Editorial Review

Colin Fletcher, the author of the Grand Canyon classic The Man Who Walked Through Time, adds to his life list of desert voyages with a trip down the 1,700-mile-long Colorado River. From its sources in the Wind River Mountains of Wyoming to its union with the Gulf of California, Fletcher traces the Colorado in an entertaining and often quite funny travelogue. More seriously, he ponders his own life's passage, musing on lost loves, the experience of war, the onset of old age, and impending mortality. Despite the title, other travelers have made this journey--devotees of the Colorado will know the writings of John Wesley Powell and the Kolb brothers, among others. That notwithstanding, Fletcher makes keen observations of the area's geology and wildlife, and of human behavior. ... Read more

Reviews (14)

A book for the ourdoor type
This is a good book for those who are genuinely interested in a journey in the wilderness. This is not a book for those who look for thrilling adventures, or those "armchair travelers" who look for commercialized travel books (such as those by Bill Bryson). You can say that the book lacks drama, it is too "plain". To a certain extent I agree with that. As Fletcher says in his book (about the Colorado), it plays "themes and variations". The same can be said about this book, most of the time it flows slowly, but along the way there are reflections, thoughts, observations, etc. It is not as "exciting" as the commercialized writings of Bill Bryson and the like, but you can sense the honesty in Fletcher's writing, that is, he did not take the journey with the goal of writing a book about it, he genuinely wanted to take the journey just for the sake of it. Well worth the read!!
I did a whitewater rafting trip last year through Canyonlands NP and this book brought the wonderful memories of that trip - the beauty of the scenery and excitement of the rapids - back to me full force.I LOVED this book. Colin Fletcher's descriptions really bring you to the river and its surrounding beauty. I love how he describes everything, and how he goes off on tangents back to memories of his own life. This book is well worth the read!

Motivating book as one eases out of "youth"
Colin Fletcher was one of my early "guides" into backpacking, and many of his hiking tips still stand up well as I continue to backpack in my 50's.Read more

Subjects:  1. Colorado River (Colo.-Mexico)    2. Description and travel    3. Essays    4. Essays & Travelogues    5. Nature    6. Outdoor Skills    7. Rafting (Sports)    8. Sports    9. Sports & Recreation    10. United States - Mountain - Arizona    11. Colorado    12. Sports & Recreation / Water Sports    13. Travel writing   

Reviews (25)

Good Stuff but Perhaps Not For All
Col. Jeff Cooper is an accomplished master of shooting, and a recognized authority on the subject.
This a a good book but...
I think this is a good "hot to" book, but honestly, I would have expected a little more from it... especially for the price. Put the simplicity in perspective
I think the part that people don't get about Cooper is that he is basicaly a military style training guy.His perspective is to give you the essence of what you need to know, drill you on that, and proclaim you more than fit to undertake the challenges of the world.
Read more

Subjects:  1. Asia - General    2. Europe - General    3. Fowling    4. Hunting - Bird Hunting    5. Hunting - General    6. Sports    7. Sports & Recreation    8. ASIA    9. Europe    10. Hunting or shooting animals & game    11. Sports & Recreation / Hunting   

Reviews (1)

Thank the Outboard Motor Gods.
I have had one humdinger of a time trying to find information on my Chrysler '72. Here it is all rolled up in one great little guide. It doesn't go into complete tear down, but I didn't want that. This book saved my motor from the dump. ... Read more

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

Editorial Review

As a lifelong desert dweller, Terry Tempest Williams is intimately familiar with the multiple shades of red, and she explores many of them, among other things, in this tribute to the desert and canyon country of southern Utah that she holds so dear. In this collection of essays, poems, congressional testimony, and journal entries (some previously published), she ruminates on the meaning of wilderness and the need to preserve it as a way to save ourselves as much as the land itself. In Read more

Reviews (5)

