Unique Homes: Personalize Your Home Through Good Design

Book Description

Do our surroundings really make a difference in how we feel? In the harmony with which we conduct our daily lives? In our exploration of our personal, professional and spiritual paths? The answer, as shown in The Art of Dramatic Living: Personalizing the Home through Good Design, is a resounding "Yes!" Form, color, texture, light, proportion and material -- as well as cleanliness and order -- are powerful tools for expressing who we really are.

In these pages, Dr. Carol Soucek King visits more than thirty residences around the world in which good design echoes the identity of those who live there. A house in Israel connects an active family with their cherished land and the sea beyond. A rustic lodge/camp dwelling in Texas celebrates its owners' retreat from urban life to a setting amid oak trees, creeks and hills. In Italy, a bachelor pares down the size of his living space and number of possessions but not his full expression of his devotion to music, lyrical spaces and elegant entertaining. In Tokyo, a Japanese entrepreneur creates a background to share his interests in global business and fine art with visiting business leaders and diplomats as well as his family. A couple in Sydney, Australia, uses every aspect of their home's historic site and style as background for their thoroughly up-to-the-minute interests and worldwide travels.

Today's homeowners want to shape their house to their lifestyle, not adapt their lifestyle to the home. An individual's home is a mirror of their inner self and a person's environment affects their mind, body and spirit. This book goes beyond design to health and well-being. In these and an array of other homes, Dr. King shows how a variety of people in vastly different circumstances have realized that, in creating a home, one is creating one's own universe, and that in order to live life to its fullest, one should make the most of all the tools of good design.

Customer Reviews:

A Great Collection of Homes.......2006-07-11

The dedication of this book is: To those who understand that our home is our own personal state - our own private universe in which to express ourselves with care, imagination, and love.

This book is a book of pictures of homes from around the US and from half a dozen foreign countries. These pictures reflect no particular style, instead they reflect what the individual owner, the individual designer wanted to express as his private universe. There are some spectacular designs that give me some thoughts on the house I am planing. There are some that I find don't appeal to me at all. But that is what you expect, what you should find in a book such as this.

One thing you won't find here are inexpensive homes. These are nice houses, with industrial grade kitchens, often in spectacular settings overlooking the ocean or perhaps in a historic villa in Italy.

Book Description

Jointed dolls are an ancient concept. As a folk art in the American Appalachians and elsewhere, Dancing Sams have used the jointed idea to create a dancing motion when moved by a vibrating board for hundreds of years. When Tom Wolfe was visiting the British Museum in London, he came upon an Egyptian doll that was constructed just like the Santas in this book. The jointed Santas in this book are delightful. They can be easily posed and made to do a variety of things. And they are easily carved, following the step-by-step color photo illustrations. From the carving to the joint construction to the painting, Tom makes it easy for even the novice to carve these Santas. The more advanced carver will also enjoy the carving. In addition to the Santa carved in the book, there are patterns for 8 other jointed Santas, plus a nice sleigh for Santa to ride in. The gallery photos give perspectives on each of the carvings, an invaluable aid to the carver.

, 300 color photos, patterns, 8 1/2" x 11"

Average customer rating:

Excellent book!

Photographer's Guide to Polaroid Transfer: Step-By-Step
Christopher Grey
Manufacturer: Amherst Media
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Darkroom & Processing | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
General | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
Reference | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
General | How-to | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
Equipment | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Polaroid Transfers: A Complete Visual Guide to Creating Image and Emulsion Transfers (Practical Photography Books)

Polaroid Manipulations: A Complete Visual Guide to Creating SX-70, Transfer, and Digital Prints (Photography for All Levels: Intermediate)

Polaroid(R) 669 Color Film, Pack Of 2

Creative Photo Printmaking

Photo-Imaging: A Complete Visual Guide to Alternative Techniques and Processes (Photography for All Levels: Advanced)

ASIN: 1584280646

Product Description

Photographers and artists who want to get a more hands on experience with their photography will appreciate this book. Polaroid transfer and emulsion lift off techniques create powerful and unique works of art. The process is explained in clear, step-by-step language, accompanied by dozens of illustrations. How to transfer your image to art paper, cloth, wood, plaster and more media is just one of the highlights of this guide. Both wet and dry transfers are covered extensively. Learn unique variations to expand your repertoire. 112 pp., 125 color and b&w illus.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent book!.......2007-08-14

Christopher Grey's polaroid transfer instructions are so helpful in that they provide not only text but photographs illustrating each concept. I highly recommend this book for beginners like myself. Further, his book also provides room to grow into the next step in the transfer process. I have found his book to be the most helpful one available outlining polaroid art.

