The art of looking sideways

By Fletcher, Alan

Publishing Date: 2001

Classification: 700

Call Number: 700 FLE

The Art of Looking Sideways is a primer in visual intelligence, an exploration of the workings of the eye, the hand, the brain and the imagination. It is an inexhaustible mine of anecdotes, quotations, images, curious facts and useless information, oddities, serious science, jokes and memories, all concerned with the interplay between the verbal and the visual, and the limitless resources of the human mind. Loosely arranged in 72 chapters, all this material is presented in a wonderfully inventive series of pages that are themselves masterly demonstrations of the expressive use of type, space, color and imagery. This book does not set out to teach lessons, but it is full of wisdom and insight collected from all over the world. Describing himself as a visual jackdaw, master designer Alan Fletcher has distilled a lifetime of experience and reflection into a brilliantly witty and inimitable exploration of such subjects as perception, color, pattern, proportion, paradox, illusion, language, alphabets, words, letters, ideas, creativity, culture, style, aesthetics and value. The Art of Looking Sideways is the ultimate guide to visual awareness, a magical compilation that will entertain and inspire all those who enjoy the interplay between word and image, and who relish the odd and the unexpected. - (Grand Central Pub)

Henry Darger, throw away boy: the tragic life of an outsider artist

By Elledge, Jim

Publishing Date: 2013

Classification: 700

Call Number: 700.92 ELL

"Henry Darger was utterly unknown during his lifetime, keeping a quiet, secluded existence as a janitor on Chicago's North Side. When he died his landlord discovered a treasure trove of more than three hundred canvases and more than 30,000 manuscript pages depicting a rich, shocking fantasy world-many showing hermaphroditic children being eviscerated, crucified and strangled. While some art historians tend to dismiss Darger as an unhinged psychopath, in Henry Darger, Throw-Away Boy, Jim Elledge cuts through the cloud of controversy and rediscovers Darger as a damaged, fearful, gay man, raised in a world unaware of the consequences of child abuse or gay shame. This thoughtful, sympathetic biography tells the true story of a tragically misunderstood artist. Drawn from fascinating histories of the vice-ridden districts of 1900s Chicago, tens of thousands of pages of primary source material, and Elledge's own work in queer history, the book also features a full-color reproduction of a never-before-seen canvas from a private gallery in New York, as well as a previously undiscovered photograph of Darger with his life-partner Whillie. Engaging and arresting, Henry Darger, Throw-Away Boy brings alive a complex, brave, and compelling man whose outsider art is both challenging and a triumph over trauma"--

Boxers

By Yang, Gene Luen

Publishing Date: 2013

Classification: 700

Call Number: 741.5 YAN

In China in 1898, bands of foreign missionaries and soldiers roam the countryside, bullying and robbing Chinese peasants. Little Bao has had enough: harnessing the powers of ancient Chinese gods, he recruits an army of Boxers--commoners trained in kung fu who fight to free China from "foreign devils."

Saints

By Yang, Gene Luen

Publishing Date: 2013

Classification: 700

Call Number: 741.5 YAN

"China, 1898. An unwanted and unwelcome fourth daughter, Four-Girl isn't even given a proper name by her family when she's born. She finally finds friendship-- and a name, Vibiana -- in the most unlikely of places: Christianity. But China is a dangerous place for Christians. The Boxer Rebellion is in full swing, and bands of young men roam the countryside, murdering Westerners and Chinese Christians alike. Torn between her nation and her Christian friends, Vibiana will have to decide where her true loyalties lie-- and whether she is willing to die for her faith" -- front flap.

The night bookmobile

By Niffenegger, Audrey

Publishing Date: 2010

Classification: 700

Call Number: 741.5973 NIF

"The Night Bookmobile tells the story of a wistful woman who one night encounters a mysterious disappearing library on wheels that contains every book she has ever read. Seeing her history and most intimate self in this library, she embarks on a search for the bookmobile. But her search turns into an obsession, as she longs to be reunited with her own collection and memories."--Publisher's website.

Painting more animals on rocks

By Wellford, Lin

Publishing Date: c1998

Classification: 700

Call Number: 751.426 WEL

Piero's light: In search of Piero della Francesca : a Renaissance painter and the revolution in art, religion, and science

By Witham, Larry

Publishing Date: c2014

Classification: 700

Call Number: 759.5 WIT

An innovative painter in the early generation of renaissance artists and one of the great enigmas of art history, Piero Della Francesca was also a knowledgeable scholar on religious topics and a mathematician who wanted to use perspective and geometry to make painting a "true science." Piero lived in a tumultuous age of princes and popes, soldiers and schisms. A skilled geometer, he was also part of the philosophical revival of Platonism, an ancient worldview that would shape our modern revolutions in art, religion, and science. In 'Piero's Light', Larry Witham presents Piero not only as a vivid character in his own time, but as an integral piece of our artistic legacy that takes us from past visions of belief, beauty, and knowledge to a secular age, a time when science is redefining our mental experiences. Although only sixteen of Piero's works survive, few art historians doubt his importance in the renaissance.

