Jay belittles abused women when he writes, "The amazing thing is that no matter what you tell them, what you do, or what fifty million other people tell them, some women just won't leave. Somehow, the relationship is like a drug for these women." This statement demonstrates a remarkable lack of empathy and adds another voice of critism that abused women get from innocently ignorant people all the time.

Perhaps a good book for some, but not one I will be passing out to the abused women who are my clients.

I highly reccomend this book - I can't say enough good things about it.

I loved the Danny Dunn series of books. Every trip to the local library was filled with anticipation of a new, fantastic adventure. Great stuff.

That convergence is enough to explain the story line of Jay: A Spiritual Fantasy. Suppose a man comes to you and tells you that he's Jesus Christ, returned to earth. How would you know that he's not a mental patient ... or should be?

That's the thought experiment that Dr. Gruber sets before us. If the man's teachings appear at variance with the orthodox interpretations of the gospels, do we then regard him as a demon meant to draw Christians away from the real, historical Christ? Is the man's refusal to endorse any religion, or condemn any, to be taken as heretical to Christian theology and undermining preaching the gospel? What if he includes a homosexual in his circle of close followers? Does loving all mankind mean that you actually have to tolerate them?

What if Jesus came back and you didn't recognize him or, worse, that you didn't like him or agree with him? Is Jesus only Jesus if he's safely in Heaven and not in your face, if he shows up in slacks and an open shirt on your favorite TV talk show? Do you turn ice cream into the stuff of communion because it's pretty much all he eats?

How would you choose if he could cure the sick and walk on water, but your church condemned him as a fraud because he told his followers not to pray in words but in silent meditation?

This delightful short novel is full of provocative questions for Christians who aren't afraid that provocative questioning is damaging to their faith.

reviewed by J. Neil Schulman,
author, Escape from Heaven

The author, an aquarium director in coastal North Carolina, does a remarkable job (especially for a non-meteorologist) of documenting the impact of every hurricane which affected North Carolina since 1875. Each storm -- including some hurricanes that made landfall elsewhere but passed across the state -- gets its own narrative which variews in length according to the storm's impact. Fran (1996), the costliest and fifth deadliest hurricane in state history, gets big coverage with 32 pages. The chronological stories of each storm are spread across several chapters covering most of the book, which are in turn sandwiched between a general introduction to hurricanes and a chapter on Nor'easters. The final few chapters -- on Nor'easters (cold core winter cyclones), hurricane effects on fauna, potential for future danger, and hurricane safety -- appear roughly cobbled together as if there were no logical order for them. Still, the collection of stories of animals' life and death in North Carolina hurricanes is quite interesting, and unique among books dealing with the impact of weather phenomena.

For a historical volume, the writing style is engaging, vividly descriptive and occasionally humorous. Nowhere else in weather related literature have I read about local speech patterns ("Hoigh toide on the sound soide") together with graphic descriptions of mayhem's aftermath, like "...battered caskets and bones lay scattered, unearthed by the hurricane's menacing storm surge."

Some of the stories of human survival, heroism and death in hurricanes are more bizarre and ghastly than fiction could conjure. These tales, together with an accurate factual record of the storms and a rich collection of black and white photos, show the tremendous effort and attention to detail by Barnes in his historical research.

The book does suffer aesthetically from its drab printing, with only cover color, by UNC Press. Such obvious parsimony, unfortunately, exemplifies the policies of many university-affiliated presses. But since substance trumps form; I deem this to be a fine non-technical addition to the literature of any hurricane enthusiast.

Mr. Lerner talks eloquently about these collaborators-and others (some not so succesful), and gives us complete and insightful discussions about the shows for which he has written the lyrics--"just" productions like "My Fair Lady," "Gigi," "Camelot," and others perhaps not as well known.

Mr. Lerner also discusses his own life with great candor--and even greater wit.

This book is an absolute must-have for those interested in The American Musical Theater! I have given it several times as a gift.

Also recommended: Craig Zadan's "Sondheim & Company" and, for musicians, Jeff Burns's "Pentatonic Scales for the Jazz Rock Keyboardist".