It's a short book, but Zev Birger's valuable memoir will not fail to move or impress. As a believer in humanity (despite tremendous suffering) and a champion of culture, he is a gift to the world.

This small book is arranged in 91 short segments--each a couple of small pages in length. I've just finished reading it at bedtime, a couple of segments per night, over a month or two. Very pleasant reading for that hour. The author is an orthodox rabbi, I believe, and the emphasis is often Jewish--as well as other things, too--but really, it's not too heavy on Jewish emphasis, and I suspect that non-Jews, as well as non-religious Jews (I fall into this category), would find this book a very good thing, too. The title tells it all: the book is about the value and methods of developing patience, with each segment having a brief discussion followed by an example or two. I do feel the book has put me in touch with some ethical issues, and some practical issues, and some just plain human issues, involving patientce--all in a way designed to encourage personal growth while also doing good deeds for others.

The Fruit of the Spirit series are excellent books for Christian small groups. Each chapter consists of a very short introduction, a bible verse and about ten questions of progressing depth to facilitate group discussion.

The group can go as fast or as slow as it likes. The "leader" should encourage everyone to share, before moving on to the next question. The back of each book contains short notes that can be used by the leader.

I highly recommend Patience as well as the other Fruit of the Spirit small books for your Christian small group.

An exceptionally solid, indeed exciting, contribution to theological ethics. Harned rehabilitates our understanding of and appreciation for an old, even old-fashioned, virtue and forces us to rethink its meaning for us today. His book is unusual, beautifully written, and persuasive. I would think that individual Christians would find this book very helpful and deeply meaningful. The author is a wonderful guide to the moral life and a wise counselor. Highly recommended.

The four stories in "Patience" tells us that those we love deserve to be tolerated. "Aunt Ellie" tells the story of a borderline insane woman who does what she wants when she wants in the way that she wants, but still manages to show kindness. "Duke's 25th" is about a painfully funny memory of a dreadful Thanksgiving holiday. Jobhunting is a hilarious take on Keillor's search for his first writing job, and "You're not the Only One" shows that we all go through annoying moments in life and we should be grateful that it is not worse and that we are not alone in our struggles in this world. Four of Keillor's stories with good music in between; an excellent combination.

The Pearl manuscript contains four poems (Pearl, Patience, Cleanliness, and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight), all generally assumed to be by the same author and all touching on the same themes - specifically, the beliefs of 'orthodox medieval Christianity and... chivalric social morality' as the (excellent) introduction puts it.

Probably written by a Northern contemporary of Chaucer, the Pearl manuscript's poems are nevertheless worlds apart from his work: they combine Old English alliterative verse with the kind of rhyming structures that were in fashion on the Continent and down south to create something unique and beautiful.

This edition is a very well-presented one, with a comprehensive introduction to the poems, a glossary at the back containing just about all the words in the poems (with line references), and other glosses intelligently placed at the foot of each page of text for the more obscure phrases. It's a system which gives maximum readability and minimum flicking back and forth to check the meaning of words and phrases - ideal for the student.

THE PRIMROSE by Patience H. Jacoby explores the journeys into the inner selves of Tom and Theres, intercontinental Internet lovers who take their encounter to the next level and run away on the Orient Express from Britain to Istanbul. Its conclusion does not neatly resolve Tom's dilemma, his commitments to family versus his opportunity to begin a new life with the younger and vital Theres, and there is an ambiguity that allows the reader to impose his or her own interpretation on the denouement.

P. H. Jacoby developed the parallel themes of illicit love and the Orient Express journey as a dramatic way of finding out what may happen when two people pursue happiness in a romantic encounter.

Her sense of the erotic illuminates and colors the story, and challenges us to consider the possibilities of the erotic impulse for transforming and enhancing lives. THE PRIMROSE takes the romantic genre to another level of complexity. Tom pursues his amorous obsession with Theres in a series of advances and reversals that mirror the contradictions of his own heart and history. Each whistle stop on the journey to the East becomes a station of the heart, a discovery of intimacy, and a tour of Europe's cultures.

The ending suggests that Tom and Theres have not arrived at the end of their journeys, although there's ambivalence about whether those journeys will be continued alone or together. Are the stations of our lives more important than final destinations? Is it better to travel hopefully than to arrive? Is the present moment always to be grasped at even as it slips through our lives into the past? Only an ambitious novel could pose these eternal questions.

There is a fair amount of rather explicit intimacy in this book and thus it is not for those that object to this kind of stuff. Personally, I found it extremely good - it had to be there and I think it just shows that the two main characters not only fit together well on a personal-public level, but also behind closed doors.

I was impressed by the development of the characters, and the depth of the writer's apparent knowledge about what makes people 'tick' and what makes them suffer.

I find it hard to believe two things -- one, that Patience Brewster has never won a Caldecott, and two that so many of the books that she has illustrated are out of print.
We've missed the boat! The illustrations in this book are simply magical. What fun to have a new fairytale!

This is a wonderful book that should be part of every child's personal collection. I read it as a child, and will read it to my own children one day. It truly brings imagination to life. Don't miss out on such a wonderful story that illustrates the special aspects of each and every season!

SINGER IN THE SHADOWS is a most current account of the life of Pearl Curran, a woman living in St. Louis during the first part of the 20th century who channelled, originally through a Ouija board, the spirit of a 17th century woman named Patience Worth. The story of Pearl Curran and Patience Worth is an enigma, not easily explanable without an acceptance of spiritism or reincarnation. The case of Patience Worth and the poems, novels and conversations she left behind provide perhaps the best rock hard evidence of life after death. Mr. Litvag writes an easily readable comprehensive overview of this strange case begining in 1913 when Patience Worth first appeared at Pearl Curran's Ouija board and continuing through 1937 when Pearl Curran died. Perhaps the time is more appropriate now in the 21st century for the reissue of this classic book than when it was first published in 1972. Patience Worth's work requires serious attention by scientists, writers and spiritists alike. It would be a great loss to allow the writings of Patience Worth to fade over time. Anyone wishing to become informed about the evidence of life after death should start with this book by Irving Litvag. After reading Mr. Litvag's book one may find an irresistable urge to read every poem, novel and conversation that Patience Worth wrote. She's that good!