I love this book.

As a study of the mind of a top-notch musician, the writer has done a superb job of capturing an intimate portrait of how Casals thought about music, and the production of musical performance. Through a series of well-organised chapters, the reader feels as if he/she is undergoing a masterclass with Casals: diminuendo, stress, meter, mythology, feeling . . . by revealing Casals as a philosopher of orchestration, this book shows the microscope of Casals mind when viewing a score. We benefit from his incomparable insights, spoken off like night-time chat, and we learn from his conductor's sensibilities, like we're sitting in the string section in front of him.

This book is invaluable to musicians--of an instrument--composers, conductors, and amateur enthusiasts such as myself who'd like to experience the workings of a keen sense and ear in a genius like Casals.

This book, like few others, have deeply enriched my understanding of music--as a thing of time, shape, and expression.

From Blum's first discussion of the "First Principle" through his Casals-inspired revelations about melodic shape, dynamics, and rhythm, this book is invaluable as a guide for true artistic expression. The line between music as a set of performance skills and as an interpretive art is clearly drawn, and the spirit of Casals beckons all of us who would be truly inspired musicians

David Blum writes an insightful and rewarding text based on notes taken from rehearsals, master classes, and personal conversations with Pablo Casals. According to Blum, the idea for the book came from Antony Hopkins who encouraged him to take his notes and memories and document them so that other musicians could benefit from Casals' musicianship. The book provides a study of the "laws of music" or "laws of nature" which Casals considered to be the essential elements of meaningful interpretation. The text serves as a guide to musicians, conductors, and music educators on the art of music making.

Most musicians know of Casals the cellist. Unknown to many, his conducting career spans a period of over sixty-five years. During his career as a conductor, rehearsals clearly revealed his ideas about music interpretation. The text records the oral statements and the aural interpretations made by Casals during his rehearsals.

Five chapters divide the text with each chapter representing the main areas of Casals' interpretive ideas. The last chapter serves as an application of the elements of interpretation combined to produce a performance. Every chapter includes printed music excepts, detailed notations of performance practice, insightful commentary from the author, and compelling statements made by Casals during the rehearsal of a particular passage. Topic areas covered in the chapters include The First Principal, Finding the Design, Diction for Instrumentalists, Perceiving Time Relationships, Insights for String Players, Casals and Bach, and A Casals Rehearsal: the Pastoral Symphony.

A unique aspect of Blum's book, the reader is encouraged to study and become involved in every music example. The music examples are excerpts from his performances on the cello, lessons with cello students, and rehearsals with the orchestra. Transposed to the key of C for easy reading, all excerpts are in treble or bass clefs. They have notated phrases, articulations, dynamic nuances, and other stylistic attributes illustrating the points of Casals' concepts. Blum tastefully adds Casals' vocal statements to enhance the music examples, "Casals cried out, Here is the anguish! - Let it sing at the top of the phrase!"

David Blum's book is well written and informative. The music examples with Casals' statements allow the reader to easily and quickly gasp the details of interpretation. This scholarly book with practical applications and insights is invaluable.

"Inside Mr. Enderby," is wonderful and off beat. "Enderby Outside," follows the off kilter story of Enderby and the absurdity that is his life. "The Clockwork Testament," as the title would suggest, has shadings of Burgess' very well known book, "Clockwork Orange." The "Testament," is surreal and twisted while funny at the same time. The final story, "Enderby's Dark Lady," is wonderful and surprising to the reader with value not only for fans of the dyspeptic poet but lovers of Shakespeare as well.

While slightly dated, these stories have a bite to them that speaks volumes of truth for anyone who has been an academic, a professional writer or just a little bit out of touch with the world around them. Enderby is often misunderstood and though he makes his living in a "communication" field, he has a lot of trouble getting his point across to others.

Not only are these books funny, but as is often the case with Burgess, the satire is thinly veiled and pointing at both society and himself.

Leave it to Burgess to create a poet so quirky, so outrageous and neurotic that you have to laugh at every page of his misdaventures. Whether offending strangely clad women in a gay bar or defending himself with a toilet seat, this man lives and was not just created. Clueless about the machinations around him and the pathetic hangers on that want to steal some of his glory, in his poet Burgess paints a disspiriting picture of the 1970s literary scene in London. His world is nightmarish, if leavened by a poet's vision and uncontrollable, irrepressible creativity.

Highly recommended and certainly one his best.

In these novels, Anthony Burgess has done more to de-mystify the creative process (and those who persue it) than any other modern writer. His protagonist, F. X. Enderby, professional English poet, is as flawed as any character ever created. From his almost constant malapropisms down to his bodily emissions, he is every person with true human frailties. He stumbles his way through everyday conversations (often both misunderstanding and misunderstood) while at the same time offending almost everyone he comes into contact with. He is incapable of handling life in the "real" world and is shamelessly exploited by those who do.

