I used to read this book everytime I went to my grandmother's house when I was really little, maybe even twice. Somewhere along the line it got misplaced and I have missed it ever since. I am now 18 and have remembered it and am sorry it is out of print, but I am going to search out another copy for myself. I love it so!

We love "Amos: The Story of an Old Dog and His Couch." Our older children grew up with it and our little guys beg us to read it to them at night. We second the comment of one review writer---Amos and his couch blows Clifford out of his Doghouse!
Please bring Amos back for more families to enjoy. Our book is "dog-eared" and old, but it is a treasure that we will share with our (years to come...) Grandchildren!

I agree with the reader from Oklahoma. I am a teacher with a teen-age daughter, this is STILL her favorite book. In fact, she asked, "Where is the Amos book?" just the other day. All of my students have loved Amos. Bring him back! Clifford doesn't stand a chance.

I live in the middle east and happen to know of Kamal Salibi through his students. i might even have a course with him soon. should be interesting. I will not go into the incredibly complex socio-political reasons that would have a confessed Christian write such an insult to intelligence (though insiduously convincing to the "layman"). One of the reviews already posted made a great case which i cannot hope to better. To the few who think the pyramids were in no way mentioned in the Bible, first keep in mind, even the Old Testament is mainly a theological read. Besides:
"[19] In that day shall there be an altar to the LORD in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar at the border thereof to the LORD.
[20] And it shall be for a sign and for a witness unto the LORD of hosts in the land of Egypt: for they shall cry unto the LORD because of the oppressors, and he shall send them a saviour, and a great one, and he shall deliver them." -Isaiah

There are great mysteries surrounding the pyramid of Ghiza. it is unlike the others. Also in the egyptian book of the dead, the pyramid was called Enoch's pillar. Later Pyramids and their use was perversed, even as sites of human sacrifice.

I have read this book years ago and I must say it makes sense, for how come the Bible is elaborate on everything except the mention of the Pyramids in Eygpt. If the Hebrews were there they could not have missed the Pyramids. Surely they were not talking about the same Egypt and the Pharoes as we now know them.

Most crackpot theories tend to be slapdash, clumsy affairs. Not so Kamal Salibi's exquisitely well-wrought thesis: he has the philological skills to meticulously analyze hundreds of comparative Semitic roots and reinterpret ancient Hebrew in the light of Arabic. The consonantal outlines of Semitic writing make this possible, bringing into sharp relief the similarities between different Semitic languages and obscuring the differences. I've studied enough comparative Semitics myself to appreciate how ingeniously he handles the subject. Salibi was clever enough to knit together a huge number of Semitic roots into a widespread texture of highly realistic imaginary geography closely overlaid on the real geography. It was almost as though he had bent the earth's crust, bringing together Canaan and southwest Arabia to achieve this overlay. There are some circumstantial considerations to corroborate The Bible Came from Arabia. One is the phenomenon of "land-nama": people who migrate to a new land superimpose on it names remembered from the old country (for example, all the Old World names used in America, including many Biblical names). Also, travelers to 'Asir have remarked on the mystical impression its fertility made on them amidst the surrounding desert--as though it could have been the prototype for the Garden of Eden. Salibi's ingenious skill at tying together so many philological and geographical strands almost had me believing it. Against my better judgment, he made me want to believe it. This is the mark of a superior quality crackpot theory. Read this wonderful book if only for an example of the prodigies the human brain is capable of.

I purchased this beauty along with Botanica's Roses, from Amazon. WOW was I delighted! Between the 2 I have almost every rose info I could imagine. It is well worth the money and a must have for every rosarian. I have 40 roses so far and found the info very useful in my continued purchases. (ex: I live in the NW and have wet weather...many roses dislike wet and don't open properly. The books reveal which are poor choices for my such climate. Now that is USEFUL information!)

Of course it goes without saying that the author knows his roses and the pictures are, well, drop-dead gorgeous (as are in the Botanica's Roses book.)

A 100% must have, along with Botanica's.

This is not a coffee table book. Though the pages are high-quality paper, the photos excellent and plentiful, and the binding high-quality, the book is essentially a meaty reference. If there were a college course on roses, this might serve as a texbook.

Beales starts as most authors do by talking about rose history, culture and using roses in the garden. It is clear that Beales is not so interested in roses as show-bench trophy fodder but as vital elements of a user-friendly and colorful garden. This sentiment shows in his selection of cultivars.

The bulk of the book is descriptions of roses. Beales has developed the most complete shorthand available for expressing all the things you wish to about a rose: how well it does in the shade, which diseases it gets, when it blooms, how big and bushy the plant is. This means that his text entries can focus on the facets of the rose that make it unique in the garden. In other words, he manages to convey the same amount of information as would a book twice the heft of this very hefty tome.

The book does a commendable job covering all old rose classes, climbing roses, shrub roses, species, and near-species cultivars. It is the over-fat classes of Hybrid Perpetuals and Hybrid Teas, that have pricipally recieved the editorial hatchet. And since Beales considers only 2000 or so cultivars, this book is good for culling out the considerable amount of dross among roses - especially among hybrid teas.

If you know you will never use roses for any purpose than cutting or showing on a bench, this book will be of only peripheral use. But if you yearn to understand how roses can work in a garden setting, this is one of the best buys around.

Publishers, please bring "Classic Roses" by Peter Beales back into print! I bought a copy for a friend and now I can't bear to give it up. It has everything for the rosarian: thousands of enticing color photographs and descriptions (the author's own collection of roses numbers well over 2,000 species and varieties); extensive chapters on using roses in the landscape (even if your 'landscape' happens to be an apartment terrace), the care and cultivation of roses, the history of roses; and at the back of the encyclopediac text, there are extensive appendixes, indices, a glossary of terms, and suggestions for further reading.

Peter Beales is also a pleasure to read--very British; very knowledgeable; and it is very obvious that he loves his subject. I have only two minor suggestions for "Classic Roses" if it is once again revised: include U.S.A. climate zones for the roses; include photographs of all (not most) of the roses (I'll bet the author wanted to do this and the publishers wouldn't let him).

As fond as I am of my friend, "Classic Roses" and I are never going to part company.

Frank Mullen has added an important book to the history of Donner Party. The tragedy has been the focus of writing since the spring of 1847, but Mullen has found a fresh way to make the story understandable and, perhaps more importantly, human.

The book is a daily chronolgy of the year that it took the party to travel from Illinois to California, and each two-page spread of this large book is carefully laid out and presents a mix of graphics and text. It is rewarding if read straight through, yet very accessible if your reading style is more "grazing" than linear.

Mullen clearly has done his homework. The sheer volume of detail and complexity in the story can be overwhelming, and Mullen includes the details that are needed to clarify and develop the people in the story. He includes wonderful quotes from diaries and supporting material, and drawings of interesting side issues such as an analysis of the probable shape of the "Pioneer Palace Car." Additionally, Marilyn Newton's photographs of the trail as seen today make it real for a modern reader.

When I have given this book as a gift to anyone with an interest in American History, it has been very well received. A truly great book.

The full-color, glossy photographs of major landmarks and points of interest along the Emigrant Trail from Springfield, MO to Johnson's Ranch in Bear Valley are stunning. The color photos, all taken by Marilyn Newton, are grouped together in the beginning of the book, comprising 20 slick pages of almost 50 photos. It's hard to believe that wagon ruts from over 150 years ago still exist in places; happily, our continuous farming, building and paving haven't obliterated all traces of the route that so many people rode--and walked--in order to reach California.

Portraits, maps, drawings and sketches from the period are interspersed with sepia-toned contemporary photographs, some taken by Newton and some by other photographers, and appear on every page of the book. "The Donner Party Chronicles" is visually rich and stimulating. The area around Donner Lake and the route the relief parties followed are depicted in all seasons of the year. Even in black-and-white, the photos of Donner Lake and the surrounding mountains demonstrate the ruggedness of the terrain and deeply impress upon the reader the hopelessness the members of the Donner Party must have felt upon being snowed-in at the lake.

The book reads like a journal that would have been kept by one of the emigrants traveling with the Donner Party. The text is reprinted from installments journalist Frank Mullen, Jr. published in the weekly newspaper "The Reno Gazette-Journal" over the course of an entire year. The daily routine followed, problems encountered, and decisions made by the Donner Party are chronicled in a concise manner. The entries are short, most three or four paragraphs in length.

