Book reviews for "Gitchoff,_George_Thomas" sorted by average review score:
Simon Says: The Sights and Sounds of the Swing Era, 1935-1955
Published in Hardcover by A & W Promotional (1971)
Amazon base price: $7.98
Used price: $2.07
Used price: $2.07
Average review score: 
Makes the swing era really live!
The Tao of Bioenergetics: East-West
Published in Paperback by YMAA Publications (1993)
Amazon base price: $16.95
Used price: $6.49
Collectible price: $12.71
Buy one from zShops for: $11.78
Used price: $6.49
Collectible price: $12.71
Buy one from zShops for: $11.78
Average review score:
The Tao of What?????If you are new to the world of taoism then this book is NOT for you. It provides a fasinating insight into the Western and Eastern paradigms. Very revealing and exhausable; nearly every aspect is covered in comendable detail. But, and this is a big but, it is very complex and leaves you on more than one occassion feeling a little out of your depth. There are no exercises detailed to practise (that is not the point of the book) but lots of interesting parallels are drawn between the two schools of thought. If you are interested in the science of chi gong and/or what to write a paper for your University/college that will quite literally blow your teacher's mind then this is the book for you. I personally loved it, but I am not sure if it is to the general public's taste. However as you are reading this, then 'The Tao of bioenergetics' IS probarly for you - just don't be surprised if you end up reading each page at least twice! A brillant investment for the future!!
Thomas Alva Edison: Young Inventor
Published in School & Library Binding by Troll Communications (1997)
Amazon base price: $17.25
Used price: $5.00
Used price: $5.00
Average review score:
The best Edison story book for kidsI looked for the best Edison story book for a kid who is attending ESL (English as the second language) class to learn his third language (Chinese, French and English). I found too many books on Edison. I didn't find any good one until I saw this book. After I read it over in bookstore, I bought it. I like it and the kid likes it. Now I will ask Edison Museum if it has this book. If not, I will buy one and donate it for the museum. It is the best Edison story book for all kids.
To Climb a Waterfall
Published in School & Library Binding by Philomel Books (1995)
Amazon base price: $16.95
Used price: $11.80
Collectible price: $37.06
Buy one from zShops for: $32.94
Used price: $11.80
Collectible price: $37.06
Buy one from zShops for: $32.94
Average review score:
Forever my favorite...This is more a beautiful poem than a story book. With it's short and sweet wording you feel like you can hear the sounds, feel the breeze, and smell the scents surrounding the waterfall as if you are there. And with the beautiful full page illustrations, you are there! What serenity! I highly recommend this book and not only for children.
World Encyclopedia of Cities: North America
Published in Hardcover by ABC-CLIO (1994)
Amazon base price: $165.00
Used price: $80.00
Used price: $80.00
Average review score:
World Encyclopedia of Cities : North America (United StatesThis book is great. It is filled with all the information you could possibly want in a city. From Location, history, to demography. I highly recommend it for several reasons. It could be of great help for a research paper, as it was for me, or if you plan on moving to a new city, you can research it quite a bit.
Youth Baseball: A Complete Handbook
Published in Paperback by Cooper Publishing Group (01 October, 1993)
Amazon base price: $30.00
Used price: $23.00
Used price: $23.00
Average review score:
A Guide From Beginning To End: The Involved Parent's BibleSo you didn't play much baseball as a kid. Or, maybe you played so much baseball that you know too much to work with your inexperienced kids without loosing your patience.
This handbook has it all. How do you get a 4 year old to throw a ball effectively? Not an easy task for someone with a short attention span an no idea what you are talking about. Swing a bat level? Why bother when you can hack at the ball like a woodsman? Tips, techniques, and pictures either teach a parent what is important, or remind him or her what they have known for so long they have forgetten to pass it along.
These are just a couple of examples of the problems I faced in teaching baseball to my kids and areas the handbook was helpful. From catching, throwing and hitting for the youngest of players, all the way through to strategy, baserunning and conditioning for older players. This book will help you get them started on the right track and help them help themselves when they are old enough to read on their own.
Talk yourself into coaching your kid's team so you can be sure they get quality instruction - only to find that the parents are the ones who drive you to give it up? This handbook can help you lay the groundwork up front that will turn your parents into assets.
I could go on and on. This book may not have everything you will ever need, but it does have something useful about everything. A great read and a great resource.
