Sherman Books

The author cannot be serious. Films and documentaries are the stuff of elite (eg, Fellini) and popular culture (eg, Spielberg). Folklore, on the other hand, is something that certainly can be documented and even the folklore performance can be captured (perhaps) with hidden cameras and directors unseen. But isn't folklore the stuff of tradition that is generally untainted by the majority culture? So why even try to apply the folklore science "analysis" to the world of films and videos in the first place. I don't get it. Do other readers get it?

Sharon Sherman's book is a very useful primer for visual anthropology courses which include production as a main component. This book provides readers a nice history of the genre as well as lessons in the politics and poetics of documentary film production. Most unique, maybe, is her structure based on analysing the work of great documentary filmmakers such as the amazing director Les Blank (if you don't know his movies, check out his website for sure).

The only shortcoming of this book is that since Sherman views anthropological filmmaking from the paradigm of her field, Folklore, her analysis demands that the docs she look at be Folklore Documentaries - a perspective that can be as limiting as the idea of "reading" movies as "texts." Movies should be watched as just what they are, moving pictures, and I much prefer the holistic label of anthropological films to encompass most docs and many fictional films. Folklore docs just doesn't have the theoretical range to fully study the anthropological aspects of the cinematic medium and documentary genre.

Still, well worth reading.

A folklore film or video is a documentary about folklore. Because folklore consists of the traditional expressive culture of various communities, a folklore documentary is designed to represent how people within various social groups express themselves. Sherman provides an excellent history of ethnographic documentaries that relate to folklife studies, and she demonstrates how unique contributions by folklorists have advanced the techniques and styles of filmmaking in general. This fine book is useful for learning about filmmaking and thus is a good resource for anyone who wants to make or understand media representations of culture.

I ordered this book and read most of it in the hope that I would learn something about Familiars . In the interval between ordering and receiving my sixth sense made me begin to have doubts about Ms Little . Had she flown about the battlements of an old castle in the form of an Owl? Had she entertained A Hyrax or a Feral Cat as a house guest ? Had she ever had a pet Bat living behind a picture in the living room ? Was she acquainted with the properties of Henbane and twylight sleep and did she number Hecate among her close friends? The kindest thing , I thought was to suggest that Ms Little Knew as much about Familiars as I know about Conveyancing or Futures Trading , and let it go at that !

Braunbeck, Gary A.: "Modoc Rising" The narrator's friendship with his 27-year-old nephew Carson is cemented by a shared love of comics. But Carson lately has turned up with _MODOC: Land of the First Beast_, which seems to be giving him messages from elsewhere. Then as mass die-offs of many animal species strike worldwide, the Down's-syndrome-afflicted Carson goes missing...

Elrod, P.N.: "Dog Spelled Backward" Sasha (who with Megan, her sister, is a terrier/miniature-Doberman cross) knew she'd inherit Mighty Mite's pack leader role when the elderly Pomeranian abandoned her arthritic body. But none of the 3 realized how much their human "mom" would grieve, being unable to perceive the Mite's spirit. The *dogs* have the out-of-body experiences and so on, not the human; they protect her from Otherside vampiric things that would feed on her misery - things that take squirrel-shape. :)

Gilman, Laura Anne: The unnamed narrator gives a "Catseye" view of the abuser married to a lady with a healer's touch. 'He thought she was alone. That was his worst mistake.'

Helfers, John: Sevronai and his apprentice have had hard times, as the aging Sevronai's control over his spellcasting has deteriorated (rain spells that won't stop, for instance). When "Thieves in the Night" - a pack of little forstchen - steal the last of the travellers' food, Sevronai gives chase only to be caught by their master, a hedge-wizard who tired of his role as wildlife-protector.

Jocks, Von: (The title of "This Dog Watched" is taken from an Elizabeth Barrett Browning poem about her dog.) The narrator consults a psychic about his English Lit problems - who says 'no WAY' as soon as she consults her crystal ball. Madame Eglantine says he has issues from a life as a *dog* - but there are technical problems with past-life regression to something that can't talk.

