4 comments about Music of the Heart: The Roberta Guaspari Story.

1. As devastating as it must have been for Roberta to 'lose' her husband, this unfortunate turn of events in her life ended up saving and improving immeasurable young lives in East Harlem. Often something that seems to be tragic is actually a blessing in disguise and Roberta's dedication to the violin and teaching has made and continues to make a huge difference in the lives of many children. This is a touching story of the life of an American-Italian woman and how she was able to affect the lives of young people. I greatly recommend it - especially to those in power of cutting funds for music in public places!



2. She had no idea where to begin. Her marriage having just collapsed, she arrived in New York City in 1980 with her two boys and a crate full of violins. Music of the Heart (by Roberta Guaspari with Larkin Warren) is a story about Roberta Guasparti and how much music impacted her life and the lives of those she came in contact with. Roberta began playing the violin at age nine, and through her life, her violin has been the only instrument that, through playing, she found peace, sanity, and control for a once shattered life. Being a violin player myself, I can relate and understand how much music can impact someone's life. Through this book, I can see how important music is to Roberta, to me, and others as well. One life-shattering thing that Roberta went through was the finding out of her husband's affair. The Guaspari family was living in Greece at the time, and the night before they were supposed to catch a flight back to the United States, Roberta discovered her husband and another lady at 2:00 in the morning on a beach. She was literally devastated. Her husband then announced that he didn't want her to be a part of his life anymore, and the only thing she could do for the next couple of days was lay in bed, stare at the spinning ceiling, and cry. Starting out again in America, she stayed with her parents until she could get back on her feet again. After realizing what more life had to offer, she eventually moved out on her own with her two sons Nick and Alexi. They ended up in East Harlem and music became a huge part of her life again. She began teaching kids of all ages at a public school that met many difficulties. Having a low budget to work with, she had to give more time, money, and energy that she ever imagined. But her school kids, their progress, and getting back on her feet brought her happiness again. This book reminded me of how much I love music, especially violin music. That is what first got me interested in this book. If you are interested in any sort of music, or want to know how much it can affect you, I would suggest Music of the Heart.



3. "Gloria Estefan has reached a point in her life where everything she does is amazing! She's the best!



4. I haven't read the book but I've seen the movie and I'm DYING to read the book. I loved the movie ans the song with Gloria Estefan and 'NSync go so well with the movie!

1 comments about Mina P. Shaughnessy: Her Life and Work.

1. Beginning with Shaughnessy's childhood, Maher opens her story with how the family life of an immigrant miner's daughter tempered her spirit. Maher thoroughly documents the career of a pioneer in the field of basic writing. Maher's treatment was detailed and compassionate, revealing struggles rarely seen except by close companions.

   Through the use of excerpts from Shaughnessy's own letters and journal, the reader is treated to the momentary and well-earned celebrations and the constant, almost overwhelming struggle of her daily fight. It is inspiring and at the same time disheartening. One individual changed so much by her sheer will and determination. However, some of the elitist inhabitants of the ivory tower still lord over those who were not so fortunate in their early education.

   This book is an excellent place for new teachers to begin their education in teaching.

3 comments about I Alone Have Escaped to Tell You: My Life And Pastimes.

1. Ralph McInerny is best known for his Father Dowling series of mysteries. In his memoir, I Alone Have Escaped to Tell You he goes beyond a mere story about his life. He talks about his life, yet offers advice to aspiring authors on getting started, persevering in the face of rejection and handling success. He explains how to write a mystery story.
   His discussions on life and philosophy, a subject he teaches at Notre Dame, gives the readers reason to pause and think. And in some cases, a desire to look at some of the other books he mentions.
   Despite being a relatively short book, and a quick read, the information presented makes you go back and reread some sections looking for a different perspective.
   Well worth the time to read. I highly recommend it for writers, philosophers and people looking for a good story about an amazing life.



2. Ralph McInerny has only gained skill as a craftsman as he ages. This account is tightly written and carries the reader along through a remarkable life, but manages to be self-depracating in the process.
   
   As a wordsmith, McInerny is unparelleled and having a dictionary in this journey might be wise. However, his style and grace makes the occasional unfamiliar term non-threatening.
   
