Arts and Entertainment Books

Fast shipping! Great Book. I love Red Hot Chili Peppers. Great book for all them fans...

I couldn't stop reading the book. It was the best book I have read in years. Guys like Anthony Kiedis should always share their story. It is very inspiring to learn that somebody that didn't have very much now is rich and famous. I wish I had half of the fun Anthony had in his young life. I would recommend this book to everyone.

It is so hard when
you can't look into your own eyes
cause that's where u see the person
you mostly- despise

So be honest
don't threat don't preach
your spiritual embrace
and love will reach

A scar is a place to start
New stories overcoming the old fears
and old glories.

There is no Holywood sweetener most are used to,
expect nothing but raw emotional poetics that will question your wounds, your principles and your ethics. The beautiful person who has almost discovered himself will start you on a jorney to- yourself.

I couldn't get over how this guy did SO MANY drugs and is still alive! And in relatively good health it seems. He certainly is a master at taking narcotics. Most people would have OD'ed I think. I wouldn't know a song by the RHCP if I heard it, but being a reader of biographies, this one sounded juicy....sex, drugs and rock & roll most definitely. I got a bit tired of reading about drugs and more drugs and every time I thought he had it licked he went back. Like he says-insanity. It's got to be. Girlfriend after girlfriend, wow. His story continues. I would be curious if he's EVER yet found true love and how long his sobriety and drug free time is. I don't think he'll ever be totally free until he finds the True Higher Power, but there's still time. Well written, very interesting. Quite unbelievable but then a lot of musicians end up this way. I don't think they are good role models for our children. They are so nonconformist. I don't envy their lives at all. At least he didn't seem obsessed by having lots of money eventually.

I would highly recommend this book to any Selena fan. It had lots of information and it answered almost everything I wanted to know about Selena. I wish it had more photos though.

I listened to this audiotape while driving home from college, and it was very interesting. I already knew some things about Selena from watching the movie Selena, which was based on her life, as well as listening to some of her CD's. However, this audiobook gave me a lot more information about her life and death. The plot was well-written and well-read, it moved along very quickely and excitingly. Also, the other side of the tape is the same thing but in Spanish, which gave me a chance to practice my Spanish listening skills. :) I recommend this audiobook to anyone who likes Selena's music and/or is interested in her life, career, and death.

I would highly recommend this book to any Selena fan. It had lots of information and it answered almost everything I wanted to know about Selena. I wish it had more photos though.

Written in both English and Spanish for ALL Selena fans, this book gives a look into the phenomenal but all-too-brief career of Texas' Golden Girl. Selena lives on through her music, and as a role model for Latina women. We miss you, Selena, rest in peace

The review posted below by David Kathman succinctly summarizes the content of this scholarly polemic against the absurdities of the literary "Oxford Movement". I just wish to note that the 1999 paperback edition is a straight reprint of the 1994 hardbound. Therefore, while it addresses the orthodox Looney-Ogburn-Whalen school of anti-Stratfordianism, there is nothing about more recent mutations. Readers who want to keep up to date on the controversy should take a look at Professor Kathman's Shakespeare Authorship Web site, which discusses virtually all of the Oxfordian arguments and links to such interesting material as a complete edition of the Earl of Oxford's extant letters, which may prove disillusioning to those who cherish an image of the earl as a polymathic genius.

Even though it does not swat the very latest fantasies of Authorship Cultism, "Shakespeare, In Fact" is both entertaining and useful. Reading it will leave one better informed about not only the narrow question of who wrote Shakespeare but also the broader context of the Elizabethan stage and Renaissance literature.

Irvin Matus's Shakespeare, IN FACT

Reviewed by Thomas A. Pendleton

The Shakespeare Newsletter, Summer 1994

The authorship controversy -- which nowadays is tantamount to saying the Oxfordian hypothesis -- is not often seriously investigated by Shakespeare scholars. There are a number of reasons why, with sheer cowardice and fear of being found out and losing tenure relatively low on the list. Almost all Shakespeareans, I expect, are aware that claims for any rival author are based on assertions and inferences about Shakespeare's biography, his inadequate education, the absence of his manuscripts, the plays' erudition, aristocratic bias, knowledge of Italian geography, and so on; assertions and inferences that are untenable and have been shown to be untenable. Most libraries can supply the Shakespearean with some older, but very useful, treatments of the subject, notably Frank W. Wadsworth's graceful and cogent survey, The Poacher from Stratford, and Milward Martin's energetically argued Was Shakespeare Shakespeare?. And probably nearer to hand is Shakespeare's Lives, which reviews the controversy in a longish section called "Deviations." For most Shakespeareans most of the time, Schoenbaum sufficeth.

