Some said that PIETER BRUEGEL THE ELDER, who started as a landscape painter, swallowed and then spat the Alps onto canvases and panels calling up Italian mountainous landscape masters Giulio Campagnola and Titian. In fact, he played out about 80 real "Children's games" in the Italian city view style of Piero della Francesca and of the woodcut-illustrated works of Sebastiano Serlio. But earlier Netherlandish school influences were in Flemish landscape painter Joachim Patinir-type bird's-eye detailed never-never land mapping of "Landscape with Christ appearing to the apostles at the sea of Tiberias," "The flight into Egypt," and "The parable of the sower"; and later in Herri met de Bles-type "Procession of Calvary," as his largest picture, "Sermon of St John the Baptist," and "Suicide of Saul" in all its Albrecht Altdorfer-type impressionistic brilliance, as forerunners along with the brilliantly yellow "Harvesters" and the three "Haymaking" women to Peter Paul Rubens. "The adoration of the kings," as his first large-figure and only upright-formatted picture, was one of two Italian-influenced paintings, with altarpiece-type proportions, Masaccio-type Moor, late Quattrocento-type bending and kneeling kings, and Michelangelo-type upper body for the Christ Child against balanced interweaving of strong and subdued reds, pink, green, dun, chamois, and black. The other was the one work that he kept with him until death, his small picture of Christ with Raphael-type pivotally placed adulteress, as one of his most copied paintings along with "Winter landscape with a bird trap," in a mature, rare grisaille with brown touchings and gray shades, and with his favorite theme of humility and tolerance. His only mythological "Landscape with the fall of Icarus" had its ploughman doing business as usual, thereby acting out the German proverb of no plough stopping for the sake of a dying man. Elsewhere, subtly color-schemed figures and spaces pioneered applying Hugo van der Goes-type stupid staring to bug-eyed, senselessly frenzied human automatons in "Parable of the blind" and bringing together in one artwork about 100 "Proverbs." He foreran Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio and Rembrandt in daringly artificial light effects for great spiritual depth with the brightly illuminated head of St John the Evangelist asleep and the supernaturally lighted Virgin Mary dying uncustomarily surrounded by patriarchs, martyrs, holy virgins, and confessors. The later bareboned getting across attitudes and moods by key body language, as in "The big fish eating the little fish," and by untraditional symbols, as in gluttonously round bulks of bellies and trees in "The land of Cockaigne," took the place of his earliest image- and motif-crowded works, as in the Botticelli-type Calumny with the King and his advisors, Ignorance and Suspicion, for his print series on "Vices" and in the Hieronymus Bosch-type grotesque animal and human combinations of fantasies running wild, with the "Christ in limbo" and "Last judgment" drawings and with the many-hued, -shaded, -textured, and -tinted "Fall of the rebel angels," "Mad Meg," and "Triumph of death" paintings. Throughout, his art drew on a mastery of color, from the wintry crisp, subdued black, brown, gray and white "Hunters in the snow" to the delicately dun, gray, mauve and subdued green "Misanthrope" and the pointillistically fresh-leafed "Landscape with the magpie on the gallows." So author Wolfgang Stechow leaves readers on good terms with the 16th-century Flemish artist's hugely productive career and scantily documented life. His clearly written and helpfully illustrated book works well with HIERONYMUS BOSCH by Jos Koldeweij et al, SEBASTIANO SERLIO ON ARCHITECTURE, SERLIO ON DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE, and ALBRECHT ALTDORFER AND THE ORIGINS OF LANDSCAPE by Christopher S Wood.

Pieter Bruegel The Elder must have been a very interesting fellow. I would have liked to have known him. This lovely book lets you enter the strange world of Bruegel, overflowing with the reality of the 16th century Netherlands mixed (in the same painting) with biblical and classical scenes! To the modern eye and mind these are very disconcerting combinations! You have the Tower Of Babel being constructed next to a waterway which contains European sailing ships, while off in the distance you can see the houses of Antwerp. You have Icarus falling into the sea while a 16th century farmer walks by with his ox and while another man fishes nearby, both seemingly oblivious to the fate of the poor man. Bruegel's paintings, most of which were done on wood panel, are full of many different people doing many different things. You get a sense of hustle and bustle and life. Oftimes the people are odd-looking and have strange physiques. Children are indistinguishable from adults. Visual puns abound. Men at a wedding dance have outrageously bulging codpieces; bare buttocks are sometimes visible through windows. Other paintings contain moral lessons and are full of horrible demons or skeletons rampaging through the countryside like some awful supernatural army, raping and murdering. Still other paintings are of idyllic scenes, such as maidens walking through the countryside at harvest time or children playing games on the ice during winter. Bruegel was a master of color and the harvest scenes glow with golden yellow and the winter scenes chill you with whites and subtle greys and leaden skies. Taschen has done it again with another fine book with excellent commentary and high quality reproductions. The paintings of Bruegel are full of humor and horror and beauty and ugliness and sometimes so much is going on you can't digest it all at one time. The paintings of Bruegel are full of life.

