Wildflowers, (The New England Wild Flower Society)

Product Description
This most complete and authoritative guide to North American wildflowers offers clear and detailed information on growing and propagating 200 genera and 1,000 species of these precious plants. No matter what your level of interest -- whether it is to introduce a few plants into your garden or to learn how to propagate them for yourself or for sales, this book will inspire as well as inform you.With Cullina's guidance, you'll learn in which parts of the continent the plants are found in the wild, and -- even more helpful -- where and how to succeed with them in your own garden wherever you live. As open land disappears, so too do many of the native plants that once flourished on this continent. Gardeners may be their last resort. It is the author's philosophy that a garden is not just an extension of our houses but a habitat we share with plants and the animals that depend on them for food and shelter. He writes:"There is value in preserving wilderness, but there is equal value in restoring the suburbs and cities where most of us live to something closer to balance -- for our children's sake and the sake of all the other species around us. Growing wildflowers is not only fun and easy, it fosters a genuine connection with the region you live in."William Cullina is the nursery manager and propagator for the New England Wild Flower Society, the oldest and one of the most widely known plant conservation organizations in North America. In 2000, the Society celebrated its 100th birthday. In spite of its regional name, their commitment is to the study and protection of all temperate North American native flowers. The Garden in the Woods, in Framingham, Massachusetts, is the popular showcase for the NEWFS. It features naturalistic displays of native plants organized by habitat and includes woodland, bog, meadow, pine barren, western/alpine, and pond side plantings.

Customer Reviews
A Guide To Wildflowers By A True Expert If you happen to be visiting The Garden in the Woods in Framingham, MA, you will probably notice a man puttering in the gardens or working in the nursery. More than likely he will instinctively know that you have a question about the wildflowers you are examining and he will be more than happy to share his knowledge. This amiable person is William Cullina of the New England Wildflower Society. For those who are unable to visit the garden, or have a question about wildflowers, Cullina's book GROWING AND PROPAGATING WILDFLOWERS is the next best thing. This coffee table style book is filled with lavish photographs and wonderful commentary about many wildflowers found in North America. The book not only assists the reader in identifying various wildflowers, but helps the reader who wishes to incorporate wildflowers in a home garden. Cullina mentions in the introduction that horticulture has been a life long passion. This is evident in his writing style. The information in the book is informative and while it is presented in a formal manner, it is non-threatening for the novice gardener. This work is not helpful just for gardeners. Photographers will appreciate the wonderful shots of the flowers, many of which were photographed by Cullina himself.
Disappointing if you want to cultivate these plants I was under the impression that this book would provide the information I needed to cultivate these plants on some scale. I was very disappointed. There is no way that you could reliably produce these plants with the information provided in this book. There are much better books out there for that purpose. If you are a novice, homegardener wanting to learn about wildflowers and grow a few in your backyard, this book would be okay for you. But if you are knowledgeable on the topic already, I think you will be disappointed.
Great Information, Weak IIlustration This is a wonderful book about the culture and propagation of North American native flowers. The author clearly knows his stuff and communicates it well.
The only weakness is the limited and low quality photography (lots of depth of field problems) which, I gather is not the author's work, but came from a wildflower society. There really are far too few pictures considering the wide variety of plants. Don't plan on being able to tell which of the diverse Eupatoriums or Asters you want to plant by looking at their pictures.
HOWEVER, this book would be worth it without pictures, just for the information. Go buy the book and then write the pubisher a note saying the illustration is beneath the writing....just like I just did.

The Emotional Lives of Animals: A Leading Scientist Explores Animal Joy, Sorrow, and Empathy - and Why They Matter

Product Description
Based on award-winning scientist Marc Bekoff’s years studying social communication in a wide range of species, this important book shows that animals have rich emotional lives. Bekoff skillfully blends extraordinary stories of animal joy, empathy, grief, embarrassment, anger, and love with the latest scientific research confirming the existence of emotions that common sense and experience have long implied. Filled with Bekoff’s light humor and touching stories, The Emotional Lives of Animals is a clarion call for reassessing both how we view animals and how we treat them.

