Book Description
It's the private face of Francethe intimate scenes that natives know so well: quiet country landscapes between rolling farm fields, delightful walled gardens, the regional architecture of traditional homes, the intimate spaces inside them. French Country Living is a breathtaking photographic glimpse into the private palatethe styles, the colors, the ambienceof life in the French countryside. Here, in dramatic, full-page photos, are entryways and living rooms, kitchens and bedrooms, and family spaces indoors and out.
Book Description
“The instructions are easy to follow, plus the practice requires little in the way of expensive tools....There’s considerable artistry to the 48 projects....Great for rainy days.”—Booklist. “Combines basic information on jewelry-making, specific techniques...for working with polymer clay, and instructions for 48 projects....Highly recommended for public libraries.”—Library Journal.
Customer Reviews:
ONE OF THE MORE HELPFUL BOOKS ON THIS SUBJECT OUT THERE........2007-09-15
I found this work to be most helpful. It provides step by step instructions and is great for the beginner. The book is full of designs for use with Polymer Clay and is quite detailed. The photography is great and quite clear. The text is full of helpful hints and tips as to techniques that are easy to follow. I also enjoyed the great ideas for projects I gleaned from this work. One of the strong areas of this book, unlike some others I have in my collection, is that the author does not assume that you already know something and goes ahead and explains even simple steps. The only weakness I found was that some of the information is just a bit dated as so much progress has been made in this field over the past two or three years. This is not a big problem though as there certainly is no "bad" information. This is a good one to add to your collection as it is nice to have on hand to answer questions as you are working. It is also a very handy book to have if you happen to be teaching a course in working with Polymer clays. The instructions here can be worked into a lesson plan quite nicely. Highly recommend.
Good book to teach canes and give examples.......2005-12-16
The author shows how to make canes and that is pretty much all that is in this book. Not much if you are looking for other techniques.
5stars for us beginners.......2005-06-14
Im new at polymer clay and this book is just perfect.Ive loaned it out but kept track of it so no one forgets to bring it back too..I really couldnt have learned so much about canning and the craft of beads in polymer clay without this book..ITs a must add to your clay library.Mrs.C.
I love this book.......2002-10-14
This book got me into making jewelry. It has everything from the very simple, to complex canework. I've taken many of the examples in this book and made them into my own design. I would definitly recomend this book for anyone, if your just starting out or you already know what your doing.
Colorful projects ranging from basic to challenging.......2000-07-21
Creative Clay Jewelry is one of the many books that attempt to cover polymer clay work from the very basics to quite advanced. While other books are probably more successful at that (Sue Heaser's Polymer Clay Techniques Book, for example), Creative Clay Jewelry has some good projects and solid information, and would be quite useful to the beginning to intermediate clayer.
It's unfortunate that there's no real indication of level of difficulty in the projects; they don't follow any logical progression. Some of the early projects use very basic techniques only - jelly rolls, marbling - which could probably be discussed in the introduction section. However, just a few projects in, there's a geometric pattern that would be quite difficult and frustrating to do as your third or fourth PC project. I'd advise careful consideration when selecting a project from this book.
Dierks does provide a much more detailed ingredient list, including things like findings and clay amounts, which other books tend to skip. She even specifies particular brands and colors, but it isn't necessary to adhere to them.
On a more personal note, I got less use out of this book than most of my PC books, simply because the projects were very bright, busy, and colorful - and that's very far from my style. But for those who love the casual, cheerful look that polymer clay can provide, this book might well be great.
Average customer rating:
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Photography and the American Scene: A Social History, 1839-1889
Robert Taft
Manufacturer: Dover Pubns
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0486262022 |
Average customer rating:
- The volume is infamous for a reason....
- Just... wow.
- Wonderful job from CLAMP, passable job from Viz
- Sayonara, Sei-chan
- X/1999 is great!
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X/1999, Volume 4 (X/1999)
CLAMP
Manufacturer: VIZ Media LLC
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Similar Items:
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X/1999, Volume 17: Suite (X/1999)
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X/1999, Volume 18: Inversion (X/1999)
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X/1999 Vol. 15 Waltz
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X/1999, Volume 14: Concerto (X/1999)
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X/1999, Vol. 9: Requiem
ASIN: 1569312648 |
Book Description
This dark poetic tale foretelling the end of the world stars Kamui, a gifted psychic who holds humanity's destiny in his hands. Visually stunning illustrations complement the haunting story, in which Kamui faces the opposing forces that would protect - or destroy - the earth.
