Leather Books

As a physician, I have salesmen calling on me every day. This book not only provides the day to day motivation, inspiration, and hope that we all need; it's content is grounded in an integrity to which we should all aspire. The author's character, insight, and benevolence is a model for us all.

What a great way to start your day! An absolute insightful inspiration from the eyes of a career salesman. This book will help keep you on track of your personal, professional, and most importantly, your spiritual goals! A gift that you will definitely feel the need to share with all your friends, family, and even your competitors at work--Now that is Powerful!!!!

Outstanding Inspirational Tool!!! With little time to slow down in a salesman's high stress environment, this book is an easy read that can help one refocus each day on achieving one's goals. It is a must have for the busy salesman.

This book is AWESOME!!!! A career in sales can be very stressful at times. This book helps you keep everything in perspective. I highly recommend it. I'm giving a copy to all of my sales rep friends!!

Sales is tough, I know. I've read and studied every sales book out there. With me, my success did not depend on technique - I'm already good. What I need is inspiration - not just fleeting feel good thoughts - but real positive and substantive inspiration. I've keep this by my bedside - highly recommend

In Shifting Sands: Life in Arabia with a Saudi Princess, the author recalls her experiences while living in Saudi Arabia. The author and her husband are Christian Americans but had always wanted to experience life in Saudi Arabia. With the Gulf War looming, it seemed as though the couple would never realize their dream. Nonetheless, in March 1991, the couple began their adventure that lasted ten years.

Initially, the author experienced horrible culture shock: living in a country where she did not speak the language, where she had no friends, where she had nothing to do all day, where there were stringent rules for women, and where her religious beliefs were illegal. At first, the author was completely overwhelmed and miserable. However, slowly she adjusted and eventually thrived in her new surroundings. She made some deep friendships, got a job that she adored, and had some truly amazing experiences that few individuals are privileged to experience.

Shifting Sands: Life in Arabia with a Saudi Princess is a touching story that illustrates that despite our cultural differences we all treasure the same things: family, friends, and a sense of worth. Moreover, the author gives us a glimpse into a world that few Westerners could even imagine let alone experience. Her story leaves the reader with new understanding and perhaps even a deeper respect for those of other cultures and beliefs. This is an important message, especially in these troubled times, when we tend to lump all Muslims together as terrorists and religious fanatics.

Written twelve years after the fact, Shifting Sands: Life in Arabia with a Saudi Princess is the memoir of T.L. McCown, who shared a deep friendship with a princess in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for ten years. The experiences of two women from vastly different backgrounds in a nation divided between centuries old traditions and the ongoing press of modern globalization. Terrorism and pressure from Islamic religious police are ominous shadows over both women's lives, and the dream of bringing more independence in a nation where women are, among other things, legally forbidden to drive, is a difficult one to pursue. The ups and downs of their long journey are recounted in this personal and touching recollection of good times shared, and a sober reflection that what ultimately split true friends apart was not the dictates of world or religious, but rather utterly unforeseen circumstances. A deeply personal viewpoint of the intersection between vastly different cultures and the bridges to be built between both.

T.L. McCown did a great job of revealing life in Saudi to the reader. It amazes me the life the royal lead. I still can't get over the camping trip they took! I reccomend this to anyone!

Written twelve years after the fact, Shifting Sands: Life in Arabia with a Saudi Princess is the memoir of T.L. McCown, who shared a deep friendship with a princess in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for ten years. The experiences of two women from vastly different backgrounds in a nation divided between centuries old traditions and the ongoing press of modern globalization. Terrorism and pressure from Islamic religious police are ominous shadows over both women's lives, and the dream of bringing more independence in a nation where women are, among other things, legally forbidden to drive, is a difficult one to pursue. The ups and downs of their long journey are recounted in this personal and touching recollection of good times shared, and a sober reflection that what ultimately split true friends apart was not the dictates of world or religion, but rather utterly unforeseen circumstances. A deeply personal viewpoint of the intersection between vastly different cultures and the bridges to be built between both.

