Book Description
Celebrating the American Home brings together the best 50 houses featured in books from the Taunton Press in the past five years. These houses, which range from the irresistibly cozy to the magisterial to the daringly innovative, were selected by a panel of distinguished residential architects who are members of the American Institute of Architects including Jeremiah Eck, Duo Dickinson, and John Connell, who chose the houses based on how well they reflected the core qualities of great home design.
Each house is showcased in four to six pages and shown from a variety of views, with a brief introductory text explaining what makes the house unique and color photographs illustrating the key design features. Sidebars elaborate on why the architects selected each house, while an introductory chapter provides a detailed explanation of those core qualities that distinguish a great home: human-size scale, livability, quality of craft, connection to site, and distinctive design.
Customer Reviews:
50 Carefully Selected Houses.......2005-08-13
The publisher of this book, The Taunton Press, has published a series of outstanding book on homes in America. Unlike many publishers, they have not concentrated on the giant mansions that few of us can afford. This book is a compilation of houses selected from about ten years of hous books. It features fifty homes, perhaps ten percent of the homes featured in all of their books, that have been selected by a panel of distinguished residential architects using a number of criteria based on both attractive design and things like livability.
I'm thinking of building a new house. I live alone, kids are gone, I don't like house cleaning so want a small easy maintenance house. That's not to say that some distinctive architecture would hurt. There are some houses here that really have me thinking. One in Kansas was built to a $50,000 budget using a lot of salvaged commercial building pieces such as trusses.
Then at the end of the book, three of the architects who helped select the 50 houses have short essays on residential artechitecture. This is a splendid coffee table book, but beyond that, if you've any thought of building, this is a marvelous book.
An impressively produced and organized contribution .......2005-06-07
Celebrating The American Home: 50 Great Houses From 50 American Architects by licensed architect Joanne Kellar Bouknight showcases the architectural plans for fifty homes selected by a panel of distinguished residential architects (John Connell, Duo Dickinson, Jeremiah Eck, Richard Hayes, Kerry Dietz) based on how well these houses reflect core qualities of great residential design. Profusely illustrated with 350 color photos, Celebrating The American Home is an impressively produced and organized contribution to professional, academic, and community library Architectural Studies collections.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent resource for the serious watercolorist!!!.......2001-03-04
What a delightful surprise this book has been. I first picked it up at the library, but had to purchase a copy as a ready reference. There are so many useful tips and techniques for rendering natures beauty in watercolors. While this can pose serious challenges at times, this book gives you step by step methods to simplify the process. A must have for the serious watercolor enthusiast.
Average customer rating:
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Daguerreotypes and Other Essays
Isak Dinesen
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
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Binding: Paperback
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Winter's Tales
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Anecdotes of Destiny and Ehrengard
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Last Tales
ASIN: 0226153061 |
Book Description
"Isak Dinesen . . . had an original approach to life that permeated all her work. She loved storytelling, with the result that most of her essays are quasi-narratives, which proceed not from major to minor premise but from one anecdote to another as the way of making concrete whatever idea she is considering. Her work is a delight and at times a marvel."—The New Yorker
"Through these daguerreotypes we begin to understand other periods, the renunciations of World War I, the purpose of houses and mansions, of ritual ceremonials, such as tatooing. We are given a fresh and vivid view of the women's movement . . . which urges that what our 'small society' needs beyond human beings who have demonstrated what they can do, is people who are. 'Indeed, our own time,' she wrote in 1953, 'can be said to need a revision from doing to being.' She demonstrated it in her own work and craft, with courage and with dignity. This collection is as real as a gallery of old daguerreotypes, moving and unfaded. The work, as Hannah Arendt says, of a wise woman."—Robert Kirsch, Los Angeles Times
"These essays . . . have the flavor of good conversation: humorous, easy, personal but not oppressive, the distillation of reading, thought, and experience. Their subjects are of surprisingly current interest. We need make no concessions to the past, need not set our watches back to 'historical.' Isak Dinesen was not a faddish thinker. . . . 'In history it is always the human element that has a chance for eternal life,' Dinesen remarks, and she gives these essays their chance."—Penelope Mesic, Chicago
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- Started as a mystery and ended as a love story, sort of.