One very interesting feature of "The Donner Party Chronicles" is the map of the Emigrant Trail that appears on every left-hand page of the book, with the progress of the doomed emigrants clearly marked with a red dot. As you read along through the book, you see on every other page exactly where the emigrants were as the day's events took place. I found this map extremely helpful and fascinating. Watching the movement of the Donner Party as they traveled on foot at the pace of slow, plodding oxen made me better able to understand how great an undertaking their overland journey was. I shared this book with my husband, my Dad and my father-in-law, and they enjoyed it almost as much as I did!

This book is well worth the price, for the interesting text as well as the terrific photos; you can easily find what you're looking for in the pages, as each page is dated and the day's entry fairly short.

The strong point of the book is the day by day account of the Donner Party's journey. Mullen writes as if he were actually on the trail with the party, and the reader has that same sense of being there. Mullen's writing style makes this book the best Donner Party telling since George Stewart's Ordeal By Hunger.

I've never read poetry this honest, this heart-wrenching, this intense, this passionate, this realistic, this humorous, this painful... I could go on for ages, but it would turn into drooling dribble. Olds is amazingly talented. Her work is graphic, as real life is, and not to be taken lightly. Buy it, commit to reading it, appreciate her world view.

Emily Dickinson once said something to the extent of, that when she felt that the top of her head had been taken off, she knew that was true poetry. That's how I felt while reading The Gold Cell, and I assure you, that's a great thing. This is an incredibly powerful read and well worth your time.

Sharon Olds delves deeply into the heart of what it means to be human in her collection of poems, "The Gold Cell." I am continually amazed as to how she deals with taboo subjects, such as sex, religion, and morality, with direct and shockingly vivid language. In this particular collection of poems, Olds uses the image of blood to represent various motifs; the blood between family ties, its relation to sex and the body, and even the patriotic sense and the "Americaness" of blood. Using this single word, Olds is able to create an infinite number of images and meanings that go far beyond the common notion that blood is what supplies the body with life. This is by far one of the most influential books of poetry that I have encountered in my career. I do not recommend it to those who are squimish or who are prone to heart-failure at the mention of the word "sex" or "penis." While most of her poems are alluring and evocative, many will shock you with their unabashed treatment of sensitive subjects. For those of you who wish to divulge into the mind of what it means to be human, I whole-heartedly recommend this collection of poetry. Olds' poems not only examine what it means to be human but what it means to be moral beings. Prepare for a journey that will reveal the emotional and raw psychology of the human mind.

This book is a must for anyone who works with older adults. It is a photographic essay of some very special people....people who embrace the robustness of life, and who are disciplined to maintain their capabilities as long as possible. Our world is steeped in ageism, that is, believing that older people are only capable of doing things that are "appropriate" for their age. This book shatters those beliefs and provides living examples of people who continue doing what they love to do physically. I wish that Etta Clark would revise this book with a new set of photos every year! I have seen some of these photos over and over again in lectures that people give about aging. It is a book to be owned, not borrowed.

Just one look at the photos and all your excuses for being a couch potato go out the door. This book is filled with inspirational photos of senior athletes. Helen Zechmeister, age 91, works out 3 days a week, deadlifts 200 pounds and can do the full splits. A competitive swimmer, Marie Wilcox-Little at 73 has a much better figure than I could ever hope to have (I'm merely 30). My favorite: Ivor Welch,(Volume 1)was never active until 83 when his wife his wife passed away. To mourn her death he started walking, then running, then running marathons. By the age of 90 he ran five marathons and 2 half marathons! If Ivor can do it, by golly, so can I! A must have for anyone who wants to enjoy life to its fullest!

I bought this book for my parents (72 and 75 years young) and my mother loved it!!! She started taking Yoga this year and feels like "a new woman." She said to me "I don't just get out of my car now, I BOUNCE out of my car!" She thought it was as inspirational as I did. Can't seem to find version I of this, though. Can someone help???

