Book Description
Rachel Carson's Silent Spring antagonized some of the most powerful interests in the nation--including the farm block and the agricultural chemical industry--and helped launch the modern environmental movement. In The Gentle Subversive, Mark Hamilton Lytle offers a compact life of Carson, illuminating the road that led to this vastly influential book. Lytle explores the evolution of Carson's ideas about nature, her love for the sea, her career as a biologist, and above all her emergence as a writer of extraordinary moral and ecological vision. We follow Carson from her childhood on a farm outside Pittsburgh, where she first developed her love of nature (and where, at age eleven, she published her first piece in a children's magazine), to her graduate work at Johns Hopkins and her career with the Fish and Wildlife Service. Lytle describes the genesis of her first book, Under a Sea Wind, the incredible success of The Sea Around Us (a New York Times Bestseller for over a year), and her determination to risk her fame in order to write her "poison book": Silent Spring. The author contends that despite Carson's demure, lady-like demeanor, she was subversive in her thinking and aggressive in her campaign against pesticides. Carson became the spokeswoman for a network of conservationists, scientists, and concerned citizens who had come to fear the mounting dangers of the human assault on nature. What makes this story particularly compelling is that Carson took up this cause at the very moment when she herself faced a losing battle against cancer. Succinct and engaging, The Gentle Subversive is a story of success, celebrity, controversy, and vindication. It will inspire anyone interested in protecting the natural world or in women's struggle to find a voice in society.
Amazon.com
Earth on Her Hands celebrates the kind of people who have quietly and to minimal acclaim, over two centuries, developed and polished American garden style. These are the avid gardeners--mostly women--who establish and support community horticultural organizations and whose own gardens are examples of personal expression with unique local characteristics.
Starr Ockenga has interviewed 18 women who have worked and shaped their land, often over the course of several decades, into their dream gardens. From Ellie Spingarn's Connecticut stone wall to Georgie Erskine's Southern California citrus allée, each has features that are unique but fit seamlessly into their environment. There are meadows, orchards, a bonsai garden, vegetable gardens carved out of woodland, one walled English-style garden, and one that's intensely French, with topiaries, espaliered bushes, and a copper-roofed teahouse. Each woman is a plant collector of sorts, and each garden description is accompanied by a list of recommended plants. This is a joyous, soulful book that explores the complexity of garden-building and the effect it has on gardeners' lives.
Customer Reviews:
Not for women only!!.......2007-03-27
Men: please do not be put off by the title! This book is an inspiration that proves to be accessible to both sexes. Beauty in the garden cannot be bounded by gender lines. The photographs (many of which are full-page, with lovely sepia and white prints of the women themselves) are stunning, and this is one of the few gardening books where I actually read the accompanying text.
This is not a how-to-do-it, but more of a how-they-did-it; the stories really capture the continuity that results from a years-long commitment to one's land. For instance, one photo shows how a single plant purched in the 50s has grown into a sweeping carpet along a stone wall.
18 women and their US spaces are showcased here. (However, Alaska and Hawaii are not featured and I think this could have made the book even more wonderful.) Each woman gets a separate chapter, complete with pages and pages of well-captioned glossy photos, very readable text, a hand drawing of their garden designs, and several relevant lists. Some of the lists cover woodland carpet plants, white annuals/perennials/bulbs, and personal recommendations.
All sorts of gardens - alpine, rock, seaside, miniature/bonsai, water, citrus, huge-scale, small-scale, woodland - make up this large compendium. The book is 12.5 by 9 inches - a great contribution to a field where books seem to be getting smaller and smaller, and its size is really appropriate for the subject matter.
This is a book that I would have been thrilled with, sight unseen, and it would make a marvelous gift for someone special in your life, if you could bear to part with it. This one's a keeper, and it will not sit still on your coffee table!!
Refreshing Approach to Gardening.......2004-07-06
I love gardening how-to and reference books. Although this book is neither, I love it nevertheless. The idea behind this book is simple. 18 women and their gardens. Each woman is interviewed, there are many many photographs of both the gardens and the gardener. You get to hear each woman's voice and hear her wisdom. You get to see plant lists, garden plans as well and understand the philosphy and approach that each woman has taken in her gardening endevour. If the context of this book were a village, it would serve as a storyteller of the female elders and their creation of special space. Gardening is most than simply landscaping. Reading this book you understand the difference. I only with there were more women gardeners in this edition!
Beautiful women, beautiful gardens.......2002-11-24
Another fabulous Clarkson Potter Publishers book, Earth on Her Hands is a series of short biographies of 18 women who are non-professional, private gardeners and who have spent a lifetime growing and creating outstanding gardens. Each biography includes stunning color photos of the gardens and lovely sepia toned photos of the gardeners themselves as well as garden diagram sketches and individual gardener plant or project recommendations from their personal experiences. Ideas, inspiration and knowledge abound from these women (use flower arrangements IN the garden for areas where color is needed; 'Jersey Knight' asparagus is male and will not seed making it more productive) and their lifelong committment to their land, spaces, and plants gives every gardener something to aspire to. Any gardener worth her soil will find this an inspirational gift to give and receive, and a delightful off-season read.
