War Songs, described as metaphors in clay and poetry, blend these these two powerful forms of expression to forge a compelling glimpse into the ravages of war.

Author Grady Harp and ceramic sculptor Stephen Freedman cast
poems from the Vietnam experience into various forms of
pottery. Pictures of the poem-etched pottery accompany each
page of poetry. The effect is stunning, moving.

The poems alone, told from the perspective of a doctor tending
the war-torn bodies, are soul-wrenching observations. When carved into pottery the words resonate even deeper.

One poem describes the silent path a pool of blood follows as it returns to the earth, ending with the haunting question,
"Whose unwilling soul coffins my loved one's end?"

This excerpt from Poem #16 captures the spirit of War Songs:

"But mostly
I feel sadness
remembering the nights with silence.
hanging tenuously in the air,
holding onto patients,
wishing we had war songs
to lullaby the quiet weeping
of those who survived."

You'll start by reading War Songs, but end up feeling this reflection on the devastation wrought when humanity turns upon itself.

I've started this review a half-dozen times. It's not easy to write about this book. It wasn't easy to read it; I opened it, put it down, picked at a poem here and there, steeled myself and read it all. And read it again. It brought back memories, yes; it put me *there*--in the heat, in the "mild wind," at a bedside where an IV runs into the body of a boy who has died, so the man next to him does not lose hope. It broke my heart.

But damned if I didn't read it again.

War Songs is a simple, elegant little volume of twenty poems--simply, elegantly written poems. There are fine black and white pictures of pottery interspersed throughout--vessels crafted by Stephen Freedman with the words of Harp's poems carved or painted on them.

But there is so much more.

Grady Harp was an intern at the LA County Hospital in 1968 when he was dropped, almost literally, into the thick of the Viet Nam conflict as a Battalion Surgeon. He was not formally prepared for what war does to those who fight it; no one ever is. This slender book is a report from the front, a doctor's memoir. Harp himself refers to it as a "survival kit." It is a distillation of his horror, fear, anger, grief and despair.

Yet, these poems are so well written that they neither cry nor shout; rather, they condense and crystalizes small but important pieces of Harp's experience. The reader is left to walk around, observe, come closer, touch. Each poem is brief, a small collection of words, but words so aptly chosen that the scene they present is rich, three-dimensional, and gut-wrenchingly clear.

In short, these poems are excellent. They are written without a spare word; they paint harrowing pictures; they have an impact. They made me cry. They are real, and they tell it like it is. This book is a thing of painful beauty.

Susan O'Neill
Author
Don't Mean Nothing: Short Stories of Viet Nam

Praying for peace? Sit quietly with this small book of poems written by Grady Harp in 1968-1969 as a young Battalion Surgeon in Vietnam. Read it as a meditation. Read it to stand witness. Read it as a reminder. If you're too young to remember Nam, read it as a primer of the most personal sort. It feels like a prayer.

Sent to Vietnam as a healer, Harp adds a gentle poet's heart to all the heartbreaking stories of reluctant warriors. This poetry took me back to summer days spent building forts with a dozen rowdy neighborhood kids, back to KoolAid, and forward again to Budweiser and the Beatles. Then a bomb exploded on the page. Filled with heart and horror, and written with the terrified intensity of a young man trying to press the world to the page with the nib of his pen, these are war songs for the boys who went to Vietnam singing Hey, Jude.

Fans of Tim O'Brien will especially appreciate this collaboration in which Harp and artist Stephen Freedman "remold the pain" into "Metaphors in Clay and Poetry" - into the art of war. It's a prayer for peace.

Jean Harfenist, author

This book represents a gold mine of pragmatic object-oriented software development wisdom and knowledge that offers a competitive advantage to any organization that can apply what is presented.

This book is certainly useful for its intended audience - management, but it is essential for those tasked with building complex systems - software engineers. The author guides the reader through an iterative and incremental software development process that places the emphases on architectural design and a risk-driven approach to managing object-oriented projects. At appropriate times the discussion is interjected with recommended practices, rules of thumb, and examples drawn from the authors vast experience in real-world projects.

