California Books

When I began reading Plantsman, I expected to learn all about California plants and gardens. Having lived only a short time in the state, I was eager to know the names and temperament of the gorgeous plants and flowering trees I saw in front yards and parks on my daily walks.

What I did not expect was an even flow of lively prose that would grip me like a best-selling work of fiction. Plantsman is an entertaining page-turner as well as an encyclopedia of plant life. Its master-gardener tips will help you transform your humble plot into a luxuriant, esthetically charming, and environmentally-friendly garden, be it desert, inland, or coastal. You are seduced by the striking hues of Red Columbus, Leopard Lily, Mexican Primrose, Pink Spice and a myriad other plants, and dizzied by the scent of plants like Box Honeysuckle and Peppermint Scented Geranium.

In an engaging poetic style peppered with bursts of wonder and excitement, Harbour takes us on an unforgettable journey through the gardens of his life. We meet his grandmother, discover the inspiration for his first love; we hike through desert canyons in 90 degree heat with his family, gasp in the encounter with a mountain lion, ponder the secret lives of plants, learn how to exterminate gophers, and welcome anew each magnificent season.

Plantsman will delight both garden lovers and general readers.
Megan Webster

Gardening guru Steve Harbour's account of a year in the life of a garden designer springs from fertile ground as the seasons unfold. With an encyclopedic knowledge of plants and an artist's eye for design and detail, Harbour escorts the reader on a grand tour of landscape masterpieces in the making as the year buds and then blooms. Harbour's humor and humanity color his perspective as he moves through an impressive array of garden projects.

Which is not to suggest that the year is without its challenges. In a compelling chronicle of frustrations with fickle clients, unreliable contractors, and the demands of design competitions, the author recounts his adventures in a wry, insightful and moving style. The path that Harbour treads is beset with garden pests, inept cannabis cultivators, a bureaucratic homeowners association, and a first-hand and moving account of a devastating wildfire that nearly consumes Harbour's home.

For the green-thumbed aficionado or the aspiring beginner, Harbour's gentle and well-conceived guide traces the impulse to create and coax order and beauty from the world around us. Along the way we witness the wonder and beauty of a life lived among a landscape of the author's own making. It is a journey too important to miss. A deep-rooted and flourishing floral find.

Harbour has one of the most beautiful sence of prose I have come across. Whether or not you are a plant afficianado Plantsman will take you on a journey through gardening that you will love. Like a travel essay Platsman travels through gardens, nature hikes, and Steve Harbours experiences along the way. You will actually laugh outloud at some of his commentery and insights. Loved the book!!

Harbour is a plantsman in the true sense and let's the reader into a year of his life. Whether it be as a designer, a collector, or just a home gardener; Harbour delights with entertaining and funny tails about life in Southern California as a plant person.
Whether it was the chapter about the snake, the mountain lion, or the fire; I kept the pages turning and enjoyed it from cover to cover. Looking forward to the next one from this author.

Excellent book with insightful stories. This book helps you manage your real estate career and provides examples from a start-up as a single agent to building your own team. It goes beyond the day to day business activities to discuss what other things you should do, not only to develop a successful career, but ensure a successful life!

I thoroughly enjoyed reading the stories of successful realtors working at PMZ Inc. The inside look at what a career in residential real estate is really all about was so helpful for someone like me who was really interested in a career change. This a great book by an obviously brilliant business executive who spends 85% of the book on allowing other people to tell their stories. How refreshing is that? Buy it...it is a fun, informative read.

This is a terrific read for anyone interested in the field of real estate. Take tips from the pros who are actually out there practicing and learn lessons from the man who runs the company! A Great read!

What a great read! I am a business student in the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley and stumbled upon this book as it was listed on the "suggested supplementary reading" list distributed by the professor in my upper-div real estate investment elective. I loved this book from beginning to end - I think that it especially provides a realistic point of view into residential real estate, with great tips on how to get started, networking and important keys to success. It is clear that this author knows what he is talking about and I love how he combines useful business tools and tactics with personal accounts of the real-life application of these tools by real estate agents. If I could give this read 6 stars, I would. It has really inspired and moved me in an incredible way!!

