Oscar Books

Cullmann's book (translated from the French) provides a complete study of the doctrine of prayer in the New Testament (prayer in the Synoptics, John, Paul; prayer and human weakness, prayer and the question of evil, how to pray, the Our Father and doubts about prayer). Though some hard questions about prayers were left unanswered, I find this book a good start to better understand how we may pray more effectively.

This book, Prayer in the New Testament, examines the practice and doctrine of prayer in the New Testament. The book was translated from it's German original by John Bowden. Cullmann starts by raising several modern objections to prayer, and refutes these objections using examples from the Synoptic Gospels and John, Paul's writings, and briefly, with the rest of the New Testament. In some places I felt the grammar, possibly the translation, was confusing. Cullmann interchanges the meaning of "hearing" prayer, using it to mean both God's listening to our petition, and God's answer to the petition. This leads to several confusing statements such as "the apostle finds that his prayer is heard in not being heard" (page 136). Furthermore, why did the translator assume the word "Leitmotif" is so well know in English that it needed no translation? Why are there often breaks in the paragraph structure; an extra space followed by an indented paragraph, which does not seem to differ from the text preceding and following (i.e., they do not always seem to be farther explanations or footnotes)? I like Cullmann's point on being persistent in prayer. He sees it as both a demand and a means of help in overcoming the temptation to neglect prayer. Regular prayer makes our uniting with God easier, allowing us to remain in constant contact with God. Cullmann shows how New Testament prayer emphasizes the nearness of God. This book made me contemplate such things as experiencing God's presence in prayer, the physical residence of God, his omnipresence, being remote yet near, Jesus' transcendence, what it means to be close yet transcendent. I like Cullmann's thoughts on; "God in us, Christ in us." Cullmann repeatedly emphasized the aim of prayer is a loving encounter with God. Our encounter with the omnipotent God can only succeed with the divine help of the Holy Spirit. He showed how we must approach God in prayer with childlike trust, to be in conversation with God as a loving partner. We need to be ready to submit to God's will, and accept the unanswered prayer ("unheard prayer") as possibly a sign of God's love and part of his divine plan. I recommend this book to anyone looking to improve their prayer experience.

I purchased this CD for my two older children (9 and 11), not sure how well it would go over. We listened to it for the first time in the car on a long trip. It was quite a giggle for everyone! We loved the comic points in the Canterville Ghost story, especially. Mr. Weiss's rendition of one of the characters had my husband and I in stitches - sounding just like Carol Channing.

I have since purchased 6 other Jim Weiss story CD's and my Girl Scouts have begun to request them when going on trips with the troop.

You won't be disappointed.

I'm a novice storyteller, and I was looking forward to finally hearing the renowned Jim Weiss, especially sharing spooky tales. He does an adequate job voicing the different characters, but I was disappointed at the lack of humor displayed at what could have been comical events. I now know these stories well enough to tell them better myself!

My gosh, this book seems to have sparked a lot of responses, both pro and con!!! Me, I'm a book lover -- and a movie lover!! So I loved it, this book about movies! I won't weigh in on all the things people said below, but I will say that when my kids get all worked up and yell at each other, I just smile and say, "Hey fellas, take a chill pill!" (And to that Marguerite Duras lady, I'd just say, "Honey, get back on the meds!!") But back to the book: I loved it. Love love loved it. Great pictures, great words. All I want to say is, let's have a new edition! There have been so many good movies since this book came out, and it's a shame not to see them here -- a few of my recent faves include "The Passion of the Christ," "The Gospel," "My Big Fat Greek Wedding," and most recently "Crash." "Crash" is super serious and intense but is one of the best movies ever made. If you are white, you should see it with a black person, and then talk. These are films that make me think and feel, films that make me feel closer to God and to my fellow man, films that me sit up and say, "Gosh darn it, films are great!" Sorry to be so excited, but that's just how I feel!!!! (I also like movies that aren't so spiritual too, especially horror and fantasy -- have you seen M. Night Shamalamam's "The Village"? Super spooky. I also like anything with Chevy Chase --fun-knee!!)

