I have a 5-year-old son named Sam. I read him this book for many days--day after day after day. He even slept with the book. So obviously, I believe this is a good book for kids! I had to give it a high rating--he never slept with any other book. The book, I believe, is rated at about a 3rd grade reading level. It involves guns and redcoats and things that interest young folks.
Anyway, the book is about the beginning of the Revolutionary War. Sam's father takes him along when the British come to Lexington. At the battle, one of Sam's friends gets shot in the leg, so children know that war is not all fun and games, and carrying a gun involves responsibility. The author also says things like the British soldiers burned some houses, but "their heart wasn't in it." This leads to good questions about why that was so. The author follows the British as they make a run for it as the "farmers" shoot at them the whole way back. And when Sam gets home, his worry is about his friend who was shot. Nifty drawings, good length, history--this is a very good book for the age group.

This early reader features Sam, a boy who joins his father as a Minuteman, and takes place in Concord and Lexington on the day the American Revolution begins. At 62 pages, with simple vocabulary, this book does a nice job of capturing the uncertainty and excitement of these events for a young person, and would be a good selection for a young reader interested in history. The companion volume by the same author, 'George the Drummer Boy', tells the story of a boy on the side of the loyalists on the same day. Simple but nice illustrations.

My kids loved this book. This book can be read by any reading level, because of its historical perspective. It appears to most adequately suit 1st graders. With my older children I used it as a tool, along with George the Drummer Boy, to teach perspective in writing and history. These two books in combination do an excellent job. Sam the Minuteman is told from the perspective of an American boy. George the Drummer Boy is told from a British boy's perspective. This book has 61 pages, about 1/4 of the pages are full page illustrations. Both books portray the same event in history - the beginning of the American Revolution.

There is realistic conniving, boredom, and petty squabbling aboard Lt. Drinkwater's aging bomb (mortar-firing) vessel (unlike what you'd expect in Dudley Pope's swashbuckling Ramage series). Yet Drinkwater feels that Virago is his last chance to make the step to commander. Then comes an exciting flurry of action under the impetuous Admiral Lord Nelson facing the ferocious guns of Copenhagen. Besides nautical matters this fourth story in the series contains two romantic angles, murder, family loyalty, and a bit of conspiracy with Drinkwater's former spymaster, Lord Dungarth (see An Eye of the Fleet). This book includes very helpful maps, something more sea tales should include ...

Describes the circumstances surrounding the action at Copenhagen in 1801 (not the lesser-known debacle in 1807, told in Mr. Cornwell's 'Sharpe's Prey'). I say 'action' but there is remarkably little of it for the bulk of the book, more delaying and prevaricating, despite the presence of Lord Nelson. A personal undercurrent pre-occupies Nat, who uses his previous clandestine life as a cover - the on-board speculation is handled very nicely.
Having said there is no action is misleading; the very lack of progress to action causes unrest in the ranks (and higher command), showing how lack of purpose and conviction, or unfitness for the task can severely jeopardise an operation, causing unnecessary loss of surprise, ships, and men. This is well-told, without losing one's interest as the various strings of the plot are drawn together, culminating in the final bloody action.
Altogether a gripping thriller topped by a detailed factual description of a complex naval battle.*****

Having returned from the Red Sea (see "A Brig of War"), Drinkwater finds himself on the beach, suspecting that an enemy is using petticoat influence against him. However, some patronage gets him the command of the bomb vessel, Virago, although still a lieutenant. The early part of the story deals with the problems of manning and supplying the vessel, and getting ready for sea. A last minute, unexpected addition to his crew is his brother, on the run from troubles.

The Virago joins the fleet bound for Copenhagen, and Drinkwater has the opportunity to distinguish himself at the first Battle of Copenhagen in April 1801. On the personal side, he must deal with the problem of his brother who he has concealed among the crew under a false name, and a problem with his purser. Drinkwater does eventually receive some unexpected petticoat influence in his favor.

The Battle of Copenhagen and the related politics are described in some detail. Woodman provides useful maps and, as in other novels of the series, provides time periods at the top of each chapter. This novel covers the time period from September 1800 to July 1801, a relatively brief period compared to earlier novels in the series.

This book covers the period from February 1798 to January 1800. We follow 1st Lt Nathaniel Drinkwater as he sells on the War brig hawthorne to the Red Sea. I have not read any other book in the series and found this enjoyable. I actually felt like I was on the ship. This is a true action book. And the author must really know his seamanship and history of the period to develop his world. A fun read.

