How do children learn music? And how can music teachers help children to become independent and self-sufficient musical thinkers? Author Eric Bluestine sheds light on these issues in music education.

SHE'S ALWAYS BEEN THE PROTECTOR. —THAT WILL NEVER CHANGE. Former homicide detective Melody Beck has always taken care of her younger sisters. But lately…that was the one area in which she’d failed. Her younger sister has just barely escaped a band of vicious killers. And the threat wasn’t over yet. Melody is still searching for answers. All signs now point to the richest man in Texas being the mastermind behind the attacks. That billionaire is still out there. Watching. Watching them all. Melody is going to see he pays for what he did… Except there is one small complication she hadn’t told her family about. The billionaire’s son. The one man she couldn’t forget. The man she had loved before. HIS FATHER ISN'T A KILLER. —HE NEEDS A WAY TO PROVE IT. Houghton Barratt knows there is no way his father would have harmed an innocent family. The only way Houghton can fix this is by going after the woman accusing his father and convince her to tell the truth to the media outlets. Even if his own plans for her older sister aren't exactly on the up and up. A different Beck sister is Houghton’s real target now. MELODY IS COMING WITH HIM. —WHETHER SHE WANTS TO OR NOT. He has a daring plot to fix everything. And it all hinges on Melody. Houghton is right there in front of her before Melody can even begin to escape. Now, she is a hostage, a pawn in his game. A game he intends to win. But as Houghton tangles with Melody, the real mastermind is getting closer. Closer than they could imagine. Only this time the killer’s focusing on Melody—and the sisters she'll do anything to protect. Houghton makes Melody a vow he would willingly die to keep: Melody will never be the price Houghton pays for his father…

Vs. is the sound of a band on fire. The same confluence of talent, passion, timing, and fate that made “grunge” the world's soundtrack also lit a short fuse beneath Pearl Jam. The band combusted between late 1992 and mid-1994, the span during which they planned, recorded, and supported their sophomore record. The spotlight, the pressure, the pace-it all nearly turned the thriving act to ash. Eddie Vedder, the reluctant public face of the band, responded by lashing out lyrically. Jeff Ament, Mike McCready, and Stone Gossard, who beheld success with varying degrees of anxious satisfaction, attacked their instruments in solidarity. Dave Abbruzzese welcomed the rock-star lifestyle, and left his mark on the record with more than just potent percussion. Vs. roils with fury-and at times, gently steams-over the trappings of fame, human faults, and societal injustice. The record is a thrashing testament to Pearl Jam's urgent creativity and greater-good interests, and the band's logistical calculations behind it drew a career-defining line in the sand. It promised the world that Pearl Jam would neither burn out nor fade away. This book weaves research, little-known details, and band members' memories into a definitive account of how Vs. set them on a path toward enduring integrity and relevance.

DIV With National Socialism's arrival in Germany in 1933, Jews dominated music more than virtually any other sector, making it the most important cultural front in the Nazi fight for German identity. This groundbreaking book looks at the Jewish composers and musicians banned by the Third Reich and the consequences for music throughout the rest of the twentieth century. Because Jewish musicians and composers were, by 1933, the principal conveyors of Germany’s historic traditions and the ideals of German culture, the isolation, exile and persecution of Jewish musicians by the Nazis became an act of musical self-mutilation. Michael Haas looks at the actual contribution of Jewish composers in Germany and Austria before 1933, at their increasingly precarious position in Nazi Europe, their forced emigration before and during the war, their ambivalent relationships with their countries of refuge, such as Britain and the United States and their contributions within the radically changed post-war music environment. /div

Botticelli’s Muse peels back layers of history to tell a fictionalized version of the life of Sandro Botticelli, his conflicts with the Medici family of Florence, and the woman at the heart of his paintings. In 1477, Botticelli is suddenly fired by his prestigious patron and friend Lorenzo de’ Medici. In the villa of his irritating new patron, the artist’s creative well runs dry—until the day he sees Floriana, a Jewish weaver imprisoned in his sister’s convent. But events threaten to keep his unlikely muse out of reach. So begins a tale of one of the art world’s most beloved paintings, La Primavera, as Sandro, a confirmed bachelor, and Floriana, a headstrong artist in her own right, enter into a turbulent relationship.