2 comments about The Henry Clay Frick Houses: Architecture, Interiors, Landscapes in the Golden Era.

1. a wonderful book with great pictures that tells a very personal story, written from the families' perspective. Nice attention to the details that abound.



2. Henry Clay Frick really knew how to live a gilded age life, and you see the evidence in this fantastic book. The images are crisp and well conceived and the text highly informative. I expecially liked the section on Frick's famous mansion on Fifth Avenue in NYC, he was determined to out build Carneige and he suceeded, it is a beaux-art tour de force and the perfect setting today for his singular collection. If you have any interest in Frick, Guilded Age architecture, or fine books in general, then i can't concieve of you being anything but thrilled with this purchase.

5 comments about Silent Screens: The Decline and Transformation of the American Movie Theater (Creating the North American Landscape).

1. This book has a lot of great pictures and does a good job of providing some history on theatres that were once important parts of the landscape and are now mostly forgotten. If you are looking for a history of the large movie palaces, there are many other books you should look at, but if you want to see a history of small town theatres with some great artwork, this is a book you need.



2. As a projectionist, I felt it my duty to research my trade in as many ways as possible, and one way was to learn about the movie palaces and hometown theatres that made my job exist.
   I actually cried as I read this book. The photos made me wish I had been around to experience these theatres in their prime.
   This book helped me to understand and respect the movie industry's history, and the history of the American hometown, far better than any factual history book ever has.
   This book also inspired me to support my local historical theatres and those around the nation. Mr. Putnam did a wonderful job on this book. The photographs are all of superb quality, and the Demolitions and Conversions Noted sections are extremely interesting. While the photos of the decaying cinemas are depressing, they also inspire one to save the historic theatres that we have left and to learn about their history.



3. I saw this exibit at the Smithsonian and loved it.



4. This is a wonderful, haunting book, which I think at least one of the previous reviewers here has missed the point of. The point is not to show these theaters in their prime, but rather, in pictures of their present state of decay, to hint at the glories that were. If you're looking for a picture book of grand movie palaces, this isn't it. But if you're looking for something that operates on a different plane, the romance of decay, and the melancholy of a world lost, this is definitely it. For all those who want to let their imaginations loose upon the ruins, this book should provide a field day.



5. This is not the first picture book of lost American movie houses, and I hope it will not be the last, but while the photo quality is excellent, the text and background leave much to be desired. It does indeed create a nostalgic empathy for its subject, those smaller structures made so famous by that memorable movie of 1971: "The Last Picture Show", and just as it featured a show house in a small Texas town, so this book favors black and white shots ("plates") of picture shows that stand as shadows of what they once were. No attempt is made to delve into the early life or the circumstances of the demise of these venues, so the photos leave the reader with much the vacant, lost, tumbling-tumble-weeds-driven-on-the-wind feeling of the movie.

   To its credit, the book does contain two 'necrologies' of sorts: the first is a four-page chapter called "Demolitions Noted" where several hundred movie houses around the nation are listed as gone, featuring, for example, an eight-page spread of the Pekin Th. of Pekin, Illinois being demolished, yet nothing is shown of it in its prime so that the reader could really appreciate that this was a unique Chinese-styled small movie palace of the 'atmospheric' (stars and clouds) type worthy of preservation. Had the author taken the trouble to locate a copy of one of the foremost books on the American movie theatre: AMERICAN MOVIE PALACES by David Naylor, he would have seen on its page 82 a photo of the Pekin Theatre in its pre-demolition prime, and then his photos of it in demolition would have had more context and impact had he sought to include this photo with his. Any research on his part would have disclosed that the photo was owned by one of the founders of the Theatre Historical Society of America which publishes a magazine of such theatre history: "Marquee", and no doubt that photo and many others could have been obtained, but neither the Society nor its magazine are mentioned in the book. Such research is what sets a quality book apart from others of lesser stature, picture book or not.

   The second 'necrology' is the chapter entitled: "Conversions Noted" which is perhaps the least depressing in the book since it shows, within its seven pages of listings, that theatres large or small can have other useful lives. An overlooked conversion was the unusual one which occurred in Milwaukee when the 1920 Riviera Th. was converted to a bicycle emporium cum velodrome with a planned bike racing track to be constructed atop the balcony and around the walls under the old chandelier positions with inverted bicycle frames supporting high intensity up-lights as the new 'chandeliers'!

