1990 Books

John D. Bell provides perhaps the best account of the history of the Bulgarian Communist Party available in English. Together with Richard Crampton's history of Bulgaria, it is also the best scholarly source of more general Bulgarian history in the 20th century. A must for anyone studying Bulgaria. The book uses interviews of dissidents who fled Bulgaria during the years of communist domination to supplement available archival sources. The result is a magnificently documented narrative that brings to light some controversial and unclear episodes in the history of Bulgarian communism. The book demonstrates, for example, that Zhivkov's power was not unchallenged and that internal dissent, even if it came from the Party or the armed forces, existed even here, in the country widely considered to have been the closest Soviet ally and follower. The book also demonstrates the reciprocity of alliance politics within the Soviet bloc. Challenging the existing convention, John Bell demonstrates that relations within the Warsaw pact were not unidirectional. The Soviet Union responded to various interests of the Bulgarian leadership and often helped their advancement. In addition, the book is thoroughly readable and, provides impartial insight into the almost century-old history of the Bulgarian labor movement and its political organizations.

John D. Bell provides perhaps the best account of the history of the Bulgarian Communist Party available in English. Together with Richard Crampton's history of Bulgaria, it is also the best scholarly source of more general Bulgarian history in the 20th century. A must for anyone studying Bulgaria. The book uses interviews of dissidents who fled Bulgaria during the years of communist domination to supplement available archival sources. The result is a magnificently documented narrative that brings to light some controversial and unclear episodes in the history of Bulgarian communism. The book demonstrates, for example, that Zhivkov's power was not unchallenged and that internal dissent, even if it came from the Party or the armed forces, existed even here, in the country widely considered to have been the closest Soviet ally and follower. The book also demonstrates the reciprocity of alliance politics within the Soviet bloc. Challenging the existing convention, John Bell demonstrates that relations within the Warsaw pact were not unidirectional. The Soviet Union responded to various interests of the Bulgarian leadership and often helped their advancement. In addition, the book is thoroughly readable and, provides impartial insight into the almost century-old history of the Bulgarian labor movement and its political organizations.

This guide book is truly unique as it explores the best cafes and bars in all major European cities. Unlike many travel guides, the Cafe Creme Guide really tells you where to find that good cup of coffee, that cosy atmosphere or that stylish interior. It's also a pleasure to read and has a very high standard of photography. When I visited Paris in December I visited most of the places that were listed...it made my stay so much more pleasant (and efficient)! This guide is a must if you want to travel Europe and don't want to waste time looking for a relaxing hangout or a stylish cafe full of European culture!

What a fantastic and informative guide to cafes. You can almost smell the coffee and cigar smoke curling off the pages. Europe's finest cafes are covered in great depth with special focus on the interior designs (some are real peaches), service and food/coffee quality. If you're hooked on cafes and cafe culture, then go no further, this is the book for you.

Dachsunds Rule!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have this, and I get more great comments on this little daily planner than anything! Everyone loves looking at the great pictures of the cute little weenie dogs!

This is one of those books that very significantly change how we see a very important part of the world. The above reader review and the professional book reviews capture the book's strengths very well. I don't have the necessary expertise to question the author's interpretations, but they have immense credibility in their basis in detailed exploration of Chinese archives. For an historian a compelling use of documents to create a fundamentally new paradigm of recent Chinese economic history.
My only real complaint is with the editing: too often the same phrases are used to repeat the same message or qualification of the message. It becomes a little like a hypnotic poem: it makes sure we get the message, and given its novelty perhaps this is acceptable. I think that if the analysis of this book is accurate, then we can expect very significant disorder in China with the unfolding of the global credit crisis. And in a funny sort of way it will all be the result of the American and Chinese varieties of crony Capitalism. In both cases one has some sympathy for entrepreneurs and ordinary working people caught in the webs constructed by economic and political elites more keen on building their own enormous wealth than on the wider economy. The triumph of unenlightened self interest.