More miles than money: journeys through American music

By Cartwright, Garth

Publishing Date: 2009

Classification: 700

Call Number: 780.973 CAR

Constantly in motion, Cartwright observes a frayed, divided US, one plagued by crystal meth and poverty. But when the music plays and the open road calls he finds America's primal spirit remains. More Miles Than Money is an outsider's fierce odyssey through the land of the free. - (Blackwell North Amer) Takes you on a journey through the backwoods of American music. This book sets out to see whether the American roots music that the author loved - blues and country, folk and soul - was still alive in the twenty-first century. - (Gardners) A compelling journey through the backwoods of American music. - (Perseus Publishing)

The Hammersteins: a musical theatre family

By Hammerstein, Oscar Andrew

Publishing Date: c2010

Classification: 700

Call Number: 782.1 HAM

The Hammersteins is the story of one family that changed Broadway forever. The story begins in 1864, when Oscar Hammerstein I emigrates to America, establishes himself as a successful cigar merchant and turns his attention to the business of music and theaters. He builds many theaters, including New York's most majestic opera house. He turns Times Square (then Longacre Square) into the theater capital of the world. His sons, Willy and Arthur, carry on the tradition and nurture such talents as Will Rogers, W. C. Fields, Al Jolson, Houdini, and Charlie Chaplin. Willy's son, Oscar II, becomes the most successful lyricist of all time, writing the story and words to the most memorable of Broadway shows including Showboat, Oklahoma!, South Pacific, Carousel, The King and I, and The Sound of Music. Oscar II synthesized the previous two generations' efforts to create what we now know as American musical theater. The accomplishments of the Hammersteins are monumental. Their tale is enchanting. Written by Oscar "Andy" Hammerstein (Oscar II's grandson), The Hammersteins presents a multi-layered portrait of the Hammerstein family, complete with personal and professional highlights, as well as the scandals and tragedies. The book also draws heavily upon the family archives, presenting a rich collection of photographs, theater blueprints, programs, patents and more, much of which has never before been seen. The Hammersteins is at once a deeply personal story of and American family living the American dream and a celebration of musical theater in this country.

Composed: a memoir

By Cash, Rosanne

Publishing Date: 2010

Classification: 700

Call Number: 782.4216 CAS

For thirty years as a musician, Rosanne Cash has enjoyed both critical and commercial success, releasing a series of albums that are as notable for their lyrical intelligence as for their musical excellence. In this memoir, Cash writes compellingly about her upbringing in Southern California as the child of country legend Johnny Cash, and of her relationships with her mother and her famous stepmother, June Carter Cash. In her account of her development as an artist she shares memories of recording her own first album on a German label; working her way to success; her Nashville marriage to Rodney Crowell; her relationship with the country music establishment; taking a new direction in her music and moving to New York; motherhood; dealing with the deaths of her parents, in part through music; the process of songwriting; and her fulfillment with her current husband and musical collaborator, John Leventhal.--From publisher description.

Black pearls: blues queens of the 1920s

By Harrison, Daphne Duval

Publishing Date: c1988

Classification: 700

Call Number: 784.5 HAR

Hopalong Cassidy: on the page, on the screen

By Nevins, Francis M.

Publishing Date: c2008

Classification: 700

Call Number: 791.43 NEV

Clarence E. Mulford spent his creative years writing a vast saga of interlocking novels and stories, most of them dealing with the Bar-20 ranch and the men who called it home, chief among them a certain Hopalong Cassidy. Eventually Mulford's works became the nominal source of 66 Hollywood films, made between 1935 and 1948, and a 52-episode TV series (1952-54), all starring William Boyd as a character with the same name but very different from Mulford's. Hopalong Cassidy: On the Page, On the Screen covers each of Mulford's books and each of the Cassidy theatrical films in full detail. A comprehensive index enables readers interested in almost anything linked to the books or films - including eventual stars like Robert Mitchum, George Reeves, Jan Clayton and Barbara Britton - to find the relevant material instantly.