The only place where I can find fault with this book is in the formatting of the text. Important concepts tend to appear unannounced and therefore, I'd recommend that you keep a colored marker handy or make some notes in the margins if you want to locate a given point at some later time.

Booch talks about managing the object oriented project in his well known 'easy to read' style. The complete object oriented project life cycle is discussed in depth. This is great reading stuff for people only accustomed to the 'classic' Waterfall model. I personally was enlighted to read about the 'Prototype' or 'Proof of concept' phase. What makes the book exceptionally usefull are the 'Key Practices' and 'Rules of thumb'. These are integrated in the text, but also listed seperately in de appendices. These insights and experiences give the book a very pratical value. Certainly when not having any OO project experience yourself, these Key Practices and Rules of thumb give you a head start. This book is a MUST read for any projectmanager involved in managing object oriented software projects. Preferably before his or hers first object oriented project.

this book describes the develoment of object-orientedsystems for a management perspective, which I think is the most wanted topic for me I am the student of master level and I desperately need this book for study but due to financial resources I cannot buy that book if you have any policy for giving this book free of Cost. kindly give me that opportunity fully utilize the knowledge on object-oreinted solotion on simpathetic grounds. thanks.

Children love hearing outlandish tales of animals especially if they are true! My daughter thinks Grady is great and so we have given this book to several of her friends and it has become their favorite story at the moment too. The illustrations are so cute and the way the tale is written will keep anyone interested. Definite winner!

Grady's In The Silo is a colorful story by Una Belle Townsend about a 1,200-pound cow named Grady who becomes stuck inside a large, gray silo. How is she to get out? A variety of people put their heads together but their best efforts seem ineffective, until a reporter from Denver saves the day with sharp thinking and extra grease. Bob Artley's playful color illustrations add a special touch to this delightful and entertaining picture book for children.

What a wonderful book! Illustrations are colorful and real. My sisters, brother and I grew up in Yukon, OK, hearing this true story first hand. I was 7 years old and remember when it hapened. We have passed this story along to our children and grandchildren and are delighted that a book has finally been published. A delight to read, no matter if you are 3 or 83.

I am very familiar with the works of old time Irish writers including the works of James Joyce who wrote about Ireland in exile. I still don't know much about modern Irish novelists until I had the opportunity of meeting and listening to parts of Timothy O'Grady's novel at Perth Writer's Festival early this year. Immediately afterwards I bought a copy and later talked to Timothy briefly about writers in exile and their struggle with dislocation. This story is not only about dislocation and exile. This is the story of a man coming of age and following a journey during which he struggles to make sense of his life, dislocation, loss of love and loneliness.

This lyrically crafted novel is a great collaboration between O'Grady and photographer Steve Pyke. They collectively create a visual journey of a musical Irishman, his journey from one location to another, looking for work and the love of his life. O'Grady's begins his novel with a description of the protagonist's life back at home as a child:

"This room is dark, as dark as it ever gets - the hour before dawn in winter. I have sounds and pictures but they flit and crash before I can get them..."

For me, it is a metaphor of not been able to recreate the places and the people he left behind as a result of his journey.

O'Grady ends his novel with a similar narrative:

"In the room now a breeze comes in through the window and on it there is the smell of spring. Downstairs the girl turns on her radio... There is a time after long work when you can look for strength and there is nothing there....

In the morning light I let go."

In between, we learn about his journey, his recollection of Irish landscapes, the places left behind, the music he played and his love. But this is not just a mere description of a nostalgic mental journey of an Irishman in exile. This can happen anywhere, anytime, and to anyone.

Reading this novel is like watching a visually crafted documentary embedded with voice and music that we can see and hear.

I'm glad that I met O'Grady and read his novel as my introduction to modern Irish novelists. But this novel had another positive effect on me. When I met O'Grady I was writing a novel about my own dislocation. This novel inspired me to look at my private journey again and again, and continue my writing in exile!

I recommend this book to anyone interested in the beauty and tragic of moving from one place to another.

