Z Books

This is a good story with an interesting take on friendship among farm equipment. It's especially good for kids who like trucks and John Deere tractors.

I highly recommend Corridor Ecology for anyone who is interested in corridors, land fragmentation, and species conservation. It is the most comprehensive literature I have come across in terms of the role of corridors, corridor design and implementation. As a current graduate student working on a corridor project, this book has been incredibly helpful in planning my field work in ground truthing Least-Cost path corridors. Especially the chapter, Corridor Quality: Continuity, Composition, and Dimension. It has really helped me understand better how to evaluate potential corridors. My advisor has been so impressed with the book that she is going to order some for the library and a biodiversity center that is being set up at campus. I also feel that this would be an excellent text for conservation courses as it covers issues such as metapopulation theory, edge effects and focal species considerations. The book also covers issues and potential problems that need to be dealt with when designing a corridor, which is very valuable. I also think this would be a excellent source for land management agencies and the Department of Transportation to utilize. The authors do an excellent job in bringing together all aspect of corridor ecology by utilizing the most current literature, valuable study cases along with their incredible field and research experience.

Tanya Diamond
M.S. Candidate
San Jose State University

This more than a quorter-century old book is full of country doctor's insughtful wisdom, advises on healthy living, strengthening you immune shystem, sensible dieting, and much more!

From the Earps to Eastwood; from the Alamo to the Ponderosa, this entertaining encyclopedia of the West will delight the cowboy fan and western movie buff alike.
Covered are significant places (e.g., Dodge City, The Alamo), events (The Little Big Horn battle, the gunfight at the O.K. Corral), cowboys both real and cinematic, desperados, Indians, rodeo stars, and hundreds of others guaranteed to make you long for the Open Range.
Generously illustrated, with bibliography and index, this work will be "a hoot 'n' a holler" for the fan of the Old West and its modern representations.
(The numerical ratinmg above is a default setting within Amazon's format. This reviewer does not employ numerical ratings.)

Cowdog Caper is the second book in the "Little Lucy" series, a delightful, soon-to-be-quintet of picturebook stories meant for young readers age 4-8. What makes these books unique is that their canine stars, Little Lucy, Dizzy, Pete, Verne, and Spike, are all real, live dogs! Dressed in charming outfits and gently captured on full-color film by professional photographer Rick Zaidan, these adorable creatures bring the exciting adventure story of good dogs looking to round up a "bad dawg" and his heist to life! The first book in this wondrous and imaginative series, Cool School Stories, is also very highly recommended.

This book examines the process of the creation of history in the Hebrew Bible. Brettler sets out to "show what various biblical authors were `trying to do' when they wrote" their respective works.

The author begins with a strong survey of the history of historical criticism, followed by a presentation of what he believes to be the "four central factors responsible for the production of ancient Israelite biblical texts:" the use of typologies, the interpretation of earlier texts, literary shaping, and ideological influence. During an introductory discussion of `history,' `ideology,' and `literature,' Brettler suggests that what has classically been understood as `history' should actually be called `historiography' or `history writing,' while history should be understood simply as, "a narrative that presents a past." Along the same lines, `ideology' is best considered "a specific set of beliefs," which Brettler differentiates from `propaganda,' which is the method used to disseminate those beliefs. Finally, the author discards the word `literature' as an accurate description of the biblical text, arguing that "literary works are determined by the community, not by their authors." Therefore since the author did not consider his work to be literature, but rather a history, we too should refrain from calling the narrative `literature.' Brettler does concede that there are various rhetorical or literary devices and genres employed within the biblical text, but since the author employed these devices with the intention of writing a narrative history, we too should refrain from referring to the results of his literary endeavors as `literature.' This is a fine hair to split and will certainly be criticized by future respondents.

Brettler then presents his evidence in a series of six chapters that increase in degree of redaction-critical difficulty. This section is cleverly bracketed by a discussion of Chronicles (chapter 2) on the front end, in which we have the extant sources (Samuel and Kings) used by the Chronicler in his redaction, and concluding with "Text in a Tel" (chapter six), a detailed discussion of redaction-criticism that uses the multi-layered redactions of 2 Kings 17 as the literary ground in need of excavation.

Brettler's indebtedness to his teacher, Michael Fishbane, is evident the moment Brettler begins his intrabiblical exegesis of the text (chapters 2-7). This is a strength of the book, in that the author highlights many textual examples essential to any survey of redaction-criticism methodology, and in seeking an explanation of each highlighted redaction, the author tells the story of the creation of the history of Israel.