Professor Huang has written a brilliant critique of China's economic development (and of necessity, debunks much of what others have written about China's economy). He shows that China's development started in the 1980's with government programs focused on the rural economy, with programs designed to encourage rural entrepreneurs. Unfortunately with the Tiananmen Square crackdown, the new government leaders (technocrats from Shanghai) focused on major programs for urban areas, including massive construction projects and encouragement of foreign investment. Rural enterprises (and their required informal and official funding networks) were shut down. Although there was a proliferation of highrise buildings and massive construction projects (Three Gorges Dam, Shanghai's maglev, the Olympics,...) the result was slower income growth (especially in the rural areas), increasing illiteracy (parents could not afford to pay rapidly increasing tuitions), declining health care (hospitals, like schools, also became profit centers for local bureaucrats), expropriation of farmers' land, and much much more corruption, all of which has led to increasing social disorder among peasants who are finding themselves worse off. Party cadres' pay has rapidly increased and there are now far more of them. And productivity growth has declined or has even straight-lined. A return to the policies of the 1980's is clearly in order, but the current leaders, while trying to fix things, are still relying on top down commands and controls, and they have a much larger bureaucracy to keep happy.
Anyone trying to understand China's economic development over the last thirty years must read this. The causes of China's growth are badly misunderstand; too many economists and analysts have been overwhelmed by the vision of Shanghai's massive development without understanding the tremendous cost and waste involved, and the penalties paid by the common people (income for the poorest Shanghaiese has actually been going down).
The book should also be a lesson for Western politicians who think that China's methods of centralized planning and control of industrial policy can be applied in the West. Or maybe our politicians also understand how government control can lead to huge payoffs for politicians (as with Countrywide Credit's payoffs of at least two senators and lots of others politically connected, not to mention the huge salaries paid to Democrat politicians 'working' at Fannie Mae).
Read this book if you have any interest in China or economic development!

Thanks to the techniques and websites contained in CareerXRoads, results that are hard-to-match were achieved in diversified staffing environemnts. Representative metrics include: number-of-hires (75% of all hires were from the Internet), time-to-hire (avg. 48 days), cost-per-hire (avg. $3,800), and customer satisfaction (avg. 89%). Free e-mail updates increase the value of this user-friendly candidate sourcing tool for the serious Internet recruiter.

This book highlights the very best sites for your 1999 job search. I have found it most helpful in sourcing candidates for my clinical research client, and also as a guide to posting the job searhes that I am doing. It guided me to the best healthcare sites; Also, I was able to find the most cost effective sites

I have used previous editions of Careerxroads, but the latest, 1999, edition is the best one yet.

_Carver Country_ is a fascinating look at Raymond Carver's personal life. Warning: one feels like a snoop reading through this book. There are photos of Ray's desk, complete with ashtray and paperweights; his childhood home; various landmarks in and around Yakima, WA and Arcata, CA; and portraits of Ray's family and friends. These last are especially powerful. But aside from the photos, there are words - unpublished letters written by Ray, an excerpt from a 1983 interview for _Poetry_ magazine (which includes my favorite line - "That's the last Christmas you'll ever ruin for us!"), and a substantial introduction by Tess Gallagher. It is wonderful and strange to see the places that were turning points in Carver's life, and the accompanying text is haunting. Gallagher's introduction is especially fine, and worth reading many times. Get this book.

Carver was a wonderful, wonderful writer. It's great to see his house, his study, his wife and friends photographed so beautifully. It's great to read his stories, his poems, more than 10 years after his death and to find them as powerful as ever. This book is very moving.

Charles Bell belongs to the 13 founder members of the photorealistic art in the United States, a counter - movement to the established abstract art in the world. Bell's work has a deeply personal intensity that makes him unique within that group of artists. He is the most accomplished and durable creator of Photorealist still lives. Unfortunately, "The Complete Works 1970 - 1990" is the only, almost full - length study of his significant work. Until the time of his death in 1995, he completed a total of 157 paintings. 145 of these paintings are illustrated in full-colour and high quality in this book. You are getting more than a general view of his "oevre." You get a close look of the artist's development from the earliest giant Raggedy Ann dolls and other toys, through the fantastic gumball machines of the fifties, the marble series, and the toy tableaux, to the masterly viewed pinball-machines. In the introduction you get also an impression of his meticulous pre-work (with camera and macro lenses) in order to create a masterpiece of art. Finally, the subject matters of his paintings are real objects. - Dipl.-Ing., Dipl.- GwL. Christoph Erlemeier, Stuttgart, Germany

