Book Description
Over the past several years, "the American in Tuscany" has become a literary subgenre. Launched by the phenomenal success of Frances Mayes's Under the Tuscan Sun, bookstores now burgeon with nimble, witty accounts of this clash in cultures-Americans trying to do American things in Italy and bumping against a brick wall of tradition.
Before this subgenre exhausts itself, it's only fair that we hear the other side of the story-that of a native Tuscan and of dozens of Americans who have stormed through his life and homeland, determined to find in it whatever they are looking for, whether quaintness or wisdom, submission or direction.
There is no one better to provide this view than Dario Castagno. A Tuscan guide whose client base is predominantly American, Dario has spent more than a decade taking individuals and small groups on customized tours through the Chianti region of Tuscany. Reared in Britain through early childhood, he speaks English fluently and is therefore capable of fully engaging his American clients and getting to know them. Too Much Tuscan Sun is Dario's account of some of his more remarkable customers, from the obsessive and the oblivious to the downright lunatic.
It is also a primer on Tuscany--its charms and its culture. Structured around a typical Tuscan year, Dario takes us through the sights, smells, and sounds of Chianti during each of the twelve months, including the festivities and pageantry that accord with the season, most notable the Palio-the bareback horse race that consumes the social energies of the people of Siena for all of July and August.
Dario also intersperses an account of his own life and times-that of a transplanted British "little lord" who learns to love the wilds of Chianti; of his discovery and adoption of abandoned peasant farmhouses; of his apprenticeship in the wine industry; and of his arduous transformation from bohemian layabout to thriving Tuscan guide.
But the bulk of the book is devoted, with humor and affection, to the Americans he has met-the vain, the silly, the ignorant, the ambitious, the horny, the condescending, the charming, and the outright pathological. Some of them have made his life hell and live in his nightmares; others became lifelong friends.
Customer Reviews:
Maybe not for everyone, but I loved it!.......2007-06-01
I have been doing a lot of reading, in anticipation of a trip to Italy later this year, and this book is the best I have read so far. I do not believe Dario is whining about American tourists. Rather, I think he is saying, I didn't believe this when it happened, and I just have to share it with someone. Let's face it, tourists can be boors, and I am just about willing to believe that American tourists are among the most boorish. Reading about these boors and laughing at them is far more entertaining than having to suffer them in person. I fully believe that Dario always acted like a gentleman while leading the tours. He is proud of his country and wanted to provide a special touring experience, i.e., small groups getting his personal views. He talks about his struggles to get established, and shares very personal and precious insights into Italian culture and history. I am so excited that he has a new book coming out. I enjoyed this one thoroughly.
A bit too much..........2007-04-30
I agree with some of the reviewers that this book is a bit insulting to Americans, however to give the author credit, he does tell stories of Americans he has become fond of, even lifelong friends with.
And that's pretty much what this book is - a bunch of stories. Some better than others. I think Mr. Castagno may have actually created some fictional characters to make the story interesting. Or at least embellished on a few things.
For example, the story about the 40ish year old lawyer, Chet, who is travelling with his father and his step-mother (or his father's "trophy wife") who is in her 20's. The author talks about how she treats Chet like a baby "tucking in his napkin" and "cutting his meat for him". Also when Chet shows the author an "ancient coin" that he bought from a street vendor in Rome (with the date 42 B.C. on it) the author is applalled that Chet actually thinks it is authentic. I mean - come on!! I find this story a little hard to believe. This Chet is an attorney!
There are some more interesting stories and I'm sure some of the American ignorance is true (ex. the lady who thought "Circa" was a Renaissance painter, and the woman who had no idea who the Etruscans were), but I thought the book would be funnier. The part about the history of the Palio was informative. The remainder just cosi cosi.
Never Too Much Tuscan Sun.......2007-04-24
Wonderfully written book, laugh out loud stories! Excellent book for American travelers.
