We are seeing many artists "cross over" between the arts these days. Robert Gass is probably best known for his recordings on Chant. We might probably be most familiar with the "Merry Meet" song, which has been in .wav form for many years. Mr. Gass now approaches Chant from the literary side with this book.

Mr. Gass gives us a look at how he became personally involved in chant, and then explores the history and mystery of chant. He examines the roots of chant, the various cultures who apply chant in their everyday lives, even how we can learn to chant (Mr. Gass assures everyone they CAN chant). He also explores how chant can be applied to our own personal Spiritually.

I noticed this book can be purchased three ways. You can buy the book alone, or with the 2 CD set. You can also find a book club version with a single CD. I like the CD that accompanies the book. The CD gives you a very good overall accompaniment to the book and for those who are not musically inclined it gives a reference point, and an idea of the style of music we are discussing here.

I also found this book crosses over all Spiritual Paths. Wiccan, Pagan, Native American, Christian, Jewish, Hindu, so many paths utilize chant. Chant does not discriminate. I found this to be another "Celebration of our Diversity" and can be recommended to anyone on any Spiritual Path. I also found it to be a most wonderful tool to be utilized by anyone. Give it a try. I am sure you all know at least one chant from somewhere. How about:

We call come from the Goddess
And to Her we shall return
Like a drop of rain
Flowing to the ocean.

You know that one, don't you? See how simple? Sit for a few minutes, singing it over and over. See if you don't feel better. The book has some chants, with music in the back Resource Guide. For those with some music skills, it would be easy to pick up the tunes. The rest of us can sing along with the CD till we have it memorized.

A wonderful exploration of a subject we are probably familiar with but never really explored. I do hope you at least pick up one of his CD's and give this a listen. I think you will be very happy with them.

This book is a rare find. Most writing about Chanting is based on a single religious doctrine/path. Gass, however, covers Christian, Jewish, Sufi (and other Islamic), Buddhist, Goddess/Pagan, and First Nations (aka American Indian... if you want to be inaccurate...) chants. Whew. The book is written in a very conversational manner. It's easy to read and has a personal feel. I was (pleasantly) suprised to see how much of the book is geared towards teaching the reader to chant. There are "exercises" in nearly every chapter, as well as ideas on how to incorporate chant in everyday life.

Occasionally Gass's shifts to New-Agey lalala kindof material that some people may find off-putting (I kept getting the feeling that he was going to start talking about Astral Projection any moment...) The bulk of the book, however, is pretty down-to-earth and definately recommended. It is respectful to all religious belief systems and is very thorough and is sure to have you chanting, whether Alleleuia or Ommmmm.... (or both...)

I KISS the pages of Chanting. (When I ordered this book from One Spirit book club, there was an exclusive complimentary CD, with the 'best of' which included Cuncti Simus, Alleluia, Santa Maria, Sri Ram, Om Namaha Shivaya and the surprise of unreleased tracks ~ beautiful CD. This choral group named "On Wings Of Song" blesses and enriches my little life with such grandeur - The music is a dear invitation to enter the imperishable worlds of Love and devotion. Bhakti incarnate. Praise manifested! Be soaked in gratitude and bliss while sweeping the kitchen floor with a Diamond Heart and a garland of Glory....Look!...only emeralds and rubies in the dust pan. All is God.

The elixir pulsing from the collective Messiah (Heart) transmit the primordial OM....We are drowning in the sea of God's Love. OM, this luminous prana is alive with rhythm and rhapsody. Listen deeply. You can hear the twilight and the nebula chorus. The constellations are a lullaby. The cosmic vibration is so lovely - quicken your heart to accept its sonic invitation. Forget groceries. Forget the magic beans. Trade the cow in for this lotus book and every CD performed by Robert Gass and On Wings of Song. ~ Selah Love Violet/Mathilda, except for when I'm in India - then I'm Lalita, but my Grampa calls me "brown eyes". Om Namaha Shivai sweet children.

Did I mention that I simply adore this book? JOY. Jai Jai Jai ~ hari om. Bless you Robert, brother of my heart. (pranam) Namaste.

