I was one of the men mentioned in the book, I thought it was an excellent book and very factual...it really did bring me back to a time so long ago. The best part was that Frank Grzyb wrote about everyone...if you were there it will bring you back. If you were not there it will give you a true insight into how it really was there at that time. Thank you Frank!

In reading these stories, you can feel what these young men and woman felt,how scared they must have felt yet their friends and loved ones didn't know. I felt like I was there with them, they will never forget what they went thru nor should we !

I found the simple style a compelling and true account of the memories and feelings of ordinary american boys, who served at one of the most difficult times in american history. Very little BS or false glory, just a real account of real Americans, when less sacrificing refused to serve.

This extraordinary book by Frank Rivers deserves more stars than would fit on this page. Frank Rivers deals with ideas formerly reserved for mysticm and the most esoteric disciplines in a charmingly down to earth manner. He gets a lot of mileage out of the Owl analogy, and it works. The reader, male or female, can easily identify with both the fledgling and the wise old owl of Frank River's examples. This fascinating treatise on conflict, paradox and martial principle has so much more substance and clarity than one would expect from such a relatively unknown work. I especially recommend it to readers who don't normally enjoy warm and fuzzies, or self-help conflict-resolution type books. I also recommend it to those struggling with the inconsistencies and injustices of life. Again and again Frank Rivers makes the principles of life, of reality and conflict, as concrete and usable as an idea or words on paper can get. I plan to read this book several times in the next few years. I put Frank Rivers "The Way of The Owl" right up there with James Carse's "Finite and Infinite Games" and consider it much more accessible to the person with an average interest in this type of subject. Although I found the book deeply spiritual in nature, I also found it well in line with fundamental beliefs. A Baptist minister and a Buddhist monk would both enjoy the insights Frank Rivers presents to the reader. A great book for carrying around and reading at those odd moments.

I have always considered the owl as my totem, yet didn't make the connection between owls and tai-chi, and integrity. Soul work is taxing to the spirit, we are not always dealing with people whose goals are harmony, co-operation, reverence for life. We need to be reminded that the Yin and Yang of daily life brings struggle, we cannot escape that fact, but we can be guided thru these conflicts with awareness, the most important of which is *Know Thyself*. It's a HOOT of a book, and I am delighted to have it.

To know one thing is to know one thousand things. To know one's self is to know the universe. This book provides reflective wisdom, which is self evident, that only serves to nurture the soul. The book does not provide answers, it provides questions. And the questions is more valuable than the answer.

Fans of blues music and musicians will relish this autobiography of Delta bluesman Edwards, which charts his rise to fame and his survival in a critical musical world. His first-person observations of the changing blues style and field are especially meaningful given that so many blues titles are not written by participants in the field.

Honey and his astute collaborators have given us the genuine article: a poignant, detailed, uproarous chronicle of what Robert Palmer called the"Deep Blues," the Delta tradition from which all other blues styles emanate. If you've heard Honey sing either in person or on his fine recordings, you will hear the voice you read. He offers dozens of unforgettable moments, from the first sounds he ushers from a broken-necked guitar to his mother's death to the death of Robert Johnson, that are alive and chilling. My only criticism is that the photographs featured in the book are spartan, contemporary views of critical sites in this artist's life. More historical photography would have enhanced the text. The publisher of this well-designed softcover has made the text relaxingly readable. After my first 50 pages, I wanted to purchase all of Honey's recordings and read more about him. He is an articulate, funny, precise chronicler of his own life. If only I could do the same with my own life! First rate.

This autobiography succeeds memorably on several levels. Told in spare, moving words, it provides a vivid picture of life in the Mississippi Delta long before the civil rights movements of the '50s. In addition, it's a kind of African-American "On the Road," told from the perspective of one who crisscrossed the Southern United States, scuffling to make a living playing the blues. And finally, it's a terrific history of the blues, told by a man who made a significant musical contribution himself and who played with nearly all the essential artists of the '30s and on.

Edwards, born in the Delta around 1915, worked the fields as a kid before he learned to play the guitar and began hoboing around the South. He rode the rails, played in innumerable small towns, and polished his craft. Along the way, he hung out and played with the likes of Sunnyland Slim, Big Walter Horton, Little Walter Jacobs, Robert Junior Lockwood, Muddy Waters, B.B. King and yes, Robert Johnson. The book describes how these architects of the modern blues passed songs, licks, and stories back and forth, keeping a form that relies so heavily on tradition dynamic and vital.

