A writer of outstanding repute in all his endeavors (translator, novelist, critic), Keeley has temporarily left aside all that academic stuff to write one of the five most beautiful books I have read in the past twenty years. Greek and Anglo literati like Seferis, Durrell and Miller come alive for us in these pages and special features of their work are examined with new depth. There are also some minor writers who serve as attractive backround to, and greatly enrich, the larger story. In his final paragraphs, Keeley hints that he might have a first person narrative in store for us covering a subsequent generation of philhellene writers. Let's hope he makes good on this almost-promise.

An interesting book about Henry Miller/Lawrence Durrill and the "Generation of the Thirties"-Greek poets that include Seferis, and painters such as Ghikas.

The book is exactly what the NY Times calls it--a combination of literary history/critique, and cultural history. It tries to provide a deep understanding of the poetry from the decade before World War 2. It dispells the notion that Greece only has offered the world Homer & Pericles. Seferis, for example, won the Nobel Prize in Literature.

That's right, the poetry of Greg Miller tempts me to drink of the forbidden, the pleasures of beauty, the ecstasy of intelligence. I cannot wait to see what more he has in store for us.

Iron Wheel is the kind of book even people who think they know nothing about poetry will be moved by and return to read again and again. Greg Miller has the lightest and most exquisite touch. The descriptions of being gay in the deep South are truly unforgettable.

The book is a treasure. The love and care are evident in its making with all the little nooks and crannies filled with surprises for the reader. The authors return to you more than poetry and information, they surprise you with gifts on just about every page. Delightful.

This is a great book to get for yourself or for anyone interested in a quick but very compelling read about the history of immigration from Ireland to America. I'd particularly recommend it for young readers, as it contains a wide assortment of compelling pull-out letters and other "souvenirs" showing everyday items from and about those brave immigrants who left behind their homeland, its poverty, and starvation for a more hopeful (though far from easy) life in America.

If you take these principals, and put them to use your life will be changed. This is a must have as you walk out your journey in business, at home, and at church. Praise God for Bishop Miller.

This book will help open your eyes to your destiny. I have never heard it put this way before! A must for Christians and for those in the corporate world. A preacher's & business person's MUST for his library.

This book looks at color in interior design from an entirely different perspective from most books on the subject. Each section outlines a different style of home, from historical to regional. It tells you the exact color palette for each style. Most of the book deals with historical styles, and I'm more interested in the regional syles than the historical ones, but it's still a fascinating subject. It's also very helpful when it comes to chosing a color palette for one's home.

I went to the public library and looked through dozens of books on color in interior design before choosing three to buy, and this was one of the three. The author first discusses the history of color then makes presentations of varying length to showcase a number of historical (Georgian, Colonial, Rococo, Neoclassical, Victorian, Modernist and Post-Modern), national/regional (Tuscan, Mexican, Moroccan and Shaker) and predominant color (red, yellow, blue, green) schemes. Multiple examples are illustrated by sumptuous photographs, and palettes are included for each.

A concluding chapter on traditional sources of color is very interesting, and supplemental material includes a glossary; a directory to paint suppliers, places to visit, places to stay, and architects & designers; and an index.

(The other two books I chose at the library were J. Poore's Interior Color by Design and C. Barnes's Color for Your Home.)

Kingdom of Coal is a very well done telling of the history of anthracite coal. The book tells the story from the days when stone coal was first discovered in the wilderness of Eastern PA, through its development as a major energy source, and into the labor struggle. Closely associated is the development of canals, known as the anthracite canals to bring the coal to market and later the development of railroads. Still later the railroads, known as the anthracite railroads owned most of the mines.

The book also covers the close association between coal and the iron industry. Anthracite was first used by blacksmiths. It soon replaced charcoal in blast furnaces to reduce iron ore to iron. Iron rails for the railroads, previously imported from England, were an early product.

Missing in the book is the story of the gaslight industry. Processes for the manufacture of gas from coal were invented in 1815. Nearly every city of any size had a gas plant to supply gaslights. This was an early user of coal--originally imported from Europe. The industry continued until World War II when transcontinental pipelines brought natural gas to the distribution systems originally built for manufactured gas.

