Richardson Books

This book can really make you think again when you feel you really know who invented what and who explored what first. This book goes through dozens of subject areas throughout history and tells the truth about who is really behind the inventions and discoveries. Also, each key entry is bolded in the margin for easy searching.

...Please don't be misled by the title and date of this book. It is really all about preparing for and conducting effective project interviews and, even though it's 12 years old, this book is one of the best 'process guides' for the topic.

The author provides many practical tips that, take it from this gray-hair, I am sure will help people who are uneasy with interviewing. It's worth the [item price] on Amazon. Read before your next interview--it will help!

If you enjoy the Guatemalan hand woven fabric, then this is a must read. The author takes us into the daily lives of these women living in a small mountain village. Included are beautiful photos of each woman and her story. Also are several photos of the village children, animals, and more. Reading each person's story is fascinating and surprising. These Guatemalan women have incrediable endurance, strength and courage. Yet with their hard lives, they still somehow make time to weave threads into beautiful designs as their way to express the artist and beauty within themselves.

History comes to life in Donald Richardson's new book Words of Truth. The story of David Mosher, his family and friends, unfolds around the Voting Rights march of 1965. "I had been part of history" (100) thinks David, a member of a small, black community whose hero is the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.
The reader shares exactly one year in David's life, from one birthday to another. One sees him working at his uncle's filling station, hears him discussing questions of equality and injustice with other students and teachers, and worries with him about stolen money. Girls come into David's life to excite him, but they also scare the seventeen-year-old boy with their experienced kisses.
Reverend Bob gives David much to think about--committing oneself to something. And with words of truth the pastor encourages his youth group and the congregation in his sermon, calling them to find a purpose in life.
David is very impressed by Reverend Bob, this white man who takes a group of young black people to Selma, Alabama to march to Montgomery, the state capitol. One feels the concerns of parents when they hear the wishes of their sons and daughters to participate in the five-day march. But the reader is rewarded by the strong commitment of young people who involve themselves in changing society.
Chapter seventeen--the march--is itself sufficient reward for reading the book: history comes to life. Elderly people will refresh their memories, and young people may see the importance of the event more clearly, especially when they celebrate the annual holiday commemorating Dr. King.
The reader sings with the marchers, eats and rests with them, but also is concerned by passing Sheriff Clark and his policemen.
Besides history, a message runs through the book which leads to David's maturing. "Everything is a state of mind," he thinks, "and has nothing to do with race or skin color, with religion, or nationality." The author lets his created adolescent experience the Golden Rule by placing him among thousands of marchers.
And then, in the middle of so many people at the peaceful event, David contemplates their differences in race and class and asks himself, why can't the world's people be "accepting [of] others as we would like to be accepted?" --Ursula Wolf, Berlin, Germany

All the chapters provide a excellent review for different aspects of thee research on working memory. Major authors summarize the state of art in different subdomains.

My interest in gun books is primarily from the historical point of view. I found this book to be very well researched and have gained considerable knowledge about the development of machined and interchangeable gun parts, the growth of factories during the Industrial Revolution in England, and the importance of steel of varying qualities for gunmakers. The descriptions of the proofing tests to meet the requirements of the various branches of the Armed Forces and of the Police Forces were illuminating. Excellent photos and detailed diagrams enhanced the text. Mr Cuthbertson is to be congratulated on a very readable and fascinating book!.

Now this is an interesting book. If you're a writer, artist or both, this book will help you link and synthesize symbolic thought in the form of text. The Forward is by Marvin Minsky and it, as well as the Preface and Table of Contents are on the publishers webpage.

An expended version of this review can be found on my website, with links to the Publisher, the Forward, Preface, Table of Contents and some of the papers the book references.

Note carefully the words in the title of this book, 'Small Structures.' In spite of the copy on the back of the book, this is not a book concentrating on small houses. This a book on all kinds of small structures. They may be viewing platforms, a bridge, a pigeon loft, a monument, an emergency shelter made out of an ocean shipping container, a camera obscura, a work of art, or indeed there are a few houses here.

What this book is really trying to do is push the state of the architectural art just as far as it can be pushed. Here are structures that are ecologically responsible, wildly creative and showcase the advanced thinking that the premier architectural firms can do when removed from the restrictions of building yet another McMansion.

As you look at these structures, some give you ideas that you'd really like to try in your next building, some of the others just look weird and don't fit into anything that seems reasonable.

All in all, I found it a stay up late and look at every picture just to see what they might think of next kind of book.

Absolutely loved this book. Very informative. A must have.