I had to read this book for a book report, and it was very full of good information. It was easy to read, and I finished it quickly

I used this with my children (ages 2-13) in 1999 as an introduction to different musical instruments. We enjoyed the photos of instruments being played, diagrams to clarify details, and historical information on the instruments. In the first 51 pages called Making Music, topics covered are the orchestra, conductor, composer, groups of instruments (stringed, woodwind, brass, percussion, and keyboard), and chamber music. Each instument section includes how the instruments actually make the sounds and is correlated to the CD. I wish the CD tracks could have been longer and sometimes the track included several instruments playing. It was hard to just pick out a particular instrument, especially for the younger children.

The music on the CD is Concerto in Pieces by Poul Ruders played by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and conducted by Andrew Davis. In the composer section there are photos of Ruders working on this score, in the orchestra section there are photos of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and in the conductor section there are photos of Andrew Davis conducting.

Part 2 is the History of Music. We enjoyed an interesting timeline with historic art from 40,000 BC to 2000 AD. (Since they have so little information, it really starts in 2600 BC.) Major divisions are ancient, medieval, baroque, classical, romantic, and national music. A reference section on composers, musical forms, and a glossary of musical terms completes the book.

I didn't really care for the CD, especially now having listened to it many, many times through. I wish it could have more clearly indicated individual instruments too.

I think this was a good start in our study of musical instruments. The children were interested in reading from it each day (2-4 pages per day). They enjoyed the diagrams and seeing the instruments. The CD added to the book. I just think it could have been better.

... if these are the new voices of American literature. Jason Brown is the only writer that seems promising, and is the only one with two stories in this compilation. His two stories are not great, but they show good craft. From other authors, "Like a Crossing Guard" is an interesting piece, but it does not completely satisfy. Such is the case with "White Flight", a piece dealing with school shootings. Problem with most stories in this collection is that they suffer from the same problems that plague recent short story collections from even well-known American writers. Lack of plot. And abrupt endings. We are witnesses to small events in some characters' lives, but these events never serve to shed light on the characters or the reader. I know this is a popular thing to do with short stories nowadays, but, personally, I find it a waste of my time. Call me old-fashioned if you want, but I much rather prefer the tales of old in which there was a clearly defined beginning, middle and end that explored a specific conflict. To me, that's the sort of stories that last generations. The ones that strike a chord in the reader. Those that not only comment on our society, but make a statement about it. Those that portray a specific aspect of humanity. Those that can do the above but entertain, too. Just compare these stories or most modern stories with the classics compiled in short anthology collections from all time and I'm sure you'll understand what I mean.

I found 25 and Under/Fiction to be a breath of fresh air. I love reading books of short fiction, but too often, the books are filled with authors that are already well established. This book is great, because it's filled with stories that are written by mostly unknown authors. My favorite story was "Flamingo." The mother in that story (she was an alcoholic) was very well written, and portrayed with a sense of brutal honesty. Go out and buy 25 & Under/Fiction. You won't be sorry.

As an aspiring short story writer, I first read this book when it was first published and I was 18. It amazed me to see people of my age bracket published and the talent I found within inspired me. Reading these stories shows the depth that some of American's youth possesses. While another reviewer scoffed at the "lack of plot" and "abrupt endings" of these stories, I would have to say that this is the essence of short fiction itself. Short stories are not meant to beat the reader over the head with a storyline. They are meant to be brief pieces that make you think and develop the larger story within your mind. Great pieces like "Naming the Baby" and "Flamingo" give brief character portraits that provide more of a message than a novel ever could. The best kind of short story is one that leaves you thinking of the characters and searching for your own interpretation. More than half of the stories found in this anthology left me wanting to read more work by the writers. If that isn't a testament to the talent displayed, then I just don't know what is!

This book is thorough and well researched, but the prose is rather pedestrian and a good editor could have helped a lot. The pictures alone are worth the price for a real Neil fan.

