Bishop Books

Comprehensive, beautifully illustrated with botanical drawings. A stunning work of scholarship, it is the ultimate reference for Hawaiian flora. Two large volumes. Intended for professionals, but amateurs like myself who persist (and use the glossary at the end of volume two) find it fascinating. Be sure to get the 1999 edition rather than the one from a decade earlier.

The 1990 edition has been superceded by the 1999 edition. Be sure to get the current one.

I wanted to put a web site together for a small business I am starting. I have a lot of computer experience (and am a CNE) but have little web authoring experience. Over the years I have found that the best way for me to purchase a book is to go to a local bookstore and browse through a bunch of books on a given topic. Then, I select the one I like the best. After looking at many books I almost decided to forget learning Dreamweaver. Then, I came to Bishop's book. Her book uses a great approach to learning. You work through the configuration of a number of different web sites. You learn as you build the sites. After I am finished with her book I may also purchase a reference or more advanced text. But, the bottom line is I can put up my own decent looking site now and I do understand the basics of Dreamweaver. I highly recommend this book. I think a lot of thought and effort went into this book. And, Bishop has a good handle on the learning process.

This book is rare among computer books in that it has both solid technical content and appealing design. This is not an all-in-one reference, more of a learn-by-doing guide with lots of supporting information. The book is well organized, and there are sections for all the most important tasks you'll need to use photoshop. This book is very pleasant to use, with great layout, design, typography, and production quality.

When reading reviews of computer books in general, beware those reviews that expect books to be all things to all people. Consider the following:

-What level of user is the book aimed at?
-Is it a reference book, a guide, a course, or a combination?
-Is the book well laid out and pleasant to use?
-Is the book well written?
-Is the material technically accurate?

This book, a basic/intermediate guide/course, succeeds wonderfully. This could be your first dreamweaver book, and carry you far. Maybe later you could add a reference work, such as "Training from the source."

This is a great book!

Dear Clare heard from you, was unable to e mail back, have a long letter ready to send, you return e mail was not correct hope to hear from you again

Ever since I read this book, I have wanted to know more the current the lives of the three authors.

Beautiful photography, very informative, descriptive detail just right to keep kids interested without overloading them. I would highly recommend.

My son is 5 and very curious about insects (and most things in general)... the descriptions are interesting and photos fantastic. While there's a lot of depth there, you can skip some of it, and cover what you choose. I definitely recommend it for any child that's intellectually curious and not squeamish about bugs!

Nic Bishop's SPIDERS examines all kinds of spiders through the lens of Nic Bishop's close-up color photography. Full-page spider images are accompanied by natural history facts to captivate even reluctant readers.

Anyone who has ever admired Dr. Suess knows what fun it is to read a book where the author effectively delivers an important message in a rhyming and entertaining story. Ms. Bishop pulls this off brilliantly in her tale of the journey of Jeremiah Joe, a tale which reminds me of the best traditions in children's books and poems. With Ms. Bishop's story accompanied by Mr. Jones' bright and engaging illustrations, this is perfect for parents and grandparents who want to read a fun and valuable book with the kids.

A PERFECTLY DELIGHTFUL LOVABLE TALE THAT CAUSES ME AND MY GRANDCHILDREN TO SMILE AND WANT IT READ OVER AND OVER. THE AUTHOR OBVIOUSLY UNDERSTANDS LITTLE CHILDREN AND WHAT THEY LOVE. THE ILLUSTRATIONS ARE TERRIFIC.

St. Ignaty wrote at a time when the pilgrim of the famous spiritual autobiogaphy, "Thw Way of a Pilgrim," and the greatest of all Russian saints, St. Seraphim of Sarov were alive or in living memory. He wrote this book toward the end of his own life, and the simplicity of his message belies the profound depth of his teaching, just as the paucity of the pages--a hunrdred or so--bely the vast experience and great care that went into writing it. He writes this book specifically for those who are unable to find a spiritual director, advising us to stick to the very simple method proposed in "The Ladder to Heaven," a text which he makes extensive use of.

He illustrates for us how the Jesus Prayer was a practice so well known to Early Christians that it was hardly ever mentioned in writings of the Early Fathers, except in passing--as if you would know what he was talking about without any elaboration.