Shifting Sands is a spellbinding must-read for anyone who wants to understand the culture of Saudi Arabia (and who doesn't, after the events of Sept. 11?) This book resonated with me personally since my husband lives and works in Saudi Arabia. The author provided vivid descriptions of what it would be like to live on a company compound in Al-Khobar, Saudi Arabia (one chapter is called "Extreme Boredom" - say no more!) The book allowed me to relive the joys and frustrations of visiting Saudi Arabia. The joys: sunshine, extremely hospitable people, beautiful architecture, exotic shopping, mouthwatering foods. The frustrations: The list is long. Women have no rights there. Women cannot drive, and they face harassment from religious police if they do not cover themselves with the black abaya. (The author had several frightening run-ins with religious police regarding her failure to cover her hair with a headscarf.) I was thrilled to learn that the author, risking her own safety, had advanced the cause of women's rights there by opening a clandestine school for women. T.L. McCown's writing also reminded me of the utter frustration of trying to visit shops and restaurants when they close multiple times a day for prayer time. Frustration, however, turns to fear with the growing threat of terrorism. McCown lived in Saudi Arabia during the June 26, 1996 bombing of Khobar Towers, a place where she had taught public speaking to military personnel just two months previous. She describes in vivid detail how she fought to keep her family safe with the prospect of terrorism looming right outside her doors.
In conclusion, this book has one major flaw. For 354 pages, the author successfully foreshadows the demise of her extraordinary relationship with a Saudi princess and the need for the author's family to eventually leave Saudi Arabia. In the end, the author never explains precisely why any of this happened! The last sentence seems to imply that the author is working on a sequel. Still, to come to the end of a book and have it drop off the end of a cliff with no proper conclusion is extremely irritating.

I was and am extremely pleased with this purchase. The book is leatherbound and flawless. I am very particular about the books I choose to read and how they are packaged and presented. This purchase met my requirements and is now a proud edition to my modest library.

A Christmas Carol is one of the best known holiday stories and still one of the best. Dickens perfectly unfolds his characters and gets the reader into the Christmas mood. He also does the unthinkable by making us sympathize with the moody, unfestive Scrooge. The original version is the one to get, though, as the abridged version makes Scrooge's exciting encounters with the spirits (especially his meeting with Marley) far too short. This book is certainly affordable and will get you into the Christmas spirit, as well as help you rediscover the true meaning of the holiday.

I think this is a great book written by Charles Dickens. Dickens is awesome at describing the setting in the story which gives you a real feeling of the story. The story is about a mean old man named Ebeneezer Scrooge. But with the help of a few ghosts and his dead business partner Jacob Marley, can Scrooge change his way of life before Christmas? This is an awesome book, and I recommend it to anyone who loves a good book to read just before Christmas.

Most people in the western world are probably familiar with the tale of Ebeneezer Scrooge in A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens. The story has been made into dozens of television and film versions, but I think the written version still stands above film.

Dickens' language is very descriptive, and he paints clear pictures of his characters. Take Scrooge, for example:
"Oh! but he was a tight-fisted hand at the grindstone, Scrooge! a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, covetous old sinner! Hard and sharp as flint, from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire, secret and self-contained, and solitary as an oyster."

Another strength of Dickens was showing the common man, sometimes with quiet dignity, as in the case of Bob Cratchit, and sometimes at his lowest, as in the case of the workers at the pawnbrokers hawking Scrooges goods.

The images of Jacob Marley's ghost "wearing the chains he forged in life" are very vivid, as are the souls that Scrooge sees out his window.

Scrooge is forced on a journey by three spirits, the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future. All of the scenes have distinct images and evoke intense emotions within Scrooge. The reader feels part of his change. I never did quite understand why his father treated him so poorly, but that he did contributes to the man Scrooge becomes.

In the end, Scrooge is a changed man and goes out of his way to share his generosity.

I recommend this book for children and adults alike, because the story is timeless and Dickens practicallly defined the quintessential Victorian Christmas. The name Scrooge and 'Humbug' will forever be linked, and the name has come to define someone miserly or without holiday spirit.

What day is it?
It's Christmas Day!

When I read the Dicken's classic, A Christmas Carol, I was thrilled. The story I had watched so many times on TV had unfolded in my hands. If you loved the movies than you will love the book even more. It is a true classic for all ages

Winner of the 1996 Casey Award, from Spitball Literary Magazine, as the best baseball book of the year.

See a review in www.Sportsbookfile.com, Issue

Marty Appel has a delightful writing style which drew me into this book and I'm not a baseball fan particularly. Mike King Kelly was quite a guy but how could we possibly relate to him? Well, the author has done a great job at giving us a feeling for that time in history (late 1800s) by painting interesting pictures for us of those times and giving great analogies in the present day. Appel has a great sense of humor, and even though this book is a serious study of Mike Kelly, there's quite a few chuckles to be had. Great introduction to early baseball.

