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ISSN 1934-6557
October 2005, Issue 78
Guide to This Issue
Page Contents: Manuel Neri: Artist Books,
Dramatic Whiteness, Life
on a
Arts & Photography
Manuel Neri: Artist Books / The Collaborative Process by Bruce
Nixon, with an introduction by Robert Flynn
Johnson (Fine Arts Museums of
The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco are among the few museums with an extensive collection of artists' books and fine press publications, primarily due to Reva and David Logan's gift to the museum of their magnificent collection of modern illustrated books, which is one of the most important ever formed in the United States.
The Museums present in Manuel Neri, an exhibition of artists' books by Manuel Neri within this collection. This catalog includes an Introduction by Robert Flynn Johnson, Curator-in-Charge of the Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts, and a comprehensive essay by Bruce Nixon, an independent scholar, who has written extensively about contemporary art for a variety of publications, former editor-in-chief of Artweek, and it contains color illustrations of the complete book projects and related sculptures and drawings by Neri.
Neri's work with the artists' book is almost certainly his least known. The number of these projects has been few, four so far, all produced in limited numbers. Until now, these books have been scarcely documented, at least in comparison to Neri's voluminous production as a sculptor. Consistent with the substantial tradition of the livre d'artiste, Neri's artists' books represent a lengthy, sometimes difficult, sometimes intense collaborative process between artist and author, one that may consume years or, for that matter, decades. The longest and most significant of his collaborations is with Mary Julia Klimenko, who has been Neri's primary model since 1972. As a poet, she provided the texts for three books, She Said: I Tell You It Doesn't Hurt Me (1991), Territory (1993), and Crossings/Chasse-croise (2002-03); and an Introduction for a series of unique books that combine original drawings by Neri with poems by Pablo Neruda.
The making of an artists' book is a complex undertaking that involves a number of master artisans, each responsible for particular tasks that contribute to the completion of the book.
As an art medium, the livre d'artiste is unavoidably inflected by its incorporation of a literary text and its book-like nature; in form alone, it bears a kinship to the history and critical discourse of the book. The contemporary artists' book maintains a distinctive, if esoteric, discourse with its own history. Although its existence as a marginalized art form grants it a certain freedom, the artists' book is now a historical medium, like sculpture or painting: an open form, to be sure, still available to highly original application.
In his first project, She Said: I Tell You It Doesn't Hurt Me, Neri not only hand-colored each and every portrait etching in the volume, but cut and tore out sections of paper from each print. As can be seen in Manuel Neri, the coloration personalized each print. Even more intimately, the tearing emphasized a sculptural, three-dimensional quality, and its brutalization refers to the emotional tension inherent in the accompanying poetry of Klimenko.
In Territory, Neri abandoned original printmaking altogether in illustrating the book. He created sixty-five vigorous, colorful pastel drawings with Klimenko as the model and incorporated one in each volume of her passionate, erotic poetry. In addition, five charcoal drawings were reproduced in photolithography on translucent paper, floating like ghosts among the verse.
The most ambitious of any of Neri's collaborations is clearly Crossings/Chasse-croise. Again, the poetry of Klimenko is paired with Neri's art. Viewing the work in Manuel Neri, one admires the luxurious complexity of the production. The sheer multiplicity of artistic activity on the part of the other collaborating artists, who included M. Lee Fatherree (photography), Peter Koch (design and typography), Daniel E. Kelm (binding design), Paul Van Melle (Introduction), and Armelle Vannazzi Futterman (French translations), further enhanced the efforts of Neri and Klimenko. Neri provided a single drawing for each copy of the book, and hand-painted eleven of the thirteen photographs bound in each volume. In addition, Neri painted a photograph included with each of the ten deluxe volumes.
Neri's most recent ongoing activity in this field (2004-05) is the creation of seven unique artists' books incorporating his original drawings with the poetry of Pablo Neruda. Neri's drawings are paired with Neruda's text as rendered in the exquisite calligraphy of Thomas Ingmire. Again, Neri has defied the conventions of normal artists' books, eschewing regularity and edition prints for the familiar and direct contact of his original drawings.
For Neri, it seems, art flows out of his being in a natural but sometimes unruly manner. It is through selection, reflection, and refinement that his initial inspiration is fashioned into the finished work. It is refreshing that Neri always leaves the traces of creative struggle and displays a certain rawness that resonates in those who experience his art.
As exciting as Neri's explorations have been in the area of artists' books, their worth can be savored only in the context of his achievements as a sculptor and draftsman. In that context, the artist’s books presented in Manuel Neri may be studied and savored, because more than his sculptures, which are static and finished, the book shows Neri’s process in all its rawness.
Arts & Photography / Performing Arts / Social Sciences
Staging Whiteness by Mary F. Brewer
(Wesleyan University Press) discusses how whiteness is portrayed in
contemporary drama and enacted in everyday life.
As theater informs our views of society, society also informs the
views of the playwright. The playwright's culture and place in time
influence their representation of the world.
Social histories and cultural developments surrounding the meanings of race can often be seen in the theater of the day.
Scholars have explored the depiction of minorities in theater, while the portrayal of ‘whiteness’ has remained largely unexplored. Whiteness in American and British theater is the focus of Mary F. Brewer's Staging Whiteness. In the book, Brewer, Senior Lecturer in the School of English and Performance Studies at De Montfort University, U.K., offers close textual readings of plays by American and British twentieth-century playwrights – some canonical and some who fall outside the mainstream – looking at how ‘whiteness’ as an identity is created onstage, and how this identity has changed historically.
Brewer presents varying perspectives from which the ‘white’ race has been viewed in theatrical productions – from the elitist world of British colonialism seen in Somerset Maugham's The Explorer to the questioning of white authority in the era of Edward Albee's The American Dream and Amiri Baraka's Dutchman. Brewer argues that the use of whiteness in theater has not only been used to broach racial issues, but also issues of class, as in Eugene O'Neill's The Hairy Ape, and of gender and sexual orientation, as in Wendy Wasserman's The Heidi Chronicles and Philip Osment's This Island's Mine. Brewer explores ‘borders of whiteness,’ beyond which we find those who do not fit certain ideals of Whiteness – Poles, Catholics, Native Americans, the working class – and looks at how these groups are portrayed as something other than the ideal of Anglo-American culture.
Staging Whiteness is a work of great ambition and reach,
providing at once an apt introduction to the critical study of
whiteness and an arresting application of such study to
Anglo-American "theorists and theater makers" over the last century
and more. – David Roediger, Babcock Professor of History and African
American Studies,
This is a thoughtfully and carefully written piece of
scholarship. At the same time, what distinguishes this work is its
readability. Brewer avoids theory-speak without diluting her points
and translates theory into language readers can understand. – Kate
Davy, Dean of Arts and Sciences,
Staging Whiteness, in presenting the exploration of constructions of whiteness in American and British plays throughout the 20th century, sheds light on society's views on race, as well as on class and gender politics. Brewer's highly original reading of familiar works offers a close reexamination of theater as a site of ideological struggle over the meanings attached to race. With clarity and persuasiveness, Brewer argues that configurations of whiteness are dispersed and reflected through discourses that range from theory to literature and common social language, and that discursive performances of whiteness are a crucial feature of everyday social interactions.
Biographies & Memoirs
On Independence Creek: The Story of a
Deep in southwest
The author’s grandfather, Charles Chandler, settled the area of
the mouth of Independence Creek in 1900 and ranched it for many
years. But her father, Joe Chandler, saw more potential for the
green valley than ranchland. Over the years he built there one of
the most popular recreation areas in southwest
Because of its unique ecological situation, the ranch was named a
potential natural landmark by James F. Scudday in 1977, and in 1991
the Nature Conservancy of Texas obtained a conservation easement on
seven hundred acres of the ranch, the first such arrangement in the
state.
In
On Independence Creek Charlena Chandler, a retired district
librarian and teacher of high school English and journalism, goes
beyond the history of the ranch to tell a more personal story of the
experiences of her grandparents and parents and of her growing up on
the ranch. She tells of the good times, such as sleeping on her
grandfather’s porch under starry night skies, successful golf
tournaments, and happy family events, and the bad: Depression days,
family strife, and the time the creek flooded, destroying the camp.
Charlena Chandler’s work is about the dreams and hard work of her
grandfather, Charles Chandler, the vision and tenacity of her
father, Joe Chandler, and the ebb and flow of life along
Independence Creek, a large spring-fed tributary of the
On Independence Creek is a realistic, human-events account of the generations that came to realize there was no other place on earth like the place they lived.
Biographies & Memoirs / Families / ReligionThe Truth Book: Escaping a Childhood of Abuse among Jehovah's Witnesses by Joy Castro (Arcade Publishing) is the courageous personal account of a young girl who endured abuse and the disturbing effects of religious hypocrisy within one of the most enigmatic sects of Christian fundamentalism.
When Castro is ten years old, her parents divorce. Earlier, her father had been ‘disfellowshipped,’ or excommunicated from the congregation, for smoking. When Castro is twelve, her mother marries a respected brother in their church. He has an impeccable public persona, but behind closed doors at home he is a savage brute. Castro and her younger brother Tony are forbidden from seeing their father and are abused mercilessly – to the point they both think they are going to die. Their battered mother does nothing to protect them. Nor does their church, to which Joy voices her appeals. For two years they suffer, until one day Castro reaches out to her father, and together they plan and execute the children's daring escape.
Joy Castro has written an utterly truthful and harrowing book
about the human capacity for hypocrisy and cruelty and also the
human capacity for bravery and love.
The Truth Book is a compelling memoir written in an achingly
beautiful voice. – Robert Olen Butler, Pulitzer Prize-winning author
of A Good Scent from a Strange Mountain
Throughout this graceful and powerful memoir we discover, like
Castro, that culture doesn't always shape you wisely, and God is
often absent in religion. A heart-aching read, both redemptive and
hopeful. – Helena Maria Viramontes, author of Under the Feet of
Jesus
By writing her own book – one so insistently, exquisitely honest
that a reader, despite the pain, feels cleansed – Castro gives
witness to a higher truth: that of storytelling. Her bravely
beautiful words can never be taken away. – Michael Lowenthal, author
of Avoidance
Out of a life wounded by brutality and hypocrisy Joy Castro has
made something straight and true – a victory for the writer and the
reader? – Earl Shorris, author of Latinos and Riches for the Poor
I identified so deeply with this memoir because of the sheer humanity of these individuals and my total trust in the narrator. I'm savoring the inexplicable sense of hope it leaves on my tongue. – Ariel Gore, author of Atlas of the Human Heart and The Mother Trip
The debut of a strikingly original voice, The Truth Book is the courageous and gripping memoir of a young woman who endured abuse and the disturbing effects of religious hypocrisy. In prose, beautiful in its simplicity and captivating in its honesty, Castro bears witness to a childhood lost and a life regained.
Biographies & Memoirs / History / US / Civil WarLincoln's Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness by Joshua Wolf Shenk (Houghton Mifflin)
Perhaps no one is better qualified than Shenk, essayist and
independent scholar, a contributing editor to the Washington Monthly
and a faculty member at the
Early in
Lincoln's Melancholy, Shenk establishes that, even as a young
man, Lincoln had all the symptoms of what we now define as a mental
illness. He also shows us that
The nineteenth-century view of depression was different from our
own, of course. Melancholy was seen as a natural component of some
of the best human qualities: deep thought, subtle reasoning,
strength in adversity, decisive action – all displayed by
Shenk's interest in the subject came from a mix of personal
experience with depression and a belief in the power of true stories
about others. His idea for a book on
In his introduction, Shenk describes
Shenk organized Lincoln's Melancholy into three sections. In part one, he establishes that Lincoln did suffer what is now called clinical depression, by showing how melancholy (as depression was called then) manifested itself in Lincoln's early life and young manhood, and how it fits – and challenges – the diagnostic categories of modern psychiatry.
In part two, we learn about the medical treatments Lincoln tried,
what he did in response to his melancholy, the strategies he used to
heal and help himself. Shenk chronicles both of
In the final section of the book, Shenk addresses how Lincoln's depression came to contribute to his work as a public figure, how he used the tools forged during his extensive experience of personal suffering to understand and work through the nation's greatest crisis.
… Shenk's innovation is in saying, first, that this knowledge can
be illuminated by today's understanding of depression and, second,
that our understanding of depression can be illuminated by the
knowledge that depression was actually a source of Lincoln's
greatness. Lincoln's strategies for dealing with it are worth noting
today: at least once, he took a popular pill known as the ‘blue
mass’ – essentially mercury – and also once purchased cocaine.
Further,
A profoundly human and psychologically important examination of the
melancholy that so pervaded
A significant contribution to the study of
With empathy and authority gained from his own experience with
depression, Shenk crafts a nuanced, revelatory account of
Business & Investing / Economics
U.S. Direct Investment in China by K. C. Fung, Lawrence, J. Lau & Joseph S. Lee, with a foreword by George P. Schultz (American Enterprise Institute Press)
With an average annual growth rate of almost 10 percent since it
adopted the ‘open door’ policy,
In
U.S. Direct Investment in China, K. C. Fung, Lawrence J. Lau,
and Joseph S. Lee use data from both official and unpublished
sources to answer these questions, and to shed light on the trends,
characteristics, motives, and policy implications of
While critics frequently allege that U.S. direct investment in China costs American jobs, Fung, professor of economics and cofounder of the Santa Cruz Center for International Economics at the University of California–Santa Cruz; Lau, vice chancellor of the Chinese University of Hong Kong and the Kwoh-Ting Li Professor of Economic Development at Stanford University; and Lee, dean of the School of Management at National Central University in Taiwan, argue in U.S. Direct Investment in China that it is not so. On the contrary, empirical survey data presented in this new study does not support these claims.
The authors argue that
The authors show that
Fung, Lau, and Lee identify significant and growing mutual
economic benefits from the investment ties between the
- The two countries seldom compete in the same world markets.
- The
- The two countries can provide markets for each other.
- American affiliates participate actively in the production of goods aimed at the rapidly growing domestic Chinese market.
- At the same time, significant amounts of Chinese exports
shipped to the
The authors conclude that, although
Business & Investing / Economics / International
The Power of Greed: Collective Action in International
Development by Michael Rosberg (The
International Development Has Not Worked.
Why do so many international development projects fail? Is it because poor regions are inherently corrupt, or is it because developers and donors from rich countries do not properly take into account how local survival mechanisms in developing nations work?
In
The Power of Greed, Michael Rosberg challenges the received
wisdom of international development agencies, suggesting that in
order for development to be successful, it must speak directly to
the self-interest of individuals in emerging nations. Rosberg,
Lecturer at the
Neither a pro-establishment nor an anti-establishment developer, Rosberg indicates a third way which balances the agendas of donors and recipients in authentic partnerships. Avoiding the sterile debates of morality associated with wealth generation and distribution, The Power of Greed demonstrates how self-interest, or greed as he calls it, can be a powerful motivator for collective good and a key to the success of international development programs.
After half a century of concerted effort by many well-trained and dedicated people, development has not worked, nor have the lives of the poor throughout the world been significantly improved by the multitude of undertakings and the expenditure of billions of dollars. In the engrossing and stimulating pages of The Power of Greed, Michael Rosberg seeks to understand the reasons for this. – Sidney M. Greenfield, from the Introduction
Rosberg...writes that any serious effort at development has to
build local communities where cooperation, social trust, and
entrepreneurship combine to create opportunity and growth, allowing
local people to take greater charge of their lives. The way to do
this is to capitalize on the greed or self-interest of local
communities and align this with opportunity, he argues. – David
Crane, Literary Review of
In an accessible and personal work, The Power of Greed deftly navigates the thickets of morality, theory, and ideology to arrive at pragmatic strategies. Rosberg demonstrates in this lively and provocative analysis that when an individual's self-interest is creatively and appropriately engaged in cooperative enterprise, the greater good of the community can be well served.
Business & Investing / International Policy / Science & Ecology
Public Participation in the Governance of International Freshwater Resources edited by Carl Bruch, Libor Jansky, Mikiyasu Nakayama, & Kazimierz A. Salewicz (United Nations University Press)
Clean water is essential to human survival, yet it is
increasingly scarce. Despite pressures on this crucial resource,
people often have little or no opportunity to participate in
watershed decisions that affect them, particularly when they live
along international watercourses. The United Nations has identified
the rising demand for water as one of four major factors that will
threaten human and ecological health for at least a generation.
Over the coming decade, governments throughout the world will
struggle to manage water in ways that are efficient, equitable and
environmentally sound. Whether these efforts succeed may turn, in
large part, on providing the public with a voice in watershed
management decisions that directly affect them. Public involvement
holds the promise of improving the management of international
watercourses and reducing the potential for conflict over water
issues.
Public Participation in the Governance of International Freshwater Resources examines the experiences in many watercourses around the world, lessons learned and areas for further development. Drawing upon papers presented at a symposium on ‘Improving Public Participation and Governance in International Watershed Management’ co-sponsored by the Environmental Law Institute, United Nations University, and other institutions, the chapters identify innovative approaches, as well as some of the considerations – linguistic, political, legal, traditional and cultural, geographic and institutional – that should be considered when extending and adapting the approaches to other watersheds. Editors of the volume are Carl Bruch, senior attorney at the Environmental Law Institute in Washington; Libor Jansky, senior academic program officer in the Environment and Sustainable Development Program of the United Nations University; Mikiyasu Nakayama, professor of the United Graduate School of Agricultural Science, Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology; and Kazimierz A. Salewicz, systems analyst specializing in decision support system and water resources management in international river basins.
Recent years, particularly the past decade, have seen a rapid growth of international law regarding the important of participatory decision-making generally and in the specific context of international watershed management. The body of emergent law ranges from provisions in international and regional declarations to binding conventions, for example on trans-boundary environmental impact assessment (TEIA) or international watercourses. The various international norms and practices are examined in detail in chapter 2 of Public Participation in the Governance of International Freshwater Resources.
With the normative framework providing a clear set of objectives – transparency, participatory decision-making, and accountability – attention increasingly has turned to specific approaches for operationalizing these objectives. In some instances, this is done through the development of detailed conventions and protocols, especially at file regional level, for example, within the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE). For international watercourses, operationalization has been more through policies of river basin authorities, international financial institutions, and other international organizations. In a number of instances, projects, work programs, and other informal, less-legalistic activities provide an ad hoc approach, also discussed in chapter 2.
Through experimentation in specific instances and specific water-courses, a body of specific practices is emerging to give substance to the general objectives and requirements that have become ubiquitous. Public involvement is moving from theory into practice.
Public Participation in the Governance of International Freshwater Resources collects many of the specific experiences and lessons learned in seeking to enhance and ensure public involvement in international watercourse management. It highlights successful mechanisms, approaches, and practices for ensuring that people have access to information about watercourses and factors that could have an effect on them: that people who may be affected have the opportunity to participate in decisions regarding the watercourse; and that people can seek redress when they are affected by activities in an international watercourse. At the same time, the volume examines conditions that facilitate or hinder public involvement, as well as contextual factors that may limit transference of experiences from one watershed to another.
The introduction to Public Participation in the Governance of International Freshwater Resources provides an overview of the volume, placing the various chapters in an overall context and highlighting some of the key lessons learned. Part I examines some of the theoretical frameworks and considerations relating to public involvement in international watercourse management. Part II provides an overview of experiences in various international watersheds. Part III examines the role of international institutions in promoting public involvement in international watercourse management. Part IV summarizes some of the innovative experiences in engaging the public in domestic watershed management, experiences that could provide conceptual or model approaches to be adapted for specific international watersheds. Part V examines some of the emerging tools that could improve public involvement in the years to come.
The analysis in Public Participation in the Governance of International Freshwater Resources draws upon experiences in various international watercourses, as well as some relevant sub-national watercourses and international institutions. It also considers existing and emerging tools that can improve governance and public involvement. The work will be helpful to those undertaking further policy development as well as those involved in grassroots organizations seeking to affect watercourse management policy.
Business & Investing / Management & Leadership
Thinking for a Living: How to Get Better Performance and Results
from Knowledge Workers by Thomas H. Davenport
(
Studies show that knowledge workers make up 25-50 percent of the workforces of advanced economies. Their expertise and experience fuels the success of countless organizations around the world – and their value is reflected in their compensation. But how much do managers really ‘know’ about the knowledge workers they are charged with overseeing? Often a company's knowledge workers are dispersed across the organization, and increasingly across the globe. They are extremely mobile, their work is emergent and unstructured, and much of what they do is invisible.
