Stuart Books

The late Stuart Munro-Hay was the world's foremost Aksum historian and arguably the world's most knowledgable scholar on anything related to the so-called Ark of the Covenant. His work leaves in the dust all the popular works by such pseudo-scholars as Laurence Gardner (who once applied to work as Munro-Hay's research assistant and was turned down for lack of credentials).

The work covers much more than just Ark history, digging deep into Ethiopia's past, and as such is highly recommended for anyone in Ethiopian studies.

For the serious scholar of Ethiopia and medieval African texts, this book is essential. The title of this book is unfortunate in that regard. Billed as something populist (for the Ark of the Covenant obsessed), it is actually something much more. It would have been better titled something like "Twenty Centures of Primary Sources related to the Ethiopian Text Kebra Nagast (The Glory of the Kings)." The late Munro-Hay has done something extraordinary for scholars, he has put together a library of primary sources, many of them never before translated into English, never cited in books about Ethiopia, or never checked in the original. I am in awe of the archival work he has done. Many scholars without access to archives in Portugal, Spain, Italy, England, or Ethiopia will be very grateful to Munro-Hay's exhaustive list of African, Middle Eastern, and European texts that discuss the Kebra Nagast. He uses these to make an incredibly well-thought out argument about the actual dates of the Kebra Nagast and the many stories it contains. Although he concludes that the ark of the covenant was not in Aksum, he provides so many of the primary sources that others inclined otherwise can use his own work to argue with him. Perhaps most important, he does support very early datings of versions of the Kebra Nagast, in particular a very early date for the first versions of stories about the encounter between Solomon and Sheba resulting in a child that became the beginning of an Ethiopian dynasty. Although the book has a slightly rushed-into-print feel (the sources are not always as fully documented in the text the first time they appear) this is a small flaw in what is really a towering achievement.

The editors, Rick Wolffe, Bob Trebus and Stuart Wolffe have produced their second of a three book series on A.W. Tillinghast. This book, "Reminiscences of the Links" is even richer than the first ("The Course Beautiful") with terrific photographs, revolutionary writing and astonishing admissions. Like Tillie taking a 17 on the closing hole at the Garden City Invitational, the incident regarding Johnny McDermott at Shawnee, or his suggestion that someday Bethpage will rank as one of the great golfing meccas of the world. It may have taken awhile for that prediction to come true but by the time the Open rolls around there will be few who will dispute it. And where else can you find the original routing plan for all the courses and such early photos of play on the Black? Good job, fellas! -- Bob Labbance, Editor for The Golf Collector's Society.

Having restored and modernized more Tillinghast layouts than any of us Rees Jones states in an introductory paragraph "A.W. Tillinghast was pure genius" while Ben Crenshaw in a companion paragraph says "he was an individualist to say the least. American golf was fortunate to have him around in the early stages."

Our profession (golf architecture) is indebted to the editors for their second volume of Tillinghast essays. It is to be followed by a third title within two years entitled GLEANINGS FROM THE WAYSIDE. (I think the first, THE COURSE BEAUTIFUL is still available.)

Frank Hannigan says in the foreword that golf architecture is an art form requiring engineering expertise mixed with 19th century principles of landscape design. Vision is also required in the creation of golf courses as it was in the creations by Olmstead and other 19th century landscape architects.

Somehow Tilly's essays demonstrate this. Reading them and studying the descriptive illustrations one reaches that conclusion.

REMINISCENCES...... IS A WORK WORTHY OF STUDY AND A PLACE IN ALL OUR LIBRARIES AND AS A GIFT TO CLIENTS AND OTHERS. We urge members to obtain it and if still available THE COURSE BEAUTIFUL. This trilogy will live and could influence our profession far into the future, because the three volumes will be studied by all seeking the upward progress of our profession which must be one of the most intriguing ever practiced. As Rees and Ben indicate, Tilly ranks among its most unique practioners.

-- Geoffrey S. Cornish, Historian, American Society of Golf Course Architects

It isn't often I come across a book that meets me where I am at in life. This one is very straight forward as well as helpful. When I have questions about ministry life I can turn to it for help and information. I have loaned my copy of this book to several pastors wives who found it just as helpful. Every pastors wife should read this one! Especially those just starting out in ministry.

