Once again, Peterson field guides has provided a user-friendly and comprehensive review of the habitats in the Southwest/Rocky Mountain region of North America. As a graduate of the conservation biology program at Arizona State University, I find this guide to be an invaluable field resource and a practical, detailed survey of the habaitat types most commonly encountered in the western region. The ecology concepts are presented in a clear and organized format and the illustrations effectively convey more challenging concepts. I find Peterson's ecology series to be the choice reference guide for students of ecology and conservation and an enriching counterpart to the range of Peterson's field guides.

In order to appreciate the great wisdom to be found in Finding Enlightenment, you must first know the credentials of this wonderful biographer. J. Gordon Melton is the director of the Institute for the Study of American Religion, the author of over 25 books, encyclopedias and almanacs, and an ordained elder in the United Methodist Church.

Further, this unbiased scholar studied the teachings of Ramtha as well as forming a kinship with JZ Knight. It is from this place he wrote his biography of JZ Knight and Ramtha and the lessons to be learned from both. These insights enabled seemingly ordinary citizen JZ Knight to discover the One living inside her...and the means to uncover the hidden realities. This is the wisdom and knowledge now available to us, today!

The foundation of Ramtha's teachings is Gnosticism...a belief that humans are angelic, perhaps even divine beings who are lost in a world of distractions, self-imposed limitations and confining traditions. We learn that Ramtha is a Lemurian who lived on Earth 35,000 years ago. His experiences and his desire to become the wind, and his ascension ultimately led him to God status. He is now back on Earth to teach us all he has learned...and JZ Knight with Ramtha's School of Enlightenment is his pulpit.

Finding Enlightenment offers a path as well as a comparison to the many religions abounding today. A major difference? Ramtha teaches that there is no Satan. This basic difference allows his students to focus on self-discovery and self-growth...and not fear.

This reviewer discovered in Finding Enlightenment a clear and unbiased view of Ramtha's teachings through his channel, JZ Knight. Thank you, J. Gordon Melton, for giving us insight into a woman shaman and an understanding of Ramtha's word!

The Instant Dominican Republic guide is really nicely written.The guide is small and easy to carry around.The book features fast facts,top sites, great photography,background of the country,travel tips,and essential contact numbers. The guide was very helpful and the information in the guide is good to know.Anyone going to the Dominican Republic could use this guide book.Its great!

Kids love repetition, but after reading most children's books to my toddler, I am heartily sick of them. Not this one. It has a gentle but engaging plot and rhythmic phrases that your child will quickly remember and repeat along with you. The dialogue is fun and the characters memorable. My daughter now ranks "Nell Nugget" and "Nasty Galoot" right up there with "Madeline" in terms of favorite characters, and I think the books are on the same reading level. The age guideline is a little high -- my daughter is two and has no problem following the story and doesn't get antsy before the ending. This is one book you won't moan over when your child brings it to you for reading -- again and again!

It's apparent from reading this title that the author really knows her stuff. She's spent 30 years island hopping the Caribbean and it shows in her grasp of local cultures and her ability to sniff out the authentic in every town. In a crowded field of Caribbean guidebooks, this title truly excels.

What an exquisite book! Not only is it an informative and interesting read, but it made me want to move to Taos and take up oil painting! In fact, I'm signing up for painting classes this week! The plates are magnificent, and the subject matter, Taos, and Taos Pueblo Indians, are filled with beauty and dignity from a time gone by. Highly recommended for all lovers of the Southwest, native cultures, and landscape and oil paintings.

The Story Of Christian Spirituality surveys two thousand years of the diverse Christian movement, with its evolving history and theology in terms of the spiritual heritage of the Christian faith, from East to West. The contributors present a full, fascinating, and informative portrait of humanity's desire for the dive across the centuries. The Story Of Christian Spirituality highlights the contributions of key individuals as they explored the ways in which Christians from earliest times to the present day sought to express and live out the deepest truths of their faith. A variety of traditions are showcased including the early church fathers, the Celts and Anglo-Saxons, the saints and mystics of the Medieval Wet, the Eastern traditions, the Russian contributions, the Protestant tradition in Europe, the Catholic saints and Reformers, the Anglicans, the Protestant tradition in America, and the 20th century international profusion of spiritualities arising from Christian traditions and innovations. Superbly and beautifully illustrated throughout, The Story Of Christian Spirituality is a remarkable and highly acclaimed addition to any personal, church, seminary, academic, or community library collection.

