B Books

This is a good book and has some great redeeming qualities, but you should know on the front end that some of his examples are a little outdated. I appreciate some of his gleanings on God's sovereignty and the state, and God's interaction among His bride.

One word describes this work by Kuyper: Brilliant

I have read and reread this work several times, and each time have come away from the endeavor with a greater regard for both Kuyper and Calvinism. Reading Kuyper's work has brought me to a place of greater awe for the Sovereign of this world and all worlds: The Triune God.

Abraham Kyper's "Lectures" and Richard Weaver's "Ideas Have Consequences" should top the list of essential reading for folks who have not been introduced to the idea of a distinctly Christian world view and those who need equipping to deal with the questions being asked in the world today.

Kuyper may seem dated on first reading (as may Weaver) but if you hang in there with him you will begin to see the significance of his thought. Essentially his attempt is to "take every thought captive." His presupposition is that God has made all things good and that this goodness can be developed and appreciated when carefully appropriated in a manner which does not obscure the goodness. Whether it is politics or art, there can be nobility in the enterprise even as there can also be depravity. What Kuyper enables us to do is understand how to approach life such that nobility is in greater proportion.

Be prepared for turn of the century (19th-20th) prose and language. Kuyper expects a certain level of literary acumen in his readers (and hearers, these were originally lectures). Once you settle in to his style though, you will find his thought stimulating even if you don't agree with everything.

Invited to speak at the Stone Lectures at Princeton Theological Seminary in 1898, Kuyper took the opportunity to deliver this message on the importance of Calvinism as a comprehensive "life-system," or what today we might refer to as a worldview. Kuyper is simply brilliant and his writing is amazing - tackling difficult issues and concepts, yet making it accessible to an interested and engaged reader. Kuyper believed that God was (and is) interested in all facets of human life and that the belief-system of Christianity addressed all the various facets of human endeavor. Lectures on Calvinism begins with an overview of Calvinism as a Life-system and then is broken down into chapters that relate how Calvinism addresses religion, politics, science, art and the future.

Kuyper addresses three primary spheres of human involvement - (1) our relation to God, (2) our relation to man, and (3) our relation to the world. Kuyper believed that a proper understanding and perspective of these three spheres would give man a proper biblically-based relationship to God and others - and that proper perspective was one of engagement for the cause of Christ, not "monastic flight" from the issues of the day.

Avoidance of the world, according to Kuyper, is not biblical. But understanding how to engage and placing a proper emphasis on the importance of worldly things is also a must. For those who believe they have an understanding of Calvinism from the simplistic "five points of Calvinism," this book would blow them away! The book is not for everyone - I would suggest only a serious reader would enjoy this book - but if well-read, this book is definitely worth the time and effort!

Kuyper is essential reading for developing a reformed protestant worldview. Reading Kuyper is to developing your worldview is like eating your intellectual wheaties. Few have developed and expounded on a reformed worldview with the clarity of the Kuyper system of thought. A great resource for anyone interested in reformed theology as it applies to politics, culture, and life in general.

Written 30 years ago, shortly after the Yom Kippur War, this novel opens a window on a cross section of Israeli society at a point where the future of Israel seemed momentarily less uncertain and the current stand-off between Israelis and Palestinians was still far in the future. All the same, the novel is not dated but almost prophetic in its portrayal of a handful of characters who struggle with identity and relationships, amidst uncertainties and ambiguities. The "lover" of the title is a character who has disappeared during the war. As the novel develops, however, other "lovers" emerge in the narrative, and the play of carnal desire against a backdrop of social uncertainty makes for a fascinating contrast of personal and political.

The shifting points of view and multiple characters offer a Dickensian worldview within the confines of the handful of square miles traversed by its characters - who are often on the road going somewhere. This aspect of life in Israel is captured nicely by the nighttime road service operated by one of the characters, coming to the rescue of people in car wrecks and having breakdowns. On one level, as we read, we are drawn along by the attempt to solve the mystery of a missing person. On another level, we watch as love distracts, blinds, entraps, confuses, and torments whomever it touches. Finally, the playing out of these themes takes place against a social fabric that links together people of many different kinds, including Arab Israelis, Zionists, religious Jews, secular Jews, the military, recent immigrants, long-time residents, and so on. This is a novel by one of Israel's foremost writers of modern fiction. I highly recommend it.

