Sunday, October 9, 2011

Giants of the Keyboard. 6 Discographies. Wilhelm Kempff, Walter Gieseking, Edwin Fischer, Clara Haskil, Wilhelm Backhaus, Artur Schnabel. [1994]

Giants of the Keyboard. 6 Discographies. Wilhelm Kempff, Walter Gieseking, Edwin Fischer, Clara Haskil, Wilhelm Backhaus, Artur Schnabel. [1994] Review



John Hunt was born in Windsor and Graduated from University College London, in German language and literature. He has worked in personnel administration, record retailing and bibliographic research for a government agency and is on the lecture panel of the National Federation of Music Societies. In his capacity as Chairman of the Furtwängler Society UK, John Hunt has attended conventions in Rome, Paris and Zürich and has contributed to important reference works about Furtwängler by John Ardoin and Joachim Matzner. He has also translated from the German Jürgen Kesting's important monograph on Maria Callas. John Hunt has published discographies of over 80 performing artists, several of which have run into two or more editions.


Saturday, October 8, 2011

Mary & the Giant (GollanczF.)

Mary & the Giant (GollanczF.) Review



Mary Anne Reynolds is a young and vulnerable woman, determined to make her own way in the world. But Pacific Park, California, in the 1950s is not really the place for Mary. Her relationship with a black singer offends against the small town's views on sexual mores and exposes its bigoted views on race. This is a powerful portrayal of the claustrophobia of small-town California, and Mary Anne Reynolds is one of the most memorable characters Dick ever created.


Friday, October 7, 2011

Little Giant Encyclopedia: Tea Leaf Reading (Little Giant Encyclopedias)

Little Giant Encyclopedia: Tea Leaf Reading (Little Giant Encyclopedias) Review



The newest Little Giant® Encyclopedia is tea-licious—a tasty brew of tea information and history: an ABC of tea, from Assam and Black to Tikkam and Yunnan; tea ceremonies around the world; tips on tea’s health benefits; advice on preparing the perfect cup; and entertaining sidebars, quotes, and quizzes. Over half the book is devoted to a “How to Read Me!”—an instruction manual on tea leaf reading, with guidance on symbols, meanings, and omens, as well as on which type of cup to use, how to swirl the leaves properly, and hints for the novice. It will turn you into an enlightened tea master with a renewed appreciation for the drink that has warmed hands and hearts for generations.

 


Wednesday, October 5, 2011

David and the Giant (I Can Read! / Beginner's Bible, The)

David and the Giant (I Can Read! / Beginner's Bible, The) Review



A giant wants to fight an Israelite soldier. When young and small David offers to fight Goliath, the giant laughs! Can David beat the giant? Find out in this Zonderkidz I Can Read! book for early readers.


Monday, October 3, 2011

Giant Steps: The New Generation of African American Writers

Giant Steps: The New Generation of African American Writers Review



Standing at the crossroads of American literature and the current African American renaissance, Giant Steps presents a vibrant and wonderfully diverse collection of young black writing. Through generous selections of award-winning poetry, fiction, and nonfiction by writers born after 1960, this groundbreaking anthology welcomes readers into the future of African American writing.

Taking its spirit and title from the John Coltrane composition released in 1960, Giant Steps offers an extraordinary window into post-civil rights literature. From Edwidge Danticat and Colson Whitehead to Rebecca Walker and Hilton Als, these authors are not "emerging" but have already arrived. They are National Book Award finalists and winners of the National Poetry Series and the Pushcart Prize. They have been featured in The New Yorker, Time, and Newsweek as our brightest stars; they have been heard through National Public Radio, Rhino Records, and Oprah's Book Club. Previously unpublished works by Danzy Senna, Philippe Wamba, and Elizabeth Alexander run alongside contemporary classics. They are popular and prophetic, literary and experimental. Together with a useful bibliography of current writing and a discography of influential music from soul to jazz to hip-hop, Giant Steps celebrates the complexities of race while paying tribute to the personal and collective histories that are forging this new generation.The writers found in Giant Steps are not "emerging" but have already arrived. From Best American Poetry and O. Henry Award winners to National Book Award finalists and Oprah's Book Club members, the thirty-five authors selected here are some of the best and the brightest writing today.

