Morrison Books

Both Coates and Morrison are well known inside Canadian academic circles for their work on Northern history (Land of the Midnight Sun; Taking the North Down With Her). This work builds on those previous contributions. 'Strange Things Done' is easy to read, and is not just a work for other academics. In fact, this book belongs both in the 'True Crime' and the 'History' sections of book stores.
Murder is a fascinating topic, and this book is put together in such a way that the reader becomes aquainted with Yukon history through intriguing stories and flowing narrative. One does not have to be an expert in Northern History to enjoy this book - I certainly am not. I enjoyed reading this book, and would recommend it to anyone interested in histories of Canada, the North, or even murder in general.

Ted Ownby has put together a tremendous book that shows how the culture of the Southern male was influenced by the dramatic changes which followed the War of Northern Aggression ( a.k.a. Civil War). If you have ever wondered how these men could stay out all Saturday night drinking, gambling, running coon dogs, etc. and then drift bleary-eyed into the Sunday morning Church service, this would be an interesting book. Actually, there were very distinct characteristics of the masculine culture and the evangelical culture in which the Southern male lived concurrently. Ownby's book covers many facets of Southern life, such as farm life, the growth of towns as social centers, recreation, church, revival meetings, politics, and improvements to things such as roads. When I read about how mail order catalogs opened markets for many products, I thought about how internet-based shopping was having a similar impact today. I also appreciated Ownby's description of how a cash based economy emerged and increased the interdependency of rural families. The resulting interaction created a need for the community to establish its norms, whereas they were more self-sufficient earlier and isolated from what other people were doing. Ownby has collected data from all over the South. He may even discuss an area with which you are familiar, but if not it is still a great book to read. The change process that is described could apply to almost any Southern area. I have found myself pulling this book down from time to time to review some of the chapters. I recommend it to you and hope you enjoy it. Bobby Lane, Tennessee

This is one of those books to treasure in one's most prominent, permanent collection. Moving, thoughtful, exquisitely written, this title that will stand time's tests. Evelyn Jaffe Schreiber gives us a work of impressive depth and perception -- without any pendantry. The book, quite stunning in its originality, is anchored in fine academic research, both fulfills and transcends traditional "scholarly" categories. As a writer and reader, I heartily recommend this as a book-for-all-seasons.

Marcy Heidish

I first came across this book when it was being serialised in the Sunday Times.
Wanting to get fitter and to lose some pounds in the process after having given up smoking not too long before I happily threw myself into the programme. Well, not exactly as exercise had not up until that point been one of my areas of expertise.

Slowly, but surely, my weak physique began to overcome it's struggle against gravity while attempting to walk up hills. I recall urging the dog to "mush" while tackling a rather steep embankment one evening. After a few weeks I was jogging until eventually I found myself entered into the Great North Run and to my extreme delight the London Marathonand not only entering them but competing also.

This excellent book is not just about exercise and cannot be considered a diet book if one mean's that one must count calories or grams of fat or whatever the food fascists would have us do these days. Instead it focusses on eating foods which will help our bodies and yet will allow for a certain level of normalcy in our gastronomic habits.

Although the subtitle is an eight week course that can re-shaape your life, this book is merely an introduction to healthy living. I recall at breakfast one morning a discussion had ensued between a colleague and visiting speaker Professoe patrick Minford who argued very strongly that if one excerised then one had considerable choice in what one ate without putting on additional weight. Prof. Minford continues to look as well today as he did then, unsurprisingly when he follows his own advice.

Whereas the market is flooded with faddish diets today such as Atkins or South Beach or whatever, the thing that makes this book different is that despite it's age the principles of food consumption contained within compare well with recent work on the glycemic index and have a great relevance to those who suffer from diabetes.

I heartily recommend this book to all of those who want to change their lives on the grounds of health or let's face it vanity. Whatever the reason this is a great book which does not require you to starve yourself or go overboard eating fat-free or low carb or gorge on energy bars or drinks. It requires you to look at yourself and decide whether you want to effect change in your life and your future and do something about it.

Unlike Guthy Renker poroducts you cannot return the product if does not deliver immediate results but you can try it for the eight weeks and see if it helps you to make a difference like it did to me.

