Phaidon
Brutalism, or Brutalist Architecture, is aptly named. There is nothing soft, friendly, or accommodating about it. It is stark, harsh, hard, powerful and massive. Many Brutalist buildings have the strange ability to look simultaneously futuristic and highly dated.
A favorite of the Communist Bloc housing, fascist dictators like Mussolini …
Jeff Guin
There are some tragedies that are so mind-boggling and so bizarre that we can’t help going back to take yet another look. “Why would anyone choose to follow such an obvious, slimy charlatan like Jim Jones?” we wonder. But the story of Jones …
Robert Winter and Alexander Vertikoff
Craftsman Style is a good starter overview coffee-table book on Craftsman style architecture. Springing from William Morris’s Arts and Crafts movement, this architectural movement aimed to be the antithesis of industrialized, modern building. In the views of the Arts and Crafts movement, things started going …
…Micronations, sometimes also referred to as model countries and new country projects, are small, self-proclaimed entities that claim to be independent sovereign states but which are not acknowledged as such by any recognized sovereign state, or by any supranational organization. – Wikipedia
James Hilton
Published in 1933, Lost Horizon, came at the twilight of the great, grand, adventure books, like its predecessors, including Jules Verne’s Journey to the Center of the Earth and The Lost World by Conan Doyle. The tale is an enjoyable fantasy of normal, everyday folks ending up …
Alastair Bonnett
At first glance, Bonnett’s book may look like another interesting guide to off-the-beaten-track places. Unruly Places goes a step further. Divided into eight categories, Bonnett looks at truly unique geographical places and concepts. Lost Spaces include cities that have been …
Claire Hoffman
As far as cults go, the Maharishi’s Transcendental Meditation (TM) community was, and still is, pretty benign. In fact, author Hoffman goes to great pains to avoid calling the group a true cult. There are plenty of the hallmarks though – separating members from the larger community, a …
John Wehrheim
Taylor Camp’s hand-built tree houses gets some coverage in Tiny Homes, but it is the stories of the residents that are truly fascinating. Started by a group of people tired of the Vietnam War and exhausted from the anti-war movement, the original founders of Taylor Camp are …
Don Lattin
Touching on its early history, leaders of the movement and testimony of ex- and current members, Lattin presents a creepy portrait of the Children of God cult, otherwise known as The Family. The book loosely follows the life of David Berg, the charismatic and manipulative leader, and his …
Andrew Ross
We Americans like describing ourselves as pragmatic realists – capitalists who make cold, shrewd decisions based on the market and the value of a dollar stretched as thin as possible. However, conjure up visions of white picket fences, front porches, little Susie on her bike and mom making …
