Average customer rating:
- Bufflalo Boring!!!!
- MY BOY LOVES READING IT
- One of the best
- School Book Review
- A Great Book
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Buffalo Before Breakfast (Magic Tree House 18, paper)
Mary Pope Osborne
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ASIN: 0679890645
Release Date: 1999-05-18 |
Amazon.com
Morgan Le Fey, a magical librarian from the time of King Arthur, has charged a brave young pair of children with the task of freeing an enchanted dog from a spell by collecting four gifts. In the 18th easy-to-read chapter book in Mary Pope Osborne's Magic Tree House series, eight-year-old Jack and seven-year-old Annie travel back almost 200 years to the Great Plains to find a "gift from the prairie blue." Along the way, Annie and Jack make friends with young Black Hawk, narrowly miss a buffalo stampede, and learn about how the Lakotas view the earth and their place in it. (Ages 8 to 12)
Book Description
The Magic Tree House carries Jack and Annie back to the Old West, where they roam the Great Plains with a Lakota boy.
Customer Reviews:
Bufflalo Boring!!!! .......2007-05-08
I hated this book!!!! It's just about 2 kids and they wonder from place to place. This book is about Jack and Annie who go to the native times. It's not that interesting. But the series is that they just have to point to the book cover and say " I wish we could go there". Then the tree house teleports to the same place. There is a woman named Morgan who sends them there to find things like ( the four M's. Or 4 gifts). Then of course there going to find it and return home but....... when they come home time hasn't changed a bit. They go home and sleep. If you want to read the worst book ever in the world pick up this book today and you'll hate it. But if you want a good book then pick up " Magic Tree House #32" or anyother book in the "30's".
MY BOY LOVES READING IT.......2007-01-07
My 1st grader hates to put it down, he would rather read Magic Tree House books, than play video games. He even reads them to his class and explains the story for show and tell. In his kindergarten class the teacher would also let him read the Magic Tree House books out loud, not to give her a break, but to promote reading out loud. Great books!
One of the best.......2006-11-10
Magic Treehouse books have been an excellent incentive for my 6 year old to read. At first I was reading them all to him, now he's reading them for himself. They are the perfect combination of adventure, education, and danger! This particular one is one of his favorites.
School Book Review.......2005-03-04
Would you ever want to be chased by a big buffalo? I read a book about two kids that did. It is called Buffalo Before Breakfast by Mary Pope Osborne. This book is about a boy named Jack, a girl named Annie and a dog named Teddy. They travel back in time. This story is also about the buffalo and Native Americans. This is a really cool book. One of my favorite parts is when they saw a huge heard of buffalo. I also liked this book because I am a child and I would like to travel back in time. In this book I think that the author wants to share what Native Americans used to do. You should read this book to see if Jack and Annie, along with Teddy, get back to their own time!
A Great Book.......2005-02-06
The whole Magic Tree House Series is great-not just this one.The Merlin Missions are the best in the series.
Merlin Missions:
# 29 Christmas in Camelot
# 30 Haunted Castle on Hollow's Eve
# 31 Summer of the Sea Serpent
# 32 Winter of the Ice Wizard
# 33 Carnival at Candlelight (Coming out in March 2005)
# 34 Season of the Sandstorms (Coming out in July 2005)
Amazon.com
There are certain plots that possess inherent drama, and the saving of a lost child is one of them. In The Buffalo Soldier, Chris Bohjalian--who showed such flair for drama in the bestselling Oprah's Book Club® pick Midwives--gives us the story of 10-year-old Alfred, an African American foster child who is taken in by Terry and Laura Sheldon, a white couple whose twin daughters have drowned. Another child is also about to come on the scene: Terry has an affair, and the young woman becomes pregnant. Bohjalian takes his sweet time exploring these relationships, but he also writes scenes with the same tautness that made Midwives a page-turner. The result is a novel that's both readable and exhaustively fleshed out. As Alfred settles into the Sheldons' lives, we actually come to believe in the unlikely little family the three of them forge. Bohjalian narrates his story from the perspective of each of his principal characters, a method that can be tiresome, but here is made fresh by the author's clear vision: these people, you feel, are real to him. --Claire Dederer
Book Description
With his trademark emotional heft and storytelling skill, bestselling author Chris Bohjalian presents this resonant novel about the formation of an unconventional family–the ties that bind it, and the strains that pull it apart. Two years after their twin daughters died in a flash flood, Terry and Laura Sheldon, a Vermont state trooper and his wife, take in a foster child. His name is Alfred; he is ten years old and African American. And he has passed through so many indifferent families that he can’t believe that his new one will last.
In the ensuing months Terry and Laura will struggle to emerge from their shell of grief only to face an unexpected threat to their marriage; Terry’s involvement with another woman. Meanwhile, Alfred cautiously enters the family circle, and befriends an elderly neighbor who inspires him with the story of the buffalo soldiers, the black cavalrymen of the old West. Out of the entwining and unfolding of their lives,
The Buffalo Soldier creates a suspenseful, moving portrait of a family, infused by Bohjalian’s moral complexity and narrative assurance.
Download Description
From the bestselling and critically acclaimed author of Midwives and Trans-Sister Radio comes a hauntingly beautiful story of the ties that bind families -- and the strains that pull them apart.