Spicer and Ginsberg influenced one another, as is clearly shown in this book. Ginsberg stole a lot of his ideas from Spicer, but he was still the greater poet because he touched upon the conversation of his times, while Spicer went whacko and had no real impact on his culture. Academics have taken up Spicer, but this has again had no echo at all in the popular culture.

It's particularly interesting to study the automatic side of Spicer's poetics from surrealism forward -- the relinquishing of choice for a ouija board automaticism that resulted in odd nonsense that probably did not come from the dead, but resulted in an arcane verse that did indeed catalyze some of the lazier aspects of SF poetry but which was a dead end.

Magisterial biography that brings to life a tormented alcoholic who was not even trying to be nice, or even well-dressed, enough, to enter into the public forum.

His best work is the discussions he offered in The House that Jack Built -- astounding to see what he could do when he DID enter into the public conversation. Too often in his poetry he seems to be mumbling to himself. Poets need to reconnect to the real world -- because the world is real -- it has an ecology and texture, and the poets who got this will survive. Others form dead ends into their lost selves.

Gnosticism is a dead end.

I find that the Kirkus review available here does ill-service to this important biography of Jack Spicer. One would have no inkling, from reading this review, that Spicer's poetry is one of the most influential sources for postmodern poetry and poetics in the 1990s. It is not some recent academic fad to study Spicer; rather, Spicer has been a crucial poet for many younger writers for over three decades. This biography, published at the same time with his collected lectures, should provide the opportunity for even more serious study of his work.

Poets in the 1950s and 1960s have been well served by some of their biographers, and in this thrilling critical treatment of Jack Spicer and the poets of the San Francisco Renaissance, Ellingham and Killian join the ranks of Peter Davison (The Fading Smile: Boston Poets from Lowell to Plath) and Bill Berkson and Joe LeSeur (Homage to Frank O'Hara) in magically capturing the soul of an important school in the poetic ferment of those years. The San Francisco circle around Spicer was intense, prolific and inspired, but they didn't get the publicity that the New York poets received or that the Beats had showered on them. Lack of media attention didn't stop them. They were dedicated to a pure vision of poetry as an almost religious vocation. On his hospital death bed in 1965 (he died at 40 from acute alcohlism), Spicer told friend Warren Tallman, "I was trapped inside my own vocabulary." His genius/mania to use that vocabulary in service of the Muse produced great work and reminded others of the seriousness of their purpose. Spicer, in all his contradictions and drives, leaps from these pages. The book as a whole bristles with the very energy it celebrates, both poetic and sexual (intrigue was in their blood), and is essential reading for all of us interested in the circles that nurture poetry in every creative center. As if that is not enough, the quotations from a vast number of interviews of the surviving participants make this a delicious oral history as well as a compendium of hair-raising gossip of the wild times in North Beach before tourists took it over fom artists.

I have read Poet Be Like God, and I wish neither to rate it (but there's no option available that allows one to opt out of the rating game) nor review it, but to make a correction to the idiotic Kirkus review: Jack Spicer was NOT a "Beat" poet. There were a group of Beat poets in San Francisco in the late 1950s, early 1960s (e.g.,Bob Kaufman), but Spicer wasn't one of them. His intentions in poetry were different from theirs; naturally, so was his aesthetic. Spicer was part of a triumverate of poets that included Robert Duncan and Robin Blaser who met at the end of World War II in Berkeley, Ca., and were sometimes known as the Berkeley Renaissance group, or more simply, and more accurately, as part of the San Francisco poetry scene (which was part of the New American Poetry movement). That the Kirkus reviewer could make such an elementary and stupid mistake should be taken as a clear indicator of the idiocy of the rest of the Kirkus piece of schlock.

David Paul Frediani is the perpetrator and Helena Greenwood is the victim. Around 15 years is the time period of investigation and this case was finalized in the year 2000. All up-to-date stuff. You discover the history of DNA and its application to crime detection which is a fascinating subject and also the fact that hundreds of inmates have been released from prison as it was proven they were innocent. The thrust of this story however, are the deeds of David Frediani, his incredible self-made alibis, those who helped him (a handful of people), and how he was eventually brought to justice because of the work of a handful of law enforcement people. I thought if the volume was cut by about 25 pages it would have rated 5 stars. This is one of the early detections using DNA and if it had occured much earlier then Mr. Frediani would have gotten away free...forever.

