history

I accidentally stumbled accross this book newly printed. I began reading several months later and could not place it down again. The accounts of the book are the most detailed I have yet to read. It's not a diary of an aviator, it's the recallection of events that changed millions of lives accross the globe as told by one man. Not including the war time propaganda nor the valour for fighting for your country, Yeates writes from his soul and is not affraid to release his views on war time politics and religion and the roles they play. You feel the rumble of the rotaries, smell the gas, spy the enemy in the sun. You are there. And once this book is picked up, it shall only be set down again when you need to capture your breath. Because before you, you have witnessed your friend go down in flames.

Victor Maslin Yeates knows his business. He brought down five German aircraft during WW1, flying Sopwith Camels with 46 Squadron. That enough would make this novel worth reading. But Yeates is a rare sort of writer, as good as anyone from the first half of the century. Long characterized as an "aviation classic," Winged Victory is one of the most compelling examinations of courage and introspection ever written. Read this book. That's all. Just read it.

Biplanes were (and still are) very cute. There is a mystique about them that transcends even steam trains. There is a mystique about the noble Knights of the Air of the Great War with which we love to associate ourselves and wish we could share in that Great Adventure. There are people who would give anything to be there.
But being there, we would do anything to get out. You stayed because your comrades needed you, because your country called you, because they would shoot you if you ran away. But there was no mystique, no great adventure. Just constant fear, constant danger, thousands upon thousands of bullets fired at you till the risk of death or maiming became probability and then virtual certainty. Tearing your flesh, burning your living flesh, in agony. And to survive was to see friends die, waves of friends passing through while death missed you by inches, knowing how stupid it was to hope to escape till the end of your six months at the front.
This is not a book about the grand and chivalrous knights of the air, jousting in single combat over the fields of France. It is a book about Fear, and the torture of Fear. It is a book about a War without purpose or reason prolonged by corruption and the genocidal stupidity of a generation of Generals and politicians, from which the only bright light was the courage of men. This is not a comfortable book at all. It was written by a man who was dying as he wrote it, with nothing to lose and a young family he knew that he would never see grow up, as he tried to leave behind something for them in a world already escalating towards another paroxysm of madness.
I have been changed by reading this book. It is one of the best books I have read. I am very very glad I was not there in 1918. There is no glory in death.

What a joy it is to read the correspondence between two of America's greatest founding fathers. Through this collection of letters we begin to get into the minds of men who created and shaped this nation. We read of their dreams, expectations and fears for this new nation as well as typical correspondence between friends. That is when they were talking to each other. When the two men weren't, Abigail continued to write Jefferson to try and heal the breach. My favorite letter is from John Adams to Jefferson to tell him to stop writing his wife. This is a book for anyone who loves the human side of history and enjoys getting to know the real people behind the legends. I first read it in college, and then spent ten years trying to find it again. Now that I have, it will never leave my bookshelf.

The Adams-Jefferson Letters could be our modern Plutarch. Thomas Jefferson carried on a lifelong correspondence with John and Abigail Adams, and the collected letters show three brilliant but unlike minds shooting sparks of wit, philosophy, politics and friendship. They join forces in a great cause, they bicker and fall out, they make up, and at the end they look back on their remarkable generation from the grave's edge. What more could you want? This book ought to be in every public library in America, and if an American owns three books, this should be one of them.

The Adams-Jefferson Letters: The Complete Correspondence Between Thomas Jefferson and Abigail and John Adams edited by Lester J. Cappon is a remarkable book containing letter correspondence of the time when the United States was being formed and for fifty more years.

It is very interesting to read their letters to find out what really was on their minds concerning issues of the day. Americana at its best is what you come away with after reading these letters. The letters are in chronological order and are placed in order of response to the letter sent. Thomas Jefferson was a very prolific letter writer and the subjects the he discussed with John Adams vary greatly, but that is what made these letters very interesting. Also, the depth and the detail of the letters is remarkable.

