Wallace Books

I have been a urban classroom teacher for 15 years. Most of these years have been working with 7th and 8th graders. Not Just Schoolwork is an excellent resource for writing, debate, and just plain old thinking. There are actually four books in the series. This should be brought back into print. It would be a seller better than most Scholastic, Inc. writing resource books.

This book is the real deal: sharp, smart, and engaging. A deceptively "easy" read, it's got a smooth surface w/ plenty of barbs hidden underneath, making it the perfect sort of book to return to for multiple readings. Buy it; buy copies for your friends; buy copies to hand out to people waiting on their double mocha lattes at Starbucks. They'll thank you for it later.

NOTORIOUS C.O.P. by Derrick Parker gives the unknown stories of many hip-hop crimes. Parker was a detective with the New York Police Department and the first cop on the special unit set up strictly to solve hip-hop crimes. Parker was raised in the same neighborhoods and personally knew many of these hip-hop icons which gave added depth to his story. He was in Las Vegas after the Tupac Shakur murder and in Los Angeles following the murder of Biggie Smalls. He even had details that never made the papers, yet pointed directly to the killers. He gave interesting details of Li'l Kim's conviction on perjury and good reasons why she did it. Before Jam Master Jay's murder, Derrick Parker had retired from the police department, but he was still very interested and as a result, he personally protected one of the eye witnesses and requested witness protection from the department for her. Needless to say, they reneged after promising to help and it angered him very much. He also tells of hip-hop crimes that were never reported such as the home invasion Foxy Brown and her mother endured.

If you've ever wondered what is really going on in the hip-hop world, then NOTORIOUS C.O.P. is the book to read. It gives the background of the rappers as well as a vivid description of the neighborhoods and backgrounds they come from. Parker even explains why there is so much crime in the hip-hop music business. As he so realistically points out, it is going on in the regular business world also, just on a much lower key and so we never hear about it until an Enron explodes. It is a fascinating and enlightening book.

Reviewed by Alice Holman
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

My Grandpa wrote this book and it is the best book ever. It is about a young girl named Jo who gets lost in the Amazon Rain Forest and her adventures. I liked this book because it is so exciting and there is so much action in every chapter. It would make a GREAT movie.

Another success for the "for Dummies" series. Concise and entertaining explanation of OLE and the surrounding technologies. Especially valuable was the review of OLE problems and tradeoffs as well as what the future might hold for OLE. I enjoyed it and would recommend it to anybody getting started with OLE.

For those who love the poetry of Wallace Stevens this work provides an extended exploration and revelation of his meanings and methods. Vendler speaks of the Stevens of three mood modes, the celebrant of vigorous life , the apathetic indifferent desolate soul, the mediating in between hesitant , tentative maker of his own careful music. Vendler notes that the Stevens often studied for his rare vocabulary is also the maker of innovations in syntax. She reads and explicates and provides understanding of one of the century's master poets. And she shows how in the longer poems the greatest of all Stevens' can be found.

I gather the author wrote of his sailing adventures with the help of his significant other, Sandra Burns. They did what most of us only dream about -- left the security of job and home bound for foreign ports aboard a 40' sailboat. They sailed for several years. This book is a wonderful expose' of their sailing adventures in Mexican waters aboard "Abrazo II", an Acapulco 40 Cutter. "Boulevard" is without a doubt the best adventure book ever written about Mexico. It is a tribute to the authors' inimitable flair, as well as to the culture they experienced during their voyage. This book should be on the shelf of every sailor plying Mexican waters, and those dreaming about it

In this book, David Wallace offers his own experiences to illustrate what an ever-increasing number of people share with him when there are abuses of the First Amendment of the Constitution of the United States by some of those who are active in the "blogosphere." However, his primary purpose is to address issues that include but are not limited to any one person's circumstances. Here is the text of the First Amendment: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances." Wallace fully understands and supports the First Amendment. However, his concern (one that many other people share, I among them) is that there is little (if any) accountability when bloggers post statements online that would be violations of laws that now regulate other media (e.g. magazines, newspapers, radio, and television). When one or more violations occur, he asks, how can a blogger's victim "petition the Government for a redress of grievances"?

