No substitute for a good text book, but respectable to say the least. Has accurate accounts of Arizona great history, but a short book dedicated to a subject matter that really deserves VOLUMES!

The word "cavalcade" means a ceremonial procession, especially of horsemen.It takes a good storyteller to turn historical facts into a ceremonial procession, but in _Arizona: a Cavalcade of History_ , Marshall Trimble has done just that.

There are 19 chapters in Trimble's book. They begin with a chapter on the paleological eras of Arizona and conclude with a chapter called "recent Arizona history," but what that means is that it focuses on events since WW II.

There are chapters on the Spanish attempts at settling and controlling Arizona, and there is a very interesting chapter on Arizona's Native Americans. However, my favorite stories are from the many chapters on the time of the Old West.

I will wager that most American history books do not include the story that Arizona almost had a seacoast. One legend has it that when engineers were surveying west of Nogales, someone pointed out that the nearest saloon was in Yuma. So the thirsty engineers made a right angle turn.

This makes an interesting story, but the truth of the matter was that when James Gadsden arrived in Mexico City in 1853, he had five different offers to make to the Mexican government. The largest was a $50 million offer that would have given Arizona seacoast on the Gulf of California. However the Mexican government declined that offer because they wanted to maintain a land bridge to the Baja Peninsula.

Globe, Arizona, was a mining town. The first major mine was developed there in 1873 and the town grew. In time a school was built, but unfortunately no one realized that it was near a bordello. Since the law said that a bordello could not be within 400 feet of a school, some of the citizens of Globe requested that the sheriff shut down the bordello. At the same time, another group of citizens requested that the sheriff move the school. The sheriff measured the distance between the two structures and found that the 400 foot limit extended 4 feet into the front of the bordello. To solve the problem, the sheriff told the madam to conduct her business in the back rooms of the bordello which were just outside the legal limit.

In the mining town of Jerome, the miners were paid once a month. For a few days afterward, the mines were closed as the miners spent their hard-earned cash at the local saloons. Some ended up spending a night in jail and some ended up before the local magistrate, a fellow named Lewis St. James who was totally deaf and could not hear any of the testimony. "But he seemed to know most of the defendants personally and ruled accordingly. Like most judges, he had an uncanny ability to know just how much money they were carrying and to set the fines accordingly." (p. 145)

These delightful stories are among the many in Trimble's cavalcade. To help out his readers, Trimble has included numerous maps and photographs of the places and people about which he writes. There is also an index and a bibliography.

Marshall Trimble has truly written a ceremonial procession of history.

I've read several of Trimble's books on Arizona and have thoroughly enjoyed each. Trimble has two gifts that make his books special.

The first is his writing style. Although I enjoy reading about Arizona history, some books can make this tedious at times. I read a chapter or two, and then I need to take a break. When reading Trimble you find yourself wrapped up in history. His lively prose and frequent use of humorous and fascinating anecdotes make the pages fly by. This book is no exception. Even those that are bored by history will probably enjoy this book.

The second of Trimble's gift is his knowledge of Arizona and the southwest. His books are packed with information about the state. There is a reason that he has been named the state's Official Historian.

If you want to learn about Arizona's fascinating past, this book is one of the ones that you should start with.

After reading "Your Money or Your Life" by Joe Dominguez and Vicki Robin and the "Tightwad Gazette" by Amy Dacyczyn, both of which I found revoluntionary and greatly inspiring, this book fell flat.

There is nothing in this book that couldn't be gleaned from a few basic investment and financial advice books with a little social conscience thrown in. Why not try Charles Given's "Financial Self-Defense" or "Charles Schwab's Guide to Financial Independence"? They cover everything in Mr. Glickman's book and then some.

As far as his money-saving tips for around the house, yes! it is good advice. Did you know that buying energy-efficient appliances can save you money in the long run? (A revelation). I guess this is good stuff for people who really aren't paying attention to such things, but then again, people like that generally don't bother reading books about how to be financially responsible or how to retire early. They're too busy working to keep up with those credit card payments...

