Chang Books

I've read quite a few books in my day and this was by far the worst.
I felt like he was writing to 8 year olds.

I've missed Michael Chang since he retired from pro tennis. I always enjoyed watching him, not just because I like pro tennis, but because he was always so unabashed about his devout Christian faith.
In "Holding Serve," he talks about his childhood when money was often tight, how he and his brother Carl discovered tennis, and everything their parents did to develop Michael and Carl's talents. Michael remembers his junior tennis days when he first met Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, and Jim Courier.
In 1998, after years of being one of the world's top players, Michael Chang suddenly fell into a big downhill slide. He dealt with some injuries, and even when he was able-bodied, he started losing in the early rounds of several tournaments. His ranking dropped way down, and never got back up to what it was. Michael is very frank about was a frustrating time that was. It's obvious he wishes he could have won more than one grand slam title.
Michael Chang talks about his Christian beliefs and his moral values without sounding preachy.
Since retirement, I understand Michael has been busy with the Chang Family Foundation.

I finished this book within a day. This is by far one of my favorite book. Michael was very humble and personable throughout the book. I felt like I know him so much after finish reading Holding Serve. Not knowing how much hard work it takes to become No.2 tennis player, this book brings inspiration and true understanding of the tennis world. Young tennis player will be inspired and touched by his stories.

I am also impressed by Michael's faith and his close relationship with his family. You will appreciate the role of his parents and what a sacrifice they made in order to fulfil his tennis dream.

It's such a great book that I cannot wait to finish the book over the weekend, eventhough I have an exam on Monday night. I really learn a lot about Michael Chang from this autobiography -- as a person and the kind of challenges he endured and conquered in his pro years. I also learned something about the other tennis greats from his friendship with them. I am especailly touched and inspired by the Love in the Chang Team. Great job! Michael.

Michael Chang is a remarkable individual! I still remember watching Michael play that incredible match against Ivan Lendl in the 89 French Open and then defeating Stefan Edberg in the final after going down two sets after winning the first! Talk about steely determination! And to win a grand slam event at age 17! Amazing! The book is a fascinating read and contary to "a readers" rather inane opinions on this review site, I felt that Michael was truly honest and forthright about his beliefs and I never felt that he was "cramming" his beliefs on anyone..I just have high respect for the fact that he stood his ground and never compromised his values..We need more role models like Michael Chang..especially in the world of sports!

Michael talks about his relationships with Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras and how they all came up in the junior ranks..Pete and Andre used to stay overnight with Michael's family on occasion when they crossed paths and Michael seemed very secure in his relationship with the two tennis greats! (I'm sure there is mutual respect among these tennis greats!!) His anecdotes about John McEnroe and many other players are quite interesting and humorous so I did not understand "a readers" previous comments about "not mentioning other players" at all..

Michael is deferential and respectful about his career in tennis and never bad mouths any of his opponents or fellow players..instead he gives a lot of them credit for his development as a professional..especially John McEnroe's demolishment of him in the French Open in '88..he learned from the experience..and even went on to state that he earned McEnroe's respect later on when he took him out for the first time at the 1992 US Open..

Michael's description of his matches and how he developed as a young tennis professional gives you a great deal of insight into all the hard work that goes into attaining the level of tennis he produced..especially in the year 1996 when he was ranked as high as No 2..I remember clearly the semi-final match he played against Andre Agassi in the '96 US Open where he took him apart in 3 straight sets..only to lose the next day to his rival..Pete Sampras..if he had won that match he would have been No 1 in the world! Although that would have been nice, Michael did not dwell on it and what makes the book an interesting read is that Michael gives you a quite a bit of insight into his world and his influences..which is what most autobiographies are designed to do...he states what he felt were the most important things in his life..his family..and that he felt truly "blessed" to have had all the opportunities he had and to be on the "world stage"..he stresses the fact that he lives by "the golden rule" and never succumbed to the temptations that being a world class tennis star can bring!

I have been a fan of Michael's since the beginning of his career and throughly enjoyed his insightful book..I highly recommend this book for tennis fans and all sports fans for that matter!

