Books - Spring 2007

Mahler: His Life & Music, Part 2

Buddhism

His book offers a comprehensive worldwide cultural and historical view of Buddhism.

Buddha, a readable, sophisticated, and somewhat unconventional biography of one of the most influential people of all time. Buddha himself fought against the cult of personality, and the Buddhist scriptures were faithful, giving few details of his life and personality. Karen Armstrong mines these early scriptures, as well as later biographies, then fleshes the story out with an explanation of the cultural landscape of the 6th century B.C., creating a deft blend of biography, history, philosophy, and mythology.

Lama Surya Das doesn't spin platters for a living, but he does have a hip delivery that belies his years of sheltered training in Buddhist monasteries. In Awakening the Buddha Within, he borrows a time-tested bestseller format for a 2,500-year-old tradition that comes off as anything but ancient. With the "Five T's of Concentration," the question of "need or greed," and the story of the monk who bares his backside to prove a point, Surya Das invokes a path of wisdom that is as accessible and down-to-earth as a worn pair of loafers

Detecting the Detectives

Considered the best mystery novel ever written by many readers, And Then There Were None is the story of 10 strangers, each lured to Indian Island by a mysterious host. Once his guests have arrived, the host accuses each person of murder.

Mr. Shaitana invites Hercule Poirot and six other guests to a dinner and bridge party and then dies during the evening--stabbed through the heart without anyone noticing the actual murder. Poirot launches an investigation, which uncovers secrets the other guests would prefer to keep hidden.

Murder at the Vicarage marks the debut of Agatha Christie’s unflappable and much beloved female detective, Miss Jane Marple. With her gift for sniffing out the malevolent side of human nature, Miss Marple is led on her first case to a crime scene at the local vicarage.

This novel, written in 1927, is considered the best and most successful of the early mysteries. It met with no small outrage when it appeared, as it uses a plot device many readers thought "unfair."

Economic Growth, Egalitarianism & Inequality, Part 2

Even if you have never completed an economics course, this hugely readable book charts a comprehensible and balanced course between doctrinaire policies of both right and left. No misty theoretician, Sperling espouses specific and practical responses to economic and societal problems that too many have thought innsoluble.

History of the Theater

The Ninth Edition retains all of the traditional features that have made History of the Theatre a classic for over thirty years, including over 530 photos and illustrations, useful maps, and the expertise of Oscar Brockett, one of the most widely respected theatre historians in the field.

Homer's Odyssey & the Sequel to the Trojan War

"A masterpiece . . . An Odyssey worthy of the original."--William Arrowsmith, The Nation"Here there is no anxious straining after mighty effects, but rather a constant readiness for what the occasion demands, a kind of Odyssean adequacy to the task in hand." --Seamus Heaney

The frontiers of several fields of research meet in this rich and germinal study. Professor Havelock is concerned with Greek epic poetry and Plato's attack on it, with the whole of the Greek paideia as it existed before and after Plato, with the technological problems of communication, and, finally, with the emergence of Plato's doctrine of "forms," in its total cultural setting.

This edition contains many critical essays and backgrounds.

Intermediate Bridge Review

Fun and easy way to learn the game of bridge. Focuses on bidding.

Mahler: His Life & Music, Part 2

Evaluating with exemplary judiciousness the masses of material about Gustav Mahler (1860-1911), British journalist Jonathan Carr pens a highly readable biography. Whether describing the composer's youth in Central Europe, triumphs as a conductor in Vienna and New York, or stormy marriage to Alma Schindler, Carr elucidates Mahler's complex nature without presuming to "explain" it. Devilish or saintly? Cunning or naive? Extrovert or withdrawn?

An account of Mahler's childhood and youth, and of his years as an opera conductor in Cassel, Prague, Leipzig, Budapest, Hamburg, and Vienna. All Mahler's works are discussed.

The latest research on the Eighth Symphony and Das Lied von der Erde has been incorporated. Focusing on the nine completed symphonies and The Song of the Earth, David Hurwitz addresses his readers directly in an informal, conversational tone.

