I Books

Jessica is wonderful! This book is encouraging and inspiring to anyone like myself who has been struggling with their weight for a long time. She encourages us to be healthy, but her definition of healthy includes accepting and loving your body and rejecting the media messages about what healthy should look like. Reading this book was like a refreshing talk with a close friend.

This is a helpful book that is broken up into small chapters that are easy to read.It made me laugh,and get a better understanding of people who are never satisfied with their weight.

I can't begin to describe my difficulties of growing into the body I am going to have as a woman, but I don't have to because Jessica did it for it for me. There are very few ways to describe how it feels to read "Do I look fat in this?" except to say it's freeing. As I turned the pages I would eat up every word & little by little i could breathe easier.
Jessica is the start of something amazing that i want to be a part of!!

"She wins who calls herself beautiful and challenges the world to change tp truely see her" - Naomi Wolf

I loved Jessica Weiner's books A Very Hungry Girl and Do I Look Fat In This. Therefore, when I saw she had a "new" book out, I immediately ordered it from Amazon without paying attention to details. Please be aware that if you already own Do I Look Fat In This, you do not need to order Life Doesn't Begin 5 Pounds From Now; this is the same book with a different title and a new forward. So now I own two copies of this book with different covers, but I don't mind so much because it is filled with wonderful information for not-slim women like me. Guess I must have needed to re-read it, huh?

If you're tired of dieting, this may be the book for you. Jess's book is a breakthrough experience for anyone who has struggled with self-appearance and self-esteem....and isn't that most of us. She believes that by focusing on what others tell you are your shortcomings-- you miss opportunities to feel connected, sexy and powerful. Whether you're a size 2 , 12 or 22 or beyond-- you can benefit from Jess's words of wisdom. The motivational speaker, author and self-described "actionist" versus Activist...writes in plain English and tosses in some great motivational quotes from famous people and some fun facts about self approval and more. Twelve chapters plus an afterword are included..and the chapters are fun to read-- get this even if you don't have the time to read it-- just scan it and you'll benefit -- I promise...ANyway the chapters range from Decoding the Language of Fat...to the Famous or should I say infamous question most women ask daily "Do I look Fat in This? to "I Feel Fat" to If I were Thinner, He'd Love me" to Thunder Thighs Run in my Family to Ch 6-- I'd be so happy if I looked like a Celebrity to 7) Once I lose some weight..... to 8) All of my Friends are not and I'm not...9) But I'm jsut trying to be healthy to 11) [...] 12) Sorry I don't speak that language. Quizes, roleplaying experiences and fun quizes are interspersed with TAKE ACTION steps...Probably the most important thought though is that YOU CAN"T FEEL FAT -- because fat is not a feeling-- and if you read that section alone (I don't want to steal her thunder with her response to this) ...you'll benefit greatly...AN amazing lady and a fun, easy-to-read book that's great for girls above 12, teens, college chicks and women of any age...great to get this before the holiday parties start! Fun birthday gift...

This is a great book which deals with learning to find your sense of worth and true beauty from the Lord alone. Complete fulfillment and happiness will never be found in things or relationships with people and God made it that way for a reason: so that we can begin to hunger and thirst for Him. In the past, I've been guilty of putting my own will, boyfriends, and things before Jesus... relegating Him to the back burner of my life. In recent years, I have been learning how to abide in Him and His perfect love. This book only affirmed my present spiritual journey. It was a good source of encouragement for this 30 year-old female.

I loved this book and have given it as gifts to women in my life. It is a really uplifting book. I liked it so much that since I have given my copy away to a friend to read and not gotten it back I ordered another copy with the study guide. It is very much worth the money and time spent to explore God's love for me. I highly suggest this book.

I don't know what inspired me to buy this book. But I sure am glad I did! Angela's awkward childhood brought tears to my eyes as I remembered my own childhood impediments. Long frizzy black hair--a patch over one eye----coke bottle glasses----
Angela's book is a wonderful reminder not to get so caught up with trying to meet the world's standards of beauty. In all of our misguided passions we are sure to miss the wonderful attributes that God has gifted us with. If we leave them unattended for vain pursuits they will never fully bloom.
Sally H Taylor Author/Illustrator

Truthfully I did not like the title and almost did not read the book. It was highly recommended by I friend so I went ahead and read it. After reading this book I loved it and actually taught it for a group of ladies in our church. I highly recommend the workbook too. I plan to go throught the teen version with my daughter when she is old enough.

