Man Ray: 1890-1976 (Photobook)
Average customer rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • The original is still the master.
  • Stunning Stylized Images of a Most Innovative Artist
  • The guy of art
Man Ray: 1890-1976 (Photobook)
Katherine Ware , and Emmanuelle De L'Ecotais
Manufacturer: Taschen
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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  1. Man Ray (Aperture Masters of Photography) Man Ray (Aperture Masters of Photography)

ASIN: 3822871850

Customer Reviews:

5 out of 5 stars The original is still the master........2001-04-23

Man Ray used photography as painterly art, not photojournalism. Time spent with each plate provides a vista to questions, epiphanies, riddles, personality or beauty. His nudes are utterly refreshing in a time when women are photographed as blank "hey baby, what's your number" objects. (Ruth Bernhard also recommended.)

Add this book to your collection for the plates alone, but the accompanying essays are terrific. Better yet, visit the mind-expanding collection at the Getty in Los Angeles.

5 out of 5 stars Stunning Stylized Images of a Most Innovative Artist.......2000-12-01

Although many people think of Man Ray only as a photographer, his artistic work began with training in drawing. His approach to photography was always that of a painter, seeing photography as a way to create images with light as well as with the hand. He made two major innovations in technique, being the first to learn to expose images on photographic paper to capture their outline (rayographs) and to control the solarization process (where a partial reversal of values occurs in a photograph, accompanied by a characteristic edge) to create a consistent halo appearance. He also developed many ways to affect the surface appearance of the objects he photographed to make them more abstract. Deeply interested in Dadaism and Surrealism (although never formally joining either movement), Man Ray also captured witty titles and everyday objects in his photography to give additional depth to the message of his work. You will find many of his well-known portraits of famous artists in this volume.

Before saying more about this outstanding volume, let me caution you (as the cover art surely must) that Man Ray often created images of nude women. If such things offend you, this volume will not be appropriate for you.

The essays in this volume as reproduced in English, German, and French. I found them very helpful for providing technical background on the influences on and methods used in Man Ray's work. His approach was very Edison-like in its many unsuccessful experiments and accidents that led to important breakthroughs. A random mouse helped him learn how to do solarization.

It is not surprising that Marcel Duchamp and he became instant friends. Their perspectives on art have many points in common.

Born as Emmanuel Radnitzky in Philadelphia in 1890, he had moved to New York by age 7, and became exposed there to many important artistic influences. These included the Stieglitz gallery, the Armory Show in 1913, and leading artists in New York. He started as a photographer in 1914 just before meeting Marcel Duchamp. His primary years of productivity were spent in Paris, from which he was driven by the Nazi invasion in 1940. His return to the United States was less than a total joy, and he resided again in Paris after 1951.

I believe that this volume is as much a delight for the mind as it is for the eye. Subtle differences in processing of similar images create enormously changed reactions in the viewer. You then move forward to study the reason for your changed perspective and find it in a small detail . . . like a slightly lifted eyebrow. Miror images in positive and negative reproduced side by side on facing pages create a similar reaction.

Here are my favorites from these outstanding reproductions of Man Ray's best work:

Integration of Shadows 1919

Untitled 1922

La violin d'Ingres 1924

Retour a la raison 1923

Meret Oppenheim 1932

"Beauty in ultra violet" c. 1931

Erotique voilee [Meret Oppenheim] 1933

Le Priere c. 1930

Anatomia 1929

Nusch and Sonia 1935

Untitled 1931

Untitled [hair] 1931

Lee Miller c. 1930

Objet mathematique 1934-36

Les Arums 1039

Untitled [Dancer] c. 1935

Enough Rope 1944

Rayograph 1925

Rayograph 1930

Champs delicieux 1922

Marcel Duchamp 1916

Constantin Brancusi 1933

Max Ernst c. 1934

Andre Breton c. 1930

Marcel Duchamp 1921

Joan Miro c. 1930

Pablo Picasso 1932

If you enjoy the the ultimate in photographic creativity, this is the book for you!

After you finish this work, I suggest that you take these insights and begin to create some art of your own. Consider creating composite images by including your own collages with natural objects and photographing them, for example. You can even include your own poems as adjoining commentaries.

