the author uses apostrophies in place of quotes which gets incredibly annoying after only a little while, and then the book finally gets interesting, and only a few pages after that it leaves you hanging stupidly. this book wasn't even worth reading.

This is an excellent book. Daniel, born on an island near the reef, never paid much attention to the rumors of ghosts and curses. While snorkeling with a friend, he spots something sparkling under the water. Daniel and Vicky set out treasure hunting. With the help of a trained dolphin they were determined to find the lost treasures and secret behind the Bell Reef Mystery. Read this book!

Great idea for a children's book. The story tends to be choppy, because it is written in rhyme. With my background in children's education, I know that children enjoy and best understand books when they are written with sentences. Illustations are wonderful. They really catch the eye, and they are very colorful.

This story is a very nice Christma story. It is especially good for children who live in apartments or homes without chimney's. It is my belief that many children ages 3 to 8/9 have this concern and wonder how Santa can bring them toys. This story in rhyme form answers that concern and Zarf The scarf may someday become as well known as Rudolph the red nosed reindeer.

The early chapters of this book deal with the founders and the contexts of founding of the Seven Sister Colleges (Barnard, Bryn Mawr, Mt. Holyoke, Radcliffe, Smith, Vassar, Wellesley). The anecdotes and actors make for fascinating social history. But after establishing the schools' early characters, Kendall seems to lose her sense of direction. The subsequent chapters are full of random observations and anecdotes that do not cohere to any particular perspective or point. Certain colleges get decidedly more coverage than others. As the subtitle suggests, the book is more gossipy than academic. But even a gossipy book ought to have *some* structure and some point. All in all, one gets the impression that this book was a good idea that was undermined by lack of material and lack of an outline.

I would like to point out that the back text is a bit misleading, to say the least. It makes references to engineers, computer scientists and "a variety of practical examples", but the book is completely theoretical and not at all suited for someone who actually wants to use shape theory. For those people, "Statistical shape analysis" by Dryden and Mardia is much better suited. Once you have read this, you can get some interesting theoretical background from Kendall's book. For mathematicians this is quite likely the right choice.

While Kendall's revision dates to 1993, Sykes wrote the bulk of this in 1952 and in the intervening years, new discoveries and translations have made some parts of some entries inaccurate. The book is in standard, alphabetical format, with entries on deities ranging from a brief sentence to a couple of paragraphs. Their roles in myths are necessarily very briefly summarized although a number of entries on the creation legends of various cultures are more fully developed, running as long as a couple pages.

This book is best used as a launching point for further investigation. Find an entry that sparks your interest and then track down a fuller version of the myths or legends wherein they feature. Otherwise, it serves as a fair quick reference guide, but I wouldn't consider it authoritative.

As a math major here at the University of Michigan I must say that this is the worst Math book I have ever had to use in a class. The book is full of archaic proofs and lots of general solutions, but no practical examples on how these solutions could be used. This book is basically just a big group of equations, without any explanation as to how or why you would want to use any of them. Theres lots of numerical analysis books out there, you could do better than buying this potential paper-weight.

This is a standard textbook by a leading authority. There is little hand-waiving here. However, this is hardly a book to learn by.

The typesetting could have been a bit better. I wish the proofs had been set off from the examples and the text a little more. There is also too much referencing to earlier equations. Rather than referring me over and over to equatin (6.2.1), just re-write the equation.

Also, this book is starting to show its age. It is now 11 years old, so its bibliography is a bit outdated, as are references to computer programs.

My most severe criticism of this book is that it is sorely lacking in explanations. There is little intuition provided here. Definately not an undergrad book. A much better text to learn from--but not as useful as a reference as this book is--is Burden and Faires. B&F make lots of use of pseudo-code and I applaud them for it. It helps detangle some of the math.

Out of some 7 or 8 numerical analysis texts from which I have learned or taught, this is easily the best. Its organization is standard, its exposition is excellent, it is comprehensive in its coverage of introductory topics, it has a very good bibliography, and its problems are very good. It is a good introduction for graduate students; it is a little advanced for most undergraduates, though strong undergraduates would benefit from its use. No computer coding is supplied though coding from the book's explanations is straightforward.