An inspiring book.......2001-11-10
This is definately one of the most beautifully photographed books I have seen. Eighteen women gardeners from across the U.S. and their stunning gardens are profiled. Most of the women gardeners here are older and have been working on their gardens for decades. Some of them are also active in their local communities in garden clubs, parks and botanical gardens. If you enjoy looking at other people's gardens, you will love this. The photos are mouth watering. Each profile (about 10 pages in length) is wrapped up with a list of the gardener's recommended plants. This would be a good companion to Rosemary Verey's excellent book "The American Man's Garden".
Won American Horticultural Society's 1999 Annual Book Award.......1999-08-05
Starr Ockenga's luminary profiles of some of North America's most dedicated women gardeners are inspirational for anyone who gardens. This book is a wonderfully designed blend of fine photography and eloquent writing. A must for the avid gardener.
Customer Reviews:
Engrossing story, don't miss it........2005-04-23
I read this book when it was first published and I have carried it around in my head ever since. My copy has "gone missing" and now intend to repurchase and read it again. I will always recall Anne's adventures warmly. Her statement about using the wind as a dryer has stuck with me. She is a remarkble woman.
Captivating!.......2005-04-22
Her first - WOODSWOMAN - just captivated me from the first page to the last. Then, every other book in the series - WOODSWOMAN II, WOODSWOMAN III - was like watching a movie. I couldn't wait to see what would happen next. WOODSWOMAN IV is the most exciting yet - her walk across Black Bear Lake in February through three inches of ice water over one foot of snow is riveting. The chapters about her German shepherd, Chekika, who was quadriplegic for two years, show the deep love the author has for her dogs. When James Herriot published his books, I didn't think anyone could come close to his writing. But, Anne has. I love her books as much as his!
On the Road with the WOODSWOMAN.......2005-02-18
WOODSWOMAN IV - Book Four of the Woodswoman's Adventures.
Anne LaBastille ISBN 0-9632846-3-0
Strong and independent, Anne LaBastille has chosen to live very simply as an ecologist and an Adirondack wilderness guide. She loves the solitude of the mountain lakes and woodlands. Fortunately for us she shares her vision once again in this fourth book of the WOODSWOMAN series. She seeks solitude and revels in everyday miracles of nature. She lives a contemplative, traditional life in an increasingly technological world. In this book she shares vignettes of life in her log cabin next to the Adirondack wilderness; a frugal, yankee approach to publishing; a "Deliverance-like" adventure in Appalachia and much more. Her style is conversational and easy. Delve into a chapter and into the book's 50 photos and you are there, alongside her. It is a fast and delightful read.
I really didn't want this book to end.
Ellie Horwitz
Concord, MA
A sensitive, intelligent, and compelling book.......2003-10-02
I have to admit up front: I'm an Anne LaBastille fan. Ever since I read her gripping book, Woodswoman, I've been hooked. As an avid conservationist and author, I've even had the privelege of meeting her and having dinner with her at her cabin on her beloved Black Bear Lake. Sitting around a crackling fire, drinking wine, we talked about book publishing, writing, and the acid rain that has devastated lakes like hers in the northeastern United States.
This book, while tamer than Woodswoman is a sensitive, intelligent, and compelling tale of five years in Anne's life in the Adirondacks. Those who, like me, read her books will be rewarded many times over. Those who haven't yet had the opportunity to explore her world will likely find this book a delight. No matter what the topic -- her self-publishing ventures, a hummingbird that landed on her hand to seek refuge from an overzealous suitor, the death of her beloved dog Chekika or her wild adventures in America's South -- Anne's skilled story telling will keep you entranced. You'll smile, you'll laugh, you'll shiver in fear, and you'll cry as you read this wonderful book. You'll no doubt want to go back to the beginning to pick up a copy of Woodswoman.
Enthralling!.......2003-06-21
Anne LaBastille has penned another riveting read recounting her adventures as an independent woman residing in the wilderness and as a wildlife biologist striving to protect the natural world. She shares her forays in the complex world of self-publishing which adds a new dimension to this already accomplished visionary. Quite frankly, LaBastille is my favorite writer - her life is fascinating and I marvel at her commitment and ability to convey the emotional pain of losing her beloved pet-companions. Her talented writing style allows the reader to experience the fear of death she faced when confronted by out-of-control, gun-wielding thugs while camping in a public wilderness park. WOODSWOMAN IV is a page-turner that chronicles the changes in "Woodswoman's" life - and society.
...
