Columbia Books

If you have to learn about pain in all its varieties,
then reading any title by Patrick Wall will be beneficial.
this changed my view of pain perception . Patrick Wall
was dedicated to the science and study of pain. Perfect
for Physio students.

This book has definatly answered a lot of questions regarding Chronic Pain and has opened up a whole new understanding of the condition. The section on the placibo effect was of particular interest as it showed the mental side of dealing with pain and how we can possibly use our minds as part of a combined stratigy in dealing with pain. The mind and the way we think is a whole lot more powerful than I had first imagined and it can work for and against us with equal benifit and detriment. Patrick Wall covers this subject from all angles and this book is well worth reading for someone who suffers from this evil.

Who better to spend a few evenings with (metaphorically) than Patrick Wall, the man who literally, with Ronald Melzack, wrote the (text)book about pain?

Wall is now in the twilight of his still productive career. In this refreshing book, he gives an overview of what he has learned. He distinguishes among normal, i.e. biologically useful, and abnormal pain. He discusses at length the placebo response, showing fascinating data that it may be found even among animals.

His main point is that pain may be seen as a preparation for response, hence the essential role of attention in the experience.

This book is for the educated layman with a curiosity about the ubiquitous yet misunderstood phenomenon of pain. It will also be of considerable interest to the physician treating pain.

I was attracted to this book because earlier in my life I had experienced chronic pain for 8 years. The search for relief was ultimately successful, but the path to finding that relief was long and arduous. What I learned in the process didn't help me very much for being able to advise others, so I hoped this book would help.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that Pain contains more information about pain than all that I learned in my personal journey. "Any knowledge that brings patients into a clearer appreciation of their condition decreases their anxiety," says the author, Patrick Wall who is a pain researcher and was suffering from pain related to cancer while authoring the book.

Wall's basic point is that pain is related to many different parts of the brain and body, and is affected by our psychology. Little is known about many aspects of pain, and there is little focus on pain relief in medical training or medical research. Wall knows that the fear of pain is often worse than the pain, so he makes the subject amazingly pleasant. I expected to be depressed by reading the book, and felt elated instead as I learned more about the causes of pain.

The book starts up with case histories where people with severe injuries report no initial pain. The reason seems to be that they were still in a survival mode, and surviving concentrated their attention away from the wound and potential pain. Many frequent "mysteries" of pain are also explored like people who have lost limbs and feel pain in the lost part of the limb.

You will also learn about fascinating experiments to identify causes of pain and their relief. The book goes on to discuss the sources of pain, how treatments interact with those sources, and how placebo effects can reduce pain. For example, did you know that pessimistic people report more pain than others? As a result, I learned that it is normal to have some residual pain from my earlier experiences. I need not be concerned that full pain will return. That was a nice relief.

I suspect that you, too, will lose some of the unnecessary sources of your concerns about pain. And that will probably, in turn, reduce the pain you will experience in your future.

While that is happening, you should examine other areas of your life where you fear the worst. That could be a harmful misconception. Why not begin to expect the best instead? Think about it. There may be another placebo effect to help you there also.

A word of advice: as the author states in the preface, this book is NOT a textbook, nor a do-it-yourself recipe book for pain relief. It is a work of communication for educated laymen "intended to give the readers the power of understanding processes in their own body." If the topic were not so grim, one could describe this work as "fascinating and fun." The topics he touches on range from studies of Yom Kippur War survivors to biofeedback training, from migraine auras to the sensitivity of babies to pain, from hand injuries to cannabis, and from nerve regeneration to the attention mechanism in ducklings and monkeys. The slim volume is filled with anecdote and humor, as well as with suffering. He reminds us that pain frequently occurs without physiological basis, and that pain sometimes fails to kick in when we are severely ill. ---- Dr. Patrick Wall (a British professor of physiology who started his career 40 years ago as a neuroscientist) is the author of several other books about pain. He unfortunately has first hand knowledge of pain. He is the victim of cancer. ---- This volume explains what we have learned in recent years about pain - and is honest about the vast amount of ignorance still to be conquered. After examining the corpus of knowledge - much of it gained in the last few decades -- in the first nine chapters, Dr. Wall brings together "all the phenomena we have discussed in the previous chapters and ask[s] what precisely is going on in someone who senses pain" in Chapter 10. His purpose: "a profound understanding one's own pain has itself a therapeutic effect and proposes a rationale for therapy." This is a fascinating summary of the status of knowledge to today. It is a work that invites re-reading.

Profusely illustrated with brilliant, full color photography, Gary Wyatt's Mythic Beings: Spirit Art Of The Northwest Coast is a superb introduction to aboriginal art including totems, wood sculpture, masks, stone carvings and more. Wyatt's informative text is an outstanding survey placing each art piece within their cultural context, enhanced with the artist's own descriptions and commentaries. Mythic Beings is a very welcome addition to personal, academic, and professional Native American art and cultural reference collections.

Great color photos and and discriptions of the carvings and artwork. I would definitely recommend this to anyone that is interested in Northwest Coast art.

