Frank Crocitto's A Child's Christmas In Brooklyn is a wonderful memoir of growing up in Brooklyn in the 1940s. What is particularly striking is not just the wonderful anecdotal stories but the way they are physically and visually laid out for the reader in a line-on-the-page format that is almost lyrically poetic in its presentation. A Child's Christmas In Brooklyn is marvelous reading for any Christmas season and a delight for anytime of the year -- especially for that "window in time" feeling taking us back on a nostalgic tour of Brooklyn through a child's eyes.

Ron O'Grady edits Christ For All People, a celebration of Christian art themes around the world. Over 100 works of modern Christian artists pair gorgeous color plates with explanations of religious symbolism and artistic intention.

Close-Up is a fun and friendly guide to thinking about American cities generically. With it you can begin to understand why cities look the way they do, why they are organized the way they, and ewhy they change the way they change. I have used this book teaching urban theory to both undergraduates and graduate students, and they have found it eye-opening; it made them see their city in a whole new way. The drawings are fun and informative. Though this book was written in 1973, which makes some of its examples dated, the insights it gives into urban form are not dated at all, and should be useful well into the 21st century.

Confederate Crackers and Cavaliers is a worthwhile read for anyone with a deeper interest in the Civil War. Before anyone purchases it, however, they should be warned that it is not a book in the usual sense. Instead, it is a collection of Civil War related essays by the esteemed Southern historian, Dr. Grady McWhiney. They include analysis of decisive battles and important personalities, with particular emphasis on Jefferson Davis and Braxton Bragg. There is also an essay on Dr. Francis Butler Simkins, who was Dr. McWhiney's friend and mentor. All of the essays are well written, and any Civil War student can benefit from Dr. McWhiney's knowledge and experience.

Dr. McMurtry has written an excellent book. First, it is easy to read and understand, but it delivers a knock-out punch to evolutionary theory. This is because Dr. McMurtry was an evolutionist for many years and this background has given him a unique approach to writing about the controversy between creation science and evolution. Second, this book covers a wide range of topics. It handles everything from the flood to dinosaurs to geochronometers (young earth theory) to carbon 14 dating in specific detail.

Finally, it is very obvious that this author has a thorough command of his subject, therefore, giving his writing an authority that cannot be ignored.

Rohan O'Grady (aka June Skinner) is a Canadian writer with two known novels published: "Pippin's Journal" (also titled "The Curse of the Montrolfes" ) and "Let's Murder Uncle" which was adapted for film in the sixties. The common quality to both books is the author's understanding of how children think and talk. But the heroine of "Pippin" is far from being an ordinary thirteen year old. Like Emily in "A High Wind in Jamaica" she is a young girl who has been changed by circumstances. The core of this book is the strange relationship between Catherine , nicknamed Pippin, and Guy Montrolfe; a driven, Heathcliff type of Byronic hero. But as well as being a love story, it is also a ghost story and an adventure yarn. Comparisons with the Brontes, R.L. Stevenson and Henry James are tempting. Certainly it is far more than the "gothic" label implies. A book that will haunt you.

The book The Dinosaur Project, by Wayne Grady, describes the joint Canadian and Chinese paleontological project starting in 1985. During the course of this project, Canadian researchers worked alongside Chinese researchers in the paleontological cornucopia of the Gobi Desert, as well as Chinese workers working with Canadians in the also fruitful Southern Alberta Badlands and the Canadian High Arctic. The field areas are so harsh and the characters are so interesting that this book could easily be made into a Spielberg movie. The start of the book immediately draws in the reader by describing the history behind the project. This project is referred to as the largest and most ambitious modern dinosaur hunting expedition ever mounted. It detailed the networking of the Chinese and Canadian colleagues over several years at various conferences until the project eventually became a reality. Narrative style keeps the reader interested as the paleontogists go into extreme conditions in the field, and as their finds are put into perspective relative to contemporary paleontogical dogma. This book was surprisingly gripping for a bone book. It covered many important paleontological theories, but kept the jargon to a minimum. Quotations and anecdotes were often used to relay how science works as well; science both as an abstract methodology and also the reality of working in extreme conditions. One quotation in particularly was well-worded "science is a way of thinking; it's how we move from what we think we don't know to what we think we know" (Dale Russel). The anecdotal style of the book is what really makes it well-written.