Interesting perspective
Terry Tempest Williams is without a doubt one of the finest writers to tackle the intricacies of the American West in literature of any sort. Carrying her own torch is impressive enough, but Williams also evokes the activism and urgent motivation that calls us to appreciate, respect and save our remaining western wilderness that was so powerfully put into words by Edward Abbey. I have reviewed a portion of "Red" before (see "Desert Quartet"), so I will limit this review to the remainder of "Red". Writing to Save Wilderness
Terry Tempest Williams created this book to fight for Wilderness with the best tool she has, her writing.The beauty of her words hang in the air and cut like a knife.When asked by a friend why she writes, Williams responds: "I write as an exercise in pure joy.I write as one who walks on the surface of a frozen river beginning to melt.I write out of my anger and into my passion.I write from the stillness of night anticipating - always anticipating.I write to listen.I write out of silence....I write because it is the way I talk long walks.I write as a bow to wilderness. I write because I believe it can create a path in darkness."

In Every Way, A Great Work
Both a piece of literary artistry and passionate activism, "Red"'s audience appeal is the broadest of any book I've ever read.The book's structure, both wild and bounded by cadences of space, conforms strategically to Ms. Williams' conceptual take on the color red - red represents heat, anger, unpredictability, the lifeblood of the earth that runs through human beings and all earth's creatures, and is concentrated in the searing deserts of the American West where Ms. Williams lives.A thematic tapestry though it is, it is, at its core, a living breathing message presented selflessly and succinctly by a woman who I believe understands the need for a lifelong journey down the parallel rails of human and non-human nature until these rails converge.I recommend this book highly. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Deserts    2. Ecology    3. Essays    4. Human ecology    5. Natural history    6. Nature    7. Nature/Ecology    8. Psychological aspects    9. Utah    10. Nature / General   

Editorial Review

"I like to think of the Meadowlands as an undesignated national park," writes Robert Sullivan in his end-of-the-millennium take on Thoreau. In Read more

Reviews (22)

The Meadowlands: More Than Meets the Eye
This is an enjoyable, easy-to-read book. Though many that live outside the New York Metro area would probably enjoy it, the millions that have passed through the Meadowlands on the way to work or to Giants Stadium to catch "The Boss" will most enjoy the nuggets of info in Sullivan's book. Enjoyable, brief book of essays on the Meadowlands
Sullivan takes a fun look at one of the most maligned regions of the U.S. - the New Jersey meadowlands.He definitely looks at it as an outsider (he is from the Pacific NW) with a mixture of repulsion and ivory-tower superiority, but with a bit of respect at times for the survival of the area and the people around it. Paddling Through the Muck & Mire
Being an avid kayaker, I've often wondered what it would be like to paddle the swampy marshlands of the Meadowlands. Riding on the NJ Turnpike, and amidst the backdrop of the Manahttan Skyline, the Meadowlands looks like an appealing natural area to paddle (..at least from a paddler's perspective). Although the area is historically notorious for being one of the most polluted in the state, I've often seen many wading birds feeding in the area so I figured "how bad could it be?"Read more

Subjects:  1. 1963-    2. Description    3. Description and travel    4. Ecology    5. Essays    6. Geography Of The United States    7. Hackensack Meadowlands    8. Hackensack Meadowlands (N.J.)    9. Nature    10. Nature/Ecology    11. New Jersey    12. New Jersey - Local History    13. Sullivan, Robert,    14. Travel    15. United States - Mid Atlantic - New Jersey    16. Journeys    17. NATURAL HISTORY, COUNTRY LIFE & PETS    18. Nature / Ecology    19. North America    20. Sullivan, Robert    21. Travel writing   

Editorial Review

Rebecca Reynolds brings nature to the elderly, the infirm, and the imprisoned. Her "Animals as Intermediaries" program travels to hospitals and other closed-care institutions. Read more

Features

• Audiobook

Reviews (2)

