3 comments about China Style.

1. A wide range of (mostly) rather luxurious rooms filled with everything and anything Chinese. But you won't find much of authentic traditional chinese homes here (and indeed the dustjacket clearly announces this). Although the rooms are sometimes packed with Chinese things, they almost all still feel western/international/chinese, mixed in different proportions. That said, the photos are great and it's a joy to visit all these apartements and houses and select your favourites. Since each place only gets two (or three) spreads generally, a string of different locations can be presented and you're invited to more rooms and settings than anyone can digest at one read-through. And that's great, you can return again and again to this very rich book.



2. This is an enjoyable book introducing many different places -- mostly residential, but also some hotels and restaurants -- with a variety of Chinese designs.

   The best part of the book is the photography by Michael Freeman. In most of the rooms he captures a feeling that it's lived in, a part of someone's daily life. Some books I own on Asian design don't have this quality: the rooms either appear too staged or the photographer gives them a sterile feeling. I could recommend this book on the photos alone.

   The text is not quite up to standards of the photos, but it's acceptable. The author, Sharon Leece, obviously knows her subject, but she often lapses into blurb-style. For example, she writes on one house: "The words colourful, extravagent, and opulent can hardly begin to describe the palatial home of Contrasts Gallery owner Pearl Lam."

   Another fun aspect of this book is that the places it showcases aren't just the homes of wealthy individuals. You see not only the more than 13,000 square foot Manhattan apartment of Chinese antiquities dealer Robert Hatfield Ellsworth, with its numerous expensive Chinese antiques, but you also get to see how some people with obviously much smaller budgets still managed to design their home with a unique Chinese flavor.




3. Reading this was a pleasant surprise, but what impresses most about this beautifully-designed book is not that it opens up all the elements of Chinese style and how its used in modern living -which it does in a interesting way.
   But that it includes homes of most of the foremost China antiques dealers/collectors in the world.
   Probably for the first time ever in print, we can see photographs of the homes of China experts Grace Wu Bruce in Hong Kong, Robert Ellsworth in New York (his is the biggest single apartment in Manhattan, apparently) and Kai-Yin Lo in Hong Kong.
   That this book features their private homes shows they must have given their backing to this book - making it more than another stunning Style book.
   Overall, this is a luxurious, well put-together book with an
   interesting selection of beautiful apartments from many Cities. Recommended for anyone interested in things Chinese.

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5 comments about Measuring, Marking & Layout: A Builder's Guide.

1. Learn to layout. Really just a good reference book. If you are a carpenter then you must know how to layout correctly. Different techniques, good practice.



2. This is a well written book, in plain language. It will help any amateur considering building, or constructing brick, or wooden structures, or extensions. John Carroll makes the reader think about accuracy when approaching any building project. He provides many simple easy-to-understand methods on how and what, to measure.
   
   He shows many examples of how simple miscalculations can result in costly errors. Unlike other American DIY books, that pretend the metric system does not exist, Carroll covers imperial for the home market and metric conversions for the rest of the world. This factor, and his humble writing style and experience as a craftsman, will make this book an international best seller for anybody who will pick up a saw, rafter gauge,or masonary hammer. The book is a must for anyone who needs important tips on construction methods. In conclusion this excellent book makes you think and visualize what you want to achieve before you start the job.



3. This author is in the dark ages with respect to the use of the metric system. As a country, we've been there / tried that. We can't help it if the rest of the world is backwards using the metric system! Why was at least a whole page WASTED in talking about this? How ridiculous! It is an okay book, but mostly black and white drawings and lots of text. Perhaps if the author, and Taunton, had spent more time with the content of the title and included some color in a book that is the same price as their other titles with LOTS of color, they would have had a good book.



4. Carroll does a wonderful job of explaining in clear language the concepts of layout, marking, and measuring. This book is great for anyone in any trade who is new to the construction industry or for anyone who wants to work on their home in a professional manner. From handyman to carpenter to construction manager, you will get some great tips and info from this book.



5. This is probably the most important book I own in my "how to build it" arsenal.

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5 comments about The New Independent Home: People and Houses That Harvest the Sun (Real Goods Solar Living Books).

1. I was surprised by just how comprehensive this book's knowledge base was. I'm not the new kid on the block either, I've been involved in several solar installations and many others with mixed-systems comprising micro-hydro and wind power as well. But this book still had a lot to offer, things I hadn't thought of, many that I will seek to apply in future installations.
   
