This is a remarkable book. The author clearly spends a lot of time praying that God will use this work in the lives of those who read it. It was like a wonderful sermon -- the Holy Spirit uses it to touch each person in a way that's meaningful to them. There were several parts where I felt compelled to stop and pray, thanking the Lord for revealing a clear truth/action in my life. I loved Lois' warm, friendly writing style, too. It was as though we were sitting at her kitchen table, chatting. My daughters loved her novels for kids, so I'm glad that as a grown-up I got to enjoy some writing that was directed to me! While the theme is how God heals physically, this title will impact anyone who needs emotional or spiritual healing, as well. I'm sending copies to friends and relatives, and I know it will bless them, too.

EITHER WAY, I WIN is full of high interest and meaningful sharing by the author when she was taking chemotherapy. She updated the book with this new version and it includes other people's experiences and what they learned to keep themselves going. Johnson's chapters are full of spiritual transparency and wisdom. She is a master of scriptural insights and gives fresh helps in learning to pray. She selects scriptures that are right to the heart and the right time. She uses memorable analogies.

This book makes a good gift for those who appreciate Christian viewpoint in a relevant way. Especially helpful to those who are fighting breast cancer. Weakest part is the book's cover.

Book is a must for those who are hurting or chronically ill or lonely or even seriously ill. I recommend it for churches to use in study groups or for lay people who minister to others. Good leaders guide and questions in the back.

I'm 38 and am a home schooler and to get back into math mode, I chose this book. I did every odd problem and some of the systhesis problems. You will learn the material if you take the time. I spent around 14 or 15 months to get through the book. The program is excersises and review. Constant review is huge plus. I recommend you get the solutions manual from addison wesley. I've just started Marv's et.al.. Precalculus book and then will go onto calculus. I'm enjoying the math. Much more then in high school.

My son and I sit down and learn together. He says "get your book" and lets do math. The key to his desire to do math is because he see's his dad doing it.

I've seen many other books and this tops them all.

This book is not all you get. The book itself is great. But the additional FREE helps which come with the book assure that even the most inept math student can learn algebra. These helps consist of, but are not limited to:1) free tutoring via phone,email,& fax; 2)free practice problems via internet website. Other supplemental materials consist of: Videotapes, Tutorial Software, and a solutions manual. These are all available for the student. I haven't even mentioned the benefits that a classroom teacher has through the Instructor Supplements. These consist of a Test Bank/Instructor's Guide, extra practice problems, mtls for transparencies, video tape index, and several tools for the computer users: test generator, test grader,on-line course management and testing. In other words, this is a great resource for teachers also. I am in the processing of trying to purchase it for my school.

I hated reading growing up but when I was confined to my bed in forth grade, my mother bought me the entire sereies. I developed a love for reading and sometimes would stay up half the night just to read "one more chapter". This series is great. It taught me about loving others and other great lessons from the BIble. I have these books on my shelf just waiting for my daughter to read when she is old enough.

I first read this book, as well as the whole series, back when I was a kid in the 80s. I would highly recomend this book/series for any preteen girl. There is a good mix of suspence along with Biblical principals. This book is a good reminder that God loves everyone, even the kids that no one wants. They are not beyond His care. It also shows the power of prayer and the fact that nothing is impossible for God. This is an excellent book/series.

I decided I wanted to read about great sovereigns of world history, so I made up a short list with a loose definition of 'sovereign': Alfred the Great, Alexander III of Macedon, Julius Caesar, Frederic II, etc..., and, of course, I had to include Queen Elizabeth I. Then I went to the library and was very surprised to find that Paul Johnson wrote a biography of Elizabeth I. I had read two or three other of his more famous books, and I found out this book on Elizabeth I has the same virtues Johnson's writing has in those other books - the swift 'readability' and insight and well-chosen anecdote; the common-sense and understanding of the ways of the world; as-well-as his understanding of the difference between freedom, life and light and tyranny, death and darkness; and also his understanding of which side is better. (It's not always obvious to many human beings, is it...?) And because Johnson treats the themes of Elizabeth's life in their universal light this book is very contemporary. You truly get a sense of her full life to the point where this reader was something approaching emotional at the end. Elizabethan England provides a very charismatic cast of surrounding characters as well. (I'm writing this review a year and a half beyond reading the book, and I'm not going to try to remember all the names beyond Drake and Raleigh and that unfortunate Earl of something... Mary, Queen of Scots as well. Lots of intrigue. Alot of detail. Much about 'affairs of state' and court machinations (he gets inside, in a very interesting way, the world of the royal court as well as the very real-life aspects of running the court and the country including the finances...) The 'real politik' and foreign policy is really as real and contemporary as human nature - which I believe is pretty much the same now as back then... There are many biographies of Elizabeth I in print, but those who know Paul Johnson can probably guess his book is a few notches higher than the pack. It should be back in print...