Customer Reviews
Emotional Lives of Animals The book has some very good points. However, the author repeats his ideas many times. I got about halfway through the first chapter and lost interest. I think the book could have been condensed, considerably.
Emotional LIves of Animals I am founder of an animal rescue group in Pinehurst NC called Animal Advocates of Moore county. I found the book to be excellent !!!!! Maureen Burke-Horansky
Scientific truths written for the lay audience Marc Bekoff has rattled more than a few cages in his long career as a cognitive ethologist, but that does not make what he has to say any less true. This book summarizes the case for recognizing the similarities we share with our non-human mammalian companions, and it does so with flair, as well as attention to scientific detail. For scientists or simply science buffs, this book has plenty to satisfy, but it's not just for them. This book is more for the average American who has always sensed the truths of non-human emotional lives (or maybe even has not), but is curious about the science behind the facts. I have long been fond of saying "a mammalian brain is a mammalian brain is a mammalian brain, whether it belongs to you, your cat or my horse." Marc Bekoff makes this same statement with much more clarity and deeper understanding. This book should leave you with a greater respect for the lives of the non-humans we share this planet with, and a deeper understanding of the ways our experiences here are the same, rather than focusing on what's different. It turns out the similarities are greater than the differences! But all the science aside, this is also a book filled with great stories of observations of scientists and laypeople alike that back up the studies. Stories like the one told by an e-mail friend of mine, who witnessed two young mice trapped, where one helped the other to recover rather than just seeking its own salvation (I wonder if humans would have had the same level of compassion!). This book should change your life. If it doesn't then your mind must be very closed, indeed.

Edible Wild Plants: A North American Field Guide

Product Description
“Season-by-season guide to identification, harvest, and preparation of more than 200 common edible plants to be found in the wild....Hundreds of edible species are included....[This] handy paperback guide includes jelly, jam, and pie recipes, a seasonal key to plants, [and a] chart listing nutritional contents.”—Booklist. “[Five hundred] beautiful color photographs...temptingly arranged.”—The Library Letter

Customer Reviews
Top notch guide This is the best book I have found for identification, uses and preparation of wild edibles. The photos and seasonal guide is very helpful as well as the poisonous look-a-likes list.
GREAT book This is the best purchase I have made with regards to edible wild plants. It is well organized with keys for quick referencing, details on where in the country to look and at what season merely with a glance at a table so you need not wade through the details to locate specific information on what is available at the time you are planning to search. You'll see all your target plants in a given season and where to locate them. The color photos are all great.
A 'must' for people interested in edible wild plants My only regret about this book is that it isn't longer!
The plants are organized by season, and every plant has a small map to show what regions it grows in. There is a very nice, good sized picture of each plant, and most of them are in color. Information is also provided about harvesting, how to prepare the plant, and poisonous look alikes, if any.
The plants are listed by their common names, but the latin names are listed as well. Plants can be located by either name in the index.
If you are interested in edible wild plants, this book is a great value for a reasonable price.

Women Who Run with the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype

Product Description
"WOMEN WHO RUN WITH THE WOLVES isn't just another book. It is a gift of profound insight, wisdom, and love. An oracle from one who knows."Alice WalkerWithin every woman there is a wild and natural creature, a powerful force, filled with good instincts, passionate creativity, and ageless knowing. Her name is Wild Woman, but she is an endangered species. Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Ph.D., Jungian analyst and cantadora storyteller shows how women's vitality can be restored through what she calls "psychic archeological digs" into the ruins of the female unconsious. Using multicultural myths, fairy tales, folk tales, and stories, Dr. Estes helps women reconnect with the healthy, instinctual, visionary attributes of the Wild Woman archetype.Dr. Estes has created a new lexicon for describing the female psyche. Fertile and life-giving, it is a psychology of women in the truest sense, a knowing of the soul.

Customer Reviews
Gathering the bones This book found me as my mother lay dying in the next room. I was just walking around her house and I came to the bookshelf and looked up and there it was, the title just jumped out at me. I picked it up and started reading it and it was one of the most eerie experiences of my whole life. My sister had bought this book for my mother, but she didn't like it. She couldn't have because my mother was The Collapsed Mother with Frozen Feeling, Frozen Creativity. I never saw her create a single thing growing up or even before her death. Anyway, this book is a great read and it does ring so true that it cannot be denied. I continually return to this book for reminders and encouragement to sing, snuffle, dance and howl!!
Women Who Run With The Wolves Women Who Run with the WolvesA very insightful book delving into the mysteries of women. It helps us to find out who we really are, what makes us tick and to lead our lives in our truth. It teaches women to trust their intuition and be free and unafraid to let go and be yourself. This is done by story telling and explaining the meanings behind the stories. Thoroughly recommended for any woman searching to find themselves.
Powerful, enlightening and ejoyable for every woman This book travels with me around the world. I refer to it often, similiar to the way some people use a bible. There is a gentleness, understanding, humor and depth to every section of this profound piece of literature. She discusses and addresses almost every challenge, idea, and part of female life today. No book has impacted every aspect of my life before; CEO, mother, devoted wife, pilot and loyal friend. This book has been a favorite gift to the other women in my life and has been appreciated each time.

National Audubon Society Field Guide to African Wildlife

Product Description
The first and only field guide to offer comprehensive coverage of the African continent, this guide sends the reader on a virtual safari. All the birds, mammals, reptiles, and insects are brought to life, and the parks and reserves for which the continent is famous are described in thorough detail. This guide is packed with 577 stunning color photographs of African habitats and animals, and provides a wealth of information on more than 850 species compiled by veteran safari leaders and experts in African wildlife.

Customer Reviews
Excellent safari book We took this book and Wildlife of East Africa by Martin B. Withers. This book is much better, we only looked at the other book to see how it paled in comparison. I agree that the descriptions are too brief for a serious wildlife person, but it suited our purpose. I liked that all the pictures are in the middle so you can thumb through all the pictures and then look up the details later. I also liked how this book showed the range of where the animal could be found. The couple of safari guides we showed this book too remarked on what a great book it was - and how clear the pictures are. One guide even offered to buy it off of us!
Clarity, Ease of Use, Good travel weight I have used this book several times in Africa - my edition was published in 1995. Even when your luggage weight is severely restricted (as when you use small airplanes), this doesn't get left behind!! I am constantly surprised that tour guides, etc. from Africa don't know this book - so many of the other guides weigh a great deal and only cover birds or mammals or whatever. This gives countries, habitats, and many pictures plus essays about the wildlife in question plus a map including its range. Outstanding! If you buy nothing else, buy this. I am pleased to discover it is still in print and am ordering one for a friend - no way would I even lend my copy!
Good, but not great! As other reviewers have noted, this is a wonderful Field Guide with excellent photographs and descriptions. Indeed, following my first trip to Tanzania, I purchased a copy. Prior to my second trip, however, someone suggested that I take a look, instead, at Withers' Wildlife of East Africa and I was immediately sold on it. There are various reasons why I think Withers is the better choice for those going on their first safari in East Africa. Most importantly, it's a lot smaller/lighter and the descriptions are opposite the bird and animal photographs, rather than at the back of the Audubon Guide. In addition, the coverage of wildlife is excellent: we saw a lot of different animals and birds and, with very few exceptions, they were all covered in Wild Life of East Africa. A friend is off on safari this summer and asked me about what to take. They had heard of The Audubon Field Guide, but not Withers et al. It's that conversation that prompted me to write this.

The Animal Dialogues: Uncommon Encounters in the Wild

Product Description
From one of the finest nature writers at work in America today-a lyrical, dramatic, illuminating tour of the hidden domain of wild animals.Whether recalling the experience of being chased through the Grand Canyon by a bighorn sheep, swimming with sharks off the coast of British Columbia, watching a peregrine falcon perform acrobatic stunts at 200 miles per hour, or engaging in a tense face-off with a mountain lion near a desert waterhole, Craig Childs captures the moment so vividly that he puts the reader in his boots.Each of the forty brief, compelling narratives in THE ANIMAL DIALOGUES focuses on the author's own encounter with a particular species and is replete with astonishing facts about the species' behavior, habitat, breeding, and lifespan. But the glory of each essay lies in Childs's ability to portray the sometimes brutal beauty of the wilderness, to capture the individual essence of wild creatures, to transport the reader beyond the human realm and deep inside the animal kingdom

Customer Reviews
Wonderful writer, amazing stories Childs has created a beautifully written book about animals and journeys into their abodes. He lashes a poet's equipoise to an adventurer's rugged wagon and traverses stories that are breathtaking both in their raw facts and in their telling. A wonderful book.
Excellent personal account I have greatly enjoyed reading this naturalist's account of personal encounters he has had with animals in the wild. He demonstrates a respect, as well as a healthy fear, of the big predators such as mountain lions, bears, and jaguars. Intertwined with the adventures, Craig Childs provides details and meaningful information on creatures as diverse as mosquitos and Blue Sharks. It is a personal account which is accurate and does not romanticize the animals he describes.
Animal Dialogues - great read I purchased "The Secret Knowledge of Water" by Craig Childs, and picked up the "Animal Dialogues" at the same time. After reading both books, I will buy more by this author. Vivid descriptions of places and happenings make his experiences come alive. The short chapters on each species give his own story and some scientific information on the animal as the story unfolds. I have learned much, and enjoy his take on the face to face encounters with some of the animals. We can identify with the cat and mouse tales in the Tipi. The Mountain Lion encounters were incredibly intense. This will really make me be more aware of where I am and what is around me when walking up the slot canyons and in the river wash. The footprints we find will be a little more of a wake up call, then just 'Oh neat! A fresh Mountain Lion foot print!"

