Black, White, Just Right!

Customer Reviews:

Doesn't flow. Story wasn't catchy. Not for us........2007-07-03

Every time we attemt to read this to our daughter, it is a clumbsy-read that does not capture our child's attention. I was attracted to the cover and we haven't apprecated much more than that. So the 2 stars are for the illustrations.

Beautiful Colors.......2005-05-12

What a wonderful story! I wish I had this book when I was a child. The protagonist is a beautiful little girl whose mother is black and her father is white. She describes their differences in color, but they are united in love. She describes how her color is "just right." What a gentle and lovely way to explain the physical racial differences, similarities and self identity and pride.

My favorite uncle who was a very astute man used to say, "God mixes and adds more colors so there are more colors to love. Birds, butterflies, flowers and peacocks have all these beautiful colors and God picked our colors for us as well. He wanted more beauty for the world, so He was always thinking up more beautiful colors to add to it."

I also recommend "David's Drawing," "Colors Come From God Just Like Me," "The Two Mrs. Gibsons," a book about a beautiful little girl whose mother is Japanese and her father is black and "How My Parents Learned to Eat," another delightful book about a bi-racial child and the two cultures she happily shares. This book deserves a place of honor! It is for everybody!

Black, White, Just Right!.......2004-08-19

My 4 year old (bi-racial) son really enjoys this book. It is nice to have a story with a diverse family. I am glad that it mentions race only briefly and shows that it is just another difference in their (& our) lives...just as their size, tastes and talents are different. The prose is a little mature for him and I have to explain what most of it means after each page...but he still loves it.

Bi- Racial 4 yr old daughter LOVES to have this read to her.......2003-02-23

My 4yr old daughter loves to have this read to her. She used to identify with herself as I'm "BOTH" (black & white), now she says "she's just right too". It's so light and age appropriate, while touching on the differences and similiarities of others. I love that the diffrences that are pointed out in this book between the mommy and daddy are not stereotyped by a the like's or dislike's of the black/white race. Beatiful illustrations and catchy rhymes. A definete must get.

Lovely book.......2002-05-22

Simple text with rhyme and readable cadence makes this an enjoyable read for a preschool classroom. The little girl enjoys many things with her black mother and white father, AND has many tastes and interests of her own. A bi-racial girl in my class was immediately drawn to this story, as were other children who simply enjoyed the story.

Average customer rating:

Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing
DO THE READ THING

Do the Right Thing
Spike Lee
Manufacturer: Fireside
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0671682652

Book Description

The phenomenon of Spike Lee continues with this revealing and engaging look at his outstanding career, his creative process, and the screenplay for his dynamic movie Do The Right Thing. Spike Lee burst full formed into the screen world with his award-winning, commercially successful independent film She's Gotta Have It. In the few short years following this stellar debut he has established himself as a force to be reckoned with in the film industry and in American popular culture. This book reveals Spike Lee as a Hollywood iconoclast and gifted visionary and takes us though the dramatic sequence of events that brought the movie Do The Right Thing to fruition. It is a testimonial to his developing genius, written in the stingingly funny and informed language of Spike Lee.

Customer Reviews:

Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing .......2007-03-22

The script is a one and a million type of script. The pre production and production notes are a added bonus . This book is for all film lovers not just "Do the Right Thing" fans . If you love reading scripts this is a must have.

DO THE READ THING.......2000-05-10

IF YOU LOVED THE MOVIE LIKE I DID THEN, YOU'VE GOT TO GET THIS BOOK. IT HAS EVERYTHING FOR THOSE OF YOU (LIKE ME) WHO CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF THIS FILM. IT CONTAINS SOME STORYBOARDS, THE PRODUCTION JOURNAL, PRODUCTION NOTES, THE CREDITS, THE ENTIRE SCRIPT (!), AND 32 PAGES WORTH OF PICTURES. FIND OUT WHAT SPIKE HAD TO GO THROUGH TO GET THIS FILM UP ON THE BIG SCREEN. IT'S A SHAME THAT SPIKE STOP PUTTING OUT THESE COMPANION VOLUMES TO HIS FEATURE FILMS AS HE DID FOR 5 OF HIS FIRST 6 FILMS. THEY (THE BOOKS) ARE A WELCOMED ADDITION THAT REVEAL A LOT ABOUT THE MAN AND HIS ART. THOUGH OUT OF PRINT, IT WOULD BEHOOVE YOU TO FIND A COPY OF THIS BOOK AND DO THE READ THING.

Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing (Cambridge Film Handbooks)

Average customer rating:

SPike is The Man
EXTRA CREDIT

Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing (Cambridge Film Handbooks)

Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0521559545

Book Description

Spike Lee's "Do the Right Thing" brings together essays, freshly written for this edition, that analyze this controversial film from a variety of methodological perspectives. Collectively these essays connect the interracial strife of New York as treated in Do the Right Thing with the contemporary social climate and racism in America. Also included are reviews of the film by influential critics, a large selection of production stills, and a complete bibliography.

Customer Reviews:

SPike is The Man.......2000-10-12

A great book of Essays.Spike Lee is One OF The Very Few Artists in Hollywood saying Something.This Book Breaks Down Many Subject Matters.The Movie is a Timeless Classic.this Book adds upon it.a Must.

EXTRA CREDIT.......2000-05-10

FOR THOSE OF YOU (LIKE ME) THAT LOVED DO THE RIGHT THING AND CAN'T GET ENOUGH OF IT, HERE IS A LITTLE EXTRA CREDIT READING. THIS BOOK CONTAINS 5 ESSAYS THAT RUN THE GAMUT OF ISSUES AND TOPICS THAT INFLUENCED AND WERE COVERED IN THE MOVIE. SUCH THINGS AS MUSIC, RACISM, POLITICS, MARTIN LUTHER KING JR., MALCOLM X, VIOLENCE, AND OTHER CURRENT EVENTS OF THE TIME THAT HELP PUT THE FILM INTO PERSPECTIVE. WHILE THIS BOOK ISN'T FOR THE CASUAL READER, IT IS HERE FOR THOSE OF US THAT WISH TO DIG A LITTLE DEEPER INTO SPIKE LEE'S VISION OF NEW YORK (AND THE U.S.) CIRCA THE LATE '80'S. I ESPECIALLY ENJOYED AND RECOMMEND W. J. T. MITCHELL'S ESSAY "THE VIOLENCE OF PUBLIC ART". HERE IT IS. ENJOY.

Where Did I Go Right? : You're No One In Hollywood Unless Someone Wants You Dead

Average customer rating:

REALLY JUST A SALESMAN, AFTER ALL THE FUSS!!
Brillstein is as a big a star as those he represents
Unexpectedly Touching
Passably interesting but...
Readable, but not essential reading.

Where Did I Go Right? : You're No One In Hollywood Unless Someone Wants You Dead
Bernie Brillstein , and David Rensin
Manufacturer: Little Brown & Co (T)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Hello, He Lied -- and Other Tales from the Hollywood Trenches

ASIN: 0316118850

Amazon.com

"My wink is binding," Bernie Brillstein writes in the middle part of his memoir of a career in showbiz. At this point the movie-star manager has already admitted that he wanted power and prestige as soon as he started in the William Morris agency mailroom. And that he chased after a Don Corleone-ish kind of respect afterward. But even when he became a clout-carrying manager and near-mogul he kept his people-first credo. You suspect he loves it too for the way it echoes the Borscht Belt, since that's the kind of verbal energy he draws on throughout this anecdote-crammed autobiography. He calls himself "show," but in four decades he had to be "business" too, tough enough to tell clients, as he says he did, when to start their career over from scratch. The book begins with a graphically honest memory of his visit to the proctologist with his family when he was 24--something he guffaws off, but it's probably not far from the sort of reality check he regularly gave clients like Jim Henson, Norm Crosby, Lorne Michaels, John Belushi, and Brad Pitt. He cops to a gambling addiction, a love of "high class call girls," and to the way he stole from Laugh-Into invent Hee Haw. But he also brokered Lorne Michael's big break with SNL, produced Dangerous Liaisons, and eventually got News Radio and The Sopranos on the air. He candidly assesses professional pains too, including Michael Ovitz's pathology, Garry Shandling's riddling neuroses, and the loss of Belushi and Henson. "I care," he writes finally, "because that's who I am." It's easy to smile at that, but by the end of the book it's also easy to believe he means it. --Lyall Bush

