OF ALL KINDS

Evening Post, Volume CX, Issue 137, 6 December 1930, Page 21

OF ALL KINDS

BOOKS RECEIVED

Aii outline "History of Art and Mythology" has been received from the Richards Press, Ltd., London. Its joint authors, Louis Hourtic.q and Ernest Granger, have combined to write in clear and interesting style a short history of the development of art from about 5000 B.C. down to the age of Whistler and-Sargent. In a small compass, with a wealth of photographic illustration, is conveyed in a pleasant form information about the art of Egypt,' Greece, Rome, the Orient, Middlo Ages, the Kenaissance, and the present time. Painting, sculpture, and architecture are'all dealt ■with.. Tho second half of the bool<, which is one which will bo welcomed by those content with JUo ii?'? cursory of surveys, is coucemc with Greek and Roman mythology, tlio better known legends'"beiiig outlined and illustrated. Another art-book is "A Manual of Tempera Painting," by Maxwell Arniiield (George Allen and "Dnwin, Ltd.). Tho revivaliiof tempera painting is here touched upon as a real contribution to the general artistic problems of the times. In addition to boing an actual manual of. tiro art, this liitlo handbook contains interesting historical matter and will be of great value to pioneers in this new-old art. "A School History of. New Zealand," adequately illustrated, has been prepared by Mr. H. E. Jacob. Pacts are plainly set forth without attention to wearisome detail, and the young scholar will find here presented the salient points in the progress of tho Dominion from the time it became a British Colouy right down to the present. Whitconibc and Tombs, Ltd., are publishers. A young and new writer is making a bid for ultimate fame. This is Dorothy Parker, whose "Laments for the Living" lias been published by Longmans, Green, and Co. She is a determined realist who maliciously laughs at some of the most angular moments of existence. "Laments for the Living" is a collection of sketches, all thrusts at certain phases of American life. Her figures are real, and her writing is free from ambiguity; hence she has a large circle of readers in the States, a circle which one tan safely prophesy will extend elsewhere. There is probably only one book about taxi-cabs and their drivers. This is called "Taxi" (Hodder and Stoughton), and is by "A.A." of "Punch" (Anthony Armstrong). As might be expected, it is by no means an over-serious book, as a book on such a limited subject might well be, but holds the balance nicely between the informative and the humorous. There is a brief history of the London taxi-cab, with some amusing researches into ancient forms of taximeter; there are chapters descriptive of tho taxi-man's life, the way in which ho gets his living, and the different systems under which he works; there are chapters full of information about the ranks and cab-shelters. There are most amusing chapters on "Strange Jobs," "Things Left in Taxis," and "Taxi Eecords." There is an absorbing dissertation on taxis and crime, and others on the taxis and drivers of New York, Paris, Rome, and Berlin. Above all, it is not an unintelligible "trade" tome; it is written, from the point of view of a member of the public, ancj, well ayi-iuklcd witk iuiecdetes, will be I

appreciated and enjoyed by every typo of reader. , "All good parents think their offsprings the loveliest, brilliautest, and best. So_ does A. S. M. Hutehinsou of liis son Simon, but ho says it iv "The Book of. Simon," in a manner all his own. His son Simon in his every aspect "astounds" him; and the measure of his astonishment he metes out, now with delicious humour, now with tho laughter that is near to tears, over tho various chapters of Simon's development as he has seen it, entitling them each iv turn "The Astounding Mind of My Son," "The Astonishing Tastes—Meditations—Lifo:—and so on of My Son." Thousands of readers grew to know and , adore Simon while this book was ap- | pearing in serial form; thousands more will join, them, now th^t it 5» available :iu bo«& ioim.