Awards Books

I just recently obtained this book. It is quite fun and most informative. I am choosing to read this book in random order. In other words, I am randomly selecting various years and songs that are most interesting to me, and am reading it in that manner. Mr. Funnell's book really succeeds on two fundamental levels. On the one hand it is a genuinely informative, insightful, and probative study of a vitally importart body of American music. I believe that , in time, it will be regarded as one of the essential books on this topic. Yet, as valuable as the book is to the study of this important sub-genre of the American Songbook, it never bogs down into the pseduo-intellectual type of rhetoric that unfortunately typifies a lot of "serious" works on popular culture. "Best Songs of the Movies" is an engaging and lively book. This is just the sort of book that prompts one to want to curl up in a comfy chair , put on a cd of "That's Entertainment" or other suitable movie musical compilation, and read through the vaious years and songs profiled in the book. By the way, I especially appreciate Appendix 1, which provides brief capsule bios on the songwriters. Of course, we know to expect to see Irving Berlin, Harold Arlen, Harry Warren, etc. However, it is also nice to see such lesser lights as Ralph Freed, Johnny Marvin, and Allie Wrubel sharing space with the aforementioned luminaries.
In sum, this is one of the best books on American music and American movies to reach publication in quite some time.

`Best Songs of the Movies' is a superbly written reference on popular music. It is full of fascinating, detailed information and insightful comments about the songs nominated for the Oscar in the first 25 years of the award.

I found this `page-turner' very hard to put down. It's wonderful to dip into, and it will settle any argument you may have about the great songs from the movies. It is full of information that, up until now, was not easily accessible. For example, I learned from 'Best Songs' that there were two songs called `Linda'. I was intrigued to learn about the Oscar nominated `other Linda' and the movie in which it appeared. I challenge you to sing this song!

It seems there's not much interest in the Best Song Oscars these days but this book makes it clear that this was not always so. The fascinating introduction shows the historical process by which changes in popular music have led to a decline in the significance of the Best Song Oscar.

It's very clear that the author has meticulously researched the subject. The book has a very attractive design with well-chosen stills from many of the movies discussed. The Appendix, giving biographical details on all the songwriters mentioned in the book, is especially valuable.

'Best Songs of the Movies' is a delight to dip into and an indispensable guide for movie buffs and anyone who has any interest in American popular music. If you want to impress your friends with your comprehensive knowledge of popular music, you should get `Best Songs of the Movies' (but, don't tell them about the book!).

Award-winning poet Adrian Blevins has penned The Brass Girl Brouhaha, a compilation of original free-verse poetry that especially reflects upon the experience of being a woman. Bits of the author's biography, the ritual and questionable rhetoric of the North American Baby Shower, and much more pour raw emotion onto the page, with no falsifying or prettying of harsh realities. "Defects of the Adolescent": Didn't she after all put herself out there like an hors d'oeuvre / on a pewter platter? / And didn't boys after all appear and hand over their smokes? // The boys would stand there with their lips trembling / until she was magically in the garden extending her wrist and / pinching off a rose stem.

Narrative poetry captures life as it is THE BRASS GIRL BROUHAHA. By Adrian Blevins. Ausable Press. $14. Reviewed by BETH MACY This is NOT your mother's poetry - not unless your mother was someone out of the movie "The Ice Storm." It's also not the kind of dirt-dense poetry favored by the literary pinkie-waving set with all those beautiful-sounding words that seem to lead nowhere. To put it bluntly - which is the way this poet happens to put everything - Roanoke writer Adrian Blevins' first book-length poetry collection, "The Brass Girl Brouhaha," is just one helluva good read. Written in narrative form and with enough eye-popping imagery to keep the literary crowd at, say, Hollins University, on their toes, Blevins' book also appeals to those who don't know a sonnet from a sestet. We see the narrator, left as a child by her mother, suffering from a "shadow in her wake [that] was so immense . . . it fell all the way into the nineties like a fashion I saw coming, but couldn't predict." We see her mid-divorce dealing with her ex's "next girl, waiting with her hair in a blue bandanna." We see her again later, remarried, arguing with her sister's decision to put her kids in private school: "The sister said she didn't care for the grammatical errors of her less fortunate neighbors." We see Blevins, who now teaches at Roanoke College, standing in her Uncle Doc's kitchen on the day Dale Earnhardt dies, which happens to be the same day the family is burying Aunt Ann, "who died of a hard-working, charitable heart." Moments before Earnhardt's crash, there she is "writhing as only I would that the men were watching the race while the women prepared some casseroles." Blevins' vernacular sentence magic, her run-ons to beat all run-ons, and her edgy style make you feel touched, tickled, mad as hell and vindicated all at once. At last we have a poet out here in the real world living and grieving and mothering, and then getting it all down - as few people do - just exactly like it is. ** BETH MACY is a longtime features writer at The Roanoke Times.

