Very academic, not particularly comprehensive
346604
There ought to be a penetrating and comprehensive study of the aesthetics of experimental electronic music, but this one isn't it. It's not bad -- as a rather formal, academically focused analysis and contextualization of some particular examples (I wouldn't even say "schools") of "experimental" electronic music. But any book that takes up this topic without mention of Morton Subotnick, Don Buchla, Pauline Oliveros, Musica Elettronica Viva, Patrick Gleeson's contributions to Herbie Hancock's Mwandishi band, Jimi Hendrix, Emerson Lake & Palmer, Mills College, George E. Lewis or contact mics is overlooking quite a bit of relevant material. Ms. Demers makes a lot of connections to philosophers with of various modernist and post-modern approaches  outside the specific spheres of music, which bespeaks her interests, but not mine. Perhaps this is the way people who make experimental electronic music think about what they're doing. . .but if so, this book is clearly devoted to insider-thinking (good, if it made the point of such thinking clear to outsiders. It certainly isn't aimed at a general market, or most of the audiences for experimental or any other kind of electronic music.
4092046
Rating this by number of stars is difficult; I think the rating would depend on the reader.  I'm rating it for the general reader, not an academic.
I purchased the book because it was given a good review in the NY Times book review.  I hoped it would be a crossover book that might be of interest to the general reader. I do not think it is.
First, its major focus is really on the history of science, with the whale being the case study.  This is overstating it a bit -- there is a lot of "whale" in the book despite the author's caveats about same -- but the author's focus is overtly on the history of science.  Books I have enjoyed include Tuxedo Park, The Making of the Atomic Bomb, Einstein, to the recent book about hedda gabbler,  etc., but this book is a long book....with most of the focus on "history" for lack of a better term.
I must admit: Although I like "history of science" as a topic, I was hoping for more on "whale."
Second, the book is quite long.  Any narrative "thrill" is gone when buried in 750 or so pages. And long sections on debates at the International Whaling Commission or whatever are far from spell-bounding.
Third, at least significant parts of it are written in a pretty academic, turgid style.  As another indicator: Large quantities of footnotes (bottomnotes) on many pages.
So, for a general reader, it was quickly put down.  For academics interested in a detailed, chronology of how science has interacted with both business concerns and now enivronmentalism: the book may be great.  If professors or graduate students want to give it 5 stars, or 1, it's up to them.  Obviously, the author is a tenured professor at Princeton, so some think highly of him.  (though the ratings of his other books on amazon is far from stellar...).
For someone who hoped to read something to learn more about whales, and how our evolving scientific or ethical systems may have played a role -- no thanks.  Lurking in here may have an interesting book of about 300 pages for a reader who enjoys science nonficition.
1194001
This book is a heavily laden, academic, text that has very little to do with the creative process and more to do with the intellectual aptitude of the author. This book is rather an expose on the meanderings and idealizations of academic thought rather than a narrative on  creativity and the product of those efforts.
3318205
there are two books here, both pretty good, but each dragging down the other.
one is a nearly unreadable academic argument based on economic theory, ant and bee behavior, statistics, graphs, charts, and the musings of the great greek philosophers. based on population and other factors it argues the reasons why the greek 'nation' succeeded in developing free thinking individuals whose culture flowered, and where competing undemocratic nations failed; the rise of greek cities, etc. this academic part is very poorly edited, particularly in the repetition of certain words, for instance polis(town) and efflorescence. efflorescence may be found three or four times per page, and even three times in one mid-length sentence!  in the other critiques academicians have raved about this approach and conclusion, and i trust them. for the general reader, it is  massively skipable in sections. i stipulate he wins the academic argument.
  the 'second book', interwoven in the first, was the book i hoped i was buying. as a student of the ancient world, and coin collector, i had always wondered just what a given coin might buy. how it was earned, and what the cost of living was. there is enough of this information for a second book,
based on the latest archaeological finds. there would be a place here for some statistical context; population distribution and such. as we get into this information, the writing becomes less academic, and the words  polis and efflorescence are hardly to be found! separated out, it would have been a useful book for the general reader. i bought the wrong book. had i read the critiques first, i would have bought it more cheaply, or one of the other books the readers mentioned instead.
821119
Sir Stenton has composed a masterpiece of a history text in his most famous book. A caveat, however, in that the text itself was written by someone who was a professional historian. As such, the text is as dry as you would expect. It is, perhaps, the most comprehensive text on the subject available to the open market, but while it is very name, date, and place intensive, there is little in the way of anecdotal information that might interest the merely casual reader. For someone who is interest in more an introduction than an indepth analysis, I would recommend The Anglo-Saxons, edited by James Campbell.
2515501
These are mostly well-intentioned essays, some being a bit academic.  They are readable but I see few true solutions here.  The essays do stimulate thought.  Anyway, some do.  However, the book as a whole isn't completely satisfactory.  Lots of words, but limited practicality.  Worth a look though.
3252523
Doubtless, the author knows his subject. But, like many contemporary academics, he is unable to clearly and concisely state a thesis, marshal the facts and arguments and to then move on. I suspect this type of thing results from a fear of making oneself an easy taget for some carping, caviling "scholar".
The author, with his undisciplined, meandering style, managed to turn a fascinating subject and his own deep knowledge into an insufferably long (799 pages) and tedious mass of mush. It is hardly surprising that this book is out of print.
Yes, there are some fine nuggets to be mined herein. However, they are easy to miss when your eyes are glazed over. This book is not recommended for the general reader looking for an interesting, informative book of manageable length.
3298441
Coren's catchy title leaves potential readers with the impression that they will learn how to to 'speak' to their dogs.  However, this volume is mostly a rather academic study of what dogs are communicating  to others  (through their body language, vocalizations, etc.), as well as a  presentation of general theories of language development and related  research.  While the reader may learn what the dog is trying to say to  other dogs, animals, or humans, there is only a very small amount of  attention devoted to how humans can use any of this information to  communicate better with their dogs.  ("The Horse Whisperer" gave  much more information about how humans can use knowledge of a horse's  methods of communication to make the communcation a two-way process.)  Coren clearly understands dogs and what they are trying to tell us.  However, the book does not really tell readers how to 'speak dog'; a better  title would have been "What Your Dog is Trying to Tell You."
1800845
This is written as a series of essays collected together, which provides an interesting array of viewpoints, but not a comprehensive overview.  All of the essays are excellent, and if that's what you're looking for, then this is the right book.  I would have preferred this topic be treated by a single author who could cover it in a more comprehensive manner, each chapter building on what came before.  This felt a little disjointed.  It's a good resource, but it shouldn't be your only book on the subject.
4341436
This book is not very well-written, and a lot of what is said is actually common sense. It feels watered-down and rush, although I believed it was intended for busy readers for a quick reference.  Certainly not all books have to be "scholarly," but the writing and content seem to reflect the author's lack of academic background and credentials (??)

