Book Description
This well written book presents a group of people, in St. Petersburg (former Leningrad), Russia, who call themselves 'The Free Body Culture Society'. Filled with large color photographs of the men, women and children who make up this 'Society', this book brings the unique group to life for the reader. Concerned with the health of their environment, the Free Body Culture Society Members are also the founders of the Russian Green Party. They spend their social time enjoying ancient 'Rus' festivals, sunny days at the beach and Russia's famous 'white nights' around the bonfire. Some events photographed in this book include: 3 females in the country, Children's Day at the beach, Ivana Kupala (The Night of Love), and a Naturist Wedding. As well, their are interviews of the photographer, Mikhail Rusinov, and child naturist, Alla.
Customer Reviews:
Very nice book of naturist photography........2006-03-21
I purchased this book because of an interest in the naturist/nudist lifestyle. I have always enjoyed the naked, female form and this is one way of pursuing that interest. The book is well written, forgiving any translation errors. The photography is very good, with the subjects well placed and well lit. The subjects are photographed in natural settings, doing everyday things, like swimming at the beach, or enjoying a picnic lunch. The only difference is that they are nude.
If you are seeking pornographic images, you won't find them in this book. The photographs are aesthetically pleasing and artistic in nature. The subjects are mainly young females. Young, as in teens to early 20's. While this may bother some people, there is nothing lewd about their posing or the manner in which they are presented. Think Jock Sturges, or Sally Mann for a reference to style and composition.
Overall, a very nice book.
EXTREMELY DISSAPPOINTED..........2005-01-29
I was so dissappointed that this had a synopsis that it was about "family" nudist in Russia and when it arrived at least I would guess, 98% of it was women and young girls. If thats what you want fine, but if you are seriously interested in the WHOLE family of naturist..........then you will be dissappointed.
Great Naturism Book.......2004-08-16
August 1991, Putsch-time. Mikhail and Galina Rusinov stand defiantly with thousands of other Russians in St. Petersburg and prepare to die under the tracks of tanks. In Moscow, Boris Yeltsin stand defiantly before the tanks as well, and in a great overturning of Russian authority, ousts the "vacationing" Mikhail Gorbachev and with him seventy years of Communist tyranny. "Thank God the tanks did not advance," Mikhail Rusinov remarks, "But, we had to do it. We could not let totalitarian rule return."
Such resolve speaks to the central message of this book. Mikhail Rusinov is a co-founder of The Free Body Culture Society, a remarkable social project with far-reaching implications for the "new" Russia. Aligned with the Green Party, they call themselves Holy Nature, and they have begun to gain international recognition for their efforts to re-integrate the values and mores of an ancient Russian culture (the Rus) into modern life. Based in St. Petersburg (formerly Leningrad), and long considered the intellectual and cultural capital of Russia, the Free Body Culture Society has grown to well over 700 members, with hundreds more joining in spontaneously on sunny days at the clothes-optional beaches.
The Free Body Culture Society began quietly and secretly among 20 or so people, including the current president, Kirill Vasiliev, in the 1970's during the heart of government repression. Despite continuous government harassment, the group expanded dramatically and, by 1983, formally elected Vasiliev. For eight more years, the group continued to attract new members and to expand its activities, all the while under constant surveillance and restraint by the police and the KGB.
In 1991, after the putsch, they were granted official recognition by the newly liberalized regional government. With the support of the local media, word spread and membership grew to the point now, on a sunny June day at Finnish Beach, over 2,000 nude sun bathers can be found participating with the "official" members of the society. With growing numbers at the beaches and a rejuvenated connection St. Petersburg naturists felt with their beaches, lakes and woods, an organized effort to preserve their natural surroundings began and, in 1991, Kiril Vasiliev and Mikhail Rusinov formed the St. Petersburg Green Party, known as Holy Nature. Through his ability to translate Russian and English, along with his extraordinary skills in internet communications, Rusinov and his associates have created an international voice for this burgeoning new group.
Dissapointed.......2003-03-13
I can say that I was much interested in russian freedom, but i got dissapointed with this book because its quality in a general sense is really poor, both technically and artistically speaking; so, don't waste your time and money and go for something else!
Better Than Expected.......2002-05-20
I have to say that based on the cover, I wasn't sure if I was going to like this book. Well, if you like titles by David Hamilton, Jock Sturges etc. let me assure you will like this book. I see Amazon now carries a DVD called 'Rituals of Summer' that features the people from the book -- I'm ordering it and will write a review under it once viewed.
Product Description
THE BOOK: On a trade trip to the Siberian taiga in search for the lost technique of pressing virgin cedar nut oil, the author witnessed incredible spiritual phenomena that compelled him to write a book. The run-away success of his first volume, self-published in 1996, made him into one of Russia's most widely read authors. His eight books published to date have sold over 10 million copies in Russian alone, and translated into 20 languages are believed to be a most significant masterpiece of Russian literature and one of the most important revelations in the history of humanity. The Ringing Cedars books have stirred the hearts and minds of countless people, showing a way to understand ourselves and to heal our planet. They possess an unprecedented power of transforming the life on our whole Earth for the better. Inspired by the Ringing Cedars, thousands of people are now planting trees, changing their lifestyle and, in search for a spiritual re-connection with the Earth, relocating to new eco-villages that are sprouting all over Russia and beyond. Thousands of people reading the Ringing Cedars books have felt a huge creative upsurge and started writing poetry and songs and even doing paintings. THE AUTHOR, Vladimir Megre, born in 1950, was a well-known entrepreneur from a Siberian city of Novosibirsk. In 1994 he heard a fascinating story about the power of "ringing cedars" from a Siberian elder and was one of the first to realize the commercial potential of Siberian cedar nuts and cedar nut oil. In 1995 he organized a trade expedition into the Siberian taiga to rediscover the lost technique of pressing health-giving virgin cedar nut oil. But his encounter with a Siberian woman Anastasia on this trip transformed him so deeply that he neglected his business and went to Moscow to write a book about the spiritual insights she shared with him.
Customer Reviews:
Incredible Revelations Continued. Life-Changing Masterpiece.......2005-06-03
The Ringing Cedars of Russia, the second book of the Series, in addition to providing a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the story of how Anastasia came to be published, offers a deeper exploration of the universal concepts so dramatically revealed in Book 1. It takes the reader on an adventure through the vast expanses of space, time and spirit - from the Paradise-like glade in the Siberian taiga to the rough urban depths of Russia's capital city, from the ancient mysteries of our forebears to a vision of humanity's radiant future.
REVIEWS
"The Ringing Cedars of Russia invites us to step into a world where love is the primary creative force behind real physical events. This energy of love shows us how to focus on the here and now, in which happiness is revealed. It also guides us in the healing of our relationship with the whole planet."
-- Dr Richard Bolstad, New Zealand psychologist, author of RESOLVE: a new NLP model of therapy and Creating a cooperative world
"The Ringing Cedars Series will impact a new generation of readers, like the works of Carlos Castaneda did for a previous generation -- only this time through awakening the latent spiritual connection each of us has with nature. This is not about a walk in the woods, rather these books catapult us to an entirely new way of being on planet Earth."
-- Steven Foster, American naturalist, author of A field guide to medicinal plants and herbs
ABOUT THE RINGING CEDARS SERIES
In 1994 a Siberian elder told entrepreneur Vladimir Megre a fascinating story about 'ringing cedars' -- trees respected from Biblical times for their power to re-connect Man with the Divine. The elder told him where such a ringing cedar was growing in the Siberian backwoods. Vladimir Megre set out on an expedition to find the tree, but his encounter with the elder's granddaughter, named Anastasia, transformed him so deeply that he abandoned his commercial plans and, penniless, went to Moscow to fulfil his promise to Anastasia and write a book about the spiritual insights she so generously shared with him.
What happened next has thrilled and inspired millions. With no advertisement other than word of mouth, books of the Ringing Cedars Series have sold over 10 million copies in Russia alone and have been translated into 20 languages, making Vladimir Megre one of Russia's most widely read authors. Inspired by the Ringing Cedars, thousands of people are now planting trees, changing their lifestyle and, in search for a spiritual re-connection with the Earth, relocating to new eco-villages sprouting all over Russia and beyond. Thousands of readers have felt a huge creative upsurge and started writing poetry and songs and doing paintings.
These mind-stirring books read like a fascinating novel, have the authenticity of a documentary account and present spiritual insights of incredible depth. Spanning dozens of subjects from child-rearing to gardening, from adventure to the meaning of human life, from megalithic science to breast-feeding and from sexuality to religion, they present an incredibly beautiful and equally practicable vision of humanity's spiritual connection to Nature that helps us understand ourselves and heal our Earth.
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Baikal Sacred Sea of Siberia
Peter Matthiessen
Manufacturer: Random House, Inc.
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Binding: Hardcover
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The Other Side of Russia: A Slice of Life in Siberia and the Russian Far East
ASIN: 0871565846
Release Date: 1992-10-13 |
Customer Reviews:
the spirit of Siberia.......2000-11-25
The hardcover book is a jewel: the pictures are absolutely beautiful, and the texts which accompany them is interesting. The excerpts from Valentin Rasputin's books on Lake Baikal are well chosen. It is extremely interesting to "meet" this controversial Russian author in the way we do through this book. He deserves praise for his environmental work, especially in such a country as Russia. The book definetely makes you wish to visit the place. It sounds loike a spiritual enriching experience, the lake seems alive...
Amazon.com
The talented Alex Jennings creates an atmosphere of gripping psychological tension and brings a variety of characters to life in this new audio edition of a crime classic. When the student Raskolnikov puts his philosophical theory to the ultimate test of murder, a tragic tale of suffering and redemption unfolds in the dismal setting of the slums of czarist, prerevolutionary St. Petersburg. While Jennings's adept repertoire of British accents works to demonstrate the varying classes of characters, it occasionally distracts the listener from the Russian setting. However, Dostoyevsky's rendering of 18th-century Russia emerges unscathed, bringing the dark pathos (such as wretched poverty and rampant suffering) to life. (Running time: 315 minutes; 4 cassettes)
Book Description
With the same suppleness, energy, and range of voices that won their translation of The Brothers Karamazov the PEN/Book-of-the-Month Club Prize, Pevear and Volokhonsky offer a brilliant translation of Dostoevsky's classic novel that presents a clear insight into this astounding psychological thriller. "The best (translation) currently available"--Washington Post Book World.
Download Description
This epic tells the story of Raskolnikov, a student who believes he is superior and entitled. He commits a crime and the book traces his downfall. After being shipped off to Siberia for a prison sentence, Raskolnikov finds suffering to be a means by which the soul is purified of all its sins.
