Trees of North America: A Guide to Field Identification, Revised and Updated (Golden Field Guide from St. Martin's Press)

Average customer rating:

Poor Choice for Tree Identification

What is that Tree anyway?

NO Good.

A lot of info in a small package

Nice Little pocket book

Trees of North America: A Guide to Field Identification, Revised and Updated (Golden Field Guide from St. Martin's Press)
C. Frank Brockman
Manufacturer: Golden Guides from St. Martin's Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Plants | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
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Trees | Field Guides | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books
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Instant Guide to Trees

Tree Finder: A Manual for the Identification of Trees by Their Leaves (Nature Study Guides)

Wildflowers of North America: A Guide to Field Identification (Golden Field Guide from St. Martin's Press)

Birds of North America, Revised and Updated: A Guide To Field Identification (Golden Field Guide from St. Martin's Press)

National Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Trees: Eastern Region (Eastern)

ASIN: 1582380929

Book Description

Smell the bark of the aromatic Sassafras. Wonder at the Lodgepole Pine, whose heat-activated cones reseed forests destroyed by fire. Search for the Sugar Maple, whose foliage blazes red and yellow in autumn. North America's trees rank among nature's most awesome creations. This premier field guide features all characteristics-tree shape, bark, leaf, flower, fruit and twig-for quick identification, making it a superior choice for trail walks, creating displays, and scientific or commercial needs.All of North America in one volumeOver 730 species in 76 families and 160 range mapsNative species and important introduced foreign varietiesText, range maps, and illustrations seen together at a glanceCommon and scientific namesConvenient measuring rules

Customer Reviews:

Poor Choice for Tree Identification.......2007-09-17

Despite the excellent illustrations and detailed information, this is a POOR book for actually identifying an unknown tree from its foliage, bark, or other characteristics.

The book divides trees into their families. Unfortunately, this requires that you have some idea of what you are looking for before you start. There is no cross-reference to bark to reinforce a choice. Also, since it includes both Eastern and Western North American trees, one can easily make a false choice.

However, its handbook size is convenient for a carry along.

What is that Tree anyway?.......2007-07-23

I bought this for a friend who is a Master Gardener and couldn't put it down before I wrapped it! Simple illustrations show differents types of trees (and I'm always saying, what is that tree anyway?).

NO Good........2007-07-16

I was disappointed in this book. I'll start with the good, though. It had a nice explanation of the tree traits and what to look for when you are identifying trees. It's also small and easy to carry. There's the good. The bad is that all the pictures were drawn. Now, before you buy the book, it does state that the book does not have a complete list of all the trees found in the USA. That said, the three trees in my hood that I wanted to identify, were not in there. I'm going to buy a more complete guide to find these trees.

A lot of info in a small package.......2007-06-29

Price and size are what makes this guide so great. It provides a good overview of the trees of North America in a very portable format.

The small size, however, means that the illustrations are not as large or detailed as we would prefer. It also limits the amount of specific information that can be included. We recently relocated to the Pacific Northwest and have found region-specific books (particularly from Lone Pine Publishers) to be superb.

I recommend this as a great resource at a very good price.

Nice Little pocket book.......2007-05-16

This is a nice little pocket book that can be taken just about anywhere. Though not as complete as some of the larger books, it really does help to identify most trees. The color photos help with the identification and it is well worth the price to throw in your backpack or on your bike when in the woods.

