Morrison Books

Bear Any Burden is a compelling, fast-paced story that draws from contemporary history to create characters that are very well developed and that capture your imagination and make you care about them. The story rolls along at a wonderful pace, describing historical events in such great detail that you live them with the characters and feel their emotions as the story develops. By the end of the book, you care deeply about each of the characters and will wait eagerly for the next installment to find out how their lives develop.

Bear Any Burden - It's 1983 and with the Cold War at its height, Sir Alex Campbell, head of an international drinks company, is on a business trip to Poland, a country in the midst of political turmoil. He has agreed to complete an additional mission, a "little job," for the British Secret Intelligence Services. He will deliver an airline bag, containing money and passports to a British agent, who will then help the world-renowned nuclear scientist, Dr. Erik Keller, escape across the Iron Curtain to the West.

Thus, begins a terrific story penned by a new author. It is as much an Espionage Thriller as it is a family saga covering 90 years of European history. The story moves smoothly back and forth between the eras, with great characters, good pacing, and lively action, keeping the reader guessing until the very end.

Ellis Goodman has penned a thoroughly compelling novel, driven by powerful characters, who come alive in this intensely plotted thriller.

This a very compelling story: family saga, suspense, thriller, and romance. I can hardly put the book down. Key charactors' family history and the happenings of the present (1980s) blend well together, taking this reader for an informative yet entertaining ride. Hope the author will write a sequel--let us know if Dr. Keller survives the shooting in the end, what action Anna will take next, and whether Sir Alex will continue to do the "little jobs" for "Queen and country" and the British Secret Intelligence Services after risking his life for one of these "jobs"?

I had been told that this book was based on actual events, and, this story is much like the recent highly successful Television series "The Company" with Alfred Molina and Michael Keaton, concerning a span of decades in the CIA and the KGB.
Mr. Goodman's novel is well written, and though chapters go between time periods, the story is assembled in a way that keeps the suspense of the story up pretty well. The synopsis from the back of the book sums up the plot without giving it away.

"1983: The Cold War is at its height. Sir Alex Campbell, head of an international drinks company is on a business trip to Poland, a country in the midst of political turmoil. A new "Solidarity" movement is rising on the streets, and the Communist government is cracking down mercilessly. Alex Campbell has an additional mission, a "little job" for the British Secret Intelligence Services. He will deliver an airline bag containing money and passports to a British agent who is to help the world-renowned nuclear scientist, Dr. Erik Keller, escape across the Iron Curtain to the West.

Alex meets the beautiful Anna Kaluza, the British agent, whose life, like his and that of Erik Keller, had been impacted forever by her World War II experiences. He agrees to help her complete her mission.

What begins as one of many routine "little jobs" Alex has done for the SIS, quickly turns into an increasingly dangerous game of cat-and-mouse, involving murder, bribery, and international politics. His involvement in Dr. Keller's defection becomes a journey into his own past, as Alex has to face his family's history and, ultimately, his own self. Faced with the specter of oppression, he has to ask himself one question: What do you do? Do you turn and run? Or do you "pay any price and bear any burden" for liberty and freedom?

"Bear Any Burden" is a gripping page-turner, full of twists and turns and surprises as much a spy story as an epic family saga, spanning decades and continents, from 19th Century Poland all the way to the height of the Cold War. A richly complex thriller in the tradition of Graham Greene and John le Carré, posing urgent and timeless questions of family, loyalty and liberty.

First let me say, I had 3 books on this topic and none ofthem were as good as this one. Of the ones I've seen this is the best at trying to understand the concepts here but I must admit I'm still a bit lost. There are great pictures throughout as well as some exercises to figure out what profile you are (I also found one on the web that was a bit better). I'm only giving it 3 stars because I think the information needs to be linked together better but like I said, its the best book I've found so far. So, for the beginner I'd look around but if you don't find another that appeals to you then come back and try out this one. I think its very complete, its just difficult information to convey.

There are so many books about Ayurveda now and this is still my favorite to introduce the topic to new people. The illustrations are great, the explanations straightforward and yet there is still a nice depth to her knowledge.

Ayurveda offers a wholistic paradigm that addresses all parts of our selves, differing from the western approach that attempts to compartmentalize our bodies and lives. A book like this can lead us to know ourselves better and start us on the road to good health and inner peace.

