Partly a concordance, partly a topical reference, this text is a good book to have around when you can't quite remember what the Bible says on a certain subject. Although not exhaustive, it is a handy reference to have around when you need something fast.

The New American Commentary is the continuation of the tradition established by the older An American Commentary series under the editorship of Alvah Hovey at the end of the nineteenth century. The format makes the materials available to layman and scholar alike. The commentaries are based upon the New International Version (NIV) of the Bible. The individual commentators, however, have the freedom to develop their own translations of the original text where they differ from the NIV. Technical points of grammar and syntax are placed in the footnotes rather than in the text. Footnotes also provide the reader with a wealth of significant bibliographic references to a wide range of resources. Students and professors alike will find these paths to further research extremely helpful and rewarding.

Eugene Merrill is professor of Old Testament at Dallas Theological Seminary. He provides a brief but helpful Introduction that holds to Mosaic authorship and an early date prior to 1400 B.C. At pertinent points in the commentary the author offers further explanation of the existence and/or lack of archaeological evidence supporting the conquest of Canaan. His summation of the theology of Deuteronomy provides readers with a clear understanding of the significance of covenant to the theocratic community of Israel.

According to Prof. Merrill, the primary purpose of Deuteronomy is "to call the people Israel to covenant renewal" (67). He often disagrees with the identification and interpretation of alleged anachronisms that critical commentators use to support either non-Mosaic authorship or extensive post-Mosaic editing. Throughout the commentary, interpretive problems are identified, discussed, and viable solutions offered. The following are examples of such problems: the ethical dilemma of Moses' message to Sihon in 2:27-29; God's apparent apportioning of heavenly bodies to heathen nations in 4:19 so that they might worship them; and, Moses's disqualification from entering the promised land in 32:48-52. One of the important distinctions for Deuteronomy is in the matter of the usage of the second person singular and plural in the Hebrew. Merrill clearly defines the exegetical significance of both usages.

Merrill's identification of the various sections of 12:1-25:16 with the appropriate commandment of the Ten Commandments provides a worthy alternative to the divisions proposed by Walter C. Kaiser in Toward Old Testament Ethics (Zondervan).

After visiting the National Musuem of Natural History, I wondered about many of the claims that the museum made. So I decided to read a book about the "terrible lizards" and found out what I had guessed -- the study of dinosaurs and their fossils is not an exact science and many of the fundamental questions we have about them cannot be answered, including:

How old are they? How fast were they? How big were they? What did they look like? What color were they? What is their relation to birds? How are fossils aged? Do we have any dinosaur DNA?

The authors of this book do a good job at trying to answer many of these questions about dinosaurs, but in the end their explanations merely lay out the science of guesswork. The first part of this book is fifty questions about dinosaurs, and I would recommend this section to anyone interested in the subject. The next two sections are about dinosaurs digs and specific dinosaur species, and is a little bit extensive for the "casual dino reader."

Excellent for the teacher with extensive classroom resources who wishes to introduce young students to the field of chaos, but it does not truly explain any of the mathematics or concepts behind the field.

After seeking out this documentary, I found not a copy in the entire libary system across America. Since it is out-of-print, I was delighted to find it at Amazon. When it arrived, I was extrememly excited to read this account of the parent's perspective during the Vietnam War.

Immediately, I was dissapointed by the writing style which gave me the feeling of watching a Lifetime movie. With repetitive comments from the mother or father trying to find out the how and why of their son's death in Vietnam being over and over "How .... DID ... MY ... SON ... DIE?!?!" That kind of melodramatic ....

BUT, because it is a true story, and I can see a mother totally losing it and going to any and all extremes to find peace with the death of her son, I'll have to rate this above a 2 star by giving it a generous 3. To someone with little background on Vietnam, this book does offer an eye opening account. If you know quite a bit about Vietnam, it is just the same old.

Mr. Woolcott's first foray into science fiction is a commendable effort. In this short novel, he moves at break-neck speed thru a beautifully surprisin plot. Unfortunately, this leaves his characters somewhat underdeveloped. The story Mr. Woolcott tells is quite compelling and the hero is a fancinating young lady. This book is well structured and a good lead into the next book of the series that the title implies. I look forward to reading it!

This book is a good reference book on curves. Its only caveat is that there is nothing in the book about history or geometrical properties of the curves listed in this work. However, the analytic propertis\es of the curves are listed, as well as other representations of the curves (e.g. polar, parametric). I'd say this book is good for looking at the analytic properties.

This is one dense and technical book. It is, as advertised, a handbook -- if you have a question about depression or mania, at least the beginnings of an answer can be found here. Every topic related to affective disorders -- defining the disorders, their course and treatment, etiology, social aspects, biological aspects, psychodynamics, etc. -- is given some space. 42 chapters by a variety of British and U.S. authors cover lots of ground.

This is not light reading but is about right for someone at or beyond the advanced undergraduate level.

It's quite broad and thus somewhat cursory, some chapters more so than others. You might want to turn to a different book if you're looking for more fleshing out of any one topic. That's my complaint about this book. In many areas it mentions just one or two studies, described in one or two sentences, and that's the total coverage of a topic, leaving the reader wondering what other (maybe contradictory) research exists and how much stock to put in the studies listed. The conclusions of the studies are stated but the methodology is not. Here's an example from the "Genetics" chapter: "Cyclothymia. This condition of repetitive high and low mood swings, generally not requiring clinical attention, is probably genetically related to bipolar disorder (Gershon et al 1982, Akiskal et al 1977)." That's it! and then there's a new heading to introduce the next disorder. I could get this level of explanation in Good Housekeeping magazine (without the citations, which, I admit, do make a difference). I'm left wondering: How strongly related? How probable? Are these the only studies that exist on that topic?

I presume this is a matter of trying to cover so much material in so little space. I'd rather learn about affective disorders by reading separate books that go into more depth. I suppose this book might be good for an overview that directs you toward avenues of further inquiry. It might serve as a good refresher to have on the shelf after you've mastered the subject in depth. But it's not very good for learning about affective disorders for the first time, and it's not that good for brushing up on details you don't recall. It's not a BAD book, just not a particularly GOOD one by itself.

Old, Out of print, but one of the best high school geometry books.

March clearly has some some great research on the volatile topic of Israeli/Palestinian issue. As usual, this does not appear to be a popular book, but how can it be in the age of the Left Behind series when the state of Israel is viewed as a part of God's grand plan to bring about the coming of the final end of time itself?

March sets up a good understanding of the theology of land, that all land is God's land, and that any land, whether Israel or otherwise, is entrusted to us for our loving stewardship. In this way he reflects a solid Reformed view of earth-caring.

What March does not do is give a better understanding of the mistakes made my premillenialists and their fervor to see this as a fulfillment of prophecy. While he denies that Israel IS a fulfillment of prophecy, and rightly so, this is not done with solid rigorous argument that shows how to properly read the Bible. Instead, he gives vague concepts of reading prophecy in a more "spiritual" way without tackling the mistake premillenialists make. For such a work, I refer the reader to "Hal Lindsey and Biblical Prophecy" by C. Vanderwaal. For THIS is the source of problems; any Christians support Israel qua Israel in its current political form as a fulfillment of the covenant with Abraham. He does not explain where this is mistaken.

This book also quickly outdates himself, given the current climate. His misplaced hope in the Oslo accords have failed now in the Year 2001 with Palestinians seeming to be ready for another major conflict.

I admire his start in this topic, but it needs more in depth treatment. Again, I refer to another book, namely "Anxious for Amegeddon" by Don Wagner as being the best-informed book I have read on this topic.