Thomas Menino: Mayor for A New America

• Mayor for A New America: Thomas Menino by Thomas M Menino with Jack Beatty on Amazon

Disclaimer: I'm reviewing the incomplete Advance Reader Copy from Amazon Vine, so some of my remarks may not apply to the finished edition.

Multi-term Boston Mayor Thomas M Menino brings us a memorable account of his five terms in an introduction and only five chapters―but admittedly they're five long ones. The intro quickly moves us through the Boston Marathon bombing and its aftermath that created many days of national news during April 2013. As I read the intro about the Boston bombing, I felt I was there at the scene while I also clearly remembered sitting in front of my television in southern California for the next piece of news; it helped that I'd lived in Watertown and had a clue as to the lay of the land where police found the bombing suspect holed up in a boat moored in a backyard.

Chapters include: (1) Menino's early days in Boston's Hide Pahk naybahhood and how human connections, interactive politics, excellent people skills, and hard work took him to City Hall, first as acting mayor, and then as elected mayor; (2) Schools; (3) Police and Fire; (4) Getting Stuff Done; a concluding (5) "To Think I Did All That," expressing his amazement that he accomplished so much.

In contrast to most other major US cities, Boston proper covers only about 48 square miles. Nonetheless, as Menino describes and as I experienced, in historical and present-day influence, and in scope of problems such as crime, corruption, poverty, racism, educational underachievement, and wealth, Boston is very major big city. I lived in Boston more than once, so Menino's description of mostly Irish educational, police, and fire with their cronyism, deal-makings, and corruption took me back in time. Tom Menino was the first Italian-American mayor of Boston―he was the first mayor whose heritage was not Irish-American.

Some reviewers have mentioned the book emphasizes Menino's successes, and it does. Hey, he's a politician and this is in print, so of course he wants to memorialize himself well, yet he doesn't entirely omit a few endeavors that didn't bear healthy fruit. I know Grove Hall, Jeremiah E Burke High School, Roslindale Square, Roxbury... I also experienced changing Boston demographics. At one time my landlord was a second generation Italian-American; some years later, I rented from a fairly recent immigrant from the Dominican Republic.

The chapters are long yet engaging, and I was disappointed when I reached the end―is that all there is? I wanted more! My copy lacked the index I know I'd have enjoyed reading through because I'd have known most of the names and places.

Mayor for a New America leads us to ask questions about the role of government in different settings; in any case and place, how much government is too much? How much is not enough? Does a poorer or a literally poverty-stricken constituency legitimately need more services and more direct governing? How much can we expect under-educated and historically underserved populations to do for themselves? The work, the mystery, and sometimes the magic of politics helps create better lives. Thomas Menino accomplished that, and he laid a solid foundation for his successors to continue his legacy.

• My Amazon Review: vivid memories, future hopes

Train: The Definitive Visual History

• Train: The Definitive Visual History on Amazon. Amazon cites Giles Chapman as the main author.

What a fabulous surprise! Even better, brighter, bolder, bigger (yes, I noticed the dimensions in the product listing) than I'd anticipated, Smithsonian Train: The Definitive Visual History is visually delightful, informative, and inspiring.

From the embossed cover portrait of Southern Railway Locomotive 1401, to the detailed table of contents that lets you choose what to read about and learn about next, to the sumptuous feast of full colour photographs throughout, this has got to be one of the best books ever about any topic!

Although there's an extremely high ratio of images to text, histories and descriptions don't ramble, but tell you what you want to know. I especially love the final feature, How Railroads Work, Engines and Tracks (Signals, Wheels, Locomotives, etc.).

Like many people, I have some history with riding the rails: a couple of fairly long trips in the continental USA as a young kid, later as a teenager, then as a young adult; a few dozen or more Budd SPV-2000 – "Buddlliner" – jaunts to and from Boston and the North Shore of Boston; the almost impossibly efficient, on time EuroRail; and more recently the AmTrak. I remember returning to Salt Lake City from Southern Idaho Sunday evenings with a long freight train riding alongside the highway on our right and to the west; I can't count the times I waited at a RR crossing when I lived in Utah; who hasn't experienced with their entire being a train whistle piercing the night sky in small town rural, big city urban USA? My grandfather had planned to finish high school and then college, but got a job with the railway, at that time considered the future of the country, and never gave school another thought.