Expand your mind and your grasp by taking advantage of all the resources at your disposal!

4 out of 5 stars The guy of art.......2000-12-01

Have you ever seen a photo of eye with sting eyeblows? His photos are nothing but an art...Massimo! Man Ray is famous for his so-called Rayograph, which is to make pictures without using camera. This book contains many works of him and some photos are of Surrealists.
Man Ray (TASCHEN Icons Series)
Average customer rating: 3 out of 5 stars
  • Good, but not an introduction for beginners
Man Ray (TASCHEN Icons Series)

Manufacturer: Taschen
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 3822855561

Customer Reviews:

3 out of 5 stars Good, but not an introduction for beginners.......2002-03-08

This small book is part of a vague series called Icons by Taschen. They are a dim reflection on some of their larger works.

This book is definitely not for beginners, not meant to be an introduction to Man Ray. However, it has some value for people familiar with Man Ray, Andre Breton and/or Dada. Think of it as material for art history or food for thought about the time.

Do yourself a favor and don't try to learn about Man Ray from this book or any of the enthusiastic or overblown "reviews" of it. Start with something more comprehensive.

If and when you already know about Man Ray and where he fits, get this book and carry it around when you want to feed your head a little. It is nicely done and fills that need very well.

For those unfamiliar with Man Ray, he is not primarily known as a photographer and never intended to be. It is probably the ease of publishing his photographs that has distracted people to thinking of him this way. Don't miss the rest of his work, especially his writing. Read his autobiography and use his photographs as a "program" to identify the players, perhaps.
Man Ray: Women
Average customer rating: Not rated
    Man Ray: Women

    Manufacturer: Damiani
    ProductGroup: Book
    Binding: Hardcover

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    1. Photographs by Man Ray: 105 Works, 1920-1934. Photographs by Man Ray: 105 Works, 1920-1934.
    2. Man Ray's Montparnasse Man Ray's Montparnasse
    3. Man Ray: Photography and Its Double Man Ray: Photography and Its Double
    4. The Essential Man Ray The Essential Man Ray
    5. Man Ray (Aperture Masters of Photography) Man Ray (Aperture Masters of Photography)

    ASIN: 8889431326
    Release Date: 2006-03-01

    Book Description

    Man Ray found the surreal in the commonplace, particularly in the female form, and this has made his photography some of the world's most accessible and recognizable: his ubiquitous La Violin d'Ingres creates a cello from a woman's torso with the addition of curliqued vents inked on her sides; his classic image of shining cinematic tears glistening on a powdered cheek has been tucked into mirror frames all over the world. This collection of more than 130 pictures dated between 1920 and 1950 covers not only Ray's work as one of the world's leading avant-garde artists--he was a tireless experimenter who participated in the Cubist, Dadaist and Surrealist art movements--but also his commercial work. It includes fashion photography and advertising images; portraits of many artists, including Marcel Proust, Marcel Duchamp and Andre Breton; and a portfolio of 26 Femmes. Art dealer Giorgio Marconi, who met May Ray in 1966 in Milan, contributes an insightful interview.
    Man Ray (Aperture Masters of Photography)
    Average customer rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
    • kind of disappointing
    • A Good Portal Into the Work of Man Ray
    Man Ray (Aperture Masters of Photography)

    Manufacturer: Aperture
    ProductGroup: Book
    Binding: Hardcover

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    1. Alfred Stieglitz (Aperture Masters of Photography, No 6) Alfred Stieglitz (Aperture Masters of Photography, No 6)
    2. Henri Cartier-Bresson (Aperture Masters of Photography) Henri Cartier-Bresson (Aperture Masters of Photography)
    3. Photographs by Man Ray: 105 Works, 1920-1934. Photographs by Man Ray: 105 Works, 1920-1934.
    4. Eugene Atget (Aperture Masters of Photography) Eugene Atget (Aperture Masters of Photography)
    5. Paul Strand (Aperture Masters of Photography) Paul Strand (Aperture Masters of Photography)

