Vern wrote an easy to follow, educational guide for those who are having a custom home designed. It's written in laymans terms and it offers questions even those in the industry may not think to ask. Beautiful renderings and photos add to this spectacular book. From a woman who has grown up in a family of architecture, I highly recommend this book.

Vernon Lee Fluharty is a brilliant graybeard. To this end, his 1957 publication of, "Dance of the Millions: Military Rule and the Social Revolution in Colombia 1930-1956," is by far the best academic study of the brutal era coined "La Violencia" that I have found to date. It is a pity that contemporary Latin American scholars do not give Fluharty the full recognition that he deserves.

The author spends many years in Colombia and makes significant observations. For instance, he carefully argues that the true villain of violence in Colombia is not the poor masses demanding social and land reforms but an oligarchy who conducts a wicked "counter-revolution" to make sure that the feudalistic system of privilege throughout the nation remains unchanged. Fluharty breaks new ground with his painstakingly documented thesis that the original intellectual authors of terrorism in Colombia were the rich. Ultimately, this book thoroughly documents a period of complete social failure on behalf of Colombia's political leaders from 1946 to 1956.

Fluharty's well-written narrative explains that until the blood bath of 1948 Colombia had enjoyed almost forty years of relative peace and progress. Government was under civilians. The constitution was honored, the press was free, and public opinion was unshackled. And then, "as though at the wave of some malign wand, frightful violence swept the country. Civil liberties died, opposition parties were silenced, jails bulged with political prisoners...and terror-stricken refugees swarmed to the cities," he writes.

The author agrees with other main-stream historians that "La Violencia" was triggered by the mysterious April 9, 1948 murder of the beloved populist Jorge Eliecer Gaitan. However what makes Fluharty special is his honest conclusion that the bloodshed did not start in earnest until "a united front of oligarchs from both the Liberal and Conservative parties...temporarily discarding partisan differences, joined forces across party lines to halt land reform, labor unionism, agitation for higher wages, and other campaigns aimed at raising the general standard of living of the masses." Eventually, after hundreds of thousands were butchered, the Army stepped in on June 13, 1953 to stop the civil war.

Fluharty courageously exposes the strong Nazi overtones and Pro-Franco fanaticism of Laureano Gomez and the destructive, selfish motives of the Colombian Conservative Party. This is a rare book that shows how the rich in Colombia collectively turned back the clock on progressive government and replaced it with a mean-spirited and murderous police state. This University of Pittsburgh Press publication is a "must read" for all serious students of Colombian - American affairs.

Bert Ruiz

This work is a complete collection of chronicles for the De Soto expedition into La Florida (which is most of the south-east USA). Due to the fact that this work comprises two volumes of almost 600 pages each, I have so far only read volume II which is the complete account "La Florida" by Garcilaso de la Vega. Following others (including the Narvaez expedition that de Vaca relates) De Soto went into Florida to find gold and eventually settle the new land. Garcilaso used one captain from the expedition as his source and is a great storyteller, claiming his abhorrence of exaggerating the contents, much of it is told with the heroic chivalry and noble virtue of the times, whether speaking of Spaniards or Indians, and always some purposeful enthusiasm. If all you know of De Soto is that he was the first to see the Mississippi, that doesn't begin to say anything about what happens during the expedition, and even to the way those who were on it considered it afterwards. It shows also the real nature of the natives, showing great differences in their treatment of the Spanish, their use of slavery, and the brutatilty they showed towards other tribes. (Not as placid as Las Casas would have you believe). Also describing the native cultures and life-styles to some degree. All wonderful and interesting stories. The volumes contain some maps and black and white illustrations. Volume I contains all the other existant accounts including the more historical one by the Gentleman of Elvas. Well worth the price.

...lays out new directions for the most pressing problem of our time: How we live. The basic premise is that the physical design of homes, buildings and streets helps or hurts the people who live there and that we cannot continue to use the land to build the kind of infrastructures we are putting in place. A practicing architect with impeccable credentials, Swaback not only set down the reasons why, he also lays out imaginative, practical guidelines for new and better ways to live. The following quote from the book points up the troubled feeling for the quality of life in America shared by many:

Americans sense that something is wrong...we drive by gruesome tragic suburban boulevards of commerce, and we are overwhelmed at the fantastic, awesome, stupefying ugliness of everything in sight-fry pits, big box stores, office units, lube joints, carpet warehouse, parking lagoons, jive plastic townhouse clusters, signs, the highway itself, clogged with cars as though the whole thing had been designed by some diabolical force bent on making human beings miserable."

The root cause of the problem, according to Swaback, is the outmoded apparatus we have put in place to control land use called "zoning." He describes it as a fragmented, uncoordinated process that begets endless sprawl. Zoning laws promote the self-destructive babbles of pro-growth, slow-growth, or no-growth; they also perpetuate endless political infighting and acrimony, but never solve the problem of proper land use. Through examples and case histories, he snows that the cost of sprawl will eventually overwhelm us because it is the harbinger of more pollution and ongoing, declining community values.

Solutions to population growth and density are complex and not easy to come by, by Swaback believes we can must develop more wholesome living environments,. He proposes "Micro Communities" in open space with connected corridors. New stand-alone communities would be situated on dedicated spaces o varying size with a minimum of forty acres or more. All would include single-family homes, condominiums, schools, offices, light manufacturing, support services, and government centers within walking distance of home on tree-shaded pats and bicycle trails. For the more adventuresome, there is a centralized car pool, and public transit.

