Commercials Books

Brian continues to do a job for all aviation by TELLING IT LIKE IT IS. This is over due in aviation.
Paul Stebelton, USAF Pilot (Retired), Accident Prevention Specialist (FAA, 13 years)

Do you think your safe? Maybe you'll think again after reading Captain Power-Waters Danger in the Air. This bestselling author unleashes yet another earthshaking book blasting the FAA and Airline Industry as he uncovers their unsafe practices. Now when I'm on an airliner, I have to ask myself, "Do I feel luck?"
Captain Steve Goodman, Air Frame and Power Plant Mechanic, Aircraft Inspector

If you are interested in the inside story of the attack on America, how the Federal Aviation Administration contributed to it, how airport security is still a Joke, and how the FAA and airlines are fighting to extend the time a pilot is confined to the cockpit, then this is the book for you.
Carl T. Butterworth, Senior Captain, American Airlines, Retired Brigadier General, Air National Guard

Captain Power-Waters, drawing on his vast experience in aviation...brings together facts and information concerning the truth about aviation safety and the failures made by the agency tasked with overseeing it-the FAA.
William A. Faville, Former Director, Safety and Technology, National Air Traffic Controller Association

An enthusiastic thumbs-up to Captain Brian Power-Waters, America's conscience on air safety. Danger in the Air pulls no punches and harbors no sacred cows... will make you uneasy and angry, and may drive you to scream for reforms.
Alex Michelini, former award-winning Investigative Reporter, New York Daily News

Beautifully and incisively illustrated, full of contemporary comments and criticism by colleagues and critics, a solid biography of both Eero and Elial Saarinem, the author of this book illuminates and informs all streams of his important life and work. Readable and full of detail, this book is a great way to get to know Saarinen, and to know him very well.

Merkel's study of Eero Saarinen is authoritative while making some important normative points about the obligation of architects to honor their clients' objectives.

She describes his studio's method:

1. Definition of the "functional program" with considerable research
2. "Expression of the program" in the concept
3. Selection of appropriate "structure"
4. "Design"

The client was involved in each phase, participating in the research to define and prioritize requirements, reviewing architectural concepts for resolving their specific conflicts and approving structural approaches, materials and budgets prior to beginning detailed design.

"His were unusual, ambitious, challenging buildings. The variety in the work, the "style for the job" philosophy, as it was called, was really the result of the way he worked and the fact he believed architectural form should derive from function in the broadest possible sense."


He was singularly collaborative in his approach, using the resources of his clients, among them "the technical innovators of his period (General Motors, MIT, IBM, Bell Labs)" to automate design, adapt new materials, and refine his craft.

"Eero could meet each client on his own terms. He respected his clients and what they wanted to do (something that many architects with their own objectives fail to do) because, though he believed architecture should aspire to be art, he saw it as one grounded in use."

For more on the fundamental difference of his approach from that of such stylists as Frank Lloyd Wright.
A Management Consultant @ Large: Best Practices in Architecture

Disclosure: I'm an architect who began the journey towards the profession by writing an undergraduate thesis on Saarinen in the late 1960s.
Many of the things that were intriguing about his work then-the curious combination of 50s zen emptiness with passages of delicate, almost decorative, details-and the search for form which veers from neo-Miesian boxes to the curves and cylinders of MIT to the neo-vernacular stone of the Yale Colleges to the sinuous curves of the TWA and Dulles terminals-these explorations fascinate still and have much to teach us.
Merkel's book takes all these strains, examines their roots and development in a clear and comprehensive way.
Merkel has made a wonderful book, one that brings Saarinen's work back to life.
The images are stunning and so full of information, a nice balance of design process and completed buildings.
The text is full of fascinating information, much of it freshly researched-a compelling read.
The book design is gorgeous, and I don't just mean the stunning visual design.
Merkel has focused on design explorations and the strong built work of Saarinen without stalling us unduly in the less successful work.
If you're interested in Saarinen's work, get this book!

Merkel's handsome volume is a pleasure to read and to view, as it contains great vintage photographs of Eero Sarinen's projects. The author's special contribution is her insightful contextualization of Saarinen's original and eclectic output through discussions of his background, working methodology, and the critical reactions his buildings elicited.

