Zenith Reviews

Because this book has colorful pencil sketches with hidden letters, it is fun to look through with children and try to find the letters, as well as repeat the rhymes. Rewarding for children and whomever is reading with them.

My son was so excited that he could find all of the letters. He asks to read it over and over. It's a book that definitely won't get dusty in our house. Thanks Angie, for a great book!

"A-Zenith of Creatures" is a one-of-a-kind alphabet book that can be enjoyed by everyone. The animals are cute and whimsical and seem to enjoy helping us to learn! I recommend it as a great opportunity for parents, grandparents, and friends to give it as a gift for any occasion. "A-Zenith of Creatures"is a "keeper"!

This is an excellent example of why A. Lobo Antunes should win the Nobel Prize. The book is built around a once healthy family with a very peculiar group of members. Each one will give you is view of the family in is strange vision of the world. Amazing book.

The author is a MD shrink And we feel that very well on the way he draws his characters on this book. Very well written. One of the Nobel prize nominees this year, last year and next year. Until he finally wons it.

One of the best contemporary portuguese novelists! The reading of this book, or any other of the same author for that matter, is both compelling and envolving! For those who are strangers to portuguese fiction I strongly recommend this book.

Antunes book is not an easy read, but once you get started it is impossible to put down. His poetic style is intoxicating. Read him before the recieves the Nobel prize!

In The Natural Order Of Things, Antonio Lobo Antunes tells the story of two families and the secrets that inextricably bind them. The finely tuned, vividly articulate voices and memories of his characters present a dreamlike reality that resonates in the mind and imagination of the reader: an army officer tortured in prison on charges of conspiracy; an elderly man, once a miner in Mozambique, now reduced to dreams of "flying underground"; a diabetic teenage girl and the middle-aged husband she despises. These and other elements combine to create a portrait of a disintegrating society and the history of Portugal as a family history. The Natural Order Of Things is ably translated from the Portuguese by Richard Zenith.

This is Antunes' second book in his so-called "Benfica trilogy". It is a strange and haunting story about a family and their surroundings during three generations, and Antunes tells us about their inner lives and their deepest feelings. Despite the surreal and tragic settings of his characters, the author manages to convey a genuine feeling of compassion in his story (or rather, stories). This is truly a tragedy in a dark landscape. But it is all so beautifully told! A wonderful book it is, and I recommend it to all book lovers who are willing to put in an effort. I believe this is one of this century's great books. It may seem confusing at times - Antunes uses parallel monologues and stories throughout the book - but it all adds up, as they say. Read it, and you'll see - it really is strange to be so happy after reading such a sad story!

This is easily the best written book for collectors that I've read. Not only are its 160 magazine-sized pages thorough and exhaustive in their presentation of history, key personalities, and technical data, but the book is thoughtfully structured to be as useful as a reference as it is an entertaining read. A wealth of pictures, many in color, come from ads, from Zenith archives, and from individual collections.

The book places the genesis and subsequent evolution of the TO clearly in historical context and explains the impact of the TO on the commercial development and acceptance of the portable radio. The authors provide practical advice for collectors, even citing restoration techniques and specific restoration products used by museums.

Especially gratifying is the use of endnotes that provide sources of historical information. More than just references, the endnotes contain enough interesting anecdotal data that you'll find yourself reading them in their entirety when you finish the main text.

If you are interested in the history of radio for any reason, you won't go wrong with this fascinating, authoritative work. I expect that it has already significantly increased interest in the collecting of Trans-Oceanics.

I recently acquired a 1956-57 model Y600 at a flea market. The Zenith Trans-Oceanic is clearly in a class by itself and I wanted to learn as much about the history of this model as possible. What a pleasant surprise when I received "The Zenith Trans-Oceanic, The Royalty of Radios" and found it to be extremely well documented, highly entertaining and it even includes a restoration guideline section. The print quality is first class with all the historical photographs of related personages and reproduction of Trans-Oceanic advertisements that a reader could want. The writing style is both scholarly and entertaining. In short this book has provided significant additional pleasure in owning, restoring and listening to a radio worthly of being known as a historical benchmark in radio history. Thanks to Amazon Books the finding and acquiring this book was made easy!

Whenever radio-guys assemble to swap tales of great radios one name stands above the rest - the Zenith Trans-Oceanic. Considered the radio for listening to the world, Trans-Oceanic portables were one of the finest engineered and designed products made in America. I learned of the magic of the Trans-Oceanic from my foster Dad, who carried one (the R520\URR military version) in Korea. He told me it was the most reliable radio he had ever seen. A few years later I bought a 600 series and discovered for myself the joys of short-wave listening. I carried that Zenith from the States to Europe where, two years later, I bought a Royal 3000-1 which went back to the States and then on to Southeast Asia. The Zenith Trans-Oceanic - The Royalty of Radios, is one of the finest collector books I have ever seen. The author's spent more than two years researching the Zenith archives to bring this book to life. Page after page of beautifully produced color, combined with black and white photographs show each model inside and out, along with original magazine ads presented in their original format. Information covering the origin of the Trans-Oceanic and model changes through the years make for interesting reading. Also included are repair hints, as well as collecting information. The section on original cost compared to 1996 dollars demonstrates how expensive these sets were when new. The original Trans-Oceanic sold for $75 in 1942, which translates to $695 today. The most astounding price was on the first transistorized model, the 1000-D, introduced in 1958 at a 1996 price of over $1400! This is a book for anyone interested in the history of one of the finest products ever produced in the United States - the Zenith Trans-Oceanic radio. The authors, publisher and printer deserve a thank you for producing this fine volume. by Bob Moore The Roving Editor

