Bloom Books

Benjamin Bloom is a second generation transformational Marxist, dedicated to the destruction of the founding ideals that have made America great. Namely, accountability to a higher authority, the existence of revealed and absolute truth, and that man's heart is despiratly wicked, in need of internal or external restraints. Bloom and his buddies have simply cleaned up Theodore Adorno's work The Authoritarian Personality, for public consumption in teachers colleges. Bloom's work is based on false assumptions of human nature; there is no God, no absolute truth, and man is basically good, evolving, and perfectable.
Read pg. 32 where Bloom claims there is no lasting truths for all time and all places. Compare Bloom's statement with Engel's claim in Ludwig Feuerbach, "nothing is final, absolute, or sacred." In Bloom's affective domain book he blatently acknowledges Adorno and another Frankfort School Marxist as forming his "world view". The progressive restructuring educational movement has destroyed what was great in America. Read it and weep. Protect your children.

This book was written almost 50 years ago and it is still widely used within education around the world. Bloom set out to create a common framework for categorising academic ability and his resulting taxonomy is still the de facto standard for classifying cognitive skills. Don't be put off by the age of the book - it's very readable - which perhaps reflects the timeless nature of his subject matter. Although some of his examples have aged (and perhaps were never particularly good examples), the book is accessible and interesting - and, as I've said, as useful today as it was 50 years ago. Highly recommended to anyone involved in writing test items. If you're interested, I've tried to provide more up-to-date examples on my Web site....

I have studied Bloom's Taxonomy, as have millions of other educators, and found his work immensely helpful in clarifying educational objectives and outcomes for my students. I was introduced to Bloom in graduate school where I studied Instructional Design. It was clear; those instructors who successfully implemented Bloom's work in their own teaching were of a higher caliber, easy to understand and more successful in helping the students to learn, not just recall facts and figures.

The earlier contributor is way off in their "review" of Bloom's work; and clearly paranoid.

This is a must-read, particularly in the field of systematic Instructional Design and specifically regarding learning objectives, criterion-referenced testing, etc. Bloom's work is the foundation for countless strategies, research, models, etc.

The series on all domians is a good addition to any teacher's library, regardless of content or level.

no insight into James JOyce or his writings. A lot of space dedicated to the guy who hosts a yearly reading on BRoadway of very brief excerpts from Ulysses AND OTHER UREALTED WORKS, as broadcast on NPR. I now no longer regret having missed these transmissions. IT is obviously a reluctant reading of snippets from the great work which JOyce urged not a word should be dropped. I already cannot bear hearing the Jim NOrton ABRIDGED recording.

If you want insight and commentary into Ulysses, turn to Kenner and the rest. This book is simply an overblown advertisement. Frank McCourt has very little to say. This book is personalities, not perceptions.

Two stars for being of Ulysses even obliquely, but it will join the other self-interested Ulysses related works in a bottom drawer rather than the preciously brief space on the much visited top shelf.

Ulysses is far TOO IMPORTANT to waste time and space on such commercially self-interested works.

While I approached this book with an ambivalent curiosity, for I have never been able to read more than the first thirty pages of "Ulysses", I find "yes I said yes I will Yes", to be an entertaining, intriguing, even inspiring introduction to Joyce's epic of a single day. It mirrors, reflects and refracts the fragmentary theme of the novel itself.

The text itself highlights and articulates both Joyce's intentions in writing such a monster-masterpiece, and others' reactions to reading it. For the uninitiated, "yes I said yes I will Yes" breaks down the mystery behind the whole Joyce legacy into a readable, comprehensible attempt at purity of language and thought, and how the human mind processes everything it encounters on parallel levels: first, the creation of characters who reflect momentary, fleeting glimpses of existence; then, the interpretation of the tale by assorted artists, writers,scholars, and students alike.

