history

I remember The Beatles Alpha and Omega. I wondered why they and Apple would repackage The Beatles classics (along with some solo songs as well) in such a cheap way during the 70's. The collection featured 60 songs and I ordered it. It's no surprise to find out that Bruce Spizer's excellent book mentions this collection even though it was authorized or put out by Apple.

I used to be a collector. That was before children, a mortgage and life changed things. Unfortunately, a lot of what I had was destroyed or lost over time with moving, etc. Which is why Bruce Spizer's account of Apple Records is so fun. It's like having every single conceivable Beatles Apple release available. He discusses the making, mastering and marketing of various Beatles albums and releases in the US.

Bruce has done a terrific job with this sequel to his three previous volumes on The Beatles (The Beatles On Vee Jay, The Beatles Singles and The Beatles Story on Capitol Records). This book is packed with sharp observations about the band, Apple and their releases and all with glorious color illustrations on high quality paper. I had always wondered, for example, why the album Hey Jude (aka The Beatles Again) was created and by whom. Bruce digs out the information as to the who, what where and whys.

My only disappointment is the lack of information on the CD reissues by EMI & Capitol during the 80's through today. While I got sucked into the CD vaccum (like many people)I do enjoy the convenience of the smaller format for the car. Yes, the artwork leaves much to be desired but it has it's uses. I understand that there's less artwork and variation involved in the manufacturing of CDs (perhaps). I'm sure Bruce might address these in the future (along with the eventual release of The Beatles' catalog on either DVD or SACD).

As it stands, Bruce has done a great job and the book is exacting and well researched (as usual). I'm hoping someone can talk him into doing a book on the other releases for Apple (The Beatles solo albums and all the artist's they signed). Although this book appears quite pricey, the quality of the paper, binding and the material make it well worth the cost.

That's it!!!... I'm never going to say... "It just can't get any better" anymore.... I've said that about Bruce's previous offerings of "The Beatles Story On Capitol Records: Part One, The Singles" and "The Beatles Story On Capitol Records: Part Two, The Albums". I have to stop saying that because Mr. Spizer continues to improve his already phenomenal books with each successive volume he releases! So I'll retire that line until he's sure he's written his last book which I hope is not for a good long time! Bruce has already raised the standards for all record history publications to lofty heights, but with his new release titled perfectly, THE BEATLES ON APPLE RECORDS, he has shot the standard to the stratosphere!
The book truly captures the look and spirit of Apple, from its cleverly stunning cover, which mimics a Hey Jude single in its sleeve, to the titles of the sections, A is for Apple, S is for Singles, L is for LPs, etc. These nice touches highlight the attention to detail found in all of Bruce's books.
Also retained with this new offering, is the quality cover construction. And the nice large 9 1/4" x 12 1/4" size is a perfect companion to his previous offerings making all his books together a great matched and chronolized set! This was certainly great early planning on Bruce's part. Indeed, he has a great knack for consistency, and you can clearly see this most enjoyable and useful characteristic in all of his books. Inside is simply more photos and information on the Beatles U.S. (and some Canadian Apple Records) than has ever been in any of the next 10 books ever done put together! I'd love to detail the many incredible photographs and listings and stories for you, but I simply don't have the space here for it! Suffice it to say you will see and read about items you never knew existed before and see them showcased so beautifully and brilliantly that you won't be able to put this book down till you have seen it all! While reading and viewing the incredible high quality pictures, you feel as if somehow Bruce was able to put the actual records in this book! You get the sense you want to lift them off and put them in your collection! And that's just the main titles.... He also has filled these high gloss pages with hundreds of supporting pictures and details.
Bottom line, this book is simply the best book I've seen ever seen or read on Beatles records and I'm sure it will remain that way until his next book! To Bruce I say... "Go get em buddy! Keep up the good work and I'm proud to call you my friend and colleague in the Beatles record world! To fans and collectors everywhere I say....."For [the price], you're getting a real treasure trove of information and stunning photography you simply could not compile yourself for 100 times that amount!." Mr. Spizer has set the same standard on his books that the Beatles did on their music! Sensational and the best there is!!!

