Bernard Books

This is an entertaining book told from the perspective of Jacob, a young cat, about his life with his human throughout one year. The illustrations are adorable, and the writing is clever. My sister and I enjoyed it when we were young, and now my young children enjoy it too. Highly recommended for cat lovers of all ages!

Mayo presents a well-rounded view of the politician and the man using letters and other writings of Jefferson himself. In fact, it presents so many facets of Jefferson and his life that it is difficult to focus on anything in particular in review. I enjoyed most the chapters: "Washington's Secretary of State", "The Struggle for Democracy", and "Philosopher-President". In these a reader can "live" history by becoming intimately familiar with Jefferson's extraordinary mind and his relationships with others who created our republic. It is, in my opinion, a much better introduction to Jefferson than a biography could be.

The book is also an excellent reference to confirm or debunk representations made about Jefferson's stands on issues that have become controversial in our time.

"Our stories are eroding under the acids of historical criticism. We must retell our stories. And there is one epic story that has Jesus in it." In "Jesus Reconsidered: Scholarship in the Public Eye", pioneering biblical scholars put their reputations and careers on the line going public with what had been common knowledge among biblical scholars for over a century. "Jesus Reconsidered: Scholarship in the Public Eye" also covers the collaborators quest and their questions that drive the Jesus Seminar, a group with unique but factually driven ideas of who Christians hold as the son of God. "Jesus Reconsidered: Scholarship in the Public Eye" is enthusiastically recommended for community library religious shelves and anyone who would seek to learn more about the real Jesus Christ.

Starting in 1976, Edward Said has argued that Western scholars of the Middle East are continuing "an unbroken tradition in European thought of profound hostility, even hatred, toward Islam," and he singles out Bernard Lewis as their de facto leader. Strangely, when Lewis in turn argued in favor of the Orientalist tradition - that unique effort by members of one civilization to understand the outside world in depth - his colleagues with near-unanimity abandoned him. Still, the battle is not entirely over. While Lewis himself retired from the fray, his highly talented ex-student, Martin Kramer continues the not-entirely-lonely effort to defend several centuries of Western scholarship on the Middle East.

In The Jewish Discovery of Islam, Kramer takes as his starting point several comments by Lewis about the important role of Jews in developing nineteenth-century European attitudes toward the Middle East and Islam, then asks: Did Jews actually made a distinct contribution to the Western discovery of Islam? His reply - and that of his nine contributing authors - is a resounding yes. He and they argue that nineteenth-century Jews found in the Muslim world a model directly relevant to their current situation. Looking about for arguments to bolster their case to join the mainstream of European life, they pointed to Islamic civilization at its height as to show the benefits of integrating Jewry. This in turn meant they had to prove that Baghdad and Cordoba represented peaks of human achievement.

These "pro-Islamic Jews" routed the opposition and their empathetic, sympathetic approach rules the roost today. Kramer's book has many implications: By showing that the main Orientalist tradition derived far more from sympathetic Jewish approach than from the hostile Christian one, it devastates Said's grand theory of Orientalism. It establishes that recent Western attitudes to the outside world - such as the Third-Worldism of the 1960s and the multiculturalism of today - owe their existence in good part to the success of the pro-Islamic Jews' long-ago efforts of humanize Islam. Muslims eventually also picked up on the romantic Jewish myths about Islam and made these a standard part of their own self-image. Finally, Muslims now living in the West owe much to the Jewish scholars who laid the groundwork for their finding an at least partially hospitable reception.

Middle East Quarterly, December 1999

Menachem Elon's work on Jewish Law is exceptional. The work provides the most comprehensive discussion of Jewish law in English that I have ever seen. This work was recommended by a law school professor many years ago. I never cease going back to it. The discussions regarding each of the major legal sources along with their relevant commentaries is invaluable for learning what one should "know" to be conversant in this topic. The footnotes are also excellent and provide quick references to relevant passages in the original sources. This is not light reading and needs to approached when one is fresh. Given that, if one has a desire to get an overview of the history and inner workings of Jewish law, there is no better source of which I can think to recommend.

I picked this book up a few years ago after seeing an exhibition of Joe Norris's work. This book is a really great tribute to Joe Norris and you get beautiful reproductions of quite a lot of his art. If you can't go to an exhibition to see his work in person then this is definitely the book to buy.

However, like all great art, you really have to see his work in person to appreciate it fully. The colours are so bright and the images wonderful but, for me, Joe Norris's art is definitely not just a visual experience. The wood panel paintings he made, the furniture he painted, they all have such a great smell to them and all of the colours seem that much more vibrant in person. It may sound really odd but the smell of his work alone makes me feel very comfortable & cozy (reminds me of my family's cabin).

Looking at Joe Norris's artwork in this book reminds me of that & makes me feel happy & content.
Highly recommended.

I've bought several copies of this beautiful women's scripture journal for gifts for friends and family. I'm very impressed with the cover and quality of this book, especially for such a low price! I highly recommend this book!

I read this book for a graduate course in medieval history.
Kelly DeVries is a great medieval historian who can be seen on the "History Channel" whenever it covers the Middle Ages. "The Journal of Medieval Military History" is a great comprehensive work of articles from many great historians. It is especially useful for how the Roman Vegetian science of warfare was used in the Middle Ages.

