3 comments about Discovering the Vernacular Landscape.

1. the book arrived quiclky and I'm happy with it nevertheless it as some underlined sentences (used books are usually like this) but it's quite ok.



2. I was attracted by the title of this book; there's so much to be learned by observing the suburban or rural landscape, which most of us drive through without really noticing or reflecting upon it. Someday a wonderful book will be written on this topic, but this is not it. Instead, John Jackson presents us with a series of 'musings,' for lack of a better word, about the vernacular landscape. At times, the writing takes on a stream-of-consciousness quality that leans too heavily toward personal reflection. Topics include the grid-road network of the US midwest, placement of county courthouses within town plans, the history of the 'box house,' evolution of the Arts & Crafts style of architecture, and the author's experiences in the US Army in Europe during WWII. Intertwined among these topics are passages in which the author reflects upon the notion of 'landscape' and what it means to him.



3. This is a rather interesting book. The perspective it takes on history is unique. The basic premise is that you can learn a great deal about a society by the way they talk about and treat the land around them. I must admit, it made me look at my surroundings differently. It is a bit slow in places, and after a while I started to loose interest. However, overall I would say that this collection of essays is rather good. You should check it out if you have any interest in the field of landscape studies.

5 comments about Las Vegas Then and Now (Then & Now).

1. I purchased the book for my son-in-law who enjoyed it VERY MUCH. Great Book.
   Shirley Nordby



2. this is a nice book with very beautiful photos ,a must for people who like
   to learn about other cities evolution.



3. I drove through Las Vegas in 1975 and was so unimpressed I didn't even stop and get out of the car. I wanted to see if this book had any photos from that era and was pleased to find out my memory wasn't faulty. I was also there in the mid '60s and the late '90s and the book didn't let me down on those memories, either.



4. I was finally able to visit Las Vegas last year and bought several Vegas books as souvenirs. Unfortunately, most of the books only provided information on present-day Las Vegas. Also wanted were pictures of the Las Vegas I had seen on TV as a kid. After all, that is what gave it its magic & attraction to me.
   
   This book provides that. Pictures of the old & new are featured on opposite pages for easy comparison. The pictures are large, sharp, & clear, & are of excellent quality to this layman's eye. They are also accompanied by short paragraphs of essential facts such as build dates & owners, along with information peculiar to the specific buildings.
   
   I highly recommend this book to the nostalgist.



5. The book is a fascinating look at Vegas in the past and present. For each subject there's the "then" and the "now". It captures the amazing evolution of defines Las Vegas. With each picture is a paragraph about the scene. It's a nice coffee table book but also a cool reference book.

2 comments about The Art of Setting Stones: And Other Writings from the Japanese Garden.

1. The author made Kyoto his home after graduating from Cornell University's department of landscape architecture, first as a research fellow of Kyoto University, and later as a landscape architect and writer. He is currently adjunct professor at the Kyoto University of Art and Design, and splits his time between lecturing and praticing landscape architecture from his offices in Ithaca, New York.
   
   The 8 essays desribe his intimate experience of the Japanese garden and shed light on both the cultural origins as well as the personal meanings he has derived from his years of study and contemplation.
   
   His unique perspective is informed by a deep understanding of the historical context of the gardens combined with an appreciation of the spiritual traditions that have defined their aesthetics.
   
   Each of the essays is introduced by a black clayboard illustration done by the author, adding a visual interpretation to his often deeply philisophical musings, making this book the most enjoyable writing I have found to date on the Japanese garden.



2. The Art of Setting Stones is a distillation of Mr. Keane's considerable knowledge and experience of Japanese gardens. Mr. Keane is a successful and sought-after landscape architect by profession, but his writings on Japanese gardens are scholarly yet accessible, informative yet enthralling. He consistently demonstrates a synthesis of profession and intellect, art and soul.

   I would caution the reader who seeks mere knowledge on Japanese gardens. For this, the reader is better served by Mr. Keane's other works, Japanese Garden Design and the tremendous translation of the eleventh-century manual, Sakuteiki. The Art of Setting Stones is a collection of loosely-related essays that expound the conceptual, spiritual and philosophical framework for creating gardens. The essays are reflective in nature, poetic in style, and deeply learned in content; they provide a patient reader with several evenings of delightful reading.

