Shaped by Wind and Water: Reflections of a Naturalist (World As Home, The)

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Shaped by Wind and Water: Reflections of a Naturalist (World As Home, The)
Ann Haymond Zwinger
Manufacturer: Milkweed Editions
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Nature & Ecology | Science | Subjects | Books
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Of Landscape and Longing: Finding a Home at the Water's Edge (World As Home, The)

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ASIN: 1571312404

Book Description

Known for her observant and beautifully illustrated books on the rivers, deserts, and mountains of the West, Ann Haymond Zwinger focuses here on her guiding principles as a naturalist as she "looks" with notebook and pencil, believing that "to know the world intimately is the beginning of caring."

Shaped by Wind and Water: Reflections of a Naturalist

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Shaped by Wind and Water: Reflections of a Naturalist

Manufacturer: Tandem Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: 1417672706

Customer Reviews:

one of my favorite ghost books.......2007-04-19

Between the eye-catching layout and informative text, this is one of my favorite ghost books. When I went to Savannah, GA, it proved an invaluable resource. The only complain that I have with it is that it covers so much ground, that it doesn't have more space to devote to each city - but that's the nature of a book like this. Definitely recommended to anyone who likes to plan trips around the bizarre and unexplained.

Tuck this in your travel bag.......2003-11-14

I'm an avid reader of anything dealing with true hauntings and I think this is a great guidebook for people who are interested in some haunted history. The book covers quite a few haunted areas throughout the states and is quick and concise with each haunting. The book also lists hotels that are haunted that you can stay in to complete your haunted vacation. Even if haunted vacations aren't your thing, the sites listed thoughout the book are mostly historic and have colorful and interesting histories.

Haunted Holidays.......2002-09-19

A beautiful, well written book! I enjoyed it a lot. It also contains good historic information.

A must for anyone interested in "haunted" travel.......2002-05-25

Haunted Holidays contains dozens of color photographs and some very interesting line art. The New England section includes information on, among other things, the Salem Witch Trials and haunted lighthouses. The section on Chicago concentrates on gangsters (e.g., John Dillinger), haunted cemeteries, etc. There are also chapters on the ghosts of New York City, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Williamsburg, Va., Charleston, S.C., Savannah, Ga., New Orleans, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Hawaii; and an entire section is devoted to Civil War Ghosts. In addition to describing the various haunts, each section includes "Travel Tips" regarding the best time to visit, transportation, haunted restaurants and hotels, ghost tour groups, etc., all with street addresses, telephone numbers and e-mail addresses. I highly recommend this book.

don't leave home without it..............2001-11-29

I thought that this book was very well put together. It's packed with interesting facts and information and it has great colorful pictures that make it fun to just browse. Also the quailty of the paper/binding is really nice for a paperback book of this price. The book does try to cover a lot of territory in just over 200 pages, but it is basically just a travel guide after all. It includes maps and loging info and travel tips for each state which I thought was great. If you enjoy The Discovery Channel's "haunted" videos, you will also enjoy this book.

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The Science of the Soul presents and explains the overwhelming scientific evidence discovered during the last 100 years that leads to the conclusion that each human being has a supernatural soul. The science upon which this is based is mainstream science including biology, quantum physics, and math. It is not based on paranormal occurrences, parapsychology, extrasensory perception, out-of-body experiences, or near-death experiences. The book identifies human capabilities and characteristics that cannot be explained by science as natural phenomenon and which are thus "supernatural" phenomenon.
The book also examines statements by prominent scientists that are in agreement with the above-described conclusion. These scientists include:

Albert Einstein (developed the theory of relativity and contributed to the development of quantum physics)
Charles Darwin (developed the theory of evolution)
Stephen Hawking (astrophysicist)
Niels Bohr (contributed to the development of quantum physics)
Erwin Schroedinger (developed the Schroedinger wave equation of quantum physics)
William Provine (Cornell University professor of biological science and the history of science)
Steven Weinberg (astrophysicist and winner of Nobel Prize)
Marvin Minsky (MIT researcher in artificial intelligence)
Richard Dawkins (Charles Simonyi professor of the public understanding of science, Oxford University and author of books on evolution)
Sir John Eccles (winner of Nobel Prize for brain research), and others.

"Mr. Favero has taken on the ultimate questions: Who are we and how do we fit into the scientific context of the universe? He has produced an enlightening journey into these questions that will impress all readers. Mr. Favero provides compelling scientific evidence of human attributes that cannot be explained as natural phenomena. This is a must read for teachers and debaters of the controversial issues of abortion, evolution, personal criminal res

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Provocative science.......2006-07-21

Kevin Favero's book, The Science of the Soul, confronts readers with a compelling question: if most of us believe that humans have the ability to make free choices, why do a surprising number of scientists believe that humans have no free will?

He rejects the premise that humans are nothing more than "complex biological computers" whose responses to life situations are purely the result of genetic coding (nature) and environmental influences (nurture). Mr. Favero ably takes his case for free will to the scientific community, meeting its members on their own terms and challenging the assumptions of some prominent scientists. He uses scientific theory and analysis to propose viable alternatives to the conclusions by some scientists concerning the existence of a supernatural realm. He urges readers to question the premise that only things that can be explained as natural phenomena can exist. The book is provocative, well researched, and readily understood, even by those without a scientific background.

Brilliant Book.......2006-05-06

Kevin Favero provides a brilliant review of philosophy, quantum mechanics, and evolution in regards to human free will. I was surprised to find out that many intellectuals believe that we do not have free will. Anyone who has worked in advanced development and in product design would agree that believing that we do not have free will is absurd. How in the world do design engineers choose amongst hundreds of competing alternatives for the products they are designing? Most people use products and don't design them. I will admit that I have met some people that act like they have no free will. Kevin Favero's book shows how our free will can be taken for granted, and how our brains can become programmed to operate on autopilot. Take a look at "Intellectuals" by Paul Johnson if you want to see brilliant people operating on autopilot. It's not just philosophers, physicists, and evolutionists who believe that we have no free will, psychiatrists, and psychologists also do not believe in free will. Read "The Mind and The Brain" by Jeffrey Schwartz and Sharon Begley to learn that all these intellectuals are wrong. We do have free will, but may not be using it. Oh if you don't believe in miracles read "Raised From the Dead" by Father Albert Hebert. We will all find out if we have a soul the instant before we die. If you wonder what I mean by that read, "Get Us Out Of Here - Maria Simma speaks with Nicky Eltz" by Nicky Eltz. If we believe that we do not have a free will, well then we probably don't.

Free will for Soul science.......2006-04-13

A very scientific, challenging book! The more I read it, the more I realise that his line of reasoning is sound and valid. Favero provides evidence that we have free will-and he shows why it is logical to conclude, based on science, that humans have a supernatural soul. He also provides quotes from many scientists who are in agreement with his scientific logic. With his free will test, Favero tests the hypothesis `the test taker has free will' and finds that it cannot be rejected. Then with dialectic elimination he ends up with the only reasonable explanation. Of course, there are scientists who have located where in the brain a decision is made, but this does not mean that there is no such thing as free will. As Favero points out, the process of choice making by the brain is inherently limited to the laws of physics and chemistry (predictable) which are `unfree' and therefore any choice made by matter cannot, by definition, be free will. In other words, when scientists locate where choice is made, they point out where the mechanism of choice is located, not the source of free will. Despite all the basic choices that the material brain makes, instinctively, conditioned, it is not capable of advanced, holistic choice making and intuition.

The scientific method does not "prove" things and likewise Favero has not proved that souls exist. He has, however, provided strong evidence and reasoning that we do have supernatural souls.

Favero's book is simpler, more efficient in getting the information across, as well as more conclusive than the other soul-books I've read. The book has a good build-up of theory with practice and the relevance of each theory to the discovery of the soul is explained, thereby presenting the main authors in the field of soul science.

