Five Seasons of Angel: Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Discuss Their Favorite Vampire (Smart Pop series)

Book Description

** COMPLETELY UNAUTHORIZED **

The constellation of characters and themes created in Angel, the popular Buffy the Vampire Slayer spin-off, are explored in this collection of essays. A vampire author, a sex expert, a TV critic, a science fiction novelist, and Buffy writer Nancy Holder provide essays examining the different issues relating to the series, including Angelus as the prototypical high school bully, Angel as victim, Wesley's many transformations, how Spike fits into Angel, the takeover of Wolfram & Hart, and Lindsey's moral center.

Customer Reviews:

Interesting Read.......2005-09-11

I bought Five Seasons of Angel: Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Discuss their Favorite Vampire (Smart Pop Series) because I wanted to know where Joss got his inspiration for Jasmine, Season 4's villian? I thought she was Oprah, ha. But two authors gave their opinions and I was not satisfied with them. So, overall, I enjoyed the book because it had some trivia that I didn't know as well as some unusual takes on the show's story arcs and themes.

My first foray into obsessiveness.......2005-06-14

This book was the first book I've ever read about a television show. I really enjoyed watching the Angel DVDs and discussing them with other equally insightful friends, but eventually our discussions ran out of juice. I mean, Lorne's sweet and all, but really, what is his purpose on the show? And what was the thought behind bringing Lindsay back in the final season? The authors of the essays in Five Seasons of Angel have a wide variety of backgrounds and are often quite insightful - others hit the mark dead-on. (Why, why, Doyle, did you have to die??) After having read this, I look forward to many more books about television shows.

Insightful and Funny.......2004-12-22

As a fan of Buffy and Angel, I try to keep my distance from conventions, fan clubs, and books like "The Watcher Diaries" in order to not appear obsessed with the shows. However, when I found out about this book and its "sister" Seven Seasons of Buffy, I broke down and got them. The reason I was so interested was that the essays in this anthology were written by many different types of fans; some of them hold PhDs, while one essay is written by a crew member from the show, so he had some pretty interesting stories to tell. I must say that some of these people's interpretations of the show are pretty interesting. A lot of them made me take a step back and look at certain episodes again to see what they were talking about. This book will make a good read for even a casual Angel fan.

Five Seasons of Angel is an awsome book!.......2004-11-03

Five seasons of Angel is an awsome book! This book is based on the cancelled WB series by Joss Whedon and David Greenwalt. The book has many science fiction and fantasy essays based on the TV show, Angel! Each of the science fiction and fantasy authors give their own perspective and point of view on Joss Whedon's series. I like this book because it focus on my favorite Angel characters like Angel (David Boreanaz), Spike (James Marsters), Lorne (Andy Harlett), Wesly Wydham-Price (Alexis Denisof), Cordelia (Charisma Carpenter), Darla (Julie Benz), Fred Burkle/Illirya (Amy Acker) and many other Angel characters. Angel in Season 5 is the best season! Angel (David Boreanaz) and his team take over the evil Law firm, Wolfram and Hart! The essays are well written and are very enjoyable,if you are a fan of Angel, I recommeded this book. Five seasons of Angel is a great book! Highly recommended!

The first anthology on ANGEL is a superb one.......2004-10-17

Although BUFFY THE VAMPIRE has already received the anthology treatment four different times (with at least one more on the way), ANGEL has been singularly ignored by publishers. Sure, there are official viewing guides, some of them (especially the one by Kenneth Topping) excellent, but this isn't the same as getting a host of unofficial takes on the show. And to judge by the collections of essays, the folks who do the best job of writing about the show are writers, not academics or scholars (even though my own background is aggressively scholarly and oppressively academic). It isn't surprising that the best anthology on BUFFY is SEVEN SEASONS OF BUFFY, edited by the same Glenn Yeffeth who edited this new ANGEL collection, nor surprising that this volume happily comes up to the same high standards of that volume.

The great problem with anthologies is that they are of necessity uneven. Some essays are simply going to be better than others. Luckily, there are virtually no truly weak essays in FIVE SEASONS OF ANGEL, and a number of very strong ones. The twenty-one essays overlap to some degree, conflict with one another from time to time, sometimes cover subjects that I would have preferred left uncovered, and take up most, if not all, of the potential themes of the show. No one who loves ANGEL can fail to find this collection utterly fascinating, and no fan will fail to gain new insights into the show's characters and storylines. I was grateful that Conner, my least favorite show got scant mention, and saddened that more was not done with both Fred and her transition into Illyria (a plot line that contained scads of potential for the Season Six that was not to be, a season in which producer Jeff Bell revealed that Willow as to guest star and cast a spell that would allow what remained of Fred to escape from within Illyria, allowing Amy Acker to play a permanent double role).

I hesitate to start mentioning specific essays, for most are quite good. Dan Kerns, who was the Gaffer on ANGEL for the final three years and the Best Boy for the first two, brings a host of fascinating behind-the-scenes details in a highly humorous fashion. Nancy Holder has a great essay on how Spike on the final season of ANGEL differed from his previous incarnations on BUFFY. I'll mention only two more. I belong to those who believe that as much as Angel, Cordelia was the thematic heart of the show, in that she showed how even shallow, petty, and self-absorbed people can fulfill their potential and become not only good but genuinely heroic. I also believe that the dismantling of her character at the end of Season Three, its bizarre transformation in Season Four, and nonuse in Season Five (except for a wonderful one episode reappearance). I understand that some real world issues entered into her being written out of the show, but that doesn't lessen her essentiality in the show. Laura Anne Gilman gets at the heart of her story in her essay on Cordy entitled "True Shanshu." And Jennifer Crusie expresses sentiments precisely like my own (hunt down my old reviews of the ANGEL DVDs if you doubt me) in "The Assassination of Cordelia Chase."

The only two things that I really miss in the collection are an essay that deals with the character of Gunn, who was to me always one of the most underutilized characters on the show, and a lot more on Fred/Illyria. Some might complain of the absence of material on Connor, but for me that is one of the strengths and not one of the weaknesses of the collection.

Any BUFFY or ANGEL fan is going to love this collection. While there is now only one anthology dealing with ANGEL (a situation that will hopefully change), at least it is a good oen.

Book Description

In this classic interpretation of the 1930s rise of industrial unionism, Gary Gerstle challenges the popular historical notion that American workers' embrace of "Americanism" and other patriotic sentiments in the post-World War I years indicated their fundamental political conservatism. He argues that Americanism was a complex, even contradictory, language of nationalism that lent itself to a wide variety of ideological constructions in the years between World War I and the onset of the Cold War. Using the rich and textured material left behind by New England's most powerful textile union--the Independent Textile Union of Woonsocket, Rhode Island--Gerstle uncovers for the first time a more varied and more radical working-class discourse.

Customer Reviews:

Americanism as a fluid language.......2004-02-11

Working-Class Americanism, written by Gary Gerstle, is a truly fascinating and inspiring book. He focuses on the early-twentieth-century Woonsocket, Rhode Island, a city of textile industry and habitated mainly by French-Canadian immigrants from Quebec, Canada. Most of residents in the city were French Canadian, but there were other residents, especially Franco-Belgians. The culture of French Canadian workers was community-centered, devoted to Catholicism, and French language. On the other hands, workers from France or Belgium were radical, or socialistic, social democrats. Gerstle analyzes the process hoe these two working-class groups of diffenent culture and ideology made (and broke later) tenuous alliance under the Independent Textile Union (ITU), an CIO-affiliated labor union.
The author's innovative approach to the labor history of Woonsocket is his usage of the concept of Americanism. He treats Americanism as not as a consistent and monolithic ideology but as a fluid language which is open to appropriation by various social groups and individuals. In his view the language of Americanism consists of several dimensions---nationalistic, democratic, progressive, and traditional. He argues that in the severe economic condition of the Great Depression two different working-class groups succeeded in establishing the strong labor movement of the ITU by using the nationalistic, democratic, and progressive dimensions of Americanism in order to articulate their rights as workers.
Gerstle's treatment of the labor Americanism is very subtle and sensitive. He does not insist that the discourse of Americanism could have assimilated French Canadians and Franco-Belgians into one monolithic Americanized group of citizen-workers. He points out that whereas Franco-Belgian radical labor leaders embraced a dream of remolding America thoroughly in terms of social democracy, French Canadian workers accepted Franco-Belgian leadership in the ITU as an instrument to reinvigorate their ethnic community and family (Gerstle points out the patriarchal nature of French Canadian working-class culture). French Canadians and Franco-Belgians allied without a common vision of American society. As a result, he suggests, they abandoned the alliance based on the ITU when local Republicans, after defeated by Democrats in the late 1930s, solicited French Canadian workers by giving favor to their ethnic culture. The author's unique approach to Americanism makes Working-Class Americanism interesting both as social history of labor and political history at the same time.
Gerstle has succeeded in discovering multi-faceted and complicated experiences of Woonsocket textile workers and their politics of language by wide and intensive research including interviews. The interviews make his book highly vivid. For example, he proves the ITU's commitment to democratic delibaration by description of an interview with a old-aged ex-labor activist, who showed the author his "highly polished gavel" and "dog-eared paperback copy of Robert's Rules of Order" which had been used for debates among union members. The reviewer felt spellbound to an imagination inspired by this episode.
I should remark, in the recent advance of studies on ethnicity and race, especially so-called "whiteness studies," that Woonsocket was the city of white people, native or immigrants, therefore the author makes almost no mention to problems of race or color-line (relations of French Canadian or Franco-Belgian workers with non-white people). It mean that his analysis might not be applicable to other regions where we could find deep-rooted racial confrontations. It, however, does not undermine the value of Gerstle's excellent analysis made in this book.

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Honey I Shrunk The Farm
Val Farmer
Manufacturer: McCleery & Sons Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Humor | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0970062435

Book Description

As part of the Rural Stress Survival Series, "Honey, I Shrunk The Farm" was written for farm families, counselors, medical professionals, clergymen and rural community leaders. The book furthers Dr. Farmer's reputation as a nationally syndicated newspaper and magazine columnist and popular radio personality on farm family mental health issues. One dollar from the proceeds of each book sale will be donated to the MeritCare Foundation in Fargo. MeritCare Foundation will reinvest the donations from these books into Dr. Farmer's retreats for farmers and their families.

"Consider this. From Montana and North Dakota on the north, to Texas and New Mexico in the south, between the Rockies on the west and the tall grass prairies in the east, is the area known as the Great Plains. Though encompassing a 6th of the land mass of the contiguous United States, it is home to only 6.5 million people or about 1/40th of the US population. There is a reason for that. It has the hottest summers, coldest winters, largest daily and weekly temperature swings, strongest inland winds, most severe droughts and paralyzing blizzards, the worst hailstroms and most locusts. Though it can be tremendously productive, its fragile ecology is fickle and often drives people from the land. The loss of people spurs a vicious cycle of an ever-shrinking economy which in turn pressures further out-migration. Consequently, there are fewer and fewer people to volunteer their time to community functions which are the heart and soul of rural life." - Dr. Val Farmer

Product Description

17 Smash hits from this pop superstar's latest albums which include INNOCENT MAN, RIVER OF DREAMS, THE BRIDGE and STORMFRONT. As a bonus, this book includes three new songs: 'To Make You Feel My Love' (which was written by Bob Dylan), 'Hey, Girl' and 'Light as a Breeze.'

Book Description

This is a cultural geography set in a contemporary world of mediatised experience, flexible boundaries and negotiated truths. The authors believe that where structures exist they do so in response to the desires (rather than needs or wants) of those in positions of power and those who seek to find meaning in their relative powerlessness.

Intended as an introduction to the 'new' cultural geography, this book draws upon a range of contemporary critical theory, although it does so with the lightest possible touch. It resolutely avoids the posturing that so frequently accompanies postmodernist accounts and introduces theory where it will enlighten, not render argument more dense. The authors explore familiar examples to show how places, spaces and environments are endowed with a range of sometimes interlocking, sometimes conflicting meanings.