A major strength of the book is Edwards' distinctive voice, transcribed by his collaborators to retain its distinctive rhythms and dialect. The book's title sums up his attitude. His memories include violent death, physical and emotional loss, and great material want. Still, you sense strongly that he wouldn't have had his life any other way. His narrative is devoid of self-pity, but it never glosses over the difficulty of the times he endured, which included stints in prison.

The book concludes with useful appendices that define key terms and offer capsule biographies and discographies of musicians Edwards encountered. A good bibliography is also included. Highly recommended for those interested in the blues and in American social history. Great read.

The first thing that struck me about this book is how well put-together it is. In "50 Favorite Rooms by Frank Lloyd Wright," Diane Maddex (listed in the credits as "Project Director") has crafted a book that is clean, simple and elegant in its presentation of the architect's trademark design of personal living spaces.

If you've visited more than a few of Frank Lloyd Wright's creations, chances are they won't all be represented here. He completed hundreds of homes and buildings, which means that this book could have been entitled "250 Favorite Rooms ..." and it still would have been too thin. What you do find are superb photos which are amazingly successful in capturing the perspective and harmony of lines, space, furniture, ornamentation and even lighting. My favorite views are inside the homes, but the public spaces are interesting also. You don't have to be an architect to appreciate the mastery in Mr. Wright's designs.

The chapters are grouped by room type (e.g., living rooms, dining rooms), with each of the pictures taking up AT LEAST one full page, and supported by 20-30 lines of text describing key design aspects of the room. The photos are of the highest quality in terms of exposure, lighting and balance. In some cases, the vantage point allows for a look beyond the windows to the surrounding landscape or greenery. A nice touch, indeed. In short, if you're looking for the definitive image of a room, you'll find a bunch of them right here.

If Mr. Wright had designed a book, I think this is what he'd have come up with. I give this my highest recommendation.

Most of the 5,000 plus wonderful rooms designed by Frank Lloyd Wright are not open to the public. This book gives you a chance to go where you often cannot go in any other way to see 50 of the best.

Unlike most architects, Mr. Wright designed in such a way that "the rooms inside would dictate the architecture outside." Even inside, he designed all elements of the room, including floor and wall coverings, art glass in many cases, lighting fixtures, furniture, and where everything should be located. He also specified that those who used the rooms should be limited to bringing in only certain types of objects, and for certain locations. For example, ornamental china was allowed on one ledge of the dining room in Robie House.

I have had the chance to visit many Wright homes and buildings, yet this book greatly expanded my understanding of his work.

Mr. Wright was primarily a home architect, and "the living room was the heart of the home" for him. He would use built-in benches to encourage reading, fireplaces for conversation, windows with designs to inspire contemplation, tables for informal dining and card playing, and views of nature for living more organically.

Clearly, it would be hard to outdo a Wright living room, and most of the best examples of his work in this book are living rooms. I thought the best ones were in the home and studio in Oak Park, Dana-Thomas House, Robie House, May House, Little House, Fallingwater, Taliesin West, Wingspread, Cedar Rock, R.L. Wright House, and Rayward House.

I liked his dining rooms best in the home and studio in Oak Park, Dana-Thomas House, Robie House, May House, and Boynton House.

For nooks and crannies, I liked the Oak Park studio library, and the Storer House Terrace.

Of the public spaces, my favorites were the Unity Temple Sanctuary, Coonley Playhouse, the Guggenheim Museum atrium, and the Marin County Center skylit atrium under the barrel vault.

If you ever have a chance to see any of these, be sure you take advantage of it! Robie House is now being rebuilt in Hyde Park, Illinois, but is open for tours. Final restoration is expected to be done in 2007. The Oak Park home and studio are open every day. Taliesin West is open most days. Fallingwater has an extensive schedule of being open. Unity Temple, the Guggenheim, and Marin County Center are usually open.

After you examine these wonderful living spaces, think about how your life would be improved in such more natural surroundings. How can you make where you live closer to his ideal?

