Bloom Books

Martin Bloom's Accommodating The Lively Arts provides a technical guide to the design and renovation of theater spaces, from location and shape through fundamentals of theater design. Any involved in theater will find this an important consideration on organizing and building spaces.

By no means a glossy record of dramatically realized theater designs, it is rather a gentle manifesto of theater design principles. The author, a practicing designer of theaters, cultural centers, and exhibition structures, says that spaces for live performances should consider three fundamental elements: focus, platform and frame. It all makes perfect sense. The author has added some helpful little sketches, and there is an introduction by Chris Marowitz.

I picked up this book expecting to read a fairly technical account of how to design and build "better" theaters because I happened to know that it is by an architect who has spent much of his professional life designing theaters and performance spaces. What I discovered is not a "how to" book (although all architects might well profit from its many insights into how architecture should "accommodate" the intended functions and users of a structure.) No, this turns out to be a book by an individual who has spent much of his life involved with theatrical productions on various levels and is here passing on his compressed wisdom about the very essence of what makes for a satisfying and significant visit to the theater. It is not a history of theaters as structures, although it does weave its insights around the historical development of performance spaces, from the earliest Greek threshing floors to contemporary theaters-in-the-round (and there are drawings to help us see the essential elements). It is not particularly concerned with individual buildings by architects, whether well-known or otherwise. It is, rather, about how the elements of physical spaces affect our experience of theatrical productions--serious drama, light comedy, musicals, whatever. On one level, we are all aware of this--whether the seats are too cramped, how the sight lines are obstructed, yes, and whether the ladies room is inadequate. But Martin Bloom has thought much longer and harder and deeper about al these matters, and you end up feeling he has revealed something essential about the point where architecture, theaters, drama, and life intersect.

This was a great book. Huxley's view of a future "Utopian" state is very shocking, and it says a lot about society and technology. It really makes you think, and I like that. It is also very straightforward and it's hard to miss the point Huxley is making. If you like science fiction this book is a must! Definitely worth your time.

Everyone should be required to read Brave New World. Huxley provides great insight into the effects of science dominating the human race. He shows that life in the Utopia is more efficient in many respects, however it lacks the deep human emotions that give meaning to life other than "constant consumption." Although first published in 1932, it is amazingly close to reality of life today. Brave New World's vivid descriptions and lively commentaries will hold your attention throughout the entire book. Once you pick it up, you won't be able to put it down!

Aldous Huxley's `Brave New World' takes place in Europe, in 625 after Ford (people started a new era in 1908, the year in which the American industrialist Henry Ford produced his first Model-T car). There is a New World society. People are no longer born the natural way, but the state creates and conditions them. Humans are being mass produced and preconditioned to become members of one of the social classes, ranging from Alpha plus to Epsilon minus. People are going to work and get their soma. They get their education at their level and they get sleep teaching. It's a totally arranged life.

Aldous Huxley was born at Godalming in 1894, into a prominent family of scientists. The nearly blind man was educated at Eton and Oxford and writer of many novels, short stories, essays, drama and verse, but `Brave New World' has proved to be his most lastingly popular work. The title was taken from Shakespeare's `The Tempest', in which Miranda, when seeing the first glimpse of the world outside the island on which she grew up, speaks the words: "O brave new world that has such people in it."

In this novel-of-ideas and dystopia, or in other words, a savage criticism of the scientific future, the motto is Community, Identity and Stability. There is no love, no individualism and people do not have emotions. Everybody belongs to one big group. No one is alone, because everybody is the same. The motto is, off course, an ironic contrast with the battlecry of the French Revolution: Liberty, Equality and Fraternity. It's obvious that Huxley wants to point out the dangerous aspects of the advancement of science. People will abuse the results of investigations, which will make the individual disappear.

The link of the motto with the battlecry of the French Revolution is not the only one. Many of the character's names are composed by use of the names of historical heroes. For example Benito Hoover, is made of Benito Mussolini and Herbert Hoover. This way the writer is parodying all the time.

The story starts at the London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre, where the Director explains some students how humans are being made by the Bokanovski-process. Eggs divide again and again (sometimes even 96 humans are beings hatch from one egg). When the Director asks a student whether he knows what a parent is, he answers: `"Human beings used to be." he hesitated; the blood rushed to his cheeks. "Well, they used to be viviparous."'

Bernard Marx is different from others. Something went wrong when he was in his bottle. He turned out to be, although he is, too small for an Alpha. He doesn't look like and has more emotions than other Alphas, which makes him not belonging to the big group. He and his colleague Lenina, a very pretty girl, who is very popular among the Alphas, go to New Mexico, to the Savages. Here the people haven't been scientifically produced. They meet John and his mother and take them to their world, which John really likes. He would love to see the New World. John hasn't been manipulated, so he's still able to have strong feelings....

A real pessimist can only think of a world like this. Therefore I think it's amazing how Huxley made up this story. It's been a great pleasure reading it, and it makes you start thinking about what the world will be in the future. Next to that, there's another, an educational aspect in the book. People have to be aware of abusers of knowledge. Huxley sure makes clear what he wants to say. It's a perfect novel.

Excellent! Absolutely indispensable for the Amazon traveler - not only is it packed with useful info, but Bloom clearly understands the local cultures in a way that few travel writers do. Highly recommended-

Not many books are available about Amazonia,and indeed this is a very useful one when trying to find information on excursions, guides, food, health... but some remarks on the cities and their inhabitants are quite superficial. The way people live in cities such as Manaus or Belém should make us think of more than what colorful the marketplaces are, if we intend to understand a bit of what's happening in the Amazon, and in Latin America. The inclusion of detailed maps of the cities and some budget hotels could greatly improve this book.

Few books have ever excited me as much as this one. My copy has a sticker that says it won Best Guidebook of the Year and this book deserves it. The author has obviously traveled herself through the Amazon and she gives a lot of "up close" tips. But what makes the book so special are also the articles written by other people--scientists and shamans who work with tribal people. The chapter by Dr. Meyer who had a shamanisticc experience with an Indian tribe and fire ants is just incredible! I wasn't even planning to go to the Amazon when I visited Brazil but somehow this book ended up in my hands and changed my life. Whether you are going to the Amazon or just want to read about it,get this book. I loved it!

Humor, sensibility, a down-to-earth approach to collecting event practical tips with respect for tradition and the meaning of the age old significance of the Jewish religion's rite of passage make Emily Haft Bloom's special "How to...How not to..." book a read that I found to be both instructive and constructive

I highly recommend this book if you are planning or know someone planning a Bar/Bat Mitzvah. I am finding the book to be very helpful and user friendly in sorting through the many aspects invlovled. The book has been a huge help to our family. Thank you Ms. Bloom.

I am currently planning a bar mitzvah and find this book extremely useful. Ms. Bloom provides helpful information on how to plan anything from a simple bar mitzvah to an extravagant bar mitzvah, never losing sight of the true meaning of this rite of passage.

Professor Margot Norris of Irvine has written several very well received analyses of the works of James JOyce and their place in literary and political history, including Suspicious Readings of Joyce's Dubliners, The Decentered Universe of Finnegan's Wake: A Structuralist Analysis, the ahistoricity of which she later repudiates in another commentary, and the iconoclastically revolutionary commentary Joyce's Web: The Social Unraveling of Modernism (Literary Modernism Series). Another of Prof. Norris's landmark studies for any serious student of literature must be her essential Writing War in the Twentieth Century, which, passing through WWI and Hemingway, concludes with press censorship in the Persian Gulf War or Bush War One, as she examines how and why writers have been unable to effectively deal with the question of war in the modern world, including after the Bomb, and how and why writing strategies have been monopolized for the service of war making.

Pardon that brief introduction of Prof. Norris's remarkable work in order to set a context for her editting this current volume of criticism from various methods and perspectives of James Joyce's Ulysses, including her own feminist approach which notwithstanding retains its balance and perspective and appreciation of Joyce's subtle use of irony and subtexts in creating a subversively liberated literature.

Being an over 250 page volume of such varied yet profund literary criticisms, there is a portal here for nearly everyone to enter and feel comfortably challenged to deeper appreciation and understanding. Then, once safely inside this Joycean smorgasbord, you may browse to find absolutely new perspectives for comprehending more fully the gleaming cut gem which is Ulysses, voted the greatest novel of the twentieth century, a mystery of comprehension which only expands and leads on to hunger for more.

Prof. Norris has done here a great yet economical service for any student of James Joyce, both advanced and initiate, rendering what might seem unconnected and even unintelligible logical and clear and joyful. Ulysses after all has some of the most delicious jokes in all of literature, if we only have the ears to hear. The parodistic style of the later episodes in particular are a scream. Norris and company here open our ears and our minds to appreciate gratefully and happily what we are missing.

If you can get only one commentary on Ulysses kindly consider this one as a welcome opening. I have read several and this one seems to me like a great place to start, and to stay, and to read the slippery mysterious novel a million times more, while holding firmly the strong and wise hand of Prof. Norris, as Dante did Virgil, or more properly Beatrice.

