Genres Books

I read this book from cover to cover and only set it down when I got tired. Each night I would set aside some time to join adam on his adventures growing up playing the harmonica. He talks about love gained and lost and how he first became a harp player, including some of his influences. He has a captivating writing style and brings alot of imagery to his writing. I really felt he poured his soul out onto the page and you really kind of get to know who Adam and Satan are. Not the Prince of Darkness but Sterling "Satan" Magee. The overall story really is about the awkward white boy putting himself out there to play a soulful style of music and how he went through pain and heartache to pay his dues with with his friend and bluesmate, Mr. Satan. I would highly recommend this piece of work by Adam. You should also check out their 3 albums: Harlem Blues, Mother Mojo, and Living on the River.

I could hardly put this book down to perform activities of daily living, let alone going to work. "Mr Adam" has created a masterpiece of American musical literature. Being a blues lover of many years, I was bored to death by the almost clinical approach of most writers on the subject. Not so, Mr. Gussow! He delivers a passionately honest and heart felt memoir filled with wonderfully alive and vibrant individuals, sharing with us the one true American music, the blues.

It is an amazing thing when an artist (in this case, Gussow, a writer/blues harp player) can somehow manage to make their mark despite all the confusion and hard knocks life throws at them- and they sometimes throw at themselves. This is a moving story about a burgeoning blues musician captured with excellent dialogue... Gussow has made his characters come alive and jump off the page the way writers are supposed to.

Not only is it Gussow's personal memoirs of his early years in music, but a riveting biography of one of the most unique and original blues acts in recent years- Satan & Adam. Gussow's accounts of his early music/life mentors (such as the underexposed harpist Nat Riddles) with sincerity and genuine emotion is fascinating. The telling of Mister Satan's story is a valuable contribution to blues history that could well have been lost in obscurity.

There are issues explored in this book that have rarely been expounded upon with any meaningful insight in any musician interview or book I can remember. The passages in the book where Gussow is in the middle of Harlem grappling with the rift and misunderstanding between black and white is especially poignant, particularly from his perspective as a young, white, Princeton educated "bluesman".

Although this book isn't an instructional course on technique or musicianship- for those who aren't aware- Adam Gussow is considered by many blues afficionados to be one of the best harmonica players alive today. So he's paid some dues and he knows what he's talking about.

Adam Gussow had the good fortune, the talent, street smarts and the heartfelt focus to get out there and live it- become an apprentice to a bluesmaster- just like most traditional art is passed down from accomplished teacher to eager student. I admire him for it. Mister Satan's Apprentice is a must read for any struggling musician or blues fan- it just might get you thinking about your own life's journey.

Recently it was my privilege to see author and harmonica player Adam Gussow at my local huge independent bookstore here in the Eastern US. I rarely do commercials, but if you can't catch Adam, you can check out his new novel "Mr. Satan's Apprentice". Adam calls it "a blues memoir", and so it is. The guy is a no-shit, kick-butt, street-smart harp player! FYI, I have fairly high standards in this realm. If you've seen or heard the New York duo "Satan and Adam", you'll know what I mean. The guy is ALSO a juicy and creative, energetic, sexy writer - something I'm also picky about. Princeton Ph.D. candidate - English.

Adam's book describes a journey that a few of us know, but most do not. The musician in you will relate to the tale of the emergence of deep and powerful music from the little instrument - and the romantic in you will throb with the ways the emerging harmonica player and boundary-crosser discovers the things he needs to grow musically and personally - and then sometimes fearlessly, sometimes not, sets out to acquire them. You'll meet his teachers and mentors, and like it or not, you'll see life through the eyes of this seeker of musical and personal connection. You'll go with Adam on the romantic roller coaster as loves come and go - and you'll travel with him to Paris to play in the Metro and on the street; to the American South, and to other places exotic and otherwise - including a hitch with the road company of Broadway show based on Mark Twain's Sawyer and Finn. Later we get into the recording studio with Mr. Gussow and Mr. Satan - the Harlem street mystic and one-man band who becomes Adam's main-man mentor and muse, the Mr. Satan of the book's title. Throughout the book you'll find Adam the street intellectual examining his position as a white man among black men (and black women) in this blues-filled world - an examination in which Mr. Satan plays a key role.

A book for players and lovers - of the spirit of the music, of the street; of the endless forms of beauty and love, as they are found ALL over the place. The author is one who knows, and magically, describes, many of the gut experiences we players know; to my knowledge no one's ever written quite this way about these things before. Like the performing moments, the pulling out of all the everything you've got and then some, when the audience is on it's very EDGE, right there with you; when you are truly and purely the great IT! Blowing and drawing deep, and deeper, and then high and higher; and the room is all whoops and smiles, and all there in your hand. A good player knows these things, and believe me, in a blues band, nobody gets that kind of juice but the harp player.

OK, so maybe you don't know the peak of performance grace and light - but you know your peaks, and Adam's telling can stir it back into view...

Adam Gussow writes of music, romance, conflict, and awakening in an intimately physical and heart- connected way. As a player, I'm rocked. -"Harmonica Jack" Merrylees (JMerrylees@aol.com)

In "Mister Satan's Apprentice," street musician extraordinaire Adam Gussow has left in just about everything, and it's about 40 percent too much; the book would have read far better at a sleek 250 pages. But the good stuff is really good, and the book is well worth reading despite its distractions and digressions. In his early 40s, Gussow is currently a doctoral candidate in Princeton's English department. But thousands know him as the harmonica-wielding half of the "progressive gutbucket blues" duo Satan and Adam -- three-CD recording artists, photogenic subject of any number of newspaper and magazine features, and cameo stars of the U2 movie "Rattle and Hum."

In his autobiography, Gussow gets deep inside blues, and his relationship to it, and manages to successfully translate the music into language. "Blues harmonica played well was a miniature tongued slalom, a tornado swallowed and contained," he tells us, and his words capture every bit of excitement that the grooves and notes have to offer. "Mister Satan's Apprentice" is about much more than the blues, though -- it's a provocative meditation on race from a white man immersed in a traditionally black genre, neighborhood and world. Playing around with his first harmonica, in 1974, Gussow contemplates the subtleties of playing blues. "It had something to do with being a black guy," he muses.

