A LAND SO REMOTE

Prior to the holidays, I received a great gift, a copy of the beautifully produced three-volume study A Land So Remote, authored by Larry Frank and Skip Miller, and published by Marianne and Michael O'Shaughnessy of Red Crane Books, Publishers, Santa Fe.
Creation of a successful publication of this magnitude can only be accomplished by many who work in concert, in this case scholar, editor, publisher and, of course, those who are willing to share their treasures with anyone wishing to turn the pages in this landmark study. Frank and Miller have devoted a large percentage of their lives carefully studying and painstakingly handling objects-some of religious importance, powerful images that were the subject of daily devotion, while other objects that served a useful function in the lives of hundreds of thousands attempting to make their lives easier. To the Hispanic, Native American, and the Anglo, these objects were an integral part of daily life-whether as an expression of their spirituality, their intense religious devotion-- or to enable them to perform certain physical tasks-- cutting wood or baking bread.
The authors, in concert with photographer Michael O'Shaughnessy, have treated each object sympathetically, whether it be a santo or bulto, or packsaddle or carreta wheels, with the same level of care, even reverence. The real joy is in seeing so many diverse objects fashioned out of wood and other materials in significant numbers. How often have we had the opportunity of examining page after page of images beautifully organized and described. The authors, of course, treat us to a display of work by lesser known santeros, as well as the most celebrated, notably José Rafael Aragon. Volume two devotes pages 288 to 377 to some of the most powerful religious images by Aragon and his followers that the reader will ever experience.
Since 1974, I have been a frequent visitor to New Mexico and have written a few books on the Anglo painters. After reading Miller's and Frank's essays, I said to myself, "I wish I had written these words. Both scholars write with conviction and authority. They also write in a style I have labeled "an easy read." They have organized their material so that it makes sense. You understand why the objects were created, who created them and importantly, how they were created. Happily, these objects, some still in the churches in Ranchos de Taos, Chimayo, Taos, and chapels throughout the Southwest, others in museums and private collections, have been "gathered" and presented to the reader and viewer in a beautiful and effective manner (I was tempted to use the phrase elegant but refrained).
All reviews of the publication praise A Land So Remote for its visual appeal, handsome photographs," fascinating account of the history and culture of Hispanic New Mexico," scholarship, a major contribution to Hispanic studies. One critic even suggested that, before being placed in a glass case [with other rare books], it might serve as a coffee table book. Never! If anything, it will be a banquet table book, and will be the scene of great feasts-visual and literary. But their words, like mine, fail to express the impact this handsome three-volume study will have on you-the participant. This study will, like the objects that it treats, transcends time. Secure your copy. I can assure you that it will never gather dust (although it will go out-of-print).

Dean A. Porter, Ph. D.
Director Emeritus, The Snite Museum of Art
Professor of Art History
University of Notre Dame

Published by the vaunted Red Crane Books of Santa Fe, New Mexico, this three volume set on religious art and wooden artifacts of New Mexico is a rare, rich visual and intellectual repast. It would be a treasured gift, one to which collectors and aficionados will return time and again.

Larry Frank is remembered for "The New Kingdom of the Saints" (1997), while Skip Miller is curator and director, Taos Historic Museums.

With 842 stunning color photographs and 848 pages A Land so Remote surely holds the most comprehensive and accessible information on this subject. Many of the photos included are of rare objects gleaned from nine museums and a number of private collections. Carefully selected for the part each plays in this artistic corpus, photos are accompanied by concise essays that enhance knowledge while still piquing an interest to know more.

Volumes I and II beautifully present the growth of religious art during a period of over 125 years. It was a time when in order to undergird their faith Spanish settlers turned to santos, visual representations of saints. Thus was born an art form unique to America which once was of great import in churches, communities and homes.. Santos were, if you will, incarnations of the hopes and dreams of these immigrants.

"Rightly understood," author Frank remarks, "santos are a kind of 'liberation theology' written in the language of wood, plaster, and paint, an understanding of Christianity that empowers the poor to free themselves from unjust socioeconomic and cultural structures in the larger world and within themselves.

Volume III centers on wooden objects, such as tools, furniture, toys, and domestic utensils. These objects testify to the influence of the Spanish on the traditions of the indigenous inhabitants of this region.

Photographer Michael O'Shaughnessy described his task as a "...wonderful, often awesome, experience of having such close contact with material that radiates the love and importance that their makers brought to their creation."

Such is the case with readers as they leaf through the pages of these landmark volumes.

- Gail Cooke

Chesterton is at his best in his criticism, and this is no exception. His novels show something o the Dickensian flare, but nowhere is he more apreciative of the master than here.

G.K. is here at his most intelligent and flamboyant best, thanks to a truly great subject. Dickens, contends GK, is not appreciated because he views life from an entirely different angle than does, say, Henry James. It's not that Dickens fails at this or that, as critics contend; Dickens's aims are different in toto, and at doing what he does Dickens is perfect, superb, inimitable. He does not analyze; he is not realistic; he was not trying to be. He observes, he invents; he creates archetypes that are utterly unrealistic and thus more real than reality.

GK, fired with a love of his subject so bright one can almost see it on the page, makes his arguments in the midst of a hodge-podge of information. He discusses Dickens's works, giving descriptions and quotations so enthusiastic that, if anything could make someone want to read Dickens, this stuff would. He discusses Dickens, his character, life, and times, and the nature of greatness ("Almost from the very first there was a school of thought that held that Dickens was one of the great ones. Dickens certainly belonged to this school"). History, biography, philosophy, literary criticism--all written in typical GK style, with the utmost clarity and a constant and tremendous awareness of words and their sounds, resulting in rampant word play. In short, the book is a total package: a joy to read both because of what it says, what it evokes, and how it says and evokes what it does. 'Charles Dickens' is the literary equivalent of food; it should be taken regularly, and, gobbled or savoured, will nourish.

Having worked several congressional campaigns, most of them losers, I found it disturbing that Dr. Gaddie disected them so completely. However, his findings make a LOT of sense, and will help anybody who is interested in the electoral process understand the ins and outs of campaigning a little better.

Charles and Ray Eames were two of the best industrial designers of the 20th century - but to call them "industrial designers" doesn't capture the range of work that they produced which included everything from architecture to educational movies. While they didn't write this book themselves, the author has managed to capture their spirit on the pages of this little treasure. It's almost as if you had Charles and Ray as your personal design coach. The book makes the assumption that you know something about their work, but even if you don't you can still gain from the advice (and if nothing else it's a great starting point to research their work). While I like to see pictures in a book aimed at designers, the few words speak volumes. The tips have a very zen like quality, for example tip number 2 is "Notice the ordinary." This book would make a great gift for any creative friend you have, or if you find yourself in a rut!

I've been reading the general linear model section all day today, and it is just so nicely written I thought I needed to write a review. I can't imagine a clearer and more succinct description of this difficult topic. Entirely understandable, but be prepared to read chapters from beginning to end as unexpected abbreviations are often introduced and carried throughout the chapter.

As with all of the Kendall Advanced Theory books, a moderate degree of mathematical sophistication is assumed.

I am a Pediatric Surgery, and a Professor of Pediatric Surgery at ULBRA ( Brasilian Luteran University)- at Porto Alegre, Brazil. This book will be the #1, as Recommended Bibliography for all Medical students, because it is clear, didactic, and have a lot of good figures. My only dream is to buy it at a better price, exclusive for Third World Nations.

This book gives an excellent overview of the topic, written in an easy understandable way. The authors have researched numerous articles and studies and compiled them into this work. The book also contains a lot of tables and graphs to illustrate the text. The foundations and the scope of target costing are well discussed and a small case study gives an idea how target costing is working in a practice. Moreover, there are a lot of references to literature and some examples from industry discussed. In the appendix there is a very useful collection of tools used in the target costing.

Definition and scope of target costing as explained in the book:

The target costing process is a system of profit planning and cost management that is price led, customer focused, design centred, and cross-functional. The target costing initiates cost management at the earliest stages of product development and applies it throughout the product life cycle by actively involving the entire value chain.

