I've been a fan of Buddy's since he was still alive. This is the best biography available. The authors do not deal in sensationalism and wacko explorations of Buddy's sex life or possible contributions to the crash of the plane. He died at 22, and was only famous for two years, and never was wealthy. He can be expected to have had moments of immaturity, and to have made mistakes in judgement. But the overwhelming evidence is that he was a nice, normal young adult with abnormal talent for singing, songwriting, guitar-playing and record-producing. He's been gone for more than 40 years, and he left about 80 recordings behind. Those performances are still wonderful, and this book tells you a lot about how they were created and captured and preserved. Who needs anything else?

This is, hands down, the best biography of Buddy Holly available. I have read them all and though others have their moments (mainly rare photos) this is the standard by which all others are judged. The updates keep making the book better (and more accurate) but I will always keep my first copy which I've had signed by Buddy's parents, his brothers, Jerry Allison, Niki Sullivan, Joe Mauldin, and, of course, the author John Goldrosen. If you only read one biography of Buddy Holly, this should be the one.

This is the book to buy if you want an accurate, well-written biography of Buddy Holly, the greatest rocker of them all and the most influential person in the genre's history. If it were possible, I would give this book ten stars. It is absolutely the best biography of Buddy Holly. I got my first copy in August 1975 and have gotten updated versions as they came out. I've read it several times. John Goldrosen spent a year or so of his life (circa 1972) researching this book and talking to the people involved.

An artistic, historial look at rustic barns throughout the United States with a slightly different hand-painted message on each of them urging all within sight to see Rock City,"a ten-acre tract of massive stone formations overlooking Chattanooga, Tennessee and the North Georgia countryside". Mr. Jenkin's photography is truly inspiring, a delight to the eye. This book can easily transport the viewer to simplier times via a subtle palette of colors and lighting. Highly recommended.

This is the best coffee-table book for anyone who has ever driven through the South and experienced the "See Rock City" phenomenon! I have lived in Tennessee and Georgia and seen many fading Rock City Barns. With this book, I can show my children someday these beautiful, creative advertisements that are familiar to anyone from around here!

A beautiful, thoughtful, and sensitive documentary of a too rapidly disappearing part of Americana. Anyone who has ever seen a "See Rock City" barn will appreciate the photography and written details of this bygone era. This book should be in the reference section of every library in the USA.

"Back in the 1950s, there was a musical earthquake called rock & roll that shook everything up." So begins Holly George-Warren's introduction to Shake, Rattle & Roll, and after detailing the origins of "the new sound", she goes on to profile fourteen artists who were instrumental in making it happen. From Bill Haley, Wanda Jackson and Fats Domino, to Elvis Presley, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly and James Brown, kids will be fascinated as they read about the lives and careers of the musicians who helped start the rock and roll craze. Each short biography is full of historical information, fun facts and trivia, and written in a hip, easy to read, conversational style. Award winning artist, Laura Levine's marvelously bold and bright, folk-art style illustrations, complement Ms George-Warren's text, and show each artist surrounded by words and pictures from his/her best known hits. Together they've authored an engaging and entertaining book that will peak the interest and whet the appetite of young music lovers, everywhere. Perfect for youngsters 9-12, Shake, Rattle & Roll is a joyous, fact filled treasure, and an introduction to rock and roll that shouldn't be missed.

Perfect book to parallel a unit of oral histories. Rock and roll-everyone has something to say about it. Students will get into the originality of the pictures. Parents and children can read together the well-written material about the hottest names in music history. It has everything to get students to the top of the new standards while connecting with their families and friends!

A really fun book to read to kids--I learned a lot too!

A real Classic. Griel Marcus and Greil Marcus both contribute a lot to the book, as designer/illustrator, and it's safe to say that Marcus' book-cover design/drawing really adds to the tone of the tome...which previously had sported a photo of Tina Turner and Mick Jagger touching each other on stage, I believe. Meltzer of course is one of the most serious, committed writers on rock, with a political stance and a moral (but not moralistic) outlook that really gets at why rock remains such an important force for good in the world. He applies philosophy to rock in a way that illumes both disciplines and as in his later work (which explores the humanistic/political ramifications of the work of Springsteen, Tom Petty, and R.E.M.), "Aesthetics" looks at Arthur Lee, Hendrix, the Beatles, Cream, the Move, Jimmy Soul, Arthur Conley, Marvin Gaye, the Searchers, the Left Banke, Van Morrison, Chester Arthur Burnett, and many more in light of their connection to the tenets of Western Philosophy. Who else could have shown us the connection between Howlin' Wolf's "Shake for Me" and "Natchez Burning" to the Political Unrest of the day or given us such a beautifully articulated philosophical/musical analysis of "Here Comes the Sun" and "Sunshine of Your Love," two Rock Masterpieces not commonly associated? Meltzer remains a serious contributor to music magazines and certainly ranks up there, as one of the inheritors of the best aspects of New Deal Democratic thought, with Grail Marcuse and Richard Christgau. Long may he wave.

Richard Meltzer has been going on for years about how he invented rock criticism. He probably did, but that's a bit like saying you invented prog-rock - I love prog-rock, or at any rate some of it, but I don't really care who invented it, cause so much of it is just plain awful. His genius is that he is a great WRITER, on a word-to-word basis. "The Aesthetics of Rock" was considered for years as some sort of prank; I once had a rubbishy hack book called "Atrocities of Rock & Roll", or something, which poked mindless fun at it for being unreadable and pretentious. It's no more unreadable than James Joyce. What Meltzer did was to treat rock, or pop, or whatever, as a field worthy of being looked at, if not always taken entirely seriously, and it mattered nothing to him whether the record under examination was by the Beatles or by the Standells - he was looking for whatever all this stuff had in common. (Personally I think Joe Carducci succeeded better in his wickedly funny "Rock and the Pop Narcotic", but then Carducci had a much wider field to write about, since his book came out in the 90s and Meltzer's book stops around about 1968.)

To read Meltzer applying Heidegger to doo-wop is to have the structure of your brain rewired in new and interesting ways. His actual career as a paid-up rock critic was short and, well, sour, although he nobly championed the Minutemen in later years; but by then he had ceased to be on anyone's guest list. He is a great American writer and this is the opus that gave him, if not exactly fame and fortune, at least notoriety. You owe it to yourself to check it out, and also his wonderful anthology "A Whore Just Like The Rest", in which he savagely tears into Greil Marcus' patronising introduction. A Meltzer could never happen now, when rock writers (I won't dignify them with the name of "critic") have to be industry ... in order to get any work at all; but at least he's still alive, still sane, still as honest as anyone could hope for, and still writing.

The temptation is strong, when reviewing a Richard Meltzer book, to slip into his style of writing. I will resist that, and maintain a dull tone. This is the funniest book I have ever read about rock music; it is also one of the few that I've read more than once. Anybody who's read more than a few serious, scholarly, University-press-published books on rock will find this to be a refreshing alternative. Meltzer's 1988 collection of essays, "L.A. Is the Capital of Kansas," appears to be out of print, but is also well worth seeking out.

I enjoyed reading this novel and considered it well written and very good. However, the hero, Devin, is such a perfect person that I had trouble making him real in my mind. He is an Irish Catholic rock star who is more popular and better looking than Bono of U2. He gives most of his money away to peace seeking charities. He also has not had sex in several years since his wife was caught on an IRA terrorist mission as a perpetrator. Devin lives like a monk despite women literally ripping their clothes off in front of him and throwing themselves at him. The only bad things one can say about him are that he's moody sometimes and that he doesn't tell the heroine the whole truth about his life until forced to do so. By contrast, Bellacera's other novel featured a Trinity college professor as the lead, who had his priorities in life confused, and let his own stubbornness and misplaced loyalty get him deeper and deeper into the Irish Catholic cause at the peril of losing his wife and child. I preferred the intimate, human scale of "Border Crossings", with its well rounded hero, to the superstar setting of "Spotlight" and its superhuman hero. Nevertheless, Bellacera is a very good writer and wrote a rousing tale with "Spotlight".

Carole Bellacera's exciting novel about a young, beautiful journalist and a rock star was delicious reading. Spotlight has a exciting and original plot as well as sexy characters. The suspense went up to the last minute and made it a great reading experience. Thanks Carole, keep 'em coming.

"Spotlight" is one of the best books of the year. I loved "Border Crossings", the author's first book, and "Spotlight", the second, is every bit as good. You simply cannot put it down. She captures the Irish experience as few others have.

You will learn something from this book, guaranteed. There are 50 chapters, each devoted to a different aspect of Beatles trivia. Full of rare pictures and a comprehensive index. This book is great.

This excellent, power packed book contains information that even seasoned Beatles fans find fresh! Sharply written, the intelligent format and questions are sure to delight any and all readers. Veteran fans will love it; many folks who are not as well versed in matters Beatle will find this book to be a useful source of information when discussing Beatle related matters with fans.

This book is just plain fun. It is an excellent way to test and reinforce one's knowledge of Beatle matters and it is also a good way to impress other fans. I love this book.

A round of applause and a hearty "yeah, yeah, yeah!" from me!

This book has so much more information about "The Beatles" than any others I've read... including The "NEW" Anthology!!! The author is obviously an "EXPERT" in all that is "Beatles". I pride myself as quite the Beatles aficionado, but this book is so far beyond anything I can relate to, it's not even funny. The amount of work that went into the creation of this book is simply mind boggling. Every Beatles fan on the planet should own this book. If you "think" you "know" The Beatles; this book will challange you beyond your wildest dreams. By far the "Best" resource ever written on "The Fab Four". Thank You Mr. Hockinson; for a job well done. The "Ultimate" to say the least.

This is a very unorthodox book and even though it was difficult to figure out what the authors were saying in some parts during the first read, when I read it over I figured it out. The approach is so different that you have to get into a "mindset" in order to follow their thinking. I liked the book and the ideas about leadership. I just wish I could find out who the authors really are and find out if they have written anything else.

These guys are nuts! I read the book twice and laughed as hard the second time as the first ! even if you don't care about leadership, you should read this to understand what we all have experienced at some time in our working lives.

I'm not sure if these guys are for real or not, but this is a funny book and worth the time to read it. I recognized several bosses I have had in their examples, and saw some things that I have done as well. It's not as easy as the authors would have you believe to figure out what the 'right way' to do it really is from reading this. I read it twice, but I think I need another go at it to get everything.

Beutiful pictures with detailed captions. It shows igneous rocks, sedimentary rocks, and metamorphic rocks. It tells which rocks we use in our everyday life. Overall it is pretty good. I like the part were they tell the uses of flint.

I bought this book as a gift for a bright young lady who was fascinated with the appearance of the stones themselves, but although I liked the content of the book, I was wholly unable to persuade the recipient even to peruse the text as light reading.

It was enticing enough for me, but I claim the blame for missing the target. Experiences may vary -- if they're readers, they're readers -- if they're not, that's another subject.

This book shows tons of different kinds of rocks. Very great if your child likes rocks or if you want to read up on the subject.