Helena Greenwood was the head of marketing at a biotech company in southern California. She was present at the dawn of DNA testing in her industry, and when she heard about the newly patented method of DNA fingerprinting, she told the directors of her firm, "This DNA fingerprinting is going to be big. I think we should get into it." She was just the person to influence the firm in that direction, but in 1985 she was murdered in the front garden of her home. There was a suspect, but no witnesses, no fibers, no fingerprints, and the homicide department put the murder in the archive for more than a decade. Then a resourceful investigator found physical evidence in the file, and, ironically, used the same DNA testing on it that Greenwood had been promoting. The history of this case, and the results, are told in a fascinating detective story, _Pointing from the Grave: A True Story of Murder and DNA_ (Miramax) by Samantha Weinberg. The book does not simply relate the facts of the case and profile the personalities involved, but it also gives a satisfying and useful history of DNA research and the effect of that research on forensic investigations.

Weinberg intercuts her murder story with visits to labs and descriptions of the history of DNA going back to before Watson and Crick. One of Weinberg's digressions is to the Innocence Project, which has used DNA evidence to free wrongly convicted prisoners. The Project's efforts have shown that courts and juries are more badly flawed than anyone had previously suspected, and have increased the importance of DNA for fair legal investigation. But the useful digressions in _Pointing from the Grave_ all hang on the story of Greenwood's murder, and that story is very well told indeed. In 1998, an investigator found Greenwood's fingernail clippings taken at the autopsy, and thought that perhaps under the fingernails would be skin samples for investigation. When Greenwood had been murdered, such evidence was useless; fifteen years later, it provided the basis for the arrest of a charming sociopath who at the time of the murder had had been out on bail for sexually assaulting her. His lawyer attempted to use the defense that the science was untested, to "persuade the jury it was voodoo," but in 2001, juries had heard enough about DNA successes, and prosecutors had had enough experience with demonstrating the reliability of such evidence, to make a difference.

Weinberg has interviewed many of the scientists whose work she mentions, and has had jailhouse interviews with the accused. She has become friends with his family, who are sad figures ("they were the essence of the American suburban family") trying to understand how a nurturing and non-abusive upbringing could have turned out so. There are vital portraits of all the players at the trial here, and a summary of the proceedings that is exciting. Unforgettable is Greenwood's father; he was proud of his science-inclined only child, and devastated by her death. "There's enough sadness in the world," he said, "without people killing each other." He compared it to stones thrown in a pond, "... the ripples as they grow outward bring misery to everyone." When he said this, prostate cancer was painfully killing him in England, but he had hung on to life for years hoping to have his daughter's death resolved. He heard the verdict relayed to him by telephone, and died only hours later.

I have been looking for books about forensic science as I want to go into that, and found this wonderful book. It is almost hard to believe that it is true! The author really weaves the true story line in with the history of how DNA testing was discovered and developed. And it is even more amazing that the victim was involved with geneics and DNA herself. This book was as enertaining as any fiction book with forensic science.

I walked into this one knowing the outcome and essential facts. This case had been covered on either Unsolved Mysteries or one of the many forensic shows available through cable tv and I was immediately familiar with it.
The pleasant surprise was the book's essential structure and Ms. Weinberg's writing style. This was a true story that in many ways was written like a great crime novel. Her cast of characters had well developed personalities. Her research was meticulous. She was able to build a level of suspense when her reader already knew where she was going. Weinberg managed to maintain a level of objectivity and even a level of sympathy for the perpetrator while managing to be mindful that this person wasn't innocent.
As for my own reaction to this story, I became almost immediately hooked. There was almost a creepy aspect here as I had stayed at a hotel no more than 2 blocks from the scene of the crime last October. Her descriptions were so intensely visual that I almost felt like I was in Del Mar witnessing the crime scene first hand. I kept thinking that this all seemed so surreal. On a certain level I kept thinking the title could have been Murder In Paradise.
This book was researched very thorougly and many people who were involved closely to the victim, perpetrator, or the investigations conducted were interviewed at length.
Of course, as the title implies, the victim was indirectly responsible for nailing her murderer 15 years after the fact. While there is a certain irony in that, by no means is that the whole story.
I read this book in slightly over 3 hours. Usually I don't speed read when I'm reading for pleasure, but it was so compelling I just couldn't wait to move forward.
Be forwarned that I only review books that I really like or really detest. I absolutely loved this one.

