Canadian Directory of Search Firms: Discover All the Canadian Headhunters in Your Field (Canadian Directory of Search Firms)

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Canadian Directory of Search Firms: Discover All the Canadian Headhunters in Your Field (Canadian Directory of Search Firms)

Manufacturer: Mediacorp Canada Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Job Hunting & Careers | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Job Markets & Advice | Job Hunting & Careers | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1894450043

Book Description

This highly accessible anthology concerns itself with the relationships between postgraduate research candidates and their supervisors. It is a collection of immense depth and diversity including nearly fifty contributors, candidates and supervisors (many writing collaboratively), reflecting upon the pleasures and perplexing dynamics of supervisory relations. Their lucid understandings emerge through personal anecdote, critical reflection, and pedagogical theorizing. As candidates and supervisors, they recognize the impact of personal, cultural, and institutional histories and desires. This enterprising anthology proposes creative and productive alternatives to the prevailing models. It is a generous and engaging text, vital reading for candidates, supervisors, researchers, mentors, and tertiary educators.

Customer Reviews:

Just the kind of quirkiness I like.......2001-05-12

This is a collection of quirky stories about quirky people that the author happened upon in his work as a journalist. All the stories are loosely tied to the theme of "the road to success." You hear about the people who are planning to get rich by farming earthworms, poetry slams, the last professional human cannonball, selling condoms as key chains, and much, much, more.

Although most of the stories are quite funny, I really felt empathy for some of the people in them. All were just trying to get ahead, using ideas that most of us would consider to be doomed from the beginning. A couple made me feel down-right sad, especially the one about people trying to hit the big time with a cure for cancer. Instead of being amused by the investors' arrogance of thinking they had a miracle cure for cancer, I was deeply saddened to read about their desperate, terminally ill patients.

As a whole, however, the stories are quite amusing and entertaining. Reading the table of contents will give you just a small hint of what is to be found in this book.

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Missing the point

Goldsheld

Not Enough Piano

This book is shallow and depressing.

Stupid and self-indulgent but has some good info

Piano Lessons: Music, Love, and True Adventures
Noah Adams
Manufacturer: Delta
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Piano | Instruments & Performers | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
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The Piano Shop on the Left Bank: Discovering a Forgotten Passion in a Paris Atelier

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ASIN: 0385318219
Release Date: 1997-03-10

Amazon.com

The difference between the piano lessons Noah Adams took and the ones most of us took was that he was 51, not 7, and -- lucky Noah -- his mother didn't make him practice. This is not only a delightful account of his twelve-month nose-to-the-grindstone attempt to learn to play the $11,000 Steinway he bought on a whim, but also the story of his many-year process of falling in love with music and its history.

Book Description

Piano Lessons is Noah Adams's delightful and moving chronicle of his fifty-second year--a year already filled with long, fast workdays and too little spare time--as he answers at last a lifelong call: to learn to play the piano.  The twelve monthly chapters span from January--when after decades of growing affection for keyboard artists and artisans he finally plunges in and buys a piano--through December, when as a surprise Christmas present for his wife he dresses in a tuxedo and, in flickering candlelight, snow falling outside the windows, he attempts their favorite piece of music, a difficult third-year composition he's been struggling with in secret to get to this very moment.

Among the up-tempo triumphs and unexpected setbacks, Noah Adams interweaves the rich history and folklore that surround the piano.  And along the way, set between the ragtime rhythms and boogie-woogie beats, there are encounters with--and insights from--masters of the keyboard, from Glenn Gould and Leon Fleisher ("I was a bit embarrassed," he writes; "telling Leon Fleisher about my ambitions for piano lessons is like telling Julia Child about plans to make toast in the morning") to Dr. John and Tori Amos.

As a storyteller, Noah Adams has perfect pitch.  In the foreground here, like a familiar melody, are the challenges of learning a complex new skill as an adult, when enthusiasm meets the necessary repetition of tedious scales at the end of a twelve-hour workday.  Lingering in the background, like a subtle bass line, are the quiet concerns of how we spend our time and how our priorities shift as we proceed through life.  For Piano Lessons is really an adventure story filled with obstacles to overcome and grand leaps forward, eccentric geniuses and quiet moments of pre-dawn practice, as Noah Adams travels across country and keyboard, pursuing his dream and keeping the rhythm.

