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Book reviews for "Williams,_Geoffrey_John" sorted by average review score:

The Legacy of Pope John Paul II: His Contribution to Catholic Thought
Published in Textbook Binding by Crossroad/Herder & Herder (2000)
Authors: Geoffrey Gneuhs, David L. Schindler, William B. Smith, Geoffrey Gneuhs, and Fritz Lobinger
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Very helpful
Dr. John F. Crosby's "The Mystery of 'Fair Love,'" contained in this collection of essays, is one of the best introductions to Pope John Paul II's theological anthropology, "theology of the body," and thought on human sexuality available. Rarely does one find such insight and concise clarity in one place. Follow up this essay with the Pope's works collected in Pope John Paul II on the Genius of Women and/or Theology of the Body, both available through Amazon.

Why the Pope's Right
So much coverage of John Paul II presents him as a politician or a superstar. This book explains his role as a thinker. And it does a good job showing the theory behind the battles at the UN and the battle to restore orthodoxy---or just a little sanity---within the Catholic church.

Papal Coronation
John Paul II, the philosopher pope, is the most intriguing thinker of our time. But it's not easy to plow through the mass of encyclicals, adresseses, and books. This work provides an excellent study of the Pope's thought. Special kudos to John Crosby for showing the phenomenological side of the pope and to Joseph Koterski for unraveling the Thomist side.


The Encyclopedia of Christianity, Volume 2 (E-I)
Published in Hardcover by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. (2000)
Authors: Erwin Fahlbusch, Geoffrey William Bromiley, John Mbiti, Jaroslav Pelikan, Lukas Vischer, and David B. Barrett
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Not just for academics
I'm a parish pastor, and spending over a hundred dollars for one reference book better be worth it. It is. Volume One contains 465 articles (alphabetically from A-D). Topics of current interest include "Abortion" and "Abortion Counseling" and "Black Churches." Information on most of the world's countries and the latest statistics are at my fingertips. Although the encyclopedia is based upon a massive German publication, this edition is written in American English. In my opinion, many of the articles would be useful for high school students and Sunday School teachers. I'm going to put Vol. 2 on my next Christmas "wish" list.


The Two Noble Kinsmen
Published in Hardcover by Van Nostrand Reinhold (Trade) (1997)
Authors: John Fletcher, Geoffrey Chaucer, and William Shakespeare
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A Rosetta Stone for Appreciating Shakespeare
The Two Noble Kinsmen was only partially written by Shakespeare. The primary author was John Fletcher, and Shakespeare seems to have been doing a rewrite more than a collaboration. As a result, you get two different styles of narration and development in the same story. The underlying tale follows very closely on the famous Knight's Tale from Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales. As a result, you get a three way perspective on Shakespeare that is not available elsewhere -- what his co-author did, what Chaucer did, and how Shakespeare handled similar problems in other plays.

Where the Knight's Tale was primarily a story about chivalry, love, and spirituality, The Two Noble Kinsmen is very much about psychology and human emotions. Like other plays that Shakespeare wrote, this one shows how conflicting emotions create problems when we cannot master ourselves. In this case, the two loving cousins, Palamon and Arcite, fall out over having been overwhelmed by love for the appearance of Emilia, Duke Theseus's sister. The play explores many ways that their fatal passion for Emilia might be quenched or diverted into more useful paths. The dilemma can only be resolved by the removal of one of them. This places Emilia in an awkward situation where she will wed one, but at the cost of the life of the other. She finds them both attractive, and is deeply uncomfortable with their mutual passion for her. In a parallel subplot, the jailer's daughter similarly falls in love with Palamon, putting her father's life and her own in jeopardy. Overcome with unrequited love, she becomes mad from realizing what she has done. Only by entering into her delusions is she able to reach out to others.

What most impressed me from reading this play is how much better Shakespeare was as a writer than either Chaucer or Fletcher. You can tell the parts that Shakespeare wrote because the language is so compact, so powerful, and so filled with relevant imagery. The tension is unremitting and makes you squirm.

By contrast, the Knight's Tale is one of the dullest stories you could possibly hope to read and admire for its virtuosity without experiencing much enjoyment. Although the same plot is developed, few emotions will be aroused in you. When Fletcher is writing in this play, the development is slow, the content lacks much emotion, and you find yourself reaching for a blue pencil to strike major sections as unnecessary.

In fact, this play would not be worth reading except for the exquisite development of the dilemmas that are created for Emilia. Her pain will be your pain, and you will want to escape from it as much as she does. In these sections, you will find some of Shakespeare's greatest writing.

I also was moved by the way several scenes explored the duality of cousinly friendship and affection occurring at the same time that lethal passions of love and jealousy are loose.

Although this play will probably not be among your 50 favorites, you will probably find that it will sharpen your appetite for and appreciation of Shakespeare's best works.

I also listened to Arkangel recording, and recommend it. The performances are fine, the voices are easy to distinguish, the music is magnificent, the singing adds to the mood nicely, and you will find your engagement in the play's action powerfully increased over reading the play.

When do you lose control over your emotions? What does it cost you? How could you regain control before harm is done?

