Instruction Books

This is an excellent book covering almost every aspect of not just chanting but understanding what all those lines, dots and wiggles surrounding the text in the chumash mean. There is a complete rundown of every te'am and how it fits into the context of the verses, and there is an example in a later section on how each te'am is chanted, basically in the Ashkenazi tradition. There is also a lot of interesting history of the development of the Torah scrolls and history on Torah and Tanakh traditions and also a section on pronunciation.

One word of warning. In order to understand the significance of the te'amim in the context of the verses, you need to have a fairly good knowledge of biblical Hebrew, both vocabulary and grammar. The context of the words in a verse determines which te'amim is assigned to their accents. This is, of course, separate from the te'amim that are assigned to indicate the vowels and pronunciation.

If you want to know absolutely everything about chanting Torah, Haftarah, or one of the Megillot, this book is for you. Every special circumstance is discussed, every rule of reading is discussed and the history and evolution of how and why we chant the way we do today is discussed. It is a wonderful resource for those who teach trope.

This book is a must for anyone seriously studying the nuances of cantillation. This large tome includes chapters on grammar, punctuation, and epistemology. I recently heard a lecture on the meaning of the trope (musical notation)in relation to the meaning of the Hebrew words; amazingly, they informed each other. Such information fills these pages. My son, who studies old manuscripts elaborating some of these topics, was thrilled to receive this book as a birthday gift. The author, Joshua Jacobson, is also the director of a chorale, specializing in Jewish music and his CDs are well worth the price. He's a master in many areas of music and I was fortunate to attend a conference recently where he was the keynote speaker. He's an outstanding scholar and a mensch.

I know of no book that can even compare to the scope and depth of this one, therefore I cannot give it anything but 5 stars. It is a thorough reference of the history and melodies of the cantillation, including a CD and musical notation of all cantillations used for public reading. It is appropriate for all levels of knowledge--from a beginner to an experienced reader.
The grammar he presents is not quite up-to-date and there are minor problems with the phonetic notation he gives certain letters and vowels. However, all in all it is quite excellent.

It is a great book that finally shows that the cantilation is not arbitrary, how it contributes to the sense of the text, how
it works with grammar. Instead of teaching the Taamim as
a dogma, it actually shows how one can understand a text and
put the Taamim himself. It also reveals the grammar of the texts.
I bought four more for my friends.

If your a Vampire Hunter D fan, I say get this book. Goes nicely to any collection in that series. tons of pages on art work done over the years from the artist. I say a must buy ^^

As for content and art this book is fabulous, but I was kind of expecting more prints. The layout they chose for the book is interesting and I don't really find it necessary other than for a wow factor. To me it really didn't add anything to the prints inside, but to be fair, it didn't necessarily take away either. This book defiantly features what I enjoy best about Amano's art.

A good buy for Amano fans or any artist interested in graphic art and/or inking.

I bought this book for my boyfriend, who is a huge fan of the series. I cannot speak from my own experience with it, but from his near fainting reaction upon receiving it, I would say it is definitely worth the money. From what he has said, the artwork is incredible. I would recommend it for any fan of the series or the art.

The art in this book is detailed, beautiful, and breathtaking... I was blown away by even the pictues which were only sketches.

I recommend it highly to fans of Vampire Hunter D... as well as anyone who is an art fanatic or art book collector... or even just someone who loves Vampiric things in general.

This book is HUGE, which it should be to show off the fantastic artwork. Loved it! All Vampire Hunter D fans should get it, just don't expect it to fit in your book shelf.. lol! Pay close attention to the dimensions in the item description. It also comes in a slip case to protect the book.

I have thoroughly enjoyed this book. As someone new to collaborative learning, this book was a great complement to my class on collaborative learning and provided a ton of ideas for my class project.

The book was sent in excellent condition in the time frame promised. I would higly recommend this seller to anyone.

This college handbook for group learning techniques is practical and common sensical. It covers basic information on the formation of groups, ideas for various classroom situations and settings, and methods of evaluations. Instructors should use various forms of evaluation in the classroom, and this text gives the instructor concrete methods to carry out the collaborative learning method. It is a wonderful tool for any college instructor and answers some of the questions concerning this form of evaluation.

Collaborative Learning Techniques is an excellent resource that highlights practical strategies that can be realistically implemented. The implementation of group work can be very challenging, but the authors have provided (throughout their book) very clear examples. Such illustrations contain great
in-depth details so that other faculty can easily understand how to implement these different techniques. These strategies also seek to improve numerous types of outcomes including writing, problem solving, and class participation in discussions. Overall, this is a very rich resource providing a comprehensive overview of important collaborative learning techniques.

Collaborative Learning Techniques is both a "how to" and a "why to" guide to collaborative learning. By providing simple, easy-to-follow examples of 30 collaborative learning techniques, it provides a starting point for faculty who wish to experiment with collaborative learning in their classrooms. Each technique is described in detail followed by several examples from a variety of disciplines. I particularly appreciated the observations and advice section and the tips for adapting to on-line environments. More importantly, however, this text goes beyond describing a few teaching tricks. By exploring the theory and research on collaborative learning it also facilitates "deeper learning" about why we do what we do in collaborative learning classrooms. Even faculty who have been using collaborative learning techniques for years will gain new insights from the authors' discussion of the nuances of a truly collaborative classroom.

You can't go wrong with this book. Hilary Page is pure magic. Whether you are a beginner or a seasoned pro, this book has something for everyone! The lessons are so compleat, invaluable and inspiring...N.Williams

I'm new to watercolor painting and suffering from the beginner's consequence of too many books and too many paints. I wish I would have bought this book first, much time and $$ would have been saved. Her suggestions for testing each tube of paint to learn unique pigment qualites, pigment colors, color theory, color schemes, primary colors, complements, and optical mixtures have proven invaluable.

The excercises included are easy to follow and serve to instill her unsaid mantra. Learn your paints learn your paints learn your paints! I've had this book for several months - still working through some of her excercises and foresee that I will continue to refer to this book many times in the future.

After reading Hilary Page's book, it occurred to me how painting classes should maybe start with lessons on color rather than charcoal drawing. Her detailed explanation of color is grouped in three main aspects: objective color (measured by instruments), optical color (perceived by eye) and practical color (working with pigments). The theoretical aspects are then proven in practical examples which are also used for demonstrating her watercolor techniques, producing some very pleasing artwork.

Details on pigments are particularly valuable. Pigment properties like clarity, tinting strength, purity, value range, degree of opacity, consistency related to the degree of sediment, wet-on-wet behavior, staining when rewetted etc. will be new to many. Knowing such details will help you prevent some strange "accidents" that can spoil your work.

Rare books on color point out the difference between the pigment-color contrasts and the light-color contrast. Hilary Page is very specific regarding these contrasts: she shows two types of color wheels and two sets of primary and complementary colors. She also explains "spectral reflectance curves" that give us an insight to understanding why printers use "balanced" primary colors.

A book on color naturally requires high quality print without any color distortion and this one doesn't fail here either.

I just finished reading this well-thought-out and completely researched watercolor book. I am still new to water colors and am challenged and frustrated by this medium. Page's chapter on the history,nomenclature, and categories of pigments was incredibly interesting and will become a permanent edition to my water color reference library. I have seen many variations of color wheels in my 35 years of teaching---her watercolor pigment wheel is based on her own palette, and includes placement of saturated, unsaturated, and neutral pigments. I slso found the chapter on optical color effects fascinating.

As a professional watercolourist with over twenty five years of experience and an advanced understanding of colour I can tell you that this is an excellent reference book. Definitely a great tool for art instructors. Even though the writer sees it as a book for beginners I feel that the complexity of the subject will probably be overwhelming for beginners.

Although this book is written for adults, we purchased this book for our 7 year old son who is currently researching comics, their origins, and authors. It has been a constant companion...traveling with us everywhere! I have had the opportunity to read portions also and I too have found very well written, interesting and informative. The comics choosen have given our family quite few chuckles! Great for anyone who enjoys comics and wants to know more about comics through the years.

This gigantic collection of comics describes the strips that appeared in newspapers rather than on newsstands. There is a small amount of natural crossover, but the author is focused exclusively on what appeared in newspapers. For most of the main strips, he gives a brief historical recapitulation of the spirit of the times as well as a short biography of the people who created the strip. For the strips that have continued across generations of cartoonists, he explains when the transition took place and why.
As can be expected, the best part of the book is the cartoons. Walker gives a small but thorough sample of the flavor of the strip and how it changed over the years. There were some that I remember so well from my youth, in particular "Mandrake the Magician." When I was young, I always got up very early and opened the Sunday morning paper to read the cartoons. I always read them in the order from my least to most favorite. This meant that I shifted back and forth, but that was fine to me.
Even though I am now and will always remain a news junkie, the comics will always be my favorite part of the paper. They give us adventure, excitement and something to look forward to, and in this book you can learn a great deal about the people who made and continue to make them happen.

