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The Great Guitar Chord Book - Nick Crispin
by Stewwydablue If I didn't have guitar chord books, I'd only ever play all the tracks from Definitely Maybe and perhaps the odd Beatles song. That's great for me, but for those who listen when I'm strumming and howling I suppose they'd soon get bored and instead of throwing the odd drink and a bit of praise my way, they'd be hurling rotten veg and ... insults instead. The Great Acoustic Guitar Chord Songbook is, apart from the longest ever name for a songbook, a great way of increasing my repertoire of playable tunes which in turn makes it more enjoyable for those I play in front of at home, parties the odd pub etc. There are 108 songs in here, all of which lend themselves easily to an acoustic guitar and a bloke with a dodgy haircut and a dodgier voice sitting on the end of a bed strumming and singing along. There's a range of difficulty, from the three chords of Dolly Parton's Jolene (Am, C and G if you were wondering, with a capo on the fourth fret!) to the arthritis inducing 33 chord mind-bender Pinball Wizard. If you're new to playing or worried about not knowing many chords yet, then don't worry, this book very helpfully has chord boxes - little pictures of a guitar neck that show you which strings and in which frets to put your fingers. Also, above the lyrics they have printed the corresponding chord to play at that part of the song, so for example it might have Bm (B minor) written above the first word of a line and if you don't know how to play B minor, a quick look at the chord boxes at the top of the page and it will show you. I find that this method of reading music makes it so much easier and quicker to learn new songs - I've never been a fan of tab or sheet music. With 108 songs, it's hard to get bored with the book and also they've got some real acoustic classics in there like American Pie, California Dreamin' and Wonderwall. I've had this book for about 10 years now and have since gone on to buy other titles in the series. It's currently on Amazon for £9.62 (RRP is £13.95) brand new or second had it starts at 17p. I'd recommend it to both new and experienced guitar players as a way of expanding your catalogue of playable songs. My only complaint is that some of the songs are over two pages, which makes turning the page half way through playing a bit awkward. Perhaps if they'd planned the layout and order of songs better this could have been avoided. All in all though, a very good songbook with a wide range of songs to play. 4 stars, thanks for reading. Read the complete review |
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The Road to Berlin - John Erickson
by Jake Speed The Road to Berlin was written by John Erickson and published in 1983. This is the concluding volume of his mammoth two part history of the Soviet-German war and follows on directly from The Road to Stalingrad. You can tell a book is big when the reference section and bibliography accounts for nearly 200 pages alone. Erickson was an ... expert on Soviet military affairs and so you should be aware that this book is told strictly from the perspective of the Soviet Union. It's about how they responded to everything that happened on the eastern front. Their solutions, mistakes, disasters, triumphs. If you want any notable German perspective you'll have to look elsewhere. It's an unavoidable weakness at times but the insights into Stalin and his generals are often fascinating and one leaves the book with a better understanding of how the Soviet Union turned the tide after tottering unsteadily on the brink of complete collapse during the early stages of the German invasion. This second volume begins in 1942 with the Sixth German Army under Paulus suffering a fate that seems "impossible, unthinkable and unimaginable." The most powerful formation in the Wehrmacht has been caught in a massive Soviet pincer movement west of Stalingrad and 250,000 doomed German troops are now trapped in the rubble strewn city that bears Stalin's name. A quarter of a million men disappear from the German order of battle in a stroke. They never recover from the loss of Sixth Army on such a crucial front. Hitherto unblemished by defeat anywhere since the war started, this is a shattering blow for Hitler and the Nazi propaganda machine. Most of all though it means that their strength in the eastern theatre is greatly reduced. With their forces increasingly stretched and insufficient reserves to restore their equilibrium any hope of ultimate victory is gone. The German high command had considered themselves to be on the cusp of victory in the east but the sudden reality of their situation is now unavoidable and increasingly bleak. Despite - by their own estimation - having accounted for over two million Soviet soldiers and destroyed 20,000 of the enemy's tanks and much of its air force, the Red Army is not only still standing but constantly rebuilding and about to unfurl a series of huge sprawling offensives against the bewildered invaders. The Soviets have started to deploy large strategic reserves that the German high command fail to anticipate. Siberian divisions