Patrick Arnold has written a book that should be read by every man looking for a male mode of spirituality. By explaining and illustrating male spirituality using Biblical characters as examples of the Jungian and neo-Jungian archetypes (wildman, warrior, king, prophet, etc.), Arnold gives men a meaningful way to look at Christianity and our place in it. A welcome addition to my library and a recommended title for anyone wanting to investigate this subject.

This book is a must read for any man serious about pursuing a radical spirituality. Women who are interested in getting a glimpse of the innermost workings of men would also benefit from it. (WARNING: Many of Arnold's insights will likely be misunderstood/misinterpreted by spiritual neophytes).

This is a brilliantly written and researched work that pulls together Jungian psychology, mythology and the Judeo-Christian Tradition in light of recent Scripture scholarship. Arnold's unapologetic insights about the state of the Church and his biting wit evident in the descriptions of wildman, warrior, king, healer, trickster, magician and lover makes this arguably the most thought-provoking, entertaining and controversial book on masculine spirituality. As Robery Bly remarks in the Foreword, his description of the Trickster is particularly brilliant--I would add to this the Wildman and Lover. Arnold writes with tremendous depth, clarity and conviction of the wounds of contemporary men and all the innumerable ups, downs, precipices, pitfalls and paradoxes that the "hero" will inevitable face. His Bible-based archetypes serve as an excellent map for negotiating this labyrinth.

I would especially recommend this book to young men who are looking for mentoring or spiritual direction. And although a book may not be able to replace a real flesh-and-blood person, Arnold could be considered a "protective figure" that will help guide you along. HOWEVER, I would also add that those men who have not done their inner work or who lean toward fundamentalism will likely not benefit from this challenging book.

Arnold does a terrific job of reviewing basic psychological male archtypes in prominent male figures of the Bible. He uses real life experience, wisdom, and a dry sense of humor to give his tour. He tackles difficult issues facing men in today's society, and connects them with ancient traditions and mythology. It will be an eye-opening experience for anyone looking to deepen their understanding of what makes men tick! If you have sons or work with young men, you will find this book to be a valuable guide for leading them into a healthy adulthood.

Ten years ago I discovered an old hardcover copy of BOON ISLAND in my fathers closet. After having read it I desired to read more of this authors work but was regretfully delayed due to my formal scholastic pursuits. Last month I was in a Kennebunkport bookstore and discovered a section abundant of KENNETH ROBERTS' work. I selected ARUNDEL, read it and can't wait to move to the next one. Being an historian I had but little defense and was drawn-in by Roberts' vivid imagery and very accurate historical timeline. Having just visited Arundel I could envision Phoebe sailing along the rugged Maine coast while Steven Nason and Cap Huff prepared to answer the call for troops. The journey up the Kennebec to Quebec was never without adventure; this is where Roberts' talent for his craft shines the most: where other authors would falter, allowing their story to slow, Robert's provides his characters with dynamics that are realistic and not hard to follow. This is a book not to put down for if you do you may not know if Stevie finds Mary Mallison, if revenge is achieved over Gurelac, or what Cap Huff may do next.

This book was excellent. Not only is it reputed as having very accurate historical content, but the ficitonal stories running through it were very interesting as well. It is still hard to believe this was Roberts first writing foray. It is very easy to feel for the characters and want to know how everything turns out. I have to say that their plight was often very difficult - to the point where I was feeling quite cold and hungry myself. I live in Vermont and felt quite badly for them travelling during winter under very harsh conditions without polypropelyne, fleece, or wind-blocking layers. Plus a bunch of power bars for emergencies. I will be getting Roberts other books in this series. I'm sure I will enjoy them as much as Arundel. It is easy to tell Roberts has true writing talent.

I first read Arundel over 30 years ago and it helped make me into a history teacher. Seemingly unimportant incidents in the narrative have proven, upon further research into non-fictional sources, to have actually happened. Kenneth Roberts was THE greatest historical novelist in American History. He proved that a wholesome romance can keep the reader's interest. The main characters do not have to perform in bed for us in order to keep our interest. And yet, he does not wince from the reality of treachery, betrayal and sexual immorality. It is simply done with style and good taste. Why this book was never been made into a movie is incomprehensible, except that Roberts' NORTHWEST PASSAGE was hopelessly butchered by Hollywood in 1939 and he vowed never to release the rights to his works again (I think). Does anyone out there know the reason?

It is not just the incredible story--the struggles of a few brave men at the birth of a nation--it's HOW it is about these men that makes this book a masterpiece. You will want to read this as part of the series which began with "Arundel" and continues with "The Lively Lady."

