Pacific University Books

These days, celebrity authors earn thousands of dollars for a speech, but back in the 1880s, Ralph Waldo Emerson, the first American author known to receive payment for delivering a talk, was paid $5 and oats for his horse.

Meg Strathmann (and her colleagues) put together a wonderful reference book that is a must-have item for anyone doing work on the reproductive biology or larval biology of marine invertebrate animals along the Pacific coast of the North America. This book is also a great source of reference material for invertebrate biologists anywhere in the world.

This book includes information about methods, and hints about culturing and maintaining marine invertebrate larvae. It also contains published or unpublished (but documented) observations on the reproduction and development of marine invertebrates of the northern Pacific coast.

The book is divided into chapters devoted to different invertebrate phyla, including methods for culturing their larvae, as well as information on the timing of spawning and development of as many Pacific NW species as have been studied.

The book, published in 1987, is now approaching its 15th year in publication. Even though some parts of it are slowing slipping out of date, this book remains the best reference book on this topic.

Absolutely top notch reference material, 5-stars!

Alan Holyoak Dept of Biology Manchester College, IN

This novel paints a realistic and believable portrait of Cook, his protege Bligh (of Mutiny on the Bounty fame), and the events of Captain Cook's final voyage. It is an interesting and rivetting read, and kept me up for a few nights. The conflict between Cook, the practical-minded captain, and the religious Bligh, is at the heart of the book, and the author takes no sides in the argument, allowing the reader to draw his/her own conclusions from the tragedy that ensues. I heartily recommend this novel to all who are interested in well-researched historical fiction.

Although first written in 1856 the author applies a spell-binding style to tell the gruesome history of the birth of the Dutch nation from the unrelenting suppression of the religious and political aspirations of a sophisticated and rich people. In Volume I Motley covers the period from Emporer Charles V to the appointment of Count Alva as military overlord of the Netherlands. In Volume II he continues to describe in great detail the circumstances, personages, and intrigues that so painfully come together and nearly destroy the industrial and economic powerhouse in the low countries. He excellently explains the motives and actions of William of Orange, the follies of his noble friends and their destruction, the cruelty of the Spanish Inquisition, and, eventually, the rising of the people against the hated Alva and his mercenary murderers. It is the start of the 80 Year War of which this book covers the first seven bloody years.
Since I found this series in my father's book case and started reading I have not been able to put it down. The series take the reader to live the period and understand the human drama and the hope and perseverance that lift a population to found the most powerful nation in the world.

This book is an extremely well constructed, balanced perspective about the problems with the Lower Snake River dams. The writing is clear and consise, which is crucial when explaining such a complex issue. The author does not use emotional arguments to outrage the reader. Rather, he presents the facts that surround the issue and uses those to draw a well thought out conclusion. We have much to gain by preserving salmon in the Northwest.

I have never seen a river and it's surrounding land look so wonderful.William truely has an eye for the natural beauty of the area. I can hardly wait for his next book.

This book details the history of Australian Mining, but don't be put off by the seemingly dry subject-it is anything but dry. Stories are told of the romantic gold rushes, the lucky, the unlucky, the schemes, plots, the deceptions, the clouded histories, the despair of the many, and the fortune of the few. For students of both human nature and history it has interesting insights, such as how plain luck plays a significant part in human events, and how apparently small innocuous irrelevancies can lead to profound outcomes.

An interesting example is that of the Mount Morgan Mine in Queensland. Black boulders, which cattle shied from, formed a low hill in the ranges. There was a gold rush a few miles away, but nobody thought to test the black hill, as the rocks were all wrong. Farmers sold the useless land the cattle didn't like. A lazy miner was sacked from his job, his wife pleaded for his re-employment, in return for the locale of a "silver mine" in the hills. A few savvy mine managers wandered into a black innocuous hill. They chipped away, took out leases over the whole hill (a wise move), kept it very quiet (another wise move). When samples were broken, there was more gold than black earth-it was assumed it wasn't gold but something else. They began to mine quietly away until a local newspaper noticed there was a phenomenal amount of gold leaving a nearby town. The word was out. Mount Morgan -the "freak lode" as described by geologists at the time-became one of the richest and mightiest gold mines on earth. It defied virtually everything known about gold mines at the time. Geologists were perplexed, but as long as shares repaid 413,000% of their value, the owners didn't care. The copper that got "in the way" of gold processing eventually amounted to about 250,000t of copper. It was mined for around 100 years, and money that came from the mine was used to find oil in the Middle East, which eventually formed the company BP. Mine owners declared in World War 1, that Mount Morgan money was used to fight the Germans. In the 1950s over half of Great Britain's revenue came from oil discoveries that were originally financed by one small black hill in the outback of Australia.

