Book Description
A New, Expanded Edition of Renovaré's Classic Companion to the Devotional Life
Updated to incorporate all six traditions, or "streams," that comprise a healthy and holistic life of faith, these fifty–two selections have been organized to introduce the reader to the great devotional writers over the course of one year. Edited by James Bryan Smith, each reading is accompanied by an introduction and meditation by Richard J. Foster. In addition, each entry includes a related biblical passage, discussion questions, and individual and group exercises.
With devotional readings in
1. The Prayer–Filled Life
2. The Virtuous Life
3. The Spirit–Empowered Life
4. The Compassionate Life
5. The Word–Centered Life
6. The Sacramental Life
Foster and Smith sift through works from the great spiritual writers of the past as well as readings from contemporary spiritual leaders to create a guide that is indispensable for those looking for a deeper and more balanced spiritual life.
Customer Reviews:
Very inspiring!.......2007-10-01
It is so inspiring to read the writings of these great men and women of faith throughout the history of Christianity. I reccommend this to anyone looking to deepen their faith.
This is a great text for a discussion group.......2007-08-10
Our men's Bible Study meets on Friday mornings at 6:15 and consists of about 12 men of various ages and vocations. We have found this text to be an excellent resource for our weekly discussion. The book is well organized with good sample reprentation from a variety of classical and modern authors. Each reading is Introduced by the editor(s) and is supported by an appropriate Bible reading and thought provoking discussion questions. Each reading is also accompnied by a suggested discipline for the week and a suggested Bibliograpy for further study.
We were concerned when we selected this book that it might overpowering for the capabilities of our group, but this has not been the case. We feel that God is please with our selection.
One suggestion for improvement would be slightly larger print.
A Great Way to Sample Christian Literature from the last 2,000 Years.......2007-07-09
This book's greatest strength is that it introduces the reader to a lot of Christian writers that most modern Christians have never heard of. This is a great way to introduce yourself to these writers before investing in their books.
It is also great for devotions and Mr. Foster has questions and exercises at the end of each section that help the reader apply these truths to their own lives. This book is not intended to leave you unchanged or unchallenged.
Exceptional devotional.......2007-02-21
We've started using this book as a weekly devotional. How could this book be anything buy exceptional with such exceptional contributors?!
Classic.......2007-01-12
This book will help you get in touch with early churchmen as they tried to reach God. They pour out their hearts as best they know how to experience God. Be careful to not get caught up in all their exploits. We live in another age. Our culture is far removed. Be careful that you seek to understand their context as you read the many different authors within the devotional.
Amazon.com
Much has changed in the role and use of ornamental grasses over the past 100 years. Whereas turn-of-the-century gardeners had perhaps a dozen perennial grasses to choose from, today's gardeners have hundreds. Ornamental grasses now embody a huge array of textures, forms, sizes, colors, flowering times, and cultural adaptations. The Color Encyclopedia of Ornamental Grasses is intended for gardeners in a wide range of situations and climates, and draws from the experience and creativity of great gardens and gardeners around the world. It begins with an exploration of the unique aesthetics and appeal of ornamental grasses before moving on to a review of the families of grasses and a survey of grasses in their native habitats. Gardeners usually speak of "ornamental grasses" in the broad sense, including not only the true grasses but also related families of grass-like plants. Following this tradition, the book provides a detailed treatment of perennial grasses, rushes, and cattails, as well as selected bamboos. Written by horticulturist Rick Darke, this encyclopedia will be invaluable to nursery professionals, landscapers, and home gardeners.
Book Description
This encyclopedia by a distinguished American horticulturist is the most authoritative and best-illustrated reference ever published on ornamental grasses. Rick Darke has been studying and photographing grasses in gardens and native landscapes around the world for more than 20 years, and this book includes the best 500 photographs from his collection of nearly 15,000. At its heart is the illustrated alphabetical encyclopedia of important ornamental grasses, sedges, rushes, restios, cat-tails, and selected bamboos, with many plants illustrated in more than one season. Intended for gardeners in a wide range of situations and climates, this book is an invaluable tool for landscape architects, garden designers, nursery professionals, and home gardeners.
Customer Reviews:
Masterful, Encyclopedic Guide Full of Helpful Photos.......2006-03-10
Rick Darke's book is typical of his work. It is extremely well written, a detailed, very thorough guide to ornamental grasses, full of helpful pictures as well as information on growing and maintaining grasses. This book should be a classic for decades to come.
