Artists, Architects & Photographers Books - Page 12

Benjamin Williams Leader

Ruth Wood

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 24 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

In this pioneering study, the first substantial reassessment of the artist and his paintings to be written since 1901, Ruth Wood covers his personal and artistic life over a long career of more than seventy years. Working within the tradition of British landscape painting and influenced by his lifelong admiration of John Constable, Leader's extensive coverage of the British countryside and coastal scenes reveals the development of a distinctive and independent style. A master at exploiting the natural effects of water and light, the countryside after rain or the amber luminosity of the late afternoon sun, and these were features of his work which became his trademarks. Ruth Wood uncovers much hitherto unused material and corrects many errors and misconceptions about B.W. Leader and his work. Important sources include the artist's diaries, records of paintings sold, his letters, British and overseas exhibition catalogues, reviews and other archive material. Extensive and representative colour plat

Zara's Tales: Perilous Escapades in Equatorial Africa

Peter Beard

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

From adventurer, explorer, photographer, writer, pied piper Peter Beard—eleven irresistible tales, told to his daughter in his tented encampment at Hog Ranch, Kenya, about life, about living, about Africa.

He writes of the East African hills he came to know so well over four decades, where time slows to infinity in a great bottomless, bottle green underwater world . . . about Nairobi in the 1950s, still a quaint, eccentric pioneer town, full of characters of all stripes and tribes, where rhinoceros roamed the streets and local residents went to the movies in pajamas.

He writes of the camp he built twelve miles outside of Nairobi so that he would never be off safari, a forty-acre patch of bush called Hog Ranch (abutting Karen Blixen’s plantation), named for the families of warthogs who wandered into camp, a camp populated with waterbuck, suni, dik-diks, leopard, giraffe, and occasionally lion and buffalo.

In “Big Pig at Hog Ranch,” Beard tells the story of Thaka (translation from the Kikuyu: “handsome stud”), Hog Ranch’s number-one, fearsome, 300-pound warthog, who came into camp and dropped to the ground happy for a vigorous tummy rub, and who one night, “lying in his favorite position, munching on corn and barbeque chicken,” was encroached upon by a bristly haired, wild-looking boar hog. All three hundred pounds of Thaka exploded straight at the hairy intruder, the two brutish, bony heads crashing together thundering through the camp and Peter witnessed the unleashed power—the bullish strength—of the wild pig . . .

In “Roping Rhino,” Beard tells of his first job in Africa, rounding up and relocating rhinos for the Kenya Game Department with his cohort and neighbor, a weather-beaten native of Old Kenya who thrived on danger and refused to bathe—and of the enormous silver-backed rhino bull that became their Moby Dick . . .

He writes of his quest to photograph overpopulated and habitat-destroying elephants for Life magazine on the eve of Kenya’s independence . . . of his close encounter with the legendary man-eating lions of “Starvo” (descendants of the famed beasts rumored to be immune to bullets, who in the late nineteenth century halted the construction of the Mombasa railroad, devouring railroad workers and snatching sleeping passengers from their Pullman berths in the dead of night to make a meal of them), who charged the author, “coming in slow motion, like a bullet train erupting out of a tunnel, soundless, like an ancient force.”

He tells of his round-the-clock adventure tracking and studying crocodiles with a game warden–biologist at Lake Rudolf, a tale that begins with one crewmember being grabbed from behind by a ten-foot crocodile and another doing battle with an almost prehistoric monster fish—a 200-pound Great Nile perch! . . . and he writes of the final wildlife encounter that ended his safari days, an incident that proved Karen Blixen’s motto: “Be bold, be bold . . . be not too bold.”

Zara’s Tales confirms to our constant surprise and delight that “nothing out of the ordinary happens. It’s just Africa, after all.”

The Ultimate Picasso

Brigitte Leal, Christine Piot, Marie-Laure Bernadac, Jean Leymarie

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

The ultimate Picasso artwork reference. 5 out of 5 stars.
7 of 7 people found this review helpful.