The author makes a strong case that living center clusters reduce air pollution, traffic congestion, and the rising cost of building, not to mention widespread social deterioration created by sprawl. Micro communities are pedestrian-centered therefore more likely to develop the human qualities of the inhabitants for tolerance and cooperation because we frequently meet our fellow man face to face as neighbors. Culturally, this new design concept encompasses facilities for all levels of education, participation in music, drama, appreciation for architecture, writing, crafts, visual arts, dance, film, theater,and whatever new forms of culture evolve.

Swayback is a practicing architect and original thinker who has mastered the art and disciplines of this craft. In Designing The Future he has used his considerable skills to conceive new and better ways to live by designing an environment that encourages us to become better human beings. His message: Before it's too late, we had better decide whether we are going to ad to American's wealth or systematically destroy all we have been given.

Vernon D. Swaback, AIA, AICP, is the owner-manager of Swaback Partners, a 21-year old Artichectural-Planning organization in Scottsdale, AZ. He moved to Arizona from Chicago in 1957 to become Frank Lloyd Wright's youngest apprentice and remained with the Wright organization 21 years. Designing The Future was published by Arizona State University's Herberger Center for Design Excellence and is in demand as an architectural text throughout the world.

Reviewer's Note: It is this reviewer's opinion Designing The Future is deserving of best-seller status because of its original, perceptive ideas about a gigantic environmental problem which is reducing the quality of life in America.

With the controversy about women's role in the Church today,who is right? What is a woman's role in the Church? What is theman's role? Everywhere you turn, someone else has a different message about men's and women's roles and responsibilities in the Church. Whom should one believe? For Christians, only what Scripture, in truth and clarity, says.

If you want a clear exposition of what the Bible says, this is the book for you. This book covers nearly every passage related to the subject, and unites a woman's role in the Church into an understandable whole. Never has this re-viewer come across a more thorough, Scripturally unbiased and non-patronizing examination into the subject. But be forewarned, the positions explained are Biblical but not politically correct in today's mindset.

Vernon Grieger is wonderful in clarifying Biblical ideas so they are un-derstand-able even to the common layperson. Below is how he clarifies the Hebrew expression EZER KENEGEDO used in Genesis 2:18. Some of its translations are "help meet, suitable helper, partner" and "comparable helper." Grieger understandably separates the expression into its parts.

EZER = helper KE = Prefix indicating likeness NEGED = "in front of" "opposite to" "over against" O = third person singular pronoun

The author describes more about EZER KENEGEDO: Thus "what God here said He would make for man was a complemen-ary helper who would both cor-respond to him and yet be opposite to him in nature." His exegesis says what no translation can--for we have no equal word in English.

The book covers the parts played by man and woman in the Fall of Humanity (Genesis 3:4-7), and then later the New Testament roles of men and women. Pastor Grieger, also, does not shy away from what some may feel to be embarrass-ing Bible passages to the modern Church. Let me say as well, his study on the topic clearly shows men's Biblical responsibilities--whether men what to hear it or not!

After clearly expressing what Scripture espouses, Grieger asks: Will the Church adopt the "ideology of our times, or dare to reassert and live out the man-woman rela-tionship as" stated "in Scripture?" He asks a fitting question. For men's and women's Church roles are not for us to decide: God has decided for us. Our choice is whether to follow God, or reject His Word by placing our wishes, and reason above Him.

Earthly Images of the Heavenly Bride exposes various Scriptural intrepretations used to "prove" many un-Scriptural positions. The book was an eye-opener for me. If I must make a complaint it is this--Pastor Grieger does not cover 1 Corinthians 11:5 in his book. "And every woman who prays or prophesies with nothing on her head dishonours her head." Some have said if conservative Christians do not enforce this "requirement," how can they be so biased to enforce the others? Such an argument falls flat, for St. Paul calls such a head-covering requirement a "custom" (1 Corinthians 11:16). The other injunctions, have no such statement. Other than the mentioned criticism, the book may be the finest that you'll find on the subject today. Grieger shows that our Churchly roles are not about rights; they are about the will of God. May it ever be so.

This work provides an excellent overview of the field of regulation from an economic point of view. The primary focus is economic rather than institutional -- as a result it is more appropriate for economists than for legal scholars. Although the book does not require extensive training in economics, it does assume some formal knowledge of basic economic concepts. Since its focus is economic, little time is spent discussing legal cases surrounding many of the regulations compared with, for example, Law, Business, and Society, by McAdams, et. al.

This video is the story of Mike being kidnapped by bank robbers and then left in the desert alone. The other Last Chance Detectives keep searching for him. They follow Mikes clues until they find him. I liked this video a whole lot. by Derek, age 6

My 8yr old son REALLY enjoyed this book! He ended up liking it so much that he did a school report on it. He wants more just like this!

Dylan takes us through a journey of what happens when you get sucked into a game for real, and discovers alot about himself along the way!

I used this book in school. I knew the man who wrote the book. He was a fantastic teacher. The book is just as good. Unlike most text books, which solve problems, leaving you with "How did they get that", this book gives you the steps. It shows you how to get from here to there with the steps laid out so you actually say wow that was easy. Like the other books Person has written, this is a jem. I only wish he had completed the last book he was working on, Differential Equations. I've collected all his works. If you want to learn math, this is it.

All of Dr. McGee's commentaries have been very helpful to me in my Bible studies. His writing is very clear and easy to understand and not too scholarly. You may know him from his "Thru The Bible" radio broadcasts. I recommend this series for any layman -- it will be a great addition to your library!