Reviews Books

If you are interested in the way that politics drives (in some cases distorts) how government accomplishes what it has to accomplish, or you're interested in how government actually works (not what flacks, spinners, and headlines would have one accept on faith), you're cheating yourself if you do not read everything that Elizabeth Drew publishes. This book is no exception.

Of the cataclysmic changes that The New Yorker magazine went through starting in the early 1990s, one of the earliest and worst (and that's saying something) was parting ways with Drew, who until then had been writing the Letter from Washington column, and publishing a book every couple of years, it seemed. Her reporting was and is unparalleled: factual, addressing in detail questions that actually matter, not polemical (unless one considers disappointment with the corrosive effect of money and political fund-raising polemical); its equivalent or even a reasonable substitute was and is not to be found elsewhere.

Her current periodical gig is with The New York Review of Books, and this book reprints 3 of her columns (2 are also book reviews) published in NYRB in May and June 2003 and February '04. They cover key aspects of Bush's political side (particularly Karl Rove); the current Congress (which doesn't present much contrast to the Bush Administration); and Bush's Iraq-focused side (the "neocons"). The Rove and Congress pieces are the latest dispatches in Drew's long-term effort to report on how the profession of political strategy affects policy outcomes.

The neocons piece is quite different, and it is important because its subject is one of the more successful projects in the history of American policy entrepreneurship. A few friends/colleagues with ideas about the Middle East, not one an elected official (except Dick Cheney), convince the world's current great power, led by a man who campaigned against "nation building," to wage a major war that fulfills their dreams. Most entrepreneurs would be satisfied if they convinced investors to put up money and start a successful business; in the policy world it's a coup if a ground-breaking law is enacted (maybe even an agency created). But a war--billions invested (with a vague up-front price tag), thousands dying and sacrificing--and the conquest of a sovereign nation: for that you have to give the neocons their due. And study them. Drew's report is a fascinating short account of a subject that has generated several books and will continue to do so.

Elizabeth Drew, courageous journalist and scholar long based in Washington DC, here republishes a series of articles originally presented in the American intellectual journal New York Review of Books between May Day 2003 and Saint Valentine's Day 2004. Altough it reads with journalistic immediacy, the historical importance of the events described and of the larger issues addressed makes this collection essential reading for us now today, as we approach another election cycle.

Ms. Drew completely covers the ins and outs and hidden agendas of the first WBush regime. The first article in this collection in fact reports the doings and bio of Karl Rove, as it ostensibly is a review of the books Bush's Brain: How Karl Rove Made George W. Bush Presidential and Boy Genius: Karl Rove, The Architect Of George W. Bush's Remarkable Political Triumphs. This article remains important for us to consider now, as it exposes the nefarious strategies of this powerful man, who recently claimed to join the rats abandoning the sinking ship of state, but who remains firmly in power.

Among those who have been lost since the publication of this book is of course General Colin Powell, who here emerges as a noble and even heroic figure of integrity, but a tragically heroic due to his honesty, integrity, diplomacy (over war, which he experiened first hand, unlike the civilian saber rattlers involved) and his wisdom, and thus not one long to endure within the darkening regime of the W.

The second article republished comes from June 12, 2003, and mostly focuses on the neocons in power, inclduing Perle and company, and thus of course the corrupt, embezzling proposed puppet Iraqi president Chabadi. This article gives us further insight into how and why things went horribly wrong in Iraq.

The third article entitled Hung Up in Washington examines the Tom Daschle book Like No Other Time: The 107th Congress and the Two Years That Changed America Forever with many realted issues. It examines the shifts of power at that time, and includes insight into 9/11/01 on Capitol Hill. It includes the interesting insight that no one ever revealed the source of the anthrax envelopes sent to Democratic congressional leaders's offices. One wonders (although not Drew) what happened there while their offices were evacuated for cleaning for weeks and what partisan bugs were installed.

Despite the slim size of this volume, at seventy pages, the substantial and well researched and elegant writing of Ms. Drew makes these important articles for us to re-read at this point in time. The excellent and measured preface by PBS's Russell Baker makes it even more valuable, and at this current price we cannot afford not to read it.

Know your history. Read this book.

Everyone is afraid of something. No matter where they are in the world, no matter what culture, people know that there is something lurking around the shadows, creeping under the bed. Every culture's creative expression is ripe with these specific horrors, including painting, novels, poetry, plays and, of course, film. If a civilization has access to a movie camera, they will make a horror flick.

