Nature and the natural world: general interest Books
Grand Central Publishing Catstrology: Unlock the Secrets of the Stars with
Book SynopsisA delightfully quirky, cute, and funny guide to horoscopes told through adorable cat photographs. With the help of a collection of sweet and hilarious cat pictures, Castrology will unlock all the secrets of the stars that you need to know, including: Each of the signs at their best and worst (and the perfect cat to illustrate them) The common traits of each element and modality in the zodiac What do you and your "sister sign" have in common? Find out, with the perfect cat picture to complement it... And of course: the right cat for you, based on your star sign!
£13.59
Grand Central Publishing Dogstrology: Unlock the Secrets of the Stars with
Book Synopsis A delightfully quirky, cute, and funny guide to horoscopes told through adorable dog photographs. With the help of a collection of sweet and hilarious dog pictures, Dogstrology will unlock all the secrets of the stars that you need to know, including: Each of the signs at their best and worst (and the perfect pup to illustrate them) The common traits of each element and modality in the zodiac What do you and your "sister sign" have in common? Find out, with the perfect dog photo to complement it. And of course: the right dog for you, based on your star sign!
£13.59
Broadview Press Ltd Walsingham: or, the Pupil of Nature
Book SynopsisWalsingham is both a lively story and a commentary by Mary Robinson on her society’s constraints upon women. The novel follows the lives of two main characters, Walsingham Ainsforth and his cousin, Sir Sidney Aubrey, a girl who is passed off as a son by her mother so that she will become the family heir. Sidney, educated in France, returns to England as an adult and persistently sabotages Walsingham’s love interests (having secretly fallen in love with him herself). Eventually, Sidney reveals her identity, and she and Walsingham declare their mutual love, wed, and share the family’s estate.This Broadview edition includes a rich selection of primary sources material including contemporary reviews; historical and literary accounts of eighteenth-century female cross-dressers; and selections from contemporary works that focus on the figure of the "fallen" woman.Trade ReviewMary Robinson's Walsingham is at once a novel of ideas, sentimental romance, gothic adventure and worldly satire. This responsibly edited and amply annotated edition effectively demonstrates how the work integrates the literary, social, educational and gender politics of the 1790s. Shaffer's thoroughly researched introduction serves as a resource for students and scholars alike." - Laura L. Runge, University of South FloridaTable of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroductionMary Darby Robinson: A Brief ChronologyA Note on the TextIndex to the PoetryWalsinghamAppendix A: Contemporary Reviews (1798) 1. The Monthly Review 2. The Critical Review 3. The Analytical Review 4. The Anti-Jacobin 5. The Monthly Magazine and British Register 6. The Monthly Mirror 7. The Monthly Visitor 8. British CriticAppendix B: Accounts of Real Eighteenth-Century Female-to-Male Cross-Dressers 1. Mrs. Charlotte Charke, A Narrative of the Life of Charlotte Charke (1755) 2. [Henry Fielding], The Female Husband (1746) 3. Anon, The Female Soldier (1750) 4. Giovanni Bianchi, An Historical and Physical Dissertation on the Case of Catherine Vizzani (1751)Appendix C: Fictional Eighteenth-Century Cross-Dressers 1. Selina Davenport, English Forbearance and Italian Vengeance (1828) 2. Miss A. Kendal, Tales of the Abbey (1800) 3. Sophia Lee, The Two Emilies (1798)Appendix D: Fictional Leniency Towards Sexually Fallen Woman 1. Miss Street, The Recluse of the Appenines (1793) 2. Sophia Woodfall, Frederick Montravers (1803) 3. Mary Robinson, The Natural Daughter (1799) 4. Elizabeth Helme, The Farmer of Inglewood Forest (1796) 5. Amelia Opie, The Father and Daughter (1800)Select Bibliography and Works Cited
£26.55
Coach House Books Watch Your Head: Writers and Artists Respond to
Book SynopsisA warning, a movement, a collection borne of protest. In Watch Your Head, poems, stories, essays, and artwork sound the alarm on the present and future consequences of the climate emergency. Ice caps are melting, wildfires are raging, and species extinction is accelerating. Dire predictions about the climate emergency from scientists, Indigenous land and water defenders, and striking school children have mostly been ignored by the very institutions – government, education, industry, and media – with the power to do something about it. Writers and artists confront colonization, racism, and the social inequalities that are endemic to the climate crisis. Here the imagination amplifies and humanizes the science. These works are impassioned, desperate, hopeful, healing, transformative, and radical. This is a call to climate-justice action. Edited by Madhur Anand, Stephen Collis, Jennifer Dorner, Catherine Graham, Elena Johnson, Canisia Lubrin, Kim Mannix, Kathryn Mockler, June Pak, Sina Queyras, Shazia Hafiz Ramji, Rasiqra Revulva, Yusuf Saadi, Sanchari Sur, and Jacqueline Valencia Proceeds will be donated to RAVEN and Climate Justice Toronto.Trade ReviewThis makes Watch Your Head bigger than the sum of its parts. By assembling so many voices, the book shows what an ethic of climate justice needs to look like: a place where multiple perspectives are bound together and share some common needs, but raise distinct concerns that will not be reduced to a singular vision. —Canadian Literature
£13.29
Fulcrum Inc.,US The Guide to Colorado Mammals
Book SynopsisA guidebook for a general audience describing approximately 126 species of mammals native to Colorado. Each mammal is described within a Species Account, including common and scientific name, physical description, size, habitat, distribution, field notes, legal status, and photographs. Includes sidebars highlighting interesting information about mammal biology, life history, and behavior. The book includes a glossary, index, and checklists.Trade Review"Colorado naturalist Young has published several books on Colorado and regional wildlife. She has written this well-organized field guide to the state's mammals for 'casual naturalists, outdoor recreationists, families, Colorado vacationers, and anyone desiring a general overview.' Quick identification is a major virtue, facilitated by pages color coded by family. Designed for heavy use, the volume offers descriptions of all 129 species known to have inhabited the state, including three (bison, grizzly bear, and gray wolf) no longer found in the wild. All entries include the following sections: 'Field ID,' 'Size,' 'Habitat,' 'Distribution,' 'Field Notes,' and 'Legal Status.' Color photos, limited to one per species, have been chosen less for photographic merit than for illustrating key differentiation factors. Many, however, add genuine photo interest and appeal. Range maps are provided for each species, and numerous sidebars give additional life histories. Appendixes add further value: a list of two bats and a flying squirrel rarely confirmed in the state; suggestions on observation ethics; where to see Colorado mammals; a checklist of species and dental formulas for each; and tips for identifying mammal skulls found in the field. A glossary supports the text. A solid bet for state and regional libraries. Summing Up: Recommended." --CHOICE
£21.56
Fulcrum Publishing Journey to the Mountaintop: On Living and Meaning
Book SynopsisA writer and a painter reflect on life and nature as they embark on a shared voyage of discovery in the Catskill Mountains and Kaaterskill Falls. Includes original paintings by acclaimed artist Thomas Locker.
£19.76
North Atlantic Books,U.S. Meditations on Nature, Meditations on Silence
Book SynopsisMeditations on Nature, Meditations on Silence is a collection of hundreds of quotes on the beauty and mystery of the natural world by writers and thinkers, including Aldo Leopold, Rachel Carson, Edward Abbey, Rainer Maria Rilke, Henry David Thoreau, Louise Dickinson Rich, and Lewis Thomas.Through their inspirational poetry and other writings and Rod MacIver’s beautiful watercolors, Meditations on Nature, Meditations on Silence offers readers a retreat from our complex, fast-paced world. This book explores the beauty, strange cohesion, and complexity of the natural world and universe, drawing on sources as diverse as ancient Chinese poets, contemporary songwriters, wilderness adventurers, homesteaders, and modern scientists.
£14.39
University of Arkansas Press The Amphibians and Reptiles of Arkansas
Book SynopsisThe product of fifteen years of work by top herpetologists, this book is a comprehensive examination of the amphibians and reptiles of Arkansas, featuring over 136 species and subspecies. With over five hundred four-color photos, line drawings, and over one hundred maps, this user-friendly book will become the definitive text on the subject.Trade ReviewA most important benchmark. . . . One hopes that authors and publishers . . . will not attempt to copy the book, but instead will use it as a baseline example to stimulate their own creativity and writing style." —The Bulletin of the Chicago Herpetological Society"This is a stunning and wonderful contribution to the natural history of Arkansas, crammed with information and spectacular photography. The authors bring together their extensive knowledge of different groups and meld them in a way that ensures that The Amphibians and Reptiles of Arkansas will be a lasting and frequently used compendium." —Joseph T. Collins, director of Center for North American Herpetology, Wildlife Author Laureate of Kansas"Has raised the bar for other state amphibian and reptile books. . . . This is the new benchmark." —Herpetological Review"This book is obviously a labor of love. . . . The authors have done an excellent job. The text is well written, and the photographs and illustrations are superb. The Amphibians and Reptiles of Arkansas is an essential addition to the library of any herpetologist, and will be accepted eagerly by the scientific community." —James Dixon, professor emeritus at Texas A & M University and author of Texas Snakes and Amphibians and Reptiles of Texas"Highly recommended." —Southeastern Naturalist
£34.95
American Traveler Press Arizona Wildflowers
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£7.59
American Traveler Press Country Journal
Book SynopsisYour own personal diary with excerpts from Grayson''s writing and lots of space for your own reflections.
£9.89
Farcountry Press Wild River Pioneers (2nd Ed): Adventures in the
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£20.66
Rowman & Littlefield Florida's Living Beaches: A Guide for the Curious
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£21.63
Workman Publishing The Earth Moved: On the Remarkable Achievements
Book Synopsis"You know a book is good when you actually welcome one of those howling days of wind and sleet that makes going out next to impossible." —The New York Times In The Earth Moved, Amy Stewart takes us on a journey through the underground world and introduces us to one of its most amazing denizens. The earthworm may be small, spineless, and blind, but its impact on the ecosystem is profound. It ploughs the soil, fights plant diseases, cleans up pollution, and turns ordinary dirt into fertile land. Who knew? In her witty, offbeat style, Stewart shows that much depends on the actions of the lowly worm. Charles Darwin devoted his last years to the meticulous study of these creatures, praising their remarkable abilities. With the august scientist as her inspiration, Stewart investigates the worm's subterranean realm, talks to oligochaetologists—the unsung heroes of earthworm science—who have devoted their lives to unearthing the complex life beneath our feet, and observes the thousands of worms in her own garden. From the legendary giant Australian worm that stretches to ten feet in length to the modest nightcrawler that wormed its way into the heart of Darwin's last book to the energetic red wigglers in Stewart's compost bin, The Earth Moved gives worms their due and exposes their hidden and extraordinary universe. This book is for all of us who appreciate Mother Nature's creatures, no matter how humble.
