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
A gorgeous gift and a landmark work that is an essential addition to everyone's personal library.
Never before have the four great works of Charles Darwin—Voyage of the H.M.S. Beagle (1845), The Origin of Species (1859), The Descent of Man (1871), and The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals (1872)—been collected under one cover. Undertaking this challenging endeavor 123 years after Darwin's death, two-time Pulitzer Prize winner Edward O. Wilson has written an introductory essay for the occasion, while providing new, insightful introductions to each of the four volumes and an afterword that examines the fate of evolutionary theory in an era of religious resistance. In addition, Wilson has crafted a creative new index to accompany these four texts, which links the nineteenth-century, Darwinian evolutionary concepts to contemporary biological thought. Beautifully slipcased, and including restored versions of the original illustrations, From So Simple a Beginning turns our attention to the astounding power of the natural creative process and the magnificence of its products. Slipcased hardcover; 101 illustrations, map.
Customer Reviews:
Can't Beat It.......2007-04-03
I bought this book knowing very little about Darwin or his theories. From So Simple a Beginning was an easy read about a very interesting man. I would hope that not just supporters of evolution would read this book there is more to the man then just one theory.
Four classics.......2007-01-12
Excellent in every particular. Five stars in delivery time, condition, quality of the experience.
Wonderful writing wrong package.......2007-01-10
There is no gainsaying the writings of Darwin or the thinking of my favorite living scientist, E.O.Wilson. But the package is wrong.
Four books in one. Too heavy, too cumbersome. Discouraging.
Too big.......2007-01-05
This book is way too big to hold to read, so it is not useful. From the picture I thought I was ordering 4 different books in a book holder, not one giant book. I recommend buying them separately unless you have very strong arms and wrists.
From So Simple a Beginning: Darwin's Four Great Books (Voyage of the H.M.S. Beagle, The Origin of Species, The Descent of Man, T.......2006-07-02
Good
Average customer rating:
- Trieu, Steven and Jang Yi's review
- Just a Dream
- I love Chris VanAllsburg
- An educational, magical children's book
- Not consitent with the morals I want to pass to my children...
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Just a Dream
Chris Van Allsburg
Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 Fiction
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| Science, Nature & How It Works
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General
| Ages 9-12
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Van Allsburg, Chris
| ( V )
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ASIN: 0395533082 |
Book Description
Young Walter litters and refuses to sort trash for recycling, until he dreams of an overcrowded and polluted future which terrifies him into taking care of the earth.
Customer Reviews:
Trieu, Steven and Jang Yi's review.......2007-05-18
Just a Dream is a wonderful book because it teaches a lesson and the lesson is to take care of the earth by recycling your trash. You should read this book to learn why it's important to protect the environment. Even one person can make a difference. If I could pick from any book that I already read, I would pick this book as the best one. The author had an awesome idea for writing. He taught a lesson but put it in words that made me want to keep reading. It has colorful pictures that really stand out. I would recommend this book to anyone.
Just a Dream.......2007-02-09
I read Just A Dream I would recommend this book because it has detailed pictures. In the book I saw the different sized boats with great reflections in the water.This helped convince me that it was a good book.
I love Chris VanAllsburg.......2006-08-20
This book has a great message, but it seems a little more forced than some of his other titles. All of his books are great for teaching children to infer meaning from text!
An educational, magical children's book.......2006-02-22
When I read this book a tear came to my eye. I knew Chris Van Allsburg was right about recycling and keeping the earth clean. If there are parents that have kids that actually like to keep the earth clean, I suggest they read it to their kids!
Not consitent with the morals I want to pass to my children..........2006-01-16
This book is a pretty extreme children's story that follows the new religion of environmentalism. Very anti-technology and anti- progress... no lawn mowers, no electric dryers? We received this as a gift and I will not be keeping it. I wouldn't read this book to my children.