Abigail Adams for a woman of her time was well versed and her letters to both Jefferson and her husband showed character, wit, and resolve. She was well aware of what was going on around her and you could tell by her letters that she loved her husband while he was away in the duty of his country.

This collection of letters is a real treasure, if you read or study the American Revolution, you have to own this book. This makes an excellent reference volume to fall back on when you get to the footnotes and want a more detailed reference, you can with these letters readily at hand.

I would recommend this volume for your home library.

This well printed, well bound, book contains stunningly beautiful and provocative spiritual imagery that resonates with the truth within us. But anyone who has seen Mr. Grey's work before has come to expect this from him.

The real treat is that the pages contain an incredible amount of intensely interesting background information (and tons of photos!) on Alex's early works, as well as insightful commentaries by Albert Hoffmann, Stephen Larsen, Donald Kuspit, and Ken Wilber.

I have to say... I bought my copy at a higher price directly from Alex Grey's website (...). It showed up a few days after ordering, smelling of freshly printed ink, nicely wrapped and (best of all!) signed by Alex Grey.

While it is true that Alex Grey's most recent book celebrates the Journey within all of us, it also offers the reader the opportunity to be subtly transformed by the power of the imagery and lyrical writing contained within - something that we can all benefit from during these disturbing days and into the uncertain ones to come.

For this reader, the most exciting aspect of this book is the announcement of Alex Grey's plan to build a Chapel to house the Sacred Mirrors.

I have no doubt that this Chapel will be one of the wonders of our age.

May God Bless Alex, Allyson, and Zena Grey and give them all the strength, luck, and power to support each other into the distant years to come.

- G.F.

Transfigurations is the pictorial history of the artist and how he finds his way towards his own personal excellence.

Alex Gray is a remarkable artist who has survived the different phases artists move through in their lifetimes, and has found himself a style and expression that is both moving and beautiful to experience. From his early works as a teenager, to his performance art of the 70's and 80's, Mr. Grey has translated many of his emotional experiences to various artistic mediums. The pictures and history provide you with the background you need to understand the spiritual inspiration Mr. Grey has finally found in his work and presented in this book.

I found this book to be very inspirational. The artwork is a personal and moving experience of the artist and I was very much taken by the meanings and visual ideals conveyed by them.

Bravo for a well produced effort on the part of the publisher, Inner Traditions, to be able to produce a book worthy of the works of this artist.

Spiritually inspired, expertly rendered and well produced, this book is worthy of a place on any serious collectors shelf.

If you liked sacred mirrors this book is the next step up. Opening to the first part of the book shows Alexs' earlier works and performances which seem strange compared to recent works. However it takes you through his lifes works and shows a very logical progression for the artist. His art progresses from a dark macabre form to a magnificant, spirtual art with bright exuberant colors. With the turn of every page I felt myself slowly filling with spiritual happiness until the end of the book when I felt overcome with spiritual energy and immediately upon closing the book I went into a meditative state and had the most wonderful experience. A must have for any Alex Grey fan or any believer in the sacred purposes of art.

While the idea of visiting the final resting places of the US Presidents may sound morbid, it really is a celebration of the lives of our leaders. These men could lead the most powerful nation in the world, but could not escape the final hand of death. The book is a concise visit to each president's life, death, funeral and burial. Lamb lets us look into the last requests of some presidents and lets us see how the president himself, as well as friends, relatives and the nation are reflected in their graves, from the ostentatious memorials to the simple marble headstones. This edition is up to date, introducing the lives and presidencies of our most recent office holders - Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, and gives us the most likely final resting places for those former presidents still with us - but for how much longer? The book also features numerous photographs taken by the author of the sites visited. A fascinating survey of the topic that makes me want to make some stops on future trips.

The one thing that ties all humans together, rich or poor, famous or unknown, powerful or helpless is death. To many Americans our Presidents are either marble figures (Washington, Jefferson...) or are little known familar names (Tyler, Harding...). This book does a great job of making ALL of our Presidents into human beings. The pictures, the writing, even the index pages are outstanding.