£10.78
Algonquin Books Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Childern from
Book SynopsisLouv talks with parents, children, teachers, scientists, religious leaders, child-development researchers, and environmentalists to find ways for children to experience the natural world more deeply.
£15.28
Crystal Clarity,U.S. Listening to Nature: How to Deepen Your Awareness
Book SynopsisLISTENING TO NATURE will help you experience more fully the serenity and mystery of the natural world.Joseph Cornell, author of the bestselling Sharing Nature with Children, offers a sensitive yet lively guidebook to a deeper awareness of nature. You will learn how to get the feel of nature through inspiring quotations from famous naturalists, stunning photography and Cornell''s ever-popular nature awareness activities-simple, enjoyable exercises that give you a direct, personal experience of the wonder and joy of nature.You do not have to be in the wilderness to do these activities. In fact, you can do many of them while driving or walking to work. As you use these activities, more and more, your receptivity will increase and you''ll begin to see beauty in the most common things. Use this book and its gentle encouragement for personal meditation or as an aid for teaching nature awareness to children and adults. Through this book you will learn to be still and silent, to absorb the wonder of your natural surroundings. You will feel and appreciate-and become one with-the great outdoors: its woodlands, mountains, streams and fields. Let this book transport your spirit to the heart of crystal clear springs and ancient forests-and to your own still centre, deep within.
£18.04
Temple University Press,U.S. People And The Planet: Holism and Humanism in
Book SynopsisA new environmental ethic calls for the protection of the Earth while recognizing the special nature of humansTable of ContentsForeword --Holmes Rolston, III Introduction 1. Changing Perspectives on Nature 2. Holistic Philosophy and Ethics 3. Holism and Individuals 4. Anthropocentrism in Environmental Ethics 5. Knowledge of the Good and the Bad 6. Deciding What We Should Do 7. The Status of Values in Nature 8. Contextual Environmental Ethics 9. Moral Pluralism 10. Moral Disagreement 11. The Moral Adequacy of Humanistic Holism Notes Bibliography Index
£64.80
Temple University Press,U.S. Nature's Keeper
Book SynopsisIn the West, humans tend to separate themselves from nature, valuing nature only as a means of meeting their own needs and happiness. This domination of nature often fosters human oppression instead of freedom and progress, as those who ignore abuses of nature tend to disregard human injustice as well. Peter S. Wenz argues that this oppression involves such destructive forces as sexism, ethnic strife, and political repression, including repression of the nuclear power industry's victims. Catastrophes like the Holocaust and the Gulf War are the result. In contrast to the destructive "separate from nature" attitude, Wenz looks to various indigenous peoples as an example of societies where human beings revere nature for itself - societies where human beings flourish as individuals, in families, and in communities. Unlike societies dependent on commerce and industry, many indigenous peoples consider themselves part of a circle of life, reaping benefits far greater than the technological advances of the West. Wenz considers how to adopt the perspective of some indigenous cultures and how to make it work in our fast-food world. Additionally, he uses a trip to the World Uranium Hearings in Salzburg as a vehicle for understanding complex philosophical issues from consumerism to anthropocentrism. Author note: Peter S. Wenz, Professor of Philosophy and Legal Studies at the University of Illinois at Springfield, is the author of Environmental Justice, Abortion Rights as Religious Freedom (Temple), and co-editor with Laura Westra of Faces of Environmental Racism.Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction Flying on Faith * A Call to Hear * People against Nature * An Indigenous Perspective * The Paradoxical Thesis * The Intellectual Journey 1. Our Christian Heritage Plague and Passion Play * Anthropocentrism and Original Sin * Insecurity Breeds Concentration of Power * Medieval Repression of People * Secularizing Jeopardy and Power * The Separation of Mind from Body 2. Commercialism The Five-Part Pattern in Commercialism * Comparative Advantage and the Promised Future 3. Industrialism Standardization and Centralization * Industrialism and Commercialism * The Industrial Revolution, Colonialism, and Slavery * Faith in Progress * Class Stratification * Skepticism about Darwin's Theory * The Industrial Evolutionary Theory * Social Darwinism's Justification of Inequality * Sociobiology and the Subordination of Women * Suppressing Individuality 4. Nationalism, Bureaucracy, and the Holocaust The Importance of Government * The Importance of Nationalism * Dachau and Anti-Semitism * The Inadequacy of Hate * The Nature of Bureaucracy * The Importance of Bureaucracy * Moral Progress * Departure 5. Nuclear Power and Radiation Exposure The Hearing Begins * Dangers of Radiation * Uranium Miners * Uranium Mining as a Radiation Pump * Impact on Indigenous Communities * Creating Radioactivity * International Conspiracy * The Politics of Nuclear Waste * Unjust Distribution of Risks 6. Nuclear Power and Human Oppression Government Subsidies and Financial Failures * Borrowing from Future Generations * The Scarcity of Uranium * Plutonium as a Military Threat * The Global Warming Rationale * The Gulf War * Rejecting Responsibility 7. Indigenous Peace and Prosperity Why Discuss Indigenous Cultures? * Stateless, Egalitarian Indigenous People * Statelessness and Violence * Food Abundance and Population Control * Poverty and Exchange * Industrial Poverty 8. Indigenous World Views Natural Sufficiency and Cyclical Time * Meaning, Security, and Individualism * Rootedness and the Expansion of Society * The Noncommercial and Sacred * Indigenous World Views Are Nature-Friendly 9. Implications Promoting Change * Family Values * Crime, Pornography, Drug Abuse, and the Work Ethic * Creating Jeopardy Is Good Business * Rejecting Utopian Thinking * Invention Is the Mother of Necessity * New Faith and Values 10. Practical Suggestions An Alternative Politics * Agriculture * International Trade * Transportation * Energy, Equity, and Population Control * Living with Nature The Flight Home Smoke in the Cabin * Choosing What to Believe * Denial Sources Index
£72.90
Temple University Press,U.S. Hikes Around Philadelphia
Book SynopsisWant to walk for a leisurely hour or two with the kids? Take them to the Churchville Nature Center, with its re-created Lenape Indian village and children's exhibits. Or would you prefer a more strenuous all-day hike? Try the rocky woods trail at Bake Oven Knob, Bear Rocks, and The Cliffs. Or if you're interested in wildlife, hike Green Lane Reservoir where 260 species of birds have been sighted. Perhaps you'd simply like to hike from Pennsylvania to Delaware and back again. Then White Clay Creek Preserve is for you. These are only five of the forty hiking trails described in Hikes Around Philadelphia. All are within an hour and a half's drive of the city. Ranging from 1.0 to 12.6 miles in length, they will take you through dense forests or wide-open meadows, past early farmsteads or a ringing boulder field from the last ice age. You can break your hike with a visit to a restored home or leave civilization behind on an isolated mountain ridge. Some of the trails are gravel or paved, or are canal towpaths, and are quite suitable for young children, older adults, or wheelchair hikers. Others are longer and more challenging, including rugged sections of the Appalachian Trail and the Horseshoe Trail. For each hike Boyd Newman and Linda Newman provide a detailed write-up, a trail map showing the hike route on a USGS survey map, and directions to the trailhead. They also include information on distance, elevation, probable time, surface, interesting features, facililities, disability access, whether hunting is allowed in the vicinity, and availability to public transportation. This format allows you to browse through the book and easily locate the particular hike that appeals to you today. In a concise introduction, the authors not only explain how to get the most out of the book but also give some hints on hiking safety and appropriate clothing and equipment. This handy reference offers: *a detailed write-up of each hike *easy-to-read trail maps *directions to the trail heads *information that are accessible by public transportation *details about handicap accessibility *lots of other pointers that make planned or last-minute hikes fun and easy for everyoneTable of ContentsLocator Map Introduction Hikes 1. Heinz Wildlife Refuge 2. Scott Arboretum 3. Springfield Trail 4. Leiper-Smedley Trail 5. Tyler Arboretum 6. Ridley Creek 7. Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education 8. Andorra natural Area 9. Wissahickon Gorge 10. Lorimer Park 11. Pennypack Wilderness 12. Neshaminy Park 13. Delhaas Woods and Silver Lake 14. Churchville Nature Center 15. Five-Mile Woods Preserve 16. Tyler State Park 17. Audubon Wildlife Sanctuary 18. Skippack Creek 19. Betzville Railroad Grade-Schuylkill River Trail 20. Valley Forge 21. Struble Trail 22. White Clay Creek Preserve 23. Nottingham Serpentine Barrens 24. French Creek 25. Hopewell Village and Baptism Creek 26. Nolde Forest 27. Daniel Boone Homestead 28. Green Lane Reservoir 29. Peace Valley 30. Bowman's Hill State Wildflower Preserve 31. Tohickon Valley 32. Lake Nockamixon 33. Old Dry Road Farm 34. Ringing Rocks 35. Delaware Canal Towpath 36. Jacobsburg Settlement 37. Bake Oven Knob, Bear Rocks, and the Cliffs 38. The Pinnacle and Pulpit Rock 39. Blue Mountain and Phillips Canyon 40. Sand Spring-Tom Lowe Trail Appendices A. Hikes by Length B. Hikes by Disability Access C. Hike Map Index D. Hikes Near Public Transportation
£18.89
Temple University Press,U.S. Philadelphia Area Weather Book
