Black and White Books

A MUST READ!!!

I have never read anything that was so realistic and yet so humorous. Darryl X McKenzie definately has the talent to make us see ourselves for who we really are. The main character, Easy, will remind all readers of someone they know (though they may not want to admit it).

The book was a joy to read. It is a must read for anyone who is willing to look and laugh at life in a way other than what society mandates.

As a Black male, I truly appreciate this book that says what I have only been thinking throughout my life.

I can't wait to see what the author publishes next!

Black, White & Easy is a must read.

It is timely and entertaining. It is smart, concise and an inspiration to those seeking a new perspective on how to handle life's challenges. It also reinforces the positive relationships that men of diverse backgrounds can have with one another. It reminds us that we should revere and protect our families and friends. Within all of that, the book cleverly reshapes the definitions of the words (and worlds of) Black and White.

Darryl X McKenzie's Black, White & Easy is a must read. Kudos to Mr. McKenzie for penning such a brilliant book. His words will have people talking!

The publication of Prof. Spillers' book hopefully signals a more widespread dissemination of her extraordinary intellectual and imaginative work. Bringing together some very familiar (and endlessly cited) essays, such as "Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe...", as well as essays from more obscure locations, and unpublished work, 'Black, White, and in Color...' illuminates Prof. Spillers' resolutely unorthodox and powerful thinking around the racialization and gendering of the brutal history of the United States, from the genocide of American Indians to the enslavement of Africans in the "New World". She brings a vast historical knowledge to bear on her brilliantly idiosyncratic literary critical enterprise. The ways in which she intertwines feminisms, psychoanalysis, and literature, and then proceeds to re-weave them, stuns. Edmund Burke is an influence, and she turns the latter, canonical critic's ideas upside down such that Burke and William Faulkner can never be seen the same way again. Though finding occasional recourse to post-structuralism, Spillers is, in no way, an acolyte of Derrida and his followers. This is an indispensable book which, had it not appeared, would have to be written. It follows Marx's injunction to carry out "a ruthless critique of all that exists".

At close to 600pp., this book is a magisterial collection of several of the most important essays in literary and cultural criticism to appear in recent years. And not "only" literary and cultural criticism but various domains of interdisciplinary thinking harbored therein: black feminism, Southern studies, auto-ethnographic critique, and social theory, among others.

Spillers's inventive analytical insight has been justly celebrated over the years. This book at once pays tribute to that legacy of critical acumen and *expands* on it by virtue of a long introductory essay (titled "Peter's Pans"), which announces Spillers's turn toward postcolonial and diasporic materiality, as well as an organizing frame that highlights the interrelationships among the essays. It is truly a wonder to behold a seemingly "familiar" essay like "Mama's Baby, Papa's Maybe," originally published in 1987, in light of her more recent "All the Things You Could Be by Now If Sigmund Freud's Wife Was Your Mother." Somehow reading the two closely together generates resonances that lend further critical force to Spillers's thoughts on race, gender, psychoanalysis, embodiment, and what it means to be "in the flesh." In other words, this book offers a "layering" of thought which does justice to the abiding themes and concerns of Spillers's criticism.

It's worth pointing out that this book contains significant revisions to several essays, which further underscores the fact that simply reading them in their originally published forums doesn't quite arrive at the critical effect I describe above. The collection is already a standard reference point for scholars in many fields of humanistic inquiry; I cannot recommend it highly enough to interested, and vested, readers.

These three books challenge C.S. Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia for a fast paced Christian allegory and in fact, will probably appeal even more to an older audience. The books have everything I was looking for; action, love, philosophy, politics, suspense, and more. If you like Orson Scott Card's books, you will probably like these.

I'm usually cheap when it comes to reading- don't like to "waste" money on books. So of course, I didn't buy them.. but my mom did.

I would have spent lots of money on these books. If you only plan to read a few in your lifetime, make sure these are included. Best book I've read.

When I read Tom Maremaa's Blue, I was immediately flooded with memories of my own trip to Estonia to lay my father's ashes to rest.

