Customer Reviews:
An all too rare collection.......2006-02-21
This collection of Ed " Doc " Ricketts letters rates 5 stars if for nothing else the glimpse it gives into a man that is all too rare. For the non-biologist reader considering reading Ricketts book, Between Pacific Tides, The Life and Letters of Edward Ricketts is a good place to start. If any reader is interested in exploring what John Steinbeck called " a mind without horizons", this is a very valuable resource as well. What we find in this collection of letters is really what his friend Steinbeck saw, a man with unlimited understanding of the human condition and a man who still, almost 60 years after his death, has much to teach.
A charming, decent guy, with a charming decent mind..........2005-05-18
...and that's it.
There is little penetrating biographical detail in the short essay that begins the book, and the failures of action and inconsistencies of thought are shrugged off. Everyone has failings and Ricketts's were substantial; but they are also what make us interesting, and are what often create the context in which greater aspects of character can be realized. There is little critical analysis of Ricketts's thought and work (which is probably not a bad thing), but we are left thinking, "Wow, what a nice clever guy; wish we could have shared a beer." Which is about right.
The letters are about as engaging as such collections go, and do sort-of flesh out the evolution of the man and his thoughts. But Ricketts was careful, as we all are, about the manner in which he projects and portrays his character. He is at a distance, more often than not, and somewhat armored.
Not a bad read at all, mind you, and I am grateful the editor has pursued the project. Pull up to a tidepool, have a beer, and do some non-tele(ological) thinkin'.
Good but limited by unfortunate circumstances.......2003-11-20
Ed Ricketts had an important influence on the developing science of marine ecology during the 1930s and 40s. Even if John Steinbeck had never met or written about Ricketts, his work Between Pacific Tides (co-written with the forgotten Jack Calvin) would stand as a significant contribution to biology. But Ricketts also was a close friend of Steinbeck's, and so Ricketts himself (as he appears in the Log from the Sea of Cortez) and the caraciture "Doc" (Cannery Row) overshadow his written accomplishments. For better or worse, Ricketts now is remembered mainly as Steinbeck's friend. Besides reading and thinking about his scientific work, we want to know what it was like to hang around Pacific Biological Labs and drink with Ricketts, listen to music, and talk about big or small things.
Ricketts was a hard-working and prductive biologist (without a college degree), a struggling small businessman, a father separated from his two daughters and wife, but close to his son, a serial monogomist, a drinker, a reader, a music fan, and by all reports a very appealing guy. Someone who almost anyone would enjoy spending a few hours talking to.
Ricketts important previously unpublished writings were collected in The Outer Shores (2 vols.), edited and with biographical notes by Joel Hedgepeth. Hedgepeth knew Ricketts and wrote in an entertaining iconoclastic style. It's long out of print and hard to find, but provides greater insight into Ricketts than this collection of letters can. Readers willing to wait should be encouraged from an NPR news report a few months ago that Ricketts son, Ed Jr., is editing a collection of writings which presumably will include much of the same material.
Ricketts wasn't a great philosopher, but he wrote 3 essays of philosophy that he was proud of. He was interested in music and poetry and felt he knew what characterized really good work. His ideas wouldn't fit into today's postmodern world, where a basketball in an aquarium can pass for art. Fans of Robert Pirsig's Zen & the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance might find Ricketts philosophy appealing.
Katharine Rodger has collected about 100 letters, written to various friends, family members, professional contacts, and John Steinbeck. She also has written a bare bones outline of Ricketts life, with little insight into his thoughts. We can fill these in ourselves from the letters, assembled mainly from Ricketts own papers (he kept carbons of his correspondence). Sadly, they cover only his later career, because his lab and its contents burned down in 1936. There are no letters addressing Ricketts marriage and how he came to spend both his nights and days at the lab instead of home with his family. Further, after Ricketts was killed, Steinbeck went through Ricketts files and destroyed most of their correspondence.