As the protagonist in his narrative, Gussow pales (no pun intended) next to two marvelous characters: his two mentors, Nat Riddles and Sterling "Mister Satan" Magee. Twenty-two years older than his protégé, Mister Satan is as colorful as they come. He's a visual artist and apocalyptic numerologist with a murky music-industry background, and a font of, if not wisdom, then brilliantly idiosyncratic aphorisms and soliloquies. A Harlem fixture when Gussow approaches the guitarist to jam along, he shouts and hollers, runs hot and cold, towers over other men. Mister Satan looms larger than life, but harmonica player Nat Riddles is entirely real, an odd-job taxi driver with a dazzling smile and soulful tone. "He was perpetually on the verge of becoming the blues world's Next Big Thing," Gussow writes. "A young black harp-player with the Sound." Riddles flits in and out of fortune, showing up unexpectedly to astound a New York club, phoning from somewhere in the South, destitute and desperate, surviving gunshot wounds only to eventually succumb to a cruel wasting disease.

It's the music, finally, that counts most -- Gussow gives his story its own soundtrack, one of restlessness and yearning, of his struggle to capture the Sound: "The Sound was Southern-bound, it was cocky, playful, manic, chucking, resentful, edgy, comforting, relentless. It took incredible lip strength and finesse to produce. It was sexual. It was the haunted, restless feeling of a guy's apartment late at night after the woman who used to live there had moved out. It was whatever nasty things she was doing with the other guy-a virile sensitive soulmate-this very minute. It was the best way of beating those visions back into the ghoulish cave they had crawled out of. Working hard at the Sound was a socially acceptable way of sobbing, raging, and primal-screaming from a hot heart while pretending merely to be practicing." A little of this kind of writing goes a long way, and there's an awful lot of it here. Granted, it's a real challenge to maintain a level of excitement in writing about music page after page, particularly about blues, a genre built on the same few chords locked in a repetitious groove. So it's forgivable that Gussow often leans out a little far: "The sidewalk scene dissolved; I was wandering in a garden of earthly delights, hands cupped against the sweet cold fluid air. Every bent note was a pitch-perfect arrow puncturing the gray dusk. You only live now. Blue notes danced and spun, lines endlessly unfolding like so many wrapped gifts laid bare." You have to remind yourself that he's talking about a harmonica, one of the more prosaic of instruments.

For all Gussow's breathless adjectives and action verbs, he's frustratingly vague about the technical aspects of the duo's "huge raw perfect sound." The book's photos show Gussow with effects pedals at his feet, but he makes no mention of them; he doesn't mention the basic information that he plays in "cross harp" style until page 386; Mister Satan's "phase-shifted guitar wash and deafening clatter" is described pretty much only in metaphorical terms, as, for instance, "an endlessly unrolling Persian carpet with gristle and clanks added." Gussow is so good at getting inside his playing that the narrative sags whenever it moves to other topics. A hefty amount of the bloat deals with his failed relationships. We meet mercurial crackhead Robyn and inconstant ex-fat girl Gail, but mostly there's erratic, irritable hyperfeminist Helen. Gussow tells us on page 30 that Helen left him back in 1984, so we're predisposed to dislike her, and we indeed do. "Most men had a girlfriend," he writes. "I had Aphrodite crossed with Kali the Destroyer, She of infinite ravenous limbs." Worse, the book's artfully jumbled narrative, with short sections ordered sort of sequentially on several tracks, dooms us to read about Helen over the entire course of the book. We think we're finally through with her, and then: "1983. Things with Helen had turned out surprisingly well . . ." Enough already!

In the late '80s and early '90s, a period when racial violence kept flaring up in the outer boroughs of New York City, Satan and Adam's young-old, white-black novelty made a splash, but momentum slipped away. "Minor celebrity beckoned, then faded," Gussow writes. And despite the book's vibrant cover photo of the pair, they no longer perform, according to an e-mail Gussow sent me. "[I]t's impossible to keep the act together," he wrote, noting that Mister Satan now lives in south-central Virginia and has no telephone. That's a real shame.

the seller did a great job in getting this book to me quickly. Great job

One of the best books ever written on the subject. If the topic is confusing, she makes it less confusing. She is one of the great spiritual thinkers of the early twentieth century.

What else can be said about this work Mysticism that hasn't been said over the years. Some say, in this modern period we now live in that some of her phrases etc. are out moded. Perhaps this is true! But if you are a person who has had experiences with God or Inner revelations, you feel this great Love within you, but you are not sure what it is, this book may give you the answers. When I first tried to read St. John of the Cross when I was 25, I felt the beauty and the love from his writings, but all the suffering he kept talking about was too much for me. Meaning of course I wasn't actually ready to read it until years later. After I had developed a little more spiritually. The same with this book it's a great history of mysticism and love; but you will not understand it fully
unless you are on this Path of Transformation. It can be read, but it will only be guessed at, until you experience it within your self. Yes, this is a great book; and remember: "You are the Love, You Search for In Others.

Underhill's book is a superbly authoritative look at the facts and processes of the mystical experience. This work offers much in the way of assurance and guidance to those whose inner eyes are beginning to open, as well as those who are already well acquainted with the deeper layers of their own spiritual reality. She is keen on detail and shares a wealth of examples from the lives of well known and not so well known mystics from all times and places.

While one may get the feeling from Underhill's works that self deprivation is a key to enlightenment, it should be remembered when reading such potent material that spiritual development is an evolution of values, that we move into each new phase when we are clear that our current values no longer serve our forward movement.

I particularly appreciate Underhill's superb command of the English language in choosing words that convey abstractions that could easily be defined merely as inexplicable feelings. She is one of those rare and gifted writers that I wish were still alive. I would love to be able to thank her personally for her monumental contribution to the world's great spiritual writings.

J Douglas Bottorff, author of The Whisper of Pialigos.

The author states at one point that only a mystic can write about mysticism, or rather about the true mystic experience. Conventional language, mere words, are poor tools for expressing transcendent reality. In spite of this I found myself exclaiming again and again during my reading that I knew exactly what was being described.

The core here is that only Being can know Being, we behold that which we are, and we are that which we behold. There is a spark in man's soul which is Real and by its cultivation that we may know Reality. You can only behold that which you are. Only the Real can know Reality. If this resonates to you, if it sounds strangely familiar, then perhaps this work is for you.

The mystic is drawn to the path by the force of love- the overriding desire for union with the Absolute. It is by this power that he or she is drawn to transcendent reality. This love leads to the state of contemplation which is the subtle state of consciousness that allows access to another plane. It is a form of consciousness recognized by Plato and Plotinus as well as Augustine and Aquinas. It is that form of consciousness beyond the emotional, intellectual, and volitional striving of ordinary men- a different way of knowing.

The second half of the book is structured according to the pattern of awakening, purification, illumination, ecstacy and rapture, the dark night of the soul, and the unitive life. In no sense is it a "how-to" guide, but it is a most valuable validation for those who have travelled any way at all on the path. It has also been traveled by others.

I find it significant that the author ends her appendix of biographical sketches with William Blake's death in 1827. There have of course been genuine, accomplished mystics since then, but the materialist and rationalistic world is more hostile to the testimony of the true mystic than the "dark ages" ever were.

And yet Mystic Union is no less a reality- and no less obtainable by the boon of grace.

After all, it is to know God that is our ultimate and highest purpose- all else is secondary if not ultimately trivial.

There are several things that stand out upon even a preliminary acquaintance with the book. The tasteful presentation of the book, the Klimt on the cover, the quality of the paper the book is printed on all exhibit careful attention to fine detail. But there is an additional quality, which I found particularly appealing.

The author unabashedly centers her attention on eternal values, such as beauty and higher aspirations of the soul. These Òold-fashionedÓ values which the author takes as given and forever relevant, our societyÑat least that part of it which expresses itself most loudlyÑdeems irrelevant and out of fashion. The bookÕs tone, with its unhurried soft-spoken concern for beauty and lofty values, strikes me as bold and courageous. For our time is interested in flashy, quick, loud and digital (that is, small and fractured and flat and two-dimensional). The society is much less interested in the quiet, the subtle and the deep, which this book espouses. The book is set against the background of the fin de siecle, only this time it is OUR own 20th centuryÕs fin de siecle! The message, whether conscious and unconscious, that the book delivers, becomes a counterpoint and an antidote to our culture.

If you know nothing or everything about music, read this book to open up a whole new world. Draper's simple, elegant writing and natural approach to her subject will inspire readers to pay attention and listen to music with a fresh approach. This is a great gift for yourself, your children, your parents, your new amour. Listening to the cds and reading the accompanying text with friends is a wonderful reason to have a series of dinner parties.
Thanks, M. Draper, for bring music back into my life through another door I didn't even know was there.

This book is full of love of music and inspiration for musicians of all ages and levels. For the historian, there are many lesser known, interesting facts. For the music student, there are words of wisdom about keeping the inspiration and love in daily practice. For the music lover just beginning to build a listening library, there are wonderful suggestions for starting a CD collection (not limited to classical music). This is a book to be read slowly, to be savored and contemplated. This book invites the reader to experience music in a very sensual way, not with ears alone, but with one's whole body, mind and spirit. It is an exploration of the possibilities of music as a mood setter, a mood enhancer, or a mood anti-dote. It is about music as a healer of physical and emotional disharmonies. It is an exploration of what is universal in music and what is highly individual.
There is something for everyone in this book. I highly recommend it as a gift to anyone interested in music.

Maureen McCarthy Draper's book is an invitation to return to the joy of listening to music in a way to set moods, to mark days of the week or to simply relax and be transported by musical experiences. This invitation includes examples via the carefully selected selections of music on the accompanying CD's which depict each of the examples of how music can soothe the soul within, or elevate the awareness of beauty in a way that no other medium can. This book reminds those of us that love music of its importance, but invites us to consider it at another level of perception and gives us the suggested methods to add to our perception.

It also makes a lovely gift to anyone who loves, and loves to share the joy of music....

Maureen Draper`s book is a jewel! In today`s time of high technology and speed, she slowed me down, called the voice of my heart and reminded me to listen to my body and to my soul. She did it all with classical music - speaking of it with great simplicity, and although i am a professional classical musician, i felt like i was entering an unknown field and wanted to know EVERYTHING about it! On the two cd`s that she recommends buying together with the book, she has chosen less known pieces, which allowed me to discover my own feelings and sense of the music, undisturbed by the familiarity of more famous pieces. She guided me through the many different landscapes of music and patiently showed me, with great knowledge and passion and tenderness, all their beauty, encouraging me, at last, to be alone in them, to observe and to fully sink in the emotions they elicited in me.

This book is an unusual, unique look into the depths of music and it makes a wonderful gift. Thank you, Maureen!

The book disclose many backstages tales of opera. I enjoyed it pretty much.

I found this book absolutely fabulous. Mr. Volpe is to the point and shall we say, extremely honest, in his account of his years at the opera, including via himself. One finishes this book with a greater understanding of what goes on behind the scenes. It reads well, with enough details to keep the average reader riveted and without the unnecessary clutter found in some of those books that insist on giving us an hour by hour acount of events. I especially liked the way the book was subdivided. If it does follow a certain chronological order, each chapter focuses on a specific subject matter, for example signers... that serves as the guide thru the different events. Hence, this book is delightful and I strongly recommend it to all and especially, if not exclusively, to opera lovers. Even ones who do not know a lot about opera will love this book.
Marie Kirouack

Opera is dramatic and bigger than life on stage and back stage. Now we learn about all the drama that also goes on in managing the Metropolitan Opera, the largest opera company in the world and an arts organization that puts on more opera performances each year than any other company on earth. Its budget is more than $200 million for something like 240 performances per year. I was quite surprised to read how the monies to fund this huge budget are raised. No, it isn't the government, corporate, or even the richest donors that provide the bulk of the money as I had suspected.