A number of other considerations militate against the Shakespearean's engaging the topic. Public debates and moot courts, favorite venues for proponents of Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, are far more compatible to categorical pronouncements than to the laborious establishment of detail, context, and interpretation required to counter them, not to mention doing so with enough panache to win the approval of a non-specialist audience. Shakespeareans sometimes take the position that even to engage the Oxfordian hypothesis is to give it countenance it does not warrant. And, of course, any Shakespearean who reads a hundred pages on the authorship question inevitably realizes that nothing he can say or write will prevail with those persuaded to be persuaded otherwise.

Perhaps the mos! t daunting consideration for the scholar who intends to seriously examine this claim is the volume and nature of the research that will be demanded. To begin with, he must become completely familiar with the nearly 900 pages of Charlton Ogburn's The Mysterious William Shakespeare, the authorized version of Oxfordianism, and then proceed to test at least a wide sampling of random claims of other adherents. He will continually be faced with the prospect of dealing with gratuitous assertions as if they were serious scholarly conclusions, and the necessity of demonstrating such assertions to be incoherent in the appropriate context, or based on incomplete or selective evidence, or logically faulty, or some combination thereof. The research required will be extremely demanding, much of it in quite recondite areas where very few have boldly gone before. He probably ought also to curb his natural temptation to say snide things when refuting especially preposterous claims.

As remarkable as it sounds, Irvin Leigh Matus, in his Shakespeare, IN FACT (New York: Continuum, 1994), has managed to perform all of these tasks, even the last. (Well, he's pretty restrained, anyhow.) Matus notes with some sympathy "The great frustration of the Oxfordians... that academic Shakespeareans do not pay attention to their scholarship nor address their questions." He adds, "It is also their great fortune," which he then proceeds to demonstrate.

To the best of my knowledge, no previous Shakespeare scholar has engaged so much of what Oxfordians have presented as evidence for their positions, or has done so as thoroughly. Matus gives not just fair, but even patient, hearing; and in many instances where a less forbearing respondent might give a short answer, he explores and explains in further detail.

Among such instances is the claim that Ben Jonson's "Sweet swan of Avon" actually refers to the Earl, whose manor at Bilton was on the Avon river and presumably frequented by swans. It might be thought ! sufficient to observe that the phrase is a direct address in a poem directly addressed "To My Beloved Mr. William Shakespeare," and that the epithet's reference to Shakespeare is, quite superfluously, confirmed in the dedication of the Beaumont and Fletcher folio (of which, more later). Matus, however, performs the supererogatory work of tracking down the history of the Bilton estate. It eventuates that Oxford leased it out in 1574, sold it in 1581, and never regained possession. This particular sweet swan had flown off 42 years before Jonson's poem.

The orthodox claim that The Tempest relies on the Bermuda pamphlets of 1610 cannot be allowed by de Vere's proponents, whose man died in 1604. Other and earlier accounts have been proposed, notably the 1592 shipwreck, off Bermuda, of the Edward Bonaventure, a ship supposed to be connected with Oxford, perhaps even to be the vessel he commanded against the Armada. Matus gives the short answer -- consult Bullough's standard work on the sources for the parallels to William Strachey's 1610 letter on behalf of the Virginia Company -- but he also resurrects the history of the ship. He demonstrates that Oxford's only connection was to consider buying it in 1581, it fought in the Armada campaign under other command, and neither of the two supposed eye-witnesses described its wreck for the very good reason that neither was on board.

The engraving of the Stratford Monument in William Dugdale's 1656 Antiquities of Warwickshire is a favorite artifact for Oxfordians. The picture differs in a number of respects from the monument we know; notably, it lacks the quill and paper which the figure of Shakespeare now holds. Proceeding from this, it is supposed that these items were added when the monument was restored in 1748, probably to enhance its literary aura for the tourist trade; the cushion on which the figure now seems to write is accordingly assumed to originally have been a bag of grain, appropriate to Shakespeare's local reputation as a malt jobber. Pre! vious commentators have been content to cite the letter of Joseph Greene, the local schoolmaster and curate in 1748, to the effect that the restoration was committed only to preserving the original design; that a number of Dugdale's plates are similarly in error is also frequently stated. Matus cites Greene, and more importantly, he too denies Dugdale's reliability -- but not just at the level of assertion. He provides a couple of comparable examples of Dugdale's inaccuracy -- the Clopton and Carew tombs in Holy Trinity Church -- and clinches his argument with the instance of the effigy on the Beauchamp tomb in Warwick. As with the Stratford Monument, here we have existing statuary inaccurately portrayed in the Antiquities, we have the record of an intervening restoration begun in 1674, and, in greater detail, we have records of the restoration that seem to insist that no alterations were introduced. We also know who planned and supervised the restoration: none other than William Dugdale.

Shakespeare, IN FACT is continually generous in treating such claims with a respect appropriate to far more firmly based conclusions by providing abundant materials to refute them. It also strikes me as remarkable restraint, perhaps even mansuetude, that the book never mentions any of the most hirsute of Oxfordian suppositions: that the Earl of Southampton was the illegitimate son of Vere and Queen Elizabeth, for instance; or that Ben Jonson murdered Shakespeare.