and the Far Eastern Front have marched west as the threat from Japan recedes. The greatest enforced industrial migration in history has saved many of the factories and workshops and now the productive might of the Soviet Union has gained them a superiority in numbers everywhere. As shocking as the loss of the Sixth Army was, the Germans soon discover that this was merely the opening gambit of a much larger operation. The Red Army now threatens to encircle the entire Army Group on the Don that Sixth Army was a constituent part of. The axis of the war has changed forever. The Germans had pushed ever deeper into the huge land mass with their eyes firmly fixed on Moscow and Stalingrad but the high water mark of their invasion has come and gone. With crippling losses in men and material, they no longer have the strength to fulfill Hitler's grandiose ambitions in the east and face a long, wearisome retreat against a ruthless enemy that is beginning to flex its muscles as a new superpower. The fate of the struggle in the east moves to Kursk - where the largest tank battle in history will occur. A campaign of unimaginable hardship and ferocity awaits as Stalin seeks to drive the Germans from Russian soil back to the old frontiers and beyond. The Road to Berlin is very different from the traditional "overview" narrative one has become accustomed to in books about the Second World War. The book is often told almost exlusively in the form of the movements and battles of the Red Army as they turn what appeared to be a looming defeat into a comprehensive victory. Erickson details literally every footstep of the Red Army right down to battalion level in incredibly (it has to be said) pedantic and comprehensive detail. If you want to know how and why the Red Army took a particular forest or fortress, navigated a lake, encircled or destroyed a particular German formation, then this is the book for you. To be honest, although I was aware of these books, I had no idea they were structured in this way and might possibly have thought twice if I had known. The level of detail is almost numbing at times and you do find your eyes glazing over now and again but it is worth the effort I think because there is so much factual detail here and all of it is connected to the wider strategy. If the Red Army wants to take a particular region then that often means several attacks in different areas must be launched to move the German forces around and diminish them in the crucial area. All very complicated but quite compelling. It's interesting to see where the weight of the conflict falls at different times. The Ukraine becomes very important as Erickson's book unfolds. Stalin gives the Ukraine priority because it would restore the agricultural and mineral resources of the area back to Soviet control and also put his army a footstep away from eastern Europe. Hitler wants to retain control of the region for many of the same reasons but also because if it was lost the Soviet Union would then be within striking distance of the Rumanian oil fields that keep the German war machine running. So about 60% of the entire German strength in the east resides with Army Group South. Even the author admits that while he drew on 15,000 sources a complete comprehensive history of the war is practically impossible. This is about as detailed as you are likely to find. Erickson's writing is very precise and to the point and works well although I wouldn't have minded some more descriptive passages relating to the terrain and topography. When he does set the scene he does it very well so I would have maybe liked more of this. "The Autumn of 1943 once more brought low-hung cloud, fogbanks and rain to the battlefields. By day the sun, if it appeared, shone pale and fitful and at night autumnal frosts crackled on the surface of the mud and ooze. Winter was only weeks away, but for the Red Army the coming winter was to prove very different." The vast alien terrain of Russia was deeply alienating to a lot of German soldiers, the sheer expanse of nothiness affecting them on an almost existential level. This sense of foreboding loneliness could have been touched on a trifle more (as it is in many books about this theatre). The book also suffers somewhat from a shortage of maps. This is a monstrous book in terms of size but there are only a dozen or so maps to accompany the text in the whole volume. I think the most interesting thing about Road to Berlin is that it concerns the second phase of the war when the Red Army assumed a dominant position over the Germans and began heaving them back towards eastern Europe. Much more has been written about the German invasion and initial successes but for some reason (perhaps because it became so one-sided) the long retreat of Hitler's increasingly overstretched and battered armies is less prevalent. It is very appropriate that the book begins with the turning point at Stalingrad and then it becomes more compelling because "Zitadelle" (the German attack at Kursk) was like the last throw of the dice for Hitler. Nearly one million German soldiers and over 2,000 tanks are deployed in a salient the size of a western European country but they