Literature in Art Books

I've taught Oral Interpretation of Literature for 5 years with the Yordon text. I switched from the Gura & Lee text that I found too wordy and theoretical for the community college. I like this text because it concisely explains the craft and ways to perform literary texts as an interpreter. Sections in the text that particularly connect include sensory showing, smelling, hearing or feeling sensory passages prior to reading them. Also, the criteria for what makes a "literary" text as opposed to merely "prose" is excellent, outlining qualities of universality, individuality & suggestion. The chapter on criticism in particular really stands out as an effective tool, even for those not pursing drama. No matter what field a student may pursue, the ability to give effective criticism is a real gem. The literary selections in each chapter are, for the most part, excellent. William Carlos Williams' short story "The Use of Force" provides much food for discussion. For instructors, Yordon's test bank is extremely helpful. I liked this book so much that I wrote the author a letter and received a phone call from her. She has really done an excellent job of distilling the information succinctly and clearly. Enjoy!

Chapters follow logical order; examples were excellent; and good literary selections.

Judy Yordon's ROLES IN INTERPRETATION is a great text to use and read for an oral interpretation of literature class. The book is organized in a very direct, coherent, and distinctive way. The main ideas are clearly illustrated and supported and the chapters are arranged in a sequential manner. The book is divided into 10 different chapters with an appendix and a glossary. I absolutely loved the oral interpretation class I had and we used this text. The book augmented all the things our professor taught us and it was a great tool and makes for a nice reference for the future (especially if I ever do some professional storytelling or when I have to teach a high school speech class).

Until I read this book I thought that only Nabokov could write about butterflies at such a level
Maraleen, all my compliments brava!!

This book succeeds both as a tremendous joy for the general reader and a serious treatment of its subject. It is perhaps the best, maybe the only, book on the market right now treating its subject well and completely. Exceeding the breadth of its title, the book actually treats the cultural significance of butterflies throughout history. This is no small feat. Butterflies have been taken by many cultures to inculcate hope, rebirth, transformation and transcendence, matters at the heart of mankind's internal concern for many millennia. Despite its masterful photography and copious illustrations, Ms. Manos-Jones's production immediately belies any notion that it is simply a "coffee table book". The chapter titles well illustrate the book's topical landscape-- for example "The Sacred Butterfly", "The Artful Butterfly", "The Verbal Butterfly", [famous] "Butterfly People", and so on. By the time you've gotten through each of the ten chapters, be you butterfly buff or butterfly scholar, you will probably be surprised that, concerning this topic, you "didn't know the half of it". It is important to point out that Ms. Manos-Jones brings to this book a well-informed knowledge both of butterflies and world environmental issues. In life, she wears another hat-- as an environmentalist associated with the important Michoacan Reforestation Fund-- a premier conservation group working to protect Monarch butterfly overwintering habitats in Mexico. Given these credentials, the book is a really wedding of Ms. Manos-Jones' professional level expertise on conservation and the pure love of her subject-- butterflies. This book can be recommended wholeheartedly to the general reader and the informed butterfly enthusiast alike. I imagine that a few scholars and historians will want to dig into it as well.

Every culture known to man throughout the rise and fall of civilizations, has carried a myth or symbol about the butterfly. Evidence of this includes the myth of Eros and Psyche, ancient Mycenean gold relics, wall ornaments of Teotihuacan in Mexico, the Japanese paintings, the Native American legend. This book captures the collective ethos of this powerful universal symbol well. It is well-illustrated.

So, what does all of this mean? Why is it such a recurring and powerful symbol in the collective psyche?

The spirit of the butterfly is the transformative symbol of the regeneration of love which can fly. Love gives you the wings to fly, to be free. This notion of the beauty of love with its gossamer wings, is something that is more precious than anything, for it allows one's heart to open within it where the seed may be born to flower. This flower may blossom fully into joy beyond one's own conscious power to imagine. The seed that may open up and spring up within one's heart can be a form of transformation that does last forever. This is a form of one's own opening to a current within one's own being, a current that can magnetize others when it is fully open. That power to magnetize is something that we are all born with, but that few seldom realize because they are not open to their own feeling in their heart of being free and at one with others.

