Christian Mythmakers is a good overview of some of the thoughts and ideas of various Christian fantasy writers. While the chapter on John Bunyan is basically little more than a summary of Pilgrim's Progress, the rest of the book is interesting and thought provoking. The chapter on Charles Williams is a "must read" for anyone interested in or confused by Williams' work.

This book is a fascinating look at ten Christian mythmakers, that is authors who have used the power of myth to convey Christian truths in a new way. The narrative begins with John Bunyan and his seminal Pilgrim's Progress, continues through George Macdonald, G.K. Chesterton, Charles Williams, J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, and finishes up with Madeleine L'Engle, Walter Wangerin, Robert Siegel, and Hannah Hurnard.

Professor Hein begins with a short biography of the author, and then proceeds to explain the author's work, examining its theology and significance. I found this book to be quite fascinating, with the author giving me a look at these masterpieces of Christian literature in a way that I had never thought of before. If you are a fan of any of the authors above, then I highly recommend that you get this book!

I had the privilege of taking courses under Dr Hein in the early 90's at Wheaton. He is a very knowledgeable teacher and has great affection for the people he is writing about in this book. If you have any interest in these authors, this book is a must read. I wasn't aware that he had written this book when I came across it looking for books on George MacDonald and C.S. Lewis. As an Economics major, I somehow ended up taking four Lit. classes from Dr Hein because he is such a good instructor and passionate about his subject matter.

This book is great and all, the only problem is, you have to make sure you know the words in shorthand already. This book doesn't waste any time and goes straight to the transcription, but that may not be so good for new users. Other than that, this book is great and really goes indepth with the way to transcipt your shorthand notes.

This book is VERY good for learning Gregg shorthand. It shows the forms clearly and has lists of brief forms. The sentences that are written in shorthand in the front of the book are written in English in the back for easy decoding. It explains shorthand very well, and is an all-around great book for learning to write in shorthand.

Years ago I went to secretarial school and learned shorthand. I use it to this day. It's a wonderful way to take notes when people are talking to you on the phone, reminder notes to do this or that, grocery lists, whatever.

Yes, it takes time, work, and drill to learn shorthand. Yes, it's worth your while! Once you know shorthand, you will never have to hide your gift list again .

Although I have nothing but the utmost respect for these reknowned climbers and their worthy attempt to summit K2, I did not enjoy this book nearly as much as some of the other climbing epics out there today.

It is interesting to see the difference in climbing narratives written back in the 50's as compared to those written in the last thirty years or so. It seems like there was a different attitude toward climbing in the 50's and before, one that was more supportive of teamwork and cooperation, whereas many of today's narrations are more reflective of each person being responsible for taking care of him or herself only (such as the '96 Everest disaster). As in the case of Art Gilkey's emergency situation, the entire team without question (at least in this rendition of the story) made the effort to get him off of the mountain.

I was somewhat bored by this narrative though (except for storm and the famous Pete Schoening team-arrest) and it's one-dimensional portrayal of the team members. It made me wonder if Houston and Bates were telling it like it really was. They were always very complimentary toward everyone on the team. But in extreme, stressful conditions (both mentally and physically) like these, don't people sometimes become short-tempered, or even withdrawn? But perhaps the authors' objective was not to give insight into individual team members and how they interacted with one another, but rather to just tell of their adventure and how, through remarkable teamwork, they were able to survive K2 against the odds, and live to tell about it.

I also would have liked to see more detailed maps of their route throughout the book, so it would be easier to follow them on their ascent and descent.

I won't deny that this book deserves a place with the other classic mountaineering epics, due to the extraordinary events that this team lived through. However, I prefer narratives that really tell it like it is, "warts and all." I want to get a true sense of the struggles (to feel like I am really there in the bitter cold), and come to understand each person who makes up the entire team.

A 1953 climb still translates in 2002. This is a detailed account cowritten by two of the climbers and is very detailed including the long walk in. I was surprised how little mountain climbing had changed although it did appear distances traveled daily were less as they required 8 campsites to get to the peak. I find books on mountaineering expeditions very interesting although the climbs themselves contain long periods of boredom. This expedition is no different as a brutal storm stops the climbers just short of the summit. The book does a great job detailing how high altitude can effect a climber's body. One of the writers was a doctor.

