On Desert Trails With Everett Ruess

Book Description

9X12 In, 96 Pp, 45 Black & White Illustrations We Are Proud To Introduce This Handsome Commemorative Edition of On Desert Trails With Everett Ruess (First Introduced In Our 60, 000 Copy A Vagabond For Beauty), Which Was Originally Published In 1940 and Has Since Become A Collector's Item. The Poetry, Letters, and Artwork Contained In This Book Reveal The Adventurous Young Artist Who Loved The Arid Wilderness and Disappeared Into The Desert of Southern Utah. To The Original Book We Have Added Many Photographs of Ruess On The Trail, Along With Others Taken By Ruess of The Land That So Inspired Him. A Special Appenidx Tells The Salt Lake Tribune's Account of Its 1935 Expedition To Southern Utah In Search of Everett Ruess.

Customer Reviews:

Poetry at its best.......2005-02-03

Everett Ruess is a marvelously gifted poet. He writes in elegant lines teeming with passionate imagery. "Wilderness Song" is the most incredible piece and describes nature at its fullest. Any poet can write beautiful lines, but Ruess writes with soul, the soul of an aficianado of the wilderness.

An amazing read.......2004-06-23

A chilling voice out of the past from one who loved wilderness so much he vanished without a trace in it. I am hard pressed to come up with a book or person who was able to articulate the beauty around him more than Everett Ruess. In a tragic twist this lover of the purity nature gave and continues to give a painter's perspective in words to the American west despite the mysterious circumstances surrounding his disappearance. He left behind not only the beautiful writings of a master (and at such a young age) but also a mysterious tale of intrigue that leaves people guessing to this very day. Was he a victim of murder or did his love for wilderness drive him into the vast unknown to live out his days in the peaceful tranquility only nature can provide? Buy the book and formulate your own opinions. I highly recommend it.

The Singing Creek Where the Willows Grow: The Mystical Nature Diary of Opal Whiteley

Average customer rating:

An Odyssey in Nature
hoff Vs. beck
A Tender Heart
Astounding literature
Will change the way you see your own surroundings

The Singing Creek Where the Willows Grow: The Mystical Nature Diary of Opal Whiteley
Opal Whiteley
Manufacturer: Penguin (Non-Classics)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0140237208

Customer Reviews:

An Odyssey in Nature .......2007-08-21

An incredibly beautiful journal written by a young child prodigy. It is lyrical and delightful. A wonderful book.

hoff Vs. beck.......2006-01-28

I'm a huge fan of Benjamin Hoff. Who is a spiritual writer that a guy like me (who doesn't keep "earth crystals" in pocket or wreak of Nag Champa) can get into. I could go on glowingly about the passion that Hoff applies while exploring his subject. I would be someone pointed out to me that Hoff had been discredited by Katherine Beck. So I'm kind of writing a dual review using Beck's book as a jumping off point.

Some facts about Beck's book:

1) Beck never really discredits Opal for writing the book when she claimed: she admits that:
a) Opal was incredibly bright as a teenager, bizzarely aware of the latin names of plants and animals. beck admits that by 15 or she was already a prodigy. But never attempts to explain how that related to possibly she could have been a brilliant writer as a child.
b) Beck claims in response to forensic information favorable to at least part of Opal's story, that Opal planned the hoax by saving old scraps of paper and crayons from her childhood for 10 or 15 years and moving with to multiple houses and states to write the diary, appearantly hedging against future forensic technology, then torn her work to shreds and left it in jeopardy in a place where it could have been destroyed just to really sell people on it's authenticity. Also as native of the Willamete Valley I've met people who can recreate her journeys, which would have been hard to fake from a distance. That's about as crazy as any claims Opal made about the book.
c) Beck gives examples of other child authors of the time who she feels were better writers, so why would be inconcievable to her that a substandard counterpart would exist? She doesn't even touch on it.
2) Beck doesn't like Opal at all, she doesn't like her writing, kind implies she was harlot and a racist, and worst of all for me personally; she's glib about Opal's crippling mental illness.
3) Beck seems affectionate for amatuer Opalites but seems to think people like Hoff and Nassif are nuts and paints Boulton as criminally Naive. She doesn't seem think Opal should be taught in schools, or at least thinks its screwball.
4) Beck takes no time to really examine the spiritual significance of the book, except to say she thinks it's pre-new age tripe. To Beck it was popular at the time because people were gulliable and if it's getting a comeback now it must be for the same reason.

Even being horder of Opal related history I got bored because reading someone's account of how much they dislike someone who was at worst kind of a liar and bad writer (remember it's not like Opal was dictator or anything) gets really, really tedious after about 50 pages. Also discrediting the most widely discredited author of the last 100 years is not an exciting read. I think the Seattle Times called it "Myopic" which it is, that and commendably thorough and also kind of spiteful. I've been trying to find people to disscuss the book with who aren't Opalites, who dispise Beck. I did talk to one guy who hates Opal and Opalites for very personal reasons but he was a little bored by the book and didn't finish it. The same man read Hoff and praised his writing but didn't see Opal's appeal.

