I truly enjoyed the book and wish I had bought it earlier as I visit Fredericksburg, San Antonio, Boerne, etc. every year doing family research. The shopping in Fredericksburg is superb but changes so quickly that a book would need to be updated every year to keep up with the changes! BUT, as a book of this type is bought more often for the historical, cultural and natural beauties of the region, shopping is generally not the most important aspect of the trip. I have been to and through many of the places listed in Llano, Gillespie, Kendall, and Blanco Counties but this is a much more interesting way of doing the trip. I recommend this to anyone who wishes to see the small towns and historical sites of the region.

If you enjoy driving through the Texas Hill Country, this book has plenty of roads mapped out, starting from Austin, Fredericksburg, and San Antonio. Every scalping, shoot-out, ghost town, abandoned schoolhouse and old church along the way is described with its own history. If you're looking for Oatmeal, TX or Nameless, TX, or just the best bbq out there, this is your book.

The exhibit was astounding - this museum is HUGE! The works of art featured are very diverse, both in theme, style and culture. The book really is a nice tribute to this grand exhibition. Any Californian who likes both popular art and "marginal" or underground art would be satisfied with this book.

Finally, an expansive and critical, although bewildering, survey of California's visual culture and its impact on American culture at large! Beautiful in its design and generous in illustrations, the catalog offers insight into the complexities of America's "wild frontier." What makes this catalog/exhibtion most intriguing is its inclusion of ephemera, framed by the organizers as important historical and cultural documents of life in California. Often overlooked, these items are often more telling than the cultural productions of visual artists and offer interesting juxtapositions to the art also presented. In addition to the discourse between hi and low culture, is the discussion of the cultural and racial diversity of California's population and its effect on culture and identity. The writers and curators bring together important documents, visuals, and art that construct diverse racial, gender, and sexual identities and also offer critical insight to these.

For the broadest overview of healing methods throughout the world and history, this book is well footnoted, and more entertaining than books this educational usually are.

The broadest and deepest revealing I've seen of what medicine is and how we as a species have come to practice healing arts and sciences, taking into consideration the entire repertoire of knowing we currently employ and do not (universally) employ - the rational and the pre or post or non-rational modes of knowing, at times called empiricism. This book has engaged me in not just its subject matter, but has invoked in me a reassessment of what I am doing with my life, and what I should be doing with my life. An ever present undertow of the text is the sustained consideration of what it means to be conscious and to participate in the various modes of either being the recipient of or initiator of (or both) an attempt to mitigate and come to terms with not just experiencing and trying to 'get rid of' disease but trying to know what this is, what it portends, what it does not portend, and what this means and may have meant for various cultures present and past. It, immersing itself in & examining the broadest range of ideologies of healing, embraces no single one nor abandons any of them. Essential reading for an assessment of not just what medicine or healing is (& what we might agree are the differences between our current commodizized notion of what medicine is as against what healing might be given our notion of what medicine is) but also a detailed examination of how we come to consider what medicine is (& is not). At times poetic, the prose never succumbs to a pre-packaged conceptual terminology, oftentimes riddled with assumptions and steeped in an end-product paradigm, which itself is in need of genealogical elucidation. With the widest casting of critically perspicacious (meta) scholarship, this volume serves to conceptualize in the widest breadth of taxonomic epistemologies how we have come to practice a multitude of medicinal strategies and what these strategies are within and without these same systems of taxonomic modes of knowing; firmly establishing, at least for me, that rational, linguistic frameworks of knowledge, do not preclude, and are not precluded by, empirical 'alternate' experiential constellations of knowing and engaging health and illness. A consistently compassionate but nevertheless unrelenting examination of Planetary Medicine, this volume gives us a rather high bird's eye view of the at least 5 million year old human practice of coming to know & practice medicine, and how we can perhaps come to be (like?) birds too in our quest for knowing.

As a teacher in women's studies I was hoping that this might make a good primer for my students. While it does a pretty good job as a history text, it really doesn't do a good job at introducing key concepts. This is especially true once it reaches the 1980s. I might also add that this text treats feminism as something that ended after the 80s. The book needs a good updating.

In short, if you are already familiar with the feminist movement, then this book makes a nice pocket guide and reminder. If you are new to the concepts, I would start somewhere else rather than here.