I did not feel that this third book in the Nathaniel Drinkwater series was as good as the second (A King's Cutter), but it is a good Royal Navy adventure with lots of action as Drinkwater's ship is sent to the Red Sea. It provides an interesting story set in one of the far off areas of the war, not usually covered by other authors. As in his other books, Richard Woodman provides a time period with each chapter heading. This book covers the period from February 1798 to January 1800. It is desirable to read the books in chronological order as this book reintroduces characters from both books 1 and 2 in the series. It gives a good account of the struggle for promotion and notes the effects of bedroom politics (an officer whose sister is the mistress of someone with connections can gain promotion through his sister's influence). The story provides an accurate picture of natural hazards when sailing, hazards of warfare, and hazards to health a in tropical climate. Enemies aboard ship continue to be a problem, almost deadly in Drinkwater's case.

As first novels, these are almost as subtle and enigmatic as P.O'B's later works, but just as gripping as his early stuff; similarly based on historical fact, they are definitely a cut above the rest and should be read in order, to get the best enjoyment.

Excellent descriptions of below-decks and battle actions take you right inside the ship; an acquaintance with nautical terminology helps, but is not vital, to understand the gist of the action or the day-to-day management of the ship - e.g. the handling of sails is particularly well-described, far better than any other book I've read. and succinct descriptions of wind, weather and tide preface each event; the stage is already set - action soon follows.

Book 3 'A Brig of War' sees Nat dashing round to the Red Sea to subvert Napoleon's suspected attack on India. A tense sea-chase ensues, brilliantly described, there are some on-board intrigues which keep one guessing, an old enemy returns to haunt Nat, plus the minutiae of running a ship make this immensely enjoyable reading. We see more details of Nat's long-time colleagues, in particular the misanthrope Appleby, whose didactic prolix is an undercurrent of humour which endears him to both Nat and his ailing Captain.

I read the first 3 books in a weekend - good job I'd already bought the follow-on, because this is addictive reading.

Although the exercises in this book are sort of cool, I have to say that there is still no real scientific evidence for telepathy. A lot of people still have basic misconceptions about how the brain works, something we've learned quite a bit about over the last 50 years. So although I'd like to believe in ESP powers myself, I have to say that everything we've learned about the brain so far contradicts that. So I'd like to discuss that a bit. Some of this is going to get a little technical, so I apologize in advance for that.

One reason ESP powers like telepathy seem plausible to many people is the popular misconception that the brain is electrical in nature and generates electricity, and could possibly create something similar to radio-frequency waves that might be able to traverse long distances and could serve as the underlying mechanism for the remote transmission of thoughts, basically similar to radio. It seems plausible at first. If the brain generates electricity, why not electrical waves, too, which could serve telepathic transmission?

Unfortunately, this is not the case. As usual in our universe, the devil is in the scientific details. The brain really doesn't generate electricity in the same way that a generator creates electricity . Neurons don't actually conduct electricity--the voltage difference produced by a nerve cell occurs because of a self-propagating reversal of negativity along the nerve axon mediated by the movement of ions across the semi-permeable nerve membrane. This reversal of negativity propagates down the nerve to the synapse, where it becomes even more chemical in nature--again, not the stuff that telepathy is made of. But again, there is no actual conduction of electricity, and nothing like RF waves is being generated.

There are other reasons why the RF model doesn't work very well here. Even if radio waves were being created, the impedance of a human skull is several megohms--and human nerve cells only generate about 70 millivolts of potential. Even if it were in the form of an electrical wave (which is isn't, as I've said), it wouldn't make it past the impedance barrier of the skull. The only reason EEG's and similar measuring devices work is because they have very costly amplifiers capable of amplifying the signals thousands of times so they can be detected and displayed, not to mention the fact that the pickup electrodes are resting on a shaved patch of skull--not hundreds or thousands of miles away.

But the biggest problem with the RF theory is the bandwidth allocation problem. The human brain has 60 trillion nerve cells and 14,000 major and minor brain centers. Suppose each of them had the ability to send and receive RF type transmissions. If they all used wireless transmission it would require 14,000 separate channels to handle all the communication requirements, again, something the brain doesn't do because nerve cells have insufficient bandwidth to accommodate 1/10,000th of the total bandwidth required. The maximum frequency bandwidth of a neuron is 1000 Hz. Dividing 1000 by 14,000 gives you .07 Hz per channel--which is a physical impossibility, since you can't have fractional RF carrier waves. This is another example where you have to be very careful about applying the usual electrical engineering concepts to the brain.

