Storm Thorgerson is best known, of course, as the premiere album art designer with a 30-year association with Pink Floyd. If you became fond of his work because you're a PF fan, you don't want to miss this book just because Floyd art isn't the primary focus this time around. Storm's writing in Mind Over Matter was very entertaining, but in Eye of the Storm he's assumed an even more relaxed, personally revealing style. His character comes through more clearly, and he's a very engaging character indeed!

Among the book's features is an art concept that was originally intended for a Hey You 1994 concert video. He confesses that the Tree of Half Life concept didn't begin as Pink Floyd art. It tells more than his previous books about his talented associates, for example Keith Breeden (who is unfortunately now retired from the business).

The book is compelling entertainment, and it fills a gap for some of us who missed seeing his intriguing work for less famous bands than Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd. My favorite at the moment is the Catherine Wheel art he selected for this book's cover.

It is a nice handbook,handy and small to carry around, however it is a littl too brief.

John R. Adams's "Harriet Beecher Stowe: Updated Edition," in the Twayne's United States Authors Series is a short and succinct biography of Harriet Beecher Stowe from A to Z in less than 131 pages. No small task considering her influence on 19th century America.

Adam's book includes a chronology of events that serves as an excellent outline of the major events in Stowe's life. The book also includes a section on research notes, a selected bibliography and it includes a detailed index.

The book in organized by major life periods, such as her moving to Cincinnati and her publication of "Uncle Tom's Cabin." The book will serve those who require a significant understanding of Stowe without spending a lot of time reading larger biographies of her life. Therefore, it can be describe as an excellent introductory text. Well suitable for those studying American Civil War history, American literature, American religious history or women's history.

While John R. Adams is not an historian, he has clearly contributed to our understanding of Harriet Beecher Stowe and her writings. He is a graduate of the University of Michigan and the University of Southern California.

John Engels (professor of English at St. Michael's College and an award winning author of ten volumes of poetry) offers a impressively textured series of memorable poetic monologues in House And Garden in revelation and celebration of the thoughts of Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden (and beyond), and the process of establishing order through the naming of things - and feelings. Adam in the Graveyard: How cold it is,/that white sun smoking overhead,/powerful contours of snow//braiding, dividing/around the stones,/sheeting and rumpling as if//something were struggling/to break through./In this place//memory's no salvation,/there's no cause to wake/or trouble us, in this place love//has dwindled to fatigue/like winter gardens/discarded to this//whirl of dirt,/to these heaviest/of days, to this most durable//of our inclinations. John Engels' House And Garden is also available in hardcover.

Very well written and illustrated ( by the authors wife). My grandson , who is fascinated with bugs and lizards, loves the story. Written by a resident of and about a lizard in the USVI. A fun and educational story.He lives on St Thomas.

The Profiles of the Presidents series is suited for those young readers who want a lot of pictures to go along with the text. There are indeed historic pictures on every page from paintings, etchings, and the like contemporary to the life of John Adams (including a newspaper clipping reporting the amazing historical coincidence that Adams and Thomas Jefferson both died on the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence). However, Andrew Santella slips in a competent juvenile biography of the American patriot who became the nation's second President, having the historical misfortune of having an administration that fell between the Mt. Rushmore figures of George Washington and Jefferson. Santella emphasizes the life of Adams as that of an "ordinary man," which is something certainly highlighted by any comparisons to the other Founding Fathers. Young readers should get an appreciation for Adams as THE major figure in the American struggle for independence before the start of the Revolutionary War. They will also get a sense for how the rise of political parties doomed his political career. Santella deals forthrightly with the major problems of the one term as President Adams served but also emphasizes the accomplishments for which he should be remembered. Not only are the main details of the life of John Admas covered, but the early history of the republic. Like all of the volumes in the Profiles of the Presidents sereis this look at John Adams features a glossary, fast facts about the president, a parallel timeline of world and presidential events, extensive resources to help young readers understand the president's life and times better, and an index. Younger students assigned to research Adams for class will find this an excellent book to turn to first.

Mr. Brown is one hell of an author with other great books. I would like to commend Mr. Walt Brown on a great piece of writing. Also I know Mr. Brown personally and he is such a weirdo!

Ann Graham Gaines's juvenile biography of "John Adams: Our Second President" is an excellent book for young students to find out about the patriot whose accomplishments were overshadowed by the men who were elected before and after him: George Washington and Thomas Jefferson. This book has only four chapters: American Patriot, A Weak Vice President, The Presidency, and Saving the Nation from War. So even though Adams only served one four-year term as President, his time in the office is the focus on half of Gaines's book. No doubt Adams himself would be grateful that the final chapter emphasizes what he considered to be his major accomplishment in office, which was avoiding going to war with France.

This book focuses on providing basic information about Adams, with "Interesting Facts" about his life and times added to the margins. Each chapter has a page devoted to details about a related topic: The Boston Massacre, Abigail Adams, the White House and the friendship between Adams and Jefferson. There are a couple dozen illustrations in the book, all of which are in color. The back of this volume includes a time line of John Adams's life, a glossary of three dozen words, information on all of the Presidents form Washington to Bush, Presidential facts, and internet sites and books for finding further information.

Older students or those looking for more detailed information about Adams in a juvenile biography should turn next to Marlene Targ Brill's biography in the Encyclopedia of Presidents series and eventually David McCullough's best-selling biography. The "Our Presidents" books are part of the "Spirit of America" series, which focuses on the American experience in terms of history, culture, and politics.

John Adams, Second President of these United States, is certainly enjoying a revitalized reputation thanks to David McCullough's best-selling biography. But for younger students who are not yet ready to tackle that weighty tome, Marlene Targ Brill provides a solid introduction to the man for this volume in the Encyclopedia of Presidents series. The story begins with what Adams considered to be his most important accomplishment as President, which was keeping the young nation from going to war with France. But Brill establishes right from the start that this patriotic man was frequently an unpopular public figure. At the start, Brill offers the verdict of history on John Adams as pronounced by Benjamin Franklin, who said Adams "means well for his country, is always an honest man, often a wise one, but sometimes and in some things absolutely out of his senses."

This book covers the boyhood of John Adams in Braintree, Massachusetts, his education at Harvard, his career as a lawyer, his marriage to Abigail Smith, and his involvement in the movement for American independence. After the Declaration of Independence was adopted, Adams planned on retiring from politics, his life's work accomplished, but his nation was not even close to being done with him. After a decade of work in the Foreign Service, Adams was elected to two terms as the country's first Vice President (a New Englander to balance Southerner George Washington), and then faced the unenviable task of being the person who followed Washington as President and was then in turn replaced by Thomas Jefferson. In perhaps the greatest irony in American history, both Adams and Jefferson would die on July 4, 1826, the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence.

I have always admired Adams ever since I became enamored of the musical "1776" and enjoyed "The Adams Chronicles" mini-series. This is not a slick looking book but it does provide more than adequate coverage of the life of its subject, which is supposed to be its purpose. There are better looking juvenile biographies of Adams, but they do not provide the amount of information Brill presents here. This volume is illustrated with dozens of black and white illustrations, mostly engravings and illustrations from Adams's lifetime, as well as maps, pamphlets and signatures. The book contains a detailed Chronology of American History that lists virtually ever year from the birth of Washington in 1732 to the crash of the space shuttle Challenger in 1986, when this book was published.

The Profiles of the Presidents series is a superb collection of introductory juvenile biographies for young students, which I think is around the halfway mark in terms of covering everyone from Washington to Bush the Younger. Ironically, it is because of the current resident of the White House that John Quincy Adams has received more attention in recent years. After all, the parallels are extraordinary: both men are the only sons of Presidents to be elected to the office, they both have the same first name but different middle names, and they both lost the popular vote in their first election. Will the parallel continue in 2004? Well, no: because while every other President who was elected with less of the popular vote lost their bid for re-election they both (John Quincy Adams and Benjamin Harrison) lost in rematches with the opponents who won the popular vote (Andrew Jackson and Grover Cleveland) and that is not going to happen this time because Al Gore did "Saturday Night Live" and disappeared into the sunset.

Michael Burgan begins this book by establishing the idea that the story of John Quincy Adams is that of "A Lifetime of Service." Where Adams is most unique is that there he continued to serve his country after his four difficult years in the White House, serving in the U.S. House of Representatives and becoming known as "Old Man Eloquent" for his attacks on slavery (touched on in Steven Spielberg's film "Amistad"). Burgan deals with the problems of being the son of a President but also goes into detail on the extraordinary diplomat career both abroad and at home. The end result is the inevitable conclusion that even if he had not been elected President the life and political career of John Quincy Adams should be remembered.

In addition to the concise but detailed biography, this volume is profusely illustrated with historic etchings, paintings, and maps. Even when the illustrations are black & white they often end up with colored frames, showing the premium placed by the editors on having an eye-catching book. In the back of the book you will find a glossary, fast facts about Adams, a parallel timeline of world and presidential events, extensive resources to help young students better understand the life and times of this particular president, and a decent index. The Profiles of the Presidents series is excellent and Michael Burgan's look at "John Quincy Adams" is one of the best to date.