Introduction to California Chaparral (California Natural History Guides)

Book Description

The characteristic look of California Chaparral--a soft bluish-green blanket of vegetation gently covering the hills--is known to millions who have seen it as the backdrop in movies and television productions. This complex ecological community of plants and animals is not just a feature of the hills around Hollywood, but is a quintessential part of the entire California landscape. It is a highly resilient community adapted to life with recurring fires and droughts. Written for a wide audience, this concise, engaging, and beautifully illustrated book describes an ancient and exquisitely balanced environment home to wondrous organisms: Fire Beetles that mate only on burning branches, lizards that shoot blood from their eyes when threatened, Kangaroo Rats that never drink water, and seeds that germinate only after a fire, even if that means waiting in the soil for a 100 years or more. Useful both as a field guide and an introductory overview of the ecology of chaparral, it also provides a better understanding of how we might live in harmony, safety, and appreciation of this unique ecological community.

Identifies chaparral's common plants, animals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, and insects

Features 79 color illustrations, 56 black-and-white photographs, and 3 maps

Examines the role of humans and fire in chaparral, covering the placement and design of homes, landscaping, and public policy

Customer Reviews:

Excellent.......2007-09-14

Very good introduction to the chaparral communities of California. Through and an enjoyable read.

Customer Reviews:

Comprehensive, but more information please!.......2007-03-30

The organisation of the book is logical, based on inflorescence types, making it easy to jump to the appropriate section. My main issue with the book is the inconsistency in detail between species, e.g. for one species there will be plenty of description of the leaves and for the next species no mention of leaves at all! This makes for difficult comparisons when trying to decide between two species. Still, from what I've been told by South Africans, this is the most comprehensive guide out there. Even with my completely novice skills (regarding grasses AND the region), I was quite comfortable using this book and confidently indentifying a number of grass species or genuses.

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Terrific Book!

Black Hawk, Frontier Warrior
Joanne Oppenheim
Manufacturer: Troll Communications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Ages 9-12 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0893751472

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Terrific Book!.......2004-07-06

Great book about an unknown Native American leader (at least by me) and a not widely known Native People, the Sauks and the Fox. I highly recommend it because this is a story about a Native American people that is not often told about. We usually concentrate on the Plains people. The time period for this book is the Revolutionary War to about 1830.

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BLACK HAWK, FRONTIER WARRIOR
Joanne Oppenheim
Manufacturer: Troll Associates
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000RB63YE

Book Description

Many of the processes influencing recruitment to an adult fish population or entry into a fishery occur very early in life. The variations in life histories and behaviours of young fish and the selective processes operating on this variation ultimately determine the identities and abundance of survivors.
This important volume brings together contributions from many of the world's leading researchers from the field of fish ecology. The book focuses on three major themes of pressing importance in the analysis of the role that the early life history of fishes plays in the number and quality of recruits: the selective processes at play in their early life history; the contributions of early life history to the understanding of recruitment.

Book Description

A quick reference for information on chemicals of environmental importance, this dictionary has been carefully compiled and designed to make it useful for students. About 600 substances are covered in alphabetically arranged entries: these include some 70 pesticides. Entries vary in detail depending on individual aspects, but in general they include: composition/structure; physical propertied; sources; environmentally relevant reactions and pathways; detection; and toxic effects and regulatory limits. Many entries include short case histories. Immediately relevant sources are quoted for individual entries and a bibliography of principle publications and texts for further reading is included.

Book Description

This book focuses on the theory and applications of discrete-time two-time-scale Markov chains. Much effort in this book is devoted to designing system models arising from these applications, analyzing them via analytic and probabilistic techniques, and developing feasible computational algorithms so as to reduce the inherent complexity. This book presents results including asymptotic expansions of probability vectors, structural properties of occupation measures, exponential bounds, aggregation and decomposition and associated limit processes, and interface of discrete-time and continuous-time systems. One of the salient features is that it contains a diverse range of applications on filtering, estimation, control, optimization, and Markov decision processes, and financial engineering. This book will be an important reference for researchers in the areas of applied probability, control theory, operations research, as well as for practitioners who use optimization techniques. Part of the book can also be used in a graduate course of applied probability, stochastic processes, and applications.

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Wilkie Does It Again - Great Story with a Great Villian

A psychologial study, intrigue and suspense, love over evil

Psychological Experiment Disguised as Elegant Suspense Thriller

A Spectacular Suspense Thriller - Collins At His Best!!