Page 104 adds class to your book I was much younger in the picture but stayed on untill retirement read your book from cover to cover and found it the most up to date book on Awards and Decorations that I have read, Thanks for using my picture.

Gary D.Crossman Retired American

This book sets a new standard for medals books. In one volume it contains information which would require a stack of other books, and presents it in high quality full color. The entire two hundred year history of U.S. military awards is beautifully illustrated, along with hard-to-find information on numbering systems, cases, documents, and eligibility. Highly recommended; worth every penny of its cost.

The best word I can think of to describe this writing is punchy. Spencer artfully packs so much into quick and lovely sentences. His stories evoked much thought for me about his characters. I wasn't always sure I liked them (the characters), but they were always real. I'd definitely recommend this book.

No one writes with more pathos about modern life than Darrell Spencer. His characters are brave but muddled, and the troubles about which they must be brave are generally too absurd (the sign painter whose employee misspells "entertainment" and provokes a cranky Las Vegas mob boss, or the ex-Mormon jogger whose devout neighbor wants to pray for his hamstring in the temple) to find much comfort--or nobility--in their lives. What's remarkable about Spencer, though, is that he finds nobility in the mundane, mostly by giving voice to the perplexed Mormons (and faithless but still looking-for-faith Mormons), puzzled husbands, fabric store clerks, trailer park host, and deaf people who suffer, joke, and survive in these stories. If you like short stories, you absolutely must read "Late-Night TV" and "It's a Lot Scarier if You Take Jesus Out."

This is one of several Award Solutions professional computer based training courses that I have taken at the wireless cellular company I work for. They do an absolutely fantastic job of making complex subjects easy to understand. These courses include animated graphics with audio narrations that really help solidify the information. They do a lot better job than a book to get you up to speed in a hurry on a complex subject. These courses are perfect for those who need to hit the ground running in this technology or provide a great way to prepare for a job interview. Highly recommended.

The technical detail, interactivity and engaging content quickly allowed me to get a comprehensive understanding of the specifics of the Air Interface in cdma2000 networks. I would highly recommend this

This is one of several Award Solutions professional computer based training courses that I have taken at the wireless cellular company I work for. They do an absolutely fantastic job of making complex subjects easy to understand. These courses include animated graphics with audio narrations that really help solidify the information. They do a lot better job than a book to get you up to speed in a hurry on a complex subject. These courses are perfect for those who need to hit the ground running in this technology or provide a great way to prepare for a job interview. Highly recommended.

Exceptionally well presented with just the right amount of detail. These guys really know their stuff

Hard to compete with such a terrific review, but I must add my own HUZZAHs.

I love the artwork. I love the interspersed black and white comic strips that add to the exposition.

I love the spanish slang scattered throughout: after but a few readings, my 3 year old now says, "FUU-CHI!" (yucky, stinky) as he wipes kisses off (with a smile, of course -- he's a sweet boy).

I bought Chato Goes Cruisin' in a bookstore and ordered the other 2 sight unseen, fully confident that they'll be as wonderful.