Yes, hello, I must be truthful and tell each and every one of you the one or two things I know about life, love and this book. My name is Marguerite Dumas (not that one) and I am a simple woman living on the plains of Ohio. For many moons I have been tending to my grandmother, Emmeline DuFray, as she lay worsening in her sick bed. Time dragged on... One day, Nana said to me "Darling, wouldn't it be fun if I could read again? If we could sit together here by this fire you have built - or maybe it's my chronic hot-leg again, fooling me into thinking that my feet are warm - if we could sit and I could read to you about days gone by? If say, there existed some sort of published and sanctioned tome which would illustrate life as it used to be? Showing and Telling us about people, life and awards given out to illustrious heroes of screen? Well, little did Nana know that I had recently joined up with a local book-cart-peddling-travelling-librarian and that she was due to arrive today with a whole slew of books for me and my precious Nana to pour over. Of course, then the rains came and it was a good 2.4 years before anyone or any books found their way to our door. But finally, on clear spring day i saw the book cart on the horizon and I ran to Nana, I ran i tell you, and I shook her out of her diabetes induced coma with my two strong hands. And she awoke with a start and asked in a voice so frail only the mice could hear it: "Oscar... book... today?" "YES!" i shrieked so loud that some of the mice exploded with joy! Moments later the book-peddler-hussy was at our door and I welcomed her with all my arms and love into the small home we call our house. She had with her this fine big black book which was known in all the counties as THE oscar book. She left (taking with her a simple sandwich of moss and greens) and I sat down by the (actual) fire to read to my Nana. And let me tell you - at first it was glorious. Her blinded eyes shone and her hair glistened and her face was alive - ALIVE i tell you - for the first time in years. I read and read and read - and then I read some more. But... somewhere along the way I noticed that Nana was not responding in the same way. Somewhere along the way i noticed bits of spittle at the corners of her mouth. What could it be I wondered? Why the tremor? I read on - lingering over sidebars chock full of old hollywood chit-chatty details. But Nana was heaving now. Slowly but surely bringing up the lunch I had made. And then Christmas dinner. And then bits of her stomach lining. Well, I was frightened but at this point i just had to know who had won Best Actress 1956. Soon, it was morning again and Nana was reduced to a heap on the floor, shrieking and scrambling like some sort of large, fleshy half-paralyzed crab. Oh, I tried to help her - but somehow the book became more important to me in those moments. Somehow that book became my grandmother. I know that sounds strange. But something inside of me turned that day. And as i lay Nana's corpse into the river and watched it float away - i knew that from that day forward, I would be living inside this book - THIS BOOK - THIS VERY BOOK - and that I would need no other. No man, no woman, no food. Just this book - and all that it has to offer.

Idid a book report on this in school. Mrs Farris, my homeroom teecher, said I was smart and she liked the book too. She asked me which pictures I liked best. I said the Wizard of Oz pictures were my most favorite. Mrs. Farris hugged me. I got a gold star. Have you read this book? I think maybe I will be an actor too.

It is unfortunate that the screening process for book reviews on the amazon.com site is so lax and, apparently, completely unmoderated.

Our Book, "The Academy Awards: The Complete History of Oscar" is a legitimate work put together by respectable authors and journalists - including a Pulitzer Prize winner (Kinn - for journalism 1982) and MacArthur Fellow (Piazza 1990). If there happens to be one or two small factual errors, we apologize. All will be corrected in a new updated edition, celebrating 78 years of OSCAR magic, to be published on June 1, 2006.

Although it may be humorous for fringe element type persons to write ridiculous reviews of our book here on this public site, we would like to remind you that we, like any other business, value the worth and integrity of our product above all else. Seven different fact checkers reviewed the galleys of this book and as far as we can tell (yes, we checked into ALL of the mistakes listed on this site) only 3 factual errors made it through to publication. I repeat, Three. And again, all have been corrected for the new edition.

Again, we ask the public at large (with a finger pointed at a few notable pranksters) to stop writing fake, false, comic and libelous reviews of our book on this site. We have spoken with the people at AMAZON several times and while no legal action is pending, they are considering taking down a number of these reviews which are clearly meant as parody.

We invite you to enjoy our book free from the ridiculous accusations that have been made against our writers and our product. "The Academy Awards: The Complete History of Oscar" was awarded the Tremond Award in 2004 for excellence in Korean Primaturship and Entertainment Reporting.

I myself personally oversaw the publication of this book during the months of 06/2003 through 08/2003. Many, many nights I stayed late at the office going over proofboards and watching the presses roll. And this unflagging dedication did not come at no price. It is not worth mentioning that I have eleven sick daughters at home. Or that my wife was federally mandated to have her face excised and mutually expressed to the outer limits of Mommy Cat Planet 8 before her 11th tri-mester.

If I can just send one word of caution to you the people of earth, passed down to me by the giant slithering cosmos OverSnake who rules all (and who is inching ever closer to this miserable green marble ready to strike and destroy) it would be this:

The virus we have sent to earth to infect and destory your personages begins first as an inability to comprehend simple facts printed in large, printed compendiums of entertainment related information. Next is a faint itching inside the brain, followed by a complete collapse, bleed-out, re-absorption of minerals into the earth - and then a long period of scant to no sexual activity.

You stupid earthlings have no idea what is coming. Read your little Oscar books while you can. Soon you shall all be reduced to ash, silt and a sticky substance similar to that of guacamole produced by the nether regions of an incarcerated and fatally gaseous baboon.

I break with thee! I BREAK WITH THEE!

A personal tale: I was looking in a shop window, and not at the traffic in the street, when I was hit by a 1999 Jeep Cherokee that swerved up onto the sidewalk two Christmases ago. Drunk driver, egg nog. I spent the next ten months in bed, much of it in extreme pain, some of it near death. Though it saddens me to admit it, yes, I despaired, I was not plucky. I longed for the sweet oblivion the nurse would slip me in my IV and nothing else interested me at all. So I was hardly receptive when my Aunt Esther came to visit one day, and brought me this massive book on the history of the Oscars. In fact, I was furious -- I was in complete traction, metal pins in my arms, how was I supposed to pick up this weighty slab of a book to read it? Aunt Esther had a sick sense of humor, I thought to myself, although deep down I knew, she was just an inveterate cheerer-upper. Then, one evening, Nurse Rafferty saw the book on my bedside table and began to leaf through it. In the dim light of my hospital room, I watched her face light up with joy as she looked at the pictures. I didn't know what she was looking at, and frankly, I didn't care. All I cared about was the light in her eyes, the way she brushed her bangs out of her face, and the way she bit her lips and began to hum a show tune somewhere around the middle of the book. I was, dear reader, in love. Nurse Rafferty then told me the tale of her childhood, growing up dirt poor in an abusive foster home. The one bright spot for her, the one thing that kept her alive, was the glamour of Hollywood, the dream of Tinseltown. She fled her awful home and made it to Los Angeles. She learned to dance, she did a commerical or two, she stripped for a living, and eventually she became a nurse--my nurse. Even though her dreams of Hollywood greatness died, she wasn't bitter, and the pictures still brought a smile to her face. Now, I have read the reviews of this book here--the carping, petty, small minded little hobgobblins who worry about whether or when Clark Gable won an Oscar, or about what role Chita Rivera played, or who Madonna was influenced by. I picture the tiny, pathetic little worlds these people inhabit and I sigh. Looking for accuracy in a book dedicated to America's great Dream Factory?! I suppose I could get angry at their pedantry, or I could get sad for them -- but no. I am too busy loving Nurse Rafferty--my wife now, for these last two years. Though my arms are crippled and my gait is poor, though my left eye is gone and no one would ever mistake me for Clark Gable, I am a happy, happy man. The movies saved Nurse Rafferty, and she saved me. Dear reader, should you chance to pick this book up in some remainder bin at your local bookseller, think of us, Nurse Rafferty and I, and see if you don't find yourself humming a show tune, too.

I found the stories intriguing. Let's face it, these people are not Stephen King, but they sure have a unique perspective and imaginations that are inspired. I have no doubt that they will one day all be well-known.

Stories that stood out for me included "Stanley Thorton and the Three-Legged Dog," (reminded me of Bradbury's Something Wicked This Way Comes, but I don't know why) "Retropolis" (very much like a Bradbury story) and "Whatsoever You Do" (could Christopher Lee star in the film?). Some of the others that stood out were Olson's stories about her friends CeCe and Sue who fought for self-identity and love in a dark world of drug addiction and carnival folk.

I still don't know what 1111 means after reading this book. But that is part of the experience. I don't think that there are any answers.

I bought this book by accident when I was looking for a book about the September 11 tragedy and bumped into this one though the writers website called 1111book. I was going to return it but then I started reading it. This book is not about the World Trade Center attack. It's about people who see the number 11:11 on clocks and all over the place too. I read the introduction and it creeped me out because never thought something like this could be real and it is like the X-Files too. The stories in the book are not real life stories but they are fictional creations. Why did the writer use fiction to prove that this 11:11 thing is real? I don't know. But after reading some of the stories like Ashes and Spirits Are Sleeping I started to think it has something to do with God but it's funny too. In one story about a man who needs to go to the toilet and it's all a joke. That one is called Syncronicity. And there are some stories that are very lifelike too. If At First is about a boy who wants to commit suicide but he can't. And there are a few stories about girls who do drugs and get pretty messed up with junkies and carnival people. It's hard to say what made me fall in love with these stories. Maybe it's because they are all different and the people seem real but I think it's because I bought it by accident and that is sort of strange. Since I have read it I am seeing 11:11 now too so am I going crazy?

As the title suggests I found this book a non event and for something that was presumably written by English masters etc a waste of time and effort. I enjoy fantasy and sci fi but this was really wimpy.I was told not to waste my time by a friend and she was right!

Read it....regretted it. The authors obviously are 4 aging immature science fiction/horror fans who need to move out of their parent's basements, stop feeling sorry for themselves and face the adult world. The 11:11?!? RIGHT! OH YEA! RIGHT! *COUGH* My advice....save your pocket money for a Happy Meal and be nice to the McDonald's employee as they might be one of the authors!

I will never feel the same about my digital clock again. Some judicious work with the wite out now means the clock will never show a one again. Stupid I know, but about on a par with the idea behind this book. The stories display a paranoia for the mundane which skew events that are as surprising as the force of gravity and impart a paranormal spin that would leave most rational people totally unmoved. A poor attempt at the x files genre, if I was grading it I think it would go in my E files. Not worth the read. I am going back to watch paint dry

I too had to read this horrible waste of a tree for my history class - i thought it was and intresting story the whole rags to riches thing but i never finished a single chapter because i didnt have the will power to push through the dryness of this book, most often i even fell asleep. livesay may have acuratley described the rise of andrew carnegie but this book is crap - only a true history nut would find any enjoyment in the book, and thats pushing it

I was required to read Andrew Carnegie and the Rise of Big Business for my history class. Not only did were we requiered to read this dry biography, but we then had to write a 5-7 page paper on what we thought the themes of the book were. However, the book is so bogged down with numbers and informatin about how he did EVERYTHING in excessive detail, that it is hard to focus on the reading yet alone find the themes within it.
I have no doubt that Andrew Carnegie was a great man and accomplished some great feats, but who cares EXACTLY how he did it and what the exact numbers were? I think the book would have been a much better read if Harold Livesay, the author, had simlpy told the story of Carnegies life. All the statistics were overkill.
In addition to continually beating an already dead horse, Livesay went into more depth than neccessary with the details of how Andrew did things. A simple explanation of a series of events would have been sufficiant. I think more people would be able to read and even enjoy Andrew Carnegie's life story had the author left out all the fluff.

"Andrew Carnegie: and the Rise of Big Business" was the worst book I have ever read. I went into reading it with an open mind, and after the first chapter I wanted to pull my hair out it was so boring.
First off, the book took place in a time period where I wasn't even born. My parents weren't even born yet. It has to do with a subject that I don't even know about.
Second, the author dragged on and on about numbers and business partners and business investments. He was using words that were not in my vocabulary.
Finally, the plot and main ideas of the book were so slow. They jumped around and I didn't know what business we were talking about, or which business partner was involved. They talked about money and finances.

Andrew Carnegie was such a boring book, especially if you hate history. I couldn't get interested in it. It went too much in depth with numbers and statistics. Those things took away from what,I think, the author was trying to get the readers to understand.
Every time I read it I would lose interest right away!! One paragraph and I was gone. I would even fall asleep when reading it!!! I had to re-read sections multiple times because I couldn't even tell you what I was reading. It went in one ear and out the other. I had to make sure I understood it though because I had to write a 5 page paper on it for my history class.

I was required to read this book for my history class. It was probably the most boring book that I have ever read. Every time I started to read it I would fall asleep. I tried to read a chapter each day, but I ended up reading a page or two then passing out. The book goes too far into specifics and numbers in certain areas of his life which takes away from the story. This made the book almost unbearable to read. If you are having trouble sleeping at night then you should go out and buy this book, but if you are looking for a good read, think again.

Great read, but it's the same book as another by the same author that is under a different title

this book is simply wrong. not just details, but the big picture. the anarchists weren't like that. the artists weren't like that. these people lived in a ferment of intellectual and moral commitment. i didn't feel the author was 'sensitive' to them at all: very much the opposite. i felt he was dismissive and patronizing.

this book is simply wrong. not just details, but the big picture. the anarchists weren't like that. the artists weren't like that. these people lived in a ferment of intellectual and moral commitment. i didn't feel the author was 'sensitive' to them at all: very much the opposite. i felt he was dismissive and patronizing.

There's a difference between nitpicking over minor historical innacuracies and making up nonsense out of whole cloth. This unfortunate book is of the latter sort. It's distorted by what the late Hal Draper called "falsifictions": self-invented statements uttered with an air of scholarly objectivity. The work will indeed transport one to another world: naturally so, because it isn't real.

Fortunately there are alternatives which are vivid, entertaining, and careful with the facts. Richard Ellmann and Barbara Belford have excellent, colorful biographies of Wilde. June Rose has a very fine biography of the fascinating Suzanne Valadon. Alexander Varias has a good account of the fin-de-siecle anarchists. Roger Shattuck has a truly superb book on the rich artistic ferment of la belle epoque, the 30 years or so before the first world war: "The Banquet Years". Shattuck's book is at once a definitive work of scholarship and a hugely fun read. Sweetman's is neither.

Incidentally Sweetman's bio of Gauguin suffers from the same tendency toward posturing. Whoops!, suddenly we're in the midst of detailed technical excursus into problems of large-scale engineering, or of epidemiology. (Gauguin tried to live in Panama at the time of the digging of the canal.) Is the author expert in these subjects? He certainly seems to want us to believe that he is. Nevertheless one doubts and, in doubting, questions his expertise on the subjects of art, literature and politics as well.

If you're looking for an entertaining experience from the pen of an expert, read Ellmann or Rose or especially Shattuck. Give Sweetman a rest.

I was able to read through chapter six before I lost all confidence in what the author was saying. his smug and shoddy treatment and inaccurate descriptions of suzanne valadon are mean-spirited enough to think the author carries some kind of personal agenda against tough and talented women. apparently, poor mr.sweetman became so distracted he got her maiden name wrong calling her marie-christine when her certified birth name is marie-clementine. this was irratating, but when I read page 166 I found it impossible to continue reading and trusting sweetman. sweetman has valadon's son, maurice utrillo, dying an early death on his "bad" mother's door step. maurice utrillo died in 1955. suzanne valadon died 1938. david sweetman must be the british version of america's [late] albert goldman. john e. nordin.

I like movies, but I am not a movie buff or an avid watcher of the Oscar telecast. Yet, I was doing some research and browsed through the magazine, The Economist, where I came across a most interesting table, reprinted from Emanuel Levy's Oscar Fever: The History and Politics of the Academy Awards. The table classified all Oscar-nominated and Oscar-winning films, showing a clear preference for serious-message movies, like "Schindler's List." "Rainman" or "The Lost Weekend" on the one hand, and historical epics, such as "Gladiator," "Ben Hur," or "Lawrence of Arabia" on the other. I was surprised to read that. According to Mr. Levy, the Academy has shown consistent bias against the comedy genres and comedy performers. I never realized that Chaplin or Cary Grant had never won a legit Oscar for their comic work, and that Jack Lemmon was nominated for comedies, but finally won his Best Actor Oscar for a serious drama, "Save the Tiger." These biases piqued my interest and I picked up Oscar Fever, which contains a lot of interesting information. I highly recommend this meticulously researched book for anyone interested in popular culture, not just Hollywood lore.

Emanuel Levy's OSCAR FEVER is a treasure trove of Academy Award history and lore. It is a sociological study in the best sense in that it tells us quite a bit about our culture's functions and dysfunctions over nearly 75 years--how the Academy has awarded, or not, actresses, minorities, message pictures, or trendy-blockbuster films. Yet, the book entertains at the same time. Unlike most sociologists, Levy writes with assurance and panache. What is it exactly that makes the Academy Awards so special? In an age when most everything seems stage-managed, overblown, and overdone, perhaps it is the sheer spontaneity and unpredictability of the Oscars that most grab us. Who can forget Jack Palance's one-armed push-ups? The audacity of Marlon Brando? OSCAR FEVER tells many behind-the-scenes stories of life imitating art, which is perhaps what most interests us: the egos and politics behind Oscar. For example, ALL ABOUT EVE, the most-nominated film of all time (along with TITANIC), caused a real-life cat fight between Bette Davis and Anne Baxter over the Best Actress/Supporting Actress categories. ("The title isn't 'All about Margo Channing' Anne Baxter maintained.) Neither won that year--nor did Gloria Swanson (SUNSET BOULEVARD). The Oscar went to Judy Holliday for BORN YESTERDAY! One look at the amazingly crowded and comprehensive index shows OSCAR FEVER is both a reference source and history--in its way, Everything You Always Wanted to Know about the Oscars but Were Afraid to Ask. This book takes popular culture seriously and, in doing so, is insightful, refreshing, and original--in short, a treat.

I just finished reading the paperback edition of Emanuel Levy's Oscar Fever: The History and Politics of the Academy Awards. There are a few errors in the book which is unfortunate, but on balance it's a great read, and really informative. I learned much more than I expected from Levy's analysis of the Oscar as the most coveted, glamorous, and controversial fixture of American show business, not just movies.
The book chronicles the full range of prejudices, nostalgia, and politics exhibited by the Academy voters over the past seven decades, and takes a pretty detailed look at why movies win. The statistics that Levy provides about the age of the winners, the difference between male and female artists, the underrepresentation of black and other ethnic minorities, the discrimination against women directors, and the type of movies and screen roles that win Oscars, are fascinating. Levy finds some pretty consistent trends and documents them.
I have no doubts that Oscar Fever (a good title) will be kept in print forever, as it provides the most comprehensive and knowledgeable discussion of the Oscars as a unique Hollywood and now global phenomenon. In short, I recommend the book to anyone interested in understanding what's contagious about American pop culture.
On a scale of 1 to 5, I rank it 4.

I am an Academy Awards fan; I love watching them and reading about them. I am also a fan of Emanuel Levy's book Oscar Fever. It's not just another dictionary or a chronology of winners and losers. It's a deep, extremely intelligent, even-handed and perceptive study of a very complicated institution. I also like the fact that the approach is unique and original - looking at the awards from a socio-historical perspective, from the perspective of what the
Academy Awards can tell us about the world we live in not just who won. Levy organizes the book thematically rather than the standard chronology like every other book on the Oscars - this lets him delve quite deeply into each of his points. Levy's insights on gender and age are amazing - particularly his analysis of women. Go figure the logic of the Academy - Sally Field has won two Oscars out of two nominations; the great Garbo never took home a statuette. How could Ganhdi have won over ET - one of Spielberg's best -- or Gladiator over Traffic? Oscar Fever goes a long way in answering explaining the politics of the Oscar. It's a great book -- definitive I would say. It gets top marks from me.

I can only echo what others have written about this shoddy excuse for a study of one of American's most fascinating phenomena--the yearly race for the Oscar. Levy should be ashamed of the plethora of factual errors--and that the errors are inconsistent in content from one page to another (as another critic has pointed out) points the blame not only at him but at the [bad] job that passes for copy and proof editing at Continuum. In addition, his style is awkard and uninteresting--appropriate neither to an academic audience nor to a general reader. And his analyses are obvious and lacking in anything truly insightful. "Inside Oscar," though out of date, remains a much livelier and more thoughtful study of the Oscars--we can only hope a revision of it is in the works. In the meantime, skip this..., irritating book.

I should have read more of the other negative reviews. Very disappointed because this is NOT Oscar Wilde's version of The Happy Prince. Book arrived today - tossed today.

The art work is spectacular but the ending is such a disappointment when compared to the original work. Eliminating the heavenly reward creates a shallow ending in my opinion. I'm sending this version back and getting the original to give as a gift.
Some stories should just be left unedited. I think this is one of them.

This is my favorite story of all-time but I would never recomend buying a version that alters the ending. I am an agnostic and even I think it is beyond insane to remove the most beautiful/moving part of the story --

" 'Bring me the two most precious things in the city,' said God to one of His Angels; and the Angel brought Him the leaden heart and the dead bird.