"yes I said yes I will yes" is meticulously edited and written, yet it strikes no poses; it emerges as an easily readable and digestible companion and introduction to Joyce and his machinations. Offering both line drawings and photographs of Joyce and others, this slim volume appraches the "Ulysses" dilemma from multiple directions, containing quotes from such writers as Virginia Woolf, who dismissed the book as fancified rubbish. As "yes I said..." suggests, opinions on "Ulysses" run the gamut, as would be expected of such a literary feat; however, it remains reader-friendly, the ideal way to make the acquaintance of perhaps the most influential modern novel.

The parallels drawn by the editor are equally intriguing and informative. Ms. Tully sheds light on how Joyce's version of the Odyssey anticipated, foreshadowed, and still corresponds other early modernist artistic, literary, and cultural movements. The book balances chapters or sections which introduce new contexts of, or aspects for approaching "Ulysses", followed by varying opinions and ideas about Joyce and his work. "yes I said yes I will Yes" forges a timely, necessary bridge between an author whose work often intimidates many of us, and what that work means today. I read it in a single sitting, several times over, and will prize it as a manageable, palatable reference source.

After absorbing this small book about Joyce, Ulysses, and the relevance of Bloomsday, I can return to Ulysses with a renewed sense of confidence and insight. "yes I said..." is well-packaged, presents appealing visual design and layout, plus it's affordable. I only wish it had been issued in hardback -- the pages on my copy already resemble my cocker spaniel's ears.

Joyce wanted his book to be read 'all the years of the nights' meaning all the lifetimes to come. And as Frank McCourt makes clear in his introduction he succeeded more than any other writer in 'immortalizing ' the day of his greatest work, and making it a kind of universal literary celebration. June 16 ,Bloomsday the day that Joyce met the woman who was to be his lifelong companion, mother of his children and finally wife, Nora Barnacle is the day chosen for the action of Ulysses. In these twenty- four hours Joyce will attempt to give us a complete picture of human life .In its eighteen chapters each of which has its own style, color, character, and each of which corresponds to a chapter of 'Odysseus' Joyce will explore and create worlds within worlds. He will too present us with a vast rich gallery of human characters, including the three major ones the young Joycean alter ego Stephen Daedalus, the wandering Jewish everyman Leopold Bloom, and the ur-feminine Molly Bloom whose love life and passion will provide the song of the great final interior monologue concluding with Bloom's proposal and her yes I said I will Yes.
This present volume while focusing on the celebration which is Bloomsday nonetheless provides many insights into the work itself. Isiah Sheffer's explanation of the way the eighteen chapters can be read as a six- six- six thesis antithesis synthesis , or as a three chapter twelve chapter three chapter story of Daedalaus alone Bloom's wandering and the fictional father- son in some kind of combination of meeting , does add yet another little bit of interpretation to my own sense of the work.
But of course Joyce wrote a work which begged and called for interpretation, and 'Ulysses' is the novel which has brought forth reams of academic scholarship, endless interpretation. It has , and here again is Joyce's great cunning, generated new life for itself through its ongoing interpretations and reinterpretations. And here it is like another central parallel work within the work, Hamlet, which Daedalus reads in his own somewhat Freudian way.
The work has a lyric power , an ongoing lilt , and an immense intelligence. In the 'Oxen in the Sun' episode where Joyce rewrites the history of the English language stylistically and in parody, we feel the master in control paring his fingernails above the ordinary world of writers and readers.
I enjoy this small volume as yet another edition to the ongoing library made around the name of this great mastermaker.

I fear that some of this book, issued in advance of the centenary of Bloomsday, has already been dated. Much of the material has been prepared for those needing a warm-up to 16 July 2004. Now that's passed, however, there's much to help the Joycean newcomer to Ulysses. It diminishes the Linati schemata that has caused many to rely too heavily on Homeric parallels. It frees readers by showing that whatever their fears, other actors, critics, and readers have shared them. While I wish it would have offered more of a chapter-by-chapter run down just to set the scene for first-timers, and while it pads the book too much with appendices at the expense of tips needed by novices, it does meet a need for the 'amateur' who seeks out Joyce for enjoyment rather than fulfilling a course assignment--a sure way to deaden many an enticing narrative.

