Book Description
Sometime this century the day will arrive when the human influence on the climate will overwhelm all other natural factors. Over the past decade, the world has seen the most powerful El Niño ever recorded, the most devastating hurricane in two hundred years, the hottest European summer on record, and one of the worst storm seasons ever experienced in Florida. With one out of every five living things on this planet committed to extinction by the levels of greenhouse gases that will accumulate in the next few decades, we are reaching a global climatic tipping point. The Weather Makers is both an urgent warning and a call to arms, outlining the history of climate change, how it will unfold over the next century, and what we can do to prevent a cataclysmic future. Along with a riveting history of climate change, Tim Flannery offers specific suggestions for action for both lawmakers and individuals, from investing in renewable power sources like wind, solar, and geothermal energy, to offering an action plan with steps each and every one of us can take right now to reduce deadly CO2 emissions by as much as 70 percent.
Customer Reviews:
A tale of global warming that gave me chills.......2007-09-20
Tim Flannery's "The Weathermakers" is not only an eloquent plea for the industrialized world to deal with the problem of climate change, but provides the science needed to understand this huge and vital topic. The book is spooky great fun too, with frights and chills enough to get the attention of any thrill seeker. Except that the thrills here come from contemplating near-irreversible global cataclysms that would wipe out humanity or make life darned near intolerable for us.
Flannery is terrific at making difficult science easy to understand, without dumbing it down or condescending to his audience. This was greatly aided by the narrator of the audio book, Drew De Carvalho, whose wide-eyed Aussie delivery was akin to the joy and wonder of that other fine Down-under naturalist, Steve Irwin. Flannery discussed the Earth's tumultuous climactic past, using data obtained from tree rings and ice cores, to paint a picture of a dynamic planet whose climate and biota have varied wildly over its existence. Glaciers advance and retreat. Gargantuan upwellings of methane overwhelm the biosphere. Oceans rise and fall hundreds of feet. Changes in atmospheric gases permit or debar shellfish from secreteing the carboniferous husks that pull CO2 out of the atmosphere. The message: what Earth has done, it can do again.
Flannery does a wonderful job of explaining the large weather phenomena known to most laymen -- carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, changes to the Gulf Stream, warming trends, etc. But he is equally good at describing the lesser-known but important elements that factor into climatic equations. I was not aware that transpiration -- the release of moisture from Amazonian trees -- was a main cause of precipitation in the region. I had never heard of clathrates, huge fields of methane-infused ice that underlie the oceans. And I had never thought of climate change literally chasing certain heat-sensitive species up into alpine regions, until they run out of room and become extinct. Flannery is also wonderful at explaining the feedback loops that, once triggered, can accelerate certain climatic trends. Air conditioning powered by burning coal can increase levels sulfur dioxide in rain, acidifying the oceans, making it harder for shellfish to secrete shells, thus leaving more CO2 in the atmosphere, causing further warming and leading to the need for more AC, and so on.
Climate change to Flannery is not a theoretical possibility, but a certainty whose effects are visible today. He tells of the now-extinct South America Golden Toad, whose habitat was fed by moisture in low-lying clouds, being wiped out when a Pacific ocean hot spot caused mist-giving clouds to form just slightly higher up the mountainside than usual. His tale of the bleaching of the reefs like Great Barrier Reef -- in which huge swaths of coral reefs ejected their symbiotic algae, then bleached and die in a single season -- was frightening and sad. His discussion of the measurable changes in salinity in the Gulf Stream -- changes that could imperil its flow with deleterious effect on climate -- was terrifyingly plausible. Most chilling of all, Flannery's telling of the planet's near-miss with significant ozone depletion (due to industry's fortuitous use of chlorine rather than hyper-reactive bromine in aerosol cans and refrigeration systems) underscored how easy it is for humanity to fatally foul our nest without even realizing we are doing it.
The book is alarming, but not alarmist. It does not seek the cheap thrill of scaring us to sell copies, but to educate and forewarn. Flannery is not afraid to call out the human practices that are warming our planet. Transportation needs (which account for 30% of CO2 emissions), accelerating burning of carbon-rich fossil fuels, and shortsighted self-interest are high on the list of culprits. Flannery points the finger at the big coal-gorging countries in the world -- the US and Australia among them -- for significant criticism. Neither does he spare the industrial giants who use deceit, misinformation and political contributions to steer politicians (and the public) away from limiting profitable, planet-damaging enterprises.
I came away from the book with a new appreciation for the complexity and the fragility of the Gaia -- the living organism that is the Earth. "The Weathermakers" increased my appreciation of the path on which we have put our world. If Flannery's descriptions and predictions are true, our fossil-fuel-burning habits have already committed us to significant extinctions of species and significant discomfort for ourselves. As Flannery states, future generations will curse ours if we see the looming problem and fail to take action to correct it. Flannery is hopeful (else, why write such a book?) about our ability to turn things around. He evaluates technological and political solutions to the problems he poses, which not all will like, for carbon-low solutions include wind, geothermal, solar and (gasp!) nuclear power generation. And Flannery dismisses certain hopeful technologies like hydrogen and biomass. Flannery is also hopeful that past global cooperation -- of the type that limited the production of ozone-killing CFCs -- will be repeated, as human beings band together to save their world.
"The Weather Makers" is a wonderful book that can open your eyes to the complexity of our world, of the difficulties of addressing climate change without wrecking economies, and of our responsibility to pass our planet, reasonably intact, to our children. Its stacks of facts can sometimes numb the mind, but they are the data needed to combat ignorance and deceit one often encounters when trying to persuade our friends and neighbors about the possibility of anthropogenic climate change.
Disappointed.......2007-08-07
I bought the book on the basis it would be an objective and well structured argument explaining how scientists had negated natural influences on climate change - Milankovich cycles, solar activity and plate tectonics - and isolated the anthropogenic influences.
However, I discovered the book is written in a mildly hysterical tone common to environmental activists. If you want to read a scientific account of climate change and how human activity is affecting the climate, read the IPCC's Fourth Assessment Report.
