Nature and the natural world: general interest Books

Book SynopsisThis book introduces the origin, development and current state of American nature writing. It organizes many representative authors and works of American nature writing into such categories as the influence of transcendentalism, the wilderness complex, the English cultural heritage, female writers, land ethics, and refuge of the heart.As a multi-disciplinary field combining language, literature, philosophy, ecology, botany, and ethics, American nature writing seeks to tell intimate personal experiences of places and explore the connection between human spirituality and nature in a particular place, blending natural history with the history of human development. These are the focus of this book. It analyzes key representative writers of American nature writing such as Thoreau, Emerson, Burroughs, Muir, Abbey, Leopold and Williams, and their works and respective personal relationships with nature, offering the reader a fascinating insight into American nature writing.Table of ContentsIntroduction – The Origin and History of American Nature Writing – The New Continent in Nature Writing – The Influence of Transcendentalism on Nature Writing – The Wilderness Complex Reflected in Nature Writing – The English Cultural Heritage in Nature Writing – Female Writers in Nature Writing – Land Ethics in Nature Writing – Refuge of the Heart in Nature Writing – Ecocriticism— An Extension of Nature Writing – Conclusion – Index

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisClassic works by naturalist John Burroughs on his beloved Catskill region.Henry James called John Burroughs (1837?1921) "a more humorous, more available, and more sociable Thoreau." Walt Whitman in turn extolled Burroughs as "a child of the woods, fields, hills-native to them in a rare sense (in a sense almost a miracle)." Throughout his many books and essays, Burroughs was never more eloquent on nature themes than when writing about his native countryside: the woods, streams, and mountains of the Catskills in New York. In the Catskills collects the very best of Burroughs''s writings about his birthplace in a book that is sure to be treasured by all lovers of the region as well as lovers of the literature of nature. This new edition includes an introduction by Burroughs biographer Edward Renehan and an additional work not included in previous editions, entitled My Boyhood.

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Book SynopsisA novel fusing of multiple approaches and range of examples exploring the dimensions, objects, and import of aesthetic encounters.We encounter in our lives things and situations that elicit from us special forms of attention. They affect and inform us in various ways, drawing us in and holding us in their grasp or turning us away. Works of art of all sorts, and nature in its myriad manifestations, exemplify these luring and repelling qualities and potencies. Dimensions of Aesthetic Encounters explores central perceptual, interpretative, and semiotic dimensions of these encounters, combining a wide range of examples and intellectual resources from pragmatist, hermeneutical, and semiotic frameworks. Practicing a kind of "method of rotation" Robert E. Innis breaks down barriers in aesthetic theory and shows their complementary powers. Recurring themes link each chapter, throwing a powerful light on aesthetic encounters by foregrounding such pivotal notions as play, fundedness and the role of memory, the defining quality of an artwork, energies of objects, potencies, rhythm, form, presentational abstraction, medium, symbolization, intuition, role of the body, and the non-argumentative nature of art.

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Book SynopsisPoignant and vulnerable essays that weave together seemingly disparate themes of wild places and mountain stewardship, books and reading, and building a new life after loss."This is some of the finest writing in Laura Waterman''s long and distinguished career. Anyone who values the history of conservation, or the gnarled wilds of the Northeast, or the complexities of the human spirit will find nourishment in these pages." - Bill McKibben, author of Wandering Home"In this new book, Laura Waterman tells the full story of her unique life. It began on the campus of a boy''s school and took her to mountains, growing her own food, and writing. In these pages, readers find what it''s like to grow up the daughter of the scholar who put the dashes back into Emily Dickinson''s poetry; how Waterman coped with that brilliant father''s alcoholism; her development as a groundbreaking climber; and her homesteading life for almost three decades. In these pages she reveals how she kept her strong sense of self while living with a dynamic, lovable, and often challenging man, her late husband, Guy Waterman. She examines closely her role in his suicide on Mount Lafayette in 2000." - Christine Woodside, editor of Appalachia and the author of Libertarians on the Prairie: Laura Ingalls Wilder, Rose Wilder Lane, and the Making of the Little House Books

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Book Synopsis25 Myths That Are Destroying the Environment explores the many myths circulating in ecological and political discussions. These myths often drive policy, and Botkin is here to set the record straight. What may seem like an environmentally conscious action may very well be bringing about the unnatural destruction of habitats and ecosystems.

