Genres Books

It was something else to watch and it was another thing to see how the masterpiece was made. The book goes over the characters, how the actors made the role, the music, sets, costumes and has part of the original script. Plus, it gives great insight on Tim Burton and other artists' decisions into developing the scenes, climax, music, and characters.

The thing that makes this book is the pictures. It's hysterical to see a laughing Sweeney sharing a joke with Tim Burton. Plus, you get to see interesting behind the scene shots and the original set and costume designs. I'm very glad I bought this book and I still look at it even though it has been almost half a year since the movie came out. Five stars!

This is the greatest book ever. That is if you liked the movie of SWEENEY TODD! This is a great book for any movie buff. Especially if you like to know how movies are made. Definately worth buying

What a great conversation piece to have set out on your coffee table. Very well put together and very interesting. Again, if you are a Johnny Depp or Tim Burton fan it is a must have.

I have had no problem with the CD it self, and the music is wonderful. It's like reliving the movie every time you listen to it. Every time you listen to the music you find more reason to love the movie.

This soundtrack was amazing! I don't think it is possible for any producer to have done a better job. It has all the songs that are in the movie, and each one is played exactly how it was in the movie as well. My favorite part is how there is some dialogue between the verses and lyrics of the songs. It really is like a quick summary of the movie.
I absolutely love it!

Received it as a gift and it sits on my coffee table (always viewed by guests). I bought it for my stepdad who said "It's a great toilet book--I read an entry every day."

I purchased this as a gift for a friends 15 year old daughter (who has become a huge Beatles fan). When she opened it up, her eyes said it all...she absolutely loved the photo's and the captions for each picture. I thought it was literally one page/ picture for each day of the calendar year...so I went to look for June 15...and it wasn't there, but there were about 4 pages on June 8. So it does add up to 365 days and crosses the years from 1964-1970, but if you are like me and wanted to see what the Beatles were doing on your birthday, you might not get to find out. But it's a great book and a great gift.

Absolutely stunning! Beautiful and personal photos that covers all four with stunning acuracy.

This book is an absolute treasure and worth every penny of the steep price I payed for it.The pictures are large and extremely high quality and most of them are in vivid color.Another wonderful thing is the fact that they are in chronological order,almost day by day from the end of 1962 to 1970.This is perfect for students of the Beatles because it gives an accurate visual history of the band to suppliment all of the written histories.This leads me to another important point.Anyone with eyes knows that not only is the music great but The Fab Four were indeed VERY nice to look at!And I don't think you have to be a woman,as I most certainly am,to notice that!This book is alot of fun.Because of the date order you see that Paul is wearing the same shirt almost two days in a row on their 1966 American tour!Wonder what happened?! Didn't Neil get to the local cleaners?No clean shirts left?I bet Paul was less than thrilled.To see their clothing styles change every 6 months or so is also interesting.The pictures of the concerts are fantastic especially the color ones.Some of them are large closeups.It also includes some of Bob Whiticker's beautiful photos.He took some of the best pictures of the Fabs and I don't mean the silly Butcher shots.This book should be in every Beatlemaniac's collection.

Excellent book with hundreds of rare photos.
High quality paper.
Recomended.

An absolute necessity for anyone who collects music or is interested in the history of Rock/Pop music in the United States. A must have book that will Never be on the shelf but always close by for reference.

Just overflowing with fabulous info. I only wish there was a paperback version available from Amazon. I'm sure there's one somewhere, since this book was published in '03 and there were always paperback versions of older Whitburn books. It would've been less expensive (and lighter!).

It's a great book for any music fan of the last fifty or more years. It lists all the artists, song titles and chart information for every year. Even a small bio of each artist. It is the bible of popular music. All of Joel Whitburn's books are excellent.

This book is a great help in searching for old records, who sang on these singles, what date they came out, etc etc. I discovered some minor errors though, but hopefully they will be corrected for the revised edition!! Kind of thought it is a waste of space to list who has the most popular songs, this and that; but otherwise I highly recommend this book.

