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"The purpose of this report is to telescope the essentials of the history of Ukrain and its people; including the period of Communist takeover and occupation of that nation. It is hoped that this report will help the American people to understand better the nations and people enslaved by communism and thereby to more fully appreciate the true nature, tactics, and final objectives of the criminal conspiracy of world communism." p. v ... Read more

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Culled from the best of a wide variety of sources, this eleventh annual collection of fantasy fiction features contributions by Kim Newman, Joyce Carol Oates, Ellen Kushner, Jack Womack, Karen Joy Fowler, and others.Amazon.com Review
The collaborative efforts of Ellen Datlow (horror) and TerriWindling (fantasy) are becoming something of a legend, as year after yearthey deliver the best horror and fantasy short fiction in a fat (500double-length pages) anthology that avoids pigeonholes with its mingled,unlabeled sample of the two genres. As in previous years, this volumeincludes more than 100 pages of summaries about the year 1997 in horrorand fantasy publishing, horror and fantasy in the media,and comics. The fiction includes 18 stories and 8 poems with just TerriWindling's initials, and 18 stories and 1 poem with Ellen Datlow'sinitials, with some (presumably dark fantasy) that are tagged by both.

Even more than usual, Ellen Datlow's horror selections introduce a remarkablevariety of types of stories. One of the best tales is Molly Brown's "The Psychomantium," about a mirror that allowsalternative time lines to intersect, creating double fates for thecharacters. "The Skull of Charlotte Corday" (photosincluded) by Leslie Dick takes an essayistic approach to afamous female assassin and some creepy details in the history of sexualsurgery. Douglas Clegg's "I Am Infinite, I ContainMultitudes" is a striking body-horror tale that was nominated for a BramStoker Award. Christopher Harman, P.D. Cacek, Joyce Carol Oates, and Vikram Chandra contributeold-fashioned ghost stories. Gary Braunbeck's"Safe" is reminiscent of the best of Stephen King in its portrayal ofrealistic horror in a small town. Michael Chabon's "In theBlack Mill" more than proves that Lovecraftian horror can transcend shallowpastiche. And other horror notables--such as Michael Cadnum,Christopher Fowler, Caitlín Kiernan, StephenLaws, Kim Newman, Norman Partridge, and Nicholas Royle--make appearances.

Terri Windling's selections include familiar fantasy names such as Peter Beagle, Charles de Lint, Karen JoyFowler, and Jane Yolen, and famous genre-crossers such asRay Bradbury, Howard Waldrop, and Jack Womack. She also provides welcome space for fantasy poetry--charmingpieces with images of the Trickster Coyote, Sheela Na Gig, and a mermaid,and titles like "Coffee Jerk at the Gates of Hell." The PulitzerPrize-winning Steven Millhauser contributes an enchanting tale that originally appeared in the New Yorker. Other tales are inspired byan intriguing range of sources: Gulliver's Travels,Marilyn Monroe, the Scottish legend of the Sineater, the artof glass blowing, Aztec myth, and ancient Jewish lore.

There's no better way to take in the best of these two genres, both for thegreat selections and the ample pointers to 1997's novels, magazines, art,movies, and comics that you may not have heard about. --Fiona Webster ... Read more

Customer Reviews (26)

15/2001: The bar is high and some stories are exceptional. Recommended 14/2000: Too many blatant stories. Not recommended
(Because Amazon lumps all of these volumes together, this review is split in halves: Fifteen/2001 and Fourteen/2000.)

For THE YEAR'S BEST FANTASY AND HORROR: FIFTEENTH ANNUAL COLLECTION (2001)
The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Fifteen Annual Collection collects the best (as determined by the editors) short fiction of both genres in 2001, using wide definitions of the genres in order to build a diverse, quality collection. Introductions survey related novels, anthologies, and media; some of these recommendations are useless, but others are a rich resource. The stories and poems themselves vary in quality, but the standard is high and some stories are a distinct success. It's no surprise that such a large anthology has its ups and downs, but Datlow and Windling achieve many of their lofty goals. This is a varied and successful collection of short fiction and a promising resource for discovering new authors. I recommend it.

