Parties Books

This charming short story is the "stenographic report" of a banquet speech for a small-town doctor in honor of his forty years of service to the community. In this informal address his best friend tells the story of the doctor's life.
The text is amazingly true to life, it is as it were "the mother of all improvised banquet speeches" given on such occasions.
Unlike his "Great Short Stories", this thin book has depth and warmth. Here, O'Hara is not the slightly cynical, detached observer of human behaviour, possibly because he was the son of a doctor himself.
To quote the recommendation of the Boston Herald on the back cover: "Warm, human story that will make you feel better after you have read it."

Fan Fare: A Playbook of Great Recipes for Tailgating or Watching the Game At Home will appeal to any household where a game player is in residence, and any general public library lending collection catering to them. It packs in easy dishes ranging from nuts and mini-muffins to main courses quick and easy to eat in front of the TV set. While there are no color photos - just illustrations - the easy dishes don't need 'em, with such fare as Teriyaki Tip-Off Wings and Norma's Cool Veggie Pizza providing many excellent options.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

There seems to be a divide concerning the essential nature of agrarian reform and Populism of the late 1800s that is best represented by the work of Richard Hofstadter and Lawrence Goodwyn. For Hofstadter, populists suffered from irrational status anxiety in a changing world; Populism was unjustified extremism. For Goodwyn, the agrarian movement was entirely rational having identified several financial structures and practices as leading to unfair outcomes for farmers.

Barnes is definitely in the Goodwyn camp. But whereas Goodwyn attempted a wholesale coverage of Populism, Barnes confines herself mostly to the Texas Alliance and the Populist Party in Texas. The closer examination of the cooperative methods used by the Alliance is a useful extension of Goodwyn's work.

The author, like Goodwyn, is concerned with the basis and nature of protest movements. Protest movements are examined under the categories of a structural strain perspective and a mobilization perspective. The first perspective is associated with the Hofstadter school. The author is especially concerned with debunking the idea that protest mobilizations that have any longstanding impact somehow "just happen" without formal organization.

The book is a very analytical assessment of mobilization theory using the agrarian movement and Populism as the laboratory. It provides key refinements and correctives of earlier work. It is highly recommended for understanding the phenomenon of Populism.

Routledge's 2004 "Critical Concepts of Political Science" series' anthology "Fascism" consisting of five massive volumes may well constitute the most significant work on comparative fascism published to date. The breadth and depth with which most of the empirical issues, theoretical approaches, and conceptual-terminological problems constituting the substance of fascist studies are covered on these pages means that it is the work that one would, probably, first recommend to somebody interested to get a comprehensive overview of the field. It is not only the high amount of case studies, theoretical approaches and individual viewpoints introduced here, but also their careful selection and competent introduction that makes this project particularly valuable. Roger Griffin tries here, with the assistance of Matthew Feldman, to cover the whole spectrum of research into the varieties of pre-, inter- and post-war fascism with several authors included who either go far beyond, or are in open contradiction to, Griffin's own interpretation of generic fascism.
The anthology consists of 100 papers, articles, essays, documents and excerpts which, as Griffin makes clear in the introduction, are "not a selection of classic, let alone canonical texts." Instead, they were "selected because of their effectiveness in illustrating one of the many pieces of mosaic that make up `fascism' as a vast field of scholarly inquiry" (Volume I, "General Introduction", pp. 1-16, here p. 3). Their breadth can be seen as an adequate response to the central challenge of comparative fascist studies indicated by James Barnes, an English proponent of "universal fascism," already in 1928: "Fascists in each country must make Fascism their own national movement, adopting symbols and tactics which conform to the traditions, psychology and tastes of their own land" (as quoted in the "Introduction" to Volume IV, pp. 1- 11, here p. 1).
The collection is thus destined to serve specialists as a reliable compendium on the particulars of certain permutations, manifestations, conceptualizations and explanations of fascism, as well as teachers as the most suitable basis for advanced courses on fascism. The range of issues dealt with in this anthology is so wide as to make their adequate discussion even within a longer review article impossible. I will just mention a few selected issues that are particularly interesting and illustrate rather than cover the anthology's substance. For instance, concerning the range of fascism as a generic concept, Griffin had earlier attacked Walter Laqueur for including into his broad survey of classic and neo-fascism not only varieties of ultra-nationalism that use religion as a marker of nationality, but also certain religious fundamentalist movements. Here the issue at hand is further illustrated when Griffin classifies as fascist the South African "Afrikaner Ossewabrandwag" which, while not being a variety of religious fundamentalism, still developed a "fundamentalist version of Dutch Reformist Christianity as an indicator of national identity and a basis of spiritual values, giving it a distant affinity with the Finnish Lapua movement, Spanish Falange and the Romanian Iron Guard." (Volume IV, "Introduction", pp. 1- 11, here p. 8).
With regard to the rejection of the fascist label by many putatively fascist post-war groupings, it is worth remembering that already the Falange "denied its fascist credentials so as not to be perceived as `foreign' and hence un-Spanish." (Volume IV, "Introduction", pp. 1- 11, here p. 11) That even such proto-fascist high-brow post-war intellectual movements as the nouvelle droite cannot be dismissed as marginal phenomena is illustrated by the "considerable role in establishing a relatively stable nationwide basis of support [for the Front national] played by the contribution of the New Right intellectuals via the think-tank GRECE and its associated publications. They have provided the [Front national] with a sophisticated, democratically `respectable' racist and nationalist Third Way discourse based on ideas of identity, roots and difference sufficiently distinct from that of `classic' fascism to give the organization admittance into the party system." (Volume V, "Introduction", pp. 1- 10, here p. 4) In general, a focus merely on the successes and failures of ultra-nationalists in elections is insufficient in the analysis of contemporary politics in as far as a new non-party international network, "the groupuscular right [...] has become the dominant manifestation of fascism in the twenty-first century, making assessments of [the] strength [of neo-fascism] based purely on observations of high profile political parties deeply unreliable." (Volume V, "Introduction", pp. 1- 10, here p. 9)