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A Kentish Lad
Frank Muir
Manufacturer: Corgi Adult
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
Criticism & Theory | History & Criticism | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books | Deconstructionism | Feminist | General | Hermeneutics | Marxist | Semiotics | Sexuality in Literature | Structuralism
ASIN: 0552141372

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A Kentish Lad
Frank Muir
Manufacturer: Transworld Publishers Limited
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000JFDP0S

Average customer rating:
A KENTISH LAD AUTOBIOGRAPHY
F. MUIR
Manufacturer: GORGI
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000S6JRL4

Book Description

Share printers, play games online, and see how to find a strong signal

Here's an AirPort that won't make you wait! This cool technology makes wireless networking a snap, and with this book, even an adult can do it. You'll see how to set up your network with Mac OS(r) X, add home entertainment toys, take it on the road, and even (sorry!) keep in touch with the office from almost anywhere.

Discover how to:
* Add AirPort to any OS X Mac
* Connect your network to the Internet
* Extend your AirPort network's range
* Show movies and post photos over your network
* Protect your AirPort network from intruders

Customer Reviews:

Absolutely Perfect - Great Tutorial & Fun Reading.......2006-06-30

Even though the Apple Airport choice is not the cheapest choice, it is the easiest to set up ... but like most people, you are worried about leaving any holes for your neighbors or the guy in a car on the street to ride your bandwidth or worse.

"AirPort and Mac Wireless Networks For Dummies" covers nearly ever setup choice in not only helping you get set up but also what each of the security choices (yes, no, WEP, Multicast, etc, etc ..) means and why or why not to choose that choice.

It's written (as all the Dummies books) by a "normal" person for "normal" people. The Apple Mac setup wizard (unlike Pc ones) included with your purchase of the Airport is actually useful but there are some extra choices in the menus that are explained in greater detail and much clearer here.

There are also simple instructions for those who want to add a router and share a USB printer.

And how to extend the distance of your Airport with additional airports ... and several great chapters explaining the difference between the regular Airport, the Airport Express and how to set it up to stream music or when you go out on the road.

This book explains exactly what it promises and sets out step by step so everything is crystal clear.

It's detailed without giving you too much info and never with jargon that's confusing.

After you get your Airport, buy this book. Your setup will take 15 minutes but you will sleep soundly knowing all your bases are covered.

For Dummies, and for me too!.......2006-05-11

I love For Dummies books. A good while ago (when the earth's crust was still cooling and dinosaur's had just begun their reign), I started reading books in the For Dummies series to help me with Unix and Microsoft's DOS. I haven't really ever needed a Dummies book for any Mac related experience.

But I was offered the chance to review this guide, Airport & Mac Wireless Networks for Dummies, and I jumped at the chance, primarily since I was a bit nervous to check if I'd set up my own home wireless network optimally. I knew that I'd gotten it "right" since it worked, but after sitting through our local Apple User group's guest lecturer speak about the horrors which awaited the foolishly unsecured network, I decided to check "just in case."

So allow me to let you know that I have a Mac Powerbook G4, and I purchased an Airport Extreme to shift from wired service with DSL to wireless networking in my apartment. And it worked great. I love wireless networking ... it just seems such a normal extension of my laptop experience.

I have read For Dummies books previously, so I initially scanned the Cheat Sheet found immediately inside the book's front cover (which summarized well the experience I was about to have.)

Next I checked the Contents at a Glance section. This simple overview helped me confirm that I didn't need to read the book front-to-back in order, so instead, I picked and chose my interest areas (as recommended by the author, Mr. Michael Cohen.) I found Part V the most use, specifically the series of "Tens" in chapters 12 through 15. Overall, and in keeping with my initial concern about the security of my own network, I found Mr. Cohen's summary of Ten Wireless Security Measures to be the best for me.

If any problem might be found with this book, it would be found in whether the reader "needs" the book. Simply put, Apple does such a good job with both the Airport Set-up and Administration applications, I didn't need the book to get by.

But, having the book is a good value to me, since instead I can use it as a reference to check what I thought I knew and to learn much more than I knew existed about the world of Wireless Networks. I liked Mr. Cohen's use of humor and personal experience in expressing the concepts in each of the chapters.

As dessert to the main course of this book, Mr. Rich Tenant's "The 5th Wave" cartoons illustrate the opening page of each Part of the book. These humorous cartoons were great too!

Average customer rating:

informationl

This Book is Awesome!!!

