This book gives you a great insight in what it is important in life and inspires you to take charge of your own life and happiness. It helped me during one of the most difficult periods of my life. I recommend it highly.

This book helped me through one of the toughest times of my life. It made me look at myself in a totally new way, and I came away with such an improved image of myself and my life that I am now truelly happy! Something I thought impossible a year ago. I am not a deeply religious person and that is not a necessity even though the author is a Catholic priest. I have passed it on to my children and hope it will give them a positive start on their young lives.

My ex and I have split up 9 times in 15 years. I started reading Mr. Powell's books about three weeks ago. I have learned so much from John Powell's series already that I believe my ex and I will be able to try one more time to make it work due to these books and the improvement we see in each other and communication already. I was truly inspired by his books to learn about myself, my loved ones, and God. Thanks so much Mr. Powell!!!!

I took this book on a relatively short business flight, from Los Angeles to San Francisco, thinking that it would keep me occupied round-trip. I wish I'd also taken Musser's "To Prison With Love" because I ended up finishing "I Would Have Searched Forever" before we even landed in San Francisco! It was a fascinating read.

I especially recommend this book to adoptees who may be in the midst of a reunion, or planning a reunion, with their families. I have been reunited a little over a year now with my mom and the rest of my natural family and I still have trouble sometimes understanding the circumstances surrounding my mom's surrender of the right to raise me. However, there was much societal pressure in the 50s and 60s for young mothers to give their children to the infertile to raise; that pressure still exists in many adoption arenas today. Sandy Musser not only explains the social conditions that led to the surrender of her first daughter but also the love that she continues to feel for her oldest child. Although she is truly the mother of her daughter, she sometimes underestimates herself as a mother. I imagine that the adoption industry rhetoric, of telling her that she's less than a mother for not raising her first child, has taken a toll on her. Through telling her story, however, she has educated many mothers and allowed them to mourn the loss of raising their children.

I was also deeply moved by the other mothers featured in the book; they described surrendering the rights to raise their children, often after a desperate attempt to keep their babies. I only pray that many young mothers and people who plan to adopt will read this book and realize how much love natural mothers have for their children, whether or not they raise them. Unfortunately, Musser's daughter, although an adult when her mother found her, still seemed to be steeped in adoptee guilt and acted more like a child than an adult concerning their relationship.

We adoptees have so many issues to deal with concerning our adoptions, but through reading Sandy Musser's book, we can begin to heal from the wounds of being separated from our mothers and our families.

This story has so much in common with other moms who've lost there children to adoption. It does not fit the stereotype of women who lose their children to adoption. Everyone should read it to get rid of that stereotype and replace it with reality. Sandy Musser packs so much true adoption information in this book that you won't read in most adoption books. Then read "To Prison with Love" and see how much Ms. Musser evolved in her thinking about adoption.

"I Would Have Serched Forever" shows so much sincerity, trust and most of all the meaning of a Mother's love for her child. In this book the author reaches out to all women,men and children. She tells her story all of it, the good and the bad. This book tells how things were in the days of the "50"s . It truly states how past generations delt with emotional situations. It also shows how our government officials have failed the American people.

Reading the author's story reminds me of the past I grew-up in. The story shows that human beings do make mistakes or bad decisions. The book explains how some decisions were not made by us but for us. We all can learn from this book. We all must learn as the author Sandy Musser Smith learned to trust our Hearts. Sandy shows us that the walls of life are thin. Her love for God shows us to go forward, even go backwards, do what ever we think will make us succeed at the end. The author expresses that truthfullness is the key. Sandy shows us to accept that FAMILY is more than Today!. Family is yesterday and tomorrow, its spouses,parents,relatives,children,friends,pets. Family is what we make it or allow it to be.

The author shows us we shouldn't cast aside our memories. She shows us that the memories are always in our heart and we should be brave like Sandy was and listen to our hearts and do and say what we believe is right.

The author was young when she gave birth to her first child. She taught us that we are all young at one time and need the adults to assist us BUT they shouldn't make decisions for them. We must trust them to make their own decisions. Sandy is a model we can look at and say. YES! this is my choice let me make it on my own! What seems right to everyone or someone else may be wrong for others. The decisions we make to keep secrets of our pasts may hurt the ones we love in the future. She teaches us to trust the ones who really love us and give them the chance to make their own decisions. Try not to forget the bad or the good, just do as Sandy did give your love ones the chance to decide what is best for them!