Book Description
Anne LaBastille wrote her best-selling book Woodswoman about the peace and solitude she found in the log cabin she built at Black Bear Lake. Eventually, however, the outside world intruded. Woodswoman II is the equally engrossing story of the author's decision to build a tiny cabin retreat fashioned after Thoreau's Walden, of her life with two German shepherds as companions, and of her renewed bond with nature. Originally published under the title Beyond Black Bear Lake. Over 200,000 copies of the Woodswoman series have been sold.
Customer Reviews:
The Woods in Anne's Eyes.......2001-07-09
With the Adirondack setting, Woodswoman II, by Anne Labastille, captures a way of life most people will never know about. The way Anne talks about her life as a woodswoman pulls the reader into her world and life. There are also many good details. While building her second house, Anne faces many difficulties including temporary blindness when she gets cement dust in her eyes, and dropping a large spruce on her leg, injuring herself so she cannot walk for two months. As she chooses her dog, the decision becomes the reader's and the excitement is on them. Around Anne her beautiful world is disappearing to acid rain and people. As the reader progresses through this story he or she will find the true meaning of the woods. The setting and unusual way of writing brings this book together to make a fabulous story of Anne's life. Her unique way of writing shows who she is. She talks about smaller details in great detail, talking about the general one a small mystery. When Anne was building her house, she talks about when her boat flipped when carrying supplies to her cabin. She also talks about her feelings a lot in her autobiography. She explains how she likes her doctor more then why she was temporarily blind when she gets some cement dust in her eyes. Another reason I give this book five stars is the way she decries her surroundings and her land. When Anne is on a walk she Comes upon a cliff and transfer you there in to the fog and wet green moss. She plants a photograph in the reader's mind so that the reader can find every thing in Anne's cabin. As you see there are reasons to like this book. There is one and only one reason why I would not recommend this book is that it skips from one topic to another for example, she talks about building her house, she suddenly starts the next chapter talking about acid rain and polluting. This also happened when she got hurt and talked that in the middle of a chapter about her house. This reason is not bad enough to make this book a book I would not recommend. This book is a wonderful Adironacks story about a young woman and her dogs.
The Honeymoon Is Over; The Love Deepens.......2001-06-14
This second installment of the 'Woodswoman' trilogy is a step up in maturity for Dr. LaBastille. "Woodswoman" (one), dealt largely with the purchase of land and the building of a dream cabin on a remote lake. This books becomes more real, as Dr. LaBastille begins to have to worry about trespassing intruders, acid rain and the real threat that the government can pose in this unique environment. Determined not to let these new problems destroy her outlook or her life, Dr. LaBastille begins to build a second cabin - further into the wilderness. Encompassing both the new thrill of building a more isloated respite along with some freinds, brings another insight into Anne LaBastille's life ten years later. Numerous elderly Adirondack guides become great friends, sharing their own stories of the wilderness. A new romance evolves and the author has to deal with the reality of having to deal with both worlds. This book speaks not only of the wilderness, but the grand people that make and keep it unique. Of course, Dr. LaBastille's dogs are always given star treatment and her love of these animals is heartfelt. More refined and a little less naive, this second 'woodswoman' book will break and warm your heart at the same time.
Recommended for city folk yearning for wilderness living........2000-09-07
Woodswoman II is the continuing biography of author Anne LaBastille, who found peace and solitude in the log cabin she built for herself at Black Bear Lake, in the Adirondack Park of upstate New York. This is the engaging, compelling, sometimes inspiring story of how Anne decided to retreat a half-mile father into the wilderness behind her main cabin and build a second, tiny cabin (fashioned after the one in Thoreau's "Walden") in which she could write and contemplate. Woodswoman II focuses on her renewed bond with nature, her companionship with two German shepherd dogs; and her sustained and sustaining relationship with a man fully as independent as herself. Highly recommended reading for anyone who has ever contemplating leaving the stress of urban life behind for the contemplative isolation of the wilderness.
Book Description
Reveling in the wonders of nature doesn’t have to be reserved for vacation. By simply taking a few minutes to look up and observe the hawks hovering over their nest at the top of a city apartment dwelling, or to look down and note the variety of weeds growing in a small patch of earth, or just to glance through the window and appreciate the shapes of the clouds moving by, anyone can connect with nature—anywhere, anytime.
Clare Walker Leslie, author of the bestselling book
Keeping a Nature Journal, has spent 25 years teaching and showing people how simple and rewarding it is to notice and record local nature. Nothing is more inspiring than the pages of her nature journals, which feature her daily recordings of small, but amazing natural events she’s seen while walking the dog, sitting in a park with her children, or driving around city streets.
Drawn to Nature features a selection of Leslie’s journal pages, arranged to inspire the reader to do as she does: look up, look down, look out and around, bring bits of nature indoors to observe and study, or take your eyes for a walk around the neighborhood. Using a combination of quick, impressionistic watercolors with more detailed pen and pencil drawings, along with the written word, Leslie invites readers to share in the pleasure of her nature watching, and to experience the joy of seeing and connecting with nature wherever they live, amidst the whirl of daily life.
