Organizations Books

What a quirky excellent book! This is a true gem for anyone with even the smallest interest in church history and trivia. I often found myself chuckling to myself while reading this book, "So that's where that came from." A great and easy read.

A student in my systematic theology class gave me this book a few days ago, and I have already finished it once, and can tell it will be a regular companion. It is not a systematic theology text by any means -- what it is instead is a collection of trivia about Christianity, Christendom, the Bible and beliefs.

There is no general organising principles behind the book other than if it is Christian, or even vaguely related to the subject, it might warrant a place here. For example, on page six there is a short section on Muslim beliefs about Jesus (including the idea that the prophet Muhammad believed the Christian Trinity to be referring to Jesus, Mary and God the Father; Muhammad was right in saying that this is not the Trinity and that Jesus never claimed it; however, that is not what the Christian concept of the Trinity is).

There are various charts and lists. One example is the list of the signatories of the Declaration of Independence and their denominational affiliations; 13 of the signers are listed as of unknown affiliation, only one is listed as Roman Catholic, and none from outside Christianity.

This is a book that leaves none out -- not even the Protestants, Catholics and Orthodox have exclusive claim in these pages, as McTavish lists half a dozen autocephalous (meaning, self-contained and self-regulating) groups beyond the big three. These include the Nestorians (at one time early in Christian history perhaps the dominant Christian body), the Abyssians, the Armenians (the first nation to formally adopt Christianity, in 301), the Coptics and the Jacobite/Oriental Orthodoxers.

If you want to know who was good-looking in the Bible, you'll find the list here (various people are described as good-looking in different terms). If you'd like to know the names of the 16 men who might have had claim to being one of the 12 apostles (and we're not including Paul here), the list is in these pages. Most of us know people who are named for biblical characters (or at least whose names derive predominantly from biblical inspiration), but what are the least popular names? How many women have you known who were named Lo-Ruhamah, or how many men named Romamti-ezer?

This is a little gem, full of fun facts and trivia in short, easily read and digested bits. Where something has a biblical reference, McTavish provides it. There is a subject index that concludes the text; unfortunately, there are no other reference materials such as notes or a bibliography (which would be helpful for authority and verification of some of the information).

I am very grateful for this gift, and shall remember this as a potential gift for other friends, religious or not, who might be interested in knowing the odd bit of trivia here and there about Christianity (and, truly, some of it is very odd, such as the list of those excommunicated, which includes back in 1054 both the Pope and patriarch of Constantinople; hmmm, does that mean the whole church is gone now?).

Take and read!

I've always been a fan of T.J. McTavish (this is his first published book, but he's appeared in the scholarly journal "Quackenbush" from time to time over the years). He's really outdone himeslf here. Get this book. In fact buy 5 of them. One for yourself, and one to give to 4 friends (or enemies).

To Be an Artist is a lovely book that highlights the creative talents of children from around the world. Makes a great gift!

I Love this book! This book is a wonderful addition to any childhood class room, or for children who engage in any type of art. This book shows children from all around the world engaging in all different aspects of art. Art is an important part of every culture. This book really captures just that.

I bought this book for my daughter's 5th birthday. She enjoys a variety of art forms in a variety of mediums yet she did not comprehend the fact that singing, dancing, banging on a drum, creating a collage, exploring play dough, creating a block structure, and "writing" are all forms of art. After reading this multicultural book, she has a better understanding of art. She now understands that art is more than crayons and paint. She now has a better understanding of creative expression across children of many cultures. The book is an "easy read" for parents and teachers yet can foster more in-depth conversations when needed. I will be sharing this book with my daughters preschool teachers.

An inspiring collection of the words and thoughts of a modern saint, beautifully presented in this edition.

What can you possibly say about such a book?
Maybe the interesting thing is that it is really a book with a specific message. What i mean with this is after reading some other books seeing Biography etc. I expected somehow the "same stuff" just presented slightly diffrently. Yet the concepts are not that much which you can present on the topic of love,Devotionj etc. this book shoots direct to the core of it. Sometime i felt that there is not one single sentence in this book which would be too much!


If you are intrested in surrender your life to God no matter from which path you came this book will be of such an assistance to you! This book is beyond religion and contains 110% Devotion and Love. Here some excerpts and comments in general:





Total surrender consits in giving ourselves completely to God
Why must we give ourselves fully to God?
Because God has given himself to us.
If God, who owes nothing to us
is ready to impart to us no less than himself,
shall we answer with just a fraction of ourselves?
To give ourselves fully to God is a means of receiving God himself.
I live for God and give up my own self
and in this way induce God to live for me.
Therefore, to possess God, we must allow him to possesss our souls.
How poor we would be if God hat not given us the power of giving ourselves to him.
How rich we are now!
How easy it is to conquer God!
We give ourselves to God;
then God is ours,
and there can nothing more ours than God.
The money with which God repays our surrender is
himself.




"Total surrender probes beyond the popular image of Mother Teresa to the very heart of her spiritual life and vision. In her won words, Mother Teresa tells of the simple joy of following Jesus and surrendering fully to him. Her life of radical poverty and wholehearted dedication to the poorest of the poor forms the heart of this inspiring surrender to God and those most in need.
It is part of the genius of Mother Teresa that she finds way




"The sisters must be consumed eith one desire: Jesus.
Speak of no one but him crucified
We must not be afraid to do the things he did
to go fearlessly through death and danger
with him and for him



The missionary must die daily, if she wants to bring souls to God
She must be ready to pay the price he paid for souls
wo walk in the way he walked


Put your heart into being a bright light
"Help me to shed thy fragrance everywhere I go"
Let the poor, seeing you, be drawn to Christ.
Poverty makes people very bitter
and they speak and act without realizing what they do.
But do they remember Christ when they see you
- even if they get angry-
because you remind them of Christ?
Draw them to God but never, never to yourself.
If you are not drawing them to God,
then are are seeking yourself
and people love you for yourself
and not because you remind them of Christ.

"...be able to give all to Jesus"

"I'm just the pencil and God does the writing"
I always wanted to serve the poor - purely for the love of God

We must be able to radiate the joy of Christ

They (the poor) have been unwanted all their life - We want them make feel that at the end somebody loves them and somebody cares for them

They have lifed life like animals but they die like angels




Our greatest love goes out to the oorest of the poor


Jesus said very clearly: "Whatever you do to the least of me that you are doing to me"


"She loved people no matter what" Sir Cliff Richard

While this book is basically just a collection of previously released works, Anything Mother Teresa has to say is worth an additonal read. It gives some insight into a remarkable human being.

Being a youth educator myself, i found this book to be deeply insightful in the field of Middle School education. Dr. Barry Raebeck has truly interesting ideas and philosophies that everyone should experience..recommended to everyone!

Dr. Barry Raebeck is an imensly talented educator, having been a student of his, and this book is an understatement of his wisdom. Known to me as "the good doctor" has had such a major impact on my education I am forever in debt. Praise Dr. Raebeck, Praise Dr. Raebeck

i recomend this book to everyone. i think dr. raebeck is a good teacher. TMS is a good book and he should give it free to all his students haha. but seriously, good book.

There is an enormous amount of info packed into this relatively small and easy to read paperback!!! Now in its second edition (fortunate, because my first edition text is pretty well worn from use & study), this book gets slightly larger but still should be required reading for any path resident while on the TransMed service----you can easily get through it in a month. I also found it a fantastic resource when studying for transmed boards (although that's been a numer of years ago for me). At the time, I'm pretty sure Dr. McCullough wrote many of the boards questions!!! hint, hint Now that I am in practice as a general pathologist, I still occasionally turn to this little book! BUY IT!

This book is a clear and concise review of the major, and in some cases not so major, areas of transfusion medicine. It is well written with a very clear style. The content coverage is superb and the appropriate references are given allowing one to track concepts back to their source.

Other books offer more in-depth review of the individual topics discussed but this book does the best job of evenly covering the major topics at a level appropriate for residents, fellows, and physicians interested in transfusion medicine. This book should be required introductory reading for all clinical pathology residents.

This book, like the first edition, is a truly excellent review of basic concepts in Transfusion Medicine, with enough advanced concepts and details to satisfy pathology residents studying for board exams. Dr. McCullough has gone out of his way to produce a book that is as current as can be, reads easily, and is just plain stuffed full of practical and theoretical information! An added bonus is that since Dr. McCullough (a former editor of the journal TRANSFUSION) authored all but one of the chapters, the book does not suffer from the uneven writing that damages too many Blood Banking books. He is a terrific writer, and this is an outstanding book.

This book isn't just for enforcement people. For someone like me who isn't a law officer and just wants to understand how terrorists and drug traffickers work, this book is great.

I always thought of terrorism and drugdealing in simplistic terms of what happens in the street. Now I understand how the system works and why our fight is so unsuccessful.

What I learned:
Our laws change slowly in response to rapid innovation by the traffickers and terrorists.

Horse-and-buggy standards for banks like "know your customer" are pointless in a modern world economy.

The worldwide supply of drugs is variegated and impossible to control. As a result, our approach to fighting drugs by cooperating with drug-producing countries is stupid. My guess is that a bread-and-butter approach of customs inspections and death penalty for dealers and launderers would work better. The mindset of modern law enforcement is dead wrong.

As icing on the cake, it was interesting to learn that the Afghanis, Arabs, and Iranians who attack America for our moral degeneration are number 1 in heroin production and smuggling.

A few disappointments:

Richards barely treated terrorists. If he had, his book would have had more mass appeal.

Some of the explanations would have been clearer with flow diagrams.

I still don't understand why layering is so effective. It sounds as if a simple computer trace would unpeel the layers.

This book is not light reading. But if you really want to know how the world works, it's worth the effort!

My father wrote this book. Even though I am only eleven years old I already want his job. I love to read and learn and I am very interested in this field. I read his book and I can finally understand what he's talking about at the dinner table! He now tells me about his cases in the car and I love hearing about them. This book helped me learn about things I wouldn't have learned about in college. It really opened my eyes to what was out there. Good work daddy! PS - Your kids books that you wrote for us are just as good! Publish them!

I became acquainted with James R. Richard's Transnational Criminal Organizations, Cybercrime, and Money Laundering : A Handbook for Law Enforcement Officers, Auditors, and Financial Investigators when it was used as a text in Utica College's Economic Crime Management Master of Science Degree program in the Advanced Economic Crime as well as the Legal Concepts of Criminal Fraud and Corporate Criminal Liability graduate courses. After quickly thumbing through it, I immediately recognized that it truly contains a bounty of useful, pertinent and relevant information.

Extremely well written, it is a well flowing, very easy read that is both highly informative and enlightening. The book provides a very extensive and detailed examination of organized criminal enterprises engaged in international financial crime. The book fully details the specific steps of the placement, layering, and integration stages of money laundering as well as fully itemizing the techniques and uses of non-financial institutions (casinos, securities et al.) in money laundering. The expanded international focus documents a very detailed and thorough examination of the scope of global financial crime. The book fully integrates an expanse of information on banking, money laundering and cybercrime basics, international criminal organizations - in both a national and international context - in a manner that is easily understood by the reader.

As a police officer, I would highly recommend this book as a "must have" for the reference shelf of federal, state, local or corporate based investigators engaged in financial crimes inquiries and analysis. For the non-professional who is interested in organized crime of a more cerebral nature, the book is more than worth the purchase price.

As a college instructor (Introduction to Economic Crime Investigation at Herkimer County Community College; Herkimer, NY), this book in invaluable to the both the instructor and the student engaged in a comprehensive review of money laundering actvities.

As a side note, Mr. Richards also gives an excellent presentation and lecture on the topics and subject matter covered in his book.

A well researched book by an author who obviously has a deep personal love for his topic. The diagrams are easy to understand and the book is accessible for any reader. I thank the author for this, a wonderful book.

The book is very interesting and obviously researched by a man who loves his topic. I thank him for sharing his knowledge with me.

An absorbing and enthralling read.
A clever combination of in depth research into the construction and manning of fine ships and the parallel development of English Society and humour of the period.
An insight into the development of the British navy under succesive Monarchs as the early foundations of the Empire were laid.
The author proposes a lively and imaginative interpretation of the politics of the time as though he were embroiled.
More from this author please.

This book has excellent (repeat excellent) depth of information on the Marine Corps Order of Battle, as expected from the title. It also contains very interesting lineage and background data and a wealth of related information. I would rate it excellent in these regards. Anyone with an interest in these subjects should have a copy of this book in their library.

I was a little disappointed to find the Tables of Organization (T/O) data somewhat less complete. There is considerable data buried in text and higher level summary data (such as number of men and major weapons at company level) in the tables, but unfortunately the book does not contain the detailed T/O of Marine units that I had hoped for. This is especially true for pre-war and early war organizations and for ancillary units (like Engineer and Pioneer units). The Bibliography does mention that Tables of Organization are retained by the Marine Corps Historical Center in original paper format and are not complete. This would make the accumulation of complete Tables of Organization a difficult task, but perhaps Mr. Rottman and/or Mr. Frank will be able to turn their considerable research abilities to detailed T/Os in a future work.

All in all an excellent work and one that I recommend very highly!

This book is truly one the best books on the topic of military orders of battle. Not only does Rottman present the complete order of battle of the USMC in WWII, but he also discusses the changes in its TOE and the doctrine behind the organization. Not only does he present a detailed OB that covers all land and air units, he also presents a battle by battle OB as well. This book is a must have for serious fans of WWII history, the USMC, and Order of Battle afficianados. This book will be a resource to scholars for generations to come.

This book is everything the previous reviewers have said it is, a unique and indispensable resource on the World War II Marine Corps. It is not cheap, of course, but it saved me many hours of digging through archives, not to mention the time spent getting to them.

The main chapters cover: 1. USMC organizational profile; 2. USMC shore establishment; 3. Fleet Marine Force (FMF); 4. Amphibious corps and forces -- Marine divisions, brigades, and tactical groups (including a summary of the history and actions of each); 5. FMF ground units (including a brief summary of the history and actions of each regiment and significant independent unit); 6. FMF ground unit operations (brief description of each major action, with order of battle on both sides and summary of results, including one or more maps for most); 7. USMC aviation profile; 8. USMC aviation units (to squadron and detachment level, with brief summary entry for each); 9. FMF aviation unit campaign participation.

There are useful appendixes covering the characteristics and utilization of weapons, aircraft, and landing ships and craft, as well as: a recap of USMC casualties; unit citations and commendations (as well as a statistical summary of individual awards); succinct but useful summary information on the U.S. Navy, U.S. Army, and Japanese forces; a listing of code names; and a comprehensive table of comparative rates and ranks.

As noted by another reviewer, the tables of organization are not always so detailed or complete as might be wished. Those who have been directly involved in military operations, however, will know that such tables always represent objectives rather than reality and that the actual organization is constantly in flux -- particularly so in war. One can get a detailed look at unit personnel strength (in most cases) by consulting the muster rolls (available on microfilm), but it is not practical to try to include all this information in a book even of this size.

With its oversized (7" × 10") page format and 600 text pages one would expect this book to pack a lot of information. The author manages to provide more even than might be expected by organizing the material well, which also makes it easy to find what you are looking for in this sea of data. Despite its "just the facts" orientation, readers will find many fascinating tid-bits. It is inevitable that in a book with this much information some bits will not be quite correct, but errors are few and inconsequential.

Most people probably neither need nor can afford this book for themselves, and the publisher has wisely positioned it as a library title. If you have any need or desire to study the Pacific War in depth, however, you will definitely want to urge your library to acquire it. This book is naturally complemented by Rottman's _World War II Pacific Island Guide : A Geo-Military Study_ (ISBN 0313313954), which provides details of the places where the Marines fought.

Will O'Neil

If you've read other biographies of Josemaria Escriva and Opus Dei, this one will strike you as refreshingly objective. It offers the reader many of the historical and cultural details of Spain that have been omitted in other books of the same subject. In particular, it offers a clear and objective explanation of the Spanish Civil War, which was the occasion for many of Escriva's and his followers' acts of heroism. In general, this broader historical perspective gives the reader a more realistic view of Opus Dei and its founder. This approach, in effect, allows the figure of Escriva to emerge even more convincingly as a truly saintly man.

I found this book to be exceptional in understanding not only Opus Dei in Spain early on, but also Spainish society before, during, and after their civil war.
The author does present many of the controversial topics that were present at the time. The author also presents it to allow a reader to see both sides of the story. As a first step to any investigation or study of this group or as suplement to an exsisting study, I would highly recommend.
The pace of the book was exceptional. The author maintains a steady flow and rarely slows down with inconsequential details yet retains the important facts to give a complete picture.
I urge anyone to read it, but do not stop there. Find additonal books that strive for objective views. Perhaps the best way to research is to talk to the people involved. Personal interviews seems to be the best way to understand what Opus Dei is, where it is from, and where it is going.

An engaging and very easy book to read. Quite hard to put down.

The many vignettes and anecdotes gives one a true appreciation for the life and calling of this man and great Saint. His heroic life and spirituality shine through these pages. This Saint's supernatural outlook and love seems to have permeated his every moment of life. His dedication to the poor and the love for mankind is an inspiration to all.

I would highly encourage every person, irrespective of their religious background, who is interested in deepening their spirtuality, to read this book.

If I were stuck on that proverbial desert island with just one book, this would be it. I've read these graceful four line poems over and over, and every time gain fresh insight. The genius of this work is that it can be read on so many different levels--give it to a couple newly in love and they can read it to each other as a book of love poems. Give it to a serious seeker of God and they will understand the love and beloved of the poems to be the relationship between Rumi and God, and the ecstasy of real communion with God...either way, this poems are beautiful and infinite. I brought this book to Afghanistan (where Rumi was born) and found the love of this poet (who they know as Bahlki) to be a bond, and we translated many poems back and forth...there are many more. BUY this book! And buy five copies to give to friends. Even people who think they don't like or read poetry end up loving this book, especially if they are on the path to God.

For the mystically inclined, Moyne and Barks translation of this collection of Rumi quatrains, is an "evocative" excursion into that "realm"..the realm of the "mystical". Truly, a source of contemplation and deep wisdom, the book also "tests" "traditional" concepts and notions related to...the "boundaries" of love. But, Rumi was a truly "enlightened" being, and, therefore although...a being whose words will "stretch" our mind...he will never be talking about anything but..the "divine" in essence. This particular collection by Moyne and Barks...speaks a little more "specifically" to the aspect of "longing" in the "spiritual search".

How beautiful the translations:

Night comes so people can sleep like fish
in black water. Then day.

How beautiful the poetry:

I have no name
for what circles
so perfectly.

Keep this book close to you for those thin, lonely hours so that you can understand -

We are the night ocean filled
with glints of light...