The difference between target costing and cost management is that the latter focuses on reducing the cost when they are already occurring, that means when the product design and the process are already defined. The target costing approach on the other hand helps to identify the allowable cost for a product in the design stage, the cost at the manufacturing stage are therefore known to be achievable and competitive. Further cost improvements are achieved by kaizen costing (continuous improvement).

this book is best for persons to understand the target costing indeeply with plain english. this book is also suitable for cost management in the globe.

This book provided more detail for target costings, more useful everyday, in both practical and theorical case. Moreover, this book use plain english for whoever in the world.

The subject matter is quite interesting, but no tangible Darwinian perspective of creativity emerges from this book. Apart from that, this stuff is so interesting that one could make the book a real page-turner (think Dawkins or Simon Singh). While this work is slow, repetitive and ultimately dissatisfying. And inconclusive, too: all these lists of geniuses do not supply any real, verifyable statistic data.

Worth to leaf through, but not much more.

I don't know how the author did it, but he produced a great book that was both ponderous and a real page-turner.

I found this book to be extremely interesting and well-written in detail. But the author could be ponderous in repeating some sub-themes and points.

You will learn a lot about the causes of genius and creativity but you won't walk away with a quick set of techniques to help you on your immediate problem. You will learn an overall approach of what has worked in the past.

His references and analogies to Darwin make the book even better. His references of other readings are also excellent and very detailed.

I really liked his comparison of artistic vs. scientific creativity or genius. One selection from the book that I found very interesting was this one on what makes for greatness in a genius:

"... individual differences in total lifetime output are indeed associated with the degree of eminence achieved. In fact, research has consistently shown that the most powerful single predictor of reputation among both contemporaries and future generations is the person's sum total of contributions. Furthermore, almost all other variables that may correlate with the differnce in fame between individuals do so only because they affect the output of creative products."

The point made in this sub-theme by Simonton was that it was the QUANTITY rather than the just the QUALITY that often was the leading indicator of peer acceptance of genius. If the genius is not stepping up to the plate and taking a lot of swings, he won't go down as a "Babe Ruth." Most of the geniuses studied were single home-runners.

Another thing I liked about the author was an often used approach of revealing a concept, proving it with lots of historical details and studies, then when you were really convinced, he showed you why other studies show why that logic might be flawed. He did this several times in the book, and it was quite stimulating to see the flaws in many people's logic... after you had made the same fatal assumption or mistake.

I highly recommend this book for those interested in the background and causes of genius and creativity. My copy of this book is heavily underlined.

John Dunbar
Sugar Land, TX

This book presents one theory on creativity, but that misleads. It covers another 30 theories along the way, using its one favored theory to knit and mesh, distinguish and fit all the others. Each page contains the same contents as entire other books on the subject (fortunately for this book; unfortunately for the others). I try my best to find faults with the books that I buy but I would be hard pressed to find a single fault with this book. You will learn more about creativity from this book, even if the theory it presents turns out to be wrong, than you will from any other book, I believe, though Sternberg, Amabile, Runco, Martindale, Gruber and a few few others have near competitors so excellent that you would be foolish not to buy their books as well. This book teaches you 30 theories of creativity while presenting its favored one. It is wonderful. Finite limited human beings can do no better.

Some readers might think that this book is too researchy, especially readers looking for how to books on quick and easy creativity methods. Strangely, this book while maintaining all the professional balance and careful definition of any academic work, makes it much clearer what you have to do to become creative than the top 50 how to books combined. I counted an amazing 1100 particular suggestions in this book for how to make someone more creative--that is about 1000 more than any other published how to book and this book avoids the exaggerations, the sales language, and the imbalanced treatment of pros and cons of such lesser books.

I have found the book excellent for a hystorical review of the years 1866-1947, well documented and pleasant to read. It describes the struggle of a nation to came into existance and to modernise. The book is not only a list of hystorical events, but more a monography of the everyday life. The author has an original way of describing the events of that time. I consider the book one of the best in this subject, recommended for anyone who wants to know more (than the fictitious Dracula)about Rumania's history.

A very elegant book , written in an elegant , clear style . Trutful to the historical context , with no biast interpretation of the subject matter , yet compassionate and open . Excelent !