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Arthur Books sorted by Average customer review: high to low .

Mark Tansey: Visions and Revisions

Published in Hardcover by HNA Books (1992-05)

Author: Arthur C. Danto

List price: $39.95

New price: $299.00
Used price: $116.98

Average review score:

A classic

Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2008-01-01

This is a classic of contemporary art (if there can be such a thing). There is no one like Tansey, who is an artist but also a philosopher. His work defies the dictum that great painting cannot be illustrative. The books is rare and well-worth the money spent, especially if you are a collector of art books. The essay by Danto alone is worth it. The images are sharp, but Tansey's work is visually dense and always monochrome, so they fall further short of the real thing than some other reproductions may, but where else can you see so many of his works together any time you like?

depth

Helpful Votes: 1 out of 7 total.
Review Date: 2000-05-09

Tansy is the master in retorical depth.

Mark Tansey is brilliant

Helpful Votes: 2 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 2003-01-13

From the first time I saw Tansey's "The Innocent Eye Test" at the Met, I have been fascinated with his work. The illustrations in this book, along with the fabulous essay by Arthur Danto make it a must have for Mark Tansey fans. I only wish there were more books about him and his work. He is a brilliant artist.

A jewel in my art book collection.

Helpful Votes: 8 out of 10 total.
Review Date: 2000-07-25

Checking the worn copy of this book from the library numerous times had made Mark Tansey one of my alltime favorite artists. Everytime I went into a bookstore, I looked for it. Never any luck, until I was in a used bookstore in Bellingham, Washington. I had already scoured the Art section as usual. When I was leaving, my eye happened to catch the spine in a stack of randomly placed books near the register. For a mere 16 bucks and in perfect condition! I was ecstatic. The reproductions are amazing and the text is insightful, illuminating Tansey's underlying themes and content. If you admire Mark Tansey's work, its simply a must have

Market Leadership Strategies for Service Companies

Published in Kindle Edition by McGraw-Hill (1999-10-11)

Authors: Craig Terrill and Arthur Middlebrooks

List price: $39.95

New price: $31.96

Average review score:

A No Non-Sense book on Services Marketing

Helpful Votes: 1 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2000-05-23

Market Leadership Strategies for Service Companies is an interesting book for companies in the services sector. The book explains in detail the key strategies which every service company needs to implement if it wants to become a market leader. The book is universally applicable as the services sector is witnessing tremendous growth more so in countries like India.

The Best Services Leadership & Excellence Book I Have Read

Helpful Votes: 2 out of 5 total.
Review Date: 2000-05-24

I am the Managing Partner for a company that serves scores of clients every year, all seeking to improve their businesses.

Having spent the last 13 years in the services sector and constantly searching for new ways to serve my clients better, I finally found the book that teaches you how to "be the best that you can be."

Middlebrooks and Terrill provide scores of frameworks and examples from their vast experiences to lead the reader from point a to point b. Borrowing lessons learned from Fortune 10 companies to $20 million business to business specialty companies, I truly felt like I received a second MBA--for a lot less money.

The best insights I received from their book was tied to how to help my clients fill that strategic anomaly called the revenue and profit growth gap. This book helped me better understand not only how to help my clients (as well as my company)fill this gap but also the variety of approaches I have at my disposal to help them achieve their longer term plans.

From new product development to segmentation to branding and positioning to communications, this book is definitely an invaluable resource and a definitive how-to guidebook.

I am a better business leader and my clients will be better served as a result of reading this landmark book.

Thanks guys for providing me with an incredible roadmap for future success.

The Best Marketing Service Book I Have Ever Read

Helpful Votes: 4 out of 7 total.
Review Date: 2000-05-24

As the Managing Partner for a major consulting firm and having spent 13 years in the services sector, I can honestly say I have read hundreds of business books. This is by far one of the best I have ever read.

Terrill and Middlebrooks provide scores of frameworks and client examples that provide a literal How-To roadmap for anyone serious about growing their company -- in an extremely profitable way.

I found especially insightful the authors perspectives on how to fill the financial growth gap that most companies find to be the most challenging part of their longer term strategy. From new product development to segmentation to positioning and branding to communications, Terrill and Middlebrooks basically give you an MBA in a book.