It's an amazing book! Like other books by Yehoshua, you finish reading it and the story still goes on in your mind. Besides giving a fierce view of the israeli society during the Yom Kippur war ('70s), the author also pictures very well this strange world where we are like ghosts barely touching each other. The situations and reasons to take action the characters have are underlined by this sense of survival and urgence to protect themselves and their on achieviements, despite the sacrifice they apparently are willing to make. It's like they are ready to sacrifice their relationships in order to maintain their own balance. The goal is, no mather what we do to keep institutions alive we end up alone and struggling to keep what we already got as an heritage.

This is my first Yehoshua book, and I intend to read all his work. I stumbled upon this when doing a search for "The Lover" by Marguerite Duras. That kind of serendipity pleases me, and I am the richer for having read Yehoshua's first novel. I recommend it highly!

A. B Yehoshua has written his masterpiece. The characters seem to come to life in his writing. This book captures so much of the political chaos and yet it does it in a reverant and kind way. My two favorite characters were Dafna and Adam. They were so full of love and kindness. I read this book two months ago and can't seem to get it out of my head. It is a must read.

Not only is it a startlingly humane, nuanced and difficult portrait of Israel, by an Israeli, but one of the most profound explorations of humanity in its daily round of work and thought I have read.

I must prepare sermons weekly, so I look for books like this to help lay a framework for this task. The insights in the book are brilliant and easily confirmed through experience. To the more orthodox Christian and evangelical preacher I would say that if you are thoughtful and discerning with Peterson's material, you need not fear preaching heresy.

Other Amazon reviewers go into more description about the contents of the book than I will. But I endorse the book highly and am glad for the profound insights provided by the author.

I am going to take Prof. Peterson's "personality and its transformation" class next semester......expecting and excited............
This is a brilliant book, thought provoking and challenging...challenging not in the sense that the language is hard to read, but the thinkings involved are profound and require an open mind to understand and appreciate. Great Work...

Despite the shortcomings that have been adressed in the other reviews and that I must agree with, they don't overshadow the many bright and brilliant insights this book has to offer. Moreover, I think the former have much more to do with the technical side and presentation of the thesis than the content side of it, which stands strong, convincing and elegant nonetheless.

To put the latter (well, some of it) in a nutshell - it deals with adaptation, change and learning as it occures in the relation of culture and individual human beings from the comparative viewpoint of mythology and modern scientific knowledge. Having a background of neuropsychology and drawing extensively on thinkers like Piaget, Jung, Eliade and Nietzsche, J. Peterson builds an overarching framework that shows each individual as an active agent at the inexhaustible and laborous construction-site of his own cognitive structures, which is equipped with the tools but not the buildings provided by culture. Each step that is made there towards constructing a viable re-presentational model (a worldview) is a temporary equilibrium and unique synthesis achieved between the dual (inseparable) archetypal principles of order (The Great Father) and chaos (The Great Mother). To the like of a ropedancer, the maintenance of balance between them requires one to constantly shift between the opposing poles - to work out fixed and ordered patterns of thought and corresponding behaviour (or vice versa) on every level of experience on the one hand, on the other - to maintain a degree of flexibility to reorganize in time the existing patterns whenever the changing demands of changing environment make it necessary. Ability to successfully answer this dual challange constitutes the essence of the Hero archetype, a mediator between the Great Mother and Fother. However,
if this balance is not sustained, the system will either plunge into chaos which individually corresponds to psychosis and socially to anarchy, or over-compensates this risk by building impenetrable walls that, while protecting from the forces of chaos, at the same time "wall in" the system and cut it off from any impulse for change and development, and thus from its own sources. In either way, a pathology has occured that necessitates the emergence of the hero, who would heal the sickness first in himself and then in the culture by spreading the self-tested knowledge of cure.

