Brandon Books

With "New Proclamation Year B, 2006 Easter through Pentecost" I have completed the 6 books of the 3 year lectionary. The contributors change with each issue which gives each book its' own character. Some editors offer illuminating insight and ideas while others tend to state the obvious. It has been, these past three years, the first source I consult when in need of directional guidence for sermon preparation. In theory, I now have all the 6 books I need but I went ahead and ordered the two books for the now-current Year C. I think I will enjoy have two different perspectives to chose from. Although this particular volume left me wanting at times, the series has enough excellence to lead me to continue using it as the best resource for interpreting the Word.

This entire series is one based on excellence and innovation. One cannot go wrong with any of the texts: older editions for ideas and lectionary focus, and the current editions for ongoing sermon and service plans, studies and liturgy. The authors are to be commended for the diligence they have shown in being faithful to the needs of churches to worship in a style of fullness and effectiveness when they created this wonderful resource.

I love the book lists included with this journal. I was able to go through the lists and mark which books I want to read and add others. I also like the opportunity to write down the title of a book and do a small review on it. Great way for a voracious reader to stay organized!

This is a fantastic book - more of a reading companion - by Rachelle Knight (goodreads author too!). It's essentially a journal to keep track of your books, a real life version of goodreads, but with much more to it. It's loaded with lists, like National Book Award winners (which is great since I have a collection for my daughters of signed first edition NBA winners growing), Pulitzer, Man Booker, etc.... And it allows you to check off whether you've read them or not, want to read, etc and gives you space for handwritten notes on each one.

My two favorite features so far are the "Biblio Pages", which allow you to keep all your notes on a book in one place (including words to look up later (yes, we ALL still run into those), favorite passages/quotes, and any comments or notes; my second favorite is the "Loaner Lists" where you can keep track of all the books you've borrowed or lent out.

For those of us who have too much going on to remember all this sort of stuff, I highly recommend this book. Although certainly good for mature readers, I also think it could be very useful for a junior high / high schooler who is starting to seriously enjoy reading literature --it helps to jot down thoughts while reading and do so in an organized way. Those class papers will be a lot easier a few weeks from now ....

This is a great resource for moving beyond introductory Biblical Greek. I highly recommend it for student who want to simply sit and reat the GNT. It is helpful as a general study tool to help you memorize more vocabulary and then to have open in front of you to give you the less frequently occurring words.

This book was used in an Intermediate Greek class (2nd year) for Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary.

It has some things that are similar to Bruce Metzger's "Lexical Aids to New Testament Greek," but somewhat updated. Metzger's Lexical Aids seems to be for the Revised Standard Version, whereas this reflects the UBS-4/NA-27 editions, so it has slightly different numbers of word occurrences than Metzger's Lexical Aids. We did use both books, but I found this one much more helpful at times. Metzger is more concise and lists cognates and helpful hints for memorization.

What is most helpful about this book is that it splits up word lists into manageable lists, about 40-50 words per list. It goes down to 10x word occurrences in the GNT (like Metzger). With verbs, what is also very useful is that it lists all the occurrences that lexicons (like Dr. Mounce's Analytical Lexicon) also have: Present Active Indicative, Future Active Indicative, Perfect Active Indicative, Aorist Active Indicative, Aorist Passive Indicative, and Future Passive Indicative, if they exist in the Greek New Testament.

There are some good diagrams, like a verb-chart for omega-class verbs (e.g., luw or luo), as well as preposition diagrams. Not every word is translated, but some of the more uncommon words in the Greek New Testament are translated, verse by verse (similar to Zerwick's and Grosvenor's "A Grammatical Analysis of the Greek New Testament").

Think of this book as an updated for NA-27/UBS-4 version of Metzger, with better diagrams and charts, plus a chopped-at-the-knees version of Zerwick and Grosvenor. Metzger still has better hints and helps for memorizing the words, and Zerwick and Grosvenor completely comprehensive in parsing New Testament words, verse-by-verse.