Washington, the indispensable man
Published in Unknown Binding by New American Library ()
Amazon base price: $
Used price: $1.25
Used price: $1.25
Average review score: 
Hodge PodgeI found this biography very disjointed and empty. Flexner flies past Washington's youth, right into his life as general and president. While that was indeed much of his life, it was hardly all of it. Flexner also seemed like he has an axe to grin against John Adams. In what few references made about Adams, all but one was negative. In another instance, Flexner deviates for 5 or 6 pages on the dispute between Jefferson and Hamilton regarding fiscal policy. To take that many pages out of a 400 page biography is ridiculous, and it didn't make any change to the story of Washington. To top it all off, the chapters are not chronological, but jump here and there, in a general order of age. At least twice, I found myself reading text which had been covered not 20 pages earlier in a different manner, thus wasting more of the precious pages of the condensed biography. There are unforgivable factual errors, too. In one instance, an event which occurs on Washington's 65th birthday, yet the year is pegged as 1795 (Washington was born in '32)! All in all, I found the book generally helpful regarding Washington's outlook and demeanor, but it was the most painful biography I've had to read. Just mish-mashed. I hope to find a better bio of Washington...one certainly exists.
This book changed my life-reallySeveral years ago, I spent Thanksgiving with the parents of a friend of mine and started reading this book based on their reccomendation. Well, this book so inspired me, I've continued with biographies of most of our Founding Fathers(including Flexner's "Young Hamilton") as well as the other Presidents and into the Civil War. James Thomas Flexner brings to life a man whom I only knew as the first President, the guy on the dollar bill, and yes, the one who chopped down the cherry tree. My perspective on American history and the man responsible for such a great piece of our history was completely changed by this book. It reads like a novel, though I admit was a bit rough getting started. Once in, however, I was hooked. This biography takes you through Washington's early years as a child, his courtship struggles and life as a surveyor: then, we travel with our hero through the Revolutionary War, the precarious aftermath and his tenure as the first President of the newly founded nation. Flexner shows us that much of this was, for Washington, a struggle indeed, and he seems very much the reluctant hero, whose journey is destined for greatness in spite of himself and the enormous odds against him. It is an epic journey masterfully navigated by Flexner. This biography is worthy of it's subject. If you are an American, read it.
Every American should read this book......and if you do, you'll be forever grateful you did. Flexner is a wonderful writer. George Washington is a subject more than worthy of his talents. Flexner takes this man, someone reduced through the years to a stiff plaster saint, and shows the real human being. Amazingly, the portrait reveals someone entirely worthy of all the adulation his contemporaries heaped upon him. Washington had faults, including enormous pride, a terrible temper, a great yen for money. He became, worst of all to modern eyes, a slave owner. Yet despite all these things, Flexner's distillation of his four volume life shows that, in the creation of these United States, Washington truly was indespensable. Though America's list of so-called Founding Fathers is legion, filled with people of extraordinary talents, the American Revolution succeeded largely because of Washington. He managed, first, to keep an army in the field despite loss after loss and the essential apathy of the Continental Congress. At the close of the war, he single-handedly kept the army from taking over the civilian government, thereby sustaining the freedom and democracy in whose name the war had been fought. Because Washington lent his prestige, support, and presence to the constitutional convention, men of substance attended and managed in the face of great controversy to craft the amazingly flexible and inclusive document which is the basis of our nation. Because everyone knew Washtington must be the first president, the Constitution that resulted did not have a weakened executive branch, which would certainly have proven unworkable. The men who wrote the Constitution held deep antipathy for a strong executive--a king, in other words. But such was their trust in Washington--the only US President ever elected unanimously--that the executive branch was made an equal partner to the legislative. Washington was fully aware that, as the first President, his every act and gesture set precedents for the future; what is astonishing is that he felt unworthy for the task and humbled by the honor. What is astonishing in Flexner's book is how the author lets his readers inside the mind of the times so that we understand the politics and emotions and lofty ideals of that now-remote time, and can see and appreciate a great man in terms that still speak eloquently today.
Far from the Madding Crowd
Published in Paperback by Cambridge Univ Pr (Trd) (1997)
Amazon base price: $11.95
Used price: $4.24
Buy one from zShops for: $8.89
Used price: $4.24
Buy one from zShops for: $8.89
Average review score:
A story of patienceThough I have never read Thomas Hardy before, I shall again very soon. I greatly enjoyed Far From the Madding Crowd. I kept associating Bathsheba, the heroine, with Scarlett O'Hara. They are both women from the past who are struggling for a place where only men typically tread. Unlike Scarlett, Bathsheba's emotions are more restrained. She's so young, but matures through the book. The reader yearns for the day she finally matures to the point that realizes she needs a partner in life, and her perfect partner is Gabriel Oak, her steadfast mate of fate.
