Columbia Books

This book is probably one of the only books on Kate to not focus on her life, but on her movies. The author analyzes each one so intricately and finds how Hepburn was a premiere feminist in each one. It's interesting when you read about his analysis of several Tracy/Hepburn movies, as well as "The Philadelphia Story." The movies, according to the author, try to teach Hepburn a lesson and make her conform to the standards of the patriarchy. Interesting to note, the author also compares and contrasts several films of Bette Davis, Bacall/Bogart, and Astaire/Rogers with Hepburn's films as well. Excellent read- very professional. The best part about this book probably is that it's loaded with glossy, beautiful pictures from almost every movie Kate made.

This is a superb critical evaluation of all of Hepburn's film roles until 1984. It is the only book about Hepburn that did not disappoint me. Hepburn biographies and studies have often tended to "normalize" Hepburn (eg. Kate - Charles Higham) or rationalize some contradictory aspects of her personality (eg. A Remarkable Woman - Anne Edwards) based on *conclusions drawn from* material that is in media circulation. Andrew Britton, in refreshing contrast, meticulously examines the implied beliefs and thought processes *behind* such material. Hepburn, through Britton's book, emerges in an arena all her own, resisting all attempts at conventional compartmentalization.

I absolutely agree with his views on many movies, say, "Woman of the Year", where Hepburn's presence in the title role suggests an independence and authority which the film's contrived, though expertly acted, ending, tries (unsuccessfully) to suppress. His views on the "violence of the performance" in "Summertime", which makes "the film's project untenable", are also very apt.

Apart from a thorough examination of Hepburn's roles with Tracy, Grant and others, this book makes pointed comparisons between the spinster roles of Bette Davis and Hepburn. It also has a very original discussion on The Philadelphia Story (Hepburn), Ninotchka (Greta Garbo), and Destry Rides Again (Marlene Dietrich), which according to Britton, were attempts to humanize (and hence compromise) its three female stars, who had previously been labelled "box-office poison".

For fans of Hepburn, for serious followers of films, and for all those who are concerned about the hidden ideas that films (sometimes inadvertently) propagate into the filmgoer's mind, this is an objective, insightful book which should not be missed.

If you are in the Gorge with kids...then this guide is the BEST!! It's written by actual Hood River moms, and they really know how to keep the kids entertained on a visit to the Gorge. There are lots of kid-friendly hikes and places to see...but also this book goes the extra mile by providing directions to ice cream shops and playgrounds and the like.

Great guide to get the kids exploring and active during the summer months. A must have for people new to the area to familiarize them with all the gorge has to offer.

The young protagonists of David Odhiambo's novel Kipligat's Chance test the limits of their bodies and their wills as they strive for both the gilded limelight of the Olympics and the material payoff afforded by scholarships to prestigious American universities. The author himself is testing limits in this important work, as well; boundaries of race, age, nationality, gender, and creed are all stretched in this dazzling, harrowing cascade from pillar to post.

The story is narrated by John "Leeds" Kipligat, and follows the young African-Canadian runner and his best friend Kulvinder-also an athlete with Olympic aspirations-as they attempt to dream a passage out of obscurity and poverty. First comes the act of imagining the possibility of better, more prosperous lives ("We'll meet chicks from places like Toronto"), next comes the regimented training that the two hopefuls must endure under the strict mentorship of Sam Holt, an Olympic has-been turned track coach, and alongside two women runners who are driven towards similar goals.

In a story that revolves around running and racing, there is sure to be a certain quantity of intensity and speed, and Kipligat's Chance is a marathon of vigor. But there is also much humor, compassion, and love, delivered with ineffable subtlety by Odhiambo, filtered through the harshness and profanity of the young men's worlds. In a jacket quote from George Elliott Clarke, we read: "In this masterful novel, James Brown grit meets James Baldwin grace." The comparison to Baldwin is apt, but perhaps incomplete. One can find traces of Chuck Palahniuk, Grace Paley, and even Charles Bukowski in this dynamic and fertile fiction.

I enjoyed this book on so many levels.

The intertwining of the present-America & past-Kenya is performed masterfully, with both stories building & climaxing concurrently. The past informs the present informs the past in Odhiambo's book. The back and forth is believable, the immigrant experience is believable here. The immigrant experience is haunted by a homeland past here.