Merkel's book is one of those monographs that open so many doors onto the work of an artist or architect that you never view it in quite the same way again. Saarinen's buildings are analyzed in all their surprising variety, with an open acknowledgment of their differences, rather than an insistence on an individual style. The special emphasis placed on the critical responses to the projects when they were built is particularly enlightening and should serve as a model for the study of modern architectural history. The author, with a refreshing willingness to deal with negative material as well as positive, asks and answers the very interesting question of the reasons for the decline in Saarinen's reputation after his untimely death. This book is very valuable as a study of Saarinen and also for its insights into the development and fluctuations of movements in modern architecture.

Complete catalog of the Factory cover art, posters, etc. Factory perfected the symbiosis between the music and art.

This book is an awesome look back at some of the best artwork and packaging of its time. The footnotes for each "Fac" are interesting and the reproductions of the artwork are showcased nicely. I only wish there were some photos of the packaging, for instance the famous Blue Monday single with the die-cut, it would have been nice to see how it looked. Still, I think this is a great book!

I've always been a huge fan of Factory Records and the designs of Peter Saville so this book was a dream come true. Pictures of all the artwork from Fac 1 onwards, all the New Order, Joy Division, Happy Mondays, Durutti Column - everything you could want.
A wonderful gorgeous book, the pictures are bright and clear, plus history and stories on major aspects of the artwork - highly recommended fro any Factory / New Order / Peter Saville fan.

This is an excellent book for fans of Factory Records. Factory was label that always had beautiful graphic design work. The album covers and poster art were a showcase for the design work of Peter Saville. I highly recommend this thorough book to fans of the label.

FACTORY RECORDS: THE COMPLETE GRAPHIC ALBUM could have been featured in our Music Shelf area but is profiled here for its artistic visual inspection of one British music label's eye-catching covers and productions. Notes for each production outline the varying graphic design choices which made the albums notable and different, making this a fine choice not just for contemporary music libraries but for art library holdings strong in graphic arts representations.

Complete catalog of the Factory cover art, posters, etc. Factory perfected the symbiosis between the music and art.

This book is an awesome look back at some of the best artwork and packaging of its time. The footnotes for each "Fac" are interesting and the reproductions of the artwork are showcased nicely. I only wish there were some photos of the packaging, for instance the famous Blue Monday single with the die-cut, it would have been nice to see how it looked. Still, I think this is a great book!

I've always been a huge fan of Factory Records and the designs of Peter Saville so this book was a dream come true. Pictures of all the artwork from Fac 1 onwards, all the New Order, Joy Division, Happy Mondays, Durutti Column - everything you could want.
A wonderful gorgeous book, the pictures are bright and clear, plus history and stories on major aspects of the artwork - highly recommended fro any Factory / New Order / Peter Saville fan.

This is an excellent book for fans of Factory Records. Factory was label that always had beautiful graphic design work. The album covers and poster art were a showcase for the design work of Peter Saville. I highly recommend this thorough book to fans of the label.

FACTORY RECORDS: THE COMPLETE GRAPHIC ALBUM could have been featured in our Music Shelf area but is profiled here for its artistic visual inspection of one British music label's eye-catching covers and productions. Notes for each production outline the varying graphic design choices which made the albums notable and different, making this a fine choice not just for contemporary music libraries but for art library holdings strong in graphic arts representations.

My teacher recommmended that I get this book and I absoulutely love it. Karen Hagen is a great illustrator and gives a variety of ideas of different mediums to use and how to coordinate them all together. This book is also great for those who don't quite know how to draw. There are step by step instructions and the illustrations are great!

I have purchased almost every book on fashion illustration out there, and this is still the best. It covers all media, has beautiful full color illustrations and hundreds of black and white. It also shows how to illustrate males and children of all ages.

I found this book the best for examples on learning to draw draped garments on the body. Although not explicitly meant for this purpose, this book divides each type of garment by chapter and gives examples for drawing them, appropriately. I find her approach realistic, and her style excellent. She definitely helped me!

i teach from this book and it is instrumental in creating enormous breakthroughs in students' sketching abilities. you will never tire of this book. loads of information. a must.

I have a lot of worthless books on fashion illustration, however, this one is not one of those. It is worth the money and then some. She is clearly a good teacher, the illustrations are great and the videos are a bonus. Buy this book, you won't be disappointed.

There's a lot to like in this book. It's comprehensive and easily the most readable 1500 page book you are ever likely to encounter.

Two substantive criticisms (i) it can be astonishingly opinionated at times. There is a pronounced pro-Bell bias and a dismissive attitude toward regulation and regulators generally. Not every reader will consider that a bad thing, but I found it shrill and annoying. (ii) The book can be very weak and frequently inaccurate when it wanders off the law and into policy analysis. I didn't sense that the authors were particularly knowledgeable about economics or technology and it showed in a poor comprehension of the reasoning behind FCC policy.