A detailed account of Neil's life before Buffalo Springfield. (Einarson also wrote a book on BS with Richie Furay) "Don't Be Denied" is probably the most valuable book available for people wanting information about Neil that is not otherwise widely known by Neil fans (and who else reads these types of books).

Einarson writes more like a small town newspaperman than "an author" but that is part of the charm of this book. Einarson is obviously proud that a fellow Canadian has achieved all that Neil has and unlike many who write these types of books never tries to place himself as a peer of the subject. I found the book informative and enjoyable.

My only complaint is that the copy i bought was not well manufactured with several pages at the end out of order and duplicated which made it cumbersome to read.

Of all the books on Neil Young I've read, this one is the most interesting and informative. He really delves into the man and the music. It's not gossipy at all, but very interesting.

When I purchased this title, I had no idea it was a collaboration with Alice Cooper, released as a promotion for his "The Last Temptation" album. If I had known, I probably would not have bought it. I've never been an Alice Cooper fan.. I think he's embarassingly cheesy. Personal taste aside, though, this still isn't an exceptional work. Owing much to Faust by way of Ray Bradbury's "Something Wicked This Way Comes", the story is about evil [looking remarkably like Alice Cooper, natch] tempting the good. As Gaiman says himself in the introduction, "The story wasn't a story I would have come up with alone: it was too clear-cut. God was looking out for the innocent, and the serpent was always looking for a way into your heart." Recommended only to "die-hard" Gaiman fans, who want to own every single thing he's ever done, or to fans of Alice Cooper.

In a marketing event guarenteed to drive you nuts the first part of this 3 part series was initially given away free with the last temptaion CD.

This however is the collection and tells the background story of the Alice Cooper Last Temptaion CD. The story is loosely based on Something Wicked this Way Comes (a fact acknowleged in the book (check out Stevens school book)

The Story is competantly told as you'd expect from Niel Gaiman but the star hear is Zulli who makes Aices dark ringmaster look spectacular whilst keeping the air of shlock menace about him.

If you like Alice Cooper or Neil Gaimans work this is a worthy addition to your collection.

Neil Gaiman is one of the most inventive, respected and popular writers of fantastic fiction for many years now. His run on Sandman for DC Comic's Vertigo has put him in the league of other comic book greats like Alan Moore & Frank Miller...Alice Cooper is a rock legend, forgotten by many, but still... in the world of rock n roll. Alice paved the way for just about every popular "shocker" in the last thirty years.. He is the original showman, an Alice Cooper concert is a trip into a nightmare of violent acts and brutal punishments of torture, usually inflicted on Alice himself... But when Alice Cooper had an idea for a new concept album, he summond the talents of Mr. Gaiman to pen a story to bring his album to life... The story is about a young boy named Steven (a character first met in Alice's greatest solo album "Welcome to My Nightmare") who is the [brunt] of everyone's jokes...he's a scardy cat, and on a few days before Halloween, the boys come across a hidden theatre in the city and encounter a strange man in a top hat with creepy face paint (obviously Alice). The man offers one of the boys a ticket to his show...Steven is chosen and he steps through the doors alone into a nightmarish world where all of his fears will attack him and the mysterious showman will try to steal his soul.

This book is a must for Alice Cooper fans...

For Neil Young fans only. Read with patience.

McDonough deserves credit for researching Neil Young's life, particularly his early days. His early days in Canada are particularly revealing, showing how Neil's hard-driven personality propelled into great success.

McDonough also deserves credit for getting the always obscure Neil to be about as open as he gets. The interviews are at their best when Neil is describing events in the past. Neil is at times very candid about his failings in his personal life (two divorces) and in his professional life (over-producing "Mr. Soul").

Unfortunately, the book suffers on a few fronts.

First of all, it is poorly edited. The length of the book could have easily been cut 200 pages without much loss. Several times the book will describe events, then have length quotes from Neil exactly describing the same event.