With the help of CliffsNotes you'll understand the overall structure of the work, actions and motivations of the characters, and the social and cultural perspectives of the author.
Customer Reviews:
You owe it to yourself to read this book........2007-10-13
Crime and Punishment is: laced in great characters, a compelling drama, a page turner, at times laugh out loud funny, an opportunity to experience Dostoyevsky in classic form, thought provoking, unpretentious and an easy to read classic. You would be doing yourself a favor to read this book.
Dostoyevsky's Best!.......2007-10-02
I liked this slightly better than The Brothers Karamozov which is also one of the best books ever! The book is similar to Poe's, A Tell-Tale Heart in which a man commits a murder that absolutely nobody suspects. What becomes his undoing is only his guilty conscience.
Spiffy-fantasticness.......2007-09-19
I had my doubts when I started this book. One problem I had was that I bought, what I later discovered, a really awful translation. Several times durring the story I felt myself thinking "oh common, lets move this along!" It seemed like yet another book where there is a main plot that deviates into several smaller plots along the way just to "beed up" the story. I wanted to give up. Fortunately, I'm pig headed and I kept with it to the very end, and I'm glad I did. Upon finishing the book I realized just how beatifully written it actually is. It's honestly a work of art. The development of the characters and the graphic descriptions are so fantastic that I really did lose myself in it.
Page turner par excellence.......2007-09-19
I went into this with an open mind. I had heard of the author, of course, but never expected to read anything of his. Someone left a copy lying around. I grabbed it to have something to read while I soaked in a hot bath. The bath turned cold and I was still reading.
I'm not sophisticated enough to expound on the deeper meaning or the underlying philosophy. For me the book was simply a highly entertaining read. I couldn't put it down, as they say. I didn't want it to finish. The author created a world in which you could fully "immerse" yourself. Good reading for the bath.
In one word, GREAT.......2007-09-18
This book is a masterpiece. Fyodor Dostoevsky makes it so pyschological that you become the murderer and start worrying yourelf. He takes the reader in and out of the mind of a murderer and his consequences. The book is also very fast paced and doesn't lag at all, which is a plus.
The only downside is that the Signet Classic version of Crime and Punishment smears like crazy. The book is tiny itself and your thumbs have to go on the book but then it would also smear letters and make it look ugly.
Amazon.com
Indigenous to Asia, and once widely distributed across the continent, the tiger is yet another of the world's creatures to come perilously close to extinction in the last century. Where a hundred years ago the population of Panthera tigris and its cousins stood at more than 100,000, a 1995 census put the total at less than 5,000. And, writes Peter Matthiessen, a longtime student and champion of endangered wildlife, "most biologists and conservationists ... would set that number even lower."
Working with the noted wildlife biologist and photographer Maurice Hornocker, Matthiessen recounts his travels into the Russian Far East and Manchuria in search of one of the rarest of the big cats, Panthera tigris altaica, the Siberian tiger. Once shielded, and not by design, by Communist policies that restricted travel in and development of its wilderness habitat, the Siberian tiger is increasingly threatened throughout much of its range as the dense old-growth forests of the Pacific seaboard fall to Japanese logging companies; at the same time, the tiger is still hunted for parts used by Chinese apothecaries (drinking the essence of a tiger is thought to bring renewed sexual vigor to aging men). Matthiessen, whose text brims with a righteous rage on the tiger's behalf, is able to report a few success stories, as Russian, Chinese, and American biologists work to conserve habitat in the wild country memorialized by V.K. Arseniev's Dersu the Trapper, a memoir that informs Matthiessen's own book. But his book is also full of tragedy, of terrible stories that help press a case for why the Siberian tiger should be protected everywhere in its domain.
Matching a thoughtful, well-crafted text with remarkable photographs of tigers in the wild, this is a book that, with luck, will help spur renewed interest in making the world safe for wildlife of all kinds. --Gregory McNamee
Book Description
No more than a few thousand tigers now survive in pockets of Asia, a continent they once roamed far and wide. The largest of them, the Siberian tiger, is today almost entirely confined to the little-populated Russian Far East. Nearly extirpated before World War 11, Panthera tigris altaica made a comeback in subsequent decades. When poaching and habitat depredation following the implosion of the Soviet Union once again threatened extinction, a group of American wildlife biologists led by Maurice Hornocker joined with their Russian counterparts in founding the Siberian Tiger Project to study and protect this besieged race.
Peter Matthiessen journeyed to the Russian Far Fast and other remaining tiger territory to witness for himself the species' present condition and to understand its possible fates. Bringing to his subject his deep knowledge and the instinct for the natural world that have made classics of his previous books, he allows us to participate in the battle for the future of one of the earth's most awesome creatures. Along the way, he tells the story of the species' origin and evolution, evoking as well its crucial, often totemic role in the cultures and mythologies of the peoples who came in contact with it. He has made of the tiger's dilemma not a manifesto but a drama - underscoredby Hornocker's stirring photographs - that conveys powerfully what a loss to our collective imagination the disappearance of these great cats would be.
Customer Reviews:
Tigers. I love them. And judging by this book, they must think snow is fun........2005-09-22
This is a good book. As you know, I love tigers and think they are both cool and beautiful. I loved the photos and the way many people tried to help the tiger rather than kill or hurt it. Oh, and to the insensitive jerk who said he did not feel sorry for the cubs in two brothers or those who did feel sorry about it? A message to him-I HOPE YOU F---ING FRY IN HELL, YOU A--HOLE! I HOPE SATAN PLUNGES A MACHETE INTO YOUR EYE! Oh, back to the book. There is a lot of good information and many great stuff. I hate the poaching, but this is still a great book. Worthy of the tigers I admire and adore.
