Derik Burleson's brave and terrifying book about genocide in Rwanda broke my heart.As a PCV in the seventies, I knew many of the places he loved, Lake Kivu, Virunga National Park, and the touristy visit to the gorillas who seemed bored with pounding their chests. Burleson's poems remind this reader of the pain of growing to love a country, then seeing its people destroyed in a bloodbath. Worse yet, destroying one another. One tribe played off against another, thanks to the Belgians and their colonial preference for the Tutsis' aquiline features. His use of imagery seems to draw all of nature into the violence,"the pale and carniiverous orchids," the chameleon's tongue "like a bullwhip," "the thin-featured woman/who sold bright fruit door to door,"--now gone. And everywhere men "fingering their machetes" and bloated bodies in the lakes and rivers. Burleson's use of African folktale, as in the woman who can turn herself into a hyena("Nyavirezi"), is charged with premonitions of what is to come. Most powerful of all for this reader were the Remera poems, written from an African point of view, and recounting sorrow after sorrow. Burleson draws on every poem he ever read, and every moment he spent in Africa, and maybe every experience he had as a human being to write this book and help us to understand what happened, and how it happened.

Burleson's poems keep pulling me back with thier elegance, their depth of vision and their travels through human existence. I am thankful that he has the courage to write these poems.

This is a strong book of poems. It is particularly interesting to me as a linguist. Remera's poems echo the origins of language in a fascinating way. Burlesson is on to something fundamentally human with this work. These are images that CNN never brought to us.

This book should be considered a combination of art/animation history,as well as a bible for Felix fans!

Canemaker takes the reader through the amazing roller coaster ride that is the career of Felix the Cat. From the shady past of producer Pat Sullivan, to the brilliant career of Otto Messmer, this is a great read. Complete with rarely seen Felix memorabilia, this book has it all. It is just too bad that there aren't more books like Canemaker's out there for the dyed-in-the-wool fan. Pick it up!

John Canemaker has the rare gift of bringing the human side of great animation to life. He is at the top of his form in this book, which follows the story of Felix the Cat from his creation by Otto Messmer through the present day. Very highly recommended for anyone interested in Animation in any form whatsoever.

This book fills the gap between the paradigm of 'business processes/EAI' and the real system integration world. Provides a pragmatic yet general approach with plenty of examples using a commercialy available tool. In other words, it gives you the right balance between technology, methodology and business processes.
It also walks you through a comprehensive methodology that shows a level of maturity not seen in other books. It is not coincidence that the author is a pioneer in this field.
A must have if you need to 'orchestrate' business applications.

I give a 4½ plus. This book is good to have as human service providers are gradually being replaced by digital ones and many enterprises are desperately searching for some loosely-coupled-yet-organized way of "running the show". The authors seem to have a deep knowledge of technology, standards and infrastructure, yet they focus on business benefits ahead of "strong-opinions".
As the boundaries between "proprietary development" and off-the-shelf systems are disappearing, "orchestration" of a variety of components becomes even more important.

The book starts out with a high level overview of what technology allows today in terms of automating the orchestration of business services through executable business process models. It goes on to explain the architecture of the BPM tier (Hyper-Tier of IT). It actually describes a full-fledged Methodology to create Orchestrations with a real example. The methodology includes the estimate of the ROI of the projects being analyzed! After the Methodology Chapter, the authors get into substantial detail of the different components of an Orchestration Suite. Very Technical. Finally in the last chapter it all comes together from a technical perspective. It made me re-evaluate my judgement on BPM. I now know that Integration, Orchestration, Workflow need to be one and the same thing under a single process model. The book can be challenging for non-technical audiences after chapter 4. But Business People should not miss chapters 1 through 3.

Crossing The Sauer: A Memoir Of World War II is Charles Reis Felix's staunchly honest and unflinchingly vivid memoir of what it was like to serve in Patton's Army and advancing through the German battlefields of World War II. As memorable, emotional, and brutal as the bloodshed and battles of World War II itself, Crossing The Sauer is a compelling personal testimony and a highly recommended addition to Military History supplemental reading lists and academic reference collections.