World-renowned knowledge management and process innovation expert
Thomas H. Davenport argues in
Thinking for a Living that much of the time, most managers don't
know what their knowledge workers are doing – much less whether they
are delivering their best performance. Because knowledge work is by
nature difficult to measure, companies often don't ‘manage’
knowledge workers at all – or they apply traditional management
techniques that are simply ineffective with a group of workers who
literally know more than their bosses do about their areas of
expertise. These laissez-faire and outdated approaches, says
In
Thinking for a Living,
Thinking for a Living outlines five customizable approaches for intervening in and improving knowledge work, and guides managers in choosing specific management strategies that have proven most effective with each category of knowledge worker:
- Process and Measurement. A three-step model for matching different knowledge activities – creating, distributing, or applying knowledge – to specific process interventions.
- Organizational Technology. Alternatives to company-wide knowledge repositories, including strategies such as embedding knowledge into the knowledge workers' job process, performance support and role-specific portals, automated decision‑making processes, and more.
- Personal Technologies. Strategies for utilizing technologies such as PDA's, instant messaging, pagers, laptops, and other devices to help individual knowledge workers to process information and knowledge more effectively and efficiently.
- Social Networks. Ways to facilitate collaborative networks through which high-performing knowledge workers can quickly find and share valuable information.
- The Physical Workspace. Ideas for rethinking the physical work environment in ways that optimize the performance of various types of knowledge workers.
Throughout,
Tom Davenport may be the next Peter Drucker. He has been shining his impressive intellect on knowledge work for over two decades. This seminal book hits the sweet spot at the intersection of knowledge work and process improvement, where executives will find the twenty-first century's growth, innovation, and productivity. If your job is to ‘manage’ any of the 36 million Americans who find, create, or package knowledge for a living, you need to read this book. – Carla O’Dell, PhD., President, APQC
Factiva is devoted to improving the productivity of knowledge workers. Tom Davenport's book treats the issues head-on and provides a clear set of guidelines and examples for addressing them. We will use it heavily in our own research and product development. – Clare Hart, President and CEO of Factiva, a Dow Jones and Reuters Company
Finally, the long-awaited book on knowledge workers: who they
are, what they do, how essential they've become, and how to harness
and deploy their consequential talents. It will soon become the
classic work on knowledge management. – Warren Bennis, Distinguished
Professor of Business at USC and coauthor of Geeks and Geezers
Thomas Davenport has helped midwife some of the biggest trends to
have shaped business over the past twenty-five years – among them,
reengineering and knowledge management. – Bill Breen, Fast Company,
March 2004
The future growth of our companies and our economies increasingly depends on the capabilities and productivity of knowledge workers – written by the field’s premier thought leader, Thinking for a Living reveals how to maximize them. Detailing the factors that most effectively motivate and improve the performance of these critical employees, Thinking for a Living is the guide no manager can afford to be without.
Business & Investing / Management & Leadership / Training
Emotional Intelligence In Action: Training and Coaching Activities for Leaders and Managers by Marcia M. Hughes, L. Bonita Patterson, & James B. Terrell (Pfeiffer)
Just when we thought, heaven knows, everything had been said
about training, here comes a new book which provides realistic
scenarios to guide trainers and consultants in improving people’s
people skills.
Emotional Intelligence In Action has been written by Marcia Hughes, president of Collaborative Growth, a strategic communications partner for organizations and trainers; L. Bonita Patterson, president of Polaris Consulting Group, an organizational effectiveness firm; and James Bradford Terrell, the developer of the network WhatsYourEQ.net. The book is organized into three parts. Part One, Using Emotional Intelligence to Create Real Change, explains the rationale for developing emotional intelligence (EI) and highlights four key EI measures. The first section outlines the case for emotional intelligence. It explains why EI has such a powerful impact on personal effectiveness. The next section introduces the four most significant emotional intelligence measures and presents a matrix for cross-referencing the 46 individual exercises or ‘workouts’ in Emotional Intelligence In Action with the specific competencies for which each measure provides instruction. If readers are working with one of the four major measures – the EQ-I or EQ-360, ECI 360, the MSCEITT, or EQ Map – they can look up the measure of choice in the cross-reference matrix and find the workouts that apply to help clients develop the corresponding competencies.
Perhaps the best part is that readers don't have to be working with a measure at all – they can use these workouts independently to strengthen any competency that is needed. For example, if trainers wanted to work with a team or individual to help him or her develop flexibility, they would look in Part Two for the in-depth description of the competency and then go to Part Three, where, under the heading Flexibility, they would find three choices – Workouts 12.1, 12.2, and 12.3, and they could choose the one that is best suited to the situation.
Part Two, Exploring Fifteen Components of Emotional Intelligence, provides an in-depth description of each of fifteen emotional competencies to help readers and their clients become thoroughly familiar with the dimensions of each skill.
Part Three, Emotional Intelligence Workouts to Build Effective Skills, contains the experiential learning scenarios or ‘workouts’. The first three sections of each workout are Purpose, Thumbnail, and Outcome. Purpose answers WHY trainers or consultants would have the people do this workout; Thumbnail tells HOW participants will engage with the instructional material to generate the learning experience; and Outcome explains WHAT the target is – the desired results that can be achieved. The workouts and the companion CD contain reproducible handouts that readers may copy for participants. Emotional Intelligence In Action closes with a list of resources for finding additional useful information.
Most of the exercises can be used in individual coaching
situations as well as with intact teams and groups. The thumbnail
summaries and instructions usually are written for the team and
group experience. If readers are coaching individuals, they may be
easily reframed for the one-on-one environment.
As a leader introducing our organization to EI, the experiential
learning design provides a practical method for developing our
skills, competencies and capabilities while working in our present
positions within our existing organizations. – Marianne Jones, vice
president, human resource director, California Casualty
Creating the metrics necessary to measure emotional intelligence
was a daunting task. But teaching others how to change their
behavior is an altogether different challenge. This book is an able
teacher for the serious learners and leaders of the field. – Esther
M. Orioli, author, Essi Systems' EQ Map
The authors provide a suite of well-designed tools for increasing
emotional intelligence and then invite practitioners to apply these
to respond to individual development needs. This is a needed
addition to the field of emotional intelligence. The gift that these
practitioners have given is they have helped to make EQ development
a faster and more efficient process for both coaches and clients.
Advanced practitioners will find these tools useful for sharpening
their practice. – Geetu Bharwaney, founder and managing director, Ei
World
Emotional Intelligence In Action is a very practical tool
organizations can use to help employees anticipate, understand, and
accept change and thrive in a fast-moving business environment. –
Tad Deering, Sr., director of strategic change, Time Warner Telecom
Wow! What an invaluable resource on Emotional Intelligence. The format is very user-friendly and the use of icons makes it easy to flip through to find exactly what you need at any given time. The matrix cross-referencing the competencies of the four major measures of Emotional Intelligence is incredible and enables use of the exercises regardless of measure utilized. The Star Performer pieces will help people really understand the competencies in action and the movie examples make it fun and help to bring the competencies to life. This guide also contains valuable information that can be used to ‘sell’ Emotional Intelligence programs to senior leaders including the case study information and the power piece. The Reproducible Masters also make this an inestimable training resource on Emotional Intelligence. As a Leadership Development Manager for a Fortune 100 company, I will definitely use this with internal client groups. – Deanna Coffin, Manager, Leadership Development
Emotional Intelligence In Action shows how to tap the power of EI through exercises that can be used to build effective emotional skills and create real change. The workouts are designed to align with the four leading emotional intelligence measures, can be used independently or as part of a wider leadership and management development program. The book’s exercises offer experiential learning scenarios that have been proven to enhance emotional intelligence competencies. This pioneering book makes and important contribution to the EI field because it will help people improve their skills.
Business & Investing / Personal Finance
Yes, You Can Still Retire Comfortably! by Ben Stein & Phil DeMuth (New Beginning Press)
The specter of retirement is haunting the baby-boom generation.
The generation that’s used to having it all is suddenly finding that
it doesn’t have enough. The stock market bubble has deflated,
interest rates are at all-time lows, Social Security is
questionable, pension plans are underfunded, and personal savings
are woefully inadequate. This comes at a time when medical advances
are assuring that they will be the longest lived generation ever.
Ben Stein and Phil DeMuth in Yes, You Can Still Retire Comfortably! grapple with the coming baby-boom retirement crisis and show readers how to get back on track. Stein, finance writer for Barron’s and The Wall Street Journal and one of the chief busters of the junk bond frauds of the 1980s, and DeMuth, an investment psychologist with a longstanding interest in the stock market, writer for The Wall Street Journal and Barron’s, as well as Human Behavior and Psychology Today, outline the steps readers can take today to assure their future tomorrow. Backed up with facts and figures, they lay out exactly how much readers need to save in order to maintain their standard of living, and how to invest dollars to get the maximum return from savings. For those already retired, they explain how to tap their nest egg to get the most income while keeping their money safe.
Ten of the 21 basic rules of retirement, as presented in Yes, You Can Still Retire Comfortably!:
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Maximize your abilities through self-discipline and the ability to get along with others.
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Start saving early. If it doesn't hurt, you're probably not saving enough.
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Never spend more than you earn.
-
Max out all your retirement plans every year.
-
Consider the tax implications of everything you do.
-
Buy your home.
-
Plan far ahead for your retirement, and then stick to your program.
-
Make a plan with a reliable financial advisor. Don't be afraid to ask for advice.
-
Save your hindquarters, not your face – that is, make savings and financial stability more important than showing off or looking cool.
-
Adopt a straightforward investment philosophy that takes advantage of the historical benefits of investing in common stocks but balances it with bonds in a judicious mixture.
According to Stein, money is an astonishingly powerful mind changer. He says the book is meant to be suggestive and to provoke thought, and they understand no one is anywhere near perfect. Okay, but when are boomers really going to stop spending and start saving? Yes, You Can Still Retire Comfortably! is a survival manual for the difficult but, according to Stein and DeMuth, exciting, road to retirement security. They are trying a little too hard to psychologize and lighten this frightening topic for readers – the advice may be sound, if virtually impossible for the spend-spend-spend baby boomers to implement.
Children’s / Ages 9-12 / Biographies & Memoirs
Langston Hughes: Great American Writer by B. A. Hoena (Fact Finders Biographies Series: Capstone Press)
An artist must be free to choose what he does, certainly, but he must also never be afraid to do what he might choose. – Langston Hughes
Langston Hughes knew about having the blues, and he used his knowledge to create poetry based on the blues music form. In his novels, plays, and essays, he explored the African American experience. Langston Hughes shares the writer's life, career, and lasting impact on history. The book belongs to the Fact Finders Biographies Series, in which young readers learn about great men and women who changed history.
James Langston Hughes was born
After graduating from high school, Hughes hoped to go to
As the train crossed the
But when Hughes arrived in
Many African Americans lived in the
Even today, Hughes continues to be one of the most popular of all American poets.
Langston Hughes tells the story of Hughes, his struggle to find his way in the post-war world, facing racial discrimination. Captivating photographs, quotations, and time lines bring the life of Hughes into clear focus.
Children’s / Ages 9-12 /
Grand Canyon National Park by John Hamilton (National Parks Series: ABDO Publishing Company)
President Theodore Roosevelt loved the
A first-time visit to
Traveling north out of
After passing through the park entrance, the rim of the canyon is
nearby, just to the north. The road is lined with pine trees and
sagebrush, but still no sign of the canyon. After finding a parking
space, visitors hurry to the nearest ledge and then gasp in
astonishment. Seeing the
Laid out beyond the rim is a great abyss nearly one mile deep and
in some places 18 miles across. The canyon stretches east and west
across northwestern
Layers of rock range from Kaibab limestone at the top of the canyon to 1.8 billion-year-old gneiss and schist at the bottom. The rocks blaze red, orange, yellow, green, and purple during dramatic canyon sunrises and sunsets. During summer afternoon thunderstorms, shafts of light sometimes pierce the gloom. Rocks struck by dancing sunbeams seem to glow from within. Crowd-pleasing rainbows often appear, straddling canyon walls. In winter, layers of white snow blanket the mesas in hushed silence.
The
Many people are not content to merely gaze into the canyon from
the rim. For these adventurers, there are many paths that descend
into the chasm, with such famous trail names as
Anyone who gazes into the
Millions of years ago the region was at the bottom of a shallow
sea. Layers of sedimentary rock, including Kaibab limestone, formed
on top of older, harder layers of volcanic rock that were created
eons earlier. Seventy million years ago two tectonic plates
collided, causing the western part of
As the
In 1919, the year that the
On peak summer days, tourists jostle with each other for parking
spaces, hotel rooms, and viewing spots along the rim. The National
Park Service restricted private vehicle access to many of the roads
in
Air pollution is a growing threat to the
Readers discover in
Grand Canyon National Park that many people today are working
hard to preserve the
Grand Canyon National Park is part of the National Parks Series.
Other books in the National Parks Series include:
Children’s / Young Adult / Social Sciences
Is the Gap Between the Rich and Poor Growing? edited by Robert Sims (At Issue Series: Thomson Gale)
The volumes in Greenhaven Press's At Issue series, aimed at young adults, includes a wide range of opinions on a single controversial issue. Each volume includes both primary and secondary sources from a variety of perspectives – eyewitnesses, scientific journals, government officials, and many others. Extensive bibliographies and annotated lists of relevant organizations to contact offer a gateway to further research. Each inexpensive volume enhances critical thinking skills and is an excellent research tool for reports – Is the Gap Between the Rich and Poor Growing? is a volume in this series.
Some people are concerned about the possibility that economic
inequality is growing in the
Conservatives argue that protecting economic freedom and the free market is essential if all Americans are to have the opportunity for economic success. According to their view, a government that allows a free market and promotes unlimited competition in the private sector provides the greatest opportunities for widespread prosperity. A free market motivates people to continually strive to improve and innovate and develop new products because they face few governmental limitations on their productivity and profits.
As entrepreneurs develop their businesses and create wealth, conservatives assert, they are able to provide opportunities for other people in the form of jobs and investments. A free market that promotes production, competition, and consumer confidence thus leads to greater prosperity and a growing middle class that is able to take advantage of these job and investment opportunities. Since the health of a society is often determined by the size of the middle class and the hopes of the lower class, conservatives believe that expanding the free market offers the best way to create a stable and prosperous American society.
One of the major ways conservatives seek to protect the free
market is to limit taxes and regulations, which they believe stunts
economic growth and stifles the innovation of those who have the
capital to invest in entrepreneurial ventures that could spur the
economy and prosper everyone – including the wealthy, the middle
class, and the poor. Conservatives do not view the large
concentration of wealth that exists in relatively few hands in the
Is the Gap Between the Rich and Poor Growing? contrasts
conservative ideology, with the liberal argument that the free
market and laissez-faire government policies do not produce a
prosperous economy with greater opportunities for all classes, but
instead create a rigid economy in which the rich become richer and
the poor stay poor. Liberals assert that in the
Most liberals concede that the United States is a prosperous nation due in large part to free market capitalism, but many also believe that the free market has flaws that have left many people poor or struggling to pay for rising health care, child care, and housing expenses. In order to meet these increasing expenses, liberals argue, the government should use its authority to promote social justice by regulating the free market and implementing new governmental programs to provide a greater safety net for the unemployed, the sick, and the working poor. To fund these programs, the tax increases conservatives abhor are necessary.
Liberals view governmental programs as a vital way to provide a
modicum of financial security to otherwise financially unstable
families. Further, they argue that government programs such as
Social Security, welfare, and the G.I. Bill have helped many poor
and working class people to achieve middle class status. For
example, the G.I. Bill was enacted in 1944 to provide World War II
veterans with tuition for college or vocational education in
addition to one year of unemployment compensation. The bill also
provided low-interest home loans for veterans. A modified version of
the bill, now called the Montgomery G.I. Bill, is still on the books
today. According to many liberals, the G.I. Bill put the American
dream within reach of many servicemen and women because it allowed
many poor people to attain assets such as an education and a home
that would not have been available to them without the helping hand
of the government. They argue similarly that Social Security and
welfare programs have provided financial relief to many poor
families and prevented them from slipping into destitution. The
extent to which the
The book contains twelve articles by different authors of widely varying backgrounds. It also contains a list of organizations to contact and a bibliography including both books and periodicals.
This series on current issues provides ... articles that offer a
range of opinions of various controversial topics. The variety of
the opinions presented ... will help students get a sense of the
various aspects of the issue and encourage critical thinking.
Helpful for social studies classes and high school and public
libraries, for students preparing term papers. – Kliatt
Is the Gap Between the Rich and Poor Growing? contrasts liberal and conservative views regarding the possibly growing gap between the rich and the poor. Appropriate for its target audience of young adults, but also for all those who want to become acquainted with both sides of the issue.
Children’s / Young Adult / Sociology
Legalizing Drugs edited by Stuart A. Kallen (At Issue Series: Greenhaven Press)
The volumes in Greenhaven Press's At Issue series, aimed at young adults, include a wide range of opinions on a single controversial issue. Each volume includes both primary and secondary sources from a variety of perspectives – eyewitnesses, scientific journals, government officials, and many others. Extensive bibliographies and annotated lists of relevant organizations to contact offer a gateway to further research. Each inexpensive volume enhances critical thinking skills and is an excellent research tool for reports – Legalizing Drugs is a volume in this series.
People have been taking drugs for most of human history.
Marijuana was first cultivated over six thousand years ago. The
opium poppy, the source for opiates such as morphine and heroin, was
first grown by the Sumerians in present-day
Legalizing Drugs describes the conflicting attitudes about drugs
which fuel the controversy over drug legalization. Proponents of
legalizing drugs argue that punishment for drug possession is often
too severe and that government has no right to regulate personal
behaviors such as drug use. Proponents and prohibitionists alike
agree that drugs can cause great physical and mental damage to
users. Proponents, however, believe that the number of serious
abusers is relatively small (less than 3 percent in the
Those who think drugs should be legalized point to incarceration
rates as evidence that the war on drugs is too punitive. In 2003
state and federal police agencies in the
Legalization proponents also point out that
According to
Legalizing Drugs concern over such unintended social costs of
the drug war fuels the politically active drug legalization movement
in the
Those who oppose drug legalization do not dispute such statistics. However, they claim that drug use would be much greater without the war on drugs. Those analysts believe that the demand for drugs, especially cocaine, has been significantly reduced by tough sentencing along with efforts to educate the public, especially the young, about the dangers of addiction. To absolute prohibitionists, such reports of progress in reducing drug use show that the drug war is effective. They believe that the legalization of drugs like marijuana and cocaine would increase the incidence of drug addiction, child abuse and neglect, and workplace and traffic accidents. Prohibitionists continue to support the work of the Drug Enforcement Administration, which spent more than $21 billion in 2004 to stop drug production and arrest users and distributors. With so large a budgetary commitment from the federal government, it is likely that efforts to prevent Americans from acquiring and using illicit drugs will continue in the foreseeable future.
Legalizing Drugs is composed of 14 essays:
- Federal Drug Prohibition Should Be Repealed – David Boaz and Timothy Lynch
- Proponents for Legalization Ignore the Harmful Effects of Drugs – James A. Inciardi
- Legalizing Drugs Would Reduce Crime – Douglas N. Husak
- Legalizing Drugs Would Not Reduce Crime – Joe Dombroski
- The War on Drugs Is Destroying Lives – Jack Cole
- Arguments Against the War on Drugs Are Based on Dangerous Myths – Dan P. Alsobrooks
- The War on Drugs Is Racist – Drug Policy
- Marijuana Prohibition Is Misguided – Ethan A. Nadelmann
- Legalizing Marijuana Would Harm Teens – Robert Margolis
- Medical Marijuana Should Be Legalized – Marijuana Policy Project
- Medical Marijuana Should Remain Illegal – David G. Evans and John E. Lamp
- Legalizing Ecstasy Could Help Psychotherapists Treat Patients – David Adams and Ben Fulton
- Efforts to Prove That Ecstasy Can Help Psychotherapist Treat Patients Are Misguided – E. Patrick Curry
This series on current issues provides ... articles that offer a
range of opinions of various controversial topics. The variety of
the opinions presented ... will help students get a sense of the
various aspects of the issue and encourage critical thinking.
