Geography Books

Peter Dallman, a retired pediatric doctor and docent at Strybing Aboretum in San Francisco, California, spent many years
studying plants and traveling the world to see them where they grow in the Mediterranean climate areas of the world. Prof. Robert Ornduff, the late director of the Univ. of California Botanical Garden, encouraged him to write about these
plants and his travels. The result is a book giving the reader the best armchair picture of the vegetation of a very special part of the world.

This book falls into a category somewhere between botany, climatology, and geography; it looks at several different types of "mediterranean climate" around the world, and describes the different vegetational types within each region, explaining (in a scholarly but accessible way) why these plant communities look the way they do.

It's beautifully produced, with both climate maps and full-color illustrations of plants and plant communities. I know of no other book that explains the relationship between geography and botanical ecology this elegantly; it's a lot of fun to browse, and I would recommend it *very* highly to armchair travellers with botanical inclinations.

This book is great. It has plenty of pictures, diagrams and drawings. Most of the pictures are not in color, however, which is its biggest downfall. It is not a detailed evaluation of mediterranean climates nor is it a good plant ID book, but provides an excellent overview for both the layman and scientist. It provides informatin on the plants that make the mediterranean climate unique and the typical plant communities that are found in them. It is great for someone who doesn't want to get bogged down with individual species and wants to see how all the parts fit together. I first checked this book out of my local library and felt it would be such a good reference book for work, play and travel that I had to have it. The book uses the most scientific and inclusive use of the term Mediterranean which means you are going to get descriptions of plant communities from San Diego to Sacramento to San Francisco. For those of us that prefer the more exclusive definitions it may come as a shock that San Francisco and Sacramento could be considered mediterranean so I'm warning you now. I am currently using this book to help plan a trip to Australia as a supplement to Lonely Planet's travel guides. This book has inspired me to visit all the world's mediterranean climates at some point in my life and I'm not even a plant lover.

Peter Dallman's Plant Life In The World's Mediterranean Climates covers plants of California, Australia, South Africa and the Mediterranean, and will prove more accessible to general audiences studying plants. Here are photos, charts, and a host of details on plant communities and plant life common to this climate, with chapters providing both individual regional details and links between plants of each area. This is a highly recommended pick not just for specialty libraries, but for general collections.

If you are a fan of Galen's work you will certainly enjoy this book. The concept, comparing and contrasting the two poles, is brilliant.

The photographs are typical Galen - beautiful, engaging, illuminating. The accompanying text provides context and insight.

There is an essay section at the back that provides some insight into how Galen thought about the photos that appear in this book. Very interesting reading and a great teaching aid for amateur photographers and photojournalists.

Wow, what a great and such awesome picture volume. This book not only shows you pictures from the Arctic and the Antarctic, it particularly reveals the true differences between the two polar regions...they ARE truly different and fascinating! This book also delivers very-high quality photography, which can easily tempt you into travelling to such exotic destinations.

In the book, you will find 2 pictures side by side-one showing the Arctic, the other showing Antarctic. That way, you will get an idea of its differences. In addition, there is a separate chapter that dedicates to interesting stories regarding these regions, anything from life in Siberia, Inuit life in northern Alaska, to the South Georgia Islands & the South Pole. Last, but not least, there is also a whole section reviewing all the pictures showed in the book, including background information describing each photo, etc.

This is truly an amazing picture volume that is a MUST-HAVE for any polar fanatic. Get prepared for over 180 pages of some superb photography and much info on these fantastic regions. For the money, it was quite worth it...

This is much more than a coffee table book, though its unique photographs of the pristine beauty of the Arctic and Antarctic would impress even the most casual of browsers. A short story about each photo is included, along with more general, thoughtful and poignant commentary from someone that is truly in touch with the global environment. Rowell is one of the great nature photographers, and this is a stunning collection

Turning to page 74, my Danish-born wife, Aino, was amazed to discover her little town of Scoresbysund. She spent her fomative years(age 5-12)growing up there, where her father, Dr. Werner Mortensen, served as the sole doctor for the area of 3 villages.

Galen Rowell's photography captures the typical beauty of a Scandinavian mileau, even though it is truly a facade for the garbage that the typical native Greenlander casts no further than his front door!

