Castles of the Western World: With 240 Illustrations (Magnificent Castles)

Book Description

This superb archive focuses on more than 200 structures — from temples, palaces and walls of ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome, to Romansque strongholds of the Normans and Gothic edifices of the crusaders and Teutonic knights, to lavish palaces built in Italy, France, England, Germany, Austria, and Scandinavia. 240 illustrations, including 98 plans and drawings.

Customer Reviews:

A Disappointment.......2007-04-15

I ordered this book as a surprise for my son's 15th birthday. I only wish that Castles of the Western World had been a "peek-inside book." The front cover aside, there are no color pictures (which is not a bad thing, but the photos displayed are quite dull). I am no professional photographer, but the subjects of black and white photos must be composed and presented artfully, but the pictures in this book are not. This book has all the appeal of an old textbook--without the requisite dust.

Castles are my thing!.......2007-03-13

I love castles and these are just absolutely beautiful. They give you the feeling that you want to live in them - bar the drafty rooms, etc. Also, they make you wonder who might have lived in them and what kind of history the castles have. If I ever have the good fortune to travel to any of these places, I would most definitely look up these castles.

Book Description

91 designs for workable projects: abstract patterns in both straight-line and curve; men and women in characteristic 1920s garb; geometrically stylized birds, trees and animals; and more. Intermediate to advanced level. 60 plates.

Customer Reviews:

Perfect simple examples & templates.......2007-03-09

This book is exactly what it claims and perfectly fit my needs. The designs are lovely, effective and quite usable.

Great for beginners!.......2001-03-27

True, at first it does look a little like a coloring book but that's the fun of it. Why does everyone always need examples? What happened to using your imagination? This is a form of art. This book gives you the room to make decisions about the colors and textures of glass you want to use, which is what I like about it. Actual stained glass artists create their own color combinations. In order to preserve these type of books the pattern is photocopied and then each section is cut out so you have a template to use to cut out the glass. If anyone's worried about color then just do what others do. Either use colored pencils to color the pattern so you have an idea of what it will look like or pic out glass that appeals to you. It's really not that hard.

Art Deco Book Review.......2000-03-14

I was disappointed to find that there were no color suggestions for any of the designs in the book. Also, the presentation of the drawings made the book look like a children's coloring book. Several of the designs would make nice stained glass projects despite the presentation.

Art Deco and Geometric Stained Glass Pattern Book (Dover Pictorial Archive Series)

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Art Deco and Geometric Stained Glass Pattern Book (Dover Pictorial Archive Series)
Richard Welch , and Hollis Welch
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Art Deco Stained Glass Pattern Book (Picture Archives)

ASIN: 0486298418

Book Description

An opulent array of Art Deco designs allows artisans to choose among elegant patterns of ovals, ellipses, rectangles, triangles, circles and many more. Ideal for windows, sidelights, transoms and other stained glass projects. 136 black-and-white line illustrations.

Customer Reviews:

Spectacular images of an awe - inspiring land........2007-10-03

This book with its vivid imagery and breathtaking views was more than enough to reawake in me that young wanderlust that had once beckoned me to journey and live in and around Israel. Living in the chaotic landscapes of Chicago, these quiet, lonely images of seemingly untouched land really get at my heart. I look and I forget that I am awash in the noisy colors of America... I am transported to another world, and I am standing on Mt. Sinai Picturing the giving of the law, or the thousands of other journeys and events that have happened in these spaces, now washed clean by blowing sand.

The accompanying text adds much depth and I am very much enjoying Folbergs' thoughts on this region. A mix of History, Geography and Poetry. Beautifully done. More of these please, Mr. Folberg :)

I've never seen more beautiful photos of this region........2004-06-28

The quality and composition of these photographs is utterly stunning. I cannot part with this book even 10 years after buying it. It is a huge book, but it is such a masterpiece of photography that it is worth having.