Book Description
When Louis Leakey first heard about Jane Goodall’s discovery that chimps fashion and use tools, he sent her a telegram: “Now we must redefine tool, redefine man, or accept chimpanzees as human.†But when Goodall first presented her discoveries at a scientific conference, she was ridiculed by the powerful chairman, who warned one of his distinguished colleagues not to be misled by her “glamour.†She was too young, too blond, too pretty to be a serious scientist, and worse yet, she still had virtually no formal scientific training. She had been a secretarial school graduate whom Leakey had sent out to study chimps only when he couldn’t find anyone better qualified to take the job. And he couldn’t tell her what to do once she was in the field— nobody could—because no one before had made such an intensive and long-term study of wild apes. Dale Peterson shows clearly and convincingly how truly remarkable Goodall’s accomplishments were and how unlikely it is that anyone else could have duplicated them. Peterson details not only how Jane Goodall revolutionized the study of primates, our closest relatives, but how she helped set radically new standards and a new intellectual style in the study of animal behavior. And he reveals the very private quest that led to another sharp turn in her life, from scientist to activist.
Customer Reviews:
Re-writing the book.......2007-04-06
Louis Leakey put it best. Jane Goodall's work in Gombe prompted a complete revision in how humans view themselves. The subtitle could well stand as the lead for this book. In this exquisitely detailed biography, Dale Peterson depicts how Jane's personality led to a number of fresh insights about how the other animals live and how science learned new ways to study them. Coming out of a rather obscure and unpromising life, Jane Goodall rose to prominence by unusal methods. She applied a sense of caring, developed through attention to her many pets, to the study of chimpanzees. Lacking any preconceptions about what chimpanzees were "supposed" to do, she was able to learn what they actually did do. To say her approach disturbed many "establishment" researchers is putting it mildly. However, her other major attribute in support of her caring, is persistence.
There's a wonderful irony in the circumstances of Jane's becoming a foremost field primatologist. In an era when women reject being "objectified", it was Louis Leakey's roving eye and philandering habits that propelled Jane into the African bush. Having found evidence of early humans at Olduvai, he wanted some signs of evolutionary links. Chimpanzees, as Darwin had noted a century before, were the most likely indicator. Peterson points out that science was woefully lacking in data on apes. They're elusive and shy. It was Jane Goodall who demonstrated the value of "habituation" - long, enduring and subtle contact with her subjects - that allowed her to see what nobody else had before. Chimpanzees use tools, and they're effective hunters. It was the latter trait, the author notes, that helped Jane and her associates to begin formulating the structure of how chimpanzee society is formed.
Those findings led Jane Goodall to both challenge old, staid thinking about field research and chimpanzee life in particular. More, they resulted in Jane's methods and reports led her to become a major figure in science. Whatever Leakey's carnal ambitions toward Jane, he saw her worth. He propelled her through Cambridge's graduate programme almost by brute force as Peterson describes well. Yet, even that endorsement didn't make up for the work Jane had to produce to earn her degree. By that time, she was writing for National Geographic, producing journal papers and books. Oh, yes. She also got married and had a baby.
The richness of detail may deter a few readers of this book. It shouldn't. Jane Goodall, her diminutive stature and uncomplicated expression belie a powerful individual. Peterson isn't simply filling pages, he's building a picture of that individual. That image cannot be imparted with a few strokes of a broad brush. Jane Goodall, under the author's careful touch, isn't a flashy genius, but a dedicated hard worker who built up her own methods one bit at a time. The edifice is indeed imposing as the work led her on speaking tours, teaching assignments, and negotiations for funding, all while raising her family and running a research programme. It's not a simple life Peterson is relating and its complexity cannot be conveyed in a few words. Goodall is an imposing figure in science and the many details are but a start in doing her justice. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
Jane Goodall Merits The Nobel Peace Prize !.......2007-03-06
This comprehensive and compelling biography of Jane Goodall is truly inspiring. For decades Jane Goodall has valiantly and tirelessly traveled the planet imploring the world community to have reverence for the lives of humans and the animal kingdom. She is arguably the foremost advocate on behalf of primates and other endangered species. Her whole life has been dedicated to espousing universal peace and the kinship of all life. The brilliant and compassionate Jane Goodall merits a Nobel Peace Prize. Now !
