Shepard Books

I enjoyed the book. I learned a lot of new facts and was inspired by the way the author wove the life of Bear Bryant and the devotionals. I dont know what the other reviewer was wanting out of the book, but I thought it well worth the money.

There are a lot of unknown facts about the Bear here. I was surprised. I recommend it for the die-hard Bama fan, along with "A Tailgater's Guide To SEC Football" by Chris Warner.
Both are great for SEC fans and fans of "The Bear".

...and save your money by not buying this book! Let me first say that I have purchased well over 100 books in the past two or three years from Amazon.com, and spent more money than I care to add up, and I have never written one review nor have I returned even one book...until now. It's hard to even know where to begin, so I'll just start before the beginning, on the Dedication page. It is not for whom the dedication was written (the author's father), but the juvenile,amateurish way in which it was written, topped off with poor grammar and punctuation. On to the Introduction I went, however, giving the author the benefit of the doubt. As I began reading, I had the strange feeling I had read some of these same words before in another book about Coach Bryant. Now I'm not talking about well-known stories which can be found in any biographical sketch of the legendary coach; I'm talking about the exact same words! Lo and behold, I pulled from my bookshelf a book written by Mickey Herskowitz 17 YEARS EARLIER and read verbatim the exact same passages now plagiarized in this book. The same introduction referred to a tie game the Tide had with Southern Miss in 1982. I immediately knew this was wrong because I was at that game in 1982 when Southern Miss handed 'Bama its first loss in Tuscaloosa in about 19 years. The tie came the year before. Picky? Yes, if this kind of mistake takes place impromptu over water cooler chat, and not from the author of a book. Mind you, I'm still in the introduction, which spans a whole one and a half pages, start to finish. Let's just say it (1982) was a typo. You'll find plenty of those in this book. How does a manuscript such as this even get published, I wonder? I'm certainly no linguist or even a teacher--although the author ironically IS a teacher and has been for over 20 years--but I can't read one full page without having to go back and figure out what this guy is trying to write. To sum it up, this book is chock full of poor grammar, typographical errors, and plagiarized material. (You'll know the

this play is great, buy it!

in True West , Sam Shepard's method is a kind of allegorical realism, where the use of everyday items such as golf clubs, houseplants and toasters is not at all intended to suggest us reality.
In this play, Shepard illustrates the duality of human personality, and our primitive instincts for violence against the unavoidable family ties that usually discourage an individual from acting as wanted. In this case, two brothers, Austin and Lee, who experience the typical good boy vs. bad boy sibling rivalry unexpectedly meet. As a result a series of emotional angry outbreaks take place as Austin can't defined himself: Is he frightened of Lee or does he admire his brother's willingness to break the rules? Austin graduated college, got married, has a family to whom he will return soon. He is disciplined, striving and ambitious. Quite the opposite, Lee is uneducated, violent, envious and resentful.
Austin, a Hollywood screenwriter, is housesitting his mother's home while she is on a sightseeing trip to Alaska. His brother, Lee, has appeared all of a sudden and wants to share the house. Lee is a tramp and small-time criminal, who has just spent the previous six months in the Mojave Desert with their alcoholic father.
The filthy and foul Lee invites Austin's Hollywood producer for a round of golf, and ends up selling him on a story idea for a modern Western film, totally displacing his hard-working brother, who as a result crumples into a chaotic and violent wreck.
Shepard's focus is not on verisimilitude, but on the intensity of the conflict that is revealed. For instance, the main action in the play is the reduction of the mother's neat household into a garbage dump. This includes the destruction of Austin's typewriter with a golf club, vomiting into the desiccated remains of a philodendron and squashing fresh toast into the linoleum. Additionally, Lee had stolen several toasters from the neighborhood, "There's gonna be a general lack of toast in the neighborhood this morning..." he says.
In various occasions, Austin seemed to be afraid of his brother as he winds up doing what Lee asks him, such as lending him his car or typing the script of his imaginary screenplay. However, what Austin mostly seems to fear is not Lee, but his own deep-set, self-destructive impulses as he lives out the paranoiac nightmare of being displaced by his brother. "You think you are the only one in the brain department?" Lee questions him.
When Lee is dictating Austin the lines of his screenplay, he narrates the story of two characters that are running after each other -- actually referring to themselves. He says: "The one who is chasing, doesn't know where the other one is taking him, the one who is being chased, doesn't know where he is going." The two brothers are constantly competing with each other; even though, they head in opposite directions in life. Austin has a career and a family while Lee doesn't but he has the ability to break the rules, his brother strictly follows.
Towards the end of the play, both brothers who are very intoxicated from having being drinking alcohol the night through, start to act both wild and silly at the same time. Under the influence of alcohol, repressions and taboos are forgotten and one acts and says things that would not normally do. As in Fool for Love, the protagonists confess their deepest fears and feelings when drunk, in True West, Austin reveals how he feels lost and lonely despite of his accomplishments, he says:" there's nothing real down here... streets look like a postcard..." He is living his dreams (he is becoming a playwright, has a wife, etc) but he seems not to get acquainted with his reality and does not know anymore what is real and what is not.
Then, decides to "try" the toasters and make some toasts, which Lee steps over and smashes on the floor as he criticizes him: "you're making that toast like salvation or something...I don't want any toast..." to what Austin replies: "...I love the smell of toast...it's salvation...". While this argument goes on, their mother comes back doesn't surprising much when finding out the disaster her sons had made to her house. But, she tells them they'll both end up in the same dessert.
At the end of the play the phrases: "...Something to keep me in touch" and "It's easy to go out of touch" made me realize that one must hold onto something that will keep one focused in order to go on -- either focus on one's reality or on one's dream(s). Everyone needs that toast of salvation!

