Walls That Speak

"A beautiful tribute to a man and his art"---Review of Texas Books --

It’s a beautiful, clear spring day, and soon the cherry blossoms will fall from the trees and blanket the ground like snow. This season promises to be extraordinary, but it won’t be the same without Da, who passed away at Christmastime. Finn O’Brine stares out the window, taking it all in. He can’t believe his father will never spend time with him again. And he can’t believe there’s a bat at his window—talking to him. Before his death, Mr. O’Brine told Finn many stories about colossal dragons, sorcery, and the magic of Wickum Mannor in Ireland—but they couldn’t possibly be real, right? Wrong! Magic runs in the O’Brine family; it’s part of their heritage. Now thirteen, Finn will begin to show signs of his magical inheritance any day now. It’s time for Finn; his twin sister, Neave; his younger brother, Jack; and his mother, Ailish, to leave the comfort of their home in America and journey to Wickum Manor themselves. They expect a summerlong adventure, but the O’Brine children may not be as ready as they think. With all the fantastic things to experience and discover on the four-hundred-acre estate, will Finn want to enroll at the magical Wickum Academy, or will he choose to return to his friends and classes in America at summer’s end?

One of the world’s greatest and most thoughtful architects recounts his extraordinary career and the iconic structures he has built—from Habitat in Montreal to Marina Bay Sands in Singapore—and offers a manifesto for the role architecture should play in society Over more than five decades, legendary architect Moshe Safdie has built some of the world’s most influential and memorable structures—from the 1967 modular housing scheme in Montreal known as “Habitat” and the Yad Vashem memorial in Israel, to the Crystal Bridges Museum in Arkansas and the Marina Bay Sands development and extraordinary Jewel Changi airport interior garden and waterfall in Singapore. For Safdie, the way a space functions is fundamental; he is deeply committed to architecture as a social force for good, believing that any challenge, including extreme population density and environmental distress, can be addressed with solutions that enhance community and uplift the human spirit. Safdie always refers to the “silent client” an architect must ultimately serve: the people who live in, work in, or experience a building. If Walls Could Speak takes readers behind the veil of an essential yet mysterious profession to explain through Safdie’s own experiences how an architect thinks and works—“from the spark of imagination through the design process, the model-making, the politics, the engineering, the materials.” Relating memorable stories about what has inspired him—from childhoods in Israel and Montreal to the projects and personalities worldwide that have captured his imagination—Safdie reveals the complex interplay that underpins every project and his vision for the role architecture can and should play in society at large. Illustrated throughout with drawings, sketches, photographs, and documents from his firm’s voluminous archives that illuminate his stories, If Walls Could Speak ends with a chapter outlining seven projects Safdie would pursue around the world if resources and will were no issue and the choices were his to make. A book like no other, If Walls Could Speak will forever change the way you look at and appreciate any built structure.

In the 1800’s William and Helen moved to Central Wyoming to homestead and start a new life. Helen’s brother, Duncan and his Native American wife join them to assist with building a wonderful house that becomes known as ‘The Grand lady .' Little did they know that ‘The lady’ would develop a life of her own. Five generations live happy, productive lives within ‘The Lady ,' before she is abandoned and left to decay with time. Then, after years of loneliness, revolting events occur that bring her to the reality of the modern world. For all who believe a house has personality and a story to tell, The Lady will entertain you with her chronicle. Set in the beauty of the Wind River Mountains, her narrative include historical events of the beautiful state of Wyoming.

If the Walls Could Speak focuses on the lives of women in prison in postwar communist Poland and how they took on different roles and personalities to protect themselves and create a semblance of normality, despite abuses and prison confinement, and reveals how life in a Stalinist prison adds to our understanding of coercion and resistance under totalitarian regimes. (source : éditeur).

It's a beautiful, clear spring day, and soon the cherry blossoms will fall from the trees and blanket the ground like snow. This season promises to be extraordinary, but it won't be the same without Da, who passed away at Christmastime. Finn O'Brine stares out the window, taking it all in. He can't believe his father will never spend time with him again. And he can't believe there's a bat at his window-talking to him. Before his death, Mr. O'Brine told Finn many stories about colossal dragons, sorcery, and the magic of Wickum Mannor in Ireland-but they couldn't possibly be real, right? Wrong! Magic runs in the O'Brine family; it's part of their heritage. Now thirteen, Finn will begin to show signs of his magical inheritance any day now. It's time for Finn; his twin sister, Neave; his younger brother, Jack; and his mother, Ailish, to leave the comfort of their home in America and journey to Wickum Manor themselves. They expect a summerlong adventure, but the O'Brine children may not be as ready as they think. With all the fantastic things to experience and discover on the four-hundred-acre estate, will Finn want to enroll at the magical Wickum Academy, or will he choose to return to his friends and classes in America at summer's end?

If Walls Could Talk: Some Need To Be Silenced But Some Speak Out Loud By: Bernard Mavritte Ever since human beings have known how to build structures with walls, a ceiling and some kind of roof, the walls within those structures have witnessed so much. If they were animate objects, with eyes, a mouth and ears, they could say so much that could not be constrained within all the books upon the earth. Those walls have witnessed the good, the bad, the joys, and the sorrows. They have seen things that those who live within the parameter of the walls would love to share with others, and yet many occurrences that should never be revealed, the deep secrets of our lives we are ashamed to reveal to others. From our entrance on this earth, until we depart, the walls have seen it all. In this autobiography memoir, Bernard Mavritte reveals the good and the bad, the joys and the sorrows in his own life, a story that is full of life itself. He shares how God has opened so many doors for him, bringing him through his many trials. If the walls in his life could talk, some of them would need to be silenced, but some would need to speak loudly.