As a student at St. Lawrence University, it has been to my privlege to have studied under the tuteledge of Prof. Sondergard and to have conversed with students of prof. Berger. As a student, I would observe that, is this books is anything like the way they teach, it will be a supreme accomplishment for all three.

I became a Christian in 1978. Though not a Catholic one of the first books I read after my conversion was Merton's Seeds of Contemplation. I don't claim to have understood it all at that time. As a new Christian I was just trying to learn. I didn't even have the slightest idea who Thomas Merton was, I just found the book in the community college library and started reading. In the intervening years I have gone through many changes and have read many Christian authors. I have come to the point where I am not so concerned with the denomination of the writer or whether or not he or she shares my particular background. What has become important to me is that if I can detect true reverence and submission to God in the writer's words then I will read and benefit. Though I am Protestant and, theologically speaking, Reformed in my thinking, I love Thomas Merton with all my heart.

A few months ago I listened to his autobiography The Seven Story Mountain on tapes. Before that I listened to The New Seeds of Contemplation. Merton stirred up things in me and gave a voice to private thoughts that, unfortunately, can hardly be expressed even in most churches. When I ran across this new book, The Inner Experience, I bought it immediately. I finished it in a couple of weeks, savoring it slowly. Merton is not bound by any lables, denominational or otherwise, yet he remains Christian. This does not make him an enemy of the non-Christian and he never comes off that way. He is wide ranging, yet Christian. In this new work Merton is like someone who pulls you to the side and fills you in on all the details that are really important but were left out of what we've been told is really important. He never hides weakness, never claims to have the definitive answer. He let's you know he's acting as more of a guide, as someone who is clearing mental debris so that you can get a better picture of not so much what he is telling you but what you can become by following God yourself if confusion is lessened. I found myself constantly underlining passages and putting the book down just to let cetain words sink into my thoughts. When I finished the book I knew I would have to read it again. I felt a tinge of sadness as if I was saying goodbye to a friend, but also joy that one who has been dead for over thirty years still spoke with such quiet strength. And isn't that precisely what Scripture says about those who were truly faithful, that they being dead yet speak?

I also found William Shannon's scholarship and guidance helpful. He relates to you the circumstances surrounding the writing of this book, which was actually a rewrite of an earlier work of Merton's (What is Contemplation?) that took on a new form and thrust. Mr. Shannon used different type fonts to let the reader know when the words were part of Merton's revision. These are cataloged neatly by chapter in the back of the book. Merton speaks to our time just as poignantly, maybe even more so, than he did to his own. There are certain people who are ready, indeed who hunger, for the words in this book. You will know who you are when you read it. As Merton says on page 3...

"But if in some sense you are already a contemplative (whether you know it or not makes little difference) you will perhaps not only read the book with a kind of obscure awareness that it is meant for you, but you may even find yourself having to read the thing whether it fits in with your plans or not. In that event just read it......and pray for me, because from now on we are, in some strange way, good friends."

Though Merton is gone I do feel that in some stange way we are good friends. And I feel a little saner in a mad world.

"Oct. 22nd, 1837. 'What are you doing now?' he asked, 'Do you keep a journal?'-- So I make my first entry today." Thus begins Thoreau's Journal, made up of more then two million words and covering about twenty-five years of his life. No other work of Thoreau's better exhibits his discipline as a writer and his devotion to the natural world. In the Journal can be found the fragmented foundations of masterpieces such as Walden, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, The Maine Woods, and Cape Cod. But what is perhaps more interesting to a reader of Thoreau's Journal are his thoughts and insights on topics such as friendship, love, religion, nature, bravery, heroism, war, slavery, the art of writing, and, most important to Thoreau, the art of living. Anyone with any interest in Thoreau will find his Journal to be an invaluable aid in understanding and following the life of one of America's most profound prose writers

To cite Meriwether Lewis as Editor of this and other volumes of this University of Nebraska Press edition, edited by Moulton, is an injustice to Moulton. Lewis' efforts never got beyond a pros- pectus. Further, to list Clark as merely a con- tributor, is unforgiveable.

This book has been a classic in Joyce studies for many years. Joyce had said famously that if you wanted to understand his writing you first had to understand Aquinas. Jumping off from this typically Joycean hyperbole, Noon explicates Joyce's Catholicism from the angle of Thomistic Aesthetics. A technical/theological subject made very readable. A must for any wannabe Joyce scholar .

You don't have to love chess to follow this tale through the chess world; you have to love a good story about what makes people (not to mention Automatons) tick. The characters are reminiscient of Crime and Punishment (and I mean that as a compliment) with their murky motivations. What makes this even more outstanding is that it is based on a real chess caper nearly pulled off but foiled by Poe...

El autor Rodriguez de Montalvo, Garci fue la primera persona en mencionar la palabra California. Este nombre era atribuido a una tribu de mujeres nativas en una "isla llamada California". Esta isla era considerada un Paraiso Terrenal habitada ademas de estas mujeres exoticas por animales unicos. Este libro fue publicado en 1510 por el mencionado autor a quien se le atribuye haber traducido uno de los libros del Amadis de Gaula titulado " Las Sergas de Espalndian"... Si Ud es intersado en la historia y origenes de nombres, este libro debe estar en su coleccion personal ya que no solo informa sino tambien educa sobre el origen del nombre California... (For the English speaking readers. This is a golden book for its historical context. This book is the first written information that mentioned the word California published in 1510. I am recomending this book for his historical context, if you are a history lover) Alberto.:

Can't wait to see this one. Lilla and Dworkin is like a collaboration between Ken Vandermark and Wynton Marsalis.

First published in 1906, this book is a history of Northern Italy from the rise of the Communes in the major cities (XI Century) to the establishment of "tyrannies" by powerful families at the beginning of the XIV Century (first the cruel Ezzelino da Romano, then the Visconti in Milan, the Carrara in Padua, the Scaliger in Verona etc...). The author analyzes the balance of power and the struggles between Guelfes and Ghibellines in cities like Milan, Pavia, Cremona, Brescia, Verona, Padua, Mantua... There are very few studies in English about the wars between Guelfes and Ghibellines, which tore Italy between 1200 and 1350, so if you're interested in the subject it's necessary reading.

On the other hand, the illustrations are poor : the maps look like photocopies of hand drawings and the photographs are very dark. That's 1906 technology I guess.

This book is stunning! A large number of Eggleston's photographs beautifully printed on good paper. "Los Alamos" is one of the best photography books I have seen in years.