Bartholomew Books

Sally Gunning's books are wonderful! When you pick up one of her books, it's like going home again and being with family. Her characters are so real! I'm in agreement with the reader from New Mexico - Sally Gunning needs to write faster! Her books keep you turning the pages, but you hate to have them end.

When Peter and his ex-wife decide to get back together again, things look rosy. They plan to take time off from work and spend two weeks together to renew their relationship. Immediately things go wrong and begin to interfere with their plans. Instead of finding himself alone with his ex-wife, Peter finds himself helping out on a friend's fishing boat and trying to solve the murder of the town drunk who has died mysteriously.
There are no scarcity of suspect and Peter and his sister Polly go to great lengths to find the culprit. This book is better written than some of the earlier books in the series.

Matthew Bartholomew is once again called upon to reduce the tension between town and gown in medieval Cambridge. If you think student unrest and violence is new, this series will quickly change your mind. And the animosity between the different monastic orders rings true through the centuries.

Not as sinister as some of her first books in the series. I like that period of time and find them enjoyable. She and Alys Clare remind me of Elis Peters.

A great book to read to your toddler. Fun to read for both of you and shows your toddler the benefits of eating their dinner. Great drawings!

"Dinner's ready, Ba," says George. But Ba is not ready for dinner. Author illustrator Virginia Miller wrote this when her first book about the little bear with the big name, On Your Potty, grew in popularity. She enhances her spare text with illustrations outlined in wide pencil and colored with soft, earth-toned markers. Bartholomew is now out of diapers, but does not seem to be out of his "Terrible Two" stage. The funniest part of this tale is not what the text says, but what Bartholomew does. Ba turns away holding his nose at his steaming bowl of - what else? - porridge. He fidgets while George eats his own meal, wistfully watching a slice of delicious honey cake disappear. As a parent of a picky eater I know this trick only works once or twice, but this story was still fun to read. If you enjoy this tale, I recommend Bartholomew Bear, a collection of five toddler tales of the same lovable bear at a great price.

Even though I'm not a fan of theology, I can recommend this carefully written and serious book to anyone who is interested in the theological implications of chance as seen by a professional statistician. His thesis is "chance is to be seen as within the providence of God rather than outside it" and I'm not competent to comment on the theological arguments. But less than half the book explicitly involves God; much of the book is a descriptive account of where and how scientists see chance involved in the natural and human world. For instance, the chapters on "Chaos out of order" and "Order out of chaos" are nice reminders of the importance of the levels and scales on which we view the world; what looks random on one level may look ordered on another. And the brief and straightforward accounts of many topics (small world networks, random epidemics, game theory, genetic algorithms and a dozen more) are clear and non-technical. So this book is as good or better at surveying the domain of chance as many popular science books written expressly for that purpose; though to my taste, like most other books it is too uncritical of the claimed real-world
relevance of such mathematical models.

Also noteworthy is a central chapter giving a cogent technical critique of the attempts by William Debski, a leading advocate of Intelligent Design, to calculate the chance of a particular biological feature (such as the bacterial flagellum) having ``evolved by chance".

David Bartholomew is Emeritus Professor of Statistics at the London School of Economics and Political Science. His book offers a perspective on chance and divine action that only a statistician could provide.

The problem that his book addresses is that chance suggests lack of purpose, and theology speaks of purpose. His solution is seeing chance within, not outside, the providence of God. "Chance plays a positive role in the world and . . . does not undermine God's sovereignty."

Bartholomew identifies three models of evolution:
(1) Blind chance: little or no opportunity for God to act at all.
(2) Purely deterministic: "God's determinate actions successfully mimic chance and at the same time achieve other desired outcomes."
(3) Mostly chance with occassional intervention by God: a modest amount of direct action (obscured by chance) with a large dose of genuine randomness. "In this scenario there are many random happenings, and most of the time, the deity in charge has no more to do than to sit back and delight in the variety of creation. For example, he cites Simon Conway Morris' notion of convergence, according to which "evolution is liable to produce similar solutions to similar problems wherever and whenever they occur . . . making the emergence of something like ourselves a near-certainty" ("Life's Solution: Inevitable Humans in a Lonely Universe" (Cambridge University Press, 2003)).

