Book reviews and mentions from Arts and Design blogs...

Trevor Paglen: Invisible

Invisible: Covert Operations and Classified Landscapes is Trevor Paglen's long-awaited first photographic monograph. Social scientist, artist, writer and provocateur, Paglen has been exploring the secret activities of the U.S. military and intelligence agencies--the "black world"--for the last eight years, publishing, speaking and making astonishing photographs. As an artist, Paglen is interested in the idea of photography as truth-telling, but his pictures often stop short of traditional...

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Trevor Paglen: Invisible

Invisible: Covert Operations and Classified Landscapes is Trevor Paglen's long-awaited first photographic monograph. Social scientist, artist, writer and provocateur, Paglen has been exploring the secret activities of the U.S. military and intelligence agencies--the "black world"--for the last eight years, publishing, speaking and making astonishing photographs. As an artist, Paglen is interested in the idea of photography as truth-telling, but his pictures often stop short of traditional ideas of documentation. In the series Limit Telephotography, for example, he employs high-end optical systems to photograph top-secret governmental sites; and in The Other Night Sky, he uses the data of amateur satellite watchers to track and photograph classified spacecraft in Earth's orbit. In other works Paglen transforms documents such as passports, flight data and aliases of CIA operatives into art objects. Rebecca Solnit contributes a searing essay that traces this history of clandestine military activity on the American landscape.

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Sex: Our Bodies, Our Junk
Assoc For Betterment Of Sex

 
GOOD GOD—YOU’RE DOING IT ALL WRONG . . .
 
The Association for the Betterment of Sex (A.B.S.) presents Sex: Our Bodies, Our Junk, a radical and invaluable resource for improving your sexual communication—whether you have been in a committed relationship for years, or have just moments ago removed the shrinkwrap from your new Japanese body pillow. 
 
Here are just a few sensual revelations you’ll find within these pages:
 
-    The preci...

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Sex: Our Bodies, Our Junk
Assoc For Betterment Of Sex

 
GOOD GOD—YOU’RE DOING IT ALL WRONG . . .
 
The Association for the Betterment of Sex (A.B.S.) presents Sex: Our Bodies, Our Junk, a radical and invaluable resource for improving your sexual communication—whether you have been in a committed relationship for years, or have just moments ago removed the shrinkwrap from your new Japanese body pillow. 
 
Here are just a few sensual revelations you’ll find within these pages:
 
-    The precise location of the female G-spot (latitude and longitude)
-    “Going on tour with Midnight Oil” and more outmoded masturbation slang
-    Forced perspective and other techniques for visually enhancing the size of your member
-    The Top Five pastry-related euphemisms for female genitalia
-    How to score big at your next swingers’ party, with our crowd-pleasing ambrosia-salad recipe
-    Listings of “Don’t ask, Don’t tell” dry-cleaning services, for freshening up your vinyl fetishwear or adult-sized Tigger costume
-    Your first threesome, and how the ancient Mayans predicted it wouldn’t go over so hot
 
Exhaustively researched and fully illustrated, Sex: Our Bodies, Our Junk is a must-read for you, your sexual partner(s), and anyone who wishes there was more to sex than thrashing around for a few seconds and begging for forgiveness.
 

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Lifestyle Illustration of the 60s

The 1960s was an optimistic era of unprecedented change, and its heady zeitgeist was captured in the amazing range of artwork that adorned the magazines of the time. Lifestyle Illustration of the 60s is a colossal survey of magazine artwork from the Swinging Sixties. It not only provides revelatory insight into the extraordinary artistic talents of the illustrators featured--such as Austin Briggs, Lynn Buckham, Antonio Lopez and Coby Whitmore--but also tellingly elucidates the social a...