Other contributers of note include Derrida on deconstruction, Devlin from a psychoanalytic perspective, and Patrick McGee on ULysses in the light of Marxist ethics.

Highly recommended and I have already ordered a second reading copy, as my first got caught outside last night with me in a heavy nightfall desert hailstorm, as I could not leave home without it, and it got soaked even inside the safety of my knapsack. Very valuable and welcome friend and helpmate in the rocky road of Ulysses. Get one and awaken.

It is an extremely detailed critique of ''Ulysses'' on many different levels but it also is a compendium of the various critical methods used in modern literatore as a whole.All contributors are obviously experts in their particular areas. The book itself was in excellent condition and despatched promptly.

I am still digesting "Ulysses." I read it while walking around Dublin a few years ago. It was marvelous to trace the steps of Leopold and Molly, and to see what they "saw," but the novel remains a distant pleasure to the reader. I must admit it is not the most accessible book ever written, but it gets four stars for its intent ... and that it is better than "Finnegan's Wake." Be warned: This novel is not for the casual reader. This is one of several excellent accompaniments to "Ulysses" and well worth the price and the time to compare against Joyce.

Informatively written by Rebecca Bloom (a gifted teacher of metaphysical subjects with eighteen years' experience), Begin Your Psychic Journey: Discovering The Path To Your Intuitive Gifts is a unique self-help guideline to unlocking one's psychic abilities to reduce stress, unify body, mind, and spirit, improve optimism, find inner peace, and more. Packed from cover to cover with exercises to encourage growth, advice for protecting oneself from negative energies, and pathways to wisdom that has transcended generations, Begin Your Psychic Journey is an excellent introductory guide and highly recommended for novice Metaphysical Studies students.

Rebecca Bloom's Begin Your Psychic Journey is a treasure-chest of spiritual practice, beginning with its enchanting cover of mountain valley and stream. Within she presents a variety of tools for exploring links between one's intuitive nature and day-to-day experiences. Ms. Bloom's message encourages one to learn to explore and trust his or her inner nature.

Even if the reader only reads and works with the chapter on meditation, the money and effort would be well-spent. Beyond this chapter are a variety of lucidly presented activities, such as those on crystals, dreamwork, animal guides, auras, chakras, and others. Each activity is easy to follow and is capped with a helpful anecdotal entry. Much wisdom pervades this outstanding manual for perusing one's spiritual journey.
Joseph Kirschner, Professor Emeritus

I know you have read it over and over -- a "must have for your collection." This is truly one of those books. Ms. Bloom, the author, speaks to us easily and freely. I have read many books where I felt like the author was either talking to me like I was incompetent or way over my head. Ms. Bloom writes as though she is sitting with the reader and speaking to them. This is quite helpful. She has the ability to explain things to the reader that gives you many an "aha" moment. What I appreciate the most is that this book will help the reader move forward no matter what stage of self-discovery you are at. I have gifted this book to a few friends and have been thanked over and over for the insight provided. You will find that this book will be a treasure in your collection.

While I certainly couldn't say I was disappointed with this book, I don't think it quite lived up to the expectation based on the 2 reviews I read on [...] which both gave it five stars. The first half of the book deals with Blackmore up to the end of Deep Purple MKII which was interesting and certainly factual as to where Blackmore was and what he was doing but somewhat dull. What it lacked was the input from people who were in close contact with Blackmore, notably Gillan, Glover, Lord & Paice in what I, and many others, consider to be Blackmore's finest musical moments. Relying on quotes taken from the BBC "Rock Family Trees" and "Classic Albums" just doesn't cut it.
The second half of the book got somewhat juicer, with input from many people who were relatively close to Blackmore, including Dougie White, Cozy Powell and some interesting additions from David Coverdale amongst others. What becomes apparent in the second half of the book is the single-mindedness, selfishness and downright childishness of Ritchie Blackmore.
Somewhat bizarrely, the book finishes with a monologue - or quote - from of all people Ian Gillan, who likely in reality is Blackmore's nemesis.
Overall, a decent read, but with key testimony missing - where were Dio, Gillan, Lord, Paice, Glover? Interviews from Blackmore's roadies only go so far. The author is obviously a huge Blackmore fan but I feel this somewhat clouds his objectiveness - he portrays Blackmore as a mis-understood guitar legend whereas the accounts of Blackmore's behavior illustrate him to be a spoilt brat with an unbelievable musical talent.
Footnote : One person that for me merited further investigation after reading this book was Joe Meek: someone who had a vision whilst at the same time retaining a sharp business acumen - ultimately and unfortunately undone by his sexual preference. See "The Legendary Joe Meek: The Telstar Man" by John Repsch