Helpful for social studies classes and high school and public
libraries, for students preparing term papers. – Kliatt
Legalizing Drugs contrasts pro and con views regarding the
legalization of drugs in the
Cooking, Food & Wine
Brazil: A Culinary Journey by Cherie
Hamilton (Hippocrene Cookbook Library Series: Hippocrene Books,
Inc.) is a gastronomic exploration of
The largest nation in
Modern Brazilian cuisine is the result of the contributions of
several peoples, most notably the native Amerindians, African slaves
and their descendents, and, of course, the Portuguese colonizers.
The indigenous inhabitants of modern-day
Brazil explores the nation's distinct regional cuisines, and
explains how Amerindian, European, and African contributions have
come together to form modern Brazilian cookery. The book, as
translation of a Portuguese-language cookbook, was written by Cherie
Hamilton, who has lived and traveled extensively throughout the
Portuguese-speaking world, developing a love for Brazilian cooking
while living in
Cooking, Food & Wine
Entertaining in the Northwest Style: A Menu Cookbook by Greg Atkinson, with photographs by Anne Herman (Sasquatch Books)
A gentle climate, great scenery, and wonderful food make the
lifestyle of the
Entertaining in the Northwest Style captures that way of life with thematic menus and over 90 recipes for every season and occasion ranging from sophisticated beach picnics to a spring menu to hail the return of the salmon. Each menu is a culinary composition designed to celebrate a memorable moment, or pay tribute to a primary ingredient.
Here is a sampling of menus in Entertaining in the Northwest Style:
-
After the Cider Bash: A Feast for Autumn
-
Where a
-
Observing the Winter Solstice: A
-
After the Egg Hunt: A Feast for Spring
-
On Board Carmelita: Brunch on the
-
From
Atkinson choreographs each of these special occasions with
appetizers and salads, main courses, wines to pour, and deserts. For
example, Atkinson's menu for a romantic summer dinner includes
‘Matisse Bread’ or Fougasse, Three Shellfish with Three Citrus
Fruits, Provençale Chicken with Tomato and
In this highly anticipated, colorful cookbook, Atkinson graces the culinary world with his delicate prose and delicious menus. For holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, and rejoicing with family and friends, this is a cookbook readers can turn to again and again. Atkinson's stories of events that call for great meals make the menus in Entertaining in the Northwest Style warm, and charming.
Cooking, Food & Wine
The New York Times Chicken Cookbook edited by Linda
Amster, with a foreword by Julia Reed (
The editors of The New York Times are cooking everyone's favorite meal – chicken – in a classic new cookbook The New York Times Chicken Cookbook edited by Linda Amster with a foreword by Julia Reed.
Whether it’s fried, roasted, barbecued, served in flat bread or with fluffy dumplings, chicken is certainly one of the most popular mealtime choices the world over. Bestselling cookbook editor Amster has searched through The New York Times’ vast recipe archives, as well as through cookbooks by Times writers, to hunt down and showcase some of the best New York Times chicken recipes in The New York Times Chicken Cookbook. Along with the simple crunchy heaven that is Edna Lewis’s Virginia Fried Chicken, there are surprising twists on this All-American classic – recipes like Mark Bittman’s Cinnamon-Scented Fried Chicken and Nancy Harmon Jenkins’s Deep-Fried Chicken with Lemon Grass.
If readers are thinking about baking, poaching, braising and great one-pot cooking, try recipes like Jamie Oliver’s Braised Ligurian Chicken, Marian Cunninghams Popovered Chicken, Florence Fabricant’s Chicken Putanesca, Eric Ripert’s Chicken Bouillabaisse and the sentimental favorite of many, Mimi Sheraton’s Subgum Chicken Chow Mein.
Readers will learn the best ways to grill and broil, steam and poach, sauté and braise and are treated to such recipes as Grilled Mexican Chicken, Tandori Chicken Fingers, and Deviled Chicken Legs. The recipes of some of the most celebrated chefs and restaurants in the country are included: Craig Claiborne's Chicken Fricassee, Judy Rodgers of The Zuni Cafe's Winter Chicken, Nobu's Chicken Teriyaki, and Moira Hodgson's Chicken Tagine. In addition, each section of the book has some recipes classified as ‘Easy’ or ‘Easy/Fast’, which makes it possible for anyone to put a chicken dinner on the table at the end of a busy day with minimal time and effort.
In this latest collection, the editors of The New York Times have
assembled a number of verifiably delicious chicken recipes taken
from the newspaper or from the cookbooks of its writers.
Contributors include famed restaurants like
In
The New York Times Chicken Cookbook Amster has collected over
200 of the best chicken recipes to appear in The New York Times over
the years. This cookbook has something for every chicken lover – it
is a classic that will remain on any cook's cookbook shelf for a
long time to come and will be a cherished gift for birthdays,
weddings, family celebrations and holidays year round. Completed
with an appendix about all things chicken, the result is a
globe-trotting treasure trove of mouth-watering favorites from great
chefs, restaurateurs, and food writers.
Cooking, Food & Wine
To Serve with Love: Simple, Scrumptious Dishes from the Skinny to the Sinful by Carnie Wilson, with Cindy Pearlman (Hay House, Inc.)
Author, singer, and actress Carnie Wilson brings readers
To Serve with Love, a lifestyle cookbook that is a celebration
of our love affair with cooking, as well as the enjoyment we get out
of eating meals that have been prepared for us. This book will stir
up universal feelings about food, life, love, and having the
‘home-plate’ advantage because of
With the assist of Cindy Pearlman, nationally syndicated writer,
Since she believes a cookbook shouldn’t just be just a list of
meals,
Even though
This beautiful, inspirational cookbook will appeal to those who like to cook for their families and who like their food with visual appeal, which is just about everybody, and especially to those who, like Wilson, have undergone gastric-bypass surgery and still love to eat.
Education
Mentoring in Action: A Month-by-Month Curriculum for Mentors and
Their New Teachers by Carol M. Pelletier
(Allyn & Bacon) a one-of-a-kind resource to facilitate the mentoring
process.
Mentoring is one of the fastest-growing areas of teacher
development. It is essential to teacher retention in an age of
teacher shortages and teacher recruitment.
Mentoring in Action walks mentors and their mentees through a
full school year of exercises addressing everything from lesson
planning to behavior management. The book outlines how to identify
and discuss difficult issues as mentors work together with their
beginning teachers throughout the year.
Features include:
- A month-by-month guide for both mentors and the new teachers
they guide.
- Numerous forms and practical tips for creating mentoring
meetings with both the new teacher and the student teacher.
- Classroom management and discipline ideas for beginning
teachers.
According to Carol Pelletier, teacher and teacher educator for 33
years, 21 years in a public school and 12 years as the Director of
Practicum Experiences at
Using Mentoring in Action, mentors can go beyond the one-on-one conversations in a dyad with one mentor and one new teacher to a collegial group where all members, including the mentor, participate and learn. This curriculum relies on the expertise of the experienced teacher as a mentor/facilitator, but recognizes that one mentor cannot know all things and be all things for any new teacher. The collaborative approach allows everyone in the group to share ideas, issues, and solutions to problems. Not only does it take the pressure off the mentor, it enriches the discussions. If readers find themselves working with only one new teacher, they can invite others in the school to take part in some of the discussions during the school year.
Mentoring in Action provides a common language and curriculum that mentors can use to frame discussions with new teachers. It is designed to be used with small groups of new teachers, allowing a district with a few mentors a viable mentoring option. Although the curriculum discussions will be richer with small groups, they certainly can be successful in a one-on-one mentoring model. The key component to the book is the structure for weekly and monthly meetings that offer a variety of possible topics to discuss. It responds to a common question mentors often ask, "What are we supposed to talk about every week'?" and by using the Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (INTASC) Principles in each chapter, mentors and mentees will have a common language of standards. There are quotes from students of all ages and comments from new teachers in their first year of teaching that help maintain the spirit of both teaching and learning each month.
Mentoring in Action suggests that mentors can be facilitators of small groups of new teachers and shows them how to do it. We know that meeting with new teachers and using a mentoring curriculum can add to the effectiveness of school and district induction programs. Teachers who want to be mentors will find inspiration and motivation in this book as well as support them in their work with new teachers.
Education
Faculty Priorities Reconsidered: Rewarding Multiple Forms of Scholarship by KerryAnn O'Meara & R. Eugene Rice (Jossey-Bass)
Faculty Priorities Reconsidered, written by KerryAnn O'Meara,
who is on the faculty at the
In this volume the leading pioneers of the movement reflect on
their own work with campuses nationwide and examine concrete issues
involved in introducing new perspectives on the different forms of
scholarship. In addition, the book contains studies of nine very
diverse institutions – Madonna,
Faculty Priorities Reconsidered includes a distinguished panel of contributors: Talya Bauer, Dennis Bozyk, David G. Brailow, Victoria L. Clegg, Robert M. Diamond, Amy Driscoll, Gretchen R. Esping, Don Evans, Jerry G. Gaff, Catherine Garner, Judy Grace, Robin A. Harvan, Barbara DeVeaux Holmes, Mary Taylor Huber, Pat Hutchings, Diane Kayongo-Male, Steven R. Lowenstein, Bill Pepicello, Carol J. Peterson, Duane Roen, John Rueter, David K. Scott, Lee S. Shulman, Craig Swenson, George E. Walker, and Kenneth J. Zahorski.
Faculty Priorities Reconsidered offers practical advice to
academic leaders considering similar changes and responds to
questions for the future about encouraging, supporting, assessing,
and rewarding multiple forms of scholarship.
Education / Health, Mind & Body
Communication Disorders in the Classroom: An Introduction for Professionals in School Settings, 4th Edition by William O. Haynes, Michael J. Moran, & Rebekah H. Pindzola (Jones and Bartlett Publishers)
Speech, language, and hearing disorders have the potential to affect each student communicatively, socially, psychologically, and academically.
Most of us take the ability to communicate for granted, unaware of the vast complexity of the communication process. For instance, it takes the action of about 100 muscles to say even a simple word such as ‘pop’. These muscle actions must be coordinated in simultaneous and serial movements at a speed of about 13 speech sounds per second. In addition to the actual production of speech, a person must think of something to say (cognitive activity), select words and sentence structures (language ability), and adapt the utterance to the appropriate communication context (noisy versus quiet room, child versus adult listener, and so on). The steps in this process are accomplished in fractions of seconds. Unfortunately, many conditions, both physical and behavioral, can interfere with this complicated process and create a communication impairment.
The fourth edition of Communication Disorders in the Classroom presents an updated portrait of the far-reaching impact that communication impairments have on the lives and success of students from preschool through adolescence. Authors William O. Haynes, Michael Moran, and Rebekah H. Pindzola, all professors in the Department of Communication Disorders, Auburn University, discuss the range of impairments found in school-age children with suggestions for teacher intervention. A specialist in the particular subject area wrote each chapter in this book; the authors have had many years of clinical experience in their areas and have studied application of speech-language pathology in public school settings.
Today, a typical classroom may have children with a variety of disabilities included with normally developing students. The current trend toward inclusion of students with disabilities in the normal classroom is predicted to increase even more with continued changes in legislation and educational philosophy. It is not unusual to enter a classroom and find a child with a mobility impairment, a child with hearing loss, a student with a serious medical condition, a child with brain injury, students with attentional and learning problems, and many with communication disorders. As a result of inclusion, both regular and special education teachers have more demands placed upon them than ever before. Not only are they required to teach academic content, but they also must make numerous adjustments in their teaching styles and interaction patterns to accommodate students with various disabilities. In this technological age, the amount of information to be taught to students doubles in less than a decade. This information explosion, coupled with increased demands associated with inclusion, makes the job of a teacher challenging, sometimes frustrating, and occasionally impossible.
Topics covered in Communication Disorders in the Classroom, 4th edition include:
-
Legal issues and service delivery models
-
Normal aspects of communication
-
The development of language and phonology
-
Phonological disorders
-
Children with limited language
-
School-age and adolescent language disorders
-
Dialectal differences: African American English as a case study
-
Fluency disorders
-
Voice disorders
-
Hearing impairment
-
Craniofacial anomolies
-
Neurological impairment
-
Communication disorders and academic success.
Communication Disorders in the Classroom suggests a variety of strategies and interventions for professionals in the education, special education, and speech pathology disciplines to employ as they deal with students with communication impairments. With up-to-date information and minimal jargon, each chapter contains a section on the nature of a specific communication disorder, assessment issues, and direct and indirect treatment options. In addition, each chapter includes teacher tips, key terms, study questions, and suggestions for further reading.
For the past 15 years, Communication Disorders in the Classroom has been used by training programs in the disciplines of education, special education, and communication disorders as an example of how professionals from these diverse areas can cooperate in helping students with speech, hearing, and language problems in an academic setting. Minimizing jargon, Communication Disorders in the Classroom uses only terms that teachers need to know to understand a particular disorder, or terms that they may encounter on reports, individual educational programs, and in meetings. The book is useful to regular educators, special educators, and speech-language pathologists. Speech-language pathologists working in schools have found and will continue to find this text a valuable resource manual for providing information to classroom teachers in nontechnical language. Informative, clear, and relevant to their work, no professional working with students in the classroom should be without this state-of-the-art communications disorder reference.
Education / Philosophy
On the Future of Our Educational Institutions by Friedrich
Nietzsche, translated by Michael W. Grenke
(William of Moerbeke Translation Series:
Nietzsche read
On the Future of Our Educational Institutions publicly in the
form of five lectures in 1972 at the
On the Future of Our Educational Institutions is a substantial
call for radical educational reform presented in the form of a
prolonged narrative dialogue. The book, translated by Michael
Grenke, Tutor at
In
On the Future of Our Educational Institutions, Nietzsche
considers what it would mean to put education first in priority
above all else, above religion, above economics, even above the
state. The dialogue's call for educational reform goes so far as to
require that the state be completely subordinated to the demands and
needs of culture. The state must not be "a border guard, regulator,
or overseer for his culture; rather the robust, muscular comrade,
ready for battle, and companion on the way, who gives the admired,
nobler, and, as it were, unearthly friend safe conduct through the
harsh realities and for that earns his thankfulness."
In addition, this dialogue offers numerous objects of interest. The dialogue form shows off Nietzsche's literary art and offers an occasion to think carefully about the special tasks involved in reading philosophic texts well. The circumstances of this text's writing and its nearly being published offer insights both into Nietzsche's development and into the production of his works, especially regarding the Untimely Meditations. The letters and notes in the appendices help to flesh out the thinking that surrounds this text as well as to suggest the form of the never-written sixth lecture.
Michael Grenke’s superb edition of Nietzsche's …
On the Future of Our Educational Institutions throws us directly
into the center of two core concerns for students of Nietzsche and
political philosophy more generally. What is education? And what is
its relation to the larger political community: In
On the Future of Our Educational Institutions Nietzsche allows
himself to speak in a dramatic and popular style that puts into
practice the very themes his dialogue puts in question
theoretically. The Nietzsche of this volume addresses himself most
directly to an issue that occupied many German thinkers of the
nineteenth century: how to awaken or revive the German national
spirit: As Grenke's edition reveals with particular vividness,
Nietzsche's answer, at this state in his thinking, is, in an
important and puzzling sense, ‘musical.’
In keeping with these goals, Grenke's translation sets a new
standard of fidelity to Nietzsche's thought – Grenke transmits,
insofar as it is possible in English, not only the individual word
choices but also the grammatical rhythms of Nietzsche's language.
The result is a directness of access to the original that I have
rarely before seen in a translation of the work of a major thinker.
– Susan Shell,
These passionate lectures, delivered at Basel early in
Nietzsche's brief academic career in the same year in which his
famous first book The Birth of Tragedy appeared, yield valuable
insight into the thinking of the young Nietzsche. They deal not only
with what was wrong with education as he knew it, but also with his
first version of one of his lifelong preoccupations: the kind of
educational alternative that would better serve the advancement of
human culture and the enhancement of human life. This new
translation happily makes them readily available at long last to
English-speaking readers. – Richard Schacht,
Not only does
On the Future of Our Educational Institutions demand that the
state subordinate itself to education, but it goes on to suggest
that widespread educational institutions are for the sake of only a
small number of beneficiaries. This radical and uncompromising
devotion to the education of a very few sketches Nietzsche's
thoughts on education perhaps more completely than any other work.
Nietzsche's engagement with the immediate tradition of his
contemporary milieu, not only with Goethe, Schiller, and Lessing but
also with lesser figures such as Koetzebue, Grillparzer, and
Gutzkow, should be of interest to intellectual historians and
students of European culture, and this translation conveys that
well.
Entertainment / Humor / Fantasy
Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Letters by Brian Froud & Ari Berk (Harry N. Abrams, Inc.)
The Cottington Archive reluctantly announces that more information about the infamous Lady Cottington has surfaced: a scrapbook compiled by the fairy smasher herself of her correspondence with luminaries such as Queen Victoria, Annie Oakley, Igor Stravinsky, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Andrew Lang, P.T. Barnum, and more. All about fairies, these hilarious letters contain everything from wisdom to suggestions to chastisement. Lady Cottington has made notes in the margins not to mention smashed fairies throughout (will she EVER STOP this nasty habit?!). And the fairies...ah the fairies...they too have done their part, sprinkling magic and mayhem throughout.
Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Letters, a facsimile
reproduction of Lady Cottington's original volume, combines the
nutty artistry of the first two Lady Cottington books with
delightful novelty components. Containing ‘actual’ letters, invoices
for ‘spiritual services,’ a fairy Valentine, an invitation from
Alice Liddell to tea, and more, this newest interactive addition to
the Lady Cottington series is the most innovative to date.
Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Letters is ‘verified and
presented’ by Brian Froud, an award-winning illustrator, fairy
authority, and author of Lady Cottington's Pressed Fairy Book, with
Monty Python's Terry Jones, and Ari Berk, a folklorist, poet, and
scholar of literature, ethnography, iconography, and comparative
myth, and assistant professor of English at Central Michigan
University, Mount Pleasant.
This fanciful volume is really quite off the wall – think Monty Python, which was a project of the co-author of the previous volume, and readers will be on the right track.
Entertainment / Movies
Horror International edited by Steven Jay
Schneider & Tony Williams (Contemporary Approaches to Film and
Television Series: Wayne State University Press) provides a close
look at horror films from around the world, drawing attention to
neglected social, cultural, and ideological aspects of the horror
genre in international cinema.
As global cinema becomes increasingly difficult to distinguish,
characterizations of horror films from various geographical and
cultural locations seem more fluid and transitional than ever
before. However, this does not mean denying the existence of
national features that affect and are reflected in horror films,
whether from an artistic or a reception standpoint. Horror is one of
the most studied genres in cinema, yet none of the many books on the
subject focus on films or traditions outside the
Horror International seeks to rectify this by giving the global
perspectives and cross-cultural dynamics of world horror cinema its
due. This collection of eighteen original essays examines a myriad
of films, showing how each draws from
The book was edited by Steven Jay Schneider, PhD candidate in cinema
studies at
The essays in this volume not only examine new material but also focus on different conditions of audience reception, thereby stimulating fresh readings. These in turn shed new light on the original cultural production of many works as well as their subsequent ‘translations’ and meanings in different national contexts. The realities of the present era may complicate any attempts to read horror films exclusively against their original historical and cultural background, but at the same time, such realities can spark efforts to analyze the disparate nature of multicultural factors, resulting in diverse and illuminating readings such as those collected here.