The authors' second collaboration of historical photos of Boston (the first was Boston Then and Now from 1982) came out ten years after the original, and shows a Boston I'm more familiar with. Much of the blight that Boston seemed to have been drowning in as late as the late 80s is gone in the new pictures in this book, and more of it is shown. The architectural finesses -- buildings with added floors, the defacement of buildings such as the former Fiske building on State St, before-and-afters of Quincy Market -- are given great attention in this book, and Campbell, the author of the text, is not happy with much of it. Especially poignant, towards the end, is a huge bit of graffiti along Columbus Ave from the 60s protesting the impending construction of I-95 through Boston; in 1992, however, the highway never having been built, it is now a park serving people from the South End all the way down to Jamaica Plain.

This book is actually a readable book, more so than the first which was all about the pictures, and much of Campbell's ideas on urban planning are on display here. Campbell, one gathers, would not be happy with the current plans to build open space over the Big Dig, yet he applauds the demolition of an old parking garage that converted Post Office Square from a desolate, confusing high-rise commercial ghetto into at least a more presentable area where the architecture of the surrounding buildings can be enjoyed from street level. Campbell's obsession with urban density comes off as being a bit agoraphobic, but it's easy to see what he means when he describes useless open space as being as much a blight as overhead highways or slums.

To those of you who might live in or regularly visit Boston, but have never seen, can't remember, or simply can't imagine downtown without the dust and construction that the Big Dig and its related projects have brought on, this book is a record of Boston just before they started tearing everything apart. It's also a valuable historical record of the evolution of a city.

With text by Robert Campbell and photographs (primarily) by Peter Vanderwarker, this book is not only a wonderful volume documenting the history of Boston, but a general and gentle instruction in the rise and fall and rise and fall cycles of many cities, focusing in particular on the "built environment". All photographs are in black-and-white, but this makes the comparison between old and new cityscapes easier. Within each of seven chapters there are a series of two-page pieces featuring photographs and an essay on such topics as: Murdering Another Street, A Waterfront Workplace Becomes a Playpen, A Landmark on Top of a Landmark, A Building That Floats, etc. The text is informative and interesting. Maps are used to supplement the material, and a good index follows. If only all history and architecture books could be this well done!

Exceptional work, highly recommended.

My sister in law gave us this book a couple years ago when we moved to Boston. I grew up in the burbs and my wife in the Midwest so we had plenty to explore. The book sat idle for over a year, but when I pulled it down, I was amazed that I hadn't opened it sooner. This book is wonderful.

This is a city that revels in its history, and, to an outsider, Boston sometimes seems a bit mired in its parochial and seemingly unchanging ways. You can end up assuming, "Gosh, it must always have been this way with it's cobblestones and colonial landmarks." This book shattered my assumptions about the static nature of this city.

The authors peel off layer after layer from the city and as the landmarks come and go the authors reflect, educate and entertain as to how these physical changes are linked to history of the city. Some changes are success stories of planning, others fortunate twists of fate, and yet others, unmitigated urban planning disasters. All fascinating illustrations that help the reader understand the city on a more meaningful level.

I must admit that I love cities and am enthralled by the idea of so many people sharing a limited space comfortably and enjoyably. Cities, to me, have an energy that speaks to the miracle of civilization where people can grow personally by sharing in the diversity of those around them. It nevers goes perfectly, because after all we are human, but it is nonetheless comforting to frame your current surroundings in the context of those who have come before you.

I first became acquainted and fell in love with the work of F.Scott Fitzgerald when I read a hardback copy of The Great Gatsby in my early 20s. Since then, I have read Tender Is The Night and This Side of Paradise, so when I discovered this collection of stories by my literary hero, I floated up to the cieling. My favorites include The Diamond As Big As The Ritz and Bernice Bobs Her Hair, and anyone who has not already been introduced to Fitzgerald, either in English class at school or while browsing in a local bookstore, it's not too late to change your mind, and it is my sincere hope that you will love this man's work as much as I do!