I've felt for a while that the newspaper comic strip is the most ignored form of popular art, rarely looked at critically. While comic books prosper and have gone well beyond the standard superhero format, the comic strip languishes, rarely allowing new and creative strips to break through, while "institutional" strips (those that have not been amusing for years but are institutions, such as Heathcliff or Crock) dominate the paper.

In this sense, this book is not very helpful; it is a relatively uncritical appreciation of the comics. Nonetheless, it is an excellent book, a good summary of the major artists and developments in the comics since World War II. All the big strips are here: Garfield, Peanuts, Doonesbury, Calvin & Hobbes, the Far Side and many more, along with plenty of material from bygone eras.

This book is around 50% text and 50% comics, so there is plenty of fun stuff to read in either format. For what it is - an appreciative history - it is fantastic. The only flaw is that Walker ignores the comic strips of alternative newspapers, therefore neglecting such important works as Groening's Life in Hell (without which, there would be no Simpsons).

For anyone who has ever enjoyed the comics, this book is a great look at the field and a lot of fun.

Blondie, Archie, Nancy, Pogo, Beetle Bailey to Peanuts, Garfield, Mutts and Calvin and Hobbes, here's a lavish, full-color, oversized, hardback, coffee table book celebrating the best part of the newspaper. Comics curator Brian Walker, son of Mort Walker (Beetle Bailey, Hi and Lois), collects the best examples of this much-loved medium over the last half century. Now that the companion volume, The Comics Before 1945, has appeared, Walker's labor of love is complete. Together these inviting volumes offer a compelling tribute to the art of the funny papers. And Amazon's irresistable price is nearly half off retail.

Hey,where to start in writing a review on a book about Comics, when one has been reading them for over 60 years.An excellent book in every way.Physically,this book is beautifully constructed,with top of the line paper,printing and color illustrations.A great dust jacket, as well as glossy hard covers printed with comic strips.A large volume 10X14 inches,over an inch thick and 326 pages...WOW! By the way ,there is a companion book,which is just as good,covering Comics before 1945;same size and by the same author.
What great memories this book brought back.I was born in 1935 and was an avid Comic Strip reader of 10 where this book starts.
While there are many strips covered in this book that are unfamiliar to me,and probably to most people;all my favourites are there.All through the years,in my opinion the Strips and writers were at their best in the 40's and 50's.But then that was when they were really growing up and so was I.
My favourites were Dick Tracy,Little Orphan Annie,Li'l Abner,Smilin' Jack,Popeye,Beetle Baily,Joe Palooka,Blondie,Tarzan,Captain Easy,Mandrake the Magician,Mutt and Jeff ,Smokey Stover,Henry,Superman,Terry and the Pirates,Pogo and later Doonesbury.
Dick Tracy was my overall favourite,especially in its prime with super characters such as Flattop,Mumbles,The Mole,Brow, B.O.Plenty,Gravel Gertie and little Pebbles,Pruneface,etc.,etc.
Then there was Li'l Abner with Daisy Mae and Ma and Pa Yokum.The nation wide craze set off by those wonderful Shmoos and then the creation of Sadie Hawkins Day antics that swept the schools and colleges.Nothing like that kind of stuff today!
I guess all this fun was just too much for the prudes of political correctness, and their misguided efforts put the end to it all.
At the height of the Comic Strip days,everyone was aware of the 'funnies'and knew all the characters.If you didn't know who Dagwood or Annie's dog Sandy,or Fearless Fosdick was;you just didn't know what was happening.There is nothing like it today.I found the papers kept dropping reader favourites,cutting back on the number of strips,introducing strips with agendas and social engineering,to the point many readers lost interest and abandoned them.
As a matter of fact ,I was really following only Pogo and Doonesbury for the last few years and sadly we have even lost Pogo.Dick Tracy is not even carried by out largest paper in Toronto.I just read the Tracy strips on the Net for 2005.Fletcher and Collins give it a good try,but the storylines and artwork fall way short of the master, Chester Gould.Not only that,punching the keyboard and reading the screen is a poor subsitute for sitting back with the funny papers enjoying a coffee after breakfast or dinner;again in my opinion.
This book also covers a lot of what I call cartoons,and does a great job of it,but cartoons just aren't what the world of Comic Strips was all about.
Walker has also included a huge list of references if one wants to dig further.
This book should not be thought of as a review of any particular strip.It is really a history of Comics,a reference to use if one wants a quick look-see of what a strip looked like and a little about the artists who drew the strips.It also tells a lot about what went on behind the scenes with the artists,newspapers and syndicates over the years.
It also talks about Comics as an artform.Here I agree,one only has to look at how the artwork progressed in a strip like Dick Tracy and more recently Doonesbury,to see the advancement from very simple sketches to excellent art of colors, silhouette,perspective and all, to appreciate it.
After reading the book, I hope one day to visit the International Museum of Cartoon Art;although I continue to think of the Comic Strips as one thing and Cartoons as something completely different.
A great gift for a friend or yourself if you were a follower of the "strips".

paul howes is the ULTIMATE springfield fan. he hasn't spent hours listening to every syllable springfield ever sang. he has spent his life. and then some. because more than a few of the recordings he disseminates were not released to the public or are parts of tv specials springfield made during 40+ year career.

and his love for dusty and her unique, one of a kind voice is captured in page after page of this healthy tome that devotes itself to her recordings.

even when he doesn't like the performance or the arrangement, he still maintains impartiality and great respect for a woman that was loved, idolized, almost forgotten then reclaimed by her new and old fans from all over the world.

and this book is a perfect reading companion for when you are enjoying one of springfield's wonderful interpretations of a song she made her own.

and the beauty of that--there's more than a few.

This is a great reference book for all of Dusty's recordings. It includes the Where and When of each song she ever recorded.

Paul Howe's excellent book (now in 2nd ed.) is now available for preorder through The Dusty Springfield Bulletin and also through amazon UK. US fans are waiting for amazon to offer it here. PLEASE !!
[...]
Let's Talk Dusty!

Here's what we Dusty fans waited many years for. Several more compilation CD's and a couple more DVD's have been released in the U.S., U.K., Australia and the rest of the world since this comprehensive overview of Dusty's career was published in 2001, so the book is only complete up to that point. No matter, because these pages cover all of the known, individual studio recordings she made, including several alternate versions, album session outtakes and single mixes that have turned up over the years on various collections. There are many live television and radio recordings floating around out there, many of which have yet to see CD or DVD release, but this book is as complete a volume as we could have reasonably hoped for. And the pictures! There are many photos here I had never seen before, making this book even more of a special treat. The casual listener who is only familiar with Springfield for the four or five songs that get endlessly recycled on the radio could probably not care less about this book, but for us rabid fans, this is indispensable. Highly recommended, and nothing in here to disrespect the woman whose real legacy is a catalog of great music, NOT a string of sleazy tabloid stories. Avoid DANCING WITH THE DEMONS, a badly written "biography" which I won't even dignify with a negative review.

Dusty Springfield was a legend in the music industry. She was tough and a perfectionist without apologies. This book is about her music legacy and not about her personal problems with addiction or her sexual orientation. There's more to her person than who or what she sleeps with. Dusty was one of a kind. She died too soon at 59 just when she got awarded the O.B.E. (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) on her deathed and died two weeks before her induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio. Sadly, there is one honor that I think she should receive and that is the Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for recording. If I only had $25,000 dollars to spare, I would do it for Dusty.

Really complete book. When I browse through this book, I have million of new ideas for my work. A must have for beginners as well as professionals!

Nearly three hundred stitches from feather to drawn-thread stitches and beadwork receive visual embellishment and step-by-step illustration in the fine Complete Guide To Embroidery Stitches, a compendium divided into five main sections to cover embroidery on fabric, smocking, canvas work and more. From color value applications to step-by-step easy directions, each step receives visual drawings and hints for applications.

A superb book for anyone wanting to learn embroidery. The book has great diagrams, photographs and written descriptions for every stitch. The written instructions are very thorough and easy to understand. Aside from all that great stuff, the very best part of this book (in my opinion) is the "tip" included with each stitch on how to create the stitch, or what effect the stitch is best used for or what type of thread is best to use for that particular stitch. A great resource for all levels. Also recommended: The Embroidery Stitch Bible.

The book solved my sewing problem within five minutes.

This book is complete, clear and very easy to understand. It was just what I was looking for. It offers many many different stiches. I love it.

Richard Alderson has written a practical guidebook for singers and especially teachers of voice and choral directors who would like the wise advise of a professional singer and teacher. As a professional teacher of voice, I recommend it highly!!

This book is to a singer what pornography is to an adolesant teenage boy. a must have! all the info that would turn any singer on, and you don't have to hide it from mom!

I find this book really helpful and insightful regarding all the aspects of singing, breathing, producing sound in general, etc. It not only helps with singing, but it for instance also helps you learn better breathing habits. I'd recommend this book to anyone.

