Black Books

This book kept me interested. It is a pretty good read. There were alot of errors in the book but other than that it was okay. I am kinda of curious about the sequel.

Kevin is a rich author suffering from writer's block.To get his creativity flowing for the next story he heads back to his hometown of Chicago.His ex-girlfriend Yolanda shows up and from there that's when all the drama begins.All I have to say is if you haven't read it, you will not be disappointed.You will find out just how crazy Yolanda really is!This is my first time reading Darrin Lowery's work and I am looking forward to reading the sequel Still Crazy II and his other books!!

I have read all of Darrin Lowery's novels. I must say that he is doing his thang on each novel.If you haven't had the pleasure of reading any of his novels. Please do so,you will not be dissappointed.

This book had a lot of drama in it and I liked that. As an author from the windy city myself, I truly liked the book. I enjoyed the descriptions of the city, the way that the lead character thought as well as the storyline itself. This was a story about life, love, drama, infidelity and forgiveness. The love scenes were detailed (they keep your attention) and the mini stories of things going on in the hood were off the chain. The descriptions were written in a way that you could picture the events as anyone's neighborhood from the 5th ward in Houston to Compton to the Bricks on the east coast. I'm looking forward to the next book.

Due to lack of payment of royalties for the second quarter, I am asking that my readers NOT purchase this version of "Still Crazy" This fall I will re-release the title under the same name but the ORIGINAL cover. For those of you that have been waiting, I will also release the sequel, "Still Crazy II" Crazy About You. I will make improvements on the original "Still Crazy" and have someone do the editing that the publisher didn't. For more information about Darrin Lowery or copies of "Still Crazy" that you would like to purchase, visit Darrin Lowery's website.

Thanks Debra for a heart felt story of transformation. You are a true inspiration for all souls that have been tried by the fires of personal loss and abuse. A must reading for all child abuse victims and families.

I am also a survivor and would like to get together with you sometime. Please add me to your mailing list to receive routine updates on future writings!

Kim

I met you at the Mind, Body Expo & bought your book. (Thank you for sharing your story. It touched my heart).

Valerie

Dear Debra, I just finished your book. You are a very strong woman.

Lisa

Impressive website! Sounds like you really have everything going for you...Is this the way you imagined it? You've put a lot of hard work into this. I sometimes wonder where all of your energy comes from.

If you love soul music and want to understand it from the inside out this book is for you. It is full of facts, myths debunked, and a scholarly yet very sensitive and thoughtful perspective on what the music means to us and why.

In "Sweet Soul Music," Peter Guralnick explains what made soul music great. He views soul as a distinct genre, separate from Motown, which was performed primarily by black singers for a black audience. Soul told the story of the rapid social upheaval transforming the South while reflecting the gains made by the civil rights movement. According to Guralnick, soul was different from other forms of R&B because it involved straining the boundaries of the listener's expectations and hinting at a conclusion without actually reaching it. Unlike Motown, the musicians who performed soul were freelancers and individualists who emphasized the underlying feeling of a song more than keeping the mechanics exactly right. Guralnick says that because the musicians, songwriters, producers, managers, and engineers who created the music worked at isolated regional outposts far removed from the major record labels, they were able to define their own roles within the movement.

"Sweet Soul Music" traces the origin of soul to the song "Crying in the Chapel" by the Orioles, which blurred the lines between gospel and R&B. "I Got a Woman" by Ray Charles, which followed, solidified soul as a distinct genre and exerted a profound influence on the future of music in the U.S. Guralnick explains that "When a Man Loves a Woman" by Percy Sledge then brought white fans to the table. The book tells the stories of the heroes of soul, including Sam Cooke, Solomon Burke, Otis Redding, James Brown, and Aretha Franklin, explaining in great detail how each set goals, viewed their careers, related to their peers, and overcame obstacles in order to achieve the extraordinary success that they did. Many of the stories are memorable, enabling the reader to see how a particular event changed an individual artist's view of the world, influenced that artist's decisions, and shaped the music itself.

The book is at its best, though, when telling the stories of the lesser-known talents who paved the way for future artists to succeed. Guralnick explains how Arthur Alexander's single "You Better Move On" was criticized in Nashville for sounding "too black," but eventually found the audience it deserved and opened new doors for other Muscle Shoals artists. William Bell's successful touring to support the single "You Don't Miss Your Water (Till Your Well Runs Dry)" not only to put Stax on the map, but enabled Bell to set the gold standard regarding philosophy towards fame and stardom. Guralnick explains how Stax's decision to open a record store and carry competing labels' stock gave the Stax musicians an opportunity to study hits closely, learn why they were hits, and discuss what future hits should sound like.

