News and Media Books

This book was excellect! Finally a heroine that is strong and someone to really look up to and wish that you were more like her. She fights for what she wants and gets into trouble like all of us. She is very real and very believable. Maybe not in her time period, but in ours and it is not hard to make believe.

A family driven by destiny!

Briana O'Neil...

Regaled with tales of her brothers' adventures, Briana hoped to follow in their footsteps and fight for the freedom of their homeland. But while she'd dreamed of joining the fray, she'd never considered that she herself would ever fall victim to an enemy's sword..

Keane O'Mara...

When embittered Keane O'Mara found the wounded Briana, he thought the fight for freedom had claimed another innocent, but her remarkable recovery lit a spark of hope deep within him. And he knew that with this woman by his side they would soon regain what was rightfully theirs!

Ruth Langan never fails to bring her readers to a magical time in history when woman rule! Just like we do now! I have read the whole saga and I loved it!

Briana is a scrappy hellion in skirts. She is the best example of a father's worst nightmare-a tomboy extraordinaire. One can feel every wound Briana receives and marvels at her recovery during a time in history when medicine smoldered in the dark ages, but healing was often better than we have today.

Briana's pain, when she is sent away to learn the ways of a woman, struck deeply, as did the austerity of her existence for three long and lonely years in the convent.

She sees a happy end to her isolation from the family she loves so dearly, only to find herself at death's door from a malicious attack while on her way home.

Keane O'Mara, the moody man who tends her wounds, is at once perplexed and intrigued with this small, brave woman. As time goes by, he learns her one lack seems to be a disregard for her personal safety.

Though he tries his best to be noble about his aching attraction to this innocent, fiery angel, he soon learns his emotions and intentions are no match for Briana's

She single-handedly wins the love and respect of all his people, and encourages him by showing him how they may train and arm themselves to protect what belongs to them. She is the most amazing woman he's ever known.

Briana in her take charge way, whisks Keane off to confront his daughter's grandparents so that he can see his child, the loss of which has made him a dark and moody man indeed.

He should have known that Briana hadn't used up her bag of tricks yet, and life gets exceedingly complicated from that moment forward. Especially when they escape England to return to Ireland, and she takes Keane to meet her family. She is comfortable in the knowledge that Keane is going to marry her, but unfortunately, Keane has other ideas.

Though initially there isn't as much conflict between the hero and heroine in this story as you might see in other stories, it definitely works for me. Enough conflicts and obstacles in the book will keep you on the edge of your seat, turning those pages. I feel as if I know and am part of the O'Neils by now, and every book has been a total joy to read.

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.

I've seen public television and heard public radio on more than one continent. And there are some good and bad aspects to them. On one occasion, I was shocked to hear exit interviews on the radio with voters in a democracy. Although the race was close, the more than one dozen interviewees all were strongly for the same candidate! There was no attempt to show the other side at all! I realized at once that this was both bad and biased reporting. On top of that, the other candidate won!

Recently, I read a book called "The Voyage of the Matthew." It was produced by the BBC. And, of course, the book was recreated on public television. It all seemed pretty good to me, as the BBC often does fine work, although I have to wonder about anything it has a hand in.

According to Robert Aitken, the BBC has a strong political bias. One person Aitken mentions wrote that if it could submit a slate of candidates, their platform would be anti-racist, pro-abortion, pro-women's and gay rights, pro-UN and EU, pro-union and anti-big business, pro-high taxes, pro-government spending and intervention in industry, anti-private education, anti-private health care, pro-local democracy and local councils, pro-multiculturalism and ethnic minorities in general, pro-foreigner and foreign governments, especially if they are left-wing, anti-monarchist, anti-prison, and anti-American.

If this is true, it's not good. Yes, I am a liberal, and I have many of the same political positions. But the BBC is supposed to represent the taxpayers in Great Britain, and those taxpayers deserve coverage of their views. I'd say the same thing about any biased media. As a matter of fact, one only has to look at what the media were like in some Communist nations three decades ago to see how political bias can wreck credibility.

As near as I can tell, the BBC is a participant in a war against Israel. One person is quoted in this book as saying that at the BBC "that America is bad and Israel is evil are two of the assumptions that just can't be questioned."