No one in Shakespeare's lifetime, or the first two hundred years after his death, expressed the slightest doubt about his authorship.

Irvin Leigh Matus should be commended for his industry. It must be hard work wading through the anti-Stratfordian swamp.

I am writing in regarding to the following "review" of SHAKESPEARE, IN FACT by Irvin Leigh Matus posted on Amazon.com:

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0 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
Nice try, Irv, April 23, 2003

Reviewer: A reader

You know, the Stratfordians change punctuation of 400-year-old documents in order to further their cause. This author can't be trusted. It's a book for those who want their myths propped up, not demolished. Nice going, Mr. Matus.

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I happen to be Irvin Leigh Matus - that Irvin Leigh Matus (just to make sure I am not confused with the untold other Irvin Leigh Matuses). I will here note this letter is not intended for publication on the Amazon website, or anywhere else.

I feel some temptation to let this review remain online. I share Samuel Johnson's faith in the "common sense" of "common readers," which is justified by their unanimous rejection of this posting. I imagine with pleasure that its author may visit it from time to time to learn it has captured little interest and been judged to have no value. The results, however, do not negate the intentions of this "reviewer" or the substance of the review. Further, the small number who took the trouble to enter their negative opinion of the review undoubtedly do not reflect the far larger number who saw it and did not give their opinion, some of whom may have come away with a negative disposition toward the reliability of the book and its author.

The only thing in my book that might be the candidate for his/her review is a lawsuit written in Latin, which is discussed on pages 39-40 of my book, in which I give a full account of its interpretation. It so happens, aware that the Latin used in legal documents was different from the classical Latin as it was then taught, I spent ten months seeking someone with expertise in these documents. The punctuation was not, as charged, changed - the document is in fact unpunctuated - and the punctuation added was supplied to me in written form by the scholar mentioned (who is not a Shakespearean but an expert in wills, deeds, lawsuits and similar documents; he requested anonymity after giving the information to me because he didn't wish to be hounded by the controversialists - which the review in question justifies).

If this is indeed the item in question, perhaps Anonymous doubts the honesty of my claim that I consulted an experienced, respected archival scholar (page 40). I was in fact directed to him by the then rare books librarian of the Library of Congress' Law Library, and I still have the scholar's handwritten notes with his signature, which include his request that I "not cite this as a communication from me."

Two things need to be noted about the content of Anonymous' charge. First, by not identifying the specific item at issue, it could be anything in my book. It is the rule of controversialist scholarship, the error rate of which hovers around 100 percent, that a single flaw in a work of orthodox scholarship, whether perceived or actual - or fabricated - is sufficient in their eyes to cast doubt upon the accuracy and authenticity of the entire work. Second, Anonymous' primary purpose is clearly to impugn both my standards of scholarship and my integrity as a scholar.

It should be noted that in the ten years since the publication of my book, it has been reviewed and commented upon by scores of Shakespeareans and Oxfordians (many more of the latter) and this review is the only instance I know of in which my integrity has been attacked or I have been accused of falsifying facts. This is also the first time I have openly responded to a criticism of my book.

To the point, even without the foregoing, I am surprised that Amazon.com would publish an unspecific charge of falsified data by someone unwilling to give either his/her name or email address. Whereas I understand that it may not be feasible to research the accuracy and authenticity of what reviewers say, the form and content of this review should have raised caution flags. Circulating such blind remarks invites all kinds and all degrees of false charges.

This is especially significant because I suspect that more people may get opinion about a book from Amazon.com reviews than any other source. As you must be aware of Amazon.com's influence on the perception of a book, it should be especially wary of posting a review that contains statements that attack an author and his work anonymously. Nor should an allegation of scholarly malfeasance be put online that does not mention the specific item in which it is alleged to occur. There is, however, a compelling reason for not publishing such things on a website, which is that the publisher can be held accountable. Laws against libel do not stop at the portals of the Internet. Perhaps a still more compelling reason from Amazon's point of view is that it discourages sales of books, which authors don't much like either.

I therefore request that this review be removed from the Amazon.com website.

With my thanks for your attention,

Irvin Leigh Matus

Just when you think it can't get more real or more intense, it does. This is not light reading, but if you really want to see inside the soul of real life survivor (not someone who can do 15 hours of shopping in a crowded mall,) this is for you. Silvie is my new best friend, putting all my petty problems into perspective and showing me again that we can be bigger than our environment!

SILVIE is more than a testament to the human spirit and its will to survive against all odds. It is more than the story of a beautiful and talented young woman on the brink of life and love, caught up in the unspeakable horror of Hitler's war against the Jews. Silvia Grohs-Martin, in her brilliantly absorbing autobiography, engages the reader's wide range of emotions; laughter, tears, chills, thrills, outrage, compassion and love, all within the context of a single chapter; at times, a single paragraph. A compelling read from start to finish, Ms. Grohs-Martin's acute sense of detail, her innate joie de vivre, and her delicious sense of humor combine to tell her true story of enormous courage, hope and, yes, romance against a background of modern history's most devastating and shameful period. Never self-indulgent or self-pitying, always taut and engrossing, SILVIE reads like a Steven Spielberg screenplay, complete with bigger-than-life heroine whose youthful exhuberance turns to heroic defiance in the face of her formidable enemy, one she cannot conquer on her own, but one she can survive. It was perhaps her youthful zest, her determination to live out a full, rich life that gave this enchanting young woman the strength and the ability to carry her through to personal victory, despite the treacherous traps she encountered at every turn. From her youth as an aspiring actress in Vienna to her years as an ingenue at Amsterdam's legendary Hollandsche Schouwburg (Dutch Theater,) to its transformation into a Nazi-controlled deportation center for the Jews, to her numerous encounters with Nazi officials, and her uncanny capacity to escape their clutches, SILVIE not only prevails, she soars. Ultimately, SILVIE's extraordinary account of survival teaches us all that although we may not always be able to control our external circumstances, we can always control our reaction to them. A completely exhilerating read! I love SILVIE -- the book and the woman!

"Silvie" is a testament to the spirit and love for life that is possible and should be celebrated. Silvia Gros-Martin shares with her readers a most incredible example of such strength. With a beautiful, yet haunting, style we follow her back into the bleakest time in our world's history. But as we look through her eyes, we see the world that she loved, the life that she lived with such vigor and passion, and the people that impacted her life, from her childhood in Austria, to her beautiful theatre in Amsterdam, to the Nazi death camps that she survived. The good times and the violently hellish times she endured are depicted with such vivid clarity and honesty that I felt as if I were there with her, sharing her laughter and witnessing her bravery. Taking this journey with Silvie will give the reader a look at this dark period in our history which cannot be found in a textbook. At moments we are joyous, at moments we are horrified by the reality of man's ability to hate and perform unspeakable acts of violence. Silvie's memoir provides a memorable and enlightening journey. I believe it should be read by everyone, for her story will inspire us never to forget or repeat the horrors that she survived. And, it will indeed remind us of our potential to love and embrace life, no matter how uncertain or rigorous that journey may be.

SILVI, by Silvia Grohs-Martin is a compelling, affecting and, at times, racking study of the persistance of life in a near void of humanity. Her four years during WWII in German concentation camps -- the longest at the infamous Auschwitz -- are presented not so much as appalling nightmares but as comparative portraits of the unbelievable tenacity of the human will to exist. Just when one feels overwhelmed with the vast array of Holocaust literature and media, SILVI belies the myth that we've "heard it all." The book reads almost like a spy thriller. A teenage girl, already a known singer and entertainer in Europe -- leaps from country to country, one step ahead of the invading Nazis. Surrounded in The Netherlands, with no hope of escape, Silvi finds work in the sole venue open to Jews under the Nazi occupation -- the celebrated Hollandsche Schouwburg Theatre in Amsterdam. While most Americans know of Anne Frank's ordeal at the time, the Schouwburg and it's role as the city's only permitted Jewish theatre/gathering place/art gallery/coffee house and even marriage facility, will come as a surprising revelation. The vast number of Jewish and non-Jewish citizens whose lives were affected by this venerable landmark of the arts is inestimable. When the Nazi's finally close the Theatre, Silvi and her fellow actors are forced to guard their former audience as citizens are hauled to the Theatre and held for deportation. Working secretly in the Dutch Resistance, Silvi is able to convey a number of Jewish children to safety in the countryside. Finally, as she is about to be deported herself, she escapes in a desperate attempt to reach Switzerland. Captured in Belgium she spends the next fours years as a "guest" of the Gestapo regime. Told with a keen narrator's skill of observation and attention to detail, SILVI is at times sad, humorous, appalling, enraging, unthinkable and always, always engrossing. You will not put it down!

I am workinkg part time for Planetary of University of Santiago of Chile, and when is necessary watch the moon by telescope, I was received many children to make excursions over moon surface. Then I was used this map, to locate place where astronauts from Apollo 11, put their feet first time on the Moon. I give to children locate trought mirror scope, many moon features: Seas, Hills, craters, until arrive aproximately over site, where man from earth, arrive there. Is very funny to children and adults too.
Fernando Franco Blü.
Rancagua, CHILE.

Both versions of this map are drawn by Antonin Rukl whose Atlas of the Moon in book form is currently the gold standard for readily available paper lunar atlases. While the scale is smaller here, the amount of detail will be sufficient for the vast majority of telescopic observers.

