He can do better! We know this because he has and will likely do so again. If you haven't read any of his books yet... Save the best for first and try SEEING RED & LOST ANGELS.

No sense in going on and on. To put it in a nutshell, this is David Schow at the top of his form. These stories are funny, sad, heartfelt, and scary. Not a clinker in the bunch.

This was required reading for a Bible class I took. It was OK, but Ryrie is a dispensationalist, cessationist, and occasionally anti-nomian. The book is well written and easy to follow, but I still must pick up a pair of those "secret decoding eschatology glasses" so I can understand the premillenial madness suggested by dispensationalists... start with Revelation and go backward? For better doctrine I would recommend Wayne Grudem's "Bible Doctrine" or Bruce Milne's "Know the Truth", or even "Concise Theology" by JI Packer.

I was handed this book by my Youth pastor in high school, and it helped me form the foundation of my personal faith. I am currently leading a group of high school guys through the book and they also are loving. Great for new or old christians who want to start their learning in the bible and theology.

Angelo Saint was described as the prototypical psychopath, that is, "born without a soul." An overindulged only child, Angelo has his devoted mother wrapped around his finger while his more practical father Mark, looks on with horrified wonder from the sidelines. Angelo intensely detests his maternal Aunt Alice, who recognizes his social disorder from the start.

Although this is not a diagnostic book, I did feel the description of a psychopath was quite poor.

At the opening of the story, Angelo, then 4, expresses deep rage at Alice and this rage is manifested in bouts of wetting accidents. He then attacks Alice by smashing the contents of her purse and flushing some of her money down the toilet. His loving, but foolish mother Katherine condones his actions, writing it off as a childish prank. Mark, however, punishes Angelo.

Over the years, Angelo's cruelties become more subtle and clever. He discreetly kills a pet dog (which Alice discovers when she visits her sister's family at their summer place); he frightens away the birds and woodland creatures, viewing them as "weak enemies," and he nearly kills Alice by pushing her over a cliff. Luckily, she is saved, but does not testify against her nephew.

Angelo is described as physically large for his age, stunning in appearance and mentally gifted. Despite his natural endowments, he is rather primitive and immature, still given to uncontrollable outbursts of rage and physical attacks on Katherine.

At 10, Angelo has perfected the dark art of subtle cruelty. He nearly poisons a housekeeper because she senses he is not the "Angel Saint" (as Katherine calls him) after all; he hounds a classmate out of his prestigious prep school (this classmate was an orphan whom Alice highly endorsed); he pit people against one another and broke a teacher's arm "accidentally" during a school football game. He uses charm to get out of every difficulty and has all, but these few, whom he has hurt fooled.

When Katherine becomes pregnant with a second child, she senses that it is wise not to tell Angelo. He pesters her for information about why she is going to the doctor and once he discovers her secret, kills the unborn child, Katherine and later perishes. Even his death is bizarre -- he trips down a flight of steps only to land on his head on the marble floor below. Katherine later dies in the hospital, confiding to Alice that she really knew what an evil son she truly had.

Angelo himself thinks of how easy it is to fool "weak women," and the thought of being sent to a military boarding school per Mark's suggestion is abhorrent to him because "strong men" would make him toe the line. Overindulged and fed with a sense of entitlement, Angelo is incredibly immature. He does not appear to be sophisticated and relies on childish guile to charm people.

The cliches that bothered me was the boy's name, Angelo Saint. This is obviously a contradiction of his character, which was truly evil. I also didn't like the sexist comments, e.g. "he screamed like a girl." I also didn't like the way Katherine's second pregnancy was criticized because of her age. Alice was a little too straitlaced and, at times, seemed insincere. Katherine was overly effusive in her expressions and was sincerely foolish. Mark and his friend, Dr. Whiteside were the only real sympathetic characters save for Angelo's victims.

This book seemed quite sexist even by 1965 standards.

This is a very different type of story than one would expect from Taylor Caldwell. It deals with the premise that a person born without a soul (or conscience) is as handicapped as a person born without arms or legs. Since most people believe that heredity and environment have everything to do with the way a child develops socially, this story is a true horror story. The young mother in the story becomes gradually aware that her beautiful little son is different in an alarming way. It contrasts her growing concerns with the way her son is developing and her husband's opinion that it is her mothering skills that are lacking. This is a truly frightening story which the reader will compare to "the Bad Seed" or "Rosemary's Baby" A very short, easily readable book that was ahead of it's time as a psychological look at a true sociopath..

Tanis should have known better than to have gotten involved with Kitiara Uth Matar, but he did, and this book tells the tale of how all this gets worked out. And of course there is another man involved with Kitiara. And there's fighting. And some backstabbing. And a strange trip to Icereach. This book was okay. Not the best in the Meetings Sextet. Read it if you like the characters involved. A little of the plot becomes important later on in the Dragonlance Series. It might be interesting to know the background details from this book.

I have to admit that this book did have its high moments. But it was overall lacking the drama and intrigue that should have gone along with Tanis and Kit's first meeting. I didnt like the way that Kit acted throughout the story. There was a little action here and there, but the story was not as good as it could have been. It really made me not like Kit. I mean i know she is a fighter, and she doesnt care about anything cut her sword. But the way she acts in this story is totally degrading to her character, read it if you must, but this book could be easily skipped.

... NOW TO THIS BOOK. I am not really sure on timeframes since I am reading in chronological order so that doesn't bother me like it did the previous reviewers. They seemed disappointed in this book for that fact. I was not. The meeting between Tanis and Kitiara is quick and unbelievable, which is too bad. The addition of Caven (Another of Kit's men) is a great addition to this book when he teams up with Tanis. The story is fine, the characters are pretty good. I enjoyed this book. The only complaint is the end is not that action packed as one would hope and it's over rather quick and boring. But this book is better than I expected.

This book was mostly a waste of time. Way too many poems and songs. I remember one song spanned several pages. Sorry but if I wanted to read lyrics or poetry I'd read the book of Psalms in the Bible. Besides that, this book just didn't really feel like it belonged in the Ravenloft series. If you are considering reading this book, I'd say don't bother. Get "Vampire of the Mists", "I, Strahd", or "Knight of the Black Rose" instead. All that said, this book was still better than "Carnival of Fear" in my opinion.

Certainly my least favorite of the Ravenloft series thus far. Although it continuing to be in print while the same can't be said of most other RL books speaks some on its popularity and quality. Most of the characters were thought out and developed, but none were overly memorable. The powers of the chief antagonist were way too powerful to be believable...suspension of disbelief goes only so far. Some pretty good plot twists and typically morose Ravenloft ending made for good reading.

It was very good, chilling. It belongs in Ravenloft because it accentuates the love of bardic entertainment in Kartakass. The book tells of the longing of life and love but adds a sinister and evil twist of fate to the tale.

Many do not seem to understand that when writing a book, the author must write to his audience. Dr. Ryrie does this beautifully. This book can be read by the newest of Christians as well as seminary students.

Dr. Ryrie does not give compromise the Gospel with his teaching on salvation. Some have said that the Theology has been kept short in this book: that is the point. Dr. Ryrie does not endeavor to write another Systematic Theology, rather, he is teaching on a subject through the medium of the written word.

I am immensely grateful for this book. Thank you Dr. Ryrie.

My congratulations go out to Dr. Charles Ryrie. Finally someone has stepped out and written a book that showed salvation as the Bible showed it. Ryrie does not present cheap grace here, he presents free grace here. He does not present easy believism here, he presents simple believism. Dr. Ryrie should be commended for taking a stand for the "gift of God unto salvation to everyone who believes." Ryrie adresses the problem that has plagued the church since the first century when the Judaizers caused the Galatians to stumble. It seems that everyone wants to help God out by adding something either to the front or the back of the Gospel. Ryrie doesn't do that in this book. You owe it to yourself to read this book if you truly want to know what the Bible says about the gospel.

Unlike so many of his critics, Charles Ryrie with grace and class demonstrates in "So Great a Salvation" why salvation is a free gift received by simple faith alone in Christ alone. He demonstrates this biblically and theologically. In addition, he explains why the terminology used in explaining the Gospel is so important.

Charles Ryrie also looks at the implications of "lordship salvation." He demonstrates convincingly in this book, that "lordship salvation" does not make sense biblically or theologically. He examines many of the straw man arguments that lordship teachers like to use with regards to Free Grace teaching and many of the misnomers used to label Free Grace teaching (eg. "easy-believism", "cheap grace").

Ryrie also brings up key questions for the reader to ponder. For example, when he once was interacting with those of a lordship persepective he asked this question to them about a hypothetical person who wanted to be saved but smoked and knew it was bad for him, "Can he not be saved until either he gives up smoking or is willing to give up smoking? (page 113)" The reader then can see that if the answer is "yes", then one has introduced a condition other than faith in Christ to receive the gift of eternal life. Yet, unfortunatley, this is what those of a lordship salvation perspective teach.

I found this book to be a great up in clearing up much of the confusion surrounding the Gospel.

This is a sloppy pastiche of -- well, not much. Some old issues of Ladies' Home Journal, some comments on undertakers' prices (!), comments on the development of Internet flaming, some anecdotes about children...it tries very hard to be a grand unifying survey, tying everything together and leading to fresh new insights, but just flops. The author has nothing new to say, doesn't know much about what he writes abouit, and has a tedious style. Likes to use words like "tergiversations" out of context. As interesting as tepid oatmeal. Buy Paul Fussel's "Class" or "The Tipping Point" instead; either is infinitely more entertaining, interesting and better written.

