Books

The New Garden Paradise: Great Private Gardens of the World

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A tour around the best gardens in the world
The New Garden Paradise: Great Private Gardens of the World
Great Private Gardens of the World
The New Garden Paradise: Great Private Gardens of the World
Big book, big gardens, big budgets

The New Garden Paradise: Great Private Gardens of the World
Dominique Browning , and The Editors of House & Garden
Manufacturer: W. W. Norton
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Gardens in the Spirit of Place
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ASIN: 0393059391

Book Description

A celebration in words and breathtaking images of thirty-five landscapes created for private clients by today's preeminent designers.

This is a time of renewed originality in garden design. The last twenty years have seen a lucky confluence of money and talent lavished on gardening, and the results are surprising, enchanting, sometimes even controversial. The range of possibilities suggested by these thirty-five gardens is extraordinary: from Jacques Wirtz's undulating beech hedges that recede mysteriously into the mist to Penelope Hobhouse's latest interpretation of the traditional English garden, to Martha Schwartz's Texas creation of red, yellow, and pink painted garden rooms.

These hidden masterworks of modern gardening are unlocked for us by the authority, experience, and resources of House & Garden magazine. Every page is an invitation to explore landscapes that have never before been seen by the public—and may never be seen again. International in scope and lavish in its production, this book is the last word on the state of design in the garden world. 340 color photographs.

Customer Reviews:

A tour around the best gardens in the world.......2007-05-08

This book is huge and a most for garden reference. It's organized in seven chapters that will impress all kind of taste:

The New Classicism: Magical gardens from places such as NY, Spain, Germany...+
The New Traditionalism: Enchanting pictures from NY, IL, France, Japan...+
The New Naturalism: Beautiful gardens from NY, Idaho, France, Arizona, England.
The Plantsmen: Magnificent proposals from New England, California, The Netherlands...+
Personal Visions: NY, California, and Texas
The Cottage Garden Reinvented: Lovely gardens from England, France and Ireland.
The New Modernism: The best and trendiest gardens of California.

You'll be able to see some of the best gardens from places such as Arizona to Japan. Some of my favorites gardens where from England, The Netherlands and France.

The text is pleasant to read and full of details no only about the flowers portrayed but also to the architect and artist that created such beauty. The balance of text and picture is excellent. The quality of the pictures is excellent, full pages pictures trout the book. House and Gardens did a tremendous job and it's absolutely clear that the took at least ten times the number of pictures in the book since you'll only see the best angle and light possible for each picture.

The only con is the lacks of tropical gardens since most part of the book are focus on the northern hemisphere.

The New Garden Paradise: Great Private Gardens of the World.......2007-05-07

Wow! This book is incredible, a treat for the eyes and imagination!

Great Private Gardens of the World.......2007-01-29

This is a beautiful book anyone would be pleased to have. The quality of the photos is splendid. Most enjoyable.

The New Garden Paradise: Great Private Gardens of the World.......2007-01-03

Book is really interesting and has a lot of beautiful full-page photographs. Makes a great gift for everybody, not only for gardening fans!

Big book, big gardens, big budgets.......2006-02-28

This coffee table book features private gardens and estates of the wealthy who have the funds to hire the most talented garden designers in the world to realize their visions. Most of the gardens featured are in the U.S. although a few are in England and Japan. Chapters are divided by varying styles, such as classicism, traditionalism, naturalism, cottage garden, modernism, etc. It is an eclectic collection, from minimalist elegance to lush romantic woodlands. Sculptures, art work, water features and stone work are a feature in many.

Chapter names tout the garden designer which includes such talents as Patrick Chasse, Dan Pearson, Jacques Wirtz, Dan Kiley, Piet Oudolf, Martha Swartz, Sarah Raven, Christian Louboutin, Isabelle Greene, Penelope Hobhouse, Topher Delaney and Steve Martino. The owners of the gardens are rarely mentioned (with the exception of actors Brad Pitt and Tim Curry and a few others). Although the text is often stuffy and oft-putting, the photographs alone are reason enough to purchase the book. This beautiful book is wonderful for garden dreamers who will find gardens such as these unattainable.

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Slick packaging
Dead Paradise
Feel Cheated
not duped....thanx to u
Dead Paradise

Dead Paradise (Stone Barrington Novels)
Stuart Woods
Manufacturer: NAL Trade
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Dark Harbor (Stone Barrington Novels)
Cold Paradise (Stone Barrington)
Dirty Work (Stone Barrington Novels)
Run Before the Wind
Two Dollar Bill (Stone Barrington Novels)

ASIN: 045121756X

Book Description

In the hands of bestselling author Stuart Woods, Manhattan cop-turned-lawyer Stone Barrington has seen his share of the dark side of human nature. But nothing compares to what he finds in the sunny climes of California and Florida...

L.A. Dead-When a celebrity murder threatens his former flame Arrington Calder, Stone must plumb the depths of film society to find the killer-before a court trial rips away his last chance at a life he once desperately wanted...

Cold Paradise-In the dead of a New York City winter, Stone gets paid a small fortune to track down a Palm Beach femme fatale. But her true identity unearths a part of Stone's past-and a crafty killer...

Customer Reviews:

Slick packaging.......2007-06-27

Be careful when buying this book. It is really a repackaging of two of his earlier best sellers in one cover. The title is so similar that it appears to be a new offering but it is really LA Dead and Cold Paradise in one cover. I was fooled. I'm not very happy by the slick packaging and misleading title. HOW WERE THE BOOKS? Great as usual. Stewart Woods is the best. - Dave

Dead Paradise.......2007-05-25

Didn't realize that it was a book with a new title combining two previous books I already had. This is not your fault, but of the Author.
Believe it was a deliberate misleading practice.

