The Autobiography of Maria Elena Moyano

Book Description

Dudes! Jack London was a surfer! Inspired by Slocum's "Sailing Around the World Alone," London built a 45' schooner called the Snark, with the intent of sailing the world with his wife and crew. His first stop was Hawaii, where he learned to surf in 1907. He then went on to the South Seas and the Solomon Islands. This book is always insightful, and often hilarious.

The Cruise of the Snark: A Pacific Voyage

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The Cruise of the Snark: A Pacific Voyage
Jack London
Manufacturer: Columbia Univ Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0710301391

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A Traveler @ Heart Enjoyed Sailing w/Jack & His Crew (s)
Mixed Emotions, and By The Way It Is Not a Novel.
first time reading "The....Snark"
The best story is the one he lived
Stand in a shower tearing up 100 dollar bills instead

The Cruise of the Snark
Jack London
Manufacturer: North Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1582873569

Book Description

In 1906, Jack London set out from San Francisco with his wife and two crewmembers on a voyage across the Pacific. Newspaper readers were horrified by the proposed trip, which was inspired by Joshua Slocum's Sailing Alone Around the World. London knew little about navigation, and his schooner, the Snark, possessed numerous defects, including a tendency to leak.

London's account of this extraordinary trip is charming and fascinating by turns, and a wonderful display of his eye for poetic and ironic details. Navigating more by feel than by skill, London visited Hawaii, the Marquesas, Tahiti, and the Solomon Islands. For the most part, the voyagers were greeted with South Seas hospitality, though the trip had its dangers—including head-hunting natives. London claimed that sailing the Snark gave him his greatest sense of personal accomplishment, and The Cruise of the Snark is saturated with his enthusiasm and sheer love of adventure.

An exciting new volume in the Adventure Classics series, this edition includes a new National Geographic map and excerpts from his wife Charmian's out-of-print account of the expedition, offering new insights into London's personality, and into his remarkable voyage.

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No, adventure is not dead, and in spite of the steam engine and of Thomas Cook and Son. When the announcement of the contemplated voyage of the Snark was made, young men of "roving disposition" proved to be legion, and young women as well--to say nothing of the elderly men and women who volunteered for the voyage.

Customer Reviews:

A Traveler @ Heart Enjoyed Sailing w/Jack & His Crew (s).......2007-06-27

I have sailed a few times in S.F. Bay being from the Bay area and I truely related to this story and since the Snark was being built by Jack London right before the 1906 quake. It amazed me and invariably he got taken advantage of by the various builders which led to some precarious sailing manuevers since they measured wrong on one side. Which Jack London didn't find out until out at sea. I could picture all the island stops and so enjoyed the old photos that were put into the Snark truly an interesting journey. It was interesting to me hearing of the staph infections were attacking the individuals when the crew would cut themselves and then end up with these sores they knew nothing about and how they had to heal themselves with virtually no medicines on board. This book is a captain's log which he wrote in daily. If your a sailor you'll love it or even if you've been exposed as I have you'll enjoy it, especially if you happen to be from the Bay area. I recommend it as an interesting and enjoyable read though at times I did feel he was just writing to keep his checks coming in to pay for his journey.

Sebastopolian Reader

Mixed Emotions, and By The Way It Is Not a Novel........2006-08-01

I have a lot of mixed emotions about this book. I thought his book "Call of the Wild" was one of the best ever works by an American writer. That novel was the peak of the Jack London's career.

Just so we are clear, this is not a novel. It is a collection of related short stories. London wrote everyday for a few hours each morning during a two year sea voyage. He did this to make money to pay for the boat trip. He wrote and sent off a number of different short stories during the trip to different magazines and each chapter was published separately. Then later, he took some of the stories and simply arranged them in chronological order to make the present book.

The book and the trip grew out of London's romance with yachting, and his idea that he wanted to sail around the world in a boat that he made himself. He wanted a large boat - about 50' - that he could sail himself helped by a small crew including his second wife. There is a lot of optimism here, and less practical experience than what one might consider to be wise, and London made a number of errors. London did not actually make the boat. He hired contractors. In any case, we hear how London made the boat and then sailed it across the Pacific, finally stopping near Australia. His motivation was based on dreams from his youth plus the romantic inspiration from prior writers such as Melville, Rudyard Kipling, Frank Norris, and Joseph Conrad, to name a few.

