Interviews Books

We bought this for my husband's mom who was transplanted to Colorado as a teenager from Brooklyn. It brought back many happy childhood memories for her. She loved reading about places that she thought she'd forgotten and this spurred her memory to share childhood stories with us about a place very different from the 'wild west.'

I just finished the book and I enjoyed it so much. Its easy to see why
Brooklyn has been the inspriation for so many novels and movies.

It was so interesting to see how so many different ethnic groups had such
similar stories of growing up. A real shared memory .

Well this book is a treasure and I am so glad to have it.

This book is actually a compilation of anecdotal memories from many people who grew up in Brooklyn, some of whom are world famous for various reasons! While I was disapointed by the lack of coverage of the 50s and 60s when I grew up in East Flatbush, the book brings back wonderful memories of Coney Island and many other institutions. I particularly found the stories from the family that started Nathan's to be fascinating. I ALSO recommend the book "The Neighborhoods of Brooklyn." The two bookds are very different! While it is also light on the 50s and 60s it is fascinating to learn of the full history of each neighborhood. How and when the original Dutch settlers bought the various sections from the Canarsee and Rockaway Native Americans. It is also interesting to learn of the fates of the various neighborhoods and their changing ethnic faces.

I must add that it is at least a bit disingenuous and self-serving for one of the authors to write SEVERAL reviews of his own work!

Entertainers, notables and common folk reminisce about life and experiences in Brooklyn.

A PAINFUL SWEETNESS FLOODS YOU

"For theater lovers, this holiday brings books that should satisfy even the pickiest soul. My favorite is a gossipy portrait of Broadway over the past 60 years - IT HAPPENED ON BROADWAY, AN ORAL HISTORY OF THE GREAT WHITE WAY..... It's fun to browse in (lots of nice pictures), but addictive as a bag of potato chips."

IT HAPPENED ON BROADWAY: AN ORAL HISTORY OF THE GREAT WHITE WAY By Myrna Katz Frommer & Harvey Frommer

The Bloomsbury Review, November-December 1998

What better way to write a history of the last fifty years of Broadway theater than to get the information from those who made it all happen! The Frommers have compiled an oral history that is told by many of those wonderfully talented, hardworking people who spared no effort to create great hits and, yes, occasionally, flops. More than one hundred actors, directors, choreographers, producers, composers, lyricists, and playwrights as well as set, costume, and lighting designers, extras, and publicists have contributed to this deliciously enjoyable compilation of material about the great white way.

It Happened on Broadway is filled with background information about the Broadway shows of the last half century, and the successes, failures, struggles, and uncertainties of many personalities. Many interviewees have been household names for generations, others are just achieving recognition, and some names are not likely to mean much to most readers. Yet they all bring us some of the most interesting experiences and insights about the Broadway theater of recent years. One wonders how the Frommers managed to persuade so many luminaries to share their tales.

The first chapter "Broadway Calling," should be required reading for every theater student, aspiring actor, and budding theater professional. To hear Carol Channing, Jerry Herman, Betty Buckley, Manny Azenberg, Betty Comden and Adolph Green, Al Hirschfeld, Richard Kiley, Leslie Uggams, Louise Lasser, Charles Durning, Patricia Neal, Jerry Zaks and many more tell how they got started in their careers is an education in itself and makes for superbly entertaining reading as well.

Much of the book is devoted to musicals, since those were the majority of "name" Broadway shows of the last half century, but there are also stories of the Theater Guild, from Eugene O'Neill and Bernard Shaw to William Inge and Sean O'Casey and the last week of Clifford Odets, and about the extraordinary talents of Arthur Miller and Tennessee Williams and such performers as Marlon Brando and Tallulah Bankhead. Celeste Holm tells how her Broadway career began when she was cast by Lynn Fontanne in The Time of Your Life together with Gene Kelly and William Bendix. And there is talk about the groundbreaking impact of Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun.

In one chapter "Look, Look, Look Who's Dancin' Now," Gwen Verdon, Marge Champion, Donna McKechnie and others share stories about Agnes DeMille, Jerome Robbins, Gower Champion, Bob Fosse, and the creation of Chorus Line and Chicago.

Most new shows go through a difficult gestation period before they are ready to be presented to the public. In some instances, a late edition of a song or conversely, deletion of some material can turn a potential loser into a future hit. Backstage tales, candid comments on their own performances and those of their fellow actors, the roundabout ways in which producers obtained production rights, often after years of effort, all make for fascinating reading.

