After reading Scott Russell Hill's first two books, I just couldn't wait to read his third, 'Truth & Lies of the New Age'. Scott has a unique and refreshing style in his writing. He's honest, down to earth and has the ability to capture the reader's attention and enthusiasm, making it almost impossible to put the book down once you've started it!

I've read many New Age books and to be totally honest, some of them are that 'heavy duty' that by the time you get to the end, you've forgotten what it was you were trying to achieve/learn about in the first place. 'Truth & Lies' wasn't like that at all. For me, it reinforced the knowledge that I should trust my own intuition. It's so easy to be led by others who appear to have all the answers but the truth is, the answers lie within ourselves. Each one of us is capable of achieving so much more than we give ourselves credit for and it is 'knowledge' rather than 'beliefs' that can help us get there.

I've enjoyed following Scott Russell Hill's 'journey through reading his books and personally, I can't wait for number four!

This story shares a tale of many living through hard winters in log cabins packed with mud. It shares the values of life and death, protection, and espically a mothers love. My children ask to read it over and over.

Fifty tiny tales, each exquisitely told, chronicle the settling of the Ohio River Valley. Scott Russell Sanders is a fabulous storyteller who collects the curiosities that would have travelled far by word of mouth in an earlier time. Sanders calls these "tales, stories provoked by germs of fact, rather than history." The characters are mostly forgotten--Indians, surveyors and drunks, flustered judges, animals fierce and tame, gravepickers, newborns, clergy and lovers. Taken together, the stories function like a fine illustration in a history book, artfully fleshing out the facts so that our understanding is deepened. This is a perfect book for a history lover, a bedtime reader or a lover of the quirky. I was glad to find it still in print.

"Although grounded in the personal, all my essays push toward the impersonal; I reflect on my own experience in hopes of illuminating the experience of others," confides the author, and yet, it is the personal sense of Scott Russell Sanders--fair minded fellow traveller--which is the chief blessing of his works. Sanders' character--vulnerable yet open, sensitive yet insistent, boldly direct yet fine minded--sets the ultimate human value of his work. Reading Sanders is like walking with him down a Midwestern street, out of town, along a path through a wilderness that brings you back home safe and more sane, and that is why his books of essays A PARADISE OF BOMBS (1987), SECRETS OF THE UNIVRESE (1991), STAYING PUT (1993) have won so many awards and gathered such a large and attentive audience. A recent winner of the Lannan Literary Award, Sanders joins such company as Wendell Berry, Barry Lopez, Edward Hoagland, and Noam Chomsky--those bioregionalist writers who deal so earnestly with living sanely in our time and place. Always deeply rooted in the Midwest--Ohio and Indiana country--Sanders nevertheless takes on large questions and universal themes, many of them dealing with what it means to write from a strong sense of place. WRITING FROM THE CENTER is perhaps his most diverse and demanding collection as he deals with questions of landscape and values, work and family, love and regret. For this reader, the family portraits ring strikingly true as they attempt to deal with the issues of living today. Sanders has always been most excellent at scoping out a subject, in leading us into the territory, and bringing us close to those truths nearest to home

Lee Harvey Oswald became the most hated man in America after the tragic death of John F. Kennedy. But did Oswald actually do it? If he did was he alone? The Assassinations Dallas and Beyond contemplates these questions as well as the integrity of the commission composed to answer them. The book is a compilation of several official reports, which were both rewritten and analyzed by editor Peter Dale Scott. The books main points focus on the credibility of the Warren Report by evaluating several disregarded pieces of evidence and witnesses that may have proved Oswald's innocence. The Assassinations also describes Oswald's social life, including his communist ties. Although packed with an insurmountable amount of information, this book has a gross redundancy. Still after reading through it all, I feel Oswald was innocent. Only someone with a passion for either JFK or Lee Oswald could stand the long nights of reading a lot of the same information only written differently. However, if you enjoy bleeding from your eyes, or just have trouble sleeping at night, then feel free to read The Assassinations Dallas and Beyond. Take my word for it; don't waste your money on this one and check it out at your local library.

