F Books

As a professional certified coach, I love this book and use it as a resource in the programs I facilitate on leadership development and business coaching. Tom has such BIG HEART and through this book he provides a wonderful road map on how managers and leaders can begin to create more high performance work teams.

This will become one of your go-to books re: the coaching process. I know it's one of mine! Incredible insights as well as lots of advice, tricks, tips, etc. A must buy for coaches, or those who aspire to become coaches.

In this three-part relational guide for the development of "a performance-focused, feedback-rich organization", consultant Tom Crane offers the reader his insights on three aspects of transformational coaching; the model, the coach, and the culture. The unifying theme, the heart drives relationships, and relationships drive performance, is evidenced by the title of the book and the statement, "If you chose to incorporate any of the practices described, pay attention to how your relationships are enriched and your results are enhanced."

The 'model' part is a three-phase methodology for coaching; starting with connecting, preparing, and establishing expectations (the Foundation); progressing into exploring and issues identification (the Learning Loop); continuing with options, commitment, and follow-up (Forwarding The Action.) The 'coach' element is an introspective piece including communications and style. The 'culture' part covers both `what it is' and seven principles for creating the change.

From reading the book, it is easy to see that Crane believes in intrinsic motivation and in people. He uses a most wonderful term, "positive regard," for how a coach or leader might look upon those they work with. I could not agree more with this sentiment. If you share this feeling, this is a book worth the read, as it gives wonderful guidance for how to bring out the best in people.

Dennis DeWilde, author of
"The Performance Connection"

Tom Crane goes to the true essence of coaching. He developed a comprehensive coaching method to transform knowledge into performance and action into results. A must read not only for coaches, but also for managers and leaders.

This book does have some good background information about coaching. It is pretty dry though. If you want to learn about coaching, take an accredited coaching certification program. I did, and this was one of our required reads. It happened to be my least favorite and gave me very little practical information to use during a coaching session. If you want to read an inspiring, empowering book, read Breaking the Rules by Kurt Wright.

I bought this book sight-unseen as part of Amazon's 4-for-3 promotion. When it arrived, my first thought was that it was way too sweet... "Oh Gag!" came to mind. However, I pulled it out a few nights later and read it to my baby girl at bedtime and liked it. I pulled it out again the next night, and the next. It quickly became one of our favorites. It is an especially nice way to end a day that didn't go so well - too much whining, too much stress, too much everything - this is a nice little book to share at bedtime to calm down, slow down, and relax.

My son thinks he is the boy in this book. This might be in part because I like to insert his name in the title and question that is asked in the book: How do I love you ______? I like to end with I love you ____. We own the board book version and it is a bedtime favorite. Our family discovered P.K. Hallinan (who does his own illustrations) when we purchased a copy of A Rainbow of Friends. Hallinan has written and illustrated several children's books; another of his books, similar to How Do I Love You? (though not quite as good) is ABC I Love You - this book has a brother and sister in it, so I can read it to my son and daughter together, and they can both be in the story. :-)

Reinforces the unconditional love between a parent and a child in a cute little rhyme. There have been times when my own kids have gone through one of the same things this kiddo goes through, and I quote part of the poem to them---for example "I love the way you act so brave when you fall and hurt your knee" or "and even though it may not show, i love you when you're bad." My kids love it, and I mean every word when I read it to them.

This book is so sweet. It makes me stop and appreciate all the little things about our boys that can drive us crazy.
"Even when you lose your shoes, I love you just the same," she says, and the picture shows a little boy in his church clothes with his pants rolled up like he played in the creek. I love cuddling with my little boys and loving on them while we read it.

Our 4 kids absolutely love this book, so do I! :)- This is a frequent request! What a cozy book!

"Mayo Clinic Family Health Book" covers nearly everything that takes place in life from preconception to death. Diagnostic and treatment advice is easy to read and accentuated with diagrams and photos.

FOUND THE GENERAL INFORMATION OF SPECIFIC DISEASES AND ITS POSSIBLE TREATMENTS. VERY GOOD AND PRECISE INFORMATION.

We purchased the Mayo Clinic Eeference guide to serve as a family medical book. We are very pleased with the descriptions and information about comon medical issues. I highly recommend this book for individuals who want more information about common and not so common medical difficulties.

This is a book no household should be without. Very informative and helpfull. The index is great and the information is to the point... Excellent photos and drawings. Only drawback: a bit bulky!

