I am normally not much for time-travel books, but as I know this author I decided to give it a try. The story of Jared and Trish (Mac)is just great. I did not read the other books in the series and I don't feel cheated. Although a few characters from previous stories in the series do appear I feel this story stands on its own. A modern day girl sent back to the late 1800 in a classic fish out of water story. Jared is a Pinkerton detective searching for a serial killer. There is a twist, the killer travels back and forth between Mac's time and Jared's killing young, pure girls in both times. This stories offers lively and humourous dialogue between all the characters and Mac, a great romance, and suspense which makes this a real page turner.

A fantatic romantic mystery/murder that will take you back in time.

I really liked the author's writing style. The book was fun to read and it was a nice ending to the series. The only thing I wish that was different with the series on whole was instead of the reasoning behind the hope chest and Miss Sparrow being explained in a page and a half epilogue, I believe that deserved a whole novel of it's own.

This book is indispensable for the Biblical student, however I am very disappointed at the materials used to put the book together-the binding is poor and this book will fall apart on you very quickly if you use this book regularly. They should have a sewn, hard-cover edition. That said, this book has made me a much more educated high school teacher of Religion, and I don't know what I would do without it.

For twenty years, this book has been a constant source of information for me. I first purchased my original copy while studying for the priesthood in the early 1980s. It has since received a new cover and its pages are enscribed with notes and highlights, but seldom do I write anything on scripture without referring to one or more of its entries.

Whether you are a lay person in the pews who wishes to know more or an academic who sometimes forgot just where you read that interesting biblical insight, McKenzie's work is for you. The topics are myriad and in-depth, but are also very readable. They cover every possible angle of biblical interest, including history, ritual, individual persons, and even biblical criticism. Once you have familiarized yourself with this dictionary, it will become a constant and invaluable companion.

As somewhat of a collector of such books, and frequent user, I've found this dictionary to be one of the very best. I had the 1965 edition, and replaced it with the 1995 Touchstone edition because the first book became worn. These "dictionaries" are often part dictionary and part encyclopedia. That is certainly true of this one. Many of the articles are much more information-packed than articles on the same subjects in other dictionaries. The print is very clear. There are not many pictures in the 954-page book, and the few that are included are not in color. But that's okay with me. I'm after the written information, and this book is packed. If you need a Bible dictionary for children, and want a visually attractive book with colored photos rather than a very scholarly work, stay away from this book. Though written by a Jesuit, this book should definitely NOT be viewed as for Catholics only. Christians from any denomination would find this book very valuable. You won't go wrong with this book. I don't know how they can sell it for that price.

Ms. McKenzie's Taash and the Jesters is one of my all-time favorite books. Somehow I had missed Kashka and was delighted to see it in my local library last year. We just finished reading both books out loud to the kids (7 and 10). The twin cousin jesters are great fun, and I'm glad to learn more about them.

In general, I think Ms. McKenzie has wonderful ideas, but I didn't like Kashka as much as Taash and the Jesters. The plot in Kashka was a little too convoluted, and too much time was spent on side characters that weren't particularly interesting. Also, it's not an easy book to read out loud. Still, if you like Taash and the Jesters, you will probably want to read Kashka, and you might even want to reread it. I would recommend starting the series with Taash, and if you are interested go back to read Kashka and the Golden Band of Eddris (I haven't read that book yet, but I'm looking forward to it).

I first found this book at the library about two years ago and looked for it here. I recently found a used copy and am rereading it again.

i THOUGHT THAT THE ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE BOOK WERE PURELY AWFULL AND HIDE THE BOOKS' INER truth and wish it be reprinted with a better cover.

I also wish that there was alittle more info on the author. Still it is one of the best books of all time

This is a wonderful book which tells the adventures of Piff and Kashka, as they save the kingdom of King Darai from the Lord of Xon and Lady Ysene.

VERY informative. Perhaps too much info. At times I felt I was overloading. Better to have too much though than not enough. This book eliminates the need for any other.

I didn't find this guide as useful nor as interesting as others in the series but I suspect it's because Sydney doesn't lend itself to guidebooks in the same way London or Rome do. I left Eyewitness at home, carried Frommer's Sydney guide, and winged it the rest of the way. Eyewitness has the best maps by far, though.

There are some guidebooks which make a local cringe in embarassment! Not this one. It covers pretty much everything that a visitor to this city would want to see and do, and even leads people a little (but not TOO far) off the beaten track. There are suggestions for walks along some of the coastal paths, for example, and it includes places farther afield like captain Cook's Landing Place.

Like all the books in this series, it is lavishly illustrated and the maps are good. I use it for inspiration for weekend activities. It is a good general guidebook, which could be supplemented by more specialised volumes if you want to concentrate on one aspect of Sydney - eg guides to walks around the harbour, or activities specially for children, guides to national parks etc. but this book seems to cover just about everything at least in an introductory sense.

Prof. McKenzie's book, "The Home", touched me to the core. The plight of children, in all walks of life, are "dear to my heart". The book made me alternately cry and smile throughout with it's sometimes heart- wrenching look at life through a young boy's eyes. It is good to know that children without "parents" and a "normal" family can be cared for and loved enough to grow up and become viable, giving human beings. For the sake of suffering and lonely children everywhere, I believe this story needs to be told.

This book, written by an orphan, contributes a first person voice to the conversation on child welfare. A reunion of orphanage alumni convinced the author to write about his own orphanage upbringing. The permanence of "The Home" and knowing that he would not be sent away helped him develop a sense of place and of belonging. The alumni agreed that this was seminal to their well being. The author's upbringing in this Presbyterian orphanage is testament to the healing power of a constructive rural life. The children learned to care for themselves and each other by raising their own food (crops and animals) and maintaining the farm equipment and the buildings. They went to school and church on the property until they entered high school. The administrative leadership was strong, moral and fair. His story is not a nostalgic rendition of the experience. It is a very objective assessment of the benefits he received from growing up on this particular 1500 acre farm orphanage.

This review is in response to the Booklist one above. In The Home, McKenzie makes a case in favor of orphanages as opposed to foster homes based on his own experiences. He points out that The Home is his story and was not intended to speak for all orphans. This book shows how people have choices in life - they can choose to use what they are dealt for them or against them. The stories that McKenzie relates illustrate how he learned valuable life lessons during his childhood, which ultimately contributed to his present success. Although some of the stories in the book made me cry, I thorougly enjoyed reading it. I feel like The Home gives readers a peek into McKenzie's soul. Truly inspirational, very interesting, and it makes you re-evaluate your own childhood!

Steven McKenzie's biography of David is based on the theory that the account in Samuel is an "apologia"--a brief for the defense, and that if you look hard at what the text seems to be defending David against, you can figure out what David actually did.

This is a smart assumption but the suspicious reading it generates results in a biography of David that would make Ken Starr's portrait of Bill Clinton look like a panegyric. The only virtue McKenzie can allow David is that of being an effective guerrilla warrior because, if he hadn't been, he couldn't have reached the throne in the first place. The rest of the story is viewed as pro-David propaganda. If the story tells us that David spared the life of the worthless Nabal and that Nabal subsequently died of natural causes, it means that this is the cover story and that David must have killed him or had him killed.

The problem for the reader comes when you ask if there is any way David could have had any attractive qualities. Given the way McKenzie reads Samuel, the nice things that are said about David must be spin, and the nasty facts reported about David (and there are plenty of them, including his adultery with Bathsheba, his inability to control his sensual and ambitious children, his vindictiveness against political enemies) are facts too well known to be denied. Given McKenzie's method, David simply cannot have done anything right.

The fact is that, like almost every figure in the Bible, David's life exists in the text and only there. There aren't any alternative witnesses to who he was and what he did. The story in the book of Samuel contains all we are ever likely to know about David, and any method that insists on reading past the story to the REAL David is going to come up either with a panegyric or a lampoon, depending on how suspicious a method of reading it adopts.

But the book of Samuel itself is far more complex than any of these simplifying readings. It presents a warrior and a king who was decidedly human--sometimes all too human--and depicts his world with a richness of texture that lawyer's briefs, like McKenzie's, are necessarily going to flatten out. McKenzie's book will be useful if it makes readers turn back to Samuel and read it closely and attentively, but the story it tells is a prosecutorial brief that, seen against its source, seems thin and unconvincing.

I read many books but there is only one book I can read again and again its the bible. So I have read the story of David many times. This book takes it from an different angle. What really was the historical David we will never know! What we have is the greatest piece of writings in the world but when, where and who wrote them we are not sure. In the bible its very hard to determine where fiction and history merge.

The story of David in this book is in a sense quite negative in that David is portrayed as a power hungry person. However to me it made him more real. I certainly have not my sense of grandeur in David. Some of his explanations somehow appear to be pretty weak. But he does present his evidence but that is not the writers fault as much as the lack of historical information.

He does leave us with a bad taste to the writer of the bible who he states "is trying to promote or excuse David". This may be true because we really do not know very much about who the writers were or there motives.

It well written and I would recommend this book to you.

McKenzie has done a remarkable job of writing a biography of a man for whom the only substantial source, the Bible, was written long after the fact with a specific agenda. Through a careful, critical reading of the Biblical accounts of David's life, McKenzie is able to recover a surprising amount of historical information, and his arguments are generally quite sound. Although as he admits himself he is only able to create a "plausible tale," the tale is plausible indeed, and as a very pleasant bonus, the style of the book is very accessible and readable. I'm not familiar with Davidic scholarship, but McKenzie's biography seems to be squarely in the mainstream. It stands both as a splendid book in its own right, and also as an excellent exercise in historical method, when dealing with extremely difficult sources.

I think this book tried to cover alot from a variety of vantage points. It uses scripture, gives historical biographies, contains survey and interview data, discusses leadership theory and lists African American women pastors. I skimmed it once and then read it. It is a book that you could go to many times and still go back to again. I think it is a good reference tool because it has a very rich bibliography. The comparisons and contrasts of men and women's leadership styles in general, feminist and womanish theory as well as the cultural setting for African American women to exercise leadership in Black churches are described very well.

The need for the 21st Century church to recognize the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the daugthers as well as the sons to speak for God is expressed clearly. The writer is also forthright in stating the fact that African American women who lead as ministers in the contemporary churches are the exceptions. Sister McKenzie shows in her book that the Biblical women leaders of the Old and New Testaments were also the exceptions and uses them as role models for women pastoral leaders today.

Dr. McKenzie puts forth a wealth of information on the historical and present struggle of Women in Ministry. It keeps the reader interested and provides depth and insight to the hinderances placed upon women by the ingnorace of our male dominated society. As a Pastor of a local Church, this reading has caused me to remove the walls and replace them with a guide rail and steps that lead women in the Body of Christ towards the true liberty of heaven. A suggested reading for the "Traditional Pulpiteer!"

The book breaks down many barriers and provides insight that must be recognize in this day. Read it, Study it, and share it!

My parents-in-law have an old copy of this book on the back of their toilet. This book is just the kind of book I love, with lots of interesting facts. But a startling percentage of the facts seem sexist, racist and outright offensive here in 2001. And I don't get offended easily. For example, "A housewife can order a left-handed measuring cup if she so desires," "An Eskimo and his wife can build an igloo in an hour," "Over 85 percent of Negros are Southern Baptist," etc. etc. And I wish there was a little more attribution - I find I don't believe some of this stuff.

This book is an excellent book! I must admit that some of the facts given are a bit unbelievable, but most are just plain interesting. And just because "a startling percentage of the facts seem sexist, racist and outright offensive" does not make them invalid -- they're still facts. Sometimes the truth hurts.

I first read this book in home room (seventh grade) back in 1979, over and over again, never though i would have this much trouble finding it until now

Lots of fast and easy prjects for applique and pieced designs. And not just for quilts! Includes projects for the cutest greeting cards, ornaments, pillows, and a cute Halloween papier mache box.

I found all the projects to have a country feel but just by changing the fabric, these items can be turned into folk arty projects.

The only down side is that you have to enlarge the patterns; but they have over 100 projects in the book that there would not have been room for full sized patterns. I found that the best way was to trace the pattern and then enlarge on the copier.

All in all, this is a great book and I found that most projects took less than two hours to complete. I do recommend this for beginning quilters and it's a good way to learn applique and pieced techniques in a quick and gratifying way.

I love this book. It has great ideas, colour illustrations and easy directions. Easy projects for all seasons and sewing motifs to boot. Lots of birds, animals, hearts, birdhouses and lots more. Fusible web, easy embroidery stitches, buttons, batting and fabric are all you need to complete any of these small projects. Patterns are all included (to be enlarged). I think this book is a keeper!

I've never made hanging quilts before but this book is great for beginners. It is simple and easy to understand. The mini quilts are great offering a variety of Christmas, Halloween, Animals and other bits and pieces. They all look relatively easy to make. There are a few more complicated ones in there for those with more confidence.

"Under The Bridge" by Ellen Kindt McKenzie was a very interesting book. I liked the character ideas, the climax, and the unique setting. The climax is when ritchie's mom is taken in the night by what believes to be a troll. Ritchie is ten and is described so well, you think that he is standing right beside of you.it takes place on an old farm in a cottage that has a river running along it. Ritchey, and the author describe this place as the best in the world.

The best part is when Ritchie and his little sister,Rosie,rescue his mother from the troll. The worst part is when the troll dies, and just wanted somebody to talk to.

The conflict and the climax are the best story elements in the book. Ellem Kindt McKenziedescribes the conflict between the troll and society, as well as the troll and himself. He is exluded from society because he is inhumane. The climax also is described well as Ritchey's feelings and his mother's feelings when she is being taken from Ritchey.

Ritchie mother has disappeared from him.A eif was been sending him letters.I love the way it ended.If you like a mystery book BUY IT!

i love to read and i get this book from the library all the time! it's not a very challenging book to read, but i really like to read it just for fun. i really like the end...and i always seem to forget before i read it again. it's awesome!