Better than The Moonstone

Armadale (Penguin Classics)
Wilkie Collins , and John Sutherland
Manufacturer: Penguin Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

19th Century | British | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Collins, Wilkie | Classics | British | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Collins, Wilkie | ( C ) | Authors, A-Z | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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Man and Wife (Oxford World's Classics)

ASIN: 0140434119

Book Description

Allan Armadale's deathbed confession to the murder went to his executors -- intended for his son his young son, to be delivered when the boy came of age. It included a warning never to contact people connected with the confession. . . .

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Can a dream foretell the future? That is one of the central questions of Armadale, one of Wilkie Collins' lesser-known novels. But even though it is not as famous as The Woman in White or The Moonstone, it is still written with the psychological awareness and piercing character studies of the best of Collins' work.

Customer Reviews:

Wilkie Does It Again - Great Story with a Great Villian.......2006-10-08

This is my seventh book by Wilkie Collins. He has not yet let me down and certainly did not let me down with this one.

This is considered one of his big 4 along with No Name, The Woman in White and The Moonstone. This is also the 4th of these 4 that I have read. If you have not read any of Wilkie's books, then start with these 4; they are all very very good books. It is difficult for me to rank these 4 books in the order in which I like them best. However, of all of them, The Moonstone is still my favorite but the other 3 run neck and neck and I have no favorite among the other three. If you have read The Moonstone and/or The Women in White, don't stop there. Read this book and No Name; you will enjoy them.

This book is a little confusing in the beginning since there are so many characters with the name of Alan Armadale. However, by the 3rd or 4th chapter it is no longer confusing. This is a very suspensful book right to the very end.

The main characters are Alan Armadale, Ozias Midwinter and Lydia Gwilt. There is little question that Alan is scatterbrained and that he would not get along without Midwinter. I did not care for Alan but I came to feel for Midwinter. I also very much enjoyed Lydia. She is a villian that compares to the best villian of the age. She uses her good looks and brains to get what she wants. She has a heart of stone but it is not 100% stone. She has a weakness and it does show through in the end. I will not give away the ending but I was kept in suspense until the very end of the story.

If you enjoy classic literature or have enjoyed Wilkie Collins before, you need to read this book. It is very good and will keep your interest up to the end. The book I read was 676 pages and I read it in just two weeks. Again, read this book; it will not disappoint you.

A psychologial study, intrigue and suspense, love over evil.......2006-09-17

This is my second reading of Armadale and I enjoyed it no less, although it is a chilling expose of the mind of murder. The diary, a tool that personifies evil and temptation digs into murderous passions intertwined by the hope of true love. Just when it looked like love will win out, boredom, neglect, common jealousy, and fear of exposure fans the flames of Hell and uncovers the evil within. The book is not without humor in its caricatures of the gullible fool, the peevish young lady, both of whom were made for each other, so lacking in social graces and oblivious to the feelings of those around them. It was hard to feel sympathetic to these intended victims, so buffoonish and self-centered they are. The one character that fully evokes your sympathy is Mr. Midwinter, who is fated to atone for the sin of his father. He is smart, sensitive, over-wrought at times, suspicious, street-smart, and suffering. Other memorable characters, Brock, the Milroys, Pedgifts, Oldershaw, and especially the bashful Bashwood and the evil Dr. Downward complete this complicated story of intrigue, espionage, coupled with brotherly love and redemption.

Psychological Experiment Disguised as Elegant Suspense Thriller.......2006-06-03

The back of the Penguin edition labels this book as a "sensation novel", serialized stories that were a main form of entertainment in the 19th century. I mention this because reading Armadale feels like you are watching an amazing season of a great soap--albeit this requires much more intelligence than an OC DVD.

"Armadale" starts off with the death of a an affluent man named Allan Armadale, who leaves a horrible secret to tell. I knew this would be a good novel when, unlike many other period novels, the secret still feels shocking. Too many "masterpieces" trump up such huge secrets and you're let down when it turns out to be a minor infidelity or fraud that a modern reader cannot relate to. Anyway, this secret stimulates double identities, lies, extortion, blackmail and--wait for it--murder! The plot takes more twists and turns than a Coney Island rollercoaster, but it never becomes hard to follow. This novel could justifiably be qualified as "convoluted" but it's never incoherent.