This book shows the real meaning of life. The author has lived and will live in the Past, Present and in the Future. I will remember this most about her in this book. Sandy Musser Smith trusted herself and remembered the past. Her ability to do this will encourage more people to serch for what belongs to them. May her love for her family last and last and last and lasts forever!

I am looking forward to reading her other book To Prison For Love. A very Special Friend gave me these books to read. I felt like she was talking to me. The book was written from the heart. It made you believe in life and others and it made you want to cheer for yourself and others when someone has a smile on their face because they have had a hole in their heart sealed with true love. There is nothing more precious than a woman's and man's love for a child. Sandy Musser Smith may your books reach the hands of many and then God will be able to guide them to freedom and Truthfullness and True Love of a Parent.

Very informative book. Well organized.

Being a huge fan of dictionaries and encyclopedias; I simply had to examine The Kentucky Encyclopedia by John E. Kleber(Editor), et al. Whilst, I am not a resident of the state of Kentucky ( I live in Atlanta, GA), I have a neverending thirst for knowledge and therefore I thought that it would be pertient for a person of my taste to read and furthermore examine the mentioned item. It starts out with a beatifully detailed map of the state with all the counties; it follows up with a list of all the people whom contributed to this grand project which was printed by the venerable University Press OF Kentucky. The editorial staff section is also a nice touch and shows how much work that is required to produce on of these encyclopedias. The table of contents is also well developed with the following sections: Foreward, Preface, Kentucky: A Historical Overview by Thomas D. Clark, The guide for readers, The kentucky Encyclopedia, Biblographic essay and finally the index. The The first three sections, i.e., the Foreward, the Preface, and the longer article, Kentucky: A Historical Overview by Thomas D. Clark, are all written in a scholarly tone without being stuffy or pretentious. Especially the Clarke article is fascinating in its coverage of the founding of the State of Kentucky. The guide to readers is also helpful for people that are not accustoimed to using encyclopedias. The entries themselves are well written and the font chosen does not detract from the information. For instance if one wants to know whom Charles P. Farnsley was then one should rread p.309 and realize that amongst many things he was the major of Luisville 1948-1953 and that he received his bar in 1930. The index is also a blessing in its ease of use and makes the searching experience very enjoyable. Overall, this is the encyclopedia to get if one is remotely interested in the state of Kentucky and I would definetely recommend it.

If you buy only one book about Kentucky, this is the book to buy. Every aspect of Kentucky history is covered in detail. This is a compilation of articles submitted by over 500 people on various topics ranging from prehistoric Kentucky to modern times. Each one is a facinating description of Kentucky history that reads like a short story. I never tire of reading this book! Is is a must read for anyone who has ever been to or lived in Kentucky.

Loaded with interesting and unusual information about birds, this is a wonderful book for busy birders. It can be read from beginning to end (A to Z) or opened to any page; read for two minutes or an hour; and you will never lose your place! It will make a wonderful gift for your bird watching friends.

The enthusiasm of EH Stickney's writing is infectious. Her book is extremely readable, and is sure to put many a smile on your face as you peruse her entries on the common and not-so-common of our feathered friends. "A Little Bird" is an excellent compendium of fact and folklore that readily distills for the reader those tidbits that are likely to be of most interest. While packed with information, it is not a book that will bog you down. It opened new windows for me (someone who's been interested in birds all his life), but it also would be an excellent way to introduce inquisitive young minds to the world of ornithology. I recommend it highly.

Very informative and interesting history and mythology of the bird world

This is an outstanding and authoritative introduction to heraldry written by two English heraldists, one an officer of the College of Arms in London. The book is well researched and illustrated. Too often heraldic books are reprints or new editions of books from the first part of the 20th Century. This book has contemporary design and language and is well fitted to be the definitive guide at the turn of the 20th Century. It should be included in the library of every person with a serious interest in heraldry.

An excellent introduction to the field by the Somerset Herald. Chapters cover the origins and evolution of the herald's art, the marshalling of arms, the technical aspects of blazoning, and even the proper decorative use of heraldry. The emphasis, naturally, is on Britain, but Europe and the United States are included as well. Very nicely illustrated, too, with a thick section of color plates. And a nice gift book, too.

This is a well-researched, comprehensive analysis of the history of heraldry in both England and Europe. It features several full-color as well as grayscale plates illustrating ancient coats of arms and the evolution of this art to the modern day. A glossary with illustrations is included in the appendix, and it is well-indexed.

What a pity that this pathbreaking work is out of print while publishers flood the bookstores with fantasy-as-history in an unending stream.

