Butler Books

Here at last is a book that was written by a man who had the pleasure of viewing the films of the silent period first hand. This is not a book that was written by someone who was not born during the silent area, this is the real deal here.
Presented in chapters that go year by year with interesting asides of noteworthy events, the author describes his views of what he had seen during the silent period.
His memory is honest, with a few interesting 'honest' reviews of films that he remembered seeing as a filmgoing young adult. The pictures are a bonus as well, as many have never been seen before of films that were/are lost to us, which is heartbreaking considering the amount of films that will never be available to the public to view. Ever.
This is not a large volume book, just a doccument of informative information of silent films that one person viewed many years ago. This does not go into detail on every silent film ever made, just an overview, which to me let me understand the films he saw at a casual pace, which helped me understand each film and what each film had to offer in history.
As a resource, it does help one understand the power of the silent film, and how the medium progressed through the 20's, which is considered the decade where silent film peaked as an art.
The last few chapters amazingly covers the silent films that were converted to sound when sound was the preferred choice by studios, and the difficulty of the movie houses had in doing so to meet the demand of the public, and the films that were released silent, even as late as 1929.
I read this book in 3 days, and was a thoroughly wonderful read indeed.

I am currently reading this book, and so far it is a great book, and very enlightening on the Kazakh culture and way of life both prior to and during Soviet times.

Well worth the read!

Mark Conway

A Singular Iniquity, The Campaigns of Josephine Butler by Glen Petrie, tells the story of a tireless worker for the rights of woman. We take for granted that women can move about freely in cars or on foot. Women of the nineteenth century in England and elsewhere had no such freedom. The industrial revolution caused many people to move into large cities to work in mills and factories. Social expectations and laws were slow to accomodate this change. A young woman on her way to her job, could be accosted and raped and then have her ATTACKER report her to the authorities as a prostitute. The authorities could then subject her to a physical examination and then give her a certificate saying that she was a prostitute free of disease.
This and similar practices in other countries horrified Butler and she spent a lifetime working on repealing the laws that allowed them. Although not politically correct as a feminist by modern standards (she did not support suffrage for women), her work helped make it acceptable for Susan B. Anthony and others to travel freely about the United States promoting votes for women. Every person interested in HERSTORY should read this book.

"Sisters" is a dark and fantastical read. It is unusual in how quickly it reads. How visual every page is, that it takes on a life of its own while you move through its pages. I Read it and could not forget it. Buying it for friends, for Christmas.
RB

In Soul and Forms Lukacs is writing on the destruction of forms and stressing subjectivity as a category to be rescued from abuse by vulgar marxists. Created in the period of 1907 through 1910,a phase often referred to as his 'romantic anti captilist period' Georg Lukacs writes in a moving and beautiful melancholicic voice on the tragedy rendered unto the soul by the events of the period. His ideas are the result of deep personal reflection based upon the tragic events in his own life the death of his love as both Irma Seidler and Leo Popper his twin touchstones pass in a period of less then one year.Lukacs investigates himself as a type and uses his personal problems as being enblamatic for the suffering and death of a way of being, the greatness of the book is a brilliance and poetic caste of mind that is at the same time trying to use highly subjective events to gain and show a small mastery over certain philosophical problematics. Thiswork represents a kind of love of philosophy/ philosophical love it is agreat work for many reaosn but one is the way that life and thought are intertwined in each sentence it uses subjectivity as an index on truth.

This is essentially the same book as "SPC Simplified: Practical Steps to Quality". The key differences are that the material is sequenced differently and the emphasis is on using SPC in service industries. Like the book upon which it's based, it's divided into modules, each of which builds upon the preceding one. The value of this approach is that this book can be used either as a training text or as a self-study guide.

Basic principles are covered in the first module, followed by modules on quality tools (module 2 covers problem solving tools, and module 3 covers quality improvement tools from the larger body of TQM tools and techniques).

The foundation of SPC is laid in module 4, which introduces variation, histograms and checklists. This material prepares you for module 5 (variables control charts) and 6 (attributes control charts). The service specific part of this book emerges in module 7 (sampling plans) and 8 (systems capability). All examples in these two modules use examples that are common to services industries, which adds realism and practicality to the material for the intended audience. Module 9 ties together the preceding modules by giving a framework for problem solving. Also included are answers to practice problems from the various modules, and an appendix of factors and formulas that make this book valuable long after it has served its purpose as a training tool.

If you're new to SPC or think it is beyond your ability to grasp this book will give you a solid foundation in the basics. After reading this book and working through the practice problems you will understand how to use the highly effective problem solving and quality improvement tools, and will be able to develop and apply common control charts to measure variation and process capability. After you've mastered the skills this book provides you may want to read "Design and Management of Service Processes" by Rohit Ramaswamy, which goes much deeper into service processes, process improvement and SPC.

As a World War 2 29th ID reenactor I come up against SS soldaten all of the time, and I have always wanted to know more about their history. This series of books does a very good job of explaining the ideas behind the SS and it also does a good job of giving the history of the Wiking division and why non-germans would fight for those who invaded their country. It is well illustrated also with lots of very good quality pictures.

Dr, Butler has taken a little known era and party of the Episcopal Church and given us a very readable and flowing description of the time and mind-set of a wing of the Church which few have studied and, of which, some have never heard. Her genuis is for telling the story through the ministry of one Evangelical Bishop, Charles Pettit McIlvanie, and uses his own articles, books and letters to relate his thoughts and the motivations behind his actions. Some consider her a "revisionist", but that term cannot be justly applied since she is probably the first historian to tell this enthralling story in detail. Church history is not a reader's delight, BUT Dr. Butler makes it managable and even enjoyable. Being a doctoral discertation developed into a book it bares none of the usual academic meanderings common to such works. My only criticism is Dr. Butler's seeming inability to stick to a chronological stream, Individuals are sometimes quoted prior to their introduction into the story line - a small flaw in an otherwise brilliant piece of historical prose. I advise buying it used as no book of 270 pages should command such a price as this one does new.

I bought this book as soon as it came out. It was sad and it was funny, but most of all it was encouraging. It kept me interested from the moment I opened it until I read the last sentence. The author uses such emotion and tells his story in such a way that you feel like you're there, in his defeat and in his triumph. It's a fantastic story for anyone. I highly recommend this book. It's a great read!

This is physical therapy at its finest. The Europeans provide a different way to move with a patient, relate to a patient and begin purposeful movement directly relating to life skills. My son, 4 years post accident, only ate pureed food until we worked with him through Pat's book. He now eats regular food, chewing, etc. This is a Godsend for those who American physical therapy has not worked because of the severity of the injury. These people are masters at getting the severely head injured back into the mainstream of life, without condescention, and with total support. I cannot thank them enough.