Thank goodness for Marty Appel. It is amazing how many people today have absolutely no idea of who Mike "King" Kelly was. How many of them know of Buck Ewing, Old Hoss Radbourn, John Montgomery Ward, Kid Nichols, Cap Anson, Dan Brouthers, A.G. Spalding? Without Marty Appel, this era in baseball disappears forever. If you read this book very keenly and see between the lines, you will see a stunning similarity to today's baseball. The greed and politics of baseball were just as rooted back then as they are today. The future of baseball was actually rooted deep in the game of baseball back in the late 1800's. Well written and researched with what little information actually exists from that era. A little difficult in spots to keep interested, but a solid and must read just the same. A must read for historian buff's.

Marty Appel bring us a signficant book about 19th century baseball, of which not enough is written. This book is also one of 27 that The Easton Press has chosen in its deluxe library of the 27 top baseball books. This books belongs. Many of baseball's present day problems can be traced back to the late 1880's when both players and owners rangled over such concerns as high salaries and the reserve clause. This is also the story of Cap Anson of the Chicago White Stockings getting fed up and ridding himself of the alcohol abusers on the team, Kelly included. Consumption of alcohol by ballplayers was considered to be a sign of manliness (how sad) and many of the players of this time died young and poor. We don't have many books available on 19th century baseball worth your time, but Slide, Kelly, Slide and a few others such as Where They Ain't (Willie Keeler and the Baltimore Orioles) and A Clever Base-Ballist (John Montgomery Ward), are exceptions. Appel's book will not disappoint you.

This is not your average Bible! The commentary is spiritually insightful, the "Kingdom Dynamics" are inspiring, the "Truth-In-Action's" are practical, and the "Word Wealth" Hebrew & Greek definitions are a definate plus! Maps, timelines, charts, chapter outlines...my favorite bible ever!

This Bible combines reading Scripture with Bible Study. I highly recommend this Bible for all new readers to the Bible, as well as everyone else. I have had this Bible in my possession for several years and am now looking for one for my grandson.

This is not your average Bible! The commentary is spiritually insightful, the "Kingdom Dynamics" are inspiring, the "Truth-In-Action's" are practical, and the "Word Wealth" Hebrew & Greek definitions are a definate plus! Maps, timelines, charts, chapter outlines...my favorite bible ever!

I am a pastor of the Foursquare Gospel denomination in Sydney Australia. As a teacher and a preacher of the Word of God I use this Bible and have encouraged my congregation to obtain same.The footnotes, reviews, Word Wealth, that explain the original Hebrew or Greek word, along with Kingdon Dynamics is an excellent tool for any Bible student.

Jack Hayford has succeded in presenting the Bible in a accessable form for both layman and student. The unique strength of the original Hebrew and Greek manuscripts are presented in 'windows' while you read. The concise but complete concordance and also the references below each page make this single book a cleverly chosen set of tools to gain understanding.

I read this book shortly after the death of my mom. It was very touching to me... not a "self help" book but just a simple and insightful story that I think would touch anyone who has had a loss of a pet, a friend, or a family member. I have given this book as a gift to several friends who have gone through a loss and they have been touched by its message as well. Kudos to the author who has managed to write such a poignant message in a book that can be understood by a child as well as an adult.

The value in this work is not only within the words I read but also in the words and memories that were evoked while reading.
Memories of my old dog "Sparky" came back to me as I read and I realized that my dog was as real today as he was the last time I saw him over 40 years ago. I will never forget curling up and sleeping with my head on his side, safe and sound.
I was reminded of a conversation that I had with my mom a few years ago. I was talking about the great camping and fishing trips dad took us kids on, mom remarked that there was only one actual camping trip in her memory. Yet to me the memory of many fun camping and fishing trips and the many words of wisdom that were spoken over the campfire is my personal reality.
I personally see this book as being about more than death and grieving, but also and perhaps as important, a book about the warmth and eternity of memories generated in life.
Very well done

This book gives comfort and relief for anyone who has ever lost someone special. It is very powerful yet gentle with one's emotions after the death of a loved one. A good book to read to all ages.

I loved the "story teller" way this author approaches the grief process. Not only for kids, but for adults as well. I can imagine myself in the "tappestree" of life, as anyone of us can, putting myself in the authors place and how this relates to my life. More than anything it is a book of hope, a book to help us view and see death and grieving as a very natural process. I couldn't help but feel the awesome task as a parent, in the gift I have to give to my own children on a very real human event.

This book is wonderfully written and helps ease the pain of losing a loved one.

It never occurred to me that gay people went down on the Titanic. But of course they did. Think of how gay an airplane or cruise ship is today. Why is the Titanic always considered a straight experience? This book makes the probable seem very real. Also the other stories in the collection are good--particularly the camp-like "I Married an Aquanymph" and the butch story of gaining muscular weight in the hot "Buzz Spaulding's Training Academy." The Hollywood theme keeps going in the porno screenplay of an actual video, "Buck's Bunkhouse." Also, I liked the dozen photographs in the book--for nights when I don't want to read as much as "look."

Be assured this tale of gay victims and gay survivors is historically accurate in its details of Titanic culture on board in all classes, and in its details of the sinking and rescue.

This novel is reviewed with praise at several Titanic websites for both its accuracy as well as for its rather daring angle in being the first book to deal with gay men on Titanic as passengers, pursers, and stokers.

This story, which is a QUEER EYE FOR THE STRAIGHT READER, is a metaphor of what gay people must do to save themselves in a time of Aids and fundamentalist politics.

As such, it is true to the legend of Titanic which has always been about progress and how ALL OF US, STRAIGHT AND GAY, MUST SAVE OURSELVES IN A TIME OF TERROR that changes everything.

The tone of the book is romantic and will be culturally challenging in a good way to those readers who have never thought about all the gay people who served on Titanic. This is their FORBIDDEN STORY that till now they were NOT ALLOWED TO TELL.

It's a charming hoot to read how MOLLY BROWN interacts with the gay men on board! And to read how Molly, handing out her ballgowns, teaches "survival at all costs."

Fritscher is also the author of the nonfiction books, "Popular Witchcraft: Straight from the Witch's Mouth" and "Mapplethorpe: Assault with a Deadly Camera."

"Titanic" is recommended for those readers open to cross-cultural experiences. Actually, Fritscher's "Titanic," despite the ending, has a fun, musical-comedy feel appropriate to the way the passengers felt as the celebrated ship set sail.

Enjoyed the read(so did my seat mate as I flew to NY).
Hot and very creative man to man action..a real fantasy come to life in the pages. The scenes on the Titanic with the hunky engine crew is amazing. A bit of romance and nostalgia as well.

I was glad to search "disaster" and find this book, because the 9-11 attacks on the World Trade Center made me wonder about the human interest stories of all the lesbigay people in the Twin Towers. Then I read that it took 3.5 hours for the Titanic to sink and only 2.5 hours for the Twin Towers to collapse. Which all brought me to this book which tells the gay stories from Titanic. Not only informative, but imaginative and probably true, and certainly erotic, particularly the scenes with the sexy Stoker below decks. The story does not trivialize disaster, but rather makes you think about what being gay and being inside a tragedy is like. AIDS, of course, is a parallel subtext symbolically present in the Titanic sinking, just as HIV scares for gay people make the anthrax scares a bit simple by comparison. (At least for now.) I recommend this book particularly at this time that everyone is watching disaster on TV and maybe wants to read some escapist fiction around disaster--where some survive. Timely and hot.

"Love And Slumming." Okay, that about wraps this one up. Or how's about: "Now I know why handguns should be outlawed."

This is the fourth collection of Jack Fritscher's short stories, collected from three decades of sensual erotica. But perhaps this time, more than in any other of the collections, "Titanic" displays his razor sharp wit. The temptation to just list line after memorable line in this batch of stories is tough to resist.

Tied loosely together by a Hollywood concept, "Titanic" is also something else that many never expect from a collection of Fritscher's magazine work. There is very little leathersex involved here. Plenty of man on man horseplay, more than a few uncircumcised folks (the book could just as easily been subtitled Memories Of Headcheese) and lots of hypermasculine images, but the ropes and the dungeons are pretty much kept locked in the projection booth. That doesn't make the pieces any less wild, in fact, it enhances the craziness of a story like "CBGB 1977" and reminds you that the 70's in New York weren't all boogie nights at Studio 54.

