Bryan Books

Ah! Our Mr. Grinch seems to have an itch and can do nothing to relieve it. He tries and tries but to no avail, and true to form our Mr. Grinch becomes meaner and meaner. In this tale a little dog shows up and Mr. Grinch does everything in his power to show this little guy named Max that he does not want him around, that is until Max scratches the itch.
This is an adorable book and fans of the Grinch will enjoy this adventure with him and the new addition of Max to his household. Could it be the Grinch does have a soft spot after all? Enjoy!
Shirley Johnson

Children who are hooked on the Grinch will love this tale of how Max meets the Grinch by getting rid of his itch. As with the classic, children will witness the Grinch go from mean and grumpy to friendly and kind. The best part is that this book may be read all year round.

For any who are interested in the effect Getlio Vargas's nationalism as projected via 1920s radio's promotion of the Samba had upon the national character, I find "Hello Hello Brazil" a fascinating book. I got into this field because the Bossa Nova seduced my musical tastes. I had to know more. Clearly Rui Castro's book on the subject, plus a book entitled "The Brazilian Sound" by Chris McGowan and Ricardo Pessanha told me much. "Hello, Hello Brazil" though scholarly oriented, fills in many of the blanks. I'm still reading it and I can barely put it down.

This is a fascinating book that begins a much needed investigation into how the politics of Getulio Vargas' "Estado Novo" were tied to the development of many of the trends that led to overt "Brasilidade" in popular music. McCann argues that these relationships were intricately connected and complicated as he balances the varying ideas of nationalism, commercialism, and creativity. McCann carefully traces concurrent histories of radio development, musical development, the influence of the US, the invention of choro as traditional music, fan culture, advertising, and regional styles in a rich and deeply nuanced tale. McCann gets most of his sources from radio archives, which clearly come from work he did for his dissertation. Fittingly, his discussion is framed by the rise and fall of radio as the primary medium for entertainment in Brazil.

As a music scholar, I was a little sad to see that McCann's discussions of music were limited to the lyrics of the songs he described. When he attempted to discuss rhythm (essential to any discussion of the samba or choro), he was reduced to using syllables like "tam tam-tam" which hardly do the music any justice. Understandably, McCann is not a trained music scholar, but in this period of interdisciplinarity, I was surprised by its complete absence. Additionally, the chapter on fan clubs and auditorium shows marked the only point in McCann's book where he lost his momentum and got bogged down by details. Otherwise, the book is a thorough and fun read.

This book has been around since I was in college during the Punic Wars. However, like Strunk & White's ELEMENTS OF STYLE, it's earned its tenure for good reason: it's thorough and accessible. As a student, I garnered much, and, now, as an instructor, I find it an easy guide from which to teach. (The MLA style updates are handy, although you can find them almost anywhere these days.) For teachers and students, THE HARBRACE HANDBOOK is rapidly becoming indispensible.

Rocco Dormarunno
College of New Rochelle

This is a great text book. It has helped me GREATLY and teaches you step-by-step how to apply everything.

This book one of the best out there in Houses,
Why you ask because they tell the truth, The houses is a Special Topic in Astrology life, family ,carreers, home, luck,and the world contracts.
Now the main reason why I'am Digging this book so much is that nothing is left out from it,this book has all 12 Houses Famous people natal charts!
That's right celebrities from: Bill Clinton, Martha Stewart, Donald Trump to name a few! now your problay thinking WOW
that's our thoughts too.
this book has Loads of case studies and examples of there life and yours,
you may have something in common with them !
Also you learn a Great Deal about your self pastlife, karma so buy it
And see for Your Self.

I have to say I was very pleased with Gwyns book, her voice as an author is easygoing but informative. She gives you a good feel for how to read the planets in the houses with lots of nice examples, from the famous, to her family. I like the fact she quotes her own, and her husbands charts at points in the book, it gives the text a nice cozy intimate feel.
Gwyn also uses alot of Pop Culture refernces that add a bit of sparkle to the work. Overall this is a nice book to just curl up with and read, if your an astrologer.

