An astonishing and extraodinary tale of life on the stret: it ranks with De Quincey's Confessions of an English Opium Eater and Hesse's Siddhartha in the protagonists unrelenting search for the meaning of life in desperate times.

What can you say...it's a great book...a writer to keep tabs on for certain.

I loved this book! It was beautiful and moving and shocking. This is a book everyone should read. It ponders the questions for which we all seek answers.
I found the climax bold. Eke's writing has direction and focus - it flows easily. It's easy to sit down and just keep reading.
I was blown away by the ending. I was so touched and moved. The writing is honest, not contrived, cutting to the bone - the experiences are real.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It has guts.

The RCA CED VideoDisc system is barely mentioned in this book, but it does provide a comprehensive history of video tape formats, with an emphasis on how RCA and other American manufacturers let VCR production slip through their fingers. Besides covering the Betamax and VHS tape formats, the book also deals with other obscure tape formats like CV-2000, U-matic, EVR, InstaVision, Cartrivision, AutoVision, V-Cord, HoloTape, and MagTape. The last several chapters of the book deal extensively with the landmark Universal vs. Sony lawsuit.

This book is so relevant to the time we live in now its silly. All the IP issues that are argued ad nauseum about ... and its ilk have all been hashed out 20 years ago. Even some of the players were the same, such as our old friend Jack Valenti and Sony (who were on the other side at the time!) The IP parts are great, but the history of the BETA vs VHS battles are also very illuminating and the stories about the Sony engineers and early failed attempts at VCRs are fascinating.

Techno junkies will love this book. Order it....

This is a great book for those who think that Japanese firms somehow misbehaved in overtaking the U.S. electronics industry. It is also one book that the founders of Apple should have read. By keeping it for itelf, Sony seems to have insured the demise of the superior beta format!

I am 17 years old and almost every page of that book brought me to tears. How anyone even a child could commit such a murder is beyond me. In the beginning of the book the Author recounts all the killings throughout Europes history that were committed by Children and I never thought such things were possible. That book made me want to become a Lawyer so that I could put people like that away. When you are 10 years old you know what your doing you just act innocent and pretend you dont-believe me I know. The last thing I could find on the killers was an article in 1999 about how they had an "unfair" trial because it was public and if they are released they will be given new names,new identities,new social security numbers, and so on, in my opinion that is WRONG. It's wrong to the family of James Bulgar and it's wrong to the people of Europe...

In Australia, this book was tiled "The Sleep Of Reason," and yes, that is what reason did on the fateful afternoon of 12 February 1993 - it slept, and it slept very soundly indeed, leaving us profoundly disturbed and scratching our heads and asking the perennial "Why? questions that can never be answered. Are, or were these boys evil? Nobody can answer that for sure. Surely a child of 10 knows that when you throw a brick at someone and it hits them, it will hurt. Surely they knew that when you beat someone, blood will be shed. And surely they must realise that when you attack someone and cause them to sustain the grievous injuries sustained by little James Bulger, a likely outcome is death? So, my personal analysis leads me to the conclusion of evil, but that fact is really only for the sociologists and Sigmund Freuds among us to debate.

Totally unbiased, this is reporting at its highest level. Smith describes the atmosphere in which the offenders were bred, their lives before they committed the crime, and the fatal cynergism between them which resulted in a brutal death for a 3 year old boy and a lifetime of grief for his anguished parents.

This is one of the saddest books I have ever read.I don't know of anyone who could read it and not cry for poor little Jamie and his family.I hope the murderers themselves get all the help they need,they are after all only children.A very graphic account of a very sad event.Keep your tissues handy.

Brocker's purpose in writing this book was to memorialize the people who "lived, died, and were for the most part forgotten on a little parcel of land in the middle of the Pacific Ocean." And such honor he bestows! The Hansen's disease (leprosy) which afflicted these people was a terrible, disfiguring, and ultimately fatal disease brought to Hawaii by immigrants, but the steps taken to eradicate its spread by isolating the victims must have been at least as devastating to the family-oriented Hawaiians as the disease itself.

It is difficult even to imagine a life and death worse than that which awaited the lepers in the Kalaupapa colony. Yet their lives surely would have been worse, had it not been for the efforts of Father Damien, the Belgian priest who himself fell victim to the disease sixteen years after he began his work in the colony. Historic photographs of Father Damien and his aides bring them to life and honor their efforts. Brocker's descriptions and photographs of the inhospitable, barren, and windswept peninsula of Kalaupapa itself (chosen because it was so isolated and so unsuited to any other kind of settlement), make real the magnitude of Father Damien's efforts. There were no trees, no grass, no fishing places--just wind, dampness, and pounding surf. Most haunting are his photographs and stories of the poor souls who were wrested from their families and sent to Kalaupapa to die apart from them.

Of these, the most affecting of all, of course, are the children's pictures. Photographs of very young girls, sitting primly in rows, as if they were posing for a 3rd grade school picture, little boys sitting on the ground, as if waiting for a picnic, and the one I can't forget, that of a group sitting on the porch outside the boys' home, with a "small boy, who is hardly taller than the benches on which the others sit." Perhaps he was tiny Beka, aged four, from Maui, who, according to records, was sent all alone to live the remaining three years of his life and to die in a harsh and foreign place without any of his loved ones around. With his photographs and text, Brocker does great honor to the lives of all these unfortunate souls. The rest of us can only be grateful that our own children, grandchildren, parents, aunts, uncles, and cousins do not have to suffer a similar fate to that of Beka, aged four.

In The Lands of Father Damien, Author Brocker follows the footsteps of this remarkable man as he answered the ultimate plea for help by volunteering in 1873 to go to Kalawao on the Kalaupapa Peninsula where, King Kamehameha V had banished those among his people who were infected with the dreaded disease of leprosy, later identified as Hansen's Disease. It is an exceptional book that is easy to read, and offers up-to-date information about Blessed Father Damien. The volume would grace any library shelf and is a book to be shared with family, students, educators and group leaders.

Hawaii Catholic Herald

James Brocker has published a loving tribute to Blessed Damien de Veuster, the people to whom he gave his life, and the special place in which they lived and he served. The book tells the story of the place first cursed as a dumping ground for a people with a hideous disease; a place then given deliverance through the life and sacrifice of a Catholic missionary priest.

Brocker's text includes a geological and pre-leprosy history of Kalaupapa before, a description of Hansen's disease, and a chronology of significant dates relating to the settlement.

But it is his photos, with their generously detailed captions, that distinguish this book. They successfully capture a place whose starkness and beauty is preserved in its isolation.

The respect and love the author has for this land and its people are clearly evident in this book.

The Lands of Father Damien is a worthy memorial to the living and dead of Kalawao and Kalaupapa.

Since the founding of the Society of Jesus by Ignatius Loyola, the Jesuits have been a powerful force in the areas of missionary activity, teaching, and preaching. In THE FIFTH WEEK, Father O'Malley writes of renowned Jesuits in the past, and also describes the Jesuit training process. For anyone seeking general insight into the Society of Jesus, THE FIFTH WEEK is a very apropos introductory survey.

After my son had studied "The Fifth Week" in his high school religion class I told him to retain it at the end of the class for my reading. It was one of the best literary decisions I ever made.

"The Fifth Week" is divided into three sections: Jesuits of the Past; Jesuits of the Present; and Jesuits of the Future.

It was the first two sections which primarily attracted me to this book. Jesuits of the Past and Jesuits of the Present consist of brief biographies of Jesuit heroes. As a product of Jesuit education, I had heard many of these names, either in sketchy legends or on the nameplates of schools or buildings. This book put stories to these names.

The first and longest biography belongs, fittingly enough, to St. Ignatius of Loyola, founder of the Society. During a forced convalescence from battlefield wounds, a reading of the Lives of the Saints transformed this servant of the King of Spain into one of the most illustrious servants of the King of Heaven.

Other biographies bring the brightest stars in the Jesuit sky to life. St. Francis Xavier, after whom my College Church is named, was the great missionary who took the Faith to the Orient. St. Edmund Campion had to me been merely the patron of a building at college. From this book I learned that he was a 16th century Jesuit who trained in Prague before returning to his native England to minister to Catholics during the height of the Reformation persecution of the Church until his martyrdom in 1581.

Another interesting English Jesuit of the Reformation era was St. Nicholas Owen. St. Nicholas was a Jesuit brother who's main ministry was the building of priestly hideouts in the great houses of English Catholics until he was captured and tortured to death in 1606.

One of the most notable exemplars of the Jesuit charism is Matteo Ricci who followed in the footsteps of St. Francis Xavier in bringing the Gospel to the Orient. In keeping with the Jesuit theme of using all things to bring people to God, Matteo followed St. Paul's entreaty to be all things to all men. Immersing himself in Chinese culture and adopting Chinese dress, he obtained acceptance into the Chinese Imperial Court. From this position started a movement which in 50 years was to include 150,000 Chinese Catholics.

Among my favorite heroes are the North American Martyr, St. John de Breboeuf, and Peter DeSmet, the St. Louis based western missionary and patron the high school at which my son studied this book.

The explanation of the suppression of the Jesuits occurring in various places from 1759-1814 was a movement of which I had heard and read but which I did not understand until reading this book..

The Jesuits of the Past section concludes with the biography of Blessed Miguel Pro, "Jesuit Clown.". My family and I had first heard of Miguel Pro during a passing reference in a homily to "Viva Christo Rey-Long Live Christ the King!", his last words while facing a firing squad. His story was, actually, similar to that of St. Edmund Campion. Driven from his native Mexico by anticlerical persecutions, Pro studied in California, Spain, Nicaragua and Belgium. Sneaking back into Mexico after ordination, his skillful use of a series of disguises permitted him to minister to the faithful for 2 years during which he avoided capture by the authorities.

Section 2 highlights contemporary Jesuits. Daniel Lord used teaching, writing, theatre and social action to bring God to his people. World War II made heroes of Carl Hausman, a prisoner of the Japanese in the Philippines and Joseph O'Callahan, a chaplain aboard the U.S.S. Franklin during a devastating Kamikaze attack. Pierre Teilhard de Chardin was a paleontologist who brought the faith to the world of science.

Fr. O'Malley begins the transition from Section 2 to Section 3 by introducing the story of his own vocation.

Section 3 is the story of the Jesuits of the Future. An inquiry into the Society of today, the challenges of the world and obstacles to a religious vocation are viewed reflectively. The book concludes with the questions a man must confront in discerning whether he has a vocation to the priestly or religious life. The final pages are devoted to the practical steps one must take in order to explore the possibility of living the Jesuit life.

I began this book I with high expectations. At its conclusion my expectations were fulfilled. I recommend this book to anyone interested in the stories of Jesuit heroes as well as anyone who wants to understand what has attracted so many outstanding men of the past to the Society of Jesus and what continues to attract the Church leaders of tomorrow.

The Fifth Week is meant to be a book to inform those who are interested in becoming Jesuits. However, I feel that this book is meant for anyone at any level of spirtuality. This book provides examples of heroism that anyone can look up to and become inspired, I know that I was. The heroic Jesuits portrayed in the book were real men, with real weaknesses, with real strengths. This authenticity is further strengthened by Fr. William O'Malley's own vocational story, which entailed struggle, hardship, love, and peace. These are realities that we all face, so the book has the ability to coincide with some of our own experiences and trials. The most important thing that this book offers the reader is "the hope for man." We may have hope in the fact that The Society of Jesus will set the world on fire by living out the Good News.

Jim Harrison is a contemporary american writer worshipped in Europe but, alas, not so well known in his native country. In FARMER, a novel published in 1975, Jim Harrison writes about nature, origins and the heart of America.

Joey is a farmer, an american of the second generation, and the year is 1956. He lives in the northern part of the Michigan state and is one of the teachers of the local school. His sisters have left the country years ago, heading towards the big cities, and abandoning him with their mother. Joey likes to hunt and to fish. It's a simple story.

During a 6 months period, Joey is going to have a kind of rebellion against his so regular life, a nervous breakdown to use a term of the cities. New experiences, long conversations with his neighbour Doc Evans, the contact with nature will replace the tranquillizers. It's an healthy story.

The themes treated in FARMER are universal : love, death, friendship, regrets. The reader cares about Joey's story and understands his simples questions we have all experienced once in our lives. If only we had the courage to face them so openly like Joey did. in this superb novel.

A book to discover.

I read Harrison's FARMER in one sitting, then made a pot of coffee, and read it again. I recall that I was terribly sad upon finishing, only because the sublime experience had ended. FARMER has no flaws that I can detect. It is simple and has a fierce ecomomy. Tiny book, BIG,BIG story. This is a fine book.

I was but two pages into the book when I read the line "He pokes at the ocean with his cane,staring at it with the raptness he felt for the northern lights as a child." And I wept. I grew up in the Upper Penninsula of Michigan and have stared at the northern lights with that same raptness. No other author captures the uniqueness and wonder of the place and the people like Jim Harrison. He understands the soul of the land and of the people who live there. His imagery and attention to detail are masterful.

This is an excellent collection of essays by the greatest preachers in the Reformed tradition today. Some of the topics include The Primacy of Preaching (Mohler), The Teaching Pastor (Sproul), Evangelistic Preaching (Alexander), and The Foolishness of Preaching (Boice). John Piper's essay on Preaching to Suffering People is one of the best things he has ever written and by itself is worth the price of the book ten times over. Derek Thomas' essay on Expository Preaching is full of very good instruction. Joel Beakes' contribution on Experimental Preaching is also excellent. I highly recommend this book for pastors. If you are not a pastor, consider purchasing it for your pastor as a gift. He will be appreciative.

A must read for those who have a passion and desire to preach the word from the Biblical perspective...... This book is not limited to pastors but also to anyone who desire to teach the word of God such as Small Group leaders, Sunday School teachers, etc... The Authors of this book are among my favorites: John MacArthur, Piper, Mohler, Sproul, etc.. You will enjoy it from these passionate men of God.

The Fact that this book is excellent should be no surprise, merely take a glance at the authors. This book will probably offend pastors who are in to the modern pop pyschology, but then they probably wouldn't be reading it anyway. Granted, that was probably unfair but...
Naturally some chapters are better than others, here are a few:

"The Lasting Effect of Experimental Preaching"--the essay on spiritual formation--worth the price of the book.

"The Primacy of Preaching"--by Albert Mohler--very good, a wake up call to the church.

"Expository Preaching"--good and bad examples of expository preaching, very fun chapter.

"Preaching to Suffering People"--by John Piper. It is by Piper, enough said.

"A reminder to Shepherds"--By John Macarthur, a fitting close to a fine book.

The strength of this book is the balance between length and information. It does not offer a lot of "star reviews" on the Telecaster, rather it concentrates on the history of the guitar itself. This is a good value.

Almost everything you ever wanted to know about the Tele. A must for fans of Fenders.

I bought this book after buying a Fender Telecaster guitar. The book is very informative as to the history of the guitar, from its origins in the early 50's through its various subtle changes over the years and up to the present time.

The book is both detailed and concise. It contains much info on the guitar, but not "more than you'd ever want to know." It is well-photographed, well written, and generally was everything I had hoped it would be when I ordered it.

What an amazing talent Gerald Lund has in his ability to merge historical events with the inclusion of fictional characters. Although this book's several pages can intimidate even the stoutest of novelists, I found myself unable to put it down as I moved from one chapter to the next. I found myself being pulled into the story and truly feeling what it must have been like crossing the unsettled West as a Mormon Pioneer. On more than one occasion I was actually brought to tears.

If you read this book, prepare yourself for some late night reading sessions.

When I started the novel, I was a bit overwhelmed by its length. But as I began to turn the pages, I was quickly enveloped into the amazing tale of the trials, bravery, and faithful diligence of the members of the Martin and Willie handcart companies. Gerald N. Lund paints a vivid portrayal of their struggles that stimulates the mind, pulls at the heart and envigorates the spirit.... 5 stars!

it is a powerful story that puts you right into the situation.

Here's a great example of the kind of good old-fashioned Bible scholarship that nobody seems to be doing anymore. C. I. Scofield had a very particular and sometimes even quirky way of interpreting the Bible, and his edition of the Bible is devoted to presenting that particular interpretation. That's both its strength and its weakness.

You won't find a balanced assessment of different schools of thought here. Scofield just dismisses anyone who disagrees with him as "puerile." Instead, what you get is a detailed exposition of his theory of "dispensations"--different periods in which God tested man's obedience to some specific revelation of his will.

Scofield writes notes on only those parts of the Bible that interest him and support his interpretation. The New Testament is much more heavily annotated than the Old, and in the Old Testament the Prophets are much more heavily annotated than the historical books, where often more than fifteen pages can go by without a footnote. If something puzzles you in one of the passages that don't interest him, Scofield gives you no help.

Scofield also omits the original King James translators' marginal notes and alternative readings, some of which are helpful to the average reader. One example I just happened to notice: Deuteronomy 32:44, where to "Hoshea the son of Nun" the King James translators added a note, "Or, Joshua," reminding us that Hoshea and Joshua are the same person. This particular verse apparently didn't interest him, so Scofield provided no note.

In short, this is not really a reference or study Bible; it's the text of the King James Version used as an extended illustration of Scofield's own theology.

Scofield's interpretation is compelling, however, and even if you're one of those "puerile" readers who don't always agree with him, you really ought to make his acquaintance. This book puts you in touch with one of the truly great minds of Biblical scholarship, and in fact its greatest strength is in how clearly Scofield's mind shines forth, with all its quirks and peculiarities. Every note will make you think. And if you disagree with him, so much the better--you'll think harder.

This facsimile edition is on the whole well printed. Some pages in my copy showed enough broken type and faded spots to remind me that I was reading a facsimile, but never enough to interfere seriously with legibility. The modern publishers have added Scofield's essay "Rightly Dividing the Word of Truth," which gives us even more insight into Scofield's thinking but is not nearly as entertaining as his notes in the Bible text itself.

This is THE original 1909 edition. Contains Scofield's "Rightly Dividing The Word Of Truth," a MUST read for gaining a real insight into fundamental scriptural truths and freeing oneself from the bondage of superstitious and fallacious oppressive religious hocus-pocus biblical interpretations.

In no field of human activity has there ever been, nor will there ever be, so much oppression and manipulation as in the field of faith and religion, whereas this is precisely THE field where one should be able to truly emancipate oneself from the bondage of fellow human co-miserants.

All the goods our recent and modern civilization owns, it owes it to the reform and the reformators. With the reform gradually came political freedom, moral and spiritual emancipation, the cultivation of intellectual pursuits and arts, the dawn of economic freedom and the rise of capitalism, the italian renaissance, etc. Forget about the french revolution, which brought nothing but bloodshed and decapitations, the tyranny of collectivism and ... the dictatorship of Napoleon.

The soul and the conscience of man is the heart and the centerpiece (the holiest of holies if you wish) of human achievments.

To come back to the Scofield Reference Bible(s), there are ONLY two legitimate versions, the 1909 version (first publication) and the 1917 version (second, only slightly modified, version). These are the original legacies of C. I. Scofield and were reverently left untouched untill the mid-sixties. The NEW Scofield Bibles are not only awash with new added-on modern theological interpretations, but they also dilute the original work and emasculate it from its original fundamentalist strength. Beware. Avoid them is my only advice.

C. I. Scofield was the first to introduce what is still known as THE (Scofield) Reference Bible, prophesied the re-birth of the State of Israël and the return of Jews to their homeland. Since that time many have tried to follow in his footsteps, sometimes with the attempt to improve on his work, but no one has reached his level of dedication and logic.

Scofield's premise is that the Bible has but ONE Author, not many authors, and that all its books form one big collection of books, all given by the same Author, a collection which complements itself, with some parts throwing more light on other parts of that same collection of books, namely the Bible as a whole. It is on this premise that his, at that time unique, innovative system of chain references was developped.

This is probably THE best Bible you'll ever get on the market (probably only rivalled by the notes of J.N. Darby's annotated english version and his introduction to his french translation).

My advice is get your hands on anything you can that's written by C. I. Scofield, from "Rightly Dividing The Word Of Truth" to "Prophecy Made Plain", up to his "Scofield Bible Correspondance Course," which constituted the building blocks out of which sprang "The Scofield Reference Bible."

You'll be enriched with an Everlasting Treasure and feel like you're being more and more intimately acquainted with an Author you'll long to meet on a daily basis, for evermore. In His Presence, Eternal Life will finally look like a very desirable thing.

The Scofield study bible has helped me understand different areas of the bible much better. I enjoy reading it, and often have a hard time putting it down.