I've found Mr. Iger's book to be wonderfully useful and enjoyable as a reference companion. I've read a number of biographies of musicians recently and have been glad to be able to refer to this book to check on the musicians named in those works. Iger's book also yields a great deal of pleasure in helping resolve questions that come up in conversation with friends: Who was it who wrote "On the Sunny Side of the Street?" Oh yeah, Dorothy Fields. And look at all the other hits she wrote! After looking at my copy of the book (to look up someone she'd heard about on NPR), a friend of mine has decided she has to have her own copy. A good idea, since I'm reluctant to let my copy out of the house.

more than 2500 songs by more than 1000 songwriters included. tells you year of song and where it was first heard - film, show,etc. brief narrative bios of composers and lyricists. divided into sections: Pioneers (pre WWI); main chapter (from Berlin, Gershwins, Hammerstein, Hart Porter, Rodgers, Styne, etc.,etc.--easy to read,easy to find) Chapter on contemporaries such as Beatles, Bergmans, Jobim, more; celebrities and women of song; composers and lyricists who may not have had the "hype" of the majors. Clear, brief narrative, perfect for music students as well as "seniors" who want to remember those golden days of the Big Bands, the Broadway musicals and the Hollywood films.

... just the cover has colors. All 80 pages are B&W, so don't expect a full color guide.

Clearly illustrated. Step by step quide with plenty of ways to make the restoration better than a professional shop's job. Overall - excellent.

Great book with topics such as arrangement of accessories and in a question and answer format. However, there are just not enough pictures.

This book is a "must read" for anyone just buying a home and wanting to decorate it successfully the first time. Also, there are "tips" included that teach you "how to hang a picture" to how to accessorize a table and so much more.

What an interesting book. For anyone who is a pianist, this book is a must in their library. The book is divided into two parts. The first is biographic while the second covers lectures given at university. This biography was not one of those straight forward "I did this and that." What I found most interesting about this book was how much Schnabel talked about the social history and way of life in late nineteenth century Europe. Not only as it related to music but the arts in general. Schnabel is so eloquent and intelligent that while you're reading this book, you get the feeling that you're actually living the musical experience with him. Piano enthusiasts will appreciate this book in order to have a better feel for what kind of life style a concert pianist lived a hundred years ago.

When I picked up this book I was thinking it would just be another biographical review. Was I ever mistaken, it turned out to be the most educated musical philosophies I have ever heard from the smartest man I've ever read of.

First of all the book is basically a recorded session of him giving his auto-biography [not only of music] at the university of chicago. The two divisions are the first being his session, and the other being a question and answer period.

In any case, this book is not only a musical account much like schobergs' Horowitz and the famous Rachmaninov biography, but its basically a speech on late 19th century life and the life in Europe of pre and post both World Wars. Words simply don't describe the amount of history and quality of content this novel has.

Schnabel has his share of encounters with brahms, strauss, horowitz and others, but it goes furthur than that. Its truly facinating, especially he gives quite a bit of info on Lechietzky and his philosophy on piano playing. Any and all pianists and people who love music or even want to know about history from an unbiased european point of view. I cannot believe this book, you will be as shocked as I was. 10/10

All worshippers of JS Bach need to acquire this informative and satisfying journal dedicated to the absolutely most profoundly sublime genious in all of music. If having all of Bach's masterworks in your CD collection wasn't enough...you need to add this book for further intellectual stimulation because here Bach is presented in his OWN WORDS! Every example of written coorespondence by Bach and his contemporaries concerning him has been preserved and translated from the hand of Bach's penmanship and presented to the reader. As a result, we can glimpse into another facet of the mind behind the music. Although most of the letters were written to either one offical or another (and therefore embellished with the standard nomenclatures of the time), I was able to detect exasperation, sarcasm, fearlessness, austerity, humor, ridicule and sorrow in much of them. In the vast majority of the wordy, complex style of his coorespondence we begin to see that Bach composed his complaints in much the same vein he composed fugues; lavish phrases, requests and expostulations are intertwined in the most respectful manner to his superiors...and simultaneuosly he projects an attitude that if his needs are not met he will resort to higher means...usually meaning petitioning the King himself (which on one occasion he ultimately did!) His complaints ranged from objectional wages, unruly choirboys, the relegations of authority, and his delinquent son (in which the debtors were now pestoring Bach to compensate). It is true that not many personal references by Bach have come down to us, but there are a few morsels for us to dwell on; his declining a gift from a cousin stating that the tax required was much to high for the parcel itself, he mentions with regret a flask of wine that broke open (accidentally?) while on route in the mail and spilled out, and how not too many people were dying...so unfortunately he wasnt making out too well on funeral music composition. We begin to see that apart from his unsurpassable genious and intellect, he was very much a normal person...even a bit dull. He certainly had a dry sense of humor and had absolutely zero tolerance for people he thought were using him...and for those he thought were not taking him seriously. The is one instance where he got into a street fight at the marketplace, another instance where he was reprimanded for introducing "strange sounds and alterations in the harmonic structure" during mass at the organ (the buddings of his genious). He was interrogated for bringing a "strange maiden" up to the organ loft with him. He even spent some time in jail for being too stubborn when his leave was denied (he was looking for better work and his employers refused to let him go). He was reprimanded for overstaying leave time on another occasion (by like 2 months!) hanging out in Lubeck to see Buxtehude play. He had no qualms whatsoever in disqualifying students from his instruction if they showed any from of recalcitrance or inept musical talent. Buy this book! You can read all about these things and more from the REAL letters! There is plenty of praise and accolades to go along with it, both by his contemporaries and posthumurous composers. Read about Mendelsohn's debut of the St Matthew's Passion (100 years after Bach performed it last) written by the tenor who sang Christ's lines in the score during that performance! Look at the replicated facsimilies of Bach's letters in his own hand! The book is full of paintings of Bach...in all stages of his career. Read his letters and get some insight into the turmoil and altercations, of the humor and sarcasm of the greatest genious of music this world has ever known. His music is immortal and nothing can even come close; not even the greatest works of Mozart or Beethoven can overshadow the universal sublimity and unsurpassed ecstasy the world can find the the music of the Almighty Johann Sebastian Bach.

I have been studying this book for the last 2 months. The amount of information that is in this book, and not many others, is incredible. Actual letters from JS Bach showing how he feels. Descriptions of performances that were only available from PhD's in the past are available to you in this publication.

On the subject of J.S. Bach, this is one of the best resources I have found.

This is a pretty good book for astronomy buffs, etc. There was one paragraph, though, where the author falls into bad science.

Buying into the religion hates science paradigm, the author makes sure the reader knows that no one "held Copernicus and his theory [heliocentrisim] in lower esteem" than Martin Luther. The author claims this theory was a competing worldview on "somewhat equal ground" to Christianity. He goes on to say one [science] is based on "testing and questioning" while the other [Christianity] is based on "blind faith."

It is obvious, the author, Arthur Upgreen, has never studied the science versus religion debate closely. If he had, he would have never made such claims right after quoting the
works of Christians like Kepler, Galileo and Copernicus. Nor does he detail the errors that led to the geocentrisim interpretation/theory to begin with. Nor the fact that
Christianity has never been based upon "blind faith."

If geocentrisim and the Galileo Affair of centuries past continue to be such authors' best evidences for their belief, then they don't have much ground to stand on. Compare these and what few other "antiscience" events one finds in orthodox, rational Christianity to its pro-science history and scholars,
one finds the former doesn't even show up on the charts.

Why write all this all on one paragraph? Because there is so much bad science out there as there is, and so many don't like science, simply because people like this don't test what they believe.

An end to the lonely ameteur astronomer on the top of a hill with only a thermos and a telescope for company, The night has a thousand eyes... is a brilliant source of not only cold faced fact but eye popping stories and history. It is hard not to be impressed by the light from a star seventy billion years old, and this book keeps you enthralled. I have just finished reading it and I want to read it again. You don't need a degree in astronomy to appreciate this book, nor is it 'dumbed down'for popularity. The only problem, and its a small one, is the book's tendency to wander into territory not enirely connected with the subject. On the whole, though, it beats the thermos any day.

All NHL fans will enjoy this book! It is a great collection of NHL history with many photographs and wonderful stories. It also has lists of trophy winners, record holders, and is a great source book for any hockey trivia you might wish to know.

It encompasses everything historically related to the NHL, along with other moments of hockey greatness.

As a devoted fan of the NHL myself, I felt it was a must-have in my library. The photographs show the evolution of the sport, and the stories bring you back to moments of historical significance to the game.

Every famous and infamous hockey player is profiled in this book from Maurice Richard and Gordie Howe, to Bobby Orr and Wayne Gretzky.... Even the illusive only woman to have ever played on an NHL team, Manon Rheaume.

If you love hockey, you will love this book. I do!

I really enjoyed seeing this book on Amazon - it's very exciting! Good luck hockey fans!

This is the best anthology of Arthurian fiction I've ever come across. Ashley treats us with every variety of the legend imaginable. First, he draws from pre-Malory sources: a retelling of the last chapter of Geoffrey of Monmouth's History of Britain; "The Lady of the Fountain" from the Mabinogian, an ancient collection of Celtic myths; and the 12th century epic poem Jaufry, which was forgotten for 600 years.

He also includes retellings of famous selections from Le Morte D'Arthur, including Steinbeck's take on Sir Balin and the Dolorous Stroke, and Roger Lancelyn Green's somewhat liberal translation of the "Tale of Perceval".

And finally there are many modern fantasy stories that treat the Arthuran mythology in turns as comical, idyllic, historical, or romantic. The depictions of Merlin and Arthur vary from author to author depending on the mood and setting, but that is what makes the legend so exciting to study.

I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in the stories of King Arthur and Camelot.

The Pendragon Chronicles : Heroic Fantasy from the Time of King Arthur is some of the best peices of work put down in one book. The 12 stories in this book prove and prove again why arthurain stories are the most wirtin type of stories ever. Most of the stories have detailed and booldy battles in them, some even have love and lust. All of my favorite characters show up in the stories, Sir Arthur and Lancelot of the Lake all make there own appearances. No matter what type of book you like Jane Yolen gives you the best stories you have ever seen.
This book is a colliction of stories of the dark ages to the middle ages. I gave this book a five because of the way for if there was a bad story you didn't like they made up for it by two more good ones. You also can add to your useless triva of all the differnt ways to dei a slow and painfull death. Some of the stories area little to detailed like one about Merlin and how he misses love but other than that it was a awsome book. I Would say this is alittle more of aboy book on the subjects it deals with but its a perfect book if your looking for different subjucts of Arther.
My favorite story is called Midnight, Moonlight, and the secerct of the sea. It doesnt deal with the happy go luck time of jousting and marryment but of the awfull cursaides were the nights ran through the streets beheading and killing everthing they say and one nights exploits and banishment to wonder. I would tell more but this is a story that its just too good to give away the ending.
This is the end to my review
untill next time
Dan

Mr. Ord-Hume, an engineer himself, wrote this book after being entreated to aid with a television show on the subject of Perpetual Motion in Britain; he had already kept a file on perpetual motion machines as a curiosity he kept running into while studying the history of machines, and evidently was inspired by these two separate things to write an entire book on the subject. His book reads as more than a history of individual inventions and their creators than an engineering treatise, which puts not only the machines but the whole pursuit of perpetual motion into perspective; originally conceived as a way to simply save work, then as the holy grail of early engineering, and finally as a way for con men to bilk investors out of their money, the author catalogues the efforts of very interesting and often brilliant men. He explains how the machines were supposed to work, why they won't, and even occasionally gets inside the head of the inventors. He never makes fun of them however, and even credits them with inadvertantly furthering science and physics by building ever-more complex machines that won't work due to various physical principles that are discovered. Many brilliant men who could have been famous contributors to science wasted their lives and fortunes (and occasionally their sanity) pursuing the idea of free energy, no to avail. There was one exception...a clockmaker named Cox who built a perpetual clock powered by a barometer. But is it true perpetual motion? You decide.

My only quibble with the book is that his qauint style of writing does become more than a bit convoluted at times in trying to make his point, and that he does not go into enough detail at times explaining why a machine does not work, apparently assuming (and probably correctly) that the reader will not be able to follow the physics involved. However, the book is very entertaining and thought-provoking to anyone interested in mechanics. Some of the concepts are truly brilliant, especially considering how long ago they were conceived; except for the annoying fact that they wouldn't work. No matter how big a skeptic, the reader will probably find himself (or herself) doodling their very own machine on a piece of paper...and convincing themselves it could work. An esoteric and highly entertaining work for mechanics enthusiasts.

Best overall account of Redheffer's Perpetual Motion claim published to date.

A reliable reference work - I have found it to be very useful and informative. I would rate it alongside Helicon's Political Systems of the World, by Derbyshire and Derbyshire, which looks at the political structures and histories of each of the world's states. The latter is very readable, while the handbook contains a wealth of detail.

If you need to know anything about the world whether it is specific info. about a country or simply general information, this is the prefect reference. is is clearly organized and extremely useful for everything. i highly recommend it!