Mythic Beings is an unassuming but impressive book. The major organizing theme is that spirit art captures the rich cultural and aesthetic traditions that permeate regional artistic expression. Northwest Coast art can be intimidating because it has a complex cosmology and iconography. Wyatt, however, makes this complexity accessible by using two underlying principles. The universe consists of separate but interrelated realms (e.g., sky, underwater), and each realm has its characteristic real and mythical creatures. Mythical creatures have distinctive physical representations used in both sacred and secular representations.

Mythic Beings features 75 beautifully reproduced photographs of masks, robes, and rattles representing the work of 34 artists. Each artist provides a commentary about his/her piece. This provides an opportunity to become familiar with the physical depiction and mythological roles of the creatures depicted by the artists.

Mythic Beings is a gem. It is a wonderful gift book for anyone interested in indigenous art and First Nations peoples.

Great color photos and and discriptions of the carvings and artwork. I would definatly recommend this to anyone that is interested in Northwest Coast art.

I recently came back from a trip to the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State. It isn't enough that it is some of the most beautiful landscape on Earth, but I also discovered the amazing artists of the Pacific Northwest community. The artworks within this book (as well as Spirit Faces also by this author) are so moving and beautiful, my only regret is that I am not able to start collecting on a massive scale.

Mr. Wyatt also allows the artists to describe for the readers their inspirations and ideas behind their products, which allows us to get to know them a little. After a short while I was able to determine the various artists based upon the varying styles of the pieces depicted here.

Highly recommended!

I just received this book, but already its looking like it will be one of those rare gems of biblical writing where I get to make up my own mind rather than the author polluting the topic with his/her own dogma. It is very hard to find a book that is balanced in the genre of religion. Apparently, this author is Jewish, which will be a nice change since most authors on the Abrahamic linage I come across seem to be Christian. I follow the Teaching of Jesus personally, but really enjoy other perspectives besides the same old fiat that gives no critical eye to any of the Bible's history. Yep, I have high hopes for this book. Not many of these around. Even if you are a dyed in the wool traditionalist, you will enjoy the read. I doubt this man will offend you, you'll just dismiss anything that disagrees with your 'rightness' on the subject and move on.

Reading The Natural History of the Bible is like taking a trip to one of the most fascinating regions on the planet with a world class environmental scientist as your guide. Seeing the biblical landscape through Daniel Hillel's eyes allows you to notice aspects of the text that you've probably ignored regardless of how much time you've spent with the Hebrew Scriptures. Far from being unimportant background features, Hillel makes a strong case that that the succession of diverse habitats in which the ancient Israelites found themselves helped shape the development of their commitment to monotheism. In addition to a sharp eye for the details of the biblical landscape, the author has an ear for the language of the Bible that many trained linguists would envy. Hillel presents not only a fresh reading of ancient texts, but a passionate pleading for surrendering the widely held but dangerously simplistic view that blames our present environmental crisis on the Bible--i.e. on God's instruction to Adam and Eve that they, and their descendents "subdue" the earth. Hillel concludes that "using the Bible to justify or even to explain the abuse of the nature is an abuse of the Bible." If you're looking for an eminently readable book that will transform your understanding of the Bible and the natural world this is it.

I have been writing to many of my friends urging them to read this very special book. Why? I'm awed by the sheer volume and depth and density of its material. The sidebars and notes are an education in themselves. Daniel Hillel takes his readers on a journey through Jewish history, the Hebrew Bible and across the land of Israel - and what an enlightening tour guide he is!

On a personal level, this book has given me one more way to explore and view Jewish history and my own beliefs. I did a small bit of serious studies ages ago, when I was in my teens, but there was a long lapse until I picked it up a few years back. It's becoming increasingly important to me and I'm grateful for everything that helps me in a search to find some intelligent sense in my Jewish universe.

What else do I like so much about Daniel Hillel's book? That he explores and explains the meaning of words. His appreciation of women. And the beauty of his language. I was especially moved by the passages on the "land of your fathers" and the spirit of the desert.

I hope that this book will generate interest in reading the Bible from an environmental perspective. I think that it deserves to be seen as an important reference in the field of biblical studies.

This is a masterful book about the Landscape that wrote the Bible. As someone who has read passages from it every night for over a decade, I found it illuminating. Who wrote the Old Testament? What were they experiencing? Why is it, no matter where we are - desert, sea, forest, pastor - we can always find passages that continue to connect us with the land?

The more I reflect on this exceptional work, the more I am convinced that it represents a new paradigm for understanding the Bible. Not only does it persuasively link every symbol,linguistic nuance, holiday cycle, calendric change and moments of social evolution to the transit of the Israelites across the successive ecosystems they experienced, but most dramatically, even the central core of Israelite belief, monotheism, becomes an inevitable outcome of this passage. Given the need for an all-powerful force that will guarantee rainfall, prevent drought and the scourge of crop failure and protect as well from the assault of invaders, a utilitarian agreement is struck. Strict adherence to a table of personal and social behavior in exchange for divine protection. Every lapse in the agreement is, ipso facto, the failure of the human partner to fulfill his obligation--a concept that remains the core of orthodox belief. Every page, every footnote is rich in material, all relevant, a great deal surprising in the connections which are elaborated among language, cultures and environment. Indeed, one can already foresee a second edition, more generous in format, which permits a less demanding scrutiny of the wonderful illustrations and diagrams which abound.

