“The Newbery Medalist returns to the subject matter of Indian Chiefs and Buffalo Hunt –though with a narrower scope–in this recounting of the 1833-1834 expedition of Prince Maximilian of Germany and the artist Karl Bodmer up the Missouri River. While Maximilian’s own journal provides details of a difficult trek, the book’s primary focus is the winter spent by Bodmer and the Prince with the Mandan and Hidatsa tribes–details of their daily lives, customs, modes of dress and beliefs. The book is generously if unevenly illustrated, chiefly with works by Bodmer, whose watercolors of individuals are direct and immediate. However, engravings later produced in Europe seem stereotyped, and several large oil paintings are not well reproduced. Background information and sites to visit today fill out the volume. Readers of Freedman’s other titles on Native American topics will find much of interest here, though some may question the reliability of two European dilettantes concerning a culture they visited only briefly. Ages 10-up.
Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.”

Taken From: Amazon.com – http://www.amazon.com/dp/0823409309

Very rare book: unfortunately, i don’t have this book in my collection:)

En Por favor, no empujen el humor ácido es el pretexto para mostrar la verdadera soledad de Gonzalo, personaje principal y narrador de sus desencuentros, que vive en una ciudad como Lima, donde es testigo a diario de «cómo la neblina que subía por el acantilado se iba tragando de a pocos la ciudad». Un lugar en el cual todos parecen caminar en su contra: «Los pocos que caminan en mi dirección lo hacen tan lento que se convierten también en un estorbo, tengo que esquivarlos para no perder el paso». Un reflejo vital de lo que significa vivir en un país divorciado de sí mismo. Donde los conflictos no sólo habitan en lo hondo de la pobreza, sino que se presentan a cada esquina como reiterando, una y otra vez, que permanecerás «vivo y vacío» (paráfrasis usada por Gonzalo con respecto a Henry Miller).

El estilo narrativo del autor es frugal; no ahonda en extravagancias. Su lenguaje transmite el habla limeña sin ambages. Para el autor es vital que se deje hablar a los personajes, y esto se logra en Por favor, no empujen. Gonzalo jamás deja de ser él, jamás permite que la vida y los personajes estrafalarios —sátiras de una sociedad exagerada como la limeña— mellen en él. Seguirá intentando escribir, que en este caso es lo mismo que intentar sobrevivir.

Why, you may ask? On p.478, the author–who had complete access to Warren Buffett for years– wrote: “Buffett had the energy and enthusiasm of a restless teenager; he seemed to remember every fact and figure he had ever read…” With few exceptions, the endless repetition of those details in the book, to the point that it seems the author is reciting from Buffett’s calendar, do not make a good biography. Telling us over and over, year by year, what Buffett had for lunch at each meeting – or more annoyingly what he would NOT eat – or reciting entire lists of attendees of each meeting and dinner, do not for the most part add to our knowledge of Buffett as a person or how he thought and made decisions. It does not make for interesting reading. In short, an important man, a skimmable and exhausting book.

I have lived in Andhra Pradesh for 23 years. This book gave me an insight into so many customs and traditions. Very interesting read. The author has given a lot of thought and has researched into many nuances and details of Andhra culture.

This book is truly a gem. The book is a petal to Indian literature lotus.

A must read for anyone interested about Indian culture.

Furthermore, the copies printed by Ares are exact duplicates of the original edition (1926, London). When this was written, it was still a fairly safe assumption that anyone reading it had already studied Latin and probably Greek. As a result, you will find this rough going if you’re not already familiar with grammatical terms borrowed from Latin and Greek. I had some Latin and Anglo-Saxon before I was assigned this book as an introductory text. Most of my classmates did not have that background. I learned a good deal from this book; they, mostly, did not.

In short, if you don’t know what a “dual pronoun” is, you need a newer, friendlier book. I have some recommendations.

For a comprehensive introductory textbook aimed at those with a serious interest in mastering Middle Egyptian, try “Middle Egyptian: an introduction to the language and culture of hieroglyphs” by James P. Allen. If your interest is more casual, you may find “How To Read Egyptian Hieroglyphs” by Mark Collier and Bill Manley helpful. Both base their examples on texts found in museum pieces.

Alan Gardiner’s “Egyptian Grammar” is still fairly comprehensive, but decidedly dated. Avoid anything by E.A.W. Budge – he published prolifically, but also sloppily. There are a great many errors in Budge’s work, which will cause you no end of headaches if you try and use his texts as study guides.

Lastly, for a good dictionary try “A Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian” by Raymond Faulkner. Note that this book is handwritten lecture notes in published form, so it can be hard to read. The English index was published as a separate volume, the “English-Egyptian index of Faulkner’s Concise dictionary of Middle Egyptian” by David Shennum. These two are expensive; refer to them at a library if you can.

Can there be rational examples of the compatibility between natural science and Judaism? This book offers a strikingly novel perspective on traditional and contemporary Judaic practices. For those with some Judaic knowledge, there are biological explanations in these chapters not seen elsewhere. For those well-versed in evolutionary theory, the authors’ perspectives suggest new approaches to the scientific study of religion. Topics include the monistic tendency, biblical polygyny, biblical family conflict, circumcision and proselytes, sacrificial-ritualistic mitzvot (obligations), periodic conjugal separation, Judaic traditionalism, male and female reproductive strategies, and the relationship between costly signaling and prestige.

“Guess/Dinner” and “Dr. Dolittle” represented this Old Hollywood model in 1967. “Dinner” was the last teaming of the legendary screen duo of Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy, who died shortly after filming was completed. It was glossy, tame, and relentlessly old-fashioned despite its “risky” subject matter of an interracial marriage. Despite critical drubbing, it was a huge hit. “Dr. Dolittle” conversely was a ghastly flop, attempting to bring an aging series of children’s books to the big screen with a big splashy budget and the musical-comedy star of the moment Rex Harrison. None of it worked for a minute, the reviews were savage and the kids stayed away, but that didn’t prevent its studio from buying its way into the Oscar race.

But real change was in the air. Warren Beatty, then a successful young star, tried his hand at producing a film that would translate the concepts of the French New Wave to American audiences. “Bonnie and Clyde” was very stylish, hip, and youth-oriented despite its shocking – to audiences of the time – bloody violence. Beatty sold the concept to Warner Brothers, despite Jack Warner’s antipathy to the concept and the final result. Even though Warner did their best to bury the film after its initial release, word of mouth and Beatty’s relentless salesmanship eventually made the film a must-see hit and one of the most talked about and written about films of the last 50 years.

Coming alongside it was “The Graduate”, an edgy anti-establishment film based on a novel by Charles Webb and directed by Broadway wunderkind Mike Nichols, and starring an unknown New York actor named Dustin Hoffman. The risks Nichols took in a script by Buck Henry and casting Hoffman paid off in a huge way, resulting in another iconic masterpiece.

Falling somewhere in between was Norman Jewison’s “In the Heat of the Night”, a tense story of a black detective (Sidney Poitier) helping a racist Southern sheriff (Rod Steiger) solve a small town murder.

Poitier, then the only African-American movie star with proven box office clout, also starred as the saintly groom-to-be in “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” the same year, but was not nominated for an Oscar for either one. Poitier was stuck between his uncomfortable role as a movie star expected to present the best features of his race to traditional white audiences still not used to seeing black leading men, and the high expectations of younger and black audiences who wanted a stronger, rougher, less idealized black man to be an advocate for civil rights. Poitier’s dilemma is a centerpiece of Harris’ book.

The book is meticulously researched, and Harris interviewed most of the surviving principals. The narrative makes very clear how agonizing making a film can be, and how perilous the process is at every step: artistic and financial compromises must be made, years and scripts go by, stars come in and drop out, and the whole thing can fall apart at any minute. The determination of producers and directors to see the process through is truly an act of love and faith.

Harris’ book serves as a prequel of sorts to “Easy Riders, Raging Bulls” which chronicles the “second golden age” of American filmmaking in the 1970s, before blockbusters and comic book retreads destroyed what was left of the studio system. The mid-1960s was a time of transition that laid the groundwork for directors (auteurs) like Coppola, Altman, Ashby, Scorsese, Hopper, Friedkin, Cimino, and others to create enduring films outside the Hollywood factory system. Harris captures this change with a wonderfully written history of a Hollywood long gone.

What interested me the most was the description of how easy it is to make string. The easiest way is to use already existing vines, the second step according to Ms Barber is to take plant fibers and roll them on your leg to make an every expanding string. Rope is merely a number of strings put together. The evidence cited in this book is pottery and wall paintings, since most fabric doesn’t survive. Barber examined thousands of early pots and paintings looking for evidence of early cloth making.

