Five Hundred Years of the Art of the Book in Ireland: 1500 To the Present

Book Description

This stunning two-volume book is the long-awaited catalogue of the exquisite collection of Ch'ing (Qing) dynasty imperial textiles and costumes from the collection of The Minneapolis Institute of Arts. This collection has a rich history. Approximately half of it belonged to the San Francisco attorney William E. Colby, who had amassed the collection throughout the opportunistic decades of the 1920's and 1930's, and was acquired by The Minneapolis Institute of Arts under the advice of Alfred Pillsbury. Now consisting of over 600 items, it is considered one of the finest and most comprehensive holdings of Ch'ing textiles outside of China.

Only a few works from the collection have been exhibited over the past six decades, including exhibitions at The Minneapolis Institute of Arts in 1943 and The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1945, both curated by Alan Priest. Not until 1977, the year in which the Asian Arts department of The Minneapolis Institute of arts was established, was the entire collection been systematically supplemented, researched, and catalogued.

The 1991 exhibition, Imperial Silks of the Ch'ing Dynasty, displayed more of the collection than ever before, and is the foundation of this present comprehensive catalogue written by Dr. Robert Jacobsen, the museum's curator of Asian Art. Imperial Silks opens with an overview of the archaeological record of silk in China and then divides the museum's collection of Ch'ing dynasty textiles into nine chapters of twenty-six basic categories of garments, decorative furnishings, and accessories. Arranged chronologically by type, about two hundred of the primary objects are accompanied by technical analysis. A glossary is also provided to clarify the terminology used for this study.

An indispensable reference for libraries, scholars, collectors, dealers, and interested individuals alike, this catalogue will further promote our understanding of Chinese silk textiles, one of that nation's great accomplishments and one of the world's foremost artistic legacies.

Book Description

As a boy, Kyle Richmond - the man who would one day become Nighthawk - witnessed the senseless murder of his parents. There was no reason for their deaths, no provocation - they were just simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. It was a traumatic event that has left him scarred for life - and turned him into a hero more feared than the criminals he polices. Now, it's happening again... but on a much larger scale. The people of Chicago - men, women and children - are dying in the streets, victims of a monster whose thirst for slaughter cannot be quenched, whose soul is a bottomless void and whose scars run even deeper than Nighthawk's. Long ago, Kyle Richmond looked into the face of madness - now, it's looking back at him. And it's flashing a killer smile. Collects Supreme Power: Nighthawk #1-6.

Customer Reviews:

Graphic SF Reader.......2007-09-03

Nighthawk is a driven and angry man, and has been since his parents were killed.

He encounters someone similar, but this man is completely crazy, and slaughters people at random, much like the Joker. He must put himself at risk to stop this maniac, as well as having to deal with the rise of the superhumans in his world, when he is just a man, albeit a very wealthy and well trained specimen.

A hellfire sermon.......2007-01-06

From the pages of "Supreme Power" comes the brooding vigilante in his own tale. This was a great stand alone story that more than makes up for the neutral "TopCow/Marvel" crossover tpb & TopCow's juvenile "Wanted". I have yet to purchase the Hyperion & Dr. Spectrum collected books which I have no doubt will be just as good. So far this has been a superb series from Marvel's "mature readers" imprint. This definatley opens the doors to possibilities & the ramifications of what would it be like if these biengs truly walked among us. I hope to see more stories feauturing this new dark hero. Two thumbs way up to Way & Dillon. Highly recommended if you like The Punisher, Savage Dragon, Marshall Law, Spawn, Sin City, etc.

An interesting and entertaining take on the super-vigilante archetype........2006-09-11

Originally a six-part limited series, this story is now collected in this trade paperback. It is part of Marvel's mature line, Marvel MAX, and so isn't really suitable for very young readers.

The story centers around the title character, Nighthawk, who is loosely based on DC Comic's Batman, but is more brutal and pragmatic than the Caped Crusader (and unlike him, Nighthawk is willing to kill). The character plays out (much to my delight) like many of the film roles portrayed by Charles Bronson or Clint Eastwood in the past. He talks the talk and he walks the walk. He has strong sense of justice and a marked intolerance for malefactors, and takes it to them hard (no matter who they are or what position they hold in society). His portrait on the cover pretty much sums up the character: Uncompromising and unyielding; his goggles the unblinking, burning gaze of righteous fury.

I really liked this version of the character and hope to see more of him in the future.

The main of the plot focuses on Nighthawk's hunt for, and eventual confrontation with, serial killer Whiteface. Like the DC Comic villain Joker (on which he is based), Whiteface is dressed and made up like a clown, but isn't flamboyant or humorous. Instead he is a dysfunctional, soulless murderer with no conscience or remorse (very much like real serial killers).