Needless to say, the long, unforgiving storm takes it's toll on the men placing them in ultimate peril. Getting down from the high altitude, steep face carrying a wounded member led to the most incredible living disaster I have ever read. Well, living for most of the climbers

Read this book for adventure and historical climbing perspective.

At 28,250 feet, K-2 is the world's second highest mountain, 800 feet less than Everest. Mentally add 6,000 feet to K-2 for sheer meanness. Everest is considered a "snow" mountain; K-2 has everything. Snow, ice, rock, constant avalanches, loose shale and a generally evil disposition.

In 1953, an eight-man American team attempted to summit K-2. The book tells us of their meticulous preparations, financing and outfitting. I was struck by the fact the cost estimate for the entire 8-man expedition was $25,000. I recently read the cost for one ~person~ to join an Everest expedition is $80,000!

The two authors come across as fine, honorable, decent men. The entire team's bravery in adversity is inspiring. After a spell of fine weather during the first part of their ascent, all their luck went against them. One team member became seriously ill and a bitter storm locked them in their "camp" for seven days. The camp was a mere outcropping on a rocky ledge. The wind almost blew them off their fragile platform. They were determined to carry out their dangerously ill member. The task was almost impossible to contemplate, let alone carry out. They were not successful only because the storm was so unrelenting.

I will not spoil the book for you by describing their descent. The authors will astound you with their story. Highly recommended

After reading BIOS by Wilson, I wanted to find more from him because I liked his writing. Mysterium was as good as I had hoped.

The plot was well developed and the characters were interesting. Also, as I found in BIOS, Wilson is very good at letting you get important information about the setting through the plot instead of having to explicitly describe things. I also liked that the author at least made mention at the beginning of the book about how the world that was left behind reacted to the disappearance of the town. In other similar stories I've read, I've wondered about this, but it was never addressed.

One thing that I think could have made this book better was if the author had written more about the town and the characters before the event took place. I think this would have given the reader a better idea about who the characters were before this happened to them. Something like what Stephen King did so well in The Stand.

In any case, I enjoyed Mysterium and would recommend it. I will continue to look for more from Wilson in the future.

This book is great. Well realized characters, a very interesting story-line that poses some interesting questions. The books ending will have you on the edge of your seat. The parallel world is brought vividly to life. My only quibble with the book was that there seemed to be so much of the story compressed into just a few pages. The book's timeline skips a few months, and some explanations. Aside from that I'd recommend this to anyone looking for something interesting and thought provoking.

I found this at a used bookstore too. I hadn't heard of Robert Charles Wilson and boy! what a good book. He writes well and the plot about an alternate universe is intriguing. I kept thinking about the Dark Tower in Stephen King's mythos. I am going to see if the local library carries other of Wilson's works. I think he's definitely going to be somebody to pursue!

I highly recommend this one. I couldn't put it down. And usuallly, I'm famous for buying cruddy books at the used bookstore. This one is a gem!

Soup was a good book.I gave it a 4. I gave it that because it was surprising, exciting, and enjoyable. it was surprising because you never knew what they were going ti do next.They always did something wierd.It was exciting because they always did something you and other kids would ever even think of doing. It was enjoyable because it wasn't boreing. You could sit back and enjoy it. I think it is a good book for 6th to 8th graders. I think that because it is not hard to read, and it is not easy to read for little kids.

Soup is a funny book. It`s all about a boy called "Robert" and his best friend "Soup". The Book is so good I couldn't take it out of my hands. The adventures that these 2 boys have are cool. For examle,Rob and Soup tied Rob`s aunt to a tree right before a storm hit and they got in big trouble. You should really read this book.

I have just finished reading the book Soup. I loved the book. It delt with two third graders and how they always got into troule. The main characters are: Robert, Soup, mamma, aunt Carrie, Mrs. Stetson, and Mr. Diskin.

Some things they did was break the church window, cheat Mr. Diskin, and smoke corn.

This is truley one of the best books I have ever read in my life!

