Emphasizing personal style, Joan Barzilay Freund’s Defining Style is a freeing, inspiring and extremely innovative look at interior design.
Emphasizing personal style, Joan Barzilay Freund’s Defining Style is a freeing, inspiring and extremely innovative look at interior design.
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Although, as Peter Ackroyd writes, “without London there would have been no Shakespeare,” it was Stratford, where Shakespeare was born, “that remained the center of his being.” He continued to have close ties with Stratford through the years it was where his wife, children and parents lived, where he purchased property from time to time, and where he eventually retired and died. In the dazzling Shakespeare: The Biography, Ackroyd, whose previous subjects include Dickens, Blake, T.S. Eliot, Chaucer and Thomas More, seems to know everything worth knowing about his subject. Beyond that, he possesses a rare ability to convey in a very readable way what it was like to be Shakespeare and to make us feel we know in considerable detail what life in Elizabethan London was like. Moreover, he uses carefully reasoned analysis to help the reader through the thicket of the many theories abut his subject.

Shakespeare “grew up with a profound sense of ambiguity,” writes Ackroyd. “It is one of the informing principles of both his life and his art.” He says it is wrong to look for a personal motive behind Shakespeare’s work. “Nothing in his life and career gives any reason to suggest that he chose a theme or story with any specific intention other than to entertain. He had no message.'” Even Shakespeare’s poems should be regarded “as a performance. . . . All of them are informed by a shaping will, evincing an almost impersonal authority and command of the medium.” Shakespeare was a practical person and a shrewd businessman. Although familiar with the classics he read in school, he was not a scholar, but “learned as much as he needed to learn” for his own purposes. “He was a dramatist. He seems in fact to have distrusted philosophy, rational discourse and sententiousness in all its forms. Abstract language was his abhorrence.” He did not officially have opinions or religious beliefs. “He subdued his nature to whatever in the drama confronted him. He was, in that sense, above faith.” Ackroyd also explains the rise and the importance of the theater in Elizabethan London. At the time, “[a]s the Church became desacralized, so urban society became profoundly ritualistic and spectacular. This is of the utmost importance for any understanding of Shakespeare’s genius. He thrived in a city where dramatic spectacle became the primary means of understanding reality.” It was not a print culture. “The works of Shakespeare should not be taken out of their context,” Ackroyd warns, “since it is there they acquire their true meaning.” Ackroyd says it is also important to note also that most of Shakespeare’s plays were revised or rewritten. For a variety of reasons, including adding material to plays that would be performed at Court and changing cast members, “his plays were always in a provisional or fluid shape.” Those who would prefer a definitive text are likely to be disappointed because “we may fairly assume that each play was slightly different at every performance.” Ackroyd’s masterful biography of the bard is incredibly informative and a joy to read.

Roger Bishop is a Nashville bookseller and a frequent contributor to BookPage.

Although, as Peter Ackroyd writes, "without London there would have been no Shakespeare," it was Stratford, where Shakespeare was born, "that remained the center of his being." He continued to have close ties with Stratford through the years it was where his wife, children and…
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Chuck Pfarrer feels no remorse for the men he has killed. “There are some people who need to go to hell and stay there,” he writes. In Warrior Soul: The Memoir of a Navy SEAL, the former commando recalls lethal encounters in clandestine assaults against enemy forces throughout the world. His observation that “operations very seldom go as you think they will” was affirmed in Lebanon, where his unit was assigned to a purportedly safe mission as peacekeepers but instead found that “violence was the overwhelming reality.” He quickly abandoned atheism. Pfarrer gives shell-by-shell and grenade-by-grenade accounts of firefights in Beirut, where in a six-month tour of duty he and his men participated in more than 100 rescue and reconnaissance missions. He was only 500 yards from the terrorist explosion that killed 241 Marines in what arguably ranks as the most humiliating U.S. military loss since Pearl Harbor. He recollects the grim aftermath of the disaster, which Ronald Reagan in his autobiography termed the “greatest sorrow” of his presidency.