Edward I's most important contribution to advancing the war fighting capability of Britain was in the battlefield tactics that he employed. It cannot be stressed enough that his use of mixed cavalry and archery was a monumental leap in battlefield tactics, as well as the precursor in making the longbow a force multiplier during the Hundred Years' War. The military record of Edward II, who reigned from 1307-1327, was abysmal. DeVries spoke on behalf of all historians who wrote about Edward II's lack of military prowess, and was justifiably unflattering in his critique of Edward II's military acumen. Most of what Edward I won on the battlefields in Scotland, Edward II ineptly lost.

Edward III's strategic and tactical abilities were on full display during the Hundred Years' War. One of the most important tactical innovations that Edward III instituted to increase the fighting capability of the English army before the start of the Hundred Years' War was the introduction of mounted archers to its ranks. Oman took notice of the importance of Edward III's tactical innovation. Mounted archers rode ponies for quick transport to the battlefield, and then they would dismount to shoot their longbows in battle. Undoubtedly, Edward III learned from the previous one hundred years of his predecessors' fighting the Scottish, that too many times the Scots outmaneuvered the English; thus, they escaped from having to fight a battle advantageous to the English. Edward III was going to do all he could to make sure that this did not happen to his army. Oman's research shows muster records from 1334 listing mounted archers for the first time as part of Edward III's expedition into Scotland. This was Edward III's second largest campaign against an enemy during his reign. The expedition served as an excellent opportunity for Edward III and his army to prove their new tactics, which they would put to good use a dozen years later in France.

The requirement on localities to provide longbow men with weapons was very demanding. Edward III made great strides to take on the fiscal responsibility of equipping his army. This actually provided him with two advantages--that of quality control of weaponry, and reducing manufacturing cost through economy of scale. One example of how enormous a task it was to prepare for war comes from the armory records at the Tower of London. In 1359, the clerk of the armory is ordered to put bowyers (longbow makers), and fletchers (arrow makers), to work for the king, under penalty of imprisonment if necessary, if they were non-cooperative. Between 1353 and 1360, the armory added to its stores, 15,300 bows, 4,000 bow staves, and 24,000 sheaves of arrows. Each sheave contained twenty-four arrows; thus, this order equates to 576,000 arrows in all. In March 1345, 15 Sheriffs were issued orders to supply the Tower armory with, "3,000 bows, 8,400 sheaves of arrows and 20,000 bowstrings." By looking at supply records leading up to the battle of Crecy, DeVries was able to surmise several important factors about the supply of arrows. Each longbow man had an allotment of 60 arrows for the battle. The average arrow weighs 4 oz., so to supply 7,500 longbow men it took nearly a half-million arrows weighing 55 tons. This supply was easily transportable in some 60 one-ton carts from the port to the army. These figures can cast little doubt on the fact that the king was constantly writing back to England throughout his campaign in France ordering more supply of arrows and bowstrings. These facts about arrow supply gives one a good picture of just one facet of the monumental logistical, organizational, and planning skills necessary to support Edward III's invasion force of about 15,000 men crossing in ships numbering some 700 to 1,000.

The longbow reigned supreme on the battlefield until the mid-sixteenth century. By this time, other technologies such as better-tempered armor, cannon, and musketry, overtook the effectiveness of the longbow. DeVries points to the dawn of the sixteenth century as the one in which gunpowder would change warfare in Europe. This time, the easy use of gunpowder would cause all warring nations to adopt it to their use. Cannons would now make it easier to break up impenetrable longbow defensive positions. In addition, cannons were ideal for siege warfare against fortified positions.

Recommended reading for those interested in medieval history, and military history.

The most interesting part of this text is Joyce's "handling of alliteration and assonance in varying his language to fit the dual purpose of his comic-poetic variations. A principal example can be found in the S sounds that pervade throughout the Wake, recording the slithering of snakes in the grass and the swish of temptresses' skirts. Serpents and seductresses offer at least two parallels for Joyce - Eve in the garden, Cleopatra and her asp, the latter heard hissing in a marginal comment to a reference to "sire Jellyllous Seizer" (271.3) "Cliopatria, thy hosies history" (271.L) and the former genesis of the Wake: "past Eve and Adam's, from swerve of Shore" (3.1). they form the duo of druidesses" (271.4), the "sosie sesthers" (3.12).

Elsewhere L sounds couple with S sounds as the gossip crosses and recrosses the river where the dirty linen is being washed, and the seduction of young Anna Liva provides conjecture for the washerwomen: "Letty Lerk's Lafing light throw those laurals now on her daphdaph teasong petrock" (203.29-31), and "she was just a young thin pale soft shy slim slip of a thing then, sauntering, by silamoonlake (202. 26-28)."
In contrast to the musical pairing of the S's and L', Joyce also offers a nonmusical pattern of sounds involving P's and Q's, also indicating the girls in the park. The choice of these sounds probably has a lot less to do with their significance in Gaelic sound changes than with a dictum of propriety ("mind your P's and Q's") against which all the characters in the Wake sin, and the urinary meaning of "pee," as well as the form of the two letters, both being yonic in shape with a small tail attached. The Prankquean as such is a combined P-Q female, most often seen in the Wake as a pair, the girls in the park: "a queen of pranks"(68.22), "the parkside pranks of quality queens" (394.27-28)."

Bernstock stands with the original Wake critics such as Atherton, Glasheen, Hart, Tindall, and Campbell. Though old, this is still one of the most well-ordered and systematic books ever written on the Wake." A necessity to all Wake Junkies.

Whether you are a writer, a teacher, a librarian, a parent, or a storyteller, this book is pure gold. It preserves the special folklore of children. Here are the games, chants, jokes, and rhymes you remember from the playground and some you don't remember. I hope someone reprints it!