I was delighted to find out that not only were F. Scott Fitzgerald's short stories being narrated on audio cassette, but that one of the performers was none other than Robert Sean Leonard. Scottie is by far one of my favorite American authors. It takes an incredible talent to condemn the life you live in your literature, and when I think how he strived for excellence but fell victim to society, I can't help but pity him. His writing is so delicious to read as well. He has such wonderful similies and metaphors, and is so descriptive I can taste the wine, feel the rain and see the stars. The Jazz Age is one of my favorite time periods and F. Scott Fitzgerald captures it perfectly. You see the glittering side but then the glitter gets tarnished as it must. What is even better about this audio is that one of the narrators is none other than my favorite actor, Robert Sean Leonard (better known as Neal in Dead Poets Society and Claudio in Much Ado About Nothing among other films). His voice is wonderful to listen to, even if you're not a fan of his acting. It's perfectly clear and flowing and it reminds you of listening to your parents reading you a bedtime story. The tape itself leaves you feeling as if you've been on an emotional rollercoaster. There's a nice beginning, then it peaks with conflict, the resolution, and then the end finishes as calmly as it started. Yet you've gained something from it. Fitzgerald has some incredibly phenomenal themes in his work. The odd part is that I usually don't like getting audio books, but I certainly reccomend this audio of The Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald" It's worth every penny.

Surely an icon in the annals of American literature, F. Scott Fitzgerald produced a body of work which epitomized the Roaring Twenties. It has been said that his dominant influences were "aspiration, literature, Princeton, Zelda Sayre Fitzgerald, and alcohol." Nonetheless, his writing possesses an urgency, a bite, unrivaled by his peers.

Collected in this superb audio are nine of his early stories performed by accomplished actors. Broadway/film actress Blythe Danner reads "Bernice Bobs Her Hair," a narrative inspired by a lengthy letter Fitzgerald wrote to his younger sister, Annabel, in which he offered advice on how she could become popular with boys.

"The Jelly-Bean," read by Dylan Baker, takes place in Georgia. Fitzgerald credits his wife for her expertise in helping him write a portion of this tale involving crap shooting, saying "as a Southern girl" she was an expert at this endeavor.

The talented Peter Gallagher reads "Head and Shoulders," the first of Fitzgerald's story to appear in The Saturday Evening Post.

Also found in the collection are "The Diamond As Big As The Ritz," "Dalyrimple Goes Wrong," "The Ice Palace," "Benediction," "The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button," and "May Day."

This is an exemplary combination of memorable prose and oral presentation, a remarkable listening experience.

As far as I know, this is the only book of its kind, and it is superb. Essential for those involved in the architectural or interior design profession, but also excellent for those that are fans of architecture. Enjoyable to read (or browse) cover to cover, but also useful as a very complete reference. My only wish is that I could visit more of the places I have read about in this book!

A most interesting and even exhilarating educational resource...clearly the essential and definitive tool for architecture and design facts.

I first read this book a few years ago and was impressed by the author's detailing of Robert Cormier's career intertwined with his novels (much is devoted to The Chocolate War). Well worth reading. Hopefully the author, Patricia Campbell, will write a revised version soon.

This is NOT your typical biography. I read it this morning, expecting it to start out: Robert Cormier was born on January 17, 1925 in Leominster, Massachusetts... Not so! Quite the contrary. The book began intriguingly and held me to the last page. I learned a lot about Robert Cormier, who is my favorite author. I hold him in very high esteem and this book made me love him more. There were also chapters about his books, and the ones about I am the Cheese and After the First Death were very helpful in getting me to understand those two very confusing novels. 'Presenting Robert Cormier' was also very funny at times, such as when it described Robert deliberately tripping and falling flat on his face in front of an audience of high-schoolers so they could see that he was human and not be afraid of him. I can see Robert doing that, and it is very funny. Another thing I liked: the part in the back about the movie versions of his books I am the Cheese and The Chocolate War. Did you know that Robert Cormier himself played a role in one? In conclusion I find this a very interesting, funny, informative book. Well done!

Clear pictures with step by step instructions for making two paperclay dolls. Easy to follow with patterns. I am a beginner and am now making my third doll and all are sellable pieces of artwork. A must have for doll makers.