That is what this book is about and why it is meaningful in capturing the essence of a universal symbol.

My kids love this book! We read it together and created "practice" peace cranes with plain white copy paper. Now, we're folding nice paper cranes to give with gifts this holiday season and to hang as ornaments. By following these instructions, even my three year old can fold a peace crane. The secret is in looking for all the other shapes (a mountain, elephant ears, a kite, an ice cream cone, a baby bird's mouth, a canoe, a wolf, etc.) that you find as you make each fold.

Mary Chloe Schoolcraft Saunders' Spread Your Wings and Fly: An Origami Fold-And-Tell Story is a rhyming children's book that teaches young readers how to fold a paper crane. Rapturous color illustrations by Carla McGregor Mihelich add a wondrous touch to this charming read-aloud book; the last two pages feature very detailed, step-by-step, text and pictoral instructions for crafting a crane that can flap its wings.

The art of Japanese paper folding is called Origami. It is an ancient art, a discipline that has entertained and amazed both children and adults alike.

I learned to fold the Origami paper crane when I was a teenager. It is something I have remembered all my life, and I have always enjoyed showing someone how to make one, or taken delight in seeing the happiness in a child's eyes as the piece of paper turned into a graceful bird.

Spread Your Wings and Fly is a positive affirmation book that you read as you learn to fold your paper crane. The beginning of the book discusses how the author learned to fold the crane and there is even a little history of the art of origami. She also discusses how to use the book and achieving the end result, a flapping version of the paper crane.

But it was getting into the story, into the folding of the crane that really grabbed me. The crane can be a difficult feat if not shown by someone who can patiently teach the art. Ms. Saunders has the pictures of folding the crane broken down into the easiest and most basic way of folding. I followed through, page by page, fold by fold, and while it is a little different than the way I was taught, I had no problem following and achieving a proper and working crane.

Then I went back and read the story. Each fold has a purpose in making the final product. Each time you fold, you are presented with a fold that life can offer you. Sometimes the fold can resemble the shape the paper has taken, sometimes there is a ripple in the fold. While a fold can remind you of a mountain, the mountain can be a big dream or it can be a small one. As you flatten the mountain out, you are reminded that dreams can be squashed also. Wonderful visuals to accompany the process of making the crane, to discovering the folds in your own life, and finally flying free with the finished crane, no matter how life folds for you.

This is beautifully written, well explained, and to top it all off, there are the excellent illustrations, quality print on glossy paper, all of which only compliments the entire work. Together, Ms. Saunders and Ms. Mihelich have given us a book that will provide parents and children with some quality time and some insightful mini-meditations for both of them. Or, if used by a child alone, it is time this child will spend exploring him/her self.

Give this one to your child, or grandchild, and see the delight in their eyes as they create something wonderful to fly to their hearts delight. boudica

I too, bought this book thinking it was light humor. It's much more than that even though I laughed out loud several times reading it. Much of the humor is dark and thought provoking. I saw my own predicament in many of the descriptions. I recommend it to any creative person.

I bought this book mostly as a kind of joke. Most of my friends and I classify ourselves as starving artists, so I thought this book would, at the very least, be an eery window into our lives.

What I got was not just a mildly amusing look at the life of the stereotypcal "starving artist," but in many cases, I was laughing out loud. Not only that, but the authors have infused wonderful accounts of real artists as examples for the various topics they discuss. Even though much of the advice is light-hearted and probably not meant to be taken too literally, there's a good portion of it that is as useful as it is entertaining.

What started out as a book I bought on a whim became a book that I have declared one of the best books I've ever read. Okay, that may be a bit melodramatic, but I'm an artist...aren't I entitled? ;-)

Bottom line? If you are an artist or know an artist who has ever struggled, GET THIS BOOK...if nothing else, you'll have a few laughs and your lack of success (and quarters for laundry) won't seem quite as grim.