Tom's description of the tiny airport and the hordes of Finns streaming past the Golden Arches at the entrance to Old Town are detailed in their accuracy -- he's clearly a man who's been to Tallinn a time or two. His portrayal of finding oneself in the push and pull of somewhere that is at once foreign and familiar is pitch-perfect, as protagonist Peter Lund carries with him and air of unease and quiet desperation that come from a want to wrap up his family's past into a neat package as quickly as he can.

Can one visit to a foreign land provide such a simple answer? Will this trip to his Motherland bring the changes that Peter longs to see in his own life? If the end of this chapter and the introduction to the mysterious and lovely Faroozeh Azadi is any indiction, I'd have to say "no."

Still waters run deep in Blue, which sketches this right of passage so quietly and beautifully. I can't wait to read the rest of this trilogy.

Should I, shouldn't I, should I, shouldn't I...?

I hereby present to you the mantras I've been chanting to myself for the past several months, as I seek out my greener pastures where I might gain fresher perspectives.

Answer: "I definitely should!"

Tom Maremaa will cause you to daydream about heading up to Estonia to catch an eyeful of this post-Communist state's azure purity all for lonesome. This, he does, in the form of his very sympathetic protagonist Peter "the Californian" Lund, who is as close to a Magyver-like ladies man as a man can ever get.

Don't believe me?

Well how's this for a dose of reality. There have been reports that Krzysztof Kieslowski's hand has been poking up from his Polish gravesite of late, wanting to reconnect himself with this corporeal earth. Rumour has it that the late Polish celluloid and documentary master wants to get back into the filmic swing of things. And all because a new man in town has inherited the Kieslowskian thunder. That man is none other than Tom Maremaa!

Leapfrogging from lily pad to lily pad, across the placid clear waters of the still streams which are a part of the pristine Estonian countryside, Maremaa takes us along a trip down the Saku olu--Estonian beer-y--and (four-times distilled!) vodka-drenched memory lane, without all of the laborious "I was born in..." formulaic jibberish, the all-too-predictable mistake of writers with much less on the ball.

In penning this amazing 33-page "scroller," Tom Maremaa turns back the clock to a time when noble feet once trod Estonia's ancient European surrounds. Back to a time when Maremaa himself was still a man about Zurich (that's right, folks, Switzerland) campus, learning literature and languages, unhindered, breathing in the non-carbonated air of the Swiss lake district. Indeed, it would seem that Swiss "blocking behaviour," being that insular, so-called "neutral" society that it is, is still good for something. It has created the likes of the highly likeable Peter Lund, the man on a mission. It has kept all the baddies out of Switzerland, and ensured that the city's of its discreet banking districts will continue to harbour the wealth of dictators, tyrants, and warlords the world over. But that's for another review.

I'm not going to tell you what happens in BLUE. Read it for youself, it's addictive from page one. There are adventures aplenty in this Short, and they all happen the instant Mr. Lund steps off of the short-haul flight across the Baltic from Helsinki, whose residents enjoy taking plum advantage of a pure accident of history. Instead of attempting to bring Estonia up to the level of prosperity to the rest of her EU neighbours down south, apparently there are a host of Finns and assorted other Helsinki-denizens who would prefer Tallinn, for instance, to remain the "Prague" of the Baltics. While this is better for the averge Jukka who has to pay upwards of $6 for a cup of 7-11 coffee in Nokia-land, I'd have to say this isn't good for Boris, Ironman, Vlady, and Natasha--not to mention Jaan, Krista, Peter, and Krista's husband (who probably doesn't kiss as well as you-know-who)--who are continually in a position of undershooting their Estonian standard of living potentials. It leaves the likes of Krista's husband without the required resources to rebuild the tarnished ruins of Kadriorg...but that's for another day, and another rant...where was I?

Check out these penned zingers:

** p11 --> "...their lives would soon become inextricably woven together like a fine Persian carpet." <--- I love this line. So apropos, TM!

