Radio Books

One of my all-time favorite books is Crazy Wisdom, Nisker's previous work. I was doubtful he could surpass himself, but was pleasantly surprised. If You Don't Like the News... Go Out and Make Some of Your Own is an extremely funny and insightful documentary book covering spiritual contributions (and wishful thinking) from the counterculture to the current New Age. Written from personal experience, Nisker takes us on an intimate journey on the search for spiritual highs and cosmic laughter. Anyone with an interest in meditation, Eastern philosophy, the 60's, New Age ideas, or who enjoys laughing out loud will be grateful to take the plunge into Nisker's hilarious world of wisdom.

The Opera Journeys Mini Guide Series is just wonderful; it's like a "Cliff Note" of the opera, and extremely informative and educational. I particularly like the size; these guides are not cumbersome and fit right into my shirt pocket. The ladies will find sufficient room in their pocketbooks.

The story narrative with the music examples is excellent. I prefer it to a libretto; indeed, it's a much easier way to follow the essence of the story. The essay is magnificent; very well written, not pedantic, and extremely insightful and comprehensible. I congratulate Burton Fisher for a job very well done and Amazon for making these handy, information-laden booklets available. The Opera Journeys Mini Guide Series is a wonderful contribution to opera education and opera appreciation.

My tip: acquire the entire collection because you will be in easy reach of superbly presented opera guides consisting of story analysis, principal characters in the opera, story narrative with music highlights, background, analysis, and commentary.

Heinz Dinter, Ph.D.

For many decades, cultural imperialism paradigm has been used to explain the effects of international television on local viewers. Through this book Michael G. Elasmar along with other leading scholars challenge the use of cultural imperialism paradigm for explaining the effects of international television on domestic audiences through conducting a meta-analysis approach for both published and unpublished manuscripts that were introduced during the period of 1960 till January 1995.
More importantly, at this book, Elasmar introduces a new model that is called `Susceptibility to Imported Media' (SIM), which media researchers should put into consideration while studying the impact of cross boarder television.
Through the SIM model, Elasmar argues that prior information represented in knowledge, beliefs and attitudes about out groups; the perceived utility; and the involvement in content, are all pre existing schema that will determine how the T.V. content will be comprehended, retained and then recalled. Consequently, prior information will determine the type of effect that exposure to imported T.V. content will produce.
Furthermore, Elasmar introduced the idea of labeling the process of T.V. influence on viewers, which he called the Media-Accelerated Culture Diffusion (MACD). The core idea behind this label is based on his belief that cultures influence other cultures without the conspiracy claim behind the cultural imperialism paradigm. He stressed the idea of culture diffusion due to the existence of "a continuity of indirect causation from culture event to culture event through the medium of human intermediaries" (Page 173). Elasmar concluded his book by proposing an expanded research agenda for future studies.
The originality of this book is that it offers a new alternative paradigm and labeling for the explanation of the effects of international T.V. programs. This book will be of real benefit for scholars interested in the fields of cross-cultural communication, media effects studies and international communications. It is considered of paramount importance to media researchers, since it opens new scopes for future researchers to further the understanding of the roles of audio visual media in diffusing cultures.

In March of 1982, barely nine months after his 50th wedding anniversary, Rev. Lehman Strauss received the crushing news that his wife had been stricken by a massive stroke. While spending days, weeks and even months at his suffering wife's side, Rev. Strauss learned that some trials in life go on very slowly indeed, and as we sometimes find ourselves in a doctor's waiting room, we also sometimes find ourselves in God's waiting room. "Wait on the Lord: be of good courage, and He shall strengthen thine heart: Wait, I say, on the Lord." (Psalm 27:14)

In this overwhelming book, written while Rev. Strauss and his wife were going through their time of testing, the author takes his vast knowledge of scripture, and organizes it into nine chapters of courage and comfort for those who are also waiting on the lord. As a husband who also has to wait beside a suffering wife, I have found this book to be a great source of courage and comfort. I highly recommend this book to anyone facing a trial in their life, one that requires not action, but quiescence.