In summary, a tour de force without knowlege of which every student of the Bible and the cultural world which derives from it cannot feel complete.

Haim Gunner, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus, Environmental Sciences
University of Massachusetts

I gave this book as a gift for a couple moving to NYC. They were so excited to receive it. They immediately looked through it and loved the information. It came in good condition and in the timeframe promised.

I now can go from one end of the year to another almost without ever seeing a tree I can't identify, thanks to this book. The book is like having an infinitely patient teacher with you: rather than just a list of species or a series of pictures of leaves (or bark, etc.), it identifies the most salient features of each species, noting key distinctions among similar species (you might not know that you can tell a sugar maple from a norway maple, despite their near-identical leaves, by plucking a leaf and looking at the sap, for instance, unless you read it here). What is more, if you are having problems with a particular type of tree, he gives the locations of specimens so you can see them in person (when you are in New York!). The selected species are excellent as well, because many species in an urban environment are non-native, and so typical "field guides" are not useful. A magnificent guide and introduction to horticulture and the love of plants. A must for a New Yorker, and probably the most useful tree identification guide for the Northeast in general. I think its format should become the standard for guidebooks. Using this book, it is very easy to go from zero tree knowledge to knowing hundreds of species at sight.

This is a superb pocketable book that gives the full lowdown of trees in the metro area. Full color throughout - lovely photos and enough trees included to be pretty well all you need for much of the Northeast. If you believe that trees are also about the most important contributor to a beautiful environment, then this book also serves as a good guide to the most beautiful places to visit in the NY area (including NJ, Long Island and Westchester county).

Excellently bound and water resistant for those rainy tree-identifying expeditions. The author shares interesting background on our parks and how they relate to the history of NYC. I've not walked a park walk yet, but their promise has me looking forward to spring and summer excursions.

I found the tree data (leaf, young bark, mature bark, fruit, crown shape, and where to locate examples in and around NYC) sufficient to make many local identifications so far.

One would presumably have an existing interest in tree identification to go and buy a book like this. However, if given as an unexpected gift, there is enough sincerity and information that it just might spark an interest in finding and knowing the wonderful, living trees that cohabitate with us in NYC.

This book is amazing. I've just started to pursue my interest in trees in the past year. I'm surprised at how difficult it is to be sure you're looking at the particular species you think you're looking at. Not a problem with this book. Tree walks (with maps!) in parks in all the five boroughs tell you exactly what you're looking at. The book lists the best trees in every borough and pin points where to find them. Who knew there was a White Oak with a diameter of 64 inches beside the 18th hole of the split rock golf course that may be more than 200 years old? Well, now I do. Aside from all the unusual, unexpected infomation, you'll also find an excellently rendered standard tree guide that you'd expect in any good field guide. If you live in New York City and want to know more about trees, get this book.

Very nice descriptions of what the Great Depression, Washington and the discovery of the West really means.
As we slide into this new global society people's interests are seeming to take a keen look into what this country has had to offer and the ways of life in the past for those of this nation....orchards, like Johnny Appleseed type feel and what we don't get in the history books. The interest in nature's nooks and crannies, dwellings of family and the need to go into your own family tree. Truly inspirational. Read closely books like these because they are a dying breed. Or maybe immerging....?

As a descendent of a family who lived in, farmed and worked for the railroad in the Washington State's Columbia River Basin in the early 1900's to the mid-1950's, this book was fascinating and entertaining. Mendenhall's excellent and exhaustive research forms the basis for Orchards of Eden and shines a spotlight on the distant, hidden influences that were at work while the early farmers toiled in the dry, sandy soil to bring their dreams of Eden to life.

To date, the heroic efforts the irrigation projects exacted from the early farmers to develop orchards and farms nourished by irrigation has received little attention from historians. Mendenhall describes how the families formed a lively, thriving community whose members supported each other through the hard time and shared a common vision of irrigation farming's future.

In spite of the White Bluff farming families' resolve to turn the desert into an Eden, the story of how their efforts were impacted by the railroads and power monopolies and by the US government itself, including the devastating Hanford Atomic Project, makes this book an important contribution to Washington State history.

A valuable and engrossing account of pioneering history. In the present generation of high technology and corporate lifestyles, Mendenhall recounts a time when sweat, idealism and individuality mattered. It is a priceless gift to former residents of the region and for all of us who value the histories of American settlers.

Orchards of Eden is an engaging family history which goes far beyond the story of one family to illustrate an historical period and the economic system that many small farmers struggled with, especially those engaged in irrigating in the arid West. The Shaws and the Wheelers moved to the White Bluffs area of Central Washington in the early part of the 20th century to become orchardist on the banks of the Columbia River.

