California Books

Anyone who loves San Francisco needs this book. Its obvious that a lot of work went into making this book. Its not a slap-dash book put together by some promo conmpany. It was lovingly created to allow us a before and now look at the City.

I received this book along with another one called: "Denial of Disaster: The Untold Story and Photographs of the San Francisco",by Gladys Hansen.

Both books are wonderful to read together because the book by Hansen describes what happened during and after the 1906 Fire (and/or 1906 Earthquake), and this book by Fradkin shows more photos from the tragic event. Thus, I recommend both books highly.

AFTER THE RUINS: 1906 AND 2006 - REPHOTOGRAPHING THE SAN FRANCISCO EARTHQUAKE AND FIRE has been a century in the making, and deserves a spot on any collection purported to be even halfway authoritative about San Francisco or California history. Its purpose seemed simple: to capture the meaning and impact of the 1906 quake through juxtaposing 'before' and 'after' photos, right down to the very angle of original landscapes. The idea was to also document how the city's landscape changed because of and since the quake: black and white and duotone photos by photographer Karin Breuer compliment essays by Philip L. Fradkin and Rebecca Solnit, longtime writers on California history, compliment an outstanding survey. College-level holdings on urban planning and design also should make this a special pick: it's an important documentation of how urban disasters change urban landscapes.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

Interesting reading considering how Zinoviev's views changed after the fall of the Soviet Union. He fought to keep Lenin's body on display, and had huge critisim of the new russian system/economy. He also said he was never an anti-communist.

There is no book better than this to examine the social system under which hundreds of millions of people lived, largely wasted, and ended their lives. In contrast to, say, "Cursed Days" by Bunin, the author lived out his life in the mire of Absurdistan, and can explain the WHOLE period even better than Solzhenitzyn. An era, the most tragic in human history, when one could choose to either be beaten to death or bored to death. A must for any intellectual contemplating the future.

This is the famous lampooning of how life was in the Soviet Union, with veiled and caricatured personae of Stalin, Khrushchev, Solzhenitsyn, Pasternak and many more from the time period. One of the Soviet Union's leading philosophers, Alexander Zinoviev was, upon Brezhnev's personal orders, stripped of all degrees and honors, dismissed from his appointments, expelled from the Communist Party and deprived of citizenship for writing this book. This novel has been described as the one of the bitterest satirical attacks on the Soviet system to appear in Russian (and most probably in English as well). The book can be read on a number of different levels. Comparable to Swift, Kafka, Rabelais and Orwell. And quite readable, despite its length. Go for it.

Corsi's book made me change the way I teach the history of evolutionary theory. I had accepted the Darwin-centric account, which says that modern theory begins with Charles Lyell and Darwin. Yes, Lamarck originated `transmutation' of species thinking and Cuvier was an outstanding paleontologist. But Lamarckian inheritance doesn't work and Cuvier was a bitter opponent of evolution.

Thanks to Corsi's painstaking research we know that English evolutionary thought was time-lagged about a half century behind the French. The uniformitarianism vs catastrophism interpretation of earth history, which I had thought was due primarily to Lyell, was intensively debated by French geologists by 1800. The geologist Philippe Bertrand, proposed, in 1797, the marine origin of life and gradual evolution of all organic forms. Terrestrial plants and animals are descended from original marine species. Julien-Joseph Virey proposed (1816) that the term `evolution' be used to denote the transmutation of species. `It is thus plausible that, thanks to such evolution, nature has risen from the most tenuous mold to the majestic cedar, to the gigantic pine, just as it has advanced from microscopic animals up to man, king and dominator of all beings.' In his Histoire naturelle du genre humain (1800) he stated the principle of sexual selection, which assured the optimum adaptive state through elimination of the weaker: "Nature resembles the law of Sparta, which let weak and sickly babies die, but took extreme care of strong, muscular individuals. Thus it is that women submit more easily to the most ardent males, seek the strongest ones, prefer the most untamable." We seem to hear Darwin speaking when Virey writes: "Nature initially produced only one very simple plant and one very simple animal, which it then varied to infinity, with gradual increases in complexity, to produce the most consummate species." The geologist Louis-Constant Prévost proposed that the evolutionary descent of each organism might one day be traced from the fossil record, from "the creation of the simplest beings to that of man himself."

