Books

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review
Makes you want to go see them for yourself!
Mansions For Miles
Hudson River Mansions

Great Houses of the Hudson River
Michael Middleton Dwyer , and Mark Rockefeller
Manufacturer: Bulfinch
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

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Similar Items:

The Mansions of Long Island's Gold Coast: Revised and Expanded
Great American Houses and Their Architectural Styles
National Geographic Guide to Americas Great Houses (National Geographic Guide to America's Great Houses)
Phantoms of the Hudson Valley: The Glorious Estates of a Lost Eden
Private Newport: At Home and In the Garden

ASIN: 082122767X

Book Description

Take a journey up the Hudson River to see how some of the wealthiest familiesRoosevelts, Vanderbilts, Rockefellers, and Astorscreated country retreats in the most spectacular of locations. An introduction by architect and historian Michael Dwyer provides insight into the beauty and importance of the houses.

Customer Reviews:

review.......2007-01-04

Beautifully photographed, well written. Will be appreciated by those who have visited these houses as well as those who enjoy fine architecture and interesting history.

Makes you want to go see them for yourself!.......2006-07-04

If you love historical architecture, and the histories of old homes, then you shouldn't miss this book. The photographs alone make this a book worth owning, but the author has also included well written, indepth, and informative stories about these incrediable homes, their builders, owners and subsiquent owners. Reading this book has encouraged me to plan a trip to visit to the Hudson River Valley to see these beautiful places for myself.

Mansions For Miles.......2005-05-19

This is a nice overview of the best of the estates along the Hudson. The book give a nice short history on the houses presented and the photos are nice, though the pictures could be more crisp. Having said that, I did enjoy the book and was just amazed at the variety in the styles of the houses from period to period; really a very informative book. If you are interested in this sort of thing, then you will certainly be pleased with this book, though the $50.00 price tag is a bit daunting.

Hudson River Mansions.......2002-04-27

This book is fantasic! I highly recommend it. It has loads of spectacular color photographs, and the mansions are breath taking. Being someone who has never visisted the area, this book really makes me consider a trip to New York, if only to see these mansions.

New Country Garden: A Plant Lover's Paradise

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Charming Little Book

New Country Garden: A Plant Lover's Paradise
Elspeth Thompson , and Melanie Eclare
Manufacturer: Ryland Peters & Small
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Landscape | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

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Similar Items:

Encyclopedia of Garden Design and Structure: Ideas and Inspiration for Your Garden
Designing the New Kitchen Garden: An American Potager Handbook
The French Country Garden

ASIN: 1841721832

Book Description

Clouds and swathes of beautiful plants, their colors merging like the brushstrokes of an abstract painting; smartly clipped hedges spilling over with roses or soft swaying grasses; a modern gazebo made from salvaged wood; a tale laid for an alfresco lunch in a wildflower meadow--these are some of the scenes you might find in a new country garden.

Customer Reviews:

Charming Little Book.......2006-03-05

This book is small in size, but packs in loads of garden plants, design and ideas all in 144 pages. I just love this book, I always pull it out of my bookshelf when I'm bored or need a new garden idea. This book is never boring and is one of my favorites.

Garden Natural History (Collins New Naturalist)

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Garden Natural History (Collins New Naturalist)
Stefan Buczacki
Manufacturer: HarperCollins UK
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Garden Design | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

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A History of Ornithology (Collins New Naturalist)
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Northumberland (Collins New Naturalist)

ASIN: 0007139934

Gardens for the New Country Place: The Landscape Architecture of Ed Hollander and Maryanne Connelly

Average customer rating:

beautiful pics
Just what we were looking for
Beautifully photographed
Good for landscape design solutions and ideas

Gardens for the New Country Place: The Landscape Architecture of Ed Hollander and Maryanne Connelly
Paul Bennett
Manufacturer: Watson-Guptill
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

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Architecture in the Garden
The Intimate Garden: Twenty Years and Four Seasons in Our Garden
Hamptons Havens: The Best of Hamptons Cottages and Gardens (Hamptons Cottages & Gardens)
Gardens in the Spirit of Place
On Garden Style

