Art History Books

A must if you plan on going to any of the historical areas of the Holy Land. Much superior to any of the "name" travel guides, incredible detail and historical perspective.

Very informative with good descriptions. The language is a little difficult to interpret at times and I wish there was a little more history with each site, but overall a great guide.

Unique guide for archaeology minded traveler

The little known Oxford Archaeological Guides series provides information that you cannot find elsewhere This guide was written by Jerome Murphy-O'Connor in 1980 and was revised for the new Oxford Archaeological guides series in 1997 as the initial offering of the series. O'Connor provides a wealth of information here that you wont find in regular guidebooks. The topic of biblical archaeology is too large to be addressed by any one book. The author squeezes all he can into less than 500 pages. The section dealing with Jerusalem is most detailed. Outlying sites receive less attention. There is useful information about hours of operation and practical matters such as directions to remote sites. In addition to describing the various areas of interest, there are sections giving the history of the different peoples of the holy land, both historical and present day including sections on the Druze, the Philistines, the Samaritans, the Essenes and the Nabateans. There is a good attention here to changes over time with an emphasis on how the appearance of each site evolved over the years. Interesting comparisons are made with the condition of sites in the present day and their description in ancient texts including Josephus' "The Jewish War" and the Bible itself. This book would be inadequate as the only guidebook for a visit to Israel. I would recommend the Knopf Guide to the Holy Land and Baedeker Israel for routine tourist information. Some minor drawbacks: the drawings and maps are not as detailed as they could be and the few photographs that are provided are black and white and of poor quality. These complaints are not critical flaws; the book would still be invaluable even if it didn't contain a single illustration.

Recommended to me by an archaeolgist long active in Israel, I found this book quite helpful in appreciating a number of sites (and sights) I recently visited (and saw) in the Holy Land. For folks who are looking to learn more about various ancient sites than the typical tour guide can offer, this will be well worth its price. In addition to its being informative, I found the personality of its author evident and engaging.

If you really want to separate the wheat from the chaff - this is the way to begin.

In this book, Jerome Murphy-O'Connor will take you behind the hidden doors, under the altars, down secret stairways and forgotten streets on an amazing adventure. It's not a lesson in theology - you have to bring your own. It's a guide to what can be seen, what can be touched with your hand.

With all the digging that's been going on since this book has been published, I'm eagerly looking forward to an updated edition.

This book was purchased to be given as a gift for an artist who often paints horses in his large compositions,
Paul Jacobsen. The book was delightful and better than expected. The chapters have themes which mix the large color reproductions from different periods of art history. It is interesting to go through again and again.
This gift was received with enthusiasm and gratitude. It would be a great coffe table book for anyone to own.

As a lover of art as well as horses I was looking forward to receiving this book, but was unprepared for the visual, sensual impact of it. Page after page of beautifully reproduced art featuring the horse, art from every corner of the world, and from every stage of mankind's affair with the horse. From cave man's early attempts on cave walls to illustrations from a book of 13th Century "Farriery" in Istambul, from 2000 year old Chinese sculpture to Michaelangelo's sketches, Roman terra cotta bas relief to 20th century American Indian and cowboy art, from 15th century woolen tapestries to modern "futurist" art... What a beautiful way to learn mankind's history as well as art history, all the while appreciating the form and beauty of the horse. It's a wonderful education, a fascinating read.

And what a lovely suprise for me to find two different pieces of art reproduced herein that are more than familiar to me... I have copies of them in my home! And now, thanks to Ms. Pickeral, I also have the history and the story to go with them.

Buy this book for anyone you know that has any interest at all in art, or history, or for anyone who ever loved a horse. It'll be a hit.

Wow! Double Wow!! I received this book for Christmas and have found myself lost in its sensual tantilizing imagery many times. What a wonderful education it serves up!

As the author of the Dictionary of British Equestrian Artists I was delighted to discover paintings and artists I had never seen before. This is a beautiful book that has a lot of fresh pictures as well as the better known ones. Fantastic value. Highly recomended! Sally mitchell.

I just received this book and I was blown away. I am a horse owner and equine artist and have many, many horse art books and not a one can hold a candle to this book. It doesn't go into the history too much but every page has a large piece of art on it and a nice description. The colors are amazing. The book is huge. You have to buy this book! You will not be disappointed.

How was the pyramids built? Humanity tends to easily forget how great achievements are made, at least close to their actually performance. However, over time the question "how" is often subject to more debate and interest than the question "why" and "who". This book really fills the gap and explains in great detail the different technical aspects of Apollo's fligths to the moon. It's also written in such way that you really don't have to be a nobel prize winner to understand it or appreciate it. If you haven't read any books on this subject before, I strongly recommend you to begin with this!

I think this is a great book. I'm an Engineer and am therefore quite interested in the technical aspects of the Apollo program. I found this book covered enough of the technical aspects to satisfy my curiosity, but not too much to bore me with details. It is very well written and an easy read. I'd recommend it for anyone who is interested in descriptions of the hardware as well as how and why the missions were run in the way that they were.