Yes, the sex is fast and dirty, and often, funny. Funny in a way that suggests whimsy, which is pretty much a lost art in American humor, where a fart joke is easier to insert than a set up for a pattern of good belly laughs. To have a starlet so shamelessly exploit her he-she sexiness (in "Aqua-Nymph") will make many squirm in the fact that they're becoming more than a little female icon worshipping suckler, all while looking for Fritscher's usual cask of rough players. Think Bette Davis. Or even Cher. Not leather. Glitter. ...

OKAY! You want the nasty? Read "Buck's Bunkhouse Discipline: The Screenplay." (You thought no-one concerned themselves about porn film plotting!) "Three Bears In A Tub," which attempts to answer the question of how much sex can you fit into a single sentence. It's a gasping run-on of he-men in the wild for reel men in the big screen world. There's not a story here among "Titanic's" dozen that won't leave you with a 16cc smile. I'll indulge myself with one more Jack Fritscher quote to close this review: "Most people prefer masculine men...masculine in the best sense, not macho in the worst."

I bought this TNIV Bible to supplement the Women's edition ("True Identity") and have found the additional material to be highly insightful and thought-provoking.

This is the Bible I want the men in my life, and the lives of my friends, to read.

This Bible is AMAZING, it really is worth every penny. It really helps me understand it a lot better with all of the side notes and things of that sort. The only reason i gave it a 4 out of 5 stars is because personally i like the words that Jesus to be in red but thats all personal preference, if you don't mind that than PLEASE buy this bible, It truly is worth every penny and is very helpful for men at any age or at any stage in their spiritual walk.

Received Bible in record time. Condition is excellent. I think my husband will love it.

I bought the paperback version of Strive for Men in April 2005 and would rate it as the best study bible I have ever owned. I took it to church one day and someone borrowed it without asking. I hope they enjoy it as much as I did. I just purchased the leatherbound copy as I want to keep it for a lifetime.

This is the bible I am currently reading the most. It was a gift last year for my birthday. The TNIV - Today's New International Version It has some great study notes and like the Everyman's devotional it is focused on men and what men need. The historical notes, and `myths' features focus on area's like: Fulfillment, Sex, Work, Marriage, Pride, Pornography, Anger, Faith, Money, Family and Church. There are also `downshifts' little asides that ask probing questions based on the passages read. There are also biography's of key biblical man throughout the book. The single column layout makes it a nice easy to read bible.

First, before anything else, he links us to a character, a man named Bert Smallways, who we will follow and this allows us to see what is happening from the view of a normal man within the book. The first few chapters in fact deal only with Bert, pushing much of the major events into the background, suggested by news headlines that nobody seems to notice.
But when wars come it comes with a bam. The Earth's weapons seem to be bomb carrying airships and gun carrying airplanes.
The airships seem to be the major weapon, becoming the terrors of the sky, huge monster craft that carry death to the cities of Earth.
Why airships? The book was published in 1907. While airplanes were just being invented and designs played with, blimps and dirigibles were already flying about in good numbers. By the time World War One cames about, German airships are bombing London. Airplanes started off during the Great War totally unarmed, used for scouting out enemy movements and checking out the landscape. So, for him to suggest that airships would become the wave of the future in combat is not a great leap of logic.
One scene has German airplanes and airships destroying an American fleet of warships, a chilling vision of things to come.
As each nation designs and builds it own aircraft things get out of hand. While the air fleets can bomb the cities, they can't TAKE them (not being able to carry any troops) and they can't DEFEND them (as they carry many bombs, but few weapons to fight other aircraft), so soon the world is nothing but burnt out buildings and thousands of airships attacking anything on the ground that even LOOKS dangerous.
Will Bert survive? Will he get back to England? Will mankind ever learn to live together?