Personally, I would have found it INFINITELY more interesting if the author explained to his dear readers how he managed to "retire" on $135,000 at the age of 24. Even at a 10% yearly return, this is only a $13,500 a year income. Not to mention, he has a wife and two kids? How did he manage it? (He writes financial advice books, I guess!)

To add insult to injury, he advises his readers how to calculate their retirement income - at age 65! I plan on retiring FAR earlier than that. Mr. Glickman certainly did.

This book provides the same cliched advice you can find just about anywhere these days, but without adding anything really interesting or new. For those looking for something with REAL answers on how to get out of the rat race, why not read Janet Luhr's "The Simple Living Guide"? For example, she has a whole chapter devoted to inexpensive, alternative housing that REALLY can make a difference in your lifestyle and values.

The author of this book dispenses lots of advice, and a lot of it IS very good, it's just that it isn't very revoluntionary, inspiring or heart-warming.

This is a great book for socially conscious investors. The book discusses our relationship with money and various ways we can learn to invest more socially conscious. The relationship we have with money affects our feelings toward money and eventually the way we view our lives. This book is also a great beginners book for investing. It highlights different investments as well as asset allocation tips. This book can positively change the relationship you have with money.

I loved The Mindful Money Guide. It's humor, economy, and wisdom were a delight. I appreciated how the book synthesized the best of the alternative financial books, while still being fresh and original. Do note in some ways the book is subtle, it's not intended for those looking to get rich fast or retire young. Rather it's aim is to help the reader find financial security (both fiscal and psychological) and meaningful work without becoming obsessed with money or neglecting their social conscience. It's about balance. Since that's what I was looking for, the book struck a chord in me. And unlike so many other financial guides, it's fun to read. I've been heartily recommending it to my friends--and getting good feedback from any who've read it.

A BOOK ABOUT OUTDOOR MUSEUMS THAT I PLANNED TO SHARE WITH MY GRANDDAUGHTER AND MY 86 YEAR-OLD MOTHER.
BUT A BOOK THAT INSTEAD WAS FULL OF AMATEURISH DRAWINGS OF GREAT OUTDOOR WORKS OF ART...

If you remember the first time you saw the "Spirit of Detroit" as a child, or walked past "Two Bears" at Quarton School, this book is for you. It is full of wonderful, whimsical illustrations that look at great art from a child's innocent perspective.

I believe the title "The Outdoor Museum : The Magic of Michigan's Marshall M. Fredericks" fits the book well, as it captures the magic of Marshall Fredericks's art, which is best appreciated out of doors, i.e. at Cross in the Woods in Indian River, MI, "Freedom of the Human Spirit" in Birmingham, MI, "Spirit of Detroit" downtown . . .

This is a delightful tour of sculpture in Michigan, with a guide both knowledgeable and able to capture the imagination of the reader. I can't imagine a better way to introduce your children to the beauty and meaning of art. Warmly illustrated, wonderfully written, highly recommended.

A Review
The Virtual Marshall McLuhan, Donald F. Theall
McGill-Queens University Press, 305 pp.
(with a historical appendix by Edmund Carpenter)

Everything about Marshall McLuhan is paradoxical. He knew this about himself and made much of it as an attention-getting strategy even to the point of appearing to be a trickster, an artist of sorts. Like a Dadaist or Surrealist, who were antagonistic toward middle class society in the avant garde Bohemian tradition of épater-le-bourgeois, McLuhan 'twitched the burghers' of establishment values far and wide almost globally. McLuhan noticed first and best how electric process was changing society and individuals.
I know of no one who understands McLuhan's electric and eclectic vision better than Donald Theall. As McLuhan's first and most important Ph.D. student and close associate from 1950-54, Theall was let in on the complex developments that produced the Explorations Group, the Ford Foundation study that led to Understanding Media, and the establishment of the Centre for Culture and Technology at St.Michael's college in the early sixties. Theall was privy to the developing relations between Harold Innis, Tom Easterbrook, Edmund Carpenter, Dorothy Lee and the rest of this historically significant association.
Many commentators flirt with the ambiguities of McLuhan's vision but a true understanding of the coherence of this vision is extremely rare. Theall brilliantly links McLuhan's , at the time rather unseemly, popularity with his understanding of the very early virtualizing role of the intellectual in the electronic age:

Speaking about some remarks of the classical eighteenth-century father of capitalist economics, Adam Smith, ... McLuhan argues: "in this passage Smith does seem to sense that the new role of the intellectual is to tap the collective consciousness of 'the vast multitudes that labour.' That is to say, the intellectual is no longer to direct individual perception and judgment but to explore and to communicate the massive unconscious of collective man. The intellectual is merely cast in the role of a primitive seer, vates or hero incongruously peddling his discoveries in a commercial market. (Theall. 208)

This is an example of the deep understanding that only Theall can bring to McLuhan's work. After McLuhan has described himself, to Ezra Pound, as "an intellectual thug," the prophetic huckster gives his reason for being satiric and disinterested in society: "Everyman of goodwill is the enemy of society." (McLuhan, 1962, 269) This is a deeply conservative view of one's fellow citizens - original sin as politics.
Theall sees McLuhan as a new kind of artist, a sort of poet who produces what Theall calls the "essai concrete," a poetic prose that captures the multiplexed meanings of the electric worldview. McLuhan follows Joyce in his unrelenting punning ambiguities - a strategy for multiplying meanings. There is never anything linear, logical or definite in the "probes" that Dr. McLuhan injects into situations. But it is never a matter of listing either/or oppositions (even though he was maddeningly dichotomous in some of his statements), so much as learning how to follow a both/and approach to events that most interests McLuhan in his Joycean and satiric posture.
Theall, being one of the few people knowledgeable of the deep background of scholarship behind McLuhan's contemporary façade, is incisive in his understanding of McLuhan's profound ambivalence in the face of traditional intellectual categories. McLuhan is neither fish nor fowl, neither moralizing conservative nor countercultural guru. Being partly both, he transcended both in his electric odyssey, and planted the first oar in the side of post-modernism by becoming himself another virtual self.
What is almost always missed except by a very few and Theall foremost, is the perception of the darker side of McLuhan, his arcane knowledge which derives from his Cambridge Ph.D. studies in the hermetic tradition of the early grammarians - characters from Cicero to Blake through Cornelius Agrippa and Joachim de Floris. The Hermetic implications of the dissertation on Nashe show an earlier interest in such ideas.
In short, I know of no one better able to comment credibly on the multi-faceted genius of McLuhan: the artist, the satirist, the exploring pioneer of the electric world in all its complex diversity and amazing revelations.
Anyone who worked closely with Marshall McLuhan took their intellectual lumps. He was capable of great kindness and generosity but stood adamantly against any meddling with his work unless powerful new perceptions were presented to
him. Without mentioning Yeats and his famous reluctance to explain his poems because ("it tends to limit their suggestibility") McLuhan's position is deftly handled by Theall who worked very closely with the master. "My canvasses are surrealist, and to call them theories is to miss my satirical intent altogether. As you will find in my literary essays, I can write the ordinary kind of prose any time I choose to do so." (Theall, 67)
The quite deliberate difficulties in McLuhan's writing are rooted in his taste for paradox and rhetorical play. The artful ambiguities that arise from this approach Theall is better than anyone to convey. He produces a brilliant insight: "The power of ambiguity to imply more than can be said and the power of juxtaposing items without comment to intensify observation are two strategies McLuhan had learned from Pound, Eliot and F.R. Leavis. (Theall., 68)
Some of Theall's best observations deal with McLuhan's proclivity for an allusive and aphoristic prose style that goes way back and is rooted in classical literature. His knowledge of the obscurity of surrealism, modernist symbolisme, and high modernist post-symbolism ... reinforced and radicalized lessons he had learned earlier from Francis Bacon's observations about the advantages of a deliberately obscure, parabolic style - what Bacon called crypsis... . (Theall., 68)

