Perry Books

Fred Perry's trademark humor and sharp art comes through perfectly in this book; focusing on the adventures of Brianna Diggers' sentient land mines (Peebos), specifically three whose personalities and abilities are patterned after the Digger sisters themselves, it's a strange and very funny romp through their misadventures in the Diggers household.

Especially at the low price, this comic is a terrific buy; check it out, and see for yourself!

Spinning off from his hit Gold Digger series, Fred Perry took the popular little robot characters, the Peebos, and gave them their own original graphic novel. The "Peebo Manga" features all new original material, and isn't a collected trade paperback. It's broken up into several short chapters involving the three main Peebos: Peebri, Peegi, and Peebrit.

The Peebos were first little robot smart bombs that Brianna(a composite clone of Gina & Brittany Diggers)had made. But later on in the Gold Digger storyline she made them into more little helper robots. Three of them she modeled after herself and her "sisters". Peebri gets into alot of trouble, and is always looking for chances to get new video games or blow crap up with her mounted laser cannon. Peegi thinks of herself as an explorer and relentlessly searches for new adventures, even in the trash can. Peebrit, who's modeled after Brittany, is a speed freak that grows a sudden fascination for cans of tuna, despite the fact that she has to sneak them past Brittany.

In the manga, we first start out with some normal antics from the Peebo Digger sisters, which leads into Peebri makes a working Katamari from some of Gina's rejected gizmos. Afterwards, Peegi takes them all into on a virtual RPG world. Then, Peebri floods the house with future versions of herself, and the Peebos have to take on a Tolkien-type quest to return Brittany's wedding ring. Plus, a few other random specs on the different brands of Peebos, and some GD character bios.

Neat stuff!

People Are Just Desserts is great fun! It describes 90 different "Dessert Personalities" as well as instructions on how to do Dessert Analysis yourself! It's a great gift! And, by the way -- it IS available!

People Are Just Desserts by Perry A. is a real treat. I use it as an ice-breaker before training presentations and to enliven any group. Perry shows remarkable insight into people using desserts as a delightful metaphor. A must for any one who wants to help others gain insight into their own personalities in a fun and non-threatening way.

A must read for anyone who thought that they know about Reggea, Rock Steady, Ska - Jamaican music in general. This book must be the ultimate documentary of music as well as the music scene in Jamaica during the 60's,70's, and 80's. It's not just a book about Scratch; it is a book about all Jamaican musicians, singers and procuders of the period. It's the best documented piece of Jamaican history. Someday it will become the most sought after Jamaican history book!

David Kratz ensures that the reader lives moment by moment with almost every musician, producers, and Jamaican artist of the period - some of whom have long been forgotten. He takes you into the studios, delves into the background of each and every artist mentioned in the book, takes to the UK and US with Scratch and Bob Marley, then brings you back to the Black Art Studio where Scratch produced some of the most revolutionary and influential Jamaican music.

Any Jamaican who reads this book will certainly say: "Me know da music deh, but me didn't know sey a Scratch do it." The reader will soon learn that Scratch is the greatest Jamaican music producer. No other producer will ever come close to matching his skill and artistry of Scratch in the studio. Nuff respect to Scratch. He is a true genious! And hat's off to David Katz. He certainly knows how to "ride de rythm". The book is a master piece!

Scratch your Lee Perry itch. I am awed to have in my hands 536 pages of all things Upsetting. Buy this book, if a so a so.

Erle Stanley Gardner published his first novel at age 44 and he still managed to author 82 novels featuring Perry Mason and numerous other works. Gardner was a man with an amazing work ethic who became the most read mystery writer in the world. At age 32, Gardner, a practicing attorney, began writing fiction for the pulps for a minimal amount per word. His output was in the range of a one million words year - a stunning level by any measure. By the time he started writing the Perry Mason novels, he had the right systems and support staff to allow an incredible output.

Part of the reason for Gardner's incredible popularity was that he never added the extensive descriptions that most readers skip in mystery novels. Gardner never wastes words on characterization or the psychological motivation of the villain. Gardner's novels have tight plots, snappy dialog and an abundance of action. Gardner prefers dialogue over description, action over analysis. His novels emphasize physical movement - dashing from one place to another, full-throttle car trips, chartered airplane flights.

