Themes Books

This book is a spectacular visual text to some of the American National Parks. The size of the photos, and their photographic quality, are just excellent. The photos are right up there with National Geographic-type quality. In addition, the accompaning text gives ecological insights to where and why this part of the United States was designated and saved as a National Park. The book gives short but insightful accompanying text for each of the Parks that are presented to the reader. The only problem is, unfortunately, the organization of the chapters, and a very skimpy table of contents, and the reader can get easily annoyed with these two problems. It is hard to understand why the publisher made such errors, as the problems are very obvious, and the whole book suffers as a result. It is a beautiful book covering many of the National Parks, with super photos and very good college level text, and if you can put up with the problems of a missing table of contents, this book is a great collection of art, ecology, and the National Parks of the USA. A 5-star for the photos and accompanying text, and a 3 for a useless table of contents. Sorry, but the publisher made major mistakes in putting this otherwise spectacular book together. But I will still give the book a 5-star anyway. The photos and text are just too good to give this book anything less than a 5-star.

Paul Schullery presents a book filled with powerful and beautiful images of fifty-six national parks that have been dedicated to the preservation and protection of irreplaceable treasures. This book shows why these parks are so worthy of protection.

Not only are they places where indescribable beauty can be seen, they have also been formed by unique geological forces. From stunning mountain ranges to arid expanses of desert, these are the lands we view, wander in and learn from.

America's National Parks is a celebration of the diversity of national parks throughout the United States. They are grouped according to the geological forces that helped to create them.

Diagrammatic illustrations, important landmarks, travel routes, topographical maps and spectacular full-color photographs illustrate the sheer majestic beauty of nature.

You will also find captivating information to encourage an awareness of the landforms, flora and fauna. Families will also find information to help enhance their vacations at the parks.

Inside the front cover a map of America shows the location of each park I started to remember my trip to the Grand Canyon National Park and my husband's visit to Denali.

Our Treasured Lands
The Rolling Land - Volcanic and Geothermal Forces
The Broken Crust - The Power of Mountain Building
Water Designing Lands - Waves, Caves and Currents
Ice Sculpting Stone - The Carving Power of Glaciers
The Patient Power - Wind and Water Erosion
Weather Shaping Life - Effects of Extreme Climates

This book contains some of the most amazing photographs I've ever seen of America. From pictures of dripstone formations adorning New Mexico's Carlsbad Cavern in New Mexico to Lush Ecosystems shrouded in Fog in the National Park in Washington, these pictures help to vividly describe each park. I remember once having an argument with someone over the fact that there were rainforests near where I lived in Washington and no one would believe me. Well, here is proof!

I was also especially interested in looking up the Painted Desert we visited once on a trip across America after college. At the time, I didn't actually realize I was in the Petrified Forest national Park in Arizona because technically, we were just driving right through and I wasn't paying attention.

This book has helped to bring a new awareness to my own life and also encourages a desire for more exploration. Now I definitely want to see Mount McKinley in person.

Voyageurs National Park looks like a fascinating place to paddle around lonely islands. However, they do say never to skimp on insect repellent. A third of the park is water.

A memento of past visits or an inspiration for future exploration!

~The Rebecca Review

You might expect a book on US National Parks to have an all-USA (including Alaska and Hawaii) orientation map along with local maps of each National Park--and it does. You would expect it to have beautiful pictures--and it does. You would expect it to discuss the flora and wildlife found in these parks--and it does. You might expect it to touch on the history of the locations going back to the days of the First Americans--and it does. You would probably expect to hear that Yellowstone National Park, founded in 1872, was the first US National Park, and that it contains most of the world's geysers--and the book certainly states this.

Being a geologist, what I find relatively unique about this book is its emphasis throughout on basic geological processes. The cross-sections it gives of various geological processes and structures are quite educational, and they are very suitable for the geology classroom. (I wish that I had seen them when I first began to formally study geology!) The reader learns about the internal structure and dynamics of volcanoes, the types of folds and faults that form during mountain building, weathering and erosional structures such as hoodoos, and even such things as fumaroles and mudspots. There are also detailed visual aids on bays and reefs.