Too much Tuscan COMPLAINING.......2007-04-11
Too Much Tuscan Sun ! Certainly the author has suffered this fate.....the result being a book that should be titled Too Much Tuscan Whining. For 268 pages we are subjected to month by month account how Dario, a tour guide by profession, was inconvenienced, irritated and annoyed by his paying clients. I have read many travel books and until now I have found something enjoyable in each. NOT THIS ONE. It is like spending days with one of those people that talks only about themselves and if they mention anyone else it is only in a negative context to further point out their superiority. Chinese water torture. It is beyond me how an intelligent person could find humor in repeated stories of the number of Diet Cokes his clients drink or the walking speed of elderly seniors (ha ha ha so funny, especially the sixth time he belabors the point!). The writer is a tour guide. One would expect in years of leading tours he could write a book that would be very funny or at the least a bit interesting............NO, boring, rude complaints, no humor, very little information of interest about Tuscany. The only redeeming feature of this book is the warning it provides to people seeking a tour guide in Tuscany............avoid Dario Castagno
Too Much Tuscan Sun review.......2007-03-11
This is a fun read, especially after one has returned from Tuscany, and especially if one has used the services of any local guide. Anyone who's done any amount of travel, whether with a group or independently, in Italy or elsewhere, will recognize some of the Americans the author describes. Sad to say, the "ugly American" still exists, and this books makes it OK to laugh at them. They are laughable. It's hard to believe they don't see themselves in that light. The only drawback I had was that, during the author's lengthy description of the palio in Siena, he launches into a political screed, which I found totally unnecessary and a bit gratuitous. He could've completed his description without a word of politics. Other than that, and putting that aside, this is a thorougly enjoyable and easy read.
Customer Reviews:
Tolstoy's ideal version of himself.......2005-11-02
There are at least three Tolstoys. There is the Tolstoy whose mind and capacity for creation, whose ability to observe human life and transform it into the highest form of Literature- this is the first Tolstoy. The second Tolstoy is Tolstoy the man of appetite, the sinner who not only endlessly forced himself upon his wife but who took tens of peasant women for his own pleasure. The third Tolstoy is the would- be- saintly Tolstoy of the 'Confession'. This is the Tolstoy who longs for simplicity in life, for renunciation of wealth and sensual pleasure, for a kind of Christian- like total Love and Devotion to others.
It is true that Tolstoy's greatest works were created before he wrote 'The Confession' And it is true that as his age his physical powers diminished somewhat. But both of those Tolstoys remained with him all his life even if in diminished form. And this third Tolstoy this holy character who nonetheless made his wife and some of his childrens' life a torment, he too persisted with Tolstoy to the end.
Is this to say that the great man was a hypocrite? Yes, and more strongly 'no' He was an enormously complicated human being and a very great creator of Literature.
If however to be judged in terms of his relations to the closest people in his life, sainthood would certainly have to be denied him.
Utopian faith.......2004-08-10
"A Confession" is Tolstoy's interesting account of his rediscovery of faith. He sets out how religious belief is instilled into the young, and is then discarded. In middle age, Tolstoy found rational explanations of the meaning of life no longer sufficed: this drew him back to faith.
Whether or not one is convinced by Tolstoy's argument seems to me to be beside the point (although there's much in his rationale which seems odd and naive - "Those things in which people sincerely believe must be the truth" ??). Rather, it provides an insight into Tolstoy's development as a thinker and as a person.
The latter part of "A Confession", and much of the other works in this collection, are devoted to a savage indictment of organised religions, and of State- and class-based manipulation of religion for political ends. Tolstoy pines for a removal of such controls and a return to a "pure" version of Christianity from which peace and social justice would inevitably flow. This appears somewhat at odds with his belief in "The Confession" that the uneducated masses hold true religious faith. In the other essays, they are being manipulated cruelly. Nonetheless, these works are interesting because of their influence on others, such as Gandhi.
G Rodgers
A Search Unfulfilled.......2004-01-19
This book includes some of Tolstoy's essays written during his time of deep internal spiritual struggle. Upon his renunciation of a life of aristocratic wealth and worldly pleasure, Tolstoy longed for the sense of true peace that he saw in the peasant class. Thus he embarked upon a search for meaning and happiness through a life of simple faith, manual labor, and poverty. He formulated his own Christian philosophy based on Christ's Sermon on the Mount stressing the existence of the Kingdom of God within the human heart, civil disobedience, and total pacifism. This "law of love" is explored deeply in confessional form throughout the works in this collection. Although this particular approach to living the life in Christ ultimately did not cultivate in Tolstoy the deep inner peace that he yearned for, I feel that many of his ideas can be beneficial to people both within the Church as well as not. Regardless of the validity of his doctrine, it cannot be denied that this is an authentic, genuine, and very human confession of a man searching for God and the meaning of life on earth. Although I personally disagree with many of Tolstoy's points, I still hold his Confession to be a universal work that deserves a fair exploration by all who have ever felt a similar need for inner peace and true reconciliation with God.
Leo's crisis of faith..........2002-02-08
This is a very interesting book. Penned by one of the greatest writers in history, "A Confession..." by Leo Tolstoy provided me with great insight into his life, work, and relationships. I read this for a religion class in college and ended up keeping it. It is rather short and easy to read. Of interest to those who are seeking truth and those who have found it. It is fascinating to follow him thru his early religious experience, falling away from the church, and coming back to a unique faith in the end. Recommended.
