Average customer rating:
- Disappointing
- Very blah
- Sad book about two lonely sisters drifting through life.
- Weak Sisters
- Brookner Continues to Delight
|
Falling Slowly: A Novel
Anita Brookner
Manufacturer: Random House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 British
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
| 18th Century
| 19th Century
| 20th Century
| Classics
| Contemporary
| General
| Historical
| Humor
| Letters & Correspondence
| Middle
| Old
| Poetry
| Renaissance
| Shakespeare
| Short Stories
Contemporary
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Literary
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Brookner, Anita
| ( B )
| Authors, A-Z
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Sisters
| Women's Fiction
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Similar Items:
-
Undue Influence
-
Making Things Better
-
The Bay of Angels
-
Dolly
-
The Debut
ASIN: 0375501894
Release Date: 1998-12-22 |
Amazon.com
Anita Brookner has no illusions about desire--or illusion--yet she is well aware of their unrelenting power. In her 18th novel, Falling Slowly, two sisters lead lives of quiet but no less painful panic. Beatrice Sharpe, a classical accompanist who is at the end of her career and health, has long dreamed of the protection of men. Alas, what her older sister, Miriam, thinks of as a "disastrous innocence" seems to have imprisoned and defeated her. Miriam, on the other hand, who is in her late 40s and divorced, prides herself on her strategies for getting through the long London days. Her work as a translator, though not ultimately fulfilling, keeps her occupied and marginally undefeated.
Both had been taught by their parents to expect little and complain less, yet they are surrounded by a world of interconnection and privilege that is ever out of reach. The narrative offers Miriam first the possibility of passion (illicit and guilt-making) and then a chance for commitment. Since we are in Brooknerland, you can guess how this will turn out. Beatrice is considerably less fortunate. At one point, the two discuss a Colette tale. The more knowing Miriam decides that the author comes out of it better than her characters, because she's the onlooker. Beatrice, surprisingly, has the last word: "There must be some consolation for being an onlooker," she realizes. "The role is not always an enviable one." Out of such seemingly minor moments, Brookner creates a tragedy, her exquisite, controlled sentences sculpting broken lives in which control itself is the culprit. --Kerry Fried
Book Description
The brilliant Anita Brookner, praised by The New York Times as "one of the finest novelists of her generation," now gives us a stunning story of two sisters and the strange patterns of identity and love.
The Sharpe sisters have lived a careful and contemplative existence. Miriam is a translator of French texts and Beatrice a moderately successful pianist. Their lives of quiet sophistication are suddenly interrupted by several complicated men: Max, Beatrice's agent; Simon, a handsome and charming married man; and Tom Rivers, a journalist who befriends Miriam. These men create disorder in the Sharpe sisters' controlled lives as Miriam, the unromantic stoic of the two, begins an affair and Beatrice's career undergoes an unexpected change.
The exquisite writing, affecting characters, and astonishing psychological perceptions for which Anita Brookner is famous are evident on every page of this beautiful novel by a modern master.
Customer Reviews:
Disappointing.......2006-07-31
Brookner's lovely writing seems wasted on this boring story of two insipid sisters. It was a struggle to finish this book, and at times I really really lost interest in these two who are so self-absorbed and weak. These characters lack the charm of some of Brookner's other lonely women.
Very blah.......2005-07-19
I had extreme difficulty getting into this book. It took several false starts to get going. I make a point of always reading enough to give a fair trial to a book, but I had a tough time getting past the first few pages. Once I finally did get going, I found that while the plot was adequately interesting, the writing itself was fairly flat and uninspiring. I was glad to finish it, and will not likely read it again. I don't believe that books automatically qualify as clever or brilliant simply because they are dull and depressing. If this book aspires to be just that (clever or brilliant), it falls far short of the mark.
Sad book about two lonely sisters drifting through life........2001-04-10
In "Falling Slowly," Miriam and Beatrice Sharpe are two sisters who are the products of a loveless marriage. However, instead of going out and grabbing happiness for themselves after they become adults, Miriam and Beatrice half-heartedly pursue careers and tepid, bloodless relationships with men. At one point, Miriam meets a man, Simon Haggard, whom she loves and who makes her feel alive. Unfortunately, Simon is a married man with children, and he is hardly a candidate for a long-term relationship. Still another man comes into Miriam's life, Tom Rivers, but she is unwilling to commit herself to him. Beatrice lives in a cloud of romantic ideals and, after retiring from playing the piano, she merely exists from day to day, without any real goals. Why read about these two depressing women? Brookner's strength is that she makes us care about Miriam and Beatrice, even though we would like to shake them. They come across as intelligent women who could make better choices in their lives if they would wake up and see the possibilities in front of them. Unfortunately, they never do.