As a pastor's wife, it is often very difficult to find someone who you can talk to about the things that concern you, especially when it relates to how you deal with your spouse. This book uniquely encourages the ministry spouse to continue in her own ministry while be a support to the calling that God has placed on her husband. Jill's unique insight in the mind and heart of the ministry spouse makes her feel as if she is as close to you as the next breath.

The rich get richer, the poor get poorer. In our cynical, ever more unequal world, this old saw seems to convincingly describe the eternal way of the world.

But the world doesn't necessarily always work that way, as Stewart Lansley helps us understand in his absorbing new book, Rich Britain: The rise and rise of the new super-wealthy. In the mid 20th century, Lansley relates, the British rich actually became distinctly less rich and the British poor distinctly less poor.

Now that situation has reversed, and that reversal raises a question that desperately needs asking: Was the "Great Compression" of the mid 20th century some sort of a never-to-be-repeated accident of history -- or an inspiring example of what any society, given a deep enough commitment to greater equality, can accomplish?

Rich Britain explores this question by focusing in on the economic, social, and political evolution of the contemporary UK.

Advocates for justice, Rich Britain contends, need to recognize that decency demands more than "a minimum living standard below which it would be socially unacceptable for people to have to live." Decency may well also demand a "ceiling at the top," a "norm" about what constitutes "an acceptable limit" of income and wealth.

Without such a limit, the wealthiest in Britain -- and any other deeply unequal society -- will continue "to lead segregated lives, unaware of the reality of everyday life, increasingly divorced from common experience and independent of the society that enabled them to build the wealth that gives them the choices denied to most of the population."

Rich Britain discusses, in its final pages, a variety of approaches that could impact this "issue of distribution." But Lansley offers his countrymen and women no guarantees for success should his specific policy initiatives be followed. Events may simply be moving too swiftly in the wrong direction.

"It may well be that we are already on course for creating a detached and insular super-class, a parallel at the top to the `underclass' at the bottom," he concludes. "That is certainly a strong and possibly irreversible trend in the United States, a society where the very rich exercise considerable political power for their own benefit."

For our own benefit, in the UK, the United States, and across the world, we need to expand the discussion Rich Britain so potently encourages.

[Excerpted from a longer review that originally appeared in Too Much, the online weekly newsletter on excess and inequality [...].

Under Labour, from 1997 to 2002, the number of Britons with more than £5 million in `liquid assets' rose by 13% a year. Between 2002 and 2004, the number rose again by 50%.

The richest 45,000 people, 0.1% of the population, now own a third of all liquid assets; the richest 1% own 62%. From 1979 to 1999, the richest 1%'s share of gross income doubled from 6.5% to 13%. While their share has risen, that of the bottom 5% has fallen, from 10% in 1986 to 6% in 2002. The rich stay rich, and get richer; the poor stay poor, and get poorer. This growing inequality makes British society less mobile. The USA, Britain and South Africa, the world's most unequal societies, have the least social mobility.

Stock markets boom, interest rates and tax rates fall, top salaries, land values and property values soar. The gainers are a few thousand chief executives, City dealers, property developers, investment fund managers, landowning aristocrats (80% of the EU's £36 billion Common Agricultural Policy funds go to the richest 20% of landowners), commercial lawyers and bankers. This whole process is part of the counter-revolution started by Thatcher and continued by Blair.

From 2000 to 2004, the pay, including bonuses and long-term incentive plans, of top executives at Britain's biggest companies more than doubled. By 2004, the average remuneration of a top 100 chief executive was £2.5 million - some 113 times that of the average British worker. They claim that their private greed benefits us all.

But this soaring pay is not due to greater entrepreneurialism, tightening global or national markets, exceptional skills, or better company performances. Over the same period, from 2000 to 2004, the FTSE 100 index fell by around a third while average earnings rose by only 13%. Britain has a lower rate of innovative activity within firms than France, Germany or Spain, and in productivity growth we are only 15th out of the 30 richest countries.

"Welcome to the City - the biggest crooked casino in the world." In the last 20 years, the City and Wall Street have creamed off £100 billion by rigging capital markets. In this a corporate cartel, the top 50 fund managers control three quarters of London's stock market. The best way to raise share prices is to sack staff. As the Daily Telegraph put it, "fat cats get fatter while the savers suffer." Financial firms' fees from mergers and acquisitions, which destroy value and jobs, are known as `the croupier's take'. A City `star' admitted, "I could not believe that anyone would want to pay me so much for creating nothing."

