Book Description
At once an incredible adventure narrative and a penetrating biographical portrait, The River of Doubt is the true story of Theodore Roosevelt’s harrowing exploration of one of the most dangerous rivers on earth.
The River of Doubt—it is a black, uncharted tributary of the Amazon that snakes through one of the most treacherous jungles in the world. Indians armed with poison-tipped arrows haunt its shadows; piranhas glide through its waters; boulder-strewn rapids turn the river into a roiling cauldron.
After his humiliating election defeat in 1912, Roosevelt set his sights on the most punishing physical challenge he could find, the first descent of an unmapped, rapids-choked tributary of the Amazon. Together with his son Kermit and Brazil’s most famous explorer, Cândido Mariano da Silva Rondon, Roosevelt accomplished a feat so great that many at the time refused to believe it. In the process, he changed the map of the western hemisphere forever.
Along the way, Roosevelt and his men faced an unbelievable series of hardships, losing their canoes and supplies to punishing whitewater rapids, and enduring starvation, Indian attack, disease, drowning, and a murder within their own ranks. Three men died, and Roosevelt was brought to the brink of suicide. The River of Doubt brings alive these extraordinary events in a powerful nonfiction narrative thriller that happens to feature one of the most famous Americans who ever lived.
From the soaring beauty of the Amazon rain forest to the darkest night of Theodore Roosevelt’s life, here is Candice Millard’s dazzling debut.
Customer Reviews:
INCREDIBLE READ!!!!.......2007-10-21
What an incredible book, this is one from the moment I started reading I could not put down. BUY THE BOOK you will love it!!!
What an Adventure.......2007-10-18
What a great book. It is amazing to me that in the face of all the danger and near death experiences, these men continued to behave in the most civilized manor. Very inspiring for me.
river of doubt.......2007-10-06
This book was great, if you like adventure, exploration, or teddy roosevelt this is the book for you.
not boaring at all this book is awsome
A Gripping Tale of Men of Character.......2007-09-21
Oh, for a President who had even one tenth of the character and integrity of the Teddy Roosevelt portrayed in this book. This is a real-life version of Conrad's Heart of Darkness, but the central figure never loses his sense of dedication and honor. Although there is plenty of suspense, even horror, in the story, I found it to be ultimately quite inspiring.
Awesome.......2007-09-20
This book went into so much detail about TR's expedition in Brazil that is hardly mentioned in other books on his life. And what a story it is! I heartily recommend it to anyone.
Average customer rating:
- Calculations are only as good as your numbers
- Pants on fire?
- Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed.
- Very Interesting
- History as Science Fiction
|
History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)
Anatoly Fomenko
Manufacturer: Mithec
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
 Chinese
| Ethnic & National
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
Irish
| Ethnic & National
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
Japanese
| Ethnic & National
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
Women
| Specific Groups
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
Augustine, Saint
| ( A )
| People, A-Z
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
Doctors & Medicine
| Humor
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
Lawyers & Criminals
| Humor
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
Love, Sex & Marriage
| Humor
| Entertainment
| Subjects
| Books
Assyria, Babylonia & Sumer
| Ancient
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Early Civilization
| Ancient
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Ancient
| History
| Subjects
| Books
Historiography
| Historical Study
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| World
| History
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Asian American
| United States
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Asian American
| Poetry
| United States
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
French
| Erotica
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Victorian
| Erotica
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Epic
| Poetry
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
German
| Poetry
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Russian
| Poetry
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Spanish
| Poetry
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Chinese
| Classics
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Conspiracy Theories
| Current Events
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
War on Drugs
| Crime & Criminals
| Nonfiction
| Subjects
| Books
English (All)
| Dictionaries & Thesauruses
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
Arabic
| Foreign Language
| Dictionaries & Thesauruses
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
Armenian
| Foreign Language
| Dictionaries & Thesauruses
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
Czech
| Foreign Language
| Dictionaries & Thesauruses
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
Greek
| Foreign Language
| Dictionaries & Thesauruses
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
Hungarian
| Foreign Language
| Dictionaries & Thesauruses
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
Japanese
| Foreign Language
| Dictionaries & Thesauruses
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
Korean
| Foreign Language
| Dictionaries & Thesauruses
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
Norwegian
| Foreign Language
| Dictionaries & Thesauruses
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
Persian & Farsi
| Foreign Language
| Dictionaries & Thesauruses
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
Polish
| Foreign Language
| Dictionaries & Thesauruses
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
Portuguese
| Foreign Language
| Dictionaries & Thesauruses
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
Romanian
| Foreign Language
| Dictionaries & Thesauruses
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
Russian
| Foreign Language
| Dictionaries & Thesauruses
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
Swedish
| Foreign Language
| Dictionaries & Thesauruses
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
Turkish
| Foreign Language
| Dictionaries & Thesauruses
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
Science
| Dictionaries & Thesauruses
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
Online Research
| Genealogy
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
Native American
| Earth-Based Religions
| Religion & Spirituality
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
General
| History & Philosophy
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
History of Science
| History & Philosophy
| Science
| Subjects
| Books
Magic & Wizards
| Fantasy
| Science Fiction & Fantasy
| Subjects
| Books
Sailor Moon
| Popular Characters
| Children's Books
| Subjects
| Books
Pilates
| Exercise & Fitness
| Health, Mind & Body
| Subjects
| Books
History
| Fashion
| Arts & Photography
| Subjects
| Books
Look Inside Children's Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Look Inside Entertainment Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Look Inside Health Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Look Inside History Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Look Inside Fiction Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Look Inside Nonfiction Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Look Inside Reference Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Look Inside Religion & Spirituality Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Look Inside Romance Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Look Inside Science Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Look Inside Science Fiction & Fantasy Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
All Titles
| Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007
| Stores
| Books
Similar Items:
-
History: Fiction or Science? Chronology 2 (Chronology)
-
History: Fiction or Science? Astronomical methods as applied to chronology. Ptolemy's Almagest. Chronology III
-
Discovering the Mysteries of Ancient America: Lost History And Legends, Unearthed And Explored
-
Before the Pharaohs: Egypt's Mysterious Prehistory
-
They Cast No Shadows: A Collection of Essays on the Illuminati, Revisionist History, and Suppressed Technologies
ASIN: 2913621058 |
Book Description
Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.
Customer Reviews:
Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03
Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.
Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19
Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.
Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09
There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.
For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.
Very Interesting.......2007-03-07
It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.
History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10
Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.
I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.
Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.
Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.
I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.
This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.
Book Description
In this engaging new book, Bob Deans introduces Americans to the James River, explaining its essential role in the shaping of modern America and helping readers to understand how much of who we are as a nation is rooted along its shores. iThe River Where America Begani takes readers on a journey along the James from the earliest days of civilization nearly 15,000 years ago through the English settlement at Jamestown and finishing with Lincoln's tour of the defeated capital of Richmond in 1865.