We read what we assume to be is a non-fiction account of how he built the boat, and then the trip itself in pieces along with trips to various islands.

Overall, the writing is good, but some parts are a lot more interesting than others so the book has a slightly uneven feel. I found a few of the chapeters to be boring.

Interesting read, but not as good as I had hoped: 4 stars.

first time reading "The....Snark".......2006-02-11

Even though I consider myself a London fan (starting when I read "The Call of the Wild" and "The Cruise of the Dazzler" as a boy), I have never felt the urge to read "The Cruise of the Snark"...until now. I must admit that is one easy, enjoyable read yet there are a couple of chapters which in my opinion seem to be "filler" material, possibly created when Jack was sick and do not seem to fit the adventure billing (Beche De Mer English for example). Regardless, most of this book is very enjoyable and you get a few chuckles when Jack interjects some of his dry, sarcastic humor into the reading (when he mentioned that the Snark was actually shorter than expected and suggested that "the builder was not on speaking terms with the tape-line"). Jack's life was an adventure and this was the culmination of an adventurous soul. It's a wonderful story and a prime example of Murphy's Law.

The best story is the one he lived.......2005-09-13

It has been said that the best story Jack London ever conceived is the one he lived. You need look no further than THE CRUISE OF THE SNARK to confirm that. In this book, all of London's passions come together: action, experience, sailing, foreign travel, writing and reading. It is a "real adventure" tale, a travelogue and above all a well-crafted book full of London's personal voice and vibrant outlook on life. One may say it is also full of his ego, but he earns the self-satisfaction by putting action and hard work behind his beliefs and words. He is fearless. He is the first to get the irony in a situation and the first to laugh, especially at himself.

In 1908, London and six others, including his wife Charmian, sailed out of the San Francisco Bay into the open waters of the Pacific on what was to be a lengthy circumnavigation of the world. They were leaving over a year later than originally planned due to hold-ups in the construction of London's "perfect" boat, "The Snark," which ate $30,000 dollars before they left harbor. It isn't long before leaks, sea-sickness and other banana peels come their way, and it takes 27 days to make Hawaii. In due course, London learns to surf, they visit the top of a volcano, hang out at a leper colony, and then head further south to the land of Melville's "Typee" and the scary Solomon Islands. The various captains hired for the trip all seem to lack the navigation gene, so London teaches himself and gets it down to a science. London, first by necessity and then overtaken by the intoxication of success, becomes a self-taught dentist, and thus his crew's savior and worst nightmare. He and the crew suffer a nasty list of maladies, as well. It is a testimony of the man's indefatigable spirit, that even when his own health puts an end to the "round the world" scheme, that he never characterizes the voyage and anything that did not go as planned as a crushing failure or disappointment. He just heads straight to Plan B.

London's voice is wholly engaging, his profiles of crewmates and people encountered are delightful. One only wishes that some of his perceptions of other cultures were more enlightened, though they were liberal for their time. The Penguin Classics critical edition is an excellent balance of original text, a non-spoiling critical introduction, and a selection of 4 other short pieces, including accounts of the voyage by crewmate Martin Johnson and wife Charmian, and two unrelated maritime essays by London that enrich the overall experience of the book.

Stand in a shower tearing up 100 dollar bills instead.......2003-10-15

I've recently arrived back in the USA from Suva and Nadi in Fiji, one of Jack's stopping points.

However, what he describes about the South Pacific is no more.

London's South Pacific was affected by European trade and commerce. For one thing, disease, in an era when its prevention was primitive, was rife and the inhabitants of the islands he visited were dropping like flies. Today, of course, the very same network has brought modern medicine and the major health threat to natives in the South Pacific is obesity: the only restaurant on Victoria Parade in Suva, allowed Sunday hours, was McDonald's, while Singh's Curry Shop had to close (I recommend the latter, around the corner from McDonald's on Gordon Street: try the goat curry).

London's natives were partly pagan. Today, ordinary people in Oceania are mostly fundamentalist Christian, and, in Suva, there is also a streak of Islam, petering out far to the west of Indonesia but echoing in the afternoon call of the Muezzin in Suva.