This book gives the rare opportunity to hear the comments of those who were involved in the creation of Guys and Dolls, Cabaret, Zorba, Wonderful Town, On the Twentieth Century, The Will Rogers Follies, Annie, Nine, Grand Hotel, Titanic, and many, many more.

To sum up, the Frommers have combined these interviews and stories into a rich, seamless, history that masterfully captures the essence of Broadway's last five decades in a most enjoyable fashion. _____ __

Paging through this book is like stepping back through those years in the mid to late 20th Century when Broadway was bursting with fresh talent and wonderous creativity. Fantastic photos (many of which I have not seen elsewhere) and the collected personal memories of an army of Broadway veterans. Instead of muddying these memories with reams of connecting text, the editors have grouped related anecdotes into chapters and let those who lived this history speak for themselves. A great read for anyone who loves the theatre -- Broadway in particular.

This is a one of a kind Broadway book. The stories, the photos, the whole feel . . .it is like table hopping at Sardi's.

The stars, both onstage and off, that have helped create the Broadway theatre of today have committed their lives to one of the most important and vital of all the arts. This book gives them their due in a way few others have. It Happened on Broadway is a very well-done book recording for posterity the fine tradition that is Broadway theatre, using almost entirely the words of the people that actually lived their lives there. It is funny, touching, englightening, and a must-read for anyone who loves Broadway and theatre as much as those in the book who gave their lives to it.

This is the catalogue for the landmark Pollock exhibition held at the Moma and the Tate in 1998-1999. Considering the steep rise in the insurance value of Pollock's paintings, such a comprehensive retrospective is not likely to be repeated in the near future and we are therefore fortunate to have such a brilliant book to help us remember it. The late Kirk Varnedoe was one of the best interpreters of contemporary American art and his text, never anecdotical and always informative without being pedantic, does justice to the masterpieces without falling into any of the cliches that often pollute our view of this great artist.

Beautiful illustrations make this book an indispensable presence in any arts library.

Having just taken in the MoMA show, I was very satisfied with the Pollock catalog. Very nice job reproducing the works (a difficult task in the printing of art catalogs!) Many fold-outs assist in conveying the size of Pollock's larger works. Large, full-bleed detail shots add a nice touch, complimenting the entire painting. While I'm not thrilled with the cover design, the interior is well-written, well-presented, and well-worth reading.

I picked this book up at the MOMA Pollock retrospective a couple years ago and have used it extensively. Having seen many of the paintings in this book firsthand, I can say that these are some of the best reproductions offerred in book form on Pollock's work. Another plus is that several paintings are printed on fold-out pages, so that the work doesn't cross the book's seam. So many of his paintings are extremely wide that this makes a lot of sense (otherwise, there would be hardly any resolution in the height dimension).

If you're interested in Pollock and need to refer to the reproductions, I absolutely recommend this book above all others out there.

This breathtaking catalogue is simply the best single volume available on Jackson Pollock, and this is primarily--but not only--because of the number and quality of the reproductions it offers. Almost every one of the dozen or so Pollock books in my library contains a painting not available in the others, but this book collects and beautifully photographs the greatest number and variety of his canvases--outside of a catalogue raisonee.

As the other reviewers state, there are many generously-sized fold-out pages here, and the crispness and resolution of these big reprints and of the more modest pages are simply amazing. To take two essential examples, this book's reprints of "One: Number 31, 1950" and "Blue Poles: Number 11, 1952" are astoundingly clear, better than any of the many other versions I've seen in art books, even in Ellen Landau's large-format survey, a book which also includes gatefolds.

(Another reviewer, by the by, states that "Lucifer" is not available in any other book, which is not true. Among other places, it appears in Landau, in Elizabeth's Frank's concise volume, and as the sole color reproduction in the book for the 1965 MOMA retrospective. Anyway, it gets terrific treatment here.)

Another invaluable inclusion in this book is a great number of full-sized detail photos of the canvases. For example, on a page adjacent to "Lucifer" and "Autumn Rhythm" and "Full Fathom Five," we see another photo of just one small section of that same painting but in 1-to-1 scale; these details reveal much of the dynamic, kinetic, urgent quality of these works, their encrustations of sand, glass, pennies, paint caps--traits which even this book could otherwise never offer a livingroom Pollock-viewer.

Further, having seen the exhibit in January of 1999, I can attest to the generally excellent fidelity of the color-balance. (Curiously, no one seems to be able to capture "Autumn Rhythm"'s grey-teal passages in a book, but if you were at this show or have viewed the painting at the Met you've seen them.)

