Westerns Books

My philosphy proffessor gave us a list of books to choose from so that we could write a paper on it. This was on the list and since I have always been a huge Seinfeld fan I bought it. I thoroghly enjoyed the book. It made me think about the characters more than I ever did watching the show, and it even made me laugh a little once or twice. I highly recommend this book!

Yes, Seinfeld is always funny. Here's what he said about his comedic inspiration: "[Lois Nettleton] was married to Jean Shepherd. He's the guy who invented talk radio and really formed my entire comedic sensibility. Yes. I learned how to do comedy from Jean Shepherd." He said this in his commentary for "The Gymnast" episode on the sitcom's DVD set, sixth season. Who is Jean Shepherd? See the book EXCELSIOR, YOU FATHEAD! THE ART AND ENIGMA OF JEAN SHEPHERD.

If you don't know much about Seinfeld or philosophy you might enjoy this book, but if you're a Seinfeld nut then avoid it at all costs. The show is incorrectly quoted several times and "facts" are also made up at times. The summarization of Socrates' allegory of the cave on page nine misstates some pretty major details. I suffered through the book until page 47 when the writer talks about how Kramer and Mickey embrace communism in the episode "The Race." Anyone who has seen that show even once knows that Mickey is trying to talk Kramer out of communism throughout the show. And even though Kramer definitely shows interest in communism it is quite a stretch to say is becomes an "ardent" communist. Rather than being an enjoyable read this book frustrated me enough that i quit on page 51. In all fairness the rest of the book may be excellent, but i'll probably never know.

but this is not saying mcuh because the rest are very bad. What each of these books needs are realy thoughtful thinkers who know philosophy, who i n this case know Seinfeld, and who have sense of humor to go with insights. Writers are dull, take themselves too seriously even when they have something okay to say.

Amazingly bad book. As someone who loves Seinfeld and Philosophy, I found this book insulting for both, and espacially for the readers. I tried reading parts of it, and simply couldn't bring myself to finish any chapter. Just a bunch of jiberish from people who apperently don't like, know, or "get" Seinfeld very much.

The straw that got me to finally give up (and write this review) is when I read that Seinfeld was not the first to write a comedy about nothing, and that "Much ado about nothing" is also such a comedy. What, the writer just googled "about nothing" to find something which has a similar title ??? Discusting.

To write a book about rap and hip hop, and to not once mention homophobia, is an extremely glaring oversight.

Imani breaks down the hermeneutics of hip hop with the same detail to nuance and complexity and rigor that a Greek Scholar devotes to Paul's Epistles or Plato's Republic. I agree with Cornel West: there isn't a better book on hip hop out there. She is both critical of Hip Hop's excesses as well as appreciative of its raw Dionysian energy. After reading it, I'm convinced that Imani will always be the smartest person in the room. I will use this for my Hip Hop and Urban America course.

Imani Perry is a wonderful writer and analyst. Her book is remarkable in its approach to the subject of Hip Hop's role in the black community.

I've used this book for three years and am eager to trade it for something else. Why? 1) Musical examples are chosen seemingly because Yudkin got tired of the tried-and-true favorites (Bach Brandenburg Concerti are not on the student CD set, but the St. Matthew Passion is. As a result, the students may get to hear Bach Brandenburg Concerti in class but can't listen on their own). Same is true for Verdi: Otello is included, but not Rigoletto or La Traviata? 2) This text is written for the average music major (not stellar, just average), rather than a music appreciation student. He assumes much greater knowledge of instruments, timbre, texture, and familiarity with general musical terms than any introductory student will have. 3) An exasperating dilemma: many works on the instructor CD set are not on the student set, despite those being the better selections. Why not put the obscure works on the instructor CDs, and let students have access to really great works? For example, when he selected a recording of a madrigal, he picked one that has two females singing a verse, then two males singing a verse...nothing at all like 95% of all madrigals students would ever be likely to hear. The reason? He knows the performers on the CD! Students never get to hear real text painting as every "real" madrigal illustrates. It's hard to build on that when asking students to understand the concept of text painting.

Anyway, I'm not Yudkin-bashing, but there are definitely problems with this text that need to be addressed.

Beautifully illustrated. Each type of music is traced back to its beginnings--how and when it first was developed. Explains what specifically makes this music different from other types of music. Very interesting and useful information! A very good reference manual that gives you an excellent foundation to music.

I think the book should have questions at the end of the chapters.

This book is abysmal. I have used it this semester for an "Art of Listening to Music" course. The glossary is a whole 4 1/2 pages for a 500 page book; it includes maybe half of the vocab in the book. The index is even worse. It may have the term you are looking for, but the chances are it will not refer you to the context you want it in. I also found this book to be very vague over all. This could be for one of two reasons. First it's an introductory book, secondly I'm a math major and I demand very thorough proofs. However, neither of these reasons are an excuse for not defining a word that is only used in the musical world (Scherzo for example. The book uses it throughout, yet never says anything more then it means "to joke" in Italian. Yeah, thanks, very helpful) and continually using that word throughout the text. Horrible book, avoid at all costs, and if you have a class that uses it don't take it!

This book is a nicely done introduction to music appreciation for Western audiences. It includes an overview of musical genres and traditions from the Gregorian chants through Hip Hop rap. The book is organized into chapters according to musical era with chapters for the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Baroque era, the Classic era, Nineteenth Century, and Twentieth Century. Beethoven receives a chapter of his own. There are also chapters on World Music, music theory, listening techniques, jazz, and popular music. Within each era, there is a general description of musical development of the times, and then several well-known representative composers are profiled. Yudkin goes out of his way to include information about the contributions of women and minorities to music. Interspersed with the text are listening guides with notes for active listening for specific pieces of music to exemplify the prose. The listening guides include such information as instrumentation, lyrics and translations, short segments of notation, as well as comments keyed to specific time spots for the selection on the student or faculty CDs (sold separately). The book is amply illustrated with black-and-white reproductions of paintings and photographs. Each chapter also includes a section of colored plates with artwork or scenery typical of the era and location. At the end of the book are a glossary and index.

One aspect of the book that I particularly liked was the fact that it began with World Music, describing aspects of music that are found the world over. Instead of approaching the topic as if all classical music is from the Western tradition, Yudkin explains that Western classical music is simply one kind of music found in the world, and there are other classical music traditions that are quite different. Only after he has established this point does he turn to an in-depth description of the classical tradition most familiar to his audience, the Western tradition. Throughout the book, I was quite impressed with Yudkin's global rather than ethnocentric approach to Western classical music.

The layout of the book is exceptionally well done. Although there numerous short articles for special topics inserted in the text, as well as the listening guides, and images with captions, the text is neatly cut so that sentences are rarely left hanging or continued across page turns when such items are included. My only complaint is that quotations about composers are printed in the margins in light yellow ink, which can be extremely hard to read. Also, a few of the listening guides in the popular music section contain nothing besides lyrics; they could benefit from a few additional words of analysis as found in the listening guides earlier in the book.

Overall, the book is quite accessible and interesting to students of with varying musical backgrounds. Although I've been exposed to classical music all of my life, there was much about the tradition that I remained completely unaware of. After reading Yudkin's explanations, I find that there is a lot more to listen to than I had noticed before.

I purchased Introduction to Corporate Finance from Texts-to-Go and recieved it promptly and in wonderful condition. I highly recommend others to buy from this company.

This is a good reference book.

I absolutely loved Petticoat Ranch so I had very high expectations for Calico Canyon. I'm happy to say I wasn't disappointed. In fact, I found this book to be even stronger than the first, which is saying something.

Mary Connealy knows her way around emotions. She can make you laugh out loud one minute and tug on your heart the next. In Grace and Daniel she's created two characters you love and root for, even while they are contemplating knocking each other silly. It's a match reminiscent of classic movie pairings like Tracy and Hepburn or Gable and Lombard. Grace and Daniel are just as much fun... and romantic.

She also has some interesting secondary story lines which will almost certainly pop up in her next book in the series, Gingham Mountain. While this book can stand alone, I think you'll enjoy it more if you read Petticoat Ranch first. Not only will you have a proper introduction to Grace, but you'll get to read another fast-paced and fun romance.

Grace Calhoun has a past she doesn't want to share. She has a new job teaching school in Mosqueros, Texas, and her biggest problem is loud-mouthed, aggravating widower, Daniel Reeves. He eventually gets her fired and she is stranded, with no place to go and no money. Then her abusive foster father arrives and threatens her. In a desperate attempt to escape, Grace jumps out the window and hides in the back of a wagon, not realizing it belongs to Daniel. He doesn't discover her until he reaches home. He can't throw her out in a blizzard to freeze, and the pass back to town is closed by snow, so he's stuck with her. Daniel and his motherless brood of five sons live in a cave. There's barely space for them all and since they sleep on the floor in the one room, Grace and Daniel are sharing very close quarters. The preacher and his wife arrive the next morning, and immediately see that something must be done. Before Grace and Daniel realize what is happening, they end up married--to each other, something they rank right up there with a bad case of the plague. Mary Connealy has a wicked sense of humor, and her books are always fun. Calico Canyon has it all: supsense, likable hero and heroine, five rambunctious boys, humor, and a heaping helping of romance. Don't miss it.