Not as good as I had hoped.......2001-03-12
Tolstoy was a tremondous writer and intense human being. I approached this work expecting a great deal, and while it was certainly very much worth the effort, it was not as good as I hoped it would be.
After acheiving fame, fortune, artistic achievement, family and everything else that most people long for, Tolstoy had a philosophical crisis in which he searched for the meaning of life. This is his chronicle of his despair and search, which ultimately ended in his acceptance of a unique brand of Christian socialism (not to mention ascetisim, vegetarianism, pacifism, etc.,). However, I thought much of the book, especially its sections on philosophy, to be rather poor in quality: either too simplisitc or complex but very poorly worded and expressed. While this book is ok, if anyone wanted to know Tolstoy's later philosophy of life I would recommend his later short works of fiction such as The Devil, the Kreutzer Sonata, and the Forged Coupon. They are masterpeices, while this work is simply interesting.
Book Description
This selection of De Quincey's writings includes the title piece--his most famous work--as well as "On the Knocking at the Gate in Macbeth," "The English Mail-Coach," and the Suspiria de Profundis.
Customer Reviews:
This is the DeQuincey you want.......2001-01-11
If you are choosing between several editions of the -Opium Eater-, this one is the one you want.
True, it does not have Alethea Hayter's introduction, like the Penguin edition has; that being a point in that one's favour. But here you -also- get the entire -Suspiria de Profundis-, which is in many ways more beautiful and interesting than the Opium Eater itself. -Levana and Our Ladies of Sorrow- must surely be the single greatest prose poem ever written in English.
The -Suspiria- was intended as a sequel to the -Opium Eater-, and those who enjoy the one will want them both.
A masterpiece from a brilliant yet ignored philosopher.......1998-12-17
This masterpiece of literature is a fascinating account of the pains and pleasures of opium as well as an autobiographical account of his youth. This books illustrates that sometimes moral or other world issues are not always in black and white. A sensitive and beautiful man, de Quincy's great book is a treasure!!!!
Amazon.com
Broadcaster Jon Miller didn't know he was a baseball "purist" until acting commissioner Bud Selig accosted him with the moniker on national TV in 1993. "At one time," writes Miller in retrospect, "the label 'baseball purist' could've been worn as a badge of honor. Any legitimate fan would've been pleased to be thought of as a purist. But I suppose that to Mr. Selig, a purist was a lonely old man hunched over a windup Victrola, thumbing through a 1929 Who's Who in Baseball, fretting that the game just hasn't been the same since the Babe retired." In Confessions Miller admits to being a purist--loosely defined by him not as a forlorn fan stuck in a period-piece movie but as a fan knowledgeable enough to realize that baseball evolves for the good of the game--despite what myopic owners might try to perpetrate in the short term. In a chapter titled "The Good Old Days Are Now," Miller reminds die-hards of the old adage about things changing and staying the same. To wit, here's Ty Cobb in 1925: "The great trouble with baseball today is that most of the players are in the game for the money." Miller goes on to suggest that the 1990s will be remembered in 20 years as a "golden age" of hitting and that accusations of juiced balls, watered-down pitching, smaller ballparks, and expansion still cannot account for this decade's abundance of outstanding batters. The voice of the San Francisco Giants (and formerly the Baltimore Orioles) holds forth on everything from interleague play (it's good for the game but messy) to traveling with Cal Ripken (a game of Strat-O-Matic baseball reveals just how competitive the Iron Man really is). Occasionally he whiffs--as when he suggests that ballparks install 20-second time clocks to keep pitchers hurling at a reasonable pace. But ultimately what comes through the anecdotes and arguments is his tremendous love for the game and a generous capacity for recognizing the quality of the present and not just the past. --Langdon Cook
Book Description
Just mention the word baseball and a huge smile beams across his cherubic face. Ask him about the grace of Ken Griffey, Jr.; the power of Frank Thomas; and the precociousness of Alex Rodriguez and he'll delight you for hours with tales of the beauty of the game. The Golden Days of baseball are now, he'll tell you, and then he'll go on to prove it. He's Jon Miller, and in this candid, funny, forthright volume he tells us why baseball is the greatest game and why -- despite the counterproductive comments of owners and players -- it will continue to be well into the twenty-first century.
