Book Review: Chicago Skyscrapers, 1871-1934

Katie June 20, 2013 0 Comments

When I picked out Chicago Skyscrapers to read, I was hoping that it would have some awesome buildings to check out in it.  Well, I was right about that.  In addition to photos of the buildings, blueprints and all other sorts of fun architect-y things, there is page after page about history of the buildings and what they were made out of and why.

The book begins after the reconstruction after the Great Fire in 1871 and goes through time all the way up to 1934.

I’ve never been to Chicago, so I’ve never seen these buildings in real life but after having read all about them, I definitely want to visit there now more than ever!

If you are into history or architecture or Chicago or any combination of the three – then you should definitely check out this book.   The amount of information contained in it is truly surprising.

I received a free e-copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley in order to write this review. I was not otherwise compensated.

About the Book

For more than a century, Chicago’s skyline has included some of the world’s most distinctive and inspiring buildings. This history of the Windy City’s skyscrapers begins in the key period of reconstruction after the Great Fire of 1871 and concludes in 1934 with the onset of the Great Depression, which brought architectural progress to a standstill. During this time, such iconic landmarks as the Chicago Tribune Tower, the Wrigley Building, the Marshall Field and Company Building, the Chicago Stock Exchange, the Palmolive Building, the Masonic Temple, the City Opera, Merchandise Mart, and many others rose to impressive new heights, thanks to innovations in building methods and materials. Solid, earthbound edifices of iron, brick, and stone made way for towers of steel and plate glass, imparting a striking new look to Chicago’s growing urban landscape. Thomas Leslie reveals the daily struggles, technical breakthroughs, and negotiations that produced these magnificent buildings. He also considers how the city’s infamous political climate contributed to its architecture, as building and zoning codes were often disputed by shifting networks of rivals, labor unions, professional organizations, and municipal bodies. Featuring more than a hundred photographs and illustrations of the city’s physically impressive and beautifully diverse architecture, Chicago Skyscrapers, 1871–1934 highlights an exceptionally dynamic, energetic period of architectural progress in Chicago

Book Review: Focus On Close-Up and Macro Photography (Focus On series)

Katie June 19, 2013 0 Comments

The Focus On series is something I think I will be checking out more of in the near future.  This book focuses all on Close-Up and Macro photography.  There are a lot of great tips and tricks in the book and of course a lot of really great Macro photography throughout the book.  I don’t really consider myself to be a photographer but I do like to try and take decent pictures so this book was definitely helpful and I did find myself trying to use some of the techniques when I was in Tulsa recently.

I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review I was not otherwise compensated.

About the Book

Book Review: Focus on Travel Photography

Katie June 19, 2013 0 Comments

Appropriately enough, I read this book on the flight to Tulsa – when I was going to be taking Travel Photography.  This book has a lot of great photos and the details with what kind of cameras they were taken with and all the specs.  I’m kind of in between the manual and automatic set ups with my camera, I don’t have an SLR and that seemed to be what this book more leans towards showing you, but it also talks about how smaller cameras can still get great photos and not make it so obvious that you are taking them.  I definitely kept the info in this book in the back of my mind while I was traveling, but I didn’t end up taking nearly as many photos as I was hoping I would.

I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review, I was not otherwise compensated.

Aabout the Book

Author Haje Jan Kamps knows that you are travelling for two good reasons: to experience great things, and to get great photos of your travels. He also understands very well how people’s eyes tend to glaze over when phrases like “Circles of Confusion” or the “Inverse Square Law” are brandished about, and focuses instead on great photographs, and how to take them. A realistic and easy-to-follow approach to travel photography puts the fun back into photography, and by following a series of simple exercises, you’ll learn much more about photography than you would have thought possible!

Focus on Travel Photography covers the basics of photography in brief before throwing itself into the real essence of travel photography: landscapes, people, and capturing the spirit of your destination. Finally, the author explores how you can download, edit, and distribute your photos while you’re on the move-all without being over-burdened with equipment.