   The title of this collection, which comes from the Sakuteiki, provides a key to the genesis of Mr. Keane's essays: the act of creating a garden space is ancient and primordial, rooted in our relationship to the very land itself. One of the the terms that the Sakuteiki uses for the act of creating a garden is "ishi-wo tatsu" - literally, "to raise stones." Mr. Keane's insight comes from years of doing just that.

2 comments about Landscape Architecture, Fourth Edition.

1. Simons is certainly an environmentalist, and I love that about him. This is the first text book I have enjoyed reading. He makes excellent points, though it isn't all totally workable. Generally a great book.



2. This is really THE seminal instroductory book to landscape architecture. It's not really specific enough to be a true reference book, but it covers such a vast range of topics that it would be unrealistic to expect it to be. Instead, Simonds did a fantastic job of summarizing an amazingly broad field one subject at a time. Still, it is not so broad that the reader will fail to see the trees through the forest. It does include a lot of very helpful illustrations and explanations about such topics as spatial relationships and how they create different environments (and subsequently a particular design might be appropriate or inappropriate depending on the circumstances). But that is just one small sample of the kind of valuable lessons this book is filled with. I often start with this book when I approach a subject that is new to me because it gets me on the right track. In that sense, it's not just for beginners. And the 4th edition contains much-needed updates of the outdated photographs that are in the 3rd edition.

4 comments about The New American Swimming Pool: Innovations in Design and Construction: 40 Case Studies (New American).

1. I think the book's inside cover is close to correct...
   
   "Lavishly prodiced, The New American Swimming Pool is an invaluable and practical refernce book [Pool Owner - maybe not practical]. It is a fresh, important source of inspiration for architecture and landscape architecture enthusiasts, homeowners, architects, landscape architects, landscape designers, and pool contractors."
   
   [...]



2. This is a great pool book if you're contemplating building a classy pool with beautiful landscaping.



3. ...there is absolutely nothing on construction. It's a coffee table book at best!



4. Not just great photos and ideas. This book give details on all the pools, including geographical location, size, depth, color of plaster, type of coping and decking/terrace, etc. Although there are a lot of great books out with wonderful pictures, this one doesn't have all tropical pools, which is nice for those of us who don't have a jungle of palms! Very nice designs for those who live in temperate climates or with more traditional yards/homes. Best pool book yet.

5 comments about Home Landscaping: Midwest Region: Including Southern Canada (Home Landscaping).

1. This was a very helpful book - straightforward and practical ideas for plantings around my house & yard. It included planting layout diagrams, plant list and sketches of what things might look like during different seasons.



2. This book is a tremendous resource for landscaping in the midwest. It provides great ideas for landscaping for different seasons, conditions, and locations. Most of the recommended varieties of plants are easy to find at your local nursery which has always been a problem with other books I have used. The pictures and drawings really provide extreme value when trying to picture how plants will look together. It has already given me enumerous great ideas and suggestions.



3. This book is a good source for midwest-specific plantings and landscape ideas. I found I didn't have to look up the growing zones of plants I found interesting, wondering "Would this plant grow well around here?"

   I also enjoy the overall friendly tone of the text. Some other books of this type that I own are written in a stuffy, almost highbrow manner.

   The only thing I would have liked to have seen more of in this book is more actual photographs of the landscapes. There are many photos of the featured plants, but the book relies heavily on artwork for the landscape design images.




4. A big problem I've had with gardening books is that they so often cover areas with different climates (such as the wet Pacific Northwest) than that which I have to face here in the American Midwest. This book, however, has shown itself to be an excellent resource!

   It starts out with a portfolio of 23 designs, giving the reader excellent advice on appearance and what plants to use, complete with color pictures, and a sample graph paper design. After that, it has step-by-step instructions (again with great color illustrations) on building projects, such as sidewalks, walls, patios and so much more. The final part of the book is a series of plant profiles that looks at garden plants and their needs.

   So, just to make everything perfectly clear, I loved this book, and highly recommend it to every gardener in the American Midwest!




5. Excellent ideas and designs with excellent plant choices. Great for the beginner or designer to create updated and hardy garden designs that put on a show throughout the seasons.I am a designer and love books, this is once of the easiest to understand and carry out.

1 comments about The Art of the Islamic Garden.

1. I have been waiting for this book for several months; now that I have it in hand, it exceeds my expectations. It is visually AND intellectually stimulating. I have a particular interest in the symbolism of the Islamic garden and Clark not only gives an in depth description of this, but also puts it in context--historic and contemporary. This is also an excellent guide through the component parts of the garden. The chapter on The Prince of Wales' Carpet Garden is fascinating.
   As Islamic gardens play such an important role in the history of garden design, this gem should be in every designer's book collection.