The Mayo Family Health book is a "wealth of information."
My husband recently became ill and was hospitalized. We were able to pinpoint symptoms in the book which helped us along with our health provider get appropriate testing and treatment for his condition.

With healthcare today, we must be "informed consumers".
I have worked nearly 35 years in clinical laboratory medicine and I still learn something new everyday....this book certainly helps.

This is a great great book. If you are familiar with the authors' adversary cycle you will know this was the last book of the six. Let me say that he saved the best for last. This book is a horrific page turner from start to finish. Trust me when I say you will enjoy.

Wilson wrapped up his entire pantheon of characters from his horror novels in this one. I first read this without having read The Touch, Reborn, or Reprisal. Although I couldn't understand all the subplots, I got enough of it to sense the enormity of Wilson's undertaking -- he was essentially plunging into Hell the world he had created and included in all his novels. Now, years later (after having read the mentioned novels), I find the story even MORE enjoyable. I gave this 5 stars even when I was a little lost -- now I wish I could give it more.

Nightworld is a seriously scary book. Not personally scary but scary for the world as we know it. Nightworld completes the Nightworld series, which consists of six books, starting with The Keep. I've read all books and until the publication of Nightworld, it was called The Adversary Series, taken from the fact that the underlying element of this series is the ongoing confrontation through eternity and through the universe of two powerful forces.

These forces are not defined by good and evil for they are not. But one force, which is called the Other in the books, is brutal and caring nothing for humanity, tends to use evil means to achieve it's goal, while his adversary though not necessarily Good utilizes humanity to thwart His Adversary, The Other.

The Anti-Other, throughout history, has utilized a human champion to battle the Other. This champion is empowered with Godlike powers and made immortal for this purpose.

In the initial book, The Keep, which I've mentioned, the earthly agent of The Other, Rasalom, was weakened and imprisoned in a specially constructed prison by a champion of a long gone age, maybe a champion named Glaeken, whose subsequent job in The Keep was to keep tabs on The Other and make sure it didn't escape.

The Keep is a marvelous story wherein, Rasalom, because of some Nazi soldiers, almost escapes his incarceration. I won't go into the story but at the end, Rasalom is vanquished and ostensibly terminated but this is not to be and through the course of two more books, Reborn and Reprisal, Rasalom is rejuvenated, recuperated re-empowered and is set to take revenge upon troublesome humanity. The stage is set for Nightworld.

Nightworld
"If thou gaze into the abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee"

What in the world is going on! Sunrise was five plus minutes late! we're in early summer, surise should be later not earlier, and then another shocker, sunset was ten minutes early! This continues on the second day etc and then a bottomless hole 200 feet across and perfectly round opens up in New York's, Central Park.

The world's scientific community, though at a loss for these occurrences, downplay these episodes and insist there is a rational explanation for these phenomenons. However, there is one who knows what's going on and he has a birds eye view of the Central Park event from his apartment.

It is the ancient warrior Glaeken, who is now in his 80s (his immortality ended after his 1941 battle with Rasalom), living under a pseudonym, Mr. Veileur. Glaeken knows exactly what's going on and he immediately sets out to gather a group of individuals to try to effect some sort of resistance, admittedly an enormous longshot but the only shot humanity has.

Main Charactersin order of appearance

Rasalom [Evil agent of the Other]
Dr. Nicholas Guinn [Physicist and friend of Bill Ryan]
Glaeken/veileur [Aged champion of the Anti-Other]
(ex father) Bill Ryan [Friend and confidant of Glaeken]
Carol Teece [mother of the reborn Rasalom]
Repairman Jack [hero of "The Tomb", a resourceful replacement for the aged Glaeken]
Kolabati [an ancient Indian Priestess who has two artifacts Glaeken needs]
Ba Nyguen [a special forces trained Vietnamese body guard for the following]
Sylvia Nash [mother of the adopted boy Jeffery]
Dr Alan Bulmer [Sylvia's husabnd and Jeffery's father]
Jeffery [a boy who has a healing power called Dat-tay-vao which Glaekin needs in his battle]

Glaeken meets with his would be recruits and of course his story is met with some skepticism, however, as Glaeken predicts, on the second night, hoards of large flying killer insect like creatures(later named by Glaeken as Belly Flies and Chew Wasps descend on an unsuspecting population and kill hundreds of people, horses, dogs etc. Also thousands of these creatures make a beeline to the home of Jeffery and his parents, in an obvious effort to kill Jeffery.

