Sea-Beans from the Tropics: A Collector's Guide to Sea-Beans and Other Tropical Drift on Atlantic Shores

Book Description

Atlantic Coast beaches offer a variety of souvenirs and curiosities to those beachgoers that care to look. Shells have long been treasured finds, and their descriptions are well documented in a variety of books and guides. But what about the other things found on the beach? These are the things that drift in the ocean and are carried in with the winds: sea-beans, spirula, mermaid's purses, and other tropical treasures. This book references them in a convenient form for the beachcomber, while keeping the oceanographer and botanist in mind. Interesting descriptions of each sea-bean species, or other drift treasure, and 175 color photographs make this book a valuable collector's guide. Perry and Dennis provide the results of a 30-year study on sea-bean flotation tests. No other book combines personal experience, use of color photography identifications, and the scientific field of botany into a complete, friendly user's guide for identifying sea-beans and other drift from the sea.

Customer Reviews:

Sea Bean Bible.......2007-07-27

I love this book. It is a fantastic resource, complete with color photos. An absolutely essential book to have if you live by the sea. You will be able to identify the cool beans you find along the shore with this book. I have learned a tremendous amount about drift seeds from reading this book. Highly recommended. Enjoy & Happy Beaning! :)

Excellent Guide Book.......2007-05-12

Excellent guide book with photos and text. Helped me identify the beans that I have collected on the beaches of Key Biscayne.

Each shell is provided with a lengthy introduction.......2004-01-14

Co-produced by Edward L. Perry and John V. Dennis, Sea-Beans From The Tropics is an impressive collector's guide to the tropical drift commonly found on the shores of the Atlantic ocean. Full-color photographs illustrate each entry ranging from bald cypress, to white inkberry. Each shell is provided with a lengthy introduction covering such topics as the nature of ocean currents and how to grow and polish sea beans rounds out this informative, fascinating, detailed, "user friendly" guide.

Average customer rating:

Informative, but something missing...

Beachcombing the Atlantic Coast
Peggy Kochanoff
Manufacturer: Mountain Press Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Natural History | Nature & Ecology | Science | Subjects | Books

Reference | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0878423451

Customer Reviews:

Informative, but something missing..........2000-06-12

While beachcombing with my children, heads down to the sand and waves, I thought to myself "I wish I knew more about what we're looking at." Once home, I searched online for a guidebook describing the life of the Atlantic coast that would be informative AND interesting to my kids (both under 6 years old). This book has the perfect title, and is very informative and accurate, but it is missing something. After some thought I realize it is color. While Kochanoff's drawings are good - simple yet specific - they are plain line drawings. Without color, one loses so much. One certainly loses the interest of young children (who are stumped by black & white TV!) I also wish the format of the book was smaller - the 8-1/2 x 11 inch size eliminates it as a candidate for the beach bag. So, if you're interested in a basic illustrated zoological study of the life of the Atlantic beaches, this may be your book. But if you're trying to teach your kids about what they are picking up out of the sand, you probably will need to keep looking.

Beachcomber's Guide from Cape Cod to Cape Hatteras (Beachcomber's Guide)

Average customer rating:

Excellent reference guide for those who love beachcombing!
Excellent layman level coastal marine science.

Beachcomber's Guide from Cape Cod to Cape Hatteras (Beachcomber's Guide)
Henry Keatts
Manufacturer: Gulf Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Nature & Ecology | Science | Subjects | Books

Natural History | Nature & Ecology | Science | Subjects | Books

Beaches | Reference & Tips | Travel | Subjects | Books

General | Travel | Subjects | Books

A Field Guide to the Atlantic Seashore: From the Bay of Fundy to Cape Hatteras (Peterson Field Guides(R))

ASIN: 0884151301

Book Description

This delightful guide is packed with photos, detailed illustrations, and fascinating facts that are sure to enlighten and entertain. It describes the various coastal habitats that affect them.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent reference guide for those who love beachcombing!.......2002-03-02

When I first got the book in 1999, I read it cover to cover immediately, and learned much about the various beach finds I have been curious about for many years. It answered many of my basic questions and I still use it as a reference. Interesting and valuable information.

