Analytical Ultracentrifugation of Polymers and Nanoparticles (Springer Laboratory)

Book Description

Analytical ultracentrifugation (AUC) is a powerful method for the characterization of polymers, biopolymers, polyelectrolytes, nanoparticles, dispersions, and other colloidal systems. The method is able to determine the molar mass, the particle size, the particle density and interaction parameters like virial coefficients and association constants. Because AUC is also a fractionation method, the determination of the molar mass distribution, the particle size distribution, and the particle density distribution is possible. A special technique, the density gradient method, allows fractionating heterogeneous samples according to their chemical nature that means being able to detect chemical heterogeneity. The book is divided into chapters concerning instrumentation, sedimentation velocity runs, density gradient runs, application examples and future developments. In particular, the detailed application chapter demonstrates the versatility and power of AUC by means of many interesting and important industrial examples. Thus the book concentrates on practical aspects rather than details of centrifugation theory. Both authors have many years of experience in an industrial AUC research laboratory of a world leading chemical company.

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Richard Dawkins is not a shy man. Edward Larson's research shows that most scientists today are not formally religious, but Dawkins is an in-your-face atheist in the witty British style:

I want to persuade the reader, not just that the Darwinian world-view happens to be true, but that it is the only known theory that could, in principle, solve the mystery of our existence.

The title of this 1986 work, Dawkins's second book, refers to the Rev. William Paley's 1802 work, Natural Theology, which argued that just as finding a watch would lead you to conclude that a watchmaker must exist, the complexity of living organisms proves that a Creator exists. Not so, says Dawkins: "All appearances to the contrary, the only watchmaker in nature is the blind forces of physics, albeit deployed in a very special way... it is the blind watchmaker."

Dawkins is a hard-core scientist: he doesn't just tell you what is so, he shows you how to find out for yourself. For this book, he wrote Biomorph, one of the first artificial life programs. You can check Dawkins's results on your own Mac or PC.

Book Description

"The best general account of evolution I have read in recent years."—E. O. Wilson. With a new introduction.

Twenty years after its original publication, The Blind Watchmaker, framed with a new introduction by the author, is as prescient and timely a book as ever. The watchmaker belongs to the eighteenth-century theologian William Paley, who argued that just as a watch is too complicated and functional to have sprung into existence by accident, so too must all living things, with their far greater complexity, be purposefully designed. Charles Darwin's brilliant discovery challenged the creationist arguments; but only Richard Dawkins could have written this elegant riposte. Natural selection—the unconscious, automatic, blind, yet essentially nonrandom process Darwin discovered—is the blind watchmaker in nature.

Customer Reviews:

Makes evolution understandable.......2007-10-02

It is some years since I read this excellent book on evolution. But I still remember it as the book that really laid out the nuts and bolts of the process and made it easy to understand at the "Ah now I see" level. I know of no better layman's guide to evolution.

"Passionate advocacy" and storytelling: 2 stars?.......2007-10-02

". . . there are wonderful stories to be told, and I love storytelling." Dawkins, tBW, chapter 2.

It must be admitted that Dawkins is an entertaining expositor, at least when he avoids repetition and a bad habit of prolonged hammering away at very simple concepts, often for pages on end, as if his assertions and arguments were more difficult to grasp than they actually are. In some instances he explains rather well, in comfortably pedestrian language, certain specific biological details, but when he tries to generalize and extend his views to larger scale philosophical perspectives, his assertions quickly disintegrate under critical scrutiny. All things considered, TBW isn't very impressive.

Dawkins states early on that he is writing from the perspective of a "passionate advocate" rather than that of a scientist proceeding along lines of argument that might be recognized as being scientific. He says that he does this because the reader can't grasp the science involved, therefore he is to invoke "wonderful stories." He frets that some will not believe him because they do not "want to believe." Dawkins wants to believe.

I find it curiously disingenuous, perhaps even insulting and intellectually evasive on Dawkins' part, that he suggests he must deal in metaphors and stories because his readers are too stupid (no, he doesn't use the word `stupid', but this is what he repeatedly describes) to understand his deep, scientific understanding of the Darwinian story. His lengthy insistence that evolution has hard-wired us to be unable to understand and appreciate echolocation in bats, is obviously wrong. In Dawkins' hands, this kind of suggestion is supposed to, in its own merit, buttress some of his arguments (see the following paragraph). A thinking person begs to differ. Many of the most brilliant and penetrating minds of modern theoretical science and mathematics, including Werner Heisenberg, Niels Bohr, John von Neumann, and Kurt Gödel, among others, have found the Darwinian story to be non-compelling at best, and on some points glaringly wrong. Dawkins may want to dismiss them as `not wanting to believe' or as being somehow stupid, but . . .