As always, Rodriguez is articulate and freshly inciteful, but by comparison to his earlier work "Hunger of Memory", "Days of Obligation" is less captivating. One wonders if in fact all the controversy surrounding the author and the attacks waged against him did not effect a political retreat from his earlier views (which were taken at face value as attacking Mexican "immigrant" culture as "static" and introvertive, while promoting Americanization as progressive). It appears the book is a more bland, and for that less "confrontational" search for identity, and roots. Ultimately, though the author, perhaps unconsciously elucidates the alienation that some Mexicans who've "made it" or become significantly acculturated into the American mainstream feel as a new breed. Not to say the least but although the book is beautifully poetic at times, and quite expressive, capturing in words feelings that for many of Mexican (or other recently immigrant) background have been locked away deeply for fear of remembering, much of the book's subjects are not immediately memorable the way much of "Hunger" was. In this book the author seems to be indirectly apologizing for his earlier views, or at best ineffectively trying to clarify his earlier position on the value and importance of Mexican culture

Days of Obligation: An Argument with my Mexican Father is an excellent testimony of a life caught in, between, behind, and ahead of two (and one and many) worlds. The two major themes of this peculiarly beautiful book, those of comedy and tragedy, parallel each other as in a fugue, one theme high, piercing and begging, the other, low, somber, and measured. They find themselves manifested in the interplays between optimism and pessimism, Protestantism and Catholicism, between youthful (and naive) faith in possibility and middle-aged pessimism and the knowledge that, in the final analysis, "death is the vantage point from which life must be seen." In Rodriguez' essays, the United States is the land of youthful optimism, imbibed with Protestantism, whereas ancient Mexico, carriers of the knowledge of Original Sin, is a land of cynicism. However, the author skillfully exposes the paradoxes of this dichotomizing assumption. Ironically, the United States is suffering from loneliness and moral decadence as a result of its uncompromising individualism, while Mexico, a country in which the majority of the population will soon be under the age of 15, will abound with youth. This is a beautiful book about California, America, Mexico, and the complexity of life in these slowly disuniting States.

Richard Rodriguez is a Californian in the best sense of the word, and his book, Days of Obligation: An Argument with My Mexican Father rises to writing's challenge of explaining the inexplicable-- describing the indescribable.

What does it mean to be of two worlds...or three, or four, or several? Rodriguez in a dialogue with his father-self struggles with the dualism/duelism of being someone who lives between/among several worlds/states of mind /socio-economic srata/cultures/etc. He does this with prose which incorporates enough historic detail and insight to make even the most miserly readers feel that their time with this book was well spent.

If you haven't read Rodriguez before I'd describe his writing as that of an intellecutal Caen, a non-fiction Tan/Allende, or a less profane Capote/Sedaris.

You can catch Rodriguez on the The News Hour where his essays and commentary are a cut above the ususal beltway banter. Although his contributions to The News Hour are substantial, I wish he'd set aside the time to write another book as good as this one.

Making Independent Films reveals the new filmmaker's journey through his first production, from the basic decision on whether or not to attend film school to financing a film, finding deals on equipment, and getting a finished product publicized. Chapters are packed with practical ideas for producing independent films, and follows the careers of seven independent filmmakers on their journey to success.

Making Independent Films: Advice From The Filmmakers is both an invaluable "how to" guide for aspiring filmmakers, and a riveting expose of the behind-the-scenes realities of filmmaking today. Making Independent Films takes the reader from first pitch to final cut, chronicling the first-time filmmaker's quest through training, financing, preproduction, the shoot, post-production, film festivals, distribution, and more. If you are seeking to write, produce, or direct your own movie, from documentary to feature film, begin with a careful reading of Liz Stubbs and Richard Rodrigues' Making Independent Film.

Filmmakers offer their advice on how to avoid setbacks and produce an independent film on a budget in this handbook, which combines such interviews with tips on how to locate talent and make a film. Practical insights make for an important coverage packed with film and business tips.

Richard Rodrigues provides an excellent case on the creation of a somewhat mythical category of race that has come into common usage. While race is generally reserved for the major blood lines associated with the continents of the world, here in the United States we have made a complete mish-mash of our categorizations of race and ethnicity. Anyone who has recently filled out a form has likely been surveyed on the Race. We are provided with a check list. It appears to work it's way out of a very "white" (or more properly Caucasian" world-view.

While we represent ourselves to be a melting pot and were founded on the principles of equality and freedom, we memers of the U.S. society too often responsible for efforts to continue to divide and categorize.

Richard Rodriguez offers a clear argument on the fictive notions of "brown" and "latino" and uses his own personal life examples to illustrate his case.