Tim O'Grady creates exquisitely wrought, archetypal prose that could even overpower Pyke's perfect documentary photos. (Without offense to Walker Evans, now I'm wishing Pyke had been around to collaborate with James Agee).

Amazingly, requires very little interest in Ireland or the Irish - O'Grady is from Chicago anyway and this book is more about experiences of all mankind. His crystalline narrative is hardly bound by ethnicity.

Extraordinary and inspiring new use of the verb, can. If you read poetry, you couldn't regret buying this experimental novel.

... then buy, borrow or steal a copy! Never before have I read such a good exploration of Irish exile. Stranded in a dismal flat in England, the protagonist remembers his happy childhood in Ireland, the rough living and working conditions in England, and his only love. The language is quite simple and often Hiberno Irish, but deeply imaginative and so lyrical, that the line between prose and poetry gets blurred. The beautiful black/white pictures added to this book, and the author's ability to portray Irish music help to give an insight into Irish culture. Sometimes it's like watching a documentary, and suddenly you can't help but feeling you're listening to a song; a song of heartache and terrible longing. Despite far from being soppy the book is very moving in the end; you actually hope for a happy ending. But that wouldn't be Irish.

A truly inspiring read and insight to the Pecos. Gradys recipes will revitalize the aura in your in pots and pans as well as the entire kitchen. The book is simple yet creative and above all the recipes are great fun to eat. Set your tables in the motif, cook from the book, dress the part and you've got a great evening with good friends

What a fantastic cookbook. I saw a copy at my parents' house, and I was charmed by the photos and design, so I hinted at a birthday gift selection. The parents obliged, and A COWBOY IN THE KITCHEN has become my favorite cookbook. I discovered that the terrific photos and graphics are only the tip of the iceberg -- the recipes are just fantastic. I have made probably 8 or 9 of them so far, and every one was a joy to make and even more of a joy to eat! In particular, the Spicy Tomato Soup with Sourdough Croutons has been a real hit with friends at dinner parties. The classic Chicken Fried Steak with Cream Gravy is simply divine. It's a great combination of old-timey, classic country comfort food and new-fangled, flavorsome delights. The classic Ranch Dressing and fancier Sherry Vinaigrette have become the standard salad dressings in my kitchen. I can't say enough good things about this book!

Received Cowboy in the Kitchen as a present last Christmas. Having eaten at the Gage Hotel, Marathon and the Reata in Alpine Texas, where Grady Spears was chef, I couldn't put the book down until I read it cover to cover. It's an outstanding collection of authentic Trans-Pecos and Big Bend stories and genuine ranch-hand recipes with a touch of TexMex-New Mexico flavoring. Just try a couple of the recipes and you're lassoed on the book and recipes.

Sex education teachers O'Grady and Wansbrough have produced an ideal gift for young girls preparing to bloom into womanhood, a book that is as entertaining as it is informative.

Sweet Secrets is about menstruation. Your cycle, your period, your curse, your monthly visitor, your Aunt Flo...whatever phrase you use, you know what it is and unless with few medical exceptions, every girl is going to get it whether she likes it or not. Sweet Secrets could be considered a technical manual for a girl growing up: basic terminology is introduced, and behaviors such as PMS are explained.

What endeared me to this title, however, was the positive approach O'Grady and Wansbrough take to the monthly event that annoys me when it arrives and worries me when it doesn't. First menstruation is a "sweet secret" because it is a girl's own private advancement into adulthood, a rite of passage celebrated in many cultures. An accompanying mini-anthology of essays by women and teenagers emphasizes the poignancy of growing into womanhood while offering sympathy and encouragement.

If you have daughter fast approaching her teens and feel apphrensive about explaining to her the facts of life, let this book be a guide for the both of you, a "sweet secret" to share.

Sweet Secrets: Stories of Menstruation is the brainchild of Canadians Kathleen O'Grady and Paula Wansbrough. Sweet Secrets laces facts with short stories by various authors about girls having their first periods. The facts are straightforward...Best of all, though, the short stories that form the bulk of Sweet Secrets give girls multiple perspectives on the event - from that of a girl who is flat on her back in a body cast when she gets her first period to that of a girl who has ten minutes between the national anthem and homeroom announcements to cope with her first period alone - so that *whatever* happens when the young reader gets hers, it falls within the spectrum of normal.

