How many times does one get the chance to relive a rich part of their adolescence? In this case, it you were in Winnipeg during the 1960's, you will relish the pictures and text contained in the Shakin' All Over book.

John Einarson has effectively captured the spirit and feeling of the community club dance scene as well as bringing to light the feelings and emotions of the band members that made this club scene so lively. The are a plethora of photos of the many, many bands that were active in this era. This alone is enought to whet any nostalgia lovers appetite.

This book discusses the early days of Winnipeg's rock scene (Wayne Walker, The Club 63 Galaxies, Neil and The Squires, etc) as well as having time specific photos of Burton Cummings, Chad Allen and The Expressions, Fred Turner, Billy Earl (Jaques). Photos of the radio personalities of the day make this chapter complete.

To those of us that are still musicians, the chapter dedicated to
"Aquiring Your Equipment" shows various Winnipeg band personalities with their equipment make of choice. Of course, a HUGE amount of detail of focused toward Gar Gillies and his Garnet Amplifier company.

Another chapter discusses the recording scene in Winnipeg and how the various radio stations used to "sneak their favorite bands in the back door" to create the recordings that were later played on those and other stations. It was always a proud moment to hear the local talent on the good old AM radio.

If you are at all interested in this era of Winnipeg-related music, seek out this book and buy it.

A big plus here is that the author is Winnipeg's own John Einarson. His prolific output of rock-related books is amazing, as is his attention to the details.

The layout and format of this book is extremely useful for planning day trips in easily accessable areas of Southeast Utah. There are many good references in regards to camping and backpacking trips if your so inclined. I found this book in my library and found it full of so much information I took it with me on my trip last May to Southeast Utah. It didn't let me down. The format uses highway mile posts for directions and I found this really easy to follow. I found it so useful I made the decision to buy it as two weeks was not enough time to explore all the areas listed.

Podrazik certainly knows the Fab Four. Having previously collaborated on the definitive three volume discography on the Beatles, he uses the opportunity of the new releases on CD of the Beatles' music to update us on their music, the impact of it on the world, and that intimate minutiae that only a real scholar can dig up. Well worth buying and reading. Michael Class

Outstanding and most complete description of most important subjects in relation with the teaching of gynecological surgery, ideal for medical students and residents. Specially important, there is a chapter on ethics and gynecological surgery.

This is easily, the BEST Bob Dylan book ever written. "Voice Without Restraint" deals with Dylan's lyrics in an intelligent and unbiased manner. No matter what period Dylan you prefer, this book will give you new insight to your favorites songs. (The book also makes you re-evaluate great Dylan songs and/or lp's you may have wrongly dismissed the first time around.) A fascinating read for anyone who claims to "love his songs, hate his voice" and certainly essential for any Bob-head.

Wow! What a book! An absolute must for all Deadheads and not just tapers. If you are an experienced taper, then this tells you all you need to know about the history of taping of Grateful Dead shows. If you are a newbie, it tells you how to start amassing you own collection of the world's most recorded rock band. And for all those interested in the Dead, it has an excellent sequence of colour photos, stacks of relevant interviews with members of the Dead's extended family, plus reviews of every known tape throughout the period covered in this, the first volume of what promises to be a massively important series. If you've been to any of the shows reviewed here, you're in for a real treat as you take that Long Strange Trip down memory lane - the reviews are of a consistently high standard. And the book tells the reader what tapes are worth getting, how to get hold of them, and what to listen out for once you've got them. Towards the back of the Compendium, there's a list of all the tracks the Dead played with show dates for the hottest versions of each of them - so, whether your favourite Dead track is Stella Blue, the Green Green Grass of Home, or Scarlet Begonias you can easily search out the best show for adding to your collection. My wish list is just about completely satisfied with this book - the only additional thing I could ask for (and I feel almost guilty mentioning it when the book is just so good) is individual track times as well as overall show length times. Roll on volume two.

Unlike other GD books, including old stalwarts like 'DeadBase' and 'Goin Down the Road..' as well as relative newcomers like 'Sweet Chaos' and 'Dead Reckonings', the 'Taping Compendium' is both an invaluable resource as well as great fun to read. It really does stand alone with one foot in the world of literary and historical musicology and the other in the world of beancounters and data crunchers. The data is solid since it's all based strictly on available audio tapes (and you can't get much better documentation than that!) whereas the descriptions of the shows are mostly thoughtful and interesting, providing a colorful backdrop for considering the intricate details of the bands early music. Oftentimes the reviews really do transport you back to a smokey dancehall or theater in the late 60s and damn if I didn't get patchouli oil stains on my copy! Other historical aspects of the early taping scene include interviews with some of the original taper-dudes and these are also enlightening and enjoyable to read. The real utility of the book, however, has to be the surprisingly complete (well nothing in the world is 100%!) section on tape reviews which describes all the live grateful dead concert music that circulates on tape. Even more, there are plenty of tips that allow anyone with an interest to begin their own collection of live grateful dead concert recordings. Although there is no way to avoid the occasional sideways glance from the experienced trader when one first starts out trying to build a collection, a careful read of Tiedrich's chapter on trading etiquette will at least allow you to get your foot in the door and pull it out before ALL the toes are chewed off. In the end, this book (and future books in the Taping Compendium series) will be regarded as required reading for anyone with a desire to explore fully the intriguing carnival that is grateful dead concert tapes.