Proof that "We can never have enough of nature"
Rebecca Reynolds and her Animals As Intermediaries colleagues conduct outreach programs at hospitals and special schools, bringing all types of natural objects into institutional settings to share with patients and students.She begins her text with the Thoreau quote that "We need the tonic of wildness. ... We can never have enough of nature."The real-life vignettes that follow illustrate the healing / spiritual power that nature has had on individuals of varying ages with special mental or physical challenges.We see how connections are made between the human spirit and Nature -- in the form of dogs, rabbits, moss, seaweed, even buckets of ocean water.The sight, smell and touch of cattails, grasses, marsh ice, and rabbit fur can console and heal.They can stimulate communication where none previously existed and unearth personal histories that were previously buried and unknown to caretakers.Reynolds' storytelling style makes it easy to witness these encounters in person.Readers can feel the starkness of a typical hospital room made temporarily more livable by bringing Nature inside.Inspirational reading for environmental educators, pet therapists, animal lovers, and those feeling a bit disconnected or locked behind four walls themselves.

Touches everyone with the power of animal healing
I recently met Rebecca at a conference where she gave a lecture that followed along with the idea of the book.When it was over,I purchased the book and have since read many of the vignettes that it contains. Each storyis filled with tender details of how nature and animals have helped peoplecome to grips with illness and sadness.The book shows us how the worldaround us can help us come to terms with various problems and conditions inlife.I work in the field of Animal Assisted Therapy and have found thisbook an inspiration to what I do.Bring Me An Ocean validates what I seeeveryday with my dog when we visit hospitals.The gentle touch of ananimal or the opportunity for a patient to smell a flower or touch aseashell sometimes provides more healing that all the medicine in theworld.For anyone who loves nature and wants to nuture the souls of lovedones who may be ill, or not, this book is a must. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Abridged Audio - Misc. Nonfiction    2. Environmental Conservation & Protection - General    3. Essays    4. Natural Resources    5. Nature / Ecology   

Reviews (6)

An Orgy of Nabokoviana
The prize is an unfinished short story, "The Admirable Anglewing", at an immediate stage of note-taking on index cards.It's an intriguing dead end, identifiably a two-strata Nabokov, but with a strikingly scientific directness not elsewhere seen.
It Always Came Down To Butterflies
"From the age of seven, everything I felt in connection with a rectangle of framed sunlight was dominated by a single passion," wrote Valdimir Nabokov."If my first glance of the morning was for the sun, my first thought was for the butterflies it would engender."This was certainly an unusual way in which to view the world and one that not many readers, even those who adore Nabokov, have shared. Nabakov's butterflies
12 Exotic Brazilian Butterflies In a high Quality Frame 12.5" x 8.5" (Current bid: $65.00)*12 Exotic Brazilian Butterflies In a high Quality Frame 12.5" x 8.5" (Current bid: $65.00) Read more

Subjects:  1. Butterflies & Moths    2. Continental European    3. Essays    4. Literary Criticism    5. Literature - Classics / Criticism    6. Semiotics & Theory    7. Nature / Essays   

Subjects:  1. Hunting - Bird Hunting    2. Ruffed grouse    3. Ruffed grouse shooting    4. Sports    5. Sports & Recreation    6. Sports & Outdoor Recreation   

Editorial Review

Harry Middleton had to endure hardships to find the queen mother of all trout streams in the heart of the Great Smoky Mountains of Tennessee. He had to live through treacherous mountain roads, the cloud of airborne industrial toxins that shrouds the range for most of the year, an occasional blast of lightning, and, worst of all, a helping of rancid potato salad at a roadside diner. Like Norman MacLean in Read more

Reviews (2)

Smoky Mountain Treasure
I love the Smoky Mountains.This book captures the magic of these mountains perfectly.This is one of those books that I couldn't stop reading.I've hiked the Appalachian Trail through the Smoky Mountains and tasted the mountains intimately as Middleton did.His descriptions of the scenery are right on the money.The characters he meets and acquaints himself with are exactly the kind of people one meets while traversing the back country in the Smoky Mountains.I loved this book for the colorful characters Middleton describes.But, there is a whole lot more to the Smokies and it's all told.The geography, the invasiveinsects, toxic air, Cherokee Indians, founders of the park, and a whole lot more are part of his story, in addition to the subject of fly fishing.If you love the Smoky Mountains like I do you're going to love this book.If you have never been to the Smoky Mountains you're going to want to go after reading "On the Spine of Time".Also, if you like this book, and you enjoy the characters as much as I did, then I suggest you also read the book, "A Walk In the Woods", by Bill Bryson.

