The Diary of Georgi Dimitrov, 1933-1949

Book Description

Georgi Dimitrov (1882-1949) was a high-ranking Bulgarian and Soviet official, one of the most prominent leaders of the international Communist movement and a trusted member of Stalin's inner circle. Accused by the Nazis of setting the Reichstag fire in 1933, he successfully defended himself at the Leipzig Trial and thereby became an international symbol of resistance to Nazism. Stalin appointed him head of the Communist International (Comintern) in 1935, and he held this position until the Comintern's dissolution in 1943. After the end of the Second World War, Dimitrov returned to Bulgaria and became its first Communist premier.

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Larry Karp's latest book

Ragtime, Racism, and Murder

history of ragtime music makes this book outstanding

strong historical mystery

Ragtime Kid, The
Larry Karp
Manufacturer: Poisoned Pen Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1590583264

Book Description

Brun Campbell, a 15-year-old piano fool, gets to play Scott Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag" one 1898 afternoon in Oklahoma City. It's destiny calling. Though he tries for ragtime lessons, he's told no--"Ragtime is colored music" So Brun runs away from the family home in El Reno, Oklahoma, to Sedalia, Missouri, to persuade Joplin to take him on as a pupil. What Brun doesn't expect is to trip over the body of a young woman--he thinks at first she's a log and thoughtlessly picks up a couple of items before he rushes away.

When Edward Fitzgerald, who befriended Brun his first night in town, is arrested for the woman's murder, Brun is certain he's innocent. But if the boy shows anyone the things he pocketed at the scene, things he now knows belonged to Scott Joplin, he'll point the finger at the composer--and himself.

Caught in this dilemma, Brun decides to get Fitzgerald and Joplin—and himself—off the hook by finding the real killer, but for that he will need some grown-up help which he gets from the story's other linchpins: Dr. Overstreet, the alcoholic town mayor, and John Stark, a man pushing sixty and feeling it, who's been employing Brun at his music store.

Sedalia is rife with suspects, some of them opportunists bent on stealing Joplin's music. And then there are the girls and women. Both are a mystery to Brun. A teenager seized with religious fever, a couple of mischievous prostitutes, and an attractive, ambitious young woman with a hint of scarlet in her past complicate the pursuit of the killer.

Customer Reviews:

Larry Karp's latest book.......2007-02-16

I've just re-read Larry Karp's The Ragtime Kid, and just as you shouldn't play ragtime too fast, you shouldn't read Karp's book too fast, either, lest you miss the music of his prose and the nuances of the stories he tells.
In this, his latest book, it's 1899, and young piano player Brun Campbell has run away from his rural home in Oklahoma to Sedalia, Missouri. He's only just heard ragtime for the first time, and hopes to learn this new music from the master himself, Scott Joplin. Arriving in Sedalia, and looking for a room for the night, he stumbles, literally, upon the body of a woman, and picks up two objects that will become vital to the solution of her murder. He finds employment at a music store, and begins studying with Joplin, but when a man he knows is innocent is arrested, Brun is, however unwillingly, drawn into the search for the real murderer.
Though Sedalia is a town filled with music, it is only 30 years since the end of the War Between the States, and racism is very much a part of this story. Joplin insists on being taken seriously as a musician, and receiving royalties on the sheet music which will bear his name as composer, an unprecedented demand for the times. Thus, another plot line develops, as Joplin pursues his ambitions despite some unprincipled and amoral adversaries.
The characters here are a mixture of real, from Joplin and Campbell and other musical figures, and fictional, to some of the townspeople. In skin color, they are black and they are white, and in character they are black and white, as well, but the two categories do not necessarily overlap. Brun himself is a fifteen-year-old, a musical Huck Finn in some ways, coming of age in a world more complex than he ever imagined, and he's learning, at first hand, what black and white are all about. As events unfold, Karp vividly captures the sheer awfulness of racial (and other) bias as it was then.
Just as there are two plot lines, there are two narrative voices here, speaking in a gentle counterpoint. One voice is someone who knows Brun and tells his part of the story, occasionally noting that "Brun once told [him]" about one event or another. The other voice is an omniscient third-person narrator, who recounts Joplin's story, and the ongoing search for the murderer of the woman whose body Brun found. As Brun's music lessons commence, his plot and Joplin's intertwine, connected by some unscrupulous music promoters, and by his own efforts to absolve the innocent man.
All the characters, and some of them are surprising, are vividly realized, and they all speak very much in their own voices. Those voices, moreover, are often eloquent. Early in the book, Joplin tells Brun that ragtime is like "a bright sunny day, just a perfect day, but . . . sooner or later, the lovely day will have to end." Even more moving is a grieving father's lament for the brutal death of his son, which he knows will not be investigated: "[We] was born slaves, and now we been set free, but I don't see the leas' difference. White men kill us on the plantation, they kill us now, an' it's no matter."
From the geography of Sedalia to its weather, the sense of place in the novel is intense. It's a book that takes place in a hot Missouri summer, when the air is "close to drinkable," and we breathe in that heat and humidity as we follow Brun through the city. More characters appear, his life becomes more complicated, and as he puzzles out the solution to the murder, the action leads up to a triple denouement. First there's a violent confrontation with some brutal men, followed by an even more suspenseful encounter which culminates in the unmasking of a murderer. Then, in a shocking turnaround, Brun's own "lovely day" is over, and his life moves in a new direction.
The Ragtime Kid is a scrupulously researched look at a time in America's musical and social past, a fiction that can, as Karp notes in the concluding pages of his book, tell "a truth more striking and wondrous than any historical reality." It's a book written with humor (and not a little irony), with occasional pathos, and always with generosity . Listen to some Joplin while you read it