Customer Reviews:
Wonderfully written.......2007-09-17
This is a wonderfully written, informative book that focuses on the history that happened on the James River from 1607 to 1865.
Like any good storyteller, Deans illuminates specific characters (John Smith, Pocahontas, Powhatan, Patrick Henry and Abraham Lincoln among them), to shed light on the whole. And the whole is this: That the two original sins of the American experiment -- our near-genocidal treatment of the Indians and our institution of black slavery -- began here, early in our formative years, on the banks of the James River in Virginia. At the very same time and in the very same place, began our very real belief in a democratic government of laws and not of men.
On this river was nurtured the the notion that all men were created equal, even as those who proclaimed liberty and equality denied it (and increasingly codified that denial) to a whole race of men and women.
That such schizophrenia of national psyche could not long endure seems obvious. And the fever that provided the cure finally broke here, too, on the banks of the James in April 1865.
This is a terrific book. However, the publisher, I believe, has let the writer down in two respects: It could use more maps. When Deans writes of someone rounding this point, exploring this tributary or inhabiting that island, I want to have a map close at hand to see for myself. There are a few maps, and they are good, but I would like more.
And here's a thing sure to rankle any West Virginian ex-copy editor: In the chapter on John Brown's raid on Harper's Ferry (then Virginia, today West Virginia), it says he was hanged in nearby Charleston. As any Mountain Stater (and probably even some Virginians) know, Charleston, the state capital, is in the south central part of the state. Charles Town, where they have horse racing, is in the Eastern Panhandle. Charles Town is close to Harper's Ferry, not Charleston. (And as any newspaperman knows, Charleston, Charles Town is an AP Stylebook entry. I presume the error is an editor's and not Deans'.)
Really Good.......2007-08-11
Hi,
I am reading this book right now and am on page 238 of 287. This is the most readable "history" book I have ever read. I would give it a 4 1/2 out of 5 really. He gets into the baptism of Pochohontas and gets a little sharp with the tongue. Don't pass up on this book though because of a few pages. Everyones opinion still matters. I do like how it's in a storybook format and I do like the authors opinion most of the time. I would say the book is 85% fact, %15 opinion.
Very knowledgable writer. A book that gives you the framework to be educated about American history in discussions with your friends. No thanksgiving story and they lived happily ever after. America was founded by immigrants and freedom fighters, criminals, slaves, and Native Americans obviously.
Thanks. God Bless.
Aaron.
Reclaims your lack of American history knowledge.......2007-06-10
If you didn't take or do well in early American history class, this book will go a long way to help. Bob Deans, informatively and entertainingly, chronicles the first foreign footprints on American soil. In doing so, he sympathetically gives the natives their due, while exploring with reportorial acumen, the inexorable march, good and bad, toward democracy, all of which started "along the James," in Dean's beloved state.
first democratic government in the USA was the House of Burgesses.......2007-05-26
And black slaves were in Jamestown before the Pilgrims landed in Mass.
Lively and instructive.
A fascinating book.
The Most Readable Jamestown Book.......2007-05-16
If you only have time to read one Jamestown book, read this one. Deans gives a thorough history of the founding of Jamestown, puts it into historical context, both in terms of the English and the Native Americans (and not too much later, the Africans, who were essential to the success of the Virginia colony) with a style that is both poetic and crisp. He has a great ability to step back to assess the historic significance of the quotidian tasks of building a society in the New World, while also getting up close and personal with the very real human beings who built it. He covers a lot of ground while including colorful detail and character studies of John Smith, Pocahantas, Powhatan, and others. If you're going to visit the Jamestown area, this book is the ideal companion, because Deans also covers the area's role in the American revolution (Patrick Henry and Thomas Jefferson both had their roots along the James) and the Civil War, from early slave revolts to the fall of of the Confederate capital at Richmond. All in all, a joy to read.
Stefania Pittaluga, Washingon, D.C.
Amazon.com
In 1996, 26-year-old Peter Hessler arrived in Fuling, a town on China's Yangtze River, to begin a two-year Peace Corps stint as a teacher at the local college. Along with fellow teacher Adam Meier, the two are the first foreigners to be in this part of the Sichuan province for 50 years. Expecting a calm couple of years, Hessler at first does not realize the social, cultural, and personal implications of being thrust into a such radically different society. In River Town: Two Years on the Yangtze, Hessler tells of his experience with the citizens of Fuling, the political and historical climate, and the feel of the city itself.
"Few passengers disembark at Fuling ... and so Fuling appears like a break in a dream--the quiet river, the cabins full of travelers drifting off to sleep, the lights of the city rising from the blackness of the Yangtze," says Hessler. A poor city by Chinese standards, the students at the college are mainly from small villages and are considered very lucky to be continuing their education. As an English teacher, Hessler is delighted with his students' fresh reactions to classic literature. One student says of Hamlet, "I don't admire him and I dislike him. I think he is too sensitive and conservative and selfish." Hessler marvels,
You couldn't have said something like that at Oxford. You couldn't simply say: I don't like Hamlet because I think he's a lousy person. Everything had to be more clever than that ... you had to dismantle it ... not just the play itself but everything that had ever been written about it.
Over the course of two years, Hessler and Meier learn more they ever guessed about the lives, dreams, and expectations of the Fuling people.
Hessler's writing is lovely. His observations are evocative, insightful, and often poignant--and just as often, funny. It's a pleasure to read of his (mis)adventures. Hessler returned to the U.S. with a new perspective on modern China and its people. After reading River Town, you'll have one, too. --Dana Van Nest
Book Description
In the heart of Chia's Sichuan province lies the small city of Fuling. Surrounded by the terraced hills of the Yangtze River valley, Fuling has long been a place of continuity, far from the bustling political centers of Beijing and Shanghai. But now Fuling is heading down a new path, and gradually, along with scores of other towns in this vast and ever-evolving country, it is becoming a place of change and vitality, tension and reform, disruption and growth. As the people of Fuling hold on to the China they know, they are also opening up and struggling to adapt to a world in which their fate is uncertain.
Fuling's position at the crossroads came into remarkably sharp focus when Peter Hessler arrived as a Peace Corps volunteer in 1996, marking the first time in more than half a century that the city had an American resident. He found himself teaching English and American literature at the local college, discovering how Shakespeare and other classics look when seen through the eyes of students who have been raised in the Sichuan countryside and educated in Communist Party doctrine. His students, though, are the ones who taught him about the ways of Fuling -- and about the complex process of understanding that takes place when one is immersed in a radically different society.