First, to the "Reader from Berkeley" who rated this 1 star - you're missing the point entirely. Your complaints seem to stem from the fact that some reviewers didn't have access to tapes of the same quality as yourself. Realize that better quality tapes continue to surface and it is impossible to publish a reference in printed form that will be up-to-the-minute accurate. Same goes for tapes not released yet. This book should be used a reference and guideline for enhancing the experience of Grateful Dead taping and tape trading - not as a Bible. No Bible will ever exist for all the shows the band played because some were unfortunately either never taped or the tapes were lost to time. We have to do our best with what we have and keep moving furthur ahead. If you have even one live Dead tape, you need this book. If you're curious about the whole scene, this book will enlighten you and give you some insight into the psyches of the amazing group of people known as Deadheads (or Tapeheads, for that matter). And even if you don't like the Dead, this book makes for an excellent roadmap to taping in general, which can be applied to whatever bands you might be interested in.

Ray Coleman's biography is terrific due to its depth. It gets longs and tedious at times, but many of the details are essential to understand such a complex man as John Lennon. Coleman being a personal friend of John also gives the reader great insight, rather than reading a book by someone who has never been acquainted with him. I believe Coleman portrays Lennon warts and all. He doesn't really shy away with faults of John, and tells about how he roughly treated Cynthia and Julian, describes how he hurt many people in his young days being inconsiderate of cripples and deformed people, and tells about how he did get involved with drugs too heavily and ignored many important things going on around him. Being personaly acquainted with Lennon, Coleman also tells about the intimate, vulnerable side of John rarely revealed during his life. The book gives an accurate representation of John as it shows many sides of such a complex man. I believe this is a true must have for beatles fans and those he want to find the truth about a great man stolen from us by some maniac.

I loved this book. I all of my reading about the Beatles and John Lennon himself, this one told me the most. I had spent the last four months reading a different Lennon book, that was even smaller then this one, and I think I read "Lennon" in about two weeks. It was so much easier to read and Coleman wrote it beautifully. From the start "Lennon" was a book that I never wanted to put down. I think I even read it twice, it was so good. This book is guarenteed to make to laugh, cry, and maybe even curse when you hear about the treatment John recieved during his lifetime. From his tragic childhood, to the Beatles, to Yoko, to Sean and his awful death in 1980, you will love and maybe even understand John a little better than before. This is one of the greatest biography book ever published and ever will be published for that matter. It's a must read for any Lennon fan out there, young and old

Perhaps the only true definitive biography of
Beatles genius, John Lennon, was his own
music, lyrics, art, interviews, idealism,
and life work itself. Ray Coleman's "Lennon",
however, is a classic work that comes in a close second;
as it remains the very best end-to-end biography and
portrait of the complex, often misunderstood, brilliant, and
legendary Beatle's leader and visionary - spanning his whole
life from child to death. Ray Coleman knew all of the Beatles
first hand as a reporter and traveled and toured with them.
His intimate knowledge is unique and extends beyond the mere
research and interviews (of other would-be biographers) to
having had direct personal experiences with John Lennon, with
the band, and with their whole entourage.
Coleman's biography reveals and explores John's great
personal lamenting and dissastifaction at the very height
of "Beatlemania" and his unprecedented success - the key to
understanding who John Lennon really was and what would
lead to the Beatles breakup and form his post-Beatle goals
and objectives. While exploring John's dispair, depression,
lows, and highs head on - the book also refreshingly explores
John's humor, warmth, charisma, loyalty, leadership,
actitivy, positive ideals, committments, and desire to be
"real" and credible - unlike various cheap, tabloid-style,
one-dimensional, ill-willed, character assassination books
that have unfortunately surfaced in the wake of his murder
seeking to trivialize (arguably) the 20th century's greatest
songwriter and one of it's most influential and inspirational
figures. For a complete examination of John Lennon's life
in-total, this excellant book, and Jon Wiener's book
"Come Together" (which focuses on John's political thought
and activism, solo career, and the U.S. government harassment
and abuse against him in detail) provide and form an
excellant and complimentary set. Other absolutely essential
reading is John's own lengthy 1980 Playboy Magazine
interviews (published in book form) that includes the most
accurately documented song authorship breakdown of the
Beatles songs and also his self analysis of his solo
music. The musical analysis of John's work provided
in "Lennon" is a little bit lacking as it focuses mostly on
just the lyrics. However, the book "BeatleSongs" rounds out
this information as does the book "Tell Me Why". But, if
you are buying only one book on either the Beatles or John
Lennon, Ray Coleman's book "Lennon" provides the best single
and substantive source of insight available into the
phenomena of Lennon and the Beatles - containing none of the
irrelevant aimless drivel of the much ballyhooed "Beatles
Anthology" book and far more substantive information.
This book is the benchmark. A must read for any fan,
Rock archivest, or musicologist.