In northern Vermont, a raging river overflows its banks and sweeps the nine-year-old twin daughters of Terry and Laura Sheldon to their deaths. In the aftermath of the tragedy, the highway patrolman and his wife, unable to have more children, take in a foster child: a ten-year-old African-American boy who has been shuttled for years between foster families and group homes. Young Alfred cautiously enters the Sheldon family circle, barely willing to hope that he might find a permanent home among these kind people still distracted by grief.
Across the street from the Sheldons live an older couple who take Alfred under their wing, and it is they who introduce him to the history of the buffalo soldiers -- African-American cavalry troopers whose reputation for integrity, honor, and personal responsibility inspires the child.
Before life has a chance to settle down, however, Terry, who has never been unfaithful to Laura, finds himself attracted to the solace offered by another woman. Their encounter, brief as it is, leaves her pregnant with his baby -- a child Terry suddenly realizes he urgently wants.
From these fitful lives emerges a lyrical and richly textured story, one that explores the meaning of marriage, the bonds between parents and children, and the relationships that cause a community to become a family. But The Buffalo Soldier is also a tale of breathtaking power and profound moral complexity -- and exactly the sort of novel readers have come to expect from Chris Bohjalian.
Customer Reviews:
Mostly boring, improbable ending.......2007-05-25
Normally I enjoy slow, deep character development, but these characters just did not seem all that interesting. The plot was PAINFULLY drawn out, like watching grass grow, and then all of a sudden it turns into an action movie ending. Very strange. First of his books I have read, and it doesn't make me interested in trying any of his others.
Held my attention from beginning to end........2007-03-26
I LOVED this book. The story line and character development where very well done. You could truly feel each character's personality and plight. I also enjoyed how history on the buffalo soldier was weaved throughout the book. Great read -- kept my attention from start to finish. In fact, I was sorry to see it end, but did very much enjoy how it ended.
When I finished, was I glad I'd read it?.......2007-03-15
NEGATIVES
1. no quotation marks for dialogue; forced me to reread things, which irritates me
2. melodramatic, yet I was caught up in the weather happenings
3. the author's favorite word is "moreover"
4. abrupt ending, and wrapped up too neatly
POSITIVES
1. a change from my usual reading
2. from Alfred's perspective, I learned something about prejudice
3. I enjoyed the relationships between Alfred/Mesa and Alfred/Paul
SIDE NOTE
I was expecting pedophilia after Russell's grabbing of Alfred, followed by Terry's outraged reaction. That could've added to the melodrama and given it even more of a Danielle Steel flair.
So, as you can surmise, I'm not glad I read it. If I weren't reading it for my book club, I wouldn't have finished it. (Sometimes I DON'T finish them, but this book wasn't horrible, and I was eager to finish it after I got to the part about flooding and icy roads, which was near the end. However, I felt dissatisfied when I finished it.)
5-star characters; unique dialogue.......2006-06-12
There are two elements of Chris Bohjalian's writing that are especially worthy of note: his characters are so well-developed that you feel you know them; and, the dialogue is so well-written that you feel you can actually hear the voices of the characters. I found these two elements kept me riveted while I read "Midwives" a couple of years ago. Bohjalian delivers the same in "Buffalo Soldier." Each chapter is the name of a character and gives that character's point of view. This gives a cinematic effect where you feel you are sweeping around picking up everyone's perceptions. It's very cool (sorry, that's not very literary, mais tant pis...). I also mentioned the dialogue. The dialogue is embedded in the prose. There are no quotation marks. It is not internal dialogue, it's just another way of writing dialogue. I found it hard to get used to at first, but once I did I felt it contributed to the overall wonderful flow of the narrative and I wouldn't change it. Incidentally, I brought up this dialogue technique in a writing workshop and got a lot of frowns; no one knew what I was talking about. Anyway, I highly recommend this book. It is a great read.
Less than perfect.......2006-01-15
I was disappointed in this book, perhaps because I expected so much more. It had been praised by a few people whose literary judgment I trust, and it just didn't measure up.
The premise was good and interesting, but the characters were lifeless and pat. The boy, whom I liked and was interested in, really wasn't a bit authentic. He was just too good to be true in every way, to the point where I questioned that he had been shuffled around so much in the foster system; nobody would give up this child.
I also couldn't stand the chauvenism in Terry, who impregnated a woman and then acted all along as though he didn't need to bear any responsibility toward the unborn child, as though the only problem was figuring out which woman/life HE wanted. I kept reminding myself that this sort of machismo is in fact realistic, but given Terry's self-righteous, straight-laced, State Trooper image, it really wasn't consistent with his character. Also, as has been mentioned elsewhere here, his mistress was ridiculously generous, thoughtful and wise for someone who was in her predicament to begin with.
The ending was unrealistic too, but I didn't mind, considering the lack of compelling drama throughout the rest of the book. I had heard or read that it had a good ending (meaning exciting), so that kept me reading. The writing itself is overrated I think. It's very plain, like a reporter's--certainly not the kind of writing that appeals to other writers.
Finally, and inexplicably, I paid no attention whatsoever to the italicized bits at the beginning of each chapter--the stuff about the Buffalo Soldiers. At first I did, but they offered nothing in the way of understanding the novel at hand, and I found them boring. He could have made that whole connection a bit more resonant. I'm the type who rushes to the computer to find out more about the historical surroundings of novels when I finish--like reading about Opus Dei and DaVinci after THE DAVINCI CODE and about King Henry IIIX after THE OTHER BOLEYN GIRL--but this one left me cold. I still haven't researched the Buffalo Soldiers, and that says something about the author's success in bringing the subject home.