I could not put this book down. It was like reading a mystery novel. Strange thing to say about a "coffee table" book. It not only covers the tiniest details for the avid collector (such as record number, label typeface, and pressing location), but also covers details about when and how the music was made (such as what recording studio was used, the dates the recordings were made, who was in the studio, who played what, etc.). I was lucky to have met Bruce Spizer and get an autographed copy. I look forward to reading his other books.

With the unprecedented popularity of the "Left Behind" series, Tim LaHaye has re-energized the stumbling giant of dispensational premillenial eschatology. Christians who were disillusioned by the non-occurrence of the rapture in 1988, 1994, January 2000, and so on, have rallied around the latest attempt to reinvigorate their patently bogus interpretation of Revelation. If it could be shown that the book of Revelation was written prior to the fall of Jerusalem in AD70, it would cause serious problems to the futurist interpretation held by LaHaye. LaHaye's view of Revelation rests on his assumption that the book was written around AD93-96, and thus it can't be referring to the destruction of Jerusalem. But if it WAS written in AD69, and it IS a prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem, then LaHaye is left behind in his understanding of prophecy. Enter Ken Gentry. "Before Jerusalem Fell" is an outstanding presentation for the pre-AD70 dating of the book of Revelation. Gentry takes great pains to make his case from all available sources: extrabiblical documents, as well as Scripture itself. Profusely footnoted, exhaustively researched, and clearly written, BJF is a book that demands attention from all serious students of eschatology. Read it, and you may never want to touch another "Left Behind" novel again.

Without a doubt, Dr. Kenneth Gentry's book, "Before Jerusalem Fell: Dating the Book of Revelation", is one of the most enlighting readings I have ever come upon. Intrigued by his review of R.C. Sproul's work, "The Last Days According to Jesus", I sought out BJF and read it with an open mind that had already dumped any pre-tribulation view after the Y2K "mess" and had starting thinking more about the nature of the Olivet Discourse. What I read astounded me.

Dr. Gentry not only presents and defends his side with hard exegetical evidence, but also takes the time to present other views and then explains, using this same method, why they are not true. Digging through the pages of history of the early church fathers, citing excellent commentaries from the late 19th and early 20th century, and taking Scripture with the seriousness that any scholar should, Gentry gives overwhelming evidence that Revelation was written prior to A.D. 70 and also gives us answers into some of the mysteries such as

Who is the Beast?
What is 666?
Is the tribulation past or still to come?

as well as demonstrating that the majority of Revelation, all of the Olivet Discourse and the 70 weeks passage in Daniel was fulfilled in the destruction of the Temple by the Romans. Dr. Gentry shows that, as should always be the case, that prophecy is easier to understand after it has been fulfilled than before. If you are into any view that calls for a tribulation of any kind, should you decide to read this book, you will definitely be affected and challenge to make a change of such a view.

As a teachable student of the Bible, one must consider reading this book. It contains all of the avialable sources of the historical record relating to the debate regarding the date of Revelation's writing. The author is clearly making a case for the pre-70AD writing, but gives weight and the benefit of the doubt to ambiguous opposing arguments. He later shows in what way these arguments are flawed. I eagerly await a response from the other side, however, Gentry's case seems air-tight.

Gentry breaks the book into two major sections, external and internal evidence. The book is not for the light of heart, as it is rather detailed. I'd recommend this book for all who have the ernest desire to know what the church has had to say on this interesting subject, but not those merely wishing to understand preterism.

An amazing book. Gilbert did not so much write a book as he did weave together masterfully the story of 732 young people whose only connection was the terrible tragedy that befell them. Gilbert, or rather his "Boys", paints a vivd picture of pre-Holocaust Jewish life in eastern Europe and makes one realize that Hitler destroyed more than six million lives. The story is terribly depressing and yet uplifting when one realizes what "the Boys" have done with their lives since 1945

I can't add much to the excellent published reviews. This is one of the most outstanding books I have read. Read it to learn what Jewish life was like before 1939 and to learn of the horrors of the camps and forced marches. Yet the book shows that there is hope as the "boys" remember the words of their fathers "In a place where there are no men, be a man". If you could get an older teen-ager to get through the beginning of this book (which is a little slow), they would get a tremendous amount from this book.