The 2005-2006 budget was $221 million. The Box Office receipts were $101 million, the endowment of $300 million provided another $18 million, parking and commons revenues provided $10 million, and the support from the Federal, State, and City governments was only $375,000! Where does the other $92 million come from each year? 125,000 private donors, 2/3 of whom live outside New York City, provide donations ranging from $60 to more than $500,000 and total $80 million. The 300 members of the Metropolitan Opera Club provide another half-million, and the board members each provide substantial contributions to the met each year. I found this fascinating and quite a different mix than I had expected.

The author, Joseph Volpe, has run the Met for the past 16 seasons, but has worked at the met for more than four decades. He joined as a carpenter and worked his way up from the back of the house to operations. While he showed great skill in getting the shows on stage, he was passed over more than once for the job of Managing Director because of his blue collar background. But after floundering through some poor appointments, Volpe got the job. He admits that his personal style is more, well, frank than most other arts managers and the scowl on his face on the cover photograph (and in some of those included in the book) let us know that he is all about getting the shows on stage and at the highest level rather than getting us to love him as a person.

Volpe came to love opera while working at the Met. True, his grandmother had him listen to "Cavalleria Rusticana" with her when he was a child, but it was getting the magnificent sets to work and to hear the great singers, choruses, and see the dancers, costumes, and even the guests, that got him to see what grand opera is truly about and fall in love with the greatest of all art forms.

The book is part his own biography, part the history of the Met, and part about the great singers he has worked with while at the Met in his various capacities. The book has dozens of interesting photos from all the eras of the Met and the stories of the singers are well chosen and very entertaining. Pavarotti, as you might expect, provides some wonderful anecdotes when he is trying to help Volpe lose weight and includes Volpe in his "yoga" lessons.

The book is quite a pleasant read and I enjoyed it a great deal. It is interesting to hear about the whole of the opera company including everyone it takes to make the shows rather than just the great soloists. Coming from a blue collar background myself, I enjoyed hearing about the working guys and gals that make the show work for those fabulous artists who create the great music with their voices and hearts. The magic wouldn't be nearly as powerful without all those sets, costumes, lights, and the performers on the chorus or the dancers.

Recommended!

Joseph Volpe was a tough as the job he took on when he grabbed the reins of the Metropolitan Opera House, having to deal with the likes of James Levine and Luciano Pavarotti.
But as in the phrase beloved of behavorial psychologists, his was a "tough love." He started as a carpenter at the Old Met with but a passing interest in opera, but by the time he left, music infused his very blood with a passion for his work and the people who populated the space he called home.
The autobiography details the years, the failed marriage, the battles with superstars, the triumphs and disappointments with a candor perhaps unique in this type of memoir, where the authors tend to be either diplomatic or, as with Sir Rudolph Bing, unrelentingly acerbic.
Volpe tells his story in lean, plain-spoken language that reveals the inner workings of the gargantuan Met and makes that place of mazes and convolutions an environment the reader can understand.
Joe Volpe (after reading the book, it's hard to think of him as Joseph) dragged The Met kicking and screaming into the 21st century without violating the traditions that surround opera, and his book is refreshing, entertaining and revelatory.
It should be read by anyone interested in opera, politics or the big business of show.

Joseph Volpe's "The Toughest Show on Earth" is a remarkably comprehensive look at the recent history of the Metropolitan Opera as told through the eyes of the retiring general manager, himself. Volpe has the best "view" in the house and no wonder...he's been there for over forty years.

From the start it's clear that Joe Volpe is not a man to be crossed lightly. Tough as nails (and nails were part of his business) he rises from an entry level position to the top job...and reveals much along the way. There's just enough "dirt" in this book to tickle the senses of the reader and anyone who has ever been in opera knows exactly what Volpe describes...in order to be associated with opera personalities it is sometimes required to act like one.

The longest chapter in "The Toughest Show" is devoted to Volpe's firing of Kathleen Battle and one can just see the steam building in the author's ears as he amasses stories of misbehavior on the part of the "embattled" diva over a period of years. Finally, he acts, much to the delight of the cast and crew. It's a juicy chapter and one of the best in the book. While Volpe offers reflections on just about anyone with whom he has come in contact, he reserves the nicest comments for conductor James Levine and (whom he calls the "Siamese Twins") tenors Luciano Pavarotti and Placido Domingo. Without these three would there be a present-day Metropolitan Opera?

There are occasional bouts of self-serving given over to by the author and often he feels a need to defend himself based on some past controversial decisions, (which I found rather astounding given the fact that he is departing the scene) but what makes "The Toughest Show" such a wonderful book is the comprehensiveness of the Met story. It's not only onstage and backstage but everywhere else, too. "The Toughest Show on Earth" is the greatest guided tour around. It's a terrific read and Volpe deserves much credit not only for this book but for a lifetime of service dedicated to one of the nation's treasures...the Metropolitan Opera.

I passed on this book when it first appeared figuring a mere concert list wouldn't be very interesting, what a blunder! This book is far more than a concert chronology, it's an enthralling history of the band, bursting with photos and short essays on the people, places and events that make up Who history. This was clearly a labor of love for the authors, and if Who fanatics have been able to find a few errors scattered around, big deal, I'm just glad the book was reissued as a sub-compact paperback updated to the shows following the death of John Entwistle. As the surviving members of The Who have chosen to "Defiantly spit into the abyss" and continue to tour to critical and public acclaim, further editions of this fine book are entirely justifed. And boy was I thrilled to recently find I still have a ticket stub from a Who show thirty years ago documented in this book. There are maybe half a dozen essential books about The Who and this is one of them, if it's the only one you buy then you've made a good choice, it's outstanding whether you're a new Who fan or a grizzled Wholigan.

Seem to be reading and listening a lot to the Who, and this book was an impulse buy.

For the fan, this is a way to walk through history with the band, from the earliest beginnings as the Detours, and even before with Daltrey's founding of the group, and Townshend and Entwistle's affiliation with others.