Excellent layman level coastal marine science........1999-11-19

Althought the cover looks simplistic, it belies an excellent book for those interested in coastal and estuarine life forms and habitats in the Northeast US. Much more scientific than I expected. A great reference book!

Average customer rating:
Osmotic potential and projected drought tolerance of four phreatophytic shrub species in Owens Valley, California: With a section on plant-water relations (Open-file report / U.S. Geological Survey)
Peter D Dileanis
Manufacturer: U.S. Geological Survey
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B00071BKP6

Amazon.com

The folks on Hackett Island, near Philadelphia, are not too friendly to newcomers. Anyone the slightest bit different is eyed with suspicion, as Claire found out when she missed a year of junior high due to leukemia. Now she works hard at fitting in, following treacherous but popular Macy's lead, hiding her passion for the guitar, and never talking about her fear that her illness will return. Or her nightmares. Or her eating disorder. The boys of Hackett Island's "in" crowd are members of the "fish frat"--hunky sons of the local fishermen--and their horseplay even among themselves is brutal and edge-of-danger.

And then Lani Garver shows up at school, a tall, thin, strangely androgynous person. "No. Not a girl. Sorry," he says pleasantly when Macy questions him about his gender with vicious curiosity. But Claire, much to Macy's disgust, is drawn to Lani, and his wisdom and kindness begins to heal her. He takes her to Philadelphia to meet his artistic friends, talks sense to her about her eating disorder and her blind devotion to Macy, finds her a therapist. Who is this Lani Garver? He resists "boxes" like "gay." Even his age is a mystery to Claire. Strangest of all, could he be a "floating angel," as his friends at the hospital seem to believe? Meanwhile, the fish frat are closing in for the kill, and when their harassment turns lethal, Lani shows a terrible side of himself Claire has never seen.

Carol Plum-Ucci raises tantalizing questions around a fascinating character in this gut-clenching story that transcends the clichés of the gay-bashing novel. (Ages 14 and older) --Patty Campbell

Book Description

The close-knit residents of Hackett Island have never seen anyone quite like Lani Garver. Everything about this new kid is a mystery: Where does Lani come from? How old is Lani? And most disturbing of all, is Lani a boy or a girl?

Claire McKenzie isn't up to tormenting Lani with the rest of the high school elite. Instead, she befriends the intriguing outcast. But within days of Lani's arrival, tragedy strikes and Claire must deal with shattered friendships and personal demons--and the possibility that angels may exist on earth.

Customer Reviews:

What Did Happen to Lani Garver?.......2007-07-15

"What Ever Happened to Lani Garver" - Good question. What ever did happen to him? Well, even though I haven't the answer, the mystery shrouding the book is worth-while.

"What Ever Happened to Lani Garver" shows the raw emotion of a high school student, when she is unsure of her friends, and her current lifestyle. As she meets a androgynous boy named "Lani," her views are changed as she grows on Lani, and as Lani mysteriously disappears, of course.

The writing here is very tense in some sequences, and very tender at others. Ignore the giant wave of curse words, and you'll be fine. Other than that, this book seemed perfect in my views; just right, somehow.

Pushing that aside, this book made me do something not many books have been able to: It made me think. It was the close friendship between an uncertain girl, who is supposedly looking for answers, and a neutral, kind boy who doesn't accept "boxes" such as "gay" that started it out, and the churning emotions felt at the near-end that touched me. This didn't lose me anywhere, not even for a small second. All I hope is that others can capture the beauty of this novel (for it's not a well-known one).

I really hope you consider reading this book.

Best YA book I've ever read!!!.......2007-06-04

This book is amazing. It made me laugh but at the same time made me think about my life and the way people treat each other every day. It's a very sad and real situation. It also made me cry like a baby. I loved it. I recommend it to anyone who likes a good, supensful and touching read.