The book offers little of the larger context of Joyce's other literary efforts within which to place Ulysses, but given the compression of even an overview and a few points-of-view within 160 pp., Nora Tully earns praise.

A shame her name comes third after the ubiquitous Frank McCourt (who I admit has a couple of decent insights nonetheless from his brief forward) and Isaiah Sheffer, who muses at length about the NYC Symphony Spaced readings each B-day. These personal encounters with the text, then, prepare for Tully's own skillfully arranged array of comments, mainly from past literati (for copyright reasons?) about the novel. Interspersed are mini-essays, the best of which were Mary Gordon's account of how she teaches the Nausicaa episode (you always find something new when returning to a familiar text: for me, she showed me the benediction-monstrance-Gerty's crotch link in a way I hadn't noticed before!); Tennessee Williams' term paper; a Vanity Fair ranking of thinkers by critics in the early 20c; and Robert Spoo's veiled attack, justifiably deserving to be even less muted, on the copyright abuses by the estate keeping Joyce from entering at last the public domain in Britain and Ireland.

A handy map of Dublin; updates on Joyce websites; recommended books and videos; celebrations of B-Day worldwide; cinematic, fictional, dramatic, and musical tributes: these round out a satisfying collection. I wish a review of the various audio versions appeared, for as this book says, listening to Joyce read well adds the musicality and the aurality that the author, myopic as he was, depended upon to convey meaning from an admittedly daunting pile of print. This aside, this pocket guide deserves credit for once again proffering the sheer reward of navigating Ulysses. It'll present you with a stunningly diverse array of styles high and low, boring and amusing: a book that for once shies away from nothing we humans do, and by its accumulation of the mundane, reaches into the heights and depths of our daily life.

A Marriage of Insects is Bard Bloom's first novel and second book. It is set in the World Tree, the same world that his fictional journal "sythyry" and his role-playing system is set in.

The book is complex: it covers two love stories of five main characters. The two love stories have very different roles and expectations.

The Herethroy are insect-like: strict vegetarians, and usually conservative. They have three genders: males, females, and co-lovers (who brings together the sperm and egg of the other two genders). Three of the five main characters are a trio of Herethroy who were wedded as children to tie together three villages; though officially married, they had not seen each other since they were children.

The Rassimel are raccoon-like: usually obsessed with one thing. The other two main characters are lady Rassimel: the captain of a skyship and a beautiful agent provocateur.

At times, the book reads as if the fictional universe's rule were, "Love, sex, marriage -- pick any one." One secondary character, a Sleeth (a very large feline with no hands) has plenty of sex but neither love, marriage, nor a desire for either. The Herethroy have marriage but only slowly grow in love or sex. Only the Rassimel go through something of a traditional romance (so long as you ignore that one is the captain of the ship and the other is calling on monsters to attack the ship.)

Bard Bloom does not believe in static characters. Although all five main characters start out as stereotypes ("the jock", "the caring mother", "the scholar", "the captain", "the agent provocateur"), every main character changes.

Bard Bloom writes carefully to emphasize the alienness of his culture. His writing is self-consistent but it rarely explains itself. Those who have devoured the World Tree Role-Playing Game may have an advantage in understanding the world. Here's an example of the prose:


The wedding was held in Dorly, on a gently-sloping hillside, on which horses and guntries had been forbidden to graze for several weeks for entirely practical reasons. The new triad was to be named "Tawlown", the next on the list of two hundred or so traditional Herethroy triad names in use in the area. The hillside commanded an excellent view of the goddess Virid in her manifestation as a spray of silvery leaves in the higher sky, if one looked up, and of the neighboring world-branch Denetheia and all its twigs, if one looked out and down. The sky was clear and the day was warm, which pleased the guests. But the sun was dim that day, and it dripped huge teardrops of blazing solar fuel off to one side. A celebration that should have been bright was darkened with flickering shadows.



