If you are wondering where the foundation of John Piper's God-centered theology may be found, this book is a good starting point. In it, Piper reintroduces a theological masterpiece that is almost three hundred years old - "The End for which God Created the World" by the New England Puritan pastor, Jonathan Edwards. Piper's own book-length introduction describes the impact Jonathan Edwards has had on his own life, suggests the relevance that this book will have to our own culture, and provides a brief, but helpful sketch of Jonathan Edwards' life. The work by Edwards is then carefully broken down into numbered paragraphs and is accompanied by Piper's helpful footnotes. Edwards' thesis is simple - God's ultimate aim in everything He does is to uphold and display the glory of His name for the joy of His people. This thesis is worked out with iron-clad logic (be prepared to think!) and meditation on dozens of Biblical passages. If yours is the prayer of Moses - "show me Thy glory" - then this is the book for you.

In this book John Piper reprints Edwards' classic, The End for Which God Created the World. The first four chapters include the insightful commentary about Edwards' work along with Piper's own reasoning for reprinting the work in the climate of today's theologically shallow church. Edwards' work is difficult reading, but his reason and biblical arguments are irrefutable as he explains that God's glory is the ultimate purpose and chief end of everything that exists.

This tremendous book is divided into 2 sections the first is somewhat of an introduction by Piper to the second part which is "The End For Which THe World Was Created" by Jonathan Edwards. While Piper is always a "deep read" he is likewise an accurate shot. His insights and command of the simplicity of the sovereignty of God are a blessing tothe church today.

Jonathan Edwards, primarliy known for his sermon, "Sinners in the Hand of An Angry God" goes beyond his sermon and eloquently states that we are here to fulfill a purpose... to glorify God and yet that one singluar purpose is the essence of our own joy and peace. What a place of rest this is.

Regardless of all the wonderful things Piper has written and, I love them all... this may well turn out to be one of Piper's greatest acomplishments: the reintorduction of Jonathan Edwards to the church.

didn't buy this book earlier!!! Absolutely top notch history of the special sea-bourne American units at Normandy. Maps & photos and narrative all combine into an informative and captivating tale. Even if you are a D-Day buff with a large reference library, you will learn much from this excellent edition. It seems pricey, but it is worth all of it & more. You will not regret getting this one!
I hope this sets a pattern for books about the British & Canadian units and their efforts and successes that day. When you realise the scope of just the American beach landings, you will see the huge, multi-volume collection that would be needed to address *all* the units involved. Buy it and and spend some time with it.

Ever wonder what the difference is between an LCI, LCM, LCVP, or LST? All these mysteries and a host of others are clearly explained with charts, maps color graphics, etc. Equipment and D-Day organization of all amphibious elements including Naval Beach battalions, Amphibious Engineers, Rangers and Infantry are depicted along with their equipment and objectives. Suffice it to say I learned more in one hour of perusing this book than in four decades of reading other books on D-Day. Although the author chose not to write about the Airborne landings, I even found obscure details pertaining to the 101st (thrown in as incidentals by the author) which I didn't know about-and Airborne is my specialty. Don't miss this valuable book-it's every bit as important as The Longest Day. From Mark Bando, author of The 101st Airborne at Normandy and Breakout At Normandy.

THE best book on D-day I have ever seen. Units and events I never knew existed. Great NEW research. Photos with correct captions, unlike the other books that just copy from each other.

I love the layout with the mix of text, wartime photos, color photos of equipment and diagrams. Please write more like this one!

Probably the most important book on D-day since "The Longest Day." I kid you not. This one will make every other Normandy author squirm when they see the errors in their books corrected. Go see for yourself. (oh, and its really big).

Conan O'Brien is one of the funniest men alieve and this book proves that!This book evolved from a sketch on the show(one of the best, other than Pimpbot 5000). He and the Late Night Writers are amazing,they come up with so many diffrent sketches that its not even funny. If you have ever wondered what celebrities babies looked like this book is a must have.
HAIL CONAN!

heart,
ivy the barbarian

The book is funny with hilarious pictures and commentaary. In my opinion Conan O'Brien is the best show between the hours of 12:30 AM and 1:30 AM on nbc.

This is definately a must have for any Conan O'Brien fan. Late Night with Conan O'Brien is simply the best show ever. Conan O'Brien is the funniest man alive and he along with the Late Night writers have only shown that with this hillarious book. I can't wait until In the Year 2000 comes out. Conan O'Brien is truly a genius when it comes to truly hysterical, unique and orginal comedy, I give this book Five Stars. Read over and over again.

Jonathan Gold appreciates one of the main benefits of LA-- all the ethnic enclaves with their respective specialized cuisines. As an angeleno, I love the cultural diversity, and I love it even more now with Mr. Gold's guide to eat my way through all the different restaurants. Thank you, Mr. Gold!

