Father Kurt Messick, last seen with a book in one hand and a whisky in the other, wrote
dozens of book reviews for Epinions before vanishing. His reviews are still
out there...
| Book Title |
Review Title |
Rating |
| 1066 and All That |
It's All That! And More! |
 |
| Above London |
The Flower of Cities All... |
|
| Amo, Amas, Amat & More |
Carpe Diem does not mean 'seize the fish' |
 |
| An Arrow's Flight |
Not a straight arrow, anyway |
 |
| Angels in America, Pt. 1 |
The Millennium is Here |
|
| Angels in America, Pt. 2 |
Where Angels fear to tread... |
|
| Animals on the Agenda: Questions about Animals for Theology &
Ethics |
How should one think of animals? |
|
| Art History |
A Masterpiece |
|
| Art of the Western World |
Not just for art's sake... |
|
| ASPCA Complete Guide to Cats |
The cat's meow of cat guides... |
|
| Beowulf: A New Verse Translation |
Grendel is the first Beo-degradable monster in history... |
|
| Best Cat Ever |
Meow |
|
| The Best Little Boy in the World |
Things aren't always what they seem... |
|
| Bible Code |
Breaking the Code?? |
 |
| Bible is History |
The Case for History |
|
| The Book of Blessings: A New Prayer Book for the Weekdays, the
Sabbath, & the New Moon Festival |
Blessings be upon you... |
|
| Book of J |
Oh, you can call me J... |
|
| Brief History of Time |
Time is of the essence... |
|
| Brush up Your Bible |
A little divine touch-up |
|
| Brush up Your Bible! |
A little divine touch-up |
|
| Calculus Made Easy |
Surely the title wouldn't lie... |
|
| Call & Response: The Challenge of Christian Life |
Responding... |
|
| Callings |
Hearing a Call... |
|
| Can I Get a Witness? |
Prophecy & Witness |
|
| Canticle for Leibowitz |
Fiat homo, lux, voluntas tua |
|
| Casual Day Has Gone Too Far |
Twice as true and half as funny... |
|
| The Cat in the Hat |
A word just absurd |
|
| Cat in the Hat Comes Back |
Same Cat, Same Hat, who would ever have guessed that! |
|
| The Catcher in the Rye |
What scares me most... (Banned Book Write-Off) |
|
| Chaucer, Geoffrey |
Whan that July with his sonne soote... |
|
| Child & Adult Development: A Psychoanalytic Introduction for
Clinicians |
Not just for clinicians... |
|
| Children of God |
The Sparrow lands... |
|
| Christian Faith & Life |
A call to faithfulness |
|
| Christian Liturgy: Evangelical & Catholic |
A monumental work |
|
| Christianity, Social Tolerance, |
A scholarly plea |
|
| Class: A Guide Through the American Status System |
A classless society? |
|
| Claudius |
Will the real Claudius please stand up... |
|
| Cloister Walk |
Baby steps... |
|
| Cloud Chamber |
Prelude and Postlude |
|
| The Club Dumas |
The devil made me read it... |
|
| Collected Speeches of Margaret Thatcher |
For serious politicos/students only |
|
| Color Purple |
A colourful tale |
|
| Complete Dead Sea Scrolls in English |
For the first time in 2000 years... |
|
| The Complete Gospels |
Matthew, Mark, Luke, John & WHO??? |
|
| Complete Poems, 1913-1962 |
ee cummings: Not just anybody... |
|
| Conduct Unbecoming |
Whose conduct are we looking at? |
|
| Cosmos |
Billions and Billions... |
|
| Countries & Concepts: An Introduction to Comparative Politics |
What a concept! |
|
| Crusade for Justice |
An early voice |
|
| Dakota: A Spiritual Geography |
A full spirit in the stillness of emptiness |
|
| Dance of a Fallen Monk: A Journey to Spiritual Enlightenment |
A little soft shoe, perhaps... |
|
| The Dead Sea Bible |
All things old are made new... |
|
| The Dead Sea Scrolls & Christian Origins |
Did the Scrolls mention Jesus? |
|
| The Dead Sea Scrolls Today |
Dead Sea Scrolls Primer |
|
| Death of the Duchess |
An Italian Renaissance Murder-Mystery |
|
| The Demon-Haunted World: Science As a Candle in the Dark |
More than one candle can light the way... |
|
| Desire of the Everlasting Hills: The World before & After
Jesus |
The hills are alive... |
|
| The Devil's Dictionary |
A Definitive Collection |
|
| The Doctors of the Church: Thirty-Three Men & Women Who Shaped
Christianity |
Remarkable people |
