California Books

Wonderful book.
Excellent exercises and full of history.
I'm not an expert in traverso, but the fingering chart is very complete and ideal for who want to learn by yourself.

This is one of the best method books I've seen for a historical instrument. Every essential topic is covered: tuning, intonation, articulation, fingering, baroque & classical ornamentation (fingering for trills off of each note, for instance). Period sources (notably Quantz, plus several others) are quoted frequently. There is also a good discussion on the differences between different historical models. Plus there is a wealth of exercises and tunes from the period. While not pretending to be complete in every sense, this is far superior to many methods I've seen for recorder and other instruments. It's also quite affordable.

I have been playing the modern, silver (Boehm system) flute for over 25 years as a hobby and a magnificent obsession. For some time, I had been thinking about playing the baroque or one-keyed flute. The thought of moving to an instrument with a softer, subtler sound fashioned from organic material (wood) appealed to me. Expressing this interest to my flute teacher recently, he very kindly volunteered to loan me two of his baroque flutes (a boxwood Folkers & Powell and an ebony Von Huene) to see which I preferred, along with this book. For the past two months, I have spent some time on a self-guided study of these new instruments with the help of this book which I am finding to be an amazingly informative, straightforward and an extremely practical introduction to this instrument. It takes the reader from a point of knowing very little about playing a one-keyed flute to a point of playing a full repertoire and then beyond to the "top 13" 18th century flute tutors. Starting with the history of the instrument and then moving to the very basics of holding the instrument, developing a sound, developing a tone, intonation and fingerings, it lays out very clear charts, trill tables and over 80 pages of exercises, scale studies and music to play.

As noted in the preface, this book is intended as a method book written for players of the Boehm-system flute who are already somewhat familiar with tone production and modern flute technique hoping to provide the flutist with information for the initial approach to the instrument. It is not intended as a musicological treatise, but a practical and useful guide which cites historical sources offering "a broad diversity of opinions which challenge us to explore the ideas of 18th century writers and incorporate them into our present-day experience."

Dockendorff Boland advises taking a little time each day to focus on learning the instrument, incorporating in that study readings from the early flute tutors such as Quantz On Playing the Flute: Second Edition, Hotteterre Principes de la Flute. Reprint der Amsterdamer Ausgabe von 1728 etc., as well as paying attention to the work done by players all over the world in developing their own expression.

This book goes a long way in demystifying the understanding and comprehension of a historic instrument making it accessible to anyone willing to take a little time to learn.

The book has great instruction at your fingertips to start learning the one-keyed flute. There is so much here! But it's not bogged down with copious trivia. This book is especially helpful for the Boehm flutist who wishes to transition into some baroque flute playing. When you purchase this volume, you'll have everything you need (apart from the instrument itself!) to get started, and also to avoid injury to your hands and fingers through incorrect position or over-practicing. Wonderful, sound advice clearly presented.

The funiest book I have read in years. If you liked The Mouse That Roared you will love this one.

Moonlight Bowl Manifesto is a bit wacky, a little wicked and lots fun. Barbara Jones dissects contemporary California society with wit and humor. When the bowling team 'kidnaps' the chi chi California crowd, chuckles and even belly laughs are inescapable. A wonderful read--thought provoking in the best tradition of well written satire.

This book registers 7.5 on the laughter Richter Scale. Ms. Jones' talent for satire is brilliantly displayed in her first work, Moonlight Bowl Manifesto. She not only skewers the stereotypical Californian, but the rest of us-reviving us with large doses of common sense and kindness. What a funny, subtle, wise dissection of our society this is!

In "Moonlight Bowl Manifesto: A Cure for California," Barbara Jones has fashioned a wild satirical romp over social and political correctness. When a member of a bowling team comes up with an instant wood-eating formula, the bowlers hold hostage an auditorium filled with famous people by threatening to destroy a forest, particularly a famous tree called General Sherman. The book is filled with memorable characters, such as a woman who believes her pig is the reincarnation of her dead husband, and a lawyer who has to share her body with Margaret Mitchell and a hippie. Among the other strange folks is a celebrity who has to take medication to lighten his skin and maintain his feminine characteristics, until his privileges are taken away and strange things begin to happen to his mind and body. A fun read, one that won the 2000 Georgia Author of the Year Award for First Novel.

Morning Glory: A Biography of Mary Lou Williams is an interesting work that captures the personality of the wonderfully talented musician. The biography captures the struggles and achievements of Williams; it also shares some amusing details that make the book hard to put down for anyone interested in the careers of early black musicians.

An engagingly written book on a much ignored, extremely talented musician. Mary Lou Williams was (and is) respected by music giants the world over, including the likes of Duke Ellington. This book puts Williams' importance to American music in perspective, and gives her the overdue credit she so obviously deserves.