Let's consider the ramifications of this. I'm an American, and I see plenty of very positive things about the United States: it is a great land of opportunity, it is reasonably prosperous, and relatively free. But what about Israel?

Israel is one of the great success stories of the past century. There was a successful revolt against a wicked colonial occupier (which happened to be Great Britain, although I'm not sure what the BBC thinks of that). There were successful defenses in wartime against a variety of racist and bigoted aggressors. It has improved itself even when under attack. It has shown great concern for the environment, being the only nation on this planet to have more trees in the year 2000 than it did in 1900. And whether its people have wanted to be meek and humble or not, it has been content with a small amount of land: at less than 11,000 square miles, it is very land-poor. If every nation were as greedy as Israel for land, there would be no wars over land! It's a democracy, and its people are reasonably free. There is much about Israel we all ought to try to copy if we want human civilization to survive and prosper. And the BBC is failing us if it makes it so difficult for us to hold Israel up as such a positive example.

In addition, the BBC is failing even in its role to display liberal politics when it comes to Israel. After all, it openly sides with the aggressors against Israel. And those aggressors are primarily racists, bigots, right-wing and reactionary extremists, anti-abortion religious fanatics, anti-women's and gay rights, and anti-ethnic minorities in general. I think that the BBC's opposition to Israel is not so grave a moral error as its support for some of Israel's most seriously felonious attackers.

Given how counterproductive the BBC is when it comes to Israel, one would think that there must be many other places where the BBC perverts journalistic standards. And this book points out a number of them. One interesting program it came up with was called "Sex and the Holy City." No, it's not about Jerusalem, it's about the Vatican, or more precisely, the Catholic Church. There's a chapter about the BBC pro-EU bias. And there is a section on the BBC response to the war in Iraq, as well as one on "the despised tribes." Yes, there are other groups besides the Israelis that the BBC shows special contempt for, including, of course, the Orangemen. And that means giving more support to the politics of the Irish Republican Army. I think it can be argued that in the Middle East and in Northern Ireland, the BBC has worked against peace.

We see in this book just how difficult it is for anyone to get the BBC to apologize for outright misstatements. As Aitken says, "the BBC doesn't feel the need for validation from others; it shrugs off strictures, whether from church, politicians or judge, taking the view that its critics are either mad, bad, or stupid." That appears to be true, and I am one of the many critics who aren't mad, bad, or stupid.

Aitken quotes someone who says that the BBC is not a "mouthpiece for the nation," but "a foghorn bellowing at a nation." But whatever it is, the nation is listening to it. It has a huge TV market share, and most British subjects view it at least occasionally. And it is watched by many folks all over the world. Its bias represents a violation of journalistic standards that is hurting plenty of people.

I recommend this book.

The Beeb's Bias

WSJ Online Journal

By ROBIN AITKEN
June 29, 2007

I experienced a sense of vindication recently when I read that the BBC was about to publish a document admitting a pervasive liberal-left bias in its output. As this was the theme of my recent book, "Can We Trust the BBC?," it seemed I would be able to indulge in a spectacular bout of I-told-you-so-ing. Alas, that brief, heady moment proved premature. For while the report is a careful piece of research, it pulls its punches when it comes to bias within its own News and Current Affairs department -- where it matters most. Richard Tait, chairman of the BBC's "Impartiality Steering Group," point-blank denied that there is any bias in its news output. The Beeb has never been distinguished by a culture of robust self-criticism.

I know this from experience: Toward the end of my 25 years as a BBC reporter I began writing a series of internal memos, first to senior news executives and finally to the BBC's Board of Governors, detailing an entrenched liberal-left bias that seriously undermined the BBC's claim to be an impartial news provider. Referring to well-documented incidents, I posed several questions: Why did we keep hiring established left-wing pundits, but never any journalists with right-wing credentials? Why did we use "right wing" as a yah-boo term to mean "anything we don't like"? Why did we never give U.S. actions the benefit of the doubt -- in contrast to our strenuous efforts to be "fair" to Britain's avowed enemies?

The reaction was a studied indifference from everyone up the command chain. In a way, the BBC's attitude makes sense. The most important asset for any news organization is credibility. It is the mortal fear of "brand contamination" which in the past persuaded BBC executives to keep a lid on any discussion of the organization's failure to live up to its obligations to fairness and impartiality.