Gardner's clients in these works are innocent and fail to reveal the full truth to Perry Mason. Mason, with brilliant and flamboyant courtroom tactics (aided by the extensive resources of Paul Drake's detective agency), proves his client innocent and reveals the identity of the real murderer. The plots have good consistency and plausibility. "The Case of the Lucky Loser" has perhaps the most appealing plot, but the other three works also have story lines that will hold your interest.

These are not thrillers or novels of terror since there is seldom any strong or immediate danger to Mason or his clients. These are plot-driven stories of action. (To the Mason fanatics, I recommend the insightful biography of Gardner, "The Case Of The Real Perry Mason," authored by mystery writer Dorothy B. Hughes.)

Buy and read this volume if you enjoy classic American entertainment. Each of its novels is a quick and fun read. I also recommend and sometimes prefer Gardner's earlier writings, which can be even more energetic.

A Perry Mason Casebook

This volume contains four "Perry Mason" courtroom thrillers written in the 1950s when Erle Stanley Gardner was at the peak of his career. "Perry Mason" is a lawyer who fights for his clients using every tactic permitted under the laws of that time. His client is found innocent (or cleared in the preliminary hearing) when Perry, using his experience, uncovers some unknown or overlooked clue that isn't found until the last chapters. Gardner usually educates the reader into some facet of the law and reminds us of the unreliability of eyewitness evidence and the need for correct interpretation of circumstantial evidence. Sometimes eyewitness evidence is based on the clothes a person is wearing (like that famous example where Earl Rogers got the plaintiff to identify the wrong man). Gardner also introduced the reader to new things like detergents and a ball-point pen.

Many of the details in these stories are now outdated. A "writ of habeas corpus" is no longer necessary given the Supreme Court decisions of the Warren Court. Before a person could be arrested on suspicion, held for days, and worked on until they confessed. [The film "Boomerang" shows an example.] Gardner dedicates his books to the forensic experts who advanced science in convicting the guilty and exonerating the innocent. Gardner and others created "The Court of Last Resort" around 1950 to investigate and free the wrongly convicted. You can find a subtle reference to Dr. Sam Sheppard in one of his novels. "The Case of the Queenly Contestant" notes that a bullet found by a stretcher is proof of nothing. Gardner never put dates in his stories to prevent them from becoming outdated. But the devaluation of the dollar from 1971 onwards made his monetary figures out of date. The 'red line' trolleys in Los Angeles disappeared in the 1950s, along with bright sunshine. These stories provide an unintended snapshot of life in Los Angeles from the 1930s to the 1960s.

"The Case of the Gilded Lily"reminds us of the problem of eyewitness evidence when it can't be corroborated, and of the provenance of fingerprints. Gardner covered the Sir Harry Oakes murder trial.
"The Case of the Daring Decoy" discusses the problem of evidence when the time and contents of the victim's last meal is known. The effect of lividity is discussed. Does the possession of a murder weapon always indicate the murderer?
"The Case of the Fiery Fingers" asks if a person reports a crime could this be a cover-up for another crime? With many suspects, who is the real poisoner?
"The Case of the Lucky Loser" asks if a person is charged with a hit and run, could there be a plot behind this? It is an interesting story about family intrigue over an inheritance.

Captivating study in English of Anna de Noailles' poetry. Perry allows us to discover this powerful woman who had such an impact in France at the turn of the century and up to her early death in 1933. An incredibly thorough study with numerous and qualitative translations of Noailles' verse and poetic prose. Anna de Noailles has been well served!