I enjoyed the book, and I recommend it for any fans of fantasy and very alternative romances.

Author Bard Bloom has stated that the World Tree, the universe in which "A Marriage of Insects" takes place, is about aliens - the customs, religion, language and even biology of its population will strike an unfamiliar reader as pleasantly peculiar. Three Herethroy, cricket-folk, are wed as children to increase their noble families' titles and influence. After spending many years apart, the female warrior Rajel decides that life is short and reunites with her spouses. However, her scholarly husband Casamint and the co-lover belle Boragette have their own lovers in tow. They are strangers to one another, and their attempts to find lovable qualities in each other provide the meatiest conflicts in this novel.
In contrast to this tentative family are the Sleet (giant panther) Arrhwy, exhibitionist queen of the one-night stand, and the obsessive Rassimel pair Nethry and Zallarilla. All are tied together by Zallarilla's father Ilzatheinen, a sorcerer who has been employed by a village of monsters, creatures for whom the gods have not declared dominance over the world, to create magical defenses around their city. He hires Arrhwy and Rajel, who drags along her partners in the vague hope that danger will bring them closer together.
Bard moves from scene to scene without much transition, which often interrupts the pacing but works better when read as small chunks. Zie is most interested in exploring the intimate moments between the characters, especially through their dialogue, which is an intricate mix of iambic meter, puns and observational humor:

"It's not you I'm worried about. [Rajel says.] You're a sweet little co-lover with a heart like the flowing fountain. I'm worried about our city-bug of a husband. If his heart is a fountain, it's flowing with... that nasty bitter tea they give you to purify the blood. Yarrow or something."

With so much focus on dialogue, it often seems as if characters are talking at each other, rather than to each other. Fortunately, it is stronger during emotional and climactic scenes when each line naturally leads to the next.
As well, the setting detail is often sparse, assuming that the reader is familiar with World Tree. The novel could easily become a play.
Despite the amount of impalement and demonic presences which turn up, the novel is surprisingly light and cheerful. Death isn't permanent, foe turns to friend, and much is forgiven. Often, the actions scenes are described in conversations after the fact. The novel skirts the line at becoming too tame for its subject matter, as betrayal and love-over-duty themes are the stuff of myth. The characters are interesting but I didn't find them rounded enough for significant emotional attachment.
The characters' discussions on aristocracy - purchased vs. inherited titles and the responsibilities included with each - and polyamory and non-monogamy are fascinating though. It is wonderful to have literature such as this which presents alternative relationships in an honest, positive light.
It is clear that Bard Bloom loses zirself in the story as deeply as Garrison Keillor loses himself in Lake Wobegon. A glossary is included at the end, but the novel still requires some familiarity with the World Tree franchise to understand the basic concepts of the world. I recommend a glance at the World Tree website on-line for a quick overview of "cley" and prime relationships. All in all, it is an enjoyable experiment taking World Tree into the realm of literature and I'm looking forward to the next.

Note: By request of the author, I am using the pronoun "zie", which is also shared by such activists as Les Feinberg and S. Bear Bergman.

This is a book about exotic interpersonal relationships masquerading as a fantasy novel. Forbidden (or at least highly-disreputable) love, homosexuality, jealousy, betrayal, arranged marriages, and plain old family disagreements - it's all there. There's a plot, too, but you'd be forgiven for thinking it was just a backdrop to the big question of why people are or aren't sleeping with other people. Of course, many of these people just happen to be six-limbed crickets that come in three genders.

There are a few interesting tidbits and in-jokes in there for those who have read the World Tree RPG rulebook, but it is not essential to have done so. Indeed, the book itself is more of an inducement to buy the rulebook - as, no doubt, was part of the intention.

I gave four stars because, while the story is fun to read, there is a noticeable amount of exposition in places. The novel also seems like it has been written in a similar manner to the author's other World Tree universe writing, Sythyry's Journal - as a series of individual posts, stitched together into an overarching plot. This can feel disjointed at times.