In Confessions of a Baseball Purist, Miller takes us on a journey into the heart of baseball as he's seen it from the best seat in the house. He brings to life the emotion of the night Cal Ripken broke Lou Gehrig's consecutive games played record, the history-soaked drama when the Giants and Dodgers faced off in a crucial pennant-race series in September '97, Eddie Murray's fitting return to the Orioles to hit his 500th home run, and the day Edward Bennett Williams -- owner of the Orioles -- approved the plans for the creation of Camden Yards. But Jon doesn't shy from pointing a finger at the darker forces at work in the game: the insanity of not having a real commissioner; the follies of radical realignment and excessive reliance on novelties like widespread interleague play; the old-time players and broadcasters -- including his good friend and partner Joe Morgan -- who don't accept that today's players are bigger, faster, stronger, and better; players who denigrate the game, not realizing that by doing so they're insulting their own fans; and owners and general managers who can't make a move without discussing the economic ramifications, even though that's the last thing their fans (or, to use the owners' term, their customer base) want to hear about.
With charming candor and disarming wit, Miller takes us from the broadcaster's booth into the stands and down onto the field and into the dugout. He pays tribute to his heroes and his partners, who include some of the classic voices that shaped his love of the game: Russ Hodges and Lon Simmons, Vin Scully, Hank Greenwald, Chuck Thompson, and Joe Garagiola and Tony Kubek. He tells about the Opening Day rain delay that launched a second career as an after-dinner speaker in Boston, as his partner Ken Coleman led him into doing his now-famous Vin Scully impersonation; the maddening experience of working for Charles O. Finley, an owner who managed the remarkable feat of building a World Championship team that finished next-to-last in the league in home attendance; and the pleasure of being a part of the growth and development of ESPN Sunday Night Baseball into the game's weekly showcase for a nationwide audience. He profiles some of his favorite baseball personalities, from Reggie Jackson and Kirby Puckett to Alvin Dark and Charles Steinberg; shares inside stories from the broadcast booth about the secrets of Phil Rizzuto's scorebook ("WW" means "Wasn't Watching") and what to do when your partner is knocked cold by a foul line drive; and tells, for the first time, the story behind his leaving the Baltimore Orioles after fourteen years doing the team's games.
True to the broadcaster's art, Confessions of a Baseball Purist calls the game the way Jon Miller sees it: with wit, with style, and with absolute candor. For the baseball purist in all of us, Miller provides a rallying cry, some warm memories, and reasons to keep believing in the game we love.
Customer Reviews:
Flawed.......2006-05-30
I got this book for Christmas and read it Memorial Day weekend. I love Jon Miller's voice and play-by-play skills. That being said the book leaves much to be desired. The chapter on the "Good Old Days are Now" is extremely silly looking today. Realizing that this was written between the '97 and '98 seasons at first Miller must have looked like a genius as McGwire and Sosa battled for the single season home run record, but in 2006,it seems ridiculous. Especially, after McGwire embarassed himself in front of the Senate the way he did. It's funny how Miller tells the story of how he was amazed at how huge McGwire's biceps were. Rather cocky of McGwire to be showing off his chemically enhanced physique. My other problem is that Miller is not completely truthful. There is a section where he tells of how he would go to A's games with friends (when he was 14) and tape himself broadcasting. Miller was born in 1952, which would have had this happening around 1966 or 1967. He then tells us that sometimes his "broadcasts" would be ruined if a fan sitting close by had brought his boombox. Around this time FM radio was in its infancy and boomboxes did not hit the stores until almost ten years later. Unless, this fan had stepped through a wormhole or was able to warp the space-time fabric, there is no way Miller's broadcasts were ruined by boomboxes. His anectdotes are good enough that he doesn't need to supplement them with such a glaring untruth. It casts a shadow of suspicion on everything else. The is no room for poetic license in a memoir.
humorous and entertaining anecdotes and thoughts.......2004-04-02
This book brings forth the thoughts of one of the most well known and well respected broadcasters in baseball today. This book came out in 1998 when Miller started as a Giants broadcaster. His broadcasts on ESPN Sunday Night Baseball and radio broadcasts for the Giants bring out his personality. He's dedicated to his job and had been interested in broadcasting since he was a child. His passion for the game of baseball and his attentiveness to perfecting his craft only added to his skill in the descriptions of his broadcasts and brought the feel of the flow of the game while it's unfolding live in front of his eyes. If you are familiar with Miller's broadcasts on TV or radio then you won't lose a step when reading his book because it is similar to the way he broadcasts. Miller brings about his thoughts about some of the issues in baseball like realignment as proposed by Bud Selig, to the personalities of owners he has known and how they contributed to the rise or demise of a franchise, and stories about Cal Ripken and some insider accounts from the clubhouse about his consecutive game streak. Miller bring a good light-hearted folksy humor that will make you smirk or guffaw with tongue in cheek. It is interesting in the fact that it feels like he conversing with you like you were at a bar and he was telling interesting stories which would be either intriguing or funny. This is a nice book for baseball fans who want to see things from the perspective of a broadcaster. The book reads easily and shouldn't take too long to read at all.
