Product Description
This book provides pastors, worship leaders, programming directors, and arts ministry leaders with the vision and core values necessary for building arts teams that can create the potential for transformational moments in church. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

worth every penny!
This book is the most intereactive and concise material I have ever read on the subject of worship arts.It was totally refreshing to see the artist/author use her skills to communicate what years of experience has showed her.Praise God, for encouraging us to operate under our spirital giftedness!Buy it!You won't be disappointed!

Creating significant moments
The potential for moments that matter exists in every church, as we listen for God's guidance, develop our crafts, and pray like crazy for supernatural power to be unleashed, according to Nancy Beach in this book. Nancy is Director of Programming and a teaching pastor at Willow Creek Community Church, a church which has been at the forefront of the use of the arts in services over the past 30 years.

In chapter 8 on Excellence, the author says, "I sometimes allow myself to dream about what would happen if the church once again became known as the place where outstanding art was created for God." In chapter 9, on Creativity, she says, "Our aim should be to create services so compelling, so meaningful, and so unexpected, that the time sails by and attenders leave with an enthusiastic desire to talk about their experience.." In chapter 10 on Authenticity, she says, "If I had to choose just one supreme value, I'd pick authenticity over excellence and creativity simply because the door to attenders' hearts and minds will slam shut the instant they pick up on pretense of any kind."

The book, which is whimsically illustrated throughout, is filled with useful hints and information about how to present church services in ways which will fully engage attenders. I found that reading it all the way through took some effort, but the effort was rewarded. It is the most useful book of its kind that I have read, and I highly recommend it.

Fabulous resource
This was a practical book, yet full of moments of hopeful artistry for the soul.It also reveals honestly mistakes made with people, and inner struggles.It was better than I'd hoped for and I"m using it for our Worship Committee as we start on our journey towards trying to create moments of awe in church.

Fantastic!
Excellent book for anyone involved in the planning of worship.Masterfully created by using the artful principles encouraged and putting it into published form.

THANK YOU!

Very Practical
Good book to give you an idea of how to lead and work with artists in worship. ... Read more

Product Description
What was it like to live under the police and a criminal justice system in a socialist society and in a country governed by Marxist-Leninists? This is the first book-length study of criminal justice in the German Democratic Republic. Based on first-hand research conducted since 1985, the case study shows how principles of criminal justice and methods of governance have changed since 1989--with the dissolution of the GDR and its incorporation into the Federal Republic of Germany. It reports on the work of the People's Police and the State Security Police and how principles of criminal justice and methods of governance changed with the dissolution of the GDR. ... Read more

Product Description
Covering criminal justice history on a cross-national basis, this book surveys criminal justice in Western civilization and American life chronologically from ancient times to the present. It is an introduction to the historical problems of crime, law enforcement and penology, set against the background of major historical events and movements.Integrating criminal justice history into the scope of European, British, French and American history, this text provides the opportunity for comparisons of crime and punishment over boundaries of national histories. The text now concludes with a chapter that addresses terrorism and homeland security. Each chapter enhanced with supplemental boxes: "timeline," "time capsule," and "featured outlaw." Chapters also contain discussion questions, notes and problems. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

History of... what?
As a history of criminal justice textbook, it fails. The chapters are only about 10 pages long and there is little discussion of criminal justice. There are however lots of timelines that are never discussed, and text boxes that take up 20% of the space in the chapters. The information that the authors do provide is misplaced, emphasizing the wrong historical events (e.g., the chapter on English CJ history from 1215-1689 spends a lot of space on the Tudors and their child-bearing, but does not mention the Gunpowder Plot of 1605). Further, the book doesn't cover any history outside of England and America (except one chapter on ancient criminal justice), so it's far from a comprehensive history of criminal justice. I am an instructor using this textbook for a course, and it has nearly sunk the semester. The low price is not worth it, spend the money and get Roth's book. Crime and Punishment: A History of the Criminal Justice System

never received book
I dont know whats going on but it has been a month since I ordered the book and I still didn't receive it yet. ... Read more

