Being part of an interracial couple, I made "Marriage beyond black and white" required reading.

Part of the book is written by Barbara Douglas, the (white) wife of (black) Carlyle Douglas who she was married to for over half a century. That part I thoroughly enjoyed. It eloquently and lovingly narrates the daily struggles, the defeats, the upsets, and the disappointments this interracial couple and their children had to deal with in postwar America. To this day, not so much has really changed. I very much identify with Barbara. Her prose is beautiful, elegant, and captivating, and her part of the book is a loving tribute to her late husband. Not for one single moment does she ever complain about the hardships she had to endure for the love of her life. What a strong, admirable woman.

Her voice is suddenly silenced when she passes away, and her son David takes over. He has the same gift of observation. He tells of his siblings' struggles from drugs to alcoholism to out-of-wedlock children. Yet, his writing is far less powerful than his mother's, and politically more dogmatic. But what really throws me off is that his part of the book reads largely like an advertising pamphlet for the Baha'i faith. Pages and pages and pages are dedicated to the Baha'i teachings, and while I respect and welcome the general philosophy, "we're all one family, all one race", I feel this information is forced on me when I intended to read a book on interracial marriage, not on the Baha'i religion (Baha'i also happens to be the publisher, by the way). And that makes me doubt the validity of the whole story... is it after all only a thin veil to cover the real agenda, to proselytize?

All in all, an engaging read nonetheless.

This book was an eye opener. . I thought this book described in a very personal way some of the ways racism effects the lives of African American families in this country today and in the recent past. The first section of the book is seen through the eyes of Barbara who grew up in Ann Arbor Michigan in a white middle class family. She described herself as growing up in a family that actively supported the rights of African Americans and as I understand this, as a child growing up accepted this as normal. This attitude she believed to be correct and therefore the way other white families believed. She was shocked and horrified to find out just how naïve she was concerning racism in this country when she became involved with an African American man. She recounts incident after incident of how racism affected her family starting as an interracial couple and then as a family with children. This included job and housing discrimination and even situations that literally put their lives into danger. She described her experience as one who had been raised as a first class citizen and then sudden found herself a second class citizen striped of all the privilege and protection she had taken for granted and had assumed were shared by all Americans.

Barbara Douglas, a great writer, one paragraph weaved to the next with long pulling sentences that keep the reader interested, sad, mad, and desparate to know what happened next. Barbara's wonderful story of her interracial marriage to Carlyle, the painful tradgedy of the sick racism they endured and their powerful love that kept them glued together - it is by itself an "unfinished symphony" and essay of the highest mark.

In part two, David in a distinctly different voice and style tells the story of his early years, education, and the details of interracial family life. His style is one of simply truth, exlaining his encounters and experiences with racism, as well as the solutions he found in his search for identity.

Indeed, David as a biracial child was at one-time, like a prisoner in a racially divided world. Thus he is able to give us a more balanced and unbiased perspective of this "disease" that lives on in virtually every human being. Yet the cure is attainable and David provides a thoughtful and comprehensive solution, while at the same time suggesting some tactical remedies derived in part from the Baha'i religion that may seem extreme to some but are well worth considering. It is a "must read" for anyone interested in the unity of the world.

The comments about the VB.net bias and the fairly sparse IDE examples are correct (though you do get a modest share of C#, and a smidgen of managed C++). Fortunately, I approached this book as a newcomer to Windows programming who's just bought VB.Net Standard, installed the dotNet SDK, and wants to know what can be done with it. As such, this is a great resource. And as a proponent of actually knowing how to code as opposed to knowing how to use a GUI, the "notepad development" tendency was right up my alley. ... I found this book for a steep discount, but after reading it I would have paid full price--bearing in mind my situation/desires.