This book offers excellent visual instruction for the artist who wishes to create art quality one- of-a-kind dolls. It is easy to follow the images and Mr. McKinley's instruction is clear and concise. This book works equally well for the novice and the experienced artist and will serve as a treasured reference for all those who are wise enough to buy it.

I strongly recommend this book to people who like poetry, and even to those who don't. Full of great phrases that stick in your head.

Setting The World In Order is an impressive compendium of poetry showcasing Rick Campbell's intensely personal style, grace, and storytelling approach to the genre. Legend: He came from a land that didn't need words./Fire singed the sky, soot and ash/settled on the tongue. Speech/was furred and superfluous,. He grew older and left, crisscrossed/America, sat silent and stranger/in the loud seats of cars. Salesman/and truck driver wove their special language,/piston-driven to talk and brood./He listened and thought his shadow/saved them from their lost dreams./Throughout his land he became legend./Buck's boy who never talked. No one/at the Legion or VFW; no one/ at the hundred Bohunk and Italian bars;/no one at J&L, Armco, Coppers,/Phoenix Glass, or American Bridge;/no cops; no railroad dicks;/no coaches named Maccalini/ever heard him speak. he saved it./It's for you and you haven't come yet.

For years, I ignored the Tarot because I thought it was a frivolous card game and that material written about it was cultish at worst and childish at best. It did not help that Tarot cards on the market were manufactured by American Games. I became interested in the Tarot cards because Bill Moyers interviewed Joseph Campbell, and as Moyers had never struck me as a kook, I thought perhaps Campbell was worth getting to know. Getting to know Campbell led me to TAROT REVELATIONS.

Much of my formal education concerns the social sciences including ethnography and the study of religion, myths, belief systems, etc. As a professional social scientist in a job that deals with ethnic issues, I have struggled to operationally define and measure ethnicity, and view cultural elements including myths as the basis of belief systems around which various ethnic groups organize their societies. I have arrived at the conclusion that most of the smaller systems are doomed, but fortunately, anthropologists and others have recorded enough material that we may still study the myths of our ancestors. Joseph Campbell points the way.

Mark Twain is purported to have said, don't let school get in the way of your education. Like Twain, Campbell--a highly educated man and a college professor--was able to break out of the mold of formal education and develop a fresh viewpoint concerning the world and what makes it tick. In other words, he was able to get past the mental censorship of academe.

In TAROT REVELATIONS, Campbell takes a leaf from Sir James Frazier's book 'The Golden Bough' and suggests a core set of concepts underlie all belief systems. He suggests Jungian psychologists have their own terms for these mythical elements which Jung recognized ages ago. As an empirical test of his idea that mythical elements have universal meanings, he compares the Tarot cards of the Major Arcana with the works of Dante and notes their similarities. He also demonstates how the cards can be used to illustrate the "ideal life, lived virtuously according to the knightly codes of the Middle Ages."

In the remainder of the book, Richard Roberts, a student of Campbell, shows how the cards reflect the various mythological belief systems of historical peoples in the ancient world--Egyptians, Persians, Greeks, Keltoi, Iberians, etc. Roberts uses a deck designed about 100 years ago by A.E.Waite, a member of a group interested in arcane matters that included many illustrious members including W.B.Yeats. Waite did not invent the cards, he merely redesigned them using historical sources such as Tarot decks from the Middle Ages. Waite hired Pamela Coleman, an artist and fellow New Dawn member to illustrate the cards. Coleman, a Jamaican by birth with occult interests of her own was later "discovered" by Afred Stigliz who arranged for a showing of her works in New York City.