But what distinguishes these maps is how well they're designed. Laminated, folding in quarters and just about the perfect size, it's plain that Sky Publishing meant these to be practical and rugged.

Also, two very nice touches. The lunar surface features are repeated where the map folds so no details are lost "in the ditch". And each map quadrant shows the libration zones.

This map is excellent.

I loved this Mirro-Image of the Moon so much I bought two, one to hang in my bedroom and one to use at the Telescope. With my Celestron C8-SGT and the mirror image I'm not constantly correcting myself and can find eveything so much easier. And its laminated, when helps when the Dew and late night moisture comes in. I have about ten sky atlases, but only this one and another are laminated.

I decided to buy this Mirror-Image field map because I have a Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope that also reverses viewed objects. I already had the true-image field map, but I had a lot of difficulty using it because I'm a novice of lunar topography. The reverse map made such a difference in my ability to see and identify landmarks. The map is laminated and folded, separating the moon into four quadrants. This makes it easy to handle and use without worrying about nighttime dew. I took it to an astonomy club star party, and showed several experienced amateurs. None had ever seen this particular map before. It got rave reviews from them too.

Oliver Sack, MD called this book, "a remarkable account of what it means to be paralyzed, speechless, incapable of communication yet fully conscious... and to struggle back, over the years, to an active and creative life."
I was fascinated by this feminist film maker's candid account of her devastating stroke, and learning to live with disability after seeking out a variety of therapies. You see her struggle with depression, overcoming access barriers, dealing with insensitive hospital staff, and coping with the details of bodily disfunction.
It helps me to understand the experience from the inside view. Quite enlightening.

This book should be required reading for anyone in the field of rehabilitation. And it is a tremendously inspiring story for all of us who wonder how we could ever manage if we were struck with a disabling illness. If it were fiction it would be a great read. The fact that it's a true story gives one goosebumps as well. Bonnie Klein suffered a devastating stroke. This book is about her recovery - both physical and psychological - and the wonderful love and support she received from friends and family, especially from a wonderful husband. It also shows the predjudice and meanness of some people when they are faced with a person who is "different". And the ignorance and arrogance of some of the rehabilitation "professionals" she encountered along the way. It is a story of terror, hope, the tremendous importance of love and support, and how one finally comes to terms with being less facile physically than one used to be. Bonnie Klein is a hero. Her family and friends most loving and genuine. It is a great read.

Ms. Klein establishes important rules to live a fruitful, productive lifestyle, despite a chronic illness: Live life by celebrating life. Independence is control over one's own life measured by the quality of life sustained with whatever help is needed. Sometimes dispair can lead to depression. Sometimes, it can be motivating.

This is a great book! I have read a number of books written by stroke survivors and this is one of the best. This may well be because the book was completed several years after the event. This time gave Ms. Klein the chance to gather and refine her thoughts and experiences.

I am also a stroke survivor. Her acknowledgement that she experienced progress long after the stroke was especially encouraging to me. The medical world says that all progress stops in 3 months to a year. My experience is that the body is a living entity, which is forever changing. So, it makes sense that it would not stop changing because of any medical condition.

The book has humor and is written in a warm and caring context. I would recommend it not only for stoke survivors, but also for caretakers and for health professionals

Ask the average person to name a song by Duke Ellington and if you get a response it's apt to be 'uh, A-Train'. Wrong, since it has long been known that Strayhorn wrote it. But who wrote which parts of 'Black, Brown and Beige'? Unknown generally until now; Strayhorn wrote Beige; Ellington wrote Black and Brown.

All true fans of Duke Ellington know of Billie Strayhorn, but few know anything of his real contributions across half of the Dukes career. This book has gone back to the original manuscripts and studied the handwriting to see who wrote what parts. The results of these studies and massive other research provide a true look at the work of Strayhorn. This is not a biography; 'Lush Life : A Biography of Billy Strayhorn' by David Hajdu is a wonderful companion to this book. This book is musically oriented and has some discussions way over my head; none the less its a welcome addition to my library and one that I read non-stop. There is lots of fine data in apendicies as well.

Superb! Thank you, thank you, Walter Van De Leur.

After reading this book you will have a technical understanding of why Billy Strayhorn's music sounds so good and why Strayhorn needs to be recognized as one of the giants of American popular music. After having spent over 10 years performing in depth research and examining over 3,000 manuscripts Walter Van De Leur seperates Billy Strayhorn from Duke Ellington and analyzes how their musical styles differ. The book provides the reader with a technical dissection of a number of Strayhorn's and Ellington's music and gives, from a musicologist's point of view, the uniqueness of Strayhorn's music. Anecdotes about Strayhorn and Ellington are infrequent and instead Van De Leur provides a scholarly examination of one of the most important of American composers. However, Van De Leur can be eloquent in his examination of Strayhorn's work and this belies the love he has for his subject. Analyzing Strayhorn's Day Dream Van De Leur writes " The introspective Day Dream is less radical in its harmonic and melodic design, although chromatic chord relations again play an important role...On beat three this flat supertonic for the target proper, which now functions as the delay for the dominant E7, for A. Turning this pattern into a sequence, Strayhorn again liberates the music from its tonal gravity..." That last sentence says it all, Billy Strayhorn liberated music from its tonal gravity!

