The authors and contributors to this book worked deep in the fine details of Houston's past. So much of it has been lost to the ages, but with Houston's Forgotten Heritage, it almost comes back to life through the fine photographs of the opulent homes and even the log cabins. It is a joy to show this book to many of my "old-timer" neighbors, who remember a building here and there, and even the old fixtures, appliances, and ways of life. We should all be grateful to the authors of this book for reminding us of our glorious past.

I bought the book while rebuilding the front porch and columns on my 1904 home. It *is* a lot easier to take something apart if you know how it was put together. And we needed to re-create mouldings and millwork that was destroyed by previous property owners. This book shows how the "old masters" built these old houses.

I'm an old house purist. And this book has nearly 200 pages of detailed blue prints and drawings, giving excellent detail on how old buildings were assembled. (primarily residences) It satisfied that craving [us] purists get to make something the way it was made 100 years ago.

The drawings enabled us to *truly* restore the beautiful details of our old home.

The book has very *very* few words, but lots and lots of blueprints and drawings.

There's nothing like a good ghost story, especially when it's a true one, but I must say that The Black Hope Horror is a rather unusual tale full of untraditional, poltergeist-type events. Ben and Jean Williams were the first couple to move into the new Section 8 subdevelopment, but the home of their dreams soon became the home of their darkest nightmares. At first, strangeness came in the form of material things: snakes, many of them poisonous, all over the place (not necessarily unusual), freak rainstorms leaving behind large numbers of huge worms, invasions of giant ants oblivious to hot water cycles of dishwashers, toilets which flushed themselves at all hours of the day and night. Members of the family also often had the feeling they were being watched by someone or something, footsteps began to haunt the halls, and the older and younger members of the family changed significantly in terms of their personalities. Cold spots manifested themselves quite often, and electrical malfunctions of an inexplicable sort began happening. One night, Ben encountered two black forms whose icy, enveloping touch sent him to the hospital with something akin to an asthma attack. Similar events influenced the lives of neighbors as the new community began to grow, although no one communicated their experiences with one another until two decomposed bodies were found buried beneath one neighbor's backyard, thus confirming the Williams' fears about the sinkholes in their own property. The family is shocked to learn that the development was constructed above an old black cemetery.

Assuming this story is true (and handfuls of families don't just leave homes and their investments behind and let their properties be foreclosed upon without good reasons), it is quite an interesting, somewhat nontraditional haunting. Two things about this book pose a small problem in my mind, though. First and foremost is the style of the narrative. This is basically the Williams' story as told to John Bruce Shoemaker, and he writes of these events as if he were there recording everything that happened along the way. Memories, especially negative ones such as these, become distorted rather quickly, and I find the plethora of direct quotations from multiple family members, including some this author never met, somewhat laughable. I think the story would be more believable if it was simply described in standard, objective narrative form. Secondly, there is far too much emphasis placed on peripheral events; I refer especially to the very unusual number of emotional problems, sicknesses, and deaths that affected the Williams' while they lived in the house. I just think too many things are blamed on the "haunting." The fact that a couple visits the house a time or two just doesn't seem to explain the breakup of marriages. While it is quite remarkable to see six close family members die in a period of only three years or so, it does not mean the "things" were causing all of the problems. After all, Jean and Ben never got sick or divorced and they lived in the house for several years.

This is a vivid, sometimes fascinating tale of undeniably bizarre events; there aren't as many goose pimple sections as you might find in a more traditional haunting account, but clearly something of a very unusual nature took place on this area of land that was once Black Hope Cemetery. I don't think this book will change anyone's opinion about ghosts or unduly frighten anyone, but certainly there are elements here of high strangeness that make for a compelling read. Even if you set aside the whole haunting premise, what you have left is a pretty powerful human interest story.

I am an ordained minister, shaman and experienced paranormal investigator. I've had experience with a LOT of the same type of phenomenon described in this book personally so I will personally testify that this story is most probably true to the core. This gives a very good insight into how a haunting or disrespecting the spiritual world can cause serious consequences. If I could find enough copies of this book for my group I would make it required reading.