Product Description
High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! Nancy Travis (born September 21, 1961) is an American actress. She is known for supporting roles in both movies and television. Travis was born in New York City and raised in Massachusetts. She lived in Baltimore as well as Boston during her childhood. Travis' first job after graduating from high school was a play, "It's Hard to be a Jew", at The American Jewish Theatre in NYC. After that, Travis appeared in a stage version of Neil Simon's Brighton Beach Memoirs and was a founding member of the Off-Broadway theater company "Naked Angels". She appeared in their Frank Pugliese play "Aven U-Boys", as well as in "King of Connecticut". Another Broadway play Travis appeared in was "I'm Not Rappaport". She has also starred in Athol Fugard's "My Children, My Africa". ... Read more

Product Description
A solitary New Jersey librarian whose favorite book is a guide to suicide methods is struck by lightning in Alice Hoffman's superb novel, The Ice Queen. Orphaned at the age of eight after angrily wishing she would never see her mother again, our heroine found herself frozen emotionally: "I was the child who stomped her feet and made a single wish and in so doing ended the whole world‹my world, at any rate."Her brother Ned solved the pain of their mother's death by becoming a meteorologist: applying reason and logic to bad weather. Eventually, he invites our heroine to move down to Florida, where he teaches at a university.Here, while trying to swat a fly, she is struck by lightning (the resulting neurological damage includes an inability to see the color red).Orlon County turns out to receive two thirds of all the lightning strikes in Florida each year, and our heroine soon becomes drawn into the mysteries of lightning: the withering of trees and landscape near a strike, the medical traumas and odd new abilities of victims, the myths of renewal.Although a recluse, she becomes fascinated by a legendary local farmer nicknamed Lazarus Jones, said to have beaten death after a lightning strike: to have seen the other side and come back.The burning match to her cool reserve--her personal unguided tour through Hades--Lazarus will prove to be the talisman that restores her to girlhood innocence and possibility.Hoffman's story advances with a feline economy of language and movement--not a word spared for the color of the sky, unless the color of the sky factors into the narrative.Among the authors who have played with the fairy tale's harsh mercies (e.g. Margaret Atwood, Angela Carter), Hoffman has the closest understanding of the primal fears that drive the genre, and why, perhaps, we never outgrow fairy stories, but only learn to substitute dull, wholesome qualities like personal initiative or good timing for the elements that raise the hairs on our neck and send us scrambling for the light switch. --Regina MarlerAmazon.com Review
A solitary New Jersey librarian whose favorite book is a guide to suicide methods is struck by lightning in Alice Hoffman's superb novel, The Ice Queen. Orphaned at the age of eight after angrily wishing she would never see her mother again, our heroine found herself frozen emotionally: "Iwas the child who stomped her feet and made a single wish and in so doing ended the whole world‹my world, at any rate."Her brother Ned solved the pain of their mother's death by becoming a meteorologist: applying reason and logic to bad weather. Eventually, he invites our heroine to move down to Florida, where he teaches at a university.Here, while trying toswat a fly, she is struck by lightning (the resulting neurological damage includes an inability to see the color red).Orlon County turns out to receive two thirds of all the lightning strikes in Florida each year, and our heroine soon becomes drawn into the mysteries of lightning: thewithering of trees and landscape near a strike, the medical traumas and odd new abilities of victims, the myths of renewal.Although a recluse, she becomes fascinated by a legendary local farmer nicknamed Lazarus Jones, said to have beaten death after a lightning strike: to have seen the other side and come back.The burning match to her cool reserve--her personal unguidedtour through Hades--Lazarus will prove to be the talisman that restores her to girlhood innocence and possibility.

Hoffman's story advances with a feline economy of language and movement--not a word spared for the color of the sky, unless the color of the sky factors into the narrative.Among the authors who have played with the fairy tale's harsh mercies (e.g. Margaret Atwood, Angela Carter), Hoffman has the closest understanding of the primal fears that drive the genre, and why, perhaps, we never outgrow fairy stories, but only learn to substitute dull, wholesome qualities like personal initiative or good timing for the elements that raise the hairs on our neck and send us scrambling for the light switch. --Regina Marler ... Read more

Customer Reviews (93)

A narrator with no name
The main character is distant, cold and uninteresting.At the beginning you feel sympathy.The wish and then death of a mother.Tragic.But there is nothing to like until she is hit by lightening and explores the world.The book is not long and therefore can capture your attention but to come away satisfied was not what I felt at the finish.

