Bishop Books

Sisters Sarah and Meg Qullian are also best friends as they jointly own and operate the Hemlock Falls Inn in upstate New York. There is very little crime in their small hamlet, but when a murder occurs, it seems that the Quillian siblings are right in the middle of it. To their credit they have solved eight homicides but at the moment neither sister wants to even think of homicide because they are very busy in their professional and personal lives.

Fate ignores their wishes and dumps the body of George Nash in the middle of town so that two hunters discover it. George was a participant in a crime years ago that resulted in the death of a child when the Quillian sisters were small. Both witnessed it but it is Quill who remembers the details of it as if it were yesterday. One by one the members of the victims of that crime turn up in Hancock Falls and they all die except for the mastermind who designed the killing scheme. Quill has to discover who it is before even more murders occur.

Claudia Bishop has written an entertaining, quirky and off beat mystery in which the villains seem heroic and the victims seem diabolical. The Quillian sisters are as delightful as ever especially Quill who thinks she's dying of a dreadful disease even though her sister is convinced her symptoms are caused by an allergy. JUST DESERTS is a special treat for amateur sleuth lovers.

Harriet Klausner

As is seen on the T.V. show Fight Quest, the art of Kajukenbo is one the the most brutally effective martial arts in existence. Prof. John Bishop (for years one of the most respected authors of martial arts magazines)has spent years putting together and writing the first comprehensive book on this art. If anyone has questions about the art of Kajukenbo, this is the book you must have in your library.

Kepelino was a Hawaiian man born around 1830. He was schooled by Catholic missionaries, traveled to Tahiti in 1847 to open a mission, and became a prolific contributor to Catholic newspapers and Hawaiian language newspapers. He also sided with Queen Emma in her fight for the Hawaiian throne; this effort had him jailed and sentenced to hang for treason (the first person so sentenced).

He was eventually pardoned, and died in 1878.

At one point in his life he sat down with his missionary friends and dictated his recollections of life, legends, and customs as a Hawaiian. This volume, in English and Hawaiian, is that compilation.

Some tidbits:

"Special persons called 'Poe-o-kahi-kapu' attended to the private parts of a chief when he was ill and of the chiefess during her menstruating period. They alone had the right to do this service, no one else. If another stepped into the position he would be put to death. This was a post handed down in a family" (p. 130).

"The commoners comprise only those people who have no chiefly blood. A chief is known by his name. This is a peculiarity of Hawaii. The name of a chief is tabu and cannot be given to a commoner or he would die. Hence the chiefs are distinguished by their names from the commoners and the commoners from the chiefs. This is a custom peculiar to Hawaii. Among the white people names are not significant, but to the Hawaiian the name is important. Many are the strange things to be learned about Hawaii. However diligently the foreigner seeks he cannot find out all. He gets a fragment here and there and goes home. A heap of absurdities is all he has to show from great Hawaii" (p. 142).

"There are many ways of planting taro. One way is called 'prodding,' another 'steering', another 'covering', another 'mounding', another 'stopping up', another 'leaf filling'" (p. 152; they are described in turn).

"There were many kinds of dances in Hawaii: There was the chest-slapping dance, the dance in which time was beaten with sticks, the dance with marionettes, and so on. All these things were sinful. Eyes, hands, feet and body ensnared the onlooker. The dance taught the young people to sin. he who had known no wrong would quickly learn it in the dance. There was no dance, not a single chant of Hawaii, that was not filthy. Hawaiian chants were all bad, even the name chants. They were all filthy. But the calling chants and some of the genealogical chants of gods and chiefs contained no double meanings, and the ancestral chants were almost free of them. All the rest of the chants were made by Lucifer" (p. 164, 166).

"Kane, Lono, Kanaloa were the Gods who made Heaven and Earth. These three Gods were one in their nature as God, that is, a very holy One-God-in-three, 'Akua-kahi-kolu.' Before them there was no Heaven and no Earth. ...They saw the light and the darkness and they were good. ...They said, 'Let us make a man, a being like ourselves, knowing all things.' ...They said, 'Let us make women to be a companion for the man, to bear seed for the broad earth.' ...They ceased making the earth and blessed it. This was the sixth period" (p. 174, 176, 178; written by G. M. Keone and T. C. Polikapa and included as appendix).

Clearly, it is difficult to tell what was truly Hawaiian and what was a "missionary Hawaiian" interpretation. That there is a European influence on Kepelino's window to his world I have no doubt. The notes on dancing are a good example. However, I would assume the farming notes are more accurate.

Giving the absolute and radical decimation of the Hawaiian race and its customs throughout the late 18th and all the 19th centuries, even Kepelino is missing information.

In a forward written by Noelani Arista, Arista stated "Kepelino's position within that changing tradition cannot be understood without considering the different kinds of education and training he received and the particular ways in which these influenced his intellectual production" (p. ix). I agree.

Arista also noted "While foreign missionaries expressed an urgent interest in preserving Hawaiian traditions, which they believed would soon be lost as a result of the decline of the Hawaiian population, some of the same missionaries tried to radically change, and even destroy the very traditions that they had asked the Hawaiian historians to commit to writing" (p. x). I see this as well.

Finally, the original translator of this work, Martha Warren Beckwith, wrote in 1931 that "...we must accept this record for what it is worth, an attempt by a Hawaiian of exceptional inheritance and training to explain the beliefs and traditions of the past as they had been handed down to those Hawaiians of his own time who interested themselves in these matters" (p. 7). She added, "Even those who demand more rigorous proof of the historical accuracy of the Kepelino manuscript as an exact replica of antiquity, may grant its value as the genuine thought about his own ancient heritage of a native Hawaiian who grew up during the stirring days of the missions and the monarchy in Hawaii" (p. 7).