    ASIN: 0893817430
    Release Date: 2005-06-15

    Book Description

    "I do not photograph nature, I photograph my fantasy," Man Ray proclaimed, and he found in the camera's eye and in light's magical chemistry the mechanisms for dreaming. Schooled as a painter and designer in New York, Man Ray turned to photography after discovering the 291 Gallery and its charismatic founder, Alfred Stieglitz. As a young expatriate in Paris during the twenties and thirties, Man Ray embraced surrealism and dadaism, creeds that emphasized chance effects, disjunction, and surprise. Tireless experimentation with technique led him to employ solarization, grain enlargement, mixed media, and cameraless prints (photograms)-- which he called "Rayographs"-- made by placing objects directly on photographic paper and exposing them to light. These successful manipulations, for which he was dubbed "the poet of the darkroom" by fellow surrealist Jean Cocteau, were a major contribution to twentieth-century photography.

    Man Ray was no less adept at commercial and portrait photography, and he earned a good living both in Paris and later in Hollywood. His portraits of Joyce, Eliot, Matisse, Artaud, Hemingway, and Brancusi, among others, testify to his compelling insight. Renowned for his exotic wit and elegance, Man Ray was one of the most popular figures of his time and his work continues to hold wide appeal.

    Man Ray presents forty-three of the greatest images from throughout the artist's career. The essay by Jed Perl describes the influences behind Man Ray's abundant career and his enduring contribution to photography.

    Customer Reviews:

    3 out of 5 stars kind of disappointing.......2000-12-27

    I bought this book expecting it to be a basic guide on Man Ray's work. The problem is it happens to be a little too basic. You can't find Man Ray's most expressive work, except for "Tears" (only on the cover), "Le Violin d'Ingres", "Mask of Woman", "Le Priere" and a few Rayographs. It seems to be a biographic record instead of an art book, although it doesn't blur the genius of Man Ray's photographs.

    4 out of 5 stars A Good Portal Into the Work of Man Ray.......2000-04-19

    Aperture's "Master of Photography" collections are economical, well put together samplers of some of this century's best known photographers, and are a good starting point for those relatively unfamiliar with an artist's work. The emphasis is on providing a representative image from all stages in the photographer's career (a long, diverse one in the case of Man Ray)so depth in the era the photographer did his most important work is sacrificed to chronological breadth.

    The reproductions are good, but not exceptional. Some of the images lacked the glow - the sense of captured light - seen in higher-end reproductions of the images. This slight deadening of the images was most apparent in Man Ray's wonderful solarized photos - images with a which when reproduced well seem to be lit from within.

    Art and photography books are perhaps the least suited for e-commerce as we know it today. Some of my favorite images were not in the Aperture books, and I would have been able to see this before buying by thumbing through the book at a traditional bookstore. Hopefully, as technology advances, Amazon will allow us to "thumb through" these books of images on-line, by being able to view all the images electronically before buying.

    All in all, this Aperture series is a good, inexpensive place to get started for someone who would like to see representative images of an artist with whom he or she is unfamiliar. They are not by any means comprehensive works, nor do they have the most beautiful reproductions of some of the mostmemorable images of this century. These books are, however, much less expensive than museum catalogs, have intelligent introductory essays, and are printed passably - they serve a valuable purpose in making the work of these photographers more accessible, and encouraging further exploration into an artist's work.
    Self Portrait
    Average customer rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    • Entertaining Bio of an Active Artist
    Self Portrait
    Man Ray
    Manufacturer: New York Graphic Society
    ProductGroup: Book
    Binding: Hardcover

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    1. Man Ray: American Artist Man Ray: American Artist
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    4. Man Ray: Photography and Its Double Man Ray: Photography and Its Double
    5. The Essential Man Ray The Essential Man Ray

    ASIN: 0821217054

    Customer Reviews:

    4 out of 5 stars Entertaining Bio of an Active Artist.......2006-03-05

    Emanuel Radinsky was an innovative artist mid 20th century who worked mainly as a photographer, the hyper productive Man Ray.

    Firmly part of the wacky Surrealist movement, his autobiography nonetheless plays no games and is a fairly straightforward, engrossing read. Nice insights into 20th century art world... Paris as well as New York.