May you find peaceful, positive solutions to all of your dilemmas!

an unsung masterpiece
I will be the first to admit this is not the "best" or the "greatest" play written by the bard, but it is still very worthy of his name, and incredibly beautiful! Kinsmen is a romance in the style of Shakespeare's other late plays, Pericles, Cymbeline, The Winter's Tale, and The Tempest (my favorite). In many ways it reflects his earlier works, namely A Midsummer Night's Dream, Hamlet, and The Tempest. It tells a wonderfully romantic story of two good friends who fall for the same girl (I know, sounds familiar, but trust me, it's a different take on the setup) in Athens. The poetry in it is lovely, the characters very well developed, and the plot is incredible. Many people haven't heard of this play as Shakespeare cowrote it with Fletcher, but belive me, it is still wonderful. Highly recomended.

The only recording and fortunately a good one from Arkangel
The Arkangel Shakespeare series being issued by Penguin Audio is now halfway through the plays and the surprise is that was given preference to the remaining more familiar works. Co-authored by Shakespeare and Fletcher, this play remains an odd man out for several reasons. Based fairly closely on the "Knight's Tale" from Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales," it tells of two cousins, who just after swearing eternal friendship in one of Duke Theseus' prisons immediately fall in love with the same woman, Emilia, and become bitter rivals for her affections. One of them, Arcite, is exiled but returns in disguise; the other, Palamon, escapes with the help of the Jailer's Daughter, who goes mad for love of him; and...well, see for yourself. Of the play's 23 scenes, 7 and part of an 8th are attributed to Shakespeare, a 9th doubtfully so, and the rest to John Fletcher, who was probably handed over to Shakespeare to learn the ropes as it were. The Shakespeare parts are easy to spot: they are nearly impossible to understand without a heavily annotated copy of the text open before you! Even more so than in his late plays like "Cymberline" and "Winter's Tale," the syntax is so complex, the thoughts so condensed, that one might (and has) compared his writing with the late Beethoven String Quartets. As one of the scholars quoted in the excellent Signet Classic paperback edition of this play comments, the play is most unShakespearean in that none of the characters change over the course of the play. And I should add the subplot of the Daughter's madness is never integrated into the main plot. One scene, in fact, is devoted entirely to the description of some minor characters and might have been influenced by a similar and much longer sequence in "Seven Against Thebes." In short, do not play this for a casual listen; but be prepared to be challenged. Look especially for echoes of the earlier all-Shakespearean plays. The nuptials of Theseus and Hippolyta recall the opening scenes of "A Midsummer Night's Dream," the main plot that of "Two Gentlemen of Verona," the Daughter's madness of Ophelia, and so on. As for the actual recording, it would be difficult to better it! The voices of the two kinsmen (Johnathan Firth and Nigel Cooke) are easily distinguishable, Theseus (Geoffrey Whitehead) sounds advanced in years and noble, Emila (Helen Schlesinger) mature and alert, Hippolyta (Adjoa Andoh) vocally of African origins as perhaps befits the character, and all the rest as understandable as the text allows and "into" their roles. Thank you, Penguin, for this noble entry in a series that is getting better and better.


People and the Earth : Basic Issues in the Sustainability of Resources and Environment
Published in Paperback by Cambridge Univ Pr (Pap Txt) (1998)
Authors: John James William Rogers and P. Geoffrey Feiss
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Some Good Discussions, Often Poorly Illustrated
The book contains some good discussions on overpopulation, food supplies, water pollution and other environmental issues. However, more detailed introductions are required on plate tectonics and soils so that novice readers may better understand earthquakes and food production, respectively. Each chapter contains a number of useful math problems and thought questions. There are also numerous tables of data, which are interesting, but may overwhelm some students. Some of these data may be more understandable if they were graphed. All of the photographs are in black and white, but are usually satisfactory. However, many of the illustrations are only rough sketches and do not adequately illustrate important concepts for beginning undergraduates (as examples: plate margins [Figure 3.3, p. 75] and active and passive coastlines [Figure 3.21, p. 109]).


The Concise Historical Atlas of Canada
Published in Hardcover by Univ of Toronto Pr (Trd) (1998)
Authors: William G. Dean, Conrad Heidenreich, Thomas F. McIlwraith, John Warkentin, Geoffrey J. Matthews, and Byron Moldofsky
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they ruined it
Geoffrey Matthews' and Byron Moldofsky's beautiful cartography is destroyed by the greatest error an atlas publisher can make--spreading the maps across two pages. The results are not just ugly; some information is lost in the crack.


A bibliography of Sir William Petty F.R.S. and of Observations on the bills of mortality by John Graunt F.R.S.
Published in Unknown Binding by Clarendon Press ()
Author: Geoffrey Keynes
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The complete poetry and selected prose of John Donne & the complete poetry of William Blake
Published in Unknown Binding by ()
Authors: Sir Geoffrey Keynes, John Donne, William Blake, and John Hayward
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Denatured Visions: Landscape and Culture in the Twentieth Century
Published in Unknown Binding by Museum of Modern Art, New York (1903)
Authors: William Howard Adams, John B. Jackson, and Sir Geoffrey Jellicoe
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Difficult Diabetes
Published in Hardcover by Blackwell Science Inc (15 January, 2001)
Authors: Geoffrey V. Gill, Gareth Williams, Geoff, Md, Frcp Gill, and John C. Pickup
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Infighting Admirals: Fisher's Feud With Beresford and the Reactionaries
Published in Hardcover by Pen & Sword (2001)
Author: Geoffrey Penn
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