Pennsylvania Books

Michael Hardy's Handbuilding is a ceramics handbook that would be a perfect choice for any art school interested in the traditional methods of handbuilding ceramics outside of the potter's wheel. This introduction to techniques covers everything from construction to controlling drying and slab building and is an excellent guide for ceramic artists interested in the revitalized art of handbuilding.

I cannot recommend this Christian Classic enough! For those who are interested in those "so-called" deeper truths of a Christian's walk with the Lord it cannot be beat! I say "so-called" because as this wonderful Quaker lady points out there is such JOY when we are WALKING with the Lord Jesus Christ, our God, as God intended us to do: as His obedient and fully trusting child!

This book is NOT only highly accurate theologically, but is very practical, and written on a level that the average person would find extremely readable. It starts out good and gets better with each chapter!

It is written to be highly encouraging, using many examples of our relationship with God as found in human relationships with each other: especially realtionship of child to parent.

It becomes readily apparent that Hannah speaks from experience, NOT just head knowledge. She writes with the same JOY that she must have lived her life on earth. Want JOY as a Christian? Then READ and APPLY! A highly practical and delightful book, easy to read for the ones seeking, The WAY, The TRUTH, and the LIFE (John 14:6)

Gee willikers, this guy should have been famous! Oh, hang on, that guy is ME! Well, this is a pretty good example of my better work back in the late 80s and early 90s. Hope somebody enjoys it!

This is aimed at younger readers, but I found it well written, an engrossing romp through the unpopulated areas of North Central Pennsylvania. Set in 1861, and based on fact, the authors weave a captivating tale of uneducated backwoodsmen going off to fight in the Civil War. The title comes from the men not knowing left from right, so to teach marching, hay was tied to left foot, straw to right. An excellent first novel for these writers.

well done. follows family from england to bucks county pa ,then their descendants into virginia and families who went west. this book is still available .

A well written, thorough and thoughtful review of a complex topic. She starts with the many types of pain, covers the history of pain treatments, evaluates the biological models of pain, expands on the diagnosis of pain and a multitude of treatments. An important area she covers very well is the stress and psychology of pain. Anyone that has experienced or is experiencing chronic pain in any way would benefit from reading this book from cover to cover.

If you are studying Byzantine iconography, you must have this book or at least read it. It consists of a number of articles by experts in the field, who are writing about the subject from various points of views - icons in connection to Byzantine (Christian Orthodox) theology, Byzantine liturgy, architecture, manuscript illumination, society in general.
The book that I ordered from Amazon came in the perfect shape, completely new and shiny. Furthermore, it arrived even before I expected it. All in all, the service was without a spot.

Heliodorus' "Ethiopian Romance" is an absolutely wonderful piece of literature! A novel from around the third century AD, the "Ethiopian Romance" centrally concerns a young man, Theagenes, and his beloved, Charicleia. The novel begins with an epic scene in which the two lovers console each other in the midst of a scene of total destruction - a banquet scene has degenerated into violence, and they remain on the field alone. Thyamis, the leader of a band of Egyptian pirates, takes them prisoner, and we are pulled into a spectacular adventure.

Beginning in medias res, much of the novel concerns itself with catching the reader up with the events leading to the astounding initial scene. Heliodorus accomplishes this by way of nested narratives, primarily between two men who, by various accidents, have an interest in Theagenes and Charicleia: Calasiris, an exiled Egyptian priest, and Cnemon, an exiled Athenian youth. The novel draws heavily on the universal human tendency to tell, and eagerness to hear stories. In a novel where various marriages are proposed and deferred, it is appropriate that the internal stories and their audiences should express the need to hear stories in terms of desire and gratification. You find yourself desperate to see how each individual story leads to clarification and understanding of the whole.

Heliodorus' characters are well-developed and interesting. He gives us lovers, pirates, nobles, eunuchs, witches, priests, and schemers, among others. His plot is as complicated as that of any traditional modern novel, and manages to deal not only with the primary love affair, but with a host of other social issues that still bear importance to-day. To wit, the ravages of war, economic relationships, ethnic diversity and acceptance, political wranglings, and issues of identity and self-definition in an increasingly cosmopolitan world.

Heliodorus' major influences are clearly the epics of Homer, which are invoked directly and subtly to wonderful effect. One can sense here that even in the third century, novel writers saw themselves both indebted to the Iliad and the Odyssey, and striving to claim for fiction an artistic worth to rival epic poetry. The "Ethiopian Romance" is presented in accessible and lively English by Moses Hadas, and comes to you highly recommended. It is simply a beautiful work and deserves to be read by more people.

This book is an excellent historical reference on Henry Chapman Mercer and the Moravian Pottery and Tile Works. Many fine photos accompany very informative writing.

Fichtenau quotes William of Conches in the introduction: 'They prefer to remain ignorant rather than consult others, and when they know that someone is engaging in research, they shout that he is a heretic.' The charge of heresy was not uncommon in the late Middle Ages, that period of history that was precursor to both the Renaissance and the Reformation. However, as Fichtenau demonstrates, 'the medieval worldview was never as uniform as it might appear from the modern perspective.' In this broad historical period, perhaps the most contentious were the eleventh and twelfth centuries, a period that came after generations of relative stability and entered into crises of faith and innovations in science and technology.

One of the catalysts for this change was the growth of advanced schools, the forerunners of modern universities, where (not without difficulty and the more than occasional charge of heresy) new ideas and ways of thinking were introduced and developed. In Fichtenau's third section, 'The Realm of Reason', he looks at the early Scholastics (who were not immune from the charge of heresy) as well as other ideas that came out of both Platonic and Aristotelian philosophical schools. Fichtenau's first two section develop the religious and heretic ideas: specific heresies such as the Cathars, more general discussion about the genesis and development of heretical systems and communities, religious and philosophical mythological paradigms, and the use of the bible in these different ways.

One important element in all of this discussion, according to Fichtenau, is to remember that many of the elements lifted up for study out of medieval Europe in fact involved a small number of people. 'Catharism, Platonism, and religious spirituality were distinct phenomena. They did not define the twelfth century; indeed they are only associated with relatively small groups of individuals. That these modes of thought could coexist side by side, however, testifies to the unique niche occupied by this century in European history.' The diversity within the seeming uniformity of Christendom would become a permanent feature.

Fichtenau's work is scholarly rigourous, and the translation by Denise Kaiser very readable and engaging. There are extensive notes, a good index, and a useful select bibliography of primary and secondary works. This work both helps introduce and significantly deepens the understanding of a lesser-studied period of history in Western culture, in a fascinating way.