In spite of his human failings, Enderby produces things of great beauty. The delicately worded, well balanced verses offer a wonderful counterpoint to Enderby's social ineptitudes and lack of common sense.

There is also a fairly strong political angle in the books which readers in today's society should heed. Censorship, that demon of modern P.C. sensibility, is discussed here intelligently and honestly. Bear in mind, these books are fairly old and some of the racial and sexual comments made in them will reflect this. However, I think you will find a certain balance in their use; everyone gets it in the end. Including Enderby.

if you like your humor understated and your wit dry (droll as humphrey would no doubt say), this book will be the best you have ever read. and it will stay that way.

the british civil service had a unique characteristic - it was not directly under the control of the political masters. this gave rise to a very interesting situation where the civil service and her majesty's servants were working towards entirely opposite ends. to the civil servant, imaginative and bold were the worst criticisms. change in any form was looked down upon - as we say here - "if it aint broke, dont fix it". the politicians (especially those new in office like hacker who weren't cynical enough not to care one way or the other) often came to office with lofty ideals of revolutionizing society and being the forefathers of a better tomorrow.

behind the curtain of civility, they (the civil servants and politicians) fought battle after battle. the art of realpolitik meant entirely diffent things to both sides. many of the battles went to the civil servants (Lord Humphrey being among the shrewdest) but at times Hacker (James Hacker - first minister and later Prime Minister) prevailed with his low cunning and fast realization that not everything was what it looked like.

each chapter is a revelation - the next time you read the news, you will see it in an entire different perspective after reading this book. action and motive are so far removed as to make the connection entirely unimaginable and the amount of time spent trying to do nothing seems at times appalling.

if slapstick is your cup of tea, stay away from this book. the humor is often less in what is said than in how it is said. the laughs never end. i have read this book 5 times now. the first time, you enjoy the humor for what it is. the second time, you start enjoying the situations, the broader picture, the political moves,and the sheer genius of humphrey. the third time you see how the characters develop. by the fourth time, it's like you're on crack. you cant explain it - you know what is going to happen next, you know the exact words. you still have to read it again. and again. and again.

Sir Humphrey Appleby, Sir Bernard Wooley, and Rt Honorable James Hacker... this is simply the most outstanding work of humorous fiction that lampoons the British civil service and politicians alike.

Based on the diaries of the minister, the series has been converted to a wonderful teleseries, where the casting has been done by someone who truly loves the book and has imbibed the characters so completely, that on later readings of the book, the television characters appear to the mind.

The book is a series of short stories, which expose the careful interplay between the British civil service and the British politicians, the role played by media, the foriegn office, the various departments etc. It is a wonderful set of stories, where the English is truly masterful!! I remember reading each story with a pencil and dictionary while writing the GRE many years ago,... this and its sequel, yes prime minister, are books which should receive their space in your cabinet.

I dont know why this says - Limited availability, these books are easily procured in India where they are being printed.

Yes Prime Minister is that rarest of books. It is based on a TV show, itself hilarious, and yet manages to be even better than the show. Whereas the show descends into slapstick and exaggerated humour at times, the book does not miss a step. The plots are wonderfully woven, the characters all superbly crafted and uniformly shallow and the writing is impeccable - there are never two words when one will do, and the characters will stay with you long after the first (of many) reading(s). I suspect in years to come, when some distance can be put between the book and it's times, it will be recognised as one of the all time comedy classics. Buy it now!

Bravo to Mr Patton on his fine first novel.This book is chock full of interesting,multidimensional characters who don't always do or say what you expect them to do or say.Once Patton draws you in with these characters and teases you with his extensive knowledge of the drug interdiction business(which,contrary to other reviewers,I think is winnable and worth fighting)the real fun begins.And make no mistake about it...this book is fun to read. Protagonist Nick Lowe is reminiscent of the pre-P.C. days when James Bond was considered the beau ideal of manliness.But this is not just another brauny,high-tech testimony to testosterone. It's cogently written and carefully crafted and I highly recommend you add it to your summer reading list.

Espionage, love, ... smuggling conspiracy, and the hot ... Panamanian women are the elements of Patton's novel. Once you start to read you cannot stop. Could Patton become the next Tom Clancy? Maybe we'll find out on Part II.

Patton is a keen observer of Latin culture, perhaps too keen. Its obvious to anybody who spent time "down south" fighting this ridiculous and unwinnable 'War' on drugs, that Patton's excellent web of deceit runs a bit too close to home. Why do I get the feeling that the Author lives vicariously thru his Nick Lowe creation. There is clearly more involved here than the Author's active imagination. A good yarn that won't insult your intelligence or assault your common sense about what a farcical waste of hard-earned taxpayer treasure this so-called War on Drugs has become, or should I say, has been all along.