-excerpt, by Karen Houppert, reporter for the Village Voice and author of _The Curse: Confronting the Last Unmentionable Taboo: Menstruation.

Addressed to adolescent readers, Sweet Secrets is a charming anthology of personal and fictional stories of menarche (first menstruation) told by women aged 16 to 93, from diverse cultural backgrounds.

The authors present factual information on the physical and emotional changes of puberty in a candid, anecdotal style. This handsome, readable book also features observations on menstruation's cultural and religious significance in ancient and aboriginal societies....

These uplifting tales of women's celebrations, unusual in a puberty education piece, set a new standard for progressive and enlightened learning.

The unique and sensitive approach to menstruation offered in Sweet Secrets guarantees its place as a valuable resource for those seeking help in discussing menstruation with preteen girls.

--Besty Harvie

Mr. Grady's intention is to give the spiritual history of America and he does a generally credible job of it. Many secular textbooks leave out the beliefs and motivations of the founding fathers, the colonists, and a lot of the movers and shakers in our country's history. Undeniably, the United States was founded by men and women who believed in the God of the Bible. These days the schools do not teach the faith of the Pilgrims, but instead portray Europeans as exploiters of the New World. Chapters 5 through 9 are the best, covering the Pilgrims, Roger Williams, The Great Awakening, the jailing of Baptist pastors and preachers, and the Revolutionary War and the First Amendment.

This book is not to be read without discernment. Although a lot of what Mr. Grady says is true and well documented, he does a more credible job with the earlier history of our country than with more current events. Even if you are a Bible believing Christian remember that Mr. Grady's writings are not inspired and he has his personal biases interjected within. His rationalizations about the "race" of Japeth justifying Manifest Destiny, as well as his overcompensation for having grown up a Catholic require discernment instead of blind acceptance. About mid-way through the history of the US, in the chapter "The Devil's D-Day", conspiracy theories start to wrap itself around all of the ensuing events, including the Civil War, the Federal Reserve, and today's ecumenical apostasy.

In some places, Mr. Grady has his ax to grind. For example, I take issue with his quoting of Acts 17:26 to support his argument against "race-mixing" or intermarriage being based on his interpretation that "blood" in that verse means genes and chromosomes. Whereas the "one blood" generally is interpreted as having a common descent from Adam. He then quotes the second half of that verse as saying you should stay within the "bounds of habitation" as meaning each should stay in it's own place. Rather this should mean the sovereignty of God placing us at a certain time or place in history. (page 290)

The most quirky part of this book is his incredible summary of the life of Elvis "The King" Presley. Elvis used to mix religion with drugs, preaching while high, and generally lived a bizarre life like taking his dates to the morgue to check out dead bodies. His death scene is pathetic and an object lesson for Philippians 2:10. Sad, very sad.

Finally his paralleling of America's spiritual decline with the lack of dependence on the Authorized Version of the Holy Bible is eye-opening and should be a cause of delving into this issue more. Fortunately, Mr. Grady has written another book on this subject "The Final Authority".

Dr. Grady has written a great description of the original history of the US fully backed up with facts and documentation. Very easy to read and you forget how big it is once you've started. Contains little heard of but still important items (many once commonly known). Book continues to Modern Day. I have also heard Dr. Grady speek and he is just as great in person.

This book is for every American that wants the Biblical Truth of real American History---Not the distorted secular (hidden agenda) for social engineering motives. Warning! If you are not a real Bible Believer, Bible Behaving, Born Again American, you will not be able to handle the Truth as Dr. Grady's excellent footnoted research uncovers and exposes. I would recommend this book for every Christian school and college, missionary, evangelist, pastor, Christian worker and every Christian family. If you are unsure as to the motives behind the flood of perverted bibles, I recommend you read Dr. Grady's "Final Authority".

...

