Charles Williams Books

If this book were simply a collection of recipes for beers which won the 1996 World Beer Cup, it would be an interesting and valuable resource. But it's also an entertaining set of stories about these world-class beers, too. And everything is written in the inimitable Papazian style.

From time to time, the author waxes poetic (as he has been known to do in his other writings). In his discussion of Founder's Stout, he writes how thankful the brewers did not adhere to the Bavarian Reinheitsgebot in producing this beer, so that roasted unmalted barley could be included.

Both all-grain and extract/specialty grain recipes are offered for each beer, in a one-size-fits-all 5 US gallon length. Most homebrewers in the US will find this most useful.

A couple of gripes which make this a four-star, rather than a five-star, review: First, the conversion between different units (e.g., SG to/from Plato, ASBC color to EBC color, and Fahrenheit to Celcius) is idoiosyncratic. The author does point out in his preface that EBC color values were derived, for the purpose of the book, by simply doubling the ASBC color. Secondly, the information on the cover gives the impression that the recipes are provided by the breweries, rather than being formulated by the author. In a sense, this is for the better, however, because the recips should be formulated by an experienced home brewer, rather than a professional. Still, I do not think it was entirely according to Hoyle to give such an impression. And the hokey "MBU," making its debut in this book, has to go. Homebrewers who work in metric usually use the number of grams of alpha acid in the hops.

All in all, an entertaining and valuable reference.

Infighting Admirals - Fisher's Feud with Beresford and the Reactionaries

Geoffrey Penn

Pen & Sword, 2000


Naval technology advanced steadily during the Victorian Age, bringing in its train, steam power, powerful breechloading guns, armored ships, torpedos, submarine boats and wireless telegraphy. A glance at the ships the leading navies of the world (the Royal Navy, the French Navy, the Russian Navy and belatedly the US, German and Japanese navies) were building, tell us that strategic and tactical thinking did not keep pace with the technology. Ship yards built fantastic multi-stacked, ram-prowed battleships and cruisers armed with a miscellany of guns of all descriptions and sizes mounted in turrets, casmates and on open decks which were accordingly doled out in penny packets to fleets and squadron all over the world. The operating idea was naval wars would be fought as they had been fought in the past. Britain would maintain a close blockade of its enemy's ports while her trade protection cruisers found and destroyed enemy raiders sent out to prey on British merchants. Neutral nations would be coerced into silence and co-operation. Things went along swimmingly for several decades, the enemy nations slumbered while the Royal Navy, sole possessors of the high seas throughout a long three quarters of a century, made a virtual fetish of paint and brightwork. It wasn't until 1890, when an American naval officer, Alfred Thayer Mahan, published a work that revolutionized thinking about the strategic purposes of a navy and analyzed naval tactics from previous wars, that the powers began to wake from their slumbers. One early reader of Mahan was Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany, possessor of the finest army in the world and a navy unworthy of Denmark. Expansionists from Teddy Roosevelt to the Japanese Mikado suddenly realized that the road to empire lay over the seas and that a large, modern, blue water navy was needed to advance along it. This book looks at the struggle within the Royal Navy to emerge from its hibernation and begin to adapt itself to a world where challenges to the leading position were coming fast and from every quarter.

Not all men are created equal and the Royal Navy was possessed of some great minds and unfortunately its share of blockheads as well. Admiral Jackie Fisher had a great mind, saw and embraced the future with passion, clarity and vision, was an able administrator and displayed unflinching courage in the face of many obstacles. Admiral Lord Charles Beresford, second son of the 4th Marquess of Waterford, did not possess a great mind, was senseless to vision, was a haphazard administrator and a scheming coward...but he was a charming rogue and had friends in very high places.

Geoffrey Penn's book sets the relationship of these two men as they maneuver among the political eddies and currents of the Royal Navy, as a backdrop to the struggle of that navy to emerge from the habits and mindset of the age of fighting sail and blossom into the modern force that finally met and overmatched the High Seas Fleet of Imperial Germany at Jutland.

