Amazon.com
Cronon's history of 19th-century Chicago is in fact the history of the widespread effects of a single city on millions of square miles of ecological, cultural, and economic frontier. Cronon combines archival accuracy, ecological evaluation, and a sweeping understanding of the impact of railroads, stockyards, catalog companies, and patterns of property on the design of development of the entire inland United States to this date. Although focused on Chicago and the U.S., the general lessons it teaches are of global significance, and a rich source of metaphors for the ways in which colonization of physical space operates differently from, and similarly to, colonization of cyberspace. This is a compelling, wise, thorough--and thoroughly accessible--masterpiece of history writ large. Very Highest Recommendation.
Customer Reviews:
A review from an armchair historian........2006-08-13
There are going to be other reviewers who can provide more erudite reviews-- reviews better grounded in the study of cities or economic history. I am nothing more than an average reader who enjoys non-fiction.
First of all, potential readers should be aware that this is an econonomic history. It follows flows of goods and capital rather than following the lives and careers of the men and women of Chicago. I knew what to expect, but for people looking for a more standard history of Chicago this may make Nature's Metropolis difficult to engage.
I really enjoyed reading the book. It stretched my understanding of the economic growth of cities and raised issues that I had not considered about the role of the city *in* nature (not as opposed to nature). The examination of elements that made Chicago into both a city and The City was fascinating. The chapters tracing grain, lumber and meat as goods were clearly written and underscored the central theses.
I guess it goes without saying that Nature's Metropolis is far from a light read, but that does not make it less rewarding. As someone who does not have a background in history, I only longingly wished that the bibliography had been annotated to help support further reading.
Distinctive and valuable history of urban growth & development.......2006-04-21
This is a very distinctive, well researched and argued book about how Chicago developed. Starting with a standard model of Urban Economics - the von Thunen model of central place theory- the author quickly moves beyond it. The distinctive contribution of his book is Cronon's emphasis on how the roots of Chicago's remarkable development lay in the "soil" of its surrounding hinterlands. He carries this argument further by examining how the transportation and communication revolutions of the 19th century - the railroad and the telegraph - created unique advanatages for Chicago relative to other competitive metropolitan areas (such as St. Louis, Cincinnati, Milwaukee) and finally, how in turn, new metropolitan areas (such as KC, Omaha) arose to steal aways Chicago's dominance.
As other reviewers have noted, the book offers really fascinating, detailed discussions and original research on - for example - the grain and lumber industries as well as capital flows in the midwestern US creatively using court records on corporate failures to track the flow of investments.
This books contains a rich lode of intellectual wealth and it is well worth the effort to mine it.
Solid on Both Facts and Theory.......2004-01-07
Been dying to read this book for at least six months. Finally found it at a used book store for six bucks! Huzzah!
Having now read the book, I probably would have shelled out for it new or used at the 10+ bucks it commands here on Amazon. The 18 reviews below indicates that this is a fairly popular work. That's more then three times the reviews of the other history books I've checked out on Amazon.
Since the other reviews are substantial, I won't comment much, except to say that while several reviewers have commented on the role of "first" and "second" nature in this book, I didn't see anybody mentioning his use of "Central Place Theory", which was apparently developed by German theorists in the 1800's. He also doesn't discuss Lewis Mumford at all, even though he cites to that author in the bibliography.
I thought this book made an interesting contrast with "Imperial San Francisco", another book about the development of a western city. I was hoping Cronon would include more information about the "flow of capital" between Chicago and the FAR west, rather then focusing so intently on Chicago's immediate hinterland.
Cronon chose to focus on a description of the processes which led to the creation of Chicago. It might have been interesting to look at the ways in which the interests of wealthy individuals tracked across various industries and time. A point made in "Industrial San Francisco" was that the oligarch's who made money in mining gradually "cleansed" their money through the purchase of utilities and media firms(newspapers). Did something similar occur in Chicago? I suspect so, but Cronon's treatment of the newspaper/media industry is largely descriptive.
Great for readers interested in history, ecology, economics.......2003-11-21
I remember, many years ago, standing next to an Illinois corn field at the intersection 212th and Cicero and wondering how Chicago's street grid system had worked its way so far into the country side. What in the world did this corn field and the intersection of State and Madison in downtown Chicago have to do with each other? This book explained it to me along the economic history of Chicago -- a history that went a lot farther in explaining the citys size, influence, and even existence than the biographies Marshal Field, Potter Palmer, the Colonel, and the rest.