Boo Hoo.......2007-07-27
"Well done China for improving the lives of your citizens" This is one of the many quotes that you will NOT find it Tim Flannerys book. Others include "Before the industrial revolution, average life expectancy was about 36 years of age" and finally "You can't make an omlette without breaking a few eggs". However if you want to know how every living thing on the planet would be better off if we disapeared, you are on the right track.
Thought provoking!.......2007-07-25
This book is great reading in conjunction with Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. The author convincingly demonstrates that global warming is real, and that terrible consequences loom ahead if nothing is done about it.
I was very surprised to read how the Australian government bullies its neighboring islands in the Pacific Ocean. Many of the Pacific Islands nations are doomed to sink under water as the ocean level rise, yet they are bullied by the Australian government into inaction. Like individuals, nations are selfish and have no regard for other nations if it does not suit their purposes. This notion angered me. Unless the citizens of the world take action to fight global warming and CO2 emissions, governments, motivated by self-interest, will be very slow to act, if at all.
Many of the themes in the book were already familiar to me, especially after reading An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore. One new concept was about hydrogen power. According to the author, hydrogen power is not the solution to global warming since to produce hydrogen power fossil fuels must be burnt. He proposes the use of electric, solar, nuclear and wind power which are all available and affordable.
The author also laments all the animals that became extinct due to global warming. For example, a frog, newly discovered by science, carries its newborn in its stomach. When ready to give birth, it regurgitates its babies. This is the only known species to do so, yet soon after its discovery, it became extinct due to our environmental carelessness. Many other species of animals, insects, and plants are becoming extinct.
Maybe when we learn to stop killing each other we can finally take care of our environment. Does that mean that our root is evil and that nothing can be done to save our planet?
The Weather Makers: How Man Is Changing the Climate and What It Means for Life on Earth.......2007-07-24
Concise, easy to read, and right to the point. Everything anyone would want to know about how man is changing the climate and what one could do to alleviate their impact in this process. Each individual is responsible for their own actions and we MUST slow the global warming process or the 21st century will see catastrophic environmental changes. A must read book for information that could save the future of the planet and its inhabitants.
Book Description
Long known for her insightful and thought-provoking political journalism, author Elizabeth Kolbert now tackles the controversial and increasingly urgent subject of global warming. In what began as groundbreaking three-part series in the New Yorker, for which she won a National Magazine Award in 2006, Kolbert cuts through the competing rhetoric and political agendas to elucidate for Americans what is really going on with the global environment and asks what, if anything, can be done to save our planet. Now updated and with a new afterword, Field Notes from a Catastrophe is the book to read on the defining issue and greatest challenge of our times.
Customer Reviews:
Eloquent But Only Notes.......2007-10-09
The title of this book is apt: Field Notes. Whether the word Catastrophe is equally apt, or merely good salesmanship, can be left undecided for the moment. Chapter by chapter, Ms Kolbert has written honestly and earnestly. Chapter 2, for instance, recounts the historical development of the concern over global warming, clearly and fairly, in a mere nine pages. Chapter 3 outlines the recent studies of glaciers, and the possible implications of those studies, with equal brevity and clarity. Chapter 1 sets a passionate tone for the whole book, confronting the fearful sense of global warming at the level of villagers whose lives are already impacted; I have kayaked many times in the Seward Peninsula region, over a span of 25 years, and I've personally felt the real urgency that Ms. Kolbert reports. Each chapter of the book is in fact an essay unto itself. Ms. Kolbert is a front-line journalist, not a climatologist. That is the source of her stylistic clarity, obviously, and of her daring in reporting on the crisis at multiple levels. It also makes her vulnerable to the dogmatic deniers of anthropogenic climate change, as is colorfully exhibited in the several ranting one-star reviews on this page.
This is the University of Washington common book for 2007-8.......2007-10-04
The University of Washington has selected this book as its "Common Book" for the 2007-2008 academic year. That means each of the UW's 10,000+ incoming freshman this year have received a copy of the book and are reading it.
An Extraordinary Work: Important and Readable.......2007-09-23
`Field Notes From a Catastrophe' is Elizabeth Kolbert's masterpiece of conciseness and clarity explaining current climate change science and the political obstacles (read the US, Republicans, and Bush Administration in ascending order) to getting serious about attacking the problem. Originally published in 2005, the paperback version has an afterword written in 2006.
Kolbert takes a journalist's approach to explaining the climate change phenomenon (the book began as a series in the New Yorker). She takes the reader to Shishmaref, Alaska an island village rapidly becoming an untenable place to live due to climate-induced sea ice changes, to the North Slope, to the great Greenland ice shield and she brings the story down to a human scale.
Kolbert also leads the reader through the science of global warming making understandable seemingly arcane topics like "dangerous anthropogenic interference" (DAI), which is basically the point where something truly major goes haywire. Kolbert brings the joy of learning to the reader, until one ponders the potential consequences of what she lays out for us. Perhaps most disturbing is the evidence she marshals that the climate has already changed. For example, the climate has warmed sufficiently to allow numerous butterfly species to migrate to new previously too cold locations and to cause the extinction of certain frog species.
Scientists do not, of course, understand everything about climate change (indeed, it is in the very nature of science that an endpoint of total knowledge is never achieved). Those political and economic forces (primarily in the United States) that benefit from the status quo latch on to the uncertainties to create doubt among the public and forestall action. Her interviews with Bush administration officials strike an odd note - they stonewall with robotic incantations. While Europe and most of industrialized world has acted, the US has dithered, delayed, and denied.
Kolbert explains why scientists conclude that it is virtually certain that under the current `business as usual' approach, greenhouse gas concentrations will reach a level that causes massive coastal flooding, large scale extinctions, and crop failures leading to starvation (DAI). These outcomes will not be evenly distributed and are likely to fall heaviest on the poorest countries. Scientists do not, however, know what level of greenhouse gas concentration will cause these impacts. The Bush administration uses that uncertainty as a reason to do essentially nothing and Congress too has failed to force any action.