I have to admit I have borrowed their concepts fairly liberally since I read this book as it serves only to provide my clients (as well as my company) with the best possible solutions to their growth challenges.

Thanks guys for taking the seminal thinking that already exists in the services sector several steps further.

Bravo!

Whoever heard of a New "Service" Development process?

Helpful Votes: 5 out of 7 total.
Review Date: 2001-01-26

Until now, it seems that most every book written on the topic of developing something new at a company has replaced the word "Product" with the word "Service" and carried on as if nothing changed.

Well, it has.

Products and services are two different business animals, and these authors FINALLY call a spade a spade and then deal with the consequences. While many of the approaches between new product development and new service development are deceptively similar, the authors point to some key differences that substantially affect results.

They answer questions like: When do you solicit customer input? How can reengineering save money but kill a service your company offers? Why are company new service brainstorming sessions ineffective? The answers seem intuitive - but only after you've read it.

It also gives you some talking points about why "Being better" can trap your company as an also-ran. I winced during and after taking their survey.

The part of reading this book that wasn't fun was realizing the work I needed to do in my company. The fun part was knowing I now have a map to get there. I found the book readable and useful, and I've already made changes based on its recommendations.

McDonnell Douglas MD-80 & MD-90 (Airliner Color History)

Published in Paperback by Motorbooks International (1999-06)

Author: Arthur Pearcy

List price: $24.95

Used price: $35.82

Average review score:

Nice book to have for airliner fans

Helpful Votes: 13 out of 13 total.
Review Date: 1999-09-13

"McDonnell Douglas MD-80 & MD-90" is a very nice book that describes thoroughly the last single-aisle family built by McDonnell-Douglas and a must have item for those that are interested in the airliner industry.
It contains an extensive historical background, chronology of the development and production, aircraft specifications, production list and airline operators.
It's photograph selection is excellent and extensive, practically covering every operator of the MD-80/MD-90.
Unfortunately, I'd guess due to fact that this excellent aviation writer passed away while the book was in production, some photograph captions are incorrect or misleading, just to name a few: in pp. 6-7 AOM is mentioned as the biggest domestic carrier in Mexico, while it is widely known that AOM is a French Airline; in pp. 44-45 there is a photo of an Austrian MD-81 (OE-LDT), while the caption says: "Austrian OE-LML, taken in 1987". In fact the picture of Austrian MD-87 OE-LML is shown on pp. 40-41 with a correct caption; etc.
I'd love it, if the publisher some time later would re-publish the book with corrected information, so it would truly represent the author's exceptional work.
In any case, these are minor mistakes, so I'd recommend this book to everyone who needs to know more about the MD-80/MD-90.

Rest in Peace Arthur Pearcy and thanks for your invaluable contribution

Great book about the MD-80

Helpful Votes: 4 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 1999-10-24

This is a must have for anyone who is interested in the MD-80. Its got alot of great pictures. I highly recommend this book.

An excellent look at the McDonnell Douglas MD-80 and MD-90

Helpful Votes: 8 out of 8 total.
Review Date: 2003-07-22

The Airlife's Airliner series of books cover individual commercial aircraft types in an interesting, in-depth manner.

Each volume of this British series covers a unique commercial aircraft type from its design, production, entry into service, its usage by airlines, and in some cases eventual demise.

Each volume features plenty of color and black and white photographs of the subject aircraft along with a complete construction list (accurate to date of publication for aircraft types still being built).

This volume of the series covers the McDonnell Douglas MD-80 and MD-90 series of airliners ... including most if not all of the airframe's variants and derivatives and provides an interesting look at the genesis of these short/medium range commercial airliners.

Of interesting note is the section covering the MD-95 (now the 717) as well as the unducted / propfan studies that occurred in the late 1980s / early 1990s.

Awesome reference on an exceptional airplane!

Helpful Votes: 8 out of 8 total.
Review Date: 2000-02-02

I highly recommend this book to anyone remotely interested in airplanes. Mr. Pearcy delivers the goods on an American built airliner that has become a global workhorse. Lots of outstanding photography and good information, this is a must have for every aviation library.

