Tutira: The Story of a New Zealand Sheep Station (Weyerhaeuser Environmental Classics

Customer Reviews:

A classic of environmental history.......2002-07-14

This book, first published in 1921 in Britain and New Zealand, and now reissued in the United States with a generous and enthusiastic introduction by William Cronon, is certainly one of the strangest and at first sight most unpromising works of environmental history ever written. The book is basically an extraordinarily detailed account of the environmental history of a single sheep "station" (sheepfarm) on the East Coast of the North Island of New Zealand written by the lessee of the property, Herbert Guthrie-Smith. He describes in great detail the environmental transformations that he himself brought about as he cleared the forest cover from the steep hills, grassed the slopes and stocked the property with sheep. In many ways Guthrie-Smith regretted what he had to do in order to make a living.The book describes everything: clearing the land, changes in birdlife, the local geology and archaeology, the spread of noxious weeds, accelerated erosion, the complexities of exporting wool, etc etc. Guthrie-Smith was from Scotland and the book is written in an old-fashioned heavily literary style, but it is well worth persisting with. One of the most interesting aspects of the book is Guthrie-Smith's descriptions of his Maori landlords, from whom he leased his farm but who were a lot poorer than he was. One can see from his pages how the present day sheepfarming landscape of the North Island was created, and at what cost: a true classic, but for serious environmental historians only.

TUTIRA: The Story of a New Zealand Sheep Station.(Review) (book review): An article from: The Geographical Review

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TUTIRA: The Story of a New Zealand Sheep Station.(Review) (book review): An article from: The Geographical Review
Alyson L. Greiner
Manufacturer: American Geographical Society
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B00099OWJW
Release Date: 2005-07-28

Book Description

This digital document is an article from The Geographical Review, published by American Geographical Society on October 1, 1999. The length of the article is 1258 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: TUTIRA: The Story of a New Zealand Sheep Station.(Review) (book review)
Author: Alyson L. Greiner
Publication: The Geographical Review (Refereed)
Date: October 1, 1999
Publisher: American Geographical Society
Volume: 89 Issue: 4 Page: 612

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

Customer Reviews:

Great book for intermediate riders.......2001-04-11

This book has lots of interesting and easy-to-medium routes submitted by individual cyclists, including road and off-road trails. My wife and I have enjoyed the rides in this book much more than the ones in Grob's book, which are often too ambitious. We recently lost our copy on a tour, and ordered a replacement because we missed it so much! One pet peeve is that the distances are sometimes off by a few miles, making the directions a little hazy, but this only happened in a few of the rides we tried.

a good book....for begineers.......2000-02-07

I am an advanced biker, I found this book to be much more for begineers, and also, it does not give you very many tips, I have tried aalmost half the rides in this book and i found that only 25% of them were actually okay. If you are advanced, like me, i don't suggest you buy this book, if you are begineer-medium biker, i suggest you can get it.

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Best Bike Rides in Northern California
Kimberly Grob
Manufacturer: Globe Pequot
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Sports | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0762701269

Book Description

Morgan Menzie takes readers through a harrowing but ultimately hopeful and inspiring account of her eating disorder. Her amazing story is told through the journals she kept during her daily struggle with this addiction and disease. Her triumphs and tragedies all unfold together in this beautiful story of God's grace.

Features include: daily eating schedule, journal entries, prayers to God, poems, and what she wished she knew at the time. It's the true story of victory over a disease that is killing America's youth.

Customer Reviews:

Worth the read, a little too fluffed........2006-12-16

Aside from a minor time inaccuracy (within the first couple pages) the author's diary approach seemed a bit unauthentic. Perhaps I am too far removed from being so young, but even as the book moves on I wonder if I teen would really write so... young-like? Rather than wanting to cry "Eat! Eat!" by the end, I wanted to cry "Mature! Mature!" Getting past these things I did enjoy reading the book. As with many of these books she just seems to fall into her disorder, and it is obvious here.

I liked it.

Amazing........2006-05-15

Morgan Menzie's Diary of an anorexic girl is truly amazing and heartfelt. It is by far one of the best diaries that i have ever read. It goes deep into Blythes descent into Anorexia and to her recovery. I used to anorexic, so this truly touched me. Though it may be triggering to someone who is still battling an ED it is worth the Read.

