Jon F. Baxley is an author to note! THE SCYTHIAN STONE is a book that will delight readers of any age. This was a tough one to put down. I'll sure be looking forward to the rest of this series. The illustrations are delightful. Good going, Jon. Hope you're around for a long, long time.

Jon Baxley's "The Scythian Stone" is a fairy tale for all ages. I highly recommend it to young and old alike. Jon, if your next book is as great as this one, you'll convert me to a fantasy reader!

THE SCYTHIAN STONE is an award winning first episode in a five book series. This epic adventure follows Daynin McKinnon and a host of characters through trials and tribulations in their early medieval world. Though a true fantasy (complete with sorcerers and mysticism) this book draws heavily on historical times, places and terms. Readers are completely immersed in a world that is not only exciting, believable and fun to read about, but where they can actually learn something in the process.

Full color graphics, links to related websites and many other unique features have garnered this series numerous awards for eBook excellence on the worldwide web. It is not just a reading experience, but a multimedia one as well. One young reader characterized the series as HARRY POTTER meets Tom Clancy. Flattering words, I have to admit, but this series is mostly just fun. It was a hoot to create and even more fun when I hear comments like that. I hope you agree.

The second episode, THE BLACKGLOOM BOUNTY, will be here at Amazon soon. Look for episode three, THE REGENTS OF RHUM in the coming months.

More about THE SCYTHIAN STONE: ISBN 09663397-4-6 from Delphi Books

Foreign Versions: DAYNIN UND DER STEIN DER SKYTHEN (Daynin And The Scythian Stone) ISBN 3-936045-00-3 from Kripgans/Verlag, Germany

eBook Formats: Microsoft LIT and Adobe pdf

Awards:
Science Fiction Writers of America P&E Poll: BEST NOVEL ON THE WEB
Frankfurt Book award nominee 2001
Currently a Top Ten Blue Ribbon holder from Bitbooks.com

It's so hard to find books for my middle reader children that aren't either dark and violent or "too little kid-ish" for them (as they would say). This book is the perfect alternative: it's a fun read, but so beautifully and elegantly written that my kids were learning new vocabulary words without even realizing it. The story has a moral center, which I loved, but it's told in such an energetic and interesting way that as far as my kids were concerned, it was just a great tale. The illustrations are fantastic--I especially liked the Toad Prince. Highly recommended.

This book is not only well written and entertaining, but also magical and enchanting. Coleman creates an entire world with her words, adding enough description to keep the story moving smoothly, yet leaving room for our imaginations to wander. She also uses more challenging words than your standard young adult book, but the footnoted definitions help expand vocabulary and teach new words to readers. It is a definite must-read.

This book is not only well written and entertaining, but also magical and enchanting. Coleman creates an entire world with her words, adding enough description to keep the story moving smoothly, yet leaving room for our imaginations to wander. She also uses more challenging words than your standard young adult book, but the footnoted definitions help expand vocabulary and teach new words to readers. It is a definite must-read.

As a Licensed Marriage and Familiy Therapist, I have found Hal and Sidra Stone's work to be the best model of understanding and working with couples that I have encountered. I am delighted to give this testimonial because their work has enriched my personal relationships as well as my work with couples. The Stones understand and convey to the reader the dynamics that create misunderstanding and pain in relationship, and give clear direction on how to create truly successful, soulful relationships. Couples love this non-pathological approach to understanding relationships. Hal and Sidra Stone go way beyond communication skills, helping couples to express their vulnerability in ways that lead to genuine empathy and intimacy. In addition, the descriptions of the energetic and non-verbal aspects of relationships help make sense of relationships in ways no other modality touches. This book is great for individuals, couples or therapists who want a fresh, brilliant new approach to making relationships work!

Partnering by Hal and Sidra Stone

Hal and Sidra Stone's new book Partnering suggests that vulnerability is the key to an intimate relationship. Being open and in touch with one's vulnerability is no easy task. This book, however, helps tremendously. It not only offers conceptual and spiritual guidance, but also has many practical suggestions, which are helpful on this journey. We have found this book to be helpful in guiding and solidifying our own relationship, and have also used it extensively with other couples. This new book is an important addition to the Stones' already substantial contribution to the journey of consciousness.

LeAnne Dougherty, LCSW, DSW Adjunct Pro. UT College of Social Work Private Practice

John H. Dougherty, Jr. M.D. Director, Cole Neuroscience Center Clinical Assistant Professor Medicine (Neurology) University of Tennessee Medical -Knoxville

Hal and Sidra Stone have produced one of the rare and valuable books that presents cutting edge ideas in a clear and straightforward manner. Readers of this book will gain understanding of the sources and solutions to many of the painful challenges in our relationships. This is not just another "he said, she said" communication book. Based on their own marriage and over 60 combined years of clinical practice, this book honors the role that relationship serves in helping each person achieve their highest potential and purpose on this earth. Particularly valuable are the practical excercises included throughout the book. This is indeed a "users manual" for healthly relationships! I highly recommend this book for both laypersons and clinical professionals.