Book Description

Synonymous with fine wine, elegant cuisine, and good living, Burgundy is also a land of great architecture and appealing villages. Many of these ancient communities stand beside the leisurely rivers that wend their way through the duchy--the beginnings of the Seine, the delightful Yonne, the Arroux, which flows to the Loire, and the Ouche, which eventually adds its waters to the Saone. And beside these rivers flow another eight hundred miles of languid canals, bordered by woodlands, pasture, and some of the greatest vineyards in the world. The four departements of Burgundy offer a delightful diversity in their villages. Many of those of the Yonne, a country of meadows and river valleys, are waterside communities, while others like Ancy-le-Franc and Vezelay cluster around architecturally splendid houses or gems of Romanesque churches. The villages of the Cte d'Or read like a register of the world's finest wines: Montrachet, Meursault, Pommard. There are other delights, too: Flavigny-sur-Ozerain, a beautifully preserved village of Gothic and Renaissance houses, or Semur-en-Auxois, a medieval fortified town. In the Nievre lies the natural park of the Morvan, with a wealth of hill-villages set among luxuriant woodland. Saone-et-Loire, the southernmost departement of Burgundy, includes the Maconnais wine country, in which are gathered a notable group of well-preserved medieval villages, famous for their Romanesque churches. The influence of religious architecture can be seen everywhere in the duchy, the work of Benedictine and Cistercian monks who spread the Romanesque style. But the villages of Burgundy are much richer than the twin presences of vineyard and church would suggest. The variety, celebrated here by James Bentley and Hugh Palmer, is nowhere better suggested than in the journey from north to south, from villages of black-slate roofs to those where red and ochre tiles announce the Midi. Burgundy's fascinating history and present-day devotion to the fine arts and crafts of living well are justly celebrated, and its villages make this land one of the most enchanting in the western world.

Customer Reviews:

I Agree.......2000-04-06

I have to agree with the two previous reviewers, Burgundy is a very special part of France, and a very special part of the world. It is worth seeing just for the vineyards alone, but there is so much more to Burgundy than just wine. If you're lucky enough to go there, take this book along. It will be an invaluable guide to the restaurants and hotels in the area as well as to the festivals, concerts, etc. And if you must stay at home, then this book is the next best thing to actually being there. The photos are gorgeous and the text informative. Five stars is not enough!

A Beautiful Book About a Beautiful Place.......2000-03-29

My sister and I recently toured Burgundy and even though we were born and bred in France, we saw the region anew. The photos in this book are lovely and for once, do a place justice. If you plan to travel to Burgundy, and may I suggest that you do, you certainly can't go wrong with this book as a traveling companion and tour guide.

A MAGICAL PLACE WHERE FANTASY MEETS REALITY.......2000-03-28

France is a magical place and Burgundy is one of its most magical regions. The premier wine-growing region of France, Burgundy is also the center of fine cuisine, Romanesque architecture and lazy canals bordered by meadows of wildflowers. This book, with its more than 260 color illustrations, shows Burgundy at its finest. A region dominated by water, the book begins in the north and travels through all of Burgundy's four departments. From the Yonne, a land of peaceful river valleys and almost 1000 canals, we travel southward with the author to visit little Romanesque churches and learn how the Benedictine and Cistercian monks spread the Romanesque style. We finally arrive in the southernmost department of Soane-et-Loire and the city of Macon, the border to the Midi and the South, where we sample some of the finest wines in the world, such as Montrachet and Pommard. Burgundy is one of the most beautiful places on earth--unspoiled, unhurried and faithful to its past. Whether you plan to actually visit the area or are just dreaming of a visit, this is the perfect book to accompny you and your dreams and perhaps even make make them come true.

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL VILLAGES OF BURGUNDY. Photographs by Hugh Palmer.

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THE MOST BEAUTIFUL VILLAGES OF BURGUNDY. Photographs by Hugh Palmer.
James. Bentley
Manufacturer: Thames & Hudson,
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000N7EC2W