Book Description
Lumphy is a stuffed buffalo. StingRay is a stuffed stingray. And Plastic... well, Plastic isn't quite sure what she is. They all belong to the Little Girl who lives on the high bed with the fluffy pillows. A very nice person to belong to.
But outside of the Little Girl's room things can be confusing. Like when Lumphy gets sticky with peanut butter on a picnic, why is he called "dirty"? Or when StingRay jumps into the bathtub, what will happen to her fur? And where in the house can they find the Little Girl a birthday present that she will love the most?
Together is best for these three best friends. Together they look things up in the dictionary, explore the basement, and argue about the meaning of life. And together they face dogs, school, television commercials, the vastness of the sea and the terrifying bigness of the washing machine.
With all the appeal of a classic, here are six linked stories form Emily Jenkins, and illustrated by Caldecott winning Paul O. Zelinsky that showcase the unforgettable adventures--and misadventures-- of three extraordinary friends.
Customer Reviews:
Fun book, good quality and presentation.......2007-09-08
I bought this for my 6 year old cousin and she enjoyed it (except it does not have that much illustration). The story its self is fun and interesting and she has read it 3 times already! I would recommend the book
Stuffed animals have feelings too.......2007-08-23
Regardless of one's age, this book is a pleasant reminder of the simplicities of childhood. Who didn't have a favorite stuffed animal, or even toy, that was "real" to them? It was easy to fall in love with these toys!
A Huge Hit in Our House!.......2007-05-02
My 7-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter demanded I read this to them again. This is the first time they have ever requested a chapter book be read a second time. They wait for their favorite lines and speak them along with me, laughing the whole time. My daughter plans to write a letter to the author asking for more stories about the toys, also a first. What a wonderful book!
Wonderful read aloud.......2007-04-08
My six year old and I just finished this book, and I can't remember the last time I looked forward to reading aloud so much ! Even my 9 year old was so hooked that he snagged the book to finish on his own. Jenkins has a wonderful sense of humor and the illustrations are adorable. We can't wait for her next book !
A good read for all.......2007-03-26
This is a lovely book, with toys that talk and become as real and dear as any family pet. My 7 year old son has enjoyed reading and rereading this book and my husband and I always look forward to it as well. It's a refreshing break from some of the newer books that are so fast-paced and not very well-written. This feels like an old time classic to be kept and passed down.
Book Description
In Flight of the Buffalo, James Belasco and Ralph C. Stayer combine expertise, insight, and passion to show how the nature of management must change if a company expects to survive in the white-knuckle world of modern business. Going beyond the quick-fix approach of many of today's business gurus, the authors explain how to avoid being outmaneuvered by the competition; how to become more focused and flexible; how to empower workers and maintain their loyalty; and how to become a manager who goes beyond filling quotas.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent for managers.......2007-02-17
I assigned this as required reading for a group of my managers. It is a very good resource for me and for them.
Plenty of nuggets, but not a feast.......2006-08-17
One of the promises I make to my students in MGT 512 is that if they recommend a business book, I will buy it, read it and review it.
I like the layout of the book and some of the bold statements, here is an example: If you don't lose 20% of your business on price, your prices aren't high enough.
I like the premise and agree with participative management and empowering people and I resonated with many of the stories where Belasco and Stayer fell off the bus.
What didn't work for me was the organization. The book jumps from here to there without transitions. I suppose it would work OK as a business devotional where you read one section every day, but for sustained reading it is hard work and worse, that impacts retention. If I invest the time to buy and read a business book, if I agree with what it says, I want to retain some of the information to apply and that is hard with lots of choppy little sections that do not flow.
Would I recommend the book? If you are struggling to overcome the "I am the guy in charge, let's move out" paradigm it could certainly be helpful. If you have already adopted an inclusive approach to management, this probably will not help you in your journey.
Good General Principles Trust Your Workers.......2004-06-03
These are good business principles to live by. Involve your workers, and better yet, make them feel like they are a vital part of your organization.
Read this with your employees.
My boss did this when I worked at Fond du Lac...and we got some good debate going.
A Leadership Book Worth Reading.......2003-06-17
Flight of the Buffalo discusses the fact that the business world has changed. To stay competitive business leaders must also change and change the way our businesses operate. The only things that are constant are that change will continue to impact the way business is done and the speed of this change will continue to increase. How do you satisfy (retain) that current customer, or acquire that next customer in this continually changing competitive environment? First, as a leader you must learn to learn and learn at a faster rate. The foundation for all change is learning. Second, it is important that changes be made to the organizational culture in order to accomplish the changes required by the organization to allow employees to lead. The culture needs to change to remove the mentality that we are all victims because we have no control over any of the tasks required to make the customer happy, to one in which we all have ownership of the problems our companies/customers face. There are a number of obstacles that stand in our way as leaders. Many leaders within our companies hesitate to empower their employees and give them responsibilities for fear that they will not have anything to do themselves. Anyone who struggles with relinquishing control and trusting their coworkers to share in the responsibilities of the organization should read this book.