He also gives examples of choices that we can make which he explains as choices which could not be made if we did not have free will. On this point I do not agree because, I am convinced that the brain is able to make some choices of its own, but that we are mostly unaware of these choices. Some of Favero's examples could be made by the brain, because they are conditioned choices; choices that we think we make but which are really made by how we are conditioned. What Favero could however point out in this case, is that we have the free will to become aware of our conditionings and to allow or reject our brain making these choices. In other words, we have free will because we have the choice to accept or deny the role of the brain as a choice maker.

Also interesting is the chapter on math, where Favero shows that the mind can solve mathematical problems with intuition (a spiritual, as opposed to material, property) that cannot be solved by computers.

This book is different from all other books I've read, that scientifically deal with the human soul, because it deals with the existence of the human Soul on the basis of free will and super-(as in "above") natural phenomena. The challenge with soul science is that science does not directly deal with mysticism. One, however, should discriminate between the goal and the path to it. The path Favero has taken is perfectly scientific. If one can look beyond the mystical and see the science, this book is valuable. It will also stimulate the reader's discrimination and knowledge of soul science.

Science does not prove things so we should not be looking for proof, only for evidence. If we want to find the soul, we should extend our view beyond the obvious frame while using our intelligent intuition. That, it seems, Favero has done.

Olivier P. op ten Noort

Irrigation (M.Sc.) student, B.Sc. Irrigation, Wageningen University & Research

A simple thesis........2005-03-03

In "The Science of the Soul" Favero presents a simple logical argument: (a) Since the dawn of quantum mechanics, mainstream science has "proven" without a doubt that free will cannot possibly be a natural phenomenon. (b) Free will "obviously exists" -- any rational person can see that our free choice actions provide ample daily evidence of the reality of free will. (c) Therefore free will, since it cannot be a natural phenomenon and obviously exists must be a nonnatural -- a SUPERnatural -- phenomenon. (d) The existance of free will necesitates a persistent soul. (e) Thus it must be that "overwhelming scientific evidence discovered during the last 100 years leads to the conclusion that each human being has a supernatural soul."

How convenient! Of course, the problem is that free will is not so simple. Were it so obvious, philosophers the world over would not have taken it up. No, our decisive actions do not necessitate free will. No, free will by itself would not necessitate a persistant soul.

And how is this soul to act upon the natural resources of our brain in order to effect its actions? Well, that's not so difficult, actually, according to Favero. We just need "supernatural energy." Very small amounts, mind you -- just enough to tweak those key neurons that determine our decisions. No matter that this violates any sort of conception of conservation of energy. Then again, perhaps there are internal energy, kinetic energy, potential energy, free energy, and, now, free will energy. I suppose it is possible. But proven? I don't think so.

In fact, Favero equates free will and the soul with precisely those events -- some would say miracles -- that violate the laws of nature. So here we have the fundamental thesis: Daily we violate the laws of nature (specifically the 1st and 2nd laws of thermodynamics) right in our own heads. These violations are due to -- nay, ARE -- the soul.

OK. Why read further? This is not science. This is not logic. This is simply a book intended for well-meaning science-oriented people such as Favero or students of science who are interested in patching together a quasilogical argument that justifies in their own mind how science and religion can coexist in a simplistic way.

Favero, the electrical engineer, desperately wants to reconcile his understanding of science with his religious faith. I can understand that. Many people do. Favero believes that a world without free will is frightening and meaningless. I can understand that. Many people do. If you do, you will probably enjoy this book.

THE ULTIMATE INSIGHT: New Scientific Evidence & Perspective of the Existence of the Human Soul

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THE ULTIMATE INSIGHT: New Scientific Evidence & Perspective of the Existence of the Human Soul
Mark, R. Luke
Manufacturer: Booklocker.com, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0976656205

Book Description

Mankind has been searching in his science, religion and philosophy, throughout recorded history, for the true nature and answers to the existence of God. See Who, What, When, Where, How, and Why your soul was created in this non-fiction book.