The lack of images other than the cover is another down-side; if you were hoping for another visual extravaganza after the lavishly-illustrated rulebook, you will be disappointed. This lack of illustration make it harder for those new to World Tree to visualize the characters and their world - except of course for the central triad, who are on the cover.

Should you buy this book? Well, I had a fair bit of fun reading it. It is relatively short, which may be good or bad thing depending on how long you like your novels. If you have got World Tree, and like it, then chances are you will enjoy this. If not, but you like the concept, you'd do best to get both, as the rulebook is a great read in and of itself. The most you'll pay is $40, and that's really not a lot for a weekend's entertainment - and perhaps much more, if you actually get around to playing the game.

This is an elegantly written story of a polio survivor and a delicious slice of life in the mid west from 1940 to the present.

There was an error in rating, it was originally given 5 stars, but did not show as such! -lori cordini

Ms. O'Brien's book is an excellent read. It was written in a simple personal way that gave me the feeling of sitting across from her at her kitchen table. It held my interest completely. Her candid approach to her illness and how she overcame the obstacles of her life circumstances with dignity and courage is applauded. I couldn't put it down! I was especially touched at the very end of the story, where the title came from. I couldn't hold back the tears! -lori cordini, Boone. NC

This is a really moving story. The author had a very severe case of polio when she was 6. She was in an iron lung at the beginning and had long years of treatment and therapy that she describes in at times excruciating detail. She had to learn to deal with that and also in the ways that others reacted to her and her disabilities. Beyond her polio, she had other difficulties in her life including her father's growing mental illness. But she comes out of all of this as an admirable person - seems to have a sense of humor - exposes her own frailties and shortcomings and those of others around her - nothing is sugar coated. . She tells her life story in a very honest open straightforward unadorned way. But that does not take away from the powerful impact. You really have to admire how well she persevered
Memoirs as a category of non-fiction are much the rage these days but I often wonder how accurate they are. They sometimes seem to have so much detail that it is hard to believe that the writer could have remembered it all. But with this book, you feel that the author only tells what she knows - doesn't embellish the facts and you really get an appreciation for her as a person.
It takes a lot of courage to open up one's life so extensively to people one doesn't know and even more to the people one does know. Because she so honestly and openly told her story you feel that really know you her as a person. Her strength and perseverance is admirable but most important of all is her attitude. The difficulties she experienced, survived and triumphed over really make the reader reflect on their own live and experiences. It gives one an appreciation of how life can be lived - that difficulties are exterior to one as a person and that there are friends, and experiences that can help one develop the attitude needed to survive.
As to the book itself, I see reviews where the reviewer gets all hung up over the writing style, whether something should have been written differently. When I read a book I pay attention to the story, not just how it is told but more importantly what is being told and her's is a story worth reading. The author is a very perceptive person and her observations, both big and small, really make the book.

I thought that this book was a bit slow getting started but once you get passed that all the book gets very interesting. I really only wanted to read this book because I knew that Big Brother the television serise was based on this,but no I have relised what it is all actually about and the story behind it which isnt just another reality show.It was excellent the way that Orwell protrade Winston throughout the whole book and the use of all the other characers emphasised this greatly.I really enjoyed this book and just how Orwell protraded the future of the wrold in 1984.

Written to be a comment on what happens when socialist dictators take over it extends well beyond. It touched upon what it means to be a person, the rights all should have and a graphic depiction on what it takes for a man to give up his principles. A grand, grand, grand book. One of the best written in a good time.

Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens, is a great story for just about anyone who has the time. From Pip's thoughts and fears, to his hopes and desires, the reader is left waiting for the outcome. This novel is a good-read, but it takes awhile to get involved. Be patient; the wait is most definitely worth the while. Charles Dickens manages to wholly fulfill the title, which is a major theme throughout the book. Enjoy!