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Book SynopsisWritten by Stephen Grace, the companion book to The Great Divide, a film by Havey Productions, will be a sweeping, magnificently illustrated story of Colorado water from the region’s first inhabitants to the incoming settlers and developers to modern environmentalists.Trade ReviewIn this companion book to the documentary film The Great Divide, Grace, a Boulder resident, investigates the precarious state of water in Colorado—who owns it and who is entitled to it—and the battles waged over its control. The 'most coveted' water in the U.S. flows from the Centennial State to 18 other states and Mexico: 'Tens of millions of people, billions of dollars of agricultural production, and trillions of dollars of economic activity all depend on rivers born in Colorado’s mountains.' The Continental Divide splits the state into unequal halves; '80 percent of the state’s water originates on the West Slope, but more than 80 percent of Colorado’s population resides on the East Slope.' Grace charts the substantial history of Coloradan water management, discussing pre-Columbian Ancestral Puebloans, gold miners who poured in after 1858, and post–Homestead Act (1862) pioneers who 'found Colorado blessed with fertile soil and abundant sunshine but cursed with dryness.' He also details the construction of several dams in the West. Grace possesses deep insight and a strong sense of place; this presentation, coupled with Havey’s remarkable photos and occasional archival images, is exceptional. Color photos. * Publishers Weekly, Starred Review *

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Book SynopsisIn Say Goodbye to the Cuckoo, Michael McCarthy highlights for the first time the disappearance of these birds which, he points out, are a part of Europe's distinctive cultural furniture, "as much as cathedrals, Latin, olive oil, or wine." He shows how their loss would do devastating damage to the cultural inheritance of us all. With 13 woodcuts.Trade ReviewIn luminous prose, British writer McCarthy addresses the cultural significance of migratory songbirds, from nightingales to turtle doves to the European Cuckoo, on the heart and soul. . . . A stunning and profound book that will make readers realize how very much these amazing winged creatures matter. * Booklist *Say Goodbye to the Cuckoo is a terribly moving book . . . about the vast numbers of vanishing spring birds. -- Kristina Chetcuti * Times Of Malta *An elegiac book about migration. -- Charles Clover * Times Online *'What would it mean to us if the spring-bringers stopped arriving?' Would it be like losing rainbows? Michael McCarthy wonders, or roses or hope or music? It's a new tactic—asking us to imagine our world without the species, sounds and smells we take for granted. And it works. A sense of wonder is replaced with a strange hollow feeling—one part guilt, one part regret and one part denial. * Los Angeles Times *Vivid . . . especially affecting. . . . A passionate primer on loss. * Times Literary Supplement *This is the most important book I have read for a long time. * BBC Countryfile Magazine *A beautiful and important book. -- Simon Barnes, author of How to Be a Bad BirdwatcherMcCarthy (environmental editor, The Independent, UK) writes eloquently about the losses of European 'spring bringers,' migratory birds which have historically been an important part of the folklore, literature, and culture of people in Europe and North America. Focusing on the 'miraculous aerial river' of birds 'flow[ing] out of Africa into Europe,' the author discusses the radical environmental changes which have been adversely affecting their numbers. Many species are fast disappearing, suggesting the unthinkable: future silent springs. The numbers of different migrant species that failed to return to Britain in the 13 years leading up to 2007 ranged from 37 to 67 percent. Disruptions affecting these birds include climate change, which is also affecting the cycles of plant and insect life on which birds depend; forest losses in the developing world; and human population growth—particularly in Africa. Intensified agricultural practices, such as Europe's Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), have taken a further toll. From the early 1960s until 2004, when major revisions were made, this policy featured ecologically unsound use of pesticides and fertilizers. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readership levels. * CHOICE *A plea to pay attention to winged creatures before it's too late. * The Washington Post *Michael McCarthy details the environmental challenges faced by European cuckoo and other songbirds in England. McCarthy's book is worth reading because many of the problems experienced by these birds also face our own backyard birds here in the United States. * The Advocate *The mix of discovery of the real bird with myth, poetry, and legend is simply exquisite. . . . I recommend this book for everyone even remotely interested in birds. I also recommend it for students in ornithology classes or classes where 'sustainability' is a theme, for the book contains a wealth of scientific information melded beautifully with what spring-bringers mean to us. * Journal Of Field Ornithology *Michael McCarthy’s Say Goodbye to the Cuckoo combines an exploration of the crisis that temperate-zone migrant birds are now facing with a celebration of Europe’s birds—their beauty, their haunts, their symbolic and cultural value in our civilization and traditions. . . . [His] descriptions are glorious.Table of ContentsPreface 1 Spring-Bringers 2 Out of Africa 3 A Sense of Wonder 4 Unlocking the Soundscape 5 The Spirit of the Place 6 A Promise of Lazy Days 7 What’s So Special About Swallows? 8 Understatement on a Fence Post 9 The Wildness Within 10 The Wandering Voice 11 Warnings from the New World 12 Vanishings 13 A Loss of a Different Order Acknowledgments Index

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