Donovan Books

This product was produce by Monte Cook and Colin McComb the 2 heavy weights of the Planescape Campain. Most the really Good products have there name on the cover. Building on the format used on Planes of Law they produced a good soild product that really is useful and easy to use for the DM. I run planescape own all of the books and I still use this product. That says some thing.

This one is a winner. As boxed sets go, TSR has really scored big time - every part of the Neutrally aligned planes is so well covered in this book, and experresd in such interesting detail, that you'll find yourself wondering how you got along without this box for so long.

The Blood War comes to life once again with the in-depth exploration of the Yugoloths and their part in that eternal struggle. Discussions on the nature of the Grey Waste, why the Yugoloths live in firey Gehenna, and the politics of the Titans and Gehreleths of Carceri are beautifully worked. And the bits on the Upper Planes? Masterful.

'Planes of Conflict' is a great boxed set. Well named, well written, and very well put together. With work like this, the Planes will remain a vibrant and exciting setting for years to come.

O'Donovan argues that "evangelical" ethics is ethical living in light of the renewed and renewing creation. The created order--the order of creation, the purpose for which it was established--is vindicated in the cross/resurrection of Christ and is given back to God's people. Although the point is not specifically made, it seems O'Donovan is stressing a teleological ethic (although I wouldn't pin him down on such).

He then proceeds to critique historicist ethics, particularly the Marxist form. Following, he argues that a corollary of ethics is epistemology: the Christian's knowledge is in key and in part a *knowledge in Christ.* While not a primary or exhaustive part of knowledge, *experience* is a factor in knowing. For the Christian knowledge often comes in light of suffering and the way of the Cross (my favorite part of the book).

I found his section on "eschatology" most compelling and most underdeveloped. He seems to posit a realized eschatology. This is good. He anticipates on one hand the coming resurrection but also the the powerful in-breaking of the eschaton into the present order (see thesis of book). Some excerpts:

The resurrection of Christ redeems and transforms the created order (56).

The work of the Holy Spirit defines an age--the age in which all times are immediately present to that time, the time of Christ (103)

Some criticisms:
The book left me with questions concerning "what to do?" Having read it, what should be my response? This is probably the fault of the reader, and thus I need to reread it.

I wasn't quite clear of his criitques of natural law. I was interested in a critique of natural law theories, and he gave some, but I couldn't make sense of them (again, my fault and not OO). On the other hand, however, his critique of the Roman Catholic sexual ethic, based on natural law, was quite good.

O'Donovan articulates a Christian, evangelical ethics that is broad in scope and dialogues with several positions. He seems to chart a path between Barth of the reformed tradition and St. Thomas' natural law position. The outcome, resting on a distinction between the created order and Providence, tries to sustain the absolute freedom of God while maintaining a consistent moral field rooted in creation. His conclusion that the command of God does not vitiate the created and restored natural order is attractive, but will not be persuading to all.

This is a forgotten Cold War gem!... Anyone with an interest in Cold War history, spies, and the law will find this book great reading. It tells the story of James Donovan (in his own words), a prominent New York attorney in the late 1950s, who was asked by the government to defend Rudolf Abel, an extremely successful Soviet spy who operated in the New York city area. The book is part diary, part biography and part spy narrative. You get to see the conflict that he goes through as a former Naval officer and the whirlwind he gets caught up in. What makes this different from other books is that it was written very soon after the events occurred. His trip to Berlin is one of the most interesting features of the book because you get an eyewitness account of the city at the height of the tensions between the Soviets and the U.S.

This is a forgotten Cold War gem!!! Published at the height of the cold war in 1964, it tells the story of James Donovan (the author), a New York lawyer and former naval officer who was picked to represent Colonel Abel, a notorius Soviet spy in the late fifties. Donovan describes his feelings of ambivalence and doubt about being the guy representing a man whose main job is to undermine the U.S. He takes us through every aspect of the case and the book gets especially interesting when the author has to travel to Berlin and gives an eyewitness account of a divided city. This case has a special connection w/another famous spy case of the time. I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in the history of the Cold War.

I picked up this book with a stack of others as I was doing research for a project. I brought it home, opened the front cover, started to read and was stunned. Eva Pierrakos has one of the most clear, in-depth minds I've ever experienced. Her insight to the human soul and what we are doing here on the planet stuns me! Time stopped and I spent the whole weekend reading a few pages, getting up to walk around and marvel or digest it, and then going back to read more. It's a feast. I've been a disciple of Osho Rajneesh for 20 years, read almost everything of his and was with him in India. I have studied A Course In Miracles. I love the Abraham-Hicks tapes. This information is as remarkable as all of those in its own, very clear and concise way. It puts the human soul and psyche in a very substantial context that starts making everything I've encountered so far make perfect sense. One of the most important books of my life. I hope you rush out and buy it. And I hope that it creates the same dynamic transformation for you as it has for me.

p.s. I do not know these people, I never heard of Eva Pierrakos or Pathwork before. It's one of God's little gifts along the way.