Weak Sisters.......2000-11-25
Brookner is the champion of resigned women on the sidelines of life. Yes, her prose is penetrating and exquisite, full of precise insights through precise diction, and her main characters, sisters, are well drawn, sharing a complex bond that is both a family obligation and a genuine fondness for each other. But I had to steel myself through some tedious, lugubrious reflections from these passive females who wait for men to take charge and are inevitably disappointed when they do. The doctor who tells Miriam that Beatrice has had a stroke is dismissed because he is too young, so they never seek another opinion and Beatrice dies as a result.. Miriam also dismisses the eligible and interesting man who woos her because she must comply with a married playboy in an obviously doomed affair. She expresses some desire for this cad, but it is desire at room temperature. Anita Brookner has done better. Read Hotel du Lac or Visitors. And if you're looking for puzzled British women in a less tragic vein, try Barbara Pym.
Brookner Continues to Delight.......2000-08-14
In Henry James's The Ambassadors, the aging protagonist urges his young friend to "Live! Live all you can; it's a mistake not to." Anita Brookner is often compared to James and Brookner's isolated and often friendless heroines inevitably make the quietly tragic mistake which James's character decries. In one finely-drawn novel after another over two decades, she has explored the fascinating consequences of such mistakes, finding drama and passion in what from the outside may seem like very undramatic lives.
In the moving and intelligent Falling Slowly, English translator Miriam Sharpe actually turns to readings Henry James after death and disappointment mar her life. She is a woman whose central imperative in life has been to avoid risk and alarm in whatever form. Raised by difficult, dismissive parents in a bleak household, neither she nor her sister Beatrice had been prepared to be welcomed by the world, let alone loved. Though she tried to enjoy her youth, Miriam found itdisappointing. That time of her life wasn't just a letdown in itself, it never led--as she assumed it would--to a brand new and glorious chapter of her life, "one that was to obliterate botched beginnings."
With "no particular calling," Miriam drifted into working as a translator of contemporary French novels, thanks to her gift for languages and her speed. Though this work means frequent trips to Paris, that city itself holds no romantic promise for her, existing simply as a scene for business. And her translating doesn't seem much more than a kind of intellectual drudgery. While her old-fashioned accompanist sister--whose career is unfulfilling--dreams of a man right out of a Silhouette romance, Miriam longs for a real home, a place bustling with life where she feels connected.
For Miriam, an affair and even a five-year marriage pass as if she were drugged by time itself. Her relationship with her sister fades in and out, growing more like that of her parents. In Brookner's novels, the clash between expectations and reality tends to play out on a field where overly careful people get entangled with the careless. Here, the conflicts are more muted than usual.
Falling Slowly may not be as striking or as focused as last year's stunning Visitors, in part because of POV switches. But it still showcases Brookner's strengths in registering the nuances of lives suffused by resignation and longing. She charts the sad passage of time in changing faces and fortunes, fading dreams and chintzes, better than almost any other contemporary novelist, which gives her small books an unexpectedly expansive feel. And her elegant, insightful prose is so admirably balanced, so consistently pleasurable, so seductively witty that you're often likely to reread passages or even feel moved to read them aloud to others. Like Austen, with whom she is also often compared, Brookner works on a small canvas, but with a profound understanding of the tragicomic potential of desires gone amiss.
Lev Raphael, author of LITTLE MISS EVIL, 4th in the Nick Hoffman series. www.levraphael.com
Average customer rating:
|
FALLING SLOWLY
ANITA BROOKNER
Manufacturer: Quality Paperbacks Direct
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000K0HBUM |
Average customer rating:
|
Falling Slowly and Visitors
Anita Brookner
Manufacturer: Penguin Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
| Classics
| Comic
| Contemporary
| Literary
ASIN: 0149019122 |
Book Description
The latest title in a series based on characters from the best-selling War of Souls trilogy.
This title is the next in the series that explores the lives of key characters from Margaret Weis & Tracy Hickman's current Dragonlance trilogy. Dark Thane describes events that directly overlap events during the War of Souls. Author Jeff Crook also wrote the kickoff title for this series, Conundrum.
Customer Reviews:
The Worst of the Best . . . well, Second Best.......2005-05-09
Jeff Crook is my favorite Dragonlance author--after Richard Knaak, anyway--but I have yet to understand why he wrote this the way he did. One event in Thorbardin's history, an event which never proves significant to the plot of the novel, is described in excruciating detail no fewer than seven times! Other than that, this novel mostly seems dull, unlike Crook's other, funnier works.
Short humans?.......2005-03-10
Maybe i'm expecting something else but I expect some clear guidelines between humans,dwarves and elves. there is some grey in the differences between humans and elves but to me dwarves were always different.In this book Jeff crook has made the dwarves out to be conniving and subject to mass hysteria and in almost every other dragonlance book I have read the dwarves are mostly level headed and have are always willing to band together in times of crisis..
From an interview of Jeff Crook's i read that he wanted to create a feeling similar to 9/11 however if 9/11 had happened to the dwarves by their very nature they would have built back from the rubble united as never before
The dwarves in this book are well.........short humans..No thanks!!!
Jeff Crook Rawks!.......2004-09-12
:D I really enjoyed this book. As always, I wanted to hear more about the gullydwarves, but otherwise it was a fun read. I hadn't read much about the Dragonlance dwarves before. The only reason I gave it 4 stars instead of 5 is because I liked Crook's _Conundrum_ much much better.
Not as good as The Last Thane.......2004-08-14
The first part deals with the events immediately following DOALS with Tarn having to report the disaster at Qualinesti to the council, some of whom are looking to use his defeat for reason to dethrone him, ending in Thorbardin once again being sealed off from the world.
The second part picks up almost a year after the WOS has ended, although they don't know it, with Tarn's enemies getting ready to overthrow him & the discovery of a leftover Chaos dragon. It ends with Tarn & a group of followers being exiled...
And you get the feeling this is the last you'll read of Thorbardin because no one believes Tarn's warning of the dragon, especially when the dragon isn't where he told them it was.
DND,DragonLance.......2004-05-24
This book i think was great!But Warning:if you do not like violent books dont read this it is very violent.Also if you like DND (Dungeons and Dragons) you will like this.
If you are the person who sits and watchs Lord of the Rings for hours after hours you will for like this this.
GOOD NIGHT
HAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHA
Average customer rating:
- Super Reader
- Old Time Science Fiction....
|
Galaxy Primes
Edward E Smith
Manufacturer: HarperCollins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Science Fiction & Fantasy
| Subjects
| Books
| Authors, A-Z
| Books on CD
| Books on Cassette
| Fantasy
| Gaming
| Large Print
| Media
| Science Fiction
| Writing
ASIN: 0586040021 |
Customer Reviews:
Super Reader.......2007-08-31
E. E. Doc Smith's Galaxy Primes are people with advanced mental abilities. In other words, they have psionic abilities, and the Primes are Psionic Primes.
The main group in this book do not quite get along as well as the fraternal types in the Galactic Patrol. Still fun though, space battles, mind blasting, all that good stuff.
Old Time Science Fiction...........2004-08-03
The Primes went down, over what had been one of that world's largest cities. The air, the stratosphere, and all nearby space was full of battling vessels of all shapes and sizes, ranging from the tremendous globular spaceships of the invading Dilipics down to the tiny, one-man jet-fighters of the Arpalones.
The Dilipics were using projectile weapons only - ranging in size from heavy machine guns up to 75-millimetre quick-firing rifles. They were also launching thousands of guided missiles of fantastic speed and of tremendous explosive power.
Each defending Arpalone vessel, depending upon its type and class, carried from four up to a hundred burnished-metal reflectors some four feet in diameter, each with a small black device at its optical centre and each pouring out a tight beam of highly effective energy. Whenever one struck a Dilipic ship or plane everything in its path flared almost instantly into vapour and the beam glared incandescently.
The invading task-force was arranged hi a whirling, swirling, almost cylindrical cone, like a tornado. Each Dilipic unit seemed madly, suicidally determined that nothing would get through that furious wall to interfere with whatever it was that was coming down from space to the ground through the relatively quiet 'eye' of the pseudo-hurricane.
On the other hand, the Arpalones were madly, suicidally determined to break through that vortex wall. Group after group of jet-fighters came diving in. Occasionally, their combined blasts made enough of an opening for the centre fighter to get through. Once inside, the pilot stood his little stubby-winged craft squarely on her tail, opened his projectors to absolute maximum power and spread, and climbed straight up ...
Product Description
SERIAL:
The Galaxy Primes (Part 2 of 3) [Edward E. ("Doc") Smith]
NOVELLA: Greylorn [Keith Laumer]
SHORT STORIES:
Golden the Ship Was - Oh! Oh! Oh! [Cordwainer Smith]
Test Rocket! [Jack Douglas]
Warning from the Stars [Ron Cocking]
Wind [Charles L. Fontenay]
Customer Reviews:
Hey, Let's unify the galaxy!.......2006-12-05
You didn't have anything else planned for the afternoon, right?
"Belle" Bellamy (green-haired super-babe) and Clee Garlock (super everything else) are the two people on Earth with the highest innate degree of that amazing psionic-thingie. With it, their minds can hurl them between star systems, detonate nuclear blasts, and do lots of other neat tricks. In their interstellar gadding, they discover other intelligent and psi-capable humans. In fact, those others are so human-like that they are reproductively compatible. And, since the Earthian guys are obviously such superior beings, offers to test that compatibility come often.
It's not all good times and spread-the-genes, though. Dozens of star systems harbor human life, and psionic Primes, all at nearly identical levels of development social (except that some have decidedly inferior tobacco). Unfortunately, they're not all as easy-going and altruistic as Earth's Primes. As a result, Earth's Primes need to rough them up in their easy-going and altruistic way, to unify them under the newly-designed Galaxian banner. The Galaxian inner council consists of one Prime pair from each of those dozens of planets, in Noah-like male/female couples. How do we know they're the finest of each star system? Well, for one thing, the ladies of those planets are super-babes, too. Not only are they as mighty of mind as their men, they are also mighty in their womanliness and eager to prove it by racing the others to a demonstration of fecundity.
This is a wonderful artifact of its time, as close to Buster Crabbe's "Flash Gordon" as it is to the current day or maybe closer. It has all that cowboy exuberance and technological optimism, with gender relations a bit past the neolithic. (He and she both seem to long for a little more of the caveman/cavegirl between them, but even Doc Smith smelled women's lib in the air.) Despite the cultural imperialism and shallow sterotyping, or maybe because of it, Smith brings us space opera at its very finest.
//wiredweird
Average customer rating:
- The Hobo Philosopher
- Great Book
- Part Fascinating, Part Dense
- Elegantly Comprehensive and Grippingly Readable
- Holy moly
|
The History of God CD: The 4,000 Year Quest
Manufacturer: HarperAudio
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD
General
| Church History
| Christianity
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Christianity
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
Comparative Religion
| Religious Studies
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
Armstrong, Karen
| ( A )
| Authors, A-Z
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
History
| Islam
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
Nonfiction
| Books on CD
| Audiobooks
| Formats
| Books
General
| Books on CD
| Audiobooks
| Formats
| Books
Christianity
| Religion & Spirituality
| Books on CD
| Audiobooks
| Formats
| Books
General
| Religion & Spirituality
| Books on CD
| Audiobooks
| Formats
| Books
Similar Items:
-
The Great Transformation: The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions
-
The Battle for God
-
The Spiral Staircase CD
-
Buddha
-
Muhammad: A Biography of the Prophet
ASIN: 0060591854
Release Date: 2004-02-17 |
Amazon.com
Armstrong, a British journalist and former nun, guides us along one of the most elusive and fascinating quests of all time--the search for God. Like all beloved historians, Armstrong entertains us with deft storytelling, astounding research, and makes us feel a greater appreciation for the present because we better understand our past. Be warned: A History of God is not a tidy linear history. Rather, we learn that the definition of God is constantly being repeated, altered, discarded, and resurrected through the ages, responding to its followers' practical concerns rather than to mystical mandates. Armstrong also shows us how Judaism, Christianity, and Islam have overlapped and influenced one another, gently challenging the secularist history of each of these religions. --Gail Hudson
Book Description
"Strange as it may seem, the idea of 'God' developed in a market economy in a spirit of aggressive capitalism," Karen Armstrong asserts in her fascinating work A History of God. Armstrong considers herself a "historian of ideas," and with this broad view she gives a compelling account of the correspondences among Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and the historical, philosophical, intellectual, and social developments through the ages that both shaped them and were shaped by them.
Religion is "highly pragmatic," Armstrong finds. Any particular idea of God must work for the people who develop it. Consequently, as the times have changed, so have our ideas about God. "Understanding the ever-changing ideas of God in the past and their relevance and usefulness in their time," she says, "will help us to develop a new concept for the future."
Today an increasing number of people have difficulty with the idea of a God that behaves as a larger version of themselves. Armstrong sees this as inevitable, and welcomes believers to a notion of God that "works for us in the empirical age."
Customer Reviews:
The Hobo Philosopher.......2007-09-07
Karen Armstrong was, at one time, a Roman Catholic nun. She left the nunnery behind in 1969 but not her search for God. This is a good book.
Her book deals primarily with God in the Judeo-Christian theologies; Judaism, Christianity and Islam. She gives a good criticism and analysis from atheism to mysticism. She goes through each of the religions and the evolution of their thought. I suppose that the word "evolution" would not be proper because there is no actual progression of thought culminating in a final conclusion. It is a comparative analysis, exploring all the tangential pathways engaged in by all three of the theologies. The point is made that all three theologies have shared all of the various pathways in seeking a God. Each group has had its radicals, its rationales, its fundamentalists and it mystics.
I enjoyed Karen's book but Karen's notion that the impossible could become more acceptable if it is blanketed in the mystically paradoxical is not an answer that I can accept, but it is more than possible that mankind, in general, could find it temporarily sustainable. I feel that this would only bring the human race out of the frying pan and into the fire. Fundamentalism is certainly a step backward, but mysticism is no step forward.
I personally feel that in her quest for God she has one final step to take, but is afraid to take it for the fear of that "pit of despair and hopelessness" that she mentioned in her book. Kierkegard had a similar problem. He chose to "leap into the absurd".
Great Book.......2007-08-23
In this book, Karen Armstrong voices several great perspectives on religion. She began as a student of the church herself, working towards becoming a nun, and later decides to investigate things further. I think it's a great book for anyone who is either interested in learning more about religion, or has already adopted strong convictions. Everyone can learn the meaning and importance of what religion can mean to an individual, and in a well-written and eloquent manner. I recommend everyone read this book.
Part Fascinating, Part Dense.......2007-07-24
I found this book to be fascinating in parts and really dense in others. I am rating it somewhat low because, while I really enjoyed the ideas, I found the writing style to be very heavy in places and I am holding unto my stars for a more enjoyable read on the topic. The first three chapters were by far my favorite. They deal with the history behind the Old and New Testaments. The middle chapters deal with the evolution of Christian/Muslim/Jewish theology and were like trudging through mud for me. The last two chapters were again enjoyable for me and they deal with the history of atheism and a discussion on the future of God.
Armstrong's notion of "God" is somewhat foreign to me (it makes me think of Buddhism more than the Judeo-Christian God). She certainly does not appear to be a fan of anthropomorphic interpretations of God, but I have a difficult time discerning the role of any kind of organized religion if God is reduced to her mystical nothingness (perhaps she does not envision a role). I also am not sure how relevant it is to even call such a notion "God" after two millennia of anthropomorphic deities. At any rate, I very much enjoyed the historical aspects of this book and I would recommend it for those who are interested in the history of Christianity/Islam/Judaism from inception to now and are not afraid of some rather dense chapters.
Elegantly Comprehensive and Grippingly Readable.......2007-05-16
For anyone who has ever wondered why some people believe with extreme fervor in the supernatural for which there has never been a single shred of credible evidence, Karen Armstrong's magnum opus is a must read. A refugee from a Catholic convent, Ms Armstrong proved to be a bona fide intellectual whose scholarship is impeccable.
Her book begins with the yearnings of ignorant, superstitious ancient peoples for a means of explaining the then unexplainable. It goes on to show how such ancient myths evolved into the religions we know today.
Armstrong explains how the ancient nomadic Israelites rationalized their conquest of Canaan with the myths they were God's chosen people and he had promised the land of Canaan to them. In addition to taking the Canaanite's land, the Israelites also co-opted the chief God of their territorial pantheon, El, as their own and renamed Him Jehovah. "Emanuel" literally translates "El with us," not generically "God with us."
Armstrong goes on to delineate how Christianity was originally invented by Paul and others and how it has been repeatedly reinvented over the centuries, always holding out the seductive hope of "salvation" to those willing to accept the mythologies on blind faith that salvation is not only possible but also that there is somehow a need for it.
And she explains how Islam arose from Mohammed's vision, much as the Church of Latter Day Saints arose from Joseph Smith's vision and Christian Science from Mary Baker Eddy's.
Armstrong's book does not debunk religion, but it provides a comfortable understanding of the cosmos for anyone who finds religion obsolete in light of knowledge that has emerged since someone wrote Genesis.
Holy moly.......2007-05-12
Karen Armstrong has really created a must-have masterpiece with this book. Whether your yourself are Jewish, Christian,Islamic, or none of the above... it's impossible to deny the impact these religions have had on the modern world. This book carefully examines the origins of these three major religions and looks at what they've evolved into today.
It's a very informative book for people of all faiths that really sticks to the facts and never once becomes preachy.
Book Description
The breathtaking ceramic artwares, tablewares, and tiles produced by the prolific Catalina Clay Products Company of Santa Catalina Island, California, from 1927 to 1936 are presented in over 550 color photographs and an eloquent text. Influenced in part by the Spanish Revival Movement and Depression-era Art Deco motifs, this book displays the artistry imbued in these pieces, ranging from teapots, patio pottery, and souvenirs to pictorial murals, hand painted plates, and tile tables. A history of the company, its wares and artisans, bibliography, and index are also provided. Values are included in the captions.
Customer Reviews:
Island born and raised.......2007-08-05
I was born in Avalon MANY years ago, and raised there for many years; and I have always loved the lore of the island. I have also become a collector of pottery and turned my attention to the wonderful items that came from my hometown. Super book! L.P.
An Accurate Catalina Pottery History (Way over due).......2001-11-24
This is the best guide (there have been few)that has been released to date. The best thing about it are the accurate time frames and the pricing for the individual pieces. Plus the glaze and clay content history are very helpful!!! Get this while you can, because knowing Schiffer books, it will go out of print soon!!
Average customer rating:
- For those of you too busy to sew...
|
Wrap yourself a designer dress
Lee Roscoe
Manufacturer: Grosset & Dunlap
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
General
| Crafts & Hobbies
| Home & Garden
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0448118300 |
Customer Reviews:
For those of you too busy to sew..........2004-11-23
... comes this relic of the 70's. The basic idea is that you take a rectangle of fabric and wrap it around you. With a few strategic knots and a kilt pin you are now wearing a fairly good approximation of a dress. The first section discusses sizing and selecting fabric and discusses pros and cons of stretchy sheer non stretchy and various other attributes of cloth. If wrap dresses had caught on like knitting then this would be old hat, but if you plan on trying to pull off wearing a sheet it is a good idea to read what is good for what. Also in the introductory section: how to select good strong kilt pins. You definitely want a strong kilt pin since it will be holding your dress on.
And we are off into the garments. They are divided into chapters by style: long dresses, short dresses, sophisticates, the five-in-one (five styles from one rectangle for a week long trip wth no luggage), separates, summer spectaculars, coverups and ponchos, the superwrap (3 pieces of fabric for 5 looks, 2 of which I would wear), and finally patternless clothes (these require a tiny trust me tiny bit of sewing). I think the most useful sections are probably separates and summer spectaculars. Summer spectaculars has instructions on six bikini tops that might be doable depending on your build.
As far as 70's relics go the patterns that hold up hold up surprisingly well. I think that almost anyone could find three styles that aren't bad out of the 80 or so presented here. The full page photos make it easy to select a style that you have the daring to try out and make it super easy to eliminate the styles that are not aging so well. Try these out around the house before wearing them in public or especially to work. For the daring wrap dressing can be just another way to be female MacGuiver. Or it can be like a bad dream in which you are naked in public. If it sounds interesting to you then consider buying a used copy if it is priced at about what you would pay for a shirt.