Photographer's Guide to Polaroid Transfer

Average customer rating:

The "what if I...." technique!
Nicely complements Kathleen Thormod Carr's book
For one time complete means complete

Photographer's Guide to Polaroid Transfer
Christopher Grey
Manufacturer: Amherst Media
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Darkroom & Processing | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Equipment | Photography | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Graphic Design | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0936262893

Customer Reviews:

The "what if I...." technique!.......2001-11-20

Some Classmates and I took a polaroid transfer community ed class for two nights recently. I learned more from this book than what the professional photographer instructor presented those nights. The instructor was limited to what you could do with polaroid transfer.
Chris Grey was my photo instructor for a year and the best thing he could have taught me is: What would happen if i tried this...
and really you may have nothing to loose. I give this instructional ease to follow book a 5 star.

Nicely complements Kathleen Thormod Carr's book.......2001-07-29

While I consider Kathleen Thormod Carr's book "Polaroid Transfers" to be the definitive book on the subject (thanks to its excellent combination of instruction and beautiful examples), practitioners of Polaroid transfers should definitely have a look at this book too, for completeness of information.

Grey covers a few things Carr doesn't. Most notably, in his section on image transfers, he takes a detailed look at the amount of time you can wait before pulling the negative to transfer it to your final receiver paper. Most people say 10-15 seconds, but Grey shows examples of 5 to 60 seconds and how it affects the finished product. He also has information about using Polaroid color films other than type 669 to do transfer effects, something that's been rather slight from other sources.

If you only buy one book on the subject, I would still have to recommend Carr's. (You'll see many highly favorable reviews for it on this site.) But if you want the most complete information, get this one too.

For one time complete means complete.......2000-04-03

In this book I found everything I was needing to know. From simple ideas to more complex procedures. Now all the posibilities of polaroid photo shoting are at my reach. But I still take lousy pictures.

Average customer rating:
Empowering You to Help: Resources for Faith-Based Non-Profits : Connecting You to Your Community
Jenai Morehead , and Jeffery C. Morehead
Manufacturer: iUniverse
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Consulting | Industries & Professions | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Nonprofit Organizations & Charities | Industries & Professions | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Writing | Reference | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
Church Institutions & Organizations | Ministry & Church Leadership | Christianity | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Willpower's Not Enough: Recovering from Addictions of Every Kind

Rest in the Storm: Self-Care Strategies for Clergy and Other Caregivers

Church Conflict: The Hidden System Behind the Fights (Effective Church)

ASIN: 0595276873

Book Description

This book is a guide to getting your faith-based program from the dream stage to a working community program. Take advantage of the professional experience of grant writers Jeff and Jenai MoreheadÂ's years of experience in developing neighborhood and economic development programs. Discover how the federal grants process works. Find out how your church and faith based organization can work together. Discover the inside of grants contracts and what you have to do after you sign the contract to keep your grant funds flowing. Learn how to deal with your critics. Find out how long it will take to get your money and study our grant writing suggestions for winning grants!

The personal testimonies in this book are inspiring and encouraging to the faith community that understands the unique call to operate outside of the four walls of the religious institution and into the neighborhoods where the heart of the community is.

Book Description

Real estate finance has changed dramatically in the last decade. The growth of securitisation, a seemingly infinite variety of derivative products, the deregulation of financial markets and the resurgence of REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts) have brought dramatic changes to the tools and structures used to finance commercial real estate. Acker describes modern and traditional approaches to structuring real estate finance to accommodate today's ownership structures and the trend towards partnerships and participations between developers, investors and financiers. Tools, techniques, cases and commentaries are included to illustrate the situations, problems and solutions facing financiers. There is also a section devoted to credit analysis and risk assessment plus divergent approaches to EBITDA and Free Cash Flow.

Customer Reviews:

state of the art.......2003-11-02

Una explicacion completa y detallada, tanto de los principales farmacos homeopaticos, como de la aplicion de ellos para tratar las dolencias mas comunes. Formas de diagnostico y descricion de las personalidades asociadas a los principales remedios (policrestos) hacen de esta obra algo de inapreciable valor para aquellos que comienzan a hacer un estudio serio de la homeopatia.

