Group-of-Five Books

Ok, gather your girlfriends and sit down together and go through this book! You will laugh out loud, nod your heads in agreement, and learn a ton in the process! I can't recommend this book enough! Whether you are a "Bible Study Scholar" or a "Bible Study reject" it will set you on fire to study God's Word in a whole new way.
No more dull, sit around and stare at each other Bible Study groups!
AMEN JEN!

Jennifer Hatmaker has proved once again that she is a refreshing author on a timeless subject. She has openend my eyes to see God's word in a whole new wonderful light. I highly recommend this great book!

If you are a Crossgen fan and have been following the Sojourn story, you'll want to get a copy of this right away. It's the last published volume of this epic, outstanding story, the merits of which are better described in other reviews. Sadly, the story was never finished due to Crossgen's spectacular rise and fall...but this is the collection of the last published issues. A must have for any Sojourn fans!

When CrossGen Comics first burst onto the scene in 2000, they really seemed poised to become the next major player. They had a solid assemblage of creative talent, an excellent product, and people working behind the scenes who knew the comic industry. But ultimately, CrossGen failed where so many companies fail, comic companies or otherwise, right at the top with executive management. Like so many others, CrossGen tried to expand and diversify too much, too fast. The walls started crumbling in and by 2004 the company had filed for bankruptcy.

CrossGen had been collecting its various titles into trade paperback format but when the company finally folded, many issues had yet to be collected...until now. Checker Books has stepped in to save the day and CrossGen lives again! Checker is finally releasing collected editions of those issues, which previously had not been published in trade paperback format. This is absolutely wonderful! The first release in the series is Sojourn Volume 5, which collects issues 25 - 30 of the regular series, originally published in 2003 - 2004.

Sojourn is an epic, high fantasy with some of the most beautiful art ever, pure and simple. If you hadn't previously read Sojourn, never fear. The book contains and introduction to the story and characters. Even if you are reading it for the first time you'll catch on very quick. Sojourn features perhaps the central plot of most epic fantasy stories---a quest. The evil warlord Mordath has risen from his tomb as an undead revenant, intending to enslave the Five Lands of Quin, backed by legions of trolls. The beautiful archer Arwyn is seeking the five fragments of the arrow that was used to kill Mordath. It's said that once the five fragments are reunited, the mythical warrior Ayden will return to again destroy Mordath. Arwyn is accompanied on her quest by the rogue, Gareth, and his sometimes love, the thief Cassidy.

As this book opens, Arwyn as found two of the give fragments and is working on the third. Meanwhile, there are trolls in Mordath's own circle of power who think that a human should not be their ruler and they hatch a plot to assassinate him by attacking him with vorpal blades, actually dragon fangs dipped in dragon venom. Meanwhile, the trio of comrades encounters an island full of zombies, which may not be an island after all. Behind the scenes, a powerful mage named Pallias is aiding Arwyn on her quest but what are his real intentions?

This is as good a fantasy epic as comics have seen since Conan was at his peak when Roy Thomas was writing his adventures in the 1970's for Marvel Comics. It's that good! As good as the story is, the art is simply phenomenal. Greg Land's work is worth the price of the book alone. I've seen a lot of pin-up art that is mesmerizing for its photo-realistic qualities but I've never seen photo-realism to this degree in a comic book. Each page is like a piece of fine art. A special tip of the hat goes to colorist Justin Ponsor whose bold, electrifying colors bring this to the peak of perfection.

I simply cannot wait to see the rest of the CrossGen collections from Checker Books. Here's hoping they can get the rights to re-release the original trades put out by CrossGen.

REVIEWED BY TIM JANSON

Several years ago, I was teaching a college course in Visual Basic, a VB course for a local company and VB in community education classes. At times, there was a need for quick projects and this was one of the primary sources that I consulted. There were also times when students would come to me and ask questions about specific problems they were having in their work. A few times I was able to get some good ideas or at least hints as to how their problems could be solved from this book.
The book contains a series of 68 different complete projects using VB 5. The range of the projects is considerable, the general categories are:

*) Extending control features
*) View controls
*) Class fundamentals
*) Object fundamentals
*) ActiveX controls
*) Internet integration
*) Application performance
*) Using the WIN32 API
*) Windows socket programming
*) Forms
*) Databases
*) Logo compliant applications
*) Extending VS and managing development

The area that I found most useful was "Using the WIN32 API." I am a firm believer in teaching about API's and I used the ideas in that section to develop exercises where the students were required to call several of the API's. This is a very good book for the learning of the now largely deceased VB 5. However, many of the ideas and principles still live in VB.NET, so it can still be of value.

This books just provide you with everything you want to know about VB5.0. It is so useful!

Ward's Business Directory reflects the hopes and dreams in actual numbers and cents for over 90,000 privately and publicly held companies across the U.S. Its alphabetical arrangement includes profiles of each company, assets, gross earnings, revenues, and other pertinent information. It is ideal for "at a glance" usage.

Wich are the companies that are the leader as a food processing industry?

Lisa Kron tells of her childhood and expresses her feeling in a way that will also touch your heart. She brought back many bitter-sweet memories for me and I am very excited about her work.

Instead of rehashing the cosmetics of a worship service, David Edwards drives straight into the core questions many of us have been asking about worship for years, albeit privately and a bit furtively. Worship 365 is not an academic treatise or a pragmatic "how to wow your church visitors" tome, but a tender guidebook, leading us right into the nucleus of worship itself--an extravagant, no-holds-barred love relationship with the living God.
--Sally Morgenthaler, author, Worship Evangelism; President, Digital Glass Productions

Great cookbook for quick and easy recipes. I have a big collection of cookbooks and this I'm sure will get lots of use!

Frankenmuth, MI

I found this book very helpful when I had to give the children's story during church service. It was hard to choose which one to do, there were so many great ideas. Even people who don't enjoy public speaking will find these easy to do and the kids will love them.

This is a good book for students even for an adult who wants to brush up vocabulary. It's not a mere "word and a meaning" list, but you have chances to check yourself doing the excercise. We all know that building vocabulary is not a easy thing to do. Why not try this this time?

11