Great read.
Best 'textbook' ever.......2003-02-09
This was the best book I've ever had assigned in a class. It was part of the assigned readings for a Princeton University course "History of the American West". Perhaps the context of the class helped to make the book, but it is still well written and seems to strike a good balance between a historical view and an economic view of the story it tells.
Book Description
"Vivid firsthand descriptions by persons who lived through the 1871 Chicago fire are woven into a gripping account... Absorbing and riveting reading." The Horn Book, starred review
Customer Reviews:
The Great Fire Review.......2006-04-16
In the book The Great Fire the author gives you a lot of amazing facts, pictures, and he lets you see what is going through four main character's eyes. One of the amazing facts this book gives you is that the people who told the fire engines what place to go, miscalculated it three times, and sent the fire engines in wrong directions. One of the great pictures they give you is a lady on postcard posing as Catherine O'Leary milking the cow that started the fire. This book is a great book for young readers like me. I give The Great Fire by Jim Murphy two thumbs up.
The Great Fire book review.......2006-04-09
I thought that the book, The Great Fire, was good in some ways, and bad in other ways. Some of the bad things were that it was really hard to follow. I thought that it was hard to follow because there were many different story lines going on at the same time, and they switched them around to quickly. I also think that the book was boring because it was basically just about people running from the fire and losing their families. I thought that all of the stories about what happened to people during the fire were basically all the same. Some of the good things about the book were that it was full of facts about the fire. It also told the real story about what happened to people during the fire, what caused the fire, and what helped to stop it. Overall I thought that the book was kind of interesting but hard to follow, and that it was boring, but factual. I didn't think that this was the best book I have ever read, but it wasn't the worst either.
The Great Fire.......2005-05-04
This book is a very interesting book about the fire in Chicago in 1871. It is a journal type book because of its look and feel. It is quick reading because it is such a fascinating tragedy. This book has wonderful photographs and has four peoples points of view and commentaries throughout the book. There is actually a mix of photographs, maps and drawings. They work to enhance the book dramatically and give it a more personal and real touch. It is a Newbery Honor book and is definitely worthy of that title.
This book interested me because I grew up in a suburb of Chicago, Naperville, all during my elementary and Jr. High school years. We were taught about this fire every year for school and Girl Scouts and pretty much everything else I was involved with. In fact there is a song about it that is very catchy and teaches about the fire and has hand movements and the works. Now that I am older and I haven't lived there for a long time it is interesting to go back and refresh my memory about this event and see it from a different perspective.
Jim Murphy has also written many books in a similar fashion including books about the Yellow Fever and Alamo.
The Review of a FIRE!!.......2005-04-15
The Great Fire by Jim Murphy is an expansive look into the fire that destroyed Chicago. It is as enthralling as it is amusing and it's a good read for all levels.
Through a compilation of different people this story unfolds colorfully. This book is based around real accounts of a variety of people. One of the most interesting people of the book is the news reporter, because all of his facts are blatantly wrong. These facts would later be the view of the majority of critics.
Uncovered facts, which were unknown at the time of the fire, make the book sometimes funny. One of the funniest things about the book is that the fire could've been stopped in several instances, but because of human ignorance it was allowed to grow. Also the fact that most of the firefighters had been fighting fires for two days straight didn't help the situation.
This is a must read book for anyone no matter what your special interest are. Jim Murphy does a great job of arranging many people's stories to create a strong picture of The Great Fire.
The Great Fire.......2005-01-10
The book "The Great Fire" tells you about terrors, events, burned buildings and more. If you're someone who likes to know what has happened in the late 1800s you will find this book interesting. In the book, there are people who have been interviewed and tell what happened to them during the fire. Three people will tell actual stories about their experiences starting near the first quarter of the book. Throughout this story pictures are shown of paintings from the fire and maps of an overview of Chicago, showing building areas and where the fire had spread. This book is a fun and easy read about history.