McCay, Bill: "Alliance" Setting: Egypt (but not that of McCay's StarGate novels; see also _A Constellation of Cats_). Tanit, village healer, finds it odd that only young children are afflicted with fever, and that the new deity establishing a cult in the area should declare cats anathema. Narrative alternates between Tanit and Bast, a stray whose feline senses give her a different perspective on the problem.

Norton, Andre: "The Familiar" From Fossi the familiar's point of view, who has been passing as a child's toy handed down from mother to daughter for generations - and who considers the current human charge, Jeseca [sic] to be the familiar. Fossi, unfortunately, has lazily waiting for Jeseca to grow up a little before trying to educate her; now they may both pay, as they flee enemy soldiers invading their native city.

Nye, Jody Lynn: "And So, Ad Infinitum" Mira is a weekend witch: a middle-aged mom whose 'pet' cat Zoomer doubles as her familiar. Zoomer seems pretty normal - obsessed with his favourite food, testing mattresses, acquiring fleas. However, he's good at his job, and she wouldn't dream of trying to contact great-aunt Violet on the other side to complete her family history without him.

Rabe, Jean: "On the Scent of the Witch" John Bradstreet is the only *real* witch in Massachusetts, let alone Salem. Against the modern trend of witches in fiction, he's actually guilty of many of the evils Cotton Mather attributes to witches - playing with others' lives for fun and profit, using his elderly dog to manipulate children with an eye to future immortality. Good characterization; he doesn't see himself as evil, but isn't about to put his neck on the line to save those falsely accused of his crimes.

Resnick, Laura: "First Familiars" - a series of memos between Socks the Cat and his infernal masters; he just can't make headway with the Clintons. Then Socks receives a *dog* as backup. (Socks complains to his union rep.) He even tangles with the IRS ("your threat to send me back to the Fifth Circle for my failure to file a tax return while I was *there* for 180 years is so depraved that even the Dark Powers are impressed.")

Rusch, Kristine Kathryn: Winston, a timid, underpowered wizard, is "Searching for the Familiar" after his cat falls victim to a rash of familiar-kidnappings. His advantage is that one of his friends is a cop, who needs no magic to investigate kidnappings.

Sherman, Josepha: "Swordplay" Marko, as his father's second - and second-best - son, has been nicknamed 'Luckless' so long he believes it, but he's determined to tackle the dragon who crippled his father and killed his older brother. In a fit of self-pitying sarcasm, he 'conjures' a spirit into his sword - Stacie, a Valley-girl who simultaneously cast her own 'spell'. She'll cooperate, but has her own opinions to contribute.

Sizemore, Susan: "Goodness Had Nothing to Do with It" Told in an unusual style: all dialogue, without even 'he said/she said', and only 4 characters: Marcie and Kim opening their new phone-psychic business, an undercover cop seeking a missing person, and Mae - who hadn't known until she first saw a mirror that this time she'd reincarnated as a ratlike Chihuahua rather than a white Persian. :)

Stuckart, Diane A.S.: "Business as Usual" Jane Riverspoon is no magician, even as a saleswoman, having inherited a corner office from the late unlamented Tiffany Glass only under a lottery system. Nevertheless, a rat shows up to act as her mentor: the reincarnated Tiffany, required to compensate for not having helped others in life. (Tiffany, far from being remorseful, resents the situation, and Jane's phobic about rats.)

West, Michelle: "Legacy" occupies a full quarter of the book. Callie unexpectedly gains a familiar during a weird glitch in a online role-playing game in this near-future: a tiny dragon, apparently the same helper program that once served as familiar to one of the system's founders. ('Legacy' here has several senses, including the computer sense, as the game progresses on many levels.)

