Emphasizing personal style, Joan Barzilay Freund’s Defining Style is a freeing, inspiring and extremely innovative look at interior design.
Emphasizing personal style, Joan Barzilay Freund’s Defining Style is a freeing, inspiring and extremely innovative look at interior design.
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Real men the ones who like to read will welcome the arrival of The Annotated Godfather: The Complete Screenplay. Film historian Jenny M. Jones takes control of this project in marvelous fashion. We get the entire shooting script of the original film, plus deleted scenes, cool sidebars on how the film was adapted from the book, behind-the-scenes tidbits on cast and crew, continuity goofs and obvious bloopers, and a series of introductory essays that consider the enormous production undertaking. There are tons of screenshots and production stills here as well, which, along with the text, combine to make readers feel like they're almost experiencing the actual film. But what emerges most is the genius of Francis Ford Coppola, who comprehensively used both right- and left-brain functions to brilliantly bring the novel to life through a mix of canny screenwriting, zealous attention to endless details and a courageous approach to dealing with his bottom-line-conscious financial bosses and the powerful ensemble of players and creative talent under his reins.

GIMME THE BALL
This one was overdue. After their previous (and fabulous) showcases for football and baseball, Sports Illustrated now gives us The Basketball Book. The format is gloriously similar: hundreds of astonishingly good color and black-and-white photos from the SI archive, interlaced with informative essays and profiles by topnotch journalists. The focus here, however, is a tad skewed, and up for criticism. Unlike the prior series entries, which focused only on the men's pro game, the coverage here includes the college game and also the WNBA. Nothing wrong with that in theory, but certainly the college game (both male and female) is deserving of its own volume, and here it gets overwhelmed by the imposing shadow of the NBA. Plus, the WNBA coverage smacks of tokenism, with only a handful of its major players represented.

On the plus side, there is something about basketball photography that seems even more dynamic than its sporting counterparts, possibly because the photographers can get so close to the action. The results are often breathtaking, both in style and historical importance: an overhead view of Shaquille O'Neal jamming one through the hoop; a coral-tinged portrait of a brooding Wilt Chamberlain (c. 1965); a dramatic shot of an outstretched Dennis Rodman lunging desperately for a loose ball; a delightful photo of basketball twins Tom and Dick Van Arsdale during their college playing days at Indiana; and movingly meditative facing-page glimpses of Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen looking like African gods. There's trick photography here as well for example, a multiple exposure of John Stockton all over the court at once, and a fascinatingly fun bi-fold center insert that lines up 29 of the great ones by height in descending order (ladies included), from Manute Bol (7'7 ) to Muggsy Bogues (5'3 ). The browsing extras are endless: decade-by-decade rundowns of the best players, college and pro; a declension of famous on-court strategies as devised by coaches from Nat Holman to Bobby Knight; and satisfying visual sidebars.

DETAILS MAKE THE MAN
Some of us guys may not dress as sharply as we'd like to, yet there's something to be learned by all in Details Men's Style Manual: The Ultimate Guide for Making Your Clothes Work for You. Daniel Peres and the editors of the award-winning Details magazine first offer some handy reminders about the rules of style, then run down a list of the classic items each guy should have (a classy overcoat, two white shirts, a simple black belt, etc.). The remainder of the coverage offers descriptions and attractive photos of contemporary clothing items, from shirts, pants and blazers to shoes, accessories and (yes) underwear. Thrown in along the way are tidbits of menswear history, regional considerations and tips on how to pack smartly. There's even a how-to on tying a bowtie, something most of us guys are clueless about.

Real men the ones who like to read will welcome the arrival of The Annotated Godfather: The Complete Screenplay. Film historian Jenny M. Jones takes control of this project in marvelous fashion. We get the entire shooting script of the original film, plus deleted scenes,…

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The President's Table: Two Hundred Years of Dining and Diplomacy by Barry H. Landau may be the most unusually focused historical study one could encounter: It deals with a very specific aspect of American political development namely, how the presidents ate. The book offers a fascinating retrospective in words and pictures of state dinners, public celebrations and the ubiquitous campaign fundraisers, stretching from George Washington to George W. Bush. Recognized as the foremost expert on presidential dining, Landau has amassed a collection of invitations, menus and memorabilia relating to presidential dinners during all 43 administrations exceeding even the Smithsonian's records, which only date to William McKinley's beginnings in 1897. The photographs here are meticulous and numerous, depicting everything from silk menus to campaign mementos. Such an array of invitations, cards and envelopes (among other items) could seem overwhelming were it not for Landau's accompanying text, which helps place the images within the social, political and historical contexts of their eras. The result is an interesting examination of how an event as simple as a meal can swell in significance when the president is at the table and how those same dinners can have repercussions, for good or ill, that affect a nation.