Left with mixed feelings............2003-10-29
Matthiessen can leave you mesmerised with his writing and story telling;but except for a few pages in this book,he has failed to do it this time.The subject matter was there,but I got the sense the book was cranked out,possibly with the help of research staff padding it with filler material.The passion in Peter's writing was missing.
Writing about vanishing species,efforts to preserve,dealing with social conditions,bureaucracies,self-serving and disonest people can never be satisfying.On top of that, in cultures where deceit and victimization theory are the norm,attempts to do the right thing must make one feel hopeless and discouraged; however,that seems to be the lot of conservationalists.
I found the book disjointed;the photography was generally excellent,but many seemed inserted randomly and without captions.
I guess what really bothered me was the victim beliefs, that are the result of socialism,as expressed on pg.104,"Life is very different now.It's not just the economy.Everyone is living for the moment and looking out for thrmselves.Our life is out of control-it's chaos","Today nobody will lift a finger unless they are given money".This is the result of buying into theories "that you can't take care of yourself,let us do it for you." Until people believe that their misfortune is their own problem to solve, things won't improve.In other words,Helen Keller had problems;so,what's yours?
This book is quite boring!.......2002-12-20
My interest in this book was limited. Most of the book was very informational, and that did not captivate my interests at all. It was quite boring to say the least, though I was quite interested by the collar tracking devices and learning about the poaching and near distinction of Siberian tigers.
This book relates to my studies in school because of the genetics of tigers mentioned. "...gene flow among tigers has been so extensive until recent times that it is hard to isolate distinct genetic groups...since the mitochondrial DNA type of the island tigers is identical to that of the mainland forms...`genetic drift' a condition caused by random loss of genes...only a few skins and scraps from which DNA can be extracted have survived..." Although these examples of heredity and genetics are above my head, they touch upon the basics of what I learned about in Biology class.
I've never really heard about Siberian tigers before. I knew of them but not about them or at least not as much as I know after reading Tigers in the Snow. I wasn't familiar with the poaching or near extinction of Siberian tigers. It is sad how little we Americans know of the wildlife in other parts of the world. For instance, I have only seen tigers in the Zoo.
I learned a lot about the Siberian tiger species and what animals go through when they are facing loss of habitat and extinction. This book has taught me how much human's industry and over hunting can affect an animal's survival, more than any other natural factor. It has taught me that it is up to the people to save the tiger as well as any other endangered animal from extinction. I have learned that the tiger is making a slow comeback because the countries are keeping the poaching under control. The book often times discussed the population of tigers in certain areas. I now have a better understanding of the tiger's population dilemma by using my knowledge of immigration, emigration, mortality, and natality. Overall, I thought this book was very educational and worth reading if you are at all interested in tigers or the effort being made to save them.
However, this book jumped around a lot from place to place, and was somewhat hard to follow. I personally didn't enjoy the majority of the book, because it doesn't keep you interested and isn't very exciting to read. If you were researching tigers, then this would be a great book to read. But I wouldn't recommend it for a reader's enjoyment.
Overall this book has been very influential and an interesting read. It has changed my views on many issues, and tigers as a whole. This issue of the tiger population being depleted is a major issue in the world today; I believe that if the tiger population were removed from the world, the food chain would be distorted because the prey of the tiger would become overpopulated. Hopefully, the tiger population will be refreshed within the next decades so we won't have to find out what happens if the tiger population diminishes. In conclusion, Tigers In The Snow is a very informative read, and if you want to know in great detail about the world of the tiger, you should read this book.
Tigers in the Snow Book Review Hour 1 Pawinski Biology.......2002-01-02
... This book is about the studies and observations of the depleting tiger populations in Asia that was at one time thriving. This book is about Matthiessen's journey to Asia's Far East areas, and her studies of tigers there. Periodically through the book he also explains what people are doing to try and save this precious population of tigers.
This book relates to many of the things on both a biological and ecological level. On one side the things that we are doing to the environment are greatly harming the tiger populations, and even though this issue is beginning to look better, it may be to late. But on the other hand, the things that are done to harm to tigers also toy with the food chains and such. Although this book could be placed in both sections I believe that it would mostly end up under the biological context, because the main topic in this book is the depleting tiger population and how that is affecting other things.
This book jumped around a lot from place to place, and was very hard to follow, but the main points were very clear. Peter traveled to Asia and its tiger reserves to study the Tiger populations; while he was there they developed a new way of recording information about tigers with little trackers that they place on the tigers' neck. This helped them greatly in their study of these wild animals. Their first tiger to be caught and "tagged" was named Lena, this tiger lived throughout most of the book. After this they caught and tagged various tigers, but none were more talked about than Lena. During this book Peter explains the histories of all the tigers he explains, it is unbelievable how much prominence these creatures have in the mythical ring. He also explains the origins and evolution of the tigers that he encounters on his journey. In many spiritual tribes the Tiger was believed to be a God, and was a major sin to kill or harm one, and if one did harm a tiger there was to be a major price to pay. This book also stated that the tiger population as a whole is making a slow comeback into the world, this is because of better-enforced laws about poaching tigers. This book was very, very informative about tigers, and it showed not only the hard facts of tigers today, but also where the tiger's population has been and where it is headed.