For journal keepers, nature lovers, birdwatchers, artists, and anyone interested in using nature as a source for self-reflection or meditation, this book will be a welcome companion and source of inspiration.
Customer Reviews:
Drawn to Nature Through the Journals of Clare Walker Leslie.......2006-09-22
Nice book. Used it to teach nature journaling at a children's camp this summer. Compact, good example of "how to" journal.
Book Description
Seventeen years after she'd left home "for good," Janisse Ray pointed her truck away from Montana and back to the small southern town where she was born. Wild Card Quilt is the story, by turns hilarious, heartbreaking, and ambitious, of the adventures of returning home. For Ray, it is a story of linking the ecology of people with the ecology of place — of recovering lost traditions as she works to restore the fractured ecosystem of her native South. Her story is filled with syrup boils, quilt making, alligator trapping, and the wonderful characters of a place where generations still succeed each other on the land. But her town is also in need of repair, physical and otherwise. Ray works to save her local school, sets up a writing group at the local hardware store, and struggles with whether she can be an adult in a childhood place.
Customer Reviews:
Making Peace.......2007-06-28
Wild Card Quilt is a follow-up to Ecology of a Cracker Childhood in which the author builds on prior relationships and revisits childhood from the perspective of an adult. She honors her parents without agreeing with them and is apparently honored and respected in return. Some old disagreements persist!
While raising her son as single parent she lives a life of simplicity. Home she finds has values differing from those she has developed.
Her love and appreciation for the vanishing habitats of south Georgia propel her to activism. Her deep seated need to write forms new diverse relationships.
Enjoying things she loves leads to romance and fulfillment in an unexpected place.
Come stroll the long leaf pine forest with Janisse Ray.
Wild Card Quilt : The Ecology of Home.......2006-07-06
Excellent,,,took you home and if you weren't from there you went with your imagination....
A Joyous Story of Community Building.......2005-08-12
"Somebody, I thought, has to fight to protect the ravaged places. If a place loses the ones who care, the ones who can make a difference, what kind of doom does that spell? If the Southerners who love the wild leave the South, well, what happens then?"
--Janisse Ray, in Wild Card Quilt
Sadly, the answer to Janisse Ray's earnest question can be seen all over, and not just in the South. Too often, "what happens" is rampant, fragmented, inadequately planned development, communities without community, places devoid of a sense of place. Her new book Wild Card Quilt chronicles her return to homeplace Baxley, Georgia, to reestablish family connections and create a sustainable life for herself and her son Silas. Her "experiment in rural community" is largely successful. That it is so is due to Ray herself. A less outgoing, less imaginative, less self-sufficient person would likely find a hamlet like Baxley too isolated, its often-parochial attitudes suffocating. Indeed, Ray does battle feelings of loneliness and futility, and these she shares eloquently. But more often she is hopeful, ardently forging associations with people who share her ideals, creating friendships that restore her sense of purpose and connectedness. She joins with other Baxley residents to save their small school, participates in the creation of a watchdog organization to protect the Altamaha River, advocates for the preservation of Moody Swamp, an ancient, old-growth forest of cypress and longleaf pine, and joins with several other aspiring authors to form a writers' group.
In all her endeavors, Ray adopts a stalwart but cooperative stance with those she seeks to persuade. She is nonjudgmental, preferring to inspire and connect, rather than to scold. This is an approach we should emulate in our own efforts to promote habitat conservation and restoration. However convinced we are of our own rectitude, we must not alienate people by being ideologically rigid or unnecessarily confrontational.
Central to the book is the notion that building human connections is not only important for our emotional health as individuals, but that these ties strengthen our communities and make them better, stronger, more pleasant places to live. The bonds we form in working on community projects helps us individually, as well as helping society collectively. I know this has been true for me, as I count as invaluable the opportunities for fellowship provided by my volunteer activities.
The gravity of these themes is lightened by Ray's obvious joy in life's simple pleasures, natural beauty, and wild creatures, and in her sweet and entertaining descriptions of the ways and characters of Baxley, like her chain-smoking, church-going Uncle Percy, and the stubbornly self-reliant photographer E.D. McCool, who lives in a bus and tootles around town on a riding lawnmower. She relates her experiences at a pork cook-off, a syrup-boiling, the local Martin Luther King Parade, and a night-time gator hunt with good humor that is often self-deprecating. The result is a book that is heartwarming and uplifting, especially to those who love nature and want to preserve it.
prophetic, poetic, passionate: Ray's ecology inspires.......2004-12-20
If Janisse Ray's first memoir, "Ecology of a Cracker Childhood," is an evocative reclamation of a treasured Southern ecological system, her sequel, "Wild Card Quilt" emerges as a moving, inspiring and passionate attempt to reclaim her adult life. Ray's poetic prose is part autobiography, part self-identification with place and part manifesto. Her writing soars with exquisite metaphor and astounding revelation. She is unapologetic in her defense of the longleaf pine ecosystem and convincing in her appeals for Americans to redefine the very nature of our national character. "Wild Card Quilt" required courage to write, and Ray more than met the challenge. Years from now, she will be recognized as instrumental to late twentieth-century ecology as Rachel Carson was some half-century earlier.
