Lee Books

I am a TKD practitioner and former police officer who knows what works in real world applications. TKD is a fantastic art and I love it but just like all other martial arts that use forms and choreographed movements they are limited and not realistic. I always wanted to practice JKD because of it's fluidity and simplicity. This book is very concise and a easy read. The instructions are clear. I now combine my TKD experience with JKD and have never been happier as a martial artist. Well worth the money spent.

Chinatown Jeet Kune Do is a fantastic book well done. The WNG are the best when it comes to JKD. I am fortunate to have trained with Tim Tackett many times. He really knows his JKD and all his books and vids are great. Steve S. From NJ

Tim Tackett has done it again!
For more than 20 years, we have been able to depend on him to "tell it like it is".
Now with his newest book, he and co-author Bob Bremer have not let us down.
Bruce Lee's art is based on simplicity, directness and effectiveness, and Tim and Bob's book is the epitome of this.
All meat,no fluff or filler!

This is easily one of the best books on Jeet Kune Do that I have ever owned! I have all of Tim Tackett's books, and once again, he has not let me down! He and co-author Bob Bremer have presented in this volume some of the most valuable information on Bruce Lee's martial art ever put into print! The book is very well done, with precise, in-depth text and clear, well sequenced photographs. As a Full Instructor of Jeet Kune Do, I will be referring to this book as a teaching aid for years to come, and it is already required reading for all of my students! My suggestion to you is ... BUY IT NOW!

Early in the summer of 2006 Turner Classic Movies ran Billy Wilder's underrated 1970 film, The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes. The picture was a box-office bust, Wilder himself elected to say little about it later (in part because it was recut and shortened against his wishes), and published critical reaction is scarce. Not least among the film's attributes is Christopher Lee, who is a splendidly forceful Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock's officious, easily annoyed brother. I wanted to read more about Lee's performance, and more about the film. Where to look?

Ah! Tom Johnson & Mark A. Miller's exhaustive, scholarly, and compulsively readable THE CHRISTOPHER LEE FILMOGRAPHY saved the day. Nearly 2000 words from this smart, handsome book are devoted to the Wilder film, offering complete cast & credits; a plot synopsis that is concise, useful, and entertaining; and a lengthy "Commentary" section that looks at the film as a whole, thus placing the contributions of Lee and others in a helpful context that encompasses art and industry realities.

The latter portion of the authors' commentary about the Wilder film, as with every Lee film discussed, focuses on Lee's involvement in the film. Johnson & Miller's remarks comments reflect two perspectives: critical and business/ historical. So it is that, throughout the book, we get informed comment on Lee's work as an artist, as well as original research that illuminates the making of the film, and the particulars of Lee's relationships with other cast members, as well as his comments regarding director, producer, writer, and others who helped make the film a reality--or who may have impeded its success.

The U.S.-based authors spent many hours in face-to-face confabs with Mr. Lee at the actor's home in London (plus numberless follow-up phone calls and letters), asking questions, taking down the actor's marvelous anecdotes, looking through career scrapbooks that Lee graciously opened for them, and selecting rare photographs from Lee's personal collection. This is what scholars of any stripe call "original research," and its value pays off here, with insights into Lee's movies (more than 160 of them!) that simply are not available from other sources--or if they are, they may have been cribbed, without acknowledgemt, from Johnson & Miller.

A special pleasure is that nearly every essay concludes with Mr. Lee's remarks, presented verbatim, about the individual films. Over the course of these first-person recollections, Lee reveals himself as a dedicated artist, of no small ego, perhaps, and also a man of powerful and varied talents. Above all, he has wished to work in meaningful films of quality and integrity, and to stretch himself as an actor. That he has not always been able to do so says more about the inanities of the film business than it does about Mr. Lee. Given opportunities worthy of him--the early Dracula roles, Lord Summerisle, Mycroft Holmes, Count Dooku, Jinnah (the founder of Pakistan), and many others--Lee dominates the screen not merely with his physical presence and that marvelously deep and cultured voice, but with his ability to become lost in his role. Like other great film actors--all of whom are forced to perform in fits and starts--Lee BECOMES the character. Film scholars and movie fans alike are swept away; they buy the illusion.

As an incredibly detailed--and always fascinating--chronicle of the career of one of cinema's most compelling actors, THE CHRISTOPHER LEE FILMOGRAPHY is the last word on Mr. Lee's professional life. And it is that rarity: a book created by the authors AND the subject, in protracted and amiable collaboration. How unusual that is, how valuable, and what a treat.

