Distributors Books

Any person interested on Magic Realism art must take a look at the work of this artist, which can be considered as a kind of translation of the soul. Stonelitographs, oils and bronce sculptures are part of the world created by Michael Parkes, a magic world plenty of strange creatures and beautiful women.

This book remains a classic in the of field of dislocation dynamics. This is one of the very few textbooks available that deals with kinetic and dynamics of dislocations in a lucid way. The best thing about the book is its numerous illustrations to put across the concepts. This is extremely helpful in understanding the geometry and interactions these complex beasts, dislocations.

The subject is introduced smoothly, starting from review of elastic behaviour and crystal plasticity in a characteristic, lucid manner. Crystal plasticity is introduced in continuum mechanics approach and no use of dislocation concept is used till then. One chapter is devoted exclusively for the geometry of dislocation. The emphasis is on conveying the concepts and there are no complicated derivations for all the special cases. That makes it all the more better. Next few chapters are devoted to the kinematics and dynamics of dislocations, wherein the attention is divided between the dynamics of single dislocation and evolution of collection of dislocation. Being a leading figure in this subject, most of the results in these chapters are Author's own - so he is able present it very clearly. Eventhough first edition of this book came out (1966??) it is still as resourceful as a book published this year.

This is a wonderful book by Joann Arnold. She has a way of bringing new suprises into each characters lives. This is a book about a little boy who is dealt some difficult challenges. He could have been lost in the foster home program but instead is found by a wonderful group of Ladies that need something in their lives to help them focus on the good things in life. I was so suprised that this book had LDS values, since it wasn't published by Covenant Communications or Deseret Book. I was happily suprised and couldn't put it down. This is the second book that I read from Joann Arnold, the first was just as good. It was called Journey of the Promise.

Kahlil Gibran leaves me breathless with every book I've ever read from his collection of poetry, love letters, short stories.. etc. I have absolutely fallen in love with him, and am sure that he is one of the greatest men to have ever lived. His mind will boggle yours with his words of love, encouragement, many other things (read The Prophet). I really don't know what much else to say other than there is nothing better than a good Kahlil Gibran book, because all his books are good. Better than good, they are the best. Enjoy him! I have, and will forever more.

The Mishneh Berurah is one of the basic books Jews for Torah study in regard to the laws of everyday life. For many years between Minchah and Maariv it has been studied and taught in many Shuls throughout the world. As with much Jewish learning it is wise and important to learn this text with others more knowledgable than oneself. This is in other words which one uses most wisely not by simply ' reading' but by learning with others. This work goes into tremendous detail and like many such Jewish holy texts requires years to be properly studied.

This text was used in an Educational Administration course in which I was enrolled. If you have any desire to be an administrator in a school - this is the book for you. It is clear, concise and research based. The writer refrains from sermonizing and allows the reader to produce conclusions based upon the presented research. I particularly found chapter 9 (i.e the work of W. Edwards Deming) to be inspiring.

Every book has its faults as does this one. As stated before, most of the book is research. Unfortunately, most of the research essentially says the same thing but in different forms. Reading the same thing after a while becomes monotonous. The final chapter was very difficult to read.

Please do not be put off by my negative comments. I recommend this book highly.

Although this is an old book, and probably out of print, I still recommend it highly. It includes many helpful phrases, and even more importantly, it presents the rules of grammar in a clear and non-intimidating style that helps one avoid falling victim to frustration, which is a major problem when undertaking the study of a language as difficult as Greek.

This is a simple introductory book to the life of one of the most extraordinary modern spiritual personality of the 20th century. Mira Alfassa, adored as the Mother of Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry, is a spiritual experimental scientist who worked at the level of transforming the cells of her body. This is a simple introduction to her normal life in the Ashram, with interesting anecdotes. It reads very easily and gets the reader attracted to this many-faceted and fascinating human being - aspiring to Divinity.

This is a must-have book for comparative musicologists of the Indian tradition who do not have access to, or resources to, study the original granths (treatises) in sanskrt. See down below for the list of granths studied in this book.

The principal subjects dealt with are the concepts of shrti & swar (and related topics), the creation of thaats (scales) and raags thereof, and how these have evolved over time.

Bhatkhande judiciously avoids an in-depth exploration of the musical systems expounded in Bharat's 'Natyashastra' & Sharangdev's 'Sangeet Ratnakar'. As he candidly admits early on in the book, under careful study those granths create more controversies than the answers they provide. However, he does gingerly touch upon the tuning system outlined in the Natyashastra - and closes the topic concluding that the only rational inference would be that the 'shuddha' scale of Bharat's shadja grama employed 22-equally-tempered shrti divisions (with swar locations at 4-3-2-4-4-3-2 shrtis).

The book then delves into the tuning/scale details recorded in granths starting from around the 15th century CE when Hindustaani music was beginning to diverge from the Karnatik tradition under the influence of Arabic/Persian motifs; and by which time the tuning intonation was clearly 'natural' as demonstrated by the fret positions described in the Hrdayaprakash.

Generally, Bhatkhande first quotes the original sanskrt passage and then provides an English translation. He has omitted the specific translations at some points though - but that does not detract from the discussion at hand since the content of the sankrt passage can either be inferred from the surrounding context or it is completely orthogonal to the issue of tuning.

It is of interest to note that while the thaat (scale) names from the 15th century are largely identical to those of modern day thaats, the scales themselves are not congruent! For instance, the 'shuddha' scale of Lochana, called Bhairavi, maps to modern day Kaafi. His Kedar maps to modern Bilaval and so on. Equally interesting is how the technical terms (eg. moorchhana) came to mean something totally different as time passed.

This book does not purport to answer how Indian music came to be in its modern garb. Instead it provides snap shots of the musical traditions for the past 7 centuries - which is more than adequate fodder for the beginning comparative musicologist.

For the detail-o-phile, the treatises studied in this book are:
- For the Northern/Hindustani system
o Raagatarangini by Lochana
o Hrdayakoutuka & Hrdayaprakasha by Hrday Narayandev
o Sangeet paarijaat by Ahobala
o Raagatatvavibodha by Sri Nivasa
o Sadraagchandroday, Raagmala, Raagmanjari, Nartananirnay by Pundareek Vithala
o Rasaakaumudi by Sri Kant
o Anupavilas, Anupasangeetaratnakar, Anupankush by Bhava Bhatt
- For the Southern/Karnatik system
o Swaramelakalanidhi by Ramamatya
o Raagavibodh by Somnath
o Chaturdandiprakashika by Venkatmukhi
o Sangeet saramrta by Tulajirao Bhonsle
o Raagalakshanam by ??

This is a tremendously touching book about a mother's love for her son. It highlights how divisive and destructive blind dogmatism can be. Yet, throughout the book is a river of compassion. There is no bile or hatred or rage; just the grief of a mother who mourns for the needless suffering of her son.

Carrol Grady is a wonderful and compassionate person. On the strength of meeting her I bought the book. It frequently brought tears to my eyes. This was not just a story in the abstract, but the story of somebody I had gotten to know just a bit.