The Wilderness Warrior

The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the Crusade for America (Hardcover)
by Douglas Brinkley

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Product Description

In this groundbreaking epic biography, Douglas Brinkley draws on never-before-published materials to examine the life and achievements of our "naturalist president." By setting aside more than 230 million acres of wild America for posterity between 1901 and 1909, Theodore Roosevelt made conservation a universal endeavor. This crusade for the American wilderness was perhaps the greatest U.S. presidential initiative between the Civil War and World War I. Roosevelt's most important legacies led to the creation of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and passage of the Antiquities Act in 1906. His executive orders saved such treasures as Devils Tower, the Grand Canyon, and the Petrified Forest.

Tracing the role that nature played in Roosevelt's storied career, Brinkley brilliantly analyzes the influence that the works of John James Audubon and Charles Darwin had on the young man who would become our twenty-sixth president. With descriptive flair, the author illuminates Roosevelt's bird watching in the Adirondacks, wildlife obsession in Yellowstone, hikes in the Blue Ridge Mountains, ranching in the Dakota Territory, hunting in the Big Horn Mountains, and outdoor romps through Idaho and Wyoming. He also profiles Roosevelt's incredible circle of naturalist friends, including the Catskills poet John Burroughs, Boone and Crockett Club cofounder George Bird Grinnell, forestry zealot Gifford Pinchot, buffalo breeder William Hornaday, Sierra Club founder John Muir, U.S. Biological Survey wizard C. Hart Merriam, Oregon Audubon Society founder William L. Finley, and pelican protector Paul Kroegel, among many others. He brings to life hilarious anecdotes of wild-pig hunting in Texas and badger saving in Kansas, wolf catching in Oklahoma and grouse flushing in Iowa. Even the story of the teddy bear gets its definitive treatment.

Destined to become a classic, this extraordinary and timeless biography offers a penetrating and colorful look at Roosevelt's naturalist achievements, a legacy now more important than ever. Raising a Paul Revere–like alarm about American wildlife in peril—including buffalo, manatees, antelope, egrets, and elk—Roosevelt saved entire species from probable extinction. As we face the problems of global warming, overpopulation, and sustainable land management, this imposing leader's stout resolution to protect our environment is an inspiration and a contemporary call to arms for us all. About the Author
Douglas Brinkley is a professor of history at Rice University and a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. The Chicago Tribune has dubbed him "America's new past master." Six of his books have been selected as New York Times Notable Books of the Year. His most recent book, The Great Deluge, won the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award. He lives in Texas with his wife and three children.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

Warrior for the American Wilderness! Theodor Roosevelt., July 29, 2009
By Sandra Lancaster "my real name" (Las Vegas, NM)

I have never cared much for biographies, I typically read Journals for work, and fiction to relax. But my husband, who works in the Publishing industry said I had to read this book (he had acquired a pre-publication copy of the book). It sat by my night-stand for a couple weeks until I finally gave it a go. Well, all my free time for the next few days was lost to this fascinating book about President Theodor Roosevelt (The Naturalist President).

Before I started the book I knew Roosevelt was a supporter of the National Parks, and that he was a great outdoors man. What I did not realize was how original an idea the parks were at this time. How things could have turned out very differently and much of what has been preserved today could have been lost forever, and Roosevelt was a central character in this crusade for the American Wilderness. He was the right man at the right time!

The author takes on a tour of Roosevelt's adventures life illustrating the role the great outdoors had on the formation of the man's qualities. How the great naturalists of the time From Audubon, to Charles Darwin and John Muir influenced Roosevelt. The most engaging part of this book for me were the stories of Roosevelt's adventures in the natural world, He was at times a Rancher, hunter, fisherman, and above all conservationist. Roosevelt was probably responsible for saving many species from extinction (Buffalo, Antelope, elk, even Manatees). This makes for fascinating reading and gives great insight into the man and who he was.

The book is so well written, it is easy to read and flows smoothly. This is not a dry look into the past but a well written, colorful look at our Naturalist President. My husband is two for two now. He also got me to read the excellent "Across the High Lonesome," another book I thought I'd never like. He is going to get way to full of himself!

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Who's Your City?

Who's Your City?: How the Creative Economy Is Making Where to Live the Most Important Decision of Your Life (Paperback)
by Richard Florida

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From Publishers Weekly
Choosing a spouse and choosing a career are important life decisions—but perhaps even more predictive of our all-round personal happiness is our choice of living location, argues Florida (The Rise of the Creative Class) in this informative if somewhat dry tome. As globalization makes the world effectively smaller, economic growth concentrates in certain mega-regions of large superstar cities, leaving other regions in the proverbial dust. The areas where we live are also affected by our increasingly mobile culture, housing priorities that change as we age (from starter homes to family-friendly suburbs to empty nests and finally retirement centers) and the global economy. Few of the author's conclusions are new—people gather where they can make friends with others like them, personality types tend to cluster—type A to urban areas, type B to rural—and the book's tone wanders from broad, Friedmanesque discussion of the world economy to home-buying advice as well as statistic-and-theory-heavy text as though unsure of its intended audience. Yet the author opens up a complex, underexamined subject along the way. (Mar.)
Copyright ? Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition. Review
"The world is not flat, and Richard Florida is the man to tell you why where you choose to live is more important than ever. Passionate and thoughtful, this book is an indispensable guide to the way our cities really work. The spirit of Jane Jacobs lives on."
--Tim Harford, "Financial Times" columnist and author of The Logic of Life
"This book says all that I could never put into words about why certain cities sing to certain people. If I could talk like Florida writes, I wouldn't have needed a campaign staff."
--John Hickenlooper, Mayor of the City of Denver
"Who's Your City? is another breakthrough idea by urban life genius Richard Florida. The power of place has everything to do with our success well beyond our own recognition. If you are contemplating a move or know someone who is, or are even vaguely interested in the idea of place as self, this book is a must read."
--Mario Batali, Chef and Restaurateur
"The world is not flat. Three-dimensional 'place' matters more than ever, not less than before. Richard Florida gets it exactly right -- again -- in Who's Your City?. As a long time advocate of Florida's position here, I will send it to colleagues by the score!"
--Tom Peters, author of In Search of Excellence
.,."the author opens up a complex, under examined subject..."
-- "Publishers Weekly" (December 17, 2007)
.,."this thought-provoking and seminal work will surely be studied, not only by scholars but more importantly by consumers pondering a move..."
--"Washington Post"

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

Interesting, but has too many mistakes, September 5, 2008
By T. Stroll (Oakland, Calif., USA)

This review is from: Who's Your City?: How the Creative Economy Is Making Where to Live the Most Important Decision of Your Life (Hardcover)
It's frustrating to read books like this. Florida's insightful observations are undermined by the number of errors in this book.

Florida melds psychology, sociology, and economics to try to determine the importance of humanity's displacement from rural areas to cities and, now, megalopolises. Some of the ground he covers is well-trod, but he comes up with a number of ideas that I find insightful. I particularly liked his categorization of urban districts into such places as, e.g., strollervilles (wealthy neighborhoods full of two-year-olds being strolled around by nannies while Daddy is at the law firm and Mommy is either working or doing something else), designer digs (e.g., Aspen, La Jolla), ethnic enclaves (think Fremont, Calif.), preservation-burgs, and boho-burbs (chic neighborhoods, often on old streetcar lines, with lively shopping areas; e.g., the Sellwood district and N.W. 23rd Ave. in Portland, Ore.). The Rockridge neighborhood in Oakland, Calif., is both a strollerville and a boho-burb. Florida goes beyond the usual accolades one might expect to be conferred on such places to point out their drawbacks. It's very well done.

If only Florida and his publisher had taken better care to vet the manuscript before publishing it! I'd read only a few pages before I started noticing typos: paarticular, New "Dehli" (must have excellent pastrami sandwiches), S?o "Paolo," Brazil (must have changed its official language to Italian). Then I started noticing factual oddities: Seoul, Korea, described in two different and seemingly mutually exclusive categories; San Francisco described as a place in which single women predominate when the accompanying map shows just the opposite. By the end of the book, the number of glitches had made me suspicious of every empirical datum Florida was presenting--so that when I read his statistic that only 1 in 20 U.S. households contains someone living alone, I couldn't trust it. It sounded too low. I went to the Internet and found an Associated Press report that "About 27.2 million Americans lived alone in 2000, accounting for about 26 percent of all households . . . ." That sounds right. A Population Reference Bureau web page confirms that Florida's statistic is highly inaccurate.

In summary, the book is well worth reading for Florida's impressionistic observations, but I'd be careful about relying on any conclusion he draws that is based on empirical data.

Where to live and why, February 27, 2008
By Michael Wells

This review is from: Who's Your City?: How the Creative Economy Is Making Where to Live the Most Important Decision of Your Life (Hardcover)
Richard Florida does it again. In his bestselling "Rise of the Creative Class", he demonstrated the world's move to a creativity-based economy. But also that this emerging economy is increasingly concentrated in about a dozen cities in the US, and two or three dozen worldwide.

In "Who's Your City", Florida goes in two directions. First he lays the groundwork, expanding on his research of a clustering force of creative people that is making some regions economic and cultural winners. He explores the emerging "Mega-regions" (Bos-Wash, Northern California, Greater London) that are replacing nations as the organizing force of economic activity. He also plays with the idea that cities have personalities that attract different kinds of people.

Then in the last section Florida brings it all together, and shows why the book got its name. He says where we live is one of three major life decisions (along with choosing a mate and a career), and in fact can have a strong effect on the other two. But most people give it little thought, especially compared to love and work.

Then he gets personal. He gives us a 10-step process for deciding on a new home. To his credit, Florida doesn't assume we should all move to creative class Mecca's like Austin or Seattle. He recognizes that for many people, staying near family and friends is paramount, and that the search for experience isn't for everyone. What he does do is say that this can be a conscious decision.

But if you ARE looking for a new place to live, Florida's 10-point list is certainly the best tool for organizing your thinking -- from identifying what's important to you to generating a short list, researching the options and making a final decision.

Even if you're happy with your city and not planning to move, "Who's Your City" is a fascinating study of how the world is changing, from macroeconomics to popular culture. Recommended for everyone.