Exhaustive without being exhausting, authors Miller and Johnson manage to transcend the trend of "lists" by not only providing the details of Christopher Lee's myriad film works, but accompanying the facts with delicious anecdotes and observations. Each and every film has an accompanying commentary - and each and every commentary is a treasure trove of information either from Lee himself or one of his collaborators, along with relevant snippets from reviews. What I particularly liked about the commentary segments is that they not only rely on Lee's memories of the films - they also frequently draw on contemporary accounts by Lee himself in the form of quotes from letters Lee wrote to his fan club president over the years. Many's the time Lee would approach a film with high hopes, only to have them dashed by any one of a number of problems that tend to beset the best of productions. It's truly fascinating to see what was running through the actor's mind prior to starting something like THE DEVIL RIDES OUT.

While they obviously have great respect and affection for their subject, Miller and Johnson are never sycophantic.

You may buy this book because you are a fan of Christopher Lee or a horror film completist. But you'll return to it again and again because it is well-written, well-researched, and just plain fun to read.

Individually, film historians Tom Johnson and Mark A. Miller already have several books and articles to their credit. Now they've pooled their talents to collaborate on what will stand as the definitive account of Christopher Lee's film career. Documenting Lee's cinematic output is a daunting challenge; he appeared in many films that were never released in the U.S.--or anywhere else--making them extremely difficult to track down, even in this wonderful age of DVD and satellite television. Fortunately, Johnson and Miller--with valuable assist from Mr. Lee himself--come through with flying colors. This is cinematic scholarship of the highest order, which is not to imply it's dry and academic. Hardly. Thanks to Johnson, Miller, Lee and many interview subjects, it's a lively, accessible, and at times fall-down-funny look at the career of someone who could be cited as the ultimate example of a "working actor."
McFarland books tend to be very high priced, and since most of them never make it to a bookstore shelf, consumers don't have the luxury of checking out the goods before hand. So you're never really sure of what you're getting until the money has left your wallet. At $55, THE CHRISTOPHER LEE FILMOGRAPHY may seem pricey, but it's well worth the investment; the book is beautifully written and McFarland has done a bang-up job of laying out the text and (rare) photos. For Lee fans, it's a must-have item.

This book is an extraordinarily thorough and well-written account of Ang Lee's career. Anybody interested in the director's work would be fascinated to read it. I highly recommend it.

This scholarly treatise of director Ang Lee by Whitney Crothers Dilley is a thoroughly engaging, in-depth study of this iconic and enigmatic filmmaker. Logically organised and richly researched, The Cinema of Ang Lee shows great insight on the many influences which impacted Mr. Lee's directorial vision: born in Taiwan, to parents who escaped Mainland China following the 1949 Civil War, his cultural identity further diluted when he came to the U.S. at age 23 in his yearning to break free of parental control to pursue his artistic and cinematic dreams.

Ms. Crothers Dilley astutely shows us that Ang Lee's directorial range cannot be confined to a single culture or genre, and while films such as Eat Drink Man Woman, Sense and Sensibility, The Ice Storm, and Hulk appear to be thematically disparate, common threads course throughout his filmography. Globalisation / cultural identity, family ritual, intergenerational conflict, dialogue-free visual metaphors, cultural codes of behavior, and above all the inherent diaspora brought to bear stemming from his personal history bring a unique perspective to each of his films.

Serious students of film as well as casual fans of Ang Lee's body of work will love this book. Take the time to go on a wonderful journey as each film is dissected in order to find, in Ang Lee's words, "'The Juice', the thing that moves people, the thing that is untranslatable by words".

This is must reading for film buffs.

This book is no less than a terrific synopsis of Ang Lee's life and filmmaking motivations plus a thorough review of the common themes that surprisingly link Lee's amazingly diverse films.

Whitney Crothers Dilley's much-anticipated book provides the first in-depth look at one of the most heralded creative film directors still active today. A true auteur, Ang Lee has taken on the challenge of almost all the classic film genres and done them all marvelously.


From his early Taiwanese-themed social comedies through his Chinese/American and American and even British mainstream films to The Hulk (his only commercial failure) to the colossal last two released films, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Brokeback Mountain, no film director has ever generated an oeuvre of such range.