"I Am Haunted By Waters."
If you recognize with reverence this closing passage fromNorman Maclean's classic "A River Runs Through It", you will equally treasure "On The Spine Of Time".It is a story of finding one'sself in the beauty and solitude of the mountain streams of the Great SmokyMountains of North Carolina and Tennessee.The stories are as much aboutthe history of the area as they are about the experiences of one man as heseeks retreat from the trauma of everyday life in the city. It is a bookyou will read over and over.In decades of reading outdoor stories I haveonly found two other books that are as beautiful as this one.The firstand greatest has to be Maclean's masterpiece from which I stole the titlefor this review.The other is John Hersey's "Blues".I hope youenjoy this one as much as I did. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Description and travel    2. Essays    3. Fishing    4. Fishing - General    5. Great Smoky Mountains Region    6. Great Smoky Mountains Region (N.C. and Tenn.)    7. Nature    8. Social life and customs    9. Sports    10. Sports & Recreation    11. United States - State & Local - General    12. Biography: general    13. Fishing, angling    14. History-United States - State & Local - General    15. Homes and haunts    16. Middleton, Harry    17. Nature / Essays    18. Sports & Recreation-Fishing - General   

Editorial Review

A century ago the place where the Columbia River flows into the Pacific Ocean was a violent cauldron of churning water, all but unnavigable. But the mighty river was tamed by the building of a series of dams, including the colossal Grand Coulee, to provide cheap hydroelectric power and irrigation water. Farms bloomed in the desert; nuclear reactors mushroomed on the river bank. Today barges ply the river, and Lewiston, Idaho, is an inland port. But the negative aspects of human impact are also apparent--the depletion of salmon stocks and the destruction of Native American cultures dependent on the salmon. Washington Post journalist Harden, a Northwest native, returns to examine the changes man has wrought. Harden's enthralling account is balanced and thorough. ... Read more

Reviews (12)

The River Doesn't Run Through It Anymore
This journalistic narrative, written when Blain Harden returned to his Columbia River Basin hometown during a mid-1990s sabbatical from the Washington Post, summarizes the history of the massive U.S. Government funded hydroelectric, irrigation and nuclear energy development of the Columbia River system in eastern Washington and adjacent parts of Idaho and Oregon. Harden's approach is a well crafted, articulate chronology of events interspersed among interviews with then-still-living civil engineers and workers who built the dams (including the author's father), self-described redneck barge crews, American Indians, irrigator farmers, nuclear engineers, supposed "downwind" victims of nuclear engineers, wildlife management officials and environmental activists. Oddly, he never interviews any significant politician, and he describes the actions of civil service engineers and bureaucrats as if they built this multi-billion dollar project over forty years on their own fanatic authority, sort of like renegade CIA agents supposedly taking over a jungle-clad third world country without anyone telling them to.
So much good information
A full and complete modern history of the Columbia River. At times sad, always intriging. Harden has done an excellent job of combining interviews with research that makes an excellent read. Wonderful writing. Interesting points of view.
Once in a great while a book comes along that is so beautifully written, with stories so well told, that the subject matter seems secondary to the writer's ability to sustain interest. For me, with little interest in the northwest (I've been there twice), this was such a book. It is from Harden's exceptional skill as a writer and narrator of stories that the Columbia River suddenly became of great interest as I turned his pages. Read more

Subjects:  1. Essays    2. Natural Resources    3. Nature    4. Nature/Ecology    5. Rivers    6. Local history    7. Management of land & natural resources    8. North America    9. Pollution of rivers & water supplies    10. USA   

Editorial Review

"I am not a naturalist. I never was and never will be a naturalist." So Ed Abbey opens Read more

Reviews (9)

The Journey Home
As usual Abbey was brilliant. It was one of the best novels I ever read.