The Virtual McLuhan has both scope and depth of understanding from perhaps the one scholar whose knowledge of McLuhan's genius is based on his own and his intimate almost filial relationship with the great men. The chapter "Gnosticism, Hermeticism and Modernism" is a first in bringing the darker McLuhan into fine focus. Fitted out in the robes of precursor it is possible to see McLuhan as Theall presents him as anticipating cyberspace, postmodernism and the Internet. His prescience is well marked and displayed by Donald Theall in this excellent, sine qua non, treatment of McLuhan the man and the multiplex and dynamic ideas which remain alive and are extended beyond the original in Theall's hands.

Biographies and accounts of the famous possess a certain fascination. Sometimes even flashes of illumination. But most are based on second-hand knowledge of authors attracted to the famous after attainment of fame. This is often too late because fame has a way of creating a type of trickster mythology obscuring its subject.

A rare few biographies are written by those who had close friendships with the famous before the hazy mythology of fame enveloped their subject. Here are the famous before they were "hijacked" and packaged by icon-making PR handlers, before their entrance onto world stages or tabloid pages. Reading these accounts is somewhat like watching scratchy old home movies that peek into the shadowy early years before later lives were illuminated by the bright flashes of the paparazzi cameras. These stories are often the most interesting, the most enlightening, the most instructive, and too, the most paradoxical and ambiguous.

These thoughts come to mind in reading the brilliant and fascinating book The Virtual Marshall McLuhan by Donald Theall professor emeritus, former president of Trent University and author of The Medium Is the Rear View Mirror. In the thick mythological haze which particularly surrounds the McLuhan legend, it is indeed a rare and insightful friendship.

With this in mind, Theall's book is still a funny hybrid genre not easy to place in traditional categories. Andrew Potter, a reporter for the Canadian National Post says it well in his March 24, 2001 review of the book "Rescuing McLuhan." Potter writes Theall's book "is not a biography of McLuhan, nor is it an application or elaboration of his views. It is perhaps best understood as an exercise in retrieval, an attempt to rescue McLuhan from McLuhanism and McLuhanites, from those who would portray him as the patron saint of the new corporate technotopia as well as from those...who would read him as an early voice in the wilderness, warning of civilization's demise."

* * *

In the summer of 1950, Donald Theall arrived at the University of Toronto as a graduate student. The director of Graduate Studies of the English Department attempted to warn Theall against doing a doctoral degree with an avant-garde, unorthodox professor at the University named Marshall McLuhan.

But Theall was not persuaded and decided to stay in Toronto to study under the iconoclastic professor rather than return to Yale. Theall writes "I felt that between the historically oriented University of Toronto Department of English and the avant-garde McLuhan I was obtaining a badly needed awareness of the study of literature in its historical context as well as within a new, broadly interdisciplinary context."

McLuhan embedded his teaching in literary history but also in the history of grammar, logic, rhetoric, and early theories of education. It was a history of inter-relationships between literature, the arts, and the everyday culture. Certainly a rare combination at the time and one that threatened the rather insular perspective of the English Department at the University of Toronto. When he arrived, McLuhan was the only lay member of the English Department, which primarily consisted of a handful of priests and three nuns.

The Marshall McLuhan that Donald Theall and his new bride Joan met in 1950 was a "charming, good looking, witty, fun-loving, highly intelligent devotee to the world of letters and traditional arts." More significant for what has come to be, notes Theall, McLuhan was a technophobe who often despised technology. In 1950 he did not own an automobile or a vacuum cleaner. And he did not type but used pen and ink and stored his notes in small boxes that had originally contained Laura Secord chocolates.