Ice Queen
After her mother dies leaving her brother and her orphaned, the eight-year-old narrator believed it was her wish that killed her. As an adult, the single librarian, studies death, vows never to feel, never to care. She decides that she is made of ice, and she likes it that way. One day, she is struck by lightning, which temporarily cripples her, negates her ability to see the color red, and slowly leads her more deeply into the lives of others, and into her own life as well.

Written under the influence of fairy tales, this story is unusual. Dealing with common fears and questions about existence, this story has value. I found the book somewhat depressing, although I could see its merit.

Couldn't get through it
This is my first Alice Hoffman book and most likely my last.I wanted to finish it but was really only forcing myself so I stopped.Yuck.

Lightning Strikes
I will just say, that from the first page, I was hooked.Read the first page in the bookstore, picked up a copy for myself and a copy for a friend. The book operates on an interesting premise and abit of magical thinking. Though it's the kind of magical thinking any of us may think we possess on occasion.

The main character is utterably believable, even as the author continues to stretch what we may believe can happen in the world. Everything is written so realistically that the fantastic parts seem totally believable and as though nothing else would have been right.

I don't want to give anything away...but I will say that as a poet, I was jealous of a few of the lines in this book. They were that beautiful and haunting and sometimes just plain old weird.

The whole book is a metaphor for change and for freeing yourself from the ties that bind when you finally figure out it's you doing all the tying.

***this book contains no hokey goddess soul spiritual new age trickery.

Maybe I Picked the Wrong Book
This is my first time reading this author, I bought this book from a library booksale. The cover caught my attention (love butterflies) but after reading the back cover, I thought it would be a good book. It was just ok for me and I was pretty much at the end before I realized what I was reading if that makes sense. It isn't memorable at all for me. Maybe I will try another of her books..any suggestions? ... Read more

Product Description
In 1968, Gael Greene became the restaurant critic of the fledgling New York magazine. Before taking the job, shed never written a restaurant review in her life. But she was a passionate foodie, and dining in the worlds great restaurants on someone elses dime was too enticing to resist. Thus began a remarkable career charting the restaurants that changed the way Americans ate, the chefs who turned cooking into an art form, and the food and wines that launched a culinary revolution. Throughout it all, Gael is convinced that food and sex are inextricably linked, and in this exuberant account of her adventures in sensuous excess, she takes listeners on a joyride from the worlds best tables, to al fresco lunch with Julia Child and naughty dinners with Craig Claiborne and then to bed with the men she couldnt resistincluding a porn star and two Hollywood titans. The recipes she includes reflect the decades, from childhood macaroni-and-cheese to Chocolate Wickedness. Greenes tale of pleasure and heartbreak will make you laugh. It may make you cry. It will certainly make you hungry. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (29)

A delightful read
The anecdotes are amazing and are typical of the 60s and 70s.She includes various recipes as well. She mentions names of various chefs and celebrities all of whom you want to find out more about.I'm only halffway through the book, but I know I won't be disappointed.

Overdone
Ms. Greene's much vaunted journalistic skills seem to have abandoned her as she hastily cooked up this tasteless, tedious and trivial account of her rise to prominence in the world of restaurant criticism.Brimming with puerile prose, pitiful pontification and bad editing, one leaves this book with the feeling of just having finished a meal of many courses, each consisting of increasingly thick stacks of baloney.

Great book - Love Gael Greene
Great book !a page turner !Wish there was more about food and restaurants and less samantics ... still a great book !

Delectable writing, poignant memoir
I am going to order every book Gael has written after reading my firt (and her latest) as I am so infatuated with her humility and honesty.I love learning more about different types of cuisine, inspired to cook more for loved ones. Truly enjoyable read!

Hard to put down
I enjoyed this light, gossipy book, although I don't have an extreme fondness for cooking. It was hard to put down at times. Gael does a "tell all" on herself. ... Read more

Product Description
“Alice Hoffman is my favorite writer.”
–Jodi Picoult


Alice Hoffman is one of our most beloved writers. Here on Earth was an Oprah Book Club selection. Practical Magic and Aquamarine were both bestselling books and Hollywood movies. Her novels have received mention as notable books of the year by the New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, the Los Angeles Times, and People magazine, and her short fiction and nonfiction have appeared in the New York Times, The Boston Globe Magazine, Kenyon Review, Redbook, Architectural Digest, Gourmet, and Self.

Now, in The Third Angel, Hoffman weaves a magical and stunningly original story that charts the lives of three women in love with the wrong men: Headstrong Madeleine Heller finds herself hopelessly attracted to her sister’s fiancé. Frieda Lewis, a doctor’s daughter and a runaway, becomes the muse of an ill-fated rock star. And beautiful Bryn Evans is set to marry an Englishman while secretly obsessed with her ex-husband. At the heart of the novel is Lucy Green, who blames herself for a tragic accident she witnessed at the age of twelve, and who spends four decades searching for the Third Angel–the angel on earth who will renew her faith.

Brilliantly evoking London’s King’s Road, Knightsbridge, and Kensington while moving effortlessly back in time, The Third Angel is a work of startling beauty about the unique, alchemical nature of love.


From the Hardcover edition. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (67)

Haunting and beautiful...
I've read many of Alice Hoffman's novels and each is a story that lingers long after the last page has been turned and the book closed. This one is particularly haunting and I've found myself doing something I rarely do -- rereading the book from the opening chapter. Skimming to a particular segment and then leafing through pages of one of the parts of this novel. The book is divided into three segments, telling the stories from the viewpoint of three very different women during significant events of their lives. The setting is London, in fact at a hotel called Lion Park -- where people go when they want complete privacy -- and the time periods when these events take place are 1999, 1966, and 1952. The book seems to be in a style such that it can be read forward or backward -- and give the reader a different perspective or reaction to the story because of what the reader discovers when starting "at the beginning" with the oldest character, Lucy Green, first.

The three women at the heart of the story are connected though it's difficult to piece that together during the first read through of this novel. Each experiences something about love that devastates her. Coming to terms with the heartbreak and the loss is the question each seeks to answer: is love simple or is it complicated?

Maddy Heller -- falls in love with the man her sister is to marry.

Frieda Lewis -- falls in love with a heroin-addicted wanna be rock star who is in love with another woman.

Lucy Green -- is unwittingly involved in a love triangle that impairs her ability to believe in anything.

At the heart of these interconnected stories is the concept of The Third Angel. What does this angel represent? Frieda's father, a physician, tells her that there are three angels who ride with him in the back of his car on the way to see patients. The Angel of Life and The Angel of Death are self-explanatory; and then there's the Third Angel that represents humanity, love, suffering, redemption, faith, and hope. It's the angel, in disguise on earth, that helps human beings "embrace the transforming nature of love."

This is not a happy or uplifting book in many ways. It is a little depressing and brought me to tears sometimes while reading. The prose is beautiful and Hoffman can certainly turn a phrase that is, at times, poetic. The book, however, has a lot of depth and the stories that the women tell -- of their encounters with The Third Angel -- will haunt you. I recommend it.

THE THIRD ANGEL contains a marvelously vast beauty
"There was good love and there was bad love. There was the kind that helped raise a person above her failings and there was the desperate sort that struck when someone least wanted or expected it."

THE THIRD ANGEL --- Alice Hoffman's 20th novel for adults --- tells of three women in three different times, in the desperate sort of love that nearly always leads to a bad end.

