I didn't really know how to rate this book. As a diary? As history? Should I have rated Trevor-Roper's editing?

So I rated it a "5", but it hardly matters. I don't think anyone will read Goebbel's diary because it's "popular."

My reactions to this book were mixed. I found my opinion of Goebbels as a man and a mind considerably lower after finishing the book. Yes, I knew beforehand that he was a recalcitrant Nazi and mass-murderer. On the other hand, I've read Albert Speer's books, and he always spoke admiringly of Goebbel's intellect. I respect Speer's intellect highly, but I must say that he was wrong about Goebbels. Goebbels in this diary is an ugly, sordid, vicious little man, repeating the same tired mantras again and again, transparently trying to varnish his image for history, and sniping and gossipping about everyone around him. (But then, Speer found himself to be dreadfully wrong about Hitler, too.)

Intellect? I hardly found myself able to discern one in this mess.

Still, I'm glad I read the book. It adds another dimension to my understanding of the Third Reich, and serves as a counterbalance to the other accounts I've read.

But I wouldn't call the experience of reading this book enjoyable.

Growing Slowly Wise is a great study of the book of James and helps to explain the apparent contradiction of Paul's writings with that of James' in regard to faith and works. As Paul would say (Romans 3:28) we are not saved by works, but by faith and faith alone; whereas, James states that a person is justified by what he does and not by faith alone. This apparent contradiction has bothered me since my first reading of James and Roper does a great job weaving the two together into a complete message on faith building. As always Roper shows the reader how the translation of the bible may cause confusion in our interpretation. From James' perspective and to quote Roper "saving faith will always manifest itself in loving deeds." Of course the book touches on many other subjects that are also included in the book of James and Roper does a great job here too. This book could easily be used for group Bible studies, although the leader would need to develop study questions for each chapter. The book contains an introduction and 19 chapters and each chapter can be read in a few minutes. I have rated the book as 5 stars, but my favorite Roper book remains In Quietness and Confidence. This new book comes in a close second. My hat is off to you David Roper you have another winner. Now, take a day off and go fishing.

Written and photographed by the greatest adventure photographer of all time, High and Wild is a must read for anyone who enjoys outdoor adventures. Galen Rowell takes us on many of his greatest outdoor journeys from California to Tibet to Alaska in this large format book. The photos are incredible and the accounts by Rowell make you wish you were there. Sadly, Galen Rowell was killed in a plane crash in August 2002 so the world will be deprived of more of his talented works. This review is for the original version, published in 1979. I look forward to the new version, published in Oct. 2002.

After reading Mr. Roper's "Psalm 23-The Song of a Passionate Heart" I used Amazon's recommended reading to pursue his writing further. I wasn't aware that the book was aimed at men-and it doesn't make much difference anyway, the book is really quite wonderful. Each morning Mr. Roper gently took my hand, urged me to read a snippet of Scripture, then guided my mind and heart to apply God's words to my life. Who could ask for anything more. I already miss his guidance and I have not reached day 31 as yet.

This is another great book by David Roper. He is a gifted writer, encourager, teacher and minister. Describing the life of Jacob, and how God could continue to love him, with all Jacob's sneakiness, failures and human solutions is a great encouragement to me in my daily walk with Christ. What a wonderful description of why and how God can love us in all our repeated failures and sinfullness. The format of the book is just right for a short daily bible study - it takes about 15 minutes. I can't wait for Pastor Roper's next book!

This book was a huge help in boosting my Japanese language capabilities. These idioms, by definition I suppose, are simply not available anywhere else. Once I got beyond basic bonehead Japanese studies, this was the book that I needed to get ahead. Looks like many years of careful listening and research went into the book, thanks Mr. Roper.

This isn't for everyone. Arthur Plantagenet, Baron Lisle, Henry VIII's maternal uncle and the illegitimate son of Edward IV, became governor of Calais, the hotly contested final British stronghold on French soil, in his old age. It was a time of social unrest and the perilous birth of Protestantism. He was accused of treason, and his letters were subpoenaed. Thus, they survive to this day. Muriel St. Clare Byrne edited them into six volumes that tell a narrative tale and paint a genuine portrait of a highly placed Tudor family stuck in turbulent times. Fortunately, there is this one-book abridgement for those of us who don't quite have the stamina to read the whole six volumes.