In the late 1950's, new "Esquire" photographer Art Kane photographed 57 great jazz musicians standing and sitting on the staircase and sidewalk of a Harlem greystone. I own the poster reprint, and I enjoy looking at such legends as Coleman Hawkins, Mary Lou Williams, Thelonious Monk, Gene Krupa, Horace Silver, Sonny Rollins, Maxine Sullivan, Gerry Mulligan, Lester Young, Dizzy Gillespie sticking his tongue out at Roy Eldridge, the great and unassuming Count Basie sitting on the curbside next to some neighborhood kids, and there, on the 5th row from the top, cigarette dangling, Mr. Charles Mingus. There's been a lot written about this famous photo, but that's another book...

Debbie Taylor dips into the legend, and dabbles pieces of it throughout her loving portrait of an older jazz musician and the nephew who looks up to him. "C.J." is an aspiring clarinetist living with his Uncle Click, a semi-retired trumpet player who still jams at the "Midnight Melody Club." Click hears that a photographer from "Highnote" is taking his picture, but can't find his "snappy black beret." (It doesn't matter, I suppose, that the black beret was not a staple of trumpet players in the decades in which Chick would have played.) C.J. launches a search through Harlem hangouts looking for the signature hat.

C. J. loves his self-deprecating uncle ("Back then, I played the meanest trumpet in Harlem. Now all I do is lose things."), and runs to various Harlem hangouts-a barber shop, a café, and the "Midnight Melody Club," achieving three main results: Finding various other personal items that Uncle Chick lost, meeting some of Harlem's musicians, and informing the latter about the photo op. occurring soon at Click's place.

The great fun here is spotting the real musicians among the fictional ones portrayed by illustrator Frank Morrison. There's Dizzy and Duke Ellington at the barber shop owned by the fictional "Big Charlie Garlic," whose barber coat makes him look like a zoot-suited bopper. At the "Eat and Run Diner," we see Lester Young and Billie Holiday (curious that they're not sitting together), backgrounded by a NYC horizon of crammed brown buildings. At the club, C. J. finds his uncle's lost bow tie (but not his beret), prompting a singer's comment," He's forgetful, but when Chick blows his trumpet the wallpaper curls." There's a nice, almost rhythmic quality to Ms. Taylor's repeated verbal riffs. At every stop, someone compliments Uncle Chick, and comments on C.J.'s musical potential: "We're saving a spot for you here," says a drummer, "without losing the beat." "I reckon you'll be joining us in a few years." The denouement is exiting and dramatic, as the neighborhood musicians (Lester Young and Diz are both in this book as well as the original picture) gather on the stairs outside Chick's place for the photographer, and Chick not only finds his beret, but gives C. J. a new trumpet.

The book is colorful and energetic, and Debbie Taylor keeps the story moving briskly. For that reason alone, I think kids will enjoy it. There are, however, a few minor problems here, mostly in the illustrations. We're told that the book is inspired by Art Kane's photo, so it need not be historically accurate. However, the misspelling of bebop as "Bee Bop," the exclusion of famous musicians from the Harlem neighborhood (legal reasons?), and a Harlem that lacks a clear sense of time and place-all these elements reduce the book's impact. Perhaps on the theory that "more is more," illustrator Frank Morrison doesn't let up on the long-limbs, stretched curvy lines, and vivid shots of color filling the book. The best jazz musicians know when to "lay out," but Morrison just keeps pouring it on.

For some reason, the publishers felt it necessary to inform us that these aren't just illustrations done by some slouch, but by "fine artist Morrison," whose works are collected by people such as Bill Cosby and Maya Angelou. It's a little condescending to the great illustrators of kids' books for kids, and it hints of a time when the popular image of a jazz musician (nurtured in its sartorial aspects by Dizzy) was of a beret-wearing, unschooled performer not in the same league as classical music performers. I recommend the book, but with a sense that it could have been better.

Once in a while, not very often, a book intended to give our young a whiff of world history turns out to be a bravura piece of mini-literature. This is the case with Chelsea House's "Syria," the latest of a series about the creation of the Modern Middle East.

In a lamentably brief space - 145 pages - it covers the Arab country's tortuous path from its subjugation by the Ottomon Empire at the dawn of the 16th century through its domination by the French in the modern era and on to its tenuous independence.

Steeped in Biblical lore, buffeted by the intractable winds of politics, religion and bloody military ventures, the nation of some nine million economically deprived people faces a precarious future as it stumbles into the 21st century. This might have been encapsulated in a dry and bewildering collection of dates and facts typical of many "primers." Here, oft-told tales and ghostly, half-forgotten faces spring to new life.

Historical background and evenhanded analysis alternate with bangup action.
The disastrous wars with Israel, the draconian rule of Hafez Assad, the riveting personalities of the great-hearted Saladin, the far-seeing King Feisal, yes, and the young Winston Churchill - it's all there, deftly integrated into the crazy-quilt of the Middle East.

The book is buttressed by a searching introduction by Islamic scholar Akbar
Ahmed and by a remarkably mesmeric gallery of photogaphs, some more than a century old.

But its main power rests in the narrative.
Author John Morrison, a noted Philadelphia journalist and poet, combines the terse, vivid style of a hugely gifted reporter with the dimension and color of a lyricist. Thus: "Just five feet, five-and-a-half inches tall, he was a little man. But he was as strong and tough as an Arabian saddle, and he had the endurance of a desert camel. In fact, it was said he could jump from a galloping camel while holding a heavy rifle, and hop back on again in midstride....He was....best known as Lawrence of Arabia."

You don't have to be a callow teen to savor this "Syria." -- Hans Knight

I've read a lot about Morrison and a lot about spirituality, mysticism, & philosophy. Most of the books about Morrison take a kernal of truth & spice it up to cartoonish distortions. This book really rings true. I have to admit that I was one who "fell" for the idea that Jim & Pam were the "star-crossed" soul-mate lovers that the media has portrayed, but that was before I got to know an actual heroin addict & came to realize that there is no way on earth a person addicted to heroin can be in the relationship that has been portrayed for the last 3+ decades...and then I read this book. Sorry to disappoint the Pam Courson fans! This book will dispell that myth in spades and will explain how Morrison REALLY died (hint: heroin was NOT a factor!).

The myths about Michael Hutchence will be addressed as well as how he died and why he didn't leave a note behind. Both Michael and Jim give a wealth of information for the true fans out there that are looking for enlightenment through art, literature, and study. It's a wealth of great sources and makes you feel like you are in the same room as both Michael and Jim!

Bottom line is that I found the book fascinating & informative! It answers a lot of questions in a logical way and puts the foolish rumors to rest once and for all. People need to think before they just believe everything the media spews! You can choose to believe this account or deny it (although I found it hard to deny), but either way you are going to walk away with food for thought!
Thanks,
L

"Down these mean streets a man must go," wrote Raymond Chandler on the subject of the detective novel. Few knew he was paying tribute to another writer, now almost forgotten, who wrote about the mean streets of London's Docks around 1900. In TALES OF MEAN STREETS, CHILD OF THE JAGO, and THE HOLE IN THE WALL, Arthur Morrison wrote about the world into which he was born. (Interestingly, he also wrote some great detective novels at the same time that Doyle was writing his Sherlock Holmes stories.)

Some of the stories in TALES OF MEAN STREETS seem sentimental today: There is no lurid sex, the cursing is subject to the "code" of Queen Victoria's day, and much of the violence takes place off stage. If you accept the givens of that day, you will enjoy Morrison; and you will see how the American detective novel and the film noir owe far more to Morrison than to Conan Doyle or anyone else. Morrison deserved to be remembered and honored.

One of the best guides for someone breaking into teaching currently on the market. I have had the distinct honor of working with Dr. Morrison and these experiences have done nothing but enlighten me and teach me things I might not otherwise have learned. He brings this ability to communicate both gracefully and pactfully to his text, mixing it with his natural love of children and his honest desire to help people learn how to do that single most important of jobs - teach.

I recommend this book to anyone even vaguely considering education as a career, and to those who have experience in the profession. It will reveal many things you will not find anywhere else but experience and it will shed new light on old subjects for those with time infront of students.

It'd be a shame to limit THEATRES' attraction to architects alone; any with an interest in the stage and theater productions will find this a comprehensive, fascinating survey of the changing history and styles of theaters from early playhouses to modern movie houses. It's the first comprehensive study of American theaters and uses holdings from the Library of Congress to profile a range of styles and settings across the U.S. Blend these archival photos with architectural plans and drawings by artists and you have a powerful visual reference recommended for any serious theater enthusiast.