Book Description

Bernie Brillsteins forty-five-year career has allowed him to work with and nurture many world-class talents, including John Belushi, Jim Henson, Dan Aykroyd, and Martin Short. Brillstein speaks out for the first time about the lives and deaths of his clients. He teaches the art of the deal, show business ethics, and reveals behind-the-scenes stories with his humour and savvy.

Customer Reviews:

REALLY JUST A SALESMAN, AFTER ALL THE FUSS!!.......2001-03-28

Because we're so star-struck in America, we tend to be overly impressed with ShowBiz and the people who inhabit that world. But as charming, determined and persistent a personality Mr. Brillstein may be, he's essentially just a salesman - NOT the creator, but a "dealmaker" of the ShowBiz Old School - and after almost 400 pages, I found he'd worn thin his welcome! However dramatic it may have been FOR HIM to accompany John Belushi's body back East, or "duke it out" with the Big Boys in corporate takeovers while at Lorimar, the emotions are thinly drawn and shallow in this book. Brillstein made me less than intrigued with his machinations, unimpressed by his self-aggrandizing spin on events and ultimately unsympathetic to his life challenges. (His obvious misogyny doesn't help, either - he has no use for women outside of the sack, it appears.) Here's another absurdly fortunate, rich powerful older man feeling sorry for himself because time changes everything? I'd have hoped he'd have learned to adjust better to the slings and arrows of life by the time he got to his 60s and 70s!

This book was distressing to me because I REALLY WANTED to LIKE the guy - but I found I couldn't. He's kinda ordinary, and once you remove the "famous" names and large amounts of money, his anecdotes are kinda ordinary! He's not terribly brilliant, sage or extraordinary in any other way than being sublimely LUCKY! I gave the book 3 stars, because it's certainly not dreck, but for inspiration or insight, I'd advise looking elsewhere!

Brillstein is as a big a star as those he represents.......2001-03-07

I'm not sure what drove me to buy the Brillstein book. I had heard of him of years, but wasn't sure that a managers tale was all that interesting. Oh, but is! This book is filled with humor, honesty, and and ego. Bernie seems like a terrific guy and he tells fantastic stories. Some are filled with love: Belushi, Radner, etc. Others venom (and these are the most fun, he pulls no punches): Ovitz, Shandling (more would have better on this), etc. You learn about the inside story of Hee Haw, The Muppets, SNL, and Lorimar. My favorite stuff was about Jim Henson, rarely have I seen so much great stuff written about one of my heroes.

While this may not be a roast, I raise my glass to Big Bernie and the wonderful life he has led. Thanks for sharing.

Unexpectedly Touching.......2000-12-04

I found myself unexpectedly touched by this autobiography. Having read it, I consider Bernie Brillstein a friend. With no self-praise, Brillstein shows himself to be a man of decency, of compassion, of empathy. He began in his profession as an agent at William Morris, dreaming of representing mid-Century comics such as Jackie Gleason and Jackie Gale. When he left William Morris, he became a personal manager, starting the careers of dozens of entertainers who have become household names. The stories Bernie has to tell! He survived--there's no other word--until the end of the century, representing Jim Henson, Lorne Michaels, Gilda Radner, John Belushi, Dan Ackroyd and, as the saying goes, a cast of thousands along the way. He created HEE HAW and greenlighted THE SOPRANOS, headed a movie studio for a short time, got fired, picked himself up and started again. His very life has been the personification of the entertainment business; there are few who exceeded his success. And he is the one having the last laugh: He's still here! But along with the chronological report of his professional experience, what he was thinking, how he pulled it off, there is this man, this basically sweet and decent man, and that's what shines through his book. I enjoyed reading about Bernie's fascinating life.

