The Portland Cement Association's Guide to Concrete Homebuilding Systems

Book Description

Your one-source guide to Concrete-Based Homebuilding Systems. Residential contractors, architects, and developers will welcome this first total guide to the latest concrete-based homebuilding systems (CBHSs). With lumber costs still on the rise after doubling the early '90s, The Portland Cement Association Guide to Concrete Homes, by Peter VanderWerf and W. Keith Munsel, can deliver, durable, cost-efficient, esthetically pleasing alternative building materials and construction methods. It's all spelled out in an authoritative sourcebook that explains and compares the various types of CBHSs and lists special materials and tools for building them--provides case histories of concrete homes already built and in use--and contains data vital to building professionals who want to learn tomorrow's techniques today.

Customer Reviews:

Bang your drum.......2007-03-04

This is as another reviewer stated, "Advertising." Completely unpractical from either an engineer or buildler's point of view. Steer clear.

A great synopsis of professional understanding.......2004-02-14

As we may note upon reading this tome, it is written primarily for one who is articulate with the construction trade. However it is onomonopoetic in its scope. As you read you find yourself absorbing and understanding far more than seems possible. One gets it quickly and is allowed to dream of design possibilities. I love a good book. Learning at an exponential rate is exhilerating.

Just browsing CHS for myself.......2003-09-09

Remember, this book is almost TEN years old because it is based on research done in 1993 and published in '95. So there have been advances and experience that go well beyond this book. Dwell magazine has often tickled me with various new building techniques and I wanted to learn more about what might be appropriate for me and the Midwestern climate. This book will give you an overview of SOME of the styles (mortarless, poured-in-place, etc.), and also indicate what might be appropriate for your situation. I'm not a builder or an architect but I wanted to design my own house, so this book did help me to recognize and comprehend the different catagories of techniques. At the same time, this topic could really use an update that you won't find from the Portland Cement Association. My advice to people like me is to keep looking and seek out small-scale builders who will familiarize you with their technique that they know best. There are dozens, and the most difficult thing is getting a crew that doesn't have to be trained for a new technique but has already completed several homes using a proven method.

This book, even though it is somewhat old will give you a good sense of what to expect from building codes and prices, but it's just not enough, and there are no pretty pictures.

Ugly Duckling........2002-12-17

This book is an Ugly Duckling for now. Hopefully in the future they will put out a new edition with lots of colour photo's to show us what a finished project can look like. It does seem to cover most systems for building concrete structures. It is written for contractors, but with a little work it could be just as well suited for the potential home owner.

For Contractors.......2001-07-24

I bought this book because I am thinking of building my own house. This book is geared toward contractors and not homeowner-builders.

Portland Cement Association's Guide to Concrete Homebuilding Systems

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Portland Cement Association's Guide to Concrete Homebuilding Systems
Pieter A.; Munsell, W. Keith Vanderwerf
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000KWHXTO

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Buy the Water color School instead

A great idea, but not executed very well...

the only books you'll ever need for watercolours

The Best Art Class I Ever Had

Exceptional Book on How to Watercolor

Watercolor Class: An Innovative Course in Transparent Watercolor (Practical Art Books)
Michael Crespo
Manufacturer: Watson-Guptill
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Study & Teaching | Reference | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
General | Instructional & How-To | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
Watercolor Painting | Instructional & How-To | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
General | Painting | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
Watercolor | Painting | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Watercolor School (Learn as You Go)

Making Color Sing

Charles Reids Watercolor Secrets

Watercolor Painting Outside the Lines: A Positive Approach to Negative Painting

Simply Watercolor: Paint Techniques That Work Every Step of the Way (Quarto Book)

ASIN: 0823056597

Customer Reviews:

Buy the Water color School instead.......2006-03-04

The title of this book is misleading it says its equal to 1 year of water color lessons. The book is divided in "days" of lessons but all that it does is explain water color techniques wich take about half a page then proceeds to show you examples of his students and explains each and every one of them in incredibly boring and painful detail. I already read about half of the bookand find it lacking as a learning guide. This book is only good as a compendium of Watercolor techniques and methods, if you skip all worthless reviews wich are about 3/4 parts of this book that is...

