Bryant Books

Gerry Fraser Bryant shares very individual expressions through his poetry and prose in Sweet Music; however, he peppers the strong emotions with light scenes and ideas that quickly bring smiles to his readers' faces.

He begins his book with his and this reviewer's favorite, "Eight Little Letters," which endearingly declares the speaker's love for another. It is definitely a cute start and encourages Bryant's audience to continue.

"Grains of Sand" fittingly follows in Part Two. It describes the passage of one's life using the sea as a metaphor for time. Commenting on the wonder of a young child, the confidence of youth, and the creeping of age upon a man, it ends with an invitation to gain wisdom in carefully listening to the man's voice, as could be accomplished by studying history.

The next section is devoted to religious poetry. Although "Thank God!" proved a bit confusing for this reviewer, "The Valley of Shadows" elucidated the author's views about God and the assistance God provides to those who request it. Bryant does this not only through the literal narration in "The Valley of Shadows" but also through the use of active imagery.

"Blank Page" is a cute cure of writer's block. In this poem, Bryant actually appreciates his paper for assisting him in the creation of his art. This theme is similar to the one in "What's Coming Out?" about his pen which is featured earlier in Part Five.

Part Six contains a wealth of poetry to share with loved ones at special times. "Sweet 16" encompasses love and advice from a parent to a son during a time when the youth will deal with both insecurities and overconfidence. "If You Can (21st Birthday)" is along the same lines, but it's noticeably written for a more mature reader with stronger counsel to strive to be one's best while being forgiving of others and situations. "Halloween" is simply fun--so much in fact that another poem later portrays this holiday again. "Dearest Mother (86th Birthday)" shows the poet's personal relationship with his mother and gratitude for her care and comfort throughout his life; yet, through imagery of camping and rowing on a calm lake to being tucked into bed at night, Bryant's feelings are universally engaging.

Bryant's next part covers more morbid settings, but the book ends with his earlier prose and much encouragement to the audience to record their own feelings.

Overall, this is a commendable debut for Bryant.

Religious references are left out, but the format of the book makes it easy for a parent to explain their own family's beliefs (or lack of belief in an afterlife) at the appropriate point in the book. A picture of a dead bird is included in the section explaining that the body is just a shell and that once people die only the shell is left and that the person they loved is no longer part of it. Small children often have problems with understanding death and its finality, and I think this book does a good job of helping to explain it. Still, no matter how well you think you explain death to your kids, be prepared for their having some pretty interesting misconceptions. I gave this book 4 stars rather than 5 because the price seems a bit steep for such a slim, hardcover volume. However, the book is just the right length for the task at hand.

`Turnaround' is a very detailed account of the foundation Coach Bryant used to rebuild the Alabama football program. Tom Stoddard is wise to let this book be mostly oral history, as the players can tell this story far better than anybody else.

There are some tedious moments. My patience was severely tested by paragraphs of depth charts, including where the player was from. This kind of text became even more unbearable when I turned the page to find an actual depth chart. My first attempt to read `Turnaround' was thwarted by this poor editing decision.

The players' stories about the coaching staff, Coach Bryant in particular, are the real attraction of this book. These stories make up the majority of the book, and make this book an overall enjoyable read.

Just skip over the long lists of names.

I didn't use this book as it was intended, but instead traced the designs onto fabric using the tip of a knitting needle and dressmaker's carbon paper, thus increasing its value for me. Clear, beautiful designs are what you get with this book - just not a whole lot of them.

Videoblogging is one way for people to record their thoughts, advertise a service or product, and/or get their message across to Internet viewers without spending a lot of time and money with recording studios and the like. Stephanie Bryant who clearly has quite a bit of experience with videoblogging has done a great job in explaining how the average person can become a "videoblogger." Using a casual writing style (I love chapter titles like "I Vant to Vatch Your Vlog), she breaks down the steps involved in getting a successful videoblog off the ground and onto a web site.

She starts off with an overview of what videoblogs are, why you'd want to watch and/or make your own videoblog, and the various kinds of people who are videoblogging. Subsequent chapters detail items like the tools needed to do a successful videoblog (they're not as expensive as you might think), the physical "process" involved in shooting a videoblog and then converting it to a format your computer can understand. Part II of the book details the "behind the scenes activities," things like figuring out who your audience is, getting comfortable behind a video camera, and scripting the show you want to present. Having done some TV work in college many years ago, I discovered some of the same concepts apply here as well as doing a TV production.

Stephanie in Part 3 details the "physical production aspects" of videoblogging: actually shooting it, editing it, adding sound, and saving it to the 'Net. And finally, there's the task of hosting your files online, syndicating them, adding to them, and of course publicizing them. The book's Part of Tens include "Ten Core Vlogs to Watch," which give you ideas on how successful videoblogs are put together.