Corsi summarizes his findings: "In the late-eighteenth-century Parisian scientific community, there was extensive discussion on the origin of life, on the possibility of explaining vital-function characteristics in physical terms, and on interpreting the success of life forms on earth in evolutionary terms. Far from being an isolated thinker, Lamarck took part in a far-reaching, momentous debate that aroused the curiosity and concern of many of his contemporaries."

This book is a must-read for all those teaching history of science.

Despite his fame and authorial fortune, the place of Darwin in the history of evolutionary thought is an anomalous one, and the standard histories tend to reinforce this imbalance. The real birth of the idea of evolution was at the end of the eighteenth century, with Lamarck in many ways the first great theorist on the subject, with a definite plus in the camp of Erasmus Darwin, Charles Darwin's grandfather. Lamarck is too often taken in terms of his more well known, but less successful idea of adaptation, but this is a secondary question. In the depiction of Soren Lovtrup in _Darwinism: Refutation of a Myth_ Lamarck really produced several theories of evolution, among them that of the fact of evolution, as opposed to theories of the mechanism. Darwin ended up taking credit for what was really Lamarck's breakthrough, in part because the times were ripe, and because of the changes in social thought by the mid-nineteenth century. The idea of evolution was born and then passed under the spectre of Jacobinism, and the period of Restoration created a long delay in the idea's acceptance. We can still see that nervous reluctance to even broach the topic in Darwin himself.
Many of the first to assess Darwin's theory saw immediately that Darwin was really proposing Lamarck's first theory and grafting natural selection onto that, and they could see a problem there at once, undoubtedly one of the factors in the onset of debate and the confusion over evolution as fact and theory that became associated with Darwin's formulation. If the record could ever be set straight, this book might help.

Corsi's book made me change the way I teach the history of evolutionary theory. I had accepted the Darwin-centric account, which says that modern theory begins with Charles Lyell and Darwin. Yes, Lamarck originated 'transmutation' of species thinking and Cuvier was an outstanding paleontologist. But Lamarckian inheritance doesn't work and Cuvier was a bitter opponent of evolution.

Thanks to Corsi's painstaking research we know that English evolutionary thought was time-lagged about a half century behind the French. The unifromitarianism vs catastrophism interpretation of earth history, which I had thought was due primarily to Lyell, was intensively debated by French geologists by 1800. The geologist Philippe Bertrand, proposed, in 1797, the marine origin of life and gradual evolution of all organic forms. Terrestrial plants and animals are descended from original marine species. Julien-Joseph Virey proposed (1816) that the term 'evolution' be used to denote the transmutation of species. 'It is thus plausible that, thanks to such evolution, nature has risen from the most tenuous mold to the majestic cedar, to the gigantic pine, just as it has advanced from microscopic animals up to man, king and dominator of all beings.' In his Histoire naturelle du genre humain (1800) he stated the principle of sexual selection, which assured the optimum adaptive state through elimination of the weaker: "Nature resembles the law of Sparta, which let weak and sickly babies die, but took extreme care of strong, muscular individuals. Thus it is that women submit more easily to the most ardent males, seek the strongest ones, prefer the most untamable." We seem to hear Darwin speaking when Virey writes: "Nature initially produced only one very simple plant and one very simple animal, which it then varied to infinity, with gradual increases in complexity, to produce the most consummate species." The geologist Louis-Constant Prévost proposed that the evolutionary descent of each organism might one day be traced from the fossil record, from "the creation of the simplest beings to that of man himself."

Corsi summarizes his findings: "In the late-eighteenth-century Parisian scientific community, there was extensive discussion on the origin of life, on the possibility of explaining vital-function characteristics in physical terms, and on interpreting the success of life forms on earth in evolutionary terms. Far from being an isolated thinker, Lamarck took part in a far-reaching, momentous debate that aroused the curiosity and concern of many of his contemporaries."

