Bishop Books

I live in San Diego, a small town compared to NYC, and to my surprise found many, many tips in this book to be applicable. Julia and Kathy also offer tons of practical advice that applies to anyone having a baby who is conflicted by the messages she is bombarded with by corporate America - e.g., did you know you can do without a diaper changing station if you so desire? In short, this book is well worth the read!

While this book has good information about how to handle various city parenting situations, (dangers of Lead, Taxis... etc), I was stunned how the assumption seems to be that you want to pawn your kids off on the nearest nanny/school/camp ASAP.

Parents can never read enough books to help guide them along the difficult yet rewarding path which all parents travel. If you're having a difficult time solving a parenting dilemma and cannot find answers from family and friends...parenting books are a wonderful resource to turn to for expert advice and helpful problem-solving techniques.

One such resource for parents living in a city, is "The City Parent Handbook: The Complete Guide to the Ups and Downs and Ins and Outs of Raising Young Kids in the City," by Kathy Bishop and Julia Whitehead. This book is not only a wonderful resource for parents thinking about or currently living in the city, it's a "must-have" guide for not losing your city-parent cool! I never realized how much there is to think about when living in a city with children! Just a few factors covered in this book that city parents need to consider: childcare, home & neighborhood, schools, sports, and health issues...these factors are much different when living in a city. This book does a great job explaining everything for city parents, even when you think you knew it all.

MyParenTime.com highly recommends this book -- there is so much information! Besides all the helpful advice, parents will find numerous tips & techniques, mistakes not to make, and so much more! Parents will probably find themselves referring back to it often. Have a great time living in the city with kids...from 2 parents who have already "been-there-done-that." :)

I found this book fascinating and helpful. They're terrific about how to go to museums, why not to feel guilty that you're not in a suburb (because urban kids spend more time with their parents, until older ages, b/d of supervision issues), how to deal with private school applications (including what to do in you're on a waiting list or don't get in anywhere, which no one else tells you), and just general good sense and good info. Their tone is not preachy or condescending. I found it extremely useful and plan to give it to all the new parents (or about-to-move-to-the-city parents) I know.

As this book points out, being a parent in a major urban city offers tons of possibilities for your children. Not that there is anything wrong with the suburbs, but there is no need to feel like you have to rush out to move once you find out a baby is on the way. You and your child can have it all in the city.

The book deals with such wide ranging topics as space (which is almost always at a premium in urban meccas), safety, entertainment and education. I thought they had great ideas about how to best utilize your limited space, with respect to both minimizing "stuff" and storing what you do have. (An experienced parent might not need it, but sometimes it's nice to have permission not to buy toys and such like crazy.) While they did comment on ways to minimize your child's risk from strangers, the bulk of their safety passages dealt with commonplace concerns, like getting around in traffic with toddlers. The book overflowed with ideas about how to entertain your child and yourself, from ethnic areas to festivals to classes to rainy day projects. They also had a number of websites where the reader could obtain more information about classes, activities and festivals.

The information on education was comprehensive, touching on many aspects of private schools, public education and some options in between. I had the definite impression that the authors were more pro-private than public, which is fine, but that is something that is only available to more affluent readers. However, it's hard to argue with the flaws they point out for public schools (e.g., a lack of programs available for the gifted). Again, they provide many resources for parents to do their own research in addition to listing several notable public programs.

This was a great, but not exhaustive resource. Also, this isn't geared to doing things on the cheap (not that it's advertised as such, but many urban parents, including myself are always looking for ways to save). I would LOVE to see something like this for each major city, but this is a great jumping off point.

Death, taxes, debt, regret, fear...just a few of the cheery topics running through my brain while sleepless--so thank Goodness for "Hello Midnight"--a witty reminder that I am not alone! I must say though, that it is so engaging, funny and entertaining that it doesn't work as a remedy, but at least I am chuckling instead of thrashing!

When I first heard of this book on National Public Radio, I was intrigued by the concept and charmed by the hyperkinetic co-author being interviewed. Now that it's been on my bedside table for a week or so, I'm also delighted by its voluminous points of view on sleeplessness.

It's difficult to build a coherent presentation out of a potpourri of quotes and anecdotes, but the authors (and their invaluable partner, a smart graphic designer in tune with the text's ever-changing moods) have turned this obstacle to its best advantage. Their source material -- which ranges from pop song lyrics to the musings of Balzac, Kerouac, and Hemingway -- is designed to be dipped into randomly. Ultimately, the book's structure mirrors the way my mind works when I'm awake at 3 a.m.: skipping from one thought to another, by turns amused or terrified, morose or elated.

Behind this "open-any-page-&-discover-what's-there" strategy, there is a master plan by which the authors artfully investigate the many facets of this strange and uniquely human phenomenon. Insomnia can be a muse, a mistress, an omen of madness, a stimulus to imagination, a chance to get work done, a temporary malady or a lifelong obsession. All of these states of mind -- plus a number of amusing historical, biographical, cultural and scientific anecdotes -- are celebrated quite nicely in this unusually diverting volume.

Ultimately, the book is something like insomnia itself -- not a road you travel from A to Z, but a world you experience in bouts of agony, ecstasy, and wry amusement.

Insomniacs unite! We are not alone! Between these covers there's a shockingly compelling assortment of thoughts on insomnia from such unlikely bedmates as Raymond Carver, Leadbelly, Kafka, Bob Dylan, Proust, R.E.M., Dorothy Parker, The Barenaked Ladies, Nabokov...and a whole bunch more. Plus all kinds of fascinating little science tidbits (learn what all these sleepless nights are doing to our brains - ouch!) and historical anecdotes about mythologizers from Stalin to Marilyn Monroe. I especially liked the sidebars about books and movies that feature sleeplessness as a theme; now I can hold my own Insomnia Film Festival. I also like the balance of humor and seriousness about what seems to be the epidemic of the new millennium. I know five or six insomniacs I have to buy this for.