The fundamentalism means that the yachtsman is well-advised on shore to dress modestly. Of course, London and his wife did this naturally, long ago. I actually saw an Australian man warn a woman in shorts in Suva to put knickers on lest one of the local Methodists or Moslems be offended.

But any myth of escape has been so commodified in the South Pacific by tavern owners and tourist companies as to be sour and bitter to the taste.

London, while asserting his property rights thoughtlessly at Oakland's wharf, and while assuming he had the right to hire men to work on his boat and judge their hard work in print, also assumed, in the South Pacific, his right to wander at will.

Today, as the Rough Guide to Fiji advises the tourist, 85% of the land in Fiji is owned fee simple by chiefs. Sir Arthur Gordon decided not to repeat America's dispossession of the Indians and covenanted with the lads in Fiji in such a way that today, the natives form a land-owning aristocracy.

Their fair-mindedness (as on display from Steve Rabuka who backed down from being a military dictator) means that other lads from other mobs have rough civic equality.

London was the prototype, however, of the colonialist as rugged individual whose humanity is based on the unconscious deprivation of others' humanity.

London was the prototype of the soured Yank who when a lad thought the best of people, without a dime to his name, who now has everything, and thinks the worst of people.

London with a grin repeats texts from the hundreds of letters he received from individuals who wanted to sign on to the Snark and so escape their own lives of quiet desparation in an America already unbearable for the average city-dweller. Like him they yearned for a clean-limbed life but unlike London they lacked cash.

London essentially uses their texts to pad out a book that was obviously written not from the heart but to raise cash for a silly boat.

Any yachtsman knows in his heart of hearts that if the landlubber wants his experience, he has only to stand in a cold shower tearing up 100 dollar bills. The Snark was an expensive lark and, like modern yachts, unconsciously offensive at both its sharp end (where were the natives, giving London gifts and dying like flies) and its blunt end (where were the American laborers whose work London disrespects because it was not finished on his schedule).

The South Seas are overrun, today, by people who really ought to be paying more taxes back home. I traveled out there to work at global rates and learned much more about the REAL South Seas than any tourist might, and I'm afraid that Joe Conrad, who also worked for a living, in The Heart of Darkness is more reliable on the tropics than old Jack London.

I'm afraid that London saw, what he wanted to see: the Gilded Age struggle of man against man. However, as Hannah Arendt points out in The Origins of Totalitarianism, this defines rather a culture of hatred out of which were form racialist identities. London was for the most part free of any special form of racism but he did believe that Socialism was impossible because Alpha males (like Wolf Larsen) would take what they need.

Well, they might, and they do. Nonetheless, in the South Seas and elsewhere, Beta males and women continue some how to achieve more, and of more lasting value, by working in groups. Sir Arthur Gordon is forgotten save in Suva, because unlike Cecil Rhodes he failed to mind his own press-agentry but it appears he did lasting good with his land-tenure scheme.

London never learned the limits of his world view and his darkest book, Alcoholic Memories, is a testament to London's limitations.

My favorite yachtsman remains good old Tristan Jones, a British sailor who was trained in the Royal Navy and who paid his dues. Tristan would like me arrive back, from the back of beyond, without a dime and go willingly to work while living willingly in a doss-house. Tristan dragged his own boat across the Mato Grosso and talked back to tinpot Fascists in Stroessner's Paraguay.

In my experience it is relatively easy to learn the mechanics of a sailing boat but what is hard is endurance, not only of Nature but the Other. London endured Nature but has a tendency to be impatient in print with others, as shown by his insenstive near-mockery of applicants for service on his boat. Jones, on the other hand, mocks only people who deserve it, like customs agents in Paraguay.

We lack Tristan Jones' spirit in America with the result that the Third World is overrun with the worst of us, whining yachtsmen and CIA agents and their trophy wives. London I fear was despite his genuine greatness of soul a prototype for the worse that came later.