The Way of the Wild Heart: A Map for the Masculine Journey

Product Description
I can fix it. I don't need directions. I can figure this out on my own. These thoughts that erupt from a man's bravado, from his deep urge to be a real man. Yet underneath this, there is a louder voice countering, You can't. You're not capable. You're weak. Many men-possibly all men-face two looming questions at some point in their life. What does it mean to be a man, and am I one?
The Way of the Wild Heart reaches out to "unfinished men" trying to understand and live their role as men and fathers. Exploring six biblically based stages, John Eldredge initiates men into a new understanding and ownership of their manhood and equips them to effectively lead their sons to manhood.

Customer Reviews
Good Book On the Phases of a Man's Life "The Way of the Wild Heart" by John Aldredge describes the various phases that a boy goes through as he grows up to be a man. Aldredge describes the 6 main phases and suggests how to raise a boy or man during those phases. The phases are as follows: 1. Boyhood - boy develops his sense of identity. 2. Cowboy - boy/young man develops his sense of adventure. 3. Warrior - man develops a fighting spirit (fights for the right things while not becoming a brute). 4. Lover - man learns to love others other than himself. 5. King - man learns to use his power wisely and for the benefit of others. 6. Sage - man passes along his acquired wisdom to others. As in his other titles Aldredge uses contemporary examples to make his points. While the examples were good, I would have liked to have seen more biblical examples. Still, a good read. Recommended.
A remarkable book with deep spiritual truths for all who will listen John Eldredge is a man of real courage. Who else would be brave enough to write about the core issues that most, if not all, men face; issues that are the source of our greatest pain, issues that result in unconscious actions and thoughtless words, issues that when unresolved, make us less than the men God intended us to be? Unfortunately, for every one man with the courage and insight of John Eldredge, there are hundreds of uninitiated men who will levy their intellectual attacks at him, whether in the guise of pseudo-literary criticism (usually from those who have never written anything more than a book review) or wrapped in the protective blanket of self-righteousness (usually from those without the courage to walk the spiritual path that Eldredge has dedicated his life to helping other men find). It's a sad commentary on masculinity. This book is the real deal. In it, John Eldredge speaks to the issues most men are afraid to discuss. Without the ability to face these issues, even good men can turn to surface satisfactions and distractions such as compulsive work, obsessions, addictions, and self-destruction. Thanks to John Eldredge, any man who feels this inner longing for something more, something deeper, more spiritual, more masculine, can use his book to find their way whether they have a father to help them or not. Does he make reference to movies, myth, and images to bring life and clarity to his points? Yes, and the result is a collection of powerful stories that each contain great truths. Eldredge is teaching in the way that all great teachers have taught: by seeking to reach his listeners rather than pleasing the self-righteous pedants who will stand on the sidelines of life and throw their verbal darts at the few men like Eldredge that are actually on the field, muddy, bruised, and exhausted attempting to lead others to the path of hope, spirit, and life. I loved this book, as I loved Wild at Heart. I'm a better man for having read it, a better husband to my wife, a better father to my children, a better Papa to my grandchildren, and I pray, a better servant of my Creator. Thank God for John Eldredge. Thank God he had the courage to write this important book. Buy a copy for yourself, for your son, and one for all the young men you know who are attempting to find their way to God and to the heart of what it means to be a righteous man in the world. Jim Huling author of Choose Your Life!: A Powerful, Proven Method for Creating the Life You Want
Life Changing! This book actually change my life. It is a must-read for men, women, and especially parents of boys! The Way of the Wild Heart has helped me become a better wife, which has helped to turn around a marriage in need of help. It helped my understanding of how men function, and opened my eyes to the stages that guys go through, throughout their lives. It's true that men and women are not the same and this is a great book to help understand the male side of things- and can help to acknowledge stages that were missed- which can explain various issues that men may be facing. If I had a million dollars, I'd buy this book for every person I know! The author uses scripture and examples from the bible and backs up what he's saying. Amazing work!