Ragtime, Racism, and Murder.......2006-12-20

Larry Karp writes books. He doesn't just write genre fiction; he writes each work as an individual, well-crafted, offbeat narration. Even in his Music Box series, published by the now-defunct Write Way, all three novels were entirely singular, and unique. So, too, is *The Ragtime Kid*, an outstanding piece of historical intrigue that focuses on the origins of ragtime music and is written within the murder mystery/crime literature category of fiction.

Dr. Karp is a particularly fine writer, and his prose shines, but here, the story itself--and the characters--truly dominate.

The protagonist of the book, young Brun Campbell, is so drawn by the allure of the new music craze, ragtime, that he runs away from home to study with the great Scott Joplin in Sedalia, Missouri. Just off the train, Brun stumbles over the body of a woman, Then, not long after, he has himself a job and becomes a student of the elegant black composer, Joplin, who very well might be a homicide suspect.

Another great theme of the book is American racism. Although the Civil War has been over for a good long time, those who fought in the war--and many in Sedalia did--haven't forgotten--from one side of the great divide, or the other.

Racism, ragtime, and murder are his topics, and Karp intertwines the three adroitly for the novel's readers, then throws in a little romance as a sort of seasoning. Male/female relationships are as complex in The Ragtime Kid as they are in real life.

But perhaps the element that tickled me most about the book is the fine detailing of the time and place. Karp, a longstanding ragtime enthusiast, took the Scott Joplin biography and that of the real-life Brun Campbell, and without distorting the documented facts, wove a tale of what might have occurred. Behind that marvelous foreground though lies a backdrop lending the intoxicating particulars of the time: memories of the Chicago's World Fair in 1893, a young woman eager to perform in vaudeville, a spring-powered fan to drive away the heat, and yellow streetcars providing the Sedalia citizens their transportation.

In short, Karp has created a darn good read, a compelling and literate story that entertains on many levels--as a novel, as a mystery, and as a chronicle of one stage in our national history--a tale peopled by very real and believable characters.

*The Ragtime Kid* proves itself to be both a fun and an enlightening pastime.

G. Miki Hayden, author of *Writing the Mystery* and *The Naked Writer*.

history of ragtime music makes this book outstanding.......2006-12-16

We already knew that Larry Karp was a talented mystery writer, thanks to his previous novels. This latest work shows that he can write historical fiction and make it fascinating. Even though I started the book knowing nothing about ragtime music, by the end I wanted to learn more!

His other strength is his ability to create characters that are so real, and so endearing, that the reader quickly begins to identify with and root for the protagonist(s). This makes the book a real page-turner, because you can't wait to read more about what "your" characters are doing!