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!

I believe that third and fourth graders would really enjoy this text about this Mexican American youngster. Children would also enjoy the occasional Spanish included in the text. The only problem: Soto does not include a glossary this time. Oh well, Soto does a great job of portraying a family that understands what it means to really work for a living and teaches kids not to take everything for granted. Soto stays away from the sterotypical "lazy mexican".

The Pool Party by Gary Soto is a great story of a little hispanic boy named Rudy that gets invited to a pool party of a wealthy friend. Rudy's family is concerned that Rudy will not fit in and proceed to give him advice on what way he should act at the party. In the mean time Rudy decided that he is going to take an inner tube to the party against the wishes of his sister who told him that in a pool party, people don't actually go into the water and just chat by the side of the pool. Rudy listens to everyones advice, but at the end he does what he thinks is right and goes to the party and just does what is right for himself. The inner tube that he takes to the party is well received by everyone and he has a good time. This book is great for children in the fifth grade and on to read because it teaches them that being yourself is the right thing to do.

Gary Soto expresses the issue of fitting in and family life while using Rudy to guide us in a humorous way. This book is a great choice for young readers because they are able to relate with Rudy's dilema of fitting in and being liked by a new group of friends. One major concern was when Rudy finally goes to the pool party with his inner tube. One can't help but think of poor Rudy returning home early from the party crying and feeling dreadfull. The family unity is prevelant through out this book and it is expressed with how everyone is trying to give Rudy advice on how to act, talk and greet people while he's at the party. Over all this book is a great book that I had the pleasure of reading. I would recommend it to any student regardless of their ethnic background.

I remember being so captivated when reading this book in the fifth grade that I read it in one sitting! I had hated reading books before that. Soto is a great author and his story's will appeal to all kids.

This book can be hard going but if you grasp the theories and understand how they are linked with jurisprudence than you will enjoy the book.

No doubts Kelsen is to be considered a watershed specially concerned to juridical thought. His efforts to break with the natural theories' tradition is of maximum importance for the basis on what the concepts of law and right were built. What is to be focused - as the importance of the works of Hans Kelsen is no new - is the impossibility of having his theory as the only one to be appliable to modern juridical dogmatics. Reading Kelsen is deffinitely a must for the ones who intend to study Law in deep. Nevertheless is to be kept in mind that his work is not and end in itself,but a solid and well structured beginning point.

This is undoubtely the most important book on philosophy of law ever written. It's the book that broke paradigms (in the Thomas Kuhn sense of expression)and brought scientific dignity to the study of law. You can divide the science of law between "before and after" the Pure Theory. Even other really important books, like "the Concept of Law", by Hart, or "On Law and Justice", by Alf Ross, would be not possible if Kelsen hadn't written this book first.

"Pure Theory of Law" is a classic and a must for Law and Philosophy students. Hans Kelsen is extremly successful in building concepts and also his theory. Although this "pure theory"is extremly criticised nowadays, its reading is essential ,and help readers to understand other theories clearly.

This is the best book I have read on the subject of rape & how to survive it. Unlike so many of the books out on rape, this is not written from a statistical aspect & how to prevent rape in the first place. This book is written totally to the survivor with exercises to help you recover from rape. If you are a victim of rape & trying to figure out how to recover from it, this is the book for you! It really made me realize that my reactions are typical of the normal victim & that there is nothing wrong with me for taking so long to recover. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has been the victim of rape & is trying to become a survivor!