ASIN: 0823020770

Book Description

Gardens for the New Country Place captures the bold, dramatic beauty of country gardens designed for extravagant entertaining and visual splendor. Featuring the work of noted landscape architects Edmund Hollander and Mary Ann Connelly, this lavish volume presents panoramic and aerial views of beautiful gardens in the country and on the ocean, of negative-edged swimming pools that seemingly extend into the horizon, and flower gardens so dense that one can almost literally "smell the roses." Noted garden author Paul Bennett reveals the rationale for each magnificent garden design and discusses how these brilliant landscape architects translated the owner's garden fantasies into a reality. Next, he shows readers an array of expert strategies for choosing plants, hardscape materials, and water features to create extraordinary gardens of their own. Finally, carefully drawn plans and illustrations show where and how to add such details as swimming pools, ponds, paths, gazebos, trellises, and much more.

Customer Reviews:

beautiful pics.......2006-01-26

this book has beautiful photos but is not for someone who has a normal country place. it doesn't have ideas that working class america can afford. lots of swimming pools,golfing greens, and tennis courts.

Just what we were looking for.......2006-01-16

Paul Bennett's book of Edmund Hollander Landscape design has been an important resource to us as we plan the renovation of our property. The diversity of designs presented from a variety of perspectives have given us a wealth of ideas. Most unusual is the quality of photographs which sadly, in most of the other landscape books we have looked at, don't seem to do their subject justice. The photographs alone make this book well worth the price.

Beautifully photographed.......2005-01-11

This is a visually appealing and instructive book. Like the gardens themselves, the photography of Betsy Pinover Schiff is strong, luxuriant, and imaginative. Whether a sweeping panorama or a featured detailed, she reveals the abundance of architectural elements and vistas in beautiful light. A "must have" book for anyone contemplating gardens on a grand scale, or for anyone who simply desires the pleasure of viewing country landscaping photographed at its best.

Good for landscape design solutions and ideas.......2004-12-28

This is a beautifully photographed and well laid out book. It is somewhat repeative. However, the subject is focused and it is interesting to see how different sites were designed - or how the nuances varied to suit different sites.
A good, but short, element specific reference guide follows the details of 11 sites. Most helpful is that the sites are in the general geographic and zone area in which I work.
I am sure I will use it as a design reference.

Thoreau's Country: Journey through a Transformed Landscape

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Natural New England: then, now, & all points in-between
Terrific book, very well written

Thoreau's Country: Journey through a Transformed Landscape
David R. Foster
Manufacturer: Harvard University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Similar Items:

Forests in Time: The Environmental Consequences of 1,000 Years of Change in New England
New England Forests Through Time : Insights from the Harvard Forest Dioramas
Reading the Forested Landscape: A Natural History of New England
1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus
Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England

ASIN: 0674886453

Book Description

In 1977 David Foster took to the woods of New England to build a cabin with his own hands. Along with a few tools he brought a copy of the journals of Henry David Thoreau. Foster was struck by how different the forested landscape around him was from the one Thoreau described more than a century earlier. The sights and sounds that Thoreau experienced on his daily walks through nineteenth-century Concord were those of rolling farmland, small woodlands, and farmers endlessly working the land. As Foster explored the New England landscape, he discovered ancient ruins of cellar holes, stone walls, and abandoned cartways--all remnants of this earlier land now largely covered by forest. How had Thoreau's open countryside, shaped by ax and plough, divided by fences and laneways, become a forested landscape?

Part ecological and historical puzzle, this book brings a vanished countryside to life in all its dimensions, human and natural, offering a rich record of human imprint upon the land. Extensive excerpts from the journals show us, through the vividly recorded details of daily life, a Thoreau intimately acquainted with the ways in which he and his neighbors were changing and remaking the New England landscape. Foster adds the perspective of a modern forest ecologist and landscape historian, using the journals to trace themes of historical and social change.

Thoreau's journals evoke not a wilderness retreat but the emotions and natural history that come from an old and humanized landscape. It is with a new understanding of the human role in shaping that landscape, Foster argues, that we can best prepare ourselves to appreciate and conserve it today.