I've been reading WWII memoirs for thirty years. In that time I feel I've "seen" it all. Rarely, however, do I come across a book like "Crossing the Sauer," a book that I can't put down until I've read every page. Somewhat short (189 pp.) but chock full of honesty and realism, Felix's story oozes with gut wrenching confession. Too often things get glossed over and former soldiers leave out the juicy details. Mr. Felix, however, has brought his doubts, reluctance and horror at finding himself (trained in the artillery) attached to an infantry unit at the front to the reader's consciousness. It doesn't get any better than this.

Smooth, free-flowing prose and an eye for detail kept me riveted. I got some great laughs out of Felix's re-telling of some of his buddies' adventures, especially the sexual ones. We know those things went on but, until recently, the WWII generation has been reluctant to let the public in on their not-so-delicate tales of prostitutes and willing females. We want the whole story, not just the horror of war stuff.

I was a bit frustrated at not knowing the dates and, more importantly, which unit Mr. Felix served with but these are minor complaints. It would seem that he was with the 5th Infantry Division but one reference mentions the 28th Division, not part of Patton's Third Army, to my knowledge. Maybe he kept these things confidential to protect the participants. The officers, especially, come off looking pretty bad. As a former Marine I was appalled at how they treated the enlisted men. Marine officers and NCOs take care of their men first.

Evidently that wasn't the case in the WWII Army, especially the front line infantry units, full of replacements/draftees and lots of men who really didn't want to be there in the mud, blood and snow. Barely speaking to the lowly privates at best and sacrificing them for their own glory at worst, the higher ranks had no qualms about eating a fresh, hot meal of roasted chicken and baked potatoes under the nose of poor Felix who, while manning the radio, frequently went days without food. Spending up to fifty-two hours on duty without a break, Felix and his fellow "peasants" were at the mercy of the Army's "upper class," condescending, abusive, vainglorious and impervious to the plight of their underlings.

If you want to know what it was like to be drafted into an infantry unit during the war, pick up a copy of "Crossing the Sauer." I think, like me, you'll appreciate the author's honesty, insight and very literate tale.

This book pulls the reader in with its seemingly simple, lean style. Putting the book down was like stepping back from a great pencil drawing and feeling all the lean gestural lines come together into a wonderfully textured whole. Felix's clipped prose and pastiche of stories lays down a sense of unadorned reality and humanity. A moving book.

Felix Smith is a gifted writer, who is able to describe a scene or an incident with carefully selected, compact, beautiful prose. There are plenty of flying stories for the aviation enthusiast in this book, but the writing is never too technical to confuse the uninitiated. His story of China in turmoil, and a shoestring airline staffed with unusual characters, is compelling indeed, and is thoroughly recommended.

My one criticism is the lack of historical thread of the airline after its ejection from China. The book breaks down to a series of interesting anecdotes, but the background on how CAT evolved, how it acquired jets, how Smith himself transitioned to sophisticated jet transports, is missing. I found many of the later anecdotes, though well written and compelling, oddly out of context, and wondered how they fitted into the big picture. This wasn't helped by Smith's technique of sometimes mentioning a character, and only introducing him in later pages, which has you thumbing back through the book seeing if perhaps you'd missed a passage.

But these are small criticisms indeed, and the book is a very enjoyable read of a turbulent and, frankly, romantic era of aviation.

Claire Chennault's legend just keeps on growing. Here is a feast for readers who can't get enough of the man who led the Flying Tigers, the 14th Air Force, and the cargo line that became Air America.

Felix Smith isn't a historian. He's a pilot--a good one, since he survived 23 years with Civil Air Transport, organized to carry relief supplies around postwar China, only to become a paramilitary arm of Chiang Kai-shek's campaign against communism.

To our great good fortune, Smith also turns out to be a gifted reporter. Better than anyone else, he evokes the sights, smells, and sounds of China in 1945, along with an economy so weak that U.S. dollars were precious enough to be washed and ironed after use, and a government so depraved that it's a wonder it lasted until 1949.

