King Books

This is my second copy of this book. I wore out the first copy. A great life story!

Smith Wigglesworth was a true man of God. This book will cause you to trust in the Lord with all of your heart. It will make you proud of your Penticostal heritage. Finally,it will provide you with a benchmark for serving the Lord. You will enjoy this wonderful book.

This book is an example of what can happen when a man will follow Jesus completely. Just like a second book of Acts but in the 1900's. Great reading and cheap at twice the price.

Best Smith Wigglesworth book! Written by his son-in-law while he was alive. Major faith builder!!!

Smith Wigglesworth lived a life of total dependence upon God. His life is a great inspiration to those who will step out into the unknown and trust God to provide for them.

As a longtime Alaskan, I feel fortunate to have had both Doug and Jill in many courses. The book Snow sense is now the required reading material for all Nat'l Ski Patrol avalanche courses, and rightly so. I read it at the begining of every season. True avalanche professionals. If you ever have the chance, come to Alaska and take one of their courses.

Used by avalanche professionals as a base for avalanche education classes. Small size but HUGE on concise information for learning to recognize, evaluate, and avoid potential avalanche hazards.

"Here's a book you should have. I know, I know, everybody says that but this is different. This book lays out what avalanches are and how they happen, and it will save your life. Now notice I didn't say this is a book you should have on your bookshelf. This one should be in the top pocket of your pack. Simply put,"Snow Sense" is a pocket guide to safe snow travel, whether you're hiking, backpacking, skiing, snowshoeing, or mountaineering in high risk areas.

Avalanches don't simply explode out of nowhere. The ones that kill people are usually started by the victims. This book will teach you that such catastrophes are avoidable. You can learn to recognize and evaluate avalanche hazards. You can learn to "read" the snowpack, "read" the mountains, and save your skin. "Snow Sense" is a hands-on, explicit, clear-thinking, hard-hitting field guide that teaches you how. By studying the book's "bulls-eye" clues to snowpack stability, hardness tests, shear block tests, weather analysis, simple physics, and hazard checklists, you'll come away with all you need to know about avalanches and how to avoid being caught by one.

Read it once. Read it again. Take it into the field and practice the skills it teaches. Every time I hear of another avalanche-caused death in the Rockies, I wish the victim had read this book. The survivors must read it.

"Avalanches are not acts of God. This valuable book details how to read terrain, snowpack, and weather variables to determine the possiblities of avalanche and how to save yourself in case of one.

"Jill Fredston and Doug Fesler are the best avalanche instructors in North America, period. No other teachers have more credibility or put as much effort into the curriculum, presentation, and teaching methods...Their book "Snow Sense" is by far the best material available on staying alive in avalanche country."

You may find the articles in this book one by one from the net, but it's always good to have a all-in-one product.

For anybody involved in teaching classes on Project Management, this book is an excellent reference. Broad focus, enjoyable and informative reading...

This book is a collection of numerous classic articles on software project management. It is well organized and it is clear that a great deal of effort was put into identifying the best articles to include in this collection. The reason I give it 4 stars instead of 5 is for what it doesn't have -- an index! Without an index you will have a difficult time finding specific information without scanning many pages of text.

This book provides a broad but detailed look at the functions and activities necessary for the proper management of a software development project. It is what you would expect from IEEE, an academic perspective on the process---both from a quantitative development and quality management orientation. Some of the contributors are, of course, priceless (particularly Alan M. Davis' "Trial By Firing: Saga of a Rookie Manager") in relating their own experiences as project managers in this strange business we're in.

This collection was so good that I went back and ordered the other two collections (Software Engineering and Software Requirements Engineering). For anybody who teaches Software Engineering or Project Management classes (or anybody wanting a broad knowledge of the subjects), these books are invaluable.

If this satire of life in America today doesn't wake you up, you must be dead. It's hard to laugh at the truth, and this book makes you do just that. Mr. King tells it like it is, even if we don't like it. It's sad some people won't understand what this book is all about!!!
Even if you don't agree with his ideas, you have to look at his point of view and consider the consequences of the future.