CALICO CANYON by Mary Connealy is the second book in the Lassoed in Texas series. In it, we follow Grace Calhoun, a runaway adopted orphan, who is barely squeaking out a living as a schoolteacher in Mosqueros, Texas. She sends all her money home to her sister, Hannah, who is diligently caring for street kids in Chicago with the hopes of one day being reunited. With her adoptive father hot on her trail with a vendetta to settle, Grace is constantly looking over her shoulder praying she will be able to send Hannah the help she needs. Grace's determination to make a go of it as a teacher is challenged by the five Reeves boys that she has affectionately named "The Five Horsemen of the Apocalypse." When she has it out with Daniel Reeves, the boy's father, she is fired by the school board and left to wonder how she will ever be able to help Hannah.
Grace's fear for Hannah is short-lived when Parrish, her adoptive father, catches up with her in Masqueros and plans to mete out his vengeance. In a turn of events, Grace ends up in the back of Daniel Reeves wagon and is carried away to his ranch. Grace, Daniel, and the five boys are thrown together under the oddest of circumstances and have an entire winter to work out their differences. All the while, Parrish is in town plotting how he will one day make Grace pay for her disobedience.
I really enjoyed CALICO CANYON. Much of the premise of Grace and Daniel being thrown together is reminiscent of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, without the brothers. Though there are plots that take dramatic turns, I never found myself gasping in fear. The trials in the book are taken care of so quickly, you never really feel as if anyone is in real danger. I can only assume, since the story ended with Hannah determined to find Grace, that there will be a book three.

Reviewed by Wendy Cleveland for Reader Views (6/08)

"Calico Canyon" takes place in Mosqueros, Texas in 1867. It centers around teacher Grace Calhoun, who settled in Mosqueros, hoping to escape from her past. She is used to teaching girls, but when the five Reeve boys (twins and triplets) show up, she has her work cut out for her. Being typical boys, they play pranks and misbehave. Their widowed father, Daniel, is no better. When Grace confronts him about the boy's behavior, he does not want to hear it. He takes it up with the school board who listens to both sides of the story. Not being able to come to a conclusion, the board fires Ms. Calhoun and expels the five Reeve boys from school. After being fired, Grace goes back home. She senses danger and realizes her abusive adoptive father, Parrish, has found her. Come to find out, she has been running from him because he had been conducting shady business about which she turned over evidence to the authorities. Trying to escape his clutches, she jumps out the window and hides in a nearby wagon. The wagon belonged to none other than Daniel Reeves. Unbeknownst to Mr. Reeves, he takes off with Grace in the back. While his sons are helping him take everything out of the wagon, one of the younger ones asks "if he brought home a ma." Of course, no one knew what he was talking about until they all see Grace cold and unconscious. They bring her inside and nurture her until she is well. The boys and Daniel are not happy about the situation because of the previous encounter at the school. This dislike permeates throughout most of the story until they discover Grace's past and whom she is running from. This leads to everyone being in danger with only love prevailing.

I loved the interaction between Daniel and Grace. Throughout the book, I was hoping that they would realize they belonged with each other. The history and details of 1800 Texas were interesting and well researched. It was also suspenseful as Parrish was a very scary man. To think that he would adopt orphans to work in his carpet mill and then control and beat them was disturbing. If you want to be "Lassoed in Texas" and then some, I would definitely recommend you read "Calico Canyon.," by Mary Connealy. You won't be disappointed.

Mary Connealy has done it again - given her readers a novel chock-full of fun, humor, heart tugs and more. Get ready to scale the heights of Calico Canyon in this heart-warming story of prim and proper schoolmarm Grace Calhoun who tumbles into a canyon full of trouble when she's forced to marry Daniel Reeves, the unruly father of five of her worst students. Motherless little boys and troublemakers all, the Reeves boys are Grace's worst nightmare as a teacher -- or so she thinks! Having fled the cruelty of an abusive foster-father, Grace had hoped her life couldn't get any worse. But when the prim and proper "Miss Calhoun" becomes "Ma" to five ruffians and wife to their belligerent father, there's a heap of trouble in them thar hills that will have the pages turning faster than wind whipping through a canyon.