Absolutely Fantastic.......2003-03-17
This is such a wonderful informational book... AND ... a gorgeous coffee table book. It is terrific from beginning to end! If you like or are interested in, or even thinking about Ornamental Grasses ... then THIS IS THE BOOK FOR YOU! I can't imagine anyone who has an interest in Ornamental Grasses NOT LOVING THIS BOOK, and would be delighted they purchased it. My only concern is that it is going to look dog-earred from my reading it over and over and over again ... which frankly takes away from its beauty on our coffee table.
Buy 2 copies..........2001-01-24
This book is structured, written, photographed and edited with parallel purpose and effect: communication of the author's respect and regard for the book's subject and for its readers. Mr. Darke sets out to inform and does so with enconomy but in full course; when he instructs, he teaches the novice and gives pause to the critic; when he photographs he shows his passion and inspires with the nature and wonder of his subjects. The book is encyclopedic, yet its prose is always to the point with the agreeable dryness of a good, well-bodied wine. Credible, trustworthy, enlightening. This is the best gardening book I have ever read. Negatives? Only one: Mr. Darke's standards are unimpeachable; those of the book's typographer and designer, however, are not.
Excellent information, awesome photographs.......2000-01-29
Excellent and complete information about ornamental grasses. A great book.
Thirty pages on the botany, anatomy, and classification of grasses. Twenty pages on native habitat, thirty pages on designing with grasses, and twenty pages of growing and propagating grasses. 170 page encyclopedia listing 400+ species / varieties of grasses. Each species is described in a paragraph or two of text along side a clear photograph of the plant. In the back of the book, you find a 2 page glossary, 5 page bibliography, 2 page grass nursery listing, USDA and European hardiness maps, and a complete index of all grasses by common name. Very complete book.
As a bonus, the book is also filled with awesome photography.
If you garden with ornamental grasses, this book is a must buy. Excellent information, well worth the money!
Excellent information and beautiful photos.......2000-01-03
If you have no grasses in your garden now, your yard will be transformed by this book. The cultural information is well researched and thorough, but it is the incredible photographs that will keep you reading. I often look up a particular grass and find myself still reading hour later.
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Interpersonal Perception: Selected Works of R.D. Laing (Selected Works of R.D. Laing, 6)
R.d. Laing
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The Divided Self: An Existential Study in Sanity and Madness (Penguin Psychology)
ASIN: 0415198232 |
Book Description
This work is available on its own or as part of the 7 volume set Selected Works of R. D. Laing
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The Columbia Granger's® Index to Poetry in Collected and Selected Works (Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry in Collected and Selected Works)
Manufacturer: Columbia University Press
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ASIN: 0231125283 |
Book Description
The second edition of The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry in Collected and Selected Works greatly expands the range of one of the oldest continuously published reference works in the United States. Granger's performs a valuable service for librarians by helping people locate poems when they have limited information about them, and by helping them locate poems by author or by the subjects they are interested in. Each edition of Granger's includes title, first line, author, and subject indexes for over 300 poetry collected and selected works on library shelves.
In total, the second edition includes 315 works, by 266 different poets, locating more than 65,000 poems by title, first line, author, and subject. Included in this edition are the works of many of the major American and British poets of the last thirty years, such as Robert Pinsky, Seamus Heaney, and Paul Muldoon; important twentieth-century American poets, such as Langston Hughes, Dorothy Parker, and Robert Penn Warren; twentieth-century foreign poets in new translations, such as Eugenio Montale and Paul Celan; and diverse poets from all times and places, collected in new editions, such as Cold Mountain, Jones Very, and Guido Cavalcanti. An expanded Subject Index contains more than 4,400 subjects, including many new subjects relating to specific people, places, or events from the history and culture of the twentieth century. Langston Hughes's poems on the Scottsboro case and the Spanish Civil War are as easy to find as Wallace Steven's poems about perception and Yusef Komunyakaa's poems about jazz.
Amazon.com
Stephen Mitchell offers what are perhaps the most masterful and intimate translations of Rainer Maria Rilke's poetry to date, infusing it with all the power, eloquence, rhythm and lightness of its original voice. Includes the Duino Elegies and The Sonnets to Orpheus.
Book Description
"This miracle of a book, perhaps the most beautiful group of poetic translations this century has ever produced," (Chicago Tribune) should stand as the definitive English language version.
Customer Reviews:
brilliant.......2007-09-23
Ethereal and beautiful writing. Rilke deserves his reputation as a premier German poet. The translation is good too.
