Stanley Books

This is a terrific collection of poems and stories, exhibiting and provoking a range of emotions. Wonderful to read such young talent.

These are the unpolished new offerings from a group that will soon be our cultural thought leaders. Fascinating and yet, somehow reassuring in it's content...

But when they're good, you can't beat them.

This anthology is worth every cent--it's new without being cheaply contrived or ancient avant-garde. There is something clear-eyed about every voice here; but more than that, each is distinct. Any rough edges in presentation or experience are easily forgotten with the quality of the writing and the stories and poems.

Looking for something worth a second or third read, and not run-of-the-mill? You can't go wrong.

This is a fantastic anthology of short stories for any young adult. The stories and poems within are all written by writers ages 13 to 23, and the quality is impressive. Definitely a great read and a worthwhile buy.

PI Stanley Hastings is called by an old college buddy to fill in for an actor who died right before opening night of ARMS AND THE MAN in a tiny New England town. The stage manager promptly gets himself murdered, and Stanley has to help Chief Bob (an amateur actor himself) find the killer. The search is a comically depressing examination of backstage life and midlife crisis that leaves the reader amazed at Stanley's emotional resilience.

The amount of theatrical detail Hall included was impressive, and I enjoyed his use of internal dialogue, which ranks right up there with Lawrence Block's. And it's the rare mystery author who can sneak a Pinter joke into the dialogue like Hall does. I did find Stanley's hang-up on the spelling of the word "actor" mildly distracting, but it would take an awful lot more than that to detract from the fun of this book.

I am in the process of collecting all of the Stanley Hastings books in hardcover. I have read them all and he is the most entertaining sleuth in the business. His reluctance at being drawn into the mystery makes the plots all the more irresistable and as a result, they are not predictable. He makes me laugh out loud...never have I read a more charming character.

I have read at least five other books featuring the unique Stanley Hastings, but this one is special because of the different setting. Instead of his usual ambulance-chasing, Stanley gets to play a major part in a production of "Arms and the Man". I had read the play long ago, and that added to my enjoyment of the book. Rarely has a protagonist risen so triumphantly over countless humiliating circumstances; you have to admire the almost masochistic determination of actors who put up with all he describes in hilarious, but still almost depressing detail. Ambulance-chasing in the Bronx seems a picnic compared to Stanley's experiences in this book.

american's of all ages and colors should feel indebted to Mr. Crouch for writing some of the most interesting commentary on our american cultural scene. it is because crouch understands so well the basic promise and opportunity of american life that he can weave such wide-ranging and often disparate opinion without losing touch with the reality of the culture. most importantly, crouch establishes himself as part of the great triad of negro americans - along with the novelist albert murray and trumpet virtuoso wynton marsalis who seek to recommit americans to the power and complexity of our national music: jazz. this can only be done by tossing some left hooks at our great national embarrassment: namely the nihilism and materialism of modern popular music, especially rap music. the fact that this music has been co-opted by white suburban kids shows that it has long been a bankrupt and impotent force whose only purpose is to further depress the culture for the enrichment of a few. crouch is calling on americans of all stripes to turn their back on the 'electronic judgement day' of the mass media and the self-serving race-hustlers of the academic and literary establishment and rededicate the culture to jazz and literature based on the 'tragic optimism' that has always been at the heart of jazz/blues music and american culture. count me in.

Crouch has a long history as a politically incorrect commentator on the vexed questions of race & victim politics. From what he calls "the Afrocentric hustle" to the real "race card" played in the O.J. Simpson trial; a stunning suite of essays in praise of Ralph Ellison; and how the Constitution is like the blues, I found my self in passionate agreement & furious dissent - often within the same sentence. For pure verve, style & energy Crouch is possibly the only writer who stands with Camille Paglia as a thinker who is hard to like but impossible to ignore.

Crouch continues to prove beyond any doubt to be an individual with the highest standard of literary precision. His insight into the human condition and clearness of thought are peerless in American correspndence.

Ken Mask, MD
New Orleans

Great fiction has inner meaning, meaning which speaks to the true reality of life. Sometimes it takes a while for a mind to accept a new message, or a new story -- you cant understand something until you are ready to understand it. The short story - 'The Self-Correcting Mechanism' was one of the better stories I have ever read. This story alone makes the book worth the price.