A funny look a the nitty gritty issues of life mixed with facts about what the (now) famous did in similiar situations. Lots of fun (& sometimes helpful) suggestions for handling everything from critiques to living situations. Great fun to read!

I am amazed this book is not in the top echelon of Amazon's sales. It is obviously because of the price the publisher has placed on it. But I assure you it is worth the price. Reading this book not only brought back memories of old comic strips and radio drama's but drove me to the internet to check some of this out. Tim is an engaging writer. He isn't just writing history. He is making it interesting and exciting. You will discover facts about old forms of media and specific programs that you didn't know before. There is not a boring paragraph in the book. If the publisher is reading this - lower the price and with a little promotion you have a best seller.

A wonderful and engagingly written overview of the origins of iconic heroes and TV/movie dramas looking back at their genesis in the pulp, radio and comic strip forms of the early twentieth century. Many suprises such as the radio versions of Dragnet and Gunsmoke long before the TV series. Great overviews of all of the major genres of storytelling (detective, western, action, mystery/horror, sci-fi, jungle) with revelations on every page. Serial storytelling in comicbooks and TV owe a huge debt to the decades of stories already explored in the pulp and radio serials. This book is a terrific intro to these somewhat forgotten forms. It is too bad this slim paperback is SO expensive, but if you bite the bullit it is a genuinely rewarding read.

"Storytelling in the Pulps, Comics, and Radio" is an easy-reading, fun romp through the history of popular storytelling in America. You can feel DeForest's enthusiasm for his subject on every page-he has obviously read everything he writes about and has no qualms about expressing his critical feelings about what he has read. While reading I found myself wanting to hunt down copies of the stories under discussion to see if I felt they were as great or as rotten as the author believed they were. Did I hunt them down? Well, that's another story.

"Storytelling in the Pulps, Comics, and Radio" is an excellent survey of how storytelling has thrived in America through the various media that were popular at different times in our history. DeForest believes everybody loves a good story whatever its form of delivery, be it written, oral, or visual. Coverage includes dime novels, adventure stories, crime and detective stories, science fiction and strange stories, radio drama, and story based comics. An emphasis is placed on the role that changes in technology and economics played in the survival or demise of particular media. Particularly interesting is how many of America's greatest writers were involved, and how many, if not most, of America's favorite TV and movie heroes and heroines were born in the pulps, comics and radio shows of decades ago.

This book is probably best for those with little to average knowledge of the subject. Diehard pulp, comics and radio story fans, like DeForest, would probably not learn much here. They know it all already.

The only faults I find with this book are the high price tag (get your local library to buy a copy) and that DeForest blatantly omits the romance genre of his subject. So all of you women out there who might be interested in the history of the romance pulps and comics, you won't find it here. Deforest is too busy swashbuckling to swish you off your feet.

I have to admit that I actually did read this book and that I know the author and that I am one of the uncultured Philistines of Friday Snack Time mentioned on the frontispiece of the book. Therefore you can believe that I wrote this favorable review under threat of an ugly alien monster's death ray (which I didn't) or that it is all absolutely true (which it is).

It's a crying shame that this book was not priced at 10 cents so that everyone could afford to buy a copy.

Allen Novak, Librarian
Ringling School of Art and Design

modernity is an idea that has been defined elsewhere as the revolution that began when the first rioter pried a cobblestone up out of the street and threw it at the bastille in 1789. it's the history of the "rights" of man.

many of the 19th century writers -- starting with gogol (prequel: pushkin, sequel: dostoevsky) -- and emphatically including baudelaire and dickens -- wrote of what has come to be known as the revolutionary encounter. this happened beginning in czar peter's st. petersburg, where the wide sidewalks along the nevsky prospect (designed by a frenchman, leblond) let russia's "new men" -- drawn to the new capital by the new bureaucratic jobs -- mix on the sidewalks with soldiers, aristocrats, formerly cloistered women. the different classes mixed for the first time in history, and *saw* one another.

manet and the french impressionists took up the idea from their friend the poet baudelaire, that there was a "new man" called a flaneur. he *saw* modernity (and streetwalking "new" women) on the new sidewalks of haussman's paris...dickens, who walked at least six miles a day, much of the time at night, through london, transformed what he saw as a "flaneur" -- including, for the first time, the use of a child as a hero/narrator -- into revolutionary "modern" art.

this book argues, and proves that there were women walking the streets and observing modernity in our own way. among the forgotten woman writers parsons writes of is amy levy, a "flaneuse" of london, who argued among other things that jews' identities first formed in modernity, in the revolutionary encounters on the sidewalks.

other women who wrote of the revolutionary encounter on the sidewalk with whom parsons deals are woolf, lessing, and dorothy richardson. the best achievement of this book -- aside from the fact that something you always thought but never quite put your finger on is elucidated on every page -- is to show how women's identity was formed in the streets, and how the 19th century (piggy) social scientists who invented crowd psychology conflated women with rioters...no doubt giving rise to the rivetting art nouveau image of woman as dragonfly.

fabulous, touches on all the art and books you ever saw.

modernity is an idea that has been defined elsewhere as the revolution that began when the first rioter pried a cobblestone up out of the street and threw it at the bastille in 1789. it's the history of the "rights" of man.

many of the 19th century writers -- starting with gogol (prequel: pushkin, sequel: dostoevsky) -- and emphatically including baudelaire and dickens -- wrote of what has come to be known as the revolutionary encounter. this happened beginning in czar peter's st. petersburg, where the wide sidewalks along the nevsky prospect (designed by a frenchman, leblond) let russia's "new men" -- drawn to the new capital by the new bureaucratic jobs -- mix on the sidewalks with soldiers, aristocrats, formerly cloistered women. the different classes mixed for the first time in history, and *saw* one another.

manet and the french impressionists took up the idea from their friend the poet baudelaire, that there was a "new man" called a flaneur. he *saw* modernity (and streetwalking "new" women) on the new sidewalks of haussman's paris...dickens, who walked at least six miles a day, much of the time at night, through london, transformed what he saw as a "flaneur" -- including, for the first time, the use of a child as a hero/narrator -- into revolutionary "modern" art.

this book argues, and proves that there were women walking the streets and observing modernity in our own way. among the forgotten woman writers parsons writes of is amy levy, a "flaneuse" of london, who argued among other things that jews' identities first formed in modernity, in the revolutionary encounters on the sidewalks.

other women who wrote of the revolutionary encounter on the sidewalk with whom parsons deals are woolf, lessing, and dorothy richardson. the best achievement of this book -- aside from the fact that something you always thought but never quite put your finger on is elucidated on every page -- is to show how women's identity was formed in the streets, and how the 19th century (piggy) social scientists who invented crowd psychology conflated women with rioters...no doubt giving rise to the rivetting art nouveau image of woman as dragonfly.

fabulous, touches on all the art and books you ever saw.

modernity is an idea that has been defined elsewhere as the revolution that began when the first rioter pried a cobblestone up out of the street and threw it at the bastille in 1789. it's the history of the "rights" of man.

many of the 19th century writers -- starting with gogol (prequel: pushkin, sequel: dostoevsky) -- and emphatically including baudelaire and dickens -- wrote of what has come to be known as the revolutionary encounter. this happened beginning in czar peter's st. petersburg, where the wide sidewalks along the nevsky prospect (designed by a frenchman, leblond) let russia's "new men" -- drawn to the new capital by the new bureaucratic jobs -- mix on the sidewalks with soldiers, aristocrats, formerly cloistered women. the different classes mixed for the first time in history, and *saw* one another.

manet and the french impressionists took up the idea from their friend the poet baudelaire, that there was a "new man" called a flaneur. he *saw* modernity (and streetwalking "new" women) on the new sidewalks of haussman's paris...dickens, who walked at least six miles a day, much of the time at night, through london, transformed what he saw as a "flaneur" -- including, for the first time, the use of a child as a hero/narrator -- into revolutionary "modern" art.

this book argues, and proves that there were women walking the streets and observing modernity in our own way. among the forgotten woman writers parsons writes of is amy levy, a "flaneuse" of london, who argued among other things that jews' identities first formed in modernity, in the revolutionary encounters on the sidewalks.

other women who wrote of the revolutionary encounter on the sidewalk with whom parsons deals are woolf, lessing, and dorothy richardson. the best achievement of this book -- aside from the fact that something you always thought but never quite put your finger on is elucidated on every page -- is to show how women's identity were formed in the streets, and how the 19th century social scientists who invented crowd psychology conflated women with rioters...no doubt giving rise to the rivetting art nouveau image of woman as dragonfly.

fabulous, touches on all the art and books you ever saw.

Having got the special three DVD set of Toy Story (the extras on the third DVD are stunning) I wanted a book that was a reference guide to the characters from both movies. This is just the book I was looking for.

Each spread has a character or place, nicely designed with large cutouts and smaller pictures (some a bit dark though) and captions. The pages on the thirteen episodes of Woody's Roundup and Bullseye, Jessie and Prospector are fascinating because they show merchandising items from the 1957 TV show, a cereal box, card game, comics, alarm clock, LP record, lunch box and themos etc are all designed with pictures and typography from the fifties. The attention to detail is one reason why I loved the movies and this book lets you enjoy the show without watching it on TV.

Kids and their parents will both enjoy this book.

They did a great job of incorporating background from both films in this book. You get mini bios of all the main characters plus cut-aways and maps of the world of Toy Story. My only complaint is that in their bio of Rexx, they give away the ending of "Toy Story 2".

This book is superbly designed with wonderful images of the characters and film. The neighborhood map is awesome. So is pizza planet rocket.

The text is witty and borders on the poetic.

A must for fans of Woody, Buzz, and all their friends!

Este libro es genial. lo amé desde el primer momento en que vi su portada. Es una luz en un mundo materialista y cruel. El unicornio es el símbolo de la belleza suprema y quien crea en él estará creyendo en el mismo Dios. Michael Green me ha dado un maravillosa sorpresa con su libro!!! Si aman la FANTASÍA LEANLO!!!

About 10 years ago, my mom got me the notebook, I wrote rarely in it, mostly poetry and diary related stuff, later about 2 years ago, I acutally filled it up, I tried to get another copy, but I was unable to do so, so I stopped looking. A week later, my good friends boyfriend got a copy, and he gave it to me. He was very surprised when i told him i had been trying to get the book, especially since i had not told anyone. I was glad i got it then, because i had just barely filled the first one, now I have two, It is always nice to have two beautifully worked journals, I love Michael Greens artwork, and his abilities shine in this wonderful book.

I recieved Michael Green's notebook a few years ago as a gift and have been writing poetry in it ever since. His illistrations are so full of power and so REAL, yet they leave the beauty of the fantasy he created and the softness of his subject, the unicorn, to work their power on me. My copy has filled up and I came on-line to see if I could purchase another copy of this inspiring notebook which always lured me into writing. I couldn't, but if anyone discovers this notebook on sale- BUY IT! We deserve some beauty in this world!!!!!

This book offers a clear understanding of how Jews deal with death, bereavement and mourning. It provides the reasons behind the customs, the social and cultural meanings that support them and a personal statement by the author. It neatly blends the objective and the subjective yet without blurring the view from each -- a remarkable accomplishment. Best of the Jewish mourning books available.

This is a sensitively written book that combines the analytic view of what death, bereavement and mourning mean to Jewish tradition along with the author's personal experience with the encounter with death. For those who want to know not only what tradition demands but what the underlying sociological, psychological and anthropological meaning behind those traditions is as well as how this all affects those who practice the tradition, this book will be a useful guide. It will take you inside -- deep inside -- what happens when a Jew dies.

Prof. Heilman's book was the comfort of a wise friend when I needed it most, just after I lost my sister to cancer. As a Jew, I wanted to seek solace in my faith after this devastating loss - but, having grown up essentially unaffiliated, I did not quite know where to turn, nor what it all meant. The Jewish rituals of mourning, burial, kaddish - all were largely foreign to me. I was very fortunate to be given Prof. Heilman's book as a gift from a dear friend, and it became my guidebook through what was, for me, new and frighteningly uncharted territory. "When a Jew Dies" provides an explication of Jewish law and custom on death that is understandable to a layman, but textured enough to be of great use to an academic as well. But what I found most warming of all was Heilman's moving account of his own struggle to cope with the death of his father, after a long and nightmarish battle with the effects of a debilitating stroke. Anyone who has suffered a similar loss will find this book an invaluable companion.

I enthusiastically recommend this well written, provocative and thoroughly enjoyable book to anyone who is on a personal development journey and especially to anyone who is going through a transition of any kind. It is an extremely effective guide to one's search for meaning in life. Entertaining, touching and sometimes humorous stories inspire the reader to ponder some of life's larger questions such as karma, good and evil, and making a difference. Thought-provoking questions and exercises guide us in taking a serious look at our values and choices and help us to understand ourselves more fully.

When I worked in the corporate world, I struggled with how to stay in touch with my essential self, my spiritual self. This book provides inspiration and tools which assist one in doing so. For me, it provided a serious wake-up call and influenced my decision to leave corporate life in favor of the non-profit sector, where I have found greater fulfillment and more time to spend with my family. Trust me. You don't want to miss this excellent, powerful book!

What do you think they'll say about you---on your gravestone? Do you care about meaning in life beyond meeting your daily needs? If you are looking to make sense of it all, Why Get Up in the Morning is a provocative book you'll want to read. Author Tom Kramlinger writes, "...the purpose of this book is to examine themes about the meaning of life and to offer some ideas about how you...can lay claim to your own personal meaning--something to live by, something to stand for."

Why Get Up in the Morning offers illumination of the path from Having to Doing to Being---a path that is lined with both secular and religious bricks. Having includes someone to love and to be loved by someone; appreciating and enjoying beauty; finding and applying fairness; and, of course, humor.

Doing relates to achievement; making a contribution; seeing life as an adventure; following time honored traditions. More, Doing is about right and courage and honor. Kramlinger asks in one of the many question and answer segments found in each chapter, "When in your life did you struggle to do the right thing?"

The realm of Being, the most spiritual of the three, is about appreciating the wonder of existence; knowing the truth; growth through enlightenment; communion and unity with others; and discerning the value of "letting go" through the pilgrimage of life.

In his superbly written book, Tom Kramlinger offers wisdom and consciousness to the reader. Each chapter ends with questions that will get you to think---and after all, isn't that the mark of a great book? In this reviewer's opinion, Why Get Up in the Morning is a book that can help add meaning to your life. It worked for me!

I highly recommend this interesting gem for personal growth and enjoyment as well as for counselors and teachers. In addition to providing opportunities for personal reflection, this book is well written and organized. It exposes the reader to great traditions through easy-to-follow sections called the realms of "Having, Doing, and Being." Thought-provoking quotes from a variety of Eastern and Western sources provide springboards for optional research. Reflective questions are framed in a non-threatening way. Readers are encouraged to pursue the ancient ideal, "Know Thyself."

Counselors and teachers will find it a helpful tool as their students strive to set goals and identify and cherish values. I used it with my students in an "Introduction to Philosophy" course. It encourages readers to DO philosophy as well as to study about it. It engaged my university students. When I announced the required text title, "Why Get Up In The Morning?", one woman exclaimed "That's what I wonder!" A fellow admitted, "The exercises really force me to think." Another student added, "My life is so busy I seldom have time to reflect on what is really important. I'm grateful that this book makes me stop and take some time to clarify what I really feel and value." "I could really relate to the stories," commented a man who had at first been unenthusiastic and resistant. One student even liked the size: "It's small and thin!" The final course evaluation asked whether this book should be used again. The response was a unanimous "Yes!"