This is a wonderful book! As an aviation Journalist I write about these topics myself - but David Woods helped me a lot with filling the gaps in my knowledge about Apollo. Of all the (about 50) books I have about the Lunar Landings, this is among the best four! (The other two are "Last Man on the Moon by Gene Cernan", Scott Sullivan's two books "Virtual LM" and "Virtual Apollo" and "Stages to Saturn". Many of the other books really only copy the official historical documents - but David Woods explains the stuff nobody else bothered to explain. Best example: the trajectories of Apollo took to the Moon. This is the book that explains the physics in a way a non-rocket scientist will understand it intuitively!

This is an outstanding work and a great compliment to the Apollo Lunar Surface Journal. I received it today and didn't put it down till I scanned the whole thing. I can't wait to give it a detailed read. It explains how the whole project was possible and should answer any 'naysayers' with scientific explanations of the successes and the problems that had to be dealt with.

Praxis, the company that also printed "The Manned
Spaceflight Log: 1961-2006", a compendium of every manned mission
from Gagarin to Spaceshift One.

In the author's preface he makes a point that I had been craving
for years:

"A particularly popular sub-niche is the astronaut bgraphy, a
somewhat variable collection of tomes that do much to relate the
story of humanity's only fora away from the grip of planet Earth.
Other volumes relate, in varying levels of detail, what the
intrepid explores actually did during their far too brief spells
on the surface of another world.

"Remarkably few books discuss the practical aspects of how
the voyage form the Earth to the Moon was achieved. The genre
seldom describes the equipment that was used; nor does it relate
the procedures and techniques that allowe the Apollo crews
to accomplish their audacious task: in general, historians
are not concerned with how a feat was achieved technically.
Instead, the dominant form of written history on Apollo studies
the experiences and interrelationships of the pople involved,
the political and social millieu in which they operated or it is
the polemic and ranting of those who are doing the commentating.
[...] The details of how something was achieved are considered to
be the realm of the 'geek' or 'nerd', and should not be presented
to the general public."

I've recently finished "In the Shadow of the Moon" and enjoyed
the stories of all of the astronaunts (and cosmonauts) who made it
into space, and how they were selected by the beocratic system to
be so honored. In case you were wondering, Alfred Worden was the first
divorced astronaut (an entire chapter!) and Boris Volynov was overlooked
for years due to his Jewish mother (being another chapter!).
Likewise, "The Right Stuff" is full of fighter-pilot bravado,
womanizing and alcool.

These are fascinating stories, but the are woefully lacking in the
technical details! Where is the red meat for the (geeky) base?
I want to know who designed the F-1 rocket motor and how the LOX
inlet combines the hypergolic fluid with the output of the turbo pump.
I want to read about the six dozen different abort modes that were
considered and the detailed arguments about earth orbit rendezvous,
lunar orbit rendezvous, direct TLI and why we selected LOR.
I want to know the Max-Q for the Saturn V as compared to the
Delta IV Heavy and the SSME. And I want details on the solid
waste system!

"How Apollo Flew to the Moon" delivers. I've been reading it all
evening and feel that it was written for me. Why aren't there more
historical books like this?

This is a really nice look at I Love Lucy. The pictures are great. I just wish they would have been able to include more episodes.

Tom Watson has surely created a fantastic book that will help the memory of one of the most successful tv sitcoms ever carry on. Seeing and reading all the unknown tidbits on some of my favorite epsidoes of I Love Lucy is just grand! Every I Love Lucy fan should own this book. What a great way to make sure the memory of I Love Lucy and a wonderful actress, Lucille Ball, stay with us as years go by! Take a ride through many all too funny faces of Lucy!

" I LOVE LUCY " WAS 1 OF THE BEST TV SHOWS IN THE 1950'S AND IS THE BEST SHOW EVER." I LOVE LUCY" CLASSIC MOMENTS BOOK IS A MUST FOR ANY "I LOVE LUCY" FAN. IT SHOWS YOU THE CLASSIC MOMENTS IN WHAT THE BEST TV SHOW THAT WAS EVER MADE.LUCILLE BALL AND DESI ARNAZ MADE WHAT THE SHOW WAS,ALSO VIVIAN VANCE AND WILLIAM FRAWLEY WILL ALWAYS BE REMEMBERED AS FRED AND ETHEL MERTZ AT 323 E.68TH ST. I FINSHED THIS BOOK AND I TRULY ENJOYED IT.

This is a great book for behind the scenes pictures of the cast and the stage they worked on. I have owned this book for about a year, and come back to look at it all the time. Lucille Ball is my favorite actress, and I just love her to pieces! This book contains photos of their set and everyday life. It also conatains some stories of their lives, so if you are a Lucy fan like me, don't miss this book!

this book is a must have for every LUCY-DESI fan all over the world. it contains beautiful pictures and a lot of information about each episode. it is part of my collection and I see myself coming back to it everytime to look something up.is one of the most complete books I have ever encountered.

