Before dying of aneroxia in 1380 the famed Dominican tertiary forged an extraordinary legend. She was in her time a woman of substantial political clout. In 1376 she helped urge Pope Gregory XI, then living ignominously at Avignon, to Return to Rome. In where later, and through the strength of her voice and conviction, and amid turbulence. She counceled the Pope Urban VI through a wicked Church Schism, and through the dissipation of Urban's fanatical reign. A young charismatic woman in a world being destroyed by men. (...) in '15 days of Prayer with St Catherine of Siena' by Chantal van der Plamke and Andre Knockaert, I find a new saint that I barely knew before. This book is a little jewel for the inner life. Full of wisdom always hinting at Catherine's favorite urges: Truth and Humility. It has a wonderful preface deliniating Catherine's life. A very original course. The book is part of a series that includes St Teresa of Avila, etc.

One of the few books dealing with ALL about super 8 film.
It contains a lot of information:
How to use a super 8 camera (the camera, the lens, the shutter)
how to light for film;
how to handle & how to edit a super 8 film etc.
It also contains very useful and clear information by chapters and also well illustrated. (In B/W photos and GLORIOUS COLOR!

the reprint of this book should be a MUST!.

A scintillating work of literary and historical sociology, that takes you back to a time when times were tough and the people even tougher. "Acadie - Prelude to Derangement" tells the heartbreaking story of the Acadiens, who were eventually deported from Nova Scotia and scattered throughout the East and South in the United States. The authors uncover the story of the Acadiens and their hardships in North Amerian, and manage to shed new light on the world of Nova Scotia (and subsequently the Cajuns of Louisiana) and beyond in the 17th and 18th centuries. As lively and lucidly written as the characters' portraits of the well-born and the average man, this book is more penetrating, thanks to authors' rigorous scholarship, and best of all, it recreates the unyielding world of early North American settlement, and later, the derangement of the Acadiens, in vivid detail.

Many historical novels, perhaps most, focus on real-life, albeit dead, public figures who require the invention of minor characters to witness, narrate, and react to their erstwhile struttings. But sprinkled throughout "Acadie - Prelude to Derangement" is an ironic humor that flows throughout its pages but juxtaposed with the hardships the Acadiens faced with every challenge to their economic, religious, and political lives. And few historical novels will teach you actual history as well as this one. The authors make clear that only some of the characters are fictionalized, not the history itself. But they convey the bravery of the Acadiens well to do whatever it took to make a life for themselves in the new land. The sad thing is how the Acadiens were model citizens, but got caught up in a political and military conflict that turned their entire community into refugees almost overnight.

A strong plot and a vivid sense of place are never out of style, and the authors, Coleman and Dupuis, are very good at developing both. Coleman and Dupuis are adept at shepherding a large and colorful cast of characters through a complicated yet logical historical plot. And reminiscent of Conan Doyle, the authors can create lush atmosphere without resorting to overwrought description. Coleman and Dupuis are at their most effective, and engaging, when they shows us how fine the line is - if one exists at all - between religion and superstition; their 17th century is a mirror for our time.

Coleman and Dupuis have created an outstanding portrait here. It is a flawless trip, with the detail of good history, the blistering pace of events themselves and the charm of grand legend. I strongly recommend it!

There are few people who can capture all the complexity and paradox of South Africa in modern times as Brink can. This book may be big but it crystallizes a time in South African history that was very real, scary and complex.

There are not many books on Advanced Mathematics written specifically for Statisticians. Prof. Khuri's book aims to do just that, covering not only advanced calculus but also linear algebra and matrix theory as well. So it is more comprehensive than its title suggests. There are excellent annotated bibliographies at the ends of chapters, making it especially valuable as a reference work, and also a set of exercises. The only omission is a separate chapter on matrix differential calculus; perhaps this will be included in the next edition. It would also be nice to have solutions to problems provided. Recommended.

This eye witness account delivers a great true story. The main theme of the book is doing underground operations while having constant above board dealings with the enemy. The writing style is very readable, although I got lost a little when references were made to various towns.

It starts with Andre being in manufacturing in support of the war effort, and a description of the German invasion as seen locally. There was a German anti-aircraft installation near where he lived which shot down several Allied planes throughout the war. Andre gets involved with the Underground when he decides to harbor some evading airmen. This involvement was not thrust upon him, he seeked it out. As his activities became known to people in the area, many of whom were sympathetic to the Allies, he became more involved with harboring downed airmen. He also became involved with the Passive Defense, an above ground French organization that did what they could to fight fires, discourage French and German looters, etc. While patrolling the town for the Passive Defense, they would simultaneously participate in Resistance functions like putting nails on the road at night to sabotage German vehicles and removing the nails in the morning. The looting and sabotage intensified during the chaos of the Allied Normandy invasion. The most violent thing he did in the book was to set a German truck on fire. I get the feeling that Andre may have participated in some violent acts but did not include them in the book.

In 1944 he was fingered by informers and arrested by the Gestapo, who beat him up very badly. The Gestapo gathered up other suspected Resistance members, and sent them together to the Buchenwald concentration camp. He and another prisoner were able to escape during a bomb raid while being transfered to another camp, and after a couple of weeks made contact with the Allied front.

I wish there had been more follow up on what became of the participants in the book after the war, and especially what became of the informants and collaborators. Maybe a later edition could add an appendix dealing with this.

This book is the second part of a projected five-part series on the history of Asia from the rise of Islam in the 7th century of the Christian era down to the 18th century. Few scholars would have the courage and even fewer the competence to undertake such an exercise. Nor is this a history of religion or of religious conversion : it is far vaster in its scope and ranges from the study of environments, demography, and economy to kinship, statecraft and military technique. What is more, the author seeks to establish structural linkages and connections between these very diverse historical phenomena - not just in a single region but right across Eurasia from Siberia to Sumatra. He touches, en passant, on issues like the (now extinct) elephant populations of China, horsebreeding in India, and the era of Tibetan military dominance in north-central Asia. The basic paradigm that informs this work is that of the interaction between the herding and trading peoples of Central Asia and the settled farming and city-dwelling populations that lived around them in West, South and East Asia. The great integrative role of Islamic society is seen in its capacity draw and integrate these diverse lifeways and fit them into a single ecumene.

It is inevitable that specialists will find some of Wink's assertions weak and some arguments speculative. Given the imperfect record of the past available to us, no grand synthesis of this type can ever be without some weak spots. I personally felt uncomfortable with the repeated citation of traditions recorded centuries after the events they purported to describe, and the heavy reliance on the stories of Marco Polo. But I would still conclude by saying that this is a book that well repays the reading - it is simply bursting with ideas and information.

The play Alice in Wonderland, created by the MaNhattan Project, relays a truth that is paralleled only by the original story by Lewis Carroll. It reflects a beauty only only otherwise achieved in the dreams of a sleeping child. It goes far beyond boundaries and rules set for playwrighting, and creates the magic the mind's eye has only seen before, and puts it on stage.

Mr. Millard has done an extraordinary job of documenting the recording industry from Edison's invention of the phonograph to the present day. He integrates the social, technical and business issues into an easy-to-read, almost "unputdownable" form. Parallels in broadcasting and motion pictures are given the necessary coverage as well. To a student of recorded sound, the references and bibliography are invaluable.

Gide's journal of his five year exodus through the exotic cultures of Tunis and Algiers at the turn of the 20th century can only be compared to the senuous language of JUSTINE, the first book of the classic Alexandria Quartet by Lawrence Durrell. This small, delightful book of 159 pages, unfolds to the world that underlies the North Africa today, a century later.
According to the translator,Gide,immediately after writing AMYNTAS, began writing CORYDON, viewed by many as his masterpiece, which dwelt on the place of homosexuality in society and on the nature of human sexuality itself.
Awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1947, Gide's notations are four separate texts documented by year and place. Translation from the original French is done by Richard Howard, a Pulitzer Prize winner and noted translator.