Passably interesting but..........2000-10-29

A passably interesting look into life of an "old school" agent/manager with some real insights into his client's lives and the behind-the-scenes machinations of Hollywood. WARNING: You'll have to wade through a considerable amount of self-aggrandizment that I found tremendously off-putting toward the end. It's a rare occasion when I don't finish a book but I found myself skipping through the last third and ultimately bailed out with just a few chapters to go.

Readable, but not essential reading........2000-09-07

There's really no good insider showbiz tips or amazing gossip here. I found the book to be readable -- meaning I kept on reading once I picked it up but at any time I could have stopped and not felt like I was going to be missing a golden nugget.

Customer Reviews:

just right stew.......2000-04-25

As a teacher in an urban school, I loved this book! It was a great book for teaching sequence of events. It was also fun to have the children smell the spices/seasonings as they were mentioned in the book, and provided for a very multisensory lesson. The children loved making predictions about if they thought each spice would make the ox-tail stew just right. Illustrations were wonderful. This book is now one of my treasures!

didn't have a very good plot.......1999-11-07

this book was a ok book but it didn't have much of a riding action or a falling action. i wouldn't really recommend it

Average customer rating:

Something's not quite good
What's not to like ? !

Something's Not Quite Right
Guy Billout
Manufacturer: David R. Godine Publisher
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1567922309

Customer Reviews:

Something's not quite good.......2005-10-04

This was recommended to me by the Amazon "store" for buying Masters of Deception. While a few of the ideas were somewhat interesting or clever, the renditions were so poorly done that any potential was lost in mediocrity. After Masters of Deception and seeing actual masters of artististry who also add optical illusion to the mix, this seems like an art school project were the instructor would have given a C for effort and potential. I had to pay for it so I'm a bit more harsh.

What's not to like ? !.......2005-04-02

A well-made book. Full-page illustrations are accompanied by the piece's title. Quirky, whimsical, amusing and thought-provoking. The artist plays with reality and makes you want to too.
I love this Guy!

Margaret Thatcher: A Tribute in Words and Pictures

Average customer rating:

Leaders like this are so few in a century

Margaret Thatcher: A Tribute in Words and Pictures

Manufacturer: WN
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0297851152

Book Description

Margaret Thatcher, Britain’s first female prime minister and one of the most influential world leaders of the 20th century, celebrated her 80th birthday in 2005—a fitting moment to celebrate her dynamic personality and monumental, sometimes controversial achievements. This lavish tribute, illustrated with 200 color photographs, brings together more than 100 personal reminiscences and anecdotes from major world figures, among them Ronald and Nancy Reagan, Mikhail Gorbachev, Henry Kissinger, Helmut Kohl, and Shimon Peres, as well as some of Britain’s leading journalists, politicians, and civil servants, both allies and opponents of the Iron Lady. Includes a foreword by Charles Moore, Thatcher’s authorized biographer.

Customer Reviews:

Leaders like this are so few in a century.......2006-09-07

Not every British Prime Minister is a Thatcher or Churchill. Not every American President is a Lincoln, Kennedy, or Clinton. And even rarer a jewel is a woman who can lead a country not as a token female but a first among equals, whether they are man or woman. Such is the legacy of Margaret Hilda Roberts Thatcher, who in her 8 decades of life has epitomized the sheer force of will, intellect, fortitude, and backbone that brought Britain back from the brink of bankruptcy. One need not agree with Thatcher's reign but one thing is for certain: she was a woman of fierce drive with the intellectual and political savvy to boot. Most of all .... isn't it grand to know that in the machinations of international politics ... there are those world leaders who understand the courage and strength of conviction.