Missee Lee

Published in Paperback by RED FOX BOOKS (RAND) (2001-11-02)

Author: Arthur Ransome

List price:

New price: $11.28
Used price: $8.00

Average review score:

Racism In Ransome

Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2002-10-01

...This is a great adventure story, but definitely has racist elements. However, like the racism in the Little House books towards the native American Indians, it may well be a result of ignorance rather than malice.

International Educator

Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2001-04-02

I read this book as a child and they helped me to get interested in reading. I then went on to read every book in the series. About four years ago, I attend an international school's meeting in the Hague Holland and was sitting with 4 other teachers supervising students in a hotel at night and we got to talking about our favorite children's book. I named this book and two others agreed. I think that it was this book that fired me up to want to have adventure and is responsible for me becoming an international educator. I have spent most of my life searching for that thrill of adventure that I first experienced in these books. I recommend this series to you.

Swallows and Amazons in China

Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2001-09-25

Once again Arthur Ransome comes up with a grand adventure for the children he introduced in his earlier books. This time they are sailing a small schooner through little-charted waters in the China Sea. After a disastrous fire on board, they are washed ashore, along with Captain Flint (Nancy and Peggy's Uncle Jim if you are not familiar with these books) on a small chain of islands and captured by Chinese pirates. Those over-sensitive souls among us may find the depiction of Chinese natives, and the rendition of their accents, less than PC, but I read this book for the first time at the impressionable age of nine and I don't think it coloured my attitude to Chinese people in any negative way. What this books does, as superbly as all Mr Ransome's others, is convey the excitement that children feel if they are allowed a little freedom. Our poor children today, molly-coddled and over-protected by our anxious selves can only dream of adventures such as these. Luckily, they have books like this to transport them to such faraway places where we, as parents, cannot interfere.

A marvelous realistic fantisy for the child in me

Helpful Votes: 3 out of 9 total.
Review Date: 1998-04-29

I am Roger Bowman,it's been ten years since i've read these books.I'm now reading them again for my girlfriend,and enjoying them as much now as i did the first fifteen times as a child-teenager. Were it not for this series i would not know how or have the desire to read books today... Thank-you! My mother would read a few pages and say "Good-night Roger" and leave me alone with the book and i just had to know what happened next. That's when i learned to read. Maybe the fact that one of the children was named Roger gave me the incentive to follow these children on their adventures,i just had to see what happened to the boy Roger next.

Missee Lee: The Swallows and Amazons in the China Seas (Godine Storyteller)

Published in Paperback by David R Godine (2001-11-01)

Author: Arthur Ransome

List price: $14.95

New price: $10.16
Used price: $14.95

Average review score:

Dated but fun

Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2006-10-05

MISSEE LEE is subtitled "A sequel to PETER DUCK" which should be a tipoff; this is another "fantasy" entry into the S&A series. As such, it has more exotic locations and real danger than the other books.

While cruising around the world with Uncle Jim, the Walker and Blackett children are thrown into serious danger when their sailboat burns and sinks, and then the two lifeboats are separated, while in the South China Seas. Eventually all are captured by Chinese pirates, who are lorded over by the title character, a young Cambridge-educated Chinese woman.

She's one of the most interesting characters in the series, a person with strong yearnings for Western culture and a Western way of life (her real ambition was to be a teacher), but also with a stronger sense of duty to her Chinese father's legacy of controlling the pirates on the three islands. The Blacketts are overjoyed to be in the hands of real pirates although Jim seems to be the only one cognizant to the fact that they could all lose their heads.

In fact, Missee Lee decides to have it both ways, keeping her English "guests" and starting her own Cambridge-style classes in Latin, while still maintaining her hold on the pirates. But things get messy (especially when she discovers the Walkers' father is a naval officer) and eventually Uncle Jim and the children engineer an escape.

It's quite dated in its view of the Chinese, although better than most of the period (that tended to think of the Chinese as all evil, period, end of sentence), and some of the Chinese characters are given some good dimension, including one of the pirates who's quite ruthless and violent but also has a soft spot for birds.

The typical S&A themes of courage, resourcefulness and self-reliance run through this book is more fantastic than the others in the series. Still, as all the S&A series, it's good fun.

Next: The D's return in PICTS AND MARTYRS.

Twenty-two gong tale belong velly well all ages bimeby

Helpful Votes: 19 out of 19 total.
Review Date: 2002-07-12

Subtitled "Swallows and Amazons in the South China Seas", this tenth volume in Arthur Ransome's Swallows and Amazons series is actually a sequel to the second, "Peter Duck". Those readers familiar with the background to the earlier volume will not be surprised to learn that the emphasis within this book is on rather wild and exotic high-seas adventuring for a group of six English school children, together with their middle-aged uncle, a parrot and a mischievous monkey, aboard their schooner, Wild Cat.

This time around, the crew of the Wild Cat (without Peter Duck) again find themselves face to face with pirates, although under somewhat different circumstances and of a rather different kind from those in their earlier adventure. They also face a fate that English schoolchildren probably once considered worse than death - a life of perpetual Latin lessons!

Anyone coming to this book without the benefit of at least the first three volumes of the series ("Swallows and Amazons", "Peter Duck" and "Swallowdale") may struggle a little with just who people are and why things are the way they are, so I don't recommend diving straight into the series here! If you've read the first three books, though, there is absolutely no need to leave this one until its place in the published sequence, as it does not tie into any of the intervening volumes. Anyone familiar with the earlier books will know exactly what to expect here; nor will they be disappointed. Whilst aimed at children, the book remains a delightful read whatever one's age.

A must have for the series collector

Helpful Votes: 4 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 2002-01-27

If you collect the Swallows and Amazons series, you simply must have this book in your collection. If, on the other hand, you are just someone looking for a good book, well...this is a GREAT book. It is a classic that both children and adults will love and enjoy many times over.
Arthur Ransome is one of the greatest authors ever to live, and his books reflect that fact.

Lovely, albeit dated, book

Helpful Votes: 7 out of 7 total.
Review Date: 2004-04-26

I love the whole Swallows and Amazons series, but somehow I read Missee Lee only once -- perhaps it got lost from the library or something. So I had the pleasure of rediscovering it a few years ago when my kids were the right age for it. It's a wonderful "reading aloud" book (as are "We didn't mean to go to sea" and "Great Northern"), with a strong female character -- unusual in children's books from 65 years ago! -- and terrific storytelling and pacing.

(Some of) the Chinese in this book come off as crafty, selfish, barbaric, etc. That's quite intentional -- their characters are supposed to be crafty, selfish, or barbaric. Because we see them only through the eyes of the English, they tend to be a bit one-dimensional as well. Probably some people out there is saying that this book is politically incorrect; if so, I urge them to tell their children not to read it. (The children will, of course, promptly read it!)

In the meantime, enjoy this with your family.

Mr. Putter & Tabby Fly the Plane (Mr. Putter & Tabby)

Published in Paperback by Harcourt Paperbacks (1997-03-01)

Author: Cynthia Rylant

List price: $5.95

New price: $2.08
Used price: $1.61

Average review score:

Review by Abigail P.S. 39 and Khaled P.S. 39

Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2006-04-13

If you think you're too old to do kid stuff, then read Mr. Putter and Tabby Fly the Plane by Cynthia Rylant. You'll learn you are never too old.

In the beginning Mr. Putter thinks he's too old ot play with toys. But he buys a toy plane anyway. Will Mr. Putter ever learn tht you're never too old to do what you want? You can do anything even if you are old or young, weak or strong. Who cares what age you are!

This book is good because it teaches kids to just stick with who they are. So read Mr. Putter and Tabby Fly the Plane because it's just right for grown ups and children

Review by Abigail

Do you think you're too old for toys? Then read Mr. Putter and Tabby Fly the Plane because it will teach you that if you are old you can still get toys. You are yourself and you can do whatever you want.

In the beginning Mr. Putter went to the toy store, and he thought that he was too old for toy airplanes. The he realized that he is himself and his life was all about planes since he was a kid. So he bought it.

If you're the kind of reader who like characters that think they're too old for things, then read Mr. Putter and Tabby Fly the Plane.

Review by Khaled

A delightful, whimsical story for young... and old!