I love this book. I even lent it out and forgot who it got passed around to and re-bought it. The way this book is laid out makes it so easy to reference. It is not a book for the student who has lots of knowledge/experience. For the lay-person it is a must. Also it makes a great gift. This is the book which expanded my interest in Ayurveda (and yoga). I refer to it often when I fall off track. It provides a dosha assessment test and an extensive list of foods along with some important recipes. Also it is a great book to flip through when you need to be reminded of some important dos and don'ts of eating, exercise, sleeping habits, etc. This was the best [$$] I ever invested. Or...RE-invested, that is.

This is often the first book I loan to friends who are interested in learning about Ayurveda(I own two copies!). The photographs and illustraitons flesh out concepts that are hard to grasp with words alone. Holistic in its approach, this excelent introduction also contains a good deal of information that can be put into immediate use. More than worth the price.

After reading this book I was empowered to go forth and discover the purpose God has for my life. This book is wonderful and you cannot read it and remain the same. It is life changing.

This book is a very poignant account of a personal life experience that affirms ones faith in God. It stimulated my faith and reminded me that God IS omnipotent and that the real life challenges he allows us to experience, although it sometimes causes our faith to waver, the demonstration of his miraculous power lets us declare a testimony of victory.

This book will help you to be encouraged, especially when GOD makes a promise to you. HE does not forget! This book is an easy read and you feel as though you are with the author as she deals with the trials of the birth of her only son. Excellant!

this book encouraged me when I was at a low point in my life. It gave me hope to know that I can make it inspite of my challenges. It helped me to believe!

This book happens to be one of the only studies that Dr. Coleman Hatfield recommended at one of the talks I attended. Dr. Hatfield is the great-grandson of Devil Anse and is quite a history scholar in his own right -- and the author of "THE TALE OF THE DEVIL" the first and only biography of Devil Anse Hatfield.

Waller has meticulously studied the subject matter, and it's worth reading. And American tragedy.

Waller has a done a spectacular job of recreating this now infamous event, seperating fact from myth and rebutting many of the stereotypes that were perpetrated about the feud by the Northern press that glamorized it. As a native of Pike County, Kentucky and a distant relative of many involved in this feud, I found the text most informative. It is also accesible to anyone who is not from Appalachia or who is not versed in its history.

Dr. Waller attempts to get past the "traditional accounts", usually assembled from the newspaper and popular accounts of the time, but falls into one error which confounds the rest of her presentation: she found a great deal of information for the Hatfield family and for the West Virginia side of the river, but not as much for the Kentucky side and she generalized about the second using what she learned from the first. While the book was exceptionally well-researched, some information was overlooked or missed. Professor Waller unfortunately accepts the claim that the Tug Valley was a Confederate stronghold. However, only the West Virginia side of the river was strongly Confederate in its sympathies. The Kentucky side of the river contained a large number of Union veterans (possibly as many as a hundred or more men from this area joined the Federal army), and, in fact, in Pike County the area bordering the river was the most loyal in the entire county (post-war voting records reveal the largest percentages of Republican voters in the two precincts which were part of the Tug Valley). Waller's initial conclusions lead her to dismiss the Civil War connections of the feud. She was apparently unaware of the high degree of Unionism in the region and how it may have contributed to what could have been a continuation of the 1861-1865 warfare on the border, despite the alleged thirteen- and five-year respites. While it is well-known that Hatfield and his kin were Confederate veterans (though there is a justifiable dispute as to whether Devil Anse was actually a member of the Logan Wildcats), and it is also known that many of the McCoys had served in gray with the Hatfields, in the later phases of the feud (aptly identified by Dr. Waller) the participation of several former Union veterans or their sons in the fighting against the Hatfields indicates a significant Civil War connection. The evidence that the feuding was a carryover from the war is substantial and cannot be dismissed.

It has long been assumed that the famous feud between the Hatfields and McCoys in the 1880's was a family affair between two clans of primitive hillbillies. In Feud: Hatfields, McCoys, and Social Change in Appalachia, 1860-1900, Altina Waller argues that this view is nothing less than folklore, and the historical reality of the feud has been all but lost. Her work successfully explodes the myths that have surrounded the feuding Hatfields and McCoys.

