Wow. This is the definitive book on the Maya. Whether youre a student or a scholar, its got almost everything. Very readable prose, good organization, and excellent photographs. In fact, they are almost the best part. The organization is excellent providing first an overview, chapter by chapter of major events in Maya history, and then a dissection of every major aspect of Maya life. If the Maya are your thing, dont miss this book. Great value for money.

This book has had many re-printings, and for good reason. It is THE english language book that covers the anicient Maya in one volume. This book was used as a text in a class I took in Mesoamerican archaeology. I found it easy to read and very interesting. Great for a travel companion. I used it extensively while traveling through Yucatán and Chiapas.

This book is well researched and very informative.

This book is truly a wonderful resource for homeschooling families. I use a variety of materials, but there's always room for more, and I'm so glad I picked this book--what a value! The ideas in this book are really engaging and age-appropriate. Plus there are TONS of activities and topics to choose from in the English sections. The math is great too because I can give the lessons and problems to my son to work on independently while I work with my younger daughter on her lessons. A great deal. What's next -- social studies and science? I hope so! Thanks.

David Brainerd was a wonderful, godly missionary, just the kind of man we should be reading biographies of to ourselves and to our children. He wrote so extensively in his personal diary that we can know a tremendous deal about his daily life in preaching to the Indian tribes. I have read several of his other biographies, and though packed with information, they were tedious to read through especially to elementary age children. This book, though, is riveting to all ages. Denise Stubbs has done a tremendous job of writing this book in a very through way but with an easily understandable continuing flow of thought, something that other Brainerd biographies tend to lack. The Gospel of Jesus Christ, which David Brainerd purposed to live his life to tell others about, is intertwined throughout the whole book in a logical, reverent, and bibically and doctrinally correct manner. If you are looking for worthy missionary biographies to read, make *sure* you include this one at the top of your list! (Then go to Ellisabeth Elliot's books on her husband Jim Elliot).

This is one thorough, authoritative tome on Fortran90. It is about as dry as one would expect of a reference manual, and yet it is not exactly succinct. I guess its wordiness is an unavoidable consequence of Fortran's longevity (backward compatibility with earlier versions of Fortran requires many a lengthy explanation).

A very readable book detailing the life of David Brainerd, a 18th century Missionary to American Indians living in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. His remarkable work was cut short by a frail body that led him to an early grave. His devotion to God should serve as inspiration and an example to be emulated in modern day evangelism. This book should be on all Christians' reading list as to reinforce their commitment in spreading the Word.

Tents Against the Sky is a novel about a Tibetan young man sometime in the early to mid 1900's (pre-China takeover). The story is very informative about Tibetan culture and thought. It contains exciting events, some tragedy, and revelation of Truth. I would recommend this as a descriptive, authoritative and enjoyable story about Tibetan nomadic life which includes religion, hardship and love.

This is not a true biography as the title let's on, although it is almost always filed as a biography in any Christian bookstore. Jonathan Edwards, who knew Brainerd personally writes a short biographical sketch, but the book is largely Brainerd's on writings and journals. The journals were not written to ever be published, and the reader will recognize this right away. Therefore they contain honesty and transparency that a typical biography would never come close to.

Largely a prayer journal, it communicates Brainerd's wrestling with God, his confusion, and his incredible heart for holiness. Your heart will be thrilled as you work through this great work. You will refer back to it years after you read it.

We live in a day of "easy belevism". The days we live in are also sadly characterized by a christianity, which implies when it doesn't declare, that life is supossed to be easy for the child of God. The reader will see both of these dilusions dispelled in the life story of David Brainerd. Brainerd,was willing to undergo great hardship to take the true gospel to the natives of his day. His life shows all christians what happens when "glorifing God and enjoing Him forever" becomes ones chief aim in life. This certainly is not a chicken soup for the soul book that can be read with little thought. This book, however, will challenge every christian to live for the glory of God.

Beware! Danger ahead! This man's life and death will change you.

Are you comfortable with your "lot" Christian reader? Content with your religious practice? Satisfied with your progress in things spiritual? Should you be led to feast on the diary of David Brainerd with mind open (to God) and heart sensitive, you won't be. Do you sense that God must be quite pleased with you and all of the efforts you expend for His kingdom? Should you persevere and finish the book, such a sense will be dismantled by God's Spirit!