Look for the most natural way to be with others!

This book touches me in many ways. First, it brings memories of childhood, with the illusions of art full in my mind. I have always loved art and buildings and when in Sr. High School, I had the opportunity to visit one of Mr. Wright's creations, I was in awe at the sight of it. It was in Falling Water, PA. When you have the opportunity to walk into one of these homes, not houses; it is like you feel the presence of the man who designed it, not just a building. Looking at the pages in this book is as close to walking in one of the luxurious rooms as a person can get without actually physically being there. Frank Lloyd Wright truly is an Eternal Artist. His book is lively and full of feeling, as well as detailed artwork that comes from the love of designing itself. I could go on for a long time about his works, but I will leave a little to the imagination now. If you haven't already seen or looked at one of his creations, I suggest that you at least buy one of the many wonderful books about them. You will be delightfully pleased for years to come.

This fine book centres on the familiar experience of company asset stripping and closure. But it also shows how the workers at Wisconsin Steel made two companies pay!

After 75 years of making profit out of the 3,500 workers of Wisconsin Steel in Chicago, its owners, the directors of International Harvester, decided to dump the plant in a phoney sale. They kept the mortgage on the mill, transferred ownership to Envirodyne, a consulting company with 20 employees and no steel making experience, and even lent it the money to buy the plant! They did this to try to cheat the workers out of the $45 million in benefits promised in their union contract. Two years later, they called in the mortgage and closed the mill without notice and without paying the workers' severance pay or health benefits.

The workers there, led by Frank Lumpkin and the Save Our Jobs Committee, fought for 18 years to get the money they were owed, and to stop any company ever again dumping their workers. And they won - in 1988 they got Harvester to pay out $14.8 million, and in 1995 they forced Envirodyne to pay $4 million.

They also fought the wider struggle to rebuild the city's industry and fabric, to get workers back into work on public works projects, where the steel they produced was indispensable. They realised that services depend on industry: like most US cities, Chicago's bridges, streets, sewers, schools, hospitals and houses need structural repairs that would use all the steel its mills could produce.

This book is also the story of Frank himself. He was one of the best workers, never late and never absent; his skills won him promotion to the tool room. He was always willing to pass on his skills to the younger generation, saying, 'If you have knowledge, you have responsibility to share that knowledge. You can't take it easy.' 'In order to learn you have to be able to teach and learn at the same time. That means we must listen and speak. We have to know each other. We have a similar cause. Together we can solve the problem. We need jobs that will feed, clothe and house our families. Nothing else is sufficient.'

In reading "Bring a Crowd," I was struck at how much this book goes beyond biography. It spans most of the 20th century and covers things that are almost never taught in most high school and college American history curricula. Mrs. Lumpkin touches on all of the core issues that continue to haunt modern-day America: capitalism, racism and opportunity. If this book doesn't present an honest depiction of these issues through the eyes of one man, then few books do. Frank Lumpkin has done everything from boxing to sharecropping. Everything he does has been won with a lot of courage, hard work and sheer pluck. He is a role model for most aspiring Americans, who having come from some other place-- probably not as accomodating as the U.S.--simply want something better. From racist rural Florida to the labor battles of South Chicago, Frank Lumpkin has been an active part of history that continues to be a mystery to most working Americans. How did we get a 40-hour week? How did we get paid vacations? How can we protect ourselves from dangerous workplaces? How are we protected if our employers abuse our labor and loyalty? In Frank Lumpkin, we can see how these issues evolved and how one man's struggle benefited us all. This book should be taught in every course on American history and made into a movie. Morgan Freeman should play the part of Frank Lumpkin. I can't remember the last book I read where I felt this was an essential reading into my own identity as an American. Read and rejoice that people like Frank Lumpkin have fought so bravely and for so long despite horrendous odds.

