No comments about New Decorated Garden.

1 comments about Turfgrass Installation, Management and Maintenance.

1. If there is one book that is a "Must Have" for the lawn maintenance Pro it is this one. Explanations from why lawn maintenance is a good business to detailed information on how to manage and run your business. Keep it in your work truck, it will come in handy for weeds and chemicals etc. If you are serious about being a professional and setting your self apart from the rest in your field, buy this book.

No comments about A Century of Greenkeeping.

No comments about Projects for Outdoor Living (The Backyard Builder).

No comments about Landscape Planning And Environmental Impact Design (Natural and Built Environment Series).

1 comments about Jon Jerde in Japan: Designing the Spaces Between.

1. JON JERDE IN JAPAN: Designing the Spaces Between

   I highly recommend Jon Jerde in Japan: Designing the Spaces Between by Cathie Gandel (Balcony Press, Glendale, CA, 2000) for anyone interested in public architecture; working with the Japanese; and the thinking behind the best in today's mixed-use developments. Ms. Gandel has produced a highly readable book that makes sophisticated concepts accessible to the lay person while providing meaty material for the professional.

   Wonderfully produced on good quality, high gloss stock, the book is chock full of illustrative material that effectively conveys the excitement of Fukuoka's Canal City Hakata. Readers do not have to puzzle over the term "wiggle wall" or strain to imagine what the "wayfinding sculptures" might look like. They can see them clearly in both the wide angle and detail shots.

   Jon Jerde in Japan starts with the project's genesis in 1977 as the first mixed-use development outside one of Japan's major cities, takes it through opening day in 1996 and concludes with an analysis of its amazing popularity-over 43 million visitors to date! It also traces the development of architect Jon Jerde and his deepening commitment to creating original spaces that add something valuable to the human experience. As Cathie Gandel wrote of Canal City Hakata:

   A visitor writes his or her script not only by choosing where to shop and where to eat, but also by choosing whether to see a movie, play a video game or have a drink in the Grand Hyatt lounge; walk under the overhang or out in the open; sit, stand and watch, or wander; jump in surprise at the champagne cork-popping noise of the fountains or wade into the tidal pool. Whatever the decision, the visitor is writer and actor as well as audience."

   I have had such a satisfying time just reading about this "urban theater," I can only wonder what it must be like to experience it in person. This book made me want to do just that.

   Barbara Greenleaf, Santa Barbara, California

No comments about Book of Landscape Gardening (American Society of Landscape Architects Centennial Reprint) (American Society of Landscape Architects Centennial Reprint).

No comments about Transforming the Common Place.

No comments about Sydney: History of a Landscape.

2 comments about From Renaissance Monarchy to Absolute Monarchy: French Kings, Nobles, and Estates.

1. If you want a good history of this era, this is not it - unless you are an economist. Only then could you want all of the transactions that occurred in the history of French economics and that is what this book gives you. Everything is told in terms of taxes, fees, and more taxes.
   I am currently reading "The Course of French History," by Pierre Goubert. It is much more enlightening!



2. The book should be called "from the Middle Ages, skimming lightly over the Renaissance to absolutism". There was a lot on the period of the 2-3 kings just prior to Francois I. Then the book glosses over Francois I through Henri III and fast forwards to Henri IV. Most of the book is not on the Renaissance period per se (which arguably started with Francois I). The Wars of religion are almost ignored... This book is of a type currently in vogue with academic historians: there is much statistical analysis of government data, e.g. 2 of 5 people in 1585 did blah-blah. A little dry for my taste. Also, terms are not well defined prior to use. Not a book for the beginner, but, in all fairness, I believe this book was written to be an academic text, not for mass consumption.