This book is a must-read for all those teaching history of science.

as a person who has read many books on Alcatraz, i can say that this is an excellent book to read, filled with many pictures. Describes all the escape attempts, and generally keeps you from putting it down to read it in one sitting..... I highly reccommend it!!!Great insites on The Birdman, Creepy, etc...some facts that other books dont reveal...

I have read about ten books on Alcatraz and this one is by far the best. The author is the son of one of the guards that was at Alcatraz. He has certainly done his homework before writing this book. He lists each attempted escape from the first to the last listing the participants and what happened during the attempt and also what eventually happened to each inmate.

This book was great!!! It contained much precise information about the Island, from beginning to end: Conquistadores to the closure of the Federal Pennitenary on March 21, 1963. It personified many individuals who lived on Alcatraz, both families and inmates. It also gave a very descriptive overview of almost every part of the prison and it's operations. The book also has much information about individual prisoners and their escape attempts. Not to mention, the book is loaded with tons of pictures. I believe this book was the greatest book ever writtten about Alcatraz Island Federal Pennitenary. I guess enough to make me want to go into the field of Corrections Administration. The book is very easy to read, along with many vivid pictures on each page that makes the entire book very impressive. Mr. Donald Hurley did an outstanding job!!!

I'll be up-front: I've known Jerry for about a decade now, as a lawyer hiring him to do "research." It was his experience as a vice cop and later as a firefighter in San Francisco that forms the basis of his bottomless pool of material. As a fan of the classics in detective novels, from Sayers to James and Poe to -- well -- Kennealy, I find his Nick Polo stories of contemporary California society as compelling, insightful and readable as Ross McDonald's Harper series. Good, quick reads with versimlitude (like that Jerry?), lots of wit and action. In fact, I'm sure I know Polo's landlady!

Fortunately for us all, Amazon.com can get all the works of Jerry Kennealy for those who are interested. He's a masterful mystery writer in the Robert Parker/Robert Crais vain and his Nick Polo character is every bit as funny as Spenser or Elvis Cole. Kennealy knows his stuff(having worked as a PI in the Bay Area for quite some time)and he knows what it takes to hold a reader. I've been fortunate enough to meet the man on a few occassions and he's been a tremendous help to me in my own attempts at mystery writing. Give this man a chance and he'll make you a believer after just a few pages. He's a real buried treasure, but hopefully he can finally get the success he really deserves.

This was my first Nick Polo book and it was really enjoyable, Polo is a Mike Hammer type character with great charm and wit. Well written, I have ordered the rest of the series thru Amazon.

If you have time to read only one book on Immigration in the Trans-Mississippi West this classic by Stewart is the one. Filled with characters and anecdotes it started me on a long and large collection of books on the Old West. Many published in small numbers have been excellent investments.

Stewart tells us a splendid story. In 1840, California was there to be settled, but how to cross the deserts and mountains to reach it? Beginning with the Bartelson Party in 1841, pioneers blazed ever-better trails that avoided deserts, followed water, and crossed the mountains, especially the forbidding peaks of the Sierras. But even though trails improved, they were still treacherous, as shown by the doomed Donner Party in 1846. We get a fascinating picture of the West, and Stewart even takes on a trip along the California Trail, from Independence, Missouri to Sacramento via Fort Laramie, Wyoming's South Pass, Nevada's Humboldt River, and over Donner Pass. If you enjoy travel or American history, you can spend many, pleasant hours with this book.

Because my family also migrated to California (albiet in 1993) I have been interested in the history of the settling of the American west. This book was wonderfully informative but also very compelling reading. It chronicles the annual human migrations from the Missouri to California, including the ill-fated Donner party (in 1845)and the famous "49ers". The author did a very good job comparing the immigrants mode of travel, unique difficulties faced during each of these migration years, route finding and heroes and villans, and the sweat and tears progress which lead to the wider opening and settlement of the west.