An intriguing book is Entertaining at the White House with Nancy Reagan, Peter Schifando and J. Jonathan Joseph's retrospective of the dinners and events hosted by the former president and first lady during their tenure in the executive mansion. The book is filled with photographs of monarchs, ministers, musicians and movie stars, as well as the elegantly arranged banquets that were created to entertain and honor them all. Entertaining at the White House also details the intricacies of protocol and diplomacy that go into planning, preparing and conducting even the simplest event, from deciding whom to invite (and whom not to), to honoring the cultural taboos of foreign dignitaries and their watching citizens back home. Surprisingly insightful, Schifando and Joseph's book is an alluring glimpse into the elegant and even risky world that combines diplomacy with dining.

ARCHIITECTURAL MEMORIES
Monuments: America's History in Art and Memory by Judith Dupre stands out from the other volumes here in both appearance and approach. Whereas the other books are concerned with the people, events and places of history, Monuments focuses not on the events, but on how we as a nation remember them. Duprea nd her editors have crafted an unusually striking book. The cover is made to look and feel like rough, textured stone from an ancient wall. Gaps in this wall reveal photos of monuments both familiar and obscure, inviting closer inspection the mark of any good monument.

Inside, the photos and graphical elements and even the text in places are presented in rich bronze tones, as though to echo the metal of a monument itself. Dupre's book follows a roughly chronological order, whether by a monument's historical significance or by the era of its inception, though one entry may cover a great swing of time, especially when that monument's story encompasses additions or restorations. Along the journey are side trips into details of note, or even unusual areas of recognition from a heroic dog to the almost anti-monument of a so-called potter's field, filled with the remains of the forgotten.

Although Dupre's text becomes heavy at times as she tries to define what are essentially visual and tactile experiences, when she deals with the events themselves and the process of the monuments' creation, her words are often fascinating and even moving. Reaching the end of Monuments doesn't feel like ending a journey, but the start of a desire to see for yourself what others thought should be remembered, and to discover what those remembrances evoke in you.

NO PLACE LIKE HOMES
Memorials, of course, seldom have any real attachment to the events and people being honored, save perhaps location. Far more significant in a historical sense are the actual items and places the men and women knew, used and loved none more so than the homes in which they lived and worked. Like a parade of homes, Houses of the Founding Fathers: The Men Who Made America and the Way They Lived by Hugh Howard, with photography by Roger Straus III, leads the reader on a grand tour of the houses and estates of America's founding citizens, both men and women. Filled with beautiful, detailed photographs, Houses of the Founding Fathers provides an engaging glimpse into the daily lives and aspirations of our nation's earliest leaders. Readers who appreciate architectural details, exquisite craftsmanship and elegant design will be engrossed by the lavish images, while those with a penchant for history will be equally intrigued by the stories, individuals and events that filled these magnificent homes. For both art and history, these homes are a pleasure to visit.

AMERICAN HISTORY 101
Time America: An Illustrated History by the editors of Time magazine is easily the most conventional of these five books, but no less interesting for that. The text is a readable and entertaining review of America's history from the days of Columbus' arrival to the current period. You won't come to this book for remarkable insights or in-depth research (and don't be surprised by the slight inaccuracies), but that's not the point. The words merely serve to complement the pictures, an engaging and often unusual cavalcade of images from all walks of American life, from the mundane to the momentous. Some scenes will be instantly familiar, some curiously strange and some refreshingly human, but all serve as delightful windows into our nation's past, well worth the viewing.

The President's Table: Two Hundred Years of Dining and Diplomacy by Barry H. Landau may be the most unusually focused historical study one could encounter: It deals with a very specific aspect of American political development namely, how the presidents ate. The book offers a…

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It’s tempting to cast Homer Hickam as a rags-to-riches, self-made man. The son of a coal mine supervisor, he was raised in a rural West Virginia town with limited access to public education’s most up-to-date resources. When, as a child, he experimented with designing and launching rockets (well before man had walked on the moon), he went up against the traditions of a community that had little use for original behavior. Inauspicious beginnings perhaps, but as an adult, Homer Hickam became an engineer for NASA and a best-selling writer.

So it would have been easy for him to paint himself as an undiscovered diamond in an unforgiving coal town. But that’s not the tenor of Sky of Stone, in which Hickam re-creates the events of a long-ago summer spent in his hometown of Coalwood following his freshman year in college.

Sky of Stone is a follow-up to Hickam’s two previous memoirs, Rocket Boys (which was made into the movie October Sky) and The Coalwood Way. In all three books, the author commemorates his hometown and its citizens with loving admiration. Homer’s parents, though imperfect, are remembered for their humor, dedication and ingenuity. The author gives them full credit for insisting that he go to college and pursue his dreams.