Stanley Sargent is by far one of the best horror writers of our time. His stories are thick with atmosphere, tone and setting. His descriptions are so well achieved that you will run to lock your doors for fear his villains will find you huddled in fear. His characters are real and that's what makes them hook you right into their tale. And his style of telling the tale really brings the reader along. When the main character is stuck in some pit, guess what--so are you! It's wonderful. Anything this author writes should not be missed. And his drawings are amazing. If you haven't seen this book, well get it into your cart. You will absolutely be amazed!!

I was proud to be one of the illustrators for this book, and I'm proud of author Stanley C. Sargent for what he's achieved in ANCIENT EXHUMATIONS. The easiest (laziest) way to describe the book would be to call it a collection of stories influenced by the master, H. P. Lovecraft. But really, that does Sargent a diservice. So many fans who work with HPL's mythos merely retread the same well-worn paths, writing in a style too patterned after Lovecraft's own, and so on. Sargent has gone beyond the lore and trappings of the Cthulhu Mythos to write new stories that are much more original, more personal, than most of the mythos fiction one will ordinarily see. There is quickly becoming evident a "Sargent" style, which mixes humor with the horror, and a Sargent approach, which involves a great deal of impressive and fascinating historical research. These are not just rewrites of the stories written by that old gent from Providence. Even August Derleth, Lovecraft's friend and champion, couldn't escape that approach. Sargent has his own tales to tell, and that's the best -- the only -- way to work in this subgenre of horror fiction. Let's continue our worship of the Old Ones, but hail to the New Ones...like Stanley Sargent!

Frank Bosworth excels at not only being funny but managing to convey a thoughtful undercurrent. Most humorous writers provide laughs, then switch to serious mode for the "lesson" while Bosworth has the reader shifting between chuckling and howling from beginning to end, but still sends the reader away, pondering the size of the role chance plays in our lives.

Bosworth has a unique and delightful way of presenting the reader
with doses of the wit and wisdom of moments from
everyday life that we often miss while looking backwrd or forward or simply away; in so doing he touches our hearts, opens out eyes and sometimes makes us shed a long awaited tear inside a good hard laugh.!

Loved this entertainingly humorous story of personal success and failure where the author's fate is determined, as is the norm, not by his athletic capabilities, determination or personality, but by another's success or failure. We can all relate to this story as we all wait for our 15 minutes of fame!
Is a must read!!

Ed Dyess was from my home town of Albany Texas. His story is a must read for anyone interested in why America is great. He exhibited in the PI that uncommon valor seen in countless men and boys from small town America. As a young boy I heard him speak of his experiences at the football stadium and have been trying to get a copy of his book since.

It is fitting that Dyess Air Force Base in Abilene, TX is named after him.

I was so thrilled to find the book written by my cousin, Edwin Dyess. WE had an old copy of the Chicago Sun's article written by him back right after he returned home from Bataan. After visiting Edwin's hometown of Albany and his gravesite recently, I took a chance and went on line to see if there was anything in bookform and BiNGO. Leave it to Amazon to have most anything I am looking for. Thanks Amazon. Read the book. It is totally amazing how one man could endure such terrors.

"Bataan Death March: A Survivor's Account" by William E. Dyess is a very descriptive book about the Bataan Death March, a torturous march from Bataan to various prison camps. The march started on April 10, 1042, and it involved American and Filipino soldiers being stripped of their belongings and forced to walk about 100 miles in the hot sun. The soldiers were cruelly treated by the Japanese soldiers, usually beaten until unable to walk and sometimes killed right on the spot. Most of the time they were not given food or water, and when they were given food, the portions would be just a small bite.
The book gives readers a look at the Bataan Death March from an actual U.S. soldier's experience. Lt. Col. Dyess survived this horrendous act and he decided to write a book to tell the American people what he went through. The book was very well written, and it had many details of the march, details that no history text book could even start to explain.
I really liked "Bataan Death March: A Survivor's Account" because it gave me a sense of what the soldiers had to go through. Dyess' experiences helped me understand the awfulness of the Bataan Death March because he explained them so vividly, and even through his words I could hear the passion in his voice. With the author being a survivor, having a first-hand account of what actually happened on the Bataan Death March really helps readers understand the enormity of the situation.
All in all, I definitely recommend this book to anyone who wants to learn more about what happened on the Bataan Death March. It is a very poweful book that takes the reader back in time to World War II.