This book is a landmark is jazz scholarship. The way van de Leur mixes few biographical details, business forces, archival reserach and music analysis helps to better understand the art of Billy Strayhorn as a personal and individual composer and arranger. With a smooth literary style, van de Leur opens to us the gates of an unknown and underrated musical genius, and help us to distinguish the true from the false, the right authorship of compositions and arrangements and the way the Strayhorn musical style changed throught the years; more, it helps to distinguish him from Duke Ellington and to better understand Ellington, too. From;these pages, Strayhorn emerges as a major composer with a distinguished musical personality.
The four appendixes are one the most useful tools in jazz reseraches appeared in last years.
This book is a reference one for any jazz researcher or learned amateur. A masterpiece in scholarship, an enlightning effort in understanding a great musician and an enjoyable reading. A must.

There are not enough stars that can adequately rate this book. Van de Leur has given us the first truly thorough analysis of a composer of jazz (although Strayhorn was much more than a jazz composer). You do need some musical knowledge to understand what he is talking about, but his discussion and analyses of Strayhorn's music are clear, concise and well-reasoned. The appendices alone are worth the price of the book, where he lists every scrap of music currently known of Strayhorn's, where it is, when it was recorded, and what was played (in many cases, Ellington only used parts of Strayhorn's arrangements of pop tunes). The sheer amount of work it took to complete this project is startling and awe-inspriring.

For years we wondered what Strayhorn's real role was in the Ellington organization. Now we know without any doubt. Bravo Walter!!!!

This book was a very emotional read. It was written so well that I felt like I got to know Chris and Dana on a much more personal level. I would like to quote what a neighbor observed about what Chris and Dana did for their son Will. "Fortunately", observed family friend John Bedford Lloyd, Chris and Dana "gave Will exactly what he will need-the gift of bravery and grace." I strongly recommend this book to everyone. :)

Christopher Andersen's sensitively written and touching portrait of Christopher and Dana Reeve in life and death--"Somewhere in Heaven''--beautifully describes what Larry King called "... two unforgettable profiles in courage." The poignancy of their struggle and the monumental solidity of their life together is underscored by their own words. Chris Reeve: "Real love, and the ability to love somebody as damaged as I was, that is a very rare and precious thing." Dana Reeve: "I didn't fall in love with Superman. I fell in love with a super man." This was not only an amazing marriage, but a true partnership to the very end. Sure to hit an emotional chord, "Somewhere in Heaven" is equally thoughtful and insightful--in short, a super read.

I have just finished reading Somewhere in Heaven, The Remarkable Love Story of Dana and Christopher Reeve, written by Christopher Andersen. I did not think that I could feel such sadness for this couple, but from the opening lines, I found myself actually crying as I read and pretty well continued doing so until the end of the book.

Although I thought Christopher Reeve was a good actor, I never really followed his career or his life. Of course, I was shocked by his tragic accident, but it wasn't until I heard about the death of his wife Dana that I clued in that maybe there was more to this family than I had originally thought.

When I was given the chance to read this book, I jumped on it. From the opening pages, which described the last few hours of Chris' life, I immediately feel in love with this couple. After a brief description of Dana and Chris' childhoods, the author details, for us, their romantic and beautiful courtship as well as the birth of their son Will. I just loved the way these two people looked across a crowded room and just `found each other' - it was so perfect. All I kept thinking, as I read, was how lucky they were to find each other.

However, as it seems to be with this couple, tragedy was never far away - apparently just about to strike. Most of us are, by now, quite familiar with the horrible riding accident Chris Reeve was involved in shortly after the birth of his child, in 1995. Although I was familiar with some of it, this book details the struggles that Dana had to go through to prevent Chris' mother from asking the doctors to remove him from the ventilator. From the moment Dana found out about the accident, she was determined to be there for her husband and it is apparent that she fulfilled this desire and became, in many ways, his `Superwomen' when he needed her most. I loved reading about her strength and her conviction that the man she loved, would come out of this somehow. How lucky Chris was to have picked this woman to be his wife.

Chris and Dana truly showed the world that love can conquer all. They became activists and dedicated their lives to finding a cure for spinal cord injuries and through it all, you felt the intense love these two people had for each other. Just writing this, I feel as though I am going to cry again.

Tragedy would strike again and again as Chris would suddenly die of a massive heart attack followed shortly by Dana's mother death and finally the biggest blow of all - the diagnosis that would tell Dana that she was dying of lung cancer. How much can one family take? Throughout all her fear, pain and sadness, Dana continued to champion on - and focused on her son and keeping Chris' message alive.

