Mountains in the Mist: Impressions of the Great Smokies

Customer Reviews:

A lovely walk through the Smokies........1998-03-15

I discovered this book while looking for a present for my aunt's 88th. birthday present. She and her late husband traveled all over the country taking their time to wander back roads and see things tourists miss. One of their favorite spots was the Smoky Mountains. I'm sure this book will bring back many pleasant memories for her. The paintings are wonderful as are the many small vignettes of birds and tree leaves. Even if you haven't been to the Smokies--as I haven't--you'll find the book enjoyable. Haven't read it yet, since I think my aunt should first, but I couldn't resist looking at the paintings, as did my parents. I highly recommend it.

Book Description

The past few years have seen unprecendented growth in the knowledge of the world's lichens, and the diverstity of lichens and their associated fungi have received worldwide scrutiny, Lichenology is now a lively area of scientific enquiry, with many actively growinhg fileds of interest such as systematics, biodiversity, chemistry, molecular biology, ecology, physiology, conservation, biodeterioration, and biological monitoring (Hawksworth 1995, Scheidegger et al. 1995, Nash 1996). The refinement and increasing accessibility of sensitive techniques of chemical analysis and of molecular biology now underpin new approaches to lichen systematics, leading to more natural arrangements of taxa. Many new genera have been proposed, and many old generic names are being resurrected as several large, heterogeneous genera (e.g. Lecidea, Lecanora, and Parmelia) have been divided into smaller and more narrowly defined unites. In the Northern Hemisphere, where the greatest effort in lichen systematics is still expended, the rapid pace of taxonomic change (reflected most often in name-changes) has spawned a series of new lichen checklists such as those for the continental United States and Canada (Esslinger & Egan 1995), Sweden and Norway (Santesson 1993), Great Britain and Ireland (Purvis et al. 1993), and Italyl (Nimis 1993), to mention the most extensive. As Nimis notes, “The frequency of nomenclatural changes which characterizes modern lichenology is often seen as an annoying fact, especially by beginners; however, this is also an indication of the very good health of modern lichen taxonomy” (1993: 45).

Customer Reviews:

New Zealand lichens - a magnificent book.......2000-04-13

The New Zealand lichens checklist, key, and glossary is the most magnificent checklist ever made. Actually, it is probably the most inspiring book on lichens to date. The coloured photos and the well-illustrated glossary makes it very useful for everyone dealing with lichens, not only for New Zealanders. This book should be available in all university libraries.

Average customer rating:

Flora of New Zealand: Lichens
D. J. Galloway
Manufacturer: Balogh Scientific Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

The Forest Carpet: New Zealand's Little-Noticed Forest Plants-Mosses, Lichens, Liverworts, Hornworts, Fork-Ferns, and Lycopods

Average customer rating:

The Forest Carpet: New Zealand's Little-Noticed Forest Plants-Mosses, Lichens, Liverworts, Hornworts, Fork-Ferns, and Lycopods
Bill Malcolm , and Nancy Malcolm
Manufacturer: Timber Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Collections, Catalogues & Exhibitions | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

New Zealand | Australia & Oceania | History | Subjects | Books

General | Gardening & Horticulture | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

Forests | Conservation | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

Reference | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books

Average customer rating:

Lichens of New Zealand
William Martin
Manufacturer: Reed
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Census catalogue of the lichen flora of New Zealand (Transactions of the Royal Society of New Zealand)

Average customer rating:

Census catalogue of the lichen flora of New Zealand (Transactions of the Royal Society of New Zealand)
William Martin
Manufacturer: Royal Society of New Zealand
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0007K0FRQ

Checklist of New Zealand lichens (DSIR Land Resources scientific report)

Average customer rating:

Checklist of New Zealand lichens (DSIR Land Resources scientific report)
David J Galloway
Manufacturer: DSIR Land Resources
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Contributions to the lichenographia of New Zealand

Average customer rating:

Contributions to the lichenographia of New Zealand
Charles Knight
Manufacturer: [The Society]
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0008B2R1Q

Contributions to the lichenographia of New Zealand;: Being an account, with figures, of some new species of Graphideae and allied lichens,

Average customer rating:

Contributions to the lichenographia of New Zealand;: Being an account, with figures, of some new species of Graphideae and allied lichens,
Charles Knight
Manufacturer: n.p
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0008B531M

Average customer rating:

New Zealand lichens
W. M Malcolm
Manufacturer: Micro-Optics Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Collection & Preservation | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

Average customer rating:

New Zealand lichens
James Murray
Manufacturer: Biological Society, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0007K8TAQ

Book Description

L'Île de Beauté séduit par une nature aussi diverse dans ses reliefs qu'éblouissante dans ses couleurs, et par un patrimoine où s'exprime la vibrante fierté corse: silencieux villages de montagne, tours génoises ponctuant plages et criques, harmonieuses chapelles romanes...LE GUIDE VERT a pensé à vous: sur place et pour vous il a déniché des adresses sympathiques, a préparé des circuits de découverte pédestres et automobiles, a testé des hôtels et des restaurants de charme. Mais surtout, la rédaction a sélectionné les plus beaux sites qui " valent le voyage "***, qui " méritent un détour " **, ou simplement " intéressants " *. Pratique, complet, ce guide vous aidera à passer des moments intenses dans les meilleures conditions possibles, dans une région que vous n'êtes pas prêt d'oublier.