The characters, the main character "Leeds" especially, are real. They speak real, they make mistakes real, they fall and get back up again. I found myself missing this guy when the book was done.

The tensions mount beautifully, with a steady pace, as Leeds finds himself surrounded by increasing troubles. The entire movement of the book plunges forward toward a final race, and the reader is happy to follow.

Read this book. It will change you.

FOLLOWING THE FALL OF VICKSBURG IN JULY 1863 THE CONMFEDERACY WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI BACAME A SEPARATE NAIION WITH THE UNDERVALUED GEN EDMUND KIRBY SMITH AS ITS LEADER. THIS GREAT BOOK BRINGS TO LIFE THE WESTERN CONFEDERACY'S ATTEMPST TO MAINTAIN RELATIONS WITH MEXICO FOR THE PURPOSE OF SMUGGLING COTTON FOR ARMS AND SUPPLIES, IT RECOUNTS THE UNION RAIDS ACROSS THE MISSISSIPPI, AND IT COVERS THE TROUBLED SURRENDER TO THE TEXAS FORCES AT THE END OF THE WAR. FIVE STARS IS TOO FEW FOR THIS BOOK.

....of a book for people like me. If you've bothered to read this, for people like you, too. A book can be "definitive", "essential", neither, or both...this book is definitive, but is probablly essential for only a few dozen people on earth....

This is NOT a biography of General Edmund Kirby Smith; it is the story of his leadership of the Transmississippi Department from 1863 to the end of the war. After distinguished service in Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky, Smith was sent west in 1863 because Lieutenant General Theophilus Holmes was not up to the job of running a department [he, alas, got to keep Arkansas]. He set up headquarters in Shreveport, LA, and ran a department that included western Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Texas, and what is now Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Arizona. After the fall of Vicksburg in July, 1863, Smith was on his own. He was as much a Governor General as he was a General, exercising powers that NO other Officer in American history has had to [the only recent parallel I can think of is the British General Allenby in Palestine after WWI]. Smith had to juggle military necessity [and very different definitions of that] with political reality. He even promoted nine Generals, whose rank is still debated. Further complication came from the fact that many of his subordinate Generals were Robert E. Lee's incompetent rejects, though the worst problems came from the highly competent, but vain and insubordinate, Richard Taylor.

The problems were profound...little money, few resourses, poor transportation. Smith and Taylor fought over whether to concentrate on Arkansas and Missouri [Smith], or Louisiana [Taylor]. Of corruption, there was plenty...witness Santos Benavides' cotton gathering, or the Yankee cotton traders carrying a pass signed by both Smith and Union General Banks, escorted by soldiers from both sides. Still, there were victories; Taylor's Red River campaign was a masterpiece; Dowling's victory at Sabine Pass was one of the greatest in history, small though it was; Stand Watie and the other Indians in Oklahoma were viable right to the end. Indeed, Smith was the last major Confederate commander to surrender, and Watie was the last general of any rank.

If you REALLY want to know about an obscure aspect of the Civil War, read this profoundly great book. Be warned; it is 600+ pages of heavy going. I am a fan of General Smith, and, though I live in Virginia, have an interest in the topic. If you don't, don't waste time, money, and shelf space.

I recommend first reading Pierre Berton's book about the Klondike Gold Rush to get an excellent and accurate overview of what happened.

Then read Tappan Adney's book to get lots of wonderful details about everything concerning the stampeder's life. Details such as how big his log cabin was, what was in it, how he lived, and so forth -- the interesting details of the gold rush and the stampeder's life. Also included are some of Adney's photos of the gold rush.

Gary Christenson

What a great book! I am anxious to read it a second and third time. I really felt like I had been in the Klondike during the stampede after reading this book. At the very least, I now have a second hand knowledge about the experiences that the sourdoughs went through.

so if you can read Spanish - it's a great book.

Many years after its first publication, Paul Avrich's "Kronstadt, 1921" remains one of the best books written about one of the most important events of the Russian Revolution. The book is a detailed history of the Kronstadt 'mutiny' of March 1921, in which many see the seeds of Stalin's future dictatorship.

Basically, what happened is this: following a wave of strikes and discontent in Russia caused by the repressive methods of "War Communism," the sailors at the Kronstadt naval base in the Baltic Sea published a document proposing the deconstruction of the Bolshevik Party's single-Party Dictatorship (if not necessarily the Party itself). The Bolsheviks responded by attacking the base and executing those behind this 'mutiny.' Since 1921, there has been a continuing debate between Leninists and anarchists/libertarian socialists as to whether this constituted a betrayal of the principles of socialism and the ideals of the Russian Revolution.