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The Cruise of the Snark
Jack London
Manufacturer: Classic Books Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

London, Jack | ( L ) | Authors, A-Z | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Action & Adventure | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1600967485

Book Description

In April 1907 Jack London set out to sail around the world in the 45-foot ship The Snark, accompanied by his wife and a small crew. Although suffering from seasickness and tropical disease, London wrote prolifically, including a series of entertaining sketches of the voyage itself. These were later collected as The Cruise of the Snark, a remarkable record of adventure and love among the islands of the South Pacific.

The Cruise of the Snark [EasyRead Comfort Edition]

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The Cruise of the Snark [EasyRead Comfort Edition]
Jack London
Manufacturer: ReadHowYouWant.com
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1425009557
Release Date: 2006-10-01

Product Description

The author has narrated a two-year voyage aboard a ship. It is the account of wild sea storms, navigational doubts and sea-illnesses combined with the natural beauty. The amalgamation of terror and fascination renders beauty to the narrative. A book that testifies man\'s indefatigable courage and spirit.

The Cruise of the Snark [EasyRead Edition]

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The Cruise of the Snark [EasyRead Edition]
Jack London
Manufacturer: ReadHowYouWant.com
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1425004490
Release Date: 2006-10-01

Product Description

Airborne + Gypsy Moth Circles the World + My Old Man and The Sea + The Cruise of the Snark + God-Forsaken Sea + Sailing Alone Around the World (NAUTICAL CLASSICS - Limited Signed Edition)

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Airborne + Gypsy Moth Circles the World + My Old Man and The Sea + The Cruise of the Snark + God-Forsaken Sea + Sailing Alone Around the World (NAUTICAL CLASSICS - Limited Signed Edition)

Manufacturer: Easton Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Leather Bound
ASIN: B000CS2B5C

Product Description

NAUTICAL CLASSICS With Airborne personally signed by its author, Wiliam F. Buckley, Jr. From legendary tales like Gipsy Moth Circles the World to Cruise of the Snark and Sailing Alone Around the World, to modern classics such as My Old Man and the Sea and Godforsaken Seathis is the perfect gift for anyone who loves sailing.

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The Cruise of the Snark
Jack London
Manufacturer: Book Jungle
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1604241837

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Cruise of the Snark

Manufacturer: Easton Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000EB7ZFS

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Cruise of the Snark

Manufacturer: macmillan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000CBFW0A

Book Description

A concise, practical guide to California state income taxation, Whittenburg/Raabe/Altus-Buller's workbook format presents material in easy-to-digest sections. Using multiple examples and review problems, it is perfect where an emphasis on California state income taxes is desired.

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Income Tax Fundamentals 2003
Gerald E. Whittenburg , Martha Altus Buller , and Martha Altus-Buller
Manufacturer: South-Western Educational Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Book Description

A concise, practical guide to personal federal income tax form preparation, Whittenburg and Altus-Buller's text/workbook format presents material in easy-to-digest sections with self-checks, on-line quizzes,multiple examples and review problems. Perfect for a hands-on approach to taxes!

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Income Tax Fundamentals 2003
Gerald E.; Altus-Buller, Martha Whittenburg
Manufacturer: South-Western Educational Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OUI8LE

Book Description

This book is arranged in an easy-to-use format and collectors will absolutely love it. Many items have never been shown elsewhere in print. Hundreds of listings with descriptions, current values, production dates, extensive histories, and background information in addition to more than 1,200 color photos. 2004 values. REVIEW: This book is easy to use and includes many items that have never before been seen in print. More than 1,200 color photographs make this an invaluable reference to Shawnee Pottery.

Customer Reviews:

Marvelously complete reference book for collectors..........2000-04-02

This is an excellent book. The Mangus' have put together an exhaustive reference on this collectible pottery. They cover everything! From planters to figurines, from bookends to cookie jars, from the design lines to the kitchenware, it's all here.

They include an extensive history of the pottery and its people (owners, designers, employees). They detail the various production methods used to produce the wide variety of wares. They include a wonderful section of photos of the various paper labels used by Shawnee (they used few, if any, backstamps or marks, other than the common "USA".)

My only quibble with this book (and it's a teeny tiny one) is that the prices shown are high in today's market. However, that's not the Mangus' fault, as it reflects the impact that online auctions have had on collectibles in all areas and markets. The bottom line is, if you're looking for a reference on this fun pottery, this is the book to buy!