Go. Read this book. NOW........2007-02-19

What Happened to Lani Garver is...amazing. Stupendous. Thought-provoking. I read a lot, but nothing even comes to matching the beauty of this book. I will never get get bored with it, or tire of the characters, ever. I remember every detail, I cried at the ending, and I honestly wish Lani was a real person. I would LOVE to hear him ramble on about his psychology terms, or even his 'boxes'. This book manages to work in a little bit of everything without confusing the reader or making you think,"Great, the author's trying to teach me a lesson". I cannot understand why(ignorant)people think it's so annoying the ending remains a mystery. I love that. What Happened to Lani Garver leaves you with a haunted feeling. It will open your mind. And, most of all,it will leave you asking yourself,"Is Lani Garver an angel?"

Well paced and well-developed characters.......2006-02-27

WHTLG centers around an androgynous young man whose worldy views and other-worldly behavior both fascinate and unsettle freshman cheerleader, Claire McKenzie. Though Claire has been through alot--she's in remission from leukemia, her parents have divorced, and her mother is an alcoholic--Claire wants to ignore the nightmares she has every night, the gruesome lyrics that pop into her head when she's practicing her guitar, and the dizzy spells she gets when she "forgets too eat." Claire wants to forget the year or so she missed of junior high and focus on fitting in with the popular and dangerous crowd who have come to include her. Lani Garver, on the other hand, intrigues her from the first time she sees him the cafeteria, with his girl/boy looks and vague answers. Her best friend, Macy, wants her to forget Lani as a freak, but Claire can't help noticing that he's pretty nice, extremely well-read, and tremendously compassionate--all qualities her "friends" don't share.

WHTLG is packed with "issues" including: homosexuality, pornography, hate-crime, suicide, murder, eating disorders, AIDS, alcoholism, divorce, cancer, illicit drugs and underage drinking, run-away kids, and unhealthy peer-pressure. Though the issues occassionally crowd each other, the plot unfolds at a good pace and the issues don't eclipse the characters.

I would recommend this novel to a well-read, worldly eighth grader--otherwise this is an appropriate text for ages 14 and up.

It is so good!!!!!!!!.......2006-02-08

What Happened to Lani Garver is a very touching book. Beause it is about A boy that looks like a boy or girl and he helps Clair a girl with a troubled mom. She also has had cancer and then she gets another sickness. Lani helps her relize things that she never would of and helps her put her life back together one step at a time!

Average customer rating:

What Happened to Lani Garver
Carol Plum-Ucci
Manufacturer: Harcourt Paperbacks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OJPALQ

Average customer rating:
The Ecology of Bird Communities: Volume 1, Foundations and Patterns (Cambridge Studies in Ecology)
John A. Wiens
Manufacturer: Cambridge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000LZIG46

Customer Reviews:

Outstanding essays .......2005-10-16

Epstein is one of the finest literary critics in America today. He has a very tough kind of intelligence, and a real ability to make works of Literature relate to the world that we live in.

Amazon.com

One has good reason to be suspicious of a book that calls itself a "metaphorical memoir." If a metaphor substitutes one thing for another to which it's not ordinarily related, and a memoir relates the personal experiences of the author, then a metaphorical memoir would be... well, lying, if we're going to get technical about it. Or it could be Lying, in which case, hold that judgment and lay all categories aside: here is a book so stunningly contrary it deserves a whole genre to itself.

Lauren Slater may have grown up with epilepsy. Or she may have Munchausen syndrome, "also called factitious illness," also called lying. Or, quite possibly, she has never had any of the above, and all her exquisite evocations of auras and grand mal seizures are merely well-researched symbolic descriptions of her psychic state. In a chapter that's disguised as an extended letter to her editor (and impishly titled "How to Market This Book") she defends her decision to call the work nonfiction:

Why is what we feel less true than what is? Supposing I simply feel like an epileptic, a spastic person, one with a shivering brain; supposing I have chosen epilepsy because it is the most accurate conduit to convey my psyche to you? Would this not still be a memoir, my memoir?