Now instead of lying awake at night resenting my bedmate's even breathing and easy state of REM, I have something better to do - like read this book. It almost makes you proud to be an insomniac, when you find out what superb company you're in. It seems that a good many of the world's finest writers and thinkers have spent the early morning hours with their eyes wide open; it's somehow comforting to know I'm in such good company.

Bishop and Levy have produced a masterful work that combines rigorous and fascinating research with a deft, humorous, and writerly hand. This highly entertaining compendium is an absolutely delightful melange of state-of-the-art academic insights, wonderful literature (everything from Raymond Chandler to William Shakespeare), and edgy graphics. Highly recommended!

This is a little book besieged by the enactment of an unfortunate design concept. It's a riot of visual stimulation - for a reason I couldn't fathom. The various font sizes (six point all the way up to 72 or so - white,, greys, black, squeezed close, far apart, italic, bold) present a visual challenge. Pages are variously white, pale grey, medium grey, black. Text is superimposed on photographs. The effect of the half-tones, great-big, teeny-weeny, moody/chipper/quiet/loud art and design is a feeling of confusion, and then - a suspicion that this is a comparatively big hullaballoo over very little. The quotations can for the most part be found in a variety of other collections. (Some of the best ones are from F. Scott Fitsgerald's notes and diaries, published years ago as "The Crack Up." ) I found it disturbing that sometimes a truly small thought is presented in big font size. In addition, the names of the authors of the remarks are often so small (or pale) as to provoke eyestrain. One page 82, for example, Shakespeare and Raymond Chandler are paired. The unfortunate coupling minimizes each author's remarks on insomnia.

The editors occasionally contribute their own glib observations, and more often than not they come off as self-congratulatory and narrowly focused. They contribute some remarks on REM sleep (among them "Kittens on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown," and a suggestion that you experiment on your bed partner by "accidentally" waking him or her up when you see a twitching of the eyelids) that are actually downright bothersome.

A disappointing read.

Here at Honda we purchased 50 copies of this absolutely informative book. While it's out of print now, we bought several more copies from online We have made it required reading for a number of corporate offices, both in Japan and Southern California.

If company is on the web, and you're offering products and services to a worldwide market, this book is required reading! Among the first books ever to address the web and becoming truly international.

Mark Bishop has authored a book that is perfect for our Web times. It has a strong international flavor aimed at U.S. Web sites wanting to reach out to other languages groups. This book is filled with technical helps, cultural helps, Internet trends, and all geared to make one's Web site truly international.

To realize in this day and age when the Internet is exploding in size, one just has too look at the major search engines and larger sites making their Web content available to the International user and in other languages. Mark Bishop's book tells you exactly how and why!

This is one book you MUST have on your bookshelf. Even our IT managers were amazed at the insight and technical direction this book offers. And the enclosed CD is wortht the price of the book as it offers pre-made multilingual graphics, sound files, and HTML editors to use along with step-by-step instructions in how to make your Web site multilingual!

I hope Mark Bishop has the opportunity to revise this instrumental and wonderful technical book!

I heard about this book last week and I wanted 20 copies for my IT department at Zacky Farms. A friend lent me his copy and I was awakened by this insightful and very helpful "how-to" book.

If anyone is serious about Web e-commerce then they got to get this book! I heard a revision is upcoming, is this true?

Erica Hui, Senior CPA for International Sales

I haven't been impressed at all by this book. We are building a web site that will eventually use 11 languages so we have kind of a high interest and knowledge on the subject ;-).

We found that the book was rather imcomplete it doesn't talk about how codesets are handled in forms. It also contained some "errors" such as suggesting the use of a flag to represent the various language (this is definitelly not politically correct!).

But I guess for $20 you still get a few good tips.

I bought this book for a recent project for creating a multilingual website. This book really has a wealth of information about creating a multilingual/international website. A lot of the initial information concerned WHY you should have an international website, which I could have done without, but perhaps this would be helpful to some. Bishop gets into lots of areas of creating the site, including character encoding, priming your site for international search engines, using PDF, Real Audio, translation services, etc. There's almost too much to digest at one time. A whole chapter is devoted to resources on the internet, but Bishop provides links to appropriates sites throughout the book. My only complaint is that he didn't discuss how much Unicode has superceded some of the other character encoding schemes. By including so much information on other schemes, he seems to be indicating that Unicode is still not used by many, but it's a little unclear. However, this may not be a top issue for most, it just happened to be a question I'm coming up against in my project.

like omg! it was such a GRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAATTTTT book. it was like so cool!

You see the front cover. The rest of the book is like that: beautiful, vivrant images of the star, a lone red-eyed tree frog.

The "Red-Eyed Tree Frog" introduces us to a tint frig with wide eyes, and a few adventures he has. He contemplates eating an ant, swallows a moth, and narrowly escapes being munched by a snake.

The photographer should get the kudos here, as though there is text, it is the pictures which are the prize. The storyline is bland, unpoetic, but the photos are amazing. We see the frog flying in mid-air, and with his foot being tasted by the snake, and a moth pre- and mid-lunch. There is a cool shot of the frog with his eyes closed, as the frog sleeps, and the odd film covering its eyes.

It is a real look at a day in the life of one tree frog.