Sidra Stone shows us that the feminist revolution has to be an inside job. It doesn't matter how much we try to change the world outside of us - if we're still carrying the expectations of the patriarchy within our own psyches, it's not too likely that we'll be able to change. Dr. Stone not only shows how the Inner Patriarch functions within women, she gives clear and creative ideas about how we can disengage from this energy and even turn it into an ally. Working with this has been an enormous help to me personally on a daily basis. Since reading this book, I am much more aware of the messages I receive from my own Inner Patriarch and can take action to calm him down and rebalance my life. I think The Shadow King is one of the most significant books for women (and the men who are in relationship with them) written in the last 20 years.

I do not measure up in a patriarchy, and I am dispensable in a matriarchy, so I am pleased when either of them is put in its place, as Sidra Stone does magisterially in this book about the 'inner patriarchy.'

Sidra Stone is the co-founder with her husband, Hal, of Voice Dialogue, a beautiful formula for experiencing and researching archetypal energies within our selves and between each other in bonding patterns. It is full of variations, like music-making. About the 'inner patriarch' she says that he is taught to women unconsciously by their mothers and remains disowned in their unconscious to devastate their lives, unless he is brought out of the shadows into awareness.

Sidra Stone has brought out and owned the patriarch in this book, having worked with him both alone and with other women whom she respects and admires. She gives advice that has been successful both for her and for them on how to deal with him. The antidote to the inner paatrach's idealising and denigratory power is to adopt his own strong qualities, so that he no longer feels he has to control and protect daughters, wives and mothers and demean women and their partners. Her advice is to own and cherish complementary and other non-patriarchal energies, both tame and wild. Her subtle and judicious mind clarifies the contradictions in the patriarch's prejudiced and dualistic thinking. She certainly gets to know and even befriends, if not sleeps with, her enemy.

Sidra Stone has the psychologist's penchant for lists and vignettes but not, thankfully, for quotes from her extensive book list. She recommends two books but does not use extracts from them -- instead, she quotes from dreams and archetypal energies. She is an optimistic writer. Her optimism does not come only from her privileges and gifts,but, I believe, from her celebration of the rich variety of archetypal energies and of how we can resolve conflict by celebrating sameness and difference inside and between us, so that we can become more fully human and equal inside and out. I love this book.

Dave Jones

The Shadow King is a must-read for anyone wanting to discover a new key to an old block that thousands of years of Patriarchy has instilled deep within each of us! I am grateful for Sidra's clear vision into the underpinnings of such a significant and previously unrecognized force of cultural conditioning.

Recently I've been revisiting my Jewish heritage. I have quite a few bibles, of different translations, since I like to compare versions. I suddenly realized that I had English, Latin, Greek, and even Aramaic available, but that I had no Hebrew bible. Anyone rambling about the web quickly discovers that The Stone Edition (so called because Irving I. Stone was its patron) commands much respect for it's Hebrew and English versions as well as a wealth of supporting material.

I am not well equipped to evaluate the Hebrew text but I found the English translation endlessly fascinating. For example, Bereishis (Genesis) opens "In the beginning of God's creating the heavens and the earth -- when the earth was astonishingly empty...." Suddenly we are in the mind of narrator who feels quite different than the other voices that have been given to the Bible. It is a voice that is just a bit more like people than oratory or rhetoric. It was a difference I quickly came to like.

I also found the commentary that runs with the text very useful often resolving questions and keeping the focus on the intent of the text. The Parashas are clearly marked in the Torah, as are the Haftaras elsewhere. The books are each provided with a short introduction that provides insight into the background and context of the writing. An overview of the Tanach is provided as well as the requisite blessings and guides to pronunciation. We are also given extensive tables for everything from Torah readings, to timelines, biblical genealogy to the construction of the Tabernacle.

This is actually the richest and most informative bible I own, and is already providing me much to think about. While it is of most value to someone who is practicing Judaism, I thing it would repay the investment of many people who have an interest in the bible as spiritual history and inspiration. For the academic student, it is required reading. I chose to acquire the leather bound edition, for it's durability. To be honest, though, the lower priced editions available here are every bit as good in quality. There is no material missing from them so they actually represent an tremendous bargain.