I should probably also add that to learn to sing you need a teacher too, but for as far as books go, this is possibly one that I would have to put on my list of favorites. I find it hard to imagine that any other book will provide more insight.

For people who need to do without a teacher I'd most certainly recommend this book. You might want to search for CD's or DVD's as an extra learning aid too, to help you visualise/audiolise things if you find this hard to do. An instrument might be nice. You probably need something to produce the desired notes so you can sing along with them. This will be a great help when doing the suggested exercises. But even without such help, the book contains plenty of practical info.

At first I was turned off by this book's textbook appearance, once however I successfully pushed myself past the cover I was fascinated. Like most voice teachers, I've read my share of "This is the Only Way to Teach Singing" books. I have found that the more truly knowledgeable a person is, the more they recognize how many variables exist and how many approaches may be necessary in order to arrive at the desired destination. Rather than pontificating on his particular brand of vocal technique, Richard Alderson focuses on indisputable physical activities and his discovery of vocal mechanics through experiences with his students. Alternating between descriptions of functional concepts and first-hand stories of their application, this book was a pleasure to read. I often found myself unable to put it down. - Okay, but what can I say... I love voice :-)

This book is another of the many great books out there on vocal pedagogy.

Richard Alderson, a professional singer voice teacher and choral director taught at Northwestern University. Taking a very practical approach, Alderson introduces the principles of voice teaching. Later chapters cover breathing, voice production, resonance, vowels, registers, articulation, and several chapters on choral voices and changing voices (boys' and girls').

Alderson is informed about proper vocal technique, and the book's bibliography demonstrates his reliance on the best sources. Alderson's book seems much more pragmatic than other books on vocal pedagogy like Richard Miller and others. Alderson also makes many analogies to many other fields, especially athletics. Many teachers will find this helpful--it can be very difficult to explain to students what they should try to do to correct their singing.

At the expense of his practical explanation, some voice teachers may miss some of the "nuts and bolts" as to what is really going on in the voice. This handbook does not explain all of the inner workings of vocal production. Better sources can be found in books by Clifton Ware, Richard Miller, and Oren Brown.

Fans of good aesthetics will probably also wish this book had a different cover (this one shouts, "Welcome to the 1970s!").

All that aside, this is a useful book and voice teachers will find it helpful. I would also recommend James McKinney's book as another great resource. Enjoy!

This is the book I would write after taking thorough notes from dozens of workshops and distilling the "best of the best" into one book. Lots of gems in one convenient place.

Far from the first book on painting I've bought, "Conversations" is the one I keep reading. It is jammed with ideas, principles, and practical hints, punctuated with tons of visual explanations and demonstrations. Some bits are immediately applicable; some will take years to comprehend through my own practice, but that's ok because they're "chunked" into small pieces that aren't overwhelming. I wish I could find more information on where Mr. Dunn is, so that I might meet him, but alas, he's a mystery man...He's laid all the principles out in the kind of logic I need to build a coherent picture of the art, and it's organized with profoundly comforting statements like, "Painting adheres to universal principles; follow the principles, and you'll get good art..."

This is a beautiful book on the process of creating art. You don't even have to be an artist to enjoy this book. It can be for anyone interested in learning about the process called creativity. This book will be a treasure in anyone's collection. It will not go unread.

I wish all writers that attempt to explain complex subjects used Dunn's technique. His lesson-by-lesson guide to art is incredibly comprehensive, yet reads so enjoyably. The side-bar quotes he uses help the reader get to the philosophical heart of the subject matter; the use of diagrams and examples bring the subject to life. Even if you're not eyeing art as a career--or even hobby--this book is a great tool to understand and ultimately truly appreciate art, of all kinds. This is easily the best educational book--of any kind--that I've read.

Dunn recommends opening the book at a double page and just reading that spread in one sitting. And this is how I approached my "dialog" with the book. Though sometimes I found myself reading on, particularly when the following pages enlage on the concepts presented on the first pages. I have taken many courses on composition, design, and the use of materials. But somehow Dunn encourages rethinking. Have I thought of these aspects or techniques in my last painting? Could I make that next painting different by trying to apply this approach? An inspiring book that enourages one to try harder and to turn again and again to the many thoughts and examples presented.

