beautiful book, two caveats
580523
Beautiful, powerful work. I highly recommend it to practitioners and non-practioners (it will likely inspire you!)

My caveats: 1) was intended by the publisher and a group of finders to be a free book; however Amazon charges an admittedly low price for it. If some of that cost goes to the publisher then I'm happy for that.
2) despite the fact that Amazon charges for this book, there is no value-add re: functional footnotes.
2608672
This is a beautifully detailed book. It has approximately 61 pages of images to color. The downside is that they are printed double sided so if you want to use markers you'll have to copy and resize them to cardstock printer paper first because it will bleed thru and destroy the image on the backside otherwise. I really wish publishers would realize that many of us enjoy coloring with markers. It would be great if they started to print the images one-sided and I bet they'd have many more sales.

I admit that I would not pay full price for this book and waited until I could find it somewhere "used" at less than half it's listed price. Given the amount of work I'll have to do to resize/reprint the images before using markers it would not have been worth it to me to pay full price. Still it's an overall beautiful product and seems to tell a bit of a story too, if you are into that sort of thing.
2945864
First off, I love this book. I discovered it when I was barely thirteen and have reread it almost a hundred times. It inspired me to read more, write my own stories, and major in English. What I do not like is this edition. Some one is lying. The images provided do not match the book. Maybe it's my edition and if that's the case, then some one needs to give this inferior edition a new ISBN to separate it from the edition with Dor and Blake engravings, if that does exist. Don't get me wrong the artwork is good, the amount detail on the angels and humans is stunning; but of course Satan looks like he was hit in the face with a shovel. Where in the poem did it say Satan's hair is made out of snakes? or that he has horns that look like elbow macaroni? I was expecting illustrations of grandeur and rebellion and instead got these stiff and sorry excuses. Be forewarned, you are in for a let down if you are expecting well known illustrations. While these might have been the illustrations from the first illustrated edition,they are not the best.
1539900
After some research, I decided to order Stephen Miller's Complete Visual Bible from Amazon. For the past years, I've been studying the Bible as a historical and cultural articraft (with help from the excellent Oxford Study Bible). I had been looking for a book with good maps and historical timelines, and was attracted by the visual premise of Miller's volume. While I do use the book for frequent reference, I have mixed reviews of the experience:
Pros: Accessible language (if sometimes too informal for my taste), well-organized sections that help make sense of obscure passages. Very interesting and informative boxes with charts, maps and illustrations. I appreciate the comparative Bible/World History timelines. Photos of archeological sites and historical paintings are extremely useful to illustrate Bible stories.
Cons:
1) The informal language at times seems to be addressed to American teenagers. For example in page 21, in the "Torching Sodom and Gomorrah" section, it reads: "God sends two angels disguised as humans to warn Lot to get his family out of town. Pronto. As if Sodom needed to confirm its bad rep, a gang of men...", or in page 33 "Jochebed gives birth to a son. Lousy timing", or in page 498, the heading reads "Christians do more than yap, yap, yap" and then "Being a do-gooder isn't a spiritual gift", and so on. Some might find this language refreshing after reading solemn Bible passages, but I feel Miller's style is too eager to please, even bordering on the disrespectful at times.
2) The illustrations are a mixed bag of excellent historical images to cheesy paintings and snapshots of camera-weilding tourists in the Holy Land. Many images seem to have been obtained using a Google image search, and none have credits or information of their source, which is very odd in these copyright-sensitive times. Some images are repeated, which suggests editorial carelessness.
3) No index! The first page claims there's a "helpful index" in the book's website, but the website seems to be down, as I haven't been able to access it.
In spite of these drawbacks, I would still recommend The Complete Visual Bible because, while far from perfect, it's useful and informative.
980108
The World of Colors is a great concept for children and the art and photography are beautiful in this book. a useful for story times and classrooms.  There are some unfortunate linguisitc and factual errors, which could easily have been corrected during  editing. The glossary for example gives an incorrect pronunciation of "matryoshka"(given as "ma-TROOSH-kuh" instead of "matr-YOSH-kah"--a common Americanized pronunciation, but incorrect), the wrong accent on the word "kulich" (given incorrectly as "koo-LEECH" instead of "KOO-leech." The glossary also defines Easter as the holiday in which "people remember the death of Jesus." Good Friday is the holiday in which Christians from Russia and everywhere else "remember the death of Jesus," while Easter marks the Resurrection. These errors decrease the value of the book as a teaching tool for children as a teacher or librarian wanting to use teach children a few words or phrases as part of a lesson or program must use the book with some caution.
289977
First, I wholeheartedly recommend the book to everyone. It is big, beautiful and a thing of surpassing elegance. If you are reading this review to decide whether or not to buy it, there, I told you. Go no further.
The rest of the review is dedicated to discussing the contents and finer features of the book.

