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SirReadaLot.org


We Review the Best of the Latest Books

ISSN 1934-6557

January 2008, Issue #105

Contents:

Architecture / History / World / Greece

Greek Sanctuaries: An Introduction by Mary Emerson (Bristol Classical Press/Duckworth)

Greek Sanctuaries offers an introduction of ancient Greek sanctuary sites and temple architecture. It introduces readers to a select number of sites and temples in some depth, explaining technical terms along the way. Author Mary Emerson, classics and art history scholar, and freelance writer, keeps in mind the needs of high school and college students, as well as general readers, and covers some of the core buildings and sanctuaries usually chosen for study owing to their social importance and aesthetic excellence.
Greek Sanctuaries explores the aesthetic concepts behind Greek architectural design, as well as looking at the buildings and their decoration. It also investigates their importance within the culture of the time. The text, which includes 78 photographs, plans and drawings, is designed to inspire visitors to Greece as well as to equip beginning students of Greek architecture for further study. Emerson says that all the translations of Greek passages are her own.

The buildings are well worth looking at in their own right, and also provide an excellent introduction to other buildings which might be studied later on. The buildings of Delphi, Olympia and the Athenian Acropolis, chosen for study in Greek Sanctuaries, are ‘classics’ of Greek architecture: they date from the sixth and fifth centuries BC (the archaic and classical periods).

Most ancient Greek architecture is in a ruined state. Even the wonderful Athenian Acropolis can seem rather daunting to visitors not provided with a clue to its meaning. There is a great deal of accident in what remains to us of ancient Greek architecture. Most buildings that remain are incomplete and sculptures are fragmentary. Some important temples have left only the scantiest traces or have disappeared completely; the unique architectural aspects of those temples may have vanished, or be traceable only by experts. To appreciate the real character of Greek temples takes some reconstruction work and some imagination.

According to Greek Sanctuaries, a complaint can be made that all Greek temples are the same. Certainly they are all composed of similar elements: steps, platforms, columns, architraves and friezes, pitched roofs and pediments. However, to the interested eye, each temple is unique. Even Doric temples, though said to conform to strict rules, all differ. As in any field of interest, what seems uniform to outsiders is – on inspection – full of nuance, innovation and individuality.

The sameness of Greek temples did not result from lack of imagination; the ancient Greeks are not known for a lack of creativity, so positive causes for sameness must be sought. A building usually declares its purpose by corresponding to a type; a response is aroused in the viewer as a result. A Gothic cathedral for example will be clearly recognizable as such, whatever personal responses a particular viewer brings to it. Another building may ‘borrow’ a response from the known type: for example, the Houses of Parliament, which were designed with Gothic features in order to ‘borrow’ the venerability associated with a medieval cathedral.

According to Emerson in Greek Sanctuaries, one element, closely bound up with the character of each temple, is less likely to have suffered destruction – its setting. Even the Acropolis in the heart of modern Athens retains much of its natural surroundings, above all, the astonishing rock on which it sits. Delphi, a sanctuary whose site was chosen entirely for the impact of the place itself, retains virtually all its effect for the visitor. Much understanding can be gained from books and photos: yet the physical experience of the place, scents of trodden herbs, sunshine and keen mountain air are unforgettable to the lucky visitor, and are an important dimension of what the designers intended in the first place. Each sanctuary is very different and in fact expresses something of the nature of the god worshipped there: the site fits the deity.

Ancient as the ancient Greeks seem to us, they did not seem so to themselves: they looked back from, say, the fifth century BC to more ancient times with nostalgia and pride in their past as we do, and liked to see it embodied and preserved in ancient monuments. They also liked to add something of their own, in the spirit of their age. Monumental build­ings represented cutting-edge art and technology, implied political and military power, and were used to transmit messages about cultural iden­tity. Designers of temples aimed for a physical perfection of beauty, which would speak of divinity and inspire the soul. Patrons wanted to impress visitors with the wealth and sophistication of the city, and to delight the citizens who owned and used the sanctuaries.

Greek Sanctuaries equips readers to use technical terms with confidence, and to confront any Greek temple with understanding and pleasure. This small, accessible, well-illustrated book inspires visitors to Greece and equips students of Greek architecture for further study. Greek Sanctuaries is particularly aimed at students who need to understand these buildings in some detail, and who need to be able to use technical language themselves in order to analyze and write about them. Students at the high school level will find it useful, as will undergraduates who are new to the study of ancient Greek architecture.

Arts & Photography / Museums & Collections / Exhibition Catalogs

Monet to Dalí: Impressionist and Modern Masterworks from the Cleveland Museum of Art by William H. Robinson, with Senior Editor Barbara Bradley, and an introduction by Laurence Channing (Hudson Hills Press & The Cleveland Museum of Art)

When the Cleveland Museum of Art embarked on an ambitious architectural expansion, one of the world's greatest collections of art was removed from view. Yet this temporary eclipse became an opportunity for lovers of art around the world when parts of the collection were organized as traveling exhibitions.

The 95 masterworks of Impressionist and modern European art in Monet to Dalí reveal one of history's most compelling stories: how masters from Claude Monet and Edgar Degas to Piet Mondrian and Pablo Picasso opened the visual arts to wider and more varied spheres of experience, first in the militant realism of Gustave Courbet, then through direct response to nature in Impressionism, the embrace of subjective experience in Symbolist art, the magisterial formal inventions of Picasso and Georges Braque, the exploration of the subconscious in Surrealism, and the expressionism of the artists of Northern Europe. The heroic figuration of Auguste Rodin is here, as well as the cool formalism of De Stijl and the passion of Vincent van Gogh and Georges Rouault.

Roped together like mountain climbers, as Braque said of Picasso and himself, the artists in this exhibition built on one another's ideas and discoveries, creating a legacy of beauty and humanity the Cleveland Museum of Art shares with the world.

Each painting is presented with descriptions detailing the artist's motifs and context of the work in the Impressionist era. Monet to Dalí, with its essays and over 100 color plates, provides a focus of the dramatic artistic development of the century between 1850 and 1950 through the remarkable pieces of this collection.

Timothy Rub, Director of the Museum, in the foreword explains how almost half the works in this exhibition – the core of the museum's collection of late 19th- and early 20th-century European art – came to the museum through the generosity of one man.

Through gifts of art and money Leonard C. Hanna Jr. turned The Cleveland Museum of Art into a collecting powerhouse, yet, paradoxically, his contributions created an institution remarkable for the lack of a personal stamp of taste or attitude, whose hallmark is active, independent professional judgment as well as the cultivation of donations. As this exhibition demonstrates, Hanna's contribution was more nuanced than the simple provision of lots of money. Although he collected widely from many cultures, his interest centered on European art from the rough century embraced by this exhibition, from the Second Empire in France to the Second World War: classical modern art and its origins. Since 1957, the professional culture he fostered has continued to strengthen the collection in this area, as in many others, and the growth of the museum he did so much to stimulate has sparked a tremendous renovation program, much more extensive than the one he supported in the 1950s.

The exhibition was conceived and organized by author William H. Robinson, Curator of Modern European Art, responding to the entrepreneurial initiative of Charles L. Venable, Deputy Director for Collections and Programs, to convert the inaccessibility of the collection during construction into an opportunity to acquaint an international audience with its riches. The catalogue Monet to Dalí was produced by Director of Publications Laurence Channing and Senior Editor Barbara Bradley.

Monet to Dalí is an elegant and affordable catalog, the first comprehensive presentation of a collection from the Cleveland Museum of Art, including paintings by Monet, Degas, Renoir, Boudin and Manet among other innovative artists of the Impressionist and Post-Impressionist period.

The discussions of impressionist and modern art together with large prints of the artworks illuminate a compelling story of art history – the opening of the visual arts to wider realms of experience, including the exploration of subjectivity, the subconscious and the direct response to nature.

Art & Photography / Religion & Spirituality / Buddhism

The Zen Art Box by Stephen Addiss & John Daido Loori (Shambhala)

A work of Zen art is a teaching in visual form, intended to be contemplated not only for its beauty, but for the secrets it contains about being fully human, fully alive. As teaching, Zen art can be profound, perplexing, serious, humorous – sometimes all within the same piece; as art, it stands somewhere outside standard aesthetic conventions, even those of other schools of Buddhist art. Zen art is most often identified with the expressive media of calligraphy or brush painting, but whatever the mood or medium, each work is the tangible record of an unrepeatable moment in the artist's mind, an expression on paper of his or her understanding of the nature of things.

Some of the most famous of all Zen masters, like the great Hakuin Ekaku, used art as a primary mode of teaching. The Zen Art Box/span> presents Zen art for its beauty as well as for the teaching it exhibits. The box contains forty images of brush painting and calligraphy, each reproduced in fine quality on substantial card stock, and an easel stand for displaying the art, so that readers can keep one on display and change the image periodically.

The back of each card, 6-by-9 inches, includes a description and decoding of the piece by Stephen Addis, along with a Dharma commentary from John Daido Loori on the Zen wisdom contained in it. Also included is a 32-page color-illustrated booklet with essays on Zen art by both the authors.

Art historian Addiss is a Tucker-Boatwright Professor in the Humanities: Art at the University of Richmond, Virginia, as well as a world-renowned calligrapher in his own right. Monk-artist Loori is the abbot of the Zen Mountain Monastery in Mount Tremper, New York, and the founder and director of the Mountains and Rivers Order, an organization of associated Zen Buddhist temples, practice centers, and meditation groups from around the United States and abroad. He is also president of Dharma Communications, an enterprise devoted to making Buddhist teachings widely available through videotapes, books, meditation supplies, and a quarterly journal, Mountain Record.
As Zen becomes ever more accepted and understood as a spiritual path in the West, Zen art also becomes better known and appreciated. The vital element in these works, both new and old, in whatever medium, is the expression of Zen mind. Whether historical or contemporary, the mark of Zen art is the ability to be right here, right now.