   I would recommend this to anyone who loves the academic life or the life of the spirit.
   
   Stephanie Swee



3. A delightful autobiography -- one can only wish it were longer. The author's life has been full of adventures that most of us can experience only second-hand. Of particular interest may be the chapter on Vatican II and its aftermath, or the chapter delineating the problems of modernist philosophers and the Scholastic antidote. For many readers, especially those of the author's multitudinous mysteries, the chapter titled "Author" will be the best. It refers to several of McInerny's early novels, which though sadly out of print are well worth the trouble of tracking down in libraries.
   
   One would think that Notre Dame could employ a scholarship student to do the proofreading. Apparently only a spell-checker is used, as words occasionally appear under the guise of other words' spellings, but misspellings that coincide with no other word do not. This book deserved better. The upshot is that a few sentences have to be read several times over in order to be degarbled. But there are many more sentences worth rereading for their intrinsic interest -- I think you'll be glad to have read this book.

No comments about Alma Mater.

3 comments about The Guardians: Kingman Brewster, His Circle, and the Rise of the Liberal Establishment.

1. This is a very interesting, but quite long, book which focuses upon Kingman Brewster and other members of the so-called "liberal establishment" that shaped national policy during the 1945 through 1970's period. In addition to Brewster, long-time Yale president, the author discusses the Bundy brothers, Cyrus Vance, Elliot Richardson, Bishop Paul Moore, John Lindsay, William Sloan Coffin, and even William F. Buckley. While most attention is devoted to Brewster's tenure as Yale's president, including the infamous Black Panther trial and May Day riot that did not occur, I found the discussions of the Vietnam war and McGeorge Bundy's period as head of the Ford Foundation extremely interesting. In some ways, the method of analysis is similar to "The Wise Men," who also, incidentally, make appearances in the book (especially Dean Acheson). Accordingly to Buckley and other critics, the "Establishment" consisted of old-line WASP families, of a liberal political orientation, usually well to do, with superior secondary private educations gathered at places such as Groton and St. Paul's, and then onto Yale or Harvard undergraduate, and then usually Harvard Law School or Harvard administration (such as McGeorge Bundy). This led to appointments in the State Department, Justice, some cabinet designations, and involvement in various presidential staffs, particularly JFK and LBJ. In short, a network of individuals, exerting tremendous influence on government policy, who knew each other over long periods of time and who could promote the careers of their fellows. This group also constituted the liberal-centrist wing of the Republican Party (yes, Virginia, there once was a progressive wing of the GOP), that was gradually displaced from leadership as the party headed toward the radical right. The author's research is truly monumental, consisting of archives and, particularly, dozens of Oral History interviews gathered by various collections. One does wonder, though,whether the so-called "establishment" ever exerted as much influence and power as the author suggests--what is clear is that no similar group exercises much influence in the era of Reagan and the Bushes.



2. Although he is almost forgotten today, Kingman Brewster who was the president of Yale from 1963-1977 was in fact an important figure in recent American history. One reason for this was the fact that he ran Yale in such a way that the university almost completely escaped the tumult that wracked other campuses during the Vietnam War. Another reason is that he revamped the admissons policy at yale so that poorly achieving students at prep academies such as Andover could not get in Yale over high achieving public school graduates.

   It was in this area of expanding the elite educational experience at Yale to all Americans, not just members of the WASP elite that Brewster did his most signal public service. Brewster was truly an agent of change. This was most interesting in light of the fact that Brewster was born to a comfortable upper class family, which is precisely the sort of background one would think would spawn conservative thinking. Brewster's activism began back when he was a big man on campus as a Yale undergraduate.

   Interestingly enough, Brewster was also one of the founders of the America First Committee that many Americans today regard as being a right wing outfit. Actually, as the author of this book points out, America First was originally a left-wing group and many of its most prominent members were left wing activists. After America's entry into World War II, America First dissolved and Brewster wholeheartedly took up America's cause against the Axis Powers.

   It may surprise many Americans today that the Republican party used to have a strong left wing and Brewster was both a stalwart liberal and Republican. It was for this reason that Brewster was never offered a position in the Kennedy Administration.

   As university president, Brewster initiated a wide body of reform on campus. Unlike most campus administrators of his time, Brewster did not resort to repression of dissent during the Vietnam War. In fact, Brewster publically sympathized with the radicals on many issues. After resigning from the presidency of Yale in 1977, he became the U.S. ambassador to Britain. After leaving the diplomatic service, he retired from public life and passed away as the 1980's were drawing to a close.

   Kingman Brewster was an important American who held an important position as Yale University president. Geoffrey Kabaservice has done a public service in writing this book about a forgotten man in American history.




3. Many of us who came of age in the 1980s and '90s forget that America used to be a much more liberal place, and that there was a time in recent history when Republicans aligned themselves with issues like civil rights, meritocracy, affirmative action, and the problems of the inner city. We forget -- or never realized -- that in the '60s and '70s there existed a significant faction within the Republican party known as "the liberal establishment." These were men who, on the one hand, undeniably represented the Establishment: "old wealth" Yalies and Harvardites who had attended the best prep schools and summered on Martha's Vineyard; advisors to presidents, board members of the biggest corporations, leaders at the helm of the nation's academic, philanthropic, and religious institutions. On the other hand, they were extremely progressive, regarded as "traitors to their class" for pushing forward policies that were considered radical at the time. THE GUARDIANS recalls an era when Republicans were not all in thrall to populism and the agenda of the religious right, when they were just as likely to be seekers of peace in foreign affairs as rabid hawks. There's a quote from Elliot Richardson in this book that's an eye-opener: "Most people don't really get the fact that the Nixon administration was to the left of the Clinton administration. Even the Eisenhower administration was to the left of the Clinton administration."
   I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in modern American history.

No comments about Making the Grade: Plucky Schoolmarms of Kittitas Country.

No comments about Dignity, Discourse, and Destiny: The Life of Courtney C. Smith.

1 comments about The Harvard Book, rev. ed: Selections fom Three Centuries.

1. THE HARVARD BOOK is awarded by the Harvard Alumni Association to High School juniors who combine excellence in scholarship with achievement in other fields. The book contains more than 100 short articles about Harvard experiences by a wide assortment of contributors - many of whom are famous writers. The essays cover almost the entire period of Harvard's existence since 1636. Some of my favorites are by Samuel Eliot Morison, William James, John P. Marquand, David McCord, John Reed, John Updike and David Halberstam. The book is easy to enjoy and praise. The quality of the writing is very high.

3 comments about Themes for English B: A Professor's Education in And Out of Class (Awp Award Series in Creative Nonfiction).

1. If ever a book should be required reading for middle-aged, basketball-playing, poetry-writing, underprepared-student-teaching folks, then that book is Themes for English B by J.D. Scrimgeour. As a reader, I happen to fall into that limited demographic, but this book far transcends such a small pool of potential readers.
   
   Scrimgeour's unadorned but note-perfect prose dances through a range of subjects beyond poetry, teaching, and basketball to weave a collection of memoir essays united by the tread of thoughtful reflection on human experience--both his own and the people around him, his students, teachers, family members, friends, and teammates.
   
   This book is highly recommended for readers with an interest in education, poetry, basketball, and life in general.



2. Scrimgeour writes not just about teaching, but about life. He has grasped the deep truth that what matters in everything -- in reading, teaching, baseball and basketball, choosing a place to live -- is how you connect with other people, and how you affect them. These are simple descriptions of simple, everyday events, but the clarity and honesty of his observations shine through on every page. Very worthwhile.



3. He says about college teaching what I wish I had said before him, but he says it better. He reminds us of why books matter. Very honest stuff, lyrical and -- at times - funny.

5 comments about Uncle Tom or New Negro?: African Americans Reflect on Booker T. Washington and UP FROM SLAVERY 100 Years Later.

1. There appears to be new interest in the life and works of Booker T Washington. In her recent anthology, entitled Uncle Tom or New Negro? : African Americans Reflect on Booker T. Washington and UP FROM SLAVERY 100 Years Later; Rebecca Carroll includes the thoughts of a number of prominent African Americans regarding the importance of Booker T. Washington.
   
   With such a provocative title, I couldn't help but dust off my old copy of Up From Slavery to see if there are any useful insights from the dawn of the twentieth century which would be applicable in the 21st century.
   
   Traditionally, there was always a debate regarding his view of the best route for African-American progress. This debate has contrasted Booker T. Washington's advocacy for self-help and practical education against the aggressive advocacy of W.E.B. Dubois for social and political equality.
   
   It is important to place Mr. Washington's work in perspective in terms of the times in which it was written. The American civil war was over. The conflict was (and is) the costliest war for the United States in terms of lives lost. The process of reconstruction was overwhelming and flawed on many levels. Mr. Washington does a good job at describing the fact that many African Americans rushed into political and academic puruits prematurely in the wake of Slavery.
   
   The combination of poorly prepared and unethical individuals in these fields likely was responsible for a number of problems faced by former slaves. Mr. Washington's theory was that through practical education and trades, that African-Americans would be able to prove themselves as being worthy of citizenship in the United States.
   
   While I do agree with Mr. Washington that there is much be said for individuals who have merit and equip themselves with skills necessary to function in modern day society, it is also apparent that the view of Mr. Washington's ,autobiography, was overly optimistic and ultimately limiting.
   
   As a college student in the 1980s, I firmly aligned myself with the philosophies of W.E.B. Dubois as detailed in The Souls of Black Folk
   
   
   William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was a professor of sociology at Atlanta University who disputed the main principles of Washington's political program, (ie, the idea that voting and civil rights were less important to black progress than acquiring property and achieving economic self-sufficiency). Unlike Washington, who foresaw the steady obliteration of racial prejudice and discrimination, Du Bois prophesied in the opening lines of The Souls of Black Folk: "The problem of the Twentieth Century is the problem of the color-line."
   
   
   Ultimately, all of the hard work and merit in the world has not been enough to eliminate race prejudice and discrimination of African-Americans. While the actions of Mr. Washington as outlined in his autobiography are clearly laudable; they are (in retrospect) inadequate in terms of achieving equality and justice for minorities in the United States.



2. Whether you admire, dislike or have barely heard of Booker T. Washington, he remains an important figure in American history and one, I dare say, many of us should know more about. Carroll has put together a very thoughtful and varied collection of work about him which is also the proverbial "good read."



3. UNCLE TOM OR NEW NEGRO: African Americans Reflect On Booker T. Washington and Up From Slavery 100 Years Later, edited by Rebecca Carroll takes a look back at Booker T. Washington. It was a blend of those who feel that Booker T. Washington was the man with the right ideas regarding race relations in America and those who feel that he let African Americans down in his haste to placate the white majority of the time. His defenders stressed that he worked behind the scenes to push for civil rights and those who were not so enamored of him felt his contributions were lacking in that he stressed hard work for African Americans without pushing for equality as well. Some of the contributing writers were Dr. Julianne Malveaux, Ronald Walters, Earl Ofari Hutchinson and Debra Dickerson. Each presented arguments for their position regarding Booker T. Washington. Also included was the entire text of Mr. Washington's memoir, Up From Slavery, which was extremely helpful in digesting the arguments of the various commentators.
   
   Ms. Carroll did a commendable job of getting together those who are pro Washington and those who have issues with his handling of the race question at the end of the 19th century. The book gives a wonderful overview of the issues surrounding Washington as well as a view of the times when he was successfully attempting to establish his school at Tuskegee. Whether you are for Washington's accomodationist position or against it, it is a book well worth reading for its historical value.
   
   Reviewed by Alice Holman
   of The RAWSISTAZ™ Reviewers



4. Carroll provides a thoughtful and incisive meditation on race, history and culture--a collage of perspectives that elaborates and enriches the discourse on race.



5. After reading Saving the Race, by Rebecca Carroll, I was inspired to read her new book Uncle Tom or New Negro. I was not dissapointed. As with the amazing Saving the Race, this new book trancends race issues and provides an important perspective on ourselves as a society in uncertain times. I would suggest reading this book to anyone with a heart and a brain. Carroll moves us with her brillaint insights and the substance to back it up. It is an excellent and riveting read. Important stuff for all people of all races today.