Another reviewed has outlined book content, so no need for a duplicate listing. Train is heavy to hold (both a lap book and a coffee table one), and very well bound. If you can describe a book as "Heirloom Quality," this one is for sure.

• My Amazon Review: bright! bold! a treasure!

yard renovation

all saints tree

All Saints Patio Tree in Spring Flower


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drawing and reinventing landscape

• Drawing and Reinventing Landscape, AD Primer on Amazon


It's wonderful having a multitude of full-colour illustrations of mostly non-computerized graphic landscape representations of many types – photographs, pencil drawings, ink and watercolour renderings, charts – in this book; details regarding history and current status of landscape architecture and garden design are interesting and illuminating, as well.

I chose Drawing and Reinventing Landscape because of my lifelong interest in cities and in the process of urbanization, and because of my current work as a graphic artist and designer. Author Diana Balmori has worked in the field of landscape architecture most of her life, and since she has achieved a well-deserved degree of renown; her expertise and perspective makes this book especially insightful and valuable.

However, I've removed a star because the text is too tiny for comfort, and its size adds an unattractive sense of miniaturization to the book. In natural light or with reading glasses I can read it easily enough, but a little less information – or the same information expressed more succinctly – would greatly increase the visual appeal. I assume all books in this AD Primer series carry the same general format, but related to my remarks about point size of text, if the publishers were not going to produce this book or the series in a larger format (not necessarily coffee-table size), I'd recommend increasing the font size. But happily, there's still enough literal "white space" on each page for create an altogether pleasing presentation.

• My Amazon review: landscape representation and history

The City as a Tangled Bank

The City As A Tangled Bank: Urban Design versus Urban Evolution – AD primer (Architectural Design Primer)

The City as a Tangled Bank has taken a permanent place in my growing cities-related library! Terry Farrell, principal of Farrells architect- planners (London, Hong Kong, and Shanghai) brings perspective and wisdom of the kind only a long life of experience and observation can provide! The subtitle implies somewhat of a contest between planning imposed from "outside and above," and growth that occurs from "inside and below" urban space and place, but that expresses it too simply. Along with intro and conclusion, throughout the nine chapters, we learn about the truly endless organic process of letting the city (any city―ancient, young, or in-between) itself show and guide you into what needs to happen for its health and growth―similar to Kevin Lynch's legible city: a city you can read.

Tangled Bank in the title, Evolution in the subtitle both refer to Darwin's Origin of Species. Sir Terry celebrates connecting, communicating, time, layering, adaptation, emergence, and conversion in any urban growth and development process. The author is no fan of Big Architecture, not enthusiastic about Mies, Corbu, et al. After all, that's the type of inorganic, imposed-from without style he decries and dislikes, because it does not spring up from within the urban organism, and is a product of human initiative rather than of the city itself as place-maker―at one point he describes "place as client." If the results are visually attractive, why is that so terrible? Because it does not result in a humanly livable habitat or surroundings.

The bibliography truly is brief, listing five books in the Emergence and Evolution category, a dozen in Urban Design and Architecture, although each chapter includes detailed endnotes. With some in black and white, others full-colour, the many many drawings, photographs, sketches, and maps (with a heavy emphasis on London) enhance the book's clarity and usefulness, helping make it a visual delight. However, I wish the basic text had been printed in a larger type size, and that goes double or triple for the microscopic end notes. Also, physical weight and dimensions make it a nice size to heft. This is not a school textbook or a how-to handbook, so please don't assess it in those terms!

my amazon review: helping cities become themselves

Russell Shorto: Amsterdam

Amsterdam: A History of the World's Most Liberal City, by Russell Shorto on Amazon. Today, 22 October 2013, is the book's publication day!

Russell Shorto knows his Amsterdam! He knows the social, economic, political, and religious history of the city; he has done a lot of research (of course you need already to know what something is about in order to know what to look up and discover more about), and brought all of it together extremely well.

I love Amsterdam, city of canals, and city of bicycles. I've loved the city since before I first ventured there. I love landing at Schiphol and the sound of church bells. I love that some of my progenitors were Dutch. I even love the cold wind blowing off the North Sea. And I love how Russell Shorto describes the city's human scale, its dual emphases on the individual and on a fully collaborative society that accomplishes virtually nothing without getting it done together. I had to read this book!