This book is a good one for anyone who is searching and needing a lot of answers. However, if you've been searching or have been on your path for a long time, this book will not be very satisfying. There was nothing here that I hadn't come across elsewhere or figured out through my own experiences. But if you are new to this stuff - go for it!

This book is a must for anyone with an interest in County Clare history or genealogy. Included in this primary reference source are the personal letters and observations of the surveyors involved in making the Ordance Survey maps of Ireland. The material provided can not be found in any other source. Every parish is accounted for with descriptions of churches, castles, and significant topographical features. This text should be considered supplemental and more personalized than Lewis's "Topographical Dictionary of Ireland". One should not expect to find extensive genealogical information on 19th century farmers, but there the lords of castles listed and some older family pedigrees. While this is primarily a reference book it also contains comments of the travels of the authors and reads as an interesting and enjoyable novel.

Growing up in Australian in the 80s and 90s, Jason Donovan and Neighbours were a staple of my upbringing. I wouldn't say I was a huge fan but I was very curious to see what 'behind-the-scenes' info he would give... To my surprise I found this book to be quite straight forward. Enlighting stories about other Aussie icons (Miss Kylie) and how intense situations have given me a new appreciation for Jason Donovan. I've seen in him the last few years on Australian TV, doing great dramatic work and would recommend anyone curious with Australian Pop Culture from the 80s, any Neighbours fans, any Kylie fans and any Australian TV industry fans to pick this up - it's very good.

In Beyond Animal Rights: A Feminist Caring Ethic for the Treatment of Animals, editors Josephine Donovan and Carol J. Adams bring together seven articles on ecofeminism, an ethic of care, and animal liberation from a variety of perspectives. As a whole, the collection seeks to apply a feminist ethic to the philosophies of well-known figures such as Tom Regan and Peter Singer. Working through a feminist lens, the anthology attempts to propose an appropriate mode of behavior through exploration of contextual relationships between humans and non-human animals. Animal liberation is discussed in reference to the current dominating theories and to a new proposed ethic of care.
Feminist critiques of philosophers such as Regan and Singer suggest that although these men condemn Cartesian scientific practices for their lack of consideration of the worth of moral beings, they in fact use these Cartesian objectivist modes of reasoning to suppress emotional knowledge with hierarchical systems of natural rights or utilitarianism, respectively (p 45). The persistence of these mainstream philosophers in denying their appeal to emotion when analyzing the case for animal rights shows their biased masculinist perspective that does not take into account the very real epistemology of emotion and sympathy. It is this sympathy, feminists like Josephine Donovan claim, that ultimately has driven vegetarians and animal rights activists to their defining behaviors. Since one does not oppose cruelty to animals on logistical claims of fairness (as in, �I oppose the systematic slaughtering of animals because such treatment of humans is not tolerated!�), but out of very real emotional sympathy for the animals, an ethic of care must be accepted in the animal rights movement and not dismissed as weak or irrational. Both Regan and Singer argue in favor of a justice approach, claiming that a caring ethic is not enough to sustain the animal liberation movement. Feminists declare that these claims are based on the philosophers� low estimations of the human capacity to sympathize. However, author Brian Luke proves these estimates inaccurate by revealing the extensive mechanisms employed to undermine sympathetic opposition to animal exploitation such as rationales of divine permission, �cover stories� like human need of animal medical research and food, denying the harms caused to the animals and shielding the public from them, etc. (p 81). These attempts at guiding the public away from sympathy for animals show how powerful emotion is in dictating one�s actions. An ethic based on sympathy is determined by Josephine Donovan to be appropriate and useful as it is a �complex intellectual as well as emotional exercise� that pushes one toward animal liberation out of compassion for the animal and its well-being in exploitative circumstances (p 149).
Feminist ethics redefine rights and cross-species identity to be relational, contextual, and mutually accommodating, affording non-human animals rights to themselves, regardless of how identical to (or different from) humans they are (p 63). An ethic of care essentially tries to undermine the private/public dichotomy that keeps appeals to emotion in general and sympathy for animals in particular from their rightful place in the animal liberation movement, while creating contexts where care can thrive as non-exploitative. This contextualist ethic of care does not require (as popular animal liberation theory does) that one consider all interests as though no relationship existed between any of the parties, nor does it view animal rights as a contest between competitors for moral standing based on applied rules. This ethic also refrains from popular debate about the abstract �right to life�. Instead, an ecofeminist caring ethic recognizes the role that our relationships with others play in our understanding of a situation and creates a central place for values of friendship and trust (p 61). Ecofeminist Rita C. Manning introduces an �ethic of magic�, in which the earth is recognized as a sacred living body of connected parts, all of which are deserving of respect and care. Humans should care about the natural world and all of its animal constituents because of the similarities in humans and non-humans, because of the role that animal care plays in the building of our character, and because some animals are genuinely entitled to care because they are as valuable as humans (p 103).
The issue of diet is looked at from a feminist perspective to reveal that our use of animals as food is not a gender-neutral issue. Language places positive slants on the consumption of animal flesh (�a meaty question�), while associating women and passivity with both vegetarians and vegetables (�watching TV will turn you into a vegetable�). In addition, the dairy and egg industries exploit the reproductive capacities of the female. An ecofeminist caring ethic calls for an end to the violent consumption of animals as food. Ecofeminist thought reveals the connection between the body and the self, claiming that our bodily selves develop a framework for violence when we inflict violence needlessly (when eating meat) (p 72).
Carol J. Adams addresses assumptions about women in a care-giving role in Western patriarchal culture in regards to an ethic for the treatment of non-human animals. She claims the autonomous rational being to be an illusion, revealing that men are as much or more so relational than women as they rely so heavily upon their relationships with women. The fact that they depend on the invisibility of women�s caring activities is what allows men an illusionary façade of the autonomous rational individual (p 172). This shows that the patriarchal culture that we live in has created (in addition to the systems of animal exploitation in place today), contemporary animal rights philosophy that reflect patriarchal values. A feminist approach to looking at both animal exploitation and animal liberation emphasizes the value of caring and nurturing in the relationship between humans and non-human animals, rather than an objective, non-relational, �rational� look at the exploitation of animals, and determining it morally unacceptable.