In her introduction, Professor Waller discusses the previous interpretations of the feud. The first states that, "the feud and the culture from which it emerged were anachronisms in modern society" and "they represented a primitive way of life which had somehow been preserved in much the same way that prehistoric fossils are preserved." The second school of thought suggests that the feud was a result of the transformation that was occurring in the region due to the "onslaught of industrialization." Waller rejects both of these interpretations because of three aspects of the feud that she has identified as violence, family, and timing. Waller has concluded after much research that "in the 1870s and 1880s, the Tug Valley may have been boisterous and rowdy, but it was far from dangerous" and that "something unusual was happening eithin this particular community which drove a few individuals and families to resort to extreme measures." And Waller discounts the family explanation because " supportersof the Hatfields and of the Mccoys consisted of numerous individuals unrelated to those families; in fact, more than half of each group were unrelated to the feud leaders. More puzzling, there were McCoys on the Hatfield side and Hatfields on the McCoy side." Waller rejects also that the feud was caused by the Civil War. She dates the feud from 1878-1900, and identifies two phases with a five year interim. Waller offers that the feud must be examined internally and also in the light of regional and national trends.

The Tug Valley in the years following the Civil War underwent profound changes. Due to rapid growth in population and the finite agricultural resources available in the Valley, a sort of greedy desperation began to emerge in the character of some inhabitants of the Tug Valley. Also at this time outside interest in the vast resources of the Appalachias was taking the form of big money men and local agents purchasing huge tracts of land in order to exploit the mountains for their coal and timber. Gradually the mountaineer was transformed from an inependent farmer to an impoverished wage laborer. attempting to buck this trend is none other than Devil Anse Hatfield. Through hard work and some crafty legal maneuvers, Anse becomes proprieter of a sizable timber busines. And in the process incurs the wrath of Old Ranel McCoy and Perry Cline. Old Ranel through his own foolishness has not prospered, and Anse has bested Cline in a court action and removed him from his lands, which are then awarded to Anse. This is what Professor Waller has discovered to be the crux of the feud--economic power and control and its resultant societal implications. Anse has climbed the ladder while others have watched, and they are jealous.

These truths were initially lost because of the sensational handling of the feud by the newspapers of the day. Altina Waller has been successful in separating the myths from the reality. She states in conclusion that, "the feudists were struggling with the same historical forces of transformation that had been changing Americal since before the American Revolution." This is the larger picture.

My wife and I are planning our vacation to Maine for late Summer '06. We enjoyed the book, pictures, and suggestions for "great pictures."
We'll see how it goes!

David Middleton and Bruce Morrison have created a very insightful guide to coastal Maine photographic "hot spots". I am a professional photographer based in Maine, and while I am quite familiar with most of the places mentioned in this book I was pleasantly surprised to find out about others I had overlooked or was not aware of. (I also have a few secret spots of my own that did not crop up in the book..thankfully... but that's what makes this fun - a guidebook is best put to use as a springboard for further exploration.)

Photographers who live in Maine or are planning to visit coastal Maine will find much to enjoy here. You couldn't ask for a better resource. Even non-photographer types would do well to mine the gems of this book for general sightseeing and hiking tips.
Middleton and Morrison put you smack dab in the middle of great photo opportunities. A bit of a warning here: after you get a copy of this book you will feel a sudden and intense urge to be out on the Maine coast with your camera.

PS - Middleton's guide to Vermont photo sites is excellent as well.

We followed his book to the letter and a great book with valuable infomation. Would recommend this book for anyone traveling to Maine and who likes Lighthouses. Wonderful and helpful tips.

This is a good guidebook. It has enough detail/description to allow one to rationally select "likely sites" without being overpowering. However, there are an number of annoying editing errors present. (For example, every time the text reads "this place is 0.05 mile beyond that place", what's really meant is "0.5 mile". This is wrong in every place it's mentioned!)

The author i think did well in supporting his view and the way he did it for me is quite good. However, it really did not met my expectations when i was just intending to buy it. I hope that he had explained everything more deeply and more theological. What i have observed is that he more or less just gathered all the texts that can support the subject being treated but have not established it doctrinally deep. Not much a work of a theologian for me, but it is a book that one should have in his shelf.

I actually got disfellowshipped from WCG 10 years ago for saying what is in this book.

My problem was that the 10 Commandments are good and holy.
But the 4th commandment (the Sabbath) is not really kept by anyone properly not even by old school WCG'ers. We'd light fires on the Sabbath by driving our cars (combustion egines no?). We'd go to restaurants and order food and make other people work (but we wouldn't order pork). etc... So we weren't keeping the sabbath. But James 2:10 says whoever breaks one law breaks them all. So I thought why keep any? Wrote a paper and got the axe.

