Wallace Books

Excellent....witty, warm and exactly how I feel. I'm giving it to lots of people. This man's great wit and intelligence have culminated in this gift to America. Should be required reading for all citizens.

Setting his story in the classical Romeo and Juliet milieu, Author Goldstein leads the reader more deeply into a searching of his own conscience and soul and the several dimensions of good and evil. How many generations of family and of societies should be tainted with hatred, both for those who hate and for those who are hated? And if we forget the most devastating evil ever perpetrated on mankind, are we then not keeping faith and trust with those betrayed by humankind whom all generations of all peoples everywhere must sanctify with remembrance for the sake of all humanity?

This is an outstanding book. It is not, however, a beginner's book and will be appreciated best by those already familiar with the field. Two of its most interesting claims are as follows. First, that emotions are constitutive of the practice of holding people morally responsible. That is, to say what it is to hold someone morally responsible--to blame someone, for instance--one must make reference to the emotions of the person who is holding the other responsible. To blame someone for something necessarily involves feeling appropriate emotions like resentment or indignation for the other's failure to live up to one's expectations regarding moral behavior. Or, if one does not actually feel resentment (as when one forgives someone whom one regards as morally responsible and blameworthy), one must at least think that feeling such an emotion would be justified. Second, the author contends that in order to be responsible for something, the responsible party need not have had any alternate possibilities to the blameworthy or praiseworthy action. This claim is supported by a detailed examination of the grounds for excuses and exemptions from moral responsibility. We exempt people from moral responsibility because they lack the capacities necessary for it, and we excuse people from moral responsibility because what they did or failed to do lacked moral fault. This sometimes, but not always, coincides with the absence of alternate possibilities for action, but it is lack of capacity or absence of fault, not absence of alternate possibility, that explains the exemption or excuse. This is a careful and stimulating study by a scholar who has mastered the literature in the field. It is likely to have a deep impact on philosophical thinking about freedom and responsibility.

Now in a newly revised, expanded and updated second edition, The Responsive Public Library: How To Develop And Market A Winning Collection is collaborative written by educator and information science specialist Sharon L. Baker and Karen L. Wallace (Circulation/Reference Librarian, Drake University Law Library, Des Moines, Iowa) is a solid, reliable, and practical guide designed especially for the library staffs of public library systems. Individual chapters address how to know what library patrons need and want the most, choosing appropriate collections at low cost, and effectively evaluating one's collection, marketing practices and much more. An invaluable addition to Library Science supplemental reading lists and academic reference collections, The Responsible Public Library is a well crafted and scholarly book filled from beginning to end with in-depth strategies, rationale, explanations, tips, tricks, techniques and much more for community librarians regardless of the size or nature of the populations they serve.

It might be hard to believe that writing about the making of a telescope could make for a good book. This husband & wife team pulled it off wonderfully. "Revealing the Universe..." takes you easily (even for the novice) through some basic physics and the history of X-Ray astronomy. Then the authors get into the Chandra project proper and the going gets good. They take the reader through the often dramatic process of getting such a complicated and costly project through the cogs of bureaucracy and politics and the infinite patience and perseverence of those scientists and administrators who made the project happen. Among the most interesting parts of the book are the descriptions of the technological miracles the scientists had to perform to make Chandra a reality; the impossibly precise requiements for the mirrors, for example, stretch the imagination and make for great "mind trips". Reading through sections describing crucial "make-or-break" tests of the different components is intense, like watching Robert DeNiro in a great car chase scene. And then, first light...the thing works...just like it was designed...or better! Awesome!
"Revealing the Universe..." is excellent for those interested in astronomy as well as for those interested in expanding your mind with a good read.

So you think the critics give unqualified adoration to our early moderns? Think again. Stanford, in elegant, tight, perfectly clear prose tells the story of the revolution in poetry at the opening of the 20th century from a different point of view, that of the Wintersian formalists. These are the followers and students of the great poet and critic Yvor Winters, whose radically neo-classical views cause a storm of debate in the first half of the century. (See my reviews of Winters books at my amazon site.) Stanford incisively explores the poetry of five great poets and makes a strong case for the stature of Robinson and Winters -- can you believe that? -- above that of the divinely canonized threesome also studied here. You will never read Stevens (who's the best of the remaining three), Pound, or Eliot the same again after you have studied them carefully with Stanford. This is a masterful work of literary criticism and one much needed in our chaotic times in the field of poetry. Moreover, it is a stirring treatise on the value of poetry to life and thought, a comment that would be the summit of praise coming from Yvor. I hope you'll give this great book a try if you love poetry. It might change your whole approach to the art. It's not that Stanford will induce you to leave Eliot and Pound behind, but open you up to greater vistas in the high arts of human language. Be sure to check out my other recommendations at my amazon.com personal site.

This book picks up where HOLY BLOOD.. and MESSIANIC LEGACY left off. They allege that the DOSSIERS SECRETS were fakes. Nonetheless, there is a wealth of information concerning Jesus, his wife and their kids. And where they ended up. There is still lots of agreement, in that the Catholic Church is very wrong; most of what they teach about Jesus is a lie. And, like the other books by Baigent & Leigh, lots of information about the true nature of the Freemasons and the Templars.

William B. Hesseltine writes a very complete, very interesting history of American Third Parties. He traces the causes for many of them failing while pointing out the reasons while some of them, a few, make it into power. Most of the time it seems that labor and the farmers are trying to join together to fight for a common cause yet they seem to fail most of the time. The Know-Nothing Party, the Anti-Masonic Party the Free Soil Party, the Equal Rights party, the Populist party, the Granger movement, the Greenback movement, the Whig party, the Bull Moose movement, the Progressives and other parties. Some, like the Socialist party and the Communist party, don't seem to make it to power but also don't fade away. This book is a must for anybody who hates the two-party system but wonders why the other parties fail to get into the work.

I purchased this book on a trip to England in the mid 90s and find that for its 20 pages and compact size, it provides a wealth of information of Scotland during one of her most difficult periods, during the reign of Edward I (Longshanks). Inside front cover has a map showing sites of battles in the war for Scottish independence. Robert the Bruce took Scotland from a vassal kindgom of England to a country able to stand on its own, beginning with the battle of Stirling Bridge in 1297. This book makes history enjoyable and brings parts of Braveheart into focus. A superb read for any student of Scottish history, young or adult, in a school setting or home schooled.

Jane Grant is the un-sung hero of The New Yorker. It was Grant -- wife of editor Harold W. Ross -- who pushed him to get the magazine off the ground. In this amazing book, it tells how she met and married the man, but this is just the beginning of the partnership. It tells of the roots of the Round Table -- which were in Paris, where Grant was stationed with the Americans (as a singer). Grant is a wonderful writer with an eye for detail. It has first-hand stories about life with Ross, Alexander Woollcott, Dorothy Parker and the others. The introduction is by her clsoe friend, Janet Flanner. It was Flanner in her "Letter From Paris" that helped usher in a new kind of journalism. It was Grant who brought Flanner to Ross' attention. The rest, as they say, is history. If you love The New Yorker, you'll treasure this book. Many archival photos too.