Clayton Books

This book had a lot of research done to complete it. However it is subjective from a white man's point of view. There were many inaccuracies in the author's personal opinions which show in the writing. It would have been nice if he had shown the curtesy to consult Taoyataduta's blood relatives.A peace chief keeps peace.He was a medicine man.He was at the front of every battle and never fired. Other than a mate,"wives were women of braves who lost their mates and were provided for.The children who came with them were adopted. Blood had nothing to do with it.Read Honoring the Medicine for a factual concept

Gary C. Anderson is an expert on Dakota/Sioux history. His doctoral dissertation, published under the title "Kinsmen of Another Kind," discussed Dakota/White relations from the 17th to the 19th century. In "Through Dakota Eyes," Anderson collected dozens of Indian narratives concerning the 1862 Dakota uprising in Southeastern Minnesota. This book, "Little Crow: Spokesman for the Sioux," finds Anderson delving deep into the archives in order to present a better picture of that enigmatic Dakota chief Taoyateduta, known to history as Little Crow.

The main thesis of Anderson's "Kinsmen of Another Kind" was the importance of kinship ties within the Dakota tribes as well as with outsiders. Traders formed kinship ties with the Dakota because the ties allowed the traders to use the Dakotas to gather furs for them. Dakotas benefited from kinship ties because the ties involved gift giving. Whites had to give gifts to the Dakotas if they wanted to maintain trade and relations. As more and more whites moved into the region, kinship ties slowly disintegrated because whites no longer needed to deal with the Dakotas on an equal basis. It is important to understand these kinship ties when reading "Little Crow," as Anderson again makes these relationships central to his study.

Anderson begins his biographical analysis of Little Crow with an overview of Dakota culture. According to Anderson, it is impossible to understand anything about Little Crow's life and actions unless we understand his cultural underpinnings. Anderson discusses hunting, gift giving, medicine sacks and medicine societies, Dakota religion, and the role of a chief in Dakota society (chiefs, according to Anderson, held little actual power over the warriors; it was the position of speaker that held greater power, something Little Crow found out when he led the Dakota warriors during the 1862 uprising).

Little Crow's life is truly fascinating. Anderson discusses in great depth the role of Little Crow's grandfather and father in their relations with the Americans at Fort Snelling. Little Crow's grandfather and father took an accommodationist stance towards white encroachment on Dakota lands, trying to toe the fine line between keeping the Dakota people happy while dealing with the whites. Anderson argues that Little Crow, despite the bad reputation he earned due to the uprising, was an accommodationist just like his father and grandfather. Time and time again, Little Crow worked with the white Indian agents and soldiers to try and benefit his people. Little Crow was intimately involved in signing several treaties with the government, worked hard to placate the government after the Inkpaduta affair of 1857, and tried to prevent war in 1862. That Little Crow failed in his dealings with the government and failed to stop the uprising is certainly a tragedy, but should not overshadow his attempts to do the right thing for his people. Ultimately, no Dakota leader could have prevented the coming doom.

Little Crow is best known for the destructive war against whites in 1862. Anderson covers the war and its aftermath in succinct detail. Actually, this may be the best account of the war I have read. Anderson discusses Little Crow's failure to successfully organize his warriors, his failure to gain support with mixed-blood and Upper Agency Indians, and his failure to form an Indian alliance during his exile in North Dakota and Canada. When Little Crow returned to Minnesota in 1863, he knew his time was short. Little Crow died from a gunshot wound while picking berries with his son. Little Crow's remains, horribly mutilated by angry whites, ended up on display at the Minnesota Historical Society until the 1970's, when they were finally given a proper burial.

Anderson claims that Little Crow was an opportunist, a scheming sort of politician who always helped out because he wanted to elevate his own position within Dakota society. Anderson cites as evidence newspaper interviews with Little Crow which revealed Little Crow's propensity for pithy statements and his need for constant attention. That Little Crow had a knack for oratory should come as no surprise; he was a chief, and chiefs constantly debated issues with other leaders in the tribe. But is Little Crow a politician? I don't think so, at least not in the way we perceive the term. Is it possible that newspaper and other white accounts of the time framed Little Crow in terms whites understood? After all, documents show that many whites had no real conception about the true nature of Indians in the 19th century. White relations with Indians were based on a fundamental set of assumptions, most of them racist and false. To paint Little Crow as a sort of Huey Long type teeters dangerously close to error. After all, Dakota culture emphasized communitarian values, not the sort of individualistic elevation Anderson says Little Crow sought.