Other mainstream guides like Zagat neglect to mention the really great ethnic places, probably because their reviewers don't know about those places. So if you have an adventurous palate, look for an "A" sign (the grade given to the restaurant by the health dept.) in the window and follow Mr. Gold's book.

Jonathan Gold is a master at finding interesting, delicious, out of the mainstream kind of places. He's introduced me to so many different cuisings and he really knows what he's talking about. I always feel like he has researched the different cuisines and goes regularly, unlike most reviewers who deign to visit a hole-in-the-wall once and talk about it forever. With respect to my title, this book proves LA has more interesting ethnic and "real" food restaurants than NY. This book is a bible for serious food people, living in LA or not.

Anyone worth their stuff on underground dining in LA knows Jonathan Gold from his days as a LA Times food critic. His counter intelligence reviews are still proudly displayed by restraunters all over LA. Mr. Gold will introduce you to the astonishing variety of authentic multi-ethnic cuisines that are hidden by LA's huge geographical expanse. The book is heavy on regional Asian and Latin cuisines. The columns are very entertaining. If you are looking for trendy dining experiences, then this book isn't for you. It could use an index that sorts the restaurants by geography. I grew up in LA and make the effort to find out of the way dining experiences, but Mr. Gold takes it to another level. He is the master. I just wish he would bring back his counter intelligence column and make my life a bit easier.

This is truly one of the creepiest, most frightening books you'll ever run across. Aycliffe is an excellent writer. I read a lot, and this is one of the best I've run across. Definitely not for the faint of heart.

This book should carry a scare factor warning!This book is unputdownable! Read it cover to cover in one sitting. Disturbing, creepy! Will remain with you for a long time. Not for the fainthearted! read it...but be warned-SLEEP WITH THE LIGHT ON.

One of the scariest books I've ever read. It had everything, horror, pure dread, it kept me up at night. I loved the plot twist and the unexpected ending. Definitely one of my all time favorites.

SCTV is perhaps the best comedy television ever produced or written. If you are at all a fan of the show, you will love this book. Who can forget Johnny Larue, 5 Neat Guys, The Days of the Week, The Great White North, the Sammy Maudlin Show, Bobby and Skip Bittman, and the VJ (before there were VJ's) Gerry Todd. The satire is dead on. The show just nails TV; the horrible vision that was the variety hour shows of the 70's, the newsroom, the "sweeps week", and especially the commercials.

The book itself is a running commentary on the show, it's stars, the writers, and the various ways the show aired. The photos are perhaps the best feature (who can forget Carl's Cuts with the pig-men) or the fact that Rick Moranis does Woody Allen better than Woody. Dave and Rick really do Bob Hope and Woody Allen so well it is scary. The book runs in mostly chronological order, with input from the starts all along the way. However, some of the commentary is WAY behind the scenes, perhaps a bit too far back for the average fan.

Dave Thomas, the author, does an excellent job of capturing the egos, the infighting, and the creative styles of the shows writers and performers. People often forget just how much talent came out of this ensemble: John Candy, Martin Short, Eugene Levy, Dave Thomas, Rick Moranis, Catherine O'Hara; all have had major roles in TV and movie comedy since their stint on SCTV.

The best features of this book: The photos and the quizzes at the end of each chapter. The worst feature: too much information on the writers and producers behind the scenes and not enough info on what went in front of the cameras.

Overall, I recommend highly as a great look at the best comedy shows ever made.

This was a book that definitely should have been written, and thankfully Dave Thomas did us the favor. Second City was a breeding ground for most of the innovative comedians from the mid 70s on. Its contributions to comedy exceed John Mayall's to music. This book deals with those roots and continues to follow the SCTV show, which is the more ideal sketch comedy offsprings. Saturday Night Live, being on NBC, had its control shifted away from the performers to Lorne Michaels and the programming office, whereas SCTV simply translated their stage improvisation to low budget TV with little such interference. It makes for a fascinating study. Where this book falls short is somewhat obvious after a brief looksee. Dave Thomas is an unashamed packrat. He had, over those years, collected everything from the shows. The exhastive tabulation of every sketch in every episode in the appendix is evidence of that. However, that would also be welcomed by SCTV fans in a book outlining the development of each of the sketch characters and perhaps a sketch-by-sketch description with his recollections. Perhaps that should be his next book. (C'mon Dave, what else are you gonna do with all that crap?) Anyway, it's a good two sittings of reading entertainment.