A great idea, but not executed very well..........2003-01-31

The book is based on art courses the author taught. Unfortunately, I don't think the author is a very good painter, so it is hard to take the lessons very seriously.

The book has some worth, teaching you how to see shape, then shades, composition, and then executing paintings. It builds one lesson on another. But the bottom line is the paintings aren't anywhere near as good as Jan Kunz, or other well-known artists. So it is hard to take the author's advice.

I am sorry I bought the book, and will probably sell it to someone else. But if you like the author's paintings, you will enjoy this book.

What would I reccomend instead? 'Watercolor School' by Hazel Harrison, or "Painting Beautiful Watercolor from Photographs" by Jan Kunz.

the only books you'll ever need for watercolours.......2003-01-10

As an addict of how-to art books, Michael's are the ones I return to constantly. Whether you're a beginner or a regular watercolourist you'll find all his advice useful; his assignments challenging. Best of all are the examples of his students' responses to the assignments, with Michael's appraisals and comments.So supportive always - he just makes you want to try it for yourself. Let's hope Michael Crespo's out-of-print books get to be republished; I'd love to see the one on oils...

The Best Art Class I Ever Had.......2002-11-16

Woody Allen said that "Ninety percent of success in life is just showing up." This is true for art skills too. Crespo has made this easy in this book. He helps us to realize that our efforts are art and that art should be fun.

For example, Crespo's Day 1 of the second semester is an exercise encouraging artists to "begin again." He stated, "Remember: relax, love what you're doing, and don't take yourself too seriously. Let your critics do that" (p. 138).

I am starting through this book for the second or third time. I don't know if I will ever be a famous artist, but now I know that I am an artist. Crespo's exercises help me find work to do and help me to focus on principles. Every exercise yields one or several paintings that I can display. Right now I am doing a series of 3 paintings. One in normal value, one in high key and one in low key. I am having a lot of fun.

The exercises have really helped me improve over the years. Anyone can learn something from this book. But the best thing is that you can feel good about what you are doing. You always have plenty of critics; Crespo is someone who encourages you to suspend criticism and to enjoy creativity and growth.

Exceptional Book on How to Watercolor.......2002-07-12

This is an exceptional book of graded lessons on how to watercolor. It is completely different from any other "how to" book on watercolors that I've seen, (which to me are mostly "show off" books). Crespo is genuinely dedicated to teaching students - while teaching technical skills, there is a wonderful sense of humanity, love for teaching, and awe of the mysterious essence of nature which shines through. Instead of having illustrations which show only master watercolors, (as many books do - a good way to discourage the beginning watercolorist right off the bat), most of the examples Crespo gives are of his own students' work, and only a few of his own. He points out what is wonderful about the students' work, (which is such a refreshing change from critiquing student work and pointing out in graphic and gorey detail what is wrong with it!) The lessons are carefully graded, building on what has already been learned. The assignments are stimulating and fun, with just enough challenge to not feel overwhelming.
I can't say enough good things about this book. As in all the best teaching, what shines forth in Crespo's is not only his knowledge of technique, but his love for the medium, his students, and life.

Book Description

80 black-and-white and color photos.

Amateur Insanity: and Other Hyperlinked Stories of San Francisco in the Sixties

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Amateur Insanity: and Other Hyperlinked Stories of San Francisco in the Sixties
Mark Time
Manufacturer: Escallonia Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B000UFSN6I

Product Description

Autobiographical novella of the "Summer of Love" in San Fracisco's Haight-Ashbury District in 1967. All events & charecters are or were real. Amateur Insanity, about the Summer of Love, 1967 in Haight-Ashbury, which was "San Francisco's greatest contribution to world culture," according to Chronicle art critic David Bonetti. It was also the epicenter for the biggest cultural transformation of the second half of the Twentieth Century, as well as a signature experience of a generation. The author ia an English teacher in a public high school.