Buried within the private, personal journals of a young missionary (chronologically speaking - he went home to heaven at age 29) is a depth of spiritual wisdom, fervor for God's kingdom and glory, and love for the Savior, quite unparalleled (if not unrecognizable) in modern Christianity. The mystics would acknowledge in Brainerd what they themselves longed for, a wholesale abandonment to God - His purposes and His will.

Brainerd's growth in grace began with his conversion in 1739. His own words best describe: "My soul rejoiced with joy unspeakable to see such a God, such a glorious divine Being...My soul was so captivated and delighted with the excellency, loveliness, greatness and other perfections of God, that I was even swallowed up in Him...I wondered that all the world did not see and comply with this way of salvation, entirely by the righteousness of Christ."

One who has been so entirely apprehended by the Almighty is enabled to see his own soul very clearly; and this Brainerd did. The depth of his own depravity was before his eyes each day of his new life and most certainly played a part in his frequent melancholy. But it was balanced and fueled by the awareness of Christ's perfection and the beauty of His perfect remedy for sin.

The missionary was fixated on the promotion of God's kingdom; among the heathen Indians in New Jersey and Pennsylvania, ignorant settlers, and even the clergy, whom he endeavored to instruct, exhort and encourage, even on his deathbed. The hardships and privations he endured in the preaching of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ are quite beyond our ability to imagine. Total self-denial marked him clearly. He faced death at many turns. He was willingly and joyfully spent for his Savior. But, oh what fruit God brought forth! Read and see.

Listen, as he describes for us the essence of true Christianity and its counterfeit, from his journal entry on the Lord's day, May 24, 1746: "Could not but think, as I have often remarked to others, that much more of true religion consists in deep humility, brokenness of heart, and an abasing sense of barrenness and want of grace and holiness, than most who are called Christians imagine; especially those who have been esteemed the converts of the late day. Many seem to know of no other religion but elevated joys and affections, arising only from some flights of imagination, or some suggestion made to their mind, of Christ's being their's, God loving them, and the like." Another entry; June 18,1747, just months before his death in Jonathan Edward's home: "Especially, I discoursed repeatedly on the nature and necessity of that humiliation, self-emptiness, or full conviction of a person's being utterly undone in himself, which is necessary in order to a saving faith; and the extreme difficulty of being brought to this, and the great danger there is of persons taking up with some self-righteous appearance of it...being never effectually brought to die in themselves, are never truly united to Christ, and so perish."

Can we at all identify, dear reader?

Take a journey through the early years of our great land with a courageous servant of God. This is a book to touch the soul, to be re-visited time and again, to be worn out with handling.

But perhaps what makes this journal so compelling, is not the chronicling and inspiration of a remarkable missionary life, so much as the MESSAGE that God anointed. The Church mystical and corporate needs to recover this message today. Delve in and be changed!

This second book in Piper's new series "The Swans are not Silent" is an excellent biographical account of three men: John Bunyan, William Cowper (pronounced Cooper),and David Brainerd. The common thread joining the lives of these three men is suffering. Hence the subtitle: "the fruit of affliction in the lives of ..."

Piper gives us a good introduction to Bunyan, the tinker turned Baptist preacher who spent twelve years in Bedford jail in the 1600's because he wouldn't promise to quit preaching. Bunyan was also the author of The Pilgrim's Progress - probably the most widely-read Christian book besides the Bible ever published. Piper shows how Bunyan learned the secret to enduring suffering by "seeing God who is invisible." This sketch is a great encouragement to persevere.

The second biography is of a different sort, looking at the life of the melancholy poet, William Cowper, who authored the best hymn on God's providence ever written, "God Moves in a Mysterious Way." Cowper's life was checkered with depression, insanity, and multiple suicide attempts - a strange candidate for a Christian hero. Yet, Piper shows how through John Newton's tireless encouragement, Cowper managed to find windows of hope in his all but despair-filled life. It is a sad story, but an encouraging one. Those who appreciate poetry and the agony of soul that often breeds it, will appreciate this sketch of Cowper.