Slater is peering down a slippery slope here, and for all its manifest brilliance, the pyrotechnics of its prose, reading Lying can be an unnerving experience--sort of like hanging out with a compulsive liar, actually. (It's no help to find out that "after all, a lot, or at least some, or at least a few, of the literal facts are accurate.")

But if Slater is playing with our heads, she's not doing so for fashionable postmodern reasons. Lying's bag of tricks emerges from some complex and deeply felt ideas about form, reality, and consciousness itself--and what's more, it's an extraordinary memoir, "true" or not. A field full of nuns, their windblown habits tipping them over into the snow; an electric brain stimulator that makes a patient see colors and taste her own words; Slater rolling in mounds of Barbadian sugar and then running back to her mother, coated like candy--who cares whether any of these actually happened? In the end, Lying is fundamentally true, just as a great novel or indeed any great work of art is true: in a way that has nothing to do with fact. --Mary Park

Book Description

"[Slater has] the playful mind of a philosopher and the exquisite, unique voice of a poet." (The Washington Post Book World)

In this powerful and provocative new memoir, award-winning author Lauren Slater forces readers to redraw the boundary between what we know as fact and what we believe through the creation of our own personal fictions. Mixing memoir with mendacity, Slater examines memories of her youth, when after being diagnosed with a strange illness she developed seizures and neurological disturbances-and the compulsion to lie. Openly questioning the reliability of memoir itself, Slater presents the mesmerizing story of a young woman who discovers not only what plagues her but also what cures her-the birth of her sensuality, her creativity as an artist, and storytelling as an act of healing.

Customer Reviews:

Brilliant prose from a trickster of a narrator.......2005-12-25

Slater insists that her book be characterized as a non-fiction memoir, despite that fact that she freely admits that her account of her epilepsy is factual, symbolic, real, and fantastical all at once. Slater herself isn't always sure which of her memories are true and which are vivid but invented. If the reader can let themselves free in this alternate reality, Slater's memoir makes for fascinating, touching, and chilling reading. She truly brings the reader inside her own confusions about how much of her disease is real and how much fabricated. The short length of the book allows Slater's literary trickery to work well.

As an adult, Slater confesses to her adolescent neurologist that she frequently exaggerated her seizures and symptoms right before her corpus callostomy surgery. He dismisses her guilt, saying it was well-known that she was an exaggerator. "Okay, you lied. But really, Lauren, I don't want you to feel guilty. In a sense you lied, but in another sense you didn't, because trickery is so hinged on your personality style, and, therefore, you were only being true to yourself."

Also as an adult, Slater finds salvation in AA, despite the fact that she's hardly a drinker. She enjoys the comraderie and the structure of the 12 steps. The climax of Slater's coming to terms with her disease is a stunning confessional at an AA meeting, spoken entirely metaphorically, which has a huge impact on her group and the reader.

Well done, but not quite enough feeling.......2005-10-09

Lauren Slater's tribute to postmodernism in her "metaphorical memoir" is an interesting exploration of the role of fact in what is true. Where we may tend to regard the objective facts of a situation to be the truth of it, Ms. Slater takes a much more subjective view. She asserts her point, explicitly and in a masterful way woven seemlessly throughout the text, that there may be a more truthful way to relate a situation, a character, an anecdote, than to simply relate the facts.

So she leads us to wonder even about the most central elements of the story. Does she really have epilepsy? Has she ever really had a seizure? Does the doctor she cites throughout her story really exist, or is he a metaphor also?

While fascinating questions I found their deliberate effect a bit too successful: I couldn't trust the narrator. Unfortunately for me, that meant also that I was ultimately unable to feel close to the narrator and really understand her motivations -- perhaps, in my eyes at least, the most important role of a memoir.

It's a bit of a quandry that I'm left in. She's succeeded fully in doing what she set out to do. She's presented herself as something of a chronic lier; a trickster at the very least. But since I know this about her so soon, and I'm so frequently reminded, I have difficultly staving off the need to push her away. So as a memoir, instead of a piece of literary theory, I found Slater's book a bit distant.