Customer Reviews:

Missing the point.......2007-09-08

It's been years since I read this book, but I have fond memories of it and dropped in here trying to relocate it again. I have to laugh at those who have given this book such harsh reviews with their literal impressions, and I'm very much in agreement with the others, like Bron Mitchell here, who enjoyed it for the right reasons. This is not necessarily about piano. It is about struggling to fulfill a passion in the face of your limitations. About confronting your fears and inadequacies, in the bravest attempt you can muster, given your amateur talents and spare time.

I don't play piano, but I've been struggling for years to play my swing violin in much the same way Noah Adams approached his music. I thoroughly enjoyed the side trips and distractions and intermittent and yet consistent efforts to pursue the unrelenting dream.

For those who play professionally, and for others who come by music easily with talent to spare, his struggles may seem frustrating and self-indulgent. But I would simply say to them, do they have a powerful dream to develop another talent that they may not be so blessed to possess? For example, have they ever wanted to build a boat and sail it to some far off destination? Or play professional baseball? Or be a comedian onstage? Paint a masterpiece? What would it be like to take on your dream, whatever that may be, regardless of your current profession? If you can't imagine putting yourself out there bravely to take it on, then you won't appreciate the subtle, comic travails of this author. And your own life will be much less interesting for it. Cut the brave souls some slack for they know the enjoyment and challenge of really living and appreciating life.

I wholeheartedly recommend the book to any amateur adventurer out there. It is very similar to another book I thoroughly enjoyed and laughed out loud at called "Winterdance: The Fine Madness of Running the Iditarod" by Gary Paulsen.

Goldsheld.......2007-05-02

I think it is misleading that some have written very poor reviews of "Piano Lessons" by Noah Adams. They say the book does not have enough material about how to play the piano, or that he does not have enough patience to learn to play, and the book minimizes how much hard work it takes to play.

But the goal of this book is not to teach one to play piano. It is to trace an adult's foray into piano playing. Mr. Adams chose to begin by using a book rather than hiring a teacher. Though hiring a teacher would be a far better way to begin, by reading his story one can learn a great deal. Because he didn't just hire a teacher, we learn about all his travels through piano educational techniques and materials. We learn of Denise Kahn who teaches adults on the upper west side of Manhattan- this in fact is how I found Denise, through this book- and she is a superb teacher. We read of the Van Der Lindes piano camp for adults. Mistakenly I tried to locate them in NY rather than Vermont, so I was not successful. But I did learn of Bruce Potterton's Summerkeys program in Maine, from Denise, and spent a very valuable week there. The progress one can make in an intensive week in the summer is powerful, and will reinforce your desire to continue studying. Finally, the material with Ned Phoenix makes clear how good used instruments can be, often superior to new ones, even if they need a rebuild. I in fact, bought a used Kranich and Bach for $400. The tone is wonderful and it holds a tuning real well. It is worth around $2,000.

If you want to learn HOW to play piano i.e. technique, buy other books. If you want to read about lots of ways adults can learn piano and supplement their private lessons, and read a book with feeling that will encourage you to practice and truly learn to play well, then I highly recommend Piano Lessons.

Not Enough Piano .......2007-01-10

I was instantly intrigued by this book. I was disappointed that of the 242 pages, it take until page 181 for him to decide to even play Traumerei for his wife.

Quite frankly, this book is filled with self indulgant nonsense. If Adams had stuck to the idea of writing a book about just learning piano , it would have been fine. Instead he meanders onto subjects such buying boats and taking trips. What does any of that crap have to do with playing piano?

I think Noah Adam's experience is very indicative of the "I want everything now with little work" philosophy that pervades our country. I have very little doubt that the exquisite Steinway he bought has either been sold or is gathering dust. What a shame.

This book is shallow and depressing........2006-05-23

Two things about this book are depressing. First, the author has no patience or self-discipline, and thus cannot possibly learn to play piano well. So why does he go on this "quest" to obtain an expensive piano? The real reason, which goes unsaid but runs as a sad subtext through the book, is that it is easy for the author, who has money, to spend that money on a piano, and the satisfaction of owning the piano serves him as a substitute for the satisfaction that would be gained from learning to play it. The second reason this book is depressing is a quality that this book happens to share with countless "personal journey" memoirs that are coming out these days. It is that the author does not have the discipline, education or interest to write a serious work of non-fiction about pianos, piano manufacture or piano playing, and so turns to the much abused memoir format to squeeze a book out of what are, ultimately, mundane experiences, shallow insights and personal challenges that are ultimately abandoned.

Stupid and self-indulgent but has some good info.......2006-02-04

Yes, the story of this book is indeed shallow and self-indulgent, and those who really practice music and who spend years mastering an instrument will have nothing but well-deserved derision for the story of a guy who wants to learn to play the piano but doesn't want to put much effort into studying it. That really is the red thread running through the book: his attempts to learn the piano using instant methods such as a computer program and tapes and books from a guy who will teach you how to play by ear. And even the idea of a week-long piano camp smacks of an attempt to cram a bunch of knowledge in rather than doing what is necessary: playing day in and day out and getting better over a period of years.

When he finally plays Traumerei at the end he makes it pretty clear that he didn't really play it very well and missed lots of notes and screwed up on parts, which isn't very surprising. But again, rather than taking the time to do it right (God forbid he should put too much effort into learning music), he'd rather just crank out anything that passes as Traumerei and call himself accomplished. I have a feeling that when his wife was crying at the end it wasn't because of the touchingness of the concert that he performed for her, but rather her tears were tears of agony and pain over the aural trainwreck that was being forced upon her, a pile of musical debris that was once a majestic and beautiful piece of music.

So why do I give this nonsense a full three stars? Because there is some good information in it about musicians and pianists and performing. He did interviews with various pianists and it is fun and interesting to read about them and what they say. The small bit he said about Scott Joplin has very much improved my playing of the Entertainer, for example. Nothing in this book that comes from the author's own mind or experience is the least bit intersting, but the information he brings in from others is quite worthwhile.

Piano Lessons Music, Love & True Adventures

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Piano Lessons Music, Love & True Adventures
Adams Noah
Manufacturer: Delacorte Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000LCILQC

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Piano Lessons: Music, Love, & True Adventures
Noah Adams
Manufacturer: Delacorte Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000O89LDU

Book Description

Discover baseball's role in American society!

Baseball and American Culture: Across the Diamond is a thoughtful look at baseball's impact on American society through the eyes of the game's foremost scholars, historians, and commentators. Edited by Dr. Edward J. Rielly, author of Baseball: An Encyclopedia of Popular Culture, the book examines how baseball and society intersect and interact, and how the quintessential American game reflects and affects American culture. Enlightening and entertaining, Baseball and American Culture presents a multidisciplinary perspective on baseball's involvement in virtually every important social development in the United States—past and present.

Baseball and American Culture examines baseball's unique role as a sociological touchstone, presenting scholarly essays that explore the game as a microcosm for American society—good and bad. Topics include the struggle for racial equality, women's role in society, immigration, management-labor conflicts, advertising, patriotism, religion, the limitations of baseball as a metaphor, and suicide. Contributing authors include Larry Moffi, author of This Side of Cooperstown: An Oral History of Major League Baseball in the 1950s and Crossing the Line: Black Major Leaguers, 1947-1959, and a host of presenters to the 2001 Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture, including Thomas Altherr, George Grella, Dave Ogden, Roberta Newman, Brian Carroll, Richard Puerzer, and the editor himself.

Baseball and American Culture features 23 essays on this fascinating subject, including:

"On Fenway, Faith, and Fandom: A Red Sox Fan Reflects"
"Baseball and Blacks: A Loss of Affinity, A Loss of Community"
"The Hall of Fame and the American Mythology"
"Writing Their Way Home: American Writers and Baseball"
"God and the Diamond: The Born-Again Baseball Autobiography"

Baseball and American Culture: Across the Diamond is an essential read for baseball fans and historians, academics involved in sports literature and popular culture, and students of American society.

Customer Reviews:

Liu Shaoqi could have been the hope for China.......1999-01-29

If China had adopted Liu's policies, it would have became a much stronger nation than it is today. Subsequently the Chinese people could have had a much better life than what they have today.

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Technology in Action, Intro and Student CD Package
Alan Evans , Kendall Martin , and Mary Anne Poatsy
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Science | Subjects | Books
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All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
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Technology In Action, Complete (4th Edition) (Go!)

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Exploring Microsoft Office 2003 , Volume 1 (2nd Edition) (Exploring)

ASIN: 0131535420

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Technology in Action, Intro and Student CD Package
AlanMartin, KendallPoatsy, Mary Anne Evans
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OICNMQ

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Encyclopedia of Mysterious Places: The Life and Legends of Ancient Sites Around the World
Robert R. Ingpen , and Philip Wilkinson
Manufacturer: MetroBooks (NY)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Rome | Ancient | History | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1586630989

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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF MYSTERIOUS PLACES: THE LIFE AND LEGENDS OF ANCIENT SITES AROUND THE WORLD.
Robert & Philip Wilkinson. Ingpen
Manufacturer: BCA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000N24PMO

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Encyclopedias of Mysterious Places: The Life and Legends of Ancient Sites Around the World

Manufacturer: Barnes and Noble Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 0760716145

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The Time-Life Encyclopedia of Mysterious Places: The Life and Legends of Ancient Sites Around the World
Philip; Ingpen, Robert Wilkinson
Manufacturer: Time Life Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000M50K6C

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Encyclopedia of Mysterious Places: The Life and Legends of Ancient Sites Around the World
Robert and Philip Wilkinson Ingpen
Manufacturer: Barnes & Noble
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000KXI4G4

Customer Reviews:

A U.S. soldier in Mexico.......2005-06-10

"'Surrounded by Dangers of All Kinds': The Mexican War Letters of Lieutenant Theodore Laidley" is edited, with extensive commentary, by James M. McCaffrey. The book is Number 6 in the War and the Southwest Series. Spanning the years 1845 to 1848, these letters tell of Laidley's journey through Mexico as an ordnance officer in the U.S. Army. These letters combine with McCaffrey's illuminating commentary to tell a fascinating story.

Laidley and McCaffrey cover many topics: concern about disease, battlefield medicine, the impact of guerilla activity on the U.S. campaign, the importance of mail to the troops, the challenge in getting volunteer troops to reenlist, cultural sensitivity issues involving U.S. troop contact with Mexican civilians, and conflict among senior U.S. military officers. Laidley describes the reality of 19th century combat; he notes that "the horrors of war one can not understand until you have seen it." Particularly interesting are Laidley's observations on the Mexican land and people; he writes about climate, religion, architecture, agriculture, food, and language.

One thing I found quite striking about the book was how relevant many of McCaffrey's and Laidley's topics are to the U.S. operations that are going on in Iraq and Afghanistan at the time I write this review. Laidley's observations are full of interesting details. His voice is at times quite feisty, and his style is consistently very readable. Overall, this book offers a remarkable look at the U.S.-Mexican War.

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"SURROUNDED BY DANGERS OF ALL KINDS": THE MEXICAN WAR LETTERS OF LIEUTENANT THEODORE LAIDLEY
Theodore (edited by James M. McCaffrey) Laidley
Manufacturer: Univ. of North Texas Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000J3TDHO

Amazon.com

Environmental historian Linda Lear does justice to the tragic dimensions of Rachel Carson's life in her prologue, which shows the author of Silent Spring, even as she was dying of cancer, testifying calmly before a congressional subcommittee whose investigation of the dangers of pesticides were prompted by her book. Lear portrays Carson (1907-1964) with affection and discernment as a remarkable woman who overcame prejudice against female scientists and aroused post-World War II America to the beauties of nature and the technological threats against it in a series of deservedly popular books.

