazing and totally original. I don't think any other author (except Wallace Stegner in America) has ever evoked a sense of place as well as Hardy does. Overall, Far from the Madding Crowd is a great novel. I probably don't like it quite as well as some of his others, but I still do think it deserved five stars.

This book was a required read for Academic Decathalon but I was handed the cliff notes and told to study them if I didn't have time to read the book. I dislike cliff notes unless I have already read a book and I need to review so I chose to listen to it on tape. I was thoroughly surprised to find myself laughing at the overly-honest Gabriel Oak proposing marriage to Bathsheba Everdene, I had been informed that this book was something of a rural comedy but I had not expected such preposterous situations and ironies. The novel centers around Bathsheba though I would not label her the heroine because the reader is often frustrated by her behavior and even annoyed by it. She is quite poor but a smart girl and a particularly beautiful one as well. Gabriel meets her and soon decides he must marry this young woman. She declines deciding that she can't love him and soon moves away. Gabriel loses his farm in an unfortunate event and through circumstance comes to be in the same part of Wessex as Bathsheba. She has inherited her uncle's farm and is now running it herself and she is in need of a sheperd and sheperding happens to be Gabriels forte so he is hired. Farmer Boldwood who runs the neighboring farm becomes smitten with Bathsheba too when he recieves a prank valentine saying "marry me" on the seal(this valentine was sent by Bathsheba and her maid/companion). He soon asks for Bathsheba's hand and Bathsheba who feels guilty for causing this man's desire says she will answer him upon his return in two months time. The union with Boldwood is not to be since Bathsheba falls deeply in love with Frank Troy and soon marries him. An ex-girlfriend of Troy's shows up but dies shortly after giving birth, Troy is heartbroken and tells Bathsheba that he loved Fanny more and still does. Troy leaves and soon is assumed dead but is truly only missing. Boldwood moves in one Bathsheba again but in a set of bizarre events Troy returns to take Bathsheba from Boldwood once more. Boldwood is infuriated and turmoil ensues. This is an escapist novel in these times and is well worth reading. Weatherbury and Casterbridge will charm you and allow you to experience the little oddities of Victorian Era rural life in the pleasantest way imaginable.

I highly recommend this definitive work on architects Delano & Aldrich. The book is amazingly well-researched and well-written as well as beautifully illustrated with both historic and contemporary photographs. It's a must for the library of anyone interested in architecture!

I have been interested in the work of Delano and Aldrich for a number of years, and this book provides the best information I have been able to get so far.

The descriptions are deep and serious. I also liked the great pictures. The impact of their work is historic to say the least.

This is a must read.

What a fabulous insight into the Architecture firm of Delano & Adrich. This book with its beautiful photographs and engaging essay provide an invaluable tool for all architectural enthusiasts: from the average architecture buff to those involved in scholarly research.

I'm most impressed that the authors not only sought to perform research on the buildings themselves, but moreover, examined the partners and the social influences of the times. I feel we gain so much from the writers thru their experience of having read Delano's letters in archive at Yale!

This book should stand as a model for future chronologist of architectural history. It is truly a wonderful presentation - the best that I've seen published to date.

Congratulations.

Unlike the X-men's "Dark Phoenix Saga", I missed this story as a kid (Avengers were for popular kids -Spidey, the Defenders and X-men were for misfits like me), but I was a fan of that era of Marvel, plus I loved cosmic stories and even liked old Mar-vell (Cpt. Marvel). Despite all those things going for it, including me wanting to like this story, I was greatly dissapointed. There are plenty of graphic novels out there, both old ('Dark Phonix Saga', 'Dark Knight', 'Crisis') and new ('Astro City', 'Planetary') which are money better spent then on this cosmic flop. I'd easily take "The Morgan Conquest" or "Avengers Forever" over 'The Kree-Skrull War' anyday.

Those who read the original and remember it fondly (and maybe your childhood to) might enjoy this. Otherwise, I suggest looking elsewhere - there's too much good stuff out there to waste time here.

With the exception of the much more recent "Avengers Forever" by Kurt Busiek and Carlos Pacheco, this yarn is the pinnacle of Avengers "big" storylines. Marvel's most popular -- and infamous -- interstellar races, the Kree and the Skrulls, are going at it yet again, and this time Earth is caught square in the middle (literally -- it's at the midway point between both empires, although astronomy buffs know this is actually silly!)

The Kree Supreme Intelligence, even though a captive of the malevolent Kree Ronan the Accuser, has used his mental might to maneuver one Rick Jones into his possession. He unlocks Jones' "Destiny Force" (whose effects are played to much greater detail in "Avengers Forever") to ultimately quell the cosmic war and become the rightful Kree ruler again.

Featuring guest stars out the wazoo (Captain Marvel, The Inhumans, Super Skrull), this compilation also showcases one of the greatest artists of all time, Neal Adams, as well as one of the premier scripters, Roy Thomas. This is easily in the top three Avengers stories of all time, if not THE best.

Marvel is starting to release bound volumes of their classic issues. Neal Adam's artwork is stellar, however his interpretation of the Thing is somewhat lacking. This is a great story, marred only by the issues that Adams did not pencil. This is a perfect companion to the Avengers: The Celestial Madonna volume just released. If you like the Avengers now, you would have liked them then. No angst, no beserkers, minimal teen presence; just great storytelling and a sense of adventure.