There are other problems with the mechanism behind telepathy--such as how would your brain direct it or aim it? Broadcasting it would be extremely inefficient, and as I've pointed out, your brain isn't exactly a powerhouse in this regard. Also, how would the signals be filtered and picked up from all the other RF noise on the planet, especially, since, as I've said, they would be infinitesimally faint?

Of course, you could postulate there is some undiscovered energy the brain is using that hasn't been discovered yet, but then, there is no scientific evidence that this is the case and we're back to unsupported speculation, not rational science. If the proponents of telepathy and the like want to believe in it, that's fine, but what is the possible neural mechanism behind it?

There are other reasons why the brain never evolved telepathy, such as the fact that it had enough trouble evolving the neural machinery for language communication, and the possibility that it would have evolved another, even more mysterious form of communication, is extremely unlikely. When the brain has already evolved one solution for something, it doesn't develop another. It's too expensive and costly, and you only have a finite amount of neurons. And I suspect the neural machinery to support something like telepathy would be far more complex and take up far more space than the neural substrates for language.

I hope I didn't bore everyone too much with some of the technical brain details here (well, I probably did). Personally, I too would love to believe in something like telepathy. It would just be too cool if the human brain could do that. But everything we've ever learned about the brain says it just ain't so.

As someone once said, God is a mathematician, and so the universe works along well-defined mathematical and physical laws--rather than as mystics, poets, romantics and so on--would have liked.

I would normally give this book one star, but I give it two stars since the author is at least trying to provide something constructive, and as I said, I still keep an open mind on the subject. But basically, people need to learn a lot more about all this so as not to be so gullible about the great-sounding but still pseudoscientific nonsense that is all too common in this area.

Well-written book. All points made by the author are backed up by scientific evidence or/and logic. No new age nonsense here. Overall, this book made a lot of sense to me. If you are into new age [stuff], buy a Harry Potter book instead. For those of us who live in reality, I strongly recommend this one.

Be Psychic Now has great exercizes for increasing your psychic powers and for running your brain. I originally checked this book out from the library, but I found it so full of good ideas, I had to buy it and add it to my library. The exercizes in this book are definately improving my life!! Good book

I read this excellent book by Roland Perry some time ago and became convinced of the assignation of the role of the Cambridge University's 'Fifth Man' to Victor Rothschild. Perry's narrative was convincing and thoroughly researched. The book is an excellent read yet I, like the previous reviewer, am puzzled as to why the 'revelation' was not picked up by the press as would have been expected in such cases. I am now even more puzzled. Reading through Christopher Andrew's and Vasili Mitrokhin's book "THE MITROKHIN ARCHIVES" no mention is made of Rothschild as the Fifth Man. Instead the pre-Rothschild fall guy John Cairncross is once again fingered as the last of the Magnificant Five. Can someone tell me - who is the REAL Fifth Man?

Paul Hellander, Travel Writer - Photographer

'Just as the three musketeers were really four so we were really six' Anthony Blunt. This book is a result of high class investigative journalism and has left me totally convinced. In regards to John Cairncross, it is my belief both Cairncross and Rothschild were traitors as Blunt admitted they were really six. Only Rothschild had the ability and position to betray the UK so totally and there certainly has been a cover up.

While browsing in a local Public Library, I came upon this very well presented, and convincing, professional account by Mr Perry, of the unveiling of The Fifth Man. I am astounded that a spy story, detailling the activities of an individual traitor, who was responsible for the greatest influence on world history ever revealed, has apparently been concealed from the history of the twentieth century. I recommend this book by Roland Perry to all interested readers of history, and to those of us fascinated by the espionage history of the twentieth century, and of the Second World War.I further recommend that the publisher of this book (Sedgwick & Jackson, London)consder reissuing this title.It is an absorbing read. This book is an astonishing revelation of History.

"Jungle Pilot" is very good Christian literature. A good day to day account of Mission Aviation Fellowship operations in there out stations. Nate Saint's Jack of all Trades and the Master of Most attitude fits in well with a Bush Pilots mentality. I would recommend to aviation and religious readers alike. A good companion book would be "Through Gates of Splendor" by Elisabeth Elliot who's husband was martyred with Nate.