Dawkins: "Our minds can't cope with [large numbers] . . . Our minds can't imagine a time span [greater or less than `routine' human experience]," because "it offends the economically minded human." Dawkins says "there was no need for our ancestors to cope with sizes and times outside the narrow range of everyday practicality, so our brains never evolved the capacity to imagine them." Dawkins loves this mythic defense and ducks behind it frequently, but it is a hapless argument. It is "a slander against humanity," as one philosopher of science has stated, and it is self evidently wrong. The human mind can certainly `imagine' larger numbers than we experience in "routine experience!" Consider for a mere moment the insights of a Gauss, Cantor, or Riemann; consider that even a modestly competent math student CAN not only imagine very large and very small numbers [including quantities of distance and time units], but CAN engage and manipulate these numbers accurately, often rather easily when abstracted with recognizable notations like exponents!

It is not a matter of this _kind_ of observation being inherently untrue; many physicists, including Paul Dirac, have spoken this way about quantum mechanics, for example. Indeed it is difficult to understand quantum mechanics because neither Bohr's complimentarity principle nor Heisenberg's uncertainty principle have any obvious analogs within normal human experience, let alone the way in which these two surprising qualities are entangled. But this observation is fundamentally different than Dawkins' argument that humans cannot understand imaging with non-visible frequencies or what to make of big numbers! Anyone curious person who has ever considered a sonogram or x-ray image, or seen a movie featuring submariners watching sonar screens, grasps non-visual spectrum images, and any modestly competent high school student well understands what large numbers are!

Dawkins' sluggardly argument "whistles past the graveyard" that is home to a real problem for the great Darwinian thesis: why should our abilities to examine non-commutative algebras or higher dimensional topologies or even advanced number theory [or any of the more esoteric fields of mathematics] exist at all in a Darwinian world? Certainly not for any of the rationales that Dawkins appeals to. They provide no survival or reproductive advantage within evolutionary `routine experience,' or in any other sense whatsoever. They avail "the selfish gene" nothing. They exist as a non-Darwinian/ anti-Dawkins reality.

Dawkins says that "5 per cent of an eye" would probably provide "5 per cent vision." Skepticism seems reasonable here, except perhaps for those who "want to believe." He presents many such dubious assertions, like: "living organisms exist for the benefit of DNA rather than the other way around" (ultimately--in DNA--teleology and `purpose' are alive and well!) and, "DNA molecules themselves, as physical entities, are like dewdrops" (true in a very limited and caricatured sense perhaps, but grossly misleading, to put it mildly). Presumably Dawkins would deflect criticism of some such colorful assertions by claiming them mere metaphors. Okay, but what then are the actual `truths' he is trying to demonstrate? Can they be stated precisely or directly and seem less cartoonish? Or are his readers merely too stupid for the `scientific' explanations that he is protecting them from? (With apologies to Dawkins' fans who might consider the last question a cheap shot [I do not].)

There are so many aspects of Dawkins' book that beg critical analysis, that, in the desire to keep this review short, I will have to simply point some of them out briefly before moving forward: (1.) His programmed stick figure "bio-morphs" obviously have been brought into `existence' by design, in an intelligently designed `world,' and for a specific purpose, how does this support his "without purpose" and "without design" doctrine? (2.) His `typing monkeys,' borrowed from one of his heroes, TH Huxley, is hopelessly burdened with design, purpose and intelligent contrivance--who builds the typewriters, who made the language and symbols thereof that the builder of the typewriters clearly needed as a starting point, who makes the paper (cuts and mills the trees, etc), who keeps those 99.999. . . percent of monkeys that would simply smash the typewriters away from them and keeps that rare typing monkey on task?--again, how could any of this support his "without purpose" and "without design" doctrine? He eventually (chapt 6) admits that it does not. (3.) His computer program designed to derive a sentence from Hamlet, if given the necessary letters to work with, and if specifically designed to achieve a specific result, will do so--well folks, are you beginning to see a pattern here? Design is supposed to equal no design! Dawkins' core thesis in TBW, as presented in the book's subtitle, "the evidence of evolution reveals a universe without design," fails utterly in all of his memorable and now famous arguments, no matter what points concerning natural selection one may believe he has made cleanly.

