Iread the novel first and then the graphic novel, in the early 70's. The graphic novel was written and drawn by the Pitt brothers ( from Australia , I believe) . The Pitt brothers had a Russ Manning visual style. The story itself is timeless , Edmond Dantes in outer space. I don't understand why this graphic novel got out of print. copyright,ownership squabbles. The modern day equivalent of Gully Foyle is John Riddick, in the film Pitch Black.

I first found the graphic adaptation of Alfred Bester's "The Stars, My Destination" in the late seventies in a second-hand bookstore in Naples, Florida... I sat on the floor and read it from cover to cover, paid .50 for it and started my quest to find Vol 2... only to find it had never been printed... This was one of the first (maybe THE first) graphic novels, a cross between comic a book and a novel, with brightly colored panels but complex plot lines and dialog... and no one has come close to its achievement... Gully's single minded drive towards his fate, coupled with his total confusion about who and what he was, along with his complete ignorance of his potential inspired me to strive beyond my imagined limitations... I identified with his suprise at accomplishing acts others said were impossible... and his ability to immediately take advantage of these discoveries... his escape from the frypan to the fire... a hero for all time, Gully is "The Man"... when the movie is made, I will watch it with my son, as he is another Gully, and maybe he will find the same desire to reach beyond this to what is unimagined but more than possible... ps. I forgave my ex for cheating on me, for wrecking the cars, for getting rid of my dog, but she can burn in hell for tearing up the only copy of this book I have ever seen.

To anyone who has ever read a truely fascinating work of fiction, and still can recall all the emotions which that novel stirred deep within their soul, thenthey are the lucky few who know how much I enjoyed this book. I could literally not put it down and I was completely enveloped in every aspect of the novel. It fascinated me how compelled Gully was to fulfill his destiny, no matter what the odds. I would reccomend this book to anyone who has even the slightest interest in science-fiction. For those of you who are not sci-fi fans, this book could change your mind in an instant. I can honestly say that this book is one of the best books I've ever read in all my life, and I am an avid reader. Believe me, if you read only one book ever again, make it this one. You will realize things about yourself that you never even considered, and also walk away being able to say that you read one of the greatest sci-fi books of all time.

One of the finest books written on penile disfunction. Easy to comprehend, informative, and insightful material on a complicated and thought-provoking subject matter. Hard to put book down...especially intrigued by the chapters on women. The book flows easily from beginning to end.

What an insight to Viagra! I have found the book to be so easily understood. It is excellent reading for a husband and wife to understand so that they may make an intelligent decision about the solution to their problem. I highly recommend this book. Thank you Dr. Newman!

This is an excellent guide for the male with penile dysfunction. It gives insight to what Viagra can do, as well as alternative procedures available. The illustrations are precise, and easy for the layman to understand. I highly recommend it for anyone (male or female) with this highly sensitive and personal disorder. Dr. Newman deserves highest accolades for writing this timely book.

Paul Mather is a character that any baseball fan can relate to. Paul has a passion for pitching that is so strong, not even a incurable blood disease can stop him from getting on the mound. This is not only a story about baseball, but a story about life. I am an elementary eduacation student, and I hope to use this book in my classroom. The way Alfred Slote develops Paul's character through the story is amazing. As I read I felt like I was going through everything with Paul. If you have ever enjoyed books by Matt Christopher this is definetely a book for you to read. I would recommend this book to anyone age 9 and up.

This is a heartwarming tale of a young boy with leukemia and a zest for baseball. The theme of going after your goals, regardless of the obstacles, is personified in the main character of Paul Mather. Though set in the 1970's, this story transcends time to today. Many children are still fighting Leukemia, as well as many other illnesses.
Children will connect with Paul forging his parents name on the permission slip for baseball. What child has not forged a signature, or thought about it, and then was caught? This experience by Paul is universal.
Childhood love of activity, also gives universal appeal, through Paul's love of baseball. Many young boys, and some girls, can name their favorite player's statistics. Paul, the main character, is the same. This book is a wonderful story to share. I would use this in a middle school English classroom.