What better way to really understand a person than to know their final words. Or better yet to see their final resting places many of which were picked out by the individuals themselves. One can learn a lot about the true character of a person if you see monuments they designed for themselves.

I have visited many Presidential homes and several gravesites but after reading this book I have decided to make visiting all of the gravesites one of my goals in life.

It is strange that a book about death should bring history so alive. BUY THIS BOOK!

After watching the American Presidents' series on C-Span, I bought this book, and now I am visiting the gravesites of the presidents on my vacations. I find the directions and descriptions amazingly accurate. I never go on vacation without this book.

Writing a book about the New Yorker must be one of the world's most complex tasks. The subject is a semi-live, organically strange, symbolically rich, ever shifting protean being that stays still like a rock and at the same time is in perpetual motion. That Ben Yagoda was able to capture its likeness in a portrait made of words is in itself utterly amazing: but that this portrait is a work of art, quite independent of its subject matter, is a small miracle for which we should all be grateful. Like other readers who have commented, I could not put the book down; and this work will reverberate with me for many months, or even years. As I read, I started jotting down a small list of New Yorker writers whose work I "must" read (again or for the first time). By the end of the book it was a long list that will easily see me through 2001. This is a great book and a reference work that will be frequently consulted.

Since the 1920's The New Yorker magazine has ebbed and flowed in and out of the nation's conscience. On occasion The New Yorker itself is splashed across the front page of major newspapers with stories either by or about the magazine. What other periodical is there whose change in editorship is chronicled with unfleeting attention as was recently the case when Editor Tina Brown was deposed.

The supposed demise of The New Yorker magazine has been chronicled many times and the subject is old hat. It interestingly parallels the decline of our culture brought on by the decline of reading lamented by Alan Bloom, Harold Bloom and other cultural critics. But The New Yorker still survives some 80 years after it was founded by Harold Bloom. To appreciate it's place in the American psyche it is worth revisiting it's decades long history as Ben Yagoda has done in "About Town: The New Yorker and The World It Made".

Mr. Yagoda had free reign of the internal papers and correspondence of The New Yorker and willing participation from many of her former writers and editors. His meticulously researched book is replete with facts and anecdotes that makes for a wonderful read. Further he casts a critical eye at the magazine on it's literary merits and offers a well-read analysis of it's fiction in the manner of The New Yorker's own great literary critic Edmund Wilson.

It is difficult today to appreciate the impact that The New Yorker had on American culture in it's heydays of the 1930s through the 1950s. That a humor magazine lacking a table of contents or photographs and whose articles were often without byline could sweep past such stalwarts as "Life" and "The Saturday Evening Post" is prima facie difficult to understand. In recent years the magazine lost it's poignancy and fell apart with spiraling financial losses (which continue today) and a dull demeanor that was famously mocked by recent editor Tina Brown when she criticized the "50,000 word article on sapphires".

Some of us like to read 50,000 word magazine articles and The New Yorker appears to be the only mass circulation forum to find such lengthy works. Some of The New Yorker's long fact pieces-the distinction between "fact" and "fiction" is made clear in The New Yorker with an editor being assigned to head up each department-have been reprinted as famous books. My personal favorite is the spine tingling murder tale "In Cold Blood" related by Truman Capote. More famous is John Hershey's account of the atomic bomb dropped on Japan in "Hirsohima". These articles read with a breathless pace that is steady and lends itself to reading in a single setting. There is neither wasted adjective nor adverb. These were heavily edited by William Shawn and others and retold in the famous New Yorker voice which reads as if many of the works in the magazine had been written by one person. Some writers, such as Thomas Wolfe, have mocked that aspect of the magazine.

Some New Yorker writers did not appreciate such heavy-handed editing. Vladimir Nabokov, author of the novel of illicit love "Lolita", complained to the editor and founder Harold Ross about Katherine White who wanted to alter his fiction. Mrs. White was the patrician beauty and wife of the New Yorker writer E.B. White. She, James Thurber, Harold Ross, and E.B. White set the pace for the magazine in it's early years. White wrote the famous books "Charlotte's Web", "The Elements of Style", and "Stuart Little".