TASCHEN Basic Series has done it again. Don't judge a book by its softcover: this stunning, simple but expertly designed book is one of the best buys you will ever get a kick out of. I love the way the book gives us a full reproduction then zoom in on the details with paragraphs of text discussing it. It has none of DK Art Book Series' awkward box-and-lines overcrowding the pages. Unlike the skimpy-on-text Phaidon Colour Library series, Taschen proves you can strike a great balance between text and visuals. The double-page spread of THE SUICIDE OF SAUL and THE FALL OF THE REBEL ANGELS are especially astounding in their details. There is a nifty 2-page pictorial guide to THE NETHERLANDS PROVERBS identifying 118 proverbs, and 4 detail panels for the amazing THE TOWER OF BABEL. Handsomely produced and extremely affordable, this Taschen book is a great introductory package all around.

Southwest gardeners who live in very dry areas will benefit from Mary Rose Duffield and Warren Jones' Plants For Dry Climates, an informative, "user friendly" book which tells how to build and maintain a landscape on very little water. Plants For Dry Climates and a focus on organizing a planting area based on usage makes for a title which tells how plants can improve the climate around one's house.

The plant dictionary is very thorough, and helpful.The color photos are an excellent tool for someone who is unfamiliar with plants for dry regions. Information is easy to find, and to the point.

The authors start out with the background information regarding the environment and basic gardening techniques. Then the book provides in-depth information on the suitable plants along with photographs. These detailed descriptions are very useful and clear. I highly recommend to anyone who is thinking or just want to know about xeriscaping.

Absolutely outstanding illustrations, clear details, excellent prints. A pleasure to browse.

I HAVE SEEN AND BOUGHT THIS BOOK. IF A PERSON LOVES GORGEOUS, BEAUTIFUL, FLORAL ART PARTICULARLY ROSES TO HAVE THIS BOOK IS A MUST. BROWSING AND REVIEWING IT IS SIMPLY A MOST ENJOYABLE PASSTIME. IT'S REALLY A BOOK OF BEAUTY, A JOY FOREVER.

We read this book at least once a day when my daughter was 18 months old, until she was three. She really identified with Annie Rose, and the day-to-day events in Annie Rose's life. As a parent, I enjoyed this book too, even after the one-millionth reading. I think toddlers and preschoolers really enjoy the peeks at everyday life that Shirley Hughes creates.

I named my baby girl, Annie Rose, and so when I found out about this book I had to snatch one up! It is an adorable and gentle little poetry book for young children. My baby enjoys it; even my 3- and 5-year-old boys love it. They think Annie Rose is so funny and they like her big brother, Alphie too. We have read this book many times together and have enjoyed it every time.

My two-year-old daughter recently received this book for her birthday. She was immediately intrigued by it and wanted it read to her often. About two days later she picked it up once again to have it read to her and announced, "I yove dis book."

This wonderful little book suggests experiences/rituals that validate, guide and support women diagnosed with breast cancer as they travel the often overwhelming terrain from diagnosis to healing journey. Using the myth of Pandora's Box as metaphor, the awareness, sensitivity and power of the writing and simple heart-felt rituals is inspiring. Highly recommended for support groups--both formally sponsored as well as informal gatherings of friends-- and by individuals in a meditative way.

RIRUALS FOR WOMEN COPING WITH BREAST CANCER is a gift for everyone! We all know of someone who is coping with this desease, perhaps it's ourself. So we are all asking how are we to be and what are we to do with this life changing experience. For women this is a personal, spiritual, physical and psychological journey. This book of rituals gives form and possibility to live as healthily as we can with breast cancer.

As a minister of spirituality I companion many women who are trying to live with breast cancer, therefore I am also coping with the experience. When I read this book of rituals I imediately ordered several. The authors gently, cretively and wisely make suggestions for rituals that can be reflected upon or acted out by the individual or with another or a group. Often the woman coping with breast cancer is not ready to do so with a group. But she does need to ritualize her feelings. So right in the introduction the authors give this permission to the reader.