Talk About Real!!!.......2006-04-22

Morgan Menzie's book was the first diary of an eating disorder I read, and is the reason why I continue to read more ED books. She unlike many ED authors talked about things other that just her eating disorder, such as relationships with friends, family and boyfriends. It's not a book that's all about anorexia but does emphasize more so than other subjects in her diary.

In her book, I believe she cover about mmm... three or four years, I really can't remember. Anyway it's a long period of time. One thing that she does that annoys the heck out of me is that she'll skip a whole month of entries but I guess that's the author's way of cutting out insignificant things.

Basically a girl named Blythe, which I think maybe be her middle name, becomes anorexic in middle school because of a friend. On of her friends begins to loose weight and Blythe decides she wants to loose to. But it goes beyond loosing weight it becomes a desire for thinness, and a fear of food.

Another thing I love about this book is Morgan keeps it so real. She said one of the- the truest thing EVER published about our human ways. It's on page 49 and is the...um... 4th paragraph I believe since the book is copy written I don't want to post it without permission. But what she says in that paragraph is so overwhelmingly true that I had to put down the book and think about my life. Although what she says is completely irrelevant to her eating disorder I couldn't write this review without reference to that paragraph.

Would I recommend it? Heck yeah! To anyone, even if you're not anorexic or never have been, even if you think the disease is stupid, anyone should get this book. Recoverees, havebeens, thinking about its and neverwillbees, get the book. You'll understand what it's like to have the disease for this one girl and may have a whole new outlook on anorexia.

Best Book Ever Written.......2006-03-31

This book was probably the best book that I ever read. I absolutely loved it. I couldn't put it down. When Blythe would be so close in getting a boyfriend and then fly off the handle it would get me worked up, and it made me want to tell her "Calm down. Do you know what you doing?" I would get happy for her when she was so close to a boyfriend and something to bring happiness into her life, and then she would do something crazy and destroy all my hopes of her being happy. I couldn't believe that Becca was so stupid and didn't realize that she wasn't getting better. I can't believe that she just believed the food charts that Blythe did, even though she hadn't gained any weight or looked any diifferent. I was like "How stupid can you be lady!" This book really gets you involed and it made me wonder how people can be anorexic, but the problem is not their eating it is caused by something else. Once you figure out that problem and get it solved it will be easier to get yourself back on track and keep you regular.

Get a bang for your buck.......2006-01-31

I bought this book as a recovering anorexic and I must say it really hit a part in me that hasnt been touched in awhile.
It really shows what anorexics go through, how triggers can become something that leads a person back into a disordered eating pattern and what can lead to recovery.
Short book, but I definatly reccomend reading it.

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Shadow of a Girl : Diary of an Anorexic
Amanda Jones & Anne Crawford
Manufacturer: Penguin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000K38EK0

Book Description

Almayer’s Folly, Joseph Conrad’s first novel, is a tale of personal tragedy as well as a broader meditation on the evils of colonialism. Set in the lush jungle of Borneo in the late 1800s, it tells of the Dutch merchant Kaspar Almayer, whose dreams of riches for his beloved daughter, Nina, collapse under the weight of his own greed and prejudice. Nadine Gordimer writes in her Introduction, “Conrad’s writing is lifelong questioning . . . What was ‘ Almayer’s Folly’? The pretentious house never lived in? His obsession with gold? His obsessive love for his daughter, whose progenitors, the Malay race, he despised? All three?” Conrad established in Almayer’s Folly the themes of betrayal, isolation, and colonialism that he would explore throughout the rest of his life and work.

Customer Reviews:

A Visually Astounding Masterwork.......2007-05-13

Almayer's Folly was Joseph Conrad's first novel. I have nothing to compare it to, as I have not read his signature work, Heart of Darkness, nor any of his other lesser known stories and novels. I came into the possession of Almayer's Folly by chance; one of my friend's mothers had taken the book from the DISCARD pile in the library and urged me to take it from her.

I'm glad that fate has brought me this book. It's the story of Almayer-- a Dutchman who has been born and raised in Colonial Indonesia. He spends his life idolizing Europe and Western ideals, scorning his homeland. Yet he never once ventures to Europe. In fact, most of his interactions with Europeans often find him the butt of their jokes. He doesn't fare much better with the Malay natives and Arab merchants--while often treated as a superior by virtue of his race, they still regard him as a fool.