    Best aspect of the book are his many accounts of other artists & writers... Duchamp, Matisse, Ezra Pound, Henry Miller. Worst aspect is having to read about the creepy socialite crowd who were his patrons.
    Photographs by Man Ray: 105 Works, 1920-1934.
    Average customer rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    • Definitely not an "Object to be Destroyed"
    • Love this book!
    Photographs by Man Ray: 105 Works, 1920-1934.
    Man Ray
    Manufacturer: Dover Publications
    ProductGroup: Book
    Binding: Paperback

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    5. Man Ray: Photography and Its Double Man Ray: Photography and Its Double

    ASIN: 0486238423

    Book Description

    Nudes, still lifes, landscapes, women, celebrities — Dali, Matisse, Picasso, more — rayographs.

    Customer Reviews:

    5 out of 5 stars Definitely not an "Object to be Destroyed".......2000-02-28

    Man Ray was a superbly inventive photographer able to ignore the borders bewtween art & commercial photography. Originally published in 1934 as "Photographs by Man Ray 1920 Paris 1934," this collection is an excellent look at his photo work during his most adventurous years. The book is divided into five sections: general subjects; the female figure; women's faces; celebrity portraits; rayographs.

    Man Ray's female figures are an offbeat take on the male gaze in which the processes are as sexy as the women. Along with his female faces, they demonstrate why Man Ray was much in demand by fashionable magazines. The "celebrity" portraits are of his fellow male artists & writers, with the exception of Gertrude Stein - who can hardly be glamorized anyway. The rayographs were created by placing objects directly on film, but the experimental nature of Man Ray's art is seen throughout this inexpensive book from Dover Publications. Picasso, Eluard, Breton, Tzara & Rrose Selavy a.k.a. Marcel Duchamp contributed texts. Highly recommended.

    Bob Rixon

    5 out of 5 stars Love this book!.......1999-08-05

    As with so many Dover books, 105 Works is a great bargain
    Perpetual Motif: The Art of Man Ray
    Average customer rating: Not rated
      Perpetual Motif: The Art of Man Ray
      Stephen C. Foster , and Billy Kluver
      Manufacturer: Abbeville Press
      ProductGroup: Book
      Binding: Hardcover

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      ASIN: 0896598705
      Man Ray Photographs
      Average customer rating: Not rated
        Man Ray Photographs
        Jean-Hubert Martin , and Man Ray
        Manufacturer: Thames & Hudson
        ProductGroup: Book
        Binding: Paperback

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        1. Photographs by Man Ray: 105 Works, 1920-1934. Photographs by Man Ray: 105 Works, 1920-1934.
        2. Man Ray: Photography and Its Double Man Ray: Photography and Its Double

        ASIN: 0500274738

        Book Description

        "I paint what cannot be photographed, I photograph the things I don't want to paint....I would photograph an idea rather than an object, and a dream rather than an idea." Man Ray's own words suggest the essence of his brilliant, original, and deeply influential photographic oeuvre. Taking up photography in 1915 for the purpose of reproducing his paintings, he earned money doing the same thing for others when he went to live and work in Paris in 1921. This led to one of the most versatile careers in the history of photography, ranging from portraits of celebrated artists, musicians, and writers such as André Breton, Marcel Duchamp, Erik Satie, Arnold Schönberg, T. S. Eliot, and Gertrude Stein, to the pictures using light effects outside the camera for which he is famous (cliché-verres, rayographs, and solarizations). These photographs are among the most exciting and revealing manifestations of the profusely fertile artistic impulse that made Man Ray equally celebrated as a painter, sculptor, writer, and filmmaker. Besides many classic images, the book includes a number of photographs that had never been seen before, including portraits of Virginia Woolf and of Antonin Artaud and a large selection of erotic pictures. They add up to a truly revealing look at Man Ray, Jean Cocteau's "great poet of the darkroom." 347 duotone photographs.
        Man Ray's Montparnasse
        Average customer rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
        • Don't do Montparnasse without it, an interesting book
        • Fascinating View of Montparnasse
        • Shallow Scholarship
        Man Ray's Montparnasse
        Herbert R. Lottman
        Manufacturer: Harry N. Abrams
        ProductGroup: Book
        Binding: Hardcover

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        2. Man Ray: Women Man Ray: Women
        3. The Essential Man Ray The Essential Man Ray
        4. Man Ray: Photography and Its Double Man Ray: Photography and Its Double
        5. Kiki's Paris: Artist and Lovers 1900-1930 Kiki's Paris: Artist and Lovers 1900-1930

        ASIN: 0810943336

        Amazon.com

        The Paris dada manifesto of 1921 "Dada Overthrows Everything" posed a dare to posterity: "What does Dada do? 50 francs reward for anyone who finds the way to explain us." Cultural historian Herbert Lottman finds a great way to explain dada: by focusing on its court photographer, Man Ray. Man Ray's Montparnasse brings you into the salons of Peggy Guggenheim and Gertrude Stein, and gives context to his dazzling photos: his naked mistress Kiki impersonating a violin; Duchamp impersonating a woman named Rrose Selavy (pronounced "c'est la vie"); Picasso as a toreador; and Proust on his deathbed, asleep at last, seemingly at peace and in some sort of reverie.

        If one man's life could sum up the explosively creative international arts enclave Montparnasse in Paris between the wars, doubtless it would be Man Ray. Who else crossed paths with Hemingway, Mayakovski, Calder, James Joyce, T.S. Eliot, Atget, Satie, Cocteau, the battling bohemians André Breton and Tristan Tzara, and Arno Breker, who wound up as Hitler's favorite sculptor? It was a tumultuously innovative time. The antiwar Swiss loathed the elitist French dadaists; dadaists quarreled with surrealists. Breton broke a writer's arm with his cane because he badmouthed Picasso, Duchamp, and Gide. When Malcolm Cowley punched out a reactionary restaurateur, it was a great career move--his fame spurred his nascent literary career. Apollinaire warned young dada friends against Cocteau ("Don't trust Cocteau! He's a cheat and a chameleon!"), because he was a darling of high society. Eluard said the surrealists would "shoot him down like a stinking animal."

        What made Man Ray an instant insider was his skill with the camera and his refusal to join the culture wars. "My neutral position was invaluable to all," he said. "I became an official recorder of events and personalities." "He was like the kid on the block with the guitar invited to everyone's party," writes Lottman. "He lived a double life, dressing for dinner in society, then reassuming a bohemian posture for life among the writers and painters."

        Lottman's book is delightful, a quick read that makes legendary names in the history of art come alive as wildly misbehaving young people. When Henry Miller would drunkenly harangue a café, he earned a catcall: "Why don't you write a book?" Reading Lottman, you get a vivid sense of how the overlapping lives in that astounding time and place erupted in art. It's a privilege to be invited to such a historic party. --Victoria Ellison

        Book Description

        In the years between the two world wars, Montparnasse, on the Left Bank of Paris, was a hotbed of artistic experimentation, social change, and notorious affairs. Man Ray, the renowned photographer, was there to document it all: he took his camera into cafes, salons, artists' studios, and writers' homes, and the resulting pictures provide a singular--and intimate--perspective on this legendary period in cultural and art history.

        Well-known cultural and social historian Herbert R. Lottman interweaves Man Ray's biography, filled with intriguing stories of artists, models, dealers, poets, and hangers-on, with his stunning black-and-white images of everyone from Picasso, Duchamp, Dalí, and Gertrude Stein to the famed model Kiki, poet André Breton, and Marcel Proust on his deathbed. The result is an enthralling view of that remarkable time and place, a subject that has endless appeal.

        Customer Reviews:

        5 out of 5 stars Don't do Montparnasse without it, an interesting book.......2004-05-22

        It was merely coincidence that one day after returning from Paris (I always stay in a small hotel on rue Delambre in Montparnasse) I was in a bookstore in Colorado and picked this up just for the title.

        Little did I know it would explode with stories and much interesting stories (I'm no historian and cannot verify their accuracy) and anecdotes about the photographer Man Ray and all his notorious friends & lovers in the pre WWII era of Montparnasse when Dada and Surrealism were taking hold. As I had spent so many hours wandering the same streets and sitting in the same cafes it really grabbed me and was a very interesting read.

        In short, if you: (any or all of the below)-

        Love Paris; plan to go there; have interest in the "lost generation/cafe society" era of Paris and particularly Montparnasse (one of my favorite areas in Paris);

        then you are crazy if you don't at least check this book out. I'll use it for reference on my Montparnasse cafe crawls when I return next year.