The material for this book came from a variety of sources. The author began with a wealth of information saved in her grandparents' letters which she agumented through interviews of her aunts and uncles who had grown up in the comunity of White Bluffs. Her story has been further informed by narratives of other families from the area as well as reserch of historical resources. The results are both informative and interesting.

I found her description of the social structure of the community of White Bluffs to be particularly fascinating. She used her grandmother and great-grandmother's experiences in White Bluffs society as examples to illustrate the role of women in building social cohesion in rural America.

Children played an essential role in the economic survival of farming families. These roles were still vivid in the memories of the surviving aunts and uncles. In areas where there is no direct evidence the author makes reasonable guesses and clearly indicates when she is doing so.

I heartily recommend this book for people interested in history of the West or family stories.

> In WHITE BLUFFS, Nancy Mendenhall has brought to
> life in vivid detail the
> birth, maturation and death of a tiny desert town.
> She tells the story
> through the eyes of one family, which sets out to
> create the good life for
> themselves and their children, pioneering as
> irrigation orchardists along the
> Columbia River in eastern Washington. Their dream
> lasted from 1906 until the
> confiscation of their land for the Manhattan Project
> during WWII, through another
> world war and the Great Depression. An economic
> balance sheet would say that
> their dream failed; but the richly woven human
> story revealed in WHITE BLUFFS
> -- history which reads like a novel -- tells a
> different tale. Through all
> their struggles, these wonderful people loved their
> river, their homestead,
> the town they'd helped create, their lives in it
> and each other, steadily day
> by day for almost forty years, as few of us are
> gifted or privileged enough
> to do.
>
>



__________________________________

For those who cannot read Japanese, there are few options with regards to publications and studies on Sakamoto Ryoma. Jansen's extraordinary work simply a 'must have' for all who wish to better understand the Meiji period and one of the most important men in all of Japanese history. Simply phenomenal.

Who is Ryoma Sakamoto? He wasw a samurai in the middle of the nineteenth century. He is considered a hero by his native Japan. His story begins when Commodore Perry brings his American ships to open Japan by force. Many samurai were insulted by this gunboat diplomacy. Sakamoto was one among many who called for the government to expel these foreign interlopers. However, it was more easily said than done. As time passed, Sakamoto came to realize that Japan was in no position to challenge the West because the West had vastly superior weapons. He came to admire the position of strengthing the country through international trade and emulating those institutions that were admirable in the West. For Japan to defend itself, it had to become a strong country and the only was to do that was by modernizing. To modernize, the military government of the Shogun had to be overthrown. This leads to the Meiji Restoration in which the Emperor takes back the power to rule from the Shogun. Unfortunately, in the process, Sakamoto is assassinated, which made him a martyr for the process of modernization.

This book follows the events leading up to the Meiji Restoration, and it especially focuses on Sakamoto's role in setting it up. It provides an overview leading up to this period and shows that there were many factors which lead to the overthrow of the Shogun. Perry's arrival was only a trigger that unleashed years of frustration. To get a better grasp of Japanese politics, I think this book is an excellent source for understanding the founding of the modern Japanese state.

If you really want to understand Japan's amazing journey from feudal swordsman to world power in just 50 years... Then you need to learn something about the Meiji Restoration. If you want to learn about the Meiji Restoration... then you must spend some time learning about the life and times of Sakamoto Ryoma. Ryoma, as he is affectionately known by his adoring cult of fans in Japan, is a true legend in Japan, a sort of "Daniel Boone" of Japan, if you will. In spite of its age, Jansen's work is still the definitive biography in English, and is likely to remain so until America's interest in the outside world rises above its currently meager level. To be fair, doing Jansen one better would require an extensive knowledge of one of the world's most difficult languages, and why try when there are still so many corners of Modern Japanese history that are untouched by Western scholars? Do you want to get inside the head of a truly old-fashioned, "swashbuckling" hero who quite literally changed the world by contributing to Japan's entrance into the modern world? This, then, is still the place to start.

This proves to be one of the better books on the Meiji Restoration movement and Sakamoto Ryoma who was the one of the primary movers of that movement as Japan moved to a more modern government and society. But I would be honest to say that this book is NOT for casual readers since the subject matter is so alien and complex to many English speaking readers. Meiji Restoration is a complex subject matter even for Japanese history students but Jansen should be credited for bringing such a matter to clearer light in his book.

Professor Jansen's book is the first English-language biography of Sakamoto Ryoma, the most celebrated historical figure in Japan today. It is also an in-depth study of the political and socioeconomic situation during the turbulent and fascinating years of the Meiji Restoration, the dawn of modern Japan. When I first read this book fifteen years ago, it struck me as an invaluable college-level textbook for students of Japanese history. It also made me aware of the need in the English language for a more probing analysis of Sakamoto Ryoma, the man. It was then that I began the 7-year process of researching and writing RYOMA - Life of a Renaissance Samurai, which I believe is a true-to-life portrait of Ryoma - blood and guts, heart and soul.