With a new Ang Lee film in yet a new genre coming out later this year (this time a film noir set in 1940's Shanghai), The cinema of Ang Lee ... the other side of the screen is the perfect read for all the relevant background on this astonishing director before seeing it.

Barbara writes with such wonderful description, you can hear, feel, smell, taste and touch everything in this book, especially that dress!

I couldn't put it down - great adventure, great fun for a long weekend. Loved the messages - just what we need.

An inspired story, unpredictable, with bizarre and fantastical elements commonplace, and with both human and animal characters that we care about, told with humor and wisdom.
I really wanted to turn the page to find out what happens and in the process the underlying message of respect for nature is made very clear. It is the human characters that learn in this story. Bruno, a bear, seems to know all about love.

An animal's worldview intrigues you in this fable/fantasy. This well-written, thoughtful book invites you to join a human's quest for the city in the sky.

Universal themes abound and surprising elements hold your interest. Every "baby boomer" can relate to the characters in this book and the choices made along life's journey.

A quick read--an escape vehicle for your vacation or a steady read--easily savored and pondered, The City in the Sky appeals to everyone.

We received this book as a gift for our son's first birthday, and he has loved it to death! He loved to fill in the missing words as we read to him, and quickly learned all of his nursery ryhmes. Now at age 2, he is rediscovering this treasure...he has fallen in love with the illustrations all over again, and he understands the meaning and humor in these wonderful rhymes!

I got this book when I was little and now I want this book for my little girl. My favorite nursery rhyme is the one about the Crooked man. I reccommend everyone buying this book for their children.

The Classic Mother Goose is the perfect book to introduce nursery rhymes to kids of all ages. The illustrations in this book captivate the smallest children and they will choose this book over and over again as a favorite for bedtime stories. My kids read our first copy to death. That is the true test of how good a book is.

Please make me first in line for this one. Everything said of this book makes it a must for everyone. Send a copy to me if one becomes available.

Southern cooking is famous the world over. It defines comfort food. Simple, elegant, satisfying. The height of Southern cooking was before the "War of Northern Agression", and this book details this flavorful art. Starting with "Understanding Southern Cooking" and "The Classical Southern Kitchen" the author continues through every type of food in the Southern repetoire.

Recipes are from cookbooks of the era as well as manuscripts and family records. The only changes made are those necessitated by modern equipment and availability (most of us no longer cook over an open hearth.) Side notes explain the recipes,culture and alternatives. This is Southern cooking at it's best!

If Amazon.com ever gets this book back in stock, buy it. Buy extras for friends and relatives. My collection of cookbooks is measured by the yard. Nothing I have equals this one for ease of use, pleasure of reading, or soul-satisfying results.

I want this book! I borrowed a friend's copy and read it nearly cover to cover! Wonderful, real and truly southern recipes with stories and background to make the history of them live for newer southern cooks! A must have for anyone who loves heritage quality and usable recipes!

In volume 3 of Click, we see the drama deepening as more people become suspicious of Joonha's genetic mutation. What I like about this series is that there is enough drama to be entertaining, but not so much that the angst becomes overbearing. There is much comical relief supplied by the cute and charismatic drawings of Youngran Lee. On top of that, the gender-confused situation the author puts the characters in is very entertaining.

After purchasing volume two of Click on Tuesday, the only thing preventing me from buying volume three the next day was my lack of money. Luckily I had some coming to me, and so on Thursday I bought volume three. I continue to be impressed; it exceeds my expectations by a long shot.

The characters are becoming more and more interesting, and not what I'd expected; though initially I'd dismissed Taehyun as the annoying playboy who would eventually win over Joonha with his terrible wining-and-dining charm, he has grown to be a character I like quite a bit. Heewon, on the other hand, has sunk from being a potentially boring, too-timid girl clinging to Joonha forever to an infuriating meddler in his life -- which is still much better than being boring, even if I do feel the urge to yell at her character. And now Jinhoo is back and slowly becoming more interesting.

I look forward to volume four.

This volume is filled with surprises and turns. Exciting and touching. So many questions are raised? One of the best of its kind. Joohna is finally starting to look and act like a girl. Men are finding her intriguing as she begins to BE a girl (with those old male overtones at times as well).

