Customer Reviews:
Revealing look at a Future President.......2006-01-15
This very personal look at young Harry S. Truman (1884-1972) should be of interest to history buffs and fans of our 33rd President. The book is primarily a collection of letters that Truman sent to his girlfriend (and later wife) Bess Wallace (Truman), the letters being found in her home shortly after she passed away at age 97 in 1982. Most of these letters were written by young suitor Harry Truman prior to the First World War, when he was a struggling farmer and she a desirable beau from a prosperous (if dysfunctional) city family. Sadly, Harry didn't save Bess' letters to him, and those are lost to history. In these letters Truman comes across as decent, honest, and intelligent - if slightly prejudiced against immigrant workers in Kansas City. If his presidential talent isn't evident in these letters, his sturdy Missouri roots clearly are.
Love in old Missouri.......2000-03-04
First of all, the potential buyer of this book should know that it will throw you back to the years when Harry, the lower-middle-class farmer's boy from outer Jackson County, was courting Bess Wallace, a moderately rich girl and young woman (albeit from a very dysfunctional family) from prosperous Independence. In the 1910s this was done, as it is done in every generation, but only with great difficulty and some soul-searching on both sides.
So buy and read this book if you want to read about young Harry's epic quest. Bess' letters to Harry are lost, but Harry Truman's letters are so vivid that their contents can be partly reconstucted. The two were real soul mates in the end - in the true sense of this most over-used phrase. They could actually converse by letter. How many of us are so lucky?
Buy and read this book if you want to see these two attractive people in the vanished world of 1910s Missouri. If you're looking for President Harry Truman, you won't find much of him here. By 1945 this pair had been married and living together for 25 years and were no longer writing daily letters to each other. But if you are one of those people who think that Truman was one of our greatest Presidents because he never forgot who he was and where he came from, you may want to know where he came from. He came from here, in this book.
A True Love Story.......1999-03-13
The courtship of Harry Truman and Bess Wallace, is *the* over-looked love story of the century. Dear Bess is the most romantic book I have ever read. Harry's simplicity and honesty is a joy to read, and Bess would have been a fool to turn him down a second time.
From a historical standpoint, this book is a glimpse into the everyday, pre-presidential life of HST. The respect and dignity this Missouri farmer had for the Office of the President is refreshing. I come away from the book feeling like I know Harry. Coupling Dear Bess with David McCullough's Truman gives a picture of the man and his times in a very compelling fashion.
Dear Bess is a must-read for anyone who wants to know what love and responsibility are.
Average customer rating:
- Empty covers
- ..though soft you tread above me..
- Pleasantly Surprised
- An entertaining, though relentlessly folksy, book
- Save Your Money
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Danny Boy: The Beloved Irish Ballad
Malachy McCourt
Manufacturer: Running Press Book Publishers
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ASIN: 0762411244 |
Book Description
In this delightful volume, Malachy McCourt takes readers on a surprising and emotional journey, centered around one of the most enduring songs in history. Exploring the mysteries of 'Danny Boy,' a song with roots in distant centuries, this tribute features commentary from such luminaries as Seamus Heaney, Liam Neeson, and the author's brother, Frank McCourt.
Customer Reviews:
Empty covers.......2004-02-10
This item (to call it a "book" would be an insult to books) has perhaps three pages of information about the history and substance of "Danny Boy". The remaining 138 pages are irrelevant Hamburger Helper. Save your $18.95 (or even your lower Amazon price) for something worth the money.
..though soft you tread above me.........2003-11-15
An excellent book by an excellent writer!McCourt has awaken the intrest in all of us to get to the bottom of what this song is all about.I think he has done it, and each time I hear it ,I will think of this book,and of what the song means to me.
Though there are numerous ideas about what the song means,who was it to and from etc.,he has shown that doesn't really matter.It is a song expressing deep love,and it can mean whatever the listener wants it to mean.I have dozens of versions and although they vary greatly I love them all.I am always happy to hear it by another singer whether a professional or just an ordinary person singing from the heart.
As to whether or not the words were written in Ireland by an Irishman;it doesn't matter in the least,it's a great Irish song.
When you stop and think about it,there's no way it could be anything else but Irish.Johnny Cash wrote "Forty Shades of Green" as he was flying over Ireland,a school teacher living in Ontario wrote "Maggie" to his lover,and if that isn't enough, the song "I'll Take You Home Again Kathleen" was written in America and had nothing at all to do with taking Kathleen back to Ireland,because she didn't come from there in the first place.