A lot of stories, memorabilia, set lists, and very interesting stuff.

I really enjoyed this book. Especially the great photos included.
I bought my copy in London, so it was nice to travel parts of London and see a few places where they actually played! But it's really only for die hard fans of the band (like myself, I guess). Also interesting are the set lists to the shows they played.
I'm no good at writing reviews, but I'll highly recommend this one. It's worth the price. A thanks to Irish Jack and Joe McMichael for making it.

And of course The Who. The greatest band in the world.

First thing you should know is that while this is a thick book, it is also small; around 6" x 5", which is quaint, and not a flaw in anyway, just a surprise. There are lots of great pictures, reviews, accounts, and set lists provided.

The flaw, to my mind though, is that there are no references about circulating RECORDINGS of these shows. Most of the hardcore fans who would buy this book probably collect tapes, bootlegs, and cdrs. Most of the time a setlist or stage comments are provided for a show it's because a recording exists. I would have loved it if the authors could have aknowledged this with brief comments like, "A clear, but distant audience recording exists for the first 80 minutes of the concert" or "A mixed soundboard recording of this show has been bootlegged and rereleased many times." There are websites with this kind of information and other highly collected bands, such as Led Zeppelin, have entire books devoted to the collection of unreleased material.

If you're a fan you're guaranteed to enjoy this book regardless, so get it!

If you get an opportunity to see The Who (now on tour - summer/fall 2000) please do so. Other than Bruce Springsteen, they are without peer on stage.This book does a fine job of detailing Who gigs from the early 1960's (as the Detours)to the 1996-1997 Quadrophenia tour. The authors recap the songs, the stage "happenings" (smashed guitars, onstage feuds, etc.)and other "Odds & Sods". It's kind of like a baseball box score for Who fans! If you're already a Who fan (or are an aspiring one) this is THE book for you!

I studied the Vaganova Method at ABT as a child and young adult. Now that I am teaching I like to use the book as a guideline, review and brush up on things I may be overlooking. When you are away from the classroom as an adult (or an older adult) it is necessary to keep trying to learn from others or resources. I highly recommend this book.

I love this book. As a new teacher, it has been invaluable in helping me to create the classes for my beginning students.

If you are a ballet teacher, and aren't able to take master classes very often, this is a good book for you. The lessons sparked new choreography for me, and provided a different perspective to age/skill set; however, the lessons were also developed by a man whose job was to train ballet students to be professionals (age/skill set obviously varies when kids are studying ballet recreationally or for the joy of learning ballet). This book provides an opportunity to expand an adagio, petite allegro, or barre work.

I'm a former dancer and a classical ballet teacher now. This book is a Ballet bible among my colleagues who teach classical ballet.

I cannot say enough good things about this book. I studied ballet for about twelve years when I was young and was asked to offer a ballet club in my school in the fall. This book lays out, class by class, how to train young dancers effectively. Included are photographs of correct positions and technique so even though my own is a little rusty I am able to show my students illustrations of what they will hope to achieve especially since my turn out has never been that great. I am happy to say that the class attracted boys as well as girls in my inner-city school and that a few of the children have convinced their parents to enroll them in a dance school due to their diligence and the interest they demonstrated in the ballet club.

Thayne Davidson Miller, III, is, to his way of thinking, the very self-embodiment of "the poor little rich kid." As the only child of billionaire parents, he has been afforded every advantage in life except one - the ability to actually be a child and do the things other children do every day. His parents take him with them wherever they go, and he has already mastered such subjects as law and medicine by the time he becomes a teenager, but he hates being isolated and allowed to interact with only a few select adults. Life as he has always known it changes irrevocably on the day of his thirteenth birthday, however, when both of his parents are killed by terrorists.

After a year of mourning and isolation alongside his only friends (Jacque, his "gentleman's gentleman," and his dog Chopsie) Thayne is determined to do what any other teenager would be doing - attending school with students his own age. Not just any old school will do, of course; it has to be a school where his advanced intellect is allowed to soar. While he considers the Scorsos International Academy and University, it's really a foregone conclusion that he will choose GODA (Global Optimum Development Academy) on the island of Demeverde, for it and the mysterious man who runs it played an important part in his parents' lives. GODA is much more than a mere school - even calling it an academy of learning is to do it a disservice. Only the best and brightest are accepted there, each with a special talent all his/her own, and learning is an active, all-encompassing endeavor.

With his parents' killers still unidentified, Thayne's personal safety is paramount, so he can't enroll as the famous Thayne Davidson Miller, III - in fact, Thayne really can't leave home at all. Fortunately, one of his family's businesses is able to build a lifelike robot to assume the role of Thayne, while "Arnie Carver" jets off to Demeverde. He quickly makes the first real friends of his life and loves the challenges and opportunities the school provides for him. His new life would be ideal were it not for a rare and terrible sickness that comes to be associated with the island. At first, it's just a child here and there across the globe that becomes sick, each of them having visited Demeverde at some point in the previous couple of years. When the disease strikes one of Arnie's friends, however, the Demeverde connection can no longer be dismissed out of hand. That's when Arnie and his friends set out to discover the source of the plague for themselves.

Undoubtedly, Arnie Carver and the Plague of Demeverde will be compared with the Harry Potter series. After all, you have these extraordinary kids going away to this extraordinary school to learn extraordinary things, they play an invented game called coca that elicits the same sort of excitement as Quidditch, and the main character is a young protagonist with a dark history that robbed him of his parents and perpetually dangles a potentially deadly threat over his own young head. Arnie Carver isn't Harry Potter, though, and this novel forges a story that is really quite its own.

I loved the book. Thayne is a wonderful, sympathetic character, and I warmed up to his new friends and classmates just as quickly as he did. The wonderful technologies employed at GODA are a treat to visualize, and I have to believe older children and young adults will find such extraordinary things as SlipDiscs fascinating. I would even go so far as to call the book inspirational - were I a couple of decades younger, this is just the kind of story that would have gotten my intellectual juices flowing. It never hurts to see true friendship put on display in front of you, either.