Criminally out of print, this is nominally a biography of Cortes, but the vast majority of this book focuses on his expedition. This is the kind of story that is too incredible to be fiction, it could only be the product of real people and real events. There are other versions of this tale of course, but this is among the best if you can get a hold of a copy. It is simply absurd that the book is no longer available new, but there are used copies floating around -- get one. This book will glue you to your chair.

A better book on the topic could not have been written. I have read 6 books on this topic, and this was the best. A stunning story that finally finds an author that captures its details and emotions.

...and doesn't have more reviews, as it is a damn good book, and drives home what a ballsy swashbuckler and crafty statesman Cortes really was. It's also pretty refreshing in the it doesn't present him as a monster and the Aztecs as innocent victims. The book also disputes the standard notion that Montezuma thought that the Spaniards were gods, and instead maintains that Montezuma was trying to put together a partnership with them, willing to trade the gold that the Spanish wanted for weapons/technology. Interesting and to me,
very plausible.

Sparks fly when an acclaimed French actress meets an English lord, who must chaperone her stay in England while she performs. Colette, a complex heroine, learns more about English aristocracy and passion than she ever dreamed and Lord Thackeray learns about the difference between passion and love. This story makes Victorian England come alive, making this a page-turner that I couldn't put down!

Rich in historical detail, The Courtesan's Daughter immerses the reader in the ambiance of Victorian England. The cast of characters, major and minor, is richly drawn. The hero's complexity matches the heroine's complexity, which is not always the case in romance novels. The story explores a timeless human theme: the desire to be part of a loving family and the extraordinary longing to discover abiding love regardless of very real obstacles.

I could not put this book down! The Courtesan's Daughter is a riveting page-turner filled with secrets, forbidden love, fascinating historical detail and sharp, witty dialogue. The author deftly counterbalances acerbic wit with a heartwarming generosity of spirit for characters who find themselves the victims of a repressive Victorian society.

When dashing Lord Jonathan Thackery becomes the reluctant chaperone of Colette Chartier, a stunning nineteen-year-old French actress, they must overcome a tangled web of secrets and lies before they can find true love. I absolutely adored this book for its literary richness, deep psychological insight... and of course, for its smart, passionate (red hot!) characters. Great book! Beautifully written.

Dr. Lee offers thought provoking insights and recommendations on doing business in Asia, based upon years of personal experience. Interesting contrasts of Asian and Western cultures help to explain the different approaches to business. His advice on the important subjects of negotiation and conflict resolution provide valuable guidance on how to avoid common misunderstandings and achieve mutually beneficial outcomes. This book is great for those interested in doing business in China and is recommended reading by the nation's top business school.

Explaining China is a favorite avocation of many Chinese in the West. They usually state that Chinese and Western values are opposed, and that Chinese values are not only different but superior. This fairly typical book can be straightforward and informative, particularly when the author discusses the decision-making process in China and warns that `yes' and `no' probably don't mean what the average, unsubtle American understands them to mean. But stay skeptical of the author's generalizations about Chinese (Dragon) and Western (Cowboy) motivations. He stresses the supposed "collective" disposition of Chinese, but anyone with China experience will wonder just how "collective" the Chinese really are. In an often-used saying, the Chinese compare themselves to grains of sand - to emphasize their difficulty in getting together and cooperating. Sometimes the book describes fact, and sometimes fantasy that Chinese wish were fact. It can be as useful to know a people's fantasies as it is to know their facts so, properly read, we find this book to be a useful addition to the bibliography on doing business in China. (There are, by the way, some annoying proofreading errors, most egregiously the erroneous pinyin spelling of the Chinese word for face.)

Dr. Lee covers a lot of subject matter in Cowboys and Dragrons. This is not a travel or "how to" book. This is a hands on reference piece that aims at breaking down cultural myths between the U.S. and China that have historically promulgated misunderstanding between the two countries. Dr. Lee emphasizes the necessity of having a historical and cultural understanding of the United States and China before entering into or embarking on business dealings between the two countries. He poses philisophical questions to the reader in order to uncover fundamental truths about human relationships. Furthermore, he provides practical advice on how to make a U.S./China business deal work to the benefit of BOTH sides.

If you ever wondered why Chinese bow and avoid direct eye contact versus the American norm of firm handshakes and looking someone squarely in the eye or how to better understand the nuances of business language among both cultures, this book will explain it all.

Cowboys and Dragons will surely become a must read among business school students, entrepreneurs, executives, and individuals that plan or or are currently doing business in China. Keep this book handy.