This is an exceptionally readable book. Early chapters introduce the .NET model of programming, providing clear (parallel) examples in VB, VC# and VC++. Experienced VB developers will discover that they already know a great deal of VC#. Subsequent chapters explore the most important aspects of the principal .NET namespaces, beginning with important (non-GUI) namespaces (System, System.Collections, System.XML, System.IO, System.Net, System.Security, System.Web). Examples consist of generally well constructed, lucid code, with comprehensive explanations. While the proportion of VB code increases at the expense of VC# (and to the eventual exclusion of C++), all of the method calls to .NET objects are nearly identical among the three languages.

At about half way through the book, starting with the Windows.Forms namespace, the material and examples focus heavily on GUI objects and the new tools available within the Visual Studio development environment.

Each chapter begins with an in-depth discussion of the covered subject. This is followed in the second half of the chapter (labeled "Immediate Solutions") by examples of each significant subject, providing step-by-step instructions and a comprehensive commentary. These "Immediate Solutions" are indexed at the start of each chapter by a description of the task it accomplishes.

STRENGTHS: The writing style of the book's principal author, Julian Templeman, is crisp, well focused, and easy to follow. His examples are particularly well selected and carefully explained. The technical accuracy of his chapters is excellent. I also appreciated Templeman's presentation of only the most useful properties, methods and events of the objects he discusses. (While encyclopedic lists are occasionally helpful, the .NET Framework is enormous, and would require three volumes this size, since there are nearly 10,000 such members.)

WEAKNESSES: Although most of the chapters are written by Templeman, there is a noticeable lurch when moving into each of the four chapters written by the second author, David Vitter. These are the chapters on System.Web, .NET Remoting, SOAP and XML, and ADO.NET. The writing style becomes casual and careless, a feature reflected in its corresponding examples. This is mostly annoying.

... ...

I suppose that if the bulk of this book were not as wonderful as it is, I would not be quite so hard on Mr. Vitter, but the contrast in the quality of the material provided by the two authors is conspicuous.

CONCLUSION: If you need to learn the .NET framework for use in VB or VC#, definitely buy this book. If you need to understand the new Visual Studio tools that interact with the .NET framework, this is still a good bet. If you will be coding to the .Net Framework in VC++, I think this is still a helpful source, though not quite as painless as for VB and VC#.

If you want to know how to use the .NET framework this is a great book for you - particularly if you are using VB.NET since the examples are all in VB.NET instead of C. The layout is great and make sure to look at the in-depth sections - that's where all the meat is. I had used 3 other books but threw them away after I got this one.

I won't doubt the heart-rending task, or major headache, in trans -lating one of the finest poets of this century. And I thank David Rattray, whose translation of Artaud are wonderfully done, for finally introducing such refined spirit as Gilbert-Lecomte to an English-speaking public. The book, as such, is fine: lovely cover-design, explicit introduction, and clever selection of poems. What else is needed? A new translation!

Dark, Surreal Poetry. Written by Roger Gilbert-Lecomte, translated from French. Each page is layed out with the French translation on the left, and the English on the right. The original spacing is kept, which is critical, because the placement of the text adds so much to the flow of the reading. Lecomte was scoffed by surrealists at the time in France. He died from Tetnis, jabbing a opium needle through his dirty trowsers. His close friend gathered what works he could find, and have since come into the collected works remaining of Lecomte.

This is one of the top two must have poetry books of all time hands down. It rests right beside The flowers of evil.

A great intro to contemporary poetry. I say this because the KGB Bar Book of Poems is more than just a collection of poems, its a collection of photographs, and a collection of anecdotes. In some cases, the anecdotes outshine the poetry. Roberty Bly's account of taking a really small audience to a local apartment is charming, and Susan Wheeler's experience with a group of convicted criminals is melancholy and thoughtful. Additionally, the photograhs lend a great deal to the atmosphere in the book. The dark smokey inebriated interior of the bar shines through Star Black's trained lense. The poets and friends are always jubilant and inviting. While reading, you really feel privy to some special knowledge.