Another triumph for Slater........2005-10-07

Lauren Slater, Lying (Random House, 2000)

I picked up Lauren Slater's first book, Welcome to My Country, on a whim in 1997, and instantly fell in love with Slater's impeccable prose. That she related case studies without descending into the smarmy self-help realm of, say, Oliver Sacks helped immensely. Welcome to My Country was on my best-I-read list that year.

Fast forward to 2005, and I start wondering what Slater's been up to since releasing it. I check her out at Amazon, and am thrilled to find she's released two books since. Lying is the first of them I picked up, and it's great to see she's still at the top of her game.

Billed as "a metaphorical memoir," we are given an autobiography of Lauren Slater, an epileptic who's had a rather extreme surgical procedure performed to counter her epilepsy. It controls the physical aspects-- the seizures-- but hasn't controlled any of the mental. This, of course, is the stuff popular memoirs are made of; the dysfunctional childhood sells.

What Slater brings to the table that sets her apart from the others is that, while there is always the understanding that the memoir is colored by the perceptions of its author, Slater recognizes this as much as any reader, and has decided to play with it-- to the point where the reader (and the person who wrote the cover copy, as well) realize that by the time we reach the first of Slater's revelations that she's written a fantasy as an actual event, we can no longer even be sure she has epilepsy. This opens up whole worlds of discussion in the larger genre of memoir, and that in itself makes Lying a singularly important work in its field; if taken as a greater meditation on memoir, the reader should come away with this book with a new way of looking at the form.

All that aside, though, the best reason to read Lauren Slater's books is simply that she's a fine, fine writer. Lying also has a very, very good chance of landing on this year's best-I-read list, despite the quality of my reading having skyrocketed in recent years. **** ½

nacreous.......2004-11-03

Lying is both intellectually exciting and in some ways, psychologically helpful. It promotes the view of the influence of behavior and talk on mental illness, i.e., in this book, epilepsy. Lauren Slater is actually remarkably close-mouthed in many instances (through her reliance on emotionally based rather than realistic, connect the dots, event by event narration) for a person able to write countless memoirs, concerning her own mental illness, and she could have epilepsy--but I don't think so, just the fact that this is "A Metaphorical Memoir" and she talks about what her metaphor of epilepsy actually means very strongly indicates the fact, that she is talking about her mental illness. Her metaphorical lying about epilepsy also extends to the both escapist and hurtful tendencies of borderline personality disorder which go along with her depression. To be able to look at such feelings as influenced by behavior is freeing in a sense because with a change of behavior and biochemistry a new person can be shaped. A little lying is still nice anyway in a person who is able to be psychologically dependent or interdependent, as it creates an effervescent, "nacreous" (this appears to be one of Slater's favorite words) fiction such as this.

Personally, I think that this book is less scary than Prozac Diary, and more helpful to me as a person, simply seeking ways to deal with life. Of course, scaring and disgusting and making a person afraid of even herself can have its uses and is not a hallmark of bad literature---but it was more alienating than instructive.

Also, I am proud of Lauren Slater for going from tell-all-literature to a more novelistic postmodern style, despite the fact that this is still a memoir. I hope that she writes more books: hopefully, ones that are not autobiographical. I would prefer novels, but if she wants to write psychological tomes that's cool too. This is the kind of book that I could definitely see a college professor assigning in class and I rather would like that idea if I were the author.

The people who say this book is unreadable are probably those readers who liked her through her other book, Prozac Diary, which is in a fairly different style. Certain people like certain styles. I prefer this style. It's classier.

I wonder who Christopher Marin is? It's cool that he wrote a review.

