This book is absolutely excellent. Covers all aspects of jazz drumming: interdepence, timekeeping, drumset orchestration and soloing. The accompanying CD is very good, and contains several excellent play-along tunes (with and without drums).

I have progressed very quickly by using this book alone! It has been laid out in such a way as to start from the very basics of a simple swing beat and then takes the reader up to the very complex syncopated rhythms. The most important thing to note regarding the book is that it is laid out to advance the student at a VERY quick pace. And since it comes with an audio CD you can 'hear' what is written on the page. There is also five songs that do not have a drum track so the student can play along. For [money] I have at LEAST one year of drum lessons!!! The author not only explains WHAT to play but WHY and also WHEN. The book teaches you not only how to be a good drummer, but also, how to be a good musician. A perfect drum book!!!

The Art of Bop Drumming (with CD)

Another great book from John Riley. This is of course more challenging than "The Art of Bop Drumming", which should be read and studied thoroughly before digging into this one. The included CD is very useful. The post bop drumming is studied in a logical sequence, with in depth analysis of timekeeping and solo examples from the most important drummers.

I've often enjoyed John Riley's columns in Modern Drummer magazine. He really knows how to present information in an accessible way. The charts are easy to read and the accompanying c.d. is excellent. A must for the aspiring jazz drummer.

I am not a drumset player (Yet !) but I'm interested in the rhythms of the world and Brazilian Rhythms are Fantastic, this book is quite good, it has sections on Samba, Bossa Nova, Baiao, Maracatu, Marca and Frevo, and patterns in odd meters.

The book starts with a short introduction on Brazilian music and then explaines the traditional Rhythms and the traditional Brazilian instruments and then demonstrates how to apply those rhythms to the drumset, the book comes with two C.D's which demonstrated most of the musical samples in the book.

Great book for drumset players and ALSO for those who want to understand Brazilian Rhythms.

Also recomended are Airto Moreiras great Videos, C,D's and books, and see also Brazilian Percussion Manual by Daniel Sabanovich and Brazilan Music Workshop by Antonio Adolfo.

For other types of rhythms check out these authors, Alan Dworsky, Reinhart Flatichler, Sule Greg Vilson, Yaya Diallo, Peter Magadini, Robert Starer and Gary Hess.

Red Sox Reader is a wonderful collaboration of the best articles written on the Sox. It includes stories from the most significant events in Sox history, ranging the Babe's move to the Yanks to the 1986 Series. It also includes an interview with Bill Lee, a couple of articles by the editor (who was an English teacher in my hometown for years), and perhaps the greatest article on a Boston event - "Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu" by John Updike. I would recommend this book to any Boston fan who appreciates good writing.

Interesting and thought provoking. You will learn in-depth information about recruiting and why athletes may look at certain colleges. There is a lot of sleaze in college recruiting and this exposes quite a bit.

The book eventually became repetitive as he continued to build his case against the shoe companies. Yes, there is a problem but no alternative solution was really suggested. I'm glad I read it and would encourage college basketball fans to read.

A friend of mine played D1 basketball and pro overseas. He toured America including Hawaii before he was 16 even though he came from the worst ghetto in Memphis where he say 6 people killed and was robbed twice himself. Although he started as a Prop 48, he eventually received his degree. While I don't like the influence of shoe companies, he is an example of a productive man that the shoe companies may have helped. It's not an issue with easy answers.

However not always balanced, SOLE is a page turner for sports fans that enjoy the stories off the playing arena.

Wetzel and Yaeger provide interesting cases and a great work of journalism, however the line between reporting and storytelling is often blurred.

The best way to enjoy this book is to come away entertained, informed, but not disillusioned.

As a pretty dedicated fan of college basketball, I had heard coaches rail on about summer recruiting, AAU middle men and shoe companies. Now I know why. I encourage anyone who cares about the game to read this. It details not only how things have gotten corrupt, but why. Instead of using broad strokes to declare summer recruiting as a bad development, Sole Influence shows why in detail. Myron Piggie stuff alone is worth the read. The solutions are complex, but given the amount athletic directors and college coaches are working on it, something is inevitable. After reading this, fans will know why the sooner the better. The best basketball book I've read in years. Authors make a complicated story very readable and easy to follow.

As a former homeschooled student myself, I found this an interesting but not representative account of what homeschooling truly is. While it was indeed interesting to read about Dan Riley's customized curriculum for his daughter and how the experience improved their relationship, I was disappointed with his failure to use a homeschooling parent's best and most-used resource--other homeschooling families. Unlike most of these families, he failed to seek out other homeschoolers for Gillian to know and failed to take advantage of the hundreds of extracurricular activities developed specifically for homeschoolers. Gillian's experience was more isolated than any other homeschooled student I've known(and I've been in contact with over a hundred for the past ten years). Academically, she may have flourished but socially she missed out on the well-developed network that has been in place among homeschoolers for a decade. This book must be read for what it is: a highly individualized account of one experience in home education, not as a guidebook or source of representative research on home education in America.

I found this book to be a quick and easy read. Riley's sense of humor make the book enjoyable to read, yet it is not lightweight material. Perhaps the best part of Riley's book is the honest re-telling of what happens when you homeschool. Many homeschooling books paint homeschooling in such a glorious light, that the real life nuts and bolts of homeschooling gets swept under the rug. Homeschooling can be difficult and exhausting. Is it worth it? For some people, yes. Dan Riley captures the gritty, one on one nature that makes homeschooling a viable alternative for some families.