The works presented in The Zen Art Box are powerful visual expres­sions of Dharma, beautifully reproduced in fine quality, by leading monk-artists of the past. The Zen Art Box will appeal not only to Zen students but also to anyone intrigued by the arts of Buddhism and of Japan.
Art History / Philosophy / Aesthetics / Comparative Religion

Figures of Speech or Figures of Thought?:: The Traditional View of Art, Revised Edition with Previously Unpublished Author’s Notes by Ananda K. Coomaraswamy, edited by William Wroth, with an introduction by Roger Lipsey (Perennial Philosophy Series: World Wisdom)

In the beginning of the twentieth century, a school of thought arose which has focused on the enunciation and explanation of the Perennial Philosophy. Deeply rooted in the sense of the sacred, the writings of its lead­ing exponents establish an indispensable foundation for understanding the timeless Truth and spiritual practices which live in the heart of all religions. Some of these titles are companion volumes to the Treasures of the World's Religions series, which allows a comparison of the writings of the great sages of the past with the perennialist authors of our time. – Ananda Coomaraswamy

Figures of Speech or Figures of Thought? is a new edition of Ananda Coomaraswamy's classic book, considered his most important work on the philosophy of art, including all of the revisions Coomaraswamy had wanted to add to the original edition. Edited by William Wroth, a specialist in the Hispanic and Native American traditional arts and cultures, the book contains, for the first time, translations of the Greek, Latin, French, German, and Italian terms and phrases used by Coomaraswamy. The book also contains an introduction by Roger Lipsey, the foremost authority on Coomaraswamy's writings.

Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy (1877-1947) was one of the great art historians of the twentieth century. His books and articles deal primarily with visual art, aesthetics, literature and language, folklore, religion, and metaphysics. As editor William Wroth shows in the preface, the breadth of Coomaraswamy's knowledge, the many fields of which he had grasp, seems astonishing in today's world of narrow scholarly specialization. While primarily known among scholars as an art historian, he shed light upon many other diverse subjects, for he did not limit the study of art to descriptive or historical inquiry. He drew the broadest implications for the meaning and always-present value of the works of art under consideration, delving into aesthetics, literature and language, folklore, religion, metaphysics and many other fields. His heritage and early years uniquely prepared him for this life's work. Ananda Kentish Coomaraswamy was born in 1877 in st1:place w:st="on">Colombo, Ceylon. His father was the distinguished Sri Lankan barrister Sir Mutu Coomaraswamy and his mother Elizabeth Clay Beebe, from a wealthy English family. Sir Mutu died in 1879 when Ananda Coomaraswamy was two years old. His mother had already brought the young Ananda back to England, and after his father's death, they lived in a cottage in Kent. Ananda attended Wycliffe College in Gloucestershire from 1889 to 1897. He received the B. Sc. in geology and botany from University College, London in 1900 and in 1906 his doctorate in Geology from London University. At least as early as 1896 he began to make annual visits to Ceylon, the homeland of his father, where he undertook geo­logical surveys and studies and was soon appointed the first director of the newly-established Mineralogical Survey of Ceylon.

According to Figures of Speech or Figures of Thought?, in 1902 he traveled by ox cart throughout Ceylon in fulfillment of his geological research. He quickly became aware of the traditional Buddhist and Hindu culture and the arts and crafts which still flourished in the remoter regions of Ceylon, more-or-less untouched by modern European civilization. At the same time, with his English upbringing he was painfully aware of the neglect of this traditional culture by the Western-educated Sinhalese under the pressure of colonialism. His interest in the protection and revival of Sri Lankan culture led him to the founding in 1905 of the Ceylon Social Reform Society.

Following the lead of John Ruskin and William Morris, Coomaraswamy decried the medioc­rity and uniformity of machine-made products as well as the sapping effects of factory work upon laborers and the meaninglessness of an industrial culture no longer based upon spiritual traditions. Throughout his life Coomaraswamy maintained an active interest in the progress of Indian independence from British rule. Returning to England in 1907 Coomaraswamy took part in the Arts and Crafts Movement, applying more broadly the ideas concerning traditional arts he had formulated in Ceylon and India. Rajput painting in particular was virtually unknown in the West and under-appreciated in India until Coomaraswamy began collecting examples of it, which he first published in 1912 in his Indian Drawings: Second Series, Chiefly Rajput, and in 1916 in the magisterial Rajput Painting, a pioneering work.

For his principled anti-colonialist and anti-industrialist stand, he was threatened with legal proceedings in England and had some of his property confiscated by the government, but was able in 1917 to immigrate to America with some financial assets and with his invaluable collection of Indian art. Coomaraswamy was hired in April 1917 as the first Keeper (Curator) of the newly-established Section of Indian Art in the Museum's Asiatic Department. Ross also purchased for the Museum most of Coomaraswamy's Indian painting collection which formed the basis of the new Indian section.

As told in Figures of Speech or Figures of Thought?, over the next decade he produced for the Museum a series of catalogues of the collection, monographs, and articles which were models of art his­torical scholarship and essentially established the basis for the modern study of Indian art. These works set the stage for his major work, History of Indian and Indonesian Art, published in 1927. Having established himself as a pre-eminent scholar in the field, Coomaraswamy gradually returned to interests of his earlier life: a renewed concern with metaphysics and religion and their application to contemporary life. In the late 1920s he began in-depth studies of the Vedas and other classics of Hindu and Buddhist spiritual thought and in 1933 published the first fruits of his labors as A New Approach to the Vedas. It was impossible, he said, to truly understand the sacred art of India without simultaneously knowing the full spiritual context in which it was created, for which these scriptures were important keys. Coomaraswamy began careful etymological and theological studies of medieval Christian texts: thinkers such as St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, as well as study of the Greek classics: Plato, Aristotle, the neo-Platonists and others.

Coomaraswamy’s writings in the late 1930s and early 1940s are intended to show that the appreciation of art must involve the whole person, that true art has primarily an objective spiritual purpose and can not merely be appreciated for its aesthetic qualities. Secondly they are thoughtful and powerful critiques of the values and direction of modern life. Still a supporter of Gandhi and Indian independence, Coomaraswamy wrote trenchant indictments of the effects of modem industrial civilization on traditional peoples, not only those of India but also more ‘primitive’ peoples whose ways of life and cultures were rapidly being crushed by colonialist exploitation. And he demonstrated that these deleterious effects also and inevitably played a role in the spiritual degeneration of the modern West. Finally, all of Coomaraswamy's late work is focused on the primacy of the spirit within the human soul, the inborn truth that is inherent in our deepest nature.

According to Roger Lipsey in the introduction to Figures of Speech or Figures of Thought?, everyone knows that Coomaraswamy's writings are often difficult. His footnotes can be book-length; many essays are two in one, a primary text purposefully guided across an ocean of secondary references and reflections. But even while recalling the complexity of certain of Coomaraswamy's writings and the long challenge they pose, one has to remember two quite different ele­ments. There are essays of wonderful simplicity and directness (for example, "Shaker Furniture" and "Literary Symbolism"), and even in difficult writings passages shine with the poet's gift for the perfect word or image, as if everything that came before, no matter how complex, prepares such luminous moments.

Coomaraswamy was driven to the farthest reaches of complexity in search of complete truth that could withstand every test. He was among the first global thinkers, a scholar of comparative wisdom who could not rest content with the ideas, icons, and teaching narratives (sacred history, myth, and tale) of one culture only. He shows readers Christian ideas, icons, and narratives alongside Hindu and Buddhist ideas, icons, and narratives, and these in turn alongside Platonic and Muslim ele­ments of culture – and more still. He sought and saw their underlying unity. The comment reflects both the breadth of his ecumenical vision and his awareness as an early participant in India's struggle for indepen­dence of the undercurrent of violence in imperialism.

The vast learning marshaled by Coomaraswamy in Figures of Speech or Figures of Thought? and others provides a basis for deciphering traditional works of art and the cultural conditions that needed those works and gave life to them. Coomaraswamy does not invite us to stroll past pictures at an exhibition for pleasure's sake but rather to engage in a quest for understanding. A pair of essays in this book, "The Nature of Buddhist Art" and "Samvega: Aesthetic Shock," speaks to this intensified quality of encounter with works of art.

For all readers who encounter works of traditional religious art and yearn to receive the messages placed in them long ago as if in safe-keeping, Coomaraswamy continues to be the teacher without peer. But in his last 16 years or so, from about 1932 until his passing in the fall of 1947, he tended to use his comprehensive knowledge of the his­tory of art, of languages ancient and modern, Indic and Western, and of Western and Asian scripture and commentary and philosophy, to pur­poses that often transcended and occasionally defied typical academic aims. He was gathering ancient and traditional knowledge before it was too late. He worked with a kind of desperation, not only because he was approaching his older years but because he experienced the society around him as amnesiac, willfully and grossly forgetful of the "traditional or ‘normal’ view" of life and art. He had long been a scholar. Now he was a teacher and prophet.

