The Art of Violin Playin by Carl Flesch is a monumental and comprehensive treatise on everything imaginable related to violin playing.  It covers body posture, left arm, right arm, tone production, practicing, musical memory and more.  Many consider this work to be the bible of how to play the violin.  It is an invaluable resource for the violin teacher and advanced student.
You can read a discussion of this book at violinist.com here.

These Sonatas for Violin and piano are simply wonderful.  Both instruments share in the importance of the music, each trading leading roles in each piece.  Hahn and Zhu play beautifully, though perhaps not in a period purist style.  This is one of my favorite cds in my small but growing collection of violin music and it is a delight every time I turn it on.  Listen to excerpts after the break.

The sycamore tree that Sir Arthur Conan Doyle used to sit in as a school boy  has been cut down.  Doyle, the creator of the famous detective Sherlock Holmes was born one hundred and fifty years ago.  When the roots of the tree in an Edinburgh suburb were determined to be too rotten it had to be cut down.  The teachers and students of the schoolhouse in which Conan Doyle was brought up decided to have a violin crafted from the tree.
read the story here

Violin making is a craft steeped in centuries of tradition.  The techniques and processes for making a violin were predominately developed or perfected in the golden age of violin making from the mid 17th century to the mid 18th Century by such hallowed names as Amati, Guarnieri and Stradivari.  Today violin making largely follow the traditions that these early pioneers mastered.
Watch this great video after the break for an overview of the process of making a violin.

Coming april 24th, The Soloist starring Jamie Foxx and Robert Downey Jr. is the story of a former classical music prodigy living on the streets of LA and the friendship he develops with a journalist who attempts to help the solist find his way back.  It is based on a true story and directed by Joe Wright (Golden Globe winner and Oscar nominee for Atonement).   A movie “about the redemptive power of music”
visit the films website
or watch the trailer here