Insightful, often humorous, and deeply challenging biography of an ordinary American with an extraordinary faith in God and committment to His call to the life of a missionary pilot in Ecuador in the 1950's. Along with four friends, this warm, deeply spiritual man, a tinkerer with a love for "airplanes and Indians", was killed in 1956 by the tribal people to whom they had committed their lives. This noble life, willingly sacrificed for love of God, makes a book of which it can rightly be said, "it will change your life." Don't miss reading this one!

Jungle Pilot is an amazing biography of Nate Saint. It will inspire you and move you in your walk with the Lord. Above all it teaches the most valuable lesson anyone can learn: I can do anything through Christ who gives me strength.

This is perhaps one of the classic Japanese-English character dictionaries. It contains practically all thre characters and compounds a serious learner of Japanese would ever encounter. Despite its size, this dictionary is certainly one of the most useful Kanji dictionaries to have, comprehensive yet concise.

Each entry lists the On and Kun pronunciations and meanings of the character, compounds beginning with that character, their pronunciation and meanings. Unfortunately, the pronunciations are given in romaji rather than kana, which any reasonable student of Japanese would be familiar with. Although the characters are listed under their simplified forms, the traditional form, where it differs, is also provided in the entry. As such, the entries are very comprehensive and useful.

This dictionary, however, is very much for the reader and not the writer. It helps little in Japanese composition as no indication of usage is included in the description of the character and its compounds. It is rather for readers to ascertain the meanings of unfamiliar characters and compounds they come across, and for this purpose, it fulfils its aims admirably.

However, one extremely grave fault of the dictionary is the order in which the characters are arranged. Departing from the traditional arrangement under the classical radicals, Nelson has devised, in this edition, a strange algorithmic method classifying characters which makes it difficult indeed to locate characters, particularly for those familiar with the traditional system. The departure from the traditional system also means that readers who learn Nelson's odd system will be unable to use other references using the traditional system effectively. Were it not for this flaw, the dictionary would surely have been given a higher rating. The situation, however, is ameliorated by the fact that cross-references have been included to point readers to the new radical at the appropriate spot for the old radical. The dictionary also contains many useful indices and appendices listing characters according to their pronunciation, describing the method of locating characters, historical and geographical tables, and so forth. The phonetic index, in particular, is very useful for finding a character whose pronunciation one knows but whose exact form once cannot precisely recall.

In short, this is one of the best Japanese-English character dictionaries around, particularly with regard to its content. It is essential for any advanced student of Japanese, and will prove very useful to intermediate students as well. Its size and scope is such that only rarely will you be dissapointed with an entry or lack thereof. Although sadly marred by Nelson's unfortunate arrangement of the characters, a very serious flaw in a character dictionary -- imagine if an English dictionary departed from the traditional alphabetical arrangement of words, and adopted an entirely new syllabic arrangement, or altered the traditional alphabetical order so the vowels came first, or something similarly inexcusable -- the dictionary is would otherwise be a great investment.

I believe "The Modern Reader's Japanese - English Character Dictionary" by Andrew Nathaniel Nelson is the best character dictionary available for Japanese readers of intermediate/advanced level. In particular for anybody with a great deal of Japanese reading to do, this dictionary excels.

Some debate has arisen over the construction of the book, since it departs from the "traditional" method of classifying characters and adopts a completely systematic approach.

Traditionally the sub-character, or radical, by which a kanji character is classified is determined by the meaning of the radical and the meaning of the whole kanji, thus if one knows the basic meaning of the radical and can guess the meaning of the kanji by it's context you are able to choose fairly accurately which radical a kanji character is listed under. (Please note this is an inexact science, Japanese themselves are not _always_ able to find a character by this method the first try) Having tried this method, I can say with confidence that although it is possible to find characters with perhaps 70% accuracy for an intermediate level reader in order to find characters with anything approaching 100% accuracy you virtually need to become a scholar in kanji construction and radical meanings. (As was mentioned in a review by Sebastien-Jerome, "the traditional system fixed by the [Chinese] Kangxi dictionary" is the basis of all such dictionaries. Thus if you don't have a knowledge of this system you are in trouble ;-)