Second, McDonough's status as a hard-core Neil Young fan makes some of his prose rather silly. His exhaltations of "Tonight's the Night" just seem silly. For Pete's sake, Jimmy, it's just Rock and Roll, not the second coming of Jesus.

Finally, the last 100 pages or so are really regrettable. McDonough inserts himself into the biography. Suddenly, it's Jimmy teaching Neil about Nirvana, Jimmy trying to save Neil from the evils of being a Lionel Trains Tycoon. Most annoying is McDonough's whining about Neil giving lots of interviews. Oh, boo hoo, Jimmy's interviews with Niel aren't that exclusive.

But, for a Neil Young fan, this book is indispensible. After reading this book, I have a better understanding of the folks in Neil's sometime backup band, "Crazy Horse". I understand more what is involved with producing an album, and what impact producer David Briggs had on Neil's work. I now know that Neil's unique sound is the result of an ancient guitar dubbed "Ol' Black".

I now have an idea of who Carrie Snodgrass is, although, to be honest, I think McDonough is very unfair with her, along with Neil's first wife. Neil himself seems to be more even-handed with his ex-wives. McDonough seems to hold any woman in who didn't put up with Neil's shenanigans in contempt.

This book seems to polarize readers--they usually love it or hate it. I lean toward the former, but it's far from a perfect book. But as a lifelong Neil Young fan, I couldn't put it down, even when it annoyed me. The depth of McDonough's research is impressive, and he comes up with scores of fascinating facts and quotes about Neil's past. I've read books on Young before, and was surprised by how much I *didn't* know about him before reading this book. The accounts of recording sessions--often from David Briggs, engineers, and musicians--provide important insight into the finished products. And they helped me understand why Neil never releases "perfect" albums.

But it's hard to ignore the shift in the tone of the book when the story gets to the point where McDonough entered the picture (late '80s). While earlier in the book the author revealed his opinions on the music, CSNY, Neil's treatment of people in his life, etc., he kept the narrative moving in a relatively objective way. But that gets thrown out the window later, making the book read like two different manuscripts merged awkwardly. The latter part of the book isn't necessarily bad (though I could live without some of the author's more ignorant rants, like saying Pearl Jam is Jethro Tull without the flute), and it's often fun to read his attempts to antagonize Neil by playing devil's advocate, but the more objective biographical account of the first three-quarters of the book is better.

As for Neil the human being--he's an artist, not necessarily a nice person. We already knew that, but this book captures it in much more detail. I came away thinking no less of him (but also no more), but understanding his artistry better. And, his frankness about how the creative muse is not always there is a significant admission that explains some of the weaker periods of his career. For example, though the book was written before their release, I now understand why "Silver and Gold" and "Are You Passionate?" are so tepid compared to his great work--the songwriting well is dry at the moment. Before reading this book, I was positive it was over for Neil...his creative muse was gone for good. Now I'm not so sure. I think it'll come back.

Overall, a worthy book. If you're interested in Neil Young at all, you must read it. You won't love all of it, but it's well worth the time and money.

It's been quite some time since I tore through a book like I did Jimmy McDonough's "Shakey: Neil Young's Biography." This is almost everything a Neil fan could hope for: almost 800 pages of prose on one of rock and roll's most enigmatic artists. Although the book starts off a little slow and perhaps spends a bit too much time on Neil's childhood, it quickly approaches crusing speed and takes the reader on a whirlwind tour of Young's recording life. It's fascinating to read about the origins of Young's records interspersed with comments from Shakey himself. By the time I finished reading, I felt like I knew Neil a bit more than before, and my respect for him had increased greatly. I have even considered buying some of his oft-maligned albums from the 1980s. My only beef with the book is that it's a bit outdated; McDonough finished the manuscript mid-1998 only to suffer through a long legal hassle with Mr. Young himself, and because of this, there's nothing in Shakey about Neil's post-Broken Arrow work. But we know whose fault that is. :)

