Independent Books

This book gives the titles of 125 books recommended by independent booksellers, and divides them into three categories: adult fiction, adult non-fiction, and children's books. And that's all. A one-page list of these titles would have provided as much information as this whole books does.

Book Sense does not tell what the books are about. Of course, nobody would expect a synopsis that could spoil the pleasure of reading, but the editors could have given us an idea of the content. Are they thrillers, detective stories, romantic novels, historical novels. What's the basic story line? Only a few articles provide a bit information. Most are meaningless sets of praises, the same kind you find at the back of many books.

For example, the book "The Poisonwood Bible" has several comments. One reads: "Poisonwood Bible is on my lifetime top-ten-favorite-books list. As I read the first sentences I almost shivered with excitement. Kingsolver's incredible descriptive language had me transfixed and I knew immediately I was going to love this book.", The second reads: "This is Kingsolver's richest, most complex, and most deeply affecting novel yet. It offers the reader so much on so many levels." This does not tell me anything about the book. It does not help me decide whether I want to read the book. It's only a bunch of empty words.

Amazon.com describes the Poisonwood Bible the following way: "In 1959, Nathan Price, a fierce, evangelical Baptist, takes his four young daughters, his wife, and his mission to the Belgian Congo - a place, he is sure, where he can save needy souls. But the seeds they plant bloom in tragic ways within this complex culture. Set against one of the most dramatic political events of the twentieth century - the Congo's fight for independence from Belgium and its devastating consequences." This is the kind of description we should have expected from "Book Sense Best Books," enough information to help us decide whether or not we want to read this book, enough to get us interested.

In this sense, "Book Sense Best Books" completely fails.

I'm gung ho for independent booksellers, independent publishers, and all that good stuff. So it makes sense that I love the whole "Book Sense" concept and check out the monthly lists all the time. That said....this fifth anniversary celebration publication is kind of lame. Basically, the Book Sense member booksellers voted on their favorite titles of the last five years (15 adult books and 10 children's), and this book simply publishes the results along with blurbs on each from various booksellers. These 25 selections are backstopped by another 50 titles recommended for reading groups and another 50 children's/young adult books. Minus the blurbs, you could have gotten this information from one well-formatted, 2-sided sheet of paper -- or better yet, the Book Sense web site. To be fair, the previous reviewer paints a rather distorted picture of the blurbs, they actually do describe the books' setting and gist of the plot pretty well. In the previous reviewer's example of the entry for "The Poisonwood Bible", they omitted to mention the third blurb, which reads: "A fascinating novel about the politics and culture of the Belgian Congo in the late 1950s. The story is told by the wife and daughters of Nathan Price, an evangelical Baptist missionary. The family is transformed during their three decades in postcolonial Africa." That seems pretty descriptive to me.

But the main problem with this book is not the writeups, it's the selections. Those who are most likely to actually purchase it and/or support the Book Sense program will have known of these books for quite some time! For example, under fiction, we get: Atonement, Bel Canto, Da Vinci Code, Empire Falls, Life of Pi, Lovely Bones, Poisonwood Bible, Red Tent, Secret Life of Bees, and only one that is perhaps less well known, Peace Like A River. More or less the same holds true for the five adult non-fiction books. The point is, these are not books that intelligent book-seekers are going to have missed... It also bears pointing out that of the ten adult fiction listings, nine were published by companies that are owned by international media conglomerates and benefit from talk-show and TV bookclub pimpery, and other media conglomerate synergies. Only one was published by an independent press, and perhaps not coincidentally it's also the one that's less well known Peace Like A River (published by Grove/Atlantic). So perhaps a more useful compilation for Book Sense to undertake is a list of booksellers favorite books published by independent publishers.

I should say that I can't speak for the children's section, perhaps that's more useful in the sense that parents need a little more assistance finding stuff kids are going to enjoy. One interesting thing I discovered is that if you look at the ten fiction titles almost all have custome

This book not only explains the basics of editing photos with a computer, but also gives excellent examples. I found the book inspiring. I'll take photo editing a lot further because of it.

A clever title as far as marketing is concerned.Very misleading, not very informative about anything. If this book is for anybody it would be for the person that just heard of computer photography for the first time because all it does is tell you about the different prodcts available and a couple of paragraphs about them. There is not "how to" about anything. The book may have some value not worth more than 9.95. Anyone will learn more from another book.

Although it's a little dated, this is almost certainly the best book available on portfolio evaluations.

Book lists schools which do not give credit for experience

Falling is about a naiive gullible boy called Lucas who is struggling with life. Throughout the novel it is found that Lucas is falling through adolecence as opposed to ascending through life. Lucas is targetted by facist and racist neo nazis who use their swarmy persuasive skills to break his innocence and send him in a downward spiral. As the title cleverly suggests, this is a novel about falling through life, falling in love, and falling apart. The novel pays attention to both Lucas' past and present in order for Lucas to continue through his growing up process. His mixed emotions reflect his regret to many of his adolecnt actions, making the story both frustrating and exciting for the reader.

I love the WAY this book is written. The way it is set out is fantastic, and the exclusion of chapters (just parts) makes it more addictive.
However, i don't like this story.
I hated every chracter in this story. You cannot sympathize with anyone, they all are either evil, manipulative or completely stupid beyond words. The main chracter Lucas, is what frustrates me most. Can someone honestly be so naive? So gullable? So indecisive? How does someone NOT see the signs that your taking part in a neo nazi setup. And he constantly doesn't know what to say! He thinks it, and never says it. It is beyond frustration, its infuriating. The only character i felt any sense of sorrow for was the 14 year old boy, who we come across half way through the book - he has a very minor role, but its honestly the only heart wrenching part.

The ending is the most un-satisfying thing i have ever come across in my life. I wish i had never read this book.
Its a good book for some, but for me i could have gone without this experience.

The book is visually appealing, with high quality paper stock and some great photographs of handcrafted manchines. The book's written content suffers by comparison; there is too much filler in the form of engine specifications (how is this relevant in a book dedicated to chassis design/construction?), not enough content related to chassis specifications or construction, and some grievous editing errors. I would also have liked to learn more about the men who built/build these machines, the stories behind the bikes, but I can't necessarily count this as a fault, as the title hasn't strictly promised this. I don't regret buying it, but I have a more than casual interest in chassis design.

being an engineer and fan of custom sport bike chassis, I read this book with great anticipation. As a pictoral and light history of the covered companies, the book succeeds. As a detailed reference book, or a book that would provide any kind of in-depth technical detail, I was sorely disapointed.
The book is well illustrated, and the author provides some insight into the different companies, but I consider it a light brushing rather than a thorough look at each.
Also, contrary to the publisher's description, I did not find any "full specifications" for ANY chassis, and only a general specification for P&M chassis. Additionally, although the book has a first printing in November 2007, most chapter references seem to predate 2001 except brief paragraph notes at the end of some chapters telling if the company is still in business or not.
I was also disapointed to find that other than a printed ad in the back of the book, there were no names, addresses, web sites, or phone #'s for any of the 15 companies included.
As an interesting quick look at the companies, the book succeeds. As a detailed reference for someone looking for "a valuable refference for the trade" the book is mediocre at best.
I would buy the book from the understanding that it is written with the depth of a magazine article rather than an in-depth textbook on the history of the companies involved.
I hate to sound harsh in reviewing the book, but I have to give the book a C+.

Excellent. Essential reading if you want to understand the "independent voter" phenomenon -- what it is and what it isn't, and who these voters really are. Carefully researched, serious scholarship.

This book, published in June 1992 (five months before Ross Perot would rock the established political world by performing extremely well in the presidential debates and ultimately getting 20 million votes as an independent) could not have been more off if it tried.

If ever there was a case to be made that you cannot predict the future by simply looking at past trends, this is it. Looking back, it seems that perhaps the authors were simply caught in a moment of hisotry where anything could (and did) happen - the fall of the Soviet Union, the end of the Cold War, and the beginning of the independent political movement sprouting from the seeds sown in the 70s and 80s.

As the independent political movement grew into "third parties" in the 90s - particularly with the election of Jesse Ventura, the growth of the Reform Party, and ending with Ralph Nader's 2000 Green Party Presidential Candidacy (during which independent voters were decisive in the outcome) - this book became more and more a testimony to the disconnection of the political elites (in particular those who wrote it) than any true compass on the impact of the independent voter on the American political scene.

Since 2000, the independent movement has morphed again, moving from third party and independent candidate based efforts (often called "fringe") to a movement much more focused on organizing and empowering the independent voter (particularly the unaffiliated independent voter) - now the fastest growing political force in America. The "big" names of yesteryear - Ross Perot, Jesse Ventura, and Ralph Nader have given way to the grassroots organizers who continue to build the independent movement - the Jaqueline Salit's (editor of the Neo-Independent Magazine), Lenora Fulani's (leader of the very influential and often attacked Independence Party of New York), and Matt Gonzalez's (Independent and sometimes Green Party President of the Board of Supervisors in San Francisco).