China Pilot is a a wonderful book. It belongs on the shelf of every admirer of Chennault and his unorthodox air forces.

Having spent an appreciable amount of time in Asia myself, and being an admirer of the exploits of the famed Flying Tigers (AVG), I ordered four books at one time. I saved this book for last, since Mr. Smith was not an original member of the Flying Tigers. After reading, and enjoying the others, I began Mr. Smith's CHINA PILOT. I don't know what I thought I would get out of this book, but I loved it! Felix Smith was obviously one of the very best pilots working in an Asia in turmoil at that time. His narration of the many adventures he was involved in draw the reader right into the cockpit with him. I could SEE Earthquake Magoon! I could SMELL the warm night air through the open cockpit window while flying over some jungle in Vietnam or Laos. I wholeheartedly recommend this fine book to those interested in the Far East and the many roles the AVG-CAT-Air America played during those decades of turbulence. Mr. Smith, if you happen to read this: excellent job! Both on the book, and particularly your interesting life.

Mike McCaffrey
Department of State/Foreign Service - Retired

Daughter Anna (now 19 years old) loved this book. It was her favorite above all others. As we sorted through some old kid things for give-away purposes, we stumbled upon this old, well worn copy of "The Velveteen Rabbit." She insisted we keep the book for HER children.

This was her book that Mama (me!) had to read to her again and again and again. As soon as the last word was read on the last page, it was "Mama, please read it again!"

(how I miss those days, by the way!)

The book also has a powerful message about Love that children understand and cherish.

This is a wonderful book. No child should be without their own copy of "The Velveteen Rabbit."

I make sure I use this book with each class I teach--3rd and4th graders. They always get it--that love makes us real, too. Theymake the connection between the Skin Horse becoming shabby and people getting old. I always bring in my stuffed velveteen rabbit I bought years ago and it starts making the rounds and popping up on different children's laps. It is a pleasure to see them become attached to the rabbit instead of "mechanical toys that were very superior, and looked down upon everyone else." They also relate to the lessons the Velveteen Rabbit learns from the Skin Horse about how becoming real is a painful process sometimes and can take a long time.

It's a sweet story of a 'simple' stuffed rabbit amidst the more 'complex' modern toys in a boy's "toy collection". The rabbit starts to believe that in order to get the love of the boy, he needs to appear 'real', or be able to zoom about like the motorized toys...
(And I'm not going to tell you the end hahahahaha!!!)
It was great having that read to me, while I was hugging my stuffed animals in bed.
But -- in a way, at first glance it looks like a simple story, but it is actually a surprisingly complex story. Leave it on your child's bookshelf as he/she grows up and he/she will reread it again and again as he/she questions issues such as "who am I?", "what does it mean to be 'real'"?, "what is my role in this world?", and even "what is death"?

This is a great book for those interested in exploring the many and varied aspects and ramifications of Schenkerian theory. I first bought this book in its hardback-two-separate-volume edition in 1972 or 1973, when, as an undergraduate music student, I was looking for answers to how music "works." This was while studying at a university where the music theory department had been commandeered by a couple of "avant-gardiste" professors who, after eliminating all traditional harmony classes,further insisted that all students should compose, regardless of interest or ability, and that atonality, interminable dissonance, and "originality" for its own sake be the ideals which one should be forced to uphold. It was in this environment that I began my search for musical understanding, and started researching the theoretical, harmonic, contrapuntal, and formal aspects of music that were so sorely neglected in my university education. It was at this time that I became aware of the book "Structural Hearing." In fact, one friend of mine told me, that this was the best book on theory that he had ever read.
There are three things I would recommend to anyone interested in studying this book:
1. First, understand the basics of 4-part harmony, and become proficient at reading figured bass notation. This will help you understand the sections of the book that deal with what the author refers to as "chord grammar."
2. Second, get a copy of "The Study of Counterpoint," by J. J. Fux. This is the Norton edition of the translation of the famous "Gradus ad Parnassum." Work through the exercises in this book. In addition to being a lot of fun, these exercises will teach you a ton about the origins of harmony, voice leading, etc., and will provide some amazing practical solutions to problems you may encounter later, in composing original music, and/or arranging. I have always been happy for the work I did in this book. Trust me, you won't regret it!
3. Go to the nearest print shop that does book binding. They can split your book into two volumes, laminate the covers of them, and spiral bind each section. This will allow you to have the text and the examples side by side, and, as they are spiral bound, will allow you to lay them out flat. I do this with almost all of the scores, or music books with which I work. I recommend this to the reviewer above who expressed regret that the book was bound as a single volume, as well as all others who study this book.
I am delighted to get this book in the paperback edition, and I hope my recommendations are helpful.