This marginally entertaining "novel" is a shining example of big publishing bandwagon-jumping. (Its antecedents are Sex and the City, Bridget Jones' Diary and The Girls Guide to Hunting and Fishing.) It is peppered with thinly drawn characters with obvious names like Holly Flake and Spitty Clark and lazy, self-satisfied lines like "She couldn't imagine a time in life she'd ever aspired to going anywhere--except maybe back to sleep." Rosenfeld does a pretty good job bringing to life Phoebe Fine's many neuroses, but to what end? Any tension she creates is almost immediately dismissed, as in the case of Spitty Clark, an aging frat guy who may or may not have committed rape. How does Phoebe Fine deal with this knowledge? She offers herself to him sexually after a miserable Greek formal but is spared consummation when Spitty vomits during their make out session. Two pages later it's on to another ill-fated relationship, again defined by Phoebe Fine's predictable insecurities her current male foil's supposedly humorous one-dimensionality. It all goes on far too long and none of it is particularly inspired. I was excited by the Pablo Miles section when I read it recently in The New Yorker, but whatever charm that piece may have had on its own is not enough to sustain a novel. What She Saw reads less like a finely constructed piece of literature and more like an ambitious grad school manuscript. Look for the movie sometime next summer.

I read Lucinda Rosenfeld's "What She Saw..." in one night, and it was like riding a roller coaster. At times, it was exhilirating and refreshing, funny and insightful, at other times it dragged beyond belief, and I couldn't wait to move on to the next chapter/guy. Not surprisingly, the characters and stories Rosenfeld clearly spent more time and thought developing (Spitty Clark, Humphrey Fung, Bruce Bledstone -especially Spitty Clark!) were the best and most interesting aspects of the book. The others (i.e., Kevin McFeeley, Arnold Allen) should have been left out completely; instead, they were brushed over in perfunctory, seemingly obligatory fashion. Certainly a better read would have been one that narrowed the list of ex-boyfriends to the few who played important roles in the character development of Rosenfeld's protagonist, Phoebe Fine. That way, their interrelation could have been explored and examined in greater detail. Nevertheless, Rosenfeld is a terrific writer, and I found myself laughing out loud at times. She just has to work on putting it all together in her next work, which I look forward to reading.

dreadful and fun is the conundrum i'm put in when i begin to go back through the quite thick entanglement of the boys, boys, and men i've dated, and in the book "what she saw", i was given the chance to delve into someone else's mess.

each chapter takes a look at a different boy/man the main character dated/went with/screwed. a fun idea, but there's such a distance on the page... it's difficult to understand her convictions. i wanted to laugh, and groan in aggreeance, but was left slightly unsympathetic and befuddled. the book begs to be written in the first person, but for some bizarre-o reason lucinda rosenfeld gave us a third person story.

after reading the first chapter i thought it was clunky, and decided to shut it for good, but i was at work, with nothing elese to read, so i kept going, and somehow fell in. i still didn't really like it, but felt hooked nonetheless. weird.

i gave it four stars due to the 'it hooked me factor;' what does it all mean? i suppose it's just as confusing as what she really did see in all of those guys.

Brave and Bold

Neil Philip writes the book, The Tale of Sir Gawain. He also is a critic who has written many other books such as: Guteesh and the King of France's Daughter and Drakesdail Visits the King. The story is made up of many different tales and legends that tell about Sir Gawain numerous ventures. The tales vary from quests, to banishment, marriage and death. Although it does have a few differences, the book doesn't have many contrasts. For one, it's the fact that the story is not based on King Arthur, but the brave and loyal knight Sir Gawain and the hardships he journeys through. He tells the story of his years at the round table, from his perspective.
I would not recommend this book for younger children because I think that the story is confusing and with so many of the tales, you can't tell who is speaking. I also believe that the word choice is also confusing from the way we speak today. I may not have enjoyed this book but they're still others who would be delighted to read this book.