"The War of the Worlds" wasn't the only masterpiece that H.G. Wells wrote with the words "The War" in the title. "The War in the Air," which came out 10 years later, in 1908, is surely a lesser-known title by this great author, but most certainly, in my humble opinion, a masterpiece nonetheless. In this prophetic book, Wells not only predicts World War I--which wouldn't start for another six years--but also prophesies how the advent of navigable balloons and heavier-than-air flying craft would make that war inevitable. Mind you, this book was written in 1907, only four years after the Wright Brothers' historic flights at Kitty Hawk, and two years BEFORE their airplane design was sold to the U.S. Army for military purposes. In "The War in the Air," Wells also foresees air battles, as well as engagements between naval and aerial armadas. His gift of peering into the future is at times uncanny.
We see this worldwide war through the eyes of Bert Smallways, a not terribly bright Cockney Everyman who is accidentally whisked away in a balloon and lands in Germany right on the eve of that country's departure for war. Bert is brought on board one of the German airships, and so personally witnesses a titanic battle in the North Atlantic; the Battle of New York (in which the length of Broadway is destroyed and many buildings near downtown City Hall Park are levelled, looooong before 9/11); and the huge fight between the German and Asiatic forces over Niagara Falls. And these are just the start of Smallways' adventures. Wells throws quite a bit into this wonderful tale, and the detail, pace and characterizations are all marvelous. But this isn't just an entertaining piece of futuristic fiction; it's a highly moral one as well. The author, in several beautifully written passages, tells us of the terrible waste of war, and the horrors that it always entails. In this aspect, it would seem to be a more important work of fiction than even "The War of the Worlds." While that earlier work might be more seminal, this latter tale certainly raises more pressing issues. And those issues are just as worrisome today as they were nearly a century ago. In his preface to the 1941 edition of this book, Wells wrote: "I told you so. You damned fools..." As well he might! And it would seem that we STILL haven't learned the lessons that Wells tried to teach us so many years ago.
Perhaps, at this point, I should mention that readers of this novel will be faced with many geographical, historical and vocabulary/slang terms that they may not be familiar with. If those readers are like me, they will take the time to research all those obscure terms; it will make for a richer reading experience, as always.
I said before that this novel is a masterpiece, and yet, at the same time, it is not perfect. Wells does make some small booboos in prediction, for example. Zeppelins were not more important than airplanes in war; civilization did not collapse after World War I. He tells us that the distance from Union Square to City Hall Park is under a mile, whereas any New Yorker could tell you that it's more like two. Wells mentions that the Biddle Stairs (which were built in 1827, led from Goat Island to the base of Niagara Falls, and were demolished in 1927) were made of wood, while in fact they were made of metal and encased in a wooden shaft. But these are quibbles, and in no way detract from the quality of the work. Indeed, this is a novel that should be mandatory reading for all politicians, not to mention all thinking adults.

H.G. Wells-what a genius. He foresaw the future better than any supposed "psychic." This novel, little known but available again, is the proof.

In the early 20th century, the invention of aerial vehicles precipitates the outbreak of a worldwide war that had brewed for hundreds of years. The aircrafts' ability to wreck unlimited destruction lays waste to civilization, reducing it to pre-Industrial revolution levels. That is the basis of this incredible piece of political and scientific prophesy. Wells unleashes his full understanding of human "progress" and the fraility of political systems, and with every page hits truths about war and technology even more applicable today than during World War I, the combat that Wells envisioned here. He even saw 9/11 and the Iraq War, pegging Western European complaceny so accurately that I felt my jaw drop to the floor on a few occasions.

Honestly, this H. G. guy was one in a billion. He was utterly, incalculably brilliant. He was also a helluva writer, expressing ideas with flashes of humor, irony, and passion. Wells uses a countryside Englishman as witness to the fall of civilization, and manages to effortlessly switch between the epic canvas of war and the cameo portrait of a normal man seeing everything he ever understood about the world fray apart before his eyes.

In a terrific last stroke, Wells writes the final chapter that sums up the possibility that "progess" may be an illusion. This novel deserves to be considered amongst Wells finest, and this new edition with Duncan's insightful introduction, may be the firest step in getting it the wide audience it deserves.

Written in 1908, Wells predicted warfare as we know it now. He foresaw pushbutton wars, "cold-blooded slaughters ... in which men who were neither excited nor ... in any danger, poured death and destruction on homes and crowds..." Paradoxically, Wells also predicted it to be "a universal guerilla war, a war involving civilians and homes and all the apparatus of social life." He predicted weapons "ineffectual for any large expedition or conclusive attack, [but] horribly convenient for guerilla warfare, rapidly and cheaply made, easily used, easily hidden." Specifics of the story needed to be credible to Wells's 1908 reader, but major points could have been drawn from today's headlines.