I didn't like TRUE WEST. But there's nothing wrong with it that could be blamed on this particular production of the play. The actors are good considering the flimsy material that they have to work with. The music is used sparingly, but is very effective at setting the scene. I just couldn't get over the shallow development of the characters and a script that was constantly attempting to be deeper than it was.

The story has one location. Two brothers sit in their mother's house, yelling and screaming at each other until the parental unit herself appears near the end of the play. I like the idea behind the story, which is to put two people in a confined area and see what happens to them. Unfortunately, most of what we learn about these two is quite dull. One brother is a moderately successful screenwriter while the other makes his living as a petty burglar. I had hoped that we wouldn't get soppy scenes of each brother revealing that he secretly envied the other's lifestyle, but that's exactly what we get here. The successful brother is the one without good people skills and the streetwise brother really wants to make it big, but doesn't have the proper school learning to do so. You've probably seen this sort of thing played out in films, television and theatre thousands of times before; I know I have. The problem here is that there is virtually nothing else going on in the script to distract from the banality of the characters.

The humor comes across as being forced -- very forced -- especially in the second half. The play is billed as a tragicomedy, but the transition from the funny scenes to the dramatic is shockingly jarring. You can almost hear the goofy, "Hey, this is funny!" music in the background every time a supposedly lighthearted moment comes up. It's possibly attempting to be a black comedy, but I just can't really see it that way. People who moan and whine and complain constantly could very well be hilarious, but I just wasn't amused by them. The comedy didn't flow naturally from the drama, and the drama just hung limply by itself out in No Man's Land.

If you already know that you like the play, then you will probably enjoy this particular staging of it. The various sound effects and music are used in moderation, and are very efficient at placing the audience right inside that house. The script does have one or two nice lines about the falseness of the Hollywood lifestyle and the boundary between the life that we see in pop culture compared to the reality that we drive through every day. They aren't the most original observations that you'll ever hear, but the wording of them and the acting of the principals really make those short sequences work. It's a pity that the rest of the script wasn't as sharp as these moments, because they really had me longing to hear more.

At one point near the end, the hardened brother (who is attempting to write a screenplay, just like his sibling) asks, "What do you call it when something's been said a thousand times before?" The answer that he receives is, of course, "a cliché". And unfortunately that sums up almost this entire production. Other dramas that have utilized these rather basic elements haven't made the mistake of not including anything else. But TRUE WEST is just one big cliché.