The world's largest resource of lead and zinc-the Broken Hill Lode-is another case in point. For some years in the 1800s a large, jagged hill of black boulders more than a mile long and 500 feet wide was ignored by local prospectors at the nearby silver rushes at Silverton. A surveyor's fence was put across it. A trig station crowned the summit. Samples were chipped which came back high in uninteresting lead, but little else. It wasn't near any main thoroughfares. The owner of the land wasn't interested in prospectors. It was too big to be a lode. A good lode was said to be five feet wide, Broken Hill was over 500 feet wide. The rocks were wrong. So numerous hopefuls mined the molehills, whilst the mountain was ignored.

When people finally got around to examining it, a few speculators bought and sold shares, making a few bucks, as the hill guarded its riches. Finally, when a shaft was sunk on the wrong rock type-white kaolin-bonanza silver assays came back and the hill was born. The first 48 tons produced about 36,000oz of silver, which in the 1880s, was a lot of dough. The ensuing stock market mania and mining development transformed Australian history. Over $AUS 70 billion has been taken from the hill to the 1990s.

There are many other similar tales, twists and turns- the vagaries and tides of history. Curiously and well written, it is recommended for those interested in history, particularly Australian, or those simply interested in curious human anecdotes of life.

"Innocent young maidens cast into the grips of horrible old hags, frogs who are really princesses awaiting the right kiss, magical spindles and feathers, precious golden apples -- these and other classic fairytale ingredients are to be found in this superb collection of seven traditional Russian stories. Collected by Afanasyev, "the Russian Grimm," and splendidly decorated with the peotic and colorful illustrations of Ivan Bilibin, renowned nineteenth-century scenic artist, the stories share the common themes of good versus evil, psychic transformation, and rebirth. Children will be enchanted and adults intrigued by the sinister and delightful qualities of these traditional folk tales." -- excerpt from dust jacket.

This collection of fairy tales is, indeed, marvelous. It contains seven classic stories:

*Ivan Tsarevich, the grey wolf, and the firebird
*Sister Alyonushka and brother Ivanushka
*Finist the falcon
*Marya Morevna
*The white duck
*Vasilisa the beautiful
*The frog princess

While the stories are entertaining in themselves, the illustrations really deserve the most praise. Bilibin's work is reminiscent of Alfonse Mucha's Art Nouveau pieces -- possibly the best is Bilibin's painting of Vasilisa escaping from Baba Yaga's hut, carrying an enchanted skull mounted on a stick. (Light pours from the empty eye sockets; that's how Vasilisa can see to leave.)

Not to be missed by collectors or lovers of fairy tales and fantasy -- the artwork alone is worth the purchase.

Dr. Martin Haug (1827-1876) a German born Oriental scholar, spent close to 20 years, in India, studying the religion and manners and customs of the Parsis of Western India. His total learning and experiences are distilled in this book, first published in 1878. Since then the book has been reprinted and re-published several times, with revisions done to it by Edward William West, another outstanding Orientalist and a great Pahlavi language scholar. The book is one of the most readable accounts on the history of the Zarathushtrian religion and Zarathushtrian literature encompassing both Avestan and Pahlavi language literatures, and the history of the Parsis of Western India in general. Though succeeded by more informative and massive tomes on the same subjects, this is an excellent book for a beginner, who wants to know something about the Parsis in general. I wish and hope that every Parsi and Zarathuhstrian will give this book their undivided attention and will keep it as a good reference source. It would be difficult to surpass Dr. Haug's account under 476 pages. Readers should be very thankful to the University Press of the Pacific for publishing the paperback edition of this time-tested classic, so that a generation of modern Zarathushtrians can benefit from this nineteenth century account of the Parsis.

Inglis took 15 years to write this book. The book has been written in easy to read non-academic style that makes for easy access by the casual reader. I read this book with ease finding it full of useful and interesting facts. Inglis does not attempt to analyse the theory behind memory or memory representation but does allow enough material for the investigative reader to develop his or her own thesis.

In short it is a long book, but a good book and certainly one that helps to remind us that there are those that we should not forget.