Regarding the popular notion of God acting undetectably at the quantum level (as suggested by Robert Russell, John Polkinghorne, Nancey Murphy, and others), he concludes that "it is very doubtful whether there are any quantum events which God could influence whose outcomes might significantly determine what happens at the macro level."

In his chapter on Intelligent Design, he concludes that it is a tautology and is not, therefore, a valid scientifice method.

Although the book is non-technical, a background in statistics would certainly help in fully grasping the author's points. I recommend this book for Christians (particularly those with any training in statistics) who want a better understanding of the nature of God's providence, i.e., how God acts in the world.

Taking place in the beautiful Cape Cod area, Mr. Manuel tells an exciting tale that keeps you reading until the mystery is finally solved. Though there is murder involved, Faith Abbey figures prominently in the book and this provides a wonderful side story. The other books in the series are terrific too! Highly recommended.

A Matter of Diamonds captures the dynamics of a series of inter-connected lives in beautiful Cape cod. The characters are (virtually) all likeable and the story is delightful if a bit simplistic. Brother Bartholomew is a fun-loving monk, who partners with his childhood friend (police chief Dan Burke) to solve crimes that rock the tranquil Cape Cod community. And in this case, he finds suspects a bit too close to home. This book is well-worth the quick read -- and has inspired me to add another Faith Abbey mystery to my reading list.

This was a nice book that my grandmom had at her house. There was nothing to do because everyone was yelling about the turkey being bad and mom had too much of her medicine so I went upstairs and was reading this book. Its sad what they did to the moravians but it was interesting to learn why they got kicked out of Pennslavania and about George Washinton. The pictures were pretty too.

This is a beautifully produced 'Christmas book', with many vintage and modern photographs related to the Moravian observance of Christmas in American South: the churches where they worshipped ,their Christmas trees, and decorations as well as photographs of secular Christmas features contemporary with the period covered; roughly 1750's - 1950. The author provides a brief history of the "Moravians in the South", proceeds to provide an interesting and entertaining description of the Moravian Christmas. One might consider this a nice Social History of the Southern Moravian Christmas experience: It is not just that these folks put up decorations and baked buns but that, those things were 'of a piece' with their Christian Faith and how it related to their church family and community. But this is NOT a religious production.

The author has taken pains - awkwardly, I believe - to glide over the seriously Christocentric mindset of the Moravians, that would have informed their celebration of Christmas. She states she is not a "theological person" or of Moravian background. This is fair enough. But Moravians did not celebrate Christmas because they were of a "whatever" "religious bent". Perhaps Ms.Smith - Thomas did not want to offend those of other faiths or of no faith. In which case, CHRISTmas is not the subject one ought to write about.

This is a popular but scholarly work. The narrative will be interesting to adults but the photographs will be appreciated by children as well. There is a substantive Bibliography, footnotes, index and photography credits.

The book is bound in a deep red cloth (real cloth not paper) with gilt printing on the spine.

I purchased this book to copy the patterns from it and use them as borders in my boutis projects - not exactly a lofty, heady pursuit at all.
However, upon reading it I was enthralled with the practicality of design principles based upon what Mr. Edwards calls, "dynamic symmetry." This book was indeed thought-provoking and has inspired me toward creating and designing patterns instead of just copying them from books.
I'd be willing to bet this book would be a nice accompaniment to design software as well; it would be a sort of 'framework' or 'where did that concept come from' kind of partnership.

If one wishes to understand the underlying design principles that caused, created and drove the art of Classic Greece, Rome and Byzantium, the Renaissance, as well as Neolithic artifacts, and some of the most popular 20th-century art, one must grasp these principles of aesthetics. Even the orbits of the planets are found to correspond with these timeless proportions. All aesthetic harmonies and symmetries, from the lowliest atom to the expanding universe itself to the most creative works of man--Leonardo, Praxiteles and Mozart--based upon a single proportional relationship.

Caveat: We live in a babyfood world now--everything is pre-analyzed, pre-digested and pre-packaged for us--comparatively this book is a steep learning curve; using it successfully takes some diligent work. Much as "On Walden Pond" by Thoreau, oil the rusty old cogwheels of the mind before proceeding. This is a workbook with plenty of exercises and one must really do them. If one tires of 'state of the art' fads that are obsolete whilst rolling off the assembly line, find a Ticonderoga #2 with a good eraser, some drawing tools and a stack of paper and hunker down with this book.

One can go through life a practical man, with enough understanding of things to be successful, yet without true understanding of underlying principles. This book is for those who wish to be truly professional, and are willing to do the homework to make it happen.

In Garden Beach, Florida, patrol officer Stella Valocchi completes her undercover assignment of capturing a serial killer successfully in spite of her partner Lou Ann being replaced by a pathetic rookie. She goes to see her boyfriend Pete the cop only to see he and Lou Ann playing bad girl games on the sheets. Angrily she leaves with Pete's dog, but realizes she has no future here as her former best friend and partner and her former lover will cover their respective behinds with nasty rumors about her.

Stella drives to her hometown to spend time with her beloved Uncle Benny and their zany family. However, upon arriving in Glenn Ford, Pennsylvania she learns that Benny committed suicide. Leading the services at Benny's funeral is Minister Jake Carpenter, who once jilted Stella at the altar. Unable to accept the fact that Benny killed himself, Stella investigates the death only to have unwanted help from her family and Jake who she still loves.

Stella is a fabulous protagonist looking to regain her groove following the Florida betrayal and the death of her uncle in which she is the only one who thinks murder occurs. Her relatives are the wild bunch who adds amusing and often frantic lunacy to the fast-paced plot. Fans of a madcap romantic suspense will want to read the amusing yet tense STELLA, GET YOUR GUN, which she would like to use on jilting Jake.

Harriet Klausner

Stella is having a bad day, her partner called in sick on the night of a big undercover operation. She is assigned the most incompetent new cop on the Garden Beach PD. They arrest the man they are looking for(a violent rapist), but Leon's incompetence lands her in the ER with a sprained ankle. Her supervisor sends her home to her live in, a fellow cop. She arrives home to find that her partner isn't sick at all, but having a very good time with Stella's boyfriend Pete. She has a meltdown(well worth reading), takes his dog and heads home to Pennsylvania. She arrives in time for her beloved uncle's funeral and discovers that he was murdered and that her aunt is acting very strangely. Worse, her ex boyfriend, the one that stood her up at her elopement, is presiding over the funeral and her uncle's will. Things get stranger when Aunt Lucy disappears, Stella gets arrested and all hell breaks loose.

Fans of the Stephanie Plum novels will love this fast moving story. The characters are deliciously bizarre and you just can't stop reading each page. I couldn't wait to see what happened next. Not the usual Bombshell and a very good read.

For someone who has tried to read the Bible several times but been unsuccessful at keeping it up due to the conplexity of the language used, this book was golden. In it, Pearl S Buck retells the bible stories in an interesting and informative way. I have read the book through over several days and could not wait until evening when I would have time to get back to the stories. I was also able to retain the stories and their meanings. It would be a great for primer for pre-teen kids and, of course, adults.

Pearl Buck's Story Bible is in the same league with Jesse Lyman Hurlbut's and Elsie Egermeier's books (Bible stories rewritten with children in mind.) Of the three, Buck's was written most recently. Buck's rendition of the Bible stories is intelligent, detailed, and reverent. One father of four told me this was the best book he's ever read!

Parents should purchase at least one Bible story book for their family library, and this is an excellent choice.

Hassle-free, no worries transaction. Book came in fantastic shape, and was so cheap! Thanks a bunch!

I took this for the pre-paramedic Anatomy and Physiology class, and then I went on to the full pre-nursing anatomy with lab and physiology with lab classes. This was an excellent book for whatever your goals may be. I went back to it much later, having learnt more about the topics, and was impressed by how succinct, accurate and relevant is the material. It's hard to pick what aspects need to be covered for the book's audience, and and the authors have done a commedable job of understanding their customers.