French Flute Chamber Music (CD): Tournier, M., Schmitt, F., Pierne, G., Francaix, J., and Roussel, A. by the Mirage Quintet
This lineup of composers comes from Ravel's generation, except for the youngster Francaix, who is 30-40 years younger than the rest. The pieces were all written in the 1920s or 1930s, all of them for flute, harp, and strings.
Though the music exists in that same sound world, subtle differences in the personalities of the composers emerge. Francaix is playful, Roussel muscular, and Schmitt nostalgic and a bit sentimental. Marcel Tournier's Suite, Op. 34 is a special treat. I knew, and enjoyed, the piece from a Hanssler Classic CD with the Linos Harp Quintet, but the Mirage Quintet give the work a forward momentum and depth that really makes it stand out. You can get a feel for this from the Mirage Quintet's YouTube video of the 3rd Movement (Lied: Assez Lent, Avec Melancolie) filmed during the CD recording in Toronto in 2007. [...]
This recording took place under the watchful eyes and ears of the great team of Bonnie Silver & Norbert Kraft, who between them share producer, engineer, and editor functions. Kraft, by the way, is the very same guitarist who completely nailed the Villa-Lobos guitar music for Naxos in 2000. The sound on the new disc is predictably excellent, though some might argue that Robert Aitken's flute is too forward in the mix. It's hard to see how this music could be played or presented any better.
J.S. Bach Bach: The Flute Sonatas (CD): by Stephen Preston, Trevor Pinnock, and Jordi Savall
Blood on the River: James Town 1607 (BOOK): by Elisa Carbone
Grades. 5-8. Following Stealing Freedom (1998) and Storm Warriors (2001), both set in the nineteenth century, Carbone dips further back in U.S. history to the founding of James Town. Young orphan Samuel Collier narrates from his viewpoint as Captain John Smith's page, and the gripping historical fiction reflects Carbone's heavy reliance on primary source material, which she cites in an appendix. The dense particulars of daily life may tire readers who demand high-action plots. Others, though, will be easily caught up in the meticulously drawn scenes, from the fetid ship's hold to the snowy forests where Samuel learns to hunt with Powhatan friends. The cover, showing two crouched Powhatan Indians surveying the settlement, is a puzzling choice, particularly since the British characters are the focus. Still, like Joseph Bruchac's Pocahontas (2003), the text offers a view of Indian life that is far from the Disney stereotypes. An author's note offers more historical contest. A strong, visceral story of the hardship and peril settlers faced, as well as the brutal realities of colonial conquest. –Gillian Engber, Booklist
Night Running: How James Escaped with the Help of His Faithful Dog:(based on a true story) (BOOK): by Elisa Carbone illustrated by E.B. Lewis
Grades 2-4. A boy and dog help each other to freedom in this slave escape tale, which is based on a true story. Young James sadly orders hunting dog Zeus to stay behind while he slips away, but Zeus will hear none of it. Good thing, too, for it’s Zeus that comes to the rescue when men try to nab James in the woods, when the slave catcher’s dogs attack, and when the old canoe in which James tries to cross the Ohio River sinks. Lewis illustrates the flight in impressionistic, full-page or full-bleed scenes that add both detail and incidents to Carbone’s pared-down text to help create a smooth narrative flow. When the Quaker farmer on the free side welcomes the lad but tries to drive the dog away, it’s James’ turn to stand up for a friend, and the two are last seen bedded down companionably together in the man’s barn. –John Peters
Stealing Freedom (BOOK): by Elisa Carbone
"'Papa, is that bad, what Uncle Abram tried to do--steal his freedom like that?' Ann asked.
Her father stopped and stared at her. 'He wasn't stealing anything that wasn't rightfully his,' he said very softly. 'Anyone born a slave gets their freedom stolen the day they're born.'"
Ages 11 and up. Ann Maria Weems was a slave who lived in Maryland in the mid-1800s, and in the engaging, suspenseful novel Stealing Freedom, Elisa Carbone tells her story. As she wrote, Carbone painstakingly pieced Ann's experiences together with old newspaper articles; letters found in boxes in Philadelphia and Ohio; and material culled from rare books, census and land records, wills, and graveyards. She read thousands of pages of slave narratives, and recorded the emotion she heard in these men and women's voices in her own work. The resulting novel--powerful, vivid, and a tale well told--is, according to the author, a combination of what really happened and what could have happened. Every character in her book is based on someone who lived during the 19th century.
The story begins in 1853 at the Price farm in Unity, Maryland, where the Weems family lives and works. Though 10-year-old Ann works from sunup to sundown in often harsh conditions, her life is not an unhappy one, as she is surrounded by a loving family. But the reality of slavery is ever present. When the Prices begin to sell Ann's family off, person by person, her father (a free slave) vows that if the family can't be together in slavery, they will be together in freedom. Finally, only 12-year-old Ann is left on the farm, and young readers will be moved by her courageous journey--from her dramatic escape with a white abolitionist, to her travels on the Underground Railroad, to her heart-wrenching reunion with her family in Canada. –Karin Snelson
Strays (BOOK): by Ron Koertge
Grades 5-7. Sixteen-year-old Ted prefers animals to humans; animals "never lie," and unlike the kids at school, he understands them. When Ted loses his parents in a car accident, he particularly identifies with strays--after all, as a foster kid, that's what he is. Ted lands in a new home, where his basic needs are met by fair but semi-dysfunctional foster parents and where he coexists with Astin, his older roommate, and C. W., who has had 19 placements in six years. Ted also starts a new school, and with Astin and C. W. at his back, he learns to express himself and to rely upon people as well as animals. Ted's two-way conversations with animals may initially surprise readers, but this magic realism effectively emphasizes his emotional withdrawal, and his outsider's observations of human nature are by turns insightful, devastatingly funny, and suffused with loneliness. Though Koertge never soft pedals the horrors experienced by some foster children, this thoughtful novel about the lost and abandoned is a hopeful one, in which some strays find a place to belong. – Krista Hutley
Waiting for Normal(BOOK): by Leslie Connor
Grades 5-7. We’ve seen this situation before: a parent neglects a child, while the child seeks a wider community to find support. Here that child is 12-year-old Addie, who lives with Mommers in a trailer on a busy street in Schenectady after her adored stepfather and half sisters move upstate. Mommers has lost custody of the “littles” because of neglect, and though she and Addie can laugh together, once Mommers hooks up with Pete, she is not much for good times—though she brings the bad times home. Addie finds solace in occasional visits to her sisters and in her neighbors, especially Soula, ill from her chemotherapy treatments. Connor takes a familiar plot and elevates it with smartly written characters and unexpected moments. Addie starts out being a kid who thinks she has to go along to get along, but as Mommers’ actions become more egregious, her spine stiffens. And though Addie loves her time upstate, she is willing to forgo it when the normality she has there is more painful than positive. This is a meaningful story that will touch many. –Ilene Cooper
A History of Political Thought: From Antiquity to the Present (BOOK): by Bruce Haddock
Haddock's prose is clear and engaging and its texture is enriched by a wide range of reference ... it will serve as an excellent overview for students of political thought, introducing them to the major concepts and thinkers and helping to persuade them of their continued importance. –Times Higher Education
Bruce Haddock has produced a book that is as profound as it is comprehensive and thought-provoking. He takes us from the pre-history of political thought to today's global politics, and does so with scholarly authority, clarity and elegance. This will undoubtedly become one of the standard works of reference in the history of political thought. –Jeremy Jennings, University of London
Offers an admirably accessible and succinct survey of the main contours of Western political thought, from the ancient Greek city-state to today's global village. –Terence Ball, Arizona State University
Democratic Reform in Japan: Assessing the Impact (BOOK): edited by Sherry L. Martin and Gill Steel
Widespread dissatisfaction in Japan in the 1990s set the stage for numerous political reforms aimed at enhancing representation and accountability. But have these reforms in fact improved the quality of Japanese democracy? Through the lens of this question, the authors explore contemporary Japanese politics at the national, local, and grassroots levels. Their systematic analysis of when and how citizens attempt to create and use new opportunities to articulate political interests offers insights not only on the current state of Japanese democracy, but also on the dynamics of political behavior over all.
Innovating Democracy: Democratic Theory and Practice after the Deliberative Turn (BOOK): by Robert E. Goodin
In recent years democratic theory has taken a deliberative turn. Instead of merely casting the occasional ballot, deliberative democrats want citizens to reason together. They embrace 'talk as a decision procedure'. But of course thousands or millions of people cannot realistically talk to one another all at once. When putting their theories into practice, deliberative democrats therefore tend to focus on 'mini-publics', usually of a couple dozen to a couple hundred people.
The central question then is how to connect micro-deliberations in mini-publics to the political decision-making processes of the larger society. In Innovating Democracy, Robert Goodin surveys these new deliberative mechanisms, asking how they work and what we can properly expect of them. Much though they have to offer, they cannot deliver all that deliberative democrats hope. Talk, Goodin concludes, is good as discovery procedure but not as a decision procedure. His slogan is, 'First talk, then vote'. Micro-deliberative mechanisms should supplement, not supplant, representative democracy. Goodin goes on to show how to adapt our thinking about those familiar institutions to take full advantage of deliberative inputs. That involves rethinking who should get a say, how we hold people accountable, how we sequence deliberative moments and what the roles of parties and legislatures can be in that. Revisioning macro-democratic processes in light of the processes and promise of micro-deliberation, Innovating Democracy provides an integrated perspective on democratic theory and practice after the deliberative turn.
Investing in Democracy: Engaging Citizens in Collaborative Governance (BOOK): by Carmen Sirianni
The health of American democracy ultimately depends on our willingness and ability to work together as citizens and stakeholders in our republic. Government policies often fail to promote such collaboration. But if designed properly, they can do much to strengthen civic engagement. That is the central message of Carmen Sirianni's eloquent new book. Rather than encourage citizens to engage in civic activity, government often puts obstacles in their way. Many agencies treat citizens as passive clients rather than as community members, overlooking their ability to mobilize assets and networks to solve problems. Many citizen initiatives run up against rigid rules and bureaucratic silos, causing all but the most dedicated activists to lose heart.
The unfortunate (and unnecessary) result is a palpable decline in the quality of civic life. Fortunately, growing numbers of policymakers across the country are figuring out how government can serve as a partner and catalyst for collaborative problem solving. "Investing in Democracy" details three such success stories: neighborhood planning in Seattle; youth civic engagement programs in Hampton, Virginia; and, efforts to develop civic environmentalism at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The book explains what measures were taken and why they succeeded. It distills eight core design principles that characterize effective collaborative governance and concludes with concrete recommendations for federal policy.
Is Democracy Exportable? (BOOK): edited by Zolton Barany and Robert G. Moser
Can democratic states transplant the seeds of democracy into developing countries? What have political thinkers going back to the Greek city-states thought about their capacity to promote democracy? How can democracy be established in divided societies? In this timely volume a distinguished group of political scientists seeks answers to these and other fundamental questions behind the concept known as "democracy promotion." Following an illuminating concise discussion of what political philosophers from Plato to Montesquieu thought about the issue, the authors explore the structural preconditions (culture, divided societies, civil society) as well as the institutions and processes of democracy building (constitutions, elections, security sector reform, conflict, and trade). Along the way they share insights about what policies have worked, which ones need to be improved or discarded, and, more generally, what advanced democracies can do to further the cause of democratization in a globalizing world. In other words, they seek answers to the question, Is democracy exportable?
Madison's Nightmare: How Executive Power Threatens American Democracy (BOOK): by Peter M. Shane
The George W. Bush administration’s ambitious—even breathtaking—claims of unilateral executive authority raised deep concerns among constitutional scholars, civil libertarians, and ordinary citizens alike. But Bush’s attempts to assert his power are only the culmination of a near-thirty-year assault on the basic checks and balances of the U.S. government—a battle waged by presidents of both parties, and one that, as Peter M. Shane warns in Madison’s Nightmare, threatens to utterly subvert the founders’ vision of representative government.
Tracing this tendency back to the first Reagan administration, Shane shows how this era of "aggressive presidentialism" has seen presidents exerting ever more control over nearly every arena of policy, from military affairs and national security to domestic programs. Driven by political ambition and a growing culture of entitlement in the executive branch—and abetted by a complaisant Congress, riven by partisanship—this presidential aggrandizement has too often undermined wise policy making and led to shallow, ideological, and sometimes outright lawless decisions. The solution, Shane argues, will require a multipronged program of reform, including both specific changes in government practice and broader institutional changes aimed at supporting a renewed culture of government accountability.
