Fee

Last Will and Testament

Living Trust

Living Will

Health Proxy

Durable Power of Attorney

The author, Mary Clement, clearly states that there are conditions which do require a lawyer, and she advocates using one under the conditions she points out. However, by reading the book, you will know with certainty when you need a lawyer and when you don't. Furthermore, by reading the book, you will know exactly what the lawyer should be doing and your prior knowledge will save fees, if in no other way than saving the lawyer from having to explain all the legalise to you.

As an example of when you should consult a lawyer, Ms. Clement clearly states that if a couple has an estate valued over $1,350,000 (per couple), one should consult an estate planning lawyer so as to minimize Federal and State inheritance taxes. But for most estates, the forms provided in the book will work just fine.

Where State laws vary, there is a list covering each variance so that one need not worry about any of the documents not being valid in the state in which he or she resides.

At the beginning of each chapter there is a brief statement of what that chapter covers which tells you whether you even have to read that chapter or not. In addition, simplified questions and answers make it very easy for anyone to follow the suggestions and plan what to do.

There is an excellent, easy, method of evaluating your estate so that you know what you are dealing with and whether you will have any estate tax problems. This should be done by everyone, whether using a lawyer or not (it, again, saves much time with the lawyer).

Most of us put off this sad chore. Doing so can lead to very unpleasant consequences, including having children raised by strangers; inability to access what we think are liquid funds as well as other assets; and most important in today's world, being kept alive by artificial means when you may not want to be kept alive (without proper documents you will be and nothing can change it.)

Reading this book and following the simple instructions can give one peace of mind about their final days, and the days after their death.

If you are committed to the cessation of the gifts, seeing his interpretation in 1 Cor 12-14 is going to get you annoyed. However, I would say he is largely right. (And I am not a charismatic.)

The biggest issues for me in the commentary are the problematic ways he takes the passages rgarding the role of the women in the Church at Corinth. Most notorious is his conclusion, on textual critical grounds, that 1 Cor 14:34 does not belong in the text. This is despite the fact that evidence FOR the passage is overwhelming. Otherwise, this is a good commentary, but one with flaws.

Please do not be put off by those who try to pigeon-hole Fee's work as a "charismatic approach." Fee does not take charismatic presuppositions to the text. Chapters 12-14 do contain arguments against cessation of the sign gifts, but I assure you that you will find it nothing less than challenging and thought provoking. His exegesis throughout this commentary is profound and lucid. His arguments are careful and takes other scholarly work into account. Since Fee is a textual scholar of the highest order, his considerations of textual issues are far more thorough than most other work on this epistle. Fee ends each section with wonderful practical insights and application. However, I must mention that there are times when Fee goes off the deep end. The prime example is his insistence that 14:34-35 is a very early interpolation.

I definitely recommend you get the NIGTC commentary by Thiselton, but please do not neglect Fee. The NICNT on 1 Corinthians by Gordon Fee is a goldmine of lucid, well-reasoned and thorough exegesis of 1 Corinthians.

Sally's life gets more complicated when a reporter doing an interview with her gets clobbered in the middle of the interview and left for dead. Although the cover copy indicates that she's the suspect, she isn't (don't blame author Laura Van Wormer for this one--authors have no control over cover copy), but she does have problems because the Mafia really wants the five acres her uncle owns and will do just about anything to get it.

In an exciting action scene, Sally confronts a couple of mobsters with a huge Cadillac SUV and gets her T.V. anchor-person looks messed up. Unfortunately, that's about the only action THE KILL FEE has to offer and the story sort of fizzles out without any adequate resolution.

Author Laura Van Wormer is a talented writer whose effortless prose keeps the reader involved. In this story, however, I found Sally Harrington unsympathetic, wishy-washy, and given too much good fortune to be a really sympathetic heroine.

The Kill Fee was by far better than Ms. Van Wormer's last two efforts, Trouble Becomes Her and The Bad Witness; however, I feel there were several opportunities missed:

1. There were enough story lines going on that this could have gone into the same level of scope, detail and content that Riverside Drive and West End have.

2. This book could have easily been twice as long (it is only 300 pages).

3. Again, too much focus on Sally's getting in trouble and messed up love life (the latter seeming forced and concocted for the sake of the storyline), which sacrificed the focus on her career finally taking off.

There were several loose ends left dangling, and now we'll just have to wait another year or two for the next book, which is disappointing after waiting over a year for this one!

Don't get me wrong, after the slow start, the story picked up quickly and it was a very engrossing read, but I was disappointed when the book left all those ends dangling.

The review of Gunderson (see below) is incorrect in saying that Gordon Fee has not investigated Romans. In Fee's magisterial book on Pauline pneumatology, _God's Empowering Presence_, a large section is devoted to Romans. Fee (these days) has been pointing out the proto-Trinitarian strands in Paul (esp. in Romans 8:9-11), and that is challenging the biblical studies guild's assumption that emphasizes historical distance between the ecumenical councils of the 4th century and the NT.

A reading of the introduction certainly tells you the genuine affection and respect the contributers have for Prof. Fee. With Gunderson, I found Wright's essay on the New Exodus the most memorable. It makes me want to read Hays' _Echos of Scripture in Paul_. Particularly enjoyable was Watts' essay on the "Righteous One" (Rom 1:16-17; cf. Hab 2:4). Longnecker's contribution on the rhetorical argument of Romans 1-8 is a good foretaste for his commentary with Eerdmans (New International Greek Testament Commentary). Will he do for Romans what Betz did for Galatians? It's a tougher case to prove in Romans, but it just makes sense to apply the best insights of rhetorical criticism to this magisterial letter.

For the controversial issue of the "Wretched Man" of Romans 7, I found Packer's essay a bit underpowered in the light of the great exegetes (a point Packer concedes). Some of the other contributions are decent but I can't remember what they said.

I personally found N.T. Wright's chapter on the New Exodus, New Inheritance (chapter 2) to be particularly helpful in applying Richard Hays' "echoes" concept to Romans 3-8. The Exodus theme behind these chapters make sense and Wright's view of "the righteousness of God" as God's faithfulness to the Abrahamic covenant also adds much to understanding this important letter. Rikki Watts does a good introduction to the connection of 1:16-17 to Habakkuk 2:4 in chapter one.

What is helpful about this book is the division into three sections. The first, Exegetical Essays, deal with most of the problematic verses in Romans. While section two covers interesting thematic essays, and the final one deals with pastoral/sermonic essays.

I am not quite sure why this book is a "festschrift" for Gorden Fee since he is not particulary known for Romans studies, but as a book to take one into the more intricate matters and problems of Romans it is very good place to begin.