Not "creative genius" just weird.......2004-09-27

I must admit that I was somewhat dissapointed in "Lying". The book has a great deal of promise as a tale of dealing with the rigors of epilepsy and various familial dysfunctions but it really doesn't follow through. I will give Slater credit for some marvelously imaginative prose but I finished the book feeling disoriented and duped. After gaining the your interest regarding her coping with her illness and other factors, Slater punishes your emotional investment in her trials by revealing in the last few pages that some or all or none of the entire book is true. Maybe she has epilepsy or maybe its just personality disorder or maybe its neither or maybe she is just a liar or maybe we all are or maybe we are all trying to justfy our existences with "seizures" at reality or maybe . . . etc. While I think all of this was designed to encourage the reader to see life as one big metaphor, it left me with the attitude of simply "yeah, whatever" and I simply ceased caring at all what happened to her. "Lying" is a distracting book that is worth borrowing from someone for its poetic strength but I would skip purchasing this one.

Book Description

The Orders and Decorations of the "enemy" during the Vietnam War have remained shrouded in mystery for many years. References to them are scarce and interrogations of captives during the war often led to the proliferation of misinformation concerning them. To confuse the situation even more, these awards were bestowed by the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), known then as the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV), and the National Front for the Liberation of South Vietnam (NLF), and a myriad of political and local organizations. Covered ar those Orders and Decorations now considered official by the SRV, as well as many of the obsolete awards bestowed by the DRV and the NLF. It also discusses many of the commemorative, political and local awards. Includes value guide.

Customer Reviews:

Best I.D. book on medals from the Vietnamese communist side.......1998-03-09

This book renders all other works on the subject obsolete. Big full color photos make proper identification of medals and ribbons simple. I believe any serious collector of Vietnam war militaria needs this book.

Book Description

Now in a new fourth edition, The American Presidency: Origins and Development, 1776-2002--winner of the Benjamin Franklin Award for History, Politics, and Philosophy--examines both the constitutional precepts of the presidency and the social, economic, political, and international conditions that continue to shape it. Authors Milkis and Nelson analyze the origins of the modern presidency and discuss the patterns of presidential conduct that developed during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. With careful consideration of every presidential administration, attention is focused more on how individual presidents shaped the office, and less on the idiosyncrasies of their personalities.

Unlike other texts on the presidency that divide executive politics into somewhat artificial and discrete topical chapters, The American Presidency integrates all aspects of the presidency into a dynamic whole and examines the variation of presidential relationships and roles from administration to administration. Students gain both an understanding of the office as it really exists and a solid historical foundation from which to better appreciate its evolution.

Thoroughly up to date, the fourth edition provides complete coverage of the Clinton presidency and the first two years of the George W. Bush administration, as well as coverage of the remarkable 2000 and 2002 elections. The authors meticulously take into account new research on the presidency, while continuing to refine the writing and analysis of what has become a classic in the field of presidential studies.

Customer Reviews:

Everything you wanted to know about the presidency..........2004-06-08

...but were afraid to ask. Comprehensive, readable, well-organized. A must-have for every serious scholar of the presidency, certainly. I think it will also prove very useful to the intended audience as a textbook for courses on the American presidency, especially those looking at it from a historical angle. Well-written and a page turner, which is a rarity in political science.

Book Description

This is the story of how rural western farmers and their supporters stood up against entrenched environmentalists, liberal politicians, appointed Federal judges, and agencies of the Federal Government.and prevailed. It is the story of farmers in the Klamath Basin and those who supported them in their struggle to reclaim their water rights in the summer of 2001. It is a story told through eye-witness accounts, narratives, and pictures. This author was humbled to stand with those patriotic, God-fearing Americans defending their God-given, unalienable rights against a Federal bureaucracy gone amok. It's a story of how a rabid environmental lobby, federal judges, and politicians willfully perverted our system to deprive those citizens of their water and property rights. In so doing, those citizens were in danger of losing their livelihoods and their way of life. It led to intolerable conditions that could not be allowed to stand.and those conditions did not stand. May this inspiring story of American faith, courage, and determination serve as a beacon for all those who read it, may it also serve as a model for others to defend their own rights whenever this ugly specter rears its head.