The Myth of Moral Justice: Why Our Legal System Fails to Do What's Right

Average customer rating:

All law students, lawyers, and judges should read this book!
Rosenbaum Fails on Several Levels
lawyers are humans, too
Law as therapy? (Yup.) Care to explain yourself? (Nope!)
Every lawyer should read it

The Myth of Moral Justice: Why Our Legal System Fails to Do What's Right
Thane Rosenbaum
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0060188162
Release Date: 2004-04-27

Book Description

American culture is obsessed with the law, the legal system, and lawyers. Much in our everyday lives revolves around the law, and we are bombarded daily by cultural images of lawyers and the legal system at work. We indulge in dramatic television shows and feature films about lawyers, we read legal thrillers, and observe trials as they unfold. Many of us wish for our children to attend law school and become lawyers.

At the same time, most people report that they don't trust lawyers and hold them and the legal system in very low esteem. Those who have had unfavorable experiences with the law have walked away bitter and resentful. Some have observed that lawyers operate according to their own professional worldview, one that is emotionally detached and unfeeling, overly logical, technical, narrow, bureaucratic, and insensitive to basic human emotions and moral principles.

We are, paradoxically, both fascinated and repulsed by our legal system. The dramatic allure of judgment keeps us enthralled; the absence of moral conviction in the law makes us furious.

In The Myth of Moral Justice, law professor and novelist Thane Rosenbaum suggests that this paradox stems from the fact that citizens and the courts are at odds when it comes to their definitions of justice. Individuals seek out lawyers and enter courtrooms because they have an emotional grievance as well as a legal complaint. They expect the law to do the right thing. Yet our legal system, bent on separating the legal from the emotional, willfully ignores basic moral criteria. As a result, the justice system undermines truth, perpetuates secrets and lies, prevents victims from telling their stories, promotes adversarial enmity over community repair, and fails to equate legal duty with moral responsibility. Legal outcomes that make sense to lawyers and judges feel simply wrong to most people and enrage others.

With a lawyer's expertise and a novelist's sensibility, Rosenbaum tackles complicated philosophical questions about our longing for moral justice. He also takes a critical look at what our legal system does to the spirits of those who must come before the law, along with those who practice within it. Rosenbaum reinforces his themes with artistic representations of lawyers and legal systems from the classic works of Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, and Franz Kafka, along with various important feature films that illuminate why our legal system fails to do what's right.

Customer Reviews:

All law students, lawyers, and judges should read this book!.......2007-04-28

I took two classes with Thane Rosenbaum at Fordham Law School, both of which were highly enjoyable. This book was required reading for both classes. Rosenbaum paints a portrait of the American legal system that is often hidden from us. While many are dissatisfied with the legal system, we cannot pinpoint exactly why it is so inadequate, or what can be done to change it.

In this eye-opening book, Rosenbaum conveys that it is the lack of morality and spirituality in our legal system that leads to such unhappiness. He shows us how TV and movies have distorted the true nature of the legal system, adding a moral component that does not exist. He tells us how and why the legal system has failed, highlighting that many artists in literature realized this long ago. For example, Kafka's the Trial is a clear criticism of the legal system, and the Merchant of Venice shows what outside political influences can do to a trial. Rosenbaum lets us in to a view of the legal system that many of us have never thought about, and it's very refreshing.

I recommend this book to anyone considering practicing law, already in the practice of law, or even those who have experienced or will experience lawsuits. The legal system cannot provide any satisfaction without including moral components, and Rosenbaum conveys that through a frank and understandable discussion with his readers. Read this book!

Rosenbaum Fails on Several Levels.......2005-12-30

I must say at the outset that I feel slightly betrayed by the NYT on this one. The comment that this book should be read by every law student in America could not be further from the truth. I have never read a book that has been so well reviewed that has offered so little to the debate.

I share the sentiments of Mr. Currie. This book, while undoubtedly drawn from admirable intentions, suffers from several fatal flaws that, in my view, make it a mostly worthless read. I will explain a few of my problems with this book that I find the most troubling.

