How on earth I ever managed to enjoy Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin novels before reading Anthony Gary Brown's wonderful dictionary is a mystery. Brown's book is a must have for all those who wish to get the most out of reading O'Brian's excellent naval stories.

I've been sampling this book for a couple of weeks and I can't tell you how much I've been enjoying it! For a fan of the Aubrey/Maturin books its almost as good as having a new POB come out! I think of someone I want to look up, then by the time I've read that entry I've been led to another, and then another and I keep stumbling on the most amazing facts and interesting historical stories.While just keeping track of all the names in the books is useful enough, the "enhanced" information - all the details about "real" people and ships and historical events - is the most exciting treasure for me.I can not begin to imagine the hours and hours invested in this masterpiece, though the careful attention to details and proofreading suggest it was a labor of love. All I can say is that I'm very grateful to the author for having written it. It will make reading and re-reading the Aubrey/Maturin books an even greater delight, and for me at least, it will lead deeper into the historical literature behind the series.Every bookstore in the country should stock this on the shelves next to the Aubrey/Maturin books so new converts will have it in hand right from the start.

Anthony Gary Brown's "Persons, Animals, Ships and Cannon in the Aubrey-Maturin Sea Novels" is a wonderful resource for anyone who loves the nautical fiction of Patrick O'Brian. The depth and breadth of research evident in this companion volume to the Aubrey-Maturin series is truly awe-inspiring. Every "proper name" reference -- no matter how slight or obscure -- has been diligently tracked and, where ever possible the historical reality behind the fictional is revealed. Characters I had assumed to be merely creations of Patrick O'Brian's imagination are shown by Gary Brown to be based in actual persons. Whenever Stephen Maturin speaks of an obscure botanist or philosopher, Brown has explained who he or she was and what was the significance of their work. There are many, many hours of delightful browsing in this volume for any Patrick O'Brian fan.

The author's research supports the title of his book. However, as I was reading the book, he mentioned that black men are steering from the church. Black women, like men, are also steering from the church looking for more spiritual in-depth from other religions. Despite the great success the African-American church has done for its congregants, it also has done some damage to its people by extorting money to support their lavish lifestyle, sexual scandals, and brainwashing people with their false prophesies. Preachers need to really take a good look at themselves and question whether or not they are fit to lead the people to God. And the church needs to change its role politically, socially, and economically to help the members and the community at large.

Guess what folks? Ephesians 5: 8-11 states that we must expose the secret things of shame. There are two many secrets about the black church and Herbert Brown has spoken the truth that I witnessed as a Pastor's Daughter. Except there are more types than pimps, punks, and pushers. There are the incest perpetrators and batterers than are ministers with authority and control in the black church. I have known several Pastors like this. What about the ones that have four offerings at a church service, and the hirelings, and the mentally ill who disquise themselves as men of God...write another book Herbert. Please write another book!

The crucible of the black church has been unalterably ruptured by Herbert E. Brown in his new book, "Pimps in the Pulpit." His effusive, jack-hammer style essay has unleashed a torrent of criticism on this once venerable institution which, like the sped arrow, is not easily recovered or ignored. The hot ore of his scathing look at the African-American religious institution of overwhelming choice blisters the reader's blissful comfort level with searing intensity

Mr. Brown's personal style departs from the sedate, dispassionate offerings of previous authors critically examining the establishment and evolution of this powerful, wealthy, influential, and quasi-religious community. Departing with vigor from the restraints of such writers as C. Eric Lincoln and Lawrence H.Mamiya's work on the black church in the African-American experience, and Carter G. Woodson's seminal work, "A History of the Slack Church", H.E. Brown's personal essay is unique in its conception, in that its unbridled criticism and analysis make no pretense of academic historiography or objective scientific ologies imposed on predecessors by their caution. His work is so suffused with primal passion and unadulterated indignation, that it will surely be included in a separate category of Phillip Lopate's next edition of "The Art of the Personal Essay" A son of Virginia, not unlike the most venerated American icon of the same soil, Thomas Jefferson, Mr. Brown shares the same philosophical and ideological iconoclasm regarding the condition of the Christian Church in America. While Jefferson was so driven by his vision that he wrote extensively on the subject and produced what is often referred to as the ""Jefferson Bible, ""H.E. Brown has focused his attention on the Black Christian Church in its degraded contemporary form. The need for a continuing examination of the church's status, consequences, and influence is made exquisitely clear as Brown takes a sledgehammer to it as befitting a primary civilizing institution that is self-evidently doing the opposite. By design and with good intent, the approach and conception is that of unerring criticism and unencumbered prescient analysis. Among its most unique features are the novel, entertaining yet serious description of three types of preachers who pervade the pulpit of the black church; the pimp, the punk, and the pusher. This bare-knuckle personality profile of church leadership types will surely ring true to some, outrage others, and cause spiritual pain to the spiritually vulnerable.