Dana would eventually die of her disease, but in the wake of all the pain, this beautiful couple has left me in awe of their courage and strength. I applaud them and am truly inspired by their spirit.

This book captures all of the events of their lives and is told in beautiful prose. You never feel as though you are intruding on their privacy, but rather as though you are asked to share in the joys and in the sorrows.

The author did a wonderful job of writing a story that must have been emotionally draining to write, but it was also a story that needed to be told.

Although the ending is tragic, the journey is beautiful. I suggest you get this book and find out just how strong the power of love is.

Christopher Reeve became the world's Superman, but his real-life struggle with spinal cord paralysis showed a strength far surpassing the comic book hero's, present both in him and his wife, Dana. Their stories, from their time of meeting to their reunion in heaven are eloquently recalled in Christopher Andersen's Somewhere in Heaven.

This heart-breaking recollection of one of the most beautiful relationships to see Hollywood collects the family's best and worst times, from Christopher's first sight of his future wife to the horse accident that left him paralyzed. Their story, dotted with emotionally shattering moments, was one of true love and trust, as Dana took the full-time role of caregiver to her disabled actor husband, who, from his first awakening post-accident to his very last breath, felt the hardship of raising a family without the ability to physically interact with his and Dana's son, Will. But through their hardships and struggles came hope and inspiration, as their constant lobbying for stem cell research brought spinal cord paralysis to its highest awareness and amazing breakthroughs, often in Reeve himself.

Upon Reeve's devastating death, Dana continued her husband's inspirational endeavours until stage-4 lung cancer reunited her with her husband less than two years later. However, son Will and Christopher's children with actress Gae Exton, Matthew and Alexandra, continue their parents' motivational work to raise awareness for spinal cord paralysis through the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation. And it is through them, as well as the timeless works Christopher and Dana left behind, that they will live on in the hearts of millions. An absolutely beautiful, tear-jerking read that should be on every bookshelf.

- T.C. Robson

I picked this book up out of curiousity. Jerome Robbins was legendary aong those who enjoyed Broadway musical theater. His best known acheivement was probably "West Side Story". In any event, I figured a bit of time spent learning about Robbins' life would be interesting.

Well, yes it was - and it was also a bit of a slog.

Amanda Vail has produced a hagiography of Robbins. Considering that Robbins never did anything really, really, really nasty, that is no sin. However, it is a reflection of Robbins' narcissism that Vail had such massive archives to draw from. 539 pages of biography, followed by just less than 100 pages of notes and bibliography. No one can accuse Vail of inadequate research.

The result is a mind-numbing recitation of what seems to be every day in the life of Jerome Robbins from birth to death. It isn't boring, but it won't be stimulating either unless you really, really are a Robbins fan who just can't get enough.

For me, the reward wasn't in learning far more than I wanted to know about Robbins' sex life, but about his contributions to the development of American dance. Robbins truly was a genius and while perhaps overly detailed, this is the kind of thorough biography Jerome Robbins deserves.

Jerry

My dance teacher raved about this book in class and so I had to buy it. I haven't read it all but it shows valuable insights into Mr. Robbins. Although he was a difficult person, he was a genius, as my dance teacher said, and so he was and he made dance so much bigger and better for us all.

The mercurial brilliance and personal shortcomings of choreographer extraordinaire Jerome Robbins are captured with equal amounts of compassion and objectivity in Amanda Vaill's comprehensive biography. His impressive resume represents some of the most arresting work in dance and theater - "On the Town", "High Button Shoes", "Call Me Madam", "Gypsy", "Wonderful Town", "Bells Are Ringing", "The King and I", "Peter Pan", "The Pajama Game", "Funny Girl", "Fiddler on the Roof", "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum". Robbins' most famous work is the stage and screen versions of "West Side Story", his legendary collaboration with composer Leonard Bernstein and then-prodigious lyricist Stephen Sondheim. Yet for all these accomplishments, he was reviled as much as he was revered. Stellar results notwithstanding, his vaunted perfectionism and Method-style approach were taxing to many, and it would often come under the guise of brutality and verbal abuse. Although Vaill's book is the third Robbins biography to be released in the last five years, hers reflects access to the subject's personal diaries before his death at age eighty in 1998, which lends the book a voice that one could easily imagine approximates Robbins' own.

