Brooks Books

I've just re-read 'Heavenly Deception', and I'm very surprised to find that Maggie's book has been out of print for so long. The story, about an art student who infiltrates the Moonie cult to find her younger sister, has again chilled me to the marrow. Maggie's great skill is in making this insane worldview totally credible. Reading the book, you are drawn slowly into the brainwashing process, to the point where you feel relief when Carmen, the student, gives in to her tormentors. This book is a terrifying masterpiece that deserves a much wider public.

gave me a whole lot of more information on the human service program and if i want to go on in my career........

This book has some excellent information which will help me in my research on the Scots Irish/Ulster Scots. It gives plenty of backgrond information and also defines some areas in the US which I hope to visit in September this year - I now have specific details of where I can get the photos I need for my AV work.

Four books in one? GOT IT
Deep story line? GOT IT
TONS of characters, places, and battles with fiends? GOT IT
Dont have a copy yet? GET IT

I came across this book as I was preparing a presentation on 'divine hiddenness' for a philosophy of religion course. I bought it, thinking it would be a philosophical discussion on the subject. It isn't, not directly.

It was originally a series of lectures delivered during the 1930's, updated and revised for print in the 1950's by the author himself. It talks about the role of the artist, the problem (described by Tillich) in modern culture of man being reduced to "a mere thing", where the world has been arranged so that "everything is a means to ends which are themselves means", without any ultimate goal, and how the true artist offers mankind a vision to grow beyond this.

He also explores the relation between the vision/philosophy/activity of the various authors and the Christian vision/philosophy/activity towards life, at first in relation to virtue (courage, discipline), to the reality of evil as something that cannot be explained away, but must be confronted (this was hauntingly well done), to the experience of the eternal within the temporal (mostly Eliot), some kind of awakening/conversion (all the authors), the corrosiveness and destruction of rationalism of any sort (everyone but Hemingway), and redemption (mostly Warren). It wasn't overdone or proselytizing, it was an accurate and fair appraisal of the authors themselves (Hemingway is _not_ made into a Christian, etc.). I actually found it very corrective and illuminating for my own understanding of these things, it made them much more concrete, manifest, less obscure and theoretical, less campy and sub-cultured (I was an Anglican Christian derascinating from Protestant Evangelicalism at the time I read the book).

The conclusion again briefly revisits the role of the artist within a society as one who offers you a vision of reality and explores it, helps you encounter it; whereas most of what passes for art today is really kitsch, a narcotic playing on assumed sympathies, entertainment rolled off a factory line that deadens the mind and dulls the wits. He notes how these authors bring the reader to a new encounter with reality, and the author himself did this for me in the process, while whetting my appetite to read the authors he writes about.

I can't more highly recommend it. I would also read Adorno's _Critical Models_ along with this.

Recommended if you are spending any time in a particular area of scotland, this entire series is well-organized and comprehensive about what to see. See my review in the Edinburgh title of this series for chapter contents and more.

This is a well thought out book for any hiker, from the novice to the expert. With 100 day hikes to choose from, there is something for anyone.

The "boot" rating system is a wonderful way of finding just the right hike for any level.

Kudos to the Elliotts

The authors give a strong explanation of biological evolution, from its earliest unicellular origins to the present. Much fossil and DNA evidence is summarised. Including recent findings in fossil digs from the 90s.

They point out that many so-called missing links are not. For relations between genera, families, orders and classes, the intermediate forms ("links") are often present in the fossil record. Amongst the cases cited are the origins of whales and sea cows.

More generally, the book has numerous instances where transitions found in fossils are explained in terms of limbs or bones developing, or suchlike, so that you can clearly see how one fossil is the evolutionary ancestor of another later fossil. As in the early fishes. Where those who developed jaws with bones were then more able to hunt other fishes; a strong evolutionary advantage. While the move onto land is shown in fossils that had fins with muscles. This allowed for propulsion above water, where the original advantage was to let the fish move around under water, in mud or vegetation.

Geology is also emphasised. Often giving rise to various ore and petroleum bodies found today. Plus plate tectonics is shown to account for the continental drifts and the breakup of Gondwanaland.

"A History of Pastoral Care in America" is peerless. Others such as Clebsch and Jaekle and McNeil have written broad histories of soul care, but none have tackled the challenge of a focused study of soul care and spiritual direction in American religious history. Until now.

E. Brooks Holifield has penned the comprehensive guide that traces the trajectory of American pastoral care. Holifield is dead on when he notes that every pastor adopts wittingly or unwittingly some theory of pastoral counseling. Unfortunately, many either have no model, or follow models that are bereft of biblical and historical substance. Attention to Holifield's findings can assist post-modern pastors to sidestep this tendency.

Holifield's greatest gift in this book is his ability to synthesize large tracks of material. In particular, his subtitle communicates his understanding of the historical path taken by American pastors: "from salvation to self-realization." In my opinion, this synthesis is both the key strength of the book and one possible weakness. Agreed, the noted shift has occurred--from a God-centered, sin-focused ministry to a humanity-centered, self-help ministry. That is not at issue. The question is whether the shift is as comprehensive as plotted. Perhaps this tension has always existed in pastoral care, not only in America. And, perhaps more than a few have avoided this pitfall, even in recent pastoral ministry. One problem is the need for careful definition. What makes pastoral ministry "self-realization" related? Aside from this possible overstatement and underdefinition, Hoifield's work is flawless and peerless.

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

Kirsty Brooks set out to write a book about hitchhiking. She got a car and headed out, looking for hikers to pick up.

She found less than a dozen.

So she went out and collected stories from all over the world of the strangest occurrences that have happened, from drink-driving mayors in France to hitchhiking in Japan, where the drivers will give you their umbrellas when you stop.

It's a great read, interlaced with some wonderful picture-postcards, making the whole book a very attractive package.