Fabulous book! The text is very interesting and educational, and it explains the scientific aspects of the National Parks and their land very well. The photos are gorgeous and made me want to visit every single park! :-) They really show some of the awesome beauty of God's handiwork. I highly recommend this book to all outdoor enthusiasts, lovers of nature and science and fellow armchair travelers. The book also contains helpful contact information for planning a visit to the parks. A great read and a great book to enjoy!

I received this book over the holiday and thought "great another thing to re-gift". However much to my surprise, I found myself captivated by this book and its pictures. Each photo creatively depicted not only the city or local of the fire hydrant but also a bit of the surrounding culture allowing the reader to take an armchair tour of the US from a new perspective. Kudos to Mr. Crane for such an unusual and entertaining concept. A gift I will now keep and share with others. Looking forward to future 'tours' from this promising new author.

Once in a while a book really speaks to you, and as unlikely as it would seem, "American Hydrant" does just that. More than just a collection of fire hydrant photos, this book paints a most unique portrait of the American landscape. The photos are stunning, each one telling the story of an American town, using the ubiquitous fire hydrant as visual touchstone common to all communities. Both funny and provocative, it is truly a book that you will return to again and again. "American Hydrant" is a book that transcends the genre of "coffee table" book: It takes a truly unique look at what makes America special.

I received this book as a gift and let me tell you it is fantastic!! What an ingenous idea. The author has truly captured the beauty and essence of each location. It is remarkable how he was able to find the hydrants in areas that truly represented the uniqueness of each town. Trust me, this is a great book. It is sitting on my coffee table and it should be sitting on yours.

An intriguing collection of hydrant photos from each state that refreshingly turns the ordinary into something special. Sean Crane had the foresight to photograph each hydrant as representing its location, for example Montana has the unit butting into a wide skyscape, Richmont, Vermont has its hydrant as part of a snow scene of children playing in front of a church, the caption says: Shades of Rockwell.

Fascinating as these photos are I was rather disappointed by the book's design. Each spread or page has the photo presented in a different way and this creates an artificial busyness that is not needed, the photos are strong enough in themselves to work well in a formal photo book format: generous margins, captions and graphics centred below each photo, a very thin black line around each picture to crispen the edges to prevent light areas merging into the book's paper. As it is the layouts gives the impression that perhaps several people contributed photos about the same subject.

I thought the layout of American Hydrant unfortunately letdown an interesting visual idea. BTW, you can see twenty-four of these photos on Sean Crane's website.

Beautiful photographs laid out well with a good mix of celebrity/socialite/political women who effect our lives. Very good value for money

Here is an AWESOME ROCKSTAR who knows how to express his sensitive side through his impressive work of fine arts. He was able to capture the essence and inner beauty of a woman through his black and white photography. His images present simplicity at the same time timeless.

American Women is an impressive collection of fabulous women photographed by an equally FABULOUS ROCKSTAR. That alone is worth adding to your collection. It will be the one of "THE BEST BOOK OF YOUR LIFE!" Cold Eyes

I love the book. Tina Turner is in it and I love Tina. I would suggest this book to anyone that is looking for a photography book.

Bryan Adams (Summer of 69, Have You Ever Really Loved A Woman) lost someone close to him to breast cancer and decided to become a force in raising money to combat the disease. Having already published two books on women in the UK and Canada, Adams turns his attention to the U.S and dedicates the profits of "American Women" to the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York. That effort alone earns it all the stars in the sky. This is a very talented artist who is more famous for his music than photography. You won't find any award winning photography between these pages but that wasn't the point. I believe the point was to focus on women, their strength, beauty and their value. Bryan Adams has accomplished that with a touch of class. "American Women" is worth every penny, especially if "You Ever Really Loved a Woman."

Most families collection of photos, either black and white prints or transparencies can assume mythic status if they are the only visual record of past their history. Even beat up, creased and torn images rightly become treasured possessions to be passed from one generation to the next.

The usual criteria for judging photographs obviously don't apply in the family setting but remove images from that setting and I think it's reasonable to take a more critical look at what you see and it is here I think many recent snapshot books fail. They display too many out of focus, badly composed and dull photos and perhaps the greatest fault: too many images that show people or situations that are just too personal to those involved to mean anything to an outsider.

