A Century of Ballads, 1810-1910

Book Description

The Clash was--and still is--one of the most important groups of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Indebted to rockabilly, reggae, Memphis soul, cowboy justice, and '60s protest, the overtly political band railed against war, racism, and a dead-end economy, and in the process imparted a conscience to punk. Their eponymous first record and London Calling still rank in Rolling Stone's top-ten best albums of all time, and in 2003 they were officially inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Joe Strummer was the Clash's front man, a rock-and-roll hero seen by many as the personification of outlaw integrity and street cool. The political heart of the Clash, Strummer synthesized gritty toughness and poetic sensitivity in a manner that still resonates with listeners, and his untimely death in December 2002 shook the world, further solidifying his iconic status.

Music journalist Chris Salewicz was a friend to Strummer for close to three decades and has covered the Clash's career and the entire punk movement from its inception. With exclusive access to Strummer's friends, relatives, and fellow musicians, Salewicz penetrates the soul of an icon. He uses his vantage point to write the definitive biography of Strummer, charting his enormous worldwide success, his bleak years in the wilderness after the Clash's bitter breakup, and his triumphant return to stardom at the end of his life. In the process, Salewicz argues for Strummer's place in a long line of protest singers that includes Woody Guthrie, John Lennon, and Bob Marley, and examines by turns Strummer's and punk's ongoing cultural influence.

Customer Reviews:

A heart breakingly good book.......2007-09-18

I really enjoyed this book, it is a very honest and in depth look at Joe Strummer's life. What I found to be heart breaking was the amount he drank as a way to avoid the pain of his brother's death, and how it took him so long to come to terms with his own personal demons. A great read, but be ready.

Sometimes too much of a good thing.......2007-09-11

I would give this book three-and-a-half stars if I could.

This had all the elements of a great biography: a fascinating subject (Joe Strummer), an insider who was with him through many of his highs and lows (author Chris Salewicz), and a ton of interviews and research. But somehow, the whole is less than the sum of those parts.

I found two aspects of this book annoying: the way the author reads Great Social / Philosophical Meaning into almost anything Joe says or does, and the sheer quantity of minutiae included. Sure, some readers probably can't get enough of those tidbits, but it often reads more like source material than like an edited work. Somebody could have written a fine book half this length, by focusing on the most meaningful elements. (I greatly preferred the recent Warren Zevon biography _I'll Sleep When I'm Dead_, which had a lot of content but somehow made it a smoother, more readable narrative.)

You have to be a real Clash fan (as I am) to slog through to the end of this volume. It's a worthy read; still, because of its density and the author's fawning, it doesn't provide the type of raw thrills we were used to getting from Joe Strummer and the Clash.

A CLASH STORY.......2007-09-10

THIS IS A BIOGRAPHY OF ONE OF THE MOST INFLUENTIAL FIGURES IN ROCK, JOE STRUMMER OF THE CLASH. IT IS FILLED WITH MANY INTERESTING AND MOSTLY UNKNOWN, FACTS ABOUT HIS CHILDHOOD AND ADVENTURES AS AN EARLY ADULT.THE BOOK ALSO DISCUSSES THE RISE OF PUNK ROCK AND HIS CONTRIBUTION TO IT. IF YOU ARE A BIG CLASH FAN I HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT.

A revealing, up-close-and-personal account of the frontman's life..........2007-07-20

The lead sheet that comes with this book says "The importance of the Clash to modern music is almost impossible to overstate." A strong statement, to be sure, but one that is hard to argue. And while the band was certainly not solely one man's vision, Strummer (nee John Mellor) was the captain of it's apocalyptic view. Salewicz, a longtime writer for England's New Musical Express (NME) is in a fortunate position to write this revealing, up-close-and-personal account of the frontman's life as he covered the punk revolution from it's inception in the UK as well as having been a longtime friend of the subject at hand. (He even wrote his obit for the Independent in London.) In his three years of researching the book, Salewicz leaves no stone unturned - interviewing all of Joe's main band mates, managers, A&R men, etc. as well as a multitude of friends, wives, lovers and professional cohorts - taking us through his early days with the 101'ers all the way to the band's final stadium shows with the Who and even past the last show with Mick Jones at California's famed 'Us' festival. What comes across is a man full of contradictions - a sometimes angry spokesman for the beaten down proletariat, a man who when approaching his 'wilderness years' remained full of self doubt, through to his rebuilding of position with the Pogues and finally his latest band the Muscaleros. As both a journalist as well as a close friend, Salewicz gives perhaps the best view yet into this conflicted soul who fronted what many consider to be the most important band in rock'n'roll. Cheeseburger! - Blog on Books

