Architecture Exam Review, Volume II: Nonstructural Topics

Book Description

Architecture Exam Review, Volume II: Nonstructural Topics provides a thorough review of the ARE nonstructural exam topics, including the exam's most challenging divisions: Site Planning and Building Design. More than 80 sample questions are provided, with solutions, along with a valuable checklist of items that should be considered in every design solution. The book also covers test-taking strategy, and is enhanced by illustrations, figures, and tables, along with a detailed index. The fifth edition has been updated to reflect changes in the exam-the adoption of a computerized format and use of the 2000 versions of the International Building Code and the International Plumbing Code.

Customer Reviews:

Good to start off but watch for proofreading errors!.......2007-02-19

I'm just starting to study for the M&M portion of the exam and in just fifteen pages, I found three errors. They were relatively minor, and pretty obvious, but it makes me worry that i'm memorizing more major misprints or mistakes. If you do find a mistake, you can post it (please)on their website (the web address is on the inside cover of the book). It also helps to check the site to see what other mistakes were reported. You will need to consult other books for your studying, but this one is very manageable and good to start with.

reccommended for ARE-MEP exam........2007-01-11

you definitely need this book to study for mep portion because ALS doesn't cover some materials in a deeper context. this book covers most of the important matters and much less intimidating than MEEB (big blue book). I give it 4 stars due to lack of diagrams so you need to look at MEEB and AGS for it.

In the process of studying..........2004-02-13

I am currently studying for the exam and I've been using this book as a basis. The individual chapters are fairly short and each one has a short quiz at the end to test your newly gained knowledge. This is helpful because it makes asborbing the information much more manageable - much better than trying to read Architectural Graphic Standards from cover to cover.

Beware: some sections are somewhat spotty so count on having to use other resources as well.

Great Guide.......2002-08-02

I found this guide to be extremely valuable. It covers a broad range of topics in the appropriate detail. Of course, it doesn't have all the answers to the ARE, but those tests are meant to have many "unanswerable" questions. But this guide will give you a strong base from which to work. It also has valuable information and rules of thumb that apply to practicing architects. I leaned most heavily on this resouce in order to take my exams.

Excellent Jumping Point.......1999-12-04

I found that this book was very helpful in preperation for the ARE. Although the book did not cover all the topics on the actual exam, it proved invaluable on the areas of study that were tested. The chapters were highly organized and easy to follow while the content was neither too broad to be ambiguous, nor too precise to be cumbersome. The only gripe I had with the book was that some information (minor in detail) was contradictory to current trade manuals and other study material. Other than that, I highly recommend this book as an aid to studying for the exam - and it makes an excellent reference book for your library.

Book Description

Mimesis is one of the oldest, most fundamental concepts in Western aesthetics. This book offers a new, searching treatment of its long history at the center of theories of representational art: above all, in the highly influential writings of Plato and Aristotle, but also in later Greco-Roman philosophy and criticism, and subsequently in many areas of aesthetic controversy from the Renaissance to the twentieth century. Combining classical scholarship, philosophical analysis, and the history of ideas--and ranging across discussion of poetry, painting, and music--Stephen Halliwell shows with a wealth of detail how mimesis, at all stages of its evolution, has been a more complex, variable concept than its conventional translation of "imitation" can now convey.

Far from providing a static model of artistic representation, mimesis has generated many different models of art, encompassing a spectrum of positions from realism to idealism. Under the influence of Platonist and Aristotelian paradigms, mimesis has been a crux of debate between proponents of what Halliwell calls "world-reflecting" and "world-simulating" theories of representation in both the visual and musico-poetic arts. This debate is about not only the fraught relationship between art and reality but also the psychology and ethics of how we experience and are affected by mimetic art.

Moving expertly between ancient and modern traditions, Halliwell contends that the history of mimesis hinges on problems that continue to be of urgent concern for contemporary aesthetics.

Customer Reviews:

Mimesis.......2004-08-18

A strange conglomeration of laughter and seriousness. Sometimes hard to read, though one does not have to read a book to review it, although I did read this book and would reccomend it to anyone.

Book Description

A convenient place to record birthdays and other annual events, this undated calendar has the added bonus of an Anne Geddes photograph each month.

Average customer rating:

Degrading? I think not....
High Kitsch
Anne Geddes Lover

Anne Geddes Birthday Calendar

Manufacturer: Andrews McMeel Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Calendar

General | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This perpetual calendar provides convenient spaces each month to record birthdays, anniversaries, and special annual events.