Location drives nearly everything read why, May 20, 2008
By Gaetan Lion

This review is from: Who's Your City?: How the Creative Economy Is Making Where to Live the Most Important Decision of Your Life (Hardcover)
This is a wonderful book. R. Florida counters the theories of the The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century. At the beginning, he outlines how just 40 Mega-Regions dominate the World economy. While those account for just 17% of the World's population, they generate two thirds of its GDP and over 85% of its innovation (measured by patents and scientific papers). Additionally, the GDP of those Mega-Regions are growing faster. So, the concentration of economic power in those centers is accelerating. He calls this the "clustering effect." Thus, the World is not flat. It is spiky and getting spikier. Risk taking, creative, and talented people represent the "creative class" a concept he introduced in The Rise of the Creative Class: And How It's Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life. The creative class members have strong incentives to cluster where the action is (the Mega-Regions). He demonstrates how the main economic scale has shifted from Nations to Mega-Regions and MSA level. The first two Mega-Regions (greater Tokyo and the D.C., New York, Boston corridor) both generate GDPs greater than $2 trillion. They would rank as the 3d and 4th largest World economies second only to the U.S. and Japan.

With other eminent social scientists, he studies the allocation of human resources in the U.S. in many ways. He shares the resulting maps of: a) the U.S. Mega-Regions, b) areas by % of college graduates, c) areas by income, d) areas by % belonging to creative class, e) areas by home prices. He uses similar color coding for each of those five maps that focuses on those different variables. And, the five different maps are very alike. It is as if you are seeing the same map five times, but with different legends. Thus, the high income, educated, creative class clusters within the Mega-Regions of the West Coast and the North East.

Next, R. Florida introduces the reader to the Big 5 Factor psychological model with the factors being: extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism, conscientiousness, and openness to new experience. He invites the reader to take the test at a mentioned website. My whole family took it. And, it was fun and revealing. The website captures the anonymous psychological profiles and zip codes. From this data, Florida and his colleagues create a map of personality types that shows where the conscientious types live, etc... Now, we can add a sixth dimension to the map: Openness. Thus, it is the open-minded, high income, educated, creative class that all clusters in the Mega-Regions of the West Coast and North East. And, that's where the most expensive real estate markets are.

R. Florida analysis states that society is increasingly sorting itself by location. His analysis reminds one of Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life (A Free Press Paperbacks Book) where Hernstein and Murray indicated that society is increasingly stratified by cognitive abilities. Thus, accountants, lawyers, doctors, and investment bankers all have increasingly higher cognitive abilities vs a few decades ago. The same happens within the mentioned Mega-Regions of the West Coast and North East. Individuals with higher capabilities and income opportunities migrate to those areas and bid up local real estate values. Others find themselves priced out and move out of those "Superstar Cities" leaving room for other creative class achievers to move in further bidding up real estate prices. The creative class achievers need to move to those Superstar Cities to fulfill their potential. R. Florida has all those specialized regions mapped out in Figure 7.3: The New Geography of Work. If you want to be an investment banker you need to be in Manhattan. If you are engaged in hi tech you need to be in Silicon Valley.

R. Florida's work relates closely to another of Murray's book Human Accomplishment : The Pursuit of Excellence in the Arts and Sciences, 800 B.C. to 1950 where Murray develops a regression model estimating how many luminaries lived at any one time in a specific country. The variables included GDP, human capital (top notch universities), networks (# of political and financial centers), and population of largest city (clustering). R. Florida explains how, why, and where people cluster. Murray explains the historical implication of clustering (# of luminaries in various fields at a specific time period).

In the last few chapters R. Florida focuses on the best places to live for various stages of life. He finds that a few cities perform well on many criteria. The San Francisco Bay Area performs well in 20 different categories. Boston is second ranking well in 13.

Within those last chapters, R. Florida shares many interesting insights. He finally addresses the relationship between likelihood of moving and life stages; a 25 year old is three times more likely than a 45 year old to move. This entails that cities that loose the young adults are loosing talent permanently. Once a college grad leaves town, he is unlikely to come back. Young college grads cluster in just a few cities. Those are the winners in the competition for talent. Empty nesters over 65 are likely to move further than their counterparts a decade younger. Where the Boomers will move as empty nesters will impact real estate prices and culture. He anticipates a mild generation conflict between Boomers and the younger creative class that will inhabit the same communities. Generations: The History of America's Future, 1584 to 2069is an excellent book that further covers generation conflicts.

He shares other interesting statistics. The real jobless rate for black male high school drop out in their 20s including those in jail was 72% in 2004. Within this same group more are in jail then working. On another topic, chance of a high school graduate marrying a college graduate shrank by 43% between 1940 and the late 70s. People mate increasingly within equal education level. This is causing a rise in household income inequality as education is highly correlated to income.

If you find this review interesting, you'll find the book fascinating.

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The Defector

The Defector (Gabriel Allon) (Hardcover)
by Daniel Silva

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Amazon.com Review

Amazon Best of the Month, July 2009: "If an injury has to be done to a man it should be so severe that his vengeance need not be feared." The ninth book in Daniel Silva's smart, fast-paced series about enigmatic assassin and art restorer Gabriel Allon begins with an epigraph courtesy of Machiavelli. A fitting start to a twisty spy thriller chock full of clandestine meetings, tenuous alliances, and ruthless men. The beauty of Silva's series is that it is easy on acronyms and byzantine operations (so you don't have to be a spy novel aficionado to enjoy it), and each book gives you a discreet rundown on familiar characters and back-stories (so you don't have to start at the beginning). In The Defector, the disappearance of Russian defector and dissident Grigori Bulganov draws Gabriel out of semi-retirement and into the path of Ivan Kharkov, the former KGB agent and Russian oligarch from Moscow Rules. Exotic locales, intriguing characters, and a breakneck pace make for a riveting summer read. -- Daphne Durham

Amazon Exclusive Essay: Daniel Silva on Gabriel Allon and the "Accidental Series"

Writers tend to be solitary creatures. We toil alone for months on end, then, once a year, we emerge from our dens to publish a book. It can be a daunting experience, especially for someone like me, who is not gregarious and outgoing by nature. But there is one aspect of promotion I truly love: meeting my readers and answering their questions. During each stop on my book tour, I reserve the bulk of my time for a lively conversation with the audience. I learn much from these encounters-indeed, some of the comments are so insightful they take my breath away. There is one question I am asked each night without fail, and it remains my favorite: "How in the world did you ever think of Gabriel Allon?" The answer is complicated. In one sense, he was the result of a long, character-construction process. In another, he was a bolt from the blue. I'll try to explain. In 1999, after publishing The Marching Season, the second book in the Michael Osbourne series, I decided it was time for a change. We were nearing the end of the Clinton administration, and the president was about to embark on a last-ditch effort to bring peace to the Middle East. I had the broad outlines of a story in mind: a retired Israeli assassin is summoned from retirement to track down a Palestinian terrorist bent on destroying the Oslo peace process. I thought long and hard before giving the Israeli a name. I wanted it to be biblical, like my own, and to be heavy with symbolism. I finally decided to name him after the archangel Gabriel. As for his family name, I chose something short and simple: Allon, which means "oak tree" in Hebrew. I liked the image it conveyed. Gabriel Allon: God's angel of vengeance, solid as an oak.

Gabriel's professional r?sum?-the operations he had carried out-came quickly. But what about his other side? What did he like to do in his spare time? What was his cover? I knew I wanted something distinct. Something memorable. Something that would, in many respects, be the dominant attribute of his character. I spent many frustrating days mulling over and rejecting possibilities. Then, while walking along one of Georgetown's famous redbrick sidewalks, my wife, Jamie, reminded me that we had a dinner date that evening at the home of David Bull, a man regarded as one of the finest art restorers in the world. I stopped dead in my tracks and raised my hands toward the heavens. Gabriel Allon was complete. He was going to be an art restorer, and a very good one at that.

Over my objections, the book was entitled The Kill Artist and it would go on to become a New York Times bestseller. It was not, however, supposed to be the first book in a long-running series. But once again, fate intervened. In 2000, after moving to G.P. Putnam & Sons, my new publishers asked me what I was working on. When I mumbled something about having whittled it down to two or three options, they offered their first piece of advice. They really didn't care what it was about, they just wanted one thing: Gabriel Allon.

I then spent the next several minutes listing all the reasons why Gabriel, now regarded as one of the most compelling and successful continuing characters in the mystery-thriller genre, should never appear in a second book. I had conceived him as a "one off" character, meaning he would be featured in one story and then ride into the sunset. I also thought he was too melancholy and withdrawn to build a series around, and, at nearly fifty years of age, perhaps a bit too old as well. My biggest concern, however, had to do with his nationality and religion. I thought there was far too much opposition to Israel in the world-and far too much raw anti-Semitism-for an Israeli continuing character ever to be successful in the long term.

My new publishers thought otherwise, and told me so. Because Gabriel lived in Europe and could pass as German or Italian, they believed he came across as more "international" than Israeli. But what they really liked was Gabriel's other job: art restoration. They found the two opposing sides of his character-destroyer and healer-fascinating. What's more, they believed he would stand alone on the literary landscape. There were lots of CIA officers running around saving the world, they argued, but no former Israeli assassins who spent their spare time restoring Bellini altarpieces.

The more they talked, the more I could see their point. I told them I had an idea for a story involving Nazi art looting during the Second World War and the scandalous activities of Swiss banks. "Write it with Gabriel Allon," they said, "and we promise it will be your biggest-selling book yet." Eventually, the book would be called The English Assassin, and, just as Putnam predicted, it sold twice as many copies as its predecessor. Oddly enough, when it came time to write the next book, I still wasn't convinced it should be another Gabriel novel. Though it seems difficult to imagine now, I actually conceived the plot of The Confessor without him in mind. Fortunately, my editor, Neil Nyren, saved me from myself. The book landed at #5 on the New York Times bestseller list and received some of the warmest reviews of my career. After that, a series was truly born.