From the war on science to the mismanaged war on terror, Madison’s Nightmare outlines the disastrous consequences of the unchecked executive—and issues a stern wake-up call to all who care about the fate of our long democratic experiment.
Audience-Citizens: The Media, Public Knowledge and Interpretive Practice (BOOK): by Ramaswami Harindranath
Explore media and democracy from the audience perspective and provide a unique conceptual framework for the analysis of audiences, consumption and citizenship. The author develops a fresh approach towards the examination of media and politics in contemporary India and in the developing world. Though several audience studies have demonstrated links between interpretive practice and audience's socio-cultural contexts, there is little available literature on how these are related. This book explores how sociological and cultural factors affect interpretations of mediated knowledge. Using concepts from contemporary hermeneutics-in particular Gadamer-it examines the notion that understanding is irretrievably linked to the interpreter's socio-cultural positioning. The book also borrows Schultz's conceptual framework to explain the influence of socio-cultural factors on the capacity for understanding.
Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory (BOOK): by Peter Barry
“It is no surprise to learn that Beginning theory has already been reprinted nine times. There is no other book that offers such a comprehensive account of the field, combined with thoughtful, detailed exposition of the theoretical approaches under discussion. Far from being a modest survey of contemporary literary theory, it has had a vital role in shaping the way that theory is taught in Britain and North America.” –English Association Newsletter
Darwin's Plots: Evolutionary Narrative in Darwin, George Eliot and Nineteenth-Century Fiction (BOOK): by Gillian Beer
Gillian Beer's classic Darwin's Plots, one of the most influential works of literary criticism and cultural history of the last quarter century, is here reissued in an updated edition to coincide with the anniversary of Darwin's birth and of the publication of The Origin of Species. Its focus on how writers, including George Eliot, Charles Kingsley and Thomas Hardy, responded to Darwin's discoveries and to his innovations in scientific language continues to open up new approaches to Darwin's thought and to its effects in the culture of his contemporaries. This third edition includes an important new essay that investigates Darwin's concern with consciousness across all forms of organic life. It demonstrates how this fascination persisted throughout his career and affected his methods and discoveries. With an updated bibliography reflecting recent work in the field, this book will retain its place at the heart of Victorian studies.
Film Noir and the Cinema of Paranoia (BOOK): by Wheeler Winston Dixon
Wheeler Winston Dixon engages readers in an overview of noir and fatalist film from the mid-twentieth century to the present, ending with a discussion of television, the Internet, and dominant commercial cinema. Beginning with the 1940s classics, Film Noir and the Cinema of Paranoia moves to the "Red Scare" and other ominous expressions of the 1950s. The dark cinema of the 1960s reflected the tensions of a society facing a new and, to some, menacing era of social expression.
Frankenstein's Science: Experimentation and Discovery in Romantic Culture, 1780-1830 (BOOK): edited by Christa Knellwolf and Jane Goodall
While "Frankenstein" is all too often read as a cautionary tale of the inherent dangers of uncontrolled scientific experimentation, the essays here take the reader back to a period when experimenters and radical thinkers viewed science as the harbinger of social innovation that would counter the virulent conservative backlash following the French Revolution. The collection will be an invaluable resource for students and scholars specializing in Romanticism, cultural history, philosophy, and the history of science.
Frankly, My Dear: Gone with the Wind Revisited (BOOK): by Molly Haskell
In time for the 70th anniversary of the film version, author and movie critic Haskell brings a scholar's rigor to her loving history of Gone With the Wind. Vivid profiles of author Margaret Mitchell, starlet Vivien Leigh, and film producer David Selznick re-humanize the work, now known more for its epic grandeur, iconic moments and controversial politics. Haskell draws thoughtful parallels between Mitchell and her protagonist, Scarlett O'Hara, and her affection for these women drives a narrative that gets occasionally bogged down in film production minutiae. Though perhaps too finely focused for casual readers, this sincere, detailed celebration should interest long-time fans and students.
French Flute Chamber Music (CD): Tournier, M., Schmitt, F., Pierne, G., Francaix, J., and Roussel, A. by the Mirage Quintet
J.S. Bach Bach: The Flute Sonatas (CD): by Stephen Preston, Trevor Pinnock, and Jordi Savall
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