By Subject Books

Photography has always been an outlet to certain visionaries in our society. Giving them a way to express to others the way they interpret somewhat ordinary and sometimes not so ordinary sights. This collection of images inspires all those who look at them. And then combining these with words of inspiratin and thought provoking prose makes it a treat to the soul as well as the eyes.

This book is one of the most helpful sources to understanding and looking at Henry Moore's world, work and learning his regard for the objects of reality he transformed into his sculptures. It is truly amazing and it is the actual sketchbook of his very own sheep. It is a wonderful book.

This is the first of a massive three volume history of Beginning Reading Instruction in America. It corrects a number of mistakes that even phonics advocate make concerning the history of reading in America. The look-and-say method, here called the "meaning" method, has been with us a lot longer than most people think, beginning around 1826. The Reading

Wars have thus been with us a long time, and only got worse when early American Psychologists got into the act with the Dick and Jane method that handicapped millions of ususpecting Americans, and was made even worse when modern self-styled Whole-Language Psycholinguists perpetuated their predecessors' errors.

I personally witnessed the unfortuante incursion of the "meaning" method, under the guise of the whole-language philosopohy/psychology, during my career in public education. Unheaded history repeates itself.

Miss Rodgers' research is both massive and meticulous. Modern researachers should hesitate to make any pronouncements on the history of reading in America before consulting her history.

Be sure and read her other books: Why Jacques, Johann and Jan CAN Read The Case for the Prosecution, in the Trial of Silent Reading Comprehension Tests, Charged with the Destruction of America's Schools The Hidden Story: How America's Present-Day Reading Disabilities Grew Out of the Underhanded Meddling of America's First Experimental Ps

Don Potter
Spanish Teacher and Reading Specalist
Odessa, TX

Years of painstaking and meticulous research went into Geraldine Rodgers' accurate and insightful History of Beginning Reading. To study the history of beginning reading and miss this book is like missing St. Peter's on a visit to Rome. This is a standard work, deserving The Place of Pride in every educational library.

This is a comprehensive study of what the author asserts is an unacknowledged genre - the alcoholism movie. Norman K. Denzin is best known for his writings in addiction studies, including `The Alcoholic Self' [1987], and `The Alcoholic Society: The Alcoholic Self and Its Recovery' [1993]. Where this book differs from his other work is in its synthesis of methodologies -from cultural studies, historical sociology, psychoanalytic film theory - in addition to social psychology. It places the notion of `subjectivity' centre stage in arguing that cinematic representations offer multiple possibilities of identification and dis-identification to the viewer. This is a model that allows interactivity:- it is both reflective and generative of everyday social being and social consciousness. In this way, Denzin puts Raymond Williams' `structures of feeling' to good use.

The Hollywood alcoholism films analyzed span the period 1932-1990. Its start is not arbitrarily chosen as it marks both the death throes of Prohibition and the ascendance of Hays Code production constraints on Hollywood depictions. This typifies, as Denzin sees it, deep-rooted ambivalence and contradictions in American attitudes to alcohol. From the repeal of Prohibition through to the 1960s, the `Lost Generation' of alcoholic writers-turned-Hollywood-screenwriters influenced cinema representations. The leitmotif of hard drinking in their literary works has been written about extensively(see `The White Logic: Alcoholism and Gender in American Modernist Fiction' John W Crowley 1994), yet contemporaneous film fictions are less well addressed. Denzin's `Shot by Shot' redresses the balance by meticulous scrutiny of movies as film texts per se. Through solid scholarship and thorough research, he maps the trajectory of the genre from anti-alcohol through AA influenced illness concept to contemporary dysfunctional family theory.

The section on the `double standards' in representations of female screen alcoholics is astutely handled, as is the Lacanian based section `The Cracked Mirror and the Alcoholic Self'. The most compelling argument Denzin has however lies in the insistence on the legitimacy of an `alcoholism genre' in cinema. The common strategy of attributing cinema texts to genres other than alcoholism ( e.g. `Harvey' and `Arthur' as light comedy, `Lady Sings the Blues' as biopic) operates as a form of denial, and parallels the lived experience of alcoholics and their families. Indeed Denzin cites the use of Hollywood alcoholism films in re-hab treatment centres - used to facilitate the individual's rupture of denial, and their own self-attribution as alcoholic. If anything, Denzin could have developed this a little further through differentiation in both lived experiences and representations of ruptured denial - the slow dawning of identification as well as the epiphanic moment of realization.

