Peterson Field Guides: The North American Prairie (Peterson Guides)

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Great depth & breadth of knowledge--Highly recommended

A Wonderful Guide to the Prairie

In some ways tells almost too much about the Prairies

Good short descriptions of prairie preserves all over

Peterson Field Guides: The North American Prairie (Peterson Guides)
Ruth Carol Cushman , and Stephen R. Jones
Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0618179305

Book Description

The North American prairie extends across eighteen states and provinces in the heartland of the United States and Canada, and many prairie preserves are within easy driving distance of large cities. This new field guide provides detailed profiles of 48 major North American prairie preserves and capsule descriptions of 120 smaller preserves. Each preserve profile includes practical information on what times of year to visit, how to get there, where to go hiking and camping--and even boating. Each profile also covers weather conditions and wildlife of special interest, in addition to the flora, fauna, and natural history of the preserve. More than 250 stunning color photos illustrate everything from scarab dung beetles and orchids to bison wallows and hailstorms.

Customer Reviews:

Great depth & breadth of knowledge--Highly recommended.......2007-03-20

This Peterson Field Guide is an enormously interesting and valuable aid to exploring the North American prairie. The authors tell you when to go, how to prepare and what you can expect to see - from flowers to wildlife to artifacts to geological features - in 18 states and provinces. And they tell you about the history of what you're seeing: "Grass has been around for a long time, perhaps 50 million or 60 million years." So there is a lot of history out there - and this guide is full of its gems. In reading about prairie areas that I know well, I found the guide to be unfailingly accurate - while its great depth and breadth of knowledge were able to surprise me with a little something unexpected at each prairie area.

For instance, in the Comanche National Grassland, you'll learn about Colorado's Dust Bowl drought, dinosaur tracks, Lesser Prairie-Chickens, kites - and a river whose name changes over time from the Spanish "Rio de las Animas Perdidas en Purgatorio" (River of Lost Souls) through the "Purgatoire" and sometimes ends up in the western cowboy "Picket Wire." In the Pawnee National Grassland you'll learn about a sign that quotes a long ago Pawnee chief who said "Grass no good upside down." In the 1930s farmers found out that he was right - this was land that would blow away in the Great Depression wind without the native grasses to hold it down. All these gems add up to a timeless sense of a timeless place - the North American Prairie. Highly recommended.

A Wonderful Guide to the Prairie.......2007-02-18

The North American Prairie is a wonderful guide for those who know the prairie and those who wish to. This guide focuses on 48 prairie preserves and includes a comprehensive and entertaining array of information, including the plants and wildlife of each area, its natural history, and its unique features, such as fireflies or wood lilies. It is illustrated with amazing photos that capture the singular beauties of the prairie, as well as a full complement of practical information for visitors, such as weather, optimal times to visit, and information on hiking and camping.

The book is beautifully written and filled with rich details. It is informed by a deep knowledge and appreciation of this varied and often under-appreciated area, and infused with poetry that makes this book not a dry guide but a living, breathing work of art as well as science. For example:

"Magic happens when, under a prairie sky, you are lulled to sleep by owls and awakened by meadowlarks."

This is an absolutely wonderful book and an essential part of any nature lover's library.

In some ways tells almost too much about the Prairies.......2005-07-16

I wanted learn something about the prairie system that once existed in North America and thought this book would be a good choice for doing that. I bought the hardcover edition because I had the idea that it would be a little more durable, it's coatpocket sized but be sure your pocket is well made, this little book is heavy(seems to be put together better than I'd expect for a paperback too).
The first 82 pages cover the area in general with sections on history, plant biology, wildlife and insects, and a short bit on Human life there too. Most of the pictures in the book are found in this first part.
The bulk of the book covers the various prairies in the U.S. and Canada with a chapter on each state or province (one small map for each). You'll get a short history/description of each major prairie as well as information on some of the plant and animal life to be found there. Directions are given for finding each place. Information on best times to visit, hiking/camping, weather and a phone number or two for more information are also given. In addition to the main prairies, at the end of each chapter there's a listing of, I guess, lesser prairies with not much more than phone numbers, a very short description and directions.
I would have liked more pictures of the individual prairies to get a better idea of what each one looks like, plant, bird, animal and insect pictures would've been nice too. There's so much information/territory covered here that your eyes can almost glaze over from looking at it. It might be enough to help you decide which one to go to on vacation but if you want more detail on a specific location you'll need to go elsewhere. There are 5 websites on page 496 that I haven't tried, they might be of some help.