This was a thoroughly enjoyable book.
I'd call it a memoir rather than a novel but, whatever, I'd call it a "must read" for anyone interested in several things.
1. It is a good read - fast paced and full of excitement.
2. It's a great description of San Francisco and it's people at the start of the "hippy" movement.
3. This book describes how this succesful criminal appeal changed American law. It laid the ground work for a case we are all aware of, Miranda v Arizona.
Mr. Dwinnell writes easily, passionately, and with great recall of the events. I highly recommend it.

The Coronado Brief is a powerful, character-driven novel by Justin Dwinnell. Set in the historical era of the1960s Summer of Love hippie invasion of San Francisco, the story is of a real murder case in which a novice lawyer, Jason Cornell, is hired to write an appellate brief to defend a young Mexican, Roberto Coronado, whose confession of murder has led to a death sentence in San Quentin's gas chamber. In search for evidence to support his brief, Jason discovers Roberto's constitutional right to remain silent had been violated by a prison interrogator, a sadistic, ambitious man, who gained the confession by using a high pressure fire hose on the naked man in the cell block showers.

During a respite from writing the brief, Jason becomes involved with a host of colorful characters of the day including: the king of torts lawyer, Melvin Belli; the beatnik poet, Allen Ginsberg; and the guru of the all-in-one church, Michael Selvin. Attending the "Human Be-in" rock concert in Golden Gate Park, Jason hitches a ride in a VW van with a dozen young hippies, and is unexpectedly treated to a euphoric whiff of pot smoke leading to an equally unexpected sexual encounter with a girl with flowers in her hair.

The Coronado Brief is a compelling read deserving a five star review.

"Innocent until proven guilty" is a phrase commonly understood and accepted by even the least legally-savvy American. But how many of us, while reading our legal thrillers or watching our legal television dramas, can actually suppress our gut feelings and keep from prejudging? Imagine a young lawyer--fresh from the Bar exam, in love with the law, committed to justice and the upholding of truth--assigned to appeal a death sentence imposed upon an inmate convicted of a grisly murder. Knowing the gruesome details of the murder on the one hand and the fact of a forced confession on the other, how can this young, green lawyer keep his personal view of the truth from interfering with justice being served?
The Coronado Brief explores exactly this scenario in the pre-Miranda legal era in San Francisco, California. Jason Cornell comes of age as a lawyer through this "trial-by-fire," grappling with legal ethics, the allure of hippie counter culture, and the pressures of following in the footsteps of his successful lawyer father. Mr. Dwinnell takes his reader on a compelling journey with his wonderfully real main character toward a thrillingly satisfying conclusion in which Jason Cornell learns first-hand the primary function of criminal lawyers: "it is not a man we defend, but the rights of all men."

This novel is a five star winner. If you are coming to San Fransisco, be sure to wear some flowers in your hair... This song resonates as the reader is transported back in time to San Fransisco's summer of love. Based in truth, the novel depicts the author's first case assignment wherein he submits a brief to the California Supreme Court in defense of Roberto Coronado, a young Mexican inmate who has confessed, under torture, to the murder of a sexual predator and is now facing death in the gas chamber. Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac and Timothy Leary, are a few of the colorful characters who weigh heavily, pro and con, in the author's fight for justice.

"You have the right to remain silent..."
Several years before the Miranda warning became the law of the land in the US, a young Hispanic convict in California, after a brutal grilling by prison authorities, confessed to the murder of a fellow inmate, and was tried and convicted. The young court-appointed lawyer assigned to work on his appeal offered the novel concept that it was unconstitutional to question a suspect without advising him of his right to avoid self-incrimination, and to have an attorney present. This fascinating case, and how it was decided by the California courts, forms the basis of Justin Dwinnell's fast-moving and highly entertaining novel, The Coronado Brief.
Dwinnell is a retired attorney and member of the California Bar, who now resides in Pennsylvania, writes books and teaches creative writing. Coronado's youthful legal co-counsel, renamed "Jason Cornell" in the book, bears an uncanny resemblance to Dwinnell himself nearly fifty years ago, and although most of the characters and dialog are fictitious, the situations depicted are factual. We re-live the era of the 60's, the seamy side of the counter-culture movement, and the cloudy legal climate of the times, as seen through the eyes of the appealing, not-quite-dry behind-the-ears Jason. Although incredibly naïve, the young lawyer is nevertheless smart enough to figure out a way to keep the hapless "Coronado" out of Death Row while avoiding dangerous legal pitfalls. At the same time, his romantic adventures and struggles with the legal system are punctuated with some of the most hilarious dialog ever encountered by this reader.
Fans of legal puzzles, snappy conversation and page-turning plots will love The Coronado Brief.