The illustrations are excuse enough for anyone of any age to want this book, but the way the text and illustrations play off of one another is magic. The gorgeous pastels and the rythym of the language captivated our 18-month-old, and now that she is 3, it is still a favorite. This is one we are always happy to read aloud, no matter how many repetitions are requested. Thank you, Jim LaMarche!

I'd never seen the poem before, so this was a first for me. The pictures are beautiful, and go along very well with the words...they are creative and up-to-date. Ex. For toasted pig, the captain eats a toasted hot dog, and for figs, fig newtons. I read the book to my 3rd grade students. They especially liked that the kids were playing the parts that would normally go to grown-ups. As one said about the book,"That's cool"! A good book to use when talking about the difference between real and make-believe, also a good jumping point to writing fantasy stories or poems.

This presentation of the classic nonsense poem is not as good as pervious publications of it as a song. Previously, the song carried a fun tune, and the illustrations actually followed the story well. In this version, the illustrations follow the story in only the vaguest way. Using children as the crew, and the use of vibrant colors, would have worked well had the illustrations actually matched the text.

Sometimes newer approaches are just not better.

In the short time span of less than ten years, these seven American heros helped to invent and then use the spacecraft and systems they signed on to fly. This book will inspire and will make you remember (or realize) that if done with hard work, common sense, and teamwork, anything aspired to -is possible.

Looking at everything that goes on in today's world, I feel that we will never see this type of dedication, teamwork, and support in future projects. Let's lose the laziness and "me me" crowd, roll up our sleeves and GET 'ER DONE!

Published as Project Mercury was thrilling the Free World at the height of the cold war, WE SEVEN was written by the original seven astronauts (and edited by LIFE magazine's John Dille). For researchers and space enthusiasts, the chapters offer valuable contemporaneous, first-person accounts of Project Mercury--from the men, to the machines, to the systems.

Particularly valuable are the accounts of the historic 1959 selection process (and selection medicine) at Lovelace Clinic and Wright-Patterson A.F.B. There are painstakingly technical accounts of the engineering and design work on the hardware in addition to first-person accounts of spaceflight itself, from the days when astronauts flew alone and then only briefly--for a lifetime of fame.

First military tests pilots and then engineers, the Mercury astronauts were not professional writers. The editor does a brilliant job of preserving the distinctive voices of the individual astronauts, while showcasing the highly technical subjects the men describe in WE SEVEN, a bestseller when it was first published in 1962.

A must for any spaceflight history library.

We Seven-
The book We Seven is about the original seven astronauts of the Mercury program. The book starts off with the astronauts telling of their lives before they were chosen for the space program at NASA. Most of them had the same squeaky clean military records being test pilots and having combat experience. All of the pilots were either in the air force, navy or the marine corps. After that the astronauts describe the various tests they had to go through to see if they had what it took for the job.
After the seven astronauts where picked they had to go through even more testing on trainers for g forces and zero g's that they would face in space and upon re-entry. This was very repetitive and kind of boring because of the elaborate detail the authors wrote about even the simplest of things.
The book wasn't very good it took the fascinating topic of aviation and made it into an extremely boring task of reading. The authors of the book describe everything in an extreme detail probably due to their polished military background. This seems to be a habit for people in the military known from personal experience having a father who used to be a pilot.
Wrapped up this book would not appeal to someone who is not interested in either the filed of aviation or space because of its detail about all of the in and outs of the job.

I was excited when I first purchased this book. Lots of promise and very little on delivery, to wit, the book cites a website, but no such site exists. Save your money.

John and Mary Shepard have written a book that gives such a wealth of information and hope! It covers all areas of life, starting from spirituality, healing tools, global issues, holistic projects, self involvement, life after death, economy, ego, universal truths and so forth with practical tools and projects to create a more holistic and healthier lifestyle on all levels. After I read the book I immediately started using Holistic Therapy and was amazed by the results. Having experienced different therapeutic work in the past, this work is the best. In a very short amount of time I was able to bring up, deal with and heal some deep issues. This therapy is VERY effective with immediate results. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has the desire and is willing to find true healing!

Beware, if you're buying this book for children or teens. It was written over 100 years ago and is very dated. I'm sure the content is useful if you can get past the stilted tone, but my 13-year-old couldn't. It's very 19th century school-marm-ish, I'm sorry to say.