In school most of us learned something about how humans working together claimed The Netherlands from the sea; ocean trade routes and trading in commodities; speculative financial markets; exploration and settlement of "new worlds" formed part of most high school and undergrad curricula. How interesting it was to read biographical sketches of at least a dozen truly historically pivotal Amsterdammers like Rembrandt and Spinoza and van Gogh―with each account of each life exactly the correct length.

The author articulates ways all these and many more aspects of living in Amsterdam (and truly, of being Dutch) contributed to the development of an almost unimaginably diverse and complex world within a world that, in general, has been a safe place for differences.

Amazon send me a prepublication "bound galley," so I don't have end notes or index, but I will take advantage of the splendid bibliography. Five stars for sure, and a keeper for my own bookshelves.

my Amazon review: Amsterdam Panorama

desert dance

• Desert Dance by Charlotte Armajo and Teri Sloat on Amazon.


This is early October, so we recently experienced another full Harvest Moon like the one in Desert Dance. In colorfully subtle tertiary hues, Teri Sloat illustrates lizards, wild hares, rattlesnakes, sage hens, wolves, and roadrunners dancing under a bright moon as it illuminates the Southwestern USA desert. This mostly is a picture book of seven 2-page spreads, a title page and a closing page—the enchanting art totally makes the book sing! Not that Charlotte Armajo's simple text that includes a lot of repeated words almost any preschooler or early-grader would understand isn't well-done and appropriate, it just doesn't contain a whole lot of substance or imagination, so 4 stars total.

• my amazon review: desert dancing

Designing B2B Brands

• Designing B2B Brands on Amazon


This beautifully planned, strikingly designed, and solidly produced book of a couple hundred pages amounts to a seminar in the highly integrated development and presentation of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, a global brand I'd previously not known about. The Google short version of their mission tells us, "Deloitte services include audit, consulting, financial advisory, risk management and tax."

Indeed there are some differences between Business-To-Business and Business-To-Consumer branding; a comprehensive, up-to-date, panorama of a single firm is just that, and won't approach or touch upon every imaginable identity communication concern you may have about your own service or consumer product. Nonetheless, whether you're an MBA, an MFA, or work with branding in another capacity, these "lessons" the subtitle describes can be appropriated well and applied to good effect in many other cases. Following contemporary design trends, the book's open layout, excellent typography, and use of [literal] "white space" conveys a sense of leisurely opulence and purpose. Designing B2B Brands has found a place alongside the books I consult for inspiration and return to for advice.

• my amazon review: design seminar

An Ordinary Toad's Extraordinary Night

An Ordinary Toad's Extraordinary Night on Amazon


Just as she did with The Tiniest Tiger, Joanne McGonagle has written another book that helps people of all ages understand a little more about the orders and distinctives of nature (especially amphibians in this case) than they previously may have known; even better, she has given us a story that helps all of us of any age celebrate our uniqueness, along with the irreplaceable value each of us has in the world and within creation. The storyline seems too long and complicated for most younger kids of about 4th grade or younger, yet at almost every step along the way, they still can learn a truth or a fact about nature or about themselves that doesn't depend upon grasping the entire narrative from first to final sentence.

Joanne's words and the whimsical though quite realistic pictures place us inside the story of young American Toad Andrew, who, although he is an "ordinary" toad, is not a "common" toad—we can find those many places in Europe. Via Andrew's interactions with his mother and grandfather and with other animals, he learns a lot about himself, and teaches the reader about differences between toads and frogs.

Rachael Mahaffey created the beautiful illustrations that make this just as much a picture book as it is a story book! However, just as with several books for younger readers I've recently reviewed, I very much wish the color palette of An Ordinary Toad's Ordinary Night was brighter and lighter, though I appreciate that the darker, more subdued hues may be closer to actual toad habitat. Also, the format that guides the reader by highlighting all the text inside scrolls is a great touch. Every creature, every human, every aspect of every habitat is important!

my amazon review: Toads, Frogs, Uniqueness, Importance...

Little Lost Tiger

Little Lost Tiger by Jonathan London, author; Ilya Spirin, illustrator on amazon


Little Lost Tiger is a beautifully illustrated description of a night and the following morning in the life of Siberian tiger Striped One and her young son, Amba. Author Jonathan London nicely describes the frozen habitat, the creatures (tigers and others) who live there, and the excitement of a sudden forest fire. "A Note from the Author" at the end tells us a little about Siberian tigers; it informs us Udege and Nanai tribes both call tigers "Amba," so that's where the baby tiger in Little Lost Tiger got his name.

