| Books - Outdoors & Nature |
| 81-100 of 100 Back 1 2 3 4 5 |
click price to see details click image to enlarge click link to go to the store
| 81. The Backyard Birdsong Guide: Eastern and Central North America (Backyard Birdsong Guides) by Donald Kroodsma | |
 | Hardcover
list price: $29.95 -- our price: $19.77 (price subject to change: see help) Isbn: 0811863425 Publisher: Chronicle Books Sales Rank: 1627 Average Customer Review: 
US | Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan |
|
Editorial Review Reviews
| |
| 82. The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and the Fire that Saved America by Timothy Egan | |
 | Paperback
list price: $15.95 -- our price: $10.85 (price subject to change: see help) Isbn: 0547394608 Publisher: Mariner Books Sales Rank: 2155 Average Customer Review:
US | Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan |
|
Editorial Review
Reviews
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?) This book reads like a growing, raging wildfire: it starts out slow, then builds up to a spellbounding climax and finishes with a lengthy cleanup of loss and grief and the realization that the Forest Service is needed.
Timothy Egan is a gifted writer who knows how to keep readers spellbound. I started reading the book yesterday "just to get a feel for it" and a few hours later couldn't put it down. He does a great job of pulling the reader into this subject, introducing the main characters of TR, Gifford Pinchot (first Chief Forest Servicer who met an early demise when Taft took over) and Bill Greeley (District Ranger), and all the wealthy New Yorkers who resented wild lands being put in reserves for future generations. In the background is John Muir, this country's first passionate nature advocate and preservationist. TR created the Forest Service in 1905 and Congress passed the first laws for its agency. With the buffalo, grizzly bear and wolf practically killed off from most lands, the last great fear was the wildfire. History has proven that even in the young United States, a ravaging fire could wipe out entire families, entire towns. After a brutally cold and wet winter in early 1910, the weather warmed up, drying the forests of the eventual burn area by April. Over 1000 smaller fires were already burning by late July. By then Roosevelt was out of the White House and a new man, William Taft, his successor. This book is divided into three parts: 'In on the Creation," which describes the characters who were for and against the creation of the Forest Service and the western lands; the young underpaid progressives who were picked by Pinchot to be the first forest rangers, and all the wealthy senators and businessmen who were opposed to open lands for the public. The first rangers were more than just office administrators (like they are today), but young men who had to endure a two day grueling exam to prove that they could survive in the wilderness, hunt and cook their own food and build thir own cabin. Part II describes in vivid detail the frantic attempt to recruit forest fire fighters among Westerners who were still more interested in logging, mining, hunting and whoring and opposing anyone and anything that would prevent them from doing so. But then those smaller 1000 forest fires bled into one humungous inferno in late August that ravaged so much of eastern Washington, northern Idaho and western Montana in a matter of two days. The actual fire is described starting in the chapter "Men, Men, Men!" on page 110 out of this 297 page book. Part III winds down with the postfire days and months in "What They Saved" with the realization that the Forest Service is a necessary evil for the landowners and corporations that do business from and in the wilderness. The reader sees how the complete story of all the characters falls into place. Egan knows how to make popular history interesting without dragging down the story with too many details. Describing the people involved in this story is no easy feat, yet reading "The Big Burn" is excitingly fast, highly entertaining and most interesting. Egan does an extraordinary job describing the constant tug and pulls that were going on during Roosevelt and Taft's administrations between Congress and especially Senator Weldon Heyburn from Idaho, wealthy railroad owners and businessmen on one side, and the growing young progressives pushing for reform across the country on the other. The reader becomes familiar with all the corruption, crimes, lies and stalls that went on for years in the early 20th century between land owners and land conservationists. (Preserving land for public use was unheard of at a time when large corporations were given it free to exploit for its natural resources.) Add in the popular yellow press at the time and all the many social changes going on in the working class, the final product is a well written social history that deserves to be read, enjoyed and passed on. A reader who enjoys history will gain greater insight into all the behind the scenes bickering that went on not just because of the Big Burn, but in society as a whole. Many of those progressive changes are with us today. This book is Timothy Egan at his best.
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?) Even though Teddy Roosevelt figures prominently in the title of this book, he has left office by the time of the August 1910 wildfire in the Bitterroot Mountains (along the Idaho-Montana border) at the true center of this story.
Roosevelt has left behind Gifford Pinchot to lead the conservation efforts of the nascent US Forest Service. Pinchot's efforts are underfunded and unpopular with influential senators, congressman and powerful industrial figures who want to leverage western timber and mineral reserves to enhance their personal empires. By the time the fire strikes, William Taft is serving ineffectually as president, essentially leaving Pinchot to do the best he can with what he has. Timothy Egan lays out the political and historical scene setting in animated detail, providing well documented insights. He adds life and personality to the central players in the coming conflict between powerful people (with vastly differing agendas) and nature (with just one). He then shifts to the fire itself. In 1910, the towns of the Bitterroots were populated by a diverse group of immigrants with social issues that could have come from today's op-ed pages. Writing about an influx of Italians, Egan says: "The Italian surge, in particular, angered those who felt the country was not recognizable, was overrun by foreigners, had lost its sense of identity. And they hated hearing all these strange languages, spoken in shops, schools and churches." The events of this book take place at the intersection of many disruptive influences in America; railroads, telephone, freed blacks (the Buffalo Soldiers play a prominent role in the firefighting in this book). As we watch western fires threaten lives and property today, challenging even our advantages of aircraft (the US government owned two airplanes in 1910), communications and road transportation, it's hard to imagine the odds faced by those on the front lines in this book. The final third of this book is an emotional look at hard men and women making hard choices in the face of fire fueled by dry timber and spread with hurricane-force Palouser wind. Some were deliberately heroic, others purely self-serving, and some simply met their end as they ran out of options while doing their duty. Egan captures the time and place with honesty and respect, and leaves you in awe of their pioneering spirit and the power of nature over humanity. The next time you see video of a woodland firefighter wielding a "Pulaski Axe", you'll appreciate its history...and know something about the man who gave it its name.
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?) The "big burn" was definitely big. Just as the U.S.--under Teddy Roosevelt--finally got around to protecting millions of acres of western forest, parts of Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming--an area about the size of New England--burned to the ground in what is probably the most devastating forest fire in our history. Well deserving the name "bug burn" it was front page news for a week, caused dozens (and perhaps as many as 200) deaths, and destruction of vast areas of virgin timber--worth millions of dollars if logged. Yet, the story is now largely forgotten.
Timothy Egan (who last focused his writing talents on the dust bowl) does a good job of bringing this important event back alive. The book is (with a few exceptions discussed below) eminently readable, and he tells a good story--describing both the fire itself, and the political context vividly. I do believe that the sub-title is a little overblown--the fire did not "save America", but arguably did save the concept of wilderness protection. That story is really the story of "spin"--the conservationists simply did a better job of selling their story. The narrative of heroic rangers battling a monster fire, despite having been under funded by timber barons for years--leading to wholly unnecessary lose of life. The timber companies had just as plausible story line: if the woods are going to be destroyed by fire anyway, doesn't it make sense to harvest the lumber in an economically productive manner? But did a terrible job of selling it. My reservation is that the book is a little disorganized. The same story is told twice--in almost identical words--in the introduction, and then again in its chronological "place" in the story. Also, the book really doesn't come alive until the fire starts. All in all, I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the development of our system of national parks and forests.
