My mom says you can tell how good a cookbook is by how messy the pages are. If that's the case then one look at my copy of Nick Stellino's book would speak volumes. I have really been pleased with everything I have tried out of the book. The food has a gourmet feel with out being pretencious or overwhelming. Excellent!

This book contains a fabulous variety of delicious dishes -- every time I try something new, I'm impressed! The recipes are easy to make with enough ingredients to make them interesting without requiring a lengthy and expensive shopping trip.

This book has been the best buy for me as far as cook books are concerned. For somebody like myself who has started cooking for the first time in her life, the recipes in this book are so easy to follow and the results are incredible! I can confidently try one of Nick Stellino's recipes for the first time, even if I am cooking for my guests, and know for sure, that it is going to turn out well and not leave me feeling embarrased! For anyone who has not had a chance to try this book ( or any of his other books I'm sure! ), they are missing out a good deal!

John Lazares has written a humorous, highly topical and anecdotal book on his experiences as a junior high school principal. It is a reminder that schooling is a community effort and that steering children towards excellence involves the combined efforts of parents, teachers, and administrators. Frustrated by his inability to discipline one student, Lazares has the young eighth grader spend a whole day in school with his mother! The results are surprising not only for that one student but for the entire school. You won't be able to put the book down. Humor, common sense, and the special concern Mr. Lazares has for his students come through in his book. While some decry that schools have devolved into "surrogate parents" for students, Lazares reminds us that the maxim "it takes a whole village to raise one child" is very true. Highly recommended reading for everyone.

Just as medical training doesn't include enough preparation in dealing with patients and their family members as human beings, educational administration courses don't include enough preparation for principals in dealing with students and their parents as people, people with complex lives and multiple problems. This easy-to-read, yet thought-provoking book provides school administrators and teachers with the tools and the empathy to deal effectively with parents. In this age of increasing complexity and school violence, Lazares offers practical, easy to implement advice about how to work with parents in ways that help families, schools, and communities. Urban, suburban, and rural educators will find that Lazares' educational experiences resonate with truth and that his advice comes from that experience, combined with empathy, generosity, and good humor. This is a must read for anyone who works in education or has a school-age child!

Wow...What a book!!!! This short- how to manage a school building- is the best common sense book for principals that I have ever read. It is a must read for all involved with school aged children today. Dr. Brian L. Talbott, Executive Director American Association of Educational Service Agencies (AAESA)

We received our first copy of this book as a gift last year. It provoked a most interesting conversation in our family (which includes two teenagers). Soon after, we took our copy on a family visit and it generated another lively discussion. We left our copy with our hosts and ordered another one for ourselves. And, we realized that this book could be a first-rate gift for anyone, anytime. Since then, it has become our standard "house present" when visiting. It is universally appreciated and commented on long after its initial receipt. It's a unique gift that delightfully engages giver and receiver immediately.

Both thoughtful and equally stimulating, "If The World Were a Village" succeeds in opening the eyes and the minds of young readers through a quite creative format. As a father of two children, the book offers several topical "lenses" to discuss and really share in the wonderful effort to better understand some of these very timely and also profound issues so relevant for each and everyone of us. If the mark of a good book is to provoke our thinking on a topic and engage our minds - adult and child - you've got the perfect thing right here.

I purchased this book as a gift for a friend's child. I left the book on my desk and one of my colleagues leafed through it and was hooked. Before the end of the day the book had been passed through four other interested readers. They all found the book fascinating and informative.

"If the World Were a Village" encourages the reader, regardless of age, to consider the world's population as if it were a village comprised of 100 people. The reader will make discoveries regarding population, ages, religions, literacy, money, and much more. The book ends with what I consider to be the most valuable part of the book -- by very objectively educating the reader on population growth and suggesting ways to further educate children (or adults) on the subject.

There should be more children's books like this one -- excellent for children, and appealing to adult readers as well.

