Religion Books

This is a must for all ethnic groups to read.

One problem with writing intelligent books on religion is that religion demands the author experience it. Halevi takes this difficult challenge and seeks common ground with Christians and Muslims. To find this common ground he is willing to push his boundaries, go beyond his fears to find a common ground.

In his efforts he encounters a Catholic order of religious that seeks to return to the Jewish roots of Jesus as a common ground for Jewish-Christian relations; a Catholic monk of the Melkite rite (Jerusalem rite) seeing Arab-Jewish understanding through the Arab Christian; a common ground of genocide with Armenian Christians; a common ground of love with Sufi sheiks ...

Throughout his search runs a thread of the common monotheistic underpinnings of the three major religions of Israel. A second thread is a more universal acceptance that includes the great Eastern traditions - Buddhism and Hinduism. The third thread is the history of the Jewish people and the reality of strife in Israel. Through these threads, Halevi challenges the reader to confront his or her prejudices in the political and religious arenas.

The net result is not a great book, but one I highly recommend because of the issues raised and the author's personal willingness to share his experience in addressing the issues.

The title is exact. Halevi is an extraordinary person: a mystic deeply rooted in his Jewish faith but who can share a common search for peace and religious experience with Christians, the historic persecutors of Jews, and with Muslims, who have now become the "enemy." I know three of the communities of Christians he shared with and the descriptions are accurate so I can assume the Muslim sections are just as fair. Anyone searching for religious and mystic truth that is non-violent but serious about faith and God will love this book.

Yossi Halevy thinks he is only writing about interfaith connections in the holy land, but in fact the most inspiring aspect of the book is the delicate portrait of his own faith in God, where this deep faith takes him, and the grace of goodwill and wisdom that it creates inside his soul.

I just love this guy. Starting with a simple urge to connect with his neighbors, Yossi Halevi embarks on an awkward, fascinating, dangerous journey through Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. He discovers a series of surprising characters who dream, not just of peace between Jews, Muslims and Christians, but of spiritual friendship. And the story of these fragile, budding friendships becomes an adventure of almost overwhelming power.

I want to quote from one episode, where Halevi and a madcap Jew called Eliyahu Charanamrit McLean attend a mosque in Karawa village on the West Bank:

"This mosque was a family project: Everyone here belonged to the Abu-Laben clan. They were working class people; the shaykh himself was a car mechanic.

"What do the other Muslims think of you?" Eliyahu asked.

"That we're crazy," replied Saud's father. "They think we chant the name of 'Abdallah' instead of 'Allah"". Laughter.

I asked Saud what he experienced during the zakir [or dance of remembering God]. "That our hearts kept getting closer and closer to God," he said, with the Sufi vagueness I'd so often encountered from Ibrahim. ...

Ibrahim, not to be poetically outdone, added "Our souls went up to heaven like clouds".

"When you pray together," said the shaykh's father, "you form one heart".

I felt sad for this forlorn Sufi Shteibl. Here was an Islam with which we could make peace, yet it was almost absurdly perepheral. Still, maybe the fact that a handful of Muslims and Jews had danced together was enough for God to work with; perhaps He would magnify our prayers, widen the circle of ecstasy." (p. 104-105)

Halevi is realist enough to claim no easy victories. As the level of sectarian violence rises again, his network of friends retains little but hope and prayer. It's a marvelous book.

--author of "Different Visions of Love"

The basic idea is to quit expecting other people to make you happy, and take care of your own needs. This books gives you insight on how to do that within your couple. It can also lead you to clues of how you keep making the same relationship mistakes...keeping yourself dissatisfied through the years...

I thought this would be more of an in depth self help kind of book. It wasnt. Come to find out all this authors books are pretty much the same.
Could be good for others, but wasnt what I expected at all.

This book has lots of great information that is told in a very entertaining way. Highly recommended.

This is a simple, well written book that explores "Being the Person You Want to Find" rather than finding a specific person to fill your holes. In other words, it's primarily about your relationship with the most important life partner you will ever have... YOURSELF.