It seemed pointless to sort of keep the law to me. But this book shows how the law is really to be kept now by listening to the Holy Spirit and letting the author of the law tell you what he wants kept instead of arguing with lawyers about how to keep an obsolete set of ordinances.

Wonderful book -- this thing will set you free in your spiritual journey and remove the bondage of being a flesh driven lawyer condeming the world.
That used to be my hobby once upon a time!

Wonderful work Michael!


Buy this now!

There are many laws in the Bible - some pertain only to Israel, others being moral laws are forwarded into the New Testament. There is a commentary chapter on the book of Hebrews that clarifies for the reader what constitutes the Old and New Covenants. It addresses the history of Jewish customs & laws that non-Jewish converts to the Christian faith do not follow - things such as circumcision, sabbath keeping, festivals, dietary laws, etc. It attempts to explain the reason for such laws; one being that they pre-figured or had their fulfillment in Christ & his ministry. Other obsolete laws were designed to keep the Jews separated from other races. There is a detailed discussion of the early church and the Jerusalem council that decided that the Gentiles need no conform to Mosaic laws. Overall, the book is easy reading; designed for the lay person as it does not involve itself with advanced theological terms useful only to the trained ministers. I highly recommend it if one is doing a study on the sabbath and archaic jewish customs and laws.

As someone who has also been on both sides of the 7th Day Sabbath fence, I found this well thought out book to be clear and strongly rooted in scripture.

If you have questions about the Law that was given in the Old Testament, this is an outstanding resource.

This one and the next one I'm going to pick up, is letting me know what I miss.

Got the 1st Volume, so naturally had to get the second. And waiting for more.

IMPORTANT MESSAGE: READER BEWARE: This volume requires you to read outside mini-series.
- Violator, Angela, Spawn: Blood Feud, and Youngblood issues 7 & 8

OK, Let me just start by saying that I've been on the Spawn-wagon since day 1.
I have the entire series in comic format.
All the mini-series & spin-off's.
Basically every comic he's ever appeared in.
So trust me when I say, that this volume as it is, is incomplete.
It collects issues 13 through 33, but doesn't include any crossovers that are necessary to fill various plot holes you'll encounter.

REQUIREMENTS:

- THE VIOLATOR (Mini-Series) - Occurs during issues 21 through 23.
(As far as I can tell, there is no trade-paper-back that collects these.)

- ANGELA (Mini-Series) - Occurs between Issues 28 & 29
(This one is 100% necessary, And yes there is a TPB, but it's rare, not as rare as the comics though.)

- SPAWN: BLOOD FEUD (Mini-Series) - Occurs between issues 32 & 33
(The prelude of which can only be found in comic format, as a 6-page addition to issue #32. And once again no TPB that collects this
mini-series, which is crucial to the Spawn storyline, as many future issues refer back to this mini-series.)

- YOUNGBLLOD #7 - occurs after issue #23 - (not necessary to the plot) -You only need this issue if you want to see where Overtkill winds up after Twitch fires a bullet into his ear.

- YOUNGBLOOD #8 - occurs before issue #27
(Unfortunately this one is also necessary reading, as it contains the death of 2 major Spawn characters. I'm not gonna ruin it for you, by telling you which ones.)

In conclusion, I'd like to say,
I would've given this collection 5 stars, but it's incomplete.
Aside from which, issues 19 & 20 are retarded.
(The arc concerning Houdini as a dimensional-traveling hyper-mage,
a flying car,
and a Spawn suit that can produce anything with just a thought.)
Like I said, retarded. A stain on Spawn's reputation.
Other than that, the writing is superb, and the art is amazing.
Action-packed horror/fantasy for any comic-book junkie. Old or new.

MORAL OF THE STORY:
Even the homeless have their king.

Well, I finally received this book - so it has apparently come out finally (though spawn.com still says it came out in September). The book is HUGE and well worth the wait, and well worth the money I put out for it. I'm still delving into the Spawn mythos, so these books have been a great start for me. Get it!