Book Description

The "Native American Biographies" series features the stories of famous Native American men and women and their heroic struggles to protect their land and their freedom. These inspirational accounts of the first Americans are effective tools in helping young readers understand and appreciate different cultures. Illustrated throughout.

Book Description

Molecular Nature is a richly illustrated guide to the extraordinary diversity of molecules that are responsible for life. David Goodsell, author of the highly-praised book, The Machinery of Life, has synthesized a vast amount of data in a manner that is accessible to the general reader. Molecular Nature examines topics ranging from the shape of cells to the molecules responsible for digestion, immunity, and thought. The author's unique combination of scientific and artistic talents make this a readable, stimulating and highly evocative book. About the Author: David Goodsell is in the Department of Molecular Biology at the Research Institute of Scripps Clinic in La Jolla, California. His research involves computer graphics and X-ray crystallography. He is the author of The Machinery of Life (Springer-Verlag, 1992), and his artwork has been shown at exhibitions on science and art.

Customer Reviews:

Great book.......2007-04-20

My take on this book is very different from that of the other two reviewers here at this time. I have read a number of books on this general subject and found this one much better. It is descriptive, as stated in another review, but wonderfully so. As an example (p 87, with drawings):
"Cells are sewn together, almost touching, by thousands of connexons at small patches called 'gap junctions'. Each connexon is composed of six identical protein units, together forming a hexagonal tube through the cell membrane. A constant traffic of sugars, amino acids, ATE, and other small molecules travels from cell to cell through them. However, large molecules like proteins cannot pass through these narrow tubes, so each cell retains its own machinery. In times of distress, these tiny knotholes can be sealed. The concentration of calcium inside cells is normally kept very low, so if large amounts of calcium flow through a cell, it is usually a signal that it has been breached. Sensing a sudden rise in calcium, connexons snap shut, isolating healthy cells from a damaged neighbor."
One-hundred-and sixty-six pages, packed full of similar descriptions, that in my opinion are well-organized, taught me much more than any other book on the same subject has.

Disjointed. No pervasive structure........2004-11-22

This book essentially lists the major (classes of) enzymes, hormones & other important molecules that constitute the human body and provides a short description of each. For a popular science work, it can seem pretty dry. There's no engaging organization to the content. Think of it as a condensed encyclopedia of some of the major molecular systems. There are some interesting tidbits, but I wouldn't recommend this work.

good illustration, but lack of scientific insights.......1999-08-06

This book provides many good illustrations for various classes of biomolecules. However, it does not give any scientific insights. The book is descriptive.

Our Molecular Nature: The Body's Motors, Machines & Messages

Average customer rating:

Our Molecular Nature: The Body's Motors, Machines & Messages

Manufacturer: Diane Pub Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 0756768160

Product Description

A richly illustrated introduction to the extraordinary world of the molecules that are responsible for life. Goodsell has synthesized a vast amount of technical data & presents it in a readable & stimulating manner. Examines topics ranging from the molecules that give cells their shape to the molecules responsible for the immune system, digestion, & thought. Focusing on the extraordinary progress in understanding life at the level of molecules, Goodsell guides us through such discoveries as why cyanide poisons us so quickly, what the single enzyme is that makes some of us lactose intolerant, & how cholesterol can be a double-edged sword: essential in our membranes, but harmful in our blood. A remarkable journey through our own bodies.

Our Molecular Nature: The Body's Motors, Machines, and Messages.

Average customer rating:

Our Molecular Nature: The Body's Motors, Machines, and Messages.

Manufacturer: 0
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000ICFO1A

Book Description

Combustion is an old technology, which at present provides about 90% of our worldwide energy support. Combustion research in the past used fluid mechanics with global heat release by chemical reactions described with thermodynamics, assuming infinitely fast reactions. This approach was useful for stationary combustion processes, but it is not sufficient for transient processes like ignition and quenching or for pollutant formation. Yet pollutant formation during combustion of fossil fuels is a central topic and will continue to be so in future. This book provides a detailed and rigorous treatment of the coupling of chemical reactions and fluid flow. Also, combustion-specific topics of chemistry and fluid mechanics are considered, and tools described for the simulation of combustion processes.

