These meditations on sexual intimacy, memories of love & desire, the passage of daily and historical time, color, place, and language are both devastatingly beautiful and raw in their emotion. St. John deals in abstractions, but I would not call him an abstract poet. Perhaps you could call it invention, perhaps it is metaphor or alchemy - he is toying with the line between the concrete and the abstract. _The Red Leaves of Night_ begs the question of when a detail - the color of a woman's clothing or the tune she hums - is concrete and when it becomes a mere thought, an abstraction. Ultimately, St. John suggests that concrete and abstract are two sides of the same coin - that every word and every object has the potential to be (or to signify) both, though that potential is neither neutral nor safe.

This book was gorgeous. I immediately slid into his perception of places and relationships; his tone and language flowed well and were easy to follow, including everything from contractions in "Nocturnes & Aubades" to a faintly antiquated tone in "Troubadour." The naked body does not inhibit him, either; his descriptions mythologize the natural beauty of the nude. Also, in a contemporary sense, his choice to leave out punctuation for several poems is brave, for he does it well. I only wish I could form poems as lovely as his. Even though the title poem leads the reader "to some newly solitary / & distant home," the journey there is worth it.

I found David St John's The Red Leaves of Night to be a captivating and stimulating read - both in its thematic sophistication and elegance of language. St John shows a capacity for precise and economic use of language which results in a clarity which fully reveals the strength of his poetic imagery. This strength manifests most clearly in the many sensual metaphors which he uses to describe the human body. These wonderful images accumulate throughout the collection and their highly visual nature makes the poems come alive with images of the naked bodies which populate the text. The poems impressed me with their thematic sophistication, the clarity with which they expressed ideas, the intimacy of their detail and the honest nakedness of the subject matter. The Red Leaves of Night is a collection of immediate, passionate and powerful poetry.

This book is a very good tool for those who are thinking of buying a bike, either for pleasure or for serious exercise. It covers everything from how to find a bike that fits you, to what accessories you really need, to how to plan an exercise program once you get the bike, to how to repair it yourself. And not only is it a good resource, but it's also a pleasure to read! Allen St. John is a funny writer who really enjoys his subject, making the book easy to read and very entertaining- it makes you want to go out and buy a bike the very second you start reading it!

This book has to be the best general guide for cycling. It takes you through all the steps of how to buy the bike that suits you, what accessories to get and what not to waste money on. It also explains how to setup your bike properly before you take your first ride. All in an easy to understand everyday English. I would recommend only to beginners, but veterans may find some useful information as well.

This is the best book I've seen on bicycling. From describing all the different parts and components to accessories to fitting a bike to repairing and fixing basic problems, this book does it all. Covers many aspects of bicycling. Highly, highly recommended! If you are buying your first book on bicycling or if your just want to know more, this is the book for you!

Every one has times where prayer becomes a necessity for survival and the author brings those times to life. She is candid and open sharing experiences of her own life. What a wonderful gift to give a young mother, old mother, new mother or mother to be! How cherished a gift this would become if given from a daughter to a mother.

I have read numerous books on prayer. "How to Be a Praying Mom" is by far the most practical. It gave me the tools I needed to effectively pray daily for my children. The author is not preachy but allows you to experience her struggles as well as her answers to prayer. From moms learning to pray to experienced prayer warriors, all moms will benefit from this practical guide-book to prayer. I highly recommend this book.
Nancy Russell

Taylor's book on prayer is guilt free. Rather than telling you why you should pray, how you ought to pray, and how important it is, Taylor simply shows you how she prays. Step by step, she leads you through lots of examples, encouraging you on your way. You can pray for your kids, she says -- with whatever time you have. This book will give you confidence in your ability to speak with God about your kids, and a new desire to be faithful in prayer!

This is a superb book for any practitioner working in primary care. It covers all important subjects completely and concisely. I used it to review for my boards with the review book that goes with it and I was very prepared. I highly recommend this text.

I found this review book an excellent source of knowledge and simple to understand. This book by passes all the intricate biochemical details and present the meat and potatoes so to speak. The wisdom of the pearls make this book unique. I recommend this book to any professional in a primary care setting.

This is the most comprehensive and concise medical text that I have ever used....so reader friendly. It has over 70 contributors from all over the country.

To the extent that this gem of a book demonstrates how the way we handle money is a metaphor for much else that ails us, it helped me face and deal with an array of things that were dysfunctional in my life - not just my indebtedness. Written in a style that's both personal and universal, Margaret St. John's book has a formula that works.

