3 comments about More Stuff on My Cat: 2x the Stuff + 2x the Cats = 4x the Awesome.

1. ...you'll love this book! I am a big fan of the SOMC site, and I actually bought this book because a photo of mine appears in it. If you're not familiar with the site, the idea is that people put stuff on their cats (costumes, food, toys, balloons, etc.) and take photos. The people who run the site post the photos with funny captions.
   
   The book is very much just a photo book, and if you like the site, you'll like the book. It's very random and funny, and a good conversation piece. The only thing I wasn't completely keen on was the inclusion of some speech bubbles. I might have preferred nothing or captions on all of the photos. I would have also liked to see the names of the cats included.



2. Like the First Stuff on my Cat book, book #2 is wacky fun for cat lovers. It is ridiculously silly,
   and for those who like to laugh, it's utterly fun. Great gift for cat lovers, naturally!



3. i never read the first one, but I was bored.
   This isnt that clever, or cute, or funny.
   yeah thats pretty much it
   it's a bunch of cat pictures
   dont expect it to be genius clever pics either

No comments about American Farmer: The Heart of Our Country.

2 comments about Eighteenth-Century French Fashions in Full Color.

1. A lovely collection of 64 period fashion plates from Galerie des Modes. The plates cover the years from 1778-1787 and give a good representation of French high fashion in the years leading up to the French Revolution. The plates include court gowns, undress gowns, stays, day ensembles, riding habits, children's frocks and more. Complete with translated descriptions of each outfit and a decent glossary of terms.
   
   Drool-worthy does not begin to describe in the goodies contained within. This lovely and inexpensive resource is a must for anyone interested in late century fashions. Get one for research and one to take apart and frame for your sewing room walls.



2. Stella Blum has selected plates of 18th century fashion from the Metropolitan Museum's collection and reproduced them here in full colour.

   You certinally don't get all the plates produced in the 18th century but what you get is a helpful and representitive selection. This is one of the few books where you can see actual colour plates all reproduced in a sequence like this.

   If you have any interest in 18th french fashion this book is both [inexpensive] and invaluable.

5 comments about Himalaya: Personal Stories of Grandeur, Challenge, and Hope.

1. Himalaya is a collection of essays and photographs depicting the Himalayan peaks, the people living in the shadows of these peaks, and the needs and plights of these people. All the contributors have been very closely linked with the Himalayas. These include monks and native hillmen who were either born and brought up there, and then were typically forced to seek asylum in other countries, hardy mountaineers like Jim Whittaker, Ian Baker and the Hillary father and son pair, and famed Himalayaholics like Stan Armington and Matthieu Ricard.
   
   The book invokes strong nostalgia if you have been to the Himalayas before, and wonderstruck awe if you haven't been there. Through the three sections titled Grandeur, Challenge and Hope, you will find yourself in a world of simple hard-working villagers, troubled by malicious forces beyond their powers, and in a world of wild blue sheep, fat and honest eyed yaks, and majestic snow leopards. Pioneering climbers describe how they realized their dreams of climbing the loftiest peaks in the Himalayas, and how these ascents turned them into altogether different humans. We get interesting accounts from famous wildlife conservationists as to what made them turn to the Himalayas, and how have they been carrying out their efforts in these extreme terrains for decades.
   
   Many of the tales point out that the Himalayas are different from other mountain ranges not just because of their stupendous heights, but also due to the simplicity and genuineness of the people who have been living in its valleys and snow-covered meadows for thousands of years. Some of the views in the book are so orthodox that you might laugh them off at first, for instance, consider opposition to building roads in undeveloped regions in the mountains. But authors like Jigme Bista will explain to you that how development comes at the hefty cost of cultural degradation and decay of environmental harmony.
   
   Frankly, a few of the essays focus entirely on Buddhist philosophy, Tibetan's educational needs or on healthcare issues. Indeed these are important and relevant, and are connected with the central theme of the book, but some essays sadly do feel like space-filling digressions. Related to this is the shortcoming that the book makes Himalayas sound synonymous to the Nepal and Tibet Himalayas. Almost no mention is made of the high deserts of Ladakh Himalayas or of the vast Garhwal Himalayas.
   
   The lack of an index in such a hefty volume is also conspicuous. The book is no doubt a good collection of essays and photographs, but somehow fails to be up to the perfectionist standards of the National Geographic Society.
   
   Nevertheless, the thought which would linger in your mind for long after you finish this beautiful book, is the justifiability of human imposed geographical boundaries, if such boundaries have led to millions of torturous deaths over the years.
   
   http://readsafe.blogspot.com



2. This is a wonderful book for anyone who loves the great places of the world like the Himalaya. This is a great collection of stories by people who have fallen in love with the region, the people and the mountains. The basis for the book is to protect places, cultures and the people of an endangered region. A must have book for your collection.