A bit long, but oh, what a ride...........2007-02-25
I do agree with another reviewer that Jane Goodall, The Woman who redefined Man is a wee bit longish. Okay, at 714 pages plus an index it is a long read. However, I disagree that the attention spent on her early life is the culprit. Nothing could be further from the truth. Peterson lavishes many pages to Goodall's upbringing; her strong and directing mother and her danger loving race car father, her love of competition and her love of detail are overly mundane I feel that they tell us a lot about the person that Goodall eventually becomes. What other person, woman or man in 1960 was willing to chuch everything to study monkeys?
Peterson obviously loves his subject. As a teenager I remember hearing stories about this young and attractive woman who had devoted her life to studying primate behavior. I didn't realize until much later that she had been sent by Leakey. I certainly didn't know until reading this book that Goodall had been trained as a secretary. How the fates have a way of stepping in and changing things....a truth that is delivered to any reader of this book.
Jane Goodall has contributed a huge body of information to the world by her devoted work and study. Reading Jane Goodall: The Woman Who Redefined Man will impress you and awe you. A truly great read.
A Must to Read.......2007-02-18
Great insight into a legendary woman. She is totally amazing!
A top pick not just for public libraries, but for high school to college collections strong in science biography........2007-02-08
Coverages of Jane Goodall and her work with chimps usually focus on her role as a scientist, her discoveries, and her contributions: now receive a better-rounded survey of her entire life in a title not for the casual reader. JANE GOODALL: THE WOMAN WHO REDEFINED MAN holds some 700 pages packed with insights bout her life, surveying her work, her ability to set radically new standards, and her private journey. Even if you're an avid Goodall fan who has read prior coverages, be prepared to be surprised at the depth here: JANE GOODALL is for any avid enthusiast who has always wanted more and is a top pick not just for public libraries, but for high school to college collections strong in science biography.
Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch
Book Description
The horse- and rider-training handbook of an internationally renowned master horseman.
Customer Reviews:
Effective Horse Communication.......2007-08-21
Author writes in an easy to read conversational format. He emphasises the importance of horse and rider spending time together to get to know each other. Building of trust on both the horse and rider. I recommend this book. Also watch RFD TV on satelitte.
This is the only natural horsemanship book you'll ever need.......2007-07-31
This is it. Everything is in this book. One can study this book for years and find something new in it each time. Natural horsemanship is so old, it's new again. Pat Parelli is the only one who has managed to put it all together in one place with one title. Since the Dorrance brothers and Ronnie Willis have graduated to Horseman's Heaven, the next best thing is learning from one of their star pupils. Pat is entertaining and almost always profound. The only question is do you savvy savvy?
Clinton Anderson's Down Under Horsemanship book is better.......2007-06-23
While I liked some aspects of Pat's book I found it confusing, unclear, in some instances, repetitive and in some cases, not useful for me at all. He mentions that horses that bite (my horse) bite because you let them get too close (duh!) yet the 1st lesson to gain respect has you touching the horses muzzle to get him to back up (my horse tried to bite me- so, now what?). One of the next exercises has you touching his chest, you know the part of the body directly under the horses' head.... the head that has the biting teeth in it... my horse tried to bite me again! I am giving up on Pat's book for now. Clinton Anderson's book "Down Under Horsemanship" teaches how to use a stick to keep the horse away (not using it to threaten but as an extension of your arm). Clinton's book has step by step pictures and explanations of what can go wrong (both with the horse and human) and how to fix what went wrong. Both he and Pat have similar philosophies but Clinton's book flows much better, gives better examples, describes problems and solutions and stresses how to progress. I would stick with Clinton's book.
Natural Horse-Man-Ship: Six Keys to a Natural Horse-Human Relationship.......2007-05-12
I bought this book for my daughter she thought it was good but did prefer John Lyons and Pat Parelli's DVD better as it was visual and this book was against some of her own ideas but a great book if you like the techniques that Pat Parelli uses.
He uses phrases a little old fashion for the younger generation and therefore my daughter found his relationship to the horses a little hard to understand as she did not know the people he refered to.