On the whole, this was an excellent read. It was an interesting, gritty take on the archetypes that Batman and his mythos represent. The writing by Daniel Way was quite good, with snappy yet naturalistic dialog. I also really liked Steven Dillon's artwork, with its realistic proportions and simulation of movement.

All in all a good trade, and well worth the price of admission. I would definitely recommend it.

Not in the same league.......2006-09-11

This is the third spin off title I have read from the Supreme Power universe. For me, it is easily the weakest of them. Spectrum and Hyperion had superior writing and tied into the overall storyline nicely. This tale is simply a Nighthawk adventure, which would be okay if the story was stronger. It felt more like an episodic television story rather than a graphic comic. It seemed to focus more on the villain rather than Nighthawk, and I came away learning little more about Nighthawk who is the Supreme Power version of Batman. The writer also seems to be in love with the word f*ck. Every character seems to spew the word non stop. I like adult content comics such as Wanted or Empire, but this just seemed like he was using the word over and over because he could. The artwork is crisp and clean. Not enough to blow you away, but works well and serves. Though it is borderline, I would say to pick this one up to complete your Supreme Power collection.

does not equal the master.......2006-08-21

Readers of Supreme Power, you should notice that JM Straczynski is not the writer for this spin-off focusing on the Nighthawk character.
Though this makes an enjoyable hour of reading, I must the plot is pretty thin and the resolution of the story is very linear and without surprise.
This feels too much like the screenplays of too many TV series where the plot, the characters and the whole background could be very easily transposed into another series (apart from the main character, the story does not relate to the universe of Supreme Power).
So, if you can't wait until the next "real" supreme power release, I'd recommend to buy the other spinoff "HYPERION" which was written by Straczynski, and has much more density and interest.

Book Description

What makes Minnesota really special is the people who live here. Some outsiders may think of Minnesotans as being a little “quirky,” but Minnesotans know how to laugh, especially at themselves. Professional cartoonist for the Rochester Post Bulletin and syndicated throughout the upper Midwest, Ed Fischer lends his perspective on what it means to be a Minnesotan. Clever cartoons illustrate the stamina, fortitude and practical nature of residents living in the land of 10,000 lakes. You know you're a Minnesotan if: you think long underwear is sexy, you know 101 sneaky ways to get rid of zucchini, you can identify a Northeast Minneapolis accent.

Customer Reviews:

Not the Minnesotans I know.......2006-03-20

I looked forward to this book to provide some laughs for a group of my friends from Rochester, MN High School, class of 1953 when they visited me last February. No laughs there. Just stupid upper midwest jokes and drawings that were more demeaning than funny. When I found out the author had worked for the Rochester Post Bulletin I was ashamed for my home town.

Good for a few Chuckles.......2004-06-03

I read this little joke book on a plane home from Minnesota. It was good for a few chuckles. It's similar to the "You Know You're a Redneck If" jokes that were so popular a few years ago. The main draw back to the jokes is I didn't get a lot of them. I think you probably have to be a Minnesotan or know the state and its people very well to get some of the humor. Nevertheless, it was a good book to pass the time on a plane ride.

Book Description

Keyframes introduces the study of popular cinema of Hollywood and beyond and responds to the transformative effect of cultural studies on film studies. The contributors rethink contemporary film culture using ideas and concerns from several areas including feminism, queer theory and the cultural ecnonomies of fandom.

Customer Reviews:

The Concise Baker's.......2000-02-28

For those of us who can't afford the complete Baker'sBiographical Dictionary of Musicians, the Concise version is still agreat buy We have owned the 8th ed. for some years and use it very frequently. This dictionary has good clear information on not just the well known composers and performers, but many minor composers and performers as well. Like the complete ed., this dictionary includes jazz musicians. One of the best features of this book is that it not only has the biographical article, but has the composer's works divided up into the various types of composition, such as piano music, giving both titles and dates of compositon. A great reference tool, particularly for anyone wanting to find more pieces by a favorite composer, or a date for a piece already known. .