His words portray the many problems of the native Inuits, who have been unable to adapt to the influence of Danish culture and progress. For Rowell to elaborate on the problems of alcholism, violent crime, and the high rate of suicide in a village of only 500, distinguishes him as an author that researchs his subjects quite well! It brought back memories for my wife of the "Grundlander" that beat his wife with the carcass of a frozen seal, only to have his wife bite of his ear.

The large yellow building in the left foreground is the eight bed hospital; the little red house with white trimmed windows that is over to the immediate left is where family Mortensen grew up from 1966-72. This book really takes my wife back,and helps me see things that were only in her mind's eye. It also brings her up to the what the present day Scoresbysund has become. And now that my family will be moving to Fairbanks,Alaska, my wife can get a sneak preview of our future from this marvelous book. Having lived in Alaska myself, I definitely recommend this book for its shear splendid photography and candid commentary. Great job Galen!

Having grown up in a house with this book always present on the coffee table I can vouch for the fact that it is a great way to help a child broaden his/her mind and develop a love of reading non-fiction, and of geography. It is the kind of book that every child should have available to stir their blood about the wonders of the world they live in and share.

This book is a timeless treasure trove of information and I find it VERY hard to put down once I start leafing through it. My ten year old daughter's interest in nature and the great outdoors has grown immensley largley due to this volume and how easy it is to read. Kudos to Reader's Digest!

This was written in 1980. Its only shortcoming is, it needs to be twice as big - no, make that 5 times as big. More pictures of every location, longer description. Tell every writer you know: This would be a sure-fire success, simply building on this fine foundation. Note that there are 200 used copies available: people recognize the value of this, and know others will want it too. It's one of those books I believe I need two copies of, just in case something happens to one of them. I've read and re-read it more than any other book I can think of. How is it that no other writer or publisher has figured out that it is fascinating to know about these little-known natural features?

This book is out of print, and that's too bad. It lists over 200 places around the world, most of them natural features, that are truly amazing. Some are large, (Antarctica), some are small and very remote (Rabbitkettle Hot springs in the Northwest Territories.). While North America may have a few more items listed, even Africa has it s share, including many little known waterfalls and mountain ranges. I was a geography major in college, and I was stunned at how many of the overseas phenomena I had never even heard of before. The book is a continuing voyage of discovery.

The descriptions of each feature are factually excellent and well written. The photographs are all in color and excellent.
The maps supplied, in some, but not all, instances are clear and well drafted.

Your world will be much broader and more full once you obtain and read this excellent volume. Don't even try it all at once. Just leisurely peruse a few items each time, and your sense of wonder and beauty will grow each time you do. Very, very highly rated.

After recently joining a cohousing community in development, I wanted to learn more about others' experiences creating their own cohousing communities.

This book accurately describes life in cohousing from people who actually live there. The stories of the difficulties encountered during development and the insights on living and growing with cohousing, after move-in and several years out, were inspirational and entertaining.

As someone who had never heard the word cohousing and three months later is a member of a cohousing community, I found this book to be a helpful and honest account of the exciting journey that lies ahead for us.

Note - This is not a "how-to" book. It will not tell you how to develop, design, or plan a cohousing community. There are several books out there which tackle that topic. This book is much more personal and insightful, with honest statements about the cohousing experience. Some are bad, most are good, most are very entertaining, but all of them are heartfelt commentary on the journey into cohousing, and what happens when you get there.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is, or is thinking of becoming, a member of a cohousing community.

Cohousing first hit my personal radar about a year ago when I met the editor, Dave Wann, in Golden, CO. I live in suburbia (Lakewood, CO) and have always felt like there must be a better way to live than the typical fast-paced, disconnected-from-your-neighbor, every-man-for-himself-on-his-own-little-separate-plot kind of existence. I read one of Dave's previous books called Superbia that he co-wrote with Dan Chiras. In it, they describe a bunch of really innovative ideas for helping to transform some of the major limitations of suburbia into a more connected, holistic, neighborly way of living. But I thought to myself, why not go for the real thing?