** p31 --> but really, would Peter approach someone like this? And what's more, would someone respond to him if he approached someone like this? Then again, it's hard to say without knowing a little more about Peter...that's for soon, I suppose.

Maremaa lives up to usual sharp wit, meticulously-researched backstory, logical handing, and snappy dialogues. Trenchant characterizations round out the whole show. Building on his entries from the past (search for the one and only "Maremaa" on the 'zon's proprietary search engine, m'kay?), I was expecting Maremaa-ic literary parity--in and of itself already deserving of heapful praise.

Instead? Tom just reinvented the "new normal."

Can't wait to read Part 2.

Five stars. Anything less renders the whole Amazonian star-system entirely obsolete.

--ADM in the Golden City of Prague

Liz Petry does a masterful job of combining history as we learned it with history in the words of those who were actually there. Finding and sharing letters from her ancestors and presenting them in the context of the world as they knew it is an incredible gift to our generation. This gem of a book gives a clear look at the everyday lives, the education and ambition of people who overcame the rigors and abuses of slavery and took their rightful places in post Civil War society. I found it enlightening and fascinating that it took only one generation to progress from slavery to college degrees. These wonderful people then passed their legacy of education and achievement to their progeny. In my opinion, this book should be required reading in every American History class in every high school and every college.

I was so taken by this brilliant composition, that I recommended it to a cousin working on a thesis concerning northern desegregation between 1954-1980 in the hope that such wonderful, first-hand, historical information would be helpful. He was thrilled.

Congratulations, Liz. Your work is superb, and I look forward to your next book, "At Home Inside: A Daughter's Tribute to Ann Petry."

M. E. McMillan
Author of "Rebirth of the Oracle - Tarot for the Modern World," and as Elizabeth Blackstone, author of "Virtual Strangers, A Woman's Guide to Love and Sex on the Internet" and "The Commoner's Guide to Dog Breeding."

I'm not a history buff per se but I found the James family collection of letters fascinating because it tells the story of an African-American family that was solidly middle class in the late 1800s at a time in America's history when most people were poor or struggling. Though historically rich, the book is told through the original voices of family members through their letters to one another so the reading is engaging and fast-paced. I wish I had read more like it when I was in school.

I felt this book was straight to the point, and could be used as a helpful guide to women that are experiencing domestic violence. I had bought this book to use for a paper, and received an A.

Chain Chain Change is a self help book that provides extremely helpful information to black women in abusive relationships. White repeatedly enforces the idea that abuse is not the woman's fault and that it should not be tolerated. Throughout the book the reader is given small bits of helpful information and hints that may be just enough to to get a woman out of an abusive relationship. This book can be helpful to women of all ethnicities. White does however focus on the "history" of abuse in the relationships if blacks especially focusing on the racism blacks face and how that affects their self esteem. She says that such treatment can often lead a black man to feel helpless and powerless, lead him to feel as though he is unable to provide from his family. These types of emotions are what White says can often lead a black man to violence. She also stresses that black women should not worry about causing rifts in the black community if they were to report domestic violence, as they are so often told is what will happen ; when reporting violence, they should worry about their own physical and mental well being as well as their childrens; they are the ones in immediate danger. One other extremely important aspect of this book, which is new to the recent edition, is the section on abuse in lesbian relationships. By including this section White shows that abuse happens in all forms of relationships, and lets the reader know that help is available.

This is a terrific book--an important history that brings together a story of race, labor unions, economic change, politics, and culture, but never loses sight of the actual people involved. Very well written--not dry and academic like some history, but also very rich analytically. Buy it and read it!

In this wonderful book, African American tobacco workers tell their own story of civil rights struggle and union organizing. It is long, but so was the struggle, and I couldn't put it down. Oral interviews give us the black workers' own accounts, sending, for once, the white supremacists to the back of the bus.
Read it. You will find a South you never thought you would find.

I have known Mariana Cook, and her photography, for many years. This book is filled with subtle and delicate images. . The images reveal the beauty that is around us always... if we will only take the time to look and experience what we encounter every day. This elegant book will inspire you to see the world, and your day-to-day surroundings, in a new way.