Fortunately 'Americans in Kodachrome' avoid most of these pitfalls and presents some quite remarkable content rich photographs. The ones I thought worked best capture everyday events and pull you into the image. Photos forty-five and six show a 1964 street parade and a 1947 flag raising (both possibly July fourth?) or photos eighty-nine and ninety showing a family portrait from 1960 and another family sitting in the kitchen having a meal. The detail in these four photos is fascinating and most of the book's images have this amount of interest. There are some duds in my opinion: photo sixty-nine of at teenager eating a watermelon, taken at night is not worth a second look. Photo twenty-six of a baby boy's face with a huge bone in his mouth clearly means a lot to whoever took it but virtually nothing to outsiders who might see it.

Another reason I like this book is because the photos are presented in a formal photobook setting with one large image per page (in 175dpi) generous margins and a one line caption. Other snapshot books I've seen go for picture book look implying that the contents really are no more than 'snaps'. Fifteen photos from the book appeared in the exhibition Close to Home at the Los Angeles Getty Museum and appeared in the book of the exhibition where they were presented with many black and white photos in a rather messy picture book format. They just didn't have the same appeal and stature as they did in `Americans in Kodachrome'.

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.

Photographer Guy Stricherz lets his color pictures do the talking, presenting full-page shots in an oversized presentation which contain only a line of description and date for identifier. The effect of the white-bordered presentations in Americans In Kodachrome is to draw the viewer's eye to the picture and its underlying background and implications, more than the descriptive word. From farmers with squash in a Virginia field to participants at a Rhode Island river party in 1956 or a Hawaiian beauty contest line-up in 1958, the range of ethnic groups, communities and experiences represented in Americans In Kodacrome is eye-catching and spirited.

I have had the great privilege of seeing this project from conceptual stages through it's fruition in the form of this wonderful book and the amazing collection of images assembled by Guy Stricherz therein. Not only have I been able to see many of the original transparencies, themselves, as well as some of the tens of thousands of images from various amateur archives from which these images were brilliantly edited and carefully selected over more than ten years time...But I have also seen the magic of the dye transfer prints themselves, which Guy and his talented wife Irene Malli, have lovingly crafted, and how they have given those images a whole new life and have immortalized them for all time. I state this to assure you up front that I certainly do have some bias in writing this review, as I also have the privilege to be able to call Guy and Irene my dear friends. I state this also because it may offer an interesting perspective of having an inside view of this project, as well as how this book brilliantly succeeds in doing justice to Guy's wonderful concept. Culled from the archives of amateur photographers from across this country, Guy has carefully selected those images that will resonate on many levels, with any American who has lived through the 20th century. Immortalized by the legendary song by Paul Simon of the same title, Kodachrome slide film was used predominately throughout the period from 1945-1965 by almost every American amateur photographer to document the triumphs and tribulations of day-to-day life. The film itself has a particular color palette and vibrancy that speaks of an entire era to anyone even remotely familiar with it (even thought they may not know they are familiar with it). Through the dye transfer process (which is a painstakingly demanding archival color printing process of which Stricherz and Malli remain of the few, and most certainly the finest practicing masters on this planet of that artful craft) Guy and Irene have been able to restore, and subtly transform these images, not simply back to their original splendor, but to a rich and vibrant palette that speaks not only of years gone by, but also to the idea of `color' as `content'. The images themselves are sometimes quirky, sometimes quiet, sometimes loud and brash. Each of them succeeds, not only in preserving a unique, often mysterious, document of time and place and people, but also in engaging us to look and see beyond the subject matter. What is amazing is that these images are snapshots, created by moms and dads, aunts, and grandparents, fishing buddies, and friends of all kinds...people just like you and me (well, I'm disqualified I guess as photography is also my profession)! It is credit to Stricherz' brilliant idea, his steadfast belief in the concept, his tremendous patience, devotion and hard work, and mostly to his keen and discriminating eye for what brings magic to a color image, that this collection of images succeeds on so many different levels. These are not ordinary `snapshots' by any means! Their magic and mystery will move you. It is a tribute to post war America, and to the Americans who created and lived that life, and to those who created these images. It will delight both the non-photographer, the amateur, as well as those more versed with visual arts. I can say from first-hand experience that I was delighted to see that the reproduction in this beautiful volume certainly does justice to the amazing collection of dye transfer prints that Stricherz and Malli have crafted. I've come to expect nothing less from Twin Palms Publishers who published this book and have done many distinctive and remarkable photography books in the past. Congratulations Guy and Irene - you have realized your brilliant vision and have shared it with the world! Congratulations are also due to those individuals across the country who submitted tens of thousands of photographs for this project, both those whose images were selected, as well as those whose images were not, for it was also through their efforts and contribution that made this collection possible! Buy this book! It is destined to be a classic coffee-table photo book that will seldom see shelf-time! If you get an opportunity to see the collection of dye-transfer prints, which will be in a traveling exhibition, do not pass up that opportunity!

In 1994 or thereabouts I read an article about an exhibition to feature "snapshots" made by ordinary people using Kodachrome slide film. I sent along a 1960 photograph of my mother for review. Unfortunately it was not accepted and returned to me with thanks. Just a few months ago, having all but forgotten about it, I saw this book being advertised. It is now in my collection and I must say, "wow!". It will definately bring back memories for anyone born in the post WW II years and enthrall those who just love photography. The book is beautifully crafted and printed with heavyweight paper stock and a dust cover that folds underneath along the length. Highly recommend.

Muench is the Master. This amazing book presents his vision of the Americas before the arrival of man. Stunning, masterful, etc. etc. Sure, I can pile on the adjectives, but simply stated, this is one of my favorite Muench books just because it is so uncompromised - not having to pander to a specific area, it is plain and simple magnificent nature.

David Muench is one of the best landscape photographers I've ever come across. If you can find this book the pictures will blow you away. It is worth the price. I'm an okay photographer, this guy is so good it's hard to believe. These are literally some of the most beautiful pictures I've ever seen. If you see this book on one of the clearance racks at a book shop, get it quick

It's too much. Too much beauty. Muench is the man, and to see so much of his work together is pretty overwhelming. You have to digest this in modest chunks. A vast range of photos from his 40 years provides an insight into Muench's outstanding natural vision - his great gift. Makes a great gift.

This book deserves more than five stars, and is clearly one of the finest color landscape photography books ever published. Go to whatever lengths you must to acquire this amazingly wonderful volume!

Ancient America "celebrates the ancient threads that connect our momentary existence to a universal continuum and bind us to larger meaning." Imagine yourself as one of the first people to arrive in the Americas, having traveled across the land bridge from Siberia or across the Pacific by raft or canoe. There is no smog. There are no buildings. You simply see the grandeur of nature in its most pristine and awesome form. The world is a cathedral to you. That is the vision that Mr. Muench shares with us in this great collection.

The book begins with several stunning photographs that capture the range of the whole book. There is a brief introduction about the photography, then a superb discussion of American anthropology by Brian Fagan that creates a poetic vision of the book's subject. You will learn much about the settling of the Americas in the process. Did you know that humans arrived here only around 12,000 years ago and that populations were quite small until 350 years ago when the European immigrants began to arrive in substantial numbers?

The photographs are subdivided into the following sections: light; earth, rock, water, trees, ruins, and growth. Mr. Muench has a few final words at the end. "Timeless moments of ancient light are for me an expansion of the spirit . . . ."

Mr. Muench has many skills as a photographer. Like Ansel Adams, he is brilliant in using dawn, dusk, and moonlight to capture unusual moments and moods. Also like Mr. Adams, he has an unerring sense of composition that captures the interconnections of nature's patterns in fascinating and rewarding ways. But he exceeds Mr. Adams in his ability to use color. And all of these images are in gorgeous color. The color creates an emotional climate of spiritual peacefulness that will help you regain your sense of wonder, as you shed the distractions of "civilization."

I was particularly impressed to find that many of the images came from parts of North America that I had never seen before. In many ways, this was like exploring a new land to me. That characteristic added to my ability to let go of my preconceptions and existing emotions, and simply drink in the visual manna here.

Here are my favorite images in the book:

Moonrise, Mono Lake, California; Ancient Spruce-Fir-Hemlock Forest, Eagle Creek Gorge, Oregon; White Sands Evening, White Sands, New Mexico; Oregon Seastacks Cannon Beach, Ecola State Park, Oregon; Autumn Dawn, Millpond State Park, North Carolina; Cadiz Valley, Mohave Desert, California; Cypress Dawn, Realfoot Lake State Park, Tennessee; White Canyon Sandstone Labyrinth, Utah; Mendocino Tidal Pool, California; Dead Horse Point, Utah; Delicate Arch, Moonrise, Arches National Park, Utah; Eagle Creek Punchbowl, Oregon Cascades; Atchafalaya, Louisiana; Pinus Aristata, White Mountains, California; Birth at Puu'loa, Hawaii; Anasazi Cliff Dwelling, Utah; Cahokia Mounds, Illinois; and Sand Reed, Minnesota.