After having fled her restrictive and repressive childhood home in rural Georgia, Ray discovers herself adrift and alienated as an adult. A single mother of an inquisitive and sensitive son, her spiritual restlessness compels her to return to her grandmother's isolated shotgun cabin and reclaim her life. In so doing, she rediscovers her fervent, but latent, identification with the disappearing longleaf pine forests of the Southeast. As she had in "Cracker Childhood," Ray provides masterful descriptions of this endangered ecology, lavishing as much love on the richly interdependent plant and animal life as she does on the family and community with which she interlaces herself in Baxley, Georgia.
Firmly linking herself with those social critics of American life who decry our culture's obsession with consumption and lack of identification with nature, Ray agrees with Paul Gruchow's conclusion that "we raise our most capable rural children...to expect that as soon as possible they will leave." Against this diaspora, Ray launches numerous campaigns, not only to preserve the ecology of her home, but the social structure groaning under the pressures of eradication in the name of jobs, progress and consumption.
As moving as her political polemics are, Ray reserves her best writing in portraying her people. Likening her family to homemade pure cane syrup, Ray surmises, "It's sweetness that keeps people together. Sweetness. The sweetness of our tongues, of kind words, of praise." But not only that. It is also the "sweetness, too, of acts of imagination and love." Quiet, nearly invisible kin earn her respect. Her reclusive uncle Percy, "not a man to reach out...or...demand much from life," through Ray's characterization, gains enormous dignity from his modesty. Percy, who excels at attending church and mowing the lawn, is as "extreme in his quiescence as Hemingway had been in his ardor to eat life's marrow." Content to allow life to come to him, "Percy nibbled at the crust."
From her mother, whose labors produce the quilt which gives the memoir its title, arises a sense of beauty that fits with Ray's defense of rural life. Her mother's quilts originate from "necessity, using rags and torn clothes." To Ray, "the need for usefulness...produces objects of the greatest beauty." The adult Ray has a kinder, more forgiving understanding of her father's psychology. Never giving in to his rigidity, she forgives him, and in so doing, opens the door for his reconciliation with Ray's oldest sister, with whom he had been estranged for nearly two decades.
Towering above everything in "Wild Card Quilt" is Janisse Ray's unabashed sense of hope. This infectious optimism, infused with deep conviction and enormous compassion, may align itself with our nation's longstanding sense of hope and vision. As the author becomes increasingly integrated in her Baxley environment, as she becomes ever more passionate in her advocacy for the longleaf pine forests, as she plants her own taproot deep in the fertile soils of family love and community solidarity, she outlines not only a personal blueprint of redemption, but a national one as well.
Average customer rating:
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Snowshoes and Spotted Dick: Letters from a Wilderness Dweller
Chris Czajkowski
Manufacturer: Harbour Publishing
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Diary of a Wilderness Dweller
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Cabin at Singing River
ASIN: 1550172794 |
Book Description
Chris Czajkowski chose to build her life and small ecotourism business on the shore of a high-altitude lake near the southern tip of Tweedsmuir Provincial Park. It is a formidable landscape of lake-dotted alpine plateaus abutting the glacier-swathed backbone of the central Coast Range.
Snowshoes and Spotted Dick describes Czajkowski's experiences as she builds her fourth cabin in the wilderness with hand tools, two chainsaws, an Alaskan Mill and some helpful friends. One of her helpers is Nick Berwain, a quiet but literary young German who corresponds with Czajkowski long after his return home.
In these fascinating letters to Berwain, Czajkowski details her often solitary life: how she breaks trails by snowshoe with her two pack dogs, encounters grizzly bears, builds a custom stone oven and learns how to use it to bake bread -and spotted dick, a traditional English steamed pudding. The letters also chronicle Czajkowski's challenges and triumphs as she tries to finish her cabin. Food and building supplies must be flown in and Czajkowski must hike more than 30 kilometres to the nearest road to lead guiding trips and to attend craft fairs and book promotions to supplement her income.
Lyrically written, Snowshoes and Spotted Dick provides a close look at a simpler way of life that most of us only dream about, one that cleaves to nature with beauty, resilience and independence.
Amazon.com
In this unusual and captivating memoir, we find a woman who grew up in the wilderness as the daughter of a forest service ranger. From an early age Brenda Peterson built intimate relationships with wild animals, forest floors, and even old growth elder trees. As a result, she has adventures aplenty, but she does not follow the swashbuckling, high-risk male model of nature writing. Whether writing about looking into the eyes of a gray wolf or spying on a clan of dancing grizzly bears, readers see a new, more feminine model for living with and protecting animals--one that is built upon the connective tissue of wonderment and compassion.