And there has been wide-scale failure. On every issue of public policy and political controversy, the BBC's instincts are to side with the progressive, liberal wing of politics.
...

The Beeb's reaction to my own book was telling: Not a single BBC outlet has seen fit to interview me, even though the accusations it contains are serious, detailed and sober. As a publicly funded body, the BBC has a duty to engage with its critics, especially on the vitally important issue of impartiality and overall fairness. Until it does so, it will not be prudent to trust the BBC.

Mr. Aitken's "Can We Trust the BBC?" was published by Continuum this year.

Aitken tells the following story. After a bombing incident in which Prime Minister Thatcher was nearly killed by the IRA he heard this not untypical comment in the BBC newsroom, "Pity they missed the bitch". One remark does not of course make for a picture of a whole newsroom, but Aitken provides plenty of evidence here that the BEEB is indeed less than patriotic, very biased to the Left in promoting its own agenda. For instance its enthusiastic stance for Great Britain joining the European Union, or its very soft non Cold War-ish attitude towards the former Soviet Union prevented it from treating fairly opponents of its views.
As one who has listened to the BBC for years on the Middle East I can attest to its almost total lack of balance and objectivity in relating to the Israeli- Arab conflict. Time and again there are interviews in which the spokesmen for the Arab position would blame everything on Israel, and the spokesman supposedly for Israel would be chosen from the extreme left wing of the Israeli political spectrum and so also blame Israel. The fundamental idea was always that the poor Palestinian Arabs were innocent victims and the Israelis cruel oppressors.
This is what Aitken has to say on this issue.
""My view is that the Palestinians and the Palestinian leadership is the architect of its own misfortune in many ways. Whereas, what comes across from the BBC's presentation of events in Palestine and the Middle East generally, is that in some ways, the Palestinians are a put-upon victim minority, and it's the beastly Israelis who are doing the dirty to them.
"And you know, that is not a fair presentation of the position. Because the Israelis are militarily strong and successful, and the Palestinians aren't, I think the BBC allows that too much to play at its judgment, so that what comes across is too much sympathy, if you will, for the Palestinians, too little appreciation of the rights of Israel, and also too little recognition of the fact that Israel is a functioning democracy in a way that Palestine isn't, and nor is any Arab-dominated Middle Eastern state, and not enough credit is given for that in my view."
But Aitken does not confine himself to the Middle East. He writes about the anti- American of the BBC especially in regard to the current Bush Administration. He discusses the British undermining of the current US-British effort in Iraq.
Aitken contends that an institution which should be defending the values of the free world actually works to undermine them.
This book will certainly not make them happy in London's Bush House but for the many many listeners throughout the world who have been subject to this bias for many years it raises the slim hope that some reconsideration and correction might come in the future from this still major source of news to the world.

With its national TV and radio networks, regional and local stations, the BBC is massively influential in the UK and also worldwide through the BBC World Service, ten international TV networks plus international radio services in more than 40 languages as well as its Internet news site.

Robin Aitken, having spent 25 years at the organization, provides well-documented proof of its leftist bias, chronicles his struggle against this partisanship and puts forth suggestions for reform. Important elements of the BBC's world-view include unquestioning support for the European Union and the United Nations, guilt about Britain's imperial past, and an anti-capitalist, anti-religious (except when it comes to Islam), anti-American and anti-Israel stance.

The first chapter covers the broadcaster's history from its establishment to the radical change that took place in the late 1960s and subsequent developments, whilst in the second Aitken recounts his career history at the BBC. A significant change took place in 1987 when the ideological agenda took an even sharper turn to the left. The concerns he raised about ideological bias were contemptuously dismissed, he was falsely accused and even threatened.

Chapter four provides profiles of the broadcaster's senior management, almost all of whom have long-standing connections with leftwing media like The Guardian and with the Labour Party. The BBC's overwhelming support for the European Union is dissected in chapter five that reveals a record of purges and suppression of anti-EU opinion, including that of Eurosceptics in the Labour Party.