As he learns the language and comes to know the people, Hessler begins to see that it is indeed a unique moment for Fuling. In its past is Communist China's troubled history -- the struggles of land reform, the decades of misguided economic policies, and the unthinkable damage of the Cultural Revolution -- and in the future is the Three Gorges Dam, which upon completion will partly flood the city and force the resettlement of more than a million people. Making his way in the city and traveling by boat and train throughout Sichuan province and beyond, Hessler offers vivid descriptions of the people he meets, from priests to prostitutes and peasants to professors, and gives voice to their views. This is both an intimate personal story of his life in Fuling and a colorful, beautifully written account of the surrounding landscape and its history. Imaginative, poignant, funny, and utterly compelling, River Town is an unforgettable portrait of a city that, much like China itself, is seeking to understand both what it was and what it someday will be.
Customer Reviews:
A Good Read.......2007-10-22
Almost nine years to the day after young Peter Hessler first set foot in Fuling, I floated by that remote city on the first night of a three-day Yangtze river cruise. I stayed up until 2:30 a.m. in order to catch a glimpse of the place I had been reading about for the past two weeks; so involved had I become in Peter Hessler's story. Finally, a vague assemblage of lights appeared upon the shore and I gazed silently at the town as it gazed silently back. Then, as quickly as it had emerged, it melted into and inky and airless night. In China, as anywhere, you often pass by these middle-of-nowhere towns and think, "I wonder what goes on there." After reading RIVER TOWN - TWO YEARS ON THE YANGTZE, I had my answer.
Hessler's tale is a compelling one, and - it must be said - told from the heart. Essentially, he fell in love with living in Fuling, a rustic town in the equally rustic province of Sichuan. He found college teaching, learning Mandarin (and slurry Sichuanese), and exploring the city, the hilly terrain around it, and the country beyond, to be nothing short of exhilarating and his zest for discovery is infectious. Although Hessler elaborates on much of the oddness that is China, he seldom does so in a disparaging tone. Except for some obtuse administrators and the occasional hostile bumpkin he encounters, the author treats virtually everyone he meets with respect and empathy. He's even tolerant of his assigned Chinese teacher in spite of her rather obvious intolerance and borderline disdain for foreigners and their deparaved ways. On occasion, Hessler can be cutting, but it is subtle; tactful.
RIVER TOWN is a good read. Having taught ESL to Chinese students for nearly a decade I found the subject matter to be highly relatable. Many critics have commented favorably on the writing style, but to be candid I found it somewhat stilted. I would posit that it's the story itself along with the enthusiasm in which it is conveyed that make this a quality book. There are many books on China, but for anyone thinking of teaching there this is certainly a good one to start with.
Troy Parfitt, author of NOTES FROM THE OTHER CHINA - ADVENTURES IN ASIA
Notes from the Other China - Adventures in Asia
The real China.......2007-10-21
This is truly a classic. A wonderfully detailed close-up look at the real China. Peter Hessler is a master writer This is a book to be recommended to everyone.
Fantastic.......2007-09-25
"River Town" is not only an entertaining read but an educational one as well. I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in China, travel, Peace Corps, or biographies. I was very impressed with Hessler's writing and I can't wait to read his new book "Oracle Bones"
Up A Buzy River.......2007-09-16
I have been to China twice, the first being in 1989 -- right at the beginning of the era when Americans could visit most parts of China without being part of an organized tour. My wife made arrangements for us to fly to Guangzhou for two days, thence to Wuhan for two days, and from there a 1000-mile Yangtze river trip to Chongqing for two days (where there were already student demonstrations), ending up in Beijing for a week, our hotel being only a couple of blocks from the Tien An Men Square demonstrations, during which we were confined to our hotel. On that Yangtze trip, our river boat stopped at the little village of Fuling, allowing the passengers to roam there for a short while. Thus, when I happened across this book about that village, written by a Peace Corps volunteer, I could hardly wait to read it.
Author Peter Kessler, son of professors, is from my home State of Missouri. Being a writer was his High School dream, and he joined the Peace Corps in 1996 probably for the usual humanitarian and idealistic motives, having behind him a degree in English from Princeton followed by a Rhodes scholarship. So he was certainly well prepared to teach English literature in a small, out-of-the-way rural Teachers College for two years. The book relates his varied and extremely interesting experiences over the course of a year.
The Peace Corps gave Peter the basics of conversational Chinese, and he assiduously studies that language while teaching, assisted of course by his social intercourse with his students and with his Chinese colleagues. And his students were evidently equipped with about that same level of expertise with English. The stories that arise from the resulting linguistic "near-blind leading the near-blind" are very humorous, as you can imagine. The vignettes of life in China are insightful, humorous, credulous, and filled with his clear sense that he was doing what he wanted and thought useful. Accounts of his relationships with students and faculty are delicious.
I give this a rating of 5 despite the inability of the author to practice what he surely must have warned his students against in his assigned writing assignments: grammatical improprieties such as, "he can run faster than me" and "(they) speak better Chinese than me." There are English professors who label this comment picky and an impediment to creativity, and to them I plead guilty, though I think they are just plain wrong. Never mind, for otherwise the writing is fine.
The author has published a sequel to this book, Oracle Bones, and I will read it as soon as I can, partly because I want to learn what the title really means, but also because I want to read more by Peter Kessler, especially material about China.
Well Done.......2007-09-09
Very well written. Enjoyable reading. Interesting look inside the small town feelings of the Chinese people. Looking forward to reading Peter Heller's next book Oracle Bones.
Amazon.com
Pink dolphins--and yes, in the Amazon River the flamingo-colored mammals do exist--are believed by Brazilians and Peruvians to take human form, impregnate women, lure lovers to an underwater paradise, and in various ways drive those who encounter them mad. They seem to have worked their magic on science writer Sy Montgomery, who journeys through rain forests and sunken cities in a mad-dash pursuit of the enigmatic creatures.
Despite encounters with piranha-filled waters, toxic ants, and large rats--not to mention boat failures, foreign language problems, and alternate blasts of sun and rain--the persistent Montgomery pushes happily on, offering a lyrical account as intoxicating as the subject itself. She eventually makes contact, swimming with them, even holding one in her arms, but that may be the least relevant aspect of the entire book. Montgomery turns nature into a bewildering drug, opening doors into cultural and biological worlds invisible to most, but which teem with as much unseen life as a drop of river water held under a microscope. --Melissa Rossi
Book Description
Scientists call them Inia geoffrensis, an ancient species of toothed whale whose origin dates back about 15 million years. To the local people of the Amazon, pink river dolphins are "botos," shape shifters that, in the guise of human desire, can claim your soul and take you to the Encante, an enchanted underwater world.