Perhaps the phrase that best captures this book is that it contains "some harmony to contemplate in beauty and ancient light the measured pace of the universe."

Having seen what the proper light and setting can do for your spirit, I suggest that you launch a search for places that evoke similar emotions in you and times when you can experience those feelings in private. Then set a regular schedule of visitations, to add a "living meditation" to whatever else you do to get in touch with yourself and the universe.

Shed the unimportant to step into the permanent grandeur of nature, and be refreshed in your humanity!

An 80's time capsule wrapped inside a Warhol designed frontspiece inside a bible... Andy would be proud. Besides the photography (printing seems meticulous), there are letters to Andy from various media figures and insightful essays. If you think about modern art at all, you should own this book.

I have known the author/photographer and his family for many years and was amazed at the quality of this projetc. Warhol would have liked it. I hope there are not too many younger people who are not aware of what all this means (Warhol) it shaped a lot of things that today we take for granted.

A long awaited tome, this is a really quite perfect little time capsule. Von Hohenberg captured the elite of NYC at Andy Warhol's last "happening" -- his memorial service -- and the letters that each famous person wrote are an excellent complement to the photos.
It is beautifully presented -- very much like a hip little Smythson diary chronicling the era. Usually, a book about a memorial service does not grab me as a must-have, but this one is!
Fun to read, fun to look at --- fashion, New York society, the art world -- it's all there in this elegantly crafted book from one of my favorite fine art photographers.

The book is produced beautifully and has some very strong images. The idea and the whole concept of the book combining images with letters of Warhol friends writing about him is unique. A must have for all art and photography lovers.

To open an art mag is to see so much art. Our world has become more and more visual in the last 20 years: MTV, Industrial Light & Magic, flashy product design... So little actually can be called arresting. Flipping through magazines, Anthony Goicolea's work actually caught my attention in the riot of color that is our modern world. Its themes are strangely diffuse but all very relevant: Our growing interest in male adolescent sexuality and aggression, our nervous anticipation of human cloning, our need to find the last taboo standing.

Goicolea's work is photomontage in which the 20something artist dresses and poses in such a way as to seem 13-15 years old. Usually, his photographs contain multiple images of himself as an early adolescent interacting with each other to produce the effect of a gaggle of boys doing boyish things. These might be anything: bullying, bare-knuckles fighting, masturbation, receiving Holy Communion, playing a prank, engaging in sport.

The photos are highly stylized, slick and beautiful. They appear a bit like movie stills of a film never made. It adds to their mystique that we are forced to fill in narrative around them. It is interesting the artist chooses to focus on early male adolescence, a time of isolation and transgression. The photos then are cool and distant while hinting at a roil of desire.

With his interchangable and narcissistic boy-clones/septuplets, Goicolea makes a statement about the closed world of the pubertal boy. His secret wants, his bewildering changes are kept to himself. The viewer looks on voyeuristically, never to truly enter the sexually febrile, wildly imaginative, wolfishly violent mind of our subject and his Doppelgangers.

This is a great book at a great price--the only problem being that Amazon doesn't actually have any to sell. I ordered this book in June (when the site offered shipping in 24-48 hours) and in their latest email they have pushed the delivery date to mid September. A phone call to customer service revealed they actually have no idea when or if they can get this book. I've had this problem before trying to order art books published in limited editions from Amazon. They'll never admit they won't ship something, so if you don't get your order quickly, I advise you to cancel and go to another source. They will never have this book in stock. You can however, still get it from the publisher, just not at Amazon's low price.