Of course one of the most important features of any Astrology book to my mind is the charts. Gwyn has provided us with a large number of charts of very interesting people, and Llewellyn has presented them in a nice large easy to read format. -Thankyou :)

The book is very positive in its overall tone, as Gwyn says, "We can also think destructive thoughts, engaging in negative self-talk, like, I'm too old, dumb, ADD to learn new technology"... snipped ... "knowing the strengths and challanges of the Planetary and Zodiac placements with-in the houses will help readers rethink and reprogram such negative self talk, to throw away the outdated mythology."

Because Gwyn wants to keep a positive focus, sometimes the lower vibration of a placement or house will get played down. Say Saturn in the 10th house. She does rightly point out that individuals with the placement very often outperform their co-workers, but steps over the fact their motivation is that Saturns impact in the 10th is very often to make a native not feel good enough in their work, so they very often overcompensate; or if they dont overcompensate, the native might either drop out of the workforce altogether, or settle for work well below their abilities. Liz Greene's Saturn explores this aspect more fully if your interested.

I would also have liked to see a little more specific information on the art of reading empty houses. Or perhaps some examples of charts using other systems besides Equal Houses, rather than just pointing the reader to websites for alternate house systems.

For myself I hope she expands into these area's if a 2nd edition should be forth coming. ;)

Still I dont want to come across as overly negative myself. The book is wonderful for what it is, an uplifting and informative exploration of the houses. It was never meant to be an all encompassing work. The beauty and challange of Astrology is in its depth. The reader will certainly want to expose herself to other visions of the houses after readings Gwyn's book, but if you are a intermediate Astrologer who wants to add more depth and color to your interp of the houses. Your going to learn alot with this book, and its going to earn a place in the bookshelf on your desk.

Walter Bryan's real name was Walt Willis, and he was a marvelous writer. Most of his essays appeared in small privately-printed magazines, starting in the 1950s.

(Translation: Walt Willis was one of of the finest writers in fannish fandom, ever. Terry Carr, who was also one of the best writers to come out of fannish fandom, and =such= a brilliant editor, put together =The Improbable Irish= out of bits from Walt's column, "The Harp that Once or Twice". It was published as "by Walter Bryan" because Walt was a civil servant in Northern Ireland.)

(Other people who are or were fans of Walt Willlis's writing: Avram Davidson. Damon Knight. Harlan Ellison. And a host of others.)

=The Improbable Irish= is a collection of Walt's ruminations on Ireland's people and history. It's full of wonderful bits:

Q. How Are Things in Glocca Morra?

A. Actually there are very few things in Glash na Gloragh, but what there are seem in reasonably good condition considering that they have been lying out in the rain so long. The rocks show signs of wear, but the grass and heather appear to have recently been renewed.

---

Poteen making is a dying craft, like its customers. The only man I ever heard of who made any money out of it did it by buying war surplus distillation equipment by mail at ten pounds a set and concealing it about the bogs; he then informed on these illicit stills to another department of the British Government, receiving twenty pounds reward for each.

---

The almost magical power of Ireland to make any stranger Irish in two generations is attributed by many to the climate. The unpredictable vagaries of the weather incessantly inculcate, it is said, alternate moods of optimism and pessimism, of grandiose imaginings followed by a sense of the futility of all human endeavor. Like the poster for a village garden fete, where a list of gay attractions is followed by the ominous words, "If wet, in the Scout Hall." ...

Whatever the reason for the spell of Ireland, it was a pheomenon that surprised and frightened the English, who like things to be as they appear, and to stay that way. Nothing, it seemed, could be trusted in Ireland, not even themselves. The problem of remote and rebllious Connaught, for example, seemed to have been solved when it was subdued and entrusted to the stern and reliable Anglo-Norman family of De Burgos in the early 14th Century. But almost immediately, historically speaking, the solid De Burgos had disappeared and in their place were an Irish family called Burke, speaking Irish, wearing Irish clothes, following Irish laws and defying English authority. ... On at least one occasion, the Address to the Parliament in Ireland, which was supposed to represent the English occupation, had to be translated into Irish before the members could understand it.