Feel Cheated.......2007-02-12

I felt cheated when I received the book Dead Paradise, because it's two books in one, and I'D READ BOTH, LA Dead and Cold Paradise! I re-read Cold Paradise because I didn't want to go to the trouble of sending it back.
I'm love Stuart Woods, but I'm going to be more careful choosing his books in the future.

not duped....thanx to u.......2007-01-16

i was so glad that i read the reviews before ordering. i love stuart woods books, but if i ever got a repeat like this one, under a different name, i would....not be happy!! so i thank u all for ur heads up on this book!

Dead Paradise.......2007-01-10

Didn't realize that I was getting two novels. At this time Woods has become my favorite.

Bobos In Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There

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A picturesque description of American upper-middle class life (though a bit exaggerated!)
Hilarious Because Its True!
Entertaining Read
Not all poseurs
Bobos has helped me define my world

Bobos In Paradise: The New Upper Class and How They Got There
David Brooks
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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On Paradise Drive: How We Live Now (And Always Have) in the Future Tense
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ASIN: 0684853787

Amazon.com

You've seen them: They sip double-tall, nonfat lattes, chat on cell phones, and listen to NPR while driving their immaculate SUVs to Pottery Barn to shop for $48 titanium spatulas. They tread down specialty cheese aisles in top-of-the-line hiking boots and think nothing of laying down $5 for an olive-wheatgrass muffin. They're the bourgeois bohemians--"Bobos"--an unlikely blend of mainstream culture and 1960s-era counterculture that, according to David Brooks, represents both America's present and future: "These Bobos define our age. They are the new establishment. Their hybrid culture is the atmosphere we all breathe. Their status codes now govern social life." Amusing stereotypes aside, they're an "elite based on brainpower" and merit rather than pedigree or lineage: "Dumb good-looking people with great parents have been displaced by smart, ambitious, educated, and antiestablishment people with scuffed shoes."

Bobos in Paradise is a brilliant, breezy, and often hilarious study of the "cultural consequences of the information age." Large and influential (especially in terms of their buying power), the Bobos have reformed society through culture rather than politics, and Brooks clearly outlines this passing of the high-class torch by analyzing nearly all aspects of life: consumption habits, business and lifestyle choices, entertainment, spirituality, politics, and education. Employing a method he calls "comic sociology," Brooks relies on keen observations, wit, and intelligence rather than statistics and hard theory to make his points. And by copping to his own Bobo status, he comes across as revealing rather than spiteful in his dead-on humor. Take his description of a typical grocery store catering to discriminating Bobos: "The visitor to Fresh Fields is confronted with a big sign that says 'Organic Items today: 130.' This is like a barometer of virtue. If you came in on a day when only 60 items were organic, you'd feel cheated. But when the number hits the three figures, you can walk through the aisles with moral confidence."

Like any self-respecting Bobo, Brooks wears his erudition lightly and comfortably (not unlike, say, an expedition-weight triple-layer Gore-Tex jacket suitable for a Mount Everest assault but more often seen in the gym). But just because he's funny doesn't mean this is not a serious book. On the contrary, it is one of the more insightful works of social commentary in recent memory. His ideas are sharp, his writing crisp, and he even offers pointed suggestions for putting the considerable Bobo political clout to work. And, unlike the classes that spawned them--the hippies and the yuppies--Brooks insists the Bobos are here to stay: "Today the culture war is over, at least in the realm of the affluent. The centuries-old conflict has been reconciled." All the more reason to pay attention. --Shawn Carkonen

Book Description

Do you believe that spending $15,000 on a media center is vulgar, but that spending $15,000 on a slate shower stall is a sign that you are at one with the Zenlike rhythms of nature? Do you work for one of those visionary software companies where people come to work wearing hiking boots and glacier glasses, as if a wall of ice were about to come sliding through the parking lot? If so, you might be a Bobo.

In his bestselling work of "comic sociology," David Brooks coins a new word, Bobo, to describe today's upper class -- those who have wed the bourgeois world of capitalist enterprise to the hippie values of the bohemian counterculture. Their hybrid lifestyle is the atmosphere we breathe, and in this witty and serious look at the cultural consequences of the information age, Brooks has defined a new generation.

Customer Reviews:

A picturesque description of American upper-middle class life (though a bit exaggerated!).......2007-06-16

The perfect book to read in a long flight. Come to think about it, if you happen to be flying abroad and this is not your first time, you'll probably find a lot of yourself described in this book. And that is regardless of your nationality! Easy to read and amusing though a bit exaggerated as the people they describe in the book are not upper-class but upper-middle class. Yet, I would definitely recommend it.
PS: Read "Class" by Paul Fussel if you really want to understand the American Class System.

Hilarious Because Its True!.......2007-03-30

Go to any college campus, resort town, or urban-chic hotspot in America today and David Brooks' "Bobos In Paradise," could act as an incredibly detailed and relevant tour guide. Everyone knows a Bobo whether they realize it or not...in fact they may be one themselves, though they would never admit it. After reading this book I realized that I am in fact a Bobo. Brooks cracked the code for me on things I had always noticed, but never been able to put into words regarding the new class of society forming in America; the exotic coffee drinking, urban outfitter/anthropologie wearing, mutual fund owning, I go climb Himalayan ranges barefoot and drink yak's milk tea with the sherpas over Spring Break for fun because all the "tourists" stay in Kathmandu, class of society. The people that will not like this book are the ones that take themselves way too seriously...most likely because they are probably Bobos too, but too proud to admit it. Entertaining to say the least!

Entertaining Read.......2007-03-29

I had to read this book for a freshman level economics class, and wasn't looking forward to it. However, it was good. It tends to drag on toward the middle, but overall is entertaining and you will find yourself recognizing people you know or even yourself.

