I planned a self guided tour of Italy this past October/November. In addition to the Open Road guide, I purchased Frommer's 2001 Italy guide book. The Open road book is very well organized and written, providing an overview of Italian history, food and culture. A suggested itinerary is provided for each major city and the recomendations contained therein are invaluable. The reviews of hotels and restaurants are accurate and reflect a range of prices and styles, with an emphasis on the off the beaten path local joints. They even have suggested dishs to order and the best rooms to request.

My trip was a smashing success and I used this book for the majority of my planning.

We are the authors of Eating & Drinking in Italy. The author of this Italy guide, who lived in Italy and seems to visit often, has written a guide that can be used by budget travelers and those looking for luxury. This guide is opinionated and thorough. It's the only guide we used in Italy on our last three trips. Don't want to carry a lot of guide books? Just take this one.

All of Baker's works are well written and nicely illustrated- this is a good overview of the Bailey system and anyone interested in the Theosophical system of personal development. Baker has the ability to clarify many of the more difficult ideas as stated by Bailey so that the lay person can understand her writings. The quality of all of his books is top notch and well worth their high price.

Baker is a master author and this is one of his best works. It covers the subject of personal enlightenment as only one who has been there could. It offers secret techniques to achieve a better understanding of your inner self and its relationship to the universe. A must read for anyone on the Path.

Larkin, generally acknowledged as Britain's finest post-war poet, along with Betjeman, wrote only two novels, both in his fertile early period. 'Jill' is his first serious attempt at sustained prose writing, and the result is a fine, stimulating book.

'Jill' began life as a cross between a girls' school novel pastiche and mild pornography called 'Trouble at Willow Gables', an origin that manifests itself throughout the finished work, bubbling salaciously beneath the surface of John Kemp's escapist scribblings. John, of course, is a typically Larkin-esque protagonist - socially awkward, an outsider, and, like his creator, constantly struggling with the remains of a stammer. The portrait is, as only Larkin could draw it, at once affectionately tongue-in-cheek and unremittingly brutal (John's intrusion on the tea-party early on is to die for). What may alarm Larkin's readers (having recovered from the shock delivered by the life and letters) is the deep-rooted distrust of the imaginative faculties emerging in 'Jill'.

We watch with horror as John begins to invent a younger sister for himself with a paranoia approaching downright madness. His creation is born from malice and a sense of exclusion, exacerbated by humiliation upon humiliation heaped upon his shoulders and, having its inception in unhealthy emotion, his fantasy sends him spiralling deeper into a delusion culminating in his drunken violation of the girl on to whom he has transferred his invented sibling.

'Jill' is a novel of both tremendous wit and cruelty. The Larkin of the poems is clearly visible here, brooding on deception and deprivation, gently self-deprecating. 'Jill' is an essential read for admirers of Larkin, providing an important insight into his life and thought, as well as a glimpse of an angry, ambitious young man before the weariness set in.

Phillip Larkin is known as perhaps the greatest British pPoet of the second half of the twentieth century. This book, of a northern, working class boy's first term at Oxford in the grim fall of 1940, offers unparalelled reading pleasure.

Larkin wrote this book in his early twenties, when the war was still very much in progress, and its outcome uncertain. That is only one of the reason I'd recommend it over the many romanticized WW II stories written afterwards, especially in the last decade, when revisionist history takes over, and we sketch characters of the forties as if they had the insights of the nineties.

Here you get the real thing. The war is a presence in the gritty little details of life -- the privations, the routine of putting up the blackout in defense of bombing raids. Towards the end of the book, the hero returns to his northern town to find it devastated.

I found Jill, and Larkin's second and final novel, A Girl in Winter, also set during war-time, bracing, even comforting reading during the first months of the current war. We see that, despite being shadowed by larger events, the inner workings of personality -- love, identity, pride -- carry on, in spite of all.

I wish Larkin had written more novels, or more novelists could write like him.

Kapr's book is the result of his life's research on Gutenberg and a summary of all that was known on the subject by the late 20th century. Some readers might find the book slightly dry and scholarly, but it gives all the familiar and obscure, bizarre and quirky tales about the inventor of printing, and it patiently distinguishes which parts of the legend are speculative and apocryphal from those that deserve to be considered historical fact. Kapr's narrative paints a vivid picture of fifteenth-century southwestern Germany, its social structure and politics and the conditions that set the stage for Gutenberg's achievment. We see Gutenberg's childhood as the son of a wealthy businessman and wine producer and how this could have given him the ideas he later put into practice in his inventions. One of the more interesting and illustrative stories is Gutenberg's invention of metal stamping to manufacture mirrors for the pilgrims at Aachen, a brilliant piece of imaginative work that was blunted by his miscalculation by a year of the date of the Aachen pilgrimmage. Throughout the book we see repeated instances of Gutenberg's restless inventive powers and his benighted (or astonishingly unlucky) career as a businessperson. In the end, Kapr shows how Gutenberg fell afoul of the Pope and was driven out of his home town by the Pope's allies and left to die in obscurity. In addition, the book shows to a small degree the contribution of Peter Schoeffer to the invention and explains why the world's first printing firm was Fust und Schoeffer rather than Gutenberg und Gesellschaft. As a reader with a personal interest in printing and typography and an amateur historian's thirst for more fine details to round out my knowledge of the early Renaissance, I found this book to be unputdownable.

