Earth Day Books

This is a nice, simple, easy to read book on different types of clouds and weather conditions. Fast reference when you need 'em!

This is an extremely handy book for making super quick predictions on the skies. Shows all sorts of different cloud formations and what they're bringing with them. Also nice photos of thunderstorms, lightning, etc. Good one to pick up just because.

This book is a great beginners book. The text is easy to read and the pictures are beautiful. It came in particularly handy for my cloud physics class in which I had to keep a cloud journal.

Sheen: The Ego Eater. The Earth teemed with life of all kinds, and many besides man had intelligence and the gift of speech. But chaos ruled. And violence. And despair. Then, in the Valley of the Dead, Sheen first entered the world, and all of life would bend to the might of the Supreme One before the final push to the stars.

This novel takes place in the distant future, when humans have evolved into god-like beings and rats have evolved into human-like people.The earth is populated largely by sentient and semi-sentient beings who are the result of extensive genetic tinkering by humans. It's made clear that while the "gods" (humans) messed around with the rat's social developement, they evolved their higher sentience on their own.
It's told largely from the viewpoints of three characters. The main one is Rik, the rat. Curious, brilliant, and absolutely fearless about facing all truth, his friend Jak,a Canine, who is impulsive, passionate, and deeply concerned with ethics and what is right and there's Sheen.
Sheen is an amorphous silver being who can assume any shape it wishes. Sheen has no memory of it's origins or it's purpose. It does have an insatiable appitite. It eats egos after seducing it's prey with telepathically sent visions of a sort of paradise tailored to the individual, which they may live in forever on condition they surrender their minds and wills to Sheen.
Sheen becomes obsessed with the gods and with Rik after finding he cannot seduce either. Part of the fun part of reading this was the many exchanges between Rik and Sheen, as well as between Jak and Sheen. Laced throughout with humor and astute observations on the nature of sentient life. Reading about the various other beings who populate this brave new world was pretty entertaining.
There were quite a few sub-plots as well, Sheen seems to be taking over all sentient life (He won't take children or the feeble-minded) and the god's growing unease and awareness of Sheen's presence. There's a lot of cynicism in this book, but it is very compassionate and ultimately presents a strong faith in the innate stregnth and beauty of Life. This is one book I have read repeatedly over the past 30 years, and enjoy as much with my changing understanding and viewpoint of life as I did when I first read it as a teenager.

Don Preston employs his savant like gift of biblical observation and his obviously indefatigable efforts to present a thorough integration of prophecy and fulfillment. It must have taken many years to accrue such a wealth of insights into this important subject of eschatology. It remains to be tested, yet I am willing to wager this work is an irrefutable presentation of full preterism.
My excitement did wane a bit as Preston addressed Universalism in the Addendum. While he did rightly oppose it, he is weak in soteriology. How I wish that the Reformed church would profit from his eschatology as I wish he would profit from their soteriology. He would benefit from Gary Long's "Definite Atonement" and John Murray's "Redemption Accomplished and Applied" regarding the nature and the extent of the atonement.
Finally, his challenge to antinomian preterists in the post-Parousia age was excellent. He made the case for holiness with his usually keen observation and adroit use of logic.
Overall, it is a must read for all Christians; in particular those who deem preterism to be heretical. If you intend on controverting this work, you have Sisyphean task before you.

II Peter chapter of the bible to
date. Another winner from Don K.
Preston. Pick Up On It!

Franklin the turtle loves to play in trees, so when he hears about Mr. Heron
giving away trees for Earth Day, he digs a big hole and plans to build a
treehouse and a swing the same day. He is sorely disappointed to get a mere sapling!
Through the story he learns from other animals and his parents about patience
and hope and tree care. Franklin thinks and feels like a real kid, and the
message does not overpower the story. Maybe not a classic re-read at home, but highly recommended for school libraries.

As a paraprofessional in a public school system, I would highly recommend this book for any young child. This story represents an excellent teaching example to children about the importance of responsibility and their role in accepting responsibility. It also demonstrates how children can benefit from each other's friendship. With spring almost here, I feel every child would benefit having this book. These Franklin books, published by Scholastic, in my opinion, are an excellent educational resource for all young children.

This is a delightful book that describes the wind. It is colorful, not too wordy and has many examples of the wind blowing, to hold a child's attention. My only problem is the reference to the sycamore tree: A sycamore does not have twirly seeds that spin to the gound; that would be a maple. A sycamore has a round seed pod. It is something that most children wouldn't know but it is important that we give our children accurate information at every age. Regardless, I am glad I purchased the book; it explains the wind in an easy way for children and grandchildren to understand.