Stephanie has done a wonderful job in demystifying the world of videoblogging.

In this latest of Bryant's several works on cartoons and satirical illustrations on British history, Winston Churchill's comment that cartoons are a "good way to learn history" is evidenced. The cartoons are what Americans know as political or editorial cartoons found in most newspapers. In more than 300 cartoons, the racism, imperialism, misogyny, conceits, British political figures, and different perspectives on domestic and international affairs as related to Britain's worldwide Empire are on display usually with biting labels and captions. The British can be wicked with this sort of business; even more so than the French or Americans whose cartoons, though often no holds barred, generally keep a note of humaneness or humor. For example, in American and French cartoons, the individuals are usually caricatured so they look humorous. Whereas, the 19th-century British cartoonists freely make individuals look monstrous or inhumanly ugly. I recall reviewing a book at one time on British satirical illustrations of the 1700s and early 1800s where the author wrote about how a member of British royalty finally had to forbid certain types of cartoons he found them so personally painful and damaging to the image of the monarchy.

Not all of the cartoonist/illustrators are British. There's many cartoons by the leading Victorian illustrators John Leech and John Tenniel (both of whom illustrated books by Dickens) and others found in the newspapers ad periodicals of the era of Britain's Empire. But there are also some cartoons by Daumier, Dore, and other foreigners with views on Britain's colonialism.

Many of the cartoons deal with either economic benefits of the Empire or indifference or cruelty to natives and their culture. Images of Britain as the noble, heroic, or self-sacrificing nation bringing civilization to the pagans alternate with ones of Britain as hypocritical, greedy, or destructive. Some cartoons represent themes, while others represent policies in showing the leading politician or government official most identified with them. Many contain portrayals of British soldiers and natives of the different lands of the Empire. The variety of their topics is engaging as well as, as Churchill commented, educating.

Cartoons fill most of every page of the main text with Bryant's general commentary and references to particular ones in columns in the lesser parts of pages. As with the author's previous similar books, the collected cartoons are "intended primarily as a pictorial history of the period as seen through the eyes of the cartoonists and caricaturists who lived through it and chronicled events as they occurred. In this case the period is the nineteenth century and the wars of the British Empire during the reign of Queen Victoria from the Crimean War to the Boer War."

Excellent book! Everything you need to build beautiful wheels of all styles AND nifty things to go with them. The only drawback is the presumption that you should own a very large lathe. Do not let this stop you, the book is full of excellent plans and much information including the proper dressing for a distaff.

Very user friendly recipes for the most part. I prepared the chili and the red pepper& lentil stew and they made for fantastic trail meals - actually, they were so good they wouldn't be out of place on the dining room table rather than the camp site. Anyone who's planning to make these meals on a regular basis really should invest in a dehydrator to save time, money and energy - the prep for my two meals took nearly 36 hours in a conventional oven. As I said though, the results were well worth the effort. Sure beats having peanut butter sandwiches or Mr. Noodles for dinner after an all day hike.

Im sure this is a great book that no one has ever heard of but i'll give it 4 stars just because im nice

Zenith TRANS-OCEANIC: The Royalty of Radios(Second Edition)and The Zenith Trans-Oceanic, the Royalty of Radios: The Royalty of Radios (Schiffer Book for Collectors)(First Edtion)
If you own a Zenith Trans-Oceanic, you probably own the first edition of this book. If so, you'll love the second edition: not a word has been changed. You won't have any problem finding the new materials: it's all in a new section at the end of the book. As the authors point out, cost considerations precluded revising the text of the first edition.
What's in the new material? A page or so of updated historical information, a discusssion of the second military model unknown when the first edition went to press, nice photos of Trans-Oceanic wannabe's from RCA, Hallicrafters, and others; photos of some of the Zenith companion radios, and some other items of interest.
What's missing? Much has happened in the collector world since the publication of the first edition, and an expanded list of parts and suppliers would have been welcome. There's an ever-growing network of resources for Zenith collectors that should be included in the book. Additionally, these radios aren't getting any younger, and an expanded section on maintenance, repair, and restoration would be helpful. More detailed information on electrical restoration would be especially useful along with discussion on building and using battery packs as many collectors want to run their Trans-Oceanics on battery power.
Should you buy the second edition? Should you buy another Zenith Trans-Oceanic? Of course! If your first edition is getting a little dog-eared, you'll get the same book plus some new material. As a Zenith collector, you'll want to add this book to your Zenith resources. Hopefully, when it's time for a third edition, the authors can do a true cover-to-cover revision.