Brendan Gill in his 1975 book "Here at The New Yorker" openly disparages the fact side of the magazine while praising the fiction. This is quite odd and overboard since Gill as a writer of fiction, Talk of the Town reporter, and the magazine's theater critic no doubt would have appreciated such newsworthy, well-written articles as "The Massacre at El Mozote". This chronicled the massacre of hundreds of civilizians in El Salvador by the American-backed government. This article is not ordinary journalism but is literary journalism such as was written by Truman Capote. The article does not relate the facts in newspaper pyramid style fashion with short column inch paragraphs. Rather the prose is written like a novel and makes a more interesting read albeit a much longer one than would fit into the conventional daily press. Another great work of literary journalism described by Ben Yagoda is Lillian Ross's description of the making of the John Huston movie "The Red Badge of Courage". And it is quite amazing that Edmund Wilson, author of the Marxist History "To the Finland Station" and the book of Civil War literature "Patriotic Gore", learned Hebrew so that he could document the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The import of fiction to the New Yorker seems to have waned. Currently issues contain only one fiction piece while other works are relegated to-or perhaps made prominent in--a fiction-dominated version of the magazine which appears every few months. Gone are the days when eager readers poured over each new issue looking for a story by John O'Hara or J.D. Salinger. Not unfallable, The New Yorker has made some obvious gaffes when it turned down short stories by Flanner O'Connor and rejected a work by J.D. Salinger that would eventually become "The Catcher in the Rye".

Harold Ross was the magazine's founder and served as it's editor until 1951. He is by far a more colorful figure than William Shawn and his legacy is greater. Ross was something of a country redneck, sporting a crew cut, who hailed from what at that time was a rural village: Aspen, Colorado. His dislike of Black people is describe by Yagoda. Ross's gift was surrounding himself with talented writers and editors and giving then somewhat free reign to innovate. Yet even he engaged in wholesale editing. Brendan Gill recalls being called to the mat for using the word "indescribable". "Nothing is indescribable" Harold Ross roared.

There are at least two ways to view Ben Yagoda's book ABOUT TOWN: 1) as the history of The New Yorker Magazine, how it was conceived and developed and changed over time, and 2) as a social document reflecting its times. The subtitle of the book "and the World it Made" does not seem quite as accurate unless one considers that "world" to be the corporate culture created by the staff led by Ross and Shawn, the two longtime editors who built the magazine. The New Yorker certainly has influenced the world within which it existed along with many other magazines.

Harold Ross, the founder and first editor of the magazine, with the help of Katherine and E.B.White, Thurber, Dorothy Parker, and many other fine editors and writers launched the magazine in the 1920s. The sophisticated and literary focus of the magazine soon captured the fancy of New Yorkers. During the hard days of the depression the magazine actually gained subscribers as readers enjoyed the humorous repartee and cartoons that helped them laugh at their troubles. Many new readers learned of the magazine during WWII as it was handed around the barracks. The GI bill produced many educated readers who remembering their wartime contact with the magazine now subscibed to it. Following WWII, the magazine included more and more "social conscience" articles, for example, John Hershey's essay on "Hiroshima."

Ross died in the early 1950s, and during the fifties under the editorship of William Shawn, the magazine became relatively banal according to Yagoda who says it appealed to stay-at-home wives who enjoyed articles that reminded them of their college days (among other pieces, Mary McCarthy's tales of her Italian travels were featured). In the 1960s, the magazine once again became more vocal about social issues and the environment.

Yagoda says the best years of the magazine came in the 1970s when writers like Woody Allen wrote wonderful wacky pieces and investigative journalists covered the scandals in
Washington. Following a downturn in subscriptions in 1980s, the magazine was purchased by a media mogul and William Shawn departed. With Tina Brown's arrival, the magazine metamorphed into a Conde Nast publication. Garrison Keillor's comments about Brown's arrival (as he left) are amusing.