Kolbert's book inspires the reader to search out even more current information (NOAA's Arctic Change web site is one good source). And the news is alarming. This stuff is not just a tree hugger's paranoid delusion: global heating is happening, it is happening now, and it is getting worse faster than anticipated.
Kolbert's book is a work of journalism (and given the rapidly changing reality, journalism is probably the best source of information) that informs on both the science and the politics of climate change without stridently hectoring the reader. Kolbert presents the facts. The reader would have to be a dim bulb indeed not to get the picture.
Absolutely the very highest recommendation. Kolbert's Field Notes From a Catastrophe deserves more than 5 stars.
Some very misleading reviews here.......2007-08-09
Reviewer T. Ferrell says "The author comes from an assumption that climate was once stable and has recently become unstable. She states this directly several times and it is the overall impression she intentionally leaves."
I'm not sure if the reviewer didn't actually read the book or is deliberately trying to smear it, but Kolbert states many times that the climate has changed in the past.
This is clearly written sober account of global warming and the effects it is having, and will have, on the environment. An excellent, concise read.
Climate has never been "stable".......2007-07-04
While the book was well written as prose, it was intellectually myopic. The author comes from an assumption that climate was once stable and has recently become unstable. She states this directly several times and it is the overall impression she intentionally leaves. Certainly climate change has an effect on people, flora and fauna, but that does not mean that you ignore the fact that there are winners with climate change as well as losers. Example, as the globe warms agriculture moves north expanding into areas previously too frigid to support farming. No mention of this?
But it is not that she just focuses just on the losers. She glosses over issues that might complicate her simple thesis that man is responsible for climate change as "not understood." This is the explanation she gives for example when discussing how atmospheric CO2 was historically low during the ice ages and was high during periods of warming. This is "unknown." She simply ignores the fact that the worlds oceans hold most of the planets CO2 both directly as an absorbed gas, its concentration being directly related temperature. She also ignores the carbon bank in phytoplankton. I believe she does this because it would bring into question her simple thesis. What warmed or cooled the worlds oceans before man was on the scene.
This is a problem for me because a wider view of climate change would reveal the true issues. At one point in time the earth was a snowball entirely covered with ice. At another point in our past the oceans were much higher and the poles were nearly devoid of ice. If global climate has always been in flux do we now propose that man should control the world's climate? If so, what is the best climate? Is it the best thing to have a sizeable portion of the worlds surface are covered in ice or too cold to support agriculture? Who decides? If man does control the weather is the only way to do it to cut back on fossil fuel useage? The author appears to believe so. Does the entity who controls climate take responsibilty for the weather and its effects? A freeze occurs in a temperate agricultural region. Is this now someone's fault?
It's very easy to look who loses with climate change. It is much more difficult to consider the bigger picture. I was not impressed by this book.
Amazon.com
On September 8, 1900, a massive hurricane slammed into Galveston, Texas. A tidal surge of some four feet in as many seconds inundated the city, while the wind destroyed thousands of buildings. By the time the water and winds subsided, entire streets had disappeared and as many as 10,000 were dead--making this the worst natural disaster in America's history.
In Isaac's Storm, Erik Larson blends science and history to tell the story of Galveston, its people, and the hurricane that devastated them. Drawing on hundreds of personal reminiscences of the storm, Larson follows individuals through the fateful day and the storm's aftermath. There's Louisa Rollfing, who begged her husband, August, not to go into town the morning of the storm; the Ursuline Sisters at St. Mary's orphanage who tied their charges to lengths of clothesline to keep them together; Judson Palmer, who huddled in his bathroom with his family and neighbors, hoping to ride out the storm. At the center of it all is Isaac Cline, employee of the nascent Weather Bureau, and his younger brother--and rival weatherman--Joseph. Larson does an excellent job of piecing together Isaac's life and reveals that Isaac was not the quick-thinking hero he claimed to be after the storm ended. The storm itself, however, is the book's true protagonist--and Larson describes its nuances in horrific detail.
At times the prose is a bit too purple, but Larson is engaging and keeps the book's tempo rising in pace with the wind and waves. Overall, Isaac's Storm recaptures at a time when, standing in the first year of the century, Americans felt like they ruled the world--and that even the weather was no real threat to their supremacy. Nature proved them wrong. --Sunny Delaney
Amazon.com Audiobook Review
Reading in his signature dispassionate style, narrator Edward Herrmann brings an eerie calm to this powerful chronicle of the deadliest storm ever to hit the United States--a huge and terribly destructive hurricane that struck land near Galveston, Texas in September of 1900. Author Erik Larson re-creates the events leading up to the disaster in astonishing detail, tracing the thoughts and actions of Isaac Cline, a scientist with America's burgeoning U.S. Weather Bureau. Cline's unwavering confidence--"In an age of scientific certainty one could not allow one's judgment to be clouded..."--blinds the meteorologist to the deadly onslaught about to be unleashed. Herrmann's calculated performance reflects the impending doom and dangers inherent to an unquestioned and absolute faith in science. (Running time: 5 hours, 3 cassettes) --George Laney
Book Description
September 8, 1900, began innocently in the seaside town of Galveston, Texas. Even Isaac Cline, resident meteorologist for the U.S. Weather Bureau failed to grasp the true meaning of the strange deep-sea swells and peculiar winds that greeted the city that morning. Mere hours later, Galveston found itself submerged in a monster hurricane that completely destroyed the town and killed over six thousand people in what remains the greatest natural disaster in American history--and Isaac Cline found himself the victim of a devestating personal tragedy.
Using Cline's own telegrams, letters, and reports, the testimony of scores of survivors, and our latest understanding of the science of hurricanes, Erik Larson builds a chronicle of one man's heroic struggle and fatal miscalculation in the face of a storm of unimaginable magnitude. Riveting, powerful, and unbearably suspenseful,
Isaac's Storm is the story of what can happen when human arrogance meets the great uncontrollable force of nature.
Customer Reviews:
NO PICTURES.......2007-09-30
My first thoughts after finishing Isaac's storm was, that for such a big and devastating storm, it didn't seem do it justice. I wanted understanding (why didn't people leave?). I wanted some PICTURES!!.
As luck had it, someone who checked out the book before me had tucked a newspaper clipping pic in the inside flap, of the Bishops Palace and surrounding survivors w/ tons of lumber stacked up against them. THANK YOU whoever you are. I returned the picture to the flap.
Whatever happened to Dr. Samuel O.Young the amateur meteorologist? Sam kept a diary. And it seems was the only proactive person in town, in that he telegraphed his wife and children warning them not to come to Galveston because in his opinion, a big storm was coming.
One reviewer here claims Cline is a hero in Galveston but "Cline gave his official meteorological opinion that the thought of a hurricane ever doing any serious harm to Galveston was "An absurd delusion". Many residents had called for a seawall to protect the city, but Cline's statement helped to prevent its construction."
"Local legend has it that Cline took it upon himself to travel along the beach and other low-lying areas warning people personally of the storm's approach. This is based on Cline's own reports and has been called into question in recent years.
Cline did issue a hurricane warning without permission from the Bureau's central office in Washington, D.C. but by that point the city was already under water. I don't recall reading that Cline actually told anyone to get off the island..
I enjoyed the book but minus one star for lack of pictures.
I hear that John Edward Weems' book 'A Weekend in September' is also recommended reading on the 1900 storm.
Erik Larson is Quickly Becoming a Favorite.......2007-09-10
"Isaac's Storm" is a fictionalized telling of a real-time tragedy. It tells the story of the hurricane that devastated Galveston and provides impressive details on the history and science of meteorology. For the story-telling aspect of the novel, Mr. Larson uses Isaac Cline, Galveston's weather observer at the time.
Erik Larson's committment to research and detail is impeccable. I wish he had been my history teacher in high school!
Book is a Category 4.......2007-09-10
I enjoyed the book. It reminded me of a hurricane, starting slow but building as it went along.
BEATS READING THE BOOK.......2007-09-05
THIS DEFINATELY BEATS READING THE BOOK, BUT TAKE NOTE THAT THIS IS THE ABRIDGED VERSION!!!
Issacc's Storm.......2007-07-23
Again, another book by a great author, Erik Larson. I couldn't put it down, but then again I live in Florida and Hurricanes are of special interest to me. I'm not sure if you didn't live in a hurricane area, example Alaska, that this book would strike you the way it did me.
Book Description
Josh Bernstein, host of The History ChannelÂ's hit series Digging for The Truth, takes readers beyond the cameras for an even closer look at his adventures through some of the most intriguing, remote, and physically challenging locations on the planet as he explores the worldÂ's greatest ancient mysteries.
No location is too dangerous, no terrain too rough, no culture too exotic for explorer and survival expert Josh Bernstein. With his unique hands-on approach, he travels the globe, seeking answers to some of the most enigmatic mysteries of the ancient world. Digging for the Truth shares JoshÂ's personal stories, journals, and insights, revealing the risks and dangers of what went on behind the scenes in shooting the show, and the fascinating details about what he uncovers along each adventure. Readers are right in the action as he:
• Discovers who built EgyptÂ's pyramids and learns what secrets may be buried below the Sphinx.
• Follows the trail of the Lost Ark of the Covenant to the remote monasteries and churches of Ethiopia.
• Explores the journey of a potential Lost Tribe of Israel and examines DNA evidence that could make or break their claim.
• Visits the ancient site of Stonehenge, witnesses a Druid ceremony, and learns what purpose the stone circles may have served.
• Sails a Viking ship on a quest to determine if the Vikings landed in the New World five hundred years before Columbus.
• Lives with a remote and mostly naked tribe in the Amazon to search for hidden cities and learn the fate of one of the worldÂ's great explorers.
Readers will have access to all the inside details that viewers never see—everything from food poisoning and spider bites to the logistical challenges of shooting in some of the most remote places on earth. Complete with four-color photographs, Digging for the Truth will appeal to fans of the show as well as armchair travel and adventure readers.
Customer Reviews:
Amazing trip.......2007-10-11
This is not only a book for DFT's fans, but for everyone who's passionate about traveling. This is kind of Josh's field diary and it's amazing how he describes the shooting routine and shares with the readers his discoveries. It's interesting and fun!
i love this book.......2007-10-10
this is a great book, for people that are fans of the show while josh bernstein was the host. to me the show is nothing without him! he is not only very informative, but you also get a sense of who he is, and all the stuff he went through to film such a great show! i would love to read more by him!
Digging for Something Other Than the Author's Ego.......2007-09-24
Maybe I was looking for information about archaeology, but what I received was a non-stop self-aggrandizement of the author. To be honest, I have not been able to get through the whole thing yet, but it's only because I was so disappointed in the part I have read.
Marcia Davis
Behind the scenes of a good tv show........2007-09-12
I really enjoyed this as a TV show when it was on the history channel and was pleased to see a 'behind the scenes' book. For those not familiar with the show, it is different from the usual talking heads feed you facts cable show, because the host really seems to get out and enjoy the work. Scrambling through ruins and up mountains to try and bring the viewer to the site really ads to the Indianna Jones sense of adventure brought by the cowboy hat, don't call it a fedora, wearing host.
This book ads to the serries by looking behind the scenes. Explaining the discomfort of lugging gear litterally over a glacer or dealing with grumpy officials in order to bring the show to the screen. If you've ever done filming or outdoor work, you know how this can go and Bernstien confirms with an almost gleeful sense of fun, that there were almost as many adventures behind the camera as were depicted on film.
If there's a down side to this book it is the nagging feeling that Bernstein isn't being entirely honest with us. Not about the big things but the small ones in his own life. He says he comes from the middle class of New York, but if you know the area and realize he is talking about family homes in the Hamptons and Bedford Hills, Westchester, vacation camps in Aruba and years of study in Israel, you realize he comes from money and either doesn't want to admit that or doesn't realize it. By the time the book has him worrying about ice storms in the alps while the producer is trying to get 'the shot' and everyone else is trying to survive, you're captivated by his style but that early misstep is an ugly distraction early on that stop this from being a 5 star for me. I kept reading and asking myself "Doesn't he know how lucky he is? does he take this for granted?" Anthony Bourdaine in his autobiography admitted early he came from money, got it out of the way and you never gave it another look. Bernstien will hopefully learn from the older tv presenter/turned writers for his next book. There will be another one, right?
Digging for the Truth.......2007-05-18
The book is an interesting and fun look at the series and some of the behind the scenes adventure and tedium that go into making the show. It's a pleasure to read. Josh Bernstein is an explorer and adventurer combining the scientific expeditions of the great age of exploration with the showmanship of Hollywood. This book is great by itslef and an excellent compliment to the TV series.
Customer Reviews:
Proud of my old high school chum.......2007-02-08
I attended Sullivan High School with the author, Rick Leo in Chicago in the 1960's. He was always the brightest kid in every class we had together, and I admired his intellect. We weren't very close friends, but 10 years later, I had the privilege of working with his younger brother, John Leo, at a Chicago healthclub. I was actually trying to get back in touch with John, and was "Googling" his name to see if I could contact him, when I put Rick's name into the search engine. I was amazed to find that he had written this great book. I borrowed it from our library here in San Diego (sorry, Rick), and thoroughly enjoyed reading this exciting, informative and often poignant memoir. The other reviews here do a fine job of synopsizing the story, so I won't reiterate it, but what really shone through the pages was Rick's intense enthusiasm, wonderful sense of humor and incredible resourcefulness. I am very proud of my classmate, and hope we can visit him in Alaska sometime. He certainly paints an attractive picture. Hopefully, we can get in touch, maybe through this review! I am buying a copy of the book for my own brother (royalties to you, I hope, Rick) so we can discuss it together.
[...]
Beyond " The Call of the Wild".......2006-09-26
I came late to the party, but am glad to have discovered this gem of a book! As a consumate follower of great wilderness adventures, I became hooked on "Edges of the Earth" just by reading the dust cover. Alaska almost claimed me a few years before the oil boom, however I passed it up and settled into the kind of routine urban existance that Richard Leo fled. Now through his vivid prose I have built a log house, mushed a dog sled team, climbed treacherous glaciers and was enraptured by magnificent northern lights. All vicariously of course. Understandably, I was awed by the man's utter self confidence and passionate attachment to the wild, even to the point of losing the woman who loved him. The philosophical and spiritual roots of this attachment come through in the telling, although the narrative is essentially down-to-earth and intensely human. Leo felt deeply but seems to have had few regrets about his decisions.
Questions remain. Leo is a gifted writer; why wasn't there a second book? Where is Janus today? After spending much of his childhood in the wilderness with his father, how did Janus come to view the mainstream of America's culture? Leo's desire to raise his son outside of that culture was an ultimate projection of his own values. What has been gained from it? What,if anything, has been lost? I feel this book richly deserved a sequel, and others may feel the same.
Roy Campbell, author,
"Song of the Jackalope"
AMAZING.......2006-02-21
This book is AMAZING. If you are remotely interested in Alaska, do not walk, but run to buy this book. It is out of print, but you can still find it here on Amazon.
This book is about a couple trying to make a go of it in Alaska. From NYC and having no clue. It is a terrific book and I find it fairly accurate about life in Alaska.
A Good Chronicle.......2005-03-28
Since I did the same thing as Leo, twice, I was very interested in his story. I left Alaska in 1981 after the last disatrous attempt at wilderness living without money on the Dietrich River of the Brooks Range near Wiseman. I like the memoir genre and this one kept me reading. It wasn't surprising to find the relationship trouble and I can indentify completely, only my situation was reversed from Leo's dilemma. It was the woman that was more suited to the impoversihed end of the road existance than I no matter how appealing I found it philosophically. Three years without electicity was enough for me. My girlfriend stayed on 10 years in a different cabin in the Brooks after I abandoned the effort, or it me, as it were.
I kept saying to myself as I read Edges, "this girl isn't going to make it there." So I wouldn't call it a surprise ending. Frankly, I'm amazed she went in the first place. Even more that Melissa stayed in Talkeetna. His obcession with that particular house site leaves me wondering "why that spot?", but that's a personal thing.
Since I lived in Chase up the tracks I wanted to hear his impressions of the folks I met in 1976, but possibly many left, like the Bentleys, Husteds, but not so the Robert Durr family of back lake, the anonymous "professor" here. Durr just published his two memoirs as well so I suspect these details are filled in there. Same with the economics: will the cab driving go on indefinitely? What about the future?
All in all a decent effort.
VERY INTERESTING!.......2002-11-28
This book was throughly enjoyable from cover to cover. It's about a couple that leave New York and moves to Alaska. They know nothing about survival in the Alaska wilderness but somehow they learn and make a go of it. I'd love to see a follow up book! If you like wilderness adventures, dog sledding, nature, and survival stories...you should enjoy this book!
Book Description
T.J. Newton is an extraterrestrial who goes to Earth on a desperate mission of mercy. But instead of aid, Newton discovers loneliness and despair that ultimately ends in tragedy.
Customer Reviews:
Brilliant, relevant...and very lonely.......2007-08-27
This a deceptively simple story, told in simple, uncomplicated prose, but with unexpected depth and relevance. It might come off as slightly trite now, as with most mid-20th century fiction set in "the near future" (the late 1980s, of all things!), but I'm sure in 1963 it was truly a sign of the times. What I'm sure hasn't lost its charge over the years is the tint of sadness, of individualized despair, that permeates the book and ultimately embitters the characters. No one escapes their self-destructive fears - not the American government, not the curious scientist, and most especially not the titular visitor who comes to save his world but can't even save himself. The film version, starring David Bowie, is far more surreal and symbolically charged (and, as with any Nicholas Roeg film, obsessed with sexuality), but the plot is very very similar, and anyone who enjoys one version of the tale should enjoy the other. Definitely recommended!