Olivier

By Coleman, Terry

Publishing Date: 2005

Classification: 700

Call Number: 792.028 COL

Based on unprecedented access, the definitive biography of Sir Laurence Olivier, the dashing, self-invented Englishman who became the greatest actor of the twentieth century. Olivier met everyone, knew everyone, and played every role in existence. But he was as elusive in life as he was on the stage, a bold and practiced pretender who changed names, altered his identity, and defied characterization. Biographer Coleman draws for the first time on the vast archive of Olivier's private papers and those of his family, uncovering the history and the private self that Olivier worked all his life to obscure. Acting and sex were for him inseparable: through famous romances with Vivien Leigh and Joan Plowright and countless trysts, these relationships entangled with his stage work, each feeding the other and driving Olivier to greater heights. Here is the first comprehensive account of the man whose autobiography, written late in his life, told only a small part of the story.--From publisher description.

Apollo's angels: a history of ballet

By Homans, Jennifer

Publishing Date: c2010

Classification: 700

Call Number: 792.8 HOM

Unique among the arts, ballet has no written texts or standardized notation. It is a storytelling art passed on from teacher to student. A ballerina dancing today is a link in a long chain of dancers stretching back to sixteenth-century Italy and France: Her graceful movements recall a lost world of courts, kings, and aristocracy, but her steps are also marked by the dramatic changes in dance and culture that followed. From ballet's origins in the Renaissance and the codification of its basic steps and positions under France's Louis XIV (himself an avid dancer), the art form wound its way through the courts of Europe, from Paris and Milan to Vienna and St. Petersburg. Jennifer Homans, a historian and critic who was also a professional dancer, traces the evolution of technique, choreography, and performance in clear prose, drawing readers into the intricacies of the art with vivid descriptions of dances and the artists who made them--From publisher description.

Campfires remembered: memoirs of a mountain lady

By Mercer, Dena M.

Publishing Date: [2011]

Classification: 700

Call Number: 796.5 MER

Dena and her daughter, Lori, left their rural California home to raise and herd cows, help the USGS, and pack mules in and out of the California Sierras every summer for more than twenty years. This book compiles some of Dena's memories and experiences from those summers, highlighting what it's like to be a woman working in the backcountry of the Sierra Nevada.

150 years stories

Publishing Date: 2011

Classification: 700

Call Number: 796.522

2012 sees the internationally renowned Swiss mountain sports company, Mammut celebrate its 150th anniversary, which makes it one of the most tradition-rich companies in its field. This title tells the history of mountain sports with portraits of some of the most important key players as well as a behind-the-scenes look at the Mammut brand. - (Gardners)

The down and dirty guide to camping with kids: how to plan memorable family adventures and connect kids to nature

By Olsson, Helen

Publishing Date: 2012

Classification: 700

Call Number: 796.54 OLS

Outlines economical options for family camping vacations, sharing irreverent, anecdotal, and practical guidelines for families with young children while explaining how to select gear and address needs with a minimum of stress.

Sisters on the fly: caravans, campfires, and tales from the road

By Rawlings, Irene

Publishing Date: c2010

Classification: 700

Call Number: 796.79 RAW

The Sisters on the Fly know they're having more fun than anyone! Now you're invited to join them on their cross-country road trips as author Irene Rawlings takes you inside the Sisters' decorated vintage trailers. Each trailer reflects its owner's personality, and the Sisters share their individual stories behind their loving restorations--and a few of the wilder outdoor adventures they've experienced along the way. The Sisters also share tips for buying and restoring vintage trailers because they know that once you see all the fun they're having fly-fishing, riding horses, camping, eating, laughing, and loving, you just might want to join their cowgirl caravan when it heads out for the next adventure. Sisters on the Fly will inspire readers with charming and witty anecdotes from the Sisters as they experience the open road and some of the most beautiful places in the country. It is organized around fishing, food, friendship, love, and loss. And, of course, around beautiful vintage trailers that have been lovingly transformed from "trashed to treasured." The book features dozens of engaging stories about the incredible women who buy and restore these trailers, as well as sidebars loaded with both practical and whimsical information for anyone who is ready to find her own trailer and join the caravan. - (Simon and Schuster

Meander: east to west along a Turkish river

By Seal, Jeremy

Publishing Date: 2012

Classification: 700

Call Number: 797.122 SEA

The course of the Meander is so famously indirect that the river's name has come to signify digression - an invitation Jeremy Seal is duty-bound to accept while travelling the length of it in a one-man canoe. In this book, the author illuminates his account with a wealth of cultural, historical and personal asides. - (Gardners)

The boys in the boat: nine Americans and their epic quest for gold at the1936 Berlin Olympics

By Brown, Daniel

Publishing Date: c2013

Classification: 700

Call Number: 797.123 BRO

Traces the story of an American rowing team from the University of Washington that defeated elite rivals at Hitler's 1936 Berlin Olympics, sharing the experiences of their enigmatic coach, a visionary boat builder, and a homeless teen rower.