"It could happen:" Dawkins' most fundamental and foundational arguments and speculations are also his most flawed, and are appropriately employed in the center of the book, chapter six, "Origins and miracles." Here Dawkins quickly demands that an extra-cosmic designer (God) must be an "organized complexity" that evolves naturally within an infinite regress of causes. This is certainly a convenient construction, as it makes "god" quite expendable by definition, but the definition is poor quality straw. The god whose fire he steals is not the "simple unity" or the "first cause of causes" that one finds in either Abrahamic or neo-Platonic theology. His wrong argument simply defeats a wrong god. He next sketches a somewhat accurate picture of the profound difficulties of `abiogenesis'/ `autogenesis'/ `spontaneous generation' of life theories. He says that to effectively put these problems aside, we only need to imagine that these difficulties were somehow overcome--"it must have happened." The "pathway" model he chooses to champion as being plausible is due to Graham Cairns-Smith, and goes something very like this:

Carbon macromolecules, proteins and nucleic acids, necessary to all carbon-based life, that is all life that we know of, are so complex that it is hopelessly difficult to imagine them arising spontaneously in any non-living substratum. That Stanley Miller and others have synthesized amino acids is of no real help here, the gap between mere amino acids and the highly complex carbon macromolecules is too great. So let's imagine something simpler, that silicon-base lattices are "life-like" in that they are "organized" and rudimentarily "complex." Now imagine that non-directed geological and meteorological forces in some sense "select" certain silicon dust crystals such that they accumulate and form larger "organizations." Now imagine that these silicon "organizations" become something that might be described as "RNA-like" mud. Now imagine that actual RNA begins to "take over" the "RNA-like" mud. Carbon macromolecules somehow have arisen and now somehow replace silicon structures. Viola! "Life-like" "organizations" of "RNA-like" mud are now organizations of RNA and RNA organizations eventually become DNA organizations and "life-like" organizations become life. Inorganic structures somehow `commute' to carbon molecules. Mineral (silicon being the best candidate) crystal `genes' commute to carbon-based genes, RNA "takes over" "RNA-like", DNA eventually takes over. I suppose this is plausible for a `true believer' for whom the proper kind of `imagination' is sufficient, but it's not plausible in any scientific sense. The entire heart of the original problem remains intact. Where did the carbon macromolecules come from? How did RNA "appear"?

Dawkins defense of this problem is interestingly empty and invokes "a marble statue of the Virgin Mary suddenly" waving its hand at us. Here it is: "In the case of the marble statue, molecules in solid marble are continuously jostling against one another in random directions. The jostlings of the different molecules cancel one another out, so the whole hand of the statue stays still. But if, by sheer coincidence, all the molecules just happened to move in the same direction at the same moment, the hand would move. If they then all reversed direction at the same moment the hand would move back. In this way it is possible for a marble statue to wave at us. It could happen. The odds against such a coincidence are unimaginably great but they are not incalculably great. A physicist colleague has kindly calculated them for me. The number is so large that the entire age of the universe so far is too short a time to write out all the noughts! It is theoretically possible for a cow to jump over the moon with something like the same improbability. The conclusion to this part of the argument is that we can calculate our way into regions of miraculous improbability far greater than we can imagine as plausible."

All that is left to Dawkins is to again regale our inability to imagine numbers "so large that the entire age of the universe so far is too short a time to write out all the noughts!" It's the final sum of his argument--we don't have good enough imaginations! It is interesting that Dawkins doesn't recognize that this same specie of argument can more easily be employed to defend belief in a First Cause of causes (here Dawkins seems to have a contentedly parochial imagination). And of course, neither a cow jumping over the moon nor a marble statue waving at us either establishes or quantifies the plausibility of life spontaneously arising from non-life.

Although his deepest philosophical assertions fail grandly, although he is repetitive and wordy, and although he is given to belittling his readers' intelligence even while trying to educate and entertain them, the book has its moments; Dawkins certainly doesn't get EVERYTHING wrong, he IS at times entertaining, and this book isn't as bad as The Selfish Gene.