Based on the most unscientific survey, most readers within a mean plus or minus three standard deviations will state unequivocally that a familiar is a magical cat that is a companion to a witch. Obviously tales like Bell, Book, and Candle conjure up felines as companions to the Kim Novaks of the world. However, the fifteen contributors to this anthology demonstrate a wider girth of sidekicks to include the expected cats (including former White House resident Socks), dogs (feels at first like heresy, but it works), people (not just husbands), and insects (don't ask). Each tale as far as this reviewer understands is new, but what this reader knows is that each contribution is well written, remains within the theme, and provides fans with a powerful witch's brew anthology. Now let me take a closer look at my menagerie (dogs and cats not my spouse silly) who obviously have bewitched me as they can do no wrong (that's how one perceives exclusion of the husband).

Harriet Klausner

Gideon Welles once said that the Porters were all liars and braggarts. This massive volume by David Dixon Porter goes far to proving it. As history, it is lousy, heavily biased, and one-sided. However, for the serious historian, there is a great amount of administrative detail that cannot be found elsewhere. A good source, if its limitations are properly recognized.

Porters perspective of the navel operations gives the reader a rare view of history. written some years after the war to set the record of other navel histories of the day, straight. I find the detailed reports by participants and commentary by porter to be both informative and entertaining. Bias? Yes... but he gives his opinion in a straight forward manor and gives credit (both good and bad) where credit is due.

First of all, I haven't fact-checked Porter's narratives and orders of battle. However, much like Churchill's WW2 histories, a politically biased account by an actor in the history can be an invaluable resource. And, like Churchill, Porter's writing style has that high style that makes for a refreshing change (in small doses) from today's more pedestrian prose.

Most books on the ACW afloat are narratives, this has a lot more 'meat' due to Porter's participation in a number of the actions and his insights behind the scenes in the USN. I recommend this book, but not as an unimpeachable source.

This is a well written and much needed book. Of all disciplines, mathematics continues to be the least understood by the general public. Even among the scientists who use mathematics daily in their work, many are not fully aware of the true nature of the subject. One of the main reasons for this lack of familiarity is the absence of books that illustrate the mathematical way of thinking in a way that non-mathematicians can easily comprehend. In this book, Sherman Stein leads the reader through a number of genuine mathematical problems whose statements and solutions are presented in a way that requires no more than the use of common sense and, possibly, a few facts from elementary arithmetic. By reading this book, readers will have a chance to see how mathematicians think and what processes they go through before solving a mathematical problem.
The book consists of eight chapters, each starts with a simple question that leads to others, and from the discussion of these a general question arises and an answer is developed. This question then is often related to others asked by other mathematicians or scientists and, on a number of occasions, some applications are pointed out. Although the eight chapters are basically independent and can be read in any order, there is similarity in the type of questions they treat. The best way to get a flavor of the book--the type of questions it discusses and how the material is handled--is to read the first chapter, where a question that seems so simple at first glance leads to an interesting and unexpected solution. This spirit continues throughout the entire book. I believe that the author's choice of topics and the clear and interesting way in which he discusses them make this book truly accessible to any intelligent member of the "other half." The book also has something of interest to professional mathematicians as well; they will find that many of the problems it discusses are new to them.

Fawzi M. Yaqub
Professor Emeritus of mathematics
SUNY College at Fredonia

Being of a non-mathematical nature and "the other half", I was forced to read this book for my college math course and do an essay on it. My teacher told me the book discusses how non-mathematical minds think. I figured it would be something worth looking into and might help me understand math better. The book did no such thing. All it basically did was put me to sleep. It discusses how a mathematical mind would approach a problem and that's all well and wonderful, but I'm not of the mathematical mind and neither are most of the people who would read this. Before you get the wrong idea, I love puzzles and analyzing things like real problem solving, but I've never been so bored in my life (and I read 1500+ page books for computer programming with ease) as I was when I read this book. Writing college papers is not difficult, but writing one that's more than a page that a math teacher will like on this book is damn near impossible. A mathematics professor or even a math major might find this useful, but in my opinion, for other people who are like me it's going to be relatively useless because it left me even more confused and with a stronger dislike for math.