Roberts brings the tale to life, and shows far more insight into the actions of the Northern Army at the beginning of the Revolutionary War than you ever learned in public school. Men like Benedict Arnold who have become cardboard cutouts in glossy history books leap out at you, grab you by the shirt and drag you delightedly through the travails and untimate success of the Continental Army. Read the whole series!

I first read this book, along with all the other books this author wrote, back in 1960 and 1961 and wrote a term paper on this author's works. Book reviews contemporary with the writing of Kenneth Roberts' novels noted that there was more history packed into each of his novels than in an entire college course or two. The book describes actual historical events through the eyes of several colorful fictional characters. This novel describes the birth of the United States Navy, where, in 1776, the American Colonists under command of General Benedict Arnold built a fleet of ships in Skenesborough (now Whitehall) at the foot of Lake Champlain. It describes the subsequent battle of Valcour Island, where this tiny fleet of ships took on a much larger British force sailing south on Lake Champlain enroute from Canada to Albany. Although the American Fleet was eventually dispersed, this first US Navy successfully delayed the British by a year in their march to the south. This year allowed the Americans to recruit a large enough army to defeat Burgoyne's British Army at Saratoga. This book tells the stories of Jennie (or Jane) McCrea's massacre by the indian allies of the British, the use of the story of her massacre to encourage enlistments throughout New York and New England, the massing of Rebel forces at Saratoga, and the defeat of General Burgoyne's Army at Saratoga. It also covers to a degree the battle of Oriskany, which halted the advance of Col. Barry St. Leger who was advancing down the Mohawk Valley from the west, with the intent to join forces with Burgoyne at Albany. During one winter, it delves into the lives of the western Indians who allied themselves with the British. It does all this in a very entertaining way. I found it to be a very enjoyable way to learn a great deal about the history of the American Revolution in the Champlain, Hudson, and Mohawk Valleys of upstate New York. I am purchasing this book to read it again for perhaps the fifth or sixth time.

There are three kinds of historical fiction: the bad, the good, and Kenneth Roberts. No one else's novels in this genre are as readable or as real. In fact, few novelists in any genre do such a good of engaging the reader. It's not flashy, it's not gimmicky, it's just good writing. It's you-are-there and you want to gobble it up. And in the process you feed your mind. What a deal.

I recommend all Roberts' novels. This one concerns the Battle of Valcour and related events during the revolutionary war -- told from a completely personal perspective. By the time you're done this book you'll not only understand the military maneuvers, you'll empathize with the cold toes and fatigue (and more) of the people maneuvering. A highlight of Rabble in Arms is its presentation of more about Benedict Arnold than most people know. He's not just a caricature, he's a real guy, and here is what's behind his scenes.

Buy it, read it! Excellent book.

Since it has so many glowing reviews, I'll give it a review that may be uselful to the authors for future additions.

I don't understand why Sun Microsystems, on their website and in thier books, (and this book is no exception) do not use UML to describe their libraries and frameworks. I, for one, learn a lot about dependencies and collaborations between classes when UML is employed. In the sections that have real code examples, it would be helpful to have a snippet of UML describing the section of Jini critical to that example, for instance.

Furthermore, in the earlier sections of the book, the overview, the authors use what I call "system collaboration diagrams", even better would be when they are explaining code snippets to highlight in their system collaboration diagrams what part of the system they are showing an example of.

I guess I just found the explaination of the examples lacking. The examples themselves are excerpted, making them hard to follow. For instance, it is confusing to see an ordinary method being called (from within an excerpt) with no class or object qualified before it. Is it in the superclass? In the implementation? If in the superclass, how far up? This is especially difficult when referring to the DEM of Java, which sometimes seems counterintuitive to beginners.

My rule of thumb is one should never look at a piece of code and get "nervous" about what a symbol or method is supposed to be doing there.

I put off buying this for about a year because I was fooled by the title. Think of it as a primer on how to use Jini the way the people who developed Jini intended (rather than as a spec). That makes it very useful. Not ideal for someone who is considering using Jini and wants an overview, but a great "second book" on Jini. Similar to Keith Edwards' Jini "Example by Example".

Jini has to be about the hottest new Java technology to be released in years. Imagine a world of plug-and-play networked devices, which can be installed and seamlessly integrated with your LAN simply by connecting them to your network. A laptop on-the-go can just plug in to an unfamiliar network, and access the printer or Internet proxy server, without the need to install any drivers. Mixing Unix and Wintel devices? Not a worry. Jini promises to let them talk to each other.

That's the vision behind Jini. But that vision goes much further. Not only can hardware devices talk to one another, but also software services. In a Jini world, you won't care whether how a device works, or whether it is software or hardware based. An Internet based fax service will act as a fax, as will a hardware device. You'll just look for a fax service, without worrying how the service is implemented. Of course, someone needs to write the software that will power Jini services. That's where The Jini Specification comes in.