There are much better options for books on this subject.
742250
The text reads like a dry, doctoral dissertation that makes me thankful I didn't become a college professor. Passages like the following are prevalent throughout the book : "Moving from science to theology to philosophy and the intellectual history of the period, we can see how his photographic productions were explicitly motivated by the categorical imperative of religious faith." After translating this into "His images were based largely on his strong religious beliefs," you can, after some difficulty, get through the extremely burdensome text. The text also goes on multipe tangents trying to explain Victorian England, and the milieu that Frith lived in, but I found it overly burdensome and digressing. I found myself constantly trying to skip ahead of lengthy passages about Darwin's The Origin of Species and other digressing digressions.
The best aspect of the book is the images themselves. They are superbly produced with about as much detail from Frith's gigantic glass plates as I could expect a book to have. Frith was a rich man by the time he took his trips to the Middle East, and, whatever his motivations were, these images are historically important as well as having that Middle Eastern mystery I find fascinating. I wished that Nickel would have placed BOTH pairs of Frith's stereo slides into the book, rather than just one side and I also wish he had more images.
681351
This book was prescribed as a prerequisite for an 'Introduction to Poetry' undergraduate course that I am auditing. It deals with the technical subjects of stress, meter, and variation that are key to the analysis and the writing of English poetry. Despite its brevity, it seems quite comprehensive, and ultimately does provide an understanding of the topic, and so succeeds in what it sets out to do.

However, it is presented in a rather dry and academic manner, and the author comes across as a stiff, humorless professor. At one point he gets carried away with the somewhat dubious issue of whether spondees(paired heavy accents) and pyrrhic feet (paired unstressed syllables) have a right to exist. He thinks they are artificial constructs and should be done away with and such gray-zone feet should be assigned as either iambs or trochees depending on the underlying rhythm. This seems to be his pet peeve, but I'm not sure in the end how changing the nomenclature enhances understanding in any material way.