I took this book out of our university library to have on hand while reading Françoise Gilot's "Living with Picasso", in order to see representations of the artwork to which she refers throughout the book. "The Ultimate Picasso" proved invaluable. Not only does it contain Picasso's complete major works, they are also presented in chronological order which made look-up easy despite Gilot's often describing an artwork and the process used to create it but not always giving its title (she always gives dates). I ordered "The Ultimate Picasso" before the library due date because I couldn't bear to not have the book in my house!
The photos of the artwork are brilliant and crisp, and the accompanying text is informative.
You will not be disappointed by this book.

nothing much to say but incredible 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

To see tons of Picasso works in one book is nothing short of breathtaking. This is easily the best Picasso book that focuses on his paintings. What's incredible is to see the prolific amount of work he was capable of, and just what a inventive genius he was. Without a doubt the greatest Artist of the 20th century. Not all the works make sense, or are even recognizable as anything, but that was Picasso; his art was how he viewed the world, and how his own heart felt inside:confused, and out of place. His Cubism is nearly mathmatical, and very intriguing. IF you're interested in Picasso as more than that weird guy who made all those paintings i just don't get, come and check out this book to see all of what he was made of. You'll be amazed and inspired.

Editorial Review:

Covers in one volume all the periods of Picasso's long, incredibly versatile career, with exquisite reproductions of nearly every significant work he ever created.

Claude Monet - 1840-1926: a Feast for the Eyes

Karin Sagner

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Well illustrated but the text lacks depth 4 out of 5 stars.
7 of 7 people found this review helpful.

Monet by Karin Sagner provides a chronological account of Monet's life and work, with perhaps the emphasis on the former. While his paintings are discussed in relation to his life and travels, and occasionally influences, there is only a little in the way of in depth discussion of the work itself. The book concludes with a Biographical Summary illustrated with black and white photographs; there is no bibliography.

This is a well produced and attractively presented book; the pictures run with the text, and appear on the same page or as close as is practical to their mention in the text. The text is printed in quite a large size, and the images vary from around postcard size to full page plates and are almost entirely in full colour. There are about 225 illustrations, all but a very few of the paintings in full colour, most of the black and white images being period photographs. The quality of the plates is excellent often revealing the bush work and texture of the painted surface.

Editorial Review:

Claude Monet (1840-1926) was both the most typical and the most individual painter associated with the Impressionist movement. His long life and extraordinary work were dedicated to a pictorial exploration of the sensations which reality, and in particular landscape, offer the human eye. Monet's poplars, grain stacks, Rouen Cathedral, and water lilies paintings - among the most beloved works of the Impressionist period - were created long before the currents of the contemporary avant-grade and had an inestimable influence on the development of modern art. This book traces the life's work of one of art history's most beloved painters.

The Mayor of Castro Street: The Life and Times of Harvey Milk (Stonewall Inn Editions)

Randy Shilts

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

"If a bullet should enter my brain..." 5 out of 5 stars.
13 of 14 people found this review helpful.

Randy Shilts's intricately researched biography of one of the greatest gay activists of all time, Harvey Milk, is not only a political biography, but a chronology of an entire political movement.
This is the second book I've read by Randy Shilts, the first being And the Band Played On. While there are certainly some differences between the two, Shilts's imaginative narrative writing is the same. The Mayor of Castro Street is proof positive that he [the author] can turn even the most mundane of political machinations into high drama.
Starting out when Harvey Milk was growing up in Woodmere, New York, the book traces his life from there. From his high school athletic career, to his college years, his time with the Navy, and his Manhattan years. When Harvey makes the move from New York to San Francisco, the book changes pace, and a gay political hero is born. The book is filled with snippets of his speeches, and in the back appendices, the eloquent words of Harvey Milk come alive, as some of his more famous speeches are reprinted there.
At a solid 380 pages (including appendices and sources) the book never drags. Everything appears to be cause and effect, which makes for some white-knuckle reading even if the reader is already familiar with the budding gay movement, Harvey Milk's participation in it, and the untimely tragic assassination of he and Mayor George Moscone by a homophobic zealot.
I must admit, there were certain parts of this book that gave me chills: Harvey Milk's beautiful speeches, the candlelight vigils, the many marches, and the White Night Riots. The sheer epic proportions of it all can overwhelming.
However, epic or not, this remains the simple story of a man and his dream, vision, and hope for his gay brothers and sisters, and all of humanity.

