Owen Books

Not The End of the World, by Rebecca Stowe, is a poingent and searing story of a young girl, Maggie Pittsfield, 12, trying to find freedom in an appearingly perfect life. Her father, a rich candy factory owner, is really a possesive ogre over the family. Her mother is a fragile and flat character overpowered by her own mother, who tourtures Maggie. Maggie's sister is younger, and her behavior is mysterious. Maggie, with several split personalities, is considered a troublemaker after an incident taking place the year prior. She is a wonderful representation of what happens to sexually abused children, and her "personalities" are ways of coping with her feelings. She keeps each personality in a beautifully lacquered chest, specifically with one kept in a draw only with her eyes able to appear. As the story unfolds, so does this personality, Peggy; and Maggie's life, along with the depression she suffers from as well. Though a children's book, it deals with very adult subjects and feelings, and I would highly recomend it to any one who has experienced sexual abuse.

If Ernst Bloch was with us today he'd be quite honored that his work seems to have such a durable power,an edifice of ideologic thought where marketplace schemes of fashionable thinking refuse to erode it away. His utopian thought reminds me of the equally durable, enormous black-iron abstractions of sculptor Richard Serra. This is a great introduction to Bloch. As a musician myself I can only say that, I have always welcomed a formidable thinker whose thought includes the art of music within the spectrum of their thinking. Leonard Bernstein also was quite fascinated with Bloch,as well as composer Alexander Goehr. This is a comprehensive collection of essays dealing with Bloch's thought. Simultaneously it profiles and presents important questions at us reflecting Bloch's thought. One powerful idea of Bloch is his concept of temporality,that we all inhabit different times,and that our horizons are different,not ascending or progressing in a straight line irresprective if (on the surface) we seem to all desire identical objects and spiritual values . The essay on educator Paolo Freire, I found perhaps the most important, because it represents Bloch's work in the real world. Simply incessant interpretations of Marxist thought,which is what frequently occurs in thinkers such as Adorno,Benjamin,Lukacs is not what it is intended to be. Bloch's magnum opus "Das Prinzip Hoffnung" (Hope The Principle) is well traversed by editor Tom Moylan. In that work Bloch seized the whole of world culture to locate his concept of utopia as within the crevices of the various religions of the world,dime-novels of the Thirties,the symphony,rituals and dreams. Bloch has always had a special place within the spectrum of Marxist thinking continues to be true today. His thought represents for some the more dangerous aspects of Marx, the spiritual. How has this mainifested itself? has only been traversed simple-mindedly as in the search for "quasi-religious" icons of the Left, hammers and sickles,red flags,co! llectives,Bob Dylan songs,and portraits of revered leaders. Although Bloch supported the Soviet Union, the implications of his thought was light years away from that tyrannical cathechism of Georgian nationalism. The negative side of Bloch's thought was not an actively political one. In fact those who have been placed under the banner of Western Marxism as Adorno,Bloch,Lukacs,Colletti,and Benjamin were not political activist thinkers. Their thought rarely found a profound sequence of cause and effect,of consequences, as an appraisal of the correlation of power within the burdens of daily politics. That was the diluted side of their thought, And so with Bloch. His primary value was in his appraisal of the spirit,of the "Not Yet" within human existence within the dimensions of Marxism. His work today has relevance in that since we are in a process of redefining political involvement,in formulating issues, Bloch's work seems a profound source of thought as the world seems to becoming less predictable with globalization schemes.

I've read the White Notebook, but have not been able to get hold of the Black notebook as of yet. Even so, I'd definitely make the recomendation! Gide published the White Notebook at age 20, and never looked back on it with displeasure, though some of his views either changed slightly, or developed further with time. It's an insightful work - both into human nature, in general, and the author, in particular. Also, Baskin's footnotes and introduction are enormously helpful. A delight to the Gidean scholar.

I absolutely enjoyed reading this book. It made me feel like I wasn't alone in this area. It is encouraging, helpful and I 1000% recommend this to any Sunday school teacher out there-u won't regret it!

Although this book is 20 years old the information and content is still fresh and up to date. I give a copy with every puppy sale as it covers every aspect of 'Bobtail' ownership. A gem of a book and one that should be on every sheepdog owners bookshelf.

An excellent book for all young children - great morals are taught through the story. The art work is superb and will captivate any young child.

Far more than an ordinary fly fishing how-to book, One Man's River by the late O. Warren Smith (a minister and writer who spent most of his life plying the literal and spiritual waters of Wisconsin) combines practical fly-fishing methodology with the "heart-meaning" of angling. Offering a calm, insightful, experienced techniques to fish both as recreation and meditation, One Man's River is as much about communing with the soul of nature as it is about how to catch a flavorful fish dinner. Warren Smith's One Man's River is deeply satisfying reading and very highly recommended to anyone who has ever sought or experienced what fly-fishing and the essence of angling has to offer the human mind and soul.

This book is a unique guide for both external consultants and internal change agents for facilitating change in an organization. It also identifies the components that are necessary to ensure an organization's success. Mink's nine-window model, discussed in the book, offers an excellent at-a-glance framework to assist organizations in identifying where they are, in regards to a functional and open organization. The nine-window model may be a tool that change agents can use to demonstrate (to others) their organization's readiness for a fully open organization.