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?) In "The Big Burn", author Timothy Egan skillfully weaves the story of a massive August 1910 forest fire in Idaho and Montana into the histories of the U.S. Forest Service and the conservation movement. The book begins with its two leading characters, Theodore Roosevelt and his close friend, forester Gifford Pinchot. The reader who is unfamiliar with either of these two will receive a superficial biography which enables him or her to understand their roles in the forestry and conservation contribution to the Progressive Era. TR was the outdoorsman who strove to preserve natural resources and wilderness areas for future generations. Pinchot was the wealthy heir who invented the forestry profession and made it the cause of his life. It was Pinchot who taught TR how to protect virgin timber from the lumber industry. This book illustrates the forces and personalities which contended over the issues concerning the preservation or utilization of America's timber resources. Among those opposing TR and Pinchot were President William Howard Taft and timber interest defenders, Montana Senator William Clark and Idaho Senator Weldon Heyburn. The conservationists' disputes were not all fought against industrialists. Pinchot, who favored wise use of the forests, would even clash with his mentor, John Muir, who preferred uncompromising preservation.
After laying out the tale of the conservation efforts, Egan switches to stories of the settlers and Forest Rangers who fought against and live through or died in the Big Burn. These are stories of heroism and tragedy, survival and death. The title says that this is about "Teddy Roosevelt & The Fire That Saved America." As I was reading about the fire, I wondered how he was going to tie this back into the saving of America. Egan brings the preservation of the Forest Service into the story by pointing out that the Big Burn made heroes of the Rangers, thereby increasing public support for funding and defeating the efforts of the industry and its political agents to destroy the Service which stood in the way of unfettered exploitation of the timber lands. The writing is excellent. This narrative moves seamlessly from one story to another. You will always be longing for the next page. Whether you are a devotee of the history of the Idaho-Montana region, Theodore Roosevelt, the Conservation Movement or the Progressive Era, this is a valuable addition to your library. Among my interests are Theodore Roosevelt and the Progressive Era. Although I already knew much about those subjects before I began this book, I learned many new things and deepened my understanding. However familiar you are with these topics, you will learn much from this work.
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?) Timothy Egan, the author of The Big Burn: Teddy Roosevelt and The Fire That Saved America, became one of my "must read" authors after the publication of his excellent book on the Dust Bowl, The Worst Hard Time. In The Big Burn, Egan turns his attention and exceptional research and storytelling skills to an event and individuals unknown to most Americans; a wildfire that, in August 1910, consumed more that 3 million acres, five towns, and about 100 lives. All in the span of two days. To give you an idea the size of 3 millions acres, Egan tells you it would be as if the entire state of Connecticut was burned to the ground over the weekend.
Contents: Prologue Part I - In on the Creation Part II - What They Lost Part III - What They Saved Notes on Sources Acknowledgements Index The Prologue sets up what will happen in Part II - What They Lost. It is a section of the book that fills the reader with dread. To reduce your anxiety, Egan inserts "In on the Creation," a slow build to what will come. In this section of the book, he takes his time introducing the individuals; President Teddy Roosevelt, a very progressive President that was instrumental in the creation of National Parks as well as National Forests, Gifford Pinchot, the first head of the newly formed Forest Service and a very strange person, John Muir, the corrupt members of the Senate, at odds with the President and his idea of protecting vast tracts of virgin forest, and the early Forest Service Rangers, charged with protecting the forests and upholding the laws in a very lawless area of the United States. After racing through the Prologue, it will take some time to adapt to the pace of "In on the Creation." However, the payoff is the thrill ride that is "What They Lost," made more tragic by the knowledge that regardless of the heroics, nothing prepared the Forest Service Rangers, the US government, or the remote towns for the fast, intense (temperatures were estimated in some parts to be 2000 degrees) fire sweeping through the states of Idaho, Montana, and Washington. Fire jumping from tree top to tree top. Trees exploding as their sap boiled. Hurricane force winds knocking down giant trees. Heat so intense that it melted glass and metal and fire that moved so fast that neither man nor beast could out run it. Taking the lessons of this wildfire, Egan then investigates the aftermath, some lessons have remained to this day, while others are forgotten, doomed to repeat. Finally, Egan doesn't keep the reader wondering about the major players after the fire, he relates their stories, some heartbreaking, others uplifting. The result is a powerful story of early America and a forest fire that shaped our views of nature. I never thought that Egan could equal The Worst Hard Time, but I was wrong. The Big Burn is every bit as good as that excellent book; made better by the conflict between early conservationists and the people that wanted the land to further improve their bank accounts, the idealistic, young Forest Rangers, the incredible lawlessness of some early settlements, and the common men and women that rose to greatness in the face of nature at her worst. Egan has penned another masterpiece concerning early America, one that hits hardest when you become emotionally attached to several individuals. The one that will live with me for a long time is Ed Pulaski, whose invention is still used today by the Forest Service and fire fighters the world over, the "Pulaski tool."
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?) When you think of the extraordinary life and accomplishments of Theodore Roosevelt, all too often the establishment of the National Forest Service is near the bottom of the list but in The Big Burn, Egan brings it to the fore and details its creation and near extermination by both politics and natural disaster.
In the first third of the book Egan details how the service was created by Roosevelt as a part of his fight against the Trusts that were dominating politics and the economy, then how under the weak willed Taft these same Trusts were able to all but gut the system by cutting off funding. It is a picture of the corruption and influence of big business in the early 20th century and the efforts made to try and defeat them and their response. Having set the scene the rest of the book details how the Rangers of the Forest Service were suddenly confronted with the biggest forest fire in history. This was not just the sort of burn we see today on the evening news. This was a confluence of conditions that would create what a later generation would call `the perfect storm' but not in rain and wind, but in fire, a firestorm whipped by hurricane force winds. Fire that didn't just burn national forests, but railroads, bridges roads and wiped entire towns off the map. In exploring this oft overlooked element of American History in a fairly small space Egan brilliantly balances rich detail without overloading the reader with needless detail. He has a positive talent for choosing how to give a vivid description of people, their appearance, life and motivations within a few pages. Mostly this is spent on the Rangers who were on the forefront of the fight, against corruption and fire, as well as the politicians who champions and despised them, but also he gives insight into some of the men who took up a shovel for the cause. Naturally the rangers are the heroes. The professionals who, though underpaid, under trained and virtually unsupplied who all the same did not shirk in their duties to face down a particularly horrible death. The book also details enough people, an Irish cook, Italian miners, a former Texas Ranger spring to mind, that you feel you really know the people who risked and in some cases gave, their lives for the conflict. Egan's writing style flows effortlessly and you're scarcely aware of the pages turning in your hands. For anyone with an interest in American History, Conservation or just a love of the wilderness this book is an amazing read, being entertaining and educating at once.
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?) As a child of the sixties I was brought up on the image of Smokey and Bear and the admonition, "Only YOU can prevent forest fires," placing responsibility for preservation of our national forests squarely on every American's shoulders. I learned while a Boy Scout to build fires properly, to control their burning, and to ensure that it was doused before leaving the campsite. I did not learn the history of forest fires in the American West and how they destroyed both property and natural resources. Timothy Egan's "The Big Burn" is a useful addition to that earlier knowledge, telling as it does some of this history in a graceful, conversational manner.
Egan narrates in this book the story of an August 1910 forest fire in the Bitterroot Mountains of Idaho and Montana. He recites how this fire, the largest forest fire in American history and perhaps in the history of the world, devastated 3 million acres of timberland and 13.5 million dollars in property. Fueled by a superdry year and powerful winds, it took out some 8 billion board feet of wood. Before it was over, the fire had killed 78 firefighters and 8 civilians. Some bodies could not be identified because of the intensity of the flames. This one moved faster and caused more damage than virtually another other forest fire. This was in no small part because on August 20, immense winds of hurricane force (more than 75 m.p.h.) fanned the flames. By August 23, when rains finally came to help bring the fire under control, the extent of its destruction had only begun to be perceived. More than a third of Wallace, Idaho, had been incinerated, but other towns like Grand Forks, DeBorgia, Taft, and Haugen were completely wiped out. Sailors as far away as the Pacific Northwest reported seeing smoke from the fire. Dense smoke from the Idaho fire could also be seen as far southeast as Denver, Colorado. It is hard to overstate the power of this forest fire. It is also hard to overstate the lessons its destruction seared into the psyches of those who experienced it. Something had to be done to curb this threat, and Egan spends considerable time talking about the response to it. National fire policy turned from then on as the Forest Service began suppressing fires with full-time, trained crews. They also developed a system of fire lookout posts and orchestrated media campaigns to prevent fires. Smokey the Bear was born out of these efforts to ensure that "everyone" worked to prevent forest fires. "The Big Burn" is a well-written account of a turning point in the history of forestry in the United States. Like so many such turning points, unfortunately, the changes resulted from a deadly and devastating natural disaster.
| |
| 83. The Foxfire Book: Hog Dressing, Log Cabin Building, Mountain Crafts and Foods, Planting by the Signs, Snake Lore, Hunting Tales, Faith Healing, Moonshining by Inc. Foxfire Fund | |
 | Paperback
list price: $18.95 -- our price: $12.89 (price subject to change: see help) Isbn: 0385073534 Publisher: Anchor Sales Rank: 2503 Average Customer Review:
US | Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan |
|
Editorial Review Reviews
These are not fancy dancy books, but basic down to earth helpful information that the modern homesteaders we know still use. And the section on snake lore is informative as well as enchanting. Same with the section on moonshine. And for those like ourselves who have designed and are in the slow process of building our dream homes or cottages the section on chimney building is one of the best we have ever read or used. I also will add that the used copy we bought via Amazon,com to replace another copy we gave away, arrived in mint condition. If you haven't bought used books via Amazon.com you are missing out on a money saving gem.
| |
| 84. Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (Harper Perrennial Modern Classics) by Annie Dillard | |
 | Paperback
list price: $14.99 -- our price: $10.19 (price subject to change: see help) Isbn: 0061233323 Publisher: Harper Perennial Modern Classics Sales Rank: 8793 Average Customer Review: 
US | Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan |
|
Editorial Review Pilgrim at Tinker Creek is the story of a dramatic year in Virginia's Blue Ridge valley. Annie Dillard sets out to see what she can see. What she sees are astonishing incidents of "mystery, death, beauty, violence." Reviews
I put it baldly, but these and other questions are more the expression on her writing's face than the subject of it. There are details, and funny descriptions, and a rifling through the wonders of her library of naturalists. But, always, there is a person doing all this: walking, having a sandwich, creeping up on a copperhead for a closer look (after patting her pocket to make sure the snakebite kit is there), or just lying in bed remembering a horrifying or glorious experience of that particular day, in the woods, on the banks of Tinker Creek. Have I mentioned the quality of the writing? It's glorious. Part of its appeal is her special mix of jokiness and vernacular combined with high-toned thinking and literary reference, her gee-whiz attitude toward outrageous natural facts always butting in. Part of it comes from her sheer likeability. But all that aside, words do her bidding, and always I find myself pausing and smiling at her mastery. She wonders about beauty, and reacts to beauty. She also, here, has created it. "Nature is, above all, profligate. Don't believe them when they tell you how economical and thrifty nature is, whose leaves return to the soil. Wouldn't it be cheaper to leave them on the tree in the first place? This deciduous business alone is a radical scheme, the brainchild of a deranged manic-depressive with limitless capital. Extravagance! Nature will try anything once...No form is too gruesome, no behavior too grotesque. If you're dealing with organic compounds, then let them combine. If it works, if it quickens, then set it clacking in the grass; there's always room for one more; you ain't so handsome yourself. This is a spendthrift economy; though nothing is lost, all is spent." (chapter 4)
chapter five or six. It creeps in, slowly taking over the positive images and feelings, until you finally find that you are reading about children abusing newts in a state park, or caterpillars walking in the same circle around the same vase for seven full days, because their leader was taken away without their knowledge. Death is a reoccurring theme here. A main question in my class was what happened to make her change styles? Was it planned, or was it the effect of some event--the death of a friend or loved one perhaps? Either way, we read on through the spring and summer, and into the fall. She leads us into a flood, where she says, "I like crossing the dam. If I fall, I might not get up again...I face this threat every time I cross the dam, and it is always exhilarating." Her aesthetic sense of word choice described the monarch butterfly, "A monarch at rest looks like a fleck of tiger, stilled and wide-eyed." We notice though that while she uses such descriptive tone, it is more heavily applied during the via negativa section. The most enjoyable sections for me were her beginning statements, which were filled with stories. Her old tom cat, life's hidden treasures, and even the history of the starlings can be found in the opening paragraphs of each chapter. This catches the attention of the reader, because it is written in an intimate tone, and it prepares them for what lies ahead. Such stories or memories usually reoccur in the end, bringing her point full-circle. Dillard's perspective on religion is questionable. She appears to favor both religion and creationism throughout the book, yet she never sides with one more so than the other. She uses biblical references to Jacob's cattle, a scripture from the Koran, but then also personifies nature, giving it actions of its own free will. She knows stories from the Bible, yet she knows just as much about evolution. A pro-creation/ Christian perhaps? This _was_ written during the 1970's. Perhaps Annie Dillard and Henry David Thoreau do have the same writing-style. Personally I found Thoreau too redundant and long-winded, while Dillard is more natural. One can almost hear her talking; her stories included in the book as reference to a pervious statement are filled with the tone of her voice, although we have never heard her speak. That's a quality she has, making the readers feel as if they have known her for years after reading the book. So why should someone who doesn't take AP English III read Pilgrim at Tinker Creek? Simple. It makes you look at life differently. It gives you a new respect for nature, and a new knowledge of insects and animals. It's good material for anyone doing a report on Eskimos. But overall, it will open your mind to a philosophical side of nature.
Dillard took a great deal of trouble writing this, surely her best work. She wrote, while recovering from a serious bout of pneumonia, by distilling some 22 journals into the final manuscript. Her sense of mortality shows, but the resulting prose is effortless and at times miraculous in itself. Like Thoreau, on whom she had written a thesis, Dillard spent a year in a hut in the woods of a 'rather tamed valley' in order to 'see what I could see' and to seek some answers to some of life's important questions. Whereas Thoreau saw nature as the answer ('in the preservation of the wild is the salvation of the world'), Dillard sees nature as the problem. Why is it so cruel, so gruesome, so seemingly heartless - and yet so beautiful, so alive? As she meditates on the image of a frog, eaten from the inside out by a giant water bug, she asks herself, What kind of God made this kind of world? There are no easy or conventional answers, for 'our life is a faint tracing on the surface of mystery'. The author's aim, if she cannot understand the mystery of horror and beauty that is life, is at least to see it as it really is: 'We must somehow take a wider view, look at the whole landscape, really see it, and describe what's going on here. Then we can at least wail the right question into the swaddling band of darkness, or, if it comes to that,choir the proper praise'. Like the bear who went over the mountain, Dillard claims, all she could see was more of the same. The trick however is not what you see, but the way you see it. Having read this book I for one will never see the other side of the mountain in the same light again. It is now forever more ambiguous, more beautiful and, yes, more holy.
