Back to Earth: A Backpacker's Journey into Self and Soul

Book Description

Back to Earth is the powerful, personal journey of a man in his middle years who senses that he has drifted away from the ideals of his youth and who must now search for coherence, belief, and a renewed spirituality following the breakup of his marriage and family. Living alone in a cabin in the woods, Temple searches his past and tells tales of experiences backpacking in the American wilderness. His reflections focus on the spiritual and redemptive qualities of nature, the American character, and the dilemmas of the split between matter and spirit, body and soul, God and creation. As an earnest pilgrim with a short attention span, Temple's story chronicles his journey from an intimacy with the earth to an alienation from it, and the need of all humans to find a redemptive reunion.

Customer Reviews:

Explorations of the soul.......2005-05-27

The author of this intensely personal collection of essays has backpacked into many of the country's wildest and most remote wildernesses. His stories of those trips make engrossing reading, but the book is as much about interior journeys as exterior ones, as the subtitle telegraphs. Temple writes elegant and thoughtful prose that has echoes of Loren Eiseley, Edward Abbey, Colin Fletcher and William Least Heat Moon. It is a journey into the soul that lies at the heart of this book.

Kerry Temple, Back to Earth: A Backpacker's Journey into Self and Soul.(book)(Book review) : An article from: Catholic New Times

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Kerry Temple, Back to Earth: A Backpacker's Journey into Self and Soul.(book)(Book review) : An article from: Catholic New Times

Manufacturer: Thomson Gale
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

General | Philosophy | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Catholic New Times, published by Thomson Gale on March 19, 2006. The length of the article is 477 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Kerry Temple, Back to Earth: A Backpacker's Journey into Self and Soul.(book)(Book review)
Publication: Catholic New Times (Magazine/Journal)
Date: March 19, 2006
Publisher: Thomson Gale
Volume: 30 Issue: 5 Page: S5(1)

Article Type: Book review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Customer Reviews:

Our Nations' Heritage...the beautiful Eucs..........(Yooks).......2003-12-22

This is a fantastic field guide for Horticulturists and others interested i these amazing trees....the only drawback is that it can be bought for under one hundred bucks new in australia....which equals about seventy five USDolls....Hmmmmm...

Book Description

From the ruins of the ancient seaside city of Acco, to the small but archaeologically important town of Yokneam, Fifty Major Cities of the Bible provides readers with a comprehensive guide to the ancient cities that played a vital role in the world from which the Bible originated.

Not only covering renowned cities such as Jerusalem and Jericho, the book also includes lesser known towns like Aroer, Beth-Zur and Gibeah, which have all provided their own valuable contributions to the way in which we now understand the biblical world.

A fascinating, easy-to-follow text, key features include:

* the biblical context of each city or town

* a summary of its known archeological history

* non-biblical references to the site

* photographs and illustrations

* a concise bibliography for further reading

Also provided is a handy reference map to the major archaeological sites in Israel, as well as chronological tables for easy reference.

Concise, informative and high accessible, Fifty Major Cities of the Bible is a superb overview of the cities and towns that made up the Biblical world, and an essential resource for students and enthusiasts.

Israel: A Photobiography: The First Fifty Years

Average customer rating:

Know more about Israel/Jews ...... Great Visual

Israel: A Photobiography: The First Fifty Years

Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Photo Essays | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Photojournalism | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Asia | History | Subjects | Books

General | Middle East | History | Subjects | Books

Israel | Middle East | History | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 068484513X

Amazon.com

From Robert Capa's 1948 photograph of soldiers on the road to Jerusalem to the 1996 shot of a small child gazing into a blue sky filled with colorful kites, the photographs in Israel: A Photobiography depict a broad spectrum of life in a complicated country. It is telling that the major sections of the book are organized by war--Sinai Campaign, Six-Day War, Yom Kippur War, Lebanon War. Stirring images of soldiers on the front lines, refugees on the move, an off-duty fighter tending the family barbecue with a gun on his hip, and Druze women in the Golan Heights shouting to their relatives across the border in Syria remind readers of the harsh reality behind the headlines. Many photographs capture quieter, more personal moments, such as a Greek Orthodox wedding, a man visiting the Tel Aviv zoo, and a woman soothing her infant outside a kibbutz dining hall. Individually the pictures tell thousands of different--even divisive--stories of the people in and around Israel. When regarded collectively, though, these provocative images form a portrait of a nation struggling to find its place. An essay by Thomas L. Friedman, the New York Times's Jerusalem correspondent, explores the contradictions that are elemental to the country, introduces the photographs, and leads readers to consider the pictures from many different angles.

Customer Reviews:

Know more about Israel/Jews ...... Great Visual.......2005-08-11

Micha Bar-Am is an Israel photographer. From the notes written by Micha, we can see his enthusiasm, curiosity and effort when he started photographing in his early stage. You can also see how his country has changed and how his life has changed too, as indicated in his images. And most importantly, change is going go. There is always full of conflicts in his images and in this country, Israel. Don't read this book as a pure 'photography book'. You may be experiencing as a witness of the history of Israel and the Jewish community. To have better understanding of this country, her culture and her people, it gives good visual material.

Israel Potter: His Fifty Years of Exile, Volume Eight (Melville)

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A charming (if over-the-top) spoof of Revolutionary heroics
The least known and most humorous of Melville's works.

Israel Potter: His Fifty Years of Exile, Volume Eight (Melville)
Herman Melville
Manufacturer: Northwestern University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0810115913

Customer Reviews:

A charming (if over-the-top) spoof of Revolutionary heroics .......2006-07-25

After the financial failure of "Moby-Dick" and the social scandal of "Pierre," Melville settled down to write a book that would please the public, his publisher, and (most important at this point in his life) his bank account. He promised George Putnam (his publisher) both "nothing of any sort to shock the fastidious" and "nothing weighty." In short, he wrote an adventure story.

But not just any adventure story. Melville drew on a little-known autobiography published 30 years earlier and called the "Life and Remarkable Adventures of Israel R. Potter," which recounted the extraordinary career of a veteran of the Battle of Bunker Hill who delivered secret wartime letters to Benjamin Franklin, who found himself stranded in Europe, and who ended up a pauper in London. (The original Northwestern-Newberry edition reprints a facsimile copy of this source, keyed to passages in Melville's text. More remarkably, this edition notes the recent discovery of an unrelated text by a British author who included a brief account of Potter's days as a nomadic street-trader in London, along with a portrait of the man himself.)

Yet Melville's book is not merely a biographical novel. Instead, he greatly embellishes Potter's account, incorporating a farcical portrait of Franklin and adding equally comic accounts of John Paul Jones, King George, Ethan Allen, and several other historical figures whom Potter never actually met. In Melville's hands, Franklin becomes a miserly, philandering "tanned Machiavelli in tents" and "not less a lady's man, than a man's man, a wise man, and an old man"; Allen is transformed into a larger-than-life Paul Bunyan figure; King George is a kindly dolt; and Jones turns into a tattooed, flirtatious, vainglorious rake. And poor Israel Potter himself is alternately drafted, imprisoned, released, and press-ganged.

The result is not only Melville's most accessible work but also an over-the-top spoof of the heroic amateurs running the Revolution and (more subtly) an acidic indictment of the abandonment of the early American dream. While it lacks the depth or the "weight" of his other late works, "Israel Potter" makes up for its shortcomings with charm and mirth.

The least known and most humorous of Melville's works........1997-06-12

This book is at the same time the least and the most "Melvillian" of all Melville's corpus. Melville wrote in Moby-Dick that "two thirds of the world revolve in darkness." This idea certaily holds true for most of Melville's works, but not Israel Potter. In this uncharacteristically light-hearted and crisply written rewriting of American history, Melville gives an early literary version of Woody Allen's film Zelig. The character Israel Potter is that same sort of insignificant historical non-entity who just happens to get caught up in incredibly significant historical moments. In his various wanderings Israel meets and becomes politically involved with a trio of the most important American patriots--Ben Franklin, John Paul Jones, and Ethan Allen. It is through these encounters that Melville subtlely (and sometimes not so subtlely) realizes his critical agenda and those darker themes that dominate so much of his other work begin to show themselves. In his portrayal of Franklin, Melville takes a bash at what he sees as the exemplar of American "genius"--the same American genius that ignored and misunderstood his most significant works and forced him into obscurity and poverty in his lifetime. Melville sees Franklin as representative of all that is wrong with the American character--he is parsimonious, small-minded, hard-headed, and morally hypocritical. In the other two historical figures, John Paul Jones and Ethan Allen, Melville finds redemption. In them he sees represented more of that European idea of genius, the manly half-savage/half-civilized genius of Thomas Carlyle. Like Queequeg in Moby-Dick who is described as "George Washington canabalistically rendered," Jones and Allen are wildmen in a civilized society, raging against the world as they utter their outrageous and at times incomprehensible truth. A fun yet undenialbly thought-provoking read. Enjoy

Israel at the Crossroads: Fifty Years and Counting

Average customer rating:

A Friend Between Enemies
Brilliant Insight & History Of Middle East Conflict.
Fantastic
excellent book
excellent book

Israel at the Crossroads: Fifty Years and Counting
David Dolan
Manufacturer: Fleming H Revell Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Middle East | History | Subjects | Books

Israel | Middle East | History | Subjects | Books

General | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

History of Religion | Judaism | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

Journalists | Professionals & Academics | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Jewish | Ethnic & National | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0800756584

Customer Reviews:

A Friend Between Enemies.......2005-01-20

Michael Dolan has lived as a professional journalist in the Middle East for over two of the five decades he covers in "Israel at the Crossroads."

Assignments have continued to be awarded to him from leading media outlets throughout the world.

His balanced firsthand reporting of the events surrounding the struggles for the land of Israel begins with a detailed examination of Arab as well as Jewish history. He follows up with a delineation of the religious aspects of the ongoing conflict from both perspectives of Islam and Judaism.

Mr. Dolan's friendships with individuals from both camps is evident in his delicate presentation of the people centered, according to Scripture, as 'the apple of God's eye.' {Deuteronomy 32:10; Zechariah 2:8}

TL Farley,
author,

When Now Becomes Too Late {prophecy}

Distant Reaches {adventure}

Brilliant Insight & History Of Middle East Conflict........2002-09-07

This is an excellent account of the history of the Jewish state and it's conflicts with the Arab world, including the Palestinian issue.

The book has a Biblical foundation and provides an objective analysis of the present situation.

This book is well written and easy to understand. It provides an insight from both sides of the conflict and much of the account is based on the personal experience of one who has experienced much of the conflict first hand & who lives in Jerusalem. Someone who has also reported on the ongoing conflict for a major media network.

I share the author's interest and love for the Holy Land and a large percentage of his opinions. I have listened to David Dolan speak on the subject and he possesses a wealth of information, knowledge and experience.

Highly recommended.

Fantastic.......2002-08-06

The Middle East Crisis has been a major TV news topic for at least the last 30 years. Nevertheless, most Americans have no clue what is going on over there. We continue to try to understand the situation based on Western logic while not understanding that the involved parties have a perspective that does not fit Western logic, bargaining, or compromise. This book gives a terrific overview of the topic.

excellent book.......2001-04-19

I found this book very interesting and quite informative. It gave a very objective and yet consise perspective on the modern developments in Israel and its continuing struggle with the Palestinian drive for Independence. I thought that the information on religious differences was also of much interest.

excellent book.......2001-04-19

The Arab-Israeli Conflict Transformed: Fifty Years of Interstate and Ethnic Crises (Suny Series in Global Politics)

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The Arab-Israeli Conflict Transformed: Fifty Years of Interstate and Ethnic Crises (Suny Series in Global Politics)
Hemda Ben-Yehuda , and Shmuel Sandler
Manufacturer: State University of New York Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Middle East | History | Subjects | Books

Israel | Middle East | History | Subjects | Books

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Book Description

Makes the perhaps surprising argument that the Arab-Israeli conflict is winding down.

The Birth of Israel; Jubilee Collection Fifty Years of Life 1948-1998

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The Birth of Israel; Jubilee Collection Fifty Years of Life 1948-1998

Manufacturer: Jerusalem Mosaic, Bridges for Peace
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000PNIOGO

Product Description

Here for the first time anywhere are color photographs taken in Jerusalem and elsewhere in Israel in the early years of the State, beginning in 1947: A spontaneous outburst of joy as youth take over the streets of Jerusalem to celebrate victory at the U.N...An American volunteer standing guard at the junction of two main streets during the siege of Jerusalem...An elderly woman carrying a gift parcel of food and a pious Safed Jew on his way to synagogue...A Tel Aviv resident rides his donkey and reads his newspapersimultaneously... Many photographs and commentary describing the birth of Israel.

China and Israel, 1948-1998: A Fifty Year Retrospective

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China and Israel, 1948-1998: A Fifty Year Retrospective

Manufacturer: Praeger Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Israel | Middle East | History | Subjects | Books

General | Politics | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

All Amazon Upgrade | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books

History | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books

Nonfiction | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books
ASIN: 0275963063

Book Description

This is the first-of-its-kind analysis, in any language, of the trilateral relationship between Israel, the People's Republic of China, and the Republic of China. It is also the first comprehensive analysis of the relations between the founders and early statesmen of the ROC and the founders of modern Israel before the proclamation of the Jewish state in 1948. It includes eyewitness testimony from five of the key players involved in the trilateral relationship; historical analysis from Chinese, Israeli, Arab, and East Indian perspectives; and a multilingual bibliography. The collection describes Israeli-ROC and Israeli-PRC relations that vacillated over the decades. By 1998, they stabilized into full diplomatic relations between Israel and the PRC and "officially unofficial" trade and cultural ties between Israel and the ROC--an accommodation that has also been adopted in Sino-American relations.

Average customer rating:

Superb account of history that you won't find on the news.
Pretty good introduction
Masterfully Crafted
The Best Objective Viewpoint on Palestinians and Israelis
Most truthful, balanced account I've read

Fifty Years War
Ahron Bregman
Manufacturer: TV Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Middle East | History | Subjects | Books

Israel | Middle East | History | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 1575000571

Book Description

For the first time, Israeli and Arab authors collaborate in Israel and the Arabs (TV Books; November 2000), providing an unbiased account of one of the worlds' most complex and controversial situations from both sides of the firing line. Although the conflict between Jews and Arabs can be traced back over 2,000 years, the current conflict and its cycles of war, terrorism, negotiation, and hope can be dated back to the creation of Israel in 1948.

For more than four years, Ahron Bregman and Juhan El-Tahri interviewed heads of state, prime ministers, foreign ministers, defense ministers, intelligence chiefs, soldiers, guerrilla leaders, journalists and academics from sixteen countries to accumulate a wealth of new, rich, and surprising detail. Updated with a new afterword for this paperback edition, this definitive account of war and peace in the Middle East, explores Israel's earliest attempts to establish itself.

Israel and the Arabs includes a never-before-published transcript of a conversation between Jordan's late King Hussein and Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir taped ten days before the 1973 war, and an interview with Shams el-din Badran, Egypt's Minister of War in 1967, which provides new insights into the role of the Soviet Union in provoking the Six-Day War. The book it encompasses the Camp David Accords in 1978, the Lebanon War of 1982, the start of the Intifada in 1987, and the recent attempts to consolidate a shaky reconciliation.

Customer Reviews:

Superb account of history that you won't find on the news........2006-02-18

Israel and the zionists would have you believe they are poor little innocent children terrorized by the mean ol arabs for no reason. This is the party line of our imperial emperor, Herr Bush and co. However, it's a bunch of crap and proven wrong throughout history. The palestinan people have a legitimate beef and this book details in great detail the various players that created the invasion of israel's arab nation by the displaced jews from the holocaust.
It focuses on how europe and the USA used Israel as a chesspiece in a deadly game of cold war foolishness that has left a legacy of confusing hatred and murder for many more centruies to come.
Do you wonder why we are in Iraq and making up false stories to justify invading Iran and Syria next?
Well, the knowledge in this book will open your eyes to some of the ulterior motives of these global players.
It reads like a history book, but the details are not listed in any american news report so this is probably the only place you will get the straight scoop on how Israel was created and why there are so many problems with this artificial state thrust upon an indigenous population of arabs.

Pretty good introduction.......2005-06-16

I've read many, many books about Middle East politics and the players involved. This book was okay, but I found it very superficial in the treatment of the people involved. One reviewer asked about the USS Liberty incident. How about the Munich Massacre and Yasser Arafat's involvement? There's very little written about exactly who Mahmoud Abbas is and his involvement in the hijacking of a cruise ship and subsequent murders of the Jewish tourists. There is, in fact, very little written regarding sins on either side of the table.
Perhaps this book is good for people who have had no other introduction to Middle East politics, but is not so good for those of us who have been well versed in it. In order to fully understand every little niggling detail regarding Middle East politics and history, one must make a concerted effort to read lots of books regarding it. But this is an excellent beginning. If you do buy or read this book, please read many other books regarding this subject.

Masterfully Crafted.......2003-07-03

This book is fascinating and engulfing. Most importantly, however, it is extremely illuminating. The authors usually present both the Israeli and Arab viewpoints on every important issue and decision made over the past 56 years. They paint very human pictures of the sometimes larger-than-life personalities that have shaped recent Middle Eastern history, including Yasser Arafat, Anwar Sadat, David Ben-Gurion and Yitzhak Rabin. The book also includes glimpses into the vital role the Soviet Union and, especially, the United States have played in the formation of the present-day region. This book should be read by people who want to look beyond the sensational and provocative headlines the region creates and take a peek at the motives behind the actions. Although this book is fairly lengthy, it is definitely a page-turner that a voracious and interested reader may find easy to read in a single sitting.

The Best Objective Viewpoint on Palestinians and Israelis.......2002-08-26

If anyone wants to really discover the reasons for the conflict in the Middle East, they need to read this book. It's objective, well researched, and, most of all, finally provides a clear outlook from the Palestinian point of view as well as the Israeli. Written by an Israeli and an Egyptian, the book digs into the real issues dividing two people who were promised one land. The reader will finish reading the material and wonder why the BBC program wasn't touted in the US and understand why Americans are so ignorant of the facts surrounding the establishment of the state of Israel and the loss of the nation of Palestine.

Most truthful, balanced account I've read.......2002-01-15

Wonderful balanced description of the middle east. Very
authoritative and dispels many common errors and intentional
misstatements floating about. A single book that provides a
detailed description of the events in the middle east.

The Golden Chain: Fifty Years of the Jewish Quarterly

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The Golden Chain: Fifty Years of the Jewish Quarterly

Manufacturer: Mitchell Vallentine & Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

Israel | Middle East | History | Subjects | Books

The Hebrew Theatre: Its First Fifty Years.

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The Hebrew Theatre: Its First Fifty Years.
Mendel, Kohansky
Manufacturer: Ktav Publishing House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Textbook Binding
ASIN: 0870680722

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