The author, Carol Smith, offers information on everything you ever wanted to know about the bible by taking each book separately and factually stating who wrote it, when and why it was written, what was going on at the time, what the message was that the writer wanted to convey, and to whom it was written. The book covers all the basic levels of the history, the foods, fashions, society, and more, during those times. There is so much information surrounding the stories of the bible and why some were, yet others were not, chosen to be in the final compilation of documents selected to be considered as holy scripture. (The Everyday) Guide To The Bible is a most helpful biblical reference for me and I believe it would be a valuable asset to anyone's library because the author pulls everything together in a manner that helps us understand the biblical overtones of historical wars and how those conflicts still influence the worldly conflicts in our present era.