Penn goes deep in the politics of the Edwardian navy but just as deep into the administration and rapidly changing technology of that navy. The Royal Navy was very lucky to have a Jackie Fisher in its ranks ably supported by a cast of technically astute officers of middle rank that he promoted and supported in his "fishpond". Fisher wasn't perfect by any measure and made his share of mistakes. In the end however, in spite of the efforts of ignorant reactionaries like Charley Beresford, he created the fleet that John Jellicoe later led to victory over the Germans in the quest for naval supremacy.

I recommend this book to those with more than a passing interest in the age of steam navies and the Royal Navy in particular.

Written concisely, this is the interesting story of John C. Fremont, an amazing explorer, controversial soldier, and a failure as a Civil War general and a businessman. Black and white illustrations, photographs, and maps add to the book's visual appeal. My fourth grade son really enjoyed reading about Fremont's adventures.

Everybody knows the story of Little Red Riding Hood, but what this illustrated version of the classic tale by Beni Montresor shows us is that we do not know the original story by Charles Perrault. That is not to say that readers of this version of "Little Red Riding Hood" will find anything particularly new in this version, beyond the idea that the title character is bringing a cake and a little pot of butter to her sick grandmother, but rather than certain elements that they have taken for granted lo these many years were not there in the beginning.

With his artwork Montresor lulls readers into a false sense of security, as we enjoy the familiar beginning of the story and see the little red hood that the little girl's grandmother has made for her. Most children will be amused by the dapper white suit that the wolf wears when he encounters Little Red Riding Hood in the forest (note that Perrault answers the question that many of us had when first becoming inquisitive enough to start poking holes in the story regarding why the wolf does not devour the little girl as soon as they meet in the woods). However, once the wolf replaces the grandmother in the bed and lures Little Red Riding Hood closer to his big teeth, young readers are going to quickly realize that this is not the familiar version of the story that they know.

Consequently one thing that can be said for sure is that Montresor's version of "Little Red Riding Hood" is not the first one that young children should learn. Let them become familiar with the sanitized version of the tale, which is par for the course these days (read very young children the original version of "Cinderella" where we learn what the step-sisters did to get their oversized feet to fit in the glass slipper, which will tell you why it was made of glass, and you could scar them for life). Perrault's story is much more in keeping with the grisly fairy tales of a couple of centuries back and Montresor's artwork plays up such elements, so be forewarned.

The introduction to this book is provided by the opera singer Luciana Pavarotti, who recalls how he thrilled to this tale being told by his grandfather. Pavarotti recalls how he identified with Little Red Riding Hood because he shared her fears. When you read this book you will understand why he could call this a violent, mysterious tale, especialy with Montresor's artwork to bring out those aspects of the story.

In late 1698, four ships sailed from France under the command of Pierre le Moyne, Sieur d'Iberville.Aboard were some two hundred people destined to become the first settlers of a French post in the lower Mississippi River. Iberville landed first at Dauphin Island near modern Mobile, then moved further East to Ship Island. Sailing up to the great River Iberville visited with the bayou goula Indians on the west bank. Rene Robert cavalier Sieur de la Salle who were a wealthy important immigrant to Canada who heard of the voyage of Marqette and Joliet and comprehended the strategic significance of a fort at the mouth of Mississippi. During the winter of 1682, La Salle led an expedition of fifty-six persons, including ten indians women and three children down the Mississippi to its mouth.He reached salt water on April 6, placed a cross in the mud and claimed the Country for France. He gave the name of Louisiana, in honor of king Louis XIV. That's was the basis for France's claim to Louisiana,though the Spanish Explorer Hernando De Soto had discover the Mississippi and crossed it 140 years earlier. Louisiana was a French-Speaking Spanish colony when the nineteenth century began. Twelve years later Loisiana was one of the United States, successfully operating a system of goverment radically different from the autocracy tempered by ineffiency that had gone before.

This book is a classic. The mechanics of the low back and neck are explained in language anyone can understand. You finally learn what the problem is, how you got it, and how to keep from making it worse. More important, the author offers clearly described exercises that really make you feel better. The Williams Exercises revolutionized therapeutic treatment of lower back problems, and they are presented here in their purest and most accessible form. This little book offers big relief!

