Bats Books

This delightful book invites those who read it to begin a magnificent adventure into Jewish freedom and responsibility.

Dr. Hoffman opens the door for the youthful Bar/Bat Mitzvah (son or daughter of The Covenant) to enter the sacred world of a loving, rich, meaningful, and creative Jewish life. Hoffman challenges the reader to thoughtful introspection and examination of Jewish heart, soul, and identity.

This is not a book for those who need to be spoon fed information. Hoffman's book is a guide for those who are willing to wrestle with angels for the prize of wisdom, knowledge and understanding.

If you want to give a gift that will help The Jewish Spirit to flourish, this is it. This book will be treasured and loved as the years pass by. Its true worth will not be fully known until My Bar/Bat Mitzvah is re-read many years from now as the book is examined by generations of Jewish children yet to be born.

This is the perfect Bar/Bat Mitzvah gift. Giving the gift of Jewish Soul is a very wise choice indeed.

This book is hard to find but it's worth the search. It covers timely subjects -- single parents, secrets, peer pressure, bullies, racial differences, ecology, and animal rights, etc. Easy reading, fast-paced and humorous, but the underlying principles and problems are clearly defined. A good book to discuss in class. Wish it were available outside of schools. Evidently published by an educational publisher. Excellent subject matter.

Great book. One of the best jr. novels I've read. Simple rating. Great book. I'll say -- I mean type it again. Great book.

I really like the fact that the transparencies actually lead to mystery (in the book on lions you mostly have pictures of lions starting to move and on the other page they arrived to their goal; this book is different). The facts about owls and bats are all shown, and the most important species are represented. I like how they managed to choose the most important things and not swamp the reader with too many technical details.

In those dear old days before TV, there was a strange contraption in most homes that was called radio. One of the things that radio did best was to bring classical music into our homes. Two voices became very familiar to those who enjoyed this music. The most familiar of these two was probably that of Milton Cross, the voice of the Metropolitan Opera's live Saturday afternoon Opera Matinee broadcast. The second, and subject of this review, was Deems Taylor, who gave music talks in conjunction with the New York Philharmonic-Symphony Orchestra's Sunday afternoon broadcast. Many of the chapters in MEN AND MUSIC are taken directly from Mr. Taylor's radio talks. Others come from articles he wrote for various popular and music oriented magazines.

MEN AND MUSIC is written in a manner that makes it accessible to the layman while still being of use to the music professional. I think that the fact that so many sections of the book were written to be read aloud over the radio contributes to their universal appeal.

The book is broken into three sections entitled "Yesterday," Today," and "Tomorrow." Within these sections, the articles, or essays as I prefer to think of them, are on a great diversity of subjects with no unifying theme.

The book opens with a segment on Wagner which Taylor has titled "The Monster." After discussing a number of Wagner's extremely unpleasant personality traits, Taylor goes on to say that Wagner was one of the world's greatest dramatists, thinkers, and musical geniuses. As examples of these attributes, he (Taylor) describes several of Wagner's operas. He concludes this essay with the following: "The miracle is that what he did in that little space of seventy years could have been done at all, even by a great genius. Is it any wonder that he had no time to be a man."

My personal favorite among his essays is one he calls "The Chick and The Egg." The premise of this piece is that he has been asked to listen to the self composed music of a six year old child and his reasons for refusing to do so.

One of his points has to do with not confusing technical excellence with imagination or soul. He believes these to be attributes that are adult powers.

He continues by stating that the age of an artist should be of no concern to the "customer." Either a work of art is good or it isn't. He says, "There is no such thing as a work of art that is wonderful, considering the artist's age. If it is wonderful, 'considering', it is not a work of art." He concludes by saying that the child's parents should provide whatever help they can but should not push the child or foist him or her on others. That usually proves self-defeating. If the child is truly wonderful, we shall hear of him or her in due time.

In one of his concluding segments he bemoans the decreasing number of opera houses in America and relates this "dumbing down" to movies and radio among other causes, and questions opera's future in America. This was in an era before TV. He was both right and wrong, I think. There are more opera goers today, but they represent a smaller proportion of the population. His fears that opera would die have proved unfounded, thank goodness. I think that he would have approved of the greater accessibility of opera and other forms of quality music due to Public Television, Videos, CD's and DVD's.

This is another book I'd like to see back in publication. I think it would find an audience.

The famed Belorussian writer Vasily Bykov has been awarded the title of Master of Soviet Literature. Michael Glenny, translator of Solzhenitsyn, gives further praise: "From the start it is clear that Bykov is a considerable master of both language and form." The Ordeal, formerly published in Noviy Mir as Sotnikov, is a powerful novel, considered one of the most realistic pictures of the Great Patriotic War to emerge from the USSR. Two Partisans, Ribak and Sotnikov, are captured by local politsai (as Belorussian collaborators with the occupying German army were called). Soknikov is badly wounded. After enduring brutal interrogation, they are imprisoned along with a village woman who had reluctantly sheltered them, an old man, and a Jewish girl. As it becomes clear that they are all to be executed, the captives display individual courage, despair, and cowardice. There is no happy ending, but Bykov's writing is a moving tribute to the higher power of the human spirit. Vasily Bykov, who died earlier this year, was deservedly lauded for his novels, which also include "Pack of Wolves" and "Sign of Misfortune". Ironically, his first published story, "The Dead Feel no Pain" had been criticized in 1966 by Soviet generals for "slandering" the Red Army.