I am often asked whether it is necessary to read the novels in sequence. The answer is no, but it probably doesn't hurt, either. For the record, the order of publication is The Kill Artist, The English Assassin, The Confessor, A Death in Vienna, Prince of Fire, The Messenger, The Secret Servant, and Moscow Rules, my first #1 New York Times bestseller. The Defector pits Gabriel in a final, dramatic confrontation with the Russian oligarch and arms dealer Ivan Kharkov, and I have been told it far surpasses anything that has come before it in the series. And to think that, if I'd had my way, only one Gabriel Allon book would have been written. I remain convinced, however, that had I set out in the beginning to create him as a continuing character, I would surely have failed. I have always believed in the power of serendipity. Art, like life, rarely goes according to plan. Gabriel Allon is proof of that.



Product Description
In the #1 New York Times bestseller Moscow Rules, Gabriel Allon brought down the most dangerous man in the world. But he made one mistake. Leaving him alive…

Over the course of a brilliant career, Daniel Silva has established himself as the “gold standard” of thriller writers (Dallas Morning News), a “master writer of espionage and intrigue” (The Cincinnati Enquirer), and the creator of “some of the most exciting spy fiction since Ian Fleming put down his martini and invented James Bond” (Rocky Mountain News). Now Silva takes that fiction—and his hero, the enigmatic art restorer and assassin Gabriel Allon—to a whole new level, delivering a riveting tale of vengeance that entertains as well as enlightens.

Six months after the dramatic conclusion of Moscow Rules, Gabriel has returned to the tan hills of Umbria to resume his honeymoon with his new wife, Chiara, and restore a seventeenth-century altarpiece for the Vatican. But his idyllic world is once again thrown into turmoil with shocking news from London. The defector and former Russian intelligence officer Grigori Bulganov, who saved Gabriel’s life in Moscow, has vanished without a trace. British intelligence is sure he was a double agent all along, but Gabriel knows better. He also knows he made a promise.

Do you know what we do with traitors, Gabriel? Many things have changed in Russia since the fall of Communism. But the punishment for betrayal remains the same. Promise me one thing, Gabriel. Promise me I won’t end up in an unmarked grave.

In the days to come, Gabriel and his team of operatives will find themselves in a deadly duel of nerve and wits with one of the world’s most ruthless men: the murderous Russian oligarch and arms dealer Ivan Kharkov. It will take him from a quiet mews in London, to the shores of Lake Como, to the glittering streets of Geneva and Zurich, and, finally, to a heart-stopping climax in the snowbound birch forests of Russia. Faced with the prospect of losing the one thing he holds most dear, Gabriel will be tested in ways he never imagined possible. And his life will never be the same.

Filled with breathtaking turns of plot and sophisticated prose, and populated by a remarkable cast of characters, The Defector is more than the most explosive thriller of the year. It is a searing tale of love, vengeance and courage created by the writer whom the critics call “the perfect guide to the dangerous forces shaping our world” (Orlando Sentinel). And it is Daniel Silva’s finest novel yet.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

it's not business; it's personal, July 22, 2009
By Julia M. Walker (NY Finger Lakes)

It seems that the State of Israel is having no trouble in the great wide world. Its most accomplished agent is once again free to pursue matters of personal honor, unencumbered by obligations to the Mossad, and indeed aided by that legendary organization.

Daniel Silva's early thrillers - both the Gabriel Allon series and the three Michael Osbourne novels - are among my all-time favorite reads. The Prince of Fire is one of the two best thrillers I've ever read, and The Unlikely Spy is a richly researched nail-biter set in WWII London. But the last two Gabriel Allon books were below Silva's usual standard, far below. The Defector is better than those, but not up to the early work. There's very little of Italy here - or any other setting -- and virtually no art restoration, and I'm exceedingly sad to see that Silva is close to churning out a Pattersonesque formula thriller.

Here we go:

Part 1: something bad happens to someone Gabriel knows

Part 2: Gabriel assembles a team and mounts a complex plan to fix things (being a fan of planning, I like this part best, but it was sadly diminished here)

Part 3: Gabriel or Shamron forces the US or the UK to carry the can

Part 4: lots of blood; and more blood

Part 5: Gabriel and his support staff tie up loose ends with yet more blood

No surprises here, although Silva does forego Gabriel's seemingly obligatory trip to St Peters.

Any writer can have an off year, but this makes three off years for Silva. What's up with that?

One possible answer is that he's working from his files, rather than doing research. I wouldn't care, were Silva not so addicted to the use of the particular. Without research, the details suffer, of course. It doesn't really matter that the Queens Lane Coffee House has regular panes, not latticed windows or that Rectory Road runs uphill from the Cowley Road, but it does matter that Grigori is in the Harrow Road at 6:12 pm, planning to be at St George's Bloomsbury at 6:30 on a rainy January night in a plot where every minute is supposed to be significant. Unless he is The Winged Defector, there's no chance. (And that church, BTW, is not in New Oxford St, but Bloomsbury Row.)

OK, who cares? Well, if the rest of the book were more carefully put together, I wouldn't. But if a writer says that place and time are important, then he needs to be careful with both. Or simply make up everything.

The material about the Great Terror reads like an add-on. Other than those ominous references to parallel depressions in the earth, you'll never see this coming: it arises from neither the plot nor the characters. Yes, Ivan Kharkov is hastily endowed with a Stalin fixation, but that's clearly an afterthought. Silva needed something ideological to balance the body-count, so we get a quick lecture on Stalinist executions. The Afterword makes the case better than does the narrative, but with some more attention to character or plot lines, Silva could have had it both ways.

Sadly, his interest in anyone but Gabriel diminishes with each novel, it seems. And, as another reviewer points out, even Gabriel fails to develop internally.

When James Patterson runs out of plots, he has A Serial Killer Go After Alex Cross's Family. [!!!] It works every time, judging from sales, and that appears to be what Mr Silva going for.

One of the hardest things to sustain in a long series is a plausible threat. This is why so many series' feature the police or private detectives. Threats are their business. Surely the State of Israel hasn't run out of enemies, so why Silva insists on making the threat personal is, perhaps, the biggest mystery here.

Still, a bad-ish Silva is better than most things you can pick up to read on a hot summer's night. The Defector is better than the last two in this series, and the tension is ferocious for the last 150 pages, so enjoy.

Daniel Silva Continues his Brilliant Character Study in THE DEFECTOR, July 20, 2009
By allangiven.com

In the follow-up to his 2008 New York Time's Best Seller, MOSCOW RULES, author Daniel Silva picks up exactly where the action last left off, and THE DEFECTOR is a brilliantly crafted novel that is unparalleled in its genre. What makes THE DEFECTOR so unique is found within its main character, Gabriel Allon, one of the world's premiere art restorers who just happens to be an Israeli intelligence officer and assassin. Allon is one of the most incredibly complex and dynamic characters to be found in modern literature, and Silva's newest novel further builds and expands upon the Allon mythology, creating a fascinating character who must deal with the dichotomous nature of the two worlds in which he exists. In fact, it is here where Silva's greatest strength as an author is found, for he is able to blend seamlessly elements of both intense page turning action with subtle examinations of character. The result is a book that is simply brilliant.

Having a main character who is an assassin, and one who can kill easily and without remorse, seems an unlikely choice for an audience to become invested in, but with Gabriel Allon, Silva is able to craft a character who is so well realized that the reader becomes hungry to learn more about him. This is the ninth novel to feature the Gabriel Allon character, and in this outing, Silva examines the relationships between Allon and those he is closest too, including those relationships both professional as well as private. Allowing the reader to see this side of the character, including moments of absolute tenderness showing how much Allon cares for his wife Chiara and how deeply he loves her, is what transforms him from that of the seemingly invincible spy character that is so prevalent in the genre into something that is more human, and in turn, much more accessible to the reader. When asked if he had in fact created a love story, Silva states, "It's true. A heart-stopping, edge-of-your-seat, and sometimes extremely violent love story, but a love story nonetheless. I feel as if I've developed a real bond with my readers, and I've learned something extremely valuable from them. While they're captivated by Gabriel's adventures, they also follow his personal trials and misfortunes very carefully-especially my female readers." This broad appeal to all readers, and the willingness to show a side of a main character that most other authors would shy away from is what makes THE DEFECTOR so intriguing. Knowing what is at stake for Allon, and knowing that he is simply not just an emotionless killer bound by duty to his country, is what helps build the tension of the novel. The love story actually then punctuates the action that unfolds while underscoring it with anxiety for the reader. You want Allon to succeed because you know what he will lose if he does not.

It is important to note though that having a love story in an intensely action orientated spy novel does not mean that the female characters in the book, such as Chiara, are shallow and without depth, only there to serve the purpose of allowing Allon to achieve a greater depth. This is so far from the case. What is most impressive about THE DEFECTOR is the fact that Silva has incorporated so many incredibly strong women into it. These are women who have the same amount of development as Allon, and are never used by Silva as mere periphery devices, but instead are presented with an equal amount of strength. As Silva explains, "Each of the remarkable women portrayed in the novel have a huge impact on the way the story is finally resolved. In real life I'm surrounded by strong women---anyone who's met my wife knows that---so it's only natural for me to cast women in heroic roles." This is such a crucial element to the success of THE DEFECTOR, for there exists no misogynistic undertones here, but rather a story populated with characters, both male and female, who are each allowed to develop on their own, while at the same time becoming compellingly interwoven with the others in the novel. The result is an incredibly dense and multilayered novel that hooks the reader and draws them into the intrigue of its world.

This world that Silva has so masterfully crafted is what gives the novel its relevance. The amount of research Silva does in preparation for his books is staggering, and the result is so vividly descriptive, both in regard to its physical as well as political landscapes, that it feels like even though it is a work of fiction, it is being ripped from the headlines, and characters such as these, in situations similar to these, are operating exactly in this manner somewhere in the world. This realism, set against the rapidly politically changing environment in modern day Russia, is what is most intriguing about this novel, and will have the effect of inspiring its readers to look more closely at the actual news headlines and to become more informed on Russia's relationships with the West.

With these elements, THE DEFECTOR is one of the best reads of the year, and even if you are not a fan of the spy genre, it is one you absolutely must pick up.