This is the definitive history of the birth, rise and fall of the anthracite coal industry in three northeastern Pennsylvania fields: Schulykill, Lackawana and Wyoming. Written in narrative form with copious references, it details the everyday trials and tribulations of the immigrants who worked the fields and the coal companies who exploited them. This is must reading for anyone wanting an insight into the lives of their ancestors who immigrated and worked these fields between 1800 and 1970,

I've checked out many books on basic financial advice and this is the best - from college savings and IRA's to advice on making a will.

For anyone looking for a readable, reliable guide to everything they want to know about their money, I'd say this is the book. I've checked out many, many of them and feel that this is the best of the bunch.

A LAND SO REMOTE

Prior to the holidays, I received a great gift, a copy of the beautifully produced three-volume study A Land So Remote, authored by Larry Frank and Skip Miller, and published by Marianne and Michael O'Shaughnessy of Red Crane Books, Publishers, Santa Fe.
Creation of a successful publication of this magnitude can only be accomplished by many who work in concert, in this case scholar, editor, publisher and, of course, those who are willing to share their treasures with anyone wishing to turn the pages in this landmark study. Frank and Miller have devoted a large percentage of their lives carefully studying and painstakingly handling objects-some of religious importance, powerful images that were the subject of daily devotion, while other objects that served a useful function in the lives of hundreds of thousands attempting to make their lives easier. To the Hispanic, Native American, and the Anglo, these objects were an integral part of daily life-whether as an expression of their spirituality, their intense religious devotion-- or to enable them to perform certain physical tasks-- cutting wood or baking bread.
The authors, in concert with photographer Michael O'Shaughnessy, have treated each object sympathetically, whether it be a santo or bulto, or packsaddle or carreta wheels, with the same level of care, even reverence. The real joy is in seeing so many diverse objects fashioned out of wood and other materials in significant numbers. How often have we had the opportunity of examining page after page of images beautifully organized and described. The authors, of course, treat us to a display of work by lesser known santeros, as well as the most celebrated, notably José Rafael Aragon. Volume two devotes pages 288 to 377 to some of the most powerful religious images by Aragon and his followers that the reader will ever experience.
Since 1974, I have been a frequent visitor to New Mexico and have written a few books on the Anglo painters. After reading Miller's and Frank's essays, I said to myself, "I wish I had written these words. Both scholars write with conviction and authority. They also write in a style I have labeled "an easy read." They have organized their material so that it makes sense. You understand why the objects were created, who created them and importantly, how they were created. Happily, these objects, some still in the churches in Ranchos de Taos, Chimayo, Taos, and chapels throughout the Southwest, others in museums and private collections, have been "gathered" and presented to the reader and viewer in a beautiful and effective manner (I was tempted to use the phrase elegant but refrained).
All reviews of the publication praise A Land So Remote for its visual appeal, handsome photographs," fascinating account of the history and culture of Hispanic New Mexico," scholarship, a major contribution to Hispanic studies. One critic even suggested that, before being placed in a glass case [with other rare books], it might serve as a coffee table book. Never! If anything, it will be a banquet table book, and will be the scene of great feasts-visual and literary. But their words, like mine, fail to express the impact this handsome three-volume study will have on you-the participant. This study will, like the objects that it treats, transcends time. Secure your copy. I can assure you that it will never gather dust (although it will go out-of-print).

Dean A. Porter, Ph. D.
Director Emeritus, The Snite Museum of Art
Professor of Art History
University of Notre Dame

Published by the vaunted Red Crane Books of Santa Fe, New Mexico, this three volume set on religious art and wooden artifacts of New Mexico is a rare, rich visual and intellectual repast. It would be a treasured gift, one to which collectors and aficionados will return time and again.

Larry Frank is remembered for "The New Kingdom of the Saints" (1997), while Skip Miller is curator and director, Taos Historic Museums.

With 842 stunning color photographs and 848 pages A Land so Remote surely holds the most comprehensive and accessible information on this subject. Many of the photos included are of rare objects gleaned from nine museums and a number of private collections. Carefully selected for the part each plays in this artistic corpus, photos are accompanied by concise essays that enhance knowledge while still piquing an interest to know more.