The accompanying articles are excellent. Kirk Varnedoe overviews of Pollock's life, artistic aims, his accomplishments, all illustrated with family and archival photographs and drawing on Pollock quotations. Pepe Karmel uses the extensive photographic and film record of Pollock painting to analyze Pollock's physical movements. Most wonderful are Karmel's computer reconstructions of early states of the painting "Autumn Rythm," based on Hans Namuth's photos of Pollock at work.

In sum, this book gives the finest, fullest offering of both Pollock's life and art.

Excellent companion piece to the MOMA show (which traveled to London's Tate) goes beyond all other Pollock explorations. A "must" for students of modern American art as well as those just wanting to get a better understanding of what Pollock was REALLY DOING.

Large format features fold-out reproductions of breathtakingly high quality. Among these, incredibly, are paintings not found in any other published sources. (The incomparable Lucifer (1947) is one such work).

The text is scholarly but readable, and although there is a considerable amount of it, each open page of writing offers at least a couple relevant and highly interesting photos or other illustrations. The many large color plates would certainly make a gorgeous and impressive coffee table book for anyone who doesn't choose to read it.

Kirk Varnedoe writes definitively about Pollock's mercurial life & career. Varnedoe's nearly 75 pages of biographical analysis are a welcome alternative to the kind of misguided mythologizing about Pollock that has for a long time colored the artist as an overrated art "star."

Pepe Karmel's contribution to this book is an amazing analysis of Pollock's painting process through an exhaustive examination of the famous films and photographs of Pollock at work. This was a fascinating, ground-breaking part of the exhibition, and is equally wonderful in the book.

Well worth the price.

Latino Wisdom offers more than wisdom from high profile celebrities and newsmakers. It celebrates the human spirit through stories about resilience and reflection, passion and conviction, purpose and creativity. As a writer & journalist, I appreciate Cathy Areu's journalistic style in capturing the essence of successful and driven Latinos. Latino Wisdom is a treasury of inspirational stories that I'll be able to read over and over again.

You do not have to be Latino to be inspired by Latino Wisdom. In her introduction, Cathy Areu states the most important, fundamental theme of her book--Believe In Yourself. It's a theme that can apply to anyone, whether you're born with a silver spoon in your mouth or not. This theme crops up time and again in Areu's interviews with a variety of self-made successful people, everyone from actresses and singers to politicians, football players, and business men and women. Areu, herself, is a shining example of this principle. Her story, told in her inimitable, breezy style, is every bit as inspirational as those of the people she highlights. As she says, she wasn't born with a silver spoon in her mouth, but, applying the believe-in-yourself principles that are the theme of her book, today she's a successful author, magazine publisher--and much more.
Areu's writing is warm and conversational. In her interviews she conveys a sense of ease with her subjects so that their personalities-and hers-come across the page very naturally. Latino Wisdom isn't only inspirational; it's interesting and fun to read!

In a thoughtful series of interviews with famous Latinos and her own views on their varied accomplishments, Ms. Areu does a wonderful job of showing how true it is that success is in large part due to hard work and believing in yourself. From well-known celebrities to politicians to Ms. Areu herself, you are inspired by stories of how all of these people pursued their dreams and found success. A worthwhile read that will challenge you to reach for your own dreams!

I love books that make me want to be a better person -- books that offer inspiration by giving examples of what success looks like. LATINO WISDOM is one of those books. Ms. Areu has interviewed people that most of us think of as special, and showed that they are really like us. Successful people aren't that different, though the author identifies specific qualities that the interviewees share. These are qualities that most of us possess to some degree. So, by reading the tips and wisdom of others, those of us who are still seeking success now have many voices telling us that we can do it. This is a book I know I will read again and again any time I want to be inspired, or on days when I think I want to give up.

Latino Wisdom gave me great info and insight into the lives of successful people and how they became successful. Each chapter has inspirational nuggets, in the successful people's words, that I can use. And Cathy Areu's chapter introductions perfectly set the tone. I think this book is a great read for everyone looking to feel recharged.

The interview subjects in this book really get down to the nuts and bolts of writing comedy for radio. Excellent material, well organized and presented. There's a lot to learn here.

Anyone with an interest in classic comedy writing will find this book to be an absolute treasure trove. It is a fascinating and comprehensive work consisting of interviews with the men (almost exclusively, men) who created the industry of modern comedy writing and, thus, the television industry as we all know it. I enjoyed every page!

What a delightful book! Full of insights into the process of writing comedy and how "lively" live radio and TV could be. Paints a clear and not always pretty picture of some of the funniest folk in comedy, including Bob Hope, Eddie Cantor, Fred Allen. The format lets the writers express themselves, and it's not always good memories they're sharing. A must for any fan of old-time radio, comedy, writing, and television. The stories are not always sweet and nostalgic, but accurate and, above-all, honest. I loved this book!

I enjoyed this book as much as I enjoyed Gerald Nachman's "Raised on Radio." I liked the format: each chapter was laid out by writer's name, his recollections and thoughts on the shows he worked on, and his credits by medium; (radio, TV, Movies, etc). You really got a feel for who was a major talent vs. who was lucky in show business. The writers really didn't get their due from the public, now here's your chance to find out who was responsible for "making" certain stars legends!

Jordan Young's interviews with some of Hollywood's top radio comedy writers in the thirties, forties and fifties gives the reader interested in show business nostalgia so much more than could be reasonably expected. While I was reading the book, I felt that I went back in time and I throughly enjoyed every hour.

We don't read transcripts of old radio shows--instead, we get a front row seat on Sunset and Vine in Hollywood and find out--through the writers--all that went on before the show went on the air and how the whole frenzied process began again immediately after the show went off the air.

I always wondered how these old radio shows were put together. What we learn is that each comedy star had his own system. While Eddie Cantor may have employed a hundred writers in a chaotic fashion over his long radio career with only modest results, Jack Benny had a long-time stable of six or seven writers and by consensus, had established, along with Fred Allen, the "gold standard" in radio comedy.

I loved this book!

An excellent book for all people interested in Laing. Hopefully Mullan will find a way to publish the material so that those interested can read it rather than holding onto it and waiting for a publishing deal that isn't too far "beneath" his expectations.

In this huge set of interviews, the former king of counter-culture philosophy expresses his provocative opinions on all imaginable topics, from mystcism to politics. If you are the type of person who thinks for yourself and suspects that straight society is almost incurably ill, you will probably find a kindred spirit in this fascinating man. Being a prestigious psychiatrist and former military officer, he knows the system he's trying to change from the inside out (an advantage most radical thinkers don't have).

This is one of the most engaging books I've read in over 20 years: it brought back to me the stimulation of encountering a truly first-rate mind.

Mullan has brilliantly effaced himself so that you get 100% Laing direct. And a Laing worthy of his better reputation. Mullan limited himself to brief preface and introductions and, during the interviews, short guiding comments and questions. Another interviewer might have cluttered the interviews with his/her own agenda and introduced the book with lengthy analysis, all of which would have obscured Laing. Undoubtedly Mullan also had a mark in selecting and editing the interviews, but what he achieved was this wonderful effect of making the reader feel like he/she is alone with Laing listening to Laing pour out his life in great detail, with great feeling, and without pulling any punches.

In the section on "Influences", Laing's amazing retention and grasp of his existentialist sources is illuminating. In "Kingsley Hall", you get an inside scoop, with lots of warts acknowledged, on this famous and infamous experiment. These conversations are an invaluable complement (and more) to the other sources on Laing, including Laing's own books.

"Great men have great weaknesses": I was struck by how negative Laing was about many of his contemporaries including coworkers. He seems to have distanced himself from many people. As much as Laing seemed to understand Existentialism, my impression from the section "Buddhism" was that his understanding of Buddhism wasn't especially strong. He claimed to have been credited with having a rare kind of "Nirvana consciousness". Do you need a credited consciousness? At any rate, even with Buddhism, Laing poured himself into it and was not shy of insights.

Whether Laing had a "Nirvana consciousness" or not, he was most certainly extraordinary in these interviews. You'll feel why Laing was special if you read "Mad to be Normal". And you'll have a great context for understanding any of Laing's major books.

Mullan has done Laing a special favor. And us.

As the editor of MAD TO BE NORMAL (Ronnie Laing's last recorded conversations), I was pleased to read Matthew Morrisey's review. In response to his query - "what am I going to do with the material NOT included in the book?" Well, I have a lot of material I would like to publish from the conversations, but in this dumbed down world it is hard to get a publisher to agree to do it.

This book holds many treasures, for both beginning and advanced students of R.D. Laing. For beginners, the book serves as a valuable tool of clarification for many of Laing's ideas. For the more initiated, the book offers up juicy morsels of hard to find information. For example, how many people know that Laing actually obtained copies of Nietzsche's hospital records to find out if Nietzsche actually had syphillis? (Laing contends he didn't). It is little bits like this which make the book continually revelatory. Even moreso than in his autobiography, one gets a sense in this book of Laing as not only a brilliant conversationalist, but as a tremendously complex and conflicted person. As we listen to him describe his relations with the prominent philosophers, psychoanalysts, and critics of his day, his recounting of his emotional and spiritual development, and of his dashed hopes and unrealized dreams, we begin to get a sense of what it might have been like to be around Laing when he was alive. Mullan for his part does a wonderful job of asking Laing pertinent, incisive questions, no matter whether the subject is Sartre or his boyhood days in Glasgow. The only question which arise are, if Mullan spent hundreds of hours talking with Laing, what is the nature of the content he excluded, and what has he done (or is he going to do) with that material? Overall, an excellent and indispensible book for anyone interested in R.D. Laing.

Modern Masters is a series of books that feature interviews and artwork from the greatest "masters" of comic book art. Volume 7 is dedicated to John Byrne. Now, when I was kid, there was nothing I loved more than comic books. I was a Marvel guy, and I especially liked Spider-Man. Then one day, for some reason, I picked up an issue of Iron Fist and I was compelled to buy it. It was issue #12 and had never read Iron Fist before, but he was fighting Captain America on the cover, and I loved a good super hero throw down, so I decided to give it a look. For some reason I bought it, there was something about that book that I liked, but I couldn't quite put my finger on it at the time. I later realized that what I loved so much about that comic wasn't the fight between Cap and Iron Fist... it was the ART! That was the first time that I ever really bothered to check and see who drew the comic book I was reading. That artist was, of course, John Byrne. After that I bought anything that Mr. Byrne drew... Marvel Team-Up, The X-Men, The Fantastic Four, Superman, etc., etc.. To me, anything that John Byrne touched, turned to gold. He was, and remains, arguably the greatest comic book artist of all time. Jack Kirby is a legend, but John Byrne was comic's first rock star. Everyone I knew that read comics, loved Byrne. One of the things that made him so great was that he was one of the first artists to draw every character the way they should be drawn as individuals. Most other artists (John Romita, John Buscema, etc.) seemed to have a "standard" body for all the characters they drew, so that Captain America, Daredevil, Iron Man, Spider-Man, and so on, all had the same height and build. But not Byrne. When he drew his characters each one had a distinct body type. For example, his Spider-Man was thin and agile looking, his Captain America was tall and muscular, his Daredevil was somewhere in between the two, etc. Basically the man changed the standard of comic art forever, and in a small way this book helps commemorate some of his contributions to the medium. So, if you are a fan of John Byrne, or a fan of great comic art, you will like this book. Buy it!!! It's not even that expensive. It's a great deal. Buy it now!

This book, like the others in this fine, fine series of paperbacks, is chock-full of excellent artwork, and there's an intriguing and informative interview with the writer/artist who has made his mark on such comic book stalwarts as Iron Fist, the X-Men, the Fantastic Four, Superman, the She-Hulk, and Wonder Woman, among many, many others. The Fantastic Four cover alone is worth the price of admission.

It's great to finally have another trade retrospective of John Byrne's work; the last was "The Art of John Byrne: Volume 1" back in the mythical year of 1980. For those of you who have become parents since then, you'll be happy to know that this new book is for all ages -- and what a book.

It's unfortunate that nowadays "fanboys" like to kick around artists/creators they deem uncool (that is, men who don't draw R-rated, semi-nude women and over-muscled grotesques), and Byrne has suffered his share of this negativity. Those coming upon his work for the first time in this book have every right to be puzzled by this as his work in the last few years (using the "full pencil" technique) is as stunning as anything he's ever done. Make sure you check for the pre-inked image of Superman carrying Lois Lane over the Great Wall of China at sunrise (or sunset?) for an example of this.

The interviews that comprise the book are candid, honest and engaging. Jon B. Cooke does a good job asking questions that lead to detailed answers. I could wax rhapsodic all day over the images as they comprise his entire career; it's a special kick seeing all these characters from Alpha Flight to the Next Men in the pages of book; it's a family reunion, of sorts.

My only complaint is the lack of any color galleries, but this is no way detracts from the book and it's cool enough that we do get a brand new color cover image of the Fantastic Four, a team Byrne wrote and drew in a now legendary run in the 1980s. Buy it, read it, enjoy it, re-read it, share it, then buy another copy; this is my favorite entry in the Modern Masters series so far.

Right now, the 2 best resources for Byrne information & insights are: his official Internet site, and this here MM interview.

This is incredibly well-done! So many memorable quotes & insights, I can hardly do it any justice. It's truly one-stop shopping on all things Byrne: his thoughts on his career, coworkers & other creators, editors, projects (why they did or didn't work and the behind-the-scenes info), favorite things in life, childhood, early career, present & future, and even on the creative process. *EVERYTHING* is touched on here, with various clips of artwork in black & white to support much of the material. Some Modern Masters volumes include color work; this is exclusively black & white: sometimes pencil; sometimes ink. It's nice that artwork is included in such a great amount: it truly adds detail to the words exchanged. A must-have interview for Byrne fans!

-A quick breakdown-
-Part 1- covers his childhood up to his time in art school.
-Part 2- breaking into the industry & his days at Marvel. My favorite! See also Alpha Flight Classic, Vol. 1 (Uncanny X-Men). And Incredible Hulk Visionaries - John Byrne.
-Part 3- it's all about DC & Superman. Beginning with Superman: The Man of Steel, Vol. 1.
-Part 4- return to Marvel & then Independents, up to DC today.
-Part 5- storytelling & the creative process.
-Part 6- various John Byrne takes...
-and finally, a 33-page black & white gallery of 100% art (since artwork is also displayed throughout the entire interview).

My other current favorites in the series include Modern Masters Volume 2: George Perez, and Modern Masters, Vol. 5: Jose Luis Garcia-Lopez (Modern Masters). Yet they keep on releasing great interviews!

This book is exactly what I'd hoped for... every single page is completely packed with John Byrne interviews (rather than others talking *about* John Byrne) and drawings. No ups, no extras. I'm sure a more expensive format would better showcase Byrne's artwork, but for me, this book is perfect. Now, bring on the Neal Adams version (as long as he's not allowed to talk about the planet swelling).

Souther journalist Susan Byrum Rountree does an admirable job of conveying the flavor of Nags Head--both the old Nags Head and the new. Before the bridge over the sound went in in the mid-20th century, Nags Head was a sleepy hamlet year-round with little to do other than swim and walk on the beach. Though it's now a booming vacation town (a little too booming for some folks' tastes!), it maintains much of the flavor of its younger self and Rountree does a terrific job of capturing the elusive charm of the area.

Nags Head, named after the old piratical practice of looping a lantern around the head of a nag to lure ships, is a thin slip of land on Bodie Island, off the eastern coast of North Carolina. Its year-round population has grown to thousands, if not tens of thousands, but it used to be quiet all year-round. The older families--the Midgetts, the Buchanans and others--have consistently come back generation after generation. This constancy and devotion are among the things which makes Nags Head so historical and so tempting to vacation-goers today. It's exciting to feel you're part of a continuum.

Covering everything from the pirate activities of yore to the sundry big hurricanes and nor'easters to the historic Wright Brothers aviation experiments at nearby Kitty Hawk, Rountree provides a rounded, well-developed taste of the whole area. She salts her narrative with wonderful old photographs and with first-person accounts of Nags Head stays. One of her fine accomplishments in this area is the inclusion of black Nags Headers--usually the maids, cooks and so on for the white families which came to spend the summer. One heartbreaking story has to do with a white Nags Head vacationer--an attractive young woman--who began to have trouble staying afloat in the ocean. Her family sent out the strongest swimmer--a young black man who worked for them. Unfortunately, the girl drowned anyway because the young man, justly afraid of being accused of improper behavior involving a white woman, tried to bring her to shore just holding her arm instead of looping his arm across her chest. With this story alone, Rountree shows the prejudices of the time and the dangers lurking in this seemingly idyllic place.

Rountree also gives her full attention to the well-known Unpainted Aristocracy, which is a few dozen oceanfront homes which have stayed in the same families for many generations. Self-taught architect and contractor S. J. Twine designed and built many of them and incorporated many ingenious design elements to help them withstand both the test of time and the year-round test of the weather and corrosive salt air. Her alive and vital portrayal of Twine, with all his genius and his idiosyncratic behaviors, is alone worth the price of the book. All in all, a job very, very well done.