At last we have a definitive reference book on Trigger - all of the "Triggers" - complete with documentation and plenty of photos. The book is well-bound and includes comprehensive endnotes, a bibliography and index. Unlike many reference books, this one is easy to read and hard to put down. It is well worth the price.

Elizabeth Drake McDonald
www.bobnolan-sop.net

I loved the book I keep going back looking at the pictures while I watch a Roy Rogers movie to pick out the different Trigger's used. A must read for a tru Roy Roger's fan

This is a great book for Roy and Trigger fanatics . Somewhat overpriced for the binding and print quality and with a few (unimportant) misspellings, but it is the most complete and in my opinion accurate book on the subject . I truly enjoyed the read .

I purchased this book for my husband for Valentine's Day. He loves it and said that it is a MUST HAVE for fans of Roy Rogers and Trigger. The book is so thoroughly researched that the reader realizes all the intricacies involved in the Trigger legend. Trigger's life began in July 1934 and ended in July 1965, but Roy Rogers career continued, even after his pal, Trigger, was too old to make a contribution in his movies. The relationship between Trigger, Little Trigger and Trigger, Jr., as well as Pal in California contributed to the Trigger legend. The book is instrumental in knowing which horse you are seeing in the different Roy Rogers movies, on tv, and in pictures.

As big fan of Roy Rogers and Trigger ,is this a great book ,ful with nice new pictures and the life story about this great horse, for me its a welcome item for my colection

This is not really a tale of embezzlement and disgrace - it is the store of power struggles between the Board of Directors for Columbia Studios, who were clearly had personal loyalty in their underlings as their top priority, and the CEO, Alan Hirschfield, trying to do what he needed to do to save the studio.

I don't have access to people at this level, so I appreciate the peeping-Tom aspect of viewing the thought processes and actions of people who normally hide behind lawyers, secretaries, and call-screeners.

The author obviously interviewed many many people to put this book together, and I appreciate how he reported on the media coverage, as well. I never really thought of how people manipulate the news as part of the story, but course it is.

The book is like a newspaper story in that it is filled with information, but the narrative reads like a novel - very easy to read. The author does a good job of developing story-lines, so we have a sense of completeness, and a sense of an overview, while also sprinkling the famous names and the glamour that makes Hollywood so compelling to people.

I've never understood why Hollywood turns out bad movies month after month, year after year, when it is so easy to tell from the beginning that a movie is going to be awful. Why make awful movies?

This book doesn't directly address that issue, but it shows how irresponsible and irrational the leading powers that control Hollywood on both coasts are, and how corrupt the whole system is. It's obvious that normal things like making a good product become irrelevent to their attention span.

I guess it's not really corruption, if everyone knows it's happening, and it's just a way of getting things done.

My only complaint is that I wish I had more of a reality on the Board Directors. Their actions seem so irrational, but I'm sure it's because they were not forthcoming in their interviews, and did not take the opportunity to express their points of view. People at that level are notorious for avoiding the press, so it is not surprising.

I bought this book when it first came out and have reread it every year or so. Tends to be a bit long and sometimes slow, but it's great. Buy a used copy, or check at the library.

Being from the Washington D.C. area I kept constantly asking why someone didn't leak this to the press and blow the whole compiristy.

The only comparable book is "The Great Salad Oil Swindle"

David Begelman would never have been exposed as the crook he was without the dogged, principled determination of Cliff Robertson to get to the bottom of corruption at the top levels of Hollywood. This excellent book documents Robertson's heroic efforts to get at the truth -- for which he was blackballed by the Hollywood establishment for years. Cliff once said to me: "Of all the things in my life I'm proud of -- if I'm proud at all -- it's not winning the best actor Oscar or Emmy; it's my part in bringing down that crook Begelman."

But perhaps the book is most valuable for its exposure of the top echelon of Hollywood -- people with lots of money and no taste; people who know nothing whatever about movies. And could care less. I hope this book is reprinted soon. It is timeless.

This book gives details of David Begelman the head man at
Columbia Pictures getting caught forging Cliff Robertson's name
on a check. Robertson had won an Oscar for his role in Charly.
As a result of Begelman getting caught Roberetson would suffer
mightily at the hands of the powerful in Hollywood.Cliff Robertson wound up being blacklisted as a result of this scandal.This scandal would send shockwaves from Hollywood to
Wall Street.You are given a complete coverage of this event in
this excellent book.You are given good coverage of some of the
individuals who were involved in this scandal.David Begelman's demise is also given coverage in this book.This is an excellent book on this event. Read it. You will not be dissapointed.

