This excellent volume combines 2 books by the highly readable Viscount Norwich. His history of the Normans in south Italy and Sicily in the 10th and 11th centuries fills a gap in our knowledge of these fascinating mercenaries who-would-be-kings and rings true even today with the impact of Europeans on the Arab world and vice-versa. Remember, the Normans (of Norman Conquest of England fame) were the descendants of Viking raiders who settled in France and their military prowess against the Byzantine Empire and conquests in Italy were just as important as their better known invasion and conquest of England and Ireland in the same centuries.

Norwich is a storyteller as much as he is a historian. He resembles Barbara Tuchman -- you might not base a doctoral thesis on his work, but he certaily provides a great read. In many ways, this work is superior to his Byzantium trilogy. This may be because he has bitten off a more managable slice of history. This allows Norwich to go deeper on the main personalities and events he is covering. You really come a way with a feeling for this remarkable adventure of the Normans in Southern Italy and the advanced and powerful state they were able to create. It also highlights thier impact on the crusades, Byzantium, and the broader struggle between the Pope and secular power. I really enjoyed this book -- so much so that I travelled to Sicily to visit some of the many amazing artifacts left behind by this underdocumented "other conquest" of the Normans.

This fascinating book covers the conquest of the Lombard, Byzantine, and Muslim areas of Southern Italy and Sicily by Normans, originally drawn to that region as pilgrims and mercenaries. The Normans came into their own in 1053, when they destroyed a Papal army meant to destroy the upstarts from the north. They later became Papal protectors and their leader, Roger II, was crowned King of Sicily by the Antipope Anacletus II in 1130. The Kingdom lasted until 1193, when Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II inherited the country.

Like Norwich's other works, this is "merely" a well-written, enjoyable, non-scholarly (but why should scholars have all the fun?) reciting of "the other Norman conquest," a history that few people have ever heard of. Norwich's dry humor keeps the reader entertained and amused throughout. For example, after describing Bernard of Clairvaux' complaint about Anacletus II's family's Jewish origins -- "it is to the injury of Christ that the pffspring of a Jew should have seized for himself the throne of St. Peter" -- Norwich comments, "The question of St. Peter's own racial origins does not seem to have occurred to him." Comparing a mosaic of King William I with the chronicler's descriptions of hs extreme handsomeness, Norwish writes, "After all we have heard of William's beauty, that round face, fair scrubby beard and slightly vacant expression come as a faint disappointment."

This book is at least as good as Norwich's Byzantium books.

What could be better than six original modern fables by Julius Lester? Not much! His stories, about unusual, quirky creatures in absurd situations are full of witty and imaginative alliteration, wordplay and puns, from the Bee who lost his buzz and is now a Been, to the alligator who can't stand the heat in Florida and finds a better life with a bear in Vermont, to poor Ellen the Eagle who's afraid of heights and yelled her first word, HELP! because she saw the ground and realized she wasn't on it. His clever text including colorful display type and thought provoking morals are complimented by Emilie Chollat's bright, vivid collage artwork and together this dynamic team has authored an unrivaled book full of insight, wisdom and humor. Perfect for youngsters 5 and older, Ackamarackus is a wonderful read-aloud book the whole family can enjoy and a sumptious feast for both the ears and the eyes. If you buy only one new book this year, Ackamarackus should be the one!

I agree with Deb Beall who wrote the first review. In fact, I sold her the book. I am a bookseller of children's books and I see a lot of things, but this book is exceptional...exceptionally funny, exceptionally alliterative and exceptionally well illustrated. These funny fables frolic across the pages and entertain with hilarious illustrations, anthropomorphic animals and sensible morals. It is a standout and a keeper.

This is not a book for 4-8 year olds. This is a book for all ages! I am 47 and have never enjoyed a book more! I was looking for a book to read to my 10 year old's class and instantly fell in love with it. So did the 28 kids I read it to. This is one of the best "read aloud" books I've seen in years. I always leave the book as a gift for the teacher for her classroom library, and the kids are still fighting over having their chance to read it. I had to go back and buy a copy for my daughter, and every time I look at her, she's looking at the book. I recommended this book to friends for their 18-month old granddaughter who loves to be read to. Although she might not appreciate the incredibly ingenious stories, she loves the animals and the pictures and the bright colored words. This is a book that will last her for years and one that she will never get bored with. The illustrations are something to behold. They are just as ingenious as the stories. I can't find one thing wrong with this book. It's bright. It's colorful. It's extaordinarily clever. It's funny. It's imaginative. I am very grateful to the author and the illustrator for teaming up and creating such a magnificent book. There's nothing quite like a bee losing it's buzz or flies learning to fly. The illiterations are great. But not too much for a child to handle. A child will love the humor, but the adult will appreciate it's intelligence. I know that you will be left with the same feeling as me - I'm still smiling. You will be too!