Deana Herd

This book was recommended for my daughter by a therapist at her inpatient facility she's in for anorexia. I bought it for her and read it first. I thought it was excellent, but thought many of the thoughts were for an older person...she's 14. After buying this book I realized there is a version for teens. I purchased that for her too. She said the girls at the center all loved the teen version that was done in a magazine format. So, great book for an adult, but if it's for a teen, I'd go with the book modeled after this one just for them!

Julia Garrison Fox writes her experiences after suffering a stroke at the age of 37. This is a must read for all healthcare professionals especially those who work in the rehabilitation field. She pulls no punches and write candidly about what it feels like both physically and emotionally to go through a life altering incident. This is a wake-up call for all in the healthcare field, we are real good at treating the body but we sometimes forget the human spirit we are also caring for.

I really loved this book, and would recommend it to anyone and everyone. Although I've never suffered any of the physical impairments that the author has, her story is very easy to relate to. Not to mention that it serves as a reminder to all of us to never give up, and to never take anything for granted.

Ms. Garrison's persistance is to be admired, as is her sense of humor through ordeals that have broken the spirits of many. Kudos to you, Julia, and may you never lose your courage, love of life, and wonderful spirit!

I read the first two paragraphs, stopped, and read them again. I then got up from my comfy chair, found my husband and daughter and read the first two paragraphs aloud to them. We were all blown away. The rest of Julia Garrison's story is just as breathtaking. I couldn't put it down. I cried hard twice and laughed out loud too many times to count. When I finished, I just sat for a long while with the book in my hands, looking at the cover, wishing for more. I'm the same age the author was when, without warning, she had a massive stroke, and her life changed forever. So I keep imagining myself in her shoes, wondering if I possess the courage, determination, and positive attitude Julia has, wondering if I would survive...and then thrive. I don't know, but I know this: Her story inhabits me now. And I carry her messages of positive attitude, dignity, and hope with me. This book should be read by everyone who has ever been a patient, everyone who has ever faced overwhelming obstacles, every doctor, and definitely every medical student. Have I left anyone out?

This is yet another insight into the hellish situation that exists when healthy people become incapacitated and end up in rehab or nursing home situations. (For comparison, read Joni Eareckson's autobiography and Stephen Thompson's Genesis: A Portrait of Spinal Cord Injury. Each one of these author's stories begin in different decades, but all, including Julia Garrison, describe first-hand similar experiences of dealing with a health-care system that is both abusive and neglectful).

If Julia's family hadn't been there for her, including a devoted husband, mother and eight brothers, she would have quickly withered and died in a nursing home. A simple request for tampons was denied, and she was offered adult diapers as a substitute, because the home didn't stock tampons or even pads. It was far easier for the nursing home staff to have a compliant patient in diapers, rather than an ornery, loud and gutsy 37-year-old woman who refused to roll over and accept the cards that fate had laid out for her.

The medical profession will move heaven and earth to save the life of an accident or stroke victim, but then doesn't seem to know what to do with the patients whose lives they have just saved. Julia Fox Garrison, with an insane will to survive, and surrounded by the love of her family, took charge of her own recovery and made her own plans for the rest of her life, the one she would have to live after she was discharged from the hospital and sent home.


Garrison's book is must reading for anyone whose life has been altered by a single event. Life does somehow go on, and the book is blessedly free of the heavy-handed preaching that often accompanies the retelling of tragic true-life stories.

I am a rehab nurse and I just couldn't put this book down.

Yes, all of the portraits are not flattering of folks in the healthcare profession. We must view patients as people, with all their likes, dislikes and quirks.

I found it to be a very funny, uplifting first person account.

This is a great book. I bought this book because my husband enjoyed this book when he was a child. He still enjoys this book today and reads it to our 6 year old son.

The lesson we learned from this book is there are always some problems no matter where you go.

I highly recommend this book because it's fun to read, educational, and it never gets old.

