I can't say that I have read this book...yet, but what I can say is that anyone who endeavours to read any work of Dr. Haykin is in for a real treat. He was my prof. for Church History, and a man whom I am thoroughly impressed with. He is a humble, diplomatic, professional person with a strong heart for God and His glory.
His knowledge on Church History is incredible, especially his understanding of the Reformation, the Puritans, and the Particular Baptist movements. But he cannot be limited there even. I could literally listen to him speak for hours.
I strongly recommend anything by Dr. Haykin as you will become well informed on the topic that he writes about, whether it's Cromwell, Bunyon, Edwards or anyone else.

God bless and enjoy.

The Pilgrim's Progress is the 2nd most famous book in the world. John Bunyan is a genious and the arguments in the book are very convincing and hard to deny. Anyone who believes in "free will" would be turned around if they read this book. It clearly explains that we do not choose God, He chooses us, or rather, he CHOSE us before the foundations of the world. Everything in his book is scriptual and I love it!

John Bunyan's journey toward saving faith parallels my own more closely than any other fellow sinner's. When I first read his story, I grabbed a pen and filled the margins, and all the while my heart whispered, "Comrade!" At once, I was comforted by the realization that though Bunyan was long gone, there had been another human being who had known the same fearsome battles waged on our behalf by the God who never relinquishes what belongs to Him. Those years when I had felt strange and apart from other believers, suddenly became "safe" to recall. For anyone who is still holding on to the arrogant belief that a person chooses God, rather than the other way around, Bunyan's story is for you. It puts all arguments to rest, leaving only humility and worship in its wake.

This is book includes 337 simple reminders of how to achieve success in daily life. These reminders/habits are inspirational and insightful. Thank you for putting it all together in one book.

Wow! This book has given me so many simple techniques to help me accomplish my goals. Instead of having to read a huge book to get motivated I can pick a few ideas from this book and get started immediately. Everyone should read this book!

This little book contains numerous and succinct suggestions on how I can approach and live life--both in the daily here-and-now and the more far-reaching time frames. Its free form can take you in directions you may not expect.

I particularly like how it is practical yet philosophical and can even cause deep reflective thinking. It is also a great resource for quotations and presentations.

Whew! What a book! I've just finished Mountaineers' Honor. How did John ever get so much information, so many characters into it? I never knew that every wide place in the road had skirmishes or battles. It must've been terrible. I've never read that much about the Civil War, and never heard much said about it. John must've done a whopping amount of research! A family farming on an island in the middle of the Kanawha River is amazing. John needs to keep up the good work!

Sibyl Jean Jarvis Pischke
Author of "The Legend of Mammy Jane"

Good Morning:
Received Mountaineers Honor a couple days ago and can hardly lay it down! Then I start reading in the one chapter about places like Buchanan, Lexington, Liberty (now Bedford), Peaks of Otter, Natural Bridge, Fancy Farm. Those are all names of places in the same area where the Parker ancestors lived. We are in that same area at least twice a year for the family reunion held in July and then the genealogy research gathering that we have in October.
As I was reading, it was just like I was right there. The old Liberty Depot was on the opposite of the railroad tracks from where the later depot was built. The later one is now a restuarant called Liberty Station and we stop there at least once or twice a year to eat.
Between the Natural Bridge and Arnold's Valley there is a road going back on a mountain called Parkers Gap Road. That is named for the Parker ancestors who lived in that area.
Just wanted to let you know your book has a double interest for us. Really a great book.
Jan

I have finished reading the book now but, needless to say, in a few weeks I will read it again. A book that I really like, that is what I do to make sure I don't miss anything. The description of events, locations, and so forth is fantastic.....from reading, I can visualize everything in my mind.
The surnames you have used, even though they might not be relatives, ring so true to the area they are from. From having done genealogy research in Calhoun, Roane, Clay, Kanawha, Braxton and surrounding counties, those names all sound so familiar. You have done such a fantastic job on that book plus the genealogy data you have included. You have written the book just the way things were at that time.
The Civil War split many families and you have brought this out in your book so well. Just everything about this book is absolutely great and, like you mentioned at one point, I really hope it becomes a movie!!!
Just keep up the great work...with you and Sibyl both being such good authors, the Jarvis family has been well documented in books. Sure looking forward to your next book and hope you will continue to write books when that one is done.
Jan

Self-published author brings his ancestors new life on the page

By SARAH J. BAKER

After seven years of genealogical research, John M. Jarvis has pieced together three of his ancestors' lives in "Mountaineers' Honor," his recently released novel.

"After six years, there was a story just screaming to be told," he said.

