Like the title of this review, 'Sophie's World' asks many of the questions that have been fundamental to philosophy for thousands of years. In seeking to answer those questions it leads you through a broad overview of the history of philosophy. Starting with the natural philosophers and ending with men whose philosophy still heavily influences present day thought, 'Sophie's World' shows how these questions have been asked and answered by centuries of philosophers who have built on the work of those who came before.

Intermingled with this overview of philosophy is the story of two young girls; Sophie and Hilde. How their stories overlap I will leave for you, the reader, to discover. But be warned: You will probably find the story quite odd and that occasionally the author's opinion on issues such as the UN, environmentalism, etc. come through strongly, but it is not without purpose.

'Sophie's World' is a great introduction to the history of philosophical thought and gives a clear picture of what many of the most significant philosophers are remembered for. It's not perfect, but what is perfection anyway?

A wise friend once told me that "ultimately the way to combat a lot of sin is to drag it out into the ugly light." And that is exactly what Jerry Bridges accomplishes in this book.

"Respectable Sins", as is made obvious by the title, isn't about overt, audacious sin. Rather, it's about sins we tolerate and sins that even go unnoticed in our daily lives because we've become so habituated in our sinfulness. That means that this book is for everybody, especially if you don't 'feel' particularly sinful, because held next to the standard of Christ, each of us can only say along with Paul "oh wretched man that I am!"

Every chapter is full of valuable information. Bridges begins by talking about the 'cancer' that sin is in our lives, who we are in Christ and the power we have to deal with sin through His Holy Spirit, and then the rest of the book is spent helping us to drag our ugly sins out into the light.

"Respectable Sins" is particularly powerful because of its gospel centered and Christ oriented approach to sin in the life of a believer. If you read this book humbly and prayerfully I have no doubt that God will use every chapter to probe your heart and convict you of subtle sins to be rooted out by His grace.

"To learn true humility, we need more than a redefinition of greatness; we need even more than Jesus' personal example of humble service. What we need is His death."

That is the message of this book. From start to finish C.J. Mahaney presents a practical, gospel-centered solution to pride.

the first 1/3 of this book (about 60 pages) is designed to convince us that pride is perhaps the most basic issue we face in our Christian lives. He accomplishes this by demonstrating the subtleness with which pride can act in a believers life, as well as the fact that, ultimately, it is a raising up of ourselves against an infinitely wise, holy, and perfect God. To finish off this section he reminds us of the victory that is ours because of the cross of Jesus Christ.

The next 2/3 is practical advice born from over 30 years of conscious effort on Mahaney's part to "weaken pride and cultivate humility". this section is so valuable that you must take notes for future reference. There are 17 tips that can be put into practice each and every day to identify pride in our lives, and when it has been identified, repent of it, and ultimately, quash it.

There are two observations that need to be made at the outset of this review:

1. I read this book after reading "Outliers" and so I expected to be 'wowed' in much the same manner; which I wasn't. Having said that, however, I still found the book to be quite interesting, as much of the information presented a novel (at least to me) way of looking at what happens around me.

2. How can I say a book that's barely 12 years old is "outdated"? Well this was written before the advent of facebook, twitter, texting, blogs (at least as we know them today), and, in fact, the internet as it is today. Which leads to Gladwell making an illustration that now seems laughable: A "connector" faxing his friends to tell them about a great restaurant. Yeah, faxing. So I say this book seems outdated simply because the "word of mouth" phenomena has drastically changed. I'm sure all of us have a relatively HUGE sphere of influence through facebook, amazon reviews, etc. that just didn't exist when this book was written. So bear in mind, we live in a vastly different world than that to which Gladwell was writing.

As to the specific content of this book, Gladwell has it broken up into 8 chapters, which could really be just 2 sections:

1. What it takes to have a "social epidemic" and 2. "Case Studies".

In the first section he talks about the type of people that must be involved in social epidemics; namely "connectors" (who bring people together), "Mavens" (who bring information to the people) and "Salesmen" (who make us love it). The first section also deals with "stickiness", a characteristic of social epidemics that I can best liken to the part of a song that gets stuck in your head. It's that something that makes it unforgettable and makes you keep coming back. And lastly, he deals with the intrinsic part that "context" plays in the microcosm of social epidemics.

