A solid resource for the eco-conscious, as well as the crafty.
Interior designer Seo (Simply Green Giving, 2006, etc.) produces an idea book on how to grant junk a second life using his crafty “MacGyver-meets-HGTV” skills.
The author has long been fascinated by trash. In junior high, he filled his school's display cases with garbage he’d collected around the building in an effort to draw attention to the longevity and abundance of human-generated waste. Seo now makes his living “upcycling”—i.e., turning one person's garbage into another's eco-friendly functional item—and he opens with some helpful advice on what tools are most essential for accomplishing this task. He then offers nearly 100 upcycling ideas, arranging them into sections for decorating, entertaining, gifting, kid-friendly and nature-oriented projects. For each, the author provides a list of supplies and simply stated directions. A few of the more adventurous projects will require some time and effort to gather the materials needed, such as the Wine-Cork Bath Mat and the Carpet-Sample Patchwork Rug. Most others call for items that readers likely already have, such as the Soda-Can Sequined Tote Bag or the Bathroom-Towel Picnic Blanket. There is enough variety in taste, functionality and skill level for most everyone to find a project to attempt. What is lacking, however, is a dedicated section expounding Seo's philosophy and methodology in project design; such information would have been useful in inspiring newcomers to discover their own upcycling opportunities.
A solid resource for the eco-conscious, as well as the crafty.Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-0-7624-4179-2
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Running Press
Review Posted Online: July 5, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2011
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
IN THE NEWS
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
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