Pennsylvania Books

I strongly recommend this book to people who like poetry, and even to those who don't. Full of great phrases that stick in your head.

Setting The World In Order is an impressive compendium of poetry showcasing Rick Campbell's intensely personal style, grace, and storytelling approach to the genre. Legend: He came from a land that didn't need words./Fire singed the sky, soot and ash/settled on the tongue. Speech/was furred and superfluous,. He grew older and left, crisscrossed/America, sat silent and stranger/in the loud seats of cars. Salesman/and truck driver wove their special language,/piston-driven to talk and brood./He listened and thought his shadow/saved them from their lost dreams./Throughout his land he became legend./Buck's boy who never talked. No one/at the Legion or VFW; no one/ at the hundred Bohunk and Italian bars;/no one at J&L, Armco, Coppers,/Phoenix Glass, or American Bridge;/no cops; no railroad dicks;/no coaches named Maccalini/ever heard him speak. he saved it./It's for you and you haven't come yet.

I think that this book is great because it is kind of a mystery about a mythical creature. It is about three kids who move because their father died.When one of the kids lets their dog loose, she runs into the forest. When they chase after her, they find a hoofprint and the older sister is certain it is a unicorn print. She is determined to capture it and the other two kids think she is crazy.

Loralee W. age 9

In The Shadowed Unicorn, twelve-year-old Brendan, his irrepressible "older" twin, Nick, and their sister Ami, all struggle to cope with the sudden death of their father and the family's recent move from New York City to an old farmhouse in Pennsylvania. When Ami begins to fantasize about finding a unicorn, then discovers mysterious hoofprints in the woods, she tacks the beast to a farm owned by "the Ogre", a recluse the locals believe is responsible for the death of a child. Despite this danger, Ami insists her brothers follow her up the mountain on an adventure that puts them all in serious danger. A highly recommended and entertaining novel for school and community library collections, The Shadowed Unicorn establishes Sheila Welch as a gifted storyteller.

A detailed and fascinating study of international trade and Safavid politics in the seventeenth century. I found it to be extremely well researched, drawing together evidence from Armenian and Persian documents, as well as European archival collections. The book chiefly focuses on the Armenian merchants who managed the export of silk from Iran to Europe, and the import of European silver back to Iran and India. It successfully demonstrates the crucial financial role these merchants played in the consolidation of the Safavid state in Iran, with comparisons to other outsiders financing the formation of absolutist states in Europe.

I found this book to be an excellent analysis of the a part of the Iranian economy during the Safavi period. Although it is slanted toward the Armenian minority and does not cover the whole economy, it provides a unique and preceptive view of a section of the economy that has been ignored. Aside from bringing to light the power of the Armenian minority in a hypothetically theocratic state, it will change the reader's preception of the economic, political and social sophistication of Iran and, in fact, the Middle East at the time of European expansion. The book is very well written and the analysis excellent. The absence of tables in the discussion of the volume of exports as given in different sources and and conversions of currency is sorely missed. Such tables would have made it considerably easier to compare the various references. However, this is minor in the general context of the book.

Phelps skillful conflation of an international history, philosophy, law, and literature persuasively argues that truth commissions contribute to personal and public healing and resist the cycle of retributive vengeance. Shattered Voices should be read by all who fear the consequences of existing hostilities in Bosnia, Iraq, and Sudan as well as those who consider language and storytelling as markers of civilization and essential to justice.

An excellent book. Phelps restores the desire for revenge to a natural place within the human psyche. But then she explores alternatives to violence as ways of accommodating this basic human need. She is remarkably adept at exploring storytelling as a means of satisfying the need for revenge, particularly in relationship to social justice. Her range of reference in these arguments is amazing. Relying on history, psychology, philosophy, and literature, she creates a very rich read, full of ideas and insights. You keep stopping to rethink things you thought you already knew.
If you think there's no reason for hope because of all the violence in the world, give this book a chance.

Carringer's exhaustive tome on the making of Orson Welles' signature film covers all the bases: from its rocky road to inception (covering Welles' fascinating attempt to adapt Conrad's HEART OF DARKNESS into a movie) to every conceivable aspect of the production and post-production. This is required reading for any Welles fan and an invaluable tool for anybody who has to write an essay on CITIZEN KANE.

Carringer's writing style is engaging and eloquent without being too academic. He doesn't bombard the reader with a million esoteric film terms but instead instills his prose with an infectious passion for his subject. Reading this book will make you want to re-discover KANE all over again -- which is what a good film book should do!

This is a great companion book with the awesome two-DVD set of KANE that was release a little while ago.