If there is a poverty of spirit among women today it is the lack of trusting their own power to ritualize life experiences. We have been, and many still are, co-opted to transfer the power of the ritual to a designated minister...usually a male in the patriarchial religions. But in order to live whole lives women must reclaim their power and creat ritual about all life experiences.

This reclaiming or our power is especially difficult when the experience is a devastating loss. RITUALS FOR WOMEN COPING WITH BREAST CANCER invites the women or her circle of friends to reclaim this power. One ritual done well, and this book is a brilliant aid in facilitating this, convinces the person or community of the power of ritual.

I highly recommend this book for all women, all ministers and for all communities of care.

In 1997 I was diagnosed with breast cancer and I was frightenedto death! I didn't know where to turn. Sharing with my childrenbrought tears for them and an inability to talk about it. We were all dealing with the possibility of death and I felt like I had no where to go with my fear.

The doctor told me I was lucky because I had ductul carcinoma in situ, which means the cancer was encapsulated. It was also microscopic. Early detection is always the key to the most hopeful situation. After two lumpectomies and 38 radiation treatments I was told that hopefully I would fall into a 96% category for survival. No matter how hopeful the prognosis, one lives with the FEAR every single day of one's life.

My process began in early June and the treatments were completed in early November. The months between were very difficult. IF ONLY THIS BOOK HAD BEEN AVAILABLE THEN to companion me through the emotions, the sounds and the loneliness conjured by this evil!

Acknowledging one's reality, claiming confidence, naming losses, stream of emotions, taming and living with the fear and celebrating hope -- these are all of things that I was yearning to do in my own personal horror. I did not have the language nor the structure to allow myself these simple yet profound opportunities.

Kudos to the Prism Collective for touching my soul and so many others. Rituals for Women Coping with Breast Cancer is the most wonderful, caring, insightful way to touch the lives of the thousands of women who confront the evil beast every day. This offers courage, hope and a great sense of not being alone in the struggle! Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

To read Carole Maso is to endure and survive much- passion, love, loss, anguish, doubt, and pain. Readers will bear witness to one of the most marvelous, daring writers of our age. This memoir is a celebration of the universe's most profound mystery- the brewing of a human life and the phenomenal vessel that brings forth this magnificence with ferocity and might. Maso's words dance, pulverize, and enlighten. A bold mixture of sweet delirium and mind-shaking realities. Reads like a prayer.

What does a journal of a writer's pregnancy have for a male reader? Plenty, at least for this one. I read the book in one evening and came away thinking how lucky the child Rose is to have this beautiful letter from her mother. Portions of this book made me sad. Maso writes: "I think of my mother often these days. That she did not have a mother to talk with, to console her, to reassure her as she went through her pregnancies." I remembered my own mother whose mother died when my mother was twelve, just entering puberty. I cannot fathom her loss. But I do understand all too well Maso's remembered grief over the death of her beloved friend Gary from AIDS. "That I had walked at 4 a.m., most terrible hour of the day, of the night, in utter fear and dread, in utter sorrow, scarcely breathing, to kiss my dead friend good-bye. . . The worst possible thing had already happened, so what else was there to fear?" Too many of us said too many unnecessary good-byes in that first onslaught of AIDS deaths in part because of a government that did not care about those of us who were different. More Maso: "Why shouldn't the old models, which are working with less and less success, be challenged--the world reimagined? Heterosexual privilege and power--and all its attendant rigmarole. Such a system, if it were to be taken seriously, would have precluded me from having a child. Luckily I have never taken it even the least bit seriously. But I have been outside of everything from the beginning--except the system of love." Passages like this one make this book wonderful. Besides the sorrow, there is so much joy, so much hope, so much honesty, so much love here.

As always, Maso paints with words. She has created a beautiful book, from its title to the last sentence with the image of Rose's pointing a finger "upward toward the heavens, like the infant Christ, in the renaissance paintings." This book will not disappoint you.

To open any book by Carole Maso is to begin a journey of pleasure, and this book is a perfect example. While chronicling her pregnancy, and the birth of her daughter, Maso also ruminates on life and death, on literature and art, on every minute detail of living. Each word, each sentences is a flower in a garden of joy, and when the birth begins, the expansive field of flowers is breathtaking, moving, exhilarating, and we the readers are there with her, through the frightening, beautiful, expansive moments of childbirth. Her many lucid moments of whimsy, and the terror of bringing a child into this dangerous world, make this book so real, so endearing, so utterly felt. This is an experience like none other, a writer creating a new work within her body and birthing not a book, but a beautiful daughter named Rose, a beacon of beauty.

This book will grab your heart from the very beginning and not let go. Even after finishing the very last page, you will keep this story in your heart. Don't miss this book!