Book Review: Hollywood Strip

Katie June 18, 2013 0 Comments

Hollywood Strip is about a girl named Callie who leaves her job as a dental assistant in Michigan to pursue her dreams of being an actress in Los Angeles.  In order to make ends meet she is a waitress because that is the only job you can get at night when going to auditions in the day.  She is rejected to be a model for a major magazine, but somehow gets a call back on a horror movie.  Playing lead opposite her is Gabby, another actress/model who she had befriended on a different gig that sent her to Vegas.

Gabby and Callie make the movie a huge hit – and even land the cover of the magazine that had previously rejected Callie!  Things are going great – she is even dating a musician who now has a top 10 hit. And then everything seems to come tumbling down.

Then tragedy strikes and she finds herself on her own filming a TV show sequel to Nympho Cheerleaders Attack – which is going great but is not the direction she really wanted her career to go in.  A movie sequel is on the table but in order to be in it – she’s going to have to post nude in the magazine again – something she definitely wants nothing to do with.

Will she stick to her guns and do what she wants to do for her? Or will the allure of Hollywood money tempt her into doing things she had wanted to move on from?

This book was a bit long and I wasn’t entirely happy with how it ended – not really with what happened – but it just kind of ended and didn’t wrap up some things I was hoping it would.  Otherwise, it was an enjoyable and silly look into Hollywood and all that goes on behind the scenes – being tempted with money, drugs, love, etc.  Probably a book more for an older teen, due to some of the subject matter.

I received a free e-copy of the book through NetGalley in order to write this review, I was not otherwise compensated.

About the Book

Callie Lambert is sexy, beautiful, ambitious—and undiscovered.

Callie knows exactly what she wants:  fame, fortune, and a fabulous career as a Hollywood actress.

Packing her bags, Callie leaves her mundane life in Michigan for Los Angeles, determined to be a star.  Her schedule is grueling: waitressing long hours to make ends meet and auditioning for anything and everything in the hopes that she’ll land a big break.  After suffering what feels like thousands of heartbreaking rejections, she finally lands the lead in an unlikely hit movie,Nympho Cheerleaders Attack!, bringing her dry spell to an end.

The  film opens a new world of glamorous possibilities.  Coupled with a budding romance with Evan Marquardt, a sexy, chart-topping singer, Callie’s on top of the world.  But she’s  thrown for a loop when tragedy strikes, unleashing a string of events  she never in her wildest dreams anticipated.  She quickly discovers that success in Hollywood creates a feeding frenzy of money-hungry producers, two-faced friends, and privacy-robbing paparazzi.  It seems that life as an on-the-rise starlet is not as glamorous as she once imagined. . .

Dishing the dirt on the secret world of Hollywood’s nasty side, Hollywood Strip is a heartfelt story about ambition, empowerment, and what it means to make it in the City of Angels.

Book Review: Running into Darkness

Katie June 13, 2013 3 Comments

Running into Darkness is the story of Samantha Bartlett.  She is living in NYC doing a medical residency.  After a rough day at work she goes home only to find out that her Gramm has died.  She goes back home to Kansas on a plane – something she vowed she’d never do (fly in a plane) after her parents death.  She finds out that her Gramm’s death was most likely a hit and run and is under investigation by her childhood friend who is now a cop.

Samantha starts piecing things together as she goes through her grandmother’s belongings and realizes that she probably isn’t safe.  She heads for cover in the house’s “‘fraidy hole” as her grandmother’s house goes up in flames.  But she is rescued and then realizes that her life is no longer her own.  She has been taken by the Elite and is transformed into a femme fatale with one mission – to kill the President by seducing him.  But there’s only one problem – she has recently found out that the President… is her biological father!

This book is crazy – in the best way possible – completely full of action and high tech gadgets and anything else you might want in a novel of  this type.  Will Samantha be able to go through with her mission given to her by the Elite?

I don’t know… because the book is the first in a series.  (ok, I do know. But boy oh boy is there a cliffhanger and now I am anxiously awaiting book #2!)

I received a free e-copy of this book in order to write this review. I was not otherwise compensated.

Running into the Darkness Book Summary:

D A Bale‘s Bio: