Summer at Little Lava

Summer at Little Lava PDF Author: Charles Fergus
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 0865475490
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 306

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Book Description
Little Lava is a farm on the west coast of Iceland. No roads lead to it; the way lies across a lagoon flooded twice a day by the tide. A lava field borders the farm. From the house, views give onto mountains, volcanoes, rugged coast, and the pure Icelandic sky. In Summer at Little Lava, Charles Fergus tells how he fixed up an abandoned house on the farm and spent a summer there with his wife and their young son-living day to day in great simplicity, without heat, electricity, running water, or other conveniences. Inspired by Henry Beston's classic book, The Outermost House-about a year Beston spent living in a cottage on Cape Cod-Fergus sought a place at the outer limits of civilization, and on the coast of Iceland he found it. As it happened, there was a sudden death in his family-the cruel, pointless murder of his mother at her home in Pennsylvania; and so, in the twilit open spaces of Iceland, Fergus confronted his grief, in the midst of the country's abundant wildlife and distinctive geology, its history and mythology. The little house on the coast became a refuge as he sought to recover himself and the meaning of his life. "Little Lava was a place where I could pass the days in peace," he tells us, "where I could take the first steps into a future that, I hoped, would not be so dimmed with grief and pain." Summer at Little Lava is a wise and vigilant book. It touches on Iceland and Icelanders, birds and nature, tragedy and personal loss; in strong, resonant prose, it evokes the strange and compelling landscape of Iceland.

Summer at Little Lava

Summer at Little Lava PDF Author: Charles Fergus
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 0865475490
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 306

Get Book Here

Book Description
Little Lava is a farm on the west coast of Iceland. No roads lead to it; the way lies across a lagoon flooded twice a day by the tide. A lava field borders the farm. From the house, views give onto mountains, volcanoes, rugged coast, and the pure Icelandic sky. In Summer at Little Lava, Charles Fergus tells how he fixed up an abandoned house on the farm and spent a summer there with his wife and their young son-living day to day in great simplicity, without heat, electricity, running water, or other conveniences. Inspired by Henry Beston's classic book, The Outermost House-about a year Beston spent living in a cottage on Cape Cod-Fergus sought a place at the outer limits of civilization, and on the coast of Iceland he found it. As it happened, there was a sudden death in his family-the cruel, pointless murder of his mother at her home in Pennsylvania; and so, in the twilit open spaces of Iceland, Fergus confronted his grief, in the midst of the country's abundant wildlife and distinctive geology, its history and mythology. The little house on the coast became a refuge as he sought to recover himself and the meaning of his life. "Little Lava was a place where I could pass the days in peace," he tells us, "where I could take the first steps into a future that, I hoped, would not be so dimmed with grief and pain." Summer at Little Lava is a wise and vigilant book. It touches on Iceland and Icelanders, birds and nature, tragedy and personal loss; in strong, resonant prose, it evokes the strange and compelling landscape of Iceland.

Looking for the Hidden Folk

Looking for the Hidden Folk PDF Author: Nancy Marie Brown
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1639362290
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 273

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Book Description
In exploring how Icelanders interact with nature—and their idea that elves live among us—Nancy Marie Brown shows us how altering our perceptions of the environment can be a crucial first step toward saving it. Icelanders believe in elves. Why does that make you laugh?, asks Nancy Marie Brown in this wonderfully quirky exploration of our interaction with nature. Looking for answers in history, science, religion, and art—from ancient times to today—Brown finds that each discipline defines what is real and unreal, natural and supernatural, demonstrated and theoretical, alive and inert. Each has its own way of perceiving and valuing the world around us. And each discipline can be defined, in the Icelandic perception, by its own sort of elf. Illuminated by her own encounters with Iceland’s Otherworld—in ancient lava fields, on a holy mountain, beside a glacier or an erupting volcano, crossing the cold desert at the island’s heart on horseback—Looking for the Hidden Folk offers an intimate conversation about how we look at and find value in nature. It reveals how the words we use and the stories we tell shape the world we see. It argues that our beliefs about the Earth will preserve—or destroy it. Scientists name our time the Anthropocene: the Human Age. Climate change will lead to the mass extinction of numerous animal species unless we humans change our course. Iceland suggests a different way of thinking about the Earth, one that offers hope. Icelanders believe in elves— and you should, too.