Please Read (Especially if You're Religious)!.......2007-09-29

I have a degree in English and American Literature and my minor was in History. In other words, I'm not great at science or math. But I've always been interested in some aspects of science and biology and evolution happen to be subjects I like. I'm not a complete moron when it comes to scientific subjects but I'm sure any 8th grade science geek could probably run rings around me.

Consequently, this book by Richard Dawkins is made for me. The way I understood it it was written with a general reader in mind. The book is well written and plausibly argued. And as long as you pay attention and follow the logic of the author's arguments it's not that hard to follow.

The basic premise of the book is to show how life could appear in the universe without a creator or any pre-conceived notion of design (the whole "Intelligent Design" argument now being debated across the U.S.). Dawkins obviously loves Darwin and bases his argument on cumulative evolution over billions of years (the age of the Earth [and please shut-up you stupid creationists trying to argue that the Earth is only 6,000 years old!]). Dawkins patiently explains how such a slow and random process like natural selection could evolve our life-forms over vast amounts of time. Like I said, I'm no great scientist, but the argument makes perfect sense and I still fail to see why anyone tries to argue otherwise (except, of course, for religious reasons, but those are very silly reasons).

Overall, this is a good way to try to understand evolution in more depth than the few words hopefully given to you in high school and college. There are a few parts which I found to be boring (like the taxonomy debates and different schools of thought in taxonomy) but I think this book is an important read--especially now that religious nuts are trying to dumb people down.

468 pages of evasive reasoning.......2007-09-15

Dawkins' thesis in this book is to prove that the universe is a non-sentient thing which merely exists. There is no God who creates. What order there is (e.g. life) has been produced by mutation and cumulative selection (i.e. evolution).

But one could ask, who designed evolution? How did the universe come to be? Dawkins' sidesteps these questions for 468 pages (in my edition of the book).

As an engineer, I find his whole approach disturbing because he asks us to have faith in evolution rather than in God. I write this because evolution seems to be an untestable theory. If I propose to do an experiment to evolve bacteria into human beings a Darwinist will tell me that it is impossible to do because the time required would be much, much longer than that of a single human lifespan. And Dawkins seems to be saying that even if one could do that, the result would not be a human being but maybe something resembling a human being. What is there left to do but have faith in the priests of evolution? It's not as though I can test their theory. Given this, Dawkins' obvious contempt for those who believe in God is hard to take.

Great explanation of evolution.......2007-09-13

This book is an excellent explanation of evolution. It's a little on the dry side, and people who already know quite a bit about evolution will find it slow in the beginning. It picks up, though. Dawkins starts off with simple concepts and gradually builds into the more complex understandings of evolution. He explains everything very clearly, using analogies to help visualize some of the more difficult concepts. This book does a great job of clearing up a lot of the misunderstandings of what evolution is really about and putting a beautiful concept in science into terms any lay person can understand. Dawkins makes evolution impossible to dispute once you have read his book. I think most people who try to argue with evolution could only possibly be doing so because they do not fully understand it.

The Blind Watchmaker; Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design

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HOW CAN DARWINISM BE RIGHT? AN ANSWER TO ALL CRITICS

The Blind Watchmaker; Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design
Richard Dawkins
Manufacturer: W W Norton Co Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Genetics | Evolution | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Evolution | Science | Subjects | Books

Natural History | Nature & Ecology | Science | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0393022161

Customer Reviews:

HOW CAN DARWINISM BE RIGHT? AN ANSWER TO ALL CRITICS.......1997-01-23

Dawkins has written the best book illustrating science to the public that I have ever read, and I have read hundreds.How can chance operate to create complex systems? This question recurred to me again and again although I thought I understood the theory of natural selection. My knowledge before Dawkins was half-baked. After Dawkins's tour through wonderland, I feel confident enough to teach the subject, and teach it I have to some creationist friends whose knowlege of Darwin before me was not even warm. Part of the wonderland is the creation of Dawkins own mind. Who would think of a virus as a copy machine with one blueprint to copy (itself) but no paper? Its entry into a cell is like opening a paper warehouse to such a machine! This is no easy read. Your boots need to be on for rough terrain, but you never slog through swamps. Everyone who is fascinated with science but find most explanations boring or overly technical will love this book. This is the way science ought to be taught. And you creationists out there who want to argue, try arguing against the facts presented here. Your views will be challenged.