The Defector, July 27, 2009
By a reader (Illinois)

Daniel Silva has without a doubt become the best American thriller writer. Certainly, his books stand far above those of his competitors, the entertaining but rehashed Vince Flynn volumes, or the wretched, juvenile comic books of Brad Thor. Silva's an elegant writer. His prose shows and doesn't tell you what's happening, so when you open one of his books you don't feel like you're reading a screenplay. He's subtle. He's clearly familiar with his subject matter, but he doesn't spend several pages on technical details, trade craft, or information dumps to showoff how much he knows and fill space. His plots are low-key and subtle, too. No fictional wars or loose nukes in Silva's books, and there's generally a very limited amount of bullets and explosions. His political beliefs (which I suspect are a little left of center) are kept out of the books. He has also a large and wonderful cast of characters who feel like real people. Gabriel Allon is far from being a super hero, and Silva knows how to generate real suspense.

And The Defector is Silva's best novel (so far). Certainly, I'm positive it will be the best novel I'll read this year. It includes all of the elements mentioned above. It's a direct sequel to his previous Moscow Rules. Silva continues to take a refreshing break from Islamic terrorists (one hopes his competitors will, too) and pits Gabriel once more against a Russian arms dealer. The aforementioned villain appears on very few pages, but his presence is still felt throughout the novel, and real tension is generated as the reader awaits the impending confrontation between Gabriel and Kharkov.

Some minor quibbles with Silva's books. He's a little repetitive. Descriptions of characters, places, and agencies are frequently lifted word for word from previous books. It becomes a little trite. His books are also certainly formulaic. Too formulaic: A books opens with someone dying, Gabriel's called out of retirement, after some initial snooping around a threat is discovered, Gabriel assembles a team and perhaps with the assistance of the Americans and British, launches an elaborate intelligence operation in Europe, after the initial climax, Gabriel assassinates the villain on the last page. Oh, and the Vatican will somehow be involved. In fact, Moscow Rules was a fine novel, but I'd give it only 3 stars because the central plot, forging and selling a painting as means of getting access to the villain was lifted right out of The Messenger (Silva's worst novel, simply because it's so unbelievable with the shootouts in the Vatican). Just substitute the Saudis with Russians.

Fortunately, Silva breaks the formula to a sufficiently satisfactory degree and manages to deliver something fresh and even unpredictable in The Defector. There's also a level of personal involvement for Gabriel this time. As I much as I enjoy his characters, I do hope Silva will finally let Gabriel retire and let Shamron die of old age and have new characters take over (Mikhail and Sarah perhaps?). This would be a fitting final mission for Gabriel, and it's best to end on a high note, without the characters overstaying their welcome (Mitch Rapp).

Unfortunately, it'll be another year until Silva's next novel. In an interview, Silva has said that it will center on the Iranian nuclear program. Thank god. It's about time someone write an intelligent and entertaining novel about Iran. I was hoping Silva would next take us to that al-Qaeda supporting African country mentioned in Moscow Rules (I can't recall if it's an unnamed country or a fictional country), but oh well.

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Martha Stewart's Cupcakes

Martha Stewart's Cupcakes: 175 Inspired Ideas for Everyone's Favorite Treat (Paperback)
by Martha Stewart Living Magazine

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Book Description
There’s no better authority on delectable desserts than Martha Stewart. She and her ingenious team of editors have consistently created the most delicious recipes, and their dedication to simple instructions, how-to photographs, and beautiful styling is unparalleled. And there’s no more in-demand dessert right now than cupcakes.

Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes

Martha Stewart’s Cupcakes also includes templates and clip art for decorative flourishes, an equipment glossary, and step-by-step instructions for basic and advanced decorating techniques, plus ideas for presenting and packaging the cupcakes in Martha’s trademark style.

From Martha Stewart's Cupcakes: Martha’s Meyer Lemon Cupcakes

The mild and sweet flavor of Meyer lemon is one of Martha’s favorites; these zest-flecked cupcakes are filled with Meyer lemon curd, which peeks out from the tops. The fruit, which is actually a lemon-orange hybrid, is generally available at specialty stores in winter and early spring. If you can’t find Meyer lemons, use regular lemons instead. The recipe yields a lot of cupcakes, so you may want to consider these for a bake sale or large gathering, such as a shower or special birthday celebration. Cupcake Ingredients

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
2 tablespoons finely grated Meyer lemon zest, plus 2 tablespoons fresh Meyer lemon juice (from 1 to 2 Meyer lemons)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
1 3/4 cups (3 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
3 cups granulated sugar
8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
7 large eggs, room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Confectioners’ sugar, for dusting
Lemon Curd (made with Meyer lemons; ingredients and directions below)
(Makes 42)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Line standard muffin tins with paper liners. Whisk together flour, zest, baking powder, and salt.

2. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, cream butter and granulated sugar until pale and fluffy. Beat in cream cheese. Reduce speed to low. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each is incorporated, scraping down sides of bowl as needed. Beat in lemon juice and vanilla. Add flour mixture in three batches, beating until just combined after each.

3. Divide batter evenly among lined cups, filling each three-quarters full. Bake, rotating tins halfway through, until a cake tester inserted in centers comes out clean, about 28 minutes. Transfer tins to wire racks to cool completely before removing cupcakes. Cupcakes can be stored overnight at room temperature, or frozen up to 2 months, in airtight containers.

4. To finish, dust cupcakes with confectioners’ sugar. Fill a pastry bag fitted with a coupler and a medium round tip (#8) with curd. Insert tip into top of each cupcake, and squeeze some curd below top to fill the inside, then lift the tip and squeeze more curd in a pool on top. Filled cupcakes can be kept at room temperature up to 1 hour (or refrigerated a few hours more) before serving.

Lemon Curd
A high proportion of lemon juice gives curd its intense flavor. As an acid, the juice also prevents the yolks from curdling when heated (unlike when making pastry cream, which requires the extra step of tempering). You can substitute an equal amount of juice from other citrus, such as lime, grapefruit, or blood orange.


Lemon Curd Ingredients

2 whole eggs plus 8 egg yolks
1 cup sugar
2/3 cup fresh lemon juice (about 6 lemons)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces, room temperature
(Makes about 2 cups)

Directions

1. Combine whole eggs and yolks, sugar, and lemon juice in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water. Cook, whisking constantly, until mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Remove from heat. Add butter, a few pieces at a time, whisking until smooth after each addition. Strain through a fine sieve into another bowl, and cover with parchment paper or plastic wrap, pressing it directly on surface to prevent a skin from forming. Refrigerate until chilled and firm, at least 2 hours (or up to 2 days).

About the Author
MARTHA STEWART LIVING magazine was first published in 1990. The magazine’s editors have published more than three dozen books since then.

MARTHA STEWART is the author of three dozen bestselling books on cooking, entertaining, gardening, weddings, and decorating. She is the host of The Martha Stewart Show, the popular daily syndicated television show.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

*crazy for cupcakes*, June 3, 2009
By Heather Isaac "starryeyedgrrl" (chattanooga, tn)

i *love* Martha Stewart's cupcake book! for years i've been searching her web site for cupcake ideas for baby showers and my kids' birthday parties. this book is chock full of wonderfully creative cupcakes for all seasons, holidays and special occasions! i've already made the shark and beach parasol cupcakes for my son's ocean-themed birthday party and the beautiful buttercream chrysanthemum cupcakes for a baby shower. you may think you need some special talent to pull her creations off, but all you need is a little practice and patience! there is no way you can leaf through this book without getting inspired...and drooling! After 287 pages of pics of and recipes for mouth-watering cupcakes, she includes informative pages on tools for baking, how to prepare a piping bag, working with fondant and marzipan, pastry tips and even how to display your treats. my husband agrees that this was a wonderful investment since he's seen how many of her baking ideas have come to fruition in our home...plus he's hoping i make him those yummy tiramisu or choc. salted-caramel mini cupcakes for his birthday! ;) yummo! ENJOY!

From tiny to big, a delicious cupcake taste for everyone!, June 8, 2009
By Toni "the bookworm" (Chicago, Illinois United States)

Cupcakes. Cuppies. Mini-cakes. Cake-shrimpies. Some of the names that have been given to this delicious little confection that are perfect anytime and anywhere and which somehow make us think that they are the perfect diet dessert as well because after all, they're so small!

This book contains many ideas and recipes collected over the years of the MSL magazine and programs along with some new and exciting offerings. Another wonderful treat within this book is that the reader is not limited just to the generic "cupcake" batter itself; there are some fabulous directions that take you to cupakes, mini-cupcakes, and cheesecakes, just to name a few, that let you think outside the typical cupcake box.

And once you are comfortable with making the treats, then you are given some of the most elegant or fun or whimsical ways of decorating these confections: piping techniques, chocolate, fondant, spun sugar (this was a FABULOUS presentation idea that is not at all difficult to achieve; wait until you see the photo!). Cupcake decorating is also a really great way of spending some fun times with kids; the section for Halloween is a blast and the steps to making those cupcakes are all laid out step-by-step so even the wee ones will have fun! For the more grown up occasions, there are pretty floral cupcakes that will make your guests really "oooh and aaahhh" over your creations. The holidays are aptly given attention with decorating-appropriate themed cupcakes with cookies and sprinkles, and piping. Regardless of the occasion, there are bountiful idea's for you to use or adjust, that will match the theme of your party.

From the Domestic Diva herself comes her compilation of 175 ideas, recipes, and presentation for this all-American treat. The book offers cupcakes that range from plain and simple to decadent and elegant; it's up to you how creative you're feeling that day!

Size-wise, it's a smaller book than most but it's very heavy both in weight and photographs; the close-up, detailed photographs, which are a hallmark of Martha's, are perfect.

This is a wonderful way to make single-serving, unique, and tasty desserts that you can serve without fussing with plates, knives, forks, etc.

As per usual Martha standards, there are excellent recipes, detailed directions, and absolutely pristine photography; that's always a given with her and you have to appreciate that as it is necessary when creating some of these confections. There are 8 sections of cupcakes with assorted recipes and ideas per each area.

INTRODUCTION

SWIRLED and SPRINKLED: chocolate chip cupcakes, carrot cupcakes, yellow buttermilk cupcakes, coconut cupcakes (light and fluffy!), red velvet cupcakes, rhubarb cupcakes with whipped cream, Devil's food cupcakes, chocolate malted cupcakes, tiramisu cupcakes (forget counting calories!), banana-pecan cupcakes, blueberries and cream cupcakes, zucchini-spice cupcakes, mocha cupcakes, tres leches cupcakes, date-nut mini cupcakes, ginger and molasses cupcakes, applesauce-spice cupcakes, peanut butter and jelly cupcakes.