This is certainly an interactional view that doesn't seem to be much cherished nor shared by the narrow "scientificism" of mainstream psychology. As I must confess my frustration with the tehnically (biologically) very complicated but philosophically equally simplistic ways the latter tends to conceptualize mind and its "products", I was most pleased with Peterson's general approach.

It resembles closely that of Hans Peter Duerr's "Dreamtime: concerning the boundary between wilderness and civilization", which is worth checking out if you liked "Maps..".

Another author who Peterson doesn't refer to but would be relevant to the topics he discusses is Gregory Bateson, whose concepts of "deutero-learning" (learning to learn) and "double bind" would offer a parallel framework for speaking about the aquisition of basic premises for communication or fundamental patterns underlying perception of reality and the conflicts inherent in situations when these are being challenged.

I am also a former student of Professor Peterson's, taught on the manuscript of this book, and it made such an impression on me that here I am, tracking it down three years later to reread. There are many significant positives to this book, as you can guess from the other reviews here. My main complaint is that the 400-odd pages could be vastly condensed and more tightly organized without weakening the thesis. When the subject matter is this dense, there is some argument for restating important points, but I do think the author sometimes errs on the side of excessive restatement.

Another area where the book could have been improved is in the use of more anthropological data to support its various hypotheses. An interesting follow-up read to Maps of Meaning is Wandering God by Morris Berman, which spends more effort tying the factual aspects of human and societal evolution to the way modern-day society is organized and the way people relate to the world around them. He also has some very strong opinions about comparative mythology a la Jung and Campbell.

Overall, Maps of Meaning is highly original, thought-provoking, and very well worth reading. Expect it to make a permanent mark on the way you see the world.

this is THE book to read! This puts into perspective any of the other books you might read, including religious books like the Bible! This book unlocks the symbolism used in profound writings of history. Talks about the deep symbolism of the deepest human aspirations--unlocks what has been hidden under these murky symbols. Jordan shows us the true nature of the heroic impulses for the individual and for mankind in general, and the failure and fear of the heroic that causes both individual and social atrocities. I cannot say enough about his genius for elucidating these things--gives me new hope for the world. I accidentally met the man at a conference on consciousness, and it was like I met a long lost brother--before I read his book! This is because he has tapped into a great ocean of truth underlying our most cherished symbols. If you are a truth-seeker--whether in science or about yourself and your soul--this is the book you have been looking for. These ideas are a large part of the keys to eliminating the most greivous ills of humanity. One of my top 10 books of all time, if not #1.

Lee Kennett brought the March through Georgia to life with letters by the men in Sherman's Western Army and the civilians in the area. This book even brings some of the Southern conceptions about what had taken place to be more along the lines of true stories being twisted to a point where the truth couldn't be found. Certainly there is some truth to some of the stories, some of the things that would be blamed on Union soldiers was the work of Wheeler's Cavalry and by some Civilians themselves.

This book did very well to keep a neutral tone and to let the reader come up with their own decision on whose side they would agree with, seeing as my father says there is no such thing to stay absolutely neutral on Civil War topics... and he appears to be right... to a degree. I would say this is a must on the shelves of any Civil War Historian or buff.

A very enjoyable book about Sherman's march through Geaorgia. A story of personal experiences of soldiers and civilians of the time.

Lee Kennett has made a major contribution to the literature of "The March." He has drawn from a huge number of little known sources; private correspondence, diaries,and eyewitness accounts. The book has a good "feel" of the history of the period. His writing style is informal and allows the reader to see the events as if through the eyes of the participants.
I have researched & written extensively on the history of Milledgeville, Georgia and can say that Kennett covered the Milledgeville period as well as it has been covered by anyone.

Hugh T. Harrington
author of: "Civil War Milledgeville, Tales From the Confederate Capital of Georgia," "Remembering Milledgeville, Historic Tales From Georgia's Antebellum Capital" and "More Milledgeville Memories."