David Begelman, powerful head of a studio thinks he is above the law, until an actor by the name of Cliff Robertson exposes him. This book is a well written tale of immorality in a town known for it's lack of scruples. Hollywood insiders should not be surprised at this tale, but I was. The check Begelman forged was for a small amount. The man made more than that in a month. The book exposes the reasons why a man who had it all, would choose to commit such a crime and fall from grace. I was quite disappointed by Robertson's treatment by Hollywood's hierarchy when he was the victim, not Begelman. But it proves just how far studios will go to protect the bottom line. I read this book when it was first published years ago and I'm reading it again. The list of books I will read more than once is a short one. I highly recommend it.

"Inside Narnia" ia a chapter-by-chapter description and literary analysis of "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe." That description makes the book sound stuffy but it didn't feel that way reading it.

Like any good scholar, Devin Brown begins his work by addressing why the work is even needed.

"The strongest reason for any new work must be that it

(1) takes an approach not taken before.

Prof. Brown's focus is on providing a literary analysis of TLWW.

Since he is an English professor at Asbury College in Kentucky, my guess is that his personal motivation for writing this book was for use in one of his classes and that some of his classroom notes may have made their way into the original outline for "Inside Narnia". In my opinion, use of a developing non-fiction manuscript in a classroom is great--college students will be only too glad to point out inconsistencies and ask about passages they find bewildering.


Prof. Brown states that the other reason for a new work in non-fiction involves

(2) (covering) ground which has not been covered.

He explains, "I offer a wide selection of comments and opinions from other scholars, here for the first time collected in a single work." To that, I would add that the reader also benefits from Prof. Brown's own comments and opinions. I suspect that some material quoted directly from C. S. Lewis's writings may also be making its first appearance in a scholarly work.

However...

Not long after I started "Inside Narnia", I found myself skimming past the (exhaustive) citations without thinking about them. He might not like hearing this but Prof. Brown's clear prose allowed me to ignore all of his meticulous bibliographic work, and just enjoy.

His literary analysis is fascinating. I've read Lewis's entire "Chronicles of Narnia" so many times I've lost count but the author surprised me repeatedly with pointers to Lewis's literary techniques and new perspectives on plot and description I never noticed before. He also surprised me with the whole Maugrim = Fenris Ulf discussion! Maugrim? Who's that? I have an old copy of TLWW and have never bought another so the wolf villain has always been Fenris Ulf to me.

Brown reveals the structure of individual scenes in such evocative detail that you'll likely close his book either feeling like you just finished rereading Lewis's TLWW or else with the overwhelming desire to do so. When I reached the end of Prof. Brown's study, I wanted to reread "Prince Caspian" but then I'm weird.

(If you haven't read TLWW yet, well first, you should! Second, buy this book at the same time as TLWW but read it afterwards. It'll make a lot more sense.)


CSL's Use of Language (literary technique)

Prof. Brown discusses and analyzes C S Lewis's use of a variety of literary techniques and language in TLWW, as each example appears in the chapters. I was fascinated by his analysis of Lewis's techniques because, frankly, I have been enjoying their "effects" on me as a reader without being aware of how Lewis created them.

Here's a small sample of literary techniques discussed:
gradualness of description built from many concrete details; suggesting rather than explaining to create a sense of mystery; the "interlace" of plot threads; the use of weather as a form of provenance & as a way to set up future plot events; the dream motif; building tension via description; description via senses other than sight; ending chapters one step into the action of the following chapter.

He also analyzes Lewis's characterization of Aslan vs. that of the witch, and his characterization of each of the Pevensie children.
Throughout, he takes care to discuss Lewis's missteps as well as his successes. (example: Where did Tumnus go?)


CSL's Literary, Cultural & Personal Experience

As a indefatigable Lewis scholar and true Lewis fan, Prof. Brown knows about as much about Lewis's life and literary and cultural influences as anyone can hope to, decades after the author's death.

He takes pains to describe the rich combination of traditions Lewis used to people Narnia, and provides citations bringing to life Tolkien's strong objections to what he was doing. Some of those Inklings meetings must have been really lively! In my opinion, and with all due respect to Tolkien and his fabulous work, combinations like Brown's example of dwarves & fauns aren't jarring today although I can see where it would have been to scholars of mythology like Tolkien. For better or worse... Scratch that. For worse, mythological beings now seep into modern culture in distorted forms or not at all.

Even a literary analysis of TLWW has to take into account Lewis's faith to be complete. "Inside Narnia" Ch. 14, 15 & part of 16 are more Christology than literary analysis because Lewis's plot focuses on Aslan's death and return to life.

In other chapters, Prof. Brown highlights passages that hint at Lewis's "longing" from childhood (see "Surprised by Joy") and the manner in which Lewis portrays the Numinous. Brown spends some time recounting via citations how Lewis agreed with Chesterton about seeing the extraordinary in the ordinary, and how he used this in TLWW. (After reading his YA "Not Exactly Normal" if Brown -hadn't- mentioned this, I would have been very confused.)

I'm anticipating the second in the series which will be a literary analysis of Lewis's "Prince Caspian". I can't say that I agree with everything that Prof. Brown has written here--I dislike the first person narrator--but I have confidence in Brown's scholarship and I'm sure it's clear by now that I really enjoyed this book.