The first section of
Horror International examines in a variety of contexts the
dynamics of cross-cultural horror exchange. Raiford Guins's "Blood
and Black Gloves on Shiny Disks: New Media, Old Tastes, and the
Remediation of Italian Horror Films in the
Section 2 of Horror International focuses on haunting histories and regional gothics, starting with Jyotsna Kapur's essay, "The Return of History as Horror: Onibaba and the Atomic Bomb." In the traditional Japanese horror film, the past haunts the present, invariably taking the form of the supernatural, of ghosts or spirits. As Kapur reveals, Shindo Kaneto's Onibaba (1964) is a radical reworking of this genre into a political allegory of survival in conditions of scarcity amidst class antagonism ruled by war. In “’Terror Australis’: Areas of Horror in the Australian Cinema,” Jonathan Rayner examines the location of the abhorrent and the definition of fear within Australian film, despite the apparent absence of the generically pure horror movie from the output of this country's national cinema since 1970. Rayner's analysis of some notable examples of the Australian feature film, including The Cars That Ate Paris (1974), Long Weekend (1979), Bliss (1985), and Incident at Raven's Gate (1988), reveals the ubiquity of horror motifs and subtexts within a variety of genres, from science fiction and fantasy to coming-of-age narratives and period dramas. Claiming that there is not a singular form of the ‘Kiwi Gothic’, but rather multiple variations, Ian Conrich analyzes such short films and features as The Scarecrow (1982), Trial Run (1984), Death Warmed Up (1984), Mr. Wrong (1985), Kitchen Sink (1989), Moonrise (1992), Braindead (1992), Jack Be Nimble (1993), and Possum (1997) in order to explicate the differences between the urban gothic, rural gothic, the psycho-drama, and gothic horror. Meanwhile, Brian Mcllroy looks at how the films of Neil Jordan – including The Company of Wolves (1984), High Spirits (1988), Interview with the Vampire (1993), and The Butcher Boy (1997) – interweave elements from the horror genre, the psychological thriller, and the Anglo-Irish Gothic. In "Thailand Haunted: The Power of the Past in the Contemporary Thai Horror Film," Adam Knee investigates three recent examples of the need to come to terms with Thai tradition and history in which the past and the feminine function as sources of anxiety. Perhaps the most interesting example, 303: Fear/Faith/ Revenge (1998) deals with potentially explosive facts involving students in the 1960s and the present.
Section 3 of
Horror International, beginning with Andrew Willis's essay, "The
Spanish Horror Film as Subversive Text: Eloy de la Iglesia's La
semana
The fourth section of
Horror International looks at a number of contested horror
traditions around the world. First, Jan Uhde examines the ‘implicit
horror’ in the distinctly non-generic films of Czech animator and
visual artist Jan Švankmajer. As Uhde reveals, Švankmajer's
pessimism, dark humor, and concern for the human condition reflect
the historical experience of his own country and that of
In "Burn, Witch, Burn: A First Look at the Scandinavian Horror
Film," Rebecca A. Umland and Samuel J. Umland begin by observing
that, in contrast to their American and Japanese counterparts (for
instance), Scandinavian horror movies do not readily invoke images
of marauding monsters or supernatural creatures. Surveying a number
of films from
All of the essays in
Horror International represent new approaches and attempts at
developing further work geared toward understanding the different
ways the horror genre operates within different national contexts.
Although
An important contribution to the field,
Horror International fills a very real need for scholarly work
that reaches beyond American horror and engages international
production. The book is particularly strong in its scope – not only
gialli,
The diverse and highly informative essays collected in Horror International bring much-deserved attention to issues that have received relatively limited attention to date. They will engross both scholars and fans of horror films and illuminate the distinct multicultural factors of this exciting cinematic genre. While the collection does not cover every country, it may stimulate more critical interest and work in these neglected areas, as well as additional approaches to the regions examined.
Entertainment / Movies / Music / Reference
Last Waltz of the Band by Neil Minturn (CMS Sourcebooks in American Music Series, Volume 2: Pendragon Press)
In this second volume in the College Music Society’s Sourcebooks
in American Music Series, Neil Minturn addresses the phenomenon of
rock and roll with a serious investigation of Martin Scorsese's
documentary film The Last Waltz (1978). This celebrated
‘rockumentary’ artfully captures for posterity the final public
performance of The Band, a partnership of one American and four
Canadians that yielded an impressive body of popular song in the
rock idiom between 1961 and 1976. Joining its members for their
farewell was a variety of friends and guests who – like the music of
The Band itself – reflected the rich array of vernacular expressions
that have nourished rock and roll since its emergence. Minturn,
associate professor of Music at the University of Missouri-Columbia,
approaches the performances and the film itself in terms of the
concepts of intimacy and tradition. He presents the
The five musicians who eventually became The Band first played
together as the Hawks in 1961. In 1965 Levon Helm, an American, and
four Canadians – Robbie Robertson, Garth Hudson, Richard Manuel, and
Rick Danko – began their association with Bob Dylan. It was not
until 1968, with the release of Music from Big Pink, that The Band
issued its first album, although the jacket makes no mention of a
group with that name. The ensemble's farewell occurred in
But rock & roll does not waltz. It marches, kicks, and stomps in duple and quadruple meters, not triple ones. In fact, such a designation calls to mind a popular mainstream heritage, one older and more traditional than the youthful rebellion represented by rock & roll. A last waltz is also an invitation and a gentle warning about the last chance to dance. The Band extended its invitation to an audience, to fans, and to many of the musicians with whom they had worked over the years and who, like its own members, helped shape rock & roll. What should be made of these musicians who began playing rock & roll but title their grand exit a waltz, who appeared on the rock scene anonymously in 1968 only to have Time magazine compare them to The Beatles two years later?
Part of the answer is found in The Last Waltz, The Band's closing
voluntary. The Last Waltz comprises the now-classic rock documentary
film directed by Martin Scorsese and the recording released
separately, originally a triple LP and now a double CD. (Available
in VHS format for the past several years, it has recently taken on
new life as a DVD; currently on the market is an expanded, four-CD
set including an after-the-concert jam.) In
Last Waltz of the Band, Neil Minturn studies The Last Waltz and
uses it as a platform from which to survey the career of a
remarkable force in American music. The actual concert that was ‘The
Last Waltz’ did not mark the end of The Band entirely; the project
as a whole continued for a short time. But after
Two important albeit somewhat abstract principles guide the exposition of many of the topics addressed Last Waltz of the Band: intimacy and tradition. The former is simply a special sense of closeness with implications of deep knowledge and emotional commitment while the latter is that connection with the past perceived by artist and thoughtful listener, both of whom may consciously nurture and enrich that connection. For the artist especially, an appreciation of tradition may inform such matters as self-awareness and constructed identity as well as determine the materials and conditions for self-expression.
During the 1960s the members of The Band developed their intimate
bonds. They lived together and played together for about eight years
before they ever released music as The Band. Big Pink, their adopted
headquarters near
Chapter 3 contains a scene-by-scene discussion of The Last Waltz.
A consideration of intimacy is useful here, too, where it becomes an
especially apt angle from which to view Scorsese's approach to
directing. Striking in the film's content is the absent concert
audience, which had been embedded as a staple ‘character’ in such
notable predecessors as Monterey Pop (1969) and
Tradition, the second principle guiding many discussions in Last Waltz of the Band, appears in at least two important guises. First, Ronnie Hawkins, an early mentor and band leader for the members of The Band in their incarnation as Hawks, relied on apprenticeship for developing musicians. One might find it hard to imagine a musical director hiring a musician on the basis of potential: "Son, I think someday you might just play violin very well. Here, here is a violin. Try it and see." But Hawkins brought Robbie Robertson into the group because he believed in Robertson's potential as a lead guitarist when Robertson was originally and primarily a bass player. Along with the other members of The Band, Robertson is a talented musician with acute ears. He was able to absorb musical influences from many different sources and, significantly, when transmitted by a mentor or the radio. No doubt his sensitivity remains intact.
In its second guise, tradition is expressed in Scorsese's study of film history. Like the music created by The Band, the film The Last Waltz was conceived with a full knowledge of existing practices and a strong appreciation of precedents – that is, within a well-informed understanding of tradition. Now considered a landmark, Scorsese's effort here commands a place in the history of documentary film, a cinematic genre in which rock documentary was by 1976 a well-established and important branch. Chapter 2, places the film and its direction in historical context – Minturn introduces some relevant aspects of film theory and calls attention to the nature of film documentary.
Tradition naturally helps frame the musical analysis in Chapter 4
– one can hardly imagine a rock & roller or a jazz musician who has
had no contact with the blues. Minturn shows how 12-bar blues is
fundamentally dependent upon plagal progressions. Signature
compositions of The Band, ‘Old Dixie’ and ‘Stage Fright,’ songs not
overtly based on the blues, nevertheless partake of the blues plagal
flavor. Chapter 4 concludes with investigations of two different
solos by Garth Hudson on ‘Stage Fright.’ His discussion concentrates
on harmonic analysis of the song and on the motivic coherence of
Last Waltz of the Band intentionally adopts a documentary attitude in Chapter 5 and cites artists, critics, and scholars commenting on a variety of topics. To the extent that documentation seeks sources that are unfiltered by external interpretation, the collection of comments demonstrates a kind of objectivity. Yet even those closely and purposefully involved with the same situation may view it in dramatically different ways. Not surprisingly, neither intimacy nor tradition guarantees uniformity or consistency.
In the final chapter Minturn situates The Band in the traditions
of American music and reprises the theme of intimacy and its
breakdown. He examines the broader musical landscape both preceding
and following The Last Waltz. Finally, he considers The Band's music
and musicians in the context of
Epigraphs appear throughout. Most derive from two sources: Mark Twain's The Innocents Abroad, or The New Pilgrims' Progress (first published in 1869) and Don DeLillo's Great Jones Street (1973). Four appendices present, respectively, a cast of characters; the play list of the 1976 concert; a timeline detailing The Band's career; and reprints of three reviews that responded to the film in 1978. Two of the latter represent the mainstream American popular press, Jack Kroll writing for Newsweek and Frank Rich for Time; the third is a translation of a more sophisticated critical essay by Michael Henry that originally appeared in the French film journal Positif.
Last Waltz of the Band is a thorough reference volume on one of the seminal bands of rock and roll and, thereby, on the development of the genre itself. The volume provides extensive detail, perhaps more background on the songs than anyone would want to know, except perhaps someone who was there and listened to every one of them.
Entertainment / Movies
Star Wars Poster Book by Stephen J. Sansweet & Peter Vilmur (Chronicle Books)
One of the very first Star Wars posters had no images at all –
just enormous block letters that announced, "Coming to Your Galaxy
This Summer: Star Wars." The rest is history. Now, 28 years later,
in the
Star Wars Poster Book, movie posters from the series are
collected for the first time.
George Lucas himself spearheaded the design of the early Star Wars
movie posters.
He envisioned characters in action poses, brimming with movement, visually popping out of the poster's confines. He suggested the now-famous Star Wars logo type should look ‘fascist’ and the posters' color schemes be vibrant yet mysterious. In short, Lucas wished to return to the golden age of poster design. Over the next several decades, Lucasfilm accomplished that and more, generating thousands of visually unique and iconic posters for six Star Wars films.
Collected in Star Wars Poster Book are 350 of the best Star Wars movie posters – some famously identifiable, some extremely rare, many hand-illustrated and hand-painted. Considered to be some of the greatest of their time, these foreign and domestic posters range from surreal to ultra-realistic, from campy to darkly serious – Darth Vader's head exploding into a shower of camera parts in a poster from Poland; young Anakin Skywalker casting a large, ominous Sith shadow; C-3PO and R2-D2 selling Star Wars shoes; Luke and Vader engaging in mortal battle within the Death Star. Authors Stephen J. Sansweet, the world's foremost collector of Star Wars memorabilia, director of content management and head of fan relations at Lucasfilm, and Peter Vilmur, a top poster collector, an online content developer at Lucasfilm, are the guides, joining classic posters with text, offering behind-the-scenes stories, insightful quotes from the poster artists and designers, and, for serious collectors, a comprehensive rating scale of more than 2,000 Star Wars posters along with a bootleg identification guide.
Exploding with color, Star Wars Poster Book illuminates an unexplored corner of Star Wars history. Fans will be overjoyed at this collection of over 350 of the most amazing posters, all in one place in this stunning volume.
Entertainment / Music / Reference
The Billboard Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz & Blues edited by Howard Mandel (Billboard Books)
The developments in popular music in the twentieth and
twenty-first century have been vast and diverse, with a gradual
shift from basic instruments and simple, melodic structures towards
more complex works and the increasing use of advancing technology.
However, the origins of Western popular music can often be traced
back to the two strains of African-American music that developed
towards the end of the nineteenth century – jazz, hot from the
multicultural, urban melting pot of
The Billboard Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz & Blues is the definitive one-volume resource on everything jazz and blues. The book, written by a distinguished team of eleven US and UK authorities, is edited by Howard Mandel, contributor to Down Beat magazine, arts feature producer for National Public Radio, and author of How Miles Davis, Ornette Coleman, and Cecil Taylor Revolutionized the World of Jazz and Future Jazz. The foreword is by John Scofield, considered one of the ‘big three’ of the current jazz guitarists.
The Billboard Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz & Blues is organized chronologically by decade. The introductory text to each chapter provides essential background information, while the Themes & Styles sections place the music into its cultural, historical and social contexts and discuss how jazz and blues developed during the period. Biographical sections then focus on the Key Artists of each decade, detailing the key tracks and classic recordings of each artist, before exploring the lives of numerous other important musicians, vocalists, composers, arrangers, bandleaders and producers in an A-Z of Artists and their key recordings. The comprehensive reference section includes information on jazz and blues instruments, an extensive artist list, a glossary and recommended further reading. The text is supported by hundreds of atmospheric photographs, painting a picture of the people who have created and played jazz and blues throughout the years, and the states, cities and clubs that informed the way the music developed. Readers learn how jazz and blues have changed over the past century – and then use dedicated Web links to hear those changes.
Written by a team of experts, authoritative, comprehensive yet concise, The Billboard Illustrated Encyclopedia of Jazz & Blues is an ideal reference volume for anyone with an interest in these two enduring musical styles, perfect for students, jazz and blues fans, and all music lovers. With history, artist biographies, and illustrative mp3s, this book is one-stop shopping for a great overview of two important musical forms.
Health, Mind & Body / Death & Grief
Eating Stone: Imagination and the Loss of the Wild by Ellen Meloy (Pantheon)
Among the steep cliffs of
Desert bighorn sheep are animals whose natural territory continues shrinking with the development of the West, who suffer from attacks by wild predators as well as from domestic sheep diseases. In Eating Stone, tying together observation with scientific study, mediation with detailed description, Ellen Meloy brings to life the world of the bighorn sheep, the personalities of the rams and ewes, the sight of lambs jumping five feet straight up, the steepness of the canyon walls that the sheep run down with gravity-defying lightness. Meloy is the author of three other books, including the 2003 Pulitzer Prize finalist, The Anthropology of Turquoise. She received a Whiting Foundation Award in 1997, and spent most of her life in wild, remote places. She died suddenly in November of last year, just after completing Eating Stone. As Verlyn Klinkenborg wrote in the New York Times, “Like any good naturalist, Ellen also recorded many true things about herself, things that her sudden death make even truer somehow.” As a girl, she wrote, ‘I thought I would never survive my imagination.’ She survived it just long enough for friends and readers to see how powerful it really was.”
Eating Stone describes the mystery of the bighorns' self-rescue. In the role of an ‘amiable, nosy neighbor,’ Meloy matches her seasonal geography to theirs, observing cycles of breeding and birth, predators and death, the exquisite match of animal to place, of blood and bone to a magnificent redrock canyon. Meloy helps transport part of the Blue Door Band to a separate canyon, so that if something happens in one place, the other sheep might still survive. She eats a ram that has been killed, and writes “the taste of meat lingers on my tongue. Rain and river. Bedrock to soil to plant to milk to bone, muscle, and sinew. I am eating my canyon. Eating stone.”
“We have allowed ourselves few places and scant ways to witness other species in their own world,” Meloy writes, “an estrangement that has left us lonely and spiritually hungry”.
On backcountry hikes, downriver floats, and travels to
Ellen Meloy's
Eating Stone is an incomparable work of power, beauty, wisdom,
tenderness, and great humor. This book reminds me of what it is I
love about reading great books: time stops, and a deeper
understanding, a deeper way of being, inhabits the reader. Ellen is
missed deeply, and all the more so when reflected in the beauty of
these pages. – Rick Bass, author of Caribou Rising
In nearly every writer's life, one book stands out from the others. While all of the books might be fine, one proclaims the writer's energy and passion, all of her heart and all of her soul. Eating Stone is that book for Ellen Meloy. It is her prayer, her elegy, her song for mountain sheep and for all of life in this wondrous, breakable world. – Nora Gallagher, author of Practicing Resurrection and Things Seen and Unseen
In telling the story of a lost flock of mountain sheep, Meloy leads us through that ‘spellbound threshold between humanity and the rest of nature.’ There, in the radiance of her patient, enthralling observation, we encounter the mortality of the natural world, that increasingly familiar place where ‘deep landscape falls farther and farther away, always at the point of loss.’ – Honor Moore, author of Red Shoes
… However, a surprising levity punctuates the book, as when she
writes, ‘Only sheep and lions fully understand sheep-lion dynamics.’
This humor balances her darker observations about the crushing
footprint of humanity on the wild. In emotional, visceral prose
Meloy makes no apologies for anthropomorphizing the rams and the
ewes, writing, ‘I wanted the sheep to adopt me, a kind of reverse Bo
Peep arrangement.’ – Publishers Weekly
An inspired reflection on the bond between wild creatures and the human imagination, Eating Stone is told as a chronicle of four seasons with a band of rare desert bighorn sheep. With humor and compassion, Meloy reveals the essential relationship between animals and humans, the deep bond created by history and evolution alongside her sadness that the world of the wild is fast ending. “Animals give us a voice,” she writes, “They map a world we want to live in. Without them, we are homeless.”
Health, Mind & Body / Psychology & Counseling
Memories of Loss and Dreams of Perfection: Unsuccessful
Childhood Grieving and Adult Creativity by Delmont C.
Morrison & Shirley
For the child who has lost a parent or sibling, unsuccessful grieving is the result of anxiety and unresolved conflict related to the deceased, who is known not through ongoing experience but through compensatory memory. Unacceptable thoughts about the deceased person generate internal anxiety; repression occurs, and the unconscious develops. The child's major defense is identification with the idealized lost sibling or parent. Disruptions occur in the development of representational, reflective, and autonomous thought. In Memories of Loss and Dreams of Perfection, the authors illustrate the clinical issues related to unsuccessful grieving in childhood with a presentation of the play therapy of two children. The authors are Delmont Morrison, retired Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, University of California, San Francisco, Director of the Clinical Psychology Training Program, and Director of the Early Childhood Development Clinic, who shares a long-standing interest in imagination and creativity with his wife Shirley; and Shirley Linden Morrison, faculty member at Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont, California, where she teaches mythology and literature.
Because of issues related to development, unsuccessful grieving in childhood is different from that in adulthood. The enduring effects of such conflicts established during childhood are seen in the adult whose preoccupations with death and loss result in chronic feelings of low self-esteem, depression, and incompleteness. This results in repeated attempts to enter into romanticized relationships with idealized individuals who temporarily mitigate the feeling of low self-esteem and the memories of loss. For the creative individual, these relationships produce stories that attempt to master death with conclusions that are more supportive of their wished-for relationships and sense of self. The Morrisons use the lives and writings of Emily Bronte, J. M. Barrie, Isak Dinesen, and Jack Kerouac to illustrate the relationship between unsuccessful grieving in childhood and imagination and creativity. Memories of Loss and Dreams of Perfection incorporates scientific research, clinical case studies, and biographies in a manner that provides us with a deeper understanding of the fiction of these authors.
Chapters include:
-
-
Imagination and the Shock of Recognition
-
Memories of Loss
-
Playing with Magic
-
Dreams of Perfection
-
Emily Bronte and Her Visitant: Lost Love and Creativity
-
J. M. Barrie: A Search for the Eternal Boy of Neverland
-
Isak Dinesen: Romantic Ideation and the Quest for Self
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Jack Kerouac: Saints and Fallen Angels
-
Final Thoughts: Loss, Love, and Creativity
The Morrisons' narrative is at once scholarly and sensitively
drawn, at times even bringing tears to one's eyes. Here one sees the
life-altering pain and disruption of loss, which can lead to
constriction, defense, and limited self. It may also, at times, lead
to challenge, a wish to master, and creative coping. Through the
alchemy of the written word, some authors have transformed the lead
of pain into creative gold. Delmont and Shirley Morrison help us
understand this mystery and the sources of this creative gift to us
all. You will never see J. M. Barrie's Peter Pan in the same way
again. – Ruth Richards, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Psychology,
This book is a major contribution to the literature on child
development, loss, and creativity. The Morrisons have produced a
masterful synthesis of the literature and show a deep understanding
of how loss in childhood can affect emotion and imagination in the
child and the creative process in the adult. Their book is unique in
that it (1) presents new ideas and expands our understanding of the
complex interrelationships among loss, child development, and
creativity, and (2) presents clinical cases of play therapy and case
studies of creative adults to illustrate theory and concepts.
Memories of Loss and Dreams of Perfection is also very
interesting and enjoyable to read. – Sandra Russ, Ph.D., Professor
of Psychology,
Sensitively presented, Memories of Loss and Dreams of Perfection is a major contribution to the field of child development and it helps us understand our own creativity.
Health, Mind & Body / Psychology & Counseling
The Psychopath: Emotion and the Brain by James
Blair, Derek Robert Mitchell, Karina Peschardt (Blackwell
Publishing)
Psychopathy is a disorder embedded in mystique, controversy and
fantasy. Consistently portrayed in the media and popular culture as
unusual, inhumane and emotionless creatures, individuals with
psychopathy are the bogeymen of today’s society, and the label
psychopathy is used widely to describe a broad range of notorieties
from political figures to serial killers.
The Psychopath separates fact from fiction. Written by James
Blair, Chief of the Unit on Affective Cognitive Neuroscience in the
Mood and Anxiety Disorders Program of the National Institute of
Mental Health Intramural Research Program, and Derek Mitchell and
Karina Blair both of the same unit, it presents the scientific facts
of psychopathy and antisocial behavior. It addresses critical issues
such as the definition of psychopathy, the number of psychopathic
individuals in society, whether they can be treated, and whether
psychopathy is rooted in nature or nurture.
More controversially, the authors present their ground-breaking research into whether an underlying abnormality in brain development, reducing emotional learning, is at the heart of the disorder. The resulting theory could lead to early diagnosis and revolutionize the way society, the media, and the state both view and contend with the psychopaths in our midst.
The psychopath always fascinates, and this new book rises to the
challenge of its subject. The book exhaustively covers everything
known about psychopathy to date. It also brings an exciting new
theory, exploring the neuro-biological underpinnings of psychopaths'
broken emotions.
The Psychopath will be an engrossing read for any clinician,
scientist or student who wants to understand that mysterious
individual, the criminal psychopath. – Professor Terrie Moffitt,
A comprehensive summary of recent research on the cognitive,
emotional, and neurological correlates to psychopathy. One of the
few resources to consider the manifestations of psychopathy
throughout the lifespan. – Professor Paul J. Frick, Director,
Applied Developmental Psychology Program,
A gem of a contribution to the field of psychopathy…. – Professor
Joseph Newman,
The understanding of psychopathy has increased enormously in the past 10 years. Psychopathology is an emotional disorder & there is little doubt that there is a genetic base; however which genes are involved and what they are specifically affecting remains basically unknown. The authors lucidly describe discoveries about emotional processing in psychopaths. The Psychopath is timely book which performs a notable service in providing this highly readable survey, summarizing the strengths and weaknesses of various theoretical accounts, the implications for forensic, adult and child psychiatry and the need for further research.
Health, Mind & Body / Psychology & Counseling
When the Bubble Bursts: Clinical Perspectives on Midlife Issues
by Eda G. Goldstein (The Analytic Press,
Inc., Publishers)
What is it about the challenges and stresses of midlife that
disrupts equilibrium and promotes a sense of despair, even of
crisis? Why does this stage of the life cycle give rise to new
mental and physical symptoms that, for some, lead to chronic
unhappiness to the point of dysfunction?
It is striking that, amid a voluminous literature on
psychodynamic psychotherapy, so little attention has been paid to
the narcissistic vulnerabilities of midlife and the manner in which
they enter into the psychotherapy of midlife patients. Eda Goldstein
remedies this glaring gap in the literature with
When the Bubble Bursts.
Of course, there are common midlife events that account for the
special narcissistic vulnerabilities of midlife, and Eda Goldstein
reviews these events and the theoretical perspectives commonly
brought to bear on them. In this study, however, Goldstein’s special
concern is those individuals who come to midlife with heightened
narcissistic vulnerabilities that make the navigation of this stage
of life more difficult still.
In understanding the latter such patients and devising a treatment approach appropriate to their ‘self’ issues, Goldstein, Professor and Director of the Post Master’s Certificate Program in Clinical Practice of the Ehrenkranz School of Social Work of New York University, adopts a broadly self-psychological frame of reference. It is a matter, she finds, of understanding how current stressors frustrate healthy self needs and trigger narcissistic vulnerabilities. Self-psychologically informed treatment, which, in Goldstein’s pragmatic purview, embraces modalities that are, to varying degrees, supportive, psychodynamic, and psychoanalytic, reworks and strengthens self structures in helping patients find new ways of affirming their sense of self. Goldstein's substantive case studies, which accompany readers through all the chapters in her study, draw on personal and supervisory experiences to illustrate crucial foci of the treatment process with a range of midlife patients in psychotherapy.
In When the Bubble Bursts, deftly guided excursions into the realm of midlife theory are complemented by expertly crafted, detailed case illustrations. Eda Goldstein's skillful rendering of clinical process is enhanced by her decision to follow several cases over the course of treatment. Although avowedly self psychological in her orientation, Goldstein espouses an approach that is creative and integrative, matched only by her clinical acumen and the candor she displays in discussing contributions from the side of the therapist. – Jerrold R. Brandell, Ph.D., Editor-in-Chief, Psychoanalytic Social Work
When the Bubble Bursts is an admirable blend of theoretical astuteness, clinical wisdom, and personal honesty. This study of midlife narcissistic pathology, bracketed by Goldstein’s balanced discussion of theoretical perspectives on adult development and her concluding consideration of the counter-transference issues elicited by midlife patients in their midlife therapists, is an edifying and ingratiating contribution to the literatures of psychodynamic psychotherapy, self psychology, and adult development. The book is graciously rendered, contributing to our understanding of the trials, tribulations, and creative possibilities of midlife.
History / African Americans / Discrimination & Racism
When Affirmative Action Was White: An Untold History of Racial
Inequality in Twentieth-Century America by Ira
Katznelson (W. W. Norton & Company) is a groundbreaking work on
the history of racial inequality in
In this revisionist work that fundamentally recasts readers’
understanding of twentieth-century American history, Ira Katznelson
demonstrates that the economic policies enacted during the Great
Depression and the ensuing decades not only excluded African
Americans from attaining social parity but actually widened the gap
between white and black living standards. Given this history of
discriminatory legislation, it is no accident that more than forty
years after Congress passed the Civil Rights Act, and more than one
hundred and forty years since the abolition of slavery, the average
black family in
Katznelson, Ruggles Professor of Political Science and History at
Administered in discriminatory ways, New Deal programs set out deliberately to exclude various minority groups. Subsidies reached a large number of Americans, but laws like the Social Security Act were worded in such a way as to deny benefits to entire categories of people, many of them minorities working as maids, farmers, and migrant workers. Instead of leveling the playing field, Katznelson argues, the New Deal and policies in subsequent periods actually exacerbated the gap between white and black Americans.
Even after World War II, when the country had pulled itself out of the Depression and the federal government began underwriting the housing and schooling of its veterans, laws like the GI Bill became the province of the states, often preventing black veterans from receiving the benefits they had earned. As Katznelson writes, "virtually no black veterans [in the South] were given access to skilled positions despite their experience with ... such work in the military."
Aware of these economic inequalities, Lyndon Johnson, once a supporter of segregationist policies himself, set out to undo past wrongs. Yet even the Great Society programs and landmark civil rights legislation of the 1960s – the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Open Housing Act of 1968 – together with modern affirmative action have been unable to undermine the legacy of early government initiatives that compounded racial inequality.
Ira Katznelson's incisive book should change the terms of debate about affirmative action, and about the last seventy years of American history. He demonstrates conclusively that the gap in wealth between black and white Americans results not simply from the legacy of slavery but from more recent government policies that quite intentionally directed benefits to whites while excluding blacks. – Eric Foner, author of The Story of American Freedom
When Affirmative Action Was White lucidly shows that economic
disparities between white and black
Ira Katznelson is a towering figure in the study of American and
European history. This book tells a powerful and painful story of an
overlooked paradox: how in the 1930s and '40s, the white middle
class was forged alongside the setting back of the black quest for
citizenship. Even after the civil rights movement, we are reaping
this bitter harvest. – Cornel West, author of Democracy Matters
Ira Katznelson demonstrates how leaving blacks out was the price that the New Deal and Great Society paid for southern support to overcome the Great Depression and create individual wealth so widely enjoyed today. Programs that made possible higher education, union membership, home ownership, welfare, and other advantages marginalized blacks, particularly veterans. . . . Professor Katznelson demonstrates that affirmative action today rightly may be viewed as compensation for denials to past black generations that continue to affect their children and grandchildren. – Jack Greenberg, author of Crusaders in the Courts: Legal Battles of the Civil Rights Movement
A revelatory look at the history of affirmative action from the
New Deal to Lyndon Johnson's Great Society and beyond, this
groundbreaking work exposes the twisted origins of affirmative
action. With a broad cast of characters, including W. E. B. Du Bois,
Harry Truman, and Lewis Powell, among many others,
When Affirmative Action Was White takes a fresh look at a
neglected history of race and public policy. Through an impassioned
plea for a comprehensive and viable approach to reducing poverty and
inequality in
History / Biographies & Memoirs
Party in the Blitz: The English Years by Elias Canetti, with an afterword by Jeremy Adler, translated by Michael Hofmann (New Directions)
Newly discovered in 2003, and never before available in English, Party in the Blitz is the final chapter in Elias Canetti's autobiography begun with The Tongue Set Free, The Torch in my Ear, and The Play of the Eyes.
Canetti (1905-1994) was an anthropologist, autobiographer,
cultural theorist, essayist, man of letters, moralist, novelist,
playwright, prose writer, satirist, sociologist, travel writer, and
translator. He lived primarily in
In
Party in the Blitz, written when he was 85 years old, Canetti
finally comes to terms with his years of exile in
He waited half a century to confront these memories, perhaps
because "in order to be truthful, I should have to track down every
needless humiliation I was offered in
Unlike the Augustan calm of his earlier memoir volumes, Party in the Blitz seems to surge out of the maniacal well-spring of Auto-da-Fé and more than lives up to Canetti's injunction that "when you write down your life, every page should contain something no one has ever heard about."
Vivid portraits, affectionate but unsparing, of people
encountered by Nobel Laureate Canetti while living in
Splendidly entertaining. – Guardian (
The 20th century's most magnificent obsessive, Elias Canetti deliberately left us this posthumous surprise: a festival of Anglophobia that is both party and Blitz. – Eliot Weinberger
[Canetti is] someone who has felt in a profound way the responsibility of words. There is no doctrine, but there is a great deal of scorn, urgency, grief, and euphoria. The message of the mind's passion is passion. `I try to imagine someone saying to Shakespeare, "Relax!"' says Canetti. His work eloquently defends tension, exertion, moral and amoral seriousness. – Susan Sontag
Simply, plainly, vertiginously deep. – William Gass, The New
Republic
Canetti's brilliance as a writer shines out, particularly as it
works to bring alive his intellectual passions and – occasionally a
measure of personal pain. – Richard Eder, The Los Angeles Times Book
Review
… Despite Canetti's stated disdain for the social whirl and his
claim to feel nowhere else "more miserable and solitary than at
parties," he makes a remarkable number of appearances at them and
uses these events as observation platforms into the world of English
classism. Students of literary life of this era will find this
memoir overflowing with general observations, but specific,
unprejudiced insights may be substantially fewer in number. – Mark
Knoblauch, Booklist
Party in the Blitz, the stunning and unexpected new volume of Canetti's autobiography, dissects his torture with a bracing vigor and unrestrained acerbity, as Canetti recounts his life in a new country where – with the single exception of Arthur Waley – not a soul knew his writing. The masterful translation is by Michael Hofmann, who has translated the works of Bertolt Brecht, Franz Kafka, Wolfgang Koepen, and his father, Gert Hofmann, among others.
History / Business & Investing
The Worker's Festival: A History of Labour Day in
For most Canadians today, Labour Day is the last gasp of summer fun: the final long weekend before returning to the everyday routine of work or school. But over its century-long history, there was much more to the September holiday than just having a day off.
In The Worker's Festival, Craig Heron and Steve Penfold examine the complicated history of Labour Day from its origins as a spectacle of skilled workers in the 1880s through to its declaration as a national statutory holiday in 1894 and finally to its reinvention throughout the twentieth century.
The holiday's inventors hoped to blend labour solidarity,
community celebration, and increased leisure time by organizing
parades, picnics, speeches, and other forms of respectable
recreation. As the holiday evolved, so too did the rituals, with
trade unionists embracing new forms of parading, negotiating, and
bargaining, and other social groups reshaping the day and making it
their own. Authors Heron, professor in the Department of History at
The Worker's Festival covers many of the key themes of labour
history: union politics and rivalries, radical movements, religion
(Catholic and Protestant), race and gender, and consumerism/leisure;
as well as of cultural history: public celebration/urban procession,
urban space and communication, and popular culture. From
With this full-blown celebration of working people, Craig Heron
and Steve Penfold have accomplished what all social historians
strive for: bringing to life a piece of our past, helping us to
examine it and learn from it. Packed with illustrations and photos,
The Worker's Festival is an engaging read that captures the
spirit of another time and gives a sense of where the modern labour
‘demonstration’ originated. – Paul Moist, National President,
Canadian
Carefully documented and analytically nuanced,
The Worker's Festival is an ambitious, original, and highly
sophisticated study in the history of public culture that addresses
the evolution of one of the more historically complicated holidays
on the Canadian calendar. Craig Heron and Steve Penfold succeed in
providing a thoughtful and illuminating portrait of the changing
place of labour in Canadian society. – David Frank, Professor of
History, University of
Ranging over a wide variety of themes,
The Worker's Festival is an interesting read which should appeal
to both
History / Education
The History of Inclusion in the United States by Robert L.
Osgood (
As a significant term, inclusion came into use relatively
recently in the long history of special education in the
In this study, author Robert L. Osgood, Associate Professor of
Education at Indiana University/Purdue University in
Since the enactment of PL 94-142, the Education for All
Handicapped Children Act of 1975, the
Consequently, special education has become a significant and highly visible component of American education, directly or indirectly affecting the lives of virtually every student and teacher in the nation's public education system.
The History of Inclusion in the United States examines the development of the idea and its essential elements over time. The book is actually an examination of the ideal of authentic physical, educational, psychological, and interpersonal integration of children with disabilities in regular education settings: how it started, who has supported it and why, who has questioned it and why, and what our responses as a society have meant to the education of all students, whether formally identified as disabled or not.
Chapter 1 provides an overview of the emergence of segregated
facilities for persons with disabilities in the
Chapter 5 looks at the period 1976 to 1984, when public schools struggled to meet the challenges of the Education for All Handicapped Children law and a few scholars and practitioners began championing much stronger collaboration, cooperation, and interdependence between special educators and regular educators through professional development and pilot educational programs. Chapter 6 then focuses on the debate over the Regular Education Initiative, a generalized, somewhat amorphous umbrella term for efforts to blur the distinctions of power and separate identity among special education and regular education students, teachers, and programs. In Chapter 7, the specific cases of giftedness and deafness are examined in terms of their contributions to and impact on the idea of inclusion, highlighting how considerations for children with these labels complicated both the ethical and practical aspects of the debate. Chapter 8 outlines recent developments in the idea of inclusion, summarizes the current lines of contention in the debate over its viability, considers what the impact of the No Child Left Behind Act will be on special education, and explores what the history of the field might tell us about its prospects for the future and about possibilities for framing inclusion in a way that can be accepted by most of the stakeholders involved.
The History of Inclusion in the United States concentrates
almost exclusively on developments in the
History /
Imperial Grunts: The American Military on the Ground by Robert D. Kaplan (Random House)
In
Imperial Grunts, Kaplan provides an insider’s account not only
of our current involvement in world affairs, but also of where
This is not just a book about
Rather than debate imperialism, Kaplan relies on his understanding
of history, philosophy, and in-the-field reporting to show how it
actually works on the ground.
As Kaplan writes, the only way to understand America’s military is “on foot, or in a Humvee, with the troops themselves, for even as elites in New York and Washington debated imperialism in grand, historical terms, individual marines, soldiers, airmen, and sailors – all the cultural repositories of America’s unique experience with freedom – were interpreting policy on their own, on the ground, in dozens upon dozens of countries every week, oblivious to such faraway discussions. . . . It was their stories I wanted to tell: from the ground up, at the point of contact.”
Imperial Grunts escapes
One of the most important books of the last several years.
Robert Kaplan … takes us on to the front lines with the new
warrior-diplomats who use weapons, imagination, and personal passion
to protect and advance the interests of the
Imperial Grunts is the most insightful and superbly written
account of soldiering in the
Through astonishing observations, truths, and stories,
Imperial Grunts introduces a brand-new way of thinking about the
enduring virtue of the American spirit. – George Crile, author of
Charlie Wilson’s War
No recent book so well or so vividly portrays the challenges of the
modern
Imperial Grunts is vintage Robert Kaplan, combining a deep
appreciation of history and wonderfully vivid writing with an
infectious wanderlust. – Max Boot, Senior Fellow, National Security
Studies, the Council on Foreign Relations, author of The Savage Wars
of Peace
Splendid! This is the finest work in print about today’s American
fighting men and the challenges they face around the globe. Kaplan’s
courage in researching this book under combat conditions is
complemented by his integrity and great literary skill.
Imperial Grunts simply could not be better. – Ralph Peters,
author of Beyond Baghdad
…In all, this is one of a number of group portraits of the
Imperial Grunts is the rare book that has the potential to
change the way readers view the men and women of the military, war,
and the global reach of American imperialism today. Extraordinary in
its scope, beautifully written,
Imperial Grunts, the first of two volumes, combines first-rate
reporting with the sensitivity and insights of an acclaimed writer
steeped in history, literature, and philosophy, to deliver a
masterly account of
History /
The JFK Myths: A Scientific Investigation of the Kennedy Assassination by Larry M. Sturdivan (Paragon House Publishers)
The JFK Myths is written by the person most qualified to tell it
– Larry M. Sturdivan. Larry's biography is impressive enough, but it
does not give the full measure of the man and why he is the person
to deliver this message. In 1961, Sturdivan graduated from
What is so important about The JFK Myths? Quite simply, it tells the opposite story from what everyone else is telling about the assassination, and it buttresses the story with facts and figures at every turn. The other 1999 books tell readers that the case is so detailed, intricate, and contaminated by the long years of official mistakes – and misconduct – that it will probably never be solved. But The JFK Myths shows that just the opposite is true – that thanks to the abundance of physical evidence and its long, careful investigation by many experts, there remain remarkably few loose ends.
On
The Warren Commission began its probe a few days later and
published a report in 1964 concluding that Oswald, some months after
taking a missed shot at a prominent right-wing general, had shot the
president from a sixth-floor window and had acted alone. A flood of
books followed, claiming botched investigations, multiple gunmen,
and conspiracies of greater or lesser magnitude. In 1967,
In 1976-78, after public pressure, the U. S. House of Representatives formed a Select Committee on Assassinations (HSCA) and began a new review of the case. Larry Sturdivan and William K. Hartmann, who wrote the introduction to the book, along with a number of other scientists and technical researchers, found themselves tapped to examine various aspects of the evidence, using the latest techniques of analysis and new facts uncovered in intervening years. Hartmann entered the fray as an analyst of photographic images, thinking there was a good chance we would find evidence of multiple gunmen, but the more Hartmann learned about the evidence, the more he became convinced it all pointed back to Oswald acting on his own. Sturdivan, an expert in interpreting wounds caused by bullets and other projectiles along with others of the technical staff – moved in the same direction. Nonetheless, the official 1978 finding of the committee was that although Oswald fired all known shots including those that killed the president, there was a "high probability that two gunmen fired" from different directions, and that "on the basis of the evidence.... Kennedy was probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy."
This murky finding, of course, unleashed new books charging various far-reaching conspiratorial plots. In 1991, Oliver Stone built his widely-discussed film JFK around the Garrison investigation and a potpourri of conspiracy ideas – but the film was intriguing more as a rambling, noir-ish record of the American zeitgeist than as a coherent theory of the crime.
What really happened? What is the real evidence behind the morass of charges and counter-charges? The JFK Myths not only shines light on the inner workings of the House Select Committee on Assassinations, but gives some sober answers based on the Committee's new findings. Some of the new evidence that impressed Hartmann during his service on the technical staff is discussed here in detail.