Short fiction anthologies and collections are almost always a mixed bag, and this one in particular reaches farther--and is longer--than most collections, so there are plenty of opportunities for failure. But it's a surprising success: there's some underwhelming poetry and some disappointing and odd short stories, but on average the bar is high and the best stories are exceptional. Doerr's "The Hunter's Wife," Arnott's "Prussian Snowdrops," Kiernan's "Onion," Maguire's "Scarecrow," and best of all Palwick's "Gestella," the story of a rapidly-aging werewolf, were among my favorites, and while another reader may have different preferences the best part about this broad collection is that it has something to delight every sort of horror/fantasy fan, and perhaps something new for each reader.

Other than a treasure-trove of stories, The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror also serves to expose the reader to new work and new authors. The introductions are lengthy, but useful: Windling is the most succinct in picking her choices for best fantasy novels and anthologies, Datlow is more wordy and less helpful in her horror recommendations, and the surveys of related media, comics, and anime/manga are pretty much useless (and in the final case, laughably so). Still, skim the introductions and remember your favorite authors from the short story collection, and this anthology has the potential to inflate your to-be-read list in record time. All in all, this volume of The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror is not perfect, but Datlow and Windling aim high and manage to pull together a surprising amount of enjoyable fiction that includes some true gems and opens the door to finding many more. I recommend it.

For THE YEAR'S BEST FANTASY AND HORROR: FOURTEENTH ANNUAL COLLECTION (2000)
The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Fourteenth Annual Collection collects the best (as determined by the editors) short fiction of both genres in 2000, using wide definitions of the genres in order to build a diverse, quality collection. Largely useless introductions summarize the year in fantasy, horror, and related media, but the bulk of the book is 43 short stories and 11 poems which span paranormal horror to imaginary world fantasy to mythic poems. The stories are a mixed bag, but on the whole a disappointment: some break the mold, but most of these selections are so exaggerated that they lack magic or tension. This series has a laudable goal, but in this installment the editors don't quite reach it. Not recommended.

I so much enjoyed the fifteenth volume of this series that it boggles my mind that I found this fourteenth installment such a slog. Short story collections are usually composed of selection of varying quality, and an anthology this wide-reaching and long has plenty of opportunities for failure--and, unfortunately, in this volume it often does fail. The selections are a mixed bag: Some are wonderful, and Koja's "At Eventide," Grant and Link's "Ship, Sea, Mountain, Sky," Duffy's Circe and Little Red Cap, Adriázola's "Buttons," Gaiman's Instructions, and best of all Greer Gilman's "Jack Daw's Pack," a mythic and dreamlike story of the trials and tribulations of divine avatars, were my favorites. But too often, regardless of genre, these stories are often so blatant--horror exaggerated to empty violence, retold myth which is too obvious, humorous fantasy pushed over the top--that they lose all the magic and tension that can come with subtlety. Perhaps that's a personal preference, but I doubt it. Obvious, exaggerated stories smack of lazy writing, and certainly don't warrant a "best of" collection.

The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror: Fourteenth Annual Collection still serves a purpose: some selections, like those listed above, break the mold and are in turns understated, haunting, intelligent, or otherwise subtlety and skillfully told. And the volume also functions as a means to encounter new stories and new authors. With such a wide range, pulling from paranormal to psychological horror, from magical realism to urban fantasy, The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror is a broad cross-section of both genres and may expose a reader to all number of new writers or texts. Unfortunately, like the middling quality of the stories themselves, this volume isn't always a good resource: Windling summary of fantasy novels is concise and useful, but Daltow's summary is unnecessarily long and the summations of media and comics often lose sight of their fantasy/horror purview. All told, this fourteenth installment of The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror is well-intended but not wholly successful. Other installments prove that the premise can succeed, and such a wide goal as the year's best pulled from broad definitions of two genres is loftly and laudable. But perhaps the pickings were slim, perhaps they had a bad year--for whatever reason, Windling and Datlow don't reach their goals in this fourtheenth installment, and I don't recommend it.