DIPPED and GLAZED: brown sugar cupcakes, streusel cupcakes, triple citrus cupcakes, coconut-pecan cupcakes with chocolate ganache, iced pistachio cupcakes, pumpkin-brown butter cupcakes, apricot-glazed black and white cheesecakes, Mrs. Kostyra's spice cupcakes, sticky toffee cupcakes, stout cupcakes, chai-tea mini cupcakes , chocolate-spice cupcakes, coconut rum-raisin cupcakes, and lavender-iced cupcakes.

SIMPLE and SWEET: marble cupcakes, tiny cherry and almond tea cakes, cookie cupcakes (chocolate chunk, peanut butter, and oatmeal raisin), raspberry marble cheesecakes, blondie cupcakes, blackberry-cornmeal cupcakes, cookie and cream cheesecakes, pistachio-raspberry tea cakes, flourless chocolate cupcakes (attention all celiacs and gluten-sensitive folks), and allergen-free chocolate cupcakes.

FILLED and LAYERED: Boston cream pie cupcakes (mercy!), strawberry jam teacakes, peanut butter filled chocolate cupcakes, Martha's Meyer Lemon cupcakes, mint-filled brownie cupcakes, lemon yogurt cupcakes with raspberry jam, german chocolate cupcakes, meringue cupcakes with berry compote, amaretto-pineapple cupcakes, jumbo cream filled chocolate cupcakes, and Black Forest cupcakes.

PIPED and TOPPED: snickerdoodle cupcakes, roasted banana cupcakes, lemon meringue cupcakes, orange-vanilla bean cupcakes, strawberry cupcakes, chocolate salted-caramel mini cupcakes, s'mores cupcakes, one-bowl chocolate cupcakes with gumdrops, white cupcakes with pastel buttercream peaks, and mint chocolate cupcakes.

BIRTHDAYS: dotted letter cupcakes, gelato topped mini cupcakes, By-The-Sea Cupcakes (sand dollar, starfish, fish, shark and sand dune), ladybug cupcakes, buttercream blossom cupcakes, flower power cupcakes, cookies monogram cupcakes, mini-menagerie cupcakes (pig, mouse, monkey lion), dinosaur cupcakes, game day cupcakes (home run, match point, slam dunk), pretzel topped cupcakes, beetle and butterfly cupcakes, coconut chick cupcakes, clown cupcakes, ice cream cone cupcakes, flock of sheep cupcakes, maple-sweetened carrot cupcakes, cupcake caterpillar.

HOLIDAYS: New Years clock cupcakes, Valentines cupcakes, St. Patricks Day cupcakes, springerle Easter Buny cupcakes, Easter-egg cupcakes, chocolate walnut cupcakes for Passover, Mother's Day Hummingbird cupcakes, Father's Day tee-time cupcakes, 4th of July cupcakes, creepcakes, wicked witch cupcakes, candy ghoul cupcakes toppers, pumpkin patch cupcakes, marshmallow turkey cupcakes, maple cupcakes, candied sweet potato cupcakes, sparkly Star of David cupcakes, gingerbread cupcakes with cookie cutouts, fruitcakes with meringue mushrooms, candy Christmas cupcake toppers, wreath cupcakes.

CELEBRATIONS: monogram heart cupakes, nesting baby bluebird cupcakes (perfect for a baby shower), piped shells and pearls cupcakes, meringue bouquet cupcakes, chrysanthemum cupcakes, graduation day cupcakes, fresh flower topped pound cakes, sunflower cupcakes, honey bee cupcakes, almond hazelnut cupcakes with faux-bois toppers (very cool way with chocolate), strawberry basket cupcakes, piped buttercream rose cupcakes, candied hazelnut cupcakes, spun-sugar crowned cupcakes (this would be a spectacular presentation at any party, even a fancy one!).

THE BASICS: If there was a chapter that should be a required reading, then this wouold be it. This covers the entire spectrum within this book, of what you need to start cupcake decorating. It will also set a good foundation in which you could build upon with other cupcake decorating books and skills. You get a description of what dry and wet ingredients are needed, the tools for baking, the tools and candy embellishments used for these projects, how to use a piping bag, working with fondant and marzipan (these are such great mediums), pastry tips (what they are and photos of what they pipe), then all the frostings, fillings, creams, and glazes to help put your plan in action.

DISPLAYING AND GIVING: Once you've made your creations, how would you like to display them? Well, this is the section that makes it all worth is because we are visual people and to draw the eye to the work, you need imaginative and creative ways of presenting the cupcakes. This chapter accomplished that task, with what you probably already have in your home. Many of these ideas are so simple yet so strong that you realize how much impact is in their simplicity (for example, placing mini-photos glued to a toothpick in a cupcake to celebrate an anniversary or birthday, or making "handles" that turn a cupcake into a mini-basket for an Easter celebration. What about placing a simple paper scallop around a cake platter to make a dainty and delicate presentation?

TEMPLATES AND CLIP ART: The artwork used in each project for you to use by photocopying.

SOURCES: A multitude of sources for the items used throughout the book.

PHOTO CREDITS: All the wonderful and talented folks who helped bring you the visual impact of these great baking projects.

INDEX

You will not be dissapointed in this latest gift from Martha and company. The only hard part will be deciding which to make! Peace!

Have tried one recipe and loved it, June 9, 2009
By Mary Allstead

I tried the banana cupcakes with caramel buttercream frosting and absolutely loved it. My friends and kids loved it too. One friend even told me that she loved the frosting so much that she was still thinking about it the next day! I have been searching for a buttercream frosting that is not too sweet, and I really like the swiss meringue buttercream. It came out perfect, not too sweet and even my seven year old loved it!

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Designing Web Interfaces

Designing Web Interfaces: Principles and Patterns for Rich Interactions (Paperback)
by Bill Scott

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Product Description

Want to learn how to create great user experiences on today's Web? In this book, UI experts Bill Scott and Theresa Neil present more than 75 design patterns for building web interfaces that provide rich interaction. Distilled from the authors' years of experience at Sabre, Yahoo!, and Netflix, these best practices are grouped into six key principles to help you take advantage of the web technologies available today. With an entire section devoted to each design principle, Designing Web Interfaces helps you: Make It Direct-Edit content in context with design patterns for In Page Editing, Drag & Drop, and Direct Selection Keep It Lightweight-Reduce the effort required to interact with a site by using In Context Tools to leave a "light footprint" Stay on the Page-Keep visitors on a page with overlays, inlays, dynamic content, and in-page flow patterns Provide an Invitation-Help visitors discover site features with invitations that cue them to the next level of interaction Use Transitions-Learn when, why, and how to use animations, cinematic effects, and other transitions React Immediately-Provide a rich experience by using lively responses such as Live Search, Live Suggest, Live Previews, and more
Designing Web Interfaces illustrates many patterns with examples from working websites. If you need to build or renovate a website to be truly interactive, this book gives you the principles for success. About the Author
Bill Scott is director of UI Engineering at Netflix in Los Gatos, CA, where he plies his interface engineering and design skills. Scott is the former Yahoo! Ajax evangelist and pattern curator for the Yahoo! Design Pattern Library.

He has a long and glamorous history in the IT world, due mostly to his unique understanding of both the technical and creative aspects of designing usable products. His ramblings and musings can be found at www.looksgoodworkswell.com.

Theresa Neil is a user experience consultant in Austin, Texas, where she designs rich applications for start-ups and Fortune500 companies. Her work can be seen at www.designgenie.org.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

Great book for a wide range of users; easy to follow; well-written., February 14, 2009
By B. T. Denyer "Graphic designer" (Midwest, United States)

If you are brand spanking new to web design, and have never coded a single site, you may want to hold off on this book for a minute. I'm not saying it is not for beginners, because it is. Those new to HTML and CSS may want to get the hang of that before jumping into incorporating Ajax and JavaScript along with advanced CSS techniques.

Who is it for? I would recommend this book for art directors, project managers, web designers (all levels), interactive designers, DVD menu designers (though not directly related, you can still take away some important aspects or "patterns"), and especially those that design online training modules (we all know how dull they can be.) Like the DVD menu designers I mentioned above, I think Flash designers can benefit greatly, as well. Though the book is not directly geared toward Flash design, the patterns and "anti-patterns" talked about can easily be used when designing for a Flash experience.

The layout of the book is broken up into the 6 "principles" described in the product description of this book. The sections "Make It Direct" and "Stay on the Page" are by far the two largest sections, for they are the most important of the 6. "Keep it Lightweight" is the shortest section/principle, but by no means is rushed or glossed over. It poses some great design ideas to keep it intuitive, discoverable and keep you from designing 'mouse traps.'

In order to get the most out of this book, you would have to have designed a web site before reading this book. If you are a project manager or art director in charge of a team designing a web site (but not a web designer yourself), it would benefit you greatly to have a general understanding of web design, HTML, what Ajax is, CSS, cross-browser compatibilities, and Javascript. If you are just managing a team, you do NOT have to know how to code these languages/techniques, but in order to really benefit form this book, it would be better if you generally know what each does.

This book could also help bridge the gap for some managers by equipping them with the correct terminology of web design. Just speaking the language of user interface design can help speed up the time it takes to turn your directions into an interface that works the way you intended.

The book is detailed and to the point of the benefits of discoverability and weighing your options in the case of just how intuitive you need to make the interface. This book does not read like a my-way-or-the-highway kind of book. Scott mentions the potential pitfalls, disadvantages and possible alternate scenarios that depend on your interactive goals as set by the audience visiting your site.

A good number of the examples are from Yahoo! and Netflix sites (because Scott used to work for Yahoo! and now works for Netflix), but I never once felt like it was an advertisement for either one. He manages to spread the love around and uses examples from the Gap, iPhone, blogs, Google, Amazon, and others.

