Leonard Bernstein's Norton Lectures on the future course of music drew cheers from his Harvard audiences and television viewers. In the re-creation of his talks, the author considers music ranging from Hindu ragas through Mozart and Ravel to Copland, Shoenberg, and Stravinsky.

It's 340 years in the future. Humanity's darkest secret is reawakening, and the only thing that can stop it is to find the Members of the legendary Council. The problem? They're all teenagers.With no memories of how she got there, Nikki stumbles into the small rural region of North Cordell, with nothing by her name and only a glowing green Stone. She intends to listen to the Stone's instructions to stay safe and out of sight, but a light blinking in the mountain calls to her. Winding up trapped in the woods during a storm with five other teens, they're attacked by people in capes and supernatural abilities. Saved by the mysterious Defending Sergeant, and accused of a ridiculous crime, they have on chance to prove their innocence. With everyone against them, the six reluctant friends must put their differences aside and embrace the truth of their destiny against the very nature of which they know.

A Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of 2021 A provocative interpretation of why classical music in America "stayed white"—how it got to be that way and what can be done about it. In 1893 the composer Antonín Dvorák prophesied a “great and noble school” of American classical music based on the “negro melodies” he had excitedly discovered since arriving in the United States a year before. But while Black music would foster popular genres known the world over, it never gained a foothold in the concert hall. Black composers found few opportunities to have their works performed, and white composers mainly rejected Dvorák’s lead. Joseph Horowitz ranges throughout American cultural history, from Frederick Douglass and Huckleberry Finn to George Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess and the work of Ralph Ellison, searching for explanations. Challenging the standard narrative for American classical music fashioned by Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein, he looks back to literary figures—Emerson, Melville, and Twain—to ponder how American music can connect with a “usable past.” The result is a new paradigm that makes room for Black composers, including Harry Burleigh, Nathaniel Dett, William Levi Dawson, and Florence Price, while giving increased prominence to Charles Ives and George Gershwin. Dvorák’s Prophecy arrives in the midst of an important conversation about race in America—a conversation that is taking place in music schools and concert halls as well as capitols and boardrooms. As George Shirley writes in his foreword to the book, “We have been left unprepared for the current cultural moment. [Joseph Horowitz] explains how we got there [and] proposes a bigger world of American classical music than what we have known before. It is more diverse and more equitable. And it is more truthful.”

"Unanswered Questions" chronicles the families' of 9/11 victims search for answers to learn why their nations' defenses completely collapsed. It details government stonewalling their efforts, Bush's reluctant establishment of the 9/11 Commission; and a Report that left over 70% of the families' questions unanswered. The book uncovers a series of efforts by families for a new inquiry up to 2021.--Publisher.

We live in a radically skeptical age. Tough questions are being asked about Christianity. And most believers are ill-equipped to provide the answers our culture and communities desperately need. Many in today’s church do not know the Bible as well as they should and they struggle with their own “big questions” about the faith. After receiving more than four thousand questions at his Christian Thinkers Society events over the span of six years, Dr. Jeremiah Johnston began to recognize six categories of recurring, trending questions that dominated the rest. In Unanswered, he tackles these tough issues that plague the minds of believers but are rarely addressed in church, such as… Why is it that God often seems to remain silent? How can we trust in the bodily resurrection of Jesus, and what does it mean for us today? What do Christians need to understand about suicide and mental illness? How should Christians respond to spiritual darkness and the obsession with paranormal activity? Why is biblical illiteracy so dangerous for Christians and the church? Why do we experience suffering and pain? Unanswered will leave you enriched, characterized by a thinking faith, capable to communicate confidently, and committed to escape the tendency to offer trite answers to a skeptical world.

(Amadeus). With style, wit, and expertise, Leonard Bernstein shares his love and appreciation for music in all its varied forms in The Infinite Variety of Music , illuminating the deep pleasure and sometimes subtle beauty it offers. He begins with an "imaginary conversation" with George Washington entitled "The Muzak Muse," in which he argues the values of actively listening to music by learning how to read notes, as opposed to simply hearing music in a concert hall. The book also features the reproduction of five television scripts from Bernstein on the influence of jazz, the timeless appeal of Mozart, musical romanticism, and the complexities of rhythmic innovation. Also included are Bernstein's analyses of symphonies by Dvorak, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, and Brahms, a rare reproduction of a 1957 lecture on the nature of composing, and a report on the musical scene written for the New York Times after his sabbatical leave from directorship of the New York Philharmonic during the 1964-65 season.