Editorial Review:

The Mayor of Castro Street is Shilts's acclaimed story of Harvey Milk, the man whose personal life, public career, and tragic assassination mirrored the dramatic and unprecedented emergence of the gay community in America during the 1970s. His is a story of personal tragedies and political intrigues, assassination in City Hall and massive riots in the streets, the miscarriage of justice and the consolidation of gay power and gay hope.

Chanel (Metropolitan Museum of Art Publications)

Harold Koda, Andrew Bolton

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Total reviews: 12 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

This splendid book examines the legacy of Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel, one of the twentieth century's great icons of style. While Chanel mythologized her glamorous life through relentless self-invention, the bare facts of her biography are no less worthy than her legend: born of a poor family in the provinces and raised in a convent, she was an entertainer and the mistress of men of impeccable social standing, and she began her career not as a dressmaker but as a milliner.

Chanel's enduring influence is necessarily based on the long shadow cast over fashion by her maison couture. Chanel examines the history of the House of Chanel both thematically and chronologically, introducing ideas and elements of biography as they were expressed in her collections. Period examples are juxtaposed with the work of Karl Lagerfeld, who, beginning in 1983, just over ten years after Chanel's death, reinvented and revolutionized the House's identity. It is in Lagerfeld's masterful and often irreverent interpretations of Chanel's work, as well as his mixing of influences from high and low culture, that the historic importance of Chanel and the resonance of her image as the independent, elegant modern woman are both defined and reasserted for the contemporary world.

Still Life With Oysters and Lemon: On Objects and Intimacy

Mark Doty

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Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A seamless merging of painting and poetry 5 out of 5 stars.
22 of 23 people found this review helpful.

Mark Doty has done the impossible. In STILL LIFE WITH OYSTERS AND LEMON he has not only written an extended essay (read epic poem) about his encounter with a simple Dutch Still Life painting, but he has also produced what must become the definitive map for looking, seeing, studying and describing the essence of art in a way that encourages us all to return to the pursuit of beauty. Doty has proved his credentials in art hisory and art technique so that he is able to find the essence of a still life, rhapsodize on the quality of light as captured by an everyday object that makes a centuries old painting seem immediate to our own home, and in doing so reveals his own history of memories, lovers, favorite objects, the passage of time as participants in the transitory moment we call life. So many art critics and art historians have attempted to find this plane of understanding and enlightment with only minimal degrees of success. As a curator and essayist about art I am humbled and in awe. Mark Doty is one of the finest poets in America today and knows his way with words, with phrases that illuminate his stances, with defining emotions inaudible to most of us. But this small book is more than an homage to a particular still life painting (though on that merit alone he wins the competition!). This is a tender, thoughtful journey toward discovering beauty that daily surrounds us, a call to accept the transitory nature in all things and to experience them while we may. No fatalism here, just a door opened to appreciate the cycle of being alive...which just happens to warmly include the aspect of dying as part of that totality. As in Still Life painting: artists have selflessly recreated moments precious to them, frozen them in time to stave off the finite, and in doing so have left us with miraculous images to incorporate into our psyches for perpetuating beauty. This book is a must for art students, for art lovers, and for everyone who yearns to understand the journey of the soul. As Doty informs us, paraphrasing poetry or a painting as focused as a still life is impossible; by nature the essence has been distilled. Writing a review of such a book is near impossible. Gift yourself with a book to which you will return as often as the author has returned to Still Life with Oysers and Lemon!