Martin Gilbert is probably one of the most prodigious historians alive. This book required interviews with the 732 survivors it profiles ("Boys" includes both men and women) and those who knew them after the war. Some were as young as eight or nine when the war started. Many themes Gilbert covers are like those one can read in other personal Holocaust histories. But the experiences in each case are unique.

Martin provides two statistics I find particularly haunting. While 6 million Jews died in the Holocaust--including victims of pre-war pogroms, ghettos, concentration and death camps and death marches--only 100,000 survived the camps. And while Britain agreed to take in 1,000 Jewish "children" under the age of 16 after the war, only 732 could be found alive.

But for me, the most fascinating part of the book is the repeated confirmation that those who returned to their homes after the war found the same kind of murderous hatred among their former neighbors as Jan Tomasz Gross describes in Neighbors.

In other words, Jedwabne was not unique. Gross has himself said as much and plans to write more on the subject. But Gilbert also confirms that murders of Jews by locals happened during the war all over Poland, Lithuania and Latvia, and to a lesser extent, in Hungary. It also happened after the war all over Europe--especially in the East. Returning Jews found neighbors who wished them dead, and in thousands of cases killed them. The "boys", obviously, survived. But many lost brothers, parents, friends, after the war, in Poland, Hungary, and elsewhere. Sir Martin Gilbert gives us the living proof. Alyssa A. Lappen

I think the title says it all... great book if you want to learn about your Cherokee past.

Cherokee Proud is an invaluable resource for those who are searching for their American Indian roots, or who want to know more about the Cherokee people.McClure has beautifully woven together countless hours of research, history, and modern-day information.MariJo Moore/Cherokee author/poet/journalist

I just rec'd the this book and after only flipping through just a few pages on my great grandmother's MCCLURE lines, I'm impressed! Not only am I looking forward to reading this book but I plan on using it for future reference, as I see a few made at the end of one of the chapters and I haven't even read thru it yet - and can not wait! Thank you Dr. Tony MCCLURE. You did your homework because you know your homework. Buy this book! You will not be disappointed!

What a life! After reading his book, you realize the life Joe has lead behind his music. It was surprising and almost shocking how personal and revealing the writing is to the insides of his thoughts and feelings.
He shows how he is a true musician at heart no matter what professional situation he is presented. His solid background as a pianist and arranger laid the groundwork for his film scoring that did not come to mid-life and career and he almost didn't take the chance....still a 25 year fish out of water on the west coast! Thanks for a all the great music that became the soundtrack to my childhood Joe....
Also was surpised to find out about his Jewish background, he always seemed Italiano to me!
So the book leaves just one question- when is the TV movie version of Joe Harnell coming out?

ON CLIMBING THE MOUNTAIN

Review by Edward Thomas

"Counterpoint, The Journey Of A Music Man" is indeed an exalted journey, well set forth and at times both intimidating and awesome. Joe goes into the very depths of his soul to express his innermost sensitivities and pain of his life as he experienced it without giving in to any compromise. How many of us would have the courage to be so forthright about such personal matters for all to see? It is this very courage which gives "Counterpoint" its significant thrust and shows the side of a brilliant creative artist going far beyond the mundane and seeking fulfillment in his many artistic talents.

Here we have a man who has done it all-- Joe Harnell-- master musician, first rate orchestrator, music director for some of the greatest names in show biz-- Peggy Lee, Tony Bennett and Frank Sinatra to name a few. TV personality and conductor on the Mike Douglas Show, innumerable recordings of every kind including his great hits "Fly Me To The Moon" featuring Joe at the piano along with his brilliant orchestration and "Fever" with Peggy Lee not to mention his numerous national appearances with many of the premiere artists of their day.

I highly recommend "Counterpoint" to one and all! People in the television, musical and recording arts will find the book compelling reading to be sure. However-- for people not intimately acquainted with these areas-- this book will give great insight into that seemingly mystical world. A fascinating, entertaining, sometmes painful, yet satisfying journey of journeys. Once in a lifetime and that once is now. Do indeed buy the book at your earliest convenience! You will not be sorry you did.