This book is written in a lovely way and is so refreshing. The photos of the people living on this Island are so beautiful and natural. Good recipes for hot days are included. Recommended for lovers of the simple, natural way.

This book beautifully shows how to live your life the island way. There are delicious recipes in here as well as usefull info on how to make your skin flawless, the natural way. This book covers almost everything when it comes to taking care of yourself. I recommed it to all of my friends, and they love the book too.

This book caught my attention when I first saw it just glancingly
while walking pass the New Arrival section in a library. It was
a spontaneous purchase and I was not disappointed. As an artist
I have an internal vision to produce works of Light and Beauty.
This book could be refered to as its Vision Statement. Everything
about it is an expression of the things needed in a world growing
ever darker. If you need to revitalize your senses this is a book
that speaks to health, beauty, the Sea and the wonder of Island Life that's breath-taking . . .
and above all-else it is a song of Hope.

A few of the photographs are disappointing, but otherwise this is an excellent book.

This book would never have made it to press had it not been for the fact that India Hicks is the granddaughter of Lord Louis Mountbatten and 2nd cousin to Prince Charles. Can we talk? The book is pure drivel. All of the information contained in this airy-fairy, pseudo-aristocratic, jet-setty, new-agey book has been written about for years. Such pearls of wisdom as: Get enough sleep. Drink lots of water. Please, spare me. While this could have been a classy book, naked photos of India Hicks, made it lose my vote. I guess I'm an old "prude", but if you are connected to the Royal family, keep your clothes on.

A straight forward guide to understanding how to organize the space around you in ways that improve the energy and "healthiness" of it. Lovely pictures and thought provoking ideas.

If this is an area you are exploring, or if you have already explored feng shui, you should get this book.

A "genius" Italian architect featured in this book is teaching our Design Class. So he made us, his students, buy this worthless book under the gun of bad grades. It is completely of no value for design students or anybody else!
You look through it once, it is like a magazine.
Plus, Mrs. Cox, you have to carefully select whom you feature in your book - somebody whom everybody in the industry hates? Feature honest and moral architects instead, there are plenty of good ones around.
As for the value of this book - Readers, if you don't want to waste your money, better buy something else.
I'm going to donate mine to the library. Waste of money!

As a photographer, I found Kathleen Cox's advice right on the mark. She fully understands lighting, space, form, and above all color. Her suggestions would work for any type of home/space (from a MacMansion in the suburbs to a New York City 400 sq. ft. apartment). And guess which one I live in!

Wonderful book. Kathleen Cox (I heard her speak at a design convention) writes from the heart about the meaning of home. One review on the back says the book puts soul into design--and she does this by explaining why we need to decorate a home so it doesn't just please the eye but the body and mind. This may sound strange or coy. But when you read each chapter and see what she means--her reasoning makes perfect sense. I also appreciated the way she tackles the issue of clutter--she provides a solid definition of clutter that can really help people recognize it and actually do something about it. If you are planning to redo your home, which is what we're about to do, read this book--and interior designers should keep it on their desk--and loan it out to their clients!!!!

I bought this book based on the reviews, as I was looking for a book that incorporated the theory of vastu. While it does have beautiful photography, I was very disappointed, as this is a book mostly about interior design, with very, very little discussion of vastu principles and theory. It is quite conclusive; for example, the author will point out that a room that is pictured in the book is vastu compliant, but she fails to discuss why. Also, many of the photos are of rooms that are rather austere and depressing. Earthy, yes, but living around so much gray and brown is not very uplifting to my spirit. I read this book from cover to cover and found it very superficial. For vastu theory and beautiful photos, check out Sherry Silverman's excellent book: Vastu: Transcendental Design in Harmony With Nature, which I have also read cover-to-cover, and from which I learned much more than I did in Cox's book.

A new track to follow in interior design? I certainly think so. Apprecieting the softness of well-used furniture, carpets and so on. And believe me, there is no "dirt" exposed in this book. Unless that is how you describe peeling wall-paper, which is about as extreme as the content goes. But to a spoiled Western population (who rather buy brand new things of inferior design and craftmanship than lovely old pieces secon-hand) maybe that is off-putting. I'm in fact rather turned-on.