After a long wait, a monumental effort.......2007-07-01

Wow, it seemed like I had this book on pre-order FOREVER. It was well worth the wait. After reading the book I'm glad it wasn't rushed out and can see why it took a long time to compile. This bio is a monumental project and certainly wasn't thrown together in haste.

If I were hypercritical I might complain that there were times I found it hard to follow just who was being quoted, or if the author was simply relating his own experience, but I won't dwell on that. The subject matter is simply too precious and the anecdotes told just too special to quibble over the small stuff. Though Joe barely made it past 50, the book relates the experiences of many folks in Stummer's life and certainly has a huge amount of ground to cover. I just couldn't put it down. When I reached the end I felt almost as sad as the day...well, you know.

If you are a fan of Joe Strummer, The Clash, punk rock or grew up through the late 70's-early 80's, you cannot and should not avoid this book!

The Ballad of the Sad Cafe: and Other Stories

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Southern Rococo
Carson's Ballad is Beautiful

The Ballad of the Sad Cafe: and Other Stories
Carson McCullers
Manufacturer: Mariner Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0618565868

Book Description

A classic work that has charmed generations of readers, this collection assembles Carson McCullers's best stories, including her beloved novella "The Ballad of the Sad Caf." A haunting tale of a human triangle that culminates in an astonishing brawl, the novella introduces readers to Miss Amelia, a formidable southern woman whose caf serves as the town's gathering place. Among other fine works, the collection also includes "Wunderkind," McCullers's first published story written when she was only seventeen about a musical prodigy who suddenly realizes she will not go on to become a great pianist. Newly reset and available for the first time in a handsome trade paperback edition, The Ballad of the Sad Caf is a brilliant study of love and longing from one of the South's finest writers.

Customer Reviews:

Southern Rococo.......2007-05-24

The title novella of this Carson McCullers collection is much loved, although I'd be hard-pressed to explain why. It takes place in a small Georgia milltown in the first half of the century, and involves a love triangle concerning a gay hunchbacked gossipy dwarf; his cousin, the six-foot-two, cross-eyed, androgynous town despot, Miss Amelia; and her ex-husband, who robs gas stations and carries in his pocket a salted human ear he gained in a razor fight. Like the short stories and the later plays of Tennessee Williams, this novella seems to go beyond mere Southern Gothic to yet another level, more like that of what we might call Southern Baroque or Rococo; McCullers seems to be pushing herself constantly as far as she can go. It's not enough for McCullers, for example, that Miss Amelie likes to fidget with the gallstones she once had removed that she keeps in a curio case: later she has them set in a watch fob to give to her beloved cousin the hunchback. The larger (and intelligent) points McCullers makes in the novella about the nature of love, particularly concerning the roles of the lover and the beloved, seem occulted rather than clarified by the freakshow approach to the characters.

This is a shame, because McCullers is certainly intelligent, and she certainly can write, as she shows not only by her gorgeous descriptions of setting in his story but also in the fine shorter pieces here that follow the title novella. I'd recommend starting elsewhere with her fiction than this novella: here she just seems trying to top herself with outlandish details and effects rather than strive for something more honest.

Carson's Ballad is Beautiful.......2007-03-06

I was first turned onto Carson McCullers in a southern lit class in college. Sad Cafe was required reading, and one of the best stories I read that whole semester. I found myself reading it again and again because I just liked the way the story sounded in my head. McCullers has such a simple technique for description and writing. It's so easy to understand, and it stays with you. Unlike a lot of stories, it's uncluttered and her writing is the bare soul of her characters.

Beware, if you are new to southern lit you might want to know a few tips...stories are usually a tragedy, the characters are usually flawed emotionally and often physically, and setting plays a huge part of the story. Don't forget language either. Carson McCullers captures the true essence of all of these in her writing. Sad Cafe is no exception.

It is a story that stays with you in some way. I know it has definitely stayed with me. I find myself wanting to pick it up again and again. Whether you are from the South or not, don't miss out on this beautiful and haunting piece of literature.

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter/Reflections in a Golden Eye/The Ballad of the Sad Cafe/The Member of the Wedding/The Clock Without Hands (Library of America)

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The American Jane Austen?
Magnificent McCullers
The unique lady of the "South"

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter/Reflections in a Golden Eye/The Ballad of the Sad Cafe/The Member of the Wedding/The Clock Without Hands (Library of America)
Carson McCullers
Manufacturer: Library of America
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1931082030
Release Date: 2001-09-27

Book Description

When The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter was published in 1940, Carson McCullers was instantly recognized as one of the most promising writers of her generation. The novels that followed established her as a master of Southern Gothic.

"McCullers' gift," writes Joyce Carol Oates, "was to evoke, through an accumulation of images and musically repeated phrases, the singularity of experience, not to pass judgment on it." McCullers effortlessly conveyed the raw anguish of her characters and the weird beauty of their perceptions. Set in small Georgia towns that are at once precisely observed and mythically resonant, McCullers' novels explore the strange, sometimes grotesque inner lives of characters who are often marginal and misunderstood. Above all, McCullers possessed an unmatched ability to capture the bewilderment and fragile wonder of adolescence.

In The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, an enigmatic deaf-mute draws out the haunted confessions of an itinerant worker, a young girl, a black doctor, and the widowed owner of a small-town café. Two shorter works, Reflections in a Golden Eye (1941) and The Ballad of the Sad Café (1943), use melodramatic scenarios and freakish characters to explore the disfiguring violence of desire. The Member of the Wedding (1946), on which the play and film were based, tells of a young girl's fascination with her brother's wedding and is perhaps McCullers' most moving and accomplished novel. In Clock Without Hands (1960), the story of a terminally ill druggist, McCullers produces some of her most forceful and indignant social criticism.

Edited by Carlos Dews.

Customer Reviews:

The American Jane Austen?.......2003-12-24

I have read many novels by many writers, both American and foreign, but it's been a good long while since I've read something so penetrating and perceptive as Carson McCuller's first and last novels. The characters in the books, their lives and personalities, are so well thought-out and delineated that you have to wonder how a woman of 23 could put something like this together. Anyway, below is a synopsis of each story in this volume.

The Heart is a Lonely Hunter is the longest of Carson McCullers' novels, and the first. She wrote it in the late `30s, and published it in 1940, when she was 23. It's an incredible first novel, and amazingly prescient and wise for someone of her age, era, and upbringing. The story revolves around a deaf mute, John Singer, who works engraving silverware in a small city in the South somewhere. He has only one friend in the world, another deaf mute who works for his cousin, making candy. As the story begins the candymaker (named Antanopolous) is committed to an asylum, and Singer moves from the home they shared, and slowly begins to acquire a circle of other friends. Principle in this circle are four people: Mick, the daughter of his landlords at the rooming house he lives in; Biff, who runs the diner where he takes his meals; Blount, another denizen of the diner, who wishes to unionize the local mill-workers; and Dr.Copeland, a black man who rages against the injustice of white society towards him and his race. The heart of the story is a character study of these five people, with alternating chapters following the one and then the other. Each is intelligent, in his or her own way, and each has special insights into the world around them. How these characters interact, and the relationships between them and the rest of the world, make the heart of the story and most of the book.

Reflections in a Golden Eye is a shorter story, one of McCullers' novels that is really more of a novella. The plot revolves around a love triangle that develops between two officers on an Army base, and the wife of one of them. There's also a strange, solitary, enigmatic private who tends the horses on the base, and he interacts with the other characters. Frankly, I didn't enjoy this story as much as The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. The characters weren't anywhere near as believable, and their motivations weren't as transparent or understandable. The ending was also somewhat predictable.

The Ballad of the Sad Café is the shortest of McCullers' novels or novellas, weighing in at 60 pages. It's the story of a strange, unpredictable relationship between the standoffish businesswoman who dominates the culture of a small town, and a dwarf hunchback who shows up one day claiming to be her long-lost nephew. How the two of them interact in the story is strange, to say the least, and not wholly explained in the story. This creates an enigmatic atmosphere, and as the story progresses and it becomes obvious we're not going to receive an explanation of things, you find yourself re-reading passages looking for clues as to motivations. I enjoyed this story much more than Reflections in a Golden Eye, perhaps almost as much as The Heart is a Lonely Hunter.

The Member of the Wedding is perhaps McCullers' most strange work. The heart of the book is built around the fantastic intentions and beliefs of a twelve-year-old girl. In the first portion of the book, she's known as Frankie. Later, when she gets the idea she's going to leave with her older brother on his honeymoon, she changes her name to F. Jasmine, and the book follows that convention. Once it develops that she can't go with the brother and his new bride (you knew this was going to happen) she becomes Frances. There isn't much of a plot other than this girl fantasizing about all of the things she's going to be or do, and looking down her nose at all the common people who surround her, who she thinks are beneath her.

Clock Without Hands is the best of McCullers' books other than The Heart is a Lonely Hunter. I now wonder if the length of the books had something to do with whether I liked them or not. She seems to have been able, in the longer books, to build her characters more, and have more plot twists. Clock Without Hands is about a dying pharmacist in a small Georgia town, and the events surrounding his death, but it really turns out to be more about one of his acquaintances, a senile old judge who imagines himself a great leader of the opposition to the desegregation movement. The episodes of the Civil Rights movement, as McCullers recreates them, become at times farcical and silly, and the resistance to the movement altogether silly and irrational.

Library of America volumes are wonderful to hold and read, and this is no exception. The type is clear, the book handy to hold or slip into a pocket. Given McCullers' stature as a writer, I think I'm going to value this book for a good long while.

Magnificent McCullers.......2002-03-11

Carson McCullers, one of America's greatest Southern writers, was often misunderstood, as many people were put off by or unwilling to deal with her (at the time) controversial subject matter. MCCullers used the grotesque as exaggerated symbols of everyday experience. The loneliness and isolation of her gothic-like characters were merely extreme examples of feelings we all have, though magnified and intensified to the nth degree.

Tennessee Williams, in his introduction to MCCullers' "Reflections in a Golden Eye", posed the question (in a mock dialogue) most people asked about writers of the 'gothic' school such as Carson McCullers, Flannery O'Connor, Katherine Anne Porter and Eudora Welty: "Why do they write about such dreadful things?" Williams replies, " In my opinion it is most simply definable as a sense, an intuition of an underlying dreadfulness in modern society.. Why have they got to use..symbols of the grotesque and the violent? Because a book is short and a man's life is long... The awfulness has to be compressed."

McCullers, unlike any writer I have ever read, pierces the heart of themes such as love, isolation, and loneliness with her lucid, poetic prose. Tennessee Williams, in Virginia Spencer Carr's biography of McCullers summed up McCullers' writing as follows: "I have used the word 'heart', but it is not an adequate word to describe the core of Carson McCullers' genius....I believe, in fact I know, that there are many, many with heart who lack the need or gift to express it. And therefore Carson McCullers is what I would call a necessary writer: She owned the heart and the deep understanding of it, but in addition she had that 'tongue of angels' that gave her power to sing of it, to make of it an anthem."

The unique lady of the "South".......2001-10-20

Until very recently, it was quite difficult to find a nice hardback copy of Mc Culler's novels. Each one of them is absolutely priceless and unforgettable; believe me when I tell you that "The Ballad of the Sad Café" is one of those stories that long remain on your mind. Mc Culler's novels, clearly influenced by Faulkner, surpass the master himself in magnetism, , power of storytelling and above all, characterization. If you add to all this a dose of gothic dark strangely ambivalent sense of humour, the result is certainly a writer utterly impossible to classify, novels that you really enjoy reading and characters that you are very unlikely to forget. Besides I am fully in love with the Library of America hardback editions and Mc Cullers certainly deserves to be included in this collection.
Later, if you want to give yourself a treat, go and buy her autobiography, although unfinished, a memorable book.

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Peter, Paul and Mary Songbook
Just what you were remembering

The Peter Paul and Mary Song Book

Manufacturer: Warner Bros Pubns
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0943351944

Book Description

Recollections by the singers, a discography, chord diagrams for five instruments, plus 42 American folk favorites--all in one great songbook! Here are just a few: Puff (The Magic Dragon) * If I Had My Way * A'Soalin' * Oh, Rock My Soul * It's Raining * One Kind Favor.

Customer Reviews:

Peter, Paul and Mary Songbook.......2005-08-09

Excellent -- a replacement for one lost in a flood several years ago...now I can sing again.

Just what you were remembering.......2001-08-04

I began playing guitar in the early seventies, when the hippie generation had helped to bring folk music to the forefront of the popular music scene. The major forces behind the success of folk music at that time -- finally reaching all across America on the radio waves -- were Peter, Paul and Mary. They sang songs that they loved, and became part of our lives; these are the songs you will find in this book. The ones you remember, half-hummed snatches of tunes for every mood and moment. The book features both piano and guitar accompaniment. If I were to find fault with the book, it would be that there were still so many songs I wanted which were not included here, and that it did not have a spiral binding, and so my first copy split and finally needed to be replaced after many well-loved years. This book is the right place to start as you begin learning the best songs to know in the folk tradition.

Ballad of the Whiskey Robber: A True Story of Bank Heists, Ice Hockey, Transylvanian Pelt Smuggling, Moonlighting Detectives, and Broken Hearts

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Fantastic, Hilarious...and a Bit Chilling!
Great Read!
An Extremely Entertaining Read
A true story of the Early Transition from Socialism
enjoyable, true adverture

Ballad of the Whiskey Robber: A True Story of Bank Heists, Ice Hockey, Transylvanian Pelt Smuggling, Moonlighting Detectives, and Broken Hearts
Julian Rubinstein
Manufacturer: Little, Brown and Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0316071676

Book Description

Attila Ambrus was a gentleman thief, a sort of Cary Grant — if only Grant came from Transylvania, was a terrible professional hockey goalkeeper, and preferred women in leopard-skin hot pants. During the 1990s, while playing for the biggest hockey team in Budapest, Ambrus took up bank robbery to make ends meet. His opponents: a police chief who learned how to be a detective via dubbed episodes of Columbo; a deputy so dense he was known only by his Hungarian nickname, Mound of Asshead; and a forensics expert-cum-ballet teacher who wore a top hat and tails on the job.

Part Pink Panther, part The Unbearable Lightness of Being, part Slap Shot, this uproariously funny, award-winning book tells the remarkable story of a crime spree that galvanized a forlorn nation and made a nobody into a somebody — a tale so outrageous that it could only be true.

--WINNER, Borders 2004 "Original Voices" Non-fiction Book of the Year.

--FINALIST, 2005 Edgar Award, Best Fact Crime.

--A New York Times "Editors' Choice"

Customer Reviews:

Fantastic, Hilarious...and a Bit Chilling!.......2007-05-24

This is a well-written, well-researched book that captures a unique moment in history and a bizarre character who's also a product of his place and time. Rubinstein goes the extra mile to follow the thread of this true-crime story, and his engaging prose takes you with him.

Great Read!.......2007-04-11

Excellent book! Great true crime story that is action packed, and very funny...plus a little bit of history!
Highly recommend this book!

An Extremely Entertaining Read.......2007-01-04

Julian Rubinstein tells the true story of Attila Ambrus, the Transylvanian-born backup hockey goalie in Budapest who also lived the life of a pelt smuggler and daring bank robber between practices and games. It was a story the author first heard about in a short news piece in Sports Illustrated in 1999 and on writing the book he's able to set the story in hilarious style against the backdrop of the changing Hungary and Romania of the early 1990s. At one point Ambrus is described as "a sizable conundrum within a notable contradiction, the best unpaid hockey goalie in a filthy-rich slum town". The photo section in the middle, the appendices and interview with the author at the end, and the references throughout to world events the west would be familiar with serve to remind us that this is largely a work of non-fiction despite all the absurdity. A great read especially for those who have visited or have lived in this part of the world in these changing times from Socialism.

A true story of the Early Transition from Socialism.......2006-10-11

As an economist who has often worked on the transition from socialism, I found this book to be the best single source of what really went on---OK, that's partly because the book is hilarious and has one of the best book covers of all time. But Rubinstein should have won a Pulitzer prize for managing to capture what was going on behind the scenes on the socio-economic front in the early years of the transition in such an entertaining way. Let's hope Atilus escapes and there's a sequel.

enjoyable, true adverture.......2006-09-18

The Ballad of the Whiskey Robber is the story of Attila Ambrus, the infamous bank robber of Budapest during the 1990s. The biography follows Ambrus from his childhood as an ethnic Hungarian in Romania to his escape to Hungary, through his years as an unpaid goaltender for a local professional hockey team while moonlighting as a fur pelt smuggler and eventual bank robber, to his eventual capture, escape from prison, and recapture. It was an interesting life, during an interesting time (the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe as it was replaced by corrupt, crony-capitalism), captured well by Julian Rubinstein.

By robbing only banks and post offices owned by the government, widely perceived to be corrupt, and eschewing actual violence, Ambrus becomes a folk hero, a modern-day Hungarian Robin Hood, though rather than giving his takings to the poor, he seems to have enriched only the local mafia-run casinos.

The story was obviously well researched, with full and open access to Ambrus and many of the other players in his story. Through the first third of the book, Rubinstein's style is a bit over-the-top, as if he were trying to capture our attention and set the atmosphere in every sentence with unusual details and strange analogies. But eventually the writing settles down to a good, clear, rollicking narrative.

Beyond just the story of Ambrus and his bank-robbing, Rubinstein does a great job placing him in the context of very unusual place and time. After reading the book, I felt I had a real sense of what it was like to live in Budapest during the 1990s, or grow up as a minority in Romania, much more so than if I had read a history book.

While the story doesn't have the weight for me to consider it a masterpiece (and receive my 5 star rating), the book is both a fun read and a great way to learn about the travails of life in Eastern Europe after the fall of Communism. I highly recommend it for anyone.

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Looks good at the beginning. . .dissapointing read
The Misery of The Ballad of Lucy Whipple
COULDNT STOP READING IT!!!!
Walking Lucy's path
What I think of Lucy's Ballad

The Ballad of Lucy Whipple
Karen Cushman
Manufacturer: HarperTrophy
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0064406849

Amazon.com

When California Morning Whipple's widowed mother uproots her family from their comfortable Massachusetts environs and moves them to a rough mining camp called Lucky Diggins in the Sierras, California Morning resents the upheaval. Desperately wanting to control something in her own life, she decides to be called Lucy, and as Lucy she grows and changes in her strange and challenging new environment. Here Karen Cushman helps the American Gold Rush spring to colorful life, just as she did for medieval England in her previous two books, Catherine, Called Birdy and The Midwife's Apprentice, which won Newbery Honor status and a Newbery Medal respectively. For ages 8-12.

Book Description

Dear Gram and Grampop,
Please do not address yours truly as California anymore, California Morning Whipple being a foolish name for a duck much less a girl. I call myself Lucy now. I cannot hate California and be California. I know you will understand.

California doesn't suit Lucy Whipple -- not the name, not the place. But moving out West to Lucky Diggins, California, was her mama's dream-come-true. And now her brother, Butte, and sisters, Prairie and Sierra, seem to be Westerners at heart, too. For Lucy, Lucky Diggins is hardly a town at all -- just a bunch of ramshackle tents and tobacco-spitting miners. Even the gold her mama claimed was just lying around in the fields isn't panning out. Worst of all, there's no lending library! Dag diggety!

So Lucy vows to be plain miserable until she can hightail it back East where she belongs. But Lucy California Morning Whipple may be in for a surprise -- because home is a lot closer than she thinks...

