List price: $40.00 (that's 30% off!)
This book addresses the problem by taking us inside twenty-five examples of Greene and Greene's work. The text is accompanied by the breathtaking photography of Alexander Vertikoff. I own a large collection of books on the architecture of this period, and those illustrated by Vertikoff stand in a class by themselves. His photos are magnificent, doing justice to the material he portrays. I doubt if there is a finer photographer working in this field today.
With photos like these, it would have been easy to turn this volume into nothing more than a glorious picture book. Instead, Bruce Smith provides an engaging story of the careers of the two architects. The best writing is found in an extensive introduction, where the author discusses the Greene and Greene style in general terms. One can see at a glance how the style starts with Arts and Crafts. Indeed, there is a wealth of Stickley furniture in many of the houses. It is equally obvious how the two went beyond the plain craftsman designs so common further east. The Japanese influence was much stronger here, and the craftsmanship in the wood joinery was much more refined. There is more woodworking than carpentry here. The woods included Burmese teak, Honduras mahogany, Port Orford cedar, oak, maple and redwood. In some cases, the brothers were able to design furniture, landscaping and gardens to go with the architecture.
For the remainder of the book, we get a tour through twenty-five houses designed by Greene and Greene. Each house is presented in the order of its design and construction, with a history of the entire house to the present day. In some cases, this includes restoration after some abuse. Some of these houses were created on a budget; others were done with no apparent limits on the imagination of the architects. All are works of art, created as a labor of love by all concerned. For anyone unfamiliar with the work of Greene and Greene, this is an excellent introduction. For those who are already captivated, this book is a must, if only for those magnificent pictures.
If you are looking for wonderful, full-page color photographs this is it. The first 50 pages are devoted to the G&G style; there is a page or two devoted to Materials, Joinery, Lighting etc. Descriptions are quite brief, and include a couple of pics.
The next 170 pages are devoted to 25 different houses with narration about the original design process, the ensuing history, and the current state. Again tons of color pics, and lots of shots of the furniture they designed to go with the particular house.
If you are looking for an in-depth discussion, check out Randall Makinson's "Architecture as a Fine Art/Furniture and Related Designs. These two books (now available in one edition) cover the G&G history in detail, but have less photos (many in black and white). They do have many front on center views of the furniture (as well as early drawings) so if you are interested in building their furniture, these books make a suitable companion to the one being reviewed.
The Sabastian Cane Chronicles are completely entertaining with excitement and thrills while remaining well rounded and well researched. In fact, this is the kind of story that leaves you wondering just what IS possible and true in our world! Mr. Alexander paints the perfect picture of ensuing action, real life adventure, and universal chaos and blends it with both fantastic myths and cold hard facts. Weaving in much of the Mayan beliefs and culture - this story took me on a roller coaster ride of sheer pleasure! Not your typical story of good vs. evil - yet while reading it I felt connected to the age old good vs. evil beliefs. Overflowing with good twists, action and thrills, I'd rank this novel as one of the best in it's genre. I simply could not put the book down until the final page!
An afternoon with Dennis Alexander is a treat and an enjoyable experience indeed! I can't wait to get my hands on his next works! I urge you to check out this page-turner... You'll be very happy you did!
Alexander details a complete Cobb. For all his faults Cobb was mannered and gracious in public (most of the time), a perfect host (if he liked you) and a generous philanthropist. This is the side most other Cobb bio's whitewash.
This book proves useful as a resource about Cobb. It details the facts about his life season by season. The only way to improve the book would be to add more detail and color to some of Cobb's exploits-- but then the book would have to be about 500 pages.
I consider this to be the primere biography of Ty Cobb. However, those looking mostly for anidotes, stories and that harsh personality brought to life might want to check out Al Stumps' "Cobb". I suggest reading both to develop the full image of the Greatest innovator baseball has ever seen.
The author described well enough for me to understand 1900-1910's players, ballparks, other circumstances around baseball.
I sincerely recommend this book to all the baseball fans.
List price: $18.95 (that's 30% off!)
Warry does a fine job in explaining how 50,000 infantry and cavalry troops were able to defeat an empire with troops several times their number. Focusing on the the tactical brilliance of Alexander and the innovations in battle field technologies, the book explains why Alexander was victorious. It is written in a readable fashion and is a good place to start for anyone who is interested in the conquests of Alexander.
Warry shows some remarkable things--that Alexander's Army of 40,000 defeated a Persian Army of 600,000 and did it with almost no casualties because in ancient war shields defeated arrows and spears. The Macedonian phalanx--a formation of men with shields linked together would close on the enemy at foot speed led by Parmenio, while Alexander surged ahead with his cavalry and collapsed his enemy while the phalanx held the enemy. Think of how Commanders combined their arms in the film, Braveheart to see how Alexander waited until the time was right before placing himself and his Cavalry force at the critical spot to smash his enemy's structure. It was when enemy cohesion and formations collapsed---when they threw down their shields and ran---that the high casualties we usually associate with 1st Generation muscle-powered combat come from. That we are having too many casualties on the modern, automatic weapons fire swept battlefield, means its high time we re-examine the individual Soldier shield to recreate a phalanx capability today.
When Alexander confronted the walled island city of Tyre/Sidon he built siege engines on both ships and rolled across a causeway of land he built by throwing stones into the sea as foretold in the Bible in Ezekiel 26. Warry shows the siege in amazing detailed, color illustrations that enlighten without boring the reader as a dry "scholarly" book tends to do. He then marched across the known world at amazing march speeds--Warry describes the weaponry/equipment in great deatil--you'll notice the macedonians wore a "himation" which could be used both as a sleeping blanket and as a coat--there was no wasted weight being carried on the Soldier's back--a lesson we could stand to relearn today.
Reading Warry's book with its long-range and close-up maps and illustrations from ancient engravings and modern depictions is like an inter-active computer simulation of the battle---you can see both the "big" picture and the "little" picture, in short this book is a masterpiece. We need to re-evaluate our views that for a book to be "accurate" it has to be visually dull, especially in the computer age we live in where we can with hyperlinks go to an entire world of background information from all walks of life on any given subject.
Although I am only half was through this book I am finding it excellent. It goes into good detail on the information, which you have to know, whilst not sending you to sleep on information, which is not relevant to call manager, networking, or telephony. I am confident that once I have read the book a few times I should be able to pass the exam without too much trouble. Cannot say this about the Cisco training documentation.
In this book her guardians are invited to a diamond jubilee and Vesper convinces them to go. So off they go only to run into their old nemisis who has tried to kill them in previous adventures. This time is no different. A kidnapping, traveling with gypsies, a bomb, and many other exciting things happen.
What an excellent book. I learned a little bit while I read this book and I totally enjoyed the read.
Enjoy.
List price: $29.95 (that's 30% off!)
connection with them. I spent years trying to understand the tarot and its esoteric nature only to find that I cant interpret
them as well as these. At least the meanings are printed on each card, and the writter insists not to read them as one, but as a spread. With time and patience, one can become a good tealeaf fortune reader. Good Luck-
I think the reason Tea Leaf Fortune Cards are so accurate is because there are 200 cards and each card has a very different meaning, unlike Tarot which doubles up and triples up on its meanings so that you have a hard time knowing exactly what the cards are saying. These cards are also quick and easy to read as the meanings are printed on each card. They're really great.