Sherry Thompson

Inside Narnia was one of the many books published in advance of the recent movie adaptation of C.S. Lewis's The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. In this book Devin Brown, a Lewis scholar and aficionado, offers a detailed look into the world of Narnia, digging far beyond the surface, and exploring this magical world. Having just read The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe with my children, I decided to read this as a commentary of sorts, to see what I had missed and what I would want to look for the next time I read the book.

Brown begins the book just where he should: with a rationale for the book's existence. There are, after all, many similar titles available. He replies that the strongest reason for any new work must be that it first takes an approach not taken before and then must cover ground that has not been covered before. He does both of these. His approach to the story is in the first place literary rather than primarily devotional. He moves through the book chapter-by-chapter, providing literary analysis and supplying "a good deal of supplemental information from Lewis's life and other writings." He also offers comments and opinions from a wide variety of other scholars. In many ways the book is a running commentary rather than a collection of essays. "My claim is this: although The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe can be simply read and enjoyed by a child, it can also be read seriously by adults because it is a work rich with meaning. Some of this meaning will be discovered simply by spending time with the text and paying close attention to what Lewis has written. Further meaning will be seen by drawing connections--connections not only to other passages within the novel but also to other works by Lewis, to the events of Lewis's life, and to the world of other writers who influenced Lewis. ... I contend that this twofold approach--first, a careful reading and the second, adding these kinds of connections--will result in greater enjoyment of an already enjoyable book."

Because this book is primarily a literary analysis, it does not contain a great deal of discussion about the story's religious elements. There are many other books that look at the story from that angle. Devin focuses instead on language, on consistencies and inconsistencies in this story and Lewis's other writings, and on the life experiences that stand behind the story. I really felt, as I read Inside Narnia, that the author was unlocking a great deal of the story to me.

Where Brown does deal with religious elements, he typically does so in a manner that is fair even if not thorough. He is careful to point out that this story is not meant to be an allegory for the story of the Bible. He writes "No topic surrounding the Narnia stories has been so misunderstood or has had so much written about it as the question of whether they are allegory." He ultimately turns to Lewis who affirms that the books actually stem from this kind of thought: "Let us suppose that there were a land like Narnia and that the Son of God, as He became a Man in our world, because a Lion there, and then imagine what would happen." While there are certainly obvious parallels between the witness of Scripture and the story told in the Narnia books, they are not and were not meant to be true allegory. This means that we should not go looking too deeply in our quest to find religious significant under every rock and in every crevice in Narnia.

Interestingly, this book made me realize what it is about Lewis's world that kept me from falling in love with it as I did with Tolkien's Middle Earth. I think the real difference is in the completeness of the world. In The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe we see a world that very obviously has not been thought through to the extent that Middle Earth has been. Narnia has many clear and obvious flaws. Some of these were reconciled in further books, but many were just left unreconciled. There is much about Lewis's world that just doesn't make a lot of sense. I can see now that this kept me from believing the world as I did with Middle Earth.

All-in-all, Inside Narnia was a good and valuable read and one I enjoyed a great deal. It put to rest the haunting memories of high school level literary analysis that seemed to award not truth but originality in dissecting stories we knew nothing about written by authors we had never heard of. This book, on the other hand, represents the work of a man who has studied both the author and his work. It opens up the story and allows us to see what we certainly would not otherwise know. I definitely recommend it to anyone who has read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

The Inside Narnia Guide was given as a Christmas gift last year to our fourteen year old granddaughter to further enhance the reading of The Chronicles of Narnia Box Set. This guide was an excellent selection, and our granddaughter has told us several times how much she enjoyed reading it. The fact that her first name is the same as the author's was an added bonus! Based on her appraisal, I recommend this as a great addition to the Chronicles of Narnia Set. ~ Mrs. B.

If "The Chronicles of Narnia and Philosophy" is written for philosophy buffs, "Inside Narnia" is written for literature lovers. Here is the book that English literature professors at colleges everywhere have been praying for - a preface to "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" in the tradition of C. S. Lewis's "Preface to Paradise Lost."

This is a smart, critical guide through Narnia, with Devin Brown dropping glorious bits of "behind the scenes" information and careful analysis. Like any good critic, Brown's book enchants his subject, sending us back to it with renewed interest.

Like any good tour guide, Brown speaks in a clear and accessible style, navigating Lewis's literary and biographical sources with ease - pointing out the similarities to (among others) J. R. R. Tolkien, who was both a literary and real-life influence on Lewis.

A delightful read, for those who identify with Peter, all the way up to those of us a bit more like the Professor.

