Altman and Lechner have created a neat supplement for elementary school students. I was particularly pleased with the range of topics covered. They hit all the important highlights covered in elementary Roman history, from architecture and notable emperors to specific aspects of Roman life such as clothing, eating and Roman numerals. We use Veritas Press history and this just tied right in each week. I suspect in fact that my second grader will remember more from this book than from the more in depth historical texts that we read. He frequently picks this up and reviews Roman Roads, the Praetorian Guard and Nero (his favorite topics anyway). Good for memorizing to go with the Veritas Press cards; the poems provide more than two facts each!

"Renew Your wonders in this day, as by a new Pentecost." was the prayer of Pope John XXIII one year prior to the start of Vatican II. Many people believe this prayer, and the Holy Spirit's response, were the beginnings of charismatic renewal in the Catholic Church.

"On Friday, February 17, 1967, approximately twenty- five (Duquesne University) students left for retreat along with the campus chaplain, a Holy Ghost priest, the two facultymoderators, and one of their wives."

Their destination was the Ark and Dove, fifteen miles north of Pittsburgh. Photos show a large but simple three-story frame building and smaller cottage placed in a snowy setting - peaceful and serene in contrast to the life-changing power displayed inside during the weekend.

Two days later, following a remarkable outpouring of the Holy Spirit, the Catholic Church was set on a course that few perhaps could have imagined. For example, the author describes the reaction when she spoke to a charismatic prayer group of teenagers in New Orleans in 1991.

"My teenaged friends seemed surprised to learn that prior to 1967, spiritual gifts such as prayer in tongues, interpretation of tongues, healing and prophecy were unheard of in the average Catholic parish. Now, just twenty-five years later, there are few places that have not at least heard of this work of the Holy Spirit."

Furthermore, it is estimated that there are now well over seventy-five million Catholic charismatics.

As By A New Pentecost describes the events leading up to this remarkable retreat and then proceeds to tell, through the personal witness of twelve men and women who were there, a compelling drama of spiritual hunger, surrender, and empowerment.

This book is distinguished by the ability of the contributors to vividly recall the events of that weekend and the remarkable story they have to tell - a story in which God's power and grace are abundantly evident. And yet a story that is all too human, for not everyone who was there was transformed.

Most of the participants tell of an experience similar to that of the author.

"As we knelt [in the chapel], a number of things were happening. Some people were weeping. Later they said that they felt God's love for them so intensely, they couldn't do anything but weep. Others began to giggle and laugh for sheer joy. Some people, like myself, felt a tremendous burning going through their hands or arms like fire. Others felt a clicking in their throats or a tingling in their tongues. We didn't know anything explicitly about charismatic gifts. I suppose we could have spoken in tongues right away if we had understood how to yield to this gift."

For others the weekend served more as an affirmation.

"I was moved deeply by the experience I had when I returned to the chapel that night. But for me it wasn't a totally new experience of the Lord. Rather, it was a re-affirmation of my relationship with Jesus which began in the sixth grade. It was a quiet and deep re-dedication of my life to God, not a first time encounter as it was for some of the other students....What I saw in the others who were praying in the chapel that night was a very deep devotion and reverence for God. When people become aware of the Lord's presence, it shows in their faces. You can see they are experiencing Him. Something important was happening for everybody. I knew it was a significant event."

Yet others were affected in a completely different way.

"Someone asked me recently if I would say that the Duquesne Weekend had no impact on my spiritual life since I did not become active in the Charismatic Renewal afterwards. I would have to say that the Duquesne Weekend was a landmark for me, because up until that time I had always seen myself as being very committed to my beliefs. After the Weekend, I felt as though my faith commitment was limited, because I wasn't willing to take that further step like [the] other[s]...."

As one reads this account of the movement of the Holy Spirit, it is important to remember that the people who participated in the retreat were intelligent college students from traditional Catholic backgrounds who had no idea of what speaking in tongues was all about. And that's what makes their stories so powerful - God did a new thing, a quite unexpected thing.

In the words of another participant.