Lee Kennett's Marching Through Georgia could easily be mistaken for a "popular history", the kind of work that scholars will occasionally endorse, but usually dismiss. Marching Through Georgia is certainly as readable as any so-called popular history but this work is a gem of historical scholarship, to be compared with the studies of such authors as Bell Irvin Wiley, James Robertson, Reid Mitchell, and Earl Hess. The number of primary sources consulted is positively staggering. Kennett understands, and communicates the character of Civil War soldiers and soldiering in the Western Armies (North and South) better than any author I've ever encountered with the possible exception of Larry Daniel. An outstanding book!

If you're looking for a tactical study of Sherman's Atlanta campaign, this isn't it. If you're looking to delve into the human aspects of a massive Civil War campaign, this definitely is it. If you're looking for a well written book of interest to a broad range of readers, this is also it. No need to be a "buff" to enjoy Kennett's fast paced work that is full of interesting stories and insights into a broad range of topics. His writing keeps the pages turning. It is a unique combination of "beach" book and reference. I have two quibbles with Kennett's writing and they are technical: 1) Stop separating full sentences with semi-colons. Use periods. It aids in reading. 2) Stop using French terms where they aren't necessary or translate them. The book is too good for that to matter much.

The Alvin Fernald books were in fact made into movies for the Wonderful World Of Disney. They are Alvin the Magnificent, The Wiz Kid and The Mystery of Riverton, The Wiz Kid and the Carnival Caper. I just wanted to let any fans know. The bad news is that none of them have been released on video or DVD. But how knows, maybe Disney will get smart and release them.

The Magnificent Inventions of Alvin Fernald is coming back in print in 2006! For those who have enjoyed this book and its companion books over the decades, Bethlehem Press is bringing it back! You can find out the publishing dates, etc., at www.bethlehembooks.com and it will be available here through Amazon as well. There is a such an enduring universality of the themes of the Alvin books, that this series will just go on forever...and deservedly so.

This is the one that started it all for me. The most exciting book about a smart kid you will ever find. It's been overdue ...for a long time.

I am 45 years old... my 44 year old brother came over and talked about how this book changed his life. He read it as a kid and became an inventor of sorts himself... a perpetual tinkerer. He wasn't sure of the name and I found it for him and ordered him a copy as well as my 9 year old son. It took some insistance to get by boy, Nick, to read it. He couldn't put it down and when my brother came over to visit he quized Nick on select parts of the book. They both smiled and laughed. Having read it myself I can tell you it is a most wonderful book. Buy it! Your kid will remember it always.

This is the first title in an outstanding series of Alvin books by Clifford Hicks. Sadly, they all seem to be out of print.
The Alvin books were my favorites as a kid. I checked them out from the library repeatedly and devoured them. As a 10 year old, I wanted to hang out with Alvin and Shoey. The books are full of laughs, adventure, and great storytelling. They take us back to small town America, before kids had to deal with grownup problems.
If you have a kid, buy this book for him. Buy it used, buy it on Ebay, buy it at a used bookstore! The other titles (all very good) in the series are ALVIN'S SECRET CODE, ALVIN'S SWAP SHOP, ALVIN FERNALD FOREIGN TRADER, ALVIN FERNALD MAYOR FOR A DAY, and ALVIN FERNALD SUPERWEASEL. All are great. Another great series if you like the Alvin books is the Mad Scientists Club books by Bertrand Brinley. Check them out.

I am entering the nursing field and this book gave me a great jump start. I can't believe how much I learned just in the first chapter! The book has A LOT of reviews which definitely helped me understand and memorize terms. The whole structure of the book is super easy to understand. I would absolutely recommend this book to anyone who is thinking of entering any part of the medical profession.

This is a great work book for first time students who want to learn medical terminology, like me!

The book was as described...In good condition. Came in a short amount of time. THANKS!!

As a Sales Manager looking to get into nursing this is a great introductory book! Highly recommended.