A fun vacation read. Anecdotes from a real wild west lawman -- who didn't do a lot of shooting and killing but somehow managed to be in the action none the less. It reminded me a little of the excellent Dustin Hofmann film, Little Big Man.

given the title, i was prepared to be unfavorably amused by this book but wound up thoroughly charmed by the direct and often witty descriptions and characterizations by this bona fide turn of that century wild west lawman, who, one must assume, was just as tough and unyielding as the 'hard cases' for whom this work is titled.

harkey's plain style and simple accounting of the events develops a remarkable bond of trust with the reader, and i came away almost with a casual sense of familiarity with some of the most savage and desperate bad men produced by that savage and desperate era.

recommend it very highly for anyone who would like to get a highly entertaining -- but pretty much unvarnished -- picture of life on the edge at that time.

More than fifty years ago I read Dee Harkey's account of his experiences as an old time western lawman, and "Mean as Hell" still sticks in my memory as the best account of what it was like to wear a badge in the old days. I give this book five stars not as a literary composition but as a highly intertaining account of how things really were in the heyday of the wild west. It is fast and easy reading, written in colorful language as it was spoken. As you read Harkey's writing you are soon magically transported into another era that will never return. You find yourself not just reading about his exploits, but living his experiences with him. I feel as though his unique unsophisticated writing style has expanded my own life experiences to include an important part of history that occurred long before I was born. Not many writers can do this.If you want to actually experience the old west, read this book.

This novel has stayed on my mind ever since I read it. It's so frustrating that Dickens died before completing this novel. On the other hand, the fact that this classic British mystery was never finished has created a great opportunity for literary critics and mystery lovers alike to try to solve the mystery for themselves. We'll never know who Dickens really had in mind as the murderer, or if indeed there was a murder after all. That's a huge loss. But it's a great ride for readers to try to make up their own minds.

I still haven't made up my mind about who did it. Sure, there is a very obvious suspect in Jasper, but that doesn't mean Dickens thought he did it. Some people have speculated that Dickens wrote this novel as a tribute to his friend Wilkie Collins' "The Moonstone," so perhaps the opium addiction would have played a huge part in the mystery. It's even possible that Dickens saw a bit of himself in Jasper's tortured love life because of the way it paralleled his own life. After all, Cloisterham is supposed to be based on Dickens' Rochester. Then again, just because Dickens sympathized with someone, that doesn't mean that character was innocent, either, does it? Now you see why this story continues to torment mystery lovers.

Like any other Dickens novel, this one has lots of memorable characters, from the suspicious and tormented Jasper to the Reverend Crisparkle to Princess Puffer. And of course, the enigmatic Datchery. The gravedigger and his obnoxious but perceptive boy assistant provide both Dickensian eccentric characters and possible clues.

The power of this book even today is clear in the way it inspired an award-winning Broadway musical where the audience got to solve the mystery on their own. (By the way, 1935 movie with Claude Rains was good, but some of the main characters were cut out, and others seemed little like the characters in the book, even if they were fine actors.)

Anne M. Marble
All About Romance and Holly Lisle's Forward Motion Writing Community

It is so strange to see a long, well-plotted novel suddenly come to a dead stop. (Of a projected twelve episodes, Dickens wrote six before his death.) The title character is either murdered or missing, and a large cast of characters in London and Cloisterham (Dickens's Rochester) are involved in their own way in discovering what happened to Edwin Drood.

There is first of all John Jasper, an opium addict who suspiciously loves Drood's ex-fiancee; there is a nameless old woman who dealt him the opium who is trying to nail Jasper; there is a suspicious pile of quicklime Jasper notices during a late night stroll through the cathedral precincts; there is Durdles who knows all the secrets of the Cathedral of Cloisterham's underground burial chambers; there is the "deputy," a boy in the pay of several characters who has seen all the comings and goings; there are the Anglo-Indian Landless twins, one of whom developed a suspicious loathing for Drood; there is the lovely Rosebud, unwilling target of every man's affections; and we haven't even begun talking about Canon Crisparkle, Datchery, Tartar, and a host of other characters. All we know is that the game is afoot, but we'll never know the outcome.

It would have been nice to know how Dickens tied together all these threads, but we can still enjoy THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD because -- wherever Dickens was heading with it -- it is very evidently the equal of his best works. Life is fleeting, and not all masterpieces are finished.

