Bernard Books

Edited by cultural anthropologist David Levinson, African American Heritage in Upper Housatonic Valley is a fascinating, in-depth history of American New England life as seen through the eyes of its African-American residents, including not only historical figures such as author W.E.B. Du Bois and one of the founders of the NAACP, but also everyday businesspeople, teachers, religious leaders, artists, and social activists. Illustrated with sketches and numerous vintage black-and-white photographs, and covering a time line spanning from the early 1600's to the modern day, African American Heritage in Upper Housatonic Valley is an accessible insight into an oft-overlooked dimension of American history and is enthusiastically recommended for American History and Black Studies shelves as well as high school and public library reference collections.

African American on Stamps is in the class of, "Best Sellers."
This books makes a great gift! If you are a parent of teacher having trouble getting your child or student to read, African American on Stamps is the answer. This book is student friendly!
Fulled with colorful pages and useful information. The author takes his love of stamps and delivered a great history book!
EMc

This is probably the only book out there that summarises in complete simplicity African history in its totality in about 230 pages. i read it in approximately three days and have started reading it all over again. Its a sobering and eye opening, unemotional outlay, well written, 110% research based and heavily draws from a historical rather than an ideological analysis of Africas problems. I have desired for more than 10 years to read a book like this. Believe me, it cuts out the drama and has nothing to do with the ramblings of sensationalism and emotionalism that have tended to reflect intellectual expositions of this kind.I am convinced, being an African myself that a redrawing of African borders is the only solution to Africas present state of affairs.

i have sworn that if ever my apartment catches fire, i will grab my laptop and Dr. Lugans book. Every one who cares about Africa must read this book.

Growing up is a new series that shows and tells how young animals survive the dangers of early life to grow or change into adults. Dramatic artwork focuses on a special moment at or soon after birth, while smaller drawings illustrate vital stages of the birth, the growing up, or the change from one form to another. . .

There is a particular scene in "Agamemnon" that I always want to point to in order to show students the genius of Aeschylus as a tragic playwright. To really appreciate any of these ancient plays you really have to have an understanding the peculiar structure of the classic Greek drama. The better understanding you have of this structure, as well as the key elements of tragedy as delineated by Aristotle in his "Poetica," the more you can appreciate any of these plays, but "Agamemnon" in particular.

The play is the first drama of the Orestia trilogy, the only extant trilogy to survive from that period; of course, since Aeschylus was the only one of the three great tragic poets whose trilogies told basically a story in three-parts. Sophocles and Euripides would tell three different but thematically related stories in their own trilogies (the Theban trilogy of Sophocles is an artificial construct). In "Agamemnon" it has been ten years since he sailed away to Troy, having sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia in order to get fair winds (the tale is best told by Euripides in "Iphigenia at Aulis"). For ten years Agamemnon's wife Clytemnestra, the half-sister of Helen, has been waiting for his return so she can kill him. In the interim she has taken Agamemnon's cousin Aegithus as a lover.

This brings into play the curse on the house of Atreus, which actually goes back to the horrid crime of Tantalus and the sins of Niobe as well. Atreus was the father of Agamemnon and Menelaus, who a generation earlier had contended with his own brother Thyestes for the throne of Argos. Thyestes seduced his brother's wife and was driven out of Argos by Atreus, who then became king. Thyestes eventually returned to ask forgiveness, but Atreus, recalling the crime of Tantalus, got his revenge by killing the two sons of Thyestes and feeding them to their father at a banquet. That was when Thyestes cursed Atreus and all of his descendants and fled Argos with his remaining son, the infant Aegithus.

This becomes important because Aeschylus has two people in the palace at Argos, each of whom has a legitimate reason to take the life of Agamemnon. But in this version Aeschylus lays the crime at Clytemnestra's feet. When Agamemnon returns with his concubine Cassandra, daughter of Troy's King Priam, the insane prophetess symbolizes all sorts of reasons for Cassandra to renew her desire for vengeance. However, it is also important that Agamemnon reaffirm his guilt, and this he does by his act of hubris, walking on the scarlet carpet.

Now, one of the key conventions of Greek tragedy was that acts of violence happened off stage, in the skene, which in "Agamemnon" serves as the place at Argos. Consequently, the Athenian audience not only knows that Agamemnon is going to be murdered, they know that once he goes into the "palace" he is not coming out alive and at some point a tableau of his murder will be wheeled out of the skene. However, despite this absolute knowledge Aeschylus manages to surprise his audience with the murder. This is because of the formal structure of a Greek tragedy.

Basically the tragedy alternates between dramatic episodes, in which actors (up to two for Aeschylus, three for Sophocles and Euripides) interact with each other and/or the chorus, and choral odes called stasimons. These odes are divided into match pairs of strophes and antistrophes, reflecting the audience moving across the stage right to left and left to right respectively.

After Agamemnon goes into the palace and the chorus does an ode, the next episode has Clytemnestra coaxing the doomed Cassandra into the palace as well. With both of the intended victims inside, the chorus begins the next ode. Once the first strophe is finished the corresponding antistrophe is required, but it is at that point, while the audience is anticipating the formal completion of the first pair, that Agamemnon's cry is heard from within the palace. The antistrophe is the disjointed cries of the individual members of the chorus, in contrast to the choral unity of the strophe.