1 comments about The Private Gardens Of Charleston.

1. If you haven't had the opportunity to see the beautiful gardens of Charleston in person, then this book should suffice until you can get there. Twenty-five private gardens are presented here with color photos and an essay for each. All of the elements that make these gardens so special - brick walls and pathways, neat boxwood hedges, colorful flowers like azaleas and camellias, fountains, wrought-iron gates and cobblestoned courtyards - are on delicious display. Various garden styles are represented here - classical, contemporary, an atrium garden and the garden of a palm collector are just a few examples. The author's own garden, featuring neat brick-edged beds filled with roses and perennials is included.

5 comments about The Art of the Kitchen Garden.

1. Excellent illustrations (pictures and charts) to help define a kitchen garden. Could be more practical for small home gardens.



2. This book is lovely and inspirational and full of good ideas. I do not have time for such an elaborate garden but I have planted mine using many of their ideas an it is beautiful and functional.



3. For a couple minutes you may marvel at this book, and then you'll quickly realize it's full of repetition of a theme -- same style, same border plants, sameness throughout. Worse than that, however, is the fact that if you even bothered to lay one of these out it would look just right for only a week or so before you wanted to pick something but decided against it so as not to throw off the symmetry, or worse one part of your composition died away and made the rest useless. Gardening is hard enough work without resorting to this. I have a pretty kitchen garden thanks to borders of allyssum and gravel paths, but it's not as insane as this where I would constantly be dismayed it was dying or wanted to pick something (heaven forbid). There are many books on pretty kitchen gardens. This is a book for people who want to achieve something surreal that will ultimately make them miserable very shortly thereafter. Stop by my house. I'll give you this book for free. Worthless. Sameness. Boring. Useless.



4. The Gertleys' book concentrates on the design styles for a kitchen garden, based on the parterre de broderie, which achieved its ultimate glory at Versailles. They use a series of simple geometric shapes to achieve their parterre gardens as their designs become increasingly complex. They derive design inspiration from Celtic knots, Japanese crests, and quilt patterns.
   
   Their designs are inspirational to view however, their gardens are very demanding of their creators. The designs might raise or fall on the placement of a radish and are not especially functional. I am a cook first, gardener second, and artist last when it comes to potagers.
   
   Their methodology requires far more nitty-gritty planning than suits my preferred approach. It often appears at counter purposes to a kitchen garden that is meant to supply the table since it is so meticulously groomed and cared for and harvested with such additional planning in order not to destroy the patterns made by the vegetables.
   
   The book's approach is much like Charlie Tuna asking; "Do you want tunas with good taste? Or, do you want tuna dat tastes good?"
   
   I admire the design talent and illustrations if not the philosophy.



5. This book is wonderful! I wanted to make our garden area look more landscaped and put together rather than having the plants look sloppy. This book gives wonderful pictures and ideas for making it work. It also gives descriptions of types of plants to use as well as edible flowers. It works for the mini garden as well as the large garden areas. I recommend this book to all vegetable gardeners who want more than a tomato plant here or there!

5 comments about Picture Perfect: Mowing Techniques for Lawns, Landscapes, and Sports.

1. Picture Perfect is a must for anyone who is serious about their lawn. I found this book to be extremely informative and helpful in achieving the ideal lawn. It is very user friendly and makes obtaining the perfect yard obtainable for everyone.



2. Our lawn is looking great this year thanks to following the care and maintenance instructions in Picture Perfect. David Mellor's easy to follow guidelines on mowing make our lawn the prettiest in the neighborhood. Why do people scalp their lawns?
   
   This book is not just about pretty pictures. David Mellor tells us about the facinating history of lawns. He shows us how to establish good grass from the ground up beginning with soil testing and fertilization and culminating with how to apply a distinctive design.
   
   I am giving a copy of this book to my sixteen year-old nephew who started mowing lawns this summer. It will give him and edge over the competition.
   
   After reading this book I see why David Halberstam called David Mellor "The Picasso of The Playing Field."



3. David Mellor shares his particular expertise with authority and in a straightforward way. I wanted to learn how to "design" my lawn like the pros and I got that and more from this book. It's a great supplement to your favorite basic lawn care guide (Mellor's other book, THE LAWN BIBLE, is a good one) and will have you mowing circles (or diamonds or stripes) around your neighbor's lawns.