Although the book discusses many important aspects of leadership and developing a culture in which employees do lead, the book lacks in two areas. First, many of the concepts presented in the book were repeated numerous times. As I read the book I felt like I had already read that page. Secondly, the book does not do justice to the concept of letting employees lead. It does discuss at detail how the leader's mentality has to change to effectively lead an organization where the employees lead, but it does not discuss when this is appropriate. The book is subtitled "Soaring to Excellence, Learning to Let Employees Lead," and it may have been the author's intent not to discuss the ramifications of this change on the employees, but instead focus on the real problem, the leadership, for which the author does an excellent job at detailing. After reading the book I am left with many questions: Does every company need to change to a flock of geese to remain competitive, or are there situations where the lead buffalo is a necessity to running the business? What if employees do not want to take on the responsibilities of leading the organization? Are there changes within the employee reward system to effectively deal with this change in the organization? How do we as leaders handle resistance to this new system? The book only brings us half way in our understanding of how to let employees lead.
Flight of the Buffalo.......2002-11-30
The "Flight of the Buffalo" is an interesting book for managers and leaders of today society. The idea that let the people who work with the product, own the responsebility of fixing the problem is a fresh outlook. The difference in being a manger and leader is spelled out so clearly, that the most elementry person can grab the idea. This book focus on "how can you run an organzation from the clouds?" In todays ideas, you have to meld three things together, what the employees want, what the buyer wants, and what the bottom line is. This book explains you can manage these items yourself or you can lead you people in finding ways they can do it for themselves.
Average customer rating:
- Methodical and penetrating writing.
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The Battle for the Buffalo River: A Twentieth-Century Conservation Crisis in the Ozarks
Neil Compton
Manufacturer: University of Arkansas Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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Environmental Science
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Environmental Science
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ASIN: 1557282366 |
Customer Reviews:
Methodical and penetrating writing........1998-07-23
Well researched I guess. There is no bibliography or works cited. Actually written as if the writer doesn't want to make enemies. The Buffalo National River made enough of those during its emergence I suppose. Still the book is written with the deep-seated feelings that only those who truly aprreciate the steadily changing equilibrium of natural spaces can envoke.
Customer Reviews:
A COMMUNITY IN DISASTER.......2006-08-13
In February of 1972, the town of Buffalo Creek in West Virginia was devastated by a flood, which was, in a way, 'man-made'. Water from heavy rains collected in a pile of coal slag, eventually working through and sweeping the town, killing over a hundred people. Erikson recounts this disaster in his first chapter, but devotes most of the book to describing the culture of Appalachia, and how it affected the people's psychology and recovery.
For the most part this is a sociological study. Erikson examines the people of West Virginia and Buffalo Creek to discover why they think and act as they do. Culture, it turns out, made this disaster even worse than it might have been in other communities. Survivors could not handle the disruption brought about by the flood. Many said they just didn't feel like themselves anymore, with all that had changed.
While I would recommend this book to anyone, I do think we should have been told a bit more about what eventually happened to Buffalo Creek and its people. Perhaps the book was published before this was fully possible. If so, Erikson might see fit to revisit the town and its survivors again.
Wrecked lives.......2006-06-03
In the summer of 1948, we lived in Lorado, West Virginia (Logan County). The Buffalo Creek ran behind `our' house, while a road and the tracks of the C&O Railroad ran just beyond our front yard. The photo on page 37 shows those tracks that we often walked from Lorado towards Man, WV. It could well be a picture of our former front yard.
I , of course, remember the news accounts of the 1972 disaster.
So, I have a personal outlook at this sociological follow-up of the lives wrecked when the earth dam and mine tailings gave way.
Kai Erickson has done a deeply moving and eloquent account of the ramifications of this recent tragedy.
I recommend it to all interested in mankind and the factors that fall upon our fellow travelers as we all 'work our way through life.'
Everything changes Everything.......2006-02-12
This was a very intersting book for me. I was looking for information on this flood & I found the information plus more. I didn't really realize it was going to deal so much with "how the person works" in tragedies. I came to understand the Appalacian people as a unique group. I also understand how & why the flood started. But I also learned a lot about how people's "mind" deals with events such as this type of tragedy. And I also can understand how people in general, including myself, react to events in much smaller every-day problems. I can now understand many of my "reactions" & how they are normal & very unique to each individual. It helped me a lot Plus I learned a lot about the needless tragedy. It made me think a little. Good Read.
Essential reading for West Virginians.......2005-10-11
I was 12, growing up a couple of counties away, when the dam burst at Buffalo Creek in 1972. It was just the latest disaster in less than a decade to afflict what I thought was my cursed native state: The Silver Bridge collapse, the explosion at the Farmington No. 9 mine and the Marshall University plane crash.
This book is in three parts, the first describing the disaster, the second a historical overview of Appalachia in general and the Buffalo Creek area in particular. The third is on the effects on the survivors of the flood.
Though the Buffalo Creek flood happened more than 30 years ago, its lessons are as current as the destruction of New Orleans.
Kai Erickson writes quite well for a sociologist and the book only begins to drag a bit at the end, in the sociology part. Maybe it's just the (justifiable) litany of complaints from the survivors. If this account is any measure, the survivors of Hurricane Katrina will be suffering in psyche long after their material losses have been recouped.
Anyone with further interest in the Buffalo Creek flood ought to also read Gerald Stern's "The Buffalo Creek Disaster," written from the point of view of one of the lawyers who took part in the resulting litigation.
An Appalachian disaster.......2005-08-10
On Feb. 26, 1972, a mining company dam broke, sending 132 million gallons of water rushing down Buffalo Creek in Logan County, West Virginia. Death and property destruction were great, but even worse was the devastation of the community spirit and the long-lasting mental trauma suffered by the inhabitants. Erikson explores what he sees as a major dichotomy in the ethos of the "mountain people" involved in this disaster: a sense of independence versus a need for dependence. Erikson believes this seems to breed inaction and a total feeling of loss for these people in disasters such as this. There are, of course, other factors at work here, but it's an interesting theory. Comparisons to other similar disasters (hurricane victims in Florida, for example) would make for a worthwhile study.