Customer Reviews:

Looks good at the beginning. . .dissapointing read.......2006-07-22

I bought this book at a used book sale, having never read it beforehand. At first, it looked like a really good story, but as I read it further, it became more and more dissapointing with every page. While the descriptions of an 1840s California mining town are excellent, there isn't much else to praise about this book.
First of all are the kids'names, especially that of the main character, Lucy, whose real name is California Morning Whipple. No wonder she wanted to change her name -- California Morning Whipple sounds like some kind of a dessert. Her sibling's names -- Butte, Prairie, Sierra and Ocean, seem just as odd for the time frame in which the story is set.
Mrs. Whipple, unfortunately, comes off as a rather unlikeable character -- a stubborn, somewhat self-centered widow who drags her kids away from their comfortable, familiar Massachussets town and into a rough mining camp where there are no schools, libraries, or even other kids to play with. She's very hard on Lucy, annoyed by her daughter's constant reading, and she is rather unsympathetic about Lucy's homesickness. She also seems to have no apparent concerns over letting strange, rough men sleep in the same quarters as her kids - apparently, nobody worried about child molesters in those days.
Butte's fascination with collecting different words for liquor is also a bad idea in a book geared toward impressionable young readers -- it makes alcohol seem very appealing to kids. And the ending, too, is dissapointing. Throughout almost the whole book, you hear Lucy saying how badly she wants to return home to Massachussets, so much so that you want to see her get her wish. Then, just as it's about to happen, she decides that home is California, after all, and she stays put. Then, in a letter to her mother (who has remarried and moved to the Sandwich Islands with the rest of the family)Lucy says that home is where her family is, but she makes no effort, or shows no desire to rejoin them. Instead, she remains in California, by her own choice, and becomes a librarian.
While in some stories the "I-really-want-to-go-home-but-after-I've-been-here-for-a-while-I've-decided-that-I-really-am-home" plot works well for some stories, it failed miserably in this one. For the above reasons, I give this book one star.

The Misery of The Ballad of Lucy Whipple .......2006-02-07

I only completed four pages and I did not like this book. I thought this book is boring. Anyways, the book is inaccurate. A women during this period of time would not go all the way to California without a man, and East coast people were consider the proper folks of the day and would not have spoke in slang! The most inaccurate thing of all are the character's names. The people on the East coast would have never dreamed of naming there kids California, Butte, Prairie, Sierra, Golden Promise, and Ocean. Besides, the Prairie is in the midwest, the ocean has nothing to do with the west ( with the exception of the Pacific Ocean), and the Sierra Desert was not known about back than! These sound like Native American names, not proper English names.
This book could have been a success. I read Karen Cushman's background and it seems like she is trying to interest children in history. I think if she wants do that she should at least put accurate information in her books! I have read The Mid-Wife's Apprentice also by Karen Cushman, I thought that was much more accurate than this book. If Karen would have kept this book a little more true to history and geography it would be more enjoyable. You would not sit and worry about what is realistic and what is not. If you look at the copy write date it is 1996. I am guessing there are lots of books with the same plot. A girl who is almost a teenager crosses the United States because her parents want to search for gold in California and the girl doesn't want to leave her friends and family and move. If she would have changed this very popular unoriginal plot I think more children would have enjoyed it. I know I would and many of my friends would have been more likely to read a book with an original plot than a book with stale, boring plot.

This is Karen Cushman's worst work. I highly recommend save your money for something other book. Trust me, this book is a waste of paper and ink!

COULDNT STOP READING IT!!!!.......2005-12-04

Great book, a lot of similes, descriptions. You really see the characters and what they are doing in your head. Not difficult to read. I cant say any more but PERFECT!!!
I hope this review will be useful to you, and

READ IT!!!

Walking Lucy's path.......2005-10-25

I think that "The Ballad of Lucy Whipple" is a very good book because of how clearly the author shows Lucy's personality within the book. Such as when Lucy states "Mama, that gold you claimed is lying in the fields around here must be hidden by all the lizards, dead leaves, and mule droppings, for I can't see a thing worth picking up and taking home." Lucy hates California at first, until she understands the true beauty of it at the end of the book.

I also enjoyed how the story sucks you into a whirlepool of adventure and another world so that you can put yourself in Lucy's shoes and walk her path in the story. Like when the author writes, "Small tents, shacks, and brush-covered lean-tos huddled along one bank of the river." and
"The air, heavy with heaty and dust, burned my nose and stung my eyes."

