5 comments about Jacques Cousteau: The Ocean World (Abradale).

1. When I first browsed this tome and saw a pair of yellowtail jacks misidentified as "yellowtail tuna" on page 57 I was put off. But further exploration proved that the mistake was rare if not singular. I would recommend this book to anyone who seeks a deeper understanding of the oceans and thereby, our planet. Gorgeous photography and sterling text make it a must have to your nature library. Four Stars indeed.



2. I highly recommend this set of DVD's not only for the people who are intersted u/w but also who like the nature that newly discovered!



3. This was one of the first books my parents ever bought me which I read all by myself. It is still one of my favorite books and one of the few from my childhood that I have not donated to the local library.
   
   This book was written by Jacques Cousteau, the famous French oceanographer, inventor of numerous diving devices and technologies and maybe one of the most famous scientists of the 20th century. This book is actually a condensation of a series of 20+ books, each of which are devoted to different aspects of the oceans. The original series of books were based on various documentary TV shows produced by, starred in, or otherwise assisted by the author. The original books were very popular in libraries around the world, so the author came out with a condensed version which I am now reviewing.
   
   This book is probably the best source to learn about the oceans, whether you are an adult or child. The text is simple enough for children to understand, but complete and mature in its style, and written like an introductory textbook. The figures and illustrations are gorgeous and in color, and still match those of more recent publications.
   
   Each chapter in this book is short enough to complete in one day, and they cover topics like coral reefs, the N and S Poles, ocean geography, marine mammals, history of life in the ocean, etc... Each chapter begins with a beautiful color illustration on a black page, and is labeled with beautiful names. For example, the chapter on coral reefs is labeled "Pharaohs of the Sea" in reference to their incredible age. My favorite chapter is "The Art of Motion" which begins with a figure of a dolphin jumping out of the water. This chapter's emphasis is on how different life forms in the ocean move about.
   
   Overall, this is one of my favorite books, and a must buy for any science collection.



4. Many years ago, Jacques Cousteau produced a series of 20 volume under the overall heading "The Ocean World of Jacques Cousteau." That series were so popular they were published and re-published in various editions by different publishers around the world. Whilst my own set may be complete, it is, nevertheless, made up from two separate editions published in Canada and the USA in 1975. That series of books is so important to me that I always carry a note in my wallet about which volumes I require to make up a complete set from either edition.
   
   This book, however, brings together all those 20 volumes into a single book with all the information and photographs completely updated. I well remember where I first saw the book and immediately snapped it up. It was in the airport concourse at Reykjavik when I was in between flights from London to Halifax, Nova Scotia. It was the last copy they had and, at the price I paid, I thought I was going to be arrested by the Icelandic Police for theft!
   
   Over a period of time - and in between other books, I have actually read this huge tome. And it is huge. Measuring 34 x 26cm (13¼ x 10 in), it contains 435 pages of information about every aspect of the Ocean World. If you want to know what made Jacques Cousteau an international name, if you want to know what it is your parents keep going on about whenever they say "I remember when Jacques Cousteau first came on the television and we saw.....", If you want to know what made the late, great Jacques Yves Cousteau Tick - then this is the only book you will even need to buy.
   
   Amazing photographs, incredible information and, as I say, 435 pages on just about every aspect of the Ocean World. For most people, a book of this calibre would be their life's work, but of course, Cousteau moved on to other projects.
   
   5 Stars are not enough for this outstanding work.
   
   NM



5. WHATEVER I SAY CAN IN NO WAY PREPARE YOU FOR THE WEALTH OF MAGNIFICENT, BEAUTIFUL,AND INFORMATIVE INFORMATION (TEXT, PHOTOGRAPHS, ILLUSTRATIONS) CONTAINED IN THIS INCREDIBLE SERIES OF BOOKS. GET THEM ALL. YOU WON'T BE SORRY. IT DOESN'T MATTER WHETHER YOU ARE NEW TO THE SUBJECT OR AN EXPERIENED PRO.

5 comments about The Universe and Multiple Reality: A Physical Explanation for Manifesting, Magick and Miracles.

1. Short but well written. Difficult to know what's correct about the concept of multiple realities in real life. Maybe yes or maybe not. Maybe both.
   
   This could explain how affirmation/ law of attraction works. You flip to another reality when you affirm a new idea. It doesn't happen fast (at this time) like in Bewitched but a person "grows" into the new reality.



