Green Alaska

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Willie Morris

"This book, finished a few weeks before his death in August 1999, circles back home where he started. To live it and discover it one more time, he and his son David Rae take us on a trip through contemporary Mississippi." "Who could express so ardently a comprehension of the Mississippi landscape? Who could capture so unerringly the state's contrasting and often contradictory faces? For his readers the answer is Willie Morris. For Morris it is his photographer son.". "Surveying the familiar yet always strangely evocative panorama that became his literary terrain, My Mississippi contemplates the realities of the present day, assesses the most vital concerns of the citizens, gauges how the state has changed, and beholds what Mississippi is like at the beginning of a new century. This southern homeland to which Morris returned after terminating his career as a New York editor remained for him a tantalizing mystery, the touchstone for all his thoughts, and one of the last unique places in America. For Morris, despite its flaws, Mississippi is beloved."--BOOK JACKET.

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Paul F. Pinsky

"From New York to Los Angeles, Chicago to San Antonio, inner city to penthouse row, pristine park to post-industrial wasteland, the author cycles the streets and paths of fifty of America's largest urban outposts. Part bike-travelogue, part journey through urban history, Biking Through the 'Hoods provides a panoramic, yet ground level, picture of urban America, past and present. You don't need to be an urban cyclist to appreciate Biking Through the 'Hoods, but if you are one, you'll recognize the trials and travails, and occasional triumphs, of navigating the nation's car-dominated cityscapes on two wheels."--P. [4] of cover.

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Philip Caputo

"Tsavo means "place of slaughter." The lions that prowl its plains are known for their abnormally large size, their maneless males, and their historic taste for human prey.". "Just over a century ago, in 1898, two legendary rogue lions terrorized the Tsavo area of East Africa, killing an estimated 135 people. The predators' reign of terror lasted nearly nine months, until they were hunted down and shot by John H. Patterson of the British Army. Nearly a century later, in 1991, a California businessman on safari in Zambia matched his wits and courage with another unmaned giant who had already killed six and showed no signs of stopping, proving that man-eating lions are far from a thing of the past.". "An adventure travel narrative that tracks four scientists attempting to unlock the secrets of these fierce man-eating lions, Ghosts of Tsavo is filled with face-to-face encounters and narrow escapes and celebrates the beauty, stealthy cunning, and awesome strength of these elusive, magnificent beasts."--BOOK JACKET.

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David Helvarg

A sweeping history of the California coastline documents its changing culture and ecology while exploring its role in the state's efforts to counter environmental disasters, citing the influence of the international border fence and the rich animal and plant life that depend on the coast for survival.