Islands Magazine

Islands Magazine PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 176

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Book Description


Going Places

Going Places PDF Author: Robert Burgin
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 161069385X
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 605

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Book Description
Successfully navigate the rich world of travel narratives and identify fiction and nonfiction read-alikes with this detailed and expertly constructed guide. Just as savvy travelers make use of guidebooks to help navigate the hundreds of countries around the globe, smart librarians need a guidebook that makes sense of the world of travel narratives. Going Places: A Reader's Guide to Travel Narratives meets that demand, helping librarians assist patrons in finding the nonfiction books that most interest them. It will also serve to help users better understand the genre and their own reading interests. The book examines the subgenres of the travel narrative genre in its seven chapters, categorizing and describing approximately 600 titles according to genres and broad reading interests, and identifying hundreds of other fiction and nonfiction titles as read-alikes and related reads by shared key topics. The author has also identified award-winning titles and spotlighted further resources on travel lit, making this work an ideal guide for readers' advisors as well a book general readers will enjoy browsing.

Nighthawk's Wing

Nighthawk's Wing PDF Author: Charles Fergus
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1951627504
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 283

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Book Description
** "Set in 1836, Fergus’s superior sequel . . . brings the period to life as he expertly melds setting and plot." Starred Publishers Weekly ** For Fans of Madeline Miller and Geraldine Brooks, and Historical Mysteries Involving Witchcraft, Second Sight, and Amish, Mennonite, and Pennsylvania Dutch Communities. In this thrilling second in the Gideon Stoltz Mystery series that Booklist called “An appealing debut that deserves a boost from enthusiastic hand-sellers,” it’s now 1836 in the fast-growing town of Adamant. The young Pennsylvania Dutch sheriff Gideon has a new case when a beautiful woman—suspected of witchcraft and residing in a nearby German settlement—is murdered. Suffering from a head injury after a fall off his horse, Gideon can’t recall anything that happened at the time of the woman’s death. As flashes of memory return, he realizes that not only did he know the victim, he was with her the night she died. As Gideon delves into the investigation, he must include himself in the list of suspects. When Gideon uncovers another dead body, he’s launched on a path to discover the truth, no matter the outcome. Gideon’s estranged wife, True, has her own reluctant methods of investigation. Gifted with unwelcome powers of second sight, True realizes that her husband’s life is in danger—and puts her own life on the line to save him. Nighthawk’s Wing unflinchingly examines the oppressed status of women in the 1830 and like the first in the series, it has “an atmospheric setting and a strong sense of place” (Library Journal). Nighthawk’s Wing beckons all readers who crave authenticity in early American historical novels, including those intrigued by witchcraft, spells, and visions. This compelling mystery glides along the edge between the gritty reality of the early 1800s and —a parallel world of spirits and haunted souls.

Bears

Bears PDF Author: Charles Fergus
Publisher: Stackpole Books
ISBN: 9780811732512
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 132

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Book Description
A full-color guide to the lives of grizzlies, black bears, and polar bears that inhabit North America. In addition to fascinating information on social structure, hibernation, and their legendary fishing abilities, there's also an exploration of the difficulties that bears and humans often have coexisting--as well as invaluable advice on how to act should you encounter a bear in the wild.

Islands Magazine

Islands Magazine PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 176

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Book Description


Water-supply Paper

Water-supply Paper PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Floods
Languages : en
Pages : 788

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Book Description


A Good Horse Has No Color

A Good Horse Has No Color PDF Author: Nancy Marie Brown
Publisher: Stackpole Books
ISBN: 9780811707046
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
After several visits to study Icelandic sagas, Nancy Brown returns to Iceland to search for the perfect Icelandic horse, one she can bring back to her Pennsylvania farm and make her own. To do so, she must become part of the country's tightly knit horse-breeding community, which can be wary of outsiders and extremely protective of the world-famous breed. In this clear-eyed, evocative account set against Iceland's austere and majestic landscape, she describes what makes Icelandic horses and their owners so distinctive. She also discovers her limitations as a horsewoman and learns much about what she is looking for-in a horse and in her life.

Natural Pennsylvania

Natural Pennsylvania PDF Author: Charles Fergus
Publisher: Stackpole Books
ISBN: 9780811720380
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
Throughout Pennsylvania, within the state forest system, are 61 officially designated Natural Areas, each offering a bit of wildness deemed worthy of protection: rare-bird breeding sites, stands of old-growth trees, fragile wetlands, ice age remnants, mineral-rich mountainsides. To experience first-hand the unique features of each natural area, nature writer Charles Fergus spent a year visiting all 61. In this information-filled book, he reports on what he found, offering readers a guided tour of some of natural Pennsylvania's most distinctive places. He also provides information on how to visit the areas, each of which is open to the public.