The capitalists' last line of defence is to claim that their tax contribution justifies their wealth. Yet Britain is a tax haven for the very rich. The revenue stolen from Britain through tax avoidance is possibly £85 billion a year. The accountancy firm KPMG has 400 off-the-shelf tax avoidance `products'. Only Britain and Ireland allow non-domiciliary status to the rich, whereby they only pay tax on domestically-derived income. Other countries collect tax on all their residents. Our tax system has been regressive since 1985. In 2002, the richest fifth of the population paid 35% of their income in tax, the poorest fifth 37.9%.

For the very rich, tax is voluntary. For example, the owner of Harrods, Mohamed Al-Fayed, made a secret tax deal with the Inland Revenue in 1985 that he would pay just £240,000 a year - he should pay £6 million! The state lets him steal £5,760,000 a year. On top of this, Al-Fayed arranged for £100 million to be paid him in dividends, between 1995 and 1998 alone, to a tax-free offshore trust in Bermuda.

There are millions of similar offshore companies designed to avoid tax. They hold an estimated $11 trillion. Rupert Murdoch, Richard Branson and Bill Gates all use them. A third of the world's entire GDP flows through them.

The working class produces all this wealth, creating the income of the rich. In return, the capitalists steal their cuts from every aspect of life - work, housing, saving.

This book is terrific. I usually re-read it every year or two. It gives you an idea of the groveling and sniveling intrigue, and treachery that went on in the Tudor court. A fine read.

Even at the highest levels of the royal court, Tudor government involved a great deal more than three kings and two (or three) queens. Interwoven with and surrounding the Tudors were eight other great families who supplied queen consorts, mistresses, courtiers, generals and admirals, high state officials, and ambassadors -- the Brandons, Greys, Howards, Seymours, Dudleys, Cecils, Talbots, Sidneys, and Devereux - who were also complexly related among themselves. This era often seems more of a soap opera than any other period in the history of the English monarchy, filled as it was with wealth and poverty, ambition and failure, crownings and beheadings, high statesmanship and low cunning -- and, everywhere, politics. On more than a few occasions, these families were willing to sacrifice their sons and daughters in their quest for power. And what makes this period accessible to modern readers was the development during the English Renaissance of letter-writing as we know it. Great quantities of 15th and 16th century correspondence have survived to detail every aspect of private and public business, personal opinions, pleas for mercy, and jockeying for power. The second major theme of this volume is the constant replenishing of the nobility by the gentry since, on average, noble families lasted only three generations. Hence, Charles Brandon, best buddy of Henry VIII, who went from gentleman to duke in five years, largely on the strength of his engaging personality. The Howards also went up, down, and up again in less than two generations and have retained the Earl Marshal's baton ever since. And, though he left no progeny, Thomas Wolsey typifies the self-made man: from humbly-born cleric to Bishop of Lincoln to Archbishop of York, Cardinal, and Chancellor of England. A beautifully illustrated and very readable book.

i enjoyed this book so much, I just ordered copies for all of my music-loving friends. Very fun read.

This is a fun book with great stories. I enjoyed the writing and the selection of events in "history."

This definitely my stocking-stuffer for the holidays.

A delightful, change-of-pace story from Anne Stuart. He is no madman, a killer, insane, or a dabbler in the Black Arts, this Stuart hero is an alpha-male, not one of her dark gamma-rogues who live outside the laws of man. In fact, he is a man of the law, a policeman from Chicago. After a long two-year manhunt for a serial killer, Matthew Connelly wants only to heal from the death of his partner and the terrible gunshot wound to his hip. Even more, he wants solitude to heal his troubled soul. He comes to an isolated island off the coast of Maine, figuring this to be the perfect place to be alone with himself and face his inner demons.

The last thing Matthew wants is a romance, especially with a sassy little redhead who lives just down the beach. The minute he caught sight of Jeannie MacPherson standing in his kitchen, he knew she was going to be trouble. She is not his type.
He likes big, buxom blondes, not a pert little redhead that won't take the hint he does not want her TLC. In the following weeks on the island, she keeps invading his solitude, with baked bread, muffins and the mothering that he really resents,
though at times he really needs.

