Meyer Books

I've often read about the Third Avenue Railway System but very little about the others. That is what this book covers and it was very interesting. Lots of good photos, too. The book, like the others of this series, is of a somewhat smaller format than typical for this type of book.

Written by Kurt Meyer, a marriage and family counselor of over 35 years' experience, Marriages, Shack-Ups, and Other Disasters: How Choice Pollution Has Screwed Us All Up is more than a look at the root causes of today's skyrocketing divorce rate; chapters cover how cultural revolutions in the wake of the Sixties have offered a paralyzing array of choices, while simultaneously eroding human connections. Cohabitation outside of marriage has statistically been shown not to lead to any better chance of a successful marriage; Meyer traces the root of this to the fact that marriage involves legal and societal responsibilities that are the antithesis of a live-in relationship where either party is free to walk away at any time. Consumers are more burdened with debt than ever before, in part due to lack of spending control egged on by the frenzied pressure of endless advertising. Chapters discuss exercises meant to aid communication between couples and families, and examples of divisive dialogues rooted in underlying conflicts and the steps necessary to resolve the struggle for dominance abound. A thought-provoking commentary on social and relationship ills of the twenty-first century, offering innovative solutions and techniques for balancing responsibility, harmony, and respect for the authenticity of one's positive and negative emotions.

Great writers usually make bad spouses. Their dedication to their work means they have less time for real consideration and feeling for other human beings, even those closest to them. Jeffrey Meyers in this work studies the lives of nine important writers, and the spouses they made their lives with. Cold Shaw was happy to be married to a woman he had no physical connection with . Passionate Lawrence was involved in endless public and private wrestling and shouting matches with the woman he loved and hated, who gave him much inspiration for his work. Virginia Woolf was cared for and loved by Leonard Woolf though their marriage was never physically consummated. Conrad too needed to be babied by his wife Jesse and was jealous of their child. Katherine Mansfield needed a Leonard Woolf but received instead a selfish philandering John Middleton Murray who abandoned her during her final illness.Joyce's Nora could not understand her dirty- minded genius of a husband, but provided for him the means to understanding the eternal feminine. Hemingway's super-machismo behavior did his first three marriages in. F.Scott Fitzgerald could not really tame or control Zelda. They both needed help but neither could give it to each other. The greatest of the writers Tolstoy is depicted by Meyers as the worst monster. But here I am not sure he gets it completely right, as the long complex relationship of Tolstoy and the former Sonya Behrs had moments of great love and passion in it, along with the terrible quarreling and disagreements.
On the whole Meyers suggests that the marriages provided support for the writers which enabled them to get on with their work.

This unusual book was quite a find. It was made using a binding process I've never seen before. The pages actually unfold in a variety of ways to present images of Van Gogh's best loved paintings in a highly effective manner. Some pages fold out horizontally and present four works side-by-side, others fold out twice forming small posters. The quality of the graphics is excellent--especially the minute details shown in some of the enlarged reproductions. A beautiful volume and an asset to anyone who loves art.

I purchased this book as a rememberance of a trip to the National Gallery in London. I was not the least bit disappointed. Works of Gainsborough, Turner, Stubbs, Constable, Cox, Whistler, Kokoschky are all included--over 150 color paintings all significant works. Is it tacky to say it also functions as a beautiful coffee table book? :o)

At any rate, it is a wonderful addition to any collection.

This is the perfect book for any swimmer wanting to improve his or her style and conditioning. It is nicely written and covers a wide variety of topics such as swimming history, etiquette, health issues, exercises with weights, masters programs, competition, open water swimming, etc. Each stroke technique analysis includes very clear drawings showing the correct way as well as common mistakes. This is the best introductory swimming book that I have read.

It seems that there have been a lot more books about girls growing up than there have been about boys. Maybe that's because there are more female readers that would be willing to buy/read a book on relationships.

This though is a book on boys, in the seventh grade as the struggle through their own friends, the mysteries of girls. The author has captured how boys think very well. In the seventh grade they are sometimes little children, sometimes kind of grown up, although not so grown up as are girls.

Speaking of girls, in the seventh grade the boys are discovering that they are a mystery. What the poor kids don't know is that they are going to remain a mystery forever.

The story, well it isn't worth describing, that's not the strong point, it's a book on relationships. It's a book on growing up. From the standpoint of we old folk, these relationships are not too serious, they are almost amusing. But from the standpoint of the people involved it is very serious. It's nice to be reminded once in a while that growing up is difficult, almost a full time job.

Article author Erin Hynes here. I didn't give you the right to sell this article. Where's my slice?

This book is an absolute must have for any nursing student or new grad RN. Its organization and plethora of information is unsurpassed by any care-planning source I've encountered thus far. It incorporates JACHO approved nursing diagnoses with standardized outcome criteria, interventions, and rationales. Sections are organized by systemic disorders and precede each medical-surgical condition or procedure with a brief pathophysiology, etiology, and guidelines for patient assessment (i.e. patient history, physical findings, diagnostic studies, and potential complications). Brief discharge planning checklists follow each medical-surgical condition or procedure. Care plans are general; yet allow individualization to your specific client's needs. Compared to other care planning texts, this is by far a more detailed, flexible means of developing goal-directed and action-oriented plans for the daily quality care of your patients.

Too many books on drumset technique emphasize stick technique without integrating the bass drum as a natural part of that technique. At worst the bass drum is used to keep time. Only slightly better is the idea of throwing in various bass drum rythms as an afterthought after one has mastered the sticking excercises.

Glenn W. Meyer has consistantly given the bass drum its due in all his publications and especially in this latest book Beyond Stick Control. He divides the excercises, which are various drumming rudiments, mixed doubles,singles, paradiddles, etc into four parts. Part A deals with hand technique. Part B integrates the hand technique with randomly interspersed bass drum beats filling in for some of the hand rythms. Doing these excercises over time will make your bass drum come alive, increasing the fluidity and natural sound of your kick in relation to the other parts of the drum set.

The third section, section C deals with the same rudiments played over various ostinato or repeating bass drum rythms. This section will sharpen your drum set independence.

It helps that every excercise in every section is written in 8 bar solos. That means that you get plenty of reading practice. Start with one or two bars and practice them over and over. Then practice 4 bars, then eight. This will greatly increase your technique, flexibility, and ability to read drum music. By the way, Meyer has a simple uncluttered style of drumset notation that is mostly just snare and bass, that makes practice and reading a snap. Then he tosses a few hints about practicing accent variations on the toms that will get you to utilize the full drumset. There's a lot more of this in one of his previous books called: Creative Drum Systems.

The fourth section, section D, Meyer calls "Linear Jazz Style" Practicing this section will bring out the musicality of the drumset in ways that make playing the excercises a lot of fun. This section appears to take off from the ideas of Ted Reed, in his famous book syncopation, but integrates the bass drum in a natural way that Reed was never able to convey. It also is amazingly effective in teaching progressive type broken ride rythms, another subject missing from Ted Reed's book. This section alone, is worth the price of the book, but it might not make sense without first doing the section A and B versions of each excercise first.

All of the excercises are challenging and require a lot of time and repetition to get right. If you put in the time and effort you will be pleasantly surprised by the results.

Beyond stick control is ideal for the intermediate to advanced drummer. It would be a fantastic book for a beginner,if he or she had a good drum teacher who could guide them through the entire book.