Over the years, I have read John Updike, Alice Munro, Jamaica Kincaid, Katherine White, and many of the writers who once wrote for the New Yorker. When I was a child, my mother used to quote Dorothy Parker regularly ("Rivers are damp..."), but I had no idea Parker wrote for The New Yorker until years later (we lived in a rural area and subscribed to the Progressive Farmer!!). When I read Rachel Carson's SILENT SPRING, it changed my life, but I read it in book form when it was first published as a Book of the Month Club selection. I only became aware of The New Yorker magazine when I was in my thirties and a college writing instructor suggested it. Yagoda says many people discovered the magazine when they were students.

As a social document, The New Yorker articles very much reflect the times, and to some extent, at least under Ross, the magazine seemed to be ahead of the times. In reading this book, I was reminded of National Public Radio, which seems to be the main innovator in broadcast journalism these days--though I am told there are all sorts of happenings on the Internet. The in-depth news stories, the essays by various knowledgeable citizens, the political commentaries and Garrison Keilor are all comparable to The New Yorker magazine.

If you are interested in a snapshot of the 20th Century from an educated New Yorker magazine perspective, or in writing and magazine development in general, you will find much of interest in this book. The tales concerning the origins of many innovative features of the magazine are quite good.

Yagoda suggests the magazine pretty much ended with Shawn's departure in the late 1980s. He devotes eight pages at the end of the book to the three editors who followed Shawn. He says the median age of the readership grows older every year (not replacing subscribers) and most of current readership as such is owing to the retention of loyal readers. He quotes some of these readers who no longer actually read the magazine but have not given up their subscriptions. His book goes a long way toward explaining to me why I dropped my subscription a few years ago.

This is easily the most satisfying tale I've read in a very long time. Rambunctious and witty, vastly imaginative, racingly-paced, and always downright funny, Stolen from Gypsies is a book for anyone who loves a great yarn spun with great skill. The author is drunk like a lord on the rich, mad joy of the English language itself, but not only can he hold his liquor, he turns the wildness of our words, old and new, into pure, narrative gold. This book is no spare, dry, modern comment on our brief, contemporary moment; it's a hot-blooded, hip-wading, sly-winking romp through the rich, roiling tradition of hundreds of years of broadly comic tale-telling. Full of exaggerated characters with outrageous names who do, say, and think extraordinary things, and written with appreciable literary and historical wisdom and wit, this story is firmly rooted in what everyone will recognize and appreciate as the ancient tradition of classically good storytelling.

Have you been yearning for an irrepresibly laugh-out-loud tale which steeps you in history and adventure, cozies you near and dear to absurd characters, bashes you good-naturedly about the head with old English slang, and goads you into turning the pages in equal measure of curiosity, surprise, and happy contentment of perhaps the most familiar, well-loved experience language can give us--the pleasure of a great story wondrously unfolding? Then you'll love this book; it's a true pleasure.

Post-note for all you hybridization fans: think Anthony Burgess's "Nothing Like the Sun" (a brilliant masterpiece) crossed with something more outright comic--the Monty Python movie epics will have to do for now. Maybe another reader will come up with the perfect title here...

A completely first-rate novel, sublime in richly historical hysterical characterizations. In his first novel, Noble Smith fashions a completely original story-within-a-story. The subject, a smart and thumping love story which leaves you both wildly entertained, expanded in your vocabulary, and just a little more informed about the wild turns of history which by only the smallest chance may have turned out quite different for all of us.
Smith's 'Gypsy' character breathes hope into our sometimes gray hearts that we all have, deep inside of us, an erudite, bold gypsy inner-being longing to break free from the humps which define us to sing our passions to the world. The story is told smartly through a decrepit writer-in-exile's re-telling of this fantastic story to his servant. With joy we watch the transformation both he and his main character makes throughout the book, tying up spectacularly in the end.
Stolen By Gypsies is a read which will keep you on the edge of your seat, as empassioned as the Gypsy character who is striving to become his complete self. Highly recommended reading. Waiting anxiously for his next novel.