I have learned a lot reading this book. I work in medical records and transcribe dictations and this has really helped me a lot in this area being that I have no medical terminology knowledge at all. I love the CD that comes with it, you can take test over and over on it. It's awesome.

People who follow a dream or have a deep sense of purpose about their work are rewarded with an almost inexhaustible supply of energy. They use this energy to reach their goals. There has to be an inner reason for this commitment. Defining your own inner focus or purpose is the first step to maintaining and growing your energy. The second step is reading & implementing Mutual Respect. Mutual Respect forms the building blocks for your focus/purpose/mission.

If you are in the business of selling, Bob Beck hits the target on increasing your sales volume. As the Sales & Purchasing Manager of Parts Inc., I have seen immediate results from applying his recommendations. I give credit to the 'Quid Pro Quo' sales technique.

'Mutual Respect' has given me the valuable insight into what has made Bob Beck the Trusted Advisor,that he is today. The book has provided me with a practical and clear understanding of applicable sales techniques and methodology to succeed in the world of sales today. I highly recommend the book

Everyone, whether they consciously realize it or not, is constantly engaged in 'selling' and 'buying' by virtue of their interactions with others. Mutual Respect places many things into perspective which go beyond the boardroom and into the realm of everyday living. This book is not only helpful in many practical ways, but also acts as a reminder regarding human nature. Mutual Respect can be used as a guide in dealing with much more than the office because the principles can be applied to other areas such as parenting.

I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in learning more about how to better negotiate business or personal relations with others.

The book's main premise is that both buyer and seller should be engaged in a relationship of mutual respect. The seller should recognize that s/he provides information, ideas and services that can be of real value to the buyer. Sellers who exercise a discipline the author calls "quid pro quo selling" recognize that it is both fair and prudent to negotiate something in return from the buyer for each step the seller takes in a sales process.

It's a question of establishing and maintaining reciprocity. Without such mutuality, a seller may fool himself into thinking the sale is advancing when the prospect has little interest in buying.

For example, when a prospect suggests that a seller send out product literature, Beck suggests that the seller first get a commitment of when the prospect will review it with the seller. If the prospect won't commit at each step to some reciprocal action that helps the seller advance the sale, the seller should either request a different commitment or respectfully decline to take the next step. A prospect unwilling to make incremental commitments is not sufficiently interested. The seller should find or develop another who is more worthy of the investment of time and selling resources.

Beck says his method keeps the seller in control and the sales cycle moving forward. While some may debate whether a seller ever truly controls a sales cycle, the seller can and should control the terms of his own participation in every sale. The seller must always be wary that s/he can become a servant to a prospect who has little intention of buying. This point is so valuable that Beck could have spent a lot more time on it.

From chapters five through 17, Beck covers such topics as the value of writing personal business plans, prospecting, qualifying, asking effective questions, something he calls "prospect control," the dynamics of the sales cycle, responding to objections, defensible pricing, steps for a success presentation, etc. These topics are less clearly linked to the title of his book than the content of his first four chapters. A careful reader will wish at times the book were more thoroughly edited.

Even the seasoned sales professional can benefit from reviewing the ideas in these chapters. And sales people early in their careers will find much of practical value.

When I teach world history I always give my students a project in which they are to read a piece of historical fiction and do a bit of research. This book is exactly the type of book I recommend for them to read and why I created the project in the first place. It is well-written and re-creates a little bit of the historical world for the reader.

Set in 2nd Century B.C. Israel, this is a story of national liberation and freedom of religious expression. Many Protestants will be unfamiliar with the Maccabees since Maccabees 1-4 is not included in the Protestant Bible. This book is an ideal place to start to explore that time between the exile in Babylon and the Roman occupation that is featured in the New Testament.