ANTHONY GOICOLEA makes art that is as much about beautiful photographic compositions as it is about the investigation of pubertal psyches. Using himself as model, Goicolea creates moments frozen by his camera to create Renaissance-like staged retablos that deal with the childlike approaches to adult dilemmas and situations. There are pranks, there are episodes of bad behavior, there are surprisingly tender moments of self-exploration. The artist's imagination is fertile and his ability to create these pictures by manipulating his own physical presence is a bit mind boggling! But the overall effect is fun and thoughtful and never cloying. How he is able to do all of this is another bit of magic beyond the resultant fine photographs. A beautiful book for the art lover's collection. Grady Harp, February 2005

off-the-hook beautiful. dark, satyrical, amazing and original
storytelling - painstaking composition,staging. an eye for
stark, whimsical truth.

highly recommended...

Louis Kahn would have loved this book. Silence and beauty permeate its pages. Intense.

Architecture of Silence is a finely wrought volume of exceptional interest and beauty. Its temporal actuality immediately evokes the devotional themes which are contained within its pages. The book feels like a sacred text which was printed and bound by hand, out of love.

Cistercian cenobites understood that interior spaces were at least as significant and meaningful in the natural order of things as surface manifestations. They believed that divinity resides in places that cannot necessarily be seen or immediately sensed. Architecture Of Silence conveys splendidly the essence of this belief as expressed through the physical monuments they created in worship.

Heald is head photographer for the Guggenheim Museum of New York. He is far more than an expert photographic technician, however. The book exemplifies uncompromisingly conscious, staggeringly sensitive image making. As he composed and developed these images, Heald must have had a vivifying rapport with the same extraordinary source of energy and insight that infused the psyches of the original builders of these Abbeys. Wonderful. Inspiring. Awesome. Excellent essay too.

I was on a spiritual pilgrimage in France in October 2000, and I toured most of the abbeys that are featured in this book. I did not see this book until after I returned from France, and I must admit that the photos in this text are the most impressive of all the books that I have viewed on Cistercian architecture. I love this book ! The photographer has been able to capture the peace, simplicity, and soul of these medieval monuments. How many photography books actually bring your spirit to a deeper level of tranquility? This one surely will. The introduction is beautifully written and was composed by The expert and scholar of Cistercian architecture. I also recommend another excellent book on this subject: Cistercians: Monks and Monasteries of Europe, by Stephen Tobin.

When other people have said it better than you allready, all you can do is refer to them :) This book is quite simply a greate buy, And will make a wonderfull gift. Full of Jim`s great art, and some history around the work & creation of some of them. Sure to apply to most people you show it to.

This book covers the life and times of Jim Warren from his early development through his successful transition to full-time painter of the absurd, surreal or stunningly accurate portraits. To say he is unique is, of course, a gross understatement. The only thing I would have done to improve the book would be to put SECRET SPOT on the cover!

This is a great book. It shows in depth how he likes to do his paintings. I love the way he transforms life with the elements, such as horses turning into water and the many other fantastic things you notice on each painting. There's no one else like him, nor will there be. He's a very unique and highly creative artist. I love the book!!!

Jim Warren has produced an art book that provides a graphic insight into his bizarre and imaginative world that will be sure to stimulate thought and discussion. Beautiful images of his women are interspersed with twisted, unnatural images of horror and the dark. This will be a true collectors item and I can't wait for Vol 2!

I have to admit up front that I know both authors. They are colleagues from our time together at WABC-TV's Eyewitness News back in the early 1980's. 25 years later, I was surprised and excited to hear they had gotten together to write this book, and I'm even more surprised now to see how much fun it is to read. Growing up, I was a big fan of the "Justice Story" that ran every Sunday in New York's Daily News, and this book is like a collection of many of those great tales. From important cases to sensational crimes to the kind of celebrity insanity that exists in the hometown of "Page Six," the book is a great trip down memory lane. Lou writes insightful, colorful and clear brief stories for each case covered in the book. Marilyn's art is beautifully presented and we get fascinating "behind the scenes" stories about how courtroom artists work and what they experience as they focus on major and minor criminals through the years. It is entertaining and breezy, both serious and fun. The kind of book that's easy to pick up and enjoy in ten-minute bursts or while hanging out for hours. It is also unique-- nothing like it has been done and you close the covers knowing like you have learned something while fulfilling your nostalgic needs.

