Works Books

This is a good book, with clear instructions. It is a good starting point for learning about mini-books and paper folding. I found going through the book thinking of different ideas in addition to those in the book. Some of the illustrations provided inspiration for subjects to cover. In all, it is a good jumping point to start from.

This is a great book for teachers!!! #Exspecially if you are short on money and time. Dinah Zike has helped those teachers that need some motivating activities for students without the cost! I love the book and so do my co-workers. We will be using it for years to come!

This book has many useful tips on how to incorporate construction paper into a variety of lessons for a variety of grade levels.

Dinah Zike makes paper folding easy and education fun with her creative methods of writing and instruction. The students enjoy the lessons just as much as I enjoy teaching them! The photos and instructions are easy to follow and personalize to your own classroom needs. This is a must for all ages/grades!

This is a creative and helpful book. It really helped my kids know their material better. They would use big or small books to elaborate on topics they had learned. They love to look back through the books they made, reinforcing the information over and over.
They were able to remember so many more details of the topics we covered from the ideas in this book.
--Michelle L.

Blackbelly is a novel of unexpected depth from an author who understands how to tell a morality story without beating a dead horse--or sheep, in this case. Heather Sharfeddin's prose is straightforward, non-judgmental and honest from first word to last. And her characters, Chas McPherson, the proud loner who wants to do right by his dying father, and Mattie Holden, an unassuming nurse looking for a chance to start fresh, ring as true as any I've encountered--on or off the page--in recent memory. Blackbelly is a story of loneliness, repressed needs, and bigotry in a small town. Sprinkled with a hint of the supernatural, a few bible quotes and a layer of underlying tension, it resonates like a clanging cow bell. We haven't heard the last from this outstanding wordsmith. Salmon Run

I read Sharfeddin's book between Hemingway and Terry Kay. She more than held her own against these two great writers. From the first chapters I was drawn in and felt like I was a part of the story. I was impressed with Sharfeddin's ability to capture the lead male character so well. How did she get into the mind of a male so well? Maybe I don't want an answer.
This is an enjoyable book that reaches deep to capture emotions we all face but often hide from. Through this book we can learn a little more about ourselves, our society, and others. I recommend this novel.

I know Heather Sharfeddin personally. I raise Blackbelly Sheep. I grew up in rural Idaho just a few miles from where Heather grew up. With all that being said, I loved this book. I read it in one day just days after it was released. I didn't want it to end. I still think of the characters and wonder how they are and what they are doing. As I was reading the first few pages, I kept thinking how amazing it was that Heather was the writer and that I knew her. It was not long before she took me away from that and led me into the lives of her characters. I am buying this book for almost everyone on my Christmas list. One of the best reads ever--and I read a lot!!

Have you ever hit a dry spell with the books you read? When everything you pick up is missing that special something that hooks you in and holds you until the last word?
I was in just such a dry spell when I picked this book up after having seen in reviewed in the Idaho Statesman. I am so glad I did!
I will wait as patiently as possible for this author to write another novel.

This book is a real page turner that is masterfully written. I am eagerly awaiting a second novel from this author.

_The Book of Questions_ defies easy description. Neruda composed over 70 poems in quatrains, two questions per quatrain - yet the depth of the questions and the variety of interpretations the reader can take from the questions is limitless. That the book contains English translations of the Spanish original is an added bonus.

The images are surreal, as if a Dali painting put to words. Further thought (and the poems ARE thought provoking) yields a different answer with each reading. There is a pervading sense of sadness to them, perhaps because Neruda was dying of cancer while he wrote them; but there is hope, here, too - and a wisdom that only a master poet can communicate. For example:

Where is the child I was,
still inside me or gone?

Why did we spend so much time
growing up only to seperate?

Neruda's _Book of Questions_ haunts and provokes, much like life itself. Highly recommended.

The BOOK OF QUESTIONS was written in 1973, a few months before Neruda's death to cancer. Troubled by the knowledge of his impending death, as well as by a U.S. backed coup threatening the Allende government in Chile (Leftist regime 1970-73), Neruda wrote several small books of brief poems, comprised simply of unanswerable questions, in the koan tradition (question/statement in the form of a paradox that disciples of Zen ponder). They are enigmatic, at times surreal, leaving you lost in labyrinths of deep thought, or in abstract bewilderment.

My favorite questions include:

Why do leaves commit suicide
When they feel yellow?

and

When the convict ponders the light
is it the same light that shines on you?

--ross saciuk

Pablo Neruda's BOOK OF QUESTIONS is one of those books that simply cannot be read just once. Though the poems are short, they are questions that make you ponder and think about through out the day. Neruda covers just about everything, such as politics, society, nature, and life in general.

The most enlightening thing about poetry, especially Neruda's style of writing poetry, is that it lends itself to much interpretation. Anyone that reads this book will have their own answer and interpretation of what they think Neruda was trying to convey. For example, Neruda has a knack for covering politics. He writes:

"How did the grapes come to know
the cluster's party line?

And do you know which is harder,
to let run to seed or to do the picking?

It is bad to live without a hell:
aren't we able to reconstruct it?

And to position sad Nixon
with his buttocks over the brazier?

Roasting him on low
with North American napalm?" (p.18)

For the most part, the book has a zen-like quality, which suggests a complexity to the poems -- the sense of not-knowing, and moving towards intuitive perceptions, beyond rehearsed patterns of thinking and feeling (viii). In a way, it appears complex, but at the same time liberating. Neruda's poetry is simple in its structure.

Beyond analysis, BOOK OF QUESTIONS is also helpful for anyone trying to refresh their memory to read and write in spanish. The translations are wonderful and practical. I recommend this book as well as other books by Neruda because of this added bonus.

Pablo Neruda is much missed as a poet and thinker. Since his death in 1973 there has been an even stronger growing of appreciation for his unique style of writing. During his last days he composed this strange little collection of some 300-odd questions and a number of poems all dealing with the life cycle as only one who sees his end at hand can write. The subjects are death, rebirth and nature in as complete a marriage of intention as any poet has created. They are beautifully translated by William O'Daly.

Intending his reader to be stimulated by his words to create a visual image that is personal, his questions from this volume so aptly titled 'The Book of Questions' open our eyes and our minds to some rapturously beautiful experiences. Examples:

'Why don't inanimate things
do something?

Where did a celestial body
leave something tonight?

Why don't they train helicopters
to suck honey from the sunlight?

Where did the full moon leave
its sack of flour tonight?'

Warmly humorous, touching and eventually elevating, the questions remain on the backs of our eyes awaiting reentry into our brains for relish at needy times. Neruda is a poet for all seasons. Just read this book and discover. Grady Harp, December 06

With this book, Pablo Neruda takes the universe and turns it inside out; in doing so, he brings forth questions for which there are no answers, and which, at the same moment, lead us toward the questions and vibrations of our own souls. The questions may appear as nonsense, but in truth, they are of another language, that of the poet, and they are neither meant to be answered nor translated into the realms of the logical and linear. He embraces humor: "What will they think of my hat, the Polish, in a hundred years?" and "Is there anything sillier than to be called Pablo Neruda?" Yet he also delves into mystery of life and living: "Is 4 the same 4 for everybody? Are all sevens equal?" and "In the end, won't death be an endless kitchen?" While perhaps never having read C.S. Lewis' "A Grief Observed," Neruda picks up a thread from two lines of this short memoir of grief: "Is yellow square or round? How many hours are in a mile?" But while Lewis searches for answers in a prosaic realm, Neruda remains the poet of questions. His work also brings to mind a poem by American jani johe webster, "the color of august": "what is the sound of a shadow / how do you say a hope / can you see time in a dream". For a truly amazing experience, read William O'Daly's translation of "The Book of Questions" side by side with Ben Belitt's: it is an amazing study of words, meanings, translation, and most of all, questions.

I can't recall how I got my first copy of BREAD FOR THE JOURNEY but since then, I have purchased many copies for people that I love and with whom I want to share the best of Henri Nouwen. These are short but intensely thought provoking meditations.

If are bodies are not fed we will die. In the same manner, if the spirituality of our being is not fed, it too will wither and fade. This book offers food for our spiritual journey in a way that makes one look forward to the meal and after partaking makes one fulfilled by the experience.

INTRODUCTION:
From the St. Matthew Gospel (4,4): "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.' "

These were the words of our Lord and Savior Jesus quoting Holy Scripture in Deuteronomy 8:3 showing the importance of spiritual nourishment. "Bread for the Journey" is a great daily devotional/meditational book with contemplative tid-bits for thought on our daily journey as Christians. If you are not on a spiritual journey with God this book will help you form an appetite for God's Word and God's thoughts. If God as Creator is the Chef, then Henri Nouwen thru this daily meditational book is His assistant cook.

AUTHOR:
Wikipedia describes Nouwen as "a Dutch Catholic priest and writer who authored 40 books on the spiritual life." In recent years, Nouwen's meditative writings are popular with many Protestants (especially those from the emergent/emerging Church movement). Nouwen was also a pastoral psychology, and theology professor at Notre Dame, Yale, and Harvard universities, and spent the latter part of his life working exclusively with the developmentally disabled.

CONTENT:
The book is organized by months, and the only pattern that I could find is that some number of consecutive days are focused on a larger theme (e.g. about "Being ____", or "Jesus is _____," empowered and Holy Spirit, the church, eternal life, joy, sorrow, and others). Many of the daily meditations seem to fit the Christian calendar and major holidays.

CONCLUSION:
Henri Nouwen's 365 daily thoughts are deep, insighful, and spiritually rich. The short daily half-pager meditations include ample quotes and verses from the Bible and are so effective that it makes one "see" a seemingly simple topic in a deeply spiritual and yet practical way.

Now I feel that, really, no Christian (Protestant, Orthodox, Roman-Catholic) will leave this banquet starving or unmotivated to be more Christ-like.

INTRODUCTION:
From the St. Matthew Gospel (4,4): "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.' "

These were the words of our Lord and Savior Jesus quoting Holy Scripture in Deuteronomy 8:3 showing the importance of spiritual nourishment. "Bread for the Journey" is a great daily devotional/meditational book with contemplative tid-bits for thought on our daily journey as Christians. If you are not on a spiritual journey with God this book will help you form an appetite for God's Word and God's thoughts. If God as Creator is the Chef, then Henri Nouwen thru this daily meditational book is His assistant cook.

AUTHOR:
Wikipedia describes Nouwen as "a Dutch Catholic priest and writer who authored 40 books on the spiritual life." In recent years, Nouwen's meditative writings are popular with many Protestants (especially those from the emergent/emerging Church movement). Nouwen was also a pastoral psychology, and theology professor at Notre Dame, Yale, and Harvard universities, and spent the latter part of his life working exclusively with the developmentally disabled.

CONTENT:
The book is organized by months, and the only pattern that I could find is that some number of consecutive days are focused on a larger theme (e.g. about "Being ____", or "Jesus is _____," empowered and Holy Spirit, the church, eternal life, joy, sorrow, and others). Many of the daily meditations seem to fit the Christian calendar and major holidays.

CONCLUSION:
Henri Nouwen's 365 daily thoughts are deep, insighful, and spiritually rich. The short daily half-pager meditations include ample quotes and verses from the Bible and are so effective that it makes one "see" a seemingly simple topic in a deeply spiritual and yet practical way.

Now I feel that, really, no Christian (Protestant, Orthodox, Roman-Catholic) will leave this banquet starving or unmotivated to be more Christ-like.

I was given "Bread For The Journey" at a particularly low point in my life and will personally attest to its restorative power. Henri Nouwen was the rare soul who wrote from a soul molded by the living heart of scripture and informed by compassionate hands-on caregiving.

BFTJ is a daily meditation guide that delves into the pith of religious experience from the Christian point of view. Nouwen's deep insights into the Eucharist are sometimes startling and far deeper than the warmed-over tripe often doled out by those of lesser spiritual prowess. But his gentle words always point with love toward healing the brokenness that is part and parcel of the human experience.

So fascinating are Nouwen's thoughts that one is tempted to wolf them down. But taken in small mouthfuls, chewed well and digested thoroughly, they can be healing to the mind and soul. They can also prepare the reader for properly receiving the Eucharist, not as a mere matter of habit, but as a healing ritual that connects to (and overcomes) one's own sinfulness, nourishing the spirit.

I love this book and the Talisman Magic Workbook as well. It gets down to basic and ensures that you have an understanding of what you are doing, why you are doing it, and how to utilize it.
If you are looking for someone to hold your hand, tell you where to stand,what to recite and give you a bunch of spells that mean nothing to you personally, then don't bother with this book.
If you want a book that gives you all the info and then allows you to personalize it, then I recommend this book.
My only complaint is that the authors only wrote two books.

This book is the best book on candle magick that one could own. I have read several and this one is my favorite. Easy to follow, lots of great information. It is the ONLY one I actually bought and I have NO desire to buy any others on this subject. Great book, great price, and you cant go wrong.

But please understand that candle magick is not for everyone. We all have our own skills and gifts and some people are better at other things..Like me, I just cannot skry! Its not something I have been able to do yet, however it does not mean I wont, some things just take longer to learn, so remember that when you are studying candle magick.
~Blessings~

I was hoping for a grimoire of different spells, but this definatly doesn't cover all of that. It does however cover the basics of using candles as a part of magick, and also covers several other topics like Creative Visualization and other great things like that.

This book is for anyone thinking of joining a Coven, is a Solitary Practitioner of Magick, or is really serious about their Magick Work.

It is not a book of meaningless recipes where you have to trust that the author knows what they are doing and is not a rehash of light flowery vague information.

The book teaches Why and How Magick really works, and why it can fail. A Fabulous Book!

I have been looking for a book to teach my beginning students how to safely perform magick and spells, and this book is beyond words.

It is so rare to really find an author that knows what they are talking about and is willing to share their secrets with the world.

A friend, that belongs to a Bay Area Coven, had raved about the book and that it was exactly what I needed for my students.
He was right . . .

If you want to really understand how and why magick works, and want to customize your own spells . . . I highly recommend this book.

It is one of the rare books that deliver and all the covens that I know of in my area make this book required reading.

I was hoping for a grimoire of different spells, but this definatly doesn't cover all of that. It does however cover the basics of using candles as a part of magick, and also covers several other topics like Creative Visualization and other great things like that.

This is a brilliant and beautiful book about an important era in the history of Los Angeles. The photographs are spectacular and the accompanying narratives are perfect. Dodger Stadium was built on the backs of three communities of Mexican-Americans. L.A. government cared nothing about these communities. It is good that they are remembered so vividly. One hopes that such will awaken city officials to the damage they can do to with their abstract and remote notions about the people they are supposed to serve.

I bought this book after I saw some of Don Normark's pictures in a local gallery. I was impressed with his work that I had to have the book. After reading the book and trying to see the pictures as he did, I realized that this was more that just a photo book. This was history and how these people lived. This could have been written in 2008, the same problems and the same actions by the government that was felt then is still seems to be happening now. I have read other books written about the city of Los Angeles during the years before and this book helps me understand the people who lived there better.

I became aware of Chavez Ravine when I purchased a CD of music by Ry Cooder about the subject. Until that time I would have been unlikely to come across information about this amazing part of LA because I live in New Zealand and we are on the other side of the world - downunder you might say!

However, I have now been to Los Angeles a couple of times, in transit, and so feel as if I have a partial idea of the scale of this city and its surrounds.

I was therefore intrigued to see someone with a copy of this book and promptly looked for it on Amazon's website.

I now have even more insights into this community and it only further amazes me that the land that was home to so many immigrant families could just be taken out from under them - something I feel is quite shameful.

I would certainly recommend this book to anyone who wants to look into the past and read about the immigrant communities in the United States and how they are often overlooked and mistreated.....and then almost forgotten, but for people like Don Normark bringing their world to the fore.

My in-laws are of the families uprooted from La Loma-now Dodger Stadium. I'm looking forward to reading about the history of this long, forgotten place.

Nestled in the hills between downtown Los Angeles and Pasadena is Chávez Ravine, site of Dodger Stadium and its acres of parking lots. Few baseball fans here could tell you that long before the Dodgers left Brooklyn, Chávez Ravine was the home of three communities of Mexican-American laborers and their families.

Don Normark, a young photographer in 1948, was climbing in the hills looking for postcard-shot views of LA when he discovered La Loma, Palo Verde, and Bishop. Each neighborhood was a rambling cluster of buildings, dirt streets, and footpaths. The wooded slopes of Elysian Park overlooked the ravine, and beyond were the peaks of the San Gabriel Mountains. He felt he had found another world -- a kind of Shangri-La. For many months, he returned to take pictures of what he saw and of the people he met there. He didn't know that he was recording on film the daily life of a place and its people that was about to disappear.

The pictures, of course, are black and white, a rich range of gray tones and contrasts under the cloudless southern California sky. In a casual street scene, two men stand talking on the hard dirt, and a third, his back to them, leans across a low concrete wall. All is in sharp focus from the dusty tire track in the foreground to the pointed tower of City Hall nudging up over a darkly wooded ridge in the distance. The mid-afternoon light reflects brightly off one man's tee shirt and from the front of a small white house farther on. Meanwhile, the shadows cast by eaves, palm fronds, parked cars, and the men themselves are deeply dark.

There are many pictures of people, of all ages. Some look into the camera. Most are busy working, walking, talking, playing. A young girl wears her confirmation dress. A boy watches his father repair a car. Two men spar under branches thick with bougainvillea blossoms. An iceman stands in an open gateway, tongs slung over one shoulder. A young woman arranges flowers on an altar. A workman returns home along a winding footpath at the end of the day (see book jacket above).

Fifty years later, Normark gathered together his pictures and began looking for the people who had once lived in Chávez Ravine. This book is an album of those pictures, with commentary by the people he found, in their own words. Normark writes simply and clearly about himself and his experiences. Like his photographs, his writing style is sharply focused. In the opening pages of the book, he describes the forced relocation of the people of Chávez Ravine during the Fifties, and the various public and private interests contending for control of its development. Normark's book is both handsome and beautifully written, a fine example of text and image illuminating each other.

The Christian's Career Journey is an excellent resource for finding the job God designed for you. It has strong Christian references along with practical to-do strategies that fit into a successful job search program. We are usisng this book as a study at our church and it is relevant and needed in these changing times. Thank you, Susan Whitcomb for investing your time and talents into writing this wonderfully helpful book!

The Christian's Career Journey is a blessing for any Christian job seeker. Today's challenges and pressures to create a fulfilling career and earn a decent living can seem impossible. Yet God has a perfect plan for each of us, and He delights in doing the impossible if we only ask for his help, obey his will, and persevere through the career journey with prayer and scripturally based Godly wisdom. This book includes all the resources you need to fuel your job search, ignite your faith, and find real fulfillment by partnering with the ultimate career coach--God. He has big plans for you--to prosper you and use you in the workforce, and this book lights the way! If I could, I would give this book ten stars! Yes, it's that good -- you'll be glad you bought it!


Robyn Feldberg, NCRW, CCCMC
"The Abundant Success Career Coach"
Abundant Success Career Services

Excellent balance between Biblical truth and cutting-edge job search skill training. This book has been needed for years. It is a must read for any Christian considering a job search, and it is an essential for anyone in the local church who is ministering to those in career transition.

Lynn Guillory, Founder & Executive Director
Career Transition Ministries Network (a non-profit parachurch ministry)

This book should be a must read for job seekers who want to connect their faith with their work. This guide offers practical job hunting tips woven together with strong Christian principles.

How exciting it is to see someone offer their gifts in the way that Susan Britton Whitcomb does in The Christian's Career Journey. She brings together her vast and actionable knowledge as a career coach together with her perspective as a thoughtful and committed Christian to offer a practical and inspirational guide for those seeking new ways to share their own gifts through their career.
~ Scott Eblin, President of The Eblin Group and author of The Next Level: What Insiders Know About Executive Success

I serve on a By-Laws Review team at my church. We are in the midst of a transition time, and are addressing some short-comings of our current By-Laws. I found this book while I was searching for some guidance as to how to structure church by-laws in a Biblical framework. I am very pleased with this book, and bought three more copies for the rest of the team. We have all gleaned a good bit from the book, and it is helping us to look at our Constitution and By-Laws from a Biblical standpoint. This book is very useful for the lay person or vocational minister who is trying to set up a church structure in a proper way.

As a pastor in a church that recently reworked its structure, I like this book because it really makes sense, not to mention it honors God! It is a very thought-provoking needed assessment of executing church affairs in a way that stays true to biblical precepts. The practical application throughout the book is a bonus for every pastor and church leader who desires to see a living example of how this structure actually functions. It's not just a list of ideals, but a real tool that can be modeled now. It's definitely worth your time to read so that you can discover how these principles can fit in your church.

I have experienced shameful power struggles in previous churches and then had the privelege of being a member of the first church in which Dr. Blanchard implemented this structure. It was a hugely beneficial move for our church and is still reaping benefits. This book exactly describes how it was implemented - and it works! I appreciate the concise, scholarly presentation, and the fact that it is solidly Scripturally based. By the way, I also enjoyed reading it!

I am currently pastoring the church where Dr. Blanchard first introduced the principles that you will find in "Church Structure That Works." In short, I would say that "yes, it really does work!" I cannot express how grateful I am to Dr. Blanchard's leadership as he paved the way for my own tenure as pastor. I have experienced a biblically solid, comprehensive, and a very natural church polity that has allowed me to truly pastor this church. This book is not just theory, it is born our of "on the field" practice.

This is a must read for all Christians who are leaders or serve on ministry teams (committees) in their local church. Dysfunction is the perfect word to describe the state of most of our churches today. Who has not sat in a business meeting that more resembled a debate on the Senate floor than the house of God? Who has not left meeting after meeting feeling like you just wasted precious hours of your life & accomplished nothing? Dr. Blanchard's book is not only well written and easily understood by the lay person but it's challenging & encouraging as well. James 1:22 tells us to not merely listen to the Word but to do what it says. I'd say the same thing about Dr. Blanchard's book - read it and then do it!

This cookbook is fantastic - wish I had time to create something out of it every day. It's divided up nicely - easy to follow. A lot of hearty fare - which is exactly what one wants to eat in colder temperatures!!! I will say that the mulled wine is a standout - there is something for everyone though - appetizers through desserts. You won't be disappointed!!

This is by far my favorite cookbook. We've loved almost every recipe, although she seems to be a better cook than baker (baked goods are good, but food is great!). Better than Open House cookbook b/c the portions are smaller (family-sized as opposed to banquet sized) and the recipe descriptions are less flowery.

I have used this cookbook for 2 years and found every recipe to be delicious. It calls for lots of fresh ingredients but if you don't have them, often the recipes don't suffer. Many of the recipes are variations on old New England favorites. The title says it correctly!

Of all the cookbooks I own (and that's a lot) this one is probably my favorite. Sarah Leah Chase's style is friendly and charming. Her love of food is apparent on every page. Her ability is apparent in the first recipe you prepare. The Chocolate Raspberry cake is wonderful........for years now it is my most requested recipe. I wish she would write another cookbook!

I love this book. I've been into cooking since I was about 5 and I own over 4,000 cookbooks, but this one is definitely my fav. I bought it in December 1990 and at this point, have cooked nearly every recipe in the book. They are all fabulous. I have never had one of these recipes fail.

I have given this book as a gift many times over the years, and the recipients have all come to love the book as much as I do.

Here are some of the standout recipes:
Creamed Spinach - it's a very simple recipe but the best I've ever tasted
Mustard Creamed Onions - a zippy twist on a Thanksgiving tradition
Spanish Garlic Soup - rich and unusual
Raised Waffles - worth the price of the book just for this recipe!
Apricot Ginger Cream Scones - totally fattening & totally worth it
Turkey Mole - the best mole I've ever had, way better than most restaurants
Spicy Shrimp, NOLA Style - just like Pascal Manale's

The thing I love about these recipes is that even the ones I don't think I'll like (such as Rhubarb Custard Pie) come out great. SLC also has a fun, chatty and erudite writing style, so reading her cookbooks is almost as much fun as cooking from them.

Many of the recipes are a bit long and can take awhile to make, but the end product is worth every minute of prep time.

I liked the book because I am a history major but some parts are hard to get through. It is a classic however and is a great stepping stone to use when reviewing ancient history

Cornelius Tacitus knows perfectly what the cardinal human characteristic is: `From time immemorial, man has had an instinctive love of power.' And, `the reward for virtue was inevitable death.'
His book is a mighty illustration of the ruthless fight for the top spot: emperor. The ambitious and the wealthy fight one another without mercy. `The truth is that revolution and strife put tremendous power into the hands of evil men.' The vanquished are brutally slain.
For Tacitus, the most important factors in the power struggle are money (`money was the sinews of civil war') and control of the military (`the lesson that an army can create an emperor'). If you could `reward` your soldiers, you could win. However, the legions were not interested in war itself only in looting, plundering, raping and enslaving. `The men wanted campaign and set battles, as the prizes here were more attractive than their normal pay.' The victims were innocent peasants, women and children.
Overall, `Italy found it hard to put up with such hordes of infantry and cavalry, and with violence, financial loss and acts of lawlessness.'

While the `Annals' contain more human touch, the `Histories' are nearly completely centered on military, diplomatic and tactical manoeuvres, followed by terrifying and merciless violence after the battles (`the fury of the soldiers').

This for mankind severe and pessimistic book is a must read for all those interested in the lessons of history and for lovers of great classical literature.

Every now and then a pivotal moment in history is witnessed and recorded by a master communicator. The mid-first century of Rome was such a time and Tacitus was such a communicator. The Histories will forever be a benchmark of good history with its observations on human nature and behaviour along with their impact on history. The historian will do well to read Tacitus not just for the historical lessons but for his approach to history as a record of human activity. While observing and commenting on the human element in history, Tacitus avoids making moral judgements and remains as objective as possible in the midst of turmoil, wars, and rumors of wars. His beloved nation and people were suffering under the barbarity of fratricidal war yet he remains above the madness and records the events with passion tempered with objectivity. His example is one that has remained difficult for others to follow.

A word on this translation in particular - I found Mr. Wellesley's translation very readable and poetic. He seems to have captured the literature value of the text as well as the content. Well done.

Most people don't need a review of Tacitus's work. Most people want to know if a particular translation is any good. With that in mind, I recommend this Penguin edition of Kenneth Wellesley's translation. The translation itself is highly readable, and Wellesley indicates the rare instances where he emends the Latin text in footnotes. Wellesley also uses the footnotes to help the reader keep track of some of the less prominent characters in the work, a feature which is a big help for the non-specialist. Probably the best aspect of this edition is the map section at the end. The book contains 11 maps that include maps of large areas, maps of cities, and diagrams of important battles. Wellesley also refers the reader to the appropriate map through the footnotes. This review makes it sound like the book contains a lot of footnotes, but really there are usually just one or two a page. The one minor defect of the book is that the index only contains personal names. A general index would have made this user friendly book even better. But like I said, this is a great English copy of the Histories.

Reading Tacitus' Annals I oft remembered Thucydides' account of the Peleponnesian wars. An important theme of the latter work was the corrupting effects of prolonged war on the morals and intellect of the Athenian people, who were ultimately degraded so much that they voted the destruction of the people of a small island just because they had chosen to remain neutral. Tacitus, on the other hand, seems to have dedicated himself in this work to examining the corrupting effects of absolutism on the Roman people after the fall of the Republic. He shows how absolute power brought out the worst traits in the character of rulers like Tiberius and Nero, who grew more and more tyrannical with every year on the throne, and how members of the illustruous Roman senate and other sections of the Roman political society turned into a horde of spineless sycophants, informers and debauches. There were still a few honourable individuals, but as Tacitus shows in an endless series of judicial and non-judicial murders, most of these paid the price of sticking to the ancient traditions of liberty and honour with their lives. Tacitus also deals at length with the relations of the Romans with the subject peo-ples. I may be wrong here, but it seems to me that in such passages Tacitus draws a parallels between the fate of these enslaved peoples and that of the enslaved Roman people -the first a slave to the Romans, the second a slave to the emperor and his bureaucracy made up of ex-slaves. Many subject peoples rebelled and some like the Cherusci under Arminius (towards whom he does not seem averse at all) could successfully preserve their liberty against the in-trusion of the Romans. Those Romans who dared defy the tyrant on the other hand, and especially those who could wisely remain independent and yet stay alive, were far fewer, Tacitus seems to imply. Insofar as it demonstrates how closely liberty (including liberty of thought) and morals are intertwined, this work is still relevant today as a central work of liberal humanism.