I love the whole assortment that is available. They are colorful, wonderfully illustrated and great for young children, more pictures than words. Great vocabulary builder. Books about the weather are great like "The Rainy Day", and also The Snowy Day". The pictures help tremendously in teaching differences and they are learning adjectives and descriptive words.

I bought & read this book to see what a prominent leftist had to say in response to the unbelievably damning indictments of the left that resulted from the public release of information from the Venona Project. Conservative writers such as Ann Coulter and Mona Charon included material on the Venona Project in two of their books, and I expected to see some sort of a contrary comment. I was disappointed, and forget about Franken's index: there isn't any. And if you discount the New York Times and other left-leaning newspapers and magazines, there's not much remaining of Franken's sources. I'm reminded of the old adage; "If you only talk with those who hold the same opinion as you, you will never learn anything."

Backed by the power and monetary resources of Harvard University, Franken assembled a team of 14 researchers from whom much could be expected. Unfortunately, it appears they spent most of their time bolstering ad hominum attacks on various conservatives rather than building cases able to stand up under close scrutiny. Questioning Ann Coulter's age and making an issue out of the typical use of "footnote" for "endnote" was simply silly. Current scholarship favors the extensive use of endnotes so as to not break up the continuity of analytical presentation. Working at Harvard, Franken should have known that.

In many cases it was impossible to separate the author's lame attempts at sarcasm or humor from what he might be representing as fact. Quite possibly he used this mechanism to be able to reject any scholarly criticism of his "facts" by simply saying that the point in question wasn't meant to be factual -- it was merely humor. Serious criticisms of conservatives that could have been presented were lost in the multiplicity of inane discussions like why he calls Ann Coulter a "nutcase." Moreover, it is never appropriate to use such terms, which the author freely interjects throughout his book, and his case is greatly damaged as a result.

Harvard University should be ashamed of supporting this project, and without supporting a like project from conservatives, Harvard must be firmly placed at the top of the list of leftist schools, more interested in pushing a point of view than scholarly research and publication of the evidence of such research and its analysis.

Franken does inestimable harm to liberal political thought with the publication of this book. I do not recommend it to liberals or conservatives who wish to add to their knowledge.

This is better than most of the trash from the left, but that is not saying much. Al Franken is funny and intelligent, but hopelessly biased and over his head on many of the issues in the book. And, it would be nice if he could be funny without making the personal (and false) attacks.

The only question I have here is: How can we believe Al Franken any more than we believe Sean Hannity or Bill O'Reilly? OK, so Franken doesn't agree with these guys and HE'S the one telling us the truth, not Hannity and O'Reilly. Think about it - how can a book entitled "A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right" be fair and balanced if written by someone who shares completely opposite viewpoints. Look up the word "balance" in the dictionary. It means "right down the middle". Don't you have to be fair and balanced yourself before you can express a fair and balanced opinion on something? C'mon folks. This seems to me as just another "This is my opinion" book. If you're left, you'll love it - if you're right (which conservatives usually are), you'll probably disagree. Just like Hannity and O'Reilly, this is no more than a thinly veiled attempt to voice his opinion and viewpoints on politics. Take it for what it's worth, and maybe get a few laughs out of it, but be careful not to read too much into it.

Where to begin, where to begin...

His researchers were Harvard grad students, trained in accurate citation for writing scholarly theses, not "a bunch of teenagers" as one reviewer claimed.

Regarding his sources: The media may ignore important events and realities, make false connections and ignore obviously true ones, and still be a reasonably reliable source for basic checkable facts. Of course there's media and then there's media. Fox News with an owner who repeatedly sends out memos saying he wants his "reporters" to promote a certain viewpoint and regularly fires employees who report inconvenient contradictory info, cannot be relied on at all, whereas national papers that are under constant scrutiny, and publish opposing letters-to-the-editor and retractions when they are in factual error, such as The Washington Post, The LA Times, and The NY Times, can be considered reliable sources of those facts they choose to print.