The main characters are 5 brothers and their father, descendents of the Tribe of Levi. They refuse to be "civilized" by Hellenized (Greek-influenced) Syrians - they want to keep their old traditions and religion. They revolt against too many taxes, too many injustices and being forced to worship Greek gods. ("Thus they 'Hellenized' us, not with beauty and wisdom, but with fear and terror and hate." - p. 33)

I strongly recommend this one. Despite being more than 50 years old, this book can stand on its own among newer and more popular works about the ancient world such as Gates of Fire: An Epic Novel of the Battle of Thermopylae in both its battlefield descriptions and its cultural explorations.

Quote from the book I particularly liked: "What does the Lord require from a man, but that he should walk humbly and love righteousness?" (p. 142)

Yes, this is a vivid account of the Jewish struggle for freedom, but it is also a beautifully written love story. I never tire of reading it, and it never fails to elicit a tear of joy, or of grief. Howard Fast at his best.

This book captures the most important part of Hanukkah, a celebration of Jewish liberty. For anyone who wants to learn more about the kinds of lives Jews lived, why liberty is such an essential aspect of Judaism, or why we must sometimes fight for the liberty and freedom we enjoy, this is the book for them. It is beautifully written and joyous to read.

I just finished this book. First and foremost I really enjoyed reading it. I decided to read it because I know so little about Jewish history; I had heard the name Judas Maccabeus but I didn't know who he was. I would like to say that it is wrong to consider this book primarily from the vantage point of describing the Jews. I kept asking myself if the story of the Maccabeans was considered such an important part of Jewish history, then why did so many Jews let themselves be led to the slaughter by Hitler? So, for me, this book was not so much about the Jews as it was about history. Also,to me, this book is fictionalized history, where the author tries to incorporate the facts as much as possible. Even the narrator in the story, Simon, says you can't take it as genuine fact. Regardless of that, Howard Fast does a magnificent job. It took a few pages to get into the flow, but once into the book, I was caught. I bought this book used for 2 bucks, but I am going to send for a better copy to keep. For me, the lesson in this book is not so much about how great these ancient Jews were, as it is about why man has to keep fighting wars. And as a corollary, why our societies demand slavery (of one form or another and don't kid yourself, it exists today, but in a different form). Of note, these ancient Jews made very limited use of slavery. One of my favorite teachers once said, "Wisdom comes when you put the book down". From reading this book, I felt I learned a great deal about war and slavery. And I had to ask myself the question, Do the Jews of today believe in the same God who is portrayed in this book about the Jews of 150 years B.C.?

I remember being really taken with this book when I read it as a kid, so I found a used copy to read to my kids. We make a big deal of Hanukkah so that Jewish kids don't feel gypped compared to everyone else, but hardly anyone really knows the story of Hanukkah in all its graphic detail. We should not shrink from telling our kids this story, and Fast's book is the only popular book I know that does it. The kids will not only have a better appreciation of the meaning of this holiday, but will also have a better appreciation of current events.

This book nicely introduces readers to the topic of sanctification. We need to confess & renounce our old lifestyles, habits and hangups to live in peace and calm with God.

This book is very small, but has a hard cover. It is just right to tuck in another gift as an extra surprise. Even though I have read this book before, it still has the power to touch me and help me take inventory of my walk with God. Sometimes we do tend to leave Christ out of certain areas of our lives, and this book opens your eyes to see these areas, but it is done in a very loving way. I was going to order some more copies as gifts, but have not been able to find this particular edition on Amazon again. Perhaps, I will take another look to see if I have missed it.

I realize that this booklet has been highly reviewed by others, and I can understand why. "My Heart-Christ's Home" is essentially an extended analogy between our lives and our homes. Munger translates the common evangelical idea of inviting Jesus to live in our hearts into a situation in which Jesus is invited to physically live in our house. He walks through the house and describes how Jesus would interact with each part.

It's an interesting analogy, relatively well-executed. My critique is that it definitely enters the world of cheesiness a few times, going overboard with the "Christ as my buddy-buddy" idea. Though personalizing Jesus is helpful, there is something hokey about a picture of Jesus in bathroom slippers sitting in my living room reading the newspaper and sipping a cup of coffee. Maybe this is just a reflection of the pamphlet showing its age.