Toronto in the 50s personified McLuhan's technophobia. It was a boring, forgotten city of three-quarters of a million people. Theall calls it an "overgrown village" adding it was a "somewhat idyllic...still semi-colonial, marginally contemporary city...a sedate, stuffy city where on Sundays the major department store drew curtains across its windows, stores did not sell cigarettes, and people could not have wine or other alcoholic beverages with a restaurant meal ... There was no television; the only radio network, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC)...was government owned."

Another close friend and collaborator of McLuhan in Toronto of the 50s was Edmund "Ted" Carpenter. In his short enlightening McLuhan memoir "That Not-So-Silent Sea" in the Appendix of Theall's book, Edmund Carpenter remembers Toronto as a "depressing" place, "not a joyous place at all." It had a meanness which was visible everywhere - in its architecture, its food. McLuhan once described it to Carpenter as the "cringing, flunkey spirit of Canadian culture" and "its servant quarter snobbishness." Leopold Infeld, one of Carpenter's friends, suggested it was "perhaps the finest city in which to die, especially on Sunday afternoon when the transition between life and death would be continuous, painless and scarcely noticeable."

* * *

Theall's book is a master memoir of a time and a person that no other McLuhan biographer can come close to. It is not an easy book and those interested in reading a McLuhan for Dummies are advised to steer clear of this book. But this book is the real thing. I wrote a 6,000 word review of the book which was scheduled for publication in a publication that went out of business. I would be happy to send this review to anyone if they simply write me at jfraim@symbolism.org. Judge for yourself about Donald Theall's book. For myself, it is a masterpiece from the apprentice of the master.

Come on now, the title of the earlier review tells it all, except that Donald Theall isn't the one involved in the academic infighting.

It is also factually incorrect, since the entire sweep of McLuhan's work is more than amply covered in Theall's excellent biography.

As McLuhan's first PhD student Theall (along with McLuhan's first "partner" Ted Carpenter) presents a careful and nuanced perspective on the life and influences of McLuhan -- a rarity in a world where McLuhan has been used for everything short of selling pipe tobacco.

Let those who were outside McLuhan's life fight over him, Theall (and Carpenter) are clearly insiders and they give us the sharpest insight yet into the life of this towering intellect.

WHOO! Simmons was one serious nut. And I have never seen a spiraling slide into nutdom so artfully rendered. The authors did a remarkable job at explaining a terribly complex scenario that ended in mass murder. The tale of lunacy, incest, and violence is gripping and very freakish. Simmons is one of the worst crazies America ever produced.

Zero at the Bone is without a doubt one of the most horrifying accounts of family massacre ever written. Williams very clearly gets across to the reader the contents of Ronald Gene Simmons' twisted, sick mind. His obsessive lust/love for his daughter Sheila is horrifying; and the detailed steps Simmons took to wipe out his immediate family detail him as nothing less than totally mad. The reader cannot help but feel saddened for Sheila, for she is truly a victim of her father's depraved actions. Simmons' wife Becky is a tragic figure, yet she possesses a core of steel which sustains her up until her murder. Simmons is nothing short of a monster, and Williams spares no words in getting this point across. A note of caution: DO NOT read this book before bedtime!! It is capable of producing some of the worst nightmares, and I would not recommend it for those with weak constitutions. I am an Arkansas native, and remember very vividly these murders. And 15 years later, it still sends shudders down my spine.

The story of Ronald Gene Simmons is masterfully told. We learn about Gene's life, his family, his intense love and jealousy, his fears and suspicions, and his murders. The monster is made human and we are better able to understand why a man would murder his entire family, then undertake another carefully orchestrated murder spree before docilely surrendering to police.

I am a mechanical and structural consulting engineer. While I found this book to be quite entertaining and at times downright amusing, I also found it to be completely impractical from a scientific point of view. If the purpose of reading it is to provide entertainment, and possible stimulation to imagination, I have less problems with the text. If the purpose is to actually research practical enginering systems that purport to acomplish the tasks claimed in the book, then there are major problems. From ocean colonies powered by OTEC to the space lanuch systems, engineering and science does not support the authors claims to even a limited extent. While the colonization of space is a noble goal and one that humans hopefully will reach some day, the engineering systems and general science described in this book is not going to be the method or means to achieve that end.