OK... So how is this dictionary any different? Andrew N. Nelson was a scholar of the Japanese written system (a missionary to Japan, I believe) and he felt, since there is debate even among Japanese as to the correct organisation of a character dictionary, that a systematic approach to character organisation was the most logical step and provided a good way of finding characters for all the non-scholars. This he proceeded to do. He compiled one of the most comprehensive listings of Kanji and compounds available to non-Japanese at the time (or to date) and then proceeded to place them in the logical order of first radical found in an arbitrary but logically ordered system: is it a radical? no, is it enclosure? no, start from an arbitrary point (he chose the top left or "North-West" corner) and rotate around the character looking for the radical (ie next North, North-East, East etc.) With the end result that, once you learnt his arbitrary system, any person, scholar or no, could find their desired character on the first try. (or in other words with 100% accuracy.) This is a most amazing development, considering even Japanese people with their current dictionaries cannot _always_ find their desired character on the first try. Of course as with any profound paradigm shift many people argued and argue that it is "stepping away from the original system", but there is no one standard for Kanji radical groupings so, on this grounds, Nelson's choice can be only be said to be as arbitrary as any other and surely much more effective.

In all I have been very impressed by the speed with which I can find a character using this dictionary, providing of course you understand the system and know a good percentage of the radicals. Likewise, as has been stated by others, the scope of this dictionary is such that very rarely will you be unable to find your desired character or compound. For any student of Japanese with a lot of reading of Japanese to do this is the only dictionary I can recommend, as I know of absolutely no other that allows you to find your desired character first try _every_time_. For example, if you are trying to read a book, you may have to look up several hundred characters and compounds. This ability to find the character first time every time will save you a lot of time and heartache in the end.

Before buying this dictionary look at your goal in learning Japanese. For scholars of Japanese and its accompanying written system, this dictionary may not be for you, perhaps you would be better off just buying a Japanese Character Dictionary from Japan. But for students, of almost any level, who don't have time to delve into the complexities yet, you can't go past this dictionary. (Don't worry, you can still use other dictionaries... but you will find yourself wishing for Nelson's system ;-) As anybody who has studied languages knows well, achieving fluency is a very difficult thing and staying interested is very important. Pouring over dictionaries is difficult and time-consuming (and really ruins a good book ;), so if you just want to sit down and read a Japanese book, this is for you.

Finally, there is a new version of this dictionary "The New Nelson Japanese-English Character Dictionary : Based on the Classic Edition by Andrew N. Nelson" edited by John H. Haig. I know for a fact that this edition tries to revert to a more traditional system of Kanji grouping, and eliminates the original system and also eliminates much of the original speed.

This is THE kanji dictionary for any serious student of Japanese. Years after buying this dictionary in college, I still use it when other dictionaries do not have an entry for the exact combination of characters. It's big, it's heavy, but it is definitely the best when other carry-around dictionaries fall short.

There is loneliness in books which validate some feelings but don't encompass a consistent philosophy of personality, or provide a frame on which to hang all the delicious details of people: they depopulate the world of variety, filling in one small portion, dismissing the rest. Perhaps self-help books particularly fall prey to this, but it would be unfair to single them out, although almost universally they are "small-souled." One might wonder what philosophically valid books have ever been written on the concept of romantic love. Nathaniel Branden tries nobly and has many valuable criticisms of immature love, misconceived love, and of the critics of love, thus praising love's potential when fully realized. His understanding of exclusivity (which gains only a provisional acceptance), jealousy (which he views somewhat as inevitable but dangerous), children (which may stand in the way of love) and secularism and selfishness (both implied by love) are radical and could have been written by a hippie Ayn Rand. Unfortunately, Branden's attacks on the critics of love finally fails to find any other place for the uncommitted but as resentful and envious, or somehow sick (dependent, living out the lives of parents). How he has failed to step back and view things from a broader perspective, even briefly, is clearly shown in a simplistic history of love in chapter 1, that characterizes whole eras in brief unattributed sound-bites. Alas, if he applied his own proverb, "Take what you want and pay for it," universally, the "universal compensation that prevails in all things" (Hume), he might realize that this romantic love itself, having the high price it does, is, without sickness or resentment, only one choice.

I have always wondered if I really even understood what real love is. This book explained it all to me. It's history, how my self-esteem effects it, why selfishness is a normal and valid part of love, what characteristics help love to succeed, and what missing links cause it to remain unfulfilling. I'm going to make my children read this before they get married. Everyone needs to know this stuff.

This book made a deep impression on me and as a result I started a web site matchmaking forum based on Branden's concepts outlined in his wonderful book. The concepts are lucidly explained and derived from basic principles.