This is the story of an extraordinary "common man." Sounds like a logical impossibility, doesn't it? But in Always Bring a Crowd, the story of steelworker Frank Lumpkin, you will meet such a man, a hero for our times. You will read a life story that emerges from the blast furnace of American history-the part of American history that is generally shielded from our eyes. (And speaking of shielding, if the AFL-CIO doesn't promote and mass-produce this book, it's not serious about gaining strength in American politics.) In these days of wealth and luxury for a few, we all see the decline of our cities, farms, industrial base, schools, health care system and pensions. Our mass media, our public intellectuals, our politicians wring their hands and say, Too bad, but there is no way to counter the "global" and "high-tech" forces sending the majority of us on this pell-mell descent in a handbasket bound for economic hell. Or they say, Just be patient and await the "trickle down." Or they ignore the growing numbers of poorly paid and insecure salary and wage workers and say, That's just the way things are. Yet here stands the example of Frank Lumpkin. His life story shows us how to get out of the handbasket and start building up a better society. It will take union power. No other social force has its potential influence. Lumpkin demonstrated this in the campaign he's best known for in the Chicago area-the 17-year fight that prevented a giant steel firm and its holding companies from cheating 2,700 workers in a corrupt plant shutdown scheme. That's just his longest fight, however. The book recounts the effective role he has played in every other kind of social justice struggle our country has seen, including police brutality, oppression of women, fair housing, fair employment and tenants rights, among others. The insight, charisma, patience, and motivation needed to "bring a crowd" takes creativity and genius possessed by very few. As union man Ed Sadlowski says of Lumpkin in the foreword, "Maybe, if you're lucky enough, you'll cross paths with someone like him within your own lifetime." What path is Lumpkin on? As this book shows, people like Frank Lumpkin don't just happen. Born in 1916, Lumpkin comes from a family whose upward mobility began on plantations and sharecropping land in Georgia and then in the orange groves of Florida at a time when Afro-Americans did most of the picking. Big, powerful and smart-and fortified by a family that prized work, study and standing up against racism-Frank worked in fields, chauffeured, boxed as "K.O." Lumpkin and moved to Buffalo and became a steelworker in the early 1940s. Author Bew Lumpkin uses a unique structure to tell the story. The ordinary chronology of biography is there. But also, assembled like a collage, are the voices of workers and neighbors and friends joining those of the family. Those who know of the American Communist movement only through the "Russian spies" and "dupes of aliens" and "fellow travelers" stereotypes of the J. Edgar Hoover, Joe McCarthy/Nixon/Reagan line, or from the more liberal strains of anti-communism, will get an entirely different and more complex view of that history in this book. Bea Lumpkin captures the excitement of the challenges that brought the best out in Frank and his fellow workers, spouses and neighbors as they fought in word and deed to make a steel company obey the law and the union contract. The company kept shifting corporate skins like a snake, but Frank and the young labor attorney Tom Geoghegan (GAY-gen) finally cornered it. The workers won $4 million, thanks to bankruptcy laws designed to help corporations skip out workers and their communities, but that was only about a sixth of what they were owed. (Also see Geoghegan's Which Side Are You On?) Lumpkin shows that the worker's point of view is a far broader and wiser perspective than the caricatures like Archie Bunker, Ralph Kramden and the wolf-whistling, racist and profane construction workers of our commercials and movies. A reader will enjoy imagining what achievements could be won on a national scale if the confused, disheartened and insecure working people of this country had a leader, a movement, an organization with this political effectiveness.

John Woodford

Frank Trocco's book "Analog Days" chronicles the full history of an invention that would change music as we know it today. That invention of course is the synthesizer created by Dr. Robert Moog. This book is loaded with historical information dealing with how the instruments were manufactured as well as details about the artists who were among the Moog synthesizer's first prominent users. Moog pioneers such as Walter/Wendy Carlos, Keith Emerson, Beaver and Krause, Margouleff and Cecil, Mother Mallard and countless others are mentioned in this book. This is definitely THE book to own if you're doing research on the history of electronic music or synthesizers. There is so much information, there's bound to be something new each time you read it. Not only is it a perfect research tool, it's just a plain great book to read. The person writing this review doesn't like to read very much so, for me, this is saying quite a lot.
"Analog Days" is a book that does not disappoint and it will be one that you'll want to read over and over again.

From the first moment I heard Switched-On Bach, I was hooked. I loved the sounds, the technology, the possibilities of electronic music. I even saved up and bought a Minimoog when I was thirteen; no greater love have I ever had. The early days of electronics shook many people like it did me. The synthesizer was not just a collection of dials and patch cords, but a way into a sonic universe.