CURTAIN! OLD SAN FRANCISCO (The Sixties)

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CURTAIN! OLD SAN FRANCISCO (The Sixties)
Ruth Comfort. Mitchell
Manufacturer: Appleton-Century,
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000JR2OSA

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Koller knows.

Like It Was
James Koller
Manufacturer: Blackberry: Salted in the Shell
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Essays | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Biographies & Memoirs | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books

Essays | Literature & Fiction | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books

All 4-for-3 Deals | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
ASIN: 0942396847

Book Description

Like It Was is a collection of James Koller's writings from and about northern california in the 1960's in poetry, journal and fiction forms, with photos by Zoe Brown.

Customer Reviews:

Koller knows........2000-04-01

This is a great book! Koller straddled the world of the beats, and then the world of my family the Diggers. A tireless traveler, he has clocked years and countless miles on the road, keeping his eyes open and his nervous system sandpapered. His poems are spare, magical, dangerous, crackling with totem power. His stories are true. A man to be reckoned with. A book to be read.

The Mad Doctor's Drive Being an Acount of the 1st Auto Trip Across the U.S A. San Francisco to New York, 1903, Sixty-three Days on a Winton Motor Carriage

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The Mad Doctor's Drive Being an Acount of the 1st Auto Trip Across the U.S A. San Francisco to New York, 1903, Sixty-three Days on a Winton Motor Carriage
Ralph Nading Hill
Manufacturer: Stephen Greene Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0000EEMEK

The Making of a Modern Museum: Celebrating Sixty Years

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The Making of a Modern Museum: Celebrating Sixty Years
John R. Lane
Manufacturer: San Francisco Museum
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | History & Criticism | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Museums & Collections | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Catalogs | Catalogs & Directories | Reference | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 091847132X

OLD SAN FRANCISCO CURTAIN! (The Sixties)

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OLD SAN FRANCISCO CURTAIN! (The Sixties)
Ruth Comfort Mitchell
Manufacturer: NY: D. Appleton-Century Company, First Printing (stated)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000MCXTHW

A Travel Guide To... - San Francisco in the 1960s (A Travel Guide To...)

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A Travel Guide To... - San Francisco in the 1960s (A Travel Guide To...)
James Barter
Manufacturer: Lucent Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Board book

General | Ages 9-12 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

Book Description

Whether you choose to call San Francisco "The City," "Fog City," or "Quake City," everyone is welcome this coming summer. It is 1967 and in addition to the standard tourist attractions of the Golden Gate Bridge, the cable cars, and Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco anticipates the arrival of thousands of Hippies for a summer of rock and roll bands in Golden Gate Park, psychedelic light shows at the Fillmore Auditorium, street parties in the Haight-Ashbury, and poetry readings at City Lights Books bookstore. Be sure to join us for the festivities.

The Washoe Giant in San Francisco Being Heretofore Uncollected Sketches by Mark Twain Published in the Golden Era in the Sixties Including Those Blasted Children, The Lick House Ball, The Kearny Street Ghost Story, Fitz Smythes Horse & 34 More Items.

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The Washoe Giant in San Francisco Being Heretofore Uncollected Sketches by Mark Twain Published in the Golden Era in the Sixties Including Those Blasted Children, The Lick House Ball, The Kearny Street Ghost Story, Fitz Smythes Horse & 34 More Items.
Mark Twain
Manufacturer: George Fields & Printed by Ward Ritchie
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NSFHPC

Product Description

Letterpress printed by The Ward Ritchie Press, Los Angeles. Deckled fore-edge. With a total of 38 riotously funny short stories collected here for the first & last time. From "Bibliographical Note: This collection contains all the Mark Twain material to appear in the 'Golden Era' during his sojourn in Nevada and California except 'Curing a Cold.' Thirty of the thirty-eight items here reprinted have never before appeared in book form. The remaining eight have been reprinted incompletely or in volumes beyond the reach of the general reader."