Book Description

Financial Math Review makes math understandable to all--featuring simple directions, easy vocabulary, and modeled concepts. This 30-hour text-workbook provides instruction in operations with whole numbers, fractions, decimals, equations, percentages, and measurement. Through practical applications, users learn fundamental mathematics concepts, including calculator use and problem solving. Users will develop attitudes relative to basic mathematics and its importance in their lives, acquire skills which enable them to process information, analyze data, and draw conclusions essential to sound decision making.

Average customer rating:

Aie, Financial Math Review
SGROI , and GERVER
Manufacturer: South Western College Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: 0538440228

Book Description

Sweeping us into the inner sanctum of Boston society, into the Beacon Hill town houses and exclusive private clubs where only the city's wealthiest and most powerful congregate, this novel gives us-through the story of one family and its patriarch, the recently deceased George Apley-the portrait of an entire society in transition. Gently satirical and rich with drama, the novel moves from the Gilded Age to the Great Depression as it projects George Apley's world-and subtly reveals a life in which success and accomplishment mask disappointment and regret, a life of extreme and enviable privilege that is nonetheless an imperfect life.

Customer Reviews:

Quaint New England/Boston Brahmin culture... .......2007-05-04

You could call this a boring book about a boring guy, but underneath the stale and quaint New England/Boston Brahmin culture is actually a history that is quite remarkable. It was, after all, the Brahmins who built the state of Massachusetts on the back of shipping (the Old China Trade), mills, industry, investments and so forth. Almost every Massachusetts institution from the American Revolution to the Boston Symphony Orchestra to Transcendentalism was built upon, or came forth from, Boston Brahmin culture. It is an American story that should be told, and Marquand does it quite well. If you can get half way through, you will actually begin to see a very profound comedy/tragedy. Maybe, THE BEST piece of historical fiction I've ever read.

Freedom's just another word for..........2005-03-21

THE LATE GEORGE APLEY is not an action novel. Not much happens. It's the fictional biography of an upper class, proper, Bostonian man who lived in the late 1800's & early 1900's, as supposedly written by a friend after Apley's death at the urging of Apley's son, who has provided letters and other documents on which the story is purportedly based. The turning point in Apley's life occurs when, as a young man, he falls in love with a girl "not of the proper set", and is somehow (the text is vague here)forced by his family to relinquish her. Much of the rest of the book is some version of, "What if...", and "Where does one's obligation to oneself end and one's obligation to others begin?" I found this really interesting, because the same question is very relevant today. Today we marry whomever we choose, have children whenever we want (in or out of marriage), divorce whenever it seems called for, say whatever we feel like saying. Are we happier? That's the question Apley asks. It's a really good question.

An Aging World and Man.......2005-01-18

Mr. Marquand's book does an excellent job of tracing one man's psyche as he ages in a changing world. The mode of writing (little narration; heavy examination of letters written by the characters), was an interesting route to take. Overall, it was a pleasant read, although I cannot say excellent read.

One observation that I found problematic was which letters were including in the pseudo-biography. More of the letters appear to be letters that the late George Apley authored rather than received. Obviously, there is a bias to that that may have served a purpose of the author, but more than that, it seems that if a collection of letters were to exist, it would be the letters that Mr. Apley received, not authored.

In sum, this is a good book about a not entirely likeable person. The novel is easy to read. But what it most excels at is descibing an unfortunately not-quite-bygone era of elitism and entitlement- a community that believes its wealth is its gift as well as its burden; its work product as well as its rightful inheritance.

It is a tragedy that this book is out of print..........2003-02-21

John P. Marquand probably was one of the most successful authors of his day and this book, for which he won a Pulitzer prize was the start of his brilliant career. Unfortunately, with Marquand's death in 1960, he fell from favor with the academy who was itself enamoured with tales of life in a university and stories addressing issues of gender and sex. Marquand's stories about middle aged WASPs in Boston coping with trying to come to grips with their lives were no longer in fashion and sadly have not returned to the center place that they previously occupied.

This is a novel about manners and invokes the particular time and place of the WASP ascendency in America, just before the second World War. Marquand's hero is a representative of what used to be known as a "Boston Brahmin." Marquand handles Apley with a mixture of bemusement and foundness. He has clearly met George Apley's in his life and knows the type well. What would have been in less capable hands a mere characture, becomes a full portrait of what was at the time, a dying breed. Marquand sensed this and this provides the point of departure for the book.