In his preface, the author does a good job of explaining what he set out to do in this book; then, in the rest of the book, he does a good job of doing it! Stein has attempted to present examples of real mathematical reasoning that (unlike some of the most beautiful parts of math) DON'T require any math background to understand or appreciate--and in my opinion, he succeeds brilliantly. If you love a well-reasoned, clearly explained argument but never even took algebra or geometry, you will enjoy this book. On the other hand, even mathematically sophisticated readers are likely to find some things here that they hadn't seen before, so they should enjoy the book too.

(These comments are on the 4th edition: I hope the 5th is better!) This is everything a guide book should NOT be: not very usable (no useful info to orient you to the city and its neighborhoods); not entirely accurate ("it's next to impossible to find a place to park downtown"... hunh??); and provides very little about the intangibles that give visitors a preview or feel for a new place and help them make decisions. Also some confusingly overlapping maps of downtown.

Just one example of me, a visitor, trying to use this book: I want to go to the Weissman Art Museum, and according to the book, it's located on the banks of the Mississippi river on the U of Minn. campus. Since I'M A VISITOR, I don't know where either is, but thanks... So next I look up U of Minn and it tells me it's near Dinkytown by the river. I look up Dinkytown and it says it's near the U. of Minn. I look on the (confusingly overlapping) downtown maps, and finally locate two U of Minn campuses, but am more confused by the weirdly disorienting maps than when I began. Nothing about "Dinkytown" or ANY of the neighborhood names sprinkled throughout the text. Agh!! Basically, the book is an information dump with headings. Not useful for travelers trying to find their way around. One good thing is it made me appreciate just how difficult it must be to produce a good guidebook.

This book is full of useful inoformation. As with any book of this nature some of it is going to be out of date before printing but most everything that remains is useful and helpful.

THE INSIDERS' GUIDE TO THE TWIN CITIES, 5TH EDITION is a wonderful book that describes not only the urban neighborhoods in Minneapolis and St. Paul, but many of the suburbs as well (although it does manage to miss close-in ones such as Golden Valley and Edina), as well as the many shopping and dining experiences available in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, including the humongous Mall Of America and some of the smaller record stores and book stores. Overall, this book shows the Twin Cities to be an ethnically diverse area, with a vibrant mix of people and places, including several colleges (the University Of Minnesota being the largest and best-known). This is a wonderful reference book as well as a great guidebook.

Okay...I bought this book to find out how big this tank was!...guess what...nowhere in this book...(a book ON THE SHERMAN TANK no less)...can I find how long this tank is!!!...how wide this tank is. You would think that this would be basic information on the subject. What possible excuse could there be for not having this info readily available in a book on the Sherman tank. Beats me..if anyone can help, please recommend a book where I can find this information.

Well detailed developmental history and World War Two deployment as expected of Zaloga's caliber of work. A tad disappointed that of 37 pages with data, including four with color plates commentary, only two pages and two color plate comments covered the Korean War; a little over two pages and two color plate comments cover post-war exports. The 76mm served barely over one year in World War Two, but fought all three years of the Korean War; that deserves more detailed coverage. I also would have appreciated more details on the disposition of post-WWII U.S.Army occupation forces, such as when which units traded in their older Shermans for newer tanks. Also given short shrift were flamethrower mountings, and while Zaloga goes into some detail on the 17-pounder gun, there's almost no mention of 105mm howitzer tanks the 76mm habitually served with. Overall a very informative work on the development and early deployment of the 76mm gun Sherman.

Steven Zaloga does a great job of describing the development, combat performance, and the foreign / post WWII service of the 76mm Sherman.

What I found most interesting was his description of the tankers' reaction to the upgraded Sherman. Most tank commanders actually preferred the 75 mm Sherman because of its better HE performance, and lower muzzle blast. They only favored the 76mm Sherman when they had to face German Panther and Tiger tanks in abundance.

Zaloga also describes the controversy surrounding the inadequacy of the firepower of the Sherman tank -- how Army Ordnance completely misdiagnosed the performance of the 76mm ammo and resisted efforts to uparm the Sherman with a 90mm weapon. Zaloga gives helpful charts on the armor penetration of the 76mm gun, compared to the 17 pounder and the 90mm gun.

