Publications and Media Books

I was looking for a book that would energize journalism students and would help them to see in journalism the potential for making a contribution to positive social change. This book was terrific in the classroom for those purposes. The students loved the narrative writing style and the book opened great questions on the role of advocacy in relation to social movements and the institutions of journalism. A truly important work as we in journalism education look for ways to encourage our students to consider alternatives to corporate-owned media!

If you're interested in learning about watermedia, a term used to include watercolors, gouache (opaque watercolors), casein (a paint based on milk protein), and acrylics, I highly recommend this excellent book. No, it's not the newest book on the subject, and yes, a lot of the illustrations are in black and white, but the graphics are basically very good and the information supplied even better. This is especially true for qouache and casein, which never seem to get much attention in books.

Quiller gives good, in-depth information about each of these media, as well as a series of exercises to develop one's skills in working with them, and plenty of illustrations of his own work, including works in progress, which showcase the versatility of these paints.

This definitely is a book you should have if you're interested in watermedia. Also recommended are Quiller's other books on color theory and acrylics...these are newer and have all-color images, and will get you thinking in different ways about color. The art is colorful, vibrant, and creative, and certain to inspire you.

AN INCIDENT GAUSSIAN BEAM IMPINGING ON A BIG DIELECRIC MEDIUM.

This book provided us with new insights on the quality of the daily news. The review of Women's magazines was excellent. The tables were informative and well-organised. A very useful edition for media research

Very well written collection on that status of women in the media. This is a collection of essays about gender values in mass communication. The editor, Pamela J. Creedon, has identified a wide range of issues for discussion. Inspite of the huge scope of the book, the essays remain cohesive and well-knit.

The book looks at the increased number of women scholars in this area and its effects. ("gender switch"). A key message of the book is that a significant change in status quo will occur, not when women try to change the system, but when they improve their position within the system and change the internal dynamics therein. A second message is that the gender roles defined by white male counterparts serve as the basis of gender inequity. The collection ends on an optimistic note and the last few essays talk about how to challenge current gender values.

This is an excellent resource for anyone interested in how young people are utilizing the Internet. A wide array of scholars tackle some of the many issues facing the changing media landscape. They provide much needed insights while also raising questions for further research.

Books are usually written a certain way; with a plot, set characters, conflicts, et cetera. The way Tim O'Brien portrays his story, The Things They Carried, is different than most books and his incorporation of truth and fiction tend to throw the reader off. Tim O'Brien constantly contradicts himself throughout the novel, and continually tells the reader that he or she won't be able to comprehend what he is trying to explain.
My first point I would like to present is the book is full of fabrication. Right away, before the book even begins, on the copyright page, it clearly states, "This is a work of fiction. Except for a few details regarding the author's own life, all the incidents, names, and characters are imaginary." How is the reader supposed to differentiate between reality and O'Brien's stories when right off the bat we are told that a good majority of the book is a falsehood?
The second thing I would like to point out is that Tim O'Brien openly tells us that the book is a lie, and he will tell us these stories in hope that we might understand what he went through. Though he expects us to understand even when he doesn't tell us the difference between "story-truth" and "happening-truth". Tim O'Brien provides us with the chapter Good Form that blatantly tells that the whole book is a falsehood. The author says "I'm forty-three years old, true, and I'm a writer now, and a long time ago I walked through Quang Ngai Province as a foot soldier. Almost everything else is invented." As a reader, this unlocked emotion such as frustration because it felt like you were being deceived, and to find out the whole thing was made up really bewilders you. When this information is revealed, you are already a good deal through he book, and then to find out that the stories are just imaginary makes you ask yourself, what was the point of reading this then?
Also, the way to novel is perpetrated also perplexes the reader. The story is very jumbled and doesn't follow or keep up with itself. In my opinion, there are pointless stories being told in the novel, stories that irrelevant to telling a war story. I didn't find this book favorable, especially in the inconsistency of the tales.
I also wonder why O'Brien would want to publish this novel. Even though the characters were false and probably a lot of the stories he told were false as well, there are just some stories that were embarrassing. For example, the chapter The Sweetheart of Song Tra Bong is a chapter about a man expressing negative qualities while trying to keep a relationship with his girlfriend. The chapter only shows the man's bad side in expressing his paranoia and desperation. Also, in one of the last chapters, The Lives of the Dead, it tells a tale of O'Brien's love for a nine-year-old girl. He claims that it was "as deep and rich as love could get" (pg. 228). When he is explaining his love for this girl, I just couldn't help but feel that the author was kind of sketchy, and even though this story might not actually be true, it gives the reader a strange view of the author. I one hundred percent believe that it is impossible for nine-year olds to fall in love.
I think it's fair to say that a good majority of the class wasn't able to comprehend the point of the book, especially since none of us have fought in a war. Not only were non-veterans dissatisfied with this book, but also actual Vietnam War veterans had problems with it. One customer from an amazon.com review writes, "I thought the book was well written and interesting and all that. But speaking as a Vietnam vet, 1st Cav., Medivac, the only thing I can say is that the book just wasn't like what I really saw". Another customer responds to the book, "As a veteran of almost four years in Viet-Nam, I was very disappointed by the book in its attempts to say, in effect, `Look how sensitive I am; Oh, I am such a sensitive caring person.'" This clearly demonstrates this book wasn't an accurate account of what happened, or what it was supposed to feel and look like.
In conclusion, I think The Things They Carried was a book full of lies that we could never understand. I acknowledge that some truth is incorporated into this story, but the book is confusing and misleading, and might lead to people getting their facts wrong about Vietnam. The way it was written made it even more difficult for the reader to follow along. I may be ignorant to what actually happened during the Vietnam war and what the soldier's experienced, but I think a more realistic depiction of the war would have a more profound effect on the people who would happen to pick this book up.

