It is an absolutely brilliant work. Arrived in good condition
351165
Everyone should read Maus. It is an absolutely brilliant work. Arrived in good condition, started reading as soon as i got it out of the packaging.
4522274
This is a fantastic work of art and science. Wolfgang has created a masterfully written story surrounded by amazing photos and scientific information for the layman or professional alike. Go for the limited edition, as I did, you will not regret it. A library treasure is made.
305445
The most striking thing about this record, in my mind, is how well it complements the artist Tim Hawkinson, whose works re featured on the jacket.  This is pure genius.  If anyone has ever had the pleasure of seeing a Hawkinson installation, they will see what I mean.  The record is a haunting chain of melodies, with a minimalist, reductiveness to it that flows from song to song, to the point that it sounds like the same song is repeated over and over with different emphasis for each take.  It extremely subtle, like Hawkinson's work, and a perfect complement.
Beck's success as a pop artist has many people missing this element, as visual art education is so poor in the world (esp in North America), Something VERY important to realise about beck; His Grandfather was a Fluxus artist, and had a very strong influence on him.  He was a brilliant artist, who near the end of his life was making figurative sculptures out of cigarette butts.  Thery were very cool.  Tim Hawkinson did an exhibition in the Ace Gallery in NY (one of the images in side the jacket is from that show, the red drawing)where he created an egg shell and a bird skeleton made up of ground up fingernails, hair and superglue!  A logical link to Beck's grandfathers work, thus a logical link to Beck by extension.  This record is the strongest piece of art beck has yet concieved.  I think all of his material is interesting, but this one really blows me away knowing the context of it's choice of artwork.  It all makes sense.
4380669
A must-have, absolutely brilliant work, the perfect follow-up to 25 O'clock. These deluxe editions w/booklets are very well printed and put together, delightful to peruse whilst listening. See that? I even started writing like Andy Partridge talks, that's how much I love these albums.
421040
It is a wonderful work. I would like to look also the images or photographs of the hard cover edition.
248107
While I am a mere pawn at the feet of the colossal figure of the author, as well as a neophyte in the world of wine literature, I feel duty-bound to inform the public of this exceedingly estimable work of genius. The good doctor has done it again. John J. Mahoney, in flourishes reminiscent of a latter-day Shakespeare, has brilliantly crafted a scintillating piece of literature that serves as a paean to the glorious days of yore when wine flowed like water. All the previous centuries of works merely pale in comparison to Mahoney's masterpiece. Every Bottle Has a Story transported me into a world where the laws of physics simply melted away. I could smell colors. I could feel sounds. The name of John J. Mahoney should be shouted from the highest mountaintops and be uttered from the lips of every man, woman, and child upon this green sphere we call Earth. Enough cannot be said of this heroic work of Joycian proportions. I don't always read wine literature, but when I do, it's a timeless epic by John J. Mahoney. Well done, good doctor. Well done.
3638901
I can't heap enough praise on this book. Well okay, this book doesn't cure baldness and raise the dead, but it is a true work of brilliance. Professor Hand has done something amazing - he has reconstituted a dead martial art, and a martial art that unjustly died out, owing to swordsmanship no longer being a true matter of life and death anymore after the ascendance of the gun, and to an over-fascination with foreign customs and as one contemporary put it, a desire to wear light swords that do not wear out your hose (pants!) The system in question is the use of the Sword - i.e. the cut and thrust weapon that has enough weight behind it to shear a limb off. It lost out in popularity in civilian life (where it was illegal to kill people with swords anyways!) to the Italian rapier and then to the French smallsword. These lighter swords were easy to carry around and even easier to use as their techniques were limited to just the thrust and a few basic parries and simple footwork. They were of course deadly enough to be useful for self-defence, but were seen as weak for the battlefield to which real swords were brought. This Sword-using system (the capital "S" is intentional here) was put into writing by a gentleman by the name of George Silver. It is the culmination of millennia of fighting experience among the English, refined and personalized to some extent, to be sure, by Silver himself, but according to his own claims, an accurate rendering of the traditional English way of Fencing. Unlike the Italian Fence-masters who advocated for the duel, Silver rails against it, only thinking fencing a fit practical skill for serving the nation on the battlefield, or as a last-ditch self-defence. He sees the health benefits (which are probably the main things we are interested in today regarding martial arts) as particularly salient, and the practice of cutting motions and the