The "despised tribes" of the BBC are discussed next. They are Ulster Protestants, Conservative Christians and the Roman Catholic Church in particular, most Americans and all those that the organization considers to be "right-wing." There was also a strong bias in favour of the IRA while balanced debate on immigration, the Middle East, Islam and other uncomfortable issues are avoided. There is no doubt that the BBC is contributing to the alarming spread of antisemitism worldwide, as also documented in The Resurgence of Anti-Semitism by Bernard Harrison.

Like all leftists, those at the BBC believe that their moral values are superior and not to be questioned. Chapter eight provides detailed evidence of how far they will go to twist, lie and distort in order to mislead the public. More evidence from current and previous employees - in their own words and anonymously - is provided in the following chapter.

Aitken concludes that one cannot trust the BBC, especially not on issues relating to Israel, the Iraq war, the European Union, Ulster, the USA or Islam. See also The Other War by Stephanie Gutmann for an analysis of reporting from the Middle East. He provides proposals for change by suggesting for example the introduction of a wider spectrum of balanced views and the redirection of funds to other broadcast media.

The BBC is a national institution in the UK so complete abolition is not even considered. It is still hard to understand why opposition parties and civil society did not more vigorously oppose the use of taxpayers' money to subsidize a self-perpetuating class of ideologues promoting such one-sided views. More information on this matter is available in What's Left?: How Liberals Lost Their Way by Nick Cohen.

What a pity that broadcast deregulation wasn't thoroughly effected in the 1980s. It's the one important area where Margaret Thatcher did not succeed. If she had, the UK and a significant part of the global public would have been better informed and less brainwashed than they are today. I also recommend Scrap the BBC! by Richard D North, whilst Propaganda by Jacques Ellul remains a classic on how people's attitudes are shaped by the media.

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.

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.

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.

Though he comes across a lot meaner in this book when contrasted with the movie starring Al Pacino, Carlito remained a very strong, and even sympathetic character for me. I can only think of a few characters-- fictional or real-- who have won me over, despite their considerable flaws: Humbert Humbert in Lolita, Neil (Robert De Niro) in Heat, Tuco from The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, and Henry Hill from Goodfellas.

The first person prose was very readable and believable. It also displays wit and humor that doesn't take away from its grittiness. All in all, I would strongly recommend this book. I am hoping there will be a re-release of the follow up book, After Hours.

Like many, I was first introduced to this book when I saw the popular movie starring Al Pacino, Sean Penn, and Penelope Anne Miller. I received the book as a Christmas present, that particular paperback being a movie tie-in reprint with Al Pacino (Carlito) on the cover. I think I gave away the book to the library when I moved a couple of years ago. Film Ink's edition, showcasing a typical street in an ethnic neighborhood, impressed me. I've always been fascinated by some of the provocative photography on book covers these days.

The saga of Carlito Brigante's life (in essence the film Carlito's Way) is actually chronicled in two books, the first titled Carlito's Way, wherein Carlito in 1st person narrative describes his rough-and-tumble childhood and induction into New York's ruthless criminal world, culminating in Carlito's arrest, conviction, and sentence of thirty years in Riker's Island. Yet no one can accuse Brigante of being simply a heartless killer. We get to sympathize with his plight; he is undoubtedly the hero of Torres' tale.

The next installment, titled After Hours (written in 3rd person this time), is actually the setting of the movie, beginning when David Kleinfeld, Carlito's Alan Dershowitzesque attorney, gets Carlito out of prison on a technicality. The David Kleinfeld character is another reason to read this book after seeing the movie, as things in the book turn out quite differently for most of the characters affected by Kleinfeld's machinations. There's also some additional fleshing out of characters and episodes not included in the movie, including Brigante's trip to Spain, where the brash hombre shows off his bullfighting skills. I'm not giving anything away.

Like the Shawshank Redemption, the movie also highlights the profound changes in American everyday life and culture (and with it the criminal world) during the twentieth century. The two books trace Carlito Brigante's criminal career, from the swinging and colorful 1940s, when Carlito existed on small-time armed robberies and switchblades, all the way to the sleazy lava-lamp lit cocaine infested 1970s, an appropriate prelude of the Me Decade. Central to the story is the role New York's Italian Mafia plays in the life of Brigante. Brigante, a Puerto Rican, is eventually admitted to their exclusive innermost circles, but because he is not a Sicilian is never elevated to the status of a "Made Guy," which ultimately leads to his downfall. Via subplots and secondary characters Torres notes the rise and fall of the Cosa Nostra's influence in the Big Apple.