Book Description

The Depression and New Deal is a collection of primary sources documenting American life during the longest and deepest economic collapse in American history. From the prosperity and rampant consumerism of the 1920s, the book moves forward to cover the double shock of the stock market crash and dust bowl and then on to the recovery efforts of Roosevelt's New Deal. Some of the most revealing testaments to the times-including songs by Woody Guthrie, articles from sources as diverse as Fortune magazine and the communist periodical New Masses, murals and posters sponsored by the Works Progress Administration, excerpts from literary classics such as The Grapes of Wrath and selections from Eleanor Roosevelt's "My Day" column-have been assembled to provide a well-rounded portrait of the age. The battle among conflicting political and economic forces is brought to life with political cartoons, Roosevelt's "Forgotten Man" radio address and first inaugural address, Supreme Court decisions, newspaper editorials, text from the National Labor Relations Act, and many other documents. Some of the most compelling elements of this history record the impact of the depression on ordinary people. The experiences of Americans of both sexes, all ages, and various racial and ethnic groups are explored through documents such as Farm Security Administration photographs, interviews, letters to the Roosevelts, and the memoirs of a "southern white girl." A special section of Hollywood film stills demonstrates how the changing values of the nation were reflected in popular culture. Renowned historian Robert McElvaine provides expert commentary linking the documents into a fascinating and seamless narrative. Textbooks may interpret history, but the books in the Pages from History series are history. Each title, compiled and edited by a prominent historian, is a collection of primary sources relating to a particular topic of historical significance. Documentary evidence including news articles, government documents, memoirs, letters, diaries, fiction, photographs, and facsimiles allows history to speak for itself and turns every reader into a historian. Headnotes, extended captions, sidebars, and introductory essays provide the essential context that frames the documents. All the books are amply illustrated and each includes a documentary picture essay, chronology, further reading, source notes, and index.

Customer Reviews:

A Good primer on the Great Depression.......2006-06-25

McElvaine's book is a good overview of the Great Depression. In the book are letters, poems and brief stories of the years leading up to the Great Depression and the many lives affected when the Great Depression hit the nation.

The book is more of a supplement to more detailed reading about the 1920s and 1930s, but it's an interesting book with some interesting stories and information about the politics, the people, the economic hard times, the literature, the poetry and the culture of the times.

The Era of Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1933-1945: A Brief History with Documents (The Bedford Series in History and Culture)

Average customer rating:

imbalanced but strong

The Era of Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1933-1945: A Brief History with Documents (The Bedford Series in History and Culture)
Richard Polenberg
Manufacturer: Palgrave Macmillan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Presidents & Heads of State | Leaders & Notable People | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0312227647

Book Description

The era of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal was a time of depression and despair, economic rebirth and renewal, and mobilization for a war spanning two oceans. Richard Polenberg's introduction to this new volume provides an engaging historical and biographical overview of the period. This is followed by over 45 topically arranged primary sources that provide readers with a rich context in which to understand FDR's multi-faceted role as President, reformer, policymaker, and Commander-in-Chief.

Customer Reviews:

imbalanced but strong.......2003-04-26

According to its title, the book compiles documents from 1933-1945, the era of Franklin D. Roosevelt, but the contents are strongly tilted toward the 1933-1941 period. Maybe that's justified, given Polenberg's clear focus on domestic social and political issues and given, of course, that the New Deal period consituted more years than World War II. But I felt more than a little disappointed by the brief treatment the war effort received. And the documents pertaining to the war focused largely on Japanese internment and the issue of bombing the concentration camps. These are both important topics and worthy of attention, particularly the latter which I fear is sometimes overlooked (and which is in many ways a telling issue). FDR's Four Freedoms speech is not included, nor the Atlantic Charter, nor the Pearl Harbor speech. The book would definitely have profited from inclusion of these documents and perhaps also of documents pertaining to strategy or military policy.

Nevertheless, the book has three strong points that make it worthwhile. One, Polenberg includes a wide variety of primary sources: speeches, photographs, Supreme Court decisions, letters, posters, poems, songs, press conferences, etc. The sources also come from a range of people, left and right, "large and small." This makes the book particularly useful as a teaching tool for showing students how to tackle primary documents of all types.

