Reviews (9)

Everyone should read this book!
This is a very important book that should be read by all politicians, educators, and citizens of Earth. David Orr gives clear examples and ideas for making the radical changes we need to undo some of the damage that we have done to the planet. You will be inspired and moved if you read this book.

a great book in all respects
first off, as promised by the reseller, the book was in great condition.
The Inclusion ofEcology Studies Needed In All Education
David W. Orr is chair of the environmental studies program at Oberlin College in Ohio and is most often credited with coining the word "ecoliteracy" (similar to the renown biologist Garrett Hardin's "ecolacy") to describe the very important study and understanding of ecology and natural resource processes. He is also credited with the simple, but profound statement, "When we heal the Earth, we heal ourselves."
Read more

Subjects:  1. Conservation Of Natural Resources (General)    2. Ecology    3. Education    4. Education / Teaching    5. Educational Policy & Reform    6. Environmental Conservation & Protection - General    7. Environmental Science    8. Environmental education    9. Philosophy    10. Philosophy & Social Aspects    11. Education / Educational Reform    12. Nature / Essays    13. Philosophy of education    14. The Environment   

Reviews (14)

Excellent Book!
This was by far the best book that I've read on owning a boat and living aboard (and we've even been passed it around the marina).This book was a great resource and was worth much than its cost.Very highly recommended!

More like how to live aboard a barge.
Unfortuately, the book seems to be written much from an RV or houseboat mentality. The major factor in a choice to live aboard a boat is expense, or at least I gather from this read. Much more useful is anything by the Pardeys--always useful classics, or more recently FitzGeralds "Sea-Steading"

Really Helpful
This book far exceeded all of our expectations.If you want a book on living aboard while underway or even just cruising, get another book (like the Pardey book).But the author says that himself in the first chapter.Living aboard is just about living aboard, perhaps even right at the dock.If you already know all this, then find another book.On the other hand, my husband Will and I think that this is the most helpful boating book we've ever read. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Boat living    2. Boating - General    3. Handbooks & Manuals    4. Sailing - General    5. Ships & Shipbuilding - Repair & Maintenance    6. Sports & Recreation    7. Transportation   

Reviews (79)

The sun is but a morningstar!
Reading Walden is like visiting the Grand Canyon or standing at the shores of the Meditteranean...part awe at witnessing the grandeur of such a thing and part studied concentration to ensure it will remain in your memory.
TCTR
This is a difficult, but worthwhile book to read.When I started to read Walden,I told a friend that it will probablytake me my whole life time to finish the book, and I do intend to finish the book at some point.I'm not a slow reader, but there is so much to ponder and think over what I've just read.I find myself underlining things, and some ideas are so profound I want to stop and think about what I have just read,or feel I must discuss what I've just read with someone.I've only read about 100 pages, and have read only a few pages at a time.Sometimes you have to be in the mood to read Walden. I highly recommend at least starting on reading this book.It will affect you in so many ways.

Excellent
This book is recommended reading not just for people who care about the environment, but people who care about our relationship to other people, and the ways that we are all connected. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 1817-1862    2. 19th century    3. American - General    4. Authors, American    5. Biography    6. Essays    7. Homes and haunts    8. Literature - Classics / Criticism    9. Massachusetts    10. Natural history    11. Philosophy    12. Thoreau, Henry David,    13. Thoreau, Henry David, 1817-1862    14. Walden Woods    15. Wilderness areas    16. English    17. Literary Collections / General    18. Modern fiction    19. Thoreau, Henry David    20. USA   

Reviews (96)

Lovely
I love these type of memoirs. A person who is not boasting about their skill or having an attitude. Simply shares the love of his work and love of his county. All of James Herriot's books are wonderfull. I was introduced to the children's books a few years ago and just recently started reading his memoirs. Love it, some parts were a bit dry but the books still flowed well and drew you back. Love the depth of scenery and anicdotes about the area. Recommend any book of his.