Mitchell's translations take great liberties.......2007-02-12
Mitchell's translations are sometimes quite unfaithful to Rilke, and some of his renderings clumsy--even if the poem had been his own English-language creation. However, in some cases, he significantly alters the meanings of lines. A good example of this is in Rilke's famous "Der Schwan" in which Mitchell renders "draws back past him in streams on either side" from "unter ihm zurückziehn, Flut um Flut." "Wave by wave" becomes "on either side" and "beyond him" becomes "past him." The distortions in other places go beyond the aesthetic to alter the content of Rilke's poem, as in the final line of "Der Panther," which Mitchel renders "plunges into the heart and is gone" instead of something like "plunges into his heart to be." "To be," to remain, to exist, is a heckuva ways from "gone." I think Mitchell's translations are a shame, given that it can be so difficult to find bilingual editions. In this case, I'd recommend at least comparing this volume to Hofman's Twentieth Century German Poetry before purchasing. Certainly if you have no German, you'd want accurate translations.
The angel of the word!.......2006-11-11
Rainer Maria Rilke' s exquisite stylistic sobriety and his thought's deepness makes of him one of the most absorbing and interesting poets of the second half of the XIX Century. His febrile style contrasts with the delicacy of his verses, loaded of penetrating vision and prolific display of visual images that conveys us with the mythic roots.
The words in Rilke's poetic have major expression, density and expression; a strong expansiveness and excel significance.
His reading is an absolute must for any hard reader I any corner of the world.
a lifeline.......2006-05-12
This is one book I cannot live without.
I can't read German, so I am grateful for the translation, and Rilke's genius is not lost in translation. :)
Favorites? I can't name just one. You who never arrived...For the sake of one poem...The Prodigal Son...Spanish dancer...
Oh, the sheer beauty and power of his words make the familiar unfamiliar - alive. Whenever I feel down, I find myself leafing through these pages and the blues will slip away, making me appreciate life with all its ups and downs.
A book to read for a lifetime!
Wonderful.......2006-04-16
Du im Voraus
Verlone Geliebte, Nimmergekimmene,
Nicht weiss ich, welche Tone dir lieb sind.
Nicht mehr versuch ich, dich, wenn das Kommenende wogt,
Zu erkennen. Alle die grossen
Bilder in mir, im Fernen erfahrene Landschaft,
Stadte und Turme und Brucken und un-
Vermutete Wedung der Wege
Und das Gewaltige jener von Gottern
Einst durchwachsenen Lander:
Steigt zur Bedeutung in mir
Deiner, Entgehende, an.
You who never arrived
In my arms, Beloved, who were lost
From the start,
I don't even know what songs
Would please you. I have given up trying
To recognize you in the surging wave of the next
Moment. All the immense images in me-the far-off, deeply-felt landscape,
Cities, towers, and bridges, and un-
Suspected turns in the path,
And those powerful lands that were once
Pulsing with the life of the gods-
All rise within me to mean
You, who forever elude me.
This has been a passage from Rilke's `You who never arrived', one of the many beautiful and profound poems in this extraordinary collection, provided with an equally extraordinary translation by Stephen Mitchell. Rilke is almost universally established as the most important European poet of the 20th century. The poems in this collection will stay in your mind and in your heart long after you finish reading.
Book Description
By any reasonable judgment, Burke has to be considered one of the world's outstanding thinkers on politics.-- Peter J. Stanlis, from his Preface
Customer Reviews:
A Classical Regnery Anthology of a Conservative Luminary.......2005-02-02
~Edmund Burke: Selected Writings and Speeches~ is a great anthology of conservative luminary Edmund Burke's political and social writings. Burke is considered by many to be the godfather of conservatism. The Irish-born British conservative entered Trinity College at Dublin in 1744 and later moved to London in 1750. In 1770, in his tract entitled the 'Thoughts on the Cause of the Present Discontents,' he scolded George III for his efforts at undoing the hard-won liberties that were thought to have been secured by the Glorious Revolution. Burke was a champion of the rule of law, and surmised that prerogatives of the king may not usurp that law, and that even the magistrates are to be constrained by the law. He defended the constraining hand of Parliament against the king's usurpations and cronyism in political appointments. He supported principled, calm, deliberative criticism of royal prerogatives by Parliamentarians, which he held to be a vital link in the preservation of the British constitution and ordered liberty.