Not all poseurs.......2006-11-06

Intermingling witty observations with a fluid expository style, the author paints a multifaceted picture of the hybrid gypsy/ conventional trappings of many of today's upscale professionals. He even coins a term bobo, a contraction of the phrase bohemian - bourgouisie to categorize this demographic.

What I find troubling in Brooks' thesis is his interpretation that adaptations of the aesthetic motifs and insignia from any cultural or economic group other than of one's own heritage is necessarily an act of pretension. His view seems to be that the bobo lifestyle is predicated on an "I'm more globally and ecologically conscious than you" one upmanship which basically boils down to consumerism and display on a grand scale. Any lifestyle could be a pretension. A well-meaning attempt at synthesizing appealing aspects of other heritages need not brand one as a poseur. After all, there is much evidence to show that cultural intermingling (not always of benign impetus) has been more the rule than the exception in human history.

Brooks does not explore the "why's" of boboism. The ease and frequency of international travel, as well as the massive influx to the USA of immigrants, the acceptance of marriage outside one's demographic and the diversity promoted by institutes of higher education could well be contributing factors. Also, the very traits that helped bobos rise to their economic level - innovativeness and creativity - could themselves motivate bobos to explore the kinds of novelty Brooks describes in their personal lives.

Bobos has helped me define my world.......2006-10-28

This is one of the most useful books I have read in the past year.

I live immersed in a Burning Man, neo-hippies-with-money world, and so many things about my friends, my culture and my own life made no sense until I read this book. I found particularly compelling the story about the clash between the old WASP elites and the rising technocratic, bohemian elite in the 1960s. The "Sixties" is, I believe, much better understood as a clash between elites.

I believe the next great clash of elites will be between national elites and global elites. Watch for it.

I am Bobo. Hear me Roar.

Thank you, Mr. Brooks, for giving me a context for my culture.

Of Paradise and Power: America and Europe in the New World Order

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Welcome to the desert of the neocon
God It Has Aged
Breaking down trends in transatlantic relations
Discredited Neocon
Everybody in America should read this book

Of Paradise and Power: America and Europe in the New World Order
Robert Kagan
Manufacturer: Knopf
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1400040930
Release Date: 2003-01-28

Amazon.com

From its opening-line salvo—"It is time to stop pretending that Europeans and Americans share a common view of the world, or even that they occupy the same world"—Of Paradise and Power announces a new phase in the relationship between the United States and Europe. Robert Kagan begins this illuminating essay by laying out the general differences as he sees them: the U.S. is quicker to use military force, less patient with diplomacy, and more willing to coerce (or bribe) other nations in order to get a desired result. Europe, on the other hand, places greater emphasis on diplomacy, takes a much longer view of history and problem solving, and has greater faith in international law and cooperation. Kagan does not view these differences as the result of innate national character, but as a time-honored historical reality--the U.S. is merely behaving like the powerful nation it is, just as the great European nations once did when they ruled the world. Now, Europe must act multilaterally because it has no choice. The "UN Security Council is a substitute for the power they lack," he writes.

Kagan also emphasizes the inherent ironies present in the relationship. European nations have enjoyed an "American security guarantee" for nearly 60 years, allowing them to cut back on defense spending while criticizing the U.S. for not doing the same. Yet Europe relies upon the U.S. for protection. This has led America and Europe to view the same threats much differently, as evidenced by the split over how to deal with Iraq and Saddam Hussein. Kagan points out that some European leaders are more afraid of how the U.S. will wield its power in the Middle East than they are of the thought of Hussein or other "rogue state" leaders acquiring weapons of mass destruction.

Kagan's brevity is as impressive as it is appreciated; most writers would have required thrice as many pages to get to their point. At any length, the book is nothing short of brilliant. This is essential reading for those seeking to understand the post-Cold War world. --Shawn Carkonen

Book Description

From a leading scholar of our country’s foreign policy, the brilliant essay about America and the world that has caused a storm in international circles now expanded into book form.

European leaders, increasingly disturbed by U.S. policy and actions abroad, feel they are headed for what the New York Times (July 21, 2002) describes as a “moment of truth.” After years of mutual resentment and tension, there is a sudden recognition that the real interests of America and its allies are diverging sharply and that the trans-atlantic relationship itself has changed, possibly irreversibly. Europe sees the United States as high-handed, unilateralist, and unnecessarily belligerent; the United States sees Europe as spent, unserious, and weak. The anger and mistrust on both sides are hardening into incomprehension.

This past summer, in Policy Review, Robert Kagan reached incisively into this impasse to force both sides to see themselves through the eyes of the other. Tracing the widely differing histories of Europe and America since the end of World War II, he makes clear how for one the need to escape a bloody past has led to a new set of transnational beliefs about power and threat, while the other has perforce evolved into the guarantor of that “postmodern paradise” by dint of its might and global reach. This remarkable analysis is being discussed from Washington to Paris to Tokyo. It is esssential reading.

Customer Reviews:

Welcome to the desert of the neocon.......2007-05-13

This book is useful for insight into the thinking of neoconservatives, but has little to do with the real world.

Kagan states that appeasement policies of the 1930's were "a product not of analysis but of weakness." That's funny considering the USSR was the biggest appeaser of any country in Europe, actively conspiring with Hitler to invade Poland. Yet the USSR chewed up the vast bulk of Germany's continental armies and occupied half of Europe. To claim the USSR, Britain, and France all followed policies of appeasement for the same single reason would be dubious no matter the reason. To say the reason was weakness is stupid.

The United States is compared to a heroic Sheriff protecting the weak townsfolk against rogues and outlaws. I suggest Kagan read up on the history of the old west, in fact lawmen were often no better then outlaws and they frequently switched places. Hardly an example to follow if you intend to be a hegemon for long.