In detailing the training program of the SEALs (an acronym for Sea, Air, Land), Pfarrer says it is designed to flunk applicants so that only the toughest men mentally and physically can survive. One requirement: trainees must swim 400 yards, retrieve a face mask from the bottom with their teeth, and then tread water for 40 minutes all while their hands and feet are tied together with parachute cord. Especially absorbing is Pfarrer’s handling of Stan, a platoon member who was on the verge of freaking out and thus imperiling the safety of his buddies. In dealing with Stan, Pfarrer finds himself confronting his own fear. Pfarrer also discusses his marital infidelities and his bout with cancer, which ironically struck after he sensing he had “used up all of my luck” left the military. He became a prominent Hollywood screenwriter, with The Jackal, Hard Target and, not surprisingly, Navy SEALs among his credits. This book demonstrates that he writes just as well for the printed page as he does for the movies.

Chuck Pfarrer feels no remorse for the men he has killed. "There are some people who need to go to hell and stay there," he writes. In Warrior Soul: The Memoir of a Navy SEAL, the former commando recalls lethal encounters in clandestine assaults against…
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Photography is an amazing thing. It takes a real-time moment and captures it in a two-dimensional image we can look at again and again. It is the chronicle of a split second that contains all the history that went before it and all the history that has come after it. And of course, certain photographic images have the ability to burn into our imaginations, transform our individual and collective psyches and become part of our makeup. Who can forget seeing the Earth photographed for the first time from space, or the image of President Kennedy riding confidently in the open motorcar? Here are four books packed with stunning photographs that will sit handsomely and disarmingly on a coffee table until someone opens them, beholds their pages and unleashes their latent power.

A provocative retrospective of the last half-century, Harry Benson: Fifty Years in Pictures by Harry Benson, gives insight into the renowned photographer’s world. A gutsy, tenacious and award-winning photojournalist, Benson’s career includes numerous covers for magazines such as Life, People and Vanity Fair. Here are portraits of the people who once captured the headlines the Beatles, the presidents, sports figures like Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) and a young O.J. Simpson images sure to evoke a mixture of emotions, from joy and angst to nostalgia. One of the more poignant photographs is Benson’s shot of President Nixon giving his farewell speech to his Cabinet and White House staff. The anguished faces of his wife and children as they stand loyally by his side speak as eloquently about that agonizing moment as any prose document could. Benson’s first-hand captions and behind-the-scenes stories add an exciting element to the visual chronicles. If there’s a historian, "culture-as-art" buff or budding photojournalist in your life, Benson’s book would be a wonderful inspiration. Another career spanning 50 years is celebrated in Ansel Adams at 100 by John Szarkowski, which marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of one of America’s foremost landscape photographers. Szarkowski, director of the Centennial Exhibition of Adams’ work, (which will be on tour through fall 2003) has chosen 114 of the artist’s characteristically striking black and white landscape photographs, in which, as he puts it, "each element is articulated with perfect precision." Ansel Adams is best known for his photos of Yosemite National Park, the California coast and other wilderness areas of the American West and this hefty volume contains many of his signature prints. A master at conveying both the enormous grandeur and the fragile details of a landscape, Adams had a tremendous impact not only on the art world, but on the environmental movement as well. For black and white film aficionados or nature lovers, this book is a treasure, and it even includes a reproduction print, suitable for framing a gift within a gift! Allowing nature to be its own best advocate is also the idea behind Remains of a Rainbow: Rare Plants and Animals of Hawaii by David Liittschwager and Susan Middleton. Liittschwager and Middleton have been photographing endangered animals and plants since 1986, but this volume is the result of a four-year collaborative effort dedicated to the ecosystem of Hawaii. Many of the state’s endangered flora and fauna species are so rare they do not exist anywhere else on earth. The authors have showcased 142 of these singular species in exquisite, individual photos to accentuate the magnificence of each and bring attention to the tragedy of declining biodiversity on the island and in the world at large. What at first seems just a lovely picture book of exotic plants and animals is also an urgent exhortation to save one of the richest natural environments on the planet. This book is a call to action; seeing these photos is sure to evoke a response in even the most unwilling environmentalist.

And for the environmentalist who doesn’t need much prodding, consider a beautiful new version of A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold, with photographs by Michael Sewell. Leopold’s Almanac is a classic of nature writing that should be on the main shelf of any environmentalist’s library, right next to Thoreau’s Walden and Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring.

First published in 1949, a year after the author’s death, the Almanac takes readers on a seasonal journey as Leopold works to restore the land at his small homestead in Sand County, Wisconsin. In this new edition, Sewell’s photography illustrates the time-honored text with splendid color photographs taken on location at Leopold’s property. This is a great book to read snuggled under a blanket (treat yourself!) or to give to anyone on your list who could use a closer communication with the natural world.

