Newer books have been written based on more recently available sources, but this book stands the test of time. It is based on solid research, it doesn't spend entire chapters digressing into, for instance, the ins and outs of the Bowies' business dealings, and it keeps speculation on the motivations of Travis, Crockett, Bowie and Santa Anna to a couple of paragraphs each. Any speculation is just the author's guesswork, and I find Myers guesses to be kept more brief - and more to my personal taste - than, say, William C. Davis' in "Three Roads to the Alamo". It has been said that a revisionist is one who, lacking the notion of honor in his/her own character, cannot understand it when encountered in others. While Myers examines the actions of the three main personalities in a journalistic manner, the enormity of their patriotic sacrifice is never deprecated as is the fashion in modern, revisionist historical writing.

This book remains not only the best single volume on the siege, it provides a great introduction to the historic and social melieu of the era for those seeking to understand the background of the Mexican-American War. -

Mr. Myers wrote this book in 1948, and based it on careful research into the facts as they were known at the time. THE ALAMO is a story of heroic men, dedicated to the cause of freedom, sacrificing their lives willingly for that cause. Bowie, Crockett, Travis, and all the others with them, were the stuff of legends, and as such we should remember them. This is a story to rival THE ILLIAD in its nobility of character and cause. Sadly, later research has shown that these giants were, like the Trojans, at least partialy the product of myth, and their cause was not quite so noble. But this in no way detracts from the telling of a great tale, and, if the men of the Alamo were not quite as tall as we imagined them, they were still men deservant of our admiration. They died for what they believed in, and this is their story, from the first man who ever bothered to compile the whole thing in one place.

Although written in 1948, John Myers Myers "The Alamo", proves that he did his homework well way back then. As a result, the factual conclusions he arrived at the time of his writing, dovetail with those arrived at in later years by other Alamo authors, including Walter Lord. Myers writing presents the subject in a historicly accurate manor, but at the same time with the wit and insight of a newspaper editorial, bringing it to life on a human level.

I bought this book at the Museum of Appalachia (also founded by the author) on my first visit to Tennessee. The book is almost entirely a transcript of a dialogue/interview between the author and Alex Stewart. At first, I thought this would be a strange format, but as I read on, I discovered that this would be the only way to authentically capture the mind and spirit of Alex on paper.

If you're not from the South, you might find Alex's dialect charminging unusual. A few times I had to read a passage over and over again to fully understand what words Alex was saying. Here is an example where it took me a while to realize that Alex meant "Lord" when kept saying "Law":

"They didn't have no men folks, but they had several children. Making liquor was the only way they had of making a living. Law, they had it hard."

The author cleverly asks questions to get Alex to reveal his pioneer wisdom. More than that, though, the author's selections and chapter arrangements helped to organize the sprawling encyclopedia of Alex's mind.

By the time I reached the end, I was sad to have the "conversation" over. I felt I had known Alex a bit personally, and I mourned at his passing. It was joyous reading while it lasted and my heart ached to know more of Alex.

This is a fabulous book I can't recommend enough. 10 STARS.

One reason I bought this book is because my Greatgrandmother was Alex's Aunt. I visited Alex as a child with my Parents and Grandmother. Alex was always sending my Grandmother items , such as walking canes. He made my mother a rolling pin, which she still has. Most of all the book gave me many names of my relatives that ive been searhing for.

I have read this book and it is all true. Alex was my great uncle. I remember as a child going to his house and striping cane for molasses. They would start early in the morning and work all day. Before uncle Alex died my father took me to see him. I'll never forget a small wooden carving he had of a racoon in a tree with two or three dogs at the base of the tree. He was a very gentle man with a lot of heart. I am very honored to have known this man and loved this man.

Building on scholarship of the likes of Leopold Cohn, M. R. James, Charles Perrot, Pierre-Maurice Bogaert, D. J. Harrington, and Louis Feldman, Jacobson has crafted a captivating critical commentary, rivaled only by his masterfully reconstructed text and meticulous sourcing. A must-have for fans of The Exagoge of Ezekiel. Pick it up this summer for a pleasant stroll down exegetical lane. Look out Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire....

Building on scholarship of likes of Leopold Cohn, M. R. James, Charles Perrot, Pierre-Maurice Bogaert, D. J. Harrington, and Louis Feldman, Jacobson has crafted a captivating critical commentary, rivaled only by his masterfully reconstructed text and meticulous sourcing. A must-have for fans of The Exagoge of Ezekiel. Pick it up this summer for a pleasant stroll down exegetical lane. Look out Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire....