I'll add my two cents to the Dillard vs. Thoreau debate. While many readers--especially high school students--don't see much of a resemblance (mostly because Dillard is so much easier to read), Dillard herself invites comparison by mentioning Thoreau's work half a dozen times. Her style, like Thoreau's, is informal, and her powers of observation are keen. Yet, in my view, there is one important difference between the two writers: Dillard appears to have no interest with the human issues that preoccupied Thoreau: race relations, political activism, egalitarianism--and even environmentalism. In this book especially, Dillard rarely strays from "nature writing," with the exception of a few short passages pondering the role of the "creator" and the place of humans in the universe and one ill-conceived section in which she mangles quantum physics in metaphorical support of some insights on "mysticism." Many readers are enamored by Dillard's prose style, and I will confess to bafflement on this point. All too often, she abandons understated lyricism for Hemingway-inspired simplicity: "It is winter proper; the cold weather, such as it is, has come to stay." "It is early March." "It is spring." "Now it is May." "It's summer... It's summer now: the heat is on. It's summer now all summer long." "In September the birds were quiet." As with Hemingway's work, Dillard's writing can sometimes be elegant in its simplicity, but just as often, I found that she had forsaken the realm of the simple for the simplistic (and even the simple-minded). The paucity of her own prose becomes most apparent when she quotes or paraphrases other authors (such as Edwin Way Teale, whose book on insects provided much of the source material for the mesmerizing episodes in her chapter on "Fecundity"). Dillard confesses that she is "not a scientist"--and she is certainly not a philosopher. Her abstract musings are unsophisticated; the chapter on "The Present," for example, is notable for its fuzziness: "What I call innocence is the spirit's unself-conscious state at any moment of pure devotion to any object. It is at once a receptiveness and total concentration." During passages like these, Dillard is no longer serving up pop metaphysics, she's unabashedly belaboring the obvious. More than a few readers and critics have accused Dillard's works of being hollow and pointless, but I'm not sure I would go that far; her books do contain some beautiful and consequential descriptions. Yet, ultimately, it's a matter of taste: I prefer the meatier, methodic, thesis-driven, grounded works of such writers as Rachel Carson, John McPhee, Diane Ackerman, and (yes) Thoreau to Dillard's sauntering diaries.
Many of us harbor some vague inkling of lives that once had meaning. When we least expect it we almost get a glimpse of that lost and forgotten natural paradise behind the shimmering backdrop of our everyday lives. Perhaps it happens just after we stoop to retrieve our morning newspaper from the front step or when we lift our eyes from the line of slow moving traffic on that endless commute home to sense for an instant something hidden and forgotten behind the suburban landscape or city skyline. In Pilgrim at Tinker Creek Annie Dillard reminds us with great clarity that we are all vessels for wonder. Much can be made of Annie's prose poetry and poetic prose. Quotes abound in the many enthusiastic reviews to be found here, all praising her power to convey deep meaning through words. Though not a religious person, I am much reminded of the 23rd Psalm when I re-read this wonderful book. The words of Pilgrim restore the soul and lead us to calming still waters-they anoint us with immense and endless yearning and refresh us in remembering a natural world too often drowned out by honking horns and the ubiquitous TV. Dillard's Pilgrim is a deep and calming meditation. For those readers seeking light diversion or a clever story, look elsewhere. For those who hunger for meaning and enlightenment, who find beauty in nature and who have never forgotten the sublime wonderment of childhood or the thrill of transcendent experience, this book will transport you. I have no quarrel with Thoreau, but for me, Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek outshines Walden. Read it! ... Read more | |
| 85. 10,000 Steps a Day to Your Optimal Weight: Walk Your Way to Better Health by Greg Isaacs | |
 | Paperback
list price: $19.95 -- our price: $13.57 (price subject to change: see help) Isbn: 1566252873 Publisher: Bonus Books Sales Rank: 4829 Average Customer Review:
US | Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan |
|
Editorial Review
Reviews
| |
| 86. The National Parks: America's Best Idea by Dayton Duncan, Ken Burns | |
 | Hardcover
list price: $50.00 -- our price: $29.25 (price subject to change: see help) Isbn: 0307268969 Publisher: Knopf Sales Rank: 908 Average Customer Review:
US | Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan |
|
Editorial Review
Reviews
| |
| 87. Gun Digest 2011 by Dan Shideler | |
 | Paperback
list price: $32.99 -- our price: $20.32 (price subject to change: see help) Isbn: 1440213372 Publisher: Krause Publications Sales Rank: 1600 Average Customer Review:
US | Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan |
|
Editorial Review BIGGER. BETTER. MORE OF WHAT YOU WANT! IT’S GUN DIGEST 2011! THE WORLD’S GREATEST GUN BOOK SINCE 1944 Long regarded as the shooter’s best resource, Gun Digest is jam-packed with the kind of entertaining information on guns and shooting that you just won’t find anywhere else. From in-depth field reports on the newest guns and gear to fascinating discussions of collectible arms, you’ll find it in Gun Digest 2011. IT’S ALL HERE! Rifles, Handguns & Shotguns Engraved & Custom Guns Ammunition Air Guns Gunsmithing Supplies Black Powder Women’s Products So join us this year as we take a fond look at the greatest handgun of all time, the 1911, on its 100th birthday – and discover other great guns along the way! Reviews
| |
| 88. A Friend of the Family by Lauren Grodstein | |
 | Kindle Edition
list price: $23.95 Asin: B003I1WXXU Publisher: Algonquin Books Sales Rank: 2099 US | Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan |
|
Editorial Review
| |
| 89. The Worst Hard Time by Timothy Egan | |
 | Kindle Edition
list price: $14.95 Asin: B000SEIT8I Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Sales Rank: 3062 US | Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan |
|
Editorial Review "The Worst Hard Time is an epic story of blind hope and endurance almost beyond belief; it is also, as Tim Egan has told it, a riveting tale of bumptious charlatans, conmen, and tricksters, environmental arrogance and hubris, political chicanery, and a ruinous ignorance of nature's ways. Egan has reached across the generations and brought us the people who played out the drama in this devastated land, and uses their voices to tell the story as well as it could ever be told." --Marq de Villiers, author of Water: The Fate of Our Most Precious Resource The dust storms that terrorized America's High Plains in the darkest years of the Depression were like nothing ever seen before or since, and the stories of the people that held on have never been fully told. Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times journalist and author Timothy Egan follows a half-dozen families and their communities through the rise and fall of the region, going from sod homes to new framed houses to huddling in basements with the windows sealed by damp sheets in a futile effort to keep the dust out. He follows their desperate attempts to carry on through blinding black blizzards, crop failure, and the deaths of loved ones. Drawing on the voices of those who stayed and survived - those who, now in their eighties and nineties, will soon carry their memories to the grave - Egan tells a story of endurance and heroism against the backdrop of the Great Depression. As only great history can, Egan's book captures the very voice of the times: its grit, pathos, and abiding courage. Combining the human drama of Isaac's Storm with the sweep of The American People in the Great Depression, The Worst Hard Time is a lasting and important work of American history. Timothy Egan is a national enterprise reporter for the New York Times. He is the author of four books and the recipient of several awards, including the Pulitzer Prize. He lives in Seattle, Washington. "As one who, as a young reporter, survived and reported on the great Dust Bowl disaster, I recommend this book as a dramatic, exciting, and accurate account of that incredible and deadly phenomenon. This is can't-put-it-down history."--Walter Cronkite "The Worst Hard Time is wonderful: ribbed like surf, and battering us with a national epic that ranks second only to the Revolution and the Civil War. Egan knows this and convincingly claims recognition for his subject - as we as a country finally accomplished, first with Lewis and Clark, and then for 'the greatest generation,' many of whose members of course were also survivors of the hardships of the Great Depression. This is a banner, heartfelt but informative book, full of energy, research, and compassion." --Edward Hoagland, author of Compass Points: How I Lived "Here's a terrific true story - who could put it down? Egan humanizes Dust Bowl history by telling the vivid stories of the families who stayed behind. One loves the people and admires Egan's vigor and sympathy." --Annie Dillard, author of Pilgrim at Tinker Creek "The American West got lucky when Tim Egan focused his acute powers of observation on its past and present. Egan's remarkable combination of clear analysis and warm empathy anchors his portrait of the women and men who held on to their places - and held on to their souls - through the nearly unimaginable miseries of the Dust Bowl. This book provides the finest mental exercise for people wanting to deepen, broaden, and strengthen their thinking about the relationship of human beings to this earth." --Patricia N. Limerick, author of The Legacy of Conquest: The Unbroken Past of the American West | |