If you think about it, you are your only 100% GUARANTEED life partner. This book is about looking at your beliefs, behavioral patterns and conditioning in a curious, gentle and open way toward the goal of having a comfortable relationship with yourself. The unspoken corallary to this might be and thereby... avoid projecting your stuff on to others and get involved with the wrong people unconsciously.

This book is indirectly about relationships because by being the person we want to find, we are most likely to attract healthy people who will treat us as we treat ourselves. This book also helps us to look at our conditioning as a whole, which serves our relationship goals by making our unconscious conditioning more conscious.

I have read a number of Cheri Huber's books and have found them to be easy to read, very practical and entertaining. She does not overwhelm the reader with detail, but she provides a lot of useful and practical tools for those brave enough to do deep inquiry. She focuses more on lived experience in the moment than in-depth discussion of theory.

All of Cheri Huber's books emphasize the importance of being compassionate with yourself, looking inward and accepting whatever the present moment brings. I would say that she emphasizes that HOW you do something is at least as important as WHAT you are doing. She also stresses the importance of a daily meditation practice in most of her books, without being preachy about it. This is good advice for most of us in the West where many of us don't slow down enough to look inward.

I'm really glad to see that Cheri Huber made it as an author. I saw her speak in person and found her to be a very warm, sensitive and caring human being. I also felt she was underrated as an author at the time, but since then she has become quite popular. I often recommend her books to people because they have such broad appeal and written from a deep place of compassion and love.

Very insightful and also very short -- which makes it easy to review and refresh your memory and adjust your habits. While it is useful at improving relationships, its usefulness goes far beyond that. It helps guide a readers in adjusting their lives life to be more in accordance with who they "really" are; that is, it helps people disarm their various fears, anxieties, or defense mechanisms and live more authentically and rewardingly.

In an Amazon review of "Get out of Your Mind & into Your Life," I suggested Huber's book as a companion. I guess I should also do the reverse and recommend that book as a companion to this book.

I also recommend Lorne Ladner's "The Lost Art of Compassion," which blends Western and Buddhist psychology in very insightful ways.

I have found these three books personally very useful.

Anybody who is interested in knowing more about the rapture, get this book. There is important knowledge in this book for everyone, but more so for those of you who do not read your bible in search for the truth.

Before God's Wrath by H.L. Nigro is one of the better books I've come across regarding the timing of the Rapture of the Church. Well-researched and documented, this study is not an emotional defense of a predisposed position; it is a thought-provoking overview supported solely and completely by Scripture. Wherever you fall in your theological stance regarding the Last Days, you would be hard pressed to debunk the author's strong position.

I would highly recommend this book for anyone wanting to learn more about the endtimes, prophecy, and the rapture.

There are several things that help make this an outstanding book:

1. There book includes several charts and tables that make it much easier to compare Scripture passages from different parts of the Bible.
2. The book discusses many issues that I had questions on but that other books on the endtimes just didn't cover (easy to read but indepth treatment of the issues, theology, and Biblical texts!)
3.The author is fair and accurate when discussing other views of the endtimes with which she disagrees in her book. Some books written by Christians seem "unchristian" in how they treat others or develop "strawman" arguments. This book is fair in its treament of others!
4.It is easy to tell that the author spent ALOT of time researching and writing this book.

There are several other good books that deal with the endtimes (such as Marvin Rosenthal's book "The prewrath rapture of the church"), but this is the most up to date, thorough, and comprehensive on the rapture available.

I am new to the idea that the church will not be raptured out prior to the tribulation. I had my suspicions that we would, indeed, have to endure the Great Tribulation but not come under God's wrath (Read Matt 24). I began to do some online research and came across and purchased several books on the topic. Before God's Wrath is one of them. H.L Nigro contributes greatly to the topic, clearing up many areas of confusion. I can recommend this book highly to anyone who has questions about when the *Bible* says the Chruch will be raptured.