Not only are the Torah, Prophets and Writings fully translated in modern English, the Hebrew with the cantellations for chanting (trop) are legibly included. Therefore, if you take the time to search out where the haftorahs begin and end, you may use the Stone edition as a chumash. In fact, Artscroll publishes a Chumash but why not get every word of the Bible rather than just those parts of the Prophets which are included among the Haftorahs? The best feature of a good Bible is the use of commentaries which illuminate the text. Artscroll, as in all their publications, includes excellent commentaries. The comments are from a fundamentalist Orthodox viewpoint and are very illuminating. I also recommend the JPS Tanakh which is also a faithful translation of the original Hebrew but which may contain a slightly different viewpoint in the comments. However, the Stone edition, with the full Hebrew text including trop, all in one volume, is the best Bible published anywhere.

My main purpose in purchasing this volume was to have the Hebrew text as an incentive to continue studying Hebrew. I was brought up as a Christian to love and respect the Hebrew Bible.
It has been fascinating to read the English translation. It is slighly easier to read than the NKJV, although not quite as fluid as the NIV. I am not commenting on the accuracy of these other translations, as most people reading this will already have their own opinions about that.
The greatest thing about this edition is the Jewish perspective: The introduction is beautifully written and very sensitive. The comments, while not overwhelming in quantity, convey the essence of Jewish thought over the centuries and certainly put many passages in perspective.
I recommend this volume to anyone, Jewish or not, who wants a high quality, readable, well presented Jewish Bible. In particular, I recommend it to other Christians who realise the importance of the Tanach and want to get a slightly different perspective.

You've done it again Gemmell. Not only did you get me totally immersed in your story-telling again, but you did with a novel set in a post-apocolyptic world unlike any I've ever read about. The way you could jump from ancient times to a world thousand of years in the future and manage to mesh them together without conflicts or confusion is truly commendable. Loved the book, and Jon Shannow is a memorable hero

Don't be confused by the "Stones of Power" heading this book is under. The Stones do show up in this book, but otherwise this is a completely different story than the first two books. Jon Shannow is one of the best protagonists I've ever read about. Gemmel gives us a tortured hero who doesn't enjoy killing, but is extremely good at it and has to do it far more than he'd want. Shannow is a man whose faith isn't fooled by religion: he stays true to the spirit of the law while everyone else blindly follows rules. It's refreshing to see a character that's so honest and so human. We need more authors like this!

The Jerusalum Man, Jon Shannow, faces the vile Abaddon, Lord of the Pit in this perfectly written third book to the Stones of Power. I would have to say this is as good as or better than books one or two in the series, though they were good too. The first, Ghost King, I would say is a close second, but Wolf in Shadow was better. I gave it a perfect 10, though I would have given it 11 if possible. This is undoubtedly one of the best books I've ever read and i would and have recommended it to friends.

One of the best books I have ever read is The Stones of Mourning Creek. It is a fantastic tale of mystery and friendship. Let me tell you about it.
Fourteen year old Francie Grove lives in Spring Gap, Alabama in 1966. When her mama dies, she and her daddy are overcome by sorrow, but they deal with it in different ways. Mr. Grove goes out at night and drinks, while Francie becomes friends with a girl named Ruthie, and talks to her about her troubles.
Ruthie rescued Francie after being bit by a snake, and this incident was what brought them together. There is only one problem. Francie is white, and Ruthie is black. It isn't easy to stay friends in this segregated time, but nothing can separate them. Francie and Ruthie together go through a lot of the things girls today do, such as bullies at school, family troubles, and crushes on boys. The stones of the creek represent the relationship of these two girls, since Ruthie made bracelets of the rocks for each of them.
As time goes along, Francie suspects that Mama's death was no accident. Little does she know it, but Ruthie holds the secret to discovering what happened to Francie's mother.
This is an extremely emotional book. You will laugh and cry when you read it.

I think this is a wonderful book for all ages. Diane Les Becquets is a great author. The Stones of Mourning Creek is about a white girl named Francie who becomes best friends with a black girl named Ruthie during the 1960's in the South. After Francie's mother dies...Francie became unhappy and really lonely since her father seemed to never be there for her. Francie's mother didn't really die in an accident, she stopped a man from raping a girl and so the man killed her. You quickly find out in a couple of pages who the evil man is and who he was going to rape. Francie became friends with Ruthie, after Ruthie saves her by getting help when she found her knocked out from a snakebite. Francie and Ruthie cherished their friendship and let nothing come between them. Francie falls for a boy named Earnest :O) Their town is full of secrets....people they know are not all they seem to be. Francie and Ruthie end up finding out the answers to the mystery of Francie's mother's so-called accident. The ending was........hmm......dunno what to really say about it but you just have to read this wonderful story for yourself to find out the ending...