Imagine playing a high stakes poker game with a very special deck. You are dealt cards picturing the following places: (A) corporate headquarters, (K) flea market, (Q) megachurch, (J) paramilitary group and (J) power broker's club. Only one card marks the soul of America but only the dealer knows which one. Ante up.

Abraham King's new novel, The Soul of America from Savannah's Seedtime Press takes place at all those locations. Faces populate each location, like cards in a promising poker hand. The ideas found in the locations are the real characters that King develops. They are born, grow, use resources and compete with each other. They can be stimulating, exciting, compelling, consuming, cutthroat, vicious, domineering and vengeful. Readers will recognize them easily. We live among them every day. Sometimes, they define who we are and sometimes, they consume us. Always, they affect our lives and the less we are aware of them, the more treacherous the effect.

Aware or not, we are the purveyors of the ideas that King characterizes. If we are to get control over the meanings of our lives, however, we must first understand the priorities we have accepted. Awareness, then, is the theme of the novel. King gets us there not with a preachy polemic, but with exaggeration that is simultaneously hilarious and pathetic. Like a social histologist, he magnifies the idea-characters until they become bigger-than-life, so big that we can't escape their existence in our own priorities.

There is a story line with suspense compelling enough to drive readers to the climax, but the surprising climax drives us right back to the text. Have my friends and I fallen for this or that idea? Where else have we gone wrong? Where are we going wrong now? What are our alternatives? What are my alternatives? It's as if you called King's bet by reading his novel. Then after exposing your life through the memories it evoked, you wait for him to lay down his hand. At the end, there they all are: the corporation, the market, the church, the fringe clique and the plutocrats. Read `em and weep...and laugh...and have a great hilarious and insightful romp through King's book.

In this exceptionally funny, yet deadly serious satirical novel, author Abraham King takes us on a wild journey--from the aisles of the flea market to the halls of political and corporate power--in search of the soul of America. In the tradition of Dickens and Vonnegut, King relies heavily on caricature and hyperbole to tell a tale of the struggle between the forces of greed, hubris and ambition on the one hand, and selflessness, virtue and humility on the other.

Multiple storylines revolve around the central plot in which John Brown, a corporate executive, must stop a flesh-eating computer virus that threatens to destroy civilization. The virus is unleashed when the powerful computer chip it has infected, the Octopus, is installed in the desk of the company's founder and patriarch, Montague Millstone. Brown is confronted with the toughest decision of his life as he determines that there is only one way to neutralize it.

Montague Millstone is an ego-driven businessman obsessed with empire and acquisition. His narcissism leads him to believe he can achieve immortality as he transfers all of his bodily functions into his desk. For this reason, he is determined to eliminate the "death tax", a levy applied exclusively to multi-million dollar estates, so as not to lose any control over any piece of his property when his frail, human body finally expires. Assisting him in this endeavor are a variety of corporate lobbyists, his own privately-funded "think tanks", and any number of congressmen beholden to him for his generous campaign contributions.

Complementing the main plot are a variety of subplots involving Christian and Islamic clergymen, a self-styled revolutionary, a sinister consultant, a selfless, flea market vendor, and a cast of powerfully-drawn, minor characters. These subplots are brilliantly interwoven with the main plot to create a tapestry of life in modern America.

A complex, multi-layered book, replete with metaphors and references to purely American events and personalities, The Soul of America challenges the reader to question conventional wisdom and the images created by the mainstream media. And although the humor is dark, the book is hopeful, as a spiritual undertone threads its way though to the end, where we discover the soul of America.

I just finished reading Abraham King's The Soul of America and had to just sit and wonder. This is one of those books that will keep you spellbound until the very last page. To call it a page turner is an understatement. I defy anyone to willingly put this book down in the last hundred pages.
Mr. King has written a novel that anyone concerned with the future of America should read. King has cleverly created composite caricatures of all the major right wing players from the government, to the business world, to organized religion, and paramilitary groups, and woven them into a story that could be in our not too far future. All the while poking fun at these groups and individuals that will have you laughing out loud.
The Soul of America is certainly a satire. And as with all satires there is an underlying moral to this story. But it is subtle and surprising. Your view of the entire book may change in the last few pages.
Mr. King is Ayn Rand without the preachy philosophy and if she had a sense of humor.