On top of everything else, author Kenneth R. Besser lays a solid foundation for future books in the series, leaving us to wonder what the real story behind the unsolved murder of Thayne's parents' might be, question the motives of the man behind Scorsos International Academy and University, and yearn to know more about Unius, the mysterious, seemingly all-knowing, head of GODA. This has all the makings of a great series.

Arnie Carver and the Plague of Demeverde is the well-told tale of a boy named Thayne Davidson Miller III, a genius and the heir to a fortune. He's the richest kid in the world, who has everything in the world, but needs "to learn how to be a part of the world."

After his parents are murdered, early on in the book, young Thayne has his chance. Although grief-stricken by their deaths, he is looking forward to a few changes in his life. For the first time ever he is now allowed to attend classes (under the assumed name Arnie Carver) with other kids - although the school he chooses turns out to be quite different from the schools you and I are familiar with!

Besser writes with the confident ease of a good storyteller. The wit, the humor, the adventures, and the legal hi-jinx will delight precocious young readers and teens. Combining elements of sci-fi, fantasy, mystery, and political thriller, the author at times seems to parody these genres as he relates the adventures of his young hero. And because of that it's a book that adults can enjoy as well.

By the end of this first in a series of books, the bright young protagonist has not only become a part of the world, he has helped to save it. But there is still more for him to do and discover, and I can't wait to find out what will happen next!

Reviewed by Braine Plach (age 10) for Reader Views (1/08)

Have you ever thought it would be terrific if you had all the money that you ever wanted to have? Can you imagine not having to wait until Christmas or your birthday for presents? For some kids, this would be a dream come true. But Thayne Davidson Miller, III, doesn't think it is very much fun. Instead of being a blessing, it is a curse.

Thayne is constantly being surrounded by security guards. Thayne's parents are billionaires, so having a normal lifestyle as a young boy is impossible. He is a normal boy who would enjoy playing soccer or football with other boys, climbing trees or just hanging out with his friends. Instead he has to fly on his parents' jet to all kinds of far-off places. It's not like he gets to see anything when he goes to these other cities. He is constantly being watched.

When Thayne turns thirteen, his life takes a drastic turn. He has now inherited the 50 businesses that his parents owned. He is an orphan! The murders are unsolved, so Thayne takes the matter into his own hands. He attempts to discover what really happened to his parents.

He has a very brilliant mind and uses it to his advantage. He creates a life-like robot and a personality to live out his dreams of being normal. Arnie Carver is born. Will this make Thayne any happier or only add to his misery?

Kenneth R. Besser is a master at storytelling. "Arnie Carver and the Plague of Demeverde" is just one of a series about Arnie Carver. The twists and turns throughout the story will have you sitting on the edge of your seat. Books like this, with its science-fiction twist, will have kids anxiously awaiting their next Arnie Carver book.

Is being wealthy really worth it all or is it a sure fire way to ruin your life?

Part of the beloved Arnie Carver series of novels for young adults, Arnie Carver and the Plague of Demeverde follows the adventures of Arnie Carver, once Thayne Davidson Miller III. The child prodigy of billionaires, he hated how airtight family security protected him at the expense of keeping him away from other children his own age and everything a child might want to do. But on his thirteenth birthday, he became a billionaire orphan when terrorists allegedly killed his parents. No evidence of Thayne's parents' supposed murderers could be found, though - what really happened to them? To solve the mystery, and experience life unsheltered if not entirely unprotected, Thayne replaced himself with a lifelike robot and took on a new alter-ego, attending an international high school named the Global Optimum Development Academy as Arnie Carver. Just as Arnie gets settled in, a deadly disease starts plaguing the island and the school - what could be causing it, and why? A gung-ho adventure featuring a young protagonist who respects schools and books as well as learning through experience, sure to engage young readers to the very last page.

To those around him in this futurist world of cool gadgets, Thayne Davison Miller III has it all. His parents are the richest people in the world. He travels around the world, and best of all, he is dearly loved. The one thing missing from his life is being around kids his own age. That might sound like a simple thing to ask, but Thayne isn't your average kid. Kidnapping is a real threat and his parents fear for his safety to the extreme degree. So his parents with the help of Jacques Marquis, Thayne's man servant and only friend, decided long ago on home schooling.

On his thirteenth birthday, what was meant to be a delightful surprise turned tragic as Thayne's parents were assassinated on the way to his birthday party. With the exception of his beloved dog and friend, Jacques, he is all alone in the world, but with an added problem. The killer or killers were never caught. He too could be a target.

Thayne devises a plan to set a trap for the people responsible for killing his parents. He sends a life like double called an intellitron as decoy to the local school. In the meantime, the real Thayne attends the Global Optimum Development Academy on the island of Demeverde under the name of Arnie Carver.

Just as Arnie and his friends settle in for the school year, a mysterious and deadly disease plagues the school. At first, no one believes the disease is related to the island until one of Arnie's classmates comes down with it. Now it is up to Arnie and his friends to find out what is causing this disease. And if they do, will it be in time enough to find a cure for Arnie's friend? Kenneth R. Besser kept me guessing until the very end as it should be!

This colorful cast of children with special abilities, keeps the story upbeat and smiling. One of my favorites is Steven "Tinker" Schocken. He has a special knack of fixing things. Then there is Bernadette Rogers who senses what people are feeling. That's not all. With her mind, she can get you to see things her way, unless you know how to mentally block her. (Way cool!) Another unusual person in the book is Choi Guihah, who has an uncanny ability to do things with her muscles, which includes making a soft landing from twenty feet. These are but a few of the characters making this a truly appealing story.

Review by J. Kaye Oldner

I really loved reading this book. It was exciting and there was a great interplay in two different times. I love that u can't guess the end until the very last page. I can really recommend it, it is the first book i have read of Barbara Vine but i think there will be many to come. I love her way of writing and the way things get confusing but sort themselves out in the end!

In 1905, a young Danish couple arrive in England with their two small sons. The husband, Rasmus, becomes a total Anglophile while his wife Asta, struggles with language problems,loneliness and depression as she is left alone with the children for long periods of time while Rasmus travels on business.To while away the hours, Asta starts a diary which she continues for the majority of her life. Years later, her descendants discover and publish the diaries which become an international success and which bring to life a number of unanswered questions about a sensational murder trial and the dubious birth of one of Asta's daughters. At first I struggled with the various characters, finding it difficult to place them in the right generations but all became clear eventually. The plot is involved, with red herrings strewn all over the place--an intriguing read and worth perservering with as all the solutions come right at the end of the book.

This is a beautifully written, well nuanced novel of mystery and suspense that seamlessly moves between the past and the present. The past is told through the diaries of a Danish immigrant named Asta, who went to live in Edwardian England with her husband, Rasmus, and two young sons at the turn of the century. Settling down in East London in 1905, her loveless marriage and loneliness drove Asta to keep a journal of her innermost thoughts and experiences.

Though married to a man who spent a great deal of time away from home on business and with whom she seemed to have little in common, Asta added two more children to her family, daughters, Swanny, her favorite, and Maria, the youngest. Asta's lyrically written journals would chronicle of her life, her struggles as an immigrant, her hopes and dreams, and her adoration of Swanny. They would also tantalizingly hint at a secret that would, ultimately, impact on her daughter, Swanny, later in life.

Over seventy years later, those diaries, all forty nine of them, would be discovered and become a publishing sensation and a bestseller. Within its many pages would lie the missing pieces to a turn of the century murder mystery and the leads to the whereabouts of a missing child, as well as tantalizing clues to the puzzling circumstances surrounding Swanny's birth. This information would lie dormant until nearly a century after Asta first put pen to paper, when Asta's granddaughter, Maria's daughter Ann, would review the diaries and discover not only the secret of Swanny's birth, but the identity of a missing child, as well as that of a killer, who nearly a century earlier had butchered two women.

This is a book well worth reading, and one that will command the readers attention until the very last page is turned.

Asta's Book was originally written as Anna's Book. It is a superb story, I think probably one of the best ever written by Ruth Rendell, writing as Barbara Vine. Going back and forth from the future to the past is usually difficult but the author does it so well. I really enjoy Ruth Rendell's mysteries, but when she is writing as Barbara Vine, she makes more of a story and psychological mystery than a whodunit, which I find more enjoyable. If you like Asta's Book, try The Crocodile Bird and her newer Barbara Vine, The Blood Doctor and The Chimney Sweeper's Boy. All are excellent!

One of her very best and that's saying a lot. Rendell is my favorite alltime author, and I'm a constant reader. The format of her mysteries changes constantly and this one has the peculiar focus of a niece editing the famous diaries of her deceased aunt. What she finds develops into a fascinating story with Rendell's usual diverting subplots and surprising finale.

This is a wonderful collection of treasures from B.B. King's lengthy career. Besides telling the man's life story, this book provides the reader with ticket stubs to B.B. concerts from fifty years ago, all sorts of crystal-clear photographs of B.B. and other Bluesmen, and other amazing treasures. I picked this up for ten dollars at a local mall, and I can't recommend it enough. It's truly moving and captivating to see how a young black man from Mississippi has become the international ambassador of the Blues and has won all sorts of awards from prestigious universities and institutions. This man is living the American Dream.

B.B.KING IS CALLED "THE KING OF THE BLUES" BUT THIS BOOK IS NOT ABOUT THE BLUES THIS IS ABOUT THE MAN HIMSELF FROM HIS HUMBLE BEGINNING AS A SHARECROPPER TO THE LEGEND HE IS TODAY. THIS BOOK DIGS DEEP INTO THE HEART AND SPIRIT OF "THE MAN" THE PHOTOS AND THE MEMORIES ALONG IS WORTH THE PRICE OF THE BOOK. IF YOU LOVED THE BLUES AND YOU KNOW OR LOVED B.B.KING THEN THIS IS THE ULTIMATE BOOK TO HAVE. AFTER READING THIS BOOK I KNOW MORE ABOUT THE LIFE OF B.B.KING THEN I EVER KNEW. IT IS HARD TO BELIEVE THAT THIS MAN WHO IS A LEGEND IN HIS OWN TIME CAN BE SO HUMBLE TO THE MANY PEOPLE BOTH FAMOUS AND ORDINARY

Hello all! I am from India, residing in Singapore. I enjoy listening to blues. Being a big fan of BB, i couldn't resist this treasure when i came across it at the Borders bookstore.The book is great, with replicas of tickets etc. 1 hour cd with BB's interviews and 2 songs is a great treat. BB is an inspiration, having moved from cottonfields to become world's greatest blues singer. Just wait for the clouds, and read this with a cup of coffee when it starts to rain. When you finish with the accompanying cd, put in your own BB collection and read the book along. Lucille won't let you down. The thrill isn't gone afterall! 5 stars indeed.

Though possibly a bit unlike adults my age, I am a bonafide blues lover and THE B. B. KING TREASURES: Photos, Mementos & Music from B. B. King's Collection is a remarkable look into the background and life of legendary blues singer B. B. King. In it he details his early childhood and growing up on a farm, to his young adult days, touring various parts of the country and his candid views on segregation and the Civil Rights era.

While the book itself is a wonderful collector's item and can be displayed proudly as a coffee table book, the best parts to me were: the included CD which has a collection of interviews with the singer, as well as two unreleased songs, the numerous pull-outs of old letters, photos, programs and posters, and the respect he shared with and bestowed upon others. THE B. B. KING TREASURES succinctly depicts the life and times of B. B. King, his thoughts on many issues, including race relations, and especially music. It is perfect for the blues lover in your life and a great tribute for B.B. King's 80th birthday celebration.