Customer Reviews:

Degrading? I think not...........2004-06-02

To think that what Anne Geddes does is degrading because the babies are posed in "inhumane" positions is ridiculous, not to mention missing the entire point of the photographs. First, I'm sure that she would not be quite so prolific if there were something truly wrong with the way her young models are treated. Second, what narrow mind would insist that all photography adhere to rules that would 'allow for a social comment to transcend the visual confines of her exploitive commercial "photography"'? Who are any of us to demand that ANY photography make a social comment at all? Or even be pleasing to all in order to be worthy of viewing? If her style goes against your tightly held beliefs about the greater meanings of art, then move on and don't look at them. Perhaps these photographs, while both taken and published with commercial gain in mind (not quite the evil motivation some would have you believe - I'm sure most people go to work) are intended to provide some brief happiness to this world which is so often jaded, as can clearly be witnessed in some of the other reviews. While Anne Geddes may not be a revolutionary artist, she certainly takes beautiful photos that are more than capable of tugging heartstrings and bringing a smile to the face of anyone who will drop the pretentious posturings and let her.

High Kitsch.......2003-12-02

Geddes' manages to degrade and isolate her subjects. Her prehistoric "cutsie" images, though appealing to a kitsch market, do not allow for a social comment to transcend the visual confines of her exploitive commercial "photography". In some senses, she could be seen as a radical post-modernist artist, as she abstracts the subject from social normality and removes any dignity from the development of the child, if that was her so calling in contemporary art. Yet it is frightening to be in an age where people will grasp such superficially degrading images. Geddes has made a personal fortune off photographing babies, subjects usually positioned in inhumane circumstances (ie: babies in flowerpots or dipped in custard), which removes human dignity and allows us to question Geddes moral intent.

Anne Geddes Lover.......2003-10-14

I love this book. It makes it so much easier to remember birthday's and other special days. The best thing is you never have to throw it away.

Average customer rating:

Down in the Garden Birthdays
Anne Geddes
Manufacturer: Andrews McMeel Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 0836264649

Product Description

Color photographs with several pages for each month to list birthdays and special events. Star signs, birthstones and flowers are listed near the back along with notes pages.

Book Description

Rayojini lives an idyllic life amongst the soulscapers of Taparak until she reaches the age at which she will be initiated into their ranks. Her initiation rite, though it follows the traditional pattern of thousands of others, is different in one vital respect. The guardian-pursuers that are invoked to watch over Rayojini's progress are real. In far off Sacramante, the artisans who are patronised by the upper echelons of Bochanegran society, live in isolated atelier courts. The public may watch performances at chosen times, but only the patron families have constant access to the astounding creations of the eloim artists. The eloim themselves are more than content to remain a race apart, for so they are, and if the majority were to know their true nature, their lives would be forfeit. After eons of contented cohabitation, a phenomenon known as the Fear is beginning to infect the eloim, who have previously considered themselves free from the petty psychological problems of humanity. They have been virtually immortal-thanks to the protection of the patrons, who exchange their life's blood for culture-but now the artisans are beginning to die in despair. Gimel and Beth Metatronim, an actress and a painter, set out to find a Tappish soulscaper, who will be proficient enough to enter the racial soulscape of the eloim, track down the cause of the Fear and eradicate it. The soulscaper of their choice, Rayojini, is puzzled that her guardian pursuers should be so much more real than those of other soulscapers. Then, as she delves deeper into the cause of the terrible 'non-death', a mysterious affliction akin to the Fear, their attentions become unavoidable.

Customer Reviews:

Very Good.......2003-10-04

Highly recommended.

The plot has already been discussed in comprehensive reviews here, so I won't dissect it too deeply. But I must caution potential readers: this is really NOT a vampire story. Forget that you have read this is a vampire story. To call it such influences potential readers to assign preconceived stereotypical notions usually adhered to vampire stories. So forget about vampires. I do not believe Ms Constantine intended Burying the Shadow to be stuffed into that pigeonhole.

The story is told in the first person, alternating between two well developed and plausible female protagonists, whose exotic (and very different) lives inevitably collide in an unavoidable bitter-sweet climax. The setting is a lush realm populated with various uniquely Storm-esque love-or-hate rogues, fragile beauties (fortunately not too many of those), arcane customs, and fantastic locales. Hidden secrets abound.

Constantine is a superb word weaver; she injects rich detail into her worlds without over doing it. Her characters and settings are ethereal, yet they are entirely believable. Her baroque prose (at its height here) flows from the page in such a way as to suck the reader in, willing or not, so there are moments when the reader forgets they are holding a book in their hands (one of the true marks of successful writing).