Bishop Robinson, a theological modernist whose "Honest to God" made him controversial within the Anglican communion, began this book as what he labels "a theological joke": "I thought I would see how far one could get with the hypothesis that the whole of the New Testament was written before 70", the year in which the Roman army sacked and burned the Temple of Jerusalem. As it turned out, he got much further than he had ever expected, a journey made more impressive by his lack of any predisposition toward a "conservative" point of view.

His conclusion is that there is no compelling evidence - indeed, little evidence of any kind - that anything in the New Testament canon reflects knowledge of the Temple's destruction. Furthermore, other considerations point consistently toward early dates and away from the common assumption (a prejudice with a seriously circular foundation) that a majority of primitive Christian authors wrote in the very late First or early-to-middle Second Century under assumed names.

For want of data, absolute proof of Robinson's thesis is impossible, and the weight of his arguments varies - from overwhelming in the case of the Epistle to the Hebrews through powerful (the Gospels, Acts and the Epistles of John) to merely strong (the Pastoral Epistles, the non-Johannine Catholic Epistles and Revelation).

In a postscript, Robinson reconsiders the dates of several subapostolic works: The Clementine Epistles, the Shepherd of Hermas, the Epistle of Barnabas and the Didache, the accepted dates for which range from the 90's to the latter half of the Second Century. He shows that, freed of the "push" of late dating of the canon, the most natural dates for these writings are earlier and that all could well have been written by 85 A.D.

Whether or not one agrees with every word of Robinson's analysis, he makes his case well and should force all students of the New Testament to rethink seriously the presuppositions that underlie much of what is currently written about First Century Christianity. Of course, that's not likely to happen unless some publisher brings "Redating the New Testament" back into print.

In some ways Robinson's "Redating" is of the same genre as Eisenman's 1997 "James the Brother of Jesus." Unfortunately, Eisenman hardly mentions Redating and certainly fails to give the attention to John's Gospel that Bishop Robinson would have us give. Yet, through Eisenman's focus on James (and subordination of John and Peter) he achieves a higher level of connectivity with other sources (particularly Josephus) and perhaps makes some real progress as to the problem Bishop Robinson, too, thought very real: the surprising lack of contemporary references to Jesus and his colleagues. Robinson would have been pleased at the extension of his work, even if he might not have favored the redactionism of Eisenman.

Robinson argues that the gospels were oral traditions later reduced to writing. Eisenman does not say precisely this, but he would have us conclude that later "foreign" editors and redactors got the names wrong and mixed up, including the names of Joseph, Mary, Mary Salome, Simon and Judas and even Jesus, himself. He tells us what he thinks the real names were and makes connections that follow on from this analysis. One should reread Robinson and then go on to Eisenman.

In the latest reviews it is said that Eisenman does not take us beyond mere plausibility. The same, of course, was true for Robinson. The speculations they make, however, are charged with excitement and are remarkably well integrated and worked out so that the plausibility is worth noting. In the context of their works, they make it plausible that the next discoveries or rediscoveries will yield all the more.

Robert Gray

Dr. Robinson does an excellent job. Tho a difficult read--it's not the Sunday funnies--it is very scholarly. Dr. Robinson's premise is that a very important event in Jewish/Christian history is absent from the New Testament; since the destruction of the Temple (in 70 AD by the Romans) isn't mentioned anywhere in the NT, that indicates a pre 70 AD writing of each New Testament source.

Pieper, in these three essays, describes what we have to learn from the works and life of Aquinas. The essays detail the scholastic arguements of the day and how Thomas, in the true spirit of open mindedness (his life and method are the definition of this oft abused term) brought some peace ond understanding to the various sides, a very serious matter in his day. The book explains how much of an Aristotilian Aquinas was, and more importantly how much he was not. Mainly by showing how the charactoristics of the Latin Averroists have been unjustly attributed to Aquinas by his detractors - the Latin Averoists (Averoes was an Arab) were whole hearted Aristotilians.

This book is an excellent addition to reading Etienne Gilson's "Unity of the Philosophical Experience" as Pieper gives further explanantions as to the behavior of the Augastinians and Latin Averroists. It could explain also why modern Muslims are so singularly textually dogmatic - it is in reaction to Averroist's attempting to rid religion of faith altogether - and thus the violent reaction in nixing reason and rationalism. It tells how Aquinas circumvented this problem. The last essay also compliments Gilson's book in that it shows what Existentialism has in common with Aquinas, some interesting things, despite some gapping fundimental differences at their very root and conclusion.

The first essay vividly descibes what an attitude of accademic pursuit and teaching should look like. Too many teachers are dogmatic and are only interested in pursuing and supporting an idea that is presently clear in their minds and propogating it, rather than treating the moment as an active pursuit of truth. Thomas was a model teacher and the book is an active discripition of his method.

The book also argues, with supporting evidence and reason, that Thomas' main work The "Summa Theologica" was intentionally left unfinished. Why it was left unfinished is at the root of what Aquinas was all about concerning philosophy and metaphysics - it is a process not a conclusion. Gilson's book describes what a conclusion is, as sometimes philosophers have rejected the idea that they have reached a conclusion, when in fact they have. Gilson effectively defines what a conclusion looks like.

Both are highly recommended books for Teachers, Historians, and Philosophers.

St. Thomas Aquinas, needless to say, is not easy to understand. In this little guide, which makes nice supplemental reading to get a look "behind the scenes" of the saint's philosophy, Josef Pieper first sketches a biographical outlines of Thomas' life and then delves into the negative element in his philosophy and concludes with the "timelessness" of Thomism, which makes it a perennial philosophy.

This book is primarily concerned with St. Thomas' epistemological assumptions (which were taken for granted, hence the "silence"), what knowledge meant for the saint, and how and to what extent it can be achieved. Pieper tackles Thomas' seemingly paradoxical stance on essences, and whether or not they can be known, for Thomas maintains both that we cannot know God in His essence and that God's essence is His existence.

Pieper shows St. Thomas' beautiful conviction that "it is part of the very nature of things that their knowability cannot be wholy exhausted by any finite intellect, because these things are creatures, which means that the very element which makes them capable of being known must necessarily be at the same time the reason why things are unfathomable" (p.60).

All in all, this book is a fine look at Thomas' profound epistemology, so rarely discussed in philosophical courses today. If you have an interest in the philosophy of St. Thomas, don't pass this one up!

The unifying theme of the three essays composing this book is the paradox that the intelligibilty of things and their incomprehensibility both derive from their being creatures, that is, from their possessing natures that are communications of the ideas in the mind of God. Things can be known only because they are created, but at the same time, things are unfathomable because they are created: "one and the same factor explains both why things cannot be entirely grasped and why they can be known" (pp.95-6). Why is this so? I'll not deprive the reader of the pleasure of reading Pieper's book to find out.

For me, this book ended a long struggle to discover what St. Thomas Aquinas really taught about our knowledge of things. Pieper succeeds in reconciling Thomas's frequent statements that we cannot know the essence of any created thing with his repeated claims elsewhere that our minds are receptive of the forms (i.e., essences) of things.

While my attitude toward Pieper's understanding of St. Thomas's thought is not uncritical, I must concede that he is one of the best and most original (the two are not the same) of twentieth century Thomist philosophers. Unfortunately, he is sometimes (unjustly) put down by scholars as a mere popularizer. Let them read this book and be disabused; Pieper has much to teach them.

My ratings of other books by Josef Pieper: Guide to Thomas Aquinas ****; Leisure the Basis of Culture *****; Scholasticism *****

this is the book that tells you how to practice all of adlerian great techniques. just buy it, plus hardcover and great paper.

Im reading this book for a Graduate class in Adolscent counseling. Sweeny touches on all the basics of the adlerian approach to counseling. I havent seen many other books on straight adlerian type of counseling so look around first.

John Hersey needs no raves from me. At chronicalling the major events of the 20th century in living prose he has absolutely no peer. In this book he focuses in on the entire racist system acting in one chilling incident of the Detroit Riot of 1967, in which the police, trapping several people of mixed ethnicity tortured some of them, murdered others, and could not be brought to justice.

I am the niece of Carl Cooper, and I am glad that John wrote the book! I was told that John may have been killed over the book. The book told the truth about white cops in those days. My grandmother (Carl Cooper's Mother) has never been the same since my uncle's death. When he died it took apart of her that she will never beable to regain.

A Texas entrepreneur who produced the most productive singlesite retail furniture store in America, Jim McIngvale is justifably known as 'Mattress Mack'. By promising - and delivering - extraordinary service and thinking big about the future, McIngvale built his empire. Always Think Big incorporates the basics of his approach for those who would think big in their own businesses.

"Always Think Big--How Mattress Mack's Uncompromising Attitude Built the Biggest Single Retail Store in America" provides a fascinating, well-written account of Mattress Mack's rise from penniless salesman to multi-millionaire businessman and philanthropist. Mack's combination of attitude, perseverance, and successful marketing techniques have made him a legend in Houston, but "His "Treat Everyone Like a Movie Star" techniques are valuable in any location or arena: small businesses, large corporations, schools, government, charitable organizations.