This is a recent biography that shows the influence on Mahler exercised by his tempestuous wife. The story of Alma's marriages and liaisons is set against the social and cultural background of the Vienna of her day.

Masterpieces of European Art, Part 1

Familiar to art history students throughout the world, this massive survey of 30,000 years of Western art is generally regarded as the fundamental text for teaching the subject to undergraduates. It is a deserving reputation, for in addition to the ecumenical enthusiasm and economy of description infusing the Jansons' writing, the work features time lines densely packed with data, four sections of over 100 primary sources, well-chosen illustrations, and an updated bibliography including web references.

More Adventures with Great Ideas

Tarnas charts the development of Western thought from the ancient Greeks, throwing a sharp light on ideas central to the modern outlook. Joseph Campbell declared that this book is "The most lucid and concise presentation I have read of the grand lines of what every student should know about the history of Western thought."

The Seekers describes people searching for an understanding of human existence--"Man is the asking animal," notes Boorstin. It's a big, bold theme, and although The Seekers is the shortest work in the trilogy, it's still vintage Boorstin: incredibly learned, richly anecdotal, and casually profound. It begins with the prophets of the Holy Land and the philosophers of ancient Greece, continues through the Renaissance, and concludes with the modern era of the social sciences.

More Literary Walks in Britain

A young man falls victim to his own obsession with an amorous farm girl in this classic novel of fate and unrequited love. Published anonymously and first attributed, erroneously, to George Eliot, this Signet Classic version is set from Hardy's revised final draft-the authoritative Wessex edition of 1912.

In 19th c. Wessex, women are not supposed to be as independent as Bathsheba Everdene. Her willful behavior has unexpected results in the lives of three men who love her.

This deftly chosen collection of essays, stories, and poems is a delightful ramble through literary history. Walking has provided a creative surge to a wide variety of writers, and Gilbert (English, Cornell; Walks in the World), Jeffrey Robinson (English, Univ. of Colorado; The Walk), and Anne Wallace (English, Univ. of Southern Mississippi; Walking, Literature, and English Culture) present a broad sampling of some of the best writing it has inspired.

Dylan Thomas wrote passionately about life in all its moods and moments: from the first thrilling moments of childbirth to the darker moments of death and loss. COLLECTED POEMS is introduced by the poet himself with a passionate seashore 'Prologue', in which the self-styled Noah of poetry builds his ark against ruin.

This volume is an excellent introduction to Wordsworth's poetry. His great autobiographical poem The Prelude runs to thirteen books in the text of 1805

The poems are the record of his considerations. Their anti-heroic tone and stance are often delicately reportorial in style (and varying in subtlety), calling on seemingly plain language to tell us what has happened and its import. Fine balances are struck in the poetry.

Practical Philosophy

Nussbaum (philosophy, classics, and comparative literature, Brown) has concentrated on Hellenistic ethics--i.e., those of the Epicureans, Stoics, and Skeptics--arguing that these schools have been ignored in traditional historical accounts, particularly with regard to their treatment of emotion.

Rational Investing Essentials

Why do so many otherwise rational individuals make irrational decisions when it comes to money? Financial journalist Gary Belsky and Cornell University psychology professor Thomas Gilovich contend the answers can be found--and the deficiencies remedied--with help from a relatively new science called behavioral economics.

If anyone told you that investing in the stock market was the safest investment you could make, you might raise an eyebrow. However, if Jeremy Siegel tells you this, prepare to be convinced. Siegel's book, Stocks for the Long Run, is a comprehensive and highly readable history of the stock market that dramatically makes the case for long-term investing in stocks.

"The constant pursuit of growth--through buying hot stocks, seeking out the next big thing, or investing in the fastest growing countries--dooms investors to poor returns." So states Siegel, an academic who, with optimism and extensive research, suggests that the future is bright for equity investors in old, reliable companies in slow-growth or even shrinking industries.

