First, I should say that I know a lot about Ellen White. I've read several of her books (some of which are quite interesting). I'm a graduate of Loma Linda Medical School, a Seventh Day Adventist school originally founded by Mrs. White. And I've even been to her house in Napa Valley, near St. Helena, California, where she had many of her "visions of the night." Ellen White was the prophet whose writings helped establish the SDA church in the 1800s. Seventh Day Adventists believe in "the spirit of prophecy," which is to say they believe God didn't stop communicating with mankind in ancient times, but rather selects certain prophets through history when a new "message" is needed (though, they seem to believe Ellen White is the only one since the early days of Christianity). In their theology, a great emphasis is placed on the Biblical books of Daniel and Revelation, which are seen to contain prophecies particularly applicable to our contemporary times. They are sometimes considered a "cult," which I think is mere bigotry. It's more accurate to see them more in line with evangelical or fundamental Christian denominations, with a few unique doctrinal beliefs.

Given that Ellen White is considered by most Adventists as second only the Bible with regards to literal inspiration, this book by Ron Numbers is seen as nothing short of blasphemy. The General Conference of Seventh Day Adventists allowed Numbers access to their vault of unpublished materials, only to find themselves "betrayed" by his ultimate conclusions. How dare he suggest that many of White's "visions" were actually copied word-for-word from some of the books in her personal library! And how dare he suggest she was used as a "pawn" in the hands of the all-male leaders of the original SDA church in trying to establish their legitimacy! In my own view, whatever the truth in these things, Numbers diminishes White a bit more than she deserves. Yet, it's hard to argue with the evidence he presents. The problem (perpetrated by the SDAs themselves) is that we're trying to interpret events of a hundred or more years ago in the light of our current "values." This is, after all, the era of "zero tolerance." Am I right, or am I right?

In this book, Ron Numbers presents a fascinating history of the Seventh Day Adventist church. From their earliest origins following the "Great Disappointment" of 1844, Numbers follows the difficult development of a new religion. They faced more than a few crises along the way. Far from the least of these was the powerful personality of John Harvey Kellogg. Yes, this is the Kellogg of the Kellogg's cereal company. Yes, he was an early Seventh Day Adventist. But Kellogg's was rather different in those days. His company was first started in an effort to produce natural health foods, as promoted by Mrs. White. (There's even an interesting anecdote in which some guy named Post toured Kellogg's factory, and Kellogg's stance that he was unconcerned that Post would copy what he was doing, as this would further the health message he so strongly believed in.) Yet, Kellogg became a "problem" to those early Adventists. He wanted more power than they were willing to grant him. Needless to say, he's now considered an "apostate" by contemporary Adventists. This is just one of several episodes that Numbers chronicles with revealing accuracy. No wonder this book was found so alarming by "the powers that be" in the 1970s SDA church!

I'm not an Adventist, in case you're wondering. But, I find these kinds of histories more than a little fascinating. Given the context, Numbers was a brave man to put this in print when he did. I'm also rather proud, in a way, that Numbers wrote this book when he was an Assistant Professor of the History of Medicine and the History of Science at the University of Wisconsin...right here in Madison! This is probably a book you'll have no interest in at all, if the history of religion is a lost topic for you. But, if you've read this far in my review, you just might discover a few items here that will reward your searching. If your goal is hostile anti-Adventism...forget it! You'll find what you want here, but what a petty argument you're pursuing. Take a broader view. See this in the context of the whole of history. What a fascinating development!

This book explodes the myths surrounding Seventh-day Adventist prophetess Ellen White and her health reform visions. Dr. Numbers pulls back the mysterious curtain surrounding this woman's life and reveals the true sources for her health messages. This book is all the more credible because it was written by a former Seventh-day Adventist professor of Medical History at Loma Linda University. A must-read for any Seventh-day Adventist serious about learning the truth about Mrs. White and the sources she used for her health reform teachings.

This book doesn't provide much information on the basic swing, but it has great shots of Norman in action and thoroughly describes the shots every good player needs to have.

The Codes Guidebook for Interiors is a simple, straight forward guide to understanding how building codes regulate design. The guidebook builds a chapter by chapter systematic approach to code research and application that can be followed by every practictioner regardless of building locale.

The market has changed a bit since Harmon first wrote about packaging but the basics are still in effect. She offers a lot of detail about "selling" your movies before you make them, which is the only recourse for a lot of micro-budget filmmakers.