Linda Stankard is a writer in Cookeville, Tennessee.

Photography is an amazing thing. It takes a real-time moment and captures it in a two-dimensional image we can look at again and again. It is the chronicle of a split second that contains all the history that went before it and all the…

Review by

Photography is an amazing thing. It takes a real-time moment and captures it in a two-dimensional image we can look at again and again. It is the chronicle of a split second that contains all the history that went before it and all the history that has come after it. And of course, certain photographic images have the ability to burn into our imaginations, transform our individual and collective psyches and become part of our makeup. Who can forget seeing the Earth photographed for the first time from space, or the image of President Kennedy riding confidently in the open motorcar? Here are four books packed with stunning photographs that will sit handsomely and disarmingly on a coffee table until someone opens them, beholds their pages and unleashes their latent power.

A provocative retrospective of the last half-century, Harry Benson: Fifty Years in Pictures by Harry Benson, gives insight into the renowned photographer’s world. A gutsy, tenacious and award-winning photojournalist, Benson’s career includes numerous covers for magazines such as Life, People and Vanity Fair. Here are portraits of the people who once captured the headlines the Beatles, the presidents, sports figures like Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) and a young O.J. Simpson images sure to evoke a mixture of emotions, from joy and angst to nostalgia. One of the more poignant photographs is Benson’s shot of President Nixon giving his farewell speech to his Cabinet and White House staff. The anguished faces of his wife and children as they stand loyally by his side speak as eloquently about that agonizing moment as any prose document could. Benson’s first-hand captions and behind-the-scenes stories add an exciting element to the visual chronicles. If there’s a historian, "culture-as-art" buff or budding photojournalist in your life, Benson’s book would be a wonderful inspiration. Another career spanning 50 years is celebrated in Ansel Adams at 100 by John Szarkowski, which marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of one of America’s foremost landscape photographers. Szarkowski, director of the Centennial Exhibition of Adams’ work, (which will be on tour through fall 2003) has chosen 114 of the artist’s characteristically striking black and white landscape photographs, in which, as he puts it, "each element is articulated with perfect precision." Ansel Adams is best known for his photos of Yosemite National Park, the California coast and other wilderness areas of the American West and this hefty volume contains many of his signature prints. A master at conveying both the enormous grandeur and the fragile details of a landscape, Adams had a tremendous impact not only on the art world, but on the environmental movement as well. For black and white film aficionados or nature lovers, this book is a treasure, and it even includes a reproduction print, suitable for framing a gift within a gift! Allowing nature to be its own best advocate is also the idea behind Remains of a Rainbow: Rare Plants and Animals of Hawaii by David Liittschwager and Susan Middleton. Liittschwager and Middleton have been photographing endangered animals and plants since 1986, but this volume is the result of a four-year collaborative effort dedicated to the ecosystem of Hawaii. Many of the state’s endangered flora and fauna species are so rare they do not exist anywhere else on earth. The authors have showcased 142 of these singular species in exquisite, individual photos to accentuate the magnificence of each and bring attention to the tragedy of declining biodiversity on the island and in the world at large. What at first seems just a lovely picture book of exotic plants and animals is also an urgent exhortation to save one of the richest natural environments on the planet. This book is a call to action; seeing these photos is sure to evoke a response in even the most unwilling environmentalist.

And for the environmentalist who doesn’t need much prodding, consider a beautiful new version of A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold, with photographs by Michael Sewell. Leopold’s Almanac is a classic of nature writing that should be on the main shelf of any environmentalist’s library, right next to Thoreau’s Walden and Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring.

First published in 1949, a year after the author’s death, the Almanac takes readers on a seasonal journey as Leopold works to restore the land at his small homestead in Sand County, Wisconsin. In this new edition, Sewell’s photography illustrates the time-honored text with splendid color photographs taken on location at Leopold’s property. This is a great book to read snuggled under a blanket (treat yourself!) or to give to anyone on your list who could use a closer communication with the natural world.

Linda Stankard is a writer in Cookeville, Tennessee.

Photography is an amazing thing. It takes a real-time moment and captures it in a two-dimensional image we can look at again and again. It is the chronicle of a split second that contains all the history that went before it and all the…

Review by

Although the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. has been the subject of several award-winning biographies, the religious journey of the great civil rights leader, who would have turned 75 on January 15, has remained largely unexplored. As Stewart Burns now demonstrates in To the Mountaintop: Martin Luther King Jr.’s Sacred Mission to Save America, King experienced profound spiritual growth during the dozen years he was at the forefront of the crusade for equal rights. Despite being an ordained minister, Burns writes, King maintained an intellectual relationship with God and never underwent a distinct moment of conversion until he, as a young pastor of 26, became active in the struggle against segregation in Montgomery, Alabama, in the mid-1950s. Thereafter, in the author’s words, King believed “he was called by God to lead his people to a second emancipation.” Yet, Burns argues, King was a reluctant messiah tormented by feelings of unworthiness and “monumental” guilt. The civil rights leader believed that he did not merit the extravagant praise heaped on him; other people, often unknown and unsung, were more deserving. In 1967 and 1968, the final years of his life, King grieved that as a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize he had not spoken out earlier to condemn the war in Vietnam, which he labeled “an enemy of the poor.” Burns further speculates that the Baptist minister increasingly felt “searing guilt” brought on by widespread rumors of his alleged marital infidelity.

Burns, a former editor of the King papers, offers a vivid portrait of the modern civil rights movement. With the skill of a novelist, he conveys the drama of the Montgomery bus boycott, the bombings of black churches, the sit-ins at lunch counters and the marches for civil rights and voting rights legislation. Particularly insightful is his discussion of King’s uncertain relationship with John and Robert Kennedy, exemplified by the Kennedy family’s failure to invite King to the slain president’s funeral mass. Thoroughly researched and brilliantly argued, this volume is certain to become a standard source on the late civil rights leader and his time. Dr. Thomas Appleton is professor of history at Eastern Kentucky University.

Although the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. has been the subject of several award-winning biographies, the religious journey of the great civil rights leader, who would have turned 75 on January 15, has remained largely unexplored. As Stewart Burns now demonstrates in To the Mountaintop:…
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Imagine you are sitting down to a late dinner. It’s been a hard day at the office, and you’re ready for some comfort food. "Ring," says the phone. "Ring, ring, ring." You pick it up, because only a friend would call this late, right? "Good evening, may I speak to, Mr. or Ms. (name pronounced incorrectly)?" GrrrrÉ What you need is a liberal dose of Fun With Phone Solicitors: 50 Ways to Get Even! by Robert Harris. Try this response: "One minute please, I’ll connect you." Then press any two buttons in sequence on your phone. After about five seconds, expect the solicitor to say something like "Hello is anyone there?" Ask for whom he is holding, then press the buttons again. At this point, the game will probably be over. It’s highly unlikely that the game will go to a third round but one can dream, can’t one?

 

Perhaps a dose of history would be more to your liking. How about Non Campus Mentis, the history of the world according to college students, with actual quotes from exams and term papers. Compiled by Professor Anders Henriksson, Non Campus Mentis is relentlessly hilarious. The student authors are, thankfully, anonymous. Of the French Revolution, one opines: "Another problem was that France was full of French people. Dickens made this point in The Tail of Two Sisters, which he required us to read." Or how about this pithy observation on the industrial revolution: "The social structure was Upper Class, Middle Class, Working Class, and Lowest Poor Scum." Or perhaps something from more recent times: "John F. Kennedy worked closely with the Russians to solve the Canadian Missile Crisis." Those damn Canadians, they’re always up to something.

Finally, in an unlikely nod to Miss Manners, one of the Lone Star State’s most unapologetic eccentrics brings us Kinky Friedman’s Guide to Texas Etiquette. The Kinkster rails about all that is good and holy in the Friendship State. He offers a guide to Texas dialect: "Remember: Y’all is singular. All y’all is plural. All y’all’s is plural possessive." Or, "Don’t call it soda’ or pop’. It’s all Coke’ unless it’s Dr. Pepper." Things you will never hear a Texan say: "Duct tape won’t fix that." "The tires on that truck are too big." "I thought Graceland was tacky." Friedman clearly hopes to make some money from this venture, but he says that’s not the most important thing: "As we say here in Texas, Money may buy you a fine dog, but only love can make it wag its tail.’ "

 

Imagine you are sitting down to a late dinner. It's been a hard day at the office, and you're ready for some comfort food. "Ring," says the phone. "Ring, ring, ring." You pick it up, because only a friend would call this late, right?…

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