This gem is a do-it-yourself guide to the solvency we all desire. The practical exercises are fun to do, and they hold the key to opening those doors of awareness as to why we do the things we do.... More than just a "how to manage your money" treatise, this book delves much more deeply into the beliefs that keep us indebted monetarily and otherwise. Excellently written, with plenty of anecdotes and personal experiences, I found it insightful and empowering. This book comes from the heart - Ms St. John has suffered through and found solutions to problems more common than most would care to admit. Thanks so much for sharing.

....and read this book! Written with the understanding and compassion which comes only from experience and hard work, Margaret St. John will help those willing to gain insight into the reasons they suffer with debt. The reader will empathize with people who reacted to early childhood circumstances by becoming adult debtors, and underacheivers. I learned the reasons we undermine our foundations with needless debt, and how best to allocate what we earn. The method used is practical and has helped many who thought there was no hope. This book helps even those of us who have no debt, but who, by mismanagement have wasted money we may need in time. Buying this book is a wise investment.

I ordered this book but was sent a book on grilling...I returned the grilling book but have not been credited for the st petersburg book..please refer this to the proper dept. thank you!

This can be an expensive book if you're not buying it used, but it's absolutely worth it. The beautiful pictures are excellent at presenting St. Petersburg's amazing architectural wonders. The text is well-written, and even if you don't have a great deal of knowledge of Russian history, you'll still be able to follow along without any trouble.

A gem - read and enjoy!

One of the most beautiful books I've ever come across, St. Petersburg:Architecture of the Tsars is a must for those interested in Imperial Russian history, architecture, or both. The lavish book aptly illustrates the architecture of the former capital of the tsars, from the exuberant Russian Baroque of Peter the Great, to the neoclassicism of Catherine the Great, to the Art Nouveau of Nicholas II. With chapters arranged in chronological order, the book illustrates the development of the city through the reigns of each tsar/tsaritsa, and includes seperate chapters on Pavlovsk, Tsarskoe Selo, and Peterhof. The book is well worth the price.

THIS BOOK IS A THRILLING ADVENTURE ....... A FRONT ROW SEAT TO WATCH THE LIVES OF THOSE WHO DARE TO OBEY THE TEACHINGS OF
CHRIST...AND TO TAKE HIM LITERALLY.....AND TO DO AS HE DID. THE READER HAS A CHANCE TO FEEL AND SEE GOD'S POWER AT WORK IN THE LIVES OF HUMAN BEINGS IN THE 21ST CENTURY.....RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW. IT IS UP-LIFTING AND GIVES HOPE AND JOY TO ANY READER WHO REALLY BELIEVES. I AM NOW READING THIS BOOK FOR THE 3RD TIME, AND THINK WITHOUT QUESTION THAT IT SHOULD BE BACK IN PRINT, AS OUR WORLD TODAY IS IN DIRE NEED OF IT'S MESSAGE.

Perhaps it was what I was experiencing when I first found this book in a second hand book store, but whatever the reason I could not put it down until I finished it.

It is a powerfully moving story written without heavy theological dogma as to what is involved when a person has a personal experience with the Divine and chooses to follow that calling.

This is a book that changed my life and seemed to come at just the right time.

Hank Gavin's struggle to know God better and his willingness to give up the life he knew for what he believed he was being called by God to do made me ask questions about what I, myself, believed. The book started me on a lifetime journey. I wanted to believe that the God Hank found was alive for me, too. I had attended church all of my life, but what I was reading was a new way of seeing God - - new to me but forever present in His Word. I owe Mrs. St. John a tremendous debt of gratitude. I, too, believe that she must have had personal experiences which provided the idea for her book. My experiences with sharing the book are that one either loves it or cannot get into it. I've read it many times now and will read it again. It should be put back into circulation.

I am not a Linguist, but this book helped me to appreciate all of the differing theories and various fields within what is known as linguistics. If you are seeking a book that is simple to read, yet very comprehensive, I recommend this volume. If you enjoy languages, speech development, regional dialects, language acquisition, theory of language, language trends, and more - this book is for you.

Major disciplines coverd include: phonetics, morphology, syntax, and semantics. Also included in this new addition are new chapters on second language acquisition and psycholinguistics.

One of the best features of this text is how well it is laid out. It is a pleasure to peruse and even study because of it's logical and user friendly format.

If you love anything about language- whether knowing it's origins, or what part of the mouth is used to create certain sounds, or how language changes over time and for what reasons, or a host of other curiosities, you will certainly enjoy the wealth of information within Contemporary Linguistics!

"Contemporary Linguistics" (CL) is a wonderfully clear and accessible introduction to the field of linguistics. The authors begin by introducing the methodological assumptions that underlie present day Chomskyan linguistics and then reserve a chapter each for almost all major research directions within linguistics.