It gives printers a sense of pride in there fast paced sometimes unappreciated work. It helps people realize that it was a printer who single handedly raised mankind out of the dark ages.

Move over Disney, Douglas Fir is takin' over! This is a wonderful book, complete with its very own music of top quality. Congratualtions to the authors - I think they started a saga here.

I am an assistant in a kindergarten class. As I shared the book with my kindergarten students, they were in awe. They have never sat so attentive while listening to a story. The songs and music throughout the story made it even more enjoyable. Once the story was completed there were many questions about the story that I was able to answer from the information given in the story. The story will be wonderful to share during earth day in all schools. Mr. Reitz had a book signing at our school. Do your childrens' school a favor and request that he visit their school!

This book was a real page turner and I was anxious to see what would be on the next page! I can't wait until this author pumps out another one!!

I loved this book! I was anxious for each turn of the page! And the ending was hilarious! In fact I started to read it again. Can't wait until this author pumps out another one!!

Once again Charles Nolan Publishing has done the Christian Church a real service with this re-publication of J. C. Ryle's "Knots Untied".

Knots Untied is perhaps Ryle's most controversial writing. In it he defends his position as an evangelical Anglican (Church of England) member and minster. He sets forth his positions in contrast to the high church movement of his day, and in contrast to other church traditions such as Presbyterianism and the Baptists. (I am writing this review from my Baptist perspective.)

Throughout the book, his convictions are set forth
in a gracious and kind Christian attitude of love for those that disagree with him; an attitude that would be well for the some segments of the modern evangelical and reformed Christian church to imitate.

You may not agree with all of Ryles's views, but in the things essential he stands squarely on the Biblical evangelcial and reformed fundamentals. Just as important you will be challenged to think more carefully about those things on which you disagree with Ryle, and perhaps not be always so quick to expound your differences so dogmatically without the loving qualification Ryle uses in expounding his own distinctive views.

Yes, there are issues in Knots Untied where I disagree with
Bishop Ryle, but in reading Knots Untied, my respect for the evangelical Bishop remains undiminshed. On the contrary that respect has increased. I can not help but love him all the more as I see in his attitude toward those who disagree with him, a gracious spirit and heart that imitates the Lord Jesus Christ.

"Knots Untied" is the perfect book for the serious Anglican Christian. Written by the first Bishop of Liverpool, J.C. Ryle, this work is a veritable treasure for the Anglican who is looking for theological red meat.

Ryle lived in time much like our own. A time when "new teachings" were disrupting the Church of England...just as "new teachings" by various Anglican leaders are disrupting Anglicanism in the western world today.

Unlike many modern Anglicans, Ryle had no trouble identifying himself as a Protestant...in the grand tradition of the great English Reformers and as the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion enumerated. In this work, with outstanding clarity of thought and with razor-like precision, he answers all the hot questions of his day...and most of those today.

This book is not just for clergy. One of the aspects of Ryle's genius was his ability to write definitively enough for scholars and yet, to do so in a fashion not offputting to the people in the pews. Every chapter is memorable and if you're not careful you'll have more highlighted than not.

Christians of other persuasions will also benefit from this work. Informed Presbyterians and Baptists know that for most of the period since the Reformation, they have differed very little theologically speaking from Anglicans, save the form of church government (Presbyterians) and in the matter of baptism (Baptists).

Book lovers will appreciate the great care the publisher has taken to produce a first rate presentation and library grade binding. This volume is the second in the series of Ryle reprints. My advice is to buy one copy to use...and another to have for safekeeping.

Do not let the stale title fool you here. Foley employs some wonderful ethnographic, qualitative research methods in this piece of work. Foley disobeys the old, archaic rules of the social sciences, in that he leaves his objectivitiy behind and immerses himself into the city of North Town (a mythical name). Texas is much more than Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio. The author shows us another side of the state. Foley focuses on the South Texas region and its much too often ignored Mexican American population. Many people do not realize the old, colonized treatment that Mexican Americans are still subjugated to and Foley makes a point of writing about this in his text. In addition to being an ethnographic account of the socially inequities that exist between the dominant Anglo population and the subordinate Mexican American population in North Town, this book is also an analysis and critique of an educational system. Foley demonstrates how the educational system in North Town perpetuates inequality and tracks its young people to take their assigned role in society according to their socioeconomic status and their ethnic background. Learning Capitalist Culture is a book for those not only interested in the social sciences, but those of us interested in research techniques and methodological approaches that are new, exciting, and part of a new kind of social science model.