From the journal:

"I have collected and split up now quite a pile of driftwood--rails and riders and stems and stumps of trees--perhaps half or three quarters of a tree...Each stick I deal with has a history, and I read it as I am handling it, and, last of all, I remember my adventures in getting it, while it is burning in the winter evening. That is the most interesting part of its history. It has made part of a fence or a bridge, perchance, or has been rooted out of a clearing and bears the marks of fire on it...Thus one half of the value of my wood is enjoyed before it is housed, and the other half is equal to the whole value of an equal quantity of the wood which I buy."

--October 20, 1855

Customer Reviews:

Natural New England: then, now, & all points in-between.......2004-12-04

Henry David Thoreau was intrigued by the natural world around Concord, Massachusetts, and a few other favorite New England sites. And whenever he was interested in something or wanted to mull over something, he jotted his findings and his musings in his journals. David Foster has analyzed the journal entries and has compared all the descriptions of Thoreau's New England landscape of the 19th century with our present-day environment. The result is a marvelous insight into the complex intertwinings of natural succession and human land use over several centuries.

At first glance, you might think this book is just another mere compilation of quotes from Thoreau's journals. Nothing could be further from the truth! The chapters address a variety of aspects of the landscape. Each chapter begins with Foster's original explanation of the topic, and he backs up his interpretations with Thoreau's dated journal entries. We are fortunate to have these daily observations and to be able to see the pond of "Walden" fame as a microcosm of the 19th-century New England landscape. For while Thoreau wrote that he "went to the woods," the place he went to was a far cry from what we would now typically call "wooded." Foster says, "It is ironic to recognize today, when a high value is placed on nature, wilderness, and old-growth landscape, that America's premier nature writer and propounder of conservation and wilderness values lived at a time when the New England landscape was arguably the most tamed and most dominated by human activity in its entire history." (p. 222)

And while the writings of Thoreau are generally approached through American literature classes, we've been remiss in not giving more credence to the *science* in his observations. He had ideas about sustainability that were unusual and ahead of his time, and we are gradually coming to realize that his notes make perfect sense today. "More than half a century after Thoreau laid out the story of succession in painstaking detail in his journals, his lessons had to be relearned by the forest ecologists at Harvard." (p. 226) David Foster has the benefit of being able to draw on both knowledge bases: Thoreau's and his own, and he can easily compare the two in this volume. Indeed, this is exactly the kind of book that Thoreau would have read and would have been captivated by, for he was forming his own theories about the trends he found in Nature.

In this volume, Foster puts a new spin on the concept of conservation, preservation, and exactly what is "native" or "a natural state." Every inch of our world has been affected by some sort of human activity. "We are caught in a cultural dilemma in which we seek to maintain what we know and what is becoming rare even though it is largely the consequence of intense human activity." (p. 225)

The text is accompanied by the beautiful pen-and-ink illustrations of Abigail Rorer, who has done similiar work for other "Thoreau books." Foster's additional bibliographic essay provides documentation and the processes he went through to conduct his research. A list of sources plus a 10-page bibliography cap off this work.

While this is an easy enough book to read, Foster's narrations and conclusions take time to digest. They must be savored and absorbed. The reader needs time to stop and think about what he/she's just read. So while this is a worthwhile read, it isn't necessarily a quick one. Recommended for Thoreauvians (of course!), and should also be mandatory study for land managers throughout New England, the Northeast, and in other North American regions. Even lifelong New England residents will learn something new here.

Terrific book, very well written.......1999-05-21

A must read for people interested in the environment and how to interpret their surroundings. Beautifully written, thoughtful and intelligent. One of the best books I've read.

Average customer rating:

Garden of Stories / Jardín de cuentos
Jim Sagel
Manufacturer: Red Crane Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Spanish | Foreign Language Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Infantil y juvenil | Libros en español | Formats | Books

Thoreau's Garden: Native Plants for the American Landscape

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What if Thoreau could plant a garden today?
Who knew?

Thoreau's Garden: Native Plants for the American Landscape
H. Peter Loewer , and Peter Loewer
Manufacturer: Stackpole Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Garden Design | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

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Similar Items:

Native Plants of the Northeast: A Guide for Gardening and Conservation

ASIN: 0811729486

Book Description

Henry David Thoreau went alone to Walden Pond in 1845 and observed the ferns and turtleheads, the sundrops and spatterdocks, and the other beautiful native plants that formed a natural garden around his cabin. He walked the woods and fields and penned his observations in his journals. Noted plantsman Peter Loewer combines excerpts from Thoreau's journals with his own botanical illustrations and comments.

