The popular American view of Puritans is usually something out of Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter." That is, a bleak, dreary group of religious fanatics who take themselves entirely too seriously. While they did take their religion very seriously (your life on earth does determine whether you will spend eternity in heaven or hell, after all; it's best not to take chances), they did have fun. Bruce Daniels does an excellent job researching the relationship between Puritans and fun: What did they do?; How much time did they spend doing it?; What DIDN'T they do that might surprise us?; Did some groups have fun one way while others had fun another way?; and the all important question for historians: Why?

Two themes run through Daniels' work: the Puritan ideal with regards to fun is that recreational activities should a) not be sinful b) give one rest so that he or she can serve the Lord more efficiently c) be productive and d) not be an end unto itself. The second theme that runs through "Puritans at Play" is that, while the first generation of Puritans in America came pretty close to this ideal, as the years went on and New England became more heterogeneous, the ideal had great influence, but was viewed more as a guideline for recreation as opposed to a matter so grave as to have long-lasting (read: eternal) implications.

In this amazingly well-researched book, Daniels analyzed how reading (the ideal recreational activity in Puritan America), music, church related activities, public gatherings (such as public hangings or military training days), dancing, eating, sex, bars, gambling, and sports (among others) fit into both the Puritan ideal and the Puritan reality.

The beauty of this book is that Daniels tackles such an all-encompasing subject with apparent ease. I feel he has accomplished the goal he mentions in his preface, to write a book suitable for both the serious scholar and the recreational historian (although my one complaint is that his first chapter made for dry, difficult reading). From Chapter Two on, Daniels introduces the reader to Puritans on their own ground, always making sure to put things in a cultural context. I would definately recommend it to fellow amateur historians.

Of all the groups in American history, the Puritans still have the biggest bum rap of them all. H.L. Mencken articulated this false view perfectly when he defined a Puritan as someone who laid awake at night, fretting that somebody, somewhere, was having a good time. While the Puritans did have strong beliefs over the appropriateness of certain entertainments (such as the theater, which they banned as a place of lies and the breeding ground of crime), they did believe that God intended there to be joy in life as well. One of their greatest joys was sex: so long as it was within marriage, the Puritans believed sex was necessary, wonderful, and to be practiced often. Indeed, when one man refused to have sex with his wife, he was excommunicated from the Church! Bruce Daniels' much-needed volume on leisure and recreation in colonial New England fills up a hole in our historical awareness of this intense group. I loved this book, almost as much as I loved Edmund Morgan's book, "The Puritan Family." This one is not to be missed by history buffs!

Having worked with college students for 17 years (including 7 as an ordained Reformed University Fellowship Campus Minister), I am constantly on the prowl for tools that are theologically sound, yet help the average college student/lay person in this area. Dan's work is everything that I could hope for. The book is an excellent marriage of explaining the Biblical-theological principles to guide our practice of applying the Bible to our lives, as well as the resulting practice to employ. It does not make the error of falling into simplistic rules that don't really get at the heart, or of being so broad as to be meaningless. I HIGHLY recommend it for Pastors, elders, college students, or anyone wanting to really begin to more faithfully, accurately, and deeply apply God's Word to our lives today.

Any preacher or teacher of the Bible who has experienced the frustration of seeking to develop legitimate application of the Bible to life (that would include ALL of us) has wished, hoped, and prayed for a book that would help in this process. Well, our wishes, hopes, and prayers have been answered. In this unique book (I'm aware of no other like it), Dan Doriani does offers excellent insight into both the theory and practice of applying Scripture in a way that is both faithful to the passage being studied and practical in the lives of those who desire for the Bible to change their lives. In this book, Doriani maintains that legitimate Biblical application addresses one or more of the following life issues: Duty, Character, Goals, and Discernment. But he doesn't stop there. In this book, besides developing those life issue applications in enough (but not too much) detail, Doriani addresses concerns about how to develop applications that do more than just moralize, how to deal with narratives, law, and other content in the Bible, how to focus on Christ, and how to apply the grace of God in promoting life change. To be honest, this is the book I believe all Bible teachers/preachers need to read and heed -- if they would see results in the lives of those to whom they communicate the Truth of the Bible. This book is here and ready to be read, re-read, marked, inwardly digested, and of course APPLIED to our personal Bible study, preaching, and teaching. I see this having a significant impact on everyone who gets into it. Well worth the time and money, to be sure!

I read Saito's book for a course he taught at UCSD in San Diego. I felt that from his book I was given not only a unique and fascinating sociological examination of the interworkings of perhaps the first Asian suburban neighborhood in America, but I was also enlightened to a relatively new notion of 'whiteness' and its effects on the American scene. This book may be read by high school students or academic scholars, the topics of which address some of the most controversial issues in contemporary society.