A nice pictorial account of the beauty of the desert.......2001-04-19

There are a very few books about the natural heritage of the desert lands of Egypt, Jordan and Israel. This book attempts to capture visuals of the desert areas in the three countries with basic emphasis on Sinai. The book is split into chapters according to geographical locations of the areas photographed, and Sinai is given a chapter alone (it should be noted that Sinai is part of Egypt). The photos were an effort done in the seventies-eighties and therefore remain unspoiled by the modern resort developments popping up in and around the coasts of the Red Sea and the Sinai Peninsula. A photographer myself, and having been in many of the areas displayed in the book, the pictures taken for Mount Moses and Saint Catherine monetary in Sinai are some of the best I have seen published. The book is largely a personal experience, and is provided in a narrative fashion. The one thing I found annoying about this was that the photos are provided without captions, if you want to know where each photo was taken you have to look at the photo index at the end of each chapter. After a while this becomes a tiring task especially if you want to peruse the photos without reading the text. This however doesn't stop the book from being nice in look and design. Get this book if you have been to these desert areas or plan to go there, it is nice pictorial account of the beauty of the desert. However, if you are scientifically interested in a descriptive account of their natural features and characteristics this book will be of little help, it is also of little aid as a travel companion. For me, it was worth the buy for the nice photos. If you are looking for some hardcore scientific information about the natural heritage of Sinai with beautiful professionally taken photos you are better off with another highly pictorial book, "the Natural Heritage of Egypt", published by the Tourism Development Authority in Egypt and authored by a professional photographer Rafik Khalil. The photos are extraordinarily and rare with good solid scientific explanations.

Next best thing to being there!.......1999-10-11

This is a rich diet of unusually beautiful pictures; a collection of vivid scenes. You feel like you're there... You'll wish that you were there! Ah, but Folberg's eye is even better than yours or mine. Open up (pun intended) and let him teach you how to see.

Book Description

Poor Gepetto. Alone and horny for a beautiful woman. What if he carved the woman of his dreams into a big puppet? Better than nothing... but then, wait, taking her acts like magic in making her real! Lushly rendered by the Frenchman Gibrat, this sexy spoof of the classic tale has poor innocent Pinocchia taken by many a cynic. And when she lies, guess what becomes bigger...

Customer Reviews:

Great little graphic novel.......2005-04-04

A full-color adult graphic novel.

Like Milo Manara's "Gullivera" (female Gulliver) and Eric Maltaite's "Robinsonia" (female Robinson Crusoe; a rather good book, that I haven't been able to acquire yet), Pinocchia is an erotic tale based on an earlier story (Pinocchio, the wooden boy).

Galipettois an old man living alone in the deep woods when he is inspired to make a wooden female. Luckily for him, Galipettois a first-class carpenter that makes his living carving toys. Using a tree that collapsed into his shack, Galipetto creates a wooden woman. After he is finished, he takes the little wooden woman for a test drive, and unknown to him, this causes the woman to come alive. Galipetto learns about this amazing transformation when Pinocchia, nude but for shoes and an apron, brings Galipetto breakfast and asks if he is her papa.

Some local police stop by and ask if anything is damaged after the storm, to find a nearly nude woman rushing from the back room, and hugging her "papa." The police take them to jail.

While in jail, Pinocchia, nude but for a mutating coat (one minute a green coat, the next a green dress), ends up going down on one of the men there in jail. As the police do not have anything on Pinocchia, they release her, but keep Galipetto in jail. So, the barely clothed woman wanders down the street and is picked up by a man in a car.

The man takes her to a party, where a woman helps Pinocchia change clothes (and who ends up fondling Pinocchia). While the women are otherwise occupied, two men peer into the room, and eventually lead Pinocchia away from the party and, at the first opportunity, prostitute her. The rascals run off with Pinocchia's pay, and without leaving her any money to pay the hotel bill. While Pinocchia begins to "pay" for the room with her mouth, the hotel owner's wife runs in and spanks Pinocchia with a wooden object. Pinocchia flees the hotel.

