The book of answers. Answers are what this book gives. It's a collection of all the wise and unwise advice ever given. Easy to use, easy to read and easy to remember what it says. If you were stuck on an island, all you'd need is this gem of a book to get through the emotional turmoil. It's a book you'll never finish, but always enjoy!

The psalms are at once poetry, music, prayer, liturgy, and song. Their universal appeal comes from their capacity to express what we feel and that for which we yearn. In their original Hebrew, the psalms taken together were Israel's poetic and musical repertoire and served not only an expressive, but a sacred, purpose. In their manifest forms, the psalms give voice to the deepest human emotions and spiritual aspirations.

In the "Poets' Book of Psalms," poet Laurance Wieder has tapped into the enormous poetic resonance of the psalms and produced a unique psalter, an anthology of the 150 psalms translated by twenty-five English poets from the sixteenth to the twentieth centuries. His selections are interesting. They range from the obvious -- Milton, Donne, Herbert -- to the less so -- Burns, Coleridge, Vaughan -- to the virtually unknown -- Mary Sidney Herbert, George Wither, and George Sandys.

Wieder brings suitable talents to the enterprise. He is himself the author of "One Hundred Fifty Psalms," the first complete psalter written in English since Christopher Smart wrote the "Psalms of David" in 1765. He also is the co-editor of "Chapters into Verse," a magisterial two-volume anthology of poetry in English inspired by the Bible.

Like anyone who knows poetry, I wondered about some of Wieder's choices. He provides a cogent answer in his Introduction by clearly enunciating his criteria for inclusion: 1. that the works stand as poetry, not just translation, 2. that the poems be without anachronisms, 3. that the version should imitate the form, not just the content, of the original, 4. that the plain be preferred to the fancy (hence the underrepresented metaphysics!), 5. that the language be accessible to modern readers, and 6. that anonymous works and versified songs be excluded. With these criteria in hand, I could understand why there were more poems by Mary than George Herbert, more by John Hall than John Milton, and only one by John Donne.

A useful feature of the collection is its appendix containing The Book of Psalms from the King James (or Authorised) Version of the Bible, probably the best known psalter in English. Wieder, quite rightly in my estimation, regards these poems as having "authority but not a living person's voice." Personally, I think he might have done just as well, if not better, if he had included Miles Coverdale's translations in the Book of Common Prayer as his counterpoise. They have both authority and a living presence as poems read and spoken today.

Welborn's collection of studies operates with the assumptions of the social histories approach. The five essays patiently draw upon textual parallels from Greek and Roman literature to demonstrate the conventional way in which we can assume ancient audiences would have heard certain expressions, the use of certain terminology, or specific linguistic phrasing to implicate some larger cultural conception. Obviously, the essays in this volume will primarily interest folk in NT studies, but the way in which Welborn uses the rhetorical tradition to adjudicate well-rehearsed debates and arrive at new conclusions should be of interest to anyone who appreciates scholarship capable of exploring ancient texts that have continuing relevance in their historic literary and social context.

The state of Israel is now more prosperous and powerful than at any time in its short history. It has the most vibrant economy in the Middle East. Many believe that the Zionist-Arab conflict, that had marked much of Israeli history in its first half century, is now coming to a peaceful closure. Israel, and the Zionist ideology that led to its establishment, is clearly on the winning side.

And yet, more than ever before, Israel is a fiercely divided society, obsessed with questioning its very fundamentals: its own ideological roots, its raison detre as a Jewish state, its sense of identity, its own historical narrative. In short, despite the unprecedented success of the Zionist project, there is no rest in Zion. The meaning of that Zionist project is hotly debated among Israeli intellectuals.

In this excellent book Laurence Silberstein produced the first comprehensive intoroduction, designed primarily for Jewish-American readers, on the state of the debate about the Israeli predicament. But Silberstein did more than just that. He was able to contribute original cultural insight--both on the theoretical and historical levels--that allows to decode and map the debate afresh even to its own participants. I expect this book would suprise and edify some of those participants.

This is an important book for all those who wonder (and care) where Israel is going.