This book is one of the most helpful Bible study books on my shelf. I've read Rosenthal's and Van Kampen's also. I found each book to be unique and helpful. Although all three (and several other pre-wrath rapture books) are on the same topic, Nigro's book stands on its own for research and information. It is well thought out and helped me tremendously in my journey from pre-tribulation rapture to pre-wrath. Ultimately, it must always be God's word that grounds us, but He has certainly used Nigro to lead us to His word.

Book in Great condition (new), cheap. Shiped promptly. I will definitively buy again from this seller.

This review is directed mostly at those few Protestants, like myself, who might read it.

Are you interested in learning more about the Roman Catholic Church? Don't read what others say about it, read what it says about itself! This series is used by Catholic churches to train its members in its beliefs. Whether you agree, disagree, find common ground, or beliefs you think are unusual, this series will introduce you to beliefs, reasons for those beliefs, and supporting Scriptures.

An added bonus: I began with this book to learn more about the Catholic church and in the process learned something new about Protestants!

This book is a great start if you are interested in starting out as a Catholic apologist.
I own all of the series and the best thing about tese is that they each give you the information on a single topic.

You will not be an expert when you are done but you will have the tools you need to pursue each topic further if you wish to.

The information contained in this booklet will prove to be a great asset to both cradle Catholics & converts alike, even to non-Catholics wanting to know more about the faith. Well-written and easy to read, the author gives several references to double and triple-check the information so you're sure he backs up everything he's saying! The reader is left with a clear understanding of some of the most misunderstood teachings of the Catholic Church - from the Real Presence in the Eucharist to Mary and the Saints to Papal authority. This book is a must-have for all Catholic home libraries.

Our weekly Bible study group used this last fall, and the question that repeated itself most often was "Why didn't we learn this growing up?" Highly recommended for continued formation and evangelization!!

As someone who returned to the Church after several years of denial, I found myself forced to defend my faith against erroneous accusations from some evangelical friends of mine. Unfortunately, I didn't know enough yet to really defend the Church, and I wasn't a good spokesman for the faith. However, after finding this book in the Church library, I learned a great deal about what the Church stands for and why it is worth defending properly. I've bought most of the books in the set now, and I've learned a great deal about how to defend the faith. I recommend this set of books to anyone who is interested in learning more about the Church, whether they be Catholic or not.

Calling Kahlil Gibran a poet is an understatement and this short story proves it. It is a simple story but one that will break your heart. Still, you will be glad you read it...(experienced it rather)! It will take you to another world, another era, stimulate your mind and touch your heart.

This is the third book I read by Gibran. I started with "The Prophet" and "Voice of the Master". "Broken Wings" is the first novel I read by this author. It is a love story between two young people at the tender age of 18 that meet and establish spiritual connection between each other immediately. The girl, Selma is raised by her wealthy widower father, who in spite of his wealth seems to be ignorant of the way the world works. The young man, our narrator, is somewhat of a dreamer and idealist who believes that patience and perseverance will grant him the hand of the woman he loves (Selma). But world, being the cruel place that it is has different plans. Everyone pure and true ends up being hurt in the process, only the cruel and greedy get to go on with their lives as if nothing happened. Beautiful story beautifully told and wise as only Gibran can make it so.

"Every beauty and greatness in this world is created by a single thought or emotion inside a man. Every thing we see today, made by past generation, was, before its appearance, a thought in the mind of a man or an impulse in the heart of a woman. The revolutions that shed so much blood and turned men's minds toward liberty were the idea of one man who lived in the midst of thousands of men. The devastating wars which destroyed empires were a thought that existed in the mind of an individual. The supreme teachings that changed the course of humanity were the ideas of a man whose genius separated him from his environment. A single thought build the Pyramids, founded the glory of Islam, and caused the burning of the library at Alexandria.

One thought will come to you at night which will elevate you to glory or lead you to asylum. One look from a woman's eye makes you the happiest man in the world. One word from a man's lips will make you rich or poor."