Let me very briefly say that this book is not merely an elementary edition of Schenkerian theory; it is much more, and if you are especially working on your own, the examples, the perfect narrative (Like a friend talking to you, pointing at the music to illustrate his point. Really! It's only that you can't talk back to him.), the exercises, and the overall approach will help you greatly in solving many problems pertaining to tonal structure... (This is obviously an old book, and much of its methods are embraced by more recent works such as Kraft's GRADUS, but even so, get this book as a companion and guide to the others.)

one complaint: the binding lowers the production cost maybe, but it's such an inconvenience to turn the pages back and forth to 'look' at the music, and even more laborsome to place it on the piano. Please issue this in two pieces, I'll be willing to pay...extra [money]. Other humble recommendations with this book: Kraft's GRADUS, Westergaard's 'Introduction to Tonal Theory', Thakar's 'Counterpoint', and obviously the Schachter books.

This comment has more to do with the format of the Dover reprint than it does with the actual text. In the older edition of "Structural Hearing" the text was in volume one and the examples were in volume two. This allowed the reader to have the examples in front of them to refer to while they read the text. The Dover reprint is essentially both volumes bound into one book. This causes the book to be very cumbersome, although it probably significantly lowers the production cost. When I read "Structural Hearing" I finally had to check out volume two from the university library. I sincerely hope that the new Longman edition of "Der Frei Satz" maintains the original format.

Socialist correspondent Felix Morrow writes a powerful account of the revolutionary uprising of Spain's workers and farmers in the 1930's and the heroic battles they waged to defend the rights and organisations won through struggle.

The counter revolution began in Spanish Morocco under the command of fascist General Franco, aided and abetted by Hitler and Mussolini while the liberal democracies from the United Sates to Britain and France, sitting under the shade of "neutrality" looked the other way secretly hoping for the Generals success.

For revolutionary fighters who thought the Soviet Union's bumbling help to the Spanish toilers was due to a series of bad misjudgements came to the realisation they were in fact coming up against counter revolutionary Stalinism.

Despite the impediments posed by social democracy and Stalinism, the Spanish workers had an ability to learn the lessons of previous events at great speed and combined with their almost unlimited capacity for struggle, were able to overcome what stood in their path.

However, they were let down not by the usual suspects but by the organisation that seemed to be the most free of the Stalinist and social democratic straightjacket - the POUM.

Morrow takes the reader through the earth shattering events that unfolded in Spain at the time and takes up central challengers facing that countries working people in the battle for state power.