Few people have heard of Milt Thompson, but those who follow the groundbreaking flight testing of the late 1940s through the early 1970s know of Milt and his (in)famous exploits. As both an amazing and experienced test pilot, having flown the X-15 and the wingless M2-F1 amongst others, as well as a dry-lake water(less)skier, Thompson lends his considerable insight and knowledge, as well as his sprightly sense of humor to this book.

A truly fascinating read, this is one of very few books concerning the fastest powered manned aircraft program, the hypersonic X-15, which ultimately reached an unofficial record of Mach 6.7. Thompson, along with Scott Crossfield and Neil Armstron, amongst others, flew the X-15 in the early 1960s. This book does justice to the historic program, while maintaining the interest of even the most casual reader, which cannot be said of NASA's X-15 Mission Reports.

This book is a must-read for anyone interested in the X-15 flight test program or those interested in the early X-plane projects, as is Thompson's "Flying Without Wings." Those looking for an exciting and engaging non-fiction read should also pick up "At the Edge of Space."

Quick flowing narrative of Milton Thompson's experience in the X-15 program (he was both a pilot and a flight engineer). Excellent technical descriptions will give you the "feel" of the rocket plane and he shares his emotions about some of the test flights. Thompson includes a quick synopsis of all the flights and gives good details on the more interesting ones, filling in a lot of blanks with delightfully colorful anecdotes along the way. A must read for anyone interested in piloted aircraft that could cover 290 ground miles in under 11 minutes (Wow !!!). This book reads FAST and is full of good info

This book is a treasure for anyone with an interest in aviation and/or space exploration. Milt Thompson did a great job of sharing the history of the program - the development of the aircraft, the people involved, the planning and results of the flights - it's all here. The photos are an appreciated bonus. Hope more people take the opportunity to read this one!

From the first introductory word, this book had us. I read Armstrong's account to my 10-year-old son and we both loved it. I have to force him to go to bed at night, but for the time we read about Shackleton, I stayed up with him.

Not only is the book a true nonfiction page-turner, but it also made me very aware of my own softness before such, well, endurance. I can think of worse models for my son than these strong, determined, organized, and civil men. Only read it to your kids if you want the stars in their eyes to give guidance and force, to shine out in the night with old heroic force and English fortitude. After reading the book, I think I approve of those things despite the pompous high-born generals in ostrich plumes pictured from the war during those same years. It's worth your time -- and the time to read it with your 10-16 year old if you're not already too late.

And you're not.

... I think this book is the best book ever because the author did not make up one thing about it. The story made me feel great because I'm in a place not quite so hostile as Antarctica. And I think it's a great book for kids to read because it's a true story. It tells all about human endurance.

I began reading this book while quite tired one evening, but found I couldn't put it down! Shackleton and his crew find themselves in one horrible predicament after another, yet all 28 men manage to miraculously survive! The photographs from the original voyage are incredible! A definite must read!

I have been doing computer programming from six years. I have been most of the time a windows and GUI guy. But lately I have been using Unix extensively.I bought this book 8 months back and I cant thank the authors and SAMs enough for this great book.

The title might sound silly, but the essence is 'Unix in 24, one hour sessions'. Unix can be very intimidating for a beginner. You dont even know what to learn. In my case, this book helped a lot.

Highlight of this book is its chapter on vi editor. It is the best example and tutorial on vi I have ever seen. As you go through vi features along with the author, you will get a sense of purpose and orientation for each and every command in vi. The first chapter tells us the history of unix and different flavours of unix. From there the every important feature is explained in simple, concise manner. Telnet, ftp, c shell, basic shell programming, file ownership and permissions etc are explained very well.

The only draw back is a missing command reference. The book has a quick one page command reference at the beginning of the book, which you can tear out. But for a regular programmer, this is not enough. For reference, I have supplemented this book with 'Unix Complete'.

Anyway, at [price] this book is all worth it. This book is going to be with be forever.

