I really enjoyed the vivacity and authenticity that characterized Christopher and Elizabeth's written dialogue; it was truly a joy to absorb their thoughts and emotions and experiences.

As a college chaplain, I have seen many students work their way through the mix of angst and excitement that is their senior year. This book, _Compelled to Write to You_ is about that series of debates and struggles, but it is about so much more. The book is actually a series of letters between a college senior and a writer that she admires. After completing one of his books she was "compelled" to write him. To her surprise and delight, he responds, and the two enjoy a year long correspondence that covers a range of topics from choosing a vocation to choosing a life partner. The depth of their spiritual friendship is refreshing. I loved this book. I found it useful, and insightful, a quick read, and one that I will go back over again and again.

This is a very quick and enjoyable read. It is clear almost to the point of being textbook, but with a humor that makes it fun rather than dry. Each spice gets a chapter. Infomation on each spice includes history and legend, current medicinal uses, crafts and household uses, as well as other interesting factual tidbits about the spices such as the coffe rituals of Arab cultures. And, of course, there are recipes that you can nearly taste as you read them. I checked this out of the library and now I am buying it for my own reference collection of cookbooks. It would be a great gift for anyone who cooks (or wants to learn).

You can tell that Maggie Stuckey is both a gardener and a cook. And, while the recipes, of which there are 200 for the 30 Spices listed, are enticing, it is her sense of history that I thoroughly enjoyed. Written concisely and clearly, her storytelling takes us back to the the lands and people who first enjoyed these spices.  We came across this book while looking for information on Cardamom and were hooked by the time we reached the entry for Elettaria Cardamomum. The spices ,and the recipes for those spices, included in this book are: Allspice, Anise, Caraway, Cayenne and Chili Peppers, Cinnamon, Cloves,  Coriander, Cumin, Dill Seeds, Fennel, Fenugreek, Ginger, Horseradish, Juniper Berries, Mace, Mustard Seeds, Nutmeg, Paprika, Pepper, Poppy Seeds, Saffron, Sesame Seeds, Star Anise, Tumeric, Vanilla. Also, conveniently included are the recipes for Curry Powder and Five-Spice Powder.

This was a required book for my theology school class on the history of Christian thought seven years ago, and it has been one of my most well-used reference books ever since. I'm now a doctoral student in religion, and I keep this book next to my desk, with my Webster's dictionary, my Bible, and my "Shambhala Dictionary of Buddhism and Zen." I almost always find what I'm looking for in this book, and the entries are clear and helpful, neither too short nor too long.

While I occasionally covet the un-concise version of this dictionary and may ask Santa for it some Christmas, I wonder if I'd actually use the hefty hardback as much as I use this handy, concise paperback.

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church is a readable, organized and comprehensive volume of 570 pages. It covers most topics needed for research from Aaron to Zwingli. There is also a list, in chronological order, of popes and antipopes; up to and including John Paul II. I have found the book to be especially useful in researching complicated topics such as the early councils and reformers of the late Middle Ages. Written in the usual high standard of the Oxford series, I have yet to find a topic that I was looking for not covered. Feasts, theologians,Biblical books and lives of the saints are among the five thousand topics covered. If you need to know the difference between "Urbs Beata Hierusalem" and "Urbs Sion Aurea", this is the book.

This book is a comprehensive review of contraception, past, present, and future. It is well written and organized, in a style that is easy to ingest and with the occasional droll aside. I particularly enjoyed the "History of Contraception" chapter and the provocative chapter entitled "The Current Status of Contraception." There are many misconceptions about contraception. Dr. Connell provides the consumer with important information so they are not misled by the inaccuracies in media reporting. A "must read" for all couples of childbearing age.

This very enjoyable--and approachable--book helps make sense of the confusing world of contraception. I found myself chuckling in amazement at some of the ways we humans have tried to control childbirth throughout history. The information about today's contraceptive methods is accurate and easy to understand. Highly recommended.

