This is an excellent collection of Scott's waltz's, marches and most of his rag's. For more selections of his rag's I suggest the book Scott Joplin's Complete Piano Rags. It is avaliable from Amazon also. Both of these books will give the pianist a very good selection of his songs to play at an intermediate to advanced level. Still missing A Real Slow Drag though. If you are a ragtime enthusiast check out the Ragtime festival in Sedalia Missouri around the first of June each year. It is excellent.

This is an excellent and well written book of Scott's rags, waltz's and marches. It has more of the marches and waltz's than the other book I highly recommend (Complete Piano Rags) that has more of the Rag's such as two or my favorites the Pineapple Rag and the Paragon Rag. Both of these books can be oredered through Amazon.

This is one of the best books written on the subject in years! It is very detailed and full of color photos of these great old toy soldiers. If you have this book and Richard O'Briens...thats all you need as a resource on the subject!

This book contains a collection of the some of the best music, and tops it off with an informative preface on Joplin's work and sheet music cover images of every song.

This is an excellent book if you want to play Scott Joplin on guitar. There is no tab in the book so you need to know how to read standard music notation to learn the pieces. An added bonus is that Prof. de Chiaro has recorded all the pieces in the book on a set of 4 CDs from Centaur Records, so you can use the CDs to help you to learn to play the pieces. I am currently learning "Maple Leaf Rag" from the book and I am very happy with the results (after previously trying other, inferior transcriptions). Unreservedly recommended!

This book gives a glimpse into the fascinating life of Pearl herself. You can see the troubles that led her to drink, and led her to sing with her soul. I loved this book and would say to any Joplin fan, it's totally worth the read.

This book is a complete and precise collection of Scott Joplin's works. The book also gives a summary of the composers lifetime.

I highly recommend this book.

This will save you immeasurable time if you are interested in research in this area. A voluminous, exhaustively researched bible of everything ever written about Joplin. The true Joplin enthusiast must have this book.

'The Obsessions And Passions of Janis Joplin' is a very accurate description of the book - it doesn't deal much with the artist, it tells a lot more about her sex life and drug abuse. I myself prefer at least a bit more information on the music of the musician in question, but I must admit the book does a good job of showing us the confused, extremely talented, both loved and rejected personality that was Janis Joplin.

This well-written book is very descriptive! From Port Arthur, Texas, to San Francisco's Haight / Ashbury, scenes of tragedy & revelry are given a jolt of life. Author really sought out the witnesses who are still around (and not too wasted) to tell the tales. Great book for fans of San Francisco, rock music, and of course Janis.

Plenty of sleaze, drugs, and sex, but author nicely presents the tender-hearted girl that was Janis Joplin.

I recently had to order my second copy of this one because I had worn it out. My only issue is that it seemed more downbeat. Yet, considering how her life ended maybe it was more realistic. If you buy any Janis bio's this in the one, also Scars of Sweet Paradise is very worthy.

I first read lives of the musicians when I was about 7 yearsold or so. Then, I thought it was terrific. I still do. However, I amnow 12 years old, and now that I have paid more attention to it, I see several faults, but overall it is still a very good book. First of all, their choice of musicians is not the best. I would have recommended Debussy and Schubert, like the Kirkus Reviewer. Some of the composers I have hardly ever heard of, like Igor Stravinsky or Nadia Boulanger. And while Clara Schumann was a great pianist, I think they should have focused more on her husband, Robert, a prolific composer, whose works are among the very best. Also, some of the parts of the biographies are questionable. Frederic Chopin may not have actually been romantically involved with Aurore Dudevant (George Sand), but in love with the Countess Delphine Potocka. The book states that the Waltz in D-Flat, or Minute Waltz, was written for George Sand's dog, when in fact it was probably written for Potocka. However, the book was still very well written, and I enjoyed it, despite the possible mistakes. I recommend this book to anyone who likes music, classical or not. So sit back and enjoy!

I loved this book because it made those musicians seem like real people instead of great-all-star-super-geniuses. It is full of strange little facts about all the famous musicians like Bach,Gershwin,Beethoven and Schmann.

---Megan W.

This book provides interesting insight into the lives of composers. I teach music to elementary and high school students and I read this book to all of my students. They all enjoy learning the details of the composers lives. The book presents the composers in such a way that the students remember the information about the composers. The book does not provide information about what the composers' music sounds like, and that is something I also like to teach. A great book to gain kids'interest in famous composers.

When Janis' lips opened the world fell at her feet due mainly to the fact that the emotion and power which her voice conveyed spoke numerous volumes to many of her listeners. I was three years old the night Janis' life ended and the power of her music speaks as much to me now as I did to so many people so many years ago. This book shows the best and worst of this music legend. It reveals her misgivings, her heartbreaks, her worries, her sorrows and her emense joys. It shows you Janis from the inside, and in her very own words. You can feel her world rumble and rattle from her early beginnings as a blues singer in Texas and feel the earth give way underneath her only to create the mountain which pushed her up to the pedestal where many now see her. This is a heartfelt and moving biography by someone who knew more than Janis the icon; she knew Janis the loving sister. These insights into her thoughts allows for a deeper understanding of the woman behind THE VOICE

This book by Laura Joplin explained Janis' true life, not just her attitude on the stage. This book is definitely wroth reading!

I was born long after the days of Janis Joplin and her brand of hippie rock and drugs. But her music, once I discovered it, moved me in ways previously unimaginable. I found this book, written by her sister, to be touching and real. Janis was an extraordinary person, this book proves that. It also brings you behind the scenes, to her secert life that caused her so much pain.This book made Janis real to me. Laura Joplin did a fantastic job of educating the world about the one of a kind Janis Joplin and her turblent life. Her talent, like this book, will never be forgotten!