This is like a sort of holy grail for SCTV fans. Tons of background information on how the cast(s) met and how they came together to create this unforgettable series. One of the things I liked about this book was how the writing process went for these people. It talks about how they got along with management and how passionate they were about getting their ideas on air. It also tells us what some of the highlights were for various cast members, but also some of the bad times. For instance, I didn't know how much tension there was among these people when Bob and Doug MacKenzie became stars. Even Dave Thomas and Rick Moranis were bothered by it, because they felt that those Great White North skits were not nearly the best things being produced on the show. It's also nice to see how things progressed over the years and how their outlooks on what they were producing changed. Just watch any first season episode and then one from a few years later and you will see what I mean. All in all, this is a very good read and is an ABSOLUTE MUST OWN for any fan of the show. You will definitely not be disappointed!

This is not like most of the other 1000-page tomes about Oracle (although some of them are excellent), in that it gets "under the hood" of just how Oracle works. I find that I understand how to use something much better if I have some idea of how it works, and Jonathan gives it to you in great detail. Even though this is a very technical book, it is easy to read if you are already an experienced Oracle DBA or developer. It is well written and very useful. Highly recommended.

Jonathan has written a book, or more a series of essays, that digs deep into the foundations of Oracle and seems to ooze with information and experience. I must admit that when I first picked up the book, I found it perhaps less organized than I would like, and this makes finding things sometimes a bit more difficult, and might seemingly disqualify this book as a desktop reference book. You probably won't be picking up this book to find out what the syntax for creating a partitioned index should look like, but thats ok, there is a great need for books that go beyond reference, and this one does in spades. The indexing is pretty good, so the lack of super orginization is mitigated.

The only other complaint that I could make about this book is that it was not long enough. You come away thinking that the author probably has a great more to share with us, but just didn't have the pages. Jonathan leaves you with substance, and the benefit of experience and knowledge beyond the standard set of Oracle documentation. He has given the Oracle DBA food for thought, and for that, this book is worth five stars and the price.

This may be the best Oracle book I've found so far.

A lot of books seem to give canned explanations of how oracle works - geared towards rote memorization as opposed to understanding. This book does a great job of taking the next step.

For example, The detail with which the author goes through the process of how updating a row actually works in an Oracle database was tremendous. His explanation of how a select statement could actually cause a row to be marked as committed ( i.e. a read causes a write ) was great.

I've only been a DBA (or pseudo-DBA) for about 6 months now, so I'm certainly no expert in this area. Yet I found all of his explanations very clear and easy to understand.

If you're looking for a new Oracle book, get this one.

Based on the reviews I read here, I bought the book. I was disappointed. The "humor" and "fun" are overshadowed by the fact that book is shallow in its coverage of music theory. I was especially irritated that it teaches the names Tonic and Dominant, but leaves out the other degrees of the scale. I hope there's something better out there.

Basic Music Theory by Jonathan Harnum, is an excellent book for people of all levels. Whether you are a beginner, or learned musician, this book is a very comprehensive source of material, that is both accessible,easy to read & understand, and very enjoyable. I have played various instruments over 24 years.And because of Harnum's matter of fact, conversational tone, this book has lent more to my understanding of basic music theory than all my private insturctors combined.

As a teacher for the last 11 years, I've always required my students to learn to read music. Reading music is a tool that can allow you to play styles of music that you never knew existed. For many years I searched for a book that did what I thought a music theory book should do: teach with a sense of fun and incorporate humor, interesting facts, and a sense of WHY. I never found a method that fit the bill, so I wrote this book. Learning is so much more interesting when the source is friendly and funny. Thousands of people have bought and used this book. I hope you'll like it, too.

It has been a while since this reviewer tried her hand at the Science Fiction genre, and it is a welcome journey. Domhan books (Irish for universe), is based in the U.S., UK and Ireland. Its mission is to give new writers a voice; experienced authors a new outlet; to bring books to market sooner; keep them in print longer; to break down barriers in genres; and to offer affordable books. They use the latest digital technologies and produce their books in both a paper and electronic format on a global basis. Burn is Texan Jonathan Lyons' first book.

It is twenty-first century New York. John Cage is an ex-cop whose lost his job and his future wife when he ran up against the mighty Expedite Corporation, the foremost computer corporation in the world. Science has eaten its own tail. The skies are filled with acid rain; and humans coexist with androids, Morlocks, binaries, and other assorted chip fanatics. The entire world is on the "net," StellarNet that is...and it functions as "Big Brother."

Cage is approached by Janice Gild, whose brother died in a singularly horrific way...by human combustion. When Cage investigates Gild'sapartment looking for clues, he sees someone watching him through the window:

"Moving around to the far side of the bed, Cage found himself looking absently through the greasy smear of the rain on the man's bedroom window, outinto the drizzle, into the darkness of the night, into -- into a window in abuilding across the street, to a backlit, overcoat-clad figure who's just realized Cagehad spotted him. The figure put something down -- a camera? Small telescope?--and disappeared."