The book concludes that soul never fully recovered from the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., an event that caused relationships among many of the movement's key players to become frayed. Guralnick says that soul was a genre that could only exist in a particular time and place because of the influence that the struggle for civil rights had on the music. Overall, "Sweet Soul Music" offers an outstanding look at why soul left such an extraordinary legacy for artists and fans today. The book is strongly recommended for anyone who wants to understand why soul left such a powerful impression on listeners at the time, and continues to do so today.

Like Robert Palmer's superb "Deep Blues," Guralnick's extensive look back at the roots of R&B and soul music combines criticism, biographical profiles and social history into one rich, printed tapestry. Meticulously researched, the book shows its author's deep love of the music without sacrificing objectivity.

Guralnick provides plenty of background on the "race music" that spawned R&B and the great soul music of the sixties and early seventies, on which much of the book concentrates. Like most, if not all, of the great blues musicians, the early pioneers of soul came from humble, mostly southern beginnings, and made little or no money from their work, which was liberally sampled by white musicians.

A good portion of the narrative revolves around the fascinating rise and fall of Stax Records, the tiny Memphis-based label that brought together white executive leadership and musicians with raw black talent from the South. Despite initially primitive recording conditions, Stax developed into a powerhouse that was home to some of the greatest musicians in soul music, from Otis Redding to William Bell to Carla Thomas to Sam and Dave to Johnny Taylor. The label became representative of the growing sense of black pride that defined the era, one in which civil rights, of course, moved to the forefront of America's consciousness.

All of these musicians and many more, including Aretha Franklin, Wilson Pickett and James Brown, to name a few, are given finely drawn profiles by Guralnick, and he treats their contributions to American music with the respect that they deserve. Throughout, he is intent on letting the artists tell their stories in their own words, and remains content to use his own fine writing to direct and bind together the narrative.

Another great accomplishment of the book, for me, was Guralnick's successful effort to illuminate the ties between white and black musicians during this period. Yes, many of the most successful producers, notably Atlantic's Jerry Wexler, were white, but so were many of the musicians. Most had grown up in the south around blacks and were intimately familiar with African-American music. The Stax house band, which included Steve Cropper and Donald Dunn, was white, and they performed on many songs penned by great black songwriters such as David Porter and Isaac Hayes. Think of the great, ominous organ introduction to Aretha Franklin's "I Ain't Never Loved a Man." The white player is Spooner Oldham. This musical cross-fertilization is a notable point, one not often brought into considerations of the era.

As a young kid coming up in the mid-60s, I loved the music that Guralnick writes about here, and I could tell -- even if he hadn't said so -- that he did too. He goes beyond that love to really dig into its roots and understand it, and succeeds admirably.

'Sweet Soul Music' is a fantastic book, the best book I've read on the subject. Having said that, it isn't by any means a complete history of Soul Music (it completely omits the great music that came from New York, Motown, Chicago and Philly), nor is it a complete history of Southern Soul Music (the book ends with the acrimonious break up of Stax/Volt records, even though great Soul was still being made elsewhere in Memphis). Guralnick's book starts off looking like a history of Soul Music (there are early chapters on Ray Charles, Sam Cooke, and an amazing and hilarious chapter on Solomon Burke), but then the book changes emphasis and becomes the story of the involvement of white musicians in Southern R&B.

Guralnick's thesis seems to be that Southern Soul achieved its great creative flowering in the 60s as a result of the partnership between black and white musicians, and even though he interviews a great number of musicians and businessmen - black and white - he can't help himself from empathising with the young white hipsters that made up the house bands at Stax and Muscle Shoals, with the result that the book becomes very much a story told from their point of view (Guralnick calls Dan Penn the "secret hero of this book" - fair enough, but surely James Brown should have been its overt hero). After these white musicians were intimidated out of the business during the racial tension that followed Martin Luther King's assassination in 1968, Guralnick concentrates more on the politics and seems to lose interest in the music itself.

Which is a great pity, since Southern Soul in the 70s went on to even greater heights (James Brown's rhythmic revolution, then Al Green's great synthesis of the sexual and the spiritual). Though I learnt a great deal from the book (my CD collection has mushroomed after reading it) it felt to this reader as though the book had ended just before its real climax.