Author's Name is Paul Hoch

I've been homebrewing for about 1 year (so I'm certainly not an expert) and the two guides I've used to get started and improve my skills are Charlie Papazian's "The New Complete Joy Of Homebrewing", which is undoubtedly the most popular guide on the market, and the Seven Barrel Brewery "Brewers' Handbook." Now that I'm confident and fairly experienced in my homebrewing, I find that I most frequently refer back to Papazian's guide. The New Complete Joy Of Homebrewing is not only a brewing guide; it is a delight to read and is full of fascinating hisorical information and details about just how beer works. Having said that, Papazian's book can be a bit frustating at times for the novice brewer because of it's constant emphasis that you shouln't worry. That's fine for an experienced brewer who doesn't worry because he/she knows what they're doing, but for the beginner the most reassuring thing is no-nosense directions on how to do it right the first time. It is for this reason that I believe the Brewers' Handbook is a worthwhile investment. It's emphasis is very heavy on sanitation methods and it does an excellent job of walking the first time homebrewer through their first batch of 'brew. Don't get me wrong, though: "Brewer's Handbook" is not just a guide for beginners. Rather, it contains a guide for all levels of homebrewing, including mash/all grain brewing. It even covers water treatment for different types of water and beer (which I must confess I've never bothered with). In all, I think Papazian's guide is great for giving the beginner an enthusiasm and perspective for their new hobby, as well as a reference for its excellent information on brewing various styles, but the Brewers' Handbook is certainly worth having as a fundamentally sound guide to getting started, as well as a source to turn to when you start getting serious about your homebrew.

because you'll want to toss it in the fireplace when you're finished. If you're not quite sure what an elitist academician is, read "Staying Put" and you'll never again have any doubt. Sanders clearly occupies the lower ranks of this group, but he fits the mold perfectly of a pompous professor who believes no thought that pops into his head, no matter how tiny, must go unexpressed. Of course, I may be wrong. This book may be a shrewd satire of such a blowhard personality, but I doubt it. In any case, it is a waste of time and money.

Maybe it's because I moved back to Indiana not long after discovering this book, but I am constantly moved by this...particularly the title essay.

If you love Barbara Kingsolver, Kathleen Norris or Anne Lamott, give Mr. Sanders a try.

As with all of his books, Sanders brilliantly explores his feelings, thoughts, and beliefs in a well-researched (despite his claims to the contrary) book. As a fellow resident of Bloomington, Indiana (the home he's making in a restless world), I appreciate the way he describes life here in this quiet part of a quiet state in a quiet region of the country.

This is a NOT a book about building or making terrrariums. It is a work of FICTION. A story set in the future. I bought this book along with others on terrariums becuase I wanted to make a terrarium for my lizards. I wasn't going to since there was a total lack of description of the book, but I saw it was in the list of recommendations and bought it anyway. The book was not at all what I needed. I wonder how many others have been mislead into buying it?

Scott Russell Sanders has created a dystopian classic that fans of Orwell can admire. His setting is the near future in which the Earth has turned hostile, and man has enclosed himself in gargantuan cities, a human terrarium closed from any chaos.

When one thinks of a terrarium, one might think of a beautiful display of life enclosed in a glass bubble. In the human Enclosures, however, things are not beautiful. People are living a fantasy, out of touch with nature--and often reality.

Sanders has a good story telling style, and the book is an easy read. Everyone should read this book; tech junkies, to politicians, to parents. It helps us to see the world around us in a different light. Perhaps we can leave our children some of the beauty of nature that we take for granted.