Noble Smith has crafted a comic gem steeped in history and infused with decadent wordplay. Daggers and tongues unsheathe with equal exuberance as we hear the tale of the afflicted (struck by love and an inability to articulate) Godfrey's transformation into the loquacious Gypsy. The characters are so richly drawn and the verbal exchanges so wittily executed that the novel plays like a film in the reader's mind ... with many a smile cracked along the way. The guilt of enjoying humour frequently reserved for 12-year-old boys - the breaking of wind, the making of water, the taking of mistress - is alleviated by Smith's brilliant use of language. A treasure tome not to be missed.

When the auteur myth took root it managed to both change the stature of directors and displace a lot of talented writers. While there's no doubt that Hitchcock is still a giant in cinema, many of the books written about him tend to focus only on Hitch's contribution. DeRosa's book provides fair balance and recognizes writer Joh Michael Hayes' contribution to a fruitful collaboration. The four pictures that Hayes worked on (Rear Window, The Trouble With Harry, To Catch A Thief and the remake of The Man Who Knew Too Much)are all among Hitch's best work as a director. This isn't to suggest that Hitch didn't contribute to story ideas; he would frequently sketch out a general plot but writers like Hayes (or Ernest Lehman to name another strong Hitch collaborator) would be left along to write the script once the basic plot was discussed.

DeRosa knows his stuff and his research is exhaustive. I would have to liked to have seen more storyboard to script comparisons and comments from other writers and directors but that probably would have changed the scope of the book (and the focus). Without tarnishing Hitch's reputation, Writing With Hitchcock makes a strong case for the importance of Hayes contribution to Hitch's film.

After they had a falling out Hitch would frequently dismiss Hayes contributions to his films in print( such as in Truffaut's interview with Hitchcock. Hitch was generally pretty good about recognizing the importance of his collaborators)

Luckily that bitterness can't color the fine work of these well matched collaborators. This book along (with the inteviews Hayes granted for the DVD editions of their four films) finally puts it all into perspective. It also allows one to celebrate the great art and entertainment of Hitch and Hayes.

At last someone has challenged the myth that Hitchcock did everything himself. Not so. He had some very skilled writers whose talents helped make his films so memorable. One of those writers - perhaps the most important - was John Michael Hayes, whose screenplays for Rear Window, To Catch a Thief, Trouble with Harry and the remake of The Man Who Knew Too Much, had a tremendous impact on Hitchcock's films of the fifties, and on the way we view Hitchcock today.

In "Writing With Hitchcock", Steven DeRosa gives Hayes his long overdue credit. Hayes' contributions to each of the films are described in detail, as are the steps taken by the censors to reign things in - to protect audiences from the idea that Cary Grant and Grace Kelly would have premarital relations, or that Jimmy Stewart and Doris Day's boy was kidnapped, are just a couple of examples! Each film is gone over in detail from the writing phase to release, and the reader is given a chance to see the relationship between the writer and director blossom, and then die.

There are lots of anecdotes and a summarizing of both Hitchcock and Hayes' careers after they parted which is very illuminating, especially the potential sequel to Rear Window that Hayes worked on that would have been far more interesting than the Chris Reeve tv version. The final chapter is an analysis of each of the screenplays, and this was especially interesting to me as an aspiring screenwriter. Well worth the price of admission! I only wish it was in hardcover.

In 1953 John Michael Hayes met Alfred Hitchcock in the Polo Lounge of the Beverly Hills Hotel for dinner. After indulging in much wine and food with the legendary director, the 33-year-old writer, who was just starting to earn his spurs as a film scenarist after a luminous period in radio, returned home and told his wife he was certain that Hitchcock would never hire him to collaborate with him on projects.