I am not a Linguist, but this book helped me to appreciate all of the differing theories and various fields within what is known as linguistics. If you are seeking a book that is simple to read, yet very comprehensive, I recommend this volume. If you enjoy languages, speech development, regional dialects, language acquisition, theory of language, language trends, and more - this book is for you.

Major disciplines coverd include: phonetics, morphology, syntax, and semantics. Also included in this new addition are new chapters on second language acquisition and psycholinguistics.

One of the best features of this text is how well it is laid out. It is a pleasure to peruse and even study because of it's logical and user friendly format.

If you love anything about language- whether knowing it's origins, or what part of the mouth is used to create certain sounds, or how language changes over time and for what reasons, or a host of other curiosities, you will certainly enjoy the wealth of information within Contemporary Linguistics!

"Contemporary Linguistics" (CL) is a wonderfully clear and accessible introduction to the field of linguistics. The authors begin by introducing the methodological assumptions that underlie present day Chomskyan linguistics and then reserve a chapter each for almost all major research directions within linguistics.

One thing in particular that I liked about the format of CL was the treatment of more advanced material (marked "Advanced") in each chapter. The "Advanced" sections augment the material in the rest of the chapter and are placed in logical sequence with the rest of the material instead of appearing in an appendix at the end of the chapter. For example, a section marked "advanced" on X' (read X-bar) Theory appears fairly early in the syntax chapter. Having some knowledge of X' Theory allows the reader to proceed to examine the rest of the material with the knowledge that there exists an intermediate level of structure between lexical categories (N, V, ...) and phrasal categories (NP, VP, ...).

Most chapters in CL are pretty well written and technical tools to treat linguistic phenomena are almost always introduced at the correct juncture. However, CL does not treat Innateness properly (why Innateness and arguments for and against Innateness), and has a weak chapter on semantics. The reader would do well to augment the material in CL by reading Pinker's "The Language Instinct" or Jackendoff's "Patterns in the Mind" for a non-technical introduction to some ideas in linguistics, as well as sections of De Swart's "Intro to Natural Language Semantics" to get an idea of how semantics is done. If the reader is interested in looking at language from a cognitive science perspective, she would also do well to read most of Gleitman et al's "An Invitation to Cognitive Science: Language".

All in all, CL provides a relatively painless initiation into linguistics and I highly recommend it.

Speaking as a newcomer to the subject, I found this book to be an excellent intro. Very useful.

This book encourages better OO design and analysis, shows how to involve the entire team of developers to the design of the whole system. The authors also describe how to gain benefit from involving the user and other parties to the OO design process.

I was in OO development for five years and I was thinking about a solution which will improve the efficiency of OO design and help to avoid splitting the program between developers who create their own set of classes they are responsible for. Such splitting leads to integration problems and overall design imbalance. Fred Brooks has described this consequences in his famous book "The Mythical Man-Month", where the modules are being written first and integrated later, and the coordination of interfaces between modules written by each developer requires essential effort and time. The CRC Card Book shows how to have "the interfaces" coordinated in the very beginning.

However, the methodology described in this book is "fragile". As soon as it isn't followed by all of the developers, it became useless. But if it is followed, the results are amazing. The book, however, is not very easy to read and lack something which can attract the developers who are "neutral" to improving their way of creating OO programs. But, for the people who already have strong OO background and are seeking the way how to improve their efficiency significant, the book is a must-have.

This book and the stream of thought it stems from is one of the most influental in OO software engineering. It focuses on sharing responsibility in a system. It takes into account the obvious parallels between software teams and their software systems.
The technique itself can be very enjoyable and if you can convince very formal people to use it, it will change their lives, much more then any formal OO methodology will do. CRC Cards make you live software systems! This should be the first experience of everybody who wants to learn OO. You can even use it to explain your work to your kids:-)

You want to know a great way on "how to" identify classes from any type of user requiremnets? Buy this book now!

A lot of OOA books like to tell how to design from start to finish. However, some (most) of us are thrown in some obligatory process without consent. CRC will bridge the gap on getting your Classes defined.

Also, CRC works well for "Use Cases". I use CRC after a good Use Case session for Class Diagrams. Some prefer to do CRC before Use Cases. That's the beauty, CRC can be injected anywhere you deem fit.