In short, the book is an easy read, something that one could go through in a long weekend. There are screenshots and visual examples on virtually every page, so in no way are we left to imagine the event happening. Multiple screenshots are taken when the event happens over the period of several steps. There is even a couple free companion web sites that will show the screenshots in a larger format than the book would allow. While reading the book, you will undoubtedly have many 'ah ha!' moments, or times when you rush to check your previously-designed web sites to see if you need to make a correction to your interface (admit it, we all do.)

I highly recommend this book for anyone that designs interfaces, even if they are for mp3 players, touch screens for electronics, or those interactive lobby displays. We all need some help in the area of user interface design.

***NOTE: there is NO code in this book. This the theory of designing user interfaces for the web, NOT the code.

Best organization of principles for designing Rich Internet Applications I have read so far, March 2, 2009
By Stefan Leuthold (Zurich, Switzerland)

This book absorbed me for the last weekend, and I have to say, it is the best book in the field of HCI I have come across since reading Tidwell's Designing Interfaces: Patterns for Effective Interaction Design. Of course, I like everything that happens to quote Cooper's About Face 3: The Essentials of Interaction Design and Raskin's The Humane Interface: New Directions for Designing Interactive Systems (ACM Press) - but this one gave me lots of new, practical ideas for the web, and a consistent terminology I can use to think and talk about Rich Internet Applications.

Nicely organized and layouted, well-written, and, in my opinion, thought-through easy-to-grasp structure. I was studying many patterns in the Yahoo! pattern library online and I am glad that Bill Scott finally published a book with the same clarity and logic that I came to like online.

Will become a standard in the company I work for and I am sure our clients will already start to "fear" discussions around the six principles when arguing with our consultants for what should be done and how :-)

Great book.

An Embarrassment of Riches, July 9, 2009
By David Pepper "Media Operator" (Baltimore, MD United States)

Scott is a/the genius behind Netflix and Yahoo!'s interfaces, so I got this book to figure out how to make my web interface programming work more professional.

However, much of what I've read here goes against the spirit of the design I was taught to do in grad school. For example, Netflix/Yahoo! make complex designs that are highly functional for expert users, and at-least reasonably usable for intermediate users. These designs feature transitions which use fades, transparent controls which only become visible when a user hovers, and dueling interfaces which allow power-users to move at a different speed than weaker users, etc.

By comparison, my grad program emphasizes designing for readability, learnability and with a singular notion of organizational principles structuring content in such a way that it is accessible to humans, search engines, and user agents (speech synthesis for visually impaired users). In Designing Web Interfaces, this perspective is consistently swept aside in the quest to build "rich interactions" at the expense of these peripheral users.

The result for me of this encounter with "Designing Web Interfaces" has been a renewed appreciation of how hard it is to make interface design choices. So often design is a question of framing, which establishes who the audience is, what the goals are, and what standards to use for a product.

I think at best, this book offers insight into future trends of professional design -- what Scott calls "rich interactions". However, I have a feeling that I'll always be more on the novice/disabled/user-agent user's side, leaning towards standard-based and user-centered designs, no matter what these captains of industry are cooking up.

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The Artist's Way

The Artist's Way (Hardcover)
by Julia Cameron

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Amazon.com Review

With the basic principle that creative expression is the natural direction of life, Julia Cameron and Mark Bryan lead you through a comprehensive twelve-week program to recover your creativity from a variety of blocks, including limiting beliefs, fear, self-sabotage, jealousy, guilt, addictions, and other inhibiting forces, replacing them with artistic confidence and productivity.
This book links creativity to spirituality by showing how to connect with the creative energies of the universe, and has, in the four years since its publication, spawned a remarkable number of support groups for artists dedicated to practicing the exercises it contains. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. From Library Journal
This program consists of segments from the author's book of the same name (Tarcher, 1992). She recommends two ongoing activities that will conquer blocks and self-destructive tendencies: morning pages and artist's dates. Morning pages are three pages of writing, performed daily, about anything at all. This exercise overcomes the writer's internal censor and makes writing habitual, she claims. The artist's date is a weekly block of two hours spent observing, experiencing, and sensing. The balance of the recording describes how the artist can overcome human tendencies such as jealousy, fear, and addiction. This abridgment leaves much to be desired. In her introduction, Cameron states that the audio is an interactive abridgment of her 12-week program. There is nothing interactive about it, however. The sound quality is poor, and the content is similar to the many available 12-step programs. In that sense, it is redundant and will appeal to a very small audience. Not recommended.?Joanna M. Burkhardt, Univ. of Rhode Island Coll. of Continuing Ed. Lib.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Audio Cassette edition.

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The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity, January 8, 2000
By Richard Smith (Johannesburg, South Africa)

This review is from: The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity (Inner Workbook) (Paperback)
I heard about this book a few months ago and was very sceptical at first. As more and more people around me started with it, I became curious and bought myself a copy. It was the best decision I have ever made! I am in week eleven and I can safely say that this book has changed my life, completely. It has taken the South African performing arts scene by storm and everyone I know who has read or is busy reading The Artist's Way feels the same way I do! Apart from the fact the the book contains so many truths, what makes this book such a pleasure to read is that it is so well written. If you are in doubt and you need just that little bit of encouragement, if you know deep down inside that there is an artist in you, that feels neglected or that you haven't yet discovered, take the plunge and start a wonderful journey! If you are a lawyer, accountant or a mother taking care of your family at home, don't be discouraged or misled by the book's title, it is for you too!

It is not perfect, but it is a very good book, February 2, 2002
By atmj (Rochester, NY USA)

This review is from: The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity (Inner Workbook) (Paperback)
Having read previous reviews on this book and having dabbled with creativity on and off most of my life, finally, I decided to take the plunge and see if this book could change my life.
WELL? DOES IT WORK, DOES IT CHANGE YOUR LIFE?
Has it? Well Yes and no.
I'm not putting out massive works of art or prose, nor am I comfortable with even the pencil sketches I do. However, I am doing them again. I've had fits and starts of drawing, but this book does help you put that into perspective. You are a beginner and it is okay for your work to look like a beginners. Simple concept. Hard to internalize.

INTERESTING OUTCOME.
What I did find and others who use this program can probably confirm is that it helps get situations out in the open. Family stuff. When you do the morning pages, you ramble. You put down all that trash you are thinking and then you find you work to clean it up. You know all the stuff your kids, your spouse, your co-workers do, that really tick you off. You find you start to address that. Kind of a neat by-product.

MORNING PAGES ARE NOT SO BAD:
My first take on this, is dedicate a half an hour of my precious and sparse sleeping time.....? What are you nuts? Then I tried it. You have a clarity (and a drowsiness) in the AM, that is unmatchable any other time. Also, if you are like me get a whole lot less interruptions. I did the morning pages from 5:15 till 6:00 AM weekdays and after I got up on weekends. Weekends, sometimes I didn't get to them until afternoon. But, each day (except for 1 day in 12 weeks) they were religiously done.
Guess what? I'm hooked. I'm continuing and you might too. Consider this as a book (a life), you are writing, you are directing. What a concept!

MORNING PAGES LENGTH:
With the Artist's way book, I bought the journal. These 3 pages were the size of 8-1/2 X 11 pages. 3 pages do not take you 1/2 hour but more like 45 minutes to an hour. Get ready for that. It seems like a lot some days and not enough on others. You don't need a special book to do this in either. I bought a spiral notebook to pick up where the journal left off, when it was full. The journal is nice though as it has passages from the book on each page.

ARTISTS DATES:
I found that some of the timing of the artist dates were bad. I'm sure most others will run into this as well. I did this book through the Thanksgiving, Christmas holiday. Artist's dates were often dropped and sometimes one did double-duty. However, these can be very simple. You have to make them what is important to you and that is the point of the book. It makes you feel special. I think all of us wait for others to make us feel special. Most of us could wait a very long time. Little do we realize, we have to set the standard. Make ourselves feel special. Because we are. We have to appeal to the artist within us. It can be simple or extravagant. One thing I like is pens with a 1.0mm tip. They use ink like crazy, but what a wonderful broad stroke they make on the paper. That is one of my "perks".

SOME CRITIQUE:
In the past years you've no doubt heard of people coming out of therapy accusing their parents of abuse. Many of these people were suggested into this practice by psychologists looking for a quick solution to some of their patient's psychoses. What I didn't care for in the book, is that some of the tasks appeared to be excercising these same demons. Trying to find devils in the details of past "creative blocks". Some times these blocks are cumulative and not one earth-shattering event. Like water on a rock. Sometimes the people around you were highly supportive, etc. etc.
We all have a mix of that. I felt however, that this negative aspect was overemphasized. A person sensitive to these suggestions could walk away very convinced that there was a horrible trauma they just can't quite remember.

WEEK OFF OF READING TRULY IS IMPOSSIBLE IN SOME PEOPLE'S LIVES:

One week was supposed to be one free from reading. I used it as a media free week (Radio, TV, magazines, newspapers, books and non-work email) and not from work related reading. If I neglected the reading in my job, I would have over 300 emails, very job related languishing in my in-box. I also would not be doing my job in writing specifications. Not possible in my job and not realistic in many others I'm sure. I think the author should just emphasize the noise factor or suggest doing this type of exercise on vacation.

In summary this book and its tasks were excellent and I can't recommend it highly enough. I'm going on to her book on Work creativity next, then the Right to Write and the Vein of Gold.

KEEP UP THE MORNING PAGES AND CHANGE THE WORLD - ONE PERSON AT A TIME!


This book turned a practical person into a creative one, June 26, 1998
By saflynn@earthlink.net (New Jersey, USA)

This review is from: The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity (Inner Workbook) (Paperback)
This book has completely changed my perspective about my creative ability. At first my practical side felt very silly doing some of the exercises. But after a while a began to realize how much better I felt about myself and my ability to be creative... not do everything by the book. I began oil painting, which I've even entered into contests. I went to Professional Culinary School, in spite of everyone telling me I was crazy. Now those same people are envious of my ability and attitude to discover something that makes me happy and actually pursue it. So many people dream, but never act on those dreams. As practical as I am and probably always will be, thanks to this book, I'm happy that I'm taking these steps toward self fullfillment, and I've established a balance in my life I have never previously experienced. My only criticism is all of the references to God. I'm not athiest, however I feel strongly that the motivation comes from a higher power within yourself and is in your control, and should not be limited to an association with a particular religious figure. Not everyone believes in God, like another individual has written in this review section. I could see how the constant references could turn someone off. But if you look past that element of the book there are some real powerful tools that can help anyone become a more creative individual. The religious connotations are not really necessary. If you can keep that in perspective, then I highly recommend this book!

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Ratio

Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking (Hardcover)
by Michael Ruhlman

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From Booklist

Ruhlman, who explained the basic ingredients, tools, and cookbooks essential to the home chef in The Elements of Cooking (2007), now offers an illuminating read on the magic numbers that lie at the heart of basic cookery. He divides the book into five parts (doughs, stocks, sausages, sauces, and custards). In each section he explains what essential properties make the ratios work and the subtle variations that differentiate, for instance, a bread dough (five parts flour, three parts water) from a biscuit dough (three parts flour, one part fat, two parts liquid). While making his case that “possessing one small bit of crystalline information can open up a world of practical applications” gets a little repetitive, it’s certainly a lesson worth taking to heart. This revealing and remarkably accessible read offers indispensible information for those ready to cook by the seat of their pants; with a handy grasp of these ratios (and a dash of technique), willing chefs should have no excuse to remain tethered to recipe cards and cookbooks. --Ian Chipman Review
"Cooking, like so many creative endeavors, is defined by relationships. For instance, knowing exactly how much flour to put into a loaf of bread isn't nearly as useful as understanding the relationship between the flour and the water, or fat, or salt . That relationship is defined by a 'ratio,' and having a ratio in hand is like having a secret decoder ring that frees you from the tyranny of recipes.
Professional cooks and bakers guard ratios passionately so it wouldn't surprise me a bit if Michael Ruhlman is forced into hiding like a modern-day Prometheus, who in handing us mortals a power better suited to the gods, has changed the balance of kitchen power forever.
I for one am grateful. I suspect you will be too." -- Alton Brown, author of I'm Just Here for the Food

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

essential home-cook revelations, April 17, 2009
By Kal Cobalt "author and seeker" (Portland, OR)

Ever since Ruhlman first started pondering this book on his blog years ago, I've been eagerly anticipating its arrival, and it has not disappointed. The theory of ratio and its present and historical value are engagingly presented, and the book quickly ushers openminded readers to the kitchen to see these things at work themselves. So far I have baked two "experiments" I would never have had the bravery to tackle without this knowledge, and both have been educational and delicious accomplishments!

This is not a cookbook -- indeed, it is an anti-cookbook. Those expecting complex recipes, or the "best" way to make something, will be dissatisfied. This is a manual for real cooks who want to understand the fundamental underpinnings of what makes food FOOD in order to play, tweak, recontextualize, and personalize their methods in infinite variations. It's a book for culinary explorers who don't wish to be, pardon the pun, spoon-fed.

As always, Ruhlman's fresh, engaging, personal writing style leaves this an entertaining read even if you're not stopping every few pages to try your hand at the techniques. (If telling you it was a real page-turner while I was awaiting jury duty doesn't convince you, I don't know what will!)

Almost getting teaching kitchen improv right: priceless, May 13, 2009
By Brian Connors (Cape Cod, MA)


(This review originally appeared in a somewhat different form at my blog, OffSeasonTV at Blogspot.)

This book purports to be the latest and greatest in books claiming to teach how to cook without recipes, a trail blazed not all that successfully by authors such as Pam Anderson. Derived from a chart Ruhlman acquired from Chef Uwe Hestnar, at the Culinary Institute of America, it actually does a fairly creditable job of showing how certain aspects of cooking (particularly baking, charcuterie, and saucemaking) are based heavily on ingredient ratios (weight, by the way, not volume ratios, which are somewhat useless due to differences in ingredient density). Hestnar felt quite strongly (and presumably still does) that these ratios were the most critical things a professional chef needs to know, and that pretty much anything else is secondary.

As is often the case with books of this sort, Ratio oversells itself; anyone who's spent a great deal of time studying politics can tell you that something that claims to be the utmost in simplicity seldom really is, and truthfully this book has a tendency to downplay technique (entire books can be and have been written on the subject, which really isn't a very simple subject at all), as well as hyperfocusing on classical Franco-international cuisine. The question really comes down to this: how valid is Hestnar's point, and can a non-cook learn to cook from Ruhlman's book?

Well, Hestnar's not wrong. Certainly a lot of this book comes down to the interactions of the chemical components of food; mayonnaise, for example, and its dependence on egg yolk as an emulsifier is an extreme example, since it really takes very little yolk to emulsify oil and vinegar (indeed, Ruhlman quotes a 20:1:1 ratio for oil/vinegar/yolk), but the ratio in question is extremely squishy compared to the rather strict 5:3 ratio of flour to water for a standard loaf bread (hardcore bakers will recognize that as a baker's percentage of 66%). And indeed these ratios are fairly important for the subjects that Hestnar's chart covers -- too little liquid will create a gloppy sauce, and too much will create a hard-to-handle bread dough (although this is something you actually want for a ciabatta). And fat ratios make the difference between a bread dough and a pastry dough.

But as I said, I do think it's oversold. The simple fact is that these ratios really aren't as general as Ruhlman wants to think; they cover only certain parts of the culinary arts, and are mainly of use for troubleshooting purposes outside the realms the book covers. And Ruhlman's work only covers classical French-based cuisine; there isn't a tomato sauce to be found in here, for example, nor any discussion of rice or other grains (if cooking rice isn't ratio-driven I don't know what is). But what is in here is quite useful, and it does promote the use of weight measurements in the American kitchen, something people seem to be afraid of. It's an interesting read, and I do recommend it, but as a guide to improvisational cooking it only does half the job.

I didn't think I could cook, April 17, 2009
By Stephanie St Amour (DC, USA)

I don't claim to be a chef, I wouldn't even go so far as to call myself a cook. I rarely venture outside the comfort zone of a microwave or a toaster oven. However, between Ruhlman's incredibly engaging writing style and exceptional mastery of the information, I found myself drawn to experiment.

Recipes certainly have their place and can be useful tools. I've begun to discover, however, that only using recipes put me into a position of not ever learning anything and falling continuously into the "I can't cook" mantra. Learning the ratios and the ideas behind them left me feeling that not only might I be able to accomplish something (and the results are certainly tasty), but gave me an understanding and appreciation for why people might enjoy cooking.

In short, you don't need to be an expert to get a lot out of this book, although I suspect even the most talented among us would learn something. Ratio definitely belongs on the shelf next to all the recipe books you'll end up not using.

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Shop Class as Soulcraft --- Bestseller Books Review

Shop Class as Soulcraft: An Inquiry Into the Value of Work (Hardcover)
by Matthew B. Crawford

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Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly "Bestseller Books Reviw"

Starred Review. Philosopher and motorcycle repair-shop owner Crawford extols the value of making and fixing things in this masterful paean to what he calls manual competence, the ability to work with one?s hands. According to the author, our alienation from how our possessions are made and how they work takes many forms: the decline of shop class, the design of goods whose workings cannot be accessed by users (such as recent Mercedes models built without oil dipsticks) and the general disdain with which we regard the trades in our emerging information economy. Unlike today?s knowledge worker, whose work is often so abstract that standards of excellence cannot exist in many fields (consider corporate executives awarded bonuses as their companies sink into bankruptcy), the person who works with his or her hands submits to standards inherent in the work itself: the lights either turn on or they don?t, the toilet flushes or it doesn?t, the motorcycle roars or sputters. With wit and humor, the author deftly mixes the details of his own experience as a tradesman and then proprietor of a motorcycle repair shop with more philosophical considerations. (June)
Copyright ? Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Bestseller Books Review

"It's appropriate that [Shop Class as Soulcraft] arrives in May, the month when college seniors commence real life. Skip Dr. Seuss, or a tie from Vineyard Vines, and give them a copy for graduation.... It's not an insult to say that Shop Class is the best self-help book that I've ever read. Almost all works in the genre skip the "self" part and jump straight to the "help." Crawford rightly asks whether today's cubicle dweller even has a respectable self....It's kind of like Heidegger and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance."
—Slate

“Matt Crawford's remarkable book on the morality and metaphysics of the repairman looks into the reality of practical activity. It is a superb combination of testimony and reflection, and you can't put it down.”
—Harvey Mansfield, Professor of Government, Harvard University

“Every once in a great while, a book will come along that's brilliant and true and perfect for its time. Matthew B. Crawford's Shop Class as Soulcraft is that kind of book, a prophetic and searching examination of what we've lost by ceasing to work with our hands—and how we can get it back. During this time of cultural anxiety and reckoning, when the conventional wisdom that has long driven our wealthy, sophisticated culture is foundering amid an economic and spiritual tempest, Crawford's liberating volume appears like a lifeboat on the horizon.”
—Rod Dreher, author of Crunchy Cons: The New Conservative Counterculture and Its Return to Roots

“This is a deep exploration of craftsmanship by someone with real, hands-on knowledge. The book is also quirky, surprising, and sometimes quite moving.”
—Richard Sennett, author of The Craftsman

“Matt Crawford has written a brave and indispensable book. By making a powerful case for the enduring value of the manual trades, Shop Class as Soulcraft offers a bracing alternative to the techno-babble that passes for conventional wisdom, and points the way to a profoundly necessary reconnection with the material world. No one who cares about the future of human work can afford to ignore this book.”
—Jackson Lears, Editor in Chief, Raritan

“We are on the verge of a national renewal. It will have more depth and grace if we read Crawford's book carefully and take it to heart. He is a sharp theorist, a practicing mechanic, and a captivating writer.”
—Albert Borgmann, author of Real American Ethics

“Shop Class as Soulcraft is easily the most compelling polemic since The Closing of the American Mind. Crawford offers a stunning indictment of the modern workplace, detailing the many ways it deadens our senses and saps our vitality. And he describes how our educational system has done violence to our true nature as ‘homo faber’. Better still, Crawford points in the direction of a richer, more fulfilling way of life. This is a book that will endure.”
—Reihan Salam, associate editor at The Atlantic, co-author of Grand New Party