It's wacky! It's wild! It makes you hungry! It makes you laugh out loud! And it even tugs at your heart strings!

Join in the fun as chunky Loretta(one tough mama with 'tude) and greaseball Frankie(sexy, sensitive, vulnerable, and Italian!) race to a fat farm to bring back a parole violating gal.

What makes this such a great hilarious book is the characters. All oddballs.

And kudos to the author for dealing straightforwardly with such issues as obesity and dying.

It's a fast read and romp. Pick it up. You won't be disappointed. After all, who can not break into squeals of laughter when the the female lead refers to her partner as a "slaphappy chipmunk."

Though I can see how some readers may feel uncomfortable about reading the passages about Frank's sorrow over his dying wife, I'll have to say that Tony Bruno is a warm kind human to be abel to deal with this issue of dying family members with taste and heart. The rest of the novel is just too good to describe, without at least doing it severe injustice. Just grab yourself a copy of this baby and enjoy! Mamma Mia!

Two things especially work to make Devil's Food standout in the genre mastered by Elmore Leonard and Carl Hiassen. They are the novel's food oriented humor and its food obsessed heroine. No chapter is complete without food references, which range from catalogs of high cholesterol munchies to satirical jabs at the tiny, tasteless portions served to the hungry dieters at a fat farm. Anthony Bruno, the author, is especially good at caricature. He manages the difficult feat of making believable and hilarious such characters as the hunted, calculating parole violator, her sidekick motorcycle hit man, and her unctious, hypocrital boss, the head of the fat farm. This book would be a ten were it not for the teary, dreary sub-plot stuff about the heroine's partner and his dying wife

This well told story of a man's struggle to overcome his dark past, and persevere through great personal loss is something we can all identify with. It is a fast paced, enjoyable read, and recommended to all. Inspirational, to say the least.

This author has a style that takes a reader to the sharp edges of realism. Crisp, clear emotions and descriptions put you right in the scene - whether you want to be there or not! There's a depth to this story that shouts the consequences of morality and choice.

This author has written a fast-paced novel that is at the same time thought provoking. As the reader turns the pages he accompanies Roger, the author's protagonist, on a journey, which is not dissimilar to the ones all us are on. Roger struggles to overcome a childhood of poverty and gain those things that will make his life happy and fulfilling - and he achieves them, only to have them taken from him. They are like carrots being dangled in front of him only to be snatched away. His struggle on his yacht is reminiscent of the dark night of the soul. The good news is he "conquers his demons" and gains maturity and peace through the process. This is a book that will stay with you long after you've finished the last page.

This book is proliferated with Paul Bosman's art. The art includes Paul Bosman's paintings and drawings capturing the moments in the life of the cats. We see the lioness facing it's pray, a leopard resting, a family of cheetahs, a male lion walking through the bush and so on. The illustrations cover lions, leopards, cheetahs, as well as smaller wild cats. I recommend this book for any nature lover, wild cat enthusiast or a person interested in African wildlife.

A stunningly beautiful and fascinating book, Cats of Africa describes the continent's lions, leopards, cheetahs, and small wild cats. The text is accompanied by numerous gorgeous drawings and paintings. The book is both informative and gripping, with excellent desriptions of the behaviours and characteristics of the animals in the wild, as well as discussions of their futures. I strongly recommend it!

A stunningly beautiful and fascinating book, Cats of Africa describes the continent's lions, leopards, cheetahs, and small wild cats. The text is accompanied by numerous gorgeous drawings and paintings. The book is both informative and gripping, with excellent desriptions of the behaviours and characteristics of the animals in the wild, as well as discussions of their futures. I strongly recommend it!

just adding a bit of perspective to the previous review. The Disenchanted is not entirely a work of fiction. It is based on real incidents. The young writer is Budd Schulberg himself, and he based the story on his experiences with F. Scott Fitzgerald.

A really wonderful and touching novel in which Mr. Schulberg fictionalizes his days in Hollywood with F. Scott Fitzgerald. Highly recommended, lost masterpiece, probably better than "What Makes Sammy Run?", the only Schulberg novel that still seems to be in print.

Written in 1950, "The Disenchanted" is the thinly disguised story of F. Scott Fitzgerald in his alcoholic decline, when life had overtaken him to the point that his genius could no longer be expressed in the only way he knew how: his writing.

When Budd Schulberg was at Dartmouth College, he was assigned to accompany the fabled Fitzgerald while the great man made a stab at writing a screenplay for Hollywood. As Fitzgerald afficionados well know, this humiliating attempt at regaining his literary glory was a disaster for Fitzerald, and, as we see in this fictionalized account, quite an eye-opener for the impressionable young Schulberg.

What struck me most about the book was the purity of the writing, and the intensity with which the author expresses the two stories within: one about the young man's hero worship that turns to pity; the other about the disintegration of a genius. I have never again read such a moving account of the tragic relationship between Zelda and F. Scott, or the impact their relationship had on themselves and others.

