D.M. Lukman's Blog, page 5
May 9, 2016
Natural History
Author Information
Natural History is, as it claims a visual guide, perhaps not the ultimate, but close and not everything almost.
Its chapter on fish seems a little lean, but most will not notice.
It is a big heavy, over 7 pounds, coffee table book. It does have some stunning pictures and lots of colored illustrations. Most of what it includes are sections on each page with coloured charts, pictures, and illustrations of many elements of the natural world rocks, ferns, a variety of snails, birds of prey it is filled with almost any living thing you could think of.
The maps are well done and it will do much to clear up any confusion one has on classifications. You could even accomplish much identification yourself of rocks and birds using its clear pictures.
There are sections on the living earth, minerals, rocks and fossils, microscopic life, plants, fungi and animals including invertebrates, chordates, fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals.
There is a glossary and an index. It is an excellent reference and learning tool and of course has the expertise of the Smithsonian Institute behind it.
This is a book young children could learn from, but adults would not feel talked down to.
It would make a great addition to your home, school or as a Christmas present that should get much use.
Author Information
DK Publishing has written nearly seventy short stories and novelettes, numerous novels, and three short fiction collections, and won the Hugo Award for best novella. Timothy Zahn is best known for his Star Wars novels Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, The Last Command, Specter of the Past, Vision of the Future, Survivors Quest, Outbound Flight, and Allegiance, and has more than four million copies in print. His most recent publications have been the science fiction Cobra series and the six part young adult series Dragonback. He has a B.S. in physics from Michigan State University, and an M.S. in physics from the University of Illinois. He lives with his family on the Oregon coast.
The Norton Book of Nature Writing
Overview
W. W. Norton is pleased to announce that The Norton Book of Nature Writing is now available in a paperback college edition.
The definitive anthology of nature writing in English, this book has been significantly expanded and is now accompanied by a field guide of valuable resources for both teachers and students.
A picture tells a thousand stories, but the one it doesnt tell is how the shot was made. Barbara London and John Uptons Photography is an all inclusive look at the craft of photography. This book will help any amateur move up a few notches, and it serves as a refresher course for professionals as well. The sixth edition of this classic work (the first was published in 1976) includes a companion Web site with interactive activities, Web resources, and a learning archive. Amply illustrated with at least one photograph or diagram on almost every page, Photography is the one reference work every student of photography must have even those who will never set foot in a classroom.
Author Information
John Elder is chair of the environmental studies department at Middlebury College. His books include Reading the Mountains of Home.
Robert Finch is the author of five collections of essays and co editor of The Norton Book of Nature Writing. He broadcasts a weekly commentary on NPR and serves on the faculty of the MFA in Writing Program at Spalding University in Louisville, KY. He lives in Wellfleet, MA.
American Earth
Overview
In his introduction to this superb anthology, McKibben (The End of Nature) proposes that environmental writing is Americas most distinctive contribution to the worlds literature. The collected pieces amply prove the point. Arranged chronologically, McKibbens selection of more than 100 writers includes some of the great early conservationists, such as Henry David Thoreau, John Muir and John Burroughs, and many other eloquent nature writers, including Donald Cultross Peattie, Edwin Way Teale and Henry Beston.
The early exponents of national parks and wilderness areas have their say, as do writers who have borne witness to environmental degradation John Steinbeck and Caroline Henderson on the dust bowl, for example, and Berton Roueche and others who have reported on the effects of toxic pollution. Visionaries like Buckminster Fuller and Amory Lovins are represented, as are a wealth of contemporary activist writers, among them Barry Lopez, Terry Tempest Williams, Barbara Kingsolver, Michael Pollan, Paul Hawken, and Calvin deWitt, cofounder of the Evangelical Environmental Network. McKibbens trenchant introductions to the pieces sum up each writers thoughts and form a running commentary on the progress of the conservation movement.
The book, being published on Earth Day, can be read as a survey of the literature of American environmentalism, but above all, it should be enjoyed for the sheer beauty of the writing. 80-page color illus, not seen by PW.
Author Information
Jim Stone turned to photography while studying engineering at MIT. His photographs have been exhibited and published internationally, and collected by the Museum of Modern Art, Bostons Museum of Fine Arts, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, among many others. Six of his books, A Users Guide to the View Camera, Darkroom Dynamics, A Short Course in Photography and A Short Course in Digital Photography (both with Barbara London), Photography 10th Edition, and Photography The Essential Way (both books with Barbara London and John Upton), are in wide and continued use for university level courses, and there have been three artist books published of his photographs, Stranger Than Fiction (Light Work, 1993), Historiostomy (Piltdown Press, 2001), and Why My Pictures are Good (Nazraeli Press, 2005).
