Readers will no doubt wonder why they would want to read this book rather than a myriad of other coffee table books on the subject of the Roman Empire. I can not claim that I have read
"almost all" of them. I have not. I have read only some of them. What makes Liberati's book different... and better... than these others is that she organizes her work topically and not just geographically.

The pictures are scrumptious, simply scrumptious. The picture on the cover is bettered by a plethora of other pictures in the book. A *two-page* picture of the Coliseum appears on pages 18 and 19. Then come pictures and text portraying the history of Rome. These are followed pictures which show the promulgation of Roman civilization throughout Italy and throughout the ancient world. There are pictures of the Las Farreras aquaduct, the Temple of Diana in Nimes, and the port of Caesarea.

She is not just presenting a bunch of pictures. One could find out something new. This is a fascinating book for anyone interested in Roman history.

In Ancient Rome: History Of A Civilization That Ruled The World, Anna Maria Liberati (Museum of Roman Civilization, Rome, Italy) has effectively collaborated with freelance journalist and art history expert Fabio Bourbon to lay out a beautifully illustrated and thoroughly "reader friendly" coffeetable artbook showcasing the architecture, politics, culture, art, and artifacts tracing the rise and fall of the Roman Empire. An ideal addition to school and community library collections, the hundreds of full-color images (many of them never previously published and available to the general public) wonderfully enhance an informed and informative text making Ancient Rome especially accessible and recommended to the non-specialist general reader.

This book is not much on narration -- but it isn't really supposed to be. The book is filled with outstanding photographs, prints, drawings, maps, and architectural plans that will be useful to anyone in the business of teaching social studies. This is one of those wonderfully inexpensive oversized hardcover books that makes you feel good just by owning it.

This book has touched me well, actually beethoven,... what interest me in this book was that I played piano and I have always like beethoven,.... His music has a deeper feeling that compare to mozart to me,... mozart always has lighter tone in his,... Anyway,...that is why I found this book and the history about his life really touchy and it is correct that this book has information that I have never known about beethoven,... overall, I think it is a great story and I think if you want to know about beethoven this is a great book,... I play and hear his music in a different way now,...

This book is excellent. Ms. Altman deals only with the facts and does a great job digging in to show why her information is correct. The other aulthors have done a lot of embellishing, but Ms. Altman obviously worked hard to find the truth. It's well worth the money. You'll learn things about this composer that you never knew before. Thank you for bringing a fresh new concept to nonfiction, Gail -- TRUTH!

Recognition of Mozart's mother is surely long overdue but it was worth waiting for this well researched, involving, and at times poetic fictional account of Anna Pertl Mozart. Not only did it make me want to read more about the Mozarts but also visit all the places in Salzburg that are associated with them. Ms. Norman is to be congratulated on illustrating so vividly why women composers (or women artists of any kind for that matter) have had to struggle so hard for recognition over the centuries. She has certainly succeeded in rescuing one ANON from obscurity.

Liane Ellison Norman's Stitches In Air is a compellingly written, superbly crafted historical novel about Anna Pertl Mozart, who was the mother of the legendary 18th-century composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. An evolving, personal tale of conflicting family dynamics and the struggle to balance responsibilities to kin with individual freedom, Stitches In Air is a fascinating, entertaining, fully engaging read, and a very highly recommended addition to community library collections.

I am a Leveridge in fact I am a great,great granddaughter to Anna.I grew up in Coe Hill Ont.I have spent a lot of time on the farm that Anna talks about.I am thrilled that this book is still available for purchase.

Our family has a cottage in the Coe Hill area, which is the setting for this book. I remember reading it as a child and being fascinated by the lives of the Leveridge family in the back woods of Ontario. Anna Leveridge's correspondence with various family members in England gives a unique look at her new life in 19th century Ontario. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in a first hand account of pioneer life in Ontario. If you visit the Coe Hill Ontario area, you can still find remains of her old homestead. I visited it 10 years ago and it made the book even more special to me.

LIke its sister volume,Sevilla Forma Urbis, this luxuriously produced coffee-table sized book is a feast for the eyes. Each glossy, highly-detailed photograph, in gorgeous color, is one of hundreds of arial views of Napoli, Italy. Atlante Di Napoli is an outstanding example of photography as art. Each crisp, sharp photograph has an accompanying page with a non-detailed outline or template of the featured area, and these outline pages would provide hundreds of fascinating design elements for many art mediums. What sets this book apart is the apparently artless arrangements of the buildings, objects and natural formations that comprise Napoli. In the end, these photographs become less a factual record of the current metropolitan and coastline real estate and more an artistic exploration of color and pattern--a sort of arial example of Chaos Theory. Coastal lines, strings of bright red taxicabs, buildings snuggled next to each other all constitute a brilliant, chaotic design that somehow seems artifical and natural simultaneously. Artists, photographers, travelers and students of life will treasure this gem of a book!

A beautiful, insightful exploration of a true modern genius. Sperone has made a number of fascinating discoveries of new artists, and this coffee table work highlights his trend-setting tastes.

Sperone's magic touch continues in the 21st century. Who will he will discover next?

It's too bad that this book is so hard to find these days... It is one of the best i've come across, and every dish is a sure winner. If you can find it, it's worth the search...

Anna Maria Ortese is an Italian writer well received in her homeland but hardly known in America. I discovered her by accident while browsing in a used book store in Venice (the one that's a district in Los Angeles). She practices a form of magical realism that is more subtle than the Latin Americans favor, and I found this makes her work a degree or two more haunting. In this collection of ten stories, all set in an enchanted urban reality, Ortese explores interior lives at moments of transformation, when her characters discover they lead blessed or cursed existences -- or both. She writes in a wonderfully moody, poetic prose and uses vivid descriptive passages to detail layers of emotion. Even in English translation, the language has a clear, crisp ring. Not all the stories are worth a second read, but those that are offer endless rounds of pleasure.

Oz-story #6 is the annual anthology of stories, comics and verse generated by L. Frank Baum's legendary "Land of Oz" books. This wonderful, large format collection features contributions by L. Frank Baum, Eloise Jarvis McGraw, Harlan Ellison, Philip Jose Farmer, Ruth Plumly Thompson, Glenn Ingersoll, Eric Shanower and others. Oz-story #6 is profusely and charmingly illustrated by the work of John R. Neil, Eric Shanower, Anna-Maria Cool, Marge, and others. There are comic panels by Walt Spouse, Steve Lieber, Tommy Kovac, Steven Weisman, W.W. Denslow and others. The center piece is perhaps L. Frank Baum's "Annabel", his least known children's novel which was originally published in 1906 and presents a rags-to-riches story of a young boy who finally wins the girl! With its flawless and pains-taking production values, Oz-story #6 is a "must" for all Oz enthusiasts of all ages.

You have to be really into Italian art and Early Renaissance to get the feeling of this wonderful book. The way it's lavishly printed makes you happy almost as much as you would see the originals. I would recommend this to an art lovers as a second choice after the site tours.