Andre Books

A excellent insight into the birth of the European car industry and the
foresight of an Industrialist who was lightyears ahead in his ability
to foresee the requirments of the 20th century in providing transport to
meet the changing world and dare to be different in his approach! I recommend this book to anyone who doubts their insight.

"Just as the word Camembert conveys the pungent character of French cheeses, and Gitanes the powerful aroma of French tobacco, so the word Citroën has come to symbolize the distinctive flavor of French Cars." So began John Reynolds initial biography of André Citroën, "The Henry Ford of France", published in 1996, (reviewed in CQ Vol 15 #1). Mr. Reynolds pursuit of knowledge in all things Citroën did not end there and with this latest work he has gone that extra step to improve on his earlier work. He has been aided in this endeavor by his publisher and has also had assistance from the Citroën family.
The format and layout of a book is of great importance and in this instance the large format, glossy pages and wealth of photographs have greatly improved on the earlier work, which resembled a text book. The content and substance of the work has also been improved throughout the book and especially with the expansion of the chapter "Citroën without Citroën" dealing with the success that came to the Traction and to Citroën Automobiles almost immediately after the Michelin takeover. The addition of a Postscript, which received the assistance of the Citroën family and a Foreword by Philippe Citroën give this biography the imprimatur of the Citroën family and adds insight into their lives after the death of André.
André Citroën is an excellent English language biography and a must read for Citroënistes and automotive enthusiasts.
Citroen Quarterly
[...]

Andre Kertesz was unsurpassed as a composer of photographic images. His focus was to create "not the epic but the lyric truth." This outstanding book gives you a full biographical and pictoral treatment of his vision for photography.

If you are offended by all nudity, you should know that this volume contains both male and female nudity. These images are all very tastefully and beautifully done in the best artistic expression of capturing the essence of humanity.

Kertesz was born as Andor ("Bandi") Kertesz in Budapest in 1894. He was born into a Jewish middle class family. This pleasant environment was upset when his father died of tuberculosis when Bandi was 14. His uncle looked after Kertesz's career interests after that, and steered him into working at the stock exchange, a job Kertesz hated. Kertesz served in World War I, and was wounded. But he did not seem to have been destroyed emotionally by the experience as so many young Europeans were. His photographs from the trenches focus on the fundamental experience rather than the shocking or appalling.

Unlike many photographers who started as artists in another genre, Kertesz was drawn directly to photography. Seeing the first illustrated magazines sold him on the concept, and he got a camera as soon as he could afford one.

His career spans four periods. The first was in his native Hungary and emphasized sympathetic, realistic images of "peasants, Gypsies and the landscape of the Hungarian plains." His work was that of an amateur, photographing in his spare time when he was not working at the stock exchange.

The second was when he moved to Paris in 1925, where he thought he did his best work. He became "Andre" there, and shifted his attention to "street people, bums, children, emigre compatriots, artists and artisans." During this time, he was an important influence on both Brassai and Cartier-Bresson. He had commercial success at this time, being employed by many of the new French and German illustrated magazines. By 1928, he had moved beyond plates, and owned his first Leica.

The third period was when he left Paris for New York in 1936. This experience was a setback from his point of view. American tastes did not match his interests. The Museum of Modern Art insisted he chop off the pubic hair on a female nude, ruining an image from his point of view, before it could be displayed. The American magazines wanted simple, compelling images rather than the cool compositions of Kertesz. He suffered artistically and financially from rejection until be finally caught on with Home & Garden in 1946. But he did not like the work, and was pleased to quit it in 1961. "What I feel, I do." He had remained faithful to his photographic muse, but found New York a harsh environment for his vision. This was his least productive period artistically.

The fourth period saw him with an international reputation as a top photographer, and involved much freedom to develop his concepts. Much of his best work comes from this period.

I was not familiar with his work before reading this book (which was recommended to me by a reviewing colleague at Amazon.com). I was pleased to make his acquaintance. There is a mastery of composition and detail in the work that reminds one of Ansel Adams' landscapes. He also was a brilliant student of the potential of shadows, particularly for creating more interesting compositions. Shadows are treated as being real, like solid objects. That makes the images far more intriguing. Kertesz also produced many remarkable still lifes that combine shadows with simple objects to make remarkable abstractions at the same time.

To me though, his most interesting and compelling work involved the use of distorting mirrors. With female nudes, he used the mirrors to transform them into fascinating abstractions that make eloquent statements about femaleness. I highly recommend these images to you. They are clearly influenced by Picasso, but go beyond Picasso. Very interesting!