| 90. Touching the Void: The True Story of One Man's Miraculous Survival by Joe Simpson | |
 | Paperback
list price: $14.99 -- our price: $9.98 (price subject to change: see help) Isbn: 0060730552 Publisher: Perennial Sales Rank: 2087 Average Customer Review:
US | Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan |
|
Editorial Review Joe Simpson and his climbing partner, Simon Yates, had just reached the top of a 21,000-foot peak in the Andes when disaster struck. Simpson plunged off the vertical face of an ice ledge, breaking his leg. In the hours that followed, darkness fell and a blizzard raged as Yates tried to lower his friend to safety. Finally, Yates was forced to cut the rope, moments before he would have been pulled to his own death. The next three days were an impossibly grueling ordeal for both men. Yates, certain that Simpson was dead, returned to base camp consumed with grief and guilt over abandoning him. Miraculously, Simpson had survived the fall, but crippled, starving, and severely frostbitten was trapped in a deep crevasse. Summoning vast reserves of physical and spiritual strength, Simpson crawled over the cliffs and canyons of the Andes, reaching base camp hours before Yates had planned to leave. How both men overcame the torments of those harrowing days is an epic tale of fear, suffering, and survival, and a poignant testament to unshakable courage and friendship. Reviews
Simpson and a climbing partner in an excess of youthful bravado planned a new route up a monster Andean peak in Peru. The area was remote and civilization was somewhere else. After an arduous ascent, Simpson fell and broke his leg while descending. The reader gradually realizes what a chilling horror has befallen the pair. They have no possibility of rescue; the mountain was almost unclimbable for two superb athletes with two good legs. How can they possibly get down when one of them is unable to walk? Partner, Simon Yates, ropes Simpson to himself and tries to guide Simpson down who is forced to crawl, slide, and inch himself forward. Then Simpson goes over the edge of a cornice and is dangling with only the rope holding him over the void. Yates heroically digs in, but gradually he himself is being inexorably drawn to the chasm. He finally, with shuddering reluctance, cuts the rope, and Simpson falls many feet into a crevasse. The rest of the book is Simpson's six-day excruciating journey down the mountain: his thoughts, hallucinations and agony. Simpson is a powerful writer without a trace of self-pity. He doesn't try to impress us with his stoicism - far from it, at times he is almost mad with fright. There is nothing lurid here; the book is exhausting, but thought provoking. You won't forget it easily, and you cannot help but wonder what it is like beyond the edge and into the maelstrom.
Touching the Void is, simply put, the story of the human spirit's ability for survival against all the odds. There are many occasions where both Joe and Simon could have given up; many moments when it could all have been for naught; but they kept going, and both lived to tell the tale. Simpson's writing is, as ever, vivid and visceral, putting you up on Siula Grande with him. We vicariously experience his time in the crevasse, his efforts on the glacier, and then his crawl back towards the camp, wondering if there will be anybody there even if he does make it. You know all along that he survives, but when he reaches safety you want to cry out because he describes it so painfully well. This is what the book is about. With the impending release of the movie, and widespread radio coverage in the UK featuring interviews and editorials, a terrible misconception has crept in. Almost everyone who has come into the shop and asked me about the book has said, "I heard about this book on the radio. It's about a climber who cuts the rope on his friend. Do you have it?" By focussing on Simon Yates' cutting of the rope, it seems that everyone is missing the point. Far from a cold-hearted act, everybody fails to acknowledge that had Yates not lowered Simpson down several thousand feet of the mountain, a non-stop feat of incredible courage and fortitude, Simpson would not have survived, period. Simpson himself does not blame Yates for his actions, and this is the lead we should be taking. All these people who have never been on a mountain in their lives saying, "Ooh, he broke the code, he shouldn't have done that," just have no idea. I'm glad the book is selling well, and deservedly so, but I wish it could sell for the right reasons and not because people want the inside story on The-Man-Who-Cut-The-Rope.
The movie and the DVD extras take the viewer on an emotional path where one at first dislikes the arrongant and impetuous Simpson, while his climbing pal Simon Yates seems more sympathetic. However, as the movie continues and especially if you watch the Return to Siula Grande DVD extra, it becomes hard not to empathize with Simpson's reaction to returning to the place where he had faced so much trauma and to, in contrast, find Yates cold and unfeeling, as if the experience they shared so many years before no longer affected him personally. The end of the movie leaves one with the impression that Simpson, although understanding at what Yates did, does not really like Yates and does certainly not consider him a friend. The book, written several years earlier, certainly leaves a more positive impression of Yates. While Simpson admits to having written the book in part to clear Yates's name in the climbing communitry, his storytelling takes the reader beyond a defense of Yates's actions. In fact, Simpson's description of Yates's attempt to lower the injured Simpson down the mountain portrays an act that is nothing short of heroic. It is clear that his cutting the rope was a last, desperate resort to end a situation in which there was no way out. While the book and the movie both tell very closely the same story, reading the book and seeing the movie is neither a redundant experience nor an exercise in detecting differences in the two plots. In fact, the one enriches the story in the other. The maps and the first-person telling in the book complement the documentary-style script and the sweeping vistas caught on film.
(congratulations on a spectacular first ascent)
| |
| 91. Whatever You Do, Don't Run: True Tales of a Botswana Safari Guide by Peter Allison | |
 | Kindle Edition
list price: $13.50 Asin: B001E55WSU Publisher: 2007-10-01 Sales Rank: 4173 US | Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan |
| 92. The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind: Creating Currents of Electricity and Hope (P.S.) by William Kamkwamba, Bryan Mealer | |
 | Paperback
(2010-08-01)
list price: $14.99 -- our price: $10.19 (price subject to change: see help) Isbn: 0061730335 Publisher: Harper Perennial Sales Rank: 2484 Average Customer Review: 
US | Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan |
|
Editorial Review William Kamkwamba was born in Malawi, a country where magic ruled and modern science was mystery. It was also a land withered by drought and hunger. But William had read about windmills, and he dreamed of building one that would bring to his small village a set of luxuries that only 2 percent of Malawians could enjoy: electricity and running water. His neighbors called him misala—crazy—but William refused to let go of his dreams. With a small pile of once-forgotten science textbooks; some scrap metal, tractor parts, and bicycle halves; and an armory of curiosity and determination, he embarked on a daring plan to forge an unlikely contraption and small miracle that would change the lives around him. The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind is a remarkable true story about human inventiveness and its power to overcome crippling adversity. It will inspire anyone who doubts the power of one individual's ability to change his community and better the lives of those around him. Reviews
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?) This is the story of William Kamkwamba, a clever boy in Malawi, Africa who built his own windmill from found materials at age 14. Much of the energy of the book is that it is a very recent story, the main events taking place just in the last six years.