If you're trying to get your entry-level ham radio license, this is THE study guide for you! Gordon West has reorganized the questions into logical topic groups for easier learning. He also has highlighted key words in his explanations to help you remember the correct answer. The explanations are full of fun memory tricks that will help you remember the correct answers. He also has included more than 150 addresses of helpful websites where you can learn more about a specific ham topics, like space communications or repeater operations. A GREAT STUDY GUIDE!

Finally a travel/guide book that reveals the secrets and true beauty of Oregon! Gordon Coffin has done an excellent job of covering the entire state. The "Special Interest Tours" are well planned and have something for everyone. As a "local", the book is a great reference for our many visitors. We use the "Calendar of Events" section to schedule out-of-town guest's visits to coincide with fun events such as Portland's Waterfront Blues Festival. The writing is colorful, descriptions are enticing. This book makes planning and organizing a trip in Oregon so easy. Gordon Coffin stayed away from the overvisited tourist attractions and shared his private collection of Oregon gems. This is a book for anyone planning a trip to Oregon and a must for all Oregonians.

The Funhouse Mirror, Robert Gordon's second book, is searing, funny, bitter, passionate and brilliant - a gripping read. Gordon, who taught writing in Washington State prisons for almost a decade, has collected a half dozen works of fiction and non-fiction by his students - including murderers and rapists - and interspersed his own commentary and stories. The inmates' work is stunning on two levels: the technical proficiency of their writing and the combination of brutality and humanity that they contain. The quality of their prose is presumably a tribute to Gordon's skill as a teacher and writer, which is reflected as well in his own essays and fiction. But it is the stories themselves that hold the reader's attention: stories of the countless gross and petty brutalities of prison, told with a clarity and insight that many more accomplished writers lack. Yet these stories brilliantly demonstrate the remarkable survival of basic human instincts in a dehumanizing institution. Gordon's book is ultimately but subtly political: he references only in passing the fact that the educational program that brought him into the prisons was eliminated as part of prison "reform." This is a short book, but one that will haunt you with the profound questions it raises about our prison system.

This book is a must-read for anyone interested in the criminal justice system or who believes she/he understands it. Author Robert Ellis Gordon taught creative writing workshops to inmates in the Washington State Corrections System for 9 years. This powerful collection includes non-fiction essays and short stories written by Gordon and some of the incarcerated writers who were Gordon's students. Through stories and essays infused with emotional risk, startling humor, and vivid detail, the collection resonates as a testament to the intimate details of prison life. The collection offers no excuses for criminal behavior, but the inmates' writing reveals haunting histories and the daily combination of terror and tedium that makes up time served. In his own work, Gordon reflects unflinchingly upon the qualities of his students, many of whom are repulsive in their crimes (child molestation, rape, murder). Gordon describes challenging his students to "struggle back to life" by engaging in the vulnerable business of creating literature. And the inmates' work included in "The Funhouse Mirror" demonstrates the transcendent power of artistic opportunity. Gordon challenges the rest of us to examine the true nature of our corrections system and the the lives our society chooses to surrender to incarceration with diminishing hope of redemption.

Robert Gordon delivers an authentic and disturbingly poignant collection of short stories and essays in his latest book, "The Funhouse Mirror: Reflections on Prison". As an ex-convict, and having read more than my share of the material written about our country's prison system, I can tell you this guy must have really gotten to know his subjects. Gordon, while working as a teacher of creative writing in prisons in the Northwest, peeled back some layers of an underbelly that up to this point only the hopelessly incarcerated knew existed. It's been a long time since I've read something so powerful and so reminiscent of days and nights I'd like to forget.