I know I had read and enjoyed this (and its antecedent "The Copper Crown") before, so I read both again. Memory is not perfect, though. Though the conceit itself is interesting (Celts in Space!), and though this book is better-written than "The Copper Crown," Kennealy-Morrison is completely at a loss when it comes to describing action, location, a character's appearance (beyond the most superficial descriptions), or much of anything else. The faint whiff of racism doesn't help, either. These books are simply badly written, and much less appealing now that I'm now longer so starry-eyed about "the magickal Celts" as I once was. O.K. for a lark, but I'd check 'em out from the library rather than buy them.

The Throne of Scone is an excellent conclusion to The Copper Crown, keeping you glued to the pages as you read. I would suggest that it's better to read the Silver Branch as the last of the three, even though chronologically it takes place earlier; I believe the author wrote it after Copper Crown and Throne of Scone, and you understand the detail more when you know more about Aeron's future.

The Throne of Scone is the conclusion to the series of Aeron Keltaid books and proves its ending is as entrancing as the beginning. The whole trilogy should be read, though you could still just read this and have an enjoyable read. It's awesome and per usual with PKM you have brilliant characters and luscious descriptions of the settings (makes you want to move to keltia). This book also makes you wish Aerons saga could just go on and on --it's that good! Well worth the trouble to get yourself a copy.

An excellent conclusion to the "Aeron" series. The main protagonists are joined by a supporting cast of very interesting characters. The story provides an interesting answer to the age-old question of Arthur's fate, whether posed on Earth or Keltia. Good must triumph and evil fail, but it takes the class of a writer like kennealy to make the old story worth reading again...& again...& again. Buy it.

Blake Morrison's "As If" was this reader's favorite find of the year. Morrison finds himself compelled to view the unfolding of Liverpool's James Bulger murder trial, and in doing so is forced to assess his own life in relation to what it means to grow up "normally". Who is truly guilty or innocent in this shocking act of two ten-year olds murdering a two-year old? He says he must determine the "why" of the crime. As we sink with him into the morass, we find that the answer becomes more and more elusive, and we wonder how different these families are from yours or mine.

In Liverpool, two ten year old boys have murdered a two year old boy. They encountered him - they did not know him before - in a shopping square, took him by the hand, walked him two miles to the train tracks, and bashed his skull in with bricks (and some suspect, sexually abused him). The two year old boy allegedly did not put up much fight the entire way. He was two, and two year olds are trusting.

Blake Morrison, an Englishman and father of three, was asked by the New Yorker magazine to cover and write about the trial. Morrison is interested first and foremost in one thing: the Why. What would make two ten year old boys (both were troublemakers) decide to kill a two year old stranger? Is the answer in their family history, their genetic predisposition, the movies they were watching (Child's Play 3), or what? That quest to find The Why is what this book is primarily about.

Along with an account of the very short and relatively unclimactic trial we get ruminations on childhood, parenting, the 'nature' of evil, and even the justice system. Morrison is quite good at this, and where many would come off sounding like an amalgamation of plattitudes, Morrison really does have something to say on all of these subjects.

Yet, what bugged me - and bugged me it did - was that Morrison is too 'literary' for his own good. Every sentence finds Morrison trying to be witty and poetic, outdoing the last. There is a time and a place for this kind of spakly writing, but, to my eyes, this was decidedly not the venue for it (at least, keep the floweriness in moderation!).

The other complaint was that while Morrison is an above-average ruminator, anyone looking for a 'trial story' will be disappointed by this book. The book is probably 1/3 trial and 2/3 reflection and rumination. And it does, to be honest, tend to drag because of that.

So, to sum up, "As If" is an average book and I cannot say I am suprised to see it (seemingly) out of print. It is a book that will be hard pressed to hold the interest of any but the most patient or intrigued readers.

I bought this novel in the summer while I was in England. A few weeks ago, when I was looking for a book to read, I came across As If on my book shelf. Since then I have read it three times. Morrison made me ask questions of myself and of society that I would have never asked otherwise. He explains the trial, not only in a factual manner, but in an extrordinarily philosophical way as well.

With book could stand alone simply on visuals. But there's also a story to string together these painting from the popluar trading card set. And then they have the writer & artists giving their plans/opinions/methods on every single painting. I was very pleased with this book especially with the some of the low used amazon prices.

The book has a great collection of art work and good reading

The artwork in the book is astounding and the story is riveting - even better than some Batman comic books I've read. It's a reflection the Dark Knight's universe as a whole with an intricate storyline that you'd think wasn't possible for a set of trading cards. I recommend this for anyone interested in Batman, great art, an interesting story, or any combination of the above.