A Fine Memoir.......2000-01-31
I received this book along with Joe Morgan's as a Christmas present, and it was interesting to read them in tandem, as it shows why they are such a complementary broadcast team. Miller's book is more an anecdotal memoir than a detailed analysis of the game, but that doesn't spoil the enjoyment of it. His tribute to Ken Coleman, the retired Red Sox radio broadcaster, brought back to this Red Sox fan vivid memories of Miller's all-too-brief stay in Boston. The book, however, suffered from an editing job that assumed that the reader had a familiarity with Miller's personal life and career history. For example, there are several references to his first marriage which both assume that the reader knows that Miller was married before and why it ended. But these references are extraneous and add nothing to this picture of Miller as broadcaster and baseball purist -- which, after all, is the book's primary focus.
Funny memoir.......1999-09-01
More of a memoir than anything else, the book is unflaggingly interesting and funny, especially if one can imagine Miller himself reading it. An audiocassette version of this book might well be the ultimate way to experience it. In any case, it just breezes by, leaving you with a warm feeling and a greater desire to hear more Miller broadcasts afterward.
Mediocre.......1999-08-02
Maybe I'm being too critical here. I mean, I like Jon Miller. He's an excellent broadcaster. He certainly knows his baseball. But can he write? The answer (even with assistance) is, disappointingly, no. He has some good anecdotes, and makes some good points, but as I was reading it, I couldn't help wondering, "Where is this book going?" The answer is nowhere. It's meandering and disjointed. He makes all of his "controversial" points in the first chapter, but then offers nothing to back up his theses later in the book. Still, if you want to learn about Jon Miller, to read some interesting stories about the colorful players and broadcasters Miller has encountered over the years, AND get a defense in of Miller's decision to leave the broadcasting booth for the Baltimore Orioles, then go ahead and buy the book. But, perhaps you would feel you're getting your money's worth if you waited for the paperback version or maybe borrowed it from your local library.
Book Description
Work your way around Africa putting on one-man Shakespeare performances? It's the type of escapade that could only have sprung from the restless, feverish mind of the young Thomas Goltz, then a naive twenty-one-year-old in 1976 looking for adventure and an errant brother.
Goltz is now an acclaimed author and journalist who has reported extensively on the upheavals of the post-Soviet Caucasus, and this impulsive trip of his youth saw him wandering through the cities and villages of east, central, and southern Africa.
His first port of call after hitchhiking through Eastern Europe and the Middle East is Ethiopia, where he is greeted by a civil war in full flame. Close encounters follow with bandits, guerrillas, missionaries, prostitutes, savvy street kids, bureaucrats, unrequited loves, and, of course, ordinary, Shakespeare-loving Africans.
Customer Reviews:
Out, Out Brief Candle.......2007-08-09
"Life is but a walking shadow, a poor player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard of no more", (William Shakespeare). Thomas Goltz certainly knows how to strut, but my suspicion is he doesn't fret much, and we'll be hearing plenty more from Mr. Goltz. A very enjoyable read.
Amazon.com
After decades of abuse and spittle, Major League umpire Durwood Merrill strikes back with some pretty incisive, funny, and no-holds-barred anecdotes. When his book stays in the game, it's a real hoot, light and folksy; how can you not laugh with a guy who can admit that "Folks around the American League say I've sent a few pitchers to the Hall of Fame before their time because my strike zone tends to swell like George Steinbrenner's ego"? It's his own ego, though, that has him swinging for the seats and coming up short; he's not much of a memoirist. Thankfully, like a good umpire, he keeps his personal interference to a minimum and mostly sticks to business, offering some tough prescriptions for what ails the game, and some solid dissection of the intricacies of his craft. His thoughts on Pete Rose might lead you to believe that Charlie Hustle is the book's title character. -- Jeff Silverman, Sports editor
Book Description
He calls it as he sees it....Big, loud, and beyond intimidation, Durwood Merrill is one of the most colorful characters in baseball. The man Reggie Jackson calls "The Reggie Jackson of umpires" has brought a new level of showmanship and excitement to the ballpark and has attracted his own legions of fans. In You're Out And You're Ugly Too!, Merrill gives fans an in-your-face dose of hilarious anecdotes, hard-hitting opinions, and gushing admiration for America's favorite pastime. Find out the real deal on:* The Managers: From Anderson to Piniella to Weaver, Durwood reveals his explosive relationships with baseballs's most notorious managers* The Players: No one knows Reggie, Junior, or Cal the way Durwood does-- read his dead-on observations of baseball's most talented players* The Big Picture: Get behind the diamond with Durwood to discover what goes on in the clubhouse, in the umpire's room, on the mound, at the plate, and beyondNo corner of modern baseball is "safe" from Durwood Merrill's razor-sharp wit, and no fan can afford to miss his fascinating and revealing play-by-play.