While his research has uncovered ties to thousands, his book focuses on three of his great-great-grandfathers, all West Virginia-area natives who fought in the Civil War.

Joe Engle joined the Union Army as a wagon driver and Tom Jarvis joined the same side's infantry. Nathan Martin took up arms for the Confederacy.

The story jumps from character to character, letting each separately tell his own story of the battles, dedication to the cause and longing for home.

Jarvis did more than sketch a family tree when developing his ancestors' characters.

An aunt contributed a box of documents, including medical records outlining battlefield injuries and poems written by family members, which his characters received in the mail while away at war.

He had some unexpected help fitting the pieces together, too. When he visited the Clark-Jarvis cemetery in West Virginia, he met a woman involved with the local genealogy society. She gave him a stack of papers, a few inches thick, filled with useful information.

"It was pure luck," Jarvis said, recalling the coincidence.

Other times, just when he thought he would have to leave a question unanswered, another great-great-grandchild would send him the answer through a genealogy Web site.

In much detail, Jarvis describes the historically-based troop movements, the senior officers and the scenery.

He poured himself into history books, learning the unit numbers, battle locations and the names of key leaders.

He traveled all over West Virginia and Virginia to see the battle sites.

"I wanted to see the land for descriptions in my story," Jarvis said.

Along the trail, he found a cascading waterfall and natural bridge his ancestors had once traveled.

"I just had to write it in. It was so pretty," the author said.

He especially enjoyed writing about the Battle of Cloyd's Mountain because Joe, Tom and Nathan were all there.

"Since they all three survived and didn't shoot each other, I'm here," Jarvis joked.

Though heavily based on historical fact, the story still summoned Jarvis' imagination.

"I don't know what they said, so I put words in their mouth," Jarvis said.

He called his embellishments in the dialog and action "plausible fiction."

For example, family legend says Tom, the Union infantry soldier, could not read or write. Jarvis wondered how an illiterate man could have earned a position on a general's staff, as records indicate.

"They must have rewarded him," Jarvis speculated, shrugging his shoulders.

At the battle of Cedar Creek, future president Rutherford B. Hayes was trapped under his horse. Historically, Hayes freed himself. But to logically explain Tom's high position, Jarvis wrote that Tom helped Hayes pull his leg from underneath the horse.

Jarvis, born in West Virginia and now living in Radcliff, said his family's roots snagged his interest in junior high school.

Military history had also been a longtime interest. Jarvis grew up as an "Air Force brat" and later spent eight years serving in the Air Force. He is now working at Fort Knox as a field service engineer for Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control.

With 41,398 ancestors' names in his genealogy database, Jarvis doesn't plan to stop digging through family history.

He's now working on a book about ancestors fighting in the American Revolution. Being further back in time, the facts are harder to uncover and the book is likely to include more plausible fiction, Jarvis said.

Ultimately, he wants a trilogy. "Perhaps the War of 1812," he said. "The Jarvises of Kentucky played a big part in it."

This is a an exceptionally well written book that will teach you all you need to know about taking your health to the next level. Clearly written, and easy to understand, this book will change you life for the better. I cannot recommend it enough.

This is the best book I have read for anyone who is truly concerned about their overall health. This book is all about understanding health. A wide variety of topics are covered including; how the body works ,the food your body needs to work best, causes of disease, how to exercise, and the morality of what we eat. This is a clearly written book which will change your life for the better.

Peter Burwash has delivered a book which busts all the myths of the vegetarian diet. This book is written in small bites which are easily digestible for anyone who is interested in taking charge of their health and wants to help the planet in the 21st century. If you are considering making changes in your life then Total Health is the ideal starting place - read this book!

This book is one of the best i've ever read on Greek/Roman myth, and i've read many in my life. This book contains entries on characters rarely found anywhere else such as Nox, the Greek personification of night. As such i often use this book as a measuring stick against other books in this area.

Grant and Hazel have provided a finely grained and authoritative dictionary-style reference that is quite handy for identification of any figure from classical mythology. The book will prove useful for keeping at one's side when reading Homer, Hesiod, Sophocles, Euripides and company. Very helpful appendices include genealogical trees, alphabetical list of classical authors referred to, and clear and informative maps.

Who's Who is an excellent resource, but it is not meant for those who wish to sit down and read Greek myths. The book is set up in an encyclopedic fashion. References to specific Greek mythological figures are easy to locate. However if you are looking for Greek myths in story form, this is not the text for you.

