This book is simply perfect. Not only does it recount the true events surrounding the Battle of Trafalgar off the coast of Spain, it is an excellent introductory book to the genre. As a fan of Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey/Maturin tales and CS Forester's Hornblower, this new collection of nautical books is a must read.

Dudley Pope's narrative flows smoothly making this one of those books you can't put down until your finished. The nautical terms of the 1790's ~ 1800's are explained to satisfy both the novice and the well read. Whether this is your first Age of Sail book or just another in a long list, this is a must read that you will cherish.

This is the best written and best researched treatment of the Battle of Trafalgar and Nelson's death that I have ever read -- and I read a LOT of naval history! Most discussions of Trafalgar concentrate on Nelson's slow death on the orlop deck, while the really decisive actions of the battle rage out of view. In this book Pope gives readers a thorough and vivid discussion of exactly what happened between the whole engaging fleets, AFTER Nelson was hit and taken below. The victory was Nelson's, from his strategy and leadership, but many other men on both sides fought to reach that crucial military decision. Dudley Pope brings this to life. If you've ever wondered why Nelson's last order, knowing he was mortally wounded, was for his flag captain to anchor the British fleet, read on! I also highly recommend Pope's other works, including his fictional Lord Ramage series, which gets visibly better from book to book.

As both a Patric O'Brien fan and a lover of history works, I very much appreciate the novelistic approach that Mr. Pope takes with the book, which adds much character to the writingas well as a flavor of the life and times. Some detail is sacrificed, but the book is easily readible and the account of the ship actions themselves with included diagrams helps make this complex engagement easy to comprehend.

This giant of the 20th Century, will be known as John Paul the Great by future historians. Today, his teachings are considered "out of touch" with the modern world by the mouth pieces of worldly power, especially on sexual morality. He is considered worthy of derision by them, how wrong they are.

The thought of JPII is trans-modern, it is a bold and sophisticated philosophical approach to the problems that afflict our world. His insights penetrate into the philosphical and spiritual roots of the modern crisis and has found the solution. His approach is a rigorus engagement with modern thought and transcends the dead-end thought that has emerged among intellectual eliets and poisons our universities.

For those who would gloss over his writings, they would miss the mystical import and profound depth of this thinker and leader. So subtle, so rich, it is easily missed.

John Paul II is a prophet to the world, a prophet whose message has largely been ignored.

In the not too distant future, when our need for the TRUTH presses upon us ever more heavily, those who search will find John Paul's writings and be liberated and ennobled by this man's potent seed.

Take this and steep yourself in the truth and allow this man's spirit, the spirit of the Father, Child and Love to fill you.

Here they are, in one collection. Why buy them individually when you can have them all in one place?

This important book provides a study of 12 of Pope John Paul II's encyclicals, from the first of his pontificate, Redemptor Hominis, through the much discussed Evangelium Vitae and Veritatis Splendor, the not-to-be-overlooked Redemptoris Mater, and Ut Unum Sint.

Scholars and non-scholars will be pouring over the Pope's gifts for the next century to come. The encyclicals offer Pope John Paul II's brilliant blueprint for the third millennium. It is a blueprint fashioned from Scripture itself, but with modern insights to carry us forward across the "threshold of hope."

J. Michael Miller, C.S.B. offers an excellent introduction to Papal encyclicals and helpful notes prior to each chapter. In addition, an exhaustive index makes this a superb reference for pastors, teachers, writers, theologians, researchers, and the average layperson desiring to know more about the Church.

Father Miller has captured an entire set of the most significant written works of the Papacy of John Paul II. Clearly the present pope has been a religious and geopolitical figure of first importance in the past 22 years, as has been amply documented in such works as Weigel's 'Witness to Hope' and Bernstein's 'His Holiness.' The universal intellectual achievement however of JPII is understandable most readily in his encyclicals. These documents speak from and reveal a philosopher and theologian of the first quality; indeed, as with Leo XIII, it may take at least a hundred years for the importance of his work to be understood. Fr. Miller has the qualifications on all fronts, as a philosopher, a theologian, and his former employment in the Papal Secretariat of State, to gather and remark on these works. Students of the times and their deepest roots will doubtlessly find here a collection of primary source materials that are indispensible to their understanding.