And, finally, this book will get you "thinking in objects" fast!

Excellent book to read on public speaking. I have read and reviewed on Amazon 37 public speaking books. This book is in the top five that I would recommend. The book is very easy to read yet the author is aggressively analytical about what makes a good story that would be effective in a speech. He traces his early thoughts on what makes a good story to his more recent fleshed out analysis. What makes some stories grab you and others boring? Read this book. Stories of mythology are very old and still make connections deep in the soul. Robinson explains the ingredients of what makes these stories great. In his view, there is a universal theme or structure to the good stories. The hero has separation from his group, initiation and then return or integration. You might think of it as a template for making your own classical story for modern times. He does a stellar job on helping the reader search for and develop what might become your signature stories. The book one of those word of mouth success stories as the Amazon sales rank keeps climbing.

Read it on the flight back from California, and laughed out loud on the plane, so much so that the other passsengers asked me to pass the book up and down the aisles. A must for actual and potential speakers, storytellers, lovers of humor, Americans, sothern Americans, guys, educators, sports fans, and everybody else. And with an underlying philosophy/message, and lots of great allusions. I've known Grady Jim as a speaker, but this is the first book of his I've read, and it's a hoot and an eye-opener. Have fun, and tell a friend about it.

Mythology expert Joseph Campbell wrote, "It would not be too much to say that myth is the secret opening through which the inexhaustible energies of the cosmos pour into human cultural manifestation." Veteran speaker and storyteller Grady Jim Robinson adds, "Science can teach us the empirical truths and laws of the universe, but it is another domain that reveals the meaning behind those laws. Through the symbols and archetypes of story or myth, human beings connect at the deepest levels. Storytelling -- like painting, music, literature, poetry, or dance -- is an art form. And art in its purest state brings the viewer or listener into the very presence of the divine."

For years, Robinson has shared with audiences stories of his early life in small-town Arkansas: a sensitive boy, growing up in the shadow of an older brother who excelled in sports and schoolwork, and the even greater shadow of a gruff father who towered over the area as a highly successful sports coach. The stories paint vivid and unforgettable pictures of a young boy confronting his first Little League at-bat against a menacing pitcher nicknamed "Fishhook," or being pushed out unexpectedly on to the court by his father as the unwilling fifth player at a B-team basketball game so his team would not forfeit.

Robinson discovered that these stories resonated at a profound level with audiences from Harlem to Hollywood. Why? Most of them had no actual experience of life in rural Arkansas. In one case an African American woman who grew up in Harlem told Robinson that in listening to his stories about his father, she felt he was talking about her own father. Robinson sought to understand how this could be.

He discovered Joseph Campbell.

Campbell showed that in cultures around the world and throughout the centuries, universal symbols and themes have emerged in story and legend to which human beings instinctively respond. And the most basic ingredient of all is the "hero's journey," in which the subject leaves his familiar life and embarks on a quest, facing archetypal foes and challenges one after another until confronted with the Supreme Ordeal which will change him forever. He then returns, so changed, to the world he left, bringing the result with him. It is the stuff of "Beowulf" and it is the stuff of "Star Wars." It is the stuff of a young boy in Arkansas determined not to duck when Fishhook's first pitch comes rocketing toward the plate.

It is the stuff, believes Robinson, of which life-changing and memorable speeches are made.

In this book, Robinson examines the nature of human stories in detail, exploring their power, the elements that make a good story, and the trance-like state that audiences fall into while a story is being told. He presents several of his best-known stories and analyzes what he has done to make them most effective. And he presents a number of ideas to get readers started on identifying and shaping the powerful stories from their own lives, because he believes everyone has faced trials and tribulations that will strike universal chords with audiences.

"The human story is life-giving, uplifting, tender, inspiring, and funny, filled with wonder and awe," writes Robinson. "It is deeply painful at times, challenging, requiring courage, faith, and hope. Your story is life-shaping, hilarious, and it is *your* story. Tell it."

If you can find a way to hear Grady Jim live, don't miss the opportunity. If not, get this book!