Yes, indeed, this book highlights well-worn interiors, but the vast majority of the photos are from old English homes and townhouses. I was hoping for more variety, more applicability to the Average Joe's well-worn interior dreams.

Not intended for those wanting a simple step by step to revamp their kitchen or lounge. This book is filled with sumptious images of spaces well lived in and loved. A fabulous reference for architects or designers who want to inject character and texture into a space.

Pealing, ancient wall paper.... Narrow dim hallways.... ballrooms with ancient chandeliers, what the well dressed haunted house is wearing today. Formerly grand interiors that have NEVER BEEN RENOVATED - It's all about "Authentic." Not one single floor has even a SPECK of finish left on it, they're referred to as "Well scrubbed." Most of these original interiors are European or English from 200 years ago or so. Once grand, these houses are beyond lived in. There is a least one old house from the sourthern United States featured.

Although these interiors are probably too worn for American comfort, the style shown gives one ideas to help design an inviting room.

Good beginning, but the Chinatown details felt more like a synopsis than a thesis. Plenty of interesting characters. It will be fun to see where the author takes us from here.

The author is the Dashiell Hammett of Chinatown. An intense reading experience, shedding light on aspects of New York one does not usually think about. Great characters, especially Mona, and I can't wait for the sequel.

Henry Chang's Chinatown Beat is an Asian-themed crime novel, a worthy debut that introduces Chinese-American Detective Jack Yu. Hopefully we'll be seeing more of him in the future.

Yu works Chinatown for the NYPD, protecting and policing the people he's known all his life. Although he was born and raised in Chinatown, he's an outsider now; isolated to the fringes of the community by the gun and badge he carries.

Chang writes with stark power and authority, covering the territory as only an insider can. He evokes the spirit, sights, smells and language of his setting in compelling and original fashion. Although there is little action or suspense in Chinatown Beat, there is still much that thrills.

I'll give this a B+ for atmosphere and a B- for plot. The atmosphere is great and you really get a better perspective on the triads and the overseas chinese associations. The storyline I found a little weak and meandering. I'll still buy the next installment though, just to give Henry the benefit of the doubt.

I finished Henry Chang's CHINATOWN BEAT (Soho Press, 2006). The foreign-flavored mysteries Soho Press specializes in publishing appeal to me. Mr. Chang's debut novel is a top-notch entry.
It features NYPD Detective Jack Yu. The locale is in New York's Chinatown area. Written in a gritty, vivid, and detailed prose, Jack runs two concurrent investigations: one for a serial rapist singling out young Chinese girl victims, and the second one for solving the murder of a Chinese elder and community leader named Uncle Four. Jack's personal life is in a bit of shambles as deals with his father's death. The old Chinese ways clash with the 1990 New York City. Jack is a relentless, likeable detective who's not above turning to a Chinese fortune teller for a clue. The chase sequence of the killers leading to the climax (away from NYC) is deftly paced. This crime novel is worth reading if just for the page-after-page of details on Chinese-American culture. The violence is restrained, and the story multi-layered. Recommended.

Ok, I am a known heretic. I am not impressed by the CWM model. It is oriented toward the object-oriented implementation of a tool for metadata exchange, not toward representing the things business people would be looking for in a meta data repository.

This book is better than the on-line specification at describing the model--which was really incomprehensible--but this is at the expense of completeness. Definitions are not available for all classes and the ones that are are not clear (to me at least). The relationships are barely defined at all.

In fairness, the model is so complex that it may not be possible to describe clearly to anyone not deeply immersed in the language of object-orientation. The team of authors is further hampered by its use of UML. The notation does not permit a complete inheritance tree to be portrayed in a diagram if the diagram is of less than the entire model. Two classes may be related, but you can't see this because the relationship is between great grandparents, shown on a different page.