As tributaries braid into a single river, Journey of the Pink Dolphins weaves ancient myth and modern science into one woman's search for these elusive creatures. Over four separate journeys, Sy Montgomery follows the dolphins, tracing their spiritual, historical, and environmental past, present, and future. Ancient legends tell us that dolphins have guided humans for millennia, and in Journey of the Pink Dolphins, Montgomery answers their call, taking us to that perfect place where the Amazon melts into the forest, dolphins swim among treetops, and the twenty-first century dissolves into the beginning of time.
Customer Reviews:
Go along for the Journey of the Pink Dolphins.......2007-05-01
Journey of the Pink Dolphins: An Amazon Quest
Brilliant, gorgeous and sexy, Lucy and Ethel venture through the Amazon in search of the Pink Dolphins is the sense readers will get with this book.
Sy Montgomery is brilliant! The way she has interwoven science with comedy is nothing short of genius! Where others leave you bored, Montgomery draws the reader in as if they too are a guide on her fantastic journey with her intrepid side kick and photographer, Dianne Taylor Snow. Montgomery and Snow play off of each other like Lucy and Ethel, yet leave the reader with a broader knowledge of the Amazon and its inhabitants-- both animal and human. The science, humor and lore will keep the reader enthralled throughout and guaranteed to hunger for more of this genius author! They will certainly not be disappointed! Excellent photography!
OK. so the dolphins are pink....sort of.......2007-01-07
I'm a big fan of well written adventure books and books on natural history. The best of them transcend their subject matter to arrive at bigger truths about human nature, the world, and mankind's place in it. Sy Montgomery tries mightily to link her experience up with The Bigger Story, but never manages to do it. Her attempts to be profound become almost embarrassing after a while.
Sy writes a nature column for the Boston Globe and it shows. Everything of interest she has to say in this book could have been said in a column or two. What she's done in this book is take that column and simply keep repeating it over and over and over. Thus we hear narrative after narrative from the locals about how the bufeo live in an enchanted underwater city and come up on land periodically to seduce women. We spend day after day in a boat with her exclaiming "There's one! And there's another one!" After a while I found myself thinking "Sy, you go out in the boat and look for the bufeo. I'll lounge here on the hotel veranda and have some refreshments until you get back. Have a nice time."
Unlike some reviewers, I didn't find anything `magical' or particularly poetic about her descriptions of the environment. It's not that she's a bad writer - clearly she isn't - but she describes things the way a columnist would describe an exotic local for readers planning their next vacation - the size of the trees, the depth of the water, the different kinds of plants and bugs and wildlife you may encounter, with some attempt to make it all sound beautiful.
She does give some superficial history of the Amazon Basin, a little evolutionary history of dolphins, some "highlights" types of descriptions of a couple of towns and villages - everything you need to know to enhance your vacationing experience. She meets a lot of people along the way and dutifully describes the physical appearance of most of them. She tries to instill a little personality in each of them but can't pull it off, so even these encounters take on the quality of "And then I met this tanned woman wearing khaki shorts who was interested in manatees."
In the end, we have gone on a trip with Sy and visited a local market or two, admired the opera house at Manaus, caught some glimpses of the pink dolphins, listened to various natives tell the same legend, went to the funeral of a drowned child, dodged a snake or two, and got sweaty in the jungle. If you had any interest in pink dolphins before you started the book, you'll be over it by the time this trip ends.
disappointed.......2006-12-28
This review is based on a partial read. As a nature lover, I was excited to dive into this book after reading the reviews, but it turned out to be so bad that I couldn't stand to go beyond page 73. On page 35, I was taken aback by the comparison of the flavor of a fruit to "a mouthful of semen." What is such a gross comment doing in a nature book?? I shook my head and kept reading until I got to the superstitious nonsense about Encante. That's when I decided to toss it in the trash.
Fascinating but Frustrating.......2003-03-10
As someone who's interested in the Amazon, its people, culture, geography, fauna, flora and other subjects, I read this book for its fascinating topic. However, this is a very mixed bag. There are moving sections, as when she describes the genocide perpetrated against the native peoples by Europeans (you would not believe the atrocities and torture they visited the Indians, whom they considered lower than animals - much worse in its ferocity than the Holocaust of WWII). The writing can be quite bad at times (at one point, her powers of description comes up with a fruit she tried, "bitter as semen"). But the worse is, she seems to be a very bad science writer and researcher. Who edited this book? Certainly not people versed in science or Portuguese. She gets everything in Portuguese wrong. The scientific names and terms are often misspelled. Proceed with caution.
enchanting travelogue and work of natural history.......2003-02-04
I loved this book! Sy Montgomery is a talented writer, able to put you in exotic places with vivid descriptions, I almost felt I was in the Amazon. She really brought it to life, I look forward to reading another book of hers I have purchased, "Search for the Golden Moon Bear."
The book focuses on the author's quest for the pink dolphin, but really it is a journey to find not one but two dolphins. I don't refer to the other species of dolphin that lives in the Amazon, the tucuxis (one which she also covers in the book), but for two sides of the same animal. On the one hand she searches for the pink dolphin, the bufeo in Spanish or boto in Portguese, a living animal of which little is known about in comparison with many other dolphin species. Living in the most massive river system on earth, one connnected to innumerable lakes in the rainy season, in waters often black as coffee and infested with caimans, piranha, stingrays, and electric eels, in often very remote regions to which there is no reliable transportation to, it is a difficult subject to study. An example of cetaceans from an earlier geologic era, primitive when compared to modern oceanic dolphins, the pink dolphins preserve something from an eariler era, a holdover in the modern world. Montgomery and her various companions in the book struggle to get good observations of the dolphins, to try and track them, to identify individuals, to observe their behavior. The author finds that even experts who have studied the bufeo for years are often perplexed by them. She has many successes, providing much interesting information on them and a fine series of color photographs of the often startingly pink dolphins.
Montgomery though is also questing for the Encante, the mystical shape-shifting dolphin that is very real to many of the peoples who live along the mighty Amazon. Believed to exist in fabulous cities beneath the surface of the river, the locals speak in conspiratorial tones about the dolphins' magic powers and often lust for attractive humans. The natives often worry that their wives, husbands, sons, and daughters will be stolen about by the fabulous Encante, and speak with awe and reverence about the dolphins. Montgomery continually quests for the natives' views of the Encante, for their "true" tales, and for how they protect themselves against their fantastic attention.