Book SynopsisThe Philadelphia Area Weather Book answers all of our questions about the region's weather and climate, from the Poconos and Philadelphia to southern New Jersey and the Jersey Shore to Delaware. The snowiest winter? The hottest summer? The strongest tornado? Signs of global warming? Why can't computers give reliable two-week forecasts? The answers are all here in this new paperback.Offering a little-known history of the region's pivotal role in the development of weather science as far back as colonial times, The Philadelphia Area Weather Book gives a lively account of what forecasters actually do on a daily basis.Features include: * "Stories from the Trenches": inside stories of forecasting the big storms; a look back with Philadelphia's television pioneers Wally Kinnan, Dr. Francis Davis, and Herb Clarke; and a glimpse at the possibilities for the future climate of our area *More than 150 illustrations (including 60 photographs, 54 maps, dozens of diagrams, and a 16-page color section): ranging from the first photographic image of lightning to local residents' photos of the Blizzard of '96 and Hurricane Floyd; from the dynamics of air masses to eroding shore lines and global warming trends * Weather tables: statistics for every day of the year, monthly averages as well as temperature and precipitation extremes for Philadelphia, Wilmington, Allentown, and Atlantic City * Lists of web resources organized by topic so that readers can follow current weather events using the same sites as the experts do.Trade Review"When it comes to Philadelphia weather, Jon Nese and Glenn 'Hurricane' Schwartz know what's going on. Now, you can get the best of their knowledge about your weather in a clear, concise, fun book."—Al Roker, NBC's Today Show"Jon Nese and Glenn Schwartz have put together extensive information regarding weather in the Philadelphia area. Rather than just compiling a book of statistics, they have crafted a fascinating book full of stories going far beyond the seasonal variations in the local weather. Their book is sure to be of interest to Philadelphia residents and will serve as an invaluable source of reference material for teachers, the media, emergency managers, and others with an interest in the history of meteorology."—Dr. Greg Forbes, Severe Weather Expert, The Weather Channel"It offers readers insight into the region's seasonal, and quite changeable, weather conditions, the history of weather observation in the area and a slew of fun facts."—Bucks County Courier Times"That synergy between science and entertainment is evident throughout the book. Structured with the rich details of a meteorology primer and the thumbnail sketches of an almanac, this compulsively readable volume also functions as a cultural history of the forecasters and storms embedded in our memories."—Mayfair News"...an outstanding job describing and explaining, in layman's terms, the wide variety of weather phenomenon that affect the city of Philadelphia and its environs."—The Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, November 2004"[A] great reference tool for any weather-crazed Philadelphian."—The Philadelphia Evening BulletinTable of ContentsForeword – Edward G. RendellPrefaceAcknowledgments1. History of Weather Science and Observing in the Philadelphia AreaObservations: It all Starts Here • The Modern National Weather Service2. Basics of Weather and Weather ForecastingFrom Folklore to Fundamentals • Basic Building Blocks of Weather and Climate • General Climate Features of the Philadelphia Area • Weather Forecasting3. Winter: December–January–FebruaryTough Forecasting on the Edge • Winter Cold • Winter Snow • Historical Winters4. Spring: March–April–MayFrom Winter to Spring • Nor'easters • Thunderstorms • Tornadoes • River Flooding • Looking Ahead: glimpses of Summer in Spring5. Summer: June–July–AugustHeat and Humidity • Summer Precipitation: Drenching Ran and Drought • Air Pollution • The Shore6. Autumn: September–October–NovemberAutumn: Season of Stability • Hurricanes: The Greatest Storms on Earth • Hurricane Dangers • Hurricane Forecasting • Philadelphia and Coastal Vulnerability • Historical Delaware Valley and Shore Hurricanes • A Philadelphia-area Nightmare Hurricane Scenario • Looking Ahead: Signs of What Is to Come7. Philadelphia's Future ClimateFuture Climate: Months and Season; Future Climate: Years and Decades (and Longer)EpilogueAppendix A: Philadelphia Daily and Monthly Climate DataAppendix B: Climate Data for Wilmington, Delaware; Allentown, Pennsylvania; and Atlantic City, New JerseyNotesBibliographyAdditional Web ResourcesList of IllustrationsList of TablesIndex
£43.70
Interlink Books Southern Mexico (Traveller's Wildlife Guides):
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£25.16
Ivan R Dee, Inc Back from the Land: How Young Americans Went to
Book SynopsisWhen Eleanor Agnew, her husband, and two young children moved to the Maine woods in 1975, the back-to-the-land movement had already attracted untold numbers of converts who had grown increasingly estranged from mainstream American society. Visionaries by the millions were moving into woods, mountains, orchards, and farmlands in order to disconnect from the supposedly deleterious influences of modern life. Fed up with capitalism, TV, Washington politics, and 9-to-5 jobs, they took up residence in log cabins, A-frames, tents, old schoolhouses, and run-down farmhouses; grew their own crops; hauled water from wells; avoided doctors in favor of natural cures; and renounced energy-guzzling appliances. This is their story, in all its glories and agonies, its triumphs and disasters (many of them richly amusing), told by a woman who experienced the simple life firsthand but has also read widely and interviewed scores of people who went back to the land. Ms. Agnew tells how they found joy and camaraderie, studied their issues of Mother Earth News, coped with frozen laundry and grinding poverty, and persevered or gave up. Most of them, it turns out, came back from freedom and self-sufficiency, either by returning to urban life or by dressing up their primitive rural existence—but they held onto the values they gained during their back-to-the-land experience. Back from the Land is filled with juicy details and inspired with a naïve idealism, but the attraction of the life it describes is undeniable. Here is a book to delight those who remember how it was, those who still kick themselves for not taking the chance, and those of a new generation who are just now thinking about it.Trade ReviewInteresting for anyone who has fantasized about country life. * Baltimore City Paper *Back from the Land . . . details these visionaries and their movement. . . . Provides an excellent survey. * Midwest Book Review *Agnew offers a balanced, critical view that conveys both the profound rewards as well as the stresses that the 'simple life' brought. * Booklist *Eleanor Agnew's lovely memoir of this movement of primal innocence is at once honest and hilarious. . . . She recaptures the period with unerring skill. -- Christopher Hitchens * The New York Times *If you’ve ever indulged fantasies of . . . living off the land, Agnew’s new book . . . might make you regain an appreciation for your Maytag. * E-The Environmental Magazine *Agnew . . . understands these well-meaning people, and never patronizes them. . . . Charmingly told. -- Jim Motavalli * Dragonfly Review *A valuable personal and historical pilgrimage through one of US society’s countercultures. . . . For nostalgic reading as well as for the scholarship of culture. -- J. H. Smith * CHOICE *A balanced, perceptive portrait of the [back-to-the-land] movement. -- Leonard Quart * Berkshire Eagle *Agnew has managed to recreate a compelling chapter of American history. -- Christine Mangan * Whole Life Review *Her work reflects her gift for storytelling . . . a compelling read. * Encyclopedia Of Chicago *In Back from the Land, Eleanor Agnew weaves together an intriguing mix of her own first-person experiences and those of like-minded idealists. . . . Its value resides in its insights into the painful struggles individuals and families are forced to go through as they attempt to break away from the materialism of a consumer society in order to leave a lighter, sustainable, footprint on this earth. -- Jeffrey Jacob, University of Calgary, author of New PioneersEleanor Agnew has captured the excitement and idealism of the back-to-the-landers of the 1970s and has followed their countercultural dream full cycle. . . . Agnew’s mixing of her personal history with the stories of others gives this book extraordinary warmth and vitality. -- Tim Miller, Department of Religious Studies, University of KansasInformative account . . . intriguing. . . . Some of the best writing is from Agnew's own memories. * Publishers Weekly *
£12.34
Coffee House Press At the Lightning Field
Book SynopsisWalter De Maria's "Lightning Field" is 400 stainless steel poles, positioned 220 feet apart, in the desert of central New Mexico. Over the course of several visits, it becomes, for Raicovich, a site for confounding and revealing perceptions of time, space, duration, and light; how changeable they are, while staying the same. From At the Lightning Field:Chaos and coincidences of history: Edward Lorenz was a meteorologist at MIT in the early 1960s. Looking for a devil in the detail of meteorological data, he was trying to forecast global weather patterns (creating forecasting models that would later be applied to economics and financial analysis). Complicated sets of equations, sometimes arbitrary webs of information, measurements of "initial conditions" churned through a primitive computer. The machine was named the Royal McBee. Laura Raicovich works as President and Executive Director of The Queens Museum. She is the author of A Diary of Mysterious Difficulties, a book based on Viagra and Cialis spam (Publication Studio) and is an editor of Assuming Boycott: Resistance, Agency, and Cultural Production (O/R Books).Trade Review"[Raicovich] combines her intimate, studied observations with the writings of a vast array of mathematicians and thinkers, including Benoit Mandelbrot and Gertrude Stein. Attempting to answer the question "How reliable is memory?," the essay is a beautifully chaotic map of thought and experience that both mirrors the experience of a work of art and probes its essence."--Publishers Weekly, starred review "A detailed observation of what it means to make a detailed observation."--Kirkus "Make a pilgrimage to The Lightning Field by walking the lines of this book and building something beautiful in your mind's eye with the author, who will take you there and many places besides."--Rebecca Solnit "A slim but powerful primer on viewership, At the Lightning Field is as enlightening as it is pleasurable to read. Laura Raicovich is in the business of complicating what it means to engage with a work of art, and as she describes her exploration of The Lightning Field she draws on the wide-ranging influences that informed her experience, situating the work within a rich matrix of natural, scientific, and cultural activators. Generous and nimbly wrought, At the Lightning Field is a model for what rigorous engagement with art should entail."--Katharine Solheim, Unabridged Bookstore "Laura Raicovich's At the Lightning Field is a beautiful and striking meditative essay on art, memory, time, and space. The lines on the page dance and, just as the lightning poles on that plateau in New Mexico do, vary in length in order to create an even plane in both space and mind. The rhythm that this pattern instills in the reader fosters an almost mystical quality in the writing that leaves an indelible impact on the mind. This repetitive pattern will urge you to, no, demand that you devour this essay at once. She says, 'Permanence: Begin with permanence (a slippery concept--despite its will to be otherwise--and inextricably tied to time). Permanence makes me look more closely, notice details, large and small, that define moments as they accumulate.' That is beautiful. This was a truly pleasurable read."--Matt Keliher, Subtext Books "Laura Raicovich's hauntingly evocative At the Lightning Field is not so much a work of criticism or art history as a veritably Rilkean exercise in co-presence, lyrically resonating, that is, off of the Rilke who spoke of 'that love that consists in this, that two solitudes meet and touch and shelter one another.'"--Lawrence Weschler, author of Seeing is Forgetting the Name of the Thing One Sees "Laura Raicovich is a sensitive and eloquent witness to contemporary art's strangeness; she renders the tempo and atmosphere of her pilgrimages to Walter De Maria's The Lightning Field with an admirable severity, delicacy, and lyricism. Her beautifully distilled and rigorously experimental book will inspire anyone wanting to learn how to take alert notes on an aesthetic experience and then how to transform those notes into complex verbal art."--Wayne Koestenbaum
£9.49
David R. Godine Publisher Inc On Cape Cod
Book SynopsisOver one hundred color photographs capture scenes of sea and shore — a beautiful photographic tribute to Cape Cod, Massachusetts. Representing all fifteen of the Cape’s towns.Loosely chronicling the arc of a summer day, and ranging from formal nature studies to breezy journalistic images, these photographs offer a rich visual immersion into the essence of the varied and scenic peninsula that is Cape Cod.