Reviwer:Auston October 26,2001
This is my first time reading this book. Hang Tough Paul Mather is a book about a boy named Paul Mather who loves baseball but he has a disease that causes his parents not to let him play. Unless his doctor say it's OK, he can't play. But he plays anyway without doctor's permission. I would recommend it to any one(except a baby). It's a Great book.

Sloan offers a unique first-hand perspective of the forces that shaped the auto industry and much of consumer marketing.

I found the account of GM's entry into consumer finance and the forces at work during the great consolidation periods of most interest.

Sloan seems to be able to keep his ego in check and deliver the facts in a straightforward manner.

Discussions of the DuPont principles of comparison for unlike businesses and the board politics that shaped General Motors are helpful to executives even today.

I think it's really a great book, not only for any industry engineering people or student, but for any student studying management. Alfred Sloan was a great businessman and I respect him and his business thought.

Sloan's work successfully embodied the essence of system thinking.

The very first part of the essential, very first amendment to our Constitution says, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." This ringing phrase, so seemingly simple and obvious, has been the focus of an enormous amount of controversy and clarification. It is a great legacy, but what does it really mean? We are still struggling to find out. In _To an Unknown God: Religious Freedom on Trial_ (St. Martin's Press) by Garrett Epps we learn how one of the latest struggles is turning out. It is a fine book to show in detail how a specific constitutional decision came to be made.

On one side of the story was Al Smith. Smith was born into the Klamath tribe, but was pulled out of it to go to Catholic boarding school. Rather late in his life he was introduced to sweat lodges and Native American religion. He was also introduced to Alcoholics Anonymous, and eventually became a respected counselor, speaker, and organizer of treatment centers for alcohol and drug abuse. As he traveled to different reservations to set up recovery programs, he came across peyote religion. It seemed to give some of his clients spiritual strength, and they seemed to do better in overcoming substance abuse if they participated in its religious ceremonies. He began to consider participating in peyote religion. He was told that taking peyote at a ceremony would violate the rules of the treatment center in which he worked, and so he did so. He was thereupon fired, and he filed for unemployment compensation. That filing set the stage for a subsequent battle within the Supreme Court and beyond.

On the other side was Oregon Attorney General David Frohnmayer. He had tried in his political offices in Oregon to mend fences with the tribes of his region. He was, however, very worried about the dangers of drug abuse, and so he felt he was doing the right thing in trying to squelch community acceptance of drugs, ceremonial or not. He approached the Supreme Court proceedings with the mantra, "Drugs are bad. Slippery slope." Not only was peyote illegal, but it was used in a minority religion; if it were allowed, then surely someone would be asking to use other drugs for religious purposes. But he did reflect sadly to his legal team, "How did we get to be the Indian bashers?"

Epps is not only a journalist and lawyer, but also a novelist. His ability to describe personalities and anecdotes serves him well, for although this is a legal story, the human stories within it are what make it live. He has used process of the legal arguments as a springboard for an examination of many connected subjects: the history of the Bureau of Indian Affairs; the story of Alcoholics Anonymous; the tale of Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh and the Oregon town that was taken over by his devotees; the saga of the Road Man who is the ceremonial leader of the peyote religion. These set pieces are fascinating, and strengthen the main story. It is disconcerting that there is no pat final resolution, but Epps writes, "The law of religious freedom remains unsettled." Thus may it ever be.

Epps' book is one of the best in recent memory to explore a Supreme Court case. Examining the case of Oregon v. Smith, Epps deploys his skills as both a journalist and a novelist to plumb the depths of Indian rights, religious freedom and states rights. The only quibble one can have is that the book spends too much time on the minutae of Oregon Attorney General Frohnmeyer's life. Other than that minor matter, this is an elegantly told tale. As an aside, Epps presents a concise yet complete recouncting of the Rajhneesh cult saga of the '80's, relying to good effect of the work of Oregon Magazine Editor-in-Chief Win McCormack.

