night-time lighthouse brunelleschi breakthrough

books:

Brunelleschi's Dome: The Story of the Great Cathedral in Florence

102 reviews
Ross King

Vintage Books, 2008

A dome for eternity
The dual papacy had been resolved in favor of Rome (1416). Florence was the interim home for the Pope while permanent quarters were being readied in Rome (1420). Florence considered itself the new Athens of the western world, and on August 19, 1418 Filippo Brunelleschi submitted his design for the dome of the city's new cathedral. His design pushed the technology of bricklaying to never seen ...

LIFE OF PI

1827 reviews
Yann Martel

Vintage Books, 2002

Entertaining
I tore through all 330 pages in just a few days. I was fascinated by the story. It was refreshing to read soemthing so different; I couldn't put it down. Martel really did a fabulous job with this book. He gives the reader vivid imagery without being wordy. He keeps things entertaining throughout! This book was a little outside my traditional reading genre, but I absolutely loved it.

The Painted Veil

38 reviews
W. Somerset Maugham

Vintage Books, 2006

lessons on enriching one's soul
'The Painted Veil' is certainly a deceptive literary masterpiece. From a 30,000 ft view the story sounds a bit boring: spoiled British woman, circa 1920, hastily marries a total bore, moves to Hong Kong and gets into a bit of hanky-panky with married self-centered turd, then is hijacked to the boonies by hubby to help the misfortunate Chinese cope with a cholera epidemic. Yawn. And indeed the ...

The Six Wives of Henry VIII

136 reviews
Alison Weir

Vintage Books, 2008

Henry the World-class Glutton
Alison Weir's well-written, easy to read book about the Six Wives of Henry the VIII is an outstanding work of history about England in the 1500s, Henry's six wives, and the role they play in English politics and international relations with Spain, France and Germany. It is definitely a five star work of scholarship and entertainment.

Out Stealing Horses

82 reviews
Per Petterson

Vintage Books, 2007

A most extraordinary voice
First, I read In The Wake, then Out Stealing Horses. Both books affected me in the same way; I was mesmerized. This is a writer who controls his reader from the start. He draws you in while you drum your fingers impatiently -- what a slow book, you are thinking -- then he owns you. After finishing In The Wake, my first thought was...eat your heart out, Ernest Hemingway. This author is more ...

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

1436 reviews
Mark Haddon

Vintage Books, 2003

Inventive and Enjoyable
Author Mark Haddon has created a realistic fictional autistic teen with an amazing way of describing the life and people that surround him. But what I love most about the book is how much the main character, 15-year-old Christopher, reminds me of my son Nigel (aside from the fact that Christopher is incredibly good at math, and Nigel is at the opposite end of that spectrum). I love experiencing ...

The Yeast Connection: A Medical Breakthrough

14 reviews
William G. Crook

Vintage Books, 1986

Saved my life...
This book and it's companion cookbook literally saved my life, after years of getting no help ~ or getting sicker ~ from the established "medical profession." I changed my diet and in three days the pain disappeared, and a week later I tossed away my cane and bounded up the stairs. I couldn't believe it, it was a miracle. I still can't believe it; all because of changing the foods I ate. Now, ...

Love in the Time of Cholera (Vintage International)

448 reviews
Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Vintage Books, 2007

Worth the time
Several people have indicated that this is a difficult read. It is. Perhaps it's the translation, perhaps it's the abundance of imagery. But whatever it is, it's worth the effort. Having read One Thousand Years and The Handsomest Drowned Man, I'm familiar with his use of prose and magical realism tendencies. If you can get past the linguistic hurdles, you're in for a wonderful story of the ...

The Road (Oprah's Book Club)

1528 reviews
Cormac McCarthy

Vintage Books, 2007

Scary, Supensful, Truly Unique Book
The Road is an excellent book. Through a unique writting style the author allows you to live the simply raw terrifying experience of a father care for his on a post apocalytpic america. It stirs and meddles in our most basic instincts of protection of our young vs. a scenario of complete dispair.

Invisible Man

279 reviews
Ralph Ellison

Vintage Books, 1995

The invisibility of man
"The Invisible Man" is a classic novel which uses the first person narrator, the invisible man, to move the reader through various types of racism, dishonesty, and deceptiveness which a black man in the 1950's would encounter. The more the invisible man is used by others, the more invisible he becomes and the less self-identity he possesses. He allows himself, unwittingly, to be used by others, ...