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Lifestyle Illustration of the 60s

The 1960s was an optimistic era of unprecedented change, and its heady zeitgeist was captured in the amazing range of artwork that adorned the magazines of the time. Lifestyle Illustration of the 60s is a colossal survey of magazine artwork from the Swinging Sixties. It not only provides revelatory insight into the extraordinary artistic talents of the illustrators featured--such as Austin Briggs, Lynn Buckham, Antonio Lopez and Coby Whitmore--but also tellingly elucidates the social aspirations of this era of political optimism and sexual freedom. Featuring over 1,000 gloriously inventive and stylistically diverse illustrations, Lifestyle Illustration of the 60s traces the decade's dizzyingly swift evolution from the homemaking ethos of romantic coupledom to the stylish liberation of mini-skirted Chelsea girls and the psychedelic palette that evolved towards the decade's close, conjuring a fabulous and euphoric pageant of 1960s pop culture from rediscovered artworks by the very best illustrators of the day. An inspirational sourcebook for contemporary designers and fans of 1960s culture, Lifestyle Illustration of the 60s provides a wonderful, nostalgic adventure into an aspirational world of stylishly sophisticated living, revealing just how much life has changed in the intervening decades.

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Logo Design Love: A Guide to Creating Iconic Brand Identities
David Airey

There are a lot of books out there that show collections of logos. But David Airey’s “Logo Design Love” is something different: it’s a guide for designers (and clients) who want to understand what this mysterious business is all about. Written in reader-friendly, concise language, with a minimum of designer jargon, Airey gives a surprisingly clear explanation of the process, using a wide assortment of real-life examples to support his points. Anyone involved in creatin...

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Logo Design Love: A Guide to Creating Iconic Brand Identities
David Airey

There are a lot of books out there that show collections of logos. But David Airey’s “Logo Design Love” is something different: it’s a guide for designers (and clients) who want to understand what this mysterious business is all about. Written in reader-friendly, concise language, with a minimum of designer jargon, Airey gives a surprisingly clear explanation of the process, using a wide assortment of real-life examples to support his points. Anyone involved in creating visual identities, or wanting to learn how to go about it, will find this book invaluable. - Tom Geismar, Chermayeff & Geismar

In Logo Design Love, Irish graphic designer David Airey brings the best parts of his wildly popular blog of the same name to the printed page. Just as in the blog, David fills each page of this simple, modern-looking book with gorgeous logos and real world anecdotes that illustrate best practices for designing brand identity systems that last.

David not only shares his experiences working with clients, including sketches and final results of his successful designs, but uses the work of many well-known designers to explain why well-crafted brand identity systems are important, how to create iconic logos, and how to best work with clients to achieve success as a designer. Contributors include Gerard Huerta, who designed the logos for Time magazine and Waldenbooks; Lindon Leader, who created the current FedEx brand identity system as well as the CIGNA logo; and many more.

Readers will learn:

• Why one logo is more effective than another
• How to create their own iconic designs
• What sets some designers above the rest
• Best practices for working with clients
• 25 practical design tips for creating logos that last

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Understanding Exposure, 3rd Edition: How to Shoot Great Photographs with Any Camera
Bryan Peterson

With more than 350,000 copies sold, Understanding Exposure has demystified the complex concepts of exposure for countless photographers. Now updated with current technologies, more than one hundred new images, and an all-new chapter, this new edition will inspire you more than ever to free yourself from “auto” and create the pictures you truly want.

In his trademark easy-to-understand style, author Bryan Peterson explains the relationship between aperture and shutt...

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Understanding Exposure, 3rd Edition: How to Shoot Great Photographs with Any Camera
Bryan Peterson

With more than 350,000 copies sold, Understanding Exposure has demystified the complex concepts of exposure for countless photographers. Now updated with current technologies, more than one hundred new images, and an all-new chapter, this new edition will inspire you more than ever to free yourself from “auto” and create the pictures you truly want.

In his trademark easy-to-understand style, author Bryan Peterson explains the relationship between aperture and shutter speed, including how to achieve successful exposures in seemingly difficult situations. You’ll learn:

• Which aperture gives you the greatest contrast and sharpness, and when to use it 
• Which apertures guarantee the background remains an out-of-focus tone 
• Which one aperture—when combined with the right lens—creates an area of sharpness from three feet to infinity 
• How to creatively use shutter speed to either freeze an action or imply motion 
• Where to take a meter reading when shooting a sunset, snow, or a city at dusk

With new information on white balance, flash, HDR, and more, this updated classic will inspire you to stop guessing and take control of your settings for better photos anytime, anywhere, and with any camera.

