Unlike other translations I've read, this version doesn't seem stilted or precious. It's clear, digestible while preserving poetic grace and style. The introduction is well worth reading before you get to the guts of the book. I keep buying copies because I seem to give this one away a lot.

This interpretation of the Tao Te Ching is poetic, meaningful, and moving. It is in no way "new agey". This translation, in my opinion, is far superior to the Stephen Mitchell translation. I don't know why that book has so many more comments than this one. I highly recommend this version above the Mitchell book.

This is a great book for two reasons. The first reason is Ray Grigg's translation of the Tao Te Ching itself. There will never be a definitive English translation, but Ray Grigg manages to bring it alive for modern Western readers. He ignores the literal sense of the original Chinese in order to convey the sense and underlying meaning of the message.

Secondly, his description of the history of the Tao Te Ching and the difficulties in translating the text provide a further valuable insight. I highly recommend this book.

This is a wonderful book with lots of info. I expected it to be okay and nothing to rave about but as I noticed when I read it, it was indeed fantastic. I am glad it was a good book, it will make a wonderful gift for the Z fan in my life. Too bad it is out of print!!!

A fascinating book for any owner or dreamer of the 90-96 Z cars. Filled with great facts and stories. Especially interesting is the initial goal the Company set for itself in designing the world's number one sports car. You learn how various designs and decisions were made in developing this legend. You also learn about the men behind the car and how they all contributed to it's success. This Z car always won Car and Driver's top 10 award every year and for good reason. You can buy more expensive cars, and you can buy more exotic and faster, but dollar for dollar the Z car is truly the best sports car in the world. I just wish this book wasn't so short in length, but like all great reads, you finish and want more.

If you own a Nissan Z car, you absolutely must own this book. I've read it three times so far and still don't know all there is to know about Nissan's famous Z Car. The book is packed with information on the design and development of the 1990+ Nissan 300ZX. It also has a few chapters covering the early Z cars and also some great information on Nissan's racing efforts.

This book is very different from any I have read. The plot is extremely imaginative, with lots of strange twists. It is also rather dark (believe me, no one wants a mother like the one in this story!!). Imagine an alien family here on earth, having very alien values, with all that implies. Imagine a race and chase through space and time and alternate realities, all written in a sort of dry, "postmodern" sort of way, as the protagonist tries to get away from a very strict mom, who has a unique way of punishing her chidren. This book is wonderful science fiction/literary candy. Having said all that, any one that really loves science fiction or fantasy should read this.

This is perhaps one of the most brutal and amazing children's books I have ever read. it starts as a simple fable about a little boy with strange powers and quickly becomes a frightening indictment of man's inhumanity to man.

Kandel's writing style is remeniscent of Hawthorne's deconstructionist narrator in "The House of the Seven Gables" - omniscient and chatty, with just the right tone of menace. In addition, Kandel makes poetry and beauty of the mathematical aspects of the story. At one point, he describes the angles of a triangle in such luscious language you want to curl up with one, just to see what it would be like.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. I know it will haunt me for months..

This is perhaps one of the most brutal and amazing children's books I have ever read. it starts as a simple fable about a little boy with strange powers and quickly becomes a frightening indictment of man's inhumanity to man.

Kandel's writing style is remeniscent of Hawthorne's deconstructionist narrator in "The House of the Seven Gables" - omniscient and chatty, with just the right tone of menace.

In addition, Kandel makes poetry and beauty of the mathematical aspects of the story. At one point, he describes the angles of a triangle in such luscious language you want to curl up with one, just to see what it would be like.

I cannot recommend this book highly enough. I know it will haunt me for months....

Read Ray's book and you will see why Sports Illustrated named him the Motivational Magician ! When Ray Pelletier speaks. . . coaches listen and players respond--and so will you ! This book is full of all the positive energy that Ray Pelletier emits when you meet him in person. This book is also chocked full of powerful strategies. . . "January 1st" is just one of them ! Exciting reading!