30 Days to the ASVAB, (Arco Military Test Tutor)
Arco
Manufacturer: Arco
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Armed Forces | Test Guides - Careers | Education | Reference | Subjects | Books
Testing | Education | Reference | Subjects | Books
General | Test Prep Central | Reference | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASVAB Basics (Arco Military Test Tutor)

ASVAB For Dummies (For Dummies (Career/Education))

ASVAB Math Review (Arco Military Test Tutor)

Master the ASVAB (Book & CD Rom)

The Ultimate Basic Training Guidebook: Tips, Tricks, and Tactics for Surviving Boot Camp

ASIN: 0768912377

Book Description

Approximately 1.5 million people take the ASVAB each year. This includes high school students taking it for career assessment as well as enlistment; potential recruits for enlistment; enlisted service members retaking ASVAB for a qualifying score in order to change military careers. This follows the same format as our other 30 Days books and offers a finite study plan with 60 minute lessons for each day.

Customer Reviews:

informationl.......2007-10-11

This is good for a small review before a test. Also good for enhancing your general culture on the miscellaneous subjects.

This Book is Awesome!!!.......2006-01-24

I bought this book along witht he book "ASVAB Basics" and found this book to be a great supplement to the ASVAB Basics book. I recommend studying fromt the ASVAB Basics Book first then study from this book. I found the questions in this book to be harder then what is on the actula exam which made the actual ASVAB easier. I also found that a few of the questions in this book was on the actual exam itself (manily from the Word Knowledge and Arithmetic sections). I needed a GT score of 110 to get into Officer candidate School and ended up getting a 120! This book ROCKS!!

Book Description

This historical research guide provides students and their teachers with 600 term paper ideas and cites more than a thousand print and nonprint sources on the 100 most important events that have shaped 20th-century world history. Organized in chronological order, the guide features entries on key events in Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Asia, and Latin America that are covered in the world history curriculum in secondary schools and colleges. From the 1905 revolution in Russia to the Chinese economy at the end of the 20th century, a wide range of political, economic, social, and cultural events are included. Each entry consists of a capsule description of the event, followed by six specific suggestions for research papers about the event, and a wide-ranging annotated bibliography of books, articles, videos, and web sites appropriate for student research. In every case the emphasis is on recent and up-to-date material, as well as landmark works and primary sources. Dozens of recommended web sites and videos are included. This work has been designed to fulfill the assignments in the world history curriculum. Term paper ideas offer students thought-provoking suggestions that are challenging and develop critical thinking skills. The annotated bibliography is organized into primary and secondary sources. This unique guide is valuable not only to students but to teachers and librarians who guide students in research and is an excellent purchasing guide for librarians who serve student needs.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent Resource for Writing Term Papers.......2000-10-21

Not only was this book an incredibly valuable resource for writing term papers, but it is an interesting read for those interested in history. I highly recommend this book to all students, teachers and history buffs.

Term Paper Resource Guide to Twentieth-Century World History

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Term Paper Resource Guide to Twentieth-Century World History
Philip F. Riley Michael D. Richards
Manufacturer: Greenwood Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OTNKZY

Book Description

Number theory is concerned with the properties of the natural numbers: 1,2,3,.... During the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, number theory became established through the work of Fermat, Euler and Gauss. With the hand calculators and computers of today, the results of extensive numerical work are instantly available and mathematicians may traverse the road leading to their discoveries with comparative ease. Now in its second edition, this book consists of a sequence of exercises that will lead readers from quite simple number work to the point where they can prove algebraically the classical results of elementary number theory for themselves. A modern high school course in mathematics is sufficient background for the whole book which, as a whole, is designed to be used as an undergraduate course in number theory to be pursued by independent study without supporting lectures.

Customer Reviews:

Burn uses problems to introduce number theory ideas........1998-11-25

This book is a carefully sequenced set of problems along with answers and a few comments. Burn uses those problems to introduce important number theory ideas. I enjoyed working through the problems to learn more about number theory. Most problems are accessible to those with a good high school mathematics background.

Book Description

The spoilage of formulated products by microbial action is one of the key factors in determining the 'shelf life'. This new book provides invaluable advice to the formulators, and covers the principles of microbial spoilage, specific applications, toxicology, safety and legislation in both Europe and North America.

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