Book Description
This book is about one man's life as a football coach and much more. Forty-seven years of joyous celebrations after victories and crushing disappointments after defeats are encompassed in it, but it is about more than just touchdowns and interceptions. It is about how a person like Marv Levy, dedicated to his life's work, can begin his career as the obscure assistant coach of a high school junior varsity team and then one day, decades later, lead his men out onto the field in football's greatest spectacle--the Super Bowl. Readers are invited to come experience what it was like to be on the sidelines and be the winning coach in a game that has been designated as the greatest upset in collegiate football history and then be there again 25 years later when an injury-riddled team, losing 35-3 in the second half, rallies and then miraculously goes on to achieve the greatest comeback victory in the history of the National Football League. Fans will learn what it was like to wallow in the exhilaration that comes from leading a team to four consecutive Super Bowl appearances, only to follow it with the desolation that strikes when all four of those games end in defeat. But they will also learn about the character, persistence, and personalities of those incomparable Buffalo Bills of the 1990s who so resolutely pursued their impossible dream. There will be some laughs and there may be some tears. Readers will meet the people who shaped this coach's life, and they will wind up feeling close to them. They will look forward to each adventure contained in these pages, and when each new one does come, they are likely to say, along with the author, "Where else would I rather be than right here--rightnow!"
Customer Reviews:
My favorite non-fiction book ,ever!.......2007-07-16
Excellent! Insightful! Everything I ever wanted to know about, this era in football. If you love football, this book is for you.
Marvelous, Marv!.......2007-01-05
If one were to look outside of one's immediate family for a role model, Marv Levy would be a wise choice. Marv Levy is not all about football, although he has spent most of his adult life in one capacity or another in the game. His body of work is as a human being, caring for his players and family. In this era when books usually have some axe to grind against those who "done someone wrong," Levy seldom has a bad word about anyone, and any are usually absolved before the end of the paragraph. His book details his life, the good times and bad, the celebrations and defeats, and the fights and absolutions. He is a unique man who has written and interesting and worthwhile book about his experiences, written in a positive light about incidents that helped him grow as a man and a leader. For those looking for a good football book, an inspirational book or inpiration of life, read Marv's book. It's well worth it.
One of the very best Football books written by articulate ex-Athlete who was a good Coach in the CFL, USFL & NFL.......2006-06-29
[Four of Four stars] Marv Levy of Chicago
and Iowa is sort of the Red Auerbach of
Pro Football. A journeyman, who maintained
his class and sense of humour which is not
just soundbytes in NFL films clips.
Mr Burns does us an injustice below in his
review by criticising the very fine Montreal
Alouettes of the CFL, but CFL fans will love
the chapters on our favorite League, particu-
larly, "My Grey Cup Runneth Over". The only
knock that one can have on Levy, and it's a
slight one, is that he hung too long onto
Kelly at QB (Frank Reich should have started
one of those Super Bowls) and Thurman (fumbles)
Thomas, who was simply an overrated player.
One spot in Marv's fine book, he maintains one
of the hardest things he ever had to do was
keep lightning quick Steve Tasker (one-time
Kansas Jayhawk) on the bench! Tasker, like Levy
is a class act who deserves to be in the NFL
Hall-of-Fame and could have been one of the
greatest RBs or WRs of alltime. Marv, as bad
as the NFL is getting even having you back in
the League at 81, again with the Bills (this
time at G.M.) is a breath of fresh air. Thanks
for all the memories. Your dad and my granddad
chewed a lot of the same turf in World War I.
Hey Uncle Marv, Tell Us More Stories About "The Kohawks".......2005-05-29
Recent history has been kind to Marv Levy as the magnificence of having won four consecutive AFC Conference championships is now replacing the earlier bitter pill of lost Superbowls. Marv Levy has become the ceremonial uncle of professional football today. He is to pro football what George Foreman is to pro boxing, the friendly enduring face of a brutal sport.
This is a campfire book, a grown-up bedtime story about a bright young lad from Chicago, one of those lucky folks who got paid to do what he liked. It is a tale remarkably devoid of rancor or regrets but rather a mixture of self-deprecating humor, a bit of self-serving forgetfulness, colorful characters, and the pleasures of the jocular world of organized football. In his preface Levy advises us that his writing style is the re-creation of the pleasures of his memory. Take away the Kansas City Chiefs and he would have had the perfect life.
But before arriving at Kansas City, there were the minor matters of World War II, college, and building a resume. Levy entered the Army Air Corps with the help of a friend who, shall we say, understated Levy's vision impairment. When this problem was later detected, Levy was scratched from pilot training and spent much of the war in Florida as a weather observer. After the war, already in possession of a bachelor's degree from Coe College, Levy began his much heralded graduate work at Harvard. In truth he opted out of the law school in three weeks, choosing instead to earn a masters in history and collecting inspiring anecdotes for use in the Buffalo Bills' locker room years later.
Levy had abandoned law school because of his desire to coach football. After a stint as assistant coach back at Coe for the mighty "Kohawks," Levy over the next fifteen years crafted a highly respectable resume of work as head coach of generally mid-range college football teams, primarily New Mexico, California, and William & Mary. It was a stunning upset of the nation's number one team, Navy, by an undermanned William and Mary crew in 1967 that brought Levy to the attention of NFL, and eventually to the staff of George Allen in Washington as special teams coach.