After reading Petticoat Ranch, I wondered if Mary Connealy could surpass the fun and whimsy of that first wonderful book in the series, but I am happy to say she does, soaring to new heights as an author who just gets better and better. In this second book of the Lassoed in Texas series, Ms. Connealy delivers a well-written tale of two unlikely people who manage to fall in love despite a mountain of obstacles, not only winning each other's hearts, but the reader's as well. Page by page, Calico Canyon has it all - laugh-out-loud humor, heart-wrenching moments, tender romance and lots and lots of fun - not to mention a spiritual message that's as deep as the canyon in which it all takes place. Bottom line? This book is simply a no-brainer -- buy it, you'll love it!

it is a really great book. i enjoyed reading it so much.

Many are the college students who have read the Platonic discourses collected in this volume. Along with The Republic, these dialogues form the most basic core of Platonic philosophy and are required reading for anyone interested in the art of philosophy.

In the Euthyphro dialogue, Socrates is on his way to court to answer the charges of Meletus that he creates his own gods and does not believe in the gods of society. On his way, he meets Euthyphro, a lawyer-priest of some sort who tells Socrates that he is prosecuting his own father for the murder of a slave (a slave who had himself committed murder). Socrates compels the learned Euthyphro to explain to him the truth about what is pious and what impious; if he can tell the court what he has learned from the knowledgeable Euthyphro, he will have no trouble countering Meletus' charges. Euthyphro tries to define what is pious as that which is pleasing to the gods, but Socrates shows him that his definition is really just an effect of piety, and Euthyphro bows out of the circular conversation without ever giving Socrates a satisfactory definition of true piety.

In The Apology, Socrates defends himself from both the recent charges of Meletus for impiety as well as the host of charges long leveled at him as being a corrupter of the youth. He cites a pronouncement of the Delphic oracle that he is the wisest of all men and explains how he has spent his life trying to vindicate the god's pronouncement by seeking out the wisest men in society and testing them. The wisest men, he says, turn out to be not wise at all. He himself knows he is not wise, while the supposedly wise think they are wise when they are not, and he has concluded that the gods believe that the wisest man is the man who knows how much he does not know. The fact that he shows men that they are not in fact wise has admittedly made Socrates unpopular and turned the minds of many citizens against him. He bravely says he will continue philosophizing if he is acquitted because the god himself compels him to do so. In fact, he says society benefits from what he is doing (namely, trying to make men more virtuous), and he defends himself by saying that society itself will be harmed by his execution. Of course, claiming that he is actually a gift of the god for Athens is a hard way to win over a jury already biased against him. Upon his conviction, he willingly accepts the death sentence imposed upon him, but he, somewhat oddly, warns his fellow citizens that there are younger men ready to come out and question individuals in the same manner as he has done.

In the Crito, Socrates convinces his friend Crito that it is just and right for him to accede to the punishment of death returned by the Athenian jury. He feels that he has been wronged by men but not the laws or society, and to escape from prison and run away would make of him the very type of man the jury wrongly concluded him to be. It is an exceedingly elegant and brave discourse.

Meno is one of Plato's early and, to my mind, least successful, Socratic dialogues. The conversation centers, naturally enough, on virtue and whether or not it is teachable. Meno's definitions of virtue are woefully inadequate, by and large, and deserving of Socrates' typical arrogance. At one point, Meno says that one cannot learn about what one does not know. To counter this argument, Socrates, arguing that the soul is eternal and that learning is in fact recollection, sets about showing how a slave "remembers" the answers to geometrical questions Socrates puts to him. Later, when Meno agrees with the notion that virtue is knowledge and can be taught, Socrates counters the point by saying he has yet to find anyone who truly practices virtue and is thus qualified to teach it. In the end, Socrates concludes that virtue cannot be taught and is in fact a gift of the gods.

The Phaedo is a third-person account of the philosophical discussion between Socrates and his friends on the day of his death. Socrates accepts his fate most amicably, arguing that death is the means by which to achieve the aims of true philosophy, for only by escaping the evil of the body can the soul truly acquire wisdom. Socrates renews his argument that learning is in fact recollection, supposedly proving that the soul exists before birth. He also argues that everything comes from its opposite; if death comes from life, then life must come from death. The proofs he offers for his belief that the soul is eternal do not strike me as very convincing. In many ways, the Phaedo is a precursor to much of the philosophy of The Republic, in which the concepts of the eternal soul and the invisible Forms mentioned here are threshed out much more satisfactorily.

Since it is certainly not my place to review Plato's philososphy, I shall here simply comment on Grube's translation. With the possible exception of the Euthyphro, these are all very, very important dialogues, and, as such, it is important that the translation be accurate, yet readable. Having translated part of the Meno myself, I can attest to Grube's wonderful job at rendering into clear and comprehensible English all that he could from Plato's beautiful Attic Greek. These are wonderful dialogues, and Grube does a wonderful job at making them accessible to the modern reader.