I would recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the history of the settlement of the west or anyone who just wants to read a good old-fashioned adventure story based in historical fact.

This is an admirable volume II, consistent with what made volume I my first choice. In this volume, there are monumental inscriptions, instructional literature (including some very amusing works on the scribal life), hymns (including the great hymn to Osiris, and the Akhenaten hymns to the Sun), selections from the 'Book of the Dead', some prose tales and a factual narrative. Introductions and notes are terrific. Ka's are left untranslated.

Ms. Lichtheim has done a wonderful job in her book, Ancient Egyptian Literature: New Kingdom! Her selections cover a wide range.She has a small introduction to each piece, besides the introductionto the book itself. Her placement of notes at the end of each selection is a godsend, no more madly turning to the back searching for the appropriate notes! An excellent choice for those interested in Egyptian history, or simply those wanting a better understanding of ancient literature. Buy it, it's worth it!

Finally, a collection of good and readable translations of Egyptian literature which both the layperson and the expert will find useful. Lichtheim has given the academic world a much needed reference with the translations of the text and a good introduction to the social history of the creators and the circumstances of the texts being recovered.

"Annie's Soup Kitchen" would make a dynamite movie!
Here's a game I invented, and played as I read the book: Choose the movie stars you would cast as members of the Soup Kitchen gang. Samuel Jackson as the General!
Can you beat that?
And here's another idea: Get the book to those movie stars. Samuel Jackson, where are you? Here's your role!

Annie, we love you! Who else but a nonagenarian Irish woman straight from the Age of the Potato Famine would undertake to nourish the bodies and souls of the multitudes, the castaways of society who populate a soup kitchen in the shadow of the Valley of the Rich (notorious Orange County, Calif.,where never is heard a discouraging word over the sound of Hummers in the morning, Hummers in the evening). Annie, you're a saint! Tubs of food, tanks of pasta, bushels of greens resurrected (like the souls you cherish) from the supermarket dumpsters (yes, vegetables have souls, too--don't we talk and play Mozart to them?).

And what a motley tribe who feed from your table of viands and inspiration. In fact, filled with your spirit, they conspire with you to subvert the establishment--an oil company, a food-packing company-- Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, you don't want to miss the scatological just desserts channeled by mysterious means into a food-packing company. (Ahem, I use the word "desserts" advisedly--don't try this at home, without professionals at hand.) Or the disbeliever brought low by the burning bush, whence speaketh divinity. Poor Betty, she'll never badmouth a person of color again. Or the General--now here's a dude with his mojo mojing. When he sniffs the air, the birds listen; his magic hands choreograph the powers that count against the powers that be; he speaks his own mojo language--those who have ears let them hear, those who have eyes, let them see. He will invoke imprecations and maledictions on the non-readers of Smith's pages: why, I had the audacity to put the book down in an unguarded moment, and the heavens thundered against me. I barely escaped His wrath by feverish catching up. Beware. These powers are best not affronted.

But sometimes even magic, the will of a Saint, and the best laid plans of cagey conspirators are not enough to cleanse the dross of the world, to transmute the lead into gold. It takes an act of divine nature--all those politicians, all those media hounds, all those wanna-be's who wanna prevail by prevarication and jumping on the bandwagons of the holy. We see it every day. Here's someone doing GOOD. Let's act like this is our bandwagon. Annie's Soup Kitchen, like all mythic books, is REAL. You'll know it when you see it. Everything in it happened, just like you saw it on the evening news, only without the fictionalizing. The rains fell, the dams broke, the unwashed masses were washed in a universal baptism, and the world tried to reconstitute itself under the new order. Only Grady, like Ishmael, is left to tell the tale.

So, read this book: fall under its spell, or try in vain to escape the conjurings of the General: he knows who buys, and he knows who only window-shops. He's tapped in. The lookers-in-windows live in glass houses. Fortunately, they're only a stone's throw from the Truth and a good meal.