For anyone who loved the Radio 4 series this book provides full transcripts of the interviews pschiatrist Dr. Anthony Clare undertook with a host of famous names. This, the first edition, features interviews with successful men and women in and out of the public limelight. Spectacularly interesting and probing questions reveal some of the behavioural traits behind some acutely ambitious people. Notable are the insights we get into the thinking of Sir Jimmy Saville who reveals his dislike of kids and ponderings with Prince Charles on the issue of power. Also included the now infamous interview with Ken Dodd whose reluctance to share his innerself with Clare and the listeners is both hilarious and revealing. With over ten interviews here what is especially noticeable here is the diversity of Clare's technique. Back to back each interview is prefaced by a post-interview comment and analysis. A very entertaining read for anyone interested in what makes successful people tick.

Drawn from an extensive oral history project, this work features twenty-seven oral histories of Hoosier broadcasters involved in a variety of broadcast occupations around Indiana from 1926 to the present. Topics explored are individual stations and the people who worked there, the evolution of technology and government regulation, the ethics of broadcasters, the impact of broadcasting on the public, and the future of the broadcast profession.

I found this book informative, entertaining and well researched. As an Indiana broacaster, the book gave me additional insight into our state's broadcast history and the individuals who helped pave the way for others to follow.

I grew up listening to Adventures in Odyssey and could barely wait for the next album to come out. When this one came out, I was highly disappointed. They changed the story format to include shorter stories and they are just not up to the standard I have come to expect from AIO. This album has one good CD on it (out of four) - Mandy's Debut and Passages (Part 1&2) are actually decent, but the rest of the album is not so good.

This is a series of cassettes from Focus on the Family. I have not actually heard any of these but judging from the previous cassettes I have heard this one is sure to be a hit. The values and morals in the stories are right on target for christians and non christians and you will not have to worry leaving your child alone with them.

Author is British journalist James Cameron (the man who heard the famous words of a Gandhi staffer, to the effect that it costs a fortune to keep Gandhiji in his simple lifestyle).

This short but meaty book is a loving portrait of a marvelous country. Cameron uses the incident of a horrific car accident he suffered in Bangladesh to tie together his own sense of mortality and India's great endurance.

Pace can be a little rough at times, but that is the only detraction from this beautiful, appreciative look at India and its foibles, humanity, grace, sufferings. His treatment of conversations (with little hints of well-observed Indglish) are a joy to read. Many tender and thoughtful passages about mankind, but it's really a very personal memoir of Cameron's ongoing yet troubled love affair with a nation.

Indispensible part of any India-phile's library, great pre-departure (or take-along) reading for anyone going there.

Inner Sanctum is probably most famous for the sound of the creaking door during the opening of each episode. Horror stories were recreated by great actors along with a spooky organ and chilling sound effects. The combination of the genuinely great horror dramas, Raymond the wise-cracking host, and the "Stepford Wife" Lipton tea lady was a strange and memorable combination. (Raymond's sense of humor is very similar to the Crypt Keeper from the TV series "Tales From the Crypt".)

- The Man From Yesterday 12/21/41
- Terrible Vengeance 6/14/42
- The Black Sea Gull 3/7/43
- The Melody of Death 4/22/44
- The Silent Hands 5/13/44
- The Color Blind Formula 12/6/44
- The Last Story 9/11/45
- The Creeping Wall 1/8/46
- Lady With a Plan 4/9/46
- I Want To Report a Murder 6/18/46
- The Dead Laugh 9/23/46
- The Ghost in the Garden 2/10/47
- Till Death Do Us Part 10/27/47
- Death Out of Mind 12/29/47
- Murder Takes a Honeymoon 7/26/48
- Murder by Prophecy 9/27/48
- Death of a Doll 10/18/48
- Fearful Voyage 1/3/49

This is a fantasic story of survival, love and a nation changed by war. Steinman takes the reader inside the war, and, even more; inside a culture. With an intimate look at the Vietnamese people, the author touches on emotions and aspects of life in the war-torn country that have been overlooked by so many other works written about this hard time in world history. This is not so much a story about the war, as it is about the people and how the war and the coverage of that war changed everything; for Vietnam and the world. I highly recommend this book.