A good collection of essays to follow "Desert Solitaire"
When I sit down to write about Edward Abbey, I feel a pang of affection and sorrow, because through his writing I have really grown to like the guy.I wish I'd been able to meet him.
He had a great sense of adventure.
Much as others have already said Edward Abbey was a remarkable man. There is no doubt that Desert Solitaire stands out like a beacon in the desert of the usual literature, now called nature writing, available today. It is the shear life, zest and energy that permeates the work as it does here, although not all the time, in "The Journey Home". Abbey's stories this time are more personal and although still not at all self conscious they are deeper because of this. In this sense they are akin to the great work of Jack Turner, "The Abstract Wild" and Doug Peacock's "Grisly years". At no time do they suggest they are great writers, rather it is their spirit which wakes the reader with its realness. As yet I have only read these two books of his but each of them is different with its own seams to unwind, the first that of the younger man and the second that of the older. Its unfortunately rare to meet people like Abbey nowadays when much of the way the world is drives out this sense of adventure and joy in nature. This is not made easy by people's unfamiliarity with nature and even fear to tread outside their comfort zones, myself included. But if you want that kind of experience and living at the edge as Abbey knows well how to do then you have to jump off that cliff sometime. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 1927-    2. 20th century    3. Abbey, Edward,    4. Authors, American    5. Biography    6. Essays    7. Homes and haunts    8. Intellectual life    9. Literature - Classics / Criticism    10. Nature/Ecology    11. West (U.S.)    12. Wilderness areas    13. Abbey, Edward    14. Travel / Essays & Travelogues    15. Travel writing   

Reviews (2)

Covers It All, But Not In Depth
I can't help but feel a touch of sadness when I read this book--this was the last book Bill Tarrant wrote before he died.If you want a good look at the life of Bill Tarrant, read the introduction to "Best Way To Train Your Gun Dog."Tarrant was a fantastic writer and dedicated his life to ending brutality toward field dogs.I personally, looked at dogs in a new light after reading Best Way, so am thankful for Tarrant.
A good primer on upland birds
Field & Stream has provided a decent book on the basics of upland bird hunting.If you have not hunted for the different species involved, you will appreciate the straight-forward nature of this book.While it is not as detailed or as illustrated as other books of similer nature, it does cover all the basic situations you can run into in the field.Well worth the time to read. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Hunting - Bird Hunting    2. Hunting - General    3. Hunting Sports    4. Reference    5. Sports    6. Sports & Recreation    7. Upland game bird shooting    8. Hunting or shooting animals & game    9. Sports & Recreation / Hunting   

Reviews (7)

Unlike Any Other Book But Disappointing
If Dr. Shuker is a scientist, he should know better than to present a subject such as this with utter credulity. Eyewitness testimony is most unreliable but it's the only evidence that exists for the subject of large, land-dwelling or lake-dwelling prehistoric survivors. Dr. Shuker makes no excuses - he believes that these anomalous descriptions are truly extinction survivors. However, the odds of plesiosaurs, sauropods, ceratopsians, etc. existing in the wilds of other continents is a ridiculous proposition. It's much more believable that some of the natives exaggerate their sightings and that the western explorers have fallen for it. I expected a better explanation than "Yes, dinosaurs survive!!".