Doug Foley wrote a very food account of a small town in this book. It is an ethnographic, and fuliflls that part. Mostyl the book discusess the race relation of the poor town, and delves into the politics that make such a racial divide possible. I highly recommend it!

J. C. Ryle writes from the perspective of a general that is beginning to see the battle slip away. As a bishop of the Church of England in the twilight of the 19th century, Ryle sees forces of influence working within his own church which will eventually bring about its demise. He defends the so-called evangelical wing of his church against attacks by the Tractarians and Latitudinarians and the "high churchmen". These groups and others in the 19th century Church of England were calling for a rapproachment with Rome.

Ryle calls the church back to its heritage by recounting in vivid style the testimony of the Marian martyrs of the church in the 16th century. He is particularly critical of attempts by the "high churchmen" of his day to reestablish an observance of the Lord's Table more in keeping with the Roman Catholic mass. He proves, to this readers satisfaction, that the litmus test issue which condemned Hooper, Latimer, Ridley et al was the "real presence" doctrine of the Lord's Supper. By refusing to confess that the elements of the table were changed by the office of the church into the real flesh-and-blood presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Marian martyrs sealed their doom.

Ryles work is prophetic when one considers the compromised condition of the Church of England today. It serves as a warning to all churches who are committed to an orthodox, historic understanding of the Gospel of Christ.

J. C. Ryle did a real service for the Christian church when he first wrote "Light From Old Times". This hard copy edition from Charles Nolan Publishing makes that Ryle classic available once again to a church that needs so desperatly to remember the lessons of history.

"Light from Old Times" sheds light on a time of church history that is not as well known as it should be. Who were the English reformers? Why did they die, being burned at the stake? What was the course of Anglican church history after the reformation? In "Light from Old Times" we see the foundations laid for the so called "high church" view in contrast to the evangelical reformed view of men like Hooper, Latimer, & Ridley. Ryle could see where the "high church" movement was going to take the Anglican church, and time has proved him correct. Given the current direction of some areas of the evangelical church, the church today would be wise to take heed to Ryle's warnings.

The series of debates in Illinois between Stephen Douglas and Abraham Lincoln during the 1858 campaign for the U.S. Senate are one of those legendary political encounters of which everyone has heard but few have gone back and actually read. However, since Lincoln never kept any of his papers prior to winning the Presidency, we do not have autograph copies of his Cooper Union or House Divided speeches, let alone his handwritten notes of the great debates. The claim made by Harold Holzer for his edition is that this is the first complete, unexpurgated text of the debates to be published. Holzer notes that what we have relied upon previously for debate transcripts were copies taken down by stenographers for intensely partisan newspapers. Holzer's hypothesis is that the editors and transcribers for these newspapers would improve the remarks by their own candidates while leaving those of his opponent alone. Supporting his idea are the unedited texts of the debate he uncovered. Of course, Holzer provides his own useful additions to the texts of the seven debates in the form of extensive notes (often covering the audience reactions as detailed by various papers). As a two-time winner of the Lincoln/Barondess Award of the Lincoln Round Table and the first Award of Achievement given by the Abraham Lincoln Association for his hundreds of articles and books on Lincoln, Holzer is certainly in a position to make such judgments.

You should be warned that reading these debates will both exhilarate and depress you. These debates lasted three hours and forced the candidates to develop comprehensive proposals and to respond in detail to the attacks of their opponent. The thought of Bore or Gush trying to talk from notes for even fifteen minutes is enough to make you laugh, cry or bang you head against the wall. Reading the Lincoln-Douglas debates, in this or any other edition, will certainly give you more of a feel for the issue of Slavery circa 1858 than you will ever get from a history book from which you may get a few choice quotes (what the back cover would call "volleys"). For those of us who want access to primary documents, who read court decisions rather than let talking heads on the tube tell us what they think things might possibly mean, books like this are a great joy. For those who admire Lincoln, the right man in the right place at the right time at the worst moment in our country's history, the Lincoln in these debates who is speaking extemporaneously from notes rather than reading from a carefully crafted and fine tuned text is arguably the closest we get to the real man.

The Lincoln-Douglas Debates have justly been celebrated in American history as one of the milestones in Abraham Lincoln's rise to the presidency. However, Lincoln's own well-meaning assembling of the received text of these debates used only transcripts from papers friendly to either candidate--transcripts which, Harold Holzer argues, were smoothed over and revised by reporters eager to make "their" candidate look good. Holzer insists that we must go to the transcripts of Lincoln's speeches by the pro-Douglas paper, and vice-versa, to get a true sense of what was said off the cuff by the debaters. His edition portrays vividly not only the high-sounding rhetoric of Douglas and the noble ideals of Lincoln, but also the hesitations and mis-speakings of both men. In this way, the reader gets a better sense of what it was like to be in the crowd listening as history was being made