Scientific science fiction must now be subdivided, to include the category of computer-geek science fiction. Burn is a horrifying look at what over-computerization, coupled with unleashed corporate pursuits, can do to our world. As Lyons so aptly conveys in Burn, if science andcomputers are not kept in check we could be left with a world with no beauty, no wood, and no humanity left. It is interesting to note that Lyons can't help but give his androids human characteristics...a la"Star Trek: Next Generation." Burn is a powerful computer/technologicalscience fiction thriller that leaves room for us to grieve for lost humanity. Great first effort!

Shelley Glodowski, Reviewer

This novel is described on the cover as 'A Science Fiction Noir' and it is certainly that, and a dystopia, as disgraced ex-cop, now low-ball private eye Cage, and android Artificial Intelligence-enhanced Jonny Cache (formerly Jennifer 4, programmed domestic and sex servant) join forces to solve the murder of her former owner/friend who died horribly by apparent`spontaneous human combustion [as do three seemingly unrelated others in swift`succession].

The ecological disaster of a world they live in is dominated by Expedite, a ruthless giant corporation which virtually owns governments and privatized police forces, by artificial, fake food and drink, by day-long continent-wide twilight gloom, and by constant acidic black rain. Not a pleasant prospect.

Lyons, a computer and Web expert, has projected a grisly and warped future American society suffused by the super internet and a caste system of the super wealthy vs. the vast underclasses subdivided by often illegal professions, bizarre cults and warped gender-personal social clusters.

"Burn" is Lyons' first novel, and it is an involving, gripping experience. He has created a convincing, detailed hell of a future and peopled it with sympathetic and grotesque denizens who are utterly true to their environments. The omnipresent StellarNet and the amazingly versatile and ubiquitous Personal (computer/phone/controler) is very impressive extrapolation.

I hope there will be more PI Cage and Jonny Cache adventures in this fascinating, ghastly future.

In post-environmental-apocalyptic Old New York City, acidic rains fall in a surreal dirty near-night landscape. In a world where the environment has shifted following corporate brutal abuses intent upon profit, citizens don filter masks and non-reactive coats as a matter of course. NewSchool Grrls, Nouveau Gothics and rogue-boyz populate bars like the Nine Circles, where chip rental outpaces consumption of alcohol, allowing patrons to experience the highs and lows of drugs without the aftereffects.

Cage had once been a career cop with a wife, a good partner and a retirement plan with Expedite Corporation, the corporate sponsors of Old New York's police force. Then he challenged Expedite Corporation and lost his job, his wife and his future in the same day. Now he ekes out a living as a private detective. Janice Gild arrives in Cage's office, hiring him to investigate the death of her brother James. The police attribute the case to spontaneous human combustion and have dropped the investigation. Soon Cage learns that James is not the only person to die this way.

Jonny Cache, a beautiful android, is a netrunner of unique talent, able to slip past any security system undetected. Once she delivers information to those who hire her skills, Jonny burns the information from her memory to the tune of "Ring of Fire," recorded by her namesake in an almost forgotten sunlit era. Jonny achieved sentience because of James Gild. She wants answers to his death. She will begin to find those answers in an online virtual world run by paranormal enthusiasts that leads to a real world meeting with Cage. Together they will attempt to find answers without arousing the attention of Expedite Corporation or the police force it funds.

Debut novelist Jonathan Lyons juxtaposes a frightening futuristic landscape with a hero in the tradition of the 30's private investigator. A corporation runs the world, destroying the environment for profit and funding law enforcement. Despite this bleak landscape, these characters thrive, creating their own unique niches in a world gone wrong, merging their humanity with technology seamlessly. Fans of technoir or cyberpunk will find BURN to be a highly entertaining read, with richly developed characters, and a fast paced plot. Readers will be disappointed to reach the conclusion and left hoping for more! A stunning narrative with haunting possibilities, BURN has earned the WordWeaving Award of Excellence.

This book is exactly what youth workers need--practical, user-friendly, thought-provoking, in-your-face ideas and resources.
As an in-the-trenches youth pastor, I often don't have time to sift through all the myriad articles, books and magazines to find the help I'm looking for. It's the one resource where I am almost always guaranteed to find help--no hype, this is from my own experience. Jonathan is an excellent communicator who has organized this book in a highly usable way.
I highly recommend this book!!

I really enjoyed the practical ideas when working with youth. You can tell this guy knows what he is talking about. Great book for any youth leader.

With this book, Jonathan McKee has created a great resource for anyone who works with students. "Top 12 Resources" is jammed full of practical, effective ideas from a proven leader in youth ministry. It's one of those rare books that you'll actually read more than once!