Volumes I and II beautifully present the growth of religious art during a period of over 125 years. It was a time when in order to undergird their faith Spanish settlers turned to santos, visual representations of saints. Thus was born an art form unique to America which once was of great import in churches, communities and homes.. Santos were, if you will, incarnations of the hopes and dreams of these immigrants.

"Rightly understood," author Frank remarks, "santos are a kind of 'liberation theology' written in the language of wood, plaster, and paint, an understanding of Christianity that empowers the poor to free themselves from unjust socioeconomic and cultural structures in the larger world and within themselves.

Volume III centers on wooden objects, such as tools, furniture, toys, and domestic utensils. These objects testify to the influence of the Spanish on the traditions of the indigenous inhabitants of this region.

Photographer Michael O'Shaughnessy described his task as a "...wonderful, often awesome, experience of having such close contact with material that radiates the love and importance that their makers brought to their creation."

Such is the case with readers as they leaf through the pages of these landmark volumes.

- Gail Cooke

Now that we have definitively entered into a troubled 21st century, I am developing a weird kind of nostalgia for the equally troubled previous one. This book, a marvellous memento of the period between 1930 and 1960, does everything to fuel this ambiguous attraction.

With portraits of Chaplin, many of the leading Surrealists, Picasso, Stravinsky, T.S. Eliot, Dylan Thomas, Henry Moore and many others, Miller's twin eye Rolleiflex produces a very intimate view of the artistic scene in the middle of the 20th century. Some of the pictures were taken in the artist's studio, some in Miller's own studio, but most show the sitters informally and relaxed in mundane surroundings, weaving the mystery of artistic inspiration into the fabric of daily life. Whatever the context, Miller's portraits show the mark of a great artist, with composition, lighting and atmosphere invariably matched to the personality of the sitter. A great deal of her pictures are quite classical in conception, but many are spiced up with an occasional Surrealist wink.

The war pictures are a different matter. When Miller registers the ravages of this savage conflict, irony makes way for tragic grandeur. For example, the portrait of a Nazi suicide, daughther of the Leipzig Mayor, reconnects with the dramatic clair obscur of Carravaggio. Many of the images of wrens and ordinary service men reveal the quiet determination of people amidst a whirlwind of extreme violence. One of the most impressive pictures of this period, and in a sense an untypical one, depicts a murdered German prison guard floating in a canal bounding the Dachau camp, producing a mixture of the bucolic and the tragic which is very moving.

This book is beautifully produced and is a delight to hold in your hands. The captions that go with the pictures are well written and very informative. I would have wished for a more extensive lead essay by Richard Calvocoressi, but maybe we can find more information elsewhere. Pity also that the UK version of this book sports the Hein Heckroth portrait on its cover, which I do not find one of the most attractive pictures in this collection. But these minor quibbles do not detract for this valuable addition to my library.

Compiled and captioned by Richard Calvocoressi (Director of the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh), Lee Miller: Portraits from a Life is an amazing collection of memorable and visually impressive black-and-white photographs taken by the extraordinary fashion model and professional photographer Lee Miller, who began to study the craft of capturing life with a camera in Paris during 1929. A complete range of Lee Miller's moving and inspirational photographs is presented, with each with a brief caption offering a little background on the setting and people. A significant contribution to any personal, professional, academic, or community library Photography reference collection, Lee Miller: Portraits From A Life a truly captivating, highly recommended gallery showcasing the work of a very remarkable and talented woman.

You will like this book if you
a) appreciate the humor and superb drawing-style of Wiley
b) really, really hate lawyers
c) you are a kind of lawyer yourself.

If all of the above applies, I can guarantee that you will love this book. I do.

First there was Larson, and then, there was Wiley... When Larson stopped making cartoons, the world groaned - and I found Non Sequitur! If you love dry humour in cartoons and an 'outside in looking out' type of outlook on life, then you'll love just about anything concerning Non Sequitur. Unlike Larson, Wiley is more diverse in what he pokes fun at, and this book is a special collection of the fun he pokes at the humourless legal profession. It plays on stereotypes, it probably preys on reality, but the end result is a hilarious collection of books aimed at gently lampooning the legal profession.