The upshot is a nature writer who manages to present great spirit within great stories. She imagines animals having afterlives and speaks to the shape-shifting myths that link two endangered predators--the orca whale and the gray wolf. When Peterson finds herself in the most dangerous place possible--between a mother bear and her cubs--she survives the encounter by standing tall in her power as well as her reverence. "Ever so slowly, my heart pounding, I stood up to my tallest height," she writes. "Our eyes met. 'It's just me,' I said in a soft voice, not the bold declaration I'd been grilled to do by instinct whenever faced with a wild bear. 'And you.'" Like a solidly built ark, it is Peterson's respect for the animal kingdom that carries this hopeful and globally inspiring memoir. --Gail Hudson
Book Description
This is the story of a life and spirit guided by animals. Brenda Peterson was raised in the High Sierras on a national forest lookout station, and wildlife had a daily, defining influence on her life. Peterson explores her deep connection with animals, from watching grizzlies in Montana's Rockies, to keeping Siberian huskies as pets in New York City, to her work for the restoration of wild wolves. Her lively storytelling bridges the worlds of human and animal, as she fascinates us with intimate stories of her studies of wild dolphins, whales, and orcas. Peterson reveals how animal bonds have enriched her life and led her toward a wider epiphany: As a species we cannot live without other animals.
Customer Reviews:
Worth reading, but leaves room for improvement........2004-01-03
This book contains a series of vignettes that form author Brenda Peterson's memoir. She takes us from her early childhood to present day through stories of her interactions with animals, beginning with her father's hunting trophies - her first animal "companions," and ending with the story of a sea lion that visited her beachfront property the day before she finished writing the book. Intermediate topics include Smokey the Bear, wild wolves, her pet dogs and cats, both captive and wild whales, her struggle to reconcile the world of animals and religion, and others.
The first third of the book turned me off a little. The stories of her childhood seem overly embellished with an abundance of flowery adjectives that strain the writing. These early stories don't have the same impact as the vignettes describing Peterson's experiences as an adult. The stories from her adulthood show more understanding of the world and are easier to relate to. My two favorites where the tale of a captive beluga female who exhibited profound mourning behavior after the death of her newborn calf, and the painful account of the effects of Navy sonar experiments on wild whales. The latter of these was quite heart-wrenching.
The book is dragged down, however, by poor editting. In addition to the superflous writing style that permeates the first several chapters, the entire work is riddled with typos (i.e. "Alaksa") and spelling errors (i.e. "decibals"). There are also a few punctuations errors. In addition, Peterson displays a lack of scientific background. She is a journalist, not a biologist. While she refers to the work of biologist acquaintances and is by no means ignorant, the impact of her writing would be enhanced if she herself had a more thorough scientific understanding.
On the whole, however, this memoir is worth reading, though I'd recommend borrowing it from the library or a friend that already has it rather than purchasing it for yourself. It does bring awareness to some critical environmental issues - aerial wolf killings, the detrimental effects of pollution and sonar testing on marine animals, the general public's misconceptions about certain wild species, etc. Hopefully it will inspire readers to do further research on these subjects for themselves and make them more conscious of the effects human lifestyles have on the environment.
Fascinating Life Between the Worlds of Animals and Humans.......2001-06-02
When you read Brenda Peterson's memoir or any of her books, be prepared to abandon your human assumptions and pre-conceived notions of how animals and the natural world "really are." If you are willing, Peterson will lead you down long forgotten paths that still connect the human and the natural worlds. Through her own stories, you will re-member and discover your own life stories with animals, both wild and domesticated, and the essential joy of a shared world.
This memoir is a pleasure to read, written by an informed nature writer who also knows how to write engaging, lyrical prose that often reads like poetry or a novel. Peterson also is a witty observer of life's ironies and odd, often contradictory human behavior. Rare is the nature writer who can skillfully weave together the talent of a seasoned storyteller, the reportage of an informed environmentalist, the visionary perspective of a literary writer, and the honesty to admit passionate feelings for animals. Brenda Peterson does all of this consistently.
In her memoir, Peterson admits, "My first people and family were animals," and then tells us numerous stories from the first 50 years of her life living "in between the worlds of animals and humans." There were times while reading this book when I would have to pause, put the book down, and simply savor the story at hand. I could easily spend days reflecting on a story, digesting its impact, feeling full and satisfied. Warning: This is rich, gourmet reading!