wide variety of footwork with the traditional English sword and its system as conducive, more than perhaps anything else to good health, physical and mental. I wholeheartedly agree with this assessment. Silver's system uses natural body movements - most steps are like natural walking steps, most sword attacks as natural swings through a natural arc. You don't crouch down low in awkward positions. The system feels almost instinctive. It's actually very subtle and counter-intuitive and tricky. It's a great core workout, and a fantastic all-body wholesome exercise. Its intrinsic interest which appeals to our sense of self-preservation keeps us interested and exercising, and its training makes us very strong, healthy both at limb and in heart and lungs, and sad to say, if the need arises, there is no doubt we can pick up some kind of object to use as a weapon, and use it spectacularly well! There are even not a few grappling moves. I've been a fan of Silver's old works for years but could never really understand them 100%. Well, perhaps I thought I understood them, but I obviously was not doing so. Professor Hand brings over 20 years of professional experience teaching and fighting referring to Silver's system to bear on this book. He has connected the dots. He has done the same as what a paleontologist does with dinosaur bones. Dinosaurs were once great animals. So too Silver's fencing method was a great school of Fight. Now we can enjoy it once again! I am noticing that it is helping me get better at kendo, and at judo too, believe it or not - judo being heavily dependent on subtle footwork and kendo on both subtle footwork and subtle sword work for success. Silver intended the training with the Sword to be the root of the study of all fights, and I am finding exactly this to be true, thanks to Professor Hand! I can't wait for volume II where Prof. Hand pits Silver's system against rapiers, and supplements the sword with daggers and shields! That will definitely be interesting!
402533
A brilliant poem in a brilliant kindle edition, even if only people with a full color kindle or a kindle app could see the deep blue of images, i.e original wood engravings by Gustave Dor set in deep blue tint.
It is possible to see some of them with the look inside feature. They are like the cover.
Brilliant! Really brilliant, the poem, the pictures and this edition too ;-)
67832
A brilliant piece of work that did not get the recognition it deserved in my day. One of my top twenty of all time in my opinion.
3742839
What a glorious work. Not a wasted word. Not a single distraction. Stripped of all artifice and affectation. He leaves only the very essence - of art, of life, of creation.
In reading the various reviews, it seems that many young people have read this work as part of their class curriculum. It pains me to see how so many of them have had their perception of it directed - no, constrained - to the wrong things. Their teachers should be ashamed of themselves. They have taken something exquisite and eloquent and unadorned, and coated it, suffocating its splendour with "symbolism" and "interpretation". The Old Man and the Sea is not about symbolism. It's not about Christ parallels, or communing with Mother Earth, or the price we pay for ambition.
It TELLS us, clearly and poignantly, what it's about. And we must have the humility to take it at its word. It's about struggle, and courage, and pity, and proving something to the only two beings that really count in the end - our Maker and our Self.
There's nothing complicated in any of this. And Hemingway strives to reflect these simple, yet powerful truths in language that is likewise simple and powerful. He succeeds beyond measure.
To properly understand this work, we must actually oppose modern teaching. We must resist the temptation to analyse. We must strip away bombastic complexity and artifice. This is a story about essences. It is set away from civilisation, in the majestic vastness of the sea, precisely so that there can be no distraction, no adornment, no artifice. Adding such elements does not further the understanding; it only pollutes.
As is true of all great works of literature, this one is not for everyone. If your depth extends no further than low-rent thrills, then don't bother. You will find this book boring. Similarly, effete intellectuals need not apply. There's nothing here that appeals to cheap cynicism, nor to cowardice masquerading under the guise of sophistication.
This story is a great man's parting gift to you and me. It speaks with pity and a deep sorrow to those lonely acts of courage, large and small, about which no one will ever know. Only our Maker and our Self. What a masterpiece.
4181720
The book is a master piece. It is simple, incisive and comprehensive. It is as good for the beginner or the advance student of the study of the inner world of nature, spirituality and the forces behind every creation.
The book gives a comprehensive understanding of the relationship between all the forces that control the visible and invisible worlds. It describes those forces behind the macroscopic and microscopic world. it is a very comprehensive relation of the nature of Man, the angels, the gods of all persuasions and the almighty God as well.
It is a must read for any serious student of the spiritual world, religion  and the mysteries.