Another Satisfying Entry In The Series
I collect this series hungrily. There are always at least 10 stories that excite and amaze me, and I do feel they can honestly be called "the best" of each year. I also buy stacks of other genre anthologies, none of which demonstrate such consistent quality. How there came to be a gap on my shelf where this volume ought to be I'm not sure, but I did find out while shopping for its replacement what others have discovered: it is frustratingly difficult to get an accurate report of the contents of each of these volumes. Of the several well-written and helpful reader reviews, one refers to the 11th edition, another, while begging Amazon to represent it faithfully, nevertheless is clearly misfiled, describing the contents of the 14th. To be sure, even as I snarl and curse my way through the tangle of confusion I salute each reviewer's insights; I only wish their efforts could be properly represented. To help other benighted seekers, I'm suggesting a visit to this site, an extremely valuable and meticulously maintained resource.
locusmag.com/index/2002

Snnorrrrre Snnnorrrreeeee
For some reason, the folks at Amazon keep posting my reviews for this series in the wrong place, so expecting that to happen again this time, let me clarify: The review is covering the FOURTEENTH edition.

Years ago, I made the mistake of taking "The Year's Best" title seriously, and rushed out and bought all the books in the series I could get my hands on. That turned out to be a BIG mistake, as Editors Ellen Datlow & Terri Windling seem to have very different ideas from me about what makes a good story. Luckily, this is the last volume I was unfortunate enough to purchase.

I'll skip the usual complaints this time out. I won't rant about the overlong year-in-review segments. I won't mention the fact that Windling's Fantasy selections monopolixe the book. I won't utter a word about Windling's bizarre penchant for poetry and rehashed versions of older-than-dirt fairy-tales. I'll concentrate on the stories that were actually readable.

Charles de Lint contributes another Newford story, "Granny Weather"; As usual, it's a good read.
Ramsey Campbell offers up two creepy little gems, "No Strings", and "No Story In It".
Jack Dann's "Marilyn" turns a young boy's sexual fantasy into a waking nightmare.
Glen Hirschberg's "Mr. Dark's Carnival" is a great haunted house tale.
Ian Rodwell & Steve Duffy's "The Penny Drops" is waaayyy too long, but the knockout ending makes the suffering worthwhile.
Bret Lott's "The Train, The Lake, The Bridge" could almost be a true story, and it's all the creepier for that.
Jonathan Carroll's "The Heidelberg Cylinder" is a hilariously bizarre tale that needs to be read to be appreciated.
Jack Ketchum contributes "Gone", a short but excellent halloween tale.
Paul J. McAuley's "Bone Orchards" is a follow up to his tale from the previous Year's collection, "Naming The Dead"; It's a real treat, and I'd love to see more with the main character.

Search out the aforementioned Authors, by all means; Just don't waste your money on this stankass series....unless you have MUCH more patience than me.

Tedious, Overblown, Pretentious, Overwritten......
I really can't be bothered doing my usual story-by-story review, since most of the stories stunk. I'm not a big Fantasy fan, so my distaste for the Fantasy side of the book shouldn't be a big surprise. I'll just reiterate my usual complaint about Fantasy Editor Terri Windling's half (More like 2/3rd's..) of the book: Waaaaayyy too much Fantasy, to the point where the Horror stories get short shrift. Ellen Datlow's Horror selections also leave a lot to be desired, as the truly distinctive voices of modern Horror fiction, like Bentley Little, Jack Ketchum, Edward Lee, Richard Laymon, et al, continue to not be represented, while told-by-rote Victorian-era wannabes dominate the book.

(My original review was much longer, and I did single out particular stories/Authors for praise, and recommended some of the individual anthologies, but the review-censorship gang at Amazon saw fit to chop off four whole paragraphs of my review! Thanks, @ssholes!)

Another Year, Another Snooze-Fest....
Made it through another one!!! Once again, Fantasy Editor Terri Windling runs roughshod over Horror Editor Ellen Datlow- Windling weighs in with 26 stories, Datlow with 19. (Datlow continues to beat the drum for awful-poetry lovers everywhere, with no less than EIGHT poems...Yuck.)

As usual, the book opens with Windling's interminably long overview on The Year in Fantasy, which is really no more than a list of every book that's come out that year, along with her rambling on and on about "Magical Realism" for what seems like 5000 pages. I read one page, skimmed the rest, didn't miss a thing.

On to Datlow's Year in Horror- Slightly more interesting, but still WAAY too long. Skimmed once again...

Edward Bryant's Horror and Fantasy in the Media overview is interesting reading, but it seems as if Bryant just throws every movie he's seen into the mix. Does "In the Company of Men" really qualify as Fantasy or Horror...? Seth Johnson's Year in Comic Books overview is very interesting, and considering how much Windling drones on, I don't think it would kill them to let Johnson have a few more pages than he does.