I have found Rodriguez writing to be much more engaging in his past two works. While he has always had a tendency to try to sound overly erudite and this has been an onstacle to enjoying his intelligent observations and beliefs about life, I found the writing in Brown to be too often strained with the "intellectualizations" that we often associate with tedious academic texts. I encourage Richard Rodriguez to allow his writing to stand on its own without the artifice of the scholarly tone. More than in his previous works, I found this to be a major distraction to his writing. Mr. Rodriguez is a brilliant man who is well-educated and articulate. He is also a man of passion and controversy. His best writing shines through the personal stories he tells.

A very important contribution to the ongoing debates we continue to wage on cultures, race and ethnicity. Highly recommended.

5 STARS. Mr. Rodriguez is an excellent social essayist of America's many converging streams.

I have just finished reading Richard Rodriguez's new book "Brown: The Last Discovery of America" and I am contemplating how long I should wait before beginning it again. Here is a writer worth many readings. His subject and approach invite numerous visits, viewings from varied moods and perspectives.

In this (his third book) Mr. Rodrigez's takes as his theme the notion of brown as intermingled, mixed, impure and argues that it is the inevitable conclusion of America. Along the way he gives us his reading (a brown reading?) of Richard Nixon, Alexis de Tocqueville, Ben Franklin, the Latin American migration, the persistance of Puritanism, sexual politics, cubism, Melcolm X, Catholism, public space, and the American insistance on authenticy against its impulse for the theatrical. Many of these are themes Mr. Rodriguez has covered before. Here he revisits some familiar themes through the lense of brownness, turning them over by a different light, holding them up to a different horizon. He is a writer of a fugue like repetition, striking humor in one note and discomfort in the next, leaving the reader to follow the argument off the page. He is a writer who does not condescend to his readers with trite resolutions or comforting reassurances. His style is personal and political, contemplative and engaging. He is an excellent stylist of a kind rarely seen on bookshelves today.

This is not an easy read. Don't buy this book if you're looking for a quick and fun read. It is a provocative and perplexing tune Mr. Rodriguez carries. He points in directions that he leaves uncharted, exposes personal wounds that he leaves unmended. He invites us into an uncomfortable space of hanging questions.

Thoses who have read Mr. Rodrigez before will probably enjoy this newest work (assuming you enjoyed his other work). New readers may find him challanging (some friends have found his style dense or obscure). But if you are loking for an intelligent and engaging converstaion on the meaning of what America is becoming and why undermining of America's very notion of race is inevitable, then I strongly urge you to read this terrific book. "Reader, meet Mr. Rodriguez. Mr. Rodriguez, your interlocutor."

Moises Hernandez ...

Anyone that things that race relations as an issue has fallen by the wayside or is somehow is a moot point will be enlightened by the eloquent, poetic point of view brought forth by Richard Rodriguez' latest book. Rodriguez does not forgo the often oversimplistic Black-White issue but suggests that they were always a hybrid issue of 'Brown'. America as a dynamic hotbed of ever-Westward expansion; and once the West was won of expansion of a more global nature. Selling the 'American Dream' in an effort to conquer and re-conquer in a never-ending quest for collective conciousness. Rodriguez suggests that the issue of race is not a physical one, but rather how one responds to this conciousness brought about by assimilation.

His anecdotes brings things down to a very personal level without which 'Brown' would come across as speculative and academic. Rodriguez paces things so well and his words are so graceful that one is moved not only by his observations and experiences, but also their self-awareness in a historical context.

To my surprise, in the index of my eleventh grade American literature textbook, I found my own surname. I quickly turned to the listed page, and I find out what U.S. author shared my name. Richard Rodriguez. I found an excerpt of HUNGER OF MEMORY (1982). I read about the "grandiose" reading program the emerging author embarked upon to become what he believed was "educated." This was to become for me the beginning of such interest in the power and pleasure of words and language.

Although many people, including Mexican Ameircans and Hispanic Americans, publicly challenge and denounce the author and his thoughts, I am surprised to find that rarely is the book read in its entirety--a reading that the autobiography merits. Instead, readers tackle the author's political positions of the early 1980s.

The autobiography flows with clear prose and addresses issues of language, literacy, schooling, and education. I highly recommend the book for its style and grace. Readers will learn how Richard Rodriguez achieves academic success and the position of a public man.