"When I got to the chapel, about 8:00 p.m., there were already many others praying. I knelt there with them thinking, 'I don't understand all of this, but whatever You have for me, Lord, I want it. I believe, Lord, help my unbelief.' After a while, we were holding hands as we knelt around the altar. Paul Gray was on one side of me. Suddenly it felt like an electric current was flowing from his hand into mine and surging through my whole body. I was crying again in sheer joy as I realized for the first time in my life the overpowering reality of God. Somehow I found myself prostrate before the altar, with only one joyful thought in my mind, 'Praise, God! Praise, God! Praise, God!' I had no sense of time or of other people around me. I was enraptured in the presence of God.

A well-written account of a modern-day Pentecost.

I am constantly asked for a good recipe for Chinese Chicken Salad. The one in this book is absolutely delicious and worth making for a dinner party on a hot night. The chicken is grilled with hoisin sauce and served on light somen noodles.

I also am a big fan of Soba, Japanese buckwheat noodles, but other than putting them in a vinegar-soy dip, I had no recipes to use them. This book has quite a few, including a Green Tea Soba Stir fry, which combines my favorite ingredients.

The best part of the book is the inclusion of recommended wines to serve. Chosing wine to go with Oriental or oriental-inspired foods isn't so easy. It's great to have a guide to use and the wines could also apply to other standard oriental fare.

I was so impressed by this book by Gloria Johnson-Mansfield and Ann Foley. The book tells the history of Cambridge, Maryland through pictures. Cambridge is a historic village on the Eastern Shore of Maryland. The amount of work and love that must have gone into this book is obvious. They say a picture can say a thousand words, and in this book they do, but the well researched captions and explanations that accompany the vintage photographs are a treasure as well. I'm looking forward to the companion book, Dorchester, that I understand is forthcoming.

This is probably one of the most useful books I have ever bought.

Bourque guided me step-by-step through the process of buying a car online.

My experience was excellent. I got the vehicle I wanted at a price no other "offline" dealer was prepared to touch. I even managed to get them to throw in hundreds of dollars in extras.

I wish everything was this easy. Good job Pierre.

Concise, well written. Gives pertinent data accurately and the discussion is to the point and not verbose. The information contained can be easily utilized by a surgeon for patient education. A must for any physician, specially surgeons that practice vascular surgery.

Mark Minasi wrote the book, The Complete PC Upgrade and Maintenance Guide and it was a proven winner. Now we have the perfect addition to that book and hands-on lab manual that makes learning easier and fun and will help even the most experienced technician.

The manual includes 41 labs that have you working on memory, hard and floppy drives, modems, irq conflicts, troubleshooting, upgrading and everything in between. Also included are lab reports, which will help you, track your progress along the way.

The appendix included covers the four essential upgrades, the power supply, the hard drive, the floppy drive and the scsi card. Missing from this book is a cd-rom with utilities and questions. Also the book should have been tailored around the A+ Certification.

Overall a good value for the money and the authors are very complete and thorough in the lab they give you. As with any lab manual there is only so many ways to do things, you can substitute your own problems for those in the book if you need to. A handy book for computer schools as well.

It is very intresing how it works with fractions. I am taking algebra II and trig, and it's great!

This book is for anyone wanting to research the origins of Western musical culture in the Antipodes, with a close look at "the grandfather of Australian music" the composer and teacher Alfred Hill. Almost forgotten by his countrymen today, author John Mansfield Thompson acknowledges for the first time in this authoratitive book the importance of a fascinating life in music lived "down under" far from the more universally known and appreciated cultural mainstreams of Europe and America at the turn of the twentieth century. Hill used enormous personal influence and creative resource to initially help found the early orchestras and choral societies in Australia and New Zealand and was a revered teacher and conductor in his own time. Receiving his musical training in Europe at a time when names like Brahms, Tchaikovsky and Grieg were around, he is in some ways the creative figure who brought the flavour of all this music and the culture surrounding it to his antipodean home. An important chapter in the musical history of "down under" for anybody interested in knowing what was going on there musically in the early part of last century.

Down Comes The Rain is an excellent book that introduces to young children the formation of rain and where it actually comes from. It also discusses the transformation of water into ice and also the evaporation of water. Children can understand the book through its simple terms and colorful illustrations. Rain is just one of the many things that young children often wonder about. It is a very good book that can be added to any elementary classroom when discussing a unit on weather or simply to have at home to read togther on rainy days! Many hands-on activities, such as putting a teaspoon of water into a saucer and coming back to see that it has evaporated into the air, can be done by using this book. I have added this book to my list that I plan to use in the classroom!