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The Collectors Guide To Shawnee Pottery Identifications And Values - Kitchenware Items - Cornware, Pitchers, Salt...
Duane & Janice Vanderbilt
Manufacturer: Collector Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000WSU3F2

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THE COLLECTOR'S GUIDE TO SHAWNEE POTTERY - IDENTIFICATION AND VALUES
Duane and Janice Vanderbilt
Manufacturer: Collector Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000QRV3SU

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Just a Great Book

A classic! Perfect, no matter what your skill level

Great!! But not for beginners!

You need this book !!!!

Bravo, Sarajane!

Celebrations With Polymer Clay
Sarajane Helm
Manufacturer: Krause Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Dough | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
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Create a Polymer Clay Impression

The Art of Polymer Clay: Designs and Techniques for Creating Jewelry, Pottery, and Decorative Artwork (paperback reissue, Updated)

Elegant Gifts in Polymer Clay

The Polymer Clay Techniques Book

Polymer Clay Surface Design Recipes: 100 Mixed-Media Techniques Plus Project Ideas

ASIN: 0873495217

Book Description

Celebrate a year's worth of holidays, festivities, and special occasions with polymer clay creations. The 25 projects include party favors, center pieces, wreaths, arrangements, displays, and decorations for weddings, birthdays, showers, and seasonal holidays.

Beginning and advanced polymer clay artists will find helpful step by step photos and instructions to guide them to successfully complete ornaments, dolls, Easter bunnies, May baskets, Halloween decorations, and much more.

Techniques such as caning, stamping, and transferring are shown and explained in easy to follow detail. As a bonus, readers will learn how to transform polymer clay into graphic applications such as cards, giftwrap, journals, albums, and books.

Customer Reviews:

Just a Great Book .......2005-06-14

I first seen this book at a crafting store and with their price came home and found it on Amazon.com at a lower cost..thats the first most important thing...I really love the way they incorperate the mica's in the projects to give them a very rich expensive non crafted look..I was very impressed with the projects in this book and reviewing it before I bought it was the selling point for me..Mrs.C.

A classic! Perfect, no matter what your skill level.......2003-08-15

I collect books on Polymer Clay Artistry and Beading, and this is one of the best of any genre. An absolute classic, suitable for beginners and more experienced clay artists. If you ever thought of Polymer Clay as a relative to Play-Doh, you won't after reading this lucious book.

Great!! But not for beginners!.......2003-03-21

It is a beautiful book to look at and to admire. But if you are a beginner I suggest going with "New ways with Polymer clay" and or "The polymer clay techniques book". The Techniques book is very helpful!! I loved this book but for now all I can do is look and dream.

You need this book !!!!.......2003-02-19

I love this book and I know you will too if you are into clay or just thinking about trying it. The projects are all wonderful, with easy to follow instructions. Everything to keep a beginner or an advanced clayer busy. Sarajane Helm out did herself this time. Can wait to see what's up her other sleeve.

Bravo, Sarajane!.......2003-02-11

This book is a treasure - elegant, informative and just plain beautiful. Sarajane Helm has outdone herself this time with a great introduction/basics section, clearly laid out instructions for projects and a stellar gallery of examples by many talented polymer clay artists, both established and up-and-coming. Beautiful photography throughout. Highly recommended.

Customer Reviews:

Five stars for the little Trianon.......2001-07-17

The little Trianon and gardens have been almost as legendary as it's designer-creator, Queen Marie Antoinette of France. It's here, in this paradoxical, magical realm, where the initial notion, the vicarious allure, for this oh! so tragic a woman has been forged. In this book the reader gets a unique and unexpected first hand gift from the so often missunderstood and enigmatic queen. For 'Views and Plans of the Petit Trianon at Versailles' is the work of Marie Antoinette herself. This one album she thought of, as she strolled about with Fersen or her beloved duchess of Polignac. Here is where she lived and entertained so memorably. The first Trianon was built by Luis XIV for Madame de Maintenon (for a great article on Maintenon look up Luis Auchincloss' 'False Dawn') the petit Trianon was built for Madame de Pompadour(who never saw it finished) by Luis XV. Though the chateau and gardens where re-interpreted by Marie Antoinette when Luis XVI offered it to her later. 'Views and Plans of the Petit Trianon at Versailles' with an introduction and content by Pierre Arizzoli-Clement, dedicated to the memory of Pierre de Nolhac (original Marie Antoinette biographer) is a curious book. As I waited for the postman I imagined the book was perhaps a good collection of modern photographs, and maps. It turned out to be so much more! It's a faithful copy of souvenier albums Marie Antoinette used to offer her most august guests. It contains copies of original XVIIIc graphic maps of the interior and exteriors and little theater, etc of the petit Trianon.Also water color expressions of the gardens, the belvedere, the hameau, etc. Beauty and talent rules here. There is a depth and an originality here that's at odds with the overall notion of the wretched queen. So often dissed as the 'feather head' spendtrift. What were Marie Antoinette's intellectual powers, one is bound to ask oneself, specially after admiring her taste and savvy in decoration and design? It's true her riches were wrought by the sweat of many. Was she consciously aware of it? Was she just following a pattern? Is there something she could have done to prevent her bloody end? How much did she understand of the government of France a dinnosaur about to dissapear in quicksand? Was she smart enough to foretell that an end to the feudal system would cause opprobium and death to her, her husband and children? What did she say to Mirabeau that fateful morning at Saint-Cloud, that had such an effect on him, were hers the words of a silly and fatuous woman? Her smooth machinations at the Tuilleries. As her spending, she spent no more or less than Pompadour, and she, not a noble, got to die serenely amid porcelain and lace. If Marie Antoinette would have died thus, I bet we wouldn't entertain the interest that so many of us have for her today. The preface is first class and offers many new pepper grains for us, watchers of Marie Antoinette. You'd get to know who got the album, what it looked like originally, who were her favorite brother and sisters, and what sister she didn't like. Buy the book. The tome is absolutely delicious and is the real work by the real girl. It could be treasured among your Olivier Bernier, Ian Dunlop, Stefan Sweig, Andre Castelot, etc, etc. Or could be given away as a smart wedding present, At first it seems somewhat somber though it soon emerges in triumph for it's originality and place in history. The direct, personal concept from one of the most

scrutinized and absorbing queens of all. For another good, if earthier, peek into her world, look up 'The Private Realm of Marie Antoinette' by Marie-France Boyer, a pictorial with photos by Francois Halard.

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Views and Plans of the Petit Trianon At Versailles
Pierre Arizzoli-Clementel
Manufacturer: ALAIN DE GOURCUFF
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000OKNMBA

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Views and Plans of the Petit Trianon at Versailles
Pierre Arrizzoli-Clementel
Manufacturer: Alain de Gourcuff
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000IMWHDI

Book Description

In 1995, rock'n'roll druid Julian Cope self-published his searingly honest autobiography Head On. This book continues the story from the time Julian left the punk band The Teardrop Explodes.

Customer Reviews:

Of COurSe.......2006-10-01

This is importAnt..Here is the King of New Wav Ladies and Gentlemen of the Tear drop Explodes the Number one pop rocker of all time, the new wave Master. Here's his tale of his years with this group and his Echo and the BunnyMen exploits with their drummer aS a solo king. Thank you, and now buy Kilamanjaro by The Teardrop Explodes.

Funny, self-deprecating and chock full of cool anecdotes.......2003-12-02

I read a ton of music books and this is one of the most entertaining, enjoyable rock tomes I've encountered. Funny, self-deprecating and chock full of cool anecdotes. The people who wrote bad reviews of this are, to use a Cope-ian phrase, un-utopian planks. Look Out!

Floored Genius Tells His Own Story.......2003-08-19

Julian Cope is many things to many people - misunderstood musical genius, maverick rock n roller, devotee of Britain's sacred standing stone sites, and more. I loved this two-volume autobiography in which his intelligence and drive shine through. OK, his heavy drug use - acid-tripping and general semi-loony rockstar behaviour also shines through - but this is a thoroughly entertaining account of (firstly) the Teardrop Explodes and early punk scene in Liverpool and (secondly) the later more mature Copey as he copes (pardon the pun!) with a lack of commercial success but remains true to his inner vision.
Essential for any fan of his wonderful ("marvy Harvey!") music and the book also contains some hilarious moments, not least the game "sock" which Copey and his fellow band members used to play on long drives across America - putting a sock over their heads, climbing out the van window and over the roof of a moving vehicle and back into the other window, the idea being not to fall off and die! Check it out!

Ruminations of an ego-driven jerk..........2002-06-22

I threw this very long book into my concise garbage can. Maybe it's the music. Julian Cope has released so many incredible records with so much imagination for so many years. His first venture into writing, the oddball "Krautrock Sampler", was concise and fun, capturing not just his passion for the music, but some of mine as well. (Telepathic Cope?) You would think a book of his own career would be just as interesting. But no.

"Head On"/"Repossesed" tells long depressing anecdotes that make you wonder why you admired the man at all. John Cale's "What's Welsh For Zen?" is similar, in that it presents a great artist who seems a pretty poor human being. But I enjoyed that book, which was thorough, technically-detailed and gossipy. Julian Cope's book makes him seem a fundamentally dull sap who wanders around comparing people he doesn't like to lady genitalia.

Cope's book is unrevealing as personal history. You'd think a man who took hundreds of tabs of LSD in the '80s might have thoughts about it, a whole many wild ones in fact. Not Julian. He chronicles that bodily abuse as if he just drank too much tea.

The book is useless from a technical standpoint - there's no analysis of musical/recording equipment, songwriting philosophy, even his basic creative process. This is a curious thing, as Cope described a lot of that process in "Krautrock Sampler". Of course, those were other bands.

I realize self-analysis is difficult (and this book was clearly not ghost-written), but the overall result is that Cope set down a book with nothing to say. Deflating.

Honest and Articulate.......2001-06-05

Cope is to be commended for writing such an objective and humble account of his days with the Teardrops etc. Especially noteworthy is his ability to relay (and recall) how he felt at the time without letting later events color his words. Reading the account af his first meeting with Ian McCulloch, for example, you'd never guess at the bad blood between them at the time it was written.

Head-On / Repossessed: Memories of the Liverpool Punk-Scene and the Story of the Teardrop Explodes (1976-82)/Shamanic Depressions in Tamworth & London (1983-89)

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Head-On / Repossessed: Memories of the Liverpool Punk-Scene and the Story of the Teardrop Explodes (1976-82)/Shamanic Depressions in Tamworth & London (1983-89)
Julian Cope
Manufacturer: Thorsons Pub
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000NUMLEA

Book Description

When the German Army captured Lwów, Poland, in 1941, the city contained a vibrant Jewish community of 160,000 people. By 1945, all but a few hundred were dead. Witness to Annihilation is the book that Samuel Drix vowed he would write. Drix endured nearly a year in the Janowska concentration camp, escaped and hid from the Nazis, was liberated by the Red Army, and eventually fled from behind the Iron Curtain to America. This rare Holocaust memoir by a caring physician will both horrify and inspire.

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remarkable memoir.......2003-08-27

Samuel Drix was a physician in Lvov, was one of the great Jewish communities of pre-war Poland, whose fate under the Nazis was one of the worst and yet gets little attention from historians. Drix was caught in a roundup and sent to the Janowska camp on the outskirts of the city. This camp left few survivors. Run by some of the most vicious commandants, Janowska had hardly an equal in the brutal treatment of its prisoners. Drix's memoir is unusual for several other reasons. It is one of the few accounts of a professional; it gives a vivid glimpse into the conditions in the Lvov ghetto as well as in the camp and it tells of Drix's remarkable escape from certain death and his subsequent , quite startling, experiences among Polish and Ukranian peasants in the countryside where he survived in hiding until the end of the war.

Witness to Annihilation: Surviving the Holocaust a Memoir

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Witness to Annihilation: Surviving the Holocaust a Memoir
Samuel Drix
Manufacturer: Potomac Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Holocaust | Historical | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Jewish | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Ukraine | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

General | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

Poland | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

General | Military | History | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0028810872

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Witness to Annihilation : Surviving the Holocaust a Memoir
Samuel M.D. Drix
Manufacturer: Brassey's
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000PW4OYG

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