Now, Hoff, by contrast, is over flowing with praise for Opal. Beck interestingly "uncovers" a fact printed in book. Hoff was in love Opal, or the concept of her. So we can't call him biased. He presents a rosy picture of the girl who obiviously had a darkside. At the same time I like Hoff because he comes to the most rational conclusion about the book: It was written by a highly functional abused little schitzophrenic girl, and likely futzed with later in her life. Opal is a tragic figure to anyone who sees beauty in her wierd prose and a non-sequitor for anyone who doesn't. Hoff isn't bias free but no one is biasless about Opal. Also his repackaging of the diary is in my opinion the definitive version. Hoff is a brilliant counterpart in the present day to Opal. Who is due for a looking over outside of the neigh-sayers and new-agers.

A Tender Heart.......2005-10-08

To say this is my favorite book of all time, my most treasured, the one I would grab in a housefire - that is just a beginning. Opal brings us into the innocence and wonder of childhood in a way that inspires us to reclaim that part of ourselves. There are haunting scenes that pull you to love her and precious glimpses into her imaginings that wake you up to the magic in life. As she trots around with critters in her pockets and on her shoulders with names inspired by the great writers, christens baby chicks in the barn and finds notes and ribbons left by the fairies in the woods, Opal delights us and opens our hearts to a more tender place.

Astounding literature.......2005-07-19

This book is the diary of a six-year-old girl named Opal Whiteley, who grew up in Oregon logging camps in the early 1900s. She loved nature and her writing style was inimitably beautiful.

Her diary was published first in 1920, but became the centre of a large controversy and was dismissed as a fraud. Mr Hoff discovered a copy of this book by chance in 1983, and was so fascinated by it that he spent years researching the life of Opal to determine the true story.

It most certainly is no fraud. Mr Hoff opens this book with a very well-researched, unbiased biography of Opal which proves beyond doubt that this really was her diary written at age six. He follows this up with the diary (or what exists of it), and ends with the tale of his story of trying to meet Opal personally.

The tone of the book, by the time you have read from beginning to end, is one of tragedy. However, like the lonely, brave tones of a bird chirping through the twilight its farewell to the setting sun and a day that shall never return, beauty sometimes IS bitter sweet; but the quiet love, the charming way Opal describes her surroundings, her pets, the people she meets, and the voices of the natural world which Opal understood so well balance out the sadness and make this book well worth reading and adding to your personal collection.

Opal's story is at once a sad commentary on the way one small hint of a rumour can snowball into the destruction of a person's life and a celebration of childhood and nature. It is mostly the latter.

This is a brief passage from the diary part of the book, to give you a sample of its simplistic yet profound loveliness.

"And all the times I was picking up potatoes, I did have conversations with them. Too, I did have thinks of all their growing days here in the ground, and all the things they did hear. Earth-voices are glad voices, and earth-songs come up from the ground through the plants; and in their flowering, and in the days before these days are come, they do tell the earth-songs to the wind. And the wind in her goings does whisper them to folks to print for other folks, so other folks do have knowing of earth's songs. When I grow up, I am going to write for children - and grownups that haven't grown up too much - all the earth-songs I now do hear."

Doesn't that just sound like such music?

Please read this book. Take it to heart.

And thank you, Mr Hoff, for your loving tribute to an amazing woman, and for the hard work you did to bring this masterpiece back into the public eye.

Will change the way you see your own surroundings.......2003-04-19

This beautiful, lyrical journal, written by a 6-year-old prodigy from the backwoods of Oregon, will have you gazing in wonder at fire hydrants and listening to the song of the subways. Opal has a direct relationship with every tree, horse, rat and blade of grass in her backyard, and is able to see every living thing as a gift from God.

Amazon.com

This is a very Italian book, reminiscent of Italo Calvino and Roberto Calasso. Part history, part philosophy, part travelogue, this is literature in the richest, most amply rewarding sense. Writing with tremendous exuberance, Claudio Magris has produced a paean to what Hölderlin called "the river of melody"--the Danube, Europe's main artery, and the heart of that elusive but fascinating zone known as Mitteleuropa. Magris is certainly erudite, and not afraid of displaying his erudition, but he also has a fine sense of humor and an eye for the absurd. According to one eminent sedimentologist, he tells us, the source of the Danube is a leaky tap in a remote mountain farmhouse. And of course, the one color it isn't, ever, is blue. The Hungarians call it blond, apparently. "Muddy yellow" might be more accurate, says the author. His greatest passion, however, is people: poets, singers, murderers, emperors, Dracula, Kafka, Wittgenstein , Josef Mengele--all human life is here. And it makes doubly fascinating reading for having been written back in 1986, when brutes like Ceaucescu were still in power and the Iron Curtain was still in place, though beginning to tremble slightly in the wind of history. --Christopher Hart, Amazon.co.uk

Book Description

Danube is a triumphant celebration of a river that has forever been at the center of the great movements of history. In this fascinating journey through the history and culture of the Danube, Claudio Magris, whose knowledge is encyclopedic and his curiosity limitless, invites the reader to accompany him along the whole course of the river, from the Bavarian hills through Austria-Hungary and the Balkans to the Black Sea.

Customer Reviews:

Learned, Perceptive, Thoughtful, and Beautifully Translated.......2007-04-17

Claudi Magris's work is simply the best travelogue that I have ever read: it is a work of imagination, erudition, and deeply-felt culture, and has been beautifully translated: I have never encountered English prose that better captures the cadence and rhythm of Italian!

A Migration.......2006-10-10

This book records one man's journey, but because this man is so many, it's more like the record of a migration.

A magnificent panorama of a very complex history.......2006-06-15

Throughout history, the Danube has meant many different things to many different people: a highway, a playground, a barrier against the Turks, a symbol of eternal life or of life's melancholy. Magris structures this book as a travelogue, following the Danube from its source(s) in Germany through its debouchment into the Black Sea in Rumania. But in every place he visits, from a humble bench on the riverbank to the major cities of Vienna and Bucharest, he paints a vivid picture not only of the place itself, but of the people who have shaped its character and history.

I already knew that this region (for which he uses the shorthand term Mitteleuropa) had a complicated history, but I didn't realize how incredibly complicated it was until I read this book. Magris doesn't always untangle the complexities clearly enough for a non-European (and, from living briefly in the region as well as having family roots there, I'm probably better informed than most). On the other hand, his portraits of the people he meets are vivid and memorable -- from the old woman who presides over the 18th-century farmhouse where the Danube (possibly) rises, to the fisher-folk who live at the mouths of the river, to the functionaries and innkeepers who punctuate his journey and the friends who accompany him for parts of it. Writers, living and dead, are evoked as much as politicians and historians; one persistent theme of the book is how literature has reacted to, preserved, and in some instances shaped the history of Mitteleuropa.

All in all, the book is a magnificent achievement and well worth reading, even if some of Magris' observations have been rendered obsolete by the breakup of the Soviet Union. The translation is generally fluid and readable, although one can quibble with it here and there (I found a few minor inaccuracies in the sections that describe places I'm familiar with). And, as for the complaint that the regions traversed by the Danube are "too different" to be treated in one book, that difference *is* part of the story.

A river of memory.......2005-06-16

In this fascinating journey, Magris takes us from the very -and much disputed- sources of the Danube in the Black Forest, in Southern Germany, to the mouth of the river in the Black Sea, in Romanian territory. Along the way, Magris recreates the legends, stories and historical moments of every village and city he visits. The Danube area is, of course, full of history, since most peoples who ever set foot in Europe seem to have crossed it one way or another. Princes, wars, writers, lovers, many interesting and even fascinating stories illuminate for the reader the waters of the Danube. It really makes you want to make the same trip.

It would be interesting to read an update by Magris, especially about those places who were then under Soviet rule, now that almost 20 years have passed since the publication of the book. Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and the former Yugoslavia all pass before your eyes like a dream.

Every town and story motivates in Magris deep reflections on history, memory, the passage of time, politics, and many other subjects. Magris's prose is dense in the best sense of the term: it is rich and deep, with a poetic quality to it. Very much recommended, it discovers for us many writers from that area who seem worth to read.

The Danube is a Long River.......2001-10-10

Danube
Claudio Magris
2001
ISBN 1-86046-823-3

I have seen the Danube at Donauwoerth in Germany and Linz and Melk in Austria. When I came across Claudio Magris' book, I was interested enough to buy it. Magris' book about the Danube is an unusual one. It is not a travel book, but more the historical reflections of a man visiting centuries-old towns along the river from where it originates in Germany to where it ends in the Black Sea in Rumania.

Since I have visited or read about some of the towns along the Danube in the German-speaking world, I found that part of the book more interesting. I knew less about the other countries -- Hungary, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, and Rumania, and I did not relate as well to that part of the book.

On the whole, there are some obstacles to overcome in reading this book. The writer's style is rather wordy and rambling. In one sentence, for example, I counted seventy-five words. There are endless literary and historical references, many of which are somewhat obscure. For me, eventually they grew tiresome. The book, in English, is a translated work. At points, one wonders if the rendering of sentences such as, "That life which the photograph fixed in one of its instants is vanished forever", could not have been translated in plainer English.

Still, some of this book is good reading. Magris' story about the director of the river works at Linz who spent a lifetime marking out the confines of the upper Danube and wrote a three volume work of 2,164 pages about all the aspects of the river from the different types of rafts and barges to the poems, songs, plays, and novels that related to the river is amusing. At the other extreme, Magris' description of visiting the terrible stone quarry at Mauthausen concentration camp that the Nazis set up on the Danube, where 110,000 people died, is disturbing.

On the whole, I would say this book is interesting reading in places. Elsewhere, it drags a bit. For example, consider a sentence such as, "Are the Istrians therefore Thracians, as Apollodorus thought, or Colchians, according to the view of Pliny and Strabo, or are they Gepids? "

Amazon.com

Were Victorian explorers tools of imperialism? Accomplices in conquest and genocide? Well, perhaps, and even probably. The 19th-century English explorers who sought the origins of the Nile and the heights of the Himalayas saw themselves as agents of excellence, paragons of Victorian values, and they were well aware that they opened the door for compatriots who traveled not for knowledge but for wealth. Peter Raby examines the lives and work of the great Victorian peripatetic scientists, defending them from their modern detractors and highlighting the accomplishments of those who climbed mountains in search of tea and crossed jungles in quest of orangutans and cities of gold. Some were hapless, like the snakebit Henry Walter Bates; others were fearless, like Captain Sir Richard Francis Burton, the archetype of adventure. All were interesting, and Raby does a fine job of presenting them to us.

