Boniface Books

In this new Church Fathers series, Boniface Ramsey, a Dominican priest, presents selections from some of St Ambrose's key works, all of which are conveniently rendered into comfortable, contemporary English. To begin, Father Ramsey offers us a finely written fifty-page intro that will acquaint readers with all the essentials of Ambrose's life and times; he also hands us helpful chapter headings for every text available with exhaustive footnotes for further aid; and at last, he furnishes a complete critical catalogue of all St Ambrose's works, listing those reasoned to be genuine, doubtful, or utterly spurious. Of St Ambrose's writings, three of his treatises will be discovered here: (1) On Naboth (2) On Virgins and (3) On the Mysteries. One of his exegetical pamphlets is given, The Prologue to the Commentary on Luke, and four of his outstanding Hymns, are available in both the original Latin and the new English. And finally, the famous Letters Concerning the Altar of Victory are present within this compact edition. Yet on top of this, Father Ramsey places a valuable complement to this selection of works--he adds the very reliable account of the Life of St Ambrose written by Paulinus of Milan, a first-hand source for the time and an acquaintance of both Ambrose and Augustine. Now the overall estimate for Father Ramsey's Ambrose is a good one, since it readily makes a portion of the saint's writings accessible to general readers, namely those less likely to encounter Ambrose in the original Latin or in the older rigorous English translations. His choice of Ambrose's oeuvre, however, could certainly have been broadened a bit. It would have been a mark in the positive direction to have seen excerpts from On the Duties of the Clergy or On the Holy Spirit provided as well. But this might have proved too excessive for Father Ramsey's purpose--to display the many attributes of St Ambrose within a "limited number of pages." So in respect of the writings selected here and in the fashion they are presented, it would be an injustice to deem this book anything less than worthy of honor and good repute. For it should be regarded as priority seek and a privilege to possess. (Other volumes printed concern Irenaeus of Lyons and St Maximus the Confessor. Forthcoming volumes in this Church Fathers series will be on Origen and Gregory of Nyssa.)

Cute, fun book. The illustrations are bright & colorful. This book is interactive for young readers; however the pizza topping puzzle pieces that fit into the pages are not interchangable from page to page. It is frustrating for young children and they may require adult help to put the pieces on the correct pages. This book has pieces that could possibly be swallowed by very young children.

The idea of this book is cute. However it is impossible to get the pieces back in the container once the book is opened. I recommend against this book until the holders for the pizza pieces are made larger.

This book is terrific for young beginners. My 4 year old found it entertaining and challenging trying to find the exact piece of topping to fill in the holes. Whether it was the pepperoni pieces, olives, or even the three different types of peppers, all pieces had aslightly different shape and size. My two year old enjoys hearing the story and is really pretty good at finding the pieces too. So, I would recommend this book as educational and entertaining.

I routinely order any titles released by Hokoki Publications as they are usually of exceptional quality and contain new, interesting material for
the Aviation Historian.

This title seriously damages their reputation as it has many typo errors (Example: Page 47 has a nice profile of a Mig 17 which is identified as
being a Mig 21F) and the author's obvious political bias quickly sours the reader's interest.


The serious reader would do well to invest in Osprey Combat Aircraft #25,
"Mig-17 and Mig-19 Units Of The Vietnam War"MiG 17 and MiG 19 Units of the Vietnam War (Osprey Combat Aircraft 25) and the companion title, #29 "Mig-21 Units Of The Vietnam War",MiG-21 Units of the Vietnam War (Osprey Combat Aircraft 29) as these titles present a much more balanced and professional review of this period in history.


I won't be purchasing any more material authored by Mr. Boniface - certainly not any aviation books at this price!

This book provides an interesting, although highly biased, overview of the activities of the North Vientamese People's Air Force from the point of view of the North Vietnamese. There are so many books of the air war over North Vietnam published by American pilots and authors on the subject, but this is the first I've seen written from the viewpoint of the North Vietnamese pilots who flew against the American pilots.

What could have been considered an historically important tome that provides a balanced account of the actions over the North is lost, and spoiled, by the author's obviously strongly anti-American viewpoint. A thrid-person account of the action, the tone of the writing throughout the book is of the kind that one would perhaps expect to find in an anti-American "Yankee Air Pirate" museum in Hanoi.

Throughout the history of air combat, pilots on all sides of air conflicts have been known to exxagerate or misstate the number of aircraft shot down or lost due to the fog of war, high adrenaline of the action, multiple pilots seeing the same action and reporting the incidents as two or more individual actions, records lost over time or not collected at the moment, etc. But author Roger Boniface takes everything that has been told to him by the North Vietnamese at face value. A typical example of this is found on page 73 of this book as follows: "...Major Lodge claims the MiG went down about 50 miles southwest of Ha Noi. The Vietnamese records do not confirm this kill and no pilots were lost in action on that day." There is no qualifying statement here that the records of either side may possibly have been in error, including those of the North Vietnamese. The incident is taken as fact that "....no pilots were lost in action on that day."

There are many, many examples of this kind throughout the entire book. This is not to mention the overall strong feeling upon reading this book that it appears to have been written as an anti-American propaganda piece rather than as a serious, historically-accurate account of the air war over the North as could best be confirmed by the author. There is no attempt to compare any of the NVPAP accounts with those of the American air forces to try to arrive at the truth of really may have happened.

The photographs and aircraft line-drawings in particular throughout the book are excellent, and the access that this author had to the North Vietnamese pilots who flew agains the Americans is truly unprecedented.

This book could have been an extremely important book in the annals of the air war over North Vietnam, contributing a balanced, if opposing view, of many of the air actions that took place. Instead, it's steeped in the wallowing of anti-American sentiment, and, as such, in my opinion, was a big disappointment. I expected much more out of this book than I received in reading it. It's greatest value lies in the superb illustrations of North Vietnamese MiG aircraft in use at the time - and should prove invaluable for the MiG model maker - as well as for the rare photographs of the North Vietnamese pilots who took part in the air war. But it fails miserably in being a truly historical piece as it's overshadowed by its strong and obvious political bent.

Because this book is bound with staples, it is NOT allowed at the Surveying portion of the California State specific Civil PE exam, a fact I discovered today. If you try to take it in, it will be confiscated. While the book itself helped me understand the surveying concepts, it was very disappointing to have it taken away moments before the big test.

Please see my review of the 3-book series in which this book is typically purchased in the reviews of "Surveying Principles for Civil Engineers."

There are many other sources were we can get problems and solutions for surveying. I thought for just 120 problems the price was a bit high.

The problems in this book are not as difficult as those presented on the exam. The exam's problems are much more tedious.

Also, because this book is bound with staples, it is NOT allowed at the Surveying portion of the California State specific Civil PE exam, a fact I discovered today. If you try to take it in, it will be confiscated. While it may not have actually helped me since the test is actually much harder than this, it was very disappointing to have it taken away moments before the big test.

I just tooke the Engineering Survey section of the PE Exam two days ago and used this book as a reference. I DEFINITELY would NOT RECOMMEND this book as a reference. It will not help you prepare for the exam and will give you a false impression of how the exam is going to be like. The practice problems that are on the PE are a thousand times harder then what is in this book. If you want to pass the Engineering Survey section this book will not help you at all! The only use I have for this book now is for toilet paper. If Amazon did not require a minimum star rating of 1 star I would have give it zero.

What starts on an intresting subject slowly evolves into the author's opinions with very little substance to back them up. save your money.

Though he seems to be little remembered today, Wisconsin-born Professor Austin J. App (1902-84) was well-known in his day as a German-American activist, who was roundly accused of being a Nazi apologist and Holocaust denier. This booklet was published in 1967, and is Dr. App's attack on the World War II era American relocation (imprisonment, really) of Japanese-Americans in barbed wire surrounded camps. Dr. App exposes this imprisonment for what it was: an illegal and racist action that, were it examined by the International Military Tribunal at Nuremburg, it would no doubt have been considered a war crime.

However, while reading this polemic, you quickly recognize that this book is more than a simple expose of the American "War Relocation Program." What it is is an attempt to use the American experience to minimize or perhaps justify the Nazi's mass-murder mills that were its concentration camps. In the conclusion, Dr. App suggests that both the Americans and Germans created their camps because they felt their existence threatened, and that America only released its prisoners when its danger passed, whereas Nazi Germany felt more threatened as the war went on and as such descended to murder.

This argument is ridiculously fallacious. In fact, Nazi German turned to mass-murder long before the war turned against it, with its Einsatzgruppen units murdering people en masse, even while its army was marching victoriously through Poland!

No, what is unmistakable is that this booklet is a blatant attempt to justify the Nazi's crimes against humanity. If you are interested in reading about the American internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II, I would recommend a book like Born Free and Equal by Ansel Adams. What I do not recommend is this book - avoid it like the plague!