This book contains little excerpts from various speeches and works of Pope John Paul II. It also contains a brilliant collection of photos taken of the Pope over the years. It is an inspirational book, and a GREAT collection of photos, if you are looking for pics of our wonderful Pope.

This book is deeply inspirational. What a great gift Pope John Paul II is to the world! The photograph of the Holy Father and Mother Theresa smiling into each other's eyes is incredible. This book is a personal treasure.

In his most recent account, His Holiness Pope John Paul the II is still representing a truly Christian view of not only Europe but the whole world. John Paul the II gives concrete examples of how you can be happy and live "joyfully" through the "living spirit". The Pope says that you must be humble and completely surrender to GOD. Only then can a "true beleiver" find a bit of peice in "the world of men". He goes on to site many examples, idieas , and even mentions some of the great saints in thr tradition! ...

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.

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.

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.

Stella Pope Duarte tells her tale of love, hope, betrayal and tragedy with pure beauty. Her phrasing spoke to my heart, and I became alive in her story. Particularly for people who have memories of the Vietnam War, but also for those who want to gain an understanding of domestic issues at the time, this book will rock your soul. It's a quiet book, but by no means a small one. I hope it will flush your soul with beauty as it did mine.

If we define good literature as telling a great story with skill, respect and insight, then Let Their Spirits Dance does that with flying colors. This story of the Ramirez family's pilgrimage to the Vietnam Memorial is told with presence, suspense, love, and always a search - a search that extends beyond the thirty year span of the story and beyond ethnic traditions to larger questions plaguing humanity itself.

Good literature teaches and Let Their Spirits Dance is no exception. Ms. Duarte is a gutsy writer who can throw a punch with the best of them when it comes to asking hard questions. Coming away from this book many will have learned a whole new perspective and history about millions of people that they knew little about, and maybe, like me, ticked at the system because they didn't know. With television all over everything, how come the press wasn't talking about the Chicanos and Blacks and American Indians that were being drafted and sent to the front lines in outlandishly disproportionate numbers?

Likewise, as daily body counts they fell in disproportionate numbers. And for every dead vet - every Jesse Ramirez - there were dozens of loved ones that had their lives forever ripped and altered. As author Duarte says, the casualties of that war extend far, far beyond those etched on The Wall.

It is time for the voices from The Wall to speak, and it's hard to imagine them having a more eloquent and visionary author than Stella Pope Duarte. This book is destined to be a permanent part of world literature.

Let Their Spirits Dance introduces both a newcomer to fiction writing and the first novel to address the topic of Latin soldiers during the Vietnam War. A Latino son drafted to Vietnam is killed soon after, and his family never quite succeeds in confronting the meaning of his death. Three decades later a mother will seek to understand, setting in motion events which will change the family. A powerful, important novel.

I've just finished Book I of Cellini's two book autobiography. I have Symonds' translation in a single volume published by the Book League of America in 1937. Having been to Florence, Rome and Milan recently, Cellini's stories about himself and his adventures become truly vivid. At first, I could not imagine anyone being so self-agrandizing and so unabashedly boastful about his intentions, his artistic abilities and his view of his world. The man becomes so endearing through his writing, however, that I was not put off; rather, I found myself chuckling at his gall and style. His relationships and adventures with Popes Clement VII and Paul III, the Medici families, other artists, cardinals, dukes and jailors make for hilarious reading. His genius comes through and lingers as the reader ponders the historic figures and politics of Renaissance Italy. I'm beginning Book 2 today with great anticipation. What an ego! Symonds translation in 1937 is fine. He offers footnotes that aid the reader's following of the chronology. Further, Symonds often gives the phrase as Cellini wrote it, should there be different nuances in translation.

One of the first and yet one of the greatest autobiographies of all time. Any celebrity or would be celebrity thinking of dashing off a quick "life" or apologia pro vita sua could do worse than start by reading or re-reading this fantastically intense and life-enhancing book

This piece is an excellent portrayal of life during the Italian Renaissance, but more importantly, the book is purely entertaining. Benvenuto Cellini tells the story of his life in a vivid tale of kings and prostitutes, artists and dukes, soldiers and necromancers, all the while proclaiming himself the absolute protagonist of his world. Cellini's autobiography is filled to capacity with egotism, but this only makes the story more interesting. In a good piece of literature of this type, a person wants to see a main character with absolute confidence in himself; a superhero if you will. Benvenuto may not be a superhero, but he tells his life story as if he was the greatest of all such legendary folk heroes. If children read this book or were read this book during their childhood, perhaps on the playground at recess, kindergartners would say: "Hey let's play superheroes, I get to be Superman, I get to be Benvenuto Cellini." With the master goldsmith's stories about fending off six armed men with a single dagger, without a thought of fear in his mind, who wouldn't be solidly entertained?

