News and Media Books

Certainly the most comprehensive and balanced study available to guide lawyers, judges and the media through some very contentious issues.

CAMERAS IN THE COURTROOM lives and breathes with the challenges and complexities of legal realities. It should become a standard resource for the continuing debate over the place that cameras could occupy in the courtrooms of the land.

Cohn and Dow have written the definitive work on cameras in the courtroom. Thoroughly researched and brilliantly written, CAMERAS IN THE COURTROOM gives an honest, balanced and realistic discussion of the role of electronic journalism in courtrooms of the past, present and future. This book is an incredible resource!

The best book yet about cameras in the courtroom. Meticulously researched and engagingly written, the book traces the history of cameras in courts and carefully presents the arguments on both sides of this heated debate.

A library search of quilting information produced this book. I was actually looking for a quilt instruction book. and didn't realize that it was an actual story until after I requested the title from the library. I was initially disappointed because it was not what I was expecting. but since I was intrigued by the title, I read the little book.

THE CANADA GEESE QUILT takes place after World War II in Vermont. The main character is Ariel, a 10-year-old girl who loves being outside and has a natural talent for drawing. She lives on a farm along with her parents and her grandmother. Grandma is a lively lady and a gifted quilter. People around the country and even the world have purchased her wonderful quilts. Ariel shares a lot with her Grandma except for one thing. Ariel hates to sew.

The story begins with Ariel watching the sky as the geese return from colder areas up north. It's one of her delights to see the large flocks of geese in flight. This is also a time of change for the family because they will have a new baby in the fall. Ariel has mixed feelings about the baby and her Grandma decides that the two of them should make a quilt to welcome the little one. Ariel draws the design and her Grandma does all of the sewing.

All is going well until the old lady has a stroke and after weeks in the hospital, she returns home. Grandma can barely speak and when she does, it's hard to understand her. She must now use a cane to support herself when she walks. Ariel doesn't know what to say and even how to act with this lady who is like a shell of her real Grandma. Over time, Grandma and Ariel reach an understanding and decide that they must get back to the quilt, but since her grandmother can't even hold a needle, Ariel must now finish sewing the quilt.

Growing up can be frightening for children when they are faced with all of the changes that come with life. This gentle story handles two situations in a warm and loving way.

I loved it because her grandma made her a quilt just for her.The quilt helped Ariel feel better about the coming baby.This reminds me of my life because when my sister was born I didn't get that much attention.

Ten-year old Ariel's best friend is her grandmother. After her grandmother suffers a stroke, Ariel is afraid of this woman who has lost the will to live. With her help, her grandmother begins to walk and talk again, and Ariel gains a new understanding of the 'knowledge' that is passed on through the generations.

I am teaching my 10 year old daughter to quilt. She found this book in the "Accelerated Reader's Program" at school and read it because it had quilt in the title. We read two chapters every evening and we loved every page! It was hard to wait for the next evening to arrive so we could read the next chapters. This is a story about a young girl with many changes in her life. Her mother is expecting another child and her Grandmother comes to live with them. The girl loves to draw ane her Grandmother asks her to draw a picture so she can make the new baby a quilt.Many changes occur within the family because of the pregnancy and then serious health problems for the Grandmother after the quilt is started. The story revolves around the young girls struggles with the changes and who will finish the new baby's quilt. A great book to read with a warm and believable ending.

I loved this book and liked the mix-ups about Cher and "Shar" you should read it.

This book was awesome!!!!!! I love it when Cher and De do makeovers, and it was cool how the story tied in with Frankentstein (dont worry, it isnt dorky, its awesome). This is a total must read!!!!!!!!!

I love these books!I's really funny how Cher talks using words like chronic,betty, baldwin,rampant,snaps,etc. and how she's always talking about her designer clothing.Aside from that,these are very humorous books.All of them are great!

another one of the best clueless books. i really enjoy reading it. and all you people out there, read this book!!!

Twenty-five years ago The New Criterion set out to challenge the orthodoxies current among the gibbering classes. Counterpoints is a collection of the journal's choicest essays and reviews dedicated to that end.