Firstly, Rosenbaum paints a deceptively bleak picture of the American legal system. Everyone who hasn't had any exposure to the court system would be right to be concerned about the state of our judiciary if it really worked the way that Rosenbaum implies. For example, Rosenbaum talks about the unfairness of statutes of limitation which preclude claims brought after a certain period of time. What Rosenbaum doesn't mention is that statutes of limitations are frequently tolled if, for example, the defendant actively covers up her crime, and that time limits during a trial are frequently extended if the other party has suffered no harm from the delinquent filing. In this way, courts are frequently able to give relief for claims that may be technically filed too late. Similar discussion of ways that the legal system attempt to balance the interests of the parties involved is missing from most of the rest of the book. It simply doesn't portray an accurate representation of the way the legal system works in practice.

This leads me to my second point; Rosenbaum's central theme is that the American legal system needs to be more moral. However, he does not define or explain what he means by morality aside from noting that morality does not have to be synonymous with religious morality. In my view, this is the central flaw in the book. Everyone in America has a different view of morality, and even if we could agree on some central tenants of morality to guide the legal system, Rosenbaum does not seem to realize how a moral system of justice would translate into a pragmatic system for adjudicating disputes. Instead, as Mr. Currie notes, Rosenbaum uses literary and dramatic examples where there is often a clear sense of right and wrong (For example, The Trial, where Joseph K. has clearly suffered injustice at the hands of the law.) In my view, morality necessarily involved compromise and balance - there are no absolutes. And in my experience, while there is clearly room for improvement in the American legal system, there is a conscience effort made to balance the interests of all parties. It is not perfect, but legal disputes more often than not have no clear cut answers - otherwise they wouldn't get to court in the first place. Going back to the statute of limitations example, I do not think that a moral system of justice would allow a plaintiff or victim to have relief against a defendant forever. The goals of justice and finality are both worthy goals of the legal system. If a defendant could bring a claim forever, anyone who has ever done anything wrong (which I would venture to say is all of us at some point) would spend the rest of lives in fear of prosecution. It is hard to see how anything would get done in a world like that - especially as people's private information becomes more accessible and durable on sources such as the internet. The case of the holocaust or war crimes might be an exception, but again, this is an issue of balance, not absolute morality. Just because the result in a case may seem like an unjust outcome, doesn't mean that the process was flawed or that an injustice was done. It may just be the result of a bad case, or a situation where no matter the outcome, neither party could be made whole.

Take another example. There is an inherent tension between a speedy and expeditious trial, which Rosenbaum would support, and longer trial where maybe more facts could come out to present a fuller picture of the dispute. So a speedy trial would be good because it would provide closure, and a longer trial could be good because it could get closer to the truth. Similarly, a quick trial could be bad if it only presents a cursory image of the dispute, and a longer trial could be bad by wasting resources and confusing the issue - like Jarndyce v. Jarndyce. There is no one guiding moral principal that could satisfy both of these concerns. The outcome is a balance between competing goals of morality that Rosenbaum simply does not seem to recognize.

Some of the inconsistencies in the book clearly stem from this failure to recognize that morality is a multi-faceted concept that might be more present in the legal system then Rosenbaum likes to admit. As such, the book is rarely more than a biased critic of the U.S. legal system which offers little to this field of scholarship. In the afterword, he notes a lot of the criticism that he has had from the book, and posits that at least he has got people to talk about the issues. This may be true, but there have been many a better book written on this subject which the reader would be well advised to read before touching this one. Some of the work of Posner and Fuller come to mind.