This is the "budget traveler's Bible". If you are on a tight budget, are young and single, or like hanging out with those kinds of people, then before you take your next trip, you need this book in your suitcase. Organized by geographic area of the country, from east to west, you will find a general info section giving you key phone numbers of tourist agencies relevant to the area, locations of bus and train terminals and airports, local transit info, and anything else you will need. It gives web sites to check too. The next section covers accomodations starting from least expensive working its way up. Restaurants are covered the same way, with a short review of each and some example prices. Then, you will see a listing of the area's attractions, all nicely reviewed and described, some with a little dry wit. The front chapter describes everything you need to know to survive a trip in the US. You learn about the transportation system, how trips are priced, and different modes of transport, from air to bus to rail. Each section covers these quite well. You learn about discount ticketing options and the benefits and disadvantages of each form of transport. You also learn about survival techniques, safety, how to obtain money away from home, and what to do in an emergency. Since this book and all others in the series are written by younger travelers on a shoestring budget, "Let's Go" can definitely meet the needs of a budget traveler. A must have.

I recently finished a road trip across the country. This book came in handy every step of the way, from making reservations for lodgings to finding places to eat once we got there.

Understand that this book doesn't have eveything. There's not enough space in one book for too much detail on any one place. And it primarily (with some exceptions) covers only the largest cities in each state.

But it's a great way to get started planning a trip. I made many of my best lodging and eating choices of my trip based on this book.

This book i found was great it shows local maps of most major cities, the reviews tell of cheap eats, cheap sleeps and cheap pubs!

It offers directions to the places of stay and any special requirements that is needed for the hostel/hotel, their prices and the activites they have on offer. It notes places to be aware of, which was good for me as a first time traveller.

The information is updated annually so is keep upto date. The book seems to of been written by down to earth people and offers all soughts of hints on getting around.

Happy reading! Oh the only negative thing...its damn big!

I think that the book is pretty good so far, but it does have a few things that I can't quite relate to or understand. Most people in today's society don't get pointed out for commiting adultery. It's like an everyday thing now. People just don't do that anymore. I do think that is was great to see how the people back then viewed certain quailties and how they carried out their religious beliefs. To me, this was a story about a woman named Hester Prynne who was caught up in a bad love triangle. She was married to a scholar who had sent her ahead to Boston. She got caught up and fell in love with the minster Dimmesdale. She got pregnant and had a daughter who she named Pearl because she was the most precious and expensive thing in her life. All of her earnings went towards her. They made Hester and baby Pearl sit out on a scaffold allday to let the people come by and look at them and ridicule them. Hester had to wear a scarlet A on her bosom from hence forth. She made the most of it, though. Pearl had an intuition and she could recognize how was good and who was bad. She knew the Chillingworth, Hester's husband, was a bad man. She felt a connection with Dimmesdale. One day when Pearl was about seven years old, she asked her mother what did the scarlet letter mean and why did Dimmesdale always cover up his heart. Hester had still not revealed who the father of her child was because she loved him that much. As far as I have read the guilt is eating Dimmesdale up and he wants to tell the people but he doesn't know how. In the end you should try your best not to keep hurtful secrets inside because in the end it will be the thing that destroy's you the most!

Yes, I enjoyed this book. The STORY was good...I am sure you have an idea about it so I won't waste time with a summary. The SETTING was great...Hawthorne brought 17th Century frontier Boston alive with his stunning descriptions. The CHARACTERS were ok...yes, only ok, because I never found myself loving or hating any of them, which to me is evidence that the author was successful with his creation. But...The SYMBOLISM is what makes this book, what makes it a classic!...This book is a brilliant essay on how important it is to abide by a conscience. One mishap can lead you down a path towards destruction. BUT aiding in that destruction were Christians who were more unforgiving then the heathen around them...The christian who reads this book should learn that forgiveness was the #1 thing Christ taught and expects from us! (i.e. He who is merciful shall obtain mercy). BUT what I learned most from this book was how important it is to understand Gods grace! God is not some powerful ogre waiting to punish but a friend waiting to forgive. If this frontier town only could have known this how different their experience would have been!

However, I think this book was cheated because I read it right after the stunning 'Grapes of Wrath' and it simply could not compare, overall, and therefore can not receive the elite five star status! Still a must read if you have never...!

If stories of sacrifice, strength, commitment and love perk your interests, then this may be gratifying reading material for you. Hawthorne's text, The Scarlet Letter, requires concentration and thought to comprehend some of the wording. This book has a copious amount of run-on sentences which makes it seem way too drawn out. I also found it challenging to follow the plot and theme because of the ample amount of detail provided about each character and the various situations. I can see why The Scarlet Letter is considered a classic, but I would not recommend it to anyone.