The book is divided into two main sections, an overview and the specification for Jini. The overview provides an easily accessible overview of what Jini is, how it works, and what it can achieve. There are also several examples of Jini services and clients, to give you some practical experience with building Jini software applications.

From there, the book dives headfirst into the actual specification. The first part of the book is good for managers, and software developers alike. The coverage of the specification, however, is designed as a reference for developers as they construct Jini software. This is where many readers could become lost, unless they are already using Jini in action. The first part of the book is a guide to Jini, the second intended only as a reference during development. Finally, a glossary of Jini terms and an essay on distributed computing is included, along with the full source code from the overview.

The Jini Specification is a must-have for anyone considering Jini development. It provides an excellent guide to Jini technology for those considering designing Jini-based systems, and a comprehensive printed reference for those who will implement them.  -- David Reilly, for the Java Coffee Break

We read his book for my 8th grade english class. If you likeRobert Hayden, Poetry, Etc. this is a very nice book. If you're likemost of the kids in Mr. Nydicks english class, and you would rather chat than discuss the irony and pain of Middle Passage, this isn't the book for you. But if you like interperative poetry, this is a very nice book by a nice author

ROBERT HAYDEN (1913-1980) was the first African-American to be appointed Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress, a position now titled the U.S. Poet Laureate. He won numerous prizes and awards during the last decade of his life, including the 1975 Fellowship from the Academy of American Poets for "distinguished poetic achievement." Hayden stands out among Twentieth Century American, poets not just for his many literary accomplishments, but for the strong vision of faith that illuminates so much of his work.

In addition to well known poems such as "Those Winter Sundays" and "The Whipping," this anthology contains other equally stirring poems including "Aunt Jemima Of The Ocean Waves" which depicts a conversation with the fat woman from a Coney Island side-show and "Belsen, Day Of Liberation" dedicated to Rosey Pool, the Dutch teacher of Anne Frank and first translator of her famous diary.

While Hayden writes much about African-American history and culture, his poems do not tell the reader what to think or feel. Instead, his carefully crafted verse weaves images that allow the careful reader to move around in some very unusual territory, some beautiful, some uncomfortable. Hayden puts us in the mind of the oppressor in poems like "Middle Passage" about the famous Amistad incident, and "Night, Death, Mississippi" where we eavesdrop on an old Klan member too frail to attend a lynching with his son, of whom he is proud. "Be there with Boy and the rest / if I was well again. / Time was. Time was. / White robes like moonlight / In the sweetgum dark."

Hayden can also be wickedly funny. In "American Journal" written a few years before his death, his narrator is a spy from a distant planet in the galaxy who reports back to his fellow superiors about "this baffling multi people extremes and variegations their noise restlessness their almost frightening energy."

In addition to poems about childhood, society, and race, Hayden also writes about the history and central figures of his religion, the Bahá'í Faith. In "Baha' u'llah In The Garden Of Ridwan" he compares the founder of Bahá'í at an important juncture to Christ the night before being crucified w ho prayed to be relieved of his great destiny. In "Dawnbreaker" Hayden describes the torture of one early Bahá'í put to death by having candles of oil and wick lit within his skin. "Ablaze / with candles sconced / in weeping eyes / of wounds."

Despite his numerous awards, Hayden was not well known to many poetry readers until the end of his life. Fortunately, his reputation has increased since Collected Poems was published posthumously. If you are interested in rich, well crafted poetry which explores what it means to be human, try Hayden. As Aunt Jemima says in the above mentioned poem, "And that's the beauty part, I mean, ain't that the beauty part."

The final book in Jane Roberts Woods' trilogy finds Lucy Richards Arnold in rural West Texas, during the depression. The harsh and arid landscape of the land is barely relieved by the people who populate the area,and the nearest town, Blue Bonnet. Lucy and her husband Josh are working for the area school, she is once again teaching and he is the principal....and neither are made welcomed by the populace. They do make friends within the community and are able to undersatnd the dermands on those around them,but nothing is heard from characters at home, except for a brief appearance by Jeremiah. Their son, John Patrick is a continuous light in their lives, but hard times and very little hope for relief have made the entire area weary and unwelcoming. Once again Woods has been able to capture a time and place in Teaxs history and populate it with believable and complex characters.The realities of small town life, especially in hard times,ring true. The whole book is suffused with the feel of the times, and is a wonderful look at characters we have come to care for.