---

On the energy and enterprise of Irish immigrants:

The change in the immigrants was so sudden that one is driven to the conclusion that it was due to the replacement of something that had been missing from their diet -- probably food.

---

An Irish attorney was making his best of a rather shaky case when the judge interrupted him on a point of law. "Surely," he said, your clients are aware of the doctrine =de minimis non curat lex=?" "I assure you, my lord," came the suave reply, "that in the remote and inhospitable hamlet where my clients have their humble abode, it forms the sole topic of conversation."

---

On Irish participation in Parliament in the late 19th Century:

This turbulent period of British politics produced much drama and eloquence, and also one of the finest impromptu puns ever made. An Irish member was defending as morally justified the taking up of arms by evicted people against the agents of absentee landlords, when he was interrupted by a shout of "Treason!" from an English member. "What's treason in England," said the Irish member, "is reason in Ireland, because of the absentee."

---

The visiting motorist finds everything he is used to, except traffic, and is enticed into exploring the countryside more fully by excellent signs. Only occasionally do these signs let him down, by being in Irish only. "If =Oifig an Phuist= doesn't mean =Gentlemen=," Charles Harris said on his first visit to Dublin, "I did a very silly thing in the post office this morning."

---

[End of excerpts]

I find I've mostly quoted the funny bits, which are shorter than the non-funny bits, like the part about the Great Hunger.
That's my fault, not the writer's.

Grab on to any copy of this book you can find. Let your friends read it while they're at your house, but don't lend it out because you'll never get it back.

This is a passionate book about the Irish and about Ireland, at times humorous, at times serious, at times profound, written by a Belfast native and civil servant. By writing under the name of "Walter Bryan," the late Walter A. Willis did not have to get prior approval from the government he worked for to publish his book. You don't have to be a science fiction fan to appreciate THE IMPROBABLE IRISH, but those who are active in the amateur publications of the sf submicrocosm recognize Willis as their finest writer -- they were so impressed with his writing that they set up "special funds" in 1952 and 1962 to bring him from Belfast to attend the World Science Fiction Convention, and made him the fan Guest of Honor at the 50th Worldcon in Orlando just before the turn of the century and shortly before his death to have the pleasure of his company again. Some of the material in THE IMPROBABLE IRISH first appeared in essay form in various sf fanzines, which explains in part why he refers by name to his sf friends in the book; it was largely Willis's influence, anyway, which opened these amateur publications to personal and humorous essays that had, as often as not, nothing whatsoever to do with science fiction. His closest sf friends in Belfast became professional sf writers -- Bob Shaw and James White -- but Willis's only other professional writing was in the form of reviews of fanzines which appeared in a British sf magazine. His collaboration with Bob Shaw on the parable of the fanzine microcosm, THE ENCHANTED DUPLICATOR, was reprinted numerous times after its initial publication in 1952 and can now be accessed on line; it has also been performed as a play at sf conventions. THE IMPROBABLE IRISH is not Walt Willis's best writing, but it's good solid work that remains a joy to read. The active sf fans who knew him would give the work a five-star rating in part because they knew him, but even those who didn't know him should get at least four stars' worth of pleasure from reading it.

--rich brown aka DrGafia

This book approaches the nativity story from a different angle. Rather than telling the story chronologically, author Debbie Trafton O'Neal coordinates the players in alphabetical order. While children learn their ABCs, they'll also learn about Jesus' birth -- all through rhyming verse and vibrant illustrations.

Each page features a letter of the alphabet, displayed largely in upper and lowercase. A short sentence tells of one character or aspect of the first Christmas and highlights the word that begins with the featured letter. For example: "M is for Mary, who followed God's plan. N for the newborn, God's Son born of man."

Jan Bryan-Hunt does a fabulous job as illustrator. Her whimsical artwork fills the pages with brilliant colors, sure to please children and parents.