Two, in the book's imbalance lies its strongest element--it covers the Depression and the New Deal thoroughly, offering new perspectives and carving new dimensions. We hear from the Roosevelts, both Franklin and Eleanor. We read the views of writers John Steinbeck and Upton Sinclair, and of Roosevelt opponents Charles Coughlin and Huey Long. Administration officials provide their opinions on New Deal legislation (including the frequently ignored Federal Theatre Project). Dorothea Lange's photographs depict the misery and poverty of the Depression. Mexican-American, African-American, and Native American viewpoints also receive attention. Polenberg successfully draws documents to paint a multi-dimensional, in-depth portrait of the 1930s.

And three, Polenberg concludes with a fine bibliography for further reading on the various topics of spanned by the documents.

All in all, despite the weak coverage of World War II, the book is eminently useful for readers interested in the period and especially for teachers and students. Had Polenberg covered the war years in the same detail as the Depression/New Deal, this would be a thoroughly excellent sourcebook. Nevertheless, it is a worthwhile book and could function quite well in an AP history course, or as a complement to reading, say, David Kennedy's Freedom from Fear.

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A Teacher's Guide to The Depression and New Deal: A History in Documents (Pages from History)
Gennie B. Westbrook
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Loose Leaf

1900s | United States | History & Historical Fiction | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0195174666

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The Depression and New Deal : A History in Documents (Pages from History)
Robert S. McElvaine
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OKPFVA

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Document-based activities on the Great Depression and New Deal: Using primary sources and the Internet
Kerry Gordonson
Manufacturer: Social Studies School Service
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: 093450881X

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TEACHER'S GUIDE TO THE DEPRESSION & NEW DEAL:HISTORY IN DOCUMENTS PH - PAGES HIS
WESTBROOK/MCELVAINE
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OKIUSK

Book Description

In this new approach to offering design resource material, both the authentic work from the museum and the copy-right-free art are on facing pages so the original colors and lines can be studied.

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The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Caged & Aviary Birds

If you are looking for great photographs,and thorough but general descriptions...

Nice book, but with little detail

The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Caged & Aviary Birds
David Alderton
Manufacturer: Lorenz Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Birds | Animal Care & Pets | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
General | Animal Care & Pets | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
Reference | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books
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Parrots of the World: An Identification Guide

The Complete Book of Finches and Softbills: Their Care and Breeding

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Parrots: A Guide to Parrots of the World

Gouldian Finches: Everything About Purchase, Housing, Care, Nutrition, Breeding, and Diseases

ASIN: 0754806332

Book Description

Complete reference guide to caring for pet birds in the home or an outdoor aviary.

Customer Reviews:

The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Caged & Aviary Birds.......2007-07-16

One of the first books you should buy if you're thinking of purchasing any kind of pet bird. An excellent overview of most available. Great for the newcomer or experienced bird keeper.

If you are looking for great photographs,and thorough but general descriptions..........2006-03-20

this is the best I've found so far. I've read this book cover to cover, but it is also great to just pick up and flip to a random page. It would be great for a parrot beginner.

Nice book, but with little detail.......2001-11-19

This book is a masterpiece when it comes to picture quality and when you are looking for a book that covers the most common species. If you have special interest in one or some species, the book is far from detailed enough

Book Description

This beautiful comprehensive directory and practical reference book is an essential manual for bird-keepers of all levels--from the novice looking to keep a single pet bird indoors to sthe seasoned breeder wishing to extend an existing aviary collection.

ULTIMATE ENCYCLOPEDIA of CAGED & AVIARY BIRDS

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ULTIMATE ENCYCLOPEDIA of CAGED & AVIARY BIRDS
Alderton
Manufacturer: Hermes
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 184309164X

THE ULTIMATE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF CAGED AND AVIARY BIRDS

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THE ULTIMATE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF CAGED AND AVIARY BIRDS

Manufacturer: Hermes House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 1844770656

Book Description

This organizer offers quilters an opportunity to document the quilts they make or acquire and preserve valuable information. It provides space to include a photograph, dimensions, and technical information, and other important details about each item. REVIEW: If you have good intentions about recording data on each and every quilt you make or own, put it off no longer. The Quilter's Registry, developed by Lynne Fritz, is the perfect answer. There is space for 38 quilts, and each entry has a place for a photograph and details about the quilt and its production. The attractive, hardbound volume will become an important part of your quilt history.