Roberts compares the elements in the Tarot deck with various myth based and arcane systems including alchemy, astrology, and Hermetic teaching. The Tarot deck is absolutely loaded with connections to all these systems. One could argue that some very educated folks constructed this deck, but the elements of the Tarot cards are recorded back to the mid-1300s thanks to Church Inquisitors who took an interest in the Cathars. Folks in the 1300s did not have had the expertise required to "construct" the cards from scratch because the cards reflect the heavens (arrangement of constellations, solstices, equinoxes, etc.) in about 2000 B.C.E. No one in the 1300s understood astronomy well enough to deduce how the heavens might have looked 3500 years earlier and if s/he did they sure kept it hidden--as in occult knowledge. Since Europeans in the 1300s were struggling with establishing the dates for the moveable feasts (they could not figure out when Easter would come 10 years hence) it strikes me that if anyone could have provided an answer they would have provided an answer--depending on how they felt about the church.

Information about the heavens between 4,000 and 2,000 B.C.E. can be found in the ruins of the ancient world--Stonehenge, the Azetec temples, the Pyramids so there is a great deal of evidence that the ancients understood their moment in time. Events moved too slowly for them to understand that 4,000 years after they lived the spring equinox would not fall in the sign of Taurus. However, Roberts suggests the ancient Persians figured out many things about the heavens and incorporated this knowledge into their belief systems. After all, those Magi who found Christ were onto something. Much of the knowledge of ancient Persia was locked away in Constantinople to be discovered years later by prying minds.

So, the Tarot cards are very old because the knowledge in them is very old. The Tarot cards represent the distilled knowledge of ancient peoples including the Persians who had a Mithraic code that still manifests itself in Zoroastrianism today (number one religion on Islam's hit list in Iran). Archeologists have long argued diffusion versus spontaneous theories regarding the spread of cultural elements including creation tales. Roberts does not take sides, but suggests the information in the cards could support either view point. Whether the information captured in the Tarot cards was discovered by many people in different places at different times or in one place and later spread across the world does not matter. The truth is, humans have been stuggling with the meaning of life for a long time, and while no one has the final answer the Tarot cards are a leading competitor.

I would HIGHLY recommend this book to anyone interested in the interperetations of the Tarot cards and how they relate to the initiatory Magickal systems of organizations like the Golden Dawn and even Freemasonry. Joseph Campbell (who needs no introduction!) writes on the French Mersailes deck, and Richard Roberts does a wonderful job with the Waite-Rider deck, including an explanation of his "Magic Nine" arrangement that is probably the most revealing layout of the cards. The authors focus less on the divinitory aspects of Tarot and more on the individuals journey through the mysteries of the Cosmos as outlined by the symbolism of the Tarot. Get this book! You will be glad you did.

Seldom do I see a business book that captures one compelling metaphor and carries it out over an entire book like this one did. The writing is good, detailed, and clear. Further, the book is filled with valuable team-building exercises that will improve communications and effectiveness, as well as work satisfication. If you work with manufacturing teams in the automotive industry, this book will be extremely valuable to you. In fact, it may function at beyond a five star level. On the other hand, if you work in high technology away from the NASCAR circuit and do most of your communicating in a virtual team by e-mail and shareware, this book may not seem very relevant.

The book's main weaknesses are part of its strengths. If you do not follow NASCAR, a lot of the metaphor will be lost on you. For that reason, I think the book would have worked better with more metaphors or one that was more universal than this one. The exercises are very good for bringing out differences and welding them together into an effective team, but they seemed very dependent on having a facilitator. I suspect that this facilitator would normally have to be from outside the team, for best results. Many organizations would not have the resources to draw on facilitators this much. Also, for short-term ad hoc teams, the exercises here could be overkill. There was not enough guidance about what you could cut back on, in those circumstances.

Also, I have seen a lot of team-building exercises blow up due to inexperienced facilitators. This book would not provide enough guidance to the neophyte facilitator on what to do, should a heated disagreement occur.

I graded the book down one star for its facilitator-intensive approach.

After you have finished enjoying new ways to improve team effectiveness, I suggest that you think about where people should work in teams but do not in your organization. What are the costs of this approach? What would have to be done to switch over to teams in those areas? Focusing on those opportunities may be an even bigger payoff than making your existing teams more effective.

May you enjoy the race, as your team is able to move faster, more safely, and more efficiently!