Denzin's examples are well chosen and justified: redemption narratives, popular fictions and film biography. One wonders what Denzin would make of some of the cinema releases since the book's publication. Redemption and recovery certainly do not figure in such films as `Leaving Las Vegas' (1995) or the explosively powerful British film `Nil by Mouth' (1997). . Non-American cinema is sadly outside the scope of Denzin's book - and one of the best British interdisciplinary books, `Images of Alcoholism' (British Film Institute 1979) is now out-of-print. The shift of focus from the cultural studies mainstays of age/race/class/gender to wider representations of `attribute' will no doubt ensure that others will follow Denzin's lead in re-evaluating the alcoholism film genre.

This is easily one of the best books I've read that gives very practical tips and techniques with beautiful results.

I came across this book while I was at the bookstore this past weekend and I was really impressed with it. What I really like about Hodge's technique is that she does not rely on the grid method to complete a drawing. In each of her drawings she starts off with simple shapes and then demonstrates step by step how to get a finished realistic portrait. The title says this is a book for beginners, but some of the techniques and mediums that Hodge presents (ie: ink, colored pencil, charcoal; stippling, cross hatching, etc.) are too advanced for someone who is just starting to draw. Lee Hammond's "Draw Real People!" is more appropriate for beginners who need a basic understanding about shading and facial proportions (through the grid method). Hodge's book is more suitable for an intermediate who is ready to draw free style, experiment with different mediums, and find his/her own drawing style.

Don Skinner's new memoir of growing up in northwest Pennsylvania in the 1930s and '40s is is a must-have for folks with a small-town upbringing, those with a passing interest in community life of half a century ago, or anyone looking for a lovely, comforting, satisfying book. This chronicle is often laugh-out-loud funny, sometimes throat-catchingly poignant, and always vividly and expertly presented.

The most striking aspect this book is Skinner's incredible imagery: whether he is describing an unanticipated trip down Main Street attached by his snowsuit to the bumper of a Model T Ford, or an impoverished African-American man plucking lumps of coal from the floodwaters of a creek, or a squabble with his sister and brothers to claim the cream at the top of the morning milk-bottle, the reader is instantly and charmingly transported into young Don's world.

While the greater part of the book describes a gentle community and a child's life in a loving, close-knit family, Skinner doesn't shy away from tackling more troubling issues, both personal and societal: his father's untimely death when Skinner was only seven; the failure of the local educational system to recognize and address his learning disability; the years of World War II, when an unbearable number of the town's sons and daughters left and never returned; the tacit subculture of racism; the simmering anti-Catholic bias of some of the community's Protestants. This is by no means a view through rose-colored spectacles, but Skinner treats his subject with wisdom, sagacity, and affection. A very enjoyable read.

I never thought I would find a source for detailed IL stats from the teens and twenties--not even the IL itself was able to help me. But here they all are! The stats are laid out similarly to the Neft/Cohen/Neft "Sports Encyclopedia: Baseball" book, in an easy-to-read, team-by-team fashion. If you are interested in baseball history, and need old IL stats, this is the ticket!

King Solomon's Garden, an anthology of poetry and art inspired by the Old Testament would be a welcome addition to any family library.

Arranged in scriptural chronology, beginning with the Book of Genesis, passages are enhanced by the writings of such poets as Emily Dickinson, Edgar Allen Poe, Rudyard Kipling, Lord Byron and Marianne Moore.

The 65 writings are accompanied by works of art in various media, oils, textiles, engravings, illuminated manuscripts and photographs. Artists represented offer a diversity of gifts. Among these artists are Michelangelo, George Stubbs, Pieter Bruegel, and Ben Shahn.

This combination of scripture, poetry, and art serves to enrich the biblical meanings, lending greater insight and depth. Fairfield Porter's 1974 full length portrait of an older woman leaning against a doorway gives life to the story of Sarah, while George Stubbs' genius in depicting anatomical detail embellishes Edwin Muir's words in "The Animals." Who could better illustrate Balaam and his ass than the immortal Goya, and might Monet's brilliant flower bedecked plot at Giverny resemble the Garden of Eden?

- Gail Cooke