But the evidence indicates a profound loss of Hawaiian cultural traditions within decades of the coming of whalers, European businessmen, and missionaries. Because of this, we depend on the accounts of Kepelino, Malo, and others to give us insight.

But this is almost the best we have, this glimpse into a Hawaiian life.

The book was in really good condition and it arrived faster thatn i thought it would. So what can i say two thumbs up

While attending community college, I was required to read this text for a class called: "Student Life Skills". While a lot of the information was more of a review for me personally, I feel that the topics covered within this text are definitely appropriate for high school students and especially college freshmen. I'm an "older" student--- going to college in my 30s----and as a result I found myself realizing that a lot of the suggestions in this book were things that I was already doing in my academic career.

This book is easy to read, clear and concise. The wording is simple and uses plain, everyday English. I also recommend utilizing as many online resources that the book has to offer. Even though it is geared towards college level students, high schoolers will certainly benefit.

I must admit that I started the Owen Archer series in mid-stream and was immediately hooked! I hunted down the first three books and set about devouring them over the Christmas holidays. The King's Bishop, book 3 in the series, struck a chord with me. Ned Townley has lost his lady love and is driven fairly mad. Candace keeps you wondering through out the book as to whether or not Ned was capable of killing the young page he thought was flirting with his beloved Mary. And did he kill those he felt were responsible for her death? Ned leads Owen on quite the chase as Owen searches for the truth. As the body count grows, so do the suspicions that Ned is the murderer. Even Owen doubts his close friend. True to form, Ms. Robb keeps you going until the end when Owen returns to his soulmate, Lucie. Defintely two very enthusiastic thumbs up and five very well deserved stars!

LabView is a comprehensive software package with an abundance of tools included and many more available as add-ons. You can use it for most any mathematical application, yet it goes beyond that...way beyond. Its programming interface allows processes to be designed and built from its library of functions. Included examples demonstrate some of its many capabilities for use in manufacturing, etc. This product is highly recommended if you are a student in an engineering program as it not only provides you with the means of designing a system, but also testing it in a software environment. If your school has the necessary hardware and drivers available you can even see your program doing real-world control. Being familiar with LabView may actually give you an edge when sending out your resume' since many industries use it. You won't be sorry for making the purchase!

Marcia Bishop Sanderson and Maureen Garcia Carpenter's LAKE COUNTY provides a lovely survey of Lake County, which holds the state's oldest lake and yet receives much less notice than Lake Tahoe (perhaps because there is no skiing!) A writer and an archaeologist have teamed up here to cull images from the county's photo archives and private collections alike, blending the two in a history of the towns and neighborhoods across Lake County.

This book is super good! Over 7,000 fresh recipes and 14,000 testers condensed to a select 900 recipes. No junk foods, vegetarians and meat-eaters will be pleased. Great for active families and seniors on a budget because all foods can be found in your cupboards; nothing too pricey. Yet everything is flavorful and has just the right amount of zest to make it special. If you are nutrion conscious and value your time this book will help you feed your family well! Push aside the rest of your cookbooks for a week, and you will see and feel the difference.

Lanfranc of Bec (1005-1089) was born and educated in Northern Italy. He left around 1030 for unknown reasons. Perhaps the revolts that swept Lombardy on the Death of Henry II contributed to his migration north. Lanfranc firmly established himself around 1039, after a period of wandering, as a teacher in Avranches (or the region) in the Loire Valley. He soon experienced a religious conversion and entered the monastery of Bec which became a very famous medieval school under his tutelage. Within three years he was the prior and during this time be became trusted by Duke William of Normandy (soon to be William the Conquerer) as an adviser on religious matters. In 1063 he departed from Bec and became the Abbot of St. Etienne. In 1070 he left St. Etienne and was enthroned as Archbishop of Canterbury, the most important see in England.

Margaret Gibson's seminal work on Lanfranc not only describes his career but rather uses his life as a vehicle to discuss medieval learning in Northern Europe and Northern Italy, monastic institutions, various theological discourses which he engaged in, books and bible interpretations, papal influence in England, and English religious influence on Ireland. This is a VERY scholarly work that any medievalist interested in one of the great men of the period should own or at least read. Her conclusions might sound inconclusive at times, especially regarding his influence on medieval learning, but the author is severely hampered by the minimal sources especially in the early period of his life. What I found most interesting was his role in the Eucharistic arguments with Berengar of Tours, the Archbishopric of Canterbury's influence on Ireland, and the detailed discussion of his individual texts. Gibson examines every issue in extreme detail and occasionally it is hard to see how it applies to Lanfranc but this does not reduce the importance or focus of this work. Also, I was under the impression that Lanfranc had more of a role in the implementation of the Domesday book (I might be mistaken) than Gibson tells us. What she makes very clear however, is Lanfranc's cooperation with William the Conquerer and the position of the Church in relation to the monarchy. This balance is soon disrupted by Anselm (influenced by the ideals of the 12th Century Renaissance) in the next century.

The appendixes of the volume are of vital importance to any historian of this period. Gibson lists and describes every single existent source for Lanfranc's life down to individual letters, every book attributed to Lanfranc existent and lost, and various other lists. I immediately photocopied these and stashed them away for future reference! This is a truly astounding text.