I know Ms. Les Becquets personally; she even signed my copy of her book, and has read some of my work. You will love her book, The Stones of Mourning Creek. Francie and Ruthie develop a friendship that last through the toughest trials and tribulation. Freindship is what the majority of the book is based on, as well as Diane's own childhood experiences. I look forward to her next book. Keep up the awesome work, Diane!!! All us Meekerites love you!

If you haven't yet read the first Master Li and Number Ten Ox book, Bridge of Birds, go read it now; it's quite good. If you've already read it and want more of the same, then the Story of the Stone may slake your thirst. Be warned, however, that this iteration borrows more than just the two protagonists and the style of the first novel. Without giving too much away, too many of the plot twists from Bridge of Birds made it into the Story of the Stone. At the same time, this second novel lacks some of the grandeur and scope of the first. It's still not a bad read, though.

I have been looking for The story of the Stone for years. Mr. Hughart, please do not leave us like this! Your stories are wonderful, your characters, unforgivable, your world, amazing! I have read all your stories and am waiting anxiously for the next one.

Why did Barry Hughart stop writing these wonderful fantasies? They have taught me boatloads of Chinese mythology and history. Master Li and Number Ten Ox are two of the most enjoyable characters ever. There are sections in this book that make you bite your fingernails down to nubs and other parts that leave you out of breath with a cramp from laughing so hard. READ THE WHOLE SERIES. Lovers of the Hitchhiker's Guide and the Hobbit will not be dissapointed. Adams and Tolkin have nothing on Barry Hughart.

This book makes the quilts that look hard to make very easy. It has step by step instructions on several different quilts. Just rotary cut, sew strips together, cut again and sew. Five strips make a quilt. What could be easier than this?

I love this book. The directions are very clear. I've made one of the quilts in this book. The quilt I made (Sunshine & Shadows) looks like it took me forever to make but it only took me three days to cut and piece the entire queen sized quilt. I've recommend this book to anyone that's interested in making an irish chain type of quilt. Blanche Young you're great!

This is an excellent book for a new or experienced quilter who wants to make a fantastic, complicated looking quilt using the secret of strips. My Blooming 9 Patch is my most exquisite project to date! This book would make a lovely gift for anyone who loves making quilts

Two years ago I read the Global Witness report "Conflict Diamonds" and watched the documentary "Cry Freetown". Both of these were quoted as sources by Greg Campbell in his book "Blood Diamonds". Two years ago I was so deeply shocked by what I read and saw that throught the foreign press I have been following the sitution in many African areas (Sierre Leone, Angola, Liberia, Democratic Republic of the Congo) affected by what are called "Conflict or Blood diamonds". In Sierre Leone, like many other African countires, the conflict was driven by greed and the wanting to control the diamond mines and wealth that these stones bring. Greg Campbell's book is what history is about. How these terrible conflicts devestate the lives of innocent people and devestate countries. As Campbell points out it is important to realise the consequences of these conflicts extend worldwide. It is ironic how a commodity societies view as so precious can produce something so hideous in the humam nature that at first it hurt to much to believe that it could possibly be true. But this is the truth that Glen Campbell recounts in his well researched and heartbreaking book "Blood Diamonds".

I have always questioned the materialism of friends and family after years and years of seeing DeBeers on Tv, magazines, and newspapers senselessly pounding their marketing into my head. I've never been one to go along with the crowd, and I've met some Sierra Leonians and heard their stories of how they'd escaped. I quote this book whenever someone asks me about the jewelry I wear--the ever-present, "Oh, BUT YOU don't have any diamonds." I refuse to give up my political beliefs (enormously illustrated in this book, take a hint Family and Friends!) in order to wear a shiny piece of carbon. A diamond is forever? So is death, mutilation, bloodshed, and amputation. Mr. Campbell, you've done the entire Western world a great service by exposing all in this book. This is a pulverizing read, impossible to put down. You will never look at the words "engagement ring" and feel the same ever after reading this book.

I lived in Sierra Leone for quite a number of years and hence had the opportunity to experience what it was like to live sorrounded by poverty and diamonds (the Kono area). Unfortunately for me and my family, security reasons forced us to leave the country in the nineties.
Nowadays I live in Madrid, Spain. I'm a doctoral student and my research area is the diamond industry of Sierra Leone and its implications on the underdevelopment of Sierra Leone.
Mr. campbell's book has been very valuable to me because of the information it contains (for my disertation) and because it has sadly/happily brought me back to the country that I love most in the world.
Thank you Mr Campbell!
I strongly recommend the reading of this book.