Book Description

Rachel Carson's Silent Spring, published in 1962, did more than any other single publication to alert the world to the hazards of environmental poisoning and to inspire a powerful social movement that would alter the course of American history. This definitive, long-overdue biography shows how Carson, already a famous nature writer, became a reluctant reformer. It is a compelling portrait of the determined woman behind the publicly shy but brilliant scientist and writer.

Customer Reviews:

Thanks for the reminders.......2006-03-21

An absolutely fabulous book on an environmental pioneer, "Witness for Nature" offers up three very important reminders: (1) We must never forget the prophetic contribution of Rachel Carson; (2) we must carry on her bold and visionary mission, never backing down from, as the book described them, the "powerful adversaries" of the chemical industry, corporate agriculture and others that seek to impose their technological will on the rest of us; and (3) we must treasure every day we have left and take the time to cherish our gifts in the natural world. I only wish Rachel Carson had lived to be 100 so she could have carried on her ecological vision for many more decades.

Thank You Rachel.......2005-05-14

How many people today remember Rachel Carson? When you see an eagle or a falcon or a hawk, you can than k Rachel Carson. Her book "Silent Spring" incited action almost immediately against irresponsible pesticide use, including DDT, and launched an ecology movement that led to the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act. This is quite an accomplishment for an author of natural history books; Rachel Carson must have been larger than life, practically immortal, in order to have pulled this off.

But...as Linda Lear documents in extraordinary detail, Rachel Carson was entirely mortal, and all too human, and was not lacking in the faults most of us possess. Success came to Carson late (almost too late), but Carson's love of nature and her dogged determination allowed her to complete what is, perhaps, the most important book of the 20th Century before she succumbed to breast cancer. Lear's detail is incredibly deep; over and again she recounts instances from Carson's life that seem trivial and mundane until the reader feels bogged down in the excess of it. But this detail is critical, because Carson's life itself seemed mundane and trivial, that is until the last decade of it. Carson was a regular person-she was no superstar-and Lear's depth of detail is necessary in order to explain Carson's journey from a less-than-middle-class upbringing to government functionary to the preeminent nature writer of her time. Carson's life evolves slowly and ends tragically; she never married and she never had children-it is almost as if she was born to deliver "Silent Spring" at exactly the right moment in history, when it was needed the most, and then pass on.

In "Witness for Nature", Linda Lear does not allow Rachel Carson to become a cardboard icon of an earlier time; Lear recreates Carson as a complete person with loves and fears and faults. Carson's greatness rises on its own from Lear's writing.

Renew your faith in humanity...read this book.......2000-04-10

The first reviewer, Shari Just, has captured perfectly the quality, scope and value of Lear's biography. If you have ever wondered "can one person make a difference" this is the proof. A readable blend of history, place, people and events describing a modest scientist that loved to communicate scientific findings to a wider audience.

Extrordinary biography of an extrordinary woman........1999-01-12

Lear's detailed biography offers an unmatched look at Carson's personal and professional life. This book takes the reader behind the scenes of Rachel Carson's brilliant works in order to demonstrate the difficulties that dogged her every day existance. Lear chronicles Carson's personal perservance and dedication to the environmental cause in an immensely readable format. A wonderful and inspiring book to read!

Customer Reviews:

Showcases 78 species of bats native to southern Africa.......2001-10-11

Enhanced with both color photographs and drawings, as well as b/w sketches and illustrations, Peter Taylor's Bats Of Southern Africa showcases 78 species of bats native to southern Africa. The reader is provided with clear descriptions and accurate diagnostic features, as well as a wealth of information on the bat's habitat, social and roosting habits, diet, reproduction, echolocation call, distribution, and conservation status. A superb introduction and reference, Bats Of Southern Africa is a welcome and highly recommended addition to wildlife reference collections in general, and the Bat in particular.

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