Marshall Savage is a true visionary. In defense of his scheme to colonize the galaxy, he presents an astonishing wealth of fascinating information, conveniently available nowhere else. The prose style is engagingly un-scholarly. A fun, curious, conversation-starting book. The foundation actually exists, and when I last checked, they were trying to purchase land in the Bahamas to start an ocean thermal energy plant.

I am 14 years old, and the book was well written enough for me to understand completely. It inspires all sorts of hope in the idea that humans could get out into space one day. If any of the ideas Savage presents are possible, then maybe our planet is not as doomed as we may think.

I wish I nere had to use Motif, but thsi is a good intro for those that do. Well written.

For those involved starting in GUI development in Motif, this text explains everything you need to know about the widgets, design, functions, custom GUIs and more. This is not for beginner programmers but for people who know how to program in C++. As a primer, you might want to watch "Takin It All Off" which is in VHS video available through amazon.

I initially used a different book as an introduction to Motif programming, but found it unclear and confusing. Just a few hours after switching to this book, the curtain was pulled back and understanding poured through the window of this well written manual. "Manual" is almost a misnomer, as it reads better than any other manual I have ever encountered. If you are new to Motif, this book is for you.

This book promises to tell of the ultimate betrayal - and it does: that of a parent betraying a child. Ms. Marshall asks, at the beginning of The Book of Karma, "Is there a clue, any concrete clue to explain what happened between us?" I'd say, "Absolutely. About a million of them."

Shelly Marshall would have been better off consulting Dr. Spock instead of spirit guides, psychics and evangelists. Contrary to what Ms. Marshall would have us believe - and no matter how she glosses over this aspect of her "parenting" (and she does) -- beating a child was NOT acceptable in the seventies. Nor was the kind of verbal abuse she says she dished out regularly.

It's hard to find any sympathy for Shelly Marshall. For someone who claims to be so in touch with her spiritual self, she comes across as shallow (describing everyone, including her child, in physically unflattering ways), and self-absorbed (she's perfected "poor me"). She surrounded herself and her child with violent, abusive people, and, indeed, was violent and abusive herself. Here's one clue, Ms. Marshall: Children learn what they live.

Ms. Marshall says Karma tried to turn herself into her mother. I'm not surprised. The author put herself so high up on a pedestal it must have been an impossible reach for a little girl's arms.

I can only hope that Karma, as an adult, has learned that she wasn't a "bad seed," as her mother so willingly believed. That sometimes, no matter how much we wish it weren't so, children are born to parents who are either barely able to take care of themselves, or only able to take care of themselves. And, especially, that no matter what anyone told her as a child, and no matter what anyone is telling her now, she should have been treated like the blessing every child is. From the very beginning - a blessing and a gift. Especially that.

Don't really know why I chose "The Book of Karma" from the Amazon website - it looked interesting? I didn't know the author or really what it was about - when it arrived here in Australia - I started reading and couldn't put it down! I guess somtimes in life, a book comes along, that speaks right to the heart of my own dramas - and this was certainly one of them. If you ever have to struggle, with a deep sense of betrayal, and find yourself desparately hanging onto your Spiritual path -whatever that means to you - then this book will speak to you too. I lent it to a friend of mine in the fellowship and she gobbled it up too! Still addicts at heart - though in recovery - sometimes you realise God sends you the help, that you need, from the most unlikely places! I loved the dreams, I loved and feared the people, I loved the struggle and I loved the honesty. THANK YOU SHELLY.