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The Washoe giant in San Francisco,: Being heretofore uncollected sketches by Mark Twain, published in the Golden era in the sixties, including Those blasted ... slope. With many drawings by Lloyd Hoff
Mark Twain
Manufacturer: Folcroft Library Editions
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Book Description

McCay's cartooning style, although decades ahead of its time, was popular during his lifetime. With the advent of motion pictures, McCay leveraged his public popularity as a cartoonist to introduce what he would become most famous for - animation! Hailed as the Father of Animation, McCay's static cartoons are no less vibrant and unique. Volume 7 features McCay's lavish, detailed illustrations from his New York editorial period, as well as a collection of comic strips.

Customer Reviews:

Quality better, still not what it might have been.......2006-05-06

Unlike the previous volumes, I found the reproduction quality of this volume to be pretty decent - the major drawbacks being several large pieces split across the fold so that the centres are lost and some other pieces reproduced much smaller than the originals so that the details are hard to appreciate. The Rarebit strips are reproduced pretty well this time.

Unfortunately, we only get about 40 pages of Rarebit (my main interest here) and an over-generous helping (80 pages) of miscellaneous illustrations including many caricatures of notable figures of the day and a bunch more baseball illustrations (well-drawn, certainly, but not really of much interest to me). This section includes several pieces that might have been interesting but are unaccountably reproduced across two pages so that the center fold obscures a good deal of the image (right out of the centre too, of course). There are also a few gems in here, reproduced on single pages - not a dead loss, just not what it could have been.

This volume also contains about 15 pages of editorial cartoons in McCay's grand style, all on the theme of "Dope" - these are pretty good stuff, but are reproduced 2 and 3 to a page, where each really deserves a full page on its own.

We also get some Pilgrim's Progress (20 pages) and Poor Jake (10 pages), amusing as far as they go, but not that important in my view.

once again I'll plead with someone to make a generous (if not comprehensive) collection of the Dream strips.

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A book of "soul".

Life's Simple Lessons from a Great Storyteller!

Wonderful and Heartwarming!

Lessons For Your Heart

Everyone's Story

Letters from Boerdonk
Gary Layne Smith
Manufacturer: HighPoint Publishing, Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Perfect Paperback
ASIN: 1933190108

Book Description

When life throws you curve balls, God has a plan. Through endearing and inspiring stories of an Air Force chaplain's life in a Dutch village after 9/11, Gary Layne Smith's Letters from Boerdonk highlights how the promise of God's plan for you is being carried out.

Customer Reviews:

A book of "soul"........2007-08-20

What a wonderful change - a book with "soul" and a great story to share. I found myself asking if I could have adapted to this wonderful adventure as well as Gary and Pam. But I thought I might like to try. Enjoyed this book and each and every word and wanting more.

Life's Simple Lessons from a Great Storyteller!.......2007-01-27

I first read this book when I was training for my first marathon. The letter, "A Complete Game" really hit home. In the book, Gary's son Daniel professes, "We made it." After reading that story, I knew God would help me finish the race (and He did!). What struck me the most is how simply this book is written. The letters are so easy to read, yet so profound--reminding us of God's love and presence in every day life. Gary can tell a story as well as the original Storyteller ... the letters in his book are like parables in the Bible. The book emphasizes the important things in life ... love of God, friends, and family. No matter where you are in the world, those three connections keep you close. Letters from Boerdonk reminds us all of the importance of those connections in so many ways.

Wonderful and Heartwarming!.......2007-01-27

Memories! This is a wonderful book. We lived this book: Gary Smith was our chaplain during his years in the Netherlands. He has warmed my heart with many happy memories, and gives such a wonderful picture of the Dutch. He reminds you to enjoy life's blessings, small and large.

Lessons For Your Heart.......2006-11-30

Captivating, funny, poignant, Gary's book will hook you in the Introduction! I alternately laughed out loud and was teary-eyed with the adventures and misadventures of this totally real chaplain/husband/father/author. Read this book and give it to all the people you love!

Everyone's Story.......2006-11-17

I couldn't wait to get my copy of Letters from Boerdonk. I have read many of the "great" christian authors and Gary Smith ranks with these. He writes in a very accessible way. No matter who you are or what your background Gary's stories of everyday life will touch you. His gentle self mocking humor will warm you to your toes. These are the new parables for our time. Once you have read this book you will want to buy one for everyone you know.