£20.89
Marlowe & Co Dancing with Your Dark Horse: How Horse Sense
Book SynopsisIn Dancing with Your Dark Horse, Chris Irwin, world-renowned as one of the most successful horse whisperers in North America, further explores the intriguing spiritual connection he has discovered between human and equine nature. Based on his more than twenty years of working with, training, and observing horses, Irwin explains how the characteristics necessary to building good relationships with horses can in turn be used to establish a positive balance between mind, body, and spirit in our own lives.Dancing with Your Dark Horse will help readers see that horses have a great deal to teach us about how to live happier, healthier, and more balanced lives.
£20.57
Chicago Review Press Feral Cities: Adventures with Animals in the
Book SynopsisWe tend to think of cities as a realm apart, somehow separate from nature, but nothing could be further from the truth. In Feral Cities, Tristan Donovan digsbelow the urban gloss to uncover the wild creatures that we share our streets and homes with, and profiles the brave and fascinating people who try to manage them. Along the way readers will meet the wall-eating snails that are invading Miami, the boars that roam Berlin, and the monkey gangs of Cape Town. From feral chickens and carpet-roaming bugs to coyotes hanging out in sandwich shops and birds crashing into skyscrapers, Feral Cities takes readers on a journey through streets and neighborhoods that are far more alive than we often realize, shows how animals are adjusting to urban living, and asks what messages the wildlife in our metropolises have for us.Trade Review"An entertaining jaunt through city wildlife." Kirkus Reviews"Donovan not only shows readers how territorial boundaries between humans and wild animals constantly shift, but also how such encounters with birds, coyotes, and snakes should come as no great surprise." Publishers Weekly"Surprising, entertaining, sometimes frightening, Donovan's worldwide exploration of urban wildlife will be enjoyed by all types of readers including young adults, animal lovers, and those interested in ecology." Library Journal"In Feral Cities , journalist Tristan Donovan explores the conflict zone of cities and wild animals, and he seems to have a good time doing it." Science News"Donovan entertainingly exposes ecological experiments gone hopelessly awry and offers thoughtful input on how such tipping points can be avoided in the future." Booklist"Even those of us who have intensely studied urban wildlife for decades can learn a bit from some of Donovan's many sources, and Donovan can be praised for drawing out nuggets of information and perspective from sources who by reputation tend to be reticent." Animals 24-7" This interdisciplinary understanding of the issue is certainly apparent in the excellent Feral Cities . Although not an analytical, scientific text, the book provides a unique look into the lives of both urban wildlife and its human counterpart. For anyone interested in any of the many aspects of urban wildlife, Feral Cities will be a vastly entertaining read." The Nature of Cities"Wild creatures are having a people problem these days, and Donovan takes us on a global frolic to find all sorts of untamed critters and de-natured people cohabiting badly." Jim Sterba, author of Nature Wars and Frankie's Place
£14.20
University of South Carolina Press Ramblings of a Lowcountry Game Warden: A Memoir
Book SynopsisThis title features the career-spanning tales of a coastal crimefighter, ranging from the dangerous to the hilarious.Moise served with distinction as a South Carolina game warden for nearly a quarter century, patrolling the coastal woods and waters of the Palmetto State. In this colorful memoir, the cigar-chomping, ticket-writing scourge of lowcountry fish and game law violators chronicles grueling stakeouts, complex trials, hair-raising adventures, and daily interactions with a host of outrageous personalities. Along the way he paints a vivid and fluid portrait of evolving attitudes and changing regulations governing coastal conservation.In briskly paced accounts of episodes ranging from dangerous to humorous, he introduces a lively cast of watermen, lawyers, country judges, hunters, and poachers who animate the coastal environs and whose quirky personalities and foibles are the game warden's daily stock in trade. Moise's narrative highlights the working lives of commercial crabbers and shrimpers, the antics of overly enthusiastic fishermen, and the great lengths to which hunters will go in their quests for doves, ducks, and marsh hens. Moise also describes encounters with displaced ""urban wildlife,"" the coastal marijuana smuggling business, and his fellow game wardens.The memoir also features a foreword by Lloyd Newberry, celebrated hunter and senior editor of ""Sporting Classics Magazine"".
£35.98
Book Publishing Company Orcapedia: A Guide to the Victims of the
Book Synopsis
£18.40
Book Publishing Company Death of a Whale: The Challenge of Anti-Whaling
Book Synopsis
£15.29
Charlesbridge Publishing,U.S. Birds: Nature's Magnificent Flying Machines
Book SynopsisHovering, gliding, diving -- how do birds do it? BIRDS: NATURE''S MAGNIFICENT FLYING MACHINES looks at how feathers, body structure, and wings vary from bird to bird. Readers will learn the mechanics of bird flight from takeoff to landing and discover how wing types meet the survival needs of each species. Popular science writer Caroline Arnold infuses this informative look at avian flight with her love of birds. Patricia J. Wynne''s exquisitely detailed illustrations show these amazing creatures in action.
£7.59
Milkweed Editions On the Ice: An Intimate Portrait of Life at
Book SynopsisTravelogue, cultural meditation, and love story, On the Ice casts a panoramic view on one of the oddest communities in one of the most extreme places on earth. Negative 70-degree weather. Canned food that dates back at least a decade. Wind storms powerful enough to lift a human off the ground. Extremely unfashionable clothing. Welcome to Antarctica, the farthest-away place in the world. Hoping to get away from the complexities of her life, Gretchen Legler arrives at McMurdo Station with the intention of researching the landscape; what she finds, instead, is a zany population of misfits and dreamers. Populated by people from all walks of life—bankers, MBAs, therapists, carpenters, scientists, laborers, and military brass—the individuals that Legler meets have gone to Antarctica to escape everything from parking tickets to angry spouses. Part sociological study, part historiography, and part love story, On the Ice is an exploration of one of the most unexplored places on earth and the people who are drawn to it.
£11.39
Milkweed Editions Stilwater: Finding Wild Mercy in the Outback
Book SynopsisThe spellbinding true story of a young woman's adventure in the Australian outback as she joins a small crew on an abandoned cattle station and drags feral cattle in from the wild. One thousand square miles of coastal scrub--inundated by monsoon floods in summer, baked dry in winter, and filled with the most deadly animals in the world--Stilwater seems an unlikely home for a cattle operation. But in the countless miles beyond the station compound roam tens of thousands of cows, many entirely feral from a long period of neglect. Rafael has been hired, along with a ragged crew of ringers and stockmen, to bring them in for drafting. Over a season they use helicopters, motorcycles, bullcatcher jeeps, horses, ropes, and knives to win Stilwater Station back from the wild. A deeply poetic inquiry into our desire to make order where we find wildness, Stilwater: Finding Mercy in the Outback suffuses us with salt and scrub and blood, blurring the line between domestic and feral in wondrous, unsettling ways. This is a whirlwind of men, women, cattle, horses, machines and landscape in collaborative evolution, all becoming different manifestations of the same entity--the Australian Wild.
£11.39
Milkweed Editions Journal of a Prairie Year
Book SynopsisA lifelong resident of southwestern Minnesota and northwestern Iowa, Paul Gruchow celebrated the few scattered patches of prairie land that remain in a region once dominated by grasslands. Gruchow recorded his thoughts, observations, and experiences in each season on the prairie, eventually compiling them into this moving chronicle of a sometimes harsh but always stunning landscape. Be it the bitter winds of winter, the return of the geese in spring, or the first pasque flower, the cycles of growth on the prairie have the power to move and inspire lovers of nature.Trade Review"Gruchow writes of the glare of moonlight on snow; of the impulse to name and possess things in the natural world; of prairie phlox, garter snakes, and the dust in the air that turns the sunlight crimson ... an alertness permeates this enduring book." --Los Angeles Times
£9.99
Milkweed Editions Wonderful Investigations: Essays, Meditations,
Book SynopsisOver the course of six critically acclaimed books--including a compelling meditation on Moby-Dick--Dan Beachy-Quick has established himself as "one of America's most significant young poets" (Lyn Hejinian). In Wonderful Investigations, Beachy-Quick broaches "a hazy line, a faulty boundary" between our daily world and one rich with wonder; a magical world in which, through his work as a writer, Beachy-Quick participates with a singular combination of critical intelligence and lyricism. Touching on the works of Emerson, Thoreau, Proust, and Plato, among others, Beachy-Quick outlines the problem of duality in modern thought--the separation of the mind and body, word and referent, intelligence and mystery, human and natural--and makes the case for a fuller kind of nature poetry, one that strives to overcome this false separation, and to celebrate the notion that "wonder is the fact that the world has never ceased to be real."Trade ReviewPraise for Wonderful Investigations: "Dan Beachy-Quick's Wonderful Investigations juxtaposes four essays with three 'meditations' and four fable-like 'tales' to trace the tension between mind and body, between our inner and our outer lives. A poet, he is terrific with an image and relies on antecedents here from Plato to Thoreau to give his work a context and a depth." --David L. Ulin, Los Angeles Times "This is a book about reading. It offers the kinds of insights into the act that most of us never stop to indulge in, and for that we are eternally grateful...The idea that reading offers a dream world, a parallel one, is familiar. But Beachy-Quick takes this a step farther. Reading before sleep, reading books to children before they go to sleep, is a way to slide gently through a middle place and into forgetting...try reading Beachy-Quick, who most certainly delivers perceptual fine-tuning." --Susan Salter Reynolds, Los Angeles Review of Books "Wonderful Investigations is a model of intense observation, of a mind reaching out as far as it can. Always Beachy-Quick seems to write in metaphor, returning to the process of wonder, and why it's so necessary, and then to the failure of language and poetry to ever truly take us where we want to go. And while I would normally tire of this recursive sort of exploration, I cannot turn away, returning to these essays because I long to feel as intensely curious about anything as Beachy-Quick does. This is the triumph of Wonderful Investigations: his reader cannot help but feel the same desire for that hazy line--cannot help but want to reach for it as well." --Ploughshares "'There is then creative writing as well as creative reading,' wrote Emerson in 'The American Scholar.' Poet and essayist Dan Beachy-Quick admits that this dictum is 'the touchstone of his creative life,' and it shows in his new prose collection Wonderful Investigations. An almost impossible task inspires this work: to stalk and capture states of wonder, while knowing that the quarry itself will evaporate if grasped too firmly with the tools of analysis. Literature provides the means to chart the hazy, yet distinct, border between the world of reality and the world of wonder, between hunger and mystery ... Beachy-Quick's sensitive and intimate approach to writing about writing seems an ideal antidote to the post-whateverist