In Newcastle, the body of the mutilated Ashley Malcolm was found in a burial ground. Her eyes and mouth were sewed shut apparently when she still lived and cuts are all over her body. DS Turnbull and DI Nattrass believe her boyfriend Michael Nell killed her, as he has a history of violence against women. Janine Stewart thinks otherwise although she knows her client is a flash tempered lout. She refuses to believe he would perform a ritual killing; if Michael murdered his girlfriend she would be battered not stitched. Michael also claims an alibi.

Janine hires Joe Donovan to affirm Michael's alibi. The case seems simple to Joe until he and his team start tracking the alibi. This leads them to an evil world where vicious thugs run a child-trafficking ring and a prostitution ring with kids as the merchandise. Shook to his core, Joe still wonders what happened to his six-year-old son who vanished three years ago and could have been for sale by these punks. Soon a second death occurs as the serial killing Historian taunts the cops with clues from the city's heritage.

Though the culprit comes out of serial killer casting, BONE MACHINE is a tense gritty Noir that deeply explores human trafficking to the point that the hero and the Historian are left out much of the first half of tale. Readers who appreciate an extremely dark crime thriller that looks at the evil people do to those vulnerable is interred in their bone marrow will want to read the BONE MACHINE and other Donavan thrillers like MERCY SEAT, not reviewed by me.

Harriet Klausner

Brings to life the times and tragedy of Harry "Breaker" Morant. From his time in the bush to his execution at the hands of the British for allegedly shooting POWs in the Boer War. Even if it doesn't quite follow the facts, it's a great read !

These chapters are O'Donovan's talks from his Stobb lecture at Calvin College. They set forth what some would call a transformational communal ethic eschatologically anticipating the Kingdom of God. In other words, Augustine's City of God, Book 19.4.

O'Donovan defines community in Augustinian terms: a rational group of people united in agreement by a common object of their love. While O'Donovan is one of the top Augustinian scholars, and while he is also one of my favorite writers, I do not think he has fully said all he needs to say integrating Augustine's definition with a fully Christian communal ethic. He makes a heroic effort (and one well worth reading)in *Bonds of Imperfection.*

How does this play out? One should avoid the immediate temptation to regard this definition as immediately normative for the State. Maybe it should be, but not yet. It is best to see the Church as a counter-polis, rivaling the State. The Church has its own language, symbols, and liturgy. Other applications, perhaps even pro-political action applications, can be made, but not now and not by me.

But on another level this definition does reflect the State. A State, most certainly a non-Christian one, can never be a true society. It has fragmented ends and disordered goals. It can never be unified. It can never meet Augustine's definition of a true society because a true society is *truly* united by proper Love, love to God. Only a Christian society (be it church or commonweal) can be a true society.