        4 out of 5 stars Fascinating View of Montparnasse.......2003-05-01

        Although I cannot attest to the scholarly quality of "Man Ray's Montparnasse", I believe that Lottman provides insight into this Parisian art district.

        The reader learns about the different bars/clubs that were important. He learns who met where; the locations of various artist studios; and the general feel of the era. The dissent in the da da movement and the surrealist movement was significant.

        Man Ray's neutral role in all of this is interesting. Lottman makes it appear that obtaining portrait sitters was one of Ray's primary goals. That along with women and his cars.

        I enjoyed the book and believe that there is much to be learned from it. Caveat: If there are historicals errors as the other reviewer mentions, then it is difficult to know what you can and cannot believe.

        2 out of 5 stars Shallow Scholarship.......2002-07-02

        Man Ray's experience in Paris is a fascinating and complex subject, certainly worthy of a book unto itself. Unfortunately the author of this book seems content to present his readers with out-of-date information. I do not pretend to be an expert on Man Ray. But I have researched extensively the life and photography of Berenice Abbott, whose own career and reputation is remarkably tangled up with Man Ray's. In Paris she worked for him as his darkroom assistant, shared his fascination for Eugene Atget's photographs, was fired by Man Ray (when Peggy Guggenheim called him on the telephone and requested a portrait sitting with her instead of him) and, until she moved back to the States in early 1929, competed with him for fashionable Paris portrait sitters. What I discovered in reading "Man Ray's Montparnasse" is that Lottman has not dug very deep into recently published scholarship, and thus perpetuates certain inaccuracies. For example, Lottman writes that Julien Levy, a mutual friend of Man Ray and Abbott, loaned Abbott money to purchase the Atget's archive in 1927, shortly after Atget's death. In fact, Levy did not invest in the Atget archive until 1930, three years later. Perhaps this seems like a minor detail, but for me it raises questions about the accuracy of the entire project. Moreover, other recent scholars have gotten this detail right, including Bonnie Yochelson in her 1997 book on Abbott, "Berenice Abbott: Changing New York: The Complete WPA Project" and Ingrid Schaffner in "Julien Levy: Portrait of an Art Gallery" (1998). For those interested in a more scholarly treatment of Man Ray's life and work, I highly recommend Neil Baldwin's 1988 "Man Ray: American Artist." For those fascinated by Paris in the early 20th century, I suggest Billy Kluver and Julie Martin's richly illustrated "Kiki's Paris: Artists and Lovers 1900-1930."
        Man Ray. Bazaar Years
        Average customer rating: Not rated
          Man Ray. Bazaar Years
          John Esten
          Manufacturer: Rizzoli
          ProductGroup: Book
          Binding: Paperback

          Ray, ManRay, Man | ( P-R ) | Artists, A-Z | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
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          ASIN: 0847810097
          Release Date: 1989-01-15

          Books:

          1. Master Lighting Guide for Portrait Photographers
          2. Mastering Digital Nude Photography: The Serious Photographer's Guide to High-Quality Digital Nude Photography
          3. Mastering the Trade (McGraw-Hill Trader's Edge)
          4. Maxwell Street: Survival in a bazaar
          5. Me Talk Pretty One Day
          6. Men in Black: How the Supreme Court Is Destroying America
          7. Mitsubishi- Galant/Mirage/Diamante 1990-00 (Chilton's Total Car Care Repair Manual)
          8. Murder, She Wrote: Three Strikes and You're Dead (Murder She Wrote)
          9. My Sister's Keeper: A Novel
          10. Obsession (Alex Delaware Novels)

          Books Index

          Books Home

          Recommended Books

          1. In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer
          2. Extraterrestrial Contact: The Evidence and Implications
          3. A Season of Angels/Touched by Angels
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          5. Busting Loose From the Money Game: Mind-Blowing Strategies for Changing the Rules of a Game You Can'
          6. Fundamentals of Atmospheric Physics, Volume 61
          7. Electrical Contacts
          8. Insect Fact And Folklore
          9. A Lady, First: My Life in the Kennedy White House and the American Embassies of Paris and Rome
          10. Out of the Turret and into Hell: WWII Aerial Gunner's Story - Stalags 7A and 17B - Life of a Prisone