The Amazon.com entry for this book recommends it as reading for ages 4-8. This book is grossly inappropriate for young children. This novel tells the entire cycle of Arthurian legend from the point of view of the dying Sir Gawain who is dictating his memoirs to his young squire. As such, the novel focuses on the violence and sexuality inherent in the subject matter and uses sophisticated language appropriate for the young adult (12-14 and above), but not for the pre-school and elementary school set. For the right audience, this is a very interesting and unusual take on the legend of Arthur and well worth the reading. And Charles Keeping's illustrations (too intense for the very young) are a bonus for those old enough to appreciate them.

This is a great book! I being an adult enjoyed it and I feel that it would be enjoyed just as much by a young child as well. This book gives the reflections of Sir Gawain as he lies dying outside Lancelot's castle towards the end of the time of arthur

This book could have been titled: "Review of a Bootleg."

I would have enjoyed this book a LOT more if I had had the bootleg "Rock and Roll Cowboy" to listen to while reading it. Williams is a great writer, but he spent far too much time discussing this bootleg that the average joe can not get. Thus I ultimately found the book to be incredibly frustrating and ended up TRADING IT FOR THE BOOTLEG! There's some kind of justice in that.

Williams has written an ambitious book which attempts to review Young's music from his earliest commercial releases in 1966 through 1994. As the other reviews indicate a large portion of the book is devoted to a song by song review of the Italian bootleg 4 CD retrospective "Rock and Roll Cowboy". Unlike those reviewers I had owned "Cowboy" for years before reading "Love To Burn" so my criticism of the book is a little different. Put simply, this book should be titled "What Neil Young's music means to Paul Williams." While Williams has some interesting thoughts about some songs that's all they are -- his thoughts. Second, Williams sometimes succumbs to the dread rock reviewer's affliction of writing pretentiously and sometimes sounds like a sophomore English Lit major who just had his first class in music theory. For hardcore Neil Young fans it is in an enjoyable read because it is interesting to compare and contrast one's thoughts with Williams' but the book offers little insight into the thoughts of Neil himself. Of course, no available book has done that because Neil is not forthcoming and does not allow the authors opportunity to pick his brain. Which is a shame because Young is the most important figure in rock history (a bold assertion I know but one that could be amply illustrated by the RIGHT book), and his personal life is a remarkable story as well. We need but lack the magnum opus which chronicles how a kid from Canada came to L.A. formed a seminal and hugely influential band moved on to superstardom as a solo artist and with CSNY, then deliberately abandoned mainstream acceptance with a series of the darkest, rawest albums ever released by a pop musician (Time Fades Away, On the Beach and Tonight's the Night), only to end the 70's with a series of successful albums that contained not a hint of compromise to commercial formulas. Then after reaching the top a second time, Young again (to borrow a phrase from Dylan) threw it all away-- with a series of albums so determinedly eccentric as to alienate all but his most devoted fans. Then at an age when his contemporaries were all either dead, retired or all but irrelevant he soared again for a third time with a stunning series of albums including Freedom, Ragged Glory, Weld and Sleeps With Angels ( and more after the book was published). Williams meticuoulsy chronicles the music but misses them man who produced the largest, most daring and most compelling body of work in rock history. Unfortunately we Rusties have to make due with books such as this rather than the definitive biography (or dare we pray, autobiography) because of the Neil's reluctance if not refusal to divulge his essence to others. But in the end it is maybe just that reluctance, or maybe ambivalence is a better word that makes Neil what he is. The man clearly wants acceptance and success--- but only on his terms. He does what moves him at the moment and hopes it is popular but won't change a note or a word to make his music more accessible or commercial. And, in the end he has succeeded. I can listen to the music and discuss it with my friends so william's book gives relatively little to the hardcore Young fan (and who else is going to read a book like this?) other than an enjoyable night's read while blasting Rock and Roll Cowboy or other Neil on the stereo----- but you can do a lot worse than that with your time.

I didn't realize this book was focused on the Rock and Roll Cowboy bootleg. I didn't have the bootleg when I bought the book but I still was able to enjoy it. I found Williams reactions to the songs interesting and it made me want to get the bootleg even more. When I finally did get it I reread the book and enjoyed it even more.