Coomaraswamy uncovers and puts before us the truths of a primordial tradition, reflected in the world's existing traditions and expressed by them as if in differing dialects. He asks us to join him in the effort to decipher the religiously rich arts and crafts, literatures and folklore of the world's traditions. – Roger Lipsey, from the Introduction

Coomaraswamy is an extremely precious author. – Frithjof Schuon, author of The Transcendent Unity of Religions

Coomaraswamy's essays [give] us a view of his scholarship and brilliant insight. – Joseph Campbell, author of The Hero with a Thousand Faces and The Masks of God

Ananda Coomaraswamy is in many ways to me a model: the model of one who has thoroughly and completely united in himself the spiritual tradition and attitudes of the Orient and of the Christian West.... – Thomas Merton, author of The Seven Storey Mountain and New Seeds of Contemplation

[Ananda Coomaraswamy is] that noble scholar upon whose shoulders we are still standing. – Heinrich Zimmer, author of The King and the Corpse and Philosophies of IIndia

Coomaraswamy's work is as important as that of Joseph Campbell or Carl Jung, and deserving of the same attention. – David Frawley, author of Yoga and Ayurveda

Coomaraswamy's writings are filled with light; they reflect a hierarchy of values, a quality of engagement with works of art that does not leave one cold or unchanged, continuity between spiritual experience and the experience of art. Every passage speaks to the seeker in each of us, to the one who perceives in arts long past, not just material treasures luckily preserved but signs intimately addressed to us.

How clumsy one feels in saying that Coormaraswamy is an irreplaceable teacher. The ideal curriculum would be a full year of study of his writings, but Figures of Speech or Figures of Thought? represents a superb point of entry.

Audio / Health, Mind & Body / Psychology & Counseling / Neuroscience

The Head Trip: Adventures on the Wheel of Consciousness (10 CDs, unabridged, Running Time: approximately 11 ½ hours) by Jeff Warren, narrated by Raymond Todd (Blackstone Audio, Inc.)

The Head Trip: Adventures on the Wheel of Consciousness by Jeff Warren (Random House)
A world at once familiar and unimaginably strange exists all around us – and within us. It is the world of consciousness, a protean mental landscape that each of us knows in bits and pieces, yet understands in its totality scarcely at all. Tied to the body and the brain, consciousness is beyond our ability to measure or quantify. Despite the attempts of scientists and mystics, poets and dreamers, crackpots and geniuses to map its contours and explain its secret workings, the mind remains mysterious. And the more we learn about it, the more mysterious it becomes.
But that is not to say that we know nothing about consciousness. In fact, as gonzo science journalist Jeff Warren demonstrates in The Head Trip’s synthesis of cutting-edge research and personal experience, just how much we do know is astonishing.
Warren, freelance producer for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, begins with the insight that consciousness is not a simple on-off proposition, with rigid demarcations separating waking awareness from the murky depths of sleep, but a round-the-clock continuum regulated by natural biorhythms. He sets out to explore and to experience for himself, the seemingly miraculous, all-but-untapped potential of the human mind.
From the full-immersion virtual realities of lucid dreaming to the esoteric disciplines of Eastern meditative practices that have reached outposts of consciousness far beyond the grasp of Western science, from techniques of hypnosis and neurofeedback to such exotic states of awareness as the Watch and the Pure Conscious Event, The Head Trip/span> takes readers on a journey through their own heads. Beginning with the mild hallucinogenic state that comes just before true sleep, Warren tries to hone his skills at lucid dreaming, subjects himself to hypnosis, and joins a Buddhist meditation retreat, among other adventures. Along the way, he begins to realize that dreaming and waking are equivalent states, and that we can learn how to induce the subtle gradations of consciousness within ourselves.

Warren, a Canadian science journalist, combines the rigorous self-experimentation of Steven Johnson's Mind Wide Open with the wacky self-experimentation of A.J. Jacobs's The Know-It-All in this entertaining field guide to the varying levels of mental awareness. … This could come off as New Age psychobabble, but Warren is well versed in the scientific literature, and he provides detailed accounts of his own research.… His self-mocking attitude toward his inability to achieve instant nirvana, along with a steady stream of cartoon illustrations, ensures that his ideas remain accessible. More important than the theories, though, may be the basic tools – and the visionary spirit – that Warren hands off to those interested in hacking their own minds. – Publishers Weekly

An audacious, enchanting, and often hilarious journey into the slippery nature of human consciousness, from deep slumber to lofty states of enlightenment. This book will blow your mind. – Sandra Blakeslee, co-author of The Body Has a Mind of Its Own

An amazing book. Jeff Warren manages to be funny while packing in tons of fascinating science. Rather than staying within conventional boundaries, Warren follows his own formidable curiosity, producing a book that is quirky, refreshing, and nothing short of groundbreaking. – Tom Stafford, co-author of Mind Hacks

Writing about any aspect of consciousness is treacherously difficult, but Jeff Warren's take on the subject is clear, original, and – amazingly – funny! – Rita Carter, author of Mapping the Mind

As readable and fun as a novel, yet accurate and up-to-date, this book is about your most precious possession – your consciousness – and the fascinating states it goes through. – Charles T. Tart, author of Altered States of Consciousness

This provocative, often hilarious, and fascinating book describes a journey conducted with the adventurous spirit and intellectual curiosity of a Darwin coupled with the sensibility of a stand-up comedian. When Warren fits the pieces together, the implications of that knowledge are … mind-blowing. Part user’s manual and part travel guide, The Head Trip will be an instant classic, a brilliant summation of consciousness studies that is also a practical guide to enhancing creativity, mental health, and the experience of what it means to be human. Many books claim that they will change their readers. This one gives readers the tools to change themselves.
The audio version is ably read by Raymond Todd, actor-director, jazz musician and documentary filmmaker.

Audio / Literature & Fiction

Gods Behaving Badly:: A Novel (Abridged audiobook, 5 Audio CDs, running time approximately 6 hours) by Marie Phillips, narrated by Tom Sellwood (Hachette Audio)

Gods Behaving Badly/span>: A Novel by Marie Phillips (Little, Brown and Company)

Being immortal is not all it once was.

Neither is being a Greek god.

According to Marie Phillips in Gods Behaving Badly, the twelve gods of Olympus are alive and well in the twenty-first century, but they are crammed together in a London townhouse – and none too happy about it. And they've had to get day jobs: Artemis, goddess of hunting, as a dog-walker, Apollo, god of the sun, as a TV psychic, Aphrodite, goddess of beauty, as a phone sex operator, Dionysus, god of love, as a DJ.
Even more disturbingly, their powers are waning, and even turning mortals into trees – a favorite pastime of Apollo's – is sapping their vital reserves of strength.
Soon, what begins as a minor squabble between Aphrodite and Apollo escalates into an epic battle of wills. Two perplexed humans, Alice and Neil, who are caught in the crossfire, must fear not only for their own lives, but for the survival of humankind. Nothing less than a true act of heroism is needed – but can these two decidedly ordinary people replicate the feats of the mythical heroes and save the world?

Author Phillips studied anthropology at Cambridge University and worked as a researcher at the BBC before she started working as an independent bookseller while writing Gods Behaving Badly. Narrator Tom Sellwood has performed extensively on Broadway and London's West End, has appeared in Sex in the City for HBO, and has done voice-over work for film and television.

British blogger Phillips's delightful debut finds the Greek gods and goddesses living in a tumbledown house in modern-day London and facing a very serious problem: their powers are waning, and immortality does not seem guaranteed. In between looking for work and keeping house, the ancient family is still up to its oldest pursuit: crossing and double-crossing each other. Apollo[‘s] …aunt Aphrodite, a phone-sex worker, sabotages him by having her son Eros shoot him with an arrow of love, making him fall for a very ordinary mortal – a cleaning woman named Alice, who happens to be in love with Neil, another nice, retiring mortal. When Artemis … hires Alice to tidy up, the household is set to combust, and the fate of the world hangs in the balance. Fanciful, humorous and charming, this satire is as sweet as nectar. – Publishers Weekly

Gods Behaving Badly is that rare thing: a charming, funny, utterly original first novel that satisfies the head and the heart.

Business & Investing / Management & Leadership

Flow in the Office:: Implementing and Sustaining Lean Improvements by Carlos Venegas (Productivity Press)

For many years, Lean initiatives have generated staggering improvements on the shop floor. Now many managers and business leaders want these Lean benefits incorporated into non-traditional environments such as service and transactions.
Flow in the Office shows readers how to:

  • Translate and transition Lean manufacturing principles into all office activities.
  • Leverage the assets that they already have, honing them and bringing them to bear in support of the business strategy.
  • Conduct an office kaizen event where office automation is a key component.

The author, Carlos Venegas, president of Straus/Forest, LLC, has helped scores of clients implement successful process-improvement initiatives in a wide range of organizations: from 1000-employee business units in a Fortune 500 company to a four-employee small business. Venegas has an M.A. in Applied Behavioral Science from The Leadership Institute of Seattle and has received extensive Lean training from Shingijutsu, Ltd., both in Japan/st1:place> and the United States.

Lean refers to the Toyota Production System (TPS), which was pioneered by Taiichi Ohno at the Toyota Motor Company. Lean is an approach to "manage customer relations, the supply chain, product devel­opment, and production operations." Ohno says that the "basis of the Toyota Production System is the absolute elimination of waste." To work toward this goal, the TPS rests on two funda­mental principles:

  1. Just-in-time (JIT) production.
  2. Autonomation, also known as jidoka, that is, automation with human intelligence.

In a just-in-time production environment, material, data, and information flow to a workstation in only the amounts needed for a particular operation at a particular time. This allows the system to minimize the amount of ‘work-in-process,’ or WIP. Reducing WIP allows for right-sized workstations and can actually increase the velocity and flexibility of a product's flow through the system.

The term Jidoka highlights the need to embed quality in the manufacturing process. If any defective process or object is discovered during the manufacturing process, the activity stops automatically, allowing the concerned people to correct the defect. Jidoka fosters high-quality parts and processes, which are a prerequisite for successful JIT.

