This is a book that will be a usefull tool for the clinician that has to deal with a pregnant patient. Remembering the changes that take place in pregnancy, and particular relations between pregnancy and medical complications can be a very stressfull situation. The obstetrician will also take advantage of this textbook, as many presenting diseases and their management are exposed in detail.

i thought this book was a great way of showing how pochahontas lived with there family in and Indian culture is like and what histtorical events that happened

This is the first book by Anne Barbour I have read, and it would certainly encourage me to seek out more of her books. This is a very entertaining story, with believable and likeable main characters, and also some supporting characters who are very well developed and could even deserve a story in their own right (Robert and Barbara in particular, though possibly also Chloe and John).

Hester and Thorne at first appear to be poles apart, but he is less shallow than she believes him to be and she is less of a harridan than he expects her to be. Even still, when they meet and get to know each other, the sparks fly in all directions! The sexual tension is palpable in some scenes, and Barbour handles the relationship development extremely well. She shows the unwilling but deep friendship which grows between them in parallel to their mutual attraction, and the way in which they come to trust each other, much to their surprise.

And when jealousy rears its ugly head... watch out!

This heart-lifting volume collects the storytelling talents of some of Signet's most beloved Regency authors, all spinning tales with Christmas carols as a central part of the yarn. These talented ladies pack into less than one hundred pages each an emotional wallop that is rarely found in novellas--sure to please even readers who do not usually find the depth they hope for in anthologies.

Mary Balogh starts us off with "The Bond Street Carolers" in which Lord Heath, who dislikes Christmas, stops in his tracks on Bond Street to hear a boy's angelic voice raised in song. Lord Heath decides that this young man must perform at his annual winter concert--but the boy's mother, Fanny Berlinton, does not want her son exploited. Little Katie Berlinton sees the tall man enjoying her brother's singing, and renews her wish for a Papa for Christmas. Even readers who do not normally care for children intruding on their romance will be enchanted by the parts these two take in this delighful story.

In "The Earl's Nightengale" by Edith Layton, a young woman pawns a musical mechanical bird left to her by the grandmother she never met--a gift that her grandmother said would bring her happiness. When she goes back a week later, as promised, to pay the loan and reclaim her heirloom, it is gone. She catches up with the Earl of Elliott, who purchased it, because it is her only link with her grandmother, and because she and her mother could certainly use some happiness right now. Ms. Layton's Nightengale is a charming gift to her readers, topped with an extra-special bow of an ending.

Next up is Elisabeth Fairchild with "The Mistletoe Kiss." On St. Thomas's Day, five days before Christmas, governess Constance Conyngham is convinced by her young charges to take them "a gooding"--but they did not expect to encounter Lord Deleval at The Devil's Keep, and everyone was even more surprised when he showed up the the bell-ringers' rehearsal. This is a heartening story of two wounded souls who can perhaps heal each other.

In "Make a Joyful Noise" by Carla Kelly, Lord Wythe is charged by his mother to help recruit new choir members for the annual competition between the churches of the neighboring shires. One of his first requests is to Rosie Wetherby, but soon he is ent ranced by more than just her beautiful voice... and Ms. Kelly's readers are entranced as well with the relationship that blossoms.

Anne Barbour concludes this collection with "Melody" in which American Josh Weston, now Earl of Sandbourne, meets his match in Melody Fairfax, companion to the dowager countess. We are emotionally involved from the beginning as we watch these two meet and quickly find a fearsome affinity towards each other. In a collection of masters of the Regency subgenre, Ms. Barbour shines as the star atop the tree.

Kimberly Borrowdale, Under the Covers Book Reviews

In a relatively small geographic area, the German-speaking areas demonstrate an amount of linguistic diversity that is well outside of the experience of English speakers growing up in America. This lingual variety fascinates me, and I found the book not only helped explain how the current state was reached, but also provided some ideas on how it might continue to evolve.

The historical background chapter satisfied my curiosity about German origins, but also explained why Norwegian has so many Tysk cognates. Dialectology is not an area that I had explored before, such as the concept of 'isoglosses', which are geographical boundaries separating regions with different speech characteristics. Apparently the patterns for rolling the 'r', with the front trill being replaced by a back of the throat sound, are spreading simultaneously across multiple languages. The isogloss chart for these shows how this characteristic tends to be separated on a north south basis both in the French and German speaking regions. (If you are concerned that my lay explanation isn't technical enough, rest assured that this book also uses terminology such as 'voiceless lenis obstruents'-there should be no worry that college students will be ruined by reading a book that is too easy.)

The authors also wrote on urban speech patterns, a subject area they feel has been inadequately addressed by studies of German, and on class differences. I continue to be mesmerized by Swiss diglossia, and I appreciated a chart mapping out the Swiss pattern of dialect and Hochdeutsch use according to social context. (Incidentally, class differences in Swiss German are minimal in comparison to Austria and Germany.)

Switzerland, Italy, France, Luxemburg, and Belgium all have transition areas where German rubs against one or more languages, and the result of this is different in each area. The authors analyze the linguistic changes ongoing in these border regions, including the northern parts of Germany, where Danish and Frisian are disappearing.

Each chapter ends with a 'Further Reading' section that recommends classic and other relevant texts. The book concludes with a short glossary, containing both English and German terminology, and a lengthy bibliography of both German and English sources.

Certainly this book is most appealing to those who are interested specifically in the German language. However, outside of a one short section, a knowledge of German is not expected, nor is a background in either linguistics or sociology. I expect most of the readers to be German-speakers, but the book would also be useful to those who are just interested in the social issues of language, or are doing research in the subject.

Instead of doing a broad-brush introduction to Socio-Linguistics, the authors chose to introduce the concept by focusing on a single language, an approach that I found very successful and accessible.

WITH DEEPEST SYMPATHY is a small and simple book that is written for those who have recently lost a loved one. The book is filled with scripture and various quotes, arranged in such a way to help lift one's spirit and prevent depression from taking a stonghold. I recently gave this book to a close friend of mine who lost a parent and she really enjoyed it.

Haley Barbour, a former Republican National Committee Chairman whose recent political tangos with the tobacco lobby are getting him and his buddies in political trouble, here wrote a book which was a kneejerk reaction to his party's 1994 Contract with America victory. In here, Barbour offers few specifics, only generalities('a government closer to the people' and 'smaller government'). The few specifics he does offer, such as on Medicare, are terribly deceptive. He offers the view that the Republican 1995 plan to trim Medicare costs by $270 billion over 7 years through partial privatization, higher premiums, squeezed payments to poor hospitals and more jamming of the elderly into HMO's is not harsh, but in fact in the best interest of the elderly and a 'small government' society. He ignores the need for universal health care instead of cutting Medicare to 'save it.' He bashes labor laws, environmental regulations, civil rights, public education and universal health care investments.

In all, Haley Barbour offers an anti-government view. Government is not the answer, but the problem, Barbour seems to say. To those who want an ideological book which veers to the right excessively and panders to the anti-civil rights and anti-government activism crowd, this one is a winner. Yet, to those who favor compassionate government which gives a darn about the working man and woman and family, then this book is just another proof of how out of touch conservatism truly is.

This was a excellent book that tells of a great nation with a great future. I would suggest borrowing this from your local library if you are not sure if you like the subject matter.

Great book and very inspiring for young republicans and undiciders.

Was kind of boring and didn't hold my interest and the titles are not all that original have seen them all before!

Unfortunately, it's the lead story that I couldn't even finish. Patricia Oliver is capable of a better effort. The next three stories (Carla Kelly, Edith Layton, & Patricia Rice) were amusing regency stories with the usual impediments to romance: relatives and misunderstandings. The fifth story, by Anne Barbour, was interesting, but I felt that I had read some of the scenes before. In fact, in one scene the dialogue came straight from Georgette Heyer's "Cotillion".

Overall, enjoyable stories for fans of regency romance.

I had to write a review because I disagree with the previous reviewer. The two stories she chose to belittle are my two favorites in the anthology. I can't imagine why she had any trouble reading "Something Old" by Patricia Oliver. Sure, most of us have read many stories in which the heroine is a young girl who has a painful experience at at ton gathering. But this time the girl has the extreme bad luck to fall in love at first sight with a cad who doesn't even notice! Ten years later they meet again. Is this a second chance at love? "And a Six Pence for Her Shoe" by Anne Barbour is a wonderful love story. The heroine waits for her fiance to return from war. She quarreled with him just before he left. Will he give her a chance to prove her love is true? The other stories were fine, but I found them less memorable. Read this anthology and see if you don't agree!

Plain and simple. There is some thought-provoking points made in this book. But there are some difficulties for the average reader to comprehend.

To my mind, Ian Barbour writes more clearly about the relationship between Christianity and science than any other published author I'm acquainted with. He is fully aware that Christianity is not the only path to God and salvation, but he is most comfortable talking within the framework of his own Christian background, so this book is really about the relationship between Christianity and science, not religion in general and science. But that is okay, because he allows that other religious traditions can also be paths to God. It's just that to give the book more focus and relevance to its English-speaking audience, he discusses the Christian encounter with science. Barbour presents a remarkably well thought out survey of this topic, always making it clear where he personally stands on the issues, and why.

Barbour treats his subject matter in two-dimensional matrix format, with one axis portraying the degrees of cooperation between science and religion and the other axis the various branches of science. Barbour identifies four fundamental ways in which his topic is treated by interested parties. These are Conflict, Independence, Dialog, and Integration. He then outlines the major positions in each of these categories across the major branches of science: astronomy, particle physics, evolution by natural selection, neuroscience, and finally the natural world in general (as described by science).

Biblical literalists and scientific materialists are in irreconcilable conflict on the issues of science and religion. Barbour thinks we can do much better than that, and makes quick work of both sides of the issues dealt with at the Conflict level. Neither is Barbour much impressed by the next level, Independence. In virtually every one of his analyses, treating religion and science as if they are independent categories of being that do not bear on each other is seen to be intellectually, spiritually, and scientifically bankrupt.

Barbour perks up when he comes to discussing the ideas of scientists and Christians who are interested in constructive dialog and even better, integration. Dialog and integration blend into each other, as Barbour repeatedly shows. When both sides have open minds and are not dogmatic about their religious beliefs, it is apparently not that difficult to find many promising possibilities for integration. If the basis of religion is real (the experience of the divine), then it should not be surprising at all if the Ground of Being turns out to be thoroughly saturated and mixed up in the universe revealed by science. So why shouldn't it be a fertile area for thought that merits careful consideration?

Barbour seems to place himself close to the process theologians, who believe that there is awareness at all levels of organized complexity, and that there is a freedom inherent in this complexity that is outside of the powers of God to interfere with. The one theme however that kept coming up (because of the interference of classical Christian beliefs about the omnipotence of God) was how God was only lacking omnipotence because he voluntarily relinquishes it for the sake of freedom in the world. Process theologians seem to want to hold onto the ultimate omnipotence of God over matter. He could instantly rub it out if he decided he didn't like it anymore.

I personally would take one step further and say that God is inherently unable to control "brute matter" and it is not simply a matter of voluntary relinquishment of power. God can only influence "top down," by acting as a lure to conscious creatures. God is powerless against unconscious matter because of the very way he creates: in creating the fundamental particles, which have the lowest possible awareness of any wholeness regardless of complexity, he is by necessity giving up control over them, taking the risk that because they are ultimately from God himself they have within themselves the power to self-assemble universes and worlds such as the incredibly interesting one we live in. Then when self-conscious creatures such as human beings finally evolve, for the first time God has the possibility of self-consciously taking over the direction of evolution, through US, self-conscious, technological creatures.

But that is a different book than the one Barbour writes. The one he writes is a whirlwind tour through his own thought and powerful ways of looking at the problems of science vs. religion. Barbour's book covers an incredible amount of material in 180, short pages. If this book takes your breath away and leaves you with the feeling that there is a lot more of extreme interest to this subject than Barbour allows himself in this little primer, fear not. Barbour provides much more satisfying treatments of his thought in books like "Religion and Science, Historical and Contemporary Issues" and "Ethics in an Age of Technology." If after reading this book, you feel teased if not cheated, those two books will deliver the richness and depth that "When Science Meets Religion" by its very design, cannot provide.

This short 180 page book contains a summary of all the latest ideas coming out of the dialog of religion with science. It is respectfully and beautifully written. It is also intelligently written without losing clarity or using too much jargon. As a physicist I'd say Barbour got all the physics (and science) right, not something most writers in this area are able to do.

Barbour discusses the scientific and theological significance of several "hot" topics: the big bang and creation, the implications of quantum physics, Darwinian evolution and continuing creation, naturalistic challenges to theism, human nature (free will vs determinism, the nature of the "soul", body/soul and mind/brain dualities), and the theological implications of the fact that we live in a universe where both chance and law play major roles. In each chapter, Barbour discusses four ways of responding to these questions: conflict, represented by fundamentalists and scientific materialists, both of whom agree that a person cannot believe in both God and Darwinian evolution; independence (two languages, separate domains), dialogue, which invites a conversation between the two fields; and integration, which moves beyond dialogue to explore ways in which the two fields can inform each other, especially Process philosophy. Barbour sympathies lie with dialogue and integration, but I believe he is fair to all points of view. I also liked and approve of his use of "critical realism" in dealing with unseen realities like electrons and God.

I'd also recommend books by fellow scientist/theolgians and Templeton Prize winners (and critical realists) John Polkinghorne and Arthur Peacocke. Also, see David Ray Griffin's books for a process theology point-of-view. (Griffin is a follower of the famous philosopher Alfred North Whitehead.)

Oddly, the most succinct and lucid statement of Barbour's theory comes, not from him, but from a reader whose email he quotes in the footnotes at the end of the book: "All moments are simultaneous ... My conscious mind feeds them to me in a linear sequence strung out with a bunch of other moments in an illusion of a continuous flow of action." (p. 340, trade paperback edition) Barbour comments that this reader's views are "often very close to my own position."

I see two problems here. First, the hypothesis seems essentially solipsistic - it's not clear if it can ever be tested, proved, or disproved. Second, how can "my conscious mind feed these moments to me" in a world of total stasis, a world where everything is frozen and motionless? Either consciousness itself is exempt from the timelessness of the rest of the system (but Barbour seems to think it isn't) or consciousness, being part of a timeless reality, is frozen and unable to engage in any processes - including the process of "feeding" moments to me. In other words, if time is an illusion created by a filmstrip of single frames being run in our heads, then what is running the movie, and how can the movie run at all when nothing can move?

The theory seems to raise more questions than it answers. Still, questions are always valuable, so - three stars!

There are currently several books dealing with new theories in physics, they are fascinating but I found the "End of Time" a bit disappointing after all the newspaper hype. What I want in a book of this type are three things, firstly to be educated on the general theoretical background, entertainingly presented the history of the subject up to the present day, secondly the author must, as succinctly as possible, explain their theory; show where it supports and where it overturns conventional ideas. Finally the books must present conclusions, sketch out the likely impact of the new concept. The "End of Time" devotes many pages to arguments in favour of the author's thesis, in a way that will bore the general reader but is unlikely to convince the physicist. Near the end of the book my feeling was ok ok you win, just tell me the implications, but that's the problem, the author refuses to speculate, possibly on the spurious grounds that predictions are impossible in a world without time. In summary a long, confusing and eventually a frustrating read. If you want to see how a book of this type should be handled read the unbelievably good "The Inflationary Universe" by Alan H. Guth.

There are currently several books dealing with new theories in physics, they are fascinating but I found the "End of Time" a bit disappointing after all the newspaper hype. What I want in a book of this type are three things, firstly to be educated on the general theoretical background, entertainingly presented the history of the subject up to the present day, secondly the author must, as succinctly as possible, explain their theory; show where it supports and where it overturns conventional ideas. Finally the books must present conclusions, sketch out the likely impact of the new concept. The "End of Time" devotes many pages to arguments in favour of the author's thesis, in a way that will bore the general reader but is unlikely to convince the physicist. Near the end of the book my feeling was ok ok you win, just tell me the implications, but that's the problem, the author refuses to speculate, possibly on the spurious grounds that predictions are impossible in a world without time. In summary a long, confusing and eventually a frustrating read. If you want to see how a book of this type should be handled read the unbelievably good "The Inflationary Universe" by Alan H. Guth.