Good short descriptions of prairie preserves all over.......2005-04-10

This is not a guide to all the different types of plants and animals you'll find in the prairie, nor to how the ecosystem works. The book is a state-by-state (with some Canadian listings also) description of prairie preserves accessible to the public. Two or three preserves in each state are given fairly detailed descriptions (half a dozen pages or less) and several more preserves in each state are given a couple of paragraphs each. Each preserve description contains information on the outstanding features of that place; sometimes these are geological, but more often plants or especially animal. Some minimal climate data is included, and an important paragraph on when are the best times to visit.

Much of this information is available in fragmentary form over the internet, but it is worthwhile to have this consolidated complete in one place, and in a form you can take on a road trip. A good guide to seeing this ecosystem (which is highly endangered and doesn't get nearly enough attention, though not a "great" book.

Average customer rating:

A gem of a biography about a lifetime hunting, harvesting and growing ginseng

Ginseng, Woodland Nuggets of Gold : The Story of American Ginseng Cultivation
Val Hardcare
Manufacturer: Holland House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Plants | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0913042072

Customer Reviews:

A gem of a biography about a lifetime hunting, harvesting and growing ginseng.......2005-07-14

This wonderful book by Val Hardacre inspired me in the 1980's to start the Ginseng Farmer Newsletter that served the ginseng growing industry for many years. It also, indirectly, led to my book, the Complete Ginseng Grower's Manual which is still in print and available on Amazon.com.
This isn't a how to. Collected here are wonderful recollections of a lifetime of hunting wild ginseng in the forests as a boy in Ohio, attempting to grow it as an adult, mixed in with real life.
I never got to know Val Hardacre but became friends with his wife Rose. She had a dispute with the publishing house and was not receiving commissions. I helped her sell the many copies she had on hand through our newsletter.
I used to tell our readers (all ginseng growers) that the book was about "The most fun you'll ever have growing ginseng". I think we sold everyone of Rose's copies she was willing to let go. Hardacre was a terrific writer and you won't be sorry you purchased this book.

Woodland Nuggets of Gold. The Story of American Ginseng Cultivation.

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Woodland Nuggets of Gold. The Story of American Ginseng Cultivation.
Val. Hardacre
Manufacturer: Holland House Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000M4M1ZG

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Woodland nuggets of gold;: The story of American ginseng cultivation
Val Hardacre
Manufacturer: Vantage Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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ASIN: B0006BTNP6

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The Pilgrims' Road to Santiago: A Practical Guide for Pilgrims
Millan Bravo Lozano
Manufacturer: Espanz
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000O8PKSA

Book Description

For more than forty years after World War II the world was embroiled in an ideological conflict known as the Cold War. From the war's end through the Vietnam years, the United States and the Soviet Union struggled to advance their political ideas, while coping with perilous crises that, if allowed to escalate, could have destroyed the world.

Book Description

Nearly all living organisms are exploited by some sort of parasite. But what are parasites? How many different types are there? What exactly is parasitism? In this undergraduate textbook parasitism is described as an ecological relationship. Ecology implies the study of the interaction between organisms and their environments and the fact that parasites' hosts are alive makes this concept even more exciting, combining traditionally disparate disciplines such as immunology and physiology with ecology and epidemiology! All the major groups of animal parasites are described, who they are, how they live, their biogeography, evolution, the influence they exert on their hosts' populations, their immunological, pathological, and biochemical implications. Written in an accessible style, the subject matter is brought to life with numerous illustrations and textboxes containing anecdotal, interesting, and supplementary material. Essential for all undergraduate students studying parasitology, Parasitism: The Diversity and Ecology of Animal Parasites will also be useful reading for graduates and researchers in zoology and ecology.

Customer Reviews:

Awesome Biology Text book .......2007-06-15

Awesome Biology Text book. Very well packaged. New Text.

Book Description

In Uses of Immobilized Biological Compounds the reader will find a comprehensive survey of the field written by acknowledged experts who met in Brixen, Italy, between May 9 and 14, 1993 for a NATO Advanced Research Workshop devoted to the topic. The resulting volume presents a critical review of the latest results in the area and sets guidelines for future research. The 53 reports presented here cover: (A) General Aspects of Immobilizing Biological Compounds; (B) Medical, Clinical and Pharmaceutical Applications; (C) Electrochemical Biosensors; (E) Defense Applications; (F) Immunosensors and Receptors; (G) Food, Environmental, Clinical and Analytical Applications; and (H) Biotechnology and Marketing. In short, all aspects of the area are presented, in a compact format which will appeal to undergraduates, technicians, and professional scientists in the food, clinical, environmental, pharmaceutical and industrial fields.