Book Description

Neural Nets and Chaotic Carriers is an innovatory text, in that it develops rational principles for the design of associative memories with a view to applying these principles to models with the irregularly oscillatory operation so evident in biological neural systems. It thus bridges studies of artificial and of biological neural networks, with new results for both. The text has a strong research character, but a concise exposition from the basics makes it accessible to non-specialists. Design is based on the criterion that an associative memory must be able to cope with 'fading data', i.e. to form an inference from data even as its memory of that data degrades. The resultant net shows striking biological parallels, suggesting testable anatomical predictions. Many questions concerning composite or 'spurious' traces and memory capacity are clarified. The approach taken to models of the biological neuron and oscillation in systems of such neurons follows the pioneering ideas of W.J. Freeman, and develops these. In particular, when the associative memory principles are combined with oscillatory operation, some remarkable effects emerge. For example, the system shows a low-frequency square-wave oscillation (the 'escapement oscillation') with gamma-range bursts at its peaks, much as is observed in electroencephalograms. The text will be invaluable for researchers and graduate workers with a primary interest in artificial of biological neural nets. However, it is also accessible and interesting to anyone with the mathematical background usual in artificial intelligence, computer science, systems studies or statistics, for example.

Customer Reviews:

Post-Apartheid fiction.......2003-08-12

Much of South African fiction deals with, by necessity, with the history of racialized oppression. This book takes a look at the post-apartheid South Africa where the old narratives no longer apply so neatly. The result is a wonderfully engaging book that deals sensitively with its characters, flaws and all.

The author writes beautifully and really delves into a number of extremely tough issues (aids, xenophobia, poverty) without being preachy. The story concerns the lives and loves of a couple of lovers and the people around them as they travel from the villages of the Limpopo province to the roughest inner-city neighborhood in Johannesburg. Love is betrayed with painful consequences to their relationship, their lives and those around them. Like any good novelist, Mpe is able to bring to life not only the characters who are struggling to move from poverty and apartheid to prosperity and education in a democratic South Africa, but the society around them.

My words are not doing justice to what a warm, sensitive and humanistic account of South Africans in their very troubled present.

haunting and tragic, often brilliant.......2001-12-04

This book was recommended to me as a way to understand what I was seeing as a visitor to S Africa, to get a bit into the inner lives of the characters that I saw as I was working.

It is a very sad story, in the form of a monologue to a dead boy - a squandered talent - and to his lost loves. While the voice is a bit off-putting, addressing the boy as "you" and then referring to everyone else in the third person, I got into the characters and the scene in great depth.

This is a chronicle of several failed attempts to leave a backward and xenophobic village, for a huge ghetto near Johannesburg. It is painful to read, but very very rewarding and an accurate reflection of the crisis in S Africa today, where the entire society seems to be breaking down in violence, Aids, promiscuity, and rape. According to my friends here, it is chillingly real and felt so to me.

Warmly recommended.

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The Past Coming to Roost in the Present: Historicising History in Four Post-Apartheid South African Novels: André P. Brink's Imaginings of Sand, Zakes ... and Phaswane Mpe's Welcome to our Hillbrow
Adrian Knapp
Manufacturer: ibidem-Verlag
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Apartheid | Race Relations | Sociology | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Literacy | Words & Language | Reference | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 3898216861
Release Date: 2007-03-13

Book Description

Since the final demise of apartheid in 1994, South Africa has undergone dramatic changes in the political, social, and economic sphere. It is not surprising that these changes have also resulted in contentious reassessments of recent history. Many contemporary South African writers have taken up the challenge and created works offering new ways of critically re-imagining the country's violent past. While André P. Brink's Imaginings of Sand and Zakes Mda's Ways of Dying constitute renegotiations of the past during the period of transition, J. M. Coetzee's Disgrace and Phaswane Mpe's Welcome to our Hillbrow represent deliberations of a past that has been hampered in its change by a flawed transition. Just as history can never be taken at face value and never constitutes a finite, all-inclusive narration of the past, the 'historical accounts' provided in these texts often present a one-sided picture of history when only considered on their representational level. On the metafictional level, however, these texts often put such 'misreadings' into perspective and, in doing so, open up an otherwise monochrome reflection of South Africa's rainbow.