I picked up this book thinking it was probably another New Age insult to my intelligence and was pleasantlly surprised to find that I was wrong. Simple but not simplistic, it has just the right amount of scholarly and anecdotal narrative to make the one believable and the other palatable. Usually books on topics like this are either silly or dry but this one kept my interest all the way to the end. It's an easy read with clarity and depth and it gives you a lot to relate to whenever you catch yourself "becoming psychic".

Becoming Psychic is a unique book that relates a clinical psychologist's anomalous experiences to his purported spiritual growth. A psychologist and experimental parapsychologist makes comments, some of them quite skeptical, about the reported phenomena. The back-and-forth dialectic makes for fascinating and informative reading. Readers can make up their own minds!

Becoming Psychic is essential reading, both for the beginner interested in developing latent abilities and also for the adept eager to keep up with the latest scientific findings. Dr. Kierulff''s chatty, reader-friendly approach to developing psychic ability is the perfect complement to Dr. Krippner's lucid explanations of relevant parapsychological research. Brimming with intriguing personal experiences and the latest scientific findings, this readable and inspiring volume touches heart, mind, and spirit.

According to the introduction, this book is the fleshing out of the author's seminary thesis and the culmination of about 20 years worth of additional work. The book reflects this effort. The presentation is a perfect balance between readability and serious research. I particularly liked the author's description of the evolution of the story, clearly showing the credibility of the Messianic King, the presentation of Jesus as King, and the condemnation of Israel for rejecting him. This commentary is especially important for dispensationalists because it shows clearly that the synoptics were an unambiguous offer of the promised Messianic Kingdom described in the Old Testament. The book explains in simple terms how Christians can apply messages given during this offer to Israel, though they were not necessarily the original target audience.

Stanley D. Toussaint, a pastor of more than twenty years and a senior professor emeritus of Bible exposition, presents Behold the King: A Study of Matthew, a scrutiny of the gospel of Matthew that traces Matthew's thoughts about the foundation of Christianity. Though Behold the King draws historical and grammatical hermeneutic directly from the Greek text, fluency in Greek is not required for students and theologians to understand Toussaint's comments, ponderings, and interpretations. A close study of Matthew's words, God's eternal kingdom, and Jesus' role as King of Jews and Christians, Behold the King is study steeped in both scholarship and faith.

There are other commentaries such as the Davies in the ICC that are more technical, but none as expository and exegetical as this one. Dr. Toussaint is a great communicator and really expounds on the theme of Jesus as King throughout this book. If you could only have one commentary on Matthew, this is the one. Espeically useful is his outline of the Book of Matthew and also his translation of the Greek Text which is both accurate and yet reable. Also worthy is his dispensational perspective on key texts in Matthew's Gospel.

This is a book that Gary Frye - husband - provided information for but I found it useful because schools are always need more ways of getting funds into campuses to meet NCLB. Since I'm the one who always orders Gary had the follow comments: Working with Stan over the years has given me insights into the need for developing other system for getting funds into school districts. This book is GREAT and helped me think of new always that can use my school district's foundation and development office. Stan has provided another great service to public education by providing folks with a reason why a development/fundraising office it needed.

What a wonderful resource! Dr. Levenson's book is a valuable guide for helping find sources of grants and for better understanding the process of grant writing.

I particularly liked the examples of grant opportunities for K-12 schools and the list of 101 foundations and corporations interested in giving to K-12 schools. The examples of awarded grant proposals provided in the book show you the proper formats and various writing styles for a winning grant.

As a technology education teacher, I feel the section on writing mini-grants will be very helpful in obtaining future grants to further expand my program.

Having actually applied for and been awarded five mini-grants this year, I feel that Dr. Levenson's book will help me take my grantsmanship to the next level. He provides a blueprint for creating successful school grant writing teams and for obtaining major grants to meet larger needs.

As the new fundraising director within a new fundraising organization within a very old chicago public school, i needed to ramp up extremely quickly. I had no NFP fundraising experience whatsoever. I largely credit this book with taking us from zero to $150,000 in the course of several months. I have no affiliation with the author (I'm always supicious of glowing reviews), and in fact was on this page to recommend it to another school that's just kicking off their fundraising efforts. It's comprehensive, has a wonderful collection of docs and support materials, and I continue to pass our two copies around to new members of our team. Seriously, buy this book.