Levy could not help but be influenced by his Redskins boss. Allen referred to his defensive linemen as "rushers," benched the popular pass-happy Sonny Jurgensen for the workmanlike Billy Kilmer, and played for the least mistakes. A running offense, a veteran opportunistic defense, and juiced up special teams play were his trademarks. Allen seems to have taken to Levy because of the latter's own imaginative thinking about the critical nature of special teams' play, which comprises about 30% of an average NFL game. Moreover, Levy could not have missed how Allen cultivated an image and played the psychological card adroitly.
Levy, a man not without ambition, was anxious to run his own ship, and in 1973 became the head coach of the Montreal Alouettes. Once the flagship of the Canadian Football League, the Alouettes were an artistic, aesthetic, and organizational shipwreck, bedeviled by an atrocious stadium, poor attendance, and impossible weather. Levy guided Montreal to the Grey Cup final in his first year and a league championship the following season. His five successful campaigns in Canada brought an invitation to come back south of the border and take the reins of the young Kansas City Chiefs.
In many ways the Chiefs Levy inherited in 1978 were very much like the present day Chiefs-a potent offense with a porous defense. He also inherited an overbearing club president, Jack Steadman, who did not understand Levy's priority of drafting for defense [Art Still, Mike Bell, Gary Spani, among others], nor his coach's penchant for a tough ground game a la his contemporary "Ground Chuck" Knox. Perhaps reflecting the thinking of his old mentor George Allen, Levy believed that an adequate quarterback could direct the Chiefs, as Billy Kilmer had in Washington. At Kansas City Levy inherited the aging QB Mike Livingston and drafted Clemson's Steve Fuller. Steadman--and Lamar Hunt himself-- created what was probably an unnecessary controversy in their criticisms of the quarterbacking position, a situation aggravated by the arrival of yet another QB, the gunslinger Bill Kenney.
The Chiefs improved, and the defense became stellar, but neither Hunt, Steadman, nor many of the fans were satisfied with a .500 team. Released from the Chiefs in 1982, Levy would always remember how a meddlesome front office and instability at the quarterback position could undermine an otherwise flawless rebuilding program. Thus, when Levy accepted the Buffalo Bills' call in midseason 1986, it is no coincidence that he had already over the years cultivated friendships with owner Ralph Wilson and his executive staff of Bill Polian and John Butler, and that the quarterback situation was quite stable under the maturing Jim Kelly. Clearly a unity of respect and purpose among all levels of Buffalo management marked Levy's years with the Bills and allowed the team to focus entirely on drafting, development, and execution.
Levy assumes that most readers know of the exploits of the Bills in their glory years, and as a rule he paints with a broad red, white, and blue brush. As a history major himself, he has forgotten or omitted some situations that still intrigue knowledgeable observers: his protest of Cincinnati's no huddle offense to the NFL Commissioner prior to the 1988 AFC Championship [a style of play which, ironically, would become the hallmark of the Bills, the K-Gun] or Thurman Thomas's missing helmet episode at the opening of the 1992 Superbowl. But there is self-revelation as well. Levy was over 60 when hired by the Bills; he admits that he had begun to doubt whether he would ever coach again. How could he know then that his best days were yet to come?
The highest regarded greatest Bills coach to write so well*.......2005-04-21
Extremely hokey and a tad bit hurried through the end, but a pretty good book covering his life of football. *Mr. Levy really needs to lay off the use of superlatives as almost every player or team he has coached was the greatest at one particular thing or another. Also, I don't think Mr. Levy intended that the descriptions he has written regarding his locker room motivational speeches were to betray the fact that the players most likely considered the gravely serious war metaphors that he was constantly drawing on as a little too serious to be applied to a football game. No wonder why they consistently fell silent as he left them to contemplate his words. I can hear in my mind a player asking another "Like, we're playing a game here, right?" as Marv proudly leaves the locker room. Marv comes off as a classy guy hoping to coach again. I hope he gets his wish.
Product Description
William F. Cody was born in the middle of the nineteenth century on the plains of Kansas Territory where his family had settled to trade with the friendly Kickapoo Tribe. These Natives were Bill's childhood playmates and at a tender age he traded his brand-new buckskin suit for a little wild Indian pony that he learned to ride like the wind. By the time he was twelve, he was doing the work of a grown man as a cattle driver, camping under the stars each night. When he was caught in a buffalo stampede his horsemanship saved his life. Then he met wilderness scout Kit Carson who taught him how to read the language of the plains. When daredevil riders were needed to carry the mail on the new Pony Express, Bill was one of the first to sign up. Then the Civil War began and Bill went East to fight for Kansas, since that state wanted nothing to do with slavery. The d'Aulaires have captured the allure of one of America's frontier icons in the drama of their lush lithographs and in a text that brings to life the story of the fearless, wild Buffalo Bill.
Book Description
With a new epilogue
Though the Plains have been in economic and population decline since the twenties, they are actually within closer reach of vibrant ecological sustainability than any other region of the country. This visionary book offers a constructive alternative to the decline of cattle ranching, depletion of underground water, and dependency on outside energy sources. It shows how bringing back the hardy, majestic bison and using the region's winds to generate power are keys to renewed economic and social health for Plains communities.
Customer Reviews:
An excellant series of suggestions for the rural plains.......2003-10-20
Well, I'll try this a second time. The first time I wrote this review, it disappeared from the screen as soon as I clicked on the Edit button, so take care. At any rate...