Some picture book series get progressively less inspired as time goes on. Ian Falconer's, "Olivia" books do this. Ditto "Babar". It's just a common occurrence that people kind of come to expect. You would think that an author like Gary Soto would have used up all his creativity and ideas in the "Chato" series with "Chato's Kitchen" and "Chato and the Party Animals". In much the same way, Susan Guevara's illustrations should, logic dictates, become less entrancing and pleasant to the eye as she brings Chato's world to brilliant life. Yet here I am staring at "Chato Goes Cruisin'" and I can't for the life of me figure out how Soto and Guevara managed to come up with yet another remarkably fresh escapade in the lives of my favorite barrio boys, Chato and Novio Boy. I can't figure it out, but somehow it happened. We should be this lucky with every series.

There are distinct advantages that come with eating your cereal every morning. In Chato's case, the advantage is that he now has a chance to enter and win a free cruise for himself and a friend. He enters, wins, and before you know it he and his best friend Novio Boy are off for a vacation of pure relaxation. In theory. The truth of the matter is, when they get to the docks they find a cruise ship occupied entirely by dogs. Well behaved party dogs but dogs just the same. There are dog snacks, dog games, dog videos in the library, and a heckuva lot of howling at the moon. Soon enough, however, the dogs become ill and it's up to our intrepid duo to save the day. But when their rescue boat meets up with the REAL cat cruise, will they keep their promise to the canines or join a far more alluring ride?

Once again, Soto gives this book just the right mix of Spanish terms sprinkled alongside English ones. At the same time, Chato and Novio Boy use phrases that sound natural and completely appropriate for the situations they find themselves in. When Chato goes to the library to watch some movies and find only flicks with titles like, "Great Dog Rescues", Chato's reaction is a heartfelt, "Man, this is sorry". The plot makes sense, comes out all right, and the last image of the two slowly cruising in their beautiful car (with the license plate "Vato Gato") brings the whole thing home.

And Susan Guevera just gets more and more creative with every Chato book she illustrates. I liked "Chato's Kitchen" okay when it first came out, but her style at that time struck me as too loose and insubstantial. It began to tighten with "Chato and the Party Animals" and finally here with "Chato Goes Cruisin'" she's hit her peak. She's grown so comfortable with her art that she's willing to shake it up a bit for the sake of amusement. So you have the usual Chato kookiness, but also some very cool black and white comic strips on the bottom of some of the pages to give you a little insight into Chato and Novio Boy's heads. There are also countless amusing details all over this book just waiting for you to find them. When the dogs greet them at the dock, for example, the comic strip on the page shows a flag pointing to their dock with a dog head, and another flag with a cat head pointed in the opposite direction. When our heroes can't sleep for all the howling, they might have been cheered had they known that a cut-away of the boat shows a pack of very busy mice toiling relentlessly in the kitchen. Yum. Then there are the details that I think make it work the best. Novio Boy retains his title as the sexiest cat in children's literature (check out the shot of him lifting weights). And both he and Chato sport some mighty fine facial hair, making them the only felines I can think of to sport goatees and `staches in picture book fare.

Hard to object to anything in this book, really. If you enjoyed the first two installments in Chato's adventures then the best thing I can say about, "Chato Goes Cruisin'" is that it does its predecessors proud. Funny, filled with great slang in English and Spanish alike, and just a rousing adventure, it's the best of the "Chato" lot and a fine fine purchase.

My 4-year-old daughter selected this book at the library one day, and when it came time to return the book, I didn't want to take it back. It is beautifully illustrated and the story is a wonderful lesson about true beauty and kindness. I enjoyed reading it to my daughter over and over and plan to buy a copy soon.

This is a beautiful Cinderella book with the most amazing illustrations you will find anywhere! Illustrations make or break a book for me, and this one does not disappoint. My daughter is almost 3 and wants to hear this story over and over, and I love to read it to her.

VERY highly recommended!!

"The Deliverance of Dancing Bears" tells the story ofan unnamed bear that is taken every day by its "owner" to amarket square in a mountain village of eastern Turkey and set to dance on its hind legs for hours. Elizabeth Stanley's prose makes clear to young readers that this is not really dancing. "Around and around the poor bear turned on her two back legs, her head pulled from side to side by the chain which Haluk jangled to the clatter of his tambourine... The performance continued relentlessly for many hours until day began to fade [and] Haluk led the bear back to her cage and lock[ed] the door." Stanley's pastel illustrations in purple, blue, gold, scarlet and indigo evoke the liveliness of Turkish village life as people go about their ordinary business of shopping, eating and paying the bearkeeper to see dancing bear. The overall effect of these village scenes, however, is depressing. The heavily textured paper to which the pastels are applied seems to drain the light out of these sad market scenes, in which no-one seems to smile.