Peterson also tells of the many disillusionments and the grief she has had over how humans treat animals. In particular, she writes about Smokey the Bear, Peterson's childhood animal hero and an American icon dubbed the Protector of the Forest, who, in reality was a depressed and isolated bear living in Washington National Zoo. When Peterson was 13, she and her father, a Forest Service executive who would one day head up the National Forest Service, visited Smokey the Bear at the zoo. "Any child could see that it was this bear who himself needed protection," observed Peterson. "...we stood watching Smokey huddled in a corner, eyes lowered, turning away Goldie Bear [a potential mate]...."
Every chapter reveals a life with animals, whether they are animal companions or whales, wolves and bears. Peterson writes with emotional honesty that is refreshing. It is Peterson's willingness to talk about her own feelings in relationship to the natural world that makes her so appealing as a nature writer. She is not afraid to admit such things as emotions...a courageous act in a modern world filled with scientists and "objective writers" who purport to be beyond such sentimental or "anthropomorphic" notions. In truth, ancient peoples worldwide have always known that animals have spirits and feelings and an integral purpose on Earth beyond serving human needs. There was a time when humans respected and blessed and thanked the animals for their partnership---even when they became our food and clothing. Sadly, most humans have bought the civilized lies about the "wild and nature and animals," and dismiss any serious discussion of spiritual connections and animal families and animal cultures. "Unscientific," declare the naysayers and skeptics.
However, Brenda Peterson is a contemporary nature writer who remembers many of those ancient ties and truths about animals and the natural world, and unabashedly writes about them. I do believe that Peterson is on the cutting edge of the paradigm shift in which humans will once again acknowledge and accept that we are in partnership with animals and the natural world---NOT in dominion over.
This memoir helped me remember and gives me hope. I am grateful to Brenda Peterson for writing it!
a good read which lacks accuracy.......2001-05-24
Although I did enjoy this book, little niggling errors cropped up here and there to irk. Poor editing (numerous misspellings) and bad information here and there result in a 4 star rating rather than a 5. For example, the author 'tried out' Siberian Huskies at one point and even produced a mixed breed litter (gasp), but some of her assumptions were patently untrue. For example, the author claims that "Siberian huskies (sic) were the last canine breed to be domesticated". In fact, the Siberian Husky originated over 2000 years ago with the Siberian Chukchi tribe (see Demidoff/Jennings "The Complete Siberian Husky"). The author dabbles in various wild critter commitments:Tursiops in Florida, belugas in Tacoma and eastern Canada, wolves across the US, humpback whales and spinner dolphins in Hawaii but I kept wondering how much more she could have understood if she had taken the path of biology rather than journalism. She claims to have taken up the mantle of wild critter advocacy but to be honest, I think she falls into the category of 'talk is cheap'-type advocacy. But then, we have real biologists like Ken Balcomb to fight against Navy sonar experiments etc. All in all, an interesting read....but remember the salt shaker (take with a grain of salt).
My favorite Brenda Peterson book so far..........2001-03-13
I didn't think it possible I could love a Brenda Peterson book more than Living By Water, but Build Me an Ark has become my new favorite. This book, even more than any of her others, positively SINGS with her lovely spirit and knowledge about the animals around us. She has woven animals and people together with honesty and tenderness, and her father! I LOVE the stories involving her father! It is soothing to have my concerns about the health and welfare of this earth and all her creatures addressed with compassion, hope, and a quiet power. Write ON, Brenda Peterson.
An Important Work of Prose from a Modern Day St. Francis.......2001-03-01
I sit here quietly at my desk having just completed Brenda Peterson's "Build Me an Ark". My fingers fan the pages repeatedly as if refusing to believe that the last and final chapter of this book is over. I am rendered speechless and my thoughts turn inward as I hear the voice of the author over and over again in my head unlocking those childhood mysteries that I long ago safeguarded in the back recesses of my mind.
I have been instantly reminded that at my entry into this world some forty years ago I was born remembering a universal responsibility to protect those kindred spirits whose voices cannot be heard or understood. In this book, Peterson acutely finds that place in the reader's heart that unlocks those forgotten memories and reminds us of our contract with the earth to serve and protect, with uncompromising compassion, all of its noble creatures that walk on this planet. If the planet earth is in fact a classroom - "Build Me an Ark" should be required reading for the human race.
Peterson writes from two distinct places: She is first and foremost a visionary healer connecting our souls and our memories with the rest of the animal kingdom and in the same moment she is an incredible writer - every paragraph, every page each in its own right beautiful prose and lilting poetry. From whales and dolphins to cats and dogs, through her eyes, we find the connection to God in all living creatures and are reminded that our souls are all connected by this same source. Peterson asks us to remember, realize and understand our connection to other species, through compassion. "This is the best of all possible worlds," she writes. "This is embracing more than our own kind and assuring that more than we alone survive. For if humans only survive without the company of other animals, then we will be more alone than any of our ancestors could ever have imagined. To one day find ourselves on this ocean planet alone with only our own kind would be perhaps the beginning of the end of our species."