The book is an excellent reference resource for designing and implementing change initiatives. Consultants, change agents, managers, human resource executives and others will find this book a very practical guide for organizational change.

Father Lee has succeeded in distilling the plots of 100 standard operas in a small book that is a little more than 200 pages. The best parts of the book are not the plot summaries (however well written), but the commentaries that are included after each opera's plot summary.

Father Lee has written extensively on opera (and also spoken about opera on Met broadcasts), always bringing tremendous insight to individual works. The marvelous thing here is that the commentaries in this book (most of which are only 2 or 3 paragraphs) really provide the information needed to enjoy an individual opera and to understand its place in the repertoire.

This is a great book to have whatever your knowledge and experience with opera. It will likely leave you wanting to learn more about specific operas (and perhaps send you off to listen to some recordings -- Lee make a recommendation for each opera).

If there is any disappointment at all with this book, it is that it is so short. Fortunately Father Lee is a prolific writer whose several books about opera cover perhaps 50 to 60 works in detail. He is a wonderfully wise guide to the riches of opera --a scholar whose writing is clear, engaging, and supremely informative. This book is a great starting point for an individual opera, but I would really recommend reading his other books on opera to build upon this little book.

In March 1950, Joseph McCarthy accused Lattimore of being the "top Soviet agent" in executive session of the Tydings Committee. The committee, chaired by Senator Millard Tydings, was investigating McCarthy's claims of widespread Soviet infiltration of the State Department. When the accusation was leaked to the press, he backed off from the charge that Lattimore was a spy, but continued the attack in public session of the committee and in speeches. Lattimore, he said, "in view of his position of tremendous power at the State Department" was the "'architect' of our Far Eastern policy," and asked whether Lattimore's "aims are American aims or whether they coincide with the aims of Soviet Russia." At the time, Lattimore was in Kabul, Afghanistan, on a cultural mission for the United Nations. Lattimore dismissed the charges against him as "moonshine" and hurried back to the United States to testify before the Tydings Committee.[20]

Lattimore was a combative witness and waged verbal duels with McCarthy. In April 1950, the surprise witness, Louis F. Budenz, former editor of the Communist Party organ Daily Worker. testified Lattimore was a secret Communist, but not a Soviet agent, that is, he was a person of influence who often assisted Soviet foreign policy. Budenz said his Party superiors told him Lattimore's "great value lay in the fact that he could bring the emphasis in support of Soviet policy in non-Soviet language."[21] The majority report for the Tydings committee cleared Lattimore of all charges against him; the minority report accepted Budenz's charges.

In February 1952, Lattimore was called to testify before the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee (S.I.S.S), headed by McCarthy's ally, Senator Pat McCarran. Before Lattimore was called as witness, investigators for the S.I.S.S. had seized all of the records of the Institute of Pacific Relations (I.P.R). The twelve days of testimony were marked by shouting matches which pitted McCarran and McCarthy on one hand against Lattimore on the other. Lattimore took three days to deliver his opening statement; the delays were caused by frequent interruptions as McCarran challenged Lattimore point by point. McCarran the used the records from the I.P.R. to ask questions that often taxed Lattimore's memory. Budenz again testified, but this time claimed that Lattimore was both a Communist and a Soviet agent. The Subcommittee also summoned scholars. Nicholas Poppe, a Russian émigré and a scholar of Mongolia and Tibet, resisted the committee's invitation to label Lattimore a communist, but found some of his writings superficial and uncritical. The most damaging testimony came from Karl August Wittfogel, supported by his colleague from University of Washington, George Taylor. Wittfogel, a former Communist, said that at the time Lattimore edited the journal Pacific Affairs, Lattimore knew of his Communist background; even though they had not exchanged words on the matter, Lattimore had given Wittfogel a "knowing smile." Lattimore acknowledged that Wittfogel's thought had been tremendously influential, but said that if there had been a smile, it was a "non-Communist smile." Wittfogel and Taylor charged that Lattimore did "great harm to the free world" in his disregard of the need to defeat world communism as a first priority. The influence of Marxism was shown by Lattimore's use of the word "feudal." Lattimore replied that he did not think that Marxists had a "patent" on the word feudal.[22]

In 1952, after 17 months of study and hearing, involving 66 witnesses and thousands of documents, the McCarran Committee issued its 226-page, unanimous final report. This report stated that "Owen Lattimore was, from some time beginning in the 1930s, a conscious articulate instrument of the Soviet conspiracy", and that on "at least five separate matters," Lattimore had not told the whole truth. One example: "The evidence . . . shows conclusively that Lattimore knew Frederick V. Field to be a Communist; that he collaborated with Field after he possessed this knowledge; and that he did not tell the truth before the subcommittee about this association with Field . . ."[23]

In 1952, Lattimore was indicted for perjury on seven counts. Six of the counts related to various discrepancies between Lattimore's testimony and the I.P.R. records; the seventh accused Lattimore of seeking to deliberately deceive the S.I.S.S. Lattimore's defenders, such as his lawyer Abe Fortas, claimed that the discrepancies were caused by McCarran deliberately asking questions about arcane and obscure matters that took place in the 1930s out of the hope that Lattimore would not be able to recall them properly, thereby giving grounds for a perjury indictment. Within three years, the charges against him were dismissed."[24] His book Ordeal by Slander is his own account of this episode.