Trever Pinch and Frank Trocco's new book, ANALOG DAYS, recaptures that feeling of celestial expectancy. Describing the development of the Moog synthesizer from kit-built theremins to the ubiquitous and glorious Minimoog, the book mainly concentrates on pre-polyphonic modalur synths and how the world embraced them, and then turned them into cheese-making devices a-la "Switched-On Whatever" albums.

Pinch and Trocco give us other ways to look at synths: they discuss women synthesists like Suzanne Ciani who never are mentioned in other histories even though Ms. Ciani's synthesized commercial work is probably the heard electronic music ever. Though Moog-centric, the book gives us the background of the Buchla box, a sort of sprout-and-wheat-germ rival to the Moog modulars. While Moog turned the synthesizer into a keyboard instruments, Buchla kept his machines free of established interfaces, and established musical norms.

As a sythn-freak, I couldn't put this book down, even though much the material is duplicated in Mark Vail's Vintage Synths. Vail, however, choose to be only a technical historian, while Pinch and Trocco aim for a more cultural view of the events surrounding the shifting of musical boundaries.

All your favorites are here; the unexpectedly successful Dr. Moog; the victorious but hubristic ARP company; the offhand eccentricities of EMS and their wonderful VCS3 named by Tristam Cary, son of Joyce Cary, the novelist. Don Buchla haunts the pages too, half Kesian merry-maker, half NASA sub-contractor with his silver, red and blue synths bleeping in the Haight. And good old Keith Emerson's here too, flailing his ribbon controller across the arenas of America.

I recommend this book to anyone interested in electronic music, anyone interested in why their microwave talks to them, anyone interested in the history of 1960's.

Analog Days also has a really cool cover.

Totally recommended. Apart from a little slide into sociological theory towards the end, this is a thoroughly entertaining, authoritative and enthralling look at the world of early synthesizers.
My favourite moment is the story of Bob Moog's first major sale of a modular synthesizer. He had to get it to New York City from Buffalo, and in those days, there was one sensible, cost-effective solution: he took the bus. The synthesizer seemed to survive the trip, too.

Lovely book.. If you are interested in synthesizers or the histroy of electronic music, BUY IT!!

Their are a wide variety of translations here; in both quality and fidelity to the original spanish. The fact that the poems are presented with both the original and the translation makes this book worth it. The Miller Williams and William Carlos Williams translations are wonderful, but some translations, like those by Ginsberg suffer from perhaps too much beat aesethetic co-oped into the work. Still, Parra is wonderful, full of grit and strange images; yet the Spanish, aside from a few words that are only found in Chilean Spanish, is clear and easy to read. I have even translated some of these poems myself. This is amazing work.

Theodor Adorno claimed that to write poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric. If so, then Parra is the one man who can justifiably escape the charge of barbarity. What Parra writes is nothing less than a full-scale assault on poetry, or as he calls it, "anti-poetry". Parra's work stands in violation of everything that poetry has ever been. If you are used to lyricism and poetic embellishment and will accept nothing less, you will hate this book. Either that, or it will revolutionize how you see the poetic art. Parra is for poetry what the WWF is for entertainment: it is raw, crass and, as people say, "in your face". It is also brilliant. It is not poetry, but it is, in its own unique way, poetic. And like much of the best poetry always has been, it is immersed in life. Its themes are those we all recognize: crooked police, pestering grandchildren, the morning alarm. It expresses for us what we would all like to express but do not or will not. I suppose one could call it catharsis through anti-art. And perhaps in our post-holocaust world, the most genuine art IS anti-art.

This book is truly magnificent. Parra has one of the most clever minds in poetry today. His antipoems are very attractive as they move away from the old traditional poetic style. I understand Parra will be proposed for the Literature Nobel Prize next year (2001). I couldn't agree more.

This book was excellent, a few pages were torn out when I read it in a local liobrary in Australia but I was still able to understand it. I love the Wizard of Oz and this books was absolutely thrilling it was extremely enjoyable. This book explains how the producers cast all the actors and includes information on the films and books. It is a great book.