If you want to understand Hauerwas' thought on the issues of the day, as well as his method for doing ethics, begin here. The selection of essays for this text allows you to see many facets of Hauerwas' writing. The opening essays attempt to show how Hauerwas goes about doing ethics. They explore the way narratives impact the living of life and what Christian discipleship looks like. The later essays explore particular social issues, such as war, capitalism, sex, and medicine. The introductions and conclusion by other authors help to understand some of Hauerwas' thought. The essays in this book range from complex to simple and straightforward. There is something here for everyone, though some of the essays might be a struggle for those who are unaquainted with Theology and Ethics. Be prepared to disagree with some of the things Hauerwas says. However, if you want a thought-provoking book that deals with the issues of the day, this is it.

This is the collection of essays through which I was introduced to Stanley Hauerwas. I wish I had begun reading him sooner. Hauerwas' arguments are clear and to the point, and some of his comments are jarring; but then, we need to be shaken from our complacency. I like that fact that Hauerwas can combine what is sometimes an abrasive manner with humility. He truly seems concerned not only with whether we think through these problems, but also with whether we properly understand what the problems are that confront us as Christians. I recommend this book to anyone who is concerned with ethics and especially the manner in which Christians should respond to the issues of the day.

Stanley Hauerwas is probably the most influential contemorary Christian ethicist. While prolific, Hauerwas can be frustratingly difficult to read, especially if one's goal is to get a sense for his overall "system." (He avoids this last word like the plague.) This anthology provides an excellent way to learn Hauerwas's approach to contemporary Christian ethics and his views on a range of topics.

As a twenty-something, I really don't know much about John or Robert Kennedy other than the vague "Camelot" fantasies tossed around. I acquired this book as part of my recent appetite for understanding JFK/RFK.

I found it to be a light-weight overview of the major periods of JFK's life, along with some information on RFK and Jackie. While it revealed a few new things I hadn't heard before, this book is really of interest primarily as a coffee table book for ocassional perusal, and not for study. It's a great combination of stories you will have heard and pictures you have already seen.

The accompanying CD, however, is particularly interesting in what it reveals about JFK the man and his way of being. Overall, I enjoyed it.

there are over 250 pictures ans documents, it's very complete. the texts are interessing, not boring.
there is a cd also.
we can hear a few dialogues,. there is one with rfk and on the 14 tracks we can hear young caroline.
there is part to rfk and jbk too.
so I enjoyed it.

John F. Kennedy: The Presidential Portfolio features more than 250 photos and documents from the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum that capture the essence, style, and excitement of the Kennedy presidency. Included in these pages are the artifacts from a lifetime young Jack's letter requsting to be made Godfather to his brother Teddy, a handwritten fragment of the inaugural adress, correspondence from Nikita Khrushchev, Martin Luther King, Jr., Jacqueline Bouvier Kennedy, Robert F. Kennedy and many others. Providing the backdrop for these images is a carefully rendered narrative highlighting the many remarkable events of Kennedy's life and his presidency: the tremendous physical ailments JFK had to overcome on a daily basis, his privileged chilhhood, transformation from reluctant student to Pulitzer Prize - winning author, dramatic political campaigns, struggle over the Cuban missile crisis, and his efforts to end segregation as well as counter nuclear proliferation, are all recounted here.

To Enhance The Experience of reliving the Kennedy years, a riveting 60 - minute audio CD of JFK'S phone conversations and personal dictations is packaged with the book. The following is a list of the recordings.

- An undated memoir entry concerning JFK'S entrance into politics.

- A dicated letter (circa 1959) to Joseph P. Kennedy on election and poll results.

- A dictated letter (circa 1959) to Jacqueline Kennedy on weekend in Rhode Island.

- Phone Conversation with Sargent Shriver recorded on April 2, 1963 regarding keeping CIA out of the Peace Corps.

- Three phone conversations with Ross Barnett recorded on September 30, 1962, regarding the University of Mississippi crisis.

- Phone conversation with Richard J. Daley recorded on October 28, 1963 regarding the civil rights bill.

- Phone conversation with Charles Halleck recorded on October 29, 1963 regarding the civil rights bill.

- An undated phone conversation between JFK and RFK concerning articles in Newsweek and Time magazines.

-Phone conversation with Dwight D. Eisenhower on October 22, 1962 regarding Cuban missile crisis.

- Phone conversation with Dwight D. Eisenhower on October 28,1962 regarding Cuban missile crisis.

-Phone conversation with Lincoln White on October 26,1962 regarding comments to the press concerning Cuban missile crisis.

- A dictated memoir entry dated November 1963.

I admit, it's been a long time since I've picked up a science fiction book with the intent of reading it. I've been disenfranchised with the entire genre as a whole since I tried stomaching a few bad novels. But, lo and behold, this one made me sit up and take note! There is hope yet!