Montgomery doesn't exlusively focus on dolphins though. Her book in part is a vivid travelogue of Amazonia, bringing us to many exotic locations. We visit Manaus, the impossible Paris of the Amazon, home to an opera house right out of a fairy tale. Built upon the backs of native jungle peoples by rubber barons, today it is a squalid city trying to embrace change. She takes us to amazing Meeting of the Waters, where for miles two tributies of the Amazon, the black River Negro and the white Solimoes, flow side by side before forming the true Amazon River. We are taken to two different nature reserves, both with differing strategies, Tamshiyacu-Tahuayo and Mamiraua, where some of the rich life and deadly beauty of Amazonia is preserved against an uncertain future. Montgomery takes us to the impossibly clear waters and white sandy beaches of the Tapajos and Arapiuns Rivers, where she actually swims with the dolphins, something not possible elsewhere in the dark and piranha-infested rivers elsewhere. She undertakes a vision quest by taking the hallucigenic Ayahuasca or "Mother of the Vine," something few Westerners have done (and for good reason).
Further, while the bufeo or boto is the star of the book, many other animals form a rich supporting cast. The odd hoatzin, a bird with claws, seemingly someting out of the Mesozoic. Electric eels, extremely common and suprisingly complex. Caimans, another seemingly prehistoric species. Amazonian manatees, gentle vegetarians that are much more intelligent than often given credit for. The weird side-necked turtle. All manner of insects, including ants. And more are given space.
Some have said that she rhapsodizes too much in the book, but I disagree. She has done her research, the book is filled with interviews with experts, and there is a nice bibliography at the end. She has skillfully combined hard science with poetry, and the effort is very worthwhile. I highly recommend it.
Amazon.com
For all the devastation and suffering AIDS has caused worldwide, we have devoted surprisingly little attention to its beginnings. Former UN official and BBC correspondent Edward Hooper hopes to find the source of AIDS in The River, a stunningly comprehensive yet deeply engaging scientific history of the disease. Through more than 10 years of research comprising over 600 interviews and untold hours of library work, Hooper has uncovered a complex, interlocking set of stories--of scientific research, of medical assistance to the Third World, of political and economic exigencies that drive the courses of our lives--and brought them together in over 1,000 pages of text, footnotes, references, and illustrations.
His thesis, that HIV made the jump from simians to humans via the administration of oral polio vaccine in Africa in the 1950s, is still controversial, but his arguments are powerful, broad, and undeniable--all that is lacking is conclusive proof. Like a good scientist (and, sad to say, unlike any HIV researcher to date), he offers several easy tests of his hypothesis. His tales of brilliant epidemiological deductions, biochemical comparisons, and physiological insights ought to convince the medical establishment that the answer can and should be found, both to help us deal with the current crisis and to keep us from creating new ones of its ilk. In a litigation-weary world, though, it seems that it will take the kind of tireless, impartial research found in The River to show us--and our leaders--that blame should take a back seat to truth when extreme circumstances demand it. --Rob Lightner
Book Description
While science has devoted much of its efforts to finding a cure for AIDS, the sources of this deadly epidemic remain largely unexamined. Distinguished science journalist Edward Hooper presents the meticulously researched, and highly readable, history of HIV and its possible origins. Pursuing leads across the U.S., the Caribbean, Europe, and Africa, Hooper pieces together the tantalizing clues offered by long-archived blood samples, early AIDS-like cases, and the medical interventions in Africa and elsewhere that may have played a role in SIVs crossover into humans. Hooper examines over two dozen theories of origin, and eventually discards most of them.
Customer Reviews:
Could it lead to a cure if true?.......2007-07-19
We should be looking more at what organizations are doing to people in Africa, and why so many Africans are suspicious of supposed humanitarians. All we see in television documentaries is a condescending attitude that "they" just don't understand science but rarely do they show the results of several known incidents of tainted vaccines, let alone those that are only suspected but with no proof.
More than just pointing fingers, if the hypothesis is true, it could lead to a cure if only the mainstream would look into it. How much information could researchers glean if this was the source, and they could backtrack the steps?
I bet it would help a lot!
The book should be put back into print.
amazing look at the origin of AIDS..........2007-02-26
Edward Hooper has written an amazingly researched hypothesis on the origin of the AIDS virus. He takes us back to the 50's around the region of the Congo River where clinical trials are being conducted on polio vaccines. The race is on whereas the scientist who can come up with the most accepted from of a polio vaccine will have ensured their place in medical history. In the race for fame and prize could scientists have unknowingly released a virus that will kill millions? The facts presented by Hooper are scary and convincing, it all makes sense as the dots are connected in this meticulously research book but the final piece will probaly never be found or admitted to and while this book leaves a strong impression, it remains what it is, a theory that might not be able to be proven. Too bad.
Forever Inspiring! Opening the Eyes of Science!.......2005-10-26
As a Biology and Pre-med student in 1999, I purchased this book fresh off the shelf, when it was first being sold. Dedicated to the world of science and research, I was eager to learn more about health, science, diseases, and the epidemic called AIDS.
As other reviewers have stated, this book is an excellent body of investigative research. It is also speculative in some instances to bridge the gaps between science and reality. I believe Hooper stayed as neutral as possible. He did interview many people, but guards against letting contaminate his own views in recording the evidence. The results are very clear and concise. The answers are all supported very thoroughly.
This book was inspiring to me because it opened the eyes of a dedicated young scientist (myself) to the dangers of science. There is corruption in every system, even one founded on saving people's lives! For the love of humanity, I do not understand how competition and greed has been so interlaced with our medical system from researchers to personal doctors, but it has. People should know the truth. This book takes one huge step towards revealing it! Aids is not the only epidemic or disease created by our own hands.
Thank you Mr. Hooper!
~SS
How so much could go wrong.......2005-09-09
The title of this book refers to the Congo River of Africa. This great river became famous in Western minds in the 1800s with the journeys of Dr. Livingstone. Later, it would be the setting of The Heart of Darkness. Doctors and scientists in the heart of darkness indeed as The River explains in its long, well-documented, exhaustive tale of secretive, unregulated medical research. This book's author interviews hundreds of individuals involved in this process, goes over countless documents, and from it, pieces together the following story.
After WWII there was a race to find a vaccine for polio that could be administered orally. Numerous groups of scientists from around the world took part in this race; the prize being fame, fortune, and patents galore. In public, these teams agreed to perform all their research in Western countries, document everything, and only conduct tests on adults who had signed written consent forms. In reality, many of these teams flocked to the Africa Congo to perform large-scale tests on unwitting and unknowing human populations, often without oversight by the press or medical institutions. These groups would inject various African primates with polio, extract serum from the infected primates, and using this serum to make experimental vaccines which would then be given to the local human populations.