It does teach all about respect for the horse and from the horse and is well described none the less. A lot of important facts about how to teach a horse, use of spurs, trailer loading, tools, yeilding and many basic detailed descriptions of cantering, techniques of he rein, timing, Desensitizing, voice cues and much more. A great all in one book with black and white photos.
Has a different technique to John Lyons which she decided she liked best after reading this book
The hook.......2007-05-12
There are a lot of so called "natural horsemaship" books, dvds etc out there. I was already steered in this direction because my horse is a parelli student, but I usually tend to do my own thing and so, I checked out a few of the other programs out there, and bought this book despite some reviewers opinions about Pat being a great salesman, using terms that didn't need to be used, creating his own language etc. Let me say this.. yes, this book which is relatively inexpensive in the big scheme of how much horse training costs. It is also Pats "hook", or method he uses to spark interest in his program. It works. It is a great overview of the parelli program, but if you are looking for one little book to teach you how to do it, don't waste your money. The books alone, even if you are an experienced horseperson, are not going to give you enough information. If you want to get a feeling for what natural horsemanship is all about, the book will answer the questions you have, and spark some new ones! I have the entire parelli program now, and am going to one of the conferences this year, to see the Pat and his wife Linda in action. The book hooked me! I'm a praelli devotee now, and urge all horse people to give it a try. Its a new way of interacting with horses, that makes it more fun than you can imagine, while stressing safety and savvy around these large, potentially dangerous, but wonderful and beautiful animals. I know.. just drink the cool aid!
Robin
Average customer rating:
- Simple text enhanced with a big dose of creativity!
- Beautiful
- Beautiful
- For leaf lovers!
- Creative look at Autumn
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Leaf Man (Ala Notable Children's Books. Younger Readers (Awards))
Lois Ehlert
Manufacturer: Harcourt Children's Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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Ehlert, Lois
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ASIN: 0152053042 |
Book Description
Fall has come, the wind is gusting, and Leaf Man is on the move. Is he drifting east, over the marsh and ducks and geese? Or is he heading west, above the orchards, prairie meadows, and spotted cows? No one's quite sure, but this much is certain: A Leaf Man's got to go where the wind blows.
With illustrations made from actual fall leaves and die-cut pages on every spread that reveal gorgeous landscape vistas, here is a playful, whimsical, and evocative book that celebrates the natural world and the rich imaginative life of children.
Includes an author's note and leaf-identifying labels.
Customer Reviews:
Simple text enhanced with a big dose of creativity!.......2007-07-06
My husband bought this for our two-year old, and we love reading it together with her. The text is simple, as it traces the journey of Leaf Man...the leaves used are magnificent in their colors...some bold, some subdued, but all unique and beautiful. I have since done some basic art projects with my daughter using this book as inspiration. We collect leaves wherever we go and hope to create a little book of our own!
Beautiful.......2007-06-11
My two little readers absolutely delight in this book. They love the language; they enjoy following the leaf man on his autumn journey; and they very much love to read it aloud to any adult who will sit with them for 10 minutes.
Beautiful.......2007-05-24
One of Lois Ehlert's best. I bought it for my mother-in-law who is a gardener and general nature-lover. But I use it to teach about leaves and using your imagination in my preschool art classes. The children all think it's so much fun. They always finish reading with so many more ideas of their own to get started on.
For leaf lovers!.......2006-11-07
My five year old and I really enjoy this book. My son enjoys looking for the pictures the leaves make and I enjoy the fact that the author collected these beautiful leaves, made images out of them and wrote a story around them! Colorful, imaginative, fun to read.
Creative look at Autumn.......2006-10-18
This is a WONDERFUL book! We read it to our class of 3-year-old preschoolers, and they were absolutely captivated. They were so quiet and engaged that they forgot to ask when we were leaving to go on our field trip.
As an added plus, we had one little girl who liked it so much that she had her mom go to the library to check it out to read at home. The child then sat down to re-create the pictures on each page using leaves she picked up in her yard. You know it is a good book if it encourages that degree of creativity and industry in a 3-year-old!
Book Description
Recounting the spiritual odysseys of an Apache scout known to him as Grandfather, Tom Brown emphasizes the need for spiritual healing of the earth and delivers his own message of healing and redemption to the world.
Customer Reviews:
A powerful book and more powerful message.......2001-10-14
All of Tom Brown's books are written on many different levels. As a just-starting-out naturalist, I read most of Brown's books with interest, but the deeper I go into the naturalist's world, the more powerful messages I get between the lines.
The book offers many insights on modern man- most of all, the notion that if one simply lets the world drift by, with all sorts of damage, trouble, etc. being done (mind you, yourself doing none of the actual damage), the message is clear- Why didn't you do something?
Probably the most powerful message in the book is, "There are no small things." To quote Bruce Lee, if you throw a rock into a pond, you get ripples- soon the ripples cross the whole pond. Every action we do has implications, good and bad. Make your impressions positive and beneficial.
For those lucky enough to attend Tom Brown's school, reading any of his books after taking a class- no matter how many times you read them previously- it's like reading an entirely new book. There are countless messages and powerful teachings in The Quest, and I give it my highest recommendation.
Man's Environmental Holocaust.......2000-11-01
Dear Sirs, I hope you reconsider your decision not to publish this review. On October 7, 1998, the NY Times reported on the biggest Ozone Hole yet seen. To quote the article: "Government scientists said today that the gap in the planet's ozone over Antartica was greater than the size of North America and was the largest ever observed." In addition, on August 13, 2000, a frontpage article in the Sunday NY Times reported on how a formerly benign fungus which has been found in the US from time immemorial was suddenly killing millions of acres of oak trees in California. The article ends on a puzzling note with scientist unable to explain why this disease had become so virulent. However, it is well known that UV radiation affects plants earlier than Humans and one documented effect of UV radiation is a weakening of the immune system. It is not a far stretch of the imagination to theorize that UV radiation may be responsible for this latest plant die-off. I hope you give these issues consideration. -----------------------------------------------------------------
Like many people, I used to read the grim newspaper accounts of environmental destruction and wonder what it all meant. Then, in the late 1980s Tom Brown published The Vision and in the final chapter of that book provided the first glimpse into a future most of us want to deny. Now here in The Quest, he lets out all the stops and makes plain for the first time that mankind may very well be doomed.
Brown reveals that as far back as 1962, Grandfather, his Apache Native American Teacher, had warned that the appearance of holes in the sky would mark the beginning of the end of mankind on Earth. Sunlight would become deadly killing everything it touched. Plants would shrivel up and die, crops would fail and starvation would sweep around the world. People would be hunted like deer for food. Many events would foreshadow the appearance of the holes but finally there would be a time of peace. This would mark mankind's last chance to reverse his endless destruction of the Earth. If instead, he concentrated on material gain, all would be lost and the end would come as surely as the Sun rises.
From this beginning, Brown takes us through a series of personal visions wherein he is transported to the future and sees for himself the horrors that await us. In one account, he visits a city where human limbs hang in shop windows and walking skeletons covered with sores roam the streets. Everything reeks with death and Brown watches as a roving band of armed men hunts down an abandoned child, and without remorse, guts and skins him like an animal. Brown makes it clear that this an America city and not some distant third world nation.
Not all the stories deal with the future. Brown relates his own efforts to deny what he knew and avoid taking up his Vision of teaching the ancient tracking and survival skills. At one point, he witnesses a brutal father rob his young son of a promising future. Grandfather then asks Tom what obstacles will stop him from fulfilling his vision ? The question is clearly not meant for Brown alone and foreseeing an excuse many of us will use to deny our share of responsibility Grandfather points to a graveyard and asks `what will be the measure of your life Grandson? Will it be a lifetime of meaningless toil or one filled with purpose and meaning?'
This is by far Brown's darkest book but how does one sanitize such a horrifying account? There is no science here and those who believe ozone depletion is a figment of some environmentalist's imagination would be better off reading God's Last Offer, by Ed Ayres. Mr. Ayres presents related doomsday scenarios but with the science to back them. To those who are sensitive to the Earth, however Tom Brown's book needs no proof. Its truth is obvious.
The only question left open by Brown is when all this will take place? The question is important because many people will shrug off this account as part of some distant future. Although this book does not provide a timeframe a little reading in the scientific press will. It takes thirty years for CFCs to waft through the atmosphere and reach the ozone layer. If all CFC production ceased today, and it hasn't, we would still face 30 more years of degradation. According to NASA, there is already enough CFCs in the upper atmosphere to blow away 70% of the ozone layer. Take a equal amounts of ozone and CFCs, expose them to ultraviolet radiation and one can easily measure the rate of breakdown. The answer you will find is that we have a mere score and ten years left.
Grandfather made it clear that once the holes appear there would be no physical way to heal the Earth. Indeed, Time Magazine writing in the early 90s said that `the entire world's fleet of 747s operating around the clock, 365 days of the year' could not replace a fraction of the ozone that has already been lost. But Brown does leave us with a ray of hope: if enough people become aware of what is happening, combined we can achieve what technology cannot. Brown is a great believer in the combined efforts of many people working together. Seldom does he speak of grand heroic acts. Each of us, doing a little, can achieve a lot. Be forewarned that if you read this book you will never be able to look at your children in the same way again. Most of us adults living today will not bear the brunt of this horrible future but our children and grandchildren will. If you read this book and do nothing, the Time of Peace will pass and you too, like Brown, will have to answer the screams of your children as they clutch at you in the grave yelling "YOU KNEW, YOU KNEW! WHY DIDN'T YOU DO SOMETHING?"
A unique culteral view of universal truths........1999-11-10
This book presents principles of growth that we find common across time and cultures. Highly recommended both as interesting reading material, as well as an opportunity to reconsider values, meaning (and all that other existential stuff) and our own perspectives through a differant path. In recent popular venacular, "getting out of the box" of western culture.
This book is INCREDIBLE!.......1999-06-12
I read a lot of spiritual books and I've read lot's of Tom Brown's books, but I have rarely been so blown away than I was by The Quest. For one, let me tell you that this book will scare the heck out of you. But at the same time, it is really shocking what Tom learned from the fear he had to face. While reading it, I was dying to be able to sit down and share with someone what I was learning. It will blow your mind and change the way you think about the Earth.
This book has been an incredible help and inspiration to me.......1999-04-04
I first read this book about 5 years ago. I thought it was great but I couldn't grasp alot of it. Then I re- read it after taking Tom's first philosophy class and it really hit home. It is a guide book for walking a spiritual path in modern society-which is one of the most difficult things any of us could choose to do. I've found that I get more from it every time i read it. The lessons go far beyond the words. It is an insiring work that shows the human side of the spiritual path. Thanks Tom. Thanks Grandfather.
Book Description
Anthropologist and naturalist Loren Eiseley blends scientific knowledge and imaginative vision in this story of man.
Customer Reviews:
Pondering Nature.......2007-08-31
Most of us do not spend our days thinking about the magic of nature. In fact, it is rare that we stop and wonder at the unique qualities of life and evolution. This book is a collection of short essays which seem to take a walk through nature, pondering its interesting and beautiful idiosyncrasies. Without going into too much detail, Eiseley helps us to stop and look at the seemingly small things and understand their vast importance. This is not a complicated book designed for naturalists, but a fairly straightforward and engaging book for those who simply enjoy nature. A high school student interested in studying anthropology or environmental science in college would be wise to read this as inspiration.
one of the little known great writers........2007-02-10
the title, i suppose, could lead one to think that this book might be too heavily on the new-agey side of things for one's taste. not so! mr eiseley is one of the most profound thinkers i have come across over the years, and his writing is spectacular. i have seldom come across a non-fiction writer with such a marvellous prose style (lytton strachey comes to mind as an equivilant). this great book had me looking at life past and present in ways and from angles i had never considered. the authors wonder at existence in all its mystery, joy, and sorrow, made for some of the most moving reading i have ever encountered. this, and other works by mr eiseley, i will be reading and rereading throughout my lifetime.