I found most of the letters here unsurprising. Most of the really revealing letters are the ones to Steinbeck, but there aren't many of them. I wasn't rivited to the book until the last few pages, when Ricketts (near) step-daughter dies, his long-time partner Toni Jackson leaves, and he suddenly takes up with 25 year old Alice. The emotional impact of these changes all within a short time must have been immense, but we get only a hint of it in the last letters to Steinbeck and Jackson.
A worthwhile read, but it doesn't leave you feeling like you know him any better than you did before. I hope for a more comprehensive biography some day.
About Time!.......2002-11-14
Renaissance Man of Cannery Row finally puts flesh on a real person who has been perceived as a caricature for too many years. In this book Edward Ricketts, a father, a marine biologist, a hard-working figure found for two decades along Cannery Row in Monterey in California (shades of Steinbeck?), and the persona found in at least six of Steinbeck's novels and short stories comes to life. Katharine A. Rodger has done a masterful job of editing that allows a wonderful insight into Ricketts personality and philosophies. The letters include Ed's correspondence with such figures as John Steinbeck, Henry Miller, Joseph Campbell and Paul De Kruif.
The book is a must read for any student of Steinbeck, Cannery Row or the Monterey area and is beautifully done. As professor Richard Astro stated "to know Steinbeck one must know Ricketts." How true.
About Time!.......2002-11-14
Renaissance Man of Cannery Row finally puts flesh on a real person who has been perceived as a caricature for too many years. In this book Edward Ricketts, a father, a marine biologist, a hard-working figure found for two decades along Cannery Row in Monterey in California (shades of Steinbeck?), and the persona found in at least six of Steinbeck's novels and short stories comes to life. Katharine A. Rodger has done a masterful job of editing that allows a wonderful insight into Ricketts personality and philosophies. The letters include Ed's correspondence with such figures as John Steinbeck, Henry Miller, Joseph Campbell and Paul De Kruif.
The book is a must read for any student of Steinbeck, Cannery Row or the Monterey area and is beautifully done. As professor Richard Astro stated "to know Steinbeck one must know Ricketts." How true.
Average customer rating:
- Error Notification
- Rattle Your Saber(metrics)?
- "Goddam, But Playing Baseball Is Fun"
- Could Not Put It Down
- Wonderful book about baseball
|
Summer of '49 (P.S.)
David Halberstam
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial Modern Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 1945 - Present
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ASIN: 0060884266
Release Date: 2006-05-09 |
Book Description
With incredible skill, passion, and insight, Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Halberstam returns us to a glorious time when the dreams of a now almost forgotten America rested on the crack of a bat.
The year was 1949, and a war-weary nation turned from the battlefields to the ball fields in search of new heroes. It was a summer that marked the beginning of a sports rivalry unequaled in the annals of athletic competition. The awesome New York Yankees and the indomitable Boston Red Sox were fighting for supremacy of baseball's American League, and an aging Joe DiMaggio and a brash, headstrong hitting phenomenon named Ted Williams led their respective teams in a classic pennant duel of almost mythic proportions—one that would be decided in an explosive head-to-head confrontation on the last day of the season.
Amazon.com
With the airwaves saturated with so much sporting choice, it's hard to imagine how, not that long ago, baseball so completely dominated the landscape and captured imaginations. Given the 1949 season that veteran journalist David Halberstam meticulously recreates, maybe it's not so hard after all. It was a season of great public and personal drama for the Boston Red Sox and the New York Yankees, with the conflict finally resolving itself in a Yankee pennant following a head-to-head showdown on the final day of the season. Each team was led by a star of the highest magnitude: Joe DiMaggio spurred the Yankees despite missing half the season with a foot injury; Ted Williams virtually carried the Sox on his back, missing an unprecedented third Triple Crown by mere decimal points on his batting average. Halberstam focuses much of his narrative on the trials of these two individual sporting giants, adding fine supporting performances by Yogi Berra, Ellis Kinder, Dom DiMaggio, even restaurateur Toots Shoor. Both on and off the field, Halberstam beautifully captures the ethos of a more innocent game that no longer exists, played by heroes far more driven by their pride than by their salaries.
Customer Reviews:
Error Notification.......2007-08-23
I did notice two errors in the photo section. Main one was a picture of Tommy Henrich scoring after a home run off Don Newcombe. The caption below brings attention to Newcombe walking off the field after the hit. The error is the player walking off is not Newcombe, but 1B Gil Hodges. How do I know that? I knew all the Dodger numbers in those days and the player walking off is # 14 - Hodges. Newcombe was # 36 and not in the picture. The picture above this one transcribes two names, Hodges and Duke Snider I think. Minor stuff. Great book
Rattle Your Saber(metrics)?.......2007-08-17
Don't get a statistic wrong; don't you dare make a mistake. Okay, Bill James correctly points out some mistakes that Mr. Halberstam makes in this book. None of the mistakes are important to the story, nor do any of them detract from the book in any way. I can't hold that criticism against this book.
This is an excellent baseball book. David Halberstam masterfully brings to life a baseball season and pennant race that otherwise I could never enjoy. He makes you part of the history of the era in the US, as well as in the game of baseball. He introduces you to all the important players in the game and some of the other assorted characters around the game. It is a well written book, easy to read and enjoy by any baseball fan!
"Goddam, But Playing Baseball Is Fun".......2007-08-05
"Old-time baseball players and fans love to denigrate the modern ballplayer. "Baseball today is not what it should be," one old-timer once wrote. "The players do not try to learn all the fine points of the game as in the days of old, but simply try to get by. They content themselves if they get a couple of hits every day or play an errorless game... It's positively a shame, and they are getting big money for it, too."
Bill Joyce, 1916 Ballplayer
'The Golden Age of Baseball' began when players returned from the war until 1958, when the Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants decided to continue their rivalry in California. That time saw many of the most memorable and significant events in the game's history: in 1947, Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier; that same year, the second Yankee Dynasty began with its first of ten pennants and eight championships in a twelve-year span; in 1951, Bobby Thomson hit the "Shot Heard 'Round the World" to win the pennant for the Giants; in 1954, Willie Mays made his spectacular World Series catch; in 1956, Don Larsen pitched the only perfect game in World Series history.
For those of us who are Boston Red Sox or New York Yankee fans, one of the biggest baseball rivalries in history, 'Summer of '49' explains much of the history and romance of these two teams. David Halberstam brings to us the glories, the rivalaries, the drinking, the social and personal stories of the players on both sides. The subject is the pennant race of 1949 between the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox which wasn't decided until the last game of the season. Is there really any value to another book telling us what a legend Joe DiMaggio was, or what a great hitter Ted Williams was, or what a great team the Yankees were? Yes,indeedy.1949 was the perfect year, because it marked a turning point in the history of American sport, which is one reason why David Halberstam wrote this book. Baseball was the number one sport, but professional basketball and football were beginning to gain acceptance. Television was just beginning to make its mark. The impact of black ballplayers was only beginning to be felt.
David Halberstam brings us the day to day spotliughts of the Red Sox and Yankees for an entire year, from the end of the 1948 season through 1949. During the summer of '49, the two teams had one of the classic pennant races of all time. The Sox struggled at the beginning, while the Yankees, took a commanding early lead. But Boston chipped away at the lead until the final day of the season, when the two teams met to decide the pennant. Sound familiar? David Halberstam reveals the characters and gives us a glimpse of baseball during The Golden Age. He interviewed almost every living member of those teams and several people on the outside--fans, broadcasters, baseball executives, writers, relatives of players--over a hundred in all. The one interview he couldn't get, was from the most important member of the Yankees: Joe DiMaggio.
Each team was made up of twenty-five men, plus perhaps ten or twelve others who played a little. We are introduced to every one of them, the drinkers, womanizers, country boys, city boys, the marginal players for whom 1949 will be their only season of glory. We feel a part of the team, traveling with them between games. And at the end of the book, he tells us what has become of them.
In the conclusion, David Halberstam tells us how enjoyable it was to write this book, to interview his idols, to do research that many would consider fun. "I was the envy of my male friends who shared my enthusiasm for baseball in those years. Caught up in the more mundane tasks in journalism or Wall Street or the law, they would gladly have traded jobs with me."
"But probably the best reasons for Halberstam to choose 1949 were, first, that it was a terrific, dramatic pennant race between two hated rivals; and, second, perhaps most importantly, as he explains in the author's note, Halberstam was fifteen years old that summer and a devoted Yankee fan. The men he describes in his book were his heroes, and he lived and died with the fortunes of his favorite players." David Martinez
David Halberstam is gone now. However, his writing will live on, and those of us who loved his writing will remember him well.
What Summer of '49 does for me is to renew my love for baseball, and in particular, my love for the Boston Red Sox. Ted Williams, after reluctantly leaving the batting practice cage, once said, "Goddam, but this is fun. I could do this all day--and they pay me for it."
Highly Recommended. prisrob 8-05-07
The Best and the Brightest
Charlie Rose with Jules Witcover, David Halberstam & David Broder; Ann Druyan; Peter Balakian (July 18, 1997)
Could Not Put It Down.......2007-05-27
I always wondered how you could make writing about baseball a page turner when watching the game can be extremely dull. David Halberstam does it brilliantly in this book about a pennant rice between two arch enemies that occured nearly sixty years ago. The mix of baseball events and storytelling makes this a great book for everyone, not just baseball, Red Sox, or Yankee fans.
Wonderful book about baseball.......2007-04-24
Hearing of the author's untimely death today got me thinking about this book, which I read years and years ago but still remember fondly as one of the best baseball books I've ever come across.
Halberstam does a very fine job of bringing to life the feel of the post-war years and of making the reader understand how baseball was a big piece of the social fabric that brought a sense of normalcy back to American life after the end of the war. I also recommend his book about the 1964 World Series, "October 1964".
The author will be missed. A sad day....
Average customer rating:
- I ABSOLUTELY LOVED THIS BOOK!!!!!
|
Portrait in Crime (A Summer of Love Trilogy #2) (The Nancy Drew Files, Case 49)
Carolyn Keene
Manufacturer: Simon Pulse
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Mysteries, Espionage, & Detectives
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Keene, Carolyn
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ASIN: 0671739964 |
Customer Reviews:
I ABSOLUTELY LOVED THIS BOOK!!!!!.......1999-07-16
I can't believe no one has wrote a review for this book. I thought it was one of Carolyn Keene's best books. The romance between her and Sasha Petrov was so strong that I couldn't put it down. It kept me on edge wondering if Nancy would choose Ned or Sasha. The only way for you to find out is to read to read it! R.B.
Book Description
The essays in Amazonia and the Andes focus on indigenous mediation of colonialism in Latin America. Articles consider child sorcery and colonial violence, the persistence of Incan symbolism and hierarchy, and forms of indigenous historicity. There are also essays on cannibalism, Brazilian and Andean identity, and the “Ecological Indian” and a dramatic reevaluation of the authenticity of Fray Diego de Landa’s writing on the Maya.
Contibutors. David Cahill, Mark Goodale, Edward O. Kohn, Frank Salomon, Fernando Santos-Granero
Book Description
Raise the Flag Series Book 1 A diverse group of high school girls faces the challenges of standing up for what they believe is right. You'll cheer them on and learn more about yourself in each book of the Raise the Flag series!
At King High, six girls who met at See You at the Pole meet again to pray for each other and for their school. And it's a good thing they do, because they're all going to need prayer this year. Even popular Tobey, who's in for more trouble than she could have dreamed up in a lifetime.
As junior class president, member of the Judicial Board, cross-country team member, and star of the speech club, Tobey has gained a lot of friends on campus. But when she confronts the school's most popular coach about a very sensitive issue, Tobey is faced with a test of faith unlike any she has experienced before--and discovers a whole new, wonderful definition for the word "friend."
Customer Reviews:
An extremely good christian book for teens.......2002-05-18
One of the best christian books I've ever read. It is very realalistic. It deals with issues teens deal with today.
One of the BEST teen Christian books I've read.......2002-01-17
The "Raise the Flag" series is one of the best series of Christian books that I have read. The first in the series, "Don't Count on Homecoming Queen" centers around Tobey L'Orange, a popular junior at King High. The first part of the book talks about how the girls met--At a "See You at the Pole" meeting. The six girls--Tobey, Norie, Cheyenne, Brianna, Marissa, and Shannon--quickly become good friends, the main thing that they have in common is their faith. The girls soon begin to meet regularly to talk and to pray together.
Then Tobey uncovers comething sinister going on at King High. She begins to suspect a popular coach of wrongdoing. When she decides to stand up for the girl and for what she believes in, Tobey is surprised to meet oppression, from teachers, students, and even her boyfriend!
The book is solid, and very well researched. The characters are in depth, and the book's main idea becomes quite clear. The book does, however, address sexual abuse, and I would not recommend it to younger readers.
Great book for teens!.......2001-07-25
I am constantly browsing the bookshelfs at my local Christian bookstore for good books for teenagers. I work with the youth group at my church and am literally shocked by the garbage they read! I want to be able to provide them with alternatives. This series of books by Nancy Rue is wonderful! It's the first really well-written series that does not focus on romance exclusively... it takes hard-hitting issues from teenagers' real lives and weaves a wonderful story. This book deals with the traumatic topic of sexual abuse and may not be for younger teens. Parents may want to read the books themselves, first, and then dicuss them with their children. I couldn't put this book down and I ended up going out to buy the whole series (six in all!)
Caution for Parents.......2001-07-08
Let's be up front here. This book deals honestly and somewhat explicitly with the sexual abuse of a female student by a male teacher. Be aware of this before you hand it to your twelve year old daughter, as I almost did before I read it. That said, I have to tell you that it is an incredibly well written, well researched story with an engaging plot that you will not want to put down. These girls are not portrayed as Christian superheroes who have all the answers. They still need and depend upon their parents and other adults to guide them through a very difficult situation. I liked that.
Great Book.......2000-11-10
I love all of the raise the flag series, but this one is my absolute favorite. I've read it several times, and love it every single time I read it. I would definetly reccomend this book to teen girls. This isn't a cheesy "life is great because I'm a christian" book, it deals with real issues that christian teens like myself deal with every day, such as standing up for what is right, even when you are literally shunned by everyone. Not only is the plot engaging, but it's very well written. I'd reccomend this book for anyone who is looking for a good page turner!
Books:
- Science as a Way of Knowing: The Foundations of Modern Biology
- Self-Organization in Biological Systems: (Princeton Studies in Complexity)
- Shamanic Journeying: A Beginner's Guide
- Shoreline: Seasons at the Lake
- Smoke, Dust, and Haze: Fundamentals of Aerosol Dynamics (Topics in Chemical Engineering)
- Song for the Blue Ocean: Encounters Along the World's Coasts and Beneath the Seas
- Songbird Journeys: Four Seasons in the Lives of Migratory Birds
- Survival of the Sickest: A Medical Maverick Discovers Why We Need Disease
- Survival of the Sickest: A Medical Maverick Discovers Why We Need Disease
- Swamp Song: A Natural History of Florida's Swamps
Books Index
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Beyond the Outer Shores: The Untold Odyssey of Ed Ricketts, the Pioneering Ecologist Who Inspired John Steinbeck and Joseph Campbell
Between Pacific Tides: Fifth Edition
The Log from the Sea of Cortez (Penguin Classics)