Pessoa calls Prose "The Dark Clouds of My Horizon" and how aptly too. Nobody writes about the human condition, the bleak, despairing but ever beauteous state of our mysterious lives quite the same way as Pessoa. This is existentialism without the bitterness, the anger and ultimately the denial. This is the documentation of a man who pours out his soul to the world without resorting to pathetic calls for sympathy. The usual blend of inane and manufactured pathos that seem to plague everybody else. This is a man, a man of incredible moral courage and spiritual strength, reporting from the depths of his reflections with no pretensions of offering hope or heartwarming, feelgood sentiments. This is, in short, prose (or poetry) of the highest order. This book is not recommended for everybody, only for people who dare to face their lives and live to their fullest potential.

This is a beautiful, amorphous book which is different everytime one reads it--regardless of the translation. What I mean is...where one stops while reading changes the book...it is 'literally' a different book everytime one reads. This translation is the best by far of those available, I also believe it to be the most scholarly. I have only one proviso: Please, if you can manage it, find a copy of the original printing of this translation, in reprinting they've reduced the scale of the book without resetting so the print is smaller and the bind is not quite as good (if you're like me, you'll likely wear this book out reading it no matter what edition you have). If you can't, by all means buy the reprint, it's not that bad...just regrettable that they had to reduce to save money. THIS IS A LANDMARK OF MODERNISM AND OF POSTMODERNISM...I WOULD EVEN GO AS FAR AS TO SAY THAT IT IS A LANDMARK OF THE UNIVERSAL HUMAN SPIRIT. =)

This book is full of genius and madness, which are nearly indistinguishable from one another. Like Kafka, Pessoa stands above his peers for his profound sense of humanity. He is also as singular as Kafka. Pessoa is a mystery, and his notes and letters further illustrate this. I am sorry that he died before the world would honor him as one of the Twentieth Century's greatest writers. However, Pessoa was well aware of his genius and the admiration of the world would have done nothing to convince him of his worth. He was already convinced!
Pessoa published little during his lifetime, but it was because he never submitted much of his work for publication. Apparetnly, the Portugese publishers still haven't published all of his works, either, and that is a shame.
One thing that stands out about this book is that Pessoa does not engage in any of the posturing that one might find in the works of other writers convinced of their genius. One senses that Pessoa considers his genius not in boast, but as if it were as unavoidable as his own face. It is fact to him; he cannot change it. His is a sad genius, not a violent genius. But do not pity him; he knew what he was doing. Pessoa was a man who knew what it meant to be a writer (that is, a perpetual other, an individual who can describe the world because he stands apart from it).
Pessoa is a wonder. Buy this book. I only wish it were the "Collected Prose" of Pessoa rather than the "Selected Prose."

One more note, if you are interested in Portugese literature you must read Anotnio Lobo Antunes, also published by Grove Press. A few of his works have been also translated by Richard Zenith (to whom I am grateful for his translations). If you like madness, madness in the Faulknerian sense, then you will love Lobo Antunes.

Richard Zenith is my favourite translator of Pessoa; in this collection, he brings the insight and perspective he brought to his transcendant "Pessoa & Co." and "Book of Disquietude." The puckish nature of Pessoa's heteronym project is put into sharp relief: those who know only Pessoa/Soares may have thought the subsumption into heteronymology a sad affaire.

This collection complicates and deepens that perspective, with selections ranging from the whole of Pessoa's life, from the childhood Alexander Search to the elderly and Stoic Baron of Tieve, yet remains (as Pessoa remains) wholly delightful and charming. A Maria José even appears, in a letter "From A Hunchbacked Girl To A Metalworker" (a heartbreaking letter, I may add). Pessoa's possibly affected eccentricities is in full evidence here: witness the "Riddle Of The Stars," a kind of proto-"Changing Light At Sandover," wherein Pessoa receives otherworldly communiqués via automatic writing and the spirits exhort him repeatedly to lose his virginity. Other kicks: his "static drama" "O Marinhero" and Alvaro de Campos' "Ultimatum," where he personally attacks everyone responsible for World War I (and I mean, _everyone_).

Zenith's notes are indispensable (though he peculiarly abandons his "Disquietude" for "Disquiet," and chooses American English as his idiom). All in all, a welcome addition to the Pessoan archive in English, and a breathtaking array of further complications.

This book does beautiful service to the experience of lesbian love and sensuality. Great for reading to a lover on a moonlit night or for wooing a new love to the next level.

This book is of real interest to someone interested in tube radios and their beginnings. Has great pictures and copies of sales brochures Just wish the authors would have gone clear through the 1930s.

It is always fun to read a book written by someone in love with a subject. This beautifully illustrated history of Zenith transistor radios is the perfect example of a love affair in print. Ads, color photos, engineering trivia, pricing estimates, and a firm dose of opinion, all beautifully packaged.