More surprisingly, Hickam portrays Coalwood not as a soul- and lung-destroying wasteland, but as the embodiment of the American dream. Coalwood’s fine schools, decent houses and well-nourished families are sustained by the production of coal. That’s what the town’s mining families believed, and Hickam honors their strong sense of self-determination.

The dark side to the coal industry black lung, union quarrels, unequal opportunity for women rears its head in Hickam’s reminiscences, as they did in Coalwood in 1961. But they are not the subject of Sky of Stone. Hickam focuses on three young people Bobby Likens, Rita Walicki and himself for whom Coalwood’s resistance to change acted as a bracing stimulant, calling forth all of the trio’s shrewdness and creativity. They were made by Coalwood, not in spite of it.

The book’s various plot strands the estrangement of Hickam’s parents; the charges brought against his father involving the death of a mining foreman occasionally seem unconnected. But the author brings them all together in a final courtroom drama. Hickam’s skill with plot, his wit and his capacity for summing up a character in a couple of good quotes all make Sky of Stone an admirable entry in the chronicles of his life.

Lynn Hamilton writes from Tybee Island, Georgia.

 

It's tempting to cast Homer Hickam as a rags-to-riches, self-made man. The son of a coal mine supervisor, he was raised in a rural West Virginia town with limited access to public education's most up-to-date resources. When, as a child, he experimented with designing and…

In this blend of biography and memoir, Kamen methodically probes Chang's internal and external worlds, while coolly documenting an experience of friendship, professional rivalry and the hardships of a writing life.
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, John Edgar Wideman’s new memoir about the aesthetics of basketball, may be one of the best books ever written about the sport, as deft and breathlessly poetic as a Michael Jordan fadeaway jumper. The first chapter of the book is titled More, appropriate because Hoop Roots is about much more than the game. This is the 59-year-old Wideman’s look at a lifetime of playing basketball on the playground, in high school, in college and for a few years in Europe. In a sense, this memoir, like the author’s previous Brothers and Keepers (about his brother’s imprisonment for life on robbery and murder charges) and Fatheralong (about his son’s conviction for murder), is also about the search for a father and the loss of so many black men to violence and racism. Writing this memoir was clearly a way for Wideman to explain to himself and to others why the game is so important. It may also have been a way for him to make sense of the loss of his brother and son and the unraveling of his marriage of 30-plus years. Hoop Roots is his way of holding on . . . starting a story so that a story can end. Although Wideman sees professional basketball as a form of blackface minstrelsy, he sees the playground game as one generated by desire: The desire to play. In this sense also it’s truly a player’s game. It exists nowhere except where and when the players’ minds and bodies construct it. . . . The game’s pure because it’s a product of the players’ will and imagination. If the players’ desire cools, there is no game. Or at best some sloppy substitute of game not worth bothering with. Wideman is at his best in this book, as smart and lyrical as anyone who has written on the game in the past three decades. Applying his finely textured prose style to the sport, he has written a book that creates shock waves of recognition. When he brings race and family and politics to bear on the subject, he writes with a brisk persuasiveness. Playground hoop, like all cultural practices at the margins, engages in a constant struggle to reinvent itself, pump out new vibrations, new media and messages of yea-saying, saying loudly, clearly, Yes. We’re here, still here, and we’re human, we’re beautiful. So too is Wideman’s memoir.

Michael Pearson directs the creative writing program at Old Dominion University.

, John Edgar Wideman's new memoir about the aesthetics of basketball, may be one of the best books ever written about the sport, as deft and breathlessly poetic as a Michael Jordan fadeaway jumper. The first chapter of the book is titled More, appropriate because…
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Because the aim of most photographers is to renew a viewer’s sense of wonder, they tend to render the world in ways that challenge the eye, unsettle the mind and stir the spirit. Just in time for the holidays, three large-scale, lavish photography books featuring both cutting-edge and classic images have arrived to test our sensibilities and make us re-view reality. If you’re buying for an art lover this season, put these handsome volumes at the top of your shopping list.

Re-envisioning the everyday as the exotic, turning common moments into milestones, the camera revises customary existence, makes it seem mysterious. In Diane Arbus: Revelations (Random House, $50, 351 pages, ISBN 0812972201), the transformative effects of this little device are amply represented. Providing a thorough overview of the career of Arbus, a ground-breaking photographer who got her start in the fashion industry in the 1940s, Revelations covers three decades and features 200 full-page reproductions of her work. Arbus brought a singularly honest way of seeing to the picture-taking process, offering fresh perspectives on the familiar world, depicting humanity in all its varied shades. From bench-sitters in Central Park to sideshow freaks, female impersonators and frosty debutantes, the black-and-white photos in Revelations expose the drama inherent in the mundane, the theatricality simmering beneath the surface of normal life. With selections from her famous Untitled series, shot at homes for the mentally retarded, Revelations is the most comprehensive treatment of Arbus’ photography ever to appear. Published to coincide with an international retrospective of her work, these smoky photos, all classic Arbus, are a wonderful document of American culture.

