books tagged “craft”

Celebrating the 125th anniversary of its first publication, an updated edition provides more than twenty thousand expertly researched definitions of typical phrases and words and explains their historical origins. National ad/promo. [via]

Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable is one of the world's best-loved reference books. First published in 1870, this treasury of 'words that have a story to tell' has established itself as one of the great reference classics—the first port of call for tens of thousands of terms, phrases and proper names, and a fund of fascinating, unusual and out-of-the-way information.

At the heart of the dictionary lie entries on the meaning and origin of a vast range of words and expressions, from everyday English phrases to Latin tags. Alongside these are articles on people and events in mythology and religion, and on folk customs, superstitions and beliefs. Major events and people in history are also treated, as are movements in art and literature, famous literary characters, and key aspects of popular culture, philosophy, geography, science and magic. To complete this rich mix of information, Brewer and his subsequent editors have added an extraordinary and enticing miscellany of general knowledge—lists of patron saints, terms in heraldry, regimental nicknames, public house names, the principal English horse-races and famous last words.

For the Seventeenth Edition of Brewer's the entire existing text has been revised and updated and more than 1500 new articles added. These include:

• words and phrases (best thing since sliced bread, bling, where the bodies are buried);
• characters and places from fantasy literature and film (Gollum, Hogwarts, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Voldemort);
• political, celebrity and sporting nicknames (Butcher of Baghdad; Dubya);
• miscellaneous arcana (Chorasmian Waste, dilligrout, dwile flonking).

This first new Brewer's of the 21st century maintains and respects the book's 135-year-old tradition, while offering a wealth of fascinating new material to reflect the 'phrase and fable' of a changing world.

Ophelia Jensen's good witch granny Abigail revels in her paranormal powers. But Ophelia never asked for her bothersome psychic abilities -- especially since they proved worthless when the thirty-something librarian's best friend Brian was murdered by a still-unknown assailant.

Now, five years later, another friend is gone, killed in almost identical fashion. Even dear old Abby isn't safe, distracted as she is by her fight to prevent a massive, mega-polluting pig-farming operation from invading their small Iowa town. And Ophelia can't count on her snarling, scoffing nemesis, police detective Henry Comacho, to get the job done, so she'll have to take matters into her own hands. Because a common thread to the crimes -- and a possible next victim -- is suddenly becoming troublingly apparent . . . and it's Ophelia Jensen herself!

From ceramics to silversmithing, calligraphy to textiles, hot glass to bookbinding, crafts have played a rich and complex role in the social, cultural, and artistic history of twentieth-century Britain. This all-encompassing book is the first to survey the full range of individual craft disciplines and key practitioners from the pre-World War I years of the Arts and Crafts Movement to the 1990s. Tanya Harrod shows how the crafts movement emerged in response to generalized anxiety about the production, commodification, and consumption of objects in a highly industrialized society. Caught between the more powerful disciplines of fine art, architecture, and design for industry, crafts have defined and redefined themselves throughout the century.

The book begins with the craft revival of the early 1900s, tracing the complex legacy of John Ruskin and William Morris. The author then discusses how the Arts and Crafts Movement was forced to reexamine its aims during the Great War; how the development of the crafts was closely connected to the development of modernism between the wars; and how during World War II the idea of the handmade, often in the form of vernacular craft discovered in remote pockets of England, played a significant part in propagandizing a national culture worth defending. The book also explores the postwar beginnings of a countercultural workshop-based craft movement led by Bernard Leach and the continuing redefinition of crafts as the government-funded Crafts Council pushed them toward the fine arts and then the government attempted in the 1980s to recast them as exemplars of enterprise culture. Harrod describes the increasingly blurred division between craft and designfor mass production at the conclusion of the book. Along with historians, educators, artists, craftspersons, and collectors, readers with an interest in British cultural history will find in this book much to delight and fascinate.

This book accompanies an exhibition of British crafts, "The Pleasures of Peace: Craft, Art and Design in Britain from the 1940s to the 1960s", that will open at the Sainsbury Centre at the University of East Anglia in spring 1999. [via]

The Dictionary of Imaginary Places is best described as a guidebook of the make-believe. A good way to understand what Alberto Manguel and Gianni Guadalupi set out to do with their book is to imagine that you want to travel to a place like Oz, as in The Wizard of. What you remember from watching the classic movie and what you would want to know as a traveler are two very distinct things. What you'll earn in this book is that Oz is a large rectangular country where everyone works half the time and plays half the time, one that is divided into four smaller countries: Munchkin Country, Winkie Country, Quadling Country, and Gillikin Country. Flip through more of the book's alphabetized listings and you'll discover Fuddlecumjig, a town in Oz's Quadling Country whose inhabitants, the Fuddles, are among the most curious people in Oz. The main peculiarity is that they are made of many pieces, rather like jigsaw puzzles, and literally fall apart when strangers approach, and have to be reassembled with skill and patience. A travel tip for readers with vivid imaginations: put Fuddlecumjig's cook together first if you want a meal. And so go the descriptions of more than 1,200 worlds invented by storytellers throughout history, from Homer's Wandering Rocks in the Odyssey to Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park. But there's more here than just the worlds of literature and film. You can learn more about John Lennon's Nutopia from his album Mind Games. Nutopia is a country with no land, no boundaries, no passports, and no laws other than cosmic laws. And the Beatles' Pepperland from Yellow Submarine is described as a country 18,000 leagues beneath the Sea of Green, where inhabitants dress in bright colors and rainbows are frequent. Written with rich descriptions that bring places to life, The Dictionary of Imaginary Places is a wonderful, magical reference book perfect for fiction lovers. --John Russell [via]