Strangely, as chronicled here by Sturdivan, the leader the House
Select Committee investigation staff, prominent
The scientific method, on the other hand, deliberately lays out all bits of relevant evidence on the table, and debates them in collegial manner. The reward is not in ‘winning the debate,’ but rather in being the one who provides the best evidence. The method is specifically not to advocate one side from the outset, but to attempt to remain neutral, to find evidence that can root out false hypotheses and to identify the one interpretation that best fits the whole body of evidence – this is the method employed by The JFK Myths.
This is one of the most important books on the Kennedy
assassination ever written…. This book alone tells the clear, simple
story of the assassination provided by the physical evidence. – Ken
Rahn, Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry Emeritus,
This is an excellent book that I recommend without any
hesitation. It is the only book to address the firearms and
ballistic aspects of the JFK assassination in a logical,
knowledgeable and scientific manner. It dispels the myths and
falsehoods that have either grown up or been generated about the
weapon, and the wounds. Anyone interested in the Kennedy
assassination must have a copy of this book. – Vincent DiMaio,
Nationally recognized JFK expert and Medical Examiner of Bexar
County,
A breakthrough work…the written record on this subject is begging
for more authoritative work like this. The manner in which Sturdivan
presents this new information is extremely effective. Besides having
a wealth of scientific knowledge, he is truly a skillful writer. –
The collision between the advocacy method and the scientific
method of solving cases is a key factor in understanding our times.
Larry Sturdivan shows how it played out in promoting doubts about
one of the most notorious 20th century crimes. – William K.
Hartmann, Planetary Science Institute,
This is an important book on the Kennedy assassination – in contrast to the thousands of other books on this topic out there, The JFK Myths tells the clear, simple story of the assassination provided by the physical evidence. It stands in contrast to the other books, articles, videotapes, and conferences, which focus on weaker evidence such as witness testimony, events before the assassination, attendant circumstances, and errors and omissions of the official investigations. Especially interesting is its presentation of the advocate vs. scientific methods of deciding on the validity of hypotheses or versions of a case or issue, described earlier in this review.
History /
The City As Suburb: A History of
The growth of
Located where the piedmont descends into the tidewater,
In 1737 country estates of
Holcomb considers the legacy of ‘founding families.’ For example,
the commanding presence of Johns Hopkins's Italian Villa, ‘
In The City As Suburb, one sees the patterns of human activity in a not-so-distant past. The role of the church in community building, particularly the social network of the Quakers and the Methodists, defines the character of the earliest communities. Reverence for the generations that came before can be appreciated in the study of twenty historic cemeteries, including B'Nae Israel, Laurel Hill, and Immanuel Lutheran. In contrast, the significance of breweries in the local economy is also emphasized, as it fostered a beer garden culture in the late nineteenth century.
One of the earliest planned suburbs in
Eric L. Holcomb presents a thoughtful portrait of an evolving
landscape. It reflects the virtue of careful study, an unrelenting
curiosity, and a true affection for a worthy place. – Kathleen G.
Kotarba, Executive Director,
The City As Suburb has regional appeal, is well researched and
organized, and contains important information for regional
researchers and readers. – Edward K. Muller, Professor of History,
University of
Holcomb reveals in
The City As Suburb how
The Global Experience: Readings in World History to 1550, Volume 1, 5th Edition by Philip F. Riley, Frank Gerome, Robert L. Lembright, Henry Myers, & Chong-kun Yoon (Pearson Prentice Hall) is a brief, balanced collection of primary materials organized chronologically and focused on global themes.
In preparing this fifth edition of The Global Experience:
Readings in World History to 1550, the authors put forth their
three concerns: First, any informed understanding of the world
at the opening of the third millennium, when the world is rapidly
becoming one, must begin with history. The authors, Philip F. Riley,
Frank Gerome, Robert L. Lembright, Henry Myers, & Chong-kun Yoon,
all at
Second, to encourage the comparative study of world history and to reinforce the underlying links between civilizations, they have organized the readings into chronological sections. By doing so, they underscore global patterns of development and, at the same time, give readers access to documents of special interest.
Third, to help with the understanding and retention of the reading selections in the book, particularly those likely to be unfamiliar to students, they have included introductory comments as well as questions to consider.
The fifth edition of The Global Experience: Readings in World History to 1550, contains new sections, new selections, and new translations, as well as some changes in the selections published in the fourth edition. In Volume One, approximately twenty-five percent of the selections are new. Among the new selections in the first volume are: Pan Ku, China's Creation Story; Hesiod, Theogony; The Mayan Creation Story, Popul Vuh; Homer, The Odyssey; Dialli Kieba Koate, Sunjatta; A Sumerian Schoolboy Text; Isaiah, Prophet of Doom and Hope; Edict of Asoka; Mencius, "Humane Government;" Xenephon, The Spartan Constitution; Plutarch, Numa the Lawgiver; Eusebius of Laesaria, "Life of Constantine;" Harun al Rashid and the Byzantine Empire; One Thousand and One Nights, "The Tale of the Fisherman;" Saladin, Lion of Islam; Ibn Khaldun, The Mugaddima (The Course of History); Pierre de Varrx-cle-Cernay, "What Cathars Believe;" Saint Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica: "Whether Heretics Are to be Tolerated?"; William of Rubruck, Journey to Cathay; The Trial of Joan of Arc; Giovanni Boccacio, The Decameron (description of the Black Plague) ; Suleiman the Magnificent and His Courtiers; Christopher Columbus, Journals.
Engaging in its breadth and depth, The Global Experience: Readings in World History to 1550, Volume One helps students gain a better understanding of early world history and connect their historical study to contemporary problems and issues.
Home & Garden / Architecture & Design
Modular Mansions by Sheri Koones (Gibbs Smith, Publisher)
Still think of modular houses as trailers?
Readers are invited to take a look into the future of home
building with author Sheri Koones as she explores
Ranging from dreamy cottages to elegant, expansive mansions, these designs prove that modular construction has become significantly more sophisticated than its elemental beginnings. Modular Mansions features beautiful, spacious custom designs that rival the size and quality of many stick-built homes and also highlights the benefits of quality craftsmanship. Koones illustrates the reasons why modular building is a smart way to go for today's savvy homeowners – how a modular home can save money, why they take less time to build, why building in a climate-controlled environment is better than on-site construction, what kinds of design features and amenities are available, and more.
Koones, columnist for Home Resource and Design Magazine, began writing about home construction after doing extensive research to complete the renovation of her own home several years ago. She found a niche in empowering other homeowners to become more knowledgeable about completing their own construction projects.
Modular housing is sometimes confused with HUD code housing and mobile homes. In actuality, modular horses are built very much like traditional stick houses – in all the styles and with all the amenities. The only real difference is that the homes are built in a factory and transported on trucks to a site where two or more sections are attached to each other and set on a prepared foundation. Building the sections for transport means a stronger, more durable home. Modular Mansions explores the different styles of modular housing that are available today, effectively bringing this method of building to mainstream home builders.
Modular Mansions is the first book of its kind to showcase an
assortment of dream homes that highlight the benefits of modular
craftsmanship. In it Koones' reveals the money and time-saving
secrets behind this building method, including savings in
construction time, minimized weather delays, less wear-and-tear
during construction, added structure strength and soundproofing, and
reduced loan times.
Home & Garden / Arts & Photography
Barns of the North Fork by Mary Ann Spencer (The Quantuck Lane Press)
The
Lovingly maintained or gloriously decayed, the barns of the
Photographer Mary Ann Spencer preserves these rapidly disappearing treasures in Barns of the North Fork. Spencer, former board member of the Society for Preservation of Long Island Antiquities, began to shoot barns nearly a quarter-century ago, and her photographs of the structures in North Fork grew into a comprehensive survey sponsored by the Old House Society in Cutchogue, Long Island, covering 734 barns over fifty-eight square miles. From these 734 barns, Spencer selected the most striking – structures remarkable for their ingenious design, rugged beauty, or unique character – for display in Barns of the North Fork. With the help of the local community, Spencer gathered clues to each barn's original ownership and function, and each photo is displayed alongside a short commentary about building materials, special characteristics, or historical features unique to each structure.
Spencer's complete survey, a complete inventory of the barns, forms a second part of the book. Over half of the barns remain in agricultural use, although their fate is by no means certain. In Barns of the North Fork in their glory, and sometimes less than that, are the most interesting barns, which reveal, among other things, their functional development, their often haphazard fenestration, the soft patina of age, and their place in the landscape.
Over time, the barns of the
With over 100 full-color photographs that unfold like a long
Sunday drive, Spencer captures a lovely variety of barns in their
native
Home & Garden / Crafts & Hobbies
Kaffe Fassett's Museum Quilts: Designs Inspired by the
Past meets present in this dazzling collection of new quilts from
design genius, bestselling author and lecturer Kaffe Fassett.
Drawing inspiration from the textile treasures of the
Kaffe Fassett's Museum Quilts presents Kaffe’s new quilts with
the assistance of coauthor Liza Prior Lucy who has collaborated with
Kaffe on his previous patchwork books and is a quilt, needlepoint
and knitting designer of many years' experience. The patchworks fall
into three categories. First come Utility Quilts, employing large,
simple patch shapes cut from charming prints. Traditional pieces
follow, encompassing popular heritage quilt formats reborn here in
fresh, modern color ways. Finally come the irresistible Showpiece
Quilts, incorporating appliqué to create breathtaking showstoppers.
Each design has full instructions and easy-to-follow colored
piecing diagrams. All the basic techniques are covered, from start
to finish, including simple appliqué and quilting methods, and the
book is illustrated throughout with close-ups of each quilt,
gorgeous photography on location, and clear color design templates.
Kaffe Fassett's Museum Quilts is an inspiring showcase of extraordinary color combinations and dramatic use of patterns. In his perfect style, Kaffe combines a fresh contemporary look with the timeless quality of the V & A's antique quilt masterpieces. It is simply delicious. – Alex Anderson, host of Simply Quilts, HGTV
Kaffe Fassett is an artist completely, unabashedly attuned to the
luscious details of pattern, design and color. He is a true
visionary and huge inspiration to me and thousands of others looking
to tap into their creativity. – Amy Butler, contributing editor,
Country Living
A pleasing mixture of pattern levels in a book inspired by antique quilts – for new quitters, or quitters in a hurry, there are super easy and fast patterns. Other patterns will be interesting challenges for experienced quitters. – Susan C. Druding, Quilting Guide at About.com
The illustrations are lavish, the photographs are gorgeous and the instructions are easy to follow in Kaffe Fassett's Museum Quilts. The man is a marketing machine intent on bringing everyone around to quilting with these easy quilts designed to knock viewers socks off.
Home & Garden / Interior Design
The New Southwest Home: Innovative Ideas for Every Room by Suzanne Pickett Martinson (Northland Publishing)
Explosive growth in the Southwest has plowed fertile ground for architects and designers to experiment using the traditional palette of the region – stone, wood, terra cotta, iron, adobe. To this foundation new materials are constantly being incorporated: glass, stainless steel, and elegant fabrics – stainless steel is attractive when juxtaposed with textured flagstone or terra cotta, and leather furniture looks fantastic against adobe walls.
The New Southwest Home offers a room-by-room tour of houses packed with innovation and tradition. Beginning at the front door, architecture and home design writer Suzanne Pickett Martinson welcomes readers with functional furniture, art, and accessories. Gathering rooms – emphasizing everything from comfort and utility to formal entertaining – offer colors, fabrics, textures, and flooring that all interact to create the social center of a home.
Kitchens are the heart of the home, and this book beckons readers to sit and savor treats from the varied cultures of the Southwest and around the world. Ideas abound to make the most functional room in the house also the most inviting. Not forgotten are the places that make houses homes. Chapters on entertainment rooms, bedrooms, bathrooms, offices, and playrooms complete the tour and demonstrate Southwest traditions in transition.
The New Southwest Home takes readers through some of the most innovative creations of the West. Whether building, buying, remodeling, or dreaming, The New Southwest Home provides readers a world of ideas.
Literature & Fiction
The Year the Music Changed by Diane Thomas (The Toby Press)
Elvis Presley began his career in 1954 as a country singer. During 1955 and early 1956, he toured extensively throughout the deep South and bordering western states, often appearing in smaller cities and modest venues, high school gyms and American Legion huts.
Many of these locations play a part in Diane Thomas's debut
novel,
The Year the Music Changed, showing up as text references and
historically accurate datelines in the young country singer's
letters to his self-appointed grammar coach, a young
In 1955, Achsa McEachem is a lonely and precocious fourteen-year-old, isolated at school by her intelligence and disfigurement, troubled at home by the undercurrents in her parents' relationship. She turns for comfort to her radio and to ‘that new music,’ rock and roll. Hearing a recording by an unknown 20-year-old singer named Elvis Presley, she fires off a fan letter telling him that he is going to be a star. Insecure in the world he is entering, passionate about music and burning with a desire to succeed, Elvis answers her and enlists her help in teaching him how to ‘talk good.’
The year-long correspondence that forms
The Year the Music Changed chronicles Achsa and Elvis's coming
of age, both as artists and individuals. They share with each other
their most private dreams and fears. Elvis becomes Achsa's sounding
board, as she dreams of leaving the South for a Bohemian life as a
poet in
Touching, funny and tender...Highly recommended. – Library Journal starred review
A tender and often very funny evocation of yearning, love, disillusionment, joy, and, above all, the hard and redemptive necessity for change. – Anne Rivers Siddons
Startling in its beauty! ...The pitch here is perfect. The whole
novel sings. This book is as powerful as any love song Elvis Presley
ever recorded. You cannot help being all shook up. – David Bottoms,
Georgia Poet Laureate, author of Waltzing through the Endtime
A novel that unerringly depicts a pivotal time in American
culture. More importantly, Thomas has just as convincingly rendered
the timeless intricacies of the human heart. – Ron Rash, author of
One Foot in Eden
A bittersweet, funny, big-hearted book. – Joshilyn Jackson,
author of Gods in Alabama
Thomas has done her research, and the small towns come alive in this highly readable novel. Set in the twilight days of the segregated South, The Year the Music Changed affords a small-canvas study of a nation on the brink of momentous change. Warm and lively, the book will especially touch Presley fans.
Mysteries & Thrillers
The Point of Fracture by Frank Turner Hollon (MacAdam/Cage)
Frank Turner Hollon’s fifth novel,
The Point of Fracture, is a literary thriller in which a
troubled woman implicates her husband, his family, and an entire
southern community in an unsolvable murder. Hollon is the author of
The God File, The Pains of April, Life Is a
After nearly fifteen years in a childless marriage, Michael Brace and his beautiful wife, Suzanne, live separate lives under the same roof. Suzanne suffers crippling headaches and is haunted by childhood memories of her father, visions of violence, and the bloodlines of mental illness. Michael, meanwhile, sleeps on the couch, hiding in the shadows of his wealthy family and thinking about the novel has always wanted to write. Michael’s life has been going downhill for a while, and he on the brink of getting a job or asking his parents for money.
In a tangled desire for revenge against her father, her husband, his family, and everything she cannot reconcile, Suzanne sets in motion a patient, complicated plan of deception, sacrifice, and death. But as with all plans even those executed to perfection – there can be waves of consequence, both expected and unintended, causing unending ripples of change.
Hollon sets up the scenario of this psychological thriller with
attention to the small details of a perfect crime, carefully
measuring his characters' actions and reactions in a profoundly
disturbing manner. … This masterful drama catches the reader in a
web of dark intrigue, turning one man's slightly unhappy world into
an overnight horror story.
… Hollon is an aficionado of the human condition in all its
intricacies and small betrayals. From disconnected spouses to taut
courtroom drama, the pace of the novel is constant, a slow building
toward the inevitable, a perfectly executed denouement. Although it
reads like a thriller, this is no crime procedural, but a finely
wrought tale of two people caught in a web of destruction. The
author walks a fine line between a carefully plotted revenge and the
redemption of a man who never asks much from the world until he
loses everything, only to learn that ‘freedom is
complete, or it isn't freedom at all.’ – Luan Gaines
…so thought-provoking and real and beautiful that I believe it has changed me forever. – Silas House, author of Clay s Quilt and A Parchment of Leaves
[He] will throw you off balance, make you squirm with discomfort,
and leave you arguing with friends about the whodunit of it all. –
The
With spare prose and shrewd insight, Hollon in The Point of Fracture explores the intertwined relationships of family and community in the face of an unthinkable crime, and illuminates the fine line between destruction and salvation.
Mysteries & Thrillers
Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders [UNABRIDGED], 4 audio cassettes, running time 5 hours, 57 minutes by John Mortimer, narrated by Bill Wallis (Mystery Masters Series: The Audio Partners Publishing Corp.)
For those few who haven’t heard of Rumpole yet, this is their chance. In Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders author Sir John Mortimer, novelist, playwright, and former barrister, the author of twelve previous Rumpole books, many of which formed the basis for the PBS series Rumpole of the Bailey, provides the back story:
One of the most enduring and endearing literary characters ever to come out of Britain, Horace Rumpole has often alluded to the Penge Bungalow murders in the many stories of his cases, but fans have never before been privy to the tantalizing details. With trademark wit, Rumpole recalls memoir-style the case that established his reputation, and at the same time clears up mysteries about his early days – most significantly, how his wife Hilda, also known as ‘She Who Must Be Obeyed’, first came to darken his door.
In the case itself, occurring some years after World War II, a young man has been accused of murdering his father and his father's friend, both ex-RAF pilots. Simon pleads innocent despite the witnesses who saw him threaten his father with the German Luger that later killed the two men. Called to be a junior on the case, Rumpole should consider himself lucky and keep quiet, but instead takes advantage of the absence of his head of chambers to poke holes in the prosecution's case. The young Rumpole risks ruffling feathers with his dogged determination to secure justice – and ends up defending the accused on his own. Thus Rumpole ‘alone and without a leader,’ goes on to fight the first glorious case of his career.
Bill Wallis is brilliant as Horace Rumpole, the cantankerous hero
of 12 volumes of Mortimer's Wodehousian accounts of life at the Old
Bailey. …Wallis's Rumpole sounds just as he should as he narrates
his memoir: gruff, wistful, funny, sly, and infuriatingly lovable.
Fans of the BBC-TV series will be pleased to learn that he sounds
much like its star, Leo McKern, without trying to be a carbon copy.
Wallis is also word-perfect with the wild assortment of secondary
characters, from members of the British legal profession (who range
from loopy to pompous) to Hilda's refined friends to the denizens of
the witness box. Listeners will be sorely tempted to listen to this
in one sitting and will be disappointed when it ends. – AudioFile
… Fans long tantalized by references to the great legal case of
the postwar years now can have a novel-length bath in it…. Masterful
characterization and a spellbinding plot, filled with the arcane
lore and intrigues of the Old Bailey, make this one a special treat
for devoted Rumpoleans. – Connie Fletcher, Booklist (starred review)
Ambitious and substantial... cleverly conceived and highly
satisfying. –
With his trademark wit, Mortimer never fails to delight. Accomplished performer Bill Wallis, a veteran of more than 200 radio productions, series, and plays and films, in Rumpole and the Penge Bungalow Murders gives voice to this treat for Rumpoleans and mystery fans alike.
Mysteries & Thrillers
Straight into Darkness by Faye Kellerman (Warner Books)
As night descends, a killer awakens.
With ten consecutive New York Times best-sellers, Faye Kellerman
is truly a ‘master of mystery’ (Cleveland Plain Dealer). Now in
Straight into Darkness she turns her acute eye on 1920s
Lustmord – the joy of murder. The terrifying concept seems apt for the brutal slaying of a beautiful young society wife dumped in the vast Englisher Garten. Homicide inspector Axel Berg is horrified by the crime... and disturbed by the artful arrangement of the victim's clothes and hair – a madman's portrait of death.
Berg's superiors demand quick answers and a quick arrest: a vagrant, the woman's husband, anyone who can be demonized will do. When a second body is discovered, the city erupts into panic, the unrest fomented by the wild-eyed, hate-mongering Austrian Adolf Hitler and his Brownshirt party of young thugs.
Berg can trust no one as he relentlessly hunts a ruthless killer, dodging faceless enemies and back-alley intrigue, struggling to bring a fiend to justice before the country – and his life – veer straight into darkness.
Kellerman, in her 53rd year, has chosen in
Straight into Darkness to write a murder mystery set in Hitler’s
As a curious child, I used to rummage through old cartons stashed
away in my parents' bedroom. They were mostly repositories for faded
black-and-white photographs of the family, including
Fluent in Yiddish, his childhood language, my father communicated
with concentration camp survivors – sometimes translating for his
superior officers – and with average German citizens living around
the camps. They claimed ignorance of what had gone on in their city.
"Meanwhile," he said, "you could smell the stink of the burning
bodies two miles away."…While
Straight into Darkness is my attempt to understand the
inconceivable, it is also a personal journey. Perhaps as you read
the novel, you might also remember a personal story about your
mother or father, grandmother or grandfather. My advice to you is to
write it down before it's too late.
Mysteries & Thrillers
Tabula Rasa by Shelly Reuben (Harcourt, Inc.)
Author Shelly Reuben, licensed private detective, is a member of an exclusive club – the International Association of Arson Investigators has certified less than 1000 fire investigators in the entire world, and she is one of them. As a woman running her own fire and arson investigation company – one she co-founded with her late husband – she is a member of an even smaller group. And, as an author of several critically acclaimed novels, she is that rare writer who takes what she knows intimately and weaves it into spell-binding fiction.
In Reuben’s
Tabula Rasa arson investigator Billy Nightingale and his
brother-in-law, Officer Sebastian Bly, who are called in to
investigate a house fire that killed two young children. Suspicious
details at the fire scene – and the discovery of a baby hiding
underneath the porch – put Billy and Sebastian on the trail of a
murderous mother while Sebastian and his wife, Annie, raise baby
Meredith without revealing her dangerous and frightening past.
Meredith grows up to be a promising young ballerina – her ambitions
fueled in part by the fictional past that Sebastian and Annie have
invented for her. But the truth threatens their charmed family
circle as Merry's biological mother returns to finish what she
started. Despite her new family's efforts to protect her, the young
survivor must confront her past in a chilling showdown with a
murderous mother determined to finish what she started.
I was gripped to the end. The fires are brilliant and the secret is dark. Shelly Reuben is an expert witness and a dynamic writer. – Peter Lovesey, Diamond Dagger Award winner and author of The House Sitter
Tabula Rasa is a stunning novel. It shocks and revolts you, and
then restores your faith in humanity. Reuben not only writes of
fire, but with fire. – Dorothy Salisbury Davis, Grand Master of the
Mystery Writers of America and author of A Gentle Murderer
In Tabula Rasa, Reuben again uses real-life cases to inspire a story of suspense and mystery. At a time when headlines scream of the horrors parents visit upon their children, Reuben takes the seeds of a true-crime mystery and creates a novel that races along to its heart-pounding conclusion, with enough twists and turns to leave one breathless. The book is not only a gripping and entertaining crime novel but also a sensitive, warm exploration of the deeper issues of what defines a family and an individual.
Parenting & Families / Literature Guides / Science Fiction & Fantasy
A Reader's Guide Through the Wardrobe: Exploring C. S. Lewis’s Classic Story by Leland Ryken & Marjorie Lamp Mead (Intervarsity Press)
In this book, Lewis scholar Marjorie Lamp Mead and literary expert Leland Ryken unlock the door to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, inviting readers to step inside – past the musty fur coats – and gaze in wide-eyed wonder once again, at the magical, wintery world Lucy first found. A Reader's Guide Through the Wardrobe sheds light on his imagination and use of literary forms.
Ryken, a professional teacher of literature, initially thought he would bring a sophisticated literary awareness to the story, but he says it gradually dawned on him that an adult who is rereading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, perhaps for the benefit of children or grandchildren, needs to respond to the story as a child as well as an adult. C. S. Lewis himself said that fairy stories and children's books need to be read on two levels – the simple and the sophisticated.
This reader's guide is not a book of plot summary but a book that provides an inside look at characters, setting and framework along with questions for reflection and discussion, thus giving readers avenues to perform their own analysis of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Having experienced the narrative delights of the text, they can then explore the deeper religious meanings that are embedded in this classic piece of children's literature.
The most thorough literary study of The Lion the Witch and the
Wardrobe that I have ever read. It is a must for every serious
student of Lewis's first Narnian Chronicle and a gateway to the
entire series. – Paul F. Ford, author of Companion to Narnia and
Pocket Companion to Narnia
Not only does this reader’s guide show the way into Narnia, but also into great literature, and the inexhaustible nourishment that great books provide. – Colin Duriez, author of A Field Guide to Narnia and Tolkien and C. S. Lewis
A Reader's Guide Through the Wardrobe is that rare achievement:
a literary guidebook that does not talk down to readers. – Peter
Schakel, author of Approaching Literature in the 21st Century
... approaches C. S. Lewis's classic story the way Lewis himself
read literary texts. It shows readers how to fully engage the
narrative as thoughtful adults, while retaining a child's sense of
wonder and delight. – David C. Downing, author of The Most Reluctant
Convert and Into the Wardrobe
A Reader's Guide Through the Wardrobe, interactive and informative, is a thoughtful book that will help adults see Narnia as Lucy did – with childlike wonder and anticipation for the adventure. It then also helps them appreciate the other level, the sophisticated, the deep religious meaning.
Parenting & Families / Home-schooling / Education
The Learning Coach Approach by Linda Dobson (Running Press)
We're all aware of the dismal statistics: In June 2003 the National Assessment of Educational Progress (the Nation's Report Card) reported that 36 percent of 4th graders could not read at what the test defined as a ‘basic’ level – and scores were equally discouraging in other core subjects.
Linda Dobson, renowned expert on education and the author of The Learning Coach Approach proposes a different path to educating our children. Defying conventional wisdom, Dobson maintains that when it comes to learning, less is more – less pressure equals more fun, and less scheduling equals more free time. Instead of pushing children into activities, then measuring them against each other and labeling them, parents need to coach their kids in environments that encourage exploration, discovery and curiosity.
Dobson is an educator and parent who has been at the forefront of the home-schooling boom. The Learning Coach Approach, however, is not a home-schooling book, but rather a useful guide to honing in on children's unique needs and inspiring them to learn.
Dobson asks, in a classroom of twenty to thirty kids with only one teacher, is it any wonder our kids aren't performing to the best of their abilities? These kids need personal attention and the seven minutes that they get each day, according to a recent UCLA study, simply isn't enough. There is no room for learning or thinking outside the box and there's definitely no room to grow at one's own pace. Kids are in effect given an ultimatum: either learn the school's way or be left behind.
Dobson would like parents to know that just because their kids aren't performing up to the ‘norm’ in their school, doesn't mean all hope is lost. Dobson recommends a nontraditional method of teaching that parents can adopt – instead of being just another teacher in their kids' lives, she suggests they become a coach in the learning process.
But how does one become a learning coach? The good news is parents do not need a teacher's degree or a background in educational theory. What they do need is knowledge of the rare individual that is their child, and the open-mindedness to help guide their child instead of lead.
In The Learning Coach Approach Dobson explains:
- The differences between teaching and coaching and basic coaching techniques.
- Multiple intelligences and learning styles including guidelines to reading the child's own personal learning disposition.
- Examples of how to exercise kids' imaginations and build their curiosity.
- Ways to transform the home into a learning gym.
- How to capitalize on the information available through today's technology.
For parents who worry that their child lacks a love of learning, or has been falling behind in a rigid ‘teach-to-the-test’ classroom, The Learning Coach Approach is a practical guide to help restore joy and independence to education. Her fresh approach, supported by current educational research, defies conventional wisdom with her less is more philosophy.
Professional & Technical / Biological Sciences
Sonoran Desert Plants: An Ecological Atlas by Raymond M.
Turner, Janice E. Bowers, & Tony L. Burgess
(The
The
An encyclopedia as well as an atlas, this monumental work describes the taxonomy, geographic distribution, and ecology of 339 plants, most of them common and characteristic trees, shrubs, or succulents. Also included is valuable information on natural history and ethno-botanical, commercial, and horticultural uses of these plants. The entry for each species includes a range map, an elevational profile and a narrative account. The authors include Raymond M. Turner, a plant ecologist retired from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS); Janice E. Bowers, a botanist with the USGS; and Tony L. Burgess, formerly with the USGS, a plant ecologist who designed the desert, thorn scrub, and savanna biomes for the Biosphere 2 project near Oracle, Arizona. The atlas also includes an extensive bibliography, referring readers to references of historical importance, with a glossary to aid general readers.
Almost a quarter of a century has passed since the first
The first
Collection of field data for the original atlas began in 1963
when Hastings and Turner first traveled the length of
This initial trip was followed by others throughout the peninsula
and the state of
The species accounts are arranged alphabetically by genus, with each containing, insofar as possible: scientific name and authority selected common names, description, diagnostic characters of similar species, taxonomic problems, habitat, distributional patterns in the maps and profiles biogeography, phenology, physiology, reproductive ecology and pollination seedling establishment, growth rate, life span, horticulture, ethno botany and economic botany.
The species accounts and maps point up fascinating
biogeographical problems. Among these the authors mention the marked
concentration of extra-limital extensions in the vicinity of Guaymas
and Puerto Libertad, Sonora; the rich concentration of tropical and
subtropical species in the Guaymas area; and the remarkable
disjunctions shown by Acacia neovernicosa, Calliandra eriophylla,
Mimosa aculeaticarpa, and other species. As the authors have noted
in the appropriate species accounts, a number of plant distributions
are split between the Sonoran mainland and the
The mapped area in
Sonoran Desert Plants incorporates small parts of the Chihuahuan
and
The region circumscribed by the maps in this Atlas spans 14
degrees of latitude and 13 degrees of longitude and traverses
elevations ranging from 80 m below sea level to more than 3,000 m
above. These features alone would engender considerable climatic
complexity. Added to them are the meteorological effects that are a
result of topographic location. Situated on the western side of the
North American continent, the
According to the authors, an important objective of the
Sonoran Desert Plants project was to discover the fundamental
climatic regimes of characteristic
An invaluable tool for anyone trying to learn the common plants
of the Sonoran Desert . . . Marvelous introductions to the ecology
of each species . . . A must have for the serious naturalist and
field ecologist working in the Sonoran Desert. – Tree
The text is not a dry heaping of data but a selective and
intriguing summary and interpretation of information.... A
considerable body of economic and ethno botanic information is
included... . Attractively designed and easy to use. – Economic
Botany
[The species accounts] are a most remarkable mine of information.
– Cactus and Succulent Journal
The new reference list alone is probably reason enough for any
plant ecologist who has worked in the southwestern deserts to rush
out and get this book.... Every ecologist who works in this region
will want to have a copy of this book in their lab or at least in
their library. – Plant Science Bulletin
To anyone interested in
Sonoran Desert Plants is the reference the authors wished for
when they began working in the
Professional & Technical / Law / Criminology
Essentials of Criminal Procedure by Marvin Zalman (Pearson Prentice Hall) is designed primarily as a supplementary text for undergraduate and graduate students taking a criminal procedure course whose main text consists of U.S. Supreme Court cases.
Reading law cases – a daunting task even for first-year law
students – is a significant intellectual challenge for non-law
students, especially if the criminal procedure class is their first
law course. According to author Marvin Zalman,
The demands of the case method create a risk that students will get ‘lost’ in the thicket of cases, wasting valuable time until they get a hang of the method and perhaps mentally dropping out. Essentials of Criminal Procedure provides a guide to the U.S. Supreme Court cases that students are likely to encounter in a criminal procedure course. The decisions are stated succinctly and with enough basic reasoning to grasp the direction of the decision-making process.
Zalman assures case method teachers and students that Essentials of Criminal Procedure serves only as a supplement to reading the cases, not as a substitute. The text can also be used as a stand-alone text in a course in which the instructor desires to provide additional knowledge of the federal law, local law, or practical aspects of criminal procedure.
The chapters are organized to cover discrete topics that are common in undergraduate criminal procedure courses. This gives instructors great flexibility to either assign chapters in an order different from that presented in this book or to not assign a chapter that is not covered in a particular course without having to break up a longer chapter. For instructors wanting to use Essentials of Criminal Procedure as the main text, the order of the chapters follows the standard ordering that is used in most law school and university courses on criminal procedure.
I like Zalman's approach and writing style. He presents the
material in a very readable manner without becoming bogged down in
legalisms or unnecessary minutia. – Chris De Lay,
Essentials of Criminal Procedure clarifies the difficulties of
understanding constitutional criminal procedure without
oversimplifying the subject and embellishing the issue with fine
points of law. The decisions are stated clearly and with
enough basic reasoning to grasp the direction of the decision-making
process. At the end of each chapter Zalman includes a summary of the
major cases; this is an excellent source for students to use as a
study aid.
Professional & Technical / Law / Reference
Author Law A to Z: A Desktop Guide to Writers' Rights and Responsibilities by Sallie Randolph, Stacy Davis, Anthony Elia, & Karen Dustman (A to Z Legal Series: Capital Books, Inc.)
Written by a quartet of straight-talking author-lawyers,
Author Law A to Z is a comprehensive and thorough reference
guide on publishing law – in an easy to read format.
From authors to editors, literary agents to journalists, anyone who works with words confronts an astonishing variety of legal puzzles and perils. This guide to writers’ rights and responsibilities will help users navigate the legal maze and work more profitably. Part legal dictionary, part publishing encyclopedia with helpful how-to advice, Author Law A to Z addresses key concepts in the publishing field. Discussions of legal issues related to the business of writing and publishing are supplemented with useful tips, author experiences, practical advice, examples, case notes, and more.
The book is written by Sallie Randolph, a senior partner with
Randolph Law Offices, adjunct professor at State University of New
York at Buffalo School of Law; Stacy Davis, a lawyer, freelance
writer, and member of the New York State Bar Association and the
American Intellectual Property Lawyers Association; Anthony Elia,
counselor, litigator and negotiating lawyer; and Karen Dustman,
freelance writer and practicing lawyer.
Author Law A to Z is such a godsend for writers. – Barbara DeMarco-Barrett, author of Pen On Fire: A Busy Woman’s Guide To Igniting The Writer Within and host of Writers on Writing, KUCI-FM
Writers have long been in need of a single volume that answers their legal questions in depth, without ducking the complexities of the issues. Owning Author Law A to Z is like having a team of straight-talking and brainy lawyers always at your side and on your side. – Jack El-Hai, president, American Society of Journalists and Authors
Here, at last, is a resource to guide you safely through the legal minefields that plague every writer, editor, and agent that functions within the publishing industry. This is a must-have tool you need to keep close at hand to match those questions to easy-to-find and understand answers. – Sally E. Stuart, Christian Writers Market Guide
Finally, a comprehensive, accessible book that the non-lawyerly
minded can turn to for guidance on how to protect and market one's
creative work. This book is highly recommended for legal
practitioners, creative folk, and students of the law alike. –
Shubha Ghosh, Professor of Law, Intellectual Property Program,
From A to Z, the answers are all here. Every page brims with smart advice every free-lancer needs. – Lisa Collier Cool, author of How To Write Irresistible Query Letters and National Magazine Award winner
Author Law A to Z, written by savvy lawyers, is a useful and easy-to-follow guide, chock-full of helpful advice, organized alphabetically and extensively cross-referenced.
Reference / Dictionaries / Religion & Spirituality
Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism edited by Wouter J. Hanegraaff, in collaboration with Antoine Faivre, Roelof van den Broek & Jean-Pierre Brach (Brill Academic Publishers) is the first comprehensive reference work to cover the entire domain of ‘Gnosis and Western Esotericism’ from the period of Late Antiquity to the present.
Comprising two volumes, the
Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism contains around 400
articles by over 180 international specialists. The primary editor
is Wouter J. Hanegraaff, professor of History of Hermetic Philosophy
and Related Currents at the
These articles provide critical overviews discussing the nature and historical development of all its important currents and manifestations, from Gnosticism and Hermetism to Astrology, Alchemy and Magic, from the Hermetic Tradition of the Renaissance to Rosicrucianism and Christian Theosophy, and from Freemasonry and Illuminism to 19th-century Occultism and the contemporary New Age movement. Furthermore the Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism contains articles about the life and work of all the major personalities in the history of Gnosis and Western Esotericism, discussing their ideas, significance, and historical influence.
A selection of entries includes: Alchemy; Amulets;
Aristotelianism; Bacon, Francis; Blake, William; Blavatsky, Helena
Petrovna; Boehme, Jacob; Bogomilism; Catharism; Comenius, Jan Amos;
Clement of Alexandria; Cusa, Nicholas of; Dante Alighieri;
Cryptography; Dionysius Areopagita – Pseudo; Eriugena, Johannes
Scottus; Ficino, Marsilio; Grail traditions; Hermes Trismegistus;
Hermetic Literature; Intermediary Beings; Jewish Influences; Jung,
Carl Gustav; Kabbalah; Manichaeism; Music; Mysticism; Neopaganism;
Neoplatonism; Newton, Isaac; Paracelsus; Pico della Mirandola,
Giovanni; Reincarnation; Rosicrucianism; Satanism; Scientology;
Secrecy; Spiritualism; Steiner, Rudolf; Swedenborg, Emanuel; Tarot;
Templars; Valentinus and Valentinians; Witchcraft (15th – 17th
Centuries); and Zoroaster.
Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism is a brilliantly
conceived and skillfully executed reference tool unlike anything the
scholarly world has ever seen. In two massive volumes it covers
every aspect of pagan, Jewish, and Christian religious discourses
and phenomena traditionally labeled Gnosticism, hermeticism,
astrology, magic, the ‘occult sciences,’ esoteric religion, and much
more. The detailed and insightful articles, on nearly every related
topic imaginable, are produced by an impressive array of renowned
scholars, and usefully include up-to-date bibliographies. Six years
in the making, this is a work that every student of religion,
ancient and modern, will certainly want to own. – Bart D. Ehrman,
James A. Gray Distinguished Professor and Chair of Religious
Studies,
The entries present balanced, neutral accounts of the topics and
the major persons involved with them without simplification,
distortion, or reductionism. …scholars will be delighted to have
such a treasure take its place next to the popular treatments of the
field. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All collections. – M.R.
Pukkila, Choice
The
Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism places gnosis and
esotericism in its historical perspective – not only the breadth of
the described phenomenon is surprising, but also the fact that the
subjects are covered in such an objective fashion. – NRC Handelsblad
Brill has produced a work on esotericism that will become the
standard reference work on the subject. Never before has such a
complete overview of this obscure peripheral area of religion
appeared. – Leidsch Dagblad, Associated Press Services
This new dictionary,
Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism, rich in diversity
about topics once considered heretical, is indispensable for
academic research as well as for spiritual seekers who want to know
more about ideas and practices of the traditions of Gnosis & Western
Esotericism. All those interested in the history of religion,
intellectual history, art and culture in Western society from
antiquity to the present, as well as classicists, medievalists,
historians, and theologians will find this reference volume of great
value.
Religion & Spirituality
Not Just Science: Questions Where Christian Faith and Natural Science Intersect edited by Dorothy F. Chappell & E. David Cook, with a foreword by Owen Gingerich (Zondervan)
What should liberal arts students studying at Christian colleges and universities be asking themselves as they study natural science?
Not Just Science argues that it is possible for our study of the natural world to enhance our understanding of God and for our faith to inform and influence our study and application of science. Not Just Science enables students to think critically about how the Christian worldview influences our perceptions in the area of natural science. The book acquaints students with foundational questions important to the practice of natural science, as well as God’s mandate to care for his creation.
The editors are Dorothy F. Chappell, dean of natural and social
sciences and professor of biology at
The contributors provide a systematic approach to both raising and
answering the key questions that emerge at the intersection of faith
and various disciplines in the natural sciences. Among the questions
addressed are the context, limits, benefits, and practice of science
in light of Christian values. Questions of ethics as they relate to
various applied sciences are also discussed. The end goal is an
informed biblical worldview on both nature and our role in obeying
the divine mandate.
With an honest approach to critical questions,
Not Just Science fills a gap in the discussion about the
relationship between faith and reason. This is a most welcomed
addition to these significant scholarly conversations. – Ron
Mahurin, Vice President, Professional Development and Research
Council for
Whether readers are students, employed in the sciences, or simply interested laypersons, Not Just Science will help them develop the crucial skills of critical thinking and reflection about key questions in Christian faith and natural science.