Wells's war encircled the globe, years before WWI showed how widespread a war could become. Rather than narrate global destruction, though, Wells told his story through the viewpoint of Bert Smallways, an everyman of modest means, achievement, and intellect. In fact, Bert's only real skill was a knack for being in the wrong place when world-shattering events came to pass. Starting from his bicycle shop in England, Bert's involuntary travels made him witness to the destruction of whole blocks and rows of blocks in New York City, then to the rise of Eastern armies that over-ran the Western world. Then, somehow, he made it back to his sleepy village to settle into a post-war agrarian life without technology - easy enough, since the village had slept through the technology of the time anyway.

Despite the zeppelins used as warcraft, Wells's forecasts hit the bullseye of many targets. He predicted the worldwide caches of hidden weaponry, not too far from what we saw in the Cold War. He also predicted the bafflement of the common civilian, who really just wanted to settle down with a spouse, a house, and food on the table. Headlines aside, that's still the case today.

-- wiredweird

Bert Smallways is a rather backward sort, trying (but not too hard) to make a living in England, and watching the advance of technology. But, technology is moving on in directions that he might never have guessed. With the advent of the airship, a secret arms race has broken out among the world's powers, and a new type of war is about to break out.

When Bert is accidentally scooped up by a German fleet, on its way to launch a surprise attack on the United states, he finds himself with a front row seat to the greatest war that has ever been - the war in the air! This new war is to be a different sort of war than all the wars that came before it, unprecedented in its ferocity and destructiveness. When everything can be smashed, what will be left? A good deal less than you might hope.

This now largely forgotten work was written by H.G. Wells (1866-1946) in 1907, and is a masterpiece of forward thinking. While Wells missed the true course of the development of military aviation, his grasp of what a major war, involving fleets of aircraft, would mean was spot on. In fact, this book is quite spooky in its prediction of the destruction of cities and modern infrastructure, and in its portrayal of fleets of warships destroyed from the air! As a prediction of the future, this book is nothing short of amazing.

Well, if the book is so good, why is it now forgotten? In fact, while Wells' portrayal of aerial warfare is right on target, the book, as a novel, is not as good as it should be. The story starts out quite slowly, wasting too much time on the development of the character of Bert Smallways. And, there are many places throughout the narrative where the book could have benefited from some pruning and tightening of the narrative.

So, if you are a fan of H.G. Wells, or are interested in how correct a man of 1907 could have been about modern warfare, then this is the book for you. However, if you are looking for a good science-fiction story, you might be disappointed. Overall, I found this to be an interesting story, one that I am glad that I read. It's almost frightening how close to reality Mr. Wells was. I just wish that he had had a better editor.

I bought this bible for my cousin.And she absolutly loves her bible.She often calls me and say"Oh yeah did I tell you how much I love my bible".It has great notations and refrences based on real life issues.I'm glad that orderd this bible.Thumbs up:>)

I purchased this Bible based off of the reviews written by others and I was not disappointed. The annotations are really helpful in assisting you on deciphering the meaning of the scriptures.

I received the Woman's Study Bible: 2nd Ed. last week for my birthday. I love it! The NKJV is easy to comprehend and this Bible also contains plenty of articles, side notes about Biblical women of faith, study notes about what you're reading on the bottom of the pages, and 8 full color maps in the back. It also contains a fairly lengthy (although I recommend a thorough concordance for in-depth Bible studying) concordance in the back and other interesting charts throughtout this Bible. I especially liked all of the informative character portraits of women throughout the Old and New Testaments. The print here is also not so small that I have trouble seeing the words (although the print could not be considered Giant Print). The pages are edged in a pretty, gilded color and this book is neither bulky or very slim...it's right in the middle when it comes to size.
The only aspect of this Bible that I don't like is that it doesn't come in leather/bonded leather. I received the Tan Leathersoft edition and it just doesn't look as durable as it should. I would recommend that you buy some type of cover for it, like I did mine, to make sure that it lasts a long time without extensive damage.
This is a great gift, though, I would recommend it for both mature and new Christian women. This wonderful Bible is sure to please!

This is the second Women's Study Bible I have purchased. I used my first one for over ten years until the bindings came loose and the back began to fall off. This Bible is New King James, easy to read, with commentary from many wonderful Christian women. It is a great Bible for both new and older Christian women.

This study Bible has been a great blessing to my wife! I love the smile it puts on her face when she uses it. Contains extremely practical notes geared for the needs and interests of women. Don't think you could go wrong with this Bible.