malaise of most literary criticism. He acknowledges theory but doesn't get weighed down by it, nor is it his primary interest ... In a landscape that at times seems overpopulated with creative writers, we need more creative readers like Beachy-Quick." -- Justin Wadland, Rain Taxi Excerpt from a profile and Q&A with Dan Beachy-Quick in The Kenyon Review: Andrew David King for Kenyon Review: You also talk with some frequency of "magic," "mystery," and "wonder" in your work. This shows up in your preface to Wonderful Investigations, too; there, you write that its essays seek "to near those ways in which wonder, magic, ritual, and initiation continue to exert a numinous presence within the work of reading." You also use a parable to conceptualize the divide between a world a knowledge and another world "where thoughts refuse to lead to knowledge." But are there any pitfalls to wonder? How does one negotiate a sense of "true wonder," if you will, and escape confusing the difficult for the irreducible? Dan Beachy-Quick: Wonder has numerous pitfalls, even dangers. Wonder can so stymie the mind that it disengages from the very world that triggered it. Wonder astonishes; we can find ourselves as if made into stone by it, a kind of witness outside of an ethic. I keep thinking here of Cortez's men who came into Tenochtitlan and saw before their eyes a city as if pulled from the pages of a book, something more than real and so less than real, which allowed them, in part, to commit the atrocity they did. Whenever wonder works so as to disassociate the mind from the world, I think we find ourselves mired in a crisis we seldom see as a crisis, and imagination loses its ethical possibilities in favor of the mere pleasure--not a loving pleasure--of enjoying a world that doesn't actually exist. What concerns me most is wonder as it might reorient us back to the actual, wonder as a threshold to the real--assuming, I guess, that we are in constant need of return to the thing we are already in. KR: You begin "The Hut of Poetry," which was originally published in KR under a different title, with the following sentence: "The difficulty of being a nature poet is that nature always intervenes." Do you consider yourself a nature poet? I ask this because you go on, immediately afterward, to talk about the delayed-ness and paradoxes of perception, a constant theme in your work. "But a home is never the world--a home is a separation from the world. A poem is never the world--a poem is a separation from the world." The blurb on inside flap of Wonderful Investigations describes it as an exploration of "the problem of duality," but it seems, also, that there are divisions inherent in not just perceiving the world but in turning away from it to write it down. "I look up from 'sparrow' to see sparrow," you write in This Nest, after writing earlier that a poem "forms a lens on a page." From your story "A Point that Flows" (harking back to Plato's definition of the line) there's another semblance of this: "Looking down I saw up." Should poetry aspire to mimesis--"The virtue of an honest ethic, to write only what one sees..."--and is this attainable, or desirable? What are poets to make of this perceptual separation, if it does in fact exist, from the world they wish to access? DBQ: I guess I do consider myself a nature poet. I should qualify that by saying I don't know what else a poet can be. It feels to me there is a world, and we write into it to write about it. But doing so is complicated by the medium of our entry, the offering of the poem that is in itself a world, tied not only to mimesis as a primary crisis, but to the fact of the image as it doubles world to represent it. I'd want to argue for mimesis as a use of language that must attend to itself as it also attends to what it names. I might even suggest that nature knows this about the medium of language, the slippage consciousness creates between word and world as interpenetrating, not wholly embodying, realities. I think this is, in part, what Heraclitus means when he says, "Nature loves to hide." Duality isn't wholly of interest to me. But there is an inevitable arrival in basic dichotomies that poetry recognizes even as it tries to undermine them, keeping together what should fall apart, reconciling opposites. Such work is another reason why Romanticism is so deeply important to me--much of their deepest work occurs here. Praise for A Whaler's Dictionary: "This is a rich, profound, fascinating book, the kind that widens the margins of everything we read, making room for new observations, more creative relationships all around: writer/reader, person/book, literature/life." --Los Angeles Times "A supple and well-read poet with a fine ear, Beachy-Quick has long studied--some might even say he has been obsessed with--Moby-Dick...Often the whale, and the book, represent the endlessness of all quests, our enduring hunger for the right, last word. Jewish philosophy and wisdom literature (Martin Buber, Emmanuel Levinas), other famous modern thinkers (Wittgenstein, Derrida) and Shakespeare's King Lear also guide Beachy-Quick's thoughts, while the rhythms of not only Melville but Emerson and Thoreau guide his resonant prose." --Publishers Weekly "After immersing himself in Moby Dick for many years, poet and teacher Beachy-Quick found himself embarked on a "mad task." Following Ishmael's lead, he has created a whaler's dictionary...Beachy-Quick's lyric and philosophical dictionary is also a browser's delight, with see also lists that launch the reader on intriguing voyages into the realms of myth and archetype, the sea's blue wilderness, and the uncharted waters of the collective unconscious." --Donna Seaman, Booklist "Essayistic, inventive, and frequently brilliant." --Poetry Foundation "Wounded by a book, wounded by the force of idolatrous speech in Moby-Dick, Dan Beachy-Quick has mounted a kind of folly, a nautilus, enclosing the furtive wall of his own lyric sensibility. A Whaler's Dictionary reminds us why poets must sometimes measure their gifts against the calculus of prose, and why criticism by poets, unlike academic arguments, sometimes produces a flame which stands the test of time." --Daniel Tiffany, author of Toy Medium and Puppet Wardrobe "This is a major work on the charged relationship that can come into being between text and reader, written by one of America's most significant young poets." --Lyn Hejinian, author of Saga/Circus and The Fatalist "A Whaler's Dictionary manages to function as an oddly ideal work of criticism, breathing new life into Moby-Dick and showing how the novel subsists as an intricately living thing." --Virginia Quarterly Review
£14.24
Milkweed Editions The Tarball Chronicles: A Journey Beyond the
Book SynopsisWinner of the 2013 ASLE Book Award Winner of the Reed Award for the Best Book on the Southern Environment 2011 Named a Top Book from the South 2011 by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution A San Francisco Chronicle Gift Book Recommendation for 2011 A Southern Independent Booksellers Bestseller "For those interested in putting the Gulf crisis in perspective, there can be no better guide than this funny, often uncertain, frank, opinionated, always curious, informed and awestruck, accounting of how we've gone wrong and could go right, a full-strength antidote to the Kryptonite of corporate greed and human ignorance." --Atlanta Journal-Constitution Traveling the shores of the Gulf from east to west with oceanographers, subsistence fisherman, seafood distributors, and other long-time Gulf residents, acclaimed author and environmental advocate David Gessner offers a lively, arresting account of the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. With The Tarball Chronicles Gessner tells a story that extends beyond the archetypal oil-soaked pelican, beyond politics, beyond BP, and beyond other oil spill books in the market. Instead, heart on his sleeve and beer in hand, he explores the ecosystem of the Gulf as a complicated whole and focuses on the people whose lives and livelihoods have been jeopardized by the spill. With hisTrade ReviewWinner of The Southern Environmental Law Center's Phillip D. Reed Memorial Award for Outstanding Writing on the Southern Environment Praise for The Tarball Chronicles "Anyone who wanted a first-hand look at the Gulf after the news cycle ended will find it here ... brilliant, thoughtful." -- Publishers Weekly (STARRED review) "If you read only one book about the Deepwater Horizon oil spill this year, it should be this one. If you plan not to read any books about it, make an exception for this blunt, funny, eye-opening quest to find the real stories behind the Gulf crisis." -- Shelf Awareness "Expressive and adventurous. A profoundly personal inquiry into the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe unique in its hands-on immediacy and far-ranging ruminations." --Donna Seaman, Booklist "Brilliant--the best and most original writing coming out of the Gulf." --Scott Dodd, OnEarth Magazine, Natural Resources Defense Council " The Tarball Chronicles [is] an eye-opening, jaw-dropping account ... Gessner crafts a powerfully informative but also immensely relatable narrative. Entertaining and rousing." -- Mother Nature Network "Gessner's account of his journey blazes out with a fiery, pugilistic style...His journey around the Gulf of Mexico offers us a powerful and sobering reminder that whether or not we feel the direct effects of the oil spill in our backyards, we are all implicated, all compromised, and--the most important for Gessner--all connected" --James Lang, America: The National Catholic Weekly "David Gessner is on a roll." -- New Orleans Times-Picayune "For those interested in putting the Gulf crisis in perspective, there can be no better guide than this funny, often uncertain, frank, opinionated, always curious, informed and awestruck, accounting of how we've gone wrong and could go right, a full-strength antidote to the Kryptonite of corporate greed and human ignorance." -- Atlanta Journal-Constitution " The Tarball Chronicles is well worth your time. It's a darkly entertaining tribute to the Gulf coast, our 'national sacrifice zone.' But be warned: You'll come away discomfited and with more than a few questions of your own." -- Tampa Bay Online "Gessner has the heart and mind of an investigative journalist... Not everyone will be pleased with this Jeremiah in our midst, but the word is a fire and a hammer, and Gessner delivers it well." -- Mobile Press-Register "Highly readable, strongly recommended." --Fred Kasten, WWNO's "The Sound of Books" "An expert naturalist, he not only observes but talks with people who are in the know--forceful, insightful, blood-and-guts people who will speak their minds (like David). There is grit and heartbreak and energy in just about everything he writes." --Clyde Edgerton, the author of Lunch at the Piccadilly and Walking Across Egypt "Vivid, funny, opinionated, poignant, and mold breaking--Gessner takes us deep into the environmental and personal tragedies of the spill." --Jim Campbell, the author of The Final Frontiersman "Plenty of people are writing about the BP oil disaster, but few indeed will be able to make us feel the reality of it like David Gessner can. The likelihood that his account will also be action-filled and darkly funny is pure bonus." --John Jeremiah Sullivan, the author of Blood Horses "In this highly readable, firsthand account of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, David Gessner considers the catastrophe in the Gulf as a symptom of even bigger economic and cultural challenges that loom in our future. This excellent book is not judgmental, but thought provoking and well worth reading." --David Allen Sibley, author of The Sibley Guide to Birds Praise for Soaring with Fidel: An Osprey Odyssey from Cape Cod to Cuba and Beyond "David Gessner's writing is not only a testament of hope but a beautiful bow to the osprey he lives among."--Terry Tempest Williams "Gessner writes beautifully, with grace and humor."-- Publishers Weekly "An engaging, lyrical guide to osprey migration, Cuba, and a common humanity."