Open

I am rather impressed with this book and its originality. It is perhaps best in this case, not to judge a book by its cover. As you can see, it is a rather 'rushed' cover, and does not reflect the mood of the poems within the book. It is a cheerful atmosphere and the poems have a longlasting effect on ones mood. Do not believe the many critics of Stephen Pain, buy this book and a startling read will be had by all.

Is there still a place for mission in the late twentieth century? By what authority can we speak about God and the Christian message in our pluralist world? Newbigin brings his original and thoroughly biblical thoughts to these questions. He places missions in a Trinitarian context: Mission is the proclamation of the Kingdom of the Father, sharing in the life of Jesus, doing the work of the Spirit. He discusses the ideas of the school of Church Growth, of liberation theology and John Hicks (from "the myth of Christianity"), and develops his theology of mission in discussion with these voices. I have one reservation, and that is his discussion of election. Election, in Newbigin's view, is - and is being limited to - being called to witness. I cannot see how with this limitation he can avoid the danger of Pelagianism, which he rejects earlier on in the book. (This topic, however, is developed more extensively in "The Gospel in a Pluralist World"). Overall, though, an excellent read.

Munro explores the nature of the dark secret, hidden from all but the reader, in these tales of fascinating and absolutely normal people. These stories are great for busy people; wonderful and short, they are great before-bed reading. Savour and enjoy!

Dear Fellow Readers,

I recommend this book highly for the average Canadian/American looking for the truth in the world we live in. This book is highly inspirational and wont leave you bored. I am a teenager and yet I find this book fascinating. This book will change your life guaranteed. The book is well worth its short 347 pages. The language is extremely easy to understand for even a weak reader. This book changed my life for the better and it can help change yours. If you are afraid of change, this book is not something to fear. Give it a chance just like any other book. The book is slightly bit older then school text books but is still extremely useful.

I recommend this book to all. I would buy this book for everyone if I could but it's up to you to read it. I gave it 5 stars and would have given it 10. Read this book. I promise you won't be disappointed.

Enjoy Reading
William K

This wonderful book is full of many beautiful and inspiring images. Paintings, drawings, lithographs, silkscreen, photographs, among other mediums hold the thoughts of artists such as Pollock, Warhol, Matisse and others. A truly wonderful little collection of ideas.

Meet F. Thieringer (male) and M. McGuane (female)...a pair of tough, streetwise team of private eyes just making ends meet in L.A. The case seems simple enough at first. Fritz and Maggie are hired to find out why a young man is following dress manufacturer Max Isenbart. But the complications keep growing, and they soon find themselves entangled in a nightmarish web of relationships and violent happenings, all of which lead to blind alleys and more unanswered questions. Blackmail, murder, extortion, bombings and beatings are all part of the intricate plot.

From 1991 to 1994 Nick Pope was posted as the British MOD investigator of UFOs. That means he worked for the Ministry Of Defense. Pope believes that UFOs are real and explains what he discovered while working for the MOD. Although a lot of the information here is known to most UFO researchers he does uncover some new UK material. This is a good book about UFOs from an MOD insider. A worthy addition to any UFO book collection.

The computing world is full of zealots and bigots. Mac vs. DOS. Ethernet vs. Token Ring. Unix vs. VMS. And TCP/IP vs. OSI. It's like discussing religion, or politics. David Piscitello and Lyman Chapin have to deal with these arguments every day. Open Systems Networking: TCP/IP and OSI (Addison-Wesley, 1993) is their attempt to bring some facts and background into the discussion. Anyone interested in learning the real truth about OSI, its relationship to TCP/IP, and why things are the way they are should be interested in this book. It's a long overdue work, and they've pulled it off beautifully: no other author has explained the two protocol suites, in parallel, understandably and truthfully, as well as Piscitello and Chapin have.

If you've been disappointed in other books claiming to "explain" OSI, you'll find Open Systems Networking a refreshing change. It doesn't have the mindless repetition of tables and rewording that William Stallings' books do, nor the "gee this looks dumb" attitude of Marshall Rose's. Piscitello and Chapin served on the national and international standards committees responsible for developing most of the OSI standards. They were there. They know what the standards meant to say, where the bodies are buried, and how to put them all in context. That lets them compare, contrast, explain, and evaluate both OSI and TCP/IP in an honest and straightforward way. Their point of view is a technical one, and not a political one. They advocate the best technology to solve a problem.

Open Systems Networking is written for the educated networking professional. It is assumed that the reader has a passable knowledge of TCP/IP. The obligatory presentation of the OSI reference model is at once brief, humorous, and insightful. Most importantly, the explanations of the OSI standards don't get bogged down in explaining trivial details of state machine and protocol header. This is not a book for bit-jerkers. Instead, Piscitello and Chapin focus on the truly important aspects of each standard, identifying what is significant, what is useless, and why it all turned out this way.

The discussion of ASN.1, the all-important language for encoding data use in both ISO and some TCP/IP standards is a good example. Half of the space is devoted to a discussion of concepts and reasons why such an encoding is a good idea, as well as a discussion of problems that have occurred in systems that didn't have such an encoding. The other half gives just enough explanation to let an interested reader understand how to read ASN.1. The difference here is between reading a language and writing it. After reading Open Systems Networking, most people will know all they need to know about ASN.1.

Knowing that much of their audience will have some TCP/IP bias, Piscitello and Chapin go easier on the home team than they do with their own progeny. For example, when discussing why the OSI transport protocol has five classes (TP0 through TP4), they note: "The whole notion of typing network connections was myopic, ill- advised, and ultimately destructive." They are a bit less caustic when discussing the chaos of routing in TCP/IP networks, pointing out that "RIP is the routing protocol ``we love to hate'' ... HELLO is another open routing protocol that has seen better days."

If you've got an open mind, pick up a copy of Open Systems Networking. It's a readable history of the development of networking and well worth reading. If you're one of those protocol bigots I keep running into ... pick up a copy anyway.

This was an absolutely great book about everything that happened in some of the most prime years of tennis history with also a lot of the great players. Recommended for all tennis lovers!!!

This devotional is unique in that it offers you not only a daily devotional guide, but a song of praise to go with it. I have found that when I use this devotional the message stays with me because of the worship songs that are included. The pages are set up so that on the left hand side is a worship song, and on the right hand side is the devotion for the day that corrolates with that song. I think you will find this devotional to be refreshing and rewarding. One that doesn't take a lot of time, but has a lasting effect.