Return to Spirit Lake: Journey Through a Lost Landscape

Customer Reviews:

Beautiful Book about Nature, Destruction and Renewal.......2004-12-28

My husband bought this book and I just picked it up on a whim. The book spins a lovely web of the aesthetics of nature, the factual information about Mount St Helens and a personal reflection on one individual's place in the enormous cycle of nature. I enjoyed Colasurdo simple but elegant prose, her meticulous research, which I was glad to see gave credit to scientists and historians with every fact, and her personal insights and revelations.

I read this books during an absolutely insane Christmas season (I own a retail store so Christmas is always particularly draining) and it really helped me put everything in perspective.

Good Book From a Personal Perspective.......2000-12-26

This book was written by someone who grew up with her summers in the shadow of Mt. St. Helens who revisits the area years later, after the eruption. It was a very reflective, somewhat moody book, that I enjoyed reading. Good descriptions of the area as it struggled to recover from the incredible devastation.

Book Description

Belize is arguably an ecotourist's paradise. Deep in the rainforest that still covers almost half the country, the elusive jaguar is protected in its natural surroundings by the world's only jaguar sanctuary, and ancient Maya ruins await discovery. Offshore, divers revel in an almost unbroken string of coral cayes, atolls and mangrove islands. This third edition of Belize: The Bradt Travel Guide brings the reader up to date on all aspects of traveling in this tiny but multi-faceted country. Whether you are drawn by the environment, fascinated by the history or a fan of the underwater world, this is the guide for you. Belize: The Bradt Travel Guide contains comprehensive coverage of national parks, diving and snorkeling, natural history and conservation, people and culture (including the legacy of the Maya civilization), fully revised hotel, restaurant and service information as well as clear, updated maps and town plans.

Book Description

An interactive tale of terror by the author of "Goosebumps" and "99 Fear Street."
In the heat of summer, you sail with the intrepid Indiana Jones to a tropical and very dangerous destination in search of a priceless idol. Legend has it that Horror Island is cursed, and that no one has ever escaped from the tangled jungles alive. Someone -- or something -- lurks at the island's dark and evil heart.
Can you find the idol and escape the island? Or will you fall prey to the crocodiles, boars, and snakes that infest the island? Or will something less substantial but far more deadly prove your undoing? Your fate is in your hands!

Customer Reviews:

wow.......2005-07-10

this book is awesome! in this book, you go to a tropical island in search of the ebony dove with indiana jones! but will you survive?

Pretty Cool.......1999-09-18

A story where YOU and the Bull Whip crackin Indiana Jones are on an Adventure to Horror Island to find the Legendary Emerald Dove. A pretty good Choose Your Adventure-esque book. There are more positive endings then in most of the CYA genre.

Indiana Jones and the Curse of Horror Island (Find Your Fate ; No 1)

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Indiana Jones and the Curse of Horror Island (Find Your Fate ; No 1)
RL Stine
Manufacturer: Ballantine Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OVHSZU

Product Description

This book is essential reading for those interested in understanding current research trends in biomechanics at micro- and nanoscale levels. It details the research carried out to date in this field by fourteen prominent researchers as part of a four-year government supported project which commenced in 2003. The coverage includes four broad areas: cell mechanics, cell response to mechanical stimulation, tissue engineering, and computational biomechanics.

Customer Reviews:

Needs substantial revision.......2006-08-23

This is collection of 14 manuscripts written by Japanese scientists and distributed among the subjects "Cell Mechanics," "Cell Response to Mechanical Stimulation," "Tissue Engineering," and "Computational Biomechanics." After a few pages of reading, I quickly became frustrated by the typographical and grammatical errors prevalent in almost every manuscript. Improperly or inaccurately labeled figures, malapropisms, and obvious spelling errors all create confustion and obscure the authors' ideas. I am willing to forgive clunky English, but a simple, professional review of the papers before publishing would have corrected a lot of the errors and made the book as a whole easier to read.

As for the content, the manuscripts cover some interesting territory. The main idea that resonates through all the manuscripts and is stated in the introduction is that interactions on the micro- and nano-scale amongst cellular constituents are responsible for the wide range of observed phenomena. This idea seems reasonable, and many of the papers effectively advance the idea to some extent. However, the authors explicitly exclude the importance of the genetic code in influencing these interactions, which I find baffling. Genetics must contribute on some level! Perhaps this is just another example of an oversight in translation.

The price of this book is high considering that the book seems so hastily thrown together. I believe the book would be much more effective if the material and data in the manuscripts were collected, rewritten, and reorganized into a part-and-chapter format with consistent figures and professionally proofread English.

Biomechanics at Micro- and Nanoscale Levels Volume IV

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Biomechanics at Micro- and Nanoscale Levels Volume IV

Manufacturer: World Scientific Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Biotechnology | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Science | Subjects | Books

Nanotechnology | Technology | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Engineering | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

General | Medicine | Subjects | Books

Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation | Specialties | Medicine | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 981277131X

Biomechanics at Micro- and Nanoscale Levels: Volume III

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Biomechanics at Micro- and Nanoscale Levels: Volume III

Manufacturer: World Scientific Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Biotechnology | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Science | Subjects | Books

Nanotechnology | Technology | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Engineering | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

Microbiology | Basic Science | Medicine | Subjects | Books

General | Medicine | Subjects | Books

Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation | Specialties | Medicine | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 9812708146

Product Description

A project on Biomechanics at Micro- and Nanoscale Levels , the title of this book, was approved by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan in 2003; and this four-year project is now being carried out by fourteen prominent Japanese researchers. At the 5th World Congress of Biomechanics held in Munich, Germany, from 29th July to 4th August, 2006, we organized the following sessions: Thread 3: Biomechanics at micro- and nanoscale levels (1) cell mechanics; (2) molecular biomechanics; (3) mechanobiology at micro- and nanoscale levels; and (4) computational biomechanics. The present proceedings volume covers topics related to these sessions, and follows on from where the previous two volumes left off. This book is essential reading for those interested in understanding current trends of research in the area of biomechanics at micro- and nanoscale levels.

Book Description

This volume presents the findings of a workshop held at the Institute for Mathematics and its Applications. It brings together ideas of mathematicians and researchers in the physical sciences in the areas of particulate flow and rheology. Flow of particles in a fluid occurs in food processing, catalytic processing, slurries, coating, paper manufacturing, particle injection molding and filter operation. In many of these processes, the rheology of such materials as they undergo transport and processing is important in design, operation, and efficiency. Consequently, using these materials represents a technological challenge. In spite of the phenomenal advances in computation and computers, simulation of the motion of more than a few particles in a fluid is impractical. Therefore, effective media models and two-fluid models are important in the description of particle-fluid flows. The volume offers chapters addressing issues of ensemble averaging, microstructure behavior, and the analysis of two-continuua models. The span of practical to theoretical approaches to particulate flow makes this volume appeal to researchers interested in deriving or applying particulate flow models. The IMA and the symposium organizers hope that this volume will contribute to increasing dialogue between mathematicians and physical scientists interested in particulate flow.

Average customer rating:

Interesting Read.

funny, charming and touching

Love in an Ambivalent Climate

Light and entertaining read

Both are fantastic

The Pursuit of Love & Love in a Cold Climate: Two Novels
Nancy Mitford
Manufacturer: Vintage
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

20th Century | British | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Literary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
British | Short Stories | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0375718990
Release Date: 2001-12-04

Amazon.com

Few aristocratic English families of the 20th century have enjoyed quite the delicious notoriety that the Mitford sisters courted in the years bracketed by two world wars. For a start, two of the girls, Unity and Diana, were Fascists (the former was a friend of Hitler and Goebbels, and the latter married Sir Oswald Mosley, founder of the British Union of Fascists). Two others took the writing route: Jessica ran away from home and became a famous muckraking journalist, and Nancy composed maliciously witty--and transparently autobiographical--novels as well as several biographies. The Pursuit of Love (1945), her greatest fictional success, and its companion, Love in a Cold Climate (1949), keep closely to the spirit (and details) of their youthful amusements and more grown-up adventures.

