Pacific University Books

I enjoy travel and have just returned from a wonderful trip to Baja, CA. Well, I didn't actually get to go in person but I did the next best thing. I just finished reading Berger's story of his experiences over three decades in the remotest region of the Sonoran desert, Baja, CA. Berger is a prolific writer and author of numerous books including There Was a River and The Telling Distance, which won both a Western States Book Award and a Colorado Book Authors award. He has an ongoing love affair with Baja(30 years) and it shows no sign of abating. Almost an Island is not your typical travel book.They are a dime a dozen. This book is a collection of stories, history, politics and reminiscence of the real Baja. It's a human story about real characters, agonizingly beautiful and harsh geography, and a future as uncertain as the paved highway recently built in part to encourage "economic development" and bring the "advantages" of modern living to the populace via tourism. When you go with Berger you are a traveler rather than a tourist. You will visit remote places and meet people that most tourists never see. The characters are unforgettable and, well, eccentric to say the least. Come along and meet Brandy, a Marine Corps veteran with scarred lungs, that traverses the desert in a dune buggy and oxygen tanks. How about spending some time with an innkeeper from Hollywood, nuns that raise pigs under questionable circumstances, and a former Detroit auto executive that walked away from a career and settled on a beach. The story of the activities surrounding a total eclipse is hilarious. There are stories of a pet tarantula, pronghorn antelope, and a million points of light in between. Berger is a keen observer of every thing he sees and experiences. He brings you the feel, the smell, the taste of the incredible diversity of the eight hundred mile long peninsula of desert surrounded by the sea we know as Baja. It is remote, close to the United States, famous, and little known. If you want to meet this area up close and personal, go with Bruce Berger. It is a trip you will never forget and you can't beat the price.

I loved this book! It is very informative as well as an interesting read.

The double vanishing points of personality and place create travel writing. They make a literature that runs from eccentric guidebooks to the geographies of ecstatics and tortured souls. Bruce Berger's Almost an Island occupies the middle ground where composition graces its sometimes dramatic spans with no show of force, no telltale ripple of perspective. His method is the sidewalk artist's whose drama is the blank space scored quickly and economically to sketch, then with return visits turning lines to 3-D webs, armature modeled and eventually blending in the final surprises of local color. It's the outline method out of predigested sequence. His flashes forward and retrospectives follow the natural learning curve of discovery, or its artful analog. Berger is obviously taken with the whole peninsula, and it shows. "Lovingly detailed," bled of sentimentality, describes his renderings of Baja California's barely adulterated bedrock, its vegetable adventurers, and its animal life scheming and occasionally teeming in the face of obstacles redolent of a whimsical and marginally malign experimenter. Particulars are best read in the original, a representative sample of which is feeding time at the evaporation ponds of a vast saltworks: "... We paused to watch more than two hundred waders making an angular design with the spindly legs that give them their English name, stilt, and the white bellies and black backs that give them the Spanish monjita, little nun. Eared grebes skimmed the surface by the hundreds in lines of smoke; northern shovelers and lesser scaups gathered in separate flotillas; flocks of sandpipers turned in flight like filings of a single mind-dark and striped backs that pivoted en masse, nearly disappearing, to reform as clouds of pale breasts. Certain areas featured a preponderance of white: white pelicans with their black wingtips hidden in folds, great and snowy egrets, blue herons in the white phase, as if they had all been dipped in salt. Marbled godwits suddenly burst from the surface with perfect spacing between each bird, forming an elongated cloud that swelled, shrank and drew itself out like a single sky serpent in a shifting lens. Some rectangles of water were so wide, their horizons so low, that they seemed the sea itself, and their spume blew onto our tracks like meringue. Occasionally we were jolted by having to make room for yellow trucks whose tires were as big as our jeep and whose gondolas were blinding with salt. Over subsequent censuses this skimming of the salt ponds became my favorite driving anywhere, and Fernando remarked that he had a colleague who drove the 30 kilometers of causeways for sport, attaining nonbirdwatching speeds of up to 120 kilometers per hour." Gradually, from four-wheel forays in the 60s to half-year residency in the 90s, Berger became an unofficial dual citizen, part observer and part protagonist in local battles over pronghorn preserves, whale breeding grounds and myopic multicultural change. Friends and all-too-understandable adversaries complete his moral landscape and anchor what is in the end the author's real and fully imagined almost-island.

First published in 1977 and now in a newly revised edition with more than 60 color photos of O'ahu's spectacular coastline, Beaches Of O'ahu is a superb travel guide featuring a water safety section, 22 newly drawn maps pointing the way to more than 130 beaches and shoreline parks on this fabulous Hawaiian island, and brief descriptions of what can be expected from each one. Information such as the brief history of given beaches handed down through Hawaiian oral tradition, physical characteristics and recreational uses, cultural significance, any dangers present and much more fill this fun and practical supplimentary guide for any O'ahu bound vacationer.

This book, and the others in the series for Maui, Kauai and Hawaii, is indispensable for Hawaiian visitors and locals. It gives the best beaches for swimming, surfing, snorkeling and also critical safety information. Every year visitors drown because they don't know which beaches are safe and which aren't. This book covers every square inch of beach and coastal access. Also gives fascinating historical notes. As a frequent visitor for over 20 years, I still take mine with me on every trip!

Accurate descriptions of each beach, safety aspects, and historical notations. Author provides no relative valuation of which beaches are better than others for swimming, snorkeling, windsurfing, etc. Ideal for Hawaiian residents or visitors who will spend an inordinate amount of time at Oahu's obscure out of the way beaches.

Rick Soehren knows Hawai'i and its birds, and this site guide is a great help to visitors. Soehren describes, island by island, where to find Hawai'i's birds, and in the process gives the reader some of Hawai'i's avian history. The book is illustrated with good black-and-white photographs. I have used the book on Hawai'i and Kaua'i and have found it clear, accurate, and very useful.

Before our first visit to Hawaii I searched to find something that would serve as a useful guide for a trip that would permit only casual bird-watching. This book is really best for someone able to dedicate time to exploring the recommended hikes. Having said that, my main complaint about the book is that the illustrations are of little use to someone from the North American continent who is unfamiliar with Hawaii's birds, as the majority of readers probably are. After all, which would be more useful, good color photos of Northern Cardinals, or a photo of the 'Apapane? A photo of a Black-crowned Night Heron, or a photo of the 'I'iwi? The Birdwatchers Guide has very good photos of a male and a female cardinal and the heron, which are close to ubiquitous in the mainland USA, and none of the latter, which are totally unfamiliar to mainlanders. There are lots of black and white photos of things like people looking through binoculars, road signs, and trails, none of which are terribly useful to birdwatchers trying to ID unfamiliar species...

This is not a field guide with pictures to help you identify the birds. It is a wonderfully insightful reference to the diversity of birds that may be found within the state of Hawaii. It is far more than just a birdwatching guide. It gives one a feel for the plight of the native Hawaiian birds and the beauty of the state and its avifauna.

This gorgeous book really excited me when I found a copy at the San Diego REI store. The California Coastal Guide, by the California Coastal Commission, is a delicious menu of beaches, cliffs, boardwalks, marshy estuaries, tide pools and baysides. For under 25 dollars, this makes a great gift for anyone planning to move to or travel along the long, endlessly changing California coastline.

From San Diego, my plan was to drive along the coast to Seattle, camping and hiking enroute. This book showed me the BEST places to leave the highway and get to the water, and includes everything there is to see - even the tiny, hidden gems only locals know of. Each section includes a map of the local town or city, and how it fits into the coast at that area. Mileages are given between areas for reference.

Places to camp and hike on EVERY SECTION of the coast are included - thank goodness! It's hard to get this kind of information from any one resource. I didn't want to drive north with a gazillion guidebooks to each part of California.

The guidebook starts with the northern coast and works south, so I mentally had to read backwards while I traveled, which was fine. Each section of the coast is also given an introductory treatment with highlights of flora and fauna (ie. - want to identify sand verbenas and pickleweed? Know a sanderling from an avocet? Dig for clams? There's a lot of fun stuff here.

My main regret about this cool book was that it did not continue up into Oregon and Washington! I felt like I was abandoned once I crossed the border. Not their fault. :)

This book is a work of art and science for anyone who loves California and hiking along the sunniest beaches of the Pacific Ocean.

This book have complete guide for ocean side and srounding area in California. Excellent with chart of many sections such as fire pits, camp sites, etc. all covers along with coastal line on North to South of whole California. Also many terminology and explanations related with ocean and coastal environments, too. This is a must have guide book to looking for camping or barbequeing for family.

Good reference for the camper. We love to camp on the state beaches and this is a very helpful ref.

I found this diary charming and informative. Having always had a fascination with the time period and wagon trains, I couldn't put this book down. By the end of the book, I was saddened by the fact that Sarah didn't continue recording her life in Montana. I felt as if I had known her personally and was touched by the whole accounting of her travels.

This diary is well written and thoughtful. The detail is really vivid.

Enhanced with a Foreword by Mary Barmeyer O'Brien, Days On The Road: Crossing The Plains In 1865 is the personal diary of Sarah Raymond Herndon, a young pioneer woman who, as the dust from the Civil War settled, left the battle-scarred state of Missouri with her family and traveled overland to the Rocky Mountains in search of a new place to live and a new life to build. Sarah's daily insights, her depictions of life on the trail, her descriptions of the hardships, the triumphs, and the evocations of her memories, combine to form a vivid and accurate image of pioneer life through the words of a pioneer who headed west to escape the ravages of the American Civil War to start her life anew. Days On The Road is a welcome and strongly recommended addition to 19th Century American Studies reading lists and history collections.

A fine book with plenty of research to back it up. However, I must point out the book's glaring error - the Cascades Indian tribe is *not* extinct. Many descendants still live on in the Yakama and Warm Springs reservations and in the Columbia River Gorge.

This is not a book that can be read in any linear fashion. For the average lay reader it is primarily useful for the wonderful black-and-white photographs of members of almost every one of the 150 tribes described. And if you want to attend a special event of a particular tribe, the book will have that too. Otherwise, after 10 pages of straight reading, I was just overwhelmed with facts, figures and details, plus locations for which there was no corresponding map in the book, a real detriment, I think. Yes, there is a map showing the areas that the various tribes inhabited, but with no relation to present day locations at all. For the Pacific Northwest Indian student, this should definitely take a place on bookshelves as a reference tool. But for average folk, perhaps one of the many suggested readings would be more appropriate. A great overall encyclopedia of the tribes.

Dr. Robert Ruby has done comprehensive research on our heritage.

He and John Brown are the most neglected historians of our time.

Do yourself a favor.

Get to know this author!

We used this guide to choose and find trails to hike during a three week trip to Hawaii in 2002. We only went on 9 of the 44 hikes described, but this guide was nearly ideal for us with clear and easy-to-use descriptions and instructions.

This is the Hawaii that you were dreaming of! Lush , tropical paradise without the competition of crowds at the beach! Let this author guide you to a private waterfall or atop a lava rock mountain to appreciate all the beauty hawaii has to offer. Great trail directions. Easy to follow with bits of history thrown in for entertainment. Offers trails for all ability levels, day or overnight hikes.

As time is of the essence while travelling, I wanted to make the most of my time on the islands. This book allowed me to explore and choose a hike that was perfect for the length of my stay. I felt comfortable with the route laid out on paper. I was dissatisfied with THE BUS route and scheduling on Oahu as compared to the simple statement under how to get there. I had to explore a different route and connection but felt that THE BUS system was to blame. Otherwise, I felt that the book did sufficiently lead to the perfect hike for me at the time. The trail was beautiful and I look forward to using the book again down the road.

I was impressed by the level of detail this book had. It focused on even the smallest of engagements in the war. Deffinately recomend it

This fourteenth and final entry in Morison's epic series concludes the voluminous narrative with a look at the war's final days, including an account of the delivery of the first atomic bomb by the USS Indianapolis and that vessel's tragic return voyage, and the triumphant visit of the USS Missouri to Tokyo Bay. As with the other entries in this series, Morison brings excitement and immediacy to an incredibly well-researched and detailed narrative. Not to be missed.

By the early spring of 1945, the United States forces had pushed the Japanese back across the Pacific and were now in position to directly threaten the Japanese home islands. This final volume of Samuel Eliot Morison's fine series covers the battles of Iwo Jima and Okinawa along with the formal Japanese surrender on September 2, 1945.

The main purpose for securing the island of Iwo Jima was to provide a rescue station for crippled B-29 bombers returning from Japan as well as an advanced fighter escort base for P-51 Mustang escort fighters. The invasion took place in February 1945, and it was originally thought that securing the island would only take about four days. How wrong we were. This battle lasted four weeks and cost many thousands of American casualties. The enduring act of the war for the Americans occurred during this battle when the flag was raised on Mt. Suribachi and was forever captured on film. I was disappointed with this section of the book. Only 70 pages of the book deal with the Iwo Jima campaign, so I felt that many important aspects of the battle were left out completely.

In April, 1945, the Americans turned their attention to Okinawa. Located only 350 miles from the Japanese mainland, Okinawa was to serve as a prime staging area for the invasion of Japan, which was scheduled for November 1945. This battle covers the great majority of this book. Every aspect of the battle is covered, from the landings to the kamikaze attacks against the American ships. Perhaps the best part of the book deals with the description of the kamikaze attacks against the radar picket destroyers which were stationed around Okinawa. These ships faced the wrath of the kamikaze forces and many were sunk, but these heroic sailors and ships put up a tremendous fight against the Japanese and provided an invaluable service by vectoring out C.A.P. aircraft as well as warning the fleet to incoming kamikaze attacks. They were the true heroes of Okinawa.

Other important events, such as the suicide mission of the Japanese superbattleship Yamato and the tragic and unnecessary sinking of the USS Indianapolis are also described in this volume. As with other books in this set, this one contains excellent photographs and maps to assist the reader.

With the surrender of Japan in September 1945, one war ended and another war dawned; the cold war, which lasted for forty three years.

What an INCREDIBLE analysis of the world! As a student at MIT I was always a Republican with a libertarian-leaning philosophy - until my forray into politics. The is a brilliant and highly academic look at flags of convenience, a technique used to protect the wealthy from having to pay more tax than they rightfully should. I now understand that people only follow free market philosophy because it benefits THEM, NOT BECAUSE THEY SUPPORT THE SUPPOSEDLY 'SOVEREIGN' ROLE OF STATES! Professor Van Vossen has given the clearest understanding of this difficult topic in a clear, academic and UNBIASED WAY!!! This book is so cool, EVERYONE SHOULD READ IT! This guy is brilliant, just brilliant.

This manuscript is a very good political analysis of the pacific islands 'flags of convenience', a term aptly used to describe the change of flags on vessels for the purposes of tax evasion. Although many monetarist economists and critics would state taht tax havens are the perogative of a sovereign nation, Dr. van Fossen clearly shows this is not the case. Only criticism is that methodology has not been completely developed...very strange from a professor trained at Princeton! On well, apart fron that, a good read.

This manuscript is a very good political analysis of the pacific islands 'flags of convenience', a term aptly used to describe the change of flags on vessels for the purposes of tax evasion. Although many monetarist economists and critics would state taht tax havens are the perogative of a sovereign nation, Dr. van Fossen clearly shows this is not the case. Only criticism is that methodology has not been completely developed...very strange from a professor trained at Princeton! On well, apart fron that, a good read.

This is the second book by Maurice Maeterlinck that I have read. He certainly has a philosophical mind and, at times, he is quite impressive. On the other hand, he seems to wander so far off topic as to be distracting. As his choice of general topic for this thesis, Maeterlinck has chosen a topic he knows well; the life of the bee.

The author is a bee-keeper and one who researches his topic. He speaks of observing the bees through glass hives and he has learned a lot through his observations as well as those he cites. There were times that I was so overwelmed by his uncanny insights to life and human nature that I underlined a number of passages. His ability to compare our perspective of the bees to their perspective of us gives a naturalist's insight to life. This works well while we are discovering the wonders of the bee's society. As the book continues into the more esoteric aspects of bees, this philosophical wandering got to be a bit much for me as I stumbled to the end of the book. Others will likely disagree but that's my impression.

Not enough people read Maeterlinck today and this is a shame: the man was, unlike some Nobel prize winners in literature, truly a fantastic writer with a uniquely tuned, sharp, comprehensively philosophical but never didactic mind. Coming from a well-to-do Belgian family in the age before Television, Radio, and all the other usually destructive distractions of today, the young Maeterlinck had beekeeping for his principal hobby (just ask even your high-I.Q. high-schooler today ANYTHING about the life of bees and ants and other social insects and you'll be amazed at how little they know, in spite of the 'Discovery' Channel and all the documentary films made about the subject and shown on TV), and inspired by the essays of Fabre, began a period of amateur observation and experiment with his apiary, finally publishing the results in 1901, at the age of 39, as "Life of the Bee." Written in a highly poetic style that blended fact, imagination, and mystical speculation, it became the single most popular book ever written about insect life. Not that there aren't errors in Maeterlinck's observations that subsequent research corrected, but as far as the QUALITY OF WRITING is concerned, no one else can even come close to these amazing descriptions: in fact, some of the best written passages in all of literature are in this book.

i found a copy of this in london, just hoping for something to keep me occupied while i was traveling. it turned out to be one of the best books i've ever read. an utterly unique view of the world - the bee's and our own.