What I Like: Everything! My kids have heard the Christmas story so many times, it's nice to have a book with a different approach to the story. They're all about learning the alphabet, too, so this is a favorite for me and them! The author did a wonderful job finding good words for every letter of the alphabet. Z and X are always troublemakers, but she even served them well by offering "ZZZs from the baby asleep in the hay" and "X is for exalting, praise lifted on high." Not perfect, but I can't think of anything better! The illustrations are great. They're so fun and colorful; quite unique.

What I Dislike: Nothing.

Overall Rating: Excellent.

SPECIAL NOTE: The age range is listed as 4-8, but I think younger kids will enjoy it too. My 2 year old loves it!

Tanya -- Christian Children's Book Review

A is for Angel by Debbie Trafton O'Neal is a delightful story and activity book that children will be enchanted with and read over and over. Through rhyme and the alphabet, the author tells the story of Christ's birth. It begins with A is for Angel and ends with ZZZs from the baby, asleep in the hay.

Bryan-Hunt's illustrations are bright, colorful and reflect the joyousness of the Christmas story. Children will be attracted as much to the pictures as they are the whimsical alphabet rhymes. At the back of the book are four simple, yet enjoyable activities for children and parents to work on together for their own use or for gifts for special people in their lives.

Armchair Interviews says: A is for Angel is a great way for parents and children to spend time together reading about the birth of Jesus and to make memories through the activities

Greatest Hoosier artist ever? ... is a leading question. The sadly neglected tale of a shy 13 year-old boy traveling alone across the sea and the landscape to LaPorte, Indiana for early schooling and known there as "Sam Gilmour", was later to become universally known as one of the world's greatest artists -- Isamu Noguchi (a future Jeopardy question?).

Accessible, significant, colorful, inexpensive, the Modern Masters volume by Bruce Altshuler is easily the most accessible guide to Noguchi's works of a lifetime. This edition is distinguished by large illustrations, many in color and stylishly presented, yet in a less expensive paperback format. It is perhaps the best primer for recognizing the historic significance of the wide ranging yet simple, spiritual aesthetic gifts from this complex soul to the rest of us.

This book is filled with examples of Noguchi's artwork, mostly sculpture. I am currently enrolled in a Sculpture Class and found viewing the pictures a helpful reference for the sculptures I produced. It is most important as an artist to be influenced by other artists, and I feel that this book was successful in doing just that.

There is absolutely no doubt that all enterprises, small or large, are completely reliant technology to operate. Companies have aggressively built and deployed IT solutions. My experience has been that most executives kind of treat this as a black box. They understand that there are major benefits to deploying various IT solutions (and they are right), but they don't really understand the how and the why. This is where this book comes in. I think that it is essential reading for executives, particularly those who are not strong in IT. Executives need to really understand the hard issues related to managing their IT portfolio -- how should they manage their IT portfolios. This book provides an excellent road map. It will show you how to evaluate your IT portfolio in a concise and easy-to-read manner. I'm big into charts and checklists and this book provides them. With a bewildering array of IT options and the difficult task of sorting and prioritizing, this book will serve as an essential guide.

Paradigm shift is an overused term, but if there is a field in need of one, it is enterprise IT management. IT Portfolio Management presents the first detailed overview of an emerging, business-focused approach for managing all things IT.

If you only buy and read one book on IT management this year, it should be this one. The introductory summation of just how bad things generally are in enterprise IT is worth the price alone.

IT portfolio management ultimately presents the challenging idea of an overall, end to end value chain of IT investments, from initial idea inception through prioritization, delivery, management, optimization, and retirement. Handler and Maizlish propose the formal management of Discovery, Project, and Asset portfolios; their discussion of the Asset portfolio is a groundbreaking examination of issues that too many IT organizations are just beginning to face up to.

This well written book has detailed case studies from Cisco, In-Q-Tel, and Excel Energy, and much specific guidance in the form of checklists, charts, tables, and more.

I recently saw a figure of $800 billion per year for the combined expenditure on IT by US corporations. Given the massive size of this capital investment, it is very surprising how few substantive books there are written on its general issues. Technical publishing usually produces detailed reference guides that are soon obsolete; this book (like the recent _IT Governance_ by Weill and Ross) is in the smaller category of works that discuss more general issues of large scale IT management, and should have staying power far beyond the latest .Net tome.