Anthony Trendl

The cover photograph of an alert red-eyed tree frog immediately captures attention and invites one into the book. The close-up photographs are of great clarity and interest with one or two sentences of simple text for each one. Shown are some other animal life forms in the frog's habitat. These are introduced as are the frog's daily cycles, its prey, and its enemies. It shows how the frog eludes them. This book concludes with "Did You Know?" which is two pages with facts about its habitat, physiology and life cycle, which were not covered in the story. This section includes small photographs that illustrate its size, toe suckers, and how it sleeps blending into the environment with its unusual eyes closed. This truly delightful book gives a surprising amount of information. It would appeal to any age level, though its simple text is designed for a younger audience. It would also be an excellent addition for English Language Learners or other Special Needs people. This wonderful introduction of this endearing creature is sure to be loved by frog aficionados. I highly recommend this book.

My 2 year old likes to yell, "Look out frog," "Jump," and "Crunch, crunch, crunch," at the appropriate pages. My four year old likes it, too. The pictures are nice and vibrant. This is one of their favorites.

frogs are awesome amphibians i like reading and learning about them.

Although most of the book will be rather great for all Bruce Lee fans the credit section is not at all well-researched.After all those years here are no exact credits given for Bruce's movies (although they have been published so often)! CHINESE CONNECTION is here given to be originally entitled FISTS OF FURY (instead of FIST OF FURY)! This printing error(?) (the ending S in FISTS) is very crucial since long for not confusing it with the American release title for BIG BOSS!Furthermore GOODBYE, BRUCE LEE - HIS LAST GAME OF DEATH is not an alternative title for GAME OF DEATH. It is a totally different low budgeted rip-off with Bruce Li (aka Ho Tsung-Tao).There also is no further information on GAME OF DEATH II which is quite well known as a movie by director Ng See-yuen and it's alternative title THE NEW GAME OF DEATH is again a totally different rip-off. Especially Bruce Lee newcomers could be mislead here to look out for the messenger in ENTER THE DRAGON? Never heard (or seen) of that!And something rather the way ENTER THE DRAGON's fight scenes were shot for the reason of not showing continous takes without a cut. I can't see that there is such a photographing style in early seventies kung fu or swordplay movies which audiences are used to. Panoramic shots were only short intercuts in most of the movies and the only kung fu movie director I know avoiding close-ups is Shaw-Brothers' Chu Yuan in the late seventies!And Ying-Chieh is Han Ying-Chieh and not Ying-Chieh Han!Surnames in Chinese may come first and that's all about it. No reason to adapt them to American Inosanto turned down all the offers by movie producers to take a part in a movie (p. 73). He appeared in COUNTER ATTACK (aka CHINESE STUNTMAN) in around 1980 which was starred and directed by Bruce Lee imitator Ho Tsung-Tao (Nevertheless it is one of the better movies!)So I can't recommend this book for the rather superficial way the credits have been researched here.Greetings, Oliver Sodemann

I don't normally do these kind of reviews, but I was moved to add my opinion when I saw the review posted by Oliver Sodemann of Germany. Did we read the same book? I thought this was a fantastic book, one of the best I have seen on Bruce Lee in the 30 years I have been collecting. Sodemann's comments sound more like a personal grudge against the author rather than a serious, constructive criticism of the book's faults or merits. While I admit the film credits section could have been more thorough, it was just a couple of pages at the end of what was otherwise a very well-written and inspirational book. Never before have I seen someone get so upset about something in the appendix of a book. I think it is ironic that the other review dated the same day praises the book for not leaning too much toward useless trivia and focusing on the important aspects of Lee's legacy. I'd put this book up there among the best of the bunch on Bruce Lee.

After catching the author on the Patrick Phillips talk show speaking about Bruce Lee, I went out and bought the book. I was very impressed with the impact that Bruce Lee has had on the everyday people Bishop has written about. I had no idea that Bruce Lee has made such a profound contribution to culture and civilization and the book has made me look at Bruce Lee in an entirely different light.

This book is a really great examination of what it is about Bruce Lee that so inspires millions of people. Once I started reading it I couldn't put it down. Too many books on Bruce Lee tend to be heavy on useless facts and light on substance. "Remembering Bruce" doesn't get bogged down by a lot of silly trivia and minutia, but instead focuses on the positive impact his philosophy and legacy have had on people.

This book really boils it down to the nuts and bolts of what made Bruce Lee such an amazing man. It looks at each aspect of his personality and shows the reader what made him so unique. Also, the book talks about the recent events in the Bruce Lee world, such as the organizations that have been formed to preserve his memory. It also lets the reader know where he can find the best info on Bruce Lee.

This Vegan cook book has recently been reprinted so search again for best price. Some of the healthy eating, vegan recipes in this vegan cookbook have been featured on the BBC food website. Vegan recipes in this vegan cookbook may be useful for weight loss as the book is co authored with a top nutritionist who helped design them for optimum health.

A Vegan cookbook that will prove vegan is more than a four letter word this christmas.

Dairy free, vegetarian, healthy nutritious but delicious recipes this book will even delight the meat eaters with puddings and desserts they never thought possible.

From lush dairy free egg free chocolate cake and rich vegan ice cream this book will open the minds of long term vegans as well as committed omnivores.

Handy nutrition section by london based nutrition consultant Yvonne Bishop-Weston Bsc Dip ION MBANT showing how to easily get all the vitamins, minerals, protein, and nutrients you need from a diet based on plant foods and higher in fruit and vegetables.

From high protein emergency energy Raw food snack bars to egg free pancakes and omelettes. From high protein dairy free desserts such as bannoffee pie to lunch ideas and Ackee quiche, carribean pasties and vegan scottish haggis.

High protein ideas for breakfasts, lunches, snacks, maincourses and special occassions.


The ultimate and an invaluable addition to anyone's cook book selection you don't need to be a vegan or vegetarian or have a food intolerance to appreciate the inspired recipes here.

and they turn out great! This cookbook has what I consider to be easy recipes, average time spent making them, and the taste is worth it all. My favorites so far are the cream-cheese stuffed peppers, wild rice & lentil balls with tomato sauce, and millet burgers. A variety of grains, nuts, vegetables, and seeds are used. The pictures are nice, too, if you want to make what looks good and can't tell by the text.