Justice cannot be done to this amazing book by just a single-light reading. It must be read over and over again and again.
To fully appreciate the depth of the gems the book contain it take a life time of serious work and studying.
It is funny in many parts and it is equally very illuminating.
Believe me this book has been around for many decades but it is as fresh as just been taken out of the printing press.
The longer you get to know the book the better it becomes. Believe me!
965609
Brilliant.  One of the finest novels I've ever read.  Moore is brilliant.  I majored in English Lit and took grad seminars and I am angry -- why have I never heard of Brian Moore before reading Howard Norman's "Next Life Might Be Kinder", which mentions him?  This book belongs on all of the top 100 novels of all time and I place it in the top 10.

Judith Hearne is complex, infuriating, pathetic, deluded, grasping, drunk, annoying, sympathetic.  Moore gives us every inch of Judith Hearne, every thought, frustration, aspiration; that is to say, there is flesh on her bones and when she topples over it knocks the reader for a loop.  The supporting characters are brilliant.  The shifting viewpoints work perfectly.  Truly one of the greatest novels ever written, I consider this awe-inspiring work is right up there with "Madame Bovary" and "Catcher in the Rye."
526776
This recording of Reich's most canonical piece is perfect.  & the music is absolutely brilliant.  It has everything Reich did with compositional structure to that point; rests are gradually replaced with notes over a thick, juicy fabric of repetition.  The musicians phase.  There's also a new idea for him in this piece: music determined by the length of human breath, as the woodwinds periodically pulse a note, & each player pulses it just until s/he runs out of breathn.  The music also is incredibly beautiful, in a way exceptionally modern & also eternally emotional.  Get this cd.  It's an absolute must for any Reich or minimalist collection.
2624017
This is a brilliant book and vaulted to my all-time top 10 list (which includes the likes of Catch-22, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, Patrick O'Brian's Aubrey-Maturin series, Tamora Pierce's Protector of the Small series, Lord of the Rings, 100 Days of Solitude, early Barbara Kingsolver, ...).  It is not only hysterical, but a brilliant essay on the human condition and relationship between citizens and government.  It would be excellent material for a high school or college government class.  Pratchett has the knack of spinning a very readable yarn while also getting into some very deep philosophy.  It's a book I very much look forward to re-reading.
2084539
This is just a very beautiful book, in every way. The spectacular quality of the printing, the unsurpassed quality of the paper used-  these contribute to the overall feel of something that is very special. Of course, the images are the thing-  and Mr. Stanford's use of objects to create his works is novel and brilliant-  they seem at the same time very new and also very familiar. You will spend hours looking through this collectible-  and you will leave it out on a coffee table for others to see. As a collector of wonderful books, I give this my highest recommendation. Your art book collection will be that much more complete.
3522320
To be honest, the title was not one that I would have picked up on my own, and the book was recommended to me several times before I decided to read it.  (You can't tell a book by it's Title)  Worthy of all of its critical acclaim, I have read this novel over several times, not only for it's splendid story line, but for the sheer brilliance of it, each time marveling at it's beauty and style.  Though it deals with religion, it does it tastefully, openly, and allows the reader to see the underside of the human element that powers it.

Though all men may be "created equal", their characters are not, and this story is powerful in that regard as it exposes men of the cloth that are there simply as users of others, as opposed to the devoted, the sincere whose life work has been striven to the good.

The novel is timeless.  The story unfolds in France and Italy, is about two boyhood friends who study for the priesthood together and subsequently end up doing their life's work together in the wild, open country of the New Mexico and Arizona frontiers.  This work spans their entire lives, and the adventures, trials and hardships are many.  The  artistry that Willa Cather employs as she takes her reader through the magnificent, lonely expanses of sage and cactus, to the Mexican people in remote areas; the lawless exiles who hope to disappear into it's wilderness, is all accomplished as though a painter is at work beside her, shaping her words into visuals, making this work one of her best, in my view.
2249426
THE BEST print on the works of Saint Thomas, the delivery was also flawless, and as for the contents of the books, in my humble opinion, one of the most important work on philosophy and theology ever produced. Congratulations to the guys in "theaquinasinstitute" for such a great work, if anybody is interested here is the link to their website [...] they are taking donations in order to translate and print the rest of Saint Thomas's works.