Anderson ends the book with an appendix discussing Little Crow's genealogy. This section is the most difficult part of the book due to the intricate relationships within Indian families and tribes. Terms like "father" and "cousin" do not carry the same connotation in Indian culture as they do in ours. A father's brothers can all be "fathers" to an Indian, and "cousins" are even more convoluted. A genealogical chart of Little Crow's family at the back of the book makes a medieval royal house look like a nuclear family. These genealogies are necessary to back up Anderson's claim that kinship is central to tribal life.

This is a scholarly book that manages to entertain while it teaches. It is definitely a must have for those seeking a deeper understanding of the Dakota tribes, or for those interested in the Minnesota uprising of 1862. If you don't come away with some sense of admiration for Little Crow, despite his failures, you did not read the same book I did.

This is the story of the life and times of Little Crow, the man chosen to speak for the Dakota nation. He was one of the principal men who went to Washington, D.C. working on treaty negotiations for his people.

The Dakota people had suffered treaty abuses for many years, losing vast tracts of land with each treaty. The many treaties made between the Dakota Nation and the United States were soon broken. Money promised by treaty never made it intact to the Dakota people, being siphoned off by greedy merchants and military personnel. The small sums which finally arrived late were never enough to cover the inflated prices set by the traders. Those same traders tricked the Dakota people into signing papers which forced the available monies directly to the traders pockets, bypassing the Dakota people entirely.

Speculators were selling off parcels left and right before the treaties were even signed. With encroachment, the natural dynamics of the land were destroyed, ruining the traditional hunting and gathering places. With no traditional food sources available, the Dakota were forced to buy from the traders.

One fatal year, during the Civil War, the treaty monies were extremely late. The traders would not allow the abundant food in the storehouses to be distributed without payment in hand. The people were starving. Desperate men, worried about their families, took matters into their own hands to liberate the food stored in the warehouses.

The Dakota went to war, up & down the Minnesota river valley forcing the inadequate army through it's paces. Individual warriors went on raids against the local settlers while the majority of the warriors organized themselves into war parties against the army.

Hundreds of Dakota warriors were tricked into surrendering as prisoners of war and imprisoned. Their families were impounded in miserable stockades. Those warriors who could, took their families and fled to Canada and the plains.

The Minnesota settlers demanded that all the warriors be summarily executed. The mock military trial comdemned any man who had participated in the war to death. Of the hundreds of men captured, 38 were hanged in Mankato in a mass execution the day after Christmas. The remaing warriors were imprisoned for up to five years before being released. Their families were shipped out to Crow Creek in South Dakota where they died of starvation and disease.

Little Crow was blamed for starting the War and a price put on his head. He had escaped to Canada, but had come back at a later time with his son. They were picking berries when some settlers saw them and shot Little Crow.

Little Crow was dead. His body was mutilated and his bones were kept in the Minnesota Historical Museum collections for far too many years.

Little Crow, Spokesman For the Sioux is a reissuing of a well-researched biography of the famous Mdewakanton chief from Kaposia (Minnesota), presented complete with period drawings, illustrations, and maps as well as an exhaustive genealogy of Little Crow (Appendix 2) which helps to explain his complicated series of alliances and growth to power. Little Crow, or Ta-o-ya-te-du-ta is presented as a reluctant war leader and a persistent accommodater, politician and tribal spokesman, a position earned partly by blood and good alliances and partly by sacrifice and risk. The Mdewakanton's experience of betrayal, disillusionment, cultural displacement and dissolution in the war of 1862 is central to the life experience of Little Crow. His death is presented as a metaphor for his life and that of his people. In "The Last Campaign" it is asked why Little crow returned to the Minnesota Frontier in September of 1862, where it was almost certain that he would be killed. Though he spoke of obtaining a horse for each of his children, it seems more plausible that he willingly headed towards his death as a deliberate sacrifice, being blamed for the war by both whites and Mdewakanton Sioux.

This is the tragedy of Little Crow's life.

Faithful to the conclusions suggested by his richly varied sources, Anderson presents a realistic yet compassionate portrayal of a great Mdewakanton chief. This is a scholarly work that reads smoothly and gives good tapestry detail. Colored plates of paintings enrich the text.

Nancy Lorraine, Reviewer

I live in the city of Hutchinson, MN in McLeod County. Six miles north of this city is a marker identifying the site where Little Crow was shot by a local farmer. The farmer had no idea who he was shooting at, just that it was an Indian and he would collect a bounty for his scalp.

