The History of Boxing by Fleischer and Andre is so riveting that I stayed up all night reading this book! From "Pugilisms First Heroes" to the last chapter update, the content is superb. There are so many priceless photos and illustrations pre-dating photographic equipment, from the British origins to Las Vegas!

As a kid, I remember Hurricane Carter winning a televised Friday Night at the Fights brawl by knocking his opponent out of the ring. And the local Houston, TX heavyweights like Cassius Clay and Cleveland Big Cat Williams. Well, this book chronicles the champions.

If I were to make a complaint, only the champions and their opponents are covered. So spectacular non-title fights are not covered here. I reckon that's the nature of the beast on a "best of" book like this that covers such a long period of time. But for what it is, it is all that and more!

Imaginings of Sand - André Brink

This beautifully crafted and sensitive book deals with many of the important issues which South Africans must now face in the post-apartheid era. The novel begins with the return of Kristien Muller to her dying grandmother's bedside. The grandmother is a wonderful character, full of enchantment, mischief, energy and most importantly stories. She is the keeper of stories about the family's history and origins, in particular the parallel histories and stories of the women in their family throughout the generations. This is part of the reason for Kristien's return, to receive the gift of stories and memory from her grandmother before the old woman dies. While the novel centres around the relationship between Kristien and her grandmother, Ouma Kristina, the novel is also a complex matrix of parallel and interconnected dialogues with the other characters in the novel, from the past and the present, which constantly interrupt and participate in the central dialogue. Brink deals with the themes of returning home, the re-imagining of the past in order to move forward, recognising roots and ancestry and their implications in the present and the exploration of the dynamics between history and story, the real and the imaginary, and fact and fiction. Brink captures the mood of South Africa on the eve of the elections very accurately, he portrays the heightened states of fear, cynicism and evil alongside the passion, hope, excitement and idealism with sensitivity and compassion, while still conveying a powerful warning to those who wish to thwart the much needed and inevitable transition to democracy. In Ouma Kristina's stories there is a distinctly African flavour, which can be linked to the rediscovery of African tradition in South Africa and the move away from Eurocentric ideologies. Ouma Kristina's stories combine Afrikaner legends and stories with those of the indigenous African people, the KhoiSan and in doing so Brink demonstrates how interconnected the histories of these two groups are, and there is perhaps the suggestion that in rediscovering a shared history lies the hope for conciliation and a better understanding of one another in the future. While this novel has many distinctly South African nuances to it, it should still appeal to a wide readership because apart from the sheer brilliance of Brink's story-telling, the broader themes that are dealt with are really universal in nature and effect most of us at some time in our lives.

If you love sports and you're considering a career on the business side, but you don't know where to start this is an excellent book. I got the audio version and it moves very well and is very, very, interesting. There's lots of detail about how to decide on the best sports career and how to get into the business, but there's also plenty about how to really excel once you get in. I particularly liked all of the examples and stories from Mr. Taylor's career. And the information about what areas in sports are really hot is particularly helpful. If you want to get into sports you must own Inside Game. But frankly, Inside Game has so much good business information it's a good pick for anyone interested in a business career.

"Bridge-building" is the major contribution of this unique work. It was written by authors on all 6 major continents, excepting only Antartica. Writers were drawn from Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox traditions. The roster of contributors includes persons from developing countries no less than affluent ones, and Third World scholars quite as significantly as those from this country and Europe.

On one hand, the commentary uses the New Revised Standard Version which was copyrighted by the National Council of Churches in which Protestants figure predominantly. On the other hand, it carries the "Imprimatur" and "Nihil Obstat" of official approval from Rome and from the Bishop of St. Cloud (MN).

Given how culture-bound and language-specific and tradition-shaped all interpretive efforts are, one can easily see the wisdom of this project. Interpretation enjoys enormous benefits by this project's cross-cultural pollination of its work. Between the covers of this one book we see bridges being built between northern and southern hemispheres, between laity and clergy, between Church and academy, even between experts who do not agree.

As a factual matter, this volume is successor to the 1953 Catholic Commentary on Holy Scripture. But in the meantime we all have experienced the liberating effects of Vatican II, and in a very substantial way the IBC has admirably capitalized on the spirit of Vatican II. Some 120 authors from the various major traditions of Christianity were brought together by the eminent Gospels scholar William R. Farmer and his 3 editorial asssociates. Together they have produced this truly international and ecumenical commentary on the Bible.

The IBC is destined for wide use well into the 21st century.

This is more than a coffee table book. One may pick up Ojeikere's book out of curiosity. However I guarantee that when you put it down you will have a broader sense of what cultural objects and practices can provide meaningful insight into a society. In relatively little text, Ojeikere's clearly explains the importance of Nigerian hair sculpture as a mode of cultural expression and documentation. The book captures fifty years of Nigerian women's hairstyles and represents only a fraction of his collection of hairstyle photographs which numbers in the thousands. Since it covers several decades of Nigerian traditional styles it has a historical dimension absent from similar efforts with a modern focus such as Francesco Mastalia's beautiful collection, "Dreads" (Artisan: 1999). An appendix accompanies the photographs which identifies hairstyles by name and region.

I enjoyed this book. The black and white photography is stunning and helps the reader to make the transition from seeing these hairstyles as incidental aspects of personal adornment to recognizing them as public works of art. The women's faces remind us that this is a living art form. The portraits, accumulated from weddings, offices and public festivals truly convey the extent to which these styles meld contemporary style sense and awareness of traditional Nigerian adornment practices. I highly recommend this book for those interested in photography and the modern history of women's adornment in Africa. This book will also provide wonderful insights for a wide variety of individuals, for example, interested in the politics of African and African diasporic hairdressing in the context of cultural studies, women's studies, African American studies and art history.

Judgement on Janus and Victory on Janus were first published in 1963 and 1966 repsectively. They are here published in one volume for the first time.

Naill Renfro is an inhabitant of the vast refugee camp/slum called the Dipple that developed on the pleasure planet of Kowar after the late war. It has become the source of cheap, desperate labor for the rest of the universe. Renfro was the son of a Free Trader who died with his ship during a fire fight. Ejected with his mother in a lifeboat they came to the Dipple as refugees, but even with the war ended they have no hope of escape.

His mother dying, Naill sells his body as contract labor on an agricultural planet known as Janus to buy her some peace at the end. Naill is shipped in cold sleep to the planet where his contract is purchased by one of the settlers, a member of a dour religious group who are tearing up the great forest of Janus in order to plant their cash crop. Again it seems Naill is in a trap with no means of escape.

Before saving the rain forest became fashionable, Norton wrote about the consequences of losing contact with nature. In this story there are forces on the planet that are trying to reestablish relationships between the Terrans and the planet by changing the Terrans as the Terrans try to change the planet to meet their needs.

This is prime Norton fiction and very entertaining.

This book is an overlooked masterpiece of jazz writing. While most authors dealing with jazz reduce it to cliches about personalities and vague notions about improvisation, Hodeir provides a lucid, detailed musical analysis of the major jazz innovators. Especially impressive is his work on Charlie Parker. In a single chapter, Hodeir provides more insight on Parker than all of the existing jazz literature combined. Of course, the book is not without its problems. Hodeir occasionally adopts the language and tone of French academic philosophers (he is quite reminicent of the phenomenologists). This may be off putting to some readers. However, fortunately this intellectual superstructure does not stand in the way of this very lucid, illuminating book. It is extremely unfortunate that this book is out of print.

You know that it was a good book because after reading the last page you feel as if you`ve lost a good friend. There`s hardly another book with a plot like a humorous history lesson. The title of the German original (Nächstes Jahr in Jerusalem = "Next year in Jerusalem") tells about the distinct awareness of the Jewish to find their peace in the end. Without that awareness and their unbeatable sense of humour - how would they have survived years and years of pogroms, attacks and ignorance from the side of the Non-Jewish? It is a warm-hearted story with wonderful side-swipes at human stupidity and mediocrity. And it is a must read for all those who love Jewish literature. Enjoy it and have a good laugh! Interested in the topic? Another recommendable reading might be "Her victory" by Alan Sillitoe.

Gide, the novelist's novelist, tends to his wicked garden of amoral flowers in this multi-leveled satire. Defying the formulaic strictures of his day, Gide skewers the pomposity of the French and Italian gentry while soaring above them with gleeful snobbery. My parents forbade me to read Gide, and so of course I did, in secret, only to have "Lafcadio" snatched from my precocious twelve-year-old hands before I could finish the novel--but memories of Lafcadio lay buried for years until they ultimately emerged to flower anew in the mystery/ adventure: "Into the Deep--The Haven" . . . both a companion and handshake to Gide's examination of the motiveless crime. V.E. Rosswell.