I was surprised that another reviewer recommended Benjamin's 'Telecommunications Law and Policy' as an easier introduction. Benjamin et al is an excellent casebook, but Kellogg et al is an easier read. In fact, they are excellent complements as Benjamin provides the more authoritative reference with lots of source materials. Sharon Black's book is an excellent but basic introduction to Telecom Law.

My recommendation. Read Black, then Kellogg, then Benjamin. That's not an order of preference, just the best sequence to peel away the onion of telecom law.

This is a comprehensive introduction to all sorts of telecommunications (mainly telephone regulation) issues. It's probably a bit much for the novice; something like Stuart Benjamin's Telecommunications Law and Policy is probably a better match there. But, if you want all the details, this is definitely the place to go.

This book was amazing. I could not put it down. The interesting and comprehensible writing was magnificently crafted and very thought-provoking, a real page turner.

This book gives the novice a very accessible route to the world of telecommunications and gives the expert a very comprehensive reference book. Very highly recommended. The FCC wants universal service? This book is universal in and of itself.

There isn't anything else like this on the market. It contains all the FCC and court and DOJ lore on telecom from the beginning of the century through the 1996 Act up to the present. The spicy bits apparently were written by pundit Peter Huber (who isn't identified in the listing above).

From inside book jacket:

On July 23, 1983, Captain Bob Pearson climbed into the cockpit of a twin-engine Boeing 767, one of the most sophisticated airliners in the world. Preparing to guide Air Canada flight 143 from Montreal to Ottawa and then on to Edmonton, he checked his systems and entered into the computers the information he received from the ground crew. One of the maintenance men, in charge of fueling the craft, experienced a bit of difficulty with his math. The 767's computers utilized only metric calculations, and the maintenance man struggled to convert conventional measures into the unfamiliar numbers. He informed Pearson that the plane was fully fueled when, in fact, it was 26,000 pounds short.

The stopover in Ottawa was brief. They had no plans for refueling and now there was no apparent need.

Then, with no warning, 41,000 feet and westbound over Red Lake, Ontario, the portside engine failed. Seconds later, Pearson and Quintal, his copilot, realized that the starboard engine also had failed, terminating all electrical power. An eerie silence shrouded the plane as flight crew and passengers attempted to deny reality. They were now floating silently at 41,000 feet. The nose of the plane dipped precipitously; the gliding craft lost airspeed and altitude. They had a maximum of twenty-nine minutes to prepare for their certain death.

Freefall is the story of Flight 143. A brilliant recreation in which we relive the terror of those twenty-nine minutes through the eyes of those who experienced it. You will never look at flying in exactly the same way again.

Bill and Marilyn H offer, freelance journalists, together have produced over one thousand magazine articles and nine books, including the international bestseller Midnight Express, and Not Without My Daughter. They live in Virginia.



From back of book jacket:

Maurice Quintal gripped his cockpit microphone.
"Winnipeg Center, Air Canada 143," he called.
"Air Canada 143, go ahead," came the reply.
"Yes, sir," Quintal said. Then he spoke the four words that would carry, not only to Winnipeg ATC, but to aircraft cruising over a wide radius. Pilots throughout the skies of central Canada now picked up their ears. Gone was the droning routine of the early Saturday evening. Crew members in other cockpits turned to look at one another, as they heard Quintal's voice crackle over the radio: "We have a problem."

Suddenly, at 22 seconds past 0121 GMT, the cockpit was plunged into darkness. The bright, color-coded, easy-to-read data units provided by the flight management computer, the bank of digital displays that reported airspeed, altitude, compass direction, navigational data, engine speed, temperature, and the RPMs, fuel flow, oil quantity-- even the clock and the cabin thermometer--the entire array of "gee-whiz" electronic gadgetry in the cockpit of the world's most sophisticated airliner--vanished in an instant.
The glow of the late afternoon sun illuminated the faces of the three men in ghastly relief.

"How come I have no instruments?" Pearson asked, incredulous.

The answer was as simple as it was terrifying. The Space Age technology of the 767 cockpit feeds upon electricity supplied by generators run by the two massive engines. The engines, in turn, are powered by type Jet A-1 fuel. It had never happened before--in fact, neither Boeing, nor Air Canada, nor Pearson, nor Quintal, nor Dion had ever contemplated the scenario--but if a 767 runs out of fuel, a diabolical domino effect takes place. The engines quit. In turn, this stops the generators, halts the production of electricity, and transforms the computerized cockpit displays into darkened, totally useless cathode ray tubes. To Pearson it seemed as if the cockpit had become the darkest place in the world.