This book contends that by this process, HIV was accidentally transmitted from certain monkeys into humans. The author provides numerous pieces of evidence in proof of this theory. First, the very same villages in the Congo where HIV was first discovered also happened to be the very same villages in which the polio tests were performed. Second, HIV was diagnosed in these villages 10 - 20 years after the polio tests were performed. Third, none of the other currently existing theories can explain how a primate virus passed into the human population, and spread so quickly, over a period of 4 decades, given that the two populations of monkeys and humans had coexisted in the same habitat since the dawn of man without any such transmission. Fourth, during public hearings in the 1950s, the various teams presented their oral vaccines to the world scientific community. One team found an unknown immunodeficiency virus in one of the samples provided by another team. Hmmm, an unknown immunodeficiency virus... sounds like HIV to me... Fifth, the scientists that conducted these trials in the Congo are unwilling to release their samples and scientific data for public scrutiny, even though all the patents and honors have already been distributed...
Overall, this is a very good book. Even if you do not believe the author's theory, I still highly recommend it for the author covers a lot of aspects of the medical field that one might not necessarily learn in school or in the newspapers. These include making and testing vaccines, animal testing, human testing, obtaining funding for medical research, scientific protocol, relationships between the medical community and governments, medical reporting, competition in the medical community, statistical sampling, and epidimiology.
Indictment of Koprowski and "Big Science".......2005-04-17
Ah, if only AIDS would have remained "GRID," a gay disease that only infected and affected gays! Nobody would care!!
Stinging statement, isn't it? From the perspective of Koprowski and other involved scientists and governments, that sentence probably rings quite true.
It is important to note that this book is essentially a hypothesis which brings so much circumstantial evidence to its defense, that it is impossible to ignore. Thankfully, growing numbers of scientists are bucking the trend and receiving the OPV/AIDS theory as highly plausible.
I am not going to go into all of the details, but I would like to say that unfortunately for so many "scientists," who are more loyal to their own "theories" than to available facts/evidence, this book and Ed Hooper's work is now MONUMENTAL. It is people like Hooper, with an eye for objectivity and the heart of a lion, that can change the course of history. Indeed, the pen is mightier than the sword.
Koprowski's career will be forever stained, not because of the information provided in this book, but because of his refusal to face the OPV/AIDS theory head-on like a true scientist.
I highly suggest reading "And the Band Played On" immediately after completing The River.
Book Description
Kira Salak is a young woman with a history of seeking impossible challenges. She grew up relishing the exploits of the great Scottish explorer Mungo Park and set herself the daunting goal of retracing his fatal journey down West Africa's Niger river for 600 miles to Timbuktu. In so doing she became the first person to travel alone from Mali's Old Segou to "the golden city of the Middle Ages," and, legend has it, the doorway to the end of the world. In the face of the hardships she knew were to come, it is amazing that she could have been so sanguine about her journey's beginning: "I have the peace and silence of the wide river, the sun on me, a breeze licking my toes, the current as negligible as a faint breath. Timbuktu seems distant and unimaginable." Enduring tropical storms, hippos, rapids, the unrelenting heat of the Sahara desert and the mercurial moods of this notorious river, she traveled solo through one of the most desolate regions in Africa where little had changed since Mungo Park was taken captive by Moors in 1797. Dependent on locals for food and shelter, each night she came ashore to stay in remote mud-hut villages on the banks of the Niger, meeting Dogan sorceresses and tribes who alternately revered and reviled her- so remarkable was the sight of an unaccompanied white woman paddling all the way to Timbuktu. Indeed, on one harrowing stretch she barely escaped harm from men who chased her in wooden canoes, but she finally arrived, weak with dysentery, but triumphant, at her destination. There, she fulfilled her ultimate goal by buying the freedom of two Bella slaves with gold. This unputdownable story is also a meditation on self-mastery by a young adventuress without equal, whose writing is as thrilling as her life.
Customer Reviews:
Plus ca change...........2007-01-14
Salak does a beautiful job of meshing her on-the-spot adventures with those of her mentor, Mungo Park. Although he died mysteriously on the journey after passing Timbuktu, the power of his experiences call to her out of the gap of 400 years through his writings. After reading this excellent travel account, I see that many things too often remain the same along the Niger: hatred by the Moor towards the non-Muslim to the point of physical torture and robbery, clitorodectomy for 90% of the women, slavery in Mali (where it is officially outlawed). Of course the Niger itself remains the same, too, and Salak has to contend with its gods the way Park did: they send unbearable heat, rain unlike any she has experienced, hunger....Because of her extraordinary sensitivity, the reader learns to absorb it all. Caroline Alexander's account of her retracing of Mary Kingsley's W. African journey in "One Dry Season" would be a good book to follow this account on one's bedside table.
VERY interesting journey through Mali, Africa by kayak.......2006-10-17
This book was very interesting and hard to put down because I was anxious to see what adventures lie ahead on the Niger River. The only thing I was disappointed in is that the author continued to hand out money perpetuating the problem of the locals thinking they can beg for money from anyone white. I just returned from South Africa, Botswana, and Zimbabwe and, after reading this book, I can say I am EXTREMELY glad I did not travel to Mali! The hostilities, extreme poverty, slavery, and human mutilation she witnessed in Mali would've been depressing but at the same time I think it's something we should all learn about. I enjoyed the book so much I'm ordering her "Four Corners" book today. There are no photos in the book except for a small one of the author on the book cover. If you want to see the photos of her journey, you'll have to go onto the National Geographic site or do an internet search for Kira Salak.
I Couldn't Put It Down,.......2006-03-26
This book is many things. It's an adventure story. It's a geography lesson. It's a study in anthropology. It's an exposition on the mindset of an explorer.
Mostly, it's a well-written tale of an American woman, Kira Salak, and her quest to continue living an extraordinary life. "If a journey doesn't have something to teach you about yourself, then what kind of journey is it?" she writes. This book takes us along for the ride. The tone is conversational, very readable, honest, and refreshing.
The Cruelest Journey is aptly named. Indeed, Salak recounts a grueling journey inside an inflatable red kyak, 600 miles along the Niger River in the West African country, Mali. She encounters both friendly and hostile villagers, calm and stormy weather, hunger, injury, sickness, potentially dangerous hippos, and incredible uncertainty. Using the Scottish explorer, Mungo Park, as a mentor of sorts, she attempts to reenact his adventure some 200 years earlier. She finds that not a lot has changed from what she read in his memoirs, which she holds close throughout the trip and quotes often.
Before I picked up this book, I didn't know where to point on a map to tell anyone the location of Timbuktu. It's a mysterious place, often used to describe the outskirts of the world. Salak's journey doesn't dispel this myth.
I found this story fascinating and highly recommend it.
From the author of "I'm Living Your Dream Life" and "The Things I Wish I'd Said," McKenna Publishing Group.
