Hoffman Books

As an active member in two synagogues, I see the problems that Mr. Hoffman illustrates within his book. I see first hand the decline of membership in the shuls throughout the local area. But, at the same time, I also see a rebirth of some sorts of worship. Mr. Hoffman speaks about how to alter the service, and make it more interesting. Yet, I feel the most important way to get people into these houses of worship is not to exactly change the format, but to change one's family life. Mr. Hoffman does have very valid points, although if you infuse a spiritually traditional home with a warm loving home, you'll automatically solve some of the many problems as Hoffman illustrates in this book.

You can never have enough photos of the Barrymores. Books like "Good Night Sweet Prince" are superb, but lack photos. This new coffee table book is almost entirely made up of photographs. It was made with the involvement of John Barrymore Jr, the spaced out hippy son of John Barrymore (and father of Drew.) There are lots of rare family photos, and a neat section on "Barrymoreabilia".

I thought that this book offered really great insight into the contemporary controversies surrounding obscenity, pornography, comics, repression of lgbt {lesbian, gay, bi and transgender)community, and all limits of free speech. The publication is very liberal which I though was a great advantage. The book offers a few pieces from those on the right wing of the political spectrum, but overall the book focuses (and sympethizes with) extremely liberal peoople. I think the text could have been a little better by including more pieces by feminist authors/activists. There are some (I think I remember 2 or 3) but there could be a lot more. Also, some articles on the internet and free speech could have been addressed. Overall though, I thought the book was thought provoking.

a few of the pieces included are:

bullwhips, sex slaves, and catcher and the rye; the arguments against pornography; an interview with art spiegelman; the art of homophobia; san francisco vs. basic instinct; whoring in utopia; hate and the art of queer media spins; sex, smears, and feminists; pornnography's victims.

I've been reading this book for a course in Jewish liturgy at a Conservative seminary. Hoffman is an important scholar of liturgy [see his "Canonization" book], and this book captures his particular approach, so it's worth a careful read. The book goes far deeper than, say, Hammer's "Entering Jewish Prayer."
Problem is that whoever edited the book let us [the readers] down: my fellow students are having a very difficult time trying to figure out what Hoffman's approach really is. I had years of graduate work studying Victor Turner, Mary Douglas, and Clifford Geertz, so when Hoffman states that his "holistic" approach to liturgy is inspired by their methodologies [though he doesn't describe, nor distinguish them from each other], I had a foothold in what he was talking about. Hoffman accurately claims that the study of Jewish liturgy has been based on the Wissenschaft approach of describing the historical development of the texts, and then by tracing the development back to an identification of the origins of prayers, we, by axiom, arrive at the discovery of an Ur-text, or of an Ur-experience, which delivers the "true" meaning of the prayer, and hence the goal of scholarship. To be fair, I think that's what I wanted out of a course on liturgy, and Hoffman's book has been an important corrective in my thinking. For example, perhaps the greatest Jewish liturgy scholar, Elbogen, claims that the Havdalah originated as part of a meal setting, where the spices "originated" as a way to cover up the smells of the cooking, and the fire was the cooking flame. Hoffman, by contrast, wants to approach liturgy in what I take to be two ways, though he never explains himself at all on the matter. First, he wants to take a Geertzian, cultural anthropologist, thick description, holistic approach: what is it like to participate in the havdalah ritual? What are people experiencing? What moods and thoughts are cultivated as one goes from step to step through a liturgical experience? What distinghuishes a wink from a blink during a prayer experience? [For example, when we sing the Kedushah, what is it like to mimic the angels? How does the participant feel it? What does each successive verse accomplish?] Second, he wants to take a Douglas/Turner quasi-structuralist approach, whereby each prayer devides up the world categorically. So, one the one hand, Hoffman tells us that really he's looking at "the field of meaning for those engaged in praying" the havdalah prayer. Two paragraphs later, he tells us that his thesis is that "havdalah functions as a presentation of the Jewish categorization of reality." [Page 31] He doesn't seem to understand that these are two different things, unless I am wrong and you can see them being the same thing. (I am giving the best possible example here, since one might see the experience of holy and profane categories as the experience of the havdalah ritual, but, again, I see a Douglasian approach and a Geertzian approach as very different.]

The book is important and could be brilliant, if someone had forced Hoffman to clarify what his approach is, and how it leads to his conclusions. He can't have expected his readers to know the philosophies of the three thinkers he says inspire his approach. Indeed, he states in the introduction that the book is a "memory dump" of his thoughts on liturgy, and it reads that way. In fact, most confusing to my peers, he often writes approvingly of the historical development descriptions of the liturgies by Elbogen and Baer and others, so that my colleagues think he's endorsing them, when he's actually trying to go beyond them. It gets confusing.

So Hoffman is not his own best explicator, but at the same time, he's absolutely right that an historical development approach to liturgy masks an assumption that "earlier" is better, and that does not jive with the idea -- probably best gleaned from Geertz, as Hoffman does-- that there's a social experience going on during a ritual performance that is not illuminated by tracing textual origins. The book is an important step in a corrective direction.

The commonly held view of the creation of the Cistercian Order has several cherished elements: a foundation date for the order in the early 1100s during the lifetime of Bernard of Clairvaux; the rapid spread of this novel form of monasticism based on 'apostolic gestation' (a mother abbey sends out an abbot and 6 or 12 monks to found a new abbey); the settlement of new abbeys in the waste and disused lands of Europe; strong central control by the General Chapter; and the almost complete lack of women's foundations in the early Cistercian Order.

This well written volume turns this potted history on its head. The author re-examines the earliest foundation documents of the Order and individual monasteries in southern France to compose an entirely different history of the Order's early years. The concept of the Order itself was not invented until after Bernard's death and the General Chapter did not exert control until the last third of the Twelfth Century. In a far cry from the traditional history, the author finds evidence that the Order spread primarily by incorporating pre-existing foundations including many double houses as well as women's foundations. The incorporation of pre-existing monastic communities certainly better explains the Cistercian's amazingly rapid spread and success. Instead of colonizing the wastelands of Europe, the Order took over areas already under cultivation.

There are more surprises in this volume besides those mentioned above. The concepts of equality and charity, exemption from tithes, and other cherished myths of the Order are scrutinized using primary documents. The book focuses primarily on southern France, the cradle of the Cistercians, and deals extensively with women's monasteries and the Cistercian's foundation myth's silence about them.

An excellent read and an essential book for anyone interested in the history of the Twelfth Century or the Cistercians.

This compilation of short stories from the student writers of the Claion Workshop is very worthwhile. While I disagree that the capstone piece is the Lucius Shepard story it is still a marvelous insight into the early writings of some well known authors. Most noteable are; Dean Wesley Smith, and Nina Hoffman. My favorite story was "Beast and Beauty" by Kristi Olesen. This story was the most SCI-FI of the lot, about an alien circus performer and her protective sibling. The introduction by Damon Knight is a very interesting account of the history of Clarion, however he could have given more editorial comments about the authors.

I'm not sure why there hasn't been a review on this book yet, but this book is awesome if you're preparing for the DSST tests. I studied for about a day, took both tests back to back, and got A's on both of them. Just make sure that you know:

1. All of the important Supreme Court decisions (such as Mapp v. Ohio, Gideon v. Wainwright),
2. How criminal and juvenile courts work, (their procedures, etc)
3. The 4th, 5th, and 6th & 14th amendments to the Constitution
4. Everything related to the development of the American police force & crime statistics

The only thing that is missing that you would need outside of the cliffsnotes book is current information on police dept's hiring statistics on minorities and women. At least 4 of the questions on law enforcement test were related to that subject.

Look in the yard at the flowers and trees,
Butterflies, bluebirds, and big bumblebees.
Let's begin counting the things that we see.
Here's a nest tucked away snug in a tree.

~page 1 and 2

As Billy and Abigail start to explore the yard they discover that counting can be rather fun. A dog and cat follow them around as they discover one egg, two fish, three apples, four squirrels, five acorns, six smooth rocks, seven roses in bloom, eight butterflies dancing in the air, nine worms and 10 chocolate-chip cookies.

I don't know about anyone else reading this book, but I was rather please to see Billy and Abigail eating cookies and drinking juice. Their arms and legs are so skinny. While this stick arms/legs look gives them a whimsical look, I hope the illustrator will consider the message this might send to kids. The cat and dog looked rather well fed and are adorable.

Otherwise, I loved the colors and art in this book and each time you look at the pages you see something new. There are scenes of brightly colored butterflies, red tablecloths and gardens with bird houses and white picket fences. Personally, I think the cat in this story really steals the show.

Nice durable carboard-style pages with a wipe-clean coating.

Also look for: Good Morning, Good Night Billy & Abigail

~The Rebecca Review

This book is well written and easy to understand. This fact alone is a critical point to me in any technical book. Having been a DB2 DBA for well over a decade now, I found this book invaluable to assist me in an enhanced understanding of how DB2 functions and executes on the AS400 platform.

RI is reviewed and explained in detail to enhance every database for every company using DB2. Triggers are explained clearly and concisely with a no nonsense approach.

If you need to thoroughly understand DB2 on the AS400 platform, this book will make you a DB2 DBA star in your company.

Well worth the investment and reading time.

This was very entertaining. I finished it in only two weeks and i'm a pretty slow reader. I would definitely recommend this to any one who enjoys reading books of this genre.