I NEVER REALIZED THAT I HAD ALL THE CONTROL. RAY HELPED ME TO BELIEVE IN MYSELF WHEN I THOUGHT I NEEDED OTHER PEOPLES OPINIONS. RAY HAS TAUGHT ME THAT I HAD TO LOOK AT MYSELF AND BE PLEASED WITH WHAT I SAW.WHEN RAY FIRST SAID IN THE BOOK TO STOP, AND DO THE HOMEWORK, I DIDN'T. I FIGURED I COULD SKIP THE HOMEWORK. WHATEVER YOU DO, DO THE HOMEWORK!! IT'S ALL PART OF THE PLAN FOR CREATING A NEW YOU!! THANK-YOU GOD FOR RAY, THANK-YOU RAY FOR YOUR BOOK.:)

A whole new way to look at becoming a winner! This book reinforces the message that the power to become successful and happy in all aspects of life lie within ourselves. Great message!

The three emanipator books are compelling, engrossing, dreamlike and intense. And the intensity and wild imagination grow with each volume.

an excellent, imaginative, very well written book, that explores slavery from many angles. The emotions and images are super-powerful, reminding of Bujold'f Vorkosigan series. All 3 books in this series are very worth reading

Like a lot of Vance books the atmospheric Emancipator series is part fantasy, part, SF, like Vance's Demon Princes series. Aldridge has created baroque landscapes a universe populated by pre-industrial cultures side by side with advanced technologies with personal rocketships, FTL drives and communication. These books describe, in beautiful detail, incredible worlds complete with complex cultures and myths. The protagonist, an enforcer named Ruiz Aw is sent to the planet Pharaoh, to look into the disappearance of entire performing troupes, prior to "harvesting" by the Art League, who consider the inhabitants of Pharaoh their valuable property. Ruiz Aw is commissioned to find the poachers, but if he is caught, the Gencha death net anchored deep within his brain, is programmed to kill him. The names of places, characters and things, like those created by Vance are masterful: The Art League, Dilvermoon, the Sook Slave Pens, Bidderum, Halakum, Bhasmaret, Mocrassar (Moc) bondwarriors. Aldridge paints intricate visions of exotic places and customs that remind me of parts of Vance's Planet of Adventure (Tschai, The Dirdir, The Pnume, etc.), Emphyrio, as well as parts of the Demon Princes. Still, Aldridge, does not attempt to imitate the style, or language of Vance. The resemblance is purely on the basis of creativity, sensibility, imagination, and freshness of ideas & superb quality, as well as morality (contrast of good vs. undescribable evil). Just when you think, Aldridge cannot top this or that idea, he will further surprise and amaze you with even more twists and turns of plots, and ideas. I have read and re-read this book and each reading brings fresh enjoyment and insight. Be sure to read Books 2 and 3 in the Emancipator series, which is sadly out of print.

In his book, Ray Berwick provides a comprehensive cook book approach to training cats along with very helpful photographs that show you how its done. In it you'll see how easy it actually is to train your cat to not only come when you call but to also "stay", "sit", "speak", "beg", "give paw" and much more.

The myth that cats are too independent to obey is quickly dispelled when you see how easily your cat responds to your commands while you both have fun together. Cats learn fast when you speak their language and as an animal trainer for Universal Studios who trained many cats, Berwick knows cat speak!

Following his formula, many owners will find as I did with mine that their cats are able to learn some of the simpler tricks like "come", "stay" and "sit" in as little as one five minute training session!

More advanced things such as leash training, toilet training (on a human toilet) and learning to be hearing for the deaf will take time but they are also covered in detail in the book. It is a soup to nuts guide with everything you'll need to transform your cat into everthing from the most well behaved cat in the neighborhood to VIP kitty!

I have trained my cats according to ray berwick's book since I got them in 1987. They are exremely well behaved. They NEVER beg for food. They use the toilet and flush. They come when called by name. They have never ever scratched me on purpose. They have not once scratched the furniture. People are amazed that the cats understand me when I give them commands. It's all because of Ray Berwick's book. I am so sorry it's out of print. I have two old copies that I've been lending to people for years. This movie aninimal trainer really knows his stuff.