As to believing Al got conservatives to admit they lie, I have the advantage of having listened to hours of the Al Franken Show. I've heard him call a conservative politician, cite the person's offending remark, give his own (Franken's) source for contradictory information, ask where the other person got their info, and not back down to the evasions offered until the liar admits he has nothing to substantiate the (now revealed) lie. The person doesn't, of course, use the word "lie", but they admit that what they said contradicts verifiable truth. This is what Franken accurately reports as admitting to a lie. And his celebrity and the radio platform he had while writing the book got his phone calls answered surprisingly frequently. So there is no reason to doubt that he did the same thing a number of times off the air. That's why we use journalists and commentators for information; they can get to sources who couldn't possibly speak with all of us individually, and go to places we can't, to ask folks there for firsthand accounts. Franken went to wartime Iraq 4 times.

A little judicious Googling for corroboration of bothersome assertions, starting by using the citations in the back of the book (like transcripts of expert testimony, e.g.), might help ease a skeptical reader's mind. There is no lazy way to determine who does their best to check their facts with either experts in the field or credible news organizations, such as Reuters News Service. Spot-checking Franken shows him to be consistently accurate.

For those who still, even after all evidence supports Franken, find believing him rather than O'Reilly or Coulter, painful, I recommend "Blinded by the Right: The Conscience of an Ex-Conservative" by David Brock to help you.

BTW, refuting one reviewer's written distortion of "Franken's Team", as I did at the top of this review, is a good example of the sort of thing Al Franken does in his book. He goes back to the source for the correct info, and debunks a smear. (But he's a lot funnier doing it.) To quote the late Senator Moynihan, "Everyone is entitled to their own opinions, but they are not entitled to their own facts."

(I witheld one star because I would have preferred the book to be a little less personalized. Just my taste.)

I enjoyed this book, and found myself laughing out loud at some of the well-researched anecdotes. The main point of the book, obviously, is that the Bush administration, with its close ties to various conservative mouthpieces, consists of habitual liars who continue to try to pull fast ones on the American public. He gleefully tells us that he has a crack team of Harvard graduate students conducting research on the various falsehoods propagated by the far-right's puppets and thugs. One such example, drawn out at length, is the idea that Bill Clinton's staff trashed the White House right before Bush II took office. As Franken generally writes, we all sort of imagined at the time that somehow people defecated on desks, scratched graffiti all over the walls, tore up all the phone lines, that sort of thing, right? Well, as it turns out, there was absolutely no incident of vandalism at all. The right-wing media just made it up. There's a lot more, but you've just got to read it--examples of lies are far too extensive and detailed to go into here in much detail.
Franken also describes how the uber-obnoxious Bill O'Reilly (with whom Franken appears to be only half-seriously feuding) denies having made certain statements. Then O'Reilly threatens to get rough with his antagonists when challenged with the actual videotapes of him making the disputed statements.
Franken devotes a portion of the book to describing how he and one Harvard student pretend to be a step-father and step-son doing a prospective campus visit at the Christian-fundamentalist Bob Jones University. (In fairness, everyone there is described as being very very nice.)
One point I find particularly compelling is Franken's modest suggestion that G.W. Bush is, ironically, the least Christian of all our presidents, in both belief and practice.... In short, I was challenged by some of the observations in the book, and it is amusing and very entertaining.

I really, really wanted to like this as I love religious fiction and those titles dealing with end times in particular though. There is no getting around it, however - this is one of the most poorly written books to have ever been published, period.

I love this book. I had to force myself to but it down so I don't read though it all at once. I find that the characters are very real, and other than the initial event (the Rapture) all of the following events sound realistically possible (in a novel). I have read many negative reviews from Christians denouncing that it doesn't exactly follow the Bible. And from others saying that it's nothing but religious evangelicalism. To all of those I say "It's a novel". It's fiction. It doesn't have to follow other sources and the writers can say what they want.
To me it is a perfect mix, not too far out there and not too much preaching.
I would recommend it to anyone interested. If you don't like the first book then don't read the rest.

If you want soap opera-style melodrama with a "Christian" twist, then maybe this series is for you. If you want the truth, then keep right on walking. I have studied Bible prophecy for the past 40 years, and though I do lean toward a belief in a "catching away" of believers (rapture) and a seven year tribulation on earth, this book is about 10 percent truth and 90 percent total balderdash. There is no reason to get so wrapped up in something that will not happen the way the authors describe. What we as Christian believers are to do is to live our lives loving the Lord and our fellow man and leave the rest to Him. I'm sorry I read this book, it was a waste of my precious time that could have been spent doing something productive.

The Rapture and biblical prophecy are fascinating subjects that could be the basis for a roller coaster modern story. Unfortunately the authors dilute the potential with long, boring, inconsequential text. I trudged through the first 2 books, then finally threw in the towel on the 3rd after reading a *chapter* describing a traffic jam! The best of this series could be distilled to just a few books but, keeping with the theme, it's already too late...