This book is gutwrenching so be warned, do not attempt to read it without a full supply of tissues. I was floored by the intensity and the realism the characters exhibit. They are not perfect super people who handle troubles without a doubt, guilt or worry. I liked that everything wasn't sugar coated and their thoughts weren't always pretty, they were human, and I always admired both Joe and Allison throughout their story. I read this book with my stomach in knots and an ache in my heart. I felt deeply for these characters and wasn't once tempted to skim. Although this is a very serious book there are bits of humor scattered throughout the story and the excerpts of Joe's children's books are charming. A ROSE FOR MAGGIE was a truly incredible story and the ending, wow, it was wonderful! I give this book my highest recommendation with absolutely no reservations. If you're lucky enough to find this treasure hold on tight to it

Maggie, the heroine, is a baby facing a challenging life with the help of her tenacious and loving mother. What that mother needs is someone with whom she can share her life -- and Maggie. Allison shares with us her deepest concerns and makes us realize our human frailties as well as our small triumphs. Joe is equally as lovable, and wins your heart.... Kathleen Korbel has written an excellent 'keeper.' "A Rose For Maggie" is a timeless story that has something for all of us. I highly recommend it as a gift for your friends, and for you.

My two daughters insist on having this book read to them every night! They are young enough that it took a while for them to understand about the "thought bubbles" that show what Rose and Pinkerton are thinking, but they loved the illustrations of Rose as a Great Dane. I think they like Pinkerton because he's big, but he's cuddly and not threatening. It's fun to explore the pages and name all the pets they see. My four-year-old wanted to give this book a six-star rating, she likes it so much!

A Rose for Pinkerton was one of my very first favorite books when I was a little girl. I can remember looking at all the pictures and simply adoring every detailed scene in it, wondering how a person could be as imaginative in thought as I was. I just want to thank the author so very much for writing a book so full of creativity and life that a little girl fell in love with and is still to this day. Thank you for bringing happiness and light to my life with your book. :>

A Rose for Pinkerton is more fun than a boxful of kittens. The illustrations are lavish and reward careful scrutiny. (A display of "small and quiet pets" includes clams, snails, and fruit.) If you don't have a child, borrow one, and read A Rose for Pinkerton.

Keplinger is a poet who writes deep, allusive poems. We are in the presence of a writer who has lived in two worlds who shows us his experiences. He shows us the world of love and alienation through poems that share moments of being. Sometimes we are in the room with him; other times it is as though we are listening in on a conversation just loud enough to hear--around the corner or outside the window.

Keplinger's poetic idiom is at once modernist and contemporary. He never uses imagery for its own sake, yet he does not shrink from providing his readers with startling figures. There is sadness here and the workings of a mature sensibility.

Contemporary American poetry has been stagnant for at least ten years now, suffering from what has become known as "the workshop poem." This can be characterized by some descriptive narrative lines followed by an easily foreseen and unearned pseudo-cathartic ending. Dave Keplinger is a major new voice in contemporary poetry, returning a lyricism and complexity to the crucial art of poetry. He is at once accessible and metaphysical, poignant and intellectually engaging, mysterious and clear. This book was a joy to find. If I had to recommend only one book to all my friends who love poetry -- this is the book I would beseech them to buy. It's simply that good. It is a gift to the living.

The author has moved poetry into a new level of accessibility, using the medium to speak whole volumes in a few short lines. He helps the reader understand places we may not have been, and lets us feel old emotions all over again--or for the first time. This is a new and stirring take on life, lyrical and powerful, clear and mysterious.

I have read many historical romance novels, and none have ever stuck with me the way this one has. I read this book when I was 15 and I am now 24. I still get an all over wonderful feeling when I think of this book almost 10 years later. It is one of the BEST love stories I have ever had the extreme pleasure of reading. It's everything you look for in a love story, and if I remember correctly the author was inspired to write this story based upon an engraving or something of that sort that she saw on a castle which makes it all the more a thrilling read. I admire the bravery of the heroine who wants to get home safely and in order to do so she marries a man who is about to be hanged. Little did she know of the adventure and love that was about to envelope her very being.

A great story with great characters. After Lady Rosalynde's escort party is attacked she goes in search of help. This is when she sees Aric and in exchange for his escort home she marries him thereby saving him from the "hangman's noose". Aric is hellbent on revenge against the man who brought him to such a pass and just as determined to keep Rose as his wife, despite her reluctance. This is a wonderful story that you are sure to enjoy.

THE ROSE OF BLACKSWORD is a fantastic journey in the lives of two magnificent people destined to love one another and become one. You'll enjoy it. Trust me!