--Khalil Gibran, Broken Wings

We have all the tools to keep us connected that our forefathers never could have dreamed of. Cars and airplanes allow regular visitations between friends thousands of miles apart. The telephone and the internet allow direct connection with those not in our presence, the cell phone extends this connection to all times and virtually all places. Yet, do we take the time see what we do to those who really are around us, when we leave the guest in our living room to check and see who is signed on to our buddy list on our computer? Do we see our friends' hopes and dreams, joys and sorrows, when we ignore them across the booth in the restaurant to answer our cell phones?

Every action I perform has an effect on someone else. Many people that we meet, we only see that one time. I wonder what their impression of me is. I wonder if I have uplifted them, or hurt them, or barely made an imprint at all. I wonder if they ever look beyond how I have changed them to see me, to see beyond the generally relaxed, goofy, at ease outlook I put on the situation to see how I really am feeling at the time.

Our feelings, our outlook on life, our hopes and expectations can change in an instant. When that person you are thinking about calls or emails, elation ensues. When you don't hear back for awhile, doubt and yearning go through you mind. Yet, it could just be random, the person deciding to send a message just to say hi, like I often do to my friends.

Okay, I am rambling again. That passage above by Khalil Gibran comes from his short book Broken Wings, written from a first person perspective about a man's first love, Selma, who was betrothed to another. This passage was from one of the middle chapters. It caught my eye, and I am still trying to make sense of it, what it is really saying. Any thoughts? Feel free to share. You can post comments on my blog anonymously.

Kahlil Gibran once again tells a beautiful love story. I fell in love with this novel, and would recommend it to anyone who loves to read a beautiful, and realistic love story. It made me cry!

Khalil Gibran's fiery book on first love and its undying potency. A must have read for fans of the Prophet. A fictional tale that captures the essence of love awakening energy in the context of culture, social rules, and family ambition. A juxtaposition on the distinction between a love marriage and a marriage as a merger and acquisiton.

Rick Thomas has a distorted view on what Biblical principles really are. He wants you to order his "pamphlet" when you can get the same information from any late night infomercial. These ideas are merely regurgitated thoughts spewed from the mouths of the likes of Jim Baker, Robert Tilton, Jimmy Swaggert and so on.

Dr. Thomas makes it both real and compelling with practical application. If you ever wondered how you could apply Philippians 2:5 to your life, then you should read this book.
Philippians 2:5 "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:"

Life transforming book by Dr Thomas. He has captured not only the mind of God but his heart. This book is is amazing reading.

This Book has change my life, in a new direction. I couldn't afford to buy it, but i needed my life to be challange so i saved 15.00 from my lunch money to purchase this book, and the revelation I got from reading it was so amazing my peception of living has change tremendesly and i am ready to presue those dreams that God has placed in me, i am ready to soar to the next level in Christ Jesus. Thanks Paster Rick for helping me to see me how God sees me. By you capturing the mind of God. May God Bless You.

THIS BOOK HAS REALLY HELP ME TO PUT MY LIFE INTO PROSPECTIVE. IT HAS SHOWN ME HOW TO FIND MY REAL DESTINY AND PLANS THAT GOD ALREADY CREATED FOR ME, AND HOW TO TAP INTO MY VISION AND MOVE INTO THE DIRECTION OF THE VISION. IT IS ALSO A GUIDE INTO YOUR FUTURE AND IT WILL TRULY HELP YOU TO KNOW GODS PLAN FOR YOUR LIFE.

I ordered this Bible for my 11 yr. old grandaugher and she thinks it is wonderful. It was in excellent shape and shipped very fast.

This is a real good bible with a translation you could use to "quote". I liked the pages and inserts with explainations. You could sit down and just read facts and info on many subjects in the bible. I wish the pages were a little thicker so you could write or highlight on them. I suppose it would make this book thicker and heavier. It would make a great study bible for youth or any age. I, definately, would recommend this bible to anyone.

I have used this bible for a few years now and love it! I find the additional notes to be informative and thought provoking for students of all ages. We now purchase these for our 6th graders at my parish. The parents who saw our 'new' bibles really liked them too. I cannot recommend this book enough for both students and adults!