Who should try these styles out? 70's disco divas - you know who you are.
Book Description
The right light makes the room. It sets the stage for our lives, creates a comfortable environment, and enhances home décor. Bring a new brilliance to your home with this expert guide that demystifies all aspects of lighting your home.
The Right Light examines a wealth of lighting sources, types, and styles. It shows you how to find and use the best light fixtures, how to create mood with lighting, and how to balance the functional and aesthetic aspects of lighting throughout your home on a room-by-room basis, and even outdoors. Read The Right Light and discover hoe to custom-design your own lighting to decorate your home.
-Detailed lighting plans for your home, and inventive ways to use the lighting resources you already have in place.
-Decorative tricks on how to use lighting to enlarge your space, make it more intimate, and give it more height.
-Lighting design tips on working with color and light, designing concealed lighting, and turning a garden into an outdoor room.
-Eight beautiful handcrafted lamp projects to help you make your own lamps and light fixtures.
Customer Reviews:
Well presented but shallow.......2004-04-08
I know 'nothing' about lighting in the home, so I decided to gather some knowledge before redoing the appartment.
The book is well presented and organized, with chapters covering the usage of light in various areas of your home. I noticed straight away it only describes the tradional house, but I gathered lots could be applied to my appartment.
What's good is that it describes what light does to us, how it works around the house, how to utilize different types of lights, tips&tricks, etc., and for the light-dumb this means one can learn a lot from this book, and I did. It does not cover technical installation issues, such as installing built-in ceiling spots or hiding wiring. The book delivers knowledge and ideas, from there you're on your own.
Now for the bad, this is a 140 page book so one expects lots of content. At least half of the book is photograps. It would have been excellent if things described in the text where illustrated by these photographs. Alas, the photographs are 'stock' photos an employee gathered from media-libraries and the like. They looked for photos to go with the current subject. You get nice pictures of living rooms and such, where lights happen to be installed, trying to be relevant, but they usually fail. They look like photographs you see in magazines at your hairdresser.
The usage of fonts and line spacing is from hell, really. They start a chapter with big letters, then the next line with slightly smaller letters, and so on (Star Wars anyone?) to the default font size. But between every line, everywhere, there's a blank line. I'm sure they'd claim it's 'design', but I think this is how you get a 140 book full: fill it with blank lines and useless photographs. To make it worse, 16 pages are covering 'do it yourself' plans to make really ugly lamps no one would ever want. Not only this example, as a man it could be noted for fellow men this is a very feminine book. As with the lamp making, some things might not appeal to you.
What's left could be fit in 15 to 20 pages of information in a 'normal' book, some of which is iterated. That stuff is OK. Not brilliant, but OK. I give 2 stars for that.
Packed with tips, tricks and tips, great craft projects.......2001-09-27
This is a wonderful book for any individual who is decorating their home or any design professional who wants to know about as many lighting options as possible. It is packed with tips, tricks and ideas to make successfully lighting your home easy.
The book starts out by explaining natural light and then helps you develop a lighting plan. There are lots of decorative tips and tricks such as using uplights to made a ceiling look higher or washing opposite walls with light to make a room look bigger. It even discusses how lighting effects mood.
Lighting specific to certain areas of the home is covered next with sections on special lighting considerations for living rooms, bedrooms, kitchens, baths, entrances, staircases, your home office and outdoor areas. Everything from built in fixtures to accent lamps to candles is covered as a total lighting plan is conceived.
The strength of this book is its coverage of both the aesthetic and the technical. Special mini sections explain types of light, minimum lighting levels, and tell all about lamps and shades. They also help you choose light bulbs, lighting fixtures, and window coverings. The final chapter addresses special lighting needs such as increasing light at night, or using light create the right mood. A quick fixes guide shows you how to correct many lighting problems with a minimum of effort and expense.
Along with decorating advice there are several craft projects throughout the book. These include a leaf and paper hurricane lamp, punched paper light string, Japanese table lantern, papyrus shade lamp, marbled hanging lantern, henna pattern lamp, pearled shell night light and sliver tea light votive. The projects are sophisticated looking, yet easy enough for anyone to make. They include step-by-step instructions and a picture of the finished project.
Average customer rating:
- Excelent Book
- Excellent!!!
|
Photoshop 6 Manual Avanzado para PC y Mac en Colores, con CD-ROM: Manuales Users, en Espanol / Spanish (Manuales Users)
Daniel Venditti
Manufacturer: Independent Publishers Group
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Graphic Arts
| Graphic Design
| Design & Decorative Arts
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
Adobe Photoshop
| Digital Photography & Video
| Computers & Internet
| Subjects
| Books
Web Graphics
| Web Design
| Web Development
| Computers & Internet
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Graphic Design
| Computers & Internet
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Computers & Internet
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Instruction
| Foreign Languages
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Foreign Languages
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
Spanish
| Foreign Language Nonfiction
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
Computación e internet
| Libros en español
| Formats
| Books
General
| Arte
| Arte, arquitectura y fotografía
| Libros en español
| Formats
| Books
Artes Gráficos
| Diseño Gráfico
| Arte, arquitectura y fotografía
| Libros en español
| Formats
| Books
Educación
| No-Ficción
| Libros en español
| Formats
| Books
| Canada y México
| Colegio y Universidad
| Consejería
| Curricula
| Educación Especial
| Educación de Adultos y Educación Continua
| Escuela Primaria
| Escuela Secundaria
| Europa y Euroasia
| General
| Habilidades para el Estudio
| Lectura
| Método de Instrucción
| Participación de Los Padres
| Pedagogía
| Politica
| Referencia
| Teoría Educativa
| Transición y Jardin Infantil
ASIN: 9875260789 |
Book Description
Segunda y ultima entrega de una completisima obra, que profundiza en el uso, las tecnicas profesionales y los efectos especiales de Photoshop 6.0.
Ademas de la personalizacion del programa, se desarrollan temas tales como el manejo del color, la obtencion de imagenes digitales y su tratamiento para la Web, y la automatizacion de tareas.
La obra se complementa con consejos practicos, trucos, ejercicios resueltos, equivalencias de comandos en ingles y espanol, glosario de terminos, atajos de teclado, una guia de referencia Menu X Menu y cuestionarios, que la convierten en una herramienta imprescindible para el aprendizaje de esta nueva version.
Incluye un CD-ROM con la version trial de Photoshop 6.0 en ingles para usuarios de PC, todos los ejercicios resueltos del libro, plug-ins, acciones y el mejor software relacionado.
Customer Reviews:
Excelent Book.......2001-10-21
I loved it, i think it is the best book available until now, it has fabulous graphics, examples, the quality is the best i have ever seen in a book !!
Excellent!!!.......2001-06-11
This book is really excellent, it have a lot the exercices and tips about Photoshop 6.0, the chapter about the photoshop plugins is wonderfuld and the color and color corrections references great too.
I'm Argentinian, sorry for my bad english.
Average customer rating:
|
Photoshop 6 - Manual Avanzado
Javier Lopez Escriba
Manufacturer: Anaya Multimedia
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Graphic Arts
| Graphic Design
| Design & Decorative Arts
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
Adobe Photoshop
| Digital Photography & Video
| Computers & Internet
| Subjects
| Books
Spanish
| Foreign Language Nonfiction
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Arte
| Arte, arquitectura y fotografía
| Libros en español
| Formats
| Books
Artes Gráficos
| Diseño Gráfico
| Arte, arquitectura y fotografía
| Libros en español
| Formats
| Books
No-Ficción
| Libros en español
| Formats
| Books
| Automotriz
| Ciencias Sociales
| Crimen y Criminales
| Educación
| Estudios de la Mujer
| Feriados
| Filosofía
| Gobierno
| Hechos Verídicos
| Planeamiento Urbano y Desarrollo
| Política
| Sucesos de Actualidad
| Transportación
ASIN: 8441511160 |
Book Description
A wonderful blend of polemic, autobiography, travel adventure, and myth.
Customer Reviews:
Profound and touching.......2007-09-26
You wouldn't think it possible to say "this is Martin Prechtel's best book yet" because they are all so exceptional. If you are interested in current Mayan culture, indigenous peoples, love, life, Central American politics... this book is a tour de force. Martin Prechtel is one of the most truly amazing, talented, gifted, wise, insightful people you might ever hope to meet. On top of this, he is an extraordinarily gifted writer. Buy the book. Buy them all.
The One You Keep.......2006-11-16
TV, more than any other medium, has become America's storyteller. Sometimes that's not so bad; other times it presents shallow and false values to impressionable minds. When I'm hungry for ultimate truths, I've often found it best to go to other cultures and borrow their stories. One of the very, very best is "Stealing Benefacio's Roses." Within this story you will find your heart and be surprised at how strong and lovely it is. You will find your soul and come to know your true self. It's a story that works on the surface level of "Once upon a time . . ." yet also touches the deeper realms of mythology, spirituality, psychology, history and the many varieties of love. The writing is superb. Here's a quote: "Onto the floor I dropped to sleep, drifting on the tossing sea of my aching heart in a little canoe of Gustavo's friendship, into dreams filled with the unkillable perfume of Benefacio's roses." To understand and savor the last five words, buy the book and enjoy the revelations. This is the one you will keep to reread over time.
A suggestion.......2003-03-27
It might help readers to know that this book and "The Disobedience of the Daughter of the Sun" are written to be read aloud. When you do this the prose has a rhythm that is part of the meaning of the book.
The Great Story.......2003-03-27
"In much wisdom is much grief" says the Preacher in Ecclesiastes, "and he that increaseth knowledge, increaseth sorrow." There is much wisdom, grief, knowledge, sorrow, and finally joy in Martin Prechtel's new book. You don't have to read his previous three, *Secrets of the Talking Jaguar,* *Long Life, Honey in the Heart,* and *The Disobedience of the Daughter of the Sun* to understand and appreciate the message of *The Toe Bone and the Tooth* - but it helps.
This is a story about keeping the Great Story alive - "An Ancient Mayan Story Relived in Modern Times: Leaving Home to Come Home."
It starts out with Martin's return to Guatamala in 1992 after many years in exile from his adopted country, where his village of Santiago Atitlan had been destroyed and 1800 of his friends and villagers slaughtered by American-backed death squads in the 1980s. He was picked up at the airport by three teenage boys (who had been small children when the devastation took place) and smuggled back to the village under a truckload of Mayan squashes. Along the way, the boys were eager to hear the story of the Toe Bone and Tooth that had been outlawed (as well as their language) by the various and many invaders of their country. Landmarks of the Story were everywhere (much as Australian Dreamtime stories are dependent on the land for the telling).
Martin was welcomed in Santiago Atitlan as the Shaman and healer that he was for many years. He had had a Mayan wife and three sons there (one son died) and his little family had barely escaped with their lives.
The ancient story of the Toe Bone and Tooth is inserted here - the Story of a mortal, Raggedy Boy, who fell in love with the Water Goddess, the story of her death after bearing him two corn children and being forgotten when her husband returned to the mortal world. When he did remember her through dreams, he had to re-member her, gathering her bones with the help of Coyote (who had the toe bone and tooth) and descending into the underworld to retrieve her heart. He was helped by an old magical couple. Re-membered, she became an ordinary woman and he became an ordinary man, and from them, all humans are descended.
The next few chapters chronicle the story of Martin's first arrival in Santiago Atitlan - how he'd been lost in a blizzard in his American homeland of Northern New Mexico in his youth, and how he was saved by a mare named Morningstar and an old Spanish lady who cured him of an almost fatal fever with bear grease and herbs. During his convalescence, he had 11 dreams of Santiago Atitlan and Nicolas Chiviliu Tacaxoy, who was to become his teacher, friend and mentor and who had called him through dreams for three years before he finally arrived in the village. Says Prechtel, "Though I was blond and born far away, we were the old and young generation of throwbacks from other times and layers of existence in which a humble dynasty of people in service to the remembrance of the Dismembered Goddess was continued from century to century."
Another chapter tells of Martin's defense of a young Mayan seminary student, Gaspar Culan, who was accused of worshipping idols because he had participated in an ancient Mayan sacred ceremony involving Holy Boy, whom the Catholic Church had branded as a devil but is actually a Christ figure. Martin (who speaks English, Spanish, and Mayan fluently) was to be Gaspar's advocate. Holy Boy had been called a Jew by the Church. Martin pointed out that they had dubbed the deity a Jew (and a devil) because Jews were at least considered to be human and therefore were subject to the 16th Century Inquisition. Mayans hadn't been considered people before that, so if their God was a Jew, the Inquisition could persecute and prosecute them. Martin won his case, and Culan was ordained as the first Mayan Catholic priest.
Several chapters are devoted to the Prechtel family's nothing-short-of-miraculous escape from Guatamala. Martin's teacher had ordered Martin to stay alive at all costs so that he might carry the seed of the story to the U.S. and preserve it for the Mayans whose history and culture had been outlawed.
When Martin got back to the U.S. and his old homeland in New Mexico, he and his family lived in poverty and difficulties for several years, but in Santa Fe he met a homeless couple who were like the old couple in the Story. Here, the narrative goes into the third person as the old couple tell Martin's story and do for him what he had done for countless people in his life - re-membered him for the holy amnesiacs (all of us). Martin's story mirrors the Great Story - "the story of ordinary people, extraordinarily in love and the story of the struggle of what it takes to be graced with such love is the story from which all humans are descended."
The author dedicates this book to the "deer-eyed daughter of the mountain, the mother of the great diversity" and to "all those peoples, plants and animals who have been and continue to be forcibly uprooted, rerouted, relocated, corralled, cut, branded, burnt out, burned down, burnt up, crushed, eradicated or driven from their homes in infinite diasporas of all types, to live where they may be unwelcome, while still trying to keep alive their seed capsules of cultural memory in hopes to regrow a home again. May their descendants be carved by the inherited grief of their ancestral loss to become feeders of what is holy in the ground, dedicated to something bigger than their need for justice and the pursuit of revenge."
This is a fantastic, exciting but true story, and in my opinion, this is a life-changing book. Read it!
Books:
- Fly The Wild Echoes
- Foreign Brides: Stories
- Goodbye, Goodness: A Novel
- Guiding Elliott
- Harlemworld: Metropolis as Metaphor
- Heart, You Bully, You Punk
- Hungry for Home: A Wolf Odyssey
- Icchouittan: A Collection of Original Japanese Short Stories
- In Beautiful Disguises
- Into the Niger Bend: Book One of the Barsac Mission (Into the Niger Bend)
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Inside the Not So Big House: Discovering the Details that Bring a Home to Life
- If Only He Knew: What No Woman Can Resist
- Current Practice of Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry
- Flowers for Algernon
- Foundation Design: Principles and Practices
- Hemp Diseases and Pests: Management and Biological Control: An Advanced Treatise
- Coping With Children's Feeding Problems and Bedtime Battles
- African Rock Art: Paintings and Engravings on Stone
- Creating Textures in Watercolor: A Guide to Painting 83 Textures from Grass to Glass to Tree Bark to
- Draw Thumb Animals