The poetry itself can be a mixed bag. It brings to mind the maxim, "you can't please all of the people all of the time." Personal favorites for me are "Santa Monica" by Charlie Smith, and David Trinidad's "Of Mere Plastic", a funny but insightful take-off of "Of Mere Being" by Wallace Stevens. I suggest you by the book and read these two last. Each poet has a short bio before their poem, listing their publications and history, so its a great lead of to some terrific books. Find a poet you like, and dig into their back-prints. Indeed, people don't read enough poetry these days. And what's a better way to start than with this seemingly "underground" compilation?

This is an exciting book. It is a sort of chronicle of the celebrated poetry reading series at the KGB Bar in the East Village of New York City. The place is like a latter-day equivalent of famous 1950s bars like the Cedar Tavern. The book includes poems, photographs, and one of the things I liked the most, anecdotes from the poets. The book has charm. It has life. And oh yes it has poetry.

Reading "The KGB Bar Book of Poems" was awesome -- it captured the experience of being there. The poems are varied, but always interesting and sometimes spectacularly good; the anecdotes are fun, the photographs charming. A great package. Hey, Dave and Star, if you have an open date, how about a reading? My first book is about to come out.

I purchased this book thinking that it would be a good resource for remodelling a home, I was wrong. The information contained is good for a contractor that wants to develop a "green building" image, complete with advise for dealing with media, marketing strategies and sales. It appears to have very little practical advise with regard to green building techniques and supplies. It might be a good reference for a contractor but not very helpful for the ecologically minded home buyer.

I sat down with this book and read it in one sitting. This is an enormous amount of research and practical experience in one volume. It's appropriate not only for builders that want to go "green", but for environmentally conscious folks looking to build. The book is filled with loads of information on making the "right" choices in building, and most of these choices do not cost more, in fact, many save money in years to come. As a novice, I found the information to be easy to understand, and have come away with a real plan on the building of my next house. Having read this book, it's hard to understand how anyone could not choose to build green. It's just plain smart! I think every builder looking for a competitive edge, should read this book, it's filled with marketing & sales strategies. In Building Green, David Johnston shares a lifetime of experience in the business of building environmentally smart.

I've known the author David Johnston for years. He knows more about green construction than anyone else I know. David knows what works and doesn't work, because he's tried things himself and collected thousands of stories from builders, homeowners and city officials who've put to the test all manner of building techniques, materials, installations and standards.

In some ways, this book is David's life story about his personal evolution as an environmental builder from the "passive solar" 70's to the "green" 90's. This book summarizes all his collected knowledge in a well-organized manner. You can use it as a reference to find specifically what you want to know, or you can read it all the way through and enjoy the story, as well as the meaty content.

If you're a builder looking for a new niche or already doing green construction, this book can really help you. The book is loaded with information about the market for green construction and the values that underlie peoples' desires for indoor air quality, energy effiency, durability and planetary respect. It also has nuts and bolts information about what really works when handled by average subs. As a builder who works in environmentally friendly ways, I mostly work with clients who hold similar values. This book will be very useful to loan as a reference to potential clients.

If you're a homeowner thinking of remodeling or new construction, this book will really help you. It is full of case histories and lessons learned. It gives lots of real world, practical examples of green materials and specifications. It is a nuts and bolts book that explains options, things to consider and logical choices.

The author also provides a rich compendium of state-of-the-art resources in the Appendicies. At least as valuable as the book itself, the Appendicies provide comprehensive, annotated lists of experts in Green Building, Municipal and Homebuilder sponsored Green Builder Programs, Green construction standards and state-of-the-art Green construction information(with how-to-contact details).

As a environmental builder for more than 20 years, I highly recommend this book. As a concerned citizen of planet Earth, I highly recommend this book. Everyone and anyone could read and enjoy this book; anyone concerned with construction or remodeling projects really MUST READ this book!