I feel I must mention there are, perhaps, elements occurring later on in the book that could have been expanded on or reworked (you may disagree), however on the whole this is eclipsed by the strength of the leads and the overall exuberance of the story. If you want to take a journey far from the tedious agonies of your mundane existence, you will not regret purchasing Burying the Shadow.

So what are you waiting for?

(also very highly recommended: Calenture, by Storm Constantine)

Uncovering the Shadow.......2002-04-30

Burying the Shadow is a book that involves two major storylines intertwining and finally, at the conclusion of the story, colliding. The story is told by two female narrators who alternate their accounts (not switching off every chapter, but very nearly) and together give the novel an narrative style wherein the reader often knows more about what's going on the than do the characters themselves.

The first narrator is Gimel Metetronim, an 'artisan' in the city of Sacramante, part of a vast, fantastic mystical world Storm creates as a stand-in / alternature universe for Earth. The 'artisans' live in an isolated quarter of the city while gaining fame among the human populace, gifting them with their plays, music, poetry, paintings and other creative endeavors. All the artisans' work is sponsored by patron families, who, as it turns out, pay for this artwork with more their money -- they pay with their blood. This is because the artisans don't just *seem* otherworldly, but actually *are*, for they are the eloim, a race of human-seeming but immortal blooddrinkers who came from another world and now live on earth, surviving through a symbiotic relationshp with the patron families.

Although Sacramante is widely renowned for its arts scene, the intimate relationship between the eloim and the human families is a tightly held secret, with family members accepting and welcoming the 'sup' (small drinks that do not kill), eloim using human servants (who'se lives can be extended via bloodsharing), and offerings of willing sacrificial victims, including children. This is the way it has been for centuries, only now, after such a long period of stability, the situation in Sacramante has begun to change, become unbalanced. There is a sickness among the eloim/'artisans,' with a rash of suicides, unheard of among the immortal race. There is debate as to the cause of this sickness, but finally Gimel and her brother (yes, brother) Beth decide they can't wait for answer to fall from the sky or be delivered by the Parzupheim, the body of ancients who govern the eloim world. They go in search of a 'soulscaper,' a highly specialized professional trained to enter the subconscious and repair the soulscape, the inner mind and spirit found in all individuals and tied to both mind and body. (Those readers familiar with the study of archetypes, Carl Jung, dreams, etc., will find this fascinating.)

The second narrative is delivered by of Rayojini the soulscaper, whose story intersects with that of the eloim. As the story begins Rayojini is a human girl, a daughter of a soulscraper, living in the fantastical petrified forest city of Taparak, home of the soulscapers and their art. Through a sacred cememony involving the specialized scrying fumes (needed to enter the subconscious world), Rayojini is initiated into the life of a soulscaper and also introduced to her 'guardian pursuers,' symbolic figures all soulscapers are taught to look for as figures of their conscience and/or overseers in their lives. Little does Rayojini realize that her 'guardian pursuers' are real -- Gimel and Beth!

From here on out, Rayo finds the course of her life straying from the ordinary as she feels the presence of her guardian pursuers, who track her life, waiting for the moment they can use her talents to discover the source of the eloim sickness, which is growing worse as yet further disturbances and mysteries unfold in Sacramante. Finally Rayo begins to make discoveries that lead her on a quest across vast distances, through strange cultures and soulscapes, uncovering a world of which she never dreamed. By the end of the tale she is doubting her own sanity as the world of the eloim collides with that of the human and vast mysteries, hidden even to the eloim themselves, make themselves known.

As a Storm Constantine novel, Burying the Shadow comes complete with the usual Storm trademarks, including a lush narrative, a marvelously complex fantasy world with races, history and geography of its own, and heavy eroticism among members of both/all genders. That said, the book is an interesting contrast to the Grigori triology, which covers some of the same ground (secret immortal race stranded on earth after being expelled from alternate, higher universe of vast powers, with a narrative involving two groups attacking the same problem from different angles) in that it has a much tighter, more focused narrative, offers more in the way of plot and mystery, and is set in a fantastic, rather than contemporary, world. Burying the Shadow is also notable for featuring not one but two strong female protagonists who share the spotlight along with a vast array of supporting characters, including dangerous Avirzah'e, manipulative Keea, a fabulous tribe of nomads, the enigmatic Sammael, and more.