The bad seed bloomed and the flower is carnivorous! That could be the bumper sticker for this intense and entertaining story of a gorgeous child whose values go astray and the caring,loving Mom who becomes a victim of her own virtues and a victim of the lack of virtues in her daughter. Actually every one ends up suffering for their actions or lack of action in a story that seems too frightening to be true. I couldn't put it down from the time I opened the cover. Looking for that silver lining kept me turning the pages until I finished, and there is a silver lining. This is ultimately a story of denial and discovery, and brings the meaning of the philosophy of karma to a new level of understanding. If you are familiar with AA, or NA, or any other 12 step organization, you will be utterly amazed that the author maintained her own sobriety in the face of heart piercing betrayal. If you are a parent, you will shudder and pray that your child escapes the pain of "something missing" in their psyche. And you just might pay a little more attention to those "oh, that's just kid stuff" behaviors. I sincerely hope that no one anywhere ever has to deal with the pain and insanity that this family lived with day in and day out. It is truly a miracle that both Mom and daughter and everyone close to them survived, learned and moved on. A testament to love, The Book of Karma offers hope. Read it!

Marshall Brooks' unique and intriguing A BRIEF ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF THE BOOKSHELF follows the development of bookshelves worldwide, speculating on its fascinating correlation with the development of literacy and publishing. Shelves from the first millenium B.C. Mesopotamian to today's subterranean stacks in the New York Public Library are covered. His treatment of this esoteric sounding subject is actually loaded with interest and fancy. Pen and ink artwork by the author manages to stay historically accurate even as its style introduces a sweet note of whimsy. Detail in the illustrations takes the burden off text, leaving it a nugget of quick, fascinating and often quirky facts. This illustration/text balance is great for promoting reflection on the reader's part. Peppered with quotes from Jack Kerouac, Charles W. Eliot and Brooks' own father, A BRIEF HISTORY also includes enticing references to the likes of James Baldwin and Holly Golightly, as well as obscure anecdotes about figures including Thomas Jefferson, Samuel Pepys, Napoleon, and the French composer, Alkan. Brooks provides a diverse bibliography for those readers lured into further exploration. A BRIEF ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF THE BOOKSHELF is a significant book with a lightness of spirit.

This is a thoroughly delightful little gem of a book--witty, erudite and to the point. Let's face it--bookshelves are a fairly obscure and dry topic; Brooks' wonderful illustrations and text bring out the highlights (and a few low points) of three thousand years of the book storage conundrum. The letterpress paperback version is a bargain.

Marshall Brooks's Brief Illustrated History came out a year before Henry Petroski's The Book on the Bookshelf, but didn't generate nearly the amount of attention. That's a shame, because for those of us who are mildly curious as to how the storage of books has evolved, but who do not have a dozen uninterrupted hours of reading in which to satisfy that curiosity, this is a better book. Want to know how the Egyptians stored cuneiform tablets? Here's 100 words on the subject - just enough, not too much - and best of all, a charming drawing to go with it. Brooks has rendered and explained everything from Samuel Pepys custom glass-front cabinets that allowed him to store his books by height, to the library of Congress's self-ventilating shelves. This little book is a pleasure, and at only 80 pages or so won't cause your own bookshelves to collapse under its weight.

I found this book to be less an exposition and analysis of Christ or Christianity in comparison to other religions, than an exposition of the author's conservative view of Christianity. The book in general argues for the superiority of Christianity to the other religions mentioned in the book without any meaningful analysis of other religions.

In the chapter titled "Why tolerance is not a Christian virtue" the author takes the view that Christians have a special obligation to involve themselves in other people's lives,thereby betraying a particular point of view, with which other Christians may not agree.

In dealing with the topic of sexual mores, the author makes the blanket statement that Jesus reaffirmed Old Testament sexual mores, with no specific references to Scripture, implying a legalism which is antithetical to the heart of the message of Jesus.

While I agree with the author's assertion that Jesus' strong views regarding monogamy represented a significant advance for the status of women, his usage of the fact that certain strains of other religions allow poligamy and even prostitution in order to discredit other religions is a questionable tactic on the road to proving Christianity's moral superiority.

Certainly practitioners of those religions could point out anomolous practices among certain Christian groups that do not represent the heart of the Gospel .