British composer, Benjamin Britten, so aptly described music, when he stated: "It is cruel, you know, that music should be so beautiful. It has beauty of loneliness & of pain: of strength & freedom. The beauty of disappointment & never satisfied love.
The cruel beauty of nature, & everlasting beauty of monotony."
Apparently, according to the Columbia World of Quotations, Britten wrote this while listening to the "Abschied" Mithe finale of Mahler's song cycle, Das Lied von der Erde.

Unfortunately, due to little or no knowledge, many of us are unable to appreciate all of the above elements that are vital ingredients of classical music.

Fret no longer. At last we have a book entitled The Classical Music Experience accompanied by two CDs that will uncover for us the unbelievable creativity of forty- two renowned composers.
According to the author, Julius H. Jacobson II, M.D, (who, incidentally, is an internationally known vascular surgeon) "this book is the first of its kind-largely a discussion of a beginning basic repertoire (those compositions most often heard at orchestral or chamber music concerts) with excerpts of each on the accompanying compact discs."

One of the author's inspirations to write this book originated from his patient, the eminent musicologist, Arthur Cohn, who believed that a book on classical music written by a non-musicologist might serve an unmet purpose for the neophyte listener.
What is also noteworthy is that actor Kevin Kline is the narrator on the CDs. I guarantee you- his melodious voice will not put you to sleep, as is the case very often when listening to some audio books.

A valuable feature is that you can open any page, and you will be fascinated by the abundance of interesting tidbits pertaining to the composers. It should be noted that each chapter is only a few pages long, and is accompanied by black and white photos of the composers as well as highlighted sidebars containing definitions, dates, and other data.

Did you know that Mozart's father was not very happy with his son's refusal to conform to social conventions?
However, he was delighted when he heard Joseph Hayden state these now famous words: "Before God, and as a honest man, I tell you your son is the greatest composer known to me."
The author mentions that the document containing this quote fetched 138,000 English Pounds ($210,000US) at a Sotheby's auction in May 1993.

Conveniently divided into 42 sections, the book dates each of the composers, and indicates the compositions you can listen to on the accompanying CDs.

The book concludes with an Afterword presenting a general perspective.
There is also an appendix of a list of works most frequently repeated in the author's collection, and also suggestions as to how to catalogue the recordings.

For the novice, and even the more experienced, The Classical Music Experience, will prove to be an invaluable enrichment of your appreciation of the wonderful world of classical music.

Julius H. Jacobson II, MD (as the front cover has it) is not a musician, he's a prominent vascular surgeon. And that may be this book's primary attraction. He writes as a fervent music-lover with no training in musicology and thus writes from the point of view of a lay person. Since his intended readers are those people who are completely uninitiated into the mysteries of classical music, but who want to learn more, this approach works well. In addition, and quite cleverly, his chatty, even gossipy, essays about 42 composers and their most popular works are accompanied by two CDs with illustrations of their music. These musical selections are drawn from the vast resources of the Naxos record label and each is introduced, gracefully and articulately, by actor Kevin Kline who, incidentally, is a graduate of Juilliard and a pretty good pianist (although he doesn't play here). There are also tips on what other similar pieces readers might want to track down on their own.

I think the main selling point of this book is the down-to-earth style of its author. He is often discursive, relating fascinating medical, romantic or gossipy facts, say, in the composer's lives. It's a little bit like having a favorite uncle who loves to teach and who knows how to keep one's interest.

I would heartily recommend this to anyone wanting to start learning about classical music.

Scott Morrison

Dr. Jacobson wrote this book with the premise that music is not his area of expertise; so perhaps readers can identify more with his feelings about the music. In this respect, I think he succeeded well. He presents the composers in the order of the era each composer lived in and then allows the reader to listen to selections from each composer (selections are from NAXOS' catalog, a budget classical CD publisher). This is a much better way to discuss music rather than write vague comments about how the music makes him feel.

The writer included lots of trivia tidbits when describing the composers' lives and their work.The presentation is polished as well, with pictures of each composer and a nice page layout. This combination makes the book such an interesting read that I can honestly say that this is one of the better readings I had in the past year. The writer does not fall into the trap of writing too much technical details (a common failing of other introductory books) about the music, which makes reading a smoother ride.