There is often a schism between our everyday life and our dreams of someday. Someday often stays out reach of us like an carrot on a stick until circumstances that would have allowed the dream no longer exist. Michael Burke gently opens the someday window and steps through. He takes you with him. He gives a balanced and real look at what is on the other side. He speaks with a fine voice that puts you in the raft, in his head, till you smell the wet stuff and feel the angst. He makes a case for making someday happen while you can. He tells a tale that made me look forward to the quiet part of the evening, after the kids were in bed, so I could be back on the river again. The Same River Twice is fertile ground to plant you own someday seeds in. I found it an inspriation.

I guess I am lucky to be attending Univeristy of Maine at Farmington, where a lot of non fiction writing has come from recently (Gretchen Legler AND Michael Burke).
I went to Professor Burkes reading last night and it was so fun. His book is full of humor, at least, the passages he read were. I haven't read the whole book (yet).
But from what I heard, I am buying it and I would recommend it!

I read this book almost in one sitting. Micheal Burke tells a good story and gives the reader the feeling of being on the river and experiencing the beauty of situation while taking us along on his own personal journey. Very good read!

What happens to white-water guides when they leave the rivers? Michael Burke gives us one answer: they never leave the rivers, and the rivers never leave them. Burke's story is part memoir, part "road trip," and part love story about the wild places that "can't be improved by changes." His tale of a 1991 trip down the wildest of British Columbia's rivers is one hundred percent enjoyment.

Having guided seasonally since he was a college student, Burke at thirty-eight was married, a professor at a college in Maine, with a baby on the way. This ambitiously planned trip was a three-week-long pilgrimage to the places where a distant relative, Sid Barrington, had lived a life of legend on the wild rivers of long ago. Burke, along with a stranger named Max whose only qualification was availability, set out with an ancient rubber raft, a heavy load of gear, a rifle in case of bears, and jury-rigged arrangements with bush pilots. From this unpromising start, Mike and Max had a soul-stirring experience in this "humbling land."

Putting in by plane to breathtaking Chutine Lake, they worked their way down glacier-fed rivers with wild names: the Chutine, the Stikine, the Sheslay, the Taku. Along the way they encountered black bears, grizzlies, moose, and on one memorable evening a wolf with two pups. Burke's deep love of the challenging terrain is evident throughout the book.

Stories of the old river runner, Sid, are woven in, along with some hair-raising stories of Burke's younger days as a guide; a wild, adrenaline-saturated life that he remembers with affection at this settling-down time of life. Thoughts of his pregnant wife are with him always but he was unable to resist the pull of the river.

Why do this crazy, dangerous thing? Burke writes about the meaning of memory as a defining concept; about freedom and control. But mostly it's because he loves the rivers. "Rivers," he writes, "are an experience of time. The river is more human than the ocean, limited like humans are, yet sweeping forward in its implacable way, like time itself sweeping past. We are proportioned to rivers..."

Have you ever stood on the slope of a mountain and felt its age and power? Looked up into the weird blue ice of a glacier and heard its deep voice? Or even felt the edge of a river on your ankles and known that it flowed according to forces older than time? Then you should read this book. The geography is bewildering but just put in at the beginning and let the current take you to the end, rapids and all. You're sure to feel the awe and beauty of the planet's wild places. Go there, even if it's just in a book.

Linda Bulger, 2008

This work is a delightful memoir that is a pleasure reading, starting from the first page, right along to the last word of the last page. This is the story of a man; a middle aged man at the time the story takes place, and at the same time is a history lesson, a journey of enlightenment, and a tour into one of the truly wild areas left in North America. It is also, and most importantly, a very insightful look at human nature.

The author, Michael Burke, dropped out of the University of California-Berkeley, and became, through faking his lack of experience, a white water river guide. Burke has apparently been guiding now for over thirty five years. The author obviously continued his education, as he now teaches at a University, and beyond a doubt, the guy can certainly write. In 1991, when the author was 38, he found himself with a pregnant wife, two step-children, an academic career, living in Maine and driving a station wagon. Now, although the author does not admit to the fact, it is pretty obvious he is probably losing some of his hair, getting less muscle tone than he had when he was twenty, and, most importantly,(again, not really stated)is feeling rather trapped. Gosh, it does not take much of a creative leap to figure out that a gigantic mid-life crises is about to descend on this poor guy. This is okay though, at least Burke faced his crises with class, like a man, and did not go the route of gold chains around his neck, a little sports car, a poor comb-over and chase twenty year old undergrads around campus; something we see all too frequently. Rather, he returned to the roots of his youth, the river!

The Same River Twice is the story of Michael Burke's journey down three rivers in the Canadian Wilderness of British Columbia. Using his old river raft, a left over from his youth, and in the company of a relative stranger, a fellow adventurer, who was chasing his own demons, the author starts on a very poorly planned adventure. The premise of the trip is to find and trace the territory traveled by distant relative of the author's, who himself was a famous river man during the Klondike glory days at the turn of the century. The author feels a connection with this long dead river man and wants to strengthen this connection with information. The story Michael tells of his trip is interwoven with stories of this old river man mixed with tales of the author's own glory days as a professional guide on some of the most famous white water rivers in North America. This three section story is wonderfully intertwined and the author has the ability to make you feel you are in all three eras with him, as he physically and mentally journeys through them.

