Gorgeous coffee table book, which is actually great reading, too! Sumptuous photographs will inspire you to add a touch of Safari Chic to your own home! Exquisitely well done book...I hope there will be sequels!....

Libraries with strong sections on ethnic or modern architecture will want to include Bibi Jordan's Safari Chic as a unique presentation of over a hundred photos of exotic exteriors and interiors. African bush style goes modern in homes which profile decorating choices achieved through ethnic crafts and fabrics. The color photos are lavish and display many options and styles.

Bibi Jordan has managed to capture the true spirit of adventure in her new book Safari Chic. Not only do the wild exteriors and the mannered interiors inspire one to redecorate their physical surroundings but they resonate with the kindling spirit of rejuvenation and imagination. This is a traveler's delight as well. More books Bibi, more!

Louis Jordan's consumate professionalism, and the clean life he lead wouldn't make him seem to be the ideal topic of an autobiography (on the surface)... Nevertheless, between his wit, his horn and his passionate desire not to be upstaged by ANYONE he managed to revolutionize modern music by smashing Jazz, the blues, and a bit of down home entertainment together, paving the way for what would eventually become the music known as rock and roll and R & B.

Written in a well researched anecdotal matter, this book documents the man who was one of the biggest selling artists of his time. His movie shorts managed to inspire an entire generation of artists who would later take his formula and create rock and roll. In his own biography James Brown (The Godfather of Soul) rants and raves about Louis, mentioned the influence that Caldonia in particular had on his life, especially the way he'd go up and shout real high, just like Little Richard (only long before Little Richard.)

In this book you will meet many legendary entertainers (now virtually forgotten) and find out what it was like to be an entertainer of color in some very difficult, yet changing and turbulent times... and in particular the riff between him and many of the younger musicians who's music he absorbed but often accused him of being an "uncle Tom" for his whimsical style of performing.- - You'll find out about life on the road, the difficulty of holding together bands, and touring the chitlin' circuit in the days of segregation... and suddenly those silly songs like "Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens" and "Iz You Iz" will take on a whole new meaning.

The book contains a nice discography, about a dozen pages of pictures... including one with Dottie Smith, a member of his group who's still singing and performing here in Philadelphia, Sunday Nights at Barber's Hall and that I've sat in with on occasion. - - John Chilton is a superior Jazz historian who's as good as collecting the facts, as telling the stories they represent ! ! !

This book helps bridge the gap between the pre-war big band era and the modern juump blues bands and eventually rock and roll. It is a very readable book, whether or not you are familiar withn Jordan's life and music. Because Louis Jordan was such a big influence on Chuck Berry, I found it particularly interesting in developing the context from which rock and roll arose. To fully appreciate this book, have recorded versions of Jordan's music available for reference.

This is an amazing Book and I have enjoyed it so much.
It is a great educational resource for African American History.

A very concise and practical source of information about medicines and their use.

Michelle Anna Jordan fans will like knowing that the New Cook's Tour of Sonoma will be released next year by Sasquatch Books.

I would like to start off by saying that I know precious little about Clarence Jordan. I found his "Cotton Patch" translation of the New Testament at my university library about 8 years ago, and the book made a definite impression on me. I don't know if Rev. Jordan would be happy with my understanding of his work, but I love it, and am happy to own a copy, and am happy to share with you the thoughts inspired in me by this amazing work.

I don't think that the point of the Cotton Patch translation was to provide yet-another translation of the New Testament. Rev. Jordan was a scholar of NT Greek, and undoubtedly, he knew a lot about the NT. Rather, this work is a photomontage or imposition of images from the New Testament re-created and re-enacted in Gainesville, Georgia, where Governor Herod is seeking to kill the Baby Jesus; Where John the Baptist, "dressed in blue jeans and a leather jacket", "living on corn bread and collard greens" is baptizing Protestants and Catholics in the waters of the Chattahoochee river... You can't help but smile.

But what is this place? Where is this place? What is happening here? In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells us "For instance, when you make a gift to charity, don't make a lot of noise about it, like the phonies do at church and at civic clubs... The truth is, such praise is all they'll get out of it." Fair enough, but "Church and civic clubs" ?? This isn't even close to being a translation! That a scholar of NT Greek should translate the Sermon on the Mount like that is proof positive that he had something in mind other than providing a translation.