Fifty years from now this volume will be read as an indispensable primary source for the cultural history of our times. My hope is that some future historian will compile a companion volume of the most drivelsome reviews and essays published in the leading orthodox organs of the same period. To be done properly, this companion work would have to stretch back at least far enough to incorporates such forgotten capi di lavoro as The Greening of America, since the imbecilities of the last twenty-five years evolved well before The New Criterion began its work.

The editor of the proposed compilation will have to burrow laboriously into a huge midden heap of discarded intellectual trash. Happily we can dispense with such grimy and sordid sifting. This collection provides a more than adequate overview of the cultural pathologies of our times, and does so elegantly. There is not one awkward or obscure sentence in its 484 pages, and a good many gems of critical panache and wit.

Its most satisfying feature is the way it combines demolition and affirmation.

The New Criterion is the most highbrow of conservative publications and one of the most intellectually rewarding and in these pages only the best of their best is on display; for the mind this is an inspiring feast. A myriad of themes are developed but the one most ubiquitous is that western civilization is in serious decline and it is impossible to know how much further it will deteriorate. In 2007, the radicals are no longer at the gates; they have melted them down and turned them into loud speakers. They have tainted the west's intellectual inheritance with one of their many interlocking isms, and the young have been persuaded that war, slavery, and dehumanization are our main cultural achievements.

It is here, upon a blistering and torrid battlefield, that The New Criterion asserts itself. Their purpose is in keeping the immortal words of George Santayana that "the best men in all ages keep classic traditions alive." A standard motif of every issue is to rehabilitate verboten cerebrals or those who do not fit into the sound byte parameters of our society. This volume resurrects a great many figures. The title of a composition by Brooke Allen asks "Who Was Simon Raven?" but readers will no cause to echo her after once they are finished. The same can be said of other unfashionable personages like John Buchan, Leigh Fermor, Milton Avery, F.R. Leavis, and Donald Francis Tovey.

Every person and idea that the journal places into our consciousness acts as a partial antidote to the neurotoxin of political correctness, and builds an infrastructure upon which we can better understand our world. Nowadays, unfortunately, truth exists almost entirely outside the purview of the race, class, and sex Commissars infesting our universities.The New Criterion does more than commemorate and enshrine. It also counterattacks which it does in an entertaining and lethal fashion. Its artful and erudite tone does not diminish its impact. This should not surprise us as Evander Holyfield also fought like a gentleman, but woe to the fool who stepped into one of his combinations.

In these days of insane educational inflation, the most important question to ask in regards to this book is how many college courses is it worth? Five? Ten? Fifteen? I guess the answer depends on the particular university and how "engaged" their professors happen to be. When the search for truth has been abandoned and truth itself has been demoted to one of many competing "perspectives," the fruit of this journal is one of the few ways in which the young can discern veritas.

COUNTERPOINTS: The New Criterion celebrates its 25th anniversary with this collection of essays by some of the most influential critics in the English language.
The mere fact that a conservative journal of cultural criticism not only survives but thrives after 25 years should earn The New Criterion first place in the pantheon of great achievements. After all, TS Eliot's Criterion survived only 17 years in a much friendlier cultural milieu. Separating beauty from dross, right from wrong, good from evil has been the forte of TNC. This is not an easy accomplishment in a culture where "anything goes".
The monthly arrival of the journal brings anticipation, excitement, and obligation. It is not possible to read these articles without a sense that something has been amiss in one's education. Regular readers know the responsibility felt after a new edition introduces them to authors and artists and controversies which, if not unknown to the reader, were at least unappreciated. Thus the obligation...to read more, to learn more and thus savor life more fully.
Above all, this sort of criticism requires judgement...a philosophy that some things are indeed better than others and it is the former that should be promoted and the latter identified and decried. The contributors are the kind of people with whom one would want to share a glass of port: Mark Steyn, Robert Bork, David Pryce Jones, Roger Scruton, Heather MacDonald. Joseph Epstein, Theodore Dalrymple, Gertrude Himmelfarb. The best and the brightest of our time. Hilton Kramer and Roger Kimball are to be congratulated for their editorship of this excellent journal. And all of us should buy this book, pull a chair up to the fire, and sip that port.