I am a costume designer and have had this book in my research collection for about 10 years. It is one of my top favorites. I have turned to this book for inspiration countless times. They just don't make clothing like this anymore! The hair and makeup styles are also well represented.

OK. So, you already know who designed the costumes for My Fair Lady. But, you find yourself watching AMC one day and they're playing "The Manchurian Candidate" and halfway through the movie you remember that you forgot to look at the costuming credits. Well, you open the index to this nifty little reference book and find out that Moss Mabry not only designed the costumes for this movie but quite a few more. That he co-designed with Marjorie Best for Giant to win an Academy Award nomination, and so on...

There are some nifty pictures that accent this reference guide. So, in addition to the listings, you get photos of older and newer stars (I could swear that the photo of Norma Shearer from "The Waning Sex" is a Hurrell), and reproductions of designer illustrations.

I think I'll keep this one close to the VCR.

I took this book out of the library because I do costuming, but I didn't think it would be that good- now I want my own copy. Even though it contains theatre oriented advice on making realistic looking armor without breaking your budget, aging fabric, padding out your actors properly, etc., it also contains basic helpful advice for anyone who sews about the fabrics you use, how to solve problems when things don't fit right, picking the right sized dart, and more. I definitely recommend it.

After being in a small costume shop for five years, i wish i had discovered this sooner! This book gives realistic solutions for common problems!

Did I say I love this book enough? Eudora Welty, the great Mississippi writer took these photographs many years ago. They cover churches and cemeteries around the Jackson area. Some of these places I know and have in my own collection of photos. Haunting places. There is much to be said of Welty's work with the camera. She has a great eye for detail, for light, and for mood. She has captured a period that is long gone. She loves angels. There are few commentaries because this is a book, not about words, but about churches, tombstones, and their lasting message. A great addition to both collectors of tombstone art and Eudora Welty's work. A classic. Buy it while you can. It will be a collectible one day.

Those who cherish Eudora Welty's earlier collection of photographs (_One Time, One Place_) need no urging from me to sample this new jewel box of images from a Mississippi past. Like the earlier collection, these black-and-white photographs document the rural South of the 1930's and 1940's when Welty worked as a photographer for the WPA. As its title suggests, this book offers a tighter focus: on the burying-places of the rich and poor, the black and the white. Here be angels of all sorts, urns and chapels, sheep and dogs, children who seem but to sleep in masks of marble. Those who know Welty's keen gift for description will see how her eye for detail, setting and atmosphere was trained up in her early photographic work. Each image seems surrounded by the rich and generous spirit through which Welty sees the world and those who toil in it.

The photographs are preceded by an account of a conversation with Miss Welty (as we Southern men and women of letters have learned to always refer to her) and interspersed with excerpts from the novels. Also a joy is the introduction by fellow Mississipian Elizabeth Spencer, who places these images in the landscape of Welty's fiction, as expressions of "Eudora Welty's vision of death as a part of life." Spencer continues, "It must find its ceremony within family and community, and its symbols, beautifully displayed here, arise out of the beliefs and feelings of shared love."

To spend time with this book is to walk among the mossy trees, rest among the cool white monuments, and feel the pull of that greater community which surrounds us. It gives further evidence why Miss Welty is one of our great national treasures. But I leave the last word to her, in this excerpt from _The Optimist's Daughter_: "The top of the hill ahead was crowded with winged angels and life-sized effigies of bygone citizens in old-fashioned dress, standing as if by count among the columns and shafts and conifers like a familiar set of passengers collected on deck of a ship, on which they all knew each other -- bona-fide members of a small local excursion, embarked on a voyage that is always returning in dreams."

