Beautiful Photographs, Misinformed Words
922358
The photographs of Audrey Hepburn are (of course) beautiful, but the text accompanying them lacks both beauty and integrity. Factual errors appear from beginning to end - starting with Audrey's birthname and ending with her burial site (she was born Audrey Kathleen Ruston, not Edda Hepburn, and buried in the cemetery in the Swiss town where she lived, not on her own property there - see son Sean Ferrer's book for accurate facts). The sad facts of Audrey Hepburn's life were also exaggerated in the text, as if her charm and elegance are not interesting enough. By all accounts, people who knew Audrey, however, never had a negative word to speak of her. While the photographs in this book do justice for Audrey Hepburn's beauty, the inaccurate and poorly written text is disappointing.
1496035
While this was an informative book and entertaining to my eight-year-old daughter, it could have been more impressive. The most disappointing thing that my daughter and I found about the book was that the animal at the end was not identified in the book, at least not that we could find.
There are also some facts that appear to be misleading because the author seems unsure of the information they are stating. While I would not go so far as to say that the facts are entirely incorrect, they are misleading and can easily confuse kids later on.
The photos, however, were nice, even on my ancient Kindle that has no color option. We later viewed the pictures on my computer and they were even more stunning. Sadly, the photos were lacking, which caused my daughter to lose interest faster than she normally would when reading a picture book about animals.
My daughter was lured in by the simplicity of the cover when she saw me purchase the Kindle book. She knew without even reading the title that the book was about animals with spotted or striped markings, so, being the animal enthusiast she is, she was instantly sucked into the book and enamoured with it. At least this was the case until she realized that the pictures were lacking, somewhat. The cover photos did give a misleading first impression, leading me (and my daughter) to believe that there would be lots of stunning photos contrasting spotted and striped animals.
The book also skipped around quite a bit: it jumps between fish and mammals and back to fish randomly, for instance. My daughter went through the book and looked for mammals then fish, etc., so she jumped around a lot, which is not so easy to do on a Kindle. Some consistency would have been appreciated, but, unfortunately, was lacking. Again, some comparison and/or contrast would have been appreciated.
The lack of consistency between pages made me believe that this book was geared more towards younger children, but the photos (or lack thereof) made me believe that maybe this book was attempting to be geared toward slightly older children, probably ranging in grades from first to third.

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2717162
Amazing photos, with quite illuminating explanatory text. Lots of opportunities to learn obscure botanical terms too, such as anemochory (the strategy of dispersing seeds via the wind). My one peeve is that the labels for all the beautiful microscopic images are pushed to an appendix, so that one has to jump to the back to find out what is depicted. Since over half the pages don't even have page numbers, this task of decryption is extra hard. I wish that the authors would have found a design method for including a modest amount of identifying text on the page with each image. This quibble, notwithstanding, the book is a joy to page through, and repays frequent returns to study the unusual shapes of each surface.
4152683
While this book is a wonderful curation of some very powerful images. In addition to having a snippet of historical data that I found interesting and exciting to read, the producers made a horrible decision in the dimensions of this book, many of the images, are wider then a single page, leading to several images being chopped in the crease of the spine, therby disfiguring the images in some way. It would have been wiser to simply make this book another few inches wider to preserve the integrety of the photographs. But sadly, some of histories most recognizeable photos cannot be enjoyed to the fullest, do to this printing issue. I found myself resorting to the internet so I could fully enjoy certain pictures featured in this book.
1454583
Amazon wouldn't publish my first attempt at a review because I described in detail the questionable material in the book. So they will sell obscenity but not allow you to review it. Hmmm...Anyway 90 percent of the photos are beautiful and appropriate. The other ten consist of violent S&M imagery that is disturbing to someone not into that sort of thing. I bought this gift for my husband, but would be horrified if our son ever got hold of the thing and saw some of those images. If you are not into violence against women, I would recommend another book.
3394617
This is a large physically attractive book with beautiful full color pictures on thick slick paper.  It has a wealth of good information and lots of misinformation.  For example, we are told that the Webley was the first top break revolver.  A picture of a Webley Pryse revolver with the typical Pryse latch is described as a Webley Mark VI government model.

In the handgun section the countries are presented in a haphazard order.  It begins with Canada, where there are pictures and descriptions of 26 Para-Ordinance pistols, all 1911 clones.  However, in the United States section not a single one of the firms making 1911 clones (Kimber, Springfield, etc.) are referred to.

In the U.S. section we are also presented with 30 Taurus handguns, but only 22 Colts and 16 Smith and Wesson models.  Strange.

Additionally, we are told that the Steyr Hahn 1911 was adopted toward the end of World War One, the FN Browning 1903 became standard issue for the U.S. forces, the model 1915 Beretta could use the .38 Colt Automatic cartridge (boom), the Norwegian model 1893 Nagant revolver was a variation of the Russian Nagant and manufactured in the Tula Arsenal, etc., etc.

On the good side, this is a beautiful book, and most of the information is correct.
1362288
I should have known better from the title that this was just a book of photos. However, the photos are gorgeous and I often flip through it when I'm looking for something pretty to have a cup of tea with or to look at before I go to sleep. The houses are all kinds, all materials, and all inspiring. They try to sell you plans at the end.
4951375
First the good: Beautiful production, Burchard's photos are fresh additions to the available material on the period and group. Interesting new information about Defeo and Hedrick's artistic relationship. The Bad: Many factual inaccuracies born of apparent laziness and lack of familiarity with SF artists and the city itself (Did she rely too much on McClure's memory as her source of truth?) Corrections: Painter James Kelly was not part of the Bay Area Figurative school (he was an abstract expressionist); 2322 Fillmore building was not in Western Addition (it was and is in Pacific Heights); Hedrick, Defeo, Brown, Conner, Gechtoff, Kelly all showed their work a lot in the 50s and early 60s. Their relationship to the art establishment was far more complicated than described. Several were represented by major galleries. Though prankish and iconoclastic, the group wasn't as marginal and rebellious as maintained here. Hedrick and Defeo actually had very productive later careers as painters and teachers (Defeo at Mills College in Oakland, Hedrick at a north bay junior college) as did most of the others; Was there even a mention of the legendary Ghost House, where Hedrick and other artists lived in the early 50s? etc. Author goes to great lengths to keep reminding us that the subject matter hasn't been written about before in any depth, as though attempting to pump up the importance of her own work as new scholarship. In fact, there exist many thoughtful and well researched books on the period and the RBPA in particular: Rebecca Solnit's wonderful Secret Exhibition (buy this one first!), Thomas Albright's seminal Art in the San Francisco Bay Area, reams of great stuff on Conner (It's all True, 2001 BC, etc.), and Natsula-Novolo Gallery's multiple books on SF's early alternative galleries and beat movement. Solnit and Albright are given extremely short shrift here-two minor footnotes, their work barely mentioned. An unfortunate omission.
159229
This book has LOTS of nice photos, so if you're interested in this subject it is worth adding to your collection. However, in many places the text is poorly written and edited (even some of the photos are misidentified), and some of the information presented is poorly researched - not what you might expect from a person with a Masters degree and numerous literary credits to his name.  The typo's, occasional shabby grammar, and other inconsistencies are most annoying, so reading it is something like trying to listen to the radio through moderate static. It's not all bad, but this reviewer recommends that you buy it for the photos, not its less-than-impeccable accuracy or other literary "graces".
25072
This is mainly a book of photographs with captions. Unfortunately, many of the captions are poorly written, or contain errors:

"Zelia N. Page is shown in this early-1920s photograph in front of the first Douglass High School, located on East California Avenue, with her all-male high-school band. Page also served as a musical advisor for many churches and clubs in a four-state area. In 1952, the famous Zelia Page Breaux was named chairwoman of the music committee for the national NAACP meeting ..."

"Maurice Miles, a photographer and visual artist in Oklahoma City, took this photograph of Deep Deuce in the 1950s." (The photo in question shows a street lined with 1960s and 1970s automobiles.)

The biggest issue, though, is that the book assumes that the reader already has a great deal of knowledge about Deep Deuce, about Black life in Oklahoma in the early 20th Century, and about blues, jazz and their history. If you do, then there are a number of interesting photos in the book. if you don't, then you'll find page after page of pictures of unfamiliar people, with offhand references to locations or events that are never explained.

Not recommended except as a supplement.
1785344
This book is pleasant to browse, containing various lore about geometry, history, geography and the occult.  It is very attractive visually, containing many nice photographs and diagrams.  Unfortunately, given the important place of mathematics in the book, I am afraid to say that the author appears to know rather more about art and mysticism than he does about mathematics.  For example, on page 52 we read: "For modern mathematics irrational numbers are those that cannot be pinned down to a few digits.  They are, in fact, repeating decimals that go on forever."  In fact, of course, irrational numbers are characterized by having decimal expansions that do not repeat.  Also, on page 51, it is apparent that the author does not understand the construction of the mathematical curve known as the Conchoid of Nicomedes.  This is a pity, because it would have been very easy to give the correct description since the relevant diagram is already included on the page.
4691335
Majority of the photos in this book are taken in 3rd-world countries.  In my opinion, these photos stand out, not because they are meaningful or full of vision, but because they are different.  Anyone who came from a similar background would immediately recognize certain photos as blank stares by weathered, aged, and wrinkled people.  They are different and might evoke certain emotions from people who are so far removed from certain parts of the world.  Local photographers with vision and understanding take far more interesting and emotional photos of the same people.  The author's style of photography would have never stood out had the subjects been in North America or Europe.

  The author repeatedly painted himself as a respectable worldly photographer with vision and humility.  However, below are his own words:
  "She (a Hindu woman) graciously allowed me to photograph her for five minutes, then invited me in for chai.  Fearful that she'd marry me off to her daughter, I declined.  In retrospect, I wish I'd accepted(the chia, not the daughter)."