are worn down by the intricate Soviet defensive fortifications and the counter attacks by the Red Army. The entire German Panzer wing in the east is all but destroyed in a matter of ten days. While Hitler would fly into a rage when presented with reports of Soviet factories outperforming German ones many times over, Stalin learned to become a pragmatist and would devolve more to his generals when he felt it was appropriate. The Soviets absorbed the lessons of the early defeats and now that they had numerical superiorly there was little the Germans could do to alter the destiny of the war. The details of Stalin's contact with Churchill and Roosevelt here are interesting and help to give the book more of a broader context. Stalin becomes increasingly haughty in his dealings with the west as the Red Army takes control of the eastern front. He knows that the Soviet Union is now going to have considerable clout in the post-war world and that the war in the east dwarfs anything else happening around the globe. The author's account of the Big Three Teheran conference is very interesting and captures the shrewd Stalin's growing confidence. "Teheran was the opportunity for which he had stubbornly and determinedly pressed, for which he had maneuvered, blustered and bullied. With his pocket full of plans and his mind implanted with his own notion of 'co-ordination', it was an opportunity to exploit to the full." This section of the book also has an excellent tangent about the Soviet spy network and how they infiltrated German military intelligence. The German presence in the east is in the form of three huge Army Groups (North, Centre, South) and the Soviet strategy becomes the isolation and destruction of these formations. For a time the war becomes a battle of wits between the famous opposing generals Manstein and Zhukov but even Manstein can't save Hitler's eastern ambitions now. It's fascinating to see how quickly the German position goes from one of intimidating strength to a precarious and shaky one where entire army groups could be encircled at any time by the immense tide of the Red Army. The Road to Berlin is a considerable authoritative achievement but you should remember this is not like a traditional World War 2 volume and so you don't get the constant "above ground" commentary that a Beevor or Andrew Roberts would supply. Here, you are with the Red Army on the ground as they painstakingly remove the Germans from their territories river by river, forest by forest. The passages relating to Stalin's dialogue with his western allies are certainly welcome in this regard to open the book out somewhat. The accounts of the partisan movements and also Balkan politics are interesting too I felt. The Road to Berlin is certainly worth the effort (and both this and The Road to Stalingrad are worth buying) but this is probably not a book you can just pick up and delve into without any prior knowledge of what happened in the east and I suspect that some readers might find the level of detail borders on the tedious at times. It's not a book I am likely to return to any time soon but The Road to Berlin is certainly an impressive volume and one that will give you plenty of insight into how the Soviet Union turned the tide in the east and the strategies they employed to achieve their aims. At the time of writing you can pick up a used copy of this for a few pounds. Read the complete review |
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Killer Stuff and Tons of Money - Maureen Stanton
by JOHNDMR THE BOOK For some time the bookshelves in the high street have been awash with volumes on identifying, valuing, searching out and trading in antiques. This title is nothing like that. It is basically an account in which the author shadows dealer Curt Avery as he travels in pursuit of buying and selling antiques across America, ... setting up his stall or visiting auctions. As he does so he tells her about the pros and cons, the lucky finds and the pitfalls, and what motivates people like him as he seeks to make a living in a precarious but fascinating profession where every day might bring forth some wonderful new (or old) discovery. Before continuing any further, I should stress that this is written very much from an American perspective, so some mental adjustment is required for any reader who has been introduced to the subject by 'Antiques Roadshow' and similar other British TV series. Somehow, while reading this I found myself thinking of Lovejoy, the likeable rogue as portrayed in the comedy drama series of that name by Ian McShane some years ago. This book reads almost like a novel in places, as the author describes the regular routine of her dealer as he packs up the van and waits to set up his furniture, pottery, paintings and everything else in a sale at some unearthly hour in the morning, then she describes the other drivers who are doing the same thing, and recounts the conversations she and Avery have with other dealers as well as prospective buyers. It's a precarious trade, full of traps for the unwary, but at the same time a way of life in which there are marvellous discoveries to be made. You win some, you lose some. Rather