A "must read" for rabbis and for thinking Jews contemplating parenthood. This is two books in one-a history/anthropology of circumcision in the Jewish tradition, from Bible to the present day, and an opening up of discussion about this physical cut as necessary "sign" of the Jewish covenant. Mark's expressed hope is not to provoke either a Yes or a No to the question of circumcising but to bring the question out into the open and provide the means to create an informed discussion of an issue that has resisted exposure. As the pioneer attempt to do so, the book is invaluable, even though the materials Mark has assembled tell less than a full story. Prospective readers should be aware that, as an edited collection of historical material, the book necessarily gives a spotty rather than complete overview. In addition, the concluding, contemporary voices section of the book is necessarily somewhat scant since, as one rabbi reports, circumcision is the one Jewish topic that was labeled "not open to discussion" by her faculty advisor in her "liberal" rabbinical school. That brush-off to the young rabbi's question represents the core motivation for this book.

It's noteworthy that this book on circumcision is the product of a woman's labors. Both males and females are served by the inclusion of women's voices discussing their experiences with circumcision as mothers of boys. And it is instructive to listen as women question a covenant rite that does not include them as Jews. The women whose voices are heard range from an Orthodox medical doctor to a secular Jew. A number of the women are rabbis.

Editor Mark is a superbly clear thinker and writer in her Introduction and in her essay on circumcision in Genesis. Her editing has produced a collection that is readable, even where the writers get quite theoretical. Readers who choose this book for its historical information will find fascinating pages that open out from circumcision to broader views of Jewish life in a number of periods and settings.

Though circumcision under the Roman Empire was fraught with controversy (the Abusch essay), for those pondering their own feelings and decisions about circumcising Jewish children today the story really begins with Robin Judd's, "A German Case Study, 1843-1914." In this time and place there are voices arguing that a male may be regarded as a Jew by the community even if he has not been circumcised. Subsequent pieces present circumcision-resisting parents in Israel; the difficulties of deciding to circumcise in Hungary under the shadows of the Shoah, Communism, and continuing anti-Semitism; and a range of views among non-Orthodox rabbis and lay Jews in the U.S. today.

"Mark's excellent introduction is followed by a superb collection of essays by some of the most distinguished scholars in the field of Jewish studies. There is no volume that covers the topic of circumcision so thoroughly, and it will serve an academic audience thirsty for substantial and provocative interpretations of this hotly contested Jewish ritual." Susannah Heschel, Eli Black Associate Professor of Jewish Studies, Dartmouth College

Hope that this book is reprinted -- we've had it for years and use the recipes in it frequently. It's nice sometimes to be able to open a cookbook and get an entire menu with all the items complimentary. The lamb and papaya skewers are perhaps the best -- ALWAYS a hit at parties! The Christmas menu is also a good one.

This is such a nice cookbook. I have had it for years and years. Just reading through it makes me want to embrace all the lovely things that life has to offer and to give back as much as I can. By the way, Crabtree & Evelyn owners, I am so glad that one of your stores has recently opened near me. Thank you for the enduring quality of your products!

Izzy is about to celebrate her 41st birthday... her mother had committed suicide on her 41st birthday. Izzy's older sister, Ellie is 43 and is just as flamboyant has her mother was. Their mother was someone I would have considered to be a cool mother if you had subtracted the mental illness part. Some of the antics that "Mom" pulled were so wonderful, it would be enough to satisfy most children, it would strengthen forever the bond between mother and daughter and teach the child to be an individual, but when the realization that Mom was crazy set in, it is painfully described in heart-wrenching detail. You feel the pain of each and every character in the book.

This story is about Isabel's struggle to find her adult path in her remaining family, which includes her maybe/maybe not so stable sister, her loving father, and her husband and the baggage between them. It is excellently written and you can easily visualize Izzy's childhood adoration of her mother, as well as feel her adult contempt at being abandoned by her.

It is a short book, plan on spending about four to six hours where you can shut off the phone and enter this world. You'll get a great return on your investment.

I read this book in two days of intense bedtime reading. It drew me in and kept me thinking all day about the characters, their strengths, and their problems. All of the main "family" characters are well developed, multi-faceted, and interesting people. The book had the power to make me feel real pain for the characters, and had the dexterity to surprise me as a reader from time to time.