Charles Bell's images will be attractive to those with some nostalgia for childhood and the accoutrements of childhood, e.g., wind-up toys. The images feature marbles, old-fashioned roller skates, bubble gum ball machines, Donald Duck pull toys, wind-up rocket ships, hopping bunnies, and seals. Most of these objects comprise painted metal, though the paintings also include cloth Raggedy Ann dolls. The nostalgic aspect is reinforced when one realizes that metal wind-up toys are not much manufactured any more, and that pinball machines have been replaced by games with computer screens and software. The paintings are in the photorealist style. The quality of the work seems similar to that of the Flemish masters. Possibly, Charles Bell's name should be a household word, just as Jan van Eyck (Wedding Portrait) is a household word. My own analysis of photorealism is as follows: A man might spend a minute or so gazing at a chrome plated napkin holder, ketchup bottle, or grocery window, losing himself in the reflections, and the plurality of layered reflections, taking a mental journey through adjacent zones of color. However, most people do not do this sort of thing with these objects, or even with photographs of these objects. On the other hand, when rendered as a photorealist painting, the resulting painting is a format that invites the eye to explore. Even if the photorealist painter refrains from altering the image of a photograph of the napkin holder, bottle, or grocery, the resulting painting on canvas places the image in a format that invites gazing and visual exploration. (That is my analysis). If you admire Richard Estes, Ralph Goings, or Don Eddy, there is little question that you'll like Charles Bell. The book being reviewed is authored by Henry Geldzahler. According to Pop Art by Anne Umland, Mr. Geldzahler, as a curator at the Metropolitan Museum of art in 1962, helped to identify and legitimize the pop art movement. Umland writes that at the time Mr. Geldzahler argued that pop art: "still carried on art's task of self-criticism . . . maintaining a dialog with itself . . . and was therefore connected to the most advanced contemporary art." Thus, the book being reviewed was authored by an established art critic. Harry N. Abrams, Inc. is the publisher. This publisher is responsible for art books of high quality, e.g., Photorealism at the Millennium (2002) by Louis Meisel or Desert (1999) by Jack Dykinga.

Since a third of the book is dedicated to the discussion and dissection of Charles Ives' and Aaron Copland's compositions, here is a listing of the music on the accompanying BMG CD: 1) Copland: Concerto for Clarinet and String Orchestra with Harp and Piano; 2) Copland: Appalachian Spring; 3) Copland: El Salon Mexico; 4) Ives: The Unanswered Question; 5) Ives: "Memories"; 6) Ives: "General William Booth Enters Into Heaven"; and 7) Ives: Three Places in New England - II. "Putnam's Camp". The recording is dominated by Michael Tilson Thomas who appears as both conductor of the London and San Francisco Symphonies and as pianist on "Memories." Also on the disc are Eugene Ormandy conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra (Appalachian Spring) and Eduardo Mata conducting the Dallas Symphony Orchestra (El Salon Mexico).

Brief biographies of the two premier American composers are followed by tutorials on their music focusing on better-known, widely-aclaimed pieces. The guide succeeds in making the music accessible without dumbing it down at all or trying to popularize it. Felsenfeld is himself a composer and a music writer bringing to the task not only compatibility with Ives and Copland, but also an educator's understanding of the reader's position in wanting to learn more about them and enhance appreciation of their music. With the book is the treat of a CD offering ample samplings of music, including Copland's complete "Appalachian Spring" and four pieces of Ives', who wrote shorter, intense works.

This is how all books should be like. It's too bad high schools don't use books like this one. Gomez-Quinones doesn't sugarcoat anything in his book.

This book is written on facts. I highly recommend it to others.

This guide is great!It docoments over almost every tv show,such as Series like Gilligan's Island,Game Shows like Jeopardy,Wheel of Fortune,Jep,and Wheel of Fortune 2000,variety shows like iQue Sanco Rachon,cartoons like Powerpuff Girls and Dexters Lab,Educational Programs like 3-2-1 Contact(3-2-1 Contact is the secret,is the moment,when everythin happens) C'mon,you know the lyrics,and Specials like the Peanuts and Inspector Gadget series of specials.Every TV maniac,freak and fan will wanna own this book!

This Book is All The Rage! It contains info on series like The Cyber Troopers,Mickey Mouse Club and Alvin and the Chipmunks,game shows like Wheel of Fortune 2000,Jep,and Where in the world is Carmen Sandiego,variety shows like iNadoro Diaza,cartoons like Dexters Lab and Powerpuff Girls,educational programs like 321 Contact,and tv specials like Inspector Gadget saves Christmas.If you children out there love children's tv,then this is the book for you!