Almayer has nothing but haughty contempt for the native Malay culture of Borneo. Even with his Malay wife and half-Malay daughter, he keeps a Imperialist's distance from the culture which surrounds him. Feeling no true kinship with his European heritage, and scorning the one with which he is most familiar, he's a case study in the pathologies which arise from Colonialism.

Essentially, Almayer is a semi-sympathetic buffoon. His life is full of grandiose wishes and little reward. He yearns for great treasure, yet is no warrior and a mediocre businessman. He lacks the cunning and courage of many other characters--A Malay Rajah, a slave, an Arab trader, and a swashbuckling British compatriot, are just a few of the characters who outshine Almayer.

Yet, its his weaknesses which make his placement as the central character one of the most endearing aspects of the book. Because he is such a fragile, inept person, we become more comfortable with the savageness, intelligence, and verve in the other principal characters.

Almayer's undramatic life serves as the backdrop for the love story between his daughter and a handsome Balinese Prince. Her choice to eschew a comfortable European upbringing and to align herself with the romantic, savage culture of her Malay mother is the emotional keystone in the novel.

I was often astounded by Conrad's rich evocation of the setting and characters in colonial Indonesia. I'm not much for florid, lush descriptions, but Conrad sets himself above the heap of dilettantes and impostors: his ornate narrative holds together, forming a monumental, often breathtaking vision of Colonial Indonesia. The dynamic characters, expansive forests, and socio-political themes all receive the same rigorous, beautiful treatment.

One drawback is that, because Conrad's talents are so visible and easy to explain, the mystery and magic in great pieces of art is obscured in this work. Furthermore, his characters seem to vacillate unnaturally between mythical, cliched representations of themes and truly organic, dynamic beings. That being said, the novel was a thoroughly enjoyable read and I am excited to soon discover some of Conrad's more well known works.

Overblown Romance, Unsympathetic Tragedy.......2003-11-28

This book by Conrad is a love story and a tragedy. The tragedy of Nina's father, Almayer--and the love story of Dain and Nina.

But Almayer's Folly is not as great a book as Lord Jim or Nigger of the 'Narcissus,' which are among the great masterpieces of literature.

There are several problems with Conrad's novel. For one thing, Almayer is not sympathetic enough to be a tragic hero. He just comes across as a real jerk. For another, the love story of Dain and Nina is so overblown and romantic as to be almost laughable, comic, and ridiculous. The characters and settings are hard to keep straight, as are the motivations of some of the doings.

Frankly, I found it quite difficult to take any of it seriously. It may be that we are just too distant from Conrad's Borneo in time and place, but this is not a problem in some of Conrad's other novels.

This is an inferior piece of literature. (Why the three stars in that case, you ask. Conrad's writing is so skilled in detail, and the setting and some of the other details so interesting, that the novel is absorbing--and mercifully short.)

Almayer's rut.......2003-05-09

An alternative title for this novel could be Amayer's rut.
For that is the situation that the main protagonist in this novel finds himself in. Almayer is a European trader living in a
trading post somewhere in Indonesia or Malaysia with his daughter,a product of mixed marriage.
Almayer dreams of escaping to Europe after making himself wealthy and bringing his daughter with him also.
But as time drags on it becomes obvious that he is going nowhere with his life. He is not getting richer nor is he getting any younger. His own daughter ends up deserting him by eloping with a native who takes her to his own village.
Not being a pure European by blood she realizes that she would never be accepted as an equal among Europeans or the whites.
For this reason she chooses instead to live with the natives.
As for Almayer he remains as he was.
He is an example that one can find everywhere in the world.
Someone stuck in a situation going nowhere but always dreaming of getting out and changing his life.

whitebedreamin.......2003-02-15

Almayer's folly is a powerful beginning to Conrad's second profession, writing. Since the story was written so close to Conrad's adventurous youth (the spring for his most powerful works), it provides the rawest expression of Conrad's views. Almayer, the prototype of Tuan Jim, takes the "leap" when he marries the Malay captive for promised wealth. This transgression drops his character into contact with the cold truths of nature; truths which dispel any artificial illusions or meanings. For Almayer, these illusions entailed sucess and fame in Europe, a place that he had never visited but only heard about from his mother. Superficially, this journey towards inner truth involves a journey into the wilds of Borneo, but,like in future Conrad works, we quickly realize that the journey is inward into the pysche of Almayer. Overall, an excellent introduction to Conrad.

