Indiana Books

This was a wonderful find. The watercolor and pencil illustrations are beautifully drawn and executed, with especially good depictions of children and animals. Lots of details and interesting information. Kids and adults alike will truly learn from and enjoy this book. Would make a great gift for former Hoosiers now far away.

Gathering together some of the most keen work in the emerging field of Vodou studies, Bellegarde-Smith and Michel edit a masterful work in which one, without experiencing the culture directly are capable of enculterating their mind to the point of indirect experience. Dis-mantling unwarranted and out-dated taboos and meta-narratives about the subject, this work is intelectually riveting and takes into account modern religious scholarship in order to dispel the stigma ans otherness of Haitian Vodou.

I highly recommend this text.

I'm a Major in Music Education and for me it was a great resource. Here in Mexico we don't have choral programs like in the United States and it was very interesting to read all the experiences from the author. Great tips and very important advices. I recommend it for those who want to improve into the Choral Education

I got hold of a copy of this book sometime in the late 80s or early 90s, right after starting to play for ballet classes (and failing to retain my first job because I was overwhelmed by all the fancy French words...what's a "tahndew"?). There are different kinds of ballet accompanists: one split is between "improvise it on the spot off the top of your head" types and "play a piece of music you already know that fits the exercise, even if you have to dig in your sheet music pile for it" types. I am mostly the latter, famous for going around with lots of music books and flipping through them to find what I want. This book helps people who can play classical music to around the level of Schumann's Papillons and Joplin's rags to put together music that will get you through a typical ballet class. Boy do I wish to this day that I had read this book before starting that first ballet job...

After a few months' experience playing for classes, the "music book" types need to learn to improvise for the occasion when no music they know will fit the particular exercise; and the "improvisers" need to expand their habits to include set written music composed by someone other than themselves lest the music they improvise for class always sound the same. Both endeavors are facilitated by the information contained in this book.

This book will help you with learning the names of steps, what kind of music is good for which steps, the sequential order of a typical ballet class, basic ballet class etiquette, and how to arrange music to render it suitable for class exercises. It's a great start for any ballet accompanist, and probably good for many experienced ones as well (I can think of a few I've heard who should read it!...).

(I was also intrigued to see that this author, who by the way writes quite well, has written other books, but no information is available about their content on Amazon as of the date I am posting this. They all look disticntly non-ballet related, though.)

Powers-that-be: put this book back in print!

This is a great book for adults as well as kids.
I learned much about Indiana and had fun with locating towns on the maps. I hope there is a second book!

Lt. Powder is in charge of the Missing Persons Bureau in this one. Dedicated, abrasive, insulting (Walter Matthau-like character) has met his match in this story. He tells wheelchair-bound Sergeant Carollee Fleetwood, wounded in the line of duty, to whom the department has given the choice of retirement or working with Powder, "You look tired. Why don't you take a load off your feet?"

Carollee gives as good as she gets and the story is about their developing relationship and around the solving of half a dozen cases.

I AM FORTUNATE TO KNOW DR. RENSCH PERSONALLY AND I CONSIDER OUR FRIENDSHIP AN HONOR.
I KNOW THAT YOU WILL ENJOY LEARNING MORE ABOUT THIS AUTHOR WHO IS ALSO A DEDICATED AND GIFTED PERFORMER OF THE HARP.
HARPS AND HARPISTS, REVISED IS A WONDERFUL COLLECTION OF INFORMATION, PICTURES, HISTORY AND ALL THINGS HARP.
HARPS AND HARPISTS HAS BEEN THE LIFE STUDY AND JOY OF ROSLYN RENSCH.
WE CAN ACQUIRE THIS KNOWLEDGE AND INSIGHT INTO THE WORLD AND HISTORY OF THE HARP. WE CAN LEARN FROM DR. RENSCH'S 80 PLUS YEARS AS A LADY DEDICATED TO THE HARP.
BY PURCHASING THIS BOOK, YOU WILL BE IMMERSED IN THE WORLD OF THE HARP AND THE BEAUTY OF THAT INSTRUMENT.
A VERY NICE PLACE TO BE.
THE HARP IS UNIVERSAL, HISTORICAL AND WILL CONTINUE TO THRIVE.
AS ROSLYN SAYS...PLAY ON.
ENJOY.

We enjoyed this book it has a story in about the school we went to. Quite interesting.

Healing The Heart, Healing The 'Hood is author Olgen Williams' powerfully presented personal biography. This is the story of the transformation of a bitter, drug-using Vietnam veteran into a nationally acclaimed neighborhood activist. In December of 2002, for his crime of having stolen less than eleven dollars while serving as a postal worker in 1971, he received one of the seven pardons granted by George W. Bush. Today, he serves as Director of Christamore House, a community center in the settlement house tradition, where he pioneers programs ranging from carpentry to theater, community policing, and parenting to serve the needs of the inner city neighborhood. A vivid portrayal of a life marked by drastic adversity and a dramatic turnaround.

Professor Jackson has embarked on a consciously obscure symbolism. Before reading this book, fractals conjured in my mind those trippy psychedelic posters. Then there is a reason fractals are a trippy subject, and the implications are beyond pop culture and pure geometry. Fractals are an epitome of chaos-complexity theory; they are representative of the universes nature. This book demonstrates that humans have innately picked up on the deep sense of order within the universe `chaos-complexity theory'. The universe is highly structured, even when seemingly chaotic there is a very fine intricacy of structure and in the fractal that is repetitive, infinite.

I do have to say that this book can be a bit tricky to read (or rather approach); one must approach it as being less a description, and more of a philosophical and religious dissertation. I mean this to say; that the nature of the Fractal is in this book used - to launch a greater discussion, of the infinite and complexity they represent. Rather this book is about the greater mystery of the universe and an examination of the sacred geometry of fractals. William Jackson takes us across cultures to explore the mysteries of the infinite, the divine consciousness, and how the fractal has played a universal cross cultural symbolism to the mysteries. Otherwise know that fractals are a sort of symbolism and this book is very representative of that nature.

I can say, that it makes one think twice about those tripy pop culture posters, as there exist the possibility that they devour you into revelation.


K.D. Goodman