Oil & Acrylic: Flowers by Marcia Baldwin

Oil & Acrylic: Flowers by Marcia Baldwin ISBN-13: 9781633228481 Paperback: 40 pages Publisher: Walter Foster Publishing Released: March 3rd 2020

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
Award-winning artist Marcia Baldwin teaches aspiring artists how to paint stunning floral scenes in Oil & Acrylic: Flowers. Inside, find information about the painting tools and materials you need to get started. Learn about color theory, working from photographs, beginning with sketches, applying an underpainting, taking artistic liberties, enhancing backgrounds, and creating texture. With each step-by-step project focusing on a specific technique, learn to paint six beautiful flowers.


My Review:
Oil & Acrylic: Flowers is an art instruction book on painting vivid, somewhat stylized flowers in oil. Acrylic paint was only mentioned when briefly describing how it's different than oil painting. All of the projects were for oil painting. The author started by briefly describing the various tools and materials needed, some oil painting techniques, and color theory. She then provided six step-by-step projects that teach various oil painting skills. She covered painting from a photo, from a sketch, starting with an underpainting, taking artistic liberties, creating certain textures, and creative backgrounds.

Each project had six to nine steps, each with a text description and illustration. The text description included information like what type of brush to use, what step to do next, and what technique to use. At the beginning of each project, she included a list of colors to use, but she didn't tell you specific colors to use during each step. I guess she assumed you could figure it out from the picture. While this book may inspire people to try her style of painting, I think a complete beginner would find this book frustrating. An advanced beginner can probably follow her instructions and pick up some tips on flower painting.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


Excerpt: Read an excerpt using Google Preview.

The Science of Storytelling by Will Storr

The Science of Storytelling by Will Storr ISBN-13: 9781419743030 Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: Abrams Press Released: March 10th 2020

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
There have been many attempts to understand what makes a good story. In The Science of Storytelling, Will Storr applies psychological research and neuroscience to show how we can tell better stories, revealing, among other things, how storytellers—and also our brains—create worlds by being attuned to moments of unexpected change. Storr’s examples range from Harry Potter to Jane Austen to Alice Walker, Greek drama to Russian novels to Native American folk tales, King Lear to Breaking Bad to children’s stories.


My Review:
The Science of Storytelling provides an evolutionary story for why humans like to tell stories. He talked about the "hallucinatory neural model of the world" and included explanations like "The controlled hallucination inside the silent, black vault of our skulls that we experience as reality is warped by faulty information. But because this distorted reality is the only reality we know, we just can't see where it's gone wrong."

He also referred to psychology when talking about building personalities and flawed characters. He occasionally referred to scientific studies that show things like how our brains like cause and effect and prefer sentences that allow us to "see" the story unfold like a movie. He admitted these principles are already found in common story writing advice like "show don't tell" and "use active rather than passive sentences."

I didn't find his musings very useful. In fact, I didn't agree with some of his conclusions--like you should build suspense by including a lot of detail to draw out a scene. I suppose it depends on what sort of suspense you're trying to create, but this is bad advice for a fast-paced thriller or suspense genre novel.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.

Drawing: Landscapes by William F. Powell

Drawing: Landscapes by William F. Powell ISBN-13: 9781633228405 Paperback: 40 pages Publisher: Walter Foster Publishing Released: March 3rd 2020

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
William F. Powell invites you to explore a number of basic drawing techniques and shows how to develop a drawing to its fullest through a series of step-by-step demonstrations. Landscapes provides you with the necessary knowledge to create your own landscape drawings from preliminary sketch to the completed work. Discover different methods of shading and ways of manipulating drawing tools to produce specific textures. Also included are simple techniques for developing common landscape elements—such as trees, clouds, rocks, and water—and how to apply a variety of methods to convey a sense of realism. Then, with a little practice, you will be able to apply your newfound skills and draw your own beautiful landscape masterpieces!


My Review:
Drawing: Landscapes is an art instruction book on drawing landscapes using graphite pencil. The finished drawings are more like detailed sketches than highly detailed drawings, but they still look very nice. There is enough instruction that this would be appropriate for a beginner. The author started by describing the various tools and materials, various shading techniques, how to create various textures, and the basics of composition and perspective. He then provided step-by-step details on how to draw clouds, rocks, trees and bushes, buildings, mountains, deserts, creeks, and waterfalls. He ended with two step-by-step projects: Half Dome in Yosemite and Grand Falls in Yellowstone. I'd recommend this short book to beginners at drawing landscapes.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


Excerpt: Read an excerpt using Google Preview.

