Michelle Slatalla

Bruce Sterling's seminal work "The Hacker Crackdown" is a tough act to follow, but Masters of Deception does a pretty good job of doing just that - by discussing the split between the Hacker group The Legion of Doom and The Masters of Deception - with a split over philosophy (among other things) - should Hackers be about elitism - whose Kung Fu is the strongest, or should it be about exploration and sharing knowledge, the original hacker spirit.

Color photos, close-up shots of plants and architectural elements, descriptions of specific features and owners' decisions...this book provided inspiration and ideas to incorporate and dream about.

I enjoy visiting/touring local residential gardens so when I heard about this book, which features thirteen gardens located throughout the world, I knew I had to read it. I found it interesting that several of these gardens are situated in California, and ironically a few in my town of Mill Valley! show more In fact, I'm pretty sure I've visited the author's garden on a tour last year. This made the book even more enjoyable. Plus, three years ago we landscaped our front outdoor space and are continually tweaking it as well as starting to work on a side yard - fun to compare the ideas in this book with my plans. show less

Great read. Gives a weird kind of nostalgia, with parallels seen in Brazil too.

I really liked the section on wildflower meadow gardens. Everything else looked crazy overgrown to my eyes.