My husband was reading this on a recent vacation and it got left behind in the final packing. We got home and bought it again! If this topic interests you it's certainly worth buying once.

What a wonderful exploration of America's prehistory. William Brandon examines the findings and controversies of original Americans from the beginning through their ultimate engulfing by the Old World immigrants

His approach is to focus a traveling spotlight on each of the critical cultures through the ages in an effort to offer information in a way to encourage the reader to gain an understanding of the importance and context of successive groups.

Interspersed amongst this unfolding are three "Through the Looking Glass" chapters wherein he considers the relevance of what has transpired and considers the viewpoints of scholars in conflict.

His use of "soft" footnotes--extensive references in a back section, unnumbered, thereby avoiding the unwelcome interruption numbered notes can cause--is a stroke of genius, allowing the focused reader a smooth journey through his narrative.

My only criticism: his economy of language--never using two words when one will do--which makes the reading slow, yet rich. I liken the experience to taking a taste of concentrate then having to add the water (thinking) to complete the process.

For readers who prefer every idea be expressed verbally, this may be a challenge, but to those who like to read with their rational gift engaged, this will be a heartening experience.

I wish he had lived to read my praise in person.

Brandon Toropov has concocted a fun and illuminating guide to all of William Shakespeare's plays that admits to the huge gap between the Bard's language and our own, and bridges it nicely. Each play is summarized and analyzed, plot points outlined, and main quotes isolated for easy identification. In addition, each play contains its own "theme" for the accompanying illustrations: Laurel & Hardy, Woody Allen, and others help new modern readers to quickly identify what it's all about, while long-time Shakespeare fans should no doubt get some delightful chuckles out of the creative way the material has been presented. I was sad to see this is out of print, until I found the website for the publishers...

Well, I bought this book 'cause I wanted to learn some about Shakespeare and his creations. You can find a lot of funny cartons that will help you to understand better this genius.This book is an easy way to discover Shakespeare's play and probaly thoghts.

My girlfriend bought this for me and I thought I was getting a Catherine Cookson clone BUT NO! I made the mistake of starting it late at night and couldn't put it down. The main character, Bernie, is so intriguing, with her wry sense of humour and the way she is so utterly unsentimental. She doesn't dwell on all the difficult things which happen - and they do happen: murder, rape, prostitution - but pulls herself up and goes back into the ring.And all the time she's trying to understand her place in the world, what made her into the woman she is, how can she best relate to the world. She finds threads and connections in the actions and expectations of the characters she meets and the book ends in a strange but satisfying circle. There must be a sequel. I want to know what happens to Jake and Dierdre and if Jack grows up to know the truth! Anyone know why I never heard of this book, never saw a newspaper review or anything. Thank goodness for Amazon!

I enjoyed this book very much. I read it in a matter of days which is exceptional for me. The story is told by Bernie and is about her life growing up in Ireland and then moving to England. She was unloved by everyone in her family, except for one grandmother. Her relationship with her sister Deirdre is what this book focuses on the most. Their relationship is one-sided with Bernie being concerned and Deirdre despising her sister. Deirdre was lavished with love from friends and family, but after marrying and moving to England, she becomes involved in strange activities with a strange crowd. Bernie finally comes into her own and has learned a lot on her journey.

This is the best book that you can get to supplement the Sixth Edition Chemistry book. Even though it has only the even answers, a lot of the problems are very similar to the odd problems. Since you have to send a teaching certificate to McGraw McHill to get the full teacher's edition, this is the next best thing.

This manual is a complementary guide to Raymond Chang's Chemistry. It, step by step, illustrates how to solve specific chem problems that are found in the textbook. As a result, a student can learn the process of solving these problems. Furthermore, the manual gives an outline of the different types of problems from the textbook. In addition, tips, tricks, and often shortcuts on solving chem problems are given.

This memoir reads more like a unit history of the Third Alabama than General Battle's memoirs. He does not spend much time talking about himself. Instead, General Battle describes the war as his unit experienced it.

I thought the book was interesting, and easy to read. It is very short, so don't look for too much detailed information. The thing I liked most were the battlefield vinettes that General Battle describes.