In The Things They Carried, Vietnam veteran Tim O'Brien called upon his own wartime experiences, labeled them as fiction, and wrote one of the most emotionally potent books I've ever read.

It's irrelevant to me how much of O'Brien's book "really happened" because O'Brien's words and stories in The Things They Carried deeply touched me. O'Brien wrote simply, but effectively. He tapped into real emotion and conveyed those emotions skillfully. With each and every short that made up a larger story with The Things They Carried, I could picture myself clear as day in those very same situations.

That's one benefit of calling this book fiction. Had O'Brien designated it nonfiction, I think each tale would have filtered through my knowledge this happened to O'Brien and registered as a "past event." But with it being called fiction, I could lose myself in the story and meld with it, become one with it, and see myself in it. It allowed me ownership that nonfiction does not.

While O'Brien offers authentic knowledge on weaponry, tactics, and all things associated with being a wartime soldier, he focuses more deeply upon the human element. The Things They Carried perfectly captures what it is to be human in times of chaos, fear, and horror. He doesn't glorify or lionize the characters in his stories. He treats them as "real" (and perhaps they were), and he offers only the emotional truth.

There are things in this book that chilled me to the bone. Not because it's overtly gory, but because O'Brien cuts to the core of our fragile lives. For instance, in one story a man dies after being sucked under mud during a mortar attack. But he doesn't write it from the dead man's perspective, he writes it first from the perspective of the man next to him, then from the perspective of the man pulling the body out of the mud the next day. Can you imagine? I assure you, you'll be able to imagine such a thing after reading The Things They Carried. And that's what makes this book so utterly effective. O'Brien forces you to put yourself in it, to experience it through his straightforward, transparent, and evocative words.

I honestly only read this book because Tim O'Brien was coming to a local university and I was invited to attend a private reception for him. I'd never heard of the man and had to ask a few friends for suggestions before one knew O'Brien's work and told me to read The Things They Carried. So expertly rendered were O'Brien's words and so powerful was the raw emotional honesty in his book that O'Brien has secured me as a life-long reader.

I strongly recommend you read The Things They Carried.

~Scott William Foley, author of Souls Triumphant

Tim O'Brien is one of the greatest writers alive today. I think that his prestige and legacy will only grow as the genius of his works find a wider audience.

The Things They Carried and Going After Cacciato make up the twin pillars of Vietnam literature. If you haven't read Going After Cacciato, please check it out.

The Things They Carried is as much a mediation on the nature of truth as it is a war story. The major themes of the novel are the ways stories shift meaning with continuous retelling, and the ways in which our own lives are at the mercy of memory. A haunting, moving masterpiece.

Not growing up during this era it was interesting to read the accounts... I found a great blog article on this book as well:

http://www.petermanseye.com/anthologies/perseverance/343-the-things-they-carried

Great read. Highly recommend the book.

Cheers.

... is a quote from O'Brien's daughter, Kathleen, in the story "Field Trip." Kathleen had just turned 10, and O'Brien had taken her back to Vietnam, to show her where her dad had been. He was trying to convey what it was like to have been a soldier in that war. As the story is written, clearly he had not been very successful. Going back to the sadness and failure of Vietnam is so totally different from strolling along the high cliffs of Normandy, where purpose and success reigned.

"The Things They Carried" is widely recognized as the classic soldier's account of the Vietnam War. It now has 702 reviews on Amazon. What more can be said? Hopefully a number of things, including a few personal parallels. When the Second World War commenced, Norman Mailer, the author of that war's classic account, "The Naked and the Dead," asked himself one thing: From which theater of the war could he write a better book? He consciously chose the Pacific. You never get that sense of ambition from O'Brien's stories; rather you feel that he was haplessly swept along with the events, and his eclectic montage of images reflect the experiences he is still trying to understand.

O'Brien was a "grunt" in the ill-starred Americal Division, in Quang Ngai province, mostly in 1969. I was in the next province south, in Binh Dinh, at the end of 1968, as a medic in a tank unit. Like O'Brien I would stare at the hills to the west of the coastal plain, and dream of waking up one morning, and walking through them, away from the war, a fantasy that he turned into another moving book, "Going After Cacciato." O'Brien was certainly right in taking his daughter back to the `Nam, in the hopes of transmitting to the next generation our experiences. I did the same thing; my first of three trips back was in 1994. This is probably the same year O'Brien took Kathleen, since I saw his signature in the ledger at the memorial at My Lai. "Ill-starred" became the most common adjective for the Americal, due in part to the massacre of what was official determined as 504 civilians in this hamlet. This event was only revealed to the wider American public thanks to the courageous actions of a couple soldiers, Ron Ridenhour who wrote numerous American leaders, and Ronald Haeberle, whose photographs were published in Life magazine. Others in the military hierarchy, including Colin Powell, tried to cover up the massacre.

A few of O'Brien's stories did not resonate. I remain puzzled as to the significance of "Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong" which truly had to be a stoned-out fantasy. But most of the stories overwhelmingly hit resonance, including the suicide of Norman Bowker in "Notes," the hauntingly tragic portrait of a young Vietnamese school teacher in "The Man I Killed," and the philosophical underpinnings of "How to Tell a True War Story." O'Brien shifts in his story-telling, so that it is hard to tell what really happened, and what was imagined, and if there was a difference. Oh memory, speak truly.

It was only on my third trip back to Vietnam, in 1996, that I thought it was "safe" enough to take my wife and two children. At the time, my daughter was 12, my son 11, and I experienced some of the similar problems that O'Brien had in trying to convey what had happened in this now peaceful country. I insisted on climbing the hills surrounding the Mang Yang pass, site of ambushes for both French, and later American forces. Climbing in the heat, and through tough "elephant grass," my daughter turned around and said: "Dad, I think you are just a little bit crazy." Yes, the obsession.

Our post-war actions were not sufficient to stop a repeat of the same stupidities in Iraq, though I at least was successful in ensuring that my own children would not participate.

Perhaps O'Brien's most haunting story is the one which describes his mindset before he went to the Nam - "On the Rainy River." He concludes with: "... and then to Vietnam, where I was a soldier, and home again. I survived, but it is not a happy ending. I was a coward. I went to the war."

This book is our own "All Quiet on the Western Front," deserves more than 5 stars, and should be read in every American school.

John thinks he's a cynic. He takes a bit of pride in the fact that he claims not to feel emotion, and blames it on his father who always seems glad to get rid of him after every weekend, and his mother hasn't touched him since he was ten years old. John's escape is zines, his own and one called Escape Velocity, written by Marisol, known as a "Puerto Rican Cuban Yankee lesbian". When they finally get a chance to meet, Marisol makes John swear never to lie to her. But even as he makes that oath, John already has, and as his little lies (both to Marisol and himself) get bigger and he and Marisol get closer, both of them will have to learn to stop lying and tell the truth, no matter what the consequences.

From the moment you meet John, you're hooked on his very distinguishable voice and cavalier attitude, even if his behavior does seem despicable at times. Readers will have no problem summing up sympathy for him and in the same moment exasperation as he continues to lie his way throughout the story. But as John is continually exposed to Marisol and truly explores his feelings, the reader will find surprising depth and character. It's the complex, three dimensional characters that make this novel so indelible and irresistible, and their imperfections that give it life. Hard Love leaves off without a clear, positive ending, but instead with hope for the future, which is a million times better.

I got this book from a library, but I love it so much that I feel the need to own it. I have had similar experiences with my own 'hard love', so it hits pretty close to home. After I read it, I just felt like it was something that I had needed to read. It taught me something. Sure, it isn't a perfect novel or even a classic like The Great Gatsby, but it gave me something that I wouldn't have gotten otherwise.

I really don't understand the complaints of other reviewers who say that these are not 'real' or 'normal' teenagers. These kinds of problems are real and I see them reflected in my friends all the time. "Hard Love" just seems like a book that needed to be written. I'm lucky that I read it (I picked it up on a whim) and I think that anyone who has struggled with unrequited love needs to read it, too.

i cant begin to tell you how amazing this book is. i read this book when i was in tenth grade and ive now been out of school for 3 years and still re-read it and love it.. it was so inspiring and touching and you felt as the author got inside of your emotions and took control..i was beyond inspired by this book to create my own zine and join communitys of people who write zines and made some amazing friends that way..this book i highly highly reccomend to anyone

While shopping at the Colorado teen lit conference a fellow writer suggested Hard Love to me. I thought, after the first couple of pages, that I would not like it. John is a tough character to get to know and love. I keep reading it and boy was I wrong! I LOVED the book. The characters stepped off the pages and really came alive! The innovate use of zine was a neat twist and and I truly loved the pathos, the absolute agony, of the unrequited love story. The back story and ultimate growth of the main character was convincing and a joy to read. Hard Love is very well written. I will definitely recommend it to everyone, and am looking forward to reading more Wittlinger books!

From the first paragraph you can tell HARD LOVE is a different kind of book. It opens with a teenage boy named John, struggling between his divorced parents and the teenage romantic values his parents don't seem to have. None of which bothers him in he least, as he has been raised with no feeling or sense of emotion.

Day to day, John coasts through life, trying to forget about his father who doesn't talk to him and his mother who doesn't touch him. He occasionally reads zines from time to time, and was infatuated with "Escape Velocity" so he is determined to meet the writer.

Marisol is the character who changes this story around. John spends time with her and falls in love, but there's a problem, Marisol is gay. He starts hurting inside, hoping and wishing for her affection. Ms. Wittlinger tenderly shows how she takes over his heart and I really like the way this is shown from John's point of view.

This is a fine story with characters so well drawn you start to think you know them. I highly recommend this book to teens and even adults, who want to show what goes on in a mind of an adolescent. Also, I'm sure anyone who has had a difficult love would appreciate this novel, after all it's dedicated to those whose first love, was a hard love.

Especially helpful for a frustrated watercolorist like me whose work never quite succeeds. Dobie lives up to the promise of the title with well-chosen color explanations and interesting exercise options. Her suggestions for how to strengthen a design gave me a whole new understanding of why many of my pre-Dobie watercolors were so disappointing. This is probably not a book for the complete beginner, although clearly written and with illustrations that do, in fact, sing.

Very easy to read, useful information. I haven't finished reading the book, but I have already applied a lot of the suggestions to my own painting and improved them tremendously. She even suggests a good way to lay out your pallet that makes it easier to find the color you are searching for. I love how she uses a limited pallet and still gets all of the colors necessary to create beautiful paintings. This should be helpful to any watercolor artist, or even painters in other media.

"Into" watercolor? If so, this is a 'must have' reference that will not stay on a shelf, but be nearby your painting/study area as a useful tool in mixing and painting with watercolors. Not only is it written in clear and precise language and well illustrated with examples from the author as well as other artists, but it also is chock full of practical, valuable information on pigments, color theory, application techniques, and tips and hints for problem solving in case of unexpected consequences. I found this book easily readable and useful to both decorative artists and fine artists, experienced or beginner. It covers both the why, the what with, and the how to of watercolor application and much of the theory is applicable to other media as well. Even the non-painter will look at works of art with new eyes after reading this interesting and informative text.
Making Color Sing
Making Color Sing

i learned of the book making color sing in an art workshop. It is not a new publication, however 'still in print' and it gives many processes for use of color that i feel any artist would profit by having a copy for reference..and achieving special effects. great guide book. one for the 'watercolorist's personal library'

Making Color Sing

I am new to the medium of watercolors and have found this book to be very helpful. The author keeps the selection of colors to a minimum in order to keep your costs down but also helping you to learn the aspects of what each color can do. This is a book that I feel I can really learn and become a better artist.

Although the book was written in a time people would consider completely different compared to now this book still holds strong points that apply to the way things are. I feel like the book reopened my eyes to a lot of the things I already knew and was said in a way that was raw and uncut. We are a very powerful people, and that holds no weight when the power isn't used properly. This is a must read and far from outdated materiel.

This is the first text to my knowledge that covers the process of curriculum development. It focuses on the student, which is crucial in any good curriculum. Of course, its focus is also on the neglect of the Afrikan student born in or studying in America, which is still generally overlooked.
A must read for anyone interested in education.

One of the greatest books that I have ever read. Dr. Woodson hits all points and areas

This is a wonderful book. I read it many years ago as a young person. And after becoming an adult I purchased it and read it again. My son read it when he was younger and he still keeps a copy at his home.
His son is reading it now. This is a book that everyone should read. It's a great read for blacks, because it's about blacks. However, this book is enlightening for anyone who dares to pick it up.
Great read!

This is book a must have for anyone studying African American History. If you are building a library, it cannot be complete without this writing - this is one of the foundational cornerstones.