This bible is explained for understanding the meaning inside of the bible. It's described with more detail how God works to every prophet until His own Son Jesus Christ and full of guidances.

Excellent Easy to use Bible. Great for the Young adults in our lives. Makes great sense out of scripture. Hard to Find and Usually expensive, Extremely reasonable on Amazon.

My daughter loved, loved, loved this book. She loved the readings, activities, notebooking, and especially the projects. She used it when she was 11 and was able to do most of it independently. This book makes learning geography fun.

Our family enjoyed this book last year in our homeschool. It gives a wonderful, rich, homey feel to the study of the earth and its geography. It is written directly to the reader and makes an excellent read aloud. The explanations of difficult to understand concepts (such as why it is hotter in the summer when we are farther from the sun, and colder in the winter while we are closer to the sun) actually clarified some of my own thinking. One of our favorite projects was tracking the "ship wrecked shoes" using lattitude and longitude. Talk about making a dry subject interesting. This is a lovely book that will appeal to many people (especially to those following a charlotte mason philosophy) and has been an asset in our home.

We bought the e-book version of this when Knowledge Quest first created it, and we loved it so much we bought the hard copy of the book when it came into print! (Snuggling on the couch with a good book with my five children is so much better than reading from a computer screen.)

We used this book in correlation with another Geography curriculum; we loved the way the narrative style incorporated all the things that we were learning in a grand story of the incredible world that surrounds us. Highly recommended by everyone in our house!

This is more than your typical geography book. In addition to such mundane terms as the equator and the hemispheres that we are all familiar with, you'll learn about the atmosphere, seismic waves, the hydrosphere, cartography...166 pages may not seem like much but this book has a lot to offer. Its conversational style and well thought out activities will make it a welcome addition to your homeschooling library. Examples of activities are making a model of the atmosphere, making an edible earth out of ice cream, investigating the earth's plates with play dough (including a recipe for making your own play dough), making a clock to tell the world's timezones, and much more. It includes a CD with templates for some of the activities as well as copywork.

But what I love about this book is its focus on the fact that this is God's world, not ours and how awesome His world is. The quality of the book itself is very good, the pages are thick and glossy, and full-color pages are alternated with black-and-white pictures.

My only real qualm is that this book is not available in hardcover, preferably a library binding, because I know I'll be using it for many years to come!

Our homeschooling family downloaded the e-version of this book, and we are enjoying this vocabulary packed curriculum. The writers do more than just talk about the geography of the world, they give reason and direction and inspire the reader to think. There are pictures and charts, ideas for exploring outside of each chapter, and we are taking our time in order to glean everything we can from the book. We recently discovered that there is even a review section in the back, which I am using as a basis for testing them on the covered material. We LOVE this book!

ISBN 0851511961.

I have to concur with the others, if I had only two books with me on a desert island, one would be my Bible, and the other would be this book (hedging out my other stand-by: The Institutes of the Christian Religion). I am awe-struck by the gifts of wisdom, insight and understanding that the Lord worked in the heart and mind of this saint, William Gurnall! I can't wait to get home to pick up where I left off, it is that dear to me.

It's loaded to the gunwales with insights; the author has an understanding of spiritual warfare and of the human heart that is simply astounding. One might sit down and study Owen, or Edwards, et al, to great profit (I have), but I believe there's probably nothing better for the final fifteen minutes of the day than a read from Gurnall to pierce beneath the Old Man's fifth rib, to set the tempter on his heels, and to drive one to repentance. A better devotional work to leave a soul begging forgiveness for his 'till-that-moment hidden sin I have never found. That's William Gurnall. He not only trains for war, he reveals sin and generates prayer.

I looked at the abridgement online, the one separated into daily readings, and I believe that this unabridged edition is definitely better. Be sure to get the one belonging to the ISBN# at the top of my review.

If only every Christian would read this pearl of great price, this treasure trove of godly wisdom...

Read this manual of obedience and spiritual warfighting and you will inevitably draw closer to your Lord! Read it prayerfully and you will advance noticeably in your discipleship.