This book is awesome. I started a new job where I needed to use Unix and had very little usage prior. I was given this book and started reading it...within a week I was using Unix like an old pro. This book possibly helped secure my job.

I knew no UNIX when I got this book. It was so helpful in getting me started in the UNIX world that I never had to graduate to the O'Reilly books after reading it. Instead the use of man pages and google was enough to supplement this book when I needed to do more serious stuff. (I often find searching for stuff on google to be the quickest way to debug difficult problems!)

So if you need to get started in the world of UNIX, get this book!

I enjoyed this book for it's view into the cloistered life of a nun- pre-Vatican II era, but the problems I perceived from the author's vocation seems to have resulted more from personality conflicts and clashes than anything. I couldn't relate effectively to her plight and wondered why she stayed as long as she did. I was also bewildered by her declaration that she didn't believe in the resurrection of Christ. I'm still scratching my head over that one since she obviously believed in the virgin birth (which requires alot of faith as well) and the divinity of Christ or else why the heck was she there in the first place??? I think there was more going on in her head when she decided to leave the convent than she leads us to believe, especially considering her more recent books like The History of God. I think maybe one of the mother superiors in her book had it nailed when she said that karen had a problem with intellectual pride.

....cloistered in a psychological as well as a physical sense.
Karen Armstrong, a woman of prodigious intellect and talent, a woman who has written seminal books on the subject of religion, goes inside her own personal experience as a cloistered nun in Through the Narrow Gate.
It's not a particularly pretty picture, this story of her seven years immersed in a life full of bleakness, medical neglect, sexual frustration, and mindless negation of intellect. For someone of Armstrong's mind-set, that last privation must have been hardest to bear. Outside the walls of the cloister, meanwhile, the chaos of the 60s was raging, making the life within more inexplicable - and ultimately, irrelevant.
There is one bright, kind, and encouraging Mother Superior, however, who provides the necessary window of light, a person who provides Armstrong with both a reason to stay and a reason to leave the convent.
It's a blessing for us that she did leave and go on to live her life as a scholar, teacher and author. It's almost an equal blessing, however, that she endured those 7 years and writes about it so poitnantly; it makes her presence in the world all the more valuable.

Behind the walls of the cloister, religious life goes on, hidden, and it is difficult for the lay person or anyone who has never attempted religious life to understand or imagine its character. For this reason, Karen Armstrong's Through the Narrow Gate (1981) provides an uncommon, precious look into religious life not simply in its externals but more importantly from the perspective of the individual psyche of the member of the religious community.

Several aspects of the book commend it for its insights into religious life.

First, the inner religious motivation of the individual is acknowledged so that a transcendent reality is even indicated: "As I looked at the tabernacle, which contained the Real Presence of Christ, I felt a pull toward Him that was almost physical in its intensity" (p. 38).

Second, the strictures that paradoxically both sustain and undermine religious life are highlighted. For example, there is the obligation of unthinking obedience: "One of the things that had to die was my mind....But the mind dies hard. To think and judge is a reflex. How do you ever manage to embrace the absurd?" (p. 163). There is also the injunction against preferential human affection, "particular friendship," so that in some cases the natural emotional life is distorted: "What a fuss! They celebrate when one of the sisters dies, but look at the emotion produced when something happens to a cat! There was something wrong here" (p. 226). In grappling with the many apparent contradictions, the author accounts for the inner struggles that eventually lead her to decide in conscience to leave religious life, and in the process, without condemnation, she raises troubling questions that institutions of religious life would do well to ponder.

Finally, at the moment of truth, the author continues to affirm the validity of the total commitment of the religious to a transcendent reality: "I did want things other than God's love. I wanted human closeness, beauty, freedom of mind....God's love should have been enough" (p. 260).

The whole book, then, affirms the genuine inspiration of religious life, while at the same time upholding the painful decision of the author, who comes across as a person of integrity, to pursue the spiritual quest elsewhere.

