Brian Books

Author Brian Kaufman has woven a tight mystery around a sympathetic protagonist. Daniel Bain, a down-on-his-luck skip tracer, gets a bizarre job offer from a wealthy old geezer. "Find Jesus Christ," states Mordecai Ryan, "and I'll pay you a hundred thousand dollars." Daniel struggles with the case while recovering from personal problems that haunt him. His demons include a humorous battle with weight loss, a tender friendship with a seductive internet porn star, and bouts with his slightly dysfunctional family. Add dry wit, a dash of murder, and a touch of the biblical--you've got a well-written, page-turning thriller as well as a great read.

One of the joys of doing this column is discovering books published by small outfits that rarely get wide distribution. Such is the case with this novel by Colorado resident, Brian Kaufman. It is also one of those books difficult to slap a genre label on. It is part mystery, part thriller with a good dose of philosophical debate thrown in for good measure.

When widower Daniel Bain is hired by reclusive millionaire, Mordecai Ryan, to find Jesus, he at first thinks the dying old man is orchestrating some sick-twisted hoax at his expense. Bain is a skip-tracer who locates missing people, primarily through the use of computers and the internet. He's as far from being a private investigator as a counter clerk is being the head of a bank. Still, the obscene amount of money Ryan dangles under his nose is too much to resist and he reluctantly takes the job.

From that point on Bain's life is systematically turned upside as he experiences one bizarre event after another like a cosmic chain of good and bad luck interwoven together to confuse the hell out of him. Years earlier Bain's wife had run off to be with another man. She took their baby daughter with her and then both of them died when their car hit a patch of winter ice and flipped off the road. Bain's grief became so mixed up with his anger at her betrayal, he's become an emotional zombie and cynic.

Now his search for Mordecai Ryan's Jesus leads him to a nineteen year girl who sells pornographic tapes and pictures of herself over the internet. Like Bain, she too is a wounded soul and they instantly find a kinship together. Neither is aware of just how strong that bond is a stalker threatens the girl's life and Bain finds himself cast in the role of her protector. All the while he finds himself getting closer and closer to find Ryan's
lost Messiah.

Kaufman writes with courage in tackling spiritual themes. He clearly recognizes the human condition for its broken state, yet through Bain he refuses to accept the tired old platitudes that come from thousand year old gospel. Yet the book's gruesome climax hints at a begrudging acceptance of the greatest mystery of them all, love. This is a well written book with weighty themes. If you aren't afraid to think about the big questions, then this is a book you should seek out and read. Whether in the end, you agree or disagree with Daniel Bain, you won't easily forget him.

While Mr. Kaufman's newest novel has Christian aspects to the story, I did not find it to be a novel about Christianity. I am not a Christian, even if I do find some of their purported values to mine as well. If this had been a novel of Christianity, I probably would not have read it. No, for me, this was a novel of self exploration, of psychological and philosophical juggling, dealing with the darker side of man's nature. That nature can be destructive, as is portrayed by the antagonist, it can be self doubt as portrayed by our protagonist or it can be a loss of faith, exemplified elsewhere in the story as an on going theme. This is a story of a hero going on with his life, not appearing as a hero to anyone, not even himself. These heros exist in our daily lives, such as fathers going to jobs they hate, so that they can provide for their families.

Mr. Kaufman's writing is layered with meaning, most of which is lost on me, if not pointed out. The structure of this story is precise, with every scene and chapter having a specific purpose and meaning, and having an evil twin elsewhere in the book.

The ending is, in my opinion, what makes this story worth reading. If you are tired of being spoon fed a plot with a conclusion you can see from the second chapter, then read this book. It'll leave you wanting more from Kaufman, even if he does jump genre, keeping us all guessing what is next from him.
Aaron Spriggs

The Apocalypse Parable: A Conspiracy Of Weeds by Brian Kaufman is an original, engaging and complex suspense novel depicting the life of a wealthy man, Mordecai Ryan and his pursuit of Jesus Christ the services of Daniel Bain, a small-time private investigator for missing persons. Readers will be enthralled as Bain's pursuit of Christ leads him through a twisting and evermore intricate plot involving Hitler, discovering rewrites of the Gospel, and many more modern and estranging studies. The Apocalypse Parable is very strongly recommended to all readers of fantasy-fiction, particularly those inclined to the Christian faith.

Where would Jesus go if he were to return today? Which broadcast station would he choose to spread his word? What would the censors say? Haven't people been interpreting the words of Jesus since the moment he spoke them? Chances are, if he did come back, he might have some editing to do to the Bible; chances are, people would ignore him and assume he was just a nutcase. It is what people assume about others that really touches home in Brian Kaufman's book, "The Apocalypse Parable."

Daniel Bain is a skip-tracer. He finds people who are in debt, have run away from life and responsibilities, or are hiding for other various reasons. When Mordecai Ryan, an eccentric wealthy invalid, hires him to find Jesus, Bain assumes at first that he is being taken for a fool, or else his client is one. He turns the research onto Mordecai himself, trying to find out just a bit more information. What turns up is very interesting. The research uncovers a connection to Hitler, a lot of importing business, and a church that stands empty. Getting deeper into it, Bain uncovers a connection that has to be more than coincidence; in fact, if he believed in such things, he might think it were divine intervention.