This is how Aeschylus surprises his audience with the murder of Agamemnon, but using the psychology of the play's structure to his advantage. Because we do not have any examples of tragedy that predate Aeschylus, it may well be more difficult to really appreciate his innovation as a playwright. But while the Orestia as a whole is clearly his greatest accomplishment, it is perhaps this one scene that best illustrates his genius. While the fatal confrontation between Clytemnestra and Orestes in "Choeophori" has the most pathos of any of his scenes, there is nothing in either it or "Eumenides" that is as brilliantly conceived and executed as the murder of Agamemnon.

Professor Murchland has produced a historically important work which has treated the theme of alienation from Descartes through to existentialism. The theme of alienation, while made explicit in Hegel and Marx, (entfremdung) was already implicit at the beginning of the Modern Period and Murchland has made this explicit in a very well written clear exposition.

For three quarters of a century Bernard Shaw bombarded editors of newspapers aned journals with polemical letters, thereby gaining access to a large and varied reading audience. Collected in this book for the first time, these rich and entertaining letters are gathered from hundreds of correspondence collumns, and run chronologically from 1875, when Shaw was nineteen, to 1950, the year of his death.

Here is Shaw at his outrageous best, with opinions on everything from the abolition of Christmas to the atomic bomb, from BBC pronunciation to Wagnerian opera. Through his letters to the press Shaw debated such adversaries as G.K. Chesterton, H.G. Wells, and Arthur Conan Doyle, to the enlightenment and entertainment of the reading public.

"Animals will be in Heaven because they didn't sin. They already have eternal life in Heaven."
Those are the words of my daughter with her childlike faith when she was 11 years of age in response to the question whether animals will be in Heaven.

Mr. Coombs believes that not only mankind and animals, but "every grass, tree, plant and flower, that has ever been up-rooted and/or destroyed in the horrific battle now in progress between good and evil will be restored". I too, believe that this is how our God of Creation works.

The title of this book is All Creatures Do Go to Heaven Especially Pets. Mr. Coombs demonstrates from the original meanings of several words in Bible Scripture this undeniable fact of pets and all other creatures going to Heaven, for example, 'soul' and 'spirit', and proves that they pertain to "all flesh", not just human flesh. However, most of the book's contents is an excellent lesson on life and death, judgment, our future, the Second Coming, Israel becoming a nation again, about Gog, satan, his deceptions and his demons, conditions in the renewed Earth, what Heaven is like, misconceptions about Heaven/Paradise, prophecy as it relates to eternal life for people as well as animals, and much more, as well as some very controversial topics such as satan/Lucifer eventually being in Heaven again, and the born-again controversy (the former of which I personally am not completely convinced of because of the fact that satan and his demons never received or never will receive mortal bodies).

It is important to not just blindly accept the beliefs we have been taught, of our religion, or denomination, just because we were taught that and it suits us. All these diverse beliefs are the cause of much of humanity's problems, and are encouraged and nurtured by satan, the devil, the present ruler of this world to cause discord between individuals and nations.

One of the greatest deceptions is the belief that anyone who has not placed their heart and trust in Jesus Christ will be damned to spend eternity in hell fire "writhing and gnashing in perpetual torment". How dare anyone preach an eternal damnation when God says that His will is that no one perish? How can we even fathom that the will of our great and perfect God of Creation and Love will not be accomplished? Our Lord gave Himself a sacrifice for ALL flesh, the Scriptures say. The word `flesh' in the original Greek means flesh of any kind, not just the flesh of mankind. I challenge you to study this.

Written from his heart and from some serious study into the meanings of the original Hebrew and Greek words, Mr. Coombs proves from Bible Scripture just how much God loves ALL his creation, not just mankind. The research he has undertaken deep into the Word of God to find the exact meaning of Scripture on the above topics is commendable. Being a serious Truth seeker and student of the Bible myself, GOD'S 'opinion' is what matters the most to me. This Writer has accomplished what few people have, and has dared to speak out about them.

Thoroughly researched Scripture; and thoughtfully portrayed are some of the author's feelings, thoughts and personal experiences that delicately and compassionately compliment God's Word in these fairly unexplored, but interesting topics.

God loves ALL His creation, not just mankind.

This is plenty of story about a team that is larger than life.

Matthew Walters didn't want to go hunting that morning with his dad, especially with his uncle Bruce along. But Matthew's dad insisted.

That day of hunting will haunt Matthew forever.

With unexpected twists and turns in his life, Matthew ends up spending a summer living with his uncle Bruce. Uncle Bruce is not fond of Matthew and has secretive, questionable behavior. Matthew is not allowed to look in the back room of the garage, his uncle seems to disappear at all hours of the night, and protected wolves in the surrounding wilderness are being illegally killed. What is Matthew to do?

With his newfound friend, Samantha, Matthew finds a new reason to wake up and enjoy life. Samantha's mother is battling cancer and her father is a scientist who studies the wolves in the area. Matthew knows he should be grateful for his uncle's hospitality, but also struggles with so many questions about his uncle and his life.

Who is killing the wolves? Why does Matthew continue to have nightmares? Why is his uncle so secretive?

Readers will be surprised over and over again as they read this book. In a Gary Paulsen fashion, Greg Richard Bernard has captured the beauty of nature and its delicate balance with humans while creating a mystery of a novel. Mr. Bernard's writing shows a great voice and he will surely become a favorite author to many.

Reviewed by: Dianna Geers