1 comments about Traditional Home Plans: 85 Distinguished Designs (Design Tradition's Home Library).

1. Too bad they were all in brick. All 85 designs are unsuitable for warmer Western United States. There must be "tradtional" stucco designs out here in the West!

No comments about Kanner Architects: 11 Projects.

3 comments about Hot Wheels: 35 Years of Speed, Power Performance and Attitude.

1. Hot Wheels were a major pastime for me growing up and I'm surprised this book didn't appear sooner. The wealth of information and anecdotes on how this toy came to be made the book very entertaining to read. While quite knowledgeable about his subject, the author made a number of factual errors regarding automotive history (I work in the industry) and was vague about some of the actual dates during the first few years of Hot Wheels production. Still, the good photography and artwork have made this one of my favorite books!



2. I bought this book for my 8 yr old that has every car I think that has ever been made by hotwheels(these include my old cars from when I was a kid). This book was wonderful. He loved seeing all the cars he has and some that he needs to get. This book was very well put together and will be an asset to any car collector or car lovers collection. Alot of information and wonderful photos inside.



3. This is a general overview of the creation and manufacture of Hot Wheels toy cars. Some rabid collectors will probably already know a lot, if not all, of the information in the book but I found it to be highly readable. There's not a lot of minute details but general information about the development and production of the early years. There is also some general information about Mattel's history.

   For toy cars they put a lot of effort into creating them and to this day it still shows. They have held up well and are still like little trophies to me. There are some details that elude the end of the story, like one engineer that volunteered to work on a no salary/percentage of production basis. They never explained what the end result of that bargain was other than it worked well for him in the long run.

   Other information like the development of the wire axles, Delrin bearings and the patents involved really took me by surprise. I had no idea how involved it was to create these little gems and what a chance they took in producing them. I am even more impressed with the toys after reading this book. It really was a labor of love to some extent. I also never realized that Elliot Handler's wife was the primary force behind Barbie.

   Anyone with even a casual interest in the toys and persons involved would probably find the information in this book to be insightful. I enjoyed it immensely.

No comments about The New Autonomous House: Design and Planning for Sustainability.

1 comments about Great Altarpieces: Gothic and Renaissance.

1. this book features both well designed illustrations and in depth texts. one piece for each artist, the book shows the most details specifically mentioned in the text. several pieces even design to demonstrate the setup which are folded in the same way as the real altarpieces. printing quality is good. few images, though, i think, are a little out of focus. but it didn't interupt me to dig out the information i need. it is hard to find another book at this level in the market today.

No comments about Waterwise House & Garden: A Guide to Sustainable Living (Landlinks Press).

No comments about The Tennessee Valley Authority: Design and Persuasion.

1 comments about Holy Things and Profane: Anglican Parish Churches in Colonial Virginia.

1. Dell Upton's book does for the eighteenth century Virginia parish Church what Addleshaw's 'The Architectural Setting of Anglican Worship' did for its English and Irish counterpart half a century ago by high lighting and exploring a unique church architecture and the society that produced it.Upton explores the architectural, historical, and sociological aspects of Anglicanism in Colonial Virginia as expressed in the church buildings. However it isn't just an architectural study. Upton's awareness of the social context of Virginia Anglicanism as an Established Church enables him to look at the buildings as an expression of the society that produced them. He raises awareness of the unique nature of the parishes, and the need to accomodate the scattered population and hierarchical social order of the colony. He also compares the church architecture of the Old Dominion to other formal structures such as courthouses and mansions, and vernacular homes illustrating the construction techniques and conventions common to all buildings in Georgian Virginia. If I have one minor criticism it is that Upton does not seem to have any great familiarity with the history of 17th & 18th century Anglicanism. For example, he states that the Rev. Devereux Jarrett (1732-1801) was a Methodist when in fact he was an Evangelical Anglican sharply critical of the separatists. Upton also seems to have only limited familiarity with the Anglican Book of Common Prayer and its demands on the worshipping space. However these are very minor blemishes in what is primarily a study of an architecture in its context. This is a very interesting and valuble book for anyone interested in colonial church architecture, the history of Anglicanism or Virginia history.

1 comments about Timber Pole Construction: An Introduction.

1. I served some time as a Collection Development Bibliographer for Agriculture at a university library prior to my retirement. Most of the time this amounted to suggesting worthy library materials to support the university's's ever-changing curriculum. Other times I received related reference questions regarding a variety of things. And not a few of these questions regarded the cheapest and most effective way to build both barns and outbuildings. From the early 1970s to the 1990s I continued to search and came up with the same conclusion. Timber pole construction remained the best choice. Some books presented it in a straight forward manner; others featured an array of joinery that only an Einstein could follow. But none of them had done it as well as this book on hand.

   In keeping with the best in Intermediate Technology principles, the use of what you have on hand to accomplish the purpose, the authors provide diagrams and related text from cutting and preparing lumber to getting the job done. The best parts of this book are the basic methods of joinery, the use of wire, bolts and iron and basic pole construction methods from foundation construction to protect the pole for bean and roof construction. Some woodworking fanatics will respond that the resulting building may not look "pretty," or the book's presentation is too "simple." My only response to such people is that the authors' purpose was to present the most economical ways to get the job done. And to heck with aesthetics!

   Included as well is a presentation on the use of pole construction for fences, retaining walls and bridges. There is a also a concluding presentation of low housing and buildings in Sri Lanka, a Malawi school building as well as a Zimbabwe pole roof being part of a rammed earth structure. The appendix is a chronological listing of library materials for further research.

No comments about Monasteries of Western Europe: The Architecture of the Orders.