Burke was an Old Whig, and on the Right side of the political spectrum and had no rosy delusions about human nature. His contemporaries on the Left like Jean-Jacques Rousseau had a positive and a optimistic view of human nature, and in his eyes humanity merely needed to be liberated from the decadent enslaving institutions of civil society. On the other hand, Burke recognized man's sinful nature and innate depravity and incorporated the Augustinian-Christian doctrine of original sin into his political philosophy. "Whatever disunites man from God, also disunites man from man," declares Burke. What is more, Burke does not see equality as self-evident, but he astutely observes that inequality is part of the natural order of things. The ideal equality to strive for was equality before the law, not equality of condition or even opportunity. Burke recognized that the illusive search for equality was in fact destructive of the liberty that was to accompany it because egalitarian ideology was fundamentally at odds with human nature. For this reason, Burke was opposed to the French Revolution and scolded the Jacobin rebellion for its barbarity, its egalitarian tyranny, and the unattainable antinomy of absolute freedom that was sought after. He likewise abhorred the initial English enthusiasm for the events across the sea in France and lamented that such an upheaval would never afflict England. Yet Burke, an Old Whig was a champion of the Rights of the Englishmen, and spoke out on behalf of the American, Irish and the Indian colonials. "Good order is the foundation of all things," quipped Burke in his Reflections on the French Revolution. Burke offered much prescriptive wisdom about reforming and bettering civil society while conserving the vital remnants and traditions so vitally requisite to the continuity of civil society. He yielded his acquiescence of support to the American Cause of 1776 and the Glorious Revolution of 1688. Burke assailed the abuses perpetrated against American colonials in exploitative taxation, arbitrary suspension of the rights of colonials and an overall condescending attitude of contempt that pervaded the attitude of government towards the colonial subjects therein. Burke worked tirelessly for conciliation between British and American colonials, though the Tories prevailed and their efforts to spite and to subjugate the colonials only led to the American colonials' victorious secession by force of arms. Furthermore, Burke was opposed to the aggrandizing of power and the corruption of the law, and recognized that ordered liberty must be upheld. Burke observed, "Bad law is the worst sort of tyranny." He was practical and pragmatic to the extent needed without discarding first principles, as he accepted that, "All government-indeed, every human benefit and enjoyment, every virtue and every prudent act-is founded on compromise and barter." Yet Burke was mistrustful of concentrated power and observed, "Those who have been once intoxicated with power, and have derived any kind of emolument from it, even though but for one year, never can willingly abandon it. They may be distressed in the midst of all their power; but they will never look to anything but power for their relief."
The reductionism and sophistry of modern critics casts conservatives as knaves who nostalgically seek preservation of the status quo irrespective of whatever tyrannies and social pathologies afflict the people. However, Burke above all shows that classical conservatism is not quixotic sentimentalism about tradition but rather a desire to conserve those vital remnants so necessary to continuation of ordered liberty while improving civil society through patient, contemplative, informed and calmly deliberative political dialogue. Sometimes standing up to sheer tyranny through resistance and civil disobedience is in order. Though, "Our patience will achieve more than our force," avowed Burke. Burke justly condemned the barbarity of the French Revolution and no doubt considers the interposition of the lesser magistrates as requisite in combating the usurpations of higher magistrates, ministers, and leaders.
All things considered, this brilliant anthology of Burke's more renowned works is certainly a great introduction to the perennial conservative.
conservatism's bard.......2000-10-22
What a heady time were the late 1700's. For hundreds, even thousands, of years, Western man had been saddled with monarchy; kings who were said to rule by divine right. But by the end of the 18th century, Martin Luther, John Locke and Adam Smith had propounded the essential framework for modern liberal capitalist democracy and the Revolution in America had launched a grand experiment based on those ideas. Then came the French Revolution and it was blithely assumed that here again Liberty was on the march. When suddenly, rising to meet the tide of history, came Edmund Burke to excoriate the Jacobins and denounce the Revolution. In so doing, he not only did mankind a great service, by sounding the alarms against unchecked liberty, he also basically gave birth to modern Conservatism. Today, after a long period in the wilderness, particularly during the Cold War, Edmund Burke has come roaring back into fashion. In a sense, he has finally won his argument with the defenders of the French Revolution, two hundred years after the fact, and is reaping the spoils.
For two centuries a controversy has raged over Burke's political philosophy, in particular whether the great defender of American, Irish and Indian rights was inconsistent in opposing the French Revolution. The very existence and the stubborn persistence of this controversy seem to demonstrate either a complete misunderstanding or a willful misrepresentation of Burke's basic arguments. One suspects it's a bit of both. The greatness of Burke lies in the fact that he was among the first, and certainly the most eloquent, defenders of democracy to recognize the dangers it entails; that power in the hands of the masses is just as great a threat to liberty as when it lies in the hand of a dictator or king. This point had been amply demonstrated in France, where the revolutionists had quickly abandoned any concern for personal freedom and had moved on to a bloody demand for equality--freedom's enemy.
It is here that we arrive at the key point that divides the modern Left and Right. The Left believes (a la Rousseau) that man is by nature "good" and all men are born with equal abilities, but that environmental factors and corrupt institutions warp individuals, making some evil and keeping others from realizing their full potentials; which if realized would make them equal to other men. The goal of the Left is therefore to remove, by any means necessary, these environmental and institutional impediments and return to an imagined state of nature where all men are good and are equally able; where Man will be governed by pure reason.