Note though that the writer does NOT give specific CD recommendations, only specific works. Nor does he mention any specific performers. This may necessitate obtaining CD recommendations from another source (such as the Penguin Guide) to make sure that the reader does not go out and buy a dud recording when there is a better interpretation available.

Overall, I think this is a great book to gently guide a classical neophyte into the world of classical music! This (and Michael Walsh' "Who's Afraid of Classical Music") is the most pleasant (and unboring) read for an intro to classical music.

This slim volume is collection of brief essays and magazine articles thematically centered on, as the title states, Mountain Climbing as Metaphor for the Spiritual Quest.

A few of the articles are dated, but the rest are gems. What Evola means by the spiritual quest is not the stuff of New Age fantasy or the gooey sentimentality of religiosity.

Evola's prose in these essays is clear and direct. He manages to give us a glimpse into a harsh and rarefied world of transcendent beauty. This book may be the best introduction to Evola for those who are not yet prepard for his more scholarly, esoteric and demanding writings.

Loftiness, elevation, height-a leitmotiv in all Evola's books. This work bespeaks his passion for mountain-climbing and lends itself as a metaphor for a life of striving towards increasingly higher goals. An excellent introduction to the Italian philosopher, and a highly enjoyable read in its own right.

America seems to be the country where there the translation of Evola's works is marching on faster than anywhere else. Surprisingly this tendency started at the same time as the breakdown of the Communist superpower. Are now even Americans for a future beyond Americanism? Another leading role for the American translations in the "Inner Traditions" series is the beautifulness of the covers, the cheapness of the books, the including of an index - the only thing lacking is the bibliographic information regarding the collected articles which build this book - and much more important the quality of the translations. Guido Stucco has done a fine job again and he has shown in his preface to "The Yoga of Power" his insight into the Evolian thinking: "Evola pointed the way to a steep and solitary path that in my view is still a valid alternative to both the path of koinonia - of human fellowship, which contemporary society has been promoting for the past thirty years - and the spiritualized bourgeois individualism promoted by the New Age movement."

This solitary path can wind his way to the peak of a mountain as this book shows. The spiritual dimension lies first and mainly in the act of climbing, but then expands to the legends connected with the mountains and the experience of the elements - ice and storm, rain and sun. Evola's ashes returned after his dead to his beloved Mount Rosa, to be buried in the eternal ice: the ascend to the peak as a symbol of resurrection. The modern opposition to this experience of transfiguration is symbolzied in skiing: "In skiing the modern spirit finds itself essentially at home; this modern spirit is intoxicated with speed, with constant change, with acceleration." With this book the reader lets this modern spirit behind and reaches to those heights, where ice and light unite in eternal joy.

Martin Schwarz

Overall, this book is excellent, although it is a little unclear what the relationship is between it and another entitled "A Practical Method for Bassoon". One problem--mine arrived without the advertised fingering chart, but that's to be expected for what was being sold as a used book. Besides, I have plenty of fingering charts from other bassoon books.

This book provides a very nice selection of graduated etudes that are technically challenging and musically pleasing, and which introduce new notes and techniques in a very logical manner. I had sailed through the Yamaha and Essential Elements series having done little more than learn the fingerings--no work at all on technique or tonality. As an intelligent adult who is already musically accomplished and who is trying to teach himself a new instrument, there is simply too little meat in the standard lesson books. I can only play "Michael Row Your Boat Ashore" and "Alouette" so many times before they lose their charm! However, Weissenborn in combination with "The Art of Bassoon Playing" has greatly accelerated improvement of my technique and tonality. I play the music in Weissenborn, then I trouble-shoot problems using "The Art..." and return to Weissenborn to practice the new techniques. I wish a book similar to Weissenborn existed for oboe, my other current self-learning project.

The Weissenborn method is undoubtedly one of the most widely used methods for bassoon and is popular with teachers and students alike. It contains progressive technical excercises, scale and warm up exercises, progressive character studies (etudes) and duets. It also has an excellent fingering chart and general comments about the bassoon and it's technique.

I highly recommend this method. I used it myself when I was a student and also recommend it for my students.

This method book is often refered to as "the bassoonists' bible". It uses a step by step process to build technique and improve overall playing ability. It is the book used in the state of Alabama (and perhaps others) for All-state band auditions. This is not a book for beginers, but will take an intermideate player to advanced level and beyond.

This book has beautiful illustrations and can be used for a great way to expand minds as to how the earth and all that's on it came to be. It can also help children use their imagination to experience God being refered to as a woman. Lester uses great similes. This book is beautifully written.

When I first glanced through Julius Lester's take on creation I thought I would never read it through. I tend to view most retellings of Creation based on how they represent Eve and whether they allot any responsibility at all to Adam - and I was afraid that this book, like so many others, would fall short of my hopes. Then, as I began reading, I thought I loved it so much that it would be the easiest book I ever reviewed for anyone. Instead, the book forced me to explore so many facets of possibility - both of my own sense of God and how others might feel about the different aspects of this book - that it became a decidedly more complex task. Perhaps a book that raises more questions that it provides answers for is the greatest book of all - but that doesn't make it a simple task for the reviewer!

Julius Lester is an African American Jewish convert and as such he brings an amazingly fresh view of one of the best known Judeo-Christian tales. In his introduction he explains to parents and older children about the Jewish method of using stories to explore the realm of possibility between the sparse lines of sacred text. He encourages parents to omit sections they may not feel comfortable with, and he adds an element from Afro-American folklore: Lester's God is not necessarily all-knowing. He (sometimes she) is playful and makes mistakes, and a lot of things seem to happen by accident, including the discovery that he even has the ability to create.

Lester begins with God and the angels sitting alone in dark timelessness with nothing to do. Once God makes the discovery that his words produce results, not everything runs smoothly; there are animals who are disgruntled being who they are and Satan opens a school to teach angels how to clip the wings on others who are resting as well as how to sneak off to visit Earth without God knowing. He creates man and woman despite the warnings from some of the angels, and while I was at first concerned that the book might me misogynistic in regards to the eating of the forbidden fruit, Lester does a remarkable job of making the mistakes all around seem like obvious human realities - as well as making it clear that God continues to forgive and love and accept what he knew all along was going to happen.

Amidst the humor of the text are profound questions: Who is God? What is God? What do angels think? Why did God make the choices that he did? To some, both the humor and the questions may seem disrespectful - I even asked myself that question more than once throughout the book. Yet, in my own experience working through my thoughts and feelings, I felt a stronger sense of connection to the Divine in the universe and saw a million windows of opportunity in the conversations I would expect to have with my son as we read it together. Lester's work makes the exploration of religion come alive.

Parents would do well to pre-read this book and explore their own feelings and reactions - regardless of their religious background - not just to have a sense of how their own child would might react but to be prepared for the inevitable questions and commentary that any child will bring to this text. I see the mutual exploration of this book as an amazing opportunity for mutual growth and sharing, and as laying a foundation in searching the sacred and spiritual that can (as I believe it should) last a lifetime.

Wearing simultaneously the hats of story-teller, dedicated scholar, and observant Jew, Professor Julius Lester has crafted an engaging clutch of stories which present the Bible's account of the world's creation. These stories use as their point of departure many of the "midrashim", the rabbinic stories of centuries past, which came into being to amplify and clarify what is sometimes only implicit in the text. He does so utilizing the same skills he has used so effectively before: humor, imaginative language, and a willingness to flirt with irreverence for the sake of opening the reader up to new possibilities to be found in this ancient recounting of how God brought the world and its creatures into being.

Rabbi Marc Gellman's excellent book, "Does God Have A Big Toe?", explores similar territory but Professor Lester's work lends itself especially well to oral presentation. The conversations amongst the minstering angels are hip, funny and thought-provoking, and will send readers of any religious persuasion back to the opening chapters of Genesis with eyes and minds opened wide. Emily Lisker's droll full-color illustrations do a lovely job of opening up the text even further.

This book will find a place of honor on my shelf, alongside others which serve as gateways to a deeper understanding of our Scriptural legacy.

You are an ESL student or a non-native speaker of English?

You want to improve your American English vocabulary?

You also want to avoid the verbose academic methods?

Stop here! You get it!

I've just finished "504..." today and frankly, I'm fully satisfied. Murray, Julius and Arthur have set up a very intuitive and captivating course: a set of 42 lessons cut up in 7 sessions, each session separated by a review.

How does a typical lesson work?

You have a list of 12 words in a yellow vignette, so you can see what you're gonna learn in a quick glance. The details appear on the right: for each of the words, you have: their standard pronunciation(s) (essential!), their definition(s) and 3 examples of common use. After that, a short article using all of them is presented. The coolest thing is you often meet in the example sentences and articles the words you learnt before. It's a good way to practice them again and test your learning. And you know what? Some articles can even teach you many things beyond English!

Then come 3 exercises. Two are repeated over the lessons: you have 12 sentences with blanks and you fill them in with one of the words. The second standard exercise is an illustration and you are encouraged to find which of the words is hidden behind.

The 3rd exercise varies, depending on the lesson. You can expect one of these:

* Make up your own 12 sentences,

* Find synonyms or antonyms,

* Find the words from their definition,

* Find among 12 phrases those which don't make sense.

Each lesson should not take you more than an hour, maybe even less. Besides, it happened from time to time that 1/2 hour was sufficient for me.

"Okay", I heard you say, "but I'm still not convinced. How did you do in practice?"

Well, generally, I tried to follow 5 lessons a week, i.e one after my workday.

I looked at the new words I had to learn and checked the pronunciation. I repeated each word 10 times aloud, even if I didn't know what it meant. Afterwards, I repeated all the list up and down as many times as needed (between 3 and 5 times) for my pronunciation to be a reflex. I didn't want to take bad habits of pronunciation by reading the definition first and realize half a minute later that my mouth and my tongue hadn't done their job correctly, you see. A word is like a girl's name. She likes to hear her name pronounced correctly. When a boy meet a damsel for the first time and plans to keep in touch with her, he longs to know her name and he'll carefully use it the next time. I think it's the same for a word. Try to be nice to it and name it correctly before living with it. You should do this for *all* the words: if pologamy is illegal, polywordy isn't ;)

So, as soon as I was at ease with the pronunciation, I read the examples *before* the definition. Why? Because I wanted to guess the meaning: I had noticed that a word is all the better memorized as you feel you already know it somehow. Finally, to check my guess, I read the definition and went to the next word. I repeated the process twice, just to be sure. Of course, the 2nd time was faster. Then, I did the exercises.

What if I already knew some of the words? In fact, out of these 504 essential words, I already knew 1/3 of them but I don't regret anything because I saw a great number of them used in contexts I would never have suspected :), so I felt richer anyway.

About the exercises, I told you you were asked sometimes to create your own 12 sentences. I confess I happened to find it not challenging enough. In that case, instead of 12 independant phrases, I wrote a little story using the 12 words, like in the article. It's a good way to develop their loyalty and challenge your creativity.

But it isn't the end yet! In case you'd be still afraid not to be trained enough, the 7 reviews in the yellow pages are here to reassure you. They are organized somewhat differently compared to the lessons.

Each review contains 7 exercises:

1) Choose the good word in phrases between two suggestions,

2) Find opposites,

3) Rebuild newspaper headlines,

4) Find words from their definitions,

5) Complete a letter with words from a list,

6) Find analogies,

7) Make sentences with words that do double-duty.

Of course, you'll find again the words of the immediately previous lessons but also a few more from even farther ones.

The exercise on analogies is tough sometimes, that's really my opinion. Words that do double-duty are very exciting because you learn that some words you have been taught as verbs for instance can also be considered as nouns or adjectives.

I needed 3 months to complete the method and I enjoyed it like a little kid.

So, if I convinced you, enjoy it too! :))

I use this book to teach school children and working adults and I find it a good book to use. There are 12 words to be learnt in each lesson with many examples to show how these words are used in sentences and stories. There are also exercises for the learners to practise using these words either in constructing sentences, filling in the blank, matching, etc....

My 9 year old had always loved math but this year we moved and neither of us liked the math curriculum the new school used. She began hating math! We began homeschool (there were other problems too) BUT she continued fighting with the math work. I purchased this book and after only 4 lessons she's hooked on math again! She loves the tricks and VOLUNTARILY makes up her own problems to solve! She's already seeing how the "tricks" help her in her "normal" math work.

I plan on using this book to enhance my students mental math abilities. This book is a great way to do the mental math and focus on that higher order thinking. This book is organized well, and is well-suited for classroom use. There were many tricks that I didn't even know existed and everything is still based on basic math. This can work from the slowest to the most advanced learner.

I have both of Tudy's books; she also wrote The Secret Gardens of
Venice. In October, I had the honor of meeting Tudy (what a colorful and dramatic character!) in Venice and accompanying her on a private garden tour of this magical city. She truly knows the aesthetic history of Venice and it shows in her books.

This is a terrific buy. If you never wanted to go to Venice before - you will now! The photographs are outstanding and the text not too boring. An invaluable reference for artists. Thank heaven someone thought to study these ancient floors before they are lost! Supposedly "there is nothing new under the sun", well, I would consider having one of these designs in a new home, if I could find anyone with the patience to complete one!

Julius Lester tells his father's story with a passion usually reserved for romance, and with an absolute lack of sentimentality. This is a wonderful description of growing up black in the Jim Crow South, life- and dignity affirming with no trace of bitterness.

This is one of the best, truest books I have ever read. It reads more like an autobiography than like fiction. Through the life story of one man, the book allows you to taste a bit of the black experience in America spanning hundreds of years. Emotionally it is not easy reading, but well worth it.