Preparing A Nation's Teachers: Models For English And Foreign Language Programs is a collection of twelve reports offering educators and administrators insightful perspectives on making departmental colleagues aware of current concerns in undergraduate preparation in language and literature, establish relations with specialists in education, develop ties with local and state secondary school systems, respond to academia's diverse student population, and work for change within the financial constraints of an educational institution's budget. Preparing A Nation's Teachers also provides models for English and foreign language majors, study-aborad programs, collaborative projects with local secondary schools, and introductory courses and capstone courses for majors. Highly recommended for college and university faculty and departmental administrators, Preparing A Nation's Teachers is replete with practical, effective, invaluable advice for examining educational programs and initiating successful reforms.

Like its predecessor, "Reading and Understanding MORE Multivariate Statistics" achieves exactly what its title implies. Geared toward non-statisticians in behavioral and social science fields, this book provides clear and reasonably simple explanations of common multivariate analyses. This book includes special attention to scales of measurement, reliability and generalizability theory, item response theory, and assessing the validity of measurement. In addition, it covers cluster analysis, Q-technique factor analysis, structural equation modeling, canonical correlation analysis, repeated measures analysis, and survival analysis. The authors present the conceptual underpinnings, underlying assumptions, and basic procedures for each analysis with a minimum of equations and many concrete examples. The book not teach you how to perform the analyses but does provide references for those who wish to get more detailed information. As a research scientist who doesn't always remember everything I learned in graduate statistics class, I find this book an invaluable aid keeping up with the current literature in my field and in making the most of statistical consultations. This book is ideal for anyone whose job requires them to be a "consumer" of research; for researchers who wish to further their understanding of data analysis; and as a companion text for graduate statistics classes.

I am not alone in thinking that Room by laurence Fearnley is one of the best works of fction to come out of New Zealand in recent years. Shortlisted for the Montana New Zealand book awards (new zealand's premier book awards) in 2001 - Room tells the story of Amelia Walsh, a doctor who works in an abortion clinic in Christchurch , New Zealand. The book focusses on both the personal and political nature of Walsh's work: her own lonliness, her connection with her patients (told through a series of scripted dialogues), and the problems she encounters with increasingly threatening anti abortion protesters. One of the main strengths of the book is its sparse yet poetic imagery - characters and places are rendered visible in a super-realistic manner which insures that the book never falls into sentimenatlity or, on the other hand, didactics. The character of Amelia is extrememly complex and her realtionships with her now dead mother, her ex husband and the father of one of her teenae patients are extremely moving - particularlyin the way that she defnds herself against intimacy and its resulting vulnerability. This book is groundbreaking. It should be a film - sowell is it imagined that every character and incident rings true - the feelings are so sharp that they occassionally proke a wince in the reader. Ultimately this is a book about love and the failure of love far more beautifully told than many books I have read.

Don't be put-off by the title, this is no dusty, boring tome. Mr. Cooper obviously did his homework on this one, and communicates his interpretation of Rousseau's ideas in a way we residents of the 21st century can relate to. This should be required reading for George W. and Al Gore - and anyone else who thinks he/she can run a country!

One has not only limited amount of money to spend on books, but limited time to read them as well. If you fall asleep reading the better known ("classic") pediatric textbooks, but find the spiral-bound handbooks inadequate, this manual is the perfect choice for you. It contains no photos and has few illustrations. You can forget about small-lettered, endless lists and depressing tables. What this book has is concise, easy-to- find and easy-to-read, practical, relevant and REALLY useful information about almost every topic you could encounter in a clinical setting. The important facts are highlighted as "key" information: key clinical findings, key laboratory findings, etc. If you study for the boards, has a round in five minutes or just need some refreshing between patients, you will find this book amazingly helpful.

This is a great book for grade schoolers interested in scorpion biology and natural history. Gary (Dr. Polis) was one of the world's most gifted experts on scorpion biology and ecology. Sadly he perished in March 2000 on a research expedition off of the coast of Baja California. This book about an interesting and fun scientist and the little monsters that he was so fond of will spark the adventurer/scientist in any girl or boy. I bought this book for my child and I recommend it to any parent