Grow Yourself Healthy by Beth Marshall

Grow Yourself Healthy by Beth Marshall ISBN-13: 9780711250710 Hardcover: 192 pages Publisher: White Lion Publishing Released: March 17th 2020

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
Discover how to grow 50 vegetables, fruit & herbs to maximise their nutritional value. Plan your own gut-health garden using 11 easy projects, with planting plans and best varieties. Follow 13 recipes for fermented foods to multiply the benefits and enjoy all year round. Understand the science of gut-health gardening and how it affects our health and well-being.

GROW YOURSELF HEALTHY describes the best types of fruit and vegetable to choose and how to grow them to optimize their health boosting properties. It brings together the latest scientific research into different organic growing, harvesting and processing methods that will empower the reader to take back control of the nutritional value of the food they eat. It also contains 11 practical projects to demonstrate how to grow healthy, fresh produce at home, in a small garden, allotment, balcony, or even on a windowsill and 13 fermentation recipes for sauerkraut, kimchi, pickles, fermented drinks, and more.


My Review:
Grow Yourself Healthy is a gardening book with a focus on foods that are good for our intestinal microbiome. The author talked about the importance of a healthy microbiome in your gut and the types of foods that help the beneficial microbes thrive. She then discussed how to grow those foods, including tips on how to plant them, the mild stresses that help increase the nutritional value of these plants, and tips on how to best store and cook them for the highest nutritional value. She included suggested layouts for different types of gardens made up of these beneficial plants, including layouts for small areas. She also included several recipes for fermented foods (like kimchi and sauerkraut) using these plants. Overall, I'd recommend this book to gardeners who want to get the most nutritional and gut health benefits from their plants.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.

Boots in the Ashes by Cynthia Beebe

Boots in the Ashes by Cynthia Beebe ISBN-13: 9781546084594 Hardcover: 304 pages Publisher: Center Street Released: February 25th 2020

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
Boots in the Ashes is the memoir of Cynthia Beebe's groundbreaking career as one of the first women special agents for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, (ATF). A smart and independent girl growing up in suburban Chicago, she unexpectedly became one of the first women to hunt down violent criminals for the federal government. As a special agent for 27 years, Beebe tells the story of how, as a young woman, she overcame many obstacles on her journey through the treacherous world of illegal guns, gangs, and bombs. She battled conflicts both on the streets and within ATF. But Beebe learned how to thrive in the ultra-masculine world of violent crime and those whose job it is to stop it.

Beebe tells her story through the lens of six major cases that read like crime fiction: four bombings, one arson fire and a massive roundup of the Hell's Angels on the West Coast. She also shares riveting never before revealed trial testimonies, including killers, bombers, arsonists, victims, witnesses and judges.


My Review:
Boots in the Ashes is a memoir by one of the first female special agents for the ATF (Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives). The author briefly talked about her childhood and how she got interested in joining the ATF. She then talked about six of her most notable cases, including the steps she took to investigate the case all the way through to the court verdicts. At the end, she briefly talked about why she retired and her life now. Her cases were interesting, and she also talked about what it was like to be one of the few female agents at the beginning of her career. Overall, I'd recommend this book to true crime fans or those interested in what an ATF field agent does.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


Excerpt: Read an excerpt using Google Preview.

Wildcrafted Fermentation by Pascal Baudar

Wildcrafted Fermentation by Pascal Baudar ISBN-13: 9781603588515 Paperback: 304 pages Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing Released: March 12th 2020

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description from Goodreads:
In Wildcrafted Fermentation, Pascal Baudar provides all the basics needed to make creative ferments at home. From simple wild sauerkrauts and kimchis to hot sauces, savory pastes, non-dairy cheeses, dehydrated spice blends, and much more, Baudar includes over 100 easy recipes to inspire even the most jaded palate. The recipes can be easily adapted by people who buy seasonal and local produce, or who harvest from their own gardens. And step-by-step photos of processes and finished dishes will inspire the adventurous home cook to experiment with both wild and cultivated plants. Knowing the basic methods of fermentation, as well as specific techniques like how to cut and prepare different kinds of plants, provides the confidence to succeed like a pro.