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Franz Kafka Letters To Milena
Franz Kafka
Manufacturer: CORGI
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000SEMMWM

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Franz Kafka: Letters to Milena
Franz Kafka
Manufacturer: Schocken Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000X322HI

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His best letters
Kafka wrote as a way of not 'turning aside into nothingness'

Letters to Milena
Franz Kafka
Manufacturer: Pendulum Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

ASIN: 0805231455

Customer Reviews:

His best letters.......2004-11-10

These are Kafka's best letters . He pours forth his broken soul to the woman who can and does understand him. His language is painful and beautiful. Milena the Czech woman married to another Jewish man is too trapped by her life. Their love is impossible also because Kafka within himself is impossible. The letters are powerful and bring a sense of compassion and loss for these two remarkable people who each in his own way ( Kafka through his tuberculosis) Milena ( in a concentration camp) lose their lives when young.

Kafka wrote as a way of not 'turning aside into nothingness'.......2004-04-26

These letters written by Franz Kafka to Milena comprise my most loved Kafka letters. Writing to Felice, his former fiancée, he was less mature - could he be said to have been less himself? In 'Letters to Milena' he asks at one point (I paraphrase) 'Is it you I really love or the existence that you give to me?' Couldn't any of us ask this question of the person we really love and of ourselves when we really love? I think Milena, whom his biographers considered a far more fitting companion for Kafka than Felice; Milena who in Berlin, years younger than the ageless Franz, living desperately and often pennilessly with her loved hurtful husband (who frequently withheld money from her, so that at one point she worked as a railway porter) - this woman who 'lived her life down to the depths' and who was a writer in her own right - really did give Kafka existence in the years they wrote and too infrequently met. She did not let the nervous, procrastinating and intensely self referential Kafka hide from her - which may be part of why he loved her - and when he is finally prevailed upon to visit her, deliciously drolly reassuring her that if he does get onto a train he will likely as not get off it at the right stop, she does not wait until they each arrive at the much discussed meeting point to actually meet him, but goes unflinchingly to his hotel, cutting off Kafka's apprehensions, making everything in their meeting easy, amicable and precious to him.

'If only it were possible to go to Berlin, to become independent, to live from one day to the next, even to go hungry, but to let all one's strength pour forth instead of husbanding it here, or rather - instead of one's turning aside into nothingness!' Kafka wrote in his diaries in 1914 whilst still engaged to Felice. Milena, for a little while, allowed him to feel he was living, the tragedy was that concurrently Kafka's terrible illness was progressing, depriving him of time and physical energy. He was a man who needed so much time, and who had so painfully little, but, notwithstanding his not infrequent sensation of 'turning aside into nothingness', Kafka lived, he lived his whole life as few, very few, ever do, these letters are a testimony to his intense aliveness and to his genius as a writer. I envy Milena, even though she knew eventually she could not leave her husband for Kafka, she was still the woman who received the treasure of these letters. And yet - a reader has to, bewildered, witness and realize the inevitability and sadness of the eventual cessation of Kafka and Milena's communication, witness Kafka poignantly losing his plans for their future and the idea that Milena can live with him, witness both withdrawing and both mourning.

'M was here', Kafka wrote (again in his diaries, 8th May 1922, when he was more or less housebound with his illness) 'won't come again; probably wise and right in this, yet there is perhaps still a possibility whose locked door we both are guarding lest we open it, for it will not open of itself.'

I treasure this book. I've read and reread it so that the pages are all dog-eared, falling out and closely annotated all over. To anyone who finds themselves drawn to Kafka I'd say get your hands on a copy or two.