"Fear Without Frontiers" is a guided tour of this world horror-fest. Traveling from Spain to Hong Kong to France to Singapore to Japan to India to Italy to...well, pretty much everywhere, the various authors showcase the horror-film culture and history of these respective countries. Your tour guides through this atrocity exhibition are an elite group of film scholars, professors of film studies, film historians and other academic film professionals. This is no fan book.

Sometimes focusing on an individual creator, such as Brazil's Jose Mojica Marins ("Coffin Joe") or Hong Kong's Anthony Wong ("The Untold Story,") and sometimes a phenomenon, such as Singapore's Pontianak films and Italy's Zombie obsession, each entry is an incredibly well-researched and intelligent exposition of the subject matter. Each article is footnoted and referenced, leading the way to other books and journal articles on the same subject matter. The amount of information is truly staggering, and I would have never have guessed that there was an expert on Indonesian snake-woman films.

While each country gets a fair showing, Japan gets a special "case study," with three articles on different aspects of Japanese horror cinema. There is an article/interview with Miike Takashi ("Ichi the Killer," "Audition,") an exploration of two popular horror cycles, the "Ring" films and the "Eko Eko Azarak" series, and a look at the modern shocker "Suicide Circle" along with an interview with director Sion Sono.

What is missing from "Fear Without Frontiers" is a cross-examination of the various world horror-cultures. Although the Vampire film is fairly universal, there is no comparison of a Turkish vampire film with an Italian or French vampire film. Each entry is an isolated event, having no relation to previous entries.

This one flaw accounted for, "Fear Without Frontiers" is an amazing book, of great interest to anyone interested in horror films and/or world cinema. The sheer variety of things-that-go-bump-in-the-night is fascinating, as are the laws and censors that shape how these fears can be expressed on film.

Horror is the only true international genre. The fear of evil knows no borders. Mr. Schneider my be the only true international horror expert around. He's constantly digging up old films from the past from the tiniest country to find what kind of fear factor they might have had. This specific book is a grand collection of significant horror films from almost every major country. It speaks volumes about the different insecurities that lie between different nations. There is a wealth of grisly photos for the serious horror buff but also an abundance of educational information for the intellectual horror fan. If you want to know what the horror genre truly means and stands for, this is the book to get.

This book is simply awesome. Here, Raoul Berger focuses his in-depth analysis and attention toward the history and the original understanding of Article One-Section Eight of the Constitution: the powers of Congress. His conclusion is an inconvenient truth: most of the federal government under which we live is simply unconstitutional.

Berger first explains the true relationship between the federal government and the states: a dual sovereignty. The kind of powers the states were supposed to have retained for themselves are truly amazing. He explains in great detail the original meaning of the "necessary and proper," "supremacy," and "general welfare" clauses along with the 10th Amendment. The most fascinating part of the book for me was the in-depth analysis of the "commerce" clause. The power of Congress to regulate commercial trade between a state and another state is much more limited than one could expect; certainly far removed from what Congress is allowed to get away with today. Berger goes on to shred apart the majority opinion of Garcia v. San Antonio Metropolitan Transit Authority (1985) which declared that a local mass transit system within a state can be regulated by the federal government via the interstate "commerce" clause.

This short, but information packed read is truly a classic and is highly recommended for anyone curious about the true meaning of the Constitution. The insights about the true meaning of the "commerce clause" were my favorite.

~Federalism: The Founders' Design~ by Raoul Berger is an intellectually rigorous and accurate exposition of original intent, the compact nature of the Union, and dual federalism. Raoul Berger, an honest liberal, made the diligent effort to recover original intent, for as John Taylor held, "there are lights toward true construction." Professor Berger is the leading force behind the jurisprudential philosophy known as original intention. Strict constructionist philosophy commands judges to strictly construe the written law. Original intent binds judges to the supreme law, the Constitution. James Madison accurately surmised, "...the legitimate meaning of the Instrument must be derived from the text itself; or if a key is to be sought elsewhere, it must be not in the opinions or intentions of the Body which planned & proposed the Constitution, but in the sense attached to it by the people in their respective State Conventions where it received all the authority which it possesses." In point of emphasis, "all the authority which it possesses."

"Fifteen Thousand Useful Phrases" by Greenville Kleiser contains a powerful and dynamic method that may be used to attain a larger repertoire of words. If applied correctly, this prodigious book will not only increase your inventory of words but will introduce you to an innumerable and serendipitous wealth of words such that your writing and speaking could become the envy of your readers and/or listeners.