Great Book
This was a great book. I decided to read it because I like animals, and I'm so glad I did. I loved this book; it was really funny and exciting. I am definitaly going to read more of his books and watch the tv show if it's ever on anymore. I think triston is hilarious. I would reccomend reading this; it was great.

A must read for all
I'm mostly a fantasy scifi guy but I'm also an animal lover and I picked up this book on a whim. I wound up reading all the books in the series and ended up loving them all and wishing there were more. This guy can really write and tell a story. What a gifted man. Great Vet and Writer. I must read for all. You will laugh out loud and at times shed a tear. This is great stuff. You cant go wrong. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Biography / Autobiography    3. Biography/Autobiography    4. England    5. Essays    6. Herriot, James    7. Medical - Physicians    8. Veterinarians    9. Veterinary Medicine (General)    10. Veterinary Medicine - General    11. Yorkshire   

Editorial Review

The only constants in nature are change and death. Terry Tempest Williams, a naturalist and writer from northern Utah, has seen her share of both. The pages of Read more

Reviews (37)

This verse unlocks the heart.
Terry Tempest Williams is a national treasure. Her unvarnished verse carries one deep into the mystery of the Earth and sends us helplessly into the depths of our own hearts. The landscape of wildness breaths a spectacular wisdom under the watchful eyes of this keen observer of wind, rock, desert, sky, sage, along with the birds who soar and dance and play in a benediction to non-sentient life.
If you have been affected by cancer it is worth reading!!!
I loved and hated this book. It is beatifully written.I found the author frustrating at times.Some parts got a little long winded about the birds. It takes you on a emotional rollercoaster but the pay off of finishing this book is worth it.Any one who has been affected by cancer will find this book very inciteful to the process of going through treatment and also the death process. Terry Tempest gives the most authentic and honest account of what life is like living through cancer I have every read.She put into words thought and feelings I could never express fully.
Suprising turn of events
Terry Tempest Williams is a naturalist living in Utah who has the history of cancer in her family.Cancer in this novel is paralleled with the flooding of the neighboring Great Salt Lake.Overall this book goes to show that cancer goes deeper than the person who it is diagnosed to.I would suggest this book on limited circumstances: One-if you can get past the strong feminine presence and domination of this novel. Two-do not read the last 60 or so pages.I approved of this book up until that point.If the book ended at that point, leaving out the harassment of the government it would be ten times better. To anyone who is in the process of reading Refuge, you won't want to read past around page 230. Enough said.
Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Breast    3. Cancer    4. Essays    5. Great Salt Lake Region    6. Health    7. Health Care Issues    8. Natural history    9. Nature    10. Patients    11. Social Science    12. Sociology    13. Utah    14. Williams, Terry Tempest    15. Women's Studies - General    16. Biography: general    17. Coping with death & bereavement    18. Nature / General   

Editorial Review

Not long before she died in 1964, the noted environmental writer Rachel Carson wrote an essay for Read more

Reviews (6)

An excellent companion to 'Everyday Wonders' by Barry Evans
In continuation of my relentless search for better understanding of perceptual sensitivity & sensory acuity, I am very glad to be able to lay my hands on this wonderful book.
Granpa's view
We live by the sea and I bought this book with my grandsons (eldest 4) in mind.The photos are excellent and the text is inspiring, but written with an adult reader (parents) in mind.The book has inspired us to try and show our grandchildren more of nature's wonders both on the beach and in the woods, fields and our garden.However they will be a little older before they can appreciate the book for themselves.