Customer Reviews:
The volume is infamous for a reason...........2005-09-04
Four words: Cried like a baby. Through pretty much the entire volume, to stop briefly during the cute fluff girl-talk moment between Yuziriha and Arashi, then to start anew during Seishiro-san's side story.
Anyone who has ever belived that there was anything other than blank emotions or hate between Subaru-kun and Seishiro-san will shed at least one tear in this volume. Anyone who read Tokyo Babylon will be bawling. Without the honorifics, I admit, i did shift a little in my seat and definitely lessens the impact of "that line", (but my convoluted mind changed it into the intimate lack of honorifics, instead of Viz being dumbasses) but it still makes me cry.
We once again see Hokuto, Kakyo of course, angsting over her. man i love this girl, she rocks, of course. she makes a speech, in her dying moments to Seishiro-san (Kakyo's dream, of the past) about love and how there's hope, and how she could never hate him and puts her trust in him, and oh man, it made me cry.
DoE Kamui's talk with Kakyo is worth seeing too. The use of the word "special" causes confliction with me. In this context, it should be something much stronger than "special", but it strikes a memory of a TB scene where Hokuto-chan tells Seishiro-san that he is "special" to Subaru-kun, and there, the word is supposed to be "special", so confict on word choice there.
This volume is dedicated to my two all-time favorite CLAMP characters, Subaru-kun and Sei-chan, and their story, which began in Tokyo Babylon, continued in various volumes, which always made my heart clench, and finally ended here, in a very tearful moment, and lots of sakura petals (what else?) during the fight. (their story "continues" in a way in later volumes, you'll have to read 17 and 18 to know what i mean)
Even though their aren't any really happy moments (though the goofy smile never leaves Sorata's face...), and evil!Hinoto makes my skin crawl, and the majority of the book made me cry (Subaru-kun sitting in a dark room clenching the blood-spattered jacket around him, and kissing the marks on the back of his hands...*cries all over again*), this is definitely my favorite volume of the 18. Anyone who has made it this far, whether reading it w/o buying it, or buying all the volumes, one by one, has to own this volume. Any Tokyo Babylon fan should own this volume. period.
Just... wow........2005-06-16
...I cried. Like a baby. And just...
CLAMP, you are too mean.
That last line without the "kun" in it just felt... slightly upsetting, but all in all, the translations were pretty decent.
"That line" made me cringe a tad, but I suppose there's worser ways to translate it.
If you're a Tokyo Babylon fan, or X fan, or Subaru and Sei-chan fan, read it.
And yes, you will most likely cry.
Wonderful job from CLAMP, passable job from Viz.......2004-11-22
Being a huge X and Tokyo Babylon fan, I find that this book is simply gold. No X fan can deny that this is one of the most memorable books from this series. They can't deny that it is heart-wrenching and very moving.
Luckily, I do not see a need to attack Viz for their translation. Others may see things differently depending on how Americanized or directly translated they like their manga to be. X is my favorite series, so I will not deny that I tend to be harsh on Viz. That having been said, here's what I thought:
Content-wise, this book couldn't be better. While it does center on just two characters, it is very worthwhile and doesn't drag on in the least. The overall mood is out to get you shocked and crying (and darned if it doesn't succeed), so don't expect tons of fluffy stuff here.
Translation-wise, this is, as I said in the title, passable. Not horrible, but probably won't meet the standards held by hardcore fans. Allow me to say this: the dialogue is much less ambiguous. The sound effects kind of seem to be mocking the artwork, but maybe that's just a recent revelation of mine. Finally, one page is left unflipped and if you're observant/know the pages of this book like the back of your hand, you'll notice and probably cringe.
There are some good points, though. As I said, I'm biased against Viz, so I'm being tough. After reading this book twice, I only found one minor grammatical error and as far as I know, the dialogue is mostly translated correctly. Of course, the artwork is just brilliant as always (and, may I argue, better than usual?).
To be honest, I rather like Viz's translation of "that line" (for those who don't know what I'm talking about, you will and how it's translated probably won't matter). Overall, I'm satisfied.