It is a tribute to Charles Dickens' reputation that to this day this unfinished novel, a mystery no less, still garners such speculation as to who allegedly murdered Edwin Drood. There are organizations created for the sole purpose of analyzing the novel and to theorizing whom the culprit may have been, if indeed there really was a culprit. After all, only Drood's watch and his shirt pin are produced, not his body.

As in all of Dickens' novels, the characterizations are the thing. You have the innocent young woman with the somewhat eccentric guardian and his Bob Cratchitlike assistant. There is the dark, possibly unfairly accused, but hot headed antagonist of Drood. Then there is Drood's brooding choirmaster uncle, John Jasper, who frequents opium dens, and who may or may not have ulterior motives in his seeking revenge. Durdles, the stone mason, and a somewhat weird character, provides some chilling comic relief in cemetery scenes with his stone throwing assistant. There are also the typical Dickensian characters, which includes a snooty older woman, a class conscious, spinsterish school mistress, and in a hilarious restaurant scene, an unappreciated, hard working "flying waiter" and a lazy, wise acre "stationary waiter."

It is a shame that Dickens died before he could complete "Edwin Drood." What is here are the beginnings of an exploration of man's dual nature, a journey into "the heart of darkness" so to speak.

Good, engrossing read on the events surrounding the capture of Leonard Lake and Charles Ng, and the discovery of the house of horrors of the Wilseyville Ranch. The book is well laid out and easy to follow and for that I give it high marks. However, I found it lacking in any true background information on Lake and Ng. There's no insight as to who they were, just what they did. Part of the reason I read such novels as this is to find out what happened to shape people into the beasts they become. There was none of that here. Also, the character of Tomasina Boyd Clancy, the reporter and the only fictional character in the book, just rubbed me the wrong way. Maybe it was because I knew she didn't exist, and knowing that the authors discription of her being a knock out red head, and the unusual name made it all so obvious. She completely unnecessary and her thoughts during the hearings at the end just got in the way of the otherwise riviting speech of the lawyers. Finally, I was somewhat surprised in the Author's Note at the end the calls for the retirement of the Death Penalty not because it was inhumane, but because the fight to avoid it by the accused usually ends up in a long and costly trial. While the points certainly have their validity, reading them at the end of such a tale is almost unbelieveable. I had to reread the last paragraph several times to make sure I had read what I had read. And for those final points I had to mark down this book.

My sympathies go out to Mr. Bond and his family. I hope they can rest a little easier knowing that Ng has finally gone to trial.

Just as David Bond explained, I was also very surprised on the amount of information the authors had since even family members were "left in the dark". We found out that in 1995 the State of California had 95% identified the remains of my sister Sheryl Lynn Okoro but did not receive that news or her remains until after the trial started in November of 1999. And only then did we find out from a reporter who had been sitting in on the trial! She was finally brought home and laid to rest in December 1999, 14 years after her death. The book answered alot of the questions our family had and it shed some light on the monsters who took the lives of our loved ones. Once I started reading I could not put it down. Very engrossing. My heart extends to all families who have yet to endure our nightmare.

The jury just found Ng guilty on 11 counts of murder and are now hearing evidence for the penalty phase -- death or life without parole -- this is in response to prior reviewer's request for more current info. I prepared transcripts for the court reporter during four years Ng was in Calaveras County, and it is chilling to read the case in this format -- adds the drama that is not always evident from a transcript. Publisher needs to reprint, especially since it is back as front-page news and the saga of the appeals is about to start.

I've heard a lot about this book, and in fact I will be involved in a faculty summer discussion group about it. Some people I respect think very highly of it. I can't for the life of me understand why. Moses deserves nothing but credit for his history of activism and his obvious talents and commitment as an educator. But he is utterly unconvincing in his argument that math literacy is a central civil rights issue. His whole argument seems to be based on the increasingly discredited "new economy" thesis about jobs and calls for "economic access" as a "radical" change similar to those in the 1960s. I disagree heartily. His attempt to link math education with the civil rights movement is a stretch, and I think he trivializes his own experience. His discussion of cultural experience as the basis for education is nothing new. And I still don't know what the "Algebra Project" is! I found the description in the appendix to be even more alienating and incomprehensible than my high school calculus teacher, who flunked me. If Mr. Moses is getting kids to demand algebra classes, more power to him--he is doing something right. He is probably a far better teacher than I am. But this book leaves me cold and confused. I look forward to my discussion group--perhaps they will show me what I'm missing, but I doubt it.