St. Ignaty then proceeds into the very simple method of the Jesus Prayer, but once again, he shows how the Church has always practiced this simple method from the earliest times. But he does something very interesting. He shows how the method proposed by St. John of the Ladder to beginners is the same method he proposes to the most advanced practictioners of the Jesus Prayer. All the other methods that we read about in the Philokalia, and the writings of Russian mystics, such as St. Nil Sorsky and St. Paisy Velichkovsky, are meant as aids to developping the prayer in the heart. But in the end, these techniques are aids to prayer, and not an end in and of themselves. The end result is the same prayer that the beginner practices, only now the heart and the mind are completely focused on the prayer, and it becomes the unceasing, interior prayer that St. Paul talks about.

St. Ignaty also makes it very clear that the "prayer of the heart," cannot be forced or striven for. It can only be acquired by the Grace of God, at his good pleasure and time, not ours. No amount of effort on our part, no amount of "special aids" we might attempt, will force the prayer into the heart. In fact, many of these special aids were only taught by spiritual father to spiritual children who have already received much of the grace of God for them to reach that stage. St. Ignaty stresses how the practice of the prayer of the heart is a full time job, and is practiced and attained almost exclusively only by the most advanced and blessed monastics.

St. Ignaty does discuss in very brief detail the writings of the greater Lights, St. Nicephorus, St. Kallistos Xanthropoulos, and so on, but only to demonstrate once and for all that these books are not intended for beginners. For example, he points out that St. Nicephorus's idea of a beginner is someone who knows already that "the power of speech resides in the breast." This is not a beginner in the prayer of Jesus. This is a beginner in the Hesychastic life that can only br practiced in a monastery. A beginner who has already shown an inclination toward the silence of the heart, a heart that St. Isaac the Syrian would say is limpid. A heart that is totally free from the passions, yet remains full of fervor for closeness to God.

St. Ignaty then tells us who would know this--someone who has been praying the Jesus Prayer for years, and most like the Psalms from memory and so on--a person we would consider a living saint today.

St. Ignaty points out that the Jesus Prayer and its practice has been in decline, a point already noted by St. Hesychius of Jerusalem in the fourth century! And the further back in time we look at the writings on the Jesus Prayer, the ideas of beginner, novice, advanced practioner's increase many times beyond our capacity. St. Ignaty illustrates this point time and time again, and emphasized that we should focus on spiritual writers who are closer in our time, and master what they have to offer before going back to the Greek fathers of the Philokalia and so on.

I imagine his little book will be all but inaccessible in the near future, but at present, with due fear and trembling, we can approach this book without a spiritual father, but we should heed his advice and stick to only the beginning methods exactly as he has explained them. Do not use the "beginning" practices he outlines for us in the latter part of his book--for he is only showing how even what the previous generation wrote for "beginners" will most likely cause harm to our souls rather than good!

And in doing so with due care and attention, if God grants it in his good pleasure, a spiritual father will find you. Prayer is a gift from God, given according to his own timetable, not ours. But "prayer is the breath of the soul," according to St. Seraphim of Sarov, so sll are called to pray, in order that by so doing, we can learn to make our prayer pleasing to God. And above all, approach this gift of prayer with fear and trambling, for it is of the Spirit, and can consume you with fire, or bedew you with the grace of God.

This is a really great book, but please, please, please, make sure you have a spiritual father who approves of you reading this book so that you can make progress and refrain from doing self damage. Other than that, it is a classic which even the monastics read regularly from what I understand.

If you are a homeschooler using Laura Berquist's syllabus, you know this is a must buy book. It covers 4th and 5th grades in American History. I would recommend buying the answer key to go along with it. Pax

505 Pp. PB. Impr.235 Illus. & Maps. Index. A famous 5th-8th grade American history textbook written in 1940 with Catholic faith and patriotic love of country. 55 Chapters, with Study Questions & Activities. Teaches a lot in a simple manner: From Early exploration and settlement thru 20th-century developments. By the end of this book the student will be familiar with the famous persons, places, dates, and events in U.S. history and have a tremendous store of knowledge to build on when pursuing greater understanding at a more advanced level. Worth 10 times its price! A real classic!

The Answer Key is available for only $10.00.

If you like avaition and it's history, this is the book for you. Very easy to read and well put together. The two volumes come in a nice dust case.

Conventional wisdom brands these two geniuses as simple "bicycle mechanics." This incredible book takes you inside their genius, in their own words, written day-by-day. What they accomplished is no less than a miracle, and this book will humble even the most self-assured intellects. Their research "invented" wing theory and shapes, aircraft control systems, and propeller theory. Then they had to design and constuct their own engine, as available ones were too heavy. And wonderfully for us, they left an astounding amount of documentation, including photographic (including the famous photo of the first controlled flight ever), and massive documents and correspondence, which is reproduced in this 800+ page book. There's nothing "dry" about this first-hand story of man's most significant invention.

