Recommended reading - American Grown: The Story of the White House Kitchen Garden and Gardens Across America (2012):

American Grown:
The Story of the White House Kitchen Garden and Gardens Across America

By Michelle Obama.

Published by Crown.

1st edition.

Hardcover.

Published 2012.

ISBN-10: 0307956024

ISBN-13: 978-0307956026

Description:

The former First Lady, author of Becoming, and producer and star of Waffles + Mochi tells the inspirational story of the White House Kitchen Garden and how gardens can transform our lives and the health of our communities.

Early in her tenure as First Lady, despite being a novice gardener, Michelle Obama planted a kitchen garden on the White House’s South Lawn. To her delight, she watched as fresh vegetables, fruit, and herbs sprouted from the ground. Soon the White House Kitchen Garden inspired a new conversation all across the country about the food we feed our families and the impact it has on the nutrition and well-being of our children.

In American Grown, Mrs. Obama invites you inside the White House Kitchen Garden, from the first planting to the satisfaction of the seasonal harvest. She reveals her early worries and struggles – would the new plants even grow? – and her joy as lettuce, corn, tomatoes, collards and kale, sweet potatoes and rhubarb flourished in the freshly tilled soil. She shares the stories of other gardens that have moved and inspired her on her journey across the nation. 

And she offers what she learned about planting your own backyard, school, or community garden.

American Grown features:

A behind-the-scenes look at every season of the garden’s growth.

Unique recipes created by White House chefs.

Striking original photographs that bring the White House garden to life.

A fascinating history of community gardens in the United States.

From a modern-day vegetable truck that brings fresh produce to underserved communities in Chicago, to Houston office workers who make the sidewalk bloom, to a New York City school that created a scented garden for the visually impaired, to a garden in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, that devotes its entire harvest to those less fortunate, American Grown isn’t just the story of a single garden. It’s a celebration of the bounty of our nation and a reminder of what we can all grow together.

Lisa Gardner, on reading:

I still read romance, and I read suspense. I read them both. And part of it is, I like stories with strong characters, and I like stories where there's closure at the end. And I like stories where there's hope. That's a kind of empowerment. I think romance novels are very empowering, and I think suspense novels are, too.

- Lisa Gardner.

World Photography Day - August 19 (quotes & books):

World Photography Day

August 19

You’re not trying to capture reality. You’re trying to capture a photograph of reality.

– Stanley Kubrick.

Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still.

– Dorothea Lange.

Whatever happens in front of the lens stays. What’s captured during the encounter is all that exists.

– Gregory Heisler.

I think photography is a universal language as far as storytelling goes, and I think that’s what it’s most successful at.

– Mary Mattingly.

It’s amazing how photography can capture just a split second of something exquisite.

– Kiera Cass.

Recommended reading:

Eye on America

Photographs by Michael Ruetz.

Introduction by William Least Heat Moon.

New York Graphic Society book.

Published by Little, Brown and Company.

Published 1984.

Hardcover.

ISBN-10: 0821215736

Description:

85 color illustrations, including 7 panoramic foldouts.

“America,” writes William Least Heat Moon in his introduction, “is yet a place to test a vision or to find a vision of whatever kind.”

Eye on America is the stunning embodiment of one such vision – a celebration of this nation’s unsurpassed beauty, its contrasts and ironies. Michael Ruetz, highly regarded in Europe for his photojournalism and photographic books, spent two years on a solitary odyssey, traversing the United States. From Pemaquid, Maine, to the volcanic slopes of Maui, he captured the scope and grandeur of the country for this collection of images, which includes seven panoramic foldouts.

Eye on America stands well apart from the run of photographic books, not only because of Ruetz’s superb technique, but because of the unusual camera he uses. This Technorama camera is capable of encompassing hundred-degree views without distortion. In Eye on America, cities – Boston, New York, Atlanta, Saint Louis, and Houston among them – unfold in sweeps of skyline. Juztaposed with these glowing human monuments are expanses yet untamed – the Grand Canyon, Bruce Canyon, the Oregon coast, Point Lobos, and Death Valley. Through subltle and striking light effects, Ruetz transforms the familiar into visions at once mysterious and new. As William Least Heat Moon comments:

“Michael Ruetz almost creates this beauty within the camera; he catches a casting of light, or he backs away from his subject until the breadth of view minimizes specifics and turns even the jarring details of a city into concordance. With the particular softened, the universal comes forward, and with it, Ruetz hopes, the timeless.”

A Photographer’s Life: 1990-2005

by Annie Leibovitz.

Published by Random House Trade Paperbacks.

Published 2009.

Paperback.

ISBN-10: 081297963X

ISBN-13: 978-0812979633

Description:

“Annie Leibovitz’s photographic memoir of the past fifteen years in her life captures powerful, intimate moments…. She juxtaposes the most personal against the full-color flash of celebrities and the grandeur of the natural landscape against the bloody horror of war. A Photographer’s Life is a testament to a life lived large – and in full embrace.” – More magazine.

“Her fans may be astonished both by the range of the work and the unstudied, everyday quality of some of the images–a family day at the beach, a newborn in the delivery room.” – Newsweek.

“A revelation.” – Boston Sunday Globe.

“Startling.” – Washington Post.

Time Frames: City Pictures

By Michael Spano.

Photography by Michael Spano.

Introduction by Susan Kismaric.

Published by powerHouse Books.

Published 2002.

First Edition.

Hardcover.