However;all these songs are Irish .What you have to remember is that there over 50 million Irish dispersed all over the world including about 4 million in Ireland.This book would be a great gift for anyone with a song in their heart and a twinkle in their eye for there's sure to be some Irish in their blood.
Pleasantly Surprised.......2003-07-31
We don't know why "Danny Boy" touches our hearts -- but it does. I was pleasantly surprised to have a chance to learn something about the lore that came together to help create the feeling whenever I hear this ballad. You may want to consider reading the novel Yours, Aiden (isbn 1403319898)as it too creates a stir within.
An entertaining, though relentlessly folksy, book.......2003-02-23
Beyond question, the melody variously known as "Danny Boy" or "Londonderry Air" is one of the great tunes of all time. Its measured rising and falling cadences would grace the catalog of Franz Schubert or any of the other great classical vocal composers.
Malachy McCourt, brother of novelist Frank McCourt (ANGELA'S ASHES) and a well-known writer and radio-TV luminary in his own right, has produced a curious little book of less than 95 pages about the famous tune and its well-known lyrics. His book is part history, part speculation, part myth and part personal editorial essay. And it is not free from touches of Irish blarney.
McCourt's findings may surprise --- and dismay --- many. The great tune, long since adopted as a kind of unofficial Irish national anthem, may not be of Irish origin. A folklorist named Jane Ross supposedly first noted it down around 1851. She reportedly heard it played by a blind fiddler, Jimmy McCurry, in Limavady, Londonderry --- but there is at least a possibility that the melody may have originated in Scotland. No one knows for sure. At least one respected musical scholar claims that the tune follows no known metric scheme for Irish folk music.
Many different sets of words were attached to the tune after its first publication in 1855 --- but those that have become indissolubly identified with it ("O Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling, from glen to glen and down the mountainside....") were written in 1910 by an English lawyer and song-lyric cobbler named Frederick E. Weatherly, who probably never set foot in Ireland. They were actually intended for a different tune, but when Weatherly's sister-in-law sent him some years later the familiar melody from her home in Australia, he saw that it was a perfect fit for his earlier verses. Thus an "Irish" classic was created from a melody that may be Scottish and words by an Englishman.
McCourt gives us this information straightforwardly enough, but he fleshes them out with a good deal of barely relevant material. It seems strange to arraign a book of 95 pages on charges of padding, but the complaint seems justified. McCourt solicited opinions about the song from Irish celebrities (including brother Frank) and speculates at length on such side issues as who is singing the song and to whom it is addressed (one possibility among several: it is the song of Danny Boy's gay lover!). The author's tone varies between straight historical writing and folksiness, including occasional cutesy use of "tis" and "t'was." McCourt also grinds a personal axe or two. He thinks ill of those Catholic dioceses that have banned the singing of "Danny Boy" at funerals because it is "secular."
There are some fascinating bits of trivia here, however. Victorians hesitated to refer to the song as Londonderry Air because, to their prudish ears, it sounded too much like "London derriere." Irish nationalists never use that title either, because they want no mention of London in the title. Wordsmith Weatherly was once in legal partnership with one of the sons of Charles Dickens. And another of Weatherly's lyrics was the popular "Roses of Picardy," set to music memorably by Haydn Wood. Wood studied under the composer Sir Charles Stanford, who quoted "Londonderry Air" in one of his Irish rhapsodies. Make of that what you will. This is a curious little book, entertaining in its quirky way but almost undone by its relentless folksiness. "Londonderry Air" remains a musical treasure, regardless of its origin.
--- Reviewed by Robert Finn
Save Your Money.......2002-07-03
This book was thrown together with little effort. It only has 100+ pages due to the double spacing and large type. Save your money for a better effort.
Average customer rating:
- Fresh Look at Old-Time Tunes
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Music in the Air Somewhere: The Shifting Borders of West Virginia's Fiddle and Song Traditions
Erynn L. Marshall
Manufacturer: West Virginia University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 193320205X
Release Date: 2006-02-15 |
Product Description
This book with accompanying CD is a study on conventions that many West Virginians hold dear: fiddle music and folk traditions. It is also a look into the broad influences that folk music has on fiddlersÂ’ compositions and their practices. By exploring the oral histories and music of seven celebrated, life-long West Virginian musicians, Erynn Marshall illuminates the diversity of these music traditions and the culmination of fiddle song genres. Included with this intense survey of Appalachian tradition is a CD of MarshallÂ’s field and archival recordings of West Virginia musicians Warren Cronin, Rita Emerson, Lela Gerkins, Leland Hall, Phyllis Marks, Lester and Linda McCumbers, Woody and William Simmons, Melvin Wine, and the Sand Valley Boys.
Customer Reviews:
Fresh Look at Old-Time Tunes.......2006-09-16
Erynn Marshall is a fiddler who researched West Virginia's fiddle traditions for over a decade in writing this book. She provides a good overview of old-time music in the book's opening chapters. The biographical sketches of important fiddlers from the state are particularly interesting. Her inclusion of several fine women fiddlers results in especially important contributions to the historical record, which expands our understanding of the cultural contexts of fiddling. From this strong background, Marshall then opens up new ground within the research on old-time fiddling by focusing on a wide range of genres that comprise the fiddlers' repertoires. She provides special attention to relationships between instrumental tunes and songs with lyrics. These fiddle-songs have often been regarded as peripheral to the core repertories of fiddlers, but Marshall convincingly demonstrates that they actually constitute a genre that is essential to many fiddlers' musicianship. Her analysis of relationships between these fiddle-songs and the solely instrumental musical forms often identified as "fiddle-tunes" provides a good way to understand how musicians learn tunes as they acquire their repertoires. Her study also demonstrates how a knowledge of these fiddle-songs expands our understanding of the social contexts for music making. The accompanying CD also is a fine addition to this volume, and it is particularly useful for gaining a better understanding of the musical transcriptions that form an important part of this well-written and intriguing study of Appalachian folk music.
Product Description
This Elibron Classics book is a facsimile reprint of a 1859 edition by Cramer, Beale, & Chappell, London.
Book Description
In folk tradition, stories of love lost, betrayal, jealousy, conflict, emigration, and the supernatural are often immortalized in songs of many traditions, demonstrating that singing has been a universal vehicle for the human condition. The criteria for this wonderful collection of prose and melodies is from Celtic traditions that have been with us for hundreds of years. These compositions have been arranged so that each will work both as an air and as a song. All of the selections in the book appear on the companion CD.
Average customer rating:
- A must for any Handel Soprano / Tenor
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Songs and Airs from the Great Oratorios for High Voice
George Frideric Handel
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0486419037 |
Book Description
Excellent compilation of 40 pieces for high voice and piano. Includes Ev'ry valley shall be exalted and I Know that My Redeemer Liveth (Messiah); From mighty Kings (Judas); Farewell, ye limpid springs and floods (Jephtha); O come let us worship (Chandos Anthems); O sleep, why dost thou leave me? (Semele); and many others.
Customer Reviews:
A must for any Handel Soprano / Tenor.......2007-01-11
Excellent , varied selection! Wonderful! Buy it!
Average customer rating:
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A Song in the Air (Shooting Star)
Catherine Ritch Guess
Manufacturer: CRM Books
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Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0971353468 |
Book Description
On his way to Daytona for the first race of the season, NASCAR great Dale Jarrett saves the life of a young homeless boy, Issac, whose mother is killed. A beautiful depiction of the impact of a lowly child on the world.
Customer Reviews:
Best Yet!.......2004-10-22
Guess gets better and better and this one is tops! This is a powerful story featuring a NASCAR legend whose heart touches the lives of not only little Isaac but others involved in the story. A great story of how a child can teach faith to others even in facing death. This book will make you laugh and cry. It touches a myriad of emotions which make this story seem so real. Hats off to Catherine Ritch Guess for another extraordinary literary work!
Average customer rating:
- A book to read and pass around...
- A Tune Nobody Will Ever Forget
- Courageous...
- wonderfuly enlightening
- A gripping account of tragedy turned triumph.
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Alison's Gift: The Song of a Thousand Hearts Opening
Pat Hogan
Manufacturer: Nosil a Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0966817702 |
Book Description
Aison's Gift is the true story of Alison Sanders' life and death-a story that has touched all of America. This is Alison's story and how her life found its way into millions of homes.
Alison's Gift is the triumph of love over life-ending experience. Along with Alison, meet real-life heroes who live through their greatest fears in a journey of loss, grief, and the rekindling of hope. This story chronicles Alison's life and death, her family's experience and her many legacies.
Alison, a vibrant child, had a mission in life to help others. In unique ways, both seen and unseen, her purpose lives on. Her fearlessness, compassion, and leadership qualities transformed her community in life and have reverberated throughout the country in her death. Alison's life was cut short by an air bag in a low-speed automobile collision. Meet Alison's father: although emotionally scarred by his loss, he starts a one-man crusade, forcing the auto industry to adopt safer air bag systems for our children.
Share a mother's impulse of love to create her own rituals in caring for her beloved daughter and forgo a conventional funeral. Come to the family's home, where hundreds of friends and relatives visit. Feel the love and support of a community as it encounters loss in its midst and comes to grips with a difficult good-bye.
This story portrays the spirit of Alison's childhood dreams as they become reality and affect a community and a nation.
Come visit a place in the heart where life and loss gently guide you in the ways of love.
Meet Alison and be touched by her many gifts!
Customer Reviews:
A book to read and pass around..........2000-10-22
Facing the unthinkable--the sudden death of a child--this thought lurks uncomfortably in the corners of my and every parent's mind. What is the big picture of life and death, destiny, the love and role of parent and child, family, and the friendship of others? Alison's Gift is the story of the sudden death of a child of a mother that could easily be in my own circle of friends. Beth Sanders, with the support of her friends and family, follows her own intuition about how to handle the physical, emotional, and spiritual details of the crossing of her child from this life into the next. I found myself fasciinated, touched, and, yet, strengthened by the telling of this story by author, Pat Hogan. The results were a sense of inner calm and that "unthinkable" feeling subsiding. This book has that ability to show the reader how to tread down a path that we all are unsure of. It is a book to read and pass around.
A Tune Nobody Will Ever Forget.......2000-09-29
Alison was a delightful and loving little girl who lost her life all too soon. Fortunately, Alison's mission, her song of peace, her vision of helping other people realize their potentials was her legacy. Although we paid the highest price with the loss of this wonderful, gifted, loving child, we did inherit her legacy. We love Alison.
Courageous..........2000-09-06
This story is the tragic account of the completely unneccessary death of a young child because of an airbag. I often found myself crying as the author spelled out some of the details of the ordeal that he and his family lived through as a result of that car accident. I found myself crying both for them and for me (because I, too, have suffered loss because of an airbag). I think that this book was probably a tremendous avenue for the author to deal with his grief, and I applaud his courage for doing so. At times, I found myself to be disturbed by the descriptions of some of the things that the family chose to do related to final arrangements for their daughter. Everyone, however, deals with grief and loss in his/her own way...and has the right to do so. Once again, courageous, but disturbing. Overall, a pretty well-written story - almost more of a journal,really. I found myself wanting more to be said about the dangers of airbags than was said. I realize, however, that the author's focus was honoring the loss of a child in his life....not "righting the wrongs" of the automotive industry. And in that, he did a good job.
wonderfuly enlightening.......1999-12-17
i think mr. hogan has done a wonderful job in spinning alison's tale. a very good read!
A gripping account of tragedy turned triumph........1999-03-25
Alison's Gift - The Song of a Thousand Hearts Opening - reads like a symphony, as the notes and chords tug at our heart-strings throughout the book, and as each "instrument" in the orchestra builds momentum adding layers of emotions and textures to an urgency . . . the urgency to unfold the true story of a child's life and death, and spiritual "resurrection". Alison's mother, Beth, embodies both the lioness mother protecting and fighting for her wounded young, and Mother Mary in Michelangelo's Pieta, as she courageously surrenders her broken heart to the acceptance of unnegotiable Death. Alison's father, Rob, suffers the tragedy by descending into a state of Inferno, where he heroically fights monsters with his aching soul and comes out with a gift of his own.
Pat Hogan, as the narrator in this captivating book, leads the reader into a labyrinth of an unfathomable tragedy - a minor car accident, the explosive opening of an airbag, and the resulting loss of an innocent child. The miracle that rose from the tragedy is the transcendence over despair by a community of family, Christian Community priest, and school (teachers, parents and students alike), who together wove the golden thread that offered healing and redemption to the thousand hearts shattered. Bold, direct, and yet vulnerable, Hogan's writing trembles like earthquakes, stirring the reader's so-called calm, normal existence into inquiries beyond.
Books:
- Death at Dartmoor (Robin Paige Victorian 8)
- Diamond Dust: Stories
- El ano terrible. Hombres y hechos de su tiempo. Latorre, Santos, Tajes
- Eleanor Rathbone and the Politics of Conscience (Society and the Sexes in the Modern Worl)
- Embassy Girl
- Everybody's Grandmother and Nobody's Fool : Frances Freeborn Pauley and the Struggle for Social Justice
- Eyewitness to Power: The Essence of Leadership Nixon to Clinton
- F.D.R.: An Intimate History
- Face to Face With Fidel Castro: A Conversation With Tomas Borge
- Fifty-Two Simple Ways to Make a Difference
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Truman