I would say there are samples of other books, like "Revolutionary Suicide", I don't see exactly why, as this book ("Revolutionary Suicide") isn't out of print...and the fact that you have people like David Hilliard behind this isn't really a good selling point for the true defenders of The Cause. anyways, there are some scoops I would say in this book, and it allows a better understanding of Mr Huey Newton

I searched this book from beginning to end, and nowhere does it mention Newton's stay in Cuba. If I am wrong please correct me.

What IS it with goofy liberals who *think* they know what "The Cause" is and take it upon themselves to diss someone like a David Hilliard??? For the record, Mr. Hilliard was the childhood friend of Dr. Newton, the BPP Chief of Staff, and has more true knowledge, fervor and *experience* in "The Cause" than any ne'er do well might think s/he posseses in their small liberal brains.

This compendium is essential reading for anyone interested in revolutionary politics in general, and for an inside look at the theoretical underpinnings of the BPP in particular. Talk a lot but do nothing liberals aside.

Mr. Black has obviously spent many hours honing auditioning techniques for various mediums, and the crux of this book, the actual auditioning technique, is invaluable. However, there are chapters later in the book which I feel are full of some of the most dreadful advice ever given to a young actor. Such as, don't be yourself in an interview: act like other people, hang around theater companies and agencies without appointments, and perform all of you audition pieces for fellow actors who may not know any more about acting than you. 90% of this book is great stuff, but the 10% that is not is so off base that it makes you question the rest.

An actor failing to audition well, fails to get hired! Then never gets to use his/her craft. This easy to read "handbook" gets you through each step of auditioning, in all the arenas (stage, movies, commercials). Mr. Wallachs introductions is poignant. Pay attention.

There's plenty of good information and some nice anecdotes in this history, but it's presented non-chronologically as a loose string of biographies grouped under almost arbitrary chapter headings. The biographies leap into each other abruptly, and after a while it becomes impossible to distinguish individuals among the parade of similar faces. There are some nice analyses of some major albums, though, and it seems like a good starting point for someone trying to determine which recordings might paint the best picture of the hard bop era. Still...there's no long line to follow, and the last quarter feels like a grind.

"Hard Bop" is bop with an edge, bop with an aggressive, blues-based attack. Its archetype practitioner was trumpeter Lee Morgan, killed outside a nightclub in January 1972 by his lover. Influenced by boppers such as Fats Navarro and Dizzy Gillespie, Morgan and other hard boppers developed a style emphasizing minor keys, a "dark" mood, slurs, and half-valve effects. Morgan's most popular number in the idiom was the huge 1964 hard bebop/R&B hit "The Sidewinder."

Hard bop is introduced here through the prism of Lee Morgan: Morgan helped develop the style as an alternative to bop's successor, cool jazz, as developed, in part, by Gerry Mulligan and Miles Davis, and hard bop began to fade with his murder. But the book tackles more than Morgan, and, in fact, more than hard bop: It's a fascinating account of the various musical streams colliding--sometimes melding-- in the 10 years between 1955 and 1965.

Rosenthal traces the evolution of hard bebop as bop declined ("bebop . . . had turned into something of a straitjacket . . . Many of its best practitioners were dead, and others . . . were in decline"). Musicians looked to R & B to revive bop, and a new "more emotionally expressive and more formally flexible style began to emerge." Rosenthal looks at the expressions of hard bop in such diverse artists as Sonny Rollins, the soulful Horace Silver ("The Preacher"), Cannonball Adderley, organist Jimmy Smith ("Midnight Special"), Jackie MacClean, and, to a lesser degree, Art Farmer, Andrew Hill, Mingus, and some of the pre-1965 John Coltrane (e.g., with Miles on "Cookin'"). Rosenthal perceptively notes that hard bebop was a "complicated set . . . of interlocking tendencies," rather than a static, easily defined style.

I enjoy this book because it explores a somewhat brief phenomenon, and shows how it developed, flourished, and then gave way to new elements. The writing is crisp, intelligent, energetic, and full of illustrative anecdotes that illuminate and entertain (not the dry pedantic treatise one might expect on this rather narrow topic). Rosenthal shows the connections between various elements of jazz, and presents it as a living, evolving, powerful force. Eleven chapters following the introduction, no pictures. Very highly recommended to jazz fans of any stripe.