A celebrated poet in France during her lifetime, Anna de Noailles (1876-1933) gradually lost critical attention after her death, This book, the first on the poet to appear in English, reexamines her extensive poetry and prose, alongside manuscripts and private documents' in relation to the works of French and European artists and thinkers from among her predecessors as well as her contemporaries The author shows how this woman of foreign origins envisioned and constructed an original poetic world by actively engaging with her literary and intellectual heritage-as represented by Lamartine, Hugo, Baudelaire, Mallamre, Proust, Schopenhauer, and Rilke, among others--while discovering vital sources of inspiration in her Greek ancestry and in Nietzsche's groundbreaking Philosophy. Not only did Noailles create a distinctive voice in the world of French letters but her influence reached writers of both genders in France, in other European countries, and across the Atlantic. Best understood in terms of a Dionysian aesthetics, her work is sensual, erotic, and playful, but also reflective, violent on occasion, and always marked by a tragic undercurrent that becomes magnified with time. Beyond the prominent place she held in the world of French letters, Noailles' lifelong commitment to artistic creation invites a reconsideration of her work.
Through the focusing lens of Anna de Noailles, Persephone Unbound revives multiple facets of the culture in which she wrote. More crucially still, it reevaluates a writer whose historical stature and whose incorporation by the French establishment as a representative of "feminine" poetry have tended to overshadow her literary merits. With respect to her poetry in particular, critics have often failed to recognize the modernity of its lyric voice on account of its traditional verse patterns. Reflecting a dual attitude of competition and cooperation with her cultural world, Noailles held a similarly doublevoiced discourse toward conventional interpretations of woman. Her classification in literary history as a belated French Romantic further obfuscates the significance of her work While recognizing her predecessors, Noailles was frequently unable to find adequate models in their works for a distinct poetic identity. In seeking new versions of the feminine self she acknowledged women who were unable to write and, more broadly, she attempted to provide a formerly silent Muse with voice and presence. Noailles' Greek inheritance also enabled her to reclaim mythical figures such as those of Persephone and Antigone, and thus to invigorate the link that French poetry had established with antiquity. The book finther evaluates Noailles' unique positions on social-sexual politics as they find expression in her little-known relationship with the nationalist writer Maurice Barres. First made available to readers in 1991, their correspondence discloses how Barres found in Noailles a long-sought muse even while he rejected her progressive politics. The author analyzes both Noailles' renditions of this relationship and the oscillation in Barrbs's works between the symbolic significance he attached to Noailles as a quasi-miraculous incarnation of his fascination with Dionysian values and his equally forceful denial of a poet whose inspiration clashed with his philosophy of nationalist action.

Wow, this is just an awesome book for any parent, grandparent, caregiver, teacher... It was an "impulse buy" and turned out to be the best child activity book I have ever seen. As a former professional, college educated stay-at-home mom, I wanted to move beyond "Candyland" and "Go Fish" and have more fun with my kids. This book provides a wealth of information that makes having fun with them a lot of fun for me!

There are 14 chapters, after the introduction. Each CHAPTER provides a background on the topic, helpful information, many ideas and projects to try, sidebars with even more information and ideass, and a very extensive "resources" section with additional books, websites, relevant games, music and more. Chapters include Instant Fun, Playing around with Photography, Mind Snacks: Recipes for Kitchen Learning, The Junior Geographer, celebrate the Senses, and so on. The book provides a very well rounded experience without being "preachy". It isn't a "learning book" and doesn't teach skills, so to speak, but a child can't help but learn and grow from the activities listed. Most activities are free or require a very small investment.

Each chapter is a treasure. For example, the first chapter, Instant Fun, makes waiting with kids actually fun. There are 30 "instant games" (for example, picking out someone walking by or a fellow patient in a waiting room and making up a creative story about them, turning your hand into a puppet with instructions, things to do while waiting for a meal in a restaurant, etc.), five different ways to keep busy while travelling, 13 different quick pencil games (such as one of you draws a squiggle and then you and your child take turns completing it into a picture, dot games, a game called "scrambled sentences, etc.). There are 4 sidebars in this chapter with even more ideas for instant fun. And finally, there are 13 references for more information, books, catalogs, games, etc. Each idea or game is at least a paragraph long--it isn't simply a list of run of the mill ideas. For my family, this chapter alone is well worth the price of the book.

And each following chapter is just as chock-full of information, ideas and projects. A previous reviewer stated it was a good book to get out of a rut and I couldn't agree more. The back cover shows a review from Working Mother magazine that states, "The beauty of this guide is that most games call for nothing more than two people and two brains." I couldn't agree more.

PLAYING SMART is a treasure trove of clever ideas. Using the simple and familiar, Susan K. Perry shows us how we can turn the most ordinary experiences into opportunities for creativity, learning, and fun, teaching children to begin a lifelong love of education and imagination. A walk becomes an adventure into biology and nature as well as a chance to make up stories about people, to notice change in daily surroundings. The backyard is filled with learning how to grow edible and decorative plants with an aesthetic appreciation of their variety and arrangement, along with respect for other living creatures. Cooking with your children, you can both learn about nutrition, health, and safety, fostering good habits that will serve them well in our fast food and junk food culture. Waiting in line and long car rides become openings for psychological sharing and excursions into the imagination.