Helpful Votes: 10 out of 10 total.
Review Date: 1998-07-18

My daughter, 4, loves this story best of the several Mr Putter and Tabby stories that we have read. Unlike so many children's stories, this one (and the others in the series) convey a sense of real sense of human (and cat)character. The relationship between Mr. Putter and Tabby is loving and supportive. Most important, each story -- and especially this one -- communicates a wonderful sense of life lived with joy, respect, compassion and the muted simple little "heroics" of everyday life. In this case, sharing a wonderful red-and-white remote controlled biplane with neighborhood youngsters, especially with one boy who reminds Mr. Putter of himself as a boy.

While directed mainly to children 4 to 8 years old, they have touched by wife and I as much as my daughter as we have read them at bedtime. The small price of these books is more than worth the time spent and re-spent in the simple, caring world of Mr. Putter and Tabby.

Excellent book for beginning readers

Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 1998-12-30

The flowing language and engaging text and illustrations encouraged my 6 year old son to try to read this "all by himself". Unlike many "early reader" books, the language is not awkward, and the repetitions are very natural. A pleasure.

It's a beautiful book, that my kid's love !

Helpful Votes: 5 out of 6 total.
Review Date: 1999-06-27

This book is a great children's book, as our ALL in this series. It is the one series that myself and my two children always look for on our bookmobile that visits us every week in town. They simply are great stories, that really leave you with a good feeling inside. You can really see the love in the stories.

Ted Tatosian Vernon Hills, Illinois

Mr. Putter & Tabby Toot the Horn (Mr. Putter & Tabby)

Published in Paperback by Harcourt Paperbacks (1999-08-09)

Author: Cynthia Rylant

List price: $5.95

New price: $4.95
Used price: $0.12
Collectible price: $10.00

Average review score:

Bring On The Music!

Helpful Votes: 0 out of 0 total.
Review Date: 2005-07-25

With a four year old toddler, impromptu music is an everyday occurance. Reading about Mr. Putter and Tabby tooting the horn is just icing on the cake when you are in a musical mood. Delightful to read and fun to savor. This one is a keeper!

Wonderful, as are all of CYNTHIA RYLANT'S books

Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2003-07-04

Mr Putter and Tabby are our favorites. Wonderful story, whimsical writing style. I RECOMMENED THIS ONE HIGHLY, and every one in the series.

You can't do everything

Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2003-02-19

I have every book in this series. This one is a good book to show little ones that not every one can do it all. When my little one is too small to do something, this one shows that Mr. Putter can't learn to play the horn. His friendly neighbor does, but he is happy in the end. Get the whole series and enjoy. My 4 year old loves them, but secretly, I bought them for myself.

Best children book collection for kids and parents

Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 2000-11-20

The "Mr. Putter and Tabby" collection is the best I have found for children. This particular episode has Mr. Putter and Mrs. Teaberry trying to play music more or less successfully but having a very good time at it and being happy to have at least given it a try. When you read it, you can make all sorts of funny 'music' sounds that bring joy to your little one -and are fun to do too...

All the "Putter & Tabby" books are really well illustrated with very expressive characters, and the stories are intelligent, funny, and warm. My child adores them and is always asking for a reading session of "Mr Putter and Tabby". He was 2 when we read our first one and the books are so great that I believe he will still enjoy them when he learns to read. In the mean time, I enjoy them too and haven't tired yet of reading a couple of them every evening. So, although until now I have borrowed these books from the public library, I am now buying the whole collection.

N by E

Published in Unknown Binding by Random House (1930)

Author: Rockwell Kent

List price:

Used price: $4.50

Average review score:

great

Helpful Votes: 1 out of 17 total.
Review Date: 1999-03-13

please get in touch with me, I have a book that I have had for twenty some odd years I know that after researching Rockwell Kent that someone can give me a historical and monetary value, it was edited by Rockell Kent in 1939, it has the most beutiful paintings from world famous painters. Hence the title World famous Paintings.

Possibly my all-time favorite book!

Helpful Votes: 11 out of 11 total.
Review Date: 1998-07-17

A glorious story of adventure when Kent and two friends sailed on a private schooner from Labrador and Newfoundland to Greenland. We are carried along through deep fogs, icebergs, storms and calms until the men are shipwrecked in a violent storm on Greenland's rocky shore. The story also presents an absorbing and tender tale of the relationships of Kent with the people of Newfoundland, his two shipmates and the Stone Age Eskimos of Greenland -- who threw him a highly successful party in spite of the language barrier. Kent illustrated the text with over 100 magnificent sketches and woodblock drawings that in themselves are worth the price.

reads like a song

Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 1998-12-05

North by East is truly one of the greatest sailing books I have ever read. High adventure through the eyes of a true poet and artist.