I bought this book in the gift shop at the newly resurrected Stax Records museum in Memphis... the Satellite Record Shop, next door to the museum. I've lived in Memphis all my life, although I'm about 15-20 years younger than most of those made famous by the Stax phenomenon. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and it served to fill in the blanks about many things I had only heard about superficially growing up here. I'm bothered by a lot of factual errors, not noticeable or important maybe to many, but this is about my home. At least the author and/or his editor could have been more sure of producing a factually accurate book. The edition I bought was published in 1999... the original in 1986. Did no one else catch these errors in the '86 edition? Here are a couple of examples: He refers to a Memphis radio station, KWEM, which was and is actually in West Memphis, Arkansas, and whose call letters are KWAM. (Everybody knows stations east of the Mississippi River start with a "W" and all those west of the Mississippi start with a "K".... radio and TV stations alike. Does the author know where Memphis is?
He refers to a naval base in Tipton County, TN, where Booker T. & the MGs would play, when in fact it's in Shelby County, the same county Memphis itself is in. Does this change anything in the big picture? Probably not. Is the book any less enjoyable or informative? No, not really. But if you considered yourself a true New Yorker, and someone kept writing about it, calling it Gethom City, or The Big Orange, well, you get the picture. I do wonder how many other errors the book may contain that I didn't catch?

very good,worth reading,written by various people.....
enjoyable,gets you thinking,nice photographs too.
As you may or may not know African coyly hair is quite unique in vision, texture, behaviour and probably in chemical make up too. Coily haired women around the world, go to the most extremes in terms of spending.
(Spending time, spending pain and the spending price to have African coily hair styled)
A hairstyle that we believe looks good or will help us to become socially and economically advanced.
Or maybe for our own self-esteem and maybe to attract the charms of a love interest. Either way your hair is a reflection of the state of your consciousness, your internal beliefs and your relationship with the world.

This book is like having group therapy or interviewing other women,but it is not all black women's views.I am reviewng it because I think it is worth a read.

As you may or may not know African coily hair is quite unique in vision, texture, behaviour and probably in chemical make up too. Coily haired women around the world, go to the most extremes in terms of spending.
(Spending time, spending pain and the spending price to have African coily hair styled)
A hairstyle that we believe looks good or will help us to become socially and economically advanced.
Or maybe for our own self-esteem and maybe to attract the charms of a love interest.
Either way, psychologically and philosophically I believe that your hair is a reflection of the state of your consciousness, your internal beliefs and your relationship with the world.
What about exploring physics through african hair?
For example how much pressure, gravity and tension and tearing do we put our hair through by combing it?
let alone excessive harsh combing.
Mathematically speaking how many of you readers can tell me how many curls/coils per inch your hair has, and does it vary in coil and moisture?
Next question:When does the nature of the hair change and why?
(i know it does!)
It seems to me all these books on afro hair are good and I welcome it, but we still need to be more informed and they all seem to need better editing, just like Black American beauty magazines.I must campaign for better grammar and less air brushed photos!!!
It is as if we like to see ourselves falsely rather than the reality of what we are...
Black women need to demand more scientific reasoning from our books and be less competitive over black men which only fuels their egos and as a result probably creates more baby-mothers!!!
Sorry but I had to vent out my opinions.

I give this book four stars for the effort and time invested as a writer I know it takes time...
I maintain that it is still worth reading,more than any carcinogenic chemical so called hair treatment that you pay for.

Anyway what do I know I am a black african british woman!!!!
Most of you Americans think we in Britain have no trains or any kind of progressive development!!!
Anyway if I wrote my book answering my questions that I put to you how many of you would buy it?

This is a wonderful book for anyone who would like to explore the issues that Black women face vis a vis our hair from a variety of viewpoints; not just the "politicaly correct" ones.