This is the biography of Pike that we've been waiting for. Robertson's achievment is awesome and this book is marvelous. Pike's many difficulties -alcoholism, ambition, theological posturing, difficulties in his family, with his women- are finally choreographed into the submissive background where they belong, as the three-dimensional Pike emerges broken and whole - a man addicted to action. Believing, warring, loving, campaigning, preaching, living and dying - Pike sat astride the rhythm of unrelenting action, for good or ill. Those who look to the inconsistencies in James Pike to find the living parts are looking too far. His great personal truth was in his every action- wild and true, beautiful, violent. Passionate Pilgrim brings it all before us. David Robertson's intelligence arrives with a stash of new ideas and insights, a scathing sympathy for his subject, and the ear of a real writer. Anyone interested in Pike's story will be mesmerized by this book that demonstrates better than any other I can think of the ecstatic dimensions of biography that can be achieved by perfect prose.

Robertson, a writer new to me but apparently one of some renown whose other books I will be sure to look out for, has written a sobering account of the 196os through a particular prism, the charismatic Episcopal bishop Jim Pike. Pike was a radical theologian and a moving speaker, whose positioning of himself as an effective force for change took him to what were pretty much the limits of free expression within the church through the 1950s and exploded, as did so much else, in the 1960s.

Here in San Francisco he is still remembered, if vaguely, as the man who held press conferences (some of which were televised) at Grace Cathedral at the top of Nob Hill to discuss his latest activities, boycotts, rebellions, hirings and opinions on national and international affairs, not only on matters of religion, for he cast a wider net. He wrote an article, "How My Mind Has Changed," which made public his doubts about the Virgin Birth of Christ and about the three-personed nature of the Trinity. He called for a stop to the practice of "speaking in tongues." More traditional Christians grew skeptical, then became resolutely opposed to his liberal ways. His heavy drinking and his affairs with women caused his wife, Esther, to seek a divorce, and their four children suffered the most.

One of them, Jim Junior, in fact killed himself in New York City, and this put the Bishop into a real tailspin. Like Conan Doyle before him, he took to seances to raise the spirit of his boy. And then he came to believe that he would find redemption out in the desert, and the whole world was shocked when his body was found in the wilderness. Robertson recites all these numbing facts ably and with deep understanding. The spectacle of a man's search for meaning is a brutal one, as he goes, punchdrunk, into one cul-de-sac of faith after another, but Robertson persuades us that, underneath it all, we are all human and we all make mistakes sometimes. He has sympathy for even Pike's most outlandish choices, and his book is all the better for it.

Check out [...] for additional art, poetry, and even preaching resources for this book's themes. Looks at Purpose-Driven topics from a mainline church perspective (familiar theology too). Our church used this for our Lenten series.

Our people really grew in biblical literacy and enjoyed the book. Written with solid scholarship but engaging for lay people. Filled with interesting details about these people who knew Jesus and ways it transformed their lives. Encouraged our members to be more active in their faith.

Author Robert Driver-Bishop pastors with purpose, leads with purpose, lives with purpose and writes with purpose! The Purpose-Driven Life has set us on a quest for purpose and People of Purpose provides just that!... Dan Southerland, author of Transitioning & Purpose Driven ministry executive consultant.

The Spiritual revolution of our time is a shift from thinking to doing. Faith is not an idea but a way of living! Driver-Bishop gets it. You will catch the spirit when you read and use this fine book. Michael Foss, pastor & author of Real Faith for Real Life.

Robert Driver-Bishop has created a tool that will draw ever-larger numbers of denominational churches into 40 Days of Purpose. His use of Biblical figures to illustrate each of the chapters roots this work solidly in the Bible. The added historical perspective enriches the context of each character and story. Gregg Burch, editor of www.TransformingChurch.com

The beauty of the book People of Purpose is that it provides concrete examples of what it means to practice the Christian faith. These examples serve as mentors from the past. We are invited to engage these characters through reflection and discussion. People of Purpose is designed to build upon the many helpful principles presented in The Purpose Driven Life. People of Purpose takes the principle and puts flesh on it through a Biblical character and their life experiences. By this method the principle comes alive and the Bible comes alive.

People of Purpose is an excellent devotional resource, especially during the season of Lent; a chapter can be read for each of the forty days. It is well suited to the development of a small group ministry in the congregation. Small groups have been shown to be an important tool for renewal. People of Purpose can serve as a handbook to discuss ministry in daily life. Rev Dr Gary Wollersheim, Bishop Northern Illinois Synod.