|
| The Downing Street Years |
No rust on the Iron Lady |
|
| Downfall |
An interesting contribution |
|
| The Druids |
Enigmatic |
|
| Embodying Forgiveness |
Forgive and forget? |
|
| Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages |
1000 years of history |
|
| English Eccentrics |
Eccentricity R Us |
|
| Enormous Prayers |
Shedding some mystery |
|
| The Essential Confucius |
Not just fortune-cookie wisdom... |
|
| Essential Jesus |
What is essential? |
|
| Essential Kabbalah |
Call to the Personal Infinite |
|
| Essential Koran |
The words of the prophet |
|
| Essential Monastic Wisdom |
Retreat into a book... |
|
| Essential Mystics |
A momentous journey... |
|
| Essential Rumi |
Mystical dervish and poetic enlightenment |
|
| Essential Rumi |
Mystical dervish and poetic enlightenment |
|
| Essential Sufism |
Seeking the face of God in the present |
|
| Essential Sufism |
Seeking the face of God in the present |
|
| The Essential Tao: An Initiation into the Heart of Taoism Through
the Authentic Tao Te Ching & the Inner Teachings of Chuang Tzu |
Finding The Way |
|
| Essential Zen |
Circular reasoning (of a different sort) |
|
| Every Eye Beholds You |
Praying with every heart |
|
| Examined Life |
Making life worth living... |
|
| Faith Seeking Understanding |
Fides quaerens intellectum |
|
| First Rumpole Omnibus |
Non omnia |
|
| Five Books of Moses |
A new beginning... |
|
| Four Tragedies |
To read or not to read... |
|
| French for Cats |
Les Parties Importantes du Chat |
|
| Fugitive from the Cubicle Police |
Corporate America's Most Wanted... |
|
| Galactic Astronomy: Structure & Kinematics |
The biggest things in the universe... |
|
| Galaxies |
The stars in their courses... |
|
| Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and
Love |
Through a lens darkly... |
|
| Gay Theology Without Apology |
No apologies here... |
|
| Gift of the Jews |
In the beginning... |
|
| Gifts of the Jews |
In the beginning... |
|
| Give Us a King!: Samuel, Saul, & David |
Be careful what you ask for... |
|
| The Gnostic Gospels |
Gnostic knowledge/familiar territory |
|
| God & the New Physics |
You won't find God looking through a telescope |
|
| Green Eggs |
Green I've seen, green I've been |
|
| A Grief Observed: Special Gift Edition |
So high a cost... |
|
| Grief, Transition & Loss: A Pastor's Practical Guide |
Good things come in small packages |
|
| Guide to the Sacraments |
Macquarrie's Sacramental Theology |
|
| Harper Collins Study Bible |
Holiness is next to studiousness... |
|
| Hatchepsut: The Female Pharoah |
The female pharoah |
|
| Heavenly Village |
Simply divine... |
|
| Herod: King of the Jews & Friend of the Romans |
A fuller picture of a well-known unknown king |
|
| Historical Handbook of Major Biblical Interpreters |
Who thought what, when, where, and why... |
|
| History of Christianity |
A fascinating tale... |
|
| A History of Knowledge: Past, Present & Future |
An ambitious work |
|
| History of London |
Comprehensive and complete |
|
| A History of Wales |
Long overdue... |
|
| Holy Bible |
A seminarian's view... |
|
| Holy Bible |
The most beautiful book ever produced by committee... |
|
| Hound of the Baskervilles |
The Holmes tale |
|
| How the Grinch Stole Christmas |
Yes, it comes round all the year, never fear, ye, never fear |
|
| How the Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland's
Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe |
An Illuminating Document |
|
| How to Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs: A Step-By-Step Guide to Teach
Yourself |
Cat Square Squiggle God-symbol |
|
| Howards End |
A true classic |
|
| I, Claudius |
Et tu, Claudius? |
|
| The Illustrated Jesus Through the Centuries |
Many faces, yet always the same |
|
| Imperial Unity & Christian Divisions, Vol. II |
Things you never knew... |
|
| Infinity & the Mind |
At the intersection of parallel lines... |
|
| Intimate Merton |
A Spiritual Master... |
|
| Introduction to Cosmology |
Be prepared to think... |
|