Lean has been viewed by many as a product of the factory environment. Over the last 40 years, it has been refined and proven to be among the most effec­tive strategies to improve operational productivity. An Economist article gives Lean the credit for uncommonly rapid productivity growth in the U.S. manu­facturing sector between 2001 and 2006.

Venegas in Flow in the Office says he became involved in Lean business because he loved its simplicity and ele­gance. Eventually, the efficiencies that Lean affords became his secondary objective. The positive impact that Lean can have on people became his prime motivator. That impact has given him the ener­gy and determination to carry the Lean banner through thick and thin. For example, once during a kaizen event, a woman jogged past him, obviously on an errand for her Lean kaizen team. As she passed me, she exclaimed with a wide grin and a laugh, "I'm having fun!"

Although implementing Lean can be hard, process improvement itself is easy, at least once learners know the principles of Lean. In fact, for the initiated, Lean prin­ciples often seem like solid common sense. The hard part is people; without the active engagement of employees – and management – Lean goes nowhere.

Flow in the Office begins with establishing the business case for Lean. Chapter 1 features an overview of what others have experienced with Lean in their businesses. Learning about Lean in the office environment follows next. Chapters 2 and 3 examine the nature of flow in the office environment, how waste impedes that flow, and some of the Lean concepts that are used to combat waste. Chapter 4 looks at a type of process mapping called ‘value-stream mapping.’ The value-stream map (VSM) process visualizes the current and improved process; then identifies, prioritizes, and schedules the improvement activities. Preparation for an office kaizen and its implementation are covered in detail in Chapters 5 and 6. Chapter 7, the final and perhaps, the most important chapter, deals with sus­taining the kaizen improvements.

Venegas translates the language of Lean manufacturing into the language of Lean office flow, bringing bits, bytes, and conversations into the world of process improvement. In Flow in the Office/span>, he shows how the competitive advantage goes to those who manage information and knowledge most effectively and efficiently. Exploring a new operational strategy may not be easy, but it is exciting. Whether readers are interested in a specific topic, say kaizen, or have committed themselves to launch­ing Lean in their workplaces, they will discover useful nuggets in Flow in the Office that help them combine their current thinking with the possibilities of what Lean can do for their businesses.

Children’s / Ages 4-8

Jazz Baby by Lisa Wheeler, illustrated by R. Gregory Christie (Harcourt, Inc. Children)

First there's a tap.
Next there's a snap.
Then itty-bitty Baby's hands
Clap-clap-clap!
Toot! Goes his family. Boom! Boom! Bop!
Even Baby’s neighbors go hip-hip-hop! – from the book

In Jazz Baby/span>, Baby and his family make some jazzy music.
WWith a simple clap of hands, a beboppin' baby gets his whole family singing and dancing. Sister's hands snap. Granny sings scat. Uncle soft-shoes – and Baby keeps the groove. Things start to wind down when Mama and Daddy sing blues so sweet. Now a perfectly drowsy baby sleeps deep, deep, deep.

Lisa Wheeler is the author of many irresistible read-aloud picture books. Wheeler, who gets most of her ideas while in motion, wrote the first stanza of Jazz Baby while doing laps in a swimming pool. She's also written stories while cutting grass, cleaning, and walking. Forward momentum may even have inspired her to write Mammoths on the Move, a book about migration.

Illustrator R. Gregory Christie is an outstanding talent in picture books and has won three Coretta Scott King Illustrator Honors. Christie graduated from New York City's School of Visual Arts, and within a few years his work appeared on the covers of jazz records all over the world. He then began to illustrate children's books. Christie travels internationally to create art live at various events, and he continues to paint illustrations for album covers, books, and magazines from in his studio in Brooklyn, New York.

Wheeler and Christie pair up perfectly in Jazz Baby for a celebration of music, imagination, and big families – but they know that even a jazz baby needs to snooze. Oh yeah.

Children’s / Ages 5 and up

The Chronicles of Narnia Pop-up: Based on the Books by C. S. Lewis by C. S. Lewis, pop-ups by Robert Sabuda, Matthew Armstrong, & Matthew Reinhart (Narnia Series: Harper Collins Publishers)

In The Chronicles of Narnia Pop-up C. S. Lewis's classic The Chronicles of Narnia books spring to life in the hands of award-winning paper engineer Robert Sabuda. Each of the seven books in the series has its own pop-up spread rendered in detail with special effects. Readers experience a different adventure from Narnia on every spread in this addition to the Narnia library. The pop-ups highlighting the seven books in the series are:

  • From The Magicians Nephew, the Great Lion, Asian, springs.
  • From The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe the snow-covered land of Narnia is revealed.
  • From The Horse and His Boy, the horse and the boy gallop across the page.
  • From Prince Caspia, the Prince fights the battle.
  • From Voyage of the Dawn Treader King Caspian sets sail.
  • From The Silver Chair Eustace and Jill fly above the tower on owls.
  • From The Last Battle all who have been loyal and true parade into Asian’s Country.

Author Clive Staples (C.S.) Lewis (1898-1963) was one of the intellectual giants of the twentieth century and arguably the most influential Christian writer of his day. He was a fellow and tutor in English literature at Oxford University until 1954, when he was unanimously elected to the Chair of Medieval and Renaissance English at Cambridge University, a position he held until his retirement. He wrote more than thirty books, allowing him to reach a vast audience, and his works continue to attract thousands of new readers every year. His most distinguished and popular accomplishments include The Chronicles of Narnia, Out of the Silent Planet, The Four Loves, The Screwtape Letters, and Mere Christianity.

Lovers of Lewis’s famous series have never seen Narnia like they will in The Chronicles of Narnia Pop-up. In these glorious pop-ups Narnia comes to life in spectacular detail with stunning special effects. This beautiful book is sure to enchant fans of both Lewis and Sabuda.

Children’s / Young Adult / Historical Fiction

Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson (Readers Circle Series: Delacorte Books for Young Readers)

After Kirby Larson heard a snippet of a story about her great-grandmother homesteading in eastern Montana, she spent three years working on the story, reading dozens of homesteaders' journals, and she based scenes in the book on real events. Now being issued in paperback, Hattie Big Sky earned two starred reviews upon its publication and a Newberry Honor. Set on a homestead in rural Montana, Larson's tale captures the sentiments of those left at home during World War I.

For most of her life, sixteen-year-old Hattie Brooks has been shuttled from one distant relative to another. Fed up with being Hattie Here-and-There, she longs for a home of her own. So when she hears the news that she has inherited her uncle's claim in Montana, Hattie courageously decides to leave Iowa behind – she will prove up on her late uncle's homestead to establish the home of her dreams.

Under the big sky, Hattie braves hard weather, hard times, a cantankerous cow, and her own hopeless hand at the cook stove. Despite countless hardships, Hattie forges ahead. With a stubborn stick-to-itiveness, she faces frost, drought and blizzards. Hattie's daily struggles to survive are balanced by the loving family relationship she develops with her German neighbors, the Muellers. For the first time in her life, Hattie feels part of a family, finding the strength to stand up against Traft Martin's schemes to buy her out. Then, as the war rages in Europe, anti-German sentiment travels west to Montana, forcing Hattie to decide what being a ‘loyal’ American really means. In spite of all the obstacles and forces working against her, Hattie is determined to work the land until a tragedy causes her to discover the true meaning of home and family.

Along the way, Hattie chronicles her adventures in a series of articles for the hometown Iowa newspaper, as well as in letters to her dear friend, Charlie, a possible suitor, who is fighting in France. Each chapter opens with one of those short articles for the paper or one of her lively letters to Charlie.

Hattie Big Sky also contains a reading group discussion guide.

A marvelous story about courage, loyalty, perseverance, and the meaning of home. I gave my heart to the brave and determined Hattie, and I think you will, too. – Karen Cushman, author of The Midwife's Apprentice, and Catherine, Called Birdy

Larson creates a masterful picture of the homesteading experience and the people who persevered. – School Library Journal (starred review)

Readers will connect with this strong, resourceful character. – The Seattle Post-Intelligencer

This is a great read for anyone who appreciates history or learning what life was like for teens in years past. – Detroit Free Press

In this engaging historical novel set in 1918 …The authentic first-person narrative, full of hope and anxiety, effectively portrays Hattie's struggles as a young woman with limited options, a homesteader facing terrible odds … Writing in figurative language that draws on nature and domestic detail to infuse her story with the sounds, smells, and sights of the prairie, she creates a richly textured novel full of memorable characters. – Kathleen Odean, Booklist (starred review)

In the grand tradition of great American historical novels such as Oh Pioneers! and Little House on the Prairie, Larson's Hattie Big Sky shares an emotionally rich story that celebrates pioneer women and their indomitable spirit. Lovingly stitched together from Larson's own family his­tory and the sights, sounds, and scents of homesteading life, the story also poignantly captures the sentiments of those left at home during World War I with powerful insight and grace.

Cooking, Food & Wine

Cooking Jewish: 532 Great Recipes from the Rabinowitz Family by Judy Bart Kancigor (Workman Publishing)

Got kugel? Got Kugel with Toffee Walnuts?

When Judy Bart Kancigor was excitedly expecting her first grandchild, she suddenly realized – how would this coming generation ever know her family's history, hear the wonderful stories – and, more importantly, taste its wonderful food?

Blending the recipes with over 160 stories from the Rabinowitz family and illustrated throughout with more than 500 photographs reaching back to the 19th century, Cooking Jewish invites readers not just into the kitchen, but into a vibrant world of family and friends. Written and recipe-tested by Kancigor, a food journalist with the Orange County Register, who self-published her first family cookbook as a gift and then went on to sell 11,000 copies, Cooking Jewish contains 532 recipes from her extended family of outstanding cooks, including the best chicken soup ever – really! – from her mother, Lillian. (Or as the author says, "When you write your cookbook, you can say your mother's is the best.")