On to the stories themselves....There are a LOT of stories that are bad, if not downright AWFUL, in this book, and most of them go on MUCH too long. Among the Awful/Overlong are: The meandering, pointless "The Skull of Charlotte Corday", "It Had To Be You", which would have been cute if had been 20 pages shorter; Charles Grant's head-scratching yawn-a-thon "Riding the Black", ... "In the Fields" was so bad I actually had to skip to the next story; I also couldn't finish Peter S. Beagle's "The Last Song of Sirit Byar"- It seemed like the song had no end.....

It's not ALL bad, though. Standout stories include "Gulliver at Home", which tells of Lemuel Gulliver's time at home between voyages; "I Am Infinite; I Contain Multitudes" has one of the nastiest scenes I've ever read, and packs a hell of a punch; Nicholas Royle's "Mbo" delivers a nasty spin on the Dracula legend; Gary A. Braunbeck's "Safe" is a moving tale of the aftermath of a gruesome mass-murder; "El Castillo De La Perseverancia" is THE weirdest story I've ever read...Mexican Wrestlers vs. Aztec monsters! It's like a Santos movie in print! "Residuals" tells the hidden history of Alien-abduction in America, and Michael Chabon delivers a ripping good H. P. Lovecraft pastiche "In the Black Mill". Christopher Fowler's "Spanky's Back!" is good sick fun, and Stephen Laws' "The Crawl" presents a far-fetched tale of road-rage that still manages to evoke a chill.

While there ARE some worthwhile reads here, the book is more pain than pleasure to read. Proceed at your own risk! ... Read more

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EXACTLY as title. Air and Space Studies 100. The Foundation of the United States Air Force. Air Force Officer Assession and Training Schools Reserve Officer Training Corps. ... Read more

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One of the leading poetry journals of the Beat Generation. Issue #4 includes pieces by most of the major poets of the time including Ginsberg, Kerouac, Snyder, Corso, Jones, Wieners, Olson, Creeley, Bremser, McClure, Orlovsky and others. 28 pages. ... Read more

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There are only a few legendary singers who have developedmass audiences while pursuing their own artistic visions:Sinatra is one; Ella Fitzgerald another. Ray Charlesundoubtedly belongs in this pantheon of major musicalstars.Ray Charles: Man and Music begins with Charles'simpoverished childhood in Greenville, Florida, wheretragedy struck early when the young Charles went blind atage 6 and was orphaned at age 14. Driven by his enormoustalent and determination, Charles landed work playing someof the toughest juke joints in the state, fought heroinaddiction, and finally landed a recording contract withAtlantic Records. Unlike other R&B singers, Charles tookcontrol of his career from its earliest days, moving onfrom his gospel-soul stylings of the mid-'50s to breakthrough musical barriers, recording two country albums inthe late '50s (at a time when the black presence incountry music was barely felt), pure jazz, and then thepowerful pop hits of the '60s. Famed music journalistMichael Lydon - a founding editor of Rolling Stone - isuniquely qualified to document Charles's career, havinginterviewed Charles and followed the star's performancessince the 1960s. Originally published in 1995, and universally hailed asthe definitive biography, this new edition bringsCharles's life up to date, covering the last 7 years ofhis life. It coincides with the release of a made-for-TVmovie starring Jamie Fox as Charles, currently inproduction by Taylor Hackford. Charles has also issued anew CD recently and remains active as a touring artistthroughout the world.Amazon.com Review
In 1954, Atlantic Records honchos Ahmet Ertegun and Jerry Wexler visited anAtlanta club where one of their artists was gigging. Ray Charles andhis band blew into a new song when the men entered. It was "I Got aWoman," the tune that marked the blind Albany, Georgia-bornsinger-pianist's evolution from an able imitator of Nat "King" Coleand CharlesBrown into an artist who would transform American music. In RayCharles: Man and Music, veteran music journalist Michael Lydonimbues the familiar story with fresh detail upon freshdetail. Charles's early years spent scuffling on the chitlin circuit,his embrace of everything from pop chestnuts and country hits to hipjazz as an audaciously eclectic record maker, and the many hours givenover to womanizing and a heroin addiction at the height of his stardomare given a cinematic immediacy here. More than most artists, Charlesfollowed his instincts to huge artistic rewards and the love of manylisteners who recognized their own voices in his sound. Lydon capturesas much of the offstage man as is likely to ever make it to thepage--the man who himself once insisted,"My life was what it was. Whatever it became, I made it so."--Rickey Wright ... Read more