Customer Reviews:
A nice guy.......2007-09-10
I expected a little more humor from this book judging from the title.However it was still quite interesting. It was nice to read how he worked so hard for those less fortunate. Seemed like he was a guy I would have liked to have had as a friend.
You can't write and your publisher stinks too........2004-02-17
Somebody messed up badly. Being an amateur baseball umpire I am biased towards umpires in general and those in baseball in particular but Merrill does not do himself and his profession justice. The ghostwriter, assuming there was one, must have been drunk and illiterate and the publisher too lazy, or do we call that cost conscious, to proof read the manuscript. I ended up reading a book that should not have been published and does not do justice to a man who became an umpire in a different and much tougher era. The book does not do him justice, god rest his soul. Maybe the publisher could be so kind and honor him with and revised edition.
Some very funny stories, and some that are serious, too........2003-09-11
When I first bought this book, I wasn't quite sure what to think. I had heard a few negative things about it, and kind of had a prejudice against it. Boy, was that wrong! I found this to be a very funny, lighthearted read (for the most part). There's some really wonderful insights into what it takes to become a big league umpire - never quite realized all they went through in "Umpire boot camp" (my term). It's not all fun and games, there's a few stories about how an umpire friend of his was attacked and crippled on the streets of Dallas, and the latter part talks a lot about his charity works.
A great book - funny, light, and to be honest, something that surprised me in a very good way. What was personally annoying was that after I read this (during the last month of the 99 season), I wanted to watch Durwood, and then he up and retires during the playoffs (and then died a short time later). Damn. Really wanted to see him after reading his book. Oh well. Check it out, a good light read.
RIP Durwood.......2003-01-13
Durwood Merrill just passed away today, after suffering a heart attack last Sunday. Godspeed, Durwood.
You'll hesitate the next time you "boo" an umpire..............2002-08-15
It's a light read, but Durwood is very colorful and sincere in his writing. I felt as if he was my Grandpa sitting next to me telling me these wonderfull stories. You'll enjoy it even if you're not a baseball fan.
If you ARE a baseball fan. You'll hesitate the next time you "boo" an umpire at a game. (but only for a second or two)
:)
Average customer rating:
- Part of the Solution
- Who Knew Leeches Could Be Funny?
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Stinging Trees and Wait-a-Whiles: Confessions of a Rainforest Biologist
William Laurance
Manufacturer: University Of Chicago Press
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0226468968 |
Amazon.com
When Bill Laurance went to northern Australia in the mid-1980s, it was to study the teeming life of a classic rainforest. The problem was, the rainforest of Queensland, already limited in extent, was fast disappearing, logged and bladed into oblivion; even its legendary stinging trees, "a good hit [from which] can hurt for months," seemed in danger of becoming mere memories. Laurance's fieldwork became a running chronicle of what happens to the rainforest's creatures--tree kangaroos and vipers, redback spiders and pygmy possums, and countless other species that are little known outside the area--when once-unpeopled habitats are overrun. (One of the few species to benefit from the region's decline, Laurance observes, is the antechinus, a wolverine-like marsupial that thrives on disturbance.) Laurance soon realized, as he relates in his memoir, that he'd have to couple scientific information with activism in order to protect what little of the forest remained--activism that included recommending the area for a listing under the United Nations' World Heritage program, and that put him squarely at odds with the suspicious loggers who were his neighbors. Although confronted with death threats and an actual attempt on his life, Laurance pressed on, eventually winning over enough Queenslanders to launch a small but growing ecotourism industry. Well-written and often quite funny, Stinging Trees and Wait-a-Whiles will hearten any environmentalist and tropical traveler. --Gregory McNamee
Book Description
The last traces of Australia's tropical rainforest, where the southeasterly winds bring rain to the coastal mountains, contain a unique assemblage of plants and animals, some primitive, many that are found nowhere else on earth. And fifteen years ago, they also contained Bill Laurance, a budding ecologist seduced by the nature of the landscape in north Queensland. Laurance isn't your typical scientist: he wears cut-offs instead of white coats, enjoys the occasional food fight, and isn't afraid to speak his mind, even if it gets him into trouble, as it often did in the Australian rainforest and as he recounts in his marvelous Queensland journal Stinging Trees and Wait-a-Whiles.