The Right, on the other hand, recognizes that man is inately "evil"; that is, evil in the sense that he is self centered and will generally act in his own interest not the interest of others. Moreover, men are inherently unequal; in the state of nature, the able will tyrannize the less able. It is for these reasons that men form governments in the first place; to protect themselves from one another. The goal of the Right is to provide each individual with the greatest personal freedom and utmost opportunity to realize his potential, consistent with the basic safety concerns that gave birth to the state in the first instance. Conservatives realize that pure reason will not lead men to treat each other with justice, by nature, men will always seek advantage over one another. The State and other institutions safeguard us against this eventuality.
This fundamental difference can not be overstated. Prior to the 18th century, the Left would have included all democrats, while the Right would have been made up of monarchists and supporters of aristocracy. But beginning with the French Revolution, this fissure separated the regnant liberal forces into two competing camps, setting the stage for the two century long contest that ended in the early 1990's with the fall of the Soviet Union. Both sides would produce great men, original theorists, brilliant writers and magnificent orators, but none of them would ever surpass Burke and his mastery of all these fields. Rare are the men who so clearly perceive the fundamental issues that confront mankind. They seem at times to be travelers from the future, come to warn us about what horrors the years to come will hold unless we obey their counsel. Rarer still are the occasions when we heed them. We can only imagine the millions of lives that would have been saved had people followed Burke's vision rather that that of Rousseau and Jefferson and Marx.
Happily, here in America, James Madison's Constitution embodies many of the same ideas and protects against many of the concerns which Burke expressed. The adoption of representative, rather than direct, democracy; the bicameral legislature and tripartite government; the careful system of checks and balances; the protection of basic rights from government interference: these are all, though we seldom discuss them in these terms, intended to protect the individual from the potentially tyrannical effects of democracy. When commentators speak of the genius of the American system, whether they realize it or not, it is to this central fact that they refer. So while critics have struggled to understand a false dichotomy in Burke's thought, we (and to a lesser extent the Brits) have enjoyed the fruits of a political system which assumes that his critique of democracy is less theory than received wisdom. For whatever reason, it took two hundred years and countless millions of lives before the rest of the world recognized what Burke (the bard) and Madison (the draftsman) had known all along; two centuries that proved them indisputably correct.
GRADE: A+
One of the 25 most important conservative books.......2000-08-05
If Ronald Reagan is the great communicator, Burke must be the extraordinary communicator. Someone once said that pages of Burke are like sheets of fire.
During the time he lived, in the 18th century, most political leaders were hereditary aristocrats, but Burke, like Cicero, did not descend from generations of prominent leaders. He earned his leadership in British politics through the power of his mind, by studying political principles and applying them to real circumstances. A superficial look at Burke's career might tempt one to dismiss him as a failure. Most of the causes to which he devoted himself were not successful in his lifetime.
Prior to the American Revolution, he wrote brilliantly on behalf of conciliation between Britain and the American colonies. He argued for fair treatment of India by Britain. He argued for fair treatment of the Irish by the British and for Catholic emancipation in England. In time these positions won acceptance, but the acceptance came after Burke's death.
Fortunately, he did live long enough to see the triumph of the greatest work of his life: his effort to awaken his country to the fundamentally destructive but superficially attractive nature of the French Revolution. His thorough and, I believe, inspired condemnation of the French Revolution swept British majority opinion. To Burke, more than any other politician of his time, goes the credit for creating the intellectual force which saved Europe from revolutionary chaos and dictatorship.
Modern-day conservatives are also profoundly in his debt, as his writings against the French revolution provided the philosophical foundation for anti-communism in particular and ordered liberty in general. Read Burke. All his writings on government and politics are a rich ore, studded with gems of wisdom.
Book Description
Strikingly redesigned to accompany the publication of New and Selected Poems, Volume Two When New and Selected Poems, Volume One was originally published in 1992, Mary Oliver was awarded the National Book Award. In the fourteen years since its initial appearance it has become one of the best-selling volumes of poetry in the country. This collection features thirty poems published only in this volume as well as selections from the poet's first eight books. Mary Oliver's perceptive, brilliantly crafted poems about the natural landscape and the fundamental questions of life and death have won high praise from critics and readers alike. "Do you love this world?" she interrupts a poem about peonies to ask the reader. "Do you cherish your humble and silky life?" She makes us see the extraordinary in our everyday lives, how something as common as light can be "an invitation/to happiness,/and that happiness,/when it's done right,/is a kind of holiness,/palpable and redemptive." She illuminates how a near miss with an alligator can be the catalyst for seeing the world "as if for the second time/the way it really is." Oliver's passionate demonstrations of delight are powerful reminders of the bond between every individual, all living things, and the natural world.