Average customer rating:
Armored Warfare: An Annotated Edition of Lectures on F. S. R. III (Operations between Mechanized Forces)
John Frederick Charles Fuller
Manufacturer: Greenwood Press Reprint
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Military | History | Subjects | Books
Strategy | Military | History | Subjects | Books
Military Science | History | Subjects | Books
All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
ASIN: 0313240671

Average customer rating:
Armored Warfare: An Annotated Edition of Lectures on F. S. R. III (Operations Between Mechanized Forces)
Aletha B. Fuller
Manufacturer: The Military Service Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000K2OQTO

Average customer rating:
Armored warfare: An annotated edition of Lectures on F.S.R. III. (Operations between mechanized forces)

Manufacturer: Military Service Pub. Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000GKRX0E

Amazon.com

The 1945 Allied victory in Europe ended the military and political might of the Third Reich, but its financial power lives on in the secret vaults and numbered accounts of Swiss banks. In Nazi Gold, author Tom Bower uncovers the sordid lengths to which Swiss bankers went after the war to protect the plundered wealth hidden in their coffers. Switzerland's excuse for even accepting Nazi gold is a plausible one: in order to maintain their status as a neutral country, they were forced to deal equally with all sides. This does not, however, explain their postwar reluctance to return hundreds of millions of dollars of stolen wealth to central European banks or even to Holocaust victims as a means of restitution.

In this well-researched book, Tom Bower revisits the years following the war's end, focusing on the unholy alliance between Swiss bankers and Nazi sympathizers. He leaves no doubt as to the bankers' motives for maintaining secrecy: they were setting a precedent for potential customers in need of safe refuge for other looted fortunes. Finally, he chronicles the United States' overwhelmingly ineffective attempts to force the Swiss to disgorge the Nazi millions. Nazi Gold is certain to raise the hackles of the Swiss banking industry, but Tom Bower has bravely tackled a complicated topic.

Book Description

Praise for Nazi Gold

"A compelling book on one of the greatest robberies of all time."
--Rabbi Marvin Heir, dean, Simon Wesenthal Center

"Nazi Gold [is] a compelling, outraged, carefully researched book. . . Tom Bower, one of the finest investigative journalists in the English-speaking world over the past generation. . .is the ideal chronicler for this story. Over the past 20 years he has built up a track record second to none in documenting crimes and conspiracies that the Nazis and their collaborators were able to cover up or escape from in the decades after 1945. . .Riveting, outstanding."
--Martin Sieff, Washington Times

"Nazi Gold is an important book that uncovers much new material."
--Saul Friendlunder, author of Nazi Germany and the Jews

"Compelling reading."
--Chicago Jewish Star

"[A] sensational expose. . .Impressively revealing."
--Dade Jewish Star

Some Revelations form Nazi Gold

In 1942 thousands of Jewish refugees fleeing a Nazi roundup of Jews in occupied France crossed the border into Switzerland seeking asylum but where forcibly pushed back to the waiting Gestapo by the Swiss police. Virtually all of them were immediately shipped to concentration camps.
During the war thousands of Swiss willingly worked undercover for the German secret service and the Nazis.
The Swiss accepted for deposit without question gold bullion looted by German from the treasuries of Austria, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Denmark, and Holland'countries they had conquered. The Swedes and the Portuguese, also neutrals, refused to accept the looted gold.

Customer Reviews:

Great beginning but tedious reading afterwards.......2004-04-12

I really hate to criticize another man's work, but when buying a book is involved, the reader should know what he's getting into before he invests his time & money in it. That being said, I think Mr. Bower put a lot of time and effort into this book, and it shows with the numerous first-rate sources he quotes from. Unfortunately, the story itself could have been presented in a more user-friendly manner. I found the first 100-150 pages fascinating--I had no idea how sympathetic the Swiss were with the Nazis and how they turned their backs on the Nazis' victims. What was even more appaling was the Swiss behavior after the war: refusing to give back the looted money, heirless assets or even acknowledge they did anything wrong. But the 50 years between the war's end and the book's end could be summed up in one sentence: people asked the Swiss to right their wartime wrongs and the Swiss refused. Maybe it's because I never cared for legal dramas but it just seemed like he went on and on, page after page of American accusations and Swiss denials. It made the book a difficult read and not something I looked forward to opening again. At the same time it is a little biased--it is told primarily from the "crusaders'" point of view. Very rarely does he flesh out Switzerland's position or make enough distinction that this was mostly a crime of the Swiss Bankers and not the Swiss Government or the citizens themselves. Even so, it is difficult to have any pity for the Swiss after reading this, and you will cringe anytime you hear the words "Swiss neutrality." The Swiss were hardly neutral in the war. However, the book did have one positive side--by the time you get to the last chapter you are so frustrated that you are genuinely mad at the Swiss and feel a personal sense of justice when they are willing to own up to their actions. Unfortunately the book ends abruptly and you don't get a true feeling of resolution...but at the same time I'm glad I learned a lot about this often-forgotten chapter of the 20th century. However, I think there are many other books on the subject that should be looked at first...with all due respect to the author.

Surprising, Well-Written Expose Of Swiss Complicity In WWII.......2002-06-13

Over the last decade much has been written regarding the wanton theft of money, precious stones and metals, and other treasures and loot during the Second World War by both the Nazis and the Swiss bankers who helped finance the German war effort. This interesting and fact-filled book by author Tom Bower details the horrifying facts surrounding the multitude of ways in which Jews and other victims of the Nazi regime were fleeced, both by the Nazi authorities in the first place, and then by a plethora of other villains after the fact. Particularly distasteful are the ways in which victims of the Holocaust were manipulated, tricked, or forced into giving all they had in an attempt to save themselves and their families, only to find they were both swindled of the valuables in the first place, and then betrayed and sent to the death camps after so doing. On many levels then, this is a shocking account of the plethora of ways in which those lost in the Holocaust were victimized.

The primary story here is the well-documented system developed and employed by the Swiss banking systems to garner the money deposited by Jews and other potential victims attempting to flee fascism, and to then safeguard it against any and all attempts to withdraw the money by the legitimate survivors of those victims. At base, this is the story of the craven and deliberate theft of what is most likely many billions of dollars by the Swiss, who have stonewalled attempts to give some kind of accounting for the money and other valuables left behind by the Holocaust victims. It is, by the way, also the story of a small group of dedicated lawyers, accountants, and other professionals to force the Swiss into accounting for the money and compensating the families of the victims, even though it is clear that there is no way all of the money can ever be accounted for, or, for that matter, ever returned.

Given this situation, then, what his book represents is the last grisly chapter in the history of the Holocaust, a chapter in which memories and dignities are shattered and held up to ridicule by bankers more interested in their own financial gains than in a fair accounting of the facts. Bower provides a stunning description of the truly despicable behavior displayed by the Swiss, and their nefarious role in denying victims' families knowledge about or access to any of the funds left in their care. He also describes a wide variety of ways in which the Swiss betrayed their pose of studied neutrality during the war by actively providing goods, materials, and money to the Germans, all of which aided and abetted the German war effort against the Allies. This book is scrupulously researched, meticulously documented, and carefully described, and as a result gives the reader a much better appreciation for the true nature of Swiss involvement was both during the war and thereafter. This is an interesting and worthwhile book, and one that I recommend to students of 20th century history. Enjoy!

Well written, but a little drawn out........2000-05-15

Bower writes a good book. The first 150 pages are very interesting. Here, Bower deals with Swiss complicity with Nazi Germany. The Swiss sold to Nazi Germany nearly a billion dollars in armaments, ballbearing and other materiel to support the German war machine. As a result, the Swiss may have prolonged the war by supporting the hard pressed Nazi war machine. In addition, we see what slimy, robber barons the Swiss bankers were. Jews, whose family members had accounts in Swiss banks (and whose parents died in the camps) find themselves turned away by callous Swiss bankers. We also learn how the Communists in Poland tried to gain capital by claiming the funds of Polish Jews who perished in the Holocaust. The Polish Communists, who would persecute Jews and expel their Jews in the 60's still wanted their cash! So, this and many other interesting points come out. Still, after about 150 pages, the book drags. Accordingly, I would read the first 150 pages. Then I would skip to the end to of the book to read about Edgar Bronfman's efforts on behalf of Jews who had money in Switzerland. Overall, a well researched book on the perfidities of the Swiss banks, but a little too long. Last but not least, this book convinced me (someone who was initially against going after the Swiss Banks, and a Jew for that matter) that the Swiss Banks should be held accountable for these crimes, and should pay some amount of restitution. Whether the survivors will get a cent after taxes and legal fees is another matter.