The New Criterion, Hilton Kramer and Roger Kimball's journal of culture and the arts, is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. To commemorate the occasion, Kramer and Kimball have put out a new anthology of essays from the magazine, Counterpoints. This is not a work of poetry, but in fulfilling Horace's dictum it is both delightful and instructive.

The aim of The New Criterion, the editors tell us in their short introduction, paraphrasing Eliot, is to "foster common concern for the highest standards of both thought and expression" and to "discharge `our common responsibility...to preserve our common culture uncontaminated by political influences.'" In an era when Western culture is constantly under attack from within by relativists and from without by recidivists, and art has descended to little more than political propaganda by other means, this mission is more important than ever. The essays chosen for inclusion in this volume distill TNC's work splendidly.

Most of the great political issues of the past quarter century are discussed in Counterpoints. Are you concerned about Islamic jihadists? Read Mark Steyn on demography and David Fromkin on Turkey. Has immigration got your goat? Roger Scruton examines Enoch Powell, the British politician whose career was lost when he riled up an early PC mob. Care to revisit the Cold War? Roger Kimball and David Prcye-Jones discuss the gulag and the West's useful idiots, respectively. Keith Windschuttle battles anti-Americanism by exposing the hypocrisy of Noam Chomsky and Mordecai Richler shows us the rest of the world's warts with Mark Twain's The Innocents Abroad. The academic left is excoriated in Heather Mac Donald's examination of the Smithsonian institution and James Franklin's essay on scientific irrationalism, while Robert Bork decries the judicial power-grab in this country. And there's more.

Much more than just politics is discussed, however. The New Criterion's culture warriors also do battle on the artistic plains. The poetry of Frost, Eliot, and the New York School is considered, as well as the criticism of Yvor Winters and F.R. Leavis. The writing of Simon Raven, Paul Valery and Lord Acton is lauded while Ralph Waldo Emerson and French writer Michel Houellebecq come in for some harsh treatment. There are essays on art (though not as many as you might expect from a New Criterion anthology), music, the theater, dance, and even architecture. Theodore Dalrymple's examination of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and its possible effect on our society is a particular pleasure.

I found this collection enormously edifying, and the only very small quibble I might make is that none of James Bowman's excellent media criticism or Jay Nordlinger's writing on music found its way into the volume. Still, Counterpoints has a little something for everyone. It can be enjoyed in its entirety or taken off the bookshelf to lightly read an essay or two. Recommended.

We received this book for a gift. Our son started enjoying it when he was 7 months old, and still likes it now at 15 months. The pictures are simple, and he enjoys feeling the different textures on each page, like the alligator's bumpy tail and the elephant's soft ear. His favorite part is the last page that features a large mirror. He hasn't been exposed to TV or any other Curious George products, so when we read the book to him we just call George "the monkey"...and he doesn't know the difference :)

My son is 20 months and loves touch and feel books. We laugh when we "tickle" George's belly...the book is engaging and fun to read.

This "Touch-and-Feel Book" for "Curious George: The Movie" is a simple, wonderful book for fans of the film. What is George curious about? Just about everything? And readers can feel what George feels with the textures provided in this book. The book ends with a mirror with the phrase above it "Hello, George!" Sure, they're talking about the monkey, but it's fun to think it's directed to me. ;)

Bright illustrations in the style of the film and simple but lively text make this treat.

Im a 20 year old college student and I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves small cartoon monkeys. Seriously the cutest creation of all time...the movie will make you laugh innocently and is enjoyable. Hes so curious...that curious goerge

My daughter loves the Arthur books, especially the D.W. series. She recently got her own library card and really loved reading this book.

You've got to love a book that makes getting a library card magical.

This Arthur story begins with DW's desire to check out 'Hop-a-long the Frog'. She asks Arthur to do it for her but he refuses because he doesn't want to be seen checking out a 'baby book'.

DW retorts that when she gets her own card she will be free to check out whatever she wants. It turns out she's old enough, but before DW can get one she has to be able to sign her name. [Having just gone through this with my own 5 year-old, I can tell you that it *can* be an ordeal (LOL).]

DW practices and practices--a mini-lesson in itself - until she can do it. But the story isn't finished yet. First DW has to WAIT because someone else has checked out `Hop-a-long'. Then, after it's returned, the Tibble twins, who had the book, misinform DW and tell her that if the book gets damaged that the librarian will take away her library card... forever!

Of course, that's not true and eventually Arthur corrects her, but not before he discovers that the book *isn't* a baby book but a `great book' that he remembers checking out when he was younger. Arthur then reads the book to DW (she hadn't before because she was afraid it would get damaged) and explains that she can renew it and read it herself later.

Five Stars. All in all a great book that takes some of the 'mystery' out of the library process for small children. I like that it opens the opportunity to emphasize that while it is important to take care of books, that nothing horrendous will happen if a page gets wrinkled. I also like that Arthur is shown reading to his little sister, and that books, reading, and the library are cool.

D.W. wants her own library card, because her brother won't check out the books she likes, he says they're "baby" books.

Mrs. Turner, the librarian, explains how D.W. can get her own card - she has to learn to write her full name.

D.W. works & works at writing her name, once even in a dollop of mashed potatoes, until she gets it right!

Then new trials turn up when she tries to find a book & has to wait until it is returned, & then she has to learn how to treat the library's book properly! She resorts to kitchen mittens!

Great pictures & good ideas! Should be given to every single child by the age of five years old - better than starting a college fund - for if we do not imprint our children with the love of reading, what use college?

This is a fine book to start your children off on the thrills & spills of becoming a library kid, on being initiated into the wonders of our public lending libraries & into a lifelong passion for reading.

Those who watch the "Arthur" show know that the program places a huge emphasis on the enjoyment of reading. The characters are passionate about their books, from once organizing a group against parents who wanted to ban a particular book, to waiting in long lines to get copies of their favorites. One character, however, who was always left out the mix was D.W., Arthur's adorable, amusing and to Arthur sometimes annoying little sister. That is, until "D.W.'s Library Card." The television episode in which D.W. learned that all she needed to do to get a library card was to a write her name is now, appropriately, available in book form, ready to be checked out at libraries all over, or for your purchase. The old adage says "don't judge a book by its cover," but it's hard to pass up a book with a cover featuring what is probably the most adorable picture of the D.W. character ever. The inside of the book is fully illustrated as well and the original story is kept mostly intact, with only extraneous plot points left out, probably to make things easier for the younger audience it seems to be targeted at, as well as (most likely) the parents and older siblings who have to read it out loud. A fine addition to the "Arthur" series, for both its pure value as a story and the good it will do in the drive to get kids excited about reading.

A collection of different essays, mostly from academics and some from practitioners, Wendy Grifin's Daughters of the Goddess is a well-edited collection of essays. The approaches range from anthropological, narrative analysis, historical, psychology, and women's studies, as Griffin points out in the "Introduction."

I can't address all the essays, so I will draw out a dominant theme as best I can. From my perspective, the essays are best discussed in terms of concert and conflict--where themes resonate together and where there dissonance and difference is all too apparent. For example, there still exist very real tensions between Witchcraft feminist and other movements in poltiical feminism, especially those coming from a Marxist background, which tend to see all religiosity as false consciouness.

Princess Diana was no Marxist, but thealogian Melissa Raphael discusses her legacy as a "false goddess." Goddess thealogy includes modes of relation that are mutual, severe and sometimes distancing, rather than simply endless unidirectional bounty of mercy and personalized grace. In addition, Raphael does not see the calling and invoking of Goddess names as necessarily "worship," but rather a praxis movement that helps women "name, own, and realize" their power through the invocation of that which is archaic enough to be equally available for power and personalization by women.

This last point is echoed and explicated further by Berger herself, who contends that Goddess invocation-narrative is a dual exercise of re-writing the body in a process of becoming--an embodied thealogy that joins mind and spirit. In this way, both Griffin and Raphael echo the more in-depth investigation of Reclaiming Goddess thealogy by Jone Salomonsen, but go farther in extending this to Goddess worship writ large, instead of just the Reclaiming movement.

Ethnographically speaking, Helen Berger contributes an essay documenting how Wiccan High Priestesses turn to a familiar role, that of motherhood, but in turn reconstruct it as powerful, demanding, sexually charged, with elements of both mercy and severity.

Both of these motif play a role in the transformational politics documented by Susan Greenwood. As part of, and perhaps in response, to postmodern fragmentation, Greenwood sees multivalent concepts of healing at the center of Goddess spirituality. But all these concepts share a primordial vision of original wholism at their center. Sometimes this manifests as ancient matriarchal herstories, sometimes as somatic ecstatic bodily affirmation.

While there were certainly tensions in combining Gardinerian/Alexandrian forms of Wicca with feminism, Feminists quickly adopted some of the history and ideology behind this religious form, and personalized it in order to see out and expose self-hatred as a stepping stone to integrated wholeness. This echoes the introductory essay by Cynthia Eller, also included in a slightly different form in her book "Living In The Lap of the Goddess."

All in all, a useful set of starting points and case studies for further examination and extrapolation.

A number of books are available on the subject of goddess religion, but few offer the breadth of information in this volume. Although academic in approach, the essays are accessible and well-written, and include practitioners as well as theorists. I especially enjoyed the participant/ observer essay on belly-dancing as feminist religion; its inclusion typifies Griffin's open approach. Good for the serious, intelligent reader.

"There are thirteen excellent essays, each written by experts in their field on interesting topics around the themes of the book - healing, identity and empowerment...Each essay stands alone and could be read by someone with only a sketchy background in Goddess Spirituality, while at the same time, informing the most seasoned exponent...Wendy Griffin's book highlights a truth known to humanistic psychologists...If one follows an idea through to the end, its opposite is also true. In Griffin's case, the experiential is the academic; by being with the Goddess, however we know her, we are doing thealogy research. Very definitely a book that left me wanting more."

The prudent man who sets foot upon the Goddess/Gaian path quickly learns to listen, and very carefully, to whatever companions with whom he is fortunate to share the journey. This is at once both exhilarating and sensible, since the majority of one's companions is likely to be female, and they are drawn to the Goddess/Gaian path by experiences, perceptions and myriad desires that often have no clearly drawn counterparts within the male sphere.

This is why Wendy Griffin's "Daughters of the Goddess," a 13-essay survey of contemporary Feminist Witchcraft and Goddess Spirituality by British and American writers, is potentially so rewarding to male readers. Much is in this book, pointedly subtitled "Studies of Healing, Identity & Empowerment," that even the most thoughtful of men might otherwise never encounter, assimilate and, if they so choose, embrace.

"Who are the Daughters of the Goddess?" Griffin asks in her introduction. "They are women in the United States and Britain who may call themselves Witches, neo-pagans, pagans, Goddesses, Goddess women, spiritual feminists, Gaians, members of the Fellowship of Isis, Druids, and none of these names."

They are also indirectly or directly our companions, gentlemen, and whether or not they acknowledge us as such, if we fail to encounter them, fully, it's our considerable loss. "Daughters of the Goddess" offers an engaging look at the scope of what men might gain instead through a fuller understanding.

Griffin herself is that rarest of academic essayists, blending rigorous observational discipline with a narrative lyricism that is at times almost painfully beautiful. But she can sting, as well; consider her comment in a recent interview:

"If being on the Goddess Path means doing personal magic, dressing up like fairies, dancing through the woods and nothing else, it is pure escapism. Patriarchy should love it."

And so, gentlemen, if you find yourself scratching your head over what "patriarchy" has to do with Goddess/Gaian spirituality, please purchase this challenging, wonderful book and open yourself up to the voices of the 13 fiercely eloquent women Griffin has so skillfully brought together between its covers.

dora loves going to the beach. and if your child likes going to the beach, then this is a good book. my toddlers love it! they like that they can answer most of the questions that she asks thru out the book.

My 18 month old daughter is in love with Dora! It's on at the babysitters and it has started this whole Dora frenzy in my house with her. Needless to say that my husband and I went out to buy her some books and videos. This book was one of them and she loves it. It's a cute book. It's a change from all of the normal settings you see Dora in.

This book is sturdy and cushy, and it is fun to see Dora in a different setting.. the beach, decked out in a purple swimsuit and all. Many of the pages ask the child to point out objects, and my 16 month old daughter is becoming a pro. This book also incorporates a little bit of spanish. When Dora says "Adios" at the end, my daughter always starts waving. I recommend this book for babies and toddlers.