4. I wish I could recommend this book! I really do. You know when your 13-year old writes one of his/her first research papers and repeats him/herself in every other paragraph just to create "filler"? Well, that's exactly Mr. David R. Mellor's problem in his book, "Picture Perfect": he repeats himself over and over . . . and over again. Holy cow!
   
   What IS a sign of a good "how to" book? Well, to me it is its thoroughness: you want to have all the info on the subject in one guide, right? (Or certainly, as close to it as possible.) Well, "Picture Perfect" is NOT perfect -- far from it.
   
   There are many problems with the book. One, Mr. Mellor is a bad writer. His aforementioned repetition of many facts does not create an appreciation for diligence; it signifies a sense of belittlement and ineptitude. Furthermore, although his writing style is accessible for the most part, it is confusing at times during THE moments when it should be the most simple and easy to understand: in the chapter in which he describes how to actually make patterns, he is far too complicated in explaining a simple task . . . such as mowing parallel, adjacent lines in opposite directions! In the first few chapters, Mr. Mellor uses bullets and subchapters to enunciate clear and important points. Great! Yet when he finally gets to discussing the actual techniques of pattern making in Chapter 12, he lumps all points into one, making for a poor overview: the main points don't "stick" out. That's really too bad.
   
   Two, the book is poorly organized. The first half -- yeap, half! -- is dedicated to A-Z lawncare. Come on! All he had to do was to state that there are many other books out there on lawncare, point them out, and get into the heart of THE subject. (That should have taken one paragraph.) And although very important, lawncare is NOT the subject of this treatise, right? (My favorite is Scotts.) Why try to outdo a book like Scotts in a few chapters . . . when the Scotts book covers lawncare brilliantly?! Makes no sense to me whatsoever! This IS, after all, a book on mowing patterns, NOT lawncare. All that Mr. Mellor had to do was to, perhaps, write an opening chapter of HIS advice, findings and nuances on lawncare, all of us having learned some from personal experience over the years. But no, Mr. Mellor tries to reinvent the wheel. In addition, to use black & white photographs in a book published in the 21st century is embarrassing! (No, not all photographs are black & white. But . . . ) Let me get this straight: this book deals with the visual sense, right? So wouldn't you want to use color photographs?! Get real! Furthermore, the illustrations in the chapter on making patterns are not used effectively: all mowing passes could have actually been shown in ONE illustration instead of several, thus making the instructions more accessible. Also, Mr. Mellor tells you that with practice, you will get better. OK, let me get this straight? I am supposed to pay $38.70 to be told that with practice I will get better at doing something? We already know that! That's the whole point of a "how to" book: it is supposed to teach you a subject so that you will decrease the amount of time for you to get good at something, right? Good Lord! (Nope, we're not done yet.) At the very end of the book, Mr. Mellor writes about some of his personal experiences when he worked at Milwaukee's County Stadium, one of which involved the chasing off of seagulls from the field. Again, let me get this straight: you are supposed to pay $38.70 to learn how another human being . . . chased away seagulls?! Mr. Mellor, you are very audacious! I thought this book is about making patterns on lawns? And finally, here is the greatest downfall of the book. The book is 160 pages long, yet ONLY 32 pages actually deal with creating lawn patterns. And actually, I am being too generous: only Chapter 14 deals specifically with pattern instruction which is . . . 18 pages long! So let me get this straight? You are expected to pay $38.70 for a book which only gives you 18 pages on that subject? Are you kidding me?!
   
   Now, having made this last point, let's look at it from a different angle. What does the fact tell you that only 18 pages out of a 160-page book actually deal with the subject at hand? Well, it tells me that the subject matter is NOT all that complicated! Look, if you have, or even HAVE NOT, any gardening experience, but are practical and use common sense, you can create lawn patterns. Sure you can! It ain't that complicated as Mr. Mellor would lead you to believe. I was successful on my first try . . . and so will you.
   
   Holy cow! Mr. Mellor, you need to seriously consider writing a second edition of this book in which you leave out the opening half on lawncare (and leave that to others), use color photographs only, and devote MUCH more effort and time to the actual subject: lawn patterns.
   
   So, if you have ANY gardening savvy and do NOT need your hand held, then I highly recommend that you do NOT buy this expensive book. If you DO need to have your hand held, then buy this book . . . I guess.



5. The book is very small. I expected a larger book with lots of pictures. There are a few pictures, but the book itself was disappointing.