If you are in IT management or concerned with the architecture of IT enablement systems - buy it. Now!

I have reviewed many of the writings of the American revolutionary James P. Cannon elsewhere in this space. This review should serve as an interim evaluation of this excellent biography of the premier Communist leader to come out of that movement in the 20th century. As such it is long overdue and, as pointed out below timely. I have read through this book once but want to read it again before making a full evaluation. I also want to dig more deeply into the incredible number of footnotes, perhaps more than the average reader may desire, the author has provided. More on this later. In the meantime kudos to Professor Palmer.


If you are interested in the history of the American Left or are a militant trying to understand some of the past mistakes of our history and want to know some of the problems that confronted the early American Communist Party and some of the key personalities, including James Cannon, who formed that party this book is for you.

At the beginning of the 21st century after the demise of the Soviet Union and the apparent `death of communism' it may seem fantastic and utopian to today's militants that early in the 20th century many anarchist, socialist, syndicalist and other working class militants of this country coalesced to form an American Communist Party. For the most part, these militants honestly did so in order to organize an American Socialist Revolution patterned on and influenced by the Russian October Revolution of 1917. James P. Cannon represents one of the important individuals and faction leaders in that effort and was in the thick of the battle as a central leader of the Party in this period. Whatever his political mistakes at the time, or later, one could certainly use such a militant leader today. His mistakes were the mistakes of a man looking for a revolutionary path.

For those not familiar with this period a helpful introduction and copious footnotes by the author give an analysis of the important fights which occurred inside the party. That overview highlights some of the now more obscure personalities, where they stood on the issues and insights into the significance of the crucial early fights in the party. These include questions which are still relevant today; a legal vs. an underground party; the proper leftist attitude toward parliamentary politics; support to third party bourgeois candidates; trade union policy; class war defense as well as how to rein in the intense internal struggle of the various factions for organizational control of the party. This makes it somewhat easier for those not well-versed in the intricacies of the political disputes which wracked the early American party to understand how these questions tended to pull it in on itself. In many ways, given the undisputed rise of American imperialism in the immediate aftermath of World War I, this is a story of the `dog days' of the party. Unfortunately, that rise combined with the international ramifications of the internal dispute in the Russian Communist Party and in the Communist International shipwrecked the American party as a revolutionary party toward the end of this period.

As an addition to the historical record of this period this book is a very good companion to the two-volume set by Theodore Draper - The Roots of American Communism and Soviet Russia and American Communism- the definitive study on the early history of the American Communist Party. I have, as is the nature of the case, dwelt here on Cannon's development as a Communist in the early days of that party. When I update this review I will discuss his formative years in Kansas, his father's tutelage in his development as a socialist, his self-education in the rough and tumble of socialist and IWW (Wobblies) politics and some details of his personal life as they affected his political development. For now, if you want to know what it was like in the 'hothouse' (some would say loony bin) in the early days this is the book for you. Hopefully the author will continue this biographic effort further to analyze the later more decisive events that finished Cannon's education as a communist leader.

This is a long overdue biography of an outstanding figure of the American labor movement. Cannon was a member of the IWW and the left wing of the Socialist Party, a founder of the Communist Party and one of its leaders until 1928. He was almost alone to have the moral courage and theoretical understanding to resist the corrupting and fatal domination of Stalinism and founded the Trotskyist movement in the United States.
This volume (the author promises to follow it up with a second volume) traces Cannon's roots in the turn of the century America, the sweep of the radical labor movements of the first thirty years of the 20th century, and the factional and theoretical struggles of early communists.

The author is responsible for my losing sleep. Once again she develops characters that the reader cares about. TheIrish certainly suffered during this era, as did the families who were torn apart during the Civil War. Enjoyed the historical setting...fascinated by your 16th President...and his condemnation of slavery. Bravo for another excellent novel!

The lifelike protagonists overcome religous barriers to marry during the Civil War. The story vividly describes war scenes and the struggles and attitudes of Irish immigrants in the 19th century. In a nutshell, "Love Conquers All."