-- Orion Magazine "Gessner's travels are filled with small delights. He has a great gift for conveying reverence without sanctimony, and even at his most sardonic and self-deprecating, his sense of wonder at the osprey never falters. As he stands on a rock above Cuba's Sierra Maestra, watching ospreys rocket past, we wish we could be up there beside him, binoculars in one hand, a cold beer in the other."--George Black, OnEarth "A grand and cheering journey on the wings of one of nature's most sociable predators."--Carl Hiassen, author of Nature Girl Praise for The Prophet of Dry Hill: Lessons From a Life in Nature "Sharing a philosophy of life and living, Gessner eloquently reacquaints readers old and new to [legendary naturalist John] Hay's magnificent contributions to the art of nature writing."-- Booklist "This book is an enormous gift, an act of preservation as important as any chunk of land purchased by The Nature Conservancy. John Hay's stature cannot be overestimated, and David Gessner has done him great justice." --Bill McKibben, author of Eaarth "If Thoreau had wanted a disciple, he couldn't have had a better one than David Gessner...This beautiful book should inspire the reader to 'get down in nature, down in the water and the dirt,' as Hay urges. I am sending my copy of this book to the wildlife-destroyer in the White House."--Alice Furlaud, NPR reporter Praise for Sick of Nature "Comical, energetic, and reverentially irreverent...Gessner's literary voice in this book is something new, something different...In particular, he argues for--and then gleefully demonstrates--the enlivening contribution of farce and other modes of narrative in the field of nature writing...More like a gulp of laughing gas than the standard breath of fresh air."-- Orion Magazine "Reminiscent of Edward Abbey, and, like that writer, [Gessner] leaves you with plenty to ponder. Highly recommended."-- Library Journal "Here is an environmental read with irreverent laughter and attentive awe both."-- Virginia Quarterly Review "Our best writer of creative nonfiction period."--Mark Spitzer, author of Bottom Feeder Praise for Return of the Osprey: A Season of Flight and Wonder "David Gessner's writing is not only a testament of hope but a beautiful bow to the osprey he lives among."--Terry Tempest Williams "Through textured anecdotes and graphic details, Gessner provides insights into the life and history of this great sea bird of prey that will delight both the committed birder and the general reader."-- Publishers Weekly "This beautifully written story of a season with birds of prey makes for engrossing reading as we learn about osprey life from a master essayist."-- Booklist "Thrilling...Memorable...Among the classics of American nature writing."-- Boston Globe "Engrossing...An author who's both sensuous and lyrical while also being pristinely concise."-- Rocky Mountain News
£11.99
Milkweed Editions The World Is on Fire: Scrap, Treasure, and Songs
Book SynopsisThe sermons of Joni Tevis' youth filled her with dread, a sense "that an even worse story--one you hadn't read yet--could likewise come true." In this revelatory collection, she reckons with her childhood fears by exploring the uniquely American fascination with apocalypse. From a haunted widow's wildly expanding mansion, to atomic test sites in the Nevada desert, her settings are often places of destruction and loss. And yet Tevis transforms these eerie destinations into sites of creation as well, uncovering powerful points of connection. Whether she's relating her experience of motherhood or describing the timbre of Freddy Mercury's voice in "Somebody to Love," she relies on the same reverence for detail, the same sense of awe. And by anchoring her attention to the raw materials of our world--nails and beams, dirt and stone, bones and blood--she discovers grandeur in the seemingly mundane. Possessed throughout with eclectic intelligence and extraordinary lyricism, these essays illuminate curiosities and momentous events with the same singular light.Trade ReviewPraise for The World is On Fire Winner of the 2016 Firecracker Award for Creative Nonfiction Finalist for the 2016 Pat Conroy Southern Book Prize "TheThe World is On Fire masterfully questions, rummages, and connects the obscure with the universal, uncovering truths about faith and resurrection we had been waiting for, whether we knew it or not."--Brevity Magazine "Sharp observations of the leftover and ongoing apocalypses of American culture ... an idiosyncratic and impressive book."--Ander Monson, the author of Letter to a Future Lover "This is a whale of a book, bringing us the wonderfullest things from the ends of the earth."--Amy Leach, the author of Things That Are "The literary equivalent of long exhalations after holding one's breath, a passionate outpouring of description and revelation."--Publishers Weekly "Tevis rivals Barbara Kingsolver, Rebecca Solnit, John Jeremiah Sullivan, and Terry Tempest Williams."--Foreword Reviews "Evocative essays on faith, life and wonder. In these lyrical, finely crafted pieces, like poets Gerard Manley Hopkins and Mary Oliver, Tevis sees the natural world imbued with spiritual power."--Kirkus "Tevis's keen eye takes readers from the steel of scissor blades and the cold waters of Alaska to the fire of atomic bomb testing grounds as seen through a View-Master."--Library Journal "Fear and wonder, sorrow and resignation. This sounds relentless, too heavy to bear. But Tevis is such a beautiful stylist that I'm willing to follow her anywhere, to feel anything she wants me to. This book is gorgeous, its sentences rhythmic and rambling and reflective."--Bookslut "Carefully observed and highly crafted essays -- some of the most surprising and original I've read."--Los Angeles Review of Books Praise for the Author: "Tevis's writing, a showcase for her interests in religion, memoir, natural study and women's history, is precise and unique." -- Publishers Weekly "Tevis illuminates the dim corners of memory as she draws attention to the fragile connection between human beings and the mysteries that surround us." -- Diane Wilson "An innovative young writer deeply immersed in literary tradition." -- Mark Doty
£11.99
Milkweed Editions Late Migrations: A Natural History of Love and
Book SynopsisNamed a "Best Book of the Year" by New Statesman, New York Public Library, Chicago Public Library, and Washington Independent Review of BooksSouthern Book Prize FinalistFrom New York Times contributing opinion writer Margaret Renkl comes an unusual, captivating portrait of a family—and of the cycles of joy and grief that inscribe human lives within the natural world.Growing up in Alabama, Renkl was a devoted reader, an explorer of riverbeds and red-dirt roads, and a fiercely loved daughter. Here, in brief essays, she traces a tender and honest portrait of her complicated parents—her exuberant, creative mother; her steady, supportive father—and of the bittersweet moments that accompany a child’s transition to caregiver.And here, braided into the overall narrative, Renkl offers observations on the world surrounding her suburban Nashville home. Ringing with rapture and heartache, these essays convey the dignity of bluebirds and rat snakes, monarch butterflies and native bees. As these two threads haunt and harmonize with each other, Renkl suggests that there is astonishment to be found in common things: in what seems ordinary, in what we all share. For in both worlds—the natural one and our own—“the shadow side of love is always loss, and grief is only love’s own twin.”Gorgeously illustrated by the author’s brother, Billy Renkl, Late Migrations is an assured and memorable debut.Trade ReviewPraise for Margaret Renkl’s Late Migrations “Beautifully written, masterfully structured, and brimming with insight into the natural world, Late Migrations can claim its place alongside Pilgrim at Tinker Creek and A Death in the Family. It has the makings of an American classic.”—Ann Patchett, author of Commonwealth "[Margaret Renkl] is the most beautiful writer! I love this book. It's about the South, and growing up there, and about her love of nature and animals and her wonderful family." —Reese Witherspoon "A perfect book to read in the summer . . . This is the kind of writing that makes me want to just stay put, reread and savor everything about that moment." —Maureen Corrigan, NPR's Fresh Air "Equal parts Annie Dillard and Anne Lamott with a healthy sprinkle of Tennessee dry rub thrown in." —New York Times Book Review"A beautiful accretion of poetic prose musings"—Oprah Daily “A compact glory, crosscutting between consummate family memoir and keenly observed backyard natural history. Renkl’s deft juxtapositions close up the gap between humans and nonhumans and revive our lost kinship with other living things.”—Richard Powers, author of The Overstory "Magnificent . . . Conjure your favorite place in the natural world: beach, mountain, lake, forest, porch, windowsill rooftop? Precisely there is the best place in which to savor this book." —NPR.org "Late Migrations has echoes of Annie Dillard's The Writing Life—with grandparents, sons, dogs and birds sharing the spotlight, it's a witty, warm and unaccountably soothing all-American story." —People "[Renkl] guides us through a South lush with bluebirds, pecan orchards, and glasses of whiskey shared at dusk in this collection of prose in poetry-size bits; as it celebrates bounty, it also mourns the profound losses we face every day." —O, the Oprah Magazine "Graceful . . . like a belated answer to [E.B.] White." —Wall Street Journal "A lovely collection of essays about life, nature, and family. It will make you laugh, cry—and breathe more deeply." —Parade Magazine “This warm, rich memoir might be the sleeper of the summer. [Renkl] grew up in the South, nursed her aging parents, and never once lost her love for life, light, and the natural world. Beautiful is the word, beautiful all the way through.”—Philadelphia Inquirer "Like the spirituality of Krista Tippett's On Being meets the brevity of Joe Brainard . . . The miniature essays in Late Migrations approach with modesty, deliver bittersweet epiphanies, and feel like small doses of religion."—Literary Hub "In her poignant debut, a memoir, Renkl weaves together observations from her current home in Nashville and short vignettes of nature and growing up in the South.—Garden & Gun “Renkl feels the lives and struggles of each creature that enters her yard as keenly as she feels the paths followed by her mother, grandmother, her people. Learning to accept the sometimes harsh, always lush natural world may crack open a window to acceptance of our own losses. In Late Migrations, we welcome new life, mourn its passing, and honor it along the way.”—Indie Next List (July 2019), selected by Kat Baird, The Book Bin "[A] stunning collection of essays merging the natural landscapes of Alabama and Tennessee with generations of family history, grief and renewal. Renkl's voice sounds very close to the reader's ear: intimate, confiding, candid and alert." —Shelf Awareness "A book that will be treasured."—Minneapolis Star Tribune "One of the best books I've read in a long time . . . [and] one of the most beautiful essay collections that I have ever read. It will give you chills."—Silas House, author of Southernmost “A close and vigilant witness to loss and gain, Renkl wrenches meaning from the intimate moments that define us. Her work is a chronicle of being. And a challenge to cynicism. Late Migrations is flat-out brilliant and it has arrived right on time.”—John T. Edge, author of The Potlikker Papers “Gracefully written and closely observed, Renkl’s lovely essays are tinged with the longing for family and places now gone while rejoicing in the flutter of birds and life still alive.”—Alan Lightman, author of Einstein’s Dreams “Here is an extraordinary mind combined with a poet’s soul to register our own old world in a way we have not quite seen before. Late Migrations is the psychological and spiritual portrait of an entire family and place presented in quick takes—snapshots—a soul’s true memoir. The dire dreams and fears of childhood, the mother’s mysterious tears, the imperfect beloved family . . . all are part of a charged and vibrant natural world also filled with rivalry, conflict, the occasional resolution, loss, and delight. Late Migrations is a continual revelation.”—Lee Smith, author of The Last Girls “Renkl holds my attention with essays about plants and caterpillars in a way no other nature writer can.”