I have no idea why this book has been acclaimed by so many people-- even by many Christians-- as a great work of literature. The plot is weak and chock-full of bland, superfluous details. Buck's part of the story is particularly uninteresting. There are just too many things going on all at once. His part of the story gives us the specifics of how he plugged in his computer to an outlet and how his subconscious waking system didn't work one day when he wanted to get up at 8 and instead woke up 45 minutes later.

I also believe that the end-times view this book supports has no biblical backing, though this is not the reason why I gave this book only one star. I hold to the Postmillenialist viewpoint and would love to have a discussion if you have any questions/arguments about this particular viewpoint or end-times in general. (In the comment section, I have posted a short paper about end times.)

This is a tremendous book for everyone including the ones whose faith is lost or non-existent. It gives the reader a more confident starting point to turn their life around and incorporate values that God has laid before us. Rick Warren's undeniable faith is an illuminating source of God's will that inspires oneself to take that leap of faith and place your salvation in the Hands of God.

I had heard of this book many times but never bought or read it. I was especially impressed a few years ago when someone (in Atlanta, I think) used material from it to help her deal effectively with someone who broke into her house. The person had already shot someone the same day. She was struggling with many issues before the intruder came. Together they talked about content of the book in a way that made a difference.

Finally, I was moved to get the book after the faith forum between McCain and Obama at Saddleback Church in August 2008. I was so impressed with the way he dealt with both candidates. I wanted to read more about what Warren says and learn more about how he says it.

I highly recommend the book.

My copy, from Christmas 2004, says "over 15 million copies sold". I see cover copy on books in stores now showing 20 or 30 million sold.

So, this is not a new or little-known book, and obviously, many people have read it and find it very good, and indeed it is. Warren gives five Biblical purposes for life, consistently using scripture (in many different translations where they help convey meaning). And while the book does occasionally reference other "PDL" products like the journal, it doesn't appear to be a sales tool for these other products.

In fact, the The Purpose-Driven Life Journal in conjunction with a good study translation (New American Standard, New Internation, or King James) is a great way to study and make notes.

Wow-really good book!! On a side note, would have prefered the Bible references at the point of reference ( eg Psalm 23:1 and not '2' so as to prevent the need to continually turn to the back of the book. I am at day 12 and I am really impressed at how applicable this book is to my life. Again, I wonderful read

Excellent book!! As a Christian I was at a time in my life where I knew I needed help and to lean on God, but I didnt know HOW to go about doing it. This book definately shed some light on my path.

This book is thought and prayer provoking. It opens up your eyes to what it means to live as a Christian using thousands of verses in the bible. For me bible study was difficult and often times I did not understand what I was reading, but this book gave me insight and help walk me through the door of understanding so that it all made sense to me.

If you are looking for answers inside of you and you know God is the way, but just not sure how to make a move-- then read this book! God Bless you!!

Really liked this book, but hated how Wang Lung and his family treated his oldest daughter. She is never given a name. She's only referred to as "The Fool". The family leaves her to play alone, outside, with her piece of cloth. Rarely do they check up on her. And, if nobody thinks about it she is sometimes left outdoors. She's treated this way just because she is mentally challenged. It's bad enough that Wang and the other does this. But, it's really hurtful, that O-lan, the mother, does this. You would think that maternal instinct would cause her to feel differently. However, it doesn't.

This is a classic novel about the human condition. The innocence and tentativeness of unproven youth; the rise and fall of an individual's fortunes (monetary and otherwise); the boredom and potential for dissolution that middle age can bring; and finally the nodding, smiling dotage at the end of a life. All the seven deadly sins as well as the seven virtues are illustrated in this novel and it achieves greatness through its beautiful and tragic depiction of each. This book transcends cultures as we can all relate to the feelings these characters experienced.

My book club recently read this and while several members had read it previously, some, including me, had not. It was an absolute delight and I wish I had picked it up sooner.

If I had to make any criticism of the book, it would be that the end was a bit abrupt after all that I felt I had invested in the main character of Wang Lung.

This book is required for freshman in our high school. Easy reading and a classic!

I read this book as part of my summer reading for American Literature class (high school). I enjoyed this book and plan to read the remaining two books in the trilogy. I would recommend this book for high school aged students+. This is a book for people that have read and liked works such as Cry, the Beloved Country and When Things Fall Apart. I learned a lot about that time period, Chinese culture and as American's, the basic freedoms we take for granted. Below is the paper I wrote as part of my assignment for the class.