Book Description

Isabel Allende evokes the magnificent landscapes of her country; a charming, idiosyncratic Chilean people with a violent history and an indomitable spirit, and the politics, religion, myth, and magic of her homeland that she carries with her even today.

The book circles around two life-changing moments. The assassination of her uncle Salvador Allende Gossens on September 11, 1973, sent her into exile and transformed her into a literary writer. And the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, on her adopted homeland, the United States, brought forth an overdue acknowledgment that Allende had indeed left home. My Invented Country, mimicking the workings of memory itself, ranges back and forth across that distance between past and present lives. It speaks compellingly to immigrants and to all of us who try to retain a coherent inner life in a world full of contradictions.

Customer Reviews:

A Memoir of Chili.......2007-04-05

Allende shares her family and a bit of her own life in this book about Chili as a nation. Your opinion about Latin America may be different after you read this book.

A Captivating Landscape........2007-01-10

Isabel Allende's "My Invented Country" does not pick-up where her previous memoir "Paula" left off, instead it expands on some of the biographical details from the previous book and is more of a deep, dreamy memoir of her native country of Chile. In fascinating, poetic detail Allende describes a land rich in culture, heritage, history and passion. There are vivid descriptions of the beautiful Andes and the native indian cultures who populated the region before the Spanish conquest and those who populate it still. And yet it doesn't feel like a travelogue, "My Invented Country" is probably the best book to read about Chile because it is about Chile as a nation and not a chunk of land, it is the strip of country Pablo Neruda immortalized in his poetry. As in "Paula" Allende here shares more about the wild, romantic history of her family and their peculiar history. There are hilarious moments and sweet ones where she recounts her relationship with her grandfather through the years of her youth and adulthood. The politics of Chile are also widely discussed, which is pleasantly expected considering the author's uncle was Salvador Allende, Latin America's first elected socialist president who was tragically overthrown by a fascist CIA-backed coup lead by the general Augusto Pinochet who established a junta over the country. Allende describes a time when there was hope for change in Chile, when Allende won the presidency and even Fidel Castro visited the country for 27 days. With frightening detail she also describes the dark days of the military dictatorship when radical right-wing laws were passed, thousands disappeared and others brutally tortured and killed. As always Allende writes here with beautiful expressions, funny anecdotes and a sense of humour when it comes to attacking hypocrites and contradictions in her own opinions. "My Invented Country" is a pleasant memoir to read, it is a trip down the memory palace of Isabel Allende, and a journey through a country we know so little about in the United States. Those who term Latin America as "backward" should read Allende's book, it might change their opinion.

'A Slow Dance in a Large Circle'.......2006-11-16

Isabel Allende is a captivating writer, one who can spin tales of intrigue and magical mystery as well as any of our Latin American writers. Though this version of MY INVENTED COUNTRY is the paperback edition of the hardcover MY INVENTED COUNTRY: A Nostalgic Journey Through Chile - the one this reader found on the 'sale book' counter in the local bookstore! - hopefully the writing is the same despite the change in title.

There is much that could be said about Allende's writing style: she moves from colloquial, humorous conversation and sharing to a manner of relating history in the form of the best historian writers. And it all works. Throughout the book Allende warmly describes just what makes Chile and its people unique and the information is not only fascinating but warmly charming. And then she very astutely takes us by the hand and for the last third of the book shares with us the political history of Chile over the last 200 years. Of course she is intimate with the Allende years, being part of that family that was forced into exile with the toppled government, but she does not present an acrid, angry stance but rather an optimistic view of the peoples' ability to change from Christian Democracy to dictatorship under Pinochet. For the first time this reader came away with the feeling that the entire process is understandable.