The third sketch covers the life of David Brainerd, the Yale student who was expelled for an untimely word, and became a missionary to the Indians. Despite tuberculosis and harsh living conditions, Brainerd pressed on in the wearisome labor of translation and preaching for the conversion of dozens of Indians. Drawing from the diary and journal compiled by Jonathan Edwards, Piper shows how Brainerd's fasting, prayer, and study helped sustain him through unmitigated suffering and affliction in the work of evangelizing the heathen - and how his example has inspired generations of missionaries (William Carey, Henry Martyn, and Jim Elliot to name a few) ever since. Brainerd's great passion was well expressed in his own words: "O that I may not loiter in my heavenly journey!" What an example.

These biographical masterpieces were first delivered as lectures at the Bethlehem Conference for Pastors at Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, where Dr. Piper pastors. The audio cassettes are available from their ministry outreach (web site). I recommend these without reserve to those who want to be encouraged in the midst of suffering for the sake of the Kingdom.

In our day of self-help and "feel good" religion this may seem a strange book to many. Through the looking glass of the lives of John Buyan, William Cowper, and David Brainerd, John Piper reminds us of something the Purtians called "The frowning providence of God."

This is the second in a series of books called, The Swans are Not Silent. Each book in this series takes a theme and then examines that theme in the Scripture and the lives of believers of the past. The theme of this work is suffering and affliction.

As always, Piper stretches our faith well beyond the normal comfort zones of evangelical thought. One can feel hid sorrow as Buyan parted from his family to spend 12 years in prison. It was in that prison however, that Pilrgims Progress was born. Piper carries us with William Cowper into the darkness of an insane asylum where in utter despair he finally found the grace and mercy of God. From that darkness Cowper broke into glorious light, writing that great hymn, There is a Fountain Filled With Blood. We are transported back to the apparent failure of David Brainerd as he was expelled from Yale for questioning the salvation of an instructor. We walk with Brainerd through his short years as a missionary to the Indians. Piper reminds us that none of us know what waves will spread out from a pebble dropped into the ocean of God's will.

The Hidden Smile of God is the kind of book that you won't put down once you open it. This is a much needed book in our day. So-called Christian broadcasting is beaming a message around the world of feel-good easiness. It may be a hard word to embrace but it is true. God's people are not spared from affliction and trouble. They are brought through these things in the grace and mercy of God.

I am an experienced user of Fortran 77, who is returning to Fortran after several years absence. I qualified as language lawyer for Fortran 77 and could quote chapter and verse of the standard.

The new syntax for Fortran 90/95 is fairly straightforward. I need to no how the new elements of the language inter-relate. For example, when assumed shape arrays are used in a subroutine, an interface definition is required. I tried reading this book before attempting this and could not find the requirement. Even after learning this experimentally and from another book, I still can't locate the requirement in this book. I have had similar experiences with other syntactical inter-relationships.

This book contains a lot of information on Fortran 90/95, but I can't recommend it either as a tutorial or as an advanced reference. Unfortunately, there are no other good alternatives in print and this may be the best of the bunch.

This book covers the complete FORTRAN 95 language definition. The author apparentely intended it as clarifification of the ISO/J3 standard. And that's just what it is. This book even reproduces the complete official F95 grammar in one of its appendices. It has a more-than-complete index, which helps you find what you're looking for most of the time. Don't expect examples in this book; there aren't any.

If you're new to programming and you wish to learn FORTRAN, don't buy this book. You cannot learn the language from it, unless you already have a lot of programming experience in F77 or other languages. If you want to know all the capabilities and limitations of F95, or if you're going to write an F95 compiler, this book has got to be the number one book on your wishlist.

This is not a textbook, but it is an important reference for the Fortran 95 programmer. It covers the features inherited from Fortran 77 as well as the new features in Fortran 90 and 95.

My family has had this book forever (It's an edition from 1905) and I just happened to read it today. It's a very witty book and if you like Anne of Green Gables or Sara Crewe you will appriciate it. Be prepared for several short stories revolving around the main character, a teacher named Belinda. There isn't a narrative through the whole book, so it just ends abrubptly on one of the short stories.