In a kayak!.......2006-03-17
Salak not only takes the reader on a journey into the interior of Africa, but also into the jungles of the mind as she deals with her own feelings and impressions of what she sees and experiences during these many miles. Such writing - and sharing - is what makes for a travelogue more revealing and pleasurable than just words and pictures.
While in this instance, the publisher chose not to include pictures, photos were taken and can be found at http://www.nationalgeographic.com/adventure/0301/photo_1.html
The National Geographic photographer, Rémi Bénali, had this to say about the experience:
"Kira and I made a deal that I would not interfere with her adventure-I had a big boat, with a crew. She had to experience Africa by herself. So we would only meet for a few hours every four days.
"As you can see, everybody's on the banks of the river, looking at her leaving. It's so interesting for them-it's the first time they've seen such a kayak. The first time I saw it, I thought, She's not going to make it! It's too small, like a toy."
*********
I'm glad Kira Salak made it.
And I'm glad National Geographic at least made those photos available on-line, if not in the book. It was nice to be able to glimpse some of the scenes she described in her compelling writing.
A good dose of hype.......2006-03-02
This book was hyped hard by reviewers and jacket comments---(do they pay these guys or are they all with the same publisher or what?) as a SOLO first descent. I picked up the book at the library (fortunately), because I like to read about solo canoe/kayak travel.
Come to find out, a few pages into the story--the author admits to being shadowed by a photographer!!I couldn't believe it. It felt like a betrayal. That's as far as I read. This is not a solo adventure book in the sense that it reflects the same perils and exposure, physically and psychologically--as the archtypical "solo" adventurer is exposed to. That aspect of experiencing the perils and paying the inexorable dues for errors and lack of judgement is what makes adventure real. This book does not reflect that philosophy.
Average customer rating:
- Several good essays about the West
- An addventurs book that you will love!
- drifting along Ed's river
- A rebel with a cause
- Highly recommended!
|
Down the River (Plume)
Edward Abbey
Manufacturer: Plume
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
United States
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
| 18th Century
| 19th Century
| 20th Century
| African American
| Asian American
| Classics
| Collections & Readers
| Drama
| General
| Hispanic
| History & Criticism
| Humor
| Jewish American
| Letters & Correspondence
| Native American
| Poetry
| Short Stories
| Women Writers
Travel
| Writing
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
Ecology
| Environment
| Outdoors & Nature
| Subjects
| Books
Nature Writing
| Outdoors & Nature
| Subjects
| Books
Reference
| Outdoors & Nature
| Subjects
| Books
Look Inside Fiction Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Look Inside Outdoors & Nature Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Look Inside Reference Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Look Inside Science Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Look Inside Travel Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Similar Items:
-
The Journey Home (Plume)
-
Desert Solitaire
-
Abbey's Road
-
Fire on the Mountain
-
The Monkey Wrench Gang (P.S.)
ASIN: 0452265630 |
Book Description
"Be of good cheer," the war-horse Edward Abbey advises, "the military-industrial state will soon collapse." This sparkling book, which takes us up and down rivers and across mountains and deserts, is the perfect antidote to despair.
Along the way, Abbey makes time for Thoreau while he takes a hard look at the MX missile system, slated for the American West. "For 23 years now I've been floating rivers. Always downstream, the easy and natural way. The way Huck Finn and Jim did it, LaSalle and Marquette, the mountain men, and Major Powell."
"Abbey's the original fly in the ointment. Give him money and prizes. Don't let anything happen to him." --Thomas McGuane
Customer Reviews:
Several good essays about the West.......2005-09-30
I don't believe this is Edward Abbey's best work, but it is a nice collection of several very well-written essays.
The book includes good examinations of the issue of silt in Lake Powell and a decent look at the Colorado River hermit Bert Loper.
It's a great book to read on river, or in the desert, and Abbey's salty character comes through in every page--though the book does drag a little toward its end.
An addventurs book that you will love!.......2003-04-25
Many things I liked about this book was that it had alot of addventure and excitment. The characters always have exciting attitude's. Jessice is the main character she is 15 and only has a dad. She gets along with all group members once she gets to meet them.
One of the things I didn't like about this book was that they really didn't tell about their home lives much. like why pug was sent to this camp.
P.S. For the most part I thought that this book was extoridanory.
drifting along Ed's river.......2001-10-26
As a longtime Abbey fan, down the river is as powerful and exciting as any. The stories capture the imagination, and are filled with flowing, humorous, forceful prose. a gem to read!
A rebel with a cause.......2001-02-06
After "Desert Solitaire" this is my favorite Edward Abbey book. The essay on rafting the Glen Canyon before the dam was built is sublime and makes you ponder the true value of wilderness to the soul-- a value which can't be tabulated because it is immeasurable.
Abbey's a rebel, defending the West from the industrialists and profiteers. He makes no apologies for being passionate about his cause, and why should he. His passion may not be "fashionable," but Abbey is a true American original, and the kind of person we need more of. His writing is edgy, beautiful, makes you want to grab a raft and head down the Colorado. Nature is where he finds himself-- as harsh and uncompromising as it is, it's real.
I also love Abbey's sense of humor. I wonder if he ever met Hunter Thompson-- that would have been a great conversation. One of the funniest essays I've ever read is in this book: "The Legend of Josiah Gregg." Watching Abbey debunk a book about the life of this supposed great frontiersman had me on the floor. Probably the funniest part was Abbey's interpretation of his memoirs: the way thunderstorms appeared over his head bellowing at him in a purposeful way, the way his campfire got out of control and he fled from it across the plains. His assessment of the Great Plains as a "barren wasteland devoid of life." In Abbey's eyes, Gregg is the Inspector Clouseau of the frontier.
All in all, a great read. Spending time with Abbey is a pleasure.
Highly recommended!.......1999-07-31
I got this book while hiking around Olympic Peninsula in the rainforest. Reading it under a tree beside the river I realized we're lucky in N. America to still have some wilderness! The original inhabitants of this continent took care and even though we have done so much damage there is still lots left and we should not lose any more to corporations, consumer culture, anthropocentrism. Do you dare to confront the reality of your weekend warrior office job chain store shopper existence?