Mariana Cook has understood the deeply authentic beauty in the most quotidian of objects, scenes, and actions. A bird flying, a stack of pancakes, a hand -- all captured in exquisite angles, shapes, and sensitivity. Would that every photo were seen by writers, actors, and performers of every professional inclination -- learn the fun and surprises of beauty too seldom observed as she does with such mastery.

The book above is only one volume of a five volume series. However, if you get this one you will probably want them all. If you are a designer or artist working with colored images on paper produced with printers ink, this out-of-print series of five Colorworks books, Red, Blue, Yellow, Pastel, and Black & White are excellent sources to quickly see how printed colors will interact without either guessing or a whole lot of time-consuming experimentation. The illustrations are systematically layed out to show how tints and shades of the primary colors in various mixtures of the standard colors used in four-color printing, CMYK (Cyan, Magenta,Yellow,and Black & White)actually appear in different quantities---in lines, stripes, circles, blocks, and dots and how they actually interact. Interaction with colored type is also shown. Additional illustrations show how the colors work in photographs and illustrations. Excellent instruction for using black masks to isolate and clearly see the book's color interactions is also included in each volume.
Three of the five volumes are each devoted to one of the primary colors: Red (Vol. 1), Blue (Vol. 2), and Yellow (Vol. 3), each of which is dominant in its own volume. The remaining two volumes, Pastels (Vol. 4), and Black & White (Vol. 5) use the pastel colors, and black as the dominant color showing how various mixtures of the dominant color interact against a spectrum of many other colors, like in the other volumes. The real value is that the colors shown are shown in percentages of each of the four color printing inks, which makes them reproducible. Unfortunately, all of the books are out of print, no doubt due to their limited audience and the original price...per volume when originally published in 1990. Their production was truly an international effort. The books were designed in London, published by a Cincinnati firm, and printed in Hong Kong. They should be published in a new edition for the many new designers and artists who would benefit.

The book above is only one volume of a five volume series. However, if you get this one you will probably want them all. If you are a designer or artist working with colored images on paper produced with printers ink, this out-of-print series of five Colorworks books, Red, Blue, Yellow, Pastel, and Black & White are excellent sources to quickly see how printed colors will interact without either guessing or a whole lot of time-consuming experimentation. The illustrations are systematically layed out to show how tints and shades of the primary colors in various mixtures of the standard colors used in four-color printing, CMYK (Cyan, Magenta,Yellow,and Black & White)actually appear in different quantities---in lines, stripes, circles, blocks, and dots and how they actually interact. Interaction with colored type is also shown. Additional illustrations show how the colors work in photographs and illustrations. Excellent instruction for using black masks to isolate and clearly see the book's color interactions is also included in each volume.
Three of the five volumes are each devoted to one of the primary colors: Red (Vol. 1), Blue (Vol. 2), and Yellow (Vol. 3), each of which is dominant in its own volume. The remaining two volumes, Pastels (Vol. 4), and Black & White (Vol. 5) use the pastel colors, and black as the dominant color showing how various mixtures of the dominant color interact against a spectrum of many other colors, like in the other volumes. The real value is that the colors shown are shown in percentages of each of the four color printing inks, which makes them reproducible....Their production was truly an international effort. The books were designed in London, published by a Cincinnati firm, and printed in Hong Kong. They should be published in a new edition for the many new designers and artists who would benefit.

Out with the old wives tales and the unproven, anecdotal legends that persist among so many "experts" in the world of photography! Mr. Henry is a retired clinical chemistry researcher who found many of the accepted methods to be unfounded and not actually true when careful, scientific methods were used to verify them. If you are interested in the fine points of darkroom work and in developing a neutral starting point with your own materials, you will find this a valuable read. It's well written, well organized and everything is meticulously documented and verified.

This is an amazing book. Richard Henry took a very scientific approach to testing. The book has *real* data about what goes on in B&W processing including fixing and washing. Even if you don't do your own B&W darkroom work this book is well worth reading and with contribute to your understanding of how film and paper work.