Knowledge makes love fruitful in service. God calls us to be the instruments of salvation for others(evangelization). That is the work of the Church. Far too many of us find ourselves involved in church work and not in the work of the Church. This little book will help straighten out the misunderstanding.

"Loving the Church" is a series of meditations on the Church given as a Lenten retreat(1966) to the Holy Father and his staff. The aim of the book(retreat) is to instill a more profound sense of Church(that's our reason for reading the book). I can imagine the difficulty of retaining a sense of mystery in the Church when such as a papal staff is unceasingly confronted with the practical, day to day, sometimes mundane requirements of a visibile and functioning organization. Yet the Church is fundamentally a mystery, founded in the mystery of Christ himself, human and divine. We are put into communion with this mystery through communion with Christ. I believe this to be a fundamental point for our author, Christoph Cardinal Schonborn.

Although the whole is always the sum of all its parts, two "chapters" alone are worth the price of the book. In "The Mysteries of the Life of Christ," Schonborn anchors us in God's plan for us; to be united to himself in the Son's humanity. That humanity, in Schonborn's view is "radically filial" not "sevile". By God's design we are to become "sons(daughters) in the Son". In the words of the Fathers of the Church, "divinized". For Schonborn becoming Church means, at its deepest level, this very participation in the Sonship of Jesus.

The other "chapter" which excels is "The Communion of Saints". Its key understanding is that "the Church does not come to an end at the threshold of death." In Christoph Schonborn's words, "She(the Church) is the communion of ALL who live in Christ." A more compelling explanation on the communion of saints than in this meditation will be hard to find anywhere.

A repeated emphasis found in "Loving the Church" is that our participation in the Mystery of the Church is reality and not theological theory. It is based on fact, the fact of the Incarnation of the very Son of God in the real womb of a very real woman approximately two thousand years ago, Mary.

Though I found the first part of the book a little slow. That may just be me or the fact that the Cardinal was preparing the ground, tilling the soil as it were. However, no one will come away from this book without having been abundantly enriched.

A must read!

This is a man who talks about the Catechism and Scared Scripture in such a way that the reader almost hears a kind of heavenly music in which the heart wants to sing! Beautifully written, the book offers insight to scripture par excellance! The author sees all of creation and salvation history as a prefiguring of the "Church" as only Catholics can understand that term. Compelling, I could not put the book down until I finished it and then couldn't wait to give it to my parish priest. A true treasure to read for Lent! Cardinal Schonborn may indeed be our next Pope.

One delightful tip is to read these exercises and then read the catechism sections they refer to. Christoph Cardinal Schonborn is the general editor of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and might possibly become our next Pope. These reflections were actually preached for Pope John Paul II; you can't get more orthodox or reliable than that.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church can be a heady book, very long, a bit technical for the layman. But it will spring to life for you in reading these spiritual exercises. This book taught me not just how to read the Catechism, but how to pray it.

Cardinal Schonborn's great gift is the intense spirituality of his writing, which is deeply rooted in traditional Catholic theology and ancient Catholic scriptural exigesis. Christoph Schonborn will teach you to see the Church as she sees herself, as Bride, as victim, as the great cloud of witnesses which is the mystical Body of her Divine Spouse; in short you will see the Church as the communion of saints in Holy communion with the Lord. You will see the Church as Christ sees her--and if you're a convert, as I am, you will fall in love with her all over again.

Absolutely brilliant. Having read many UFO investigation books this belongs among them - where does the truth finish and the fiction begin, if in fact it does, There is an awful lot of truth in here. Excellent plot, delivery, pace and some very cleaver cross references to reality and past ufology. A must for all ufologists - the sequel has a lot to match up to.