- The Original Desperate Housewife
- A Great Read!
- Great tale of Suburbia
- Great tale of Suburbia
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Compromising Positions
Susan Isaacs
Manufacturer: Berkley Trade
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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Magic Hour
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almost paradise
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After All These Years: A Novel
ASIN: 0425216195 |
Book Description
The brilliant debut that's sold over a million copies-now in trade paperback for the first time!
Rediscover the "wonderfully funny, deliciously mean" (New York Times) novel that launched Susan Isaacs' New York Times bestselling career-and introduced Long Island housewife Judith Singer, her most beloved character. Judith is smart and funny, with a gorgeous husband and wonderful kids. She's also incredibly bored, having put her Ph.D. plans on hold for a life of housekeeping and nose-wiping. So when a local dentist is found murdered, and the police suspect her neighbor, that's all the excuse Judith needs to jump in and begin her own investigation. It seems the deceased periodontist was quite the Don Juan of the PTA, with a habit of taking incriminating photos. In between school runs and making dinner, Judith is drawn deeper into the case-and closer to the sexy police detective in charge.
Customer Reviews:
Started as a mystery and ended as a love story, sort of........2006-07-06
It started out as a murder mystery. I was pleasantly surprised. Then, it introduced the "affair" and that was it for me. The book became more about desperate housewives looking for love in all the wrong places. Please. Isn't this a little played out? I was not as impressed as everyone else was with this book. The book was overhyped. Sorry, but it's true.
The Original Desperate Housewife.......2005-09-28
This is still one of my all time favorite books. If you like Desperate Housewives, you'll love Compromising Positions. The desperate housewife of this book is a great character who regains her self-esteem, solves a murder and still has time for a little romance. The secondary characters are a hoot.
A Great Read!.......2005-01-13
I always love finding a new author, and am SO glad I've found Susan Isaacs!!! Compromising Positions is a witty, intelligent, fast paced read that had me laughing out loud and biting my finger nails! What more can you ask for from a book? I've since read Long Time No See, the follow up (albeit 20 years later) to Compromising Positions and loved it as well!!! Good work Ms. Isaacs - I'm looking forward to reading all your other works.
Great tale of Suburbia.......2003-10-28
OK, let's face it up front: This is a story about adultry, murder and intrigue in middle-American suburbia. It's not the type of lifestyle that most of us aspire to but in Susan Isaac's hands it is absolutely hilarious. This is one of the few books that made me laugh out loud - the word pictures created are too good for words.
IN fact, the whole tale - from plot to Jewish Angst to the heroine's thoughts - are the stuff of best sellers. I have a real attraction to those stories where the innocent bystander innocently becomes involves (and solves) a crime. This is all done between soccer rides for kids and fixing dinner for her hubby. (The movie was not nearly as good as the book but was still a hoot.) Definite read.
Great tale of Suburbia.......2003-10-24
OK, let's face it up front: This is a story about adultry, murder and intrigue in middle-American suburbia. It's not the type of lifestyle that most of us aspire to but in Susan Isaac's hands it is absolutely hilarious. This is one of the few books that made me laugh out loud - the word pictures created are too good for words.
IN fact, the whole tale - from plot to Jewish Angst to the heroine's thoughts - are the stuff of best sellers. I have a real attraction to those stories where the innocent bystander innocently becomes involves (and solves) a crime. This is all done between soccer rides for kids and fixing dinner for her hubby. (The movie was not nearly as good as the book but was still a hoot.) Definite read.
Customer Reviews:
"Saucy Santa" has the last laugh.......2006-09-06
Emily is distraught when she discovers her boyfriend Declan has just started a porn site, on which he's posted suggestive photos of her. She's mortified since the photos were meant for his eyes only. Soon she discovers that's not his only betrayal. He's also mortgaged their home, depleted her savings accounts, and as a result of his internet doings, has managed to get her fired from her job as a teacher.