Many Christians, such as myself, can divide the days of their Christian experience into pre-Reformed and Reformed. I can safely say that my devotional life can now be divided into pre- and post-Gurnall.

As you read this review, wondering whether to purchase this book, your unseen foes tremble with a trepidation that is most justified indeed. Christ owns His enemies, and He raised up a Field Marshal in William Gurnall to help His sheep do likewise.

EDIT 8Feb08

William Gurnall is a writer for all seasons. His work, specially the modern abridgment, speaks so clearly and so directly to this generation. You can read a few sentences and pause because you have been amazed at the relevancy of His comments. This is a work that you will cherish reading. You will never be tempted to rush through reading it. Few writers have been able to hold my attention as William Gurnall. C.S Lewis would be the other one. But of course no book holds a candle to The Bible God's written revelation. Don't leave this century without reading this book.

The content of this book is excellent; however, the old style in which it is written made it difficult to read. The revised version in modern english is "an essntial addition to any Christians library.

Compared to this great Puritan work, most modern books dealing with spiritual warfare appear dwarfed, and even trivial. Gurnall's massive exposition of Ephesians 6:10-20 is the product of a series of sermons preached in his church over many years. The book is at once profoundly biblical and at the same time always relevant.

William Gurnall lived during a time of great spiritual conflict in England, and this conflict directly led to the great civil war and the revolt against the king and his Church of England. Just as in the book of Revelation, where one's spiritual loyalties place him in deadly conflict, so in England, loyalty to Scripture placed Christians in the center of that nation's wars. Yet, while many followed the army's progress with great interest, Gurnall realized that an even greater conflict was being waged in their souls. As the pastor of the parish church at Lavenham, where he served all his active life in the ministry, Gurnall was more concerned with his people's souls than with the external progress of the conflicting parties in England. His long ministry encompassed the rise and fall of the Puritan cause. Because he remained in the Church of England after the Act of Uniformity, while thousands of strong Puritans withdrew and suffered as Nonconformists, Gurnall often was not respected by subsequent writers on both sides. His only lasting contribution to the struggle was his massive book, The Christian in Complete Armour.

Yet what a contribution that was! It was so popular with the people of England that it had passed through six editions by the year of his death. This book was a great blessing to John Newton, and was highly praised by Charles Haddon Spurgeon. It has continued over three hundred years inspiring Christians to stand against the devil. Gurnall begins with a call to realize that we are in a death-struggle with Satan and to take our stand and be prepared to fight. He then describes our armor and weapons, and the weapons employed by our great adversary. Each part of the armor is described at length, along with the means by which Christians can employ it in defense and offense against Satan. The book is full of spiritual insight, practical application, and inspiring word-pictures. We cannot read it without new determination to stand for the Lord and engage in true spiritual warfare--not the superficial warfare so often seen in the modern Charismatic movement, but the true and vital warfare of the Christian heart and life.

Gurnall's great book belongs in the library of every church and every Christian family. It makes wonderful devotional reading and produces spiritual fruit. Let Gurnall help you "fight the good fight of faith"!

I can't put this book down, William Gurnall was truly a man inspired by the Word of God. How has this book be overlooked by our modern church? The this book should be a requirement for graduation from seminary. This book is a must for all Christians who feel something lacking, or for those who do not.
Besides the Bible, I have not read a book so powerful.

A Camus-like romp through the twisted fantasies of a totally narcissist middle-aged Romeo. A fun read.

I had no expectations when I first started reading Confessions of an Internet Don Juan, other than being amused by the title. However, I was immediately drawn into the story of Cast Hughes due to Cameron Chambers' direct (and sometimes raw) writing style. Hughes is an interesting, seemingly honest character who shares his experiences with on-line dating. Throughout, his vices and skewed sense of reality are in a constant struggle with his compassion and need for human attachment. Hughes talks about sex more than your average college fraternity - but he is likable. His exploits, no matter how bizarre and tawdry, still make him seem like an underdog who actually wants a meaningful relationship. For this reader, it is not clear if Cast Hughes gets the "happy ending" that he is looking for... Well done, Mr. Chambers.