I love that the story itself is short enough to hold a young child's attention; I also appreciate how London's narrative and Ilya Spirin's drawings work in tandem to describe the Siberian wilderness. My main reservation is about Little Lost Tiger being yet another book for young children with dark hued artwork! I realize the setting most likely was not especially light and bright, but a few more glints and suggestions of brightness would help with total appeal.

my Amazon review: a story about Siberian Tigers

Partners

Partners on amazon, with eight chapters, each in two parts: Part One: Neighborhood Revitalization through Partnership; Part Two: Whittier Neighborhood, a Minneapolis Case Study.

More than ten years after its publication in 1982, at one of the annual Salt Lake City Neighborhood Conferences I received a copy of this soft-cover, 11.7"x9.1"x0.8" explorative report on revitalization of the Whittier section of Minneapolis. It's printed on heavy, coated paper, and it's packed with narrative, with Black and White and color photographs, diagrams, charts, and general inspirations. I'm reading myself and my current situation into some words about the USA from the Prologue that could apply to many individuals:

"This book is about the end of an era and the beginning of a new possibility. The era it leaves behind was 'on the road,' mobile, going anywhere, celebrating space. The possibility it welcomes is 'coming home,' rooting, creating a stake, celebrating place."


"Neighborhood is about place. It declares that one special place is the foundation for life's living. America 'on the move' was hard on places, whether prairies or forests or older cities. This is the story of a new generation that came home and found a way to recover a place that had been misused by old-fashioned Americans. It is about a beginning, a possibility, a way people act when place really matters." [iv]

In the wake of famously misguided attempts by government and by private investors to remedy real problems of inner city decay, neighborhood decline, and infrastructure deterioration, Dayton-Hudson (now Target Corporation) partnered with residents, businesses, local government and other entities to help the actual people of Whittier revitalize and reclaim the community for themselves by creating a home, a place to be, during the 1970s. Partners is a fascinating study about people power, grass roots action, and the resurgence of hope and life. Three decades later, this book is hardly dated at all, and still would be useful and instructive for any urban studies, American studies, sociology, or cultural anthropology course.

my amazon review: creating home

The Rain Stomper

• The Rain Stomper on amazon

• Author Addie Boswell's site

• Illustrator Eric Velazquez

• Eric's blog

Even if you don't read The Rain Stomper aloud, you still can hear the words of the book, you can feel the sense of those words as you turn the pages. The illustrator has come close to achieving a kinetic style with the static text of this printed book!

Enjoy the simple story of young Jazmin's journey from disappointment over waking up to a rainy day she at first imagines will ruin the big parade, on to her venturing out of her city apartment into the rain, listening to sounds of a very heavy storm, then watch her stomping, splashing, through the rain as her neighbors come out theirs door to join her. Eventually everyone drums, stomps, swirls, splashes, and twirls the sun into coming out and shining down on them.

Addie Boswell's words are easy reading, Eric Velasquez' somberly-colored pictures are delightful viewing—he illustrates the rainy day with perfection! Most likely kids in the 7-12 year age group of those in the illustrations would most appreciate The Rain Stomper, but younger kids easily could memorize the words and recite them along with the pictures.

• my amazon review: celebrating weather!

Art Walk 2013

I, Win

Introducing Win Kelly Charles and her World

I, Win: Hope and Life: my journey as a woman with cerebral palsy living in a non-disabled world, by Win Kelly Charles, kindle edition on Amazon; and paperback.

This short book of fewer than 100 pages offers a winsome overview of Win Kelly Charles' life and aspirations—so far. Because she was born prematurely at very low birth rate and as a result of other factors, Win has been living, struggling, and thriving with cerebral palsy all her life. Her parents' devotion, imagination and care of her from the beginning gave her the support she needed to begin and continue overcoming (conservatively) tremendous odds, and grow into a creative, productive adult artist, teacher, and entrepreneur. Being an Aspen, Colorado, native helped a lot, too!

Each chapter moves quickly through details of an aspect of Win's life, including explanations of ways she adapts in order to accomplish different tasks. I was surprised at how involved she has been in sports like skiing and mountain climbing, but as she pointed out, everyone has challenges, gifts, limitations, and assets. I'm looking forward to reading the next installment of Win's life journey! A "thank you" to the author for offering the free Kindle edition.

You can find Win Charles on Facebook.

my amazon review: Introducing Win and her World