Trains, Names, and Other Online Stuff

Monorail, monorail, monorail...  Osaka Monorail Train switching

Strange and Silly Street Names  by Elyssa Millspaugh
all in Connecticut but how did she miss Pumpkin Delight Road in Milford?

Architecture and Embroidery: Discover the Art of Elin Petronella and Charles Henry by Victor Delaqua; Translated by Zoë Montano
So cool I want to stich one of these...

Multitasking Trees by Sonja Dümpelmann
If you love street trees...

An incidental reference to Kasper Hauser in Wolfgang Hilbig's The Females sent me Googling. Here are just a few of the results for this interesting character: 
The Enduring 200-Year-Old Mystery Of Kaspar Hauser By Gina Dimuro
Kasper Hauser - Wikipedia
Kasper Hauser on Atlas Obscura

August (fifth week) 2018 Reads

I had planned to be away from home most of the week, but the place had no air conditioning.  Monday night was quite pleasant, Tuesday night was miserable so we gave up and came home on Wednesday morning. It was too hot to do anything but read so I made a dent in the owned-but-unread stack.

This week the "Deal Me In" card is the Seven of Hearts; the selection is The Provincials by Daniel Alarcón (in The best American short stories, 2013, Kindle ed.)

Online...
The Illegal Ramen Vendors of Postwar Tokyo: Black markets and American wheat imports popularized ramen. By Hunter Lu
Two of my favorite topics - Postwar Japan and Food.

from my shelves...

When Adam Opens His Eyes by Jung-Il Jang; translated from the Korean by Sun-Ae Hwang and Horace Jeffery Hodges
 Coming of age...

Lost Cities Found Objects, linked stories by Robert Fagan
 OK, but it was my least favorite of this week's reading

The Animal Gazer by Edgardo Franzosini; translated from the Italian by Michael F. Moore 
 bio-fic inspired by the life of sculptor Rembrandt Bugatti

Brother in Ice by Alicia Kopf; translated from the Catalan by Mara Faye Lethem    
 A young woman muses on her family relationships (including a disabled older brother) whilst engaging in research on the polar regions and other icy things. Excellent!


Sight by Jessie Greengrass
 Advance Review Copy. As in Brother in Ice, a young woman muses on her life and family (especially pregnancy and mother/daughter/grandaughter relationships) whilst researching. This time the research involves Freud, Rontgen, and William and John Hunter. Also Excellent!
Allmen and the Dragonflies by Martin Suter; translated from the German by Steph Morris
  Underhanded shenanigans in the world of art collectors and thieves. In this case the art is five missing Art Nouveau glass bowls created by renowned French artist Émile Gallé. Fictional account of what might have happened the the bowls.

The Baklava Club (Yashim the Eunuch #5) by Jason Goodwin 
 A pleasant mystery--not nearly as much fun as Allemen (above)--but OK.  I haven't read the others in the series, I might pick one up at the library when I want a not too demanding diversion.

The Endless Summer by Madame Nielsen; translated from the Danish by Gaye Kynoch
  Had trouble getting into this but it turned out to be a favorite. It just took a while to click. 

April (fourth week) 2018 Reads

This week the "Deal Me In" card is the Ten of Clubs; the story essay is The Unexpected Scent of Salad by Yasujiro Ozu; translated from the Japanese by Adam Kuplowsky

Yasujiro Ozu (1903–1963) was a film director and screenwriter. These are selections from his prose writing for periodicals. Marunouchi Staffage: A tour of Tokyo’s commercial strip (1933); The Unexpected Pleasures of Riding Trains (1937); and Here We Are, on Narayama: A few words about my mother (1958).

from my shelves...

Sphinx by Anne Garréta; translated from the French by Emma Ramadan
Stunning!

Banthology: Stories from Unwanted Nations by Sarah Cleave (Editor), Anoud (Contributor),
Wajdi Al-Ahdal (Contributor), Ubah Cristina Ali Farah (Contributor), Najwa Binshatwan Contributor), Rania Mamoun (Contributor), Fereshteh Molavi (Contributor), Zaher Omareen (Contributor) , Ruth Ahmedzai Kem (Translator), Basam Ghalayini (Translator), Perween Richards (Translator), Sawad Hussain (Translator), William M. Hutchins (Translator), Hope Campbell Gustafson (Translator)
An anthology of stories from writers from the countries whose people the Trump administration wants to exclude from immigration to the USA. Some of these stories are excellent, one or two are not so great, but all give a very human look at the plight of refugees. 