Incredible as it seemed, they had run out of fuel.

--from Freefall



This is an excellent book, especially recommended for pilots, who will understand better than most how difficult the job of the flight crew in saving this plane and its passengers and how amazing their survival was.

How can so much fictional garbage sell for $20.00 or so, while a grippingly-well-narrated TRUE story like this goes for $0.25 used - itsa bargain !

This book is like glue. Once you put it into your hands you can't put it down. This is a story based on factual events that could not have a better ending. Great analysis of the chain of events that led to this incident. I strongly recommend it.

Hey, my name is chris, i happend to be on flight 143, the flight this book is wriiten about. when it happend, i was only 3, although i still remeber it. I read this book when i was 12, and from my memories of the flight, it was dead on, great book.

I read this book while on a recent 10 hour trans-Atlantic flight to pass the time and kind of spice things up (e.g. turn my long flight into a Disneyesque "Roller Coaster of Death" ride, where you really know you're going to step off perfectly intact at the end).

This great non-fiction book gives a detailed recounting of Air Canada flight 143, which in 1983 ran flat out of fuel while at 41,000 feet over Middle of Nowhere, Manitoba. Yes, TRUE STORY! (Don't let the 41,000 feet scare you -- altitude is your friend when out of fuel).

The writers give a little biography of some of the key crew members and passengers, which was only somewhat interesting to me (however, I was very interested in the flying history/experience of the cockpit crew). The star of the story however, is the fuel-less Boeing 767 and the frantic efforts of the Air Canada team to get the plane on the ground safely.

Authors William and Marilyn Hoffer did an excellent job of providing the technical aspects of the aircraft and industry without ever going over my head. I felt like I understood at each stage of the story, why something had happened to the aircraft, and what the impact was. Ditto for the sequence of actions by the entire flight crew.

I'm assuming the reader has figured out that this wasn't a mass loss of life disaster (duh, there is even a previous Review by a person that claims to have been on the flight). Not wanting to give too much away, I'll merely add that many fortuitous "coincidences" in the tale were not lost on me. Such as: Captain Bob Pearson was a hobby glider pilot (767s are not designed to "glide", but when in such straits, every bit helps), and, another occupant on the plane "vaguely recalled" a possible landing sight. There were many such bits and pieces which fit together and kept this from become a huge disaster. I was AMAZED at how many things were outside of the pilots scope of training and flight manual contingencies (This was 1983. Things are better now.?).

Plenty of white-knuckle moments. There were even some injuries . . . the source of those is a bit of irony. A few slow parts to the book, but then back to the cockpit and the excitement. The suspense becomes literally heart-pounding as the plane sinks ever closer to the ground.

It's an easy, quick, and rather educational read. Pick up a copy for your next long flight.

This book is just plain fun. For anyone who admires Galliano, you should enjoy this book. Galliano is quite an imaginative designer, and this book contains lots of photos of his creations, along with a bit of personal information about the designer and behind-the-scenes photos as well. From outrageous to beautiful clothing.

a great provider of information, artistic direction, and visual stimulation. i can't put it down

Thank you Colin McDowell! John Galliano to me is the most talented designer in the world, and I have always been waiting for books to be published. This is very completely story of who he is, how he works, and how he gets inspired which will in turn inspires many other creative people of the same wavelength. The book is very detailed and incredibly beautiful and intricate.

If one wants an insight into the mind of the most creative force in fashion, this is the book to get! The escentric John Galliano has been praised as the greatest fashion stylist and designer of our time (all of this praise was given at such a young time in his career).This beautiful book proves why Galliano is the fashion force that he is. A "work in progress" is the term the author uses to describes this book about Galliano. It is not a biography,though it briefly cronicles his childhood and days in St. Martin's School,nor is it a retrospective. What this book does, though, is disect a master at the verge of stardom, from his graduation show at St. Martin's to his stint at Givenchy to his sucess at Christian Dior,as well as his independant line.Beautiful photography shows the reader Galliano's process of creating a collecton from start to finish.Pages from his concept book is shown, giving readers a gimpse into how Galliano thinks and creates.Above all else,the best part is Galliano's creations, and that is the best part about the book.In it,one can see how the master's work evolves from different points in his young career.I highly recommend this book about a master's "work in progress" .

