Tropics' Plans To Read Books Off The Shelf In 2015

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Tropics' Plans To Read Books Off The Shelf In 2015

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1tropics
gen. 12, 2015, 9:49 pm

Doomed to failure, no doubt, but with hopes of reading at least 30 books from my shelves.

2tropics
Editat: gen. 12, 2015, 10:00 pm

1. The Solace Of Open Spaces - Gretel Ehrlich

A collection of essays, published in 1985, in which an urbanite describes her transition to seemingly accomplished cowhand and sheepherder in the rugged environment of Wyoming, where humans and animals (domestic and wild) continue to compete for scarce resources.

Readers may be familiar with the author's other books, including A Match To The Heart, which describes her ordeal of being struck by lightning.

"Though it was water that initially shaped the state, wind is the meticulous gardener."

"All summer there had been the silent whimsical archery of seeds; timothy and fescue, cottonwood puffs, the dilapidated shingled houses of pine cones letting go of their seeds."

"To follow the watercourses in Wyoming - seven rivers and a network of good-sized creeks - is to trace the history of settlement here."

"We live in a culture that has lost its memory. Very little in the specific shapes and traditions of our grandparents' pasts instructs us how to live today, or tells us who we are or what demands will be made on us as members of society."

3tropics
Editat: gen. 29, 2015, 2:39 pm

2. The Best American Science And Nature Writing 2006 - Brian Greene editor

"Science needs to be recognized for what it is: the ultimate in adventure stories. Against staggering odds, a species that has been walking upright for only a few dozen millennia is trying to unravel mysteries that have been billions of years in the making."

4rocketjk
gen. 29, 2015, 2:43 pm

#3> Love that quote.

5tropics
Editat: feb. 13, 2015, 6:52 pm

3. Opium Season: A Year On The Afghan Frontier - Joel Hafvenstein

Published in 2007, this is the dispiriting account of an international aid worker's unsurprisingly failed efforts in 2003-2005 to "diversify" the opium-poppy-growing economy in Helmand Province.

"The foreign staff would bunker down in a secure fortress, hire Afghan contractors to carry out quick-impact projects, make a couple of heavily armed monitoring visits if they thought it was safe, and bring back photos and numbers to declare success."

"Opium created a huge demand for labor; it took a lot of hands to milk millions of poppies during the week or two when the bulbs were full of gum. The average daily rate for poppy labor was about seven dollars, plus three meals a day. We had local reports of skilled harvesters making the equivalent of ten dollars a day. With our wage set at four dollars, it wasn't hard to do the math."

"..........plenty of Pakistani officers were profitably immersed in the Afghan war economy, whether in guns, drugs, or smuggling."

6tropics
març 1, 2015, 1:23 pm

4. An Unexpected Light: Travels In Afghanistan - Jason Elliot

Published in 1999, this moving and insightful book, rich in historical detail, chronicles an adventurous young British man's challenging travels through war-torn Afghanistan, beginning in 1979, clandestinely, at age 19, during the Soviet occupation of that country. Ten years would pass before he returned, undertaking two succeeding journeys through a landscape cruelly scarred by perpetual war, always assisted by and grateful for the kindness shown by his indomitable Afghan hosts. This was, of course, a man's world, in which the women remained hidden from view, as mandated by tradition.

"I've come to the conclusion that journeys are sparked from small and unlikely things rather than grand convictions; small things that strike a note which resonates beyond earshot of the rational."

7tropics
abr. 17, 2015, 10:51 pm

5. Dark Nature: A Natural History Of Evil - Lyall Watson

8tropics
abr. 17, 2015, 10:54 pm

6. Yemen: The Unknown Arabia - Tim Mackintosh-Smith

9tropics
Editat: oct. 30, 2015, 5:54 pm

10tropics
Editat: abr. 29, 2015, 3:17 pm

8. The Swerve: How The World Became Modern - Stephen Greenblatt

Reread. I posted a lengthy review in "Tropics' 2012 Books Read".

11imyril
abr. 29, 2015, 3:15 pm

>6 tropics: I picked this one up years ago and failed to connect with it - perhaps I should give it another go. I've hung on to it all the while, so it's still on my shelf.

12tropics
ag. 21, 2015, 12:56 pm

9. A Land So Strange: The Epic Journey Of Cabeza de Vaca - Andres Resendez

13tropics
oct. 11, 2015, 8:00 pm

14tropics
nov. 19, 2015, 1:57 pm

11. Outposts - Simon Winchester

15tropics
nov. 19, 2015, 1:57 pm

12. Under The Volcano - Malcolm Lowry