There have been a few books that have given us all a look into the making of MGM's movie version of "The Wizard Of Oz!"? But The Jay Scarfone,John Fricke manuscript surpasses all of the other books.Because it's filled with wonderful photos and info that takes us beyound the making of the film and gives us a look into the continuing popularity of the Oz characters.Using rare photos,extensive research and interviews from the people.Who were involved with the project.Messers Scarfone And Fricke.Show us the early stages of the making of the film.From the many drafts of the script..to the problems with the changes in cast,storylines,music,mishaps with props and special effects.To the promotions of the film on radio(NBC Radio's "MaxwellHouse Coffeetime")and at stage shows to the many other interpretations of the story that appeared on tv,in the movies,on radio, in the theater and at parades and theme parks.The book even gives some more biographical info about the cast and crew and some more insight into the man.Who created this legendary tale:Mr.Lyman Frank Baum.For the fans of this classic story.Who want to know the full extent of it's geniss? This is the one book to have.Kevin S.Butler.

There are many, many books out there about the making of everyone's favorite film, "The Wizard of Oz". There aren't any I've seen that I wouldn't recommend, but if you are looking for pictures, pictures, and more pictures, this beautiful coffee table size book is a great place to start. Pictures, both in color and black and white, of every aspect of the making of the movie fill this attractive volume from cover to cover, and the text, by Oz authority John Fricke is all-encompassing. Although released for the 50th Anniversary of the film's 1939 release, it is still relevant 13 years later, and a great book for the collector or casual researcher. It has yet to be topped.

This completely revised "Writer's Handbook" boasts of updated information, which would benefit anyone who intends to write or edit any type of book. It is quite a remarkable improvement over the previous edition; and everything about it seem to advertise its authority.
Although that being a successful writer depends on a lot of factors, this book has a way of providing solid guidance for both aspiring writers and the more established ones. Its pool of resources is superb.

If you were to use only two of the best writer's resources I would say that "The Writer's Market" and this book along with it as your main tools of marketing and refining your work. Why this book? This book contains about 60 articles of advice by the most successful writers in the business. Even for a beginner this may be the only book they'll use.

It's packed with useful information. It's gives the writer techniques, inspiration and advice. Some of these techniques are discussed how to find more time to write, creating memorable characters and revising your writing. It evens tells you specific wways to market your work, designing your website and writing for niche markets. As an added plus there are over 3000 listings of markets and resources including 2000 magazines in 45 categories ranging from performing arts and religion to adult literary to juvenile. Each one with descriptions and contact information. There's 600 book publishers, plus organizations and a glossary. This is one source that will be referred to many times over. I know I have. This is one of the best writer's resource book you can get. I'm sure this is to be updated in 2003.

Larry D. Bohall, author of Martyr's Cry (ISBN 1591295327): I purchase and use both The Writer's Handbook and The Writer's Market, and find both helpful. However, I find myself coming back to The Writer's Handbook again and again because of the outstanding articles it contains. Right now, by my bedside, I have the 50th Anniversary Edition of The Writer's Handbook...I find the articles encouraging and refreshing. I recommend this book highly!

I have found this book of tremendous help in my work.

My first books on use cases focused more on UML rather than use cases. I did not give a hoot on use cases, because they look so simple on paper (and that's why I didn't buy a book specifically on use cases!) But as I grew as a developer, I began to believe that use case modelling if done well can significantly reduce development effort and bring about quality solutions. Use cases are the foundation to the understanding of the system that you are trying to develop. Use cases deserve serious attention.

The main problem with use cases is that you either don't know how to start or when to stop. This book tells you both. It tells you how to develop your use case model systematically from scratch and how to make provisions so that your use case model can grow. IMO, that's the main draw for this book.

The authors also give good insights on the possible approaches the reader can take to expand his/her use case model iteratively. It cautions the modeller to keep a balanced model so that stakeholders can understand, rather than one that specifies everything but gets bogged down by the details.

Semantics, you can get it elsewhere, but this book discusses it pretty well too. The examples are clear and relevant.

All in all, Frank and Granville did an excellent job covering the topic.

It is refreshing to a read a text that caters for those of use who already have experience in this domain and are seeking to develop their skills - without reverting to acadamia style writing. Useful examples, balanced descriptions, and an excellent coverage are all attributes of this text.

I strongly recommend this book!