Meet Me at the Museum by Anne Youngson
I enjoyed this charming epistolary novel. She is in England dealing with a so-so marriage, he is in Denmark grieving the loss of his wife.
Free advance review copy 

Sleeping Mask: Fictions by Peter LaSalle
Very nice short stories. Definitely a keeper to reread.  Publisher sent me a free copy along with an advance review copy of another title (one I requested) through LibraryThing.

January (fourth week) 2017 Reads

This week I found time for a little net surfing, some Gutenberg browsing, more MOOC, and some real books too starting with...
                                                ...four goodies from my "owned-but-unread" shelf

The Death of Napoleon by Simon Leys, Patricia Clancy (Translation)
A delightful piece of alternative history as Napoleon escapes from exile in a plan carefully constructed by his loyalists. The plan goes awry and he must make his way alone. Once in Paris, he finds that he has changed so much that he is unrecognizable and he must improvise and try to accept that his days of glory are past.
My personal Copy.


 

The Story of a Brief Marriage by Anuk Arudpragasam
This compelling story of  love and death among Tamil refugees during the Sri Lankan Civil War is told in a time defying style that makes the reader momentarily forget what a short period of time actually passes. Stunning.
Free copy from publisher through Goodreads First Reads program.







An Amorous Discourse in the Suburbs of Hell by Deborah Levy
A completely different kind of love from the above book. A fun to read she said/he said dramatic poem. Sly, witty, sharp. Something to read and re-read.
My copy from a subscription to & other Stories Publishing.



The Madonna of Notre Dame (Père Kern et Clarie Kauffmann #1) by Alexis Ragougneau, Katherine Gregor (Translation)
There has been a murder in the great cathedral and in its aftermath a great cast of characters is introduced. The suspect, an angelic looking young pervert; Clair, a young deputy magistrate haunted by memory; a bad cop and his good cop colleague; a homeless drunk Pole; and a host more. I'm glad to see this is a series as Père Kern is both engaging and ill so it's good to see that he will have another adventure. The delightful cover is designed by Liana Finck. (See below in Online section for link to interview with her.)
My copy from my subscription to New Vessel Press.

Then a couple of library books...

We Live in Water by Jess Walter
Short stories set in the Pacific Northwest. There are tough/not-so-tough guys, cons, ex-cons, future cons, dealers, hustlers--a range of "fringe people." There is also gentleness in the people, especially in their dealings with children. Their stories are told with compassion and humor.
Library book.
Contents:  Anything helps -- We live in water -- Thief -- Can a corn -- Virgo -- Helpless little things -- Please -- Don't eat cat -- The new frontier -- The brakes -- The wolf and the wild -- Wheelbarrow kings -- Statistical abstract for my hometown of Spokane, Washington.

Image is table of contents page, not cover

 Grape, Olive, Pig: Deep Travels Through Spain's Food Culture by Matt Goulding
Matt Goulding's Spain barely resembles the Spain I saw in the late 1970's. Yes we saw great sights, ate fine meals, and thoroughly loved the place, but at that time it was not the gourmet paradise described in this book. Then again, only once did we have to have a reservation for a restaurant.


This is a beautiful book filled with pictures and descriptions of foods I will never eat (and a few, very few, that I wouldn't want to eat). What I liked as much as the descriptions of the meals, was the background of the foods, the way they are produced. Goulding is a sort of insider/outsider--a foreign food writer married to a Spaniard--so he has a lot of experiences not available to most tourists. A top notch food appreciation tour. Library book.

A Project Gutenberg discovery

Armenian Legends and Poems
Compiled, illustrated, and translated by Zabelle C. Boyajian.

(Illustration on right: The Wedding)
"It rained showers of gold when Artashes became a bridegroom.
It rained pearls when Satenik became a bride."

This book should keep me busy for a while--Not the sort of thing to read all at once. I confess to be drawn to the illustrated entries, there are about a dozen. Just delightful. Originally published in 1916, the book (with illustrations) is available several places on the Internet--Google the title or author to find.