The book was all that, very positive, and at times emotional (I'm thinking of the passage where a father is trying to figure out how to braid his daughter's hair since her mother is across the country. His trying, and eventually getting it right, turned into bonding sessions for them. It was beautiful.) Of course the book had my favorite culture critic, bell hooks, and as usual she gave me a new persepective: to look at the whole "perm" phenomena as initiation into womanhood. Just about any Black woman who was on the brink of adolescence and was dying to get a perm should relate to that. I did. That's what this book does, it helps Black women to see just how similar our trials have been with our hair; and it's not just a generational thing. Black women from 50 to 80 years ago had the same issues and thoughts Black teenagers have today. Everyone remembers hot combs and Goody pink rollers and Royal Crown grease. Looking back many women had feelings of remembered pain, and not just from the burns on the tips of their ears and on their scalps, but inside their hearts for our collective struggle with an unattainable beauty standard.
What I also admired about this book was that it touched on the subject of hair and erotic intimacy. There was a whole section devoted to hearing the responses of Black women and men when confronted with the bedroom question: Can I run my fingers through your hair? It showed a depraved relation to our hair. In order to get and keep that salon fresh look, sleek and shiny, it must not be touched (by you and most especially your lover). Hair does not bring pleasure in the sense of us luxuriating in how it feels. How can you when it's not even yours? Weave. A woman tells the story of a young man with whom she was getting intimate with, and he wanted to run his fingers through her seemingly long shiny tresses. The moment was interrupted when he felt the hard tracks on her scalp before she could effectively slap his touch away. "You have to train these men early," another woman admonishes, "not to touch the hair." A man married for over 20 years complains of his wife's hair roller pins always poking him when she's "going down on him." He also hates, but has gotten used to, her wearing a head scarf anytime they make love. It is described in the book as Black folks having perpetual menege trios, he, she, and the head scarf. Another man wakes up to his girlfriend's "100% Korean Hair" all over the bed and floor after an especially heated night; he later ends up paying $200 dollars to have it all put back in again. The women speak of not even wanting to touch their own hair, refering to it being "hard as a rock" from gels and hair sprays. It's all in the name of a certain look, the processed one. (It's this look that lured their mates in the first place right?) It's sad that Black women talk about orchestrating certain sex positions around not messing up their fresh 'do. "You don't even think about it after while." They compensate not allowing their men to touch their hair with confidence and boldness in their performance, "It's so good he won't even be thinking about touching my hair."

I love this book. It isn't just politics or just us behind closed doors. Every possible reference to what is done to our hair is mentioned, even going bald. A Muslim woman opened my eyes to how not showing her hair takes away from having to compete for attentions based on beauty standards of hair, by being above them. It reminds us that as women, we shouldn't let physical beauty define us, even though most times it does, and we let it. "Ms. Strand" tells her tale with humor, cultural criticism, African storytelling, and 'round tha way truthfulness, barring nothing from the conversation. Truly, Tenderheaded should not be passed over.

I expected to really enjoy this book, but was disappointed. Some of the stories/essays were very good, but some of them were poorly written and/or could have done with some serious editing. It might have been better if some of them had been omitted: the book would probably have been half as long, but the overall quality would have been significantly improved.

I was also disappointed by the way the book was laid out. It seemed jumbled and poorly conceived. Photos, illustrations and cartoons/comics were seemingly thrown in randomly, with little context or relation to the surrounding content. The graphic content of the book was good, but the layout just did not display it to full advantage.

The idea behind this book was a good one, but the execution could have been a little bit better.

This is a very unique book. I have to say I LOVED IT! My being a young black woman, all the stories hit close to home. This book gave a non-bias look at black women's hair, and black culture all around the world including here in America. It gave many view points, from men women, blacks and even whites. I recommed this book to anyone who is confused about their hair and themselves. Nappy is defiantly Happy!!!! Peace.

This author's life story demonstrates how a refusal to accept society's "labels" and a strong determination, coupled with a strong faith in God can overcome even the most challenging and disappointing events in life. Several times while reading this book I had to stop, pause, reflect, sometime cry, sometime laugh and at other times feel encouraged. Just knowing that this author endured many of the same disappointments, hardships of being a teenage parent, ridicule by society and so called friends validated my pain and my struggles. This should be a required reading for all teenagers.

In the book True Vine, Fountain writes a timeless and powerful message of truth and consequences. It is a personal testimony that speaks to youth and adults alike...if you believe in (God) a power greater than yourself and apply positive action (faith and hard work) to fuel your beliefs, there is absolutely nothing that you cannot do. My grandmother used to say "He (God) may not come when you want him, but He's right on time". Fountain uses bits of wisdom like this, as shared by elders in his family, to help us understand the power of faith and the proof as is manifested in his survival and ultimate success. Long after you read this book, you will feel the despair of an impoverished K-town; and, it has to make one think about how many neighborhoods exist today where children and families barely survive (and many don't) through unspeakable horrors, insufferable living conditions and unbelieveable hardships -- in America, the richest country in the world? But the saving grace in this story for me is that John W. Fountain not only survived and succeeded beyond his wildest dreams, but that he cared enough to honestly share his story with the world. True Vine is a true story -- one that reveals some of the hidden truths about family, community, poverty, its victims and its survivors. True Vine is a branch of knowledge that provides us with food for thought about problems and solutions that we, as individuals, as viable members of communities and organizations, can all take part in -- righting the wrongs -- fighting poverty and violence. With faith as our foundation, one step at a time, we can help build prosperity in underprivileged neighborhoods for future generations. Fountain can be likened to the "voice crying in the wilderness" from which many will hear and be saved. This book is truly a fountain of revelations. It is much more than a personalized how-to-succeed book. There is a lesson in every chapter that should be read by every child and every parent in America. I am certain that this is not the last time we will hear from this great author. I for one, will be looking for more.