Customer Reviews:
Read These Poems Out Loud.......2007-04-09
Here is a book with a soul. Read these poems out loud, slowly. Let the music resonate between your ears. Linger on each line. Let each stanza stand alone. Who but Mary Oliver can ask:
Is the soul solid, like iron?
Or is it tender and breakable, like
the wings of a moth in the beak of an owl?
Oliver will take you to places light and dark, hopeful and hopeless, and you will remember them for a long time.
Strange but ok.......2007-02-24
I am not into poetry much, but there are some nice ones in here...strange/disturbing ones too, but the book as a whole is ok.
as always..........2007-02-07
Mary Oliver is one of my favorite poets and she did not diappoint with her work here. With each line, it is like I am being fed an exotic dessert, it awakens all of my senses to something new.
Mary Oliver- Great Poet.......2007-01-13
There may be a better poet than Mary Oliver alive today but I do not know who it is. Every one of her poems touches not only my soul but that of everyone I know who has heard her.
She Is A Sublime Witness To The Natural World!.......2005-12-16
Mary Oliver overwhelms my visual and auditory senses with her language; it is precise and controlled; her imagery is brilliant. Using carefully chosen words she captures the "essence" of living things in the natural world.
Each work is masterful and seems a deep meditation that leaves a reader feeling refreshed and somehow privy to a personal, even private part of the poet as an investigator and witness to nature and its secrets.
Each time I read one of her poems I feel as if she is inviting me into the woods with her to witness the natural world in all of its sacredness.
I have yet to read a poem of hers that disappointed me.
Her mood-infused poem "Rain" (the first poem in the book) is sublime; and "Mushrooms" is glorious!
Read "Mushrooms" slowly and listen to the language; see the imagery in the mind:
Rain, and then
the cool pursed
lips of the wind
draw them
out of the ground---
red and yellow skulls
pummeling upward
through leaves,
through grasses,
through sand; astonishing
in their suddenness,
their quietude,
their wetness, they appear
on fall mornings, some
balancing in the earth
on one hoof
packed with poison,
others billowing
chunkily, and delicious---
those who know
walk out to gather, choosing
the benign from flocks
of glitterers, sorcerors,
russulas,
panther caps,
shark-white death angels
in their torn veils
looking innocent as sugar
but full of paralysis:
to eat
is to stagger down
fast as mushrooms themselves
when they are done being perfect
and overnight
slide back under the shining
fields of rain.
My God! I don't think that even a mushroom would know itself in that way.
She is a sublime witness to the natural world.
Mary Oliver is one of my favorite poets -- and let me tell you, I don't have many "favorite poets".
I recommend this poetry collection to you!
Book Description
With 1,700 superb colour photographs of over 1,400 species, Marine Life of the Pacific Northwest: A Photographic Encyclopedia of Invertebrates, Seaweeds and Selected Fishes is the most comprehensive collection of photographs of Pacific Northwest marine life ever published. It is designed to allow the reader to recognize virtually any coastal organism that might be encountered from southern Alaska to southern Oregon--from sea lettuces and feather boa kelp through to the leopard ribbon worm, Pacific red octopus, spiny-thigh sea spider and gutless awning-clam. Each species is identified with photographs and includes a description with information on range, habitat, appearance and behaviour.
Andy Lamb and Bernard Hanby have spent most of their lifetimes studying and recording Pacific Northwest marine life and have completed over 4,000 scuba dives between them. Some of the species included in this volume have never been featured in print before. Colour-coded for quick reference and including a glossary and full index, Marine Life of the Pacific Northwest is a must-have for serious biologists, scuba divers, beachcombers or anyone interested in marine life and beautiful underwater photography.
Customer Reviews:
Amazing production.......2007-09-19
This book is one of the most amazing publishing accomplishments I have seen. The authors and their friends have accumulated 1700 superb photographs of marine life, especially the tiny and obscure invertebrates that almost no one has even seen or suspected, let alone photographed. (Where else are you going to find photos of neon sea-fleas and parasitic copepods in the wild?) Many of the animals herein are not even described scientifically. I studied fisheries development for years and thought I knew something about marine life, but I never knew there were so many worms and snails and tunicates out there, let alone did I ever see them or photos of them. Everyone interested in nature or biology should have this book, or at least look at it, just to see what amazing things there are in the world. It is of interest far beyond the narrow confines of Northwest Coast shores.
hard to top..........2007-06-30
so I'm no expert on marine life, but I'm very interested in the subject. I got this book and had high expectations that were more than met. The photography is excellent, the organization is excellent, and the contents extensive. I really like how they tell you both the common and the scientific names, and how they have some short descriptions of behaviors or charactoristics. I actually got it for my boyfriend because he wants to study to be a marine biologist and i saw the other reviews by people who were in related fields, and they made it sound like a book that would be useful even to an expert but not only useful to an expert. And it is. He loves the book (says its one of the best gifts he has ever gotten) and was very impressed by the quality of the contents, he uses it all the time. Bottom line the book is awesome i would reccommend it to ANYONE who loves ocean life.