Reviewed by Tee C. Royal
of The RAWSISTAZ™ Reviewers

Those looking for a present for a blues lover (or themselves) could do far worse than purchasing an absolutely wonderful new coffee table book plus more devoted to the King of the blues. The B. B. King Treasures : Photos, Mementos & Music from B. B. King's Collection is by King, Dick Waterman and Charles Sawyer. Sawyer, who wrote the first book-length biography of King, The Arrival of B.B. King, contributes a concise biography from King's days growing up in Mississippi to his days as an ambassador for the music. The remainder of the book is filled with King's recollections as given to Dick Waterman who supplements these recollections of growing up, working on the farm, moving to memphis, touring and crossing over. There are not only some terrific photographs (many are very rare), but also some reproductions of memorabilia including his sharecropping account from 1940, mostly tickets, programs and posters for his shows, along with sheets shoqwing how much he was earning prior to Sid Seidenberg taking over King's management in the late sixties. You can see him from his WDIA days to receiving the musical equivalent of the Nobel Prize in Sweden with the King of Sweden handing the award to him. In addition there is a cd with King's verbal recollections and some unissued tracks. This is a multi-media feast for fans of one of the true legends of world music. Compiled in part to celebrate his 80th birthday, The B.B. King Treasures, is a treasure.

I was always pulling up a blank on my mind when anyone mentioned Tupac. Not only that, I also never knew when his music was playing. All I knew was that he was a rap artist who was shot to death one unfortunate day. What I came to learn from this book was stunning not only in the stories about his past, but also stories about his family, particularly his mother. The time and place of his beginning is humbling; for a child growing up in an impoverished and dangerous city, Tupac has shown society that great people CAN come from even the poorest of places. His revolutionary ideas and strong, provocative lyrics showed not only that great people can emerge from the most unlikely of places, but also showed that our society is full of corruption and in desperate need of reform, starting with the less fortunate and oppressed.

The book is the story of the author's life as it was when he grew up with Tupac. Even if you don't know who Tupac is (somehow I doubt that) you will still enjoy this book. The story is one of a man who plays the cards he was dealt and how no bad hand could hold him back. It gives you an appreciation of the artist, the author and of yourself all at the same time.
This is the book to read for Tupac fans as it is written in story-book format thus enabeling you not only to learn the specs of the life but also to be put in the shoes of someone who was near him before he was famous. Great book, great life, great read!! Pac4life haha!

Back In The Day: My Life and Times with Tupac Sharuk



Tupac was the greatest rapper/actor in history. But to get to the top he had to go through struggles in his childhoods. Thats why the theme of the story

Back in the in the Day: My Life and Times with Tupac Sharuk is to follow your dreams no matter what you had to go through and dont't stop unless

you have to. Tupac also teaches us to use our talents to enjoy our life. Darrin Bastfeild , the author of the book , go with Tupac adventures during his

high school years.So let talk about more of the theme.

Tupac actions of the theme was letting no one stop him from his talents. Every day he would wake up, go to school, come home or go to his freind house

and write raps, sleep then repeat the process all over. But one thing Tupac and the author always endured was both of them was poor although Darrin had

had a little more money then Tupac. So Tupac would borrow clothes from his friends or kids from the school bring him clothes. Any chances Tupac had to

to get a break he takes. For example Tupac and his friends almost had a break into Hollywood but the seruity guard caught them and the manager of Salt n' Pepa

reject them saying he had to cacth a plane. No matter how much he was rejected Tupac still had a break.

Tupac also shows the theme by the words out his mouth. One thing Darrin points out is that Tupac said he was little was that he wanted to be a revolvutionary

when he grows up. That shows Tupac known what he wanted to be which he did but did it in a different style such as a rapper and an actor.He always told

everyone what he wanted to be and he showed it. Like one of the Tupac wrote when he was growing up "We Work Hard" was what he did .He spoke out for

people like him while he and his mom was with the Black Panther movemment about the voilence in his nieghberhood. So not only did Tupac rap but he was also a

worker for peace.

Yes this theme is true because I had my own taste of bad karma. When I was born I had a blood infection so I stay in the hospital for fifthteen days. Around two

years old I had lead poisoning, which I miricaly survive and had to get surgery on on my ankle. At five my sodium level was to high. and only last year did I nearly

passed out because of my heart membrace I got when I was born. Still I'm smart, got accepted to a good school and go there and play an insturment in band.That

proves that the past can not predict your furture.

In the end Tupac achieved his goals. He starred in movies such as A Raisin in the Sun and made smash hits like Califoria Love. He had the world knowing what

his name was and rocking to his beat espcially in the black nieghberhoods of America. He known people like Biggy Smalls and Mary J. Bligh. Darrin almost went on

a tour with Tupac realized they had lives of there their own and went their seperate ways. Tupac shows just we can anything we want to as long as we set are minds

to it. But sadly, he was shot and died seven days later.

This is a good book, insightful and well written by Mr.Bastfield, it was clearly written as a labor of love and a need to document an intense kinship, that ended before it had a chance to mature in the later years of life. Since Tupac Shakurs untimely death there have been many people trying to capitalize on his memory, however this author and book do not fall into that category. For those who are interested in the somewhat awkward but always smooth teenager, who would one day become Rap musics greatest legend, this is a heartfelt account of the building of the man behind the myth, the carefree but yet fiercely determined ghetto kid, who had the right stuff to overcome the enormous odds stacked against him. Few have the courage to dream big and then pursue those dreams at all cost, this is a story and observations of a young man who did just that. The book falls short in some areas but overall is well worth reading, and a job well done by Mr.Bastfield.

I liked this book quite a bit.

Mainly because it offered a different perspective than most other books about Tupac.

This book was written by a teenage friend who experieced the same things Tupac himself experienced. They 'shared the struggle' of trying to better themselves in a very harsh environment.

This book shows the almost relentless passion Tupac had to try and influence the world around him in a positive way. And the internal struggle he had with some of his actions. He knew of the contradiction and was trying to evolve. Too bad he was cut short in his quest.

One of the most telling insights to the basis of Tupac's personality is the answer to the question one of his earlist teachers asked. "What do you want to be when you grow up?"

For those who haven't ever looked too deeply into Tupac's more intellectual and compassionate side, there is a surprise in store, Tupac's heart. For those of us that knew he was much more than a thug, you'll see more and more of his depth.

An easy read that kept me flippin pages..