MY 20 MONTH OLD DAUGHTER LOVES THIS BOOK! SHE DOESN'T SEEM TO LIKE THE DORA CARTOON (EXCEPT THE THEME SONG), BUT I THINK THAT SHE LIKES THIS BOOK BECAUSE IT IS INTERACTIVE. DORA ASKS QUESTIONS OF THE READER SUCH AS "...DO YOU SEE THE BLUE FISH?" AND I HAVE MY DAUGHTER POINT TO IT IN THE PICTURE BEFORE TURNING THE PAGE. AFTER SHE POINTED TO THE CORRECT FISH ONCE AND MOMMY APPLAUDED, SHE WAS HOOKED! THE GREAT THING FOR ME IS THERE ARE DIFFERENT COLORED FISH IN THE PICTURE, SO THE NEXT TIME THRU I CAN HAVE HER FIND THE ORANGE FISH, ETC. ON THE PAGES THAT DORA ISN'T ASKING THE READER A QUESTION, THERE ARE PLENTY OF OTHER DETAILS TO TALK ABOUT. THIS BOOK HASN'T REALLY GOTTEN "OLD" TO ME AFTER MANY READINGS, LIKE SOME BOOKS DO. WE JUST KEEP FINDING NEW DETAILS TO TALK ABOUT IN IT!

This book is good, yet it is just like any other ordinary mystery book. It has a boring start, but as the story progresses it gets more intense. It starts off like a mystery book. The detective meets with a lady. They get to know each other and later on the lady is found dead in her home. Murder? or Suicide? --The detective is on the search for answers.

A chance, flirtatous encounter between Inspector Morse and a friend of a friend provides the context for Inspector Morse's interest in a tawdry suicide. The brooding Chief Inspector contemplates what might have been as suicide turns to murder, and murder again ! Sergant Lewis and Coroner Max Bell provide a delicious counterpoint to a puzzle with a light literary undercurrent. A good read !

In the beginning of the story, it was just like another typical mystery story. After a while, the story was getting really exciting. The ending was smashing and the characters was great.I highly recommend this to everyone.

Colin Dexter's Inspector Morse series is a must read for mystery fans. Notice that I say the series, not just a specific book. They are all equally good and each one is unique in it's mystery and puzzle. In this book a woman that Morse had met at a banquet is found hanging in her kitchen. Did she commit suicide or was she helped. Morse needs to find out because the woman had left an impression on him six months before at the banquet. By the time the reader gets to the end of the book there is another death that is most certainly a murder in the Jericho section of Oxford (in fact next door to where the woman was found). Morse knows that the two deaths are connected, but what a convoluted puzzle for him to figure out. Everyone involved is lying and that doesn't make it any easier for him, but the irascible Morse figures it out in the end. These books are extremely well-written, and a real joy to read since they are so well-written. The plots are always extremely clever, and they keep you guessing right until the end.

Comic book fans are going to love Death to the Centurion. It moves faster than a speeding bullet, and I couldn't put it down. That's because it tackles some issues that would make even the strongest superhero blink -- namely, how do you stop a comic book killer when you're the target?

Formerly an e-book, this has captured the comics world all too well-- and quite subversive of the current landscape. Pretty damn good for a first-time author, can't wait to read his next effort.

Here's an oddity--wdn't be surprised if it develops a cult following. Small publisher, first time author--definately obscure. But what fun! Here's a novel about the contemporary business of comics, and if yr really into comics, this will probly delight you. WHO ELSE wd write about such a thing? I mean, Kavalier Clay is fine, but it's historical. Here's a novel right on the cutting edge of what's happening among the despicable, devious SUITS that control the exciting medium of....COMICS!!!

So you'd think that a first novel essentially about a comic book publisher's plan to kill off a well-loved Superman-type character would have to be derivative. I mean how many times did DC -- the actual publisher of the actual Superman -- actually "kill" him off? But "Centurion" constantly surprises. You think, "oh yeah, greedy evil corporation out for profit, diva-like artist-creator, yeah I know who dunnit..." And surprise! you're wrong. Lively, nasty characters clearly cribbed from the writer's own corporate war stories clash over trivialities. Trivialities that mean big money in the Hollywood world of today. Like money? Like breakneck action and hard-boiled mystery? Buy Centurion and hope this guy has a second novel in the works.