Buck Books

Deaf Peddler-Confessions of an Inside Man
By Dennis S. Buck

When I read this story I couldn't help to think of the old movie "Rebel without a cause", for that is what on the surface appears to be. Although I could never understand his motivation or choice. Yet as a Deaf person I could understand the pressure and rejection he felt from the hearing society. Of the one steady job he did have, he wasn't given the opportunity for training like his peers. When he did work with someone who understood his Sign Language they corrected him and although he had the education he was still held back. Maybe this was his reason to take to the street out of frustration thereby acting out the hearing worlds perception of Deaf people.
But in the end the wayward son comes home to the Deaf Community and realizes that Deaf people are not single entities like hearing people. That Deaf people are not whole who live outside of our community. When Deaf people strive, we strive for all Deaf people.
This is not the best book I have ever read, nor is it the worst but I am glad he came home and that his book is now added to Deaf Culture Literature, and for that reason I give this book 5 stars.

For anyone interested in Deaf culture--or, for that matter, anyone who has encountered peddlers selling those ABC cards in airports--this book is an excellent choice. Buck gives a perspective most of us would not otherwise have the opportunity to hear. He discusses his reasons for choosing this way of life, and also describes in detail what his days were like. I highly recommend the book.

This is astory about family, hardship, and the beauty/horror of China. It is moving, beautiful, and easy to read. Enjoy!!

i've only read the first book of the trilogy..and i find it very interesting and true. because i am asian and this is the first time and first book that i've seen written by a non asian person who describe it so well and so exact (not to be rude to the other author, but some of them does not really really understand our culture and some of their writings are completly wrong) i am searching for the second and the third which i am hoping to read it ASAP..and i know that i would like it

A pretty typical thriller with a rather non-typical topic (AIDS). I thought it was a good read with some surprising twists. Parts of it reminded me of Stephen King's The Stand, except it's much shorter and slightly less take over the worldish. However the ending did leave me with a couple of questions left unanswered...

This is a peculiar medical thriller with the usual twists, surprises, sex, violence, and the most bizarre road trip you're likely take inside the cover of a book. But most interesting is that the book uses the AIDS epidemic as the vehicle for a thriller. It's one of the first (if not the first) to put the disease into the "normal" part of life . . . including fiction. The ending flipped me out because it's not much like most thrillers.

I love this series of scripture books. The pictures are beautiful and the stories are well selected and age appropriate for small children. Sturdy board books.

My children use these to write talks for primary. The stories are clear and easy to understand. Great to find them on Amazon!

I prefer the first book in the series, but this is still a good board book for children. The first one is in a good chronological order. This book skips a lot more and tells other important stories. It's good for young children. Both of our children really enjoy the book and ask every night to read more from it. (They are ages 4 and 6). I would recommend it.

Paradise and Paradigm, by Dr. Christopher Buck, is possibly one of the most comprehensive and well documented academic works on religion available today. Dr. Buck's nearly exhaustive research on the subject, coupled with new insights and fascinating new ideas combine to present a must read for any serious student of religion. Even if your interests and studies don't involve Persian Christianity or the Baha'i Faith, Dr. Buck presents new Paradigms that provide conceptual tools that no academic student of religions can do without.

The only thing that keeps this work from earning five stars is that it is truly for the Academic. Lay readers will struggle through terms and ideas that will be unfamiliar to those not versed in the lexicon of academic studies of religion.

This book concentrates on the design and philosophy behind SAP's R/3 system. As such, it has a more theoretical than practical focus, but it is well written and very useful to understanding how the system works. This is the English edition of a book originally published in German.

The book is very good if you are interested in the technology behind client server systems. The first half of the book deals with this. In the second half SAP is explained, the technology and the business applications. Altogether a good introduction for a technical oriented person into the world of client server technology, especially the SAP r3 client server approach and possibilties for business solutions.

For someone who has tried to read the Bible several times but been unsuccessful at keeping it up due to the conplexity of the language used, this book was golden. In it, Pearl S Buck retells the bible stories in an interesting and informative way. I have read the book through over several days and could not wait until evening when I would have time to get back to the stories. I was also able to retain the stories and their meanings. It would be a great for primer for pre-teen kids and, of course, adults.

Pearl Buck's Story Bible is in the same league with Jesse Lyman Hurlbut's and Elsie Egermeier's books (Bible stories rewritten with children in mind.) Of the three, Buck's was written most recently. Buck's rendition of the Bible stories is intelligent, detailed, and reverent. One father of four told me this was the best book he's ever read!