Great book. I loved it until it hurt, since it tells a lot of truths about the tragedy America is being subjected to by rightwingers. I get a lot of uninvited books sent to me. I give them a few pages and if they don't grab me, they're toast. This one grabbed me like the DaVinci Code did, and I had to finish it.

If you liked The Librarian, or Jonathan Safran Foer's Everything Illuminated, there's a good chance you'll like this tongue in cheek political adventure.

The subtle ending took me by surprise, but after a little thought, it was very realistic.

This Bible combines reading Scripture with Bible Study. I highly recommend this Bible for all new readers to the Bible, as well as everyone else. I have had this Bible in my possession for several years and am now looking for one for my grandson.

This is not your average Bible! The commentary is spiritually insightful, the "Kingdom Dynamics" are inspiring, the "Truth-In-Action's" are practical, and the "Word Wealth" Hebrew & Greek definitions are a definate plus! Maps, timelines, charts, chapter outlines...my favorite bible ever!

This is not your average Bible! The commentary is spiritually insightful, the "Kingdom Dynamics" are inspiring, the "Truth-In-Action's" are practical, and the "Word Wealth" Hebrew & Greek definitions are a definate plus! Maps, timelines, charts, chapter outlines...my favorite bible ever!

I am a pastor of the Foursquare Gospel denomination in Sydney Australia. As a teacher and a preacher of the Word of God I use this Bible and have encouraged my congregation to obtain same.The footnotes, reviews, Word Wealth, that explain the original Hebrew or Greek word, along with Kingdon Dynamics is an excellent tool for any Bible student.

Jack Hayford has succeded in presenting the Bible in a accessable form for both layman and student. The unique strength of the original Hebrew and Greek manuscripts are presented in 'windows' while you read. The concise but complete concordance and also the references below each page make this single book a cleverly chosen set of tools to gain understanding.

Too often, the high-stakes testing debate wanders into the realm smoke and mirrors. If you follow this debate, you'll find the same arguments presented here that have been presented all along: standardized tests are biased, they do not measure intelligence or knowledge, etc. What you don't normally get are the facts that back up this argument, and that is what Sacks provides. This book concretizes what has become (wrongly) a very abstract, political issue, and should be regularly referenced by all who oppose the mediocrity such testing rewards. These tests may sound good in theory, but in practice, Sacks shows with convincing success, they just don't do the job.

I was in the middle of reading Standardized Minds when I heard a panel of "Experts" talk about the future of LA Unified School District on Which Way LA, a local radio show. Specifically they were discussing the notion of linking teacher bonus pay to the performance of their students on standardized tests. I wish Peter Sacks had been on the program as he successfully demolishes the continued folly of our reliance on standardized tests as a way to judge our schools, our teachers and our students. I wholeheartedly endorse the opinions of the previous two reviewers. Speaking as a parent, I can only say that the more people who read this book, engage in a discussion about the issues so eloquently raised within it and help push the national dialogue on education forward in the directions the author suggests, the better off our kids and we as a society will be.

Mr. Sacks in his new publication, Standardized Minds, has done an outstanding job of placing norm-refrenced standardized tests, along with their associated multiple-choice item formats, in proper perspective. These tests have set standards for academic assessment for many years, and, as Mr. Sacks points out, are being questioned by many in the testing profession as being inapporpriate and insensitive as single and simplisthic guages of educational progress. He has documented extensive research on this subject, presented some impressive "case studies" of those who have been penalized in their career and life chioces based on "low" test scroes when all other extracurricular or in-school performances predicted otherwise. In addition to the many problems associated with mulitple-choice item types, a main focus is on the misunderstanding and misuse of the scores by all levels of society. As he so eloquently states, many educators are not properly taught how to interpret and use these data, legislative or government policy-makers have little or any idea of the substance or meaning of these scores, the media are at the mercy of the lack of knowledge (or political direction) fed them, and parents and children are left confused with numbers that do not give them specific constructive instructional information. The end result is that these test results are forced into a political and unethical framework which has greatly weakened their usefulness. If the desire is to help children learn and teachers teach, some interesting and effective alternatives are provided. I would strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in improving educational assessment.