The most famous Roman Catholics in America in the 1960's were two priests who were (still are) brothers: Philip and Daniel Berrigan, the former a priest member of the Society Of St. Joseph (commonly known as the "Josephites," an order dedicated to serving the Black community), the latter a Jesuit. SSJ and SJ respectively.

Starting in the 1960's, these two priests broke a lot of laws, and served a lot of time in various jails and prisons. They became famous as objectors to the War In Vietnam, and later expanded their respective "ministries of protest" to other situations of social injustice, as they perceived it.

Murray Polner and Jim O'Grady have written a fascinating account of the Berrigan brothers worth buying and reading. The Berrigan brothers became famous as two ninths of the "Catonsville (Maryland, USA) Nine," a group of protesters who, on May 17, 1968, raided a suburban Baltimore (Maryland, USA) draft board office, took its files of eligible young men about to be drafted into military service and possible combat in the then on-going War In Viet-Nam, and burned the draft board's records in a nearby parking lot, using a home made form of napalm. Only some of the records were removed and burned. The records left behind were stained with blood the two priests helped to pour over those records as a symbolic protest about the work of the draft board in promoting the War.

That was only the start of the civil protest career of these two men. In the same year (1968), they traveled to Hanoi (the same year Jane Fonda did.) In succeeding years and decades, they continued their dramatic forms of protest, and were often jailed and served hard time in tough prisons.

The story of the Berrigan Brothers is one every enthusiast about the social revolution of the 1960's should read. All Roman Catholics should read it, too, especially Josephites and Jesuits. These two priests put those two Catholic religious orders in the NEW YORK TIMES and in other prominent media many times, and in some ways no doubt determined the future of those orders, the Catholic Church (especially in the USA), and the USA itself.

Much has been written both about and by the Berrigan Brothers. This 1997 book is an important addition to the important history of these important Catholic priests. Buy this book from Amazon.Com. Read it carefully. You won't be sorry.

Disarmed and Dangerous is an empowering work for all conscientious persons who find themselves alarmed by the wide range of injustices abounding in our world. The core of the book focuses on the Fathers Berrigans' courageous, faith-inspired, non-violent 'ultra-resistance' to the criminal war in/on Vietnam, and to the military-industrial-violence complex, racism and poverty in general.

Authors Polner and O'Grady vividly recreate the world of Fr. Dan and Phil (now married), especially during that turbulent period of the late 1960s. The authors do a fine job of examining the inner psyches of these 'men of moral conscience who would suffer to confront the enormous power of the state.' We also hear the reactions from their many friends (e.g., Thomas Merton, Dorothy Day, et al.) and, yes, their detractors and opponents, many of whom nevertheless greatly admired the two men.

Those of us persuaded by Mahatma Gandhi that non-violent civil disobedience should never engage in destruction of property (e.g., burning draft files) will be challenged by the Berrigans' undoubtedly correct belief that 'some property had no right to exist.' The controversial issue is still with us today as certain Earth First!ers occasionally destroy logging equipment used to kill irreplaceably-precious old growth forests. Wouldn't a mother do the same for her children if they were threatened by violence?

With hindsight, it is clear that the 'domino theory' concerning Communism was a fallacy. Moreover, Sec. of Defense McNamara has admitted that American involvement in and escalation of the Vietnam War was a mistake. Surely, then, the Berrigans and their countless colleagues throughout the land who suffered immensely in rising up to protest the war stood on the side of good and justice. Vilified by many at the time for their civil obedience, these men and women deserve to be rightfully viewed by the media as great American heroes, and heroes of the Catholic Church. Authors Polner and O'Grady succeed in this task, while not shying away from pointing out the occasional quirks and flaws in the two subjects whom they have profiled.

This book will be a special inspiration for those in Phil's Plowshares movement and groups like Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) tirelessly laboring on behalf of peace against nuclear weapons and war. The book will also inspire those of us outraged by crimes against humanity like the horrors of US sanctions against the innocent people of Iraq. (Circa 1.5 million--mostly small children, women, the infirm and elderly--have died from lack of clean water, medicine, healthcare, adequate food, and poisoning from our depleted uranium [DU]-tipped bombs and tank shells.)

As Phil and his colleagues wrote in their statement of purpose to the press and public upon pouring blood on the draft files in Baltimore, 1967: 'We invite friends in the peace and freedom movements to continue moving with us from dissent to resistance. We ask God to be merciful and patient with us and all men.' (p. 177)