Continuum Publishing Group

100 ideas for teaching creativity.

Bowkett, a veteran high school teacher and writer offers 100 ideas for encouraging, enhancing, and identifying creativity in the classroom. Each idea is followed by an activity, some targeting teacher performance, while others are meant for students to try. Many of the ideas are linked to current brain research and address a variety of learning styles. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Directed by Steven Spielberg; poetics of the contemporary Hollywood blockbuster.

Following the dictum to "read from the film rather than reading into it," the editor of the New Review of Film and Television Studies examines Spielberg's film-making practices rather than the meaning of films from Jaws (1975) to War of the Worlds (2005). Buckland argues that the director's blockbusters should be taken as seriously as his Schindler's List (1993), and weighs in on the debate over whether Spielberg ghost-directed Poltergeist (1982). The book includes movie stills, and diagrammatic and statistical analyses of types of camera shots. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

English cathedrals; a history.

Writing for serious general readers, especially those who may visit the sites, Lehmberg (emeritus history, U. of Minnesota) traces the history of cathedrals — big churches where bishops have their thrones — in England from the arrival of St. Augustine in 597 through the 20th century. He does provide eight fine color photographs, but they enhance rather than anchor the text. Distributed in the US by Palgrave Macmillan. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Essays on the philosophy and history of art; 3v.

Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717-68) was a leading German scholar of classical art. His The History of Ancient Art, first published in 1764, is "one of the great works in art history," in the view of the editor of this set, which includes the G. Henry Lodge English translation of the 1880 English translation of the second edition of The History of Ancient Art in unexpurgated facsimile. The History analyzes the development of Greek and Roman art with reference to geography, political conditions, and other factors, as well as the influence of ancient Egyptian, Phoenician, Persian, and Etruscan art. Preceding The History, which takes up the entire last two volumes of this two-volume set, are translations of his important 1755 essay Reflections on the Imitation of Greek Works in Painting and Sculpture, an essay objecting to its argument (penned, in a wily move, by Winckelmann himself), and the response to the objection. Also included in this first volume are the Description of the Torso in the Belvedere in Rome, Essay on the Capacity for the Sentiment for the Beautiful in Art, and a few more minor works. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Finding St. Paul in film.

Unlike Jesus, the Apostle Paul has been portrayed only a handful of times on film. In this study, Walsh (religion, Methodist College, North Carolina) instead turns his gaze to films that have primarily metaphorical connections with the Paul of Christian and academic discourse. He examines contemporary movies such as Total Recall and Being John Malkovich and relates them to the values expressed in Paul's letters. Five main themes are addressed: grace, apocalypse, death-obsession, ethics, and the questionable legitimacy of Paul's canonical status in a multicultural world. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Medieval fortifications. (reprint, 1990)

First published by St. Martin's Press in 1990, and reprinted without alteration, this volume presents an overview of the construction and function of fortifications in the medieval British Isles. Castle defences and domestic structures and the varied structures used in town defenses are described, using descriptions of many individual examples and variations. The volume is illustrated with b&w photos, drawings, and plans. A glossary is provided. Kenyon is librarian of the National Museum of Wales in Cardiff. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Medieval monasteries. (reprint, 1992)

First published by Leicester University Press in 1992, and reprinted here without alteration, this is a useful overview of monastic architecture, the history of its study, and its use in the medieval British Isles, and the impact of the Dissolution. The volume is illustrated with b&w photos (in rather poor reproductions), drawings, and ground plans. Greene is director of the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester, the UK. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

The spirit of the trees; science, symbiosis, and inspiration. (reprint, 2000)

In this reissued edition for a new generation of tree lovers, a UK- residing German artist/Celtic harpist shares how common trees have inspired him throughout his life as well as mythic and healing traditions. In this holistic treatment interspersed with his paintings and drawings, Hageneder also relates botanic and ecosystem facts relating to trees featured in his calendar art and music. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Thought through my eyes; writings on art, 1977-2005.

In his writings on art, critic, curator and author Klaus Ottmann combines his background as a philosopher with visions from contemporary artists. Originating from a wide range of disciplines, his interest in creative ideas places art in the context of philosophy, literature and science. The collection includes his essays on Bartlett, Laib, Kiefer, Beuys and Stella as well as interviews with Serra, Koons and other artists. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)

Walter Benjamin and history.

German Marxist literary critic Benjamin's (1892-1940) extended writings on history are examined by scholars of history, literature, and architecture from North America, Europe, and Australia. Their topics include his attenuation of the negative, between melancholia and fetishism, the temporality of parataxis, the moods of modernity, what the matter is with architectural history, and messianic epistemology. Only names are indexed. (Annotation ©2007 Book News Inc. Portland, OR)