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Zook: A Look at R. Harold Zook's Unique Architecture
Betty Green

The work of R. Harold Zook has been recognized as historically significant, particularly in Hinsdale, Illinois where he resided for 26 years. Zook demonstrated whimsy, spirituality and romanticism with attention to many details called fussy by some. Mary Daniels of the Chicago Tribune described his work as "Charmingly unique and superbly crafted. A Zook house smiles when it sees you, makes you feel happy and protected the moment you walk in." Sadly, many Zook homes and buildings have su...

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Zook: A Look at R. Harold Zook's Unique Architecture
Betty Green

The work of R. Harold Zook has been recognized as historically significant, particularly in Hinsdale, Illinois where he resided for 26 years. Zook demonstrated whimsy, spirituality and romanticism with attention to many details called fussy by some. Mary Daniels of the Chicago Tribune described his work as "Charmingly unique and superbly crafted. A Zook house smiles when it sees you, makes you feel happy and protected the moment you walk in." Sadly, many Zook homes and buildings have succumbed to the rubble pile, including the home he had designed for his second wife, Florence. It was replaced by a tennis court. In 2005 a developer bought Zook's home and studio and planned on demolition. Anonymous donors stepped up and the Hinsdale Historial Society as well as many others got into action, moving the buildings a mile-and-a-half south of their original location. This book documents that move and shows a veriety of buildings designed by Zook. Includes 335 photos and blueprints in color and black-and-white.

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iPhone Book, The (Covers iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS) (4th Edition)
Scott Kelby

If you're looking for a book that focuses on just the most important, most useful, and most fun stuff about your iPhone 4--you've found it. There are basically two types of iPhone books out there: (1) The "tell-me-all-about-it" kind, which includes in-depth discussions on everything from wireless network protocols to advanced compression codes. (2) Then there's this book, which instead is a "show-me-how-to-do-it" book that skips all the confusing techno-jargon and just tells you, in plain, si...

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iPhone Book, The (Covers iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS) (4th Edition)
Scott Kelby

If you're looking for a book that focuses on just the most important, most useful, and most fun stuff about your iPhone 4--you've found it. There are basically two types of iPhone books out there: (1) The "tell-me-all-about-it" kind, which includes in-depth discussions on everything from wireless network protocols to advanced compression codes. (2) Then there's this book, which instead is a "show-me-how-to-do-it" book that skips all the confusing techno-jargon and just tells you, in plain, simple English, exactly how to use the iPhone features you want to use most.

The iPhone Book is from Scott Kelby, the award-winning author of the smash bestseller, The iPod Book, who takes that same highly acclaimed, casual, straight-to-thepoint concept and layout and brings it to learning Apple's amazing iPhone. Scott teams up once again with gadget guru and leading iPhone authority Terry White to put together a book that is an awful lot like the iPhone itself--simple to use and fun to learn. The book's layout is brilliant, with each page covering just one single topic, so finding the information you need is quick and easy, with a large full-color photo on each page so you can see exactly how it works.

Scott and Terry added even more tips and tricks than the previous editions, and made it even easier by focusing on just the most useful and most requested iPhone 4 features, so you can start really using your iPhone today!

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Robert Frank: The Americans
Robert Frank

Previously published in 1959, Frank's most famous and influential photography book contained a series of deceptively simple photos that he took on a trip through America in 1955 and 1956. These pictures of everyday people still speak to us today, 40 years and several generations later.

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Robert Frank: The Americans
Robert Frank

Previously published in 1959, Frank's most famous and influential photography book contained a series of deceptively simple photos that he took on a trip through America in 1955 and 1956. These pictures of everyday people still speak to us today, 40 years and several generations later.

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Ayao Yamana Graphic Design
Ayao Yamana

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Ayao Yamana Graphic Design
Ayao Yamana

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Al Jaffee's Mad Life: A Biography
Al Jaffee

Jaffee's inventive work has enlivened the pages of MAD since 1955. To date he has pickled three generations of American kids in the brine of satire, and continues to bring millions of childhoods to untimely ends with the knowledge that parents are hypocrites, teachers are dummies, politicians are liars, and life isn't fair.