This book is one of the best looks at a Supreme Court case in quite some time. Examining Oregon v. Smith, one of the most important yet unheralded legal battles of our time, Epps' book plumbs the depths Indian rights, religious freedom and states rights in a manor which devestates the intellectual pretensions of Court conservatives such as Justice Scalia. The only quible one can have with the book it that it has too much detail on Oregon Attorney General Frohnmeyer. Other than that minor matter, this is a top rate book. Of additional note, the book provides an exceptionaly concise yet comprehensive overview of the Rajhneesh cult afair in Oregon, relying to good effect on the journalism of Oregon Magazine's Win McCormack.

If you want to learn to hit the right way, this might be the best investment you will ever make. Like another reviewer wrote, though, you must be willing to do the work to learn the lessons the book teaches. Also, if you just want to be a home run hitter, this book is not for you; a home run is only a pleasant mistake in the Charlie Lau/George Brett school, which teaches solid line-drive hitting. After studying this book, I became a Top 10 hitter in a highly-competitive Texas league. The Art of Hitting .300 is a baseball treasure.

I recommend this book for anyone wants to learn (or teach) advanced hitting techniques. Pictures and descriptions clearly explain common hitting problems and show correct swing mechanics. My 15-year old struggled through his first slump before we applied Lau's hitting fundamentals. He added fifty points to his batting average over the next month and hit 0.638 in a national tournament. I believe this book had a lot to do with his improvement.

I was a scrawny little kid to whom baseball was everything. To my parent's dismay, I judged myself by how I played baseball. But I was scared of the baseball and lost as to how to go about hitting it. My coaches gave me harmful, misguided instructions like, "make sure it's a stike, then swing at it" and "snap those wrists". I was a wreck. Then one winter my Dad (like me, a George Brett/Wade Boggs fan) bought me this book. My Dad had never been able to hit either, but he and I dissected it over the course of a summer.

It was a lot of work, more work than any 12-year-old could could have undertaken without the guidance of an equally determined adult. But my Dad and I realized that hitting was a process, a method that could be learned. Lau taught that everything I had been told -with horrible results- was in fact wrong. You don't judge whether a pitch is a strike and then swing; you start your swing and let your reflexes hold you back. You don't swing hard with your arms; you swing easy and get your power from your whole body.

All spring we worked on it, practicing in the garage, spending literally hundreds of dollars at batting cages working on mechanics. That very next season, I was hitting the ball better, and I only improved from there. By the end of that season, I was a certified leadoff terror. My team won its league title thanks to a game-winning single by yours truly. I even hit a few home runs (by not trying to, as Lau teaches). I was deliriously happy.

Even since then I've been a good hitter. Not a power hitter (I'm much too small), but a solid doubles guy with surprising pop. What I learned from this book kept me in organized baseball through Babe Ruth and high school (simultaneously), college, and semi-professional leagues. I am a hideously slow runner who soon after puberty had to give up dreams of playing professionally, but to this day I can step in front of a pitcher or pitching machine -cold- and drive the ball. This book taught me how. If you really want to hit a baseball, buy it, read it, internalize it, and put your faith in it. It will serve you well.

Excluding Knuth's opera (another dimension), this (AHU) is about the other and only renowned classic algorithms book, deseverdly I'd say, together with Cormen-Leiserson-Rivest's (CLR) "Introduction to Algorithms". With the difference that the first and only edition of AHU has been written 16 years before the first (of the two) editions of CLR.

The two books are quite different in the language and formalism used: more formal and mathematical inclined AHU with respect to CLR. I'd say, the very classic style of his authors who have made history in the CS literature with their books (particularly 2 on algorithms and data structures, 2 on Computer Theory, 2 on Compilers, 1 on CS foundations): as these books have been used in most universities around the world for decades, they've proved to be real milestones in the education of thousands of students.