The most poignant moment in the book for me is when the author is counseled with words of memorable kindness to separate from the community: "We'll miss you, dear. You yourself. But you must find your own peace. God bless you" (p. 258).

I would agree with Kirkus Reviews, "An emotive, spiritually intimate, and often quite moving memoir...written with affection, some humor, and a bittersweet regret."

Thank you, Karen, for leading us to this refreshing pool wherein we may all find our own reflection.

Dave Armstrong, Catholic apologist and convert from evangelical Protestantism, has done his Church and the whole world a great service. In his book, he shows the biblical and rational evidence for the distinctive doctrines of the Catholic church. As he explains in the Introduction, the genesis of the book was the attempt to explain the reasons for his conversion to his Protestant friends. Thus, the primary intended audience of this book (but by no means the only audience who would benefit from giving this book a fair reading) would seem to be Protestant Christians. Protestants, of course, believe that the Bible cannot be reconciled to the teachings of the Catholic Church. Accepting this challenge, Dave Armstrong proceeds to display the abundant biblical evidence that undergirds the Catholic Faith. Indeed, the biblical evidence is surprisingly abundant--or at least it would probably be a surprise to an average Protestant. While carrying out this comparison of Catholicism and Protestantism, the author endeavors at all times to maintain a respectful and irenical tone, setting a positive example for Catholics and Protestants brave enough to engage in honest and forthright ecumenical dialogue.

The book is well-written and well-researched, though of course a few minor errors were overlooked. For example, p.14 fails to mention that St. Justin Martyr made use of the Book of Revelation (as is shown in his Dialogue With Trypho). On p.193 the author did not identify Acts 18:18 as a reference to St. Paul undergoing a Jewish nazirite vow. But these defects do not in any way undercut any of the arguments that the author seeks to make.

I must caution the reader, however. When I first discovered Dave Armstrong's apologetics on the Internet over two years ago, I was a Protestant strongly opposed to most distinctive Catholic doctrines. But in a remarkably short time his apologetics began to change my mind, and in less than a year I had decided to take the same route that Dave had already taken. Among many factors, I credit Dave's apologetics as one of the most important in bringing about my own conversion to Catholicism. If the prospect of becoming a Catholic seems unpleasant to you, you might wish to avoid this book. If, however, you appreciate a solid intellectual challenge, or are simply curious about the reasons for Catholic beliefs and practices, you oughtn't pass it up.

Dave Armstrong has given the Church in America just what it needed. Good debate without all the ad hominem and legalism that invades some arguments between apologists.

Dave has shown himself over the years to be a straight shooter in his online debates, but he also is charitable. These traits also come through loud and clear in his new book. Apologetics is not supposed to be a mere defense of the faith but a means of evangelization to the world. Dave realizes this and reaches out to the our Christian brothers and sisters who believe in the Bible to show that Catholicism is the only way to truly be Biblical in all that the word entails.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is exploring the Catholic faith or is interested in defending it. It should be a part of every apologist's library.

Actually, my title is a bit misleading since Dave has contributed a number of articles to my magazine "Hands On Apologetics" over the years. However, Dave's Magnum Opus has finally arrived and if you are interested in learning more about Catholicism, I highly recommend this book.

Dave Armstrong is no ordinary apologist. His expertise is in the details and that is what makes "A Biblical Defense of Catholicism" so valuable. Dave provides information and arguments from angles that you normally do not find in other Apologetic text books.

Dave Armstrong is indeed a "best-kept-secret" within Catholic Apologetics. However, I believe that this book (and the one to follow) will quickly remedy that situation.

In her list of books, Barbara Erskine has mastered the art of using an item, a place or a person as a catalyst for a journey between the present time and the past. In this title, a Celtic stone cross in the Scottish highlands is the portal through which fourteen year old Adam meets Brid, a girl from sixth century who is training as a Druid priestess. But just as Adam can enter the sixth century, Brid can enter the 20th, and there a 50 year nightmare begins for Adam and his loved ones.