If you are considering this book, you are probably 39 and holding, like I have been for the past 25 years. I started wondering "what was the title of that song?" and "who sang that one?". All those good tunes I grew up listening to in the late 50's on through the 80's. I bought this book (through Amizon of course) and just seeing the titles printed jarred loose melodies that have long been burried under the dust of time. Noboby plays them anymore, but the mind is a juke box of sorts and seeing a title is akin to putting a "nickle in the nickleodeon". This book is fun. Find music by artist or title. Lot's of trivia on the singers (Neil Diamond once considered changing his name to Noah Kaminsky and wrote for the TV show THE MONKEES). If you love the oldies, this book is great. KHF

You dont have to be a ZZ Top fan to like this book , that's just an added Bouns . This book showcases both
Billy Gibbons one of a kind collection of Car's , and Guitars . One especially famous Guitar by Houston legendary Luthier Huey "The Axehandle" Wilkinson . I bought 6 of them , and gave them out as Christmas gifts .

Hey if you play guitar you need to buy this book and soak yourself in the aesthetic and philosphy of the Reverend Billy G. If this guy and Little Steven were running the world, (or just the record and radio industries), we would all be a lot better off. Cool cars and cooler guitars... what more do you want??

WOW. Awesome pictures and great stories. My husband is a ZZ Top enthusiast and I am so glad I bought this book for him. It also has some great pictures of cars Billy collected and since my family is a "racing family" this book was perfect! Well worth the money!

If you are a fan of ZZ Top, a guitarist, a car buff or dig the Rock and Roll life style....this book is for you! It's well laid out with lots of interesting stories, pics and trivia about DA MAN!!!!

Buy it! Dig it! Put it on yer coffee table and show yer cool!

I just saw Billy and the boys at the Bell County Expo Center in Texas last week, and they rocked the house like they were 20 year-olds. When I flew back home to California, I had this book that I'd ordered a week earlier on my doorstep. It has lots of great photos and is an easy read.

Billy starts out writin' like a good ol' boy but includes some of them ten dolla' words eventually. He reminds me of my cousins, who always try to fool the city slickers into thinkin' they's just some country hicks but end up with most o' the chips.

Billy's living an interesting life, and he knows how to tell about it quickly, without bogging it down. In short, it reads kind of like a ZZ Top song.

John Gaudet is a man of considerable scientific training and experience (in Eastern Africa), which adds enormously to his novel, but in a way that is not at all overbearing. His knowledge and experience enrich the novel in a way that is subtle enough that few readers would ever regard it as "academic" (it's too fun for that), but you'll probably learn a few things along the way in any case.

this book is vert entertaining, was hard for me to put down it is filled with elaborate storylines and strong believable characters. the plot flows nicely from spot to spot giving it an easy to read quality that I really enjoyed. flow, story and characters all made this a great overall book filled with great images of africa. I will be looking out for more books by Gaudet!

Because the Colonial forms of African development have been well documented in fact, it is refreshing to discover this subject approached in fictional form. John Gaudet has made capital use of his life experiences while living in Africa. Extremely well researched, and elegantly presented, the book opens a door to the painful, and often mind boggling difficulties faced by those intrepid British, who brought, then modern day rapid train travel, to a country whose former mode of transportation was either by slow ardous river transportation, or the staggering physical demands of hacking their way through the bush. Mr. Gaudet does not shy away from presenting the harsh and brutal treatment used by the Colonials against the natives, although compared to the bestial atrocities of King Leopold, the British seem to have imposed far more lenient treatment to the native populations. Detailing the building a railway through the tropical terrain, with it's innumerable obsticals, is a fascinating picture of a world few if us could imagine being faced with.

John Gaudet knows Africa,he knows British colonial history and he knows how to spin a rousing adventure yarn.At one level,"the Iron Snake"is a fast paced story of the building of the Uganda Railroad and the fights and frolics of the British colonists and their German competitors in the Africa gerrymandered by the European powers at the end of the Victorian Age.

But there is much more to this book.Through the "Iron Snake",Gaudet is able to convey a clear notion of what Africa was like at the turn of the Twentieth Century in terms of its land and people,both those who had always been there and those who came to dominate and exploit them.

Normally, I'm not a reader of historical novels, but I am a fan of Africa, and railroad stories, and travel, and I love the Victorian period of history. This novel is about all three, which is why I picked it out, and I'm not sorry I made the choice. The story is about the building of a railway into the heart of Kenya in the late 19th century. I particularly like the opening section where the heroine, Alice, growing up in England tries to figure out what Africa is all about, "...She recalled from her atlas that starting from Kent one passed through England to Europe and the rest of the World, and since the World started with `A' for Africa, she reasoned that Angola must be at the very top of that Continent and perhaps not far from where she sat this sunny morning."