My recommendation is to put on a MLW disc, sit back and read. It will be a rewarding experience.

Mary Lou Williams' jazz experiences are detailed in a biography which covers both her life and career and her role as an Afro-American female musician. Dahl was given unlimited access to the Williams archive and her first full-length biography of Williams makes for an important coverage.

It's too easy (and condescending) to say that Mary Lou Williams was one of the greatest female jazz artists; she actually was one of the greatest, period. Her compositions and arrangements for the Andy Kirk band while she was a member throughout the 1930s brought much praise and admiration at the time (and still do today). (She also arranged for Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, and other top-rated swing band leaders.) She was a sensational pianist, too, one of the finest boogie-woogie and stride players in jazz; she was also a great innovator and was among the first to master and play bebop in the 1940s. She greatly influenced many modern pianists, and personally changed the styles of Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk. Mary Lou was a deeply religious person and wrote much religious music and kept very close relations with the Catholic Church (Ms. Dahl covers this aspect of Mary Lou's life very thoroughly.) Williams was a demanding player and seemed to have her greatest difficulties dealing with incompatible bass players (she once fired the great bassist Richard Williams during a New York club engagement). Linda Dahl has written a detailed and comprehensive biography of Mary Lou, covering all her musical and extra-musical activities. Included is a nicely organized selective discography. Anyone familiar with Mary Lou's playing or arranging and would like to learn more about her will benefit greatly by reading this excellent biography.

Punchlines from this book keep coming to mind as I consider how to title this review. ("I've come to kill the worms." "You're Catholic, huh Doc?" "Elixir of Seconal! You got trouble!")

Miller is an old hand at veterinary humor. He pulls no punches, yet manages to offend almost nobody because his writing, like his cartoons, is sharply, realistically funny while refusing to turn away from the ugly facts of veterinary work.

I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading about animals or amusing anecdotes from the experiences of a veterinarian. This book opened up the possibility for me to pursue a career as a veterinarian. I recommend it to anyone and everyone. I only wish I could contact the author to thank him for writing this book, and giving me the opportunity to read it.

I just couldn't stop reading it ! THIS is the book you'll want to read to pass the time in an airport or waiting for someone in a restaurant, and yet you VALUE every book you read, not just some so-and-so story to pass time with but a really good novel with exciting, refreshing, humorous (humor IS the underlined word in this book - my belly ached, my eyes wet reading the book), yet down-to-earth story in which you'll also find sorrow, embarrassment, pride, and joy, all through the life of a humble (yes Mr.Herriot - he IS also a genious (and funny !) story teller)veterinarian. A great, compact, binded pieces of paper this surely is. Oh, and Doc Miller, if you're reading this, in chapter 15 about the nice people - the widow and her daughter, I think you LIED and YOU're the one who bought them the pu...well, any would be readers just have to derive their own conclusion about the story of the pretty and polite 16 years old and her widowed mother in chapter 15, when The Lord decided it's payback time to the nice people. Buy it, borrow it, in any case, read it. It's a great book. You'll have wonderful time reading it. Many people including me did. I still giggle everytime I remember some of his funny stories and look up at the sky everytime I remember the incident with the nice people.

I recieved this book as a gift. I read it in less than a day. It's absolutlry delightful and one those books one just can put down. It's filled with stories that warm the heart. It also is filled with unique, humorous, and tear jerking stories. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys animals or day-to-day life.

Picked this up for an extended Northern California hiking and riding trip. I purchased about four others as well and I used all of them as each has a little something different. Not a single one was useless and none warranted less than 4 stars. I would reccomend doing the same rather than just picking one for your trip.

As a serious S.F. Bay Area cyclist for over 40 years I approach any guidebook to my "back yard" with a certain degree of skepticism, as in "What new can you possibly show me?" I was delighted to find that Ms. Jackson did indeed show me some new mountain biking delights I'd overlooked, but along the way I learned even more new tidbits about what I supposedly already knew. Almost every featured ride has "enrichment" far beyond the necessary trail and topographical stats. No doubt the author learned things from her literary predecessors, which is as it should be, but there is also no doubt she has written the currently definitive off-road guide for mountain bikers of this region. The miracle of the S.F. area is that 5 million people can live so close to so much open space. It is no mean feat to review it all personally, provide directions that are simultaneously explicit and open ended, and simultaneously appeal to the first time rider and a "show me" old time rider such as myself. But Ms. Jackson has done this much, and more. I mean her guide book is not only that, but a fun read as well. Imagine!

If you love moutain biking in the San Francisco Bay Area, then this book is your new best friend!