Wonderful Resource.......2007-06-27
This book is a blessing for us tidepool/beach explorers in the Pacific Northwest because of its wonderful, clear photographs. It saves us many hours of tedious and frustrating puzzling over technical jargon trying to figure out the identity of whatever amazing creature has captured our hearts. The volunteers at the Port Townsend Marine Science Center on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington have already practically worn out their first copy from looking up critters and plants that show up in the tanks via the flow-through seawater system. Many mysteries have been solved, and many fascinating tidbits of natural history gleaned to share with the visitors to the exhibits. Books like this will open the eyes of a society blind to our own environment, like the Peterson guides did a couple generations ago.
All praises and cliches apply: "a picture is worth a thousand words", "greatly needed and long over-do"... Consider this a definite rave review for a timely book. Now all we need is a waterproof edition!
An impressively thorough collection of the majestic ocean life associated with the Pacific Northwest.......2006-07-10
Enhanced with 1,700 superb color photographs, Marine Life Of The Pacific Northwest: A Photographic Encyclopedia Of Invertebrates, Seaweeds And Selected Fishes by Andy Lamb (Marine naturalist and educator) features the photography from Bernard P. Hanby (recipient of the Vancouver Natural History Society's 2003 Davidson Award for Conservation) and is an impressively thorough collection of the majestic ocean life associated with the Pacific Northwest. Featuring a "user friendly" and alphabetically organized listing of diverse fish, seaweed and invertebrate aquatic life, Marine Life Of The Pacific Northwest offers a comprehensive compendium of more than 1,400 saltwater plants and animals, and includes a quick reference usability with guide, maps, glossary, index, and color-coded pages for easy information access and identification, as well as entries that include the common name, scientific name, size, range, depth, description, picture, description and comments, and more. A core reference work for professional and academic library reference collections, Marine Life Of The Pacific Northwest is very strongly recommended for all marine-savvy explorers of the Pacific Northwest area.
Amazing and well worth it!!!.......2006-03-09
I work for a West Coast marine lab and I purchased this both for my work and for my own enjoyment. Twenty years in the making, there is nothing close to this in terms of illustrated guides for the region. Being that I work in the lesser known of the invertebrates, I was glad to see that the minor phyla are paid just as much attention to as the more common ones. I showed my copy around the lab, which led at least four more copies to be purchased. Upon opening the cover and flipping to any page, the first-time reader is speechless at the quality of the photos and the overall organization of the work. Yes, reference books like these are a bit more expensive than the everyday field guide, but this has so much more: Common name, scientific name (and limited synonymy), distribution, special remarks on each species... Very recommended!
Customer Reviews:
The greatest Roman of them all..........2006-03-26
First off, yes, I AM a kid, and yes, I have fully read and understood the genius of Marcus Tullius Cicero and the genius of Mr. Grant for bringing it to us. As far as the book goes, it is brilliant, and the translator's skill suffices to bring the greatest orator in history to my doorstep and unworthy mind. "Against Verres" is my favorite Ciceronian writing, because I always shake my head when I think of these noble Romans that I revere like gods stoop to the level of tabloid-like calumny!
But enough about the book! What I really wanted to share with potential customers is the enrichment that such books could bring to kids of today. All they are getting today is manure like Harry Potter and risque-teen dramas, when they should be reading the stuff of legends and the stuff of greatness. Now, I too, can be accused of reading Harry Potter, and liking it sufficiently to keep going, but I fully understand that those kind of books are NOT the kind that I will remember when I grow old.
No, indeed, I will remember the wit of Cicero, and the ambition of Herodotus, the social satires of Charles Dickens, and, of course, the poetic genius and sheer imagination that is J.R.R. Tolkien. That being said, I feel that such books (like the above) are too far undervalued in today's society because all the kids today will read is mind-corrupting filth simply becasue they wish to smother their brains. In short, they want to think as little as possible. And the escapist attitudes are also quite atrocious. Indeed, there is no greater world than this green earth (except for Middle Earth --- I would go there in a heartbeat!) and I would honor it, and honor those giants who came before us and upon whose shoulders we stand.