Jaffee's work for MAD has made him a cultural icon, but the compelling and at times bizarre story of his life has yet to be told. A synopsis of ...

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Al Jaffee's Mad Life: A Biography
Al Jaffee

Jaffee's inventive work has enlivened the pages of MAD since 1955. To date he has pickled three generations of American kids in the brine of satire, and continues to bring millions of childhoods to untimely ends with the knowledge that parents are hypocrites, teachers are dummies, politicians are liars, and life isn't fair.

Jaffee's work for MAD has made him a cultural icon, but the compelling and at times bizarre story of his life has yet to be told. A synopsis of Jaffee's formative years alone reads like a comic strip of traumatic cliff-hangers with cartoons by Jaffee and captions by Freud. Six-year-old Jaffee was separated from his father, uprooted from his home in Savannah, Georgia, and transplanted by his mother to a shtetl in Lithuania, a nineteenth-century world of kerosene lamps, outhouses, physical abuse, and near starvation. He would be rescued by his father, returned to America, taken yet again by his mother back to the shtetl, and once again rescued by his father, even as Hitler was on the march.

When he finally settled back in America as a twelve-year-old wearing cobbled shoes and speaking his native English with a Yiddish accent, schoolmates called him “greenhorn.” He struggled with challenges at least as great as those he had met in Europe. His luck changed, however, when he was chosen to be a member of the first class to attend New York City's High School of Music and Art. There his artistic ability saved him.

He would go on to forge relationships with Stan Lee, Harvey Kurtzman, and Will Elder, launching a career that would bring him to MAD magazine. There he found himself at the forefront of a movement that would change the face of humor and cartooning in America.

A cliff-hanger of a life deserves a page-turner of a biography, and that is what Mary-Lou Weisman and Al Jaffee have delivered.

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How to Live with a Huge Penis: Advice, Meditations, and Wisdom for Men Who Have Too Much
Richard Jacob

For generations, conventional wisdom stated that you could never sell a book with 'penis' in the title - until Quirk's "Penis Pokey" shattered all of the rules, racking up 100,000 in net sales in just 18 months. In this same tradition comes "How to Live with a Huge Penis" - a gift every man will cherish, regardless of whether or not he actually needs it. Frankly, it's enough for someone to think he needs it. This hilarious self-help parody is full of compassionate advice for men afflicted wit...

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How to Live with a Huge Penis: Advice, Meditations, and Wisdom for Men Who Have Too Much
Richard Jacob

For generations, conventional wisdom stated that you could never sell a book with 'penis' in the title - until Quirk's "Penis Pokey" shattered all of the rules, racking up 100,000 in net sales in just 18 months. In this same tradition comes "How to Live with a Huge Penis" - a gift every man will cherish, regardless of whether or not he actually needs it. Frankly, it's enough for someone to think he needs it. This hilarious self-help parody is full of compassionate advice for men afflicted with Oversized Male Genitalia (OMG).Far too often, these men are banished to the fringes of society, victims of their own freakish length and girth. But Dr. Richard Jacob and Rev. Owen Thomas are here with a message of tolerance and hope, along with hilarious advice on 'coming out' to your family, sharing your assets with a partner, and avoiding injury in the workplace. Complete with a daily affirmations journal and inspiring quotes from leading self-help experts, "How to Live with a Huge Penis" will send an uplifting message to men around the world.

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What's Mine Is Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption
Rachel Botsman

WHAT'S MINE IS YOURS is about Collaborative Consumption, a new, emerging economy made possible by online social networks and fueled by increasing cost consciousness and environmental necessity. Collaborative Consumption occurs when people participate in organized sharing, bartering, trading, renting, swapping, and collectives to get the same pleasures of ownership with reduced personal cost and burden, and lower environmental impact.

The book addresses three growing models of Collabora...

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What's Mine Is Yours: The Rise of Collaborative Consumption
Rachel Botsman

WHAT'S MINE IS YOURS is about Collaborative Consumption, a new, emerging economy made possible by online social networks and fueled by increasing cost consciousness and environmental necessity. Collaborative Consumption occurs when people participate in organized sharing, bartering, trading, renting, swapping, and collectives to get the same pleasures of ownership with reduced personal cost and burden, and lower environmental impact.