Shortly after reading this book me and my husband at the time went to visit the Newport Subdivision. After we went to see where all this took place my husband's mother died suddenly, we ended up divorced and my car (that we drove thru this subdivision) ended up with a cracked block and my mother died the same year 6 months later. Coincidence? - Dunno but my advice is to read the book but go nowhere near this place. We saw the water tank and the woods and during broad daylight that place was dismal and very, very depressing and spooky.

This volume is one of the best reference materials available for the MEP or Architectural Engineer. I found the descriptive detail and illustration that aided me in the learning process. I reccomend it highly.

My part of this book (mechanical and plumbing) is designed to first show how to minimize the need for mechanical equipment by designing with the climate and site firmly in mind. First configure a building to optimize daylighting, solar heating, and various climate-appropriate passive cooling methods. Also, to store rainwater when appropriate. Then, proceed to choose and size the back-up equipment. In this way, designers conserve non-renewable energy, utilize natural (on-site) energy sources, and also help building occupants stay in touch with the outdoors. I believe that we'll tend to care more about a clean outdoor environment if we are kept aware of its condition.
For a summary of this approach, read Chapter One. I hope you enjoy this book, even when it is your textbook! That was my object. Suggestions? I'm at jreyn@darkwing.uoregon.edu

I have no problem with the material in this book. The only thing I don't like is the index. I know that is petty, but with a book like this it is important. In the book you can look up houses by neighborhood but there is not a reference that shows the page number. Why is this bad? Lets say I wanted to go for a walk and look at some old Portland architecture. If the index were set up properly I could look at which neighborhood I was going to and then reference the page to see if it was still standing (very important) and if it was something I really wanted to look at!

This beautiful volume examines the first century of Portland's domestic architecture with a critical but sympathetic eye. Many of its finest examples have disappeared in all but photos, and others exist only in misshapen form, but the author is able to recall the grace, dignity, pretension and whimsy which went into their original design. This is a book for both new and old residents who may have decided that our "Stumptown" had little adornment in its early years,and proves that Portland was already a place of discernment and competitive display long before the 19th Century turned, when Seattle was a fishing camp and jumping off point to Alaskan gold. Besides the implicit social and artistic history lesson, the book's black and white photos are a memorable eyeful for anyone who loves American homes, furnishings, or decoration. A very rich read, indeed.

This book brings back the many forgotten works of William Wurster. It balances the architect's story and illustrations well. I recommend this book to architecture enthusiasts who want to reach beyond mainstream architecture.

John Dean has written an insider's book that chronicles President Richard Nixon's appointment of William Rehnquist to the United States Supreme Court. It was without doubt a Presidency filled with history, and the appointment of William Rehnquist to the Supreme Court is an often forgotten part of that Presidency. The book is well researched and throughly documented with first hand material from the National Archives, including several verbatim passages transcribed from the infamous White House tapes that otherwise doomed the Nixon Presidency.

Dean brings us inside the "vetting" process used by the White House staff and Justice Department to select nominees to the Court. Dean floated the name of Rehnquist to several in the administration, including then Attorney General John Mitchell, as a possible conservative candidate for the Court as Dean had worked with Rehnquist in the Justice Department and learned of the Rehnquist's strict constructionist interpretation of the constitution. What was fascinating was that Rehnquist while toiling away at the Justice Department was tasked with "vetting' the other possible Court nominees chosen by the White House. Sounds much like the recent scenario of the selection of Dick Cheney as Vice President.

The book details the other nominees Rehnquist beat out for the coveted position. If anyone believes that politics plays no part in the selection of the members of the Court, then this is required reading. At times humorous and at times self-serving, this book is well worth the purchase. If you are not a Court watcher don't worry, you don't have to be to appreciate this book. Dean is a good writer and the text flows easily. Add "The Rehnquist Choice" to your summer reading list - you will gain an appreciation of the importance of Presidential nominations to the Court.