I am a high school senior so I am currently getting a lot of pressure from my parents to get that silly 1600 on my SAT which will take place in October and December this year. Then there's also the ACTs and the 3 SAT IIs! I was always suspicious of test prep companies, the ETS, and the SATs themselves. Living in Los Angeles, these test prep companies have grown like weeds in the community, sucking up money from middle and upper class students. Though I am fortunate, my parents have also forcefully enrolled me at one of these. My SAT school is doing a nice job with its profits and have managed to get a new paint job, redecorate the "classrooms", and to get more students and more teachers, to just get it bigger and bigger. While my "teachers" explain the concepts of the SAT, I can't help but wish I was in the library reading more books such as this or practicing the piano. It is so unfair that only the rich people can afford these classes and they are the ones who get the good scores on the SATs. After getting a mediocre score on the SAT in June, my parents have now considered me a total idiot, even though my report cards and comments from teachers say otherwise. This book is so chock-full of information that deserves wide reading. The author has done the most extensive research imaginable. The controversy of the standardized tests is something that should have been addressed and Peter Sacks is the best one to do it. He has full of statistics and information to back up everything he says, yet he never just blows them off to you, but explains them. In addition to statistics, are the personal recollections of the people he interviewed-the teachers, educators, college admissions people, and even students. The tale of one student who had 7 tries to take a silly test and not being able to graduate and forced to stay in high school was frightening to the say the least. I am also glad that the author also included a section about the infamous incident in 1998 in Massachusetts when everyone condemned the teachers that they failed "a basic reading and writing test", which had become a punch-line for many of Jay Leno's jokes that year. It was rather strange that the media did not go into detail about the exact questions or the more specifics of that exam, but everyone just wanted to call these teachers "idiots".

The book is comprehensive on all testing, with the exception of secondary school admissions tests such as the ISEE and the SSAT. Going to California private schools, I have become familiar with ERBs and the Stanford 9 tests. In order to get into private high schools, I had to take the ISEE and the SSAT. Now I have the SATs and ACTs to conquer.

This is more than a book analyzing the damaging effects of the testing culture. The author suggest an standing ovation-worthy proposal of evaluating students on what they can do, whether it is projects and more research opportunities such as outside occupational research or conducting a lab or evaluating a student 's portfolio, instead of standardized tests.

Yes, this book should be read by politicians educators, teachers, yet I am here to emphasize STUDENTS should read this book too. Students who are daunted by the SATs need to be educated about our obsessive testing culture and that they are NOT idiots for a silly number.

In today's US it is almost impossible to avoid encountering standardized tests--mass-produced, multiple-choice, fill-in-the-bubble, machine-scored exams of all sorts. Standardized tests are used to assess the performance of public schools, in many systems to determine which students will be held back a grade, to decide who will get into college, and into graduate and professional school, and who will get certain jobs.

In "Standardized Minds," Peter Sacks delivers a devastating critique of the use of such tests. His indictment includes a wide range of particulars, only some of which can be summarized here.

First, standardized tests are not a source of useful information. A widely used reading test given to elementary school students can err by as much as three grade levels in measuring a student's reading level. The SAT, required for admission to most colleges, has no use other than to make predictions, with limited accuracy, of students' freshman year grades. The GRE, required for admission to most Ph.D. programs, actually has a negative correlation with future success as a scholar.

Second, standardized tests are very biased. The best known of these biases is that of the SAT against low-income, minority students. Sacks shows that this bias extends to other tests as well. Another bias identified by Sacks is that standardized tests are biased in favor of superficial thinking--the ability to rapidly recall and repeat facts--and against the deeper thinking necessary to solve complex real-world problems.

Third, and perhaps most harmfully, standardized tests promote "teaching to the test." A number of states have established what Sacks terms "high-stakes accountability" programs, in which standardized test scores determine whether students are promoted to the next grade or are allowed to graduate, and are used to rank the performance of schools. Sacks documents how such "high-stakes" programs cause teachers to spend enormous amounts of time drilling students in preparation for the tests. Such teaching practices promote rote memorization and superficial thinking at the expense of critical thinking skills and genuine understanding--hardly a desireable educational goal.