The Leninists claim that the Kronstadters were mutineers who needed to be "crushed by the iron hand of the proletariat." The anarchists and libertarian socialists hold that it was the Bolshevik Party itself that betrayed the Revolution and laid the base of Stalin's purges, gulags, and authoritarian dictatorship by attacking the base Leon Trotsky had once called "the Pride and Glory of the Russian Revolution."

As a result of this lasting antagonism, most histories of the uprising tend to be slanted in favor of one side or the other - but Paul Avrich here makes an attempt to cut through the partisan wrangling and establish the factual history of the base once and for all. He reaches the conclusion that the Bolsheviks reacted to Kronstadt's challenge to their authority with unnecessary intransigence and brutality, but does mention the pressures of the Russian Civil War of 1918 - 1920 to help explain their actions. Mr. Avrich also rips apart much of the official propaganda surrounding the myth of Kronstadt (for example, that the mutiny was organized and led by a Tsarist General).

"Kronstadt, 1921" is a well-written account of one of the most important and interesting events in the history of the Russian Revolution and the formation of the Stalinist Soviet Union. Recommended reading for anyone interested in Russia or its history. Five stars.

Vous passerez des heures à ficeler les figures proposées. Ce gros livre est le "must" des jeux de ficelle. Ce livre a environ 110 jeux de ficelle et 10 tours de ficelle. Les explications et les illustrations sont très claires. C'est un livre pour intermédiaires et avancés.

You'll spend hours to make the figures offered.
This big book is a must for all string figures's lovers.
This book have about 110 string games and 10 tricks.
The explanations and illustrations are clears.
The book is for intermediates and advanced.
Enjoy!

"Now that you are starting a new life, I am going to give you a new name. How does Lass sound to you?" asked Phillip Keller, the new owner that Lass was introduced to through a personal ad. Although there was a need on both the sheepdog and new owners behalf, Lass escaped from Phillip as soon as the leash was removed. The pages of this book are enhanced by eloquent illustrations. The adventures and mishaps that Lass and Phillip have with one another and other animals are entertaining and suspensful. This is a book for every dog lover.

This is an outstanding book not only for children but for adults also. I have 4 children from ages 9-15 and they all greatly enjoyed and loved this book! Highly recommended!

This anthology of original sources contains excerpts both from classical historians (generally writing during the early Empire) and from letters, monuments, governmental decrees, laws and inscriptions.

This isn't an introduction to Roman Civilization: the editorial comments help set the context but you need to know the political history and the geography in broad outline already, or be learning it as you read this book.

The selections fill in the details, and give you some sense of how the Romans and their subject peoples of various periods throughout Rome's hundreds of years of history thought of themselves and their times, on matters of foreign and domestic policy, social order, religion, and Rome's place in the world.

Although I was required to purchase and use this book for my Roman History course, I found it to be absolutely amazing in quality and detailed and compelling in content.

No enthusiast of Classical civilization, amature or professional, should be without this book.

I bought this book because Warren Angus Ferris is my Great (many times over) Grandfather and I was researching the family tree. What a delight to find that he was an accomplished writer and pioneer! His journal of his life in the Rocky Mountains is exceptionally well-written and a beautiful view of the time period. I recommend it to anyone with an interest of the early 1800's or fur-trading.

Day to day survival in the early American West at its best! Pick up any reputable book on the fur trade era during this time frame, and Warren Ferris' "Life in the Rocky Mountains" is always cited as a reference. There is good reason for this. Ferris joined the American Fur Company in 1830 at the age of nineteen and this is his journal of how life was back then from 1830-1835, so far removed from the luxuries of civlization. He spent most of his time in the central and northern Rockies, describing and recording just about everything one can possibly imagine from hostile Indians and the unrelenting forces of nature to grizzlies, days without food and water, etc. He was there at the Battle of Pierre's Hole and the death of William Vanderburgh. He also details the Yellowstone area with its geysers and other oddities, along with many other geographical areas which we now take for granted. Ferris vividly describes the many different Indian tribes of the region of their customs, cultures and habits. This is an excellent book and I can see why many historians use this book as reference material. A must read for fur trade era enthusiasts and arm chair explorers.