Classic adventure travel

Helpful Votes: 2 out of 2 total.
Review Date: 1997-10-08

Rockwell Kent is arrogant, verbose, and totally charming. N by E is his account of a near-disastrous sailing trip to Greenland via Labrador and the Davis Strait, undertaken in the late 1920's. His beautiful woodcuts illustrate nearly every other page, and Kent's mix of intelligence, enthusiasm, and attitude are the perfect complement to his art.

The New American Judaism: The Way Forward on Challenging Issues from Intermarriage to Jewish Identity

Published in Kindle Edition by Palgrave Macmillan (2007-10-16)

Author: Rabbi Dr. Arthur Blecher

List price: $24.95

New price: $9.99

Average review score:

Helping Jewish Americans Help Themselves

Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2008-01-29

Arthur Blecher, rabbi and therapist, proves himself a good historian, management consultant, and writer too. Incisive and clearly put, his analysis exposes a number of myths that impede Jewish life under its relatively recent denominational structure in America. Contrary to common assumptions, the American Jewish population is not declining, nor is intermarriage a threat. If the Reform and Conservative denominations would accept intermarriage as they are beginning to do with same-sex Jewish couples, it would eliminate embarrassing hypocrisy and the alienation of Jewish as well as non-Jewish spouses and their children. Rabbi Blecher also points to the importance of the Internet as a place for Jewish learning and gathering. I was surprised at how much I learned about the history and current workings of my religion. Mazel Tov!

Intellectually exciting

Helpful Votes: 1 out of 1 total.
Review Date: 2008-01-12

First, I confess I have not finished the book yet, but did not want to wait to encourage others to enjoy it! Dr. Blecher has a rare gift for intellectual curiosity, perceptiveness, and the courage to speak his mind. When I became engaged to a Jewish man, I agreed to raise our children in the Jewish tradition, but did not want to make a false conversion for the sake of appearances. Everyone asked me if I was converting, though fortunately my in-laws were astute enough to accept that I would be a wonderful wife without doing so. I am overjoyed to encounter a rabbi who sees our commitment to passing on Jewish identity to our children not as a failure or second best, but as a sign of hope for Judiasm.

I am also very pleased to discover Dr. Blecher's careful, impressive scholarship. So many books contain only a superficial nod towards actually doing your homework in service of gratifying the author's ego. It is a joy to spend time in the company of such a learned mind! This book combines a deep knowledge base with fresh ideas about the future of Judaism. I love to see books that make us question our assumptions, particularly when an author is not afraid to challenge an establishment.

His purpose is to make Judaism more meaningful, to invigorate discussion, and get us all thinking. He offers a new perspective on the role of rabbis, synagogues, and Jewish families in their communities. I would love to see this book provoking long needed national and international self-examination for all of us interested in exploring what it means to be Jewish, and what it means to offer this tradition to our children.

A refreshing voice

Helpful Votes: 3 out of 3 total.
Review Date: 2007-11-23

As one who lost ties to my Jewish identity as a result of the dogma which did not fit, or make sense to me, The New American Judaism provides new hope for a better cultural and spiritual connection. It opens the door to the transformation of the practice of Judaism to those of us who have been disenfranchised by the "traditionalists." I found it very refreshing and reassuring that there is hope that my cultural background may be reconnected to its spiritual roots.

Enlightening, Passionate, Refreshing

Helpful Votes: 7 out of 8 total.
Review Date: 2007-10-18

The New American Judaism presents a fascinating approach to Judaism today. Face it, for most Jews comtact with organized Judaism ends at 13 and starts again with marriage and children. For those who do not marry Jews there is a fear that they will be shunned by the community, particularly if the spouse does not either convert or swear to raise the children exclusively Jewish.

Dr. Blecher challenges many "myths" being pushed in the mainstream Jewish world such as the children of interfaith marriages are less likely to identify as Jews and that interfaith marriages themselves harm the Jewish community.