Robert P. Moses, a leader of the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960's, has (correctly) reached the conclusion that Math literacy is, in these times and for the predictable future, a prerequisite for first-class citizenship, and since he still wants everyone to be a first-class citizen (and rightly so) he has embarked on a campaign to enable every child to be mathematically literate, and he has enjoyed a considerable degree of success. There is still a long way to go; his program (or more accurately, the program developed by Moses and his associates and the children, parents, and teachers they have worked with) has so far been adopted only by a small minority of the schools, but in those schools where it is in place, math achievement has increased significantly, and (SURPRISE!) reading scores have also improved significantly.

THIS IS A RESULT THAT EVERY TEACHER AND EVERY SCHOOL ADMINISTRATOR SHOULD KNOW ABOUT! THIS BOOK SHOULD BE IN EVERY SCHOOL LIBRARY!

I have only one small carp with this book. On page 7 is the statement: "The result was the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC), the world's first programmable computer. I asked three Afro-American students, ages 15-21, what was the world's first programmable computer, and not one of them mentioned ENIAC. Rather, they all replied that the first programmable computer was the Zuse Z3. They were all correct. The Z3, disigned and built by Konrad Zuse in Germany, and operational in 1939, approximately 2 years before ENIAC, was the world's first programmable computer. Fortunately, the German High Command didn't take Zuse and his computer seriously.

However, the error is understandable. Most textbooks on the subject in America incorrectly credit ENIAC with being first (I would expect that few if any German texts fail to give credit where it belongs.) Moses was probably innocently repeating what he had been taught at Harvard. And in any case, this one minor error is but a very minor blemish on a very relevant and valuable book. If you are a parent of school-age children, you should get this book, and then get together with other parents and with your children to demand that your school adopt the Algebra Project curriculum. Your children deserve the best education possible, and that means using the Algebra Project curriculum. Also, buy and read "Victory in Our Schools," by John Stanford. The two books complement each other.

If you are a parent of school-age children, you owe it to your children to buy and read this book and also "Victory in Our Schools, by John Stanford (the two complement each other).

This is a very good book on how math literacy is the next civil right. The book discusses the Algebra Project, an organization founded by 1960's civil rights leader Bob Moses, to teach algebra to kids in inner-cities and rural communities.

The beginning of the book reads like Moses' autobiography about his years organizing in Mississippi. He then discusses how groups like the Jews, Koreans, and Chinese relied on math as the basis for their upward mobility. Moses' theory is that as the world becomes more and more focused on technology and innovation, math will have an even greater importance.

Summation: Read this book -- it is very eye-opening.

This near-forgotten novel really doesn't get the attention it deserves. Although written over a hundred years ago(Chesnutt has the distinction of being the first African-American professional writer of fiction), the novel anticipates many of the approaches leaders would later employ in their attempts to better the plight of African-Americans. Josh Green, for example, is a dead-ringer for the "by any means necessary" rhetoric of Malcolm X, while Dr. Miller seems more emblematic of the accomodationist position adopted by Booker T. Washington and later modified by Martin Luther King. Although Chesnutt seems to imply preference for the latter, the text never falls into a redundant good/bad binary. Chesnutt skillfully demonstrates the strengths and weaknesses of strategies designed to address the systemic disenfranchisement of African-Americans. Like many black writers interested in such issues (most notably Patricia Williams in "The Alchemy of Race and Rights"), the text reinforces the importance of rights discourse and a well-functioning legal forum as the keys to ensuring black freedom and autonomy from coercive hegemonical practices.

Although the text, as some commentators have noted, sometimes wildly veers into melodrama, the power and vision of the narrative trumps whatever small stylistic quibbles I may have with it. A great read.

Charles Chesnutt's 1901 novel, "The Marrow of Tradition," is finally, after nearly a century, getting a broader audience, and deservedly so. Set in late 1890's North Carolina, Chesnutt's novel examines the psychology of turn of the century American race relations. Based on the incidents leading up to the 1898 Wilmington 'race riot,' "The Marrow of Tradition" is an astounding fictional study of American race relations, and their political, social, economic, and personal ramifications, which we still feel to-day. This is a novel which should join Twain's "Huckleberry Finn" as a key text in American literature courses, and in the broader social imaginary.

