A rich, beautifully illustrated historical account for art lovers and prairie deco devotees.
An art history book focuses on the man who shaped the prairie deco architectural style.
This fourth edition of Harm’s homage to Lee Lawrie, who sculpted the renowned Atlas statue at Rockefeller Center in Manhattan and others notable pieces, explores additional works by the artist. The book covers a lot of ground, opening with Lawrie’s ancestry and the significant events in his youth that led to his fascination with sculpture and his early development as an artist. He immigrated to the United States from Germany as a child and began studying sculpture at the age of 14, when Henry Richard Park, a “prominent Chicago sculptor,” hired him as an errand boy. Lawrie worked his way up, eventually getting assignments to create minor sculptures. The author, who has been researching Lawrie for 20 years, zeroes in on the artist’s works at the Nebraska State Capitol. Harm laments that the Capitol sits in relative obscurity despite ranking among the five most significant buildings of the art deco era. Lawrie and a collaborator “crafted the scheme of the building to be a sort of giant textbook.” The volume traces the development of the prairie deco style, inspired by Lawrie’s marriage of art deco and prairie architecture, which was intended to reflect and honor the Midwest’s environs and history. Chapter 17 concentrates entirely on the Sower, his statue that symbolizes the relationship between farmers and agriculture in Nebraska. It depicts a man casting seeds in hopes of growing crops to feed his family. Several of Lawrie’s other striking sculptures at the Capitol honor Native Americans, the state’s first settlers. Written in easily understandable and flowing language, the text will especially appeal to historians and academics interested in art deco, architecture, Great Plains history, Native American culture, and the United States government, law, and politics. Stunning photographs of Lawrie’s designs and period images of the artist, many of them occupying full pages, make the book pop. Heavily illustrated (more than 50 photos in the first 50 pages, a balance that continues throughout the work), the volume will engage casual readers who may get bogged down in the long, scholarly passages. The book goes a step beyond most art histories, deftly bringing readers into Lawrie’s creative process and philosophy through his articles, speeches, letters, and never-completed autobiography.
A rich, beautifully illustrated historical account for art lovers and prairie deco devotees.Pub Date: Feb. 28, 2018
ISBN: 978-0-9839030-9-3
Page Count: 280
Publisher: Leelawriedotcom
Review Posted Online: Feb. 18, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2021
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Top Chef fans might savor this detailed account, but others will find it bland.
The Top Chef host describes her journey to new heights.
For those who don’t know, Kish is a “gay Korean adopted woman, born in Seoul, raised in Michigan” and “a chef, a character, a host, and a cultural communicator—as well as a human being with a beating heart.” Though this book covers every step of her journey, every restaurant job and television role, and also discusses her experience as an adoptee (very positive) and a queer woman (late bloomer), the storytelling is so straightforward, lacking in suspense, character development, or dialogue, that it is basically a long version of its (longish) “About the Author.” Seemingly dramatic situations are not dramatized—when she was eliminated on her first Top Chef run, she assures us that she did the best she could, and drops it. “I can spare you the gory details (bouillabaisse and big personalities were involved).” Later, she cites a belief in protecting the privacy of others to omit the story of her first relationship with a woman. With no character development, neither does the reader get to know those who fall outside the privacy zone, like her best friend, Steph, and her wife, Bianca. When she gets mad, she says things like, “It’s a gross understatement to say I was crushed, beyond frustrated, and furious with the situation.” The fact that “I’ve never been a big reader” does not come as a surprise. It is more surprising when she confesses that “I believe the universe is selective about the moments in which it introduces life-changing prospects.”
Top Chef fans might savor this detailed account, but others will find it bland.Pub Date: April 22, 2025
ISBN: 9780316580915
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Little, Brown
Review Posted Online: Feb. 15, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 2025
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.
A charming bird journey with the bestselling author.
In his introduction to Tan’s “nature journal,” David Allen Sibley, the acclaimed ornithologist, nails the spirit of this book: a “collection of delightfully quirky, thoughtful, and personal observations of birds in sketches and words.” For years, Tan has looked out on her California backyard “paradise”—oaks, periwinkle vines, birch, Japanese maple, fuchsia shrubs—observing more than 60 species of birds, and she fashions her findings into delightful and approachable journal excerpts, accompanied by her gorgeous color sketches. As the entries—“a record of my life”—move along, the author becomes more adept at identifying and capturing them with words and pencils. Her first entry is September 16, 2017: Shortly after putting up hummingbird feeders, one of the tiny, delicate creatures landed on her hand and fed. “We have a relationship,” she writes. “I am in love.” By August 2018, her backyard “has become a menagerie of fledglings…all learning to fly.” Day by day, she has continued to learn more about the birds, their activities, and how she should relate to them; she also admits mistakes when they occur. In December 2018, she was excited to observe a Townsend’s Warbler—“Omigod! It’s looking at me. Displeased expression.” Battling pesky squirrels, Tan deployed Hot Pepper Suet to keep them away, and she deterred crows by hanging a fake one upside down. The author also declared war on outdoor cats when she learned they kill more than 1 billion birds per year. In May 2019, she notes that she spends $250 per month on beetle larvae. In June 2019, she confesses “spending more hours a day staring at birds than writing. How can I not?” Her last entry, on December 15, 2022, celebrates when an eating bird pauses, “looks and acknowledges I am there.”
An ebullient nature lover’s paean to birds.Pub Date: April 23, 2024
ISBN: 9780593536131
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2024
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2024
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