I believe this work accurately represents the population of tigers and what is happening to them. In class we studied Biomes of the World and the issues of these specific biomes. In this book the issues of the biomes plays a major role in what happens to the tigers in Asia. Many of the problems that are reducing the tiger population of Asia, are also affecting the Biomes the same way. One of the main problems was humans in the late 1800s and early 1900s, they were shooting tigers for a prophet because there was no law against it. They could make lots of money off this, but did not realize the damage it could do to the tiger population as a whole, or how it could affect the same tiger population in the future.
Overall this book has been very influential and a great read. It has changed my views on many issues, and tigers as a whole. This issue of the tiger population going down is a major issue in the whole scheme of things; I believe that if the tiger population were removed from the world, many things would start to go bad. Many other populations of animals that are related to the tiger in the food chains would be badly affected. Hopefully, the tiger population will be refreshed within the next decades so that we don't have to find out what happens if the tiger population diminishes...
Tigers in the Snow Book Review.......2002-01-02
The book that I chose to read was titled Tigers in the Snow, written by Peter Matthiessen. Tigers in the Snow was published by North Point Press, in 2000. It is 174 pages long. In this book the author takes us with him on a journey through Asia trying to save the tigers. He writes about his experiences in the Siberian Tiger Project, founded in 1989. Peter Matthiessen writes to show people how important tigers are in the world and how close we are to losing them. This book is very factual and detailed it gave me the true picture of the tiger's cultural history and how close we are to losing them forever.
This book is written from both an ecological and biological stance. Ecologically, he explains how tigers interact with other animals. They interact with the elk and other prey such as wild pig by hunting them. They indirectly interact with humans by hunting the same prey as human hunters do. They also interact with humans because human industries destroy the tiger's and its prey's habitat. Biologically, the book proves that tigers live a very strenuous life. At all times they are in danger of being hilled by poachers. Tiger's pray is very scarce making it hard for them to survive, especially ones with cubs. Their pray is so scarce because hunters over hunt tiger's main food sources which include large animals such as elk and wild pig. The number of human attacks by tigers increase along with the lack of prey. This is because the tiger will only attack a human if they are starving. Despite the tigers size and strength it fails in about 90% of its hunts.
This book discusses many aspects of the tiger. It addressed where they live, how many are left, and their hunting patterns. Tigers were once plentiful throughout Siberia, China, Korea, and South East Asia. Now, the 3,000 remaining wild tigers are mostly confined to small parks and reserves throughout the tiger world. Tigers are poached relentlessly for their fur and body parts which are often used for Asian folk medicines. Male tigers need large amounts of wooded territory. Several female tiger's territories often overlap a male's territory. Tigers have very unique hunting patterns. They use their excellent sight and hearing to hunt animals instead of their sense of smell like most carnivores do. Often times, they hide the carcass of their prey and return multiple times to eat. In order to convince governments that better tiger protection plans were needed scientists needed to extensively research the tiger. To do so the author, as a part of the Siberian Tiger Project, captured and radio collared the tigers. This way they could monitor movement and behavior without human influence. "From monitoring theses tigers-some for 7 years now- we know how much food they require, what they eat, how they react to human activities, and what makes for good tiger habitat," Matthiessen states in this book. He tells about his experiences studying the tigers. He traveled all around Asia to different reserves researching the tigers and their activities.
I think that this book has taught me a lot and that I can relate what I've learned to what we have discussed in class. It taught me about the tiger's niche in the environment, and we have studied niches of different organisms in class. I could also incorporate population studies into this book. The book often times discussed the population of tigers in certain areas. I have a better understanding of the tiger's population dilemma by using my knowledge of immigration, emigration, mortality, and natality. Overall, I thought this book was very educational and worth reading if you are at all interested in tigers or the effort being made to save them.
What I learned about the tiger can be applied to other animals facing loss of habitat and extinction. The book has taught me how much human's industry and over hunting can affect an animal's survival, more than any other natural factor. It has taught me that it is up to us to save the tiger from extinction and that is true for all endangered animals....
Book Description
Levitan’s lyrical, expressive evocations of the Russian countryside are little known in the West and this book is intended as an introduction to his life and work. It describes the artist’s training in Moscow, his youthful visits to the Crimea and the Volga region and the creation of the “mood landscapes” which won him early recognition.
The employment of motifs typical of rural Russia and the innovative nature of his art are made clear. New light is shed on Levitan’s awareness of artistic trends in late nineteenth-century Paris, Berlin, Munich and Vienna and the ways in which such exposure honed his vision of the Motherland. This publication will hopefully endear western readers to the output of this outstanding artist, whose landscapes earnt him the lasting admiration of Chekhov, Stanislavsky and Diaghilev.
This revised edition expands the sections on landscape painting in Russia and on Levitan's links with the Munich Secession. Included are new illustrations, including his Marsh at Evening recently sold by Christie's London for £1.24 million.
Customer Reviews:
Great master of landscape.......2007-06-13
Superb book - as a guide and as a reference. Isaak Levitan was a real master of Silver Age of Russian painting - apart from excellent skills, he was able to capture the mood. Highly recommended
Book Description
Nigel Wheatley continues his continent-by-continent guide to the best locales for international birding by turning his binoculars to over 250 of the most productive birding sites in Europe and Russia. Whether you want to know how Golden Eagles are distributed on the Scottish Island of Skye, which birds you'll find in the botanical gardens in Minsk, or where to go if you have your heart set on a Grey Phalarope or Lapland Bunting, this book is the essential travel companion. Though compact and portable, Where to Watch Birds in Europe and Russia contains a tremendous amount of information on travel, geography, and bird distribution that can be used to plan a trip from scratch or get more out of any itinerary.