Thanks to Yesterday's Classics, this book is once more in print. It is a great way to introduce children--and adults might learn a thing or two--to British history. The conquest of England by William the Conqueror is one of the ten most important battles in Western History and thus had a big impact on America's history. (How do you think we got all those French words in our language, anyway?) But don't worry--the Normans were not really French--they were descendant of the Vikings so having them in England's history isn't THAT bad.

As a teacher, this book was helpful in terms of providing great pictures and overall ideas. However, I found that the maps, some dates, and stopping points are historically incorrect. Therefore, I do not use it in planning my lessons. I use it only for pictures.

One of the best books for children published. It makes the people who took part in the Corps of Discovery come to life. As they set out on this great adventure where no American citizen had ever gone before, the reader feels the excitment. The author tells of the training and preparation that went into the trip. Her story brings the reader along for the journey.

Reggie Jackson in His Prime was like Dion Sanders,Barry Bonds&Shaq all rolled into One.He was unstoppable when it was money time&He truly was a one of a kind Personality.wherever He went He was a Winner.Reggie was something else.this is a good book that spotlights one of Baseball's Greatest's Talents Ever.

The Reggie Jackson Story by Bill Libby

Reginald Martinez Jackson was born on May 18th, 1946 in Wyncote, Pennsylvania. Reggie went to college at Arizona State University where he was an All-American football and baseball player. He was then drafted by the Kansas City A's in 1966 as a left-handed outfielder. He had a sensational rookie season in 1968 as he hit 29 home runs with a .250 batting average. In 1969, he had a spectacular season as he hit 47 home runs. 1973 was a season to remember for Reggie! He won the Most Valuable Player award with a league leading 32 home runs and 117 RBI's. Then the A's, led by Reggie's clutch performance, won the World Series. In 1974, Reggie led the A's to another World Series victory against the Los Angeles Dodgers. Reggie was then traded to the Baltimore Orioles and signed with the New York Yankees in 1977. That year, the Yankees won the World Series with the help of Reggie's spectacular clutch performances. In the World Series, Reggie broke records by hitting four home runs in a row, scored ten runs, and had eight RBI's! In 1978, Reggie led the Yankees to yet another World Series victory against the Dodgers! When it came to the playoffs and the World Series, Reggie Jackson proved himself to be one of the greatest clutch hitters in the history of baseball. His clutch performances earning himself the nickname "Mr. October!" In 27 October playoff games, he hit an amazing 19 home runs, 24 RBI's, and maintained a .357 batting average. Throughout Reggie's career, he led his teams to twelve division titles and five World Series victories! Reggie Jackson was very fun to read about! This book was very well written! I would recommend this book to any sports fan!

Caro y además el libro vino un poco manchado y manoseado, sin la portada y contraportada con la imagen en la foto. Directamente el libro negro.

WOW! This book is absolutely electrifying. I was first turned on to Sam Shepard from reading "True West", one of his later amazing plays. As I read more and more I thought I had a good understanding of his writing: until I read this book. This book contains many of Shepard's earlier plays from the time he first landed in New York and, as his roommate Charles Mingus Jr. has said "Would go into a room with a ream of paper and come out two hours later with a finished play". If you have really enjoyed some of Shepard's later stuff, I definetly recommend this book to give you a fresh perspective on someone who literally turns "conventional theatre" upside down. If you are new to Shepard, you might want to tryhis later works first, only because they are easier to follow. These earlier works are very much like the "Beat generation"- throwing out speeches and sentences without punctuation, with tons of craziness happening on every inch of the stage. Sometimes the plays may be hard to follow, or confusing, but if you really "get" what Shepard is doing, you will love this book. Just be warned that all the plays are far from conventional theatre. If you are an "Our Town" type of person this isn't for you. If you enjoy Albee and Beckett, if you enjoy equal parts peace and chaos on stage, then check this book out.

I bought this for my teenage daughter and she just loves it.

I only wish I could view the photo/drawing for each month before i purchase it. At 1/2 off it's quite a deal I think!