Signs Along the River: Learning to Read the Natural Landscape

Book Description

Helps a child or guiding adult to understand and enjoy some of the sights and sounds in the natural world around us. Ages 3 and up.

Book Description

Patagonia is a strange and terrifying place, a vast tract of land shared by Argentina and Chile where the violent weather spawned over the southern Pacific charges through the Andes with gale-force winds, roaring clouds, and stinging snow. Squarely athwart the latitudes known to sailors as the roaring forties and furious fifties, Patagonia is a land trapped between angry torrents of sea and sky, a place that has fascinated explorers and writers for centuries. Magellan discovered the strait that bears his name during the first circumnavigation. Charles Darwin traveled Patagonia's windy steppes and explored the fjords of Tierra del Fuego during the voyage of the Beagle. From the novel perspective of the cockpit, Antoine de Saint-Exupry immortalized the Andes in Wind, Sand, and Stars, and a half century later, Bruce Chatwin's In Patagonia earned a permanent place among the great works of travel literature. Yet even today, the Patagonian Andes remain mysterious and remote, a place where horrible storms and ruthless landscapes discourage all but the most devoted pilgrims from paying tribute to the daunting and dangerous peaks.

Gregory Crouch is one such pilgrim. In seven expeditions to this windswept edge of the Southern Hemisphere, he has braved weather, gravity, fear, and doubt to try himself in the alpine crucible of Patagonia. Crouch has had several notable successes, including the first winter ascent of the legendary Cerro Torre's West Face, to go along with his many spectacular failures. In language both stirring and lyrical, he evokes the perils of every handhold, perils that illustrate the crucial balance between physical danger and mental agility that allows for the most important part of any climb, which is not reaching the summit, but getting down alive.

Crouch reveals the flip side of cutting-edge alpinism: the stunning variety of menial labor one must often perform to afford the next expedition. From building sewer systems during a bitter Colorado winter to washing the plastic balls in McDonalds' playgrounds, Crouch's dedication to the alpine craft has seen him through as many low moments as high summits. He recounts, too, the riotous celebrations of successful climbs, the numbing boredom of forced encampments, and the quiet pride that comes from knowing that one has performed well and bravely, even in failure. Included are more than two dozen color photographs that capture the many moods of this land, from the sublime beauty of the mountains at sunrise to the unrelenting fury of its storms.

Enduring Patagonia is a breathtaking odyssey through one of the worldís last wild places, a land that requires great sacrifice but offers great rewards to those who dare to challenge it.

Download Description

Enduring Patagonia, with its exhilarating yet poetic voice and extraordinary color photos, chronicles one man's obsession with the wind-swept mountains and steppes of this strange part of the world made famous by Magellan and Darwin.

Customer Reviews:

You'll feel the bite of the cold and feel like you're a part of the trip!.......2007-01-22

Truly a book you can't put down. Greg has a tremendous ability to make you feel like he's with you in a fire lit hut telling only you the story while you're both kicking back a cold beer. This book bridges the gap between the romanticized view of mountaineering and the extraordinary effort and tough decisions it takes on a summit attempt. You'll laugh your self silly and feel the sting of the cold while pinned to a granite wall as Greg leads you through his experience.

Extremely well written and a book you will not want to put down.

Some of the best adventure writing I have read.......2006-08-21

Crouch does an excellent job of bringing the reader into the obsessive world of hard core mountaineers. His writing is exciting , crisp, and vivid. You feel his enthusiasm for his sport and can understand the sacrifices people like him make to climb the world's most challenging peaks. Anyone with an interest in adventure travel or outdoor sports will enjoy this book.

Great storyteller.......2005-05-18

It's always good to read a mountaineering book that goes beyond the travelogue or that recites only overcoming the hardships. Gregory Crouch shows he has a knack for storytelling and a literary skill which makes this an enjoyable read. While the latter part of the story lacks the precission and insight of the first part, the narrative style still makes me hope this is not his only book.
As an aging mountaineer of far less skill and experience as Crouch, I found Crouch speaks to the inner psyche of those who find themselves obsessed by the affliction for high places.

Well, He Aint Krakauer.......2003-10-21

I read this book while stranded in an hosteria during a storm in Patagonia. How much more perfect can the situation be? I totally appreciate the passion Crouch conjures, but you can only hear the same old cliches so many times before you realize the author doesn't have anything else to offer. Yes, he loves climbing. Bravo. A lot of people love climbing, and a lot of people sacrifice a comfy job and home in order to satisfy that addiction. Crouch is trying to pave his climbing with a book that just doesn't quite measure up. He has some lovely passages, but if I were reading them from my apartment in Seattle rather than the aforementioned atmospheric perch in Chalten, Argentina, they wouldn't mean anything. That's the true measure of the book. Read it if you're an alpine junkie (or trapped by the Patagonian winds in Chalten), but otherwise, don't bother.