I just finished reading Hunger of Memory as an assignment for a Language and Literacy class I'm taking in my teacher training program. I recommend this book to all teachers or to people like myself who are planning to be teachers. Rodriguez does a outstanding job of capturing the feelings of confusion and separation one feels when learning English. I liked how Rodriguez corelates language with intimacy. He talks a lot about how Spanish was for him a language of intimacy and family. When he learned English in school, however, he lost a lot of that intimacy in the home when he began to lose his language. One particularly sad part was when his grandmother died and he wasn't able to speak to her or say goodbye beforehand because his Spanish was so limited and his grandmother spoke only Spanish. Towards the end of the book, Rodriguez exhibits a lot of honesty and courage in writing about his feelings on affirmative action. As a result of assimilation and studying in England, Rodriguez no longer felt like he could be an effective role model for minority students. However, because he was a Mexican-American with a Phd in Renaissance Literature and because he was a "minority professor", he was expected by Berkley administrators (and students) to be such a role model. When some hispanic students ask him to teach a minority literature class at a community center, he declines. As a result, they treat him like a sell-out. All in all, I admire how Rodriguez is not afraid to take stances on issues like affirmative action and bilingual education that go against what is expected, considering his race. One would expect him to be in support of both programs, but he is not. Though I do not agree on his stances on these issues, I truly admire his ability to be true to his convictions in spite of being called a sell-out.

Vance Packard, in researching his book "The Status Seekers," found that upward mobility in the United States was much more difficult than Americans would like to believe, and that those who were successful made it largely by cutting ties to their roots. Although framed in the context of ethnicity--Richard Rodriguez' book makes that same point. Moving up from working class to upper middle class promised success and acceptance and self-respect, but getting there was a little like edging out onto the ice, feeling inadequate and fearful that at any moment he might fall through. This book will resonate with anyone--immigrant or not, minority or not--who has made such a journey. Rodriguez scathingly criticizes affirmative action and bi-lingual education programs, correctly identifying the first as promoting socially crippling labels--"disadvantaged minority"--and the second as an obstacle to what he sees as the keys to success in America--a solid education and learning to speak and write English well. Rodriguez discovers early on what many of those with romantic notions about their ethnic or racial heritage eventually come to realize--that he is an American. But in the sadness he feels at the growing distance between himself and his parents, he fails--and several previous reviewers of this book fail--to note one very important thing. Upward mobility occurs incrementally, not in one leap. Rodriguez was put in a position to get that excellent education, to learn to speak unaccented English, and to become a respected author and scholar by parents who left Mexico and the little homogeneous Catholic towns and moved to the United States. In short, by parents who had cut the ties to their own roots.

I bought this book with the intention of learning more in depth use of actionscript with all of its wonders...Instead, I was bombarded with too much game design stuff. The table of contents was misleading and the focus of the book was useless for true web design.

There are many books out there for actionscript, I suggest any of the others.

This book is, along with Moock's Actionscript book for O'Reilly, the first really solid book covering programming in Flash 5. That includes good stuff on planning projects, code structuring, OOP, design, and XML much more in depth than any other Flash book I've seen. It is definately advanced, perhaps not to the point of some of the hardcore OOP coders on the Flash lists, but quite complex and more than enough to challenge most readers, which is good.

The projects are good and varied, and it seems like Friends of Ed has at last gotten someone to insure that coding styles are reasonably consistant throughout the book--other of their Flash books have been essentially collections of inconsistant and often incompatible articles. The usual suspects do show up (spaceship games and rotating 3D cubes), but presented with a level of detail and thoroughness totally absent in other books (short tutorial in matrix math anyone?)

The great chapters on Sound and XML are almost worth the price alone, but the standout chapter is called "Creativity in Practice" and covers invaluable stuff like: working in teams, interaction planning, prototyping, information architecture, even some usability. In other words, the stuff that professional designers do the 80% of the time they're not messing around with software. It's exciting to see these topics appear in what could have been just another coding book.

I won't dock it a star, but one qualm is that it doesn't come with a CD (again contrary to Kevin's review below). You have to download about 80Megs of files from the publishers site. Come on guys, if there's no CD at least knock a few bucks off the price. And even at high-speeds, that 80Meg download is kind of a pain.

Friends of Ed has been publishing great books on Macromedia Flash consistently in the recent months, and this one actually has some fundamental coverage like concept design and project structure then moved on to advance topics such as XML integration, Generator, etc. Basically a little bit of everything starting from the intermediate level Flash developers can use. My only complaints is the black and white printing, and no CD-Roms, but all the source files can be download from Friends of Ed's web site. Keep up the good work FOE!