How wrong Hayes proved to be, to the distinct benefit of himself and the great director. Hayes believed he would not be hired since he frankly criticized some of Hitchcock's earlier films. As things turned out, Hitchcock admitted he had heard very little of what Hayes was saying. Instead he focused on his manner, believing him to be glib and confident of himself. They then went to work on their first project together, with Hayes writing the screenplay adaptation of Cornell Woolrich's renowned short story, "Rear Window."

Steven DeRosa takes us on a fascinating journey with a succinct dual biography of the two men, brilliant creative forces with styles in some ways different, in other ways similar, while also showcasing the four films on which they worked during their collaboration. Despite his formidable background and lengthy film experience, Hitchcock knew where to tread and how to back off, giving Hayes plenty of suggestions on settings while providing him with all the independence he needed to place his own brand on his screenplays, particularly the masterful dialogue that made him sought after from the time he arrived in Hollywood looking for work. We learn that Hayes, before working on films, was a smashing success as a writer on the Sam Spade radio series starring Howard Duff and Lurene Tuttle. It was while cranking out radio scripts and being compelled to meet pressureful deadlines that Hayes developed a discipline that led him later to be branded as "Hollywood's fastest writer."

Another fascinating collaboration was "To Catch a Thief," in which the French Riviera settings form a brilliant visual backdrop to a thriller in which Cary Grant plays a reformed jewel thief who is enticed back into action to help the local police catch that period's successor to Grant. Along the way he finds romance with Grace Kelly, who will not that long afterward return to the French Riviera to reign over Monte Carlo with new husband Prince Rainier.

DeRosa provides interesting details on the remake of "The Man Who Knew Too Much," this time, 22 years after the original was released, as a spectacular color film. We learn how this film, starring James Stewart and Doris Day,was crafted in a way to utilize the good points of the original version while building upon that success and providing excellent original material.

This book is a rare effort. Scarcely ever does a reader receive such a close perspective on the important relationship between two master craftsmen, a brilliant veteran director and a young screenwriter at the peak of his powers.

Randy Schmidt's "Yesterday Once More: Memories of the Carpenters and Their Music" is not only GROOVY - but more than that, it's a masterful collection of the most beloved moments in the lives and careers of Karen & Richard, The Carpenters.

Schmidt's book transports the reader as far back as 1970, when the Carpenters first hit the music scene, and caused millions of listeners around the globe to take notice. Over 40 rare interviews, articles (Melody Maker, Rolling Stone, TV Guide) and reviews, are brought together for the first time, making this the ultimate read for a Carpenters fan.

Randy Schmidt has captured a side of The Carpenters story that has been relatively overlooked, until now. By compiling many great reviews, articles and periodical stories, Randy shares a facinating side of the lives, careers and concerts and music of Karen & Richard Carpenter. There are some really terrific Q&A with The Carpenters as well. I feel like I have suddenly discovered a treasure chest of Carpenters history--there are many album and concert reviews, as well as interviews and magazine articles that I have never seen before. Its like someone just handed me hundreds of magazines with features and articles, press releases and reviews of The Carpenters music. The book is filled with beautiful photos of Karen & Richard Carpenter that really capture their entire career. "Yesterday Once More" is much, much more than just the title of a song or a book: To a friend or a fan of Karen & Richard this is one phrase that captures the way we feel about them and thier music. "When we were young and listened to the radio"---WE WERE LISTENING TO The Carpenters!

Unlike "The Carpenters, The Untold Story" written by Ray Coleman, this book tells the story of the Carpenters chronologically using reprints of articles, critical analysis of their albums, and interviews that appeared in various magazines and fan club newsletters. While the first book is well written in novel form, this book keeps it real, complete with source documentations. There is no poetic license here, it's their complete history as it happened, a fantastic read.