Great book arrived in great shape.......2006-03-20
Great book, it arrived in great shape in a timely manner
scholarly treatment of Darwin's ideas - and textual analysis.......2004-05-23
Eiseley has read all of the different editions of "Origin," and in that way traces the evolution of Darwin's thought in the context of his times and in how he re-edited his books as his opinion changed. It is well written and argued and somewhat better than normal academic writing, but it still reads like a pedantic text. Perhaps it was too advanced, or simply too detailed, for the level of my interest, but I found a lot of this somewhat boring - and I admit that that is as personal as a reflection on the text. Eiseley is a world-class science writer, up there with Sagan and Gould, and explains with great clarity, etc. You get to know Darwin's mind, his many doubts, and the way he constantly hedged and worried about his reception.
Recommended with this in mind. It really depends on what you are looking for.
"...Lie Awake While the Meteors Whisper Greenly Overhead.".......2003-10-17
This is a very unusual book. It is ostensibly about the "Immense Journey" of man along his long evolutionary trail. But, in the same way that "The Odyssey" is not just an historical travel tale, Eiseley's book is much more. This is a work about the wonders of life, the joys of curiosity, the rewards from solitary time spent in the natural world and the transitory nature of all existence.
This one must have been just fantastic when it was published in 1957. It's still very good in 2003 despite the passage of time, which has exposed several of Eiseley's scientific beliefs and musings to be erroneous. Keep in mind the tremendous advancements in archeology, molecular biology and all other fields of science over the last 46 years and don't get hung up on these anachronisms. Instead, revel in the beautiful language Eiseley uses and the imagery he evokes: "Some lands are flat and grass-covered, and smile so evenly up at the sun that they seem forever youthful, untouched by man or time." Or another favorite: "Tyrannosaurs, enormous bipedal caricatures of men, would stalk mindlessly across the sites of future cities and go their slow way down into the dark of geologic time."
Read this book and you'll want to dig up fossils, listen to the wind, watch other animals and soak up life. And you will probably want to read it again.
Average customer rating:
- Historical Evidence that Humans have been Craving Insanity a Long Long LONG Time
- "LOVE IS THE GREAT INTANGIBLE......."
- Counting the ways of the heart.
- clear and readable
- A true treasure & a staple of your library
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A Natural History Of Love
Diane Ackerman
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A Natural History of the Senses
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'The Moon by Whale Light: And Other Adventures Among Bats, Penguins, Crocodilians, and Whales
ASIN: 0679761837
Release Date: 1995-02-21 |
Book Description
The bestselling author of A Natural History of the Senses now explores the allure of adultery, the appeal of aphrodisiacs, and the cult of the kiss. Enchantingly written and stunningly informed, this "audaciously brilliant romp through the world of romantic love" (Washington Post Book World) is the next best thing to love itself.
Customer Reviews:
Historical Evidence that Humans have been Craving Insanity a Long Long LONG Time.......2006-06-02
A chronicle of just how insane the human species gets when their brain gets a serving of emotional cocaine known as the illusion of romantic love. People are just the love object. The emotions that have one acting out-of-the ordinary are outcomes of a brain on drugs.... aka temporary insanity. The supposed yearning humans often feel are simple withdrawal symptoms akin to those being weened off morphine.
What's love got to do with it? NOTHING!
"LOVE IS THE GREAT INTANGIBLE.......".......2005-05-11
Lorenz Hart wrote, "I wish I were in love again." "Let's do it, let's fall in love," advised Cole Porter. No other subject has inspired as many songs, poems, books or plays as ever appealing, sometimes elusive love. And here is Diane Ackerman to tell us all about it.
"Love is the great intangible" is the way this volume begins, and it is equally unfathomable after we finish reading, but there's much information and great good fun in between. Beginning with the history of love in ancient Egypt through Rome, the Middle Ages and up to the present, the author explores the historical, cultural and biological roots of that which makes the world go round.