Detailed maps, great photos and tons of great rides that will challenge and inspire you as well as leave you breathless (both figuratively and literally). This book's detailed descriptions of where to catch the trails and navigate some of the best mountain biking in the world is a must for both locals and visitors to the birthplace of mountain biking. I especially loved the Marin trails section because it opened my eyes to some rides I didn't know about which have now become some of my favorites. And if you love single track riding, then Jackson will take you on some of the most harrowing rides you can imagine -- I've got the scabs and scars on my knees and thighs to prove it!

Buy this book!

Mountain Biking the San Francisco Bay Area is what the title says it is and much more. Lorene Jackson has tackled a huge subject (argueably the area with the largest number of mountain biking options in the country) and covered it well, providing the rider with all he/she needs to know before hitting the trail. But she does more than that. Beyond describing the ride, the terrain, and what's of interest, she makes each ride enticing.

Beyond offering detailed descriptions of 40 rides around the Bay Area, plus 17 more "Honorable Mentions," she provides much background material and information that will equip the novice and intermediate rider to be prepared and assured of a pleasureable experience.

But what I enjoyed most was her breezy enthusiasm that will draw many armchair riders to actually get on a bike and head for the mountains. Lorene Jackson and this book should spread the mountain biking "gospel" beyond it's current circle. I can't wait for her book on Lake Tahoe rides!

I bought this book for my husband, we are both from Mtn.View, which has changed over the years dramatically. So, to see all these old photos of when we grew up in the 50's and 60's in Mtn View was pure delight. All of the photo's in the book speak a million words, taking us way back to when life was simpler, less hectic, and the valley was covered with cherry, apricot, and peach orchards!

This book is awesome! Very amazing photographs of Mt. View before it became Silicon Valley...Hopefully the talented author will do Mt. View (STORIES of America)!!!

I love any opportunity to get my hands on local history; so I have several titles from this series. I just want to report that this specific one, on Mountain View, is especially well done! Where it shows is the care given to the researching of the photo captions. Eg, the captions in this volume detail which way the camera is facing. (This is something I do not universally find in local photo collections.) Also, the photos cover a satisfyingly broad spectrum.

If you are a collector of history of Mountain View, then you might have reason to already own the excellent book "Milestones" by Mary Jo Ignoffo. If you do, then get this one too: the coverage does not overlap.

Paging through this book is like revisiting my young adulthood spent in Mountain View, my favorite city in what is now Silicon Valley. This book is a collection of photos from circa 1900 (old houses) to the 1990s (Shoreline Amphitheater). If you were there in the 1970s - 1990s, paging through this book will bring back a million memories. Look, it's the Mountain Bay Plaza (being built from the TOP DOWN!)! Look, it's the old Emporium! The Old Mill! The hangars at Moffett Field! The garbage dump that became Shoreline! Castro street over many years! Isn't that bank now a bar?! Fantastic! (I don't know if it's profound, but it's FUN!)

Being an Insider myself, I've seen guides and addresses sold for years. Most of which are a joke. But not this one. E.J. Fleming never fails. He's one of the most prolific and talented writers of our time and this book is a must have for movie and star buffs! Thank you - thank you!

This is a terrific book to use to navigate the Hollywood area for anyone interested in the movies. We drive up and down streets with my husband calling out names and events and loved it. We are locals in the San Fernando Valley and for the LA person comenting that changes have occurred in the area and streets over the years, "duh!." Some of the addresses are 100 years old but in the odd case that a street is not there or has been moved, as far as we could tell there was a note included. We didn't check everything, but we didn't have any problem using the lists. THis is a great resource for movies and LA history and great fun for vacations. It's heavy though!

I envision E.J. Fleming huddled over a pc reviewing census information and entering data in a database and cross checking it against his formidable stacks of notebooks. E.J. is tired, tired, tired. He has worked day and night so I don't have to. Stop, I'm just kidding but this is an incredible collection of information. I am in total awe re: how someone could collect so much data, collate it, and present it in an easily accessible manner.
This directory is exactly what is implied. It is an enormous collection of addresses relating to celebrity homes, film locations, historical sites.......and here's the kicker.....the locations of scandals and crimes. That having been said, this is not a rolling narrative that relates a lot of juicy stories and histories. It presents the facts and it is up to the user to draw in the lines and reach his/her own conclusions.
So why did I drop $75 for this book. I was weary doing this type of research with only lukewarm results and a relatively miniscule database. This book has everything and I can let my fingers do the walking.
Now here is my warning. I reiterate don't buy this if you are expecting a lot of lurid stories as there really aren't any per se. However, buy this book if you want to know things like all the places Humphrey Bogart resided in LA, who cohabitated with Ramon Novarro, or where Laurel and Hardy filmed a lot of their classic shorts. Buy this book if you have a curious mind and the information provided has you asking other questions.
This is an impressive collection of information.

I am a tour guide in Hollywood - one of the very few that actually research our tours. I thought I knew a lot about Hollywood, but this book made my jaw hit the floor.