In today's increasingly complex business environment, "speed" has become the mantra of successful organizations. The ability to learn and adapt to changing conditions more quickly than the competition is what separates the winners from the losers. In their book, Checkered Flag Teams, Renee Merchant and Jo Ellen Roe capture the centrality of speed in the modern business environment by creatively building their presentation of team development around an auto racing theme. The auto racing theme also provides an interesting juxtaposition by demonstrating the importance of teamwork in a sport that to an outsider seems more of an individual endeavor.

The primary strength of the book is that it is based on a theoretically eloquent and easy-to-understand model of teamwork. I have never been overly fond of Tuckman's model of team development because it focuses too heavily on the social dynamics of teams while ignoring the crucial element of the tasks that the team was created to accomplish. The authors' model of team development (presented on page 31), however, corrects this weakness by providing a convincing case for the need to balance task and process issues in team development.

The more obvious strength of the book is that it provides a number of "tools" for developing effective teams. These team activities are indexed early in the book, so you can quickly locate just the activity that you need. The instructions and rationale for each activity are precise and easy to follow, so that even novice team leaders should be able to employ them successfully. In addition, most of the team activities are fairly brief and to the point which makes them perfect for teams on the move.

I especially recommend the book for teams that are just getting started, as it provides an excellent toolkit for getting teams off to good start. Though it also provides a nice reference for team leaders in any field who are working to develop their team facilitation skills or are just looking for some creative new team building activities.

Checkered Flag Teams: Driving Your Workplace Into The Winner's Circle employs an automotive racing template to provide the corporate manager an up-beat approach to having a strong business team utilizing a "Fast Start Teamwork" process. Authors Renee Merchant and Jo Ellen Roe provide the reader with more than thirty tools and activities that anyone who drives a car can relate to. Included is a completely new communications style inventory, "CARStyles", inspired by the type of vehicle team members prefer to drive. Checkered Flag Teams is highly recommended reading for corporate policy makers, human resource directors, managers, supervisors, team members, consultants, and aspiring entrepreneurs.

This book covers what should be the most important Issue to all people in the human-rat race. It's an attempt to make people realize how fast we are using up our natural resourses.
I can only hope that this book makes it to the top 10 best sellers list, so that it gets read by a large segment of the population. It's a vary important message and it's easy to read in a short amount of time, and once you read it it would be wise to give it to a friend and have them read it and pass it on to someone else.
Why can't an American president stand up, and run on smaller population and less consumption? Humans will gain less and less with over-population.

"Beyond Earth Day" gives an amazingly thorough look at the state of our planet, then and now. Discussions of issues are well-referenced and Gaylord Nelson courageously presents honest solutions to problems that many people take pains to ignore. He offers history, wisdom, and guidance in an age when "environment" is an important issue to Americans, yet many are unaware of the seriousness of the issues our water, air, soils and biodiversity face. An America united by the knowledge offered by Senator Nelson has the capability to change the course of catastrophic events involving the very elements needed for life. Share the intelligence of this important book with everyone you know.

Earth Day founder Gaylord Nelson holds no punches in this book. He brings the question of the ability of the planet to sustain today's consumption-driven American lifestyle into clear focus in "Beyond Earth Day". His report card on the planet is dire but believable.

The book provides a strong case that more dire consequences are up ahead for all of us, unless the current political leadership in Washington abandons its "business as usual" mentality regarding the environment and begins to recognize the urgency and gravity of the situation we are getting into with regard to air, water, land and climate.

"It is time for the president and Congress to reach an agreement that sustainability is the challenge of our time and design a plan of action for the future... There is no room, nor time, for partisanship. The president and Congress should face this issue in a unified and cooperative way and should persist until we reach the goal", laments Nelson.

Nelson recommends that the president of the United States deliver a "State of the Environment" speech to the American public and the world which outlines environmental challenges meriting the nation and the world's immediate attention, and the challenges that lay on the horizon. Such an address, Nelson says, is what is needed "to start public dialogue on the serious environmental problems facing the country and world today". People everywhere need to realize that maintaining the environmental sustainability of the planet is the most important responsibility we all have, because all life on Earth is interrelated, and because our economy is inherently dependent on the environment's "underlying resource base of forests, water, air, soil, and minerals".