—Mary Laura Philpott, author of I Miss You When I Blink “This is the story of grief accelerated by beauty and beauty made richer by grief. . . . Like Patti Smith in Woolgathering, Renkl aligns natural history with personal history so completely that the one becomes the other. Like Annie Dillard in Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Renkl makes, of a ring of suburbia, an alchemical exotica.”—The Rumpus “[A] magnificent debut . . . Renkl instructs that even amid life’s most devastating moments, there are reasons for hope and celebration. Readers will savor each page and the many gems of wisdom they contain.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review) “Compelling, rich, satisfying . . . The short, potent essays of Late Migrations are objects as worthy of marvel and study as the birds and other creatures they observe.”—Foreword Reviews (starred review) “A melding of flora, fauna and family . . . Renkl captures the spirit and contemporary culture of the American South better than anyone.”—Book Page, A 2019 Most Anticipated Nonfiction Book “[Late Migrations] is shot through with deep wonder and a profound sense of loss. It is a fine feat, this book. Renkl intimately knows that ‘this life thrives on death’ and chooses to sing the glory of being alive all the same.”—Booklist “A series of redolent snapshots and memories that seem to halt time. . . . [Renkl’s] narrative metaphor becomes the miraculous order of nature . . . in all its glory and cruelty; she vividly captures ‘the splendor of decay.’”—Kirkus “A captivating, beautifully written story of growing up, love, loss, living, and a close extended family by a talented nature writer and memoirist that will appeal to those who enjoy introspective memoirs and the natural world close to home.”—Library Journal
£17.09
Milkweed Editions A Darker Wilderness: Black Nature Writing from
Book SynopsisA Kirkus Reviews Best Nonfiction Book of 2023A Library Journal Recommended Read for 2023A Ms. Magazine Most Anticipated Book of 2023A vibrant collection of personal and lyric essays in conversation with archival objects of Black history and memory.What are the politics of nature? Who owns it, where is it, what role does it play in our lives? Does it need to be tamed? Are we ourselves natural? In A Darker Wilderness, a constellation of luminary writers reflect on the significance of nature in their lived experience and on the role of nature in the lives of Black folks in the United States. Each of these essays engages with a single archival object, whether directly or obliquely, exploring stories spanning hundreds of years and thousands of miles, traveling from roots to space and finding rich Blackness everywhere.Erin Sharkey considers Benjamin Banneker’s 1795 almanac, as she follows the passing of seasons in an urban garden in Buffalo. Naima Penniman reflects on a statue of Haitian revolutionary François Makandal, within her own pursuit of environmental justice. Ama Codjoe meditates on rain, hair, protest, and freedom via a photo of a young woman during a civil rights demonstration in Alabama. And so on—with wide-ranging contributions from Carolyn Finney, Ronald Greer II, Alexis Pauline Gumbs, Sean Hill, Michael Kleber-Diggs, Glynn Pogue, Katie Robinson, and Lauret Savoy—unearthing evidence of the ways Black people’s relationship to the natural world has persevered through colonialism, slavery, state-sponsored violence, and structurally racist policies like Jim Crow and redlining.A scrapbook, a family chest, a quilt—and an astounding work of historical engagement and literary accomplishment—A Darker Wilderness is a collection brimming with abundance and insight.Trade Review“In tales of the American wilderness, Black people have typically existed on the margins . . . This volume helps fill those gaps.”—Rosalind Bentley, Minneapolis Star Tribune"A response to the absence of Black literature about attachment to the American landscape, [A Darker Wilderness is] a multigenerational dwelling place that is both internal and external. An abundance of relevant themes emerge: home as refuge, seeking freedom amid social oppression, gardens as healers, and the complex history of Black landownership . . . A well-curated assemblage of Black voices that draws profound connections among family, nature, aspiration, and loss."—Kirkus Reviews, starred review“A Darker Wilderness is a remarkable collection of essays regarding generational experiences of the natural world….Some essays are tender and quiet; others are forceful calls to action; still others uncover natural magic in unsuspecting places. Each is creative and revelatory.”—Foreword Reviews, starred review“Imaginative, vexing, joyful, and heartbreaking reflections about the explorations of Black Americans in nature.”—Orion“The essays found within the pages are as Black and boundless as the night sky. They traverse oceans, roads, mountains, stretches of forested and farmed land, alleys, and even break through prison walls. On these pages, the anthology’s writers invite readers to accompany them on journeys in the past, present, future, and beyond.”—Shea Wesley Martin, Autostraddle“In A Darker Wilderness, Erin Sharkey has created and assembled the most important anthology of this decade. Here, we sit and sift through the unexpected explorations of Black folk and the wonders of our experiences with woods. This book feels like a beautifully layered black forest that must be experienced.”—Kiese Laymon, author of Heavy“This beautiful collection of essays offers thoroughgoing contemplations of the vexing, heartbreaking, miraculous, and wonderful questions of Black people and the land, Black people and the earth, which, as far as I’m concerned, are among the most important questions there are. I’m so glad, so grateful, to have A Darker Wilderness as guide and friend; I’m so glad we get to ask those questions together.”—Ross Gay, author of The Book of Delights“Reading A Darker Wilderness feels like walking down a dim urban street that turns out to have always been a sacred wood full of magic. The poets and creative nonfiction writers gathered here offer imaginative, ranging, and incisor-sharp reflections on Black experience in and with the natural world. Their words are incandescent and irreverent, alarming and lovely, poignant and honest. Their call to remember the land, name it, share it, and tend it, will ring out long after the last page has been turned.”—Tiya Miles, author of All That She Carried: The Journey of Ashley’s Sack, a Black Family Keepsake“What does it feel like to be left out? Black folk know. Largely absent from the narrative of what nature means to the environmental movement, the story of America’s nature-noticing legacy is incomplete without our voices. From 1619 on, ghosting Blackness from the book of wild has been systemic. Herein, Black writers converge to tell the stories of wildness bent through Black prisms. Essential reading, no matter your color.”—J. Drew Lanham, author of The Home Place: Memoirs of a Colored Man’s Love Affair with NatureTable of ContentsForewordMemory DivineCarolyn Finney IntroductionErin Sharkey An Aspect of FreedomAma Codjoe A Family VacationGlynn Pogue This Land Is My LandSean Hill Confronting the Names on This LandLauret Savoy An Urban Farmer’s AlmanacA Twenty-First-Century Reflection on Benjamin Banneker’s Almanacs and Other Astronomical PhenomenaErin Sharkey Magic AlleyRonald L. Greer II Concentric Memory: Re-membering Our Way into the FutureNaima Penniman There Was a Tremendous SoftnessMichael Kleber-Diggs Water and StoneA Ceremony for Audre Lorde in Three PartsAlexis Pauline Gumbs Here’s How I Let Them Come Closekatie robinson About the Contributors XX
£14.24
Milkweed Editions Rooms and Their Airs
Book SynopsisDrawn from the environments of northern Vermont and the South of France, the poems in Rooms and Their Airs explore the interface of the human and natural worlds, further eroding that distinction with each poem. The verse here merges subject and object, often giving voice to natural phenomena -- a vernal pool, a fossil, a beam of light. These poems sparkle with humor, sophisticated word play, and intellectual examination, reflecting an elegant and contagious curiosity about history, language, and the world. Linked poems give voice to garden vegetables while drawing inspiration from the archival illustrations in The Medieval Handbook. A mother and daughter's trip to see France's cave paintings uncovers living vestiges in prehistoric depictions and reaffirms the enduring nature of art. With this collection, Jody Gladding cements her reputation as the literary heir to A. R. Ammons, Gustaf Sobin, and Lorine Niedecker.Trade Review"Gladding writes with astounding freshness about essential daily acts that millions perform. That freshness derives in part from the wholeness of her vision (and, one imagines, her life), in which mothering and birthing, for example, are indissoluble from writing. Rooms and Their Airs is a nourishing work." --Poets' Quarterly "In cadences uncannily imbued with the exaltations, strivings, and hesitancies of human thought, Jody Gladding limns interior and exterior worlds like no other. Words atomize on the page; pacing itself becomes a radical and spiritual force, elemental as the trees, stones, landscapes, skies, which infuse these meticulously exploratory and wondrous poems. Gladding paints with great grace 'the broken / surface where business / must go on' and the inexplicable universe that contains it, the textures and intricacies of the human mind that strives to grasp while knowing it can only partly understand." --Laurie Sheck, author of Captivity "Jody Gladding's poems are original, beautiful, and fierce, sometimes enigmatic, but never gratuitously, only faithfully so. They bring to their world (our world) a unique mix of light, lightness, and depth: a world in which human feeling is not all the author's concern--but more rare, like the human face in Bernifal." --Jean Valentine, author of Door in the Mountain "Jody Gladding combines deft cadences with an elemental, earthy vision. Gardening, marriage, the seasons and their moons intertwine memorably here. I was especially moved by a sequence of brief poems on Gladding's young daughter, framed in their turn by two evocative accounts of subterranean explorations in the Dordogne." --John Elder, author of Reading the Mountains of Home
£11.39
Milkweed Editions Fancy Beasts
Book SynopsisIn Fancy Beasts, the author of Hallelujah Blackout and Mosquito takes on California, the 2008 election, plastic surgery, Larry Craig, wildfires, Wal-Mart, and rampant commercialism -- in short, the modern American media culture, which provides obscene foil for his personal legacies of violence and violation. This pivotal book captures the turning point in a life of abuse, in which the recovering victim/perpetrator puzzles through the paradigm of son-to-husband-to-father. Frenetic, hilarious, and fearless, these poems are a workout -- vigorous and raw. Yet they are also composed and controlled, pared down and sculpted, with a disarming narrative simplicity and directness. Even when dealing with toxic content, the point of view is always genuine and trustworthy. This stunning achievement marks Alex Lemon's best work yet.Trade Review"A master of negative empathy, Lemon spelunks through the brain's darker convolutions and clearly enjoys testing the reader's limits. --Library Journal, starred review "Full of raw energy, up-to-date in its slang and its jump cuts, effervescent with the playfulness and sometimes the angers of youth, the third collection from Lemon conveys a likable, outsized personality." --Publishers Weekly "Life cleverly and joyfully rages in Alex Lemon's poems."--Major Jackson "Alex Lemon dazzles us with his ability to slice straight through nerve and marrow on his way to the heart and mind of the matter."--Tracy K. Smith "Fancy Beasts is a terrific book by one of the best younger poets at work today."--Kevin Prufer "This book will likely appeal most to twenty-somethings with an emo/hipster bent, but even older readers will be impressed by Lemon's calculated audacity."--Library Journal (starred review) "Full of raw energy, up-to-date in its slang and its jump cuts, effervescent with the playfulness and sometimes the angers of youth, the third collection from Lemon (Hallelujah Blackout) conveys a likable, outsized personality; it should also work well in tandem with the Texas-based poet's forthcoming memoir, Happy (Scribner, 2010). Like Tony Hoagland, Lemon is often self-conscious about the volatilities his poems convey, about their almost giddy tonalities, but he will not apologize for himself: adult life is a scary gift, a fast trip, a set of close encounters with 'this fizzing pier life.'"--Publishers Weekly