The overall organization of the book: its introduction of topics, clear and concise definitions and illustrative examples made for easy reading, even for concepts with which I was unfamiliar. The structure, content and motivation for the CWM classes and packages were clearly presented as was their use, interaction, extensibility and applicability through thoughtfully constructed examples.

A must read for managers, system architects and software developers grappling with data warehouse integration projects.

I can't believe the previous reviewer. He basically said he didn't like CWM or UML, therefore the book is obviously bad ?!?

The project I am just starting is a large data mining effort that will be integrating multiple data warehouse and data mining tools. I knew we needed CWM from some earlier work with metadata repositories, but did not have the energy to dig into the OMG specification. This book gave me exactly the overview I was looking for; as an earlier author said, "This book covers all the practical steps for planning, implementing, and deploying CWM technologies". I would like to give it at least 7 stars to average out the previous irrelevant review...

By far, the finest presentation of a new (to me) concept I have seen in a long time. Structure of book is ideal, with a strong writing style, fantastic use of graphics, and examples that aid in understanding. I knew virtually nothing about CWM before reading this book -- I know a good deal now. Excellent, understandable writing style combined with superb technical information...a definite "stew" for the CWM-hungry mind. Bon appetit!

I'll say at the start that this is not my kind of book. I prefer books which are useful, enlightening or both. This didn't seem to be either. From page 3: "The mission of this book is to provide a single, coherent, and comprehensive overview of the OMG's Common Warehouse Metamodel, which is easy to read.". It may be slightly easier to read than the raw specification, but it's a lot less useful. The most telling point is further down the same page where it admits to really being just an introduction to a forthcoming "Warehouse Metamodel Developers Guide".

For an overview, the book is really short on examples. It's got lots of vague UML diagrams and pretty pictures like you might see on a powerpoint slide, but not a single worked example to show how all the buzzwords and technologies might actually fit together. I also have great problems with their use of UML as a language to actually specify data models, processes and so on. For me UML is a tool to help express intentions to people, not supply details to processing software, but this book seems to ignore the difference.

If you know nothing about meta-modelling, and want the sort of information you can get from the slides of a conference presentation, this may be a useful book. If you want to understand the details, or (gosh) actually get a job done, then this book will just frustrate you.

This book is filled with nostalgic old fotos of Cuba and famous dishes that we all adore. The book is sectioned off by Raices (Our Roots), Clasicos Creolos (Creole Classics), Comidas Ambulantes (Street Foods), Cocina Nueva Onda (New Wave Cooking), and Bebidas (Beverages). Try out the Classic Cuban-Style Black Beans, Poast Pork Loin and Cuban Cold Pumpkin Salad. Delicioso!!!

Very authentic, these are the same recepies my cuban family has been using for years.

This is a great resource for Cuban recipes, both new and classics. We have made many of the recipes and all have been delicious and easy to follow. Our family is full of excellent Cuban cooks and these recipes rate high on our list. The photographs certainly enhance the whole Cuban cooking and eatingexperience. Highly recommend it.

TAKE IT FROM A CUBAN..THIS BOOK IS A TOTAL WASTE OF MONEY IF YOU ARE WANTING TRUE CUBAN CULINARY RECIPES...NOW IF YOU WANT NICE SCENERY PHOTOGRAPHY OF CUBA..THEN GO FOR IT..BUT A NICE CUBA TRAVEL BOOK GUIDE WILL DO, I GREWUP WITH EXCELLENT COOKS FROM CUBA AND SPAIN ...THIS BOOK DOES NOT COME CLOSE TO A REAL CUBAN CULINARY EXPERIANCE..SAVE YOUR MONEY..I DID NOT , BUT I DID RESALE IT!

EATING CUBAN:
120 Authentic Recipes from the
Streets of Havana to
American Shores

By Beverly Cos and Martin Jacobs
Introduction by Ana Menendez


Most of us can get our hands on a ticket and travel to just about any place in the world we wish. Not so with Cuba, and it's been so for a long time. Soon, however, we may get to go, enjoy the night beat, savory foods and fun things Latino. Here's a chance to bring your Cuban food expectations up to date.

Cuba has a large uniqueness. She lives under strict restriction of goods. Yet, by calling upon their many ethnic backgrounds -- Spanish, African, Chinese, French and Native American - and sticking to Cuba's geographical restrictions, some pretty interesting recipes result. The cookbook, Eating Cuban, presents recipes in six parts: The Roots, Creole Classics, Street Food, New Wave Cooking and Beverages.

Check these:

* Galician White Bean Soup with white beans, chorizo onion, green pepper, garlic,ham hock, collards and potatoes.

* Creamy Pumpkin Soup: olive oil, onion, garlic, cinnamon, nutmeg, cream, pumpkin Cuban bread croutons and parsley.

* White Bean and Potato Salad: Red potatoes, white beans, onion, vinegar, cumin, garlic, olive oil parsley and lettuce leaves

* Sweet Potato Pudding: sweet potatoes, sugar, lime zest, cinnamon, egg yolks, cinnamon, rum and whipped cream

* Pickled Onions: red and white onions, vinegar, allspice, oregano, bay leaves, peppercorns, a jalapeno chile.

* Avocado Gaspacho El Bambu: avocados, lime juice, cucumbers, onion, broth, yogurt, fresh cilantro, red radishes, bell pepper, green onion tops

* Guava Barbecue Sauce: Guava paste, tomato paste, molasses, vinegar, brown sugar, garlic, cumin, dry mustard, chile-garlic sauce, dry sherry and cilantro

* Cream Cheese Ice Cream: cream cheese, sugar, fresh lemon juice, vanilla, heavy cream and milk

At the end of the book find a Glossary of Cuban Ingredients and Cooking Terms, Sources for Cuban Cooking Ingredients and a list of Some Favorite places for Eating Cuban both in Havana and in the U.S.

It's okay. the shipping was really slow tho. I almost thought it wasn't coming.

When reading books, one hopes for either someone who shares the same outlook as you do, so you know you are not alone in your perspective, or on the other hand for a view into a world that is alien to yourself, so you can learn things from a book you are not able to firsthand. Fanshen is a look at a remote village in North-eastern China in the 1940's, which is an experience completely alien to the average reader in an industrialized country. Yet at the same time, the personalities, lives and our shared humanity with the people of Long Bow is the same.

The peasants of Long Bow are poor - very poor. Ownership of an animal to help with the farm is considered a luxury. They are so poor that they do not use animals for manure - they use their own privies, the contents of which are highly valued. On top of this is a feudal system where a few own much of the land and do no work, while many of the peasants starve to death and undergo all kinds of trauma.

Enter the Eighth Route Army, the political leader of which is Mao Zedong. When the communists enter the picture, the desperate poverty of much of the population is swept away. Landlords can no longer sit in their fine clothes with long fingernails and have others do all work for them - they too must work for a living.

Of course, the transition does not go completely smoothly, as the famous Mao quote introducing chapter 14 states: "Revolution is not a dinner party...[it] is an uprising, an act of violence whereby one class overthrows another". Aside from the war with first the Japanese and then Chiang Kai-Shek and his US backers, there are the peasant excesses once the iron fist of the landlords and rich peasants fades away. Also hinted at here there are party excesses, as the party swerves from one position to another and then back again, confusing the peasants (and cadre) of Long Bow. While it's clear a confrontation, that obviously would be violent, was necessary with the landlords, it brings one to wonder what the hierarchical structure of the party would mean over the long term (or even the short term). I have begun reading Hinton's next book on Long Bow, Shenfan, covering the time period from this book to the Cultural Revolution, and he goes into more detail about such things.

Nonetheless, this is an inspiring story of how the peasants of China, with a little help from the communist party, helped throw off the yoke of feudalism (as well as Japanese, European and American imperialism) to launch the beginnings of the economic miracle that will probably result in China eventually becoming one of the most important industrial countries in the world.

A sweeping, nuanced, and deeply humane account of the changes in a single village during the land reform process that brought China out of feudalism in the 1940s. Hinton's saga immerses the reader in the shocking, brutal war of each against all that characterized life in rural China in the years before the revolution, and the struggles, challenges, excesses, and corrections that realized the equitable redistribution of agricultural land from the hands of a few landlords to the peasants who tilled it.

Eighteen years in the making, the book presents a revolutionary process of rich complexity, constructing a narrative with deep insight and revealing illustration that ranges beyond simple class and economic analysis into questions of organization, family, gender, sexuality, and human frailty, courage, discipline, and altruism.

Like the real work of revolution, the long narrative has its slow, grinding parts, but the book is punctuated with many moments of clarity, humor, and human recognition, and rewards the diligent reader immensely.

Contrary to the crude and invidious red-baiting review posted by Mr. Collins on this site, Hinton in fact takes great care to examine the violent excesses of the early days of the revolution in the village; indeed the latter half of the book is concerned precisely with the attempts of the community to come to terms with the initial violence and authoritarianism of the Communist Party members and cadres.

This book is a classic and one of the most important accounts of land reform in the 1940s and 50s. The sequel _Shenfan_ is also good, and is also considered a classic in academic circles. Note that even conseravative scholars like Needham praise these books.

I'm writing this review mainly in response to reviewer Smallchief's comment that the book is "naive" b/c it paints too positive a picture in light of the "starvation" of "tens of millions" of peasants in the 1950s. I don't want to disrespect Smallchief. Unfortunately this kind of ahistorical hyperbole has become "common knowledge" as the Mao-bashing discourse of narratives like _Wild Swans_ has achieved hegemonic status during the past few years. I say "ahistorical" not because the numbers are wrong (although they do tend to grow over the years--i recently saw the figure 100 million for the number of people that Mao "killed"!), but that they are thrown around outside of historical context, as if you could say anything meaningful about history or about a social system with mere numbers. But if we must play the numbers game, when you talk about starvation (of course it's usually disease the kills people, even in times of famine--"starvation" just has more shock value: we picture Mao selfishly hoarding all the rice from skeletal children), during the most rapid and egalitarian improvement in quality of life in world history, it's necessary to compare statistics of deaths during the Great Leap famine with those prior to the revolution. If you do that, you'll notice that at least as many people died in an average year before the revolution than during the worst year of the famine!(1960)(i'm getting this insight from Brian Turner, who's writing a paper on the subject; Utsa Patnaik says something similar(...). In this light we can see the problem with using any number--whether tens of thousands or tens of millions--to categorically denounce the accomplishment of the Chinese revolution and the social system that the CCP tried to build.

As for the later attempt to democratize that system (the Cultural Revolution), and as for the Dengists "reform" or counter-revolution, _Fanshen_ provides a basis on which to understand those events, and Hinton offers a some useful insights into them in his later works: _The Hundred Day War_, _Shenfan_, _The Great Reversal_, and _Through a Glass Darkly_ (still in press). The best general history of the PRC is _Mao's China and After_ by Maurice Meisner.

You've heard the old joke about the guy who says he would rather be a drunk than an alcoholic because alcoholics have to go to all those meetings. That's what this book is about: meetings -- innumerable, endless meetings in a small village in revolutionary China. For three years (1946-1948, it seems that the peasants in this village met every day to discuss how to divvy up the land taken from the landlords, select their leaders, discuss the correct "line" of the revolution, criticize each other, and punish evil doers.

Hinton is an enthusiast for Chairman Mao and the communists, but he doesn't gloss over the excesses of the revolution. He paints a vivid picture of life in prerevolutionary China and an equally vivid picture of the implementation of Maoism in the countryside with all its violence, doctrinal hair-splitting, changes in direction, and imperfections. At the end of the book, he concludes that the peasants and the revolution have achieved a proper balance between equity and production in the Chinese countryside and presumably everyone will live happily ever after.

As a story about life in the countryside this book is outstanding. As a book about the makings of a revolution at the peasant level it is outstanding. As a book about land reform and Maoism, it is much, much less than prophetic. Hinton leaves us with a warm, post revolutionary feeling that all was well in the Chinese countryside in 1948. But all was not well. Tens of millions of Chinese peasants starved to death in the 1950s. Maybe they were spending too much time in revolutionary meetings and not enough time working in their fields. Revolutionary enthusiasts such as Hinton need to be called to account for the errors they make in their ardor and naivete. Perhaps we should have a meeting on that....

I was quite disappointed in this book, which is fairly self indulgent on the authors' part and doesn't offer much useful information. If you've never thought about buying vintage baby items and don't have much imagination, it might be a good starting point. However, it is quite limited.

For one thing, the photos and items featured in the book are almost exclusively mid-century in vintage (50s and 60s), which is certainly not the only vintage style in the world or the only style available at flea markets. Also, don't expect to see any photos of nurseries or other rooms, not even a wall or a whole crib. All the photos are of single items or small vignettes, which are often extracted on a white background with no context. Oh, and the pages of "resources" for flea market shopping are useless for most readers outside of NY/NJ and the Chicago area.

I will keep looking for a good inspiration book for vintage nursery style

I am absolutely delighted with this book. If these authors want to write more books in this vein, I would want them all! I don't even have a baby to decorate a room for, but I was enthralled with it nevertheless. Charming decor and collecting ideas using all sorts of vintage things (which I love!). An absolute must-have for any mom who likes the vintage style, antiques, flea markets, etc. I agree it would make a terrific shower gift for a mom-to-be. It will give her plenty of ideas. And you know what? Even if she doesn't even like "old" stuff (or just doesn't know she does yet!), she may still get helpful ideas and/or may find it as delightful to look through as I did!

this book is a great additin to a home decor library. I really enjoyed it, but I would have liked more information on sources and how thigs were made.

A wonderful, inspirational reference book. I read it over and over again! I can't get enough! I study it, make lists of ideas and head off to the Flea Market! I just LOVE it! A great gift for the vintage lover! Or treat for yourself!Grab it up and ENJOY!!!!!!! Keep em' comin' PLEASE!!!!!

I absolutely loved this book! A friend gave it to me for my baby shower. If you're like me and admire the vintage look, but never knew where to begin or what to look for--I think you'll find this book as helpful as I did. The authors give such creative and useful ideas! Instead of being intimidated, I am now inspired to go to the flea market and begin decorating the baby's room! The photos are beautifully done and the writing is fun and clever! It was a great gift! I can't wait to get started!

It is a beautiful book, but I was disappointed that there wasn't more on actual lighting theory.

This book lightly touches on all aspects of lighting, some more heavily than other. But it definitely needs work in some sections. Also there is no mention of LCD, Natural Gas or Pipe Lighting, which should be addressed in any newer versions. The web links should also be checked and updated accordingly. Borrow it from the library first before you decide to buy it.

What they said! This book is very,very,good. Not only do you get excellent information on lighting, but wonderful ideas on contempory decorating. Two for the price of one, it doesn't get any better than that.

First book I ever returned to Amazon because it was of unacceptable quality. The book should be titled "Pictures of pretty lighting fixtures" as the photographs are quite well done, but I found no useful information on the design of lighting. There is nothing on the subject of how to illuminate a room. Indeed you will see some examples of incredibly underlit rooms. They look good in the pictures because the photographer, Ray Main, has added what looks like a couple of thousand watts of bounce flash. You will see some kitchens where the people will need flashlights to cook their food. I did not see any room that looked adequately lit by the actual fixtures.

The discussion of fluorsecent lights is very disappointing. In the age of energy conservations the fact that fluorescent lights emit about 5 times more lumens per watt than incandescent lights makes them definitely worth considering. I had hoped to see some artistic ideas for using these interesting but awkward light sources, but there was very little and what there was was disappointing.

Kudos to Ray Main for beautiful photographs. Look somewhere else if you want "A Design Source Book".

On top of helpful tips and information about different types of lighting and lamps, the books lean heavily on lighting for more modern interiors. It does talk about universal applications in period styles, but I feel the author's interest is more on the modern side. Most of the photos and examples are taken from modern interiors. If you like contemporary and modern flavor, this is a book to miss! Definitely a keeper!