The story is in three parts. The first part tells of Willam's life growing up and that of his father, giving a fascinating glimpse of the village life of subsistence farmers whose culture has changed little in thousands of years. Daily existence includes very real fears of witchcraft, shamans for healing, and strong currents of superstition. Although written in clear, simple narrative (mostly by the co-author, Bryan Mealer, an AP reporter with extensive experience across Africa), it is by no means a child's bedtime story. Malawi, an interior country of 13 million, has minimal health care, primitive agriculture, and no free public high schools. Villagers can be killed by wild animals in the forest. In 2001 the maize crops failed, plunging the countryside into famine and near social collapse, and William loses friends to disease and starvation. The government comes off badly in this episode, incompetent, brutal against the local village chief who complains, and corrupt. William is a bright boy eager for school, but his family cannot afford the fees. He is forced to drop out. In the second part of the story, doing the best he can in spite of this disappointment, William finds an elementary physics textbook in a local library and sees diagrams of windmills - he cannot even read the English text. From this bit of information, with impressive focus and persistence he manages to build his own version from scraps of wire, an old bicycle hub, and flattened PVC pipe for blades. He has zero resources - not even a soldering iron, which would be useless in any case since there is no electricity in his household. But he is a natural engineer, and even with no guidance or help, he succeeds in making an operating windmill which powers a few lightbulbs for home and village, charges cell phones, operates a water pump - all of which make a real difference in village life. The third part of the book, just as remarkable as his technological triumph, is about William's discovery by the outside world. The hero of the discovery phase is really the Internet. William's windmill comes to the attention of an engineer working in the capital city, who blogs about it, inspiring others to take a four hour bus journey to find William, who then quickly comes to the attention of international entrepreneurs and technologists. His life quickly expands - amazingly, straight from his village he is invited to speak at an African conference organized by TED, the California organization which publicizes emerging ideas about technology and design. Taken under wing by US sponsors, he travels internationally and finds scholarships for his own education as well as funding for his village technology. He now has a website of course (just Google his name), a PayPal donation account, and a promotional video here on Amazon - more international attention within a short time than the coolest MIT Media Lab guru! There are a few technical errors in the text - malaria is not a virus for example, and the core of a transformer is a ferromagnet, not a conductor. These are minor points; William is an appealing character and the story is inspiring. But there must be millions of Williams across the developing world. What the book really shows is that the best international assistance is in response to local energy rather than top-down through an ineffective government. The tools to find those kids and offer that help are now at hand. Whereas electric windmills are not new - everything William did has been known for a hundred years - instant cheap global communication is a revolutionary innovation which can help bring the best minds of Africa and many other places into the world community.
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?) After barely surviving a famine in Malawi (sub-Saharan Africa), 14-year-old William Kamkwamba was determined to find a way to make life better for himself and his family. What if he could somehow bring electricity to his village, to pump water for crops in times of drought? Using diagrams in an old forgotten science book called "Using Energy" that he found in a grade school library, he cobbled together a contraption out of scraps and junk that worked to power a few light bulbs -- and changed the life of his village forever. His neighbors, steeped in superstition and with little or no knowledge of science, thought him crazy. But he had a gift for mechanical things, he understood the principles, and he knew he could do it. And he did. Eventually he got a second windmill going, powering a water pump from a deep well, which is now used by all the women in the village. Today every house there has a solar panel and a battery to store electricity, too.
But this is much more than a story about an African boy who built a working windmill. It's a monument to the human spirit. In fact, we don't even get to making the windmill itself until halfway through the book. In the first half, William tells us a lot about his life in Africa, the terrible famine that swept his land, how he and his family survived, and the clues along the way which eventually led to him making the windmill. Even as a little kid, he was taking apart radios to see how they worked -- with no books or training, just trial and error. Then he saw a bicycle light that ran from a mechanical dynamo -- the kind that generates electricity when you pedal. Experimenting with this, he figured out how to get it to power his radio when he turned the bike pedals. When he finally found a picture of a windmill in the "Using Energy" book, it all came together. "In my mind I saw the dynamo," he explains, "saw myself with my neighbor's bicycle those many nights ago, spinning the pedals so I could listen to the radio... The wind would spin the blades of the windmill, rotating the magnets in the dynamo, and then creating current. Attach a wire to the dynamo and you could power anything..." Sounds simple? In principle, yes -- but there is no local Radio Shack in a Malawi village for William to go get the parts. He must make do with what he can scrounge -- and that's the really amazing part of this story. Step by step, Willam explains what he needed for the windmill, how he adapted things he found in the junkyard, or took odd jobs to get money to buy what he could not make. Some simple tasks took three or four hours because he did not have the right tools and had to improvise. But he kept at it. All in all, he probably put a hundred or more hours into this project. Talk about determination! As I read the story, I could not help thinking how wasteful we are here in America. Over and over, I was astonished at William's creativity in finding uses for things I would have considered useless junk. That gave me serious pause for thought. One more point: I finished this book the same week as President Obama's "stay in school" pep talk to students in America (Sept 8, 2009). Here in a land where every child can get a free education, we have a 30% dropout rate, even higher in some places. In Malawi where William is growing up, school is only for those who can afford to pay tuition, and he is desperate to study. Because of the famine, his family had lost everything and could no longer afford to send him to school, so he was forced to drop out. Yet he wanted to go so badly, he was sneaking INTO class. Eventually he does get a scholarship, thanks to the publicity generated by his windmill project. Had it not been for that, his genius might have gone to waste, and who knows what future inventions the world would miss? Perhaps this book should be required reading in American schools, so kids here will know just how lucky they are to have such good educational opportunities. I give William's book ten stars!
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?) This is the autobiography of William Kamkwamba, who grew up in rural Malawi, Africa, in poverty and famines, and who would eventually build a windmill to provide electricity for his family. I found this firsthand account of life in a third-world country fascinating, especially his account of living through a famine. And, this is really what the bulk of the book is about. He's over halfway through the book before his windmill even enters the picture, though you can see his fascination in similar things earlier on.
I would have appreciated this book even if it had a more standard ending, because the depiction of his life is enthralling, vivid, and hard to put down. The descriptions of famine, and shortages, and riots, and the desperation that starving people are driven to is riveting. But, his character is also fascinating in his desire to dream and to obtain a better future for his family. The building of his windmill is inspirational, persevering in the face of ridicule and making do with junkyard parts. I very much became interested in William and desired to see his success by the end of the story. For those who are mechanically inclined, the details of how William improvised his windmill and other inventions will probably be fascinating. I am not so inclined, and cannot visualize things like that without a diagram, with was not included in the advance reader's edition, but I understand will be in the final version. So I just skimmed through some portions. But, these are only small portions of the book. I would have enjoyed seeing a bit more shared about his family's faith. His parents are Presbyterians, and his father isn't caught up in the fear of magic and curses, unlike many around them. "Respect the wizards, my son, but always remember, with God on your side, they have no power." There's the passing reference to Canaan or Noah or some such thing that lets you know William is knowledgeable of at least some portions of the Bible, but I really think a good portion of his hope and reaching to the future was because of his religious background (superstition does cause some opposition against his windmill). Overall, I would probably rate this book 5 stars, assuming the mechanical diagrams in the final edition are good, but even if not, I'd rate it a 4.5. This is a wonderful description of life in a poor African country, and a wonderful story of a boy striving for a future for his family. As he's currently in his early 20s, it will be interesting to see what he does in the future, and hopefully, he will be a further blessing to his countrymen. I will definitely read this book again in the future, and quite probably aloud to my children (currently 8 and under) a few years down the road. I highly recommend it.
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?) An incredible memoir about a young boy who becomes fascinated with the way things work. "How does this radio work?" ... "But HOW does it work?" From humble beginnings, William begins to figure out how to fix things, then create things, in turn creating a better life for himself and family and those around him.