Book Description

Winner of the American Book Award and a critically acclaimed national best seller, Reservation Blues continues to find new and adoring readers in academic and popular circles alike. In 1931, Robert Johnson allegedly sold his soul to the devil, receiving legendary blues skills in return. He went on to record only twenty-nine songs before being murdered on August 16, 1938. In 1992, however, Johnson suddenly reappears on the Spokane Indian Reservation and meets Thomas Builds-the-Fire, the misfit storyteller of the Spokane Tribe. When Johnson passes his enchanted instrument to Thomas — lead singer of the rock-and-roll band Coyote Springs — a magical odyssey begins that will take the band from reservation bars to small-town taverns, from the cement trails of Seattle to the concrete canyons of Manhattan. Sherman Alexie imaginatively mixes narrative, newspaper excerpts, songs, journal entries, visions, radio interviews, and dreams to explore the effects of Christianity on Native Americans in the late twentieth century. In addition, he examines the impact of cultural assimilation on the relationships between Indian women and Indian men. Reservation Blues is a painful, humorous, and ultimately redemptive symphony about God and indifference, faith and alcoholism, family and hunger, sex and death.

Customer Reviews:

Confronting Racism.......2007-10-04

Alexie at his best. With humor, irony, and compassion, this novel mirrors the hopelessness of being born, raised and a resident of the reservation.

a song of power, remembrance, loss, vitality, and love!.......2007-08-25

Every page of Alexie's Reservation Blues reads with the kind of portent and quake found in Alexie's great poems of love, fire, and loss. Humor and wisdom are interwoven to create a braiding effect as sharp with irony as it is quiet and confident with revelation. Alexie has expressed the anger and desire of an entire generation, unequivocally spat in the face of the elitist regime, and blessed society with a sacred sense of laughter, wholeness, and delight. Winner of the PEN/Hemingway award for The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, named as one of Granta's 20 Best American Novelists Under 40, poet, playwright, and basketball aficionado, Alexie's art is a grace to behold.

Spirituality........2007-07-29

This is a review I have meant to write for a very long time. I am finally daring to do so.

I first read this book as a very young girl, underneath my covers with a flashlight. And then about a year ago I had the chance to see Sherman Alexie speak at a community college--I went on a whim, not connecting who he was, but while there I realized he was the writer of a great deal of excellent poetry I revere and this book, Reservation Blues, that I had loved and allowed myself to live in as a little girl.

Browsing the Goodwill book section a few weeks later I found an old copy of this book and snapped it up, a very happy book-lobster. I re-read it after 10 years.

I hated it this time around. It wasn't the writing, the writing was the same boggling mind-trail Alexie is so excellent at revving through. It was a single phrase that slashed at me, the sentence was attributed to Big Mom, the wise character, Watcher, and strange Savior of the book, aimed at Victor, a victim of sexual abuse at the hands of a priest.

"...you should forgive the priest who hurt you when you were little...that poor man hasn't even forgiven himself yet."

I re-read that part and my mouth sort of fell open, and I felt betrayed by Alexie, who I felt didn't understand what he was doing when he wrote the book.

I realize that when someone writes a book they largely write for themselves and of their own experiences in a vicarious way. I am all too aware of how many Indians were raped by priests, and the deep anger alot of Indians have towards white and half-white people as a result of the genocides. I think the power of forgiveness is a wonderful tool for healing for SOME people. But not all.

I feel strange criticizing and hating this sentence. I want so badly back into the rest of the book, but am unable to step back in. I was locked out of his beautiful world with those words, because those words are used to hurt people in institutions of religion, used to silence and place the burden of guilt on victims of brutal sexual assault, and used to dumb down followers.

Forgiveness is a main theme in all of Alexie's writing, and I have come to expect this of him. I don't resent the theme as long as it is clearly separated from the abusive machinations of institution. Usually he manages. He fails here, slipping the theories in willy-nilly without a clue. I think he is trying to hit all the major problems Indians face in one book, and not having personally been raped in the church (which I am willing to state quantitatively based on the way he glibly throws around religious language and talks about Catholicism, a wonderful freedom that victims of CSA do not have) he fails here, and manages to pour salt on the wounds (albeit with such innocence and such a good heart that it hurts MORE for all its damned arrogant innocence).