A previous reviewer claimed author John Anderson was some kind of piteous wannabe. He didn't read this book very closely: it's not Anderson talking. The author almost completely relies on interviews with others; they make up 9/10ths of the book. It's an *oral history*, or maybe an oral snapshot, of the 1999 festival. I just got back from my first Sundance (2003) last month, and read this book afterwards. Very amusing, very "human-sized," as the back cover blurb puts it. Some movie suits are their own self-parodists; it's interesting to read about people who live in Park City, Utah all year and then get overrun for two weeks annually. This is not snobby at all, not whiny. It's fun and funny and true.

Far from informative, this book does nothing toward providing any sort of accurate rendition of the madness that has engulfed Sundance of late. Both the dashed dreams and the fulfilled hopes of the various players are often obscured by the author's tedious, hackneyed prose. Prose that is so cliche-ridden I wonder whether the esteemed Mr. Anderson actually wrote it himself or simply gave the book as an assignment to another drear film student, a pre-John Anderson in its larval stage if you will. On every page we learn not so much about the Sundance festival or its participants as we discover Anderson's yearnings to fit into that world, to find a place for himself among the glamor and achievement that only true creators attain. Sour grapes and misgivings on every page, it might more aptly be titled "Tales of a Film Critic Nothing."

Great insights. But can we have views a review from the other perspective. The folks that were in bed when the invasion started. Looking for any views here.

I've known a lot of Panamanians who experienced the invasion first hand, and I'm married to one. I have been to Panama many times. Sorry to all those who hate the US and the US military, but the invasion was pretty innocuous...as invasions go. One Panamanian told me the worst part afterwards was the curfew because some people got stuck in discos overnight. My wife said the soldiers were very nice, and they gave a lot of their MREs away. She also said a lot of babies were conceived during the occupation because many of the women wanted an American father. Not exactly the sort of thing that happens when a populace hates the occupiers. Sure some people died in the invasion, but if anyone cares to recall, Noriega declared war on the US! Our soldiers are brave people, and they aren't the Viking barbarians who pillage, plunder, and kill innocent civilians. On the other side, I have yet to meet one Panamanian who doesn't despise Noriega and his Batallones de la Dignidad.

I am sorry so many people were offended by the book, but the truth is the truth. My family lives in Panama- not on a military base- but as Panamanian nationals and they have witnessed these things first hand that the media doesn't cover. Of course the US media is not going to display it's military killing civilians- innocent poor people- they targeted the poorest areas. There are plenty of PANAMANIANS with missing limbs who can tell you all about it. Wake up!

Stationed on Howard AFB 1yr before, during and 1yr after Just Cause. This book is completely true. If you were not there and only came in for the invasion you have no idea what really went on leading up to the invasion, during the invasion, and after the invasion. There is a little thing called propoganda that the U.S. likes to use to display "Just Cause".

Everyone does deserve a word to be heard, but I do have a problem with people who lie just to be heard. Like the other people who reviewed the book, I too was also there on the ground and doing something for which I believed. I was not only there for the invasion but I was there 5 months prior to the invasion. I saw how Noriega treated the people of Panama if they spoke out. They were lucky to see the next day or they just lived in fear.
"Yes", innocent people were killed, but not even close to the numbers that the book reports. Not even that many people were killed for the whole invasion. I am in no way saying that accidental killing of innocent people is acceptable in any way in a military action (people are held accountable), but it is a reality. Entire areas and neighborhoods being burned? We saw first hand of how Noriega's Dignity Battalion (nothing but a bunch of thugs who were already criminals) PDF, and other members of Noriega's little "Gestapo Like" units burn down their own countrymen's houses even BEFORE the invasion.
What reason did the US have for invading the country from within? Well, other than the drug shipments that moved freely through the canal going unchecked because Noriega was lining his pockets with Drug money, US citizens being harassed, beaten and killed by Noriega's hench men, Panamanian citizens being rapped, harassed, beaten and killed for speaking out, basic Human rights being violated for a long time by the Panamanian Govt., your right... we didn't have a reason to invade. War [stinks], and no matter what reason we had to go in, good people are going to lose their lives because of one person.