Average customer rating:
|
Let the Lions Roar!: The Evolution of Brookfield Zoo
Andrea Friederici Ross
Manufacturer: Chicago Zoological Society
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 General
| Nature & Ecology
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Zoology
| Biological Sciences
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
Reference
| Outdoors & Nature
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Field Guides
| Outdoors & Nature
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0913934240 |
Amazon.com
For two decades Outside magazine has remained committed to good writing, publishing feature articles from well-known authors on a variety of topics connected (in sometimes obscure yet fascinating ways) to the outdoors, adventure, travel, and just about anything else that happens beyond the confines of the mall. The most memorableof these pieces are collected in a single anthology, The Best of Outside: Tom McGuane offers compelling reasons to hunt; Jonathan Raban discusses life on the open ocean; Barry Lopez considers the graceful and beleaguered flocks of snow geese that once filled the skies. Also included are the original articles from Jon Krakauer and Sebastian Junger that would expand into their bestselling books Into Thin Air and The Perfect Storm, respectively.
Book Description
The man-eating proclivities of Komodo dragons. The complicated art of being a cowgirl. A picaresque ramble with a merry band of tree-cleaners. The big-wave crusaders of the world's best surfers. For the past twenty years, Outside magazine has set the standard for original and engaging reports on travel, adventure, sports, and the environment.
Along the way, many of America's best journalists and storytellers--including such writers as Jon Krakauer, Tim Cahill, E. Annie Proulx, Edward Abbey, Thomas McGuane, David Quammen, and Jane Smiley--have made the magazine a venue for some of their most compelling work.
The Best of Outside represents the finest the award-winning magazine has to offer: thirty stories that range from high action to high comedy. Whether it's Jonathan Raban sailing the open sea, Susan Orlean celebrating Spain's first female bullfighter, or Jim Harrison taking the wheel on a cross-country road trip, each piece can be characterized in a word: unforgettable. Commemorating Outside magazine's twentieth anniversary,
The Best of Outside is one of the most entertaining and provocative anthologies of the decade.
Customer Reviews:
Complex, interesting reading; if you can see it........2005-06-15
I concur with all of the previous glowing reviews. I have a beef with the publisher; the text is too small. I guess the font to be an 8.
Out and About.......2002-02-04
Thanks to Outside magazine, which has been systematically cultivating a stable of fine writers for years now, we have a collection of what I'll call the "nouveau adventure" genre. Yes, there are traditional, edge-of-your-seat adventure stories by familiar names like Jon Krakauer, Sebastian Junger and Dave Roberts, but to me the real pleasure of reading this book is derived from pieces like Ian Frazier's "Keeping America's Trees Safe from Small-Curd Bubble Wrap," and Randy Wayne White's "Why Do We Fish?" Their topics are just a bit off the wall, poke gentle fun at the human condition, and still manage to offer some real insight into subjects that most of us would never have thought of.
I have also savored the several pieces in the anthology that touch a deeper chord. "The High Cost of Being David Bower," a sensitive portrait of a man literally driven by the urgency of his dream, and "The Blackfoot Years," dealing with the importance of a river to the lives of a family that has had to cope with tragedy, are two favorites.
Here you will find adventure of all kinds, insightful social commentary, high risk moments, and just enough oddball humor to keep you entertained for hours. Like other readers, I find myself returning to this collection just for the fun and pleasure of rereading my favorites. Many thanks to Outside for having the vision and sense to give these authors a home in print.
A great read and re-read.......2001-07-25
I must have re-read this book for the twentieth time by now. And I already have this whole stack of Outside magazines on the shelf! Every time I read this book I would discover something interesting and new between the lines and in the stories -- whether it's emotional, descriptive or implied. I feel terrified when I read Krakauer's take on the Everest accident; inspired by the story on David Brower and his environmental stand; and I laughed myself silly with The King of the Ferret Leggers. In short, this book take me through the whole gamut of emotions. It's a great compilation and an even greater buy.
Ferret-legging, you must read this.......2000-05-29
Years and years ago an office-mate brought in a copy Outside magazine with an article on "Ferret-legging," and read to all of us. By the end of it we were dying with laughter. I made a xerox, which I saved for years, until I finally made the mistake of loaning to a friend (ex, now, obviously) WHO DID NOT RETURN IT.
Now this compendium of Outside's comes out, and blessed Mary mother of God, it includes the ferret-legging piece.
You must buy this, flip to "King of the ferret-leggers," and read the piece. You'll thank me, honest you will.
And I'm told there're some other stories in here as well. Think of them as gravy.
Superb writing about superb adventures.......1999-08-06
This book posits that a well-written account of an adventure can be just as much fun as the actual, original experience, and the book's contributors, all with sterling credentials (published books, New Yorker work, etc.), do not disappoint. The writing quality is such that I found myself avidly reading through stories about pastimes I don't enjoy and hardly consider -- hunting, flyfishing, etc. -- and enjoying them nonetheless, drawn in by the enticing quality of the writing. Some of the pure adventure works may not be great literature, but, then, not everything enjoyable in life is.