I was also overwhelmed by the brevity of this "book." It can easily be read in one sitting, which is convenient. However, I would have preferred something more substantive. Ultimately, this booklet is solid and worthwhile, if somewhat incomplete.

My Heart-Christ's Home is a clear, easy-to-read book that talks about how you should refine and shape your heart for Christ's home. Pastor Munger uses his home and Christ as his guest for an example . If you are struggling with finding room for Christ in your heart, I highly recommend this book. It teaches you how to "clean your heart" and only set it aside for God.

My Heart, CHrist's Home is an excellent booklet, so easy to read and so convicting. It helped me get my focus back on track.

For those of you who have read and enjoyed "Mystery of the Waterloo Bagpipes," be advised that the saga continues with the recently published sequel "The Secret of Lightning Ridge." This new novel, set two years later admidst a treasure hunt, re-introduces the original characters and brings the story to an exciting and unexpectedly gruesome conclusion. A "must read" for those who enjoyed the original tale. Also, consider for your summer reading "Calvin Hemingway's Diary - A Novel" by the same author. It's a story about a young thirteen year old boy who is torn between being an author like his famous namesake or a small-town funeral home embalmer like his father. "Hysterical. Like reading Holden Caulfield on a sugar-high."The Secret of Lightning Ridge Calvin Hemingway's Diary: A Novel

As the great heat of summer continues to drag on I was looking for something to read that would allow me to just sit back and be entertained and not have to concern myself with whiny social issues or involved character sketches. "Mystery of the Waterloo Bagpipes" is just what the doctor ordrerd. A straight forward, no-nonsense tale that promises nothing more than entertainment. And that it does on one big scale. I really enjoyed it. The characters were great (I could see a lot of myself as a kid in Norman) and the dog MacKenzie was one tough little beagle. I liked the bagpiping stuff (who doesn't at least find them interesting?) and the historical military aspects were fascinating. A question that is still sticking in my mind after reading this great little story is, "Where are the MacKay pipes now? Do they actually exist somewhere?" The author doesn't say (maybe an addendum would have been a nice addition.) Be that as it may, the story does not suffer from lack of information, interest or excitement. If you're looking for some great summer reading that does what it sets out to do (i.e. entertain), this is the book. Once it gets rolling, it's difficult to put down. Take my word, you will not be disappointed.

Just finished reading this book. Really enjoyed it. Brought back warm, personal memories of good friends and growing up in a small, rural town back in the fifties. I had a dog just like MacKenzie. Reminded me of the movie "Stand By Me." Loved the stuff about bagpipes. Very interesting. Would definitely recommend.

This book could have been written in the 50's - it is so filled with great family values. The children are truly engaging and the relationship they have with their parents is exemplary, and the friendship they have with each other leaves one longing for the days before school-age violence. Don's descriptive writing allows one to see the environs quite beautifully, and I found myself wanting to purchase a home on their street, where I could be one of the neighbors, and enjoy the fair with them. I laughed and I cried with this book - the mystery itself was a great "yarn," as it ends with the "good guys" winning. Thanks. Don for the great read - get back to that desk now, and give us a sequel.

My daughter is thirteen years old. For the past two days she's been talking about this book she just read. To see what all the excitement was about I picked it up and began reading. I'm glad I did. It's been a long time since I read a "young adult" book, but this "Mystery of the Waterloo Bagpipes" really kept me interested all the way through to the exciting end. I really liked the story line about the old pipes, and being a history buff, was fascinated with the description of the events surrounding the battle at Waterloo. The small town, set in late summer, gave the story a warm, cozy feeling as did the friendship between the kids. Having a daughter, I was very glad to see the character "Spike" interact so well with her friends and ultimately take a stand and demonstrate her bravery, along with the boys, during the final confrontation with the evil Simon Gein. And the dog MacKenzie. . .I loved her! She gives new meaning to the word "spunk". This is really a great read for kids as well as adults. A wonderful ending. It has the word "movie" written all over it.