I thought that Miller brought a lot to the somewhat hapless role of Gail, Carlito's longtime love-interest and confidant. I found it much more believable that Carlito's girlfriend would be a stripper and aspiring dancer. In the book her character is an elementary school teacher, which makes the idea of Carlito persuading her to go to the Bahamas a bit implausible.

In an interview contemporaneous with the film's release, Torres said that his novels were inspired by his exposure to countless Carlito Brigantes who had walked through his courtroom throughout his career on the bench. Torres also includes a vocabulary of Hispanic street slang and underworld terms.

An extremely capable writer of prose, Torres pens a stimulating, readable, and believable portrait of life in the Barrio. Barrio is Spanish for jungle, in this context the urban jungle-ghetto that wickedly and unknowingly nurtures the self-destructive psyche of a career criminal who knows nothing but a life of violence and self-preservation.

Splendid!

If you like crime stories don't miss this one. This is one of my all-time favorites and it never really got the attention it deserves. The story of Carlito Brigante shows us the world of crime from a different angle than the classic Mafia tales. Carlito is Puerto Rican and comes up in the New York of the fifties and sixties. He's a hard-core criminal, hard-nose, and he makes no bones about it. He starts of with breaking-and-entering, moves up to racketeering, and after a long impatient wait breaking into the big-time--heroin trafficking.

Yet Carlito never comes across as a merely evil person. Living in America, where the streets are paved with gold except in the barrio where he spent his entire life, Carlito says that no way was he going to spend his whole life washing dishes when there was big bread out there for guys with the guts (he would use a different word) to go get it.

Torres, to his credit, never romanticizes Carlito to the point that he comes across as a good guy, either. Carlito follows his way because its the one HE chose, and if that means dancing with a fine lady at the Palladium one night and then going into Lewisburg Penitentary for a 3-year stretch the next, that's how it goes. Those are the risks and rewards of the life he leads. He meets characters like smooth guy Earl Bassey, crazy guy Nacho Reyes, wise guy Rocco Fabrieze, and bad guy Pete Amadeo. All in all, "Carlito's Way" is a wild ride, both the ups and downs.

I really recommend that you get the audio version of this book and listen to Torres read his book. The movie "Carlito's Way" actually focuses on the second book Torres wrote, titled "After Hours." It's good, but the first novel is told in the 1st person, in Carlito's voice, and Torres is fantastic as he speaks in Carlito's voice. Well worth a listen.

For fans of streetlife and "the real" in general, this is a fantastic read. Having seen the movie, I wasn't quite expecting the book to be what it was - a running mental monologue recounting the life and times of Carlito Brigante, the fictional yet prolific gangster the film was based upon.

Having grown up in Brooklyn, I was thoroughly impressed by the accuracy with which Torres illustrates the "I've got mine, so .... you" thug mentality that's so much a part of the underground New York experience. That, combined with the "Code Of The Streets" and a tiny dab of conscience, is what makes Carlito seem human and uncannily real-to-life.

Torres, being a NYC criminal court judge, has chosen to expound his abundant understanding of the criminal mind not through textbooks or bland case studies, but through this brilliant character depiction. I place it in the same category as "Down These Mean Streets" - a modern urban classic.

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!!!

Cinderella is, in my opinion, the all-time favorite classic Disney story for little girls. There's got to be a reason why there are so many grown-up books and movies referred to as "Cindarella stories!"

Don't settle for immmitations -- get the original for your kids!(And enjoy re-reading it yourself!)

How exciting to find this Little Golden Book from my long-ago childhood back again so I can share it with the kids in our family.

Attention Baby Boomers! This book has got the original illustrations. You might just want to buy it for yourself!

Cinderella was one of my favorite books when i was younger. I like how they kept making new cinderella books because it still keeps the story going on in time. Cinderella was treated bad by her step family but in the end she got what so deserved.

We have this golden book and it is one of my 3 year old daughter's favorite books to have read to her. It is the perfect length (not too long of a story, and not too condensed). The illustrations are also nice. I highly recommend this book and your princess should not be disappointed!

This is a good, short adaptation of the Disney movie version of the classic "Cinderella" story. Keeps some of the new characters that the Disney crew created, including Lucifer the cat and the mice that Cinderella protects. Touches on all the main points of the movie, and sticks pretty closely to the movie's plotline. Perfect tool for encouraging kids who like the movie to also pick up a book and read.

I've bought this book many, many times, because I always recommend it and people always keep it. Put the movie out of your mind. This is a gritty, hilarious, tragic story about what it means to make your living poisoning others and spend your spare time poisoning yourself. Redemption is available, but it's not cheap, and maybe not even wanted.

The worst movie of the 1980's is actually the funniest book of the 1980's.

Read this book. Despite the time it was written, it is not dated. I read this 10 years after it was printed and I howled with laughter. Gould has a way with words, a keen sense of observation and a breakneck pace.

A former bartender myself, I found the book to be very insightful, and humerous as it followed the life of a career bartender trying to make the most out of his situation. This book gives a very truthful look at the life behind the Neon of the bar.

Although changed for the movie, the original book, "Cocktail" dipped into the near psychotic ravings of a middle aged bartender who had seen one too many last-calls. Each page is riviting with the colorful dramatization unique to Gould. Having been a world traveled bartender for 10 years now, I was amazed and thrilled to see an incredibly accurate insight into the thrilling yet seedy existance of a part-time job gone career. A must read for anyone who has ever looked at a clever, hot-shot bartender and thought that he had it made. Change the names and list this novel under non-fiction. Two thumbs up from bartenders everywhere!

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.

Our family is already a big Marc Brown fan, so we thought we probably had a good bet in this new D.W. book. We were right! While most kids spend a lot of time thinking about what they are going to get for Christmas, so does D.W. However, this book gets D.W. (and your child) thinking about what they can get for others! I loved that D.W. took initiative and made the gifts herself, rather than going to the mall!

The illustrations are great and this is another winner from Marc Brown!

"D.W.'s Perfect Present" is a story fit for the holidays. This story is part of a newer set of Arthur / D.W. books aimed at slightly younger readers. It is both fully written and illustrated by Marc Brown.

This book is about D.W., who is searching for Christmas gifts all over and outside the Read household. She looks everywhere, but everyone seems to be making a gift for someone else. As D.W. sees all these gifts, she comes to realization that changes her outlook on the holidays.

D.W. is as cute as ever in this story. The story is fairly simple to follow, but quite enjoyable. Most of the pages are fully illustrated with bright, lush color. This is a wonderful book that will make just about anyone happy for the holidays.

D.W. is excited about Christmas and she begins snooping around the house looking for her gifts. She asks her Dad if a gift he is wrapping is a present for her. But no, it's a fruitcake for Grandma Thora. D.W's Mom is making something in the basement. "Is that for me?" D.W. exclaims. No, it's a ladder for Arthur's tree house.

Featuring Arthur, Mom, Dad, baby Kate, Pal the dog, and Grandma Thora, D.W.'s Perfect Present is a colorful and delightful holiday book that shows the good feelings that come from giving. Not only is this a great story, but it also features gorgeously rich illustrations by author Marc Brown.

On the back of the book is a fun Holiday Hunt where your child can help D.W. find 13 holiday gifts hidden throughout the house

There are only a few more days until Christmas, and D.W. is ecstatic. Unfortunately, she's also extremely nosy, and believes that there are more presents hidden around the house, other than the ones sitting under the Christmas tree. So D.W. sets out searching, looking high and low. However, she soon realizes that due to her selfishness, she never purchased presents for her family, so she begins creating masterpieces for everyone, including Pal, Arthur's puppy.

Fans of the ARTHUR TV show will be enthralled to find a holiday book perfect for young readers and their parents. While it shows how young children truly act when the holidays roll around, it also depicts how great it feels to give presents to the ones you love. This is a wonderful holiday story that will be cherished for years to come, especially by those who love D.W.

Erika Sorocco
Book Review Columnist for The Community Bugle Newspaper