My Review:
Wildcrafted Fermentation is a book on how to ferment plants that you have foraged locally. He doesn't include a plant ID guide, but he tells you how to look up this information online for your local area. The plants that he mentions in his recipes are ones that should be available throughout the United States and parts of Europe. However, he's mostly teaching what he's learned about fermenting different types of plants so that you can use that knowledge on what you find locally.

The author started off by explaining the basics of fermentation and talked about several different methods of fermentation, including your basic cabbage ferment and brine ferment. He also talked about how to make fermented sauces, soups, spreads, pastes, drinks, and plant-based cheeses. He described what he's learned about fermenting roots, leaves, leafy vegetables, stems, bark, berries, and fruit.

Some of the recipes had pictures showing step-by-step what to do so that you can understand the basic method. He included basic instructions for a type of fermentation (like fermenting mushrooms) and then included several recipes using those ingredients and different seasonings. These are recipes that he has developed that he enjoys. Since his focus was on taste rather than health benefits, sometimes he did a shorter ferment because he prefers the taste at that point. As someone who has done basic fermenting before, his instructions seem very doable and understandable. Overall, I think this would be a good book even for beginners to fermenting, but especially for people who want to expand the range of what they ferment.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.

Drawing: Birds by Maury Aaseng

Drawing: Birds by Maury Aaseng ISBN-13: 9781633228504 Paperback: 40 pages Publisher: Walter Foster Publishing Released: March 3rd 2020

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
This book opens with an introduction to essential drawing tools, including graphite pencils, erasers, paper, and other materials. Then learn a variety of basic drawing techniques, such as shading, stippling, hatching, crosshatching, and others. Jump into the easy step-by-step projects to draw specific birds, including a barred owl, a great blue heron, a ruby-throated hummingbird, a gray parrot, a pileated woodpecker, and black-capped chickadees.

In this book, professional artist and nature enthusiast Maury Aaseng shows you how to create realistic textures, such as feathers, nests, tree bark, and water. With his easy step-by-step projects that start with basic shapes and progress to detailed final drawings, you can draw many birds, from the common to the exotic.


My Review:
Drawing: Birds is an art instruction book on how to draw birds with graphite pencil. The author started by briefly discussing the tools, materials, and basic pencil drawing techniques (for shading and such). He then went into step-by-step projects for how to draw an owl, heron, hummingbird, parrot, woodpecker, and chickadees. He also did sidebars describing how to draw specific parts like the beak or feathers and textures like tree bark and water. The step-by-step projects were basically what pencil to use and what order to add detail and shading. The finished projects were highly detailed and look like a lot of work, though he stated that they take less work than they appear to. I'd recommend this short book to artists who have at least some basic drawing experience and who want to improve their bird drawings.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


Excerpt: Read an excerpt using Google Preview.

Oil Painting: Oceans & Seascapes by Martin Clarke

Oil Painting: Oceans & Seascapes by Martin Clarke ISBN-13: 9781633228467 Paperback: 40 pages Publisher: Walter Foster Publishing Released: March 3rd 2020

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
Oil Painting: Oceans & Seascapes introduces artists to the basic tools and materials needed to begin painting in oil. Talented artist Martin Clarke shows specific techniques for painting realistic waves, rocky shores, and other seaside elements. Learn about color theory, and basic painting techniques before moving on to the step-by-step projects for painting five different seascapes in oil.


My Review:
Oil Painting: Oceans & Seascapes is an art instruction book on painting seascapes in oil. The author started by briefly describing the various tools and materials needed, some oil painting techniques, how to create various ocean–related textures, and color theory. He then provided five step-by-step projects using these techniques. Each project had seven or eight steps, each with a text description and illustration. The text description included information like what part of the painting to work on next, what colors to use, what technique to use, and tips for creating certain textures. These instructions weren't always clear. For example, he once said to use a "mountain mixture" but he hadn't said what colors were in that mixture. Overall, though, this book provides beginners to seascapes with good tips on how to create fairly realistic scenes. I received an ebook review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


Excerpt: Read an excerpt using Google Preview.