ISBN-10: 1576871401

ISBN-13: 978-1576871409

Description:

Time Frames, Michael Spano’s long-awaited first monograph, is an exploration of spatial and temporal dimensions in photography framed by the backdrop of New York City. Divided into five chapters, each employing a distinctive technical process. Time Frames showcase a wonderful, typically disjointed way of looking at life in New York City. Panoramas captures interacting urbanites moving through elongated frames as the lens of an extremely wide field camera pans during exposure. Grids captures eight moments on a single negative as Spano moves through a sequence of events, pre-determinedly exposing one small portion of the negative every four seconds. Portraits focuses on individual inhabitants transformed from their settings through the solarization and blurring of forms into atmospheric otherworlds. Multi-Exposures matches solarizations with multiple perspectives. These single-negative layered compositions arrange and compress selected intervals of time and space into one image. Diptychs fuses two distinct moments onto one negative, in which the scale, focal planes, and perspectives shift and ultimately compose a dual image of urban spaces.

The Here and Now: The Photography of Sam Jones

By Sam Jones.

Published by It Books.

Published 2007.

Hardcover.

ISBN-10: 0061348120

ISBN-13: 978-0061348129

Description:

“Sam Jones has a unique ability in this age of insane celebrity idolatry to humanize these people who often seem entirely estranged from the world the rest of us live in. This book is about celebrity, yes, but its also about one artist’s ability to use fame to create something uniquely delightful.” – David Granger, Editor in Chief, Esquire, from the Foreward.

Portraits

By John Hedgecoe.

Published by Collins & Brown.

Published 2000.

First Edition.

Hardcover.

ISBN-10: 185585726X

ISBN-13: 978-1855857261

Description:

For the past four decades John Hedgecoe has been taking pictures of the leading figures in the worlds of art, literature, science and politics – from Winston Churchill to Mary Quant. His technical skill and unerring ability to capture the essence of the sitter in a single frame have brought him tremendous critical acclaim.

This comprehensive portfolio brings together an impressive collection of John Hedgecoe’s portraits, featuring an eclectic mix of personalities from all avenues of life. These masterful photographs reflect his wide-ranging career, from the early days on Queen magazine to his years as Professor of Photography at the Royal College of Art in London.

Accompanied by short anecdotes that offer an entertaining insight into the special relationship that exists between the photographer and his subject, Portraits is a revealing portfolio and an illuminating read.

On this day in movie history - Wind River (2017):

Wind River

directed and written by Taylor Sheridan,

was released in the United States on August 18, 2017.
Music by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis.

Cast:

Kelsey Asbille, Jeremy Renner, Julia Jones, Teo Briones, Apesanahkwat, Graham Greene, Elizabeth Olsen, Tantoo Cardinal, Eric Lange, Gil Birmingham, Althea Sam, Tokala Black Elk, Martin Sensmeier, Tyler Laracca, Shayne J. Cullen, Dallin Tusieseina, Austin R. Grant, Ian Bohen, Hugh Dillon, Matthew Del Negro, James Jordan, Gabe Casdorph, Mason D. Davis, Chris Romrell, Jon Bernthal, Blake Robbins, Norman Lehnert, Ian Roylance, Gus Sheridan, Dana Anquoe, Duy Beck, David Cardona, Teresa Duran-Norvick, John Forker, Devin K. Hansen, Tara Karsian, Alex Mincoff.

On this day in music history - Traveler, by Sherry Finzer & Peter Sheridan (2017):

Traveler

Album by Sherry Finzer & Peter Sheridan,
released August 18, 2017.

Track list:

Leaving Earth; Spiritual Crossing; Nocturnal Dance; Reverence; Hunt On The Plains; Joy.

On this day in movie history - Carriers (2009):

Carriers

directed and written by David Pastor and Àlex Pastor,

released at the Fantasy Filmfest in Germany on August 18, 2009.

Music by Peter Nashel.

Cast:

Lou Taylor Pucci, Chris Pine, Piper Perabo, Emily VanCamp, Christopher Meloni, Kiernan Shipka, Ron McClary, Mark Moses, Josh Berry, Tim D. Janis, Dale O'Malley, Dylan Kenin, LeAnne Lynch, Jan Cunningham, Mary Peterson, Sequoyah Adams-Rice, Brighid Fleming.

On this day in movie history - Factotum (2006):

Factotum

directed by Bent Hamer,

written by Bent Hamer and Jim Stark,

based on the novel by Charles Bukowski,

was released in the United States on August 18, 2006.
Music by Kristin Asbjørnsen.

End titles song: Slow Day by Kristin Asbjørnsen.

Cast:

Matt Dillon, Lili Taylor, Didier Flamand, Fisher Stevens, Marisa Tomei, Adrienne Shelly, Karen Young, Thomas Lyons, Dean Brewington, James Cada, James Michael Detmar, Kurt Schweickhardt, Dee Noah, James Noah, Michael Egan, Terry Hempleman, Emily Hynnek, Wayne Morton, Tony Papenfuss, Lana Schwab, Sally Wingert, Robert Downing Davis, Bryan J. Walker, Dan Lee Jr., Peter Moore, Bruce Bohne, Larry Roupe, Chris Carlson, Stephen D'Ambrose, Emil Herrera, Michelle Hutchison, Andy Hubbell, Martin Marinaro, Raye Birk, Stephen Pelinski, Stanley Kipper, Brent Doyle, John Paul Gamoke, Jim Lichtscheidl, Jay Gjernes, Clyde Lund, Debbie DeLisi, George McGuire, Brad Madson, Gary Tournier, Esera Tuaolo, John Nadeau, Cathi Cooper, Carole Samuelson.