The Baker's Concise: A Biographical Dictionary of Composers and Musicians

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The Baker's Concise: A Biographical Dictionary of Composers and Musicians
Nicolas Slominsky
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster (Trade Division)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 0671698966

The Concise Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musician's

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The Concise Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musician's
Nicolas Slonimsky
Manufacturer: Schirmer Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OA24VY

Average customer rating:
My Best Games, 1952-2000 (Volume 1 : Games with White)
Victor Korchnoi
Manufacturer: Georg Olms Verlag AG
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Chess | Board Games | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
General | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
Look Inside Entertainment Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

My Best Games, Vol. 2: Games with Black

Petrosian vs the Elite: 71 Victories by the Master of Manoeuvre 1946-1983

Modern Chess Series, Part 1: Revolution in the 70's (Modern Chess)

Garry Kasparov on My Great Predecessors, Part 5 (My Great Predecessors)

My Most Memorable Games (Progress in Chess, Volume 12)

ASIN: 3283004048

Book Description

For almost half a century, grandmaster Victor Korchnoi has been one of the world’s leading chess players, and even today he remains a formidable competitor. This first volume of My Best Games presents his best games with White, which are particularly noteworthy for his original methods of fighting for the initiative.

My Best Games, Volume 1: Games with White.

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My Best Games, Volume 1: Games with White.
Victor Korchnoi
Manufacturer: see notes for publisher info
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000M4SOIE

Average customer rating:

Excellent Business book!

Very Inspiring

Chicken Soup For the Entrepreneurial Soul

Plain Tails from the Hills

Worth it simply for the McDonalds story

Forbes Greatest Business Stories of All Time (Forbes)
Forbes Magazine Staff , and Daniel Gross
Manufacturer: Wiley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
General | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
General | Skills | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Entrepreneurship | Small Business & Entrepreneurship | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
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Look Inside Business Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
Similar Items:

Pour Your Heart into It : How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time

Losing My Virginity: How I've Survived, Had Fun, and Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way

Sam Walton: Made In America

Forbes Great Success Stories: Twelve Tales of Victory Wrested from Defeat

Grinding It Out: The Making Of Mcdonald's

ASIN: 0471196533

Amazon.com

Historian and journalist Daniel Gross has produced a collection of profiles of corporate high-achievers that is exceptionally informative, extremely entertaining, and endlessly inspiring. In Forbes Greatest Business Stories of All Time, Gross examines 20 pioneering risk-takers who refused to compromise and were ultimately rewarded for their efforts. From the richest man in America during Revolutionary times (Robert Morris) to its richest man today (Bill Gates), the book tracks industrialists, corporate kings, financiers, and visionaries, including J. P. Morgan, Walt Disney, Ray Kroc, and Mary Kay Ash in a manner that shows why all are worth studying.

Book Description

What do Bill Gates, Henry Ford, J. P. Morgan, Mary Kay Ash, and Walt Disney all have in common? Uncompromising vision, a willingness to take risks, and exceptional business acumen. Not only did these individuals amass great fortunes, they revolutionized the business world and helped shape society as we know it. Theirs are just a few of the stories collected in this anthology of commercial ingenuity.

Drawing on a wealth of sources, this priceless collection brings to life extraordinary achievements, many of them forgotten or little known: how Robert Morris, the preeminent merchant of the eighteenth century, financed the American Revolution with his personal credit; how Ray Kroc used a shrewd real estate strategy to turn a faltering hamburger franchise operation into the McDonald's fast food empire; and how Mary Kay Ash built a billion-dollar direct sales cosmetics company by preaching a message of economic empowerment to women.

Enlightening and fascinating, Forbes(r) Greatest Business Stories of All Time celebrates larger-than-life ambition, inspired leadership, wheeling and dealing, and hard work.

Forbes is a registered trademark of Forbes Inc. Its use is pursuant to a license agreement with Forbes Inc.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent Business book!.......2006-12-18

This is a great effort by the people at Forbes to categorize historical business trends. They do a wonderful job telling us various stories from the founding days of the United States to Henry Ford to modern day America. They are all very interesting and very well researched stories. The writing is easy to read and interesting and you will want to hear more. I am hoping they put out another one because there are many great stories to tell and this is only the beginning. Highly recommend whether you are interested in business, economics or history.

Very Inspiring.......2006-07-05

This book was very inspiring. It is a very quick read because all of the biography is concise and to the point. Some of the people I had never heard of before and that made it all the more interesting. I don't know whether I would have called it the greatest business stories of all time or not but they certainly are up among the best. Every story was great and very interesting telling how they started and where they finished up. Also how people borrowed huge sums of money in order to buy a business that wasn't making money at the time only to turn them around. Like the guys at Harley for example putting together $1 million of their own and then borrowing $81 million to buy the company. Unbelievable.

Everyone who reads this will enjoy it as it was written very well. You will learn some valuable business and marketing concepts from the leaders of industry. Anyone will enjoy this one especially if you don't have the time to read a long biography. This is a great place for someone to start if they haven't been much of a reader of biographies because this is full of true life people overcoming against the odds!