Brown's litany of the failures of the black church cuts across the intellectual disciplines of Education, Economics, Sociology, Psychology, History, and Theology. He excoriates with particular unrepentant candor the ugliness in the black church caused by the unexpurgated fealty and Siamese-like attachment to the dominant white church its historically oppressive theology and unwholesome theologians. As if oblivious to the inherent racism that permeates all of America's civilizing institutions formed under western imperialism, the black church has become less than an empty shell devoid of truth and righteousness; it has become a demonic temple of spiritual death, fueling a life threatening erosion of black people in all areas of human existence.

Mr. Brown has captured the essence of the personal essay in this book, an essential characteristic of which is described by Phillip Lopate in the following quotation: "It is often that personal essayists intentionally go against the grain of popular opinion. They raise the ante, as it were, making it more difficult for the reader to identify frictionlessly with the writer. The need to assert a specific temperament frequently leads the essayist into playing the curmudgeon, for there is no quicker way to demonstrate idiosyncrasy and independence than to stand a platitude on its head, to show a prickly opposition to what the rest of humanity views as patently wholesome or to find merit in what the community regards as loathsome."" Herbert Elliott Brown has encircled the black church and has thereby, placed it in a position of needing to reform itself in order to extricate itself from the throes of repugnance and putridity. And while so doing, he has written in a manner of pristine congruence with the essayist charge as proffered by Lopate below: "The essayist attempts to surround a something-a subject, a mood, a problematic irritation, by coming at it from all angles, wheeling and diving like a hawk, each seemingly digressive spiral actually taking us closer to the heart of the matter. In a well written essay, while the search appears to be widening, even losing its way, it is actually eliminating false hypotheses, narrowing its emotional target and zeroing in on it.""

Dr. James A. Fox Dpmt. of the Humanities, University of the District of Columbia 1999

All of Tom Brown's books are written on many different levels. As a just-starting-out naturalist, I read most of Brown's books with interest, but the deeper I go into the naturalist's world, the more powerful messages I get between the lines.

The book offers many insights on modern man- most of all, the notion that if one simply lets the world drift by, with all sorts of damage, trouble, etc. being done (mind you, yourself doing none of the actual damage), the message is clear- Why didn't you do something?

Probably the most powerful message in the book is, "There are no small things." To quote Bruce Lee, if you throw a rock into a pond, you get ripples- soon the ripples cross the whole pond. Every action we do has implications, good and bad. Make your impressions positive and beneficial.

For those lucky enough to attend Tom Brown's school, reading any of his books after taking a class- no matter how many times you read them previously- it's like reading an entirely new book. There are countless messages and powerful teachings in The Quest, and I give it my highest recommendation.

Dear Sirs, I hope you reconsider your decision not to publish this review. On October 7, 1998, the NY Times reported on the biggest Ozone Hole yet seen. To quote the article: "Government scientists said today that the gap in the planet's ozone over Antartica was greater than the size of North America and was the largest ever observed." In addition, on August 13, 2000, a frontpage article in the Sunday NY Times reported on how a formerly benign fungus which has been found in the US from time immemorial was suddenly killing millions of acres of oak trees in California. The article ends on a puzzling note with scientist unable to explain why this disease had become so virulent. However, it is well known that UV radiation affects plants earlier than Humans and one documented effect of UV radiation is a weakening of the immune system. It is not a far stretch of the imagination to theorize that UV radiation may be responsible for this latest plant die-off. I hope you give these issues consideration. -----------------------------------------------------------------

Like many people, I used to read the grim newspaper accounts of environmental destruction and wonder what it all meant. Then, in the late 1980s Tom Brown published The Vision and in the final chapter of that book provided the first glimpse into a future most of us want to deny. Now here in The Quest, he lets out all the stops and makes plain for the first time that mankind may very well be doomed.

Brown reveals that as far back as 1962, Grandfather, his Apache Native American Teacher, had warned that the appearance of holes in the sky would mark the beginning of the end of mankind on Earth. Sunlight would become deadly killing everything it touched. Plants would shrivel up and die, crops would fail and starvation would sweep around the world. People would be hunted like deer for food. Many events would foreshadow the appearance of the holes but finally there would be a time of peace. This would mark mankind's last chance to reverse his endless destruction of the Earth. If instead, he concentrated on material gain, all would be lost and the end would come as surely as the Sun rises.

From this beginning, Brown takes us through a series of personal visions wherein he is transported to the future and sees for himself the horrors that await us. In one account, he visits a city where human limbs hang in shop windows and walking skeletons covered with sores roam the streets. Everything reeks with death and Brown watches as a roving band of armed men hunts down an abandoned child, and without remorse, guts and skins him like an animal. Brown makes it clear that this an America city and not some distant third world nation.

Not all the stories deal with the future. Brown relates his own efforts to deny what he knew and avoid taking up his Vision of teaching the ancient tracking and survival skills. At one point, he witnesses a brutal father rob his young son of a promising future. Grandfather then asks Tom what obstacles will stop him from fulfilling his vision ? The question is clearly not meant for Brown alone and foreseeing an excuse many of us will use to deny our share of responsibility Grandfather points to a graveyard and asks 'what will be the measure of your life Grandson? Will it be a lifetime of meaningless toil or one filled with purpose and meaning?'

This is by far Brown's darkest book but how does one sanitize such a horrifying account? There is no science here and those who believe ozone depletion is a figment of some environmentalist's imagination would be better off reading God's Last Offer, by Ed Ayres. Mr. Ayres presents related doomsday scenarios but with the science to back them. To those who are sensitive to the Earth, however Tom Brown's book needs no proof. Its truth is obvious.

The only question left open by Brown is when all this will take place? The question is important because many people will shrug off this account as part of some distant future. Although this book does not provide a timeframe a little reading in the scientific press will. It takes thirty years for CFCs to waft through the atmosphere and reach the ozone layer. If all CFC production ceased today, and it hasn't, we would still face 30 more years of degradation. According to NASA, there is already enough CFCs in the upper atmosphere to blow away 70% of the ozone layer. Take a equal amounts of ozone and CFCs, expose them to ultraviolet radiation and one can easily measure the rate of breakdown. The answer you will find is that we have a mere score and ten years left.

Grandfather made it clear that once the holes appear there would be no physical way to heal the Earth. Indeed, Time Magazine writing in the early 90s said that 'the entire world's fleet of 747s operating around the clock, 365 days of the year' could not replace a fraction of the ozone that has already been lost. But Brown does leave us with a ray of hope: if enough people become aware of what is happening, combined we can achieve what technology cannot. Brown is a great believer in the combined efforts of many people working together. Seldom does he speak of grand heroic acts. Each of us, doing a little, can achieve a lot. Be forewarned that if you read this book you will never be able to look at your children in the same way again. Most of us adults living today will not bear the brunt of this horrible future but our children and grandchildren will. If you read this book and do nothing, the Time of Peace will pass and you too, like Brown, will have to answer the screams of your children as they clutch at you in the grave yelling "YOU KNEW, YOU KNEW! WHY DIDN'T YOU DO SOMETHING?"

This book presents principles of growth that we find common across time and cultures. Highly recommended both as interesting reading material, as well as an opportunity to reconsider values, meaning (and all that other existential stuff) and our own perspectives through a differant path. In recent popular venacular, "getting out of the box" of western culture.

I was very pleased by the large number of high-quality reproductions. Still, as far as I'm concerned there should have been *more*. The book contains (a rough count) about 280 pages containing text or mostly text, out of about 630 total pages. However, I'm very happy with the book.

Best book, I have ever bought

The problem with art books is that they go out of print too quickly. This is a beautifully presented book on Rauschenberg that was released with the big retrospective at the Guggenheim in 97/98. Barnes and Noble still had copies avaiable as of Sept. 99, so check there -- they were even discounted!

Are you tired of working for the men of your life?, Would you like to teach them a lesson?, Would you like some deserved recognition?, Do you want to have some fun with your family?. Read toghether Piggybook by Anthony Browne, a beautiful tale about a women who's taken for granted by her family until one day she gets tired and leaves them to live as what they are, real pigs. With a happy ending, teach your children not to stereotype people only by their sex gender.

Mother's message ("give me some help") comes across very well in this beautifully drawn book. This book, like many other Anthony Brown's books has several layers - the text, and the beautiful drawings who add to the text, but give further layers of understanding and emphasizes the message. The mother who is being "walked all over" in the beginning of the book does not stay passive and takes some action - she leaves the house and from here the road to "living like pigs" is very short, until she comes back, but now on her own terms. So nice for me, as a mother to read this book to my kids and to see how the message comes across without me saying anything...

Came across this one by accident. I am a beginning Spanish student and thought I'd use children's books in Spanish to help me practice the language. That's how I found Anthony Browne. I was immediately mesmerized by the storyline and artwork. Anthony Browne is quickly becoming a favorite author of mine, and my children. Every time you read this story, there is something you missed before. It's magical how he writes/draws. Since you already have the editorial review above, suffice it to say, this guy is very talented and you won't be disappointed. Then, duh, I went back and got the English version, so now my Spanish skills are soaring with the translations. Will be collecting these from now on. Thanks Anthony! - Donna.

For the pastor in training, this book is invaluable. The first half of this book is a joyous explanation of a life lived in the presence of God. As the author gives us a window into her soul, everyone who reads this book cannot help be moved.
The Second half of this book consists of sermons, which are helpful as exemplary sermons. Some readers may be disappointed by the repetition in some of the sermons.
All in all, an excellent collection.

Barbara Brown Taylor is a wordsmith of the highest order. This book provides the reader with an insight into her views of real Christian ministry--bringing the good news of Jesus Christ to the world through the ordinary. Barbara Brown Taylor sparks the imagination to creative heights and inductively draws the reader into a broader understanding of the preaching life (with the emphasis on "life." If you want your senses and your imagination to be stimulated...if you want to have a greater understanding of God's call to all Christians, then this book is for you!

I require my homiletics students to read this book. Not only does the author offer approaches, ideas and stories to nudge their imaginations, but she also models a way of reflecting on ministry that has honestry and integrity. One of my students suggested that this book should be required reading for seminarians BEFORE they begin their studies. I think that the book is so on target that it would appeal to preachers at any stage of experience.

This book was preety much like i expected, a display of the greatest architectural works for the last 20 years of the 20th century. As a Rogers, Piano, Gehry and Calatrava admirer the works of other architects that you wer'nt aware of their existance certainly open your eyes, some possibly inspiring, as i know they were for me.

For those people not practicing or learning architecture but admire the beauty, a display of SOME of the worlds most fabulous buildings open your eyes to look beyond the street you live in.

Although this is a fantastic book there are many other fabulous buildings left out, which you would expect. There arn't a lot of images of each building, but how thick can a book be? if you love the guggenheim in bilboa, 5 images certainly arnt going to show you the whole story, as is the same with the getty, or the creativity of calatrava BUY THEIR BOOKS there is so much more to an architect than just one building. How they can award a single prize to someone out of so many masters must be the hardest job in the world.

As a student of architecture who hopes to one day win the Pritzker, this book in invaluable to me. The variety of architecture in this book gives the reader great insight into many different kinds of architecture. It's great even to just flip through the pages and look at the pictures... Of course, the written content is also very insightful and enjoyable to read. This book inspires you to learn more about the 20 architects featured in the book, as well as the future winners of Pritzker Award.

I first saw this book at The Getty Museum. My boyfriend, an architect, picked it out as a great architecture book. The pictures are absolutely beautiful. The architecture represented in the book are some of the most famous in the world and a wonder to look at. From the famous Guggenheim in Bilbao to Falling Water, it's my best buy. It's worth more than the money that you'll pay at Amazon!

Jim Brown is an extremely original and unique writer and artist. I found Chappy to be a very interesting and adventurous young man, as well as Red Murphy. I found myself many times right there with them and feeling their emotions and the atmosphere of each incident. This is a book containing true life experiences that should never end; stories of two boys who never really wanted to leave the wonderous, exploritory years of adolesence and brotherhood. Best friends of this such should never lose touch with each other. The humor and wit is excellent - I've never laughed so hard in one chapter and then cried in the next. I look forward to Brown's next work of art. Best wishes to him and his publisher. This is a perfect example of growing up in the South where life was so free and innocent. Thanks Chappy for taking me home.

This book is very easy to read. I enjoyed every part of it, and I hope Brown will write another book.

This book is very easy to read. I couldn't put it down. Hopefully, Brown will write another novel.

The day my childbirth class was to start I was put on bed rest. Although I had read a lot about pregnancy and birth, I still didn't really know what it would feel like to have a baby. Reading these accounts of births helped a lot -- I felt I was much better prepared for the experience. I also liked Labor Day, edited by Ann-Marie Giglio, but that collection was relentlessly positive. This book include stories from women who weren't thrilled with their experiences, which seemed more honest.

The stories are organized by where the birth occurred: hospital, birthing center, home. Reading the different accounts reassured me that I had chosen the location that was right for me.

I'd recommend this book for anyone wondering what it's like to give birth.

This heartwarming book is a compilation of real women sharing their birth stories. Hospital births, births at home, and unexpected birth places. No matter where or how a woman has her labor and delivery, the end result is the same: the miracle of life, the birth of a baby. The stories shared here are bound to make you laugh and cry, and feel proud to be a woman.

Any mother knows that moms never get tired of the birth experience of other women. It is fascinating to read about the variety of way that women deliver their babies. You'll read about "normal" birthing experiences that take place in a hospital with doctors and epidurals, and you'll read about unusual experiences, such as a woman who gave birth to her baby in a tunnel. With each birthing story you will feel empathy and camaraderie with the women who share their story in this wonderful book.

Any woman who is pregnant or thinking about becoming pregnant will be amazed to read how many different ways there are to have a baby. Reading Real Birth may give a woman a new perspective about the way she would like to deliver her baby and is a must read for all expectant woman.

The author Robin Greene says, "Women share their birthing stories the way men share their war stories." Any woman who has already had a baby will read this book and will feel priviliged to know that she is among the many, the proud, the moms.

I'm far beyond my pregnancy experience now, but this book gave me a look back. I so identified with these women. What struck me was that these narratives are more than women dealing with the pregnancy experience; these are their stories of the conflicts and struggles in their lives, stretching into the relationships with spouses, other children, parents, and themselves. This is a must-read for all pregnant women, and for mothers of pregnant daughters. Great stuff!!

This is definitely a work inspired by the Holy Spirit. Timely, convicting and by no means a so-called "easy, relaxing read", this book takes the Christian (both real and religious) back to the basics of what made the early Church so successful. What makes this book and its message so impacting for me as a former employee of his, is knowing that Dr. Brown strives to live it daily and is training approximately 2000 students at the Brownsville Revival School of Ministry to do the same. With the moral condition of our nation AND our religious system, there is no other way to turn the tide but by total and complete revolution. As Dr. Brown is fond of saying, "On with it!". I wholeheartedly add my own sentiments to that statement by saying Revolution starts with you, so read the book and get on with it!

This is undoubtedly one of the most well-written and challenging books that I have ever read. In the light of both the terrible condition of the world around us and the amazing redemption that Jesus has provided, is there any real alternative to living all-out for God? "Revolution" catalogs men and women, past and present, who have gone all-out and produced fruit that will abide. We are invited to do the same and given a road map that we can follow. Let's go for it!

This book is a must-read for all believers - unless, of course, you want to live a mediocre life.

A few Saturdays ago, there was a huge Christian gathering on The Mall in D.C. It was called The Call. I had the privelege of going. At this gathering, they were handing this book out for free, and I thought it was some Christian book that most people would take but then throw it in the closet and never see it again. Well, I decided to read it, and finished it in a few days. This book has the answers to anybody's questions about life. This isn't a book that many people have read, or have even heard about it for that matter, unless they went to The Call. It is a shame that many people will never even read this book, even Christians, because this is a book that, if read, will change the life of many teens today, and let them see the truth. I know this, because it did for me. It changed my life, and I am ready live a life for God, even if it means death. I encourage you to read this.