Wheatley gives excellent coverage not only of the well-trod fields of England and France, but also of countries newly explored by North American birders (such as Romania and Azerbaijan), such bird-rich microclimates as Malta and Greece's Strymon Delta, and several often-overlooked small nations (such as Luxembourg and Moldova). This addition to the acclaimed Where to Watch Birds series will be particularly valuable to birders visiting Eastern Europe, Russia, and other places whose birding sites have not been well publicized.
Book Description
In 1960, the Aral Sea was the size of Lake Michigan: a huge body of water in the deserts of Central Asia. By 1996, when Tom Bissell arrived in Uzbekistan as a naïve Peace Corps volunteer, disastrous Soviet irrigation policies had shrunk the sea to a third its size. Bissell lasted only a few months before complications forced him to return home, but he had already become obsessed with this beautiful, brutal land.
Five years later, Bissell convinces a magazine to send him to Central Asia to investigate the Aral Sea’s destruction. There, he joins forces with a high-spirited young Uzbek named Rustam, and together they make their often wild way through the ancient cities—Tashkent, Samarkand, Bukhara—of this fascinating but often misunderstood part of the world. Slipping more than once through the clutches of the Uzbek police, who suspect them of crimes ranging from Christian evangelism to heroin smuggling, the two young men develop an unlikely friendship as they journey to the shores of the devastated sea.
Along the way, Bissell provides a history of the Uzbeks, recounting their region’s long, violent subjugation by despots such as Jenghiz Khan and Joseph Stalin. He conjures the people of Uzbekistan with depth and empathy, and he captures their contemporary struggles to cope with Islamist terrorism, the legacy of totalitarianism, and the profound environmental and human damage wrought by the sea’s disappearance.
Sometimes hilarious, sometimes powerfully sobering, Chasing the Sea is a gripping portrait of an unfamiliar land and the debut of a gifted young writer.
Customer Reviews:
The worst book I have ever read.......2006-09-27
Tom Bissell's journalistic instincts and writing talent are perfectly suited to a career flipping burgers. He spent a few months as Peace Corps Volunteer (PCV) in Uzbekistan but couldn't hack it so he left after a few months. He went back a few years later, a transparently pathetic attempt to erase his earlier failure. He fails again.
He meets an actual PCV named Alice who completely torpedoes everything he thinks he knows. He doesn't take her more learned views to heart, nor does he seem to notice the criticism when she says "most of the people who quit are, from what I've heard, completely embarrassed about it." Obliviousness is perhaps the author's most notable trait.
The author believes himself to be witty, well-read and adventurous. On page 17 he writes "A troubling paradox of travel is how consistently superior one feels toward foreigners while at the same time wishing desperately to be accepted by them as unrepresentative of the qualities that make one foreign in the first place." He doesn't realize he's describing himself, not other travelers.
Aside from Uzbekistan, it seems Bissell hasn't traveled at all. "Within stall after booth after stall, confident-looking proprietors hawked Kodak film, pirated CDs, notebooks pens, sausages, soda, and mineral water in
at exactly the same price as the kiosk next to them.
" Anyone who has traveled in third world countries has noted the odd custom in markets and bazaars everywhere for vendors selling similar wares to group together.
He later observes that "Uzbekistan was the only country I had ever visited where you could walk through a hazardous construction area and no one would stop you or even look at you." How many countries has he visited? In how many of those has he walked through hazardous construction sites? This is ignorance parading as knowledge.
He later mentions "non, a tasty discus of bread of huge cultural and dietary importance in Uzbekistan." Can he really be this clueless? Non, or naan, as we Americans know it, is a staple of diets throughout Asia. He apparently never even been to these places - or even his local Indian or Thai restaurant!
His transliteration of "non" instead of "naan" brings up a bizarre section in which he goes postal on another author, Robert Kaplan. Kaplan's "Balkan Ghosts," in which he predicted the breakup of Yugoslavia, is a classic. In "Soldiers of God" Kaplan recounts his travels with the Afghan mujahidin during their fight against the Soviets. And so on. He has lived and traveled around the world. To say that Bissell and Kaplan are both travel writers is like saying Ben Affleck and Ian McKellen are both actors.
Bissell throws a tantrum because he takes Kaplan's observations of Uzbekistan personally: It "does have its ethnocultural problems, as does every nation. Occasionally they have been violent. That said, Uzbekistan's culture is,
in my experience
, basically tolerant."
Do we believe the man who has spent decades reporting from around the world or the smarmy pretender who quit after a few months?
This is worth mentioning because one of Kaplan's many sins, in Bissell's eyes, is that he transliterates the currency as "soms [sic]." Bissell uses "sums." Big difference, eh? And yet Bissell uses non, not naan. Later he writes "Nebuchadrezzar (misspelled by the Bible as Nebuchadanezzer)." Someone should let him know that the Bible is not a person and thus is not capable of misspelling a name, nor was it written in American English.