The book features the full diversity of the African American experience, discussing everything from slavery to sexuality, growing up poor, gay, biracial, or all three. There are stories about the American Revolution, slave insurrections, and the year 1979; there are poems about loss and Sam Cooke; essays about sharecropping and the New South. New and unpublished writing by Danzy Senna, Colson Whitehead, and Darieck Scott is collected alongside work by such favorites as Edwidge Danticat, Kevin Powell, Hilton Als, and Randall Keenan. The writers in Giant Steps are at the heart of what's happening in contemporary culture, and this anthology welcomes readers to the future and powerful present of African American writing.The writers found in Giant Steps are not "emerging" but have already arrived. From Best American Poetry and O. Henry Award winners to National Book Award finalists and Oprah's Book Club members, the thirty-five authors selected here are some of the best and the brightest writing today.

The book features the full diversity of the African American experience, discussing everything from slavery to sexuality, growing up poor, gay, biracial, or all three. There are stories about the American Revolution, slave insurrections, and the year 1979; there are poems about loss and Sam Cooke; essays about sharecropping and the New South. New and unpublished writing by Danzy Senna, Colson Whitehead, and Darieck Scott is collected alongside work by such favorites as Edwidge Danticat, Kevin Powell, Hilton Als, and Randall Keenan. The writers in Giant Steps are at the heart of what's happening in contemporary culture, and this anthology welcomes readers to the future and powerful present of African American writing.


Sunday, October 2, 2011

Jack and the Seven Deadly Giants

Jack and the Seven Deadly Giants Review



A reinvention of a favorite folktale hero

Ever since he was abandoned on a miller's doorstep as a noisy infant, Jack's been saddled with the reputation of village bad boy. When real trouble arrives -- in the form of seven deadly giants roaming the countryside - Jack is blamed. "Bad attracts bad," the village preacher warns his frightened flock. Jack believes it, too. Worried that the village won't be safe unless he leaves, Jack sets off, never intending to battle the giants, but one by one, that's what happens. And in his surprising encounters with these seven truly bad seeds, Jack proves himself braver, smarter, and better than he ever suspected.

The author has found exactly the right youngster to defeat these overgrown manifestations of the seven traditional human failings (including Sloth, the would-be poet; the ever-incensed Mrs. Roth; and Avaritch, the greedy troglodyte), all of whom come roaring to life in striking pictures by Belgian Carll Cneut.


Saturday, October 1, 2011

1921: The Yankees, the Giants, and the Battle for Baseball Supremacy in New York

1921: The Yankees, the Giants, and the Battle for Baseball Supremacy in New York Review



At the dawn of the roaring twenties, baseball was struggling to overcome two of its darkest moments: the death of a player during a Major League game and the revelations of the 1919 Black Sox scandal. At this critical juncture for baseball, two teams emerged to fight for the future of the game. They were also battling for the hearts and minds of New Yorkers as the city rose in dramatic fashion to the pinnacle of the baseball world.

1921 captures this crucial moment in the history of baseball, telling the story of a season that pitted the New York Yankees against their Polo Grounds landlords and hated rivals, John McGraw's Giants, in the first all New York Series and resulted in the first American League pennant for the now-storied Yankees franchise. Lyle Spatz and Steve Steinberg recreate the drama that featured the charismatic Babe Ruth in his assault on baseball records in the face of McGraw s disdain for the American League and the Ruth-led slugging style. Their work evokes the early 1920s with the words of renowned sportswriters such as Damon Runyon, Grantland Rice, and Heywood Broun. With more than fifty photographs, the book offers a remarkably vivid picture of the colorful characters, the crosstown rivalry, and the incomparable performances that made this season a classic.