I came upon the book in an unusual way. I was having dinner with a group of educators and happened to meet the author. Over dinner he talked about some of the issues he came across in his research and I decided to pick up a copy a few days later. I read the book and it surprised me. It was interesting to me because I'm from Hawaii, and the experiences of Asian Americans there, I think, are different, and the text let me experience a major community outside my own. And while I don't see myself as politically driven, I found myself caught up in the alliances/divisions he sees forming in the San Gabriel Valley. As the text examines the theoretical aspects of the politicking in that community, it also presents detailed accounts of actual events that took place during the various stages of grassroots organizing. The depth of the cross-referencing is impressive, but what strikes me most are the insightful, sometimes very personal observations offered to the researcher by participants as events formed --observations that exist almost as sub-themes to the research. He sifts through then traces back lines of political theory through to actual events as residents began to change their community. A worthy read. It has caused me to look at my own community and makes me want to understand more about the forces and processes of change.

This is by far one of the absolute best books (just in general, not even specifically related to Sign Language) I've ever read!--and I read *a lot* of books. I was not able to put this book down; it was absolutely fascinating.

If you are a Hearing person at all familiar with Deaf culture, you will see yourself and your Deaf friends in this book and lightbulbs will go off as you recognize and identify the reasons for specific interactions you've had in Deaf community. As someone who has been enthralled with ASL for more than 20 years and involved in Deaf community off and on (more off than on to my dismay) for more than 10 years, I found myself, after reading this book, wishing I could reconnect with every Deaf person I've known and *apologize* to them for all the cultural gaffs and blunders I've made, and for all the misunderstandings and misassumptions on my part. I SO MUCH wish I had had this book 10-20 years ago to help me bridge the gap and to understand the different perspectives from which Hearing and Deaf approach communication.

Not only that but this book has opened my perspective and helped me to better understand my coworkers in the High Tech industry who are from Asian, Arab, and European countries, as well as to better understand the cultural differences between myself and the homeless and street-culture-savy teenagers with whom I work on a voluneer basis.

Thank you so much to the author for this amazing, fascinating, and accurate work!

Excellent--- a good base book for us to move forward with as a profession.

Adele Harth

RID & NAD interpreter

This is an easy book to follow. It is not expensive and most of the ingredients are already in the kitchen. Get some for gifts and all your friends.

Excellent source for cooking foods to help the heart rid of plaque. Recipes help keep fat levels down and all are tasty. Easy to prepare and reasonably priced

I have frankly never seen Modernism addressed so lucidly and exhaustively, and yet so concisely, as Dan Schwarz does in "Reconfiguration." It clears up many, many symbolical and psychological riddles that I thought I would never have a satisfactory handle on. But as for his sentences... I've frankly never seen their equal! The competing complexity and simplicity is sheer genius. The literary student of any level would do themself an extreme injustice to miss this one!

I have frankly never seen Modernism addressed so lucidly and exhaustively, and yet so concisely, as Dan Schwarz does in "Reconfiguration." It clears up many, many symbolical and psychological riddles that I thought I would never have a satisfactory handle on. But as for his sentences... I've frankly never seen anything like them! The competing complexity and simplicity is sheer genius. The literary student of any level would do themself an extreme injustice to miss this one! W. Pearce Brown

Rabbi Daniel Feldman has set himself a formidable task in this volume: to spell out in a generally accessible way what Jewish law says about human relationships.

His task is, in part, to respond to those (far too many) people who see Halakha as "ritualistic" and as having little to say on this important topic. It is also, in part, to help provide those who _are_ Traditionally observant with a helpful overaching framework that makes sense of their practices at the interpersonal level.

He succeeds wonderfully. In each of a dozen-plus areas, he provides a careful overview of the relevant portions of Halakha, sifting with great competence through a wide range of rabbinic opinions and citing their sources in Torah.

For example, the very first chapter concerns the Halakhic prohibition on embarrassing one's fellow publicly, which Torah regards as in some way equivalent to murder. But in what way, and to what lengths must one go in order to avoid committing this sin? How many listeners are needed in order to qualify as "public"? Three? Does the prohibition apply in private too? Must one -- as certain passages of Torah seem to imply -- submit to martyrdom rather than disclose embarrassing information about someone?

Feldman sorts handily through the range of rabbinic opinion, carefully getting the issues clear and allowing the Tradition to offer its answers. The result is not _easy_ reading by any means, but it will be highly rewarding to anyone who wants a clear exposition of what Halakha actually says.

And that means "anyone," not only Halakhically observant Jews. As Feldman himself is careful to note, his book is not intended as a detailed guide to Jewish practice. It should therefore be of tremendous interest to anyone who wants to learn about Jewish ethics.