3. This is a wonderful essay book with stunning photography. The essays are from a diverse group - from world leaders to refugees, to mountain climbing legends. Together they tell the story of the Himalayas - its beauty, its culture, its challenges and the hope that so many people help to bring to this part of the world. I gave this book as a gift to many people for the holidays and everyone has mentioned to me that they have enjoyed reading it and it is often a conversation piece when people see it on the coffee table. I recommend it highly.



4. My Himalayan book shelf and coffee tables already groan, but I ordered this National Geographic beauty immediately. All at once I was reminded of the depth of love and anxiety I have about these young mountains and these very old people. I learned a lot, even considering that I'm privileged to spend at least a month in Nepal and nearby countries once a year over the last decade. Photographs of masters, spiritual seekers, and people lovers lead the way to understanding the powerful impact of just being in the magic presence of the peaks. They soar beyond the clouds; the people strive for spiritual peaks and life goals too. In editing a series of short contemporary, highly relevant, but personal articles, Richard Blum, Erica Stone, and Brot Coburn show readers what can be seen and what can be done to reach out to help ease burdens there. Mountaineers, trekkers, and couch climbers, helpers and those looking for a cause, travelers, pilgrims, and all of us seeking greater human understanding will relish the guiding words of His Holiness, the Dalai Lama, Sir Edmund and Peter Hillary, and Lodi Gyalsten Gyari. Everyone who loves the Himalayas or wants to get to know them MUST HAVE this well rounded easy to read, glorious to see, summary of current times in and under the mountains of the Gods.
   Joyce Tapper
   Los Angeles



5. This book would be worth buying for the photographs alone. There are well over 100 of them and nearly every one (as is appropriate for a National Geographic Society book) is of salon quality. But you shouldn't just look at the pictures. They are accompanied by 40 short pieces by a wide variety of people, each with a story to tell, either of how their life has been changed by their Himalayan experience, or how what they do is changing the life there. These are by leading Himalayan authorities in the climbing world (today's and yesterday's),in conservation, research, art restoration, human rights, development, and Buddhism. Among the authors are a former American president (Jimmy Carter) and a current US senator (Diane Feinstein), as well as leading Buddhist figures (including the Dalai Lama, who wrote one of the three introductory essays). You don't have to read all of these essays and yet, as you leaf through the book, you may find yourself doing just that. For one thing, they are short - two to three pages each. For another, these are personal stories, which means that in each case, the author connects himself with the subject he is describing, giving it an immediacy that it might otherwise lack. And for still another, they are talking about really interesting things - things like the region's problems, its wildlife, its earthquakes, its politics (a little bit), and - of course - their own experience there. The book has been produced by the National Geographic Society with the American Himalayan Foundation, and many of that organization's projects have been described. It is introduced by Richard Blum, who is its head and (with Erica Stone and Broughton Coburn) one of the book's three editors. He quotes the instructions of Lama Govinda, a 20th century holy man, on how to see a mountain: "To see the greatness of a mountain, one must keep one's distance. To understand its form, one must move around it. To experience the moods, one must see it at sunrise and sunset, at noon and at midnight, in sun and in rain, in snow and in storm, in summer and in winter and in all other seasons. He who can see the mountain like this comes near to the life of the mountain, a life that is as intense and varied as that of a human being."
   
   If you are not in a position to do all this for the Himalaya, just read this book. It will get you close to an intense and varied experience of the world's most famous mountains and the people who live among them.

1 comments about One Time One Place: Mississippi in the Depression : A Snapshot Album.

1. Before Eudora Welty was a published writer, she was a semi-professional photographer. The "snapshots" (her term) in this book are eloquent images in themselves; Welty's accompanying essay, though brief, is excellent.

   Ordinarily this would be more than enough for me to recommend the book. But in this case, there's a much better collection of these photos for you to own. _Eudora Welty Photographs_, also published by University of Mississippi press, includes the hundred photos collected here plus about eighty others. Although it lacks Welty's introductory essay, it more than compensates with a tribute from Reynolds Price and an in-depth interview. The photo reproduction is superior as well. So skip _One Time, One Place_ and buy _Eudora Welty Photographs_ instead.

1 comments about Marc Baptiste Nudes: Nudes by Marc Baptiste.

1. Compared to his last book, I like this one more..!! Models are not all beautiful, but they did very well under Marc's lense to express their natural feeling. Beside, natural light is extensively used on all pictures, so..you can feel the difference..!!

5 comments about How to Be President: What to Do and Where to Go Once You're in Office.

1. DEFINITELY not the best book on Presidency. It is kinda strange because this book is meant for kids and WHAT KID WOULD EVER BE PRESIDENT!? It is kind of dumb because I doubt that George Bush carried this around his first hundred days in office! It was an okay book, but it is not my favorite.



2. Very funy and informative. Makes you get a real feel for the perks, and hassles, of being president. Makes a great 35th birthday present.



3. Fun, quick read on everything from how to get your dry cleaning done to ordering breakfast at the White House (and who pays for it). Gives the essentials; how to salute, location of the "red phone" and who carries the "football". Lots of fun facts - it makes you feel like an insider. It's a short book, and that's the only real downside. I would love for it to be longer and in more depth. A great gift for fans of the television show - The West Wing as well as anyone interested in politics and the presidency.



4. This slim, poorly written, poorly illustrated, poorly referenced paste-up might have a few interesting tidbits, but it's so error-filled that it should not even be idly browsed. A few examples:
   
   * "There is no official White House barber" (p 16). Don't tell Milton Pitts.
   * "Offices in the West Wing are usually ... windowless" (p 49). Huh? On Williams' own diagram, 3 executive offices are windowless and 16 have windows.
   * "The oval shape of [the Blue Room] inspired the shape of the Oval Office, when the West Wing was constructed in 1902" (p 21). In 1902 the president's new office was a rectangle. The oval-shaped ones were later additions.
   * He says Nixon filled in FDR's pool (p 49). Almost right: it's still there, just floored-over.
   * He calls the Eisenhower Executive Office Building by its former name, then says it's accessible by tunnel (p 45). It's not. There is a tunnel to the Treasury Building.
   * He gives a chatty but wrong history of presidential bowling lanes (p 113).
   
   With so many patent errors and no references, the rest of his "info" has the ring of guesswork. (Williams has "written for the New York Times"? Written what!)
   
   The book is lousy with fillers: A box on the colors in the U.S. flag. An entire page on HOW TO PUT YOUR HAND OVER YOUR HEART. Pages advising how to tell a joke, tie a tie, remember names. A list of some White House paintings - not photos of them, mind you, just a list.
   
   The illustrations by Nancy Leonard are a computer graphic disaster.
   * She cannot be bothered to draw a round oval, but ends up with flat parts in the oval rooms, the south portico, the elliptical drives, and the Oval Office rug. Fireplace and furniture icons are grossly oversized and oddly angled.
   * Her colonnade pillars come in bunches between gaps.
   * Her graphic program apparently could not handle tricky angles in rooms, so these are represented by what look like potato chip outlines.
   * She clearly relied on the Independent Counsel's West Wing map and uses that labeling (and mis-labeling). The famous press briefing room, therefore, is called "West Terrace Upper Level" without a hint of its actual function.
   * For decorative facing pages, she colors her floor diagrams to look like old-fashioned blueprints, but neglects to reverse the colors of the white and gray squares she used to make "holes" for doors in the wall lines, leaving a floor with weird, massive boxes all over it.
   * Other illustrations are worse than clip-art. The TelePrompTer diagram implies that the president stands on a glass screen.
   
   Williams doesn't mention the East Wing, the third residential floor, or the sub-basements, apparently because these were not in the Zweifels' "White House in Miniature" book and so do not exist for him. For that matter, bills, vetoes, executive branch appointments, judicial nominations, treaties, and other stuff a president should know how to "do" aren't explained. (For example, can you veto a bill by phone? Don't ask Williams.)
   
   A book like this could have been delightful. This one is vapid, ugly, and wrong.



5. Stupid, trivial and worthless toilet paper, this book takes a few basic facts and reduces what was once a position of respect into one of disrespect - it's all just some big joke about a job with perks - as opposed to public service. Don't waste your money

5 comments about Inside Maverick's: Portrait of a Monster Wave.

1. A first-class trio has come together to create the latest and greatest on the big green monster that is Mavericks. The format here is a collection of intimate perspectives by an ensemble of the knights-errant who have made it their business to ride these coldwater giants. The book is nicely split between the paddlers and the tow-surfers, with narratives collected by editors Bruce Jenkins (sports communist for the San Francisco Chronicle and author of The North Shore Chronicles) and Grant Washburn (surfer and documentary filmmaker) that paint a full, satisfying, and pretty scary picture of what goes in this marine no-man's land formerly known as Jeff Clark's private playground.
   Contributors to this volume include Surfing mag editor and big-wave hound dog Evan Slater, paddle-surf advocate Dr. Mark Renneker, and a host of other giant killers including Josh Loya, Zach Wormhoudt, Peter Mel, Kenny Collins, Shawn Rhodes, and still more hugely talented riders, all of whom know how to spin a good yarn.
   In addition to his editing duties, Jenkins offers up a trio of quality profiles and a neat piece on "going left" at this predominantly right-hander. For his part, coeditor Washburn, himself one of the great Mavs surfers, contributes an excellent reflective essay on the historic death of Mark Foo here in 1994.
   But for me the big story in this book is the tremendous portfolio of legendary Bay Area shooter Doug Acton, who's been chronicling the Mavericks scene since the early 1990s. Acton has captured it all - from the biggest swells and the gapingest pits to nervous pre-session huddles and crux moments to the serene overviews and majestic lineups. With action shots bolstered by lots of images reflecting the mix of local and international camaraderie and lifestyle in and around this Half Moon Bay, California, phenomenon, this is beautifully-paced the book of classic proportions.
   - Drew Kampion for The Surfer's Path [www.surferspath.com]



2. Outstanding!! A simply awesome book about one of the gnarliest spots. Five stars hands down. Buy it now!



3. Inside Maverick's is an outstanding mix of excellent photos, writing and story telling. The book captures amazing stories from the unique mix of surfers that ride Maverick's. No extreme sport enthusiast's coffee table or bookshelf is complete without this book.



4. The stunning photos alone make this book worthwhile, but the surfing commentary is topnotch as well. A great companion to the DVD "Riding Giants", and you will recognize many of the people from the DVD in the book.
   
   If you are in to any adventure sports or just an armchair surfer, this book is for you.



5. "Are you KIDDING ME???"
   
   Those are usually the first words out of anyone's mouth when they see this book on my coffee table. And then, usually I have to throw in "Riding Giants" and change any conversation we may have been having.
   
   The photography and story telling present by Grant and team in top notch. Grant alone has spent more than a decade chronicling the history of the world's heaviest big wave, and it comes through in an amazing presentation that anyone who could possible comprehend what these guys do will appreciate.
   
   But then again, comprehending just exactly what these guys are doing is pretty much impossible.

5 comments about Richard Kern, Action.

1. I was expecting more from this book. I am usually more fetish photgraphy oriented and was not expecting such "penthouse" type pictures. I was expecting something further from your everyday erotica. This being said the book does have its moments with lighting and composition. For a more varied look at this type of photography I recommend Taschen's The New Erotic Photography wich caters to varying tastes. Not a disappointment no matter what your flavor is.



2. I was really blown away by this book. Pictures are of stunning detail and really show an artistic erotic art.



3. While the second review here is accurate -- and let there be no doubt, many of the photographs in Richard Kern's Action are indeed porn -- it is the first review that tells fans of Kern's work what's in store: This book is an erotic masterpiece. The photographs themselves are marvelously composed and beautifully lit. And the young women Mr. Kern has lensed are remarkably sexy and sexual. Yes, there are shots of women urinating and doing other naughty things for the camera, but, alas, that is what many of us enjoy viewing. In short, Richard Kern's new book is stunning, and those who enjoy his kind of work will not be disappointed. A superb volume, this one.



4. This review isn't to condemn this book, only to inform buyers. If you aren't a fan of Richard Kern before buying this book like me, you won't know the content. While the book is presented in coffee table book format; oversize, hardback, nice paper, ect., much of the photography is identical to what you would find in a porn magazine. Mostly young girls, hardcore shots, girls urinating, insertion of toys, semen on faces, and fettish shots. The accompying dvd is as well not photo reference, but is live footage of the models, again in a very adult nature. Probably not a standard artistic reference book if you're expecting it.



5. The evolution of Richard Kern continues. His new book, Action possesses that quintessential pizzazz that runs throughout all of his work, but it nonetheless has its own unique and wonderful flavor too. Kern has always been attracted to the atypical model - he was photographing girls from the "suicide" genre long before it became fashionable - and his affinity for sexy, young ladies continues.
   
   Within the 280 pages of Action there is a subtle yet piercing element of fetishistic sexuality. Panty clad young sirens drop their bottoms, there's toe-sucking, spread shots, and other forms of tainted affection. All presented in that infamous Richard Kern style. Fan's of Kern's work will find numerous reasons to fall in love with his breathtaking vision all over again. And there's an hour-long DVD too. Action is a can't miss!

1 comments about Cathedrals of the World.

1. I love this book, as it shows amazing cathedrals all around the world. The photos are clear and in color. It's a great book!