You know the authors' names. You recognize the title. You've probably used this book yourself. This is The Elements of Style , the classic style manual, now in a fourth edition. A new Foreword by Roger Angell reminds readers that the advice of Strunk & White is as valuable today as when it was first offered.This book's unique tone, wit and charm have conveyed the principles of English style to millions of readers. Use the fourth edition of "the little book" to make a big impact with writing. [via]

Featuring contributions from widely published and practicing poets who are also experienced teachers and presenters of poetry, The Eye of the Poet: Six Views of the Art and Craft of Poetry provides students and other readers with invaluable practical advice. Ideal for courses in poetry writing and creative writing, it includes six sections written by Billy Collins, Carol Muske, David Baker and Ann Townsend, Yusef Komunyakaa, Maxine Kumin, and David Citino. These poets speak their minds about their relationship with their art and craft, offering guidance to writers at all levels of experience from the beginner to the veteran.
In his section, Billy Collins looks at the ways reading and writing poetry give readers pleasure, while Carol Muske's essay examines the question, "What is a poem?" David Baker and Ann Townsend discuss the formal and musical aspects of composing and reading poems; they include many engaging exercises and directions to further reading. Yusef Komunyakaa enrolls readers in a virtual poetry workshop, Maxine Kumin considers the necessities and demands of audience, and David Citino talks about the roles that poets play as they conceive and execute their work. In their essays, the contributors include examples of poems--written by themselves or others--to illustrate key points. While the chapters are meant to be self-contained explorations, they are also interrelated parts of the volume as a whole. The Eye of the Poet is a stimulating conversation in which successful poets share with readers their enthusiasm, knowledge, and vision, as well as their estimation of the possibilities of the poem. In this book, students of poetry will discover the wide variety of options available to them when they sit down to create their own works. [via]

Genealogy Online presents a lot of information, much (but not all) of it having to do with finding facts about family lineage on the Internet. Mostly, this is a directory of big genealogy Web sites, newsgroups, mailing lists, and commercial services. It's also an introduction to Web communities and the tools you need to participate in them. These are the things you'll need to understand in order to extract and contribute information about your heritage as part of the Internet community.

Elizabeth Powell Crowe covers RootsWeb, the ROOTS-L mailing list, AfriGeneas, and the remarkable online genealogy resources maintained by the Mormon Church. She also pays attention to the Golden Gate forum on America Online and some of CompuServe's genealogy forums. There's some coverage of standalone family-history software like Family Tree Maker and some useful information about genealogical concepts like Ahnentafels numbers.

Genealogy Online would be better if it included more information about obscure Internet resources sites having to do with particular families or small ethnic groups. There are enough of these to make an annotated directory worthwhile. The author also could dispense with most of the general Internet how-to information, which occupies a lot of this book. --David Wall [via]

Genealogy Online presents a lot of information, much (but not all) of it having to do with finding facts about family lineage on the Internet. Mostly, this is a directory of big genealogy Web sites, newsgroups, mailing lists, and commercial services. It's also an introduction to Web communities and the tools you need to participate in them. These are the things you'll need to understand in order to extract and contribute information about your heritage as part of the Internet community.

Elizabeth Powell Crowe covers RootsWeb, the ROOTS-L mailing list, AfriGeneas, and the remarkable online genealogy resources maintained by the Mormon Church. She also pays attention to the Golden Gate forum on America Online and some of CompuServe's genealogy forums. There's some coverage of standalone family-history software like Family Tree Maker and some useful information about genealogical concepts like Ahnentafels numbers.

Genealogy Online would be better if it included more information about obscure Internet resources sites having to do with particular families or small ethnic groups. There are enough of these to make an annotated directory worthwhile. The author also could dispense with most of the general Internet how-to information, which occupies a lot of this book. --David Wall [via]

Genealogy has always been a laborious, time-consuming hobby, but the Internet-connected home computer has changed all that. In Genealogy Online, Elizabeth Powell Crowe presents modern-age genealogy tips, tricks, and resources to the family historian. Be aware that Crowe focuses on genealogists who wish to learn how to use computer resources rather than on computer users who wish to learn how to do genealogy. She spends a fair amount of time discussing cyberspace basics--what the Internet is, how to use modems, netiquette, and choosing an ISP. Crowe then gives examples of the help that can be found on ROOTS-L and other mailing lists, the Web, and various bulletin board systems. The Web section alone offers connections to 50 of the most helpful research sites. Although she discusses at length such invaluable services as the National Genealogical Society BBS, online library card catalogs, and a number of genealogical databases, she doesn't overlook one of the researcher's most valuable resources--other researchers. Crowe guides the reader to a number of places where genealogists exchange tips and discoveries, including numerous newsgroups and genealogical forums on the various online services. [via]