COMPARE AND CONTRAST: THE GOOD EARTH

Pearl S. Buck, author of the Nobel Prize-winning book, The Good Earth, was an American writer born in West Virginia to Southern Presbyterian missionaries to China. She wrote The Good Earth to unveil to Americans pre-revolutionary Chinese culture and religion. The story begins to unfold when Wang Lung, a poor village farmer, goes to purchase his future wife, a slave, from the House of Whang. Through the life of the fictional character Wang Lung, the Earth, women, and wealth are all major themes in his life, being portrayed differently at different times.
For some, the Earth is what makes their life worthwhile, but for others, it's just something they live on and get food from. But for all, it can provide and it can withhold. For Wang Lung, it gave prosperity to him, but it also took away livelihood from him. The Earth can have relationships. Wang Lung knew the Earth. It was what he loved, even after he became wealthy. But for the House of Whang, the rich people of Wang Lung's village, they didn't have a care for it; they only cared about money that came from it.
The treatment of women in pre-revolutionary China is so completely different from how women are treated now, it's shocking that it was roughly a century ago. In the story of Wang Lung's life, it is obvious that women were usually treated more as property instead of a husband/wife relationship. Also, the desire for women was a lust satisfier and a male offspring supplier. Women's beauty and family status were more important than character. If she was not pretty or from a wealthy family, she generally didn't have a promising future in securing a husband.
Wealth was a fate that determined your friends, how you conducted your every day routine, what you would eat, and influenced your desire for more material things. As Wang Lung became more materially wealthy, he began to resemble Old Lord Whang, who used to be the head of the House of Whang. Wealth corrupted his family. First, it caused Wang Lung to become discontented with his first wife. Wealth made his elder son have a sense of arrogance and conceit. Additionally, Wang Lung's wicked uncle tormented his life and also caused Wang Lung's offspring to lose respect for their elders, land, and religious foundation. Wealth can be good, depending on how you use it, but it can always be bad.
The Good Earth, the first in a trilogy, through the characters, the readers will find many similarities between the treatment of women, the influence of wealth, and the view of the Earth. But there are also many differences, such as a the expectation of a wife and the characters view of the Earth and the influence of wealth. There is still much that can be learned by comparing and contrasting the themes found in The Good Earth.

I know I read The Good Earth in high school - but I wanted to re-read it as it is on my son's high school reading list. I am struck by the almost poetic nature of Buck's writing, but I must confess that the storyline was of such a nature so as to leave me wanting to take a mental bath. Such hopelessness and helplessness of Wang Lung to overcome the downward spin of his pagan destiny was hard to read.

I recommend this book to mature readers (I am going to select a different book off of my 15 year old's reading list) as there is candid discussion of sexual desire and its fulfillment. If a parent is not sure about whether or not a young person would be ready for a book of this depth, I highly recommend pre-reading it.

I do ultimately recommend this book as I think it can reveal much about human nature.

I absolutely loved this book and the series.....being a Christian, I am so thankful that God is in control. These books are so humbling to me!

The Rapture proved to be a message of hope to me that the promise of God was believed by someone who was counting on that hope as much as I was. The writing style used by the authors is something to get used to but once you have mastered their style it presents a wonderful word picture for your mind to contemplate and digest. Man takes hope from various aspects of life one of which is reading. I have found that most of the reading material being written today is not up to the quality that I demand from my books but this whole series of books by these two writers has certainly made the grade in my estimation. I look forward to more of their special ponderings of The Word in the future.

I received my book in record time and it was in excellent shape!! Thanks for another great Amazon purchase!!

Just like the other books in this series, I read through this in a very short period of time (several hours total over a couple days). Great book and a must read if you're reading the series!

From the very first letter of the alphabet that my eyes looked upon inside this series of books, until the very last period of the very last sentence, I was hooked. Each one of these books absorbed my attention like no other book has ever done in my life. Biblically sound, theatrically entertaining, and brilliantly written, the Left Behind books will inspire you to dig into God's word and take the pieces of news from your T.V. screen and match them right smack-dab up with the prophecies of the Bible. Your hair will stand up, your heart will race, and you will find yourself helplessly caught in the suspense. Once you finish one of these books, you will desperately race to your computer screen or your local library to pick up the next one!

Carrie Lynn Jones
Author of It All Began... When Jesus Gave Me Sneakers