This book really gets your attention early and holds it throughout. As I'm ex-military, I really liked how thorough he was in incorporating a lot of the actual equipment that would be used in these scenarios into the plot. I felt as though I could actually be there. I am not too familiar with British command structures but Mr. Pope did a great job of educating me on their functions as the book went along. The Glossary of Abbreviations was so helpful throughout. I feel that he did a great job of marrying fiction to fact. You find yourself hoping it is much more fiction than fact as you read it. I found it quite thought provoking, considering UFO's do appear to be a real phenomenon, of what who knows? Let's hope this scenario remains fiction. Great job, Nick Pope!

A superp book, ufos detected, raf jets shot down, american treachary and abuctions. The best alien invasion book of the decade

I have always enjoyed Michael Farrell's work as a journalist and commentator. It was not surprising to see that he had turned to fiction writing, and this is an excellent first novel.

It is hard to find well-written, intelligent espionage fiction these days. When is the next book coming out?

PAPABILE: The Man Who Would Be Pope, by Michael J. Farrell, Crossroad, 1998.

For many years we've been reading Michael Farrell in the National Catholic Reporter. There was a suspicion that he was cloaking vast erudition in a veil of edgy humor and pungent style. Over the years, his articles on various aspects of current religion, from Zarathustrianism to Buddhism to Vedanta, betrayed a subterranean religious strength. But, whether because it was of his own interest, or the major concern of the top-class paper for which he wrote and of which he is now editor, Roman Catholicism was his major concern.

Several years ago he began to do a regular humor page under the enigmatic headline SIC! Since then, each week, on receiving the paper (NCR) in the mail, our reading friends (including professorial colleagues), like ourselves, first turn to look for the SIC! page. It is there that one finds the flair and verve which distinguish Farrell's writing

When word of Farrell's novel, Papabile, leaked (to borrow from the current lexicon of tabloid-laden political jargon) there was a ready readership in our home, and among fellow-readers.

Papabile is more than a good novel; it is a great experience. It is a book about faith, a quest of fidelity. The muscular Christianity of it, the non-trendy piety, the torment of religious probing at its deepest, bespeak a Dostoyeskian torment. Others have noted the headlong rushing stream of the story. But, no matter how gripping, it is not the story that matters. It is the agony of what Victor Frankl called "man's search for meaning."

It is a given that readers, like the protagonist, are true to their convictions. What is not a given is which, among conflicting claims, is deserving of conviction and fidelity. Papabile neither preaches nor teaches; it airs the raw anxiety of a soul seared and torn apart by conflicting polar fidelity-claims. To believe or not to believe, that is the question. Papabile is as serious an attempt to portray the dilemma as one is likely to find in our time.

Denis (Ph.D.) and Marlene Hickey

An idealistic young man becomes a fervent communist. They ask him to become a model priest and infiltrate the church. He does. And a bishop. The plot thickens deliciously. He is an idealist, he is pulled by the faith he abhors, he oscillates between communist and priest. The lure of the book is the surgical precision with which Farrell describes each temptation to believe and not believe. Either one becomes emotionally possible. I found the depth and precision deeply satisfying. In a strange way, Farrell frees the reader by giving better and worse reasons for whatever position s/he holds. I couldn't put it down, even after the book was safely back on my shelf.

Overall, a very well researched book by Mr. Pope and Mr. Whebbe. This book does not cover all wrestling collectibles, that would be impossible, however, it does give the collector a good idea of the many areas in wrestling that are out there to collect, although they do have a very in-depth coverage of the action figures and autographs.

The book also covers some of the history of wrestling and is a great book for novices and long-time collectors. There are great photos of some of the older collectibles that I have only heard about. My favorite chapters were the ones on the action figures, trading cards and autographs, which make up a large part of my 15+ year collection.

The prices listed are average, however, the value of the items in this market change so rapidly, that its hard to give a set value on some items. 5 stars to Mr. Pope and Mr. Whebbe for tackling such a huge task.

Pro Wrestling Collectibles is certainly what this book is all about. Its all the other stuff covered that makes this book so interesting. My favorite chapter is number two (2) "Some Superstars Worth Collecting". The history about many of these wrestlers can be found no where else. The authors did a great job in organizing this "collectible" and putting every thing into perspective. Recommended reading for all wrestling fans!

The book provided terrific reference material and continually captured my attention from page to page. The pictures added tremendous detail. The author clearly did his homework.