The real homemade Gefilte Fish – and also Salmon en Papillote. Grandma Sera Fritkin’s Russian Brisket and Hazelnut-Crusted Rack of Lamb. Aunt Irene's traditional matzoh balls and Judy's contemporary version with shiitake mushrooms. Layered Hummus and Eggplant with Roasted Garlic and Pine Nuts, Moroccan Spicy Apricot Lamb Shanks, and, essential for any holiday, Gramma Sera Fritkin's Russian Brisket.

And befitting the work of passionate cooks who will use any excuse to get together for coffee and ‘a little something,’ readers will find FOUR chapters on sweets – dozens and dozens of desserts: pies, cakes, cookies, bars, and a multitude of cheesecakes; Rugelach and Hamantaschen, Mandelbrot and Sufganyot (Hanukkah jelly doughnuts). Not to mention Tanta Esther Gittel’s Husband’s Second Wife Lena’s Nut Cake.

Cooking Jewish blends the old with the new, the sweet with the savory, the recipes with the stories behind them, and by the end of the book, readers get to know the whole wacky Rabinowitz clan. How did Aunt Sally's Red, White and Blue Cake get its name, for example? "When Harold was courting Marilyn, Aunt Sally offered him an assortment of her cakes. He took one look at her chocolate, vanilla, and cherry marble cake and said, ‘Do I eat it or salute it?’ They've been calling it Red, White, and Blue Cake ever since!"

But all is not without controversy. There are the matzoh ball floater-lovers versus the sinker-lovers. The Litvaks versus the Galitzianers (the Jewish version of the Hatfields and McCoys). And in an essay called "The Kugel Wars," Kancigor reveals the heart-wrenching dilemma she faced in whittling down the myriad kugel recipes submitted to a mere dozen. "’Take mine!’ ‘No, mine!’ they all pleaded. It got ugly. Otherwise perfectly agreeable cousins came practically to blows extolling the virtues of ... what? We're talking a noodle concoction here!" Rita's Special Kugel, layered with pears and peaches, wins out as ‘the king of kugels.’

Readers will find Old World comfort food like Pirogen (Cheese and Potato), and Kancigor's signature hors d'oeuvre, Potato Knishes ("I'll go to my grave believing that if my daughter-in-law Shelly hesitated for one minute about marrying Stu, it was my knishes that pushed her over the edge"), new versions of old favorites like Malaysian Potato Latkes, with ginger, jalapeños and cashews ("a latke with pizzazz!"), and a whole chapter for Passover.

Feasting and family lore in equal measure – a savory labor of love. Buy it – you look thin! – Bryan Miller, food critic and writer
Just delightful! Judy has given us a delectable family reunion recipe feast, with lively photos throughout. – Sheila Lukins, coauthor of The Silver Palate Cookbook
The adventurous cooks in the Rabinowitz family have come up with dishes in a wide range of flavors – I’m eager to try her son's Not Exactly Russian Piroshki, her grandma's cholent with red wine, her Passover banana sponge cake, and, of course, Mama Hinda's Challah. Judy's enthusiasm and sense of humor shine through. – Faye Levy, 1,000 Jewish Recipes

Cooking Jewish gathers recipes from five generations of a food-obsessed family into a celebratory saga of cousins and kasha, Passover feasts and crossover dishes. It speaks to the Jewish food lover in anyone who recalls standing on a chair to help Mom cut out butter cookies. It is cooking from the heart, a memory in every bite.

With its lively anecdotes and eccentric characters, the book invites readers not just into the kitchen, but into a whole vibrant world of family and friends. Mixing stories of the author's family with the treasure of five generations of recipes, Cooking Jewish is home cooking at its best.

Cooking, Food & Wine / Travel

Flavors of Slovenia: Food And Wine from Central Europe's Hidden Gem by Heike Milhench (Hippocrene Books, Inc.)

Tucked between the foothills of the Alps, the coast of the Adriatic Sea, and the beginning of the Panonian plains to the East, Slovenia is a beautiful land in Central Europe. Among the popular draws are its peaceful Mediterranean climate, scenic aspect, and increased accessibility and affordability. Newly independent from Yugoslavia at the end of the 20th century, Slovenia emerged fairly recently with a resilient culture and rich arts scene that has caused tourism to flourish. In Flavors of Slovenia, Heike Milhench presents a comprehensive guide to the country's cuisine.

Slovenian fare is both hearty and wholesome. According to Flavors of Slovenia, Sunday afternoon lunch in Slovenia is a family affair that can last for hours. Several courses are ordered, sometimes accompanied by several bottles of wine. Especially during the winter months, the chance to sit together in a warm and cozy atmosphere to catch up on the week’s events is appreciated by all.

The book ranges from such perennial favorites as Friko (Hearty Potato Pancake), Źlinkrofi (Meat Dumplings), Bakala (Dried Salt Cod Paté) and Kostanjeva Juba (Chestnut Soup) to more unusual preparations like Črni Rižoto (Black Risotto with Squid, ink included) and Mežerli (Baked Encrusted Pig or Veal Lung – a version of Haggis),

Flavors of Slovenia includes delicacies like the popular Nadevana Svinjska Ribiea s Suhimi Figarni (Leg of Pork Stuffed with Dried Figs) and Kranjske Klobase (Carniolan Sausages), not to mention a local favorite, Pehtranova Terra (Tarragon Cake with Sour Cream). A wide and eclectic selection of appetizers, salads, soups and meats are featured here, as well as a variety of baked goods – Poticas (rolled yeast breads with varied fillings), Strudels, Tortes, Crepes and Strukijis (traditional rolled dumplings) abound.

One of the greatest attributes of Slovenian cuisine is its use of local and fresh ingredients. In the early summer, for example, one will see many asparagus dishes on local menus; in the fall, pumpkin soup and venison; in the spring, dandelion salad.

The regional dishes are strongly influenced by the surrounding geography, be it the mountainous region of Gorenjska in the northwest, or the seaside region of Primorska on the Adriatic Coast. Local tastes also mirror the cultures of neighboring countries. For example, the northeast region of Prekrnurje prefers spicy soups and stews, typical of Hungarian cuisine, whereas the Koroska region along the border of Aus­tria enjoys foods with more of an Austrian or Germanic influence. The Primorska region, along the western border of Slovenia, shows its appreciation of Italian cuisine.

Although Flavors of Slovenia includes many tradi­tional recipes, such as Brown Soup and Strudel, there are also some modern twists on old favorites, such as Zucchini Fritters. Milhench says her selections reflect the Slovenia of today. Many Slovenian restaurants feature traditional dishes; however, creative gourmet chefs also like to make their mark on the menu. For example, there are wonderful new restaurants in Ljubljana, as well as in the mountains, which feature ‘Slovenian Slow Food’ menus. These contrast with the Slovenian version of ‘fast food,’ eevapiei, a spiced meat served on the streets of Ljubljana that has roots in the cuisine of the southern Balkans.

Dining in Slovenia is pleasantly accom­panied by the local wines, beers, and other beverages. The country has a long history of wine production, and hundreds of small vineyards produce high-quality wines. Depending on which region readers may visit, they will drink one of three local beers brewed from the well-known Stajerska hops: Union Pivo brewed in Ljubljana; Lagko Pivo from Lagko; or beer from the smaller Gambrinus brewery in Maribor. Traditional brandies, such as blueberry, pear, and walnut, are produced on farms, in monasteries, or in kitchens. Sloveni­ans also enjoy the local cola, juices, and iced tea, proudly bottled at home.

According to Flavors of Slovenia, when travelers go to Slovenia, they will be amazed by how much there is to do within its modest borders. There is skiing, golf, hik­ing and rock climbing, sailing, fishing, and whitewater rafting. They can visit the Lipiz­zaner horses, thermal baths, wine vineyards, and crystal factories, as well as a World War I museum, beautiful medieval castles, and art nouveau architecture. Everywhere they go, they will find wonderful restaurants, pubs, and cafes, and will be greeted by open and friendly Slovenians, interested to know where they came from and how they came to visit Slovenia.

Hippocrene – a fount of ethnic cookbooks. – Publisher's Weekly

Perhaps the only comprehensive guide to this country’s cuisine, Flavors of Slovenia invites readers to enjoy its sampling of a diverse culinary heritage and culture, replete with 200 delicious recipes, a section on well-known Slovenian beers and wines, and stories of a fascinating past. Not only do readers discover these tasty dishes, but also ruminations on golf, the capital city of Ljubljana, and the art of Slovenian beekeeping, Tales of such legendary locals as the ‘sunshine salesman’ and a Slovenian Robin Hood along with ghosts and fairytale castles also bring the culture alive in this unique volume. Readers will enjoy the recipes and stories in the book and they may well be inspired to make the trip.

Engineering / Aerospace / Propulsion Technology / Biographies & Memoirs

Rocketman: My Rocket-Propelled Life and High-Octane Creations by Ky Michaelson (Motorbooks)

An unlikely combination of Hollywood stuntman, mechanical wizard, loving family man and friend, record-setting rocketeer, inspirational speaker, and humble genius, Ky Michaelson seems to have literally done and seen it all. Even so, his life is as busy as ever and there’s no stopping him, as readers will learn in the pages of Rocketman – Michaelson’s story, the tale of a rocket-powered man.

Since the 1960s, Michaelson’s rocket-powered vehicles have set 72 state, national, and international speed records. A penchant for the unknown and passion for speed have driven Michaelson since childhood, when he built his first rocket-powered motorcycle. After earning his first world record – for a rocket-powered snowmobile – Michaelson decided to go after every acceleration record in the world.
Michaelson tells the story of how he began and where he’s gone, including his behind-the-scenes work on hundreds of film and television programs, his home-built rocket-powered toys, and his service as program director of Space Shot 2004 – the grand effort of the Civilian Space eXploration Team (CSXT) to build and launch the first amateur rocket into space. And he describes accomplishing the impossible dream to license and successfully launch the Go Fast rocket into space, reaching an altitude of 72 miles and setting a new speed record of 3,420 miles per hour.

Michaelson’s penchant for the unknown began in childhood. In 1964, he built his first rocket-powered motorcycle, powered by two Turbonique T-16A rocket motors. While at a local racetrack, the track announcer said, “Here comes the Rocketman.” The nickname stuck. In 1969, Michaelson formed Rocketman Enterprises Inc. and built a rocket-powered snowmobile that made it into the Guinness Book of World Records.

Michaelson was instrumental in gaining license for the first NHRA-sanctioned hydrogen peroxide rocket-powered dragsters in the 1970s. Later in life, he aimed his rocket dreams skyward, building and launching several rockets toward space. He has worked on over 200 films, television programs, and commercials, as well as the majority of stunt specials that have been seen on TV over the past 30 years. Literally hundreds of feature articles have been written about Michaelson and his adventures. He continues to build rockets and rocket-powered vehicles in his home workshop in Bloomington, Minnesota.

He’s the real thing and more than inspiring … Ky should be the poster boy for everything related to space for any nation’s space program! – Dr. David Livingston, host, The Space Show

Through the pages of Rocketman, Michaelson engagingly shares his inspiring story of overcoming seemingly insurmountable challenges to achieve a life-long dream. His stories are remarkable. His zest for life is unmatched. His inventions are real-life sci-fi. An entrancing tour of the rocketing devices Michaelson devised, Rocketman also brings to life the brilliant, determined, eccentric man whose will was enough to launch him into space, stardom, and history. Readers will have to read it to believe it.

Entertainment / Movies / Literature & Fiction / Social Sciences

Monsters In and Among Us: Toward a Gothic Criminology edited by Caroline Joan (Kay) Picart & Cecil Greek (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press)

The complex range of reactions we exhibit toward monsters – from horror to awe – cries out for examina­tion. Thus, it is important to track the most gripping and recurrent visualizations of the ‘monstrous’ in film and the media in order to lay bare the tensions that underlie the contemporary construc­tion of the monstrous, which ranges in the twilight realm where divisions separating fact, fiction, and myth are porous.

The anthology Monsters In and Among Us was prompted by the explosion of books and films that link violence, images of ‘monstrosity,’ and Gothic modes of narration and visualization in American popular culture, academia, and even public policy. The ongoing fascination with evil, as simultaneously repel­lant and irresistibly attractive, in the Hollywood film, criminological case studies, popular cul­ture, and even public policy points to the emer­gence of a ‘Gothic criminology’ with its focus on themes such as blood lust, compulsion, godlike vengeance, and power and domination. In spite of this explosion, there have been few critical anthologies aimed at an interdisciplinary approach focusing on the complex continuum of fact and fiction, moving across the humanities (film criticism, cultural studies, rhetoric) and the social sciences (communica­tion, criminology, sociology) in exploring this phenomenon.

Edited by Caroline Joan (Kay) Picart, Associate Professor of English and Cour­tesy Associate Professor of Law at Florida State University and Cecil Greek, Associate Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Florida State University, Monsters In and Among Us is a collection of essays critically interrogating contemporary visualizations of the Gothic and the monstrous in film and media. Rather than assuming that film and the media tell us little about the reality of criminological phenomena, ‘Gothic criminology,’ as presented in this collection of essays, recognizes the complementarity of critical academic and aesthetic accounts of deviant behavior as intersecting with the public policy in complex, non-reductive ways. Gothic criminology ges­tures toward an account that moves between the realms of Gothic fiction and film that entertain its horrified and fascinated audi­ence with unreal horrors attendant upon a realistically/cogently imagined fictional world, and factual cases (e.g., stalkers, serial murderers, terrorists, and rogue cops) framed in Gothic terms that are essential to plotting the social construction of where evil resides within modernity.

The contemporary monsters Picart and Green examine in Monsters In and Among Us include the pedophilic homosexual priest (Ingebretsen's essay); the hyper­masculinized rogue cop (Houck's and Greek's essays); the mascu­linized mother (Benson's essay); the drug addict (McKahan's essay); the white-collar criminal (Gill's essay); the serial killer (Picart and Greek's essay); and the terrorist (Picart and Greek's essay). Other instances of the Gothic in popular culture include police departments nurtured by monstrously corrupt practices (Greek's essay), unbridled capitalism as vampiric (Gill's essay), and even the proliferation of Gothic images and metaphors in pop­ular culture spawning paranoid and useless public policy (Suret­te's essay).

Picart and Greek in Monsters In and Among Us first offer a matrix for understanding Gothic crimi­nology as a theoretical perspective by tracing its root components within strands of postmodern criminology and Gothic literary and film theory. Where Gothic fiction instructs its horrified readers in the unreal horrors attendant upon a realistically imagined fictional world, Gothic criminology teaches its readers about the actual horrors that produce and prevail in the social construction of modernity. Where Gothic literature offers "scientifically objective terminology and clearly empirical obser­vation as a means of establishing intensely private, subjective ex­perience," Gothic criminology employs otherworldly "imagery and occult fantasy to evoke in the reader an intellectual understanding of the actual world and to inspire a praxiological re­sponse to it."

The development of a Gothic criminology can be seen as a po­tential strand of contemporary postmodern criminological theory. The introduction offers a characterization of this theoretical position, postmodern criminology, by examining its genealogy. While the phrase ‘Gothic criminology’ may be new, the crimi­nological elements of it can be gleaned from the writings of sociol­ogists, criminologists, and social philosophers trying to come to grips with the ever present problem of human evil and describing it in ways that can be interpreted as Gothic. Gothic criminology cannot be reduced to a monolithic defini­tion, as it comprises the critical examination of themes and con­cepts apparent in both the Gothic literary tradition and key qualitative social science texts, against the sociopolitical and tex­tual contexts that endlessly reproduce the manifold embodiments of the Gothic.

The term Gothic has it original roots in the development of an architectural style popular in Europe between 1150 and 1400. More important for Monsters In and Among Us is the development of Gothic literature. This now widely recognized genre was devel­oped in works like Horace Walpole's The Castle of Otranto (1764); Matthew Lewis's The Monk (1796); Ann Radcliffe's The Italian; or, The Confessional of the Black Penitents (1797); Mary Shelley's Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus (1818); and Charles Maturin's Melmoth the Wanderer (1820). These are con­stantly cited as defining the Gothic genre, though the discussion of these particular works as canonical happened much later. Sociologically, these tales represented a reaction to the age of reason, order, and politics of eigh­teenth-century England.

According to Monsters In and Among Us, the primary effort of criminology has been to demystify con­cepts through the use of the scientific method and rational experimentation and explanation, as part of the overall secularization of understanding of human behavior. However, the continued and in fact expanded potential for evil, such as the mass genocides carried out in the twentieth century, appears to undermine the reduction of evil to biological, psychological, and sociological explanations. Just as Gothic literature pointed to the limits of rational thought as envi­sioned by the Enlightenment, a Gothic criminology asks whether additional ways of thinking about evil might remain a useful en­deavor to consider.

Monsters In and Among Us begins with an essay by Edward J. Ingebretsen. Ingebretsen's "Bodies under Scandal, Bodies under Law: Priests and Tainted Sex – The Pleasures of Public Sex" focusing on the complex conjunction between the Gothic narrative and its impli­cations and Catholic religion and morality. The chapter explores how scandal functions as a mode of public disci­pline. Ingebretsen takes as an example recent media in the United States in which a complicated ‘scene’ of public shaming and misplaced guilt is being staged upon the sexed bodies of priests and children. Ultimately, this chapter argues that an inappropriate Gothic framing significantly burdens the ‘facts.’

If it is the monstrous body of the homosexual priest as pedophile that haunts the first chapter, then it is the equally monstrous hyp­ermasculinized body of that quintessential good-bad rogue cop, ‘Dirty’ Harry Callahan that inhabits the second. In Victorian Gothic, the exotic castles and abbeys of the eigh­teenth century are replaced by the all too familiar labyrinthine streets, sinister rookeries, claustrophobic and dark opium dens, and filth and stench of the squalid slums. To Davis Houck, Dirty Harry (1971) is not simply a popular and enduring film about a .44 Magnum-wielding homi­cide cop and his extralegal pursuit of a crazed murderer. He argues that Dirty Harry can be productively read against the backdrop of what he calls the ‘urban monstrous.’ Set amid the Haight-Ashbury-addled late 1960s, the film functions rhetorically to cri­tique and ultimately dominate the freaks, pimps, swingers, queers, blacks, Hispanics, and other minority groups made to appear mon­strous within the cinematic cartography of San Francisco. In as­serting his dominance over the urban monstrous, the middle-class, heteronormative white male represented by Harry Callahan is re­masculinized.

Continuing the analysis of gender in relation to themes of the Gothic, a new ‘monster’ emerges in Thomas Benson's chapter, "Hitchcock's Anti-Gothic: The Rhetorical Structure of The Man Who Knew Too Much": the monstrous mother. Benson's chapter focuses on Alfred Hitchcock's 1934 version of The Man Who Knew Too Much. That version invokes standard motifs of the Gothic tale in a complex and symmetrical series of doublings. The rhetoric of the Gothic, with its sentiment, horror, helpless silence, and loneliness, is represented by the villains, who are foreign kidnappers and assassins, physically marked by recognizable facial deformities. Thus, Hitchcock's film appropriates the ‘Orientalist’ and Lombrosian elements characteristic of Gothic literary and criminological accounts. In The Man Who Knew Too Much, these Gothic elements are pitted against sturdy, cheerful, inquisitive but unimaginative protago­nists. The protagonists ultimately overcome the villains through the invocation of a countering monstrosity – a mother with a deadly rifle – who restores her world and ours to normality.

As told in Monsters In and Among Us, another feature of the Victorian literary Gothic is its combina­tion of the domestic and the exotic through its demonization of urban drug use, symbolized by the opium den. In line with this theme, Jason G. McKahan's "Substance Abuse and the Gothic in Narrative Motion Pictures" exam­ines depictions of substance abuse in relation to the construction of monstrous ‘others’ within the American cinematic imaginary. This chapter shows that the history of ‘drug films’ reveals much about the fluctuating and shifting of constructions of ‘substance abuse’ in state laws and the typology of the ‘drug dealer’ in the motion picture industry. Ultimately, the Gothic typology of the drug abuser/dealer as othered demon correlates to the ways in which foreigners and nonwhite Americans have been positioned as evil types, despite the compelling recog­nition that substance abuse occurs across race, class, gender, sexuality, and nationality.

The vampire is one of the stock figures of Gothic literature and Gothic-inspired film. Pat Gill's "Making a Killing in the Marketplace: Incorporation as a Monstrous Process" points out that a defining feature of vampires is their innate for­eignness, marked by unstable gender identity, sexual and eco­nomic parasitism, gender slippage, and degeneracy. However, many of the recent vampires, mutants, clones, and aliens of television, as opposed to film, no longer possess the characteristics or function of the ‘traditional’ monsters. The operation and effects of ‘othering’ have become much more complicated and uncertain in contemporary television, while traditional standards are subtly, persistently, and often humorously called into question. Monstros­ity metamorphoses as the non- and less-than-humans unite with scientists, businessmen, and politicians in greed for power and wealth. This chapter examines the reworking of the Gothic and its alignment with commercial vampirism in the two television series mentioned, as well as in Farscape, Lexx, Strange World, Witchblade, and Mutant X.

Continuing the examination of the complex ways in which fact and fiction intersect in Gothic discourses, Cecil Greek's "The Big City Rogue Cop as Monster: Images of NYPD and LAPD" traces the trajectory of rogue cops in Hollywood films, arguing that each film generation of rogue cops becomes envisaged as an increas­ingly greater threat, using the mythic figure of the Golem running amok. This chapter compares NYPD rogue cops in the films of Sidney Lumet to the pre- and post-Rampart LAPD officers as de­picted in films like Training Day and television shows like The Shield. In addition, the films are discussed in context of the actual corruption scandals upon which the films are more or less loosely based. The chapter builds upon the Victorian literary depiction of the landscape of the city as Gothic. Here, it is not principally the criminal underworld or the poor that are implicated as a source of horror in the modern urban metropolis, but the social control mechanisms within these communities.

One of the most ambitious chapters in this anthology, Raymond Surette's "Gothic Criminology and Criminal Justice Policy," tracks intersections between recurrent Gothic visualizations of the ‘monstrous’ in the media and film and contemporary mon­ster-targeted criminal justice policy. The chapter takes an unusual turn: the author argues that the popularity of the evil predator icon, a media myth, is psychologi­cally tied to our species' historic fear of strangers as infants. Sur­ette claims that the characterizations of film monsters strikingly resemble the profile of a real prehistoric threat to infants – stranger, nonrelated, adult predatory males who move across human and primate groups and are the main theorized perpetra­tors of infanticide. A well-known recent example is the mythic figure of Hannibal Lecter in Silence of the Lambs; Lecter, a popular fictional icon, was successfully uti­lized in the 1990s to garner support for "Three Strikes and You're Out" legislation and the generation and funding of the new Fed­eral Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Behavioral Science Unit.

Closing Monsters In and Among Us are two connected essays. The first, "The Compulsions of Reel/Real Serial Killers and Vampires: Toward a Gothic Criminology," coauthored by Picart and Greek, demonstrates the overlap of vampiric themes in serial murder films. It shows how ‘primordial evil,’ becomes recognizable as an essential narrative fea­ture of the dread that ‘senseless murderers,’ such as serial killers, seek to inspire, eliciting the same type of response as a vengeful deity. Such narrative patterns are discernible in the films that Picart and Greek examine. The serial killer, the most compelling monster that dominates the last part of the twentieth century. In docudramas such as Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer (1986) and Ed Gein (2000), the serial killer as an abused abuser emerges; in horror films such as Silence of the Lambs (1991) and Immortality (1991), vampiric aristocrat­icism and Byronic sex appeal become key features of the mythic serial killer. Often viewed as merely symptomatic of an increas­ingly violent and alienated society, the serial killer might seem to call for the most emphatic reassertion of social norms and the strongest reaffirmation of conservative values, as occurred in the creation of the new FBI Behavioral Science Unit, as Surette points out. This is, however, rarely the case in fictional narratives, at least for male serial killers. As Picart notes in an article, when serial killers are female and lesbian (and poor), it is not the glamorous vampire, but the ambivalently fearful and piti­ful Frankensteinian monster that becomes the monstrous meta­phor, as shown in the fictional and documentary depictions of Aileen Wuornos. Rather than being established as the demonic other that must be exorcised from mainstream society, the male serial killer is explic­itly identified as that society's logical and inevitable product: soci­ety, rather than the individual, thus emerges as a primary site of horror. The killer may ultimately be caught and punished, but this is often brought about by the profiler's overidentification with the killer, as in Clarice Starling's pursuit of Buffalo Bill under the mentorship of Hannibal Lecter.

The final chapter of Monsters In and Among Us, also written by Picart and Greek, segues into corollary areas of inquiry. Specifically, the proliferation of Gothic discourses regarding the most feared contemporary monster: the terrorist, characterized as an exotic religious fanatic with affinities to the male serial killer, but one motivated by a clear death drive, unlike the domestic male serial killer, who seems to want to escape, though he does leave clues behind for his pursuers to find and interpret. In comparison, the suicidal terrorist appears to be seeking recognition and reward beyond the grave, while leav­ing behind only shards of his explosive rage.

Monsters In and Among Us demonstrates the fruitfulness and relevance of a Gothic criminology. The book, in offering the gothic criminological approach, begins the identification of a rich panoply of tools for getting at complex stories of how evil monsters – within and without, individual or communal – are generated. Even if the postmodern underpinnings of Gothic criminology are rejected by more traditional criminologists as themselves lack­ing scientific support, this approach still has heuristic value, par­ticularly for both criminology and film criticism as described in this book. Both criminology and film criticism can draw upon the insights that a Gothic criminological perspective can offer on the pervasive image of the world now emerging from the work of Hollywood writers and directors.

Health, Mind & Body / Diets

The All-New Atkins Advantage: The 12-Week Low-Carb Program to Lose Weight, Achieve Peak Fitness and Health, and Maximize Your Willpower to Reach Life Goals by Stuart L. Trager, with Colette Heimowitz (St. Martin’s Press)

A March 2007 study conducted at Stanford University and published in JAMA,
reveals that not only is the Atkins diet more effective than other diets, it can also
make people healthier than other diets.

A startling 89% of all United States adults who have ever tried to lose weight or eat healthier foods find that making these lifestyle changes is extremely challenging according to a 2007 Harris Interactive Poll. There are huge hurdles for any dieter, and that is why The All-New Atkins Advantage takes an effective weight loss system and develops it into a 12-week program to empower anyone wanting to embrace a healthier life. This is more than a diet; by pairing the best sports medicine and exercise physiology techniques with a nutritional program, the book provides the tools to make life-long changes.

The All-New Atkins Advantage is sort of like having a personal trainer, a nutritionist, and a life coach on call for three months – it is the first book with a week-by-week program that explains how to combine exercise with the Atkins low-carb eating plan. It also allows each person to individualize a plan to their own needs and tastes. The 12 weeks readers spend with the book will take them from induction to lifetime maintenance as each week builds on the one before it. Written by Stuart L. Trager, M.D., eight time Ironman and top ten finisher at the Ultraman World Championship competition, and a board certified practicing orthopedic surgeon and fitness expert, the book gives dieters an edge by replacing deprivation with motivation, and allows them to harness the advantage that comes from working with, rather than against, their bodies.

The five basic principles of the diet are:

  • Higher protein
  • Good fat
  • Low sugar
  • High fiber
  • Vitamins & minerals

What happens when readers follow the plan? According to The All-New Atkins Advantage, the body burns fat instead of storing it, dieters no longer crave unhealthy foods because their blood sugar is stabilized, and when they are no longer controlled by food, they are free to pursue their dreams.

The step-by-step program is designed to allow readers to move at their own pace.

  • Part I introduces readers to the basics of the Atkins program, from a list of foods they will want to have on hand to mental exercises to get motivated.
  • Part II features the 12-week Atkins Advantage Program, including a fit­ness component that allows readers to design their own workout, no matter what their level of fitness.
  • Part III includes 12 weeks' worth of daily meal plans at varying carbohydrate levels.

Each week builds on the one before it to raise readers’ levels of competence and confidence. At the end of the twelve weeks, the book asserts readers will have changed the way they eat and become healthier, slimmer, and happier.

Not just a diet but a complete step-by-step plan with motivators built into it, The All-New Atkins Advantage challenges readers to turn their lives around and give themselves a dietary, exercise, and lifestyle makeover. With The All-New Atkins Advantage by their side, if they can stick with the program, readers can look forward to a date 12 weeks from the day they start and know that is the day they will be happy, healthier, and fitter.