During the investigation, we are given a personal glimpse at the character who is Daniel Bain. Readers see his personal life and along with it, a parallel plot that is full of suspense and interest. Being a skip tracer he is able to track down a pretty young thing whom he has met at a questionable site on the internet, and arrives near her home just in time to save her from another, more sinister, stalker. The two have an instant connection and will end up learning a good deal from each other. Also in the story are Daniel's sister and her not-so-nice life partner, his terrible cook of a mother, and his best friend who also happens to be the priest at his seldom-visited church. Through it all, people make assumptions and learn from the repercussions of doing so.

The book is very well written, and is impossible to put down. Just when you think you've got things figured out, think again. With interesting and original twists, author Brian Kaufman will capture your attention and leave you with a satisfied understanding of his presented points. Something to think about, and a great tale!
Review by Heather Froeschl

I'm getting my Doctor of Ministry degree in preaching, and so I've read lots of books about giving sermons through the years. This is one of the best. Dozens of scholars have written articles divided up into different categories (style, delivery, preparation, application, illustration, introductions, conclusions). Timothy Warren has several articles defending the topical expository sermon. He is strongly committed to expository preaching, but he doesn't necessarily feel that this always has to be from just one passage per Sunday.

Haddon Robinson has a convicting article warning about plagiarism, and he also has a great article about planning your sermons ahead of time.

Rick Warren has a good article about purpose driven titles for your sermons. The title should clearly communicate what the message is about without giving too much away.

John Ortberg discusses the use of illustrations, and there are also articles about outlining and discovering the main point of the scripture passage you are preaching on (frequently referred to as "The Big Idea").

Don Sunukjian has some contributions to the book, and one article warns about using too much alliteration, which is often the result of the preacher forcing his outline on the text.

You could read this book straight through, or you could pick out the articles that interest you at that moment in time. Many of these articles were first made available only to those who had an online membership to a certain website. But now these sterling pieces have been compiled into this thick volume. The book also comes with an mp3 cd. Highly recommended.

This is an A-1, first class book. Very inspiring and worth every bit you pay for it. We need better preachers and this book will for sure help you be one!

this was an excellent book on preaching. it taught me so many things. i do not agree with everything, but most of it was excellent. i would strongly encourage you to buy it.

I recently received a copy of The Art and Craft of Biblical Preaching: A Comprehensive Resource for Today's Communicators, and have been browsing through it from time to time. Whether you're a full- or part-time preacher or even if you spend any time at all speaking in front of others as a Christian attempting to bring others to a better understanding of the Bible, or to bring them to a point of decision, you need this book on your shelf. It is the finest compendium of useful preaching/exhortation articles I have ever seen.

I've only just started to browse through this tome, but every article I've glanced at or read has excited me, filled me with ideas on how to improve my preaching and prep-time, and given me already useful techniques to make my delivery more effective. Many of the articles were repurposed from timeless Leaderhip journal articles, some were culled from the Preaching Today website's "Skill Builder" articles, but there are a ton of new articles written fresh just for this project.

About the two editors: Haddon Robinson is considered by many to be one of the finest preachers alive today. I've always enjoyed the interviews and teaching I've heard from Robinson, and he has a clear, fatherly style of teaching. The blurb from Preaching Today Audio says, about him:

"Dr. Robinson has been named one of the 12 most effective preachers in the English-speaking world. His text, Biblical Preaching: The Development and Delivery of Expository Messages, is used in more than 100 seminaries and Bible colleges in North America. He is also host of Discover the Word which airs on 400 radio stations across the world."

Craig Brian Larson is pastor of Lake Shore Church (Assembly of God) in downtown Chicago, and is the managing editor of Preaching Today. He's well-known in the world of sermon illustrations, having compiled several illustration compendiums (see Movie-Based Illustrations for Preaching and Teaching, volumes one and two, for example), and coauthored a guide for helping preachers add journalistic impact to their messages (see Preaching that Connects).

If you preach or teach at all, you really owe it to your listeners to pick up this book and refer to it from time to time. It will be a resource you refer to for years, and it will challenge you at every turn. This book is truly a gift to the Church!

Rich.

This is a thoroughly exhaustive resource in the toolbag of the pastor. The multitude of author's writing on a variety of topics from one end of the field of homiletics to another adds a fresh view to bringing a Holy Word for God to affect the "Fallen Human Condition."

The reviewer had to read the book for a seminary preaching class. It was somewhat tedious reading this long book cover to cover. This is expected when there is such a vast number of author writing, but this cross-over isn't necessarily bad. It does give weight to techniques that are shown to be pragmatic. None of the authors are claiming that "their-way-is-the-best." They are merely showing what's worked for them and what is tried and true. They are passing their perspective on...because everyone has something to learn.