In the meantime, Galipetto is released and he wanders along in his night clothes, attempting to return home. Along the way he ends up at the same house Pinocchia wandered up to and entered after she fled the angry wife. While his creation is screwing around with a man up on the second floor, Galipetto is offered the position of gardener. The gardener was just fired and thrown off the premises for sleeping with the maid.

Running away from an attempted forced and unwanted bath, Galipetto runs across his Pinocchia, who has reverted to wooden status. Galipetto "revives" her, is caught . . . and the tail continues its twists and turns for another 25 pages (and in those 25 pages? visit to a circus, underwater brothel on a submarine . . .).

In the Pinocchio story, there was a certain punishment rendered upon him when he lied (his nose grew). Well, in this case, when Pinocchia lies, her breasts grow (and she doesn't lie, apparently, until after page 35; though, at one point she purposely lies to save herself in the water, and ends up with massive breasts).

Overall, a very good little graphic novel, with great artwork and a good pace. The book includes a small amount of bondage, a small amount of whipping, and a certain amount of public nudity . . .The kind of book that leads one to want to read more by these authors, but unfortunately, I haven't found anything else by them.

A sexy twist on a classic fairy tale.......2000-11-07

Pinocchia is a charming adult graphic-novel which puts a spin on the traditional Pinocchio fairy-tale.

First of all, to describe this Pinocchia one must first compare it to another artist with a similar style: Manara. Gibrat & Leroi weave a fine book with sexy art, enjoyable story, and a lovely fairy-tale heroine all rolled up in one package. The art is quite nice, and although the book is not fully explicit (like a Manara)the scenes are well executed (albeit brief). There is also a great deal of humor which is properly pulled off and won't leave the reader hanging (unlike Manara, on occasions). Another pleasant touch is that this story is (at times) read with a narrarator perspective, adding to the fairy-tale illusion.

Overall, it's a worthy addition to the graphic novel section.

Customer Reviews:

What a dud!.......2006-03-16

Add me to the list of readers who couldn't find any redeeming value in this sorry excuse for a book. Mr. Thompson had nothing of value to say, but somehow managed to have this slice of tripe published. Thompson should have admitted that there was no story, returned to his newspaper, and found a more worthwhile project; instead, he wasted his time, his employer's time and money, and the time of the reader. Mr. Thompson should be profoundly ashamed of this steaming heap of trash.

Not much story, but stills tells us something.......2003-06-10

The critique of this book that it has no real story, is solid. Thompson merely flirted with the Klan, found nothing new out, and talks mostly about finding apartments and building cabinets. HOWEVER, the most interesting thing is the fact that the Klan he found in the "hotbed" of Klan activity in Alabama (the US even) was disorganized and almost nonexistent. This is what he should have been talking about. He should have written about how the Klan in popular consciousness is a large, ever-present organization. I get this opinion from classmates who are afraid to move to rural areas, for fear of "the Klan." When in fact the Klan is a much smaller organization with little power anymore, save the power to draw media attention. The name still has power, but that is all that has power anymore. I wish Thompson would have taken this fact and turned it back on the media to show their baseless sensationalism and irrational fears for what they are.

Nothing Here.......2002-12-21

After reading this book, I can understand the negative reviews. There is nothing particularly interesting about either the author or his alleged story. While Mr. Thompson may have had a great time playing "undercover reporter", the reader will find this book to be far less than enjoyable. This bland little tale merely proves than almost anyone can be published, and is useful only as a cure for insomnia.

Where's The Story?.......2002-12-12

The idea of an undercover investigation of the KKK is a sound one, and I opened this book with the expectation that some new and startling facts would be uncovered. Unfortunately, however, I discovered the same fact as the previous reviewers, which is that there is no story here at all. A would-be journalist sets out to infiltrate the modern-day Klan, but apparently fails to find a story worthy of being published. This book merely confirms what the majority of Americans already know, which is that the KKK is a group of misfits and losers. It is also painfully evident that Jerry Thompson is just as big a loser as those he attempted to investigate; however, the biggest losers of all are the unfortunate readers who wasted the time and effort to read this boring pile of trash. Mr. Thompson should have stayed awake during journalism classes, if he even bothered to attend them in the first place. This book is pure crap.