Average customer rating:
- Good good good
- A Classic in adventure writing
- Adventure literature classic
- A Classic In Travel/Adventure Lit
- no title
|
Running the Amazon (The Adventure Library , No 3)
Joe Kane
Manufacturer: Adventure Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
History
| Subjects
| Books
| Africa
| Americas
| Ancient
| Arctic & Antarctica
| Asia
| Audiobooks
| Australia & Oceania
| Europe
| Gay & Lesbian
| Historical Study
| Large Print
| Middle East
| Military
| Military Science
| Russia
| United States
| World
Travel
| Writing
| Reference
| Subjects
| Books
General
| South America
| Latin America
| Travel
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Adventure
| Specialty Travel
| Travel
| Subjects
| Books
South America
| Travel
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Travel
| Subjects
| Books
Look Inside History Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Look Inside Outdoors & Nature Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Look Inside Reference Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Look Inside Travel Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
Similar Items:
-
Savages
-
In Trouble Again: A Journey Between Orinoco and the Amazon
-
Tracks
-
Into the Heart of Borneo
-
Kon-Tiki: Across the Pacific in a Raft
ASIN: 1885283024 |
Amazon.com
In 1985 a team of hand-picked adventurers, including writer Joe Kane, embarked on a journey that would take them to the remote headwaters of the Amazon Basin. But that was just the beginning of the trip. Their goal: to navigate the world's longest river from source to mouth, a feat never before recorded.
After reaching (via a goat trail) a glacial trickle above 17,000 feet--debatably the farthest source of the Amazon--the team descends to a point where kayaks can be deployed. From there the trip entails kayaking through one of the nastiest white-water canyons on the planet, a stretch of water that has previously claimed the lives or quickly halted the plans of all who attempted to conquer it; navigating an unmapped gorge known affectionately as the Abyss; sneaking through the "Red Zone," an area closed to foreigners and occupied by the notorious Shining Path rebels; and, finally, paddling to the Atlantic by sea kayak through 3,000 miles of hot jungle.
Hired initially to chronicle the project from dry land, Kane quickly assumes a more integral role as a much-needed paddler, and as such he is able to provide vivid, first-hand descriptions of the treacherous water encountered. But in many ways the water is the least imposing obstacle to success. Along the way the team is beset by financial difficulties, a crisis of leadership, attacks from armed rebels, and the defection of team members. Kane's account of this six-month ordeal is much more than a travelogue of athletic endeavor--it's a fascinating portrait of the planning, politics, and personal struggles involved in mounting a modern-day expedition through a vast expanse of largely uncharted territory.
Book Description
Until the summer of 1985 no one had ever traveled the 4200 miles of the Amazon River. It looked just too formidable. But in late August of that year nine young men and women made the attempt. They had an incredible journey.
They came from all over the world...for sport, for science, for the thrill. In the event there was something for everyone. But the biggest reward was to have done it, to have conquered the endless Amazon from its source to its Atlantic spillway.
"A first-hand account of adventure in the grand manner." (Publisher's Source)
Customer Reviews:
Good good good.......2007-04-21
One of the top adventure books I have read. Great descriptions of whitewater hell as well as political manueverings in the group. Best kayaking book yet.
A Classic in adventure writing.......2007-02-18
Even though this adventure happened over 20 years ago, it's still worth a read.
Like other reviewers have already stated, this was a very ill-matched expedition. The wrong people were leaders. There was poor and no planning and I suspect, mismanagement of the money each participant had paid. (Kane paid $7000). The potpouri of participants just goes to show that you can't conduct a river expedition for exploration, adventure, excitement, recording, documenting and science. It's just too much to focus on at once when the river provides for all the dangers one could imagine. The Lewis and Clark expedition realized the same thing 180 years earlier: it's impossible to both chart a new river and conduct science projects AND record the journey AND ward off "savages" all at the same time. The Roosevelt expedition wasn't any luckier.
Kane does an excellent job describing the journey, from the hike up to the Amazon source to the day-to-day river adventures. Scenes of black outs after near-drowning experiences are heart-pounding. Visuals of the river as just as descriptive. Arguments between the Alpha members allow for personal opinion of each participant. This story is not just about the six months of paddling and rafting, but also about the human-to-human conflicts of very different people and how they interact in and after crisis after crisis after crisis.
The writing is rock solid. Each chapter is a prelude to the next. This is my second read of the Amazon (the previous one was "The River of Doubt" about Theodore Roosevelt's trip down the Amazon in 1913) and I am convinced that the Amazon and its tributaries are not worth the agony and defeat that whitewater thrill seekers want. I have no desire to visit the Amazon, no desire to experience the water in any way.
Adventure literature classic.......2007-01-25
Adventure literature classic. National Geographic ranked it #57 in its top 100 Adventure Books of all-time.
A team of nine, mostly strangers, attempts to be the first to traverse the Amazon river--from its source in Peru down to the Atlantic--the longest river in the world. Joe Kane is invited as a journalist to document the journey, but who has no boating or adventure experience. Crisis among the team leadership leads to a breakdown and in the end things don't turn out as expected. Reads like a novel. New found love, personal conflicts, peasant revolutions, and the dangers of the river propel the story forward to the sea, "it's all downhill from here".
A Classic In Travel/Adventure Lit.......2006-09-17
If it isn't already, Joe Kane's RUNNING THE AMAZON will definitely become a real classic in travel and adventure lit. Among the many travel narratives out there, this is one of the best you will find.
Kane was invited along on a half-baked expedition to run the length of the Amazon river, from its' Andean source to it's broad end at the Atlantic Ocean. After hiking across the continental divide from the Pacific side of Peru (trekking alongside the Rio Colca gorge, the deepest outside of the Himalayas), the descent begins.
Along the way, the splintering expedition dodges falling rocks in cleft gorges, narcotrafficers, Maoist rebels, storms and other assorted hazards along the way. Kane's descriptions of the journey, and every stop along the way, are remarkably vivid, doing what every great travel book should do, but so few actually do.
An unforgettable account of an admirable trip; highly recommended.
-David Alston
no title.......2005-11-12
What a wonderful, thrilling, adventure-packed, suspense-filled book! It has everything, even a love story. Well written, as the author shares all his feelings, hurts, thoughts. And vividly outlines his fellow members of the expedition. Much is learned, also, of Peru and Brazil.
Average customer rating:
- "S-T-E-A-M-boat a-comin'!"
- Twain on the Mississippi
- Mark Twain's Finest Writing
- A compelling monologue of biography, geography and history
|
Life on the Mississippi (Signet Classics)
Mark Twain
Manufacturer: Signet Classics
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Authors
| Arts & Literature
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
General
| United States
| Historical
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Classics
| United States
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Twain, Mark
| Classics
| United States
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
19th Century
| United States
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Classics
| General
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Twain, Mark
| ( T )
| Authors, A-Z
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Paperback
| Twain, Mark
| ( T )
| Authors, A-Z
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Look Inside Fiction Books
| Trip
| Specialty Stores
| Books
|
The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl
Mayflower: A Story of Courage, Community, and War
Team of Rivals
Blood and Thunder: The Epic Story of Kit Carson and the Conquest of the American West
1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus
