In What's So Amazing About Grace? award-winning author Philip Yancey explores grace at street level. If grace is God's love for the undeserving, he asks, then what does it look like in action? And if Christians are its sole dispensers, then how are we doing at lavishing grace on a world that knows far more of cruelty and unforgiveness than it does of mercy? Yancey sets grace in the midst of life's stark images, tests its mettle against horrific "ungrace." Can grace survive in the midst of such atrocities as the Nazi holocaust? Can it triumph over the brutality of the Ku Klux Klan? Should any grace at all be shown to the likes of Jeffrey Dahmer, who killed and cannibalized seventeen young men? In his most personal and provocative book ever, Yancey offers compelling, true portraits of grace's life-changing power. He searches for its presence in his own life and in the church. He asks, How can Christians contend graciously with moral issues that threaten all they hold dear?

Mr.Wonderful Writes:

Although it took fourteen months for your MW to read this fine book, it was easy reading. Lots of interesting anecdotes, quotes and history are included. Written before 911, I find author Mr. Yancey was a little too effusive about the follower's of the Muslim religion, but then again, I'm not too good at practicing 'grace' myself. <grin> This is a good book for present followers of Jesus Christ to have under their Bible Belt (pun intended) and is not at all preachy, so that non-Christian's and lapsed Catholics, Baptists, etc., may read it in an attempt to rediscover the Christian God.

SPECIAL 20TH ANNIVERSARY EDITION — THE MOST IMPORTANT AND INFLUENTIAL SCIENCE FICTION NOVEL OF THE PAST TWO DECADES Twenty years ago, it was as if someone turned on a light. The future blazed into existence with each deliberate word that William Gibson laid down. The winner of Hugo, Nebula, and Philip K. Dick Awards, Neuromancer didn't just explode onto the science fiction scene—it permeated into the collective consciousness, culture, science, and technology.

Mr.Wonderful Writes:

Yawn. Maybe if I had read it twenty years ago, it would have been as earth-shattering as the publisher's above quote indicates. One of the measures I use of whether a book is outstanding, especially one read for enjoyment, is if I would read it again. I will probably not read Neuromancer again. It was such a "so?" moment when you finally meet Neuromancer. Author Gibson tries to bring computer programs, viruses and such into the visible realm and he does do a damn good job. Probably outstanding for the year the book was published, 1984. And I must admit while reading it twenty years later that I cannot recall a gadget or procedure that turned out to be totally wrong today. You know like when you watched the still outstanding movie, the 1951 The Day Earth Stood Still and inside the flying saucer is a large obviously tube powered monitor that takes many seconds to warm up? I never wanted to quit reading the book, but because of its necessary vagueness dealing with the interior workings of computer programs, during much of the book I had no idea what was going on. And that may have been due to the fact that many times I was reading it in a tequila haze, right before passing out and putting an end to my crappy life until the next dawn. My recommendations? If you want to have this classic under your belt and you enjoy science fiction buy it, read it. If not, don't.

Besides being fascinating reading, Flatland will help you understand certain aspects of modern science better than most texts. A very clear description of how three-dimensional objects must be perceptible to two-dimensional beings will offer you a very helpful technique for imagining and visualizing multi-dimensional forms such as tesseracts and hyperspheres.

Mr.Wonderful Writes:

If you enjoyed geometry class you will enjoy this book. Because it was penned in 1882 by Edwin A. Abbott, other than the Bible, this is the oldest book I've read in recent memory. I struggled through each and every archaically phrased page and this softback, itself printed in 1952, proved itself an excellent sleep aid. However, I will cherish having read it, because it approaches how very difficult it is to communicate ideas that are totally unknown to the person you are talking to. This novel documents the almost insurmountable challenges the Men & Women of Earth may face, if we should ever contact intelligent life from another planet.

"In this illuminating investigation of the epidemic of ADD today and its most widely prescribed treatment, the powerful psychostimulant Ritalin, psychologist Richard DeGrandpre sounds a warning: We may well be failing our children by treating symptoms and not causes with a quick-fix and ultimately unsatisfactory solution. Drawing on the latest findings from developmental, psychobiological, and social scientific research. DeGrandpre seeks to solve the problem of ADD by "solving" its history. DeGrandpre attributes . . . "

Mr.Wonderful Writes:

Because it is so full of facts and new ideas to sincerely mull over, and is necessarily written in the dry manner of a textbook, this is not an easy hardback to read. Mr.Wonderful Jr.(now 34 years old) was prescribed Ritalin in the 1970s, and I guess that is what drew me to purchase Ritalin Nation. Dr. DeGrandpre also includes interesting concepts of how we experience time that won't waste your time. In his writings you will discover why many people are always on their cellphones and, in the last of six very long chapters (followed by thirty-three pages of notes) what is a prime cause of divorce and the breakup of the American nuclear family. Discussing Ritalin he writes: "Professor of psychiatry Alvin Pam makes this clear, writing: 'The efficacy of a drug does not prove that a particular mental disturbance is biochemically determined. For example, aspirin relieves headaches but no one contends that headache is brought about by 'aspirin deficiency.'" This book also explains why your Mr. Wonderful, living day to day, scoring ten percent of the income he might elsewhere earn, working 48 to 88 hours per week, regardless is often happier and more fulfilled than the individuals who have retained him. Individuals who earn more in a single month than Mr. Wonderful earns in a typical 3,000 hour work-year. Individuals who own two or more multi-million dollar seasonal-homes, with garages stuffed with Mercedes, Hummers, Audis, Lexus and Escalades and spend more on luxury dining each week, than I dish out in rent every first of the month.