Religion & Spirituality / Christianity / Health, Mind & Body / Anthropology
When God's People Have HIV/AIDS: An Approach to Ethics by Maria Cimperman (Orbis Books)
The Second Vatican Council document, Gaudium et Spes, sagely exhorts humanity to ‘read the signs of the times’ and to respond to them with available resources. “The total number of people living with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) rose in 2004 to reach its highest level ever: an estimated 39.4 million [35.9 million-44.3 million] people are living with the virus . . . This figure includes the 4.9 million [4.3 million-6.4 million] people who acquired HIV in 2004. The global AIDS epidemic killed 3.1 million [2.8 million-3.5 million] people in the past year.” These are alarming signs of our times.
When God's People Have HIV/AIDS is written by Maria Cimperman,
who teaches moral theology and social ethics at the Oblate School of
Theology in
At first, Cimperman found the question perplexing: This disease is a global pandemic. Did she need a personal reason other than that she was a human being and there are millions of human beings around the world dying of AIDS? In time, however, she realized that human beings set out in certain directions because we find ourselves connected somehow to a person, a topic, a people. The heart, the head, and the entire being become involved, and the more we share that involvement, the more we invite others into the world around us.
Why does she, as a theologian, write about AIDS? She writes
because the people of God live with HIV/AIDS. And theology and
ethics must be lived and practiced in the midst of the people of
God. The spring after returning from
Lest one think that HIV affects only the poor, minorities, or
persons beyond our borders, Cimperman shares a narrative of a woman
living in
When God's People Have HIV/AIDS is a constructive proposal for fundamental ethics within the global context of HIV/AIDS. To bring our resources to bear on the AIDS pandemic, we must first understand these ‘signs of the times.’ The first chapter offers a brief look at the indicators of the AIDS pandemic and includes a discussion of two foundational contributors of the pandemic: gender inequality and poverty. The resources the Roman Catholic tradition and community bring to the HIV/AIDS crisis and some of the challenges with which the tradition is contending are explored. The final section of the chapter poses the question that serves as the focus of this project, namely, What kind of moral theology do we need in a world with AIDS? As a contribution to ongoing efforts in moral theology, When God's People Have HIV/AIDS explores the type of theological anthropology needed in a time of AIDS.
Chapters 2 and 3 develop a theological anthropology that considers human beings as embodied relational agents. The context explored here is one marked by great historical suffering. The agent described must develop or cultivate particular qualities, and the virtues name those qualities.
Chapter 4 examines how the virtues fill out our anthropological framework. Specific virtues that respond to particular elements of the HIV/AIDS crisis are highlighted, including hope, fidelity, self-care, justice, and prudence.
The final three chapters seek to animate the embodied,
virtue-oriented anthropology of the preceding chapters. An
integrated sense of spirituality and morality within the context of
discipleship is necessary for the church community to propose an
anthropology to adequately respond to HIV/AIDS. This idea is
developed in three parts. In Chapter 5, Christian spirituality and
Christian morality are defined and discussed within the context of
discipleship. In Chapter 6, memory, narrative, and solidarity are
explored. In Chapter 7, two contemporary examples of discipleship in
this age of AIDS are considered: Noerine Kaleeba of
Good theology is not meant to be a safe, non-contact sport. Theology needs to get bruised by reality, especially by suffering. Maria Cimperman risks some bruising contact between the reality of HIV/AIDS and our Christian moral tradition. An important book, a sensitive subject, responsibly rendered, with much to teach us. – Ronald Rolheiser, OMI
A much needed and excellent resource . . . provides us not only
with insightful information about the AIDS pandemic, but with a
constructive theological ethic that will help us all, especially
Christians, to know what we must do. The book is also pastoral,
offering probing questions and the challenge and inspiration that
will leave no one simply paralyzed in inaction. It is a welcome
contribution to everyone's efforts to develop human and Christian
responses to this terrible challenge. – Margaret A. Farley,
Did you at all wonder why the entire nation responded generously
to the tsunami tragedy, yet after 20 years of the HIV/AIDS pandemic
we still lack the political will to respond as we should to a crisis
that has already claimed 25 million people? Simply put, we need to
become better people! Maria Cimperman's brilliant, timely, and
sensitive new book provides us with a profile of the type of people
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When God's People Have HIV/AIDS is a unique treatment of moral theology and HIV/AIDS prevention that explores how the Christian virtues can provide a vital and hopeful resource during this time of suffering.
Religion & Spirituality / History
Lodovico Lazzarelli (1447-1500): The Hermetic Writings and
Related Documents by Wouter J. Hanegraaff & Ruud M.
Bouthoorn, (Medieval and Renaissance Texts
and Studies, Volume 281:
Lodovico Lazzarelli (1447-1500) is the first complete edition and translation in any modern language of the Hermetic writings of Lodovico Lazzarelli, an Italian poet and mystical philosopher of the late 15th century. While recognized as a seminal figure by Italian scholars such as Kristeller and Garin, Lazzarelli's life and work have nevertheless been neglected by historians. This book's extensive Introduction challenges existing interpretations and presents a fresh perspective on Lazzarelli's work and significance. It also argues that the evidence about him and his spiritual master, the prophet Giovanni ‘Mercurio’ da Correggio, forces scholars to rethink Frances Yates' concept of Renaissance Hermeticism.
The authors tell the story that this collaboration on the
contents and translations in
Lodovico Lazzarelli (1447-1500) has its origin in a chance
meeting between them – Wouter J. Hanegraaff, full professor of
History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents at the
Universiteit van Amsterdam; and Ruud M. Bouthoorn, who pursues his
research in various aspects of Hermetic philosophy and translates
Latin sources from the Middle Ages and Renaissance – in the
Amsterdam Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica. One of them had been
reading Gabriel du Preau's French translation (1549) of Lodovico
Lazzarelli's Crater Hermetis, and found himself fascinated by that
text; the other happened to be halfway through a provisory
Latin-Dutch translation of the same work. Having discovered their
common interest, they quickly agreed that an annotated English
translation of Lazzarelli's Crater would be a useful service to
scholarship and the wider public. However, it was only after they
had started to collaborate on that project that they began to
discover the actual complexity of Lazzarelli's surviving writings
and the ideas expressed in them, the importance of his relationship
to his spiritual master Giovanni ‘Mercurio’ da Correggio, and the
relevance of both to the early history of the so-called ‘Hermetic
Renaissance.’ The project therefore expanded from a simple
translation to
Lodovico Lazzarelli (1447-1500) and in the process it has
considerably changed their perspective on the reception history of
the Corpus Hermeticum in the second half of the fifteenth century,
as well as its implications for their understanding of what Frances
Yates has referred to as ‘the Hermetic Tradition.’ Today the
importance of the Hermetic philosophy and related currents to early
modern religion and culture is no longer in any doubt among
well-informed historians, yet the question of how to assess that
importance is by no means settled. Some have presented hermetism as
a master key to understanding Renaissance culture and even the
emergence of modernity as a whole; others have seen it rather as an
interesting undercurrent or subculture that runs counter to the
mainstream of modern history. Hanegraaff and Bouthoorn’s perspective
falls in neither of these camps but emphasizes complexity and
contextuality.
The body of secret mystical wisdom that honored Hermes
Trismegistus between the third century BCE, and first century
identified the Greek god Hermes with the Egyptian god, Thoth, the
god of wisdom, learning, and literature. Hermes was credited with
the authorship of all Greek sacred books, which were thus called
‘hermetic.’ There were 42 of these, according to Clemens
Alexandrinus, and they were subdivided into six portions, the first
dealing with priestly education, the second with temple rituals and
the third with geographical natters. The fourth division treated
astrology, the fifth recorded hymns in honor of the gods and was a
textbook for the guidance of kings, and the sixth was a medical
text.
This wisdom literature involved two levels of writing: a popular Hermetic teaching of astrology, magic, and alchemy, and a later higher religious philosophy. The Hermes-Thoth literature had a profound effect on the development of Western magic in the Renaissance. Because of their supposed antiquity, they were felt to be a pagan prophecy of the Christian revelation. The Florentine philosopher Marsilio Ficino and Lodovico Lazzarelli translated the Corpus Hermetica which include Poimandres (Shepherd of Men), The Secret Discourse on the Mountain, the Perfect Sermon, or the Asclepius, excerpts by Stobacus, as well as fragments from the church fathers and from the philosophers Zosimus and Fulgentius. For convenience the name of Hermes was placed at the head of an extensive cycle of mystic literature produced in post-Christian times. Most of this hermetic or trismegistic literature has perished, but all that remains of it has been gathered and translated into English. The theory common to Ficino was that this blend of neoplatonic ideas as ancient wisdom gave a renewed vigor to Christian revelation as Ancient primordial revelation. The British historian of Renaissance thought, Frances Yates, sidelined the work of Lodovico Lazzarelli in the reinterpretation of the hermetic tradition, while giving Ficino’s labors well deserved recognition.
These writings were neglected by western theologians, who
following the wake of Augustine’s attack on Hermes in the City of
Since Ficino's time, Renaissance thinkers had made Hermes a contemporary of Moses and the wellspring of prisca theologia, a tradition of gentile theology concurrent with and confirming biblical revelation. Now with this edition of Hermetic writings and translations, scholars will have a more nuanced understanding of this thought.
Contents of Lodovico Lazzarelli (1447-1500) include:
I. Lodovico Lazzarelli and the Hermetic Christ:
At the Sources of Renaissance Hermetism – Wouter J. Hanegraaff
II. Lodovico Lazzarelli: The Hermetic Writings
Epistola Enoch
Three Prefaces addressed to Giovanni ‘Mercurio’ da Correggio
Crater Hermetis
Alchemical Writings
III. Related Documents
Filippo Lazzarelli, The Life of Lodovico Lazzarelli
Giovanni da Correggio, Sonetto
Giovanni da Correggio, Oratio
Johannes Trithemius about Giovanni da Correggio
The book also contains a bibliography and an index.
A first-rate study. The introductory monograph brings together
well the known points about Lodovico Lazzarelli and Giovanni
‘Mercurio’ da Correggio, uncovers new links between them, and
synthetically offers the first ever clear narrative account about
them in any language, and certainly in English. The textual section
makes a tremendous contribution to scholarship by not only offering
editions but also translations of the main texts, notably the
Epistola Enoch and the Crater Hermetis. In the ‘Related Documents’
section, a number of important pieces of evidence help to
contextualize the whole set of episodes. The translations within the
editions are sound and well-commented, and the running commentary is
a great contribution. –
With these writings of Lazzarelli we get a glimpse of the
creative way hermetic writings were adapted by Renaissance
scholarship and also the murky waters of illuminate thinking before
the introduction of this new source. For example Crater Hermetis, a
work of considerable subtlety and depth, well repays reading and
rereading. The more one studies it, the more one is impressed by the
skill with which Lazzarelli unfolds his message to readers, by the
internal consistency of that message, and by its originality.
To be specific, Lazzarelli begins by describing how his own
spiritual anguish and confusion – his inability to make a choice
among the many contrary opinions about the conquest of true felicity
was finally resolved by heavenly help: He that was Pimander in the
mind of Hermes, has deigned to take up residence within me as Christ
Jesus, and has consoled me by illuminating my mind with the light of
Truth, being the everlasting Consoler" (Crater 1.2). In this way,
right at the very beginning of the dialogue, Lazzarelli makes an
extremely bold assertion – entirely without historical
precedent – which will prove to be essential to a correct
understanding of his message: the ‘enormous being’ Poimandres, who
had once appeared to Hermes in a vision, had in fact been no one
less than Christ himself, later known in his incarnate form as
Jesus. In a similar manner Poimandres-Christ has now taken up
residence in Lazzarelli, and has illumined his mind. There could
hardly be a stronger way for a Christian to assert the salvific
nature of these writings that had great influence psychologically as
well as culturally.
Lodovico Lazzarelli (1447-1500) will make a contribution not only to our knowledge of Lodovico Lazzarelli and Giovanni da Correggio, but also to our perception of early Renaissance hermetism and its role in early modern culture. It gives a fresh perspective which will refocus scholars’ thinking about Hermeticism and it is a contribution to our understanding of the origins of renaissance thinking.
Religion & Spirituality / Social Sciences
Being Human: Race, Culture and Religion by Dwight
Our age is one of vastly expanded human roles and possibilities, introducing new ways and forms of human endeavor. Globalization makes us more aware of diverse and shifting cultural, ethnic, and racial identities. Shifting gender roles have made us more aware of gender diversity. … Yet it is also an age in which our basic humanity is contested, challenged, and jeopardized at every turn by hatreds, strife, and social systems that deal in death as often as life. Confusion reigns in society generally and in medical and legal circles over when human life begins and ends. All these phenomena beg the question of what it means, at root, to be a human. – from the preface
Dwight Hopkins, whose work in Black Theology has mediated classic theology through the prism of African American culture, in Being Human offers a fresh take on theological anthropology. Rather than defining ‘the human’ as one inviolable essence, Hopkins, Professor of Theology at the University of Chicago Divinity School, looks to the conflicting notions of the human in contemporary thought, and particularly three key variables: culture, self, and race. What in a traditional framework were seen as ‘accidents’ now take center stage, and Hopkins's reframing of these concepts firmly locates human endeavor, development, transcendence, and liberation in the particular messiness of struggle and strife.
By making these realities and relationships more conscious, people can become more open about their ideals about a good person, a worthwhile life, and human destiny. In rethinking humanness, the collective racial, ethnic, and cultural dimensions of African American historical experience can be seen not as peripheral but as a tremendous untapped resource for theological anthropology. Hopkin’s proposals in Being Human are based on his ongoing research in black folk culture, a wellspring of historical reflection on what it means to be human. Core chapters explore notions of race, self, and culture, while the final chapter draws explicitly on folktale portrayals of ‘the conjurer,’ ‘the trickster,’ ‘the outlaw,’ and the Christian witness.’
Dwight Hopkins is one of the leading Black liberation theologians
of his generation. This book is a must-read! – Cornel West,
University Professor of Religion,
Hopkins' provocative and cogent analysis of human being, set
against the back-drop of creation's struggle and splendor, confirms
that theological anthropology never again should be crafted solely
from the dominant standpoints of European and North American white
overclasses.
Being Human breaks free from the ‘doctrines of man’ that long
have shackled so many, and opens readers to new rigors of thought
and action. This is a vital resource for twenty first-century
theological anthropology. – Mark Lewis Taylor, Maxwell M. Upson
Professor of Theology and Culture,
Being Human is major work from a leading black theologian which
frames the debate about being human in a way that opens rather than
closes our self-questioning.
Science / Chemistry / Reference
Dictionary of Microscopy by Julian P. Heath (John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.)
The past decade has seen huge advances in the application of
microscopy in all areas of science. The modern microscope has now
become a powerful analytical tool. Indeed, microscopes now have the
capabilities equal to any biological, chemical or physical method of
analysis but with the unique advantage of providing spatial
information. This welcome development in microscopy has been
paralleled by an expansion of the vocabulary of technical terms used
in microscopy: terms have been coined for new instruments and
techniques and, as microscopes reach even higher resolution, the use
of terms that relate to the optical and physical principles
underpinning microscopy is now commonplace. This bewildering array
of names and technical terms make it a challenge to keep up to date.
The
Dictionary of Microscopy was compiled to meet this challenge and
provides concise definitions of over 2,500 terms used in the fields
of light microscopy, electron microscopy, scanning probe microscopy,
x-ray microscopy and related techniques.
Written by Dr Julian P. Heath, editor of Microscopy and Analysis,
light and electron microscopist
This dictionary is not exhaustive; the hardest part of writing a dictionary is knowing what to leave out and some readers will wonder why their favorite technique is absent. It is not possible to list every configuration or application of a particular microscope; on the other hand, for those microscopies that are described Heath says he included terms both simple and complex to help readers’ understanding. Entries that seem obvious to an experienced microscopist will be useful to a layman. Furthermore Dictionary of Microscopy is not an encyclopedia: the descriptions should be taken as an incentive and guide for further reading of the literature. The entries are hierarchical: all of the terms used in the longer definitions are themselves defined elsewhere. Also, the definitions are descriptive, not prescriptive: where there are synonymous terms, Heath listed the common ones and provided a cross-reference to the term that carries the definition. For light microscopy terms, however, Heath followed the guidelines set out by the Royal Microscopical Society Nomenclature Committee.
Microscopy is about images, so this Dictionary of Microscopy would be incomplete without the illustrations and technical diagrams that add context and information to the definitions.
The Dictionary of Microscopy provides easy navigation through the microscopy vocabulary. Essential and accessible, it can serve as a first point of reference for definitions of new and current terms, and as a guide to further important sources of information. By defining basic as well as professional terms, this dictionary makes its knowledge base accessible to all microscopists, novice and experienced, and to scientists and laymen who need help understanding the microscopy lexicon.
Sociology / Women’s Studies
Urgent Message from Mother: Gather the Women, Save the World by Jean Shinoda Bolen (Conari Press)
The message to all women of the world in Urgent Message from Mother is "Wake Up! Arise! Do not ask for permission to gather the women. What cannot be done by men, or by individual women, can be done by women together. Earth is Home." Jean Shinoda Bolen's life’s work – her Jungian-inspired insights in The Tao of Psychology, the blockbuster Goddess in Every Woman, the empowering Crones Don’t Whine and The Millionth Circle – all lead up to this book.
In Jean Bolen's poetic polemic, Urgent Message from Mother, she explores both the psychological and the scientific aspects of women as leaders together. She begins with a Jungian examination of the barren Fisher King whose wound can only be healed by the Holy Grail; emphasizing the idea of the Holy Grail archetype as "every woman's secret" and the transformative power of the sacred feminine – the Goddess, Gaia, Earth Mother. Bolen then moves to Rupert Sheldrake's "Theory of Morphic Resonance," which describes how societies and even species can undergo rapid evolution when they reach a tipping point. She explains "we learned that women gathering together in groups and telling the truth of their lives can actually change the world." Bolen points to a UCLA study proving that women react to stress differently than their male counterparts. Instead of the ‘fight or flight’ reaction, women have a ‘tend and befriend’ response as a result of an increase in oxytocin, the maternal bonding hormone. While men become more adrenalized and aggressive, women nurture and protect – biologically. From this and other compelling evidence Bolen makes a case that now is the time for women to lead – to fiercely protect all that we love.
Always urging us into circle and into peace, the healing power of Jean Shinoda Bolen’s work and thought transforms all who will allow encounter. Jean never tires of wanting, and working for, our freedom, our healing and our health. – Alice Walker
Jean Shinoda Bolen shows us how the cult of masculinity is
endangering us all. Women and men are equally human and fallible but
at least women don’t have our masculinity to prove – that alone may
make us the main saviors of this fragile Spaceship Earth. – Gloria
Steinem
Urgent Message from Mother is a heart-shaking book which offers a powerful vision of why the world must change and how such a pivotal undertaking might be accomplished. In these compact pages Jean Shinoda Bolen courageously brings us to the brink of an erupting and necessary wisdom and to a feminine spiritual activism whose time is here and now. – Sue Monk Kidd, author of The Mermaid Chair and The Secret Life of Bees
Urgent Message from Mother offers a unique combination of visionary thinking and practical how-to and is Jean Shinoda Bolen's most activist work to date. Written in a lyrical language that inspires, this book makes a convincing case seeking to galvanize the still untapped power of women coming together to change the world.
Transportation / History
Dark Noon by Tom Clavin (International Marine / McGraw Hill)
The Pelican was being pushed once more onto its port side, and
Eddie knew with sad certainty that this time it was not stopping . .
.
In
Written by Tom Clavin, editor of the East Hampton Independent and
the Southampton Independent, two of the country’s award-winning
weeklies,
Dark Noon says it might have been naive optimism that propelled
Captain Eddie Carroll away from the dock that morning. He was
carrying sixty-two passengers aboard his fishing boat Pelican, some
thirty more than safe capacity. He was everyone’s favorite skipper,
a handsome World War II veteran with an easy manner, an endless
supply of fish and war stories, a sturdy forty-two-foot boat, newly
rebuilt engines, and an uncanny ability to find good fishing. In his
pocket that day he carried the ring that he would soon slip on the
finger of his Swedish bride-to-be.
But Eddie’s luck was about to run out. Even as the Pelican cut
its outgoing swath through the sun-spangled
Dark Noon is a suspenseful and ultimately heartbreaking sea
story. It’s also a journey back to the
Guide to This Issue
Page Contents: Manuel Neri: Artist Books,
Dramatic Whiteness, Life
on a