Burke Books

Kenneth Burke was one of those rogue geniuses that every serious thinker must contend with, but few ever fully understand. Like Vico, Joyce, and McLuhan, his thought is varied, far-reaching, multi-disciplinary, and maddenly complex.
Using Burke's "logology" as the "proscenium within which Burke invites The Lord and Satan to have their dialogue," Garlitz unpacks the entire range of Burke's thought. After revealing the first principles of Burke's rhetoric of religion, Garlitz applies them to a multi-leveled reading of Conrad's Nostromo--illuminating exactly how Burke's method of methods works to reveal the many levels of a literary work of genius.
This is another kind of "literary theory" that readers trained on Derrida and Lacan may not be used to, but Garlitz has revealed its interpretive power in a stunningly succinct fashion. All students of Burke should have this book, and anyone who teaches his works on symbolic action should order it for his classes right away.

Knowing Stones: Poems Of Exotic Places is a collection of almost two hundred travel poems written by more than one hundred poets. Compiled and edited by Maureen Flannery, Knowing Stones is a very highly recommended anthology of poems ranging from rope bridges over Himalayan gorges to walkways across the Amazonian jungle, from touring the ruins of ancient civilizations to the vibrant life of today's great cities. The Seamstress: At the ceremony where old needles,/bodies broken in service,/are buried in the soft white tofu pillow/I think suddenly of my mother's mother/first in the ship from Ludsk/then in the tenement on the Lower East Side/where she sat over her sewing machine/pulling each piece of fabric/mute through its rusted tongue./For Years I haven't thought of her/until now, when this prayer--/an unlikely Buddhist mass--/stitches up the run in that old stocking Time/here in Tokyo, my Ellis Island of the mind. Leza Lowitz

La cama grande de Sofia is the Spanish translation of Sophie's Big Bed by Australian author, Tina Burke. Sophie is a bright little girl. She loves her cuddly blanket and toys in her crib. Each day for several days she considers sleeping in her new, big bed. But she doesn't. Finally, she is ready and with her cuddly blanket and toys she sleeps in her big bed. The story is simple, but delightful and the warm illustrations show a confident little girl. I love adding books in several languages to our diverse library collection.

Drew on inspiration and in turn inspired others

Smooth as silk, delicate as porcelain, Ivory Diamond was every inch a lady. She was also a ruthless player in her father's pirate empire. Equally comfortable behind as easel creating artistic masterpieces or behind a celestial cannon enforcing her father's edicts, Ivory had but one weakness: She wanted a man to love. Sent to the pirate stonghold to infiltrate Spider Diamond's operation, Drew Jordan found himself in an impossible situation. Handpicked by Spider as a suitable "pet" for his daughter, Drew had to win her love or lose his life. But once he'd initiated Ivory into the delights of lovemaking, he knew he could never turn her over to the authorities. For he had found a vulnerable woman's heart within a formidable lady rogue. This was a wonderful love story. Very realistic as far the furturistic story line went. Hope there's a sequel about their daughter.

I write a lot of academic articles on philosophical literature of the period dealing with the theme of language, and this book really provides a wonderful historical context to help situate my own literary and philosophical analysis. Burke's discussion is both detailed and far-ranging. The manuscript for the project I am currently working on cites *Languages and Communities* a number of times. Burke's book is truly an excellent contribution to the field and is one of my personal favorites. For anyone working in the fields of history of linguistics or history of the philosophy of language, this book is a must-read.

The hardcover copy of this book that I have came out in 1980, a good year for me (I was 33) to be thinking about what I was going to be doing for the rest of my life. Nobody was expecting my life to be so much like this book, and I have no memory of what year this book actually became mine. As the intellectual level of televised life has declined to reflect the lack of thoughtfulness of the media which bring us the most important information we have to go on, I must have figured that this book would be about Nam, as soon as I saw it. Crimes against humor (a network cancelled the Smothers Brothers comedy hour) were so common during the war itself, when laughing at Nam was supposed to be much worse than going to Nam to fight, LAUGHING WAR by Martyn Burke had to be about the great tension required for seriously maintaining an activity that became increasingly absurd. I was once in Nam to escalate the winding down, and finding myself in disagreement with the army (like having my own secret plan for peace) was perfectly natural, as in this book.