The power of the book, however, comes from the scenes that depict the dreams of the chained bear. The scenes that show her fishing in mountain streams with her mate or lying lazily with her babies in the sun are full of shimmering light and vibrant energy.

And thankfully, the bear's dreams come true. An old man named Yusuf buys the bear from Haluk, takes it with him to his house by a stream and slowly reintroduces it to the wild. And that is just the beginning of this eloquently written and superbly illustrated book dedicated to relieving the suffering of captive bears.

Stanley saw her first "dancing bear" in 1979 in Athens and decided then to write a book to challenge the assumption that men could cruelly use wild animals to make money. In 1992 she took her written text to Turkey to take photos and to make sketches for the artwork. In the same year The World Society for the Protection of Animals effected the release and the return to the wild of all chained bears in Turkey. Today there are no dancing bears in Greece or Turkey.

But a recent WISPA report has revealed that the trade in dancing bears is still alive and well in India. It says that "60-70% of cubs taken from the wild die before they even begin their brutal training. Dehydration, starvation and trauma are all reasons [for their dying]. Should the cub be lucky enough to live, a punishing regime of starvation and beating will begin to condition it to perform. The piercing of the cub's sensitive muzzle with a rope for control is the next ordeal. It is held down without anaesthetic while a crude iron needle is heated in a coal fire and plunged in with a group of men holding the squealing cub tight. The investigators also found that the site of the nose piercing was invariably infected in all the seventeen cases observed. 'The cub would the have to suffer a second piercing before the first was healed, compounding his agony,' explained Geete Seshamani. 'The tug of this rope, along with an intense fear of the strike of a heavy stick, motivates the bear to lift its legs in turn and 'dance'.'"

The WISPA site also provides gory and even more gruesome details of bearbaiting in Pakistan and of the farming of bears for bear bile in China.

WISPA has done and will continue to provide facts about animal mistreatment and about campaigns and projects to challenge these abuses. Whilst it is important for the thinking public to have access to information like that on the WISPA site, I believe that Elizabeth Stanley's "The Deliverance of Dancing Bears" is one of the best books for introducing pre-school, elementary and junior high school aged children to these issues.

While not so sparsely written as Anthony Browne's "Gorilla", the prose is tight. The illustrations are similar to and as powerful as those in Brian Wildsmith's animal books. The interleaving of reality and dream is reminiscent of Shirley Hughes' "Stay Away from the Water Shirley" or of the more recently published "Magic Beach" by Alison Lester. All in all, this is an ideal book to get the young and the not-so-young thinking about animal rights issues. It is a beautiful book that can help us all to realise the epigraph that Stanley has taken from Aristotle: "Hope is a waking dream."

Named an honor book of The Children's Book Council of Australia, The Deliverance Of Dancing Bears is a wonderful picture book story written by Elizabeth Stanley for young readers having intermediate level reading skills. This very highly recommended account is about a captive bear who forced to dance, and who clings to hope, even though the degradations of her daily life cause her spirit to ebb. It is a kind-hearted peasant who liberates the bear and who reminds all of those watching of an important moral lesson about dignity and life. Elizabeth Stanley's touching and emotional color artwork highlights and enhances her original and involving parable.

Dime Store Erotics is a splendid book of poetry, by a real up-and-comer! It is lyrically rich but also riveting--familial, sexual, natural. The poems range from the experiences of motherhood to buying dime novels in a busstop store, from gardening to drunken revelries. In addition to the strong narratives, the poems are themselves extremely well-made, tight, formally coherent but flexible. Ann Townsend surely knows how to write!

i own a copy of this book, and i had the pleasure of spending a week at a workshop taught by dr. townsend. this book never leaves my bag. my highest praise for a spectacular collection of poems and its lovely author.