*****Phil Tallon - St Andrews, Scotland*****

Since The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was printed in 1950, almost four-dozen books have been published on the Narnian Chronicles, and most of these in the past few years. The danger in writing a book on Narnia today is that so much has already been said. Devin Brown sets the standard in the Preface to Inside Narnia in describing how his book is different: "The strongest reason for any new work must be that is (1) takes an approach not taken before or (2) covers ground which has not been covered. I would offer both these reasons for Inside Narnia." (7)

Many books on Narnia focus mostly on the devotional or spiritual elements of Lewis's books; however, Devin Brown sees value in a literary approach. "By devoting an entire work to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, I hope to provide the kind of close literary analysis it warrants and also supply a good deal of supplemental information from Lewis's life and other writings. In addition, I offer a wide selection of comments and opinions from other scholars, here for the first time collected in a single work." (7)

As Brown notes, Inside Narnia is very much like a running commentary on the first of the Narnian Chronicles. Throughout the book, Brown highlights many of the debates and insights that have generated in the past 55 years. Though he draws from a wide range of authors and scholars, he relies heavily on the work of Colin Manlove, Peter Schakel, Donald Glover, and Peter Ford.

This sort of scholarly commentary makes for a book that feels very academic, though the tone and language is far more accessible than most academic works. The insight Devin Brown provides can only come from lengthy research in the field, research that Brown skillfully employs. The result is another unique book on Narnia that should not be missed. Inside Narnia is a valuable introduction to the literary world created by C.S. Lewis with The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

I read this book quickly because I couldn't put it down. The research and thought that went into this book are tremendous. It is well organized and unbiased. Maybe the title for this post should be "if you want to tell others how bad TV is, read this book first". The research shows that parents need to parent their kids and take responsibility for kids and their own actions. Yes, some TV is bad, but you wouldn't let your kid listen to Howard on the radio would you? Yes, some TV is good - I won't go into details but given your parental intelligence you know what choices are correct. What Ms. Guernsey does though is break down shows and types of shows for specific age groups and she provides some enlightening insights on how some shows were developed. I recommend anyone who is a parent or works in the children's world read this book.

Into the Minds of Babes is a highly readable book that impresses with its lack of judgement (on a very controversial topic!) and clear information. Guernsey is able to take complicated research studies and break them down in a straightforward presentation of the facts. The author also does a great job of giving information that helps make good choices about tv without being preachy. I highly recommend this book for parents, educators, and all those involved with young children.

Most of the mothers I know are aware of the somewhat draconian guidelines issued by the American Academy of Pediatricians regarding children under 2 and TV-watching (don't let them, ever) and turn on Sesame Street anyway, fighting the urge to look over their shoulder to see which AAP spy is waiting to catch them and call "bad mama!" Lisa Guernsey's book gets to the bottom of the multitude of studies conducted on the effects of TV/media and children, explaining the most recent scholarly research in non-patronizing ways. By addressing some of the most debated/unresolved fears parents have when it comes to TV, she provides a practical guide to good decision making about media use and a wildly fascinating look at how young children develop cognitively, all without being boring.

Which, of course, is a huge plus, wouldn't you say?

Highly recommended to anyone who wonders about the effect of TV--you might be surprised by her findings!

Ms. Guernsey tackles the research, warnings, and well meaning 'advice' that parents are baraged with and presents the findings in a format that is a great mixture of research (fully annotated for those who want to delve deeper) and personal experiences of real parents.

Her writing style makes the book a joy to read, as you follow Ms. Guernsey through her journey to find answers. This is not simply another parenting book that espouses a particular path, rather it provides the tools for parents to make educated decisions.

As a busy parent, make the time to read this fascinating book.

With two preschoolers, I'm always looking for practical advice to manage the chaos. This book was both interesting and comforting, with a "real world" perspective on what screen time means in the American family. The book has a thoughtful discussion of the brouhaha raised by the American Academy of Pediatrics pronouncement that children under 2 should have ZERO time in front of the television. The intriguing result of Guernsey's research? The AAP made the pronouncement with no scientific basis, just the thought that eliminating screen time was bound to increase beneficial interactive time between parents/caregivers and children. Definitely worth a read by parents of young children.

This is the catalogue for the landmark Pollock exhibition held at the Moma and the Tate in 1998-1999. Considering the steep rise in the insurance value of Pollock's paintings, such a comprehensive retrospective is not likely to be repeated in the near future and we are therefore fortunate to have such a brilliant book to help us remember it. The late Kirk Varnedoe was one of the best interpreters of contemporary American art and his text, never anecdotical and always informative without being pedantic, does justice to the masterpieces without falling into any of the cliches that often pollute our view of this great artist.

Beautiful illustrations make this book an indispensable presence in any arts library.

I picked this book up at the MOMA Pollock retrospective a couple years ago and have used it extensively. Having seen many of the paintings in this book firsthand, I can say that these are some of the best reproductions offerred in book form on Pollock's work. Another plus is that several paintings are printed on fold-out pages, so that the work doesn't cross the book's seam. So many of his paintings are extremely wide that this makes a lot of sense (otherwise, there would be hardly any resolution in the height dimension).

If you're interested in Pollock and need to refer to the reproductions, I absolutely recommend this book above all others out there.