This is a savvy, insiders bio for all political junkies, and a moving depiction of a human being for the poet in all political junkies. Paul Johnson's understanding of the nature of power and the nature of human nature is surprising and impressive. His subject and the events she deals with and that take place around her are raised to the level of the universal. Even though the piling on of detail can make the reader feel at times like he's walking through a field with mud up to his knees (or she, of course), Mr. Johnson makes up for this by presenting a picture of Elizabethan England that is unusually real. This book (despite its being highly readable) is one of the great twentieth century political biographies.

EMILY DICKINSON SELECTED LETTERS. Edited by Thomas H. Johnson. 364 pp. Cambridge, Massachusetts : The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1971. SBN674-25060-5 (hbk).

Emily Dickinson was a great letter writer, in all senses of the word. In fact one gets the impression that she actually preferred writing to people, than meeting and conversing with them, and for her the arrival of a letter was a great event. A letter was something she looked forward to with keen anticipation, and which she savored to the full whenever one arrived.

The present selection of letters represents only a small proportion of the letters Emily Dickinson actually wrote. She was an inveterate letter-writer, had many correspondents, and wrote thousands of letters. And people in those days collected letters just as today.

Unfortunately it was the custom, whenever anyone died, to make a bonfire of all of their correspondence, probably because of its personal and confidential nature. In this way thousands of pages of Emily Dickinson's writings have been lost to posterity, and we would know much more aboute the details of her day-to-day life, and be able to date her poems more accurately, if it hadn't been for this tragic loss.

Just how great the loss is may be gaged by taking a look at the way Ellen Louise Hart and Martha Nell Smith have treated her letters in 'Open Me Carefully : Emily Dickinson's Intimate Letters to Susan Huntington Dickinson' (1998). Whereas Thomas Johnson prints all of ED's letters as straight prose, which of course leads us to read them as straight prose, Hart-Smith give us their particular letters as they actually appear in the original draft - not as continous lines of prose but as very short lines with numerous line breaks - in other words, as poetry.

It would seem that at least some of ED's 'letters' are not so much letters as 'letter-poems,' and when read as poems produce a remarkable range of effects that are lost when all line breaks are removed and the 'letter' is regularized as straight prose. The loss of her letters now begins to look much more serious, for there seems to be a growing feeling among readers that her letters were every bit as great an artistic achievement as her poems.

Given this, the present book becomes something that should interest all serious students of ED, although before reading it they might (if they haven't already) take at look at the Hart-Smith, and keep it in mind while reading the Johnson. One wonders how much poetry may be lurking unrecognized in the regularized lines of 'Emily Dickinson's Selected Letters.'

...

If you are, like me, an Emily Dickinson's great admirer you will be genuinely drawn into this book. Emily Dickinson has bewitched and perplexed everyone with her extremely profound poetry disguised in apparent simplicity. However, in her book of letters we uncover the woman (and not the author) behind her work, whose main assets were acute sensitivity and lovingness. This collection, unlike other books of the genre, such as Elizabeth Bishop's One Art or Keats's book of letters, do not reveal much of her poetry, as her mental struggle with the work, her intentions, or choice of words. Even so, the reader is allowed into her family relationships, into her care and love for her few friends, and above all into her deep-set feeling of solitude. Besides, throughout her letters she discloses her main existential concerns, which are inevitably reflected in her poems. This book makes it possible to discover the books she read and the ones that offered her the greatest pleasure. As the collection includes from her juvenile writings to her latest letters when already living in social "exile," they form a most engrossing reading, with the characteristics of an autobiography, without the intention by the author to write one. In her very words, "my letter as a bee, goes laden."