And the Gospel unfolds, and there is no mystery to it, except the mystery of how we could all be so blind: [John, chapter 8]

"But we are blue-blooded white folks, and have never been anybody's slave. Why then are you telling us, 'You'll be liberated'?" Jesus answered, "Everyone who is addicted to sin is sin's slave." ... "Our father was the original white man," they retorted. "If indeed you are sons of the original white man, you would act like it. But here you are trying to lynch me, a man who has told you the truth that I got from the Father. A really good white man would never stoop to that. Yes, you're behaving like your father's children all right."

And now the mystery is revealed, if there ever was any mystery in the first place: The Cotton Patch books are about racism and Christianity, and by extension, racism and religion: Is there room for racism in the Church? Can racists be considered "the children of God" ? I think that to most people living today, the question must seem trivial, but "back then," when the book was written, some time in the 1950's, there were many white seperatists that were comfortable with and saw no contradiction between their racism and with their religion. The Cotton Patch "translations" are Rev. Jordan's way of arguing that there is no room for racism within the Church. Rev. Jordan's argument isn't a theological one, probably because the point isn't worth arguing theologically, and because Rev. Jordan's works seem to have been grounded in practical, everyday human life: Rev. Jordan argues his point by super-imposing New Testament characters -- Jesus, Mary, John the Baptist, Herod, and others, on modern day self-righteous and self-contented racism and bigotry in American society, and he trusts our good judgement to see the screeching, dissonant absurdity of it.

The mystery isn't a very big or complex one, but it is a worthy point that Rev. Jordan is making, and his words are simple and eloquent and beautiful. Besides, we live long after St. John cried out at the end of the book of Revelation, "Even so, come, Lord Jesus". If you ever feel as if the events of the NT happened way too long ago, be confident and happy that the Voice still cries in the Wilderness, and John the Baptist is still baptizing the children of God in the Chattahoochee river. :)

Our toddler loves this book. Particuarly the confusion between "flamingo" and "flamenco". Now when he sees flamingos in real life he says no and vigorously shakes his head. "Not the flamingo, the flamenco Dorothy" ;-)

Coming out of RazorBlade Press, Hideous Progeny is one monstrously beautiful anthology that explores the world as it would have been if Dr. Victor Frankenstein's gruesome experiments had not gone awry. Writers such as Tim Lebbon, Peter Crowther, Steven Volk, Steve Rasnic Tem, and Rhys Hughes (to name just a few) each donate a small literary organ to the mix, and everything is skilfully stitched together into a marvellous book by first-time editor Brian Willis.

Cosmetically, the book is a two-face: while cover design by Chris Nurse is nothing short of outstanding, the internal layout is not without blemish. For example, outside margins are too wide, story titles are not always at the same height in the page, and the author's name is italicised in some but not all of the instances. Another gripe I have is that page numbers on the right-hand pages are left-aligned; plus, headers have no indication about the stories presented below them: these will give you a bad time if you want to riffle through the book to look up a specific something. There are a few extra typesetting warts and moles as well, as I noticed some characters showing up in a different size than the rest of the text, uneven spacing between words, typos derived from bad OCR, and so on. I sincerely encourage RazorBlade Press to pay more attention to internal design in the future, and run a few spell checks as well. Still, don't let appearances fool you, because the writing on these pages is top-notch.

In the whole, I was not in the least disappointed by Hideous Progeny while expecting quality work. Many short stories surprised me by their original angles, and all are very well written. The subjects are quite varied too, although some do overlap a little - it seems inevitable given the limitations inherent to their collective premise. I have my favourites, of course: Peter Crowther's piece is shocking yet touching at the same time, and the idea behind "Mad Jack" is a simple but nevertheless brilliant one. "The Banker of Ingolstadt" is perhaps the funniest in the book, and I found Steven Volk's "Blitzenstein" to rank among the best.

Whatever shortcomings the book has, they're quickly overwhelmed by the superb fiction it it, not to mention a downright gorgeous cover. For £6.99, it's well worth getting Hideous Progeny: not only will you be adding a fine specimen of a book to your library, you'll also be helping small press business to thrive. Because I want to see more from RazorBlade Press. Oh yeah.

The recipes are great in this book and so are the party games! It also has a birthday prayer and jokes too. It's Christian and is a fun way to celebrate a birthday!

De Caro & Jordan have selected a range of travel accounts that manage to capture the diversity, contradiction, and character of Louisiana, from colonial times to the present. Their contemporary travel updates make this book useful to modern-day trippers, and the inclusion of selections by literary luminaries such as Steinbeck broaden its appeal beyond Louisiania lovers.