Renew your Sense of Wonder
I loved this book.Not only was Carson's essay wonderfully thought-provoking, but it was poetic as well.Her message is simple, if you love nature, share that love with a young person...so that they, too, might one day pass it along.By sharing your love of nature, you help carry hope that we will begin to take a little better care of our mother earth.Read more

Subjects:  1. Essays    2. Nature    3. Nature study    4. Nature/Ecology    5. Conservation of the environment    6. Nature / General    7. Other prose: from c 1900 -   

Subjects:  1. Boating - General    2. Boating And Sailing    3. Boats and boating    4. Electric equipment    5. Engineering - Electrical & Electronic    6. Ships & Shipbuilding - Repair & Maintenance    7. Sports    8. Sports & Recreation    9. Transportation    10. Boating    11. Sports & Recreation / Boating   

Reviews (31)

The life of a meadow
Mr. Galvan's writing about a piece of property, at first, seems strange; however, as you read you become absorbed.He writes of much more than the land, he writes of the people who live that land.It takes a special person to live in the wilds ofWyoming, and an extrodinary person to live in the isolated, rugged, raw, and unforgiving areas.This is a book I have given as a gift to many individuals who know what it is truly like to live here in Wyoming, want to live here, or seem to possess that independence and creativity needed to live here.

Stunning--a gorgeously told story
I would give this book 6 stars, maybe even ten, if it were possible.I read this book through the first time, closed the back cover, flipped the book over and started reading it again.I have never done that with another book, before or since. Poetical writing but slow-moving narrative
This book is about several families who have pursued life on a barren meadow on the Wyoming/Colorado border.It provides an intriguing look into Western character, especially of one man, Lyle, and the difficulty of life in this area.Yet the overly poetical writing moves slowly.Jumps back and forth through time and among characters make it hard to keep track of who is who.It seems the author has lived in the area since childhood, but he largely leaves himself and his opinions out of the story.The result is a dreamlike picture of a place, but not a well-told story. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Fiction    2. Fiction - General    3. Literary    4. Modern fiction    5. Reading Group Guide   

Editorial Review

Ursula Goodenough is an internationally recognized cell biologist; she is also an accomplished amateur theologian--an unusual combination of interests in a time when science and religion are widely divided. In Read more

Reviews (18)

A fun review of evolution, an excellent overview of the beauty of life.
It is refreshing to find a brilliant scientist who is willing to turn nature into poetry and spirituality.It shouldn't matter if you are an atheist or a deist, the description of the common bonds we have with the earth and the different species of the animal kingdom brings tears to your eyes.At the same time, we can have reverence and feeling for the profound desires of humans to communicate and feel intimacy with God who may well be a metaphor for the beauty of the gorgeous biological process.

A manual for converts
Few voices are as forceful or as eloquent as that of the convert.This account of personal awe in the face of Nature is a passionate example.From the centre of Christian America, Goodenough explains why ideas of divine forces driving Nature must be replaced.Her replacement, trying to mediate between "cold" science and misleading traditional dogma, is called "natural religion".Astonished by the wonders of cosmology and life, Goodenough became a scientist and shed her monotheistic background.What wasn't thrown out with the theology was her sense of wonder.Having once buried her head beneath a pillow out of despair over her inability to comprehend the cosmos, she relates how she emerged to study science.She chose biology, and it's well for us she did.Her description of protein construction is unmatched in science writing.
There is wonder aplenty in nature and science
"But there must be something more" is a common refrain among those who believe that science robs the world of its meaning; those who cannot countenance that we are ultimately elaborate biochemical reactions, that life emerged from non-life, that stars are nuclear furnaces, that the universe began with a Big Bang.Ursula Goodenough answers this refrain with compassion, patience, poetry, and above all, a command of science and a gift for communicating its achievements and its excitement.In "The Sacred Depths of Nature", Ursula Goodenough, a research biologist, presents a series of meditations on the mysteries of nature.She argues passionately that there are mysteries aplenty within us and about us, and that we needn't invent a supernatural realm.How can one contemplate the exquisite workings of a signal transduction cascade within a living cell, or the grandeur of stellar evolution, or the complexity of biological evolution without a sense of awe?As Carl Sagan was fond of pointing out, these stories have far greater richness and beauty than do any religious myths, no matter how richly embellished.Read more