These creatures and the even more deadly creatures that follow can't stand sunlight but of course, day by day, the sunlight is slowly disappearing. In addition thousands of new holes open up around the world and every effort to cap them has been futile, with additional casualties. Humanity is quickly being wiped out and the daylight is getting shorter and shorter!

Things indeed look bleak for humanity but at least the recent horrors have solidified our cadre. Repairman Jack, with Ba in tow is off to Maui and Bill Ryan is off to Rumania, all to retrieve the artifacts that Glaeken needs to have a chance to counteract the carnage.

Can Repairman Jack and Glaeken, along with his unlikely cadre save "life as we know it", or will Rasalom rule over an Unholy Nightmare World?

Author

If you've never read F.Paul Wilson, I recommend him heartily.
He has a nice easily readable writing style and he seems to always have unusual if not unique plots to his stories. This particular book is the culmination of a series that I'm sure did not start out as such. "The Keep" was the original book as I have mentioned and is the basis for the series and as mentioned "Reborn" and "Reprisal" were definitely created to make a series out of a single novel but the resourceful Wilson managed to tie two unrelated books "The Tomb" and "The Touch" into episodes in the series in this last book and it works very well for me.

I was also glad to see Wilson reprise the ever popular Repairman Jack. Wilson has gone on to write several more Repairman Jack novels.

Reviewers Note

Because of the nature of this story. this book tends to be fairly gory and graphic about it. If this is not your cup of tea, then do not read this book. Then again, what are you doing reading any horror books?

Rarely do you come across a horror novel that truly chills you to the bone. This is one of those books. The days get shorter and creepy crawlies come out of holes that pop up all around the world. The monsters and their need for flesh make this a difficult job for REPAIRMAN JACK. Will he make it out alive. You'll just have to read it for yourself. My only critisism of this book is I thought it was rushed at the end, and the loose ends were'nt tied-up.

I just finished the Adversary Cycle with Nightworld and have read all of the Repairman Jack novels that lead up to this final novel. Unfortunately I have to say that Nightwold was a disappointing end to Repairman Jack's world as created by F. Paul Wilson. I loved all of his previous books, even "The Touch", which at the time seemed completely unrelated to any of the rest. My main gripe with this book was the final confrontation, which seemed way too easy and was clumsily written. I found it difficult to understand the scene and exactly what was happening. It also seems silly that the antagonist, while powerful enough to remake the planet to his own liking could be so easily vanquished. And finally the antagonist seemed incredibly out of character in the end. I don't want to spoil it, so let's just say that he didn't go out the way he was written through out the Adversary cycle. Worst of all, the "support" the protagonist needed from the crowd of New Yorkers in order to defeat his enemy was worse than cheesy it was plain ridiculous.

My next gripe was with continuity and was more of an annoyance than a problem. If you haven't read any on the Repairman Jack novels, particularly the newest ones, this won't be an issue for you. In Nightworld, Jack learns a great many things that he has long since known about, and as a result needs to be convinced of what is happening to the world around him. My final issue is, unlike Reborn and Reprisal, Nightworld isn't very edgy, it just doesn't have that suspenseful feeling that wouldn't let me put down either of its two most recent predecessors. Sure there plenty of disgusting scenes such as a man being gouged by a 10-foot millipede which lays eggs in his abdomen that hatch and eat him alive. But that was more gross than scary, which is true of most of the book.

I would have liked to see more scares thrown at the population of Nightworld like the antagonists ability to control the dead, not just scary insects and killer winged beasts. What I was really hoping for was a greater explanation of the to eternal opposing forces, which are fighting for the planet. No luck there.

That said, I still enjoyed the book, as it brought back characters from all of the previous adversary cycle books and my favorite, Repairman Jack. And while it wasn't the best ending to an otherwise excellent series, it still was a somewhat satisfying ending to the story arc. I just think it could have been better, and wish Wilson had waited to write Nightworld after he decides (hopefully not soon) to end the RJ Series, that way the two story arcs could have merged and ended at the same time. But if you've read the previous books in the adversary cycle you'll of course have to read Nightworld and I would recommend doing so, albeit with low expectations so that you won't be too disappointed or if you completely disagree with my review you're pleasantly surprised.

Maybe to that limited set of writers who thinak they are the Homers of today.

But a great american novel would be read by many people with differing levels of appreciation and determined to refelct the CURRENT and essence of America (oh what about south america) not just the mythical past.

THe words may flow as a poem, and cover or expound cleary or lyrically the points of life in this country but that alone does not make it a great story. Or a timeless one.

In preface to my review, I have to say that my favorite writers are Thomas Wolfe, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Henry Miller, Hermann Hesse, Heinrich Boll, Arthur Rimbaud, etc.
Many of the reviews here have bandied about the name of Thomas Wolfe (whose "Look Homeward, Angel" was brilliant); and the comparison is richly deserved; but the most insightful comparison came from the person who said it reminded him of an American version of Tolstoy's "War and Peace".
I've actually read "War and Peace". Lockridge's "Raintree County" rises to that level--and, in my estimation--surpasses it. I love the Russians--Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Turgenev. And I love Walt Whitman and Ross Lockridge for the same reason. They all have what the Spanish call "duende," what the American blacks clamor to express by the word "soul". These aren't weak, spineless, effete Victorians afraid of beauty, passion, shame and awkward emotions.
They cast light into the dark corners of the human soul and throw open man's collective experience for all to see--something rarely achieved in typically dryer Anglo-Saxon literature.
Ross Lockridge's "Raintree County" astounded me. It left me wondering how this great American genius has been ignored, neglected. The only thing I can think of is that Lockridge makes the fatal mistake of being honest, of writing too accurately about the time-period, of not lying and indulging in historical revisionism. As a result, spineless readers wince when the "N" word is used, or terms like "pickannies," "darkies" or various other period vulgarities are employed by despised side-characters.
For this reason geniuses like Booth Tarkington are banned and suppressed.
It's sad. They want to revise the past and make it "acceptable" for modern audiences. But if you sanitize, you gut, you neuter, you destroy the hard edges which give the time-period texture, verisimilitude. (I mean, if slaves were well-treated why did we fight the Civil War?) But modern hacks would have writers keep all profanities out of it, re-write it so that nothing crude or insensitive made its way in.
If you want lies, watch a Hollywood movie, read a trash novel; if you want genius, poetry, brilliant insights and literary talent, give "Raintree County" a try. Maybe, with enough of us protesting, the prude schoolmarms with tenure at universities will be nudged from their slumber and realize that they have neglected one of the titanic achievements of modern American literature.

Raintree County is the anatomy of a fall from Paradise-with all the Edenic metaphors placed in a fictional county in Indiana-and the process by which it is regained. The structure and scope of the book are extraordinary, a system of telling and suspension that turns one day into a hundred years, all hinged upon the American Civil War (and the allegorical death of the principal character). Like another great contemporary American novel, All The King's Men, Raintree County was built upon the wreckage of a failed epic prose poem. Also, like Robert Penn Warren's glittering classic, Ross Lockridge's best-selling masterpiece deals with a gifted primary character caught up in the vortex of human history (though Penn Warren was more interested in the problem of power than he was in the cataloging of the life of Huey Long).

Raintree County should be a standard of 20th Century American literature. It is perhaps the greatest novel ever written. I'm mystified as to why it doesn't make Random House's Top 100 Novels List. I think in all honesty that Raintree County is too straightforward, too compassionate, too wise, too loving, too optimistic, too gently humorous, and too accessible to please the moldy and myopic listmakers. Really "great" books, as everyone knows, are dry game puzzles, smug literary fogs, brutal crayon travelogues, or ancient misanthropic sphinxes that museum directors and tenured professors of the academies alike can dust off occasionally without fear of ever having to update their pamphlets.

The texture style and meter of this work is astoundingly lyrical yet clear. To wit: "The world is still full of divinity and strangeness, Mr. Shawnessy said. The scientist stops, where all men do, at the doors of birth and death. He knows no more than you and I why a seed remembers the oak of twenty million years ago, why dust acquires the form of a woman, why we behold the earth in space and time. He hasn't yet solved the secret of a single name upon the earth. We may pluck the nymph from the river, but we won't pluck the river from ourselves: this coiled divinity is still all murmurous and strange. There are sacred places everywhere. The world is still man's druid grove, where he wanders hunting for the Tree of Life."

As long as I have a mind, I won't forget this profound and wonderful book or the characters who inhabit it: Perfessor Stiles with his pince-nez and Malacca cane, the cigar-chewing bighearted phony senator from Indiana, Garwood Jones, sweet Nell Gaither, the dark lost and deranged Susannah Drake. Carefully researched (it took seven years to write), it is also an excellent freshener on historical events of the nineteenth century, especially the Civil War. Contained within, for all you philosophiles, is the added bonus of cogent and detailed arguments for free will over predetermination, the triumph of spirit over matter, a solution to the riddle of the Many and the One, an explanation of the Word, and many more.

Born four years before J.D. Salinger, who still breathes at this writing, Ross Lockridge Jr. ended his life by carbon monoxide poisoning March 6th, 1948, two months after the publication of his one and only novel. He was thirty-three. He left behind a wife and four children. His second son, Larry, five years old at the time of his father's death, has written a book (Shade of the Raintree) attempting to explain what he calls "the greatest single mystery in American letters." He largely blames success in combination with a "biological (possibly genetic) predisposition to depression" along with "suicide-personality disorder (narcissistic)." It's easy to see why a John Kennedy O'Toole battering his manuscript (Confederacy of Dunces) against the unbreachable ramparts of Harcourt Brace and Get Lost, might do himself in (and then of course win a Pulitzer). But to receive a Harvard scholarship, publish an immediately successfully and lavishly acclaimed book which wins several major prizes including an MGM contract, and then to take your life as a proclaimed lover of life and a protector of four children, is a riddle beyond the ken of my meager imagination.

You may have once wandered through an art gallery and
while walking between images both beautiful and banal
happened upon a painting unlike few you have ever seen before.
It was found placed in a more remote part of the exhibit
and poorly lit thus causing you to give it a brief glimpse.
At first glance, the quaint simplicity caused you to smile yet upon
a second look you noticed the unmistakable quality, the rich
shadings, the subtleties, the emotion upon the faces of the characters,
and within a short time you realized that the artist had captured the
very essence of humanity. Shades of life both light and dark and all
the hues in between, this is what Ross Lockridge has placed upon his canvass for
posterity. This is Raintree County.

Raintree County; a mythical place, a gentle and beautiful tale of an
age and culture that has long since been harrowed under and paved over.
A verdant and pastoral county whose heart is found at the crossroads of
two dirt roads, whose inhabitants are poised at the intersection between a young
and thriving republic and greatest wrong every allowed to fester within
its expanding frontiers. The sunny days of community existence intertwined
with the political complexities surrounding the greatest rift ever to divide a
nation. A portrait of the land and its people in the midst of life and the
trials and tribulations of life's inescapable vicissitudes.

Within the covers of this book are found the joys of love upon the banks of
a river, the excitement and pride of a community during the celebration of
Independence day, the pungent smells and prolific yet depraved lifestyle during
the last days of antebellum New Orleans, and the songs of the slaves in their
agony, joy, and uncertainty. An epic, a day in the life of a ordinary man and
how he came full circle-if that is indeed possible. A reminder of the nation and
her people who were deeply shattered by the violence of a Civil War.

Within the prose are whispers of Plato, Poe, and Shakespeare. Characters
of well developed intellect and humor coexist amid the turgid and the
unlearned. At its core is love, insanity, birth, death, family, war,
and a river that courses through the county to both nourish the smiles and
drain the bitterness. Indeed perhaps the "Great American Classic," and a
sadly overlooked book. Lockridge is of the same ilk as Wolfe, Faulkner,
and Emerson. It has been said that each of us contains a book. To have this
as your only book is a majestic feat. Raintree County can be analyzed at many
philosophical levels and I am sure subsequent readings will reveal a multitude
of lessons. To me, my first time just staying at the surface brought me
the great joy that a masterfully written novel must impart.

I have positioned this book as "The" Great American novel - in reccomending it to a dozen friends. Only one has disagreed. Nuff said.

Rebels and Redcoats is not the first book to read about the American Revolution.

I know this book has glowing reviews by others. But those readers already know the basic story. If you think you fit in that category, go for it. Fascinating as the first person accounts may be, the context of the war is sometimes lost.

The men who fought the War are not the most literate. Spelling and grammatical conventions of the late 18th century may be confusing to the modern reader.

A teacher or another reader to help with the story line would be good. Or read 1776: America and Britain at War, by David G. McCullough first. You'll get much more out of your reading.

The editor/authors do a good job weaving the tales told by various participants. The reader may find the differing styles confusing. An interesting alternative would be Joseph Plumb Martin's classic account as a teenage recruit during the Revolution.

What else can be said that has not already been posted? Scheer and Rankin nail this book! A must for anyone interested in our amazing revolution and the men / women involved in it. With actual written accounts from people who were there you could not get a more fact based account of what it must have been like. It is very rare that this book gets "dull" as some fear history must be. Written how all history should be - so that it touches you and makes you think of what it must have been like to live through such time, If you want to learn and enjoy history (esp. such an important part of history) get this book and "Angel in the Whirlwind" by Benson Bobrick = both are fantastic! A plus!

"Rebels and Redcoats" is a tremendously good read recommended for anyone interested in a history of the American Revolutionary War written by those that fought and lived it.

Authors George Scheer and Hugh F. Rankin have compiled, organized and edited a comprehensive collection of letters and papers that provide unparalleled insights into the war as it unfolds. Some of the participants, such as Paul Revere, are well known. Most, however, are not, including rank and file American and British soldiers.

The result is an extremely well written and compelling chronological history of the American war for independence through the eyes of those that won - and lost - it.

Lasting eight years, the Revolutionary War was both America's first long war and civil war. By it ends, four times more American had died (percentage wise) than in World War II. The war showed how hard it is for any nation, no matter how powerful and technologically advanced its military and economy, to defeat a people numerous, armed and far away, possessing strong allies, and fighting for their independence on ground of their own choosing.

Anyone interested in a first-hand account of a war that gave birth to the United States of America and changed the world should read this book.

Reads like a good novel. The first hand accounts woven into the narrative are well selected and perfectly integrated. A variety of perspectives was chosen and this is quite even-handed. There is enough detail to make it lively and interesting but not so much that it overpowers. Anyone wishing to pursue further personal study has broad cross section of topics, biographies and events to choose from. This is an excellent book and should be required reading for all high school and college students instead of the the race-gender-class dribble that is probably used today. 1000% better than Langguth's "Patriots".

This is a very good, readable history of the American Revolution. The book does a very good job of giving you the British side of the Revolution. I enjoyed the book, and so did my 13 year old son.

The only thing the book doesn't have is much material about the war at sea, but this is a minor shortcoming.

This book is my favorite all-time meditation starter. I like the idea of focusing on Christ's life for my meditations, for the obvious reason that we become like what we think about all the time. Well, this book brings all four gospels into play in a chronological discussion of Christ's life, adding touches of culture and history that the average person would not be aware of. This approach adds loads of meaning to what happens in the gospel accounts, since 21st-Century Americans really do have a hard time understanding some of the events and wording in the gospels. Frank Sheed's efficient use of the English language makes this not exactly an easy read, but a meaningful one, even for the average layperson.

F. J. Sheed was a brilliant writer. His To Know Christ Jesus, like Fulton Sheen's Life of Christ, is a great help to reading all four Gospels at the same time coherently, for as the author states, they were not written with chronology in mind, therefore the sequence of Gospel events could be confusing at times. Sheed not only guides the reader step by step through Christ's life, but as a friend of Christ (clearly the author was a man of deep prayer) he also makes the reader stop at certain places along the way to help him meditate and bring depth to the reality of Christ and the significance of His actions on Earth. This is truly a masterful spiritual work. I recommend reading it with the Bible open. It will deepen anyone's understanding and knowledge of Christ and give one a keener sense for detail, and one cannot love what one does not know well, hence the importance of this book.

This book provides the best gospel commentary/reflection known to man.

For every gospel story, this book has a thorough look at the passage along with comments on related passages. This book is well-written and easy to read. You can skip from chapter to chapter, or just read from start to finish.

Though it is easy to read, the material is dense. I've re-read this book 3 times and I'm still getting new stuff from it.

There are few books that I will *specifically* require my children to read. This is one of them. (Though I guess I'll have to wait 'til the kids are about 15-16.)

I checked the web site at www.ignatius.com for this item using the ISBN 13: 9780898704198, and the description there is of a paperback book.

The description below is from the Ignatius site
[ ISBN: 9780898704198
Author: Frank Sheed

Length: 399 pages
Edition: Paperback
]

I think that back in 1992 the book was published in hardcover under ISBN 10: 0898704197, but that edition appears not to be available any more.

I am providing this review solely about the edition that is available here rather than about the content of the book. I haven't read the copy I received yet, it was a paperback even though i was expecting a hardcover.

PS: after writing this review I requested that amazon.come make a change to the description of the books binding from "hard cover" to "paperback" and amazon.come agreed to the change. Now any purchaser will know exactly what they are getting when they order the book. I am impressed with amazon.come's willingness to make the change suggested.

Frank Sheed takes the four Gospels and brings them together masterfully into one volume. Great explanations of the times and customs surrounding the events also. A must read along with Fulton Sheen's Life of Christ.

Vacca's new book provides a comprehensive overview of the emerging wireless data technology. The book is geared toward experienced Internet professionals who need to learn how to install wireless networks quickly. It provides numerous hands-on examples, such as an access network protocol, and useful discussions about issues such as the implementation of homeland security (currently most available protocols and products have huge holes). A large portion of the book is devoted to the design of wireless networks, dealing with issues such as standards, robustness, ease of installation and use, and, of course, security. Detailed schematics demonstrate typical filter and uplink applications. The final chapter offers a series of recommendations to support Vacca's assertion that wireless technology is the key to the future of communications and concludes that future networks will require a new methodology that integrates all layers of network design. The book is organized to move from an overview of this emerging technology through the planning and design, installation and deployment, and configuration phases. It also supplies advanced solutions to wireless design problems and new directions of the technology. Altogether a must for those people who are charged with implementing this type of network in their organizations.

This is the practical stuff you can't ever learn by going to grad school.
Wonderfully comprehensive and chalk full of highly useful information for today's high tech world. Wireless Data hits every conceivable corner of wireless technology with a well balanced mix of overview, technical depth, and hands on applications. The diagrams and illustrations are very well done. Highly recommended for the spectrum of tech managers, network engineers, and technicians. This book will be a mainstay for my reference library.

Vacca provides a unique value in his books in allowing the reader to drill down to the technical level required. This one is certainly no exception. His top-level scenarios are enlightening and encourage you to leap onto the technological bandwagon, but I particularly appreciate his caveats - particularly where he indicates what standardisation or legislation is required within the industry, as well as his very specific cautions against over-design within your application. Subsequently, he proceeds into the technical rationale for such limitations, and where it can be bypassed or overcome.

As I have spent the majority of my applications career interfacing between management/marketing ideals (necessary for progress) and technical viability within the available staff (typically pessimistic after the first few confrontations with external technical reality), I sincerely appreciate Vacca's substantiated presentations of current viability, emergent solutions, and futures.

JohnVacca has again written a book about a subject that has great application in the near future. As notebook computers are fast replacing desktop computers and as flat screen monitors are replacing CRT monitors, wireless data is replacing data transmission via cables of different types. Several companies have already replaced their local networks with wireless networks at work place where their employees can move about the work place and be connected to not only the company's Intranet but also the Internet. This book provides a good explanation in the understanding of wireless data transmission and the challenges for companies that provide wireless transmission to improve this technology as more companies and organizations will soon depend on this application to conduct business.

I have added also this new book by John vacca to my Company library. Practically all of John books end up being used to train all of our employees . You did it again John!
Keep at it , you are the best

Tullio Bortoletto

This book is about four kids, Judd, Vicki, Lionel, and Ryan. They are going through the last seven years left on earth after the Rapture. None of them have parents because they were either taken during the Rapture or they died. They have all become Christians and are beginning the fight towards the antichrist, Nicolae Carpathia. Their pastor Bruce was just killed in a bombing in Chicago, and now they have to face the future without parents or a pastor.

I thought this book was very good. It helped me become a better Christian and better believer of Christ. This book would be good for people who are Christians or people who want to learn more about the Rapture and about being a Christian. Reading this book helped me to be more aware and know more about the Rapture also. I think the lesson is to accept Christ before it is too late because you never know when your last day will be.

I have always enjoyed the adult series of Left Behind books. The kids books are just as good. The kids interact with the characters from the adult series, experience the same events, etc. However, since the main characters are teens, these books can appeal to younger readers. So far, the stories haven't had the ups and downs that the adult series has had. The adult series has books that are a lot more boring than others. The kids series seems to be good in every book. These are not for really young kids, but would be appropriate for young teens. I enjoy them and I am an adult.

I like to read a variety of books, but since I have come upon the adult and kid's series of left behind, I just can't really get into another book until I know I have read the last one of both series.

Death Strike is the 8th book in the LBTK series, and probably the most crammed, adventure filled book, in the whole series to date (#32, and counting).
We last left off with Vicki being taken back to Northside Detention Center. After a run-in with trouble, Vicki is left injured within the first few pages, and recieves word that there is someone that would like to adopt her! Who could it be, and will she want to go with them? Also, Vicki finds friendship within a girl named Janie, but wonders if she will ever believe the truth.
Meanwhile, back home, Judd, Lionel, and Ryan are left amazed through the teachings of Pastor Bruce Barnes. With new security measures being brought up within Nicolae High, can they really risk bringing back "The Underground", since they have witnessed the trouble it can bring?
With the return of a new friend, Judd decides to travel to Israel with Bruce, but when a mysterious illness strikes the pastor, the Young Trib Force is left to deal with the loss of a great friend, and the disapperance of another. World Word 3 begins, and it's going to be a rocky ride.
Truly a favorite in the series, Death Strike delivers and really set the standards I've put the series up to. Always suspensful, and always inpirational, this series is one that you can't afford not to read.

This eighth installment in the series about a group of teens struggling to survive the Tribulation and spread the Truth of the existence of God to a world caught in the Antichrist's web of deceit is one of the most exciting in the series so far. Death Strike starts one year after the events of book 7. The Antichrist's regime has gained complete control of the world, decieving people into thinking that Nicolae Carpathia is the savior of the world. The young Trib Force sees this man as he really is - the most evil man on Earth. They are determined to resist the power that this regime has over the world.

Vicki Byrne, now 15 years old, is still detained in the detention center, where she has been fighting for her life for one year. Judd, Lionel, Ryan, John, and Mark are continuing their undercover ministry at Nicolae High. Judd, now 17 years old, sets a new goal that could put the entire group in the greatest danger yet. At his graduation ceremony, he proclaims the message of the Bible and how to recieve God's salvation. He is dragged out of the ceremony by Global Community gaurds and given no credit.
Then conflict arises, the rise of a rebel group fighting against Carpathia's regime triggers war and Judd, Mark and Vicki, who finally makes it out of the detention center, are almost killed by a sudden attack of GC soldiers against a gathering of Militia rebels.
Then global catastrophe strikes. When the GC military bomb the Militia's nike base, World War 3 begins, leaving the young Trib Force fighting for their lives. As GC fighter planes soar over Chicago dropping bombs on buildings and neighborhoods, the kids desperately search for Mark, whom they fear is dead. They find him, barely alive, but alive nonetheless. But the kids are given a heartbreaking challenge when one of their closest friends is killed by the bombings.

Book 8 in the Left Behind Kids series is one of the most suspenseful books in this series so far. It kept me on the edge of my seat to the very end, and the cliffhanger ending left me hanging. I highly reccomend this series to anyone.

President Ford has not been the most prolific writer as far as Ex-Presidents go. This unique insight into one of the most important events in the last 50 years is an American treasure. Ford has forever been reluctant to discuss this topic, and used this unique forum to give what will likely be his "final" views on the topic. A must read for those interested in history. If you are a book collector you will be extremely impressed with the quality of this volume. The quality and workmanship should redefine what we come to expect in a leatherbound book.

First off, I am of an "age" where this Kennedy controversy was nothing but something folk argued about over the years. I was an infant when the assassination took place, so I have no emotional involvement in either side of the story. That having been said, let me say about this book:

From the "outside", this volume "oozes" quality, elegance and opulence.

On the inside, the "old" story of the Warren Commission, which I admittedly never really believed, is told again with additions that augment the original report. I have seen other documentaries, and one or two I saw "proved" to me beyond a shadow of a doubt that these folk from the 1960s knew what they were talking about.

To have such an elegant edition of a book, signed by the only surviving member of the Warren Commission, is a must-have for any collector, whether you "believe" what it says or not.

A wonderful book full of new thoughts on the assasination of JFK and even hand-signed by President Gerald Ford. A beautiful piece of art that has a living soul that you can not find in a book any more. This book is worth every penny that is spent and will only go up in value from here. I am glad I have been lucky enough to have come across this book before the big bang happens and prices skyrocket. I recommend this book for any collector. A truly great piece of American history!!!

It's often true that form is indeed content. This handsome leather volume is uniquely produced and the fact that it is signed by President Ford further enhances its desirability. This important publishing event is a credit to The Flatsigned Press. The new foreword by President Gerald Ford offers new material published here for the very first time. Wonderful. We're happy to have it in our collection.

I straddle the fence on whether I believe the lone gunman theory that was the conclusion of the Warren Commission, but there's no equivocation about my admiration for this beautiful leatherbound, gilt-edged edition which includes a new Foreword by President Gerald Ford. Also, while I disagree with Ford's pardoning of Nixon, there's no denying the historical importance of the work he did on the Warren Commission, and it's safe to assume that his new material in this edition will represent his final public thoughts on the JFK assassination.