Spotlight on the Maya

Coe (anthropology, emeritus, Yale) and Koontz (art history, Univ. of Houston) have teamed to write an updated and expanded version of Coe's masterly work on Mexico's prehistory.

The myths and beliefs of the great pre-Columbian civilizations of Mesoamerica have baffled and fascinated outsiders ever since the Spanish Conquest. Yet, until now, no single-volume introduction has existed to act as a guide to this labyrinthine symbolic world. The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya is the first-ever English-language dictionary of Mesoamerican mythology and religion.

The most recent archaeological discoveries and a host of dramatic illustrations illuminate royal life at the court of the ancient Maya. Maya artistic expression during the second half of the first millennium reached the highest peaks of opulence and cultural refinement in the New World.

The Dilemma of Immigration

Essayists include: Alba, Barone, Borjas, Crouch, Etzioni, Gans, Glazer, Hamill, Kotkin, Massey, WcWhorter, Nee, Portes, Rodriguez, Salins, Shteyngart, Skerry, Steinberg, Waldinger, and Zhou.

Alba and Nee have written a carefully theorized, thoughtfully argued, and empirically well-grounded book. They demonstrate persuasively that the so-called "new" immigration is not terribly different from previous ones, and that most of the descendants of today's Hispanic, Asian, and other newcomers are assimilating in much the same way as the children and grandchildren of the European immigration.

The Roman Republic & the First Twelve Caesars

This translation is not intended to be a faithful rendering of the language (which might well result in a stilted English construct) but rather a faithful account of the stories Suetonius tells. Graves has taken the liberty of changing monetary, date, and technical terms into standard English measurements of close kinship of meaning.

Rome’s famed historian illuminates the twilight of the old Roman Republic from 157 to 43 BC in succinct accounts of the greatest politicians and statesmen of the classical period.

Michael Grant does not leave the reader wondering "What happened in Rome?" All the basic historical information that a beginner, or even someone more sophisticated, may want to know about Rome is here in this book.

This book brings together the facts and the myths of Caesar’s life with pertinent art, documents, and photographs and reconstruction of significant sites.

The Supreme Court for Non-Lawyers, Part 2

Historian Smith's definitive biography, detailed and lucid, is a model of scholarly writing for the general public. The author claims our admiration for the justice and sparks affection for the man: warm, gregarious, fond of drink, a Federalist with the common touch, a seasoned political infighter who remained on good terms with his opponents

Deep in the granite hills of eastern Arizona in 1880, H.C. Day founded the Lazy B ranch, where U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor and her brother Alan spent their youth, a time they recall in this affectionate joint memoir.

Divisive (and provocative) issues such as abortion, the death penalty or affirmative action are addressed only in the broadest possible generalities. Purged of controversy, O'Connor's book is an engagingly written civics lesson, delivering a warm appreciation of legal history and principles but little light on the issues the Supreme Court confronts today.

As the Chief Justice notes, this is not a treatise on constitutional law. Rather, it is a genial, reader-friendly account of the least understood of the three branches of government. Rehnquist begins with a recollection of his service as a clerk for Justice Robert H. Jackson, follows with a succinct and highly readable history of the Court from the time of John Marshall to the mid-20th century and closes with a detailed explanation of how the present Court goes about its business.

The least dangerous branch of the American government is the most extraordinarily powerful court of law the world has ever known.

A history of the landmark case of James Earl Gideon's fight for the right to legal counsel. Notes, table of cases, index. The classic backlist bestseller. More than 800,000 sold since its first pub date of 1964.

Focuses on the elite nature of the profession, with its emphasis on serving business interests and its attempt to exclude participation by minorities

Listeners are allowed a glimpse of modern history as never before; the Cold War, the Civil Rights Movement, Vietnam, Watergate, and various other seminal social/moral/ethical disputes are played out in succinct, precise arguments. The sound of the actual history-making cases is thrilling. The accompanying hardcover book contains the text of each argument.

This volume, drawing from and updating material from Guide to the U.S. Supreme Court (Congressional Quarterly, 1979), should be of interest to both scholars and the general public.