This can be a difficult read, as you would expect. Some of the legal and real estate squabbles are obscure. On the other hand they involve people like John Dudley, father of Robin, who also turns out to be Plantagenet-Lisle's stepson, and Edward Seymour, brother of Queen Jane. (Both these men, incidentally, become Lord Protector during Edward VI's reign.) And it's fascinating to read genuine letters written by the administrative power, Thomas Cromwell, who is probably the best writer of the lot, though clearly very calculating and political. We also watch as two of Arthur's stepdaughters, through his second marriage to Honor Basset, are forced to vie for positions as ladies-in-waiting to Queen Anne Boleyn, his stepson James Bassett vies to get into the college of Navarre so that he'll be hobnobbing with Princes, future Kings and Cardinals, and a perfectly ordinary courtship between his sister Mary and the son of a French business partner goes sour because of the Reformation. Meanwhile the daily routine of ordinary life shows through with everyone throwing gloves and lace and coats and animals, some as pets, some to eat, at each other, and describing the various states of lands--that they're fighting over, live on, or are absent from. Different readers will get different things out of the wealth of material here. Though everyone will learn a little bit more about why Cardinal Reginald Pole was so important to the machinations of Tudor times. There's even a nice picture of him.

This little book is an excellent introductory text to the changing economic policies applied in Britain in the 1980s and which exemplified the changing policies which came to be applied throughout the world.

Two of the authors, Brian Snowdon and Peter Wynarczyk, developed some of the ideas contained herein in more advanced texts also available through Amazon.

Markets, Intervention and Planning is set in the context of the decline of economic liberalism being supplanted by the Keynesian revolution which itself was overwhelmed by the monetarist counter-revolution. The authors, all members of the economics faculty of Newcastle Polytechnic (now the University of Northumbria at Newcastle) offer differing approaches to the central problem of the extent to which government should be involved in the economy. Writing this review in 2002, one cannot help but ask the further question of how does one define government and it's limits but I digress.

There is a considerable degree of variety in this book, described as a reader not a textbook, variety of perspective, variety of rigour, a variety of styles but for me the variety itself is one of the strengths of the book and it's attractions. Economics is a discipline which is hard to pin down. There are many competing schools of thought and no right answers yet despite it's pretence at being a science. This book should alert people to the fact that there are considerable differences within the subject and those differences should be valued.

Some highlights of the book for me are the two chapters by Roper and Snowdon for their succint and balanced overview and incisive concluding remarks, the Snowdon chapter on the changing fortunes of macroeconomics and Wynarczyk's considered exploration of the feasibilty of a pure market system. There are many good points to this book and all the authors are to be commended for their clarity of thought and comprehensible exposition.

There are very few economics departments who could work together in such a fashion to produce a volume of such a high standard as this. It seems however, that there were no others produced by this particular group.

This book is a useful starting point for anyone interested in tracing developments in economic policy in the UK during the 1980s. Whilst it is not necessarily a rigorous text, it certainly points up many of the issues and raises many questions which the serious student can pursue elsewhere.

Pathways to the Supreme is the culmination of Bede Griffiths' search for the Supreme. It is his last text for publication and enjoins the contents of two notebooks in which he transcribed passages of literature, religion, and philosophy. Beginning with Griffiths' personal credo, he traces the history of the concept of God from primitive times to Christianity utilizing the wisdom of Jacques and Raissa Maritain, Mircea Eliade. Rilke, D. H. Lawrence, Wordsworth, Sophocles, Plato, Chuang-Tzu, Buddha, Tagore, St. Augustine, Eckhart, Tauler, and Kabir. Reading Griffiths' personal notebook is like plumbing the inner cave of his heart.

I found this book is one of the most informative and useful tools for planning and executing a physical security review. To make it even better, I would strongly recommend that the publisher include a CD-ROM or diskette containing the security checklists found at the end of the book.