This book is essentially about how drawing smoke from a plant grew from a ceremonial activity in the new world to a social activity that spread around the world. It is now hard to find a culture where tobacco smoking is not evident. The subtitle tells it all – “a cultural history of how an exotic plant seduced civilization.” The story is fascinating and the book is very well written.

The book is amazingly lively. You get insight into the personality
of a woman who thought Jesus told her to wear white, live apart
from her husband and give voice to her religious opinions loudly and continually. Her neighbors, her child and her husband complained regularly about her religious activities. The book gives dramatic accounts of every day experiences, in Margery’s
home town, in many English regions, and as far away as Brandenburg, Rome and Jerusalem. Just reading about how she traveled in Europe and how she got to Jerusalem is illuminating.

This is a character driven story and there are is an amazing list of characters from Otherguy Overby, to the folk singing trio of Ivory, Lace and Silk, though a former CIA agent who’s gone out on his own, to big time record producer and the head of a criminal syndicate.

It’s the 60’s – a violent time in our history. An violence is the vehicle that Mosley uses to drive this story. Watts 1965. For those who don’t know what went down, go Wiki it for the full 411. But here’s a snapshot…

Watts, is a black neighborhood in South Central Los Angeles, California, that erupted violently in August 1965 after a white highway patrol office stopped a black driver. Blacks in the neighborhood, like Blacks all over the country during the 60’s were fed up with injustice. And more so with non-violent protest. They gathered, observing this unusual traffic stop. They began throwing rocks at the police. This escalated into five days of burning, looting, and bloodshed. Blacks attached white people, fought police and shot at firefighters. It took 15,000 National Guard troops to squash the rebellion.

Sounds familiar. Riots. LA. 1992. Rodney King. Baby, there ain’t nothing new under the sun.

Watts, Los Angeles, August 1965, five days after the riots began is where the story Little Scarlet kicks off.

Ezekiel Rawlins, as the white folks called him, fronts as the head custodian at Sojourner Truth High School while keeping a private investigator business on the down low. You know the brother doesn’t have a PI license, but that doesn’t stop him for helping folks in his community. Easy ain’t no push over, but deep down he can’t get over his southern gentleman roots. Roots that lead back to Louisiana and Texas. He enlists the help of several interesting characters including his, shoot first and never ask questions, “ace boon coon”, Raymond Alexander, better known as “Mouse”

In the aftermath of the riots 34 people are killed. Although the news only reports 33, the 34th is a young black woman who the police suspects was killed by a white man. They need Easy’s assistance in solving the crime, because they would get nowhere with white cops investigating the murder of a black woman by a white man. That would be just the spark needed to rekindle the riots.

Mosley, one of the best-selling mystery writers, has weaved a story that is real, compelling, engaging,…and puts the issue of black – white relations on blast. He does it in a very easy and subtle way, which is contrasted with the way Easy moves through the story.

Yes, the story takes place in the aftermath of the Watts Riots…black-white tension;

Yes, Easy is a black man who doesn’t trust the white police…black-white tension;

Yes, there is the murder of a black woman by a white man – black-white tension;

This tension explodes when Easy discovers who the murderer is and the fiery rage that consumes him. Once the murderer is revealed, you will not be able to put the book down. These are just a few of the many parallels that exist in the story.

You will definitely want to know what Easy and his friend Mouse gets into next. There is a film in the works starring Jeffery Wright and Mos Def.

Look for Jilly from Philly as Precious Ramotswe in the forthcoming BBC adaptation of the series.

And yes, as you may have guessed, Austin is the pretty girl capital of the world.

Readers of Donna Leon’s books set in and around Venice will find here the antipode of northern Italian life.

The only disappointing thing about this and all of the Inspector Montalbano books is that they end too soon.

p.s. Great fashions and costumes!

• A performer’s guide to Renaissance music
• A performer’s guide to music of the Baroque period
• A performer’s guide to music of the classical period

• A performer’s guide to Renaissance music
• A performer’s guide to music of the Baroque period
• A performer’s guide to music of the classical period

• A performer’s guide to Renaissance music
• A performer’s guide to music of the Baroque period
• A performer’s guide to music of the classical period

These photographs are great, so realistic and familiar.  Simple and complex at the same time.  I’m sorry I missed this exhibition that was at the Getty, but at least we have this great catalog!