I guess ultimately my critique is that this book doesn't seem to add anything to the debate. Obviously there is room to debate whether the U.S. legal system should be a moral system or under what circumstances it could be moral (both of which I see as almost infinitely complex questions). The inquiry into Apartheid in South Africa is a good example of a system which decided that finding out the truth was more important than punishing the participants and that hence embraced truth as the overriding moral concern. And that was a controversial and difficult decision that involved many competing interests getting together to find a compromise that would best serve the interests of South Africa. It didn't flow from any fixed or simple idea of morality. Rosenbaum's analysis fails because it doesn't grapple with the really hard questions, or provide any answers. We would all like to see a legal system that provides more justice and fairness, but when we can't even decide what those words mean, it seems frivolous to simply go on a biased diatribe about all the immoral conduct in the legal system without tackling the underlying tensions. Simple storytelling cannot be the full answer. While storytelling may be a solution for some people to air their grievances, telling a story isn't going to pay the medical bills for someone injured in a car wreck, or compensate someone whose retirement has been fraudulently taken. In those situations, settlements (which Rosenbaum mostly rejects) might be the best option because they assure the plaintiff of a recovery and avoid the risk of trial which could be substantial, especially for an unsympathetic plaintiff, or a case where the evidence simply isn't there. Again, these are complex questions.

The editors note that "perhaps provoking lawyers is part of the book's point." But I just don't see provocation for the sake of provocation as being particularly moral or worthwhile. If Rosenbaum and the NYT don't think that law schools are debating these issues today, they are sorely mistaken. We all know that the system is flawed. What is needed is a real debate into how will deal the problems. Unfortunately Rosenbaum simply doesn't provide any help.

lawyers are humans, too.......2004-11-15

I have not read this book, but I just finished watching the author give a presentation of it on television. I must disagree with the dissenting review below. The book is about lawyers as human beings who know the difference between morally right and morally wrong but who opt to perform what is ethically allowed by legal parameters. The choice on the part of the persons in charge to pursue the path of least resistance is what is corrupting our justice system. If the lawyer abdicates on his or her moral responsibility towards truth, then in what are we ordinary citizens to believe... upon what are we to depend for the justice we need to struggle? The discomforting question deserves much discussion.

Law as therapy? (Yup.) Care to explain yourself? (Nope!).......2004-06-13

I am the type of reader who, even if I think i will disagree with an author's stance, like to give the book a fair shake. Who knows? The author might present a case I've not seen and in the end, it may be worth my time and effort. (It has happened before.) Not this time. I came away from these 300+ pages thinking the book a complete and total waste of my time.

The authors case - if I may be so polite - is that the law should be more moral; it should focus on doing the 'right' thing. Lawyers and judges should become morally sensitive. Law should become more embracing of moral tenets over strict rules and focus on 'healing' the parties involved rather than being an adversarial system focused on settlement for settlements sake.

Here's the problem; the author keeps saying all of these things and NEVER actually explores the ins and outs of this thesis. For instance, when he talks of why judges and lawyers need to focus on 'rightness' rather than procedural minuteia, on 'healing' rather than settlements, he never - not once - gives a glimpse at how such a system would work, whether it is practical, or tackles objections that, at least to me, are simply obvious.

While my objections are too numerous to go into, let me give you a taste of what you are getting with this book. The author writes:

"The winner-take-all structure of the legal systemis moraly deficient because it creates a presumption that justice has been achieved when morally it has not. Sometimes the ultimate winner should not have been victorious... [O]ften, the best moral result would... approximate some measure of victory in both parties - to send them both home healed rather than ambivalent or enraged." (p. 22)

But how do we KNOW who should be morally victorious (when we were not there to know that the alleged defendant did IN FACT commit the crime)? How can a legal system function other than adversarially (can it function communally?) How can a judge (who is not a psychologist) know when both parties are healed (and, say, in a murder, is there ANYTHING that could heal the victim's family in full? Surely not a forced apology!) And how can we measure (as the judge would have to do) when both parties are 'sufficiently' healed? Is it just measured by both parties say-so? If so, does that mean the trial could last 15 years?

My point is simple: the author DOESN'T EVEN TRY to map out either a positive case or handle any of these (what I think are) obvious objections. In the interest of giving the author a fair shake, it would have been nice to hear an argument. I did not. The book merely rehashes paragraphs like the above as if the positive case is self-evident (it is not) and objections don't exist (they do).