What mouse wouldn't find peace in the cosmic interior of the Taj Mahal, or in the valuted chambers of France's Chartres Cathedral? Mouse House includes easy-to-follow instructions for making five unique, worldly, impressive residences where a mouse can check in after a hard day of roaming the far reaches of the electronic frontier. [via]

Hardcover. 303 Stitches with patterns and projects [via]

Picture the poor, young, serious-fiction writer. He toils alone at a pace not so different from that of Lincoln Tunnel traffic at rush hour in New York. His spouse has a "real" job, or perhaps he has a trust fund. His college friends are cashing in on their dot-coms and wondering if he's ever going to join the real world. He is not hell-bent on publication; he is trying to write "serious, honest fiction, the kind of novel that readers will find they enjoy reading more than once, the kind of fiction likely to survive." He's likely to have no idea whether he's succeeding. Nobody understands him.

Well, almost nobody. John Gardner understands him. Gardner's sympathetic On Becoming a Novelist is the novelist's ultimate comfort food--better than macaroni and cheese, better than chocolate. Gardner, a fiction writer himself (Grendel), knows in his bones the desperate questioning of a writer who's not sure he's up to the task. He recognizes the validation that comes with being published, just as he believes that "for a true novel there is generally no substitute for slow, slow baking." Gardner also has strong feelings about what kinds of workshops help (and whom they help), and what kinds hinder. But a full half of Gardner's book is devoted to an exploration of the writer's nature. The storyteller's intelligence, he says, "is composed of several qualities, most of which, in normal people, are signs of either immaturity or incivility." In addition, a writer needs "verbal sensitivity, accuracy of eye," and "an almost demonic compulsiveness." But wait--there's more. A writer needs to be driven, and to be driven, he says insightfully, "a psychological wound is helpful." --Jane Steinberg [via]

This slender guide by Mary Oliver deserves a place on the shelves of any budding poet. In clear, accessible prose, Oliver (winner of both the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award for poetry) arms the reader with an understanding of the technical aspects of poetry writing. Her lessons on sound, line (length, meter, breaks), poetic forms (and lack thereof), tone, imagery, and revision are illustrated by a handful of wonderful poems (too bad Oliver was so modest as to not include her own). What could have been a dry account is infused throughout with Oliver's passion for her subject, which she describes as "a kind of possible love affair between something like the heart (that courageous but also shy factory of emotion) and the learned skills of the conscious mind." One comes away from this volume feeling both empowered and daunted. Writing poetry is good, hard work. [via]

This book is a collection and expansion of the column, "Programming Pearls," published in Communication of the Association for Computing Machinery. The essays present programs that go beyond solid engineering techniques to be creative and clever solutions to computer problems. The programs are fun and they teach important programming techniques and fundamental design principles. Written in a engaging style, this book will appeal to people with some programming experience who want to learn more about refining their techniques. ACM Press. 0201103311B04062001 [via]

WESTERN WIND teaches by example and provides an outstanding collection of classic and contemporary poems. The text also includes exercises, chapter summaries, games, diagrams, illustrations, and 4-color reproductions of great works of art. [via]

What If? is the first handbook for writers based on the idea that specific exercises are one of the most useful and provocative methods for mastering the art of writing fiction. With more than twenty-five years of experience teaching creative writing between them, Anne Bernays and Pamela Painter offer more than seventy-five exercises for both beginners and more experienced writers. These exercises are designed to develop and refine two basic skills: writing like a writer and, just as important, thinking like a writer. They deal with such topics as discovering where to start and end a story; learning when to use dialogue and when to use indirect discourse; transforming real events into fiction; and finding language that both sings and communicates precisely. What If? will be an essential addition to every writer's library, a welcome and much-used companion, a book that gracefully borrows a whisper from the muse. [via]

Bewitched meets Murder She Wrote in this delightful new cozy mystery series featuring Ophelia Jensen, small town librarian and reluctant psychic, and her grandmother Abby, a benevolent witch.  Thirty something Ophelia Jensen wants to live a quiet life as a small town librarian. She's created a comfortable existence with her kooky, colorful grandmother Abby, and if it were up to her, they could live out their days-along with Ophelia's dog Lady and cat Queenie-in peace and quiet. But, to Ophelia's dismay, she and Abby aren't a typical grandmother/granddaughter duo. She possesses psychic powers, and Abby is a kindly witch. And while Ophelia would do anything to dismiss her gift-harboring terrible guilt after her best friend was killed and she was unable to stop it-threatening events keep popping up, forcing her to tap into her powers of intuition. To make matters worse, a strange-yet devastatingly attractive-man is hanging around Ophelia's library, and no matter how many times she tells him she's sworn off men forever, he persists. Soon this handsome newcomer reveals he's following a lead on a local drug ring, and then a dead body shows up right in Abby's backyard. And much as Ophelia would like to put away her spells forever, she and Abby must use their special powers to keep themselves, and others, out of harm's way. [via]