No comments about Chomsky's Universal Grammar: An Introduction.

No comments about The Education of Henry Adams.

2 comments about My Life Had Stood a Loaded Gun.

1. This book keeps getting beaten up for not being science or pure sociology, and reviewers keep missing what is excellent about it--the intersection of the writer's own reflections, aspirations and ideas with the violent, dull, and endless world of incarcerated young men. Padnos's honesty about his own motives and feelings give this book a rare freshness. In his attempts to connect the books he loves to the real and brutal world of these men, he illuminates much about the struggles of growth, the uneven progress of our ambitions, and the enduring power of stories to shape all of our lives.



2. Jailhouse literature is a rising trend these days, and it is producing some of the toughest, most original, most disturbing nonfiction on the market. From the lost souls at Guantanamo Bay to the terrifying Aryan gangs that kill and terrorize from behind bars to the dread-soaked life of a Sing Sing guard, a composite portrait is emerging of the mostly invisible Hell that is the American prison system and the dehumanizing effects it has on inmates and their keepers alike.

   Theo Padnos has made a quirky, but brilliant and unforgettable contribution to this literature. From his vantage point as a part-time English teacher in a gothic juvenile detention center in Vermont, Padnos draws us--almost against our will--into a collection of scary, wretched, lost young men who have been obliterated from the view of "respectable" society. In terse, electric, revelatory prose, sparing neither his subjects nor himself, he obliges us to see them for who they inescapably are: versions of ourselves, versions of an America drifting toward apocalypse.

   This is a book that demands attention--more attention, by the way, than it received from the prissy, careless Publishers Weekly reviewer quoted above. In garbling the name of one of the chief characters in this book, Laird (not "Lance"!) Stanard, the PW scribe unwittingly represents the blindness and indifference of a society that is a lot more complacent about its incarcerated alter-egos than perhaps it can afford to be.

No comments about Teaching in Circles: My Journeys in Teaching High School.

1 comments about Being Rapoport: Capitalist with a Conscience (Focus on American History Series,Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin).

1. Bernard Rapoport is one of a kind for many reasons. He's a resoundingly left-leaning, labor-union-supporting insurance company founder and funder of liberal Democratic candidates and causes down in the heart of Texas, where such a fellow is distinctly unusual. For most of his adult life, he's put his money where his mouth is, even when he had to borrow the money. Now that he has considerable of his own money, he and his wife continue on an even grander scale supporting educational projects here and overseas. .
   
   Rapoport has always been politically active, and for anyone who's lived in Texas 50 years or so, his recounting of friendships and dealings with national and local political figures will bring back many memories. Underlying all this is his story of personal accomplishment in raising himself from financially poor beginnings through business perspicacity and sheer force of personality.

No comments about Confrontation: The Destruction of a College President.

2 comments about School Daze: The diary of a first year, Washington, D.C. teacher.

1. Someone recommended this book to me and gave it to me as a gift. I was less than thrilled until I started reading the book. I truly enjoyed it, far beyond what I had imagined. Bradley uses a light touch and every page is lifted with Bradley's unique sense of humor. Highly recommended.



2. I have been teaching for nearly 20 years and came across School Daze on the Internet. I purchased the book hoping to compare my first year as a teacher to Bradley's. When the book arrived, I read the book in two days. It is an extremely accurate portrayal of the life of a first year teacher. Also, the humor Bradley uses really takes the book to another level. I highly recommend School Daze.

1 comments about Stanley H. Kaplan: Test Pilot: How I broke testing barriers for millions of students and caused a sonic boom in the business of education.

1. The only thing wrong with this passionate memoir by test-pioneer Stanley H. Kaplan, is the title. It sounds like it's a book about an air-force test pilot. In fact the feisty and fascinating teacher, and author of the eponymous memoir is an academic Horatio Alger, someone who developed his obsessive need to help others learn into a billion-dollar empire with global reach. Is there anyone who has not heard of Kaplan Centers, Kaplan S.A.T? Stanley H Kaplan was just a bit brighter than everyone else in Brooklyn seventy years ago when he began tutoring students in his basement. In his eighties today, and feisty as ever, he will stop on a dime to answer the questions of any kid on the street who is having difficulty with an algebra problem. If you want to be entertained, inspired, amused, and impressed by a master teacher and raconteur, a genuine original who tells your the real skinny about how he beat the odds and conquered the world, "Stanley H. Kaplan - Test Pilot" is the book for you.

No comments about David Daiches: A Celebration of His Life And Work.

No comments about Copper Country Journal: The Diary of Schoolmaster Henry Hobart, 1863-1864 (Great Lakes Books).