| Introduction to Pastoral Care |
Being present |
|
| Isles |
More than meets the eye... |
|
| Jerusalem: An Archaeological Biography |
Ancient and blessed, always in turmoil... |
|
| Jesus & Judaism of His Time |
How Jewish was Jesus? |
|
| John Major: The Autobiography |
From Major to minor |
|
| Kindness of Strangers |
The fate of children |
|
| Know My Name |
A liberated viewpoint... |
|
| Last Emperor |
Better than fiction... |
|
| Late Antiquity |
A useful historical guide |
|
| Latin for All Occasions |
Illud iterum dicere potes! |
|
| Latin for Even More Occasions |
Prius visum (deja vu) |
|
| Latin for People |
A dead language? Minime! |
|
| Leaves from the Notebook of a Tamed Cynic |
Green, alive and leafy |
|
| Legacy |
Remembrance of things past... |
|
| The Life of Birds |
Fine feathered friends |
|
| Liturgy & the Moral Self: Humanity at Full Stretch Before God |
How we worship & how we are |
|
| Lives of the Kings |
Brief and entertaining |
|
| Living on the Border of the Holy: Renewing the Priesthood of All |
The Priesthood of all... |
|
| Logic of the Spirit |
Recapturing the Spirit in Psychology |
|
| London |
A City is its Peoples |
|
| London |
The Artists' London |
|
| London and Its People: A Social History From Medieval Times to the
Present Day |
Social London |
|
| London at War, 1939-1945 |
A compelling story |
|
| London: Portrait of a City |
Folio's London |
|
| Lost Art of Listening |
Can you hear me? |
|
| Love Undetectable : Notes on Friendship, Sex, and Survival |
Notes from the life of a survivor |
|
| Major European Governments |
A Quality Textbook |
|
| Making the Corps: Sixty-One Men Came to Paris Island to Become
Marines, Not All of Them Made It |
The few, the proud... |
|
| Medieval Warfare |
Huzzah! |
|
| Meditations: On the Monk Who Dwells in Daily Life |
Good things in small packages |
|
| The Mind of God: The Scientific Basis for a Rational World |
Can one know the Mind of God? |
|
| More Than Words: Prayer and Ritual for Inclusive Communities |
God is larger than any idea of God |
|
| Mystery |
Lifting the veil on the mystery |
|
| Mythology |
A Mythology Primer |
|
| The Nag Hammadi Library |
Ancient and enlightening... |
|
| Nefertiti: Egypt's Sun Queen |
The Disappearing Queen |
|
| New Astronomer |
Follow the stars... |
|
| New Interpreter's Bible |
Interpretations to last a lifetime... |
|
| No Longer Servants, but Friends |
What then should I be? |
|
| Norton Book of London |
A worthy collection |
|
| Not Every Spirit: A Dogmatics of Christian Disbelief |
What to believe, what to disbelieve... |
|
| Oh, the Places You'll Go! |
Knowing and Going |
|
| On Death & Dying |
The Classic Work on Grief |
|
| Once Upon A More Enlightened Time |
Enlightenment the easy way... |
|
| Ordinary Ministry, Extraordinary Challenge: Women & Ministry
Rules |
Extraordinary Lives |
|
| Original Blessing |
The blessings of creation |
|
| Original Illustrated Sherlock Holmes |
Elementary, my dear reader... |
|
| Oxford Book of London |
Definitive London |
|
| Oxford Book of Royal Anecdotes |
Not your usual history |
|
| The Oxford Companion to the Bible |
A worthy companion |
|
| The Oxford Dictionary of the Biblical World |
A world apart, yet part of us |
|
| The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church |
Authoritatively second to none... |
|
| The Oxford Dictionary of World Religions |
The many faces of faithful response |
|
| The Oxford History of Islam |
The youngest major religion |
|
| Oxford Illustrated History of the British Monarchy |
A Royal Collection |
|
| Paradise Lost |
More than useful lines for Star Trek... |
|
| Path to Power |
A road less travelled... |
|
| People of the Sea |
You'll think twice before calling someone a Philistine |
|
| Phantom Tollbooth |
Looking for the turnpike |
|
| Planets |
Other Worlds (and this one, too)... |
|
| Politically Correct Bedtime Stories |
Oppression, Alienation, and the Three Little Pigs |
|
| Politics among Nations |
Politics as Real as it gets... |
|
| The Politics of Enlightenment |