Marilyn Church's drawings are proof that trials shouldn't be televised: Her sketches express much more than photos could. But more than an art book, this is actually a superb guide to three decades of American legal history. Lou Young has a stunning ability to make sense of complex court cases in brief, captivating prose. Reading his summaries of these legal dramas, one finally understands why the jury had to let OJ walk free, and how El Sayyid Nosair evaded conviction for shooting Meir Kahane in a roomful of potential witnesses. Young's restrained descriptions of the false convictions in the Central Park jogger trial and of Hurricane Carter's travails are reminders of how imperfect an art justice can be. A good jury would award this book six stars, if only Amazon would allow it.
Gershom Gorenberg, author of "The Accidental Empire: Israel and the Birth of the Settlements, 1967-1977."

Marilyn Church's drawings are proof that trials shouldn't be televised: Her sketches express much more than photos could. But more than an art book, this is actually a superb guide to three decades of American legal history. Lou Young has a stunning ability to make sense of complex court cases in brief, captivating prose. Reading his summaries of these legal dramas, one finally understands why the jury had to let OJ walk free, and how El Sayyid Nosair evaded conviction for shooting Meir Kahane in a roomful of potential witnesses. Young's restrained descriptions of the false convictions in the Central Park jogger trial and of Hurricane Carter's travails are reminders of how imperfect an art justice can be. A good jury would award this book six stars, if only Amazon would allow it.
Gershom Gorenberg, author of "The Accidental Empire: Israel and the Birth of the Settlements, 1967-1977."

The Art of Justice is much, much more than its subtitle ("An Eyewitness View of Thirty Infamous Trials") lets on. The thirty criminal trials in this gorgeous large-format book span the decades from the 1970's to the present. Courtroom scenes are portrayed in striking full-color sketches, accompanied by an objective narrative about the indictment, evidence, courtroom atmosphere, media coverage, and American cultural pulse. I actually hesitated about picking up the book, because I envisioned it as an art piece, and while it is most certainly artistic, the book is also about the American collective memory, the changing face of true crime coverage over the course of three decades, the meaning of celebrity, and the indelible personal impressions of people who were present in these courtrooms as journalists and sketch artists.

The impressions of courtroom artist Marilyn Church take this book to the next level. She writes about the hilarious scene created when Marla Maples's pilfered stockings and high heels were displayed in courtroom trial of her stalker: "I had fun pulling them into the center of the drawing, emphasizing the bizarre scene of footwear spilling everywhere." Most other scenes have a more somber tone, such as the judge's order for all artists to stow their drawing supplies when the Central Park Jogger rape victim was on the stand. Chruch also provides insight into the stony, vacant manner of Preppie Murderer Robert Chambers; he chilled her to the bone because her own children could have easily been his peers and friends, at risk from this cold sociopath.

Church's career spans all the significant trials of the last thirty decades, from the modern celebrity trials of Sean "Puffy" Combs and Martha Stewart, to the Fall of the Teflon Don, John Gotti, to famous crimes by The Long Island Lolita and The Son of Sam. Yes, O.J. is here, too. Church was commissioned to create courtroom sketches for the trial precisely because every other media source had full-color glossy images from live video and photo, and one magazine wanted something to set themselves apart--what better than a good, old-fashioned full-color sketch?

As someone who was raised on the O.J. trial, I enjoyed this book as a history lesson. I was in junior high for the first World Trade Center attacks (1993), and it most affected me because my class trip to New York city was cancelled as a result. With a decade-plus of hindsight, and having lived as a NY resident through the 2001 attacks, I had an entirely different perspective on the event and trial, and the narrative at hand provided much-needed insight into jihad in America in the early 1990's.

This is truly a courtside seat to history, one that has the advantage of post-trial hindsight, so that stories can be told in full detail, with all the post-verdict developments. I enjoyed this as a history lesson, as an exploration of the criminal trials I grew up on, and as a poignant perspective on the changing face of criminal trials in the last 35 years. Some of the trials of the 1970's dealt with issues that seem long-settled to me, as a child of the 1980's. As a bonus, this book not only provides detailed insight into 30 infamous trials, it concludes with a "Celebrity Gallery" of famous faces in various trials. Celebrities sketched included Truman Capote, a bloated David Crosby, Mick Jagger, Don King ("everyone else seems diminished when King is in the room"), Mayflower Madame Sidney Biddle Barrows, Imelda Marcos, and Sid Vicious (among many others).