Rating: 
Summary: A Crash Course Indeed!
Review: This author takes you through the first 25,000 years of art history in a mere sixty-three pages, including the Renaissance, and devotes fully one-third of the book to the modern art of the twentieth century. Perhaps I was mislead by the title, hoping for a little bit more attention to Mona's time. A better choice would be Thomas Hoving's "Art for Dummies", with his more objective point of view.
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Summary: accuracy please!
Review: Although I was excited to see attention brought to baroque woman artist Artemisia Gentileschi, I was dismayed to see yet again inaccurate facts about this brilliant woman disseminating to the general public. Artemisia was not raped by a fellow pupil, but by Agositino Tassi, a landscape painter her father arranged for her to study perspective under. She was seventeen at the time. The "sibile(sp)" or thumbscrews were a correct account, but Tassi was in fact convicted and sentenced to time already served and ordered to leave Rome. As for Artemisia Gentileschi devoting herself to painting women who wreck havoc on men, that is, if you ask me, a short sighted, and shallow opinion of her work. Such dramatic generalizations do not give this artistic genius a fraction of the credit she deserves.
Rating: 
Summary: Great for anyone who is instrested in appreciating art
Review: As a student who took AP art history this year, I feel this is a wonderful book to study for the test with. It helps you review everything that was learned in the class. I've also instroduced people to the wonderful world of art, by showing them this book. People liked all the facts, and after just reading a few pages, they began to wamt to go to museums and learn more about art. I'd recommend this book to anyone
Rating:
Summary: Great for anyone who is instrested in appreciating art
Review: As a student who took AP art history this year, I feel this is a wonderful book to study for the test with. It helps you review everything that was learned in the class. I've also instroduced people to the wonderful world of art, by showing them this book. People liked all the facts, and after just reading a few pages, they began to wamt to go to museums and learn more about art. I'd recommend this book to anyone
Rating:
Summary: Great book !!!
Review: I don't know much about art, and I wanted to learn a little bit more. That is the reason why I bought this book. Truth to be told, I was pleasantly surprised when I read it: it teachs you a lot, but it's also entertaining and... FUN TO READ. You end up wanting to read more about art, and from my point of view that's what makes a book successful, disregarding the subject matter. "The annotated Mona Lisa" allows you to appreciate paintings you have already seen in a new way (you must try to pay attention not only to de color and composition but also to the historical circumstances in which it was painted, and to the meaning hidden in the painting) and introduces you to new ones. Carol Strickland, in the introduction to this book, tells us that "There is a world of difference between viewing a work of art and really seeing it - the difference between sight and insight". In "The annotated Mona Lisa" she tries to give us an insight into what art is really about, and in my opinion, she has a good deal of success.
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Summary: accessible guide to art history, informative & entertaining
Review: I tried to make this book as reader-friendly as possible. No technical jargon, just a basic introduction to the subject of art history. My mandate was to make the important interesting
Rating:
Summary: Great source
Review: I use the Annotated Mona Lisa in my 8th grade Art History class. Throughout my years of using it I have seen this as my most reliable source of information. Each period or movement is well introduced and there is a lot of information on each major artist. It is filled with many colorful quotes, all coming from people of the time period. Overall I consider this a great source and I recomend it to any aspiring art historians. im 14
Rating:
Summary: Excellent overview of art.
Review: I used this book to successfully prepare for the humanities CLEP exam and passed with flying colors. The book takes often esoteric art terms and periods and makes them easily understandable. The succinct nature of the book makes it ideal for anyone wanting to "cut to the chase" when learning about art.
Rating: 
Summary: Useful
Review: I've found this book to be helpful as a teaching tool. I teach from Gardner's, but this book helps me to focus my lectures, since I can't cover absoultely everything in class. My only gripe is that on the book flaps Strickland unnecessarily pans introductory art textbooks in order to bolster her own book, saying "The Annotated Mona Lisa isn't bogged down with convoluted theories or author's pet peeves," or jargon. Being someone who has read Janson, Gardner's and Stockstad, I can honestly say that these books are quite approachable and traditional, and can not be sweepingly characterized in that way. My feeling is that these statements may be a manifestation of her own feeling of alienation from the academic community; her work appears in some venues -- the Christian Science Monitor, Wall Street Journal, Arts and Antiques -- that aren't exactly on friendly terms with the academic world of art history. Fortunately, however, the actual text of Strickland's book does not resort to backhanded and reactionary gripes about other authors' approaches to art history. Strickland and authors of college-level introductory textbooks have different goals and intentions. Textbooks offer a kind of engagement with the material that is essential to any comprehensive study of art history. The author does a good job of touching on key issues, but the book could not possibly serve as a replacement of introductory texts such as Gardner's, Janson, or Stockstad. For the person with a only a casual interest in art history this book would be a very nice thing to have on hand. It would also serve well as a study aid for a student who is taking an in-depth art history course.
Rating:
Summary: Provides the basics to appreciating art to the fullest!
Review: In such a short book, compared to other Art History books such as Gardner's Art History, etc., one may begin to wonder what this book has omitted. The answer is basically NOTHING. The difference between Gardner's and this book is that this book is a wonderful introduction to anybody appreciative of art but lacks the basic skills at analyzing and appreciating art to the fullest. 1500pg Art History books serve as a wonderful reference but as a poor introduction. Enter "Annotated Mona Lisa" , giving readers an introduction to art combined with attention-grabbing description and prose with the history and background of several thousands of years of art from pre-historic to modern. This book can serve as a study guide to much larger books, especially for those who take college art history classes or the AP Art History class in High School. This is a genuine MUST HAVE for anyone vaguely familiar with the term "art."
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