I definitely recommend this book for one of those cold rainy weekends curled up on the couch.
I am looking forward to diving into my next Thomas Hardy novel, Jude the Obscure.
A Fun Hardy Read? It ExistsI've always condidered myself to be sort of an optimist; so it is really odd that I've always really loved Thomas Hardy's books. I count Tess of the D'Urbervilles and Jude the Obscure among my very favorites, and whether or not it is my favorite, I think that The Mayor of Casterbridge is marvelously written. Still though, reading all of that fatalism and cynicism can be a little much. It was really nice to pick up this novel and not read so many grim scenes.
Far From the Madding Crowd is a pretty simple love story driven by the characters. First, there is Bathsheba Everdeen. She's vain, naive, and she makes the stupidest decisions possible. Yet, you still like her. Then there are the three guys who all want her: Troy who's like the bad guy straight out of a Raphael Sabatini novel, Boldwood who's an old lunatic farmer, and Gabriel Oak who is a simple farmer and is basically perfect. The reader sees what should happen in the first chapter, and it takes Bathsheeba the whole book to see it. The characters really make the book. The reader really has strong feelings about them, and Hardy puts them in situations where you just don't know what they're going to do. The atmosphere that Hardy creates is (as is in all of Hardy's novel) amazing and totally original. I don't think any other author (except Wallace Stegner in America) has ever evoked a sense of place as well as Hardy does. Overall, Far from the Madding Crowd is a great novel. I probably don't like it quite as well as some of his others, but I still do think it deserved five stars.
Slow but rewardingThis book was a required read for Academic Decathalon but I was handed the cliff notes and told to study them if I didn't have time to read the book. I dislike cliff notes unless I have already read a book and I need to review so I chose to listen to it on tape. I was thoroughly surprised to find myself laughing at the overly-honest Gabriel Oak proposing marriage to Bathsheba Everdene, I had been informed that this book was something of a rural comedy but I had not expected such preposterous situations and ironies. The novel centers around Bathsheba though I would not label her the heroine because the reader is often frustrated by her behavior and even annoyed by it. She is quite poor but a smart girl and a particularly beautiful one as well. Gabriel meets her and soon decides he must marry this young woman. She declines deciding that she can't love him and soon moves away. Gabriel loses his farm in an unfortunate event and through circumstance comes to be in the same part of Wessex as Bathsheba. She has inherited her uncle's farm and is now running it herself and she is in need of a sheperd and sheperding happens to be Gabriels forte so he is hired. Farmer Boldwood who runs the neighboring farm becomes smitten with Bathsheba too when he recieves a prank valentine saying "marry me" on the seal(this valentine was sent by Bathsheba and her maid/companion). He soon asks for Bathsheba's hand and Bathsheba who feels guilty for causing this man's desire says she will answer him upon his return in two months time. The union with Boldwood is not to be since Bathsheba falls deeply in love with Frank Troy and soon marries him. An ex-girlfriend of Troy's shows up but dies shortly after giving birth, Troy is heartbroken and tells Bathsheba that he loved Fanny more and still does. Troy leaves and soon is assumed dead but is truly only missing. Boldwood moves in one Bathsheba again but in a set of bizarre events Troy returns to take Bathsheba from Boldwood once more. Boldwood is infuriated and turmoil ensues. This is an escapist novel in these times and is well worth reading. Weatherbury and Casterbridge will charm you and allow you to experience the little oddities of Victorian Era rural life in the pleasantest way imaginable.
Playing for the Ashes
Published in Hardcover by Bantam Doubleday Dell Pub (Trd) (1994)
Amazon base price: $21.95
Used price: $0.25
Collectible price: $2.64
Buy one from zShops for: $1.75
Used price: $0.25
Collectible price: $2.64
Buy one from zShops for: $1.75
Average review score:
Terrific Plot But The Characters Could Have Been BetterNo one plots as well as Elizabeth George and her books are worth every penny for that alone. With the execption of Barbara Havers, though, I just don't like her characters and find them more than a little unbelievable. (I can usually overlook this, however, because the basic story is so darn good.) With this book, however, Ms. George veers into the wierd and the absurd. Olivia was so very disgusting that I could barely finish the book despite the engaging plot. George did do a fabulous job of intertwining the two stories but Olivia was just too much of a freak to feel any empathy for her or for her plight. Frankly, I wished she'd just drop dead. Olivia, that is. I'm probably one of the least prudish persons in the world, but there are things I prefer not to read about in an otherwise first-rate mystery. The softening of Olivia would have done a lot to improve this book and render it a true classic. I wish Ms. George would leave the sexually explicit themes to others, but I'll keep reading--her plots are simply the best.