The best book of the series, this story follows The Train to Estelline and A Place called Sweet Shrub. Set during the Great Depression in the bleak, gnarled landscape and drought of West Texas, the characters Josh & Lucy, now with a 4 year old son, settle into their jobs in a troubled school. The deprivation and desperation of the depression sweep over the reader on almost every page, but the high spirited, high minded scholars meet each challenge as it tumbles into the schoolyard. The characters are sketched with a light and usually loving hand, and the situations are not sugar-coated but realistic and often harsh. The "West Texas-isms" are accurate and amusing. The book moves quickly to a ending that is both heartbreaking and heartwarming. And completely true to this reader's experience.

A five-star political narrative history of the leading statesman of the nation after the passing of Henry Clay, but a four-star biography as it barely touches the subject's domestic life. However, the author has painstakingly accounted for almost every political act of Douglas, who the reader discovers was the only possible savior of the Union in 1860. His electoral failure was the failure of the nation to understand what the disastrous consequences would be - a total civil war willingly initiated by abolition and secession extremists. Although as racist and expansionist as most of his contemporaries, his political motives were of the purest democracy (as he understood it). His constant attempts to get the nation's attention away from slavery and back on nation-building were futile was were his attempts to find a compromise on the eve of war. His anguish at seeing his beloved nation and party fall apart brought on his untimely death which left a 25-year void in the leadership of the Democratic Party. A great read for antebellum political junkies!

Johannsen's work will stand forever, it seems, as the authoritative study of Stephen Arnold Douglas, the man who almost alone carried the Jacksonian banner of democracy and union through the decade of American disintegration leading up to the Civil War. The views of Jackson and Douglas, in broad strokes, still today inform political thought in this country and around the world as recognizable elements of their philosophy turn up in "The Third Way" movement of moderation and political pragmatism that is sweeping the globe. A critical figure in American history and present, Douglas receives fine treatment at the hands of Prof. Johannsen, and is seen as much more than the anti-Lincoln that so many ill-informed people believe him to be. Indeed, Lincoln was little more than a gadfly, an anomaly for much of his career. His election was a fluke. Douglas' entire life bespeaks his status as the everlasting statesman that he was and Johannsen is a master at showing this.

Cries from the Heart was my first introduction to the writings of Johann Christoph Arnold. Arnold has a deep faith, which probably comes somewhat naturally to him. His father was in ministry and his grandfather began a Christian community that stood up to the Nazi regime and had to flee Germany. By training, Arnold is a pastoral counselor, but in truth he is a more than simply a therapist, he is also a believer. He shares both his ministry and faith in this wonderful book. Arnold talks about the reality of pain in our world and offers stories of people who have had to cope in the midst of great tragedy and loss. His book also offers examples of people who suffer with everyday losses and tragedy. Arnold offers hope to people whose lives have been touched by pain, suffering, and hardship, but the hope he offers is not a feel good sort of hope but the assurance that in even life's most tragic and difficult times, people can live with hope.

I began to read this book early in 2002, when the priest sex abuse scandal was first rearing its ugly head in Boston. This was a time when many people of faith had more questions than answers. Even those who are not survivors of child sexual abuse felt hurt and betrayed by all that has happened. While this book did not give answers to the crisis, it did highlight the role of faith and belief when facing life's challenges.

Cries from the Heart was my first introduction to the writings of Johann Christoph Arnold. Arnold has a deep faith, which probably comes somewhat naturally to him. His father was in ministry and his grandfather began a Christian community that stood up to the Nazi regime and had to flee Germany. By training, Arnold is a pastoral counselor, but in truth he is a more than simply a therapist, he is also a believer. He shares both his ministry and faith in this wonderful book. Arnold talks about the reality of pain in our world and offers stories of people who have had to cope in the midst of great tragedy and loss. His book also offers examples of people who suffer with everyday losses and tragedy. Arnold offers hope to people whose lives have been touched by pain, suffering, and hardship, but the hope he offers is not a feel good sort of hope but the assurance that in even life's most tragic and difficult times, people can live with hope.Arnold's suggestions are both practical and helpful and can easily lead a person to prayer and reflection.

I began to read this book early in 2002, when the priest sex abuse scandal was first rearing its ugly head in Boston. This was a time when many people of faith had more questions than answers. Even those who are not survivors of child sexual abuse felt hurt and betrayed by all that has happened. While this book did not give answers to the crisis, it did highlight the role of faith and belief when facing life's challenges which I found to be very helpful.

This book is one of my favorites by J. Christoph Arnold. The stories are all about real people that suffered extreme pain and heartache. It helped me reflect on the heartaches in my own life that I never thought I would overcome. Christoph Arnold has an uncanny way of reaching people through his books in such a simple and profound way, that he reaches our souls with his words. I have recommended this book to everyone I know!