66 - Wednesday, November 16, 1983 - North Shore News

Cotfee table book selection

bountiful for Christmas ’88

THEY’RE BIG, they’re beautiful and they are most certainly
expensive but, as the seven following titles amply demon-
strate, coffee table books loom large in the 1968 publishing

lists.

One of the priciest offerings
available this year is Odyssey —
The Art of Photography at Na-
tional Geographic, (Thomasson-
Grant/Raincoast Books; 363 pp.;
10%4''x12,;'"), at $80 the ‘cadillac’
of the large-format books reviewed
this week.

Odyssey is a showcase of 299
photographs selected to represent
the diversity of the National
Geographic's exceptional visual
record of the world from the 1870s
to the modern day. The images,
reproduced on a superb quality
paper stock, range from silver
prints and early autochromes to
contemporary full-color pictures.
Extraordinary.

aee

Another example of the incredi-
ble artistry of Thomasson-Grant’s
impressive coffee table books can
be found in Distant Thunder, A
Photographic Essay on the
American Civil War (Raincoast
Books; 136 pp.; $49.95;
10%"x12%"").

Distant Thunder is a col-
laborative effort employing the
talents of National Geographic
contract photographer Sam Abeli
and former Time-Life Books’
researcher Brian C. Pohanka.

MIKE
STEELE

book reviewer

The images are a blend of color
work showing the current scenes
of famous Civil War battlefields
and black-and-white originals of
death and carnage that charac-

terized the war between the states.

The juxtapositioning of these
piates is both striking and poi-
ghant.

nee

Readers with a fascination for
the history of mankind's
sanguinary exploits will be in-
trigued by The World Atlas of

Warfare (Viking; 304 pp.; $40.00;
9%"'x1 1%"),

Written by Richard Holmes, a
senior lecturer at the Royal Mili- -
tary Academy, Sandhurst, The
World Atias of Warfare is a lav-
ishly illustrated history of the
evolution of warfare and military
innovations that had a profound
impact on world development.

Wearing his other hat of histori-
an, your reviewer recommends
this book as an essential volume
for the shelves of everyone with a
serious interest in history.

eee

Stephen King fans may be sur-
prised tu learn that the master of
the horror yarn has also published
a coffee table work tnis year:
Nightmares in The Sky (Viking
Studio Books; 128 pp.; $49.95;
102x112").

In Nightmares §n The Sky, King
has turned his attention to the
macabre artwork of the gargoyle, a
bizarre subject area, but one en-
tirely in keeping with his forte. The
color and black-and-white plates
feature some of the best (if dis-
quieting) of these sinister architec -

See Big
Page 67

NEWS photo Torry Peters

Aji thru the
Month of
November

. Monday to
Thursday only

LUNCH OR DINNER

‘vegetable of t ye day =

sisi Live Entertainment §
2 aS Nightly
La Belle Sole

RESTAURANT

235 - l5th Street,

West Van

Lunch Monday-Friday

: 11:00-3pm

926-6861!

Dinner Monday-Saturday §
5:30-11pm §