This book presents a detailed analysis of Asnago and Vender work.
The selected pictures and plans are introduced by interesting descriptions and comments. The two architects are still unknown to the international public, and this book introduces to their inspiring art and visionary interpretation of various type of buildings, from urban office buildings, such as Milan buildings in the central via Larga, to mid-class apartment buildings with fascinating mathematical positioning of the window plan, to sub-urbian stylish houses with asymetrical, and impressive, distribution of spaces. THeir remarkable linearity, with intense analysis of the cultural background surrounding, is well discovered by the book, that I suggest to any reader of architectural design.

This book written by Mr. Longoria is a unique sports narrative which gives any sports fan another aspect on the history of professional football. Aptly entitled "Athletes Remembered," Mr. Longoria documents the stories of the Latino athletes in a positive and very interesting style. I personally was unfamiliar with many of these athletes; however, I enjoyed reading their stories and learning about these talented players. My professional background is education and I firmly believe that this book would be a tremendous reading experience, not only for Latino children, but for children from all ethinic backgrounds. While Latino children will more readly identify with these athletes, they are really establishing role models for all children, regardless of their ethnicity.

Being an expert on balloons, I found Mario's discussion of the topic to be truly scintillating. This is by all means the definitive no holds barred discussion of captured hot air. The chapter on balloon knots was warm, gripping, and absolutely trapping. His techniques may be called avant-garde by some of the balloon purists, but that is no reason to shy away from such a work. I found this tome to be especially helpful while working on my most recent performance art piece, "Breasticles and Testicles." In addition, Mario's insights were indispensible in the construction of a play fortress for my most recent foster cat, Mistress Bojangles. Keep huffing, and buy this book!

This is a very useful book which will help you begin to speak Italian. It is also a fun book and the dialoges are great to do with someone else to help pronunciation. It doesn't do much for your knowledge of grammar but there are plenty of books for that. Viva il libro. EWF

This book is great! It provides a sentimental and personal insight into the Pens' 1992 Stanley Cup season, complete with many interviews with the players. It is obvious that Molinari cares about the Penguins because of the emotion that this book can bring out in any Penguins fan. A great book to read to relive the early 1990s dominance of the Penguins.

I am purchasing this book after reading it--I have the libraries copy in front of me, but I need a copy to write in the margins and highlight. As a curious follower of Putnam's work on Social Capital, this book deepens the conversation and ideas surrounding the issue, most importantly asking questions about what do we mean by "social capital."

The book is a gathering of commentary from scholars on social capital and how it relates or may not relate to civil society. It is an academic's book. It is an important book for anyone who wants to consider Social Capital at a deeper level.

I cannot describe what I red by words. Johannes takes you on the wings of the story, where you sleep, dream, walk, work, suffer and die with his main characters. I have to say its been a long time since I red it, but I still feel like something from inside of me has gone away with the people in the story. I finally realized how cruel and unjust the world and people are. I dont want to be a part of it......I dont.........Read this book and you will see how it shapes your heart and feelings for yourself.................

Chief of Police Mario Balzic receives a phone call from Miss Cynthia Summers who reports that she has not seen one of her student roomers for several days. Paying a courtesy call sounds a lot better to Balzic than working on the budget report until he finds the body of Janet Pisula on the floor of her room. The young woman has been strangled with her brassiere, wearing only her panties, with a blank sheet of paper resting on top of her body. The murder had happened sometime the previous week and nobody in the rooming house or on campus had noticed Janet had suddenly disappeared.

For "The Blank Page," the third novel in the Mario Balzic series, author K. C. Constantine has apparently settled on a specific literary modus operandi. Lt. Harry Minyon, the blundering blowhard who was in charge of the local State Police barracks in the previous mystery "The Man Who Like to Look at Himself" has been temporarily replaced by Lt. Walker Johnson, who is more in the mold of Lt. Phil Moyer from "The Rocksburg Railroad Murders" in terms of providing support for Balzic rather than an constant impediment in the search for the murderer. By removing the set of stereotypical clowns getting in the way of Balzic's investigation, Constantine is able to keep the story's focus on the chief's interrogative skills. In the current dichotomy represented by television's "Law & Order" and "C.S.I." franchises, Constantine's Balzic is clearly in the camp of the former. The focus here is not on forensic science or the ability to beat and/or shoot up bad guys, but rather on asking the right questions in order to gather the necessary information. Reading these books is waiting for the key piece of the puzzle to show up so that everything can fall into place, at which point Balzic can go bring in the murderer. These novels are not so much about police procedure as they are the lost art of interrogation. Of course, in Constantine's hands these interrogations rarely take place in a special room at the police station.