A new classic of material cryptozoology
In this thorough investigation of alleged prehistoric survivors, Dr. Karl Shuker continues the tradition established by Bernard Heuvelmans, analyzing reports of such creatures as the mokele-mbembe of the Congo, the living pterosaurs of Africa and Texas, lake monsters from around the world, the Queensland tiger and the wooly mammoth (to name my favorites), all considered to be extinct by mainstream science.For each cryptozooid, Shuker looks at reports by Western travellers, as well as folkloric accounts and artifacts from natives where the creature is found, which might represent the creature being discussed.He then considers a possible identity for the creature, based on specimens from the fossil record. Dr. Karl Shuker has written Cryptozoological Classic!
I first learned of Dr. Karl Shuker and his incredible book "In Search of Prehistoric Survivors" when I stumbled upon an issue of the British magazine Fortean Times.Noted cryptozoological researcher and author,Loren Coleman, referred toShuker's book (reviewed Fortean Times #87 pg.57) as "a straight forward examination of the idea that creatures fromancient times might have survived into the present" and "anexcellent addition to the library of any zoologist, biologist orcryptozoologist."As a wildlife artist and avid reader of naturalhistory subjects, I have always been drawn to the mysteries of nature.Prior to 1995 I had briefly heard of cryptozoology but had never known ofthe relentless pursuits of this subject by many outstanding scientists andresearchers. I had mostly heard only the tired old legends of Loch Ness,Yeti and Bigfoot. I was pleased to find a book such as "In Searchof Prehistoric Survivors" which introduces the reader to a myriad ofunknown animals, far surpassing any I had come across in some of thepopular natural mystery compilation books.Dr. Shuker's extensivebibliography alone is worth the price of the book.Dr. Shuker issometimes chided for being a zoological romantic hopeful for hisknowledgeable speculations as to the possible identities of thesemysterious animals sighted around the globe. However, he is in good companyin the category of scientific romantic hopefuls which would include BernardHeuvelmans, the late Ivan Sanderson and Dr. Roy Mackal, who contributed aforeward to this book.So true are the words of the English preacherCharles H. Spurgeon answering anyone who would question if there really areinexplicable mysteries in nature."Some things of nature mustremain a mystery to the most intelligent and enterprising investigators.Human knowledge has bounds which it cannot pass." Understanding this undeniable truth, Dr. Shuker humbly provides anexcellent guided tour of some of the world's most enigmatic zoologicalmysteries throughout this book. Author Loren Coleman concluded hisreview of "In Search of Prehistoric Survivors" declaring "Few books deserve a place on my cryptozoological 'classics' shelf,but this one certainly does".I must agree and also thank Dr. KarlShuker for inspiring my own research with this meticulously writtenbook.Wildlife Artist,William M. Rebsamen ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Cryptozoology    2. Essays    3. Life Sciences - Zoology - General    4. Living fossils    5. Nature    6. Science    7. Science/Mathematics    8. Zoology    9. Zoology (Specific Aspects)    10. NATURAL HISTORY, COUNTRY LIFE & PETS    11. Palaeontology   

Reviews (7)

Numinous
As another reviewer noted, Lopez's fiction is difficult to describe or summarize; I'd call it terse but imagistic.The stories in "Field Notes" are beautiful and poignant.The settings are wonderfully described, but many of his characters have some kind of barrier--real or imagined--that prevents them from getting the "big picture", and alienation abounds on every page.Don't let this discourage you, though; there is always a ray of hope.In short, I see this book as a lucid argument for living in a state of pure being, as humans on a vibrant planet.*Higly recommended.*
Grace notes.
Barry Lopez's short stories are challenging in their simplicity.They are also challenging to describe to anyone who has never read any Lopez.Deceptively sparse, they are at the same time heavy with meaning, and rich with imagery from the natural world.This twelve-story collection opens with "the burbling call" (p. 10) of a cactus wren resonating through "the stony, cactus-strewn land" (p. 4) of desert arroyos, and ends with a run down the "really old trails, the Anasazi trails" (p. 154) of the Grand Canyon.In "Teal Creek," Lopez's narrator curiously witnesses a hermit living beside a creek in "complete stillness, a silence such as I had never heard out of another living thing, an unbbroken grace" (p. 22).In another story, a paleontologist discovers "phantoms" (p. 41), a black bear, a herd of deer, and a "tawny panther hunkered in the tawny grass" (p. 47) in an empty, city lot.I was even surprised to find a reference to my small hometown, Bisbee, Arizona in this collection. Rich in images and introspection
Barry Lopez brings a unique voice to his work that is rich in observation of surroundings and living forms as well as a deeply sacred intellectual perspective. Each story in this book brings Lopez' voice to the ear of thereader as a deep intimation of experience. A writer who gives the reader afeeling of desire to listen to the storyteller as if he were speaking toyou in the tradition of storytellers has transcended the special bridgefrom oral discourse or history to the written word. It makes me want toread all of Lopez books of which I now have four. ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Essays    2. Literary    3. Nature    4. Nature/Ecology    5. Short Stories (single author)    6. Fiction / Short Stories (single author)   