Brettler's best work is with his treatment of Chronicles. He states, "The Chronicler...provides an incontrovertible example of the flexibility of the past in the hands of one biblical historian." But Brettler ultimately leaves open for debate the question of whether the Chronicler felt he was correcting earlier scribal errors or whether he was the historian "of a totalitarian regime, attempting to control the ideology of the population." This is an important question to say the least, for its answer determines whether the Hebrew Bible was composed as multiple redactions of early oral and written themes and histories, or was composed late in history solely from the ideological imagination of the Deuteronomistic Historians.

The author then proceeds with his analysis, suggesting that the repeated promotion of Judah over the firstborn Reuben in the Genesis narrative illustrates the biblical author's use of typologies within the text. In Deuteronomy, Brettler offers a classic treatment in which he substantially demonstrates a revision of history on the behalf of the Deuteronomist. The author's treatment of the Ehud-Eglon story as satire was a surprisingly compelling argument. Here, Brettler suggests that the purpose of this genre is to increase the life span of the story's moral by using mocking, sexual, and scatological references towards Israel's Moabite enemies. Finally, Brettler discusses ideology, using the book of Samuel as a vehicle that promotes David and offers an apology for the royal ideology of the Davidic line.

Brettler ends his book with a healthy discussion of whether it is possible to reconstruct actual history. Following R. G. Collingwood, Brettler offers an analogy to the American legal system which discusses the two tests that are used in determining the validity of an argument: the unanimity rule of criminal courts that requires something be "beyond a reasonable doubt," and the less stringent majority rule of a civil court that only requires a "preponderance of evidence." Holding up Lionel Grossman's view as a model, Brettler concludes that "history cannot be objective in the sense of `ontologically founded,' but can be `something like rationally justifiable or defensible, not arbitrary, and open to criticism.'" Inasmuch, one can never be certain that one has recreated the actual past, because the past, especially a narrative one, is never fully recoverable. The responsible scholar should accept this reality and "decide which of the alternative reconstructions of the Israelite past best fits the evidence." Brettler concludes, "Biblical historical texts reflect a combination of genuine interest in the past, strong ideological beliefs and refined rhetorical devices."

With the exception of the persistent denotation of possessive plurals with a double apostrophe (or is it a quotation mark?), a practice never before encountered by the present reviewer, Brettler's work is well written, well argued, and is a great addition to the library of the biblical scholar or historian interested in the narrative history of Israel.

After my divorce my credit was a dissaster. I have tried several books and software. I purchased this book and it was the only one to actually do what it said it could do. It only took 60 days for me to be able to get a new car and home and I declaired bankruptcy about 1.5 years ago.

Carol Lee's health journal is a vivid reminder to us all that good health can suddenly change at a moment's notice. Carol awakes to a world of pain - and it takes her two years to discover what's happened and why. Unable to move her arms, her condition defies diagnosis until an osteopath helps her uncover a history which leads her through Tanzania and a Middle Eastern desert. An intriguing story of extreme illness and recovery.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Enjoy small projects? Like themes based on the alphabet. Want to create a picture using items starting with the letter "N"?
This cross stitch book is set up by the letters of the alphabet. All projects have been stitched (a big plus so you can see how they turn out). There are hundreds of ideas photographed which in turn offers you more ideas for future projects. There are also group pictures filled with a single letter themes. Not full of your standard "C" is for cat stuff- Some pretty unique offerings include: Monk, alarm clock, backpacker, and janitor! Happy Stitching!!

For anyone considering an adventure more ambitious than daysailing, this book offers a wealth of knowledge. Written in an easy-to-read format by people sharing their first-hand experiences (they've been around the world...with kids aboard), it pretty much covers everything you'd need to address to 'cruise'. From selecting a boat to equiping it to travelling anywhere your heart desires, it's covered. From safety and medical to paperwork to kids and pets aboard, it's covered. The only challenge is that the book's topics are alphabetical, so you can't simply reference an 'equipment' chapter because 'anchors' and 'sails' are half a book apart...but that's okay...it's all there, and once you've read it, you'll be happily re-reading, and alphabetical DOES make it easy to find a second time. Would I recommend this book? Absolutely!! Especially to the 'relative beginner'. The authors previous books will make you want to get out there, and this one will show you how. Happy sailing!!