Famous Birthday Today: Vincent Van Gogh

Vincent Van Gogh , March 30, 1853 Zundert, Neth.- July 29, 1890, Auvers-sur-Oise, France, generally considered the greatest Dutch painter after Rembrandt. With Cezanne and Gauguin the greatest of Post-Impressionist artists. He powerfully influenced the current of Expressionism in modern art. His work, all of it produced during a period of only 10 years, [...]

Written by vorsta on November 13, 2009

Seven Years in Tibet

I found “Seven Years in Tibet,” by Heinrich Harrer, a dozen years ago. I knew little about Tibet at the time, and the title piqued my interest. I read it- and I was hooked. This book so intrigued me that I began reading everything I could find on Tibet, which wasn’t an easy task a dozen years ago.

Written by vorsta on November 13, 2009

Through the Lens: National Geographic Greatest Photographs

Amazing Gift Book!
National Geographic’s most expansive and sumptuous photography book ever — a celebration of more than a century of collecting and publishing photographs, with remarkable images from around the world. For more than 100 years, National Geographic has set the standard for nature, culture, and wildlife photography. Now, in Through the Lens, 250 spectacular [...]

Written by vorsta on November 13, 2009

Geisha by Liza Dalby

In the mid-1970s, an American graduate student in anthropology joined the ranks of white-powdered geisha in Kyoto, Japan. Liza Dalby took the name Ichigiku and apprenticed in the famed Pontocho district, trailing behind “older sisters” bemused by this long-legged Westerner intent on learning their arts and customs. Some time ago I wrote about [...]

Written by vorsta on November 13, 2009

What a Wonderfull World!

How many times in your life have you spent days or even months worrying about something that never happened? We tangle our minds in a web of “What Ifs”. “What might she think” or “What might he do”. This is the trap of placing expectations on the future.
The future is yet unwritten. For us to [...]

Written by vorsta on November 13, 2009

The Love of the Last Tycoon by F. Scott Fitzgerald

Hollywood is ugly, dangerous – and completely magical. No one captured this better than F. Scott Fitzgerald.
“He wrote two very good books,” Hemingway said about F.Scott Fitzgerald in his own memoir A Moveable Feast, “and one which was not completed which those who know his writing best say would have been very good.”
Fitzgerald passed away [...]

Written by vorsta on November 13, 2009

Geisha: The Life, the Voices by Jodi Cobb

Amazing Gift Book!
“Geisha: The Life, the Voices” is an icon of Japanese culture and custom- the geisha in her role as human work of art and perfect woman.
A hundred years ago geisha numbered eighty thousand; today there is a thousand at most. Luckily, Jodi Cobb can show us- before they disappear- both the ceremonial world [...]

Written by vorsta on November 13, 2009

GONE TOMORROW by Lee Child

In a novel that sweeps through one hairpin surprise after another, Lee Child releases a thriller that spreads three decades and gnaws at the heart of America . . . and for Jack Reacher, a man who trusts no one and likes it that way, it’s a mystery with only one answer-the kind that comes when you finally get in person and look at your worst enemy in the eye.

Written by vorsta on June 2, 2009

Secrets of Angels, Demons & Masons

Dan Brown’s most recent success, The Da Vinci Code, has garnered widespread attention. Before Brown’s better known book found success, another novel of his, Angels and Demons, laid out the pattern of things to come. Both stories follow the exploits of the character Robert Langdon, who is a Professor of Religious Symbology at Harvard University. [...]

Written by vorsta on May 27, 2009

Armageddon in Retrospect by Kurt Vonnegut

When Kurt Vonnegut died in April 2007, the world lost a ironic interpreter on the human condition. Thanks to this collection of unpublished fiction and nonfiction, Vonnegut’s voice returns full force.
Armageddon in Retrospect is a collection of non-fiction and fiction short stories about war and peace written by Kurt Vonnegut. It is the first posthumous [...]

Written by vorsta on May 14, 2009

Vonnegut- Graphic artist

Kurt Vonnegut’s work as a graphic artist began with his illustrations for Slaughterhouse-Five and developed with Breakfast of Champions, which included numerous felt-tip pen illustrations of such subjects as anal sphincters, as well as other less scatological images. Later in his career, he became more interested in artwork, particularly silk-screen prints, which he pursued in [...]

Written by vorsta on May 13, 2009

Kurt Vonnegut

“I do believe evolution is being controlled by some sort of divine engineer. I can’t help thinking that.. and this engineer knows exactly what he or she is doing and why and where evolution is headed and thats why we’ve got Giraffe’s and Hippopotami and the clap.”- Kurt Vonnegut
The last words, that Kurt Vonnegut wrote, [...]

Written by vorsta on May 12, 2009