My favorite images in the collection are:

Szigetbeese, Hungary, 1914

Budapest, 1914

Gypsy Children, Esztergom, Hungary, 1917

My Brother as a "Scherzo," Hungary, 1919

Storm over Paris, 1925-1926

Shadow, The Eiffel Tower, Paris, 1929

Ernest, c. 1930

Paul Arma's Hands, 1928

Clayton Bates, 1928-1929

Mondrian's Glasses and Pipe, Paris, 1926

Shadows, 1931

Distortions, Nos. 46, 49, 68, 1933

New York, 1942

Washington Square, 1954

The Sofa, Williamsburg, Virginia, 1951

New York, c. 1963 (2)

Washington Square, 1966

Winter Garden, New York, 1970

The Balcony, Martinique, January 1, 1972

New York, 1972

Paris, 1984

1984 [color image]

The introductory essay is by Pierre Borhan and provides a superb overview of the overall career and work. Each of the four periods has a separate detailed introduction focusing on that portion of the work. These essays are enlivened by small images that exemplify and elucidate the points made.

In general, the reproduction quality is very high on the full-sized images. A few of the small images within the essays are too dark, apparently reflecting printing errors.

After you have finished enjoying this superb volume, I suggest that you think about physical distance from what you consider. Do you like to get up close and touch things? Or do you prefer an aloof distance, as from a elevated rear window? Or does it depend on the moment and the subject? Few want to confront a mugger close up. Try changing your distance deliberately for a month, and observe how it changes your perspective.

Look for the lyrical truth in all you perceive!

Kertesz' photos are beautifully reproduced. While the book contains plenty of biographical information, I wish more attention had been to the composition techniques which make these photos such masterpieces. Nevertheless, it is still an intoxicating look at the world of black and white photography.

"I think, that we need to detach ourselves from fashions and fads, that we should work with one eye on the earth and the other on heaven, that we must return regularly to silence" (p. xiv), editor Philip Zaleski writes in the Preface to this collection in The Best Spiritual Writing series, which he introduced in 1998. Although his latest edition lacks many of the compelling voices of previous years--Natalie Goldberg, Anne Lamott, Barry Lopez, Annie Dillard, and Philip Levine, for instance--Zaleski once again provides his reader with an adventure for the soul.

Based on his experience hearing the secrets of confession, Lorenzo Albacete, a Roman Catholic priest, observes that the "language of the inner life is a serene silence, a deep hurt, a boundless desire, and occasionally, a little laughter" (p. 3). In his "Sabbath" poem, Wendell Berry dreams "of a quiet man/ who explains nothing and defends nothing but only knows/ where the rarest wildflowers/ are blooming, and who goes/ where they are and stands still" (p. 16). In another memorable poem collected here, "Clear Night," Charles Wright wants "to be bruised by God" (p. 277), while gazing up at the stars. In his essay, "Bear Butte Diary," John Landretti introduces us to a shaman with an appreciation for coffee and cigarettes (p. 66). In perhaps the most moving essay here, "Stillbirth," Leah Kuncelik Lebec learns from the heart, through her seven-month-old stillborn baby, that God loves us all, "yes, loves us, all six billion--whatever--of us, teeming over the earth" (p. 104). Brian Doyle contemplates "grace" in "Grace Notes," and David James Duncan contemplates "strategic withdrawal" in his essay. While Thomas Moore examines the "in-between places" of transition that make life worth living (p. 184), Valerie Martin meditates upon Saint Francis, and Terry Tempest Williams ponders Saint Teresa in Spain, a place that looks much like her home in the American southwest: "Little excess. Nothing wasted" (p. 260). Joan D. Stamm considers "the way of flowers."

In short, this 277-page collection will not disappoint those readers interested in experiencing spiritual perspectives that have one eye on "the dusty world" and the other on heaven.

G. Merritt

Philip Zaleski has done a masterful job of seeking out and commending the work of some eighty writers who live for "making sentences," as Joseph Epstein confesses. And because they do, they tell with great beauty of the particular struggles and joys which have brought them along a spiritual path. Some of these writers make us comfortable, some disturb. The reading becomes an opportunity to accept the challenges of the particular life I have chosen. In doing that, I, too, see a blessing within the day Today! Your heart will be softer and your mind more open after exposure to these adventurers. Where other spiritual writers offer us helpings of chicken soup, here is spread the finest of feasts. Paella for the literate soul! (Even if you're nearer the North Pole or a Zen Community than you imagined.)

Andre Bustanoby has put together a brief (165 pages) and excellent synopsis of the issues when a divorce is forced upon a spouse. Chapters 2 (Letting go of your spouse), 8 (Lonliness), &9 (Loving and respecting yourself) are especially helpful when the couple's children are older and on their own. This is not a technical book, it's a practical book. Those going through an unwanted divorce are telling me they benefitted from reading it. It's a great 'Open Door' for discussion when both the counselor and client have read it. The focus is on rescuing rather than excusing or blaming. I highly recommend this book to be a part of anyone's repertoir who has an interest in this subject.

I have read several books on this subject, and what distinguishes this one is a thorough discussion on the Biblical basis of divorce and remarriage. The book, written in the 70s, is somewhat dated in its references to society, but overall very helpful.

I read this book, translated to the portuguese, here in Brazil.I'm an agronomist and I love to read books.
This book is about the life of the nazi Germany's chief of military inteligence, during almost all World War II.Admiral Canaris was in fact against Hitler.He put his conscience above his own life and he was against Hitler since the beginning. Admiral Canaris gave many usefull informations to nazi Germany's foes.The vast majority of these informations weren't used by allies.In fact, Admiral Canaris saved many jewish lifes, including a life of a famous pole Rabin.In lasts weeks of World War II, Hitler sent Admiral Canaris to death.
The main lesson of this book is clear.
If you live in a tiranny, the best way to be against this tiranny is to seems a supporter, not a foe, of this wicked government.Having power, then you can broke this government from inside.See Yeltsin or Gorbachev in former Soviet Union, only about two decades ago.
The failures of this book are small.To example, the failure of nazi nuclear bomb didn't came mainly from Canaris, but from Hitler himself.Hitler wanted a short war, not a nuclear war.When the "short" war became long, there wasn't enough materials, time or scientific genius in nazi Germany, to make a nazi bomb.

la de esta biografia del almirante Canaris, enigmatico personaje, quien por si fuera poco era de ascendencia griega, quien desempeño un papael aun no muy claro en el area de inteli- gencia durante el ultimno gran conflicto mundial, sus actividades que en algunos casos podrian tocar los limites de la traicion, siendo que todos sus actos sin embargo eran guiados por un serio y honesto patriotismo, el "pequeño almirante" como se le dijo poco antes de ser ejecutado en Flossenburg, si mal no recuerdo, poco antes del fin del conflicto, permanecera, hasta que se abra la totalidad de algunos archivos, como los ingleses, sumido en un mar de niebla.

Unlike most thin "cases" books, this one delivers. For those using it in a finengineering class, it is best to try to decompose and model each product in small work groups to get the best replication of what an actual work-team is like.

This work, however, is showing its age, but that is its largest flaw.

This work, coupled with Joshi, Neftci, or Cutherbertson and Nitzche's "Quantitative Financial Economics" (good for time series analysis emphasis) should be the standard and preferred texts for structured products/financial engineering course(s).

There is no need to be suspicious of the common function in academic publishing that the "big name" (Merton) maps to "poor quality." For this is an essential book.

Again, age is the flaw, for the "cases" selected here will be on the simplistic tail of the median structured product distribution offered today. However, such fundamental cases are excellent exercises to prepare for constructiong more complex, multi-dimensional products.

In addition, the book is both accessible to "poets" (i.e. non-technical quants) and stimulating (it won't bore you to tears) for those gifted in math and physics and have intuitive understandings of programming and modeling.

This is easily one of the top five books in quant fin (not that this is a very strong field of 'excellent' works, but you take what you can get).

This is a great book for someone who is hoping to steal financial engineering practices from one industry to apply them in another. I loved this book- we've already ordered two more copies for people in my work group. Experienced or neophyte, if you're into risk management and/or developing new financial instruments get this one

I read this novel in the eighties, when the power of the white minority regime in South Africa was still at its height. From the perspective of a liberal outsider there seemed to be nothing that could be said in favour of these people - they were stuck somewhere in the Dark Ages where the rest of the world could not reach them. A Chain of Voices put a somewhat more complex slant on the whole issue, but because Brink is a liberal as well as an Afrikaaner, refused to give an inch where apartheid was concerned. He doesn't stereotype people as villains or victims, but nor does he make excuses for them. He examines the evil of the system from the comparative safety of the distant past - the novel is set sometime in the nineteenth century and is based on a slave rebellion in which a slave owner had been murdered. Each chapter is taken from the perspective of a different character, slaves and masters, and Brink never fails to draw the sympathy of the reader to whichever character is being explored at any one time. Reading this book taught me that no matter how brutalised someone is, no matter how unpleasant they seem, they still have the capacity for finer feelings. They can still fall in love, they never lose the capacity to be hurt by those closest to them. You may find that this leaves you with even fewer excuses for their behaviour than ever, but what it certainly does is to bring their experience closer to our own. Modern-day evils such as racism, sexism, homophobia and religious bigotry are no longer out there being practiced by people who are not like us. They are much closer to home and we share a responsibility for them and for eradicating them. The strong moral ethos of the book aside, it is also a gripping read - all 500+ pages of it, there is much lush description of the South African landscape and there is a beautiful many-layered love story that doesn't have a cliche in it. It made me cry. Enjoy!

Andre Brink is one of the leading lights of white South African literature, a writer with a strong commitment towards social justice in a country whose black majority until recently could not have a say in its daily life. His celebrated 'A dry white season' stands as a monument of indictment of the 'apartheid' regime by exploring its consequences in the social dynamics and psychology of a white South African schoolteacher who takes upon himself to find out the whereabouts of his gardener's son and, then, the gardener himself. Anybody interested in 'apartheid' South Africa and in Brink's ouvre of moral commitment should read that novel; it would definitely be an excellent introduction to both.

With 'A chain of voices', Brink explores the dynamics of another oppresive regime: slavery. It is evident, however, that what Brink does in this novel is to go back to the institution of slavery to explore 'apartheid' in a similar way to 'A dry white season'. And what he finds, again, is ugly. At many levels, Brink tells us that any oppresive regime corrupts all human relationships, and that it can even transform--in a Frankenstein-like fashion--victims into victimizers. Not only is white pitted against black, but also wife against husband, father against children, brother against brother, and friend against friend. Brink brilliantly accomplishes this feat by giving voice to those that are senselessly involved in the oppresive dynamics of slavery, in a true 'chain of voices'.

The novel is set in the early 1800s in the Western Cape, in the beautiful area around Tulbagh and Worcester. From the very beginning, we know that three white men (two masters and one schoolteacher) have been killed by a group of slaves in a small-scale rebellion. What the novel does so well is to go back through the forces that led to that ending. In the process, one finds that the oppressor oftentimes is not aware of his oppression, that he is not enterely evil in the naive way that he is almost always portrayed, and that, incredible as it might seem, there is human side to him. On the other hand, one also finds that those that are oppressed are forced to commit acts of cruelty, even against those they supposedly love, in an effort to assert some power. In the end, however, everybody, but particularly the male characters, is a victim and a victimizer.

Even though I enjoyed the novel, with its deep psychological analysis of the characters involved, I found that the language seems too modern and sometimes too sophisticated for the 1800s setting. Also, there is some repetitiveness, particularly in the sexual domination of women. Despite this, I thoroughly recommend this novel to anyone interested in Brink's novels and the psychological consequences of oppressive regimes.

This book was insightful into Dominica's racial history and the history of Caribbean Island people of color, of that era. Talking about attitudes of those in power and there resistance to change. It was an eye opening read !

D.Johnston

This book provides much-needed insight into the unique way that Carnival is celebrated in the Caribbean and, especially Dominica. Viewing the tragic events of February 25, 1963 as a prism for the larger social and political tensions then roiling the Caribbean basin (including the ascendency of Castro and the just resolved "Cuban Missle Crisis"), "Death by Fire" examines the burgeoning pressures for independence and Commonwealth status then springing forth in the midst of festering resentments among social classes that were (and, to some extent, still are) an inevitable vestige of Dominica's then slowly receding colonial past. Both Judge Andre and Mr. Christian, who, in earlier collaborative works have each demonstrated towering erudition, here "up the ante" by crafting the definitive social history of Dominica during the most fecund era of this Island nation's long history. What's more, in so doing, they have provided American readers with valuable illumination of the complex social structures predominating in those neighboring Caribbean states that have been, in substantial measure, trivialized by sterotypes of steel bands and Carnival Cruises. We look forward to the next collaboration by these two monumentally talented lawyers and men of letters.

All I really wanted was to tell the shop the publisher details because they were not known in the initial search I did. The defiant agents published by Ace Books USA The Berkley Publishing Group. 200 Madison Avenue.New York. N.Y.10016 , my copy was the Eighth Printing in November 1984. I enjoyed the whole series, even lacking book number one The Time Traders

Andre Norton's books from the fifties and early sixties with a cold war background have not worn as well as her far future stories. I do not want to suggest though that she had a simplistic "us" versus "them" attitude.

In this near future book the US is in a race with the Russians to use alien technology scavenged from crashed spaceships to colonize planets outside our solar system. Because they feel that they are in dange of losing this race, men working for the United States government have decided to use a group of volunteers from the Apache tribe as subjects in an experiment without their knowledge. By use of the Redax, the volunteers will be made to think and act as Apaches of the 18th and 19th centuries would respond. It is hoped this would help them better adapt to life on a primative planet.

However, the spaceship they are traveling in crashes on the planet of Topaz. Travis Fox escapes with a group of the surviving volunteers. In exploring the planet he learns that they are not the only group on the planet. The Russians using their own version of the Redax have Mongol nomads as their subjects.

There is a definite feeling in this book that governments, each with their own goal would use whatever means are available to achieve that goal, no matter how it might affect the individual. This is occasionally mistaken for a paranoia about technology, but in reality it is a distrust of human altruism.

This is a good adventure story-- and the crashed alien ships yielding technology is going to be even more familiar to the X-file generation than it was to the original reader in 1963.

This is a very interesting look at Dostoyevsky by one of the writers most similar to him in temperament...

As being Russian and living in the Western world this book gave me the best explanation of the difference between east and west morals and human values.