Washington Books

I first encountered Wang Shixiang's writing when I found his book on pigeon whistles in an active animal and insect market in Beijing. That book opened up entire worlds to me . This man is a Cultural Icon in Beijing and has been awarded many prizes in China and internationally as well. His writing is lucid, playful , and passionate and his scholarship is without equal. His best known books on Ming furniture set the world standards on judging pieces and his personal collection of furniture forms the basis of the collection in the Shanghai Museum. This book on Bamboo Carving is a delight from beginning to end and the examples in it make you see the life and vitality in the artists' work. The article on judging authenticity is also very valuable and almost a model for the evaluation of Chinese antiques . Having spent a year in China staring at objects in both museums and on blankets in Temple markets, I assure you it is not ever easy to tell whether what you are seeing was produced yesterday or a century ago . This book gives you a way into a world most Westerners have never seen .

This book is a must have for anyone traveling Interstate 5. I especially like it for the details on pet areas and trailer access. It's the perfect size to fit in the glove box. This book also makes a great gift! The information on the kiosks around our local area is helpful too. If you are even in the next town over, you can look in the book and find a spot to stop.

"Bark Structure of North American Conifers,
Technical Bulletin No. 1095, December 1954,
By Ying-Pe-Chang,
Forest Products Laboratory, Forest Service,
86 Pages, booklet style paperback.
Published by United States Department of Agriculture, Washington, D.C."

"An anatomical description of bark cells was first recorded in the 17th century, when Robert Hooke observed "cells" in cork and other tissues under the "magnifying" and published his discovery in 1665 in his Micrographia.

Founders of plant anatomy, such as Malpighi and Grew and their successors up to the late 19th century, were interested in studying stems as a whole rather than parts of them, but the material thy used was mostly from young branches....."

"..... In order to obtain a full picture of the native barks, a comparative study of a natural systematic group seems indispensable.
For this reason, the study reported here COVERED ALL THE NORTH AMERICAN GENERA AND INCLUDED THE COMMERCIALLY IMPORTANT SPECIES OF CONIFERS.
The project was approached with the following objectives:....."

[from the book of the introduction]

Having been a lifelong baseball fan, and living in the Washington DC area, I lived through the trauma of having baseball torn from my grasp. With the Nationals coming back into town, I was once more able to experience the joys of the Nation's Past Time with the Nationals.

Thanks to Jim Hartley, and his wonderful book...BASEBALL IS BACK...I'm once more enthralled with the game. Packed with great insights from a noted Washington baseball historian, this book completes the bridge between Washington's baseball past and now the future!

Reed Browning's "Baseball's Greatest Season, 1924" makes the assertion that, given the close pennant races in both leagues, the 1924 season is the greatest in history. I thought that 1908 was pretty good, maybe the best, but Browning does have some convincing arguments for 1924: it was a watershed year for baseball, after World War I, the lively ball, the rookies and near rookies who began then or were breaking in around that time, and the last major scandal involving the throwing of games. Plus, it had a very exciting World Series involving a first time league champion versus one that had just won its league for the fourth time in a row.

Browning constructed his book in an interesting way, alternating the happenings of the sixteen teams during the year with the off-the-field aspects of baseball during that time. It is an effective way of getting a well-rounded picture of the total baseball scene for 1924. For example, a chapter may cover the period from Memorial Day to the 4th of July, and the surges and failings of the pennant contenders and second division teams are outlined. The next chapter may be about the business of baseball in the mid-1920s: how the money was earned by each club, how it was spent, and how much might be spent on which items. There are some that may find this kind of information less interesting than pennant races, or a distraction to the flow of the book, but there are also those who find this information interesting and may enjoy this slight break in the 1924 season to get an overall view of baseball in that era.

Overall, it is most interesting book, one that has the drama of exciting pennant races, the joy of a national hero making his first World Series appearance, a seven-game contest between contrasting styles of play, extra inning dramatics several times during the Series, unexpected quirks of fate in the last game, and, as in all good plots, a surprising ending. It's definitely a good book to read.

For anyone interested in the nuts and bolts of big city politics in the 80's should get their hands on this out of print book. This is not abstract poli sci, but a detailed journalistic account of Chicago Mayor Harold Washington's last campaign in 1987 and his polarized battles with City Council and the powerful white ethnic ward machines.
This book packs a lot of detail and personal accounts and goes beyond just Washington but deals with his various opponents including ex-Mayor Jane Byrd and City Council leader Eddie Vrdolyak. Even if you're not from Chicago, this is fascinating reading for anyone with an interest in raw street level big city politics; the kind of politics that is Chicago as an ice-cold Old Style and a big brat on a hot July day at Wrigley.

This is meant to be a guide to the Bead Timeline exhibit in Washington, DC. It does not include the earliest neolithic beads that have been found dating back as far as 100,000 BC. What it does give is a very good commentary on the techniques of bead making from about 12,000 BC up to 1200 CE, and shows good examples from the collection. There is ample information about where beads have been found (everywhere) and it alludes to the role beads have played in cultural diffusion and technological development. As new discoveries are made, the collection will be expanded.

Lankton tells us he hopes that, after seeing a small sample, the reader will want to visit the actual collection. He has convinced me.

Ralph Flowers is called the bear man. Ralph retired with 1161 bear kills. This is a sequel to Ralphs previous book " The education of a bear hunter" in which he told the hunting experiences of his unique career. In bears and flowers Ralph tells many exciting bear hunting stories as well as adventures in europe, Africa, Japan,Canada, and Alaska.

This book contains very beautiful and fine selected pictures of Seattle. In a very sympathic way author Cheryl Landes tells little stories about Seattle.

This book is made for people who like to get a little and beautiful impression of Seattle.

Gram-for-gram, the best little book in the world on this subject --- a true masterpiece. Each quartet, as well as the String Trios Op 9, and the Quintet Op 29, is discussed individually, with appropriate musical examples. The wit, insight, and vast musical knowledge and memory, makes this a priceless gem.