I recommend this book to people who love adventure, a little humor, and who aren't afraid of history. The Ballad of Lucy Whipple makes you laugh when you least expect it and gives you a taste of gold rush life.

What I think of Lucy's Ballad.......2005-09-30

I think that "The Ballad of Lucy Whipple" is a very good book because of how clearly the author shows Lucy's personality within the book. I also enjoyed how the story sucks you into a whirlepool of adventure and another world so that you can put yourself in Lucy's shoes and walk her path in the story. I recommend this book to people who love adventure, a little humor, and who aren't afraid of history.

All Intros and Endings for Jazz Guitar: Bebop, Swing, Latin, Ballads

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Buy this book.
High-Yield Jazz Guitar Instruction
We need more books like this!

All Intros and Endings for Jazz Guitar: Bebop, Swing, Latin, Ballads
Jim Ferguson
Manufacturer: Mel Bay Pubns
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0786667354

Book Description

The fifth book from Jim Ferguson, All Intros & Endings features dozens of hip intros and endings that you can use not only for gigs, but also as a staring point for developing your own ideas. There are chord progressions, voice-led ending chords, vamps (bebop, swing, Latin, and ballads), extended ideas, classic intros, and many concepts which are designed to provide the player with the material to fuel his or her own creativity. It includes sections on the major #11 and minor-major 7th chords, and symmetrical devices. Notation and tablature with a 44-track CD.

Customer Reviews:

Buy this book........2006-03-20

Great book,exactly as advertized.After digging into this I realized it is true what they say about having good intros and endings especially with this kind of music.Much of this stuff will stick with you and also lead to your own ideas.Also a great value.I'm eagerly awaiting Volumes 2,3,etc...

High-Yield Jazz Guitar Instruction.......2005-08-20

A TOP choice for augmenting your Jazz Guitar instruction & a very helpful supplement to your Jazz resources.

This book/CD package provides jazz stylistic instruction-practice and includes chord progressions, voice-led ending chords, vamps (bebop, swing, Latin, ballads), extended ideas, classic intros, many concepts, and more. The 40 jam-packed pages and CD provide more real-world jazz material than many other books on the market combined.

Check out the opinions of others, and the author's web page,

http://guitar-mentor.blogspot.com/2005/08/high-yield-guitar-instruction.html

http://www.fergusonguitar.com/books.html

We need more books like this!.......2004-01-15

This is a great book for intermediate players who want some new ideas -- not only for intros and outros but comping and solo playing too. There's a lot of really nice stuff here, lots of modern-sounding chord voicings and a brief, but good, discussion of voice leading. This guy's books are all very good.

Lift up Your Head, Tom Dooley: The True Story of the Appalachian Murder That Inspired One of America's Most Popular Ballads

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The true story at last!

Lift up Your Head, Tom Dooley: The True Story of the Appalachian Murder That Inspired One of America's Most Popular Ballads
John Foster West
Manufacturer: Down Home Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Ballad of Tom Dula: The Documented Story Behind the Murder of Laura Foster and the Trials and Execution of Tom Dula

ASIN: 1878086200

Customer Reviews:

The true story at last!.......2001-01-14

The subtitle of this book tells it all -- THE TRUE STORY OF THE APPALACHIAN MURDER THAT INSPIRED ONE OF AMERICA'S MOST POPULAR BALLADS. The author has done meticulous research into the murder of Laura Foster which was popularized by the Kingston Trio. He uses court records, newspaper accounts, and other documents to authenticate his findings about her murder and the trial, conviction, and execution of Tom Dooley. I have read many accounts of the crime, but none were so well documented, and this time I feel that I have an understanding of what really happened. The reader gets to know not only the facts of the case, but also the central figures, their families and neighbors, and the law and court officials. The background information also provides a picture of life in the foothill of North Carolina during the second half of the nineteenth century.

Even though the account sometimes reads like a history book and gets bogged down with details, it is a fascinating book and should be enjoyed by anyone who has an interest in history and who has ever hummed along with "The Ballad of Tom Dooley."

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