Once in a while-not often-a writer comes along with a voice and a story so good-humored, hopeful and compelling that the reader's world-view is changed for the better. Lawrence R. Smith is one of those writers, and "Annie's Soup Kitchen" is one of those stories. It might fall roughly into the category of magic realism, but it's more accurate to say this book is just plain magic.

The cast of well-drawn, unforgettable "marginal" characters starts with Annie O'Rourke herself, a ninety-five-year-old nurse who runs a soup kitchen from an abandoned lot by the railroad tracks, and includes hard-nosed Betty, who undergoes a startling conversion after talking to a burning palm tree out back (who says miracles can't still happen?); the General, a powerful black man who delivers mystifying monologues while wearing knee-high rubber boots filled with soapy water; John DeLorean-is it that John DeLorean?; and a host of other mostly good-natured eccentrics. In response to a frightening "shadow plague," they form the monkeywrenching Magnificent Seven in an attempt to stop the disease at its environmental source. Though antagonistic, the authorities are impotent against the power and good-will of these quirky and magical souls.

Especially in these dark and discouraging times, "Annie's Soup Kitchen" is a wonder and a joy.

There are many biographies of Chekhov, including the new one by Rayfield, but this edition of the letters is the best source of the writer's life and thought. Long out of print, it was wise of Northwestern University Press to re-issue this book. The other editions of the letters, by Hellman and another by Yarmolinsky, cannot compare.
This volume is valuable for its superb, lengthy introduction, which is a capsule biography. In addition, each of the fifteen sections are introduced by an engaging biographical headnote.
The letters themselves are the record of an extraordinary person, a man who instructed other writers to succeed in their work by feeling "compassion down to their fingertips."
This book shows the emotions and thoughts of the writer who lived that simple but wise piece of advice.
Among the more amusing letters is the one to his wastrel brother, in March 1886, in which he wittily enumerates the qualities of well-bred people. Among them: "They don't guzzle vodka on any old occasion, nor do they go around sniffing cupboards....They shun all ostentation: empty barrels make the most noise."
This volume is full of such humorous but sage advice, and reveals the man behind the extraordinary short stories and plays better than any biography.
You will remember some of the letters in this book throughout your lifetime.

This is a fascinating book, for fans of both great literature and great biography. There have been many collections of Chekhov's letters, but this one points out the errors in those previous ones (such as the one edited by Lillian Hellman) and corrects them. It focuses primarily on the letters in which Chekhov talked about his literature and the productions of his plays, and on his relationships with other artists, such as Tolstoy, Gorky, Stanislavsky and many others less well known outside of Russia. It also corrects many misperceptions about Chekhov created the various memoirs (such as Stanislavsky's) and biographies based on the erroneous information in those memoirs.

The Chekhov that the reader gets to know through this book is a vividly real human being.

A fabulous book!! No one could ask for a better read, late at night, with the blankets tucked around one, and a hot buttered rum at one's side!!

Chekhov was a man!!

If you'd like to take any of several self-guided automobile tours of Los Angeles and nearby areas, Laura Massino Smith's books are excellent. Each tour book has clear directions and easy-to-read maps, lots of fascinating notes and information, plus photos of what to look for. I've lived in LA for over twenty-five years, and Smith's books have surprised me with things I'd never seen or hadn't noticed. There are three of her books in my glove compartment so far (Hollywood, Silverlake, and Hancock Park/Miracle Mile) and I'll be getting the rest as well.

These are great guides to view all the architectural gems in my neighborhood and surrounding areas. Highly recommended for locals or people who visit Los Angeles often. You wouldn't think there are so many historical houses and buildings to see in this town, but Laura Massino Smith has compiled them into these handy books with great photos as well.

I loved Laura's architectural tour of Hollywood. Her directions are clear. She includes lots of interesting places that are both on and off the beaten path. The pictures enable the reader to easily identify the buildings she features. And, she includes helpful descriptions of the architecture and interesting facts about the buildings' history. Great tool for travellers intersted in architecture.