Seen through the adoring eyes of Fanny Logan, the self-effacing cousin who records their shenanigans with a wicked sincerity, the Radletts of Alconleigh shine with Gloucestershire glamour: apoplectic Uncle Matthew; Lord Alconleigh (modeled to a fine nuance after Mitford's father, Lord Redesdale, who like Uncle Matthew used to hunt his children with bloodhounds); his kind, rather vague wife, Aunt Sadie; as well as Fanny's favorite cousin Linda and the other six Radlett children. The Radlett daughters and Fanny wait impatiently for life to become interesting. Because of their station, however, nothing but marriage is expected of them, so they hurl themselves at love like crusaders, with varied and always fascinating results. At one point Fanny recounts:

A few minutes only after Linda had left me to go back to London, Christian and the comrades, I had another caller. This time it was Lord Merlin...."This is a bad business," he said, abruptly, and without preamble, though I had not seen him for several years. "I'm just back from Rome, and what do I find--Linda and Christian Talbot. It's an extraordinary thing that I can't ever leave England without Linda getting herself mixed up with some thoroughly undesirable character. This is a disaster--how far has it gone? Can nothing be done?"

The Pursuit of Love follows the romantic fortunes of Linda Radlett, while Love in a Cold Climate ventures further afield with the story of Polly Hampton's shocking love affair and its unexpectedly funny aftermath. Fanny's inexhaustible narration is a pleasant buffer for Mitford's deft teasing, which dances along just this side of mockery. The author of U and Non-U, a famous tongue-in-cheek treatise on the shibboleths of upper-class mores, Mitford often leaves the reader wondering just where she stands in the class wars, and much of her humor arises in the fine distinctions of aristocratic manners and speech. Still, there's an inimitable tart sweetness to these stories of true love and its pallid imitators, making them perfect snapshots of a vanished world. --Barrie Trinkle

Book Description

Few aristocratic English families of the twentieth century enjoyed the glamorous notoriety of the infamous Mitford sisters. Nancy Mitford's most famous novels, The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate, satirize British aristocracy in the twenties and thirties through the amorous adventures of the Radletts, an exuberantly unconventional family closely modelled on Mitford's own.

The Radletts of Alconleigh occupy the heights of genteel eccentricity, from terrifying Lord Alconleigh (who, like Mitford's father, used to hunt his children with bloodhounds when foxes were not available), to his gentle wife, Sadie, their wayward daughter Linda, and the other six lively Radlett children. Mitford's wickedly funny prose follows these characters through misguided marriages and dramatic love affairs, as the shadow of World War II begins to close in on their rapidly vanishing world.

Customer Reviews:

Interesting Read........2007-06-17

I knew nothing of these two novels until just a few short days ago when I fell for the charms of Nancy Mitford. It was really interesting to learn that both The Pursuit of Love and Love in a Cold Climate are semi-autobiographical.

Both novels were a classic read. Maybe they were a little boring in parts, but then so is life at times. Anyway, I am a huge sucker for love stories, and that's exactly what these were. I absolutely love how Ms. Mitford shows the two different sides of the narrator, Fanny in each novel. It definitely makes the entire book much more heart warming.

Overall, it was a challenging, and interesting read. (I even had to consult my dictionary several times for new and interesting words.)

funny, charming and touching.......2007-02-23

Mitford has a deft touch with comedy, romance and pathos. Her scenes of an eccentric upper-class British family are delightful (and she obviously knows this subject). Worth reading on its own, and especially if you are interested in the amazing Mitford sisters.

Love in an Ambivalent Climate.......2006-09-05

England between first and second world wars: few girls were as famous as the Mitfords, five beautiful daughters of a well-known upper class "county family" as the British would call them. Nancy, writer of the family, knew her debutante balls well. In fact, she later came up with a way to define English social class by defining speech as "U"for upper class; and "non-U" for those who weren't.

The Mitford girls were "brought up to marry,not fall in love,"Nancy once wrote. Unfortunately, of the actual Mitford girls, only one did as she was expected to do. Deborah (Debo) married the eleventh Duke of Devonsheer. Unity, however, hung around Germany, striking up warmer friendships with the Nazis, and expressing herself more forcefully in their support, than suited the British public. Diana went and married Sir Oswald Mosley, leader of the British fascists, who was "detained" for WWII. Jessica ran off to Hollywood, no less, took American citizenship, and wrote the whistle-blowing "The American Way of Death,"a very inflential indictment of the funeral business. Nancy did marry an "Honorable," but then she turned around and published "The Pursuit of Love," and "Love in a Cold Climate,"two novels that pretty well blew the whistle on society, and on the Mitfords.

For everyone agrees that the central family of these novels, the Radletts, are the Mitfords to the life. Eccentric, choleric father; vague amiable mother; clamorous, animal-loving, quicksilver charming children. The action is narrated by a cousin who seems to resemble Nancy Mitford, and she seems to get most of the action too. As heroine of "In Pursuit of Love" she seems to have pursued love in most of the same places her creator did, though she knew what was expected of her.

How could she not? At one point, a powerful peeress advises Fanny, the narrator,"'Don't you go marrying anybody, for love. Remember that love cannot last; it never, never does; but if you marry all this it's for your life. One day, don't forget,you'll be middle-aged and think what that must be like for a woman who can't have, say, a pair of diamond earrings. A woman of my age needs diamonds near her face, to give a sparkle. Then at mealtimes, sitting with all the unimportant people for ever and ever. And no car. Not a very nice prospect,you know.'"

But Fanny, our narrator, hardly seems to need warning. She remarks at one point,"'always be civil to the girls, you never know who they may marry,'" is an aphorism which has saved many an English spinster from being treated like an Indian widow.'"

On a deeper level, however, Fanny seems to reflect her creator's ambivalence on whether to marry for love, or "all this." But there's still substantial ambivalence on that question.

These novels are undeniably bright and charming, and they seem to pick up right where tv's "Upstairs Downstairs" left off. Not to mention Evelyn Waugh's "Bright Young Things,"and "Brideshead revisited". If you liked them, you'll love this.

Light and entertaining read.......2006-06-05

I bought this book after I became acquainted with Mitford sisters through a biography I have read.

After reading the biography, the first novel, "Pursuit of Love" seemed very familiar to me because in some parts it is almost a narration of the Mitford history. Some characters are given a different history but it is easy to recognize Jessica or Nancy herself.

I wouldn't go so far as to call these novels masterpieces but they are very witty and enjoyable. Especially if you are an Anglophile like me, you will most certainly enjoy this humorous depiction of upper class society in England.

Both novels are narrated by Fanny, cousin/friend to the heroines of the novels. "Pursuit of Love" is about Linda's love affairs and "Love in a Cold Climate" is about Polly's scandalous marriage. Both novels contain very enjoyable side characters like the bellowing Uncle Matthew, the health-conscious Uncle Davey and the lovable sissy Cedric Hampton. In fact the leading ladies are not explored so well as these characters. In the case of Polly we know very little about what goes in her mind.

I must also note that these novels are more about characters than plots. Nancy Mitford writes along about the characters and when there is nothing more to say, she abruptly ends the novels. Besides if you haven't read them one after the other, some of the points Fanny makes will be quite irrelevant as in the case of Fanny's meeting Fabrice in "Love in a Cold Climate" and mentioning that she will be adopting his son years later. First novel's heroine Linda is just a distant character in the second novel but the other, funnier characters appear in both novels.

All in all an enjoyable read but do not expect a literary masterpiece.

Both are fantastic.......2006-04-18

I had read Love in a Cold Climate years ago, but hadn't read The Pursuit of Love. They are both hilarious.

The Pursuit of Love is the stronger book, but Love in a Cold Climate I found more amusing. I believe these were written in the 1930s, so the style and language can seem a little dated at times, but quaintly so. If you know anything about the British Upper Class, they are satirically hilarious.

Enjoy.

As other reviews more than adequately cover the two novels, my review gives you some background on the author and the circumstances that shaped her.

Love in a Cold Climate is loosely based on Mitford's own family. Famous or infamous depending on your point of view, their father did march them around the house. As a matter of interest two of the sisters were facists Unity shot herself, Diana married Oswald Moseley. Another Decca (Jessica) wrote for articles and books including "The American Way of Dying" and Nancy is the author of numerous books, including these. Sister Debo (Deborah) is the Dowager Duchess of Devonshire.

The Mitfords were a wonderfully eccentric minor aristocratic family. Nancy Mitford wrote the famous "Noblesse Oblige" about U and non-U in 1956. It is a glimpse into how the British could instantly tell if someone is truly an aristocratic/upper class or a pretender. Upper Classes would, and often still do, say lavatory and not toilet, rich and not wealthy, spectacles and not glasses, looking glass and not mirror, drawing room and not living room or lounge and so forth. Amazing, but true!

Understanding these codes, may help you understand the books and nuances a little better. Nancy Mitford has considerable insight and sends up her own class relentlessly.

If you want another great book with charming and hilarious antics of a young female relative forced to live with rustic eccentrics in 1930s England, read Stella Gibbons "Cold Comfort Farm". A true gem.

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