Nearly all of the ideas in this book can be used by adults to stimulate their own creativity and get out of their daily ruts. I especially appreciated the sections of doing dreamwork and personal journaling with children. I frequently recommend this book to parents and teachers.

~~review by Joan Mazza, author of Dream Back Your Life; Dreaming Your Real Self; and 3 books in The Guided Journal Series with Writer's Digest/Walking Stick Press.

What I loved about this book was the sense of reality about Jamaican politics illustrated through a cast of characters representing points of view from top to bottom of the society. Sexy too.

In the early '70s Perry Henzell wrote and directed the ground breaking Jamaican movie "The Harder They Come." It's knowing presentation of a society in conflict, when combined with the best Reggae soundtrack ever, made it an all time classic.

In his novel "Power Game" Perry Henzell once again draws from his unique knowledge the political and social forces at work on a extraordinary island nation, and combines it with his astute world view. Sex, drugs, music and politics drive this compelling work. It is an overtly entertaining read, as well as one of the major works of literature to come from the region. A must!

If only more Christians sought God as authentically and deeply as Kierkegaard did. The prayers that are prayed here are not meant to impress the reader or to demonstrate theological insights(though they most assuredly do), but are simply the product of a man who wanted nothing other than to know and please God.

I have actually only read excerpts found in the book Devotional Classics. I was so moved and affected my the prayers including in that book, that I have been searching for the entire book. The prayers are insightful and thought provoking. They would make a terrific daily devotional.

This is a quick read about how American Defense has to change from the Cold War strategy to deal with other types of threats. I just returned from Europe and heard from European friends about their feelings on the United States. We are highly respected and looked up to as "the" power. We need to deal with the rest of the world accordingly. The authors give us some ideas as to how to do this.

The authors provide a coherent discussion of fully half of the security challenges facing us in the 21st century. They wisely avoid the debate swirling around the so-called Revolution in Military Affairs (RMA)-but deserve credit for their predecessor "offset strategy"-and simply note that the absence of "A List" threats gives us an opportunity to strengthen and maintain our traditional nuclear and conventional capabilities against the day when a Russia or China may rise in hostility against us. The book as a whole focuses on the "B List" threats, including Russia in chaos, a hostile China acting aggressively within its region, proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, and catastrophic terrorism. They note, correctly, that most of the spending and effort today is focused on responding to the crisis de jure, some but not enough resources are applied to preparing for the future, and virtually nothing is being done against the latest concept, that of "shaping" the environment through "forward engagement." Perhaps most importantly, they introduce the term "defense by other means" and comment on the obstacles, both within the Administration and on the Hill, to getting support and funding for non-military activities with profound security benefits.

Although others may focus on their discussion of Russia and NATO as the core of the book, what I found most helpful and worthwhile was the straight-forward and thoughtful discussion of the need for a new national strategy, a new paradigm, for dealing with potentially catastrophic terrorism. Their understanding of what defense resources can be applied, and of the impediments to success that exist today between state & local law enforcement, federal capabilities such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and defense as well as overseas diplomatic and intelligence capabilities, inspire them to propose several innovative approaches to this challenge. The legal and budgetary implications of their proposals are daunting but essential-their proposals for dealing with this one challenge would be helpful in restructuring the entire U.S. government to better integrate political-diplomatic-military-law enforcement operations with judicial and congressional oversight as well as truly all-source intelligence support.

Interesting side notes include 1) the early discovery in US-Russian military discussions that technology interoperability and future collaboration required the surmounting of many obstacles associated with decades of isolated (and often secret) development; 2) the absence of intelligence from the entire book-by this account, US defense leaders spend virtually all of their time in direct operational discussions with their most important counterparts, and there is very little day to day attention to strategic analysis, estimative intelligence, or coordination with diplomatic, economic, and law enforcement counterparts at home; 3) the difficulty of finding a carrier to send to Taiwan at a time when we had 12 carriers-only four appear to have been "real" for defense purposes; and 4) the notable absence of Australia from the discussion of security in Asia.

