Kahn Books

a swarthy fitness guru who sexercises with rich suburbanites is poisoned. a weak link in an otherwise praiseworthy rachel gold series. a straightforward who-done-it lacking the usual consideration of weightier legal issues.

I thought this book was a dry gloss of 2 subjects that deserve to be more interesting - history and opera. I thought the author did justice to neither by attempting to cover both too broadly. I had high hopes for finding more historical insight and perspective into the operas I love - but found more of a dry recitation of names, dates, titles, incidents. The people did not come alive for me. Am also reading a social history of early modern Germany called "Flesh and Spirit" - it's a much more interesting treatment of social history and, ironically, brings me much closer to the characters of operas written and/or set in that period.

I am writing this early December, 2002. This book is nearly 7 years old, and with the current advances in Pain Medicine, these questions are getting outdated fast. Also, [amazon.com's] price is [high] for this book, whereas other retailers are selling it for [less], probably because it is such an old book.

Kentner warns the reader that this book is more a set of observations and opinions gleaned from experience than a reference, and it can be thought of, aside from the early chapters on piano construction and development thereof, as a series of essays on pianistic subjects.
The writing style is undisciplined, however. The frequent use of foreign phrases (not musically related) without translation is ostentatious, and certain prejudices are strongly or repetitively expressed without much justification (the first sonata of Chopin is called "childish" three times in two pages). A few clumsy turns of phrase ("in actual fact...") should have been edited out. An admitted digression attempts in a single page to demonstrate a "Schubert-Liszt affinity" solely on the basis of enharmonic modulations. The Paganini caprices would not have entranced so many later composers if they were "mostly poor creations."
The early chapter on the process of piano tuning was enlightening in its succinctness. The author's knowledge of pedagogy is evident in several references, which are nonetheless imprecise in origin.
I am not sure if the later edition amends this, but it is interesting that in 1976 (after the deaths of all three) the oeuvres of Bartok, Stravinsky, and Prokofiev are encompassingly called "controversial."

Mrs. Peppercorn writings about Villa-Lobos are her main achievements on musicology field. But the overall impression is that she is searching for "coherence" and traditional forms in Villa-Lobos music, lacking the principal features of modern style in his works. It is like she could not accept any innovation by a latin american composer and all his efforts are considered by her as a "excentricity".
Recently I concluded a doctoral thesis about Villa-Lobos' music, focusing his compositional procedures and my goal is to refuse this kind of "exotic" approach.

Although there are some interesting details in the book, it failed to hold my interest, as I thought the author got a little too thorough in her description of what took place in Lyon.

What I'll grant her is that, toward the end, when Barbie is in Bolivia, the story gets interesting. It gets even better when he is extradited to France, where justice catches up with him.

The sub-title for this book is somewhat misleading. IMHO, a better indicator of the book's mission would be, "The Essential Guide for Frequent Flying Hypocondriacs". I was searching for a resource on how to become a better road warrior, and thought the "Essential Guide" would provide tips on dealing with business travel challenges. Instead, this book (more of a thick pamphlet, really) focuses almost entirely on the medical (proven and hypothesized) risks of air travel. Let me save you some time and money - "Drink plenty of water."

This book, if one can really call it so, can best be described as propaganda for an architecture practice whose entire claim to fame is based on the architecture of its original founder, Albert Kahn. Unfortunately the architecture of the present firm Kahn and Associates has nothing to do with the great Detroit pioneer. It might be of interest to persons researching how great firms have gone bad.
A waste of paper.

This has got to be one of the STUPIDEST "I wanna write an indian book" books to have come along this century. El Abuelo isn't even a Navajo phrase. El Abuelo is SPANISH for the grandfather. "Y" is Spanish for and - also not a Navajo word. Please woman - don't try to be Indian - you just embarass yourself in the Native American community.

This is a book to open the eye's of a beginner. The book lacks so much. There is very little how to or what to or what to use. I've learned more from one (1) chapter of other books then I did from cover to cover of this one. Very, very poor!