Aesthetic Theory (Theory & History of Literature)5 reviews Theodor W. Adorno University of Minnesota Press, 1998 in English we've never experienced Adorno's thought till now + The definite book of modernist aesthetics + so what + *The* aesthtic theory of modernism             Highbrow/Lowbrow: The Emergence of Cultural Hierarchy in America (The William E. Massey Sr. Lectures in the ...6 reviews Lawrence Levine Harvard University Press, 1990 The only book of non-fiction I've read twice + Essential to understand culture in Imperialist Society + Charts the Development of American Culture + A better and up-to-date "From Lowbrow to Nobrow" + A book for a wide audience             The Queer Composition of America's Sound: Gay Modernists, American Music, and National Identity3 reviews Nadine Hubbs University of California Press, 2004 Hubbs gets it. + Queer as folk, queer as classical Nadine Hubbs' The Queer Composition of America's Sound marks a milestone in queer studies, musicology and American historiography. She details the relationship between self-consciously queer composers and the mid-twentieth century "American sound" with insight, compassion and finesse. Hubbs ...             The Complete Poems: Anne Sexton24 reviews Anne Sexton Mariner Books, 1999 this is what art looks like + Amazingly deep, personal, Anne + "Originality is important..." + You Wanna Know About Old School Confessional Poetry?             Metahistory: The Historical Imagination in Nineteenth-Century Europe3 reviews Hayden White The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975 A must for any historian + Metahistory + Highly sophisticated Hayden White's Metahistory takes the reader deeply into the winding roads of history writing. From Hegel to Croce, he reviews and analizes the many different ways history was written in the nineteenth century and it's impact and influence in today's historiography. A must for any historian, but a ...             The Master Butchers Singing Club (P.S.)87 reviews Louise Erdrich Harper Perennial, 2005 Best read of the year. + Balance + Captivating Read + Intricate and filled with delightful description             Possession: A Romance213 reviews A.S. Byatt Random House, 1991 An instant classic + Great Book -- Maybe Too Detailed for Us Average Readers [48][T] + A bold conception in a literally dense narrative + stunning             The Cloud of Unknowing and Other Works (Penguin Classics)5 reviews Anonymous Penguin Classics, 2002 Excellent manual + A brilliant work of Christian mysticism + By an unknown author. How fitting! + Unknown Knowing + One man's defence of the contemplative lifestyle             The Nobility and Excellence of Women and the Defects and Vices of Men (The Other Voice in Early Modern Europe) Lucrezia Marinella University Of Chicago Press, 2000 A gifted poet, a women's rights activist, and an expert on moral and natural philosophy, Lucrezia Marinella (1571-1653) was known throughout Italy as the leading female intellectual of her age. Born into a family of Venetian physicians, she was encouraged to study, and, fortunately, she did not share the fate of many of her female contemporaries, who were forced to join convents or were pressured ...             Deep Listening: A Composer's Sound Practice2 reviews Pauline Oliveros iUniverse, Inc., 2005 Essentials of Oliveros' Excellent Teachings Pauline Oliveros has devoted more time and effort to understanding how listening effects the life form than anyone else I have encountered. From the moment I met her some forty-plus years ago and we became both friends and colleagues, Pauline shared with me her profound interest in how ...             A Feminist Ethic of RISK (Other Feminist Voices)1 review Sharon, D. Welch Augsburg Fortress Publishers, 1990 Stunning. In this amazing book, Welch constructs an ethic of resistance to injustice within the limits of human finitude. Taking both sides of this tension seriously - the need to oppose oppression and the need to recognize one's limits and limitations - she forges a theology truly adequate to the task of ...             The Bhagavad Gita (Penguin Classics)17 reviews Anonymous Penguin Classics, 2003 The most readable truest English rendition of the Gita + A delightful find + Outstanding The Bhagavad Gita is the world's most translated scripture. The task for a Gita translator is to effectively take the poetic multilayer Sanskrit original and translate it into English preserving it's flavor allowing it to stand alone without commentary. Few have succeeded. I have read multiple ...             The Heptameron (Penguin Classics)3 reviews Marguerite de Navarre Penguin Classics, 1984 70-odd stories fashioned after Boccaccio's Decameron + A Window on the 16th Century - and History in General + Decameron Lite Anyone interested in gender studies, especially wishing to understand the sexual relationships between spouses and lovers, the perceptions of what is acceptable, what is "masculine" or "feminine," would not only enjoy the reading, but gain some insight on Renaissance French culture. Along with ...             Encountering Kali: In the Margins, at the Center, in the West2 reviews University of California Press, 2003 Who Owns The Kali Franchise? + Great resource for scholars and devotees alike It is perhaps a mark of how far Kali has come as a goddess revered and celebrated in the West, that there is a steady increase in cautionary academic studies about "the real Kali." I'm waiting for a spate of corresponding articles about whether Indian Christians have "adopted" the "real" Jesus, ...             Developing Variations: Style and Ideology in Western Music Rose Rosengard Subotnik University of Minnesota Press, 1991             Musicking: The Meanings of Performing and Listening (Music/Culture)1 review Christopher Small Wesleyan, 1998 Musicking is Relational--Refutes idea of "absolute music" According to Small, there is no such thing as "music." "Music" is a abstract reification of what is fundamentally of a process--'musicking.' Moreover, the term "music" is not held in hegemonic circles to be just *any* product of a process, but rather the product of the process of producing what is ...             Art as Experience5 reviews John Dewey Perigee Trade, 2005 this book is kickin! + Fundamental book on esthetics + Overly Detailed but Insightful + Excellent Theorizing On Art + One of the great books on art theory.             Playing with History: The Historical Approach to Musical Performance (Musical Performance and Reception) John Butt Cambridge University Press, 2002 Why do we feel the need to perform music in a historically informed style? Is this need related to wider cultural concerns? In this challenging study, John Butt sums up recent debates on the nature of the early music movement, calling upon a seemingly inexhaustible fund of ideas gleaned from historical musicology, analytic philosophy, literary theory, historiography and theories of modernism and ...             Babylon by Bus: Or, the true story of two friends who gave up their valuable franchise selling YANKEES SUCK ...23 reviews Ray LeMoine, Jeff Neumann, ... Penguin Press HC, The, 2006 Top Notch Cultural History + Review of "Babylon by Bus" + One of the best reads ever + Edgy + Irreverent, obnoxious, and accurate             Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History53 reviews Stephen Jay Gould W. W. Norton, 1990 Revolution in thinking about evolution + "What had that flower to do with being white?" + LIFE 101 Burgess Shale is the most important find ever of remains of early animal life on earth. Stephen Jay Gould explains why, and also why it took almost seventy years before the true significance of this treasure trove began to dawn upon the scientific world. In Gould's view, the 1970's reappraisal of ...