Subjects:  1. Environmental Engineering & Technology    2. Essays    3. Nature    4. Nature/Ecology    5. Philosophy    6. Philosophy & Social Aspects    7. Science    8. Evolution    9. Impact of science & technology on society    10. Life Sciences | History & Philosophy of Biology    11. Nature / Essays    12. Philosophy of religion    13. Philosophy of science   

Reviews (1)

Brilliant Set of Photographs
A photographer with the eye of an artist, Tim Palmer has spent a lifetime photographing rivers. He has gone to extremes to get just the right view, at the right time of day, the right time of the year. He has combines these photographs with prose that is almost poetic to add in our understanding of what he sees, what he feels.
Read more

Subjects:  1. Environmental Conservation & Protection - General    2. Nature    3. Photo Techniques    4. Photography    5. Photography Of Specific Subjects    6. Pictorial works    7. Rivers    8. Subjects & Themes - Landscapes    9. United States    10. United States - General    11. Nature in art, still life, landscapes & seascapes    12. Nature; photography; travel    13. Photography & Photographs    14. Photography / Nature & Wildlife    15. TRAVEL & HOLIDAY    16. USA   

Reviews (3)

Mercruiser Stern Drive, 1964-1991 (Seloc Marine Tune-Up and Repair Manuals)
This is a very useful and informative manual. I will continue to use it for years to come.

Saved A Few Dollars
This book did help me to change a water pump in the lower unit successfully.It was
More detailed information needed
The first thing that I needed this book for was to replace a broken belt.The belt is in a difficult place to get at in the engine.This book does not even address HOW or The STEPS to replace this belt.I was dissapointed; however, the rest of the information in the book looks helful should I need to use it in the future. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Automotive - General    2. Boating - General    3. Do-It-Yourself    4. Handbooks, manuals, etc    5. Inboard-outboard engines    6. Maintenance and repair    7. Outboard Motors    8. Science/Mathematics    9. Ships & Shipbuilding - Engineering    10. Ships & Shipbuilding - Repair & Maintenance    11. Technical & Manufacturing Trades    12. Technology    13. Transportation    14. Transportation / Automotive / General   

Editorial Review

In the autumn of 1973, the writer Peter Matthiessen set out in the company of zoologist George Schaller on a hike that would take them 250 miles into the heart of the Himalayan region of Dolpo, "the last enclave of pure Tibetan culture on earth." Their voyage was in quest of one of the world's most elusive big cats, the snow leopard of high Asia, a creature so rarely spotted as to be nearly mythical; Schaller was one of only two Westerners known to have seen a snow leopard in the wild since 1950.Read more

Reviews (58)

A Journey into the Heart of the Himalayas
Peter Matthiessen's "The Snow Leopard" operates on several levels.It is the narrative of a 1973 journey by Matthiessen and zoologist George Schaller, accompanied by a team of sherpas and porters, into a remote region of Nepal to search for the rare snow leopard of the title.On another level, it describes Matthiessen's struggle to come to grips with his wife's recent death of cancer.On a third level, it is the author's exploration of his Buddhist faith in an environment ideally suited for mystic experiences.
Spiritual Journey to Find a Rare Animal Becomes a More Personal Journey
I consider Peter Matthiessen's masterful travel journal a fitting bookend to James Hilton's "Lost Horizon". While Hilton's classic is a fanciful adventure focused on one man's search for Shangri-La in the Himalayas, Matthiessen's book is about his true 1973 Himalayan journey where he journeyed with zoologist George Schaller to study the bharal (blue sheep). However, the author is not simply interested in sharing an animal-related adventure even as he resets his target to the elusive snow leopard. It becomes a much more personal experience at a traumatic juncture in Matthiessen's life as his wife just died and his young son has been left back in the states.
One Of Matthiessen's Classics
I won't try to summarize this modern classic.It's something I first read many years ago, and re-read once a year or so, and each time through, I come away from it with different things.
Read more