On a recent trip to the Carolina Outer Banks, I saw a book called NAGS HEADERS and found myself asking "Who are these Nags Headers?" Since I have enjoyed reading about various New England sea coast people, I thought I would broaden my knowledge and extend it to the people of the North Carolina coast.

Nags Head is one of the vacation resort communities in the Carolina Outer Banks, near where the Wright Brothers had their first flight and the Cape Hatteras National Seashore. The book tells how this sandy peninsula went from what appeared to be wasteland to become a beloved vacation community. The history is told through the eyes of the first families who vacationed here and many whose decedents still continue to vacation in Nags Head. We hear about the strong characters with temperaments that would be just as at home in Maine or Cape Cod, but also have a char that is unique to Nags Head. We learn about people who weathered many of the nation's worst storms (the Outer Banks is a favorite place for hurricanes to hit land) and the bonds that developed between the families. We also get a glimpse of North Carolina history, including some civil rights history as it touched this community.

I am certain that people who have vacationed in Nags Head will enjoy this book, but it will also be of interest to people who enjoy local history, particularly since the author includes writing samples from actual people who are decedents of the first Nags Head families or people who worked for them.

Nags Headers is a combination of oral history and narrated storytelling that opens a window to the summer lives of the families who lived and loved in the Nags Headers beach cottages. These cottages, which are now a century old, lie next to the Atlantic Ocean and are also colloquially known as the "Unpainted Aristocracy." They have survived terrible hurricanes, yet they are now threatened by the unyielding sea itself. The stories in Nags Headers capture myriad slices of history, from settlement before the Civil War, to a luncheon hosted for President Franklin Roosevelt, to modern day efforts to preserve the cottages' historical legacy. Of special interest is an interview with Virginia Hall, the 100-year-old survivor of a 1933 hurricane. Warm and picturesque, Nags Headers makes past years come alive.

My family owns one of the cottages in the area this author writes about, and I've been going to Nags Head since I was just a few months old. Rountree accurately captures the flavor and feeling of the area as I remember it, and as my grandparents remembered it (my grandfather first went to Nags Head in the 1930s.)

The book is filled with many black and white photos from as early as 1900, and has interviews with many of the locals whose families were among the earliest settlers along the beach. There are stories told of names like the Midgett family, Rev. Drane, the Nixons, Ras Wescott, the Buchanans, the Rascoes, Carolista Baum, and of course, the cottage builder S.J. Twine.

This book would be a pleasure to own for any who remember the "good old days", when families traipsed down the sand from one cottage to another for a cocktail party every night; when mothers would come to the beach with the kids for the whole summer and fathers joined them on weekends; when Harris's grocery store was the best (and only!) place to buy your freshly ground hamburger; dancing at the Casino; driving Jeeps on Jockey's Ridge; pig picks and clambakes on the beach; the days before Nags Head was quite so filled with tourists and more populated by summer people. It's a real trip down memory lane, and I recommend it highly.

Great book for for getting the inside scoop from the people who were there. I enjoyed rehashing the stories from the book with my grandfather, 89, who still lives in Manteo; he first got to the OBX in the mid 1930s. I have lived on the OBX and also visited there my whole life so it was great to relate with the history and personal family narratives. I especially liked the Casino stories, and the exciting storm and war memories too. Good pictures.

Simply a classic! There is no other book written on jazz that even comes close. A.T.'s questions were intelligent, pointed and insightful. I loved the interview format. It gave the musicians an even wider canvas to paint on. The no-holds-barred and candid portrait of Black life should be a book to cherish for ages to come.

Notes and Tones is distinct in its highly synergistic dialogue. The fact that Arthur Taylor was a serious [Black] jazz drummer, with a familiar professional and personal relationship with many of the interviewees, resulted in wide ranging discussions marked by unguarded sincerity. Certain themes are touched upon numerous times [the Black Power movement & the need for jazz musicians to unite and practice cooperative economics], which while perhaps dating the book, nevertheless provide a telling contrast to the current state of affairs in the music world in general, and the social concerns of the U.S. Black community specifically. This clearly was a labor of love, and the insights shared by these iconic figures consistently inspire me to make the most of my time and efforts in whatever I'm pursuing, every time I read from the book.

Arthur Taylor, a most creative source of a force in the drumming world, has created a moving, startling, and lovely group of interviews of some of the most influential artists in jazz (Black Classical) music. Giants like; Thelonious Monk, Erroll Garner, Elvin Jones, Nina Simone, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie and so many others paint images of pointedness, beauty, intellect and feeling. The reader really gets an insight into the personalities and lives of these wonderful people that are the lineage of the only true American art form. I really recomend the book to anyone, from the person who has had one passing thought about jazz artists to those who dedicate their life to the art form, or any artform. This is, as they say, the real deal. I am humbled by Mr. Taylor's wonderful work and, in my own way, feel love for each of the unique artists that he interviews. Thank You Arthur!

A genuinely fascinating collection of interviews with some of the most important jazz figures of the 1950s-60s. (It's worth the purchase price just for the goofy, entertaining exchange with Dexter Gordon which opens the book.) Not only do you get an unusually intimate sense of what some of these brilliant musicians were/are actually like in "real life," but the book is particularly interesting--and frank--about the subject of race, in the jazz world and beyond. If you love jazz, don't miss this book.

Arthur Taylor, a most creative source of a force in the drumming world, has created a moving, startling, and lovely group of interviews of some of the most influential artists in jazz (Black Classical) music. Giants like; Thelonious Monk, Erroll Garner, Elvin Jones, Nina Simone, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie and so many others paint images of pointedness, beauty, intellect and feeling. The reader really gets an insight into the personalities and lives of these wonderful people that are the lineage of the only true American art form. I really recomend the book to anyone, from the person who has had one passing thought about jazz artists to those who dedicate their life to the art form, or any artform. This is, as they say, the real deal. I am humbled by Mr. Taylor's wonderful work and, in my own way, feel love for each of the unique artists that he interviews. Thank You Arthur!

This book was the only one of its kind for a long time. In fact, I found it years after my father's liver transplant, and found it helpful even "after the fact."

With new information coming out daily, and treatments progressing so rapidly, I continue to keep an eye out for more books on the subject of organ donation and transplantation. I'm interested in the most up-to-date information AND interviews with all types of recipients. I want to know how other people (besides the recipient) feel during and after the process.

Mr. Finn's book is outstanding, and reports from a PATIENT'S point of view. An excellent accompaniment that I suggest for FAMILY members of a transplant recipient is "ORGAN TRANSPLANTS: A Suvival Guide for the Entire Family".
-- Tina P. Schwartz, YA Author

There is such a scarce amount of information for families of transplant recipients. In fact, this is the only book on the subject at my local library. I found it extremely helpful and informative for many of the technical questions I had about what my father went through and would continue to endure. (He had a liver transplant 7 years ago.) I wish I had found it years ago! Thank you Robert Finn!

I am a recent addition to the UNOS heart transplant waiting list and I have found locating information regarding organ transplantion rare. I was shown this book at my cardiac rehab facility and I am now online to order a copy for my family and I. I found this book to cover all major subjects relating to organ transplants. It is broke down in sections for easy reference. I was most impressed with the details of the surgeries for the different types of transplants and the insert of dialog from transplant receipents and medical personnel. I truly am very grateful to have read this book and I know that I will read it time and time again. This is also an opportunity for my family and friends to understand what is going to happen to me and how they can best deal with it. Thank you to Robert Finn for a job well done.

My tissue matched up as a kidney donor for a friend who is on dialysis. I needed a reference that would answer my questions as I look down the road to my surgery as a donor. This book, while geared to recipients, addressed my concerns. There are several general chapters that most readers will want to read. Then, the book continues with chapters relating to specific concerns such as heart transplants, kidney transplants, each of the other organ transplants, relationships with the surviving family members of a donor, financial considerations, rejection of the organ, etc. The book clearly explains the system for getting on the "list" and the wait until a donor is found. It also describes the day of surgery as the recipient "gets the call" that an organ has been found. The surgery for each of the different types of organ transplants is lucidly explained. My main interest is living donors and there is a fine chapter on that topic. I found myself reading the book, nearly from cover to cover because I enjoyed educating myself on all aspects of transplants. The only chapter I skipped was one that is very specific on the medical regimen for combating rejection. However, for a potential recipient, this chapter would be of crucial interest (although of little interest to me as a donor). The information is very well organized and anyone with questions about transplants will find this book to be an indispensible reference.

As a clinical social worker that works with patients facing the possibility of organ transplantation, I picked up this book with the hope that it would be something I could recommend to patients. It did not disappoint me! Very well written and comprehensive, it gives a huge amount of information in an easy to understand format. It is also a very interesting read - I had a hard time putting it down! It is a great starting point for people that are just beginning to learn about transplant. I will be strongly recommending it to all patients and families that I meet as part of the pre-transplant evaluation process.