GALLIANO IS THE MOST AMAZING COUTURIER ALIVE IN TODAY'S HAUTE COUTURE. HIS CLOTHES BOTH FOR DIOR AND HIS LABEL ARE WONDERFUL CREATIONS. THIS BOOK IS FILL WITH BREATHTAKING CLOTHES MODELED BY TRUE SUPERMODELS . HE IS AN ARTIST AND EACH OF HIS DESIGNS IS A MASTERPIECE

I found this in the Rizzoli bookstore and had to slit the shrinkwrap to see what the book was like. Then sat down in a soft chair to browse through it but after a half hour decided it made more sense to just buy it and read it at home. Not disappointed. The book covers everything in great detail - lots of text - with pictures of hotels from the Chilean Andes to London and Paris and New York. A "must have" for people interested in travel and hotels and architecture.

I was assigned to teach at the Master Degree class on "Facility Management" subject focusing on Hotel Facility. I have gone through several books regarding hotel design. I think this book is the best of all. Any designer who reads this book back to back will certainly understand the whole concept. It is not only about how to design the hotel as an architecture piece, but the reader will also understand the hospitality business. This book also covers the design and management issues of related topics such as "Restaurant", "Entertainment Venue" in the hotel. It is the 'must have' for all architects who want to design a hotel efficiently. It can also be a good book for anyone who is in the hospitality business and currently in charge of renovating or upgrading the hotel space; or the hotel's representative who need to communicate with architects or interior designer. This book can be the great tool to evaluate the result of the hotel construction project or even to 'correct' it. The tables and formulas for space calculation in this book are easy enough for anyone to understand. This book can be of great use to all building design professionals. It can also be a valuable one for any people who is interested in hotel business.

The work of hotel design and planning is different from other architectural works; it requires an indepth understanding of hotel business. Therefore, the hotel architecture became one of the toughest job for architects. (Another job is the hospital architecture.)

However, this book proposed design guidelines for a hotel fit to the business pattern. First, it explains various types of hotel properties. Second, it shows not only design guidelines for facilities but also planning approach methods for location selecting and size determination. Finally, if you read this book, you can consider efficient management system of the property from the early phase of design.

Among numerous books on hotel architecture, I think this book is the most outstanding resource.

I am an Interior Design student and found this book very helpful in completing a hospitality design. It provides a breakdown of the areas of the hotel, the different types of hotels, and the type of customers that use them. It really helped me in laying out the floor plan. There are also some awesome color pictures of fabulous hotels in the world. I highly recommend for anyone interested in hospitality design.

This a book that be should always be close to you if you work in the hotel development industry.

This books contains mostly low rise building, stadium, and stores in Europe that shows exordinary variety of materials used in exterior skins. A eye opener that give a glimps of the recent development of curtain wall design and the creativity involved in solving various problems. Each case contains at least horizontal and vertical sections drawings with materials table and background introduction of its functions, and some has enlarged photo of particular features which is useful to study how it was constructed. While in some cases I wish more close-up pictures were given, but at least for the most part it was more useful than most of architectual books which only offer overall view of the building and it liveup the name 'in detail' which I was looking for.

A must have for all architects and those interested in how buildings come together and the importance the skin plays. As specially when trying new materials.

There was a time when there was no question as to what the outside skin of a building was going to be, glass alternating with metal panels. Something monolithic looking like the UN building.

Now significant advances in materials, architectural design, creative use of conventional materials like shingles, concrete, or sprayed on foam are producing building where the skin becomes more than just what you see.

The book is organized into two main sections. The first third or so is used to describe the general changes that have been taking place in the general area of building skins.

The last two thirds show where various treatments have been used in actual buildings. The buildings vary from tiny, micro houses to athletic stadiums, stores to factories.

This is European publication. Most of the buildings are in Europe, with a few from Japan. They represent the most significant advances in design I have seen in a long time.

Great examples of innovative building skins with good details.
Highly recommended for architects and architecture lovers.

I cannot say enough about the quality of this entire series, and this book is among the best of the set. Few architecture books are of this high quality; one usually expects some level of editorial compromise; either we get lightweight analysis and documentation with beautiful photographs, or you get overly complex, teched out stuff that doesn't understand the fundamental concepts. Or it's just bad architecture. But this entire series, from the quality of the writing, the great beauty and clarity of the drawings, and finally to the aptness and excellence of the finished architecture; it represents the new state of the art. Buy the whole series, but start with this one and "Building Simply", which I'll rave about separately.