Visual excavations After police chased and gunned down a dangerous fugitive on her Virginia property, photographer Sally Mann took pictures of the tire tracks and torn trees, the residual marks of a pursuit that, regardless of its impermanence, altered her home forever. The imprint of the past upon the present is a recurring theme in her luminous new book, What Remains (Bulfinch, $50, 132 pages, ISBN 0821228439), and Mann seeks and captures this quality in places where history is etched upon the landscape, in locales as varied as Antietam, where some of the Civil War’s fiercest fighting occurred, and a forensics study site, where bodies decompose in the woods.

Suspended between two states of being, Mann’s oddly picturesque corpses and bones, which she imbued with a gray-green hue, are not quite matter, not yet spirit. Her ghostly vistas otherworldly and insubstantial seem to be forever dissolving. Using glass plates and the old-fashioned collodion method of photography, she achieved the gorgeous golden patina that makes the portraits of her children look aged and hazy, eternally antiquated. An artist of international acclaim, Mann was voted America’s best photographer by Time magazine in 2001. The boldness of her vision has earned her a reputation as a controversial artist unafraid of provoking viewers. Her extraordinary new book does just that. A photographic feast The ultimate picture book, Through the Lens: National Geographic Greatest Photographs is a classic compilation of the Society’s greatest visuals. Spanning a century, the pictures collected in this splendid volume represent some of the biggest names in photography, including Sam Abell, William Albert Allard and Jodi Cobb.

From Asia and South America to outer space, each chapter in Through the Lens is dedicated to a different geographical area, covering culture, nature and wildlife in photos that are, by turns, marvelous in their simplicity and breathtaking in their complexity. In Sicily, a line of laundry strung between fire escapes billows in the breeze. An Islamic woman, enveloped in white, waits in a Tripoli airport. International in its vision, vast in its scope, Through the Lens is a generous and memorable tribute to the world.

Because the aim of most photographers is to renew a viewer's sense of wonder, they tend to render the world in ways that challenge the eye, unsettle the mind and stir the spirit. Just in time for the holidays, three large-scale, lavish photography books featuring…
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Don’t be surprised if you finish Susanna Kaysen’s intriguing memoir, The Camera My Mother Gave Me, in one sitting. Not only is it a small book only 176 pages but it is a startlingly intimate look at the limits of medicine and the role of sexuality in our identity.

Kaysen made headlines with her previous memoir, Girl, Interrupted, the 1993 bestseller that chronicled her two-year stay in a mental institution. Her first book provided candid details about the parallel universe of mental illness, and in Camera, Kaysen again toys with societal taboos by describing the medical ordeal she endured when something went wrong with her vagina.

With terse writing and a wry sense of humor, Kaysen describes a months-long litany of doctor visits as she tries to find a cure for her constant vaginal pain. Her ailment, which she likens to a little dentist drilling a little hole, stumps a host of specialists. They prescribe a variety of treatments, from vinegar rinses to tea baths, from biofeedback to antidepressants, all to no avail. Kaysen may be short on some details, omissions that leave the reader feeling a bit adrift (Where does she live? What does she do for a living?), but readers will be drawn in by her ingenuous confessions. She’s brutally honest about her relationship with her unnamed live-in boyfriend. Now that I didn’t want to have sex, though, we got into trouble, she writes. Their relationship deteriorates into constant fighting and even violence as his forced abstinence causes major friction.

Kaysen doesn’t drift into explicit or intentionally shocking territory; she remains witty and plainspoken throughout the whole medical ordeal. Girl, Interrupted dared to bring the question, What is crazy? into the open, and Camera is sure to make waves with the provocative issues it raises. What does it mean for a woman when she no longer feels desire?  "Sex really is the basis of everything . . . when eros goes away, life gets dull,"  Kaysen writes. And what can you do when medical science can’t find a cure?

Kaysen, 52, is already being criticized for taking autobiography to a new level of exposure with her personal confessions. But this intimate investigation explores bigger issues like doctor-patient relationships and sex versus love. Her account is sure to fascinate readers and keep them blushing as well.

 

Don't be surprised if you finish Susanna Kaysen's intriguing memoir, The Camera My Mother Gave Me, in one sitting. Not only is it a small book only 176 pages but it is a startlingly intimate look at the limits of medicine and the role of…

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