So from the lay minister to the scholar, this is a worthy resource to be in your homiletical arsenal.

Many (many!) years ago I read this story; years later, I saw the film "Smoke" with Harvey Keitel and William Hurt. I was so deeply influenced by both that I suggested that the Great Books discussion group I was in should read this story for our December reading (never mind that half of us are Jewish).

However, back in the day, the story was only a figment of my fevered imagination, if you searched the libraries or the internet (young then). The story had been published only once, in the New York Times, and then dropped to the bottom of the sea. Meanwhile, director Wang had gotten in touch with Auster and they had agreed to make it into a film. So it HAD to exist somewhere, right?

After digging into the internet, I located a gentleman who had published a limited edition, William Drenttel. He had published it in a small run of very nicely bound books for a lot of money, or a REALLY limited edition for well over $100.

I wrote (humbly) to him, and here is what he said:

Lori, happy to send you the text for the limited use of your reading group.
I've attached it as a Word file, as well as posted it below. Hope you have a great evening on 1/19. Best, Bill Drenttel


Published by William Drenttel New York & The Delos Press
December 1992
Printed by Libranus Press, England, in an edition of 450
Story Þrst published in The New York Times on December 25, 1990.


Auggie Wren¹s Christmas Story
Paul Auster
Illustration by Brian Cronin

So that is how my book group was able to discuss "Auggie Wren" years before this book became an affordable reality.

Of course I think it is a wonderful and complex story about growth, redemption, sadness, joy, pain, and how to move on with one's life...instruction of a sort.

Auster is brilliant, as always.

Auggie Wren's Christmas Story by Paul Auster is one of those short books which is fun to read either before, during or even after the holidays.

Paul Auster, the highly regarded author, is asked to write an editorial piece which will appear on Christmas morning in the NY Times. At first Mr. Auster doesn't even want to write the article fearing he has nothing to say, but then he's worn down and agrees to do this. One thing the author knows is he doesn't want to write
anything sentimental. Readers should think of his thoughts as a non Yes Virginia, There is a Santa Claus. When in fact he sits down to write the article, though, he has trouble actually write this unsentimental tale. Days go by and he has nothing written on paper to show for his efforts.

Fearing he may never write this article, Mr. Auster mentions his problem one day to the man who owns a small newspaper and cigar store in his neighborhood. The man, Auggie Wren promises to tell him a Christmas story if he treats him to lunch. And so over lunch the author listens to a tale which is both sentimental and poignant which asks what does a wallet, a blind woman and a camera have to do with each other. More important than the answer which these questions raise are the more important ones like what is true, what is lying and did any or all of these events really ever happen.

This is a warm and somewhat sentimental story, despite what the author hoped for, about the spirit of the holidays in the tradition of O. Henry's Gift of the Magi. Consider buying this title for next Christmas. This book is just perfect as a holiday gift and sure to be a keeper in the future.

Auggie Wren runs a store where you can buy tobacco and magazines. One day a youth steels a few paperbacks and Augggie Wren runs after him. The young man loses his wallet and Auggie stops to pick it up. He looks in the wallet and finds the address
of what turns out to be the grandmother of our young delinquent. ( I can't tell anymore without spoiling the plot ).

Film director Wayne Wang was seduced by this little story and it was he who persuaded Paul Auster to write the script for "Smoke". (1994).

The present edition of "Auggie Wren's Christmas Story" has two parts. The first part is a kind of introduction and uses a scene from the film where Auggie shows his photo collection to Paul. Even in this introduction reality and fiction are intertwined to become one and the same.(And isn't this the true value of literature, to erase the borderline between dreams and every day reality ?).
The second part is the story like it was told by Harvey Keitel in "Smoke".
At the end Paul Auster says: " As long as there's one person to believe it, there's no story that can't be true."

Auster succeeded in what he attempted to accomplish: to create an unsentimental Christmas story. The story is surprisingly effective, in that the reader is not entirely certain of what direction the plot is going. This slim book -- little more than an elongated article -- is pure, forced action. One event closely follows another. What I enjoyed about it is the series of moral dilemmas offered up to the reader. Should Auggie have turned in the thief? Was it a wise choice to visit the thief's home? Should he have stayed with the grandmother? And should he have taken the camera that he found in the bathroom? If he had not done any of these actions, then we would not have today the collection of Auggie Wren's a-picture-a-day. Does the end justify the means? I read this book to my two sons and had a very interesting discussion regarding the choices that Auggie made. This book, in combination with Auster's "I Thought My Father Was God," makes for worthwhile discussions around small, fascinating stories. The beautiful illustrations by the artist ISOL merit close study.

In this slim book, Paul Auster authors a new version of a Christmas Story. The book recounts a very interesting story about what Christmas means to so many. It represents a time of hopefullness and wishes that people have and how they may come true.

The obvious similarity between Auster's story and O. Henry's "Gift of the Magi" involves the giving of gifts, one person to another, but not in the regular way we give gifts at Christmas. In this book, by a simple twist of fate, Auggie Wren, the protagonist comes upon a wallet, that was dropped. For a long time, Auggie just keeps the wallet, but eventually he attempts to give it back to its owner.

Upon arrival at the owner's house, it turns out, that he is not there at the time. However, the grandmother of the wallet owner is there. And she is blind. Yet, she allows herself to accept the visit and perhaps the spirit of Christmas by allowing Auggie to represent her grandson, as the Grandmother to believe that he is who she wishes him to be. Likewise, Auggie allows himself to accept a gift that is given in a very unusual manner.

While Auggie believes that even blind, the women knew he was not her grandson, yet she allows Auggie to act as the grandson, because that is her most personal wish at that time. In return for this favor, the grandmother in turn gives unknowingly, a gift to Auggie. Auggie though is bothered by the manner in which he acquired the gift and goes back to return it. When he arrives, the Grandmother no longer is resident at the apartment.

What actually happens to her, Auster never reveals. However, the concept of the story is tightly bound to the giving of gifts, one to another, and with the gifts, there is both sorrow and love. As each gives what they have, and each sacrifices what they have, in order to please the other.

Such is the case in this book as well. The book is highly recommemded for those who have a familiarity with "The Gift of the Magi" and also with "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens. A good familiarity with those stories enhances the reader's understanding of Auster's point.

Because of the books short text, it can be read in lest than 30 minutes, but it is strongly advised that the reader reread the book immediately after finishing it the first time, in order to get the full flavor and impact of Auster's version of Christmas.

This book made the new bankruptcy code changes actually easy to understand. It saved my life and my grade!

I am an experienced lawyer and regularly read books (usually one-volume treatises) outside my practice area. Comprehensive books on bankruptcy are hard to find, and I purchased Blum's for lack of any alternative. The book is well organized, clearly written, and contains a lot of information. Even the attempts at humor are generally successful.

To offer some unsolicited advice to law students, I don't recommend using this or any supplementary texts in your courses. Stick with the casebook and other materials the instructor assigns. It may seem as if this requires more effort to learn the subject than is warranted, but you won't regret it. You'll never have the time once you start working to reread and think about cases that you have while in school. That 3 years may seem like a long time, but if you take it seriously you will benefit significantly throughout your career. It is surprising how often I encounter exprienced lawyers who are ignorant of matters I learned in law school (now long past) and still remember.

The author did a good job organizing the information in this book.

I would also recommend Surviving Financial Disasters by Tiffany R. Love which comes with a CD ROM and actual sample court documents from someone who has been there and done that. Also tells what to expect after you filed your papers.

This is a great supplement that covers the 2005 changes in the code. Watch out for other supplements that are still owrking off of the pre-2005 amendments.

If you are taking an introductory course in Bankruptcy, get a copy of this book - And use it! If your course also includes Chapter 11 Reorganizations, I would also recommend that you get a copy of Chapter Chapter 11 Business Reorganizations: For Business Leaders, Accountants And Lawyers. They are useful before exams. But I recommend getting them at the start of the semester.

As a sport & fitness professional working with children's fitness I recommend Eule's book for anybody looking to support their child's athletic endeavors. Eule has identified the true role of youth sports and importance of a fun athletic environment. Children can't help but be inspired by this book- regardless of athletic skill level, every child who has read this book has been positively influenced both on and off the court.

As a father of eight, I have read over 50 books written for a kids' audience devoted to the topic of basketball. Without a doubt, this book by Mr. Eule redefines the genre. It simultaneously managed to engross my twin five year-olds while also entertaining my sixteen year-old daughter. It's written clearly and passionately with a clear emphasis on Fun! Fun! I am already excitedly waiting for Mr. Eule's next publication! Awesome! Awesome!

Eule has captured the magic of the game for young people.
Along with the colorful pictures, Eule's clear, simple explanations are buoyed by his obvious love of the sport.
I'd recommend this for any child who has ever dreamed to play with the pros.

After I bought him Mr. Eule's book, my eight year old nephew became a better basketball player and person within three days. I would recommend this well-written and illustrated book for kids of all ages! Also, before reading this book my nephew was self-conscious about wearing tank tops without a t-shirt underneath. But after seeing the happy basketball player on the cover of this book, the Youngster wears only tank tops for all functions! I can't wait for the next edition!

This book was just given to my 9 year old son, and he loves it. I would highly reccomend this book to anyone with a kid who loves basketball.

This biography of the generally forgotten acting dynasty, the Bennetts, is a tour de force. While father Richard Bennett is long forgotten, daughters Constance and Joan Bennett are still accessible through a number of classic films ("What Price Hollywood" and "Topper" for Constance and "Scarlet Street" and "The Woman in the Window" for Joan, among others).

The author has captured the personalities of each Bennett. So many biographers fall into the trap of providing superficial detail around a chronology of the subject's life, but not so Mr Kellow. He has managed to bring alive the autocratic Richard Bennett and his 3 daughters, the troubled alcoholic Barbara, the mercurial, opportunistic Constance and the refined but passionate Joan. The book moves between each of their lives and Kellow benefited from the co-operation of many surviving members of the family. He has also created a vivid sense of the period in which the story is evolving from the girls rebellious behaviour in the roaring twenties, through career highs for Constance in Hollywood in the thirties and Joan's emergence as a femme fatale in the forties to both actresses move to the stage in the fifties as film work dried up. They were much married and all the details about their stormy relationships are vividly recreated, not in a gossipy tone but creating portraits of intelligent woman who were not afraid to take risks, particularly Constance.

This is a very clever well written book.

At long last, someone has tackled the fascinating story of the Bennett family. The result was well worth the wait. Kellow's book is enthralling, nicely balanced, objective, and well-researched. Anyone interested in Joan or Constance Bennett or even in film history will enjoy this book.

For anyone interested in Hollywood's golden era, this book is a must! Far superior than The Bennett Playbill which was published in the 1970's with Joan and a ghost writer, this book is exhaustively researched and provides a much fuller picture of father Richard and daughters Constance, Joan and the ill fated Barbara. Fans of the tv show Dark Shadows will remember Joan, but probably a lot fewer remember Constance who was one of the top film stars in the early 30's only to be washed up in films by the end of the decade. Joan had a much longer film career, though it took awhile for hers to catch fire. All the marriages, scandals and career highs and lows are covered in depth and Kellow provides a critical evalution of their many film roles. The narrative does skip back and forth between family members, but Kellow does a good job keeping the narrative flowing and after a few chapters the reader will adjust to it. The Bennetts may not have ranked as high as the Barrymores, but they rank right up there with other Hollywood dynasties.

Brian Kellow has done a wonderful job in telling the personal and professional stories of the acting Bennett Sisters and their father theatrical legend Richard Bennett. This book really fills a gap and is so well done that it would be difficult to imagine a better book about the Bennetts unless there were individual books on Constance, Joan, Barbara, and Richard Bennett. I would have liked a listing of the various plays that particularly Constance Bennett starred in. This versatile and glamorous star appeared in the Cole Porter musical "Silk Stockings" and this was not discussed in the excellent text. This is a small complaint and I think this book is a must for fans of Joan and Constance Bennett and for great books about show business. There are also some wonderful photographs and that alone should induce the reader to buy this book!

This well researched and presented book is a fine addition to anyone's library of books about Classic Hollywood or about the Broadway stage. The Bennett family were hard-working and talented performers, extremely famous in their day, but not as well-remembered today as they deserve. Their stories are full of human drama and Brian Kellow tells them in detail, without any wiff of the snide, nasty edge far too many show business books have today. He's honest about the faults of his subjects, yet compassionate about their humanity.

This was given to me as a gift and I kept coming back to it. It includes so many different fields, authors and styles of writing that you can't get bored. Almost every essay is excellent, and if you get tired of one the next one will be amazing. One minute it's string theory and the next it's linguistics and the next biology. It's hard to keep up with all that's going on in the science community but this is a great way to hear some of the stories and learn about a broad range of great science. Thoughtful but hardly too technical.

I liked this collection so much that I bought the 2005 and 2004 collections. 2005 was not as interesting to me, a lot more focused on policy and less thrilling as a whole, though some gems in there. 2004 was somewhere between the quality of 2006 and 2005. A different guest editor each year... looking forward to the next one. Gave 2006 to a friend as a must-read. The most interesting work I've read in some time. Thanks Mr Green and the many authors.

I read the best american series every year, in fact, with science and nature writing, I've been with since the beginning. And you can always count on BASNW to be good. It's always at the layman's level, so it can be understood and it is a great way for us nonacademics and nonscientist to keep up with the latest advances in science and technology. This year's edition is edited by physicist Brian Greene, which almost worried me, because I prefer life and earth science essays over the harder sciences and technology. But Greene is a popular science writer and he collects a great group of essays, few of which covered his area of expertise.

Every year I eagerly anticipate the publication of another edition of this fine series - and its competitor, the "Best of American Science Writing." Series Editor Tim Folger painstakingly selected 100 articles from American periodicals early this year, all of which attest to the intrigue of science. Sometimes the scientific method is seen to be, as he puts it, "an intensely human endeavor, with nobility and self-sacrifice commingling with self-doubt, ambition, swollen egos, and sometimes outright fraud...Even though the intellectual brawls never stop, charlatans are invariably exposed...[yielding] an understanding of reality impossible to achieve by any other means."

This year's guest editor, physicist Brian Greene, selected the final 25 essays. He suggests that when science writing is done well, it lowers the historical barriers between science and the humanities: "Like master chefs, the best science writers pare away all but the most succulent material, trimming details essential to the researcher that would only be a distraction to the reader."

Natalie Angier: A lesson on the cultural and linguistic analysis of swearing - an underestimated form of anger management. Swearing is present in every culture - men consistently cursing more than women "unless said women are in a sorority."

Drake Bennett: The story of Alexander Shulgin, an American chemist who has spent his life legally synthesizing hundreds of psychedelic compounds. On the door of his lab is a sign that reads, "This is a research facility that is known to and authorized by the Contra Costa County Sheriff's Office, all San Francisco DEA Personnel, and the State and Federal EPA Authorities," with phone numbers. He posted the sign after the second raid (the agencies later apologized).

Larry Cahill: Within the past ten years, research has revealed an astonishing array of structural, chemical, and functional variations between the brains of males and females - many of them existing at birth. The assumption that researchers can study one sex and apply findings to both is no longer an option.

Michael Chorost: This article is one of my favorites. The author was born almost deaf and didn't learn to talk until he got hearing aids at age three and a half. At age 15 he somehow got hooked on the "Bolero," a famous orchestral piece known for its dynamic crescendos. From that time on, he judged each new hearing aid by listening to his favorite rendition of "Bolero." Then for unexplained reasons he became completely deaf at age 38. The story of how a cochlear implant brought back his hearing ranges through engineering, computer science, physics, ear physiology, and the continued use of "Bolero."

Daniel Dennett: Explains eloquently how no intelligent-design hypothesis has even been ventured as a rival explanation for evolution. "You haven't explained everything yet" is not a competing hypothesis.

Frans de Waal: Humans descended from group-living, highly social primates. Like them, we are highly motivated to fit in with those we live and work with. He calls "Behavioral economics" an evolutionary explanation for why we interact as we do - embracing the golden rule not accidentally, but as a result of our history as co-operative apes.

David Dobbs: Nothing reveals errors like an autopsy. The author quotes studies showing that when an autopsy was done, 25% - 40% of the time the cause of death was not correctly diagnosed. Unfortunately, forces stacking up against the autopsy - regulatory, economic, and cultural - overcome attempts to revive it.

Mark Dowie: Another of my favorites. A small group of leaders representing indigenous tribes from all over the world have a pneumonic for their biggest enemy - BINGO. This stands for Big International Nongovernmental Conservation Organizations. Conservation International, The Nature Conservancy, World Wildlife Fund, the Wildlife Conservation Society, and others - are well-funded and have been paying poor governments to establish national parks as fast as they can. Indigenous people always live in these locations, are almost always left out of the negotiations, and are almost always robbed of their land and their culture. This lamentable outcome is frequently barely discernable behind a smoke screen of slick promotion.

John Hockenberry: A fascinating survey of US soldiers in Iraq whose hobby is blogging about the war. Nearly all of the contributing bloggers say the current system of limited restrictions can't possibly last. The policies are currently under Pentagon review.

John Horgan: Remember the dramatic 1963 photograph depicting Jose Delgado calmly standing in the path of a charging bull? With a hand-held transmitter, Delgado stopped the bull by stimulating electrodes in key areas of the bull's brain. This is the dynamic story of his field in the 60's and its rebirth in the 21st century.

Gordon Kane: Another favorite of mine, but qualified* - the physics-impaired reader may have trouble. This is a concise summary of the particles of the Standard Model and how the Higgs field gives them mass - complete with teasers about dark matter, string theory, and the "Theory of Everything."

That's a paragraph about each of the first 11 essays out of 25. To keep this review from being any longer, I'll do only one more - another favorite:

Paul Raffaele - Primitive tribes that barely know we exist live deep in the Amazon, not far removed from the stone age. Sydney Possuelo represents the Brazilian government in protecting these indigenous people and their land from the "whites" (anyone else), and has made first contact with seven different tribes. The author spends a dangerous week with Possuelo visiting the Korubo tribe, otherwise known as the headbashers. Possuelo's advise: "Be on your guard at all times when we're with them, because they're unpredictable and very violent."

The remaining 13 essays are just as invigorating as these. Some readers will say there's too much fluff - others will side-step the hard science, but any critical thinker from any field will find many articles they love. Top Notch, as usual.

I was struck by something Brian Greene says in the intro to this
enjoyable book: more or less, that it's generally acceptable for
people with degrees in the humanities not to know anything about science;
and that that's not good for us as a scientifically competitive country.

My three favorite articles: "Dr. Ecstasy", "His Brain, Her Brain",
and "Remembering Francis Crick", by Oliver Sacks. That last looks like a
sedate title, but this coverage of the correspondence between
Sacks and Crick, who discovered the double-helix of DNA, is not only a great adventure; but if you haven't read Oliver Sacks before, it is a good,
broad overview of what his writing is about. I've read some Sacks books, but this made me want to read all the rest.

This is a series I particularly look forward to every year for the thought-provoking glimpses it provides into the role science and technology play in our daily lives and future prospects, from the downside of increasing longevity and the dangers of decreasing autopsies to the evolutionary role of swearing and the scary consequences of indiscriminate antibiotics use.

John Hockenberry has a particularly fascinating piece on military blogs - how the immediacy of the technology affects our view of war and how little the brass knows about how to handle it. What makes this article so riveting is his ability to capture the diverse personalities and strong views of the bloggers and the technology's tantalizing implications for the future.

There are portraits of quirky people doing unusual things, like Kevin Krajick's profile of Arthur Aufderheide who dissects mummies and preserves their tissues for research that can tell us much about how they lived.

And Drake Bennett's visit with "Dr. Ecstasy," Alexander Shulgin, a man who has devoted his life to the study of hallucinogenics. The inventor of Ecstasy (among many other illegal substances), and a man of 4,000 psychedelic experiences, Shulgin was on the government payroll until he decided to publish a how-to book.

The eloquent Oliver Sacks remembers DNA's Francis Crick and Crick's influence on his own career, and John Horgan profiles neuroscientist and brain chip pioneer Jose Delgado whose impressive achievements have been intentionally forgotten.

Since Greene is a physicist ("The Elegant Universe") there are precise and elegant (that is, comprehensible) pieces on time travel (Dennis Overbye), gravity (Juan Maldacena) mass (Gordon Kane), and NASA's X-ray Observatory (Robert Kunzig). There are also articles on Earthquake prediction (Kevin Krajick), indigenous people displaced by conservationists (Mark Dowie), and animal deal making (Frans B.M. De Waal).

One of the book's most moving and fascinating articles is Michael Chorost's essay on his cochlear implant and his pursuit of music. Mostly deaf from birth, he became profoundly deaf as an adult. While the implant allowed him to hear speech, his enjoyment of Ravel's "Bolero," had gone. Working to regain this pleasure he initiates us into mysteries of deafness, the technology of cochlear implants and the nature of music.

Many pieces will spur readers to further reading, depending on their interests, and all are elegantly written and of wide appeal. If you read only one "Best of" book this year, make it this one.

-- Portsmouth Herald

I love all the Jonathan Scott Big Cat Series Books. This is an excellent book for anyone who loves big cats. Plenty of info on habitat, biology, and great pictures!

I was watching big cat diary from the TV last week, and found out this program is just exactly the book I hv ordered from Amazon in Oct. I am exciting when receive this book. It has many beautiful cheetahs pictures. It worths to be one of your collection.

Being my favourite big cat doco, I had to buy the books to compliment Big Cat Diary.
I was not disappointed. The photos in this Leopard book are entirely unique and often include extremely rare images.
The writers/film makers have experienced some amazing things over their years of filming but most of it isn't covered in the TV series. This book goes into a lot more detail of the lives of certain Leopards and you really become attached to them by name (can be sad when you discover one has died).

Spectacular photos and highly engaging stories make this a winner.

Love the book and the fast service. I love all of the books that Jonathan Scott has written. I just wish in the US that we could still see the Big Cat Diary Series.

I love this book! Leopards are my # 4 favorite animals of all time topped only by jaguars, tigers, and of course lions. I think they are both cool and beautiful. I loved all the ones in here, most definitely the female ones. They were the most cool and beautiful. The only bad part was any of them getting hurt or killed, but other than that this book rocked! The cubs were cute, also. And boy, did I ever learn a lot about lions and hyenas as well as leopards. Like I said, this is a terrific book. I own it at home and will own it until my dying day. I highly reccomend it to anyone over the age of 12. Man, oh man, Amazon.com, you keep up making books like this.

We find ourselves reaching for this book on a regular basis so we keep it on the coffee table where its easy to find. When you spot an interesting bird out your window you can quickly find it and read all about it. This would be really great to take with you on outdoor adventures too.

What a beautiful, colorful and descriptive study book for the birds of Washington state! Using it I identified three birds I was having trouble finding using a North American Bird Field Guide. The Oregon Junco for one! Seems they come this far to the eastern borders of Washington. This book is a treasure and a learning tool for any new birder in the Pacific Northwest.

We have bird feeders in our garden. They attract a large variety of birds and this terrific book identifies them for us. It also contains interesting information on the varying habits etc. as well as beautiful pictures of the different varietys.

It is very user friendly.

I moved to Washington a few months ago. Locating target birds has become a challenge in this new environment. The comprehensive continent-wide guides (sibley, peterson, golden, NG, etc...) are all wonderful, but are too vague when it comes to locating birds in a state with extremely diverse habitats (such as Washington!) This book has state range maps that are excellent, and I've found very accurate. Whereas the comprehensive guides give you mostly vital statistics about each bird, this guide has a different approach: There is usually a few interesting (and some obscure)facts about each bird. The artwork is nice, but if you're a visual learner, won't suffice for learning field marks so you'll have to supplement this book with another guide that has more artwork/photos. I've been birding for seven years now, and I find these new Lone Pine guides a breath of fresh air. They are easy to page through quickly, locally-oriented, and oddly enough have a really pleasant smell! They've also helped me become a better birder. I've used the Lone Pine Birds of Northern California guide as well while living in the SF Bay Area a couple years ago. I'd recommend this book for beginners and advanced birders. They really cover the bases that the other guides don't.

We purchased this book as a supplement to our homeschool library prior to relocating from Georgia to Washington. We have not been disappointed.

My seven-year-old daughter has become a budding naturalist, thanks in part to these books. I can typically find this book on her nightstand - accompanied by a flashlight for late night reading!

