I ordered The Vegetable Bible because I was interested in top notch vegetable recipes. When I received the book and perused it thoroughly, it was more encyclopedic in content with copious, fabulous photographs instead of a recipe book. Tuebner is painstakingly thorough and for someone who wants to master every conceivable vegetable, their origin, seasonal info, best way to cook them, etc.... this is the book to buy. For someone who would like alot of recipes, this isn't the book to get....Deborah Madison's "Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone" would be more suitable. The above mentioned does not include many photographs, however.

I did return the cookbook for the lack of recipes.

This cookbook is a good introductory book on vegetables. It has a lot of pictures of vegetables, vegetables dishes, and techniques in preparing vegetables. Content-wise, the cookbook starts with a pretty good introduction to the health aspects of vegetables followed by an encyclopedia of different vegetables. It's not a comprehensive encyclopedia but the vegetables that it portrays, it gives historical as well as botanical info. Some Asian vegetables are mentioned in the encyclopedia. There's a section on the practical aspects of preparing vegetables and a wide variety of recipes involving varied cooking techniques such as raw to boiling to stuffing to braising to sweating. There's a fair number of recipes with some international flavor (European, Asian) but I think this cookbook is good for getting an overview of vegetables, in terms of historical info, health info, the different ways to cook vegetables, and a nice selection of recipes but not too overwhelming. But this is the cookbook to get about vegetables if you like pictures, more than 1000 color photographs!

The Alevis of Turkey are one of the largest, most mysterious, and least familiar religious minorities of the Middle East. Even their numbers are unknown (estimates range from 6 to 20 million) and their history is murky (they seem to have emerged as a community in the sixteenth century). The handsomely produced proceedings from a 1996 conference go a long way toward providing reliable information on this large population with a vast potential to affect Turkish public life. The one problem with Alevi Identity, at least for most readers, has to do with its being pitched for fellow experts; the volume lacks introductory chapters, a glossary, an index, and the other features that would make its subject more accessible.

In brief, the Alevis are one of the Shi`i groups so remote from the Sunni mainstream (like the Druze, the Ahl-i Haqq, and the `Alawis of Syria) that their adherence to Islam is in doubt. They have little use for the Qur'an (which they believe is missing hundreds of verses about `Ali ibn Abi Talib, the central figure of their faith), they do not attend mosque, and they ignore many of the Islamic regulations. Alevis had a rough time of it during the Ottoman period but their status improved with the Republic, which they enthusiastically backed. A profound change took place in the 1970s, when a new generation of Alevis, growing up in the cities and well-educated, turned to leftist politics as a hallmark of their identity, to the detriment of organized religion.

The Alevi tradition, unwritten and unsophisticated, now must modernize if it is to hold on to the youth and survive. This means either establishing itself as a valid, if heterodox, variant of Islam or, as the more assertive elements would have it, declaring Alevism to be "outside Islam" and its adherents not Muslims. Failing the success of either of these options, the Sunnis of Turkey and the Twelver Shi`is of Iran both avidly seek to bring Alevis into their fold. Religiously, Alevis faces a choice: join with either Sunni or Twelver Shi`i branches, become an independent grouping within Islam, or identify as non-Muslims. Before long, which direction they will go should become apparent.

Middle East Quarterly, March 2000

Helen Eichstaedt lovingly writes the life of her grandmother-in-law in this book. Wonderful details about the life of an immigrant, and the hard times of a pioneer but there are some parts that were not well researched. For example, she writes that Theodore Roosevelt was elected President in 1900 (he became President in 1901 upon President McKinnley's death and wasn't elected in his own right until 1904.) If one can overlook these types of errors, the book is a warm look back at a brave woman who lived through some amazing times.

Although I was new to the study of Ayurveda, with this book I found the right tool to cause a profound improvement in my health. The system seemed complex at first, but I soon realized one doesn't have to master it in order to begin applying its principles. Even without delving into the use of herbal formulas, I found much information here in terms of food choices and lifestyle that I could understand and implement immediately. The author explains that Ayurveda is an understanding of the nature of things, and the individual ". . . within the context of the whole or Mother Nature." Everything is unique yet interrelated, and ". . . Ayurveda strives to understand how your organism functions, how your metabolism functions, how your mind functions." He explains Ayurveda's many-faceted approach to understanding disease as a progression from prolonged imbalance, and then provides the knowledge for recognizing imbalances in your own body and positive approaches for correcting them . For me the most useful information came from the author's attention to diet and lifestyle as major contributing factors. Realizing the connection between certain foods and specific health issues in individual body types gave me the power to target my own areas of concern - and it works! I noticed changes right away and even more profoundly a few weeks down the road. Ayurveda is a wide system of study and there is a lot of information in this book. I often refer back to it. If you are looking for ways to help yourself to health, and have wondered how your lifestyle and dietary habits specifically affect your body, you will know yourself (and treat yourself !) much better after reading this book.