Allende never forgets that she has been a stranger in different countries all her life, that the Chile she knows is as much a part of nostalgia as it is fact. This book was written from her home in San Francisco and she shares with us the following insight: 'But that is how nostalgia is: a slow dance in a large circle. Memories don't organize themselves chronologically, they're like smoke, changing, ephemeral, and if they're not written down they fade into oblivion.' This is a warm insight into the mind of one of our important writers of the day. Highly recommended. Grady Harp, November 06

Read Paula instead.......2006-08-26

I read this when it first came out, and after reading Paula this summer (her earlier memoir written during her daughter's critical illness) I went back to it to see how Allende had managed to cover so much of the same territory in a way that was fresh enough to merit a second memoir. And the answer, unfortunately, was that she hadn't. My Invented Country provides some interesting information about the people and country of Chile (often in the form of sweeping generalizations that I suspect are no more uniformly true than any sort of broad characterization one could make about Americans), and does so with Allende's characteristically sharp and funny prose (I particularly enjoyed her explanation on why it is unwise to faint in a Chilean supermarket). But the parts that I recall as being the most interesting--the political history of Chile and her own decision to go into exile--are covered so much more completely, and in so much more compelling a fashion, in Paula, that reading My Invented Country after Paula feels like being told the same story repeatedly by a storyteller who has lost interest in the tale and no longer thinks the details are very important. My best recommendation is to skip this one but do read Paula: a brilliant, moving and often very funny memoir that closely examines Allende's life and the loss of her country and daughter.

Probably her best book after The House of Spirits.......2006-01-26

My Invented Country is Isabel Allende's best book after her first title The House of Spirits. I have read most of her titles always in Spanish and with this book I was engaged immediately by its beauty of language. Isabel's writing is almost poetic. She has the ability to craft sentences and produce descriptions like very few authors can. I enjoyed her descriptive narrative of both her country Chile and of her life experiences that have made her the person she is today. REading this book is a must for all Allende's fans. It will help you understand her previous books better. I have now started to read the House of Spirits again which I am enjoying even more than the first time as I do now understand where her ideas were coming from. Thanks Isabel Allende for sharing with us your amazing story.

My Invented Country CD: A Nostalgic Journey Through Chile

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plain, honest style
Poetic Journey
A Chilephile's delight
almost Faulknerish
Not the best of Allende

My Invented Country CD: A Nostalgic Journey Through Chile
Isabel Allende
Manufacturer: HarperAudio
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: 0060559276
Release Date: 2003-05-27

Book Description

A highly personal memoir of exile and homeland, filled with the wit, melancholy and distinctive voice that have charmed readers of her fiction.

My Invented Country is a memoir about her native Chile that acknowledges the role of memory and nostalgia in shaping her life, her books, and her very connection to that most intimate place of origin. Allende revisits the imaginary Chile of her childhood and young adult years as well as the real one that exists today. She evokes the magnificent landscapes of the country, a charming, idiosyncratic Chilean people with a violent history and indomitable spirit, and the politics, religion, myth and magic of her homeland that she carries with her even today. The book curls itself around two life–changing moments. The assassination of her uncle, Salvador Allende Gossens, on September 11, 1973, sent her into exile and transformed her into a literary writer; and the terrorist attack of September 11, 2001, on her newly adopted homeland. It speaks compellingly to immigrants, and to all of us, who try to retain a coherent inner life in a world full of contradictions.

Customer Reviews:

plain, honest style.......2006-06-13

She has a great way of making you feel like you are getting to know her personally; like you are having a conversation with someone that is going to become a your friend. "Paula" gave me the same impression. You can really identify with her emotions and see her perspective like she is some one you already know.

Poetic Journey.......2004-09-06

My Invented Country is Isabel Allende's best book yet. This amazing biography takes the reader on a poetic journey though Ms. Allende's young life. Her writing is stellar and poetic. This book is to be savored for its beauty of language. Writers dream of crafting sentences like these. Lovers of language will adore this book for its symmetry and grace. Readers of all ages will love it for its beautiful and absorbing story.