Good in this Genre.......2006-08-01
As most of the reviewers on this page accurately describe and seem to appreciate, the Sci-Fi elements in this book are subtle and cerebral. There are no silver bodysuits, foil helmets, or strange secret weapons in this book (in fact, the alien protagonist threatens the possession of the latter, but he was only fooling). Instead, the ET life form in this book is just different enough from you and me to still be human but to be a metaphor for the outcast. He is a human, although we learn that his anatomy has enough quirks to make him different and vulnerable. He seems to possess attributes for any variety of self-aware nonconformist (alcoholic, sexually ambiguous, artsy, and socially and intellectually superior while also utterly confused by the society around him - in other words, Truman Capote with reptilian eyes).
The story in a nutshell: alien comes to Earth to fulfill a plan to save the 'people' on his own dying planet. The plan requires him to work with Earthlings using his technology and their materials and labor. The plan starts, like all well-executed plans, with capital financing and good legal counsel. Plan is facilitated by gin-soaked hillbilly woman, savvy patent lawyer, and insightful scientist. Plan is frustrated by gin-soaked alien, bumbling government agents, and a humanly lack of committment to mission. Tale ends with alien moving to Greenwich Village, wearing a big hat, and writing poetry.
This book is not a work of genius, and it's not great science fiction. It is a bit dated, being one of the hundreds of its type that came out in the mid-Cold War era. Its events take place in the unimaginable "future" of the 1980's. Tevis spares us from too many future-world wonders. The government of the US is largely the same as it existed in Tevis' world, as are cars, drinks, media, and air transportation (save for the apparent commonality of space travel). Apart from "coffee pills" there are no scenes like people traveling by personal jet-pack or being operated on by robots.
Overall very enjoyable and worth the praise that it has received on this page. For me, not as mind-bending as Bradbury or Heinlein, and not as pulse-pounding as Finney.
A Sci Fi classic that probably you've not read..........2006-07-19
This is an amazing story. An alien comes to Earth to save it and his race. Will he succeed?
I have a vague recollection of seeing the original movie, and I know I haven't seen the most recent with David Bowie. I don't remember the movie ending the way the book does. Could be my memory!
The Man Who Fell to Earth doesn't need ray guns, explosions, and tentacles. It is absorbing, engaging, and... surprising.
Put this one on your must read list whether you are a fan of the sci fi genre or not.
Responce.......2004-03-19
"The Man Who Fell To Earth, June 5, 2003
Reviewer: A reader from California "
I would just like to comment on what you said, I must agree with just about everything you said.
And with your words about the movie, I believe this was David Bowie's was the perfect, PERFECT role and he is exscatly how I pictured him looking and acting in my mind! Other than that..The sex sence almost made me want to cry, they had the chance to make a wonderful film, {do not get me wrong, the editing was amazing photography wise} and they turned it into a soft porno.
Amazing!.......2004-03-19
I read this book about a month ago, and still it lingers with me. I am not going to go into deatil about the book, becuase I am sure enough, you know the plot line already. Yes, there is only 200 pages, but It is not a easy read. If easy read means, the the words were bigger and huge science words were not involved , then yes..it was an easy read...but don;t judge a book by it's cover. The plot is orginal and complelling.
This book is not for everyone, but I do recomind it for all people. It IS in fact the best book I have EVER read in my life, and I have read a lot of books. This touched something in my heart, and even though it is the revised version of the book, it still has the style and emotion it orignally had.
This book, it without a doubt worth your time. I still remember reading the last few pages of this book and thinking about life. It will open your eyes and open your mind.
Book Description
By developing the scale that bears his name, Charles Richter not only invented the concept of magnitude as a measure of earthquake size, he turned himself into nothing less than a household word. He remains the only seismologist whose name anyone outside of narrow scientific circles would likely recognize. Yet few understand the Richter scale itself, and even fewer have ever understood the man.
Drawing on the wealth of papers Richter left behind, as well as dozens of interviews with his family and colleagues, Susan Hough takes the reader deep into Richter's complex life story, setting it in the context of his family and interpersonal attachments, his academic career, and the history of seismology.
Among his colleagues Richter was known as intensely private, passionately interested in earthquakes, and iconoclastic. He was an avid nudist, seismologists tell each other with a grin; he dabbled in poetry. He was a publicity hound, some suggest, and more famous than he deserved to be. But even his closest associates were unaware that he struggled to reconcile an intense and abiding need for artistic expression with his scientific interests, or that his apparently strained relationship with his wife was more unconventional but also stronger than they knew. Moreover, they never realized that his well-known foibles might even have been the consequence of a profound neurological disorder.
In this biography, Susan Hough artfully interweaves the stories of Richter's life with the history of earthquake exploration and seismology. In doing so, she illuminates the world of earth science for the lay reader, much as Sylvia Nasar brought the world of mathematics alive in A Beautiful Mind.
Customer Reviews:
A difficult read about a difficult subject.......2007-09-06
In "Richter's Scale" seismologist and author Susan Hough presents the first comprehensive biography of Charles Richter, famous for developing the earthquake scale that bears his name. Hough's scholarship is thorough and well-documented, and it seems she has carefully waded through every scrap of paper Richter ever wrote (and he was a compulsive diarist). Richter was a pivotal figure at a pivotal time in the science of seismology, and no historian of 20th century science can afford to ignore this book.
For the general reader, however, "Richter's Scale" may prove tough going. Like Richter himself, the book suffers from a split personality. In part it's a straightforward biography of Richter, and in part a history of the development of major ideas in seismology (at least those that touched on Richter's career). Hough presents extensive evidence to suggest that Richter suffered from some sort of neurological disorder, possibly Asperger's Syndrome (a mild form of autism), and that his interests swung back and forth from science to poetry with manic instensity. If you're primarily interested in the science, be warned that there is an awful lot of poetry in this book!
On the flip side, the book comes up short on some technical background information. Although the book includes numerous photographs, there are no illustrations of seismograms (the squiggles that record earth movements following an earthquake). Chapter nine in particular attempts to describe the importance of the development of a consistent system for measuring earthquakes without maps, seismograms or even data tables. Unless you already have a basic understanding of earthquake science, this chapter might stop you dead in your tracks.
Most of the science in the book is centered around the seismology lab at Cal Tech where Richter spent his entire scientific career. Hough considers at length (although somewhat circumspectly) the jealousy surrounding Richter and his extensive public name recognition. Although Hough provides personal background information about several of Richter's colleagues (particularly Beno Gutenberg), more general descriptions of their scientific contributions could have provided better context. Beno Gutenberg may not be a household name like Charles Richter, but the core-mantle boundary is called the Gutenberg Discontinuity by seismologists. Hugo Benioff is immortalized by Wadati-Benioff Zones, the descending seismic belts that mark subduction zones, and even make their way into freshman textbooks! These guys were hardly obscure.
Books on the history of science that make a great read are either driven by a central idea (Dava Sobel's "Longitude," or David Lindley's "Uncertainty") or by a strong and colorful personality ("Degrees Kelvin", also by David Lindley). In terms of style, Hough has fallen between these two stools. It's as if Richter's intense and divided personality imposed itself on the book.
You won't regret having "Richter's Scale" on your bookshelf, but you may not read the whole thing.
Stirred, not shaken.......2007-03-19
Charles Richter is virtually the only seismologist that most of us have heard of, but almost all of us know the name. What, however, was it he did, exactly? And even if it was important, why should we care about his personal life?
Well, his personal life was strange, so the idly curious might be titillated by it. The first question, though, is more directly relevant: Until somebody devised a method of quantifying earthquakes, there was no way to approach any estimate of danger.
Buildings (including not just houses and schools but bridges, highways, dams and power plants) could have been designed to be earthquake-safe without Richter. But the cost can be high, so it would be wasteful to overbuild where the hazard is slight. Underbuilding can be catastrophic. The Tangshan earthquake, as recent as 1976, may have killed 750,000 people. The Chinese government has suppressed the real cost. The 2004 Sumatran quake, on the other hand, which killed close to 200,000, was not so much a matter of building design as of monitoring and evacuation warnings.
So Richter's Scale is a fundamental tool by which to manage our lives. He announced it in 1935. Amazingly, according to geologist turned biographer Susan Elizabeth Hough, many people think it is a machine, like a butcher's scale. It is not a thing but a concept to organize a database.
It took an unusual sort of mind to work out the scale, one capable of holding vast amounts of (at the time) diffuse data, while also having the insight to pick out the relevant relationships among the facts and the application to grind out the numbers. The last was no easy task before the digital computer.
Hough speculates, at great length, that the kind of mind needed is the sort of oddly-wired mechanism found in persons born with Asperger's syndrome. This is speculative, but Richter left all his personal papers to his alma mater, California Institute of Technology, so a great more about Richter's personal demons is known than for most famous people.
Much of it is in the form of poetry -- real poems, with rhymes, regular meter and punctuation. Hough finds his poems somewhat lacking in artistry. That's a matter of taste. I would rate his poetry above almost any winner of the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in the past generation.
If Richter had Asperger's, and if it helped him to do significant science, it also caused him lifelong misery in his personal relationships. Although he wrote much, what he meant was not transparent. Hough has to make many speculative judgments, which she does with skill. Still, it is kind of creepy to probe that deeply into anybody else's mind -- if that, in fact, is what we're doing.
Hough speculates that Richter wanted it done, otherwise he would not have left such intimate data in a public archive. Along with a collection of science fiction magazines going back to earliest days of "Amazing Stories."
"Richter's Scale" is definitely what we stupidly call an "adult" book, but Richter himself, despite an "adult" lifestyle, was in some ways a Peter Pan of seismology.
Customer Reviews:
Good News: A Radical Book - A Radical Gospel.......2001-03-23
Gerhard Forde's book is the clearest articulation of Martin Luther's theololgy that I have read. Shortly after Luther's death - and perhaps even during Luther's later life - the Reformation movement began to drift into Orthodoxy and lose some of the scandalous edge that is inherent to the very nature of a Gospel that turned - and still turns - the world "upside down".
With great clarity and accessability, Forde recaptures Luther's Reformation theology. He systematically leads the reader through Luther's understanding of: the human condition, the nature of God, salvation by grace through faith, the Sacraments, this world and the world to come, and the calling (vocation)of Christians in this world. Forde also illustrates the many ways that the Church - even the Lutheran tradition - has misunderstood, watered down, or tried to "tame" Luther's views.
The book is useful for personal reading, discussion groups, and Christian education classes. As a Lutheran pastor, I have used it a number of times with adult groups. Class members found the book to be very readable and helpful in shaping their own theology and faith.
The only criticism is that the book was written prior to a concern for inclusive language, and so the pronouns - even in the title - need to be glossed over.
Average customer rating:
- Intriguing but NOT for children
- A Snore so Far . . .
- Could & Should have cut 250 pages
- good story, good reader
- This is a really great book!!!!
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The Plains of Passage (Earth's Children)
Jean M. Auel
Manufacturer: Bantam
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Binding: Mass Market Paperback
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The Mammoth Hunters
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The Valley of Horses
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The Clan of the Cave Bear
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Clan of the Cave Bear
ASIN: 0553289411
Release Date: 1991-10-01 |
Book Description
Jean M. Auel’s enthralling Earth’s Children series has become a literary phenomenon, beloved by readers around the world. In a brilliant novel as vividly authentic and entertaining as those that came before, Jean M. Auel returns us to the earliest days of humankind and to the captivating adventures of the courageous woman called Ayla.
With her companion, Jondalar, Ayla sets out on her most dangerous and daring journey--away from the welcoming hearths of
The Mammoth Hunters and into the unknown. Their odyssey spans a beautiful but sparsely populated and treacherous continent, the windswept grasslands of Ice Age Europe, casting the pair among strangers.
Some will be intrigued by Ayla and Jondalar, with their many innovative skills, including the taming of wild horses and a wolf; others will avoid them, threatened by what they cannot understand; and some will threaten them. But Ayla, with no memory of her own people, and Jondalar, with a hunger to return to his, are impelled by their own deep drives to continue their trek across the spectacular heart of an unmapped world to find that place they can both call home.
Customer Reviews:
Intriguing but NOT for children.......2007-09-04
Awesome research of this time period. Description of daily life very vivid. Sexual content is NOT for children, though describes a unique view of family life. Ayla is one of my favorite women who can do anything!
A Snore so Far . . ........2007-04-04
Truthfully, I loved Clan of the Cave Bear and Valley of the Horses in this series. Each was exciting and informative without being tedious as Mammoth Hunters and Plains of Passage have become.
Mz Auel's descriptions have become so awful I cross my eyes and turn the page as quickly as possible. Mammoth Hunters was frustrating as Ayla and Jondolar (which we know will end up together anyways) have stupid insignificant arguments that cause them to break up and send Ayla into the arms of Ranec. I know this misunderstanding thing is a standard plot device to get things moving but really, is this suffering really neccessary for the reader?
Then Jondolar and Ayla get back together and go on this long painful Journey in Plains of Passage. The most interesting part is when they find any signs of other humans. Other than that it's all plants and animals and boring sex. I have never in my life skipped through love scenes but every sexual event in this book is repeated over and over until I never want to hear the words "well", "dip", and "manhood" in a sentence ever again. I'm not even halfway through and I'm ready to throw it in the trash. Good thing it was a present.
Could & Should have cut 250 pages .......2007-03-21
This story is as good as the others. Auel has me hooked on her enticing adventure stories. That being said, Jean Auel is at best a Harlequin author. Her overly repetitive writing style which includes event, tool, leather, clothing, weapon and sex descriptions is enough to make me pull my hair out (if I have to read how "having 'Pleasures' with Jondalar isn't like when Broud did it" one more time, I'm literally going to puke.)
But worse in this particular book is the landscape and vegetation descriptions.....they go waaaayyyyyyyyy beyond tedious. Just because an author does more historical research for a book certainly doesn't mean the reader wants the information. The draw of historical fiction is usually the author weaving fascinating factual events in with fictitious characters or vise-versa. The problem with archeological/anthropological and botanical historical fiction is that what is verifiable just isn't very captivating unless you happen to have a penchant for those subjects. Let's face it Jean, your fan base reads these books for fun and entertainment and if we happen to learn something about the history of the earth in the process....great. But it's the characters and story that draw us in not the details of your research.
I highly recommend skimming the pages of this book that have no quotation marks. You'll enjoy it a lot more.
good story, good reader.......2007-02-06
Continuation of Ayla's story is excellent and beautifully read. There are a couple of production problems in this 28-CD set where 30-second sections are repeated (better than leaving them out!). That sort of makes you do a double take. The story continues with Ayla and Jondalar's adventures and discoveries that are sometimes too convenient or implausible that all this happens in one lifetime to one couple, but is nevertheless fascinating. Some would probably prefer to skip the infinite detail of the landscape, flora and fauna. Some might find the sexual encounters a little "gratuitous" after the first few. But I like it all. I listen during my work commute and this pair have kept me company for a couple months now. It's like a visit with friends every morning and evening. I read the first 4 books in the 80's and 90's, but decided I would "review" before getting into the 5th that has been out fewer years. Listening to books on CD is a new treat for me, so I chose to do it that way once I determined that I enjoyed Sandra Burr's reading. She has a remarkable ability with different voices, a skill that seems to improve as the volumes have progressed.
This is a really great book!!!!.......2006-08-30
Wow!...These other reviews are a bit harsh. Although many of their criticisms are valid, they are incredibly exadurated. This book did sometimes vear into overly long descriptive tangents and have a few repetetive sex scenes. However, as someone who is interested in prehistoric archaeology, I must say that this book and the other four in the series were a joy to read. I can't wait for the next one!... What is remarkable about the Plains of Passage is the development of the themes that underlie the series. Auel manages to inorporate lots of ideas about prehistoric people that push me to question why our society holds our ancient ancestors in such low regard. People frequently assume that because there is no definitive evidence for an advanced prehistoic culture that one must not have existed. In reality, there could have been many dark ages where knowledge was lost in the past...the advanced building techniques used to construct the ancient Egyptian pyramids point to a more advanced prehistory and losses of knowledge rather than theories about atlantis. Anyway, if Auel can inspire me to think so indepthly about these things while reviewing the flora and fauna of the upper paleolithic, creating unique cultural structures, developing the romance between Ayla and Jondalar, and telling a good story I am impressed. It is also interesting to hear someone's theories about the way things were made and done in the past. This book is especially fun for archaeology majors on summer vacation!!
Average customer rating:
- Great book - but unable to find
- Enter the world of Howard Finster
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Howard Finster, Stranger from Another World: Man of Visions Now on This Earth
Howard Finster , and
Tom Patterson
Manufacturer: Abbeville Press
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Binding: Hardcover
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Paradise Garden
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ASIN: 0896599027 |
Amazon.com
Born in Alabama in 1915, Baptist preacher turned underground artist Howard Finster claims to have had his first vision at the age of three. Inspired by the word of God, visitations from the dead, and religious visions, Finster has described himself as a stranger from another world and a divine messenger. His mission: to save the world with his art. With such titles as "American Devils Are Very Friendly" and "Judge No Man by Yourself," Finster's obsessive paintings, constructions, and sculptures have been exhibited all over the world, from Los Angeles to SoHo to the Venice Biennale. The text, transcribed from hundreds of hours of taped interviews, is at once disturbing and fascinating.
Customer Reviews:
Great book - but unable to find.......2007-02-28
This is a great book; however, you will not be able to buy it from this site new. I recommend buying a used copy. I placed an order for this book (new)in the middle of 2006 - it is now February 2007 and the book has not been delivered. If you want a copy of this wonderful book, you will have to buy a used copy.
Enter the world of Howard Finster.......1999-07-22
A wonderful book, which allows the reader to enter the world of Reverend Howard Finster, the greatest of the outsider artists to and visit Paradise Garden, his environmental creation. Reading this book is like visiting Howard and it is filled with great examples of his artwork. This is the sort of wonderful book which goes out of print and becomes collectable, so get it now!
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- Understanding the Cell/a Companion Text
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