Baker Books

George Hanlon has written a fast-paced, suspensful novel. Being a former news reporter, Mr. Hanlon has a certain genius with words which makes the reader not want to put the book down until it's finished. Better yet, it's the type of book you don't want to end. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in mystery-type novels.

A big, juicy read by the authentically mature voice of a real former "news hound". Suspenseful, witty, slightly profane...there's lots of Irish Catholic flavor,regional humor and style. I loved this book!

This book is a necessity for any one interested in the history of the Coachella Valley; there is simply no other place to find out about the lower (southern) half of the Valley. The history of the upper part of the Valley has been recorded recently in a book by Frank Bogart, covering the Palm Springs area. Pat' book covers the lower, less glamourous, part of the Valley and how the early settlers lived and succeeded.

Anyone who has spent time in Sourthern California's Coachella Valley will find this book fascinating. Although it has interesting photographs on nearly every page, this is no mere "coffee table book". In addition to being visually engaging, the text brings to life the events of that past (geological, historical, anthropological, and social) that have shaped the development of the Valley. I would heartily recommend this book to anyone who lives in or visits the Coachella Valley, or to anyone who would simply like to learn about a very unique area of the United States.

This book is not just about comforting truths in Romans. The other reviewer is wrong about that. Of the 17 chapters, only the first four directly deal with Romans.

Pink takes an interesting look at some of Paul's writings from the book of Romans. Highly insightful thought with great theological backing

In this book Van Rheenen presents a comparative analysis of western dualistic secular culture and its worldview with the dynamic integrated worldview of what are often referred to as "traditional" or "animistic" peoples. He explains the characteristics of an "animistic" understanding of the world in such a way as to clarify how characteristics of this worldview are found in various cultures, not just "traditional" ones.

I met Van Rheenen when were both working in Kenya years ago. Unfortunately, we were living in different locations and I did not get to know him well. I had various levels of acquaintance and familiarity with the work of various missionaries of the Church of Christ Mission.

Van Rheenen worked primarily among the Kipsigis people in the Highlands of Kenya, east of the Great Rift Valley. He presents many experiences from this culture and events from which he learned the cultural worldview of the Kipsigis. I have visited in some Kipsigis churches, but did not have an intimate familiarity with this people. I have read some of the sources he cites in his extensive bibliography.

Variety in Animism
Because of Van Rheenen's experience in Africa, many of the examples he presents come from various African peoples, Bantu, Nilotic or Atlantic from West Africa. The Kipsigis are part of the Highland Nilotic cluster of peoples. He explains the differences between various peoples whose beliefs and practices fall into this broad category called "animistic."

The definition he provides for animism helps the reader to overcome some of the misunderstandings and stereotypes of animism. It is clear from the great variety of practices and beliefs he presents that "animism" is a working term, not in any was a "religion." It is rather a category of worldview that is expressed in various ways, but can be seen to entail a basic set of beliefs about the world and our existence.

He provides a more comprehensive definition:
"The belief that personal spiritual beings and impersonal spiritual forces have power over human affairs and, consequently, that human beings must discover what beings and forces are influencing them in order to determine future actions and, frequently, to manipulate their power."

American Organized Animism
In his comparative description of animism, Van Rheenen refers to more traditional forms of organized animistic worship and practice in the Western hemisphere, such as Brazilian spiritism, Condomble and varieties of voodoo. Other sources explain that many sects of the latter are often organized in the form of the Christian pantheon of saints, with a dual name system, a sanit's name and a traditional African spirit name.

But he likewise references the variety of practices and beliefs commonly called New Age, as well as various practices of divining the future. A prime example of the latter is the constant practice of Nancy Reagan in consulting astrologers and mediums to determine the best time for President Reagan to make speeches, have certain meetings, etc. Her spiritist practices received great publicity during the questionable Reagan presidency.

Van Rheenen's analysis should be very helpful to naïve secular westerners in understanding the religious worldview of the majority of the world's peoples in traditional culture. The way Van Rheenen approaches this subject, readers and the "silent majority" of "developed societies" who follow what is technically called "low religion" rather than "high (formal, rational or theological) religions."

Secular Missionaries
It is unfortunate that so many American missionaries do not realize that they have a secular worldview, and the categories by which they organize reality, are not a world standard, but on the contrary are based on a minority rationalist worldview. Over my decades of living in Africa, I have seen too many westerners focus on information and structural characteristics of their form of Christianity.

Van Rheenen makes reference to such people also, and indicates that their unawareness of the underlying worldview, beliefs about the spirit world and categories of organizing realty will led to a dualistic system. They might accept a surface Christianity, but their real operating base, especially in crisis continues to be the animistic worldview. That is where they must live, and where decisions must be made.

Missionary Syncretism
Ironically, my analysis of the situation is that western Christian missionaries who insist on the "right doctrines" (information and formal vocabulary) and "proper church order" (cultural expression of organizational structure) are a primary cause of syncretism.

Van Rheenen's book is a great foundational resource in a field that has been neglected.