Michigan Technological University celebrated Earth Week 1997 by giving out over 1000 copies of "Terrarium" in classes across campus. Author Scott Russell Sanders visited MTU on April 21st. He spoke about writing the book and shared his Earth Week thoughts. Students greatly enjoyed both book and author. They have summarized classroom discussions about the book's themes; these are posted at: http://chmac2.chem.mtu.edu/earth/default.ssi.

I bought this book and I am having a hard time with it. I have been an extract brewer for 15 years. I'm responding to "sioux181" when he says "Give a guy a break!", give the brewer a break. I bought the ingredients for two of the recipes in this book and when I started making them, I realized that the conversions he made from mini-mash to extract were incorrect and I had to guess at what to do. How can I give the author a break? I will admit that mistakes happen, but you sound like you must be the author because any homebrewer would be very upset with incorrect information on brewing a beer. Both the errors that were pointed out previously are pretty obvious. However, I don't think the author spent the time to correctly convert to extract. For the Immortale recipe I start with 3 gallons of water for the specialty grains, he tells us to omit some ingredients, then follow the mini-mash recipe. It wasn't until I started that I looked at the mini-mash recipe and it said to sparge with 4 1/2 gallons of water. I have never brewed an extract beer using a 7 1/2 gallon boil (for a 5 gallon batch). The other recipe I made was Whale Tale Brown Ale, with his recipe I would end up with a 5 gallon boil. If I wanted to do a 5 gallon boil, I would switch to all-grain. It is obvious that the conversions are incorrect. Every recipe is like this. I have to guess at how much water to use for the specialty grains and sparging. Also, among various other small but important pieces that are essential to brewing, he has completely forgotten about adding Irish Moss.

While there are mistakes in this book (as there are in Clone Brews and Beer Captured), overall this is a worthwhile book-all the recipes I have made from this book have turned out well.

Much of the criticism of this book seems overdone. Beerman11, for instance, says that the extract version of the Immortales recipe asks you to continue the recipe with mini-mash recipe, and that this would require boiling 7.5 gallons. In my copy, the extract recipe asks you to use the mini-mash recipe after the boil--which would result in a boil of 3 gallons.

Admittedly, some of the criticism is fair. The book does not suggest lowering the amount of hops for the all-grain recipes, which is odd. I could not find the barleywine error mentioned elsewhere (although I'm not a big barleywine fan); it is possible mistakes in the first edition were corrected. On the other hand, Russell did actually include lagering in his recipes, which the Szamatulski's did not in Clone Brews (and included only in the Helpful Hints section in Beer Captured, their latest book).

Frankly, I suspect many of the problems with this book are a result of the publishing format, which applies to both of the Szamatulski's books as well. The short, one-page recipe format doesn't leave enough room to discuss technique and other issues involved with making the beer, and I think a lot of useful information is left out. However, I can get this information elsewhere.

Overall, I liked this book better than the original Clone Brews and almost as much as Beer Captured.

I'm glad I read my copy of North American Clone Brews before reading the reviews in this column. Give a guy a break! The book is fine. It does what it purports in a concise and readable manner. So, yes, "White Plains", Mr Russell's book contains a typo. Obviously he did not mean to mash (by my calculations) 16.75 lbs grain in 2.5 gallons of water. Mistakes happen. As to reduce the bittering in a full boil: to many variables affect hop utilization (at best 30%) to worry about this. Keep it simple. Relax, don't worry...."White Plains" and his admirer from Texas clearly have some axe to grind. Odd that with all the "many errors" in the book both 'reviewers' point out the same two-and both got the weight wrong. The variety and scope of this book alone justify its purchase. Having examined the quality of the recipes, I plan to do my brewing this season exclusively from North American Clone Brews.

Not so good to Other country expect for North America.. This book is only the bundle of thesis. Principle and basic theory is not exist. So, Not so good to Undergraduate or graduate student..

Not so good.. If you are beginner to study your country's ecosystem, this book is not good to you. This book is only to USA's various type ecosystem. And it is only the bundle of many thesis..