Final word: Go out and get this volume. It's a must-have.
Sayonara, Sei-chan.......2004-11-14
Apparently, the image for this sucker isn't working. However, this IS the link that came up when I went to my order and selected good ol' volume 16 of X.
How to review it....
Let's simply say I sobbed like a baby all the way through. Viz finally did a decent translation job, keeping all the heart, feeling and utter and complete angst that makes this the greatest of all volumes of X nearly as fabulous as it was in its original printing across the pages of Asuka comics.
From the trauma that graces the pages (no, not a single freaking happy moment in this one... save Sorata's goofiness at the end. He's a great spirit-lifter, even though after Hinoto's cameo you just shudder seeing his grin. GAH!) to the beautiful detail splayed across every page, this one's always been impossible for me to put down.
SEE what I mean that the fight in the anime should've been MUCH longer, seeing how many pages it takes up in this volume? Their fight went on forever across the comic's pages! Yeesh.
And such a horrible, yet fitting end... *cries herself silly*
To enjoy - Kamui smiling (WOW!), Sorata flopping his hair like mad, Nokuro looking very very bish, Girl-talk between Arashi and Yuzu that's so sweet it nearly made my teeth rot with its sugary goodness in a fine way, Kamui at Subaru's feet gripping his hand like the uke onna CLAMP's all but turned him in to, wind-caught trench coats EVERYWHERE, Seishiro's best-ever defense against ofuda, HOKUTO-CHAN! in her final moments, Kamui jumping off the roof of a Geo Metro (I'm a Metro owner, so I laughed myself silly seeing that. Thanks for the giggle, CLAMP!)...
Seishiro's side story with all of its incest and wrongnes with its pretty flowers and snow...
And the unforgettable conclusion on the drama that started with the very first pages of Tokyo Babylon.
Sayonara, Sei-chan.
And as for Subaru... no worries. We'll be seeing him again. *runs off before she blows spoilers everywhere*
X/1999 is great!.......2003-08-17
I found this manga to be one of the best I have ever read. I am 12 years old and just cant stay away from it. The fighting scenes are great. I really love the english translation and I love being able to get into the character. It is great to be able to get into the main character and in this book I found that you really could get into the character. I think that all anime lovers will love this manga. When you are watching the series and you dont read the manga dont watch episode 0 you'll ruin it all for you. You want to know the plot before you watch episode 0. So even if you havent read it and you just want to watch and ruin the plot go right ahead. But if youre one for reading and not ruining the plot then get the manga and read. Im sure youll enjoy yourself even if you dont like reading. It isnt hard to enjoy this book and even if you dont like anime I beleive you will love this series. THE END
Average customer rating:
- Sorry Joe
- How Life Could Have Been, If Only.
- I wouldn't give it another shot.
- Disappointing
- I Laughed...I Cried
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Another Shot: How I Relived My Life in Less Than a Year
Joe Kita
Manufacturer: Daybreak Books
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 1579542670 |
Book Description
Joe Kita has had a good life. He has been happily married for more than 15 years and has two beautiful children. He is a successful journalist. He has lots of friends. Still, at 40, he wonders about missed opportunities: What would have happened if he had asked out that coed? What if he had learned to surf? What if he'd been nicer to his dog?Afraid of having the same pangs of regret at age 80 and no longer satisfied with leaving good times to chance. Kita deliberately revisits 20 crossroads in his life and tries to relive them. In Another Shot, he chronicles his crazy year with humor and inspiration. Along the way, he gets to the bottom of what happened to his first car-- a beautiful 1979 Camaro-- and ponders whether choices really matter and what determines one's place in the world.Some of Kita's adventures border on the absurd: A lifelong skinny boy, Kita yearns to have six-pack abs, and he's willing to perform almost any exercise to get them. Having never won a large stuffed animal, he heads to a carnival with a wad of bills in hand, determined to leave triumphant.Other stops on his journey are more common to men his age: He's lost his hair and he wants it back. His sexual peak came and went without him. He's never truly tested his manhood.More than anything, though, it's his relationships with other people that have affected Kita-- and these are the chapters of his life that he is most eager to edit. His relationship with his mother has never been great. His father died before he could say goodbye. His harried work schedule has caused him to miss out on time with his kids. His quest to find God has been unfulfilling.Regardless of the original regret and its final "outcome," each experience alters Kita's perspective and will alter yours, too. A poetic narrative organized by specific regrets, Another Shot provides an insightful glimpse into the life and mind of a regular guy. It's a tumultuous and sometimes uncomfortable journey. But Kita is hilarious, insightful, and-- most of all-- inspiring enough to make you ponder: Why not give it another shot?