AS A GRADE 11 STUDENT, I AM EXPECTED TO MOAN AND COMPLAIN ABOUT A SEEMINGLY LONG AND BORING NOVEL THAT I AM REQUIRED TO READ IN MY ENGLISH CLASS.... INSTEAD, I FOUND THAT THIS NOVEL WAS THE FIRST THAT DARED TO REALLY DIG DEEP DOWN INTO THE MORAL AND ETHICAL VALUES OF HUMEN BEINGS. THIS NOVEL REVEALS THE TRUTH ABOUT THE STRONG, THE WEAK, THE RICH, THE POOR, AND THOSE WHO ARE FALSE, AND THOSE WHO ARE TRUE. I BELIEVE THAT THIS NOVEL IS AN INVESTMENT OF TIME THAT EVERYONE SHOULD LOOK INTO... IT'S WELL WORTH IT!!!

.

Although this book is targeted at young readers, it provides the best
overview of Haiti on the market, which is why I give it five stars. At
just over 100 pages, the book explains why the Western Hemisphere's
poorest nation can't seem to rise above the psychological, political,
religious, and economic ashes of its 1804 revolution, a proud history
lost in the despotic rule of ruinous leaders and intense poverty. For a
more adult read, check out the author's 1990 article in the German
newspaper Die Zeit (under the subsection "Themen der Zeit") called
"Wueste Eden, eine Fallstudie von Erin Condit." The lengthy political
and economic analysis is targeted at the weekly journal's audience of
European intellectuals, artists and policy leaders, and its conclusions
ring as true today as they did 16 years ago.
________

Upon reading this book, I was impressed and, at the same time, disenchanted. The author painted an interesting, easy-to-follow portrait of the two leaders. However, the book was too short to expound upon the material sufficiently. There was a definite lack of details, especially pertaining to the causes and effects of the Duvaliers' power. I will credit the book with giving a good overview of the two men, though it seems to concentrate mainly on the elder "Papa Doc". Overall, it is best suited for a reader with little or no knowledge of the Duvalier regime.

This book wasn't quite what I was looking for when I purchased it. I was looking for something with more information on how to put a round robin together. Even though it was not what I was looking for it does have lots of beautiful quilts and great idea's for boarders you can use in a round robin.

This is a great book for ideas for round robins. There are great pictures and good instructions.

For more information on the author and up comin titles please visit:

www.clivebloom.com

This book was pretty good as a reference tool, but not that great otherwise.

Melville's darkly curious novella about a mysterious new hire
who refuses to leave his place of employment--even when dismissed--is subtly compelling; the conflict is revealed
gradually in small, psychological increments. This story, which could just as well have been set in Victorian London, is related by an elderly narrator--a lawyer with two regular scriveners (legal copyists) and an office boy. But the addition of the inscrutable, pallid Bartleby creates a sensation in the small office. He quietly but simply refuses to do anything but copy documents, eventually disintegrating to not even that. Yet he will not leave; he "prefers not" to do anything but waste time and waste away. How can his decent, compassionate employer remove the unwanted fellow, without resorting to crass police intervention?

Melville's unchaptered tale is characterized by with long paragraphs and a rich tapestry of vocabulary. Less a mystery than one at first expects, the simple plot unfolds eventually to comment on the role of humanity. How easy it would be to assuage our collective conscience by institutionalizing the misfits. This may be the first literary example of Passive Resistance. With no clear cut villain in this seemingly actionless tale, readers are left in moral disquiet, yet this short work provides a glimpse into Melville's dark genius.

Herman Melville's "Bartleby" is undoubtedly one of the finest short stories known in the canon of Western literature. It is the story of a stubborn, yet ultimately passive scrivner (copyist) that despite his individuality has alienated himself from society. Melville contemplates whether a true individual can really function or even survive in society.

This story, while delightful and original, can get bogged down in the rigid, almost archaic English. Some readers will be ultimately find this too cumbersome and but the book down. However, many readers will grow accustomed to the language and, it is charming. If you haven't read Melville or think that he might be too stuffy, or too distant, think again. His humor and his originality are to be appreciated and maybe even admired in this hum-drum age of tired sitcoms.