'Rules for the Dance' by Mary Oliver discusses versification in a much more conversational and easy style, is more lively and engaging. Reading it first gave me the basic concepts to better understand this book. However, McAuley is more comprehensive and in particular discusses the difference between metrical accent and speech stress and the interplay between the two that creates much of the variety and 'tension' in English poetry.

Another issue I have with this book is the choice of rather arcane and ponderous lines for illustration, often from poems by Chaucer and other pre-Shakespearan poets to make his point. I mean, is it really necessary to demonstrate metrical variation with these lines-

What! many a man hath love ful deere ybought
Twenty wynter that his lady wiste
That nevere yet his lady mouth he kiste

Or to indicate a reversed foot with these-

Like as the elm forgrown in mountains hye,
Rond hewen with axe, that husbandmen
With thick assaultes strive to tear up, doth threat;
And hackt beneath trembling doth bend his top,
Till yold with strokes, giving the latter crack,
Rent from the heighth with ruine it doth fall.

Even as I type these lines, they bleed red from my spell-checker. Such examples only serve to confound an already dry and technical subject and shed light on little more than the author's erudition.

Still, lacking better alternatives, I would recommend this book. If one has the patience to wade through it, it does deliver. Luckily, it isn't very long.
1370640
The author seems to be a fan of Dusty Springfield and that affection peeks through from time to time. But Dr. Randall is also a professor of musicology and apparently every bit the academic. So we get not just some interesting stories and music history sketches here and there, we also get a boatload of modern academic doubletalk and what amounts to a reverse-engineering of Dusty's life and career through the distorting prisms of feminism, gender studies, GLBT studies and other intellectual rubbish.

Randall's 21st century interpretation of many events is often hard to square with what those of us who lived through the period actually observed and experienced.  Other reviewers are quite correct to note that the book is also rambling, poorly organized, repetitive and frequently self-referential. (Coming from so high up in the ivory tower, this may well be intentional.) All in all, this is a pretty dreadful book. It does include interesting tidbits and would be worth perusal for free (check it out from a library), especially for those who already know Dusty's tangled tale, but it's not worth buying unless you're a completist collector. It is NOT a good introduction to Dusty Springfield.
3668008
What I was really looking for in this book was the story arc that I think A Love Supreme itself clearly narrates: a troubled, talented person's spiritual journey to understand the world and disseminate the wisdom he acquires through suffering. Instead, I found the overall product to be a little academic, dry, and prone to uninteresting tangents.

A particular footnote underscores this by including a paragraph on a contentious Yahoo! Groups thread over "tracing the history of jazz musicians writing their own liner notes". I think everyone in that thread would love every bit of this book I found unnecessary.

I've recently read books on Miles and Trane's work together culminating in Kind of Blue, as well as the life of Thelonious Monk. I would rate it between these two (with the first being the best), and similarly removed from its associated source material due to its academic angle.

Maybe the best part of this book, however, is the detailed treatment of Rudy Van Gelder, whose body of work as a recording engineer has recently been celebrated as a result of his passing. It would be great to see a whole book on RVG, and I actually think an academic approach would be most suitable given his varied and technical contributions to both music production in the mid 20th Century and the interpretation of Jazz as a result of those available technologies and their implementations.

Another commendation I will give the author is that the sections that actually describe the recording of the tracks on the album can be read at roughly the same speed as the tracks themselves, which really enhanced the experience. I usually find it hard to appreciate descriptions of instrumental songs without listening to them or having just recently listened to them, so these passages were a treat.

As the somewhat unnecessarily large section detailing covers of songs on A Love Supreme intimates, tackling this almost liturgical work by Coltrane in any format is a near insurmountable task. Like many interviewees who have recorded such covers, the author seems to have taken it on respectfully and with gratitude, knowing it would be impossible to fully do justice to the source material.
3439877
Frankly, I was disappointed.  More of an academic work, than to inform the reader.
4529527
I recommend this for the academic reader, but not for the general one.  It is well researched, but it's difficult reading and it's not easy to pull all this information together in such a way to be understandable.  While the subject matter concerns adolescent mothers reaching adulthood, it will make more sense to very well educated parents dealing with adolescent mothers.
2509671
The book covers leadership theory very well; however it is so cluttered with proper academic references that it interrupts the natural flow of reading. It reads like one of my academic papers that has a silly requirement to stuff 20 references into 1500 words.  IMHO, the author should stride to communicate thought, not prove he did his homework.