The author dives deeply into Robbins' childhood to seek answers to his personal dichotomy, and she pieces together a vivid if somewhat pat portrait of self-loathing. Robbins' mother comes across as a vindictive woman who used her deep-rooted insecurity as a lightning rod for attention, while his father seems weak-willed and foolish. The combination of their personalities already reinforces Robbins' incurable sense of self-doubt due to his shame over being both Jewish and gay. His resulting bisexuality gave way to a string of lovers of both sexes, though his most intense and enduring relationships were with men including a two-year affair with a young Montgomery Clift. Ironically, he was able to translate these passions into some of the most beautiful male-female duets in musical theater. It is in Robbins' professional triumphs and failures where Vaill's book soars highest. She meticulously documents the process of creating his ballet works, in particular, 1944's "Fancy Free" (the basis for "On the Town") and 1969's "Dances at a Gathering", and how George Balanchine acted as both supportive mentor and demonic taskmaster. Obviously, Robbins applied Balanchine's split-personality approach to his own work when he drove performers, whether chorus dancers or ego-driven divas, to tears with his exacting demands.

In spite of his self-assurance in staging and choreographing specific scenes, he would remain steadfast in experimenting with endless versions of the same moment no matter how long it took to satisfy his vision. Feeding into the already rampant insecurities of his cast, Robbins would often have two or more people learn the same part and urge one to shadow the other as he did his solo. In rehearsing the Broadway version of "West Side Story", he would instigate gossip in order to raise the ire of the dancers playing the gang members. Such alienating, frequently self-serving techniques came at a price, for instance, he was fired from the film version of `West Side Story" in mid-production due to his insensitivity to the resulting budget overruns. The darkest moments of his life are almost a carbon copy of filmmaker Elia Kazan's, as they revolve around his guilt over his 1953 testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee and the seven people he named who apparently recruited him for the Communist Party. Vaill is insightful enough not to judge Robbins for this infamous act, especially ironic given the value he placed on loyalty throughout his career. Her extensive portrait of Robbins should satisfy not only those fascinated by his legendary life and career but also those interested in knowing one of the most profound influences on musical theater and ballet in the second half of the 20th century.

If Jerome Robbins had only directed "West Side Story" that would have been enough to establish his legend on Broadway...if you read this wonderful biography by the very skillful Amanda Vaill you will discover that almost every production from the Golden Era of Broadway had the Robbins touch. Mr Robbin was also a member of the American Ballet Theatre and created many celebrated dance pieces. A complex individual, at times; a son of a bitch, he always got the best from his performers and his collaborators. West Side Story, High Button Shoes, Peter Pan, Gypsy, Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum, The King and I, Fiddler=Robbins

Hoagy Carmichael's college roommate, Hank Wells, claimed all his life that Hoagy, consciously or subcon- scioujsly, stole Star Dust from him. People in his home- town of Lake Bluff, Ill., said that this "broke his heart." Wells visited back and forth with the parents of a friend of mine, and she personally heard him tell this story. He played piano at her wedding..
I have read Hoagy's own words about Star Dust quoted in a book and they are cryptic. He does indeed imply that the song came out of nowhere into his mind.
Two facts: (a) What if a man wrote one great song that was unusual and never wrote another? Why is that?
(b) Why could one man write such a great song and then
never equal or exceed it in his long writing career. Why?
Only one set of facts fits that scenario. Hank Wells, heartbroken, never wrote again. Hoagy couldn't write anything so good on his own.

CCarf

Whatta life! From poverty to great wealth based on musical talent of creating songs as well as a wonderful actor. He had many highlights writing songs and acting but after rock & roll took over the musical scene his talents went for nothing as no youth were interested.

Mr. Sudhalter covers Hoagy's entire life and an interesting one it was. The writing in many places is of a "text book" nature, but the content of relating Hoagy's life puts the reader in the center of life as it existed in the 20's through the 60's. Apparently Hoagy's type of music is gone forever which is a loss without question. New generations continue on and what was usually stays behind as merely history.

We owe Richard Sudhalter for preserving the often-forgotten history of America's early jazz pioneers and composers. His subjects are white musicians, but he doesn't write about them with a nasty political agenda. He just doesn't want their contributions to be forgotten. Along the way, he pays warm tribute to the black musicians who led the musical revolution. Unfortunately, politically-charged reviewers refuse to see this.
I especially love this Sudhalter work. Sadly, Hoagy is becoming a forgotten genius of American song. Duke Ellington once called him America's greatest songwriter, and Sudhalter goes a long way in providing the evidence to such a claim. I especially enjoyed the focus on Hoagy's home state of Indiana, which was an amazing hotbed for jazz in the 1920s. One should take this book and drive around Bloomington, Indiana, and find all of the haunts described in rich detail by Sudhalter. Then go to Indianapolis, and Richmond, Indiana. Sudhalter really did us all a huge favor in providing such a wonderful document.

My father, Bud Dant, is prominently featured in this book, as a man who helped Hoagy write down Stardust and I grew up hearing about the stories and now here they all are in a book...not just a book, but what I know is an extremely accurate and real account of Hoagy's life...the writing is terrific and Richard's obvious love of the music and times shows in his accounts...I know for a fact he researched this material exhaustively...it shows! It pretty much dwarfs all other books on Hoagy.