Dr. Silverstein has covered the broad spectrum of not only the gay "condition", but of maleness and manhood. What struck me in particular, was the insight into young men growing up and how most of us, both straight and gay, discover our sexuality. The early chapters are an excellent guide for parents who are concerned how to deal with their little boys growing up. For many parents a major fear is that their boys will become gay, especially when they find out that little Billy has fooled around with little Bobby.

If you are a parent, you owe it to yourself and to your children to read at least the first several chapters.

If you are interested in the subject of homosexuality, this book, while a bit aged by now, covers it in a very thorough and insightful way. Good reading and educational.

This is an unusual book. I picked it up because I am interested in both medieval educational practices and the history of medieval architecture, and so the title "seemed to say it all" to me. Nevertheless, getting oriented to the text and then actually moving through it proved to be a difficult task.

This book is oriented at a more scholarly audience, and the writing is similar to what we might find in an academic journal. This is both its strength and weakness: the text provides remarkable, scholarly detail on both subjects, but the book might at first blush (look at its cover) appear to be marketed to a general audience. Having said that, there is a great deal of content the general reader who is interested in these two subjects will find of interest, but he or she will have to work to pull it out of the work. This book is not meant for a quick read, nor is its language delivered in a manner that anticipates the generalist. You will have to work at it, but you'll get much out of the effort if you do.

The major idea this book promotes is that the eleventh century was a unique and pivotal moment for both architecture and systematized educational structures in medieval Europe. Not going so far as the "Panofsky Theory" of the alleged association between Gothic architecture and Scholasticism, but nevertheless arguing that these two fields underwent similar shifts at the same moment in history, the text presents the thesis that it was the shift of these two areas from individual undertakings into regular disciplines that accounts for the greatest levels of similarities between them. To make the point, the authors present numerous historical examples from both areas in chronological order and attempt to demonstrate how each coalesced into disciplines that propelled the areas beyond the Middle Ages. In architecture, for example, we see how the medieval builders learned from the lessons of St. Denis, Laon, Notre Dame de Paris, and Sens to establish Gothic as a broadly understood style that could eventually be exported across France, and eventually, with the advent of the Rayonnant style, all of Europe. In education, we see, for example, how the battles over specific issues in the tenth century eventually exhausted themselves, and a more systematic approach based on logic (and grammar) was to replace such idiosyncratic debates. It is the crystallization of these two areas into systematic disciplines in the eleventh century, as typified by these and many other examples, that is the focus of this book.

Not for the armchair reader, but certainly a great read for any medievalist, the book is a treasure trove of detail for the examples it selects, and the bibliography alone is a great resource for further study. Whether or not you can be convinced of the thesis, this is a good work with plenty to leave you hungry for more. If you are a medieval architecture enthusiast, or if you are interested in the history of education, you should definitely add this work to your library.

Back in the '80s, when I had to write a college term paper about the history of musical notation, one had to search high and low to find a book that devoted to this question the attention it deserves. True, Willi Apel's "Notation of Polyphonic Music" has been around for eons, but it doesn't come close to Williams's effort. Williams has striven to produce a thoughtful, balanced survey that reaches back to the Egyptian, Babylonian, and ancient Greek roots of the "Western" musical tradition and has traced its notational aspects through the Dark Ages, the Middle Ages, up to the near-present (n.b., the book was published in 1903). The work brims with useful illustrations, though, frankly, I could use without the miscellaneous photos of this church or that abbey. Naturally, recent notational developments are not covered. Fortunately for you, dear reader, I wrote a follow-up paper on 20th century developments in musical notation, and a work by Karkoschka was my "bible" just as Williams was for its predecessor. Fair warning: Williams's opus is not for the musically inept; he demands you have a strong understanding of intervals, rests, chordal structures and relationships, and such other basic musicological constructs.

The Music! Words! Opera! series published by OPERA America, the national service organization for all professional opera companies in North America, is a true treasure for teachers who wish to introduce students to the wonders of opera. This complete curriculum provides easy-to-use lesson plans breaking down the complexities of the art form into fun, student-centered activities. Also included are copy-ready materials, musical excerpts from the operas being studied, list of participatory drama games, and teaching tips on creating and presenting an original student work. The Music! Words! Opera! methodology can be applied to any classroom and includes every discipline in its approach.