In particular, since in even the Reformest of Reform Judaism the _ethical_ mitzvot are still officially regarded as binding, there should be much in this volume to provoke discussion and (it is hoped) agreement among the various branches of modern Jewry.

Daniel Feldman is a man who truly lives this book day in and day out. I had the privilage of spending the summer with him and seeing him "in action". If there is going to be one book which you will buy all summer, buy this one. Every chapter is a whole new topic, yet the whole book ties togethor. Buy, this book, I loved it and so will you.

I've just read some Amazon reviewers' responses to T. S. Eliot's poetry as testimony to his possibly being the greatest poet ever. Such an evaluation practically proves Eliot's insistent point about the cultural impoverishment of the present.

Indeed, Browning's masterwork may very well be the ultimate poetic epic in the English language, rivaled certainly not by Spenser, Wordsworth, and Pound but only by Chaucer and Milton. The fact that even the "trial of the century"--the O. J. Simpson case--did not produce widespread renewed interest in its literary predecessor and equivalent would produce surprise and disappointment were I not so aware that, outside of Shakespeare, the academic canon has been foreshortened (and engendered) to a tradition that begins with Virginia Woolf and ends with Sylvia Plath.

In "Ring and the Book" Browning takes the sordid event of an enraged husband murdering his helpless bride--the daughter of a prostitute and rescue project of a priest--to "explain the ways of God to man." The reader of the poem becomes, in effect, a "privileged" juror in the trial of the murderer, positioned through Browning's protean and powerful rhetoric within the consciousness of each of the principals before finally being enabled to glimpse the "truth" that affords meaning to human mutability and suffering.

The poem no doubt will remain in dust closets, largely unread even by literature Ph.D's. But there's little chance of its ever becoming lost. Like the priest-hero of the poem, a few priests of the imagination will ever so often make the poem's discovery and be lured into the quest of pursuing its singular meanings.

As an English major at the University of Pittsburgh, I was never exposed to this series of dramatic monologues. It's a pity, because when I finally stumbled across it, Browning went from being just another 19th-century poet to my favorite English language poet of them all, at one fell swoop. The Ring and the Book is based on a real-life murder trial in 17th century Rome. The story is told from multiple perspectives, changing with every new section of the book; we hear from the "Man on the Street", the murderer, the victim on her death-bed, and even the Pope. The details of the story are far too convoluted to explain in summary and do anything resembling justice to the book, but it can be safely said that once you've begun, you're in for a whirlwind ride through a carnival of a trial that makes the O.J. Simpson affair look like a parking-ticket dispute by comparison. The truly stand-out feature of The Ring and the Book is not in the story itself, however, but in the telling. Browning handles the English language like a virtuoso emulating angel's choruses on a Stradivarius. If the book suffers any single flaw, it is the simple fact that at times, Browning writes these lines almost TOO well, making it difficult for the reader to pay attention to the actually progression of the story, as said reader becomes entraced by the beauty of the poetry. (In particular, I consider Caponsacchi's description of the flight from Arezzo beginning at line 1152 of Book VI to be one of the best written passages in literature of all time.) Dramatic blank verse hasn't seen genius of this level since Milton wrote of the angelic Fall. It's a pity this book isn't more widely recognized and discussed, for it deserves recognition as one of the best-constructed poetic stories of history, and the pinnacle of 19th century authorship.

This book is excellent. It has all the numbers and stats that you could possibly want on any car sold in America.

Horsepower, options, engines, 0-60, pros, cons, and pretty much anything else that you can think of. All including pictures.

There are some extras as in new model spotlights, and coverage of some of the overseas autoshows.

Every car's page is layed out in a very easy to read manner. If you just like to know everything about cars, and I mean EVERYTHING than you must buy this book.

For any car person - this is the best guide to features and benefits on a model-by-model basis. Also, the reviews of the major International Auto Shows is excellent. I know of no other car book that even comes close to the content of this publication ! A Must Read !

The Robot's Twilight Companion is a superb collection of science fiction short stories by Tony Daniel and presented under one cover for the first time. These outstanding tales of imagination include: Life On The Moon; A Dry, Quiet War; Radio Praha; Aconcagua; Black Canoes; Death Of Reason; Mystery Box; Grist; and the title piece, The Robot's Twilight Companion. This highly recommended anthology offers an introduction for science fiction fans to one of today's best storytelling talents and will leave them wanting more!

The Robot's Twilight Companion is a brilliant compendium of stories by one of the best and the brightest (not to mention criminally underappreciated) young writers in America. Read it and stretch your mind so far out of shape you will never see the world in the same way again. If you like Philip K. Dick, Stanislaw Lem, or even William Faulkner, Tony Daniel's books belong on your shelves -- and in your head! Make The Robot's Twilight Companion your companion and I guarantee it will be the start of a beautiful relationship.