I would strongly recommend this book to those seek a distinctly different reading of the vampire myth as well as those looking to dive into a unique and thrillingly gothic fantasy world.

An exquisite blend of myths.......2002-03-22

Reading the best oeuvres of Storm Constantine is like savouring a most delightful cocktail. Ancient,arcane myths blended whith the most popular tale of vampyres... the strange visions of the soulscapers (the soulscape bears many similarities whit Junghian concept of Collective Unconscious), politics and Vancean descryption of strange cultures. Storm is very learned,and she knows the feelings of the human (and some not that human) mind.

Average customer rating:

Burying The Shadow
Constantine Storm
Manufacturer: HEADLINE
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Average customer rating:

Burying The Shadow
Storm Constatine
Manufacturer: Headline
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000MVTKE4

Book Description

John Gust was fed up. With teaching. With bureaucracy. And with an educational system that seemed more concerned with students' employment prospects than with their enrichment. So it was that he left his teaching post in the Los Angeles Unified School System. So it was that his returnprompted by economic necessitywas inauspicious. And so it was that his transformation began. Now, in the tradition of Kozol, Dennison, and Kohl, Gust shares that unfolding process in Round Peg, Square Hole a personal narrative that is at once provocative, moving, and often funny.

The story begins when Gustdisillusioned, underpaid, and apprehensivereluctantly accepts a teaching job in Watts, perhaps the nation's most notorious ghetto. Realizing how his sour state of mind would disadvantage his students, he decides to do something daring: he moves from his affluent Manhattan Beach neighborhood into the Compton Avenue Elementary School community. Here, he quickly realizes that conventional schooling techniques and state-mandated standards are wholly inadequate to the needs of his students. Round Peg, Square Hole takes us through Gust's quest for a more meaningful way of teachinga journey that moves from the classroom to the playground to the streets to the homes of his Watts neighbors.

This book will appeal to any teacher who has struggled to teach critical-thinking skills in an atmosphere geared toward compliance with state-mandated standards. It will resonate with anyone concerned with race relations, social action, and redefining our notions of community. And it will be essential reading for any teachernovice or veteranwho wants to make a difference in the lives of students.

Customer Reviews:

used as Urban Ed. textbook.......2000-06-08

We used this book in our urban ed class (and its been used in previous sections). ALL of the class agreed that the book was great, fantastic, etc. The lessons taught are great. The story is well told. BUT.. there are questions left unanswered in the book... where's the sequel? What happened to Meghan? Is the playground still there.. (shoulda had a picture of it)? Is John still doing any teaching at Compton Avenue Elementary? We want to know.. The book is great!

Round Peg, Square Hole: A Teacher Lives and Learns in Watts

Average customer rating:

Round Peg, Square Hole: A Teacher Lives and Learns in Watts
Lois B. Bird John Gust
Manufacturer: Heinemann
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OUJZ84

Book Description

Rich, insightful, and highly engaging, Bruce Dowbiggin’s much-praised examination of the craft of hockey was hailed by critics as an enduring addition to the literature of sports.

What makes the best in the hockey business the best? By analyzing forward Steve Yzerman’s superb talent for leadership, defenseman Chris Chelio’s two-way brilliance, goaltender Dominik Hasek’s unrivalled ability to stop the puck, and hockey executive Glen Sather’s gift for construction, shaping, and inspiring a team, Dowbiggin not only illuminates hockey greatness, he also documents the subtle evolution in how the NHL game is played.

Customer Reviews:

too many errors.......1999-07-09

The other reader only pointed out one major error in this book. I have only read ten pages in the Yzerman section and have identified four errors. Detroit is not located on the St.Clair River, New Jersey swept the Wings in the finals the lockout season,obviously not the year they won 62 games, Yzerman did not lose the Calder Trophy to Steve Larmer, and Yzerman's oldest daughter is named Isabella. Perhaps the author should stick to broadcasting and let people who know how to research or, at least find people who can research, do the writing.

too many errors.......1999-07-09

Flawed but interesting.......1999-04-05

A flawed but interesting book. It attempts to be a hockey version of Peter King's "Inside the Helmet," but without King's insight. What will truly annoy fans of the game are the factual errors that any competent editor would have caught. For example, Dowbiggin writes of Clint Malarchuk's life threatening injury, but has him playing for the Washington Capitals. I am being picky sure, but how do you write about a scene no one "will ever forget" and then get the team wrong?! Overall though, the book is a welcome change from the suck up bios and transcribed interviews passed off as books about hockey.

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