As the story progresses Alice turns into a strong-willed woman, tough enough to challenge the male-dominated society she finds in Colonial Africa. In fact, all of his characters are similar to the people whom I imagined would venture out to Africa around the turn of the century, colorful, eccentric people, the ones who didn't fit the mold in Europe.

Towards the end of the book I discovered that it is more than a historical novel, it's a description of how to build a rail line into unknown territory, and it's a travelogue, and a thriller, and a love story with a Jane Austen ending! There's something here for everybody. The best parts however are Gaudet's descriptions of the relationships of the white settlers with the Africans, especially the wily, illusive, Zulu woman working for the Germans, Jakoby, and the endearing village seer, Syonduku.

The Africans believed the railroad fulfilled an ancient prophesy and called it the Iron Snake, hence the title of the book, but the British media called it the Lunatic Express and after reading it I can see why.
Historically, The Iron Snake is important because as the novel unfolds we see a shadow of events that lead up to the outbreak of WWI fourteen years later, and the battles that will be fought between British and German colonial troops in East Africa. In summary, a fast, thoroughly enjoyable read, and great entertainment, no wonder Alexander McCall Smith enjoyed it.

Finally this Australian children's classic is becoming available to Americans. I first read it 60 years ago and it has never lost its unusual charm. I read it to my children, enjoying together its wonderful illustrations by author-artist Norman Lindsey and its whimsical poem-songs: "It's worse than weevils, worse than warts/ Worse than corns to bear/ It's worse than having several quarts of treacle in your hair." My grandchildren are now enjoying the books (I had to order copies from Australia, and consider it wonderful that children today can more easily obtain the book). I consider it a classic of the first order--one of the greatest children's stories of all time.

Honestly, I'm no read-aloud wimp! And my kids are usually up for anything. They giggled like mad at the pompous puns of Mr. H.M. Wogglebug T.E. in the Oz books, and urged on my faux-Yorkshire accent in the Secret Garden. The century-old Australian slang and endless sea shanties of the Magic Pudding, though, just about did us in. It really is a magnificent flight of fancy, but there were just too many incomprehensible sentences to paraphrase and longggg songs to make up tunes for. Save this for when you're at your most daring and energetic, read-aloud parents!

Big tough talking penguins and talking never ending desserts, what more could you want? Ok, that, but this is a kids book, and one you should get if you have some (kids, that is, not talking penguins and puddings). There are the good guys, and there are the bad guys. Both are hungry, but the bad guys want to put out tasty pudding friend to nefarious ends, while the good guys just want enough dessert. Needless to say, the pudding is cantankerous.

The Magic Pudding is a fun-and-nonsense tale that has become my nine-year-old son's favorite book. It deserves to be published in the US so that American children can enjoy what has become a classic in Australian children's literature. If you enjoy Roald Dahl's books, "The Phantom Tollbooth," and "Alice in Wonderland" you'll enjoy this.

This book is part of the wonderful new series of republished children's books from the New York Review of Books. Over 80 years old, "The Magic Pudding" describes the adventures of a koala bear, named Bunyip Bluegum - the kind of koala who wears a high collar and spats - who falls in with a crazy cowboy sort of fellow named Bill Barnacle and a penguin named Sam Sawnoff.

Bill and Sam are possessed of a magic pudding (named Albert, if you can believe this), who regenerates every time you take a bite of him and changes into whatever flavor you like. Albert the pudding is much coveted by two evil villains who are constantly tricking our Heroes into giving up the Pudding, whereupon they must go and re-re-re-rescue it.

The characters and style are very reminiscent of "Alice in Wonderland," with Bunyip seeming a little White-rabbitish to me, and Bill and Sam sort of Mad Hatter and Dormouse-y. The effect is somewhere in between "Alice" and an old Loony Tunes in which Bugs Bunny constantly bewilders Elmer Fudd.

The whole narrative is punctuated with many whimsical song lyrics, like the poetry in Carroll's book. The lyrics make it a great read-aloud for the younger set, although older kids might be a bit puzzled by its style. However, everyone will be charmed by the Pudding himself and want one of their very own.