   The comentaries by several notables do little to advance scholarship, something one would have expected from a book published by a university press. When the author/photographer explains in the "Conclusion" that he knew nothing of the documented locations of movie houses (few of these here could really qualify to use the term 'theatre') until someone introduced him to the standard of such guides: "The Film Daily Yearbook", it is obvious that scholarship or any real contribution to the body of knowledge was not the genesis of this work. Even one afternoon in any real library would have introduced him to the many volumes on the subject as well as magazines, and had such limited research been done, no doubt the author would have been able to do more than stumble about the towns of America hoping to find a dead show house; he could have given us some background to the origins of this genre and thus put meat on the bones of the photos, good ones though they are.

   The book's 100 some pages in the long format are nicely produced, and they may create a longing for more information so absent from this opus, in which case one is well advised to consult the landmark book which its Forward writer described as the "appropriate epitaph" of the movie house: "THE BEST REMAINING SEATS: The Golden Age of the Movie Palace" by the late Ben M. Hall (several editions available here at Amazon). "SILENT SCREENS" is a clever title, and in some depressing way it is more of an epitaph than the former title, yet it is unfulfilling, unless one is satisfied with a vagabond's jaunt with a camera down so many main streets.

No comments about Denatured Visions.

5 comments about The Sanctuary Garden: Creating a Place of Refuge in Your Yard or Garden.

1. While this book may not have glossy photos, it is none-the-less a dreamer's guide to gardening and solved my biggest garden problem: how to make visitors stop and abide awhile in my garden.
   
   On home garden tours, I often watch people fall prey to a mindset of "strolling on a mission" as they move from one composed vista to the next, mentally recording pretty combinations or successful "scenes." I was saddened recently to see a beautiful pergola draped in exotic jade vine (Strongylodon macrobotrys) with people flocking to see the flowers, but not one person felt genuinely invited to sit inside. In my mind, a garden fails if it does not: A.) stop you in your tracks and B.) invite you to sit awhile, quietly and comfortably.
   
   One of my goals is to open my garden to such a home tour and discover people lingering, feeling transcendently at peace and at home. This book helped me find a way to transform the garden experience from people saying "pretty" to people having conversations in outdoor salons.
   
   I share the other reviewer's experience. I am a visual person and gravitate towards books with landscape plans and photos. I have a library shelf full of garden design books; Feng Shui, modern, Balinese, etc. and binders of ideas from magazine clippings. Yet this book did more to shape the garden experience I want visitors to have than any other.
   
   Each garden "room" should function the same way as the vibrant passages the authors use to open each section in the book: creating layers of engagement that invite you to reflect.
   
   I found myself evaluating designs with more than just an eye for cleverness or cohesiveness. This book is an invitation to center yourself before setting out to create a peaceful space outdoors.



2. I bought this book from a different web retailer because of the online description; I did not see it in the store first. If I had, I wouldn't have bought it, because it is a philosophy book about gardening. I tend to buy gardening books that have lots of photos or diagrams of examples. This book has no photos and only a few drawings. It is all text. If you are a "show me" kind of person like I am, then don't buy this book.



3. I LOVE this book. It's about so MUCH more than just digging in the dirt! I especially love the watercolor illustrations. We have always called our own backyard a sanctuary. Now, we are incorporating some of the bountiful ideas found in this cornucopia of garden delights.



4. This is a wonderful book! It is very inspiring, and the ideas are easy to follow, understand, and adapt to your own space and needs. I loved the descriptions of their garden/sanctuary at their home, and am inspired to try to create some sacred space in my own life. Thank you for a truly fantastic book!



5. Almost a "garden as metaphor," book, you won't find concrete advide about how to plant, or what to do about pests, etc. You will find an inspired pathway to spirit via the garden. The authors write with a clear, poetic voice about earth, wind, water and sunlight as manifestations of the soul. As an avid gardener, this is one of my all time favorites! It would make a terrific gift for anyone interested in the natural/spiritual worlds.

No comments about OASE No. 71: Urban Formation and Collective Spaces (Oase).

1 comments about The English Flower Garden.

1. THE ENGLISH FLOWER GARDEN by William Robinson, was first published in 1883 and republished a number of times afterward. The current version available from Amazon is a reprint of the 15th Edition Robinson edited shortly before he died in the 1930s. This new reprint of the 15th Edition contains the "Botanical Revisions" prepared by Graham Stuart Thomas for the 1984 Edition, as well as a Forward by Henry Mitchell, and an introduction by Deborah Nevins.