I ordered this book because I wanted to incorporate more vegan meals into my family's diet - however there were a lot of ingredients that I am not familiar with and the recipes looked like they would be time consuming. We have 4 children ages 8 and under and I don't have the time to shop for "special" ingredients or a lot of time to spend preparing meals that our children may not eat. I'm sure if you are totally vegan these recipes may be very tasty, and easier to prepare since you may have the ingredients as staples in your household already. This book was not a proper fit for our busy lifestyle with kids.

Here's what the critics said:

Here's Health - "vegan food has reinvented itself"

Health & Fitness - "This book is inspiring"

London METRO - "Meat-free, dairy free but not taste free"

Natural Health - "Utterly delicious puddings"

Green Parent - "Bursting with enough flavour to tempt any meat eater"

BBC Good Food - "The tempting recipes in this book show that vegan food can be both delicous and varied"

"I love this book! It is full of really clever, creative and imaginative ideas" - Liz Cook

" For healthy, easy to follow recipes with a delicious contemporary twist, look no further." - Here's Health

"Packed with health tips to assure readers that the recipes are as nutritious as they are lip smacking the staff of The Vegan Society have never been so culinary contented" - The Vegan

"A varied vegan diet may seem like an oxymoron to many meat-eaters - but it is possible." - Croydon Advertiser

"The recipes are a good mix of everyday dishes like Egg-free Omelette and Pizza Muffins: to the deliciously exotic: Wild Mushroom and Pine Nut Filo Baskets, Mild Coconut Curry, Cauliflower and Asparagus Tarts, or Mushroom and Sweet corn Filled Enchiladas. For desert there are even old favourites like Crème Caramel and Black Forest Chocolate Cake. Who said Vegans eat nothing but lettuce and celery sticks!" - Australian Review by Leanne Jackson

"More than just about tired nut roasts and predictable vegetable stir-fries" - Croydon Guardian

"Their book proves veganism doesn't have to be a by-word for self denial. Instead it inspires" - Eastern Daily Press

See more at http://www.foodsforlife.org.uk - Free recipes

`Augustine through the Ages' is one of those big, thick, $100 books that one longs to have in a private library (particularly the private library of someone with a catholic-leaning theological interest). I debated about the book for nearly a year until a friend of mine finally put the issue to rest by getting it for me for my birthday a few years ago.

I've now had sufficient time and use of the volume to warrant giving an opinion. I am sorry that I waited so long to add this book to my collection!

` "Augustine through the Ages" presents anew the life, work, and influence of Augustine of Hippo (A.D. 354-430), one of the greatest figures in the history of the Christian church. Best known to modern readers for his "Confessions" and "City of God," Augustine has had a profound theological and philosophical impact on the Christian faith, and his legacy is also reflected in the development of Western thought as a whole.'

This book is organised and functions as an encyclopedia. Over 150 scholars in fields such as history, classics, theology, philosophy and political science have contributed to making this a very comprehensive and in-depth reference work. The contents include nearly 500 articles with appropriate bibliographic references for further research.

Entries involve his life, his work, and his influence. A few samples will illustrate:

His life: Life, Culture and Controversies
In this entry, a brief biography of Augustine is present, from birth in Thagaste in 354, in the province of Numidia, to his death in 430 in Hippo, as it was under siege from Vandal invaders. It details the major events and influences in his life, as well as the general cultural milieu of the time - education under the Roman system, the relationship of church and empire, and the influence of philosophy, particularly Neoplatonism. The controversies of his time, in which Augustine energetically participated, included the Arian, Donatist, Pelagian and Manichean trends.

His work: Confessions
This entry gives an overview of the `Confessions', the most popular and widely-read of Augustine for twentieth-century audiences. As a result of this autobiographical work, the youth of Augustine is far better known than almost any other person in antiquity. The article includes translation and publication issues (the question about oral or written primacy is explored), as are the differing purposes of sections (autobiographical, polemical, exegetical). This work covers conversion and growth in faith and work.

His influence
Articles are included on those who influenced Augustine himself, such as Origen, Tertullian, Plotinus, and Plato, as well as upon those he influenced, from early figures such as Jerome and Ambrose, to later theologians like Aquinas, Luther, and Calvin, up to more modern figures such as Adolf von Harnack, Ernst Troeltsch, and Martin Heidegger. Similarly, Augustine's contributions toward topics that are of current (and recurring) interest such as social justice, war, suicide, contraception, etc. are explored.

The book also includes tables Augustine's works which show Latin titles, English translations, common abbreviations (very necessary for scholarship) and dates. Articles are cross-references, particularly with a view toward shared bibliographic information.

The editor, Allan D. Fitzgerald is professor of patristics at the Augustinian Patristic Institute of Rome. He also is editor of Augustinian Studies published by Villanova University. Jaroslav Pelikan offers a word at the front, which is an interesting choice, given Pelikan's Eastern Orthodox leanings, and the strained love-hate relationship Eastern Orthodoxy has traditionally had with Augustine.

This is a truly monumental work that will find an honoured place in the library of any scholar.

. . .which will be of value to Augustine scholars for many years to come.

The purpose of the encyclopedia is to provide a one-volume reference to Augustine, his life, his thought, his teachings, and his books. What did he believe about a particular doctrine? Look up the doctrine, get a synopsis of his thought, and find the appropriate reference(s) in his writings.

Wonderful for both Catholics and Protestants, esp. those branches of Protestantism which revere Augustine. Applicable for the layman or the cleric; for the serious student as well as for someone who simply wishes to be informed.