Victor is not a well-fleshed out character and his abuse, his reactions to that abuse, is never delved into aside from the single event. There is no analyzation of his reactions. His "tough-guy" fasod mostly remains in place throughout, slipping to reveal the outlines of the soul beneath only a few times.

Alexie only seems to understand the full-on anger reaction to abuse, he doesn't understand the deep guilt that victims of CSA have, nor does he understand the type of pain in having a "safe" spirituality spout out a flat forgiveness line that rings in tune with the corporate rapists of religious institutions. (And so few are sorry. And if this priest were sorry, why didn't he try to make amends? Why didn't he pay for counseling? Why didn't he turn himself in? What's that? He cared about himself more? He had 60 more victims? He doesn't want to go to jail? He's narcissistic and can't stand the thought of not being God's right hand? Ah. Yes.)

Alexie had no right to fling these theories out in such disarray, in the mouth of someone looked up to as a God-figure. The character Big Mom fills is a vast one, so her dialogue had better be good. He was essentially speaking for God. Shame on him!

I generally mock reviews that say, "this book is bad because the theory is bad." Well, here I am, hating a book with excellent writing for bad theory.

Mr. Alexie, tell you what, I'll stay out of the sweat lodges and your spirituality if you'll stay away from my spirituality, and refrain from telling me my spiritual path.

Entertaining!.......2007-06-10

This is my favorite Sherman Alexie book. There are times when I laughed out loud and other times when I had to wipe away a tear.

Modern Classic.......2007-05-14

Alexie's flowing prose makes this an indispensible addition to anyone's library espeically if they are fans of postmoderist literatre. His contribution isn't overpowering, but rather lures you in to a world that magic is created through music, or maybe it's vice versa.

Boarding School Blues: Revisiting American Indian Educational Experiences (Indigenous Education)

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Boarding School Blues: Revisiting American Indian Educational Experiences (Indigenous Education)

Manufacturer: University of Nebraska Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books

Nonfiction | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
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ASIN: 0803244460

Book Description

Like the figures in the ancient oral literature of Native Americans, children who lived through the American Indian boarding school experience became heroes, bravely facing a monster not of their own making. Sometimes the monster swallowed them up. More often, though, the children fought the monster and grew stronger. This volume draws on the full breadth of this experience in showing how American Indian boarding schools provided both positive and negative influences for Native American children. The boarding schools became an integral part of American history, a shared history that resulted in Indians “turning the power” by using their school experiences to grow in wisdom and benefit their people.

The first volume of essays ever to focus on the American Indian boarding school experience, and written by some of the foremost experts and most promising young scholars of the subject, Boarding School Blues ranges widely in scope, addressing issues such as sports, runaways, punishment, physical plants, and Christianity. With comparative studies of the various schools, regions, tribes, and aboriginal peoples of the Americas and Australia, the book reveals both the light and the dark aspects of the boarding school experience and illuminates the vast gray area in between.

Healing Eve: The Woman's Journey from Religious Fundamentalism to Spiritual Freedom

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Healing Jimmy
Excellent read if you're trying to get past the fire and brimstone!!

Healing Eve: The Woman's Journey from Religious Fundamentalism to Spiritual Freedom
Jimmy Laura Smull
Manufacturer: Ampersand, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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The Silver Pearl: Our Generation's Search for Meaning

ASIN: 0976123517

Product Description

Healing Eve offers women a way out from the oppression of religious fundamentalism. Women have to confront head-on the accusations of sinfulness stemming from Eve's original transgression in the Garden of Eden. The recovering fundamentalist needs to reclaim an inner and outer integrity. Dr. Smull offers three stages for recovery-- Acknowledging Your Programming, Healing Your Reactivity, Reclaiming Your Wisdom--all leading to a personal style of spiritual expression.