THIS BOOK IS ONE OF THE FINEST I'VE EVER READ! THE AUTHOR IS CLEARLY A SCHOLAR OF HIGH CALIBER THAT ONE RARELY FINDS IN TODAY'S WRITINGS ON PHILO. THE RESEARCH WAS IMPECCABLY THOROUGH AND THE CONCLUSIONS ARE SOUND. A MUST-READ FOR ANYONE WHO'S EVER PICKED UP A BIBLE AND WORTH EVERY PENNY OF IT'S HEFTY PRICE-TAG!

I really didn't know what to expect when I picked this book up. A friend heard the author lecture on Shakespeare and bought a copy for our daughter, a Ph.D. candidate in English (Shakespeare). She sent it to us to deliver, since she didn't have our daughter's address. My wife and I both read a little bit, and then decided we had to read it all. Our daughter will have to write a thank-you for a used book.
Engel belongs to the school of biographical literary criticism, and thinks that authors' works are influenced strongly by their lives and the times in which they live them. The brief, and partial sketches of these nineteen literary greats are based on his classroom lectures. All I can say is that I wish he had been one of my teachers. These lectures in writing are cleverly written, with a very pleasing dry wit, and are informative while being interesting. Do you know the origin of the term "box office" and the actors' wish to "break a leg"? You will after you read Engel's snapshot of Shakespeare. And no one ever told me before that Chaucer was satire. Finding this book was a fortuitous accident. I hope my daughter enjoys it as much as I did.

If you've ever heard one of Dr. Engel's lectures, you know what a captivating storyteller he is. Now, for the first time, the content of his lectures has been put into book form. You can almost hear his voice as you read through the pages of this book.

As other reviewers have already stated, A Dab of Dickens is a collection of short biographical sketches of over a dozen of the greatest authors of all time. What is unique about these sketches is that, although they are short, they are filled with fascinating tales about the lives of our most beloved authors - tales that I am sure most of us did not ever know. For instance, I was fascinated to find that when he was only 3 years old, Edgar Allan Poe was forced to sit on the front row of the theatre and watch his mother, who played Juliet, stab herself and "die" - eight times a week. No wonder he wrote the kind of macabre stories that he did!

The great thing about Dr. Engel's new book is that it gives you just enough to keep your interest, it doesn't overwhelm you, and it makes you want to know more. You want to keep reading the chapter on Poe because you just cannot believe that even more horrible things could have possibly happened to one person. You may be bored by Ernest Hemmingway (for instance), but you don't mind reading his entire chapter because it's not information overload. And at the end of this wonderful book you have a list of authors whose major works you now cannot wait to read.

If you love literature and are fascinated by the authors who have brought us so many priceless works of art, this book is for you. If you don't know much about literature at all but are curious to find out more, this book is for you as well. But this book is also perfect for the person who hated English class in high school, avoided literature like the plague in college, and has been glad to forget it completely ever since. I promise that even you will find something fascinating and inspiring among the pages of this book.

I heard Elliot Engel speak recently. I found him to be one of the most entertaing and informative speakers I have heard. So I bought A Dab of Dickens and found it equally captivating. He takes a subject that I found rather laborious in school a long time ago and makes it come alive with anecdotes about the author's lives and brief analyses of some of their works. I could not put it down. In a relatively short chapter on each of 17 of the greatest authors in the English language from Chaucer to Robert Frost he gives fascinating, little known stories of their childhoods, loves and careers. He then briefly analyzes one or two extracts from their works to demonstrate why they are recognized as the greatest. And he does it with easy to read eloquence and humor. I was so impressed that I just bought three more copies for gifts to my adult kids and friends.

The stories are haunting and enthralling in the best fairy tale tradition, and the illustrations are spectacular.

I have loved this beautifully written and drawn book since childhood. I would love to see it back in print, as it is a wonderful addition to any book collection.

I am a professor and an artist. I have a book pitch which would contain color prints of the most valued artists and illustrators with the highest valued out of print books and I am looking for a publisher.

I'm not entirely unbiased -- Seth has generously praised my most recent book -- but as someone who writes on Jewish music regularly for several papers, I can honestly say that this is the book on klezmer to start with. Seth's ecumenical, eclectic taste and balanced view of the current scene make him a superb tour guide for either a first-time visitor or an old klezmer hand. As a working music journalist, he has interviewed all the key figures in this music -- even the notoriously reclusive John Zorn -- and clearly he has asked the right questions, because his chapters on recent music are insightful and zesty. And the book's lengthy critical discography makes it an indispensable guide for the listener and record buyer.

The author does a great job of putting the technical and artistic components of Klezmer music into an historical and cultural context and following its evolution within that context, as well as independent of it. He does it in a way that is both entertaining and scholarly without being ponderous. The discography is an invaluable resource.