I highly recommend this volume.

This is, hands down, the best single volume on the life, work, ideas, and history of Augustine available. Not only does this reference work cover the period in which Augustine lived, but it also covers the periods in which Augustine had an impact. This book is very organized with charts of Augustine's works, and of course it covers the entire spectrum of Augustinian philosophy and theology from A to Z. This book is so detailed that many unexpected topics such as abortion to war are covered. The book is well referenced which enables the reader to launch into further works that have been used in compiling this massive volume. If you have been wanting a single volume that works well for quick references to detailed studies then this is the ONLY volume of its kind in print. I highly recommend this work for those who enjoy studying Augustine.

Having read info on this title my expectations were fairly high. My library not having a dedicated book on Augustine was lacking. It still is! This might be an OK purchase as a shelf companion to MANY other volumes on this topic. As a stand-alone I think not. Promises of books for further study in the bibliographies after each topic is largely a joke. Take 'predestination' for instance - not too many English titles here. Why? One suspects to hide the commercial 'scholarship' of the click, paste and rehash Eerdman editorial style of publishing. Take how Theisson's 'Lectures in Systematic Theology' revised by Doerksen as an example where Thiessen's work was adulterated to accommodate a broad theological market. For those familiar with Eerdmans editorial books (This claims to be an Encycleopedia !?!) the tradition continues. If you've got lots of Augustine books on your shelf, this book may help to tie up loose ends. However, a back cover reviewer correctly says about this book, 'the starting point for further research.' I agree as this sums up the depth of this book - pity about the bibliography though as mentioned above. (Yes, I admit I expect to see Latin references and the like.)
If this is your first book on the topic, you may be better off considering other titles. For all what the book claims to be - a lightweight. Certainly I shall keep it as a reference, but I would not have purchased it given the opportunity to browse first.

AUGUSTINE THROUGH THE AGES is an enormously informative work on the life and thought of Augustine of Hippo. Every serious student of Augustine would benefit from having this volume. Allow me to enumerate three reasons why this encyclopedia is so valuable in helping people to understand Augustine and his extraordinary contribution both to the history of Christianity and to the intellectual development of the Western world:

1. This work contains hundreds of articles by the best Augustine scholars from both the Catholic and Protestant ranks. The result is that you can fairly evaluate Augustine's contribution to the history of Western Christianity. For example, this volume contains insightful articles on how Augustine's thought influenced the development of the Catholic, Lutheran, and Reformed theological traditions in particular.

2. Because Augustine wrote more than five million words, it is often difficult to pull together his various treatments of issues and to attempt to summarize his overall position. This encyclopedia is quite helpful in systematizing the various categories of Augustine's thought.

3. This work includes articles which address all areas of Augustine's thought, including biblical, theological, philosophical, ethical, historical, and his many literary works.

AUGUSTINE THROUGH THE AGES contains more than 900 pages that attempt to capture the life, thought, controversies, and literary output of one of Christianity's greatest thinkers. This is indeed an extremely valuable volume.

Michael Bishop is a Nebula and World Fantasy Awards winning author. Blue Kansas Sky showcases four of his best novellas under one cover. These superbly written stories include Apartheid, Superstrings, and Mordecai Thuban; Cri De Coeur; Death and Designation Among the Asadi; and the title piece, Blue Kansas Sky. This outstanding anthology is enhanced for the readers with an informative introduction to Michael Bishop and his writing by James Morrow. Blue Kansas Sky is "must reading" for Bishop's legion of science fiction and fantasy fans.

Blue Kansas Sky takes us from the rural heartlands of the early 1960s to the furthest reaches of 21st century space and beyond. From ordinary people to extraordinary people, from human alien to the enigmatic alien. Michael Bishop's writing is engaging, thought-provoking, lyrically poetic; sweeping us along with the gentle lullaby of magic, memory, and estrangement that is, and will always be, the human spirit. Gary S. Potter Author/Poet.

Michael Bishop, Nebula Award-winning author of No Enemy but Time, has just released Blue Kansas Sky, which collects four of his short works - one never before been seen in print - in a single volume. These stories showcase his mastery of different genres, and provide the reader with an sampling from various phases in Bishop's writing career.

"Blue Kansas Sky" is a moving story of a young boy in 1950s small-town America, who struggles between his love for an uncle just released from prison and loyalty to his mother (who blames the man for her husband's death). Bishop incorporated many details from his own childhood to make this tale come alive. There's no science fiction here at all - just an engaging tale, extremely well written. Michael Bishop is adept at incorporating fresh words and unexpected turns of phrase without making the reader scramble for a thesaurus.

In "Apartheid, Superstrings, and Mordecai Thurbana," a well-to-do Afrikaner "ghosts" in and out of reality after a freak auto accident and is forced to watch as the security police interrogate two black laborers - one who plays around with cosmic string theory as a hobby; another who receives pirate radio broadcasts courtesy of a metal plate in his skull. This story is very difficult to get through - not because it is poorly written (indeed, just the opposite); but because it captures in chilling detail the horrors of the old Apartheid system.

"Cri de Coeur" (Cry from the Heart) tells the story of a man who must cope with the responsibilities, and revel in the joys, of raising a son with Down's Syndrome aboard a generational starship seeking to colonize another star system.

"Death and Designation among the Asadi" deals with a human anthropologist living in the wilds of an alien planet, struggling to understand the enigmatic rituals of its lion-maned hominids - without losing his sanity. [After reading this story I asked the author what I should do if I didn't fully understand it - read it again, or embrace the mystery? His answer: "Death and Designation" is my Solaris (a novel by Stanislaw Lem). Real aliens, Lem implies, defy comprehension because they ARE alien. On the other hand, you could read my novel Transfigurations, which incorporates the novella, and which more than one critic badmouthed for explaining rather than embracing the original mystery. They may have done so with some justice.]