"The Late George Apley is a bit of a pastische of privately printed books designed to memorialize a dearly departed loved one. This allows Marquand to use his frequently used flashback technique to describe the particulars of Apley's life. At times this provides Marquand with the opportunity to indulge in both high comedy and low drama, as is the case when Apley falls in love with a girl who is both Irish and Catholic. Although this enables some satire on the subject of the way Boston's elite viewed the Irish, it is also a source of regret that Apley, like so many characters in Marquand's books, did not make a different choice in life. Sentiments that as Jonathan Yardley has observed "are not just limited to the denizens of Backbay or Harvard Square."

The lifecycle of a gentleman.......2002-08-10

THE LATE GEORGE APLEY is a departure from my habitual choice of biographical reading, which is usually limited to real-life individuals who've stood astride human history. And George Apley of (merely) Boston is fictional.

Author John Marquand has invented a make-believe chronicler named Mr. Willing to tell the story of the latter's life long friend, George Apley (1866-1933). The biographer's source material is comprised primarily of his own recollections and numerous letters exchanged between Apley and friends and family over the decades. Willing begins with a brief account of George's ancestry, then proceeds through his subject's birth, boyhood, and years at Harvard and law school forward to his marriage, the birth of his children, then his sojourns in middle and old age.

The trouble with this novel is that it seems Marquand didn't have a clear vision of the point he was trying to make. On one hand, Willing's biography is sympathetic. He obviously admires Apley for being a loyal friend, loving husband and father, fair and considerate employer, principled gentleman, and patriotic American. Willing doesn't condemn his friend's gradual alienation from his children and a changing society as he ages. (What a surprise!) And his generally favorable bias doesn't prevent him from mentioning Apley's low opinion of the Irish, Catholics, and Jews, but he doesn't dwell upon these flaws - perhaps because he was of like mind. Taken at this face value, the book is a simple tribute to a good and upstanding life however unprepossessing it may have been.

On the other hand, without any obvious malice, Marquand (through Willing again) manages to convey the fact that Apley takes himself, his family name, his privileged class, and Boston way too seriously. Anything beyond the Boston city limits is held in a frank disregard verging on contempt. He fails to heed the words of an uncle who found it necessary to counsel: "Most people in the world don't know who the Apleys are and they don't give a damn." Also, Marquand attributes to his fictional subject no great achievements on the national or world stage. Rather, George spends a lifetime attending the board meetings of charities, participating in "intelligent discussion" groups and clubs, dabbling in the minutiae of local politics, and dispensing unheeded advice to his offspring. Because of all this, I've decided that THE LATE GEORGE APLEY is, in the balance, more of a gentle satire than anything else. The thing is, it's too subtle for this 21st century reader. (Perhaps it was more appreciated in the year first published - 1936.) It's as if Marquand didn't love or hate the type of man or social class his subject represents with sufficient enough fervor to be truly effective at either.

At the very best, THE LATE GEORGE APLEY is an interesting description of the evolution of a gentleman and society of that time and place. I liked it to that extent, but was left with the nagging regret that my time would've been better spent reading a contemporary account of a real individual whose life had made ripples in a pond bigger than that of the city he or she lived in. Hmm, now where's my unread biography of Captain Kangaroo?

Average customer rating:
THE LATE GEORGE APLEY (LIBRARY OF PULITZER PRIZE CLASSICS)

Manufacturer: Franklin Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Leather Bound
ASIN: B000COFI24

Average customer rating:

The Late George Apley

The Late George Apley
John Marquand
Manufacturer: Little Brown and Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000G1M8Z8

Product Description

Marquand's satirical novel about the Boston Brahmins gained immediate acclaim and has endured as one of the great 20th Century novels. It was awarded the Pulitzer Prize in 1938. It also was adapted for the stage.

Customer Reviews:

The Late George Apley.......2007-02-21

I bought this book because I love the 1947 movie version of the book. It
is quite different, and in my opinion, not nearly as good as the movie. But, since there was a popular play first, and then the movie (also very
popular) of the book, it is a good source to review.

Average customer rating:

The Late George Apley

Manufacturer: Little Brown
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000G1M97K

Average customer rating:

THE LATE GEORGE APLEY
JOHN P. MARQUAND
Manufacturer: GROSSET AND DUNLAP
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000N2OPJM

Average customer rating:

THE LATE GEORGE APLEY
MARQUAND JOHN P.
Manufacturer: TIME INC.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000PH21T6

Average customer rating:

The Late George Apley
John P. Marquand
Manufacturer: Little, Brown
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000VDUXZI

Average customer rating:

The Late George Apley
Marquand
Manufacturer: Washington Square Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000O3T5PY

Average customer rating:

The Late George Apley

Manufacturer: Pocket Book
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000CQOH1A

Product Description

A brilliantly etched portrait of a Bostonian who lived in a golden era of wealth.

Average customer rating:

The Late George Apley
John P. Marquand
Manufacturer: New York Pocket Books #258 1945.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000MVBYAW

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books