One thing in particular that I liked about the format of CL was the treatment of more advanced material (marked "Advanced") in each chapter. The "Advanced" sections augment the material in the rest of the chapter and are placed in logical sequence with the rest of the material instead of appearing in an appendix at the end of the chapter. For example, a section marked "advanced" on X' (read X-bar) Theory appears fairly early in the syntax chapter. Having some knowledge of X' Theory allows the reader to proceed to examine the rest of the material with the knowledge that there exists an intermediate level of structure between lexical categories (N, V, ...) and phrasal categories (NP, VP, ...).

Most chapters in CL are pretty well written and technical tools to treat linguistic phenomena are almost always introduced at the correct juncture. However, CL does not treat Innateness properly (why Innateness and arguments for and against Innateness), and has a weak chapter on semantics. The reader would do well to augment the material in CL by reading Pinker's "The Language Instinct" or Jackendoff's "Patterns in the Mind" for a non-technical introduction to some ideas in linguistics, as well as sections of De Swart's "Intro to Natural Language Semantics" to get an idea of how semantics is done. If the reader is interested in looking at language from a cognitive science perspective, she would also do well to read most of Gleitman et al's "An Invitation to Cognitive Science: Language".

All in all, CL provides a relatively painless initiation into linguistics and I highly recommend it.

Speaking as a newcomer to the subject, I found this book to be an excellent intro. Very useful.

This book gets 4 stars only because I reserve 5 stars for something really extraordinary. Chrysostom is a top-shelf preacher, and even though I may not agree with all of his dogma, his gifts cannot be denied. Let it be said from the outset that any preacher can benefit from reading his work, if only stylistically. Chrysostom has a gift for making his point in a stunning yet simple fashion. He deftly slices through to the heart of issues and sets his arguments in "real world" terms.

These sermons have to deal with, as the title says, marriage and family life. A real knockout is Chrysostom's sermon on how to choose a wife. Although it is set in 4th-century proto-Byzantine culture, the basic principles still stand. If only more preachers would offer such frank counsel on this issue from the pulpit today....

This text is inexpensive, so I would recommend giving a copy to someone who is at the stage in life where they are forming their ideas of marital/romantic relationships. Chrysostom's voice provides a good -- and well-articulated -- counterpoint to the dreck that passes for relational counseling these days. If nothing else, this volume may make them think critically about the cultural assumptions of our modern society, so they do not merely get swept along in the current of trendy mores.

This text is easy to read and understand, I recommend it to anyone, whether or not they are considering marriage. The book is most definitely appropriate for High School age and up. However, the lessons that are taught in "On Marriage and Family Life" should be taught to children from birth.

I really mean what I said in the title, this should be manditory by law to read for anyone even considering marriage. If people seriously weighed Chrysostom's words on marriage, divorce would probably be cut by half.

St. John, as always, lays forth an eloquent (yet simple & easy to understand) convincing argument for his views on marriage. He doesn't advocate marrying for money or looks or social position (something I'm sure is way more common than most people would want to admit) he advocates marrying for virtue. St. John argues that virtuous and poor is a million times better than excess gaeity & wealth.

He lays out criteria for selecting a wife, as well as traits that husbands and wifes should display. Not only does he discuss the institution of marriage, but he also talks about wedding celebrations themselves. Other topics such as sex are discussed as well (he doesn't hold negative view of it.)

He greatly stresses EQUALITY OF RESPONSIBILITY of both partners to make a marriage work. Children are also discussed in great detail. St. John Chrysostom is not only a great writer, but a holy man whose words we should try to incorporate into our lifestyles.

Highly recommended book.

Throughout Mexico, one can hear of the legend of the SanPatricios, a battalion of soldiers in the U.S.-Mexico War that wasmade up almost entirely of deserters from the U.S. Army. Predominately Irish and/or Catholic, the San Patricios fought well for the Mexicans -- and they suffered for it significantly when the U.S. finally won the war.

Stevens does an excellent job of telling the story of the battalion, the history behind its foundation, and the punishment its members faced after the war. Adding to the interest of the story is the role that many of those in the U.S. Army during the U.S.-Mexico War went on to play pivotal roles in the U.S. and CSA armies during the Civil War.

A must read for the student of Irish-American and Vietnam history. Goes into detail of the anti-Catholic/anti-emmigrant climate of America in the the 1840's. A story of America's first war of agresssion against another independent nation, shows the beggings of Americas imperialistic wars.A good companion text for istorians of America's involvement in South East Asia,"if we do not learn from history we are cursed to repeat it."

Truly awesome story. Well written and researched. Really made me think. Brings up a lot of repressed issues that are difficult to deal with as an American.