It is also true that blogging is, for many individuals, the only way they can afford - or is at least the most effective means available -- to express legitimate grievances concerning a defective product, for example, or excessive credit card charges by a third-party international telephone service provider. Of course, Wallace also understands this. Moreover, he knows that corporate blog sites can (and many do) offer a cost-effective and beneficial mechanism by which to obtain or disseminate an abundance of information (especially feedback) from various constituencies. Some executives tell me that their company's blog site provides an organizational equivalent of 360º feedback, generating information that could not otherwise be obtained so easily and inexpensively. Oh sure, there are abuses but remarkably few in number and easily ignored.

In Wallace's volume, he shares his own experiences and what he makes of them. He also leaves no doubt as to how important he thinks the First Amendment is and why it must continue to be defended. However, he agrees with Justice Oliver Wendell Homes, "The most stringent protection of free speech would not protect a man falsely shouting fire in a theater and causing a panic." The same can be said of bloggers who post comments online that are clearly in violation of various laws such as those protecting against libel, slander, defamation of character, fraud, extortion, etc. It is also unclear whether or not bloggers' violations of property laws (e.g. copyrights) can be brought to justice. Cordelia Kevlar is the best-qualified candidate for governor? "Forget the facts...believe what I say!" Subprime mortgages are risky? "Forget the facts...believe what I say!" Global warning threatens our planet? "Forget the facts...believe what I say!" In the United States, at least, there are laws and regulations covering almost all human activities and in their absence, guidelines have been agreed upon.

If I understand Wallace correctly, he does not recommend adding to the number of laws and regulations; rather, he suggests that bloggers voluntarily follow a code of conduct, that they be self-regulated and mutually respectful. There are several excellent books already in print that discuss various aspects of blogging, notably those written by Robert Bly, John Cass, Ted Demopoulos, David Meerman Scott, and Debbie Weil. To the best of my knowledge, Wallace is the first to address a number of important issues concerning public policy, regulatory agencies, constitutional rights, and personal accountability. That is why I think so highly of this book.

Unless and until these issues are resolved, however, and then appropriate actions taken, perpetrators of online abuse will continue to have almost unlimited opportunities to attack almost anyone, anywhere, at any time...and do so with impunity. A situation such as this is not what our ancestors had in mind when they ratified the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights (including the First Amendment) more than three centuries ago.

Poky is a lovable beagle who has a very unusual friend - a hamster named Charlie. Charlie has been eating the hound's food and Poky agrees to share his dog food with the rodent. He also helps Charlie dodge traps.

Thanks to video surveillance, the covert hound-rodent friendship is captured on film and the dog's owners make a place in their home for Charlie. The lovable hound and his funny friend are sure to delight readers of all ages; beagle lovers will be especially appreciative of this book.

How is it that the Final Opus of Leon Solomon is out of print in both hardcover and paperback?

The book's author, Jerome Badanes, died halfway through the sequel to The Final Opus of Leon Solomon. What he had written, and revised himself, was a pretty amazing 100 page novella called Change or Die which appears in Issue number #5 of Open City in its entirety.

It is always a peculiar thing when you take a piece of writing that has so much peculiar character and substance, and lump it in with all the other stuff that happens to comprise that issue of the magazine.

This issue has some absurd wild cards - when seen in the light of its central feature, "Change or Die," - such as an Irvine Welsh story he wrote shortly after completely Trainspotting, and this wonderful piece of non-sense that Delmore Schwartz wrote about T.S. Eliot's anti-Semitism. That is the one interesting thematic thread in this issue--Both Shwartz and the academic protagonist of Change or Die (a man trying to recover from Shakespeare,) have a certain lovely fatedness about them.

And Change or Die has one of my favorite short lead sentences:

"The Blik family was a dream and an education."

What a great beginning to such a great story!

(And what a concise and honest use of the short sentence, which has been bastardized and beaten up on any number of fronts, from Hemingway imitators to the cold pragmatism of news providers).

If this whole computer as a means to shop for books is to have any good side, then it is that finding a book like, "The Final Opus of Leon Solomon," or getting your hands on the novella "Change of Die" is something you MUST GET! If only to make use of the fact that you are sitting in front of a computer and perusing.

Jerome Badanes. He is coming back in the only way he can.