A collection of few chapters with the authors own ideas and thoughts thrown in too liberally, it is more of the author's view of Tiger Woods. Does not qualify as an biography, just a bunch of articles. Does has a few gems which make it worthwhile.

This is a good book for any Tiger fan. It can be read by kids who have achieved this reading level, on up to any adult. If you're a Tiger fan, read this one.

Over the past century golf has produced some of the greatest players of all times. None, however, have reached the caliber of skill and magnitude of Eldrick "Tiger" Woods. In such a short time and at an early age Tiger has raised the sport of golf to a higher level. Who is this young man who has broken golf records, establishes new ones and inspires a new generation to seriously take up the sport of golf?

David Owen deals with that question in this well written and concise book about Tiger Woods and his impact upon golf. He examines Woods' training, his place in history, his impact on the sport and the public's fascination with him. As a contributing editor of Golf Digest, our author doesn't inundate you with Woods' golf statistics. Nor does he give you an in depth expose of Tiger's life. Owen gives a positive even handed treatment of Woods life and career. He is just as fascinated with this young phenomenon of golf as we are but doesn't worship Woods. He respects and admires this young sportsman.

I enjoyed this book because it enlighten me about the development of Woods' career. Tiger comes across as a disciplined young man who is highly competitive, focused and has high expectations of himself and for those around him. His aura and the way he has carried himself forces his opponents to improve their game. Tiger's impact upon golf is immense as Owen has shown throughout the story.

This is an excellent book for fans of Woods, golf enthusiasts and those who love sports in general. I am not a sports fan but I picked up this book in passing. I was impressed by Woods' character, discipline and commitment. I highly recommend this book which has given us a snap shot of a true sportsman that adults and young people can admire and emulate. Woods has made himself one of the greatest golf players of all time but he has transcended the game. He serves as an example of excellence for life whose lessons we can certainly take to heart.

In this book one will find information about Morrison's novels which is universally known. It is a kind of anthology of bit and pieces of reviews and critiques; it is bereft of anything original. What is missing is any attempt by the author to analyze subtextually any of the novels. I found the chapter on "Jazz" woefully inadequate and chatty. If, according to the author's admission, he did not understand "Jazz," why on earth did he assay an attempt to "analyze" it. I think Oprah could have done a better job!!!

It's wonderful to read analyses of Morrison's extremely complicated novels written by a real person, in real language that isn't phony, confusing, or pretentious. Ron David writes as a real person would talk, something that I found extremely enjoyable (although I can see where some would find it annoying). I love that, while he praises Morrison as the finest author of our time, he is not afraid to point out and openly criticize much of her writing, particularly THE BLUEST EYE. I thoroughly enjoyed what he had to say about JAZZ; if anything, he makes you feel better about not understanding all of her writings. David's admittance that he doesn't understand what the hell JAZZ was all about is enough to make us all feel better about not understanding it, either. His style is wonderfully intimate, friendly, and easily readable. This book is highly reccommended to anyone who has struggled with Morrison. It also made me feel proud to discover that many readers are never even able to finish her books--and I've read four.

This is definitely my recommendation for a "one-stop" analysis of Morrison's fiction. I do not agree with all of David's opinions - we all have them. However, like an archeologist excavating a buried treasure, he meticulously unravels the meaning behind the language, the naming of the characters, the technique behind the delivery. He further demonstrates how Morrison makes use of biblical doctrine, musical structure and myth in her work. The analysis of Paradise is by far the most intelligent, well-written critique I've read to date. Toni Morrison Explained provides a range of possible interpretations for the reader to ponder and ultimately integrate with our own experience of the Nobel novelist writings. Kudos to David for doing the work required to experience Morrison's fiction on a whole 'nother level.