Having helped kick-start the klezmer revival, I'm delighted to see for the first time a book that gets the story right. Seth Rogovoy's readable account brings to life the personalities, bands, and stylistic experiments that shaped -- and continue to shape -- this hip, passionate, influential genre. Rich in detail yet down to earth, "The Essential Klezmer" will appeal, I think, to both the novice and the aficionado. The discography alone makes this slim volume indispensible; it should be required reading in any college course about klezmer music. (Disclosure: I was interviewed for the book, but didn't see the manuscript until publication.)

I loved the witty short stories in this book. They show a more thorough and less sentimental look at past relationships. Some stories were better than others, but one thing is certain: you will see yourself in more than just one of the stories. If you enjoy reading about relationships as much as I do, you'd love this!

I began reading this book with low expectations. A number of the contributors were unknown to me, nearly half of the stories have been published before elsewhere, and "failed love" seems like such a tired theme. But after reading a few stories (specifically, by the time I finished Maggie Estep's story) I was quite impressed. It's fascinating to read these stories in sequence, to perceive the similarities. No matter how different the setting, it seems there are certain elements of tone and mood that persist from one story to the next.

My favorites were the clever, evocative pieces by Junot Diaz, Susan Perabo, and the previously unknown-to-me Evany Thomas. The book contains quite a few other gems as well, in addition to just a few failures--notably Paulina Borsook's flabby story, which for some reason is allowed not only to run 20 pages but then to leave off in the middle, to be continued online at the publisher's web site.

The editor, also-unknown Blake Ferris (pseudonym?), has for the most part chosen excellent stories, but apparently neglected to copyedit them: the book is littered with typographical and layout errors, enough to bother even such a hardcore non-perfectionist as myself. Hopefully these will be corrected in a second printing.

But despite these shortcomings, the book's marvelous, emotional moments and revelatory humor make it well worth owning, reading, and rereading. I recommend it wholeheartedly.

I couldn't stop reading...what a delicious collection of stories! I am so tired of sappy writing about love, how refreshing it was to read these smart reflections. Erotic, hopeful, sad, beautiful, wistful, happy--all tumbled into a tangle of stories connected by a theme with a twist and the keen perceptions of this talented group of writers. I am left hungry for more...

First, my two half-Swedish children, Liv and Erik, have read all the Pettson and Findus books many times and adore them. (PS, Professor, the author is Swedish, not Norwegian).

Liv says: They are magical, especially "Tomtemaskinen" (rough translation: The "Santa Machine"). We read it every Christmas.

Scott (48 yr old): These books are as special in their own way as Dr. Suess's books were to me when I grew up in the States. The artwork is suberb. At first glance, the illustrations simply document the story, but hold on, the longer you look the more you see that that tree is really brocolli, there is a small periscope sticking out of a worn boot by the door, one of the chickens has a stethescope and is listening to Pettson's taped-up foot, a sock hanging over the wood stove is darned using flesh-colored Band-aids, and small critters hide everywhere and do unexplained and unrelated things never appearing in the story itself, which is off spinning magic of its own.

While very much imaginative, the artwork is also old-fashioned in that everything is carefully drawn and authentically depicts what you see in a old cabin tucked deep into the cultural backwaters of rural Sweden. You cannot tell whether it is the 1890s, the 1930s, the 1960s or last week.

In all the books, the optimistic cat simply wants to discover and do things, much as a child; while Old Man Pettson is feeling his age and sometimes world-weary. But he is by no means a worn-out grump waiting for the the end. Rather, he is a creative, wonderfully eccentric inventor who will not let himself be outwitted by a mere cat! They spend a lot time thinking up ways to get the better of each other in a loving life of one-upmanship. Sometimes they team up to outwit a henhouse raiding fox or encroaching civilization.

Their antics are not slapstick, rather the humor builds up to a grand finale with a twist. They present a sort of Roald Dahl magic for the pre-pre-teens and will give any child (and adult) an authentic look at life in rural Sweden at its best.

I admit that I have never read the English translations, and I can only hope that the translator got it right; the author, Sven Nordqvist, sure did. It's hard to find a Swedish child who doesn't know each of these stories by heart, and better yet (at least for me) they far surpass Astrid Lindgren (of Pippi Longstocking fame) for just plain fun.

Wow, what a great book! This story of Festus, the grumpy old man, and Mercury, the hyper cat, is one of the greatest kid's books ive ever read! The awesome pictures, funny story, and a great ending make it a must-read.

I've read most of the Festus and Mercury books in the German translation with my three children. I can heartily recommend them to everyone age four and up. The stories of the somewhat wacky but gentle and humane Pettersen and his seemingly omniscient cat, Findus, with his generally wise insights into human behavior, are hilarious and heart-warming. Not to mention the beautiful pictures, in which new details can be found even at the 100th reading. American publishers, get these books back into print!!