Customer Reviews:
Sorry Joe.......2006-01-29
Joe, you seem like a nice and sincere guy, and I would like to have a beer with you sometime, but this book is very boring. In fact it is more interesting to read the programming section in my VCR manual.
How Life Could Have Been, If Only........2005-05-11
This funny (and sometime sad) memoir of a midlife crisis, a man remembering the past and wondering what it would have been -- if only he had made some different choices, chosen the other fork in the road. He quotes Joe E. Lewis, "You only live once but, if you work it right, once is enough." He feels he is a man with no regrets, but we all have regrets, for saying the wrong word, for reacting in a bad way to a slight, and for marrying the wrong person.
He starts out with two short stories; the first about Jeff Besos, founder of Amazon.com who used basic logic to start a new frontier in his life. Thank God for Amazon.com! The second was about George Plimpton in New Mexico about chasing bats and a t-shirt too small. This is a story about missed opportunities. He had a mixed-bag journey and lived an 'adventure in possibilities.'
He said, there is 'no sadder story than that of "small regrets'' -- I've had some large regrets, so he's way ahead of me in the game of life experiences. He feels his actions were most accidental, and wished he'd had 'another shot' and ponders life's lottery -- could it have been better? God gave us 'free will' to develop our own potential. If we fail to carry through, it is only because we took the wrong fork in the road of life.
In these twenty chapters, the most important events, he revisited crossroads in hopes of reliving them. We can do that without getting out of our own homes, just get old enough and you will constantly relive what was important and eventful and ALWAYS wish you had done something different. But then, we wouldn't be the person we are now, as life experiences make the man.
Don't we all wish we had acted or reacted differently at times of crisis, and wonder if we could have been happier. No one is really happy these days. Our ancestors accepted their 'lot' in life, but mine weren't happy to have been born poor. Are the rich happy -- only at times! Money does not insure happiness now or in the past. Oh, it helps to have the good things in life at your fingertips, but they are just objects. They are not life. Only accomplishment and fulfillment at any age can truly be termed happiness. Be proud of what came your way as it won't come again.
I value certain people, not the many possessions I lug around. The past is in the past and cannot be resurrected. I was happy once, the few years I sang on several local talent shows on radio, television, and on the stage of the Tennessee Theatre (back then in my youth). It didn't matter then whether you were from a wealthy family or a railroad man's household. Talent is talent. I was happy again when my first child was such a delightful, bright, beautiful extension of myself. He's always thought he inherited his curiosity and intelligence from his dad! Wrong -- as was the second one feeling that his writing ability came from his English teacher dad. I told him when he first started that it had come from me. Did he listen, did he believe, of course not!
Well, I was rewarded with the 'postscript', born 13 years after his brothers. He wasn't my 'Ligeia' but finally someone just like me! Later, his daughter Chrissy was proof of the gene pool-- like her grandmother in many ways, even looks. You can't fool Mother Nature. Well, her outgoing personality and spark put the eight-yr.old me in the shade.
Joe Kite, a seasoned journalist, has traveled the world (and didn't have to pay for any of it), had life experiences we all would give 'an arm and a leg' for. And yet, he questioned how different choices might have made him happier. Not in the romance department -- he found his soulmate and is still married to the mother of his children. They live in Pennsylvania, but his voice does not have the harshness in speech as my sister-in-law who was from that area. Believe me, they are as different from a Southerner as black and white. He sound like a delightful person to know. Previously, he had published WISDOM OF OUR FATHERS. Now, this 'running around in his mind' memoir is full of his own wisdom.
I wouldn't give it another shot........2002-08-13
Another Shot by Joe Kita, I listened to on
the way to my vacation. In this book, the author tries to relive, or correct his regrets.