   One strength of this book is the author's reliance upon the experiences of others. Many points in the chapter are highlighted by interviews conducted with people (of various backgrounds and experience levels) who have lived and worked with renewable energy sources in their homes. It is as if the author, knowing that people listen to more sources, found a bunch of great people and added their thoughts as a way of saying,
   Hey, if you don't take my word for it - listen to what people like you have told me." This aspect is great because I, at least, find it much easier to relate to the people and get a feel for how their experience went rather than the omniscient author telling you that everything is roses all the time.
   
   All in all, this book really WAS surprisingly comprehensive - covering all the basics (and thensome) of the renewable energy sources that one would want to put into a home. If you read this book before you built your home (even if you weren't thinking about adding in renewable energy) I PROMISE you would get ten times your money's worth in energy savings. Because that's the bigger part of using renewable energy - saving as much energy as you can so that the little you can glean from the earth is used as wisely as it can be without running out in the middle of a shower (for instance).
   
   I highly recommend this work, and will be buying copies for my friends (many of whom will be, or wish they could be building houses soon).
   
   Be well!
   
   Dr. Dominic Ebacher



2. As a person beginning my education in sustainable home building, I found this book refreshing and encouraging, informative and conversational. Lots of other books are more technical and appropriate at certain times, of course, yet I found this authors style of creation simple in its ability to reach the novice and beyond, to anyone who learns by stories. Simultaneously, I found it a dynamic read, in the way that the stories he included spanned years of experience, trial and error, and wisdom of what our forefathers and mothers in this movement would have done differently. I enjoyed the basic education in how electricity works, and the emphasis on how important and simple (although maybe not always easy) it is to be ENERGY INDEPENDENT.



3. The book was easy to read without much detail regarding brands, specifics and the 'devil of the details'.

   writing, after installing our new energy star washer we noticed that we could wash clothes even during cloudy days. Not exactly a comment that would relate to the 90% of the masses.

   I thought this book would cover all sorts of homes, but instead the well versed marketing tricked me into believing that.

   No where did it cover a relatively normal house, builder etc, that incorporated the inxpensive changes necessary for a home to be more energy efficient, nor cover what appliances, were good or bad to avoid. It was a buy a plot of land in nowhereville, 'sell' part of it to other earthies, and build a straw or dirt filled tire house.

   Um, where's the information about manufactured homes that come super-insulated with low power appliances, and PV from the factory for the other 90%.

   If you want to see the types of people that are the ones that the congress, senate, DOE, and EPA see as pro-independent, it's no wonder there's little public knowledge of solar, wind and water power.

   As for the pro-nuke guy, if my first exposure was this book, I'd be as short-sighted as him, the solar and wind CAN make a difference, but it's gotta be for the masses.




4. Being an architect I am really concerned with sustainable living and green design. Once upon a time I was thinking that alternative energy sources would be the future of the energy sector, but as I read and read about these kind of energy sources lots of question marks appeared in my mind. As I deepened my studies about the subject I came to a conclusion that hoping to achieve our energy from sun, wind etc. is a very romantic idea (I am not against romanticism) and it is not very realistic. Now I know that THE CLEANEST AND CHEAPEST SOURCE OF ENERGY IS NUCLEAR ENERGY. This book tells stories of ordinary people who tried to achieve enough energy from sun, wind etc. for their daily use, with too much effort which I really appreciate. But just baking a cake in an oven or any other simple daily event musn't require that kind of effort and money. I thank to this book for awakening me about nuclear energy by showing the other side of the coin. Anyway if you are living off-the-grid and really really want to use PV's or wind mills to turn your TV on this book may help by telling how others succeeded(?) to do that.



5. "The New Independent Home" is a cornucopia of good information and thought provoking discussion. A thoroughly enjoyable read, I found myself (currently in the throws of re-evaluating where and how my family and I live) unable to put this book down. The author covers not just the technology of independent homes; there is extensive discussion of the whole sustainable living philosophy of independent home dwellers. The numerous interviews with folks actually living in these homes, many of them off-the-grid even when that is not a necessity, add a very real dimension to the author's presentation. This is not just some "chuck it all - back to the land" book either; the info (and interviews) cover the spectrum of not only remote living but also the quite urban; the thoughts, ideas, and technology here are applicable to all situations. And community building is an important part of sustainability; none of the independent homeowners presented here are hermits. There is a real sense of their place in their communities, both the local one, and the wider community of like-minded folks wherever they may live. For someone thinking about their place in our crazy world and how to move toward a sustainable, ecological, sane way of living, this is the best book I've found. Buy this book! Read it!

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