The books differ also in scope, since AHU is certainly not an encyclopedic collection as CLR does, with his roughly 500 pages against 1000. In spite of this, I'd point out the following: my textbook on Algorithms was CLR, but when we got to Complexity Classes (P-NP and theory behind) we "had" to switch to AHU for the simple reason that CLR did not almost mention at all Turing Machines nor Space Complexity, without which is certainly possible to learn e.g. about NP-TIME completeness, but without which, such a path would equally certainly miss some foundamental topics of Complexity Theory.

All in all, then, imo the book truly deserves 5 stars (and perhaps it would deserve a second, updated, edition too ... possibly, imho, through a bit less revolutionary revision job than they did with "Introduction to Automata Theory, Language and Computation").

As a final note, those looking for a more applicative and self-reference than an educational introductory text, could have a look at the two-volumes opera by the former Knuth's pupil, Robert Sedgewick (possibly the more consolidated C or C++ versions).

The book elaborates thoroughly on the basics every programmer should be familiar with. If you are into software development, and have found some unfamiliar concepts in the book description - that's a sure sign that you need this book on your desk.

This is yet another classic from the Aho Gang!

It sets up a very formal framework for discussing alorithms, beginning at the beginning..an abstract mathematical model of a computer. and builds up the rest of the book using the model for implementation as well as quantification.

A solid framework for the analysis of algorithms is setup. The necessary mathematics is covered, helping in measuring an algorithm's complexity..basically the time and space complexities.

Then it goes on to deal with designing algorithms. the design methodology, with elaborate examples and exercises.

It should be admitted however that this is a solid text for the mathematically oriented. Thats the reason for the 5 stars!

If you want to go a little easy on the formalisms try
"Computer Algorithms, Pseudocode" by Ellis Horowitz, Sartaj Sahni, Sanguthevar Rajasekaran. I found it more pragmatic.

Although he was considered during his lifetime to be a profoundly radical thinker, Emerson, the Transcendentalist chief, after his death, was soon reinterpreted as a bland Bostonian Brahmin, a mystic anarchist who was only brave on paper. It cannot be denied that his philosophy of a joyful and affirmationist acceptance of life, and of nature, his anti-slavery activities, his attacks on the state and on the sensualism of bourgeois society, could have easily provided the formula for a complete overthrow of the moral order of his time. His libertarian thrust, his serene integrity, his indefatiguable optimism and common sense, however, will continue to find admirers, notwithstanding the fact that political identifications have changed and emphases have shifted, or otherwise one can simply enjoy the polished beauty of his prose style. Though by no means a deep thinker, Emerson's brilliantly epigrammatic, allusive, declamatory, pithy style provides instances where the reader may extrapolate a number of meanings from even the shortest utterances, and it is due to this quality, perhaps, that the Emerson enigma came into being, enabling him to appeal to such numerous and diverse temperaments. His best essays include "The Over-Soul", "Compensation", "Self-Reliance" and "Manners", in which he preaches, in the rhetorical manner reminiscent of his background as a Unitarian minister, his ideals of contenment, joy, independence and self-confidence -- tonics of the soul.

If I could create my ideal afterlife or heaven, I would wish to be forever cradled in the gentle arms and soothing prose of Emerson. Who needs prozac or any psychiatry for that matter when we have access to such beautiful writing?

If ever there was a man fit to work a suicide hotline, it is Ralph Waldo Emerson. If ever an author is to have a positive effect on one's life, this man is certainly the foremost candidate. Emerson's essays radiate optimism and preach self-confidence; his works contain some of the best lessons one could ever hope to learn and, at the same time, are some of the greatest pieces of literature ever written. Like Tombstone's Doc Holiday, every sentence Emerson offers is quotable. Make no mistake, though, Emerson's words are of a completely different brand than those echoing quotes that decorate hollow speeches; an Emerson quote has meat. In every sentence one can find his complete philosophy, much like, as he writes in The Over-Soul, "One blood rolls uninterruptedly, an endless circulation through all." One's memory of Emerson's entire teachings can be refreshed in a single phrase, but one can never see the genius in his writing without having grasped it in the first place. That is precisely why I would consider offering a Cliff's Notes-type summary of any of Emerson's works one of the gravest literary crimes. Apart from the impossibility of the task, any so-called shortcut would rob the reader of those self-revelations - which are the essence of the Emerson experience - that can only be reached by trudging alone through the depths of the material. The reading is challenging. Each sentence takes on a different meaning upon re-examinations, be they consecutive or periodic. In the first reading, one may be struck by a certain passage's theme or imagery. Upon reading over it seconds later, one may discover a subtle metaphor, and a third reading my suggest another, even-deeper meaning, all of which may be replaced by the impressions of a fourth glance some two or three weeks later. The material is timeless, accommodating the evolving individual as well as the ever-changing human race. We must be careful, though, not to be lulled into the cult-mentality of using Emerson's writings as an instruction manual for our own lives. To do so would be to undermine his entire message. The fruit of the Emerson experience is gaining the self-trust, or Self-Reliance, necessary to follow our own hearts, make our own decisions, and say, with confidence, "Hey, I know what I'm doing."

the student mastering counterpoint cannot go through without 'The study of Counterpoint' by Joseph Fux

ray.sant

This is a really fun book. It teaches counterpoint, yet I could read it for leisure reading. It is written as a conversation between an instructor and a student, and there are many, many examples... based on these teachings and recieved great feedback on them.
A highly recommended read for anyone who has ever written a song.

[reprint -- sorry]

At one point in the text, Aloysius pretty much says it all: "These lessons are not worked out for actual use but for exercise. If one know how to read one need no longer bother with spelling; similarly, the species of counterpoint are given only for purposes of study."

I have been working out of this book (which is really an excerpt of a larger book called _Steps to Perfection_) with a private tutor for a year, and it has been a difficult but rewarding experience. Essentially, the species provide a platform to learn how to compose concurrent melodic lines. Each following species builds upon the knowledge of the previous. Rules that begin absolute slowly become contextual. While the book's original title is anachronistic, the program within encourages steps towards the understanding of basic tonal principles that have formed the foundation of the grand tradition of western music.

I'd recommend keeping an open mind about the rules. These are treated as the "rules," but are expected to be broken with time and experience. After all, the rules are no more than the collected general tendancies of the great composers.

Another thing to keep in mind is that Fux's book provides an introduction to composition based upon the limitations--and, accordingly, the beauty--of the human voice. This book does not deal with the embellishments and ornaments possible on all instruments.

More caveats: One, I would recommend studying this book with an experienced teacher. It's like a beginning yoga text: basic, but someone with experience will put things in perspective. Two, the exercises, especially for three and four voices, are difficult and require commitment and discipline. (Again, like yoga.) There is no need to rush through the exercises. Three, Fux's book should be part of an integrated tonal curriculum that at least includes four-part writing and ear-training.

And Fux's book is hardly the last word even on counterpoint! At the very least, study 18th century and 20th century counterpoint, because those broad styles used Fux's treatise as their basic foundations. Those who criticize this text do so because it does not immediately apply to modern music situations. But they often fail to see how the text fits beautifully within the broad spectrum of composition. This book reflects the basics of tonal architecture. No more, no less

It took me twenty years to finally pull Isaac Bashevis Singer's novel, Shosha, about Jews and the Holocaust from my bookcase and read it. One week later I had finished it and moved on to read Clifford's Blues. Two compelling and distinctive plys coil together to offer up complementary perspectives on the rise of Nazism in Germany. Singer puts a face on pre-World War II European Jews, richly depicting what it meant to be a Jew in western Europe in the years prior to and during the Holocaust. For most modern Americans this is a fairly familiar story.