History / Americas / Constitutional Law

Redeeming American Democracy: Lessons from the Confederate Constitution by Marshall L. DeRosa (Pelican Publishing Company)

The quintessential question regarding gov­ernment's role in America has always been: will decisions be made in the communi­ties where people live or in Washington, D.C.?

These warring ideas of centralization and decentralization form the core of modern political debates about the national economy, U.S. foreign policy, and citizens' cultural values – just as they did with the founding fathers.

According to author Marshall L. DeRosa, professor of political science at Florida Atlantic University, distinguished scholar and expert on the Confederate constitution, there are lessons to be learned from the failed Southern cause as the new world order takes shape. Redeeming American Democracy addresses the extent to which the American rule of law can be structured to inhibit or promote governmental centralization. Southern Confederates were aware that the U.S. Constitution was somewhat deficient in constraining political centralization, so they constructed their own constitution.

DeRosa's examination of the rise and fall of the Confederacy; his suggestion for current-day secession, now championed by libertarians as a solution for states to regain their individual power; and his call for Americans to become self-govern­ing in order to restore the original democ­racy offer a radical opportunity for citizens to participate in the nation's redemption.

… Professor DeRosa goes boldly into territory where no one has ventured before and few have even known existed. Like an intrepid explorer of lands forgotten by time, he comes back with fresh knowledge – knowledge that Americans can use to save liberty and the rule of law under constitutional government – if they only will. – Clyde Wilson, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of History, University of South Carolina, editor of The Papers of John C. Calhoun and The Writings of John Taylor of Caroline

… It was the Confederate Constitution that was the ‘last best hope’ of we the people to control our government by reaffirming the original American design of federalism, States' rights, and citizen control of government. Read this book and learn why the ‘Principles of ‘61’ may be our last chance to save America. – Thomas DiLorenzo, author of The Real Lincoln and Lincoln Unmasked

DeRosa shows that the federal government's massive intrusion into the reserved powers of the States … would have been very difficult under the Confederate Constitution. We are left to ponder what a loss it was that Americans did not have the opportunity to choose between two competing American constitutions. – Donald Livingston, Professor of Philosophy, Emory University

In Redeeming American Democracy, DeRosa, an expert on the Confederate Constitution, describes why and how the democratic principles of the Confederate States of America are relevant and applicable today.

History / Military / Europe

The Royal Navy 1793-1815 by Gregory Fremont-Barnes (Battle Orders Series: Osprey Publishing)

By the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815 Britain was the undisputed master of the seas owing to the power and strength of the Royal Navy. Its fleets, comprising ships of the line, frigates, and gunboats, had doubled in size since the outbreak of the French Revolutionary Wars in 1793, totaling almost a thousand capital vessels.
During the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars, fought over the course of two decades, the Royal Navy established its reputation as one of the most effective fighting institutions in history. The Navy's primary objective was to achieve and maintain naval dominance – that is to say, control of the sea – an aim secured as a consequence of its superiority in leadership, morale, seamanship and gunnery. Not only did the Navy play a fundamental part in the defeat of France, it periodically opposed, usually with remarkable success, her allies, Holland, Spain and Denmark, so establishing a maritime supremacy which would remain unchallenged for the next hundred years.

Operating throughout the oceans of the world, from the Channel, the North and Baltic Seas, to the Atlantic, the Mediterranean, the West Indies and beyond, the Navy defended Britain's trade routes and contributed to the expansion and defense of her empire; prevented the enemy from making use of its colonial resources and raw materials; made possible the dispatch of expeditionary forces (as well as fleets) wherever Britain chose, especially to seize enemy colonies; and enabled Britain to protect and pursue her own interests, and those of her allies. Above all, the Navy provided the nation's first line of defense against invasion.

The Royal Navy 1793-1815 examines the commanders, men, and ships of the Royal Navy during the French Revolution and Napoleonic wars, and discusses the Navy's command structure and its organization at sea. The tactics employed in action by a fleet, a squadron, and individual ships are also discussed, together with training and gunnery, as are the medical services available. Further, the book also covers command, deployment, organization and evolution of forces in battle, describing elements of doctrine, training, tactics and equipment.

The Royal Navy 1793-1815 examines the government apparatus in London which managed the Royal Navy, its dockyards and bases, the organization of its crews, the manner in which their responsibilities were divided, the hierarchy of command aboard the vessels and the tasks performed by a ship's company from ordinary seaman to admiral. The ships themselves are described in terms of their ratings and armament, providing insight into the capabilities of the vessels together with the tactics employed in battle. The success of the Royal Navy during this period rested on a combination of factors, not least the efficient manner in which it was organized and led. These features, together with advances in ship design, gunnery, discipline and seamanship, were the products of generations of change that enabled the Navy to reach maturity by the beginning of the 19th century.

The Royal Navy 1793-1815 provides fascinating insight into the navy that ruled the waves. The book was written by Gregory Fremont-Barnes, who is currently editing a four-volume Encyclopedia of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars and co-editing a five-volume Encyclopedia of the American Revolutionary War.

Home & Garden / Garden Design

Outside the Not So Big House: Creating the Landscape of Home by Julie Moir Messervy & Sarah Susanka (The Taunton Press)

Who doesn't yearn for a landscape that is as well designed as the interior of their home?
Outside the Not So Big House extends the principles from bestselling author Sarah Susanka’s The Not So Big House to offer a unified source of design advice about making the indoors and outdoors work together. In this book, noted landscape designer and award-winning writer Julie Moir Messervy and Susanka reveal how to bring house and garden into harmony. Through the unique pairing of residential architect Susanka and landscape designer Messervy, two highly qualified experts teach readers how to think about designing outdoor spaces – so they are in keeping with the interior ones.
Outside the Not So Big House gives language to design concepts that unify home and landscape. Two major concepts – make building decisions in the context of the land and make landscape decisions that draw the inside toward the outside – help homeowners to attune their homes and property to fit the way we live today. Using twenty examples of diverse, ‘Not So Big’ homes set in landscapes of varying sizes from around the United States, Messervy and Susanka teach readers how to remove traditional design barriers between the home and surroundings to produce a unified design for living.

According to Messervy, a home is more than mere shelter – it is one’s own special realm upon the earth. Outside the Not So Big House is about inhabiting the broader landscape of home rather than simply existing in a house. Messervy, author of several books including The Inward Garden, is a proponent for composing personalized gardens based on outdoor archetypes, imagination and aesthetic impulses. In Outside the Not So Big House, the resonant images and concepts from her previous work coalesce with Susanka's ‘Not So Big’ approach to home design that favors quality over quantity and turns mere habitation into the art of living.

Messervy and Susanka are concerned with giving readers the ability to ‘listen’ to their environment from a spatial point of view. Their voices create a rolling dialogue throughout the book that explains through images and words the ‘how’ and ‘why’ good design allows homeowners to attune their properties to better fit their needs and fulfill an inherent longing for beauty. In Outside the Not So Big House, these ideas are organized into four categories:

  • Site: Embracing the Habitat of Home.
  • Flow: Composing Journeys.
  • Frames: Linking the Inside with the Out.
  • Details: Crafting the Elements of Nature.

Within each category, the authors describe how ‘Not So Big’ concepts such as ‘variations on a theme,’ ‘spatial layering’ and ‘shelter around activity’ are echoed inside and outside a home. Messervy and Susanka explain how space and its elements impact the way an area feels. For example, people are often drawn from dark places to areas of light and ‘psychological breathing spaces,’ such as wrap-around porches, offer an area for homeowners to transition from outdoors in and the indoors out. Special sidebars reveal how features such as water, curved lines and pools of space impact landscape aesthetics. ‘Outside Up-Close’ features at the end of each chapter illustrate practical ideas such as planting and hardscape design.

Sarah Susanka and Julie Moir Messervy's clearly written text offers practical advice for designing indoor-outdoor spaces that respond to modern lifestyles. They reveal secrets for achieving the ideal combination of architecture and nature in the home and in the garden! – James A. van Sweden, author, Architecture in the Garden

There are gardening books that tell us what to plant and where. And there are architectural design books that tell us how our homes should look. But never the twain seem to meet. At least not until recently, when the two spaces – home and garden – wed harmoniously in the new book, Outside the Not So Big House. – The Chicago Tribune
This beautiful book combines the best qualities of coffee table attractiveness and excellent advice. – Christian Science Monitor

On my scale of one to 10, this outstanding new book rates a solid 10. – Miami Herald
This perfect collaboration between the talented and articulate Julie Moir Messervy and Sarah Susarika proves what a huge pleasure the landscape of a ‘not so big’ house can be. A must read... – Tom Christopher, columnist, House & Garden Magazine

In Outside the Not So Big House the inspired vision of landscape designer Messervy combines with author-architect Susanka's ‘Not So Big’ approach to create a landmark book that will change the way homeowners and professionals view the home and its surroundings. This lushly photographed and exquisitely written book revolutionizes by integrating home and landscape design. Twenty homes from across the country aptly illustrate these easy-to-grasp design ideas. Fans of Susanka's previous Not So Big books will be pleased to discover not only Messervy's clear, concise prose but also a new vision for creating home.

Home & Garden / Interior Design

The New French Décor: Living with Timeless Objects by Michèle Lalande, with photography by Gilles Trillard (Harry N. Abrams, Inc.)

Objects play an indispensable role in any home; they create an atmosphere and express a state of mind. The arrangement of objects – from beloved mementoes to works of master craftsmanship – is an art in itself, an exercise in composition. The only requirements are flair for improvisation and a little bit of daring. The art of setting, compiling, or combining disparate objects is difficult, yet it has become the chic new decorating st