Bissell's guide is Rustam, a young man who studied in the US. He begins every sentence with "Dude" and/or ends it with "bro." He makes trenchant cultural observations such as "Dude, I like all chicks." (I swear I am not making this up.) Bissell includes every "dude" and "bro," unaware that this undermines his bona fides as an "adventure journalist," as he describes himself. He seems more like a frat boy on spring break.
The author's choice of company further undermines his credibility. So does this admission: "What I wanted foolishly, was to write about The World. Given my unremarkable credentials, only the Peace Corps could give me that chance ... every MFA program I applied to turned me away." So he became a PCV because he wasn't good enough to become a writer, but when he failed in the Peace Corps he became a writer. He joined the Peace Corps because he had no other options. He failed as an adventurer AND as a writer but now he is an "adventure journalist." What a country.
Literally every page contains a word used incorrectly, an inaccurate metaphor or a comment made out of ignorance. It irritated me at first but I turned it into a game, to find his most egregious offense against the language. I dog-eared nearly every page.
If he doesn't know the correct word, he'll make one up. The list includes abominations like "glass-ceilinged," which he uses as a verb, "guessery," "emotion-mangling," and, my personal favorite, "rubbishing." Rubbish, the noun, is a synonym of trash, but while trash is a verb, rubbish is not. Somebody buy the guy a dictionary, for crying out loud.
There are spectacularly bizarre non sequiturs where he throws in information he finds interesting that doesn't fit anywhere else: "It was useful to remember that, with all of the ecological damage centralized Soviet planning had inflicted upon its colonized lands, Eastern Europe possessed three times the wolves of Western Europe and Romania alone had a larger bear population than all of Western Europe combined." HUH??!!
His presumably weighty observations are gibberish: "Soviet culture was, finally, a culture of suicide - politically, ethnically, ecologically, morally."
There's this nugget of wisdom: "But then Ayn Rand wrote in English, a language not well known for providing philosophers with wings. No, what we had in English was not philosophy but social criticism. This English did very well. If Orwell had written in, say, French, he would no doubt be recognized as a great philosopher, like Camus." And this: "American imperialism was a virus; Soviet imperialism was an entry wound." (No elaboration is offered.)
Moving on from failed attempts at grandiosity to simple ignorance we find him describing a man with "eyes as small and black as a mako's." A mako is a 10-12 foot shark and thus its eyes are small only in comparison with those of a bigger shark. There's a truck with "one of its headlights hanging out of its frame as though it were a popped retina." The retina is the back of the eye.
"Indeed, the crevice between identifying needs and creating solutions ..." A crevice is a crack. What he means is crevasse, which is a chasm. "[T]he fever had cleansed my spirit of its grout." Grout is the mortar that binds tile. It is something to be cleaned, not removed by cleaning. And how about this redundancy: "dumbfounded astonishment."
A leader "did much to scaffold public relations between Uzbeks and Tajiks." Someone who has spent as much time wandering through construction sites around the world should know that a scaffold is not a support or bridge.
His cultural ignorance knows no bounds. As he ponders atrocities that have occurred in Uzbekistan's past he wishes he could ask his guide, in his italics, "What the f--- is wrong with you people?" He seems to think cruelty is a peculiarly Central Asian phenomenon. His ignorance of Genghis Khan is criminal. His broadside against the conqueror shows, at least in his uninformed mind, that he's more informed than the rest of us by calling him, "as we know it, Jenghiz Khan."
Idiocy. The most common English transliteration is, of course, Genghis Khan. (The "soms" comment comes back to mind.) "But Jenghiz was at heart a crude shepherd catapulted into geopolitics," and also a "thug" in the author's estimation.
Wrong. Set aside the fact that Genghis Khan lorded over one of the world's greatest empires. Would a crude shepherd create a constitution which even he was compelled to obey? Or an alphabet? Or a currency and system of measurement to standardize commerce throughout his realm? But Bissell positively foams at the mouth. Genghis Khan's "savagery was without precedent."
Tamerlane was a "psychopath." Bissell wanted to spit on his grave! Of Tamlerlane he writes, "Occasionally, his fondness for the blasphemous became cinematically insane." What does that mean?! Is it fair to expect conquerors from 500 years ago to have been more enlightened than we are in the age of Darfur? His analysis crumbles under the most basic inspection and reveals itself as ethnocentrism.
I finally realized that I was taking too much pleasure in the author's incompetence. I reached a point where, perversely, I was reading a book, not in spite of how bad it was, but because it was so bad. I finally called it quits at page 200." There were so many more examples I could have given. Please don't read this book.
A good book, not great, not terrible.......2006-09-26
This book has sure stirred up a bit of acrimony, based on the other reviews here on amazon.com. No doubt, there are many personal agendas behind both the fiercely positive and fiercely negative reviews. I have no agenda.
To be brief, this was an enjoyable read if you are simply looking for a travel book about Central Asia. I would agree that the title is not the most appropriate as the Aral Sea does seem to take a back seat to other areas of Uzbekistan. And that's okay, if you know going into the read that you are going to get a travelogue and not a scientific treatise.
Mr. Bissell is an interesting writer, but at this point seems to lack a bit of maturity. I am not sure why he felt he needed to slam Robert Kaplan in his book. And I could sure do without all the "dudes" and "bros" and the frat boy references to women. I've no doubt that in twenty years he will look back at some of what he wrote with a bit of maturity and embarrassment himself.
(As an aside, I was a bit disturbed to know that the former Peace Corp Volunteer, Jerod, taught his interpreter to refer to women as bitches!)
