Customer Rating: 
Summary: beautiful book
Comment: i very much enjoy the book, and there was very fast delivery-unfortunately the mail left the box in the rain, so the cover got damp, but beautiful book!
Customer Rating:
Summary: One of my favorite books - a delight
Comment: I have been a fan of Maira Kalman's children books for some time. As an adult I enjoy them immensely for their whimsy and charm. When I spotted this book in a local bookstore on the travel shelf, of all things, I opened it and couldn't put it back. Everyone I have shown this book to has said she (or he) is going to buy a copy immediately. I think I've personally sold at least 5 of them so far. This is not an easy book to describe - it's better to pick it up, open it and jump right into the fun and enchanting world of Maira Kalman. She takes people watching to a new high - in her hands it becomes art. She finds joy and humor and dignity wherever she looks. And she brings us with her, if we care to follow. To open a hard back book, standard size, and find bright, inviting, paintings and drawings on almost every page starts you out with a bit of a surprise right from the start. The delight of reading this book and entering into Maira's world - full of lovely people, and funny things, and some quite amazing viewpoints - is beyond description. I can't imagine who wouldn't find it wonderful. I also don't think there's anything to "get." It is what it is, and that's as much the beauty of it as any of the paintings and musings.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Great fun
Comment: I LOVE this book! If you are a fan of quirky, creative, playful picture books for grown-ups, you will like this book. I think you will also like it if you like long illustrated poems, because this book seems to unintentionally be one.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Kalman for adults
Comment: I've been a fan of Maira Kalman for awhile now and own many of her "children's" books. I put that word in quotes, because while most of her past books are classified as for children, they certainly go far beyond that audience in their appeal. It's wonderful to have a Maira Kalman book that is not targeted to the children's market. Even though this is not a children's book, Kalman retains her playfulness, but here it is intermingled with a thoughtful melancholy that makes it all the more poignant. A wonderfully expressive and artistic book.
Customer Rating:
Summary: An essential bookmark on my computer
Comment: The Principles of Uncertainty
Maria Kalman's blog on the "New York Times" is a regular stop for me and for many other "Times" readers. I find many levels of meaning in her work, and it is great fun to read the hundreds of comments from her fans.
From time to time I hopefully click on the bookmark, but continue to receive this message:
"Ms. Kalman's April 2007 column is the last in a yearlong series. In October, the first 12 columns will be published in a book, also called "The Principles of Uncertainty." Ms. Kalman will return next year."
No new entries have appeared to feed my addiction so far this year. I've had to be content with the few entries still online, and with this well produced little book which collects her past contributions.
One suggestion: this is a book to read slowly, no more than an entry or two a day. The entries have layers of meaning, some layers appeal to the child in us, some to the adult, and it takes a bit of exposure to find all the layers.
Ariel Levy's review captures some of her magic:
"Kalman sees -- and frequently succeeds in making her reader see -- heaven in a honey cake, an ocean of emotion in an abandoned chair. Objects have a secret, magic life for her. They are not inanimate things but receptacles: "tangible evidence of history, memory. Longing, delight." Relics of our lives that will probably outlive us. There's a fine line between celebrating loveliness and commodity fetishism, but Kalman's tastes are eclectic -- she is as entranced by old sponges as by the tassels on Parisian drapes."
You don't have to be addicted to her work to find fascination in this little volume.
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