Great Like All the Books in This SeriesI am very glad that I found Elizabeth George. I really love her books. Lynley and Havers are such a great team. They are so opposite that they complement each other. Ms. George is the best author of the psychological thriller that I've found. This book is about relationships as much as murder. The characters are as diverse as you'll find in any book, and the way Ms. George develops her characters is remarkable. The book is long, but it doesn't seem that way when you're into it. She takes the time to develop her characters and these are the most important part of her stories. The plot is there, but the characters are the highlight. This book shows what an obsessive relationship can cause, and how it affects more than just the two people involved. Olivia is a dream - I absolutely loved her in this story and I wept along with her.
The best Elizabeth George mystery.I love this author's mysteries. This is the first one I read, which made me go to the store and buy all her other books. I find this was the best one. The plotting is flawless and the characters are completely intriguing. I found that in this book she had many levels to the story, many nuances - and that was not necessarily so in her other mysteries (not to say the others aren't excellent). It's just that even after reading all her other works, this one stands out in my mind as the very best & I remember the plot more clearly than her others. By the way Barbara Havers is one of my all-time female characters. I find her to be extremely likeable and realistic. Go Barbara - go Ms. George!
Sailing Alone Around the World
Published in Library Binding by Regatta Press Limited (10 December, 1999)
Amazon base price: $64.95
Average review score:
a must read for nautical enthusiastsI've been on somewhat of an adventure mode lately with all the Shackleton books, modern sailing travels and rescues, Everest, etc...., but this one is worth reading because Slocum was one of the "original" adventurers. He took a very small boat and made it seaworthy -- it's interesting to note that he felt so comfortable on the boat that he never shows fear, not even as he rounds the Horn or passes through major storms. He downplays his skill, but with little more than dead reckoning, he manages to find little islands in the middle of the Pacific and never fears getting lost. After his first wife died, he didn't feel happy on land, so he set off to sail around the globe which takes him 3 years. Particularly interesting are all the ports of call and how he is treated in each one. In the late 19th century, there was great interest in his trip and usually he was greated with fanfare. In this well-written and adventure filled travelogue, he recounts his travels and the details of his trip around the world with many interesting stops along the way. A great read.
The book to read when you can't afford to go anywhereI first read Slocum's account ... while riding ... on a ferryboat. My experience with boating is basically limited to... that ferry ride,... I certainly cannot review "Alone" on any sort of technical level. I just know that it's the ideal escape fantasy. Here Slocum travels the world on his own terms, emphasizing all the pleasures of reading on an empty sea by day, while making the difficult parts (the storms, the pirates) seem like amusing diversions.
The leaden 19th century prose is probably the biggest obstacle to enjoying the book. A narrative of the same journey written today would be far more action-oriented. However, the reader can fill in the parts that Slocum makes seem harmless -- the illnesses, the fear of sudden death, the near madness after 70 days alone on the Pacific -- for a truer taste of just how harrowing the voyage must really have been. And then there's always the pleasure of dining with island governors, and the hobnobbing with celebrity (Mrs. Robert Louis Stevenson has a large role), and unintentional amusement as Slocum describes, and bypasses, the island where a recent series of "Survivor" was filmed.
When the nautical urge strikes me, this is the book I read.
A wonderful little bookQuite simply, a perfect recounting of one man's sailing journey around the world in a time when you could do that sort of thing without a corporate sponsor. Men like Joshua Slocum -- who can perform great feats of daring and courage with complete humility -- don't exist anymore. No writer, Slocum's simple, straight-forward prose is a relief to anyone looking for a break from self-important fiction, wordy biographies and over-complicated takes on our over-complicated world.
Search Authors.BooksUnderReview.com
Reviews are from readers at Amazon.com. To add a review, follow the Amazon buy link above.
That alone is worth the price, but you also get an added bonus. George wrote to many of the musicians for responses to the articles (in 1970, so in some cases it's over 30 years since the article was written). There are many fascinating responses and extra notes from George himself as to what the article meant, what happened to the musician, who married whom, or when George got it wrong.
Nearly 500 pages oozing with the Swing Era. Find it and enjoy.