"Crawford reveals the satisfactions of the active craftsman who cultivates his own judgment, rather than being a passive consumer subject to manipulated fantasies of individuality and creativity."
— Nathan Tarcov, Committee on Social Thought, University of Chicago

Philosopher and motorcycle repair-shop owner Crawford extols the value of making and fixing things in this masterful paean to what he calls “manual competence,” the ability to work with one’s hands. According to the author, our alienation from how our possessions are made and how they work takes many forms: the decline of shop class, the design of goods whose workings cannot be accessed by users (such as recent Mercedes models built without oil dipsticks) and the general disdain with which we regard the trades in our emerging “information economy.” Unlike today’s “knowledge worker,” whose work is often so abstract that standards of excellence cannot exist in many fields (consider corporate executives awarded bonuses as their companies sink into bankruptcy), the person who works with his or her hands submits to standards inherent in the work itself: the lights either turn on or they don’t, the toilet flushes or it doesn’t, the motorcycle roars or sputters. With wit and humor, the author deftly mixes the details of his own experience as a tradesman and then proprietor of a motorcycle repair shop with more philosophical considerations.
— Publishers Weekly, Starred review

Philosopher and motorcycle mechanic Crawford presents a fascinating, important analysis of the value of hard work and manufacturing. He reminds readers that in the 1990s vocational education (shop class) started to become a thing of the past as U.S. educators prepared students for the “knowledge revolution.” Thus, an entire generation of American “thinkers” cannot, he says, do anything, and this is a threat to manufacturing, the fundamental backbone of economic development. Crawford makes real the experience of working with one's hands to make and fix things and the importance of skilled labor. His philosophical background is evident as he muses on how to live a pragmatic, concrete life in today's ever more abstract world and issues a clarion call for reviving trade and skill development classes in American preparatory schools. The result is inspired social criticism and deep personal exploration. Crawford's work will appeal to fans of Robert Pirsig's classic Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance and should be required reading for all educational leaders. Highly recommended; Crawford's appreciation for various trades may intrigue readers with white collar jobs who wonder at the end of each day what they really accomplished.
— Library Journal

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

Half the Story, June 1, 2009
By D B Cooper "Dan" (New England USA)

This is very nicely done. There is a dignity and elegance to hands-on work, and a pointlessness to much that's done in a cubicle these days, and the author does an impressive job of bringing both to the reader's understanding. Probably the expression in this book of what can be fulfilling about craftsmanship is unmatched. If you love working with your hands but have never put your finger (pun intended) on exactly what that magic is this book will make you smile. If you've never fixed something yourself it will have you tearing apart whatever you own that can still be serviced (probably not much) and chasing the feeling you got from reading about it. I've done a lot of mechanical work but never could have expressed its virtues the way Mr. Crawford has. Great job.

There are two problems. The first is the 'Malcolm Gladwell problem'. Remember when our founding fathers published pamphlets? Let's bring that back. This first appeared as an essay and probably should have stayed as one, it's just not full length book material.

The other problem is that he presents a simple truth which is only half the story. To the author, there is hand-work, in which feedback is absolute therefore the work stays meaningful, and office work, in which achievement is unnecessary and an accent on procedure over substance has ruined everything. What he's missing (and this is where some of the condescension toward craftsmanship Mr. Crawford bristles at so is actually based on a grain of truth) is that all these possibilities exist in both worlds, they're just more obvious in the hands-on. We have all gotten back a car that's still broken because a mechanic only followed the procedures in a shop manual he was ordered to follow by corporate hq. Gertrude Stein's famous term was actually borrowed from a Paris car mechanic who found the younger mechanics went through the motions but didn't understand what they were working on and so missed the nuances. He called the up-and-coming mechanics a 'lost generation'. The point is that hand workers make the mistakes and work in the ways the author treats as unique to offices. Likewise, good managers cause nebulous organizations to work better. In, say, a school, it is much more difficult to diagnose a case of students who don't learn what they could than it is to notice a light that doesn't light. And you can bet the fix will take perception, subtlety, strength of character tempered with patience, tolerance for bureaucracy, etc. etc. yet people do this. It's just harder, that's why they fail a lot.

The problem with this book seems to be that the author could not find a way to do this in his former (white collar) work life and instead moved to a world in which he could recognize faults and determine fixes. When he found this spot, life became more satisfying for him. That's wonderful, and he expresses the process and joy marvelously. But it's quite different than one world being wrong and the other right - the impression he gives.

Radical, Timely, Moving., May 28, 2009
By David McCune "self-deprecating and proud of it" (Tacoma, WA)

This could easily be the most important book a parent or young adult reads this year.

Matt Crawford's Shop Class as Soulcraft touched a chord with me. Both his life and his book are a rebuke to the assumptions which govern modern ideas about work, economics, self-worth, and happiness. Crawford would seem to have lived the American Dream right into his twenties. He finished his formal education (which, to judge by the breadth of references to literature and philosophy in the book, wasn't shabby) and was quickly hired by a Washington "think tank". Any young, aggressive climber would recognize this as a coveted place from which to launch of career. But where others would see a rapid ascent up the social pyramid, Crawford sensed emptiness. He left to work in a motorcycle repair shop, where he got his hands dirty, fixed bikes, and used his brain. Where others might see "mere" manual labor, he learned the value of a tangible skill. He now shares with readers his thoughts on this value, how it is vanishing from modern society, and the implications for us as a people.

Crawford traces the evolution of shop class, its intended and unintended consequences, and its subsequent rapid retreat from our schools. He lays out the historical transition from individual craftsman to interchangeable piece of a human assembly line during the industrial revolution. Much more frighteningly, he reviews how the same approach is well underway in the "white collar" information economy. Whether one has lived the absurdities of cubicle farms first hand or only through Dilbert, it is not hard to see how the modern, homogenized college prep education and liberal arts degree leaves a modern worker predisposed to try to fit as a cog in a modern information assembly line. Crawford taps a fundamental part of the psyche as he reminds us of the inherent pride in being able to say "I fix bikes" when asked what he does for a living. Does a country really need every high school student to strive to attend college? Crawford makes the case that for many this will not only be a waste of time and money, but will ultimately land them in careers in which they have trouble seeing the value of what they do. Too many will, in the words my son once used to describe my job, "type on the computer and answer the phone".

This advice may be coming at a perfect time. Although he claims it is not his goal to discuss the economics of working with one's hands, Crawford still makes a compelling case. As anyone who has called tech support can vouch, it is easy to transfer information economy jobs overseas. Helping someone deal with computer software can be done from India or the Philippines, but you can't hammer a nail over the internet. Crawford builds his case with anecdote, WSJ articles, and quotes from professors of economics. We may all make jokes about droopy overalls and plumber's crack, but there's a good chance that that plumber has better job prospects than many in the graduating college class of 2009. Plumbing may not be totally recession-proof, but there will always be a demand for a person who can fix a plugged drain.

Still, the best parts of the book are where Crawford talks about what working with the hands can do for a person's mind and soul. When he describes the satisfaction of hearing the roar of a motorcycle leaving his shop, knowing that it arrived in the bed of a truck, it is clearly heartfelt. His desire to share that experience with others is palpable. Well, maybe that not exactly it. More the desire to say "there is another path" to the members of our society, in particular those about to shuffle off to college because that's simple what one does after high school. To them I would say: read his book, and consider how your brain might be engaged by the thoughtful application of experience and labor in a trade. Decide if the potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars of college and years of debt really return enough value to your life to make college worthwhile.

For the rest of us, now past that decision point, consider Crawford's thoughts on freedom and specialization. Maybe it _does_ make financial sense to contract out our projects and repairs, but does that necessarily make it wrong to try to fix things ourselves? Are we truly free if so much of the technology we depend on is beyond our ability to repair it? Perhaps Crawford has a point, that there is more to work than simple money and time. Maybe dirty hands will be good for our souls.

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects."
-Robert A. Heinlein

intriguing but somewhat flawed, June 9, 2009
By M. Coleman

This is an intriguing book and raises are large number of really interesting issues. Just being written by a PhD philosopher who decided to become (or return to being) a motorcycle mechanic made me want to take a look. And if it sounds interesting to you, it's probably worth at least a quick skim.

That said, there are a lot more questions here than answers, or even practical suggestions. If you're working a soul-less cube job and looking for alternatives, there's not a huge amount of meat here for you. I would probably love working as a mechanic, for example, but a little meditation on this idea makes me realize that there are real economic reasons why we can't all just head down to the shop. And a lot of society's critically necessary work simply cannot be done in this fashion.

The book is at its best, I think, when talking about how to restore the soul to work. It's clear that bankers and cell phone customer service lines aren't going to disappear, but isn't there maybe something that could be done to restore some dignity, agency, honor to these people?

There are some basic structural problems. Several of the chapters probably should have been dropped. And on page 74, we have "One of the first jobs I took outside the commune...". Commune? What commune? This is the first mention of any commune. Is this meant figuratively (home as commune) or literally? In the next sentence, he says he was living with his mother in a house she had bought. So figuratively then. Then a few sentences later, he says "a woman in the commune". So, it was literal after all. The mystery is resolved if you follow the footnote to the back of the book, where he explains "I grew up in a commune...". Clearly this should have been placed in the main text, and there are several other notes that really belong there as well.

The friend who recommended this to me worried about the author's politics. They are somewhat on display here. He tells an anecdote about trolling some (apparently) feminist types (which he refers to as "harpies") giving a conference talk that's a bit too PC. And in a couple places he appears to jump off the rails, attributing globalism to the "Left" (huh?), and opining that the trend towards considerate office workplaces is due primarily to their lack of conctrete tasks ("Where no appeal to a carpenter's level is possible, sensitivity training becomes necessary.") WTF. All of this seems irrelevant to the book's main points, and ultimately makes the book seem less convincing, to me.

That notwithstanding, Crawford leans more to the Left (as I conceive it) on other issues, scorning corporate personhood, for example. Overall, I'm inclined to think of him as a generally honorable conservative--as opposed to hateful idiots like Limbaugh, Gingrich, and Palin--and I imagine that I would quite enjoy hanging out in his shop and chewing these ideas over.

So, it runs more or less, but sputters a little and there's some black smoke coming out of the tail pipe. Not bad for an apprentice, but I'd want much more out of the next one.

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