F Books

Miss Elizabeth Mapp lives in the English village of Tilling and there she attempts to be part of the cream of Tilling's society. With a steady diet of gossip, Miss Mapp and her circle of fellow residents flavor their lives with eyes on the goal of status. Benson's sharply observed and satirical tale is part of the Mapp & Lucia series, which pokes fun at English society of the times. Like an early ancestor of "Dynasty" or anything else produced by Aaron Spelling, the Mapp and Lucia stories are big fun for any Anglophile or fan of camp literature.

Miss Mapp rules the tiny English village of Tilling- that is she rules those who matter. It is a tiny circle of people who have enough class to rate her attention - but she manipulates and lauds over them with machiavellian schemes, and intelligent surmises - and she is intelligent.

Benson has written a village with a range of gorgeous characters - from Diva who is Miss Mapp's great rival, to Irene the local artist who keeps embarrassing Miss Mapp with her prosaic pronouncements. Then there is the local Vicar who talks in a combination of Shakespearian English and Burnsian dialect. There is also Mrs Poppit who is an up and coming social climber (hardly worthy of Miss Mapp's notice) and the novel begins with Miss Mapps machinations to the Poppitt Bridge party.

Village life you see seems to run around Bridge parties. In this petty world of card games there is a great deal of opportunity to expose one another's weaknesses and Miss Mapp, in order to be the center of village life in Tilling finds no object too petty to exploit. This is a novel of small things made into huge issues because of the smallness of the village. There is Miss Mapps constant running battle to dress better than Diva, the competition over Mr Wyse's attentions (with his supposed comtessa sister), and the ever pressing desire to be the First To Know all the gossip in town.

The physical descriptions both through the characters minds and from Benson's pen are wonderful for instance Diva is always depicted as whirling around the place - her legs circling. Mrs Poppit is ever present in a huge and weighty sable coat.

This is a wonderful book, and beautifully written. Benson seems to me to be very influenced by Austen - there is the small and claustrophobic atmosphere of village life - the characters (Miss Mapp seems so like Mrs Norris of Austen's 'Mansfield Park') to me - and then there are the odd Austen Names (in this case the Coles feature strongly as a family that is not quite up to snuff - just as the Coles are in 'Emma'). If nothing else Benson writes of English village life in the 1920's with the same Ironic pen as Austen did of village life in the early nineteenth century.

Highly recommended if you want a couple of days of laughter.

This book from the hilarious pen of Benson, is odd in a certain way. After all, Miss Mapp is the queen of Tilling in the book, and undisputed depot who rules with an iron tongue! Where is our dear Lucia, Mapp's sworn enemy, and the pretender to the throne? Well, she is back in her original home of Riseholme, with her dear husband Peppino. Those who know the Mapp and Lucia Saga from the wonderful television series, might find it strange to have Mapp ruling the roost without interference, however it makes for a delightful read (with one oblique allusion to Lucia), and shows that Miss Mapp is a strong enough character to carry her own book. The most significant event (though hardly significant at all really) is the rumored duel between Puffin and Flint over the affections of Miss Mapp. What really occured on that misty morning? Read this brilliant piece of humor to find out. I love it!

Well, after meeting Queen Lucia, I quite enjoyed learning all about Tilling and its dear Miss Mapp. You will wonder who she visited in Riseholm, and you will die from the anticipation of the two ladies meeting up in subsequent books (you won't be disappointed!). The characters are fantastic, the situations are comic, and I absolutely loved this book! I am officially hooked on the entire series! I hope you will try it and love it just as much as I.

Not only will the Reader of today recognize Miss Mapp amongst her acquaintances, dear Reader is only too likely to see *herself* in caricature. (I, for one, am Diva Plaistow; no getting round it.) A delight from the first paragraph, "Miss Mapp" is even more enjoyable if you've read the first two in the Lucia chronicles. Librarina@netscape.net

I'm planning a photographic trip to NC to do waterfalls. This book has more falls than I can possibly photograph. Book is well organized. Gives helps with travel, times to photography, best locations. It's all in this book. Hikers will also find it beneficial.

This is an essential guide for anyone who loves waterfalls and lives/travels to North Carolina. The photo tips are very helpful. This is a great update to the original, as access points and property ownership change. The author has even changed his mind about some of his initial beauty ratings -- some up; some down -- so you know he's done his research as well as the footwork.
I also recommend Kevin's book on Virginia/West Virginia waterfalls and North Carolina wildflowers.

Excellent book for locating waterfalls. Very good directions. Is a good book for those just wanting to look for waterfalls, but not much for a regular hiker as most of the trails are either very short, or there is a need to bushwack.

A good reference, but I found the directions confusing at times. You need to drive slowly and read carefully.

I am an amatuer nature photographer so I am always on the look-out for books to know where to go to shoot. This book may be the best photography guide I have ever had. He tells you where the waterfalls are, and how to photograph them. Best of all he has the guts to rate the quality of each waterfall on a scale of 1 to 10. There are so many waterfalls that I can't visit them all. With this book I can go only to the highly rated ones and know they will be knock-outs. When I get there he will help me to know how to shoot it. This is a great book!

I read this book in one sitting back in 2000 when I was still a newspaper photographer wrestling with the choice of my chosen career path. This book details a couple who left steady jobs behind the follow their dream of opening a b&b. I furiously highlighted passages and scribbled notes in the margins as I read. The next day, I bought a binder and stayed up all night drafting sections a business proposal. It took a little while, but I was eventually able to leave a full-time job with benefits and job security and launch my own wedding photography business. The idea of creating your own career path and not just following one was definitely not on the best seller radar then like it is now. And that book is what I lead with when I talk to photographers now about following their heart. It changed my life. Seriously.

At last, a book that gives us permission to dream and a guide on how to bring those dreams to fruition. Only Paul and Sarah could have written such a book. So often others tell us to forget our dreams and merely live as the rest of the world. But in "The Practical Dreamers Handbook" we're told it's all right to have these dreams and to act on them. I've noticed a different writing style from Paul & Sarah..one of peace and tranquility. Thank you Paul and Sarah for this book.

The gurus of working from home have done it again-- managed to package a personal coaching experience into the pages of their latest work, The Practical Dreamer's Handbook. I wasn't looking for a book that would change my life, but I sure found it. With their usual practical hands-on approach to working through a problem, the authors have provided us with the means to evaluate our life, choose our dream, and find tangible ways to achieve our goals.

From visualization exercises to training us to set measurable goals that can be attained, Paul and Sarah Edwards provide us with the tools to finally live our dream. I started reading this book on a Friday afternoon, and by Sunday I had rewritten my business plan and set some personal goals with my spouse. I guess you could say it has changed my life, and I plan to practice these techniques for continued success and stress-free living. Many thanks to this talented pair who continue to share their secrets and talents with the rest of us.

This is not a get rich quick or what I would call a yuppie new age mode book. But rather a well thought out book that is laid out in Three Parts with sub sections that cover everything from DESIRE -Awakening the Dream which then discusses Imagining, believing and being committed to creating what one seeks. To ACTION-Building a New Reality, which discusses following a plan or thread, finding the money, making the time, and having the needed energy. Part three is SATISFACTION-Enjoying Yourself, and is about feeling fulfilled and appreciating the ongoing process that never ends, but is always evolving.

The Parts on finding the time and money to go after ones goals were excellent if for no other reason than for the common sense shared. Challenging people to be quiet and be honest and look at how much time we waste doing nonsensical things, and spending money we should be saving for the goal. And the authors were smart to tell the reader to even downsize, and move to a smaller less expensive home or area if this will provide the extra income one needs to create the extra income one needs to have ones goals. That even cutting back on lunch everyday and taking a bag lunch or going for a walk will save a good 25-50 dollars a week that can be stuck away in a goal savings account.

They also are great at making the reader think about what do we REALLY want and WHY? Are we honest enough to realize that it could take 3-5 years before we see a payoff? Are we willing to put in the needed elbow grease to get the goal?

But most important to me was reading and being constantly encouraged to NOT give up. So many people grew up in homes where lofty goals were either not encouraged or sadly laughed at. The authors tell the reader that the world is full of naysayers and people who will laugh at dreamers. Yet ever notice how the nerd in school that everyone laughed at, becomes famous and has more friends from high school that were in the whole school in ten years?

Good book. Read it!

A practical guide written in a manner that touches the senses. If you are at a crossroads in your life, this book will help you get in touch with your true self and make a life-changing decision with confidence. As Sarah so aptly said, it's about "....seizing on fortuitous serendipity." If you are yearning for a change in your life, you will find it hard to put this book down.

As one reviewer notes, Robert Williams name is not noted in other books about this era. This is a great loss to history. Also reading "Blood Done Sign My Name" will give readers a more complete picture of life for Blacks in the South in the 60's & early 70's.
However, as Timothy Tyson told me in February, "desegregation is not complete". "Blood Done Sign My Name", is in production as a major movie at this time. It is being filmed entirely in North Carolina.

A compelling look at a fascinating figure of the modern American civil rights movement whose story continues to be relevant. Particularly interesting is the nuanced and thoughtful treatment of the complex dialogue and tension between "nonviolence" and "self-defense" in the history of the Black freedom struggle in the US.

The period of Williams's life following his exile is only very tersely outlined (as the author himself admits), giving the book a bit of an abrupt end. More analysis of Williams's decision to renounce public life, of his scepticism about the later direction of the "Black Power" movement that had claimed him as one of its icons, and of his decision to seek an "understanding" with the US gov't enabling his return from exile, would probably make for most interesting reading.

Mainstream history seemingly gets real nervous about who is carrying a loaded weapon and who one associates with. Combine the two and it will take an outstanding historian like Timothy B. Tyson to bring to life the tireless work and controversies surrounding civil-rights activist Robert F. Williams.

Williams brought the element of armed self-defense in seeking equal rights, especially in his hometown of Monroe, N.C. Though Williams, a military veteran, stressed that the specter of self-defense was necessary - and proven successful in confronting the KKK and other racists - his stance drew the ire of the NAACP's national office, the FBI and other government agencies & those in the civil rights movement who stressed non-violent actions no matter what the situation.

The book is more than a biography on Williams. It shows how his demands for equal rights meant something different to various individuals and groups, though Williams would not politically "fall in line" with any movement. It was the perceived idealism that drew many to Williams, but it was such a coalition - including Malcolm X and the Socialist Workers Party - that made him particularly dangerous in the eyes of federal officials.

While in exile from the U.S. after being erroneously charged for violating several federal laws, Williams was in Cuba after the revolution, North Viet Nam during the war, China as the Cultural Revolution caught fire and travelled to Africa. His independent thinking got him in trouble in Cuba; a radio show he conducted to the U.S., Radio Free Dixie, along with public comments he made, found Williams facing the wrath of Cuban government officials and ultimately led him to China.

The book also shows how his wife, Mabel and women in Monroe & in other cities not only demanded civil rights, but were willing to defend themselves and their families from violent attacks through the barrel of a gun. Mabel Williams was also an important person in the writing, editing and publishing of a newsletter that gained national and international attention.

Williams was an important catalyst for Huey Newton and the Deacons for Defense in their quests to skillfully confront the haters on the streets. In yet again another example on why we must continue to look past the history as it is written in textbooks, Robert F. Williams showed what can be accomplished when the intimidators become the intimidated while trying to perpetuate the myth of white supremacy.

The civil rights movement was not created by, lead by, or moved forward by the dozen or so media heros whose names we all now know. The civil rights movement succeed because so many ordinary people decided that they could no longer stand to live in the midst of injustice, and decided to step out of their daily lives and do something about it.

Robert Williams did just that. An ordinary working class guy, he used his people skills to form a network of working class black people who did not have the patience of the old line leaders of the local NAACP chapter in his hometown. He got himself elected president of the chapter, and backed by dozens of local people, formed one of the most activist chapters in the country. The national NAACP never was comfortable with Williams or the work of his chapter, and at best held them at arms length.

Inevitably, Williams' hard pressure on local structures of racism lead to a backlash. When he was attacked and his family threatened with death, the local police did nothing. When he and his community defended themselves, by taking up arms to combat the armed violence of the white racists, he was charged with murder, and became the subject of a massive FBI hunt. Escaping to Cuba, he operated a radio station, beaming the "truth" along with progressive jazz and blues which would never be played on corporate radio in the south, to Dixie.

Ultimately, Williams' stance of self-defense was taken up by Stokley Carmichael in the South, and by the Black Panther Party in Oakland, and is now well known as the "Black Power" movement. But at the time, it was simply a slightly more hardline version of the NAACP. Local chapters of the NAACP, building on long traditions of mutual support in black communities throughout the south, supported by thousands of ordinary people, formed the backbone of the civil rights movement. Anyone who thinks otherwise should read the statements by Bob Moses and the other SNCC organizers, who readily admitted that they could never have accomplished anything at all if not for the decades of groundwork done by the local NAACP chapters throughout the south.

Great book, which everyone interested in the history of the Civil Rights movement, or just interested in the way social changes really happen, should read.

Ultimately, the notion of white supremacy and the so-called glory of the Lost Cause always devolved to the use of violence and intimidation against black people and any one who sided with them. Williams' is an amazing story of courage and determination as he challenged the KKK and assorted white rabble of rural North Carolina in the 1940s through the 1960s in his quest for racial justice.

Williams, a soldier during WW2, came back to Monroe, NC after the war and took on the clowns and goons of the KKK and the local and state white government. When they fired on his home, he shot back, upsetting the applecart of segregation.

Tyson's book is a powerful portrayal of a man quite willing to die for his rights, a man fed up with the violence degradation inflicted on him by southern society, and a man willing to kill to protect his property, his person and his family.

Tyson's realistic and entertaining portrayal of the stupid and inane actions of white southern racists in North Carolina is another reason to read this book. The local thuggery is almost comical, until one remembers they are well armed and prone to alcholism and violence. Tyson goes into great detail about a 1958 case where two black boys, 10 and 8 were BEATEN and IMPRISONED for kissing a white girl.

Williams and his wife are not well known heroes of the Civil Rights struggle. This book gave me a greater appreciation of the vicious hatred, violence, and stupidity they were fighting, and how disciplined and determined the Civil Rights struggle had to be in the face of overwhelming white resistance.

This book and CD are a wealth of knowledge. As a person of African descent, hearing how these persons were treated in a county supposedly for freedom and equality, not only was a horrified but very angry.
I will NEVER forgive this coutry for the ill treatment and hardship that racism and bigotry ahs and still is causing.

I am currently a high school student that read part of this for a Civil War class and let me say this is one powerful book. With people who were the slaves themselves tell you their stories, you learn alot about the antebellum period. I would recommend this book for any mature person due to the fact that some of these stories show the true horror of slavery.

This is a must have, must read, must hear book. With the sixty-nine minute recording of the actual slave interviews from the 1930s, we have the only known recording of the actual voices of actual slaves telling their story. Hearing their voices is like being tele-ported back in time. The book itself also examines those same interviews, primarily through "Weevils in the Wheat: Interviews with Virginia Ex-Slaves."

Teachers and speakers will want their students and audiences to hear these voices. They give voice to the voiceless and bring alive these heroic survivors.

Reviewer: Bob Kellemen, Ph.D., is the author of Beyond the Suffering: Embracing the Legacy of African American Soul Care and Spiritual Direction , Spiritual Friends, and Soul Physicians.

For several years I've been reading powerful thought-provoking slave narratives. This is probably the most moving due to accompanying tapes of slaves discussing their thoughts and conditions when they were slaves. This book and tapes should be used in every high school American and World history classes. I recommend this book to everyone above the age of twelve. If you want to begin educating your children earlier about American history, specifically slavery have them read K.J. McWilliams books; The Journal of Darien Duff, an Emancipated Slave, The Diary of a Slave Girl, Ruby Jo, and The Journal of Leroy Jones, a Fugitive Slave. They are based on slave narratives such as this one and include many interesting photos as well as additional information.

this is a Must for all to have.The Books&tapes show the RawNess and Emotions of Americas Worst NightMare that still Haunts Her.the Voices run Deep down your skin.until SLavery is Properly Discussed and Dealt with America will continue to be a Land of The Unknown.a Must Have Book.

I have enjoyed the MacArthur commentaries I have purchased in the past. I find them accurately in touch with the Word and easy to comprehend. Purchase was good and delivery on time.

a good commentary, however I think it could easily be condensed.

Awesome context, learned alot from it. Recommend it for those who are interested in digging into the book of Romans

As a Bible study leader, Dr. MacArthur's commentaries have been ~invaluable~ in preparing me for study. I have never failed to find the answers to deep and vexing issues within his commentaries. I frequently read from them during our study time. The commentaries are extremely thorough and comprehensive, yet very easy to read. I found I can pick it up and read it like a novel. (Yea, it's that good.)

Dr. MacArthur's exegesis skills are extraordinary. This commentary - Romans - is exceptional. Just about every other page I find myself exclaiming 'Wow, I never knew that' or 'Wow, I never thought of it that way'.

These commentaries are a wonderful value, I am looking forward to collecting and studying the entire set.

John MacArthur is an evangelical Bible scholar who holds to inerrancy and infallibility, and he has spent much of the last twenty years working on a commentary of the entire New Testament. At present, he has completed and published 25 volumes comprising 21.5 of the 27 New Testament books (he's finished and recently released the first eleven chapters of the gospel of John).

Romans is my favorite New Testament book. And this commentary is excellent at taking a position of conservative evangelicalism and defending it. I do not concur with all of MacArthur's views, and one must remember that a commentary is basically one man's opinion of what the Bible says. But MacArthur gives reasons for the faith that it is in him (and we who know Jesus), and his writing is very edifying on the issue.

If you don't have any of his commentaries, this is the one with which to start. If you do and you do not have this particular one, I think you are missing a blessing. He gets right to the point without droning, yet he also addresses controversial issues.

The one problem with the book is nobody's fault: it would be nice for him to take on some of the modern interpretations in movements that have wreaked havoc; for example, the outlandish Word of Faith interpretation of Romans 4:17. Otherwise, it is a very good book.

Dr. Holick's work needs to celebrated for revealing an extremely important aspect of the human condition, i.e. we are not exposing ourselves to enough UVB to produce sufficient amounts of Vitamin D. As mentioned previously, this work does not need go into more scientific depth. It is not a work in biochemistry. It is a work which challenges people's thinking and the expectations of a pharmaceutical industry. It is criminal that a professor that has stated his objective scientific opinion would be removed from his position by a biased department chair. Is anyone saying to go out and cook ourselves in UVA all day every day? Are the people defending the pharmaceutical protocol prepared to explain what early versions of sunblock actually did to help INCREASE rates of sun cancer? You can look at this from either perspective, secular or non-secular. We evolved in the sun or this is a system the Lord created. We don't need more talking heads telling us not to do what the DATA supports that we should do. Bravo, Dr. Holick, for your lifetime of work, starting from UW to BU.

Holick's book, and his articles helped me find out why, after staying indoors for ten years, due to depression, MY WHOLE SKELEFeeling Good: The New Mood Therapy Revised and UpdatedTON AND ALL MY MUSCLES ACHED. I went to a MD and found out I had NO vitamin D3 in my body, and over 100 tiny fractures. I'm on D3 therapy (50,000 I.U.s a week). I just purchased a UVB lamp. I feel so good, now. I'll be basking in the sun all year long. Thank you Dr. Holick, and keep fighting the good, and right fight. By the way, the writing is clear, tight, plain, and nicely organized. Dr. Holick, you changed my health and life.

Dr. Michael Holick is considered a pioneer in the field of vitamin D.
I consider the recent advances in vitamin D research one of the major breakthroughs in the entire medical field. Vitamin D is ultimately converted to a hormone that affects the entire body. If you think that vitamin D is only for the bones and you only need 400-600 IU a day as your multivitamin bottle and the US government tell you, then you are still living in the 1950s. Vitamin D has receptors in the bones (increases bone density), muscles (enhances muscle strength and power), lymphocytes (without adequate vitamin D they go wild and attack different organs and tissues, causing autoimmune disorders),
blood vessels (relaxes the arterial walls and lowers blood pressure by ~ 2-4 mmHg), heart muscles (prevents thickening of the heart ventricles), myelin (prevents multiple sclerosis), prostate, breasts, colon, pancreas ... (preventing cancers of these organs)...... brain cells (prevents degeneration of brain cells), skin, hair follicles (nourishes the hair and skin) ... etc. When your vitamin D level is inadequate, the body loads your bones with water (instead of minerals such as calcium and phosphorus(, the result is stretching of your periostium (lining of your bones) which results in excruciating pains in the shins, wrists, ribs, and the breast bones. These nagging pains and aches do not go away with anything except with vitamin D.
When your muscles lack vitamin D, you get very weak and very tired. Your quadriceps muscles become so weak that they cannot carry you without supporting yourself with your hands when rising from a sitting position, you have difficulty climbing stairs, difficulty reaching objects over your head. Elderly people will have constant pains and aches, they have to use walkers, and they lose their balance and fall, since their quadriceps cannot give them a sense of balance.
To add insult to injury, vitamin D level is outdated in almost every lab in the USA, most doctors do not check the level, some check the wrong type of vitamin D (there are 2 types). The new knowledge has not even made it into the curriculum of medical schools, and most medical students are not even aware of it. The US government still preaches the old daily requirement of vitamin D.
The daily requirement of vitamin was recently updated to 1000 IU a day, which is still inadequate.
Dr. Holick's book will teach you how to understand vitamin D for your overall health, how much of vitamin D you need, and how a safe exposure to the sun-without overdoing it- will ultimately give you vitamin D to liver healthier (and even longer).
Dr. Holick's recent review suggests that women who are vitamin D deficient have a 253% increased risk for developing colon and rectal cancer, and women who ingested 1500 mg/d calcium and 1100 IU/d vitamin D for 4 yr reduced risk for developing cancer by >60%.
I have been applying the new vitamin D research studies to clinical patient care in my office since 1999.


Shirwan Mirza, MD

Lightweight introduction to UV and vitamin D. No slight intended to Dr Holick who has been and is a key researcher on vitamin D and is presenting important health information to the public. But this book is like a friendly conversation between a well-informed doctor who is giving essential information to a lay audience, but he assumes they don't want much detail. If you have read a few web-pages about vitamin D, you may already know everything here - vitamin D RDA is too low, many people are deficient, deficiency is associated with a number of illnesses, sunlight exposure will give you what you need but don't get sunburned, supplements can also help but are inferior to sunlight because you need to determine appropriate dosage. The book has repeated information, padding (sentences along the lines of 'countless poets and songwriters attest to the enjoyment of sunshine'), while some things that could have been described in depth - like vitamin D toxicity from supplements (or potentially from diet I guess) - get short shrift. If you don't know much about vitamin D and want a high-level introduction, it's fine. If you wanted more detail or science, skip it.

This is an easy to read book that has scientific research that convinced me that we all need vitamin D to prevent many of the health problems that are prevelant today. The author writes that vitamin D is best absorbed from natural sunlight and shows how this balances with the problem of too much sun which causes skin cancer. There is alot of skin cancer information in this book also. I highly recommend this book!

Back in 1999, I decided to do some estate planning. I decided to buy about 5 books to first learn the basics of estate planning......then see an estate planning attorney to set up my estate plan.

Of the five books that I read on estate planning, Kraemer's book was by far the best book. The main reason I liked Kraemer's book was his use of example flow charts, which show what happens to the money as each spouse dies. These flow charts also allow you to easily calculate the estate tax due at each step of the process.

The other books were very dry and boring.......and without the flow chart approach...it was not clear to me how bypass trusts work.

I highly recommend Kraemer's book as the best book on estate planning.......primarily due to the flow charts.

Kraemer also explains that the use of disclaimers can be a good thing.......and a good way to deal with the changing estate tax laws.

Kraemer's book allowed me to understand the basics of estate planning and bypass trusts. I was able to save time and money then working with an estate planning attorney to set up our bypass trusts.

Other good books on investing which may help you build a large enough estate so you get to worry about the problem of estate planning are shown below:

Index Mutual Funds: How to Simplify Your Financial Life and Beat the Pro's
The Richest Man in Babylon
Bogle on Mutual Funds: New Perspectives for the Intelligent Investor
The Millionaire Next Door
The Four Pillars of Investing: Lessons for Building a Winning Portfolio
A Random Walk Down Wall Street: The Time-Tested Strategy for Successful Investing, Ninth Edition
The Coffeehouse Investor: How to Build Wealth, Ignore Wall Street, and Get On With Your Life
The Bogleheads' Guide to Investing

Required reading for those wishing to estate plan with a systematic and informed approach. Excellent step by step directions help the reader learn information needed to work efficiently with an estate planner or other professionals and achieve desired results. Unique, innovative charts, flow diagrams and planning documents clarify concepts difficult to grasp through words alone. If you have an estate plan in place this excellent volume will confirm its appropriateness and provide helpful fine-tuning tips. This book contains all the various scenarios of estate planning allowing the reader to choose the relevant ones. It is interesting, well written and a valuable reference resource.

This book, like it's earlier volumns is a must read for anyone facing the challenges of estate planning either for themselves or their loved ones.

The "60-Minute Estate planner" does the best job I've seen of being comprehensive, and yet easy to read at the same time. The graphic flow charts with their accompanying tables are a great aid to understanding. Even if you're not planning your estate this book is important to read. The book deepens your appreciation of how important it is for the Congress to repeal federal death taxes.

The 60-Minute Estate Planner has been an invaluable resource. I have all three editions and continue to find this book very useful. It provides quick and accurate answers to a variety of questions. This is the best book I've seen on estate planning.

H. Thuesen

I do not want to get into a discussion as to who was the greater poet - Virgo or Homer. One was Roman and one was Greek. Both wrote with wondrous and beautiful words, but this book by Virgo is a stunner. This lengthy poem in twelve books traces the mighty Roman empire from the end of the Trojan war to the beginnings of the great empire which was led by Julius Caesar. Aeneas was the first of the great Roman rulers. I had read this story many years ago, and as I read it again, I remembered why I enjoyed this Roman story so much. I have always liked the Roman gods and goddesses, and this epic poem was the reason why. In this poem Virgil presents a struggling Aeneas who has to fight and win many battles before he can claim his crown. We also see the mighty gods and goddesses getting involved in human strife while the drama is played out on earth. But it is the descriptive language that is the beautiful thing here. Words like these can truly live forever.

I read this book while on the beach in East Africa and was blown away. The beautiful descriptions of temples, castles, people, and their motivations for living and dying were incredible. Particularly, the Carthaginian Queen Dido and her disastrous love for Aeneas made me cringe as she cried in death on the fire. Buy this book---it will resonate within you for years.

I'm continually impressed by these classics written over two thousand years ago; some of them are astoundingly good. Seutonius' "The Twelve Caesars" or Plato's "The Republic" come to mind. Virgil's masterwork "The Aenied" lies comfortably in this category and is likely just his version of a tale that had been passed down by oration for generations. It's probably the goriest work of that time I've read too: in the battles heads are lopped off, blood jets out of wounds, torsos and groins are skewered by spears, etc.

The basic premise is that Rome was founded by Trojans who'd fled their home city (Troy) while it was being razed and plundered by the victorious Greeks. But it wasn't exactly a quick journey to a new homeland. A few of the gods (Hera in particular) despised the Trojans and did their utmost to prevent these people from reaching Italy. This epic is about the adventures of the Trojan prince Aeneas and his followers as they attempt to achieve their destiny as founders of Rome, which ultimately became the capital of the Roman Empire.

The translation is wonderful, no complaints at all there from a readability standpoint. An exciting adventure that hasn't worn out over time; it's still as fresh as it ever was and deserves its reputation as a classic of all time. The only nitpick I have is that the ending is rather abrupt, without a real sense of closure. I would have liked to know, for example, what happened in Carthage following Aeneas' hasty departure.

Roman society was enamoured of Greek culture -- many of the best 'Roman' things were Greek; the major gods were derivative of the Greek pantheon; philosophy, literature, science, political ideals, architecture -- all this was adopted from the Greeks. It makes sense that, at the point of their ascendancy in the world, they would long for an epic history similar to the Homeric legends; the Iliad and the Odyssey, written some 500 years after the actual events they depict, tell of the heroism of the Greeks in their battle against Troy (Ilium). The Aeneid, written by Vergil 700 years after Homer, at the commission of Augustus (himself in the process of consolidating his authority over Rome), turns the heroic victory of the much-admired Greeks on its head by postulating a survivor from Troy, Aeneas, who undergoes as journey akin to the Odyssey, even further afield.

Vergil constructs Aeneas, a very minor character in the Iliad, as the princely survivor and pilgrim from Troy, on a journey through the Mediterranean in search of a new home. According to Fitzgerald, who wrote a brief postscript to the poem, Vergil created a Homeric hero set in a Homeric age, purposefully following the Iliad and Odyssey as if they were formula, in the way that many a Hollywood director follows the formulaic pattern of past successful films. Vergil did not create the Trojan legend of Roman origins, but his poem solidified the notion in popular and scholarly sentiment.

Vergil sets the seeds for future animosity between Carthage and Rome in the Aeneid, too -- the curse of queen Dido on the descendants of Aeneas of never-ending strife played into then-recent recollections of war in the Roman mind. Books I through VI are much more studied than VII through XII, but the whole of the Aeneid is a spectacular tale.

Books I through VI show Aeneas on the journey, and a failed love affair with Queen Dido. Aeneas is shipwrecked, and Dido (also an outcast from her homeland, setting out to found Carthage) gets Aeneas to tell her his story, in which he recasts the tale of the Trojan War and his own journey in terms that will lead to Rome. Gods and goddesses factor in here - Jupiter (the Roman Zeus) is protecting Aeneas, but Juno (the Roman Hera) favours Carthage, and is the one who caused the storm to shipwreck Aeneas near Dido so that he might be thwarted in his plan to found Rome. There is jealousy and rage because Aeneas eventually has to leave; Dido dies in a dramatic fashion, but not before her soul being given a blessed release by the favoured gods.

The most dramatic part of the story over, the reader settles into other action that, while interesting, is somewhat pale in comparison to the first half.

The Aeneid is a fascinating text, one of the greatest epics of the ancient world; it takes up the task of the Iliad/Odyssey cycle and 'updates', if you will, the story line into the Roman era. Pharr's book helps the reader to work with it in its original language, easily and methodically, with only a minimum of Latin training (one year is probably sufficient) required for engagement.

Vergil died before he could complete the story. He wished it to be burned; fortunately, Augustus had other ideas. Still, there are incomplete lines and thoughts, and occasional conflicts in the storyline that one assumes might have been worked out in the end, had more editing time been available. Despite these, the Aeneid remains a masterpiece.

[This review relates to the wondrous Penguin Classics
edition of THE AENEID, "Tranlated into English Prose with
an Introduction by W.F.Jackson Knight."]

If Virgil could lead the poet Dante through the wasteland
and Inferno at the end of the Middle Ages, perhaps the poet
Virgil, aided by the skill and inspiration of the translator
W.F.Jackson Knight, might perform the same needed function for
us, here at the end of the 20th and the beginning of the 21st
centuries.
W.F.Jackson Knight, in his very interesting and insightful
"Introduction," makes the argument that "the AENEID of Virigl
is a gateway between the pagan and the Christian centuries."
That much, itself, might serve as the basis for some excellent
essays of analysis and interpretation. But Knight has his own
path to tread. So we should let him.
-------------
"In the beginning, Rome had been a tiny settlement
surrounded by enemies -- and it had needed a strong will:
proud,disciplined, and sustained -- to survive at all.
Rome did survive and was led on by successive hard-won
victories to world dominion.
The early history is obscure, but the process seems
to have taken at least five centuries of almost continuous
warfare, and during that period the Romans achieved
unparalleled success, apparently through unique merits
of their own, combined with a special share of divine
favor and good fortune [a nice touch of Pagan sentiment,
there, to counter-balance the perhaps over-emphasis on
the Christian tie at the beginning]. This spectacular rise
of Rome was a matter for wonder and a certain reverence
to the Romans themselves, especially when, in the
later years of the republican period, new chances of peace
and prosperity, AND A NEW ACCESS OF SKEPTICISM threatened
THE OLD HABITS OF LOYALTY, INTEGRITY, and SELF-SACRIFICE"
[capitals are mine].
---------
Knight continues with his excellent "Introduction" and talks
of Publius Vergilius Maro [usually denoted as "Virgil"], the
excellent, visionary poet and artist who created the epic
poem for Roman patriotic pride, values teaching, and national
identity -- THE AENEID.
I especially like Knight's discussion of the influences on
Virgil as he wrote the epic.
--------
"The AENEID is the third, last, and longest of Virgil's
poems. It is a legendary narrative, a story about the
imagined origin of the Roman nation in times long before the
foundation of Rome itself. * * * The AENEID, as any epic should
be, is an exciting story extremely well told and full of
incident; it can be read as a story and nothing more. However,
besides being a story, it is a kind of moving picture --
carrying allusive, and in a sense, symbolic meanings. * * *
In the poem [the gods and goddesses]communicate with mortal men
either directly or through dreams, visions, omens, and the
words of prophets and clairvoyants. Virgil had no doubt that
the affairs of the earthly world are subject to the powers of
another world, a world which is normally, but by no means
always, invisible, but no less real for that....
* * * The great poets have a way of making what is seen
reveal the unseen; and they seem to do this better if they
collect an enormous quantity of observations on life, their
own and other people's, and then condense it under strong
pressure so that even a few words have a great power of
suggestion and persuasion. No doubt they are all the time

choosing with precise accuracy what is most important. The
result is an allusive and partly symbolic kind of language
able to communicate not merely single happenings but the
universal truth behind them.
These greater poets also reach back across past time, and
represent a view of the world which belongs not to one man
or one generation of men but to the men of many succeeding
generations or even a whole civilization. The experience
which is distilled may be the experience of many centuries;
and it may be condensed and focused by a single genius in
a single poetic statement. That is what Virgil did to the
experience of the Greeks and Romans in the AENEID."
["Introduction." W.F. Jackson Knight. AENEID. Penguin
Classics.]
-----------------
In talking of the other literary influences which helped
inspire Virgil and which he distilled into his own poetic
process with the helps of the fires of creative energy
and intuition, Knight mentions (of course) the fact of Homer
and his two major epics, the ILIAD and the ODYSSEY.
He also mentions the influence of Lucretius. But he says:
"Virgil knew his [Lucretius] work well and made free use
of many hundreds of his phrases in the AENEID, and let them
suggest ideas. But since HE VIOLENTLY DISAGREED WITH
THE MATERIALISTIC PHILOSOPHY of LUCRETIUS, he could not
adopt his thought. Indeed, he apparently delighted in turning
it upside down, and expressing something far more like the

idealistic philosophy of PLATO, even when the phrases of
Lucretius were influencing him."
I very much prefer Knight's "prose" English version of the
AENEID over most of the other ones which I have encountered.
His English prose flows like poetry, and is eminently readable
as well as instantly understood. One encounters that famous
opening, translated so well into intuitive, inspired English
prose: "This is a tale of arms and of a man. Fated to be
an exile, he was the first to sail from the land of Troy
and reach Italy, at its Lavinian shore. He met many
tribulations on his way both by land and on the ocean; high
Heaven willed it, for Juno was ruthless and could not forget
her anger. And he had also to endure great suffering in
warfare."
Inspiring and instructive, for Romans, for Dante, and
for us!

I've read "Appointment in Jerusalem" at least a dozen times. And each time I find more that applies to my life. My copy of the book is so highlighted and I take it out of the bookcase to re-read and look at the highlighted phrases and passages often. Lydia was a brave woman and truly followed what she felt God was saying and showing her. Out of my whole library this a my "must" book, and if I had to save any books from destruction, say a fire, I'd grab my Bible and "Appointment in Jerusalem." Derek Prince is one of my favorite teaching authors and he and Lydia did wonderfully in this book. It truly captivated my heart, and after going to Israel two years ago, I knew more of her heart. My desire is to return to the land that captivated my heart...a place I know I belong.

I love this book. The book had been around in my house for years and probably belonged to my late sister. I just bypassed it until the day I picked it up to gloss over and couldn't put it down until I had finished reading it. It is a powerful testimony of how God can interact face to face and in detail with a human even in these present times.
It re-iterates that God sees the heart and all you have to do is seek him, seek to know the true God and he will reveal himself to you. This is a book I read every year and I am sorry to say, never lend out because I just cannot afford to lose it. I think the Derek Prince ministry has decided to reprint it though.
This book makes one feel so close to God. It's an effect of both the events in the book as well as the simplicity with which it was written. It is a definite must-have for every Christian .............

An amazing true story. I'm so glad they printed this again. I had to search and search trying to buy affordable copies before.

I was first introduced to this book a few years ago by my grandfather. It had been read by many members of the family and finally passed down to me. I have been searching for a copy of this amazing book in English (mine is in Russian, so it takes more effort to read through!) and I finally found it! I have read this book 5 or 6 times and I am always inspired and amazed at Lydia's faith in God, but even more so- by God's faith in people! The simple way that the book is written (and it comes across in any language, I think!) is easy to read and hard to put down. One of the greatest books of all time, and should be a classic!

This is a most excellent read. You will cry and laugh and be in suspense.
It will make you think about things and the important things in life.
Once you start this book you will not lay it down until you have finished.
I highly reccommend not only reading it but giving this out as a gift to all you know.