Parents should purchase at least one Bible story book for their family library, and this is an excellent choice.

This is a classic novel about the human condition. The innocence and tentativeness of unproven youth; the rise and fall of an individual's fortunes (monetary and otherwise); the boredom and potential for dissolution that middle age can bring; and finally the nodding, smiling dotage at the end of a life. All the seven deadly sins as well as the seven virtues are illustrated in this novel and it achieves greatness through its beautiful and tragic depiction of each. This book transcends cultures as we can all relate to the feelings these characters experienced.

My book club recently read this and while several members had read it previously, some, including me, had not. It was an absolute delight and I wish I had picked it up sooner.

If I had to make any criticism of the book, it would be that the end was a bit abrupt after all that I felt I had invested in the main character of Wang Lung.

This book is required for freshman in our high school. Easy reading and a classic!

I read this book as part of my summer reading for American Literature class (high school). I enjoyed this book and plan to read the remaining two books in the trilogy. I would recommend this book for high school aged students+. This is a book for people that have read and liked works such as Cry, the Beloved Country and When Things Fall Apart. I learned a lot about that time period, Chinese culture and as American's, the basic freedoms we take for granted. Below is the paper I wrote as part of my assignment for the class.

COMPARE AND CONTRAST: THE GOOD EARTH

Pearl S. Buck, author of the Nobel Prize-winning book, The Good Earth, was an American writer born in West Virginia to Southern Presbyterian missionaries to China. She wrote The Good Earth to unveil to Americans pre-revolutionary Chinese culture and religion. The story begins to unfold when Wang Lung, a poor village farmer, goes to purchase his future wife, a slave, from the House of Whang. Through the life of the fictional character Wang Lung, the Earth, women, and wealth are all major themes in his life, being portrayed differently at different times.
For some, the Earth is what makes their life worthwhile, but for others, it's just something they live on and get food from. But for all, it can provide and it can withhold. For Wang Lung, it gave prosperity to him, but it also took away livelihood from him. The Earth can have relationships. Wang Lung knew the Earth. It was what he loved, even after he became wealthy. But for the House of Whang, the rich people of Wang Lung's village, they didn't have a care for it; they only cared about money that came from it.
The treatment of women in pre-revolutionary China is so completely different from how women are treated now, it's shocking that it was roughly a century ago. In the story of Wang Lung's life, it is obvious that women were usually treated more as property instead of a husband/wife relationship. Also, the desire for women was a lust satisfier and a male offspring supplier. Women's beauty and family status were more important than character. If she was not pretty or from a wealthy family, she generally didn't have a promising future in securing a husband.
Wealth was a fate that determined your friends, how you conducted your every day routine, what you would eat, and influenced your desire for more material things. As Wang Lung became more materially wealthy, he began to resemble Old Lord Whang, who used to be the head of the House of Whang. Wealth corrupted his family. First, it caused Wang Lung to become discontented with his first wife. Wealth made his elder son have a sense of arrogance and conceit. Additionally, Wang Lung's wicked uncle tormented his life and also caused Wang Lung's offspring to lose respect for their elders, land, and religious foundation. Wealth can be good, depending on how you use it, but it can always be bad.
The Good Earth, the first in a trilogy, through the characters, the readers will find many similarities between the treatment of women, the influence of wealth, and the view of the Earth. But there are also many differences, such as a the expectation of a wife and the characters view of the Earth and the influence of wealth. There is still much that can be learned by comparing and contrasting the themes found in The Good Earth.

This book does exactly what the author intended: It creates a picture of the Chinese culture right before the arrival of the revolution, providing a view of a world quite different from our own. I have read several of the negative reviews, and my advice is, if you cannot for one moment let go of your attitude that the only right way is the way we do it now--the Christian American way--then you're going to have trouble with this book. Also, if you think that all writing has to be at the level of modern pulp fiction, then you also will be sadly disappointed. But if you read the book for what it is, a picture of a particular place and time, then this is an excellent book to develop a certain sense of understanding of the Chinese culture, particularly the agrarian part of it. These are not good people or bad people; they are just people of a particular ethnicity, with their own set of motivations and traditions. They are going to do things we don't like or understand, but then that is the purpose of a book like this--to make us think not in terms of right and wrong but in terms of why.

Really liked this book, but hated how Wang Lung and his family treated his oldest daughter. She is never given a name. She's only referred to as "The Fool". The family leaves her to play alone, outside, with her piece of cloth. Rarely do they check up on her. And, if nobody thinks about it she is sometimes left outdoors. She's treated this way just because she is mentally challenged. It's bad enough that Wang and the other does this. But, it's really hurtful, that O-lan, the mother, does this. You would think that maternal instinct would cause her to feel differently. However, it doesn't.

It's almost criminal that this book is so popular. Anyone who is a true admirer of Dickens' work would toss his or her copy in the trash as I did mine. Admittedly, it's one of his shorter works. I believe this is why it's so widely read in schools (and, yes, I can understand a sentimental attachment on the part of otherwise intelligent readers who read the book at a young age). There are so many excellent novels by Dickens (Martin Chuzzelwitt, Barnaby Rudge, Bleak House, Our Mutual Friend, the unfinished Mystery of Edwin Drood, etc.) that I felt betrayed by Mr. Dickens when I finally read "A Tale of Two Cities" and realized what a profoundly bad piece of writing it is. As with any prolific writer, not everything this genius set to paper is worth reading. Pass up "A Tale of Two Cities", suck it up and grab one of his longer, far better works. You'll be surprised just how quickly 799 pages can fly by (as consolation, his chapters are generally very short!). It's well worth the effort. While you're at it, if you're still in the mood for Victorian melodrama, pick up something by Dickens' buddy, Wilkie Collins. His "Moonstone" is famous, but he wrote several other highly entertaining works as well.

Dickens does a superb job in conveying how insensitivity of careless brute can meet pitiless vengence.

This classic story by Charles Dickens makes many allusions to history during the French Revolution. The characters are laden with emotion, and the book makes for excellent reading. The only peeves of mine are that the language is a bit difficult for some, and several of the characters don't show any personality; in their dialogue, you can't make out what they are feeling, specifically Charles Darnay and Sydney Carton.

Was Charles Dickens a poet? Conversely, perhaps his structure and style are no longer suited to today's rushed lifestyle, as some reviewers lament. I believe Dickens is one of the most magnificent story tellers ever to put pen to paper, portraying vivid landscapes that are often as vital as his characters in affecting events. Dickens, like Shakespeare, could never be told in TV length segments, or using today's best seller pablum.

'A Tale of Two Cities' is one of my favorite books by one of my favorite authors. The prose is lyrical, the story telling awe inspiring, the tale simply unforgettable. It left a mark on my soul.

I remember my first reading of Shakespeare, and stumbling hopelessly through the pentameter and 'backward' structure. Thankfully a wonderful metamorphosis occurred and somewhere along the way I realized my mind had assimilated both meter and verse, and my unconscious brain was giddy with the beauty of it. I experience Dickens the same way. His unfamiliar style blends into the rich tapestry of his work, adding a depth and clarity that is difficult to imagine without it. And like Shakespeare, we are most assuredly on a journey of wondrous descriptive and emotional insight.

'A Tale of Two Cities' is a definitive description of the French Revolution, although it is a work of fiction. Dickens intricately weaves these momentous, earth shattering events through the lives of a small chorus of individuals, all hoping to cope with a world threatening to devour them at any moment. His strength in describing how each acts within such tumultuous times creates a fantastic story all its own. But Dickens is only getting started. In his own ingeniously inevitable style, he compels events and characters together in a climax of towering suspense. With a courageous act of human spirit our true hero takes center stage as he equals the desperate call that only rebellion and war can advance.

Through it all, Dickens remains himself; constructing beautifully intricate foundations, dropping seemingly innocuous small details in the midst of sub chapters which at the time are much more important, slowly composing the story with the sense of a trickle of a stream leading to the river and the rapids and the waterfall, gaining an urgency and crescendo until the sound and the fury of the story becomes a palpable beating in one's chest. Is the book a love story? Is it historical fiction? Is it the tale of rabid crowds taking over noble causes? Is it man vs. nature, or a story of a man who rises to his destiny? Yes, it is.

"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."

With arguably the most famous first sentence of a book in all of literature, I shall leave you with one more thought if you are not sure if you like Dickens. Or perhaps you already tried to read him and felt unconnected; but perhaps you were too young then, or too busy, or distracted. And perhaps you're ready now, to leave everything behind, to curl up in a chair, preferably with a warm fire and a glass of wine, and rediscover him. Read `A Tale of Two Cities' when you are ready, with an open heart. Dickens will inspire you to song and tears. For I assure you, that somewhere along the way, you will make a start, or you will stand up and stretch, and you will realize that he has somehow profoundly altered your view, and that you will never really be quite the same again. And you will cherish him, as I do, and the beauty with which he writes, and his faith, win or lose, of the human spirit to endure all else.

is really a wonderful book, and I enjoyed it immensely. So immensely, in fact, that I immediately searched for an appropriate edition that would do the book justice, and I am glad to announce that I have found it. If you are to purchase a copy of this great book, get the one that is published by Vintage Classics. Not only does this book have a wonderful, colored illustration of a certain character (readers who have read this book know who), the cover and pages are thick and durable, not to mention acid-free (many publishers like Penguins do not use acid-free paper). Also, the binding is thick and very sturdy, and the font is of a comfortable size, unlike the mass-paperback editions. This book can make a wonderful gift to someone special, or a wonderful gift to oneself. In either case, it is best to keep in mind that this edition is really the best to get of this tale.

Goodkind has created a very real, intricate and interesting world and after finishing the third book, I'm totally hooked. I love the main characters, but just as good is the huge cast of sub-characters and sub plots that all seem to come together in a well planned and exciting way. Unlike many series of this sort, you're never sure where the story is going to take you and how it will turn out. And as each book comes to an end, you know there are many unresolved and interesting branches the book can lead to.

Other than the three main characters, you also never know who is going to get pulled down to the dark side or who is already on the dark side and we just don't know it yet.

There is an amazing variety of various and sundry animals and ghosts with crazy uncontrollable powers, there is a huge base of interesting background and history from characters long since dead, there are hidden vaults and old libraries, prophesies, and very real and evil twisting and torturing of the good to get them to move to the evil side.

I love these books and have ordered the next three. A whole new world is opening to me and in some ways, it is even better than the sacred trilogy. It is definitely more adult and certainly not as beautiful and poetic, but the story telling is gripping.

Goodkind open our eyes to the true nature of evil!

I've read many a book, but none reach me like this series has. The entire Sword of Truth series, sets a pretty high standard for epic fantasy, let along a good book series. Early books had some places that were a bit clunky, (it was the authors first books if I'm not mistaken), but don't we ALL start out something a bit green, and then hone our skills?

The more books by Goodkind you read, you clearly see the excellent progress he's made in his craft. Goodkind does what so few fantasy authors do, that being have true heroes, heroes who use reason, heroes who do not become the enemy or become cowards and most important, heroes that stand up for what is honorable and true. And heroes that do not sacrifice their values to accomplish their goals.


You will not see nasty words, vulgarity, incest (unlike some series), porno, or any kind of depravity in the name of literature. This series touches on some violence and deals with real world issues like war and the true horrors of war. It exposes evil for what it is and it shows that mankind can rise up and be truly noble!

While I see there are a few people who want to vote poorly and post negative comments, it is your right. But when you post such acerbic comments, it is easy to see that you simply think it funny. Like anyone would take your petty comments as anything but jealousy and immaturity.

While this series has its merits, it has its problems as well. No book will have everything to speak to every person.

This series starts in easy, and right away you grasp the wonderful story telling ability of Goodkind, and as you go on, it delves deeper into the nature of man. This series explores deep human themes and exposes the fallacy of collectivism.

This book has a striking romantic aspect as well as plenty of heart wrenching twists. While I personally love the philosophy, I can see why some may not. That (IOHP), is why we have arena such as this, so that we can offer up likes and dislikes. Most who do that have offered up an HONEST review. The rest simply are offering up vitriol, because they fear this series for the good that it does and they fear it because they feel it a threat to their favorite author.

BE HONEST, give the book its due.

Support your book stores! Support the Publishing world, and for goodness sake buy a book so we can drive these whacked out "save the rain forest" freaks crazy by cutting down a few more trees!

Read this book, but then do yourself a favor and stop
and save yourself from a hard fall.
The ending, 'Confessor', most awful ending I ever read in my life!
And worse, bad writing!!!
And worse because many of his books in this series were so awesome.
I really loved most of his books.But...I just read finished the last book last night.I got it from the library. I'm thanking God I didn't buy it.When I got it from the library, I noticed the spine was all broken and torn. I was intending to fix it...but now I realize it must have been because the last reader threw it against the wall.
I was tempted to as well, but didn't.
It was as monotonous and amateurish. Where the heck was his editor??
I should have listened and not read the book and just made up my own ending.

The one thing I think I hated the most was the way he ended it the whole boring slog.... It was COMPLETELY obnoxious.

His theme in most of the books was to protesting religious zealotry. Those in the Order where following some misguided notion that they were killing in the name of the creator and lived under very communistic conditions.

As I read Confessor the preaching and reminding got so irritating I ended up simply skipping pages and pages of 'reminders'.

Through out the series there seemed to be an acknowledged basic natural(and good) desire to connect with the Creator and the spiritual connection in all of us. And that there was indeed an afterlife and he seemed to be pointing out that those killing in the name of the Creator are wrong.

Also, Goodkind spends many chapters explaining the 'theology' of his fantasy world....how magic works and is connected with the underworld etc etc..But then he completely trashes it AND connects his fantasy world to our real world!!! The whole effect was disconcerting and took away from the 'fairy tale ending'...because you know in this ending the Creator is dead, or consigned to some corner and told not to bother anyone ever again.

In the end Richard destroys the entire afterlife for those banished to the non magic world, where he conveniently alludes to those formally of the Order are now the 'building churches'!!! What?)
Not mosques, not temples, not circles...but CHURCHES! (and not just any Churches, but CATHOLIC churches because they use medals and 'talismans'. What?)

Excuse me? Is Terry Goodkind really this ignorant, or is he just another patsy for the secular order that is encroaching with the culture of death? I think both.

Does anyone want a link to pictures of happy young jihadists brandishing the hands of Christians and other kaffirs they collected for allah???? Those of the Order where more like militant islam and the Saracens of history and militant communism and nazi's rolled up in one!! Knowing that as of this minute while I write this thousands of Christians are being executed for 'blasphemy' and oppressed with well documented sharia dhimmi laws in muslim countries or as in communist China's case, having children ripped from their wombs because they value life and would want to welcome a new child among them,...but it's against the godless of laws of china. Or what about the mass graves of Orthodox and catholic priests and nuns from Communist Russia and it's former satellites??

What an insult to those really truly have and are suffering on behalf of the values of life and liberty.

Ugh. I was completely irritated that I even read the series to begin with. I will not bother to watch the TV series.

My advice is save yourself aggravation and money and skip this series.
It's a garden path to nowhere even if slavish anti-catholicism and Nietzschism doesn't bother you, the ending is so horrifically badly written, disjointing and boring after so many really good books, you come out of it feeling like you were slapped...hard.

M~

...but already the Kahlan/Richard storyline is growing really, really, tired. Richard overreacts...Richard apologizes...Kahlan cries and swears she will never betray Richard...Richard and Kahlan talk about getting married and sharing Kahlan's big, big bed...Richard somehow thwarts the advances of every hot woman known to mankind but listens to Kahlan prattle on and on about some nonsense...other characters become angry then apologize...someone else cries...someone else apologizes for crying...someone else apologizes for yelling...Richard theorizes about this, that and the other thing....Richard talks about how he lacks control over the magic...We get the 15,000th recapitulation of the history of the Confessors, the Wizards, the Palace of Prophets, the Keeper, Darken Rahl... we read the 1,000,000th inartfully drafted prophecy which mysteriously works itself out by way of some tortured plot twist...Richard befriends more enemies and inexplicably converts them into longtime friends...the Mord Sith prance around in red leather grabbing their Agiel and make cute comments but do little else...Richard grinds his teeth for the umpteenth time and grabs the Sword of Truth and lets the rage flow through him...just send me to the Keeper already!

Wizard's Fourth Rule: Read George RR Martin

Blood of the Fold picks up right where Stone of Tears left off. It opens with Richard taking control in Aydindril after having executed the Council. However, one of the lands in the Midland alliance, Nicobarese, is resistant to the new order Richard proposes, being controlled by the Blood of the Fold. Meanwhile, the scattered remnants of the Sisters of the Dark in the Old World are plotting Richard's demise.

Heavier on political intrigue than the first two installments, Blood of the Fold is about Richard's first steps into becoming Lord Rahl, ruler of D'Hara, and how he handles being a leader, and not just a simple woods guide or even the Seeker of Truth.

Favorite characters like Gratch and Nathan Rahl play fun parts here, and some new characters like Lunetta, Tobias Brogan, and Emporer Jagang (who will become the arch-villain of the series) are all fascinating.

The biggest problem is that after what we learned about the Blood of the Fold in the previous book, the drama one might expect from a book specifically about them falls short of expectations. But those expectations were awfully high, and it would almost be unfair to Mr. Goodkind to demand that every book in his series top its predecessors, when he started out so spectacularly.

The audio book version is well-narrated (probably my favorite naration in the series, as some of the others are a bit dry). The reader's deep, resonating voice suits the story very well.