Subjects:  1. 20th century    2. Authors, American    3. Biography    4. Biologists    5. Essays    6. Essays & Travelogues    7. Himalaya Mountains    8. Mammals    9. Natural history    10. Nature    11. Nature/Ecology    12. Travel - General    13. United States    14. Modern fiction    15. Nature / Essays   

Reviews (16)

Teaching a Stone to Talk -Good Read
Annie Dillard's work is most certainly her best with the exception of her Thoreau-esque first work.Her writing style and personality are captivating as she engages with a myriad of environments, from local lakes to the Galopagos Islands.As a naturalist writer, she explores the interaction between environments and individuals--the ways in which humanity and ecology play off one another.Fans of Joan Didion will also enjoy the personal feel of Dillard's work as well as the playful use of time and metaphor to capture the dynamism and eccentricity of everyday life.This work is a must-have for any lover/enthusiast of nature and everyone who appreciates flowing prose and lyrical description.

Everyone knows that stones can't talk...
Poetry is poetry and prose is prose.In my opinion, the extent to which they are mixed is the extent to which the quality of each, with some exceptions, deteriorates.The problem I have with Dillard's writing is that she so freely mixes the two that one is left with either pretty, but obscure prose or overly structured narrative poetry.The problem isn't that Dillard is a poor writer, its rather that she doesn't have a clear vision of what her artful constructions mean.The book is all wings and no roots.It ends up being an excersise in sophistry that, one feels, sweeps the author along in its grand illusions as readily as it does the sensitive reader.I almost feel guilty pointing out the emptiness of it all.

From The Mundane To The Infinite ... And Back Again
This book truly is a well crafted and literary set of short stories; all or most of them being autobiographical.But the author does something special in this book.Her stories all center around the physical, mixed with the spiritual, mixed with the metaphysical, both alone and in concert, and finally, in the way they seem to co-exist, at least to her perception and observation.
Read more

Subjects:  1. Essays    2. General    3. Life    4. Literary Collections    5. Literature: Classics    6. Natural history    7. Nature    8. Women Authors    9. Literary Criticism & Collections / General   

Reviews (2)

Painting with brush and pen
Seldom does one person serve as both writer and illustrator of a book.Julie Zickefoose proves that she is adept at both.She paints with brush and pen (or keyboard) pictures of what life can, and should, be like if we only take the time to appreciate it.Her 80 acres seem even larger, for all that occurs on them.
Letters from Eden
The stories in Letters from Eden are a shimmering blend of humor and heartbreak as the author shares the gifts, loss and lessons that come from an intimate relationship with nature. I find myself savoring each story and taking time to digest each one.The writing is exquisite, the field drawings are a treat, and the watercolors express the vibrancy of the life they portray.I love this book! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Bird Watching    2. Birds & Birdwatching - General    3. Essays    4. Natural History    5. Nature    6. Nature/Ecology    7. Ohio    8. Wildlife    9. Nature / Birds & Birdwatching   

Reviews (10)

If you get one shotgunning book this is it...
Excellent for a beginner but I am sure that even a seasoned pro will find good insights here. Pay special attention to the many knowledge "nuggets" that abound in this book. I started using a highlighter on these passages... they are that good!

I've been it doing all wrong
I've been hunting dove for years, albeit sparingly each season.This little book definitely showed me the error of my shooting ways, and I'm going to have find some time to shoot some clay pigeons to work on this technique.Don't expect to read this book and think that you can bag a bunch of birds the next day.Bruce Bowlen does a masterful job of describing and explaining this English techique of wing-shooting.It makes perfect sense to use this system for hunting birds, but my body and brain are going to need some time to program it in to where I can shoot this way.For being an average shooter, I'm more confident that I'll be able to bring home quite a few more birds next season, once I get the hang of this technique.