With True Vine, John W. Fountain has created an inspirational beacon. Not only has he trail blazed a path for all of the inner-city youth struggling in the jungle of poverty, he has written a travelogue of hope for all the souls who may have lost sight of their dreams.

This is one of the best books I have read, and will most likely be among my top 10 for the year. I wrote something down from this book that I know I will take away with me and remember for a long time: "You can't stop dreaming or you start to die."

When I first picked up this book, I was worried it would be a non-stop preach-fest; it turned out to be an inspiring tale of despair, hope, and faith.

Even though I grew up in a ranch house on a cul-de-sac in a well-to-do white Chicago suburb with grassy lawns and two-car garages, this book made me feel like I grew up in the poverty stricken neighborhoods of the west side of Chicago. It made me feel like a part of John W. Fountain's circle of friends and family.

This is the kind of book that comes along only once in a while. True Vine is a true treasure.

I found myself unable to put this book down even for sleep. It's one of those books you read from cover to cover, then promptly begin to put together the names of friends and family who simply MUST read this book.

I was deeply touched by his unwavering faith and integrity as he wrote about his life in the Chicago ghetto--up through poverty, his setbacks in life, and again recouping to claim a better life for himself and his family. I was most impressed by his early and continued determination to lead an exemplary male life, not wavering in his responsibilities to provide security and leadership no matter the adversity. His strong message of faith is a personal one, clearly and directly told. It is a touching, sincere, very warm book and so worth your time and money. You'll love it, I'm sure of it.

I was feeling pretty down when I picked up True Vine, I knew that I needed to know that I wasn't alone in what life was throwing at me at the time, I had no idea that this book would Re-new my Faith, and give me the Courage to keep going on. My sad, went to glad, my downs went to ups, my bad, went to good, and My Spirit Soared!!!!!!!God put John W. Fountain on this earth to give us our Faith Back, and to know that through God, all things are Possible, God Bless and Keep John, can't wait for book number two........

I read somewhere on the internet a few weeks ago about the Zebra murders and wondered what the heck was that about, and how it was said that the main-stream-media had ignored this huge news item and then the book about it. BINGO! I knew I had to read the book right away, and did! It is true, like any good crime story, once you start reading it, you can't put it down. The chapter about the tracing of the gun was an interesting short story in itself.

The murders occurred in 1973 in San Francisco, and I talked to some people about it and they never heard of it, and neither did I ever recall hearing anything about it myself. But, basically these murders held a terror siege on the city of San Francisco for nearly six months! The brutality of these murders was shocking! Who they were committed by, for, and against was just as shocking. The story ends each chapter with a short memorial of each victim as the body counts begins to build up.

Though the story is well-written by a capable author, I must say there was one part in the book that was confusing and I thought the author could have stated it better. It read, "While the white family had its picnic and Ward Anderson visted his friend, the two black Muslims known an Skullcap and Rims had a philosophical discussion on the subject of murder". This part had me thinking that Ward was talking to the two Muslims as pals and I only realized this was a mistake several pages down as the story wasn't making any sense.

So, why was this book and and essentially racist crime news ignored by the big media? Sigh... somethings never change (look at today's current events). It involved race and religious beliefs, something the Left and the MSM won't touch unless it coincides with their agenda. This time it didn't, and thus, the deafening silence.

"Zebra" is focused on the related crimes in San Francisco. But the "Zebra" crimes were actually happening state-wide. They were racially motivated, a psychopathic race to kill enough innocent victims to rate the killer as a "Death Angel."

Some of the killers were intellectually deficient and almost always chose the victims at random, on impulse. They were encouraged to seek out children or women as victims.

True to the expectations of some investigators, the killers were cowards and offered no resistance when arrested.

The name "Zebra" was inspired by the "Z as in Zebra" radio channel that was reserved for the investigation. Although there are other racial connotations for the case name.

The statistics in San Francisco were 23 assaults resulting in 15 deaths and numerous survivors scarred in one way or the other from the assault that they survived. Mr. Howard does a commendable job portraying the victims as everyday people rather than merely numbered victims.

I echo the surprise of the other reviewer that this case hasn't recieved more attention over the years. It was a huge case,more like conspiracy,of murder throughout California that had as amany as 70+ victims!

Clark Howard's "Zebra" is a very good read for any true crime reader.

This book recounts the horrifying crime spree known as the Zebra killings that happened in the Bay Area in the early 1970's. This spree, committed by black members of an offshoot of the Muslim religion, was done in an attempt for the murderers to win "Death Angel" status. This dubious honor was given to any "true believer" who murdered a certain number of white children, white women, or white men, or a combination of the three. (One received more credit for slaying a child or woman than a man supposedly because it would take more fortitude to do it. However, the author believes [with good reason, I think] it had more to do with the murderers being cowards afraid of anyone who might fight back.) Taking place over several months, the killers took several lives and wounded others in their barbaric attempt to win Death Angel wings. The author does a splendid job in recreating the events as well as allowing the reader to get inside the head of the people who actually believed it to be an honor to murder others. What is even more chilling than the specific Zebra murders is the fact that other Death Angels supposedly existed in California and could be walking the streets even today. For those with a strong stomach wishing to find out about a savage wave of crime (a wave that has strangely been forgotten), this is a must read.

considering just how limited/censored the info on this case is, Zebra is an OK read, I wish it was more from the police perspective as the killer perspective has to have some serious conjecture. Why this case was never fully solved is astounding , they convict a few people for a 14 murders, when there were perhaps dozens of killers and 70+ confirmed murders, the pattern was Black Muslims, so how hard could it have been to pursue that avenue.

I simply cannot understand why the media covers up stories like this but gives stories that are far less provoking front page news. It is frightening to know that many of the ideals revealed in this novel still exist today. I highly recommend this novel for anyone interested in true crime. It was so well written, it was easy to foget that these events actually happened.

I got the book as a gift for my grand daughter who likes to draw. The vivid colors and expressions on the characters faces should keep her interested for a while. The story line is an added bonus.

Do you need a book that confronts racism, appreciates theater, and shatters stereotypes on a primary level? If so, Amazing Grace, by Mary Hoffman, is the book for you. Not only does this book cover the above topics, but is also highlights on key items for younger readers, such as reading about individual achievements and moral dilemmas.
Grace, a first grade African American female, has an imagination with no boundaries. Grace loves to act out stories that she is told. At school, Grace's heart runs with excitement when her teacher announces that the class is going to do the play Peter Pan. Everyone wants to be Peter Pan, which highlights the enthusiasm for theater among these students. However, as Grace wants to be Peter Pan, her classmates tell her first that she can't because she is not a male. The second reason her classmates say is that she can't be Peter Pan is because she is black. Here lies the racism in this book.
The teacher allows each student to take home lines and memorize them to try out for roles. The best would get Peter Pan. In the mean time, Grace's grandmother takes her to a Romeo and Juliet ballet that features a black Juliet. This inspires Grace to go home and learn those lines as best as she can so that she will be the best one in the class. When it is time to try out, Grace is by far the best Peter Pan and the class votes to let her fill this role. This is where the shattering of stereotypes comes into play.
Past the social issues, Amazing Grace also fulfills the requirements that the Temple textbook states are good children's literature. First, children's literature must speak to the child. Children, especially that would read Amazing Grace, are extremely egocentric. Therefore, they want to read about the potential for individual achievement. Any child that is repressed for any reason could identify with Grace. There are a lot of things that Peter Pan was not, not just simply black. African American students could truly identify with Grace, having to deal with their differences that are spawned by their skin color and culture.
The last noticeable characteristic of good children's literature apparent in Amazing Grace is the presence of in depth thought, especially on morals. This book spawns thought on all the social issues mentioned above. This book would most certainly cause students to re- evaluate their thoughts and stances on racism, stereotypes, and maybe even theater. So many times, students think that what their parents believe is what they have to believe. However, educating students can help not only in letting them make their own decisions, but also educating their parents as well.
Finally, this book is an excellent book for teachers because there are many activities that can be done to accompany the reading. Perhaps this would be a great book to lead into their own class play. Another idea is to place this in a unit on racism and segregation in the upper elementary levels. Also, a teacher could do dress up day and the students could be whatever they want to be. All stereotypes are shattered for the day and each student can be free to be who they are. Amazing Grace may be one of the most influential books that I have ever read on racism and the way that Grace and her family handle this issue is admirable.

This story is about a girl that pretends to play the parts of all kinds of different people and one day thiers a play and she wants to play the part of Peter Pan and some kids tell er she can't then she goes home. Later on they her parents tell her she can do anything she wants as long as she puts her mind to it, and she did.

I liked this story because Grace can be Peter Pan if she put her mind to it. My favorite part is after the ballet. I would recommend this book to a friend because its about your imaginery. The book is amazing.

By: S.J.
Los Angeles
Age 5

This is a great story with a great message. It tells children there are no limits to what they can be. It tells children not to be deterred by sterotypes or opinions. You can be anything you set your mind to. I bought copies for both my son and my niece.

This is an exciting look into the arcane world of espionage, secret writing and the life and death struggles of spies to remain undetected. It is balanced by the equally intense technical struggle to detect them and interpret what they are sending. It is one of the classics of cryptography, and serves as a wonderful introduction to that all time classic "The Code Breakers" by David Kahn.

This book is a true tell all book. Written by the head of MI-8 (the US Army signals intelligence agency in WWI) and later the Black Chamber from 1918-1929, this book gives a glimpse of what goes on behind the scene and shapes the actions and re-actions of governments that don't make it to the newspaper headlines. A must read.

Aside from the subject of codes and ciphers, which this book does very well, The American Black Chamber also discusses how U.S. codebreaking affected the post-WWI naval disarmament conference which led to the famous 5-5-3 ratio of heavy warships amongst the British, American and Japanese navies. American negotiators knew in advance what the Japanese and British were willing to settle for and managed to get the best deal possible for the U.S.

Very much an eye-opener.

Yardley could sight-read the encrypted messages of the time. This and "Education of a Poker Player" are informative and entertaining.

I read this book some 50 years ago, having borrowed it from a friend.
Since then I have looking for this book.
When I found it on Amazon, I immediately bought it.

Ask Mr. Bear is a wonderful little classic. I like to read it but more important, my 3 littlest cherubs love to have it read to them. It has a good storyline and the older artwork adds variety. They love the ending -- a big bear hug for mom! It is a favorite at our house with the under 7 year old group.

Wonderful children's classic to add to your child's collection. Heartwarming story about a little boy wanting to buy his mom a birthday gift and along the way he asks all his animal friends. The end is sweet and endearing.

I loved this book as a child, now my children love it. It gets them thinking about gifts they can give, and understand that a hug and a kiss for Mom is one of the best presents they can give. I've gotten a lot more of them since reading this book to them.

I can recall reading this book to my much younger siblings and then to my own 4 children; now I am reading it
to my grandson. I especially like the way the animals help the little boy find a gift for his mother with the perfect
gift not being something material but just a lovely big hug. What a wonderful message to pass on to a child.

The little boy of this story doesn't know what to give his mother for her birthday and so he consults a number of animals (chicken, sheep, etc.). None of the suggestions suit him until Mr. Bear suggests a precious something no mommie can get enough of from her little boy or girl.

This book was written in 1932 but its message is timeless. If you want a book that reinforces nonmaterial values, one that your child will love and that strengthens parent-child bonds, consider this one. Four generations in our family have met Mr. Bear and the fifth is just about ready to. Five stars, definitely five stars.

Some background on me:
I have a Bachelor's degree in Computer Science. I'm also a professional software engineer in the video game industry.
In my education, I had a few classes on electronics/digital circuits and I loved it. I started doing my own circuits outside of class and buying digital ICs to add to my toolkit. Over the years, I'd lost touch with that side of myself and the joy that it gave me. Then I found this book, "The Black Art of Video Game Console Design".

This book is basically an abridged EE (Electrical Engineering) degree with a focus on video game consoles! And the kicker is that you're being instructed by one of the most "readable" authors around. By "readable", I mean that the author has a way of teaching you things as if it was your friend, sitting next to you, turning complicated subjects into an easy-to-understand, entertaining, data stream. The information is clear and the tone is upbeat and occasionally humourous.

As I read through the book, I was hitting everything that I learned in months and months in the classroom, but without all the fuss and only the relevant information. Resistors, capacitors, diodes, truth tables, timing diagrams, etc, it's all there. Then, the author jumped into complicated areas such as joysticks, sound, microprocessors, assembly language, the NTSC (standard TV) video signal (just to name a few). Finally, there we were at the pinnacle of the mountain, the culmination of all our learning, and here's where the real "Black Art" of the book kicks in, the full process of designing a video game console.

In today's hardware driven world, this book should be on every game programmer's shelf, whether they're a hobbyist or a seasoned veteran.

Andre LaMothe is an amazing guy, no question about it. He tends to write huge books, and the amount of material he fits into them is superlative. He's obviously got a passion for what he does, and that passion is certainly revealed in his writing style. He's a guy who never lost that simple love of video games.

Perhaps it's his sheer enthusiasm that makes him seem to sometimes write too quickly. A few minutes spent with The Black Art Of Video Game Console Design brings this tendency to light: I don't know how long it took to write this book, but I imagine the author was under some pressure to get it finished before some kind of deadline, because there are the typical signs of a book that didn't get properly edited. There are occasional typos and punctuation glitches, but more worrisome is the potential for factual errors. For example, an early and very glaring inaccuracy is the claim on page 66 that most electronics solder is 60% tin and 40% flux. In reality, typical solder is 60% tin and 40% *LEAD*, not flux; the flux burns and evaporates away from the solder once the solder has been melted. Yeah, it's a small detail, but any technical editor should have caught that one a mile away.

On a larger scale, however, LaMothe's enthusiasm propels the book forward at a speed not typically seen in how-to books. Comprising almost a thousand pages, this is already a pretty massive book, but the amount of material LaMothe crams into that space is remarkable. The first few chapters are something you have to see to believe, each chapter condensing basically an entire college electronics class' worth of material into around 50 pages. While this means that, in a sense, the book is a good value because it provides a lot of material, this compression obviously comes at a price: Some concepts were just not meant to be explained in a single paragraph, and the book falters multiple times trying to explain something as quickly as possible when the concept would really have benefited from some elaboration.

The result is a book that often makes me wonder what audience would most benefit from it. The first few chapters are all about electronics, and are written on a level that would benefit someone with literally no background in electronics at all. However, the focus of the book is on console design, not EE, and there are better books out there for the person who just wants to learn electronics. This, combined with the fact that you really can't (and probably shouldn't try) to learn the entire field of electronics in one night, leads me to believe that anyone approaching this book should probably have some thorough grounding in electronics technology before you actually start reading the book. Once you get past the first half and into the really game-focused material, the book comes into its own, but a majority of the material here would be better read elsewhere.

So ultimately, this is a book with a HUGE amount of material that you can learn a lot from, and if you really want to buy just one book, it's hard to find a better value than this. But if you want a truly broad-based education in electronics, you'll need to do some heavy supplementing with other books before you can get the most benefit out of this one.

I am always amazed how one person can know so much, learn new things and write <<2 000>> page book--and still produce accurate information that any hobbiest can pickup, without burning out! I wonder if Lamothe's next book is going to top his last? This one, just like Tricks 3D, is not for the faintheart but for the passionate individual that wants to learn how things are done in this world.

I'm in school for Electronics and I am shocked at how much information is packed into a single chapter. I think I learned more reading half of this book than in a year of schooling (as far as practical matters go). I have much to say but I should ramble no more... just buy it man! You won't be disapointed.

At least a book about the most obscure aspect of game programming: hardware designed to play.
This book gives a unique glimpse to the stuff needed to build your own game machine, the decissions you need to made, why to take certain paths in your designs and so on... even it gives you a very good primer on electronics and semiconductors.
Given the great number of Atari homebrewers out there, this book arrives just in time to create a whole new scene... a scene in which not only you will make your own games.. but the very machine they run on!
Definitely, a must have.

I am not going to give a quick rundown of this book, many others have already done that in the reviews. I want to tell you what the book can enable you to do. I was a hardware hacker back in the day when WOZ was hackin the Apple II. I hacked my way into being a programmer and sold my soul to business software.

I wanted to return to my roots and be able to do what the WOZ did with the Apple 1. After surfing the net I came across this book and the XGameStation. With it I have learnt the basic electronics needed to produce a gaming system. I have in fact built my very own video game console and am now programming PacMan for it.

This was all made possible by the information in this book. If the book didn't have it, it told me what to look up with regards to other IC's timings speed etc. Thus providing the Keys for me to unlock those doors that remained hidden until now.

Simply put this book is truly the 'Keys to the Kingdom' of video Game Console Design. I can say that because I have made my own Game Console and I know it to be true.I completely taught myself and I am not an EE student but just a hacker/hobbiest. I highly recomend this book for any beginner or EE student/hacker interested in designing their own Video Game Console.

If your new to electronics Andre' gives you crystal clear basic teaching for you in this book so don't be afraid and have some fun.

Mike