Customer Reviews:

What if Thoreau could plant a garden today?.......2006-06-04

Pick any subject, it seems, and odds are good that someone has compiled a volume of Thoreau quotes about it. But "Thoreau's Garden" is not a mere collection of his observations about plants (actually: 47 plants, 2 trees, and one insect). Author Peter Loewer has combined Henry's pithy journal entries with supporting details about each specimen. Included are descriptions of the leaves, flowers, fruit, and soil preferences. A follow-up essay for each one provides the history and biology of the plant, how it is pollinated, its possible medicinal uses, and gardening tips. Each entry is accompanied by a beautiful and detailed line drawing, which must have been done by the author, since no additional illustration credit appears. Here we can learn more about ferns and berries, goldenrods and grasses. Readers can even get a glimpse of the "disgusting ... yet very suggestive" fungus (Phallus impudicus) that Thoreau railed about in October 1856, pondering "Pray, what was Nature thinking of when she made this? She almost puts herself on a level with those who draw in privies." (pp. 156-158)

Loewer used as his reference the index in the Dover two-volume reprint of Thoreau's journals, which is indeed a helpful starting point but is far from complete. If he had consulted Ray Angelo's meticulous "Botanical Index to the Journal of Henry David Thoreau," his task would have been much more daunting. Picking only 50 samples from a single-spaced list spanning 144 pages would be a challenge. And because Loewer at one time was affiliated with the Botanical Gardens of Asheville (NC), he can be forgiven for adding some Southern species and cultivars that Thoreau would never have seen.

Similar in design and coverage to Laura C. Martin's "Wildflower Folklore" but with a Thoreauvian twist, this book is a nice selection for nature library shelves.

Who knew?.......2001-09-07

I had been reading, and admiring, this book for two years when I found out that Mr. Loewer worked on the same Environmental Show as myself: we are all vols, so it is no wonder we have never met. This book is truely a showcase of Mr. Loewer's talents': THOREAU'S WRITINGS ARE ALWAYS THERE, BUT THE PLAY 2ND FIDDLE TO THE WONDER OF AMERICA'S NATURAL BEAUTY. Great effort: a must for any lover of native plants.

The Moonlight Garden: New Discoveries at the Taj Mahal (Asian Art and Culture)

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Of course, a Pleasure Garden!

The Moonlight Garden: New Discoveries at the Taj Mahal (Asian Art and Culture)

Manufacturer: University of Washington Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

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South Asia | Asia | History | Subjects | Books

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Gardens of Persia
Taj Mahal: Passion and Genius at the Heart of the Moghul Empire

ASIN: 0295980346

Book Description

For 350 years, the Taj Mahal in Agra has reigned luminous and splendid as perhaps the most admired monument in the world. Visitors who gazed across the Yamuna River from the Taj pavilions have viewed what appears to be little more than farmers' fields and barren ground. But historical references as well as paintings from the time of Shahjahan (r. 1628-58) reveal that it was once densely covered by rectangular walled enclosures and lush vegetation. The Mughal emperor Babur built gardens here as a way of evoking the characteristic delights of the homeland he had abandoned when he moved from Central Asia into India in 1526. Eventually, as the Mughal Empire grew more powerful, the riverbank became lined with gardens belonging not only to the imperial family but also to important nobles.

This definitive volume describes the discoveries of an international project documenting the surface remains of a long-abandoned Mughal garden, spectacularly located directly across the river from the Taj Mahal. The book is illustrated with new photographs of the Taj Mahal and the garden--now identified as the Mahtab Bagh, or Moonlight Garden--as well as with paintings from Shahjahan's era.

Modeled after the Persian concept of earthly paradise, the pleasure gardens of 17th-century Mughal emperors exhibited elaborate renditions of cut-stone architecture, water chutes, standing pools, flowing fountains, and plantings intended to stimulate the senses. Well-ordered oases in an otherwise hot, dusty, and chaotic environment, these gardens were places of respite and enjoyment. The authors show that in plan, proportion, and directional alignment, the Moonlight Garden is indeed an integral part of the design of the gardens at the Taj Mahal, presenting an expansive new interpretation of one of the most famous buildings in the world.