2. There seems to be a hidden agenda in this book. "God created the universe." And that is probably true, but I wish the author had been more up front about it. The information is ok. There are many assumptions and he doesn't back up his theories extremely well. Basically, if you can agree that "you" move constantly through static universes you get the whole book. Now pick your destiny!



3. If you enjoyed The Matrix, you'll love reading this author's model of reality. It really is food for thought.



4. It deseves one star, at the most, compared to other books published on the same subject.



5. I had a very mixed reaction of this book, which served as the catalyst for my recent paper on parallel universes and found it to be a very interesting read. What I most appreciated however was that when I asked M.R. Franks about some details in his book he sent me three articles within about two hours. What disappointed me however was the shortness of the book and the focas on cited works from other authors and I don't really buy the andriod therory persented at the end of this book.

2 comments about Walker Evans: Signs (Getty Trust Publications, J. Paul Getty Museum).

1. Another beautiful collection from Walker Evans, showing his greatest photos of billboards, movie posters, newspaper headlines, theater marquees, graffiti, street signs, hand-painted shop frotns, covering 1920-1975. You will discover variety of ways to interpret the different layers of meanings from his photos with striking impression. It provides an excellent documentary about American culture. Walker Evans also collected and exhibited signs, sometimes next to his photographs, which brings his work into another level. From letters to graphics, from graphics to signs, sometimes people is becoming helpless under the mass media. Highly recommended for graphics / black and white fans.



2. Walker Evans SIGNS are unique and wonderful. These images glow in there black and white surroundings. Some of the images are simple and delicate and other are busy and loud...a great mixure.Codrescu's essays give you a delightful walk through of Evans life.Andrei has an original insight... description of these signs from our past.There is excitment in these essays...energy in which Evans must have had as he photographed these images.As you read on you will see Evans attraction to signs. I also enjoyed the layout of the book. The images have room to breath and the text is perfect. I was very happy to add this book with my collection of photography books.

4 comments about Girls, Guns and Ropes.

1. I was a little disapointed, the quality of the photos are great, but small pages and a little hard to see detail.



2. The photographs in this book are very sexually-charged, yet still artistic and relatively classy. The subjects -- nude, young, attractive-looking women -- are presented with a slightly dangerous edge. Some are holding guns and other weapons while others are tied up in rope bondage. I would say that even if you're turned off by guns, there are still plenty of bondage photographs here that are worth checking out. I've had this book for a while and I still enjoy picking it up for a look.
   
   Very cool and original piece of work.



3. I was eagerly awaiting this arrival from the Super Shipping Saving ordeal (8 days), and the book did not disappoint! I like the sleaziness of the girls, and I believe art can also be designed to cause the onlooker to get aroused. I did go from 0-to-Hardwood in about 3 seconds, but as I leafed through, I realized the same guns were in rotation. I understand it was the author's collection and bound to be limited--but I expect if there is a sequel to up the notch this book has attained that the author will have more funds available to rent some firearms. Perfect-size for throwing in a backpack, and the pictures taken merit a third or fourth glance over. The mood set by the bondage totally augments the sex appeal idea being pitched to the readers/glancers. If there is a follow-up book, I'm definitely going through the Super Shipping Saver ordeal again!



4. I really didn't know what to expect when I picked up a copy of "Girls, Guns and Ropes". Would it actually be tasteful and erotic, or would it be mindless crotch shots like so many other "artists" work?
   
   I was pleasantly surprised to find that this book totally measures up to this girl's standards.
   
   Even though nakedness abounds, Botello keeps it classy with well placed weapons and intense shadows, while still highlighting his models' curves. His dramatic style of lighting adds an ominous yet provocative mood to these black and white pictures.
   
   As the title implies, this book is chock-full of intricate rope bondage; pistols and rifles as well as machetes and meat cleavers. The girls are attractive, with enough variety to please most people; however, brunettes clearly dominate this book.
   
   And the models actually have interesting expressions on their faces instead of the "I'm completely bored" looks that are in some of the other books out there.
   
   I thoroughly enjoyed this seductive book and highly recommend it.

No comments about PCPhoto Digital SLR Handbook, Revised & Updated (A Lark Photography Book).

5 comments about New York Changing: Revisiting Berenice Abbott's New York.