No matter Caldwell's argument for focusing--almost exclusively--on New York City (it's easier to research NYC, he says on the last page of the intro), his subtitle suggests a wider range. James and Wharton have told us more about NYC manners than Caldwell, trapped inside nonfiction's perimeters and by a bloodless style, can approach. Looking to the rest of the United States, then, would have had the meritorious effect of opening his topic up beyond the much-overdone.

Those expecting a savory collation of anecdotes about rudeness, ancient and modern, will be disappointed. Even Jerry Springer is only mentioned briefly in passing! The book is really about the history of good manners (actually, about the history of books about manners) over the centuries. Witty and amusing in places, but it often degenerates into brief summaries of other books (actually, I found its chief value was the pointers it gave to other, and more interesting, books on manners).

This is one of the "lost books" by a forgotten female writer who didn't make it into the literary canon.

Unfortunately, that's probably a good thing. The book purports to be the history of a "woman of genius" and the intro to my edition of the book waxes eloquent about authenticity of voice and how Grand was able to capture the mental and emotional growth of a child from birth onwards.

The problem is, the book is badly written. Grand contradicts herself time and time again in her characterization of Beth. Beth had "no ear for music" on one page and then on the next she possesses a "great talent for music." Beth is "painfully sensitive to others' feelings" yet her favorite passtime as an adolescent is to beat up on her younger sister.

Where it really gets strange is in the final quarter of the book. Here Grand throws in everything but the kitchen sink: drunkenness, immorality, prostitution, and vivisectionism.

The book ends up being more polemical than anything else, which may have been Grand's point, but to call this good writing is to besmirch the memories of the truly fine "forgotten" women writers.

My friend found this jewel of a book (The Beth Book) at a Garage sale for ten cents. Now in our small town teachers and waitresses are discussing the profound nature of Sarah Grand's masterpeice.

Originaly I was intrigued by the oldness of the book, but was swiftly engrossed in the details of Beth's life, upbringing and the changes she makes from sheer determination. The inconsistancies in her nature make her real. The loss of her Father is eloquent and vivid.

Adolecense is as troublesome for beth as is anyone. The author gives a great story of someone whom we can understand and not understand at times. She is all human. Both great qualities and some not so great accompany Miss Beth's diverse if not contradictory charater. The woman she becomes is to be admired.

The Beth Book is seemingly a biographical novel of a genius female raised in the days that her peceptions and intellegence is squashed and suspect. Rather than be beaten down, comes through life triumphantly. The Beth book is not only a story of life, but one of abuse, feminism and true love.

I highly recommend The Beth Book. I anticipat learning more of Sarah Grand and reading more of her works.

good BOO

I have been designing Web sites for years, and was a Network Engineer for years before that. This book is well written and talks about great examples, but it doesn't work. I know Flash. I know a bit about Flash Action Scripting, but I have not been able to get one single script to work correctly. You shouldn't have to read a second book just to get the one you bought to work right. Like someone else said, even the finished examples don't work right, so you can't look at that code to see what's wrong.
I expect much more than that from any book, and I would return this book if I still could. I spent too much time thinking I was doing something wrong to be able to return it now, though.
In summary, buy another book. You will probably be happier.

This book is decent...but leaves a lot to be desired. The cd that comes with the book includes source files to work on the different chapter projects...but it does not contain final versions of them....so you'd reason that they would be on the flashmxmagic website for download....that seems to have "magically" disappeared as well. Instead of rushing to publish this book so it would come out close to the release of Flash MX, the publishers should have made sure the website was up and that the cd contained final source files rather than demos of other macromedia software. This book is alright, but if you really want something intuitive, I'd recommend waiting until Phillip Kerman's Actionscripting in Flash comes out in July...or buying his book on Flash 5 actionscripting.

If you've mastered the basics of Flash MX and are looking for more, then Flash MX Magic really delivers. Rather than providing tiny chunks of Flash functionality, the book gives you 15 full Flash projects to demonstrate the features of Flash MX. Yep...actual projects you can tinker with, break apart, break entirely, fix again, and eventually create something brand new!

The book comes with a CD containing all the FLAs and files you need for each chapter project and the chapters themselves are very easy to read with plenty of illustrations. It's always great to see how other Flash developers handle code, and the authors of this book are really among the best in the business.

You'll certainly want a good foundation in Flash ActionScript before diving into this book, but it's definitely one to put on your list. Also, the illustrations make it much more accessible for users who tend to shy away from books that only have lines and lines of code. And let's face it, you can never have too many books on Flash or samples of ActionScript code!