Stone has received awards from the Massachusetts Arts Council, The New England Foundation for the Arts, The San Francisco Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. For several years he served on the board of directors for the Society for Photographic Education and Boston Photographic Resource Center. He taught formerly at Boston College and the Rhode Island School of Design. Currently he is Professor of Photography at the University of New Mexico.
Star Wars
Overview
Here is a special 20th anniversary edition of the no. 1 New York Times bestselling novel that reignited the entire Star Wars publishing phenomenon featuring an Introduction and annotations from award winning author Timothy Zahn, exclusive commentary from Lucasfilm and Del Rey Books, and a brand new novella starring the ever popular Grand Admiral Thrawn. The biggest event in the history of Star Wars books, Heir to the Empire follows the adventures of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Princess Leia after they led the Rebel Alliance to victory in Star Wars Episode VI Return of the Jedi.
Five years after the Death Star was destroyed and Darth Vader and the Emperor were defeated, the galaxy is struggling to heal the wounds of war, Princess Leia and Han Solo are married and expecting twins, and Luke Skywalker has become the first in a long awaited line of new Jedi Knights.
But thousands of light years away, the last of the Emperors warlords the brilliant and deadly Grand Admiral Thrawn has taken command of the shattered Imperial fleet, readied it for war, and pointed it at the fragile heart of the New Republic. For this dark warrior has made two vital discoveries that could destroy everything the courageous men and women of the Rebel Alliance fought so hard to create.
The explosive confrontation that results is a towering epic of action, invention, mystery, and spectacle on a galactic scale in short, a story worthy of the name Star Wars.
Author Information
Since 1978 Timothy Zahn has written nearly seventy short stories and novelettes, numerous novels, and three short fiction collections, and won the Hugo Award for best novella. Timothy Zahn is best known for his Star Wars novels Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, The Last Command, Specter of the Past, Vision of the Future, Survivors Quest, Outbound Flight, and Allegiance, and has more than four million copies in print. His most recent publications have been the science fiction Cobra series and the six part young adult series Dragonback. He has a B.S. in physics from Michigan State University, and an M.S. in physics from the University of Illinois. He lives with his family on the Oregon coast.
Short Course in Digital Photography
Overview
For introductory, one-semester courses devoted to digital photography.
The London, Upton, Stone series has helped over 1,000,000 photography students capture their potential.
After a very successful first edition, this second edition returns with the most upto date industry knowledge. Modeled after the long-running and widely used A Short Course in Photography, a brief text which presents the medium entirely in its most updated form.
Author Information
His photographs have been exhibited and published internationally, and collected by the Museum of Modern Art, Bostons Museum of Fine Arts, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, among many others. Six of his books, A Users Guide to the View Camera, Darkroom Dynamics, A Short Course in Photography and A Short Course in Digital Photography (both with Barbara London), Photography 10th Edition, and Photography The Essential Way (both books with Barbara London and John Upton), are in wide and continued use for university level courses, and there have been three artist books published of his photographs, Stranger Than Fiction (Light Work, 1993), Historiostomy (Piltdown Press, 2001), and Why My Pictures are Good (Nazraeli Press, 2005).
Stone has received awards from the Massachusetts Arts Council, The New England Foundation for the Arts, The San Francisco Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts. For several years he served on the board of directors for the Society for Photographic Education and Boston Photographic Resource Center. He taught formerly at Boston College and the Rhode Island School of Design. Currently he is Professor of Photography at the University of New Mexico.
Parisian Interiors
Overview
Bursting with color and dramatic focal points, these exceptional interiors offer exclusive access into the homes of Paris finest art and antiques aficionados. The magic of Paris is distinctly captured in its interiors windows are tall, and rooms have high ceilings with grand architectural details; but the real charm comes in the thoughtfully selected elements that bring those spaces to life. Paris is rife with antique collectors, art historians, architects, and interior designers who dedicate their lives to the contemplation of each element that goes into the ideal interior.
Barbara and Rene Stoeltie invite us inside the private oases of twenty of the citys celebrated interiors gurus, capturing in vivid photographs these havens of perfection, brimming with inspiration for the home. While each interior is distinctly unique, they all draw from a rich historical tradition of decorative arts combined with an instinctive desire to reinvent itself, mixing the best elements from different epochs with contemporary art, bold colors, or surprising pattern combinations. A foreword from Jacques Garcia, with his gracious nod to the great Madeleine Castaing, opens this handsome volume.
LaChapelles images of the most famous faces on the planet, and marginalized figures like transsexual Amanda Lepore or the cast of his critically acclaimed social documentary Rize call into question our relationship with gender, glamour, and status. Using his trademark baroque excess, LaChapelle inverts the consumption he appears to celebrate, pointing instead to apocalyptic consequences for humanity itself. While referencing and acknowledging diverse sources such as the Renaissance, art history, cinema, The Bible, pornography, and the new globalized pop culture, LaChapelle has fashioned a deeply personal and epoch defining visual language that holds up a mirror to our times.
Author Information
Barbara Stoeltie is a journalist specializing in fashion and beauty, who has written for Vogue and many other magazines. She is the author of Chanel Collections and Creations.
Brainworks
Overview
Admit it. When you hear the word neuroscience, you expect something abstract and remote, very complex, of little practical value. But this time…it is personal.
In a highly anticipated, three-part series airing on the National Geographic Channel in Fall 2011, National Geographics Brainworks makes YOU the test subject in an array of astonishing challenges and experiments. Your brain will be stimulated, fooled, and ultimately amazed, as scientists and other experts show you how this three pound blob of gray matter effectively makes you, you.
The television program brings together a crack team of scientists and researchers from a wide range of fields, including neurology, psychology, and opthamology. Awareness expert Dan Simons and memory expert Elizabeth Loftus are just two of the notables who lend their considerable brainpower to this unprecedented project. The program also draws on the know how of those who traffic in brain tricks illusionists such as David Copperfield and Apollo Robbins and artists such as color expert Beau Lotto to bring each mind bending illusion to life.
The captivating companion book further messes with your head through the visual illusions discovered and perfected by masters of fine art as well as through deceptively simple illustrations that are finely crafted by psychologists to highlight the way we take in and process the world around us.
In three sections Seeing, Thinking, and Being you will see for yourself why these visual illusions and experiments hoodwink the brain. You will find out how the structure of the eye influences what you see. And you will think of events that may not have actually happened, in order to learn how the mind can create a false memory.
Rather than simply displaying a collection of puzzlers or visual illusions, each chapter guides you through a series of perceptual and thought experiments firsthand and then walks you through your brain reaction in clear, user friendly language providing every reader with a compelling personal interest in finding out why his or her mind acts the way it does.
Smart, exciting, and deeply engaging, Brainworks pulls you in, manipulates your mind, and leaves you with a better understanding as well as a richer appreciation of the mental marvels that we take for granted.
Author Information
Michael Sweeney, a graduate of the University of Nebraska Lincoln, received his Ph.D. in Journalism from Ohio Universitys E.W. Scripps School of Journalism and his Masters in Journalism at the University of North Texas. He reported for nationalgeographic.com on Dr. Robert Ballards Titanic expedition. Sweeneys numerous books include The Ultimate Survival Book, Peace: The Biography of a Symbol, God Grew Tired of Us, and Mind: The Complete Brain.
A member of the exclusive club of world famous magicians, David Copperfield is known for staging whopper illusions, including making the Statue of Liberty disappear before a live audience and millions of TV viewers. In addition to performing worldwide, he has had a hit on Broadway (Dreams and Nightmares), founded an organization to help rehabilitate disabled people (Project Magic), and published books (Beyond Imagination and David Copperfields Tales of the Impossible).
February 28, 2016
November 8, 2015
Morelle Code Detectives (Case #1: Charlie-napper) is Published!
I am proud to announce, that after many years of writing pieces, and working on getting published, I have finally published to Kindle with the help of my husband. We published my first book to Kindle, and plan on publishing future “cases” to Kindle and other eBook venues, as well as publishing to paperback books as well.
Here’s a link to my newest treasure, Morelle Code Detectives (Case #1: Charlie-napper):
August 1, 2015
Welcome
Hello friends,
Welcome to my website! I’m so glad that you found me, let me introduce myself. My name is D. M. Lukman, but my friends call me D. for short. I write all sorts of adventurous stories, that are both educational and entertaining. I’m currently writing my mystery series for 8-12 year old kids, called the Morelle Code Detectives. I hope my readers will experience the mystery, intrigue, and joy of reading my books. You can even follow along on each mystifying case. Do you think you can solve the mysteries along with the kids at Morelle Code Detectives? Maybe!
If you want to learn more about me or the characters in my books, feel free to have a click around the website. I hope we’ll have a chance to chat while you’re here because I enjoy connecting with my readers. I look forward to getting to know you too. Please come back as often as you can for updates on eBook/book releases, and links to important information. But, don’t forget to share the joy of reading my eBooks/books with your friends! Be sure to leave a review for the books you have read, so that others can enjoy it too!
Enjoy your visit,
D. M. Lukman
