5 comments about The Craft of Modular Post & Beam: Building log and timber homes affordably.

1. This book is by far the best I have read on the subject of post and beam construction. Lots of nice drawings and understandable instructions. Good advice for average person. Explains wood joinery very well



2. If you are not building your own home, I don't recommend this book



3. This book is excellent. It gave me all the information I wanted/needed plus more.



4. The other reviewers of this book allude to the fact that they will someday get around to using the information. I have already done it and wanted to add my comments here.
   
   I used this book as my "bible" to construct a 24x40 log home with a porch wrapped all the way around. It took two years, but I couldn't have done it by myself without the theories and examples in this book. My joinery isn't as pretty as the ones in the book, but I used them and wooden pegs to secure all the posts and beams in the house.
   
   I highly recommend this book to all who have their own 'library' of log home books and need some practical advice that works.



5. I first stumbled on this wonderful book in our local library. Read it cover to cover in two weeks and unfortunatly had to return it but, it is on my birthday wish list. This is the most informative book on the subject I have read to date. Mr Mitchell did an excellent job in the chapters covering the details of modular log home construction. Many of which I plan to use in the very near future.

No comments about Home Delivery.

5 comments about Schaum's Outline of Reinforced Concrete Design.

1. Wow!!! Schaum's and Noel Everard really missed the boat on this one! I really wish engineers would learn how to write and cohesively put ideas down on paper. Noel's concept of writing is to regurgitate a bunch of formulas that cross reference other formulas. If you are looking for concepts.... this is NOT the book for you.
   
   I'm disappointed in Schaum's on this one. After using other outlines of theirs I had higher expectations. This one is really bad! No wonder it only cost 12 bucks.



2. This text was originally composed in 1966 and was updated in 1987 & 1993. Since the last update the design procedures recommended by the ACI have been radically revised and this book is therefore essentiall useless to today's designers. It might have some elementary applications, but the buyer should be warned major revisions in design procedures in the late 90's and after render the book outmoded



3. Typical of the Schaums series- It's a little bit out of date but the information really helps to fill out scribbled lecture notes and textbook examples.
   
   Good stuff.



4. College texts only provide so many good examples and are sparse on the details. Schaum's fills in a large explanatory gap.



5. This reference is useful as a review of various types of concrete construction. However, it was last revised in 1993 and refers to the 1989 American Concrete Institute code, so while the content is generally correct, many of the code provisions have since changed.

1 comments about Programs and Manifestoes on 20th-Century Architecture.

1. This book is mandatory for the library of any architect or student of architecture. It is the point from which any discussion of Modern Architecture could begin. I am hard pressed to think of a notable architect Conrad has neglected to include in this handy little book. From these pages I have seen generated a good number of arguments and debates on the state of architecture today. This is a small price to pay for such a wide array of ideas, both good and bad.

5 comments about Private Tuscany.

1. This was not the book for me because we are building a Tuscan style house and the houses featured in this book are beautiful, but old and refurbished houses in Tuscany. So many of the materials are not available in America, and also there is the comfort issue; while the houses are beautiful and definitely authentic, they might not be so comfortable for today's lifestyle. If you are looking for ideas on a modern Tuscan style house, I definitely recommend Tuscan & Andalusian Reflections. However, if what you want is to see is the real, authentic, Tuscan refurbished houses, then this is the book for you.
   
   I must say the decoration ideas are great, and the pictures are beautiful. Even though it wasn't what I expected, I don't regret buying it because it definitely transports you to another place and time when you flip through it.



2. I am an Interior Designer and I am always searching for new references and inspiration. This is a beautiful book



3. With this book you can get a good idea of the warm ranges of wall colors that create a Tuscan mood. This book focuses more on color and neutral tones as opposed to some that go for the white tones. The decor shown is generally not over the top and focused on the grandiose villas that are out of reach of most everyone. There are many modest but lovely homes shown and you can pull fabric inspiration and accessory inspiration. I would give the book 3.5 stars due to some of the rooms being a bit sparse in design and lacking in real life things such as television/stereos, etc. That however is typical of most design books.



4. I WAS LOOKING FOR A GRANDER INSPERATION AND IT WAS NOT THERE. SOME NICE SHOTS BUT NOT WORTH BUYING.



5. Something that I will enjoy over and over with a cup of coffee on a Sunday morning.

2 comments about 1000 New Designs and Where to Find Them: A 21st-Century Sourcebook.

1. This book is excellent if you are interested in Interior or product design this is perfect.
   Great photographs and some information on the products, the best part that it gives you the websites for each item (1000) so you can use this as a great reference.



2. It compiles a good variety of products in a glossy book that you can do nothing but adore. Not only it is a good source book, it is enjoyable. By no means it is complete, and it wasn't meant to be. You could use it as a source for inspiration, an indicator for near future trend, and if you are financially resourceful, a buying guide!
   
   Have it, browse it and enjoy !

5 comments about Traditional Mexican Style Exteriors.

1. I am a landscape designer in central Florida, and I am always looking for inspiration for specialty projects. The photos in this book are outstanding! The text is well-written and interesting!



