Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Chin-Yee Li: The Complete Ripley Novels Boxed Set







I love this boxed set, which works so well with the Ripley stories. Ripley "... is everything crime fiction fans love in an (anti)hero: a charmingly slick killer who can worm his way out of anything." He is faced with a problem in each novel that must be solved by the end, by any means possible. The chess board at the top of the box is a nice depiction of these games. Also, the icons on each cover represent important pieces of the stories. The oar on Talented Mr. Ripley is his first murder weapon. But my favorite is the high-heeled shoe in The Boy Who Followed Ripley, which works so humorously against the title. In that novel, Ripley comes to the aid of a wealthy teenage expat with a secret, and at one point, they travel to a seedy Berlin transvestite club. It's such a small detail, but it's a joy to see it on the cover for someone who's read the books. And lastly, I love the way Ripley gradually disappears from view across all five covers.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Guggenheim

Ummm....GORGEOUS!

"Published on the occasion of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum's fiftieth anniversary...The Guggenheim: Frank Lloyd Wright and the Making of the Modern Museum examines the history, design and construction of Wright's masterwork with preliminary drawings, models and photographs, as well as three major essays that consider the building in three important contexts." — ArtBook.com