 “Deal Me In 2017!”  This week's story

Train by Alice Munro (in The Best American Short Stories, 2013; Kindle ed.) First published in Harper's Magazine, April 2012, and included in Dear Life: Stories by Alice Munro. According to my records, I read Dear Life back in December of 2012. However, this story of a Canadian soldier returning from World War 2 jumping off a train before he reached his home stop seemed entirely fresh to me when I read it this week. Maybe I skipped it when I read the collection? Since it was a borrowed book I might not have had time to linger over, or even read, all the stories. Whatever the reason, I'm glad I found it. Now I can linger over it and ponder its meaning since it's in an anthology I own. (I haven't read all the stories in the anthology either since I tend to dip into the Kindle sporadically, mostly when I'm in waiting rooms.)


This week's card for Deal Me In 2017! is the Six of Hearts. This design is from  Jami Goddess Art. I selected it for several reasons:
  1. The elusiveness of Monro's protagonist--his inability to stay settled down--is like the flight of the birds on the card.
  2.  The card appears to be in rough shape like Belle's house was when Jackson first lit there.
  3. I really like Jami's art work. She hasn't posted on her blog recently (the card is from July, 2014) but she also has a Facebook page with more recent posts. Her photo section has a neat chess set among other fun artwork.

Online 

Finished auditing two online courses  Visualizing Postwar Tokyo, Part 1, and Visualizing Postwar Tokyo, Part 2. Lecturer: Shunya Yoshimi; Professor, Interfaculty Initiative in Information Studies, The University of Tokyo. A very interesting series. 

Started auditing Modern Japanese Architecture: From Meiji Restoration to Today. This course is from Tokyo Tech.

Interview with Liana Finck  by Rachel Morgenstern-Clarren See The Madonna of Notre Dame, above, for a little sample of Fink's work. See the interview for a discussion and some illustrations from her first book, a graphic novel,  A Bintel Brief.  I'm happy to see that my library has a copy because the interview makes me want to read it.

Portugal's Unexpectedly Heroic Custard Tarts: The Portuguese have twice turned to the humble pastry to solve economic problems. by Karla Pequenino

Essays from The Destruction of Cultural Heritage project
    Exhibition and Erasure/Art and Politics by Annabel Wharton
    Memento Mauri: The Mosque-Cathedral of Cordoba by Michele Lamprakos
    DNA Damage: Violence Against Buildingsby Sussan Babaie
    Iconoclasm beyond Negation: Globalization and Image Production in Mosul by Thomas         Stubblefield

and now for something completely different...
                                                                        ....a couple of videos...
Manabu Himeda’s trippy animation takes us on a colourful car ride

Check out the first Eurovision entry to be performed in Belarusian

January (third week) 2017 Reads

Not as many entries this week as I had for the previous two weeks because I read one very long (880 page) book, did one MOOC course and half of another, and I finished all the Pushkin material I had on hand.

As much as I liked 4 3 2 1, I felt a real need to read something really different when I finished it. So I went for the delights of a foodie in Spain and a book of short stories. That's how Grape, Olive, Pig: Deep Travels Through Spain's Food Culture by Matt Goulding  and We Live in Water by Jess Walter jumped to the top of my reading stack for next week.

Finished!
 

4 3 2 1 by Paul Auster
Superb! All 880 pages. Some of it was painful to read as it covers the unrest of the student and civil rights activities of the 1960's and Auster doesn't pull any punches. The structure of the book--taking one character and giving him four alternate lives to lead worked very well.
Advanced Reader Copy 




More Pushkin: (for a full list of the contents of the volumes I've been working with see my post Pushkin - Contents notes)
From: The works of Alexander Pushkin : lyrics, narrative poems, folk tales, plays, prose; selected and edited, with an introduction, by Avrahm Yarmolinsky.  (Random house, 1936)
   Kirejali (p 590-598) translated by T. Keane
  Folk Tales (p 315-329) The Tale of the Pope and of His Workman Balda, translated by Oliver Elton;  The Tale of the Golden Cockerel, translated by Babette Deutsch
  The Captain's Daughter (p 599-741) translated by Natalie Duddington
  Unfinished Stories p 745-891): The Negro of Peter the Great; Dubrovsky; Egyptian Nights, all three translated by T. Keane
  Boris Godunov (p 333-411) translated by Alfred Hayes
  Introduction  As I often do when reading classics, I read the introduction last. 

The Little Tragedies; by Alexander Pushkin; translated and with introduction and critical essays by Nancy K. Anderson.  (Yale University Press, 2008)
I originally pick this up because I wanted to read A Feast During the Plague which is not included in the Random House edition (above). However, after finishing the entire Random House book, I decided to read more in this volume to see how a different translator worked with the material. The opening essay The Little Tragedies in English: an Approach addresses this question and was an informative discussion. As to the plays themselves, at times I preferred this 2008 translation over Keane's 1936 translation, although in a few places I felt hers was a bit too modern. I'm glad I read both.
Her critical essays really added to my appreciation of the plays. I'm glad I went to the trouble of tracking down a copy of her book.




Auditing another online course Visualizing Japan (1850s-1930s): Westernization, Protest, Modernity 
This one is self-paced and I tried to avoid going too fast, but it was so interesting that I finished it in a week. It is part of a series so I moved on to Visualizing Postwar Tokyo, Part 1. I'm not moving as fast on this one, but I'm finding the material fascinating.

 “Deal Me In 2017!”

This week's story: Fish Spine by Santiago Nazarian
(in The Future Is Not Ours: New Latin American Fiction)
In this story  a young man who helps his parents in the market. tries to wash the smell of fish from his hands before spending an evening with his friends.



Online

This week's card for  “Deal Me In 2017!” is the Ace of Spades. I thought in honor of the story's setting I would try to find a Brazilian card. I found a brief illustrated essay on Playing Cards in Brazil one of their examples is this scenic Ace of Spades made by Azevedo, Recife, Brazil, c.1925.

This is part of a large web site, The World of Playing Cards, which has information on all kinds of cards and card collecting. They also sell cards.

13 of the Most Fascinating Public Sculptures This is from Architectural Digest and I'm not posting a picture--but they really are fascinating!

March (first half) 2016 Reads

Started March with a trip to the library to return a batch (10) of books and pick up four waiting holds. Checked out the four plus three from browsing. Actually returned more than I checked out. 

Japan 1941: Countdown to Infamy ; Hotta, Eri
An examination Japanese history, politics, and foreign policy in the year leading to the attack on Pearl Harbor. It helped clarify a confusing period of history.
Library book.

The Yid ; Goldberg, Paul
Promos for this compared it to Catch-22 and it was a little like that, but I also thought of  The Golden Calf by Ilya Ilf and Evgeny Petrov (translated by Konstantin Gurevich and Helen Anderson). And the disposal of the bodies reminded me of the 1955 movie The Lady Killers. Whatever it reminds one of, it's a great book all by itself. Library book.

Zoli ; McCann, Colum
Gypsy life in Czechoslovakia in the 1930s through the 1950s. An agonizing escape to the West. Told from several points of view.  I just read McCann's Dancer, which I liked very much. I also liked his TransAtlantic and Thirteen Ways of Looking so I decided to read something else by this author. I was not disappointed. The title character in this novel is "loosely inspired by Papusza" a polish poet (1910-1987) so I decided to explore that more: see Online Reading below. Library book.

The Heart ; Kerangal, Maylis de;  Sam Taylor (Translation)
This amazing novel follows a multiple organ transplant procedure including the ethical considerations, medical decisions, bureaucratic necessities, and emotional impact on all concerned. The technical aspects never overwhelm the human nature of what is happening.
(note: this the American translation; the UK/Canadian translation by Jessica Moore is titled Mend the Living and is on the 2016 Man Booker International Prize longlist. French title: Réparer les vivants)

A Dictionary of Mutual Understanding ; Copleton, Jackie
Survivors of Nagasaki seek redemption and recognition many years after the tragedy. Worth reading. Library book.

Heat and Light ; Neerven, Ellen Van
I chose this because of the reviews linked on the 2015 Wrap Up: Diversity of the Australian Women Writers Challenge. I had to order this from Book Depository since it was not available at local libraries. It as worth the effort and price. I want to read more from this resource and/or 20 reasons you should read Blak  ("Blak" is not a typo).

Louisa: The Extraordinary Life of Mrs. Adams ; Thomas, Louisa
Excellent biography of the wife of John Q. Adams. I enjoyed it in spite of the dreaded Adobe Digital Edition. Free from Penguin's First to Read program. 

And After Many Days ; Ile, Jowhor
Family life and politics in Nigeria. So-so read. Library book.

Ways to Disappear ; Novey, Idra
Uh, why did this get so many raves? A Brazilian novelist goes missing, her American translator goes to Brazil to search for her, stuff happens. I thought of the movie Romancing the Stone though I doubt that's what the author intended. Library book.

The Dance of the Seagull (Inspector Montalbano, #15) ; Camilleri, Andrea; Stephen Sartarelli (Translation)
Maybe I've read to many of these, or maybe this really isn't as good as the others I have read in the series. It seemed a bit tedious. My copy


Online Reading:

The Last Taco Truck in Silicon Valley by Michelle Richmond 
This is one of the first offerings from Technically Literate, CNET's (yes, CNET) new fiction "with a tech twist" site featuring Bay Area authors (and others). This story is fun with some animated illustrations. Looking forward to following this venture.

Some information on Polish poet Papusza (including some poetry in English translation) from Culture.pl - an interesting website to explore (operated by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute).

The next two are from Short Fiction, a print and online journal short stories from around the world. The online edition is free and has one or two short stories a month. Great illustrations. Archived.
Blue Limitless Emptiness by Lania Knight
Spare Room Ethics by Helen Oyeyemi (just picked up Oyeyemi's new story collection at the library today and am liking it.)

Tom Vowler on the Short Story, a guest post on The Literary Sofa Vowler is a novelist, short story writer, and editor of the literary journal Short Fiction (see entry above). I had already pledged to support his new short story collection on Unbound when I came across this post.

July 2015 Reading

Two from British Library Crime Classic series (published in the USA by Poisoned Pen Press):

 
The Notting Hill Mystery; Adams, Charles Warren
Antidote to Venom; Crofts, Freeman Wills

 I read Crofts' The Hog's Back Mystery (also from this series) last month and enjoyed it. This one had a unique presentation, a little slower read, but an interesting read. The Adams book was more traditional. Am liking this series, hope to read more.

<---- a sample of the cool cover designs.


 Free advance review copies from the publisher.





Some family stories: 
Bonita Avenue; Buwalda, Peter; translated from the Dutch by Jonathan Reeder
 Another dysfunctional Dutch family (think Tirza  by Arnon Grunberg and Herman Koch's The Dinner and Summer House with Swimming Pool).
 Library book.

A Spool of Blue Thread; Tyler, Anne
 Anne Tyler delivers again. Her families are also dysfunctional, but much less violent.
  Library book.

Love May Fail; Quick, Matthew
  Liked this, but it didn't stay with me as much as his The Good Luck of Right Now stayed with me.
  Library book.

Dystopian (sort of):

The Gracekeepers; Logan, Kirsty
 The future where there is very little land and a lot of water.  This one is magical fantasy, with a floating circus. I was reminded (in a good way) of some of the stories in  Ben Marcus' Leaving the Sea. 
 Free advance review copy from the publisher.

Find Me; Berg, Laura van den
 Sometime in the future, a mysterious illness has decimated the USA.  First half of this book, set in a questionable research  hospital, was superb, The second half, telling about the adventures of one of the patients who walks away, was a bit of a mish-mash that didn't make much sense to me. Still, I'd like to read some of Berg's short stories.
 Library book,
 

Speaking of short stories:

Toronto Noir; Armin, Janine (editor)
 From the Akashic Noir series. I'm getting quite a collection of these nifty anthologies. My daughter selected this one for me with the comment that she chose it because she "never thought of Toronto as a noir kind of place."  Akashic is ably demonstrating that noir knows no boundaries.
 My personal copy (Kindle edition which has been to numerous waiting rooms in the six months it took me to read it,) 

Tales from a Mountain Cave: Stories from Japan's Northeast; Inoue, Hisashi;  translated from the Japanese by Angus Turvill     
 Linked short stories based on folklore. Interesting.
 My personal copy

The Book of Istanbul: A City in Short Fiction; Gürsel, Nedim (editor); various authors and translators.
 A very good anthology set in an intriguing city.
My personal copy

Two So-so Historical Fictions

The Price of Blood (The Emma of Normandy Trilogy, #2) Bracewell, Patricia
 A real slog to get through this. I didn't read the first book (nor will I read the third), but this one can stand alone.
   Free advance review copy from the publisher through Goodreads First Reads Program.

The Tiger Queens: The Women of Genghis Khan; Thornton, Stephanie
Less of a slog but not my favorite read. I liked it better than The Price of Blood. Could be that it held my interest because I'm less familiar with the time period of Gengis and company than I am with the era of Queen Emma. Also, Thornton is the better writer.
  Free copy from the author through a blog win.

 And one very good one:

 (Maybe I should skip this genre for a while? but the next one can be considered historical fiction and I really liked it.):

Villa America; Klaussmann, Liza
 The lost generation in the south of France--all (Hemingway, the Fitzgerald, Picasso, Dos Passos, Monty Woolley: that old crowd) behaving badly and gossiping about the ones (like the Porters) who are absent. 

  Free advance review copy from the publisher.
  

Did not finish, or, life is too short:

Mañana; Hjortsberg, William

  Drugs, murder, guy on the run searching for his missing wife....should be exciting, but I got bogged down by a lot of boring, unnecessary detail.
    Free advance review copy from the publisher through Goodreads First Reads Program

October 2014 Reads, Post Readathon

Here is what I read in October after I crashed out of Dewey's Readathon (hey, I lasted 17 & 1/2 hours). I continued my delight in the works of Pascal Garnier and Eduardo Halfon, got a head start on German Lit Month, made a stop in Montana, and revisited Iran in two very different books set in two different eras (but both from the amazing Akashic Books).

Moon in a Dead Eye; by Pascal Garnier; Emily Boyce (Translator)

 Library book. Another fine story from Garnier. This one shows the retirement community from hell. Really rather funny in a horrible way.

In My Brother's Shadow: A Life and Death in the SS; by Uwe Timm; Anthea Bell (Translation).
 Library book. This is as much about Timm's relationship with his father as it is about his brother. Interesting look at the attitude toward the war of children who came of age during the 1950s (Timm was born in March 1940).

The High Divide by Lin Enger
 Library Book. Set in Wisconsin and Montana Territories in 1886. A man leaves his family to travel to Montana to try to seek redemption for acts committed during the Indian wars. His young sons, and later his wife, set out to find him. The library I borrowed this from labeled it "Western" which highlights the problems with genre labeling. This puts it on the shelf where a large number of users do not browse. Its appeal is much broader than one genre.

Monastery; by Eduardo Halfon, Lisa Dillman (Translation), Daniel Hahn (Translation)
 Uncorrected proof from publisher through LibraryThing Early Reviewers program. More delight from Halfon. Breif review posted on LibraryThing and Goodreads.

Tehran at Twilight; by Salar Abdoh
 Advance review copy from publisher through LibraryThing Early Reviewers program. Double-dealing and intrigue in Tehran in 2008 as an Iranian/American man deals with loyalties to friends, family, and country. Brief review posted on LibraryThing and Goodreads. 

The Luminous Heart of Jonah S.; by Gina B. Nahai
 Library book. This stunning saga of Iranian Jewish refugees in Los Angeles is one of the best books I've read this year. A story of rejection, revenge, and a kind of redemption, told with passion, compassion and a lot of wit, wisdom and a touch of magical realism. I loved it. Gina Nahai is from the Iranian Jewish community of Los Angeles--her family left Tehran shortly before the Revolution when she was a teenager. Brief review posted to Goodreads and LibraryThing. Note: I am not Iranian, nor am I Jewish, but I did experience Iran in 1977-78.

Online I explored French poetry (bilingual editions), Japanese art of 1950s, and browsed some nostalgic clothing. 

A post on France Book Tours announcing a blog tour for the book Delirium: The Rimbaud Delusion; by Barbara Scott Emmett led me to search for some Rimbaud poems online. Which resulted in a great find: beautiful online excerpts from bilingual editions of French poetry from the University of Chicago Press.

Five Poems by Rimbaud; from Rimbaud: Complete Works, Selected Letters, a Bilingual Edition, Translated by Wallace Fowlie and revised by Seth Whidden.

Four poems, from One Hundred and One Poems by Paul Verlaine, A Bilingual Edition, Translated by Norman R. Shapiro. 

Three poems; from Selected Poems from Les Fleurs du mal, A Bilingual Edition; Charles Baudelaire, Translated by Norman R. Shapiro with engravings by David Schorr.

Four poems, from Selected Poems of Victor Hugo A Bilingual Edition, Translated by E.H. Blackmore and A.M. Blackmore.

Protest Art in 1950s Japan: The Forgotten Reportage Painters; by Linda Hoaglund with an introduction by John W. Dower.

 Essays with rich visuals. This is part of the excellent MIT Visualizing Cultures project.

Worn Stories; edited by Emily Spivack since 2010. "... a collection of stories about clothing and memory...." There is a picture for each story. There is also a place to add your own picture and story. This is a kind of a "coffee table book" web site. You can't read the whole thing at one sitting, but it's fun to browse.
The stories Spivack originally collected (not the shorter reader submissions) have been made into a book published on August 26, 2014 by Princeton Architectural Press.