The content of Lady Campbell's book is disgraceful, the writing poor, and the publication questionable. She is relentlessly biased against the late Princess of Wales, and in this book, as in the TV appearances she makes as a self-styled "friend" of the late Princess, criticizes the Princess relentlessly, pettily, and baselessly. With friends like this, who needs enemies?

I felt I had to post a review even tho I haven't finished the book. Was doing some research on Lady Colin Campbell ne Georgie Ziadie who was born in Jamaica.

Reviewers who have made fun of her birth defect should be ashamed of themselves. The Adams apple appeared after she was given male hormones. She ran away from those doctors and discontinued medication. Surgery corrected her problem which her parents didn't know how to handle when she was born.

Reviews should only be about books and writing style. Not personal problems. There is no reason to be so cruel. This is not the place to discuss it.

I am going to agree with the other reviwers that this particular review sounds suspicious. The tone reminds me of Lady Campbell's book itself and I found it rather juvenile to accuse reviewers who did not favor this book --and rightly so if I may add, lacking brain cells. In fact, if you like the tone of the Washington, DC review where "a reader" looks down on the "unwashed" Americans, you'll love Colin's book.

I think the issue here is that the "Real Diana" is not a worthwhile read. I don't think the Americans are looking for books that idolize Diana, everybody including those who are "unwashed" can tell fiction from non-fiction. We know when we have been duped another ()bucks for what is really fiction passed on as the truth and feel frustrated.

Although I have not yet used cog-B interventions when working with children or adolescents, I was ready to be "wowed" by the information put forth by this book. However, the information that was conveyed was very disappointing. In the sections that dealt with externalizing and internalizing disorders, the gist of the information that was presented was that while cog-B tools often have the potential to be helpful, the research has not resulted in very inconsistent results. Therefore, the research puts into question both the efficacy of cog-B and point of using cog-B in the first place. Another fault of this book is that the chapter authors often point out aspects that are important to take into consideration such as the influence of developmental milestones and the family on a child, but then they fail to elaborate on these aspects.

This book has some good information, but most of it is so ridiculously simple, that it can easily be ignored. Only buy this book if you know nothing about computers. The book spends about 10 pages discussing how to save a Word Document as a text file. This includes pictures of the "File Menu" and pictures of clicking on "Save As". Another "on-point" section discusses how to use the "Copy" and "Paste" commands.

As I stated, only buy this book if you are computer illiterate.

It is quite evident that Kendall has never made any kind of extensive research on tithing before writing this book. His unbalanced presentation only quotes others who agree with him.

1. No effort is made in the book to define the term, "tithe." The author's definition is purely what he thought it meant from childhood.
2. The opening pages are basically a "shame on you" to those who disagree. They are labeled as "escaping from glorifying God" (p24). Several times the author appears to blame all of the shortcomings of the church on its lack of tithing. He seems unconcerned that the theological systems may be widely different.
3. The curse and material blessings of Malachi are prominent. Missing is the O.T. context of the curse (Deu 27:19, 26; Neh 10:29; Mal 3:1-7; 4:4). Missing also is the fact from Numbers 18 that tithing itself entered as a death curse when the priesthood was taken from the family head. As usual in this type of book, Malachi 3 is used as a hammer and quoted repeatedly.
4. Tithing was not specifically taught in the New Testament, he says, because it was an "assumption" (p29). Yet a valid principle of interpretation states that all vital doctrines carried over from the O.T. are repeated in the N.T. after Calvary.
5. Jesus' mention of tithing in Mt. 23:23 is clearly in the context of a discussion of the law, those under it, and those who misuse it (Mt 23:2-4).
6. Kendall asks, "Where would foreign missions be without this verse?," Mt 23:23. Strangely, his "motivation" for giving on pages 104-106 does NOT include a "compassion for lost souls" or "love response to God." O.T. Jews tithed according to the Law and had no missions at all! Tithing is not the answer. The law has no power or glory when compared to the power of the Spirit (2 Cor 3:10-18).
7. Page 34 has the statement "There is nothing more disgraceful than a church that struggles financially simply because its people will not tithe. There is nothing more melancholy than an underpaid minister." However, many very successful churches thrive without teaching tithing (such as those associated with Moody Bible Institute and Dallas Theological Seminary). For almost 300 years the early church thrived through persecution while its pastors (like Jewish rabbis) were self-supporting and were mostly strict ascetics who boasted of their extreme poverty.
8. While Kendall uses Genesis 14 (p43-56) as the origin of tithing by Abraham, the book, Should the Church Teach Tithing?, goes into great detail on this subject. In their discussions of the 90% of Genesis 14:21, almost every commentary concludes the existence of a pre-existing Arab plunder law which compelled Abraham to tithe. As Kendall correctly emphasizes on page 49, he ONLY gave a spoils of war tithe. Also, he gave no freewill offering, built no altar, and ignored Melchizedek on his journey to adjoining Moriah in chapter 22. Also, El Elyon, the highest god of Tyre and Sidon, possessor/creator of heaven and earth, was commonly known by the Canaanites to be either Baal or El. Abraham, not Melchizedek, knew the true God as Yahweh, the LORD.
9. On pages 57-69 Kendall makes little or no difference between the Old Covenant Law and the N.T. except that the N.T. teaches a higher standard --- meaning that ALL should give more than a tithe. The assumption that everybody under the O.T. was required tithe is wrong! --- it only applied to clean food grown or raised in Israel. The poor, merchants, and craftsmen such as carpenters never tithed. Very confusing is Kendall's remark, "Keeping the law of love would also mean keeping the very commandments of Moses, possible without even realizing it" (p68).
10. Kendall uses Hebrews 7 very selectively. The chapter actually concludes in verses 12-18 that ALL commandments supporting the Levitical priesthood, which must include the foundational tithe, MUST be abolished to make room for Christ's higher priesthood.

I would recommend to Kendall and others wanting to honestly discover the truth about tithing that they read two or three books presenting BOTH sides of the issue. I would also recommend reading at least four church historians and cover the time period before AD 325.

I read this book along with a book called "Should the Church Teach Tithing?" I wanted to get a balanced view of the tithing debate from both sides of the issue. I was leaning towards believing that tithing should not be taught before reading this book, and after reading it am 100% convinced that it should not be taught.

This book rehashes the same tired principles on tithing. Malachi 3:8-10 and Matthew 23:23 are verses that pro-tithers quote often. I view Kendall's interpretation of these verses to be lacking. He basically argues that if you tithe (he believes that tithing means giving 10% not the 23% that the Old Testament teaches), you will be blessed. If you do not tithe, you will be cursed. Oh, and you should tithe on your gross, not your net pay because you want God to bless you on your gross pay (blah, blah, blah).

I think the strongest argument for teaching tithing is that Christians give only 2-3% of their incomes on average to Christian work, but the question could be asked is this because churches teach tithing and people don't buy the arguments?

The real treasure is seeing that all our money, time and talents are God's and that every spending, giving and saving decision should be made in light of knowing that the Christian's citizenship is somewhere else (heaven). Forget tithing, let's encourage believers to give it all for the kingdom. God doesn't own 10%, he owns 100%. This issue was never addressed in this book.

Ashley Hodge, CFP
Southlake, TX

I finished reading this book a couple of days ago. I was pretty pleased with Kendall's treatment of the tithe in Scripture. I think he is correct in his treatment of the tithe. But, I do not think he goes far enough in stressing why God instituted the tithe.

I was somewhat disappointed by Kendall's tendency to run tangents that really did not contribute to his point. He did this on a few occasions. Still, it did not take away from his central point that God's people tithed before the Mosaic Law and they should continue to tithe after Christ's work on earth was completed.

As for the negative comments of the "theologian" in his review. I too am a theologian, though not yet a Ph.D. I am unconvinced by his stated reasons that Kendall's book is wrong. After I read his book, I will adequately review it as well. Should the church teach tithing? I answer a resounding yes. But, the church should teach more than tithing as well. Kendall does state this in his book, though not strongly.

Kendall does a good job of addressing the issue of Law and Grace. I think it would benefit most Christians to read this section alone. Kendall is correct in denying the antinomian tendency to say that the New Testament nullifies the Old Testament. Such a claim is not Biblical.

Despite the other reviews, I think this book should be read by all Christians who do not tithe - and even by the one's who do.