It is important to note that Sacks is not merely giving his personal opinions. He has studied and mastered a great deal of research. At the same time, his book is far more than a dry academic recital. Unlike the Dinesh D'Souzas of the world, Sacks knows the proper usage of anecdotes--to illustrate a generalzation, not as the basis for it. Of the many illuminating stories he tells, one bears repeating. St. John's University's psych department requires students entering the Ph.D. program to take the GRE, which is useless except to make somewhat accurate predictions of first-year grades. Students seeking a masters degree only, while they take the same first-year courses, are not required to take the GRE. However, if these students wish, on completing a masters degree, to enter the Ph.D. program, they must then take the GRE, even though the only value of the exam is to "predict" their grades in courses they have already taken.

Sacks ends the book by noting some optimistic trends, such as the growing number of colleges and universities which no longer require applicants to take the SAT. However, breaking the tyranny of standardized testing will not be easy--the political pressures for the kind of superficial "standards" and "accountability" such tests provide are enormous. But reading Sacks' book, and freeing your own mind from the spell cast by standardized test scores, would be a good start.

The second in a series of four (so far). This book has more depth to it than others you might compare it to (Princess Diaries, Angus, Thongs and Full Frontal Snogging, etc). The narrator, Calypso Kelly, is an American born girl who's mother has forced her to attend a British boarding school.

Calypso discovers at the begining of this book, to her horror, that she does not share her room with anyone this term that she had hoped for. In fact, she is sharing with the dreaded Honey O'Hare, who has made every year for Calypso miserable, since Calypso's mother has forced her to attend St. Augustine's.

Also sharing the room is Portia, a new character who could be a friend, could be an enemy. And plays the role of both in Calypso's mind. Portia (now that Star has quit fencing) is the only other girl who is on Calypso's level, fencing wise. On the other hand, she had pizza with Prince Freddie. (uh-oh, competition)

In this book Calypso is essentially stripped of her friends, without them in her dorm room and with them picking up other interests besides those they share with her. It is a well done portrayl of what happens when friends start to grow up. It definately reminded me of some of my middle school experiences.

I love all of the british slang that is in the book, and how Calypso walks the line between American and British. A very fun read without being overly fluffy.

I wouldn't reccomend this for younger readers because it does have some coarse language in it, 14 the youngest, 15 is probably the target audience.

Calypso is back...after a summer in America with Star and Georgina, she returns to St. Augustine in the middle of two text romances: Prince Freddie and Billy! However, she finds out she has to share a room with evil Honey O'Hare and aloof rich girl Portia, while Georgina and Star get to room together with a real princess, Indie. Calypso is off to a rough start. All her friends drop out of latin, leaving her alone. She feels like Star and Georgina are drifting away from her....but she makes friends with Indie and Portia, and everything goes better. Then she makes a mistake and alienates herself from everyone. Freddie isn't texting her, and Billy is acting weird. Is Freddie secretly seeing Portia? Will everyone get to go to the royal ball with Freddie except for her? And why is Honey now the only person who will talk to her? Will Calypso get her friends back, get her guy, and be able to keep up her fencing?

I read this book in 3 days. What a blast. The British girls really know boys -- but it's the girls who are so hilarious. Don't miss this one this summer.

This book will make you laugh out loud. But it's funny in this British, sophisticated, sublime way. Over the top, yet understated. Honey O'Hare has to be the most outrageous mean girl ever. I just love Calypso. Can't say enough about this book.

Fourteen-year-old Calypso Kelly (otherwise known as "The American Freak) has never felt as if she fit in with the rich, British girls who attend school with her at St. Augustine's English Boarding School. Sure, she's got a few close friends, but some of the other students are SO stuck-up. Like Honey O'Hare, Calypso's worst enemy, and dorm mate for the year. Honey has despised Calypso from the very first day she arrived at St. Augustine's, and has been out to saboatage her forever. Like it's Calypso's fault that she's more than a year younger than every other girl in her grade, and she doesn't have as much expendable cash. Anyway, Calypso has been flirting with two very fit (hot) boys over text messages all summer. And when Honey finds out, she decides to ruin the relationships that Calypso has created. Including the one with her boy toy Prince Freddie. Unfortunately, Calypso has no idea what's going on, and when she turns to her friends for help, she realizes that they're too caught up with their new pal, a real life Princess, to care about her petty problems. This is sure to be one super tough semester at St. Augustine's.