Jeannie is on retreat as well, but it has stretched to a two-year long sojourn, but at thirty-one, her biological clock is ticking. She wants kids to mother, a man to love her, and she figures after one look, Matthew is not the man for those dreams. Only, something keeps pulling her back. Unable to resist him, she has a torrid affair with him, hoping that it will turn into something more.

Very wealthy, she is co-partners of a national ice cream franchise, and when she is called away for a week on business, she tells Matthew she will be back on the island on the following Thursday. Instead, she rushes home on Monday to find Matthew sneaking off the island. Jeannie is devastated that he was not even going to tell her he was leaving. In a fit, she tossed a lobster trap at him breaking a couple ribs and his wrist.

Matthew accepts a temporary position as a Police Chief of a growing resort town in Colorado. He figures it will give him time to finish healing, and sort out what he wants to do with his life. Also, give him time to heal from his brush with Jeannie. He plans on giving it five months, to see if he can put the nightmare of being a cop behind him, before seeking out Jeannie again, and seeing if he can build a relationship with her. Only, Jeannie is not about to give him time. She comes to town under the guise of putting in an ice cream factory and proceeds to show Matt there is no escaping her. Jeannie does everything to get Matthews attention, even to stealing his police car, daring him to arrest her.

The story is a bit lighter than some Stuart's typical dark and deadly tales, with some charming humor tossed in the mix. Matthew and Jeannie are vivid characters that will enchant you from beginning to end.

Definitely a comfort book - I read this everytime I want to relax and have a chuckle. Jeannie MacPherson is the "nun" of Muscatoon island - small, red-headed and perky. Matthew Connelly is surly, cynical and absolutely gorgeous. Sparks fly when the convalescing cop encounters the perkily cheerful Jeannie. The dialogue in this book is hilarious and Matthew's appalling painting skills are described with deliciously wicked humour. This is one of those great books that makes you laugh out loud at the antics of the characters!

While this book does not have as many readings as Andrew Sullivan's _Gay Marriage: Pro and Con_, and while several of the readings exist in both books, it does contain much more scholarly information, such as court decisions and theological papers pertaining to the same-sex marriage debate. In addition to pieces such as Daniel Maguire's lengthy essay, "The Morality of Homosexual Marriage," which includes a fascinating introduction to the theory of probabilism (a theory which I have seen fit to wholeheartedly adopt in my own ethical writings), it also provides equally reasoned and researched arguments from the detractors of same-sex marriage, which I have been hard pressed to find elsewhere, that position having been mostly presented as self-evident.

The debate regarding same-sex marriages appears as if it will be a huge issue in 2004. For example,at the courthouse in San Francisco performed over 400 marriages (same sex) on February 14, 2004. They normally only perform a little over 400 weddings (opposite sex) a month. This means that many gay couples are committed to each other and want to make it legal in the eyes of the law.

This book takes many point of views - some extremists that feel same-sex marriage will ruin their own heterosexual marriages. Lesbians who feel that the idea of marriage is outdated and repressive to the females involved in it. And some folks who seem to have given this issue a bit more thought and express their viewpoints well.

No matter where you stand on this important issue, you will find an essay that will reflect your view. I would suggest you also read the other essays to find out how other people feel about the issue so when it comes down to debating this hot topic, you will know the various opinions of your supporters as well as your opponents. You'll be able to state your case in a way that should be able to get your point across. I recommend this book highly.

