Duke Books

If this isn't too personal, when I gave up beer for fatherhood, I rediscovered my joy of literature. However, of my three favorite authors at the time, Twain, Traven, and McMurtry (early Mcmurtry was pretty darn good), I had read just about all there was. Where to turn to next? While pondering that question in 1989, I overheard on the news that Camilo Jose Cela had won the Nobel Prize for Literature. From that time on I have been an avid reader of most Nobel-Prize winning novelists and it all started with Cela. I remember all of my Spanish Lit professors had "La Familia de Pascual Duarte" on their shelves along with Cervantes and the usual suspects. I read that book and wanted more. However, Cela can be challenging.

When I got a copy of "San Camilo, 1936" I was shocked to find that sentences were pages long and all the normal-lengthed chapters were one extended paragraph. Not the book to pick up with just a few minutes to spare. Reading Saramago helped cure me of the fear on endless sentences and paragraphs so I took "San Camilo, 1936" on a cruise recently. I read it and I'm glad I did. It was hard to stop in the middle of a page but I had plenty of lengthy times for reading. The book struck me as the caffein-induced thoughts of a young man. In the first chapter, his thoughts focussed on the local houses of ill-repute. In the second chapter, the focus was on the deaths of several women and one in particular. By the third chapter, I was starting to see a true focus developing. I came to appreciate "San Camilo, 1936" as a unique literary form where history and perspective emerges in the thoughts of this young man. All sex at first but then disturbing events begin to consume more of his thoughts. As the Nationaist rebellion begins, we understand how the Spanish mind began to absorb the increasing events in their lives. Our narrator shows through his thoughts how the rebellion gradually comes to the forefront of his focus. We see the characters, who were once just fellow citizens, break into factions and how the cause becomes greater than love and respect. It really worked well and I presume that this was what Cela wanted the reader to understand.

The closing chapter is a brief one (but still one long paragraph) in which the author analyzes the Spanish mind and concludes with a plea for love. Cela is a bit more earthly with his concept of love but, then, he's been that way throughout the book. I found myself underlining a number of passages where, amidst the repetion, brilliant observations would emerge.

I'm glad I've finally read "San Camilo, 1936". I'd read the brief dedication dozens of times over the years. If it's not against the rules, it's worth sharing;
"To the conscripts of 1937, all of whom lost something; their life, their freedom, their dreams, their hope, their decency. And not to the adventurers from abroad , Fascists and Marxists, who had their fill of killing Spaniards like rabbits and whom no one had invited to take part in our funeral."
After reading and re-reading that dedication, I knew that this had to be a brilliant novel. I'm glad that I finally found the time to discover that it truly is.

I especially love the art in this one. BRAVO! It is a very cute story, but, I bought this one for the illustrations. This might be a must for anyone fond of Collies.
Kerri Bennett Williamson, Author

This set of essays provides a useful perspective on the ongoing (and frequently confused and confusing) debate between constructivist epistemology and the older rationalist/positivist view of knowledge (the 'culture wars'). These topics are abstract and somewhat elusive, but are also both important and interesting.

Smith wields concepts with craft and precision. Her writing is relatively dense for those not familiar with this territory, but she is clear and ultimately rewarding. Well worth the effort.

A season is a lifetime is the story of Duke's back-to-back championship seasons. It is an interesting, insightful look into the relationships coach K has with his players. There is no collegiate program better than Duke's, and there is no better book about Duke than A Season is a Lifetime

This is an essential book that deserves ten stars!

I've been studying and thinking and listening and playing and writing about music that can be called country for about forty years. Yet, when I had read a few chapters of this book, I wrote Diane Pecknold to tell her that I felt that I was uneducated and would remain uneducated until I finished reading and assimilating this book. It is simply not possible to feel educated about Country music and the American culture business itself without reading this book. There is almost nothing in this book about the music itself. Nevertheless, it discusses aspects of Country no one else has put together.

Pecknold studies the development of Country music as a business and how that has related to the concept of Country Music in American and world culture. In passing, this book gives a very good picture of the history of commercial radio, especially the programming of local radio stations. It also gives a major slice of the 20th Century history of the music publishing industry, particularly the wars between ASCAP and BMI.

Most importantly, the book provides a serious discussion of the images that Country and Hillbilly music have held in general cultural discussion in society and the relationship of those concepts to politics and the demography of this country. Given my particular interest in traditional music, I found her critical analysis of early folklorists' abhorrence of commercial music and the music industry to be useful and gratifying.

What also impressed me was the to-the-point, fact-oriented and clear language here. Often books written by academics aimed not only at a popular market but also at the academic disciplines can be overwhelmed by abstruse and incomprehensible academic rhetoric. Such writing can be excessively concerned with creating "new theory" that explanation of what happened and why can remain a mystery. This is not the case with this book. No matter how much you think you know about Country music, you will know much more about its place in our economy, our society, our culture, and our politics than you did before you read this book. It belongs in every home!

Ms Kete has written an academic work of great interest to those of us wanting a better understanding of the Victorian frame of mind toward death and mourning. It is easy to view the rituals of mourning from this era as silly, unnecessary and contrived but with the aid of this book I have come to view them with a different eye. I now understand that our era deals with death and mourning a loss in a far too frivolous manner. I think sometimes that we believe ourselves and our time to be the pinnacle of civilization. However, Ms Kete has handily pointed out that we have perhaps thrown the baby out with the bath water. I will mind my passage through this life with greater attention from now on. This modern discourse of rituals and literature is an excellent source of profile information for a time which we truly do not understand but should.

For readers for whom the Word is a sine qua non of religious
reflection, this is a must read. From the time of Paul Tillich to
Barbara Brown Taylor, we are invited into the homilies of insightful
minds at work. For those at Duke during the marvelous Scotsman's tenure as Dean of the Chapel and Professor of Preaching, we would have liked once more to delight in his play on words entitled "Loving the Sons of Birches". That, alas, was probably too time bound for this publication. Read these testaments, as I did, happy to have been touched by such a cloud of witnesses.

As a child, Seven froggies went to school was my favorite book. I had it memorized by 1st grade. This story has a rhyme scheme to carry the story along and make it interesting and easy to memorize for young children. It's about seven little frogs who go to school by the bog, sit on a log and learn their lessons from Master Bull Frog. The seven little frogs must learn how to ride upon a knewt, dance, and play the flute. Dive and swim, and running from boys with sticks. Seven froggies grew up fast, big froggies they became at last. Now they sit upon their bog teaching other little frogs.

Rachel Dukes created a wonderful anthology dedicated to how people relate to music--in every way conceivable. An indie project whose soul is completely in line with the topic, something that pretty much everybody can not only relate to but enjoy. Not all the comics are top-shelf, but the majority are quite striking. I don't have my copy in front of me, so I can't quote my favourites, but it is worth every penny.

You can find it on Dukes site: Poseurink.com

And she's already accepting submissions for Side B!

This is a superb reading of the earlier portion of Melville's work (plus Benito Cereno). The study combines a careful reading of the cultural interactions that are so extraordinary in Melville's fiction before Pierre with a truly subtle attention to the text. In my experience, this is an all too rare talent among contemporary critics, many of whom have lost all ability to handle the nuances of literary texts. Melville's difficulties cannot be overstated. This excellent reading brings these early texts to life in a startling, even exciting, way. I highly recommend it.