Good advice on developing consistent technique
In this useful little book, Bruce Bowlen lays out the English approach to wing-shooting. Many American shotgunners, he points out, are already comfortable with the rifle and thus try to transfer their rifle shooting skills to the shotgun. This is a mistake, he says. Shotgunning is a different animal altogether, relying on the shooter's natural sense of timing and ability to point. The English approach harnesses these instinctive abilities, combining them with solid, consistent technique to produce successful wing-shooting.
Read more

Subjects:  1. Hunting - Bird Hunting    2. Shooting    3. Shotguns    4. Sports    5. Sports & Recreation    6. Field sports: fishing, hunting, shooting    7. Sports & Recreation / Shooting   

Editorial Review

Residents of the Lower 48 sometimes imagine Alaska as a snow-covered land of igloos, oilpipelines, and polar bears. But Alaska is far more complex geographically, culturally, ecologically, and politically than most Americans know, and few writers are as capable of capturing this complexity as John McPhee. In Read more

Reviews (23)

Gets better with each read!
We bought this book in Nome, Alaska on a visit there in 2001 (my brother owns a flying service there). I took my time reading it the first time. Coming into the Country is not a book to be read quickly, but, rather, one to be savored, taking time for the details to seep into the crevices of one's memory until they become part of one's knowledge base. Every page holds a vast amount of information that if read too quickly blurs to nothingness and is lost.
Alaska for Alaskans
I just finished what I think is one of the true books of Alaska, John McPhee's Coming into the Country. The non-fiction work breaks apart into three subsections, each dealing with an aspect of Alaska that many people who visit for only a short time don't see. Nor should they necessarily; it is clear through the book's 400 plus pages that McPhee, a man from New Jersey, has not only done his homework but gone to great lengths to find the "true Alaska."
homesteaders versus the world
"Coming into the Country" is a classic that every visitor to Alaska should read.But the first two sections can be skipped by most people.Section one, "The Encircled River" is about the Kobruk River, and section two, "What they Were Hunting For" is a funny tale of the defunct effort to establish a new Alaskan capital city.
Read more

Subjects:  1. 1959-1980    2. Alaska    3. Description and travel    4. Essays    5. Literature - Classics / Criticism    6. McPhee, John A    7. Nature/Ecology   

Editorial Review

Finally, a how-to guide, in the guise of a Q&A advice column, for marching, flying, or slithering into the battle of the sexes, whatever your species. In this entertaining and informative book, evolutionary biologist Olivia Judson presents "letters" from sexually frustrated animals, birds, and insects who ask "Dr. Tatiana" to explain some sexual oddity. For example, "Don't Wanna Be Butch in Botswana" writes, "I'm a spotted hyena, a girl. The only trouble is, I've got a large phallus. I can't help feeling that this is unladylike. What's wrong with me?" Each question leads Dr. T. into a fascinating explanation about the sex life of this species, sprinkled with sprightly stories about other species with similar attributes or behavior.Read more

Reviews (27)

Surprise! Human Sex is Boring!
Endlessly fascinating, erudite, stylish and, at times rib-crackingly funny. Olivia Judson somehow manages to successfully interpolate "bonking", "copulating", "successful reproductive strategies" and "sexual cannibalism"--practically in the same sentence!--while wisely posing as many (or more) questions as she is answering, and does it with totally engaging wit and style!.

Matt B
This was an excellent nature book for two reasons - first the content, we learn about the wide breadth of reproduction schemes in nature.Secondly, the structure of the book - as an advice column to creatures with great insight and humor by the author, made this a fun and informative read.

A great introduction to animal sexual behavior
When I was in graduate school, my Animal Behavior professor had us read a chapter he had selected during our study of sexual behavior. After reading that selection, I immediately ordered this book. I found the author's use of an advice column to introduce the behaviors of other animals to be an interesting device which drew me into her writing. I suggest this to anyone who is taking a course in animal behavior or just has a fleeting interest. I was intrigued and wanted to read more on the subject. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Essays    2. General    3. Life Sciences - Zoology - General    4. Nature    5. Nature/Ecology    6. Science    7. Sex    8. Sex Roles (Sociological Aspects)    9. Sex differences    10. Sexual behavior in animals    11. Sexuality    12. Nature / General