John Dean has written a readable retelling of the appointment politics surrounding William Rehnquist, then Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court and since 1986 Chief Justice of the United States. Those who have read about the Court avidly or extensively will not find much here that is new, but that tends to validate what Dean says. Those who knew little about President Nixon or the politics of appointments in the Nixon Era will find more than a few fascinating stories.

Mr. Dean was a lawyer working in the White House. Thus, he was privy to many of the machinations of the Nixon Administration. If Mr. Dean is liable to be suspected of repenting or exaggerating his role, he may be at least presumed to be an authority.

One of Mr. Dean's overarching points is that Mr. Rehnquist was appointed to the Court nearly accidentally. The naive reader will be startled to see how little thought went into the selection, how late in the process that thought came about, and how few second thoughts were lavished on the selection once it was made.

In addition, the reader will be amused by the cavalier banter that passed for analysis between Nixon and his various sounding boards. Dean has reproduced dialogue from the White House tapes, so the quotations appear to be authoritative.

The "might have beens" are too delicious to spoil in this review. Dean deftly introduces each possibility with a capsule description so that readers who did not pay much attention in 1971 may appreciate who was who.

No one should be surprised to read that Nixon was prejudiced against blacks, Jews, and women, but the vehemence with which Nixon spews stereotypes startles even thirty years later.

Dean concludes that Rehnquist, in 1971 and 1986, fibbed his way thorough difficulties. The splendid irony that the fellow who presided over Clinton's trial in the Senate in 1999 had perjured himself onto the Court and into the Chief Justiceship is hardly news. To believe Rehnquist's denials concerning challenging minority voters in Arizona in the 1960s or concerning his memorandum urging the justices to uphold "separate but equal" as good law required muscular denial. [Dean does not raise the matter of the restrictive covenant on Rehnquist's property.] Those familiar with these issues will find very little new. However, those new to the matter will find in the "Afterword" a concise but articulate discussion of why Rehnquist's denials were unbelievable.

What readers may not gather from Dean's prose, however, is that, in a roundabout way, the system worked. Stymied by the American Bar Association [which found Nixon's first few candidates to be unqualified or unimpressive] and stung by mass media attacks on Nixon's attempts to appoint mediocrities, Nixon felt compelled to go for a little stature with predictable ideology. Rehnquist was a predictable conservative. He was also many cuts above the sorts of people with whom Nixon wanted to saddle the Court.

Only in the last couple of years have all the tapes of Nixon's many conversations as President in the White House been released. The tragedy of Richard Nixon is that every time someone wants to think well of him, tapes or something else surfaces that shows his real unpleasant, dark, and unsavory character.

John Dean waited for the release of these tapes and along with his personal recollections during the time period has written a book that deals with the selection of Rehnquist and Lewis Powell as United States Supreme Court Justices. Its not pleasant reading for those naive enough to believe that Presidents seek out the most qualified people for appointments. Rather, the book exposes the process used by President Nixon to select two supreme court justices as frought with politics, bigotry, and regionalism. Nixon's bigotry about Jews, prejudice against easterners, and nasty language make this a book that someone who is very sensitive should not read.

The real shocker here is that before picking Powell who was a superbly qualified justice, Nixon first selected two candidates who could not even win acceptance as "qualified" for the Supreme Court by the American Bar Association Committee on the Federal Judiciary. Nixon stubbornly tried to get these individuals appointed until it became absolutely clear it was hopeless. Only at this point, did a real candidate like Powell get nominated. Nixon further abused the process by sending names to the ABA of other people he knew would never win approval.

Rehnquist had good paper qualifications to sit on the Supreme Court. However, it was known early on he was extremely conservative. He may have lied about statements he allegedly made expressing approval of racial segregation in schools. Dean presents the case for this. Its up to the reader to judge.