"Nine hundred thousand years ago, something annihilated the Amarantin civilization just when it was on the verge of discovering space flight. For the human colonists now settling the Amarantin homeworld, what caused the species' destruction is of little more than academic interest. Even after colonists discover an almost perfectly preserved city on the planet, only the archaeological community seems interested. But one scientist, Dan Sylveste, is convinced that solving the Amarantin riddle is vital to the survival of humanity." "Desperate to get at the truth . . . "

Mr.Wonderful Writes:

Simply another great science fiction novel by Alastair Reynolds and a testament to that is that this is the second one of his novels that I've actually paid full price for. Of course full price was only $7.99, but being as your Mr. Wonderful remembers purchasing new paperbacks for 75 cents, this novel cost more than ten times as much. All the character's are believable and fully fleshed out, there's plenty of action paired with a plot so complicated I can't begin to begin to tell it here. Every now and then I had to break out the dictionary, but what good is reading if you don't learn new words now and then. If you are a science fiction fan, you probably are familiar with the concept of 'space-time', if you are not familiar with 'space-time' you might read up on it. To wrap it up all I can say is that while researching Revelation Space I discovered Mr. Reynolds has recently completed two more titles and I intend to purchase the pair as soon as possible.

A master of inventive fiction, Neil Gaiman delves into the murky depths where reality and imagination meet. Now in American Gods, he works his literary magic to extraordinary results. Shadow dreamed of nothing but leaving prison and starting a new life. But the day before his release, his wife and best friend are killed in an accident. On the plane home to the funeral, he meets Mr. Wednesday — a beguiling stranger who seems to know everything about him. A trickster and rogue, Mr. Wednesday offers Shadow a job as his bodyguard. With nowhere left to go, Shadow accepts, and soon learns that his role in Mr. Wednesday's schemes will be far more dangerous and dark than he could have ever imagined. For beneath the placid surface of everyday life a war is being fought — and the prize is the very soul of America.

Mr.Wonderful Writes:

Winner of the 2002 Hugo Award for Best Novel; 2002 Nebula Award for Best Novel; and 2002 Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel. If you were interested in how I chose to read any new author, while not foolproof, if the book has won some notable awards, American Gods has won three, and it's in a genre you prefer, you will most likely enjoy the read. This is just a delightful adventure woven with the formidable writing talents of Neil Gaiman. A somewhat complicated plot keeps you on your toes, while the prose of Mr. Gaiman just picks you up and floats you along, sentence by sentence, page by page, chapter after chapter. As a matter of fact, as I told my daughter, who also read this 588 page novel (most likely in a single sitting), "I'm not sure exactly what I read, but it sure was enjoyable."

Here are eleven exuberant essays on the pleasures of writing from one of the most creative, imaginative, and prolific artists of the twentieth century - an author who truly enjoys his craft and tells you why and how. Bradbury shares his wisdom and enthusiasm for writing as he examines a lifetime of creating and composing scores of stories, novels, plays, poems, films, television programs, and musicals. Refreshingly direct, each essay shares a single compelling theme: writing is a celebration, not a chore. Unlike so many books on writing, this one does not belabor the technical or become obsessed with the how-to aspects of the craft. What Bradbury does bring to every discussion of writing is the fever, the ardor, the delight that he has discovered and which can be yours.

Mr.Wonderful Writes:

From a great science fiction writer, we have a collection of essays spread over decades. A writer, whose stories I wrapped myself in like a so soft Egyptian Cotton blanket to separate me from my often anxious and frequently melancholy childhood existence. I did not intend to purchase this thirteen dollar and ninety-five cent paperback when I spied it low on a shelf during an interlude in my nightly writings at Border's. However, when I read in its Preface: "Not to write, for many of us, is to die . . . If you did not write every day, the poisons would accumulate and you would begin to die, or act crazy, or both. . . . You must stay drunk on writing so reality cannot destroy you . . . " My heart was thumping and I had to have this book. And then, for fear that it would most likely reveal to me that I could become a successful salaried writer, I cowered from it as it laid and yellowed on my bed stand for eighteen weeks. I have done and felt everything this successful author reveals. All with the exception of approaching publishers. Why? You see, dear readers, that great abilities and staggering intellect does not come with almost as great deficits and fears.

Have you ever wondered where the phrase "raining cats and dogs" came from? In the myths of the Teutons, an ancient people who occupied Jutland around 100 B.C., the wind was pictured as a huge dog who served as chief attendant to Odin, the Norse god of wisdom and war, and was responsible for the cosmos. They thought that when it rained very hard, Odin's dog, in the form of the wind, was chasing a cat, who took the form of the rain. So the Teutons believed that when it poured, Odin dropped "cats and dogs" from the sky. This is just one of the many fascinating stories behind the dozens of idioms and common phrases we use every day.

Mr.Wonderful Writes:

Just a fun book to read for those of us erudite enough to be interested in the nuances of our English language.