Mr. Berwick offers sound practical solutions for training cats and humane effective methods for correcting undesirable behavior. His observations on cat behavior are right on target. You can train your cat to be a wonderful companion without getting into a "war of wills".

'My title is a paradox, and people tend to be annoyed by paradoxes -- in many ways quite rightly. We suspect them of concealing muddle, and so of representing some kind of intellectual or spiritual cowardice.'
- Sermon entitled 'A Ray of Darkness'

Rowan Williams, lately Archbishop of Wales and professor of divinity at Oxford, recently took the chair occupied by the likes of Thomas a'Becket, Cardinal Wolsey, and others of that ilk to become the Archbishop of Canterbury, spiritual head of the Anglican communion. Williams was, I must admit, my first choice among the various candidates, not only because his theological views and socio-political temperament are in agreement, or at the very least in conversation with, my own, but also because he is an established theologian and historian, and that is something this high office requires. No mere administrator, Williams brings a keen mind to the position where much theological insight will be required to navigate the changing tides of worldwide Anglicanism.

This was published in 1994/95, long before the prospect of occupying the See of Canterbury was on the horizon. Thus, they are not written in anticipation of any such elevation. Even so, Williams reflects in the Introduction a certain unease with producing this volume:

'There is always something a bit odd about a collection of sermons. Apart from the echoes of Victorian self-importance that 'Collected Sermons' tend to rouse, every preacher knows that a sermon is a particular event, far more than a text. It is a moment when you try to make a connection between a specific group of people in a specific time and place and the resources of the Christian vision in its historic wholeness.'

In other words, reading a sermon can be somewhat like reading the words to a song -- you lose much in translation from the aural experience to the printed page. Also, things change, and rare is the sermon that serves a 'timeless' purpose; many preachers, and Williams is among them, preach to the place and time. While one hopes that every sermon may touch the divine and the timeless, few can master the timelessness of a John Donne, yet even most of his sermons are rooted firmly in his time.

Williams sermons here are collected into broad categories:

+ The Word Was Made Flesh
+ Toward Easter
+ The Unknown God
+ Testing Questions
+ Callings
+ Celebrating People
+ Celebrating Occasions
+ Mission and Spirituality

The title for the entire collection, 'A Ray of Darkness', comes from his sermon of the same title in the section on 'The Unknown God'. Drawing from the quotation at the beginning of this article, one can see that Williams is willing to face the challenge of speaking about the unknowable, and ready to discuss the changing and myriad views of God.

Williams in his sermons draws in the Bible largely through lectionary texts, as any good Anglican would. However, few of the sermons in this collection are strictly 'lectionary' sermons. Many are topical, many are 'occasional'. Among the topical sermons are the four sermons under the heading of Callings. He has two sermons on Vocation, a sermon on deception in calling, which can be on the part of the individual himself or herself, and a sermon on the role of community in the vocational process. 'The trouble with the idea of vocation is that most of us, if we are honest, have a rather dramatic idea of it. I don't mean dramatic just in the sense of self-dramatising, but dramatic in the simpler sense of theatrical -- vocation as casting, you might say. God has a purpose for the world, a very long and very good play, even longer and better than Shaw's "Back to Methuselah", with plenty of juicy parts in it. The nuisance is that he draws up the cast-list before doing any auditions. We find ourselves called to fulfill a definite role, but we haven't actually seen the script, and as time goes on we may suspect we would do better in another part.'

This excerpt shows the creative side of Williams, as well as the spiritual side and thoughtful application of the current with the academic with the timeless.

In addition to sermons, there are a few lectures contained in this collection, largely lectures derivative of his time at Oxford, though not exclusively used there. One such lecture is his final piece in the collection, 'Against Anxiety, Beyond Triumphalism'. Williams here talks of the difficulties of determining exactly what is meant by the terms 'spirituality', 'communion', and 'church'. He also cautions against those who make the church, or even greater Christianity, into a victorious (and thereby, an infallible or inerrant) institution of domination, particularly when it is fraught with such paradox and vague notions.