An optimistic outlook... |
|
| Practicing Our Faith: A Way of Life for a Searching People |
Practice makes perfect |
|
| Prince (Machiavelli) |
The Virtues of Machiavelli |
|
| Prophets |
Hearing Voices (prophetic voices, that is) |
|
| Rand, Ayn |
A (somewhat) objective view |
|
| Read It in Greek |
It's Greek to Me |
|
| The Real Jesus Is the Christ of Faith |
Will the Real Jesus Please Stand Up? |
|
| Reconstructing Christian Ethics |
A scholarly view of ethics |
|
| Red |
A colourful tale |
|
| Reinventing Paul |
Will the Real Paul Please Stand Up? |
|
| Religious Experience in Early Christianity |
What was it like? |
|
| The Rise & Fall of the Great Powers: Economic Change &
Military Conflict from 1500 to 2000 |
Were the Hapsburgs responsible for the Gulf War? |
|
| Ritual |
What God has put together... |
|
| The Rule of St. Benedict |
A Rule is not a Commandment |
|
| Saint Francis: A Model for Human Liberation |
Free to have nothing; free to have everything |
|
| Saint Peter |
History vs. Mythology |
|
| Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe |
Not always opposites attract |
|
| Scottish Nation, 1700-2000 |
A re-emerging history of a re-emerging nation |
|
| Scripture |
A rare insight into decision making |
|
| Set Your Voice Free |
Make Yourself Heard! |
|
| Silas Marner |
Reversal of Fortune, Recovery of Faith |
|
| Simple Words: Thinking about What Really Matters in Life |
Simple things mean a lot |
|
| Skywatchers, Shamans |
Astronomy & the Archaeology of Power |
|
| Sociology of Philosophies |
Change as a constant |
|
| Sparrow |
Learning to fly... |
|
| The Spirit of Anglicanism: Hooker - Maurice - Temple |
A great spirit |
|
| The Square Halo & Other Mysteries in Art: Images & the
Stories That Inspired Them |
Symbols and their meanings |
|
| The Story of Christian Theology: Twenty Centuries of Tradition
& Reform |
Theology as an every-day idea |
|
| The Story of English |
Many rivers into the Sea... |
|
| The Story of Painting |
Nun of that, now... |
|
| Subversive Spirituality |
What is the meaning of spirituality? |
|
| Talented Mr. Ripley |
Don't just see the Film -- Read the Book! |
|
| Tanakh |
The Hebrew Scriptures -- In the beginning... |
|
| Testament |
History of the Sacred Words |
|
| The Tao of Pooh |
No poo-pooing dear Pooh |
|
| The Te of Piglet |
Piglet the Virtuous (albeit Very Small) |
|
| The Transformation of a Skeptic: A Jewish Perspective |
Worthy questioning... |
|
| Theology of the Old Testament |
A major contribution |
|
| Theories of Everything |
Now I've seen Everything! |
|
| To Life!: A Celebration of Jewish Being & Thinking |
A blessing for all... |
|
| Twelve Caesars |
If ancient Rome had tabloids... |
|
| Twelve Red Herrings |
12 good tales |
|
| Understanding British English:
Bridging the Gap between the English Language and its American Counterpart |
No havering here |
|
| Understanding the Dead Sea Scrolls |
What are the Scrolls, and why should we care? |
|
| The United States & China |
International Relations: Sweet and Sour |
|
| The Universe & Life: Origins & Evolution |
An exploration of origins... |
|
| Unnatural Death |
Mystery with style! |
|
| Unnecessary Pastor |
Oh, reason not the need! |
|
| Victorian Internet |
Past and Future |
|
| The View from the Monastery |
Live, from Blue Cloud! |
|
| War & Peace |
A brief note of Epic Proportions (for my 400th review) |
|
| A War to Be Won |
What does it take to win a war? |
|
| Welcoming but Not Affirming |
A recent contribution to the debate |
|
| When Women Were Priests |
Reclaiming the past... |
|
| Winnie-Ille-Pu |
Infectis rebus abeo |
|
| Wives of Henry VIII |
It's good to be the queen (not!) |
|
| Woe Is I |
A grammar of normalcy? |
|
| The Women of the Torah: Commentaries from the Talmud, Midrash,
& Kabbalah |
Familiar characters, new stories |
|
| Women Who Would Be Rabbis: A History of Women's Ordination,
1889-1985 |
A change in keeping with tradition? |
|
| Yellow Raft in Blue Water |
Glimpse an unknown world right next door |
|
| Yes, Minister |
Affirmative! |
|