With no home, no job, no money, and no man, she turns to best pal Cara, a reporter. Cara's co-workers have seen the photos and soon her paper creates media buzz by identifying Emily resulting in her inability to get another teaching position. Cara has her own problems - she's nursing a crush for her co-worker, photographer Alex, a single father contemplating custody of his pre-teen son.
While trying to turn her life around, Emily signs with a publicist who arranges for her to attend several local events. She spots a man there that takes her breath away, but unfortunately they never get the chance to actually meet. Unbeknownst to Emily, the man in question is Alex.
It is through a series of miscommunication and misunderstandings that events unfold, as Emily struggles with the newfound fame that has been thrust upon her, and her desire for her anonymity restored. It's an engaging story, and I was rooting for Emily to find Mr. Right all along. Published in the US as "Bare Necessity."
Boring.......2004-12-21
Another entry into the chick lit genre.
Emily finds out her boyfriend has betrayed her by putting up pictures of her on the Net.
Enter the best friend, Cara who is going to do all she can to make sure that Emily snaps out of it.
The beginning of this book is so boring that I already started regretting having bought it by page 2.
The two main female leads are portrayed as just so different and in fact, this is a huge problem with the story. The two worlds just don't jive.
While the author has a down to earth feeling about her writing, I thought this story was boring, standard, overly done chick lit.
This should definitely be a pass.
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Compromising Positions
Manufacturer: Jove Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000GZRQRY |
Average customer rating:
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COMPROMISING POSITIONS
Manufacturer: Times Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000HDSPB6 |
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American Newspaper Journalists, 1926-1950 (Dictionary of Literary Biography)
Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0810317079 |
Book Description
The road to global security," writes Jeremy Rifkin, "lies in lessening our dependence on Middle East oil and making sure that all people on Earth have access to the energy they need to sustain life. Weaning the world off oil and turning it toward hydrogen is a promissory note for a safer world." Rifkin's international bestseller The Hydrogen Economy presents the clearest, most comprehensive case for moving ourselves away from the destructive and waning years of the oil era toward a new kind of energy regime. Hydrogen-one of the most abundant substances in the universe-holds the key, Rifkin argues, to a cleaner, safer, and more sustainable world.
Customer Reviews:
A must read-why we must move to a hydrogen economy.......2007-06-18
This book details exactly why we must move away from our dependence on fossil fuels, from the geopolitical struggles to the environmental issues, and sets forth the absolute benefits for hydrogen based energy-it is 100% renewable, and the technology to harness it would equalize all members of the human race.
Does it give technical details as to how hydrogen energy could be harnessed? No. Those are details best left to the research scientists and the engineers. But it gives the general public all the reasons why we should be demanding our scientists and engineers develop this technology and then make it available to the general public.
Read this book because you want to equalize society. Read this book because you want to equalize the human race.
A rather rushed leap to hydrogen determinism.......2007-03-25
Jeremy Rifkin is known for being a radical visionary and much was expected of him when he embraced hydrogen as our energy panacea. However, this book recycles a lot of old ideas and basically presents more historical material on peak oil than it does on hydrogen. Rifkin also succumbs to fearmongering tactics in the post-9/11 world by having a full chpater on "The Islamist Wild Card." He could have just as well considered the "Venezuelan" wild card. This book fails to deliver any plausible scenarios on how a hydrogen economy is viable when fuel cells require tremendous material usage. As Rifkin admits himself, fuel cells are not a new invention and predate the internal combustion engine. However, they have not been economically viable because hydrogen production is still the big problem. If we use methane to produce hydrogen we are stuck with the nonrenewability issue and if we use electrolysis, the only sensible way would be to use renewables such as wind, solar, geothermal and small-hydro to carry out the electrolysis. How such a transition will be made is missed in the analysis. The most promising feature of fuel cells is that they can be used to feed back into the grid if the infrastructure exists. Only one chapter is devoted to brushing through these intractable issues. Amory Lovins is far more astute in his writings on this matter.
Unfortunantly this is a view I share.......2006-08-02
World oil is declining and this book explains all the facts related to the coming end of the oil age. If you don't believe its true you will after reading this book and the book "the Coming economic collapse". Not sure hydrogen is viable the way this author states but if we can develop "just in time" hydrogen generation we may have a chance. I wish someone could explain how Stanley Mayer was generating hydrogen by fracturing water as he described but unfortunately he was killed.
"A snare and a delusion...".......2006-01-04
...as noted in other reviews here, hydrogen is simply an energy carrier (not a source) -- like a battery.
Here is an interesting quote:
" ...hydrogen offers little to no potential to produce oil security and reduce climate change risk in the next 20 years. (Changing the infrastructure for using hydrogen fuel cells for transportation) ...is a many decades undertaking.
Hydrogen fuel cells for transportation, are in my judgment, a snare and a delusion..."
-- James Woolsey, former CIA Director.
Simply Awful - How Does this Guy Get to Keep Writing Books? .......2005-12-08
I put this book down probably quicker than any other book I can think of in recent memory. It's simply awful.
I can't agree with even the paltry 2 or 3 star reviews who say that the first half of the book was good, but that it misses the point (as well as basic physics, thermodynamics, economics, . . . etc.)
Even the first half of this book is awful. The first chapter was the first sign that you're in trouble. It basically just lists a bunch of "stuff" that's going on: Globalization, Protesters in the streets against it, Telecommunications, Biotech, and . . . err . . . oh yeah, let's not forget 9/11 . . . and . . . Barbara Streisand isn't as good as she used to be, blah, blah, blah. I guess this is supposed to count for serious analysis because after just listing a bunch of trends he decries how there's been no serious analysis about Globalization. (Does this guy live under a rock!?!? Maybe an ivy covered one at Wharton where he apparently teaches . . . note to self: Don't get accepted to Wharton.) The rest of the first chapter describes the oil industry in terms starker than Orwell described Big Brother. But don't despair! The Hydrogen Energy Web will save us all! It will be like what the internet was for communications but for like energy or something like that, and it will destroy the evil oil companies, and it'll make everyone rich, we'll all be able to move back to countryside (I'm serious, he's basically claiming that), it will lay golden eggs, make your first born smarter and prettier, make your hair grow back, etc. Where will get the hydrogen? Oh it comes from stars or something, it's the most abundant element in the universe! OK, who will set up this web? (I'm not kidding here, again) Well, big corporations stole the internet before VOLUNTEER GROUPS could set it up, so we'll have VOLUNTEER GROUPS create the hydrogen energy web this time around. Oh, err, big companies will still be needed to, like, make all the hardware, and all the software (he actually concedes this point in a dismissive sentence), will be needed to send people out to fix any problems, to coordinate it, to, well, actually build it, but somehow it will be made by volunteer groups anyway and big companies won't really be a part of it. Even though they will be. But they won't. LOOK OVER THERE! A giant ball of oil company induced global warming is heading straight for us!!!
The second chapter is even better. He complains about how many classifications of oil reserves there are. With completely non-sensical names like "identified reserves", "non-identified reserves", and whatnot (boo-hoo, boo-hoo, there's just soooo many of them) he concludes that they can only have been created to confuse people so that the big oil executives and politicians can manipulate, confuse, and deceive the stupid masses into believing something or another about oil. (I was never quite certain what that was supposed to be. Oh well.) But not Mr. Rifkin! He's beaten them. He's defined "conventional oil" all himself, which excludes all oil that has been found but is currently uneconomical to extract and sell, all oil in polar regions, and all oil underneath the oceans. He does this to prove that we're running out of oil, and that the big oil companies are cooking the books. Tonight I'm going eat "conventional food" which will exclude all food in two thirds of the Kitchen, and all food in, say, the Living Room, to prove to my family that we're all going to starve to death. Don't tell me I'm wrong son! You're cooking the books!! Don't you see we're all going to DIE!
This book is not only awful, it's duplicitous. One of the few mentions of nuclear power is to say in two sentences basically: Utilities put a lot money into nuclear in the '60's and '70's. In the '80's the utilities made the consumer bear the brunt of a lot cost overruns and power plant shutdowns. The idea is to imply that nuclear power was a giant failure with a bunch of cost overruns and power plants that couldn't keep running. Both sentences might be technically true (because there's no mention of nuclear power in the second), but they're crafted to make you imply a conclusion without any specific evidence or argument.
Let's be clear: This book is a political diatribe. Big oil bad, Hydrogen good because it will do all these wonderful things. How will it do all these wonderful things? Some unconvincing arguments, red herrings, and incomplete and inconclusive examples and complete hypotheticals.
One of the biggest flaws is how it handles (or, more accurately, fails to) where hydrogen will come from, since it is not a primary energy source the way oil, coal, or nuclear is. It will take more energy to extract hydrogen from either natural gas or water than we will ever be able to get from the extracted hydrogen, thanks to the second law of thermodynamics. This is the critical question of what will replace oil, period, and only four pages are dedicated to it. The author's answer is solar. His argument for solar? Well, basically, solars's getting cheaper. That's not a complete argument! Is it FEASIBLE to power the world off solar? To power the United States off solar today would require a solar array the size of a small state! And you'd have to make another state size solar array to handle the growth in energy demand. God forbid the sun not shine one day. (Or maybe we'll have to invade the Middle East still because they have like 364 sunny days a year over there, leaving us at the mercy of the islamist anyway. Norway will probably invade Southern California too.) Solar by itself is getting cheaper, great, what about it's cost RELATIVE to other sources? There's zero discussion about using coal, or nuclear to power electrolysis of hydrogen.
This book is mostly a political posture. He puts forward a fantasy political vision, and tries to scare you into thinking it's the only thing that will save us from impending doom with some false techno-babble in lieu of any actual coherent plan or argument.
There are only two possible ways this book could help solve energy problems. One, you could burn it instead of heating oil this winter. Or two, if some magical invention could tap into all the hot air this author blows out his pipe we could use it to turn a turbine. Probably forever. I'm hoping for this latter option, but planning on the first.
Books:
- Cities from the Sky: An Aerial Portrait of America
- Civil Service Arithmetic & Vocabulary, 15th edition (Arco Civil Service Test Tutor)
- Construction Daily Project Log for Construction & Maintenance
- Daniel Libeskind Jewish Museum Berlin: Jewish Museum Berlin : Between the Lines (Architecture)
- e-topia
- Eco: An Essential Sourcebook for Environmentally Friendly Design and Decoration
- Eladio Dieste: Innovation in Structural Art
- Fashions of the Thirties: 476 Authentic Copyright-Free Illustrations (Dover Pictorial Archive Series)
- Fireplace Kamin Cheminee Chimenea Camino Design (Designfocus)
- Folds, Bodies & Blobs : Collected Essays (Books-by-architects) (Books-by-architects)
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Health Psychology: An Introduction to Behavior and Health
- Free to Choose: A Personal Statement
- Flow Cytometry Data Analysis: Basic Concepts and Statistics
- Garden Lighting for Outdoor Entertaining: 40 Festive Projects
- Her Only Desire: A Novel
- History: Fiction or Science
- Femmes Fatal
- Classic Architectural Birdhouses and Feeders
- Cowboy High Style: Thomas Molesworth to the New West
- Don't Tell Me the Truth About Love
Creating the Inspired House: Discovering Your Place Called Home
The Distinctive Home: A Vision of Timeless Design (American Institute Architects)
A House on the Water
The House You Build: Making Real-World Choices to Get the Home You Want (American Institute Architects)
The Face of Home: A New Way to Look at the Outside of Your House