Another flaw is that the author cites (almost exlusively) fiction books and movies to make his case. "Since in x movie, we know that x was guilty and got off, the legal system is not fair." But the flaw is that there is a difference between fiction and life. In movies, we often KNOW who is guilty. Thus, it is easy to say, "the morally right decision is x because this character did it; we saw her do it on screen." In life, we rarely come in knowing who is guilty like in the movies. Thus, citing movies is simply too easy; saying, "X is the right answer becasue we know SHE did it," presumes... that we know she did it! Thus, making the 'morally right' decision is easy in the movies; but sadly, the author does little to differentiate the fantasy land of movies from real life quandaries.

It is no exaggeration to say that I could go on for pages citing errors like these! While I can somewhat sympahtize with the author's plight on a 'gut level,' his failure to explain a positive case, sheer repetitiveness of claims he simply ASSUMES to be self-evident, and absolute failkure to handle ANY objections left me dissapointed. Simply put, this is one of the few books I can say was wasted time.

Every lawyer should read it.......2004-05-06

I agree with the NY Times reviewer - all law students should be required to read this book, but would add that all practicing lawyers should read it too. An excellent and well written book, which just might make lawyers slightly more humane.

Step Right Up!: I'm Gonna Scare the Pants off America

Average customer rating:

Excellent auto-biography of the last great Ballyhoo artist!
This is an amazing book.
Horror and Sci-Fi , They don't make them like that anymore.

Step Right Up!: I'm Gonna Scare the Pants off America
William Castle
Manufacturer: World Almanac
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Alfred Hitchcock Presents - Season Two

ASIN: 0886876575

Customer Reviews:

Excellent auto-biography of the last great Ballyhoo artist!.......2000-10-10

For any 1950s - 1960s horror fan, this cult classic filmmaker writes about his experiences within the crazy & zany Hollywood system of the past in the most entertaining fashion of storytelling. Wonderful tales about how Castle created some of his horror film gimmicks & publicity stunts, to his producing experiences with Roman Polanski on 'Rosemary's Baby.' It is an honest auto-biography in which boths side of Castle are revealed (from the Hollywood filmmaker to the family man he was). If you find this book, get it! It is a collector's item!!!!

This is an amazing book........1999-10-01

This was a great book. It's perfect for anyone who loves movies. William H. Castle was a genious. By the way, this is JOHN WATERS' favorite book.

Horror and Sci-Fi , They don't make them like that anymore........1998-09-30

I found this book to be one of the best autobiographies I have ever read. William Castle made every bit of his life a thorough joy to read.. It was a book that I could not put down. I took it everywhere, just to see what crazy gimmick he would come up with next. A must read. I don't want to give you any details because it would just spoil the book. This book and the two below give a true sense of what it was like to make "quality" B-movies in the 50's and 60's

Book Description

The tangled connections that have bound Jews to African Americans in popular culture and liberal politics are at the heart of Michael Rogin's arresting and unnerving book. Looking at films from Birth of a Nation to Forrest Gump, Rogin explores blackface in Hollywood films as an aperture to broader issues: the nature of "white" identity in America, the role of race in transforming immigrants into "Americans," the common experiences of Jews and African Americans that made Jews key supporters in the fight for racial equality, and the social importance of popular culture. Rogin's forcefully argued study challenges us to confront the harsh truths behind the popularity of racial masquerade.

Customer Reviews:

Oh please!.......2007-03-12

No other entity spread anti-black racism more than the slave industry and Hollywood, and both were and are Jewish run. This claim that Jews put on a black face to work against anti-Jewish sentiment has to be the farthest stretch of Jews justifying their own racism towards blacks that I've read so far, and I've read more than my share. We need to be spending more time on combatting real racism, not a fabricated kind.

FASCINATING AND INVIGORATING SCHOLARSHIP.......2001-08-28

This is one of the five best non-fiction books I have ever read! It is superior to anything Rogin has written previously, magnificent as some of his earlier scholarship has been. I reccommend this book for film buffs, as well as anyone interested in learning how this country's history of racism has affected mass culture and how that has shaped our own understanding of what it means to be an American. Read and learn. This is cultural studies at its best.

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