Book Description

In The Day of the Scorpion, Scott draws us deeper in to his epic of India at the close of World War II. With force and subtlety, he recreates both private ambition and perversity, and the politics of an entire subcontinent at a turning point in history.

As the scorpian, encircled by a ring of fire, will sting itself to death, so does the British raj hasten its own destruction when threatened by the flames of Indian independence. Brutal repression and imprisonment of India's leaders cannot still the cry for home rule. And in the midst of chaos, the English Laytons withdraw from a world they no longer know to seek solace in denial, drink, and madness.

Customer Reviews:

the raj quartet.......2006-03-20

it is really not possible to review the quartet seperately because each volume centers around two incidents that occur in the first volume. new insights and characters are introduced as the story progresses and the incidents gather more clarity. i have never in all my years of reading, encountered a more complex and insideous evil than that of the character merrick. he is even better at being evil than iago. also, scott is so good at describing the end of empire in india, the isolation of the colonialists from each other, india, england and their own sense of self. on the part of the indians, to find their selves as separate from what they have had to become over years of domination and humiliation. the history of division between muslim and hindu and the indian arguments for non-participation in the war with japan and the way that plays into the whole idea of loyalty (to whom) was fascinating. i was sorry when i finally came to the end of the last volume. it was great reading!!!!!

Improvement on first book.......2003-09-26

In this second book of the Raj Quartet, Paul Scott begins to develop his characters more as opposed to the Indian landscape, and that makes this book a lot more readable than the first one.

Scott continues to have 'lapses' into long-winded paragraphs with descriptive detail, but this time, a much larger human element creeps in. Instead of the Indian countryside and endless narrations about the changing Indian political landscape, Scott focuses on how these changes are impacting the British - in particular, the Layton family.

Somehow, this brings alive the demise of the British Imperialism in India. No longer is it facts and stats, its not only the British rule collapsing, its the disintegration of British society and class structures. Everyone is fighting valiantly to preserve a dream which no longer exists.

This book overlaps slightly with the first book but goes a lot further to explain what happened to Daphne Manners in the first book. It also opens our eyes to the aforementioned collapse of British society in India as experienced by the Layton sisters.

All in all, this book was quite enjoyable. It's just a shame you have to read the first book to know where this book is heading...

The decay of the imperial ideal.......2002-12-03

I thought that this was an excellent sequel to "The Jewel in the Crown", continuing Scott's dissection of the dying days of the British Raj. As World War II rolls on, tensions within Britain's Indian Empire increase.

The repercussions of the rape of Daphne Manners in the Bibighar Gardens continues to have their effect on various people, and not just on those who were involved directly in the aftermath of that incident. Scott begins to let his characters slowly unravel the truth behind the rape, but also examines the attitudes of both the British and the Indians towards the demise of the Raj and forthcoming Indian independence.

The British characters exhibit a deep ambiguity and unease (even guilt) towards their rôle in India - the current (and past) raison d'être of the Raj is unclear. Just why were they there and what legacy will they leave? More pertinently, what does the future hold for them, especially in Britain itself - if they return home, will they be fish-out-of-water, anachronisms?

The Indian characters see the Raj as moribund, but are uncertain about what to replace it with. Do they owe the British their loyalty and cooperation in the face of imminent invasion by the Japanese, or should they throw in their lot with the Japanese to get rid of the British? What kind of India will rise from the ashes of the Raj when religious and racial tensions seem so deeply entrenched?

Scott's view of this period seemed to me to be that the end of the Raj was a stumbling forward into history rather than a managed withdrawal from empire - a messy affair for both sides. A thoroughly interesting and stimulating read.

"Quit India!".......2002-06-30

The four volumes of the Raj Quartet overlap and complement one another, while at the same time forwarding the main storyline of the slow twilight of the British ascendancy in India, always with the rape of a white girl by Indian men as the central lodestone everpresent in the background, the nightmare which is seldom mentioned but which none can drive from their minds. Events occur, are discussed, witnessed as newspaper reports, court documents, interviews, vague recollections from years later, or perceived directly by the main characters. Then the next volume will take two or three steps back into previous events, and these same events will be perceived from another angle, perhaps only as a vague report heard far away across the Indian plain, or witnessed directly by another character, or discussed in detail long after their occurrence over drinks on a verandah. This may at times seem like rehashing, indeed as one reads the four volumes one will be subjected to the account of the rape in the Bibighar Gardens many times over; but what will also become apparent is that additional details, sometimes minor variations in interpretation and sometimes crucial facts, are being added slowly to the events discussed, as though the window to the past were being progressively wiped cleaner and cleaner with successive strokes of Scott's pen. In this way he draws the picture of the last days of the Raj not in a conventional linear fashion, but recursively, and from multiple angles. One gets the clear impression of life in India during the first half of the 20th century as similar in nature: Fragmented, multifaceted, largely dependent upon perspective and experience and never perceived whole or all at once.

Book 2 introduces what is going to be the main storyline of the tetralogy, although the rape in the Bibighar Gardens will remain in the back of everyone's mind, and sometimes at the front, throughout. First of all there is Mohammed Ali Kasim, a respected Indian Congressman arrested by the British as a matter of course when Congress finalizes its "Quit India" resolution; and his son Ahmed, the dissolute intellectual who spends his time in one of the remaining Princely States of India. Second, the Layton family is introduced, a typical example of the British military in India. Sarah Layton, the elder of the two daughters, is exquisitely rendered and will become one of the series' most familiar and constant characters. Ronald Merrick, the police officer who victimized Hari Kumar during the Bibighar Gardens affair, slouches back into the story as the best man at Susan Layton's wedding, only to be made into an unlikely hero and martyr at the end of the novel.

Intoducing Scorpio.............2001-04-29

THE DAY OF THE SCORPION continues Paul Scott's very long story (total of 2000 pages) of the last days of British colonial rule in India. SCORPION is book 2 in the so-called Raj Quartet. These books are not about the external events per se as much as they are about the effects of these external events on the lives of several individuals, most prominently, Hari Kumar, Sarah Layton, and later in book 4 Guy Perron. In SCORPION, several new characters are introduced to the series, including members of the Layton and Kasim families.

In book 1, JEWEL IN THE CROWN, Hari Kumar was wrongfully jailed by the wicked Ronald Merrick for the rape of Daphne Manners Hari's secret love. When Daphne refused to press charges Hari was detained as a political prisoner. In JEWEL, the story of Hari's life was told from the court proceedings and other second hand accounts. JEWEL covers a period of about fifty years.

In SCORPION, Hari tells the story of his life up to 1942. A large section of this 500 page volume reads like a court proceeding since Hari shares his story with Captain Rowan, who has been ordered by the Governor to interview Kumar in prison.

Lady Manners, Daphne aunt, is a secret witness to the interview. It is Lady Manners who has persuaded the British authorities to revisit the reasons for Hari's imprisonment. During the proceedings, Hari is told Daphne is dead. "Twin rivulets gleamed on his prison cheeks, and then the image became blurred and she felt a corresponding wetness on her own..."

I think it would be extremely hard to follow this book without having first read JEWEL IN THE CROWN. A large part of SCORPION is used to elaborate and further the plot introduced in JEWEL. Dipping into SCORPION without having first read JEWEL would be like trying to watch a serial after missing a few critical episodes.

In addition, the introduction of the Laytons and the Kasims might also seem disjointed unless one knows SCORPION is not a "stand alone" novel. In spite of these limitations, SCORPION is a wonderful book, and thus I have given it 5 stars.

In SCORPION, Sarah Layton takes on the central role. Sarah is the only Layton to have had contact with Lady Manners and be concerned about the events in Mayapore. Sarah has two long exchanges with Ronald Merrick, Hari Kumar's nemesis. Sarah meets Captain Rowan Hari's liberator. Sarah is struggling with her own issues surrounding the lives of the English in India. Sarah is the one to watch. And Sarah is an Aries. Her sister Susan is the Scorpio.

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The Day of the Scorpion: A Novel (The Raj Quartet, Volume 2)

Manufacturer: William Morrow & Co.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000EHJET2

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Raj Quartet #2: the Raj Quartet, Volume 2: the Day of the Scorpion
Paul Scott
Manufacturer: University of Chicago Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000N66N7U

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