Mr. Fleming has published the BIBLE for Celebrity addresses. The most comprehensive book on stars homes I have ever poured through. I've even turned a few of my colleagues on to the book, who their own copies immediately.

You've made my job easier Mr. Fleming, and you have published a riveting and important document.

This was the first in the Delafield series that I read and I've been an addict ever since. This book, along with Beverly Malibu, is one of the best in the series and an excellent read. Great story of how lesbians react to their own who wear badges, and how those women officers deal with it.

This book is perfect to me. Every actor seems to be alive. And if you know L.A., you know the Nightwood Bar and every place in this book.

A young woman is found murdered outside a lesbian bar, and Kate Delafield is on the case. The young woman was a prostitute and a junkie who was rejected by her judgmental parents, all of which gives Kate a plethora of suspects. During the investigation, Kate has a brief liaison with a woman from the lesbian bar, and ultimately reconnects with the lesbian community, which she hadn't done for years. And when Kate discovers who killed the young woman, it's a jolt to the reader as well, even if, like myself, you suspected it. Forrest is a gifted writer, showing in her second Delafield mystery the reasons why she has such a devoted following.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! The character development was well thought out, the plot was superiour, and the entire book held my attention from beginning to end! It's also nice to see a lesbian main character go through "real life".

Katherine V. Forrest, in her Kate Delafield series manages to present a tight, taut mystery along with a political statement, which she doesn't present in a heavy-handed manner. The two just seem to blend seemlessly and if you want to ignore the message (if you can), then you can simply enjoy the mystery. Kate and her dullard partner, Ed Taylor, investigate the murder of Teddie Crawford, a very "out" gay man. In fact, even he calls himself a queen. Teddie was stabbed about 40 times, which indicates to Kate that it was more than just a simple robbery. The first half of the book describes Kate and Ed cornering the killer. The fact that the killer, himself, was hurt badly is a big help to Kate as well as the description given by one of Teddie friends, Gloria. Watching Kate using her interrogative skills to trap this man is very tense, especially since she knows that without a confession all they have is circumstantial evidence. As good as the "law" part of the story is, the "order" part is really more fascinating and suspenseful. Kate has found out that the killer's attorney is someone she knows slightly but someone who knows her secret. Throughout the trial, she wonders how he will try to bring it out and taint her testimony. Sadly, no matter what the outcome of this fictional trial, Forrest shows that gaybashing is alive and well in these United States.

I read this book in one afternoon. I was drawn in by the emotion of the killing as well as the trial. I found this book to display the court system at it's weakest and loved the heroine, Kate.

I loved this book. I just found the Kate Delafield series and can't wait to read all the books in this series.

In the Delafield series, this book ranks as one of the most, if not the most, meaningful stories. It didn't have the love scenes I so deeply enjoy reading but the story line more than made up for that. Excellent reading!

_Murder by Tradition_ is an excellent fictionalized account of an actual, brutal, premeditated murder of a gay man, for no reason other than the fact that he was gay. The story is very well told and I didn't want to put the book down from beginning to end.

The first half is devoted to the discovery of the facts of the case and of the identity of the killer. The second half the story of the trial. The suspense is not in discovering the identity of the gaybasher, but in whether or not he will escape punishment.

The victim was stabbed 39 times and bled to death, but the killer has deep wounds on his own hands and claims he was defending himself from a gay man who tried to force him to have sex. There were no witnesses. Can Detective Kate Delafield discover the clues that will convince a jury of what really happened?

..that it wasn't 500 pages longer! What a fun read about often tragic stories. I haven't lived in Fresno all that long, so ALL of these stories were new to me. I am a history and a crime buff, so this well written book was right up my alley. Now I need to take a Saturday and go on a self guided "ghoul tour" using this book as a sort of road map.

Just one glimps at the cover, and a quick skim of the first few pages was enough to draw my family into this book. My wife and I read the book out loud, taking turns every few pages. This book has a little of everthing suspence, history, etc. I reguad this book as esential reading for anyone who lives in the central valley, and a must for lawenforcement.
jason

This book is of interest to me because I live in the Corcoran, CA area and am impressed with the attention to detail given to these historical crimes. The pictures were superb for being as old as they are and the author worked very hard collecting all this data. I am a fan of mystery/crime novels and was enthralled all the more since it is a true account of actual happenings. Hats off to all who made this publication possible!!!

I cannot begin to describe how much I enjoyed Scott Morrison's new book, "Murder in the Garden." Who would have guessed, when walking to school as a child near the corner of Cedar and Dakota Avenues, that a grizzly murder had occurred there. Or, riding down Gettysburg Avenue on a family outing passed the site of another murder. Living far away now so many years later, what fun it is to read of events that once shocked Fresno County citizens. Great reading! I hope more stories will follow.