Dr. John F. Crosby's "The Mystery of 'Fair Love,'" contained in this collection of essays, is one of the best introductions to Pope John Paul II's theological anthropology, "theology of the body," and thought on human sexuality available. Rarely does one find such insight and concise clarity in one place. Follow up this essay with the Pope's works collected in Pope John Paul II on the Genius of Women and/or Theology of the Body, both available through Amazon.

So much coverage of John Paul II presents him as a politician or a superstar. This book explains his role as a thinker. And it does a good job showing the theory behind the battles at the UN and the battle to restore orthodoxy---or just a little sanity---within the Catholic church.

John Paul II, the philosopher pope, is the most intriguing thinker of our time. But it's not easy to plow through the mass of encyclicals, adresseses, and books. This work provides an excellent study of the Pope's thought. Special kudos to John Crosby for showing the phenomenological side of the pope and to Joseph Koterski for unraveling the Thomist side.

I wasn't sure what to expect with this anthology, but I found myself enthralled from beginning to end. Nnedi Okorafor's "Crossroads", Seth Lindberg's "Atropos", and James Dorr's "Madness" were special delights.

A great mix of chilling, horrifying, and otherwise entertaining stories.

This is a great compilation of magic, madness, culture and creativity. All of the stories were pretty satisfying, some of them terrifying! There are some writers here that are going to go places. Watch for the authors of the two longest pieces, Nnedi Okorafor (her story is called Crossroads) and James S. Dorr (he wrote a story called Madness).

"Compelled To Appear In Print, The Vicksburg Manuscript of General John C. Pemberton" was a work-in-progress for the past 137 years. David M. Smith brings it to the light of day with the justice it deserves. His views and those of Edwin C. Bearss, Historian Emeritus, National Park Service will secure this work among the finest written on the Confederacy for years to come. Let's hear more from him!

This book is built on a newly-discovered, never published manuscript by Confederate General John Pemberton, commander at Vicksburg when it surrendered to Grant. The manuscript itself is substantial...85 pages in this book's format. To position the manuscript, Dave Smith has written an excellent summary of the Vicksburg Campaign. Further, he adds a chapter on the conflicts and issues in the relationships among Pemberton, General Joseph Johnston (Pemberton's superior), and Confederate President Jefferson Davis. After the manuscript, he adds a chapter on his conclusions from his study of the Pemberton manuscript.

Pemberton wrote the document in the late 1870's before his death in 1881, to respond to Johnston's autobiographical NARRATIVE OF MILITARY OPERATIONS. Even after 120 years, the anger and hurt comes through. Johnston had essentially placed the blame for the loss of Vicksburg on Pemberton, citing his incompetence and disobedience of orders. Pemberton takes each of Johnston's eight charges, and argues his side of the case. Smith has made this more understandable for the reader by inserting (in easily distinguishable font and italics) the specific exerpts from the Johnston book to which Pemberton was referring; many of Pemberton's points would have been lost to me without those insertions.

Another specific contribution which Smith made to the manuscript itself was his description of a visit by Davis and Johnston to Pemberton and Vicksburg in December, 1862 (before the Vicksburg Campaign would escalate in the spring and culminate on July 4th). Given the fact that Davis, Johnston, and Pemberton seemed only a few weeks later to have no agreement or common thinking on their strategy, one wonders what they talked about during their several days together. Certainly, they MUST have talked about whether Vicksburg must be held at all costs....but in the spring, Johnston seemed to think not while Davis and Pemberton certainly thought it must. Perhaps they never considered what to do in a siege....but, if not, what were they really expecting Grant to do? He certainly had given no indication of giving up easily! This lost opportunity for strategic alignment echoes through the Pemberton manuscript, as I read it.

For me, Pemberton presents his case in a compelling, convincing, and interesting manner. To my (amateur) reading, he does not often imply that he knew in 1863 everything that he would know when writing in the late 1870's. However, on one occasion, he did allow himself to refer to Johnston as "the great master of retreat", taking advantage of the reputation Johnston would get during his portion of the Atlanta Campaign in 1864.

Johnston does not come out of this book in very good shape. In fact, the picture of Johnston is very reminiscent of that in Jeffrey Lash's DESTROYER OF THE IRON HORSE. In fact, one of Lash's primary examples of Johnston's misuse of the railroads occurred during the Vicksburg Campaign, when he lost of large quantity of Confederate rolling stock and engines by waiting too long to order their movement to safer locations. Smith summarizes Johnston's failure to take any action to relieve Pemberton in Vicksburg by saying that he "either had no intention of acting or was incapable of mustering the courage and energy to face the situation". Personally, it seems to me to have been the latter. The puzzling, frustrating impact of Johnston's inertia comes through clearly in the Pemberton manuscript.

This is an excellent book, very readable and quite interesting. Smith's background chapter will assist the reader who is not familiar with the Vicksburg Campaign to understand it well enough to follow Pemberton's discussion. That understanding is aided by several simple, clear, excellent maps. One does not need to be a military history scholar to appreciate this book. However, as Ed Bearss' introduction makes clear, even the elite class of military history scholars will likely also find this book worth their while.

"Infection" by John Gregory Betancourt

The Enterprise is called to Archaria III, a planet jointly colonized by humans and Peladians. A new disease has cropped up and is only treatable (the double helix), in a temporary fashion. The Enterprise supposed to deliver the drug, quarantine the planet and see what help they might render. What follows is an excellent story, primarily using Dr. Crusher in her quest to find the cure. The author set everything up very well and wrapped up his portion beautifully.

"Vectors" by Dean Wesley Smith & Kristin Kathryn Rusch

Finally we have a story using Dr. Pulaski, who was unceremoniously dumped from the show. Not that she was anywhere near a replacement for Dr. Crusher. It is particularly interesting to see "Terok Nor" during the occupation and have the interaction with Gul Dukat. I felt the character development was very good and the Ferengi portions were written very well. The only true complaint is that the author's seemed to have done a poor job of closing out Kira's story.

"Red Sector" by Diane Carey

Red Sector is a fantastic story. It's very refreshing having a book that concentrates almost primarily on a non main character in John Eric Stiles. The character is extremely well thought out and written. The author nailed Spock and a hundred and thirty something Dr. McCoy perfectly. I'm dying to find out who the voice is at this point. Hopefully the next three in the Double Helix series will be as good as this one and the other two were.

"Quarantine" by John Vornholt

John Vornholt kicks out another fantastic story. Quarantine gives us a good idea of how "Tom Riker" ends up joining the Maquis. As is par for the course with John Vornholt, he goes into great detail describing a beautiful planet and all of its surroundings. Not a lot of Trek authors do that. I thought Torres seemed a little soft, considering her personality, but that can be explained away.

"Double or Nothing" By Peter David

This is another great installment to the New Frontier and the Double Helix series. Not having read the last of the Double Helix books yet, it seems that this one pretty much finishes the Double Helix storyline???? A favorite quote from the book, Riker - "I've got to get off this ship." Peter David did an excellent job of integrating Picard and Riker into the New Frontier. It's really interesting and well done how he brought Riker and Shelby together again. That portion was done very well and even better than I'd expected in another meeting of those two.

"The First Virtue" by Michael Jan Friedman & Christie Golden

The First Virtue is an excellent conclusion. It pretty much wraps up the reasoning to everything we learned in "Double or Nothing." In the First Virtue, we learn why Gerrid Thul wanted to create the Double Helix virus and why he wanted so much revenge for the loss of his only child. Both authors did a great job with their portions. The plot is well thought out, especially the portions of the book with Commander Jack Crusher and Lieutenant Tuvok. I felt that they captured Tuvok's personality quite well and gave a precursor to some of the decisions and general personality we saw on screen in Voyager.

Overall, I would recommend this Omnibus to any fan of good Star Trek fiction.

This is a fantastic book on the art of consulting. As a previous partner of McKinsey, I took a lot away from this book that took me 20 years to learn previously. I highly recommend this book to every level consultant, doing any type of consulting.

My Bondage and My Freedom, one of Douglass' several autobiographies, a very important book that should be read by anyone interested in United States history generally, or the crucial and often tragic role race has played in that history. Douglass, a former slave, was one of the few African-Americans who achieved prominence in the largely white, new england abolition movement. Douglass was an eloquent writer and (by historical accounts) speaker. His recounting of his experience as a slave, and his reflections on his role as a black former slave in America, are powerful.

What a wonderful treat in finding this book! I have worked in the human services field for about 6 years, and this is the first book that I have found that speaks to me of the humanity and experience of an individual who was institutionalized for a majority of his life and his de-institutionalization. John's story almost exactly the same as at least a half-dozen men I have come to know in my work in the field. More books like this one, please!

I took Jack Corgel's course in the Hotel School at Cornell. We used the third edition of this text, and it covered the spectrum of concepts for a basic introduction to real estate investment. Even though the course focused on commercial real estate, I found the concepts have helped me determine whether I have made good choices in residential real estate, as well. The best aspect of the book (and the course) was applying a discounted cash flow analysis to particular properties. As a method to assess the financial viability of a property by analyzing the rent, tax, depreciation and other effects, the discounted cash flow analysis helped me feel much more confident in my real estate investments.

The book covers four basic areas: investment principles like net present value, real estate markets, mortgage financing, and legal aspects of real estate. Although not flashy with lots of pictures, the essential concepts and methods are thoughtfully explained and applied. I highly recommend this book as a reference to keep on your shelf to refer to periodically if engaged in the acquisition of real estate.

This is the 5th edition of DJ Smith's excellent book on reliability in the real world. Having worked in this field for a number of years, I can honestly say that Mr. Smith has provided a perfect means of understanding the principles behind basic reliability calculations, in a way that is neither condescending nor unneccesarily complex. I recommend this book in the strongest possible terms to readers interested in gaining a greater understanding of the world of reliability engineering without having to trawl through pages of postgraduate mathematics.