Download Description

This is the story of how rural western farmers and their supporters stood up against entrenched environmentalists, liberal politicians, appointed Federal judges, and agencies of the Federal Government.and prevailed. It is the story of farmers in the Klamath Basin and those who supported them in their struggle to reclaim their water rights in the summer of 2001 in Oregon and California. It is a story told through eye-witness accounts, narratives, and pictures. This author was humbled to stand with those patriotic, God-fearing Americans defending their God-given, unalienable rights against a Federal bureaucracy gone amok. It's a story of how a rabid environmental lobby, federal judges, and politicians willfully perverted our system to deprive those citizens of their water and property rights. In so doing, those citizens were in danger of losing their livelihoods and their way of life. It led to intolerable conditions that could not be allowed to stand.and those conditions did not stand. May this inspiring story of American faith, courage, and determination serve as a beacon for all those who read it, may it also serve as a model for others to defend their own rights whenever this ugly specter rears its head.

Customer Reviews:

Farmers persevere.......2006-04-22

This is a great story of perseverence and faith. The farmers there in Oregon and California stood up for their rights and were rewarded by retaining those rights. This is an exciting and revealing story of how they went about it.

As to some contentions that Salmon were dying as a result of that farming...I have looked into it know of no official report attrinuting any Salmon kills in 2001 to the Kalmath Irrigation Project. The principle issue at that time was the sucker fish in the lake, and that issue was later shown to be nothing more than faulty science.

There was a large number of fish that died a year or two later, but scientific investigation and analysis have showed that there was no relation to the Klamath water crisis.

Those farmers have been farming like they for over 100 years. I expect, and am thanksful, that they now may well be doing it another 100 years.

That's what this story is about, and it is well done. Bravo for the farmers of the Klamath Basin and their allies!

Farmers persevere.......2006-04-22

This is a great story of perserverence and faith. The famrers there in Oregon and California stood up for their rights and were rewarded by retaining those rights. This is an exciting and revealing story of how they went about it.

As to the one reviewer's contention that Salmon were dying...I have looked into it know of no official report attrinuting any Salmon kills in 2001 to the Kalmath Irrigation Project. The principle issue at that time was the sucker fish in the lake, and that issue was later shown to be nothing more than faulty science.

There was a large number of fish that died a year or two later, but scientific investigation and analysis have showed that there was no relation to the Klamath water crisis.

Those farmers have been farming like they do...and yes some of it is flood irrigation of fields, but that is nothing new in the area, for over 100 years. I expect, and am thanksful, that they now may well be doing it another 100 years.

That's what this story is about, and it is well done. Bravo for the farmers of the Klamath Basin and their allies!

Short Sighted Fools.......2006-04-17

The Pacific Coast salmon fisherman, as well as the salmon consumers, may be much less sympathetic and understanding of the Klamath Basin farmers now (2006). The salmon population was devastated and will be for years, if it ever recovers. Dead and dying salmon were floating in the Klamath River where it meets the Pacific Ocean when the water was shut off.

Tell me that fields of mint were more important than the river and the salmon! Potatoes can be grown with much less water than is used there. Mint is more important than the life of an important river? I drove through the area after the irrigation gates had been opened. Water was running off the roads and off the fields into the drainage ditches. Just being wasted for no good reason.

I am an Oregon farmer. My water rights go back to the 1800s. I have sheep, cattle, hay fields and a market garden. Do I abuse the system? Do I waste water? NO! Do I wish to see the rivers AND the farmers exist in my grandchildren's life? YES, I do. Do you?

Margaret Wilson

A clear record of genuine courage.......2006-03-19

Excellently written: an absorbing book. I downloaded the book (which easily and colorfully opens up in Preview on a Macintosh) and discovered that the moral is very clear : that a group working with prayers to the Lord, cell phones, internet connections and courageous Americans will accomplish good, legal, just and right goals. The brave Klamath Americans successfully defended their access to their water. Against whom? Selfish politicians who were taught a lesson by the brave Klamath Americans.

I highly recommend this book to students of contemporary politics and American government as well as to people interested in learning how to get things done the right way.

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