Every culture should have to face its own shame. Unfortunately, shame is a variable concept according to the times, and the ability of the culture to properly identify what is shameful, who can be shameful, and the events that constitute a shameful event. Prior to the 1960's and 1970's nearly everything was "shameful," in that women without gloves, and men without hats were considered shameful. Characterized much as the course of civil rights and the recognition of individual rights for humans, shame has always been a public evaluation, and measured by group politics so that propriety became the urge to resist, if not to rebel against. In a shameful culture, inhumane things were possible - lynchings, torture, animal sacrifices, etc. - even while upon the surface, propriety was worn like a badge of honor. The hypocrisy revealed in years hence, is that shame did not exist where it was private or unrevealed, adding to a culture where transparency became the idol rather than to embrace the boundaries of what constituted shame. Fortunately, America has moved beyond the narrowminded principles that so bound one to another that behavior and conduct, as well as dress, has been allowed a degree of freedom that embraces the ideas of difference so people need not examine each and every action, including speech, that brands them improper. While there are a few, generally job related, environments where rigid and shame-oriented cultures prevail, the concept of freedom has taken on greater significance recently as a privilege, if not a right, provided no laws are broken. This healthier environment that honors the individual works for all persons previously discriminated against, and offers breathing room for those who were not quite attuned to the proprieties of life who were interested in watching their every movement to be evaluated by the group or community. Neither healthy relationships nor flexibility in thinking were aided by former designs of acceptance, and many were condemned by society for that reason, many of whom were simply responding to their own unique social environment, or ethnic environment. While guilt still survives as an effort to restrain, it is fortunately much less likely to be the "blackball" it was years earlier, allowing everyone to breathe much easier. Coming through that period of gender bias, racial bias, ethnic bias, and even religious bias is not totally behind us, but great progress has been made to minimize the importance of those effects. We now are making inroads and efforts at behavior or conduct bias by everyone to overcome the tendency to typecast persons by superfluous events that are not considered within the mainstream but still cognizant of safety, and dignity in the things we do as humans, to each other, and the things we do to animals, or the environment, offering the new design of social freedom with responsibility but without social restraint, definite progress in the eyes of most people.

Saving Face is a look at American culture and identity through its early roots in shame (when you do not do something you are supposed to do) as opposed to the post-Vietnam guilt culture (when you do something that you are not supposed to do) that we have become. Schneiderman spends most of the book basing America's modern problems on the results of the War in Vietnam; not a rehash of an old subject, but a fresh insight into the modern American psyche. He hypothesizes that the country's loss of face in Vietnam was a clear result of a lack of leadership willing to face the shame and debacle of Vietnam. The vacuum of leadership willing to take responsibility for the results left the nation as scattered individuals, looking for a way to bury the past and restore self pride. Surprisingly, Schneiderman doesn't play politics and lays equal blame both on political leaders for failing to guide the country and on Americans for making poor choices in leadership. Only through self-evaluation and the bearing of shame and personal responsibility can the country as a whole preserve a national culture and move forward. This book is comparable to Philip Howard's Death of Common Sense in that both authors look for a return to personal responsibility, a culture built on respect for others, and decisionmakers who take responsibility for their decisions . Scheiderman prods the reader to "end our romance with telegenic candidates who lack the qualifications for office. We should seek leaders of unimpeachable character who command respect, not quasi-celebrities who lack a sense of shame.....Identifying the qualities we seek in those who would guide us places us in a far better position to know which qualities we should use to guide ourselves." Well put as we choose between leaders to guide the nation to the next millenium

The author takes a historical perspective of God's Grace through out the Bible starting with the more difficult place to identify Grace in the old testament, and then through Christian history. It was directed to Seventh-day Adventists but is clearly applicable to any seeking person that senses any legalistic influence. It was really thrilling to be convinced that a foundation laid by God's Grace precedes the transforming love that responds to this fact affecting behavior! An excellent guide to happiness by engulfing grace!

Are you good enough? Do you have enough faith to be saved? Stuart Tyner takes on the time-worn debate about salvation (by works or by faith?) and provides a most interesting answer - neither! We are saved by grace. It is nothing of ours - neither works nor faith - but the marvelous grace of our Lord Jesus Christ that saves us.

This well-researched and well-written book presents grace as you've probably never known it before - historically, spiritually, practically. Tyner traces grace from the eternity before the earth's creation, through the Biblical records, the early Christian church, and right up to and including the present.

He defines grace as "God doing for humans that which is impossible for us to do for ourselves." He understands grace as "a moment-by-moment reminder that God's role in our salvation is to save us, and our role is to quit trying to save ourselves." Here is another beautiful sample of his writing: "Grace is not the beginning point of the Christian journey; it is the road upon which journeying Christians walk day by day, moment by moment. Grace is not a robe Christians put on in order to be correctly dressed; it is the air Christians breathe in order to live." Wow!

A terrific individual read, Searching for the God of Grace can also serve Bible study groups well, as every chapter includes thought-provoking questions for thought and discussion. And there are still other aspects that recommend this book: a helpful glossary, a comprehensive bibliography, biographical notes, a scripture index, and a succinct subject index.