Customer Reviews (11)

Ray Charles: Man and Music
Michael Lydon has done a magnificient examination and bio of Ray Charles. One comes away from this book realizing at least two important points: One, that the movie "Ray" is highly fictionalized and does a great disservice to Charles in inadequately relating the amazing ability and range of accomplishments of this man. And second, the evidence builds as the bio progresses to suggest by the end that here was one of America's supreme musicians of all time, if not at the top.This is no gloss job about Charles.All in all, a fascinating read by a very good researcher and writer (and musician himself).

A lot of information but too many inaccuracies
When I first read this book, I thought it was a well researched biography. Not so. After interviewing several members of Ray Charles' band, including Leroy "Hog" Cooper, David "Fathead" Newman, Ernest Vantrease, Don Peake and Marcus Belgrave, I learned that Michael Lydon did not do sufficient fact checking. The generalities in the book paint the big picture, but the 'devil is in the details' and that's where Lydon goes wrong. After hearing the stories from the musicians, I was disappointed to find that he had not done his homework. Finding out that pieces of the book are not accurate makes me wonder about the rest. I wasn't crazy about "Brother Ray," the cursory memoir of the man who lived such an extraordinary life, but in retrospect, that book is at least closer to the truth, and 'guilt by omission' is a better way to define my disappointment with it.

Very interesting to the side of RC's memoir (4-4.5 stars)
Can't say enuff 'bout this. There's only 25 to 28 chapters in this book. Blessed I got it on Alibris. This shows the real side of Ray Charles (Robinson) where he's going thru since after the success of his first penned book w/ writer David Ritz (I can't stand the hatred and dissappointment behind this man, ya'll should give him credit instead of not loving him or have a distaste), just finished reading "Brother Ray" and plus the movie "Ray" among certain albums, documentaries and other taped concerts around, this Man deserves it, no matter if u love him or not, he's still bad. Nobody can't take that away from him perhaps touch him. Blessed that his music, voice and legacy will never be forgotten just b/c I was shocked about the news about his death. RIP to a well-known giant in Music who alot of Creativity, Sense, Class, Respect, Love, Pride & Dignity. Long Lives the Genius of Soul, Father of Soul, Right Reverend, High Priest, Righteous Ray (or Reverend Righteous Ray), Reverend Ray, Brother Ray, etc.

Ray Charles Robinson aka Uncle Ray, thank u for all your courage, your time and your hard work between your music, your life, your legacy, your everything. Thank you for a tremendous legacy that'll live on for years to come (1930-2004).

P.S. Mike Lydon deserves alot of credit in this 1 too.

Ray Charles,a new understanding
I have never been a Ray Charles fan,and when the movie Ray came
out,I was sadden,that I had missed a great talent.I brought the
DVD version of the movie,and then started reading everything there was about the man.After reading this book,which I enjoyed
I found that I did not like the man. I think that the writer of
the book,told about Ray,being cheap,being a womanizer and the
way he treated people in general.I think that the movie version of his life,glossed and sugar coated his life,his career and his
marriage.I came away feeling very sorry for his wife and his children,as it appears they were truly the victims of Ray Charles
I,for one will not spend any more money on the Ray Charles legend.

Ray: The Music Not the Man
I wouldn't say that this is a bad book. It has its good points, but it was missing some of the things that I was more interested in. Like the thoughts of Ray, and the things that went on behind the scenes, through out different occurences in his life. Like when the woman on the side would get pregnant, what type of issues were bought into the Robinson household. The book didn't go into detail with anything. Basically, it just made a statement, "Ray girlfriend has a baby." That's it. That is the debt that was given, in most of the stories. Even during Ray's drug use years, it really didn't give to much insite. I think that the movie gave more detail than this book did, and usually it is the opposite.I think that this book could have eliminated about of 100 of it pages. I found myself, flipping pages trying to get through dead information, like its countless mention of billboard reviews, giving more detail in music charts, than the actual life of "RC." Let me restate that the book does haved it's good points, but it didn't fulfill my need for information. ... Read more