Perhaps the phrase, be careful what you ask for, should have been coined for this early story. In the books of Samuel, the nation of Israel essentially 'comes of age', and enters the arena of other nations by forming a central hierarchical structure.

The politics of Israel was interesting at this point. From the time of the Exodus (after Moses and Joshua) to the time of Samuel (some 400+ years later, if the Biblical account of years can be trusted -- the exact meaning of some time phrasings is still in doubt), Israel had no central authority, no hierarchy. The people lived in a mostly agrarian culture, with small farming, flocks and herds as the norm. Cities were rare, and generally despised. For instance, the Philistines and the Egyptians were both known primarily as city-dwellers, and both were considered enemies in many respects.

Israel was guided by judges, who recognised God as King. This, however, was unsatisfactory to the people of Israel. The other nations had kings, to lead the battles and to rule and adjudicate. Samuel (and God, through Samuel) warned against having kings, but (interestingly) did not forbid the institution of a kingly dynasty to the people of Israel. Samuel selected Saul to be king. Of course, his kingship was a rocky one, and ended badly, not least of which because David was a challenger to the throne through most of Saul's reign, presumably based upon Samuel's (and God's) decision to take legitimacy away from Saul.

Finally, David succeeds to the kingship, and has a rather stormy reign himself, made however into the glorious reign that is still considered the model of God-sanctioned kingship under God by many Jews and Christians.

Everet Fox, who did a remarkable job at translating 'The Five Books of Moses' a few years ago (please see my review of that), turned next to the stories in the books of Samuel, and retranslated them as part of the new Schocken Bible Series, which his book entitled 'Give Us A King! Samuel, Saul, and David'. Fox had as one of his intentions in the retranslation of the Torah, which carries forward as a theme in this work, the adherence to the oral and aural aspects of the original Hebrew, sacrificing the scholarly-clarity issues that guide translations such as the New Revised Standard Version and others that are meant to be read, for this that is meant to be read aloud. One gets a greater sense of the way in which the Hebrew stories would have been conveyed.

Now David sand-dirge (with) this dirge
over Sha'ul and over Yehonatan his son,
he said:
To teach the Children of Judah the Bow,
here, it is written in the Book of the Upright:
O beauty of Israel, on your heights are the slain:
how have the mighty fallen!
Tell it not in Gat,
spread not the news in Ashkelon's streets,
lest they rejoice, the daughters of the Philistines,
lest they exult, the daughters of the foreskinned-ones!
Ohills of Gilbo'a, let there be no dew, no rain upon you,
or surging of the (watery) deeps,
for there lies-soiled the shield of the mighty, the shield of Sha'ul,
no more anointed with oil.

Fox accompanies his new translation with an interesting introductory essay setting context and meanings in place, as well as notes that explain both translation textual issues as well as interpretive issues in the text.

Included in this volume are drawings, paintings and etchings by the artist Schwebel. While these works are intriguing and inspired works of modern art with an influence from various historical patterns and themes, I found some of the art work, having modern settings in high streets with cars, shop signs, etc., hard to merge thematically with the ancient texts sometimes.

This is a fascinating text, a wonderful new translation, which gives new insight and fresh meaning to an ancient story.

I am not a Hebrew Scholar; I do not even qualify as a Hebrew Student. Yet this Biblical translation infuses new life into the Old Testament books of I and II Samuel. The meter, the poetry, the nuisances lost in other English translations have been magically restored by Everett Fox.

Mix in an insightful commentary and you have what is rapidly becoming the translation I reach for when I read or study the stories of Saul, Samuel and David. Hopefully Fox is fast at work on a translation of David's poetry - The Psalms.

You have NEVER read the old testament till you read Everett Fox's translations of it. It is a veritable revelation to see whole new meanings in the words, phraseology, and syntax. Now, Mr. Fox, how 'bout the rest of the OT. After teasing us with the Pentateuch and 1 & 2 Samuel, I am ITCHING to read the Psalms this way, as well as Isaiah, Ezra-Nehemiah, etc.

Esther's story is my favorite story in the Bible. She was a very strong woman who was fearless (she was not afriad to be herself). Lisa Ryan has done a great job applying this fabulous story to life as a young woman today. I found that the writing was somewhat silly (Mrs. Ryan sometimes used slang never spoken by anyone outside of middle school), but the message was awesome. Every girl should read this book!

This book is written for the middle school ag.. hence the reason that the slang is so far off... (as noted in the previous reveiw) It is a great book about becoming a modern day Esther.

This was a great book!!! Even thought I am still reading it, It's already making me think about who I am and what I should be working on I love this book! It tottally makes Gods word fun!