Park University Books

2006 marks the 100th anniversary of Mesa Verde National Park, and this book may turn out to be one of the most enduring tributes to this birthday. Respected archaeological historian Florence Lister has written an engaging, story-packed history of archaeology in the Mesa Verde region. It serves both as a history of southwestern archaeology and as an overview of ancient Puebloan life, history, and mysteries. You'll meet a colorful cast of characters who became enthralled by Puebloan cliff ruins, from cowboy pothunters to Teddy Roosevelt to today's archaeologists. You'll tour Mesa Verde National Park more intimately than tourists ever do, learning the stories behind familiar park landmarks, and the stories about sites/sights tourists never see. You'll get an up-to-date idea of what we know about the Puebloans. Lister offers judicious discussions of difficult and controversial topics such as why Puebloan society collapsed, Puebloan violence and warfare, grave repatriation, pothunting, Park Service and tribal and academic politics, and the difficulties of doing professional archaeology. But mostly, the fascination of archaeology.

Suspend disbelief, the master of illusion has again struck, using his medium of photography. Jerry Uelsmann has created worlds that can only exist in the minds of dreamers. This is a must for the seekers of illusions made real through photographic proof. Here is reality for dreams of a dreamer.

This is a terrific book on the University - the photographs
are nothing short of amazing. Mr. Adelman is to be con
gratulated on his execution of this idea. Everyone who has
attended this school should own this book - it will bring back
fond memories. I hope we can look for more volumes on
other schools.

Having read this superb book, nothing Mr. Greenspan says will ever be the same. Clearly, he is a very conflicted person. One cannot help but conclude that our savings and our pensions are in mortal danger. How come this book has not come to the attention of our elected representatives? This is much more important than the Enron fraud. Anyone who is concerned about having adequate funds for retirement should read this book very carefully.

Wild Edens. Africa's Premier Game Parks and Their Wildlife, by Joseph James Shomon

It was our pleasant experience to read an extraordinary book! Although lacking in graphics, we do consider this one much richer in content than the more familiar, photo-laden publications covering this subject.

Wild Edens has a very well written, interesting and varied text. The author combines skill with expert knowledge in different areas, i.e., ecology, geography, history and zoology, giving the reader a complete picture of these most important African National Parks. In Appendix 1, a short essay about David Livingstone and his pioneering disclosure of central Africa, is well worth reading.

Appendix 2, with its complete list of the parks, gives very useful information to readers planning to be visitors.

An outstanding description of the killing of a buffalo by a pack of hyenas in Aberdares Park is most impressive (Chapter 3). The reader feels strong sensations while witnessing the "cruelty" of the natural world and the tense relations between hunters and the hunted, in nature's domain.

Because this is a book of major interest and value, we find it unusual to discover a gross mistake...The legend of the colour photograph depicting a zebra and two baboons at Jane Goodall's camp near Lake Tanganika (see colour photographs next to pg. 80, with a similar photo on the back cover). It reads: "Zebra and chimpanzees"... It is clear that the photographed monkeys are not chimps (Pan Troglodites), but baboons (Papio Cynocephalus). Zebras and baboons have the same habitat, ` savanna', while, typically, chimpanzees live in a forest. It would be rare for the two breeds, zebra and chimp, to meet in the wild ... their habitats being so positively different. How an error such as this could have been overlooked by such a competent author is disconcerting. However, this oversight certainly does not, in any other way, jeopardize the special value of a "different" book on wild life.

José Xavier de Basto Coimbra, Portugal with Jacqueline Martin Texas, USA

Mr. Seymour's descriptions and pictures of the wildflowers of the cave area are clear and easily used. His comments add an extra dimension to the usual guide book.

Chris Magoc's environmental and cultural history of the early years of Yellowstone National Park is superbly researched and extraordinarily well written. It turns upside down a number of the popular myths about the park and provokes reconsideration of many of the sacred myths we Americans hold dear about our most treasured landscapes, among which is the idea that they are "virgin" and inviolable spaces, that they are "set apart" from the culture and economic structures of capitalism.

What a great book about one of our greatest National Parks. The major section consists of a series of 100 photographs presented in a Then & Now format: photos taken in the 1880's are compared with exact shots (same angle, location, etc.) taken roughly 100 years later. All of the photos depict various views of Yellowstone N.P. Comparisons are amazing: sometimes differences are subtle, other times very dramatic. (All are black & white.) It's amazing that the exact locations could be found, and the author declares that sometimes it was very difficult, requiring much detective work. The results are stunning. There are also chapters dealing with Yellowstone's geology, climate, vegetation, and the effect of human presence in the park. The book is truly monumental, worthy of its subject matter. Highly recommended.

I was reading this for my summer reading log. It turned out to be really bad. Not only is it boring, but it drags on. Don't read this unless you are obsessed with pottery!

What an absolutely captivating story! I am somewhat familiar with stories from Japan or China, but I guess I am just oblivious to contemporary child-aimed Korean-inspired literature. What a horrible elementary school teacher I am. Anywho, I first heard about this book back in college in a children's lit class... but never bothered to read it until my little sister found it. She read it and recommended it to me.

And thus I was captivated by its gorgeous simplicity that made a truly inspiring fable as well as a piece of historical fiction.