Black Knight is the best book of Ritchie Blackmore, Rainbow or Deep Purple by far, and I've read them all! It is a thoroughly comprehensive, well-written book, full of a plethora of great information. Jerry Bloom is a fantastic writer, keeping you reading until the very end. It is hard to put this book down. And it is quite long but never boring. Over 400 pages and numerous photos. Maybe it's because I live in the USA but a lot of the information was quite shocking as I've never heard of that side of Ritchie. For instance, I didn't know that Blackmore was such a groupie favorite. Literally hundreds of them. But I don't want to ruin all the surprises. If you're looking for a good read about one of the legends of rock music, buy this book. You will not be disappointed.

This is an absolute must-have book for any/ all Blackmore fans. Very well written and put together; very hard to put down. In addition, great pictures, as well. Bloom's book may be "unauthorized" but, do you realy think The Man In Black will ever participate in an AUTHORIZED book? That said, Bloom does a brilliant job in locating and interviewing many of Blackmore's musical cohorts...and he DID interview Blackmore, formally and informally, several times; this is NO generic volume...far from it (alot of great information that I, a confirmed Blackmore afficianado for over quarter of a century, did not know of. Bloom never takes the easy way out and goes into great detail many times). I cannot see how this superb volume could be better. I can't say it enough---outstanding job!!!! This book is soooooo readable and enjoyable...get this asap!

book isn't bad, you definately need a good atlas to go along with it. But lays out the details pretty nicely

I'm a med student and used this book to help me with my medical microbiology class. The pictures are clear and helped me to get a mental picture of histology, in this way, it was easier to remember the facts for the test. However, I also used the following:
Histology Study Guide: Key Review Questions and Answers by Patrick Leonardi
The second book focused on the kind of questions that were asked on my medical histology exams. In this way, it better prepared me for the type of questions to look out for. Both books are highly recommended.

I first just relied on the classnotes to try to pass my medical histology exams. I learned the hard way by falling the midterm. I then used this book and of course it helped me immensely. I also used (ISBN # 0971999686) Histology Study Guide: Key Review Questions and Answers. This study guide helped me to prepare for the final and the kind of questions to look out for. I got an A on my final with the aid of these two books. Both well worth the money.

The book gave us good info. We got it as part of a set. I would recommend it.

As you may already know, finding information regarding Brussels Griffon's is slim to none. This book however, is excellent. It contains everything you need to know about the breed. From the history of the breed, training, habits, to common diseases, this book doesn't miss anything. I highly recommend it.

VERY HELPFUL BOOK. DISCUSSES PURCHASING AN OLDER GRIFF OR PUPPY. AS TITLE STATES IT IS COMPREHENSIVE. IF YOU ONLY OWN ONE BOOK IT SHOULD BE THIS.

The book explain watermarking technology and uses fine but in order to help users to understand it better.

Digital Watermarking is definitely the first book to present in an unified approach the foundations of digital watermarking. The text is clear and didactic, following Cox, Miller and Bloom's writing style that has been evident in their seminal research papers. Very little previous knowledge on communications and information theory is required to follow the book, and still there is an appendix covering the background concepts on these subjects.
The topics are developed in an intuitive fashion, resorting to geometric analogies whenever possible, and the proposed programming experiments (which are backed up by source code both in an appendix and on-line) allow the reader to develop valuable insights on the concepts. Watermarking with side information, message coding as well as error analysis are extensively developed. A very "juicy" chapter is devoted to the applications and motivation of digital watermarking, covering timeliness subjects such as DVD copy control and the SDMI.

Theoretical issues are left for a tiny appendix, and not much use of it is made throughout the book. This is comprehensible in a book aimed to be an unified introduction to the subject. The notation that has been introduced in the very first papers by the authors is still used and it does not seem to be appropriate to present more elaborated theoretical developments. But again, this is justified when formality is being traded off by insight development and intuitive treatment. As a last critic, since virtually the whole book is devoted to image watermarking, maybe the next editions (I hope there will be more !) of this book should include the word "image" in the title.
This book will certainly boost your understanding about background concepts and shed more light on the overlapping among different research areas in digital watermarking.

Finally a good review of this field. I haven't read the whole thing, but what I've read, I like. Well written, good table of contents. I've skimmed the whole book and looked at some of the source code. Code is easy to understand. This is not simply a long research paper or a collection of research papers, it is more like a text book. Glossary is helpful too.