For the benefit of the Jan 2002 reviewer from Chevy Chase---I am the reviewer from Washington, DC. While I am a graduate of Exeter, I am not a former headmaster. And I continue to believe that the Levy work remains deeply flawed, largely for the reasons stated in my previous review.

First, this is a thin book at only 90 pages so what I recommend for a possible updated version of this book isn't going to tax any printing press.

This book just comes off as way too harsh. I have not been a student of Phillips Exeter Academy nor even visited it, but it is just hard to believe it is all bad. I think the author should have started off with a chapter titled something along the lines of: "What's good at Phillips Exeter Academy" or "Uncle Phil's good points". Forewarning that the rest of the book will be on the more critical side, but wanting to show that the author can see the good as well as the bad. As it stands, this book comes off like fingernails on a blackboard.

Another thing I wish the author had been done was to cite some studies, news articles, and non-fiction books that back up the author's assertions, conclusions, and "facts". He backs up nothing. Nothing. There is no reference section or reference footnotes. Not even an introduction on what research the author did for this book. You're just expected to trust that the author is telling you the truth. This makes this book come off as little more than an opinion piece. Or more accurately, a very long letter-to-the-editor to the local newspaper (Exeter News-Letter in this case) by the local overly-critical crank.

This book also comes off as a condemnation of capitalism. The author's constant put-downs of stock brokers, lawyers, and business people quickly gets tiresome. The author's liberal biases reek through at these points.

Lastly, there's little of value in this book for society ... or even for other boarding schools. I was expecting a book that dealt with the general topic of boarding schools and using Phillips Exeter Academy as merely an illustrative example. A focus for such a discussion. Not a book solely and exclusively focused on Phillips Exeter Academy. In fact, the book seems to say that the only boarding school that needs major fixing is Phillips Exeter Academy. Maybe that's true, but the case the author made for this was weak. And I doubt that other boarding schools will do any soul-searching after reading this book. More likely, they'll pat themselves on the back and/or snicker at Uncle Phil's public dressing-down. And because of this, I'm very surprised this book was even published due to the extremely small audience this book seems to be targeting.

I am a new prep (freshman) at Phillips Exeter Academy, I have found it to be a wonderful place, with ample oppurtunities for all of its citizens. While I might not have a representational view of the school, I believe the author's accusations to be unfound. While other people may look at as an elitist experience, there is plenty of proof to support otherwise. 35% of the schools students are supported by dome form of financial aid, while over half of the incoming students previously went to public schools.

I had a child who attended Exeter. She and several friends had mixed reactions to the school, as did I. Levy's book helped clarify many of my misgivings. I was often struck by the way inquiries received smug responses which usually brushed off questions with mere catch phrases, quickly followed by refrains about what a great school it was. Levy's discussion about the many forms of arrogance in the school reified many things. The Washington, DC reviewer, who I strongly suspect to be a former Exeter headmaster, actually reflected some of the very arrog. Levy described. If the reviewer is right that Exeter is now financially better off and has revived sagging science curricula, so much the better. Elsewhere, Levy's analysis still resonates. Has Exeter not had a drug problem, as the reviewer believes; or is the dennial of it another example of wishful thinking deluding an administrator? Elsewhere, Levy's analysis of other examples of arrogance seems to remain fresh. The problems of intolerant feminism and other such forms of political correctness bring to mind many other penetrating studies of the problems which plague our nation's schools, problems which administrators arrogantly ignore to our peril. Levy's book seems to me one from which boarding school parents and students can profit, and one which any prospective boarding school teacher should certainly consider.

I am an 11th grader at Phillips Exeter Academy and find it to be the most wonderful place I have ever been. I am on financial scholarship, with around 350 other members out of the school's 1,000 students. I find that I am treated very equally by students and faculty alike. I am receiving an amazing education at this school in all sorts of ways. At Exeter I learn something from every person I meet - the teachers, students in my class, students in my dorm, athletes on my field hockey team, the security men, the dining hall workers, and the janitor of our dorm. I find this book off the mark in several ways.

I was looking for a book on technical data for energy independent sytems, how they hooked up to your house, how it interacted with the existing power company system etc. This book has more opinion in it than information. I only read the first three chapters so far but the construction of all the chapters seem to be the same. It starts out with someone's story where they put down the power companies and insert a lot of "save the Earth" jargon. Most of the chapters consist of this type of rhetoric and at the very end of the chapter there is some useful information about a certain system, PV,wind, etc. I was also disappointed to find out that this book was copyrighted in 1993. The field of PV has taken leaps and bounds since this book was published. There is some useful information in this book but in my opinion, it could have been condensed into a short concise booklet of about 45 pages.