'You have rightly chosen,' said God, 'for in my garden of Paradise this little bird shall sing for evermore, and in my city of gold the Happy Prince shall praise me.' "

While the lessons of compassion and charity are ones we'd all like to instill in our children, the story is dark and not appropriate for children at the lower end of the suggested age range. Not to give away the plot but, the happy prince gets melted down and the swallow dies. Their evententual reward, salvation (in the rescued from the scrap yard sense)and immortalization does not seem to be commensurate with their sacrifice. The subtleties were lost on my child. I didn't read the original Wilde so I can't offer a comparision.

It's been years since I read Wilde's The Happy Prince, so when I saw this sitting on the shelf at the library, I just had to check it out. Done in large, picture book style, Grodin's retelling of this classic children's tale is quite lovely. The book starts out with a bit about Wilde's life and ends with a page on homelessness and the virtue of "caring" which is nice, but well over the head or interest level of the children on the low end of the recommended age rage listed for this book (4-8), and though the story itself is fine for reading to children on the low end of the age range...my guess is that the subtleties of the message will be lost on most 4-5 year olds without adult prodding about the "lessons" of compassion and charity that this book has to offer. Still it's a classic and, I think a message worth giving and receiving.

Overall, The Happy Prince has never been a very "happy" book, that is to say, even in the original, the prince was melted down and the bird died...what's missing here is the bit where they get to go to heaven, chosen by one of God's angles as the two most precious things in the city. Grodin gave the book a more secular ending where the man charged with pitching them into the furnace decides they deserve better and buries them in the city center (presumably where the statue once stood), under a tree in a planter marked with the words compassion and kindness...so despite the loss of the direct Christian religious overtones of God and the virtues, Grodin manages to deliver the message of the original and I think that's wonderful. I give this version of The Happy Prince five stars, the text is lovely and the artwork is stunning and evocative of the story...at first dark and depressing and as the city becomes a happier, kinder, more compassionate place, it brightens and becomes lighter in look and feel.

There are a lot of images of people dressed to look like corpes and children corpes. Odd, Not my taste.... I can't find images I like in this book. One of a man with rubber bands on his head is interesting but still disturbing to me.

I find Lozoya's work to be one of a kind. These are bold photographs that may stop you dead in your tracks. Each piece invites the viewer in, awakening the imagination to take over and tell stories inside the the stunning, suggestive worlds - elusive, rich in mystery, pathos and myth -at times nightmarish, Lozoya creates a dreamy cultural landscape. He has a knack for irony and humor as well as emotionally impactful imagery. I especially enjoy the Muerte series.

I highly recommend this book. I go back to it often for inspiration as an actor, writer and photographer. Lozoya captures the inner life of his subjects with compassion. The lighting and composition is alive and resonant. There is much to gain from an immersion in these photographs. The book will make a unique gift for anyone who'll appreciate absorbing story-telling through images.

The best photograph in the book was used for the cover. Many of the photos, as portraits, seem rather contrived. The 'techniques' are kind of old school, and frankly the author uses the same set-up again and again. I was disappointed in it as both a book of portraits and a book discussing technique.

The images in this book are breathtaking and beautiful. The variety of subjects from classic portraiture to publicity and folklore is impressive. I very much enjoy learning about different cultures and found this book to whet my appetite for the Mexican/American traditions. The text next to each image helped to explain individual photographs as well as why Oscar Lozoya started creating series of works. The homeless series made me look and see that he views the homeless as individuals with their own personalities that show through in the portraits he presents in this book.

Having seen original prints at an exhibit I must say that a good deal of tonalities were lost in the reproduction in the book. (As is to be expected when a photograph is copied for mass reproduction.) Mr. Lozoya's mastery of studio lighting in stunning in it's technical precision. As a photographer the lighting diagrams helped considerably to visualize the arrangement and placement of the strobe lights. There is also a good deal of information on how he contacts models and how the concept of each image took shape. The photographs in this book are sometimes classic portraits and there are also images that are strikingly different from the normal and challenge you to think. All of the photos are hard to forget.

This book helped to inspire me creatively and challenge the way I see photography as an art form. I would highly recommend it for anyone studying photography or wanting a creative jolt.

Mr. Lozoya's portraits can only be described as vulgar. The lighting is harsh and contrasty giving his portraits an "apparent" dramatic quality. His ability to "capture" the character of his subjects has less to do with Mr. Lozoya's ability to capture personality or "character" and more to do with taking advantage of his subjects -- the battered faces of the homeless, blind, handicapped, legless, toothless people. Otherwise Mr. Lozoya resorts to cheap theatrics of make-up, masks, horns, ridiculous dramatic poses, props and even fake blood.

