Park University Books

(Re)evaluating Nature especially in the new millenium is a new trend in thinking about the landscape. Misrach initiates this conversation with this early book about the changing face of the American West that has been transformed into a bombed-out wasteland. Somewhat beautiful? Yes, I thin kso. He approaches the subject sarcastically serious with a proposal to turn this highly violent landscape into America's newest national park, one which I would be the first visitor. His photographs instigate new questions in landscape photography and the new definition of "beauty" in all visual studies. A must for any artist/architect/planner. There is a new landscape. Misrach has found it.

This is an advanced book, with plenty of black and white photos, but no color photos. This book consists of fifteen review chapters written by established experts and new contributors. The book description states that Cacti: Biology and Uses is the first book of its kind to compile information on cactus biology, ecology and uses.

Because this book covers a wide variety of topics, such as biology, morphology, conservation, pollination, and pest control, the writing is quite advanced in several different subject areas. For example, a physiologist may totally understand the chapter on shoot anatomy and morphology (Chapter 2), but may have less understanding of the chapter about breeding and biotechnology (Chapter 15). In Chapter 10 alone (Cactus Pear Fruit Production) a reader finds economic content with a supply and demand analysis and agronomic content with fertilizer and irrigation information. This seems to validate the book's description as a compilation of cacti information.
As previously mentioned, Cacti: Biology and Uses does not have any color photos, but it does have many, quality black and white photos, as well as many tables and figures. A basic table of contents is printed in the front, and then, each chapter begins with a more detailed table of contents. Each chapter ends with a conclusion and an extensive list of literature cited. An index, with some "See" and "See also" references, is provided in the back.

This is a high quality book who are interested in the biology, ecology or uses of a unique family of plants.

A must read for any urban sociologist--but if you are looking at this page, it's likely that you know this already. If you're not a trained sociologist, this is one of the most classic works from the Chicago School of Sociology & this book will give you a very good sense of the roots of American urban sociology. An easy read, and although many of the ideas have been challenged or are out of usage by now, its still a wonderful read to understand how researchers conceived of the city during the early period of urbanization. Enjoy.

If it wasn't for John D. Rockefeller, Jr., President F. D. Roosevelt and a handful of others' vision, determination and patience, the extended boundaries of today's Grand Teton National Park would possibly be non existent.

The original idea for an extension of Yellowstone Park was envisioned by General Philip Sheridan in 1882 to no avail. Later, in the 1890's it was proposed to have a separate park bordering the Tetons to preserve the beauty of this spectacular landscape. With this said, it wasn't until 1929 that Grand Teton National Park was finally established. The issue now was that the new Park existed as just a sliver of land skirting the mountains.
Enter John D. Rockefeller, Jr.

Rockefeller bought a good portion of the Jackson Hole valley for boundary extensions and preservation of scenery for future generations. Battle after battle between the Forest Service, grazing rights, "dude" ranches, politicians, public opinions, other Federal Government branches, etc. dragged on for a few more decades. Ultimately, in 1950 boundary extensions were approved and Grand Teton National Park was expanded to its current status.

This was a most admirable undertaking on Rockefeller's behalf for conservation. Instead of the pristine view that we all now enjoy, it could have been power lines, lumber mills, hundreds of summer homes, etc. etc.

Having lived in Virginia, Tennessee, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, and Oklahoma, I can honestly say that Missouri has one of the best and strongest State Park Systems in the US. In fact, Missouri is a hidden gem in a nation of vacation goers who flock lemming like to Yellowstone, Yosemite, and the Smokies.

Missouri is centrally located and has an outstanding highway system that gets you to all corners and to the most remote of its state parks.

This book provides a great source of photographs and text, which are enough to tease you for a visit to parks as diverse as Ha-Ha-Tonka, Washington State Park, Taum Sauk Mountain, and Babler to mention only a scant few.

Don't expect this tome to go into great detail about each of the parks. It doesn't, but the book's purpose is to relate how Missouri's State Park system evolved and then to showcase each one of them. And the book is remarkably succesful in achieving this goal. Perhaps the books most glaring shortcoming is the lack of maps, but this is a coffee table book and won't fit in most fanny packs.

It remains an oft looked at resource in my library. Many a trip began in its pages.

Grab a copy of this book, and let it guide you to some of Missouri's hidden treasures. And treasures they are. In 1978 I arrived in St. Louis, a Tennessee teen raised on Blue Ridge hiking. In my sullen anger at having been transplanted from God's country, I assumed Missouri had nothing to offer me. Some 25 years later, I continue to be pleasantly surprised by all that Missouri can offer. About the only thing Missouri can't provide are crowds...and that's a wonderful thing.

This novel is long and is hard work, but is worth it. Mircea Eliade brought his huge knowledge of comparative religion and folklore, combining it with recent Romanian history -- the "Ruritanian" interwar period, and the darker and grim rise of the Iron Guard, the Royal Dictatorship of King Carol II, and the forced return of parts of the country to Hungary and the USSR.

Despite this background, the magic of the woods outside Bucharest, the traditions surrounding Midsummer Eve, and the hedonistic lifestyle of the main character provide a heady mix.

This is an enchanting and intoxicating novel, a mixture of the ancient and modern, the timeless and the mundane.

This is a short book with vivid pictures of interesting pieces. Its a great coffee table book to flip through.

I get a big kick out of learning fun facts about New York with which to impress my friends, and this book did not disappoint. In-depth looks at Gramercy residents such as Peter Cooper, Edwin Booth, and the visual artists of American modernity are very satisfying, and the tone of the book is nicely conversational. Illustrated with both photographs and drawings, it makes a great companion piece for a walk around Gramercy. Not as interesting as books about the "low-life" of New York's past, and (for a book written by a woman) a little in awe of the tremendous MEN who founded and lived around the park-- however, it's a very comprehensive and well-written history of one of New York's oldest neighborhoods.

I just got back from a hiking trip to Rocky Mnt.Nat.Park and used this book to formulate most of my hikes. Very informative. Doesn't cover any summit hikes or the up and back alpine hikes but great otherwise.

This article may be useful in a scientific research related to Business Incubators.

In addition to this article, I highly recommend "Business incubators and new venture creation: an assessment of incubating models" by Rosa Grimaldi, and Alessandro Grandi, published in Technovation, Volume 25, Issue 2 , February 2005, Pages 111-121, which identifies four (different) main types of incubators: Business Innovation Centres (BICs), University Business Incubators (UBIs), Independent Private Incubators (IPIs), and Corporate Private Incubators (CPIs). I also recommend the book "Incubators: A Realist's Guide to the World's New Business Accelerators" by Colin Barrow.

This article, "Incubators as a small business support in Russia", provides an overview of small business incubators in the United States to establish a framework for analysis; and then then examines the case of one Russian small business incubator: "Zelenograd Scientific and Technology Park". The review of this Russian incubator was quite useful for my scientific paper.