Every Swiss should read this.......1999-03-06

Tom Bowers who has, as he states himself, written this book upon a suggestion and with substantial help of senator D'Amato, writes that the swiss citizens' wealth is "based on the gold stolen from the jews". A good read for anyone wishing to gain insight into international politics and propaganda. An astonishing complement to the account with the same title ("Nazi Gold") by SAYER/BOTTING.

The Jews and Europe: 2000 years of History (A Henry Holt reference book)

Average customer rating:

At best, a picture book

The Jews and Europe: 2000 years of History (A Henry Holt reference book)
Elena Romero Castello
Manufacturer: Henry Holt
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Europe | History | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0006F2ZDO

Customer Reviews:

At best, a picture book.......2006-05-08

"The Jews and Europe, 2000 Years of History" is a large, glossy, 10"x12" heavily illustrated book.

This book was divided into four major sections: history, languages, art, and customs. It would be a good book for a nice Jewish family to put on their coffee table, but not actually to read.

There were major problems regarding the history presented in this book. There were significant omissions regarding the medieval Khazar kingdom and the Bolshevik takeover of Russia. Also, many statements in the history section were almost immediately refuted by subsequent admissions.

The book proclaims, "of great importance in English are the works of the Hungarian-born Jew Arthur Koestler, novelist, essayist, and author of books on philosophy and politics."

But, after lauding Koestler, the authors ignore what he wrote. This book tells us that Eastern Europe was a destination for Sephardim Jews migrating eastward from Spain by way of Germany. However, according to Koestler's "The Thirteenth Tribe" that is backward. The Jews of Eastern Europe were probably Ashkenazim moving westward from Russia.

For some reason, this book offered nothing about the mystic Cabala, which is part of Orthodox Judaism.

Book Description

Will the Â'Alala ever return to the wild? A bird sacred

to Hawaiians and a member of the raven family, the

Â'Alala today survives only in captivity. How the

species once flourished, how it has been driven to

near-extinction, and how people struggled to save it,

is the gripping story of Seeking the Sacred Raven.

For years, author Mark Jerome Walters has tracked

the sacred birdÂ's role in Hawaiian culture and the

indomitable Â'AlalaÂ's sad decline. Trekking through

HawaiiÂ's rain forests high on Mauna Loa, talking with biologists,

landowners, and government officials, he has woven an epic tale of

missed opportunities and the best intentions gone awry.A species that

once numbered in the thousands is now limited to about 50 captive birds.

Seeking the Sacred Raven is as much about people and culture as it is

about failed policies. From the ancient Polynesians who first settled the

island, to Captain Cook in the 18th century, to would-be saviors of the

Â'Alala in the 1990s, individuals with conflicting passions and priorities

have shaped Hawaii and the fate of this dwindling cloud-forest species.

Walters captures brilliantly the internecine politics among private

landowners, scientists, environmental groups, individuals and government

agencies battling over the birdÂ's habitat and protection. ItÂ's only

one species, only one bird, but Seeking the Sacred Raven illustrates

vividly the many dimensions of species loss, for the human as well as

non-human world

Customer Reviews:

A Somber but Important Tale.......2006-12-25

In the 1970s, when the environmental movement was at its height, stories of conservation were often presented as melodramas, in which idealist crusaders battled against greedy developers and public indifference. The story of the extinction of the alala, or Hawaiian raven, in the wild, as it is told in this book, could hardly be more different. Almost all parties share a concern about fate of the alala, and many people are obsessed with saving it. The cause of saving the alala is glamorized in the press, and government money is available, yet all of this helps little in the end.
Part of the problem is that those working to save the alala are constantly engaged in increasingly bitter conflicts with one another, which mirror the larger conflicts in the contemporary society. The various biologists, native people, landowners, and governmental officials may all care about the future of the bird, but they care in different ways and for different reasons. None of them can be entirely objective about the means to save the bird. The author details these conflicts in great, perhaps excessive, detail. Perhaps the greatest lesson of the history recounted in this book is the need for an inspiring vision, which might enable those working in conservation to put aside their diffenences.