If you are interested in reading an exposition of conservative Christian views, this book should be right up your alley. If you are expecting some insightful analysis comparing the religions of man to Christianity, you'll be disappointed.

This book provides an excellent explanation of how Christianity can be reconciled with Asian religions and culture. I am a recent Christian and one of the problems I always had with Christianity was the exclusiveness of its claim to truth. When I became Christian, it was very important for me to deal with that issue.
David Marshall's book does this very thing with subtle reasoning, uncompromising principles, and a true sensitivity to the mind and culture of Asian peoples gained from real life experience in the region. It is instructive to mention the main points of this book as I saw them.
One: there is much that anticipates and supports Christian revelation in the traditions and religions of Asia. As a result, many Asians are very receptive to the Christian message, if only they live in a society where they are allowed the freedom to consider such things.
Two: Westerners tend to romanticize Asian religions as being somehow more pure and wise than Christianity. This is a view that patently ignores some significant flaws in Asian religious doctrine and practice and such things must be honestly recognized in order to substantially compare Christianity to Buddhism, Hinduism, and other Asian traditions.
Three: These flaws have led to injustices and crimes against humanity in various Asian societies. In almost every case, Christianity provides an ethical and moral framework with which to address and solve these injustices. (Christianity provides this same framework for dealing with injustices in the Western world, by the way.)
Four: one can simultaneously assert core Christian doctrines while respecting Asian religious and cultural values. Just because we believe Jesus to be the only true Son of God, does not mean that we regard any person or religion who does not hold that same belief to be beneath contempt. There is much beauty and truth to be found in Asian culture and religion, much that complements and expresses Christian values. Where Christianity and those same traditions part company, we must be courageous enough to state the differences honestly and with love, and to work towards obtaining truth, no matter what the cost to our pre-conceived ideals.
I ramble, but basically this book was both a joy to read and incredibly illuminating. As someone who lived in Japan, this book proved an invaluabe resource in providing a way and a method to understand how Christianity can be integrated into the Asian world view without violating its core principles.

Jesus and the Religions of Man (JATROM) is a wonderful apologetic that examines the core of our humanity in the context of our modern society. The major intellectual, political and social revolutions of the 20th century, that has formed the basis of our society in the 3rd millennium, are critically examined in the light of history. The author¡¦s reflective insights of the problems of Marxism, sexuality and eastern mysticism are drawn from a deep intellectual well that never runs dry. He is constantly comparing thought forms and ways of life to the life, thoughts and ways of Christ. He compellingly concludes that all (including the Church) fall short of the glory and the abundance of life that is offered in Christ. Anecdotal references to the authors own experiences travelling through Asia adds character and personality to a book that is filled with arguments that defends the Gospel of Christ in a new, appealing and refreshing way.

This is a great book. I especially enjoyed the chapter on how Jesus has changed the world. Marshall does not shy away from the crusades and the ¡§bad¡¨ things done in the ¡§name¡¨ of Christianity. Instead he shows that the world was not changed by the ¡§ecumenical authority of the Church¡¨ but rather the every day man and woman who accepted Christ into their lives. The people on the ground who allowed the transforming power of the Holy Spirit to work through them, conform them to Christ and allowed them to change the world. Marshall constantly appeals to the humanity of man and persuasively shows how man has tried to set himself up as a god. He calls us to a life of worship and submission to God for, as he shows by examining modern psychological evidence, the inward looking man will implode.

If you are an atheist, read this book and try to refute it¡¦s research and claims. If you are a seeker, JATROM will answer many of the questions that you are probably asking. If you are Christian, read this book and be inspired to continue to seeking the will of God, for as David Marshall repeats constantly, Jesus came to give us abundant life. If you are a Buddhist, Hindu or eastern Mystic, confront this apologetic on it¡¦s own terms. I am sure it will shed new light on your beliefs and who you are. Written with astounding clarity, occasional wit, amazing insight and compassionate persuasiveness, JATROM is certainly worthy enough to find a place next to Moreland, Schaeffer, and McDowell on any bookshelf.