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Les achats comprennent une adhésion à l'essai gratuite au club de livres de l'éditeur, dans lequel vous pouvez choisir parmi plus d'un million d'ouvrages, sans frais. Le livre consiste d'articles Wikipedia sur : Barry White, Michael Jackson, James Brown, Ernesto Djédjé, Stevie Wonder, Ray Charles, Chuck Berry, Jackie Brenston, Wheesung, Eddie Floyd, Chuck Willis, Lee Dorsey, Hardrock Gunter, Mitch Ryder, Marlon Jackson, Paul Nemlin, Montell Jordan. Non illustré. Mises à jour gratuites en ligne. Extrait : , né le 29 août 1958 à Gary (Indiana) et mort le 25 juin 2009 à Los Angeles (Californie), est un chanteur, danseur-chorégraphe, auteur-compositeur-interprète, acteur et homme d'affaires américain. Il est reconnu par le Livre Guinness des records comme étant l'artiste le plus couronné de succès de tous les temps. Selon le Rock and Roll Hall of Fame il a été identifié comme étant l'artiste le plus populaire dans l'histoire de l'industrie du spectacle et l'homme le plus célèbre au monde. Septième d'une famille de neuf enfants, il chante avec ses frères dès l'âge de six ans et débute une carrière professionnelle à l'âge de onze ans au sein des Jackson Five, groupe formé avec ses frères aînés. Tout en restant membre du groupe, il entame en 1971 une carrière solo et enregistre dix albums studio, dont six figurent parmi les plus vendus au monde : (1979), (1982), (1987), (1991), (1995) et (2001). Dans les années 1980, devient une figure majeure de la musique pop et l'une des personnalités les plus célèbres du siècle. Il révolutionne l'industrie du disque, notamment en concevant des clips musicaux comparables à des courts-métrages de cinéma, comme , , ou . Au cours de ses concerts, vidéos et apparitions publiques, il popularise largement de nombreux pas de danse, dont le , qui devient sa signature. Ayant fusionné les genres de musique soul, funk et rock, son style vocal et musical continue d'influencer nombre d'artistes de hip-hop, po...http://booksllc.net/?l=fr ... Read more

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Chapters: Buckminster Fuller, Michael Graves, Walter Dorwin Teague, Lloyd Groff Copeman, Charles and Ray Eames, Raymond Loewy, Belle Kogan, Otto Kuhler, Paul Philippe Cret, Sara Little Turnbull, Eliot Noyes, Ron Rezek, Russel Wright, J. Baldwin, Henry P. Glass, E. Fay Jones, Tucker Viemeister, Oliver Lincoln Lundquist, Mitchell Joachim, Norman Bel Geddes, Michael Mccoy, Helen Dryden, Mark Dziersk, Brooks Stevens, Niels Diffrient, Joe Cali, Syd Mead, Nathan George Horwitt, Ravi Sawhney, Henry Dreyfuss, Thomas Lamb, Earl R. Dean, Alfonso Iannelli, Marc Harrison, Nolen Niu, John Vassos, Derick Noffsinger, George W. Walker, Jeffrey Samson, Donald Deskey, Michael Ellis, John Burnham, Robert Davol Budlong. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 203. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Richard Buckminster Bucky Fuller (July 12, 1895 July 1, 1983) was an American architect, author, designer, inventor, and futurist. Fuller published more than 30 books, inventing and popularizing terms such as "Spaceship Earth", ephemeralization, and synergetics. He also developed numerous inventions, mainly architectural designs, the best known of which is the geodesic dome. Carbon molecules known as fullerenes were later named by scientists for their resemblance to geodesic spheres. Fuller was born on July 12, 1895, in Milton, Massachusetts, the son of Richard Buckminster Fuller and Caroline Wolcott Andrews, and also the grandnephew of the American Transcendentalist Margaret Fuller. He attended Froebelian Kindergarten. Spending much of his youth on Bear Island, in Penobscot Bay off the coast of Maine, he had trouble with geometry, being unable to understand the abstraction necessary to imagine that a chalk dot on the blackboard represented a mathematical point, or that an imperfectly-drawn line with an arrow on the e...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=4031 ... Read more

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Monthly celebrity and lifestyle magazine. ... Read more