A Chilephile's delight.......2004-08-19

I guess one could describe this book as a beautiful woman's description of a beautiful country and its charming people. Let me get my prejudices out right up front: I have been fascinated by everything Chileno for over thirty years. The country has an amazing history, an incredibly varied topography (when God finished creating the world, he had a little bit of everything left over...so it He put it all in Chile) and wonderful people. Isabel Allende's nostalgic reminiscenses about her family and homeland are insightful, poignant and witty. The author commendably keeps politics to a minimum, but consequently barely touches on her country's troubled recent past and the healing process that is still a work in progress. Moreover, since Ms. Allende writes as an exile, one wonders whether her characterizations remain accurate in the aftermath of the rise and fall of Pinochet. Be that as it may, this is a delightful glimpse into the Chilean persona. This slim volume is not literature, but after reading Ms. Allende's paean to Chile, I was left with only two desires: to visit the country again as soon as possible and to meet the author. Fortunately the former is always an option.

almost Faulknerish.......2004-05-18

Allende's original work must be beautifully and well written in Spanish or else the translator did an excellent job. Seems to me that her writing is almost Faulkner-ish... a kind of classical ranting while accounting for family history and characters through personal experience and skewed perspectives... almost what is called stream of consciousness with many threads off tangent. Her style comes across more like she is thinking out loud instead of just telling a story. Sometimes it seems as if she is singing. Her words boast of a personality stronger than cultural traditions and expectations. Allende displays a personality ready to face the world, yet unwilling to forgo a staccatto past.

Not the best of Allende.......2004-05-14

This book tells us the story of the author's life in a short version. I personally liked the way she portraits Chile, past and present. But I wouldn't recommend this book to anyone who has already read "Paula". In "Paula" she writes the story of her life while she is taking care of her daughter, who has a fatal disease, in "My invented country" she tells us the story of her life (again), because of the nostalgia she feels when her grandson asks her a question about being old, only in a shorter way and contributing with facets about her country. So when I read this book a lot of times I thought "I remember this" or "I knew this already". As another reviewer said, "she is loosing her touch". I hope she comes up with a brand new idea next time.

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My Invented Country: A Memoir
Isabel Allende
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Book Description

Rufus Kinsley was a farmer from rural Vermont who became an officer in one of the nation's first and most famous black regiments during the Civil War. Diary of a Christian Soldier offers a meticulous reconstruction of Kinsley's life and an annotated transcription of his hitherto unpublished wartime diary, which sheds light on a long neglected theater of the war-the battle for the bayou country of southwestern Louisiana-and illuminates the workaday routines of black and white soldiers stationed behind Union lines. Kinsley's diary reveals that he was a dedicated evangelical abolitionist soldier who believed that the war and its consequences were divine retribution for the sin of slavery and that he believed that the Civil War was not actually about saving the Union, but about freeing slaves. David Rankin's biography places Kinsley's Civil War experience in the context of his life and times. David C. Rankin, who has received fellowships from the American Council of Learned Societies and the Charles Warren Center at Harvard University, has written extensively on slavery, the South, the Civil War, and Reconstruction. His articles have appeared in the Journal of Southern History, Perspectives in American History, and other publications; he is also the editor of My Passage at the New Orleans "Tribune": A Memoir of the Civil War Era (Louisiana State University, 2001).

Diary of a Christian Soldier: Rufus Kinsley and the Civil War.(Book Review) : An article from: Journal of Southern History

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Diary of a Christian Soldier: Rufus Kinsley and the Civil War.(Book Review) : An article from: Journal of Southern History
James H. Moorhead
Manufacturer: Southern Historical Association
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital
ASIN: B000ALR8FY
Release Date: 2005-07-25

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Journal of Southern History, published by Southern Historical Association on May 1, 2005. The length of the article is 673 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: Diary of a Christian Soldier: Rufus Kinsley and the Civil War.(Book Review)
Author: James H. Moorhead
Publication: Journal of Southern History (Refereed)
Date: May 1, 2005
Publisher: Southern Historical Association
Volume: 71 Issue: 2 Page: 465(2)

Article Type: Book Review

Distributed by Thomson Gale

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Should be a required reading to all college students

Great anthology...