"The Marrow of Tradition" begins with multiple anxities - Major Carteret, a former Southern Civil War officer, whose family was nearly ruined as a result of the war, is in the process of rebuilding his family and his fortunes. Having founded a newspaper, 'The Morning Chronicle,' his fortunes seem to be on the rise. However, he envisions threats on every side - personally, the precarious life of his new born son constantly threatens to end his family line; politically, since the passage of the 15th Amendment, the black population of his hometown, Wellington, is increasingly subjecting his pride to the 'insult' of an 'inferior' race in positions of authority and influence. For the black population of Wellington, threats to their growing power are just as palpable - Carteret and his cronies (particularly General Belmont and 'Captain' McBane) are building up a 'white supremacy' movement; social relations between blacks and whites have the veneer of restraint, with explosive rage always bristling beneath the surface on both sides of the 'color line.' For black people like Sandy Campbell and Jane Letlow, in service to white families since before the war, investment in 'status quo antebellum' is a way of life. Others like Jerry Letlow and Josh Green represent absolute differences in opinion in their relations with the whites. For mixed-race individuals like Dr. William Miller and his wife Janet, social acceptance, respectability, and mobility seem possible. Miller's decision to build a hospital in Wellington is predicated on the hope that he might be a cornerstone for the up-and-coming black community.

With a complex set of relations like this in place, the novel quickly draws us in. Carteret's determination in setting up a 'white supremacy' movement meets with various successes and failures, as he uses his newspaper to sow seeds of discontent among the white population, which is actually outnumbered in Wellington, two to one. An editorial from a black newspaper, against the extra-judicial practices of lynch mobs enrages Carteret and his group. A key relationship in the novel, between an old Southern aristocrat, John Delamere, his profligate grandson, Tom, and their longtime family servant, Sandy Campbell, sets the stage for heightened racial tensions, when Sandy is accused of murdering an elderly white woman, Polly Ochiltree, who is related to the Carterets.

Chesnutt does a phenomenal job of juxtaposing the systems by which each individual and each group and sub-group in the novel deals with the realities of life in a post-Reconstruction southern town. From simple subsisting to aggressive attempts at change, from local traditions of hexcraft to public manipulation through the press, from defensive postures to mob mentality, from legislation to extra-legal action, from duties to the community to the duties owed to one's own family, Chesnutt presents his readers with a wide variety of strategies open to his characters. With a narrative voice which believes decisively in "Fate," the novel tries to illustrate the legacy of slavery, and the almost inevitable mess that comes about when stationary, progressive, and regressive mindsets clash on a public level.

One of Chesnutt's major achievements is in never wholly giving way to group mentalities or broad generalizations with regard to the actors in this drama. Stereotypes are as soon dismissed as acknowledged. He clearly allows for and presents differences in opinion on the level of the individual - Josh Green's self-proclaimed mission of vengeance against white people is as deeply felt as Jerry Letlow's wishes to become white. Even within the 'white supremacy' Big Three, Careteret, Belmont, and McBane express radically different approaches to gaining what they imagine to be a common goal. White characters like Philadelphia surgeon, Dr. Burns, and Wellington newspaper man, Lee Ellis, are as inclusionary and accepting of black citizens and their aspirations as their respective social positions will allow them to be. There is a lot more going on in "The Marrow of Tradition" than I have pointed to here. Professor Eric Sundquist's introduction does an excellent job of setting up the historical, political, and biographical contexts involved in the novel. Overall, this is an extremely rich novel and very much worth reading.

Masterfully narrated by Michael Collins, the historical novel, The Marrow Of Tradition, by Charles Waddell Chesnutt is set in the 1898 North Carolina city of Wellington, presenting a kind of microcosm of the ante-bellum south where a town has gone mad with racial hatreds, and roiling confrontations between southern "redeemers" and the now free black community. The first African-American novelist to achieve national recognition for his work, Charles Waddell Chesnutt is able to take us back into a time of family tragedy, death, lynch law, and endemic racial violence that would scar the worlds of both whites and blacks for generations to come. The Marrow Of Tradition is a compelling, engaging story of characters and events that grips the listener's total attention from beginning to end. (Running Time: 3:30 hours)