Callenbach makes an excellent case for changing the way we utilize the Great Plains. With depleting aquifers, failing farms, and resultant loss of population, the region is changing drastically, regardless. With a semi-arid climate, the High Plains are best utilized for ranching, with some farming of suitable crops. The author points out that the native American bison is far more suited to this environment than the domestic bovines now dominant. They are low-maintainance, and provide meat that is leaner than beef, with more protein. And, it's quite delicious. (In fact, after I get off the web, I intend to cook a stroganoff with ground buffalo!) Thru both public and private efforts, as well as projects by Indian tribes in the region, bison can once more become part of a sustainable future for the Plains. Callenbach also advocates bringing back associated grazers like elk, deer, and antelope, as well as appropriate natural predators. Still, man will continue to be the main predator. By using the Plains in a sustainable fashion, a better future could be in store for this great region of the country. Tourism, in the form of wildlife viewing, picture-taking, and hunting would add to the economy. He correctly points out that wind-power would become a major source of power thru-out this whole area.
All in all, a fascinating and thought-provoking series of ideas for projects and policies that would help reverse the decline in the heartland. I would recommend it to anyone interested in a sustainable future. Needless to say, there is much more to the book. I've only mentioned a few of the main points. (I listed more in my disappearing first review; that still ticks me off.) Nevertheless, read it and I guarantee it will not be time wasted.
The Buffalo and the Bear.......2000-01-29
To begin with, i haven't read this book.But the idea seems to me great. Bringing buffalos to the plains will start a new period in the life of America, only we'll have to bring indians too. They would live quietly though loudly, producing some kind of energy which was always here, and which otherways is dissolving into Nowhere.This energy is necessary for generating life all over America. Joseph Campbell tells an interesting story about how buffalos interchanged with indians in the process of buffalo-hunt. They (buffalos) said they are not against hunting them in general, but they must be asked to and treated politely. Anyway all this play is inevitable, they said (indians used to follow them to the end of the rock and made them jump into the precipice) You must only find a suitable form. Another, more human and beautiful attitude we see in the film "Bless the beasts and the children", but this is a kind of unfair play from the side of the bad guys that we see there. Anyway, America must return to It's roots, the only question is where and what these roots are? perhaps this returning is going on somewhere without us, humans, and this is for better because we would spoil everything, even the ecologists? And this process is wild and strong? And it is expressed in our personal mythologies? I had written about the russian-american connections( i am a Russian originally) as the connections of the Bear and the Buffalo, both of them are beautifully and roughly strong, but they differ very much in their behaviour. So i think they would not fight, when they meet, imagine what they would do? Bear had a strong hand, Buffalo a strong foot...no, it's hard to imagine. Dance perhaps? Do circus? So to finish with this short review of an unread book( I liked Ecotopia very much, and want to ask if somebody knows what Mr.Callenbach is doing at the moment)I would like to phantasise about returning bears to the Russian forests. There are still a lot of them, but so many were killed, and so many went to the zoo and circus. What would be Russia with bears in the streets of Moscow? Perhaps people are so tired that nobody would notice?
Really opens your eyes to the importance of restoring bison.......1999-10-01
An excellent book. Callenbach clearing shows that he did his "homework". A must read for anyone who feels that bison should be reestablished on the American scene.
The poorest book ever written about the Great Plains.......1998-08-24
Callenbach demonstrates a complete lack of understanding of the people who live on the Great Plains and the issues facing them. This book is very poorly researched, is full of factual errors, and consists primarily of wishful thinking. The idea that taking land from the people that own it and creating a giant buffalo park will be an economic boon and reverse the population declines the Plains has experienced for the past 60 years is ludicrous. If you're really interested in the future of the Great Plains, read some of the more recent articles by Frank and Deborah Popper. The Buffalo Commons is a useful metaphor, but nothing more.
Book Description
At the beginning of the twentieth century, the city of Buffalo, New York, looked toward a future of great promise. During this era, the city was the host of a prestigious world's fair, The Pan American Exposition, and an industrial behemoth, the Lackawanna Steel Company, had just opened its doors. Buffalonians at this time had every reason to believe that these massive and impressive signs of progress augured well for the balance of the century.
One hundred years later, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, Buffalo is on the verge of bankruptcy, and a new generation of citizens looks back wistfully, wondering what happened and where, now, they are headed.
In a sweeping narrative that speaks to the serious student of urban studies as well as the general reader, Mark Goldman tells the story of twentieth-century Buffalo, New York. Goldman covers all of the major developments:
· The rise and decline of the city's downtown and ethnic neighborhoods
· The impact of racial change and suburbanization
· The role and function of the arts in the life of the community
· Urban politics, urban design, and city planning
While describing the changes that so drastically altered the form, function, and character of the city, Goldman, through detailed descriptions of special people and special places, gives a sense of intimacy and immediacy to these otherwise impersonal historical forces.
City on the Edge unflinchingly documents and describes how Buffalo has been battered by the tides of history. But it also describes the unique characteristics that have encouraged an innovative cultural climate, including Buffalo's dynamic survival instinct that continues to lead to a surprisingly and inspiringly high quality of community life.
Finally, it offers a road map, which—if followed—could point the way to a new and exciting future for this long-troubled city.