It doesn't read quite like the other memoirs I've read recently. It reads like a novel, you forget that these are events that actually happened. This kid lived through this and accomplished feats that many of us in the modern, developed world can only fathom. It would be unfair to cite too many examples but from his early questions comes his first experiments with figuring out how radios work. Using cheap batteries and found wire, he figures out the difference between AC and DC, why FM and AM are different, different sources of power... of course all this leads to creating MORE power. All in all, a really great book. William Morrow (publisher) has been putting out a lot of great memoirs lately. Good job on their part for finding all of these gems! I hope they keep it up.
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?) Caution: Some spoilers below. This is the most awe inspiring book I have read in years. William Kamkwamba is a tribute to human inventiveness and persistence. William grows up in a society in Africa that believes that witchcraft can cause children to steal people's heads and play soccer with them during the night (without the headless person even noticing). All around him people are quite literally starving to death, eating corn husks and sawdust in an attempt to stay alive during a famine. He does not attend school because his parents can not afford the tuition (you and I spend more on a pair of shoes). In spite of all this he gets a hold of some science textbooks, written in English, and teaches himself the basics of electricity and magnetism. He scavenges junk yards and begins to build a windmill. Almost everyone thinks he is slightly crazy, even his own family. Until he gets the windmill working and powers up some small lights for his home. Then they are lining up to charge up their cell phones from his "electric wind". (one does wonder why they have cell phones in such a poor country) The book reads well, his voice comes through the prose and at the end you have some understanding of how he accomplished this astounding feat. This book humbled me, made me cry and also laugh out loud. Highly recommended.
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?) This autobiography of William Kamkwamba from Malawi, Africa tells about his journey from having little schooling and no resources to being able to build a windmill that generated electricity for his family, and eventually was able to power a water well for his village, improving their quality of life, and perhaps even saving lives. He details his father's conversion from a drinker and a fighter with quite a reputation, to becoming a Christian, and then setting a good example for his son. Along the way, we learn a little about the political and economic history of his country, and the basic problems that have led to frequent famines and food shortages. His determination to figure out how to build something that would generate electricity is fascinating. Hours and hours reading a few books from a library about electricity, tinkering around with transistor radios, eventually creating a little businees of repairing them, banging on junkyard parts for days to liberate a needed part, and ingenious makeshift tools makes this a fascinating and inspiring journey. Imagine using a nail driven through a corncob as a drill; and stamping a knife out of sheet metal and sharpening it by hand are a few samples of his resourcefulness.
I couldn't put this book down, it was so captivating. There are some heart-rending passages about the effects of famine; no longer is lack of food in Africa an abstract concept to me. Living for weeks, on one meal a day, consisting of a few mouth-fuls of cooked corn, and working in the fields for the next harvest, are detailed so well you can feel the strain. I would recommend this as a good book for mature teens to help them realize what can be accomplished when you have so little. There is some mention of superstitions and witch doctor magic, and some descriptions of violence, of people fighting to get food and seed from the government and others.
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?) I was actually thinking this book was going to be about the technical challenges that the character (who is also the author) had when attempting to build a windmill to harness power for his village. My initial take was wrong - this book is so much better.
This book is The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl, mixed with The Invention of Air: A Story Of Science, Faith, Revolution, And The Birth Of America, but with its own twist... a struggling country that hasn't known anything else in modern history (rather than Depression/Dust bowl America) is "introduced" to a person who is unwilling to let things play out as others have. Can't pay for school? Then become a lazy drunk or a farmer. William Kamkwamba proves that those are not the only two options for those struggling with 3rd world poverty and a corrupt government. It's not so much that he is willing to build the windmill (or do self-study, or experiment on his own), because, given time, parts, and lack of distractions (TV/Video games/etc), I think many intelligent individuals would attempt similar feats. The powerful message here is - it can be done, and it was done. Despite challenges, being called crazy, living in poverty, and his own turmoil of almost starving, there was no giving up. A very good book - would recommend to anyone. While it doesn't deter at all from the value of book, for my own interest, I wish there would have been a few pictures of his windmill...it would have visually driven home the fact of technical improvising.
Customer review from the Amazon Vine™ Program (What's this?) As a scholar working in African Studies I always approach popular writing on Africa with a degree of skepticism, given the narrow range of tropes and stereotypes that one usually finds (see Binyavanga Wainaina's brilliant satire, "How to Write About Africa"). Fortunately this book runs against most of the common (mis)representations of rural Africa. From the start Kamkwamba is writing of a world shaped by colonialism, cash cropping, and the brutal pro-market policies of the World Bank and IMF. He vividly brings to life the risks of rainfed agriculture and the realities of hunger and HIV without falling into a depiction of Africa as victim, instead focusing on the myriad strategies (including his own) that people use to survive the uncertainties of climate and neoliberalism.
Overall the book is a delight to read, grounded in anecdotes of everyday life in rural Malawi, and evoking for me many memories of travelling and living in east and southern Africa. Some readers may find it a bit too free of descriptions of landscape and setting - I was constantly conjuring images from my own memory of the kind of small trading town where William seems to live. The last part of the book is probably the least satisfying -- after the dramatic stories of impoverished people on the edge of survival, the account of various wealthy Western sponsors who pop in and out of rural Africa was not so interesting. I was also frustrated that the nature of the relationship between author and co-author had been clarified -- the text makes no mention of the process of authorship. Despite these minor complaints, I really enjoyed the book, from the tales of witchcraft to the recaps of basic electrical engineering. It's certainly suited for high school level courses, and maybe first-year college courses. I could also see using some chapters as supplementary readings on famine and food security. Readers should also check out the afrigadget blog which has dozens of examples of African "makers" as well as reprints of some of the Malawian newspaper coverage of William's windmill. ... Read more | |
| 93. Environment: The Science Behind the Stories (3rd Edition) by Jay H. Withgott, Scott R. Brennan | |
 | Paperback
list price: $145.40 -- our price: $97.47 (price subject to change: see help) Isbn: 0805395733 Publisher: Prentice Hall Sales Rank: 40483 US | Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan |
|
Editorial Review
| |
| 94. Introduction to Environmental Geology (4th Edition) by Edward A. Keller | |
 | Paperback
list price: $158.80 -- our price: $112.00 (price subject to change: see help) Isbn: 0132251507 Publisher: Prentice Hall Sales Rank: 90169 Average Customer Review: 
US | Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan |
|
Editorial Review As the human population increases, many decisions concerning our use of natural resources will determine our standard of living and the quality of our environment. This reader-friendly book helps readers develop an understanding of how geology interacts with major environmental problems facing society. Included with every text, the Hazard City CD-ROMgives instructors meaningful, easy-to-assign, and easy-to-grade assignments based on the idealized town of Hazard City. Focuses on five fundamental concepts of environmental geology: Human Population Growth, Sustainability, Earth as a System, Hazardous Earth Processes, and Scientific Knowledge and Values. Features new chapters on Impacts of Extraterrestrial Objects and Waste as a Resource: Waste Management. Presents new or extensively revised discussion of human population growth, Alaska earthquake of 2002, emerging global water shortage, cleaning Boston Harbor, and much more. Revises many figures to more clearly illustrate the topics under discussion, based on user feedback. An informative reference for anyone interested in learning more about the environment. Reviews
Alas, the book does not live up to its promises. My greatest disappointment is that the text is rather dry, and the Critical Thinking Questions rarely moved beyond synthesizing material from the chapter. I am also concerned that students explore environmental issues at both the local (for me, northeastern US) and global scales. Apart from a fairly thorough coverage of global warming and an occasional photo of an earthquake or volcano overseas, Keller seems content to focus on the US, especially his own home state, California. His only nod to Earth Systems Science is a few paragraphs crammed into the first chapter, along with mention of Gaia. The CD-ROM was less exciting for students than I had anticipated, and my class found the written part of the CD assignments difficult, and many answers were based upon previous ones, so if they got one wrong, they would get several wrong and do poorly as a result. Finally, I was disappointed by Keller'ss uninspired philosophical assertion in the final chapter, in which he insisted that "sustainable development" is possible and ought to be pursued. In a class discussion, the students all concluded that development and sustainability are mutually exclusive things. The text is thorough and fairly accessable, but fails to move beyond being "like most other textbooks" despite the numerous ways it appears to do so at first glance.