The book is a visual introduction to the Animal Kingdom. The format of the book gives us the impression of having visited the Natural History Section of a well curated Museum. The prominent feature of this work are the full page 'plates' that exhibit truly beautiful illustrations of animals printed on heavy ivory coloured paper. The style of illustrations is reminiscent of the biology lab journals of a truly gifted artist: Attractive, accurate and informative. Each specimen on the plate is numbered and the facing page furnishes us with its common and the Latin name. This is then followed by a short description often mentioning some interesting and odd facts about the creature in question. For instance the life of a Mayfly is a mere sixty minutes, or that the Song Thrush uses stones to break open shells of snails in order to consume them.

The book is divided into sections each dedicated to a progressively more evolved family of the animal kingdom. Aside from the plates discussed above, each section includes a discussion of a representative member of the family. These pages feature a large horizontally oriented drawing of the animal being discussed. Often cross-sections of the specimen are drawn and at times a dissected animal is presented. Towards the end of each section is a plate dedicated to illustrating the animals in that section in their natural habitat. The text throughout the book is succinct.

The book features an index and a 'further reading' section. Finally a word on the illustrations. The images in this book shine with unfashionable virtues and understated beauty. What makes this book an object of art is the quite and unassuming style of illustration that betrays the illustrator's immense talent. One is reminded of the work of Ernst Haeckel when leafing through this book.

I bought this book for my two year old son, the book always managed to grab his attention even in very distracting situations. He has seen many picture books on animals by now, but I can tell that this one isn't just another one of those for him.
1509148
I've read both of these books before, so I won't bore you with details on the characters, plots, etc.

This is a BEAUTIFUL book.  The binding is fantastic, the pages are crisp and clean and I love the little ribbon attached as a bookmark.  Really well constructed and sturdy - I expect it to last a lifetime.

However.  Ahem.

TYPOS??  Seriously?  Isn't anybody proofing these things?  In the 21st century, typos in a classic novel are simply inexcusable.
1606635
This is a well-written, beautifully illustrated book. The treatment of the footnotes is unusual and eminently readable; they are on the same page, rather than being relegated to the end of the book, and not in the usual 6 or 7 pt fine print of a scholarly treatise. The author obviously knows his subject matter, but his writing is more conversational than pedagogical. However, buyer beware. If you've read the hardcover "Mysteries of the Middle Ages: The Rise of Feminism, Science, and Art from the Cults of Catholic Europe," don't buy this so-called reprint edition. They've simply changed the subtitle to "And the Beginning of the Modern World." It's not the additional volume on the making of the modern world promised on page iii of the hardcover edition.
2040397
This book is beautiful with great illustrations.  It's a pretty tall book, and as such, might have trouble fitting on a standard children's bookshelf.  As much as I love the illustrations, I find the rhyming patterns to be a little awkward for my taste.  "K is for kakapo, the parrot of the night and K is for kiwi: two strange birds that lack flight."  There are also references that will go over children's heads- "L is for lyrebird, like the string instrument."  Other times, the text seems to be making a point that I am not sure I understand- "and mandarin ducks, the oddest of couples."  Why are they odd couples? I guess you can take a lot of your questions to Google after reading this book.  I had hoped for a cool book to showcase various birds to my child, but I'm not sure this hits the mark.  I wish that they had included a pronunciation guide in the back of the book, perhaps along with a few sentences describing each type of bird mentioned in the book.  I suppose that would take this book from being just entertaining to being educational as well.
2105402
I love the quality of the printing and layout of this book, and the overview of the V&A's collection of Lucile designs is very nice, but it leaves much to be desired as a thorough survey of this couturier's work. The images are fantastic throughout, although they tend to date to the earlier half of Lady Duff-Gordon's career (pre-1910). The sketch album facsimile takes up most of the book, and while this is quite beautiful and the descriptions of the drawings are excellent, the chapters on Lady Duff-Gordon's life are rather meager. As a visual record of her house's early aesthetic this book is a fine resource but as a biography it is not. I would suggest readers interested in a fuller treatment of her career get the new biography, Lucile - Her Life by Design by Randy Bigham, an independently produced title that might not compete with V&A production values but surpasses its Lucile volume in completeness.
3050383
This is a gorgeous book.