The book is slim but hefty, with lovely sketches of both male and female examples of each bird. Color-coded maps show where the bird species can be found (and when) and a very thourough introduction gives information on the best birding sites, materials to gather prior to "birding" and excellent resources for further study.

My daughter would prefer photographs of the birds, but these are exceptionally beautiful drawings. This is in contrast to the smaller, less expensive "Golden Guides."

HIGHLY recommended.

_Why'd I buy it?_
I've been looking for material to spruce up the religious aspect of my campaign. Clerics and Paladins seems to be rife with role playing opportunity and adventure hooks, and yet the material I've seen so far was lacking (like WotC: Defenders of the Faith). I was especially interested in the "Holy Warrior" new core class and in how a "complete description of each god's church" would look like. I was not disappointed...in fact, I was very pleasantly surprised.

_Overview_
This book can be used in many different ways: it's a complete patheon and mythology of gods, it's a "pick-and-choose" box of common gods plus detailed churches, and it's a "do-it-yerself" tool-kit for making the gods of your campaign world relevant to your players. It succeeds at all of these things...and if you think about it, that's pretty amazing.

The book prose is tight and entertaining. Rule changes are clearly spelled out, and are repeated where relevant. The game mechanics seem simple and balanced (although I've not yet play-tested it myself). (And a further note to all of those crunch-lovers out there, like me: There are game mechanics in here where there needs to be.) Overall, a very well written and insightful book.

_The Complete Pantheon and Mythology_
I loved reading this section -- it reminded me of Greek, Norse, and Native American myth. It's good story, and it tempts me to include it, lock, stock, and barrel, into my home brew campaign. And it's probably pliable enough for me to tweak it here and there and then do just that.

_Plug n' Play gods and their churches_
What I'm more likely to do, however, is take the gods and their churches out and plug them in where they fit into my existing home-brew. The book gives quite a bit of help for this sort of thing. The churches are well laid out, and yet they can be self-contained; that is, the churches don't wholy depend on the mythology presented in the book. Useful, that.

Kudos, BTW, on the structure of the book with respect to churches, clerics, "paladins", and new PrC. It's all wrapped up in a seamless whole, so that the relationships between the clerics, "paladins" (holy warriors, a superior concept, IMO), and the secret orders (PrCs) is believable and very playable. Makes me (almost!) want to play a goody-two-shoes Holy Warrior.

_Cosmography Tool-kit (or "how the gods, the universe's creation, and the Planes of Existence fit together")_
The thing this book is best at, IMO, is how it opens up Myth and the Gods for you to tinker with. Paired with the excellent WotC offering, Manual of the Planes, I'm not sure there's anything else you need to come up with a compelling and logical cosmography. How the universe is created => how the gods act => how their churches are structured => how PC clerics et al. act. It's all there, so that if the PC asks....well, he'll get at least one answer....
******************************************
_Conclusion_

Production: 5 - Excellent. Fonts, headers, and spacing is very good. Layout and organization is excellent. I was very happy with both the table of Contents and the index. Note to publishers: this is how it should be done for all products!

Art: 4 - Good. The art work quality is good, most of the time, and the art work is very topical to the text on the page.

Game Mechanics: 5 - Excellent. The new core class (Holy Warrior) is expecially good.

"Cool" Factor: 5- Excellent. Even the name is good (shout "Book of the Righteous!" a couple o' times...you'll get what I mean). The mythology and churches are especially inspiring.

Overall: 5 - Excellent. If you are a DM with a home-brew world, you're a fool for not having this book. It's that good.

This book is without a doubt one of the best game books to come out in some time. It has totaly changed the way my group has played the game in reguards to Clerics.

This is a very nice book, containing everything a priest or holy warrior could want. I especially like the addition of the holy warrior as a base class, not limiting it to just paladins. Highly recommended!

Wow, what a book. It gives you everything you need to put the affiars of your Celestial world in order. It had a great story of creation, it explains all you need to know for each god. The Great church what a great idea, put together properly. I got through about the 1st 20 pages and realized this is "The Pantheon" for the new D20 fantasy genre. It explains the how and why of things.. Why is this god the god of Valor, how did he become this. The best part of all, is all the stuff the PCs should know, but we don't take the time to create. How the church interacts with the world, and the other churches; it's holy days and why, The Gods' view of the church. With over 300 pages of information it is worth every penny. What a resource. I have been a DM for 20 +years and this book is a must have for every GM. The Bar has been raised and Green Ronin Publishing is the new standard. Great Job Guys.

>>"If you own Defenders of the Faith, Deities and Demigods, and/or Faiths and Pantheons you are wasting your money on this. Way too generic to be useful. NOT the best money I've spent... "

On the contrary, this book renders all of those others completely redundant. What's more, this book is far, far more interesting to read, and far, far easier to incorporate piecemeal, or whole into any campaign. Of every RP book on my shelf--and I probably have a few hundred--this is by far the best money I have ever spent on an RP product as far as useability. Ignore the nay-sayer. He doesn't know what he's talking about.

Absolutely, and completely, well worth the price. See the lengthy review below for more info on the book.