A powerful tale of the East.......2002-06-03

Loosely based on the life of a Dutch merchant, setting up a trading post along a river in the interior of Borneo, Conrad's novel 'Almayer's Folly' is actually about man's alienation from his environment and eventually himself.

Written during the heyday of western imperialism, when the great powers of Europe subjected the tropics to their rule, the tale of Almayer explores how the tropics actually devoured the individual westerner.

The main character of the book is a man obsessed. Chasing a dream, he completely loses touch with reality. Although on the surface it may seem that he is a white man gone native, Almayer hasn't got a clue what he is dealing with. He is blind to the schemings of his Malay wife and equally oblivious to the fact that his daughter is drifting away from him.

Admittedly, the book has 'orientalist' overtones but, then, Joseph Conrad is both a man of his time and a master of poweful prose, not a politically-correct scholar. The stereotypical mystique of Asia and the inscrutable oriental are exploited as a literary means to descend into the deeper levels of man's psyche. Just like the 'true heart' of Borneo and its inhabitants is hidden under layer upon layer of deceiving images, so is the core of each and every individual. The scariest place to travel is not the interior of an Indonesian Island, but the inner reaches of our own soul.

Book Description

Lush prose and penetrating psychological insight infuse Conrad's first novel with the qualities that have made him one of the most popular and most studied writers in English literature. The novel chronicles the tragic decline of a Dutch merchant isolated in 19th-century Borneo, the machinations of his bitter Malayan wife, and the loss of his much loved daughter.

Customer Reviews:

Shattered Colonial Dreams.......2006-09-02

The struggling Dutch trader Kaspar Almayer lives in a remote district of Borneo. He once held high ambitions, but is now trapped in a miserable marriage with a native Malay. Rivalries between the locals run deep, also there's strong anti-colonial sentiments in the air propogated by Dain Maroola, with whom Almayer's daughter falls in love.

Conrad's short novel explores Almayer's shattered dreams - the darker side of personal and colonial ambition. Almayer's attitudes to his wife and to the locals are riddled with racism. He loathes himself and especially his lack of resolve. There are deep resentments between the ethnic groups and towards the Dutch colonial masters who "come to us to trade, with prayers on their lips and loaded guns in their hands".

The novel thus explores many interesting themes about the true nature of nineteenth century colonialism, but is prevented from being a significant piece of fiction by the obvious plot devices and the overly melodramatic writing, especially towards the end. Nonetheless, an interesting introduction to Conrad.

G Rodgers

3 matching hardcovers by Joseph Conrad: An Outcast of the Islands, The Arrow of Gold, Almayer's Folly

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3 matching hardcovers by Joseph Conrad: An Outcast of the Islands, The Arrow of Gold, Almayer's Folly
Joseph Conrad
Manufacturer: Ernest Benn, London
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000VWAKHK

8 Volumes of 'Complete Works' : Almayer's Folly, Tales of Unrest - Lord Jim - An Outcast of the Islands : The Nigger of the Narcissue, Typhoon, Falk - Nostromo - The Sevret Agent - Under Western Eyes - Victory

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8 Volumes of 'Complete Works' : Almayer's Folly, Tales of Unrest - Lord Jim - An Outcast of the Islands : The Nigger of the Narcissue, Typhoon, Falk - Nostromo - The Sevret Agent - Under Western Eyes - Victory
Joseph Conrad
Manufacturer: Heron Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Almayer's Folly
Joseph Conrad
Manufacturer: Doubleday
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Almayer's Folly
Joseph Conrad
Manufacturer: T Fisher Unwin Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Almayer's Folly
Joseph Conrad
Manufacturer: Kessinger Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Classics | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Book Description

At last the excitement had died out in Sambir. The inhabitants got used to the sight of comings and goings between Almayer's house and the vessel, now moored to the opposite bank, and speculation as to the feverish activity displayed by Almayer's boatmen in repairing old canoes ceased to interfere with the due discharge of domestic duties by the women of the Settlement.

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Almayer's Folly

Manufacturer: Penguin (American)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback

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Almayer's Folly
Joseph Conrad
Manufacturer: Paperbackshop.Co.UK Ltd - Echo Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Literature & Fiction | Large Print | Formats | Books
ASIN: 1846372518

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Almayer's Folly
Joseph Conrad
Manufacturer: Penguin Books, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Product Description

Penguin #619

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