The third thing I was fascinated about was Zaloga's description of the combat performance of the Sherman in the Korean War. Initially the tankers favored the M26 Pershing but later on in 1951 they favored the M4A3E8 Sherman (armed with HVAP) more than the M26 due to its reliability, ease of handling, and its maneuverability.

Zaloga was able to give a very comprehensive overview of the 76mm Sherman tank in just 48 pages. I think that Zaloga should write another volume on the Sherman Tank in Israeli service in the Arab/Israeli Wars. The Israeli army used the upgunned Sherman tank prominently in the 1967 Arab-Israeli War and the War of Attrition. He could have included a small section about this in the book, but evidently he is constricted by the 48 page limit.

I really enjoyed reading this book. The coloured plates by Jim Laurier are excellent as always. This book should be in the library of any WW2 tank buff.

If you are looking for a direct,experienced and smart take on raising capital, this book is a great tool! Andrew Sherman empowers you to see through the often complex process of raising capital - all the venture financing basics + new neat stuff such as strategic alliances and co-branding....are included. If you want to understand and be a proactive participant in raising capital for your company take advantage of this book.

very unsophisticated description of the process. looks more like a list for the naive entrepreneur than a real book to prepare to being introduced to investors.

If you are thinking about or in the process of building or starting a business and have to raise outside funds, this book is for you. The author, Andrew Sherman, assumes he is speaking to an intelligent reader unlike many books I bought on this topic. I just ordered another copy of this book for my father-in-law, who is thinking of expanding his small printing company.

Rosie and the Mole is a wonderful gift for an older sibling who is celebrating the arrival of a baby brother. The brit milah is an often confusing celebration for adults, and even more so for children. This gentle story with some really sweet humor will make an older sibling feel special and included in the celebration. Highly recommended!

Jewish books are cool but when I read this one it was one of my favorites. Its a great book for kids under the ages of 10. Judy Silverman is my librarian at Temple Shalom, my sunday/hebrew school. I hope she sees her first 5 star review sometime!

This book glorifies the unnescessary and cruel practice of genital cutting. Not suitable for children.

I enjoyed all three books of the "Vulcan's Soul" trilogy, although I found the first book a little slow. The last book, "Epiphany," was the best of the three. I highly recommend this collection for anyone who wants to understand how the Romulan branch of the Vulcan evolutionary tree ended up on Romulus.

This book was a great read & finished giving the background to the Vulcan/Romulan split & the Romulus/Regus split plus the explanation of the Watraii origin. I enjoyed it immensely but I love all things Vulcan!

I have probably read over 100 Star Trek books over the past 15 years. This book is by far the worst one I have ever read. It jumps all over the place randomly, never connecting the 3 stories going on together. I cannot tell you how much I hate this book. DON't DON'T DON'T waste your money on this one. I will never buy another book written by these two authors.

Stuart Sherman's "Telling Time" was the most enjoyable, thoughtful, and thought provoking book I have read since "Catcher in the Rye". Sherman cleary and enjoyably shows the beginning of clocks in the 18th century. A MUST read for sure.

It would be a complete waste of time to read "Telling Time." Why? Neither it nor the literature discussed is very good. It is about the dregs of prose from the 18th century in England. BOR-RING. It is my opinion that it is the sort of book destined to cause a minor amount of deforestation and then sit on library shelves unread, or read or skimmed by a very few who must read it for professional reasons. It is also my opinion that it is the sort of perfunctory book which professors must write from time to time in order to put the fact of its publication into their Curriculum Vitae.

"Telling Time" is a beautifully written, insightful exploration into the emergence of clocks and personal diaries, and why they came about at the same time. Sherman is clearly a scholar of his subject as well as that rarity--an academic who is able to write clearly, cleanly and without needless and clumsy jargon. It is packed with information and cogent analysis. "Telling Time" is a must-read for scholars of the subject, as well as the interested general reader. I highly recommend it.