If you haven't read anything by Larry Karp yet, you're in for a treat!

strong historical mystery.......2006-12-03

Brun Campbell loves to hear and play music. In Oklahoma city he listens to some musicians in a music store playing a tune by Scott Joplin and knows instantly that is what he wants to learn how to play. He runs away from home at fifteen and hops a train for Sedelia, Missouri in the hopes that he can get Mr. Joplin to give him lessons. On the way into town he runs across the body of a woman strangled to death and he takes a musical money clip that is nearby and a locket on her neck.

In town he meets businessman Mr. Fitzgerald who stakes him to a room at the YMCA and money to buy food while he looks for work. Someone who hears him playing music recommends he ask music store owner Mr. Stark for a job. Mr. Stark listens to him play and offers him a job on the spot. He also auditions for Joplin who agrees to give him lessons. When Mr. Fitzgerald is arrested for the murder of the woman Brun saw the first day he was in town; he knows the man didn't do it. The money clip which belonged to Joplin could implicate him and Brun in the murder. Brun decides to find the killer with the unwitting help of the townsfolk as he maneuvers them in the direction he wants them to go for information relating to the murder.

As historical mysteries go, THE RAGTIME KID is one of the better ones. The author doesn't only write a good who done it, he shows the readers how the plight of the black man had changed very little since Emancipation back three decades earlier. Scott Joplin takes a big risk to be paid in royalties with his name as the arranger of the music, something unheard of in the 1890's. The protagonist has a touch of larceny in him that helps him get what he wants but he is so adorable, readers will root for him in spite of his faults.

Harriet Klausner

Book of Chores: As Remembered by a Former Kid

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Book of Chores: As Remembered by a Former Kid
Bob Artley
Manufacturer: Iowa State University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0813810698

Favorite Places to Go With Kids in St. Louis

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I Love This Book!
essential guide to St. Louis attractions for anyone w/kids

Favorite Places to Go With Kids in St. Louis
Ann Seebeck
Manufacturer: Ann Seebeck
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Spiral-bound

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Insiders' Guide to St. Louis, 2nd (Insiders' Guide Series)

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Braun IRT 4020 ThermoScan Ear Thermometer

ASIN: 0962204404

Book Description

This informative book lists over 200 places to go with your kids in the St. Louis area. It gives addresses, directions, phone numbers, hours of operation, costs, discriptions of the places, recommended ages, and useful "Mom to Mom" tips. It is divided into chapters of Museum and Entertainment, Parks, Seasonal Events, Birthday Parties, and Restaurants.

Customer Reviews:

I Love This Book!.......2001-03-26

My wife and I vacationed in St. Louis with our 2-year-old son and used this book to plan our trip. It was invaluable, pointing out activities we never would have known about otherwise. This book helped make our trip one of the best vacations we've ever had.

essential guide to St. Louis attractions for anyone w/kids.......1998-08-16

I keep 2 copies of this book handy: one in the car and one by the phone. I have recently purchased an updated copy and found the information current and accurate. It gives information on places as diverse as parks, restaurants, bookstores, museums, and the zoo. There are many fun ideas included that I would have never thought of myself. For example, you can ride the Amtrak train from Kirkwood to Downtown very cheaply and the kids have a ball. My 4-year-old son used the facilities twice in the 1/2 hour it took just because it was such a unique experience! Anyone living in St Louis or just visiting shouldn't be without this book!

Shifra Stein's a Kids Guide to Kansas City

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Shifra Stein's a Kids Guide to Kansas City
Shifra Stein
Manufacturer: Harrow Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0916455025

Fun with the Family in Missouri: Hundreds of Ideas for Day Trips with the Kids

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Great source for great fun for free or cheap

Fun with the Family in Missouri: Hundreds of Ideas for Day Trips with the Kids
Jane Cosby , and Randy Cosby
Manufacturer: Globe Pequot
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0762704667

Book Description

If you're taking the kids to the Show Me State, this is the book for you. From shopping for fresh fruit and vegetables at Soulard Market to taking a fastball in the Missouri Sports Hall of Fame to playing a few rounds at Family Golf Park, you'll find something to satisfy every whim! The book divides the state into five geographic regions, each with accommodations and eateries listed by city/town. Written by a parent, for parents, this opinionated, personal and easy-to-use guide has the best things to see and do to keep the kids busy and happy for an hour, a day, or a weekend-a guaranteed antidote to vacation boredom!

Customer Reviews:

Great source for great fun for free or cheap.......2001-11-12

I use this book at least weekly to find interesting things for our family to do that fit our budget. I especially appreciate the tips the authors give as only one who has actually been there can. The authors are unbiased in their reviews (unlike tourist brochures) and also point you to good lodging and eats along the way. I'll never have to dig through the yellow pages again - all the numbers I need are right there. Also, times and prices. A great book. I also recommend the others in the series.

Missouri History Projects: 30 Cool, Activities, Crafts, Experiments & More for Kids to Do (Missouri Experience)

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Missouri History Projects: 30 Cool, Activities, Crafts, Experiments & More for Kids to Do (Missouri Experience)
Carole Marsh
Manufacturer: Gallopade International
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0635017946

Branson with Kids: The Definitive Family Guide to the Live Country Music Capital of the World (Travel with Kids)

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Branson with Kids: The Definitive Family Guide to the Live Country Music Capital of the World (Travel with Kids)
Toni Eugene
Manufacturer: Prima Lifestyles
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Family Travel | Specialty Travel | Travel | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0761502483
Release Date: 1996-06-26

Book Description

Boasting more than 30 lavish theaters and hundreds of star-studded shows, Branson Missouri, is the live country music capital of the world—and a fantastic place to vacation with the whole family. But which shows will the kids like best? What else is there to do? And how much will the trip cost? Branson with Kids has all the answers:

• Music—reviews of all the hottest shows
• Kid-friendly places to stay, eat, and relax
• Tips on discounts, bargains, and freebies
• Theme parks—Silver Dollar City, Mutton Hollow, and Shepherd of the Hills
• Outdoor fun—where to hike, swim, fish, and golf
• Excursions—Lake of the Ozarks, Eureka Springs and Springfield
• Plus museums, festivals, craft shows, shopping and more!

Whether you love the classic country sounds of Roy Clark, Mel Tillis, and Charley Pride or can?t wait to experience the magic of VanBurch and Wellford, the violin wizardry of Shoji Tabuchi, or the offbeat humor of Jim Stafford, this is your guide to the spectacular best that Branson has to offer.

Dead End Kids: Gang Girls and the Boys They Know

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funny
Interesting, yet highly disturbing
Perfect
Disgusted, too
Disgusted!

Dead End Kids: Gang Girls and the Boys They Know
Mark S. Fleisher
Manufacturer: University of Wisconsin Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0299158802

Book Description

"Most people think they know about gang girls. They know they talk tough and play rough. They know they wear tattoos and scary hair. They know-or they think they know-these are not the girls they want their daughters to grow up to be. In Dead End Kids, Mark Fleisher humanizes this harsh stereotype. We learn that many of these young women come from abusive backgrounds. We learn that they are often the pawns of men, or boys. We learn that their lives are seldom easy, and that choice is rarely in their hands. Most of society has given up on these girls. Mark Fleisher shows us why this is a tragic mistake."-Elizabeth Mehren, national correspondent, Los Angeles Times

"Fleisher has done it again! Dead End Kids is simply one of the very best up-close accounts of urban crime-and perhaps the best ever account of female involvement in street gangs-ever published. His fascinating, real-life analysis of today's gang girls and boys, and his original and convincing arguments about the need to make 'protecting babies and pre-schoolers' a primary goal of gang intervention programs, places Dead End Kids on par with his now classic Beggars and Thieves as must reading for anyone who cares about the future of at-risk youth and young adults."-John J. DiIulio, professor of politics and public affairs, Princeton University

"Mark Fleisher became remarkably tight with core members of a large female street gang and with their male counterparts in a devastated inner-city area. He provides a lucid, poignant, and well-reasoned account of the internal structure and dynamics of the gang world, along with insightful observations of boy/girl relationships, drug dealing, violence, values, and group norms. This is a 'must' read in the gang literature; I have learned from it."-Malcolm W. Klein, director of the Social Science Research Institute, University of Southern California

"Dead End Kids is a remarkable story based on firsthand science, researcher caring, and informed social policy. The ethnography of girls in gangs in a Midwest city is a wake-up call. Mark Fleisher provides insights and remedies to address the misperceptions and failures of our urban and increasingly rural institutions."-Irving Spergel, George Herbert Jones Professor of the School of Social Service Administration, University of Chicago

"Dead End Kids proves that Mark Fleisher is one of the very best, if not the single best, criminological ethnographer in the United States today. This is a fantastic book!"-James B. Jacobs, professor of law & director, Center for Research in Crime and Justice, New York University

Girls are no less important to gang life than boys. Poor young women get trapped in cycles of victimization and self-defeating behavior despite their tough talk to the contrary. In his shocking yet compassionate new book, highly acclaimed criminologist Mark Fleisher exposes the depravity and humanity in gang life as seen through the eyes of a teen-aged girl named Cara.

Dead End Kids provides a firsthand account of Cara's life as a member of a Kansas City gang, the Fremont Hustlers. Drugs and guns, shootings and assaults, boyfriends and pregnancies, ratty apartments, broken-down cars, minimum-wage jobs, strained relationships with family members and peers, dodging the police, and praying for peace fill her days. The book describes in detail the social and economic pressure on Cara and fellow gang members whose lives were shaped by poverty, family disorganization, and parental neglect. Fleisher looks for hope in Cara's life, tries to bring her a brighter future, and ultimately fails. Dead End Kids will break your heart.

Customer Reviews:

funny.......2005-06-30

If you feel the author of this book was irresponsible, then you have something coming. Go to college and understand how important research like this is. Then you will understand why is was important for him to preserve the culture in order to study it. The whole pretense of research, especially an ethnography, is that people trust you so you can study the truth and show your findings to the rest of the world. He found a lot in this research and this wouldn't have happened if he "told" on them.

Interesting, yet highly disturbing.......2004-12-04

I write this review merely to respond to allegations that Fleisher is irresponsible. First of all, before you make that claim, enroll in one sociology course. Research like this is vital to understanding how humans operate, and without such research (not just about gangs, but about many aspects of life) policy recommendations would not be accurate, and problems would not be addressed appropriately. Had Fleisher reported all of the crimes that occurred during his time there, his research would have ended. As it is, there is very little research done on girls in gangs. Second, if you had completed the book, you would have seen that Fleisher did have a friend report what he saw with Amy and RoniRo (p 247 -- second full paragraph.) Third, he didn't approve of the gang girls choices to sell drugs -- he said he understood it. Granted that is a choice that most people cannot understand, but after witnessing all that he did, how can you blame him for being disenfranchised?

Clearly, much more research needs to be done on girls in gangs, as this was a study confined to one city. But Fleisher has done a fabulous job explaining the motivations and lifestyles of girls in Kansas City, and purported to do nothing more. Before you so harshly criticize a writer, please make sure that you fully understand what you are discussing.

Perfect.......2004-11-22

The author handled the situations almost perfectly and I applaud him for that. Being a reformed gang member I was suprised that he even got these kid to trust him enough not to think he was the feds. People complain about how he allowed them to smoke and deal drugs but if he had tried to stop them he would have been dead.

Disgusted, too.......2001-11-07

Fleischer desribes the awful conditions that these kids live in and then places the blame on the police, Division of Family Services, the Juvenile Court system, and finally the "entire community of Kansas City." He not only was irresponsible for his failure to hotline these kids, he actually condones their drug dealing. He said he didn't see any other option they had. Give me a break! There are four social service agency willing to help within walking distance of these kids and Fleischer never mentions that.

Overall, a poorly written book by an irresponsible professor.

Disgusted!.......2001-10-01

Fleisher vividly describes the abusive treatment the children of these gansters received from their parents and their ganster friends, the filth they lived in, the lack of food and the overall dangerous living conditions. Did he report this to Family Services? Professor Fleisher is a mandated reporter and conducting research for a best seller should not discount his responsibility to those children in helping to make them safe. I am appalled that a Criminal Justice professor would write with such coldness and lack of concern: "It always took me a week to 10 days before I stopped recalling in my mind's eye the sight of Amy and RoniRo sequestered with Teresa and Kevin." pg. 97 I hope Professor Fleisher sleeps well knowing these children will soon be teenagers and his contribution to their well-being.

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Honey Creek kid
Wanda Hawkins
Manufacturer: W. Hawkins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

How to Draw Missouri's Sights and Symbols (A Kid's Guide to Drawing America)

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How to Draw Missouri's Sights and Symbols (A Kid's Guide to Drawing America)
Jaycee Kuedee
Manufacturer: PowerKids Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding

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ASIN: 0823960811

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