The book addresses three growing models of Collaborative Consumption: Product Service Systems, Communal Economies, and Redistribution Markets. The first, Product Service Systems, reflects the increasing number of people from all different backgrounds and across ages who are buying into the idea of using the service of the product-what it does for them-without owning it. Examples include Zipcar and Ziploc, and these companies are disrupting traditional industries based on models of individual ownership. Second, in what the authors define as Communal Economies, there is a growing realization that as individual consumers, we have relatively little in the way of bargaining power with corporations. A crowd of consumers, however, introduces a different, empowering dynamic. Online networks are bringing people together again and making them more willing to leverage the proverbial power of numbers. Examples of this second category include Etsy, an online market for handcrafts, or the social lending marketplace Zopa. The third model is Redistribution Markets, exemplified by worldwide networks such as Freecycle and Ebay as well as emerging forms of modern day bartering and “swap trading” such as Zwaggle, Swaptree, and Zunafish. Social networks facilitate consumer-to-consumer marketplaces that redistribute goods from where they are not needed to somewhere or someone where they are. This business model encourages reusing/reselling of old items rather them throwing them out, thereby reducing the waste and carbon emissions that go along with new production.

WHAT'S MINE IS YOURS describes how these three models come together to form a new economy of more sustainable consumerism. Collaborative Consumption started as a trend in conjunction with the emergence of shared collective content/information sites such as Wikipedia and Flickr and with the recent economic troubles and increasing environmental awareness, it is growing into an international movement. The authors predict it will be a fully fledged economy within the next five years.

In this book the authors travel among the quiet revolutionaries (consumers and companies) from all around the world. They explore how businesses will both prosper and fail in this environment, and, in particular, they examine how it has the potential to help create the mass sustainable change in consumer behaviors this planet so desperately needs. The authors themselves are environmentalists, but they are also entrepreneurs, parents, and optimistic citizens. This is a good news book about long-term positive change.

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Design Is How It Works: How the Smartest Companies Turn Products into Icons
Jay Greene

"It's not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works."-Steve Jobs

There's a new race in business to embrace "design thinking." Yet most executives have no clue what to make of the recent buzz about design. It's rarely the subject of business retreats. It's not easily measurable. To many, design is simply a crapshoot.

Drawing on interviews with top executives such as Virgin's Richard Branson and Nike's Mark Parker, Jay Greene illuminates the methods of com...

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Design Is How It Works: How the Smartest Companies Turn Products into Icons
Jay Greene

"It's not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works."-Steve Jobs

There's a new race in business to embrace "design thinking." Yet most executives have no clue what to make of the recent buzz about design. It's rarely the subject of business retreats. It's not easily measurable. To many, design is simply a crapshoot.

Drawing on interviews with top executives such as Virgin's Richard Branson and Nike's Mark Parker, Jay Greene illuminates the methods of companies that rely on design to stand out in their industries. From the experiences of those at companies from Porsche to REI to Lego, we learn that design isn't merely about style and form. The heart of design is rethinking the way products and services work for customers in real life. Greene explains how:

-Porsche pit its designers against each other to create its bestselling Cayenne SUV

-Clif listened intently to customers, resulting in the industry-changing Luna energy bar

-OXO paid meticulous attention to the details, turned its LiquiSeal mug from an abysmal failure into one of its greatest successes

-LEGO started saying no to its designers-saving its brick business in the process

Greene shows how important it is to build a culture in which design is more than an after-the-fact concern-it's part of your company's DNA. Design matters at every stage of the process. It isn't easy, and it increases costs, but it also boosts profits, sometimes to a massive extent. In an increasingly competitive marketplace, design represents the best chance you have of transcending your competitors.

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Graphic Designer's Guide to Pricing, Estimating & Budgeting Revised Edition
Theo Stephan Williams

6 3/4 x 10 North American Distribution graphic design Whether you're a start-up business or an experienced owner, The Graphic Designer's Guide to Pricing, Estimating & Budgeting, Revised Edition, provides a one-stop source of indispensable, innovative methods for achieving productivity and profitability in every area of a graphic design business. This brand-new and completely updated edition offers practical guidelines for setting rates, dealing with clients' budgets, preparing an estimate,...