Burke's ability as a descriptive writer is truly wonderful. His true love for the wilderness, for the wild places in our planet, for wildlife, solitude and yes, danger, comes shinning through on every page. You can actually squint in your mind's eye, as you read his prose and picture what he is seeing as he writes. The author makes a point that this sort of thing, once experienced, never quite leaves your blood. Great bodies of water have been apart of our souls throughout time...once you are hooked, you are hooked for life.

This work is truly a satisfying read, one of the better reads I have had in sometime now. I will quite likely give this one a second going over down the road. I must admit that I would love for this author to give us another book, telling of his adventures on the other rivers that he ran while learning his trade. The author can be quite humorous at times and I suspect was and is quite good at camp fire stories. It would be a delight to read some of them. NOTE: There seems to be a great deal of nonfiction writing coming out of Maine right now, and has been over the past few years. To be quite frank, the only thing I really knew about Maine was that they had Moose, potatoes, had a good store to order clothes from, and made good canoes...now I find the place is full of good writers...go figure.

amazing photographs and experiences by author. I did not know the Spirit Bear existed until read this book. L'Ohanna

This is a fascinating story of rare and beautiful animals and the crew of research photographers who became intimately associated with them. It offers some startling revelations into the life and behavior of bears. The Spirit Bear, or Kermode Bear, is a white genetic variety of black bear, found only on Princess Royal Island off British Columbia. The region is also home to black bears and grizzly bears which are included in the book as well. What is most remarkable here is how the bears on the island, which had very little prior human contact, accepted the crew with an open gentleness allowing many close encounters to be documented. The book is written in an engaging first person style and beautifully photographed with close ups of bears in various activities. It will surely be a favorite addition to the library of any nature lover.

Spirit Bear is the best combination of a well-conceived book design, telling photography, and an exceptional storyline. The author's credibility is supported by a three-generation family history in grizzly bear country. His true experience, though, is reflected in his down-to-earth sincerity and simplicity of reporting. Reverence, balanced with pragmatic humor, sets a very ageeable tone for this fascinating book. With only one very moderately bloody-nosed bear photo, you could quite readily share this book with children. I grew up in bear country and now live in the heart of tree-hugging country and I found this book to be true to the core of both. And a darn fine read.

This book will give you the chills! A mystical yet true story on the nature of "wild animals" and the mystical and spiritual link between "us" and "them".Gorgeous full color photography. The book ends with the impending destruction of the Spirit Bears habitat by logging and a plea to save this unique island ecosystem.

Eyeing you from the dust jacket of Spirit Bear is a very relaxed, improbable looking white bear with a benign, even friendly, air. It is the embodiment of the main subject of the book.

The author begins by summarizing his own and his family's long history and experience with black and grizzly bears. In so doing he establishes his credibility before describing his encounters with' the Kermode bear, a rare white variant of the black bear that inhabits some of the largely undisturbed west coast islands. Russell was wise to open in this manner as the story that follows truly stretches the reader's credulity.

After recounting how he came to be on Princess Royal Island to film the white bears with Sue and Jeff Turner, we learn how they got to know the Spirit Bear, and how they developed an extraordinary relationship with him. The Spirit Bear not only "enjoyed" human company, but he fished with people, slept beside them, and allowed the author to scratch and even tickle him between his toes! Perhaps most incredible is the incident when men and bear play tug-of-war, with the bear attempting to initiate a wrestling match without harming his human friends.

After these amazing adventures, the last chapter is somewhat disappointing. We read about how the author and the Turners, after several months' absence from Princess Royal Island during the winter, returned and spent their last summer finishing their film. However, only one brief paragraph is devoted to their meeting with the Spirit Bear and the renewal of their extraordinary friendship.

Despite this disappointment, the book is well worth the price. Although not always technically perfect, the amazing photographs are generally very good and document some of the incredible events described in the narrative. The text not only provides fascinating insights into bear behaviour, but give? plenty of reasons to change preconceived notions about bear aggression. Underlying the story is a message about the importance of keeping an open mind when dealing ! with animals. But don't expect the next bear you meet to treat you as a long lost friend. THERESA ANISKOWICZ

This is a brilliant, concise gem of a book that brings certain sights of Kyoto to life unlike any travel guide. When I visited many of the places described here, I'd no idea that any of this remarkable history had occurred.

I think this book is an essential addition to any serious Japan library, and as it is a slim text - I think it'd be a welcome and portable companion on a reader's visit to Kyoto.

Keene's study of Ashikaga Yoshimasa, who many historians call the worst shogun in Japanese history, is remarkable for its central theme: that this man was actually one of the greatest Japanese persons ever.

Keene does a decent job of recounting the historical context of Yoshimasa's life: it was an era of unending war and brutality when famine and sickness ravaged the peasantry and rich aristocrats vied for power in the most brutal fashion - beheadings, suicide and betrayal were commonplace. These same aristocrats also lead lives of dissipation - spending their lives drinking and "sporting" while the masses suffered and Kyoto was razed time after time.

But where Keene shows his brilliance is in his interpretation of the life of this failed shogun who embraced religion and the arts as an escape for the 'impure world' and in the process invented many Japanese cultural forms.

When Yoshimasa fumbles the choosing of his successor and a civil war is unleashed, he decides then and there to leave his shogun's life behind and build a mountain retreat - the so called 'silver pavilion' - where he spent his days contemplating the arts.

It is clear that an aesthete such as Yoshimasa was incapable of leading the Japanese nation in war. But Keene shows in this book that Yoshimasa's peculiar taste in art - simple unadorned wood, sliding screen doors, rustic tea utensils, and gardens filled with rare trees and stones, poetry, Chinese calligraphy, flower arrangements, No theatre and so on - served as the template for future Japanese cultural expression.

Yoshimasa's silver pavilion was thus an incubator for 'the soul of Japan,' and a location where visitors can still see the building almost exactly as it looked a half millennium ago. Now I want to visit Kyoto again with newly aware eyes.

This book's only shortcoming is its lack of explanation as to how the culture born at the silver pavilion spread throughout Japan. Yet that might require a lengthy tome, and one of the nice aspects of this history is that it can be read leisurely in a couple of days. It also features some nice color photos. Highly recommended.

This book was given to me by a friend. Frankly, I wouldn't have bought it based on the back flap. Yet, Donald Keene wrote a great book explaining the importance of possibly the worst Shogun in Japanese history, Ashikaga Yoshimasa. He was a terrible military strategist and his government (especially during the Onin war) was one of the weakest in Japan's history. On the other hand, Yoshimasa was of vital importance to the Arts; calligraphy, Waka and other poetry, the cha-no-yu ceremony and painting all were sponsored by Yoshimasa. He also left the beautiful Ginkakuji, the Temple of the Silver Pavilion, for posterity. Yoshimasa's impact on Japanese culture and the arts is undeniable, even in modern day Japan.

Donald Keene, who probably has done more to make Japanese literature understandable to Americans now turns his attention to the state of Japan during the days of Yoshimasa, one of the Ashikaga shoguns. Like other families to rule Japan in the name of the emperor, the founder of the family generally tended to be a fairly dynamic figure, followed by persons of varying competance before sinking into dynastic decadance.

This book presents a portrait of one of the least competant persons to ever become shogun, but managed to have a positive influence just the same. Keene argues rather convincingly that Yoshimasa, though a weak ruler, was an influental patron of the arts. It is Yoshimasa's aesthetic which eventually prevailed in the Japanese imagination and that is the lasting contribution of both him and the Silver Pavilion.

I thought the book was consistent with the overall general high level of scholarship that characterizes Keene's works in general. However, while I am willing to give this work my highest possible recommendation, I am not sure if I can totally support all of the claims made for Yoshimasa. My main concern is that even though I am ready to concede that he does have an aesthetic legacy, I am not sure (and for that matter no one ever really can be) that he can claim to have originated all of the artistic innovations (though patronage) that Keene claims. My reason for doubt is that many buildings that date back to Yoshimasa's period were themselves destroyed during the Onin war (a war brought about by Yoshimasa's politic ineptness). Lacking anything really to compare the Silver Pavilion to, makes it difficult to determine just exactly how great an influence this building actually had at the time. The fact that it survives at all probably ensures that it has had and continues to have an impact on other generations. I am just not sure on what influence it might have had at the time that it was built.

The title of the book is "the soul of Japan" which means the Silver Pavilion built by Ashikaga Yoshimasa the 8th shogun of the Muromachi period.

Chapter 1 Ashikaga Yoshinori the 7th shogun, a tyrant killed by one of daimoys
Chapter 2 Childhood of Yoshimasa, his wife Shigeko and his "favorite mistress" Imamairi
Chapter 3 Weakness of the shogunate, preparation of Onin war
Chapter 4 Onin war, the relationship between Japan and Ming dynasty of China
Chapter 5 Japanese Renaissance, Eastern Mountain culture
Chapter 6 Yoshimasa as a patron of Cha-no-yu, his interest in Chinese painting
Chapter 7 Poetry at that time: renga and waka
Chapter 8 The Silver Pavilion, the garden and the architects Zenami and Soami
Chapter 9 Cha-no yu
Chapter 10 Religions of Yoshimasa, art of the no theater

The division of the chapters and the description of their content are very rough because the author usually puts many different topics in one chapter. This informal writing style seems like that the author has no clear plan and he just writes down something when he remembers something. Reading the book from cover to cover may not be the best way to appreciate it. The character I most like is the index of the book. It is complete and interesting. Just choose a word from the index, and read something about the word in the book. For example you can just read the paragraphs about the eccentric Zen monk Ikkyu and his poems. After you finish all the words in the index, you are able to construct a whole story in your mind. It is the post-modern style of V. Nabokov's novel "Pale Fire".