This product is a collection of essays by various Beethoven scholars. They tend to be on a general subject and appropriate for music students at a college level or beyond. You do not have to be a Beethoven expert or a seasoned musicologist to understand this work.

With the superfulity of books on a great subject like Beethoven, it can be difficult to know where to start. Well, start here!

This is really a nice book filled with authoritative essays on the Master. It's recent, the information up-to-date, and it has a very scholarly ambience of respect and admiration for the great artist, but with a clear-eyed common-sense approach unmuddied by mythos. Highly recommended.

I recently spent considerable time with Beethoven's piano sonatas and string quartets and wanted to read the essays in this book devoted to these genres to supplement my listening. William Kinderman's essay: "The piano music: concertos, sonatas, variations, small forms" deals briefly but insightfully with Beethoven's body of work for the piano, focusing on the first three sonatas of opus 2, the "Waldstein and Appassionata" sonatas from Beethoven's mid-career, and the final three sonatas, opus nos. 109, 110, 111. John Daverio's essay, "Manner, tone, and tendency in Beethoven's chamber music for strings" is a difficult study which uses literary and critical theory to show the differences between the quartets of Beethoven's early and middle period on the one hand and the final quartets on the other hand. Both these essays were challenging and helped me with my listening.

But I couldn't stop with the two essays and proceeded to read the entire book, part of a series which presents the best of musical scholarship and thought on the great composers. This book of studies of Beethoven is edited by John Stanley of the University of Connecticut and consists of 17 essays by 16 scholars (Stanley has two essays) devoted to Beethoven's life and music. If there is a theme running through this varied collection, it is that each essay tries to put Beethoven in a musical or historical context.

The book is divided into four parts. The first part, "A Professional Portrait" consists of three essays discussing Beethoven's life, his compositional techniques (the use of sketchbooks), and the traditional division of his works into three periods. This part of the book includes a detailed and useful chronology of Beethoven's life.

The second part of the book, "Style and Structure" consists of three essays which deal broadly with Beethoven's works and which discuss similarities and differences between Beethoven and Haydn and Mozart. There is an excellent essay by Roger Kamien on Beethoven's use and development of thematic material which is technical but not beyond the reach of the devoted music lover.

The third part of the book, called "Genres" consists of seven essays which examine each of the major genres in which Beethoven composed. As I mentioned, the essays on the string quartets and the piano sonatas initially drew me to the book. The remaining essays cover Beethoven's symphonies, focusing on his imaginative orchestration, the genesis of Beethoven's opera "Fidelio", the chamber music with piano, including the violin sonatas, cello sonatas, and trios and their development over Beethoven's career, the religious music, and the songs. I particularly enjoyed this last essay by Amanda Glauert, "Beethoven's songs and vocal style" which traces Beethoven's songs from their origins in folk music and shows how Beethoven transformed the form. Beethoven's songs, I think, still are insufficiently appreciated.

The final section of the book, "Reception" consists of four essays which discuss the influence of Beethoven on other composers, different performance practices for Beethoven's music, the various ways in which Beethoven's music and personality have been viewed by the public (an excellent essay by Scott Burnham), and another excellent essay by David Dennis, concluding the book, which discusses Beethoven's influence on the arts, philosophy, and politics.

In reading this volume of essays, I was reminded of the great appeal Beethoven has exerted, and continues to exert on many people. Unlike most other composers of art music, his work has been an inspriation to people of all nationalities, ages, and walks of life from the most learned to the untutored. His music has the capacity to draw listeners in, to make them involved, and to demand a response. I got to know Beethoven's music, and something of his life, as a child and his hold upon me has continued. This book helps to develop and to explain the devotion Beethoven continues to inspire. As Scott Burnham states at the conclusion of his essay, "The Four Ages of Beethoven" (p.291)

"Even now, after a century seemingly intent on annihilating all formerly comforting illusions of greatness and transcendent authority offered by the leading figures in our history, we have not yet managed to put the Beethoven myth behind us. For Beethoven continues to require that we grapple with him, continues to ask much of us, to call us out. This, more than anything, is why we cannot let him go: his music remains a sounding provocation to what we are pleased to think of as our better selves."

This book will be of most immediate interest to those readers who already know Beethoven's music and who have read some of the many excellent basic studies of his life and works, such as the recent biographies by Maynard Solomon, Barry Cooper, and Lewis Lockwood, among others.

Robin Friedman