1. This is a beautiful book. Perfect for anyone who loves new york city.



2. I'm fascinated by "then and now" picture compilations. That said, this book does have some really good examples of the genre, however they are surrounded by much less interesting and really unimportant locations throughout NYC. It's a mix. If you like to see how a great city changes, this will have some utility. As a former native New Yorker, I found enough to make me glad I'd bought it but not enough to delight me.



3. Then and now photobooks of American cities are steady bookshop sellers but it is not until you turn over the pages of 'New York Changing' that you'll realise that this is how it should be done. Douglas Levere, with help from Berenice Abbott, has created a brilliant photo record of the world's premier city.
   
   To start with Abbott created the perfect architectural record with the 1935 to 1939 WPA sponsored project when she shot just over three hundred photos of the city (you can see two hundred of these in 'Berenice Abbott: Changing New York', ISBN 1565845560) and Levere has retaken over a hundred of these with eighty-one appearing in his book.
   
   Unlike other inferior books of the genre Levere has taken the utmost care with his project. Not only using the same type of camera and lens as Abbott but waiting until the same season and time of day to freeze the moment six decades later. A fascinating page of technical details at the back of the book explains more. The eighty-one photos are divided into four chapters with the majority taken in Manhattan. On each spread Abbott's photo is on the left and Levere's opposite, Bonnie Yochelson writes a straightforward caption for all of the images.
   
   With the help of 200dpi printing, quality paper and elegant design these photos (and the book) look just stunning. The perfect photobook!
   
   ***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.



4. In the middle of the depression Berenice Abbott began a five year, WPA funded project to document in photographs New York's transformation from the 19th century to the modern metropolis of skyscrapers. The result was published as 'Changing New York.'
   
   Sixty years later Douglas Levere went back to the same sites of 100 of Abbotts photographs and took another picture with the same angle, the same view, and usually even the same time of day (to get the same sun angle) of the same scene.
   
   The result is this book, 'New York Changing' which shows these pictures arranged next to each other. That way, the only differrence between the pictures is the changes that have come about in the basic structure of the city.
   
   This is a beautiful coffee table book, except that seeing one set of pictures makes you want to turn to the next set, and you've soon gone through the whole book.
   
   Highly recommended.



5. Fascinating book! Berenice Abbott's photographs from the 30's alongside present-day photos of the same locations shot by Douglas Levere. A great way to experience the layers of history in New York.

1 comments about Disco Years.

1. "[Galella's] strongest period was the 1970's when his reality-based photography style was in perfect sync with that decade's gritty approach to filmmaking, a time when Hollywood had largely discarded the sugar-coated schmaltz of 50's and 60's artifice....Here is a startled Bette Midler looking behind her shoulder at the Grammy Awards, her askew tiara making her look like a lost, overgrown trick-or-treater. Alfred Hitchcock at the premiere of his film Family Plot wearing a stony, zombie-like expression that recalls Tor Johnson's performance in Plan 9 From Outer Space. A pre-Saturday Night Fever John Travolta already basking in fame, a crowd of fans restrained mere inches away and behaving as if Travolta's then unadulterated charisma had driven them to fits of ecstasy. And a miniscule Herve Villechaize ducking under a velvet rope at the Golden Globe awards like a mischievous gremlin hell-bent on carrying out acts of sabotage on the glamorous proceedings. Despite Galella's cinema verite hand, there is a persistent dream-like quality that emerges throughout the book. There are moments when the images almost threaten to tumble into a vortex where reality and fantasy merge - like the spiraling narrative of the amnesiac actress in Mulholland Drive, David Lynch's savagely surreal commentary on Tinseltown. Of all the visions in Galella's work, however, the most sobering seems to be the reminder of the ephemeral nature of fame and flesh."
   
   -From my essay on Galella's work that accompanied an exhibition of his photos

No comments about Howard Roffman 2009 Calendar.

1 comments about Berkeley: The Life and Spirit of a Remarkable Town.

1. Berkeley, California residents, natives, or visitors will relish this pictorial display of Berkeley's finest houses and scenes in Berkeley: The Life And Spirit Of A Remarkable Town. Kiran Singh's full-page color photos trace the town's most notable neighborhoods and structures, from Telegraph Avenue, the 'Haight-Ashbury of Berkeley' and home to many counter-cultural influences, to the campus of UC Berkeley and West Berkeley's early settlements. A fine coffee table addition or celebration of one of the state's most notable cities.

No comments about The Great Wide Open: Panoramic Photographs of the American West.