Chicken Soup For the Entrepreneurial Soul.......2005-10-10

This is a quick read of 20 different stories that have historically and tremendously impacted all of us. This book is inspirational and instructional in content, and although I had heard many of these stories before I gleaned many ideas for my own business. The other issue I noticed is that these stories impacted the world and they all took place right here in the US, yet they continue to influence globalization today.

Plain Tails from the Hills.......2005-09-21

Quite inspiring to see what can man achieve when not scared. I think everybody can get from this book a little trigger to his successfull life. Not only for career, but for the life itself. I would prefer more pictures to get a little bit better imagination on their splendid life stories.

Worth it simply for the McDonalds story.......2005-09-11

I'm not a business-minded person, but after reading so many reviews here that complained about how _boring_ this book is, I picked it up and read thru one story -- about Ray Kroc and the founding of the McDonald's restaurants.

And what a great read! Such a quirky story, to follow the progress of the first guy to figure out the concepts behind assembly line fast food. Did you ever wonder how and why the food at McDonalds tastes the same everywhere? Or why every facility looks familiar?

Nowadays, factory-assembly line food production is old news to our jaded modern palates. But in the 1950s and earlier, it was innovative. And Ray Kroc was a pioneer in the development of the franchise restaurant. He made his millions scouting real estate locations for franchisees. And then he made their leases dependent upon their adherence to his ideas about what a McDonald's restaurant should be.

This was definitely a great story and an interesting read. I recommend this book.

Forbes Greatest Business Stories of all Time

Average customer rating:

Forbes Greatest Business Stories of all Time
Daniel Gross
Manufacturer: Wiley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000H1IYT6

Book Description

Lionized by the right and demonized by the left, Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is the high court's quintessential conservative. Witty, outspoken, often abrasive, he is widely regarded as the most controversial member of the Court.

This book is the first comprehensive, reasoned, and sympathetic analysis of how Scalia has decided cases during his entire twenty-year Supreme Court tenure. Ralph Rossum focuses on Scalia's more than 600 Supreme Court opinions and dissents-carefully wrought, passionately argued, and filled with well-turned phrases-which portray him as an eloquent defender of an "original meaning" jurisprudence. He also includes analyses of Scalia's Court of Appeals opinions for the D.C. circuit, his major law review articles as a law professor and judge, and his provocative book, A Matter of Interpretation.

Rossum reveals Scalia's understanding of key issues confronting today's Court, such as the separation of powers, federalism, the free speech and press and religion clauses of the First Amendment, and the due process and equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. He suggests that Scalia displays such a keen interest in defending federalism that he sometimes departs from text and tradition, and reveals that he has disagreed with other justices most often in decisions involving the meaning of the First Amendment's establishment clause. He also analyzes Scalia's positions on the commerce clause and habeas corpus clause of Article I, the take care clause of Article II, the criminal procedural provisions of Amendments Four through Eight, protection of state sovereign immunity in the Eleventh Amendment, and Congress's enforcement power under Section 5 of the Fourteenth Amendment.

The first book to fully articulate the contours of Scalia's constitutional philosophy and jurisprudence, Rossum's insightful study ultimately depicts Scalia as a principled, consistent, and intelligent textualist who is fearless and resolute, notwithstanding the controversy he often inspires.

Customer Reviews:

Impressive Overview of Justice Scalia's Approach to Law and the Constitution.......2006-04-27

Accomplished scholar Prof. Ralph Rossum has penned a well-crafted book analyzing the legal opinions and writings of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. The result is a solid read about how Justice Scalia views the role of a judge and how he sees himself. At least, Rossum gives his own take on how Justice Scalia sees himself. Obviously, the only person who truly knows how he sees himself is Justice Scalia.

One of the two most interesting chapters is Chapter 2: "Text and Tradition." It summarizes Justice Scalia's textualist approach to statutory and constitutional interpretation. In short, when deciding a given case, the plain meaning of the words contained in statutes or constitution provisions matters. Where the plain text is unclear, a jurist should consult the tradition behind the text to understand what the words mean to those who adopted it. The original understanding of the text rather than any original or even secret intent should be controlling. Justice Scalia's approach is tied to an emphasis upon the democratic decision-making process as the basis for legitimate exercise of governmental authority. Not judicial adventurism and second-guessing of democratic decision-making evidenced by statutes and constitutional provisions.

This book is not lengthy. Nor is it written at a highly technical level. So although Rossum indicates on pg. 37 that Justice Scalia "simply has not developed a well-thought-out understanding of the principles of democracy," Rossum does not elaborate much on the point. One will just have to consult law review articles and the like for more in that regard.

