This book was a visual journey into the lives of early 20th century black america. Many of the pictures could be termed as "dignified photo essays" of life in the black community.You feel as though you are right there behind the lenses of these photo's while they're being taken. They almost have an "ethereal beauty" about them. In these photo's you can see the dignity of a race of people who were considered low class at the time of the photographs, but in the way they are portrayed you feel like you're in the presence of royalty. "A visual treat for the eye's" is the best way to describe this book . It is also well worth reading as you enjoy the beautiful photography! I would highly recommended this book to african americans and those who enjoy a look into the past!

This book has everything that anybody could ask for in a guide to vegetable gardening. I strongly recommend it.

For decades Mary Roberts Rinehart was the queen of mystery thrillers -- the American Agatha Christie. The Circular Staircase was her first published novel and The Swimming Pool was her last, and all of her mystery novels between these two -- including The Wall -- were outstanding. Rinehart's special gift was in the evocation of an underlying and unremitting atmosphere of unease, suspence, and potential danger and it is under such an atmosphere of apprehension that she spins her stories. For some time it has been fashionable to dismiss the novels of Mary Roberts Rinehart as old fashioned. This may apply to superficial details of her early novels -- such as gas light instead of electricity -- but it definitely is not true of the novels themselves which are timeless in their ability to hold the reader in a grip of mystery and suspense. The Wall is an excellent mystery novel. Like all of Rinehart's mysteries it is full of suspense and danger. As in any good mystery, clues are sprinkled throughout -- but they are never obvious -- and the ending is both logical and surprising. If you like mysteries, but haven't yet read any by this master of the genre, this is a good one to start with. If you read it, you'll probably get more of Rinehart's outstanding mystery novels.

Pastor Robert Graetz left seminary with his young family to take a call to Trinity Lutheran Church in Montgomery, Alabama. As a white pastor during the time of the civil rights activity in Montgomery, he writes of his day to day struggle with racial hatred and how it affected his congregation and his family. This book defines the courage it takes to live out Christian justice and mercy and added a dimension to my knowledge of this era I had not yet experienced before I read it. Although I rated it a 9, if someone did not return my copy, I would buy another. It is a must for my library.

This is the daring book by former teacher Robert Kendall that blew the lid off an indifferent establishment within the Los Angeles City Schools system and resulted in legislation enacting standards for high school graduation.

"White Teacher in a Black School" surged to international bestseller status following the outbreak of the Watts Riots, which Kendall's riveting book seemingly predicted as African American community leaders joined Kendall and other concerned educators in urging a reformed educational system imposing standards for passage from grade to grade and ultimately high school graduation.

"White Teacher" is written in the manner of a fast-paced novel with an agenda which surpasses in sociological sweep the popular film to which some people compare it, "Blackboard Jungle" starring Glenn Ford and Sidney Poitier. The events depicted in "White Teacher" were drawn from fact, encompassing two years Kendall spent in Los Angeles area minority schools. Kendall's rapid-paced first person narrative has him telling the story as "Mr. Brent," an idealistic young teacher posted to a trouble-ridden South Los Angeles school where "weapons check" is the first order of business when students arrive. When Brent seeks to immediately impose a solid curriculum to challenge students he is confronted by the school's principal, Mr. Towers, who explains that "as long as it looks as if the student is trying, then that student should be passed to the next grade." The class consists of one retarded youngster, Captain Smith, who crawls on his hands and knees, sits at one point on Brent's desk and blows on his hair, and finishes the year by proudly showing his teacher his achievement, an illegible attempt to copy the Yellow Pages of the Los Angeles Telephone Directory. One student, George Washington, is a class leader who helps Brent overcome adversity by unruly students. The chief class disrupter is Billy Parish, who at one point pulls a knife on his teacher.

"White Teacher in a Black School" was a book ahead of its time, one which helped lead the fight toward the adoption of standard testing prior to obtaining high school diplomas. Not only did it sell briskly in the United States. The book was also a major success in England, France and Switzerland, where it was published by companies in those nations.

Yankee transplants to the Sunshine state as well as present state residents moving from Tallahassee to West Palm Beach or from Jacksonville to Sarasota can learn much about the unique problems inherent in establishing and maintaining shrubs on a Florda homesite. In addition to reviewing the basics of shrub planning, authors Gilman and Black provide a complete guide to what plantings will work best throughout the state, which they divide into six different hardiness zones. They also point out which plantings work best or worst in sandy or wet soil or in areas exposed to salt. Helpful hints are offered on when and how to plant, when to water and when and how to trim. In addition to the clear, concise copy, the book supplies beautiful color photographs of 172 different shrub varieties. Know what your landscape service is recommending!

No Florida homeowner -- present or prospective -- should be without this book.

now, i'm not much for fantasy normally. but i like....greatness. and this is great. the best combat descriptions you can find. masterly developed plots. varying themes. inventive. original. perhaps there is one thing that says it all: though many has tried to copy his style, not one attempt has really succeeded. there is a darkness in these stories. foes like demons and evil wizards, but also the dark primal instincts in man, that makes howard great also in the classical sense.

These are not the mindless hack jobs you might have come to expect of those who have exploited Howard's legacy; these are not mere "adventure yarns with a touch of the weird", as H. P. Lovecraft described them, and they are not silly or posed, as one reviewer suggests. There is a fundamental theme running like a red thread throughout these stories, and it is this: man is an animal only weakened by civilization, and the closer one is to the natural state the more effective one is in the real world. Howard expresses this not only with his characters and situations, which are ten times more imaginative than anything you'll find in contemporary literature, but with his breathless, literate prose, which manages to be elegant and brutal at the same time. This man largely writes about the same kinds of things Hemingway wrote about, only with vastly more inspiration and originality, and it's a shame that the excuses for fantasy writers of the present and their Dungeons and Dragons-weaned fans let superior work like this languish while heaping dollars and praise on tenth-generation copies of Tolkien.

Wow. It didn't take much for me to slip back into the world of Robert E. Howard. I haven't read any Conan books since I was a kid (I got my first library card solely to check out Conan books!), and I picked this volume up to see if the stories held up to my memory.

They are so much better than I remember them. Robert E. Howard, who I have gained new respect for, is a good writer. This edition, for the first time, is pure Howard. The books I read were the de Camp/Carter edited versions/pastiches, and I don't think that their watered-down versions ever had this much life in them. They were certainly never this addictive.

The writing is these stories is vibrant and rough. Pulp writing dictated a certain style of cheap thrills and excitement, and Conan has all of this. However, the strength of craft, of use of language and story, makes these stories shine. Howard successfully created a bold fantasy world unlike any other, although it has often been copied. His liberal use of his friend H.P. Lovecraft's "outside horror" adds to the atmosphere of Hyborea. Conan is a fully-realised character, and not what you think. Like Edgar Rice Burrogh's Tarzan, he did not fare well upon transportation to other media. Intellegence and strength are his equal weapons. Conan is not the shirtless brute that many think of.

I will definitely use this book as an invitation to check out more by Robert E. Howard.

And so "education" should be, one of many great, though by no means unique, insights into the mind of mankind in W.E.B. Dubois's "Souls of Black Folk." I read this book after reading both the "Autobiography of Malcolm X" as well as Foner's "The Black Panther's Speak." Both of these books make allusion to Dubois, and in reading "Souls" I better understand the ideas and programs of Malcolm, Huey and Eldridge, their desire to be granted the same rights and privileges as all American citizens, and, where the white man continued to disallow it, their taking them "by any means necessary."

Admittedly, I have very little experience with African-American culture. "The Souls of Black Folk" I think helps bridge this gap by exploring the history - economic, social and political - and pyschology of the African-American. I came away with a much better understanding of organizations like the Freeman's Relief Association, men like Booker T. Washington, African-American Christianity and, to a small extent, the psyche of the black man in America, at least its historical antecedents, up until the early 1900s.

I have read reviews dismissing Dubois's work as outdated, especially after the '60s and the civil rights movement. Perhaps it is, though, again, I don't feel I know enough about African-American culture in our day to be able to say either way. Having said that, I am much better acquainted with other socially and economically constructed "niggers" of our world, both domestically and internationally, and in that regard I think Dubois's "Souls of Black Folk" is still very much applicable, in fact a complementary resource from which to glean insight into contemporary politics and economics. Perhaps, hopefully, there will one day be no more "niggers" on American soil. But, unfortunately, there will always be "niggers" in this world, and Dubois's lectures on removing "the great problem of the 20th century - the color line" are as important today as they were 100 years ago.

From "Of the Sons of Master and Man":
In any land, in any country under modern free competition, to lay any class of weak and despised people, be they white, black or blue, at the political mercy of their stronger, richer and more resourceful fellows, is a temptation which human nature seldom has withstood and seldom will withstand.

Perhaps basic, perhaps something one has heard numerous times, but the fact that this citation and many, many others like it to be found in "The Souls of Black Folk" were written 100 years before guys like Ralph Nader and Howard Zinn were selling hundreds of thousands of books based on a slightly different spin of the same argument is at least relevant, if not impressive.

Dubois was no racist, as any of the rest of the aforementioned group weren't either. If anything (and perhaps in this time this is a politically incorrect term) he was a classist, and merely argued for the assimilation of the black man into the society that did not understand their mutual dependence. Reading the book did not produce "white guilt" or anything the David Horwitzes of the world would like to convince me is happening to me. It provided me with a greater understanding and respect for people I daily ride the metro with, work with, am an American citizen WITH.

The Souls of Black Folks, as other reviewers have pointed out, is a masterpiece of African-American thought. But it is even more than that when we consider the context and time in which the book was written. Most of what DuBois discusses is still relevant today, and this is a tribute to the man, not only as a scholar, but as someone who was continually adapting his views in the best image and interests of black people.

Some reviewers refer to DuBois as "the Black Emerson" and, as a university instructor, I heard similar references made: 'the Black Dewey" or "the Black Park," referring to the Chicago School scholars. Du Bois was brilliant; indeed, these white men should be being called "the white Du Bois"! Du Bois literally created the scientific method of observation and qualitative research. With the junk being put out today in the name of "dissertations," simply re-read Du Bois' work on the Suppression of the African Slave Trade and his work on the Philadelphia Negro and it is clear that he needs not be compared to any white man of his time or any other: he was a renaissance man who cared about his people and, unlike too many of the scholars of day, he didn't just talk the talk or write the trite; he walked the walk and organized the unorganizable.

White racism suffered because Du Bois raised the consciousness of the black masses. But he did more than that; by renouncing his American citizenship and moving to Ghana, he proved that Pan Africanism is not just something to preach or write about (ala Molefi Asante, Tony Martin, Jeffries and other Africanists); it is a way of life, both a means and an end. Du Bois organized the first ever Pan African Congress and, in doing so, set the stage for Afrocentricity, Black Studies and the Bandung Conference which would be held in 1954 in Bandung, Indonesia. Du Bois not only affected people in this country, he was a true internationalist.

Souls of Black Folk is an important narrative that predates critical race theory. It is an important reading, which predates formal Black Studies. The book calls for elevation of black people by empowering black communities -- today's leadership is so starved for acceptance that I believe that Karenga was correct when he says that these kind of people "often doubt their own humanity."

The book should be read by all.

At the end of the century, in a few months there will be much debate about the person of the century, the writer of the century, the actor of the century and so on. This book, this writing should put DuBois at the very least in the top five ranking of the most important writer and thinker of the twentieth century. He is as far as I am concerned the Black Nostradamus. He forsaw what has been happening in recent years with the increase of hate crimes and mass acts of violence and oppression against the colored masses of the United States and the world. DuBois like no other from his time captures the spirit of the America Black and he allows his reader to read and to understand what has caused the Black consciousness to be in the state of disaster that it was in and is in in some aspects. He is a great writer and this book should be required reading in every American Literature and Black Literature class in every high school and college in this country. This is an important work not only for Blacks to read but whites as well. Well written and well received is all that I can say about this book. GREAT!!!!!

This book really helps to redefine what we consider "The Box". It gives you thoughts and ideas on how to expand the way you think and to give you ideas on how to be more creative. Not only was it a quick read, it was invaluable.

Once in awhile, a book comes along that redefines those pesky negative self-perceptions from our past. Robert Alan Black's "Broken Crayons" did that for me. In reading his book I realized I've been a crayon breaker all my life: as a child I was called mischievous and naughty, but as an adult, people compliment me on my creativity. Read this book and maybe you, too will find that your troublesome behaviors of yesteryear helped pave your route to success. Here's to more crayon breaking for all of us!

After dealing with Alan Black in internet creativity forums for some years, I have come to admire his infectious enthusiasm, his joviality, and his constructive and energetic approach to all things creative. I decided I had to get away from my myopic pursuit of better-known creativity gurus and traverse the lesser known works for their greater rewards.

Alan's book is rewarding and well-written, and is worth twice the cover price. Or you can simply buy two copies, like I did. A wonderful read, indeed, especially if you are too far away to benefit from his training first-hand!

An interesting tale of the rise and fall of Julien Sorel, a carpenter's son who elevates his social standing , with the help of the clergy, to become the secretary of a Parisian marquis. Julien is cunning and ambitious, constantly suspicious of his wealthy employers, manages to assimilate well to noble drawing rooms, but loses his focus when love intervenes. The novel is complicated by a multitude of political references which, even with the help of lengthy footnotes, are difficult to grasp unless you're a French historian. Also, Julien's monastery stay is a dull diversion from the main story and adds little to the reader's overall impression. Very dense, sometimes not an easy read, but philosophical, thought-provoking, and definitely passionate.

Julien Sorel -who, oddly, some reviewers like; I think he's despicable- is a young, obscure and ambitious semi-priest who does not believe in the Church; an insecure and troubled man who only looks for his personal progress (material, not spiritual or intellectual) without thinking of the consequences of his actions. As the tutor of the mayor's children, he seduces his wife and then makes her miserable. Then, he leaves his town and becomes the secretary of the Marquis de La Mole, whose affection he wins and whose daughter he gets pregnant. I won't spoil the rest, but there are two excelent twists in the plot, who finally reveal in full what kind of man Julien is.

This complex but gripping novel uses Sorel's inner world to criticize a cynical society and the existence of bored, empty and amoral souls in need of some trascendence. People don't know which way to follow, in the turmoil of passion, ambition and hollowness. It can be said that this novel, a classic work by all accounts, is the perfect study on mediocrity. A true masterpiece of literature.

The title of this book can refer to the red uniforms of Napoleon's soldiers and the black robes of priests or to colors on a roulette wheel or perhaps the colors of blood and mourning, death. The main theme here seems to be desire, or desire beyond our basic instincts, how we come to desire what we do by imitating culture, history, and selected others. The fictional town Verrieres, a panoramic view of which we see in the opening pages along with hearing the loud sounds of the mayor's nail factory, in French means windows. Stendhal boosts us up to a window and we see Julien Sorel who crafts his desires from Napoleon's Memorial de Saint-Helene, Rousseau's Confessions, and a collection of bulletins of the Grand Army. He moves from being the despised son of a saw mill owner to a tutor for the mayor's children and onward from there as the novel progresses. As we read and the author lets us peer through more windows we realize that we are witness to a comic opera as well as to a study of human motivation and desire. The narrator who often speaks to us and takes us under his wing with a confidence or two likens a novel to a man carrying a mirror on his back down a muddy road, sometimes we see the clear blue sky sometimes the muddy road. Is this a reliable narrator to tell us this? You read and decide. "The Red and the Black" is unlike anything I have read before and it is certainly one of the best novels I have experienced reading. If there is a moral for me to be had from this novel it is that people will always get their desire from somewhere whether it's novels, history, or other people but if we can be aware of this process then we can select our influences more consciously.