£11.39
Milkweed Editions Sea Summit: Poems
Book SynopsisInfluenced by both the "gray, sinister sea" near the village where Yi Lu grew up during the Cultural Revolution, and the beauty of the sea in the books she read as a child, Sea Summit is a collection of paradox and questioning. The sea is an impossible force to the poet: it is both a majestic force that predates man, and something to carry with us wherever we go, to be put "by an ancient rattan chair," so we can watch "its waves toss" from above. Exploring the current ecological crisis and our complicated relationship to the wildness around us, Yi Lu finds something more complex than a traditional nature poet might in the mysterious connection between herself and the forces of nature represented by the boundless ocean. Translated brilliantly by the acclaimed poet Fiona Sze-Lorrain, this collection of poems introduces an important contemporary Chinese poet to English-language readers.Trade ReviewPraise for Sea Summit "Slippery, resonant poetry full of nuanced and subtle scene-making. Sea Summit makes a strong case for Yi's poetic importance beyond her linguistic and national borders."--Wayne Miller "Yi enters the 'gigantic network' of nature, the 'rowdy conference room' of the sea summit, and they, in turn, pass through her, resulting in poems of particular intensity, mystery, and transaction. This is the visionary potential of ecopoetry: a practice that invites the presence of wind, butterfly, storm to meet and disrupt us, just as they disrupt and interrupt each other and the rest of the world."--Melissa Kwasny "This communal and visceral experience reminds me of the theatre... Yi Lu's images are masterful in a way that, perhaps, only a theatre scenographer might envision. They reflect, support, and converse with the condition of the speaker. And, like curtains, these private experiences are torn open in a theater where there is no fourth wall; as we read, we're immersed in each scene, each poem, via the stage that is Yi Lu's sensitive and poignant poetry."--The Literary Review "The poetry sings and pulses with life--the unconquerable spirit of the world shown in imagistic flashes of elegance."--Heavy Feather Review
£12.34
Sagamore Publishing Community Parks & Recreation: An Introduction
Book SynopsisOver the past 150 years, communities have focused their attention on enhancing quality of life, health and wellness, and the greening of their environments through the provision of park and recreation services and amenities. The greening and beautification of communities as well as tying recreation services to clean economic development provide a direct connection between the work public park and recreation departments and community development. This text asks students to consider important questions, such as: What are the most important elements of a livable community? In what type of community they would like to live? How important are building social connections amongst family, friends, neighbors, colleagues, and others? How are such relationships developed and sustained? What types of organizations are more likely to create such opportunities for building ones social capital? What agencies in the community are concerned with addressing environmental degradation and on the flipside enhancing community beautification and greening? All of these questions point toward the importance of public parks and recreation and its community development efforts. Community Parks & Recreation: An Introduction is organized into three major parts. Part I focuses on the History and Philosophical Foundations of Public Parks and Recreation. The major intent of this section is to provide an underpinning to assist the student in understanding the major dimensions of public parks and recreation and its impact socially, culturally, environmentally and economically. Part II of the book focuses on Managerial and Administrative Aspects of Park and Recreation Systems. This section of the book provides practical strategies for administrative activities, planning, marketing, budgeting, engaging the public and land acquisition. Part III of the book is focused on The Public Sector Service Provision in Parks and Recreation. This section of the book focuses on program and service delivery including chapters dealing with programming for community recreation, youth programming, programming for adults and seniors, programming special events and community-based therapeutic recreation. The authors of this text all share a deep interest in community, parks, and/or recreation services. At various times in their careers, they have have served as playground leaders, recreation specialists, youth leaders, community therapeutic recreation specialists, recreation center directors, recreation supervisors and/or directors of parks and recreation. The authors hold a strong commitment to community parks and recreation that is clearly reflected in this new text.
£83.99
Council Oak Books When the Night Bird Sings
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£17.05
U.S. Games Field Guide To Garden Dragons
Book Synopsis
£23.40
David R. Godine Publisher Inc Winter Solstice: An Essay
Book SynopsisBOSTON GLOBE BESTSELLER • LOS ANGELES TIMES BESTSELLER • BOSTON.COM BOOKCLUB SELECTION A celebration and meditation on the season for drinking hot chocolate, spotting a wreath on a neighbor’s door, experiencing the change in light of shorter days. All aspects of Winter, from the meteorological to the mythological, are captured in this masterful essay, told in wise and luminous prose that pushes back the dark. Winter begins with the shortest day of the year before nightfall. As in her companion volume, Summer Solstice, the author meditates on both the dark and the light and what this season means in our lives.“Winter tells us,” Nina MacLaughlin says, “more than petaled spring, or hot-grassed summer, or fall with its yellow leaves, that we are mortal. In the frankness of its cold, in the mystery of its deep-blue dark, the place in us that knows of death is tickled, focused, stoked. The angels sing on the doorknobs and others sing from the abyss. The sun has been in retreat since June, and the heat inside glows brighter in proportion to its absence. We make up for the lost light in the spark that burns inside us.” If Winter is a time you love for its memories and traditions, if you love writing that takes your breath away with lyrical leaps across time and space, Winter Solstice is an unforgettable book you’ll cherish.Trade ReviewPraise for Winter Solstice “Arresting . . . MacLaughlin reminds us of our capacity for wonder, heightened in this season of quiet.” —Los Angeles Review of Books “Drawing on myths, memories, meteorology, and more, it makes a perfect companion for a frosty New England night.” —Boston Art Review, a “Holiday Gift Guide” pick “The narrative achieves a deeply cohesive, riveting quality, that at times directly engages the reader in collaboration and intrigue.” —The Brooklyn Rail “This book is beautiful, it’s a book that begs to be read aloud. The language is just gorgeous. There are pieces of it that I’ve returned to over and over again.” —Josh Christie, Maine Public Radio “Nina MacLaughlin returns to celebrate the winter solstice, and delivers a most sensual hymn and harbor for the human ability to feel our way through the darkness towards wise, unexpected connections. This ethereal collection offers us a candle at night—it’s an astonishing gift.” —Aimee Nezhukumatathil, author of World of Wonders: In Praise of Fireflies, Whale Sharks, and Other Astonishments “Nina MacLaughlin stands shoulder to shoulder with such writers as José Emilio Pacheco and Fleur Jaeggy. In Winter Solstice we are invited into the impending dark, guided through our own, and in the end given just enough light to survive. MacLaughlin’s meditation is both universal and uncommonly distinct. An immense joy to read, Winter Solstice is not so much an essay as it is a vision.” —Matthew Dickman, author of Husbandry “Smart and lyrical—this book makes you feel alive.” —Nicholson Baker, author of The Anthologist
£10.44
University of North Texas Press,U.S. Pride of Place: A Contemporary Anthology of Texas
Book SynopsisSince Roy Bedichek's influential ""Adventures with a Texas Naturalist"", no book has attempted to explore the uniqueness of Texas nature, or reflected the changes in the human landscape that have accelerated since Bedichek's time. ""Pride of Place"" updates Bedichek's discussion by acknowledging the increased urbanization and the loss of wildspace in today's state. It joins other recent collections of regional nature writing while demonstrating what makes Texas uniquely diverse. These fourteen essays are held together by the story of Texas pride - the sense that from West Texas to the Coastal Plains, the people and the landscape are bold and unique. This book addresses all the major regions of Texas. Beginning with Roy Bedichek's essay ""Still Water,"" it includes Carol Cullar and Barbara ""Barney"" Nelson on the Rio Grande region of West Texas, John Graves's evocative ""Kindred Spirits"" on Central Texas, Joe Nick Patoski's celebration of Hill Country springs, Pete Gunter on the Piney Woods, David Taylor on North Texas, Gary Clark and Gerald Thurmond on the Coastal Plains, Ray Gonzales and Marian Haddad on El Paso, Stephen Harrigan and Wyman Meinzer on West Texas, and Naomi Shihab Nye on urban San Antonio. This anthology will appeal not only to those interested in regional history, natural history, and the environmental issues Texans face, but also to all who say gladly, ""I'm from Texas.
£14.41
University of North Texas Press,U.S. Zen of the Plains: Experiencing Wild Western
Book SynopsisAlthough spare, sweeping landscapes may appear “empty,” plains and prairies afford a rich, unique aesthetic experience—one of quiet sunrises and dramatic storms, hidden treasures and abundant wildlife, infinite horizons and omnipresent wind, all worthy of contemplation and celebration.In this series of narratives, photographs, and hand-drawn maps, Tyra Olstad blends scholarly research with first-hand observation to explore topics such as wildness and wilderness, travel and tourism, preservation and conservation, expectations and acceptance, and even dreams and reality in the context of parks, prairies, and wild, open places. In so doing, she invites readers to reconsider the meaning of “emptiness” and ask larger, deeper questions such as: how do people experience the world? How do we shape places and how do places shape us? Above all, what does it mean to experience that exhilarating effect known as Zen of the plains?
£18.71
University of North Texas Press,U.S. Zen of the Plains: Experiencing Wild Western
Book SynopsisAlthough spare, sweeping landscapes may appear "empty," plains and prairies afford a rich, unique aesthetic experience—one of quiet sunrises and dramatic storms, hidden treasures and abundant wildlife, infinite horizons and omnipresent wind, all worthy of contemplation and celebration. In this series of narratives, photographs, and hand-drawn maps, Tyra Olstad blends scholarly research with first-hand observation to explore topics such as wildness and wilderness, travel and tourism, preservation and conservation, expectations and acceptance, and even dreams and reality in the context of parks, prairies, and wild, open places. In so doing, she invites readers to reconsider the meaning of "emptiness" and ask larger, deeper questions such as: how do people experience the world? How do we shape places and how do places shape us? Above all, what does it mean to experience that exhilarating effect known as Zen of the plains?
£16.96
Big Blue Sky Press Buster's Undersea Counting Expedition 1 to 10:
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£9.36