I found this book to be most interesting because it made me think about my own family stories in an entirely new way. Why do we care about certain traits, how we define ourselves, what measures success - the answers are buried in those family stories - the ones we choose to retell, that is. I have used this book in classes, as well as in rethinking my own family. Fun, and thought provoking.

"Books and My Food" was originally published in 1904, and it is co-authored by Elisabeth Luther Cary and Annie M. Jones. Cary was an American literary and art critic, and Jones was the author of a cookbook.

This book contains 365 entries--one for each day of the year. Each entry begins with a quotation--either from literature or a quote by a literary giant, and each quote involves food. Writers quoted include Dickens, Thackeray, Austen, Bronte, Lewis Carroll, Shakespeare, George Eliot, and many many more. The entry for the day then explains how to prepare the item mentioned in the quote--for example February 20th's entry is a quote by Thackeray complaining about boiled mutton, and then the authors describe how boiled mutton should be cooked.

All of the recipes are simple--you won't have to raid the spice traders for most of them--however--at the same time, most people really wouldn't want to actually cook a great deal of the recipes. Tastes have changed--most of us, for example, wouldn't be interested in September 23rd's offering of fried frogs' legs, or June 7th's boiled marrow bones, and then there's always March 23rd's boiled bacon.

Nonetheless, the quotes are marvellous, and I finally discovered on April 26th--exactly what syllabub is--and if I am ever inspired, I know how to make it.

The index at the back of the book very helpfully lists all the recipe items--a handy feature. One word of warning, however, this book is not for the inexperienced cook. The recipes do not include traditional oven temperatures, but refer instead to "a hot oven," "a quick oven", and some recipes lack any reference to oven temperatures at all, so you are on your own. This book is more for the peculiarity aspects than the practical cook book approach.

This is going to be a combination rating. First of all, in content Fiorenza's book is easily 5 stars. She is exceptionally insightful into the process and presuppositions of biblical interpretation. One important stance that I appreciate is her argument that no interpretation of the biblical author's intended historical meaning is unbiased (like most claim to be). In other words, it's not possible for anyone interpreting the Bible to arrive at an objective historical evaluation of the text. Why? Because both the biblical authors and the Bible's interpreters are framed by their own social and political status. We must recognize this for two reasons. One, to see that the biblical culture and all mainstream interpretation comes from men, which subconsciously supports male dominance. And two, to hear the voices of women, those submerged in the biblical story and those who have not participated in biblical interpretation. When we hear all people's voices, especially those of the oppressed, we can free the biblical text from existing as historical "stone" to speak to us today as "bread" to the equality and justice that God intends!

As for readability this work is usually difficult going, and here I can only give it 3 starts. This is a very scholarly piece and requires a lot of patience for the average reader (like myself). Make sure you read the 1995 reprint of the book, which contains an Afterword that is very helpful in summing up her takes and includes her reflections on reviews of the book. If I were just starting out on this quest, this isn't the first book on biblical interpretation I'd read. Maybe start out with an easier work like Feminist Biblical Interpretation by Letty Russell, and especially Fiorenza's article in it.

All in all this is a great book. I feel fortunate to grasp probably only a small part of what she is thinking. I will be reading her follow-up books to this one: But She Said and Sharing Her Word. If you have patience, you will be truly blessed by Fiorenza's powerful insight into biblical interpretation, and you will see that the Bible from the eyes of women is equally as valid as from the eyes of men, and must be heard! (And if anyone out there knows how to get any of her lectures on tape, please let me know.)

Indepth research into a Tantric goddess that crosses over the boundries of Buddhism and Hinduism. Excellent background history for those interested in Tantra and Eastern religions.

This is an awesome book. I read it over 10 years ago, and still remember the sensation of awe at the ideas presented by the author. If you want a fresh look at the extrapolations that the theory of evolution makes possible, do read this book. (and if you find a copy, lemme know where you found it!!)

Kubler-Ross shares with us her life's work experiences with death and dying persons and how dealing with our own death parallels with our everyday life choices. Death comes to us in small ways everyday. There are many things in life that we have to die to, inner growth depends on this. Dying to small things prepares us for the moment of bodily death. Our ego for one thing is the hardest to die to, how we love to be right and not give in to someone else's opinion, how we love to be recognized for our work, our successes, our education, our money, our home, cars etc. To let go of our ego takes a lifetime but it is well worth the effort and gives you acceptance and peace of soul. The practice of letting go in small things prepares you for the bigger decisions of life. Your life becomes less petty and more human, less superficial and more realized, less important and more compassionate. It is not an easy lesson but one worth working through the stages of death and dying. Victor Frankl in his book "Man's Search for Meaning" also show how finite is our existence. Anthony DeMello in his book Sadhana: Way to God reveals how important it is to detach ourselves from desire and also the Dalai Lama lives a life full of compassion although he has been exiled from his own country for over 35 years. To be or not to be that is the question.