Customer Reviews:
People, places and events alike are surveyed........2007-07-08
At first glance CITY ON THE EDGE would seem to be a title New York collections alone could appreciate - but look again: it's a story of urban dysfunction which holds strong social and urban planning messages for any American city. Chapters survey the history of Buffalo, New York: from its initial promising heyday to its decline, its many social issues, and the role of the arts in community life. Of particular note - and recommended for college-level holdings strong in urban planning - are discussions of how urban politics and city planning affected the development and outcome of Buffalo. People, places and events alike are surveyed.
Staring at the abyss-- about to take a giant leap forward.......2007-04-06
Ten years ago I attended an academic conference in Buffalo. The Buffalo Zoo hosted the main dinner of the conference, and the participants ate a nice meal accompanied by the relatively intense aroma of the denizens of the zoo. It was a little off-putting. The highlight of the evening, the after dinner speech, was a presentation of a plan to revitalize the zoo with a massive investment and relocation to the troubled waterfront area of Buffalo, away from its historic, almost pastoral setting in Delaware Park. The once flourishing seal exhibit had been filled in and now housed a prairie dog exhibit. To rectify problems like this, all they needed was $500 million, preferably from the state of New York. It never happened.
Such large-scale thinking - and the disasters that regularly accompanies same -- abounds in "City on the edge." Having read Diana Dillaway's (2006), more academic "Power failure," and, just recently, Goldman's 1990 prequel, "City on the lake," "City on the edge" provided a dark, rich third part of this sad trilogy. Some of "Edge" draws heavily from "Lake;" read both and you'll see a lot of overlap. And there is good reason: To understand Buffalo's perilous position today, Goldman takes us back over one hundred years to the pivotal events at the turn of the twentieth century in Buffalo - the assassination of President McKinley and the building of the Lackawanna (later Bethlehem) steel plant. From that death and those new industrial roots Buffalo prospered and led the industrial triumphs of the United States in the twentieth century, with steel and autos, war production and cereal, aircraft and chemicals. The city boomed during the war years and suffered much during the Depression.
In Buffalo, the creative culture prospered, especially music and art. The Albright-Knox Art Gallery is world-class. Lukas Foss helped put the Buffalo Philharmonic on the map - for a time. But all of the creativity was either too little, too late, or a distraction from the fundamental sea change engulfing the city after World War II. Buffalo struggled with, and largely succeeded, with managing integration, at least much better than other northern cities and public schools systems. The African-Americans from the South who came for good factory jobs in an industrial city have grown to half of Buffalo's current population. Later, an Hispanic community, namely Puerto Rican, took root. Today, recent immigrants from Africa find accommodations in Buffalo's low housing costs and tradition of cultural diversity and economic immigration.
The hearty, hard-working citizens are not deterred by harsh winters or record snowfalls. What Buffalo failed to do, it appears, was to master paradigm change, to embrace the shift from a domestic, smoke-belching industrial economy to a global knowledge economy, at least until too late. The story of indecision as to the location of the University of Buffalo, after its "acquisition" by the SUNY system in 1962 could be the apocryphal story that explains Buffalo's decline, but it is hard to ignore the constant, well-intentioned, vain, grossly expensive, and - in the end - dysfunctional attempts at urban renewal in the second half of the twentieth century in Buffalo. And perhaps fittingly, the hundred years come to a close with the primary focus now on sports and gambling, with the Buffalo Bills, the Sabres, and casino gambling run by the Senecas, as the source of pride and the focus of the economy. My, how times have changed and how the mighty have fallen!
This is an engrossing, educational detailed book. It should be required reading for first-year students at the University of Buffalo and Canisius. Much of the source material is in the Erie County Public Library and the archives of the local newspapers. Goldman love Buffalo and has worked hard to make it prosper. As he writes, the city does not need to be rebuilt; it needs to be healed. Massive, urban renewal, bricks-and-mortar projects are not the solution. Instead, basic, entrepreneurial, grass roots, business and community development is probably the solution.
In the last two chapters, there is a little confusion. After claiming that the African-American population makes up fifty percent of Buffalo's 297,000 people in 2005, Goldman soon after cites an African-American population of 100,000. And after citing the Anchor Bar as the only restaurant where the races mix, a few pages later Goldman praises the "rainbow" of customers at the Towne restaurant in Allentown. Minor quibbles both.
A final, mild lament: Although I am a native of western New York, generally familiar with the city, and Goldman includes a map of the city's council districts at the front of the book, "Edge" would certainly benefit from maps of the city, especially those that reveal the many changes and neighborhoods, familiar to long-time residents of Buffalo but difficult to picture without some maps. To his credit, Goldman offers vivid verbal descriptions, often of places long gone, and numerous Internet links to photos. For me, I'd like to have seen street and/or neighborhood maps (e.g., the Hooks, Black Rock, South Buffalo) of the city, better yet, at twenty-year intervals, to illustrate the physical changes at street level.
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- Cabin Fever: Dialogues with Nature
- California Coastal Access Guide
- California the Beautiful
- Carl Linnaeus: Father of Classification (Great Minds of Science)
- Children and Nature: Psychological, Sociocultural, and Evolutionary Investigations
- Coastal Fish Identification: California to Alaska
- Complete Novels: Red Harvest / The Dain Curse / The Maltese Falcon / The Glass Key / The Thin Man (Library of America)
- Confessions of a Barbarian: Selections from the Journals of Edward Abbey, 1951-1989
- Coral Reef Coloring Book
- Costa Rica: The Ecotravellers' Wildlife Guide (Ecotravellers Wildlife Guide: Costa Rica)
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