This is a must-have item. It is an incredible beautiful book. If you are a pethead, you must have it. But, if you will buy this item, you must have in mind that is a catalogue of items, pictures and comments, the name is literal, not a book as "PSB vs America" or "Literally".

With 14 reviews already written, I doubt I can say anything that hasn't already been said. But I will give a short review of my impression of Catalogue.

This book is more like Pet Shop Boys history in pictures. While it's true this is a catalogue of all the album and CD covers. It is also the history of Pet Shop Boys in a brief chronology near the back of the book. It gives a time line of what they were doing on particular dates.

There's also an interview from April 2006 with Neil and Chris by Chris Heath. It also includes a complete in depth discography of all their singles and albums they released.

The silver cover of the book makes a great coffee table attraction. It's a must for any Pethead's collection. It's also a great reference book for new fans of the boys. For those who never subscribed to the fan club will enjoy looking at the various Christmas Cards and cover art of the fan club magazine Literally.

I purchased multiple copies so I could have one on display and to thumb through and one is kept sealed. At this great price, who could resist?

Pet Shop Boys Catalogue

El libro es excelente [casi una obra de arte] en el cual se repasa la historia gráfica del dúo a través de sus primeros 20 años de carrera. Un verdadero must para cualquier fan de los PSB.

You can easily forget that Chris and Neil, Pet Shop Boys have been making fantastic music together for close to 30 years now. This large volume is an authoritative visual representation of what the PSB have done throughout their career. If there is one problem (not really) it would be that since they Boys are still active, the book will be outdated nearly immediately following its publication.

Its fun to see all the international releases, versions, one-off items that have come from their musical output, from singles to albums to videos to other books. Catalogue is comprehensive to say the least. And the photos are many, and all relatively great quality.

This is a true gift to the real PSB fans. It is sort of like your own personal scrapbook if you've been following the Boys through the years or a wonderful collection to introduce newer fans to the career that Neil and Chris have enjoyed. Price seems more than reasonable for the quality of the book. The cover is stunning and makes a great conversation piece for your coffee table. It just sort of begs to be opened with its silvery cover image.

Pet Shop Boys fans should be thrilled that such a volume exists and that the artists have seen fit to offer something of this scale. So many bands, defunct or ongoing seem to spurn their fans requests for such items. In this case, no matter what the intent of the artist--whether purely self indulgence or wanting to give back, the fans who purchase this book are the winners.

Love this book. Love the Boys. And most importantly, Love the music they continue to release. Left to your own devices, you probably will buy this book.

This book is beautifully packed and chronicles the product of the pet shop boys for the first 20 years. It includes album/single covers, tours, costumes, videos, etc. It is worth every penny and a true companion for any psb fan!

This installment in the Rogue Angel series shows that "Alex Archer" has really gelled with the Annja character and the story process. So far, this one has flowed better than the others, and those were well-done as well. Another little archaeological adventure has Annja getting to use her sword, of course, and reflect more on the repercussions of her actions and seemed a little more introspective than previous story arcs. The action flowed and this story progressed faster, probably because by now "Archer" doesn't have to rehash as much character history and can just get on with storytelling. I just finished this book and couldn't wait for the next installment.

This book follows in the vein of Destiny. A pleasant blend of action, high adventure and history. Alex does a wonderful job with the characters. The good guys are people who you like and root for and the bad guys are, well, bad as they can be.
The premise behind the story is great. The mix of religion, mysticism and mystery blend well with the action and history.
Annja yet again is called upon to defend the weak against the agression of evil. I recommend this book.

"The team failed," a slim warrior with an eye-patch told Tafari.
"How?"
"They went after the woman. They thought she would be the easiest to capture. Instead she killed three of them."
In Alex Aracher's, "Rogue Angel: The Spider Stone," that's pretty much how it goes for the bad guys who go after Annja, the story's hero, an archeologist with a secret weapon - the reassembled mystical sword that once belonged to Joan of Arc. The sword awakens a warrior's fighting ability within Annja (to nothing less than superhero proportions) and it's a good thing since her latest excursion into an archeological mystery eventually causes her to cross paths with an African warlord.
That poor warlord didn't even know what he was getting himself into.
I was unfamiliar with the Rogue Angel series and only read it at the suggestion of a friend. I'm glad I did because not only was it designed to be a quick read that throws you into the fast-paced action sequences, but it also brought the brutality of slavery and the horrendous economic conditions that plague Africa alive for me in a way that history books and news articles don't. That's what good storytelling is, I think, it entertains, but also opens your eyes to something you might not have seen before (without getting preachy in the process).
The book itself is a relatively quick read, by design, and is broken up into brief chapters for people on the go - read a little here and there, stop, then pick it back up later - the type of book that satisfies the reader on the go. (The writer seems to have understood who today's readers might be.)
I recommend this book for the action lovers out there who read sporadically, love history and world events, but don't have the time to become completely immersed in them - sort of a Flintstone's Vitamin of literature. Good stuff.

This book is the third in a new series, featuring as the lead character a young female archeologist. Anja Creed. The story is action-adventure with a mix of fantasy and mystery. Alex Archer is a pen name under which several authors will write, and this entry is by Mel Odom. I found the pacing to be just right. Odom is especially good at establishing a sense of place, and this was an enjoyable page-turner. Odom must have done some good research for this book, for he has woven interesting bits of knowledge here and there into the story. I also enjoyed how well the characters were delineated. With deft, clean writing, the novel pulled me in with its strong story line, entertained me with bits of knowledge, and captured my attention with its interesting characters.

"Rogue Angel: The Spider Stone" is an old fashioned highball. It's a big shot of action in an ice cold world, lightning fast pacing to fill and garnished with a sacred stone from the heart of Africa. It's intoxicating and fun.

The action in this story is positively breathtaking. An experienced hand wrote this book and it shows. That hand has been in the dojo, doubled into a fist and smashed through some bricks. That hand recognizes the feel of steel, has cradled a blade and known a sword as weapon and a friend. That brings an edgy reality to the action sequences that pop right off the page.

Annja Creed is a heroine with a mission from the highest power. She's definitely not one of Alcott's little women "taught by weal and woe to love and labor ..." She's on the other end of the pendulum's arc with Laura Croft and Electra. She is a hero in the ultramodern sense, and that is the story's only flaw. She is unshackled by uncertainty, romantic interest, or existential introspection. I missed the depth that would have brought to her character. But this isn't a tea and crumpets romance, it is an unapologetic action thriller, and it earns its chops.

"Rogue Angel: The Spider Stone" stays true to its theme rooted deep in a constant opposition of light and shadow. Alex Archer's commitment to plain prose makes this story read fast and sure.

Annja Creed has the avenging sword and social compass of Saint Joan of Arc. And that's just for starters. This story takes Annja Creed across the world on a quest to protect a sacred stone. Yes, the trail is bumpy, dangerous and littered with plenty of bad guys. I'm glad I went Annja on this adventure. You will be glad too. Highly recommended.

For teaching drumset, this is the method I love. The book teaches reading and counting by way of many different beats/grooves in simple 1 and 2 measure phrases. If you do the different variations for each beat as described in the front of the book your coordination will go through the roof!

I still like to use Haskell Harr for rudimental teaching. Using them both together gives students the best of both worlds.

I highly recommend this book. (And for the younger students, get the one written for younger kids).

The only negative thing about this book is that they didn't make each exercise a seperate CD track so some of them are hard to locate. If they did that, it would be perfect!

Its a classic, a must have. 9 out of 10 drummers you talk to will tell you they own a copy and played through it at some point in their drumming career. Its a great all round book that shows you a lot of drumming aspects like beats, fills, time signatures and so on... everything you need to learn as a beginner. I would say the only drawback is that its not for complete beginners... perhaps it would be a good second or third book.

This time tested volume still offers a great foundation for beginner to intermediate level drummers. The cd's are a nice addition but only provide 'performance' tempo examples of some of the exercises, as opposed to something that assists the student in progress from a learning tempo to 'realistic' bpm. It also would benefit from more one and two handed 16th note exercises that are written out as opposed to being a variation of the recommended 18 different ways to use the book. I understand that there is an upcoming dvd to accompany the book and cd's. Looking forward to it Carmine!

This book is not the way to go if you've never played drums before or know little about how to make your way around a kit, don't read drum music or don't know how to count beats/understand time signatures. If you are an absolute beginner, I would highly recommend you start out with a real life lesson or at least find a place (website or book) to learn some basic rock beats using 4/4 time and learn how it all looks written out properly.

For a more intermediate player, this book is a great tool to use to brush up on some troublesome areas of your playing. I found that it was a great supplement to those times when I was just hitting a wall with my creativity. The book offers some good lessons in odd time signatures, fills and double bass playing. Each lesson gives a few bars of examples which increase in complexity until it ultimately leads to big, multi-bar exercise at the end of each unit which ties it all nicely together.

For beginners - try elsewhere first and come back to this one later.
For intermediate and experienced players - go for it! It's a good one.

This book is great for beginner and intermediate drummers. My husband, who's also a drummer, bought this book for me when i started playing. I found it very hard at first, but moved back to it after playing through MelBay's "teach yourself drums" which was much more user friendly for the raw beginner, especially in the fills section. This book has so much material and covers all the essentials like the James Brown beat and cool variations. There are 16 bar longer practices after the one line exercises, I think it's a cool format and the longer sections. This book helped me to advance a lot and I only completed a portion.

In this slender volume, Fr. Lee not only provides a neat summary of Wagner's epic, but an ample and insightful look at the political and philophical underpinnings of the opera's genesis. His discussion of Schopenhauer's influence, albeit a surface treatment, never overwhelms the reader. Nor does the discussion of the leitmotives bog the reader down and detract from a lively and personal narrative. Highly recommended.

I found Father Owen Lee's interpretation of Wagner's Ring concise, beautifully written and coherent. I was utterly mesmerized and could not put the book down until I had read it.

Father Lee's book is essentially a fleshing out of some radio commentary given on the Ring cycle. While it is a short book and a quick read, it is insightful, deep, and well worth study and discussion.

There is no single 'correct' way to interpret Wagner's giant gesamtkunstwerk, one reason why so many books of interpretations and analysis of the pieces struggle for shelf space. This one makes a worthy addition to the pile.

Readers new to the Ring will find the synopsis and discussion of each opera informative and most valuable in getting them started to a basic understanding. Those more familiar with the Ring should find much to think about and compare with their own or other interpretations.

Supplemental to the text are suggested recordings, short reviews of additional books worth investigating, and a brief list of some of Wagner's more well-known musical motifs. There are more complete such lists and references available, but again for the novice these will all be of great help.

I found Lee's book informative, fascinating, and useful.

This little book is an excellent introduction for folks like myself who have tried for years to make sense of the cycle. The narration gives a plot synopsis followed by the author's view of the meaning behind the drama. I have always been fascinated by Wagner's Ring Cycle though I do not know German. I have been very intrigued by the music. Well this book gave me a tiny little bit to get me going.

Much of Father Owens' analysis may not meet with everyone's interpretation of the cycle but it does make one think.

There is a section at the end that contains written music. My knowledge of reading music is very scant so I just ignored that section. It is not germane to the narrative because one can get these examples by listening to the work. For good examples get An Introduction To Wagner's Der Ring Des Nebulungen by Deryck Cooke on CD. Mr. Cooke's CD gives audio examples that one can appreciate without knowing how to read music.

to one of the most multi-layered works of art in existence.

I have wanted to see this opera series for over 20 years, ever since I saw an opera properly prepared by a Wagner fanatic. Finally, I was in a place where I could, so I turned to the various preparations that I could find.

This short book was indisputably one of the best, and it doesn't shy from bold pronouncements and interpretations. Lee is a classical scholar of great learning and brings together a huge range of sources in this 100plus-page book.

First, he gives a synopsis. Then, he interprets it, with full awareness that the reader may disgree. While the content is covered by other reviewers here, I wanted to say that this added immensely to my experience of this uniquely complex work of near-modern art. Plus, it is aimed that at erudite admirers, but to those (like me) desperate for an anchor as I approach the unique intensity of Wagner.

While it relies a bit too heavily on depth psychology, which places this interpretation at a certain time, it is never dogmatic and addresses many of the other philosophical ideas that underlie it. This is my only caveat. Truly great works of art are re-interpreted by every age, and this one will be too. In addition, it cannot be the only source one approaches - you need to listen to the music as well, so this is one supplement.

Warmly recommended.