Category: Summer Reading 2019

A good story can be told many ways and this book came to me first as a movie preview in the local independent movie theater. I love independent movie theaters with their combination of cult kitsch and intellectual superiority. I love being in old architecture, just being there soaking up the gilded plaster, heavy drapery

  What an engrossing book! Part philosophy, part cultural history, an intriguing walk through the mind of a man who was one of the preeminent designers and furniture makers of the 20th century. Filled with photographs and beautiful sketches of trees/wood/tools, Nakashima shares his personal history and beliefs alongside his approach to, and reverence for,

  I have been diving in and out of this book for weeks now. When I read it, I feel as though I am on the edge of a great abyss. Always a sensation of imminence, of something about to happen, almost holding my breath. His openings are often breathtaking – MADONNA DEL PARTO And

Just have to share: LINK Now that’s summer reading! 😀

This is a delightful children’s book about elements of art:  line, shape and color.  There is a tour at the Meadows Museum called, “Learning to Look,” for Grades 1-5.  Identifying basic elements of art is part of it, so when I saw this book in Brainpickings, I checked it out of the library.  It’s so

This Picasso is the cover of The Steins Collect, an art history book my neighbor Dave gave me in a haul of several boxes from a late relative who worked at SF MOMA– I am so fortunate to have verbalized my love of books; they just keep coming. This one is full of the art collections

I was hoping for a short book of poetry to come my way, and this one fell out of my biochemistry textbook while I was writing my final exam. I must have picked this up while I was in Big Sur at the Henry Miller Library last October. I read this a few times over,

How to do Nothing is a manifesto on living in the present. Odell grounds the book and her message in the local bio diverse area of the San Francisco Bay giving detailed description of the plant, bird life, histories, human and community evolution and watershed features of the area. She asks us to look at these details in our own locations by connecting their importance to our own sense of place and time in the world.  Odell outlines and argues effectively against the attention economy that many of us already castigate, pointing out that railing against the media cycle and particularly social media is less effective than simply turning one’s attention to doing something else. For Odell that has manifested in a fascination with bird watching; for me it has been the pursuit of

Have been barely present here, have been going so many directions. Even though I have not been particularly vocal, I always check in. Has been some interesting reading going on here. I have been physically, mentally, emotionally busy. Have had my hands on numerous books, gleaning. Have been perusing Horizons, by Barry Lopez; Jim Harrison,