While much the New American Judaism focuses on demonstrating that these "myths" are repeated without any imperical evidence, Rabbi Blecher provides the reader with solid and positive data and anecdotal evidence to show that indeed Judaism is thriving and that interfaith marriages enhance rather than detract from this fact.

Blecher's book should bring American Jews and non Jews in Jewish families (and their families) to a place in which they can see a new and postive and extremely INCLUSIVE approach to Judaism in the US.

The New Bach Reader

Published in Paperback by W. W. Norton & Company (1999-10-01)

Author:

List price: $21.95

New price: $12.87
Used price: $8.70
Collectible price: $25.00

Average review score:

Comprehensive collection

Helpful Votes: 16 out of 18 total.
Review Date: 2003-11-19

A wonderful collection of letters by and articles about Bach, both from his own era and afterwards.

Some of his letters have even been set to music! Amazon also has available Peter Schickele's [a k a PDQ Bach] "1712 Overture and other Musical Assaults" which includes his parody on Copland's Lincoln Portrait, in which, instead of reciting The Gettysburg Address, he reads 2 of Bach's many letters complaining about his lack of money.

These are among the best known of Bach's letters, and are a fairly good indication of the general tone of many of his letters.

In one letter he complains to a relative that the cask of wine he had sent was half empty by the time it arrived, and that he had had to pay so many taxes as it passed through various districts of Germany that receiving it was rather expensive!

He concludes by saying something like "Please don't send me any more gifts ... I can't afford it!"

In the second letter, he writes warmly of his very musical family, but also whinges about his pay being less than he expected. He says that he had been promised a certain amount of money per funeral, but unfortunately the winter was so mild very few people died!

Highly recommended for lovers of Bach.

Bach Resource

Helpful Votes: 2 out of 4 total.
Review Date: 2007-01-04

Though I've only had time to skim through portions of this book, as a Bach descendent, I find it fascinating! The information provided in this book is from actual historical sources, so it not only gives the reader an appreciation for life in Bach's time, but it actually allows one to learn about Bach on a personal level. It reveals often little known facts, such as that Bach kept his own record of his family roots. In fact, I was able to find information about my own direct ancestors in his own words. Fascinating! I've ordered copies for my relatives, as well. I was very pleased with the fact that, though this book was to arrive in "4 to 6 weeks," it arrived in half that time, and in time for the holidays. Great book for a Bach or for a music lover!

A must have and must read - contemporary documents and the view of Bach through the centuries

Helpful Votes: 25 out of 25 total.
Review Date: 2006-01-25

This book is essential for anyone wanting to understand the life and work of J. S. Bach. It provides wonderful insights about the man through his own documents and writings by those who knew and worked with him. He comes across as an amazingly hard working genius with a quick temper and absolute focus.

The book is organized according to the various aspects of Bach's life. We get a portrait of him "in outline" using various anecdotes. Then we get a section about his life from his own writings. The next section contains biographical and genealogical information about Bach and his family. The sections on Bach as viewed by his contemporaries, in Forkel's biography, in the second half of the 18th century, and in the Romantic era are all quite interesting. Given how much Bach has meant to the world (more than in life!), it is not surprising that we cannot understand him without understanding his changing reputation over the past centuries.

This new edition has more than two hundred pages of additional information than the earlier editions and makes the book that much richer an experience.

I repeat, this is a must have and a must read for any lover of music. Why be limited to what other people tell you about this composer when you can find out for yourself from contemporary documents?

A superb introduction to Bach (and very entertaining)

Helpful Votes: 43 out of 46 total.
Review Date: 1999-11-17

This is a wonderfully well arranged collection of letters, testimonials, court records and other contemporary documents by and relating to Johann Sebastian Bach. The editors have selected items which paint a picture of a man who knew his own worth, (he argues for, and gets, a higher salary than his predecessors in most of his jobs)didn't tolerate fools gladly, and who had exactly the same problems church musicians today face.

Incidentally, it made me laugh frequently. Some of his testimonials for former students show him damning with faint praise. His argument over who should appoint school prefects leaves you wondering who was lying. And his begging letters to his employers are masterpieces of not-very-obsequious charm.

A great book to dip in and out of, and a resource every musician should own.