Morrow's book concludes with a chapter entitled "Two Roads," to revolution or to counterrevolution, to workers power or to Franco. It was not only the abstract need for socialism, that Morrow explains the Spanish revolution could have won only by going to workers power. The disastrous policies of the Stalinists, the social democrats, and the anarchist labor bureaucrats subordinated the struggle to the dictates of big business in Spain and imperialism abroad, the same forces that welcomed Franco.
Morrow is very good at explaining how this policy prevented the workers, peasants, and oppressed peoples in Spain from solving the many national and democratic tasks, supposedly solved in the US in 1776 and in France in 1789: land to the tiller, freedom from feudal rights and powers of nobility and church, national independence for the colonies in Africa, linguistic freedom and national rights up to self-determination for Catalonia and the Basque Country, to name a few. Fighting for these things was the natural reaction of popular masses in Spain as soon as Franco tried to overturn the republic. Sadly, Morrow shows how the Republican government lost because it turned its back not only on these rights, not only on socialism, but even the basic democratic right of workers and peasants to organize political parties, unions, workers councils, to publish and speak freely.
Morrow is not all depression and criticism. He saw with his own eyes the natural response of the working peoples in Spain to fight beyond the limitations of class collaboration. He saw how that power nearly defeated Franco and how it could have defeated Franco especially if the Republic had joined with the struggle of the colonial masses and oppressed nationalities to gain freedom Read Morrow and learn how the coming struggles will be victories and not defeats.

Morrow was a great editor, a great journalist, a man who captured the spirit and realities of the Spanish civil war, not as an uncritical supporter of the Republicans, but as a revolutionary critique familiar with the lessons Leon Trotsky tried to give about the Russian Revolution, familiar with the betrayal of the class collaborationist leaders of the Communist and Socialist parties in Spain.
In this book we see in the flesh what we may here about in other writer's analysis of this civil war. I was always struck by how he shows the imporance of the struggle for land and support to the small farmers, not by analysis but by describing the debates he heard on this subject between Spanish peasants and Franco's troops.
The rise of Le Pen and France and the attempts of the same social democrats and stalinists to get workers in that country to subordinate the struggle to supporting Chirac is an errie echo of the same policies that Morrow shows led to the defeat in Spain.

There was a pronounced sense amongst many British, let alone Germans that the Versailles treaty was overly vindictive and would only serve to sow the seeds of the next great conflict. At the end of 1919 J M Keynes published 'The economic consequences of the peace' . He took great pains to point out the folly of the French position at the conference, namely to be as extreme as possible, cognisant of the fact that their claims would be moderated and noted that in several cases where the British and US delegations had no specific interest, provisions were passed 'on the nod' which even the French would not have subscribed to. Keynes was damning about both Clemenceau and Wilson and pointed out that almost everything had been done which 'might impoverish Germany now or obstruct her development in future' and that to demand such colossal reparations without any real notion of whether Germany had the means to pay was foolhardy in the extreme. Keynes book provided a fulcrum for British doubt about the treaty and an avenue for British sympathy with the fledgling German Republic. Keynes made treaty revision a thing of morality and enlightened self interest to avoid 'sowing the decay of the whole of civilised life of Europe'.

The Economic Consequences of the Peace was written in 1920 by Keynes, who was not already recognized as the most influential economist of the 20th century, a condition he would only attain when he wrote his famous General Theory some years later, and can be interpreted as a personal outburst against the heads of state of the four countries who participated in the Group of Four (France, Italy, UK and the USA) and decided the fate not only of the defeated countries (Germany and Austria) but also of the whole world, in a way that Keynes was adamantly against and which led to his resignation of his capacity of an important negotiator in the British delegation. One has also to remember that Keynes had always been against the war and lost some important friends in the conflict.

The portrait he gives of the different negotiating abilities of French's Clemenceau, United States' president Wilson and British Prime Minister Lloyd George is a devastating picture of the different motives each one of them had at the time: the aim of Clemenceau was to exact revenge to French's traditional enemy and to debilitate Germany as much as possible, thus postponing her return to prosperity and to menace again France. WIlson's, portrayed as a good man but lacking any negotiating feature a man of his stature should have, was a frail man only to save his face in the moral stances he took in his preliminary 14 points Armistice proposal, which led to the initial surrender of the Germans to the Allied forces. The British Lloyd George was only worried about upcoming elections in his country and was playing all the cards (good or bad) he had to save himself from an humiliating defeat to the Liberals.

The outcome of it all was a Peace Treaty who despised each and every point of reality, representing a burden Germany would not be able to pay, thus leading to the dismantling of an economic European system that led famine, social disturbance and finally to the World War II.