Blue Kansas Sky is a wonderful collection of stories that I heartily recommend. It's published by Golden Gryphon Press (a small firm specializing in anthologies).

In his eloquent introduction, James Morrow, another writer of "moral fiction", deftly analyzes the major imperatives of the four works included in Blue Kansas Sky, focusing on two major themes, the inclusion and redemption of the "other." Although his insights add to one's enjoyment of the collection, they only touch briefly on another important facet of Bishop's work, the clash between his essential optimism, his generally hopeful attitude towards the world, and his seemingly reluctant acknowledgement that optimism alone does not suffice in the face of the hardships the world has to offer.

Optimism positively suffuses the title story, a Bildungsroman featuring one Sonny Peacock, a young man who comes to understand his place in the world through the almost shadowy presence in his life of his ex-con uncle, Rory Peacock. Although warned off by his mother, who blames Rory for her husband's death, Sonny is drawn to his uncle, who enters the story looking like an accident waiting to happen. That no "accident" occurs is testament to the human capacity for change; that Sonny learns so much about life from his neer do well uncle is both ironic and touching. Taut and intellectually satisfying, "Blue Kansas Sky" contains several uplifting messages about redemption and human nature. Yet, Sonny's essential optimism is in constant danger of being eroded, and the story's ending is a heartbreaker.

The story most like it in the collection is former Hugo finalist, "Cri de Cour," which examines the nature of bigotry and the power of the powerless. It is the tale of star traveler Abel Gwiazada, and his son Dean, who was born with Down's syndrome. For Abel and most of the crew, Dean is easily lovable, a veritable repository for the positive emotions for those one board. Yet, to crewman Kazimierz Mikol, he is a freak. Mikol's presence provokes much tension, and much exposition about the nature of parental choice in an age where gene technology may make conditions like Dean's obsolete. Even though Mikol grows to love and accept Dean as the others already do, the novella ends on mixed note, as the travelers are forced to deal with a disaster that nearly renders their long journey meaningless.

The remaining stories (both Nebula Award finalists) are far darker, dealing with the nature of prejudice and the power of obsession, describing two personal journeys into the very heart of darkness. "Apartheid, Superstrings, and Mordecai Thubana" is essentially a science fictional play on books like BLACK LIKE ME and Ralph Ellison's INVISIBLE MAN. The latter is especially pertinent, in that the main character, a white man, is rendered invisible, and thus given a special insight into the plight of the black man in South Africa. Even though it is obvious that the character has seen the light, his personal epiphany is essentially meaningless against a backdrop of institutionalized racism. "Death and Designation Among the Asadi" is also about a journey of understanding, but one which proves impossible to complete. Here, Bishop plays with the theory of the observed being acted on by the observer, but deftly turns the tables, as the observer is slowly driven mad by his inability to understand the alien race he studies. Seemingly about institutionalized alienation, it really is more about the arrogance of human beings in assuming their mindsets are universal.

So, we have optimism, but optimism tempered by reality. We see closed minds opening, but also minds that shut down when reality intrudes. True, Bishop is an optimist, but this doesn't prevent him from being simultaneously tough minded, intelligent, skeptical, and morally aware. The magic is in the careful balance he strikes in his writing, tempered by his fiction's two essential ingredients: his clear, strong, trustworthy voice, and the obvious compassion he feels for his creations.

Blue Kansas Sky is a collection of 4 novellas spanning 3 decades and the full spectrum of Bishop's talent. The title story is a sweet, poignant coming-of-age story set in Bishop's semi-fictional Van Luna, KS: it's all about life and growing up and the random difficulties of doing so. The last line is guaranteed to send you reeling. "Cri di Coeur" and "Death and Designation among the Asadi" are stunning morality tales in the guise of science fiction; as usual, Bishop's characters, no matter where or when they are, portray humanity at its most believable, wanderers who find hope in the most fragile of circumstances. The ringer for me, though, is "Apartheid, Superstrings, and Mordecai Thubana," a magical-realistic look at the horror of racism, the sin of inaction, all neatly and convincingly tied up with the Theory of Everything. Quite simply: amazing.

This is a collection for fantasists, for realists, for anyone who enjoys one of our best unsung writers at his very best.

Drake's "Constantine and the Bishops" is a fine study of the politicial, sociological and theological currents at the time when Christianity became a political power within the Roman Empire. Focusing on the reign of Constantine, but ranging from the persecution of Diocletian to the time of Theodosius, it offers a much more complicated view of both Christianity and Constantine's efforts to integrate Christianity into the structure of the Roman Empire. In particular, the book appreciates the variety of Christian practices and beliefs that existed throughout the (huge) empire and the constant struggle among many Christian groups to define Christianity along their own beliefs. We tend to see that variety only through the very colored lens of heresy and its suppresion. Constantine comes out rather well in this book; he is a far more sympathetic, complex and impressive person than represented in the writings of Eusebius, where he frequently appears as little more than a puppet of God. Where the book is weakest is in Drake's argument on how official Christianity became more intolerant. It certainly did after Constantine, but whether a Constantine could have avoided this result is not proven in the book. Where the book is strongest is in demonstrating that Constantine, while he might be considered a "Christian" emperor (he didn't receive baptism until he was on his deathbed), he still saw and ruled the Roman Empire with a keen knowledge of the Classical heritage. The book is also provides an excellent counterbalance to the impressions we might get from the writings of Eusebius and Athanasius, the winners in the Christian theological wars of that period. Overall, the book is very well-written (if in a leisurely fashion) and has superb notes and bibliography (the notes are as interesting as the text). It is not light reading, but if you are interested in the late Classical period or in the foundations of Christianity, this book is well worth reading.