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Graphic Designer's Guide to Pricing, Estimating & Budgeting Revised Edition
Theo Stephan Williams

6 3/4 x 10 North American Distribution graphic design Whether you're a start-up business or an experienced owner, The Graphic Designer's Guide to Pricing, Estimating & Budgeting, Revised Edition, provides a one-stop source of indispensable, innovative methods for achieving productivity and profitability in every area of a graphic design business. This brand-new and completely updated edition offers practical guidelines for setting rates, dealing with clients' budgets, preparing an estimate, and establishing profitability. Readers will also discover step-by-step strategies for pricing on the Internet, negotiating effective pricing with clients, and developing options to traditional pricing. Plus, the easy-to-read sidebars throughout this valuable guide offer dozens of creative, resourceful success tips for running a top-notch business.

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Digital Masters: Nature Photography: Documenting the Wild World (A Lark Photography Book)
Ralph Lee Hopkins

The newest in the popular Digital Masters series is designed to develop and expand photographers' unique vision of the world's wildlife and wild places. It's a lavishly illustrated workbook that photographers will return to again and again as they master the techniques-and move beyond to the creative side of picture making. Covering everything from preparation and camera basics to lighting, wildlife encounters, and conservation, Ralph Lee Hopkins describes a variety of approaches to ca...

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Digital Masters: Nature Photography: Documenting the Wild World (A Lark Photography Book)
Ralph Lee Hopkins

The newest in the popular Digital Masters series is designed to develop and expand photographers' unique vision of the world's wildlife and wild places. It's a lavishly illustrated workbook that photographers will return to again and again as they master the techniques-and move beyond to the creative side of picture making. Covering everything from preparation and camera basics to lighting, wildlife encounters, and conservation, Ralph Lee Hopkins describes a variety of approaches to capturing the best possible photo in the moment. In the process, he gets to the essence of nature photography as a skill and an art.

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The Edge of Physics: A Journey to Earth's Extremes to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe
Anil Ananthaswamy

In this deeply original book, science writer Anil Ananthaswamy sets out in search of the telescopes and detectors that promise to answer the biggest questions in modern cosmology. Why is the universe expanding at an ever faster rate? What is the nature of the "dark matter" that makes up almost a quarter of the universe? Why does the universe appear fine-tuned for life? Are there others besides our own?

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The Edge of Physics: A Journey to Earth's Extremes to Unlock the Secrets of the Universe
Anil Ananthaswamy

In this deeply original book, science writer Anil Ananthaswamy sets out in search of the telescopes and detectors that promise to answer the biggest questions in modern cosmology. Why is the universe expanding at an ever faster rate? What is the nature of the "dark matter" that makes up almost a quarter of the universe? Why does the universe appear fine-tuned for life? Are there others besides our own?

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Creative, Inc.: The Ultimate Guide to Running a Successful Freelance Business
Joy Deangdeelert Cho

As the hipster classic Craft, Inc. did for crafters, this book will teach all types of creatives illustrators, photographers, graphic designers, animators, and more how to build a successful business doing what they love. Freelancing pros Meg Mateo Ilasco and Joy Deangdeelert Cho explain everything from creating a standout portfolio to navigating the legal issues of starting a business. Accessible, spunky, and packed with practical advice, Creative, Inc. is an essential for ...

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Creative, Inc.: The Ultimate Guide to Running a Successful Freelance Business
Joy Deangdeelert Cho

As the hipster classic Craft, Inc. did for crafters, this book will teach all types of creatives illustrators, photographers, graphic designers, animators, and more how to build a successful business doing what they love. Freelancing pros Meg Mateo Ilasco and Joy Deangdeelert Cho explain everything from creating a standout portfolio to navigating the legal issues of starting a business. Accessible, spunky, and packed with practical advice, Creative, Inc. is an essential for anyone ready to strike out on their own.