Excellent reading

The I Hate Corporate America Reader: How Big Companies from McDonald's to Microsoft Are Destroying Our Way of Life ("I Hate" Series, The)

Manufacturer: Thunder's Mouth Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Managing Corporate Reputation and Risk: Developing a Strategic Approach to Corporate Integrity Using Knowledge Management

ASIN: 1560256354

Book Description

Americans are beginning to take note that large corporations are at the heart of what ails our country—from job losses to mad cow disease to pollution to rising cancer rates to obesity to empire building. Every week brings new headlines of some new outrage by companies ranging from the former Enron and Halliburton to McDonald’s and Wal-Mart; meanwhile, other crimes are hidden from public view. This book will energize, empower, entertain, and mobilize readers who are disgusted with the behavior of the corporate powers-that-be. Some of America's most influential writers—such as Molly Ivins, Erik Schlosser, Arianna Huffington, Jim Hightower, and others—offer their views on price-fixing and other anticompetitive practices that boost consumer prices, anti-labor tactics (often illegal), near-slave wages and working conditions, marketing practices, drug tests, and other activities that destroy worker and consumer privacy, overseas sweat shops (complete with sex slaves) run by U.S. companies, environmental violations that lead to higher cancer rates and other disease, armies of corporate lobbyists who bribe our lawmakers and judges, unsafe products that endanger our lives and our children's lives, corporate downsizing, benefit cutbacks, and job exporting, and—last, but not least—overpaid executives and board members who rip off shareholders and workers.

Customer Reviews:

Should be a required reading to all college students.......2005-08-31

This is a collection of articles brilliantly composed. Factual quality and research depth reflected by these well-written articles are impressive and respectable. A light touch humor made the reading even more enjoyable - at least for those who are not offended by the truth about corporate America.

From global warming issue to deceptive schemes in marketing strategies, the over-the-law and Enron-flavored attitudes of corporate Ameica were finally addressed and brought to the attention of the public. This book deserves to be a part of all students' education and thus, should be introduced to all highschool and college students. My 16-year-old really enjoyed the book and has lent it out to many friends.

Great anthology..........2005-04-13

The editors do a great job taking writings from diverse journals and magazines and putting them into a great anthology.

One subject area flows well into the next, and we are brought further and further down the road of a very terrifying trend in modern capitalism.

Even if your goal is to become a CEO, read this to understand just how corrupt and twisted is modern business. Read it to understand what kind of pact you are making with Satan.

Amazing work guys. more!!!

Excellent reading.......2005-02-04

As a former corporate CEO and advocate for getting special interest money out of our political system, I found this supporting my goals and was naturally drawn to it. It contains many essays adding weight to the subject.

Campaign funding allows corporations to get away with murder (sometimes literally) and it's just a matter of time before the public rebels strongly enough by throwing the current breed of politicians out. This book gives them reason to make that sooner rather than later.

Book Description

Buying land to conserve it is not a recent phenomenon. Buying Nature chronicles the evolution of land acquisition as a conservation strategy in the United States since the late 1700s. It goes beyond the usual focus on conservation successes to provide a critical assessment of both public and private land acquisition efforts.

The book shows that for more than 200 years, both private purchasers -- such as the Nature Conservancy and the Trust for Public Land -- and governmental agencies have acquired land for conservation. It documents trends of growing complexity in transactions and a blurring of public and private roles. The preservation of Mount Vernon and its grounds, for example, began with a private group -- the Mount Vernon Ladies Association of the Union -- and continues today with a mosaic of private, state, and federal actors. The current emphasis on private land trust acquisitions, the authors argue, may undercut other effective governmental efforts to preserve the environment and may not be the best way to meet conservation goals.

Buying Nature emphasizes the accountability issues that arise when the line between public and private efforts is indistinct. The authors also pay unique attention to how federal land agencies' individual histories shape their participation in modern land acquisition transactions. An unusual mix of scholarship, the book combines political, legal and constitutional, and economic history with rich case studies of land conservation and quantitative analyses of acquisitions over time to provide a new and distinctive perspective on enduring questions of public policy and environmental protection.

Buying Nature: The Limits Of Land Acquisition As A Conservation Strategy, 1780-2004

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Buying Nature: The Limits Of Land Acquisition As A Conservation Strategy, 1780-2004
Sally K.; Gwin, Lauren; King, Mary Ann; Ryamond, Leigh; Watt, Laura A. Fairfax
Manufacturer: The MIT Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OQK7HQ

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