JO

Not memorable. No significant impact.

This is a great text for someone who wants to whip their finances into shape. It starts with the absolute basics and gives great hints on how to save money and how to change your thinking so that you may accumulate true wealth.

The one star reviewer must have been expecting something else.

I bought this book in college when it was only available in hardcover, and I have dog-eared the pages three times over.

With so many copycat financial books flooding the market, this little book stands as an original. Much of the information is elementary, but the book's value is its breadth and its practical "how to" bent. This book doesn't stop at "consider investing in mutual funds". It gives you funds the Skousens love and the funds phone numbers so you can start today.

This book also lets the beginner or the small fry dream. It also covers exotic investing in art, metals, foreign bank accounts, currency, options, and tells you how to get a taste of any of these, complete with contact phone numbers. Try getting that from the Wall Street Journal or Barron's.

It has great, simple chapters on credit management, cutting down expenses, real estate, and most of all, personal responsibility. If you are not a jaded person who has given up on personal finance or a wiseacre who thinks you can't learn anything new, you will like this book. If even one of its dozens of interesting financial ideas or contacts pans out for you or makes you feel better, more like a Rockefeller, then it has earned its keep.

This book will be a personal favorite of yours. Look for it in hard cover so you won't wear it out.

This book infers that there was a time in the history of the church when women were accepted or on their way to being accepted as leaders in the Christian church. The author claims this phenomenon was suppressed around the time the church became the official religion of the Roman Empire (became widely accepted and institutionalized). I have a few major objections to this approach and these conclusions, if you will indulge me.

1. The authors put a lot of emphasis on the non-New Testament history of the first few centuries in drawing their conclusions. This part of history is relatively less well-attested and documented than the history New Testament itself, which they disdain. They are well content to pick out obscure references and build a case, while denying the historicity of the New Testament. They prefer to see the Bible as a misty, unverifiable document, picking and choosing and reinterpreting selective passages to their taste--that is, those that support their conclusions.

2. Other points of view are not represented in this book, other than the here and there whisper of a straw man ready to be knocked down.

3. In my reading of church history, and admittedly I have only a master's degree, there was never a significant movement for accepting women as pastors, priests, bishops, episcopoi, elders; for more than nineteen centuries because it contradicts the clear reading of scripture: "In the church I do not allow a woman to exercise authority over a man." It is only with the filtering into the church of the feminist movement that we have seen a call for this. This smacks of revisionism. Call it what it is: feminist social theory and a rejection of traditional Christian morality and doctrine. Don't dress it up as if the church was supposed to be this way all along.

4. There are books that intelligently and evenly argue for women as leaders in the church, and though I disagree with those as well, one would be better served to read a book like, "Women in the Church," by Grenz than this sensationalist title.

Contrary to what another reviewer has said, women were leaders in the early church. Stating this fact is not a revision to be in line with social norms, in fact, it flies in the face of what most mainline Christians seem to want to believe. The reason he has never read about some "movement" in the early church to have women leaders is that no movement was necessary, since women were leaders from the beginning of Christianity until the religion was changed to fit Roman norms. This book only suggests that we change it back to the way it was in the first few centuries. This is not revisionist, it is reconstructionist. If people do not think women should have any voice, power, or leadership under Christianity, then they are practicing the Roman version, not the true egalitarian religion that Christianity started out as. Before Rome institutionalized Christianity, the Christians stood in opposition to the Roman social norms. Then Constantine co-opted the religion and the Romans gradually adapted Christianity to fit their society. The mainline Christianity of today reflects this Hellenization of the original religion. Our society is comfortable with this less-than-healthy corruption of Jesus' teachings because our society suffers some of the same social ills as ancient Rome. This book suggests a restoration of Christianity that is healthier and more true than the Constantinian version. Another, better known book that also deals with this subject matter is In Memory of Her by Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza. If you find When Women Were Preists to be too unclear or unacademic, Schussler Fiorenza's book should be more satisfying as it is very academic.

Karen Jo Torjesen's book, 'When Women Were Priests' examines the subject of women in the early Christian movement, and particularly the role of women in the leadership positions in the church. Torjesen, a leading expert on women in ancient Christianity, is on faculty at Claremont Graduate School.

As women have attained rights to ordination in various denominations (Anglican, Methodist, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Baptist) and even other religions (the first woman to be ordained a rabbi in the United States took place in 1972), increasingly scholars have come to re-examine the role of women in the early church, and have been arguing with mounting evidence and persuasiveness that this is not a new phenomenon, but rather a recapturing of women's roles that have periodically existed in both Jewish and Christian communities.

The question of the gender of a priest (the requirement by Roman Catholics, as in the Vatican's 1976 Declaration on the Question of Admitting Women to the Priesthood that priests be in the bodily image of Christ, for example) brings into question sexuality and the common perception of women by society. When Barbara Harris was consecrated at the first female bishop in the Episcopal Church (USA) in 1989, Time magazine made a reference to her red nail polish--as if this has anything to do with her qualifications; but of course, it has everything to do with the way people perceive the issue.

Torjesen examines multiple sources of ancient data to show evidence that women were preachers, prophets, pastors and patrons in the early Christian movement. Some of these can be found in the Bible itself. The tradition of women as prophets actually dates back to Jewish times: Deborah was a judge, and Miriam, the sister of Moses, is described as a prophet in one of the oldest parts of the Torah, the song of Miriam (in Exodus). Various art works depict women in liturgical stances or settings, behind a table (presumably presiding) or with arms outstretched in liturgical praise fashion. Of course, one gospel account speaks of Mary Magdalene being the first person to see the risen Christ, and being charged to tell the others of the miracle, hence becoming 'Apostle to the Apostles'. Indeed, the non-canonical Gospel of Thomas and Gospel of Mary each show a rivalry between Mary and Peter for pre-eminence among the apostles, with Jesus coming down on Mary's side.

Various Pauline letters another other extra-testamentary writings show a strong female presence among the leaders of communities and house-churches--Junia is hailed by Paul as 'foremost of the apostles' (Romans 16:7); synagogue and grave archaeology have turned up inscriptions such as Sophia of Gortyn, elder and head of the synagogue of Kisamos lies here. Where Christians emulated the synagogue style of worship and organisation, naturally women's leadership would have been carried over too. Of course, in house-church traditions the role of women's leadership is understood, as women's dominance of household affairs is well-known and documented throughout the Roman Empire at the time of Christianity's first expansions. Indeed, one second-century critic of Christianity, Celsus, dismissed it as 'a woman's movement'.

Torjesen's better chapters are the early ones which talk about history and evidence; her later chapters on theology, biology (?) and society are interesting, but less valuable from a critical-scholarship standpoint. Each section, however, is generously documented with notes and sources, and the book would be valuable if only for the extensive notations. Happily, this book is much more than that--clear and energetic in writing, controversial but well-explained and well-defended, Torjesen makes her case well and adds valuable material for the defensive of women's leadership in churches today, and much for those who maintain more traditional mores to think about. In essence, if one can't refute the arguments here (and I am not saying they cannot be refuted--merely that they must be engaged, not dismissed), one must examine the basis for holding the exclusive-male-leadership belief.

This book is not an homage to Christie the way "A Thousand Acres" might be seen as a work retroactively illuminating "King Lear." In no way does Bannister seem to encapsulate any of the features that made "Ten Little Indians" such an amazing work of mystery literature. Instead, she's written a rather dull and plodding mystery, one that replaces "Whodunnit?" with "Who cares?"

Let's face it, no one is going to be able to improve upon "Ten Little Indians." Even Christie's play, along with countless film versions, have changed the ending to a trite "tie up all the loose ends" phenomenon, where the "good" characters get a happy ending. The great thing about "Ten Little Indians"--something that Bannister doesn't seem to understand--is in its resisting of the formula.

Although this book does pay homage to the great Christie classic, Ten Litttle Indians (or And Then There Were None), it had none of the gripping and believable suspense that made Christie's so remarkable. The premise was promising and intriguing; however, the story ultimately felt contrived throughout. The conclusion, in particular, fell flat for me, as there was a distinct lack of suspense and the feeling that everything had to be tied up in a neat little bow with everyone (but one) living happily ever after. As much as I love a good (and even mediocre) mystery, this will probably be the first and last Bannister book that I will read.

This was the first book I read by Jo Bannister and probably the last. Before I explain why, I first have to give credit to Jo Bannister for her tight writing style and the ability to move the action along without long descriptions of the surroundings (as some authors seem prone to do today just to add extra pages to their book).

A father, upset about his daughter's suicide, decides that by bringing together people he feels responsible for her suicide will somehow heal his pain.

The father convinces a family friend and psychologist to hold a "Personal Discovery" retreat as a means to getting these people together so that he can show them just how much they let his daughter down. This is where the author lets her readers down.

Amazingly these people all show up through a variety of schemes, with none of them being believable.

Richard Speke, a journalist who tried to save the young woman when he sees her car go off a bridge into the river, was sent to the Personal Discovery weekend per the request of his TV station when they discovered he could no longer perform his job duties of overseas reporting now that he feels responsible for letting the young woman die.

Will Furney, the young woman's ex-fiance, won his invitation in a competition, even though he can't remember entering any such competition.

Sheelagh Cody, the young woman's schoolgirl friend, was sent per an invitation from a client when they claimed she showed an interest in that client's recent Personal Discovery weekend.

Tariq Straker, the young woman's agent, decided to attend based on a recommendation from a friend who found a course like this fascinating.

Tessa McNaught, a doctor, was requested to join the group to write about her assessment of this kind of weekend therapy, but it eventually turns out that she was the young girls doctor and lover.

Larry Ford, a washed-up tennis pro turned coach for the young woman, was sent to the retreat per the request of his current employer who felt he needed to learn some tact.

Joe Lockhead, aka the young woman's father, also appears as part of the group.

If you can look beyond how the author gets all these people to show up, there is still the problem of how they don't recognize each other or at least some of them. The young woman's coach, agent, and long time friend should have recognized the young woman's father immediately. Also, if the young woman's father felt these people were responsible for her suicide, shouldn't they have recognized each other from the funeral?

Eventually, they all discover that they all had some unresolved guilt in the suicide of the same young woman. When Larry tries to leave, the group discovers that the power has been turned off to the elevator for the weekend and they are locked in. That night, the pychologist winds up with her head bashed in by a rolling pin.

Thrown in as a red herring is a young boy living in the not quite finished hotel who makes his way around through the elevator shaft.

The discovery of who is actually behind the attempted murder of the phychologist as well as other attempted murders during their confined stay is written with great skill and suspense but was overshadowed, at least for me, by the contrieved way they are all brought together.

And you find better ones. Lonley planet again fails to deliver with yet another product. The organization is poor, bad choice of phrases, etc..

Heres a tip: skip the book, goto Nepal, meet some Nepali's talk with them, learn a little, then go to the millions of bookstores in Khatmandhu and find a book that fits your needs.

It may be this one, but I doubt it.

My Nepali boyfriend gave me this little book to learn his language, since when I met him, I had nothing good to say about his country because I knew nothing about it. I was grateful for alot of things in the book, like grammer, sentence structure, who you speak to, cultural tips, etc. But I found the pronunciation guide horrible. They do not explain the differences between many sounds, and only explain certain consonants. They introduce the Devanagari script rather suddenly with no explanation. It would be helpful to know HOW to read it and understand what is written instead of just recognizing it by sight and nothing else, although that is good too.

The dictionary was helpful in the back, but very limited. It only went over words mentioned in the book, and didn't broaden words from outside of what was reviewed. I liked the book as a starter...but even my boyfriend admitted that some things were not said right. (Not as they speak it today, it's too old-fashioned, etc.) I kept having to go to him and ask him things, and the whole point of me having the book was so he wouldn't have to try and teach me. (hahahaha)

So, I guess I would recommend it to people who know nothing about Nepali, but be sure to have someone to ask questions. It's bad enough when you are running blind with a language you haven't heard of before.

I was surprised that the two reviews prior to mine gave such a bad rating. Well, I'm half-Indian, I was born in the north-east of India near the Himalayas with very close contact with Nepalis in my early childhood and I couldn't actually see what the problem was with this book! It's small, compact, glossy, useful and very cheap, I mean what else do you want if you are only looking for the basics.

However, I can read and speak Hindi and know basic customs (which are actually explained in the phrasebook, for example food etiquette) so perhaps that made a difference. Hindi is closely related to Nepali and written in the same Devanagari script. You can actually learn the Devanagari script from this phrasebook which I find sets the Lonely Planet phrasebooks above most phrasebooks. If you don't want to learn the script, then the phonetic tranliteration system used is the correct one generally used by linguists, which ensures a word is correctly pronounced by the student, even when reading in English. This is why I prefer Lonely Planet phrasebooks as once you master the basics of script and pronunciation along with basic grammar (yes, it has a solid basic grammar section as well) you actually have a good base to further learn the language if you want.

I found the phrases in it very useful. You get a very good starting point for customs, ordering food, hotel rooms etc. As I said, it's also in a nice, very small size. Amazing actually how much information is packed in considering how small the phrasebook is.

I studied out of 7 different preparation books, and this one, by far is the worst one! The questions in this book are really difficult, tricky and unlike the CLEP exam! The questions in the actual CLEP exam arent tricky like the SAT or GRE, they are straightforward. For some reason, Peterson's has decided to put in SAT-like questions on their practice exam. This book should be thrown out of the market because its NOTHING like the real exams! I would recommend Princeton Review's Cracking the CLEP, and Review for Clep Examination by Comex Systems. The REA also writes really accurate practice exams. If you are taking English, I also recommend you purchase "The Writer's Reference" by Diana Hacker. That was probably the most helpful book in brushing up on your English.

I found the practice exercises in this book to be very helpful, and I did really well when I took the CLEP afterwards.

Looking to maximize my ability on the CLEP tests to avoid taking numerous classes that I have no interest in. If you'd like to get practice on these tests, than this book may help.

This book manages to make a dull sad mess out of the most exciting story of our times! It's plodding mule like pace and attention to meaningless procedural details might appeal to you if your idea of political involvement is watching city council meetings on local access.

I much prefer Susan Brownmiller's In Our Time.

Though we need a book like to inspire young women to go into politics, "A Room at a Time" disappointed me. I was expecting something more energetic, since this is such an important cause. But the book made the story of women in politics seem strangely boring. The observations in it weren't very original or imaginative.

This is an exceptionally detailed and well written history of women's slow inclusion in the traditional parties.

This book would be a nightmare for a beginner because it jumps into Portuguese in such a confusing way. It just throws lists of words for you to memorize, and introduces grammar that is hardly even practiced in the exercises.

This book is also very aloof, and hardly forms a "relationship" with the reader. All the explanations are not in-depth. New grammar and vocabulary is just explained with a sentence, and then the reader is left on his/her own.

Here's an example of an exercise:

Exercise 2

Can you remember what the following are in Portuguese?

duty-free, boarding card, departure board, non-smoking, passport control, departure lounge, departure gate

No, I can't remember what they are-all I was given was a list of words!

Compared to Colloquial Icelandic(which is an EXCELLENT Colloquial course), this book is severely lacking, and that is quite surprising. A language spoken by around 200,000 people is taught so much more in depth than one spoken by almost 200,000,000!

I think this is a poor choice for the total beginner. The audio starts with fairly advanced dialogue, spoken very quickly. While that may well be the way the Brazilians speak, it is useless to the beginning student. The book is comprehensive, but poor for self study - picture your high school Spanish text, without the teacher. I gave up on this one after two fruitless hours, and bought Pimsleur's Audio course. I may go back to Portuguese of Brazil - The Complete Course for Beginners, but only AFTER I finish Pimsleurs.

Although this book was a disappointment when I was first learning Portuguese six months ago, now that I am an intermediate plus Portuguese speaker/writer I find this book an invaluable reference. It is well indexed, making it easy to find the topic I need to review. It includes enough examples to make the point clear (but not enough when I was first learning).

I thought I'd find great ideas, but instead I found weird photography that showed everything but scarves! I should have known better; I've bought other books from Jo Packham and found the same things.

This book has gorgeous pictures and great ideas, but it could use more illustrations to clarify the written instructions. It also lacks any resource listings which might help the reader locate some of the materials. In my opinion, it is more of an "idea and inspiration" book than a practical "how to" book.

This book that I am looking for..full with information, all at once !

While the book was somewhat helpful with listing the various companies, it was very short in pattern names, examples and pricing.

Other than the photos, there isn't much here. It's very amateurish. Whole categories are missing -- there is barely a mention of "Fiesta" at all. Makes you think the publisher had an arrangement so as not to infringe on sales of their Fiesta books. There is no mention of Metlox. Also, while there is a price guide, it only lists the specific pieces that are shown in the photos, not all the pieces in the line. This is a major shortcoming. There should be some mention of pieces not shown. The book is also poorly organized, with ads from old magazines interspersed with original writing. It reminds me of an 8th grade book report. Spend your money elsewhere.

A wonderful beautifully done book.This is a great book for looking up patterns. There are plenty of color photos which show great detail. I plan on buying the previous and subsequent volumns of this book.

I am a Student studying to be a Surgical Technologist and this is one of my core books. It is not helpful at all. I purchased a much better surg tech book called Surgical Technology for the Surgical Technologist. This is a much better book. It is directly from the AST. Berry & Kohns is geared more towards Nursing. I wouldn't recommend Berry & Kohns.

I am a senior at Vincennes University majoring in Surgical Technology and this is the text our instructor chose to use this year while awaiting the publication of her own and everyone in our class agrees that this book does not have the capability to explain things in an organized manor. This text reads like greek to us. I don't recommend this text to anyone who is in or maybe considering going into Surgical Technology.

This year I have chosen the Berry & Kohn text. I think it is an excellent choice. I use this book in conjunction with Surgical Technology for the Surgical Technologist. Berry & Kohn is more extensive and includes more detail. However, I have not been able to find a text bank or instructor guide