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Wrestling With Angels: What the First Family of Genesis Teaches Us About Our Spiritual Identity, Sexuality, and Personal Relationships (Naomi Rosenblatt and Joshua Horwitz, Delacorte, 1995) is a book with a specific agenda: understanding Genesis as a series of lessons about the nature of human character. Her voice (it's largely hers; Horwitz is not much in direct evidence) is that of the therapist. The themes are as old as guilt and sibling rivalry and sexual temptation, and as "modern" as midlife crisis, blended families and surrogate parentage. We are comfortable with these psychological concepts, and Rosenblatt is generally successful at using these as tools to understand these stories --- and ourselves.
The subtitle's "Family" is a misnomer; it should be "Families". It covers people from Adam to Noah to Joseph, and they aren't considered one family in the normal sense. The chapter on the Tower of Babel doesn't involve any particular people.
There are 35 self-contained chapters. The titles set the theme: "Rachel and Leah: Competing for Love, Passion and Status", "The Brothers Reappear: Wrestling with Unresolved pain", "Abraham goes forth: Following a Personal Vision". She starts with a broad introduction to the theme, then sets the stage for the particular story. The story is presented via selected excerpts from Genesis. Interspersed are her comments and "imagined narrative details". Of these she says, "Our Embellishments to the original text of these stories are historically correct" whatever that means. It's unclear whether she's relying on traditional midrash or her own. Then she provides her summary, analysis and conclusions, sometimes including anecdotes from her own life.
The book displays both substantial weaknesses and strengths. On the minus side, the allegories and symbols are laid on rather thickly. For example, on page 267, there is entitled "The Well as the Portal of the Soul." But on 268, we are instead told that it is the stone (which covered the well) that is "the portal of her [Rachel's] ... soul." Further, we are told that "The well represents Rachel's virgin sexuality" and in the next sentence "the well is symbolic of Jacob's unconscious". In her discussion of the Covenant Between the Pieces, admittedly a very murky event, I found her symbolic explanation of the items unconvincing, and note that she omits any explanation of the smoking oven. Some things really are a stretch. One chapter is "Lot Departs the Clan: Letting Go of Children", but she presents no reasoning that Abram ever considered his nephew as a son. Putting the modern motherhood/career dilemma into Rachel/Leah story was unconvincing. None of the treatments are in any great depth, and the nuances of the Bible's language in telling these stories is entirely lost.
On the other hand, her handling of conflicts within the (extended) family is especially deft, and she turns to this, effectively, again and again. She had a particularly good feel for the character of Jacob, and her chapter on his wrestling with the "Personal Angels and Demons" was especially well done. She has an intriguing comparison between Noah and Oscar Schindler; I wish it had been more developed.
Her writing is clear and the almost conversational style easily draws the reader in, without wasting words. While many can learn from this, the book is especially good for beginners. It does not presuppose any knowledge of either the Bible or how it is approached, and makes no demands of a particular kind of faith. And it provides fresh evidence of why these stories are so enduring.

I was brought up as a Roman Catholic with biblical teachings emphasizing the New Testament and very little of the Old Testament. Wrestling w/Angels re-introduced me to the wise ancient stories of Genesis, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Not only is this book a great read, it is full of insights illuminating conflicts and challenges we continue to face in contemporary life. Whether or not you believe in the historical accuracy of the Bible, the people who are chronicled in its stories are important archetypes whose influence on our collective thought patterns is vast. Wrestling w/Angels is a key guide to understanding the meaning of those archetypes because they show us how we, as individuals and as a world, have developed our "identity, sexuality and personal relationships."

this is my second reading of wresting w/angels. i recommend it to those people who are curious about the biblical text and have never actually read it themselves. or to those who are familiar and well-versed w/the biblical text but are searching for new and fresh insights to be learned and discovered.

ARSENIC AND OLD LACE is one of the classics of American theatre. It's a fast-paced play that has some great witty dialogue and unforgettable scenes. The play was made famous by the Frank Capra directed movie starring Cary Grant and has been a staple of community theatres across the USA since then.

Though there is a lead character here (Mortimer) the show is really carried by the supporting cast; e.g. it doesn't work without a Teddy who actually believes he's Theodore Roosevelt.

There are some plays that most people find boring to read. ARSENIC AND OLD LACE isn't one of them and I recommend it to anyone.

"Arsenic and Old Lace" is an underrated classical play. The witty lines and fasted paced scenes (yes, scenes in writing can be fast paced.) will keep your attention constantly. This play may run long, when seen on the stage, but is great nonetheless. I recommend.

Read it, loved it, gotta do it! This would make a great production and be fun to perform! A must read!!

Alter is attempting to capture both the meaning of the words and the poetry of the phrasing. This was a wonderful read. And where his choice of words differs from mainstream translation, he is careful to explain what the Hebrew words are and why he made his choices, so you can make up your own mind. Masterful.

This edition pairs a fabulous translation with commentary that is extensive and erudite without being the least bit boringly pedantic. Alter's running commentary in the footnotes (which constitute at least one half of every page!) alerts readers to centuries of interpretations and re-interpretations of this cornerstone of world literature, in a manner that makes the book of Genesis seem more alive and more vital than ever before, an ongoing and important discussion.

Alter's commentaries help to situate Genesis within the larger narrative arc of the Bible as well as they address even the most current strains of Biblical exegesis (like feminist rethinkings of gender roles in the creation, for example), but this reader found the wealth of fascinating minutiae even more endearing. What did Potiphar's wife REALLY say to Joseph when she tried to seduce him? It's in there. What does Adam's name mean in Hebrew? It's in there.

First-time readers of the Bible can expect a very readable yet faithful prose, while long-time readers can expect the unexpected, as Alter's etymological and socio-historical explanations bring a pleasantly surprising new clarity to a classic.

Between this work and Everett Fox's translation...wow, simply incredible. I used both as priceless resources in researching my own book (Eric Westra, A NEW BEGINNING). Respectful of style, meaning, and presentation. Nice!

Before this book, I had only known the juvenile -"G" rated versions of Grimms. As I had to read this for summer reading, I have to say, it's a bit of an eye opener. This book is great for analysis- you can see why my English teacher picked it (guess he thought we needed a challenge as we already speak English) One fault I do find is in the title: Grimms' Tales...for YOUNG and Old? I would not recomend anyone under the age of maybe thirteen to read this book. I doubt they would understand it very well.

I've always loved fairy tales, and I've never found a better version of Grimm's Tales. Why? The translation! Other versions tend to gloss over the details, taking away from the richness (and occasionally, gruesomeness) of the original. Manheim stays true to the spirit of the work in his translation, and the character of the original really shines through.

The best example I can give is one of the stories -- "The Boy Who Left Home to Find Out About the Shivers." Other versions translate this as "The Boy who left home to find out what fear was." Why is this wrong? Well, the story is really about the physical effects of fear -- shivering. He didn't actually leave home to find out about fear itself. The gist of the story is that the main character never understood why his brother would "get the shivers" when he heard a scary story, so (among other reasons) he leaves home to seek his fortune. No matter what scary things he encounters, he never gets the shivers. Finally, at the end, the princess he married gets fed up with his whining about the shivers, and while he's sleeping, dumps a bucket of cold water full of minnows on him. He wakes up happy, saying "I'm shivering, I'm shivering!"

To this day, I use this story as a test of any translation of the Brothers Grimm.

What a great read! As an adult reading this to myself I am enjoying these tales! Contrary to what most people think these tales truly are meant for adult ears and are of interest to all ages.

Manheim explains that in early translations these were incorrectly labeled fairy tales and mistakenly assumed they were stories for children only. Over and over I am shocked by the gruesome content and punishments. Punishment by entrapping someone inside a barrel lined with the nail heads and then rolling them down a hill, father cutting off his daughters hands to avoid harm to himself, etc.

The reason I began reading these was to get a purist idea of what the Grimms' tales were: having grown up on the Disney version I was curious about the real thing. I was surprised at what I found, and happy! I was hoping to retell these stories to my 3 year-old but I have yet to find one that is tame enough to retell to him, but that is okay.

The storytelling nature of this is truly captured and I am entranced by these tales. The translator explains in his preface that this was the first time that the tales were translated from German to English by one person who was reading the original Grimms' manuscripts. This was first published in 1977. Manheim explains how earlier translations by other translators were muddled and errors made which changed some words, and at worst enough of the content was erroneous that the reader was really missing out on the true flavor and intent of the story. Manheim claims his edition is the most pure English translation. I compared this with my copy of the Pantheon edition edited by James Stern, as I was reading both copies at the same time. I found that the Manheim edition made more sense, that is, that some words were correctly translated to English while the other book had some words that I had just never heard of and could not understand. What fun to read these tales! Reading this book has been more fun than reading some recent fictional works. I have a renewed interest in reading about the old folk tales and fables now. Indulge yourself and read this book!