Let me start off here by stating one big point, I am a very big fan of Mr. Neil Young, but I have great trouble accepting the fact that the author of this book, David Downing, is infact a fan of Neil Young himself. How many biographies of major artists have you read contain nothing but put-downs on EVERY ( yes you read right, no exceptions) SINGLE album that artist has ever released? In fact, this isn't even a straight ahead biography. The author seems to fancy himself with the idea that he is some great record reviewer who is "in the know" as to what is good. He spends his time ranting and raving about every album. Even a classic such as "Harvest" or "After The Goldrush" has this kind of crap. Okay, there are some tidbits of important information in this book, but nothing any fan wouldn't discover by going over a few record jackets to scan the liner notes. also, one more point to Mr. Downing (a suitable name for such a pessimistic attitude) next time you write a book, make sure it is about something you like, not something you DISLIKE! you see, when I buy a biography on an artist I expect that the author has the same passion and love of the artist's work that I have and that we both feel that the artist has made mistakes and taken wrong paths which they all have at times in their careers. I expect that for a person to go through the effort to write a bio about someone, surely they would write about someone they admire, not someone they loath, such as you "apparently" loath this great artist, Neil Young. Ofcourse, any person is entitled to their opinion about an artist, but, if I didn't like a person I wouldn't write a biography about that person for someone who does enjoy that person's work to read. If I had never heard of Neil Young before in my life, after reading your book, I would pay to go to one of his concerts just to throw rocks at him hoping I could aim at his head, fortunately for myself, and Mr. Young, I was a loyal fan to his work long before I read this book of yours. now, a note going out to fellow neil young FANS: if you wanna read a good bio about Neil Young read the bio entitled "don't be denied" it was so long ago that I read this book that I don't remeber the author or any other information, but I have been searching in vain for it because it was just excellent. don't buy this crap and be disappointed like me.

Despite this book being a little on the old side (1994), its subject is such an interesting one that it's hard to see how it could not succeed. Neil Young's career spans 35 years and has seen him performing with Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young as well as with his own Crazy Horse and as a solo artist. While not generally considered the smartest rock voice on the scene, Young has more than made up for it with his refusal to compromise. Both in the creation of his records and in his personal life, he's always made it clear that things run his way or he's gone.

One could assume that a book about Neil's life would include many anectodes of life on the road and the rock star excesses along the way. One could also assume that the same book would dive deep into the interview archives and utilize the artist's own words to explain his actions. Neither is done here, though. Instead, we get an below average rock bio with more speculation than fact (and the facts are mostly common knowledge among fans). Oh, no, Neil's fighting with Stephen again! Oof. Young has always led a fairly private life, espcially since the 1980s. This book just doesn't know any more than the average fan.

The only thing that kept me interested in the slightest was the author's sometimes awkward interpretations of Neil songs and albums. While not every fan will want to see songs like "Welfare Mothers" and "Homegrown" put down as being "appalling" and "horrible", I was curious to see what the author was going to think of the next song or the next album (if only to cringe and shake my head).

If you don't know that Neil liked to yell at Crazy Horse or about his (and his wife's) work with the Bridge School, go ahead and read it. It's also sort of fun to hear the retelling of the making of Tonight's The Night just because it's a (rare) revealing look at how rock and roll can beautifully fall apart. But for any true fan (anyone who's listened to Hawks and Doves in the last six months), don't waste the time. There are surely better bios of Young.

"A Dreamer of Pictures" is a fairly by-the-numbers account of the life of the great Neil Young. It makes for interesting reading if only because the reclusive Young is such a fascinating fuiure and there simply are no other comprehensive biographies of his life. The most interesting fact that I did not know was that Young's first professional band included the one and only Rick James! Young obviously offered author Downing no assistance in putting this biography together, and it shows. Maybe someday Neil will get the proper treatment that his place in rock music history deserves. Until then, we'll have to be satisfied by this "Dreamer."