2. If you are building a Spanish home and we are, then this book will provide you with a wealth of ideas about what to do beyond the 'box of the casa.' Filled with brilliant photographs of terraces, swimming pools, fountains, outdoor rooms, columns, entrances, furnishings, use of paint, etc. you will refer to this book over and over again as you design and continue to decorate your dream home.



3. The photography is excellent and the ideas abound. It is a book that's fun to thumb through and colorful. I enjoyed it! It's sister publication is just as good.



4. I have bought more than a Dozen Mexican Design Books already. And none can compare to the Traditional Mexican Style Exteriors and its Companion Book Mexican Style Interiors by Donna McMenamin.
   
   It is a wonderful book! You will not need any other book if you are planning on redecorationg your house. But, even if you will not decorate your house, this Book(s) are a worthy read. The Pictures are wonderful. Giving detail to what is really Mexican.



5. Every time I re-do a room or make a home decor purchase these days, I'm looking for things to make my house look more Mexican. This book, and its companion volume "Traditional Mexican Style Interiors" are wonderful reference books for anyone looking to copy that style.
   
   If you're just a fan of Mexican style, or have been to Mexico and want to have a way to go back without leaving your easy chair, this book is fun to read and magnificent to look at. Although it emphasizes exteriors (facades, architecture, etc.) there are photos of gardens, courtyards, and plenty of other spaces that you could create on your own property, even on a very modest budget, and without knocking the house down and starting over.

1 comments about Greece Style: Exteriors, Interiors, Details (Icons S.).

1. Marvelous pictures with some helpful hint on technique painting and achieving the looks presented in the pictures. I would have liked more information on where to obtain some of the accent items. If you like photo journal books, you will enjoy this publication.

1 comments about Santiago Calatrava: Complete Works, Expanded Edition.

1. I bought Santiago Calatrava's book as a gift but I was dying to see the pictures and his work. I totally recommend it.

4 comments about Vogue Living: Houses, Gardens, People.

1. you have to love decor and fashion to understand this book.it is Vogue after all!!!! the book is full of fabulous properties and fabulous people.I went through it already many times and got inspired by it.
   Buy it f you are a fan of vogue magazine !!!



2. There is no disputing that this is a sumptuous volume. Lavishly produced, its oversized 384 pages are crammed with images of exquisite rooms and lush gardens from 36 unique homes, owned by the rich and/or famous in Europe, America and North Africa and into the likes of which you and I will never set foot. (Which is the reason, thankfully, such books are produced and why we lesser mortals buy them.)
   
   There are rooms modern and rooms classic, arranged with the taste, elegance and restraint of the world's best decorators and captured by the world's greatest photographers. And yet the rooms are not museum pieces, but are demonstrably inhabited by their owners, their well-scrubbed children and their adorable dogs, such as the greyhound on page 317 filching a piece of cheese from the dinner table.
   
   My favourite room which is featured on the front jacket cover is of Janet de Botton's breakfast room in Provence, its French chateau décor a study in white, cream and faded pastel, the background, literally a wall of china - floral motifed white plates and platters displayed on white-painted, floor-to-ceiling wooden plate racks built into the walls. (Already I've been measuring my walls to see how I can incorporate something similar - though less vast - into my old house).
   
   At the opposite end of the décor spectrum is Amanda Brooks NYC loft, all kitsch and brash eye-popping colour like a Barbie Doll house with Brooks herself photographed in a Barbie Doll style gown in a Barbie Doll pose. (It's not to my personal taste but cleverly done & I had to look twice to be sure the figure lying stiffly across the bed wasn't a mannequin).
   
   If you are a fan of décor books you will find plenty more here to inspire, amuse and entertain you and your like-minded friends and family.
   
   So why did I hold back from a five star rating? My quibble is with the empty 14 pages devoted to Madonna which might have been put to better use: Madonna's cow pastures, M. with (admittedly cute) children; a gowned & high-heeled & coiffed M. feeding the chickens (as if!); M. canoodling with husband, a double-page shot of M's sheep -- & only one tiny interior shot, a sitting room that was rearranged by the photographer & does not reflect the actual décor of Madonna's house - which might have been of real interest even to a non-fan like me.
   Thus the book falls just a little short of being, for me, the epitome of the coffee-table décor genre.



3. Flash review: The perfect gift book for this season.
   
   This new book, timed for Xmas giving, features a selection of the best homes shown in Vogue in the past several years. It is a large-scale book, filled with wonderful color photography. Although Elle Decor and Architectural Digest have come out with similar books this season, neither can hold a candle to Vogue's tome. If you are familiar with the 1968 publication, "Vogue's Book of Houses, Gardens, People", which now sells for $400 and up if you can find it, you will know what is in store for you.
   
   Maximum emphasis on homes you would love to see in person, owned by people of impeccable style: Janet de Botton in the south of France, Marella Agnelli in Marrakech, David Cholmondeley's stately, etc.; minimal number of celebrity digs done by decorators of questionable taste which you tend to see in Architectural Digest. The style and taste of the featured houses, gardens (and, yes, people) are on an entirely different plane than those shown in the new books by the other two lifestyle magazines.



4. Photography is extraordinary. The people featured therein, not so much. Still, it's a beautifully done publication and worth the cash but buy it at discount.
   Stylemaven