| |
| 95. The Beak of the Finch: A Story of Evolution in Our Time by Jonathan Weiner | |
 | Paperback
list price: $16.00 -- our price: $10.13 (price subject to change: see help) Isbn: 067973337X Publisher: Vintage Sales Rank: 10620 Average Customer Review:
US | Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan |
|
Editorial Review Reviews
Darwin first introduced us to the finches that inhabit the Galapagos Islands in his ORIGIN OF THE SPECIES. Through their research since 1973, evolutionary scientists, Peter and Rosemary Grant, have discovered that Darwin's finches are even more interesting than Darwin ever dreamed, and reveal that Darwin may not have known the strengths of his own theory. Jonathan Weiner's Pulitzer-Prize winning book provides a fine introduction to evolutionary science, while also delivering conclusive proof that evolution is happening "in jittery motion," daily and hourly all around us (pp. 8-9). "The beak of the finch," Weiner writes, "is an icon of evolution the way the Bohr atom is an icon of modern physics, and the study of either one shows us more primal energy and eternal change than our minds are built to take in. Yet like the vista of the atoms, the vista of evolution in action, of evolution in the flesh, has enormous implications for our sense of reality, of what life is, and for our sense of power, of what we can do with life" (p. 112). For this reason, Weiner's brilliant book should be considered required reading. G. Merritt
We're introduced to a populationg that is perfect for evolutionary studies--a limited number of species in a closed ecosystem on an isolated island. Darwin couldn't have known what his observations would lead to so many years later, but Weiner shares with us the Grants meticulous study of over 20 generations of finches. Thousands of individual birds were measured, and their progeny tracked. Through this book, we see what they saw--evolution in action. The conclusions (and no, this isn't a spoiler) are that evolution by natural selection occurs and that selection can occur quickly (it's not always a slow process). Weiner (and the Grants) also touches on speciation in fish populations, and bacterial and viral evolution. This was required reading in an introductory evolution class in college. I hope, someday, students in high school will be assigned this book. It was excellent, and will probably be wrapped up as Christmas gifts for a few of my friends and family.
In every other respect the book is a fine piece of work, valuable and entertaining. The treatment of the themes, the subjects and the material is well balanced. Weiner structures the subject and the contexts competently and coherently. The book obviously took a large helping of hard work to write and to research. In spite of the title, the Finches, though they are the main protagonists and endearing to boot, do not obscure the main theme, which is at all times the effect and mechanism of natural selection in evolution. Apart from the grounds for my one opening complaint, the book is well, clearly and pleasantly written. I strongly recommend it to anyone with an interest in biology, professional or not. I suspect that many readers will wonder what I was grousing about. And in case anyone with an even greater distaste for those passages feels tempted to drop the book in irritation, I urge them to grit their teeth, skim the offending bits and bear it. There is plenty of Good Stuff to compensate for the annoyance, and I cannot think of any other book which so accessibly, lucidly and persuasively covers the same material.
One of the particular things they are attempting to observe directly is a speciation event - the creation of a new species of finch - which we long assumed must take place over geologic time and hence is unobservable. But in the process, Weiner reviews the notion of evolution, with fascinating tidbits from Darwin's original research and thoughts on these same finches of the Galopagos. It is a brilliant portrait of the cutting edge in science as well as a detailed review of many basic notions of evolution. It is also a beautifully written book, indeed a masterpiece of elucidation. And it is all hard science, rather than the pseudo-scientific pap that passes for it in so many popular magazines today. While its rigor makes the book a challenge to read, it is well worth the effort. Recommended, one of the best pieces of scientific journalism I ever read.
The book was an interesting read and the author did a good job of keeping complex science concepts simple for the purpose of suiting every type of reader. He included the stories of the Grant's and numerous other scientists to keep the novel interesting and not strictly scientific. The novel was presented in a story-like fashion on how evolutionary concepts were supported.The idea that evolutionary changes are always occurring and that the results of evolution can be seen in both short and long time periods is presented in the novel. Overall, the book was enjoyable and gave the reader valuable insight on evolution and Darwinism.
| |
| 96. Gardening When It Counts: Growing Food in Hard Times (Mother Earth News Wiser Living Series) by Steve Solomon | |
 | Paperback
list price: $19.95 -- our price: $13.57 (price subject to change: see help) Isbn: 086571553X Publisher: New Society Publishers Sales Rank: 6501 US | Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan |
|
Editorial Review The decline of cheap oil is inspiring increasing numbers of North Americans to achieve some measure of backyard food self-sufficiency. In hard times, the family can be greatly helped by growing a highly productive food garden, requiring little cash outlay or watering. Currently popular intensive vegetable gardening methods are largely inappropriate to this new circumstance. Crowded raised beds require high inputs of water, fertility and organic matter, and demand large amounts of human time and effort. But, except for labor, these inputs depend on the price of oil. Prior to the 1970s, North American home food growing used more land with less labor, with wider plant spacing, with less or no irrigation, and all done with sharp hand tools. But these sustainable systems have been largely forgotten. Gardening When It Counts helps readers rediscover traditional low-input gardening methods to produce healthy food. Designed for readers with no experience and applicable to most areas in the English-speaking world except the tropics and hot deserts, this book shows that any family with access to 3-5,000 sq. ft. of garden land can halve their food costs using a growing system requiring just the odd bucketful of household waste water, perhaps two hundred dollars worth of hand tools, and about the same amount spent on supplies — working an average of two hours a day during the growing season. Steve Solomon is a well-known west coast gardener and author of five previous books, including Growing Vegetables West of the Cascades which has appeared in five editions. | |
| 97. Mountaineering: Freedom of the Hills: 50th Anniversary | |
 | Paperback
list price: $29.95 -- our price: $19.77 (price subject to change: see help) Isbn: 1594851387 Publisher: Mountaineers Books Sales Rank: 5190 Average Customer Review:
US | Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan |
|
Editorial Review
Reviews
| |
| 98. Just in Case: How to be Self-Sufficient when the Unexpected Happens by Kathy Harrison | |
 | Paperback
list price: $16.95 -- our price: $11.53 (price subject to change: see help) Isbn: 1603420355 Publisher: Storey Publishing Sales Rank: 2032 US | Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan |
|
Editorial Review
| |
| 99. Dogs and All about Them by Robert Leighton | |
 | Kindle Edition
list price: $0.00 Asin: B000JML1J8 Publisher: Public Domain Books US | Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan |
|
Editorial Review | |
| 100. Becoming Animal: An Earthly Cosmology by David Abram | |
 | Hardcover
list price: $26.95 -- our price: $17.79 (price subject to change: see help) Isbn: 0375421718 Publisher: Pantheon Sales Rank: 2109 US | Canada | United Kingdom | Germany | France | Japan |
|
Editorial Review David Abram’s first book, The Spell of the Sensuous—hailed as “revolutionary” by the Los Angeles Times, as “daring and truly original” by Science—has become a classic of environmental literature. Now Abram returns with a startling exploration of our human entanglement with the rest of nature. | |
| 81-100 of 100 Back 1 2 3 4 5 |
Well written history of an important event, September 12, 2009
Slow shipping, September 19, 2009