The book made me wonder about my own regrets. I dislike that word. Regret implies
that I would change something in my past. Each thing that happened to me, each
decision, lead me to the place I am now. I try to actively design my life and I am
intensely happy and pleased with my life. So although I am sometimes curious about
"what ifs" in my life, I can't truly regret any decision, because any minor change may
have altered my present.
In spite of disagreeing with the author's premise, I still enjoyed parts of this book.
The chapter about his mother is hilarious. Is it worth it to read the whole book? I
don't know. The book is written in a hokey way, which can be a bit cloying.
http://home.att.net/~bunsonmars/
Disappointing.......2001-09-05
Disappointing is the word that comes to mind having read this book. I loved the premise, and even some of the specific regrets, such as trying out for the high school basketball team again, and living like you're filthy rich for a week. My amusement ended quickly, as the author began injecting his own share of disfunctionality into the book. I quickly found out that he's a fallen catholic, doesn't get along with his mother, never made peace with his father, and varoius other "issues". Before long, I could no longer relate and stopped reading. I did finally finish the book, but it wasn't worth it.
I Laughed...I Cried.......2001-06-21
Joe Kita acted on twenty of his what-ifs and he reports on the process and the results in a fun way. I laughed a lot and shed a couple of tears. Then I began making my own list of things I've never done but want to do, or things I did which I'd like to do over and see if I could get different results. Seeing Joe try and succeed - or try and not succeed - made me want to try.
Average customer rating:
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Another Shot: How I Relived My Life in Less Than a Year
Joe Kita
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 0142000612
Release Date: 2002-03-26 |
Book Description
"If you ever wanted a second chance, if you ever wanted to do it all over and do it right, then listen to Joe Kita. He did it for all of us." (Regis Philbin)
We all have our regrets, but rarely do we give ourselves a chance to try to do anything about them. After turning forty, Joe Kita set out to relive his top-twenty personal regrets. In Another Shot he recounts his adventures-from the hilarious to the poignant. Dismayed that he may have missed his sexual peak, he convinces his wife to enroll with him in sex camp. Bemoaning the selling of his first love, a powerhouse Camaro, he hires a private detective to find it. Still smarting from the sting of getting cut from his high school basketball team, he convinces his alma mater's coach to let him try out for the squad again-more than twenty years later.
Above all, though, it's Kita's relationships with his family that haunt him. His interaction with his mother has always been strained, and he attempts to understand her by taking her out for a special night. Kita even tries to get in touch with his late father through a medium because he never got to say goodbye. At once witty and profound, Another Shot offers a glimpse into the hopes and worries of a regular guy and speaks to everyone about not letting regrets keep us from enjoying the rest of our lives.
Customer Reviews:
Pleasant.......2005-03-20
We got the audio book version of this (it is read by the author, and while abridged, runs about 6 hours over 5 cd's). It made for good listening. Do not expect an epiphany. This book does not contain the magic answer to "Life, the Universe, and Everything." Rather it is filled with simple, common sense reminders of what we can do (or try to do) to make life more pleasant and rewarding. Joe Kita takes a look at some of the regretes he has in life, and goes back to address them (with varying levels of success). If nothing else, it is an honest look into the life of another person, and that in itself can be helpful.
dreary.......2003-01-17
I picked this book up while I was traveling for work, hoping that it would provide some light entertainment. Well, the entertainment was pretty light. Kita writes for Men's Health magazine, and it shows -- each chapter reads like an article from that magazine, with 9th-grade reading level to match, and for all I know maybe that's where they originated. But even worse than the flaccid dreariness of the prose is now-familiar sound of a boomer struggling with his mortality. Over the course of a year, Kita attempts to resolve lingering regrets from his past. It goes about the way you would expect it to go when a suburban 40-year-old learns to surf or tries to find his old car. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with this; it's just not very interesting. Sure, each of us probably should go visit all the churches in our area; the guy who finds the squid-worshipers is the only one who should write about it. Kita reaches unremarkable conclusions which he trumpets like a new gospel of mediocrity: Good sex requires intimacy!! Toupees are silly!! Religion is personal!! I'm giving it one star because I'll give one star to anything I can finish, and because the chapter about PET scanning gratified my sense of hypochondria. Everybody can probably find similar hints of interestingness somewhere in this book, but do be prepared for the aftershock when this overdose of vapid banality finally hits home.