The book is a best-seller ever since and very easy to read and should be also recommended to every one interested in the power broker skills one has to have to succeed (Clemenceau) or fail (Wilson) in negotiation as hard as this one.

Great British economist John Maynard Keynes second book recounts his assessment of the economic consequences of the Treaty of Versailles, where he was a member of British delegation as an economic expert.
Keynes starts with providing a dazzling psychological analysis on how the treaty came to be.
"When President Wilson left Washinghton he enjoyed a prestige and a moral influence throughout the world unequalled in history ... Never had a philosopher help such weapons wherewith to bind the princes of this world. How the crowds of the European capitals presses about the carriage of the President! With what curiosity, anxiety, and hope we sought a glimpse of the features and bearing of the man of destiny who, coming from the West, was to bring healing to the wounds of the ancient parent of this civilization and lay for us the foundations and the future"
Alas, this was not to be. American idealism, French quest for security and British distaste for alliances and hypocrisy created an unworkable solution. Soul of the treaty was sacrificed to placate domestic political process, and as the result put Germany in the position of defiance and economic insolvency; the position which at the bottom drew sympathy from the former Allies and as the result contributed to brutality of the second conflict.
Keynes draws a picture of pan-European economy which was destroyed by the treaty and rightfully predicted that not only Germany will not be able to pay, but will be obligated to pursue the expansionist policy at the expense of her weak Eastern neighbors. Treaty did not contain any positive economic programme for rehabilitation of the economic life of Central powers and Russia. One just could not disrupt the economic position of the greatest European land power, at the same time strengthening it geo-politically and suffer no horrible retribution. ""The Peace Treaty of Versailles: This is not Peace. It is an Armistice
for twenty years." - said Foch about such a agreement.

When the mysterious Felix Clousseau enters a portrait of a duck n the Grand Contest of Art, the judges and other artists are appalled. But then the painting QUACKS and suddenly Clousseau is a genius. Everyone wants one of his incredible paintings, but just as quickly everyone discovers that having a painting that comes to life might not be a good idea, especially if it is a volcano, a boa constrictor or a waterfall. Jon Agee's "The Incredible Painting of Felix Clousseau" is a sly and clever joke told and drawn in great big strokes. This is one of those books that you read, get to the last page, and smile as soon as you see the punchline for the joke. Then you pass it on to someone else to enjoy. It is sort of like those jokes you get in e-mail that one friend sends to all of their friends; the difference is, this one is actually funny!

When the Royal Palace hosts an art contest, all the great artists come out to submit their paintings, like Gaston du Stroganoff with his painting, "The King on his Throne". However, an unknown artist named Felix Closseau also enters the contest. Except where everyone else's paintings are huge and feature the king, Felix's painting is small, and is of a duck.

Considering how seriously the French take their art, you can imagine the uproar at this ridiculous painting. That is, until the duck QUACKS. Then, the duck merrily waddles OUT of the picture itself, and off on it's way. Felix wins first prize.

At first, everyone wants to own a Closseau, until disaster strikes wherever his works are hung. A painting called "The Sleeping Python" is held in high regard, until the Python wakes up one night!! Volcanoes fill rooms with smoke, waterfalls gush gallons onto the floor, Closseau himself is put into jail! That is, until one night when a thief breaks into the royal palace to steal the crown...

Jon Agee has written or illustrated over a dozen books, including books playing with language-books of oxymorons and palindromes, most noticeably. However, "The Incredible Painting..." ranks as one of my personal favorites because of it's original story and fun ending. It's story is fun, quick moving and easy to read (though beginning readers may have difficulty decoding some of the French-ish names). Closseau himself is quite a character, too: a short stooped man with beret and enormous graybeard that successfully hides his face (and most of the rest of him!). Very young children will love the fun absurdity of things coming out of the pictures, while older children will appreciate the havoc that a living painting can wreck! Fun and highly recommended!

My kids loved it; highly recommended! It's so nice to find an intelligent children's book that amuses adults.