"The Emperor's Fruits" is fast paced, fun and filled to the brim with fantasy and adventure. C.E. Johnson's novel is packed with humor, powerful supernatual forces and mayhem. In addition, it is beautifully and masterfully riveted with morality lessons and over lapping themes. The reader is instructed how to develop internal power and thwart off life's difficulties while being throughly entertained. "The Emperor's Fruits" is a must read for all ages and genders.

I loved the book. I could hardly put it down. There is so much behind the book, that it kept me on my toes. I recommend The Emperor's Fruits to all ages. My boyfriend loved the book as well, and he is very picky. It taught me so much on fighting demon's, facing challenges, and overcoming them. It's a must buy!

This is a great book. It totally reshaped my views towards parenting, and helped me focus my own life as well. It teaches that you can't be a good parent unless you love yourself first. If you work on that, everything else falls into place. I'm sending it to all my friends.

After reading this book, I gave a big sigh of relief. Parenting could be fun, joyful, and full of the love I feel for my children. That love is within me and all I needed was this book and a simple shift in attitude to realize this. Everything that Anne and Vic have written is simple, which is not to say that it is easy. It requires trust and discipline, but our children, and ourselves, are certainly worth this. This book doesn't preach or give you lists of things to do, but instead guides you gently on your path as a parent and a person. I can honestly say that this book will help parents with children of any age, and any question you may have about your parenting. You already know the answers, and they are within you. The Essence of Parenting will help you to see that what you seek lies within your own heart. I can't imagine my life without this book!

In Ethics and Counter-revolution, Chaplain (Major General) Kermit Johnson, US Army Retired, raises issues which engage many thoughtful people in evaluating the history, interests, ethical foundation, consistency, and efficacy of 20th century US policies in Latin America. Johnson rejects the assertion that the end of the Cold War meant the end of revolution, since revolutions are frequently grounded in root causes such as poverty, exploitation, and injustice. He outlines the defining characteristics of revolutionary war. Underlying reasons for US interventions are traced from the Monroe Doctrine through the policies of the Reagan era. Johnson notes that whatever their stated intent, most of these historic policies have been formulae for winning wars, not revolutions. Therefore he advocates a fresh look at demilitarization and civilianization of US intervention strategies in order to better address the root causes of revolution and to build more constructive relationships with the nations of Latin America.This book should be read because it raises issues candidly and supports them by historic example. Johnson's approach could open a necessary and fruitful debate on how to avoid supporting murderous military operations in Latin America while at the same time fostering better democratic governments and better relationships with the people who are not only our neighbors but also increasingly our citizens.

"Ethics and Counterrevolution" is as thoroughly researched as it is critical. Equally significant, the author brings to it the perspective of a career military officer who has a sensitive but not uncritical understanding of the military mentalities (plural) of his fellow general officers.

Also, given our history as well as the challenges we presently face in various parts of the world, it offers us an opportunity to reflect once again on the values we claim to hold as a nation and on how we might live by them in our complex and conflictive world. Likewise, it has relevance for the serious revelations that are still surfacing about our involvement in the civil wars of Guatemala and El Salvador and our former support of the ex-Chilian dictator, Gen. Pinochet.

The author is a retired major general of the US Army. After graduating from West Point, he saw combat experience as a platoon leader and company commander in the Korean War. He is also a graduate of the Army Command and General Staff College and the Army War College. In 1979 he was appointed Chief of Chaplains with the rank of major general. As such he was a member of the staff of the Chief of Staff of the US Army.

His military career enables him to give detailed analyses of conversations with fellow general staff officers and even of discussions in general staff meetings of the Army Chief of Staff. (However, Johnson makes no use of classified materials.) On some substantive issues, he finds many in agreement with him. But even when they are not, he bends over backward to respect and put the best face on their views before criticizing them. Johnson has been writing on military ethical issues since 1969, most in military journals. This is his second book since retiring in the early eighties. His first was "Realism and Hope in a Nuclear Age."

Johnson believes that revolutions will continue to challenge US foreign policy. For, "revolutions are not dead because their root causes [extreme poverty and violent repressions of people on the part of their own governments] still exist."

Nonetheless, his thesis is "that the US need not and should not be involved in revolution." It "SHOULD NOT", because US involvement has invariably resulted in the support of client governments that seriously and deliberately violate the most basic rights of their own people. It "NEED NOT", because such governments do not serve US long-term security interests.

Among the rights often violated by our participation in counterrevolutions, Johnson argues, are the self-evident truths we proclaim and treasure in our "Declaration of Independence", "that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness [and that] "whenever any form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it and to institute new Government...But when a long train of abuses and usurpations...evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government."

The author thoroughly examines the history of US military interventions. He cites, for example, the 1940 "Small Wars Manual" of the Marine Corps which affirms that between 1800 and 1934 the Marines landed 180 times in 34 countries and that they engaged in small wars "during about 85 of the last 100 years" (1840-1940. The Manual then adds "it may be anticipated that the same general procedure will be followed in the future." And so it has been. Johnson demonstrates how this policy has almost inevitably ended up in the support of military and elite classes who violently repress their own people and exacerbate the social and economic root causes of revolution.

The book analyses with remarkable sensitivity and nuance the views of many US civilian and military experts. Johnson finds that various technological, ideological and essentially amoral assmptions lead many to abandon our democratic and human values and to accept any means that may achieve the "successful" results they desire for the US. But John counters that "no US involvement in revolutionary war can be judged successful if the United States sets aside or repudiates its own values."

As examples he cites manuals used in the US Army School of the Americas and with Mobile Training Teams in Latin America. These manuals advocated the use of blackmail, threats, extortion, false arrest and imprisonment, torture and execution in intelligence and counterintelligence operations. He observes that when the School of the Americas was moved from Panama to Georgia in 1984, the then president of Panama described it as "the biggest base of destabilization in Latin America." One of Johnson's suggestions for changing the direction of U.S. policy is the closing of this School.

In a somewhat surprising and very lengthy chapter, Johnson examines US and foreign documents that allege that Christian liberation theology promotes violence, communism, Marxism and socialism. Johnson finds that the author of these documents seem to want to descredit liberation theology in the hope that they can create a counter-theology that favors counterrevolutionary activity.

Thoughout, Johnson supports his analyses by quoting directly from numerous documents and statements of US civilian and miliary leaders. Thus, Johnson's conlusions seem to be not so much interpretations of US policies and practices, but more like statements of what those policies have often been and still are.

However, "Ethics and Counterrevolution" is NOT a polemic against US policy or its military and civilian advocates. Johnson is clearly proud of his military career and loyal to the nation and military institution he served for 35 years. But he firmly believes we should do unto others what we want done to ourselves, not just in the context of individual and interpersonal relationships, but also in the international context.

In brief, "Ethics and Revolution" summons us not only as individuals, but also as a nation, to answer to a higher loyalty -- one that transcends our own nation -- as well as all other particular lands, peoples and nations.

This book covers multimedia in depth, and is has a interactive CD that is great. It also covers multiamedia issues, has demos and a good library. It is a must for anyone who is intrested in multimedia!

I really like the fact that the book and the Cd rom are interactive, that helps me alot with my school work and learning powerpoint

This book is an easy-to-read, yet scholarly, account of How and Why Catholics "do what they do." As a cradle Catholic myself, I was surprised at how much I did not know about the evolvement of my own traditions and the symbols behind them. Every single question I had about the foundations of practice were addressed in this book; how someone becomes a Saint, explanations of Papal hierarchy, the meaning of Holy Water, the Rosary, and dozens of other critical topics.

This is the best book you can have in your hands when someone asks "Why do Catholics do that?"

Excellent!

Even though I am a devout Catholic, there are many parts of my faith that I did not really understand. How do we know so much about Mary ? Where did the Rosary come from ? Why do we have the Sign of Peace at Mass ? All these and more are answered by Kevin Johnson in a clear to understand manner. He delivers truth with a purely historical background. The book starts out with the foundation of the Catholic Church and continues on to the devotions, and explanation of almost everything in the Catholic Faith. His concise explanations are very clear for an unbeliever or a believer. I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the Catholic Church or a Catholic is is trying to better understand their faith.