The other chapter making for the most interesting reading is Chapter 3: "Constitutional Structure and Separation of Powers." This portion transitions nicely from the previous chapter and underscores the importance that governmental structure plays in Justice Scalia's views of the constitution. During his SCOTUS confirmation hearings, then-Judge Scalia testified that our division of federal power into three branches with a system of checks and balances has been crucial to the defense of our liberties. Rossum proceeds to analyze important separation of powers opinions written by Justice Scalia, including his infamous, lone-ranger dissent in Morrison v. Olsen (1988) concerning the Ethics in Government Act's provision for an independent counsel. At issue was the constitutionality of vesting the independent counsel of executive power despite its detachment from the President. Also important is Rossum's analysis of Justice Scalia's majority opinion in Printz v. United States (1997). The case is typically known as an anti-commandeering decision, but Rossum highlights the separation of powers rationale that Justice Scalia includes in the opinion.

Later chapters deal with Justice Scalia's approach to substantive individual rights and to individual procedural rights. Justice Scalia's textualist emphasis is to prevent "backsliding" or erosion of important freedoms by judicial re-interpretation of democratically-adopted protections.

Some familiarity with Justice Scalia's opinions or his book, A Matter of Interpretation, makes Rossum's book more worthwhile. But it is not essential. One need not be a lawyer to follow Rossum's overview. Nor need one even agree with Justice Scalia's approach to law or decisions in the cases discussed in the book to benefit from reading this book. The book has a sympathetic tone towards its subject, but it is not an advocacy publication. Rossum even insists while Justice Scalia is remarkably consistent in his jurisprudence that he is nonetheless inconsistent in a few areas of law (e.g., state sovereign immunity.)

Rossum set out to describe the jurisprudence of perhaps the most interesting and discussed jurist on SCOTUS today. The author succeeds and the product is an accessible, informative, and interesting read.

Book Description

Tony Blair has often said that he wishes history to judge the great political controversies of the early twenty-first century--above all, the actions he has undertaken in alliance with George W. Bush. This book is the first attempt to fulfill that wish, using the long history of the modern state to put the events of recent years--the war on terror, the war in Iraq, the falling out between Europe and the United States--in their proper perspective. It also dissects the way that politicians like Blair and Bush have used and abused history to justify the new world order they are creating.

Many books about international politics since 9/11 contend that either everything changed or nothing changed on that fateful day. This book identifies what is new about contemporary politics but also how what is new has been exploited in ways that are all too familiar. It compares recent political events with other crises in the history of modern politics--political and intellectual, ranging from seventeenth-century England to Weimar Germany--to argue that the risks of the present crisis have been exaggerated, manipulated, and misunderstood.

David Runciman argues that there are three kinds of time at work in contemporary politics: news time, election time, and historical time. It is all too easy to get caught up in news time and election time, he writes. This book is about viewing the threats and challenges we face in real historical time.

Customer Reviews:

Studying the Mechanism of Fear and Destabilizatrion.......2006-07-21

Ths question this book raises is central to our understanding of how things go from bad to worse in political histories of nations.Runicman's brilliant book examines the question of how negative leadershp today increasingly moves to debtabilie hot areas around the globe through the ways they represent and misrepresent the problem of risk. Runciman shows how a very polarized, totally unnuanced negative and extremist view of possible responses to crisis leads governments into taking very problematic and increasingly dangerous risks. Viewing the only option as avoiding a worst case scenario whether a realistic assessement or not debatilizes the political international climaate further and further.The master of this slight of hand,and restructuration of reality and possible options, Runciman suggests is Blair, followed also by Bush and Cheyney. After reading this book, one can hardly forget the deeper question of how it is that most superpowers and empires fall.in a certain sense by their own huberis and tendency to overreach and in so doing to contribute heavily to a climate of international paranoia and distrust.

good intentions not enough.......2006-07-02

Runciman attempts to put 11 September 2001 into a longer term perspective. Along the way, he reveals a pronounced cynicism about both Tony Blair and George Bush. It is unclear which he seems to dislike more. Though on balance, perhaps it is Blair.

From the British vantage, he suggests that Blair following Bush into Iraq might one day seem like the ill-fated Suez adventure by Britain and France, when both thought they were still global powers. He posits that the new Iraq might turn out in ways unmeant and unpleasant. Given the continual unrest in Iraq, one can at best say that he has not been refuted.

The book suggests that sometimes, good intentions are not sufficient as a determinant of political decisions.

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