Maryland Books

This volume is a part of the bicentennial celebration of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Frederick, Maryland. The purpose is to make us mindful of our rich heritage from the distant past, to help us understand our relation to the living present, and to show us our responsibility to the promising future.

The aim has been to give an accurate and readable account of the origin and growth of the congregation. It is not written primarily for the expert scholar but for the average member of a large and alert congregation. We have assumed in our readers no technical knowledge of general Church history of theology. In the effort to present the narrative in such a form as to interset the general reader, we have included some details that the average student of Lutheran history might regard as superfluous. The purpose has been to lend life and color to the story, to furnish interpretation and background rather than a mere chronicle of bare facts.

This account rests almost entirely from unpublished materials.

The story of Mr. Steindling moved, fascinated and challenged me to re-think my ideas on resistance and struggle in the face of a situation that must have seemed hopeless at times. It's not about winning its about living by your principles and putting your life on the line to defend them. People in adverse situations all over the world can take hope and strength from this book. A must read.

This is a valuable book (resource) for budding entrepreneurs. It seems to try to cover all the bases for starting a small business, but it can't do them all well in the space available between its covers. The book is only 288 pages long. If you are in the planning stages of starting a small business, then I highly recommend you get a copy of this book. Read it, study it, and outline it. There are helpful checklists to help you grasp the subjects. You will come up with a plethora of keywords and terms that you will want to google to find Web pages giving more detailed (and maybe more current) information.

I am a SCORE counselor (Senior Corps of Retired Executives) who typically does face-to-face counseling sessions three nights a month. It would really be neat if my clients would read this book BEFORE they came to their session with me because they would pretty much be "educated customers" ready to ask educated questions. Our sessions would be so much more beneficial.

My favorite chapters were:

1. Initial business concerns
2. Your business' structure
3. Business start-up details
5. Sources of business assistance (SCORE is mentioned here)
7. Your smart business plan (and a good sample plan is included)
8. Obtaining the financing you need

The book is weak when it comes to how the Internet can be used in corresponding, hiring, and marketing. But this is just one example of how googling keywords and concepts found in the book will make the book more complete. Don't treat the book as authoritative on the law. It isn't. Nor was it ever intended to be. It is light on tax information as it relates to small business.

I was particularly impressed with the material presented in Chapter 2: Choice of Legal Entity. That subject is sorely ignored in most small business books, and it is critically important. It is a subject I regularly must spend a great deal of time discussing at my SCORE sessions. This book does a pretty good job on the topic.

Chapters 4 and 9 through 12 are easy to find fault with. The topic of each could fill a book. But having these topics covered definitely will help a budding entrepreneur know some of the issues they raise.

I would have liked the book more if Chapter 6 (marketing) had been less superficial. When I read it I got the impression that the author was more a public relations expert than a marketing expert. I generally categorize public relations as a subset of marketing. Marketing includes advertising, public relations, and a whole host of other promotion techniques. I did not get this message when I read the book. I also would have liked the book better if the Internet, email, and Web sites had been discussed more. But there are many books on those subjects. Therefore, I can't complain too much about the limited discussion of computers.

When you read this book it may feel a little like it was produced on an assembly line. Maybe it was? There are 51 versions of this book sold; one for each state and the District of Columbia. Content is king, and this book has it. 5 stars!

Pierre Lecomte du Nouy was a French scientist who made a contributions to problems involving the interface of physics and biology. This book which comes at the end of his many years of scientific study is a work of spiritual speculation. In it he develops a picture of the overall development of humanity in which the physical laws of entropy operate on the material realm but are compensated for spiritual laws, pointing in the direction of a higher moral order. His work in this sense resembles that of Teillhard du Chardin.
Here is a pssage of Lecomte du Nuoy explaining his fundamental idea.

"Things occur as if energetic order, the decline of which can be demonstrated statistically by the increase of entropy, were replaced by the evolution of organized beings, by an increasingly complex organization in a domain escaping statistical laws, the field of individual actions that do not depend on the principles we announced. The march of the material universe towards an inherent chaos, towards nothing, would therefore be compensated by the simultaneous progression of an imponderable universe, that of the spirit, whose order and perfection would stem from the ashes of the unorganized world'

This is a profound, difficult work one require much thought to understand. My own sense however is that putting much time in this work will prove very worthwhile.

Since 1912, the Junior League has been a leader in volunteer service to Baltimore. It is an organization of women committed to promoting voluntarism, developing the potential of women and improving communities through the effective action and leadership of trained volunteers. The Junior League is open to women of all races, religions and national origins who demonstrate an interest in and commitment to voluntarism. This cookbook is filled with wonderful recipes you will make again and again for company. The chapters include Beverages, Appetizers, Eggs, Pasta & Cheeses, Soups & Sandwiches, Fish & Shellfish, Poultry & Game, Meats, Vegetables & Side Dishes, Breads, Salads, Sauces & Spreads, Desserts, Pies & Pastries, Cakes, Cookies & Candy, Pickles & Relishes, Celebrities, Restaurants, Caterers & Vineyards, Ethnic Festivals, Menus and This & That. Be sure to try the Crab Cakes on pg. 84 and the Chicken and Crescent Almondine on pg 114. You won't be disappointed!

Not only does Wayne make the food sound appetizing, but the stories behind the recipe are also appealing. His love of food and people, and the way food brings people together, really comes through.

Even if you never put a pot on the stove, you'll find this an entertaining read.

Not just for fans of the B&O, although they will definitely want this in their collection. Mr. Harwood examines all the problems that lay before those Baltimore businessmen in building a railroad from Baltimore to the Ohio River. Well researched and profusely illustrated, it shows from what seeds today's mighty railroads have grown!

In The Footsteps Of Stonewall Jackson by Civil War Re-enactor and history buff Clint Johnson is a unique character study of the famous Civil War general Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson, one of the most pivotal military strategists and leaders in history. Following the trail of Jackson's life from the church where he was baptized to the museum that holds the stuffed hide of his war horse to the grave of the Confederate officer who ordered the volley that fatally wounded Jackson, In The Footsteps Of Stonewall Jackson is a singularly impressive tour de force as enjoyable for armchair travelers as it is for tourists who want to actively seek out more about this fascinating man's life and the role he played in America's bloodiest conflict.

I was pleasantly surprise to the attention to detail put into this children's book. A fine tribute to the greatest QB to ever play the game with artwork that seems to capture the time.

When Edgar Allen Poe died in Baltimore in l849, John G. Morris was already one of that city's prominent men. His "Lutherville Female Seminary," a pioneer educational insitution in this country exclusively for women, was to open just five years later.. As the Civil War loomed on the horizon, Morris was a Union man in a Southern city. He used to run to the train station to wave flags and shout "Hurrah" at Union troops passing through Maryland . A Lutheran Pastor and much more, Morris helped found Baltimore's world famous Peabody Institute and achieved world class recognition as an entomologist. Like many l9th century clergymen, he saw himself as a shaper of culture and destiny for his country and his city. His relationship with the Smithsonian Institute in Washington was just one of his many cultural and patriotic achievements. If "What is Past is Prologue," Dr. Kurtz has given us a valuable insight into 21st century America in his well-written biography of John G. Morris.