COUNTERPOINT, the frank account of the varied and exciting life of Joe Harnell, pianist, composer, arranger, bandleader, will be sure to appeal to anyone who's a fan of mid to late 20th century popular culture and it's major players, louis armstrong, marlene dietrich, etc.
While not always pretty (Harnell has no desire to gloss over the more unpleasent aspects of his life), it is an always honest and very revealing account of the artistic and personal development of a musician's musician. After reading this book, it is difficult not to be touched by Harnell's humanity whether or not one is aware of his work and contributions to popular and television music over the last five decades.

This is only a small book (less than 100 pages), but it packs a lot of ideas into it's content.

This is an "objective" view of the 20th century trend towards mass murder, and the forces described in this book, while based in a european context can be seen to hold true for virtually all "modern" societies, including Asia and Africa.

The author explains the link between a well organised bureaucratic organisation with an objective view to "processing" people through their rules. The danger of having large groups of "displaced" and "no-nation" peoples combined with a tendancy to rationlise away those peoples "rights" in society - to make them effectivley "non-people" and outside the law. It also brings home the reality that power *does* corrupt - or at least finds excuses for all it does to other people.

The author has presented us with a possible bleak future in many ways. This book is also a mirror to how we justify the choices of our modern life and the picture is not always pretty.

In the past, where "jews" may have been the target, today discrimination is trending towards the poor, and once again with the displaced and dispossed. Read in conjunction with "no Logo", this book is very enlightening - though out of the 2 books this is the better written. Worth picking up, reading and keeping.

Although published in 1975, Richard L. Rubenstein's The Cunning of History, seeking to derive a definitive "formula" for holocausts and The Holocaust, is still a modern analysis in 1997. Indeed, it probably will be modern 20 years from now; like the laws of physics and chemistry. All of this is accomplished in a deceptively thin, 112 page pocketbook.

Like any unsentimental and effective analysis, The Cunning of History is bound to make many people uncomfortable and some even angry. People cannot take too much reality. Nevertheless, Rubenstein made a major contribution to history and understanding by painstakingly tracing the origins and evolution of hyperrational bureaucratic social systems that inexorably drive to total domination, and then extermination of its target victims. Accordingly, first we are instructed of exactly how the Nazi regime of Germany's Third Reich created the system of death camps and how they operated. The management styles of the death camps are likened to those of modern corporations. Thus the Auschwitz society implements a system of total domination: first to extract labor at lowest cost; and then efficiently destroying its surplus labor force.

Along the way, Rubenstein gives mankind ample warnings about future holocausts derived from world overpopulation ... coupled with superfluous humans produced by economic "necessity" for burgeoning profits.

To recognize the beginnings of the next holocaust as it forms, reading Rubenstein's The Cunning of History is prerequisite. For such a valuable book, the only appropriate rating is 10.

If you're interested in how technology and bureaucracy combined to lead to genocide, read this book. Enen if you don't think you are, after you read this bgook, you will be.

At a time when we're offered so many bloated books on historical subjects, this brief book is a gem. It repays reading and rereading. It may even change the way you view the world. Forget Golhagen and his ilk,this is the best book you can read on the subject.

Excellent read which will appeal to all baseball fans. Olivieri does a fantastic job at bringing the reader inside the clubhouse and experiencing the locker room subculture. Pretty good gig for a baseball fan right out of college to become a part of the red sox and make a positive impact on the players performance. He brought great insight without being disrespectful. i wanted to keep reading and will look forward to a follow-up book. highly recommended!

I literally could not put this book down. Okay, so im a huge baseball fan and sure, I adore the Red Sox..but the perspective you get from a regular guy on the inside of the very private world of professional sports is enlightening and a joy to read.
Moreover, it describes how and where an organization--through its many quirks--succeeds and fails.

This tome is like a real-life version of something like the "The West Wing", where you get an inside look at the inner-workings you're not supossed to see. Mr. Olivieri shows how a team operates beyond the sports pages and delves into the sociology of a pro sports team--how the management, the players and the folks like Olivieri try to keep the team one step ahead of the competition. I felt like the view of this storied franchise was unlike anything I had read or heard of before.

Would love to see a series on this in other facets of life written in such a down-to-earth manner.

The Red sox used cutting edge technology to gain an edge...frankly, tech like this should have been emphaiszed more then, as the current management relies on it.

I would recomend this book to any baseball fan, any sports fan, and to anyone in management who should see how operations function at the fox-hole level operate.

I loved this book! I had a hard time putting the book down. The book was interesting, funny, well written, and a quick read. The club house and personal stories were hilarious. The thing I liked best was that Olivieri brings you through the process of what it's like to go from being a fan, to a stranger in the club house, to a part of the team. After reading it, I bought one for my Father in-law,(a fellow believer)for Christmas. You'll love this book too.

The Big Sky, by A.B Guthrie,tells the too-real-to-be-fiction story of Boone Caudill, Jim Deakins, and Dick Summers. The great description of the area, Northwestern Montana, is 100% accuate, from the indian tribes found in the region, to the local dialects of the men. Guthrie wrote this story as if he were actually in the place of the men, and if everything actually took place in the story. Boone is the stereotypical "mountain man" of the story, the rough, rugged, hard nosed hero. His best friend, Jim Deakins, is the anti-Boone character. Jim can also be considered a mountain man, but his personality is completly different then Boone's. Throughout the book, the characters come to life, where the reader becomes concerned and scared for Boone, Jim, and Dick through their trials. The tone almost throughout the entire story is Paranoia. Thsi is true, because Boone and Jim start to realize their paradise in Montana is becoming new stomping ground for people coming west to settle. Boone then becomes paranoid of people around him, where he finally isolates himself in the woods, with no human contact beside a few blackfeet indians. Boone also becomes weary of staying inside a house, or any space where he is not outside in the free land. He becomes depresed if he is taken out of his habitat for a great period of time, perhaps because he is paranoid that he won't be able to stay in nature any longer if he is stuck outside it. This becomes clear when his father dies, and he travels back to Kentucky. He describes his feelings of Kentucky as follows "He had felt at home outdoors. It was as if the land and sky and wind were friendly, and no need for a pack of people about to make him easy. The wind had a voice to it, and the land lay ready for him, and the sky gave room for his eye and mind. But now he felt different, cramped by the forest that rose thick as grass over him, shutting out the sun and letting him see only a piece of sky now and then, and it faded and closed down like a roof. THe wind was dead here, not even the leaves of the grat poplars, rising high over all the rest, so much as trembled. It was a still, closed-in, broody world, and a man in it went empty and lost inside, as if all that he had counted on was taken away, and he without a friend or an aim or a proper place anywhere."(page 357) Overall, this book is a great book if you love reading a passionate story about a man and his one true love, nature. Boone represents the man with the call of the wild in his soul, and his struggle to keep what he has while he can. Living in Montana, this book is also an interesting story that depicts the lives of people living where I now call home in the 1830's.

I have read The Big Sky three times, and scanned it many more. Having grown up in Browning, MT, this book really takes me home. What sets Guthrie's work apart from other writers of the mountain man genre, is character development. The way characters like Jim Deakins, and Boone Caudill, and Dick Summers, become complete people, is uncanny. The internal dialogues each carry on is fascinating. Jim's thoughts about god are succinct, and( I feel) right on the money. Boone Caudill is a misfit in any society, and the only way he could possibly live and let live, is utterly on his own. He becomes "broody" when in the company of others, and is nowhere near likable. His demeanor is completely opposed to that of Jim Deakins, who is carefree, and refuses to take anything too seriously. Boone's words, upon their meeting, "A man would have to be willing to stand by his partner, come whatever" (a paraphrase), turn out to be very ironic. Dick Summers is really the main character, as his saga continues through "The Way West", and "Fair Land, Fair Land". He is the balance between the two, and the glue that holds the partnership together. This book chronicles the heyday of the fur trade, and signals the end of that era, and the open west. I'd highly recommend it to anyone, be it for it's accurate descriptions of the time, or it's sociological implications. It is not just another mountain man story.

I really enjoyed this work. Didnt know this guy won a Pulitzer but it figures. I was swept away by the imagery created by this master. It was evocative of Cooper (although he surpasses Cooper), and McMurtry and the guy who wrote "all the pretty horses". The "master" can always create the world to drown the reader in - this guy is great - I plan to read the whole series...

Beginning with the 007 novels of Ian Fleming, d'Abo and Cork delineate the archetypes and trace the evolution of Bond girls from the 1953 novel 'Casino Royale' to the 2002 film 'Die Another Day.' Along the way, the reader is treated to insights from the actresses who so brilliantly brought these fantasy sex-symbols to life.
The book is also a feast for the eyes, with page after stunning page of color and black-and-white photos of the world's most glamorous and alluring women - many of them rarely, if ever, seen before. All in all, it is a must-have addition to any James Bond fan's library - and just in time for Christmas!

Okay, James Bond films range from the great to the absolutely lame. Let's not kid ourselves that these movies are great art. What they are, though, is a cultural fact of life. I winced when I saw the title - Bond Girls. Sure, maybe it's retro, hip, funky, but one figures that this book is bound to be anything but. This isn't a ultra-cooler-than-thou exploration of sex and sexuality that doesn't explore. In fact, the book's "style" has all the sex appeal of a museum exposition. The photos are fine, but too rarely illuminating. So, why five stars?

Well, the simple truth is that it is a very good read.

The book is divided into two main sections - about half deals with the fictional characters and half deals with the women who brought them to the screen. One gets the feeling that Cork wrote the history and d'Abo (an actress who appeared in one Bond film) wrote of the real world. The first part is grade A film history/analysis. A few films are trashed, but the essential appeal of the women in the Bond films is laid bare without seeming to drool over the subject matter nor patronize the reader. As a woman, I could read it without rolling my eyes. Always a challenge.

The second half has the more compelling material. No, we don't find out who slept with who, but d'Abo does strike this interesting tone, letting the women reveal how they were swept off their feet by the whirlwind of 007 and then deposited back into the real world. What happens when you get to play a Cinderella-like role, d'Abo asks, and then have everyone expect you to live up to the fantasy for the rest of your life? It is an interesting, strange, and somewhat captivating story, and it ends the book on an unexpected note of having to find a balance between the fantasy of Bond and the reality of life. The last chapter opens with a compelling photo of the golden girl from Goldfinger - a cover of Life magazine. The cover headline sums up the fate of the "Bond Girls" when it calls her a "gilded victim." These actresses have been victims of publicity machines (one complains that a publicist made up quotes for her), and of a pop culture juggernaut. But they have also "bonded" together (I hated writing that pun) and, as they say, have formed a sisterhood. It turns out they are the ones who like the term "Bond Girl".

Recommendation: Get it for the Bond fan you know, then borrow it and read it.

This a terrific book to have displayed on your coffee table. It certainly opened my eyes to the Bond films and the women in them. Well written and certainly easy on the eyes. My only complaint was the lack of photos of Teri Hatcher- her one photo was not enough.

a highly informed and elegant look inside the world of our minds. This is a work that adds to the classics on the subject and offers a slightly more sophisticated perspective than one would expect.

Very interesting stuff.

The third millenium is upon us; where humanity will be at its conclusion is anyone's guess. Huston Smith, a very well-repected religious scholar in the US, has taken a bold position on the topic of entheogens (psychedelics) by advocating their limited use in opening the mind to deep, spiritual experiences.

The book is loaded (no pun intended) with information concerning the historical significance of entheogens dating from the birth of the world's earliest religions in the Far East. Also included are fascinating accounts of his own powerful experience during the Good Friday event at Boston University.

If you are interested in, or have ever experienced forms of perception OTHER than the "default" setting in your own consciousness, this is an excellent book. The author's conviction that entheogens make possible ecstatic, mystical states which take one into the heart of cosmic awareness is genuine...and tempting.

huston smith has had a front row seat in spiritual evolution for over 45 yrs now. in the present volume he makes clear that indeed entheogens can inspire and manifest and sustain true mystical knowing of what IT is. as a life long seeker and entheogen experimenter for several decades in my youth, i think this book makes a tremendous contribution for those of us who have used godconsciousness endgendering substances in the right way. what way is that? you enter into the experience with a pure heart and with thanksgiving! there comes a time, however, in authentic spritual life, when this too must be left behind if in fact we truly seek the highest realms of spiritual attainment. thanks, huston, you have said beautiful things some of us have experienced but can't make plain. life is a mighty torrent of evolution and this book will help you,the sincere seeker, make the most of your own opportunity to live, enjoy, contribute, and SEE.