Drake has taken on and called into serious question some of the most deeply-entrenched notions current among scholars of late antiquity concerning not only the first Christian emperor, but also the very nature of early Christianity as a whole. Even as modern scholarship has moved away from the notion of a "life or death" struggle between pagans and Christians in the fourth and fifth centuries A.D., there has remained an assumption even among careful scholars that the religious intolerance which came to prevail in the later fourth and fifth centuries A.D. as the Roman empire became a Christian empire was in some sense native to Christianity as a faith system. It therefore follows from this dangerous assumption that outcroppings of intolerance and violence committed by members of the late antique Christian community need no further explanation than the faith of the perpetrators. Drake takes this assumption and its implications to task and argues that Christian intolerance in late antiquity has a specific historical and political basis, and that the Christianity Constantine envisioned upon his "conversion" was an inclusive one which was to have created a comparatively neutral public space with regard to religion, and which demanded only worship of a single benevolent creator, a notion very much in keeping with elite pagan religious and intellectual trends. This vision, however, was sublimated to a separate and distinct agenda advanced by such Christian hardliners as the historians and panegyrists Eusebius and Lactantius, for whom the history of the Christian community was an unceasing struggle against the "error" of paganism, and in whose eyes the defining traits of a "good Christian emperor" not only included all the traditional virtues of a Good Roman Emperor, but came to include also a militant advocacy of "orthodox Christianity," and an unwillingness to fully tolerate any other religious expression. Drake's book is an impressive pulling apart of time-worn and, as he frequently proves through careful consideration of primary source documentation, ill-founded ideological constructs upon which many modern notions of Constantine are based. Indeed, Constantine and the Bishops is a subtle, quietly profound study in subject formation and rhetorical determinacy which is nevertheless simply stated throughout and accessible to readers of every background.

This is a detailed analysis of Constantine's role in Church history. It is occasionally a little slow going, but it provides some interesting perspectives. One of the main thrusts is that Constantine's behavior around Christianity needs to be viewed much more from a political context that from a strictly theological one.

Major topics include:

* The Emperors needed legitimacy. As the senate faded into the background, that legitimacy had come increasingly from a divine endorsement of the emperor. Diocletian's persecution had failed, which meant the empire was stuck with a large Christian minority who would not accept the traditional pagan legitimization of the emperor. So Constantine was well motivated to find a solution that could include the Christians recognizing the imperial mandate.

* Constantine's initial conversion seems to have focused on his blessing from a vague supreme heavenly father. By this time the pagan aristocracy had already largely shifted in a monotheistic direction and thus Constantine could hope to satisfy both Christians and monotheistic pagans.

* In a series of church councils, Constantine seemed extremely inconsistent on theological issues. Drake argues that this is because Constantine was much more interested in having an inclusive church than is resolving what he saw as unimportant theological niceties. (Why can't these guys just get along?) So Constantine tended to support whichever individuals or factions appeared more focused on consensus and inclusion, and to oppose those individuals and factions that seemed interested in disruption and disunity.

* As the church evolved, with new converts and many doctrinal disputes, the path to proving oneself a true convert (and to success in the church) tended to emphasize taking a hard line against "the other side". This often involved hearkening back to an imagined early church where everything was clear and simple. Initially this intolerance was mostly focused on dissidents inside the church. But particularly after the brief interlude of Julian's pagan revival, the church felt insecure against the risk of potential future pagan revivals and became increasingly intolerant of paganism.

Drake concludes with a discussion of the confrontations between Bishop Ambrose of Milan and the Emperor Theodosius, where the Emperor agreed to do penance for the massacre at Thessalonica. But again, there is more politics to this than first meets the eye and the final "confrontation" was probably carefully stage managed. The emperor now needs the bishop to confirm his divine legitimacy - but the bishop also knows not to push the emperor too far.

This reappraisal of the era of Constantine the Great and the rise of Christian power provides the reader with a prodigious amount of material to digest as well as insights on a multiple of different levels. Drake takes to task the historiographical assumptions of Gibbon, Bruckhardt and Baynes and in the process shows why the assumption that Christianity is intolerant and coercive by its very nature is a false and misleading proposition. The author finds a consensus for religious toleration in the reign of Constantine both as a reaction to the persecutions of Diocletian and as a matter of Constantinian political policy. The author finds the traditional questions regarding the sincerity of Constantine's conversion and the co-option of Christianity for crass political reasons both shallow and obfuscating. Using multidisciplinary methodologies Drake tries to analyze the source material in a fashion that allows it to speak for itself.

The author refers to this work as a sketch rather than as a definitive history. In sketching various aspects of this period Drake stretches for insights and some are more persuasive that others. For example, with Christians only about ten percent of the population at the onset of Constantine's reign, the book fails to adequately explain how this small segment of the population could and did become an alternative power base. The traditional elites may have been a minute group, but they represented the values and assumptions of the other ninety percent of the population. While dramatic growth of the Christian population during the fourth century is alluded to, it is never quantified. On a positive note, impressively complete and compellingly drawn is the Eusebian connection to Constantine. In this area Drake is able to tease out masses of meaning from a close reading of the Eusebian material. Equally impressive is Drake's reading of the relationships of Constantine and the Bishops. Following up on this with a contrasting section on Ambrose of Milan and Theodosius the Great some fifty years later provides an interesting counterpoint indicating much greater Christian influence and power.