The story follows the adventures of Tree-Ear, a young orphan who becomes the servant/apprentice of a master potter. Tree-Ear yearns to learn pottery, but his broken-hearted master refuses to teach. When Master Min is summoned to send samples of his work to the royal court, it is Tree-Ear's task to make the delivery.

This is a beautiful, inspiring story that touches on love as well as art. It brought tears to my eyes.

A Single Shard is an adventurous historical fiction that leads one boy's life to an adventure so great he will remember it forever. The boy's name is Tree-Ear and he is an orphan that lives with a man named Crane-Man. The village was Ch'ulp'o, Korea during the twelfth-century. He is barley surviving on scrapes of food under a bridge. He gets curious and accidentally breaks a potter named Min's pot. Then Tree-Ear has to work for Min for nine days. Later on after his work is finished he will work more, hoping to become a potter like Min. An emperor's assistant comes in hope of finding a great potter like Min. There is another potter who is just as great as Min and he is Kang. The theme is Tree-Ear trying to become a potter. The conflict is Tree-Ear's quest to become a potter. I liked this novel because it shows how live was in the twelfth-century at Korea. This is a great book for people who think History is a great genre.

I would recommend this book to all the people because this book has mixed emotions. In the beginning you feel sorry for tree-ear and crane-man because they live under a bridge and because their poor. And you are horrified when tree-ear gets BADLY injured. But towards the end you feel good for tree ear and what he accomplished. But their you go again you are sobbing,horrified to what has happedned to a certain someone death. But on the other hand you feel good about another persons death. IM not only saying that this is a good book to read im saying this is book that gets your hopes up,this is a book that gives you a little boost when your feeling down. Lat but not least this is a book that lets YOU express who YOU are . Thank You for letting me into your homes(computers) well unless you at work so that would mean thank you for letting me into your jobs anyway goodbye and dont forgett to buy this book unless you already have it. Well bye anyway.

A Single Shard Book Review


In the book A Single Shard by Linda Sue Park, a young boy named Tree-ear lives with adopted father Crane-man, under a bridge. Later Tree-ear goes to work with a potter and has to travel a long distance. This book isn't really one of my favorites and I would not recommend it because it doesn't really have a climax or anything that is really interesting.
Since this book is in Korea where there is clay there has to be some potters. And since Tree-ear is an orphan and didn't have anywhere to go (besides the monks) he had to have a father, which turned out to be Crane-man. Also when Tree-ear broke Min's pot (a wonderful potter) he had to pay for it by working for him but then decided to keep on working for him. When people really respect each other, most of the time they would do something thoughtful, like Tree-ear did for Min's wife.
In the beginning of the book it was really boring and didn't really make any sense, but later it was kind of better. I think to improve this book the author could of used some humor through out the character and it would help people like it more. Also some of the characters were not really believable. Some of the were orphans that lived under a bridge with a crippled man with crutches. While I was reading this book I wasn't really interested on what was going to happen next. The reason why I was not interested was because there was no foreshadowing.
As a conclusion I sincerely don't think people should read this book. Some of my reasons are that it's really boring, no humor, wasn't really connected to the characters or the plot and it didn't have any interesting words.

I purchased this book because David Quammen referenced it in one of his books, and I really enjoy Quammen's books. It is listed on various websites and in some magazines as a "Nature Classic".

I have visited and hiked the deserts and canyon in Utah and northern Arizona. That allowed me to feel a lot of what Abbey writes about. It is a special place. I wish I could go back and see Arches National Park when Abbey was there. (It was Arches National Monument at the time of his stay there.)

While there are some controversial things in this book, and while I don't agree with everything Abbey writes, I have to say that I really hated to come to the end of this book. Besides the stories about nature, Abbey also writes about some of the human activities in this area.

I think I understand why people call this a landmark book. The environmental movement was just starting in the sixties. (Does anyone else remember the green Ecology symbol?)

An early environmentalist even before the term came into use. Ranks up there with Sand County Almanac and Silent Spring. A must read for those who care about the environment. Abbey predicted some of the water problems that now face the southwest.

This is my favorite book. I consider Abbey to be a hippie environmentalist--a sort of modern day Thoreau. The book will suck you in and you'll be wishing you could run off to Moab and have a beer with Abbey.

This is "classic Abbey" and his best work. What else can be said? This book should be on everyone's reading list whether you agree with Abbey on everything or not. I loved it. You will especially enjoy it if you have an affinity for deserts, the southwest, or Moab country.

Stumbled onto this in my late teens in the early 80s and never looked back. Abbey's extreme love of nature and his well-defended loathing of what we've done to our natural world add up to a real eye-opener for those, like me at 18, who haven't thought much about how great this place must have been before we got here.
Abbey's love of solitude and comfort in being in the middle of "nowhere" inspired me to seek out remote places and my life has been all the better for it. His irascible attitude towards government also strikes a strong chord, but the main joys here lie in Ed's awe and wonder at the magnificence of the canyons and mesas he happily lives with before the bulldozers and mindless tourists inevitably arrive. The bits about people driving in for a few minutes and then leaving after taking pictures are truly classic; Ed can be one of the most hilariously dry nature writers when the mood is upon him.
I've since read most all of Abbey but still think DS is his masterpiece.
This book should be in EVERY high school English curriculum.