The publisher used the best, thickest paper; it is luxuriant and heavy (this is one HEAVY book) and offers the best possibility for viewing Frida Kahlo's wealth of a photographic collection.

And yet, for the size and scope, and I realize that the impossibility of what one actually wants and what was there available to make the book possible are two different things, I waas expecting... more Frida!

A very good side effect is the reproduction of the verso of many of the photos, where Kahlo has annotated them, often adding interesting tidbits of information.

If like me, you are a Fridaphile, then buy this book.
2587483
What a beautiful book, the photographs are exquisite and colorful.  The information in the book is sufficient as not to overwhelm the beauty of the photographs.

Highly disappointed that upon opening this book for the first time that the pages detached from the spine.  It was going to be a gift but obviously won't work for my intended purpose.
119783
I do admit the book is beautiful, and although I am an avid knitter, I haven't done crochet in years, but I am drawn to the idea of making modules that can easily be carried around to make a bigger shawl, blanket, etc, so this book definitely addresses my need because there are gorgeous squares, circles, etc that can be combined.

My major problem, and this is mentioned in another review, is that the yarn info is not posted with each design.  I think this is a glaring oversight in a book like this especially since the author is advertised as a color expert.  At least the yarn composition should have been noted.  If you want to recreate the piece you do not have what you need.  I suspect that the author might look down on this suggestion since it was meant to be "inspirational" -- but come on, everyone is different and some of us not as creative as others, others of us think a reference book should be a bit more complete than this.  All that (large) book, and all the work that went into it, all that was required was a bit extra.
2205001
gorgeous book, well worth the price, however there are lots of tiny details, so if you have eyesight trouble this may not be the book for you
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.
3558625
This book is so fantastic! But it has some errors. We Korean say, "dirt on diamond'. First of all, in p68, there are wrong photomicrographs about muscle types. 2nd one is of skeletal muscle, not cardiac muscle as typed in this book. And third one is of cardiac muscle, not visceral or smooth muscle. But still I really love this book as a professor of anatomy.
153650
This is a stunningly gorgeous coloring book, Hanna Karlzon's designs are wonderful and whimsical, and the quality of the cover, paper, printing, and binding of the book is outstanding.
However the images are printed on both sides of the paper, so markers and other wet mediums are out of the question, which is hugely disappointing to me as those are my prefered coloring mediums- but, maybe this will force me to really appreciate and use my colored pencils more. I'll likely still be making photocopies to color many of the designs- these look like they would be fun to watercolor.
Additionally, some of the designs are printed across the entire page and into the gutter, which seems like an unusual decision. Not a deal-breaker but simply an annoyance.

Overall, this is a really beautiful coloring book with some really fresh, unusual designs, and would be a perfect gift for anyone who's gotten on the coloring train. This is my first of Ms. Karlzon's books, and I'll proably purchase the 'Winter Dreams' postcard book next :)