This breathtaking catalogue is simply the best single volume available on Jackson Pollock, and this is primarily--but not only--because of the number and quality of the reproductions it offers. Almost every one of the dozen or so Pollock books in my library contains a painting not available in the others, but this book collects and beautifully photographs the greatest number and variety of his canvases--outside of a catalogue raisonee.

As the other reviewers state, there are many generously-sized fold-out pages here, and the crispness and resolution of these big reprints and of the more modest pages are simply amazing. To take two essential examples, this book's reprints of "One: Number 31, 1950" and "Blue Poles: Number 11, 1952" are astoundingly clear, better than any of the many other versions I've seen in art books, even in Ellen Landau's large-format survey, a book which also includes gatefolds.

(Another reviewer, by the by, states that "Lucifer" is not available in any other book, which is not true. Among other places, it appears in Landau, in Elizabeth's Frank's concise volume, and as the sole color reproduction in the book for the 1965 MOMA retrospective. Anyway, it gets terrific treatment here.)

Another invaluable inclusion in this book is a great number of full-sized detail photos of the canvases. For example, on a page adjacent to "Lucifer" and "Autumn Rhythm" and "Full Fathom Five," we see another photo of just one small section of that same painting but in 1-to-1 scale; these details reveal much of the dynamic, kinetic, urgent quality of these works, their encrustations of sand, glass, pennies, paint caps--traits which even this book could otherwise never offer a livingroom Pollock-viewer.

Further, having seen the exhibit in January of 1999, I can attest to the generally excellent fidelity of the color-balance. (Curiously, no one seems to be able to capture "Autumn Rhythm"'s grey-teal passages in a book, but if you were at this show or have viewed the painting at the Met you've seen them.)

The accompanying articles are excellent. Kirk Varnedoe overviews of Pollock's life, artistic aims, his accomplishments, all illustrated with family and archival photographs and drawing on Pollock quotations. Pepe Karmel uses the extensive photographic and film record of Pollock painting to analyze Pollock's physical movements. Most wonderful are Karmel's computer reconstructions of early states of the painting "Autumn Rythm," based on Hans Namuth's photos of Pollock at work.

In sum, this book gives the finest, fullest offering of both Pollock's life and art.

Excellent companion piece to the MOMA show (which traveled to London's Tate) goes beyond all other Pollock explorations. A "must" for students of modern American art as well as those just wanting to get a better understanding of what Pollock was REALLY DOING.

Large format features fold-out reproductions of breathtakingly high quality. Among these, incredibly, are paintings not found in any other published sources. (The incomparable Lucifer (1947) is one such work).

The text is scholarly but readable, and although there is a considerable amount of it, each open page of writing offers at least a couple relevant and highly interesting photos or other illustrations. The many large color plates would certainly make a gorgeous and impressive coffee table book for anyone who doesn't choose to read it.

Kirk Varnedoe writes definitively about Pollock's mercurial life & career. Varnedoe's nearly 75 pages of biographical analysis are a welcome alternative to the kind of misguided mythologizing about Pollock that has for a long time colored the artist as an overrated art "star."

Pepe Karmel's contribution to this book is an amazing analysis of Pollock's painting process through an exhaustive examination of the famous films and photographs of Pollock at work. This was a fascinating, ground-breaking part of the exhibition, and is equally wonderful in the book.

Well worth the price.

________________________________________________________________________________________________

I purchased this book when it first came out and refer back to it often. A person could spend hours at a time pouring over the plates and fold-out pictures (pun intended). Not only does this particular book provide the best collection of absolutely superb quality Jackson Pollock reproductions that I'm aware of, but the narrative is extremely well written and essential to understanding many things regarding Pollock's thought process and artistic technique.

Pepe Karmel's chapter imparticular, in which he analyzes Hans Namuth's photographs, is nothing less than brilliant detective work. I found it fascinating to find that underlying the lacy layers of at least one of Pollock's drip paintings are figurative images which he made within a narrative context. Although the complete details of this "narrative" may never be fully known, Pepe speculates that Pollock may have been acting out the destruction of some of his inward demons by first physically acknowledging and creating them and then systematically covering them within the confines of the finished painting. I'll leave it to you to get the book and both read and see for yourself all of the findings which include the deciphering of some of the figures and their meanings. With this discovery, the creation of the painting involved (Number 27, 1950) becomes not only a very strenuous and at once both spontaneous and preplanned action - but a true "ritual." Was he destroying these figures or merely absorbing them into a larger and more complex environment? We'll probably never know all the details. I wonder if Pollock would have disclosed answers to these questions had he been confronted with them during his life? Perhaps this would have been too personal. But maybe he did confide the details of what he was doing to someone and another good researcher might come across a total revelation in a hidden diary someday. I'm sure this is just wishful thinking on my part, but how I love a good mystery!

Mr. Essinger's writing exceeded all expectation--he is a gifted teller of history and even more gifted at drawing out the threads of technological developments. It takes some time for the real changes of society to become apparent--indeed, my cell phone shares a name and essential function with a device invented over a hundred years ago but who would have thought that such a simple idea could so drastically change the world. The most engaging histories draw on unexpected sources to shed an unexpected light upon the events in question. James Burke was a master of this with his Connections series--think of Jacquard's Web as a more focused version of Burke's incredibly discursive journeys. No better example of the maxim, "a picture is worth a thousand words" comes to mind than the fascinating story of the picture that is found on the very first page of the story.

Essinger demonstrates how Mr. Jacquard's idea of using punched cards created a revolution. He compares and contrasts Jacquard's success with the failure of Charles Babbage by showing how an incremental technological advancement was necessary, i.e. Herman Hollerith's tabulator. But the story is basically familiar to most anyone who would be interested in this volume. Essinger excels at demonstrating the incredible importance of the personal traits of historical figures. Babbage's temper and inability to stick to his original idea killed his chance at demonstrating the power of his ideas. Hollerith's persistence, on the other hand, took a simple idea and polished it until its value was indisputable. It is a very sympathetic portrayal of a man, Babbage, who saw the promised land that he could never enter.

Frankly, it is impossible for this reviewer to adequately portray the power of Mr. Essinger's seemingly effortless ability to teach. This is that rare book that demands a quick trip to the bookstore or a check of that tempting box--"overnight delivery."

Highest Recommendation

I agree with the other reviewer who could not put this book down. An amazing work that shows how long the information age has really been around. Introduced me to Jacquard for the first time and what a great figure to remember. Shows how a great invention took years to come into existence and over hundreds of years how important various contributions were.

James Essinger's book takes us on an amazing journey from Napoleonic France, through Victorian London and on to the otherwise bewildering offices of IBM and the other giants of the computer era.

On a basic level, this is a very readable history of computers, from the complexities of the modern era back through the stages that led to their invention - and then, most importantly, to the very roots of the idea - the first spark that lit a conflagration - in the mind of an otherwise obscure French silk weaver, Joseph-Marie Jacquard.

The book is far more than that, though. On another level, it is a series of brilliant recreations of the key stages in the computer's growth. We are zoomed into the frenetic world of Napoleonic Lyons; led by the writer's genteel hand into the polite salons of Victorian London and introduced to the likes of the Duke of Wellington and Ada Lovelace, daughter of none other than the great Byron, and then ushered on through the now rather wierd, geeky world of early-mid 20th century computerdom.

On yet another level, it does something that I feel needed doing for a long time. As an historian, and despite using them all the time, I had always felt computers were something rather alien, rather nasty. They're not things that you normally think about being rooted firmly in 18th and 19th century history. Yet here they are, in the true historical context, and suddenly a lot less scary.

What a wonderful read, for historian, computer-buff and any reader who delights in a cracking story grippingly told.

No one could read the first chapter of this book and not finish it. In fact, I've just spent the past two days devouring it from start to finish. It's an entertaining fact-filled romp through the entire history of something that dominates our lives, and that we always think of as entirely modern... and yet the history this book traces goes back nearly 5,000 years.

What I liked best about it was the teasingly thought-provoking idea the author raises: that our computer age could have started over 150 years ago in Victorian England...

According to Jacquard's Web, the Victorian scientist Charles Babbage spent a lifetime building and refining metal calculating cogwheel machines or `engines' as Babbage called them. The working portions of the Engines he built worked perfectly. As Babbage's friend and colleague Ada Lovelace once said, it was the first time in history that `wheelwork' had been taught `to think'. But funding ran out and Babbage died never seeing his calculating engines come to fruition.

What I found so incredibly thought-provoking in this book was that in London in 1991 a perfectly working Difference Engine was built from Charles Babbage's plans and drawings. I have seen the Difference Engine in action myself (as the white-gloved engineer cranks the handle, the stacked columns of cogwheels spiral and coalesce beautifully as they perform their mathematical calculations) but I hadn't realised the significance at the time.
According to the author, James Essinger, if Babbage had found the funding to complete his Engines, computers could have come into widespread use in the nineteenth century. Now if that isn't a thought-provoking idea I don't know what is!

Such an excellent book. So thrilling. And it kept being thrilling! From first paragraph to last, my attention never lagged. But this was more than that: a real, involving and compelling story about a Frenchman in the early 1800's whose innovation for weaving cloth on looms set into motion a chain of events which ends with the laptop on which I write this review. What an exciting author this man is; I found myself wondering, as I read, if he could make a treatise on a TELEPHONE BOOK interesting.

He's so expert at keeping your attention, keeping explanations simple, being fair-minded in lauding the accomplishments and pointing out the shortcomings of various individuals in his story, keeping a positivity overall, and infusing the reader with his own sense of wonder. One of the most exciting and moving portions of the book comes, actually, after it ends, in the first appendix. This is one of very few authors whose name I want to remember, to see what else he does with his gift of writing. Again, I cannot shake the feeling that he could make anything fascinating, as he's done such a monumental, stunning and moving job with this book. Recommended!!!