Absolutely Fantastic - Beautiful.......2003-01-15

If you climb and have a deep-rooted passion for the emotions that climbing stirs in you then I would highly recommend this book. You don't have to be on the cutting edge of climbing to understand in your heart what Crouch talks about in Enduring Patagonia. Empathy, focus, inner-demons, harmony, determination, pain, self-realization and the laurels of success are the streams of conscious thought that are conveyed so beautifully in Crouch's book. If you climb you know that all these feeling come out in great strength throughout almost every climb. I've never been able to put into words all the emotions and the reason for ones passion of climbing but Crouch's book does a stellar job of wording our obsession with the sport and lifestyle.

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Enduring Patagonia
Crouch Gregory
Manufacturer: Random House
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000UF4UOW

Customer Reviews:

Fun to read........2003-01-20

This book was about a kid named John, and he was a spy for General Washington. I liked this book because the pictures were cool. They were very colorful. I learned some things about the Revolutionary War from reading this book. I learned that buttons could be used to carry secret messages, and that British soldiers hung American spies. I thought that John was really brave. This book makes me want to learn more about the Revolutionary War. I am 8 years old and in 3rd Grade, and this book was easy for me to read.

Great spy story.......2000-04-11

This easy to read book is great for the 1-3 grader who is studying the Revolutionary War. A family acts as spies for the patriots by smuggling messages. The mother places the messages inside her sons buttons and sews them onto his coat. The young boy then takes them to his brother who is stationed with General Washington. Plenty of colorful illustrations and enough suspense to keep you on the edge of your seat.

Amalia Amaki: Boxes, Buttons, And the Blues

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Amalia Amaki: Boxes, Buttons, And the Blues
Andrea D. Barnwell , Gloria Wade Gayles , and Leslie King-Hammond
Manufacturer: National Museum of Women in the Arts
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Museums & Collections | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Mixed Media | Other Media | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Artists, A-Z | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Betye Saar: Extending the Frozen Moment

ASIN: 0295985410

Book Description

For more than three decades, Amalia Amaki has garnered critical acclaim for works that examine the beauty, music, experience, and contributions of African Americans. This volume brings together her photographs, quilts, souvenir fans, and mixed-media works. Incorporating fabric, beads, pearls, buttons, paint, glitter, and photographs with cultural symbols and visual puns, Amaki challenges and reconfigures American history in original and meaningful ways. Her artwork examines the breadth and overarching significance of heritage and American culture. This book focuses on the legacies of race and gender in the United States, contests one-dimensional ideas about black life, and debunks mainstream beliefs about African Americans.

Book Description

"Once let a black man get upon his person the brass letters 'US,' let him get an eagle on his button and a musket on his shoulder and bullets in his pockets and there is no power on earth which can deny that he had earned the right to citizenship in the United States."-Frederick Douglas

A fascinating examination of the Fifth Regiment of Infantry, United States Colored Troops-the Union Army's first black regiment from Ohio. Although the Fifth USCT was one of more than 150 regiments of black troops making up more than 10 percent of the Union Army at the end of the war, it was unique. The men serving in the Fifth USCT were freemen who were raised in a northern state and saw serving in the army both as a way to gain equal rights under the law and as an opportunity to prove their worth as men.

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Buttons for General Washington (On My Own Biographies (Paperback))

Manufacturer: Lerner Classroom
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0822544245

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A historical duel;: A letter written by Brigadier General Lachlan McIntosh to Colonel John Laurence, military secretary to General Washington, three days ... the authentic story of the historical duel,
Lachlan McIntosh
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

United States | Americas | History | Subjects | Books | 19th Century | 20th Century | 21st Century | African Americans | Civil War | Colonial Period | General | Revolution & Founding | State & Local
ASIN: B00087FMIA

Book Description

Statistical analysis allows us to attach meaning to data which we have collected; it helps us to understand what results really mean, and to assess whether we can trust what experiments seem to be telling us. Yet, despite being a collection of the most valuable and important tools available to bioscientists, statistics is the aspect of study which most students fear more than any other. Biomeasurement offers a refreshing, student-focused introduction to the use of statistics in the study of the biosciences. With an emphasis on why statistical techniques are essential tools for bioscientists, the book removes the stigma attached to statistics by giving students the confidence to use and further explore the key techniques for themselves. The book starts by placing the role of data analysis in the context of wider scientific method, and introduces the student to the key terms and concepts which are common to all statistical tools. It then guides the student through descriptive statistics, and on to inferential statistics, explaining how and why each type of technique is used, and what each can tell us in order to better understand our data. The book goes on to present nine key statistical tests, walking the student step-wise through the use of each, with carefully integrated examples, and plentiful opportunities for hands-on practice. Finally, an overview of choosing the right test to suit your data, and tools for presenting data and their statistical analyses, is given. Whatever their preconceptions regarding statistics, Biomeasurement will be sure to engage even the most wary of students, demonstrating the power and importance of statistics throughout the study of bioscience. Online Resource Centre Features a range of interactive resources, using both Excel and SPSS, to encourage students to familiarise themselves with, and build confidence in the use of, a range of statistical tests including copies of the primary literature articles cited in the text to give students immediate free access to this material

Book Description

This core text is a self-contained course in statistics, covering both the general linear model (including regression and analysis of variance) and the generalized linear model. The authors review the prerequisite methods and ideas in a concise and clear way, and the material is application-oriented, with the software package GENSTAT for Windows integrated into the text.The basics of GENSTAT are introduced, then used in conjunction with a review of simple linear regression, moving on to more sophisticated analyses, such as multiple linear regression, analysis of variance, logistic regression and loglinear modelling. The final chapter consists of four data analysis case studies using techniques drawn from the whole of the book.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent text on generalized linear models with software.......2000-06-13

The text is intended to be a self-contained course in applied statistics at the undergraduate (senior) level. It is intended as a second course in statistics and covers the standard general linear model and also the generalized linear model. The software package GENSTAT for Windows Version 5 Release 4.1, a product of a company in Great Britain is used throughout to teach the techniques and provide examples and case studies. The authors write very well and include chapters with the necessary prerequisites to make the course self-contained. A one-month trial copy of the software is available from the software company via a download from their web site. This software is very useful since all the examples use it. The book publisher provides data sets that can be downloaded from their site. The book is much more useful when you have the software and the examples on your computer and can try them out as you follow through the text. The course material is covered in the first 12 chapter and then the material is integrated in the 4 case studies in Chapter 13. There is a postscript chapter which covers extensions of the methodology that is particularly interesting to research statisticians.

This is an excellent applied statistics text for undergraduate statistics majors at the senior level or masters or Ph.D. level students. More details about the book can be found in the review I wrote for Technometrics that will appear sometime in the year 2000.

Book Description

With its frank sexuality and searing critique of the Church, La Regenta scandalized contemporary Spain when it was first published in 1885.

Married to the retired magistrate of Vetusta, Ana Ozores cares deeply for her much older husband but feels stifled by the monotony of her life in the shabby and conservative provincial town. When she embarks on a quest for fulfillment through religion and even adultery, a bitter struggle begins between a powerful priest and a would-be Don Juan for the passionate young woman's body and soul. Spain's answer to Madame Bovary, La Regenta wittily depicts the complacent and frivolous world of the upper class.

Customer Reviews:

True work of art.......2003-12-30

Funny, tragic, complex story about a woman and about a whole small city.
Wonderfuly written, with a trully great character, Fermin, and more than a hundred supporting roles.
Much better than Madame Bovary, or anythimg from Dickens, Zola, James.. (and much more amusing).

A marvelous classic of 19th century Spanish realism........1998-05-27

Leopoldo Alas, aka "Clarín" falls into that curious category of authors whose literary output is, though exceedingly limited, nonetheless extremely important. A prolific journalist, and author of numerous short stories, he produced only two novels, one of which, _La Regenta_ is widely recognized as perhaps the best single work of fiction of 19th century Spain.

Clarín will remain forever overshadowed by his contemporary, Galdós, -- the acnowledged master of the era -- whose _Fortunata and Jacinta_ stands as the other great 1000 page novel of the period. Yet it is arguable whether or not any single work of Galdos' conveys quite the same epic sense of grandeur and beauty as Clarin's magnum opus.

Readers who delve into Clarin's novel will find themselves immersed in the lives of numerous members of the haute burgeoisie of Vetusta, including Ana Ozores -- the Regenta from whom the novel takes its title -- her good natured husband with a romantic penchant for "honor plays" of the Spanish, golden age theater, Mesias, the man who would be lover, and Fermin, the extremely conservative priest and confessor who steadfastly defends the doctrine of Papal infallibilty and strives to save her from the temptations of Mesias even as he himself becomes seduced by her beauty. A host of secondary characters completes the rich tapestry of Vetustan social life and helps create one of most lush and engrossing novels of the epoch.

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