Customer Reviews:

Healing Jimmy.......2007-05-08

As much as Ms. Smull's The Silver Pearl ministered to me as a woman, her Healing Eve disturbed me. It seems as if Jimmy threw the Baby Jesus out with the bathwater when trying to prove religion is the undoing of women. She cites Scripture ONLY when it seems to support her argument and she even mocks it on occasion. She never mentions the Scriptures that say men should not lord over women; they should love women as Christ loves the church; and that men and women should submit one to another. Certainly, Christ didn't discriminate on the basis of male or female. He engaged women in conversation when it was customarily forbidden to do so. If you read the story of Mary and Martha, Christ actually commended Mary for sitting with the men and listening to His words! Christ never put women down. In fact, it was Christ who elevated women. I understand that Paul the Apostle says things that seem to denigrate women, but taken in context of what was going on in the church at the time, it made sense.

As a teacher, I insist that my students cite both sides of an issue equally before making a final argument. Unfortunately, I do not believe Ms. Smull did this. Instead, I came away thinking that Jimmy is just getting back at her parents for stifling her life and blaming Christianity in particular and religion in general as the culprits.

Excellent read if you're trying to get past the fire and brimstone!! .......2007-02-19

As someone who thought I had overcome my strict Baptist and authoritarian upbringing, I was surprised to find how many residual elements were hanging in the balance, making it difficult to find true happiness. Smull does a fabulous job of bringing these underlying issues to light and exploring the commonalities among women who have grown up in environments where sin, fire, and damnation are tools used by the church to mold children. She also offers suggestions, based on her own experiences, of how to overcome the guilt, anxiety and other issues that arise as a result of this style of upbringing.

Reservations for Murder (Myers, Tim. Lighthouse Inn Mystery.)

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Inn With Death
Suprisingly Campy
Gossip spread like kudzu
Another death at the lighthouse puts Alex in the thick of it
A study in cliches...

Reservations for Murder (Myers, Tim. Lighthouse Inn Mystery.)
Tim Myers
Manufacturer: Berkley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

Women Sleuths | Mystery | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

General | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0425185257
Release Date: 2002-06-04

Book Description

In this second Lighthouse Inn Mystery, innkeeper Alex Winston discovers a new attraction at the county fair: a corpse.

"Myers cultivates the North Carolina scenery with aplomb and shows a flair for character." (Ft. Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel)

Customer Reviews:

Inn With Death.......2006-07-22

Alex Winston is an inkeeper who runs the remodeled lighthouse known as Hatteras West in a small town rife with secrets and jealousies. One of those secrets spills over into murder and Alex, ever curious, gets involved with the murder mystery. A craft show on the inn's grounds attracts a lot of locals as well as out-of-towners, so when blacksmith Jefferson Lee ends up impaled by one of his own creations, there are plenty of suspects. Alex follows the trail with the reader close on his tracks, searching through jilted lovers, secret lovers and jealous tradesmen.

Tim Myers is the author of three different mystery series. The Lighthouse Inn series was the first, followed by Candlemaking mysteries and Soapmaking mysteries.

Myers is a fine craftsman. His mysteries are well-thought out and constructed soundly. Some might complain about the lack of characters but MURDER, SHE WROTE was character-lite too and ran successfully for 11 years until the star chose to end the series. His books are meant for a lazy afternoon at the beach, a winter night when the reader is in the mood for a short, effective test of wits.

Although Myers is more informative in his Soapmaking and Candlemaking series, it would have been good to see more history about the area and lighthouses in general. Or maybe it's just because he made it all so appealing and interesting.

RESERVATIONS FOR MURDER is a nifty little mystery that will only take a couple hours to read. The setting and characters immediately feel comfortable.

Suprisingly Campy.......2004-07-20

Tim Myers follow-up to his enjoyable Innkeeping With Murder
finds Alex Winston with murder at his doorstep once again.
Myers does a nice job with the small town characters giving each
chapter the right amount of homey touches to convey the
"Mayberry" cliches needed for this light read. However,
I do wish he gave his lead character more conviction and
development. We never get to know Alex Winston. He seems
to exist just to connect the dots between suspects, ex-girlfriends and current love interests. In addition, Myers
doesn't provide the reader with enough clues to the murder,
so the conclusion seems to come out of nowhere. What elevates
this so-so mystery to four stars is the campiness Myers creates
with his murderer. The last fifteen pages are pure camp and
comedy. The cat and mouse between Alex and the murderer is
over-the-top and played for laughs. This is the most
unintentionally funny murder suspect since Mrs. Voorhees took
revenge on camp counselors twenty-four years ago in Friday The
13th. If they get the right actors, this could be a hoot as
a trashy TV movie. Is this a one time comic rush or can we
expect more of the same from future Innkeeping Mysteries?
Let's hope so.

Gossip spread like kudzu.......2004-05-06

The preface notes a manuscript of the author's was plucked from a slush pile. Alex's housekeeper, Elise, for his Hatteras Inn, a replica of the Hatteras Light, situated in the foothills of North Carolina, argued with him that the inn needed to attract a wealthier clientele. She said that friendship should not get in the way of the goals for the inn. The conversation arose because a fair was scheduled to take place on the property.

Someone killed one of the blacksmiths. Alex persuaded the sheriff to let the fair continue. Alex called his former girlfriend, a lawyer, to the scene in case any of the fair participants needed to be defended as they were being questioned by the sheriff.

The fair attracted a huge crowd, more to see the crime scene than to see the artisans at work. The victim was trying to drive another blacksmith out of business. Everyone in town knew that the sheriff depended upon Alex to help him solve mysteries.

Gossip spread like kudzu in the town. Elise the housekeeper had to leave because her father was to have a heart operation. Everyone thought that she was gone for good.

Many people had hated the victim. Next a Marilyn Baxter is believed to have been kidnapped and is then found-- her absence caused by an overdose. I don't want to give away any more of the plot of this well-written story.

Another death at the lighthouse puts Alex in the thick of it.......2003-02-11

...Alex is a likeable character. I like the relationship he has with Elise, but hope it will grow. I think that's the only thing I would say negative about this book is that I missed that. With Elise gone, all he did was miss her, but yet he's not sure what type of relationship they have. There was too much of that in this book.

This series is very enjoyable. I always look forward to the next book coming out. The descriptions are very enticing. I would love to stay at The Hatteras West Inn.

I highly recommend this book and the whole series.

A study in cliches..........2002-07-28

Want a quick course in mystery story formula writing? Look no farther: "Reservations for Murder" has them all. Here's a partial list: undeveloped main character with no real human foibles or conflicts; dumb sheriff; small town police force; good cafe where everyone gathers; nice scenery; love interest for the main character; hints of seamy sex for the secondary characters; a murder victim disliked by everybody; many motives for the killing; a lot of tea-drinking and assignations by the rosebushes. Season this recipe with 180 pages of really unimaginative writing and here you have it: a cliche of a novel, written quickly and without much skill, a Saturday afternoon time-waster if it's raining outside and there's nothing on tv.

Housicwhissick Blue: Poetry of the Blue Hills Reservation

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Housicwhissick Blue: Poetry of the Blue Hills Reservation
Iris D. Gomez
Manufacturer: Mellen Poetry Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Poetry | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

How the Morning and Evening Stars Came to Be: and Other Assiniboine Indian Stories

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How the Morning and Evening Stars Came to Be: and Other Assiniboine Indian Stories
Jerome Fourstar , and Richard Blue Talk
Manufacturer: Montana Historical Society Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Folklore & Mythology | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Ages 4-8 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
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How the Summer Season Came: and Other Assiniboine Indian Stories

ASIN: 0917298969

Book Description

Including three stories from the Indian Reading Series, a collection of authentic material cooperatively developed by Indian people, How the Morning and Evening Stars Came to Be includes explanatory and cautionary tales from the Assinboine tribe, a tribe whose members are now located primarily on the Fort Peck and Fort Belknap reservations in northern Montana. Recorded by Indian storytellers and illustrated by Indian artists, these traditional tales have been handed down for generations and were designed to teach young tribal members Assiniboine history and culture. Perfect for reluctant readers, these high interest stories will appeal to anyone who is interested in exploring the world of the Assiniboines.

Also available in the Indian Reading Series:
*Coyote Stories of the Montana Salish Indians
*Owl's Eyes and Seeking the Spirit
*Mary Quequesah's Love Story
*How Marten Got His Spots
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*How the Summer Season Came

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Reservation Blues

Manufacturer: Atlantic Monthly Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000I2Z9F6

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Reservation Blues
Sherman ALEXIE
Manufacturer: Atlantic Monthly Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000VASDC6

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Reservation Blues
Sherman ALEXIE
Manufacturer: Atlantic Monthly
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000OPIJ40

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Reservation Blues Inscribed
Sherman Alexie
Manufacturer: WARNER BOOKS INC
ProductGroup: Book
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