The book is his record of the time he spent in this remote area and his run-ins with plant, animal, and human species alike. Laurance lived in a tiny town of loggers and farmers, and he witnessed firsthand the impact of conservation issues on individual lives. He found himself at the center of a bitter battle over conservation strategies and became not only the subject of small-town gossip but also the object of many residents' hatred. Keeping ahead of his high-spirited young volunteers, hounded by the drug-sniffing local policeman, and all the while trying to further his own research amid natural and unnatural obstacles, Laurance offers us a personal and hilarious account of fieldwork and life in the Australian outpost of Millaa Millaa. Stinging Trees and Wait-a-Whiles is a biology lesson, a conservation primer, and an utterly energetic story about an impressionable young man who wound up at the epicenter of an issue that tore a small town apart.
Customer Reviews:
Part of the Solution.......2000-12-30
It would be hard to suggest my review is subjective, since I worked with Bill Laurance in the rainforests of north Queensland in those hot, humid and heady years, and am also in the book-though its appearance in print was a great surprise. Nonetheless, for the reader, biologist, or armchair traveler, this book has a bit of everything. Laurance describes his pursuit of a Ph.d in biology with candor, insight and humor. It was an incredible time in Australia, and for once, at least, the forests won: much of Australia's remaining lowland and montaine rainforest was protected by World Heritage designation and the Rat Patrol and Higher Mammal Crew (led by Laurance) were right in the thick of it. Bill describes the realities of field work: the sheer physical aspect of being in the rainforest, the thrill of encountering relict and highly adapted species, the tension with local townspeople who make their living in extractive industries like logging, and the constant infusion of travelers and characters who were recruited to the little house on Coral Street. Small town, Australia is accurately depicted in the pages of this book: the miners, the timber cutters, pastoralists and plain drunks, most who ultimately come to respect Dr. Laurance and his work. Laurance also describes his travels in New Guinea, including several dangerous and hilarious encounters with local tribesman. Throughout are scattered insights about biology: why for example there are few aquatic marsupials (they would drown in a pouch), and human nature. My only complaint with the book, is that Laurance got the details of my own expedition in search of Morelia carinata with Geoff Cunningham substantially wrong: We did not lose our packs and food in a river crossing in the Kimberley, but walked 42 days to the coast for a rendezvous with a boat that never arrived due to a cyclone. After waiting ten days at the coast, we walked 168 miles to the nearest cattle station on the edge of nowhere. We did not eat anything but grasshoppers and wild figs for ten days, and were grateful to emerge from the outback with our lives. But, since I lost touch with Bill for 5 years, I can imagine he might get those details mixed up. All in all, it's a wonderful book, and a real insight into the challenges of field biology and habitat conservation. Laurance's post-script is a call to action to halt the destruction of rainforests around the world. Get involved. As he used to say, "If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem."
Who Knew Leeches Could Be Funny?.......2000-10-05
After reading a wonderful review in the Chronical of Higher Education, I knew that I had to get my hands on this book.
Similar to Tim Flannery's Throwim Way Leg, Stinging Trees and Wait-a-Whiles recounts a biologist's travels and adventures into the Australian rainforest with his dog (Tulley) and a motley crew of volunteer research assistants.
Although Bill Laurance is a brilliant scientist, he is also a gifted writer who has the ability to spin dry field notes into witty reading.
I highly recommend this book!
Book Description
In this rollicking, absurd ride, Brian Thacker, bus-tour leader extraordinaire, confesses all as he reveals the best (and worst) of more than 20 trips as a tour leader though Europe. He tells how he fed passengers horsemeat spag bog, hamburgers made from breakfast cereal, and roosters' testicles. He also introduces people to the world of scams, broken rules, terrible blunders, promiscuous locals, and inevitable clashes of cultures when a busful of tourists take on Europe on a four-week tour. Other stories include how he left a passenger standing by the side of a motorway in France for three hours in his underwear clutching a purple toothbrush, and how he lost his driver, his cook, his bus, 10 brightly colored canal bikes, a large church, and eventually his patience. Countries dissected include Belgium, Holland, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Spain, and France.