Van Rheenen has thoroughly researched the missiological writings about animism, but he has also experienced it on the field--both in Africa and in North America. He tactfully avoids the "demons and dragons" drama of Frank Peretti's fiction while providing readers with enough real-life anecdotes to take his discussion out of the classroom. He is especially good at helping us to realize that, if we don't live in a way which assumes the existence of the supernatural (God and angels, Satan and demons), then we are practicing logical positivists, if not atheists. The Bible demands their existence, and we cannot claim to follow the Bible if we ignore the reality of the supernatural in our world.

Van Rheenen helps readers to recognize the common threads in the various animisms around the world: witchcraft, voodoo, Asian ancestor worship, folk Islam, shamanism, etc. Then, by identifying Satan's strategies in these, he helps Christians to develop biblical strate! gies to resist their enemy.

While some of Van Rheenen's discussion may fly over the head of the average reader, most of it is a fine, balanced blend of scholarly study and real-life experience and advice.

Perhaps more Christians would buy this excellent book if it read less like a doctoral dissertation.

The Complete Evangelism Guidebook is a great resource for Christians who would like to be more involved in personal evangelism. The book is divided into two parts. Part one, the first hundred pages, serves to build confidence in the reader by explaining some of the fundamentals of evangelism. The second part, over 250 pages and fifty-three chapters, gives practical advice on how to reach out to different kinds of people with the gospel. In all, over sixty people have contributed their ideas and experiences in evangelism which makes The Complete Evangelism Guidebook a helpful book to read and have on your bookshelf.

Most chapters are four to six pages in length and are fairly easy to read, making this book helpful to both new and mature Christians. The first seventeen chapters, which make up part one, lay down the fundamentals of evangelism. Some of the chapter titles include: "What Faith Is," "What Faith Isn't," "Extraordinary Lifestyle," "Everyday Illustrations," and "When You Don't Have the Answers." Each chapter is written by a different author. On the positive side, this exposes the reader to many different ideas about evangelism. On the negative side, with over sixty people contributing to this work, no one is going to agree with everything that is written and there is quite a bit of repetition.

The second part is divided into seven sections; each section has independently-written chapters devoted to reaching out to a specific kind of person or people group: by relationship, age, vocation, religion, race, life situation, and gender or sexual orientation. Under the section on religion, advice is given on how to share the gospel with agnostics, atheists, Buddhists, Hindus, Jews, Muslims, those involved in the occult, and others. Under the section on life situation, chapters recommend ways of ministering the gospel to abuse victims, addicts, convicts, the homeless, the disabled, the affluent, the poor, the unemployed and outcasts. These short topical chapters are very helpful because they stimulate thought and give advice on how to start sharing the gospel with many different kinds of people.

There are a small number of questionable statements found in this book. One of these is, "A community that has been prayed for has a much higher response to a gospel presentation than a community that has not been the subject of prayer. When effective Christian prayer is absent, the heavens are closed and demonic/worldly influences are dominant. But when Christians start praying, the demonic influences can become so weak that a vacuum actually develops and the kingdom of God can be manifested with greater effectiveness" (p. 55). This statement seems to line up with recent ideas about spiritual warfare that do not have a biblical basis.

The vast majority of the information found in this book, however, is both helpful and biblically minded. "Christians should care for people more, longer, and better than anyone else on the planet" (p. 15). "Feelings are not bad, but they are flimsy. Our emotions ebb and flow with the circumstances of our lives. Godly feelings flow from faith, but they can never be the foundation of it" (p. 27). "While living a surrendered Christian life is a must and is commendable, it is not the end of our responsibility to a lost world" (p. 131).

Every Christian knows people that need to hear the truth about salvation that can only be found in Jesus Christ. The Complete Evangelism Guidebook informs, encourages, challenges and helps believers to personally do their part in carrying out the Great Commission. - James Billings, Christian Book Previews.com

This evangelism guidebook will give you expert advice on reaching anyone with the gospel--from your next door neighbor to your coworker, from the Muslim to the Agnostic, from the Asian to the Hispanic--just about anyone you'll ever meet. The chapters are written from some of the best known names in evangelism and church leadership today--Luis Palau, Rick Warren, Mike Silva, Josh McDowell, Tom Phillips, and dozens of others who are experts in their fields. You can look up types of people by relationship group, age group, vocation, religion, race, life situation, and gender/sexual orientation. Basically, if you've got a non-Christian in mind, this book can tell you specifically how to relate to that person. It's a must-read and a must-own for every Christian household!

My mentor Lee Slonimsky (of Pythagoras In Love) highly recommended this
author because of the similarity in the tone of our "walking poems".
The prose and poetry by Louise Labe, with excellent translation by Annie Finch, depicts a poignant tale of love and passion that transcends death.
The markings in her tombstone brought me tears, while her sizzling passionate poem (of kisses) mirrors my own romantic expressions in poetry.
Simply loved it! Kudos to Annie Finch for capturing such fine moments of a French lover, in English.