This is quite different from Barbara Erskine's other books, which basically follow the theme of a fairly normal modern day person finding themselves transported to another time. Here a dark entity comes into this time. 'On the Edge of Darkness' explores some rather disturbing emotional problems. Adam's father is such a complete religious fanatic he drives away his wife, and his son lives a sad, lonely and emotionally battered life. Brid forms such an obsessive attachment to Adam that her jealousy knows no bounds. The emotional void in which this leaves Adam's wife is dreadful.

If you are a fan of stories of the past and present colliding, which I certainly am, you could do a lot worse than reading this book. On the way, you will get to explore some dark areas of the human pysche - areas I would rather read about than live through.

As I read this book in the wake of rereading The Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley, I was thoroughly in the mood for more Celtic tales of Druids, rituals and magic. This story does not conjur up half the magic of Bradley's masterpiece, but it does satisfactorily probe some of that primordial mystery that shrouds the ancient world and its people. In this tale, unhappy adolescent Adam spends most of his time on the hillside where the Celtic stone from another century proudly stands. Little does he know, but the stone is a gateway to another time, a time where Druid Priestess-in-training, Brid, is able to pass from her time, the 6th century into the far future---Adam's time in the 20th century. At first he views the vivacious Brid as a marvelous playmate, but when she initiates him into the pleasures of sexual love, he is smitten--at least for while. As Adam matures, he leaves his home village and sad childhood to pursue his dream of becoming a doctor. His life moves onto other women, marriage and children of his own. However, Brid does not move on, she is still the young and beautiful Druidess who defies her family and her religious traditions to pursue Alan across the boundaries of time. Her obsession is all-encompassing; she lets nothing stop her from getting back into Alan's life and to control him in the only way she can--in his bed. Brid's melancholy and frustration is uniquely portrayed by Erskine--indeed it permeates the tone of the entire story.
Ms Erskine is surely the master of the obsessive tale; the reader while finding Brid somewhat annoying after plaguing Alain for over 50 years, can understand her bewilderment over aging Alan's puzzling behavior when defending his frazzled family from her, and commiserate with both their mutual attraction for one another and Alan's disgust with himself as he falls prey over and over again to Brid's charms. After three generarions of daunting pursuit and umpteen pages, it is to the reader's great relief that with the help of a powerful present day druid and Alan's grandchild, Brid's claim on Alan can finally be loosened and Brid's own immortal soul released from her uncle's grasp.
Although I enjoyed this book and found it hard to put down, I must say I enjoyed Erskine's earlier works much more. In particular, "House of Shadows" certainly pricked those tiny hairs off the back of my neck! Even so, "On the Edge of Darkness" succeeds in eliciting sometimes fright-fraught emotions for both protagonists---even if these emotions are a bit disturbing----which stay with the reader after the book has been closed and put down.

This was an excellent edition to my collection of Barbara Erskine tales.

Adam is a troubled 14-year old in the Scottish Highlands when he meets Brid and they become friends. What he doesn't know is she is a Druid from many centuries ago. They become even closer as the years pass, eventually becoming lovers. As Adam gets older and moves on with his life, going away to school and getting married, Brid is confused and consumed with jealousy that she has been abandoned. Her curse follows Adam's family for two generations until it is broken by Adam's granddaughter.

This tale wasn't as creepy as other novels by this auther (House of Echoes or Midnight is a Lonely Place) but it had a very compelling supernatural element. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, its wonderful imagery, characters I grew to love (or, in Brid's case, sympathize with) and the sense of romance in both the location and the relationships.

If you're an Erskine fan already you are in for a treat and if not, this is a great book to get hooked...