In the end, we are left gasping at the twisted and bizarre process which put Rehnquist on the Supreme Court. Even those who support Rehnquist and other conservative justices should wish for a better process to select judges. Hopefully, one day we shall see such a process and never see another President like Nixon again.

Mark

Deborah Krasner's book contains many good ideas relating to kitchen design, but it falls short on detail. Of the book's 151 pages, only 64 are instructional, in that they deal with the issues at hand and educate the reader. The next 64 are filled with photos and descriptions of real-world kitchens, some of which are useful, and others which appear to be included simply for show.

Of particular annoyance to me are the lack of floor plans for the photo kitchens, making it very difficult---in some cases impossible---to understand a kitchen's layout from the array of photos. We should care more for the sizes and layout of the kitchen, not the custom pottery being displayed and described. Many of the photos simply show pretty displays: this is decorating, not design!

What's worse, Krasner litters the instructional section with random floor plan sketches, none of which is labeled or cited in the text---they appear to be simple art pieces to fill space. Virtually all the drawings of appliances and kitchen layouts in this section are foolishly oversized, again in an apparent attempt to fill more space than needed to convey their information.

The typography is annoyingly oversized, using what appears to be 12- or 14-point type, with broad leading and word space. Were the type set in a smaller size---and the unnecessary graphics deleted--- the instructional section would probably shrink by 20%. Such a size reduction would more readily telegraph the text's lack of useful detail.

As for Krasner's Green suggestions, they are not overly preachy, though it is too easy to skip a grain of information among a paragraph of Green chaff. I would prefer that all the Green suggestions be grouped into a small section of their own. After all, a two-page outline can express all the mechanical design considerations for a Green kitchen. Three pages on composting are, quite frankly, 2.9 too many. As an example, the author spends about 150 words disparaging trash compactors and wasteful food packaging, and in so doing she never advises the reader about these appliances, their suggested locations, and their installation considerations.

For the most part, the book is not outdated, despite its 1994 publication date, though some of the photo kitchens are. The price guidelines Krasner quotes are almost certainly suspect, especially given the changing trends in kitchen materials and preferences.

Krasner also includes a seven-page supplier directory, stretched from about four pages of text by many unnecessary photos. To be fair to the author, the World Wide Web was virtually unborn in 1994; today, there is little need to list more than a collection of manufacturer addresses and URLs in a book.

I estimate that this 150-page book could be effectively reduced to perhaps 110 pages by reducing wasted space; it's ironic that Krasner's waste of paper in this book undermines her Green ideals.

The book has no index.

Except that I know how important and challenging kitchen design can be, I would be tempted to say, "relax and chill out." Even so, I'm not sure this book is worth all the anger. Planning a kitchen takes all kinds of insight, delivered at all levels of complexity. Some people are actually beginners or in other ways insecure; others passionate about being "green." They, too, deserve books that serve their needs. When my wife and I recently remodeled our kitchen, we used this book, among several others, to inform and inspire us. Taken collectively, they allowed us to achieve a kitchen that we think, after six months of use, is pretty much exactly what we wanted. Kitchen for Cooks more than held its own with these other volumes, filled in gaps in the others and left us grateful for buying it. We have no complaints. (Just don't get us started on the plumber.)

I was very confused trying to find a good kitchen book. They all seemed to be useful only if you had $100,000 to spend and want your kitchen to be in style for a year.

Somewhere I had read a wonderful review "Kitchens For Cooks" by Deborah Krasner. I purchase it and found it to be exceptionally helpful.

She takes you by the hand and forces you to think about-

Here are your choices of countertops, which one do you want...
Here are your choices of sinks...
Floors...
How do you deal with garbage?...
Ovens, rangetops, etc.

It provides you with a checklist of what you want. I had the kitchen cabinet maker put in pull out steps so visiting children could help too.

The choices can be overwhelming. This book allows you to make the decision before hand. Not in the showroom. Read this book with a pad of Post-Its nearby.