That said, read the book. It is going cheap in the used section.
Chasing ghosts, yes - Aral Sea? Not so much........2006-08-20
If you're interested in Central Asia in general and Uzbekistan in particular, you will enjoy this book. Especially true if you enjoy history, as various short history lessons are thrown in as the author visits places with long historical pasts.
But this book is not as it portrays itself. The author seemed to feel he needed a "hook" beyond documenting his travels and adventures to a exotic, far away land, so he attempts this overlay of the Aral Sea and the ecological disaster that is has become. While he does eventually get around to that topic, it is not really the centerpiece. What is more central is the author's own ghosts from his past, and he bounces around Uzbekistan looking to exorcise something . . . I'm not sure even he knows what. Neither the head fake about the Aral Sea, nor the author's own self-absorbed quest for finding release from some inner demons, nor even the author's occasional too self-conscious style of "I am writing a travel book" keep this from being a fascinating book. You get to be a passenger with a window seat in a part of the world that is tragic, dripping with history, harsh climate, harsh geography, beautiful in an austere way, where hospitality and a knack for trading surive somehow through the generations - in other words, a fascinating place to read about, but where I would not actually care to go myself!
For general purpose readers who don't have a particular interest in Uzbekistan, I would give this book a lower rating.
A travel story about Uzbekistan........2005-12-30
I like this book, although I disagree with some of the politics and attitudes of the author. His wit and story telling give this book much of its appeal. The one thing that is not good about this book is the short focus on the Aral Sea. The sea and the tragedy of its evaporation should be one of concern for the whole world.
The one thing that I dislike about this book is its condescending attitude toward the natives. Even Tom's Peace Corps family is savaged by his wit. This must have been a stab in the back to them if they ever read his book. I appreciated his wit, but some other readers might not.
The book flows amazingly well. It took me some time to read this book, but I liked the stories of his concerning Bokhara and the other cities. After reading some of the other reviews, I was a little concerned about his sources. However, this is a great read from a little known author. I rate him better than Robert Kaplan.
Just enjoy the book you haters.......2005-05-16
i read this book in a neat two hours, skipping all filler about Uleg bek and Timurlane and the Aral sea, plenty of which I learned as a PCV in Uzbekistan. All literary criticisms aside, I enjoyed the book for its reminders of a bizarre alternate universe where sitting on marble renders one infertile. I do get the sense from the book (and the reviews) though that the author easily irritates people, but I'll bet a lot of those critics are fellow volunteers. He's right about one thing, Uzbekistan can certainly cause mental illness and hallucinatory diarrhea, and mutual love and disgust of one's fellow Americans. Highly suggested read.
Customer Reviews:
A Special Sense of Place.......2002-10-15
Ely's elegant prose drew this reader, who knows little of Russia, into a new landscape and illuminated the ways it was seen (and not seen) by its nineteenth century inhabitants. Although I was familiar with references to the Russian landscape in literature, I knew nothing of the Russian landscape painters of the nineteenth century. Ely introduces this fascinating subject and guides one through the work of such painters as Shishkin and Vasil'ev (with fine illustrations) to an appreciation of the way they saw and painted their native land. He then links this to a developing sense of national identity in the Russia of this period.
I was particularly interested in what this suggests about the role of a nation's landscape in its national myth, in the role it plays as a source of common pride in one's country and the ways we choose to portray specific features of our landscape to ourselves.
A good read from start to finish.
Book Description
A spectacular journey into the heart of bear country, with more than 175 full-colour photographs, from the authors of
Grizzly Heart. The moments of unexpected communion they’ve captured on film will change the way you think about bears forever.
What if the thought of encountering a grizzly bear filled you with anticipation and wonder? What if you knew a bear her whole life, and the bear treated you as a welcome friend whenever you visited? What if bears themselves could be free to live as they were meant to, enjoying nature’s splendour and not fearful of gun-bearing humans?
Not everyone can live the dream, but at least two people (and many more bears) have. For seven years, renowned naturalist Charlie Russell and his partner, artist Maureen Enns, have spent summers in the remote wilderness of Kamchatka, Russia. Home to the densest population of brown bears in the world, the region is also home to Russell and Enns’s unprecedented first-hand study of the kinds of relationships that can exist between bears and humans.
The authors’ first book together,
Grizzly Heart, told the unforgettable story of their work with Kamchatka’s brown bears. Now comes
Grizzly Seasons, a stunning array of photographs of these captivating and elusive creatures. Central to their project are three bear cubs -- rescued by Russell and Enns from a squalid Russian zoo -- who are reintroduced to the wild and allowed to grow into the wild animals they were meant to be. We also meet other bears face-to-face, who over the years have come to accept, and at times even embrace, the couple’s presence.
Customer Reviews:
Misleading Title.......2006-04-03
This is not a book about bears, this is a book about the authors, their problems and emotions--and about Mr. Russell's plane... What they have to say about the bears they set free would barely fill one chapter in all.
If you really want to know what it's like to raise orphan cubs in the wild, if you want to know about bear behavior, bear biology, and how to teach people to coexist peacefully with bears, read Benjamin Kilham's book "Among the Bears".
With beautiful color photos.......2004-01-09
Charlie Russell and Maureen Enns' Grizzly Seasons portrays the summers spent by the authors in Russia's wilderness. Here is the densest population of brown bears in the world - and here is an exciting, captivating account of the authors' observations, paired with beautiful color photos by Enns.
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