Our city has a bronze statue of Little Crow looking out over the Crow River near the dam on the Main Street. Up until the time that I read this book, that summed up most of what I knew of Little Crow, the Sioux legend. We choose to drop the name Sioux that was given this people by our own ancestors, the Ojibwe. In our language it means "Snake". Their word for themselves is Dakota. It means "Friend".

Now I feel as though I know him as a man. I know of his character, his integrity, his family, his people. I know a great wrong was done.

At the present time there is a group of people involved in planning and hosting a reconciliation and restitution concerning the events that touched this city in regards to Taoyateduta (Little Crow) and his people. A direct descendant of Taoyateduta (meaning His Red Nation) and a direct descendant of the man who shot him will be part of the event, asking forgiveness of one another. It is never too late to say, "I'm sorry. Will you forgive?"

This book has been instrumental in opening the door to the healing of this ancient wound that is still alive in many hearts.

What are some women willing to do to have a man in their lives? This question is answered with deadly accuracy in The Pleasure of His Company. After teacher Kendra Clayton's friend, Bernie Gibson's, boyfriend is murdered, Kendra helps Bernie out by withholding information during the murder investigation, and soon finds herself playing detective when the police cast an eye in her direction. Matters are further complicated when Kendra finds herself very attracted to the estranged husband of one of the suspects and Bernie reveals an incriminating secret from her past. Toss in humor, and a cast of supporting characters that you will swear you know, and you have a fun, quick read by a very talented newcomer.

How do I describe a good book? One I can't put down. And "The Pleasure of His Company" was one book I could not stop reading! The characters are beyond believable--they're people you know from your own home town. The story was extremely well written and intriguing, and Angela's vivid descriptive detail left me with plenty of time to concentrate on the plot. I'm normally not a mystery fan, but this book makes me want to reconsider. Highly recommended.

I swear the people in this book are members of my family. The author has created a group of people that are down to earth, which is relative, and so very familiar that through the high jinks and meddling, I kept visualizing folks I know. Not to mention that the physical descriptions are so dead on, you have no need to imagine. What you experience is a sense that "my sister in-law" is just like that. Beyond the amazing familiarity the book creates, it is a great page turner. The plot keeps you engaged throughout and provides ample gist for the mill of the detective in all us mystery readers. Which reminds me, do not be fooled by the cover art of this novel. You could mistake cover and title for a romance novel. While this fine mystery may have elements of romance, it is a died in wool, take to the beach, read on the airplane, keep on the bed stand whodunit, with many levels and significant depth and was much enjoyed to my reading pleasure. This is a first effort by a very talented writer. Give this a read and you will be rewarded with a fun and engaging novel. Enjoy the warmth and vibe of this book. Hey, and be warned. You will smile when she starts to story telling and you start to recognizing.

I am not ordinarily a mystery fan, but this one was quite good. The main and supporting characters are believable, the plot doesn't go in weird directions, and I was kept guessing as to the true perpetrator. A good read!

THE PLEASURE OF HIS COMPANY is the debut novel from Angela Henry. It is a captivating mystery that tells the story of Kendra Clayton's search for the truth concerning the murder of her best friend's boyfriend. In this quest for the truth reveals that the deceased was a ladies' man. Kendra is implicated in the police investigation, so she is determined to uncover the killer herself. Be prepared for the Twist Ending!

Henry has done a good job introducing Kendra Clayton to the literary scene. The book is well developed and keeps the reader perplexed until the ending. I look forward to the next installment of a Kendra Clayton mystery.

Reviewed by Robilyn Heath
The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

Normally I don't get emotional about books that are strange to me. This read was different. Clayton is an excellent writer and has a way of pulling at your heat-strings. Touching, moving, and a must read in today's society. Robert M. Appleton, Jr. (author of Running Out Of Road)

Alec Clayton is a master writer. He takes us into places that we would not have experienced without his prose. I read this one fast, and now I realize that I MUST read it again! IT'S just that kind of book: you can't eat all this good food at the table in one seating.

Alec Clayton's Until The Dawn is indeed a wise, wonderful, gritty and honest book. A masterful visual artist himself, Clayton knows how to put pictures in words as well, and along with treating the reader to a moving canvas that encompasses the South of the depression and the sixties, shows us the hardass, cutthroat, coke-snorting art world of New York City in the 1980s. One example will show how good this book is as the reader sees Clayton's sexually-confused artist hero attempting "to find an abstract form that spoke of the faded, Army green aura of alcoholics sleeping on the sidewalks, ashen faces and dull, boozy-pink rims around whitened eyes." This is the real thing. Readers should grab it immediately and enjoy!

The focal point of this amazing first novel is Travis "Red" Warner, the larger-than-life artist who hailed from Tupelo, Mississippi, a town that spawned the other larger-than-life artist, Elvis Presley. Alec Clayton's narrator is Travis' childhood friend Johnny Lewis. He takes us back in time to Mississippi 1919 to introduce us to Travis' grandparents, then his parents and finally tells the story of Travis growing up in Tupelo. Clayton does a masterful job evoking the cadences of speech and the overweening racial and social status bigotry of the place and time. "Red" Warner's nickname could have just as easily come from his burning passion for his art as from his flaming hair color. In 1970s New York art scene, Red became the darling of the critics, and when that fickle adulation ceased, he flamed out big time and disappeared. Johnny Lewis sets out to find him, and what he finds is...well, read it for yourself! There are times when Clayton's prose becomes pure poetry. This is an author with great potential. I look forward to his next!

Alec Clayton's skillfully-written and highly-entertaining first novel will make you very anxious to see what he will write next.

"Until the Dawn" alternates between very different places (primarily Tupelo, Mississippi, and New York City) and times (early to late 20th century), piecing together a fascinating and gritty story of the art world. As an artist, a Southerner, and a former New Yorker, Clayton knows these worlds well. But what makes this book special is the...well...FEROCITY with which it is written. It is incredibly evocative, at times shocking and at times charming and beautiful - and it all rings true.

Clayton attacks our society's foolish and tragic ills (including racism and homophobia) head-on in a richly politically-incorrect manner. It is a wonderful debut novel by a wise new voice in American fiction. As a librarian, I can assure all librarians that many a library patron will be delighted if you add this to your shelves.

Clayton has assembled instructions, guidelines and black/white assembly illustrations to make both plaster and rubber molds. Eye appeal in the form of dashingly colorful photos of ceramics of many accomplished artists is also included. His easy-to-follow instructions and pictures have answered every question I had about making plaster molds. I do have one suggestion: trying to keep your copy clean with a plastic book cover might be a good idea!

This well thought out guide gets right to work explaining in clear, concise steps how to construct various types of clay molds. From basic one-piece molds to complex multi-piece molds, Clayton describes their design, construction, and infinite utility. The book is loaded with excellent color and black and white photographs. Some depict the tools and process. Others show a magnificent sampling of finished products. This guide can take the average pot-throwers hobby to the next level. Makes a pretty decent coffee table book too. --Christopher Bonn Jonnes, author of Wake Up Dead.

I was excited to see this book when it first came out. Read it the same day and had mixed thoughts. It is useful if you have never made a mold... but helpless if you have moderate to high experience. It is visually layed out better than anything else out there... and I keep it on the shelf for student reference. If you teach ceramics, keep it around. If you are seeking to learn mold making...it is just one of many books that you will need to peice together the real information that you will need to be a confident mold maker.

Michael Joy
chicagomoldschool.com

Author Pierce Clayton and Editor Chris Rich have assembled instructions, guidelines and black/white assembly illustrations to make both plaster and rubber molds. Eye appeal in the form of dashingly colorful photos of ceramics of many accomplished artists is also included. His easy-to-follow instructions and pictures have answered every question I had about making plaster molds. I do have one suggestion: trying to keep your copy clean with a plastic book cover might be a good idea!

I've been working on this issue for over a year now, and at a first glance of Cramer's first chapters he would seem to have an iron clad case. Unfortunately, he jumps around alot between 2 and 3 decades to provide support for something that occurred in the eighteenth century. It is like jumping forward to the Iraq War to explain Vietnam. So I would not take too much from his history. He is missing all the Congressional debates on the militia from the Constitution til after the War of 1812, a complete textual analysis of every State's militia and other laws relating to guns, and often employs the plus one theory. Don't get me wrong, I agree that the book does provide as a good reference to find State cases regarding the "right to bear arms." It is just his analysis is often off point. He even admits in this introduction that the book's analysis on the judicial analysis is not concise, complete, or claim to be correct. For Cramer is not a trained legal professional. He often misses the manner by which the judge is proceeding with the decision. If you are a lawyer arguing for a right to own guns, by all means use the arguments. Just make sure you do alot of follow up research because I have found an abundance of primary source material to rebut many of his assertions. Material that does not skip decades at a time from the adotption of States' or US Constitutions.

After a short chapter on the European origins of the right to keep and bear arms, Cramer plunges into a detailed analysis of the legal origins of the Second Amendment, and of the treatment of the right to bear arms in state and federal courts over the following 200 years. One of the particularly important contribution made by Cramer is his detailed analysis of gun control cases in the state courts in the 19th century. Judicial hostility to the right to bear arms, Cramer shows us, is nothing new. Intellectual dishonesty, mistrust of ordinary people, and sometimes outright lying have characterized the approach of much of the judiciary to the right to bear arms since 1820s. Not all state courts have been willing to use illogical legal "reasoning" to undermine the right to arms, but many have. As Cramer explicates, judicial contortions have been especially noticeable in slave-holding states. When legislatures have attempted to degrade (or even destroy entirely) the right to bear arms, too many courts have refused to intervene. Of course Cramer also discusses the many state court decisions from Georgia, Washington, and elsewhere in which courts have struck down laws aimed at gun-owners. Too often, scholars who write about legal topics get trapped in legal arcana, and end up producing a book that can be read only by legal specialists. Cramer, to his great credit, succeeds in making legal cases comprehensible to an ordinary reader, and at the same time treating the legal cases which the subtlety and sophistication that good legal analysis demands. For the Defense of the Themselves and the State is not a breezy read. It is 274 pages of single-spaced, small (but readable) text. This is a serious book. Any lawyer or historian with an interest in the right to arms will find the book fascinating. The book would be an excellent donation to a college library or a law school library. It would also do fine at a public library or a high school library. Review by Dave Kopel, Independence Institute, http://i2i.org

I found Mr. Cramer's book while preparing a Motion to annul New York's anti-pistol law. It is very valuable both as a catalog of applicable cases, and concise analysis thereof. This book should be on every lawyers' bookshelf, on every Court bench. It is also of great value to the civil rights activist seeking to restore the Right to Arms to its proper position alongside the Freedoms of Speech, Press, and Association.

The first review said it all, but wanted to second that one. This book is full of information on gun ownership and the many infrigements that have occured and been ignored.

I bought this book to prepare for my Sub-I in ortho trauma. It is nice because it smaller than the Koval book so it fits easily into the lab coat and does not weigh to much. The draw back is that it has much less information than the Koval book. That being said, it does have all the critical info such as fracture classifications and management, but less background.

This is a good book for everyday use. The format is brief yet helpful. It is a good book for residents,physician assistants and students in the early stages. I use it also to refresh my memory when I encounter something I have not seen in awhile.

Excellent text! I reviewed a friends copy and had to have one for myself. The text is well organized into the various musculoskeletal regions with thorough explinations of common and not so common injuries, including the recommended treatment. The illustrations are easily understood and add a great deal to the effectivness of this book. It is designed to fit into a lab coat pocket, and will make a handy reference.

For the busy orthopaedic surgery and ER residents, this pocket "text" provides pertinent information regarding common fractures with focus on surgical options and relevant anatomy. Though not as detailed as other texts (i.e. Skeletal Trauma by Browner et al., and Hoppenfeld's Surgical Exposures...), the handbook comes close to providing the necessary information for appropriate evaluation and treatment of the patient with an orthopaedic injury. The second edition is a significant improvement over the first and would highly recommend this even for non-surgical physicians in private practice.

I would not recommend this book to someone who is just beginning to explore the science and art of interpreting the Bible. For those who are wanting to start slowly by getting their feet wet, I would suggest Fee and Stuart's "Reading the Bible for all its Worth". They are much better at the initial stage of exploration.

However, when it comes to the practice of interpreting the Bible, McCartney and Clayton do serve a good purpose - it would be for those who are leading Bible studies, seminary students, or pastors who are wanting to hone their skills in this area. Frankly, most of us could use further work and development in this area.

I appreciate that the authors are unabashedly evangelical and committed to a high view of Scripture. Often, the field of interpreting Scripture is littered with so many landmines from higher criticism that it is difficult to navigate without severe difficulty.

Also, this is the first book on interpreting and applying the Bible (that I've encountered) that begins by detailing the importance of our presuppositions. Our often unspoken assumptions about what the Bible is and what it is supposed to do will color how we read and apply it. They do an excellent job of encouraging the reader to examine these assumptions.

I think they did a good job with introducing the reader to the science of Linguistics and the challenges this creates for properly understanding what Scripture is saying. It is a bit technical and detailed, but you should be able to wade through it and catch the main gist, even if Linguistics isn't your favorite study.

My final bit of praise would be regarding their tackling the dubious method of word studies, which is quite prevalent in evangelical circles. (I'm thinking of Beth Moore and Kay Arthur, in particular.) Words are not the basic unit of meaning; this meaning is found in the context that those words appear. Words, in and of themselves, are highly flexible and their meaning needs to be grounded in the sentences in which they appear and the larger context of the paragraph and book.

My primary complaint would be this - after reading "Let the Reader Understand," I was overawed at the high level of complexity required. It seems that an approach like this takes the Bible out of the reader's hands and puts it only in the hands of the biblical expert. That's not actually true, but this is the overwhelming impression I got from the majority of the book. The authors themselves acknowledge this difficulty, yet because of the complexity of the material, they seem unable to cut through the mess.

Let me put it slightly differently - if we, as evangelical Christians, claim that the Bible is God's Word and that it is inspired and infallible, we must also grapple with the fact that we cannot approach the study of it flippantly or lightly. We need to come to terms with the seriousness of our study and, even, the high level of complexity and thought involved. Ordinary, non-seminary-educated Christians should be able to study their Bible thoroughly and effectively. A book like this should encourage greater and more careful thought on this highly important subject.

For myself, I'll probably put it on the shelf for a year or so and let the ideas gestate and then I'll come back to it to challenge myself on my methods and practices of reading and interpreting God's Word.

And that is right where it ought to be! The first two parts of this book are epistimilogical powerhouses.

The authors start with the varying theories concerning truth and knowledge. "Can we know anything?" They then carry it through those implications and the limitations of language itself. "Is language sufficient to convey truth?" Finally, they wrap the first section with an examination of the locus of meaning. "Where is meaning?..In the text, the author, or the reader?" It will be well worth your while to reread through these first chapters. It is so much to grasp.

In the second part, they cover pre-understandings, presuppositions and a needed Christological framework from which to approach the scriptures. They make a great case for the centrality of Christ as the all-controlling presuppositional necessity from which one needs to work to and from. They show how Jesus and the apostles taught this and used it in their understanding and teaching of the fulfillment of Old Testament writings.

I would have loved to have given it five-stars, but I needed to hold back for a couple of reasons. First, when it comes down to genre reading, they touch on it in brevity. Craig Blomberg's "Introduction to Biblical Interpretation" does a much more thorough job in genre explanation. Secondly, they mention the New Perspective on Paul and say that "the jury is still out on this." I don't think so: it's been handled fairly substansively. For these reasons, I withheld a 5th star.

That all being said, BUY THIS BOOK. It is a great work and worth it for the first two sections alone. The emphasis of the book is about seeing the Old as being fulfilled in the New through/in Christ Jesus. It that respect it is very strong and compelling. It is a very helpful resource that I have already gone back to several times.

Grace,
--Jeffrey

He starts out with a story about a college ministry that had a couple of students who were sleeping together (unmarried). When the campus minister approaches them with scripture verses that condemn their behavior, their response was "that's your interpretation"....hoping this stuns his readers (I'm not sure it stuns as many today as it would have 10 years ago)...he goes on to establish his premise that the bible is not a book with things for us to draw out of it whatever we feel is good for us....but rather a book that actually teaches certain things which comprise truth. From there he logically expands to cover a wide array of topics sequencing through the various issues of what Bible Scholars call 'Hermeneutics'. Biblical Hermeneutics is the art of interpreting scripture correctly.

I find his writing style to be inviting, concise, to the point and well organized. It's a really good book...on a subject that is not as easy to write about as it may first appear.

This book is a good primer for lay leaders as well as college students who are being introduced to the topic for the first time. We are using it to prepare our church leaders for an upcoming seminar on hermeneutics.

One of the things I like about this textbook is that it covers the history
of interpretation in a short period of time (pp 79-118), so the new student can come up to speed on what the history of interpretation has been in crucial time periods of Christianity. For example he focuses on Luther/Calvin hermeneutics and then modernity hermeneutics after that. He covers all the 'turning points' historically of hermeneutics. The quick overview is a really good primer for newbies in biblical hermeneutics.

For a busy pastor/bible teacher who has not had much or has forgotten their hermeneutics training...this book gives you a relatively easy read without sacrificing crucial elements. It will refresh you on the key elements of hermeneutics. If you are studying hermeneutics right now, and your course doesn't use this book, it is a good one to add for additional research or reading.

Five star...you really ought to add this one to your library.

For the last 16 months or so, i have only reviewed books that i have finished, partly to stimulate me to finish more, partly to keep score. I did not finish this book, rather i stopped at part 3, roughly pg 180 out of 294 pages of text. I didn't finish because i scanned the material and it was of a more practical bent, which is not the reason i picked up and read the book. I am preparing to take a side branch on my creation-evolution-debate reading, looking at the hermeneutics of the justification and abolition of slavery. This book is from my pastor's library and was a textbook in a seminary class on hermeneutics, and as such is an excellent choice.

The price of the book and the value of the time spent reading the book is quickly recovered in just the image of the hermeneutical spiral. I now know from further online research that the image is not original to these authors but it is however the first time i have encountered it. As such a fruitful and thought provoking image i am deeply grateful for its introduction and how the authors build systematically around it. For the hermeneutical spiral consciously breaks the circular thinking that is evident in many justifications of inerrancy or in the explanation of the Bible as the word of God, i appreciate this metaphor, for this reason. The additional image of the grid of textual analysis, surrounded by the framework of an individual's thinking, while resting on the foundation of presuppositions has united several motifs i have been aware of but didn't have a handy way to see relationally. For this to i am grateful to the authors. It is a good introduction to the topic of Biblical studies and hermeneutics and rightfully takes its place in seminary and self-study libraries.

It was shipped earlier than the date listed on the site. Product is in great condition. Completely no hassle!

This book is great. It's easy reading and I don't get bored. It covers ALOT of information, but the homework activities included help absorb the information. It challenges your thinking.

I do suggest that you only read this book if you are really serious about being fluent in ASL. Me, I read it because I want to be an interpreter, so it's essential and required for my class. So if fluidity is what you want, then maybe have beginning ASL done. In my class it is required that I have finished the intermediate level.

The Linguistics of American Sign Language explains the morphology and syntax of ASL, not so much the 'how' as the 'why.' This book is useful for the advanced student of ASL, but not particularly helpful for a beginner. The authors, all current or former professors at Gallaudet University, explain in great detail the nuances of American Sign Language.

This is a very nice book very informative but more what makes up ASL than how to sign ASL. So if you're looking for what makes up ASL this is your book, but if you're looking for how to form complex sentences and how words inflect this isn't it. But I supposed that's my fault for assuming linguistics=syntax. :D

Written by the team of Clayton Valli, Ceil Lucas (Professor of Linguistics in the department of Linguistics as Gallaudet University), and Kristin J. Mulroney (Assistant Professor of Linguistics in the Department of Linguistics as Gallaudet University), Linguistics of American Sign Language is an in-depth reference and resource for intermediate to expert linguistic students, scholars and professionals, now in an updated fourth edition with an accompanying course DVD. The fourth edition of Linguistics of American Sign Language features an entirely revised section on morphology and syntax, the latest research on main categories of verbs in ASL, insight into artistic forms of ASL such as singing, drama, and poetry, 18 new and updated readings, and new suggested homework assignments based on the DVD, and much more. The first half of the text focuses on the nuts-and-bolts grammar and dissection of ASL; the second half is devoted to supplemental readings by a variety of learned authors, discussing nuances of ASL and its usage, variations in linguistic structure, sub-communities of the deaf such as the black deaf community, and much more. Simple black-and-white diagrams illustrate this definitive linguistic compendium and college-level education and consultation reference.

In my language arts class we have to read three books every nine weeks. I have read my first book called Six Haunted Hairdos. As I read this book I went into a journey. I would love to take you with me on the journey again. So here we go!

Oh wow, look where we are. We are in the book called the Six Haunted Hairdos. Now we can see who the author is. The author is Gregory McGuire and he has a collection of books, just like this book I'm about to talk about. The book we are inside is a story. This book is also adventurous and has a lot of mystery in it.

Now we move to the first page of this book and we can work our way through the book. This book is about when Sammy Grubb and his club of the copycats try to convince the students of Josiah Fawcett Elementary that ghosts do exist. Thekla Mustard, who fronts the all girl club cynical tattletales, sees a perfect opportunity to spook up a plan and scare the boys. With the help of her friends they get together six wacky, crazy, and scary wigs, a lot of make-up, and some costumes. The tattletales transforms themselves into the six Haunted Hairdos, as they frightened the boys out of their pants. The tattletales give the boys a few scares. When Thekla Mustard takes her club to her house, they go up the room and Thekla congratulates them on what a fine job they did. When Pearl Hotchkiss hears the girls talking about scaring the boys again, Pearl runs to boy's club and tells the boys what the girls have been doing. So the boy's try to get back at the girls. When they get ready to scare the girls, all of a sudden an elephant comes out and Salim thinks it's a ghost of an elephant named baby Tusker. He thinks the ghost is coming to haunt him, but it wasn't. So they went to go find the tattletales after they made a plan. The girls went to go meet the boys and the boys said they wanted to meet the six haunted hairdos. Thekla said she didn't think they would come out, when all of a sudden the six haunted hairdos appeared. The girls ran down the hill and at the bottom they saw an elephant named baby Tusker.

Did you like the short story about the book? Now would you like to tell me any parts about the book you liked? I know I've got some, so here they are. The strong part of the book is that throughout the whole story it never gets boring and has good endings to each chapter. There are no weak parts to the book. Gregory McGuire has wonderful books because they are funny and interesting... I like that.

I think this book would be recommended for children in fourth grade through eighth grade. Well, I hoped you enjoyed your journey through this book. We've got to go before we get taken by a customer, so bye.
Sincerely, Hannah

The "Tattletales" (all but one of the girls) and the "Copycats" (the boys) in Miss Earth's class can't agree on the existence of ghosts. The Tattletales insist there's no such thing. The Copycats insist there IS such a thing, especially after seeing something large and inhuman roaming the area.

A new Copycat, Salim from Bombay, has a secret that might explain the mysterious ghost seen by the boys, but he's afraid to tell them. In the meantime, the Tattletales plan to scare the boys by posing as the Six Haunted Hairdos. If the children of Hamlet, Vermont don't watch out, they'll scare the pants off each other!

Clever and humorously written, this book will capture elementary students' imaginations with the Copycats' and Tattletales' adventures. Besides the fun, kids will also be shown examples of compassion and generosity, traits often lacking in today's media. Equally important, this chapter book is easily read for intermediate readers.

Gregory Maguire's magic touch brings another installment to a great series for kids.

Reviewed by Christina Wantz Fixemer
9/3/2006

Six Haunted Hairdos is the sequel to Seven Spiders Spinning. It is about to rival clubs, The Copycats (boys) and The Tatletails (girls). In this book the members of The Copycats believe in ghosts and state so in class. The Tatletails decide to play a joke on The Copycat's "silly" belief and give The Copycats their idea on girls thrown at them. This joke turns out to be less fake then they thought, as The Tatletails and The Copycats meet real ghosts and have to unite the ghosts, and set aside their club differences, before it's too late and Hamlet, their town, becomes filled with ghosts. This book is exciting and portrays some very interesting veiws on the rivalrey between boys and girls.

The book I reviewed is called Six Haunted Hairdos. This book was written by Gregory Maguire. Six Haunted Hairdos is a fictional book, and it is sort of a mystery, but at the same time it is an adventure.
A group of girls and a group of boys are always trying to outdo each other. When the girls cook up a wonderful plan to scare the boys, things start getting out of hand. Thelka Mustard, the empress of the girls club, who call themselves the Tattletales, tells the boys that six beauticians were recently killed on a nature trip. Though none of this is true, the boys are not sure whether they should believe this story or not.
Meanwhile, the boys who call their club (...), are having ghost troubles of their own, without Thelka Mustard trying to scare them with her crazy ghost story. Sammy Grubb, who is the emperor (...), thinks that they all saw a baby elephant, though this was no ordinary elephant, it was ghost.
The Tattletales are planning to scare the boys in their "Six Haunted Hairdos" costumes. Thelka leads the boys into the woods so that the "ghost beauticians" can do their jobs. The plan works out great and the boys got scared. Now the boys are even more sure that the baby elephant was a ghost. You should read this book to find out what happens with the ghost elephant and the "Six Haunted Hairdos".
This book's strengths are that it has good details and it is very compelling. It is a good book. The book's weakness is that at times, it can be a little bit confusing.
I think the author Gregory Maguire is a good author who knows how to use details. He writes good books. I would recommend this book to any reader who likes suspenseful, mysterious, and spooky books. If you enjoyed reading this book, then you should read the rest of the book series!

Star of Cursrah is without a doubt Clayton Emery's best work to date. A truly original idea from an up-and-coming author. The adventures of Amenstar and her companions are not easily forgotten. A very haunting tale. 5 stars!!!

This is one of the better FR books that I've read. I enjoyed the characters and was able to empathize with them (important point). Although I figured out how the story would end (for the most part), I found it to be no less tragic and moving. Although I don't think a sequel is viable, this is one of those books where you're left wondering what happened next to the characters. This is a TSR book that I expect to read again!

Clayton Emery has writen another fabulous book. Clayton describes every detail of the battle scenes.

This is a very good read if you are not looking for a hack and slash adventure. The characters are all well defined, the book reads easily, and is well structured. The characters are not superhuman, which is a nice change of pace and adds a pleasant flavor to the story. The ending becomes apparent in mid-story but this does not detract from the quality of the tale. I would say that anyone that enjoyed the Cleric Quintet, by R.A. Salvatore, would also enjoy this book.