Theme Parks Books

Through an informative text enhanced by a wealth of 130 beautiful, breathtaking, color photographs, Grand Canyon On My Mind reveals one of the most awesome natural wonders on earth -- the Grand Canyon, carved out over eons of time by the wild Colorado River. Here are depicted the towering canyon walls, the superb sunsets, the river, and the total grandeur of the canyon in all its aspects by some of the Grand Canyon's most ardent and articulate admirers. Grand Canyon On My Mind is a very highly recommended addition to any and all community library collections and would make an ideal "Memorial Fund" acquisition selection.

Although short and concise, this book captures the essence of the Grand Canyon. Both the writing and the photography are interesting and beautiful. This should be an essential part of anyone's collection who, like me, is truly in love with the Grand Canyon.

It's the first book I've seen that truly captures the spirit of the Canyon. The photography is superb; the text is readable and informative.

From Front Jacket:

"Rising out of the northwest corner of Wyoming, the Tetons are a magnificent range, alive with a beauty as fluid and shifting as the water that still shapes their canyons.

Founded in 1929, Grand Teton National Park encompasses 326,000 acres of sagebrush flats, rivers, forests, morainal lakes, and steep, rugged peaks and canyons. It rises from 6500 feet elevation in the valley to 13,770 feet at the summit of the Grand Teton. Over 9 million years of sporadic uplift has created what is perhaps the most dramatic and classically breathtaking mountainscape in North America.

This book is a collection of inspiring and sensitive photographs that lead us through the enchantment of Grand Teton National Park, revealing in the worlds of rivers, canyons, and mountain peaks a wealth of living things: delicate sagebrush buttercups and shooting stars emerging from winter snowdrifts; ospreys and bald eagles soaring on thermal updrafts; moose, coyotes, deer, antelope, and buffalo roaming fee; pines, aspens, and cottonwoods nobly withstanding the dramatic seasonal changes.

Both the photographer, Pat O'Hara, and the writer, Tim McNulty, have spent many seasons in the park and have captured the intimacy of their experience in the text and pictures. The book is printed on 100-pound acid-free text paper and includes 69 color photographs, pus text and captions."

Writer Alan Tennant succintly describes the striking geology of the nearly all-limestone Guadalupe Reef and the post Ice-Age remant forest that perches on its summit and in some canyon recesses. However, even more interesting, to this reader, is his account of the human history of the Guadalupe Mountains, from the collision between the Apaches and the Latin or Anglo invaders to the rather improbable concatenation of events that led to the protection of the place as a national park, in a region that tends to be hostile to public ownership of land and environmental protection.
The book only follows the story up to the first couple of years after the opening of the Park, but, other than some water-mining in the vicinity that poses an indirect threat, not much has changed since then.
Michael Allender's photographs are still the best visible representation of the Park available, even in this day of internet picture-posting. In fact, Tennant weaves the figure of the non-conformist Allender into the account in a way that adds a strong dramatic and personal value to the book, without making it over-literary in a way that might weigh on some readers.

One of the best little books ever written by a magician!....I loved all the little stories that went on behind the scenes!...A must read for any magic lover!

Thank you to Laura and Godfrey for capturing a piece of history that might have been otherwise been lost forever. These pictures and this story have an amazing lesson for all of us... that even the poorest of us can have rich blessings of friends, family and an extended network of community that can be more important than our physical surroundings. To all of us who have an influence over the shaping of bricks and mortar in communities, this book is a wonderful caution that we MUST NOT overlook the importance of community relationships in our zealousness to improve the physical conditions of the neighborhood. This is a delicate balance that must be preserved lest our community revatilization efforts be in vain.

When I got this book I spent the first week enjoying the photographs. I'm glad I devoted some undivided attention for these images. They express a personal involvement with, and a command of the subject matter. They would make a wonderful, gallery show. I was not in a hurry to get to the text, though, probably because I thought I already got the gist of the book from the excerpt in "My California" (Angel City Press), or that it was going to be a bit of a travel log.

What was I thinking!?! I clearly forgot who I was dealing with. This is the author that cracked wide open my emotions with her story of the heroic power of a young woman in the same desert ("Twentynine Palms").

Besides the blind side assault on my status quo, this volume, as most of what Ms. Stillman writes, performs well on several levels. Geology, botany, zoology, humor, history, and politics are woven together with autobiographical anthropology. And, despite the nonfiction genre, the book subtly tracks the opening, conflict, climax, and resolution of a play or novel.

Much of my enjoyment in reading her work is my perception of the recurring theme of putting Pop-Culture, Americana, and civilization in context. A kind of Grand Unification Theory. All political debate prompted by the biting, well supported commentary seems welcome in this Big Picture. And, Baseball is more than just a metaphor.

This book does satisfy the nature enthusiast's desire for the must see, and might see highlights of the Park, but moreover, it's well crafted, moving, and much larger than it's size suggests.

How much more can I say but "WELL DONE !" This is a must read for anyone who has ever gone to "the lake".

Part of the University of Calgary Press unique 'Parks and Heritage' series focusing on North American national parks and historic sites, "The Lens Of Time: A Repeat Photography Of Landscape Change In The Canadian Rockies" is the collaborative Project of Cliff White and Ted Hart which compares yesteryear black-and-white photographs in side-by-side arrangement with contemporary full color photographs of the same landscapes, taken from the same positional perspectives, and revealing the changes that have taken place during the intervening 125 years. Enhanced with an informed and informative commentary text, "The Lens Of Time" is an enthusiastically recommended addition to professional, academic, and community library collections, and would prove of immense and particular interest to environmental activists and non-specialist general readers with an appreciation of Canadian Rockies landscapes -- then and now!