Williams offers up a tale much less familiar. He introduces us to Clifford Pepperidge, a gay, black, American jazz musician who spends a dozen years incarcerated in Dachau prison, one of the many labeled undesirables who were captured as the Nazis rose to power. While other prisoners suffer the misery of prison barracks and captor abuse, Clifford sits in the comfortable home of a gay Nazi officer and his bovine German wife. There as a servant, Pepperidge allows himself to be used sexually and musically by both husband and wife, the price of survival. In his daily interaction with other prisoners he sees that good men, those with the character and ethics to stand up for their fellows, rarely survive long. It is those who capitulate, who sink down into the muck, who lose their humanity who will endure.

Williams provides us with a fascinating picture of how people react to power and influence, even when it clearly is evil. We see the German burger who blinds himself to the fate of those caught up in the hungry trap of Nazism. The German officer who grasps at every opportunity to accumulate wealth and power. The many who stumbled forward in step with a horror that grows ever larger and more malignant. Where Singer presents a picture of people desperately trying to hold onto their hopes and dreams even in the face of rising oppression, Williams shows us the convolutions that strip away humanity in both victim and oppressor.

The writing is strong, and Williams clearly took the time to do the necesary research to bring his story to life. Richly developed characters hold the reader's interest. It is not a book to be quickly forgotten. Williams holds a mirror up and asks us to look at ourselves and think about how we can be shaped and influenced by people and events. His darkside tale underscores the possibility of our own tumble in inhumanity and evil.

I read this book a year ago and it haunts me still.

John A. Williams has crafted here a story so compelling, so engrossing in its depiction of life lived on a razor's edge, that you loathe putting it down; you may feel chills when you've finished it. It's that disturbing, and that good. CLIFFORD'S BLUES affirms that Williams retains his gifts (fresh as ever in his mid-70s!) and mastery of his craft.

Clifford Pepperidge is triple-crossed: condemned as "decadent" - for being American Negro, jazz musician, and active homosexual (especially impolitic when he's caught in bed with a prominent white man) - and interned "indefinitely" in a German concentration camp by Nazidom as it rises to power in the early 1930s.

This is a historical possibility we'd not thought of. Yet Williams, no stranger to historical fiction (see, for example, his novel CAPTAIN BLACKMAN), footnotes his text with incidences of real life black jazz musicians detained by the Nazis prior to the outbreak of World War II; I'd never heard about this.

John A. Williams has been publishing books, mostly novels, over 40 years. His heroes have tended to be "manly" black men: uncompromising, heterosexual, hard-loving, hard-drinking and cigarette-smoking urbane sophisticates. I've always taken them to be stand-ins for the author himself; perhaps they represent the image of manliness of a day not quite gone by.

Stepping out of his usual bounds and into Clifford's skin, however, Williams exhibits an even greater sense of manhood, an empathetic virility. Clifford may not fathom how he managed to get himself into such a mess, but he doesn't make excuses. He's as resolute about his sexuality as his racial and artistic makeup, though all combine to make him particularly alienated - and vulnerable - as he faces down brutal imprisonment with other Nazi-dictated "undesirables" (Communists, gays, Jehovah's Witnesses, Jews and gypsies) for twelve long years. He lives to see, almost veritably, the walls of his dungeon shake, practical escape, the possible passing on of his testimony - but at what cost?

I can say, with modesty and with pride, that I've read all John A. Williams' published novels. This is, for my money, his most powerful, arguably his greatest book since THE MAN WHO CRIED I AM.

Williams has always been a thinking person's writer and a darn good storyteller. In this extremely well written and deeply felt book he's rendered the poignant story of a character he made me truly care about. Clifford Pepperidge could be the long-feared-lost-or-dead relative whose tattered diary of surviving hell on earth has just been plopped down in your living room. How can you embrace all of what he's been through? What if it were you? The really eerie question is that, given history, or the record of human events, it's apparent that no one has a corner on inhumane depravity - we're each just as likely or capable of being captor or captive when, if, we allow a new holocaust. But when you look in the mirror, do you recognize the humanity within and extending beyond yourself? Will we remember?

If only half of what is published were half as well crafted. By the way, the Kirkus Review at the top says this is Williams's first novel. But this is John A., the author of The Man Who Cried I Am, right? Does Kirkus have him confused with another John Williams?