2008 Official Vintage Guitar Magazine Price Guide

8 reviews

Vintage Guitar Books, 2007

The best book on VINTAGE guitars available
If you're a total guitar nut like me, this is a must have book. The 2008 edition is the best yet. It's a tremendous resource for brand information, model specs, history, and pricing. While I found some errors and disagree with a few price listings, it is still one of the best books of its kind. It's a toss-up of which I like better between The Vintage Guitar 2008 Pricing Guide and the Blue Book ...

To the Lighthouse (Vintage Classics)

167 reviews
Virginia Woolf

Vintage Books, 2005

An insightful, sensitive reading.
The idea of Virginia Woolf's fiction being read aloud effectively has struck me as an impossibility. The very interiority of Woolf's style seemed to suggest that readers hear the narrative voice within themselves. This reading proves me dead wrong. Virginia Leishman's reading--and interpretation--added much to my passion for a novel I have always loved. Readers--and listeners--new to Virigina ...

The End of the Affair

125 reviews
Graham Greene

Vintage Books, 2004

The space between us
Anyone who has lived in London could place the Common that forms a geographical centrepiece in The End Of The Affair by Graham Greene. It doesn't really matter if it's the particular place one thinks it is, because it's what happens in the houses at or near its periphery that is central to the book. And the relationships between man and woman, between classes, between interests could be ...

Woman Warrior

13 reviews
Maxine Hong Kingston

Vintage Books USA, 1989

It Helped Me Understand My Own Heritage
I have a different perspective from many readers who view this book primarily as a work of Women's Literature. As a half-asian male with a emigree mother, I read this book many years ago, in those formless, questioning years of the late 'teens. Even though I could not directly associate with many of the stories that Ms. Kingston wrote, I could associate with some of them, and I could also begin ...

The death and life of great American cities (A Vintage book)

64 reviews
Jane Jacobs

Vintage Books :, 1963

Great read
I bought this book as a required reading for school. It was very easy to read and covered many interesting topics. I would recommend this book to anyone that is interested in learning more about the urban environment.

Brighton Rock

41 reviews
Graham Greene

Vintage Books, 2004

An interesting mix of theology and gangster drama.
Graham Green always insisted that he was a "writer who was Catholic" rather than a "Catholic writer", which he was often pigeonholed as. Regardless, he frequently incorporated Catholic themes into his writing, all the more interesting because he was not born into the religion, and so approached it with the viewpoint of a man who was converted as an adult. This is the first of the "Catholic ...

The Life and Times of Michael K

46 reviews
J.M. Coetzee

Vintage Books, 2005

A tale at once subsumed by race and yet never mentioning it
Literary historians credit much of Ireland's rich literary tradition to its often tragic history. No surprise then that the nation of South Africa, likewise so rich in grief that it might as well diamonds, has produced so many extraordinary writers, two of whom, Coetzee included, who can boast a Nobel Prize. Which brings us to one of his many fine novels, the Life and Times of Michael K. ...

Life and Fate

43 reviews
Vasily Grossman

Vintage Books, 2006

Genius of the highest order
This masterpiece published by New York Review of Books Classics enters my Top 5 among novels by James Joyce (Ulysses), Proust (La Recherche du Temps Perdu), Tolstoy (War and Peace) and Gaddis (JR): it is pure genius in its epic scope. Inspired by Tolstoy's War and Peace and the siege of Russia by Napoleon, Grossman depicts the siege of Stalingrad by Hitler. Grossman narrates the epic from the ...

The Fatal Shore: The Epic of Australia's Founding

57 reviews
Robert Hughes

Vintage Books, 1988

Cultural Amnesia
The Fatal Shore: The Epic of Australia's Founding By Robert Hughes Australia is one of those faraway places you read about in National Geographic or watch on Discovery. Remote, exotic, modern yet solidly based in its history, it's a chamber of commerce promotion writer's dream. T he only country to occupy an entire continent... spanning from the Pacific to the Indian Oceans; ...

search for books
breakthrough, brunelleschi, international, lighthouse, night-time

Impressum / about us