For the publisher to publish Mr. Lozoya under it's "Masters Series" is deceiving and insults the true masters.

If you want to master black and white portrait photography study the portraits by Yousef Karsh.

Now I've read just read this book and have come up with a few important mistakes in the text. A small example is that it claims that Martov "has first-hand experience of stick-action among Jewish socialist workers (the Bund). The first mass strike of 15,000 Bundists occurs at a Bialystok textile industry in 1895." (p.48)
This is all very nice except that Martov was a Jewish Socialist, yes, but not a Bundist, which is obvious from page 70 onwards when the Bund walks out of the 27th session, but Martov stays with the Mensheviks. Another problem with this statment is that it would have been impossible for the Bund to organise a 15,000 worker, mass-strike in Bialystok in 1895, becuase the Bund wasn't formed until 1897. And no the name was not simply chosen for the organisation because it was popular and therefore it was an easy mistake. The name of the Bund was debated over and changed three times before it got it's full name.

Good idea, but really, these factual errors are embarressing.

This small book is good for a quick overview of the the Russian Revolution and Lenin's life. It explains the basic ideas pretty well and has the important facts laid out in an interesting and easy to understand way.

Still, this book is biased towards Lenin's cause, and justifies to too great an extent Lenin's killing of hundreds of thousands of people in the Red Terror.

If you need a quick study guide on the Russian Revolution, this book is fine - just keep in mind that Lenin was not really as benevolent a person as he is made out to be in the cartoons. But, if you are trying to really understand the topic or write a serious research paper on it, save your money and buy another book on Lenin, such as "Lenin" by Robert Service.

Okay, some of the "factual" stuff, dates and events is worth reading - if you can ignore the fact that this book basically celebrates a man who killed millions (much of it genocidal) and instigated the enslavement of half the planet.

With the opening of the Soviet archives (an event that happend after the writing of this book) it became apparent that Stalin wasn't the first "bad-boy" of the Soviet Union. The purges, the pograms, the elimination of political rivals (a tactic later modeled by Hitler) started with Lenin. But you won't hear about that in this book. Like a Holocaust denier, the author avoids anything resembling facts and uses rhetoric to paint a warm picture of one of the most evil men of the 20th Century.

... Appignanesi ignores earlier works like Gulag Archipelago to paint a portrait of a loving socialist seeking to better the world.

Old school communist apologists like Appignanesi have a difficult time realizing that "the great experiment" failed miserably. This book is ample proof of how far they'll go to rationalize their devotion to their anachronistic ideology.

Read it in the same light as you would watch Triumph of the Will (Sans the homoerotic scenes of Germans bathing each other (shudder)). It's the work of someone so blinded by their ideology, they can't see the blood on the walls.

Whilst many may claim that this book is a celebration of the machine that allowed Stalin to instigate genocide upon Russia, it is the underlying satire and wit that guide's the reader through the basics of the Russian revolution and to more complex questions that pose themselves in the post-glasnost era. This is not a complete overview of Russia in the grips of socialism, but that was never the purpose. The book highlights the important aspects of the period and introduces the more multifaceted situations. A superb read and a good buy.

It is difficult to believe that a figure as complex as Vladimir Lenin could be successfully presented in a simple and humorous manner, but this book does exactly that. It is excellent not only for beginners seeking a quick overview of Lenin and the Russian Revolution, but also provides a refreshing antidote for experts who have grown weary of trying to plough through the biased and deadly dull works of hacks like Richard Pipes and Dmitri Volkogonov. You'll get a much more informative portrait of Lenin from this book's 175 short pages of cartoons mixed with facts than you would from Volkogonov's 500 page diatribe (_Lenin: A New Biography_).

Is this book a case of "Schoolhouse Rock" meeting the Russian Revolution? Not exactly. It is more ideally suited for high-school students and young adults, but readers of all ages will enjoy the light-hearted format. It occasionally displays a slight bias in Lenin's favor, but this should be seen as a good thing when you consider that even the better biographies of Lenin accessible to American readers (Adam B. Ulam's _The Bolsheviks_, for example) all contain a much more decided bias against him.

Considering that it is inexpensive and will only take a day or so to finish, I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in Lenin and the Russian Revolution. You'll get a few laughs from it, too.