When I get enamored with an idea, I tend to read a lot and gather as much information about it as I can. And so I have read almost all of the major books out there on cohousing. The seminal one is "Cohousing: A Contemporary Approach to Housing Ourselves" by Katie McCamant and Chuck Durrett, and I highly recommend it. Many of the other ones, like "The Cohousing Handbook : Building a Place for Community" by Chris & Kelly ScottHanson, and "Creating a Life Together: Practical Tools to Grow Ecovillages and Intentional Communities" by Diana Leafe Christian, are good but focus more on the nuts and bolts of how to build a cohousing community physically and otherwise from the ground up. But they don't really tell you what it's like to LIVE in a cohousing community once it is built. The best book I have read before this one that covers that subject well is "EcoVillage at Ithaca: Pioneering a Sustainable Culture" by Liz Walker. She tells great stories about the birth, growth and challenges of EcoVillage at Ithaca, but they are all about one single community.

Dave's book is the best I have read for giving you a real feeling for what it must be like to actually live in a cohousing community. The stories are entertaining, moving and diverse, and they come from people who live in dozens of cohousing communities all across this country. Dave has woven them together into a cohesive whole that is much stronger than the sum of its individual parts. It is, by far, the best introduction to cohousing that I have found. If I had to choose one, single book to recommend to a friend who knew nothing about cohousing, this one would be it. Highly recommended!

On a personal note, I am wishing that there were an easier way to move in to Harmony Village in Golden where Dave is a resident and founding member. There MUST be something very right and rewarding about living in cohousing if you look at property values and lack of turnover relative to "normal" housing. In the 9 years since the 27 units in Harmony Village were built, there have only been 3 that have come up for sale (and one of those was from a death). But I am patient....

I don't live in a cohousing community, but I have good friends who do, and I think the concept and reality of cohousing is great. The book REINVENTING COMMUNITY illustrates -- with short, often-humorous and colorful stories -- the many values of this new kind of neighborhood. In cohousing, people can rely on each other for support; and houses are compact and efficient -- leaving open spaces and common facilities for everyone's use. Experiments in sustainability, citizen activism, and participatory design and governance are ongoing, and will be useful for the residents of any neighborhood, anywhere. (That's what David Wann's other neighborhood book, SUPERBIA! is about - creating "neighborhoods on purpose" right where we currently live). There have been other books about cohousing, but this one is especially fun to read, letting the reader experience vicariously what it's like to live in a community-by-design.

I got to read an advance manuscript recently. Many of the stories are based on ones that have run in Cohousing or Communities magazine over the years. I love the way it helps connect to the PEOPLE in cohousing, not just the "sticks and bricks" of environmental efficiency/green building or practical aspects of community-building. Hopefully an inspiration to action! Check out Chuck Durrett's new book, "Senior Cohousing", for more stories from recent studies, and Graham Meltzer's research book for a look at how the people in cohousing communities combine for greater environmental impact reduction over time.

All traumatic events spawn the good and the bad, the unique and the clueless. The Post 9/11 world has been no exception. Following the single biggest loss of Aerican blood on American soil since the Civil War battle of Antietam, there have been scores of hucksters, self-proclaimed experts, and scare-mongers alike purporting to have the Final Fix It to deal with the world following the horrors of that fateful day.

There have been several works of political and journalistic types that have been well written, moving, accurately evocative of that terrible day, and contributed something unique to our permanent discussion about what it means to live insecurely in an increasingly insecure world. It's not just 9/11. Katrina. Rita. Earthquakes. Tornadoes galore. Tsunamis. The list is seemingly endless.

At LAST there is a book that concisely yet capably brings in more data than I ever thought possible to pre-brief the average person about how to deal with disaster---and most important of all, how to be: RESILIENT.

I really down't know how Kehayan and Napoli did it. Those of us who write for a living are constantly faced with what I call the '10 poounds of gold that must fit in a five pound bag' conundrum. In short, what do you exclude? How do you summarize without weakening the work? Most of us cannot do this adequately. Kehayan and Napoli have succeeded, in spades.

In one small, highly readable, well organized, graphically lucid and linguistically 'Just The Facts, Ma'am' style, these two mental health professionals weave in the basic How-To's with the whys and wherefores of REALLY surviving. The authors were able to get Mary Ellen Salamone, the courageous and singular President of FAMILIES OF SEPTEMBER 11, to write a forward that will move you to tears without mawkishness.