Product Description
The Chicago River is an ever-changing waterway that has contributed to the growth of one of the nation's most important cities. Never before has the full story of the Chicago River been told with such striking and historically significant images. Jonathan Genzen has compiled an amazing array of photographs chronicling prosperity and disaster over the history of the river.
Customer Reviews:
A must read for anyone who loves the Windy City........2007-05-13
Well written, thoroughly researched book on a subject I'll confess I knew little about before reading. The photos, particularly the historic ones from before the turn of the century, really help to supply context and feel to the story of the river. Highly recommended for anyone from Chicago or with an interest in the city's history.
Book Description
Used and abused. Straightened and channelized.
Reversed and revered. But never ignored...
An Intimate Biography of
the Heroic Creek that Chicago Made
When French explorers Jolliet and Marquette used the Chicago portage to access the Mississippi River system, the Chicago River was but a humble, even sluggish, stream in the right place at the right time. That's the story of the making of Chicago. This is the other story -- the story of the making and perpetual re-making of a river by everything from pre-glacial forces to the interventions of an emerging and mighty city.
Author Libby Hill brings together years of original research and the contributions of dozens of experts to tell the Chicago River's epic tale from its conception in prehistoric bedrock to the glorious rejuvenation it's undergoing today, and every exciting episode in between.
Customer Reviews:
The Chicago River and More.......2001-01-15
This book delivers on its title by providing a thorough account of the natural and unnatural (affected by humans) history of the Chicago River. Although the title is apt, it understates the breadth of fascinating material in the book. The "natural history" covers every facet of the river and its environs and provides a good primer about nature in general and the effect that people can have on it. Through the "unnatural history" we learn about the growth of Chicago and its suburbs as well as the Midwest and the United States, with the unifying theme of the river holding everything together.
It's clear that a huge amount of research went into this book, and even technical sections are presented clearly and enlivened by interestuing tidbits of information. I wish this book existed when I lived in Chicago. I would have had a much greater appreciation of what was around me.
CHICAGO, WISCONSIN?!?!?.......2000-09-17
This is one of the strange and interesting facts found in this book. The author spent six years meticulously researching and writing this book about "the historic creek that Chicago built". The book does many things for Chicago's history: it gives a great perspective of the political realities of managing one of the main forms of transportation in the city's early growth; it describes the economice of developing the land along the river (and its many courses); and it shows the part the river played in the lives of everyone along its banks. The drawings and maps in the book are carefully chosen to give the reader an accurate visual picture of the times. My favorite is the one on pg. 96 where men are lifting an entire hotel to accomodate the installation of sewers in the city. I also loved the story about the "kidnapped dredge"! The last third of the book is very pertinent to the people in the area who truly love the outdoors. It describes the development of the Skokie Lagoons and the Chicago Botanic Garden where many of us bird and the start of the natural areas restoration for which Chicago has become so well known along the banks of the North Branch. For folks who grew up in or near the city, the neighborhood references are sure to bring back fond memories but, even for those of us who did not grow up in this area, there is much to learn. This book would be a great addition to a reference library or a wonderful gift for someone interested in Chicago and its varied history. Looking for the answer to the question that began this review? Well, you'll have to read the book to see how a stroke of luck- or a pen!- made us the "City of Big Shoulders" rather than the "City of the Northwoods"!
An in-depth, comprehensive history and presentation........2000-09-04
Libby Hill's The Chicago River is the result of years of painstaking research and presents an outstanding historical survey of the Chicago River from its creation by pre-glacial forces, to the days of the French explorers using it to access the Mississippi, to its contemporary presence in one of the most densely populated urban areas in the Midwest. The Chicago River is an in-depth, comprehensive work that reveals the never ending struggle between humans and nature over the centuries, as well as the commercial, recreational, and ecological projects currently underway on and in the river. The Chicago River is highly recommended, rewarding reader for those with an interest in Chicago, natural history, environmental issues, and Midwestern history.
Average customer rating:
- Magnificent!
- "Beautiful, menacing and slightly out of control."
- Uncompromising look at human idiocy . . . . . .
- "Think differently, behave differently."
- JOY WILLIAMS IS FANTASTIC!
|
Ill Nature
Joy Williams
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Conservation
| Environment
| Outdoors & Nature
| Subjects
| Books
Ecology
| Environment
| Outdoors & Nature
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Conservation
| Outdoors & Nature
| Subjects
| Books
Reference
| Outdoors & Nature
| Subjects
| Books
Look Inside Outdoors & Nature Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Similar Items:
-
State of Grace
-
The Quick and the Dead
-
Honored Guest: Stories
-
Breaking and Entering
-
Obscene Interiors: Hardcore Amateur Decor
ASIN: 0375713638
Release Date: 2002-06-11 |
Amazon.com
Best known as a novelist, but also an accomplished journalist, Joy Williams has a great gift for inducing guilt trips. No one is safe: in the opening pages of Ill Nature, she implicates every First Worlder in creation for causing the death of the natural world, the victim of our material urges. She writes that the thousands of new digital television towers being erected today, for example, are responsible for the deaths of millions of songbirds that unwittingly slam into them or their guylines in midflight; by extension, anyone who owns a digital TV set is partly to blame for this unforeseen episode in the larger ecological crisis, no matter how well-intentioned those viewers may be.
Turning a sharp eye on ecotourists, zoogoers, hunters, politicians, developers, expectant mothers, carnivores, conservatives, liberals, and just about anyone else who crosses her path, Williams decries the rapid loss of the wild, which in her eyes is no mere abstraction. Sometimes hyperbolic, but more often right on target, she argues that it will take more than a few cosmetic fixes to mend all the wounds that the environment has sustained. Dystopian to the last (as she writes, "You are increasingly looking at and living in proxy environments created by substitution and simulation," and not the real world at all), Williams brings plenty of heat to the page--and plenty of light, too. --Gregory McNamee
Book Description
Most of us watch with mild concern the fast-disappearing wild spaces or the recurrence of pollution-related crises such as oil spills, toxic blooms in fertilizer-enriched forests, and violence both home and abroad. Joy Williams does more than watch. In this collection of condemnations and love letters, revelations and cries for help, she brings to light the price of complacency with scathing wit and unexpected humor. Sounding the alarm over the disconnection from the natural world that our consumer culture has created, she takes on subjects as varied as the culling of elephants, electron-probed chimpanzees, vanishing wetlands, and the determination of American women to reproduce at any cost. Controversial, opinionated, at times exceptionally moving,
Ill Nature is a clarion call for us to step out of our cars and cubicles, and do something to save our natural legacy.
Customer Reviews:
Magnificent!.......2003-10-19
Williams is the greatest writer we have in America at this moment!
"Beautiful, menacing and slightly out of control.".......2002-07-15
Death and suffering are a big part of writing. A big part. (To paraphrase and turn upon the gifted Joy Williams; see page 49.) And you can't waste satire or pure hardcore ridicule on targets unworthy of the name. You've got to go after the people who kill animals, and you can't spare anybody. Sure it's duck soup to take aim at the National Rifle Association and the few Big Game Machos left in the world. Duck soup. And the sickie scientists who lobotomize chimps and torture rabbits just to see how long they can take it, their white coats starched and pressed, their nimble fingers taking copious notes. These targets are too easy. In the final analysis you gotta get the burger eaters, every one of them, not just the Super-Sized that waddle into the Burger King or the suburban Mommas sneaking out of the Krispy Kreme, bags of donuts like warm puppies under both arms, mouths stuffed. No, you've got to get the photo safari people who kill merely with their privileged, ignorant, dilettante PRESENCE in jungleland, a lily-livered affront to nature, over-tipping the guides and spilling martinis and overexposed film onto the purity of the veldt.
At any rate, this is the Joy Williams rant, and what I say is rant on, Voltaire!
This collection of magazine essays begins with "Save the Whales, Screw the Shrimp" in which Williams goes after the wishy-washy, faux lovers of nature, addressing them (in effect) as hey "you" with the "Big Gulp cups." Next is a short-short about rhesus monkeys being raised for laboratory research on an island charmingly called "Key Lois" (Laboratory Observing Island Simians). Williams follows this with "Safariland" in which she makes fun of the photo safari experience, reducing it to a kind of Disneyland with mosquito netting.
So far Joy Williams is just satirizing. Next comes a particularly brutal short-short on wildebeests, how they can't migrate to water during the dry season as they have for millions of years because there's a cattle fence that keeps them from the water they can smell. Williams is particularly vivid as she describes thousands of them up against the fence dying of thirst. But she's only warming up. In the next piece, "The Killing Game" and in a later piece, "The Animal People" we experience the full monty of Joy Williams unleashed. Now her writing becomes (as she describes it in the final essay entitled "Why I Write") "unelusive and strident and brashly one-sided." Her words are "meant to annoy and trouble and polarize, and they made readers...half nuts with rage and disdain." (pp. 209-210)
I believe it. I too love the animals, but I'd bet protozoa to primates that she'd find my efforts sadly lacking and my attitude wimpishly laissez faire.
I guess the best way to demonstrate the intent and style of this remarkable book is to just quote Joy Williams. Here's the opening lines of "The Case against Babies":
BABIES, BABIES, BABIES. There's a plague of babies. Too many rabbits or elephants or mustangs or swans brings out the myxomatosis, the culling guns, the sterility drugs, the scientific brigade of egg smashers. Other species can "strain their environments" or "overrun their range" or clash with their human "neighbors," but human babies are always welcome at life's banquet. Welcome, Welcome, Welcome--Live Long and Consume!
Joy Williams really is a kind of earthy Voltaire, a kind of meat cleaver (as opposed to rapier) Voltaire, a kind of take no prisoners master of satire, burlesque, ridicule and just plain old verbal assassination.
But she raises a profound and demoralizing question: what IS going to happen to all the animals that we claim to love so much? Both Joy Williams and I know. Only those fully compatible with humans (dogs, cats, aquarium fish) or those we can't do anything about (rats, mice, crows, sea gulls, sparrows) will survive. Joy knows this and she's angry. Her anger shows. But she's also resigned and that shows too. I know this not merely because of her tone but because of what she writes on page 209: "Nothing the writer can do is ever enough."
The denouement of the book (strangely it has one; Joy Williams is an artist) comes in the penultimate essay, "Hawk." Here we are stunned to learn that "Hawk," her German shepherd dog, whom she referred to as "my sweetie pie, my honey, my handsome boy, my love," whom she would kiss fondly on the nose, turned on her one day as she was leaving him at the vet and savagely bit into and ripped at her breast and then gnawed her arms, and had to be not destroyed, but given euthanasia and cremated.
I don't know what to say about this benumbing turn. Really I think Joy Williams is an artist whose inner artistic nature rises over and above her normal consciousness and tells us the truth in a way ordinary consciousness never could; and even here in a collection of non-fictional essays she has consciously or unconsciously employed the techniques of the master story teller that she is, and left us with a queasy sense of the madness of life while demonstrating that there is so much beyond our understanding.
This extraordinary book should be read not so much for the overpowering arguments against our misuse of animals, or for the undeniable demonstration of our "ill nature," but for the perfect power of her words. Anyone with any pretension toward mastery of language ought to read Joy Williams. In doing so we too might learn to write, as she does, in a manner that is "beautiful and menacing and slightly out of control." (p. 210)
Uncompromising look at human idiocy . . . . . ........2001-11-07
Joy Williams takes a clear-eyed look at the greedy, short-sighted and uncompassionate ways of humans, particularly the gluttonous, over-consuming American horde, and what small-brained humanoids have done to the natural world and the creatures who share this water planet.
The truth may set you free, but first it will make you miserable --- if your heart has not been sanitized, plasticized, and chemicalized into stuporous numbness. Williams outlines the enormity of the forces arrayed against those who would preserve some of this beleaguered planet for the plants and animals and natural lifeforms.
With ironical humor, razor wit and passionate uncommon sense, Williams takes aim at industrial agriculture, federal Wildlife Services (which "manages" wildlife by killing it), fertility clinics which allows infertile women to birth litters of babies on this overtaxed planet, hunters and the whole panoply of unbridled growth-is-good ideologues.(Unbridled growth, Edward Abbey wrote, is the ideology of the cancer cell.)
What gourmands call veal and seafood are, in reality, the corpses of slaughtered animals. Williams opens the blinders to reveal the reality behind the modern consumerist lifestyle and while it is not pretty, there is a dark and twisted humor to it.
Williams puts her money where her mouth is. When she had to sell some land she owned in Florida, she insisted, over the bellowing of the realtors, on deed restrictions that would preserve the land's natural character. Eventually, a nature-loving buyer appeared. Good show. I have had similar thoughts about preserving the trees on my little land; thanks to this author for giving me hope that I can protect them. Keep writing, Joy Williams, words can make a difference.
Buy this book, take it to heart, hear the clarion call, get sane, change your life!
"Think differently, behave differently.".......2001-05-10
I discovered Tucson writer Joy Williams through her essay, "Hawk." About her "big black German shepherd" (p.184) she writes, Hawk "was my sweetie pie, my honey, my handsome boy, my love. On the following day he would attack me as though he wanted to kill me" (p.185).
Williams' collection of 19 no-nonsense "rants and reflections" is a confrontational wake-up call. Each year three million migratory songbirds slam into towers and their guy wires (p.20). Seven thousand acres are lost each day in this country to land developers.(p.129) We are overpopulating the planet with "babies, babies, babies," Williams observes, "those heirs, those hopes, those products of our species' selfishness, sentimentality and global death wish"(p. 105). Neither hunters nor animal rights' activists escape the rant that becomes a roar in these pages. "Honor non-human life," Williams writes. "Control yourself, become more authentic, live lightly upon the earth and treat it with respect. Redefine the word progress and dismiss the managers and masters. Grow inwardly and with knowledge become truly wiser. Think differently, behave differently"(p.21). I couldn't put this book of eye-opening essays down. And for another rant you'll remember, try Ferenc Mate's A REASONABLE LIFE (2000).
G. Merritt
JOY WILLIAMS IS FANTASTIC!.......2001-04-10
I've been waiting for someone to speak my mind about the abuse of nature, the lip service of politicians regarding the environment, development run amok and other issues that seem beyond our control; Joy Williams does this with gusto, and one senses, a deeply passionate anger. "The Killing Game" especially runs true as I live in hunting country and hear the heart-sickening comments of hunters who can barely name a handful of the flora and fauna that surrounds them on their killing expeditions. "Wildebeest" is a poignant and sad tribute to that wonderful animal driven to survive and "The Case Against Babies" reminds us just out of control the human population is. You don't have to be a "liberal tree hugger" or nature mysticist to appreciate these essays: Ms. Williams speaks as a realist and she hits hard where it should hurt, which is to make us see our hypocritical ways. This is a fast-paced read and enjoyably sarcastic but beneath that lies a plea to speak out against man's selfish, selfish existence. She is also a fine writer. I will eagerly await her next book and hope more writers like her emerge into mainstream publishing.
Average customer rating:
|
Windy City Wild: Chicago's Natural Wonders
Manufacturer: Chicago Review Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Photo Essays
| Photography
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
General
| State & Local
| United States
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Illinois
| State & Local
| United States
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Midwest
| State & Local
| United States
| Americas
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Nature & Ecology
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
Natural History
| Nature & Ecology
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
Reference
| Outdoors & Nature
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 1556524161 |
Book Description
When most people think of the Chicago metropolitan area they usually don't envision captivating natural beauty, but within a 55-mile radius of the city there are no less than five distinctive ecosystems, including tall-grass prairies, oak savannas, forests, lakeshores, and wetlands. Several of the natural communities preserved here are among the rarest in the world, including 181 species listed as endangered or threatened. These spectacular color photographs uncover Chicago's natural wonders, including vistas of shooting stars at Chiwaukee Prairie, blazing star and goldenrod at Gensburg-Markham Prairie, a luscious green canyon at Camp Sagawau, a pair of sandhill cranes feeding along the banks of the Fox River, a carpet of trilliums in Messenger Woods, fog rising over the Volo bog, and a fox family venturing out at dawn.
Average customer rating:
- An excellent novel - first, or otherwise
- A Haunting Journey
- Amazing Details
- A wonderful read
- NATURE LESSONS: Lessons well worth learning
|
Nature Lessons: A Novel
Lynette Brasfield
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
General
| Classics
| United States
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Classics
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Contemporary
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Literary
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Similar Items:
-
Hope and Other Dangerous Pursuits
-
The Shadow of the Wind
-
March
-
The Inheritance of Loss
-
Suite Francaise
ASIN: 031231034X |
Book Description
Forty-year-old advertising copywriter Kate Jensen-who as the story opens has just broken up with her third fianc-returns home to South Africa from America to search for her missing mother. Set against a backdrop of her native land's troubled history, natural beauty, and complex contemporary society, Nature Lessons is a riveting story of a woman strug-gling to come to terms with the legacy of growing up with a paranoid mother, the guilt she felt as a white person during the apartheid era, and her current inability to sustain long-term relationships with the men in her life. This evocative debut will be a draw both to critics and to readers of fine, accessible fiction.
Customer Reviews:
An excellent novel - first, or otherwise.......2003-09-18
Brasfield creates a fascinating mystery out of her protagonist's desire to understand a painful upbringing. She weaves together information about Kate Jensen's mother's mental illness, her country's political climate, and the oddly over-zealous attentions of her uncle, Oom Piet. Brasfield's management of a mentally ill character is particularly impressive; Kate's mother is neither simple nor predictable. If you enjoy reading about politics, South Africa, relationships between men and women, family interactions - or even if you just like a good mystery - read Nature Lessons.
A Haunting Journey.......2003-06-28
It is not often that one finds the combination of beautiful writing and a compelling story. Nature Lessons is that and more. Set against the exotic yet turbulent atmosphere of South Africa during apartheid, we meet the young Kate Jensen, who recounts her life with a mentally ill mother. Woven in with the story of young Kate, is the journey of the older Kate who returns to South Africa to search for her mother. Their stories create a tapestry rich in the lasting effects of cultural, political, and psychological dynamics on a young girl. It grips the reader from the first page and takes one on a haunting journey.
Amazing Details.......2003-06-24
Intriguing storyline and amazing use of description. Lynette is a first-class story teller and author. This is a book you won't want to put down.
A wonderful read.......2003-06-21
This is a great book. For those of you who loved Oprah's book club, this is much like her selections but not as grim. The story keeps you guessing, the characters are well drawn interesting people. The story is set mainly in South Africa and illustrates the effects of Aparteid on a society from a child's perspective.
NATURE LESSONS: Lessons well worth learning.......2003-06-12
This beautifully written novel highlights the dilemma of a dysfuncional mother/child relationship and the havoc it creates in the development of the child. The perspective of the daughter grown and the daughter as an adult that Brasfield takes, elevates the story to far more than a good read. It is food for thought so intense that there isn't a page that the reader will not nod and say, "Yes. I've been there. I know just how she feels."
Brasfield poses the eternal question of how to judge a child's assessment of its mother and who can define what is abuse and what is rational behavior. She also points up the dilemma of judging mental desease in the context of the times. For example, the mother in Nature Lessons is living in South Africa where many of her paranoid delusions have basis in fact. Who is to say that she is not right? Who can really know if the government is not indeed spying on her and her family. This is a book you cannot put down and when you reach the last page, you will want to reopen it and start reading this poetic prose once more. The issues presented are those that no one can forget. We all are living them and battling their effects throughout our lives.
Books:
- Neotropical Savannas and Dry Forests: Diversity, Biogeography, and Conservation (SYSTEMATICS ASSOCIATION SPECIAL VOLUMES)
- Official Nintendo Animal Crossing: Wild World Player's Guide
- On Gold Mountain: The One-Hundred-Year Odyssey of My Chinese-American Family
- Out of This World: Colliding Universes, Branes, Strings, and Other Wild Ideas of Modern Physics
- PowerDown: Options And Actions For A Post-Carbon World
- Pure Sea Glass: Discovering Nature's Vanishing Gems
- Rainforest
- Remaking a World: Violence, Social Suffering, and Recovery
- Run With the Bulls Without Getting Trampled: The Qualities You Need to Stay Out of Harm's Way and Thrive at Work
- Saving the Planet With Pesticides and Plastic: The Environmental Triumph of High-Yield Farming
Books Index
Books Home
Recommended Books
- Mao: The Unknown Story
- It's Your Ship: Management Techniques from the Best Damn Ship in the Navy
- Edouard Glissant and Postcolonial Theory: Strategies of Language and Resistance
- History: Fiction or Science
- Greta Garbo: A Life Apart
- Imagining the Tenth Dimension: A New Way of Thinking About Time and Space
- History: Fiction or Science
- The Tutankhamun Prophecies: The Sacred Secret of the Maya, Egyptians, and Freemasons
- Economically Active Population, Employment, Unemployment And Hours Of Work/ Household Surveys
- Ten Years in the Saddle The Memoir of William Woods Averell 1851-1862
Changes in the Land, Revised Edition: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England
Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of the United States
A Consumers' Republic: The Politics of Mass Consumption in Postwar America
Uncommon Ground: Rethinking the Human Place in Nature
The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolution in American Business