In the late 1990s, Maddy Heller heads off to London for her sister's wedding. When she meets Allie's fiancé, Paul, there is an undeniable chemistry. She realizes that acting on her urges would be a bad idea, but Maddy has long carried a grudge against her sister. She has always felt that their mother favored Allie. Besides, Allie seems, well, almost uninterested in Paul. It's as though she doesn't really want to marry him, or is that just a convenient excuse Maddy tells herself?

Maddy checks into the Lion Park Hotel, a small old inn away from the rest of the wedding party. She recalls that her mother, Lucy, told her about a time when Lucy herself stayed there in the early 1950s. Lucy was 10 years old, and her family had come to London for her stepmother's sister's wedding. That love story didn't work out too well either. In fact, it went horribly wrong and she was right in the middle of it. Lucy knows the story behind the ghost in Room 707. She has carried that knowledge through all the years of her life. Now she watches her daughters falling into relationships destined to bring them a heartache potentially as devastating as that one.

Paul's mother, Frieda, also has a history with the Lion Park Hotel. As a rebellious young woman in the mid-1960s, she fled her rich father's home to make her way in this world. The Lion Park provided rooms, mostly shared, for a reasonable price, plus employment as a maid. That suited Frieda just fine. Her father would cringe if he could see her working as a maid, which would suit her quite fine as well. As far as she was concerned, he really had no say in her life, especially after leaving her and her mother for another woman. Ironically, she falls hard for Jamie, a man with a troubled past and a fiancé. She finds out what it's like to be "the other woman" --- and also learns about a desperate love that can kill.

But this is not just the story of the women. The men have their stories too. As do the mothers. Everyone has made mistakes in their lives. What can they do to atone for the wrongs they have done to others? There is always a price. For some, the cost is very dear.

Where, you may ask, does the third angel come in? Dr. Heller, Lucy's father, told her of the angel of Death and the angel of Life, two mythical beings that we all have heard about. Whenever he went on house calls, he claimed one of them rode in the back seat of his car. Then there is the third angel, who watches over us in a quiet, obscure way, almost unnoticed. One of them always rides with us, but knowing which one can be difficult to tell.

Don't let the size of this small book fool you. THE THIRD ANGEL contains a marvelously vast beauty, one worth far more than the modest cover price. In these troubled times, Alice Hoffman's story of love and redemption is a rare gem.

Beautifully written, but terribly depressing
Like another author wrote of Hoffman "I inhale everything Alice Hoffman writes"; me too. This book, like everything she writes, is so beautiful, it's art in written form, some of the passages so delicious and so moving, I feel compelled to re-read them immediately. But her writing has taken such a dark turn for me that I find it difficult to enjoy fully, as I'm left feeling terribly sad and a bit haunted. This book is one of those. Her's is still some of the best, most lyrical and spellbinding (literally) writing I have ever experienced, but the tragedy in her recent novels I find heartbreaking.

Those who enjoy books with wrenching heartache and real life grief will love this; those of us who yearn and dream of a life (or a book) that is filled with magic and light, where the story is everything we wish life were, will be sorely disappointed. The writing never disappoints, but this book cast a cold, echoing despair over me that I couldn't shake.

Poor Book
Not enough character development, I did not feel empathy for any of the characters except maybe Lucy who reminded me of myself a bit at that age.I was hoping she would elaborate more on the first story about the two sisters; Allie and Maddy. It seems to me she was in a haste to connect all of the events and in my view she failed to do so by giving us what I considered irrelevant information of each character.I don't recommend it.

Heartbreaking and lovely
Alice Hoffman has a particular talent for creating characters who break your heart. She does have a bit of a formula, however, and for that reason I hadn't read one of her books in a long time. I picked this one up on a whim and I have to say I'm really glad I did - this is one of her best.

One of Hoffman's tricks is to weave a story around a set of seemingly unrelated characters and then slowly reveal their connections to one another. She does that really well here and the story builds to a conclusion that left me sobbing for twenty minutes after I had finished reading. I don't agree with the reviewers who think this book was depressing - I think it was a story of hope and redemption and about the unexpected ways in which a life can be forever altered.

If you've never read an Alice Hoffman book this would be a good one to start with and if you haven't read one in a while: welcome back. ... Read more