Customer Reviews:

Of course, a Pleasure Garden!.......2005-04-20

I was intrigued with the new Taj Mahal discoveries focused upon in this book. The Moonlight Garden shows that the land across the Jumna River from the Taj had been an integral part of the famous mausoleum's overall design. This book is factual and fully illusrated with photographs, drawings, and Mughal miniature paintings to help with explanations. Very helpful to me for my writing.

A Guide to Green New Jersey: Nature Walks in the Garden State

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Must Have Book To Hike New Jersey
more then just nature walks, a true treasure trove

A Guide to Green New Jersey: Nature Walks in the Garden State
Lucy, D. Rosenfeld , and Marina Harrison
Manufacturer: Rutgers University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Walking | Hiking & Camping | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

Nature Writing | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

North America | Travel | Subjects | Books

General | Mountaineering | Sports | Subjects | Books

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Similar Items:

New Jersey Day Trips: A Guide to Outings in New Jersey and Nearby Areas of New York, Pennsylvania, and Delaware, 10th edition
50 Hikes in New Jersey: Walks, Hikes, and Backpacking Trips from the Kittatinnies to Cape May, Third Edition (50 Hikes)
New Jersey Getaways : The Complete Guide to Garden State Day Trips
Encyclopedia of New Jersey

ASIN: 0813532302

Book Description

New Jersey is a state of surprises. Did you know there was a castle in Passaic County? Or that you could walk through a bamboo forest on the Rutgers University campus, dig for fossils in Middletown's Poricy Park, or see wild river otters in Salem County? Despite its proximity to major urban areas and its high population density, the state has dozens of marvelous natural areas and preserved spaces. It boasts something for everyone, from Atlantic seashore to rugged mountains, rolling farmland to winding canals, historic trails to formal gardens, pine barrens to fragrant vineyards and orchards. There are outings for everyone--newcomers to the state will find it indispensible, and long-time New Jerseyans will find it a pleasantly eye-opening guide to wonderful walks right in their own backyards. A Guide to Green New Jersey is your key to finding it all! - Conveniently organized into forty geographic areas - Features more than 200 nature walks and 40 photographs - Each entry includes directions, a description, visitor hours, fees, parking accessibility, and other pertinent information for walkers - Contains a guide to choosing an outing according to individual tastes and interests - Identifies sites that are wheelchair accessible, especially fun for kids, best for bicyclists, and those that are particularly challenging - Includes an index with the names of each site Lucy D. Rosenfeld and Marina Harrison have published six guidebooks together, most recently Southern Gardenwalks and Gardenwalks: 101 of the Best Gardens from Maine to Virginia.

Customer Reviews:

Must Have Book To Hike New Jersey.......2007-01-11

Great Book about where to hike in New Jersey & gives local history on the places in the book. From north Jersey to south jersey this is a great book to buy !

more then just nature walks, a true treasure trove.......2003-12-31

I bought this book mostly because I am buying a lot of books about NJ and because I enjoy hiking. I truly didn't expect to learn anything I didn't already new but I was genuinely surprised. The book managed to avoid being simply a description of every state and county park by throwing in a wide array of things to do that involve long walks, including butterfly zoos, vineyards, battlfields, arboretums and flower gardens as well as cemteries. This variety truly keeps it intersting.

If you enjoy being outdoors, this book will surely show you something you didn't know existed, and make you yern for a day off from work and a warm sunny day

A New Orchard and Garden With the Country Housewife's Garden

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A New Orchard and Garden With the Country Housewife's Garden
William Lawson
Manufacturer: Prospect Books (UK)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

History | Gastronomy | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 1903018102

Book Description

The Country Housewife's Garden is precious to us for its attention to the role of women: as cooks, lovers of fine flowers, and keepers of the herbal medicine cupboard. While making many suggestions about the practice of gardening and growing fruit trees, Lawson is particularly interested in the layout and design of orchard and pleasure garden. There are several fine woodcuts of knot-gardens and various designs for flower beds. At the end of the two main works, there are two contemporary, short pamphlets on grafting and on picking, packing and transporting fruit.

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