Comedy has become such a business that the information in this book which might still be considered most useful relates to how a comic routine must reflect a particular character to connect with an audience and be successful. There are chapters on Barney ("Most of Barney's comedy material came from watching the war"), Donna ("the Garbo of the Catinat, coming and going when few people saw her"), Isaacs ("Bitterness wells up inside Isaacs and he decides that he prefers the enemy at the front to the enemy behind him. . . . It is Abbie Hoffman, exhorting his multitudes with anarchistic wisecracks that sound to Isaacs like treason"), Jokes, and finally, Laughing War itself. If there is a possibility that something like Nam will crop up again, with the help of this book, people who want to be comedians will be able to spot it first and tell everybody about the hard times that are about to come down. Anyone who is trying to make sense of civilization will be hard pressed by the case which this book makes against the foolishness of using all of its destructive power in an attempt to wipe out all opposition.

In the chapter on Isaacs there is a paragraph about a sergeant who was "bored by the jokes. They remind the sergeant too much of the kind he used to hear at the strip shows with the traveling carnivals. They were all hick comedians in those shows. With corny jokes." That is all most people expect, and it was great to read this comic effort to bring people to another level. More than just liking this book, I try to live it.

Lee West loves the law and the federal judiciary; his wife, Mary Ann, and his two daughters; quail hunting; and his hunting dogs. Not necessarily in that particular order. Lee West likes the cowboy poet Baxter Black; Wilma (Coffman) House; telling good jokes and stories; and needling circuit court judges about their willingness to reverse his district court decisions. Not necessarily in that order.
It goes without saying that many of us are fond of Lee West. Perhaps that fondness can best be illustrated by the forward written by former United States Senator and Oklahoma Governor, Henry Bellmon. For all the accolades and honors rightly directed at Henry Bellmon for his many years of public service to Oklahoma, he counts as among his noted accomplishments the original appointment of Lee West to the Oklahoma state judiciary in 1965. Governor Bellmon goes so far as to say of Lee West that "he might have been just the kind of judge our framers, many of whom were also quail hunters, had in mind when they created the Third Branch of government."
But then Governor Bellmon also describes Lee West as "an outstanding lawyer, who despite his Reba McEntire accent, or Little Dixie diphthongs, possessed a Master of Laws degree from Harvard University."
Governor Bellmon's forward only gives the reader a taste of what is to come. Bob Burke and David L. Russell, one of Lee West's colleagues on the U.S. District Court sitting in Oklahoma City, have authored the kind of book that works as medicine for anyone needing a boost in life. It's a book that works because -- well, Lee West is truly that special character so beloved by so many. This is not a book for the curmudgeonly.
Law and Laughter is all about Lee West. But that's the easy part of this review. After all, a biography should be about the subject of the biography. Burke and Russell are telling the reader as much as they can about Lee West. We learn about his family heritage and his ties to Oklahoma's "Little Dixie"; his birth in Clayton, Oklahoma, during the depths of the Great Depression, and his youth in Antlers, Oklahoma. We learn how Lee West loved the United States Marine Corps. We learn of Lee West's many years of public service with the Oklahoma state judiciary, the Civil Aeronautics Board, and the federal district court. We learn how he enjoyed teaching at Harvard Law School and the University of Oklahoma College of Law. We also learn how the law could have been the real loser. It turns out that Lee West has a successful record as a football coach. How much poorer we all might have been if he had stayed with football.
This is also a man who attended a state dinner hosted by President and Mrs. Gerald Ford arriving at the White House gates in a "1972 green and white Dodge clubcab pickup with an Oklahoma license plate." A pickup complete with dog boxes in the back bed. A man who admits to developing an empathy for the criminal and downtrodden from poetry read to him at any early age by his sisters.
As a reviewer, I have only one real goal. How do you adequately convey to the reader the true character of another person? That so many already know Lee West certainly helps a lot. Absent that personal acquaintance, a well-written biography is another way to learn. For those not fortunate enough to know Lee West, this book can very well be that useful substitute. For Lee West's life is one of those well-worth the time spent in learning just a little more. These two authors have given us just the right book to learn a little more about Lee West.

This is a great way for people to learn swing and Latin styles of music. I would reccomend it to anyone.

Just read 'The Compass and The Clock' and was motivated by it to do something I've wanted to do but was afraid to try.

The book is an interesting concept. It melds a parable about time and direction with an approach to personal leadership that helps you go after something you've always wanted to achieve.

Very powerful message and a quick and easy read. Recommended!