If there is a weakness to the book, it is the size of the subject which the author in no way tries to delimit. Even at that, the post Constantinian material is somewhat truncated. However, on balance, it does provide a plausible explanation for the evolution of Christian power in the direction of a more coercive and less accommodating nature over the period of time surveyed. This is a very long book and an intense read. For a specialist in Roman Imperial and or Early Church history, this book is mandatory but will raise as many questions as it answers. However, in doing so, it will point the diligent reader in the right direction. There is an amazing bibliography included and the end notes are a treasure in themselves. That they are end notes rather than footnotes makes them a nightmare to use. That they are so valuable to the serious student makes the effort to use them worthwhile. Overall, this book is a successful and persuasive refutation of a long lived historical paradigm. Despite its shortcomings this is a major revisionist history which will effect all future scholarship in this area for the foreseeable future.

A book on the fourth century that cites Saul Alinsky and Richard Nixon is not a typical history! The reason is that "Constantine and the Bishops" is as much about political science as history. Using the usual traditional sources, Drake goes further and examines agendas; the people he reveals are refreshingly understandable. In fact, I kept finding myself thinking: "Of course!", and "That reminds me of [name]", and "That's the same kind of mistake I might have made", etc. Constantine comes across as a very believable person trying desperately to bring peace and order to an empire plagued by special interests and external challenges (so what else is new! ). For example, regards special interests, Drake points out that Constantine briefly transferred some legal functions to the bishops. The reason was corruption in the legal profession mirroring today's problems in the legal system (i.e. money buying favorable decisions). How contemporary! ----- In terms of history, this work excels because it offers reasonable perspectives within which events take place. Instead of a mountain of facts, Drake selects currents within which they make sense. The "Big Events" of this period were: The Great Persecution (303-313) by Emperor Diocletian , the reign of Constantine (324-337), the brief counter-revolution of Emperor Julian "the Apostate" (361-263), and the final conquest of power by the Christian bishops under Emperor Theodosius I (379-395). The history in this book is however very detailed. It reaches back to the decline of the Roman Senate under Augustus Caesar three centuries before, and looks ahead to the ratification of the Theodosian Code in 438. Even without much knowledge of the fourth century, a reader will finish with an excellent grounding in the period. Over 51 pages of footnotes, a list of 118 primary sources and 43 PAGES of secondary sources (!), are backed up by an excellent index. The enquiring reader will have no shortage of further reading to pursue! ----- One interesting thought that Drake comes back to repeatedly is that "the ancient state was built on the premise that organized human activity was needed to ensure that [divinity] remained benevolent to the community." He points out another fact that was brushed under the carpet in later times: many pagans were monotheists before the final victory of Christianity, and that Constantine may well have been a monotheist well before he accepted Christianity. Drake shows that the failure of the Great Persecution was due in part to the fact that pagan and Christian neighbors usually got along rather well, contrary to myth. Constantine had no desire to fail (as had Diocletian) by encouraging conflict; Constantine's challenge was to keep the Christian church from tearing itself apart. Within the church, a centralized bureaucracy had not yet emerged, and the bishops reined supreme. Some (not all!) were obsessed with a search for "heretics". Once Christianity "became popular" a flood of new converts, many with little religious motivation, threatened to swamp the church. For those who had suffered under Diocletion the stampede of opportunists was - at best - a mixed blessing! Constantine constantly came down against the exclusionists, favoring an inclusive approach. In fact the evolution of Christianity into an intolerant movement, Drake points out, was not inevitable: internal conflicts had more to do its intolerance (later projected outward) than anything else. Julian's brief counter-revolution just fed internal paranoia and strengthened the hand of the extremists within Christianity. (How familiar! Radicalization of a movement due to unsuccessful external persecution combined with internal "purges" of deviants!) This is an excellent volume. If I were to recommend a "first read" for those wanting to understand fourth century Christianity, this would be The Book!

This version of the Bible is very easy to navigate. The search feature of the Kindle makes it a breeze. My only complaint is that commentary is right there in the text; it's not separated by anything to tell you "Scripture stops, comments begin", so it can sometimes be distracting when just trying to read the Bible. Otherwise, this was a good choice!

This is a well respected Catholic translation that has stood the test of time. The navigation for Kindle is better than any other book I have. The notes included in the text are very good too. It is in "thee, thou, ye" type of English. Some of the sentence structure is awkward at times. Overall I recommend this translation. Being a Catholic Bible in includes all the books of the Bible, just like the original King James did, up until the 19th Century.

This Kindle edition of the Douay-Rheims Bible, Challoner Revision, was created to offer the user a bible with easy book and chapter navigation.

The "Table of Contents", on page three of the edition, lists all 73 books of this edition of the bible, and also has quick links to both the New and Old Testaments. Just select the book title you want to go directly to it. Once you are at the top of the book page, you can select the chapter you want in two clicks. You are there! Navigation links at the beginning of each book allow you to select any chapter you want, back up or forward to the previous or next book, respectively, or return "Home" to the "Table of Contents".

5 stars for formatting, sure, but I had no idea from the product description or reviews that there is commentary embedded directly into the text. I find it distracting and difficult to do a slow meditative reading of the scripture when there is something other than God's word present within the text - sometimes after every verse. At first I was completely taken aback. I probably have a dozen different bibles and translations (non eBook), including Douay-Rheims, and I've never seen such a thing. But yes, the formatting is absolutely vital for the Kindle.

I was very happy to see this in the Kindle store. This is the Gutenberg Project's Douay-Rheims Catholic Bible, formatted VERY nicely for the Kindle!!! I've been using the version from [...] that is "formatted for Kindle" but isn't really. As another reviewer said, you had to read it straight through, like a novel. These book and chapter navigation links are wonderful and WELL WORTH the price! To the author of this Kindle edition: I see you have formatted a few other public domain books, including the KJV. If you're looking for suggestions about what to do next, please consider formatting the "Lives of the Saints" by Fr. Alban Butler. At the risk of sounding too enthusiastic, you've acquired a very happy customer!