Incunabula. Would you worship a goddess so named? Sara Gonzales, book restorer at the Getty Museum, has devoted her life to incunabula, a term referring to books created before the common use of the printing press. She has sacrificed love and marriage to pursue her career and has come to question this decision. Now, just as she learns that the man she has loved since her teen years, an astronaut-hopeful named Karl, has finally grown tired of their on-again-off-again romance and plans to marry someone else, she discovers a strange and compelling book.

Although it is believed to have been written by Padre Miguel Santiago de Pasamonte, a mad monk notorious for his sensual adventures and salacious novels, Sara comes to believe this book is not a novel at all; rather a memoir by the main character, an Aztec woman brought back to Europe by the explorer Cortes to amuse the Pope. The Aztec woman is known as Helen in Europe and she cuts a swashbuckling figure as she perfects her mystical juggling and bisexual seductive arts, all the while consumed with her thirst for revenge against Charles V, the ruler responsible for the destruction of her people.

The Conquest bounces between these two stories: Sara tries to decide what she really wants from her career and lost love, while Helen plays very modern games with gender and identity in order to pursue her agenda. Both women realize that the path to the objects of their desire can warp what they think they want, but the two stories haven't much else in common.

Karl is the weakest character in the book; the reader might wonder why Sara invests so much in a bland, fairly ordinary man with whom she has so little in common. Well, there's the sex, of course. The great strength of The Conquest is its sensuality. Whether Ms. Murray is describing the fine Japanese paper and Moroccan leather Sara uses in book restoration or the luxurious, decadent meals Helen discovers in the richest courts in Italy, she is contagious in her enjoyment of every gleam, every drop, every stroke. The characters often report that they are practically unconscious from pleasure, addled and woozy from their various indulgences. Their very hunger is seductive and the reader will have no trouble giving in and going along.

--- Reviewed by Colleen

Jane Amanda Edwards is a meddling, irritating, yet somehow very endearing spinster. Through her friend, Detective Captain George Hammond, she hits on the idea of publishing a town cookbook. She is determined to bully, coerce or flat out steal the recipes she wants. Through her total lack of social skills, she becomes involved in a murder-which to her is merely an inconvenience to her cookbook. This domestic cozy is humorous and engaging. Also contains recipes!

In the title poem of his new book, Cows on the Freeway, poet G. Murray Thomas remarks on a radio report of a bovine incursion onto a SoCal freeway. Thomas, imagining the cows standing blithely amongst the rapid hustle of automobiles, imagines what they must be thinking. "These cows know," he writes, "there is something they must do/RIGHT NOW." This is Thomas's great gift as a poet, the unusual ability to see and be bewildered the thoroughly weird and unusual things that most of us take for granted. His poetry lives in a world of smog, neon and commercial radio, all of which seem flat compared to the people wondering around amidst them. In one poem, he remarks on the beauty of the oil refinery in Long Beach, noting "the sight of death/fascinates." Elsewhere, he finds himself realizing that he and his companions are the only white guys in a bar, that he's the only one staring at the pictures of Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela and Malcolm X on the walls, and that he's the only one who doesn't know the dance moves to the song blaring through the radio. Thomas is a clear and (in the best sense) prosaic writer, and his thin portraits of the world unerringly communicate the oddity surrounding us all, the sense that something, maybe everything, isn't what it was supposed to be. And sometimes, when you listen to the same bad rock song played in interminable permutations, and listen to politicians make ridiculous leaps of logic, and people buy it without a question, well, maybe he's right.

Although there are a few good tips on how to save money, such as how to save on taxes, most of the information contained in this book is common sense. This book will show you how to get the most bang for your buck but, as you would expect, the only way to get that buck is from parents, loans and scholarships.

Firstly, I would like to say thanks to the authors, I am an experimentalist who was lack of the theoretical training, I read the book by self-studying. The style of this book inherit the book ¡§Laser physics¡¨ (by Sargent, Scully, Lamb), which is also my favorite. Especially, in the new editing, Meystre update new topics in the field of modern quantum optics (such as cavity QED) which I think also very good for self-study. However, the new typesetting of the book makes me somehow uncomfortable since the spacing of the lines is too compact. I would appreciate the editing/typesetting of the second editing.

Lewis is a bewildering American talent: he is one of the best comedy directors around, was an amazingly original screen comic (we too easily forget that his character - the nerdy adolescent - was new when he invented him), was an excellent mime, an inventor (he invented several innovations still used in film), writer of much of his material, actor, singer, etc. He could easily have been remembered as being on the second tier of American film comics (along with Laurel and Hardy) though he aspired to be on the first tier with Chaplin and Keaton. So what went wrong? Why do people hold their nose when his name comes up (except in Europe)? Although his personality has become increasingly abrasive over the years and his screen character was not able to age gracefully (what comic personae does? Look at the abominable final films that Chaplin made!), it must be remembered that all of this is not Lewis' fault. He had a disastrous back injury (on live tv, no less) in the early sixties that gave him unbearable pain for years afterward and that led to his abuse of painkillers. That accident sapped most of his creative powers. It is terrible that so much of the good stuff that Lewis is responsible for has been forgotten. He deserves some objective reassessment. I hope someone will do this before he dies as he deserves to be recognized here in the USA as an improtant figure.

I have not read the latest copy, but had the opportunity to attend one of Ms. Melba's seminars on technical writing using her 1977 copyright. Bottom line . . . drop the jargon and stop trying to prove your intelligience. If only everyone understood "What, Why, How, Now What?".

John Murray is an important figure in the Presbyterian and Reformed faith in the 20th century. His commentary on Romans is thorough and insightful, building on the heritage which he inherited from the great Reformed thinkers from Luther and Calvin to B. B. Warfield and Geerhardus Vos, the latter under whom he studied at Princeton. Murray shows particular sensitivity to the Old Testament background of Paul's epistle to the Romans and Paul's consciousness of his place in the history of salvation, a history which to Paul culminated in the person and death/resurrection of Jesus the Christ. Dr. Murray's admirable treatment of Paul's doctrine of the Spirit may only be surpassed by his successor at Westminster Theological Seminary, Dr. Richard B. Gaffin (and by his professor at Princeton, Dr. Geerhardus Vos). Murray's work is scholarly but not so that it would be inaccessible to the intermediate student. Murray does interact with his contemporaries; but could have taken it a litter further. The only criticism against Murray's Romans is his treatment of chps. 9-11 where he fails to break out of the dogmatic mould, and thus fails to capture the movement of the epistle from the anteclimax at the end of chp. 8 to the climax at the end of chp. 11. Overall, however, Murray's is a helpful and insightful commentary, a must for students and pastors.

If you are in the horticultural landscape business, or simply a gardener who is planning a colorful garden with annuals, this is a handy reference book with beautiful photographs of flowers and landscapes (by Derek Fell). Novice gardeners will find this book by Ms. Murray to be an asset. I have used and referred to this book countless times and have told many friends and associates about it. Wish it wasn't out of print!

Having more than a dozen years in dealing with explosives safety, I must state that this is by far one of the best books I've read in dealing with Explosives, Propellants & Pyrotechnics. This book not only covers the basics, but actually goes into enough detail to keep even the most knowledgable persons interest.

This book is a great text book that even has questions and answers for each chapter. This book is a must if you are new to the field of explosives and would be a great addition to anyones collection.