Who could resist the behind the scenes making of the greatest movie of all time. This book is excellent it covers every thing you need or would want to know about the film. It is very well told and crafted. If you loved the movie you'll be fascinated by this book.

In this book, Mr. Aurand has achieved the surprising: The Spectator and the Topographical City far exceeds the high quality of his book on quirky Pittsburgh architect, Frederick Scheibler (The Progressive Architecture Of Frederick G. Scheibler, Jr). Aurand leads the reader/spectator on an engrossing tour of Greater Pittsburgh that is insightful, instructive and unexpectedly affectionate from a non-native Pittsburgher. The topography he reveals is physical, metaphysical and metaphoric.

One is immediately impressed with the depth and breadth of the research this work entails. Aurand quotes sources on geology, history, architecture, art, religion, economics and more. This might seem frenetic, except for the skill with which they are used to tell an integrated story.

The book establishes and elucidates the spectator/topography relationships in three principal locations: Downtown Pittsburgh, the Turtle Creek Valley and Oakland. Aurand traces how the natural and man-made topographies continuously shaped one another. He takes the reader through these iterations in the (now) downtown triangle as it morphed through centers of the spiritual, military, residential, industrial, religious, governmental and corporate. Appropriate attention is paid to the city's most important architectural landmark, Henry Hobson Richardson's Allegheny County Buildings.

The story of the Turtle Creek Valley is typical of many industrial centers in the region. Aurand makes it plain, though, that the tale of this production center for iron, steel, railroad and electrical equipment must be told on a heroic scale. Here he deftly weaves history in terms of men (Carnegie and Westinghouse) and movement (industrialization). This is the setting for some of his most picturesque language, especially in evoking the power the great steel mills.

By contrast, Oakland (a section of the city to the east of Downtown) and its surroundings became the locus of cultural and academic institutions, skipping the industrial phase of the other two locations. This account is presented with a concentration on the work of Henry Hornbostel, one of Pittsburgh's most skilled and beloved architects. Here, at two great universities, we learn the topography of large scale architectural design. One can argue that the city's eastern reaches succeeded Downtown as a religious center. In addition to Hornbostel synagogues, it boasts three churches by Ralph Adams Cram, one by Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue and one by the immediate successors of Richardson.

The author makes excellent use of art and photographs. The convenience of illustrations visible from their reference in the text is most welcome. The size of illustrations, especially in the case of topographical diagrams, is somewhat small for ideal clarity. Perhaps that is just the engineer in the reviewer talking.

This book will be especially appreciated by those who know something of the history and architecture of Pittsburgh. However, it would be an ideal introduction and basis for a general study of the city's architecture. (Ironically, Aurand's work on Scheibler - a particular architect in a particular era and a particular section of Pittsburgh - was this reviewer's first serious book on architecture.) The value of the book extends far beyond Pittsburgh, though. The author teaches a new way to see topography, in all the forms he reveals, which is invaluable in the study of any architectural context.

Mr. Aurand is an architecture librarian (at Carnegie Mellon University) and brings to this analysis of the city of Pittsburgh an understanding of how the growth and development of the city has been influenced by topography of its location. This book is a collection of illustrations (paintings, drawings, photographs) of parts of the city, concentrating on three areas: Downtown's Golden Triangle, the industrial Turtle Creek Valley, and the cultural and university district of Oakland.

Pittsburgh has a long and varied history. It began as a transportation center as it is in the upper reaches of the Ohio river which begins at the confluence of the Allegheny and the Monongahela. Subsequently Pittsburgh became the quintessential industrial city, and after that a pioneer in the development of a sustainable, green city.

Mr. Aurand presents a rather different view of the city as he discusses the development of the city through its topology.

i highly recommend this book on the subject of brazilian culture, brazilian religion, brazilian spiritism, and the spread of spiritism in latin america and the united states

This book provides a history and insight on the roots of Latin American spiritism. Its research on roots of Allen Kardec and the reason why French spiritism was brought to the "New World". It earns its place in the subjects of Latin American religion and ideology. Its cultural background of Brazil gives much insight to the ideological background of the Brazilian population. Even as a person of Caribbean background, I hold this book in regards to a part of my background ideologically. This book is an eye opener to the researcher interested in South American and Caribbean studies.

My mother wanted to get this book for a friend but she could not afford the $80+ price she found in bookstores and other websites. While we were on the phone discussing it, I found it on Amazon for a little more than half that price, ordered it and it came a few days later. My Mom was thrilled and her friend loved the book because it has windows of the Church she went to growing up. It is a gorgeous book and if you are familiar with any churches in the Philadelphia area, it will be like coming home. I would definitely recommend it.

