Well written books on a subject area that not too many people have knowledge of or an inerset in.
354898
Elaine Pagels is a professor of religion at Princeton University.  According to Wikipedia: "The recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship, she is best known for her studies and writing on the Gnostic Gospels.".  She has written several books on Christianity in its formative years.  Although this is a topic that most people (including myself) don't have a deep interest in,  I picked up her summary of her book "Revelations" in the Wall Street Journal.  Seeing that she had written several other books, well received, about the general subject and they weren't too expensive,  I purchased four titles written by her: "Revelations", "Beyond Belief, the Secret Gospel of St. Thomas", "The Origin of Satan, How Christians Demonized Jews, Pagans, and Heretics", and "The Gnostic Gospels".  It is the book "The Gnostic Gospels", published in 1979,  that put Ms. Pagels on the map as an informed historian of and commentator on early Christianity. These books draw on the so called Nag Hammadi codices of Egypt.  This is a collection of very old manuscripts written in the Christian era before the fall of the Roman Empire.  This review is a common review for all four titles since the books are consistent in both quality and approach and all deal with the same subject matter.
  Ms. Pagels makes a potentially very difficult and dry subject accessible to the average reader.  The books themselves are scholarly in that they are very extensively footnoted, but the writing style is open so that those with no background in this area can easily get an understanding about the formative years of the Christian religion, its theological relation to Judaism (including descriptions of the Jewish uprisings again the Romans in the first century CE) and the debates and controversies that Christians had amongst  themselves about the nature of Jesus Christ.  She paints  a very good picture of religious life in the Roman Empire from the time of Augustus Caesar until the formation of what would become the Greek Orthodox and and Roman Catholic Churches well before the split between the two took place.  Until, the discovery of Nag Hammadi codices, there seem to be a sense amongst historians that early Christianity was, in some sense a universe of discourse with widely varying views about religious belief and practice, but there was very little documentation to back this idea up.  References made in the available surviving Christian Cannon to belief systems that were not orthodox ( politically and religiously correct) hung out there leaving scholars and theologians to puzzle as to the exact nature of these "heretical beliefs".  With the discovery of the Nag Hammadi texts, much light was shed on the nature of these competing belief systems and on some of the major actors in these "debates".  (You can imagine what happened to other works that didn't toe the "party line".  The Nag Hammadi texts themselves found were buried in a sealed  jar when they were discovered.)
  Ms. Pagels herself was part of a team that studied the Nag Hammadi library manuscripts.  This not only amounts to first hand knowledge of these texts but original research as well.  It is from this experience that these books are based on. She backs her work up by copious references to other scholarly works in the field.  As mentioned before, the style of writing is open and the books are fairly easy to read. The books them selves are not particularly long, but Ms. Pagels manages to fully inform the reader about the subject matter.  The reader does not get the sense that he/she is reading an abridged version of another work or that anything is left out.  They're definitely not "War and Peace" but they are not Harry Potter either.  The style of writing is fairly concise.
  I am giving all of the cited titles a solid four.  I thought about giving then a five but as I said before I have no deep interest in the subject area and while it is intellectual curiosity that the reader will have to rely on to buy these books, it is Ms. Pagels writing makes them worth while to read.
2050038
A good book on the subject. Well written and covering almost all of the main features. I am reserving a 5 star rating since there were a few areas I would have liked touched on .. that weren't.
629056
This is a very good and well cited book.  The author does a good job of explaining some complex concepts and studies in an easy to read format.  In this book the author does not really attack the faithful as a lot of books in this genre does, there are some areas that seem to touch on an attack of the faithful - but nothing aggressive at all.  It is a writing that many of a religious faith will find challenging, but hopefully will have more success in reading openly then many other books of this nature.

I see that the author has several other writings, but when I try to research the author I do not find much info.  I find his work on a lot of ebook locations, but Amazon and other sites 'About the author' pages seem to be blank.  It would help credibility if Mr. Drake had a biography listing his credentials to write on this subject.
3024311
Well writen but doesn't cover much that hasn't been said before
1914057
Interesting book and easy to find, often little known information.
4437946
The books do a great job of connecting the different parts of the war in Europe.  I got a tremendous amount of information about people I've heard of my entire life, but knew very little about the inner fighting, politics and intrigues that were going on behind the scenes.  Great books.
4958701
This book takes on a number of topics that come up in less traditional relationships (as well as many traditional ones).  It is interesting, well written and teaches tools that everyone can use.
4545099
I enjoy reading the articles and blurbs which are written so that a layperson, or ignorant reader with some knowledge of the social sciences, can understand. Great for those who enjoy science but need some help getting comfortable with the subject.
2953827
Well written, entertaining and informative on a complex topic.
1104486
Well written an offered insight to some very obscure and unknown criminals. It also provided insight to some of ideas for the plots and incidents shown in very popular programs such as the Godfather series and other crime shows both on the screen and television.
2499121
A well written, easy to read and llustrated book on ths subject.

t also arrved well wthn the promsed tme.
4552679
A good historical study of documents that were not know to many people

A good book indeed, where many documents were translated and offered to those who did not learn Syriac.
1604140
I don't really read these type of books but my wife does. She is very interested in them and thinks they are very helpful.
4463042
The book is well written, but on a subject of less interest to me than the history books I usually read.  I did learn about Lord Berners, of whom I had never heard, and whose music I have now added to my music library.  I also learned a bit more about the unsettled times in England between the world wars, so I do not regret the time I spent reading it.  However, the subject matter - the eccentric lives of the privileged classes - is not of great interest to me.  (Thus, only four stars. If you like that sort of thing, you might give it five stars.)
1412002
This  offering was both an in-depth look at some well known 2013 titles as well as a great introducton to some lesser known yet fascinating titles.  Some articles contained excerpts from the book while other articles contained insightful interviews with the authors.  I have recommended this title to the members of my book group.  I look forward to reading some of the titles highlighted in this offering.
522731
The book is well written and the best part is you will learn things that you were never taught in school (unless you were very fortunate). I really appreciated the references which helped to confirm what the author was writing about.
1569948
A very nice read about a seldom thought about region in a sparsely populated area.  My work takes me through Terry,  Mildred,  and Ismay on a regular basis.  I enjoyed learning about these towns and the region around them in a well  written book.