As an editor and writer, to me this book is awful. The title is misleading: it provides no idea that this is simply a collection of feel-good stories from people who have succeeded in living independently. For the person wanting to start to live independently, this is NOT the book. Except by accidental gleanings from the stories, there is no comparison of technologies, no systematic analysis of how to go about it. The incomplete and inadequate descriptions of technologies are poorly placed and you wonder why they were placed where they were at all; the applied information could be culled into ten pages or less. There is also a nauseating rash of redneck chest-thumping about why America is so great and why it is losing the "race" to go green, presented in the very way that provides an implicit answer: America is great because it is full of greedy, competitive, small-minded, insular, arrogant people built to exploit the country's natural resources - the very ones that (most of) these people - including me - would like to get away from. This is off-set by some (again, accidental) very brief and quiet mention of the usefulness of non-American technologies. I expected more from this book, especially given the reviews it has received already. Much like the authors approach to his own building, the book may be euphemistically called `organic'; otherwise, it may be called just wasteful, inefficient, and poorly focused.

I found this book very disappointing. I was looking for more of a "How-To" book which would provide answers and ideas for a mountain cabin. Instead I found it to contain warm hearted informtion in the form of short stories. At a minimum this books title should be modified to "The Independant Home - Good Hearted American Stories of Living Well with Power from the Sun, Wind, and Water.

This book is a motivational book for people considering building an off-grid home. It includes arguments for living independently of the grid or other utility systems, stories and interviews with people who've established independent homesteads, and some general information about design considerations (siting the home for maximum efficiency, ways to generate power, and maintenance issues). Although there are a few tables and graphs, this is definitely not a how-to book; it includes very little detailed information about setting up independent power systems. Instead, the book focuses much more on why people choose to live off grid and how they get along without grid power. The book is illustrated with black-and-white photographs of people and their houses or diagrams of equipment and how it works. End material includes a glossary, a bibliography, and an index.

Unfortunately, many of the interviews with homeowners are rather disjointed. It seems that Potts was striving to convey what people told him as accurately as possible, and so he relied on direct quotes where it would have made more sense to fill out the statements with the details needed to explain what the people really meant or intended to say rather than the exact words they used. For the interviews, Potts chose people in the regions he knew best, namely Northern California, Vermont, Hawaii (Maui), and communities in New Mexico, Colorado, and Arizona. No mention is made of independent homes outside of these regions, and very little is mentioned of independent living in other countries. Potts has a tendency to stray off topic and he occasionally includes some information that, while interesting, isn't really about building an independent homestead, such as chapter five, a simplified accounting of our environmental impact on the planet (ecological footprinting), in which everything we do or use is translated into trees. (The details of the accounting system aren't very well thought out, since, for example, Potts equates the impact of 1 mile driven to 10 miles flown, when cars actually get better passenger mileage than airplanes.)

The strongest feature of this book is the encouragement it provides that living independently can be done, and done comfortably today. Many of the people interviewed in this book live relatively ordinary lives, complete with electric lights and refrigerators. Some have vacuum cleaners, and some even have freezers. Significantly, all of them are living in remote areas, where they take responsibility for supplying not only their power, but also their water. Because they realize the limits of their water supply, they use composting toilets, and since they don't have sewage to deal with, their drains have nothing but gray water, which is reused elsewhere around the farm. Most grow some or all of their own food, and consequently generate very little garbage. Many even apply the goal of independence to educating their children, and home school their kids. Overall, the information contained in the book is quite exciting and encouraging, but after reading the book cover-to-cover, I'm no wiser about the details of how I could begin to implement some of these ideas in my own home.

When I ordered this book I thought it was a collection of stories gathered from people who have moved off the grid with some techniques and practices thrown in. Instead what I've found is that it preaches to the choir.

The emphasis is on explaining how we waste energy through our daily on-the-grid lives and what doing so costs in "real" terms of "dead dinosaurs" turned crude oil deposits. If I'm buying this book then it's assumed I already have some concern for the environment and my energy usage, that I already want to "get off the oil" addiction my nation has. Why propound it over and over and over in this book. Why preach environmentalism in a book bought by environmentalists? Why not give them the info they need and the courage to do it through depicting others who've done it already?

There are some stories of how others have gotten off the grid but they are short and don't really go into any of the problems one may encounter or how they can be overcome.

A disappointing book that so easily could have been much much better.