I enjoyed BRIGHTON ROCK. I had never read anything that Graham Greene wrote before picking up this volume, and I was very impressed by so many aspects of it. On the surface, it's simply a gangster story set around the racetrack of a bustling English vacation town in the 1930s. But there are so many little touches and details that Greene adds that all raise this story up and make it more than just another exciting and gory tale of mob violence.

The plot is perhaps the weakest element of the book, but this is not a story that revolves around its plot. The plot points are merely the catalysts that propel these wonderful characters forward. We meet Pinkie, a mere seventeen-year-old, who has found himself in the unenviable task of becoming the head of a criminal organization that is embroiled in a power-struggle with an even larger, better-funded gang. In his world, Pinkie is fighting not only for dominance in his gang, but also battling for territory and control in the town of Brighton. However, he also encounters a strange conflict from an unlikely source: a fun-loving, cheerful, iron-willed woman by the name of Ida.

Ida comes into the story by the most unlikely of coincidences, and is determined to investigate what she feels is a grave injustice. She plays a great foil to Pinkie's character, even though the two of them rarely meet. The only downside that I saw to this fascinating person was the fact that after her fantastic introduction she seems to be coasting through the rest of the novel on autopilot. For a normal book, this would be perfectly expected, but Greene set the bar very high for himself here, especially with this character's motivation, and it just seems a bit jarring when not everything maintains an equal level of excellence.

Greene brings in quite a lot of thought to this novel. Religion, love, spirituality, and death are not things that one expects to undergo detailed analysis on the pages of a crime thriller, yet Greene approaches all of these with maturity and understanding. Each character (bar a handful) is given believable motivations. There are some plot pieces that are predictable, but that only means that I was daring the characters not to go the way that they did, and genuinely upset when they did unfortunate things, even though I had anticipated them. Greene draws on so many ideas to breath life into his novel. He places familiar concepts into irregular characters, and unfamiliar concepts into regular characters; the results are often wonderful and thought provoking.

As I mentioned, I'd not read a Graham Greene novel prior to this, but I certainly plan on doing so in the future. Greene packed quite a bit of careful thought into this intelligent thriller, and the outcome is as exciting as it is reflective. Gripping and spellbinding, this is definitely worth reading.

Brighton Rock is the first Graham Greene book I read, and after buying all his books, this is still my favourite. I'm English by birth, and know Brighton well, and I am ever impressed by the evocation of a place exactly as I remember it. I find Pinky a truly disturbing character, and his Rose one of the most sad yet courageous heroines in modern literature. Mr. Greene is so good at drawing "small part" characters, and recreates so well the world of the petty criminal, and the unpleasant, hopeless characters who inhabit it. I have always felt Graham Greene to be the master of the written English language - his books contain neither one word more, nor one word less than they need to. Definitely my favourite author, and this my favourite of his considerable body of work.

Greene's greatest novels explore the moral responsibilities of the average man in unwinnable situations. In these novels, such as "The Power and the Glory" or "The Heart of the Matter", his average men are fully imagined and believable, while his evil characters are often banal and blindly malevolent. This dynamic is topsy-turvy in "Brighton Rock", Greene's first novel, with Pinky, his evil protagonist, fully rendered while Ida Arnold, a force for good, comes across as relentless but ordinary, and not quite there.

Greene, of course, is a brilliant writer and writes an involving tale. But Pinky, his evil teenage protagonist, is somewhat difficult to envision in the real world. He is certainly more interesting than his eruptions of violence, which make him the equal of adults. But his hold on adults doesn't really seem credible. Further, his immaturity shows in his inarticulate moral thinking and mechanical Catholicism. But in Greene's greatest novels, moral obligations and Catholicism raise great issues, even in ordinary people. Finally, there is a major element of suppressed homosexuality in Pinky's nature, which Greene would surely have handled differently in a different era. Regardless, this is a fine book that held my imagination, even as I questioned Pinky's weird, angry, and shallow nature.