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Doesn't know what it wants to be

Freaky gardeners grow the best crops

It is the perfect gift for the gardening fanatic!!

A rose by any other name.....

My favorite garden book

People with Dirty Hands: The Passion for Gardening
Robin Chotzinoff
Manufacturer: Harvest Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
Regional | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books | Canada | Middle Atlantic | Midwest | New England | Pacific Northwest | South | Southwest | West
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ASIN: 0156005158

Book Description

From a New York City Green Guerrilla to the Texas Rose Rustlers and a Colorado tomato fanatic, Chotzinoff serves up colorful profiles of americanca’s quirkiest, most fervent gardeners.

Customer Reviews:

Doesn't know what it wants to be.......2004-07-10

Some cute, quirky people featured in here. Shows the emotional need that gardening can often fulfill. When describing strangers, the author spins interesting and compelling stories. Unfortunately, when she writes about her family and friends, she loses her thread and the tales become self-indulgent and unfocused.

Freaky gardeners grow the best crops.......2001-12-22

What drives some people to obsess about their tomato plants so much that you wonder if they need a straightjacket as much as
a nice gardening hat? Author Robin Chotzinoff went in search of eccentric gardeners who do more than grow veggies, flowers
and herbs - they show us how magical a patch of dirt can be. In People With Dirty Hands, read about the Texas Rose
Rustlers who find old roses growing in the oddest places (like graveyards), propagate them and then sell the flowers to people
who aren't interested in raising genetically-altered blossoms. This book also has tales about ladybug farmers, big city manure
delivery folks and more. (...)

It is the perfect gift for the gardening fanatic!!.......2000-11-13

I absolutely loved this book! It is the perfect gift for the gardening fanatic!!

The author, Robin Chotzinoff, decided to tour the country in search of understanding why some people become obsessed with gardening. What she found was a collection of people, as colorful as the plants they grow. A man who grows 450 tomato plants in his backyard, because "You can't buy a tomato." The Texas Rose Rustlers, who propagate old-fashioned roses they find in cemeteries, because "tea roses are impossible!" Then there is the man who earns a living by selling thousands of gallons of ladybugs. Oh, and we must not forget the Green Guerrilla who delivers manure to New York City gardeners.

Like many obsessive gardeners, I use to wonder:

"Am I alone? Why wasn't everyone an obsessive gardener? How could they not be?"

Fear not obsessive gardeners! You are not alone! Robin Chotzinoff says she likes writing about gardeners because they are much more interesting than real people. As I always say, "Anyone can be normal."

A rose by any other name............2000-07-01

Some gardening books are about particular gardens, others about favorite plants. Some writers look back over lives of gardening and living and write reflective passages. Others travel to beautiful gardens that have stood the test of time and share what they find. This little book does a bit of all these things.

Gardeners will appreciate "People With Dirty Hands." While it does not describe the elementary aspects of gardening, it does take a new angle -- describing some of the action behind the scene at the local plant nursery.

In the past few years, Rosarians have noticed an explosion in the quality, kind, and appearance of roses. In a day when hybridizers are splicing genes and bringing all kinds of mutants into the commercial world, a number of naturalists, gardeners, and botanists are saying, "Look what we're leaving behind!" Once lost, the past can never be recovered.