In the second section, as would be expected, we see examples of all of these 'necessities' working in concert to bring about "social epidemics".

All things considered; I enjoyed reading this book, as I enjoy reading anything that puts new thoughts into my head, but it just ins't as captivating or relevant as I had hoped.

I've tried many, many different flavors and brands of coffee for the Keurig brewing system and I must say that, hands down, this is the best coffee out there: any time of day. It's great at breakfast, great in the afternoon, it's great any time! If you've never tried it, you wont regret buying this!

I couldn't put it down, but I couldn't say that I loved it either. This is one of those rare books that finds a way to fascinate and disgust you at the same time. Banks's descriptions weren't as macabre as I was expecting, but I continually found myself thinking "what kind of twisted mind thought up this obscure story line?"

"The Wasp Factory" has a very unique feeling; as if you've just picked up at a random, although somewhat monumental, moment in "Frank's" life, and then end off almost as arbitrarily. Of course it has a continual story running through it (Eric) but almost everything that happens has little to do with furthering the plot in any way. You just get to know dysfunctional, but somehow likeable, Frank.

All things considered I hardly know how many stars to give this book, and for that strange quality alone, it may just be worth reading.

Mosab Hassan Yousef brings a new and intriguing perspective to the table. Not only was he a Hamas insider and an Israeli spy, but now he lives as a political refugee in the United States. 'Well rounded' would be one way to describe his perspective on the complicated issues taking place in the Middle East; and this is evidenced by his realistic treatment of all the parties involved.

The writing style is very conversational and down to earth, and the content is interesting and exciting. Not only is this an enjoyable biography about a daring young man, it is also an amazing tale of God's mercy and grace in an individual's life, as He draws him to Himself.

I would recommend this book for its picture of a loving God, its solution to the problem in the Middle East (the love of Christ), and its new and exciting perspective on life in the Middle East, and particularly, as a son of Hamas.

Outliers is not a story of the "self-made" man. It is, however, the story of success. A thing that, Gladwell convincingly argues, as much happens to you as you happen to it. We are a product of our time, our heritage, our environment, and many other intricate factors which, coupled with motivation, practice, and intelligence, drive one on to become "a success".

Malcolm Gladwell does an excellent job laying out the findings of his research (and that of many others) in an accessible and engaging manner. I continually found myself thinking "this is really fascinating" as I read his various stories, facts, and oddities, all of which pointed to his final conclusion that success is indeed something which invariably passes to us through a series of "advantages" which the successful person notices and takes advantage of.

Gladwell does a good job reminder the reader that the onus is still on the individual to succeed, we must take advantage of the "advantages" that we're given. But without those "advantages" we really have little hope of success. (There is also little hope of success without first undoing inherent "disadvantages".)

If nothing else, this book is an enjoyable read and it will cause you to reconsider just how you got to where you are today. Surely it's a combination of more than just your grit and determination? Surely you've been helped in innumerable ways along the journey?

Meet Watson, a dedicated question/answer machine developed over several years through the concerted effort of a diligent team of researchers, scientists, mathematicians, and a host of other professionals.

Stephen Baker does an excellent job in Final Jeopardy tracing the history of Watson from his conception to the climactic match where he faces off with two of the greatest Jeopardy champions of all time.

The book is a story about Watson and the team that developed him. It does not go in-depth into the programming and algorithms at work in Watson's 'brain', but it certainly covers all of the ups and downs of his development in enough detail to satisfy the curiosity of most Jeopardy fans. It is highly readable, engaging, and occasionally funny; I would heartily recommend Final Jeopardy to anyone who loves the game and is fascinated by the engineering feat that has become known as Watson.

Opening this book will take you on a journey with young Pual Atreides, from his comfortable home-world of Caladan to the inhospitable planet of Arrakis, where his destiny lies.

This is an enjoyable and captivating piece of science fiction. Be prepared, however, to spend a considerable amount of time referring to the dictionary in the back; as Herbert saw fit to invent a plethora of his own words and terms for the "out of this world" (forgive the pun) people and places featured in Dune.

All things considered, the plot and characters are very well developed, you get a distinctive "feel" from this book, and it is very understandable why it has garnered such acclaim in the world of science fiction.