Judging from the book, the author is just a good story-teller not a good historian. Actually he is good at Japanese literature. This book just contains much facts and details which I don't think important. The author does not see the essence of Japanese culture and does not explain why Japanese culture is special. It is not easy to understand the essence of Japanese culture for most Western scholars. Usually they just emphasize bizarre events, strange imaginations or explain things from the Western piont of view. In my opinion, the soul of Japan is the Bushido and Zen. These two topics are not treated deeply in this book. If you are interted in Japanese culture I will recomment to you the other books:
Bushido: the soul of Japan by Inazo Nitobe
Zen culture by Thomas Hoover
Kwaidan by Lafcadio Hearn

By the way, I like this little book. It is beautiful with its poetic language. It is a pleasant experience reading the book on the train passing through Appalachia Mountain in the summer.

Donald Keene's latest contribution to the field of Japan studies is a masterpiece on the development of Japanese aesthetics and kokoro (heart, soul, mind), much of which evolved during the Higashiyama Period at the Silver Pavilion (Ginkaku-ji) under the leadership of Ashikaga Yoshimasa. Shogun at the time of Onin War (1467-1477), which destroyed nearly all of Kyoto, Yoshimasa was a hapless leader who devoted himself instead to the pursuit of beauty. In this Period, Noh and ink painting flourished, the tea ceremony "originated in a small room at Ginakaku-ji where Yoshimasa offered tea to his friends," and with it the Japanese art of flower arrangement was born. Keene acknowledges the judgment of most historians-that Yoshimasa was weak, extravagant, incompetent in affairs of state, and unable to end a meaningless war and its incumbent famine and suffering-yet posits that he has yet to be recognized for his contribution to Japanese arts and taste. In the midst of wholesale destruction, Yoshimasa precipitated a Japanese renaissance.
Though respecting his grandfather Yoshimitsu, the builder of the Golden Pavilion (kinkakuji), he had no interest in emulating either his life or works. Yoshimasa's Silver Pavilion stands in stark contrast to his grandfather's Golden Pavilion, the later coated in gold leaf, the former the epitome of Kyoto cool wabi sabi understatement. "The simplicity and reliance on suggestion of the buildings and gardens at Higashiyama may indicate that a man who had earlier exhausted the pleasures of extravagance had at last achieved a kind of enlightenment," writes Keene.
This concise work is a complex web of murder, chaos, and endless war that destroys everything in its wake. And, simultaneously-amazingly, ironically, unbelievably-the Period gave birth to some of Japan's best-known art forms. As an insight into medieval Kyoto, there is no better place to begin.

This book gives an insight into the private lives of the first families. We learn about their extended families, hobbies, illnesses, preparations for leaving the White House when their terms are completed, etc. The pictures are what really makes this book great. We see Lyndon Johnson in bed with his wife watching tv and we see the older George Bush in bed too (can you imagine Nixon or Clinton letting down his guard like this?). We see Gerald Ford in his bathrobe. If you always wanted to see such a sight, there is a photo of Eleanor Roosevelt in a bathing suit and a rare photo of Franklin in shorts with his polio ravaged legs exposed to the camera. We see painful personal moments such as the famous photo of Nixon hugging his daughter Julie when he made the decision to resign. In short this is, at times, a very rare personal and intimate glimpse into the lives of the first families. I enjoyed it and recommend it highly.

I have been fortunate enough to read Mr. Anthony's brilliant "First Ladies" mini-opuses, and highly looked forward to this epic on the lives of our First Families. I sat for three hours stright with an almost constant smile on my face as I ran through the pages. What an amazing acheivement Mr. Anthony has pulled together! I can only imagine the painstaking research needed to find out the tidbits sprinkled throughout. There is so much information in this novel that it almost boggles the mind at times and is a bit overwhelming. I wondered if everything was sinking in, when I saw Mr. Anthony speak at the Richard Nixon library on CSPAN one night recounting the tales found here. Every story he told was instantly recalled and sentences finished before explaining. The sheer knowledge that one can gain from reading this novel is tremendous. (Where else can you find a list of President's favorite movies? By Reagan selecting Rambo, it does nothing but prove what a complete and utter moron we had occupying the White House under his reign).....Point proven further....When listing President's favorite reading options, Mr Anthony lays out beautiful examples of this. President Clinton enjoys biographies of his predecessors, Eisenhower military biographies and TR, anything he could get his hands on. Reagan? Newspaper comics.....I shall leave my review at that.

This is a fascinating book. It is a wonderful compendium of trivia, probably not available in any other volume. It contains a wonderful assortment of pictures of First Families, some of which have never before been published. The book is well organized into chapters detailing various aspects of the Presidential families' lives and activities. for me, one of its prime attractions is that it does not include the politics or issues of the President's era.
At times, it is a little confusing, because the author skips from one family to another rather abruptly, so it requires a little getting used to in order to follow the narrative.
I would strongly recommend this book to anyone interested in the social and "human" aspects of the White House families.

I purchased this book yesterday and I can't put it down. It is filled with great pictures and stories of the forty-one famlies who lived in the White House. This is a great source of presidential trivia and provides a human element to the most famous family in America. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in American history and the lives of the presidents.