Perhaps most delusional is the analogy where he compares dealing with Iraq to shooting a bear. C'mon, wasn't it supposed to be more like shooting a cow?

Throughout the book Kagan conflates Europe with some mythical all powerful female figure. The essay at heart is a cry for liberation from her feminine strictures, a call for men to act like men and shoot each other.

Not very good policy, but this volume is a near perfect time-capsule of neoconservative thought. Future psychologists and social historians are indebted.

God It Has Aged.......2007-04-26

Luckily this book got an afterword in 2004. The initial text is definitely obsolete. But even so three years have passed and the book is quite largely obsolete. First and foremost today the main objection at the decision of the Bush administration to go at war in Iraq is that all evidence, intelligence and testimonies brought to our attention at the time has been revealed as nothing but lies. And maybe even worse than that. The recently revealed top secret classified papers from the French Ministry of Defense have revealed that terrorist attacks were planned with highjacked commercial planes at least nine months before 9/11. Did the Minister of Defense at the time, a socialist, not communicate this intelligence to the newly elected President Bush? Or did the newly elected President Bush neglect this intelligence. A second investigation is necessary. What did the two administrations, French and US, do at the time? And don't forget this field of expertise (military and foreign policies) is the privileged area of presidential governance in France. So Chirac had some kind of say in the decision to communicate or not this intelligence to the US. But that does not change the fact that all arguments used by Colin Powell or President Bush in 2002-2003 were a pack of lies. But even so, and trust cannot be built on lies, the other essential objection of Europeans and many other nations, including China and Russia, was that this war would open up a box of surprises, each one of them worse than all the others. Today in 2007 we are forced say that all these fears have come true. I will overlook the torturing of prisoners in El Ghraib or Guantanamo. I will overlook the nullification of habeas corpus for the prisoners in Guantanamo. I will only look at two elements that cannot be solved in any way by any number of GIs, no matter how many. Iraq is on the verge of a possible explosion that will send waves and tremors a lot farther than the Middle East. Who can imagine what would happen if a reunified Kurdistan was becoming a reality? Who can imagine what would happen if a reunified Shiite nation were to be recomposed, essentially what's more a reunified Shiite nation that would not be Arabic in spite of its being Moslem? What remains on the table is that Iraq has become ungovernable with three million refugees all around the world, and essentially in Syria and Jordania, with at least 600,000 civilian victims so far and the number grows everyday by the hundreds and not by the units. That's why we, the Europeans and many others, said the war was an absurdity. No WMDs but results that are deadly. Iran is running on an everyday more radical road. Hizbollah has taken over Moslem Lebanon. Hamas has been elected in Palestine, and there is no end to that long line of consequences. President Bush has opened up a Pandora's box that threatens to be a well timed but unpredictable bomb. When will it explode? We don't know. Will Israel's nuclear weapons be enough to stop it? We don't know. What will the Russia or Chinese reaction be? We don't know. That's why this book has to be read and meditated upon. It is the revelation of the most extreme impossibility for some American intellectuals to listen to the world and understand history is changing. So far class struggle and war were the engines of history. Today economic welfare and development are becoming this engine because everyone wants electricity, cars, fridges and washing machines. Henry Ford's answer when he was asked why his T Model was black is typical of the extreme dictatorship the mass economy of the mass consumer's society we are living in or aspiring to be living in imposes onto us, and without any kind of a war possible out of it: "I have no objection to any other color, provided it is black." Humanity started its long road towards freedom and democracy and welfare as soon as the homo sapiens, Cromagnon in Europe, decided to develop the division of labor imposed by the premature state of its little babies into an economic division of labor that created then the market economy, since some had goods or services others did not have and they had to start pooling together and exchanging things. The future of the world is democratic because the mass market of our mass consumer's society requires peace and freedom, peace and democracy, peace and personal individual responsibility and creativity. President Bush maybe wants to go faster than the hands of the Big Ben of history. Impossible. One has to desire something to accept to have it, better even to earn it, win it or deserve it. A gift is a gift but if it a basic vital thing it becomes an alienation or a humiliation. The Americans did not understand that, even in Europe. I remember a colleague professor of mine in Davis, CA, presenting the land around the campus as the richest land in the world. Vanity fair, nothing else. In de Gaulle's time hotel managers in Paris explained American tourists that they did not have the biggest king size beds in the world, nor the most spacious bath cum toilet restrooms, but they did have the biggest fleas and all French people were proud of their fleas. Robert Kagan is behind his time, just like President Bush. And I did have a petition signed after 9/11 to express my and many other people's grief and solidarity with the victims and I did have a petition widely signed in my city at the time against the war in Iraq after Babylon had been attacked. So please don't argue the point and the trauma of 9/11 that some of my students read 9-1-1.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine & University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne

Breaking down trends in transatlantic relations.......2007-04-19

For such a short book, Kagan simply and adeptly lays out his beliefs on why America and Europe seem to behave differently in the international arena.
Some salient points: Where we are today is merely a reversal of roles--Europe in the 18th and 19th centuries wielded great power, while America played the role of a minor power. Today, America wields great power, while the Europeans have not collectively come together as a great power on the international stage.
Kagan outlines the paradox of this situation: simply put, America, in the post-war era, created, to an extent, the situation that we have today. By providing security to Europe in the Cold War, the Europeans were able to reallocate resources that would have been spent on defense. Which was a problem during the crises in the Balkans, where Europe found itself hamstrung to effectively deal with problems close to home.
While dated, it is still relevant today. While America would like to see the Europeans shoulder more of a defense burden around the globe, it remains a target of European criticism for taking action that others can not. Therein lies the dilemma. Great read, and should be of interest to anyone studying international relations and transatlantic relations.

Discredited Neocon.......2007-02-17

If you want the warmongering neocon point of view, from those same guys who brought us the Project for the New American Century, pre-emptive war on Iraq based on falsified intelligence, and who are now foaming at the mouth to invade Iran, subjugating US foreign policy to Israeli interests and perhaps create a world-wide war in the process....go right ahead!

Everybody in America should read this book.......2007-01-23

To the author, Robert Kagan.
Your book "of Paradise and Power" confirms what the French have known for many years. America took positions which were extremely hostile to France in the period 1920-1940. This led to the second World War, and millions of dead. If America also had supported France in 1914 as G. Kennan says in "America Diplomacy", page 55-73, there would not have been WWI. So America's responsibility in the desasters of the last century is huge, almost criminal.
The above to introduce the present and my disagreement with Mr Kagan. America says it can solve the problems of the world alone. This is just not true. America alone is a disaster. It should have learnt its lesson in Viet-Nam, but it did not and now we have the complete mess in Iraq. If America thinks that it can solve problems by launching rockets, drop bombs and send a few marines, it is 100% wrong. No nation can be "domesticated" by taking such actions. it requires more work. And the European way is the way: long, patient work. America must work with other nations, first of all Europe, and it is the only way to solve the problems. Foch, the winner of the WWI said: "stay united and we will avoid wars"...
Today, terrorism is a minor problem compared to global Warming. This can only be solved if we work together. America must be part of the world.
The book shows very well what can be achieved by America's well understood interest and generosity such in the period 1947/52. The last two pages of this book gives me hope.

The Baroque Narrative of Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora: A New World Paradise (Cambridge Studies in Latin American and Iberian Literature)

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The Baroque Narrative of Carlos de Sigüenza y Góngora: A New World Paradise (Cambridge Studies in Latin American and Iberian Literature)
Kathleen Ross
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0521451132

Book Description

Carlos de SigÜenza y Góngora, one of seventeenth-century Mexico's best-known intellectuals, was a writer of fascinating and complex narratives that exemplarize the heterogeneous nature of colonial Spanish American prose. This book is the first critical study to place both the writer and his narrative within the phenomenon of the Barroco de Indias, or the Spanish-American baroque. Approaching SigÜenza as a criollo historian preoccupied with the placement of the New World within a universal context, Professor Ross develops a theoretical framework within which his texts can be read and understood today. Professor Ross incorporates into her examination new critical trends, such as the use of narrative theory, the new historiography, and feminist criticism.

Potholes to Paradise: Living in Costa Rica - What You Need to Know

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Other books on the topic are 100% better
A waste of my time ...
I found it helpful
Save Your Money
Tessa Hits It Nicely

Potholes to Paradise: Living in Costa Rica - What You Need to Know
Tessa Borner
Manufacturer: Hillary Borner
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Living Abroad in Costa Rica
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ASIN: 1895270219

Customer Reviews:

Other books on the topic are 100% better.......2006-04-01

This is the first time that I have ever been motivated to write a review. There is virtually no useful information here which cannot be garnered from other more comprehensive and literate books on the topic.
It is written from a very personal viewpoint, which would be interesting if the author was a writer. As it is, this is one of the worst books I have read in several years.

A waste of my time ..........2006-02-02

An overt advertisement for their business in Costa Rica, I found virtually no helpful information here. If you want to know the history of the people (and therefore understand things like squatters' rights), read "The Ticos". If you are investing in land or a business ANYWHERE, know the language and get a second legal opinion before signing at the X. Check crime stats on the web for free, and keep in mind that a city is a city - use good old common sense in all that you do. Make several trips covering different regions and grow your "network" each time you return. When it comes together, you'll be ready. Pura Vida!

I found it helpful.......2004-02-20

I did like that it was "part diary, part travelogue, part advice column" instead of so straightforward a text. Desultory, yes, but inviting--sort of like REAL travel and life abroad!

Another book I found helpful before my "relocation-research trip" was a photo-essay book called, "Costa Rica: The Last Country The Gods Made." It too gave me a feeling for the country in a randomized sort of way. But that's not to say it wasn't wonderful information and insight into Tico culture--like Borner's book!

Save Your Money.......2003-08-26

The authors can't be serious! I really didn't get any benefit from this book. I just moved to Costa Rica and didn't learn much from it. It just doesn't contain enough info. for the potential resident. I read other books on the subject and prefer "The New Golden Door" and "Choose Costa Rica." The authors of these guides really seem to know the scoop.

Tessa Hits It Nicely.......2003-07-18

My wife and I read Tessa's book before going to Costa Rica with the idea that we might settle there as she and her husband did. Not only did we get great info from Tessa's book, we made a personal connection through it that led us to having a fabulous time and learning way more than we had anticipated. This book is a must read for anyone contemplating moving to Costa Rica. Cheap way to benefit from Tessa's experiences.

Average customer rating:

The story of Modern Art
The rise and fall of modernism
Not For a Beginner
Difficult reading.
More than an art book, by more than an art critic

The Shock of The New
Robert Hughes
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | History & Criticism | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

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Nothing If Not Critical: Selected Essays on Art and Artists
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New Art City

ASIN: 0070311277

Book Description

This authoritative, lively book, based on the BBC Time-Life television series, provides a comprehensive survey of the birth and development of modern art and an updated discussion of the European and American art movements in the 70s and 80s including minimalist and public art, 70s American painting, German Neo-Expressionism, art by women, and environmental art. "The Future that Was," the final chapter, is completely rewritten and updated. 75% of the 275 illustrations in the revised edition are in 4-color.

Customer Reviews:

The story of Modern Art.......2007-04-12

The art of the last century viewed through the eyes of one of its best critics. This book is lavishly illustrated, very easy to read, an invaluable introduction to modern and contemporary art (that is, until the early 1990's). Hughes is one of those few critics who know how to admit they can sometimes be wrong (see his mea culpa on Philip Guston's late works), but who is almost always right.
The book itself is divided into chapters which do not necessarily follow a chronology but rather distinguish different themes such as "the mechanical paradise" (Cézanne,cubism, futurism), "the faces of power" (expressionism, Dada, art under Communism or Fascism), or "the landscape of pleasure" (Monet, Gauguin, Matisse, Louis, Noland), etc...up to "the future that was" with insights on contemporary art and the art market.
A book that has already become a classic, almost like Gombrich's "the Story of Art".

The rise and fall of modernism.......2002-07-13

This is based on the script for a BBC program. To be a good TV program, it should have a clear and plain storyline which could fit into limited timetable. You can identify such a feature in the form of book, though substantially enlarged. The author did his best to make a clear impression of what was modernism in the visual art on reader (and audience). The author begin the book with what modernist artists perceived as ¡®the new¡¯ in their time. They thought they lived in thoroughly distinct time from the tradition. The new age demanded the new art. Modernism is the logical upshot of their zeitgeist. To understand it, we should pay attention to the interaction between artists and the time.
In this regard, Hughes organized the book not in time order or changing styles but with keywords which summarize the zeitgeist of modernists like machine, power, pleasure, utopia, freedom, popular culture, or future, to endow the reader with the tangible vision to see into the deep question of modernism.

Not For a Beginner.......2002-05-21

This book is very wordy, the author tends to use French and Italian phrases without translation. The book's cryptic explanations and definitions must be tediously read and re-read, since they do not appear to follow any pattern. Hughes is a pretentious attention seeker. This book is not for anyone outside art students.

Difficult reading........2001-10-03

I have read some past reviews on this book, and i am shocked to find that college students have been using this book for learning. I am currently in high school and my teacher is making us read this book. I find this book very hard to understand. If anyone has any information or quick summaries of this book i would appreciate it. Thanks.

More than an art book, by more than an art critic.......2000-11-09

I bought and read the first edition of this book after seeing the 1979 PBS series Hughes hosted, and I heartily recommend both book (which I still have) and the TV show if you can find it anywhere. Hughes' special brilliance is his ability to show the revolution in art at the turn of the 20th century as reacting to the revolution in technology and living standards and the rapid changes in every part of society -- the "shock" of this race to "newnesss" that really starting picking up speed a hundred years ago. Also unique and priceless is Hughes' puckish sense of humor and willingness to express an opinion - even a negative opinion - about art and architectural movements.

Book Description

Clouds and swathes of beautiful plants, their colors merging like the brushstrokes of an abstract painting; smartly clipped hedges spilling over with roses or soft swaying grasses; a modern gazebo made from salvaged wood; a tale laid for an alfresco lunch in a wildflower meadow--these are some of the scenes you might find in a new country garden.

Customer Reviews:

Charming Little Book.......2006-03-05

This book is small in size, but packs in loads of garden plants, design and ideas all in 144 pages. I just love this book, I always pull it out of my bookshelf when I'm bored or need a new garden idea. This book is never boring and is one of my favorites.

Almost Paradise: The East Hampton Murder of Ted Ammon

Average customer rating:

Oh how very tragic and very heartbreaking!
Excellent Book
Good story deserves a better telling
BUY THIS BOOK!
A Group Of Very Unlikable People...

Almost Paradise: The East Hampton Murder of Ted Ammon
Kieran Crowley
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Murder & Mayhem | True Accounts | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0312340230
Release Date: 2005-02-10

Book Description

For the audience that read Maria Flook's New York Times bestseller, Invisible Eden, this is the extraordinary story of a high-stakes murder case set in the high society world of East Hampton-the playground of New York's superrich.On October 22, 2001, handsome multimillionaire financier Ted Ammon was found bludgeoned to death in the magnificent East Hampton mansion he'd built with his beautiful-and volatile-wife, Generosa. She stood to make millions, but it wasn't the money that made Ted's friends suspicious: Generosa Ammon had a history of violent outbursts and bizarre obsessions.A talented decorator, Generosa had fashioned a lavish lifestyle for her husband and their two children, divided between Fifth Avenue, the Long Island estate, and a manor house in England. But when Generosa discovered Ted had a mistress, her demons were unleashed.She began a very public affair with Danny Pelosi, a strikingly handsome womanizer who was also her electrician. She called him her "tool belt guy." But he was also an ex-con with a mile-long rap sheet who was suspected of playing a pivotal role in Ted's murder and the final destruction of a once-perfect family.In Almost Paradise, New York Times bestselling author Kieran Crowley, who has covered the Ammon case from the time it broke, recreates the three tumultuous lives that intersected fatally in East Hampton that fall. He tracks Generosa's lonely transformation from angry teenager-orphaned, unwanted and abused-to temperamental Manhattan artist and Society Wife. He follows the rambunctious odyssey that transformed Danny Pelosi from banking executive's privileged son, to street fighter and down-on-his luck alcoholic, to unsuccessful contractor charged with murder. And he chronicles the charmed life and tragic death of Ted Ammon, whose money and status couldn't save him from the machinations of those around him and his ultimate brutal demise.

Customer Reviews:

Oh how very tragic and very heartbreaking!.......2007-02-22

This work describes how Ted Ammon turned himself into a very successful businessman as well as, the circomstances that lead him to marriage with his second wife Generosa and addoption of two twin children from abroad. From what I gather, Mr. Ammon truly loved his wife and tried to give her just about anything she might have wished to own. Unfortunately though, it seemed from the reading that Mrs. Ammon was very discontent with herself more often than just being happy and appreciating what she had including the love of her husband. Her unhappiness eventually lead to the marriage falling apart and the twins getting seriously caught in the middle of an unpleasant divorce battle between their parents. The twins were compelled by their mother to take her side and to even snoop by photographing documents on the desk of their Father while he was a sleep. Even sicker yet is the fact that Mr. Ammon was eventually brutally murdered in his home during the night of October 22, 2001 perhaps by Generosa's lover. However, whether he committed the crime remains questionable due to lack of physical evidence that would implicate him as part of the cause of Mr. Ammon's death. The extent of Generosa's involvement in Mr. Ammon's death is also unknown because she has since passed away to cancer.
After finishing the book, I found that it stuck with me for a long time. No matter what enemies Mr. Ammon might have had in the business world, no one should have to endure the kind of fait he encountered on that night of October 2001. I wonder how different it might have all turned out if Mr. Ammon was aware of the spy system that had been installed in his home. I wonder how different it all would have been if Ted Ammon had taken the advice of so many to hire body guards. I wonder just how different it all would have been if Generosa had gotten professional help and stuck with it. If only Mr. Ammon hadn't covered up for her actions as he often did and saw reality coming ...
The bottom line is that it is all so very heartbreaking for everyone involved. To some readers, it may seem as if the author is portraying Generosa as a victim. From my perspective, he is simply explaining to us why Generosa's personality was as it was in life even going back to take a look at her childhood. Perhaps all the wealth didn't make it any better either.
While it is impossible to bring Ted Ammon back, I sincerely hope that the twins will uphold high standards for themselves and do cherritable work in honor of their father's memory.

Excellent Book.......2007-01-04

This guy has written a true-crime book that flows like fiction. Loved it!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Good story deserves a better telling.......2006-08-18

Fairly nice, ambitious and extremely successful boy meets good-looking girl seeking the good life. They meet, marry, can't have kids, adopt Russian twins while accumulating the best stuff, including homes in NYC, London, the London countryside, and a manse in the better part of East Hampton. A classic go-go 1980s success story.

But it wasn't. The wife, Generosa Ammon, takes perfectionism and snobbery to heights never thought imaginable and has a temper that hits High! at the slightest provocation. Hubby Ted tries to placate her with more and more goodies rather than deal with the situation and eventually finds a mistress. The children may have been rescued from a life of material deprivation only to have been plunged into one of extreme emotional abuse.

Generosa finds out about Ted's mistress and kicks him out, only to find solace in the arms of a classic "Joisey" blue-collar guy named Dan Pelosi.

Divorce proceedings begin that echo the movie "War of the Roses," with mutual destruction the only apparent objective. Then Ted is brutally murdered, just a few days before the divorce would have been settled, and of course the investigation points to Generosa and Dan, although no case is ever proven.

A sad loser to the end, Generosa develops massive cancer, conceals it until any treatment is too late and dies, leaving her children in the midst of a custody battle between the nanny they hated and to whom she has "bequeathed" them and the children's natural aunt and uncle, whom the children love.

This should have been a page-turning pot-boiler, but Kieran Crowley is one of the most plodding and redundant writers I have come across in a long time. It got so boring at times that I couldn't wait for the ending not from eagerness to learn what happened but to just get the damn book over with; I seriously considered quitting simply because the writing was so poor.

BUY THIS BOOK!.......2006-07-16

I cannot figure out why this book is in the bargain book section. It is so interesting & has all the elements of a perfect true crime book. The story is almost too unbelievable to be true, but true it is. If you buy this, you will definately not regret it.
Highly recommended.

A Group Of Very Unlikable People..........2006-07-16

This was a book I waivered between a 2 star and 3 star rating. Overall, I have to say I didn't like the book. I can't blame Crowley for what the people in the Ammon case actually were, but that doesn't mean they have to be written about (or read)

Generosa is plainly a selfish (rhymes with witch) as Kieran portrays her, and Danny is made to look like the standard "thug with a heart of gold" although when the actual trial testimony comes up, it seems so different from what Crowley had indicated that I was left wondering if Danny was portrayed as Crowley wanted him to be, not as he actually was.

Crowley clearly did meticulous research, but the odd changes in the participants portrayals left me wondering what other shading went on in this "true" account. Characters seem to be pure evil when Crowley wants them to be and "victims" when Crowley wants then to be (Generosa almost seems to do a 180 in the book when near death)

The people I do feel sorry for are the poor twins. If Crowley's portrayals are even half-true, between their mother and their nanny they've depended on people that no kids should have as the bulwark of their lives.

Surprised by Sin: The Reader in Paradise Lost, Second Edition, With a New Preface by the Author

Average customer rating:

After 300 years, the final word.
Over-Hyped and Under-Written
A classic of Milton criticism

Surprised by Sin: The Reader in Paradise Lost, Second Edition, With a New Preface by the Author
Stanley Fish
Manufacturer: Harvard University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 067485747X

Book Description

In 1967 the world of Milton studies was divided into two armed camps: one proclaiming (in the tradition of Blake and Shelley) that Milton was of the devil's party with or without knowing it, the other proclaiming (in the tradition of Addison and C. S. Lewis) that the poet's sympathies are obviously with God and the angels loyal to him. The achievement of Stanley Fish's Surprised by Sin was to reconcile the two camps by subsuming their claims in a single overarching thesis: Paradise Lost is a poem about how its readers came to be the way they are--that is, fallen--and the poem's lesson is proven on a reader's impulse every time he or she finds a devilish action attractive or a godly action dismaying. Fish's argument reshaped the face of Milton studies; thirty years later the issues raised in Surprised by Sin continue to set the agenda and drive debate.

Customer Reviews:

After 300 years, the final word........2007-05-13

Critics, including Shelley, have argued over "Paradise Lost" for over 300
years. Stanley Fish has answered the crucial question once and for all: "What
was Milton doing?" In a critical masterpiece, Fish has opened for all of us
the pedagogic purpose of this monumental work. With a pattern of "mistake,
correction, instruction," Fish has broken the code; showing at once that we
are still "fallen" and susceptible to the rhetoric of Satan and his minions,
and in what ways we, as "fallen man" continue to respond to the persuasion
of the serpent in the Garden. It's hard to see what more can be written about
"Paradise Lost" after this landmark exigesis. Read it and see how easily we
can be seduced - and today's political discourse continues the tradition.

Over-Hyped and Under-Written.......2005-02-16

I must respectfully disagree with Mr. Bornholdt's review of Surprised by Sin. While Fish's analysis of Paradise Lost has become so over-hyped as to become akin to literary scripture in itself, his writing remains simplistic, his sentence structure convoluted, and his arguments riddled with holes. While it is true that there is plenty of theological research in evidence (in quite a few instances, the footnotes are larger than the main text on the page), there is noticeably little textual evidence sited in Paradise Lost itself; Mr. Fish is so busy engaging with other written texts that he fails to closely read the poem that he's supposed to be discussing.

Mr. Fish's idea that the reader is enticed to be "sinful" by the narrative is interesting: the problem, however, is that his argument is not based on Paradise Lost but on a personal belief system. While one must assume a certain religious system when reading a text like Paradise Lost, one must begin critical analysis with the poem itself and not with scripture. Often Paradise Lost does not adhere to Fish's theories; but rather than discuss such issues through textual evidence, Fish relies on the playground mentality/argument of "you're a sinner because you are."

Take Fish's analysis regarding the allusion to Ovid's Narcissus in Eve's birth, for example. Despite the fact that this moment is vital to the construction of Eve's character, Fish glosses over it in only three pages (out of 350). Why? Because his argument is lacking.

Regarding Eve's birth, Fish says that "one can either conclude . . . that 'we have glimpsed a dainty vanity in "our general mother" which the serpent will put to use' or contrive . . . to disengage her from the pejorative connotations of the myth." Ignoring the fact that there are more than these two ways in which this passage can be read, he himself says that, in order to "disengage" Eve from the negative connotations of the Narcissus allusion, one must "contrive" to do so ("contrive" meaning to devise, invent, or fabricate). One would think that if his theory was solid, he would not need to "contrive" an argument: he would simply have one.

But Fish fails to conduct a close reading of Milton's words in the same way that he fails to consider his own word choice. Blatantly ignoring the numerous parallels between the two characters that work against his theory, Fish suggests that the reader must not compare but contrast the two tales. But not only does he ignore the blatant parallels; he also ignores the blatant differences: he suggests that Eve is childlike and emphasizes that she eventually yields to Adam, but that's it. End of argument. He fails to deeply consider the language, content, or implications of the section. Amongst many other questions, what about the fact that Narcissus is cursed to fall in love with his own reflection while Eve is not? that Eve is interrupted and Narcissus is not? What about the implication of such words as "yield" and "seize"? After reading Ovid's story, any average reader could come up with at least half a dozen comparisons and/or contrasts between the two stories. But not only does he not support a reading against the comparison, but he does not successfully support his own reading for the contrasts either. He merely concludes that this section is a "puzzle" and that, since Eve could not possibly have been made flawed, she's not. Why? Because God wouldn't make Eve flawed. Where's the textual evidence? There is none. But any reader who thinks that Milton created a flawed Eve is a sinner. Why? Cuz you are.

(Any Eddie Izzard fans out there, cf. "You smell cuz you do. You're a twit cuz you are.")

This lack of textual engagement is the fatal flaw in Fish's analyses. While there may be something interesting in the idea that the poem is written in order to entice the reader to the Dark Side, Fish fails to prove it. Repeatedly his argument relies not on Paradise Lost itself but on (what seems to be) his personal belief system. For Fish the evidence is not in the poem but in scripture/doctrine/outside sources and the poem a mere inconvenience. Had I handed in such shoddy textual analysis in college, I never would have graduated.

Therefore I must disagree with Mr. Bornholdt's suggestion that Surprised by Sin is "lucid, engaging, responsible, illuminating." Fish's ideas are left unexplored, his conclusions unsupported and reductive. His writing style is rambling, his tone arrogant, and his parenthetical asides both distracting and often off-topic. There are a number of critics who have made similar (but better) arguments based in close textual readings and responsible scholarship; unfortunately (and inexplicably), Fish's book got all the press.

If you're a Milton scholar, you won't be able to avoid this book. But do yourself a favor and borrow it from the library. That $22 is much better spent photocopying the scholarship of others than slogging through this mess.

A classic of Milton criticism.......2001-07-19

According to Fish, "Paradise Lost" operates according to a mechanism of rhetorical indirection that works on all rhetorical levels, from depiction of character to deployment of tropes. Milton wants to show us how our fallen state corrupts and distorts our responses to poetry and instruction; the poem is constructed as a series of interlocking traps for the reader, who is lured into reacting in tempting but "wrong" ways to tropes ("with serpent error wandering") and characters (the apparently admirable Satan and his cohorts, the apparently tyrannical and odious God). The chapter on the poetics of prelapsarian Eden ("In Wandering Mazes Lost," I think it's called) is a masterpiece. Fish backs this all up with plenty of solid research into the theological doctrines Milton was known to endorse or was likely to have been familiar with.

This approach to Milton was regarded as radical when the book first came out, rather oddly, since Milton's tactics of indirection had already been noted by several critics, though not foregrounded as here. What's new is the thoroughness and clarity of the treatment, and Fish's sheer intelligence as a reader. This is criticism at its best: lucid, engaging, responsible, illuminating.

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