This novel in particular I was pleased with because of its historical accuracy to the Renaissance period while being unafraid to drop in a bit of alien involvement here and there. The main character, John Dee, is also particularly endearing. While he's easily recognizable as the protagonist and the one who is supposed to "save the world" (such as it is) he's still a bit of a scoundrel and a villain. I would, without a doubt, recommend this novel.

Co-authors Armin Shimmerman and Michael Scott have done an *excellent* job in creating a believable, though often bleak, view of Earth's near future. This is good, solid science fiction, with aliens, advanced technology, societal commentary, the threatened end of the world as we know it -- all the best SF elements. Better still, the characters and dialogue are *fantastic* -- especially the hero, Dr. John Dee. An incredibly complex person, admirable yet by no means a saint, strong and self-sufficient yet sympathetic. The supporting characters are also intriguing and well developed. If this could be a series of novels, I'd love to see and learn more of Dr. Dee... on the other hand, after his amazing feats of derring-do in this book, any further adventures would run the risk of feeling anti-climactic! The "Star Trek" references scattered here and there through the story are certainly fun -- but you don't have to like "Trek" to appreciate this book. It's a though-provoking, self-contained story in the best traditions of classic SF -- and Dee is a unique, exciting hero. Don't miss this one!

I think this book is the best I've read in a longtime. Fans of Armin Shimerman will love this. It is his first I've read outside of his Startrek books, but it won't be the last!

I had read Stephen Hawking's Universe years ago, but when it was brought to my attention again recently I decided to reread it, something I rarely do. I have to admit, it fares well despite the passing of time ( it was written in the mid-80s). This is in part because it is one of the better and simpler introductions to cosmology and the history of the Big Bang Theory. It is also due to the charming personal details woven through the book by its author and relating to Stephen Hawking the man.

As most of those who follow cosmology probably already know, Stephen Hawking is afflicted with a serious neuromuscular disease. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease (after the baseball player who died of the disorder) had confined Hawking to a wheelchair by the writing of the book and has since put him on a portable ventilator. Having worked with people suffering with this disorder earlier in my career, I can attest both to the seriousness of the malady and to my surprise that the gentleman has survived as long as he has. Both facts make his intellectual achievements, the dedication of his caretakers, and his own personal tenacity for life very real to me and very impressive.

John Boslough, the author, is a scientific journalist. He appears to understand physics at least well enough to describe it for the layperson, and does so in a readable style. He also creates a biography that is flattering to the subject without diminishing the contributions of others to the field. The book is, however, extremely simple, more of a history of the development of the theory of the big bang and black holes than a thorough explanation of them, and the interested reader would do well to look at Hawking's own popular writings on the subject for a more thorough and professional point of view. My only complaint about the book would be that it does not contain any form of bibliography, a resource I always consider one of a book's most valuable assets. It helps the reader to find material for further study, and it also provides a measure of the preparedness of the author on his topic!

I'd recommend the book to any beginner who is curious about the Big Bang Theory, about black holes, the Theory of Relativity, the Theory of Quantum Mechanics, or about Stephen Hawking. I would also say that any person from junior high level or above would be able to understand the material.

This small book, originally written in 1984, was and is still revealing.
Firstly, on a personal level, Hawking admitted already at that time that "As far as theoretical physics are concerned, I'm already ... quite far over the hill'.
Secondly, it gives an excellent explanation of Hawking's contribution to theoretical physics (black holes and their similarities to the beginning of time).
Thirdly, Hawking has outspoken opinions about the anthropic principle (against), the universe of Eastern mysticism (an illusion), the many universes theory (not meaningful) or determinism ('Even if we do achieve a complete unified theory, we shall not be able to make detailed predictions in any but the simplest situations').

This booklet offers also excellent examples for the theories of relativity and quantum mechanics and contains Hawking's Inaugural Lecture 'Is the End in Sight for Theoretical Physics?'

Although this book is, from a theoretical point of view, out of date (no superstrings), it should not be missed.

As a non-science-type-person I read this book with the sense of shame and guilt that was customarily heaped upon purchasers of "Cliff Notes" by our school English teachers. This is a layman's guide to Hawking for people who are too intimidated to read Hawking, but as such it is a very good piece of work, and the discussion of the Big Bang, black holes, pulsars and quasars are well interspersed with aphoristic comments by Hawking himself.

This book is basically a manual for Unicode 3.0. It is not a light read but well worth the price and then some just for the glyphs from all of the various scripts that Unicode supports.

At 1040 large (8.5 x 11) pages it is the ultimate guide to unicode. With information on scripts and glyphs I had no idea even existed.

However if you are just getting started with Unicode I would recomend you get Unicode a Primer written by Tony Graham from M&T books. If you understand or feel you are starting to understand Unicode then The Unicode Standard Version 3.0 is the best comprehensive reference on the subject out today.

Consider it an overview of the developing UNICODE standard. As such, it will serve the engineer working on software in English and many other European countries rather well. It will be a good _starting_ _point_ for engineers developing software for other languages.

This book is essential for software engineers, at least for the next ten years or so. All programmers should understand characters, and UNICODE is the best we have for now. Even if you don't need it in your personal library, you need it in your company or school library.

The standard is flawed, as all real standards are, but it is a functioning standard, and it should be sufficient for many purposes for the near future.

The book itself is fairly well laid out, contains an introduction to character handling problems and methods for most of the major languages in use in our present world as well as tables of basic images for all code points. Be aware that these are _only_ basic images. For most internationalization purposes, be prepared for more research. (And please share your results.)

**** Finally, UNICODE is _not_ a 16 bit code. ****

(This is well explained in the book.) It just turned out that there really are over 50,000 Han characters. (Mojikyo records more than 90,000.) UNICODE can be encoded in an eight-bit or 16-bit expanding method or a 32-bit non-expanding method. The expanding methods can be _cleanly_ parsed, frontwards, backwards, and from the middle, which is a significant improvement over previous methods.

Some of the material in the book is available at the UNICODE consortium's site, but the book is easier to read anyway. One complaint I have about the included CD is that the music track gets in the way of reading the transform files on my iBook.

This is not just a reference for computer people, but for anyone interested in alphabets, symbols and character sets.

Central to the book, taking up the larger part of it, are the tables of the characters themselves, printed large with annotations and cross-references. If you enjoy the lure of strange symbols and curious writing systems then browsing these will occupy delightful hours.

For the Latin alphabet alone there are pages of accented letters and extended Latin alphabet characters used in particular languages or places or traditions: Pan-Turkic "oi", African clicks and other African sounds, obsolete letters from Old English and Old Norse, an "ou" digraph used only in Huron/Algonquin languages in Quebec, and many others, particularly those used for phonetic/phonemic transcriptions.

The Greek character set includes archaic letters and additional letters used in Coptic.

Character sets carried over from previous editions with additions and corrections are Cyrillic (with many national characters), Armenian, Georgian, Hebrew, Arabic (again many national and dialect characters), the most common Hindu scripts (Devanagari, Bengali, Gurmukhi, Gujarati, Oriya, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam), Tibetan, Thai, Lao, Hangul, Bopomofo, Japanese Katakana and Hiragana, capped by the enormous Han character set containing over 27,000 of the most commonly used ideographs in Chinese/Japanese/Korean writing. Then there are the symbols: mathematical/logical (including lots of arrows), technical, geometrical, and pictographic. You'll find astrological/zodiacal signs, chess pieces, I-Ching trigrams, Roman numerals not commonly known, and much more.

Scripts appearing for the first time this release are Syriac, Ethiopic, Unified Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics, Cherookee, Runes, Ogham, Yi, Mongolian, Sinhala, Thaana, Khmer, Myanmar, complete Braille patterns, and keyboard character sets. And yes, there are public domain/shareware fonts available on the web that support these with their new Unicode values.

There are very good (and not always brief) descriptions of the various scripts and of the special symbol sets. Rounding out the book are some involved, turgid (necessarily so) technical articles on composition, character properties, implementation guidelines, and combining characters, providing rules to use the character properties tables on the CD that accompanies the book. After all, this is the complete official, definitive Unicode standard.

Of course this version, 3.0, is already out-of-date. But updates and corrections are easily available from the official Unicode website where data for 3.1 Beta appears as I write this. My book bulges with interleaved additions and changes. And that's very good. Many standards have died or been superceded because the organizations behind them did not keep up with users' needs or the information was not easily accessible.

Caveats?

The notes on actual uses of the characters could be more extensive, particularly on Latin extended characters. More variants of some glyphs should be shown, as in previous editions, if only in the notations.

Some character names are clumsy or inaccurate (occasionly noted in the book), because of necessity to be compatible with ISO/IEC 10646 and with earlier versions of the Unicode standard. For example, many character names begin with "LEFT" rather than "OPENING" or "RIGHT" rather than "CLOSING" though the same character code is to be used for a mirrored version of the character in right-to-left scripts where "LEFT" and "RIGHT" then become incorrect. And sample this humorous quotation from page 298: "Despite its name, U+0043 SCRIPT CAPITAL LETTER P is neither script nor capital--it is uniquely the Weierstrass elliptic function derived from a calligraphic lowercase p."