Remedios Varo : Unexpected Journey

I know this has been up for a while as a featured book but I love her. Published in paperback as of February 2000. It's a great biography of one of my favorite artists-- Remedios Varo, a woman who creates a bicycle dinorsaur and a traveling overcoat. Her whimsical paintings takes you on a psychological and spiritual journeys far beyond the mundane.

Thinking of you by Barbara Kruger, Ann Goldstein (Illustrator). Hardcover, MIT Press, 2000, 268 pgs. Usually ships in 24 hours. From Amazon: "This is the most comprehensive publication ever produced on the work of American artist Barbara Kruger. Kruger, one of the most influential artists of the last three decades, uses pictures and words through a wide variety of media and sites to raise issues of power, sexuality, and representation. This book serves as the catalog for the first major one-person exhibition of Kruger's work to be mounted in the United States. "

Now I love food. The best part of traveling in France is indulging in edible ectasies. These are a few books that may help. The Food Lover's Guide to France by Patricia Wells. Paperback - 456 pages(July 1999). ; Sandra Gustafson's Cheap Eats in Paris : A Traveler's Guide to the Best-Kept Secretsby Sandra A. Gustafson. Paperback - 256 pages 8th edition (April 1998); and Markets of Provence : A Culinary Tour of Southen Franceby Dixon Long (Contributor), Ruthanne Long, David Wakely (Photographer), Patricia Wells. Hardcover - 144 pages (April 1996)

Photography as an art mutates across history with society and new technology. These are some thoughts on the matter. Photospeak: A Guide to the Ideas, Movements, and Techniques of Photography, 1839 to the Presentby Gilles Mora; Over Exposed : Essays on Contemporary Photographyby Carol Squiers (Introduction); In Our Own Image : The Coming Revolution in Photography : How Computer Technology Is Changing Our View of the World (Writers and Artists on photographby Fred Ritchin; and Ghost in the Shell : Photography and the Human Soul, 1850-2000by Robert A. Sobieszek.

Women's Camera Work : Self/Body/Other in American Visual Culture by Judith Fryer Davidov. List Price: $24.95. Amazon Price: $19.96 Availability: This title usually ships within 2-3 days. Paperback - 496 pages (May 1998) Duke Univ Press.

Surrealism and the Occult : Shamanism, Magic, Alchemy, and the Birth of an Artistic Movement Nadia Choucha. Amazon Price: $12.95 Availability: This title usually ships within 24 hours. Paperback(December 1992) Inner Traditions Intl Ltd.

Women As Mythmakers : Poetry and Visual Art by Twentieth Century Women by Estella Lauter. Amazon price: $8.95. Availability: Usually ships within 2-3 days. Paperback - 267 pages (July 1984) Indiana Univ Press.

Une Semaine De BontE : A Surrealistic Novel in Collage by Max Ernst. Amazon price: $11.65. Availability: Usually ships within 24 hours. Paperback 2nd edition (February 1976) Dover Pubns

Recipes 1-2-3 : Fabulous Food Using Only Three Ingredients by Rozanne Gold. List Price: $15.95. Amazon price: $14.35. I'm not a great cook so I keep it simple. This book has helped me to serve great dishes making shopping easy as I only have to buy three ingredients and it tastes like I know how to cook. The combinations are unusual but work. My favorite: Pear Brie soup with just 1 pear, brie cheese and chicken stock. Can you beat that?

Fiction in Japan can take one of two forms: the novel or manga. I'd say they teach me about another culture but hey, more often than not, it's just for fun or a good read. Here's a few to whet your appetite. The Concubine's Tattoo , a mystery set in seventeenth-century Edo Japan; Monkey Brain Sushi : New Tastes in Japanese Fiction , what can I say but that I couldn't resist the title; and An Artist of the Floating World a novel of Postwar Japan, 'a floating world' of changing cultural behaviors, shifting societal patterns and troubling questions. These two mangas were actually done by Asian Americans. One was an immigrant and I think the other is third generation. The Four Immigrants Manga : A Japanese Experience in San Francisco, 1904-1924 by Henry Kiyama; rediscovered, translated and introduced by manga expert Frederick L. Schodt. Usagi Yojimbo: Seasons by Stan Sakai. The samurai Usagi Yojimbo takes on demons, ghosts, ninjas, ronin and warlord. A fun read with a backpage where Sakai translates words or gives a historical or mythic reference.

The Roaring 2000s : Building the Wealth and Lifestyle You Desire in the Greatest Boom in History by Harry S. Dent, Jr. List Price: $14.00 Amazon price: $11.20. Paperback - 319 pages (October 1999) Touchstone Books.

Other Books of Interest

The Futurological Congress (From the Memoirs of Ijon Tichy) by Stanislaw Lem, Michael Kandel (Translator). A rare novel: humorous but profound.

I Live in Music : Poem by Ntozake Shange, Romare Bearden (Photographer), Linda Sunshine (Editor). List Price: $17.95. Amazon price: $12.57.

Strange Fruit : Billie Holiday, Cafe Society, and an Early Cry for Civil Rightsby David Margolick, Hilton Als (Foreword). List Price: $18.95. Amazon price: $13.27. "From four-time Pulitzer Prize nominee David Margolick, STRANGE FRUIT explores the story of the memorable civil rights ballad made famous by Billie Holiday in the late 1930s. The song's powerful, evocative lyrics -- written by a Jewish communist schoolteacher who, late in life, adopted the children of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg -- portray the lynching of a black man in the South. Holiday's performances sparked conflict and controversy wherever she went, and the song has since been covered by Lena Horne, Tori Amos, Sting, and countless others. "

Cut With the Kitchen Knife : The Weimar Photomontages of Hannah Hoch by Maud Lavin, Hannah Hoch . Amazon price: $27.50." Hannah Hoch was a little-known DaDa artist from Germany, whose photomontages were revolutionary in their time. This book has both color plates of her best works (my favorite is "The Beautiful Girl," a montage with biting social commentary about the treatment of women at the time), along with photos and scraps from her own personal collection. I personally recommend this book over other books about her, because this book gives a clearer picture of Hannah Hoch the person, rather than simply trying to interpret her life through her art, as many other books do. This book is the only comprehensive look at her life, clearly focusing on her motivations, about being a Lesbian woman in Germany pre-WWI, and her relationships with fellow DaDa artists and writers. " Reviewed by Michael R. Donnoe.

Thousand Pieces of Gold : A Biographical Novel by Ruthanne Lum McCunn (Preface), Tisha Hooks (Editor). List Price: $13.00: Amazon price: $10.40. "This book is categorized as a novel but is the story of Polly Beamis, a real person. She was born in China, lived in a poor farming village until seized by a robber band, transported to the US, sold into slavery and lived out her life in a remote mining town in central Idaho." Reviewed by Jeri Morgan.

Paris Noir : African Americans in the City of Light by Tyler Stovall. Amazon Price: $15.00. "Alongside Hemingway, Gertrude Stein, and Henry Miller, there existed a vibrant community of black expatriates living in Paris in the 1920s, an avant-garde and tightly knit group of American writers, painters, musicians, and political exiles who found the artistic, racial, and emotional freedom deined to them in America. Paris Noir brings this world vividly to life, profiling such notables as Richard Wright, Chester Himes, Josephine Baker, Miles Davis, and Charlie Parker. "

Asian American Dreams : The Emergence of an American People by Helen Zia. Amazon Price: $20.80.

CDs

Screen Behind the Mirror by Enigma. Amazon Price: $13.99.

Torre De Marfil by Soraya. Amazon Price: $13.99.

Conversations With Myself [ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED] by Bill Evans. Amazon Price: $13.99.

The Sea by San Sebastian Strings, Rod McKuen. Amazon Price: $11.97.

Into The Woods: A New Musical - Original Cast Recording (1987 Broadway Cast) [CAST RECORDING] by Into The Woods (Related Recordings), Bernadette Peters, Robert Westenberg, Joanna Gleason, Chip Zien, Tom Aldredge, Stephen Sondheim, Chuck Wagner. Amazon Price: $13.99.

Way Back to Paradise by Audra McDonald. Amazon Price: $13.99.

Canyon Trilogy: Native American Flute Music by R. Carlos Nakai. Amazon Price: $13.99.