This is an interesting and intriguing collection. It lends itself well for bedside reading or reflection-time reading, as each of the sermons and lectures are only a few pages in length (they average five to six pages), but are filled with language and depth that go beyond their small word counts.

This book is a product (in America) of the Cowley Press, a press adjunct to the Episcopal Church and dedicated to liturgical, spiritual and theological writings. This collection gives a good insight into the man who is the symbolic head of the Anglican communion, and as such, is well worth investigating.

"A Ray of Darkness" is a wonderful collection of the new Archbishop's sermons and is helpful to those of us who have never had the opportunity to meet or hear him in person. As we pray for the best to come of his tenure and attempt to discern the type of person he is, the sermons in this little volume afford a glimpse of his character. Reading this collection has given me a desire to hear the Archbishop in person eventually. Structurally, the arrangement of the selections under topic headings such as "The Word Was Made Flesh" and "The Unknown God" are helpful and allow for quick selection. Some of these sermons are troubling to the heart and others at times elicit chuckles, but all are wonderful and I heartily recommend this collection to all.

Rowan Williams will become the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury (and leader of the 70-million-member Anglican Communion) in 2003. An engaging and sometimes radical theologian and spiritual write, his books are readily available on Amazon. Here's a review from the publisher's website:

"In this collection of pastoral sermons and addresses, Bishop Rowan Williams shows how the faith of the creeds can still equip Christians for a vigorous and critical engagement with the world of today. In his often poetic, sometimes scholarly, and always thoughtful and engaging style, Williams reflects with wisdom and empathy on the gospel connections to issues of peace, war, justice, sexuality, wholeness, suffering, loneliness, vocation, and mission.

"Sermons from the church year and practical matters of Christian spirituality such as intercessory prayer and Bible study are also included; still others celebrate great Christian figures across the centuries, from the Anglo-Saxon saints to Michael Ramsey and T. S. Eliot. Also, published for the first time are Williams's addresses on Mission and Spirituality delivered at Yale in 1991, a sharp but sympathetic perspective on evangelism in the church today.

"'Williams' standpoint is that of Catholic and critical orthodoxy...with an originality reminiscent of such recent Anglican divines as Austin Farrer and Donald MacKinnon. These sermons also reveal a bishop who is at the same time a serious theologian and a sensitive pastor.' - Church Times

"'This book of addresses and sermons given to particular congregations is accessible and sometimes very moving. His thinking is always original and deep, combining erudition and personal spirituality. There are many good things in this nutritious book.' - The Julian Meeting

"'These sermons aimed at deepening understanding of the faith of believers and enriching their spirituality certainly merit a place in the best Anglican tradition of preaching.' - Theologia Cambrensis"

I love this series. It's practical, productive, and, most of all, interesting - it keeps my children's interest. I have natural mathematicians and struggling ones in our homeschooling family, but this suits all of them equally. Math is no longer avoided by the ones that find math challenging. The natural development of the mind is addressed by this unique but "old-fashioned" style. The parent's guide offers clear instructions to assist the learning schedule and process.

Ray's Arithmetics offers the best of all I liked about other popular homeschooling programs (and more) at a fraction of their cost. The lessons are sensible and practical, and they will take us through the eighth grade, from learning to count and read numbers to doing college-level business math. The teacher's guide, which is written by Ruth Beechick, provides an outline and tips on teaching each grade level. Here is her entry for the chapter on Grade 2 : "Teaching Second Grade - A Typical Day - A Typical Week's Schedule - Planning Guide - Progress Record - Testing Second Graders - Test Schecule - Unit Tests - Answer Key for Unit Tests." She offers outlines for fitting lessons into a 36-week year. She also includes a chapter on interesting projects and games that help teach everything from counting to geometry and measures. The books are compact and well-made, so they will fit on my already-crowded bookshelf and they will last through all our children. This eight-book set is perfect for parents who are not impressed with bells and whistles and slick packaging: Ray's Arithmetics look old-fashioned, inside and out. The exercises are practical word problems written using 19th-century prices and situations, which is charming and could be used to enhance a unit study on that era. Ruth Beechick recommends taking care in the eighth-grade year to strengthen any weaknesses that are apparent before going on to algebra, probability, navigation, and so on. I'm excited about learning along with the children. I see many things in these books that I wish I understood, but never was taught, not even in college. When we're finished, the children and I will KNOW math, and I will no longer feel helpless when it comes to our insurance and investments. I highly recommend Ray's Arithmetics.

This is all your child needs to provide a complete arithmetic study through to high school. The lessons are easy to follow and are based on real life problems. This is over 100 years old, and some of the prices are out of date, but arithmetic at this level does not change. The set comes with a teacher's guide, tests, and answer keys. Definitely a bargain when you consider that many single year textbooks cost this much, while the Ray's set covers 8 years.

Using accurate, verified documentation, confirmed by subsequent Congressional hearings, Douglass, a career NSA employee and US War College professor, records the 1960s Soviet buildup of South American drug cartels and their infrastructure. The goals were to obtain funding for local wars of liberation, destabilize the US military, US inner cities and youth with drugs, and compromise South American politicians. Ironically, liberals sometimes like this information, as it provides a clear rationale for the US countermeasures, which allegedly included similar tactics.

The shocking inside story of how the Soviet Union bosses contrived, plotted, planned and then put into action a world-wide drug offensive against the West would be unbelievable if the writing were not so scholarly and well-documented. Douglass's careful work that gets at all the horrible details of the story of our undoing by drugs is worthy of careful reading and rereading by intelligent people everywhere. Beginning with the very effective initiative against our soldiers, up to the present, there are very few families that have not, by this time, been touched by the awful epidemic. But embarrassment, guilt and other intensities apparently have crippled our abilities to even talk about the problem, much less fight an effective war against it. And then there is our government's impotence if not collusion. We are in denial and in the closet. It is time we came out. This unique book helps immensely in that effort. By seeing how the drug plague is really a war being waged against us, we are in a position to come out of the closet of denial and begin to take appropriate action. Red Cocaine is a must read for parents, helping and medical professionals, religious people, educators, employers, the military and our law makers and enforcers. Roberta Gilbert M.D.

I recognize that their are no easy solutions to the plague of drugs. It has spawned numerous criminal and social pathologies that erode the freedom and stability of the West. America's war on drugs has only contributed to the growth of a police state, which has been wholly ineffective at curbing the drug trade while eroding our constiutional freedoms in the process. One solution is that the public began to understand the concerted communist involvement in the drug trade, both past and present. Reading this book is a good way to start.

Dr. Joseph Douglass brings the hidden truth to light about the large Sino-Soviet role in the drug trade designed to demoralize and weaken the West. He does a good job at tackling a difficult and largely untouched subject where credibility is at stake. Red Cocaine proves to be straight-forward, well-documented and meticulously footnoted by Douglass. Douglass offers disturbing revelations from interviews with high-ranking communist defectors within the Soviet intelligence establishment.

Perhaps in the next decade, when the U.S. escalates its drug war against "Marxist Narco-Terrorists" in South America, people will rediscover this ever timely ground-breaking classic.

A must for anyone interested in the Third Reich, Hitler, Speer and WWII Berlin. This book is a real one-of-a-kind jem. It contains information and pictures that cannot be found elsewhere. One of the finest books on the subject I have ever come across!

The Third Reich came to an abrupt end almost sixty years ago and, though time alone cannot heal all wounds, today it is possible to look with fresh eyes upon things that once produced emotions of hatred, fear, suffering and cruel death. Of themselves, public buildings are usually seen as neither good nor evil, though the Coliseum in Rome can never outlast the muffled cries of the early Christians and others who were once tortured and killed there for the entertainment of the masses. Nor can the vastness of that public square outside the Kremlin buildings in Moscow be visited without the mind flashing back to a not-too-distant time when military aggression and might paraded there to intimidate the whole world.

And so it is ' or was ' with the seat of power in Adolf Hitler's Berlin. When he came to that power in January, 1933, the Reichschancellery consisted of a run-down eighteenth century mansion connected to a small and colorless office building put up in 1929-30. Obviously not an edifice indicative of a new political movement that presented itself as dynamic and energetic. And as a tangible symbol of that energy, a gigantic new complex was created to exemplify that movement, in less than one year, including the furnishings.

Much has been written about Professor Albert Speer. He was a talented artist who had the organizational skills of a modern corporate CEO and, like the other zealots of his master's political movement, he possessed seemingly boundless energy. It was Speer who designed and brought this mammoth complex to life, this New Reichschancellery.

When the building was opened to the public on January 12, 1939, a new book documenting its creation was already off the press ' an elaborate and beautiful book of coffee table-sized proportions (12x15") that presented the new building in impressive color and black-and-white photos and in the glowing words of its new inhabitant, as well as those of well-known architects, artists and designers. This book is a rare and welcome addition to one's history library ' when it can be found.

Ray Cowdery took upon himself the task of preserving the New Reichschancellery ' in word and photograph ' and he published his first book dedicated to that subject in 1987. Produced in the same size as Speer's book was in 1939, Cowdery's Hitler's New German Reichschancellery In Berlin 1938 ' 1945 included many of the original photos in color and black-and-white as were found in Speer's publication, together with information about the eventual destruction of the complex by the Soviets in December 1949.

Today, Cowdery's 1987 publication is almost as hard to find as Speer's original book. On the other hand, much more information has come to light over the past sixteen years. That brings us up to today, with Ray and Josephine Cowdery's new book, The New German Reichschancellery In Berlin 1938 ' 1945. Simply speaking, the Cowderys have outdone themselves. While this new book is slightly smaller than its two predecessors (9x11½"), it contains twice the number of pages as the 1987 edition and equals that of Speer's original. The number of color and black-and-white photos has greatly increased, while the quality of the photos equals that of the 1939 work. It is enhanced by drawings and paintings of the Voss Street construction site. New and expanded information is present, including material on the Old Reichschancellery, the furniture and silverware created for the new seat of government, and biographical sketches of the major artists and designers who contributed to this monumental building project.

It is difficult to limit my comments and my praise for the Cowderys' new book. One may only hope that they will consider producing companion works of similar depth and quality on the Führerbau and the Haus der Deutschen Kunst in Munich, the Berghof on the Obersalzberg, and other monumental sites so often lost to the ages.

I recently obtained a copy of Ray & Josephine Cowdery's new book THE NEW GERMAN REICHSCHANCELLERY. I have several of their previous books, including an older book on the same subject. This book is different; it's more comprehensive, with more, never-seen-before photographs and the chronological progression of the Reichschancellery itself. . I have an extensive German WWII reading library. I would rate their new Reichschancellery book among the top five books in my library. I have been to Europe several times with the Cowdery's. This book parallels their superbly conducted WWII German history tours. You can count on three things when you pick up a book written by the Cowdery's, its: (1) interesting, (2) comprehensive, and (3) factual. The first time I picked up the REICHSCHANCELLERY book it was fun just to take a cursory look at it and review all the photos and illustrations of the Reichschancellery itself. The next time I reviewed all the photos in detail, helping me link the various rooms of the Reichschancellery together. There were so many great photographs that it was like taking a virtual tour of the Reichschancellery itself. The third time I sat down and digested all the information surrounding the planning, building, and operation of the Reichschancellery. Nothing was left out. The Reichschancellery was one of the great buildings of the 20th century; it should be studied from political, historical, and engineering perspectives. This book covers it all. If you are a student of WWII German history this is a "must have" book you'll review over and over again.