This is an excellent edition of the complete works of Louise Labe, who is one of the most important women writers of the French Renaissance and whose poetry is especially wonderful, providing a much-needed female perspective on the love lyric. One mustn't ignore Labe's prose however, for her "Debate of Folly and Love" is an excellent addition to the literary tradition of the debate and showcases Labe's proto-feminism.


Deborah Lesko Baker provides excellent introductions to Labe's poetry and prose, describing her life and times and her relation to other Renaissance writers (esp. Christine de Pisan). Baker illuminates Labe's role as a distinctively female writer and how her sonnets respond to those of Petrarch. Essentially, then, Baker provides all the background necessary for a full understanding of Labe, and she also supplies copious and helpful footnotes to Labe's works.

In addition, Annie Finch's translations of Labe's poetry are superb, capturing the spirit of the originals (of course, the french is on the facing page). All in all, this is an essential purchase for anyone interested in Labe or French Renaissance literature, being the only complete bilingual edition of Labe's works available and a model for all scholarly editions of its kind.

My copy of this book is worn out. It's hard to explain it's charm, perhaps it's the way it covers so much ground so quickly and fluidly (without leaving everything as an exercise for the reader). A particular emphasis on quadratics: residues, forms, class field - not surprising since the author himself won the Fields Medal for his work binary quadratic forms in 1970 and previously in 1966 proved a long-standing conjecture of Carl Gauss: The only imaginary quadratic fields with unique factorization are d = -1, -2, -3, -7, -11, -19, -43, -67 and -163.

This book packs in as many concepts as number theory books five times its length (divisibility, arithmetical functions, congruences, quadratic residues and forms and fields, and diophantine equations and approximations) and is still (surprisingly) very clear. There are even exercises to keep you busy.

This is a thick book, both physically in its size, and in the material it contains. It lists every Greek word in the Septuagint (canonical and apocryphal), followed by the Hebrew words corresponding to the Greek ones, and then every book and verse the word appears in, and the context of each verse! Appendix One has all the Greek proper names. Appendix two gives a complete concordance of the Greek Ecclesiasticus when compared to the Hebrew fragments. Appendix three gives a concordance of the Hexapleric fragments that scholars possess. Appendix four is a newer part (from 1998), and lists Hebrew and Aramaic words and their LXX equivalent. As can be seen, this is one large book (1860 pages). This edition also contains a good introduction, which was added in 1998. The original edition came out in the late 1800s/early 1900s.

The only drawback would be that the English translation of each Greek word is not given. So in other words, to fully appreciate this you would need to know Greek, or else have a good Lexicon handy. Since most folks using this would probably be scholars, or know Greek, this shouldn't be a problem. Overall, a fine and massive work!

Before there were computers, before there were even ball point pens, Edwin Hatch and Henry Redpath churned out this fundamental work on the Greek Old Testament. The laborious care--one wants to say love--which they brought to the first translation of the Hebrew Bible is a testament to that species of linguistic rigor and respect for the text that is too rare in the humanities and even in biblical studies these days.

The result is 'Hatch & Redpath' or 'H & R', as this massive work is invariably known, an anthology of every Greek word that appears in the Septuagint and a list of the passages in which it occurs. Having done my own doctoral work in the Septuagint (Greek Old Testament), I have lingered over the monotony and the glory of Hatch & Redpath for days, hours, weeks. Months even. I have seen its limitations and occasional errors enough to know that they are the exception that proves the rule of exactness that was the m.o. of Messieurs Hatch & Redpath.

Some contend that computers and databases now take the place of this incessantly reissued anthology of information.

I doubt it.

Feinstein's images are at once mysterious and enlightening, gentle and jarring. Her sensitivity to emotion, expression, and light makes each photograph elegant and poignant. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for new and unique work by a talented emerging artist.

This is a wonderful collection of work to date by a talented photographer whose photographs are beautiful and full of feeling, esp for the iconic moments of childhood. It's amazing how the pictures don't feel at all like those taken by a mother, but like they are taken by another child; she has a rare gift in this and I bet she is a cool Mom.
Obviously, I don't mean that they seem childish in any negative sense. I can readily see some of the carefully observed work that has helped to shape her viewpoint; a little Diane Arbus, some Debbie Caffery maybe, certainly some Keith Carter, all photographers who look at children but with an adults nostalgia for childhood and none of the immediacy of being a child that Feinstein manages to get. This affinity for a childs way of seeing the world is very much her own.
The only other photographer I know who was able to work in such an innocent, open way of playing (the primary creative activity of children)was Gene Meatyard.
Anyway, I really like what she has shown me in these pictures and hope to see lots more. Gloria Baker Feinstein has a strong voice.

this book has beautifully colored illustrations and a wonderful storyline. my two-year old says "cow, cow" everynight for us to read this book. we're ordering more from this series so we have a variety of "cow" books to read. wonderful message about God being with us, even in the dark.

We introduced this book as we moved our 2 1/2 yr old to his new room and it helped him understand that noises are not to be afraid of. It helps kids connect a picture of something non-scary with noises they hear instead of reacting with fear. He loves it and we read it nightly for now.