Having read Cameron Chambers' prior books, I can say that I've enjoyed this one the most. By laying his main character (with all his endearing qualities and faults) bare, you feel you know him, and agonize at times over Cast Hughes' sometimes desperate and dangerous attempts to find true love. Great attention to character development is what I enjoy best about Cameron Chambers' writing.

The author does a more than adequate job of taking the reader along for a funny ride on the journery of a philanderer with a heart and a computer. This story made me laugh -- sometimes with and sometimes at the main character and his many online dates. I liked how each chapter was almost a self-contained novel or thought, while still working to tell the overall story. Made it fun summertime reading... and the sex didn't hurt either.

Confessions of an Internet Don Juan is certainly a different and most entertaining read. It's definitely fiction, but I don't know that I would call it a novel - certainly not in the traditional sense. It is instead a series of confessions (I would call them vignettes because the word "confessions" implies a degree of guilt over improper behavior) by which our narrator, Cast Hughes, describes all of the post-divorce adventures he has had via Internet dating. For a self-described middle-aged failure with a history of mental illness, it's rather astonishing to learn that he has scored more often than a young Wayne Gretzky in Edmonton, mainly with foreign women. Cast does go into some detail on the roller coaster relationship ride he embarked upon after finally divorcing his ex-wife (who was apparently trying to poison him in the last year of their marriage). He doesn't proceed in a purely chronological order, but the overall structure of the book does lead us to an ending - at least insofar as our character's Internet dating days are concerned. There's a lot of humor in this book, as Cast encountered many a freak over the weeks and months following his divorce, from the sad and pathetic waif to outright liars to scam artists - and even a few women whose company he truly enjoyed. I'll just go ahead and tell you that there will be sex scenes, but I found nothing too terribly lurid.

I found Cast to be a somewhat slippery character to grab on to. I can't say I approve of his sowing his wild oats in such a wide-ranging number of fields, and I never got a firm handle on the true nature of his mental problems (although the reader certainly runs into a number of plausibly causative issues in his past). Even when he found the relationship he was after, love in the traditional sense seemed to be something of an after-thought in the story. On the other hand, he's a fairly decent guy for the most part, pretty sympathetic due to his past problems, and refreshingly honest. His humanity is easily revealed upon many an occasion. There is, for example, the case of the glamorous model who turned out to be a poor, starving mother with a disabled child. While he admittedly froze upon discovering this particular situation, Chase does make an effort to help them - and then wonders if he should have done more after the fact. Another poignant scene involves his interaction with a stranger he recognizes as mentally ill in some fashion, forging a connection with a man most of us would ignore. Cast can be naïve, though, sometimes sending money or plane tickets overseas to women he has never met, inviting them to visit him in Florida. This continues even after he's learned a lesson or two about scam artists and their techniques (it's never a good thing to learn that the woman you've been chatting with is the equivalent of a prostitute or - what's worse - a man pretending to be a woman).

Cast has a wonderful and telling theory or summation of men, and I imagine many will think he really hits the nail on the head when he talks about the two driving forces in most men's lives. He does wax philosophical from time to time, offering up several bits of the wisdom and perception he has gleaned from experience. So, as you can see, Confessions of an Internet Don Juan is not some shallow piece of tripe chronicling the sexual conquests of a modern-day great lover. I found the book candid, but not shocking or offensive. Yes, Cast has sex with more than his share of women, but I wouldn't call him a reprobate, and he's certainly no kind of sexual predator. Cast views women as beautiful creatures, not as objects. Shoot, the man doesn't even hold a grudge against his ex-wife, even after she tried to poison him.

In my opinion, the heart of this book isn't about sex at all; instead, it is about the need for companionship along life's journey. As such, you're going to get a lot more food for thought than you might be expecting from these pages, so don't judge this book by the title alone. Confessions of an Internet Don Juan is really a surprisingly worthwhile read.