The ten things---and you must read the book to know what they are---to deal with disaster with resiliency are worth the price of admission.

I , who spent years working in the heart of the U.S. Congress, learned a few things about how federal laws work for disaster relief. As a father, I learned a few valuable things to help me better protect my kids. As a husband, I have more skills to help aid my wife if disaster strikes. And as an American who knew people who perished on 9/11, I have come away a well focused, better armed, more thoughtful, sensitive and RESLIENT man able to face disasters after having read this book.

Amazon only allows ratings up to five stars worth. I would throw in several more if I could. What I can and will do is to urge you to: BUY THIS BOOK!

Challenge: Name me two other books besides this one that will save your life? I won.

This book was obviously very well researched and clearly written with loads of pratical information. Covers a wide range of issues, how to be prepared and what to do after. Presented in an easy to read format with lots of reference material. Also has the unique combination of medical and psychological information that everyone can benefit from in some way. Truly a needed "handbook" in todays world. A bargain for all the information this book contains. It would take many hours to research this on your own. The authors are to be commended on their work. Money well invested.

Resiliancy is well written, well organized, easy to understand and complete in every sense. Thus far, it is the premier individual and family guide to preparing for a personal and family crises of any kind. It is literally "a how to" manual on how to prepare yourself and on how to be resiliant in the face of disaster and terroism. The book's references are spectacular. In short, when the book doesn't have the answer it tells you where to go to get the answer. In the post 9/11 world we live in, it's a must own.

With the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina & Rita, being prepared for calamity is much on everyone's minds, Rebeccasreads recommends RESILIENCY IN THE FACE OF DISASTER & TERRORISM as a no flourishes guidebook of information on preparing yourself & surviving.

In 10 fast & succinct chapters you will learn how to determine what might happen in your life: injury - heart attack - wildfire - car crashes - earthquakes - domestic violence - rape - illness - storms - tornadoes - shooting - flash floods - robbery - terrorism - poverty, among many...
- what to expect
- how to prevent
- how to prepare
- how we react
- when to get help
- help yourself
- help others

National & personal Armaggedons can come at any time -- life is dangerous, no matter where we live nor how poor/rich we are -- learning from this book & getting you & your family prepared will help you sleep at night.

This is from Jessica A. Eise, who was not able to place her own review on Amazon so she emailed it to me:
"True to it's title, this delightful travel book takes you beyond simple suggestions of places to visit, and in fact counsels and gently guides you along a sacred path of life and travel, not merely a suggestion of visits and bus fares. While every tourist tends to make it to their final destination, it is the true traveler that not only makes it but deeply understands how to appreciate what they are experiencing. "Sacred Places in Europe, 108 Destinations" not only highlights sacred places but how to be a sacred traveler. I would strongly suggest this book to the many travelers who want to discover new places and other travelers who encounter the challenge, as I often have, of appreciating wholely what we are blessed enough to see."

I have been reading - and collecting for my personal library - the books by Brad Olsen since he first started publishing them in the late 90's. What I particularly appreciate about Brad's books is how they bring forth and make easily accessible some very interesting information regarding sacred places and their mythology and history. Two other fine characteristics of his books, especially the 108 destination series, are the engaging maps he uses and the details regarding travel to the sacred places. Brad's books are also easy to carry along on journeys to the sacred sites. I can think of no better source of concise information on the sacred places of North America, Europe and the World than Brad's three books on these regions.

Martin Gray
Sedona, Arizona
author/photographer of Sacred Earth

Brad Olsen provides great information about 108 archaeological sites; famous temples, shrines, and churches; and other European sites and places. This is a tremendous reference for either the dedicated or armchair traveler. Brad spent months exploring and reporting on these sites, and you'll learn about the practices of the Viking councils, the history of menhirs in Portugal, and Ireland's The Mound of the Hostages. Color and black-and-white photos enrich the text, as do the hand drawn maps, which evoke those found in the Lord of the Rings. This is a very useful resource, and I wish I had had it while in Europe because I sure missed a lot of fascinating places!

I truly enjoyed this book as it offered many insights on the history of the mysterious Stone Henge, crop circles, revered saints, burial mounds, and more! With very descriptive information and brilliant photos and drawings, Europe's history seemed to come alive. I would strongly recommend this to anyone interested in history and travel or to anyone wanting to gain breathtaking knowledge of the world we live in.

In today's era of stainless steel, Dacron and electronics, we can lose sight of what real sailing is. This is a readable story of the first person to sail alone around the world. Using a one dollar wind-up clock and a ton of skill, this old sailor circumnavigates the globe and spins some yarns that take us away from the world of new technology to a simpler time. A great read.

This is a high quality, well constructed book. Your getting much more than you pay for.

A must read for everyone. Truly one of the great classics on sailing single handed around the world. And this was during the turn of the last century. Hearing about the ports and native people over 100 years ago, is living history. A must for every sailors library. One of the all time bests. If you pick one book to read about sailing, start here. People will be reading this for a thousand years. Our American Ulyses.

It is awesome to read what Joshua Slocum did. His achievement should be celebrated forever. His writing style is not particularly good but the content of the story is unique. All crusing sailors should read this book. Slocum clearly was an outstanding navigator and all around sailor. The section of the book on his adventures going around Cape Horn dealing with the weather, currents, and natives is particularly exciting. This is a story waiting for a Hollywood movie or, even better, a long running TV series.

A beautiful, informative and spectacular oversized book on the Salton Sea. A place that needs to be saved and understood. This book will start your journey.

This book is wonderful! I highly recommend it.

The Salton Sea Atlas covers the complex issues facing this very special body of water in a clear, yet comprehensive, fashion (use of graphics and illustrations over exhaustive use of text). It's a beautiful book, and the most wide-ranging piece about the Salton Sea that I've been able to find. You will not be disappointed with it.

Buy this book

--Just wanted to second the comments of the other reviewers regarding the quality and presentation of this book. It's a scientific work undertaken by the Salton Sea Database Program of the Redlands Institute of the University of Redlands, but it's enclosed within a lovely and large glossy coffee table book. It also includes much information about the cultural history of the Salton Sea and its region in a remote part of the southern California desert. I especially enjoyed the beautiful wildlife illustrations and biological information, though most of the book covers the physical science of the Salton Sea. I gave a copy to someone at a Christmas party held many miles away at the Orange County coast, and people literally were waiting and nagging for their turn to look through this beautiful book about this mysterious and controversial inland subtropical sea.

The Salton Sea Atlas explores issues and information regarding California's largest lake and most valuable environmental resource -- the Salton Sea.

This book is a must for those interested in the Salton Sea, environmental change, water issues in the American Southwest, history, or geography. Its graphical synthesis of complex social, scientific, and geographic information is superb and can be appreciated by all audiences. This is a wonderful publication.

I recommend it wholeheartedly

I still remember the first time I saw the McArthur's Universal Corrective Map of the World, the "upside-down" map with Australia at its center. It was 15 or so years ago, in a down-under exhibit at Brookfield Zoo. The experience of seeing "north" and "south" disconnected from their habitual, yet arbitrary, association with "up" and "down" was at once discomfitting and exhilating. I saw THROUGH the map, and grokked one assumption upon which standard Mercator projection was based.

A textbook of sorts, this was apparently written for bright junior high and high school students. The book's ambivalent title, Seeing Through Maps, is apt because the book is about both seeing through (i.e., USING) maps and seeing THROUGH the map itself to the assumptions that frame it. "Understanding that every map is a projection that gives up some aspect of global reality in order to present what it shows---and that is otherwise endlessly selective---should free you to see through the connotations to the denotative maps that support them. And so in turn be able to scrutinize the connotations. Understanding that every map has a point of view and serves a purpose should free you to take the point of view that serves your interest." (p. 79)

Yet for all this talk about maps, the book is not a study in the practice of cartography. Rather, it is an exploration of the practice of representation in general, an exploration which can evoke profound cognitive dissonance. Consequently, the book also exhorts the reader to adapt a sense of "model agnosticism" when it comes to using maps/metaphors/representations, because no single perspective or position can be total or comprehensive, by definition. The authors repeatedly expound on this main theme of the book:

"Each view excludes another. Because each view has its own value, each may be required to serve one purpose or another. But the more points of view that are taken into account, the more comprehensive is the understanding." (p. 22)

"What is wrong with _moving_ from one view to another? First you catch this view. Then you get that. You stand in between for a while. Then you move to an entirely new position. In fact, this is our recommendation. We believe that the best understanding comes from being able to view the world from as many perspectives as possible. We want you to give up the idea that one map, or even one projection, can meet our needs for understanding." (p. 26)

"'[U]pside-down' maps shock viewers into questioning their assumptions about maps in particular and about life in general....Sometimes all we need to do to solve our problems is turn them upside down." (p. 56)

"But we do not have to have just one picture. We can have, we _do_ have, many. There is no reason for maps all to be on the same projection. The ceaseless repetition of a single projection tries to convince people that 'this' is what the earth looks like. But the earth does not look the way any individual projection makes it look." (p. 67)

"The more attached you are to YOUR way being right, the harder a time you'll have with new perspectives." (p. 69)

"Once people get an image of the earth in their heads, it is hard to persuade them of the advantages offered by another point of view. Another name for this reluctance is prejudice. To work against it, keep as many perspectives in play as possible!" (p.76)

"If we make an effort to look at everything, and try to take our eyes to new places, the world we experience will be much richer, more interesting, more useful, more complete, more generous, more _real_." (p. 109)

If you want your adolescent kids to be given a healthy dose of cognitive dissonance, to open their eyes to a deeper structure at work in our usage of symbols and to innoculate them against media illiteracy, this book seems to be a pretty good place to start. Here's my test. Look at these three questions from the book, page 99:

"What assumptions are built into the concept or image I'm presented with?; What other points of view might provide an entirely different 'take' on things?; How might this appear to someone raised in an entirely different culture or country?"

Do you want your kids asking these kinds of questions? If so, this book would be a good resource. (It is also a great introduction to funky, non-traditional maps like the Peters projection, the Fuller Dymaxion map, and the aforementioned McArthur's Universal Corrective Map of the World.)

This book will really help you to appreciate maps and their use through out history. Easily understood and very well written. This is must read for anyone who is even slightly interesred in maps.

As librarians in Bergen County, N.J., we highly recommend "Seeing Through Maps" for all library collections. This a wonderfully illustrated, interestingly written book. It is especially good for the young adult collection as it is accurate, clear and attractively laid out. Young adults coming into the library find it easily understood and packed full of information. This book would be very helpful in both public and school libraries.

I highly recommend this title, whether you are or are not a map enthusiast. The book is easy to follow for anyone with at least a junior high school education, and informative, even if you are a college graduate. It will give you a new appreciation of maps and their important role in our history and our world today. This is the type of book that will make you a "map geek" even if you never really thought that much about the subject before you picked up the book.

I used this book at a travel school and kept it for reference for my own travels. It's a great source for travel ideas for anyone. A must buy!

As a newcomer to the travel industry, this book has been a wonderful eyeopener. Even the most experienced travel professional can benefit from Mr. Mancini's knowledge of different places around the world.

The language is easy to understand, the information pertinent for the travel professional's needs, and layout is clear and manageable (not overbearing or textbook-like).

Mr. Mancini's reputation as an experienced professional in the travel industry is well acknowledged by his collegues and he is looked up to by newcomers, like myself.

"Selling Destinations" is a must have in every travel professionals resource library!

Marc Mancini, Phd, is the travel industry's most well-known industry educator and speaker.

As a travel school student (and later as an Instructor at the same school) I watched his many travel education videos and read many of his textbooks. He clearly presents topics vital to the travel industry and explains in depth subjects which should be required reading for all professionals in the industry.

Now, even with over 13 years working in various segments of the highly diverse travel and tourism field, I find reading Dr. Mancini's books and viewing his entertaining and informative videos enhances my everyday performance.

I highly recommend Dr. Mancini's materials to all currently employed in the travel industry and those considering a career change!!!

Most of the geography books available today have limited usefullness to a travel agent. Knowing the amount of bauxite a country produces doesn't help sell that region as a travel destination. In this book, Mancini details the important facts about the places that people travel to throughout the world.
In addition to the useful locater maps and detailed descriptions of the various cities and countries, Mancini includes little known facts and suggestions that travel agents can pass along to their customers. A first rate book.