   The book is set in old style type and contains numerous black and white illustrations--etchings of photos and prints of sketches. Some of them are a bit grainy, but many are not, and even the grainy ones have their good points. The content of each photo is quite interesting, and the sketches provide the "personal" touch one seldom sees in text books these days.

   In one print, taken at Gravetye Manor over 100 years ago, a climbing tea rose clings to a bamboo split-rail post fence surrounded by bush roses. The sunlight reflects from the walkway and warms the flowers and a huge clay pot sitting in a corner. In another photo, pots of 'Chimney Campanula' guard an old Jacobin chest sitting in a hall at Staunton Court. Sketches and photos are used to illustrate flowers all through the last half of the book--a flower dictionary with anectdotal and literary "blurbs" written by Robinson himself.

   Mitchell says Robinson "for all practical purposes invented gardening as we know it." Robinson's garden, 'Gravetye Manor' is a hop, skip and a jump from Sissinghurst, but few know of it's existence. Yet, Robinson is the "grandfather" of Sissinghurst, because Gertrude Jekyll who helped Mrs. Nichols design Sissinghurst, was Robinson's disciple. She literally followed in his footsteps and emulated his style.

   Robinson found most of the gardens of his day deplorable (19th Century Victorian). Those of the wealthy were modeled after the French and Italian formal plan, loaded with clipped Yews and bedded out every spring with ribbons of color provided by geraniums and marigolds. The walkways were lined with ornate scupture and surrounded by towering "imprisoned" evergreen shrubs and trees including clipped Yews which he loathed. He said these gardens reminded him of graveyards.

   His ideal was the cottage garden. He considered the garden a sacred space. He said one had to visit the houses of the poor to find truly beautiful gardens. Henry Mitchell reflecting on this says, "The thing that separates the true gardener from the mere architect or designer (and there is something extremely suspicious in the airs they give themselves nowadays) is that the gardener stands in awe before his violets, while others think of them in terms of [sic] plant materials."

   Robinson's ideas grew out of the Romantic movement of the late 18th and early 19th Century. His designs and thinking were reflected in the Arts and Crafts movement based on the importance of reconnecting to nature. His contemporaries in thinking were Ruskin, Morris, Stickly, Frank Lloyd Wright, and others we identify with this movement. If you're a Stickly, cantilevered, picturesque kind of person, you'll like this book.

1 comments about Roberto Burle Marx: The Lyrical Landscape.

1. This is a beauteful book about the life and work of this very important Landscape Architect. I am pleased to have it in my Collection.

1 comments about The Stream Garden: Create Your Own Natural-Looking Water Feature.

1. The Stream Garden is a truly inspirational book designed to help the gardener design and create a stream garden. The photographs are superb and excellent examples. Clear direction is given for building the stream and there are plenty of plant suggestions to make the stream look natural. This book complements Water in the Garden by James Allison - which in my opinion is the best pond book on the market. Both of these books combine inspirational photographs with practical knowledgeable directions.

No comments about Oxford Companion to Australian Gardens.

1 comments about Culinary Gardens: From Design to Palate.

1. This book is a great idea, but lacks the particulars needed to actually do the gardens it outlines. Specific dimensions are missing in the individual designs. The knot garden for example gives an overall dimension ... but you just sort of have to guess how big the circles and paths are and how large the corner beds are.
   
   There's no real indication how many plants to use, so developing a shopping list and thus a cost estimate is a nothing but a guess.
   
   Plant locations on the design are indicated by varying shades of often similar colors. One design for example has 7 shades of greens. It's impossible to tell which green is which plant in the design.
   
   The majority of the book is devoted to descriptions of the various plants and rambling history or other material on the different garden types. There are few tips on how to actually construct the design. Like how do you lay out a perfect circle of plants? When should you do the shaping and pruning, the harvesting, and when should the plants go in the ground for the best look of the particular garden? Most of the plant descriptions do not include light requirements or other such practical considerations. In short, a good idea, very poorly executed. Advanced and intermediate gardeners won't really need a book like this, and beginners will just be frustrated.
   
   The best part of the book are the recipes, which salvages an otherwise mediocre book, and earns it three stars instead of one.