A friend gave me a copy of this book, and it's one of the best gifts I've ever gotten. It's divided by holiday, and the introduction to each holiday also includes some basic advice on organizing the meal, cooking ahead to make things easier that day, prayers to remember, other observances to keep in mind. Then there are the recipes, which are uniformly terrific; unlike some of Joan Nathan's books, they're also well-tested. There's not a single recipe in this book that will fail you. I have cooked dishes from this book for the first time and served them for company, and no one was the wiser. By the way, most of these recipes are just as great for year-round use as for the holidays. But her hamantaschen are foolproof, and her Pesadic section is really good. Thank you, Marlene Sorosky, for a wonderful book!

Paul Tournier has written a book designed to enrich the life of every adult. In "Learn To Grow Old," he shares the wisdom of the art of preparing for old age, a phenomemon that most of us will experience, but for which few of us will be ready. As his book reveals, preparing for old age will actually make our young adulthood as well as our mature years more rewarding as a result. Using leisure time most effectively is a learned behavior, as is enjoying the good of what life offers. Most of us pass rapidly by the joys of life in our rush to one appointment or another, one task, one volunteer session, one social event, and the like. Tournier reminds us concretely and thoroughly that the time to live life to the fullest is in the present, in anticipation of a richer future.

World-reknowned as a psychologist and author, Tournier's authority comes in part from his background in psychology, practice in medicine, knowledge of humanity, and religion. His is sound advice and he has unforgettable wisdom to share.

Under the guise of "homeland security" the US government has made unprecedented legal attacks on the civil liberties and civil rights of the people of this country. From immgrants to librarians, from union activists to anyone who talks on the telephone, covert and overt attacks on the civil rights of Americans continue to grow. Their target is not "terrorists" but against the threat of working class resistance to the growing attacks on living conditions. They are afraid the entire working class will follow the example immigrants are setting by coming into direct action against them, rather than depending on the Republicans and Democrats who are in the pockets of the rich.

This book documents the historic victory the Socialist Workers Party won in its suit against the US government's illegal Cointelpro attacks on the SWP and on the trade union, Black liberation, women's right, and antiVietnam war movements the SWP was a part of. Read these documents, and you will see that the FBI and the other federal agencies have no concern for "law and order," or "terrorism." Their real concern is to do whatever they can get away with inside and outside the law to disrupt struggles in the interests of working people.

Read this book so you will know not only of these crimes of the FBI and the government in the past, but so you will know how to fight them now and in the future.

Professor Saez has written a valuable addition to the political economy literature. Despite being written in the early 2000s, it has relevance in the mid-2000s as India's new generation of economic reforms yield the fruit of robust GDP growth.

The analysis of FDI and foreign portfolio investment is is a first, and should be useful to both political scientists and students of India's economy.

The comparison of reforms with those in China is particularly valuable, as both of these emerging economic giants are presently transforming many sectors of the world ecomomy, from high-tech manufacturing to high-end services outsourcing.

For students of economics and political science, this book demonstrates the connections between the two fields - in practice. For business and finance students, this book provides a solid grounding in some of the roots of India's dynamic economic growth today.

I have been using this wonderful book for years for folding holiday origami. It contains a fabulous Halloween section: a very effective "Witch on a Broomstick" (I recommend one square of duo paper, black and orange), a great "Ghost," and (my favorite) a "Man-in-the-Moon" model, plus others. Very nice Christmas decorations from an angelic "Angel" to a intricate and very beautiful "Bauble." The book is worth it just for these 2 holidays. However, it contains more. A section for general party fun, a napkin fold, an outstanding flower arrangement and try the "Toot-Flute," definitely a winner, plus more. A section on Easter related models, from an "Easter Bunny" to a fold to keep your hard boiled egg warm. A section on gift boxes and a gift envelope. . All models are rated from 1 star "elementary" to 4 stars "fairly difficult."

Thank you Dana for your review. I would be curious what recipes you thought had "murky wording" as I always try to be very clear. And, regarding your stating that extra, extra virgin olive oil is not correct, I beg to disagree. In my work with several olive oil producers--the country of Greece and with Spanish olive oil, the notation of more than one extra indicates increasingly higher quality. Over all, it was great seeing you had noted the book, Dana. Best, Jane Butel