But the real reason I recommend this novel is Lydia Gwilt. She's an excellent villainess, making the average film noir femme fatale come off like June Cleaver. But the genius of this novel is how Collins plays with our consciences. Yes as moral readers we want good to triumph over evil. Or do we? One of the heroes comes off as such a moron (you'll know who when you read) that you so just want him to feel pain. After 200 pages of him fopping around, it becomes almost unbearable to read this dribble. Enter Lydia Gwilt to shake things up. LAter on in the book, Gwilt begins fighting with her conscience. While reading these portions, I was frustrated because I really wanted her to be the ultimate ice queen. In retrospect, those sections are excellent mind games that make you decide if you want Gwilt to stand for good or evil.

I completely understand why this book was reviled upon its release: Who wants to relate to the vile Ms. Gwilt? Modern readers should love "Armadale" for the very reasons 19th century readers hated it.

Is this book perfect? Hardly. Midwinter, a main character, comes off as flakey as he has whole solliloquies where he worries about fate and how it could hurt his friends. Lighten up!! Plus, the ending is way too optimistic and seems out of place with the novel. But these are minor qualms. I could go on and on about the fully-realized characters, the elaborate set-pieces and the delightfully witty dialogue (especially when Gwilt starts talking). Clocking in at over 650 pages, it's a long book. But stick with it. By page 200, you'll be thankful that you have so much more to go.

A Spectacular Suspense Thriller - Collins At His Best!!.......2005-09-12

Wilkie Collins' suspense thriller "Armadale" contains no less than four main characters, named Allen Armadale - two fathers, each with a single son and heir. Only one Allen Armadale, however, is the rightful owner of the estate, Thorpe-Ambrose, plus a fortune in pounds sterling, and title to land and wealth in Barbados, West Indies. Although the plot sounds convoluted, if only by containing so many characters of the same name, I have to say this is compelling reading at its best, and the narrative is extremely understandable and well paced. The author is a master storyteller.

Allen Armadale, (let's call him #2), makes a death bed confession in 1832, at the Swiss health resort of Wildbad. The only English speaker available to document the dying man's final words is a Scot, Mr. Neal. This shocking written disclosure is then mailed to Armadale's executors to be given to his infant son, (Allen Armadale #3), when he comes of age.

Armadale, (#2), nee Wrentmore, was born in Barbados and upon turning twenty-one he received a surprise inheritance from his godfather, a Mr. Armadale, of Thorpe-Ambrose in Norfolk, England. The young man would become the owner of his godfather's considerable Barbadian estate on the condition that he change his name to match that of his benefactor. It was thus that Allen Wrentmore became Allen Armadale, the largest proprietor and wealthiest man on Barbados. The elder Armadale had just disinherited his own profligate son, Allen Armadale #1. The infamous son, going by the pseudonym Fergus Ingleby, turns up in Barbados shortly thereafter and befriends his distant cousin, the newest addition to the Armadale line. The consequences of this relationship are dire.

Years later, another pair of Armadale men (#3 and #4), both in their early twenties, meet and become the best of friends. Although each has been warned never to come into contact with the other, there is, initially, no way for them to recognize each other's true identities. As with their forefathers, a generation before, a pseudonym is involved here. Unlike their fathers, however, both are totally innocent of malicious intent.

All four Allen Armadales are connected by the most enigmatic, fascinating villainess that I know of in literature, Lydia Gwilt - although her name leaves much to be desired aesthetically. Miss Gwilt, perhaps fiction's first femme fatale, is a beautiful, sensual, flame-haired temptress. She is also a bigamist, dope addict, forger, and murderess....at the very least, and probably the book's most intelligent personage. Her intrigues drive the plot of this gripping drama: a tale of murder, espionage, counter-espionage, criminal fraud, adultery, inescapable destiny, romantic rivalries, confused identities, innumerable secrets and lies. Also included in the storyline is a chilling portrait of an abortionist with a bizarre clinic, which he utilizes with lethal intent. Amazingly, Mr Collins' book was published in 1866...and we complain about too much crime and violence in today's entertainment! A book reviewer of the period wrote of Lydia Gwilt in the "The Athenaeum," (1866), "One of the most hardened female villains whose devices and desires have ever blackened fiction." I find that none of Collins' characters are all good or all bad, though, and Miss Gwilt certainly earned my sympathy on more than one occasion. The author's three dimensional characters are just one of the many reasons "Armadale" is such an addictive read.