What is the world without the Republic, and what is the Republic without orators like Cicero and Gaius Sempronius Gracchus, whose fiery opinions had kept the flame of democracy and the flame of the Senate alive for so long? I hope someday that people will come to understand this. You do not have to like Cicero, and you might find his writings a tad antiquated and boring --- but who says that they are relevant only to a certain time period or to certain people? No, I say that there are such writings that transcend time and offer us, if nothing more, a glimpse into the life of one other fellow creature who, though so different from us, is EXACTLY the same.
So, potential kid readers, I beg you to pay attention to history, and give it the respect that it deserves! And maybe you too, if only for a little while, will stand with him in the Forum, or sit beside him as he writes words that influenced the greatest giant of the Age. That giant is Rome, and that man is Marcus Tullius Cicero. Though but a Tullius of poor upbringing, he is remembered by those who care to remember as one of the greatest Romans of them all, vying only with the poetic tragedy of Julius Caesar and the military genius of Scipio Africanus and Aemilius Paullus.
So, my rant will come to an opportune end. Remember Cicero, remember Rome, and you will not be disappointed... in the mists of Time that forever encircle us, only the greatest can escape the haze and step into into the stuff of Legend. For they are remembered, and therefore, they Live. All I ask you is to let Cicero live.
A note on the translation.......2004-11-22
I don't want to summarize the content here. I only want to talk about Michael Grant's translation.
Let's admit one fact: Grant's translation is not that good. I suggest you to check out Cicero's works published by OXFORD WORLD'S CLASSCIS: P.G.Walsh and D.H.Berry are more competent than Grant, and they are fascinating indeed. Grant often unnecessarily chops up a sentence, rendering it ends up with a whole lot of commas, and this utterly destroy the fluency and lucidity of Cicero. In my opinion, D.H.Berry (who published Cicero's DEFENCE SPEECHES) is thus far the best Ciceronian translator.
So why is it still worth 3 stars? It is mainly because of the contents, such as AGAINST VERRES, THE SECOND PHILIPIC, and ON OLD AGE, which are still not translated by OXFORD. Therefore, we have no choice but to stick with Grant's translation (unless you want to buy the expensive Loeb edition). If OXFORD will release more of Cicero's titles, I will definitely throw away Michael Grant's.
Good translation, but the material..........2002-02-21
First of all I foundt this translation to be clear and readable, something that I have come to expect from Michael Grant.
But the material is what baffles me. Cicero is considered the greatest Latin orator and writer, having a concise and interesting style. Personally, I find him to be very long-winded, and I realize this is due to a shortened attention span, but nonetheless, he could have made many of his points with two examples instead of ten.
I also find it ironic that Cicero paints himself to be the epitome of Republican Roman values, a man who stood completely for the decrepit and dying Roman Republic. Yet, he was a great friend of Pompey, a man who's goal it was to acquire dictatorial power, albeit within the confines of Republic. Pompey's actions over the year also consistently undermined the strength of the Republic, whereas Caesar acted legally throughout his career, until his enemies backed him into a corner and an untenable situation.
Yet Cicero sides with Pompey over Caesar, for no especially good reason. Cicero was a brilliant orator and lawyer, but as a politician, his ambitions and sense of self-importance far, far outstripped his abilities. Cicero's allies were a self-centered lot of aristocrats, who ran Rome for their personal benefit rather than for the benefit of Rome. Quite frankly, a man with as strong a sense of justice as Cicero should have supported the more inclusive Caesarian politics; that he did not, is a shame for him.
Regardless, this reading is chiefly for people interested in ancient history, and starry-eyed idealists.
Mildly reccommended.
A Pleasure.......2002-01-15
Michael Grant has done it again with this wonderful translation of some of Cicero's finest work. Designed to give the reader an overview of this great master it shows you just how diverse a writer he really was, and why he cast such a shadow over European prose for the next thousand years.
Excellent selection.......2001-12-10
Cicero's thoughts on old age which are but one selection included here are alone worth the price of this book. The wisdom of this man is clearly reflected here and in other selections that are included. These thought provoking essays and letters contain much that is still relevant. Along with Seneca and Marcus Aurelius, Cicero's writings are a window into the ancient world that helps us to understand how human nature and the problems of living a good life transcend the ages. These are books to return to again and again. The penguin paperback editions are an excellent resource for the general reader and belong on the shelf of anyone interested in philosophy ,history or living well.
Books:
- Earth System History
- Ecology and Evolution of Flowers
- Electrical Power and Controls
- Encyclopedia of Food Microbiology (3-Volume Set with Online Version)
- Essential Cell Biology, Second Edition
- Evolution
- Fishes of the World
- Foundations in Microbiology w/bound in OLC card
- From Molecules to Networks: An Introduction to Cellular and Molecular Neuroscience
- Genetics of Populations (Biological Science (Jones and Bartlett))
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