Tyne O'Connell truly has the writing chops to pen stories about a group of rich, snooty teenage girls attending an ultra-chic private school. Her characters are hilarious, and truly bring the story to life, what with their catty viciousness and obsessiveness over how they look. Once again, Calypso and the crazy predicaments will keep readers on the edge of their seats laughing out loud while reading this book, and for days after. I can't wait for the next installment about Calypso and her crazy friends, as this book leaves quite a cliffhanger. A must read!

Erika Sorocco
Book Review Columnist for The Community Bugle Newspaper

The Dark Tower series is as long and complicated as the Bible. The Bible has a concordance. This needs one too. There are so many characters and so many meandering sub-plots that you need a road map to keep everything on track. Robin Furth did it for us. Furth is dedicated to this series and seems to know every nuance. THis book helps. And it makes a good campfire game to open the book randomly and start a topic. Well worth your time and $$$...bg

Apparently being a personal assistant to Stephen King has certain perks, especially when you're writing a concordance to his bestselling Dark Tower series, both volumes of which are contained in "The Dark Tower: The Complete Concordance." Robin Furth doesn't outline much that isn't also in the book, but she does an excellent job outlining the information about King's entire series.

Furth includes plenty of data on the seven novels of the series, starting with an essay that refreshes the reader's memory. Furth starts the actual content with a list of characters with biographical info, from "Abigail" to "Zoltan." Then it's the areas of Mid-World, from the lair of the vampire nuns to Roland's long-lost homeland; the areas of our own world, and portals between the worlds. There are some pretty decent maps as well.

Additionally, she describes the various terms and phrases used in the High Speech, Mid-World language ("graf" is apple beer), prayers and sayings ("If it's ka, it will come like the wind"). And just for reference, she includes organizations, dances, holidays, magical items, instruments, as well as outlining various maps, as well as cultural items from our present world, and maps. Not to mention references to King's own work within the series.

The Dark Tower series -- which stretches through seven long novels and one short story -- is enticingly complex and mysterious, set in different worlds and times. It's also interlinked with other novels of King's, like "Insomnia" and "Eyes of the Dragon." So it's inevitable that even the die-hard fans will forget Character X or fair-day Z -- yet Furth's book allows easy clarification and consultation.

Furth does an excellent job organizing and annotating the book, including the books in which the items appear, and which pages are significant. She also maintains a calmly distant attitude in the book, without getting too gushy about King's work. But she does slip up occasionally; it's jarring to hear about "screwing" someone with a gun in a scholarly work.

Robin Furth's "Dark Tower: The Complete Concordance" is a good accompaniment to the Dark Tower series, and even those who have read the series many times will want to keep it at hand. Very useful.

I don't really want to get into this that much because what is there to say besides that if you have a Dark Tower question--you're going to find the answer in here.

This has everything...maps, family lineage charts, every character even hinted at, and every possible setting and/or situation in the seven books.

If you love the dark tower then this is the icing on the cake.
It answers a lot of questions from the series and connects things together

A concordance, by definition, is an alphabetical index of the principal words of a book, as of the Bible, with a reference to the passage in which each occurs. This does a most excellent job of doing so. Well studied! I almost wish I'd waited for it to come out before reading the series. A must have for all Tower geeks.

This book presents an incredible array of possibilities for entertaining friends and family with easy to prepare dishes. It pulls together many New England classics from my favorite region. The approach is so simple and straight-forward, that even a kitchen-klutz like myself can muster an admirable presentation! The photos alone will make your stomach growl! It was a finalist in the IACP cookbook awards for 2005.

This was a gift from a friend. I'm not a wonderful cook but I like to try new recipes. I have made made several recipes from this book and each has been perfect - very tasty - and not too difficult. Recently some friends came over for dinner and I made one of the dishes, and my friend now wants to go out and get it too. Highest praise, I'd say.