About Face puts into perspective much of what I have experienced first-hand living in Taiwan and China for the past 20 years. Although no administration comes out with its reputation intact, clearly China, not afraid to use brinkmanship, has been more effective in bending US policy to its advantage. Mr. Mann's objective reporting show that China has come to understand the workings of America's political system, while the US remains ineffective in dealing with China's rulers who continue to mock American ideals of human rights and democracy while at the same time convincing the US to assist in modernizing its armed forces and investing billions of dollars in its economy. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to make sense out of US-China relations since Henry Kissinger or concerned about the developing US-China relations. This book will give a better foundation for understanding upcoming WTO and Taiwan arms sales issues, as well as China's bid to host the 2008 Summer Olympics.

If you want to know what is wrong with American policy towards China, there is no better place to start than James Mann's superb "About Face: A History of America's Curious Relationship with China, From Nixon to Clinton."

As a skilled journalist, Mann writes clearly and to the point. But this book is more than a journalistic tour de force. Mann has been following the China story since he was posted by the Los Angeles Times to Beijing in 1984 and his experience has produced a depth of knowledge unmatched by any academic China watcher I have read. That knowledge not only shines through in the main text but it is testified to in a notes section full of sources and corroborating detail.

What I particularly like about this book is its uncommon commonsense. Mann refuses to be swept off his feet by the "romance of China" -- a romance that repeatedly over the last century has discombobulated the thinking of American policy-makers, business executive, scholars and journalists. Stolidly eyeing the authoritarian reality behind all the fine words and sumptuous banquets that Beijing bestows on influential visitors, Mann constantly reminds us how sorry has been China's record on human rights in recent decades -- and how cravenly Washington has sought to sweep that record under the carpet.

This book is important too for its worldly wisdom in repeatedly showing the ease with which the Chinese system can manipulate America's money-driven and short-sighted political system. None of this is particularly surprising to those of us who have been watching U.S.-Japan relations in recent decades -- but it is rare for China experts (and still rarer for Japan experts) to highlight how the East runs rings around our Western democratic institutions.

Essentially this book is characterized throughout by a show-me attitude to the American intellectual community's vapid determinism on East Asia. As Mann repeatedly points out, China is far from being "bound" to converge towards Western values. Quite the reverse, thanks to the comprehensive mismanagement of American trade policy in the last fifteen years, China is now in a stronger position than ever to flaunt its rejection of those values.

First published in 1998, this book has already been around for a while. Don't be put off. "About Face" has no sell-by date. It is a modern classic.

-- Eamonn Fingleton, author of "In Praise of Hard Industries: Why Manufacturing, Not the Information Economy, Is the Key to Future Prosperity ."

This book is a must for one who wants to learn more about China.
My professor at Fletcher, Tuft assigned this book and I love it.

"Aisha" is an intriguing and mesmerizing story of an unforgettable character who comes alive in the author's words. Aisha is fiery, passionate and determined, yet feminine and desirable. She is a believable heroine, one that will be admired by modern women. The factors that affected and directed her life show us that adversity cannot quench a lively spirit. "Aisha" is a writing accomplishment of great depth and dimension. And this book is particularly valuable now, since it deals with fact-based historical events in the Middle East, the foundation of what is happening today that we are seeing in the news.

Years ago I read "Lydia", which is the first book that Angela Catramadou-Parker wrote and I was fascinated by its story. When I got "Aisha", I was doubly amazed by its story and I finished the book in less than 24 hours. The story covers a period of time not very well known to the public, but one that is very controversial and at the same time a very important part of history. Aisha is an amazing woman full of passion, love for life, and power. At the same time, she is vulnerable, sensitive and definitely a true survivor of her times. Angela Catramadou-Parker must have spent countless hours researching the history of those fascinating times. She portrays the sorrow, the love, the pasion, the fear, the cruelty, and the devotion in an amazing way. It is an extraordinary book based in extraordinary times. I thank the author for bringing Aisha to life. I am surprised that Hollywood hasn't picked up this book yet and made it into an Oscar award winning movie. Kudos to Mrs. Katramadou-Parker for outstanding writing!

What a moving story! Set in an exotic location a riveting read and very hard to put down. As a history buff it gives a fasinating insight to those times. Highly recommended.