like a fruit machine, you can make money one week and lose it hand over fist the next. In the course of these narratives she also touches on the history and origins of the flea market, the French 'marche des puces' from mid-nineteenth century Paris; the impact of fakes and forgeries on the market; the impact of eBay on the business, and easy access to the goodies online, which has made things simpler for the consumer but considerably harder for the vendor; and great obsessive collectors throughout history, from Oliviero Forza, a fourteenth century Venetian merchant, to the artist Andy Warhol, who on his death in 1987 left a five-storey Manhattan townhouse with possessions filling all but two rooms. At the same time, she discusses what it is that makes people collect, quoting St Augustine, 'What is sought with difficulty is discovered with more pleasure.' (Would St Augustine have found it more fun to purchase his collectables on eBay? I doubt it). For some the thrill of the chase may lie in chasing those elusive baseball or Pokemon cards, for others - I kid you not - it is going after celebrities' half-eaten sandwiches (which are kept in the freezer, before you ask). One man in is forties has even collected his toenail clippings since he was a child. Oh dear. Does he mount them and frame them? It would be quite a talking point when he has guests round for the evening. But no, we are not told. On a more serious note, no book on such a subject can avoid the subject of how the economy has affected business. Even before the recession, she quotes Avery as saying, shops were disappearing, younger people were not coming into the antiques trade, and prices for eighteenth century furniture were dropping rapidly. Speaking from my experience when I took a certain amount of interest in some branches in antiques, I recall antiques markets around the country booming in the late 1970s and early 1980s, then a massive meltdown - from which it seems they have never recovered, and are probably unlikely to after all this time. A Sotheby's specialist is quoted as saying that these days both cheap and great objects sell, but more middle-of-the-road items are suffering. Butter churns which were highly valued a few years ago are just not wanted these days. On the other hand, the market in vintage comic books is booming. What does this say about our love of escapist reading? THE AUTHOR Maureen Stanton is a university lecturer in creative non-fiction at the University of Massachusetts. It might be a fine line between creative non-fiction and fiction, but I'll assume that this book is based on fact. OVERALL This is quite an entertaining book, and informative to an extent, but I would say its value is rather limited. At times it almost becomes little more than a description of sales - another day, another dollar, or a couple of thousand if you're lucky. Dollars, yes - it will be of more use to an American readership, or a lover of Americana generally, less so for the British enthusiast. It will tell you a certain amount about the US market in a fun way, and if you want a lighthearted view of the pros and cons of the trade, this will fill the gap. But I wouldn't call it a reference book. Anyone who is looking for a definitive handbook on dealing in antiques, or a guide as to what might be worth seeking out at the next major car boot sale, or even purchasing as an investment - always a notoriously fickle area, and even more so these days - will do well to look elsewhere. [This is a revised version of the review I originally posted on Bookbag and ciao] Read the complete review |
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Hardcover: 320 pages / Non-Fiction Book / Publisher: Short Books Ltd / Published: 1 Nov 2012 |
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1 review Paperback: 326 pages / Non-Fiction Book / Publisher: Penguin Books / Reprint: 29 May 2012 |
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1 review Paperback: 176 pages / Non-Fiction Book / Publisher: Vintage / Published: 5 Feb 2009 |
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1 review Mass Market Paperback: 304 pages / Non-Fiction Book / Publisher: St Martin's Press / Published: 21 Jun 2001 |
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1 review Mass Market Paperback: 294 pages / Non-Fiction Book / Publisher: Berkley / Published: 6 Jan 2009 |
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1 review Publisher: True Crime / Non-Fiction Book / Published: 31 Dec 1994 |
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1 review Paperback: 96 pages / Non-Fiction Book / Publisher: Didax Educational Resources / Published: 1 Jan 2006 |
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1 review Hardcover: 368 pages / Non-Fiction Book / Publisher: Desert Hearts / Published: 4 May 2011 |
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1 review Paperback: 296 pages / Non-Fiction Book / Publisher: Celestial Arts / 2nd Edition: 15 April 2009 |
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1 review Paperback: 256 pages / Non-Fiction Book / Publisher: Cleis Press / Published: 9 Oct 2008 |
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