Saving a species and the natural world.......2006-11-11

One might ask what is the importance of a crow whose ancestors reached the island of Hawaii long enough ago that they had time to separate from their close relatives of the genus Corvus. After all, it's still just a blackish crow. And one might ask why someone would trouble to write a well-researched treatise on what appears to be a fairly narrow subject. Words in the book's title hint at the answers: "sacred" and "politics". The `alalâ, as the Hawaiian crow is known, had spiritual significance to ancient Hawaiians, and it became a sacred quest for author Mark Jerome Walters. While human activities were contributing to the bird's progressive march toward extinction, numerous governmental organizations (federal, state, and local) and individuals (land owners, biologists, conservationists) attempting to resuscitate the species came to conflict over just what to do to help it. No one, despite best intentions, has had definitive answers. The species is fastidious in its habitat requirements--it never expanded its range much beyond the moist mountainous region of the southwestern portion of Hawaii, and that habitat has been substantially altered by human activities. The `alalâ is sensitive to nesting disturbance and susceptible to disease and predation. Captive breeding has been a matter of fits and starts, and released captive birds have failed their promise. The few remaining wild birds have been captured, and all `alalâ are now in captivity. But what is the future of a species that no longer knows the wild or its natural survival and breeding tactics, and which may in actuality no longer even have a habitat? While Walters's book concerns one species, impending extinctions are going on all over the world. "Seeking the Sacred Raven" shows us how much knowledge we need--and determination against our own selfish interests--to protect the sacred natural world before it is too late to save it and its remarkable diversity.

Highly recommended........2006-11-05

Written by Mark Jerome Walters (Professor of Journalism and Media Studies at the University of South Florida), Seeking The Sacred Raven: Politics and Extinction on a Hawaiian Island is the true story of the ill-fated effort to preserve the wild alala, a type of raven indigenous to Hawaii and venerated as sacred by the native populace - the alala is thought to be a guide that aids the souls of the dead in their journey to the hereafter. Yet as environmental pressures, diseases, and non-native predators decimated the alala population, the most valiant efforts of captive breeding and release programs were insufficient to halt its slow extinction. The problem was not simply population and genetic diversity of the alala, but that there was no safe habitat to release them into - cats, mongoose and hawks would eat them, among other mortal perils. With the deaths and protective recapturing of the last wild alala, the species forever lost the survival knowledge that parent birds had been passing to their chicks, and though approximately fifty captive alala remain, their breeding to survive in captivity rather than survive in the wild is sure to forever change the ecological signature of the species. A disturbing look at shortsighted species conservation efforts, the dire need to protect species by preserving their habitat, and human hubris as it trifles with the sacred. Highly recommended.

A Balanced Analysis.......2006-08-04

Hawaii probably has one of the most polarized and devisive environmental movements in the U.S. The islands' environmental media often reflect the highly biased and vitrolic nature of the movement itself. That is the real contribution of Seeking the Sacred Raven--a level headed look at the situation, in this case, the impending extinction of the Hawaiian sacred raven, the alala. The book dispels many powerful myths about Hawaii. It's not the place of paradise many people imagine but a land overrun with exotic plants and animals and of all things, cattle, pigs and sheep. We also learn that environmental scientists and activists are not always friends of conservation but sometimes unwittingly harm their own cause. The book debunks a common myth surrounding the indiginous belief in guardian spirits. Because the alala was adopted as a guardian spirit by some Hawaiians doesn't mean it was held sacred by all. While some Hawaiians prayed to it, others actually ate it. This paradox, which has dogged discussion of the alalas' sacredness to Hawaiian culture, is convincingly resolved by this book. The book is well written, carefully documented and well worth the read.

Trouble in Paradise.......2006-07-18

Your view of paradise will never be the same! Hawaii, revered as a land of tranquility, in this book becomes the scene of a bitter feud to save a native species of bird, the sacred alala. Invaded by alien species as well as by well-meaning environmentalists, both of which do their share to dim prospects for the bird's long-term survival, paradise begins to look more like the Wild West. Although it has lots of action, the book has moments of profound reflection, where it laments for the terrible human destruction of the islands' natural landscape and thousands of dwindling species whose receding tide no one seems able to stem. A touching and caring book that should be required reading for anyone concerned with environmental conservation.

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