Editorial Review:

From Mark Doty, one of our finest poets, a delicate and sensual literary essay. Part memoir, part art history, part meditation, this hybrid volume uses the great Dutch still life paintings of the seventeenth century as a departure point for an examination of uestions about our relationships with things, how we invest them with human store, how they hold feeling and hope and history within them.

Mark Doty is author of five books of poems and two memoirs, Heaven's Coast and Firebird. He has also received the National Book Critics Circle Award and the PEN/Martha Allrand Prize for Nonfiction. He teaches at the University of Houston.

Julia Morgan

Mark Wilson

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Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

best gift for anyone who loves California architecture 5 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

Much new primary source material. Stunning photography and much more. Something for the scholar, the architect, the homeowner, the dreamer...and anyone who craves beauty.

Julia Morgan 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This is a great addition to the Julia Morgan literature. A lovely intro by her god-daughter gives some new biographical information, and there are more pictures and discussion of her private home commissions than in any of the other books I have.

Julia Morgan 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This book is an exceptional coffee table book for oneself or as a gift. It is one of the most comprehensive books I have seen on Julia Morgan and her architecture with a wonderful compilation of photos.

A bit too chatty in the detailed prose 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

While this is clearly a comprehensive book at JM's work and the photographs are exquisite, the prose could have used a bit more editing.
For example, the introduction, written by JM's niece is a stream of consciousness of memories vs. a more concise piece on Julia Morgan's relationship with the goddaughter and the mother (who was Julia's assistant).

Editorial Review:

Julia Morgan, America's first truly independent female architect, left a legacy of over 700 buildings, many of which are now designated landmarks, in cities throughout California, as well as in Hawaii, Utah, and Illinois.

Babyhood

Paul Reiser

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Total reviews: 55 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

I'm going to be totally honest. This is not the kind of book that can help you. It's not a "how-to," "when-to," a "what-to-expect" book. It's not even endorsed by anyone remotely connected to the medical profession. (Although a cousin of mine who sells carpeting to doctors' offices not only found it "insightful" and "informative," but felt that, "if properly vacuumed, it should last a lifetime.")

"A fine endorsement," you say. "But if I have only one book to buy, shouldn't I go for the helpful one?"

Let's compare:
Those "know-it-all" books tell you how to have a happy, healthy pregnancy.
My book mentions a squirrel.
Those books tell you how to care for a newborn child.
My book describes how tired I am.
Those books give you essential information you can use in a life-threatening emergency.
My book has some very amusing anecdotes about poop.

So really, it's up to you. If you want to be prepared and well-informed, I understand. But if you enjoy seeing the words "pterodactyl" and "uterus" in the same book, you've come to the right place.

DON'T STAND TOO CLOSE TO A NAKED MAN

Tim Allen

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 44 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

pretty good 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

i read this a while ago and can't remember much about it other than it was easy reading and it wasn't dull. Tim has a life and perspective worth checkin out. i recommend this book.

A Comedic Book Not to Be Taken Too Seriously 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Tim Allen gives some insight into his own life while treating the reader like just another guy working on the car and telling stories. It's not a serious work, and Tim Allen isn't promoting the degradation of women. He's simply telling jokes that many men in our society can relate to, and I had a lot of fun reading this.

Don't Stand Too Close to a Naked Man 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 3 people found this review helpful.

This book was very funny. I really enjoyed reading it.

Tim Allen -- Don't Stand Too Close To A Naked Man 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 1 people found this review helpful.

This book was about the funniest book that I have ever read. I would definitely recommend it to anyone that is looking for a laugh and just has a general curiosity about what made Tim Allen the man he is today, a must read.

Editorial Review:

In a dual biography and humorous information guide, the star of Home Improvement discusses his prison term and successful television show while offering hints on how to deal with the opposite sex and recognize the parallels between golf courses and strip joints. Reprint.