My dad was, is, and will always be a huge Dr. Seuss fan. He read this, as well as all the other Seuss classics, to me as a child. I had a devil of a time finding it a few years ago; had to special order it. It has an honored place on my bookshelf.

It taught me two valuable lessons: 1) Tackle your problems instead of running away from them, and 2) The grass is not necessarily greener on the other side.

Those two bits of knowledge have stuck with me for many years and led me through many challenging times. Thank you, Dr. Seuss!

What can I say, Dr Seuss is popular for a good reason. These are fun for all ages. The rhyming, the cute stories, the good morals. These books make reading for homework fun.

This was my favorite Dr. Seuss, and one of the books that stuck with me. I came across it recently while I also happened to be reading Campbell's Transformations of Myth Through Time.

A young man, beset with the travails of life, sets off to find paradise. The premise having been set, this story is actually predominantly about his many encounters and experiences on the road to paradise -- how he gets conned, imperiled, left to the mercy of the elements, enlisted into a battle he has nothing to do with, lost and alone in a crowd, etc. Having risen to the occasion repeatedly, he arrives at (literally) the door to paradise a changed man. In the end, Dr. Seuss leaves open question of what paradise really is.

This is an archetypal Hero's Journey.

And there is another parallel. Campbell often talked about the danger of concretizing the symbols -- for example that there is a physical holy land, the place where your myth takes place, to which you as a human being must physically travel to touch divinity. The alternative is to recognize your myth as metaphoric, and to recognize that the divinity of your God is your own divinity, and to sanctify and make holy the land and the place where you are, etc. 'Solla Sollew' speaks to this theme.

Can't really add much more than what everyone else has already said. I'll just add that this is my very favorite Dr. Seuss book... great story and great illustrations.

Out of print book came quickly and condition was very good, service was quick. I will be back.

I loved this book! The entire time I listed to this book on cassette I felt I was hearing privileged information...yet Jess Oppenheimer shared his intellectual jewels freely as if they were common everyday thoughts. Well, for him, they were. What a genius. And what a witty, creative, generous, and responsible man! If he were alive I'd write him a fan letter.

This is an excellent informative book about the "I Love Lucy" show and a must have for any Lucy fan! The cd that is included is worth the price of the whole set alone. In the cd it includes hours of hilarious episodes from I Love Lucy and My Favorite Husband starring Lucille Ball, you will also receive lost scenes from the shows on the cd. I am not much of a reader but this book you just can't put down because it is so good and of course I love Lucy! The book doesn't look thick on the picture shown on Amazon but it is a nice thick paperback book and includes lots of wonderful pictures of the cast of I Love Lucy and fun information that you may have not of known about I love Lucy and how it became to be produced.

I THOUGHT THE BOOK WAS VERY INTERESTING AND INFORMTIVE! IT WAS HILARIOUS AND I JUST COULDNT PUT IT DOWN. IT ONLY TOOK ME THREE DAYS TO READ IT. I THOUGHT IT WAS INTERESTING HOW IT TOLD ABOUT THE LIFE OF JESS OPPENHEIMER AS WELL AS THE LIFE OF LUCILLE BALL AND OTHER CAST MEMBERS FROM THE SHOW I LOVE LUCY. I REALLY LOVE THIS BOOK AND I THINK EVERY I LOVE LUCY FAN SHOULD READ IT!!!

I'd like to start with a clarification: this book is not a biography of Lucy, it is the creator's (Jess Oppenheimer) memoir. As such, there are many parts of the book that have nothing to do with Lucy, including episodes from Oppenheimer's childhood and young adult life.

However, this is still a GREAT book! It is well-written and full of entertaining annecdotes. "Laughs, Luck, and Lucy" follows Oppenheimer's slow rise to the top in the Hollywood radio industry. He describes Lucille Ball's program, "My Favorite Husband," which became the basis for "I Love Lucy." The book also includes some behind the scenes information about the making of "I Love Lucy."

The included audio cd is fun because it has clips from both "I Love Lucy" and "My Favorite Husband."

If you are only interested in information specifically about Lucille Ball, this might not be the book for you (try her autobiography, "Love, Lucy"). However, if you (like me) are fascinated with everything surrounding "I Love Lucy" and the Hollywood entertainment industry of the 1940s and 1950s, this is a great read!

Through Michael McClay, we can have a wonder picture of one of the best shows on TV. Through MANY pictures (a lot in color) and words, we can learn how these four greatly made this show: I Love Lucy. The book takes you through all of their lives before, during and after the show. Three parts are in this facinating book; one is about the show. And the other two are thirty-five of the classic episodes (some of which were chosen by Lucille Ball herself!!); and the last section is ALL 179 episodes in order that they went on air.

The book is definitly five stars and you cannot read this book once. It is great to just look at and you can learn so much about Luciile Ball, Desi Arnaz and Vivian Vance and William Frawley. So get yourself this I Love Lucy treasure TODAY!!!!

Who doesn't LOVE Lucy? This book is THE definitive guide for all us die-hard, lifelong, Lucy fans. It is chock full of facts, anecdotes, black and white and colour photos, etc. By far, the most comprehensive book on the series I have ever read. Introduced by daughter, Lucie Arnaz, we are taken down memory lane and even allowed BACKSTAGE where we get glimpses of the REAL life Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. Strictly for the fans, who will understand and appreciate the attention to detail here.

Very Good Book... Great Collectors Item.

AMAZING!! This is one of the best books written about "I Love Lucy." Michael McClay certainly knew what he was doing when he gave us this great book on the best show in picture history. Through many pictures (many in color) and words, McClay is able to tell you ALL about "I Love Lucy" and the great people that made it so great. He tells not only about the people at the time of the show, but gives, not much but accurate, information about the four wonderful people that made the show so successful before and after the shows were made. He gives you thirty-five classic episodes that are the hits in the "I Love Lucy" shows. And also a TV-ography of the 179 "I Love Lucy" shows in the order that they went on the air. And the "I Love Lucy" Theme Song music given at the beginning of the three parts that are in this book has been played many times on my piano.

This is truely the best book there is on the show "I Love Lucy" (but no "I Love Lucy" book can beat Lucille Ball's book "Love, Lucy;" it covers her whole life as well as the "I Love Lucy" shows.Get that one too because both are both greatly recommended). Some books don't give very much or very accurate information on this show. But this one gives you all of the information, accurately, about the show.

I greatly encoutrage you top get this book especially if you are a Lucy fan (and if you are not, reading this book will give you a great start). You will NOT be disappionted. You will have too much trouble putting it down that when you finish it, you will want to read it again--you will never get tired of it. Get yours TODAY and you WILL enjoy!

This beautiful book introduced me to the world of "I Love Lucy" literature, and I must say I got off on the right foot! The photographs are beautiful, and the text is surprisingly thorough for a "picture history". This would make an enjoyable addition to anyone's Lucy collection (it's also a great place to start!).

I came across this book a few years after it was written so knew there was a chance the advice might be outdated. This was a risk I was willing to take because I've been so impressed with Kristie T's websites (voted one of the best by Dr. Phil!) and her support of work-at-home moms. What a great purchase!

This book is a comprehensive, step-by-step guide to making money from home while keeping your eye on the real prize . . . your family and quality of life. This book is easy to read, entertaining, supportive and soooo informative. It includes a massive resource section for those who work from home.

As a mom of three who has run home businesses and coached others in this area, Kristie's book has a "walk the talk" feel. What mom can't relate to her touching and humorous stories of the realities of raising little ones (the trials and joys)! Yet, the book has substance, including many action lists, web and written resources and helpful templates.

In my opinion, the appeal of this book goes way beyond work-at-home moms. Any home office professional who wants to make their work environment more efficient, their time more productive, and their business more profitable needs to read this book. It is an excellent guide for any home business owner. Buy this book for your business reference library today!
Mollie Marti, PhD
Author: Selling: Powerful New Strategies for Sales Success

Hi! My name is Nicole. I am the illustrater! I took lots of time on them. I love my book because my mom and me did good! I hope you like my book! my mom hopes so too! have a good day every body!

Kriste's passion for helping work-at-home moms is evident in all that she does and this book is no exception.

She walks her talk in supporting work-at-home moms- she was kind enough to grant me an interview to put in my e-book "A Mother's Dream: Finding Fulfillment in Your Home Business".

Any mother interested in balancing working from home with motherhood should get this book.

I have read and ALSO promote this book for Kristie and I have to tell you that if you are really thinking about working from home and running an online business, you NEED to read this book. The information she has in this book can make or break anyone who wants to run a business from home. I would like to thank Kristie as well for giving me the opportunity to promote this book and for the book itself, I love it! There are many work at home books on the market today, but this book stands alone, read all the reviews, they can't all be wrong! Thanks Kristie for a wonderful work at home book.

I am not sure how this book got such great reviews. It really misleaded and dissapointed me. It is for a woman with significant resources to start with, who doesn't need all the dry tips listed, but not for stay-at-home Mom. And it is a business oriented, not life oriented. It is not 'A Mom's guide to working from home', but a business women's guide to get more organized and hire multiple services for the business developement. There is nothing absolutely about Mom's life and for Mom's life. It is a big text however and probably can be useful for someone, but mostly dry and a reference-like, big doesn't mean good. Gives an advise how to choose an office chair, a domain name, purchase a web-site design, organize a radio appearance, etc., and some tips that you know from a common sense. It is a self-promotional book leading to the author's web site to promote her coaching business. I returned it. May be it can work for someone else...

The juvenile justice system in Los Angeles, as well as the system in place to protect juvenile victims of abuse and neglect, are both a public disgrace. Author Edward Humes offers no suggestions, but he opens up what was a closed world to the view of outsiders for the very first time; the juvenile justice system in Los Angeles has always hidden itself well from public view and criticism.

There is nothing joyful to be found within the pages of this book. It is deeply disturbing, especially for those of us who know the juvenile justice system and how it works. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in these issues.

This is an exceptionally insightful book looking into the juvenile criminal justice system in L.A. It does a good job of illustrating the perspectives of all individuals involved, from "criminals" to "officials" and also shows gradients of right and wrong, and just how complicated and even faulty the system may be. It is very well written, and I highly recommend it.

A great introduction into the juvenile criminal justice system. I actually went to work for a public defenders' office because of this book.

A more recent book I'd highly reccommend is "Last Chance In Texas." Ironically, Texas has perhaps the most progressive juvenile justice system in the country. This book tells how Texas' worst juvenile offenders had their lives changed for the better.

This book is so SOOO depressing. And we deserve to feel that way about our Juvenile Justice system. Everyone remotely attached to criminal law or children should read this.

Written over the course of one year in LA's juvenile court system, this book is very enlightening to the plight of our kids in detention and on the streets. It has recently been reported that less than 10% of Florida's almost $709 million juvenile justice budget is spent on prevention. I hope to do my personal part to change this in my community, by supporting intervention programs for at-risk youth.

Brian Copeland's new memoir shows us the world through the eyes of an 8-yr old black boy and the challenges of growing up black in an all-white neighborhood and school. He never really got to relax and enjoy his childhood because life was pretty much a war zone for him. His absentee father would show up and verbally abuse him, as did potentially anyone he came in contact with. So he had no role model; he had to grow up too soon and become the man of the house. The protector of his mother and younger sisters. No one was in his corner. Teachers feared uprisings or job loss for taking up for him. As he got older he learned how to mask his fears and to use humor to cover up the painful past. The book also delves into mental illness. When suffering from tearful outbursts for no apparent reason, his psychiatrist likened his condition to PTST - Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. Dealing with that after all these years has made him a stronger person, and one who can reach out to help others. The book is a huge eye-opener. It is a heartwrenching read. But his humorous writing provides the foil needed to keep the reader from throwing down the book and drowning in despair and shame for what injustices blacks went through in order to get out of the ghetto and to have a productive, satisfying, prosperous life. While race is a big part of the book, Copeland insists his story is more about being an outsider and what skills outsiders can use to "cope" in a "land" of insiders. I highly recommend this book! I couldn't put it down! I am a richer person for having read it.

Brian Copeland shares his life story with us in Not a Genuine Black Man. It is insightful, touching and important. Although the subject matter of racial prejudice is serious, he tells the story with much humor to help us, and him, be able to get through it.

If you've ever seen Brian do stand up comedy, listened to him discussing topical news issues on his highly rated talk radio show or met him in person he comes across as being "not like other blacks".

Every white person knows someone like Brian. The co-worker at the office who doesn't have the "accent". Who talks about and does "normal" things. The one who is "just like us". The one who "doesn't play the race card". You've heard at least one person say "why can't they all be like him?"

There are white people who believe racism and discrimination are a thing of the past, saying that no one alive today was ever a slave and everyone now has the right to vote. They feel that African Americans just have a chip on their shoulder based only on injustices that happened a long time ago to someone else. For "proof", they point to African Americans like Tiger Woods, Barack Obama, Colin Powell, Dick Parsons, Stanley O'Neal, John W. Thompson and Oprah Winfrey. Surely they are "just like us", the theory goes, because they choose not to feel victimized by the ancient injustices others suffered.

Copeland lets us see behind the curtain. We learn of the pain that prejudice causes first hand through the eyes of Brian as a child and the toll that experience takes on him as an adult. We learn that with everything he has accomplished, there are white people to this day who say "Yeah, but he's still just a n____". We learn the pain doesn't stop with the discrimination -- when he refuses to make an issue of it and not let it get him down, there are those in the African American community that accuse him of not being a "genuine black man".

Brian let's us know that he is successful and "like us" not because he never experienced the pain of prejudice, but rather he is successful and "like us" despite it.

"Not a Genuine Black Man" is a must read with lessons for everyone. African American readers will surely relate to his experiences and the pain he feels. White readers may begin to understand it.

An ideal assigned reading for ANY and ALL high school/college level students. So poignant, humorous, self-reflective and blatantly truthful --Mr. Copeland's personal retrospective, analyzing just exactly what he knows (his life), comes entertainingly packaged in a wrenching yet totally engaging exhalation.

I'd say that this book IS GUARANTEED (yes, this is a superlative) to activate "the thinking mechanism" and elevate your class to that of an educational milestone. If there is one common element which student readers most respect, it's an author's iron-clad commitment to
"keeping it real". Well, Mr. Copeland's clever and stylish prose delivers a tasty dose of head-on reality which will move readers to a new and better place.

Reviewer's "poetic license" observation:

Inexplicably often, peoples' names accurately and ironically depict a significant measure of their calling. Mr. COPELAND, I'm personally thankful for you and your families' inspirational determination; I'm humbled by my ability to include you in this often recognized, yet little understood club.

NOT A GENUINE BLACK MAN: OR, HOW I CLAIMED MY PIECE OF GROUND IN THE LILY-WHITE SUBURBS

I enjoyed the book, but not for $14. I thought the author could have had more depth instead of simply recalling the past. I did enjoy learning about the Bay Area and the history of San Leandro, though. He is a funny man, but the book could have had a little more "meat".

Brian Copeland's "Not a Genuine Black Man" is a provocative and moving autobiography that begins the Copeland family's 1972 move into "lily white" San Leandro, California. Brian was then eight years old. And San Leandro (99.9% white) was using any method it could to maintain an all-white status.

Copeland, a San Francisco Bay Area TV/Radio celebrity, comedian, and author, is an excellent story teller and tells his story alternating between his arrival in San Leandro and an awakening at age 35 which led to an attempted suicide. "Not a Genuine Black Man" is more than the story of Copeland's struggles with overt bigotry and eventual depression, it is also the story of his mother's and grandmother's resilience that brought San Leandro into the post-civil rights era as a diverse, inclusive community.

The book's title "Not a Genuine Black Man" comes from a letter Copeland received from talk-radio listener which said, "As an African-American, I am disgusted every time I hear your voice because you are not a genuine black man. The letter becomes a catalyst for Copeland to explore his past and find out who he is. "Not a genuine black man...What does that mean?"

Upon reflection, Copeland sees that his mother really wanted white childre and did not want to associate with the black community. "I'm not one of these blacks." As a result, a young black child was faced with the challenge of growing up in one of the most racist suburbs in America with a mother who was trying to escape her black roots. Unknowingly, he had to develop a mask to protect himself from these truths...a mask that would lead to depression.

"Behind most of our masks is a truth that is hidden for a specific reason. Often we don't know what that truth is. I wasn't ready to deal with my truths, but ready or not, they started to bubble to the surface. Once that began to happen, try as I might, I couldn't get the toothpaste to go back into the tube. I knew I had to face the truth about my mother."

Today, San Leandro has changed and Copeland now feels proud of being part of the change. Members of all races worship side by side in the pews of churches of all denominations. His grandmother and, posthumously, his mother were presented with a commendation from the City of San Leandro for "their bravery" to make San Leandro a better place for all.

And as the City has changed, Copeland has also changed. He knows now what it really means to be a genuine black man - he is a "unique man" who has the resilience of his forefathers and the fortitude of his mother and grandmother. His experience is unique and it is a "true" black experience because this is his experience.

A human life is the most complex narrative of all: it has many layers of events which embrace outside behavior and actions, the inner stream of the mind, the underworld of the unconscious, the soul, fantasy, dream and imagination. There is no account of life which can ever mirror or tell all of this. Copeland has offered us a sample of this complexity and reminds us that black people are not a monolith with one lifestyle, one viewpoint, and one agenda. They are a varied lot like any ethnic group, each with their own complex narrative to tell. Narratives that we all must hear.

Be one of the few to read the Church History by Eusebius. Paul L. Maier has done a very good job with his translation and commentary. I am only a simple man who is a poor reader, but if I have read this book there is no excuse why all of our church leaders can do the same. Yet I have talked to no one who has read the church history. Before Paul Maier, it was hard to read and understand, but now we can. There is no way to judge these words that Eusebius wrote, he was a believer and wrote what he preceived to be true. What we can do is read about others who he wrote about. The main one in my preception would be Josephus who gives the history of the Jews. Onced you understand the history of the Jews and the history of the church, then you may make your judgements. In my opinion Josephus and Eusebius are the first on the lists.
Like other histoians, Esuebius knows nothing about Jesus that is outside the Bible. Jesus a Greek name for Savior, and no parent names their son Savior, yet the history of Christianity is built on a Savior with no Human name. Unlike Jesus who doesn't appear in history James the Brother of the Lord is talked about alot, both by Josephus, and other historians who Eusebius quotes. This is worth reading. Be one of the few or the first in your group of friends or ones who call themselves theologians and you will amaze them with your new knowledge.

Eusebius wrote from the 3rd century of things available to those of his time, some of which later became otherwise unavilable to us, and of the views and knowledge of early church members. Eusebius erred in some statements, but his statements that erred also reveal the mindset of some of the early church. This stimulating and informative work fills in gaps of information not otherwise available to thinkers on historical and spiritual matters.

I read this book and I found it to be very useful in doing research on the record of Eusebius. I read some unfactual based reports of the Faith. The chapter on Book One has some statements that are in question as in regards to what the early Disciples taught.All in All it is a good book to read for any student.

Eusebius: The Church History is an English translation with extensive commentary by Paul L. Maier (Professor of Ancient History, Western Michigan University) of the classic texts by Eusebius (260 - 339 A.D.), recognized as the first man to trace the rise of Christianity during its first three centuries, from Jesus Christ to Constantine. Dubbed the "Father of Church History", Eusebius wrote of apostles, church fathers, emperors, bishops, heretics, confessors, martyrs, and paragons of faith. A handful of black-and-white photographs of ancient sculpture or other images illustrate this historical source, made readily accessible to the reading public through Maier's illuminating insights. An invaluable addition to private and public library Religious History shelves.

Eusebius of Caesarea (c.263-c.339) is remembered to day as the father of Church history, as his history is the oldest one that has survived to today. (Actually, Hegesippus (c.110-c.180) wrote an earlier chronicle of his time, but all that has survived is the eight passages quoted by Eusebius.) Now, Eusebius was not a great historian, and his work has been correctly criticized for a number of issues, most notably the rambling style that makes his work dull and lifeless for the modern reader.

But, that said, what makes Eusebius's book so exciting is that he was alive and writing back in the very earliest days of the Church. Indeed, combining this book with the works of Josephus (37-100), from whom Eusebius quotes extensively, gives you a great look into the early years post-Christ.

So, while I admit that this book is rather slow and somewhat heavy to read, I do think that it is one of the most important books that a Christian can own. I very highly recommend this book!