Illistrated lyrics my a$*....Personally, I was a bit dissapointed with this book. Let me get one thing straight, I do love art, paintings, drawings etc, but this book is full of the most obscure pictures of random things that are totally irrelevent to the song, let alone depicting the lyrics.
Don't get me wrong, I am absolutly mad about the Beatles and there music, the lyrics and songs, and of course their handsomely good looks (hehe) , but this book just made it seem like someone took a whole bunch of meaningless doodles by un-notorious 'artists'and stuck them beside imagary, story telling lyrics. If you want to learn background about the beatles' songs, this book will take you nowhere . However, if you ARE looking for some unattractive illistrations and incorrect lyrics to beatles songs, you've found your match. So before you buy, think about it....LET IT BE for your own sake, and your wallet's

This book is utterly inspiring. The music of the Beatles is legendary, and the way the artists re-create the songs into art is visionary and fascinating. Plus, it's not bad having the lyrics handy, too. A must-have for all Beatlemaniacs!

"The Beatles: Illustrated Lyrics" is a must-have for Beatles fans everywhere. This book features the lyrics from most Beatles songs, each song paired with anadventurous illustration capturing the mood and theme/s of that particular song. Many of the illustrations are brilliant works of art, especially those for "Eleanor Rigby", "I Want You", "I Saw Her Standing There" and "Dear Prudence" and are great to look at when listening to the songs. I found the illustration for "She's Leaving Home" - a comic strip of the story told in the song to be ecceptionally neat. Some of the pictures are interesting to say the least: "Cry Baby Cry", "Blackbird" and "Tomorrow Never Knows", whereas others are just darned weird, such as "Dr. Robert", "Mean Mr. Mustard" and "Within You Without You" - but hey, even some of the weird illustrations are fun to look at. Also featured throughout the book is a selection of fan art - all of it pretty good.

In conclusion, if you are a die-hard Beatles fan, you shouldn't be without this book. Sure, it's not for everyone (some of the art may be a little too much for some people), but if you love the Beatles and if you love poetry, by all means grab a copy.

Personal comment: This is one of the books that could change your life and save you a therapy. When I read it I was not yet sure about myself and far from being honest to others about my feelings. Then I read this book and the key sentence of the first person narrator Billy: "I won't lie to you any more!" (meaning all the world and us readers) hit me right where I needed it at the time. From that day I made this sentence my motto and my life changed completely - and for the better. General comments: Yes - it is a novel about a gay teenager and yes - it contains some hot sex but unlike in other gay fiction those scenes are not the reason for the plot but they develop naturally from it. Billy is just the "normal" guy next door except that he happens to like boys. The writing style is exceptional and the ending simply poetic. Read it - wether you're gay or straight - it will move you. If you're straight you might lose some prejudices and if you're gay it'll help you to feel even better about it though you'll probably cry at the end.

Set in the Bronx during the 1960s, Boys on the Rock is a wonderful slice-of-life, coming of age story. John Fox's conversational style makes for a very engaging read. He captures the rhythms of speech common among teenagers beautifully. The book is plotted nicely and does an excellent job of depicting the angst and uncertainty of adolesence. The author does a wonderful job of creating a sense of the atmosphere and tension in the Bronx during the 1960s with amazing accuracy. This is a classic of gay literature for good reason. I highly recommend this book.

"The Boys on the Rock" was my second novel of the very new literary genre of "modern gay fiction." And I have to say that it moved me beyond words. Having been at a point in my life where I have become true to myself after a long time of hiding in the closet, John Fox's book was a god-send. Books such as these make it seem like love between men (of any age) is actually possible, even with the bigotry and intolerance of society today. This book tells the story of Billy, a "popular guy" who narrates his entire experience of dealing with his sexuality, and, in the same breath, falling into true love for the first time with a young man named Al. The sex scenes were vivid and realistic (a nice thing to see when I had been raised to believe that it just could not happen), but not central to the plot. The story is more about Billy's coming of age, and his realization that being who he is is more important that being who he is told to be. The thing I liked the most about this book is that the characters are normal people, not idealized images of perfection. There are flaws, beauties, and strange quirks about every character, which makes the entire tale ring all the more true. Even the narration style is that of a true voice, not an embellished, edited version of humanity. I would recommend this book to anyone who has (or is having) a powerful journey into accepting themselves as who they are. It helped me, and I hope it could help others. Though the ending could have been better for the romantically minded, it was even more realistic in that it also showed that life is not always perfect, no matter how much we'd like it to be.