The concept of Preventive Defense is holistic (requiring the simultaneous uses of other aspects of national power including diplomacy and economic assistance) but places the Department of Defense in a central role as the provider of realigned resources, military-to-military contacts, and logistics support to actual implementation. Unfortunately the concept of Preventive Defense has been narrowly focused (its greatest success has been the dismantling of former Soviet nuclear weapons in the Commonwealth of Independent States), and neither the joint staff nor the services are willing to give up funds for weapons and manpower in order to make a strategy of Preventive Defense possible.

This resistance bodes ill for the other half of the 21st Century security challenge, what the author's call the "C List"-the Rwandas, Somalias, Haitis and Indonesias. They themselves are unwilling to acknowledge C List threats as being vital to U.S. security in the long-term (as AIDS is now recognized). I would, however, agree with them on one important point: the current budget for defense should be repurposed toward readiness, preparing for the future, and their concept of preventive defense, and it should not be frittered away on "C List" contingencies-new funds must be found to create and sustain America's Preventive Diplomacy and its Operations Other Than War (OOTW) capabilities. It will fall to someone else to integrate their concept of Preventive Defense with the emerging concepts of Preventive Diplomacy, International Tribunals, and a 21st Century Marshall Plan for the festering zones of conflict in Africa, Arabia, Asia, and the Americas--zone where ethnic fault lines, criminal gangs, border disputes, and shortages of water, food, energy, and medicine all come together to create a breeding ground for modern plagues that will surely come across our water's edge in the future. On balance, through, this book makes the top grade for serious bi-partisan dialogue, and they deserve a lot of credit for defining solutions for the first half of our security challenges in the 21st Century.

From the father of the theory of power, the reknowned statesman Niccolo Machiavelli, this book teaches strategies for getting power and control. If you think that now, 400 yrs. later it will be outdated, think again! Machiavelli's ideas are VERY valid in today's world. Don't skip over the examples he gives just because that is a thing of the past; think how those situations compare to the modern world.

Moralists, beware! you may be exposed to see the side of the world you'd rather suppress.

Read this classic, and also get "What would Machiavelli do?" by Stanley Bing, and "The 48 Laws of Power" by Robert Greene and Joost Elffers.

As he states in the beginning of this small, almost tiny, work, The Prince is not a very florid or complex piece, nor are its contents very innovative.

The brilliance of this text lies in its mundane and matter-of-fact nature. Machiavelli excels in taking common sense tidbits of practical government and synthesizing them into an easily read and masterful textbook for leaders of all organizations, and a must-read for any aspiring leader or student of history.

There are very few holes in his arguments, and he usually has a contingency for all of them. The biggest ideological flaw of The Prince is that Machiavelli seems torn over the nature of mankind: whether it is inherently good or evil; generous or self-interested. He doesn't (seem to) consider the possibility of a middle ground.

Contrary to his characterization (rather character assassination) by moralists, Machiavelli does not advocate abject cruelty or evil machinations. He sees them as tools to be implemented rarely, infrequently, and only when necessary. These tools, as vile as he admits them to be, are to be used only for the most noble of purposes: the preservation, stability and prosperity of the state and the people.

Furthermore, he seems to have a genuine belief in the mercy, love and power of God. A good deal more than many of the clergymen of his day!

Additionally, he seems to have a great amount of fear/respect for the common people, alluding to his more republican tendencies. In fact, one can almost hear him exalt the masses as the source of all real power (especially when he discusses the Swiss).

He does not moralize the audience, he merely provides them with his own experiences and those of history to lend him credibility and allows them to make decisions. (On a personal note: He'd have made an excellent economist!)

I commend Everyman for including the supplemental readings, as they shine light upon many of Machiavelli's references. I do however think that the translation was a too stiff (more fit for an audience contemporary to Machiavelli!) and suffers from the occasional confusing passage and grammatical error, but it has a good style and good use of devices. There is an abundance of footnotes (although a few less in some place and more in others would have been better). I was shocked that no reference was made about Machiavelli's allusion to The Aeneid at the beginning of Chapter 7.

In any event, this is a supreme work and should sit on everyone's bookshelf. Whether you hate Machiavelli and what he espouses, you will find yourself more appreciative of politics, and of democracy, after having read this testament to realism.