"People With Dirty Hands" follows the adventures of those concerned with saving the past. The 'Rose Rustlers" are my favorites. These plant collectors drive all over the old rural areas, particularly in the plains states (Texsas) looking for old, abandoned but still thriving roses. The roses can be found in cemetaries, on fences along the road, and covering the collapsed timbers of old houses, barns, or pig stys. The 'Rose Rustlers' take grafts from the old plants and start new plants and pass them along to caring gardeners. The idea is to propagate the old roses and keep them going. Some biologists do this for scientific reasons, but many ordinary gardeners are joining hands across the nation to keep the old plants alive. They are saving the past for the future generations.

My favorite garden book.......2000-06-28

More chatty and narative, less like a botony text, more like a chat with an old gardener style wise, well many old gardeners, young gardeners, heck just happy gardeners of every sze, shape, color and style. After reading the chapter on roses, my formerly greatest hated flower, I am now an avid rose rustler. Just a great book. Gotta go, working on my garden tonight.

Holly

Average customer rating:
People with Dirty Hands: The Passion for Gardening
Robin Chotzinoff
Manufacturer: Wiley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000O91XGC

Average customer rating:

Don't throw out the baby with the bath water!

Great, bold, life-changing

Halleluljah

A quick slap in the face

excellent book...

True and False: Heresy and Common Sense for the Actor
David Mamet
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Acting & Auditioning | Theater | Performing Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
General | Theater | Performing Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0679772642
Release Date: 1999-02-22

Amazon.com

To hell with Stanislavsky. To hell with the Method. "The actor is onstage to communicate the play to the audience," says David Mamet. "That is the beginning and the end of his and her job. To do so the actor needs a strong voice, superb diction, a supple, well-proportioned body and a rudimentary understanding of the play." Anything else--"becoming" one's part, "feeling" the character's emotions--devalues the practice of a noble craft and is useless to the play. "The 'work' you do 'on the script' will make no difference," he cautions. "That work has already been done by a person with a different job title than yours. That person is the author."

But True and False does not confine itself to the work done on the actual stage. Its brief essays contain sound advice on how an actor might apply himself or herself to the life of the actor: the proper consideration due the audition process, the selection of parts that one accepts, and so on. Mamet delivers these kernels of wisdom in the taut, no-nonsense prose for which he is justifiably famous, and, ultimately, his core principles are applicable beyond the theater. "Speak up, speak clearly, open yourself out, relax your body, find a simple objective," he instructs. "Practice in these goals is practice in respect for the audience, and without respect for the audience, there is no respect for the theater; there is only self-absorption." Substitute "others" for "the audience" and "life" for "the theater," and could any Taoist say it better? --Ron Hogan

Book Description

The Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright, director, and teacher gives us a blunt, irreverent, unsparingly honest guide to acting that overturns conventional truths and tells aspiring actors what they really need to know.

David Mamet leaves no acting tenet untouched: How to judge the role, approach the part, work with the playwright. How to concentrate and think about the scene. How to avoid becoming the Paint-by-Numbers Mechanical Actor, the "How'm I Doing?" Ham Actor, the over-the-top "Hollywood Huff " Actor. The right way to undertake auditions and rehearsals. The proper approach to agents, to individual jobs, and to the business in general. The question of talent.

Mamet is unmistakably clear about why he thinks actors should not be taken in by such highly touted notions as "the arc" of the character or the play, "substitution," "sense-memory," the Method itself--in fact, by most of what is being taught in acting schools and workshops across the country today.

True and False slaughters some of the profession's most sacred cows. It is bold, witty, and likely to be as controversial as the author himself.

Customer Reviews:

Don't throw out the baby with the bath water!.......2007-04-05

Acclaimed screenwriter and playwright David Mamet has written "True and False," a provocative, intentionally revolutionary book on acting in which he attempts, with varied success, to sweep aside most acting theories and to reduce acting to simply and actively communicating the play (or film) to the audience by doing something like what the writer has shown the character to be doing.

While this is fundamentally true, and the way Mamet develops it hits the reader like a breath of fresh air, Mamet often throws the baby away with the bathwater. For example, acting schools and most acting teachers are seen as authoritarian charlatans, when many of them in my experience encourage the very truthful self-realization that Mamet champions!