"Our Connection with Savannah" is the latest offering from Russell Brown, author of To the Manner Born, the acclaimed biography of General William H. T. Walker. His clear style and attention to detail has resulted in a concise yet comprehensive history of the evolution of a small and obscure Confederate battalion from Georgia.
The 1st Battalion Georgia Sharpshooters formed in Savannah during the spring and summer of 1862. Following the promotion of its first commanding officer, Major (later Brigadier General) Robert H. Anderson, leadership passed to Major Arthur Shaaf, a former U.S. army lieutenant from Maryland who had served with the 4th U.S. Infantry in Indian territory.
Brown calls the creation of the 1st Battalion Georgia Sharpshooters "an experiment once noble and harmful." Confederate companies were composed largely of men from the same community who were accustomed to "the comfortable companionship of their neighbors and friends." Although elite units had been successful in other armies, the idea of separating men from their home companies and regiments to form a special battalion met with a degree of resistance. Nonetheless, Anderson and Shaaf molded the 1st Battalion Georgia Sharpshooters into a small force recognized for its efficiency at drill and bravery in battle.
In all, no more than 360 officers and men served in the battalion's ranks (the maximum strength was 270 men during May 1863). The men of the battalion came from all over Georgia, but the unit considered Savannah its home city. The Sharpshooters first camped in the vicinity of the Georgia seaport where it aided in the defense of nearby Fort McAllister, located southwest of Savannah on the Great Ogeechee River. Later assigned to the brigade of General William H. T. Walker (the Walker-Wilson-Stevens-Jackson Georgia brigade), the battalion departed its home state and took part in the abortive effort to relieve Vicksburg, seeing action at Jackson, Mississippi in May and July 1863.
The Sharpshooters proceeded to join the Army of Tennessee at Chattanooga in August 1863 and participated in the battle of Chickamauga which reduced the battalion to forty-nine effectives. By November 1863 only twenty-five effectives were present, too few to be of much help when the Yankees pushed the Rebel army off of Missionary Ridge. The Sharpshooters strength "resurged" to 129 effectives while camped near Dalton during the winter of 1864, but further attrition during the Atlanta campaign and the battalion's decimation at Jonesboro in September 1864 left just forty-eight officers and men. Most of the battalion's remnant who made the ill-fated trek into Tennessee were captured at Nashville on December 16.
The Sharpshooters likely acted as brigade skirmishers, pickets, or flank guards but once battle was joined, the battalion would regroup as a unit and take its place on the left of the line. While the battalion's effectiveness waned as its strength dissipated, the Sharpshooters rightly enjoyed a reputation for steadfastness and gallantry under fire. Loss of men from the ranks due to desertion, disease, or battle tremendously impacted the remaining soldiers of the undersized 1st Battalion Georgia Sharpshooters, an issue Brown presents as an underlying theme of "Our Connection with Savannah."
Research and documentation is always Brown's strong suit. The author combed compiled service records, entries from Lillian Henderson's Roster of the Confederate Soldiers of Georgia, 1861-1865, census schedules, city directories, county histories, genealogies, and newspapers to assemble a detailed battalion roster. More importantly, he incorporated this information into his narrative, delving into the lives of the rank-and-file, exploring their pasts and recounting their comings and goings from the battalion as it formed and deployed. This task is often neglected in unit histories dealing with a larger body of men. The battle history of the 1st Battalion Georgia Sharpshooters notwithstanding, the manner in which Brown integrates the personal experiences of the individual soldiers into a coherent narrative is the compelling aspect of this book.

Chip Bragg
Thomasville, Georgia

Because it is impossible to give emotional help to another when ones own self-esteem is at an extremely low ebb, this book refers to self-esteem as "apples." When the basket is empty, one has no more apples to give. The author points out that self'esteem is something one must replenish alone. No one can give it to you. It must be earned back by taking care of oneself. There are many ways to do this. Primarily, doing something good for oneself can restore self-esteem. Finding ones own way in the world restores self-esteem. The tools given are down to earth and sometimes downright funny. It is not a quick fix book. It is a tool to aid one in finding the way out of the dark, dismal tunnel of depression. I read it. I learned from it and I practice it. It has helped me and it can help others too.

This book contains information on bats ranging from birth, to bones, to wings, to intestines. Full color photographs keep children interested, and a glossary provides help for the unfamiliar words. Even students with reading difficulties enjoy looking through this book.

Pauly: The Adventurous Pallid Bat is the fascinating story by Heather Irbinskas of a hungry little bat who likes to eat centipedes, bugs, and even scorpions. But even finding a meal takes work; the bat must use sound instead of sight, and sometimes even fight his prey! Dark tones and flowing artwork by Brian Anthis characterize this absorbing and highly recommended picture book tale with a strong dose of realism, supplemented with a brief final page of true information about various bat species.