It may very well be the longest book title ever. "Fifteen Thousand Useful Phrases: A Practical Handbook of Pertinent Expressions, Striking Similes, Literary, Commercial, Conversational, and Oratorical Terms, for the Embellishment of Speech and Literature, and the Improvement of the Vocabulary of Those Persons Who Read, Write, and Speak English." But it's a wonderful resource for writers. I downloaded the e-book version of this (Sorry, Amazon!) and then downloaded the file (in many parts) to my iPod, to use during essay writing at school. I use it at home when I write my own short stories. I use some of the phrases in my speech, and I can assuredly say, everyone needs a little pizazz in their speech. I would recommend downloading it for free (can't beat free) but I would GLADLY pay $25 dollars for this book. It's irreplaceable.

This is a great book for starting a film group of friends. I truly believe that, especially for baby boomers, film groups are the coming new thing. What a great way to keep your mind active and at the same time have fun with friends! The book is short, very well writen and has lots of good ideas and clever chapters. I highly recommend it to everyone.

What a great idea! After reading this book, I am definitely planning to start a movie group. I've talked it over with several friends and we think it would really be fun to get several couples together and try it. Even though we work, we all go to movies at once a month. This book makes it easy to start a group and gives lots of ideas of good movies.

This book is really useful, as it provides an easy reference to Harrison Ford's films and allows the reader to find the ones that are worth watching.

Besides the blurbs of reviews and general information on the movies, however, this book is made really interesting (and at times really funny too) because of the stories about the production experience for each of the movies that it includes as well. Seriously, it is hard to imagine, when viewing the finished products, the disasterous, strange, and hysterical events that occurred during the making of some of the films.

So, if you are a fan of Harrison Ford or are just a big movie fan who is especially interested in behind-the-scenes type information, this book is highly recommended. If you don't care for either of the above things, why are you looking here anyhow?

This was one of THE best HF books I have read! (It's one of the ONLY ones!) Even if you hate HF you would like this book! It has many off-screen photos. It has SO many pictures! The only thing I can say is, READ IT!!!!!!

I very much enjoyed this report and was pleased to see your name in it. See my listmania!

Todd

I highly recommend this important government report from 1998 from the Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB). They are to be commended for the millions of documents and records they unearthed. I am a proud contributor.
Vince Palamara-JFK/ Secret Service expert (History Channel, author of two books, in over 30 other author's books, etc.)
Pittsburgh, PA

BEST JFK ASSASSINATION BOOK: ULTIMATE SACRIFICE
BEST JFK SECRET SERVICE BOOK: SURVIVOR'S GUILT BY YOURS TRULY :)

If Doestoevsky ever decided to stop writing about tortured souls and snow and religion and all that malarky and get to the real literary gold mine that is Financial Accounting and Reporting, he might have written this very book. It is a work of such delicate feeling and insightful, powerful prose it makes me weep when I finish each chapter. I love thi sman Nathan for writing this masterpiece.

In my opinion, Bisk FARE review is one of the best on the topic of Financial Accounting. The book is loaded with relevent examples. Highly recommended! I'd use the book in conjunction with their audio CDs, which are very very good.

I sat for the May 2001 Exam and purchased the Wiley Finance volume to study from in addition to my review course. What a great investment! Unfortuantely the course alone was not helpful enough and I didn't pass the other three sections but I did ace the Finance section--thanks to the Wiley book. It gave me a clear understanding of what needed to be studied for the exam and plenty of questions. I'm sitting for the other three parts next May and I'm buying the Audit, A&R, and Business Law books to help me study. I know I'll pass this time around.

Book is very well organized (part of the detailed 4-book series from Pat Delaney, published by Wiley & Sons) and makes studying by topic easy to follow and understand. Each topic is followed by related questions, very similar to those on the actual CPA exam.

This book is more detailed than Delaney's 2 book set, and is specific to each of the 4 CPA exam sections. If you have passed some of the exam sections and need to redo one or two for whatever reason and have done ALL of the questions in the 2-book set and are looking for more detailed theory explanations, then this (or any of the other 3 in the 4-book series) book is the one to get.

Far exceeds the others (CPA Excel software, Conviser Duffy etc...) in ease of use, clarity of material and overall CPA preparation.

Overall, top marks.

This is a great review book before the examination. It has lots of facts to digest and is well organized in topics and questions. This is a good review book for family practice certification or recertification examinations.

Very comprehensive review book for the boards. Lots of good hints and facts without being overwhelming. I especially liked the Derm chapter, quite trenchant.