  I find this statement utterly degrading and demeaning to a different culture.  The author effectively took the photo for his own benefit, and smeared an entire population sector with his insensitive and presumptuous words.

  Overall, I find this book self-promoting and un-interesting.  Then again, the author's got Joe McNally for foreword, Vincent Versace for afterword, and Scott Kelby for a few words.

  Sigh!
9787
This is a cool book with some incredibly nice photographs done in an amazing technology that should have been perfected by now and utilized in every medium instead of having been almost abandoned.  Many of the photographs are nicely erotic and well done.

However, I was disappointed that almost every truly erotic photo, especially those depicting erect penises or sex acts, had no companion photo and therefore no 3-D effect.  I was also disappointed that the publisher didn't have the good sense to make the wire binding large enough to accomodate the number of pages in the book so you could easily turn the pages without damaging them.

All in all, a nice addition to my library, but don't expect hot porn. Most of the photos are very 'soft' but nicely staged.
3915543
I was hoping for two things in this book. I was hoping to get an insight into what it is that makes it possible for organisms to live so long. All we have here are anecdotes about specific species, no discussion in general about extraordinary longevity in the plant kingdom. Second, I was hoping to get a sense of scale and magnificence looking at the photographs. Personally, I found the photography mediocre. I don't care how grissled and torn up an ancient tree is, a good photographer will find a way of capturing its terrible beauty. There is little of that here. All too often the photos of these ancient beings look like nothing more than a mess. Also, some of the descriptions of the photos sound preposterous. A good example is the picture of the supposedly 6,000 year old lime tree on page 103. The text claims that the copice stool was measured to be 52 feet across. The only sense of scale suggested in the photo is the grass at the base of the stool. If that stool is 62 feet across, that makes the blades of grass 10 to 20 feet long. I just have to shake my head. If the text is building up the collosal size of some of these trees, then the photographer should try to indicate this size with perhaps someone standing next to the tree. I don't think there is a single photo in here with someone standing next to the tree. You want to know about photographing trees? See "Remarkable Trees of the World" by Thomas Pakenham. Now THAT guy knows how to present a collosal image! And his photos are also aesthetic masterpieces.
Is there anything I liked about this book? One thing I took away from this book is an appreciation of how many tree species there are in the world that live to an ancient age. I remember growing up thinking there were only three species that lived a long time: the California redwoods and the Bristlecone Pine. Then I moved to the Pacific Northwest and my knowledge expanded a little more as I discovered that cedars and yews and a few others could live a couple thousand years or so. Pakenham's two tree books then expanded my understanding even more, and now "Ancient Trees" has awakened me to the fact that tree species capable of living thousands of years are not all that uncommon -- maybe uncommon considering the number of tree species extant, but not uncommon geographically. They are everywhere, on all continents. This is a revelation to me. But as another reviewer pointed out, some of the claims in this book sound more like superstitions than scientific facts. 9,000 years for a single tree? I don't care if it IS a yew. Give me some proof, not the testimony of local legends.
3897496
Nice photography. A good selection of recipes with interesting commentary from Nigella. But what is with that glossary? It's so haphazard it's almost comical, and that is a real flaw for a cookbook.
1841277
As previously stated, this book is made up of a series of landscape photos with facing-page notes on the experience behind the making of each.

The explanations are, by and large, quite well done.  It's the photos themselves that are the problem.  Whether the problem lies with some sort of reduction in color and contrast in the printing of this book, Watson's predeliction for using Fuji's subdued Provia emulsion rather that the more vivid Velvia favored by most landscape photographers, or simply the photographer's more laid-back artistic personality, many of these photos are so low-key as to be monotonous.  Don't get me wrong -- when Watson is confronted with a highly-dramatic subject, like a stormy sky or a sunset, he is capable of creating images worth your time.  But, all too often, his landscape photographs are blander than lukewarm cream of wheat.  And some are frankly embarrassing (and not just because of his continual and VERY obvious use of graduated ND filters to make the top of the sky look darker and more "moody").  For example, why on earth would one include a banal and thoroughly uninteresting snapshot of a bus bench in front of a shoe store (page 115) in a book on landscape photography in the first place, let alone praise it, as Watson does, as "An Almost Timeless Image"...?  Certainly, those drawn to the landscapes of photographers like Galen Rowell, Tim Fitzharris, or Watson's Brit contemporaries David Ward and Joe Cornish will find little to interest them in this collection of often-pedestrian images.

And that's a shame because, although Watson's text descriptions are worthwhile, they'd be much more so if the photographs they were describing were more deserving of concerted study.  As a nature photographer, I would love to see a book whose images made me think "I wish I could take photos like that," and where I could then learn how the photographer achieved it.  Sadly, this is not that book.
1833419
This book is very big and heavy, but the photos are large, crisp and beautiful. Unfortunately, the captions often don't tell you when or where the images are from. Some of the text is very interesting and some of it just seems like the author's musings and are not informative. I would use this book mostly to look at the images and not necessarily for its substance. Overall it's nice to have.