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Letters to Milena
Franz ; Stern, Tania & James [translators] Kafka
Manufacturer: Schocken Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000KU01G8

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LETTERS TO MILENA. Edited by Willi Haas. Translated by Tania & James Stern.
Franz. Kafka
Manufacturer: Schocken Books,
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000N7GGAS

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Letters to Milena: Edited by Willi Haas; translated by Tania and James Stern
Franz Kafka
Manufacturer: Secker & Warburg
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

German | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0006ATNES

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Lifesaving Letters: A Child's Flight from the Holocaust (Samuel and Althea Stroum Book)
Milena Roth
Manufacturer: University of Washington Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Czech Republic | Europe | History | Subjects | Books
General | Jewish | World | History | Subjects | Books
Holocaust | Jewish | World | History | Subjects | Books
General | World | History | Subjects | Books
General | World War II | Military | History | Subjects | Books
History of Religion | Judaism | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
Memoirs | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0295983779

Book Description

In 1939, in the shadow of Hitler's occupation of Czechoslovakia, six-year-old Milena Roth was sent away from her home and her loving parents and taken to safety by what came to be know as the Kindertransport, which rescued ten thousand Jewish children from the Holocaust and placed them with guardians in England. When she boarded the train in Prague, expecting to be reunited soon with her parents, Milena was aware of the danger and terror that surrounded her: "I knew I would die if I didn't go."

At the end of her long journey she found a xenophobic, racist society, "an anti-Semitic country in an anti-Semitic world." Milena settled into the household of her mother's English friend from the Girl Guides, who had agreed to take Milena in and who planned to bring her parents to England as well. She spent six uncertain years waiting for her parents and enduring her foster mother's complex ambivalence. Milena learned only after the war that her parents were deported from Czechoslovakia in July 1943 and died at Auschwitz.

Whatever the faults of Milena's guardian, she had been genuinely fond of Milena's mother and preserved her old friend's letters. These she gave to Milena, and they form the heart of this book. The first letter dates from 1930; the last, written less than a year before Milena's parents were captured and murdered, is heavy with "an air of despairing farewell," an understanding that escape was no longer possible.

As an adult, Milena Roth spent many years piecing together the fate of her family and making sense of her life. In this book, drawing on her mother's poignant letters and on her own memories and experiences, she recounts the challenges of integrating, in adulthood, the wounds and bereavements of childhood and of "regaining the confidence of my place in the universe that had been lost."

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LETTERS TO MILENA
Franz Kafka
Manufacturer: Schoken
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 080520024X

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Franz Kafka Letters To Milena
Franz Kafka
Manufacturer: CORGI
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000UDGROU

Book Description

How do the places we live in and visit shape our lives and memories? What does it mean to reside in different locations across the span of a life? In richly textured portraits of places seen from within, Nicholas Howe contemplates how places create and gather their stories and how, in turn, a sense of place locates the stories of our own lives.

Howe begins with one of the finest descriptions ever written of Buffalo, that city on an inland sea where he grew up. He gives us a fresh Paris, viewed from the river below. And he depicts Oklahoma as a site of open lands and dislocation--a place of coming and going. Howe then turns to Chartres, a traditional location of pilgrimage, to ask what other sites might still be capable of compelling visitors in secular time. He portrays Berlin as a scene of twentieth-century history--and a city that helped him make sense of his American life. Finally, he writes about Columbus, Ohio, as home. Vividly rendering the places he has known, Howe meditates on the weight of home, the temptations of the metropolis, the fact of dislocation, the unraveling of history, the desire to remake ourselves through voyage, and the wonder of the familiar.

In ways that too often elude travel writers, it is place that holds our imagination, that inspires much of our art and literature. Across an Inland Sea evokes the various senses of place that can fill and haunt a life--and ultimately give life its form and meaning.

Customer Reviews:

Delicious writing!.......2003-11-01

Nicholas Howe reflects on a half-dozen places, viewing each with acutity and insight. His describes the slow decline of Buffalo with a caring usually reserved for one's parents. He sees through the rebuilding of Berlin's central district -- where the wall once stood are now massive commercial projects -- and he recognizes the same scars that now disturb rust belt cities in America.

After re-reading this book for the thrid time, I feel like I'm his evening companion, following visits to Chartres, Oklahoma, Ohio and Paris.

Read his chapter on Buffalo - it's valid, honest, and authentic.

Complaint? Were that this book were twice as long!

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