Mamet also seems to believe that doing any research on the world of the play or on the kind of human being your role suggests prevents you from being truthful in the moment of performance, while the experience of great actor-teachers like Uta Hagen (and my own experience as both actor and audience) indicates precisely the opposite.

In general, valuable acting techniques that help the actor to truly commit to his task in the scene, with high personal stakes and a deep emotional resonance, are discarded not only as useless and unplayable but also as harmful.

Mamet is right that acting is finally simple, but it's not as simple as he makes it, and thereby he robs it of much of its range and richness. It's great for me the actor to commit 100% to my action on stage/screen, but what skills do I actually use to do that? And how do I bring an ever deeper, richer, more complex, and truthful me to the task in a way that both enlightens and entertains the audience? These questions are answerable but not with the oversimplified method that Mamet presents.

Nevertheless, "True and False" is an enjoyable and constantly provocative meditation on our contemporary state of acting--and of living--that no actor should miss. Even though I cannot agree with all of his answers, Mamet's enduring questions about what is true and false in life and onstage makes this book a must-read.

Great, bold, life-changing.......2007-03-12

I love this book. It changed my life. The passion and logic of Mr. Mamet's argument outshines his most controversial statements. The main thing that might bother some people is his assertion that drama school, or any school for that matter, is a waste of time. I agree with him. Artists are rebels. If you don't like that, then you probably belong in school.

True artists stand up, speak up, and follow their own good opinion. The rest is just funny voices.

Halleluljah.......2007-01-03

I have been wandering in a state of confusion for some time. Dissatisfied with what I have been taught I was seeking a new direction in my theatre work. God bless David Mamet. As I read this book it became clear to me that this was what I have been seeking. The work is lucid, and intelligent and cuts through the crap like a hot knife through butter. Read it and learn from it.

A quick slap in the face.......2006-08-31

It's easy to lose your way in the world of acting, especially between jobs. Mamet intervenes with the psychologically-addicted acting-class-junky, slapping him around a bit and then reminding him of how essentially easy, natural, and playful the whole thing is. He doesn't encourage sliding or turning off any of the actor's so-called instrument, but he sounds a welcome tocsin to those about to get lost in the often-expensive cave of self that masks itself as acting class. After reading these short warm-ups, I picked up a few plays and started reading with an eye toward a cheap but honest production. Mamet's message is basically: Act. My best theatrical experiences have always involved letting go and peeling away. It's nice to have someone with Mamet's authority urging me to do just that.

excellent book..........2006-05-28

Like 'On Directing' and 'Three Uses of the Knife' (on drama), Mamet's most famous 'how-to' book is essential reading for anyone on stage or in film.

From personal experience, I can say that I was guilty of every one of the poor habits that Mamet criticizes. Watchin myself on film (actually video), I could see myself 'acting out the arc', or wearing the 'emotion' of the scene on my sleeve. Meanwhile, the actor across from me did nothing but what was needed of him: he took action to take what he wanted. Period.

This other fellow had no experience with Mamet's theory. Who knows...maybe this is the inborn art of acting that is corrupted by 'scholars' and 'academics'. (At the very least, Hollywood's acting style has been ruined by the pomp and pagentry of self-centred drama queens like Nicole Kidman and Halle Berry. Give me Debra Winger any day.)

So, buy this book. And when you reject it outrigth, understand that it could be because Mamet's words read to an actor like a scientists might have to an unenlightened 15th century god fearing peasant: your world does not work the way you thought it did. In both cases, your belief that your 'hard work' will result in a 'reward' were wrong. The only action is the truth. The only reward is the truth.

True and False. Heresy and Common Sense for the Actor

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True and False. Heresy and Common Sense for the Actor
David MAMET
Manufacturer: Pantheon Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000VAOB7W

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