I live to cook. I love to eat. The Stonewall Kitchen Harvest cookbook is an inspiration for both. Call me a "foodie", but as they say, "Don't call me late." Cook your way through this user-friendly book and you're going to have a lot fun in the kitchen and meal-after-meal of really good food. I've been a fan of Stonewall's since discovering their jams a dozen or so years ago and when I saw the book, I thought it was just a collection of recipes using their products. Not. If their first book is this good, I'm going to order a used one. On second thought, I don't think I want a used cookbook. Eeeuu!

This is a wonderful cookbook. Great range of recipes wih fresh fruits and vegetables as the stars of these colorful dishes. Great for casual dinners with friends. The extra information on cooking tips, serving suggestions are helpful. This also makes a great gift - the photos are beautiful.

Stonewall Kitchen Harvest is everything one wants in a new cookbook; lucious recipes and photos that lure the reader in. My first glimpse into the book elicited an "ooh, I want to try that" response. I was reminded that there is a small thrill in finding the freshest of ingrediants and this book celebrates those ingrediants with recipes that seem eminently do-able. Between Jim Stott and Jonathan King's stylish approach and Kathy's irresistable writing, they have produced a gorgeous cookbook.

Old books are better than new books and this book is the best example I can think of. The author only had 8 yrs of education and yet it's better than any modern book I've read. It's shows the amazing guide hand of Divine Providence in the life Captain James Riley and the Arab that bought him upon the desert of the Saharah. After reading this book no liberal activist can claim that slavery only affected the black race or was only perpetrated by white people, nor could anyone deny the existence of God. From the beginning of this book to the very end God interceeded and guided James Riley back to his loved ones and into the safe arms of a Christian nation. This book should be required reading in public school and would make a wonderful supplement for home schoolers as well. The amazing sufferings upon the desert suffered by Riley and his crew are horrific and not for the squeamish, but it's hard to complain about your own minor sufferings in life after reading this book. If you only read one book in your life besides the King James Bible it should be this one.

Great and rapid service. Book was exactly as promised. We will definitely use this seller again.

As the previous reviewer already stated, Abraham Lincoln considered this book important and influential. Centuries later, and it has clearly stood the test of time, and should be considered a classic by any standard. James Riley's tale is one that has to be seen to be believed. Sold in to slavery, staved, Riley and his crew faced insurmountable odds, and beat every one of them. This is a must-read.

Travel back to the mindset of the early 19th century, when racism was the rule and God was thought to intercede on the behalf of white men shipwrecked in the midst of savage brown men. The first few chapters are hard to believe. However, if you assume that James Riley is honestly recounting what he believes happened to him, the story exposes the background of racist, Eurocentric, and religious bigotry that soaked American and European thought of that era.

Despite the difficult to swallow constant referrals to the general color of skin of each an every character Captain Riley encounters, as well as his unbelievable description of "savage" Africans as "orangutan-like" beasts, the book is a compelling read that you will not be able to put down. While Riley never overcomes his racism towards the darker Africans, the story reveals a transformation in his estimation of Arabs and Muslims which is instructive in our present era where Arabs and Muslims are denigrated and misunderstood.

If you love a book you cannot put down, this is the book for you.

I was surprised I'd never heard of this book, supposedly one of the books Abraham Lincoln considered influential. It is the true story of an American sea captain who is shipwrecked and taken prisoner, then enslaved, by Arabs. Through his ingenious bargaining and a leap of faith, he convinces and Arab trader to trade all of his goods for the captain and some companions from his ship. He convinces the trader to take them across the Sahara, which means not only braving heat, hunger and thirst, but fighting off would be thieves as well.

The captain promises that there is a reward, that there is someone willing to pay a ransom when they get across the Sahara. The problem is, this isn't true - the Captain knows no one in the city they are headed to. The Captain and trader have made a deal that if the ransom isn't paid, the crewman will be sold as slaves and the Captain will be killed. The Captain is a linguist and learns enough Arabic to converse and to learn. He relates the tale of what happened, which is a true page turner, and the stories he hears from the Arabs. While this is an old book with a few old expressions and some racial terms no longer in use, I think it's clear that the Captain is not at heart a racist; he saw people of all colors as people. While he didn't like slavery, it was the way things were, and he accepted his fate as a slave without railing against the institution itself. Rather, he documents what happens, and makes some observations. Overall, it's a very interesting read.