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Atlas of Novel Tectonics
Jesse Reiser

Architects Jesse Reiser and Nanako Umemoto have been generating some of the most provocative thinking in the field for nearly twenty years. With Atlas of Novel Tectonics, Reiser+Umemoto hone in on the many facets of architecture and illuminate their theories with great thought and simplicity. The Atlas is organized as an accumulation of short chapters that address the workings of matter and force, material science, the lessons of art and architectural history, and the influence of architectur...

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Atlas of Novel Tectonics
Jesse Reiser

Architects Jesse Reiser and Nanako Umemoto have been generating some of the most provocative thinking in the field for nearly twenty years. With Atlas of Novel Tectonics, Reiser+Umemoto hone in on the many facets of architecture and illuminate their theories with great thought and simplicity. The Atlas is organized as an accumulation of short chapters that address the workings of matter and force, material science, the lessons of art and architectural history, and the influence of architecture on culture (and vice versa). Reiser+Umemoto see architectural design as a series of problem situations, and each chapter is an argument devoted to a specific condition or case. Influenced by a wide range of fields and phenomena—Brillat-Savarin's classic The Physiology of Taste is one of their primary models—the authors provide a cross-section of thinking and inspiration. The result is both an elucidation of the concepts that guide Reiser+Umemoto through their own design process and a series of meditations on topics that have formed their own sense as architects. Atlas of Novel Tectonics offers an entirely fresh perspective on subjects that are generally taken for granted, and does so with a welcome punch and energy.

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Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American Hist
S. C. Gwynne

In the tradition of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, a stunningly vivid historical account of the forty-year battle between Comanche Indians and white settlers for control of the American West, centering on Quanah, the greatest Comanche chief of them all.

S. C. Gwynne’s Empire of the Summer Moon spans two astonishing stories. The first traces the rise and fall of the Comanches, the most powerful Indian tribe in American history. The second entails one of the mos...

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Empire of the Summer Moon: Quanah Parker and the Rise and Fall of the Comanches, the Most Powerful Indian Tribe in American Hist
S. C. Gwynne

In the tradition of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, a stunningly vivid historical account of the forty-year battle between Comanche Indians and white settlers for control of the American West, centering on Quanah, the greatest Comanche chief of them all.

S. C. Gwynne’s Empire of the Summer Moon spans two astonishing stories. The first traces the rise and fall of the Comanches, the most powerful Indian tribe in American history. The second entails one of the most remarkable narratives ever to come out of the Old West: the epic saga of the pioneer woman Cynthia Ann Parker and her mixed-blood son Quanah, who became the last and greatest chief of the Comanches.

Although readers may be more familiar with the tribal names Apache and Sioux, it was in fact the legendary fighting ability of the Comanches that determined just how and when the American West opened up. Comanche boys became adept bareback riders by age six; full Comanche braves were considered the best horsemen who ever rode. They were so masterful at war and so skillful with their arrows and lances that they stopped the northern drive of colonial Spain from Mexico and halted the French expansion westward from Louisiana. White settlers arriving in Texas from the eastern United States were surprised to find the frontier being rolled backward by Comanches incensed by the invasion of their tribal lands. So effective were the Comanches that they forced the creation of the Texas Rangers and account for the advent of the new weapon specifically designed to fight them: the six-gun.

The war with the Comanches lasted four decades, in effect holding up the development of the new American nation. Gwynne’s exhilarating account delivers a sweeping narrative that encompasses Spanish colonialism, the Civil War, the destruction of the buffalo herds, and the arrival of the railroads—a historical feast for anyone interested in how the United States came into being.

Against this backdrop Gwynne presents the compelling drama of Cynthia Ann Parker, a lovely nine-year-old girl with cornflower-blue eyes who was kidnapped by Comanches from the far Texas frontier in 1836. She grew to love her captors and became infamous as the "White Squaw" who refused to return until her tragic capture by Texas Rangers in 1860. More famous still was her son Quanah, a warrior who was never defeated and whose guerrilla wars in the Texas Panhandle made him a legend.

S. C. Gwynne’s account of these events is meticulously researched, intellectually provocative, and, above all, thrillingly told. Empire of the Summer Moon announces him as a major new writer of American history.

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Factory Records: The Complete Graphic Album
Matthew Robertson

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Factory Records: The Complete Graphic Album
Matthew Robertson

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