Collaboratively compiled and edited by Jean M. Farnsworth, Carmen R. Croce, and Joseph F. Chorpenning, OSFS, Stained Glass In Catholic Philadelphia is a lavish, eye-catching, 505-page, coffee table artbook filled from cover to cover with superbly presented stained glass windows from Catholic churches throughout the great city of Philadelphia. Brief annotations of the individual stained glass artworks deliver insightful commentary about the history and essence of these tremendously beautiful and moving images. Stained Glass In Catholic Philadelphia is a unique and recommended contribution to American Art History collections.

Douglas Cooper's Steel Shadows is a gem. Although it is specifically about Pittsburgh, it is really about how we see, portray, and interact with the landscape around us, urban or rural. Cooper is first a wonderful visual artist, and has allowed us a rare glimpse into his methods here. Rather than look far afield for his subject matter, he has taken on the challenge of visioning his native city, in immense and powerful murals, which are remarkably well re-produced in the book. Cooper can also write, and illustrates with his words the process of producing the murals and the logic behind them. Together, his drawings and text serve to usher us into the world of Pittsburgh, that singularly muscular and angular American city, and to cast some light on what it is to be an artist at the top of one's game, working hard to make that art - in this case drawing - relevant and useful in a changing world. A very pleasing, entertaining, and thought-provoking book.

Imagine you are standing at the top of a cliff in a hilly city or on top of a skyscraper in a flatter one. Slowly rotate 360 degrees, taking in all that you can see as you turn. Then imagine doing the same thing 10 years ago, 20 years ago, 30 years ago and work older landscapes into your contemporary ones. Then imagine wrapping all that you see and imagine onto a flat surface. I don't think I could actually do that - but Douglas Cooper can and has. Cooper's new book, STEEL SHADOWS, does three distinct tasks. It offers an insightful autobiographical sketch on how Cooper, an architect/professor at Carnegie Mellon University, came to draw the way he draws. Writing in a naive style, he recounts 2nd grade experiments on perspective, his education at Carnegie Tech, his sojourn to Europe to study buildings, and the evolving style which puts myriad angles continuously onto a flat piece of paper in a way which makes sense - to the viewers as well as to Cooper. The second task is to help the reader fall in love with the landscape of Pittsburgh as Cooper did, first as a 6-year-old enamoured of trains. Cooper's drawings in STEEL SHADOWS, excellent reproductions of the massive murals installed permanently in a variety of sites in Pittsburgh, give one the feel of the steep mountainsides, winding streets, and crumbling industrial landscape of the city. Cooper seems to love it all, and his amazing drawings draw us into his love affair. The third element of STEEL SHADOWS is an illustrated collection of writings on Pittburgh including excerpts from architectural historian Franklin Toker, poet Peter Blair, writer Annie Dillard, historian William Serrin, and novelist Marcia Davenport. My favorite excerpt in the last section is actually by Cooper, himself. "Living with Meg across from Forbes Field" allows him to indulge in his second passion after Pittsburgh: baseball. Along with stunning drawings of the old ball park, Cooper tells us of the neighborhood of South Oakland, life in the bleachers in Forbes Field, and his life as a young married man sitting on his porch directly across the street from Forbes Field waiting for foul balls to be hit out of the stadium and to him. One might question whether this book would be interesting to those who are neither artists nor Pittsburghers. I am not an artist, but as a longtime fan of Cooper's work, was intrigued with his thoughts about how he came to draw the way he does. His writing is simple but not simplistic; even technical sections were clear to me, a layman. I am a Pittsburgher, so cannot state how one from another city will enjoy STEEL SHADOWS. Cooper's drawings, though, transcend the specific place he portrays. His urban landscape and his vision of the ways in which places and times come together have universal appeal. It is Pittsburgh that he draws, but it is Cooper himself as well as his city that we see.

The two women writing to each other here are great friends, share a deep love of country (call themselves 'countrywomen') and aren't embarrassed to savor the smallest available joys. Anyone who has loved "The Delicacy and Strength of Lace", the letters between James Wright and Leslie Marmon Silkoe should read this collection.

A wonderful collection of letters from one year of a friendship between two long-time friends. A wonderful book to share with a great friend. I longed to be part of the world these two women share and grieved the realization that they have been dead for so long. The beauty they saw and shared, their loving pets, children, partners. I wished to be there, their writing was so inviting and dear. Beautiful illustrations were done by Barbara's husband and Gladys' editor "ED".