"In the Beginning" takes a modern look at the teachings of the book that starts it all, Genesis. I suspect that the read should be enjoyable to the believers and unbelievers alike. ( believers, excluding fundamentalists who are offended when anyone suggests anything less than orthodox about Yahweh ) In the earlier portions of Armstrong's work, she hits the nail right on the head about why people misinterpret this book. (and all of scripture for that matter) They treat scripture as a "holy encyclopedia" as she put it. They think that every word in Genesis is literal, and that evolutionary biology is gravely mistaken. Karen reminds us that, "The true meaning of scripture can never be wholly comprised in a literal reading of the text, since that text points beyond itself to a reality which cannot adequately be expressed in words and concepts. " (pp. 5) And that, "Our authors are not interested in historical accuracy." (pp. 7) We might regard a 'myth' as an untruth, but in the premodern world it was regarded as a psychological form charting the inner world. Her commentary's main focus is on the nature of religion, and God himself. She looks at it then and now, and brings up the difference in portrayal as given in the book of Genesis and modern Christian theology. She purports to show God as arbitrary, big emphasis on this, and unpredictable. Not only this but that the Genesis authors are inconsistent when writing about God, we can't fully understand the divine. She compares what "faith" was in that day, how a true religious life was lived, and the emphasis of all the great religions, kindness to others. You should try this work if you would like to open up to an alternate perspective on the God of the Israelites, and his intervention in human antiquity.

Karen Armstrong's "In the Beginning" came to me at the tail end of a two year study of Christianity. I looked at its dustjacket (a reproduction of Adam from the Sistine Chapel) with indifference, and decided to read it only because it was brief. To say I was pleasantly surprised is an understatement. For one thing, Armstrong is a lyrical writer -- as a copyeditor, I truly marveled at her sentences for both their clarity and poetry. For another, in this book she does something many clerics and scholars have failed to do: successfully apply meaning to the garbled message of Genesis.

She states her case pretty early on: there is no way to get a coherant understanding of God from reading Genesis. He is utterly contradictory -- creative and all-powerful in one story; vengeful and capricious in the next. This paradox has befuddled many of reader. I, for one, had come to think of Genesis as typical of the flawed meaninglessness of the Bible. But Armstrong has me reconsidering my conclusion. It seems clear, she says, that all the characters in Genesis have to endure afflictions and unfairness. Whether they are favored in God's eyes or not, their lives are difficult. A relationship with God doesn't spare them difficulties -- instead the meaning in their lives is derived in part by making it through their difficulties with their faith intact.

I really enjoyed this book. Just when I had grown tired of a subject, a new author has revived familiar terrain with a fresh perspective. I look forward to reading Armstrong's other books.

In The Beginning is written by the author of The History of God, Karen Armstrong. In The History of God, the author has left us with the indefatigable impression on the depth and width of the her intellectual and rendition power. She has without missing a single bit continued with her immense capabilities in writing In The Beginning. Her objectivity is simple breathtaking, which is almost a novelty in religious authorship.

In The Beginning deals with the first and perhaps most fascination for many, book of the Bible, Genesis. She provides a thorough and a well thought out description of the patriarch's character and personalities and most significantly, of God Himself as presented in Genesis. Any individual with a christianity background, would undoubtedly have a semblance of knowledge of the stories and individuals of the Book of Genesis. Christianity teachings are often absorbed at an early age where trust and naivety are at the forefront of personality traits. And here often lies the spiritual block and impediment of many. Certain interpretations or teachings (based on the convenient of the church or individuals) have been so deeply ingrated that a necessary reinterpretation and different facet of understanding is often impossible.

Karen Armstrong however has managed to transcend these and provided us with almost scientific objectivity in her interpretation and conclusion. Each and every point is based on the written verses in Genesis itself. No religious compunction is felt. The reader is invited to make their own personal interpretation and spiritual discovery.

A revaluation of childhood christianity teaching and belief is often necessary in the adult's spiritual progress in order to obtain a deeper faith in christianity. Such a revaluation is provided in this book and no doubt will be valued by many.