Reviews (21)

wonderful
Always on end reading these book s for one never knows what will happen to the pe some stories are sad others miracolus.A must read for people who love a good yarn and intresting humans as well as animals.

Fantastic
This is a book you will want to read again and again, just so you can relive a particularly funny moment. James Herriot is such a gifted story teller that he draws the reader right into the story. You truly feel as if you are standing by his side and observing what is happening. As you read you get a picture in your mind's eye of what is described in each page. Absolutely brilliant.

A Great Collection of Stories
This book is a great collection of stories by and about a Yorkshire veterinarian. If you can get over some of the assignments he has which may make you squeemish, the stories are really really enjoyable and his verbal sketches of people in the small towns are insightful. Overall a fun book that will make you laugh (and is easy to read in bits and pieces when you have time!). ... Read more

Subjects:  1. Biography    2. Biography / Autobiography    3. Biography/Autobiography    4. Essays    5. Herriot, James    6. Medical - General    7. Veterinarians    8. Veterinary Medicine - General   

Editorial Review

Alaska has a population of more than 30,000 grizzly bears, almost all thatsurvive in the United States. It makes sense that Australia-born bear lover TimothyTreadwell would make his way there, then. Read more

Reviews (89)

A tragedy and a loss of a human that could of been helped.
I have watched Grizzly Man about six times and read enough reviews of this book to understand what it was about.
good book,great man
I read this book after seeing the documentary Grizzly Man and I am NOT surprised to read the comments written by all you so called bear experts and lovers. So because Treadwell loved brown/grizzlies and devoted his life to them he is "crazy" and "deserved" to be killed by them. So I guess Jane Goodall deserves to be killed by chimpanzees because she got "to close" or "harrased" those animals. Its called awareness and respect. Something that seems to be lacking in this country. These people are trying to educate the ignorant ones in our society that think nature and its beasts are here for us to exploit. Oh let me guess since Jane Goodall is an educated scientist and naturalist she is ok and Timothy and his ignorant ways deserve otherwise,please. It's called a high horse and many of you need to get off,its easy to see that most of you TRY to hide arrogance with humility. This book is for someone with an open mind and a love of nature and all its creatures. Its not meant to be a scientific insight but an excited person trying to share his passion. God forbid he gets the name of a clam wrong or seems at times to be extremely childlike. You have never been into something so much that it changes your life and gives you a meaning to live and thrive. If you want an everyday analogy its called having kids or buying your first home or marrying your high school sweetheart. If you want to read about someone who changed himself for the better and took responsibility for his own actions read this book. There is a message in his words that we all need to hear.

a little fanciful
This book, although entertaining, reminds me a little bit of a fairy tale read.It is more like Timothy Treadwell and the Three Bears, where Comet Bear says to Baby Booble bear "Someone has been sleeping in my bed." and Baby Booble bear answers, "Timothy Treadwell is sleeping in my bed and he's still there!"What was with this guy to think he was above bear attacks?Did he really think the bears loved him that much?Okay, I am impressed that he survived 13 Summers and love his bear antics, but c'mon, bears will be bears!!! ... Read more

Subjects:  1. 1961-    2. Alaska    3. Anecdotes    4. Bears    5. Essays    6. Grizzly bear    7. Grizzly bears    8. Nature    9. Nature/Ecology    10. Treadwell, Timothy,    11. United States - General    12. Wildlife    13. Nature / Wildlife    14. Wild animals