"The Way of Christ," by Pope John Paul II, is a brief book in which the author contemplates the Christian path in the modern world. Unfortunately, most of the book is very bland and generalized; it reads like it could have been written by some anonymous bureaucrat working in an obscure Vatican office. The essential subject matter covered in this book has been covered before and in more depth by many other authors.

The book is further marred by a number of questionable declarations. The author decries "the massive presence in society of atheistic, agnostic, and even anti-Christian conceptions," but fails to give any concrete examples. And for that matter, I believe that many atheists and agnostics are very moral and tolerant people who should not be demonized in this way.

Unfortunately, that flavor of narrow-mindedness and intolerance surfaces in other parts of the book. The author asserts that "Only Jesus has kind and consoling words" and that there "is no solution for skepticism and despair except in faith in Christ." I imagine many of my Jewish, Hindu, and Buddhist sisters and brothers, many of whom respect and appreciate the ministry of Jesus, would disagree with such restrictive statements. The author of this book needs to read more interfaith literature.

The author also naively asserts that "Christianity is the religion of universal peace," and that all Christians become sisters and brothers. What then, I wonder, has been happening in Northern Ireland, where competing Christian groups have been slaughtering each other for centuries? I see it like this: Christianity is like any other religious or philosophical system; its precepts can be (and have been) used both to uplift and heal, or to justify the most horrific atrocities.

I have great respect for the great Christian prophets of the modern era: Thomas Merton, Martin Luther King Jr., John McNeill, and others. Unfortunately, this shallow little book pales in comparison to the work of such truly insightful Christian thinkers.

I ran across a copy of this collection while just looking around the poetry section at my local library. I was a bit surprised to see it, since so many of the great poets aren't represented (pound leaps to mind). I had to read it to see what kind of poet bradbury is. He's an excellent fiction writer, i think Fahrenheit 451 is one of the better books written. His poetry, on the other hand, is horrible. When he rhymes, he rhymes poorly. He tends to drag his poems on a bit (the only poet i can think of who has a greater fear of ending a poem is ginsberg, but the only howl you'll find in this collection is the one coming from the reader). His 'ode to ty cobb' is a great example. The poem starts off ok, and has a lot of potential, but bradbury beats the idea to death. Too long (reminds me of one of the poems in the book 'too much' 'Too much beauty/Too much delight/ Too much of sun' /Too much did he write). You will find some interesting titles, such as 'Shakespeare the Father, Freud the Son' (ah, the potential that title has) and 'Good Shakespeare's Son, the Typing Ape.' and you'll actually find the line 'Hark, we muttered.' i can only hope that mr bradbury decides to stay away from poetry and stick to fiction for the rest of his career. other bad poets: joey froelich (but his work i like in some sick way) and, oh, leonard nimoy, and jimmy stuart.

This collection purports to be a scholarly study of the moral teaching of His Holiness Pope John Paul II. But all the authors dissent from the teaching of the Church on morals. The result is a trashing of the Pope's teaching: not very fair, not very convincing, not very noble. Give me Humanae Vitae any day.

I wanted to read a good account of the revolution in Nicaragua and a friend suggested Liston Pope's book. The book is a novelization of the struggle against Somosa and his henchman. It was published by N.A. Gilbert and Sons in 1996. This is a bizarre book. The basic rules of punctuation to denote dialog have been ignored. This makes it difficult to keep track of what is speech and what is description. The language is juvenile and melodramatic. All of this drags what action there is into a thick soup that suffocates the reader. I don't understand how any editor could allow this text out the door. Here is a sample typical of the style used in this novel:

"Miguel strode by with a glimpse of her forestial charms, her figure, the glint in her eye. Since a boy she had stared at him that way. She loved what Donita Reyes hated: his wildness. And she hinted sometimes, sensuous challenges that would never be taken up."

Whoa! Barbara Cartland step back. Liston Pope is the new star of sticky prose. Forestial charms? What does that mean?

I had high hopes for enjoying this book but it is very badly written. However, if you want to know more about the Nicaraguan revolution, you might want to gird you "forestial" loins and have a go at it. Good luck.

THIS BOOK DOES NOT EXPLAIN IN DETAIL ABOUT THE BALL PYTHON, I HAVE LEARNED MORE FROM THE INTERNET THAN I HAVE FROM THIS BOOK. IT DID NOT ANSWER ANY OF THE SPECIFIC QUESTIONS THAT I HAD AND I ENDED UP PURCHASING ANOTHER. ALTHOUGH IT WAS SLIGHTLY INFORMATIVE, NOT ENOUGH WAS SPECIFIED

The book read like a Star Trek novel...Sci-Fi aliens who created clones from dying humans...to make ponygirls who live forever. The book reads like PonyGirls 90210 instead of erotica. Too many characters--story is fractured into too many segments. This is story #2 from Jennifer Jane Pope. Maybe the 1st one was better? (Slave Genesis). The book wasn't what I expected and not what I was looking for in an erotic novel.

Obviously there is a typo is the price listed!