I found this book very easy to read and helpful in the recovery process. It basically describes the process of going from victim to survivor. The shortness of the book did make it easier to read as I was in grad school at the time. I didn't have time to read anything besides my assignments. It addresses shame, guilt and anger and ends with solutions or ways to change thoughts and behavior (cognitive restructuring). It was a good introduction to survivor issues in a very manageable size.
If you are in crisis now you can call the national sexual assault hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE. They will forward you to a local rape crisis counselor. The crisis center can give you a referral to a rape crisis counselor, a therapist, victim advocacy (for reporting to police or going to court), provide free counseling or offer a support group. This hotline is run by RAINN.org which is the leading resource on sexual assault.

I have read several books for survivors of rape and this one has the best ideas written most succinctly. Also, this book can be completed in one day if a person has the time.

As a therapist and survivor of rape, this book has been an essential resource for myself and so many others. This is the first book I recommend to all clients who have been raped. It can be read immediately following the rape and for years after, each time offering meaning and hope. This book may also be a guide for family and friends affected by this event, helping them better understand what the victim may be experiencing. This is a great place to begin and continue a healing journey.

This isn't your ordinary coffee table book. Jim Goldberg delves into the lives of homeless kids living on the street, cataloging and following two kids through his collage of pictures and stories. Although it's hard to resist just leafing through it's pages, the real message and story is in reading the book from cover to cover. Jim Goldberg ties the pictures together with stories, giving you a real sense of what these kids go through, what their motivations are, what their daily lives are like.

I volunteer helping out homeless kids in Seattle, and from what I've seen this book does a good job of accurately protraying these children, including why they're on the street. He's unbiased and uncensored in his view, I think echo's review reflecting this (one of the kids followed in the book) only stands as a testament of this.

This is an eye-opening book full of amazing photographs that will leave you FEELING what these kids and adults are and have gone through living on the streets of San Francisco. Not too often are you experiencing so many emotions as you will when you flip page through page through this book. I can't say much more but it is worth the money...you will experience something that many of us are fortunate to have not experienced.

Accurate and thourough- Jim Goldberg told our stories truthfully, and lets you draw your own conclusions. - echo

Goldberg documented street kids of San Francisco and Hollywood over the course of ten years. His work reflects the effort and emotion of that period. Unlike previous attempts to document homeless youth, Goldberg never sensationalized or objectified the kids he worked with. The text maintains individual voices, never judging, never interpreting, simply transmitting narratives that mainstream society would otherwise never hear. His photography radiates relationships of trust: he allows kids to illustrate their issues and amplify their voices, sharing their stories, artwork, and writings, without ever speaking for them. Such justice is rarely provided to an oppressed population. "Raised by Wolves" incites the reader's tears, anguish, and outrage - but also joy, that someone was able to successfully provide a platform for such truths to be heard. Goldberg more than did his part in attempting to educate America. The greater issue is, will we listen?

As this book comments, "Donors Sign Checks, Arnold SIgns Bills." It is a thoroughly researched look at how Arnold raised money for his campaigns, and the favors that he did for his contributors.
I was quite amazed that this book was written while Arnold is still in office- usually a book like this would take many years to research and assemble.
I enjoyed it because I am interested in California politics and also campaign finance reform, and corruption.

This was an incredibly thorough and well documented book on how big money continues to dominate politics on both sides of the aisle, always to the detriment of ordinary citizens. The non-partisan approach was rare and refreshing for a book of this kind. If every citizen read this book, we might just get our democracy back.

Consultant and founder of the nonpartisan watchdog organization TheRestofUs.org Derek Cressman offers his unvarnished insights in The Recall's Broken Promise: How Big Money Still Runs California Politics, a no-nonsense denouncement of the increasingly blurry ethics of California's partisan politics. Chapter cover the events of California's historic recall election, Arnold Schwarzenegger's rise to power, and the ultimate disappointment as big money politics continued as usual. A bitingly insightful look at the corruption weakening California's governmental system, and the reforms that are needed immediately.

For anyone interested in California politics or campaign finance reform, this is a great read. Cressman approaches a complex topic in a very readable way. I was fascinated to learn more about how our campaign finance system really works, along with all the problems that accompany it. The author makes a great pitch for why we need some real reform, and he concludes the book with some practical ideas of how to fix the system.