Rich with insights into traditions and little known facts, "Love's Customs" may well be one of the most fascinating chapters. For instance, it was the medieval Italians who favored diamond rings because "of their superstition that diamonds were created from the flames of love." Soldiers of ancient Sparta hosted the first stag parties. The white wedding dress was first won by Anne of Brittany in 1499 when she married Louis XII of France. Both bride and groom wore a blue band around the bottom of their wedding garments in biblical times, which is where the idea of the bride's "something blue" originated.
"A Natural History of Love" is a rare literary work in that it is both a well researched scholarly text, terrific reading, and offers an insight that probably applies to each one of us.
- Gail Cooke
Counting the ways of the heart........2003-11-08
"We have the great fortune to live on a planet abounding with humans, plants, and animals," poet Diane Ackerman (A NATURAL HISTORY OF THE SENSES, 1990), writes in her Introduction to this book; "and I often marvel at the strange tasks evolution sets them. Of all the errands life seems to be running, of all the mysteries that enchant us, love is my favorite" (p. xxiii). Once again demonstrating her talent for blending the disciplines of history, anthropology, psychology, literature and natural science, Ackerman turns her attention here to the subject of love, "the great intangible" (p. xvii). In counting the ways of the heart, she reveals through a historical survey of Egypt, Greece, Rome, the Middle Ages, and Modern times that our attitudes about love are truly as old as the pyramids, and she also examines the evolution, psychology, and chemistry of love, the differences between men and women when it comes to love, monogamy and adultery, love-thwarted attachments, and aphrodisiacs and eroticism. While it may not live up to the standard Ackerman set in A NATURAL HISTORY OF THE SENSES, in addressing what it means to love from a variety of different perspectives, this book is nevertheless quite fascinating.
G. Merritt
clear and readable.......2003-05-31
I read this to be entertained, and I was. Like her other books, this one was clearly written, easy on the eyes, clever, witty, and packed with interesting out-of-the-way information. It's a pleasant and well-composed discourse through the history of romantic love in the West. If you come to it from that point of view, you might like it.
If a criterion of a good read is that the author inspires in you some of the emotions she describes, then most of the book succeeded for me: at times I wondered what she'd be like on a date....
Parts of the book get into human instincts. While there's evidence for these--the rooting instinct in babies, for instance--we need to bear in mind that human instincts are heavily modified by time, place, and personality. The maternal instinct, for example, is painted in ideal colors: the loving mother mirroring her baby. We've all seen that; but some of us have also met mothers who hate their children (or, worse, feel indifferent toward them) and whose maternal instinct never sees the daylight. We shouldn't follow Freud's old 19th Century slippage from psychology into biology unless we're prepared to ignore the social and spiritual roots of human motivation.
I appreciate the author's knack for collecting a lot of information on a given topic, then giving us the best fruits of her learnings in breezy and often poetic language.
A true treasure & a staple of your library.......2002-04-09
This book is amazing. If you haven't read Ackerman before, I suggest starting with _A Natural History of the Senses_. Then read this book. Ackerman is a very talented writer. Even if the subject isn't entirely interesting, her words and their rhythms are. This subject, however, is very interesting. Ackerman muses on myths (such as Dido) and history (such as Napoleon and Josephine), but also explores instincts and preferences (why women love horses and the influence of pheromones). This book is romantic, historical, sexual, poetic, challenging, and completely beautiful.
Books:
- Flights of Fancy/a Treasury of Bird Quotations
- Florida Wild Flowers and Roadside Plants
- Flotsam (Caldecott Medal Book)
- Flush
- Freckles
- From So Simple a Beginning: Darwin's Four Great Books (Voyage of the Beagle, The Origin of Species, The Descent of Man, The Expression of Emotions in Man and Animals)
- GALP Regulatory Handbook
- Gene Expression And Manipulation In Aquatic Organisms (SOCIETY FOR EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY, SEMINAR SERIES)
- Global Change and Mediterranean-Type Ecosystems (Ecological Studies)
- Global Environment: Water, Air, and Geochemical Cycles
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