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Tracing Robert Bechtle's career from his earliest paintings of the 1960s to the present day, this is the definitive book on one of the founders and foremost practitioners of American Photorealism. Created in close collaboration with the artist, Robert Bechtle will accompany the distinguished painter's first retrospective exhibition. Lavish plates feature reproductions of approximately ninety of Bechtle's most significant artworks, from large-scale oil paintings to intimate watercolors and drawings. These magnificent illustrations portray the range of the San Francisco-based painter's iconic imagery of California--the rows of palm trees, stucco houses, and the ubiquitous automobiles that spurred suburban expansion--as well as his lesser-known but equally compelling family scenes and stark interiors. Bechtle's preference for wide, empty spaces; his flat, sun-bleached palette; and his detached mode of recording random details impart a singular sense of alienation to his subjects. His deadpan paintings capture the essence of the postwar American experience, in which California often serves as the testing ground for the realization of national dreams. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (7)

A handsome and well produced volume
Robert Bechtle A Retrospective encompasses the artist's work from the 1960s to today, published to coincide with a major retrospective exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. There are four essays along with a text commentary which accompanies the plates. The essays are titled: Robert Becthle: Painting As We Are, A Place in the Sun, Photographic Guilt: the Painter and the Camera, and Alameda Gran Torino. The first essay discusses the artists' work in relation to his chronology, second looks at his paintings in terms of lightand then humour and the third essay is self explanatory from its title. Following the section of plates is a Chronology, Exhibition History, Selected Bibliography and a Catalogue of the Exhibition.

The book is illustrated throughout in colour and black and with, the latter being either black and white snap shots or reproductions of charcoal drawings. There are 91 plates, mostly one to a page with a few occupying a double page, plus the many illustrations accompanying the essays and other sections.

There is inevitably a certain amount of repetition in the various essays, and while constant mention is made of Bechtle's use of photography and methods of transference of the images to canvass, none of them discusses in any depth how he his actually applies his paint. While it is frequently pointed out that the finished pictures from a distance, and of course in reproduction as in this book, look photorealistic, we are reminded that in fact the paint on closer inspection is relatively freely applied. Unfortunately we have to take the writers' word on this for there is not one life size detail of an oil painting, the nearest thing is the picture introducing the plates which is about one third life size, but it gives little away. I find this disappointing, it is akin to viewing the exhibition but not being allowed to venture any closer than around 15 feet to the pictures. The water colours and charcoal drawings, being initially smaller do not present such a problem.

It is nonetheless a handsome well produced volume; we can clearly glean the Becthle's primary subjects: cars, urban landscapes and people known to the artist; and the reproductions as here even greatly reduced in reproduction still manage to convey the freedom and vitality of the work.

Robert Bechtle the Photo Realist
edward hopper ... robert bechtle ... william eggleston ...

the great american image creator.

the only book of bechtle. great!!

The painted snapsnot
The mere act of transforming what might be considered an average snapshot into a work of art is Bechtle's magic. Quiet streets, mundane automobiles, and people from a home photo album take on an air of the sublime, proving that the greatest power of photorealism lies not in the technique, but in the process of transforming a snapshot into an irrefutable memory.

Capturing the Magic of California Light
Robert Bechtle has been a creative force in California art since the 1960s, yet his name remains practically unknown outside the Bay Area artists group.This very fine monograph by Janet Bishop, designed as a catalogue to accompany the traveling exhibition of this works, should help to mend that sin of omission.The style of writing is warm and informative and, in many ways, in keeping with Bechtle's vision of the world he paints!

One quick perusal of the many reproductions of his major works in this book quickly leaves the impression that Bechtle understands and successfully captures the quality of light that is peculiar to California.His street scenes of angled cars and bungalows are flooded with light and shadow.Though his art movement classification is Photorealism, Bechtle goes beyond mere photo copying techniques. His work is more about our lifestyle and our living compartments normally looked upon as mere blocks of space in which we function.Bechtle enhances everything he paints with a sunny 'romanticism' if you will.His art is more about a love affair with the atmosphere's effect on the mundane places we inhabit than it is with simple reproduction of images and landscapes.

For the art lover of realism and for those who respect the prodigious gifts of representational artists, this book is a must for the library.Highly recommended.Grady Harp, December 05

Super Artist
This is a great book about a great artist. I saw the pictures in original and they are very good reproduced in this book. Who loves photorealism should have it. ... Read more