Collins controls complex plots and subplots with seeming ease. He focuses on the question of fate as opposed to free will. Are our destinies predetermined or can they be altered? One of the main characters fights relentlessly against what he is convinced is his fate. At other times, he seems reconciled to it. The novel also introduces the first private detective that I know of in fiction, in the person of Mr. Bashwood - certainly no model for Sherlock Holmes, Sam Spade or Mike Hammer.

Wilkie Collins was a close friend of Charles Dickens, and they both serialized their popular fiction, called 'sensation novels' by many. The nineteenth-century Victorian serial novel allowed authors to make a single story last for years, like today's most popular soap operas. This type of fiction was much more topical, and targeted a wider audience than our soaps, however. The history of the serial gives an understanding of how important writers like Charles Dickens and Wilkie Collins were to serial publication and how important serial publication was to nineteenth-century readers. Other popular episode writers of the time were Alexander Dumas, Anthony Trollope, George Eliot, William M. Thackeray, etc.. Wilkie Collins, called master of the cliff-hanger is famously quoted for saying: "Make 'em cry, make 'em laugh, make 'em wait - exactly in that order."

A recently discovered interview with Wilkie Collins reveals that "Armadale" was his own favorite among his works. I have read both "The Woman in White" and "The Moonstone" and found them to be exceptional, really great reads. "Armadale" may be the best of the three. I was absolutely riveted. Highly recommended!
JANA

Better than The Moonstone.......2003-06-18

This book by Collins was an unexpected masterpiece. It was better than The Moonstone. I recommend that everyone who is interested in Collins or Victorian sensational novels this is a good read.

Armadale (Classic Books on Cassettes Collection)[UNABRIDGED]

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Armadale (Classic Books on Cassettes Collection)[UNABRIDGED]
Wilkie Collins
Manufacturer: Audio Book Contractors, Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette

General | Books on Cassette | Audiobooks | Formats | Books

Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Romance | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
ASIN: 1556858868
Release Date: 2006-10-01

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Armadale Volume I of III (Large Print)
Wilkie Collins
Manufacturer: ReadHowYouWant.com
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Thrillers | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

Font Size 16 Bold | Alternative Formats | Formats | Books
ASIN: 1425057330
Release Date: 2007-01-01

Book Description

A thrilling narrative involving fraud, romantic jealousy and attempted murder. The chilling description of an abortionist with a bizarre clinic is unforgettable. Collins skilfully weaves a complex plot and presents several characters with the same name of Alan Armadale. It is a marvellous and amusing book that is guaranteed to keep you interested till the end.

Armadale Volume I of III [EasyRead Comfort Edition]

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Armadale Volume I of III [EasyRead Comfort Edition]
Wilkie Collins
Manufacturer: ReadHowYouWant.com
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1425059155
Release Date: 2007-01-01

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Armadale Volume I of III [EasyRead Edition]

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Armadale Volume I of III [EasyRead Edition]
Wilkie Collins
Manufacturer: ReadHowYouWant.com
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1425058248
Release Date: 2007-01-01

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Armadale Volume II of III (Large Print)
Wilkie Collins
Manufacturer: ReadHowYouWant.com
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Font Size 16 Bold | Alternative Formats | Formats | Books
ASIN: 1425057926
Release Date: 2007-01-01

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Armadale Volume II of III [EasyRead Comfort Edition]

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Armadale Volume II of III [EasyRead Comfort Edition]
Wilkie Collins
Manufacturer: ReadHowYouWant.com
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Font Size 13 | Alternative Formats | Formats | Books
ASIN: 1425059740
Release Date: 2007-01-01

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Armadale Volume II of III [EasyRead Edition]

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Armadale Volume II of III [EasyRead Edition]
Wilkie Collins
Manufacturer: ReadHowYouWant.com
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1425058833
Release Date: 2007-01-01

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Armadale Volume III of III (Large Print)

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Armadale Volume III of III (Large Print)
Wilkie Collins
Manufacturer: ReadHowYouWant.com
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Font Size 16 Bold | Alternative Formats | Formats | Books
ASIN: 1425057934
Release Date: 2007-01-01

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Armadale Volume III of III [EasyRead Comfort Edition]

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Armadale Volume III of III [EasyRead Comfort Edition]
Wilkie Collins
Manufacturer: ReadHowYouWant.com
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Thrillers | Mystery & Thrillers | Subjects | Books

Font Size 13 | Alternative Formats | Formats | Books
ASIN: 1425059759
Release Date: 2007-01-01

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