What a Bore.......2002-04-02

I have to agree with the previous reviewer. I picked this one up in my local library expecting to learn something new, but instead found that this so-called "writer" didn't have anything to say. There is no real hint of danger, especially from an organization which, from the description given by the author, was frequently unable to muster enough members to conduct an initiation ceremony or hold regular meetings. Given the non-existent threat from a skeleton organization made up of a handful of nuts and rejects, Thompson's story amounts to nothing. It is incredible that his newspaper was willing to back such a fruitless project (or that they were willing to hire him as a reporter in the first place), and even more incredible that any publisher would bother putting this pile of crap into print. The only thing Thompson exposed was his utter lack of talent. I regret having wasted my time reading this lousy book.

Average customer rating:

My life in the Klan
Thompson Jerry
Manufacturer: G.p Putnam
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NYBA2A

Average customer rating:

My life in the Klan
Thompson Jerry
Manufacturer: G.p Putnam
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000NVBJM4

My Life in the Klan A True Story by the First Investigative Reporter to Infiltrate the Klu Klux Klan

Average customer rating:

My Life in the Klan A True Story by the First Investigative Reporter to Infiltrate the Klu Klux Klan
Jerry Thompson
Manufacturer: G.P. Putnam's Sons
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000J0VRBW

Book Description

The Miracle Trip documents a one-year travel adventure by Charles Risher and his family. They left from Colorado, going to Mexico, Cuba, Prague, Switzerland, and then to New York. On a journey with life-changing consequences, Charles Risher had a spiritual awakening. He saw forces at work in the world controlling events. This led him to seek spiritual understanding.

When Charles Risher returned from the navy after World War II he returned to Chicago and attended the Chicago Conservatory. He wanted to write plays and change the world. He married, became the father of a son and was divorced. He joined the Communist Party to more quickly create change in the world. As a result, Risher was forced out of jobs, jailed, beaten, threatened with death, and run out of business.

Charles Risher has more than 300 pages of files documenting how the FBI followed him all over the country. This is the story of one year of his existence as a Communist and Christian in America.

Customer Reviews:

Great Military Male bonding stories.......1998-10-03

I am one of the writers, Gysgt Steve Aldea, and My Experiences in the Marine Corps with Sailors have been true in all of the past three books.

Marine Biology, Basic Training and Macho Marines tells it all about what goes on behind closed doors when the military is not snooping between the bed sheets of men in the Military. My experiences are true and to the best account, filled with fondness for male to male contact that goes on in the military!

Average customer rating:
Macho Marines: True Homosexual Military Stories, Volume 6
Winston Leyland
Manufacturer: Leyland
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000KY8PH6

Book Description

This long-awaited publication contains the results of the research of two distinguished professors from the University of Chicago, Alexander Beilinson and Fields Medalist Vladimir Drinfeld. Years in the making, this is a one-of-a-kind book featuring previously unpublished material.

Chiral algebras form the primary algebraic structure of modern conformal field theory. Each chiral algebra lives on an algebraic curve, and in the special case where this curve is the affine line, chiral algebras invariant under translations are the same as well-known and widely used vertex algebras.

The exposition of this book covers the following topics:

the "classical" counterpart of the theory, which is an algebraic theory of non-linear differential equations and their symmetries;

the local aspects of the theory of chiral algebras, including the study of some basic examples, such as the chiral algebras of differential operators;

the formalism of chiral homology treating "the space of conformal blocks" of the conformal field theory, which is a "quantum" counterpart of the space of the global solutions of a differential equation.

The book is intended for researchers working in algebraic geometry and its applications to mathematical physics and representation theory.

Average customer rating:
Hadron resonance and lightlike chiral algebra
Masakuni Ida
Manufacturer: Research Institute for Fundamental Physics, Kyoto University
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0007AL656

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