Book Description

Whether looking for the sources of the Nile, the Niger, or the Amazon, penetrating the Australian outback, or searching for the Northwest Passage, the Victorians were intrepid explorers, zealously expanding the limits of science and human knowledge. In Bright Paradise, Peter Raby describes brave voyages and gives us vivid and unforgettable portraits of the larger-than-life personalities of Charles Darwin, Alfred Wallace, and Henry Bates, glorious examples of Victorian energy and confidence. He also explores wider issues such as the growth of knowledge and the spread of the empire.

Witty, provocative, and exciting in the breadth of its research, this book charts an important period of scientific advance and transforms it into a compelling narrative.

Customer Reviews:

The collectors.......2005-09-16

Subtitled "Victorian Scientific Travelers," this book tells the story of a handful of 19th Century British scientists, all naturalists, who, through their researches in the field in many different places around the world, helped Darwin advance his theories of evolution. The accounts are interesting: we get Darwin, of course, but also Sir Joseph Hooker in the Himalayas, Alfred Wallace in the Amazon and on the Malayan Archipelago, Henry Bates also in the Amazon, Richard Spruce in the Amazon and the Andes, Richard Lander and Heinrich Barth in Africa, Mary Kingsley in Africa, and Marianne North in Borneo. All were fearless, resourceful, and dedicated scientists/collectors of plant and animal species from the areas they explored. Thousands of new species of flora and fauna were first identified by these intrepid people. Raby covers a lot of ground by telling about each of these scientists (and others as well) succinctly and directly. He also attempts to explain the times in which these scientists worked as people tried to come to grips with Darwin's implications. A fascinating and important book.

Bright Paradise for Anthropology Students.......2000-06-27

"Bright Paradise: Victorian Scientific Travellers" gives a refreshing glimpse into the scientific travellers and explorers of The Victorian Age. It covers the well-known (Darwin, Wallace, and Hooker) to those overlooked and nearly forgotten travellers like the botanical painter Marianne North. It is written without any academic pretentiousness and is ideal for introductory courses in cultural anthropology and European History of the 1800s. The only fault with this book is that it is too short.

Excellent History of an Exciting Time!.......2000-06-21

I've always had a weak spot for the history of science and exploration, so when I discovered this book, I went weak in the knees. We all know Darwin and Cook, but what about Russell and Spruce? Here are the true heroes of science from the days when gaps in your knowledge weren't just unfortunate, they could get you killed! Excellently written, with a mountain of information for the scholar, historian and casual reader. Get it now!

The Environmental Imagination: Thoreau, Nature Writing, and the Formation of American Culture

Average customer rating:

its academic

The Environmental Imagination: Thoreau, Nature Writing, and the Formation of American Culture
Lawrence Buell
Manufacturer: Belknap Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0674258622

Amazon.com

The best writing about nature, literary scholar Lawrence Buell suggests, has at its root an argument that humans are accountable to the environment. In the American literary canon, the work that best demonstrates this thesis is Henry David Thoreau's classic Walden, a memoir celebrating at once the virtues of voluntary simplicity and the quest for political liberty. It is from Walden that much contemporary writing about nature derives, from the poems of the Kentucky farmer Wendell Berry to the back-to-the-land exhortations of Edward Abbey and Annie Dillard. In this study, Buell charts the growth of Thoreau's own environmental ethic and his lasting influence on writers of many kinds, among them Theodore Roethke, Gary Snyder, James Lovelock, Rachel Carson, and Aldo Leopold. He also examines Thoreau's life, reminding his readers that although Thoreau will always be identified with that little Massachusetts pond, he was a wide-ranging traveler and thinker who was never quite comfortable at rest. Neither, Buell reminds us, is Thoreau always to be taken as a strictly reliable narrator; parts of Walden are fictionalized and embellished, and the book should not be reduced to "the autobiographical narrative alone," but instead should be seen as something of a parable. Buell's discussions will be of interest to any serious student of Thoreau's writings. --Gregory McNamee

Book Description

With the environmental crisis comes a crisis of the imagination, a need to find new ways to understand nature and humanity's relation to it. This is the challenge Lawrence Buell takes up in The Environmental Imagination, the most ambitious study to date of how literature represents the natural environment. With Thoreau's Walden as a touchstone, Buell gives us a far-reaching account of environmental perception, the place of nature in the history of western thought, and the consequences for literary scholarship of attempting to imagine a more "ecocentric" way of being. In doing so, he provides a major new understanding of Thoreau's achievement and, at the same time, a profound rethinking of our literary and cultural reflections on nature.

The green tradition in American writing commands Buell's special attention, particularly environmental nonfiction from colonial times to the present. In works by writers from Crevecoeur to Wendell Berry, John Muir to Aldo Leopold, Rachel Carson to Leslie Silko, Mary Austin to Edward Abbey, he examines enduring environmental themes such as the dream of relinquishment, the personification of the nonhuman, an attentiveness to environmental cycles, a devotion to place, and a prophetic awareness of possible ecocatastrophe. At the center of this study we find an image of Walden as a quest for greater environmental awareness, an impetus and guide for Buell as he develops a new vision of environmental writing and seeks a new way of conceiving the relation between human imagination and environmental actuality in the age of industrialization. Intricate and challenging in its arguments, yet engagingly and elegantly written, The Environmental Imagination is a major work of scholarship, one that establishes a new basis for reading American nature writing.

Customer Reviews:

its academic.......2002-04-28

I found this to be an annoying book. The subject matter is intriguing but the author's style is so highfalutin, verbose and academic that little real wisdom is effectively imparted to the reader. This is ironic since his subject is Henry David Thoreau who took great care to write plainly. The best writing in the book is in the notes which serve as a good bibliography.

The Art of Setting Stones: And Other Writings from the Japanese Garden

Average customer rating:

Most enjoyable writing I have found on the Japanese garden
A Leisurely Look at the Spirit of Gardening

The Art of Setting Stones: And Other Writings from the Japanese Garden
Marc P. Keane
Manufacturer: Stone Bridge Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1880656701

Book Description

In Japanese gardens, composition follows from placement of the first stone; all elements and plantings become interconnected. These eight essays on Kyoto gardens similarly begin with keen description and build into richly meditative excursions into art, Buddhism, nature, and science. Landscape architect Marc Keane shows how Japanese gardens are both a microcosm of the natural universe and a clear expression of our humanity, mirroring how we think, worship, and organize our lives and communities. Filled with passages of alluring beauty, this is a truly transcendent book about "experiencing" Japanese design.

Marc Peter Keane has lived in Kyoto for 17 years and is author of Japanese Garden Design. He designs residential, company, and temple gardens.

Customer Reviews:

Most enjoyable writing I have found on the Japanese garden.......2006-04-02

The author made Kyoto his home after graduating from Cornell University's department of landscape architecture, first as a research fellow of Kyoto University, and later as a landscape architect and writer. He is currently adjunct professor at the Kyoto University of Art and Design, and splits his time between lecturing and praticing landscape architecture from his offices in Ithaca, New York.

The 8 essays desribe his intimate experience of the Japanese garden and shed light on both the cultural origins as well as the personal meanings he has derived from his years of study and contemplation.

His unique perspective is informed by a deep understanding of the historical context of the gardens combined with an appreciation of the spiritual traditions that have defined their aesthetics.

Each of the essays is introduced by a black clayboard illustration done by the author, adding a visual interpretation to his often deeply philisophical musings, making this book the most enjoyable writing I have found to date on the Japanese garden.

A Leisurely Look at the Spirit of Gardening.......2005-04-22

The Art of Setting Stones is a distillation of Mr. Keane's considerable knowledge and experience of Japanese gardens. Mr. Keane is a successful and sought-after landscape architect by profession, but his writings on Japanese gardens are scholarly yet accessible, informative yet enthralling. He consistently demonstrates a synthesis of profession and intellect, art and soul.

I would caution the reader who seeks mere knowledge on Japanese gardens. For this, the reader is better served by Mr. Keane's other works, Japanese Garden Design and the tremendous translation of the eleventh-century manual, Sakuteiki. The Art of Setting Stones is a collection of loosely-related essays that expound the conceptual, spiritual and philosophical framework for creating gardens. The essays are reflective in nature, poetic in style, and deeply learned in content; they provide a patient reader with several evenings of delightful reading.

The title of this collection, which comes from the Sakuteiki, provides a key to the genesis of Mr. Keane's essays: the act of creating a garden space is ancient and primordial, rooted in our relationship to the very land itself. One of the the terms that the Sakuteiki uses for the act of creating a garden is "ishi-wo tatsu" - literally, "to raise stones." Mr. Keane's insight comes from years of doing just that.

Average customer rating:

this is what the best american series is all about

Truth in packaging

Well-Selected and Compiled

A non-technical reader's reaview

The Best American Science & Nature Writing 2001 (The Best American Series)
Edward O Wilson
Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2002 (The Best American Series)

The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2003 (The Best American Series)

The Best American Science & Nature Writing 2000

The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2004 (The Best American Series)

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ASIN: 0618153594

Amazon.com

From abstract reflections on the nature of mathematical thought to an all-too-concrete tale of teetering on the edge of an active volcano, The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2001 delivers exactly what it promises. Editor Edward O. Wilson knows good writing when he sees it, and with names like David Berlinski, Barbara Kingsolver, and Jane Goodall in the table of contents, it's hard to know where to begin reading. All but the most diligent of readers will find something new herein--some topic, theory, or point of view that hasn't yet reached the mainstream. Stem cells, robots, cloning, and habitat loss all become more real thanks to the writers' vivid descriptions and imaginative explanations. The collection is a treat even for those with little background in science, as it provides an accessible overview of issues important to all informed world citizens. If only all science and nature writing were this appealing. --Rob Lightner

Book Description

Also an instant bestseller in the Best American series, this second annual Best American Science and Nature Writing volume, edited by the Pulitzer Prize–winning author, scientist, and naturalist Edward O. Wilson, promises to be another "eclectic, provocative collection" (Entertainment Weekly) that is both a science reader's dream and a nature lover's sustenance.

Customer Reviews:

this is what the best american series is all about.......2002-03-26

Edward Wilson guest edits the second in the Science and Nature Writing Series, and unlike many of the guest editors in the other Series (like the Best American Short Stories for this year), he does a phenomenal job, and shows us what this series is all about. The essays come from magazines who focus on the general reader rather than the scientist. The essays are informative. They teach the reader quite a bit and point out things that come to a surprise to most of us (such as the state of the earth's water supply). And they do it in an entertaining way. Above all else, the essays collected here are fun to read and not loaded with jargon the layman can't understand. A special note: Bill Joy's essay on technology and our future should be read at least twice and thought on long and hard.

Truth in packaging.......2002-03-01

Ed Wilson has added another brick to the edifice he's been constructing. For years he's struggled to enlighten us on our place in Nature. His building is a market where Nature's bounty and wonders are displayed. If we shop carefully, these goods will continue to be supplied. We must learn to read the labels with care and use what we take wisely. This collection of essays is part of the learning process. Reading them, one is struck by Wilson's expertise in choice. The writing is good, the subjects are worth your attention and you may come away better understanding how to browse in Nature's shop. Although the title of this book is something of a misnomer - it would be better labelled "science and society" - the compilation is enlightening in many respects.

The essays most directly related to society's concerns cover expanded roles for mathematical concepts, the emotional question of abortion, how we impact wild lands and how technology works to change our lives. David Berlinski offers a description of a mathematical artifact, the algorithm and how it affects our lives. A simple, repeatable instruction, the algorithm is now recognized as fundamental in both Nature and human culture.

Humanity's relation with Nature comprises most of the remainder of the essays. Human settlement of wild land is an topic of growing importance. Mark Cherrington's essay on this contentious issue in Israel might be duplicated in many parts of the planet. Bernd Heinrich describes the Endurance Predator, the animal whose unusual gait allowed it to occupy the whole planet. Human walking and running are unique in Nature. We test our abilities in these unusual capacities with games, and Heinrich speculates on how far those tests can take us. As we come to understand how Nature works in better detail, the impact on our cultures will be reflected in law, as well as the scientific world. Gregg Easterbrooke and Malcolm Gladwell describe new understanding of newborns and the unborn. How should the law be changed to reflect what has been learned about embryos and children?

What of adults and the natural world? Jerome Groopman provides a view of an unusual, but widespread human disorder, The Doubting Disease. Do you suffer from it? Our future health in many areas will be impacted by what we learn of our genetic base. Craig Venter, former president of human genome mapping firm, Celera, is portrayed in depth by Richard Preston.

No collection of writings on Nature would be complete without David Quammen. Here, he takes us along on his jaunt with Michael Fay as the scientist surveys the conditions in central Africa. Quammen's' ability to bring the reader into his adventures is unsurpassed. On this trek you share both his enthusiasms and painful experiences through his captivating prose. He adroitly captures the mood of the field scientist.

Regrettably, we can't say as much about the essay on Costa Rican macaws. While Barbara Kingsolver and Steven Hopp had a pleasant, interesting jaunt in the Central American jungles, the inclusion of this account in this collection seems almost far-fetched. It's a well-written story, but only sparsely appropriate here. Far more meaningful is Sandra Postel's account of water management. "Troubled Waters" is the story of just that condition, which is growing increasingly prevalent around our globe. North American water consumption is one of the major shames of our society, and Postel's survey should give every reader a moment's pause.

Well-Selected and Compiled.......2001-12-23

The Best American Series delivers another winner here, with a fascinating and varied collection of articles and essays from a variety of sources. You know you're in good hands when the editor is Edward O. Wilson, who is among the best writers out there to present scientific thought in a way the more educated of the masses can understand (although his intro to this book is rather self-aggrandizing). In addition to writings on many different scientific disciplines, you also get a variety of philosophical viewpoints, most of which are very levelheaded. The best articles in this book include "Abortion and Brain Waves" which provides the most well-rounded, informed, and realistic viewpoint on the abortion issue you will likely ever see (you surely won't get this from politicians or activists on either side of the debate); plus "Why the Future Doesn't Need Us" which gives a very insightful outlook on the future of humanity in light of genetic engineering, robotics, and nanotechnology (though this article is too long and loses its focus near the end). Other winners include "Baby Steps" concerning infant knowledge and education, and "The Genome Warrior" which covers the politics of the human genome project. The nature and ecology-related articles here are generally weaker, including Jane Goodall's sappy and sentimental "In the Forests of Gombe," and "Being Prey" which starts with a harrowing account of the author being attacked by a crocodile, but then awkwardly attempts to tie this attack to ruminations on feminism and vegetarianism (I have no problems with those doctrines, mind you). But those are just a couple of missteps in a fascinating and entertaining collection.

A non-technical reader's reaview.......2001-11-10

This is an excellent collection of articles compliled from different magazines (The New yorker, Harper's Magazine, Discover, Outside, Orion, to name a few); this adds to the readability. I feel that there is some article of interest for every reader (no just science geeks like myself).
This would be a great gift for anyone who is interested in science (nature, technology, psychology).

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A reluctant write
Nature is the only gardener able to do work so fine
If this is classic nature lit, then maybe its just me...
This Is John Muir's Finest Book
Discovering the Range of Light

My First Summer in the Sierra
John Muir
Manufacturer: Mariner Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0395353513

Amazon.com

John Muir, a young Scottish immigrant, had not yet become the famed conservationist whom he liked to call "John o' the Mountains" when he first trekked into the foothills of the Sierra Nevada not long after the end of the Civil War. Having caught a glimpse of such magical places as Tuolumne Meadows and El Capitan, Muir ached to return, and in the summer of 1869 he signed on with a crew of shepherds and drove a flock of 2,500 woolly critters toward the headwaters of the Merced River.

The diary he kept while tending sheep forms the heart of My First Summer in the Sierra; published in 1911, it enticed thousands of Americans to visit the Yosemite country. The book is full of the concerns Muir would later voice as America's foremost preservationist and wildlands advocate, which would bear fruit in the creation of several national parks and monuments. And it resounds with Muir's nearly pantheistic regard for the natural world: with celebrations of the Sierra's lizards that "dart about on the hot rocks, swift as dragonflies," its mountain lions and tall trees and fierce thunderstorms and bears; with Muir's overarching awe for places that civilization had yet to tame. Though perhaps a little purple by modern standards, Muir's book continues to inspire readers to seek out such places for themselves and make them their own--and as such it stands among the enduring classics of environmental literature. --Gregory McNamee

Book Description

Muir kept this journal on his first extended trip to Yosemite in 1869. Here he faithfully recorded his impressions of the dazzling animal and plant life he encountered in the magnificent Sierra.

Customer Reviews:

A reluctant write.......2007-05-09

This is an excellent, honest write. Muir reluctantly dictated this book while walking around a northern California estate. The wealthy owner of the estate loaned his secretary while Muir walked and talked and the secretary took dictation. Muir had the benefit of good editors. It is a great read because Muir is walking through forests while he recounts his first summer in the Sierra Nevada. We feel it through his eyes.

Muir's later writing efforts came hard, with much editing and rewrites. He worked in his "scribble den" in Martinez with "lateral, terminal and medial moraines of paper arranged about the room ready to cascade forth and bury him."

The original manuscripts show much of the book was written in pencil, with at least five editings (Muir made corrections and alterations). Graham cracker crumbs are embedded in the paper (Muir ate while he worked. Eating graham crackers is a carry over from his student days at the University of Wisconsin).

This is the genuine John Muir, fresh, crisp, articulate (okay, his descriptions can be a bit wordy at times) and alive with a child-like fascintation for learning and inspiration.

I own an original first edition copy with the dust cover and gold leaf on the hard bound cover. I reread the book from time to time. What a great story.

Nature is the only gardener able to do work so fine.......2007-04-17

Gretel Ehrlich provides the introduction. It is noted that John Muir walked first, wrote later. In 1868 he was thirty years old and had walked a thousand miles. He was a seeker in self-exile such as D.H. Lawrence, Rockwell Kent, and Basho. Muir chronicles a rite of passage. The summer described began in June, 1869. Forty-one years later the account was pieced together.

Muir worked for Mr. Delaney as a sheepherder. He had a St. Bernard dog as a companion. Mr. Delaney encouraged Muir to sketch and pursue his naturalist studies. He was to learn that sheep cannot be governed when hungry. Bushes are stripped. The sheep resemble locusts in their destructive potential.

Two kinds of squirrels are evident, the Douglas and the California Gray. The wood rat is more like a squirrel than a rat. He bulds large striking looking houses. Sheep camp bread is baked in Dutch ovens. Descriptions of silver firs, Sierra juniper, yellow and sugar pines, Douglas spruce, sequoia, hemlock, and dwarf pines appear in the account of the summer. Nature is extravagant. The group follows the Yosemite trail.

Mules flee from bears, and dogs want to. Bears are very shy. Indian patience is required to see them. Making sheep cross a stream is a challenge. Once one goes in, the others push in pell-mell. Lake Tenaya was named for one of the chiefs of the Yosemite tribe. Sierra mosquitoes are nearly an inch long. Sierra chipmunks are arboreal and squirrel-like. Grouse and woodpeckers are abundant in the vicinity of Mount Hoffman.

On August third Muir found Professor Butler, his teacher at the University of Wisconsin, because, sensing his presence, John Muir made inquiries at the only hotel in the area and was directed to go to the Vernal Falls. Professor Butler and his party were astonished that John Muir found them.

In times of hunger the dogs, men, and sheep are confronted with lions, leopards, wolves, hyenas, and panthers. The names of places are exciting and descriptive--Moraine Lake, Mono Desert, Soda Springs, Unicorn Peak, Cathedral Range, Tuolumne, Hetch-Hetchy Valley. Muir's self-directed studies in botany clearly account for some of the strengths of this nature narrative. In the end Mr. Delaney tells Muir he will be famous some day.The author describes himself as an incredible wilderness lover. September twenty second ended Muir's first excursion.

The book is a marvel. Sketches and photographs are included and enhance the work.

If this is classic nature lit, then maybe its just me..........2007-01-09

I am going to resign from critiquing this book on a literary scale, and just say that I didn't enjoy this book for the same reason a couple others mentioned - its boring and repetitive. Maybe its because I'm not used to aimless - albeit eloquent -landscape descriptions, or maybe it's the fact that NOTHING happens for 264 pages, but reading this book felt more like a chore than an enjoyable reading experience. Case in point: Casual readers beware!

This Is John Muir's Finest Book.......2006-09-07

John Muir might be the finest author of the "naturalist" genre there ever was. This book is based on his field notes he wrote while he spent his first summer in the Sierra Nevada as a shepherd. He always seems to find the perfect words to describe all that he sees. He was the consumate observer of the natural world and this book is all that. It is a must read for anyone who ever wondered what his life was like, how the Sierra Nevada appeared in the late 1800s, and how he became America's savior of public lands.

Discovering the Range of Light.......2006-07-18

John Muir was born in 1838 and at a young age emigrated from Scotland with his family to a Wisconsin farm. He escaped the hard labor of the farm and his father's backward Biblical obsessions by displaying great powers of visualization. From principles learned from books, he whittled and fashioned barometers, thermometers, clocks and other marvels from the barest of materials. But he repudiated his inventive genius, which could have made him rich, after an industrial accident left him temporarily blinded; and he took off for the wilderness to discover plants and the natural world.

This book is a journal account of Muir's finding a place for himself in Yosemite after some dangerous wandering through the hazards of reconstruction in the South after the Civil War. It's a book of discovery. Although flocks of sheep like Muir's employer's were allowed to overrun backcountry meadows, and gold miners had ripped apart the lower river beds, the Sierras then were still a place that had many aspects that had not yet been explored or understood. The backcountry was much more vulnerable to exploitation (though in many ways less endangered) than today, but there was freer and unfettered access for one who sought out it's mysteries and wanted to learn. This book shows Muir's powers of visualization in his beginning to formulate the role that glaciers play in the formation of the landscape. No one at that time had come to a solid understanding of what had made Yosemite Valley. And, although it might seem quite clear in retrospect, it took a strong mind of one who up until that time had been adrift in the world, a wanderer who studied plants, to visualize his theories and make them known to the world.

Anyone who has not experienced the Sierra first hand cannot really appreciate this book. There are lengthy and numerous descriptions of plants and animals, loving descriptions in Muir's fashion, that can only be understood by one who has reveled in the same places and likewise wants to examine all the details. It's not a purely intellectual appreciation. It's something felt with the whole body, with all the senses alive. Muir always writes of being drawn into Nature, of never turning back, as in the case of his foolhardy venture to the brink of Yosemite Falls, "I therefore concluded not to venture farther, but did nevertheless". There's also this kind of breathless anticipation of tomorrow- if only I will be given a chance to explore its fountains...

In the Mountains of Heaven: True Tales of Adventure on Six Continents

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Humorous Adventures on Many Continents
He somehow gets lots out of a seemingly simple experience
Heavenly

In the Mountains of Heaven: True Tales of Adventure on Six Continents
Mike Tidwell
Manufacturer: The Lyons Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1585746274

Book Description

In this collection of twenty-five essays, award-winning travel writer Mike Tidwell shatters the mold of the travel genre. His writing is more than just adventurous tales about getting from here to there. There's plenty of that, of course, whether it's getting marooned on a desert island or traveling the Silk Road with nomadic shepherds or hitchhiking on Cajun shrimp boats through Louisiana's bayou country. But what makes Tidwell's writing different--what makes it deeper--is his uncanny ability to draw out those he meets--a Bombay prostitute, a Hanoi barber, a real-life Tarzan in the Amazon rain forest.
IN THE MOUNTAINS OF HEAVEN is a powerful and fascinating book of travel, a volume sure to earn Tidwell a place alongside Tim Cahill and Randy Wayne White in the pantheon of adventure writers.

Customer Reviews:

Humorous Adventures on Many Continents.......2002-02-08

This is a very enjoyable read because all of the chapters
focus on a different experience in a different part of the world. Tidwell can write in a way that is short, sweet, and humorous, for he has a sense of fun. He starts out with a visit to his Uncle. He then writes about things that most others wouldn't concern themselves to put on paper, like the
missing man-hole covers in Kyrgyzstan. He leads us on his curious adventure as to why. Why are they missing? Who
takes them? What's the logic behind this phenomenon. And
it's interesting and fun to find out. He also organizes a group
of folks to save someone's life from half the world away.

The fishing expedition in the District of Columbia was fun
and he knows more about D.C. than most life-long residents
ever will know. That's he writes for a lot of rags about his experiences. He wrote about riding on the Metro with his tackle-box and poles with the drained, weary eyed commuters. This is comedy at its best, and it's non-fiction. So was his ride with John T. Love on the roller coaster ride through the thunder storm. And yes, one can learn and gain wisdom from barbers and hair dressers abroad. We can learn more from chatting with them than most of the other people we come across on our treks. Check this book out.

He somehow gets lots out of a seemingly simple experience.......2001-07-05

Was very skeptical at first - (not another US Peace Corps' back-to-ethnicity tales) - (I was a VSO [English equivalent in E. Africa]) - but I have to admit, these stories are really captivating. A pity Paul Theroux has to get his old oar in (via some words of appreciation). No need - Mike has his own style. Was especially fascinated by the stories of downtown DC where nature and interesting characters still exist!! Being a Brit who's not yet had the chance to travel Stateside, I'm happy to be reassured that adventure awaits. A good read and time to book a flight!

Heavenly.......2001-01-26

At times gripping, at times funny, this is a wonderful collection of essays about the author's adventures in the United States and abroad. Didn't know you could fish in Washington, D.C. -- even within sight of the Washington Monument? (Tidwell shows why the nation's capital is a fishermen's paradise.) Ever had a "flight from hell"? (It probably wasn't as hellish as the flight Tidwell describes.) Ever had a haircut in another country? (Tidwell gets his hair cut in Vietnam by a former member of the Viet Cong who...uh oh...admits to having killed Americans during the war.)

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