"The Blank Page" is the best of the first three Mario Balzic novels, although readers who are captivated by some of the more colorful characters in Rocksburg may well wish Father Mazzo and Mo Vulcanas were more involved in the story as they were respectively in the first two books. Personally, I would like to see a bit more of Balzic's family, since they tend to provide nice counterpoints to the crime being investigated. But the most important other character in these novels to this point in the series clearly ends up being the murderer. I would not go so far a to say Balzic shows compassion for the murderers he catches (with the exception being what happened in the second novel), but there is certainly a strong sense of empathy and understanding towards the story they have to tell. But then, it is that ability to look at things from the perspective of others that is Balzic's greatest asset when it comes to solving crimes.

Comments on recurring concerns: "The Blank Page" was originally published in 1974, which helps to explain the original art on the hardcover edition with is a photograph of a woman's naked torso reproduced four times in pop art style with an empty rectangle representing the titular item on her stomach. Besides any concerns about having a picture of a naked breast reproduced four times on a book cover, there is the problem that it suggests the crime in this novel involves some sort of lurid sex act. However, I tend to think this is more an attempt at titillation by the marketing department for the Saturday Review Press rather than a red herring intended to throw readers off the track of the mystery. The other thing to be pointed out is that Constantine does not believe in chapters, so if you are in the read "x" number of chapter before bedtime school of reading, be forewarned. Constantine's books are ideal for those of us living the commuter lifestyle.

A wonderful and too often overlooked masterpiece of the middle ages. Written by a clergyman, the Archpriest of Hita, who questions the distinction, if there is any, between sacred and profane love. Through a loose narration of often-time hilarious tales which recount the archpriest's amourous adventures, the author questions the notions of the sign, meaning, morality and love. Ultimately it represents a meditation on the religious notions of salvation and sin. The book in fact was written in part as a love manual for those who wish to experience sexual pleasure (through a reading of the book) but do not want to fall into the mortal sin of fornication. _The Book of Good Love_ was also instrumental in Fernando de Rojas' construction of his masterpiece, _La celestina_.

I not only noticed when these books became Mario Balzic Novels instead of Mario Balzic Mysteries, I also applauded the change. After all, the chief attraction of K. C. Constantine's novels has always been the way our hero's mind worked more than the crimes in and around Rocksburg that he was trying to solve. There are those who applaud these novels for their regionalistic depiction of Western Pennsylvania, but I read them for Chief Balzic's fascinating conversations with everyone from the witnesses to some crime to the familiar patrons of Muscotti's.

However, the most important development in these last couple of novels has been the return of Balzic's family to prominence. Of course, now that family is reduce to Ruth, but that is more than enough. It seems she has unilaterally dissolved the marriage "in search of a better, more mutually satisfying relationship which I want to call a partnership." In the wake of Marie Balzic's death it turns out that not only did Mario lose his mother and Ruth her best friend, but also the couple lost the person that kept them connected to each other.

But our hero has other problems. The Rocksburg police force is woefully undermanned, the weather is unbearably hot, a strange woman tells a bizarre story about her violent husband going after a truck driver, and there is a crazy writer named Myushkin who pontificates without end at Balzic's favorite watering hole. To top this all off, the 64-year-old Balzic keeps flashing back to being a young Marine on the beaches of Iwo Jima.

"Bottom Liner Blues" is the 10th novel in this series by K. C. Constantine. The charm has always been the characters and the dialogue more than the mysteries or police procedure. Constantine has an excellent ear for the working-class dialect of Middle America and I can just picture the author working them out aloud rather than merely typing them on the page. Constantine also does not play favorites, more often than not giving the best lines and the most profound insights to characters other than Mario Balzic himself. In this one there is much more of a sense of all the pieces coming together than we have seen previously in these wonderful looks at the human comedy.