Customer Reviews:
Rule No 5 sex on the bus.......2007-03-22
Funniest book I have read in a long time. Really enjoyed it don't take any notice if the title.
oh, man........2006-10-01
i encountered this book on a friend's bookshelf nearly two years ago. after deciding that i needed to give her copy back to her, i bought my own. it's hysterical and evokes my own laughable memories of trips abroad. definitely worth a read!!
brings back memories.......2006-06-30
absolutely loved this book! reminds me so much of the tour i did in europe and i've even been to most of the extra excursions that were mentioned in the book (i'm suspecting it's the same company). everything about being on tour was completely accurate. fantastic read. made me miss europe, made me miss the people on my tour and made me miss being on holidays and having fun
Poor humor.......2005-07-04
After 2 hours of reading about people drinking and puking and "bonking" you have had enough. Sprinkled in with the gross stuff, are some interesting comments about the landscape and countries they have been in. However, why does he insist on describing every moment someone has to throw up. I also wish he would have skipped the entire section on Amsterdam. Not funny.
Really brought back the memories.......2005-02-24
I've personally been on one of these tours and I can tell you this book is both right on the money and absolutley hilarious! I have some very from memories of my tour - and after leading 20 of them Brian sure has a good story or two to share.
A must for anyone with itchy travel feet.
Book Description
When Rousseau first read his Confessions to a 1770 gathering in Paris, reactions varied from admiration of his candor to doubts about his sanity to outrage. Indeed, Rousseau's intent and approach were revolutionary. As one of the first attempts at autobiography, the Confessions' novelty lay not in just its retelling the facts of Rousseau's life, but in its revelation of his innermost feelings and its frank description of the strengths and failings of his character.
Based on his doctrine of natural goodness, Rousseau intended the Confessions as a testing ground to explore his belief that, as Christopher Kelly writes, "people are to be measured by the depth and nature of their feelings." Re-created here in a meticulously documented new translation based on the definitive Pleiade edition, the work represents Rousseau's attempt to forge connections among his beliefs, his feelings, and his life. More than a "behind-the-scenes look at the private life of a public man," Kelly writes, "the Confessions is at the center of Rousseau's philosophical enterprise."
Customer Reviews:
Great edition of this classic.......2000-04-04
What can one say about The Confessions? I would recommend this particular edition because of the inlusion of the letters to Malesherbes, which can shed some light on the process Rousseau's writing of The Confessions. We can also see where the text differs from what actually happaned: there are some discrepiences in his re-telling of the same event. There is as well an excellent introductory essay.
Average customer rating:
- A Loyal Fan's Baseball Memories
- Any red-blooded American Male Baseball fan will love it!
- Any red-blooded American Male Baseball fan will love it!
|
Baseball and Men's Lives: The True Confessions of a Skinny-Marink
Robert Mayer
Manufacturer: Delta
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
| Biographies & Memoirs
| Subjects
| Books
20th Century
| History & Criticism
| United States
| World Literature
| Literature & Fiction
| Subjects
| Books
Essays & Writings
| Baseball
| Sports
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Baseball
| Sports
| Subjects
| Books
History
| Baseball
| Sports
| Subjects
| Books
General
| Sports
| Subjects
| Books
ASIN: 0385309260
Release Date: 1994-02-01 |
Customer Reviews:
A Loyal Fan's Baseball Memories.......2002-06-13
Truly readable memoir of a loyal baseball fan. While probably aimed at the male population, I am one female who really enjoyed reading Mayer's "True Confessions of a Skinny-Marink" (his mother's nickname for him). If you enjoy baseball, and especially if you often find your team is out of the running as the season draws to a close, then you should read this book.
Any red-blooded American Male Baseball fan will love it!.......1997-11-14
A thrilling overview of a man's life as a perpetually disappointed Dodger's fan. References to great baseball works like The Southpaw and Field of Dreams. If baseball is the "Thinking Man's Game", Baseball and Men's Lives is a "Thinking Man's Book." Highly recommended to anyone who has seen their team struggle, and come in second place one too many times -- and to any guy who once dreamed of the big time, but never crossed the fence!
Any red-blooded American Male Baseball fan will love it!.......1997-11-14
A thrilling overview of a man's life as a perpetually disappointed Dodger's fan. References to great baseball works like The Southpaw and Field of Dreams. If baseball is the "Thinking Man's Game", Baseball and Men's Lives is a "Thinking Man's Book." Highly recommended to anyone who has seen their team struggle, and come in second place one too many times -- and to any guy who once dreamed of the big time, but never crossed the fence!
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