Because of "The Disenchanted," which I first read as a preteen, I turned to F. Scott Fitzgerald and read everything he had ever written. I believe that my understanding of his works and his life were and are rooted in Budd Schulberg's moving and brilliant book, and if I could have thanked him in person, I would have done so, a thousand times over.

As a long time dream recorder and enthusiast, I found the book fascinating because it provided me with a different model for thinking about dreams besides the mainstream, psychological approach. It also gave me additional insight into my own grandparents who came from Poland and had similar takes on dreams. One was herself known for having predictive dreams.

As a white American, reading it has given me some insight that I didn't have before into black culture. I don't think I quite conceived before the extent to which there is a separate culture which deserves to be addressed and respected on its own merits. Nor the extent to which black people are really a part of two cultures which are sometimes in conflict. I feel much more at ease interacting with the black people in my environment and more free to address racial issues and compare experiences.

I highly recommend the book to anyone interested in the topic of dreams, but more particularly to white people who want to bridge the social gap between the races which stubbornly persists.

At a time of widespread interest in dreams and dreamwork, the African-American dream culture, for reasons good and bad, had remained completely invisible in the sea of books on the subject. The acknowledged importance of dream-themes in African-American music and in African-American literature makes it all the more puzzling that this vital and pervasive part of African-American life should have remained invisible to the scholars and practitioners of dream interpretation. Whatever the reasons for this discrepancy (which the author sifts through in his introduction), it was a yawning gap which Shafton set out to fill in this richly textured book.

Based on extensive interviews with 115 subjects ranging from highly educated professionals to ghetto children to prisoners, the author examines closely the full spectrum of dream experiences and their uses in personal, interpersonal and social contexts. This includes the prevalence of ancestor dreams, various forms of predictive dreaming ranging from the mundane to the sublime, the cultivation of dreamlike experiences in the waking state, dreaming as spiritual experience, dreaming as processing of socio-political reality, the nature of dream sharing in black America and the transgenerational transmission of beliefs, attitudes and interpretive techniques, the role of dream sharing as survival mechanism. Last but not least, running through the whole book, we find a subtle examination of the question of the African roots of this cultural form.

Throughout, the book makes room for the variety of cognitive and emotional experience, what the author describes as "the various degrees of certainty, consistency, and tolerance for ambiguity. There are hard skeptics. There are naive accepters. There are those in transition. There are those who embrace traditional beliefs as part of a broad enhancement of their identity..." all operating on the fundamental assumption that dreams matter. This adds credibility to one of the book's ambitions, namely to assess the future of the African-American way with dreams.

'Dreamsingers' is one of those rare cases where a book's promises seem modest by comparison with the final experience. This reflects in part the intrinsic richness of the materials the author was able to draw upon: yet Shafton's carefully conducted research could not have produced so satisfying a book without the reality of a vital dream culture and the variety of individual lives connected through that culture. Equally important, however, is Shafton's ability to elicit his interlocutors' trust, to become transparent to their individual voices, to allow for the development of the full spectrum of attitudes towards dreams and the use of dreams in the conduct of daily lives.

One effect is that the reader is in no doubt that (s)he is looking at a clearly African-American phenomenon, one that cuts across class, education and generational boundaries. Yet we are never presented with a stereotypical 'African-American' voice/experience. The diversity and nuances of viewpoint revealed in this book are as vital to the whole picture as are the core beliefs and attitudes.

It is a further attraction of the book that neither the thoroughness of the research nor the complexity of the analysis are allowed to interfere with the intensely personal quality of the material being examined. We are listening to an extended, richly textured and subtle conversation between the author and his interviewees, and , indirectly, among the interviewees themselves.

By the same token, the thoroughness and intelligence of the author's analyses should make it possible for members of other groups to look at their own cultural traditions in the light of the African-American way with dreams, having been provided keys for truly multicultural understanding.

This book is a fine combination of fieldwork and scholarship written in an informal, non-academic style. Anthony Shafton interviewed 116 African Americans, as well as a control group of white people with which to compare attitudes toward dreams. He also searched African American poetry and fiction and the scientific literature of dream analysis, and the depth of his research is revealed in the copious notes and lengthy bibliography. As a reader raised in the white community, I found much that I had experienced myself, such as dream visits from deceased family and friends, recurring dreams, and sleep paralysis-and some that I had never experienced, such as religious conversion and deriving numbers for gambling from dreams. This book indeed taught me that the dreams of black people and white people aren't necessarily different, but they think about them differently. Because my own research is on African American hoodoo practice, I found the section on Dreams and Hoodoo and the appendices on Traditional African American Dream Signs, Policy and Numbers Gambling, and Dream Book Authors and Publishers to be among the most valuable and interesting parts of the book.