With a soft voice and deft hand, she takes the reader down the path of transformation from sympathetic observer to fierce protector. I would have to caution anyone wanting to read this book to be prepared to face your failure at not having done enough for our animal planet. Be prepared to endure incredible rage at the abject carelessness by the hand of man and be prepared to have your life changed as your own memories are unlocked and as that quiet voice in your throat rises now to a load roar. We finish the book and we know in an instant that we have not done enough to protect nature. We know that there is much more work to do for the conservation of the planet. The author dares you to remember that contract you made with self and God and the planet upon birth and reach out now to make a difference.
Brenda Peterson is a modern-day Moses and the St. Francis of our times. Thank you for reaching out to my hand and bringing me back to the path I was meant to walk on. Maybe life does start at 40. I hope to see you out there on the front line, sleeves rolled up, check book in hand, ready to work at building an ark, saving our planet-ourselves.
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- AN INSPIRING STORY OF AN INDOMITABLE WOMAN
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Henrietta King: Rancher and Philanthropist (Stars of Texas)
Judy Alter
Manufacturer: State House Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Women
| Specific Groups
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
State & Local
| United States
| History & Historical Fiction
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
Historical
| Biographies
| People & Places
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 1880510987 |
Customer Reviews:
AN INSPIRING STORY OF AN INDOMITABLE WOMAN.......2006-01-08
Tying in to the ever increasing demand for quality children's literature Abilene, Texas based State House Press has launched a new series. The personalities receiving attention are not well known Texans, nonetheless they are those who have made valuable contributions to Texas history.
Many have heard of the name of the King Ranch, arguably the most famous ranch in Texas, but few probably know very much about the woman whose name it bears. Daughter of a Presbyterian minister, Henrietta King was educated at an eastern girls school. She learned etiquette and foreign languages, believing that some day she would marry a minster very much like her father.
Life held more than a few surprises for Henrietta - she married a boat captain who was also a South Texas rancher. He had little education and the pair soon lived in a hut fashioned of sticks and mud on the plains of South Texas. Her life was not easy; the couple had five children and the weather could be daunting. Nonetheless, the ranch flourished and she found herself caring for the Mexicans who worked for them.
Summoning courage she stayed at the Ranch during the Civil War when her husband was away. She remained steadfast during the invasion of Union soldiers. More travail was to come - the ranch burned in 1912 and was attacked during the Mexican Revolution. When her husband died in 1885, she was in full charge. She wore a black mourning dress for 40 years, and managed the ranch with her son-in-law, Robert Kleberg. They built an empire that grew to a million acres and 95,000 head of cattle. What a woman!
Alter's book makes excellent use of sidebars to impart valuable information, and includes a glossary, a timeline, and websites that hold additional information. Both comprehensive and highly readable for fourth graders, Henrietta King is apt reminder of the strength and determination of this indomitable woman.
- Gail Cooke
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Women Gardeners: A History
Yvonne Cuthbertson
Manufacturer: Arden Press Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Essays
| Gardening & Horticulture
| Home & Garden
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Gardening & Horticulture
| Home & Garden
| Subjects
| Books
History
| Women's Studies
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0912869216 |
Book Description
Women have always tended the land. Early woman scratched the earth with a pointed, fire-dried stick to plant seeds she had gathered in the wild. Female slaves toiled to establish fragrant flowers and exotic fruits in the gardens at Luxor and Thebes. Women of the Elizabethan nobility displayed their elaborate, formal gardens as symbols of their wealth and position. During World War II, patriotic women dug up every spare piece of land to plant vegetables and herbs to support the war effort.
Women's role in the garden has been a fluctuating and complex one-dependent upon their social class and the degree to which they have been able to break free of the restrictive social and moral conventions of the day. This story of women gardeners is interwoven with a gradually emerging feminism and the cultural, social, and political events of the times.
The book reveals a colorful array of gardeners-the social elite, women landscape architects, and those who wrote gardening books or started horticultural schools. But it also looks at those who lived hand to mouth-black women slaves toiling from dawn to dusk on southern plantations and war-weary British women struggling to feed their families off tiny plots of land. The book contains color reproductions of famous works of art depicting women's role as gardeners throughout the ages as well as garden plans and instructions.
Books:
- The Home Depot Outdoor Projects 1-2-3 (Home Depot ... 1-2-3)
- The Lost Art of Towel Origami
- The Machine in the Garden: Technology and the Pastoral Ideal in America (Galaxy Books)
- The New Garden Paradise: Great Private Gardens of the World
- The New Garden Paradise: Great Private Gardens of the World
- The Rodale Illustrated Encyclopedia of Organic Gardening (American Horticultural Society Practical Guides)
- The Samurai's Garden: A Novel
- The Samurai's Garden: A Novel
- The Well-Designed Mixed Garden: Building Beds and Borders with Trees, Shrubs, Perennials, Annuals, and Bulbs
- The Worm Book: The Complete Guide to Worms in Your Garden
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