This is the best book I have read on the current state of dying in the West. The author, Louise Harmon, is a law professor in Huntington, New York. Sounds dry, huh? Wrong. The book exposes the process by which death left the geography of the dying person's home and was transported to the hospital. With this shift in the place in which people died there was a corresponding explosion in technologies available to prolong life. Thus, a long, tedious legal and medical battle ensued against death itself, effectively pulling the plug on a significant and meaningful end to life. Fragments does an excellent job of documenting these changes in the dying process and their deleterious effects on our culture. Can any society afford to separate itself from its dying without a loss of its humanity?

Fragments is written in an unusual way, perhaps common to law texts. Whenever the author wants to take a rabbit trail, she includes a note with commentary at the bottom of the page. She also includes copious footnotes. The commentary and footnotes alone are worth the price of the book. Her discursive thoughts and ramblings are fascinating. She uses good metaphors that help the reader understand and follow her reasoning. Finally, if you enjoy dry wit, she is an artist, especially in skewering the secular attitudes of our modern culture towards dying. This is a compassionate and engaging evaluation of the way we now die alone.

Certainly the reader will not come away from this book with mixed feelings, but that will depend on how much of an icon the reader considers Beckett to be. When I first read Beckett in the early '60s I was enthralled with the turgid atmosphere Beckett created. He was a new voice to me, but I was troubled by the underlying irritation I felt, the futility of the plot, and the seeming helplessness and ineffectualness of his characters. That has not changed over the years. Beckett is excellent for dredging up all the anxieties of the little life.

I must confess, however, that the desire of people to ascribe genius to the man leaves me somewhat mystified. He is not as deep as Joyce or as inaccessible as the prose of Dylan and I find these two Celtic sons much more rewarding. They had their own widely acknowledged demons. Beckett has his. Therefore I did not find this work by Mr. Stephenson anything more than insightful into another of Beckett's grotesque wrinkles.

Mr. Stephenson has his own writing style and his voice is forceful, however, it seems to me that the reason for reading this piece is to gain insight into the work of Beckett. What else is an academic monograph for? You can agree or disagree with an author's premise, but a reader must take away some new things to consider about the subject of any monograph. I did, and felt that the reading of Mr. Stephenson's criticism was worth my time because it added the overall personality of this sad, bewitched, grim Gael.

Inside GeoMedia is an excellent book for beginning and intermediate-level users of GeoMedia software. I have found it very thorough and complete in topics related to use of the default user interface. Intergraph should have taken it upon themselves to develop similar material for distribution in hardcopy form with the software or to be included as on-line help.

I wish that the book had gone into more depth in the area of product customization - the coverage of configuring the menus and toolbars was simply adequate. I also wish that the authors had gone further with this topic to discuss programming with GeoMedia.

Anyway, overall I have found it to be a very good book that I use often.

For those growing up around the time of World War II, this brings back a lot of memories -- not all of them perfect. The author covers radio premiums, comic books, novelty catalogues, pulp magazines, and Big Little Books, among other things -- all items kids of the era had interest in. Photographs of the premiums are enlarged, so they seem about the same size as kids would remember them being. The author makes a few minor mistakes (e.g., the TV Captain Midnight premiums were "decoders," not "Code-O-Graphs") but all in all has provided an entertaining reminiscence of a time long gone, alas.

This little book could be handy for anyone new to the LNT concepts. It gives a good bit of information on techniques and then gives additional information on specific forms of recreation. Little information here will be new to die hard campers (unless they are die hard tailgate campers) but I'll find it extremely usefull in giving instruction to others on LNT concepts. This would make a great stocking stuffer for a Scouter or nice addition to a backpacker's library.

We implemented a values-based approach to managing at my company several years ago. Now we are looking to renew and re-energize around our values. In this regard, Frederick Harmon's book Playing for Keeps has come in handy.

The only drawback is that it came out in 1996 and is now dated in some respects. So much has happened in the past year, with 9-11 and the collapse of Enron, Worldcom, Arthur Andersen and others. Yet the topic is still very timely and he offers a lot of good ideas.

If only there were a new edition with material to catch up on the new landscape.

By the way, I ordered this book "used" through National Book Exchange and it arrived promptly and in good condition! Thanks NBE!