On-the-tape


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Book reviews for "On-the-tape" sorted by average review score:

Struggle for Intimacy
Published in Audio Cassette by Health Communications (April, 1990)
Author: Janet Geringer Woititz
Amazon base price: $9.95
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A must read for those from dysfunctional homes
This is an absolute wonderful book. It is must read for those who have come from any kind of dysfunctional home. If you find that you are successful in the world but you may find your personal life, your relationships in the pits, then take time to read this book. You would realise why is your life such a mess up. Happy reading

I loved this book
If you are an ACoA (Adult Child of an Alcoholic), I recommed this book and all of the books by Janet Woititz. I've read many of them, they are easy reads and so informative. It is really helpful to learn about other's experiences and struggles, and to hear advice on how to help you now. My favorite part of this book is the chapter called "So, you love an ACoA..." and is good for your partner to read to help them understand things like why you might overreact to certain situations or have such a negative view of yourself. Don't be turned off by the old cover, mine looked like it was from 1960 or something, the book is not outdated by any means.

essential
as a partner to an ACOA this is a must read for anyone involved in this kind of relationship. easy to read, easy to understand, and full of AHA! moments. great information!


T. S. Eliot Reading 'Four Quartets' (Cassette)
Published in Audio Cassette by Caedmon Audio Cassette (June, 1985)
Author: T. S. Eliot
Amazon base price: $12.00
Published in the fiery days of World War II, Four Quartets stands as a testament to the power of poetry amid the chaos of the time. Let the words speak for themselves: "The dove descending breaks the air/With flame of incandescent terror/Of which the tongues declare/The only discharge from sin and error/The only hope, or the despair/Lies in the choice of pyre or pyre--/To be redeemed from fire by fire./Who then devised this torment?/Love/Love is the unfamiliar Name/Behind the hands that wave/The intolerable shirt of flame/Which human power cannot remove./We only live, only suspire/Consumed by either fire or fire."
Average review score:

Making the 20th century speak with Dante's tongue
This, quite frankly, is the best poem of the 20th century, and it gets better everytime you read it. From the apparent darkness of the first stanzas of Burnt Norton to the broadening towards lucidity of the last lines, there is much to love, much to admire, and much to quote. You will find lines that speak to the heart directly: you will also find, after numerous readings, splendid little details, which reveal the craftiness with which Eliot handled this superb adieu - for it is the last great work in poetry he has written. The greatest achieve of Eliot in Four Quartets, is the way he manages to reach out to the greatest poet in history, who lived a number of centuries ago, and have the language speak with his tongue, simultaneously admitting that Dante's world view cannot be copied in today's world - but that does not mean that his form of structure and vivid allusions should not be employed: in this poem, the Trecento and the century of the atomic bomb have found common ground to behold each other as not quite congenial, yet deeply related brothers. The past is not dead - it's not even past yet.

Trying to capture the REAL in a net of words and images
This, Eliot's last work, is by far his finest. In it he explores the nature of reality (where do we come from, where are we, where do we go) in an ever opening play of language that rewards numerous re-readings (I have carried this book EVERYWHERE in the nine years I've owned it. Not a week goes by that I don't read, quote or pawn it off upon someone). Like a rose it opens and, like truth, it's impossible to pin down or draw into some box that is easily describable; able to be shown as parts that construct some whole.

The "Bhagavad Gita" heavily influenced Eliot at this time, and you can see references both to the players (Arjuna and Krishna) and ideas of that text in each of the poems contained in "Four Quartets" (in much the same way as "The Golden Bough" informed "The Waste Lands"). Indeed, the entire book feels decidely Eastern (with every statement being balanced somewhere by it's complimentary didatic-opposite), or at least of the Classical, if any, Western period (the cyclical nature of both the ideas and the structure of the poems feels like a Zoraster or Golden Dawn, see Yeats' "Second Coming" or "Sailing To Byzantium", manuscript).

All of this is just to say, these poems cover a lot of mythical and actual ground. They may not appear as lush and vibrant on first reading as, say, "The Waste Lands"- but this is only due to thier precision and conciseness ("The Waste Lands", although a wonderful piece, being more of a sculpture than a poem, with whole segments being dropped, moved, added, rewritten, tweaked and recalibrated numerous times by two people other than Eliot over a span of decades). These meditations are firmly planted in place (each pieces name coming from a place) and time ("And yet, they call this Good Friday" [paraphrasing]); and, with his life drawing to a close, they are focused, as well, upon death.

Buy these poems and plant them in your breast. You'll be amazed at the tree that grows there.

Eliot's greatest and final poetic acheivement
FOUR QUARTETS marks T.S. Eliot's crowning acheivement as a poet. It is the last substantial poetry he wrote before turning to drama and consists of four poems each with a five-part structure. The work as a whole is concerned with the perception of time, linked with the importance of poetic art and the place of Christianity in deciphering the meaning of one's lifetime.

After two quotations from Heraclitus, "Burnt Norton" opens the collection. Here Eliot muses on the idea that all possible outcomes of any event are secretly around us, unseen and unperceived. An empty pool is, in some other reality, filled with water and a blooming lotus. Eliot's metaphysical insight here is reminiscent of quantum theory that was then beginning to become the rage in physics circles. These speculations are tricky and difficult to get one's head around, and even more difficult to plainly put into words, but Eliot manages to succeed.

"East Coker", named after the town in England from where Eliot's Puritan ancestor emigrated to America, deals with the cyclical nature of time. Here the poet surveys the tendency for all earthly things to rise and ultimately fall. Christianity with its emphasis on eternal life, asserts Eliot, promises a way to change one's end to one's beginning and escape the fall into oblivion that dooms everything.

"The Dry Salvages", in reference to a place on the New England shore which Eliot visited as a youth, is the weak point of the collection. A rumination with a nautical theme, the poem suffers from meandering phrasing and peculiar wording. Its Marian devotion is inconsistent with the Puritan/Anglican tradition of the rest of FOUR QUARTETS. Most would attack "The Dry Salvages" for its oft-maligned line "I sometimes wonder if this is what Krishna meant", seen by some as overly haugty intellectualism. I think this is unfair, and in fact the section which that line begins is the one bit that redeems the poem. Eliot's Harvard education, where he first became familiar with Eastern thought, was 30 years in the past, but the subject still preoccupied him in this poem.

"Little Gidding" superbly ends FOUR QUARTETS. It was written in the height of the Blitz, a time of fear and doubt in England, but it counters Hitler's madness with a note of hope and spiritual triumph. Eliot calls back to an earlier conflict, England's Civil War, and seeks any lesson it might teach his generation. "The communication of the dead," he writes, "is tongued with fire beyond the language of the living." As the poem ends, he has acheived inner peace in a time of pandemonium, through the realisation that the pain of the present is escapable by reaching to the past - what poets have done before - and the future - what is still left to be written.

FOUR QUARTETS is a complicated and vast work. While not as full of obvious quotations as his earlier, more popular work "The Waste Land", it does work in inspiration and material from Christian thinkers such as St. John of the Cross and Julian of Norwich, and contains many illusions to 17th century England. As a result, the work is incredibly deep and one can find something new with each reading. But FOUR QUARTETS is also an entertaining work for the casual reader. A combination of smooth and engaging sound with the great themes of all time is a remarkable combination. Eliot's greatest work, I'd wholeheartedly recommend it.


With a Vengeance
Published in Audio Cassette by Brilliance Audio (February, 2004)
Authors: Eileen Dreyer and Laural Merlington
Amazon base price: $10.39
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strong crime thriller
The city of St. Louis and its County join forces to form a first rate SWAT Team that services the region. The only person on the group who doesn't carry a gun is the medic Maggie O' Brien. Maggie and her team are called in to break up a hostage situation with the victim being Maggie's boyfriend Sean Delaney and the perpetrator is a paranoid schizophrenic Montana Bob, a former FBI agent.

She talks Montana Bob down but he suddenly dies in the hospital. Maggie wonders if somebody killed him after he told her the names of three other people. When she seeks the trio, she learns that the two gangbangers and the pediophile also died in her hospital where she works as a trauma nurse. Maggie starts collecting evidence involving a silent conspiracy between people she knows in the hospital and the police department. She just has to figure out where to deliver her information to before she is killed or framed for murder.

It has been too many years since a crime thriller from Eileen Dreyer was released, but WITH A VENGEANCE is well worth the wait. The heroine is an admirable person with a subtle sense of humor who lives in perpetual crisis mode that would break many people, but she thrives on it. Her decision to root out the perpetrators knowing she will be shunned by her peers or killed is courageous but she still willingly pays the price. This is a first rate action packed medical thriller on a par with Robin Cook.

Harriet Klausner

Wild roller coaster ride of a thriller
Maggie is an over-achiever - working as an Emergency Department nurse, an EMT, and a medic on a SWAT team. Life is pretty good for Maggie. She is dedicated to her work and enjoys belonging to a team. Her co-workers have become her friends and family - replacing her abusive alcoholic ex-cop father and his string of bimbo wives. She also has a cop lover who is great in bed.

Then Maggie discovers that someone is killing the bad guys - cleaning out the gene pool. Drunk drivers, gang-members, and abusive fathers are ending dead from non-life threatening injuries. Nobody seems to notice except Maggie and she needs proof that her suspicions are real. She no one to turn to - because the killer has to be one of her friends. What Maggie doesn't know is that the killer knows that she is investigating the deaths.

Maggie is a great character - she is smart, mouthy, and caring. The ER scenes and SWAT team deployments are grippingly real. The story is exciting and taut.

This is Eileen Dreyer's first book in a while. It's been worth the wait - but I hope the next one comes out sooner.

Thrilling Suspense
At Blymore Memorial, patients who shouldn't be dying are dropping like flies. Maggie O'Brien--ER nurse and SWAT team medic, stumbles across this information almost by accident. And when she begins to suspect the worst--that someone among her friends and co-workers is killing off the scum of society--she finds herself a target. As she doggedly pursues her investigation, Maggie faces anonymous threats, an abusive father, a nosy reporter, and the awful possibility that her beloved best friend and sometimes lover, Sean Delaney, might be part of a shocking conspiracy.

With her latest thrilling suspense novel, author Eileen Dreyer has reached a new high. Fascinating characters, intense emotion, and gritty medical and police detail combine for a powerful page-turner, although sometimes I had to put it down because it was overwhelming. Sometimes I had to take a break just to remind myself that I wasn't sweltering in a St. Louis summer with Maggie. But I always came back, and the ultra-satifying ending made me glad I did. I hope to see Maggie O'Brien in future books--there's a lot yet to be mined from her character.


Yankee Stranger
Published in Audio Cassette by Isis Audio (December, 1994)
Authors: Wlswyth Thane, Pat Starr, and Elswyth Thane
Amazon base price: $84.95
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Days and Spragues -- The Next Generation
Well, not quite, perhaps. A couple of generations get skipped (as do several wars) between the first and second books in this series, but "Yankee Stranger" is well worth the wait. The presence of Tibby Day, now approaching 100, gives the meandering trail between books one and two a context and much-needed continuity -- and the overlap of the generations which this scenario demonstrates has always fascinated me in my own life. As in book one, Thane's characters grip you firmly and draw you unresisting into the tangle of their lives, battered by war and division, anchored by family affection and made luminous by love and passion: Eden, the Titian beauty pulled in different directions by love and loyalty; Cabot, product of an embittered father who learns to love and trust despite the cataclysm of war; Susannah and Sedgwick, the star-crossed lovers who must face the future without each other; and most joyously, Tibby Day, a matriarch in wisdom, a "character" in the idiomatic sense, and the glue that binds the family and the book together. As usual, the history in this book is exact and irreproachable, the historical characters become human, and the atmosphere is tangible and touchable. Libby Prison is juxtaposed against fashionable Willard's Hotel; war-ravaged Richmond underlines in blood-red the quaint and restful pastels of ante-bellum Williamsburg; military camps stand vivid against civilized family holidays and the gentle spirit of Tibby Day presides over all. Courage and dedication, sacrifice and humor, the entire spectrum of human emotion emerges in this book. The superficial reader will be offended, as in Thane's other books, at the casually racist undertones, but the historically aware will rightly attribute them not only to the age in which the story takes place, but the era in which the author is writing. With history books firmly in hand and love stories firmly in mind, Thane once more slips us back through time into a memorable past -- and makes us eager to move forward to the next book in the series!

A timeless historical series you'll read and reread!
Elswyth Thane wrote a timeless tale of the human experience and how it is affected by war and made bearable by love. With skilled writing and human insight she made those moments come alive and ring true for every generation from the 1700s to the 1940s! I stumbled on "Dawns Early Light" at the local library when I was in my 20s and traveled between three libraries to find the other five books in successive order. I'm rereading them now in my mid-50s and enjoying them more than when I read them at 30 and 40. Im still traveling to three libraries to ferret them out. How delighted I am to finally find a source where I can put together my own set. I purchased "Dawns Early Light" during a visit to Williamsburg in 1978 and it remains one of my most cherished books. I am still enthralled with Thayne's descriptions of Marion's (the Swamp Fox) camp and the battles of Camden and the Pine Barrens. These novels have done more to foster my life-long love of American history than any other books I've ever read.

A Book You Will Read Over & Over
I first read the Women of Williamsburg series as a young teenager. They were not only great reading and wonderful stories, but lots of history mixed in. All of the books are great of course, but this one is one of my favorite that I sem to go back to & read again every couple of years. I am excited to finally find a matching set of the series.Most of the women in my family have read these books- my grandmother, who in turn got my mother to read, who in turn got me to read. I cannot wait until my daughter is old enough to read & enjoy them as well.


Survive the Savage Sea
Published in Audio Cassette by Books on Tape, Inc. (June, 1987)
Author: Robertson
Amazon base price: $48.00
Average review score:

This book tells about the difficulties of being lost at sea!
I think this book was a good adventure book and it teaches you about diffrent animals and the hardships that a family went through when killer whales attacked a boat. It also makes it clear in the book that at the end the family had a very little chance of survival. This book is a very good book. I encourage you to read it if you like adventures.

This is REAL "Survivor"!!!
This book first came to my attention when it was printed (in abridged form) in "The Reader's Digest" in 1973, and later when the author appeared on "To Tell The Truth". I've always been a sucker for adventure stories and this true-life account of grit, determination and ultimate survival makes the statement "the truth is stranger than fiction" ring all the more true.

By the way - with the 30th anniversary of the Robertson family's disaster looming - does anyone know what ultimately happened to them?

NOTE 4/30/03 - After writing my original review, I was directed to the Robertson family website to learn the family's fate. Their daughter, who left the voyage in Miami and was not on board when the boat was sunk, is the web-mistress for the site, and was very gracious in e-correspondence when I sought details about her parents' later years. As stated in another review, Dougal Robertson passed away in 1992, aged 68, his wife Lyn following in 1998.

outstanding
This is one of the best survival adventure stories. The Robertsons are attempting a circumnavigation when their yacht is sunk by killer whales in the Pacific Ocean. With very few provisions, an inflatable raft (which later sinks) and a dinghy the Robertsons are able to survive 38 days on the ocean under extreme conditions.

Dougal Robertson's account of the adventure is gripping, at sometimes understated and brutally honest. Robertson was probably not an easy man to get along with but his indomitability, his command presence and force of will, coupled with his wife's emotional strength, got their family through. It is a tremendous story of leadership under the most extreme circumstances.

While looking up information on the Robertsons I was happy to find their own website, ... but was saddened to read that both Dougal and Lyn Robertson have since passed away. One of their twin sons however is preparing to embark on a round-the-world cruise with his own family soon.


The Unknown Ajax
Published in Audio Cassette by Chivers Audio Books (September, 1998)
Authors: Georgette Heyer and Daniel Philpott
Amazon base price: $84.95
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A Regency from an expert
Georgette Heyer practically invented the Regency Romance. It was her witty coversations, historical accuracy, interesting characters that to me define this type of book.

Lord Darracott conceives the idea that the best thing to do with his heir, a Yorkshire weaver's brat, is to marry him off to his grandaughter Anthea so that she might take him in hand. Major Hugo Darracott is best described as a wolf in sheep's clothing with a wicked sense of humour. I personally enjoyed the Yorkshire dialect and the descriptions of Hugo being taken in hand.

Georette Heyer wrote both regencies and detective stories, if you haven't read the Regencies they are worth reading. It is interesting to use Geogette Heyer as a reference point sometimes when comparing the works of more modern writers.

An entertaining tale of misconceptions and mystery.
The blurb is about as accurate as the Darracot assumptions about the son of their black sheep, Hugo Darracot. The heir, a "weaver's brat," and totally unknown to his noble (and debt-ridden) family, has newly sold out from the army and is ordered to present himself to his tartar of a grandfather for review.
Received by his relations, this "unlettered rustic" decides to see how far he can take their preconceptions.
The romance? Well, how romantic to be ordered by your grandfather to marry your cousin to get both of you off his hands before you can cause any embarrassment.
This one is pure Heyer, funny, witty, great dialogue, and clever twists abound. Her mystery writing skills are prominently displayed as well. A terrific cast of characters rounds out a satisfyingly robust plot.

Wit, Romance, Ghosts & Crime -Another Georgette Heyer Winner
Georgette Heyer, the reigning monarch of romance fiction, has contributed another winner to the genre with "The Unknown Ajax."

Lord Darricott calls his entire family together at his estate, Darricott Place, on the border between Kent and Sussex. His son, two daughters-in law, three grandsons and a granddaughter, are all present when he informs them that they are to prepare for a visit from his new heir within the week. Lord Darricott's son and former heir had been recently killed in a boating accident and Darricott has had the unfortunate duty of recognizing the grandson he has never met, who will inherit the title and all his worldly goods upon his own demise. Hugh Darricott, the new and recent heir, had been raised in the North country, far away from the family seat, and now, in his mid-thirties has left the military with the rank of major. Hugh's father was disowned by the family patriarch after marrying a common weaver, and never seen by the family since. Lord Darricott, who rules his clan with an iron fist, except for granddaughter Anthea, who fears him not at all, has made plans that Hugh is to be schooled in the ways of a gentleman by his cousins. He also plans for Hugh to eventually marry Anthea, to prevent him from making an unsuitable match like his father did. The family, forming all kinds of stereotypical ideas about this base born cousin, is prejudiced against him before he arrives on the scene. And he is the last man Anthea wishes to marry.

Hugh arrives and, finding the group predisposed to dislike him, puts them on and plays the country bumpkin. He discovers each family member's weaknesses and strengths, their characters, and comes to know each of them, perhaps, better than they know each other. Hugh Darricott is much more intelligent and adept than the family gives him credit for and manages to uncover some family secrets, a ghost or two, and a crime in the making. He also finds the way to Anthea's heart, not to mention into his grandfather's and the rest of the group's good graces.

As always Ms. Heyer's humor is delightful, as are her characters. Hugh Darricott makes a wonderful hero as he bumbles along, so sure of his own intelligence and common sense that he is not at all embarrassed to play the clown in order to become better acquainted with his family, without intimidating them. His courtship of Althea is funny, romantic and endearing. His solutions to the many problems that confront his relatives are unusual and creative. This is a wonderful story, beautifully told - one of Georgette Heyer's best. I highly recommend it.
JANA


An Unsuitable Job for a Woman
Published in Audio Cassette by Random House Audio (01 September, 1992)
Author: P.D. James
Amazon base price: $15.99
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ONE OF THE FINEST
"An Unsuitable Job For a Woman" is not just the best P.D. James crime novel I've read. It is absolutely one of the finest crime novels I've read by any author. It is also one of the finest novels (crime or not) I've read this year.

The plot keeps us guessing through a wild ride of surprises that do not stop, not even in the final pages. James' characters are always fully and well drawn, but here she really outdoes herself. From the title character, Cordelia Gray, the sole owner (against her will) of a detective agency, to every suspect, to the police superintendent (James' already famous Adam Dalgliesh) to those "minor" characters who help Gray "solve" (if "solve" is the correct word) this heinous crime and who appear in only one chapter. They are all human beings, complicated and not easily categorized, nor judged. Even the "well brought-up gentleman," Mark Callender, whose suicide Gray is hired to investigate, is as complex a character you'll find in any work of modern fiction, although we never really meet him since he is dead weeks before the novel begins.

Gray's empathy with people in trouble, her desire to do right by her client and by the dead man with whom she has no previous history, her knowledge of what is good & moral and what is not all combine to make her a fascinating protagonist. And sadly, very much like the detective Dana Andrews played in the brilliant film noir, "Laura," Gray falls in love with the man whose death she is looking into. I want very much to read the other novels of James in which she appears. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Detective Writing at its Best
An excellent thriller/mystery with a twist. With several twists. The hero of some others of James' books, the poet/superintendent Adam Dalgliesh, apart from a brief and probably unnecessary appearance at the end of the book, is merely a brooding presence over the plot. Dalgliesh inspired Cordelia Gray's dead detective agency partner in every way, and his remebered quotes give Gray the ability to uncover the solution to the problem laid before her: Why did the young son of a very successful scientist drop out of Cambridge and commit suicide? Every character is coherent and supportable in their actions and words; every line and thread of the plot is believable and woven inexorably into the whole. This is detective writing at its best.

Cordelia, I do wish we had more
I suspect most authors committed to a mystery genre often grow tired of their creations. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle killed off Sherlock Holmes at one point, only to resurrect him at the demand of his fans. Elizabeth George too has recently attempted to bypass her Inspector Lynley, much to her fans chagrin (include me among that list). With "An Unsuitable Job for a Woman," I suspect we find the same motive with P.D. James' divergence from the Dalgliesh novels. Instead of the inimitable and formidable Dalgliesh, we have the 22-year-old, sometimes uncertain Cordelia Gray attempting to jumpstart a detective agency willed to her through the suicide of her benefactor and mentor, Bernie Pryde.

In the course of "Unsuitable" and a companion book "The Skull Beneath the Skin," Ms. James produces one of the great characters of detective fiction. Lacking very little professional experience, Cordelia uses instinct, a sharp mind and surprising courage to unravel the truth to murders that on the surface seem so obviously solvable.

It is not until the conclusion of the "Unsuitable" case that Dalgliesh shows up to clear away some of the messy details, but its clearly Cordelia's story that Ms. James is focused upon.

Read this book, and then immediate procure "Skull," the far superior book in the very short two-book series. In my mind, they both are far better written, more exciting than any of the Dalgliesh series (I can't believe I am saying that - that's like saying an orange is better than an apple).

Ms. James never returns to Cordelia, other than a couple of brief mentions in later Dalgliesh stories. Once, she sends Dalgliesh flowers and a short note while he is recovering from an illness, and there is a slight hint of romantic interest - moreso on her part than perhaps on the continual mourning Dalgliesh.

About a year ago, Ms. James was in my hometown promoting her autobiography (a nice read, but not particularly well put together). Numerous questions were posed regarding Cordelia. Her response was that she is constantly amazed how popular a character is Cordelia, and admits that yes, SHE too loved her. But, she said, Dalgliesh pulled her back. I personally asked her during the book autographing stage whether Cordelia any chance of reappearing. Keeping in mind that Ms. James is well into her 80s, it was probably a silly question. But she said she had considered it, but that she made an awful mistake. She said she had "inexplicably sold Cordelia" to the BBC, who had promised her that when dramatizing "Unsuitable" and "Skull," they would keep the character true to the book. They did so until the actress portraying her came up pregnant during filming, so they wrote into it that Cordelia was also pregnant from a liason with a lover that she no longer was seeing. Anyone who has read and loved these books know that that would have been totally out of character for Cordelia. Ms. James said she was so angry that she traveled the book circuit saying Cordelia of the BBC was NOT the Cordelia of her two books. Unfortunately, she said, "I don't know how I can bring her back onto the pages. She's dead to me now."

So read the books, but never no never go near the televised series. Cordelia is very much alive in these pages, and you will be ever so glad.


The Weeping Chamber
Published in Audio Cassette by Word Publishing (March, 1998)
Author: Sigmund Brouwer
Amazon base price: $15.99
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Powerful
This novel is one man's spiritual journey during Christ's final week on earth. As our main character struggles with his personal problems and guilt, he also interacts with Jesus. Will he see the true freedom that Jesus offers before time runs out for both of them?

I was blown away when I read this book. Sigmund Brouwer weaves a fictitious story around the real events of the Bible seamlessly. And his account of the Bible story is eye opening. While fictitious, it made me look at the people involved in a different light. I have a new understanding of what Jesus did for all of us because of it.

I also read Sigmund Brouwer's THE CARPENTER'S CLOTH at the same time. There are some overlapping passages between the two books, but both are well worth a read and include material not in the other.

I highly recommend this account of Jesus' last week.
Sigmund Brouwer has written a beautiful and exciting novel that captures the last week of Jesus' life. It is biblically accurate. We see this last week through the eyes of one man who through his encounter with Jesus receives healing and restoration. It is a moving story that ministers to the heart of the reader. I highly recommend it to all.

look at Jesus¿ last days from the perspective of an outsider
Though a wealthy merchant, Simeon of Cyrene feels his life is not worth living. His wife wants nothing to do with him while his son is dead from a warehouse inferno that crippled his daughter. He considers suicide as an escape from the torture that eats at his soul as his work no longer comforts him. Simeon begs his wife to forgive him and take him back, but has no hope as he knows she blames him for the tragedies.

Simeon travels to Jerusalem on business with an old friend. This enables him to observe the controversy over the teacher Jesus. He finds comfort and even hope in the words and teachings by example of Jesus, but also fears for the life of the kind hearted soul as the Roman and Jewish religious and secular leaders press the masses to support the death of Jesus. When he learns of the resurrection, Simeon has to see for himself for if Jesus can rise from the dead and forgive those who killed him surely he can continue to seek forgiveness and a second chance from his wife and daughter.

This is a deep look at Jesus' last days from the perspective of Simeon, an individual who believes that he deserves to die for what he did to his family. The age comes to life mostly through Simeon's depressed eyes though readers will wonder how Jesus feels especially since the release of the Gibson film. Sigmund Brouwer stays with his main theme of one lonely depressed soul's efforts for redemption from his family may come because of the light Jesus shines on him and others in first century Jerusalem.

Harriet Klausner


The Story of the Other Wise Man (Timeless Bestsellers)
Published in Audio Cassette by Dual Dolphin Pub (01 November, 1996)
Authors: Henry Van Dyke and Steve Pietrofesa
Amazon base price: $12.95
Average review score:

A Lifelong Influence
I have known the story and read it since I was a boy. This is story has had a profound influence on my life, and can be one on others' lives too. It is beautifully written and represents the highest ideals of what Christmas and Easter are all about. Even today it brings tears to my eyes when I reread the familiar haunting passages. I think it especially poignant and appropriate this year, and I thought of it as I read of the everyday heroes of 9/11. I wish all children and adults had an opportunity to read it.

The dream everyone dreams is lost and found here...
It is the dream of every believer-to meet Jesus. To bow at his feet, to offer all you are to him, and hear him say "Well done my good and faithful servant." So it was for the other wise man. He, however, gives it up to help a dying man. He then, in turn, forfits his place with the other Magi at the birth of Jesus. This is the story of a man who spends his life hunting the dream of every christian on Earth. It is the single most touching story I have ever read. God was truly at work in Mr. Van Dyke.

Inspiring and elegantly written
Van Dyke is truly a great writer. Every word is carefully chosen. I will read this book every Christmas. His message is inspiring. I would like to recommend another holiday book I equally enjoyed: Christmas Gifts, Christmas Voices, by John Allen. (Read my Amazon.com review.)


They Shoot Canoes Don't They? and Other Stories/Audio Cassettes
Published in Audio Cassette by Dh Audio (October, 1991)
Authors: Patrick F. McManus and George S. Irving
Amazon base price: $16.99
Used price: $75.00
Buy one from zShops for: $78.88
Average review score:

pretty funny
I didn't think this book was quite as funny as A Fine and Pleasant Misery, but I still enjoyed it. I get a kick out of reading humorous literature about the outdoors, however, I'm not really into hunting and fishing, two activities that McManus spends a lot of time on. I mostly enjoy the stories about camping, hiking, and general wilderness survival.

Pat McManus....outdoor humor champion
Ahh The legend of Pat McManus...lost person, helpless person, hopeless person. i have personally read and heard every book/audiocassette in the series, and not a single one of them has failed to split my sides with gales of laughter, without resorting to profanity or direct hostility, McManus regales us with stories about a time period that most people would have thought there was'nt anything funny about, He brings Hilarity from Horror. If your an outdoor enthusiast, or a sportsman of any type, or you just enjoy seeing the underdog win sometimes, then get this book, and hold on for the ride of your life.

outragusly funny
This was a great book for anyone that likes fishing, hunting and or the great outdoors. I liked the book because I am one of those people. It was so funny it was hard to keep from laughing while reading it. I would recamend any of Patric McManus' books if you like a good laugh.


Related Subjects: On-a-clean-up
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