Average customer rating:
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Another Shot : How I Relived My Life in Less Than a Year
Manufacturer: Amazon Remainders Account
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette
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ASIN: B000C4SO1G |
Average customer rating:
- Probing, unsparing meditations on the ever-neglected Okies.
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Five Shades of Shadow (River Teeth Literary Nonfiction Prize)
Tracy Daugherty
Manufacturer: University of Nebraska Press
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0803217234 |
Book Description
When work took Tracy Daugherty from his family’s roots in Oklahoma to the unfamiliar landscape of Oregon, his move mirrored the western migrations of so many earlier Oklahomans devastated and displaced during the Dust Bowl years. Deeply unsettled by the change in his surroundings and shaken by the recent Oklahoma City bombing, Daugherty took the opportunity provided by his own journey to explore the shattering and rebuilding of community in the America of today and yesterday.
Speaking with survivors of the Murrah building bombing, revisiting his roots, and retracing the paths of exile and migration in the American West, Daugherty creates a diverse and heartfelt portrait of America in an uncertain time—its people, its politics, its music, and its poetry—a sobering but ultimately hopeful view of the national community. At heart an exploration, from an intimate vantage point, of the consequences of violence in contemporary America, Five Shades of Shadow will hold special resonance for readers struggling to come to terms with trauma and loss.
Customer Reviews:
Probing, unsparing meditations on the ever-neglected Okies. .......2006-12-26
Daugherty may be best known for his novels and short stories (Amazon has them all), but this sequence of linked essays on his Red Dirt homeland and the diaspora of its hardscrabble settlers shows us the initial sparks of his fictional fire -- while also proving, in itself, a moving and significant investigation.
The Oklahoma City bombing in the mid-90s -- which this book presents, cannily, as an in-country foreshadowing of the terrible events of 9/11 -- brings Daugherty back to his old family touchstones around that city and then across the depressed Southwest. He interviews eyewitnesses (including family members), digs into pertinent first-hand materials old and new, and arrives at the horrified conclusion that the bomber, Timothy McVeigh, was himself closely akin to his victims, the frustrated and embittered Okies.
With a sensitivity to the criminal mind worthy of Truman Capote, Daugherty demonstrates how McVeigh was brought to his violence by the same forces as drove the hand-to-mouth migrants of John Steinbeck's "Grapes of Wrath" or Woody Guthrie's "Pastures of Plenty." The sorry cases of the 1930s were as badly used as McVeigh himself, and many, to be sure, teetered close to such destructive acting out. And "Five Shades" uncovers this abiding pain, eating at generation after generation of Westerners, along the same route as the refugees took from Dust Bowl days to the 1990s: Daugherty drives to California, as much as he can on Route 66. Along the way he gets as close as he can to the lives of migrant laborers these days, and finds out how their suffering has taken a toll on him as well.
A book of hard journeys, honest music, and accumulating loss, "Five Shades of Shadow" adds up to a fine and artful darkness. Yet it achieves illumination, in the end, exposing the viciously deepening divide in our country and beyond between the haves and have-nots.
Books:
- The Chrysler Building: Creating a New York Icon, Day by Day
- The City After the Automobile: An Architect's Vision
- The Elements of Style: A Practical Encyclopedia of Interior Architectural Details from 1485 to the Present
- The Genius in the Design : Bernini, Borromini, and the Rivalry That Transformed Rome
- The Ghosts of Berlin: Confronting German History in the Urban Landscape
- The Harvard Design School Guide to Shopping / Harvard Design School Project on the City 2
- The History of Castles: Fortifications Around the World
- The Houses of McKim, Mead & White
- The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Feng Shui: The Complete Guide to the Art and Practice of Feng Shui (Illustrated Encyclopedia)
- The Lighthouse Encyclopedia: The Definitive Reference
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Recommended Books
- The Last Place on Earth
- The Last Detective
- The Arts & Crafts Cabin
- The Houseboat Book
- The Cell Cycle: Principles of Control
- The Human Side of Enterprise, Annotated Edition
- The Marshal and the Madwoman
- The Destruction of Lower Manhattan
- The Classical Orders of Architecture, Second Edition
- The Race: A Novel of Grit, Tactics, and the Tour de France