I recommend this book for anyone interested in learning more about how the soldiers and leaders of Lee's army viewed the war.

Third Alabama, ed. by Brandon H. Beck is in my opinion one of the most valuable resources for studying the American Civil War.

Cullen A. Battle the author , Col. of the 3rd Alabama and then a brigade commander fought in all of the major engagements of the Army of Northern Virginia from Seven Pines to Appomattox. This book does not only go into detail about the campaigns in which Battle was involved but it also puts them into a proper historical context. With the use of context you are able to learn not only about the role of the 3rd Alabama and Cullen A. Battle, but you are also able to learn the fates of both sides during any of the campaigns covered in the memoir.

The book includes six excellently detailed maps of the positions of the 3rd Alabama in various engagements. The maps also depict surrounding brigades and the Federal opponents that they faced off with. These maps are a very crucial part to this book for they give a visual aid of Battle's memoir.

I think that Beck and his cartographer should be given a great deal of credit for making this memoir available to the Civil War community.

It is definitely a must for everyone to have on their bookshelves!

An extremely carnal read; where passivity is an act of power, and where exercising power is shown to be ultimately an act of surrender. The ambiguity of this terrain, while filled with stereotypes of gender roles (rich English masochists, Glasgow tough men, carnal Priestesses, etc), gives the book an androgyny of feeling. The violations and pleasures cut so thoroughly through the participants' conscious roles and desires, the reader of whatever persuasion and gender is left as penetrated as the characters. Cold yet sweat drenched.

Thongs is not a typical piece of erotica, if one even exists. :) It tells the story of a young Irish girl, growing up in the dirty streets and despised by her parents. An underlying mystical aura about her, you begin to understand that she is "bound" for something very special and unusual where sexuality is concerned. The story does a great job of humanizing the heroine through her many degrading acts, running a gamut of sexual possibilities without surrendering her most prized virginity to the men she encounters. An arousing and well written piece of erotica that might just make you cry as well. As an erotic writer myself, I found it an inspiring read.

-Mistress Twilight Blue

I was impressed that I got 3 story arcs this edition. Trade 9: The Tempest, Trade 10: Cry Wolf and Trade 11: The Deadliest Game.

Being someone who just reads the Hardcovers as they come out rather than reading the single issues I love how there is so much human emotion running through the book now (circa issue 50). It makes the book feel more real.

Although I do have a couple of small problems with the way Brian Vaugh writes.... Wolvie ran off AGAIN! I mean, come on! They way these Ultimate writers keep making him run off makes him look like a spoilt teenager. Even the old X-Men series' used to just ignore the fact he wasn't around or it was explained with a simple "Logan had something else he had to go take care of...".

My other beef is that the story arcs seem too short. Especially when you read the forward by Vaugh and he says he always wanted to do more with certain characters like Sinister. Alright then, DO SOMETHING WITH HIM!!!! Sinister comes and goes faster than any old regular character so far in the Ultimate universe. Totally under-used! Well, I can only hope he comes back. I always loved Sinister and I was willing to give this Ultimate version a go no matter how different he is.

Anyway, the stories themselves are average fillers but they'll do. Worth a buy for sure if you're keeping up with the series.

This title just keeps getting better. Brian K. Vaughan's arrival to the creative team is a godsend. He doesn't re-invent the wheel here, he just tells great stories. I especially enjoy his new take on the old X-men rogue's gallery, like the nut-job Mr. Sinister and the Jabba-esque Mojo.

The artists for all three story-arcs do a great job. Kubert and Peterson nail it. Immonen is little manga-ish for my taste, but it still works.

About the "DVD-style" extras: There's an entertaining foreword by B.K.V., a rough pitch of his first story arc, and a great sketchbook. The extras are much better than the ones found in the last Ult. X-men hardcover.

If you don't mind waiting around for the hardcovers to come out (this one took FOREVER), I would highly recommend this collection. It costs about the same as getting the softcover versions.

Happy reading!