ET Books

Down The Columbia by outdoor enthusiast and river expert Lewis Freeman is a wild and exciting memoir of a bold journey down the Columbia river, before the Grand Coulee and other dams somewhat calmed its rushing flows. Filled with respect for the majesty and savagery of Nature, Down The Columbia is a vividly presented adventure highly recommended for armchair travelers who aren't afraid to get their feet wet!

You won't find this information in even the most recent sciencetexts! You learned in school that all energy for life on earth can betraced back to the sun. This belief was revised after the 1977 discovery of deep ocean hydrothermal vent communities where populations of organisms owe their existence to hydrogen sulfide feeding bacteria. The book progresses from discovery to research into the geology, chemistry, and biology of this most interesting ecosystem. Numerous color photographs and detailed illustrations accompany the text. I especially enjoyed seeing the names and faces of the many scientists who have helped reveal the secrets of this submarine environment. This book would make an excellent supplement in a science classroom and no school library would be complete without it! Move over photosynthesis, chemosynthesis rules!

From the ocean surface to the seabed floor, aquatic life abounds ranging from the microsopic to the gigantic. Ceentimert-long arrow worms gobble balls of algae near the surface, while hatchet fish glow and giant squid battle whales in the darker waters thousands of feet belore the surface. On the bottom are to be found sea vents creating an opportunity for exotic marine to flourish. Each page of Down, Down, Down In The Ocean takes youn greaders ages 5 to 8, down another level of ocean environment, each a unique biosphere supporting life specific to its depth. Author Sandra Markle accurately cpatures the evocative power of the ocean with her Informative text, while arts Bob Marstall treats the reader to rich, vivid, fascinating, revealing illustrations.

Gordon Morrison's A DROP OF WATER also tells of a big journey begun with a small event. A drop of water falls from a child's fingertip to eventually journey back to the sky, flowing down a mountain, collecting in a bog, seeping through a beaver's dam and more in the process. Large, lovely drawings illustrate the process. These are all lovely, unique acquisitions.

This collection of critical essays edited by C.B. Cox is an especially fine one. It includes essays by John Wain, David Daiches, John Ackerman, Elder Olson, Winifed Nowottny, Ralph Maud, William Empson, Raymond Williams, David Holbrook, Annis Pratt, Robert M.Adams , John Bayley, Karl Shapiro.
I found especially interesting "The Welsh Background" by John Ackerman. He speaks of the way Thomas who did not know Welsh shared much with his Welsh contemporaries , above all, Vernon Watkins. He speaks of the Romantic element in Thomas, the introspective, the wildly original. Thomas burst upon the scene in the thirties a voice very much different from the prevailing Eliot- Yeats- Auden spirit of the time.
In a sense the most moving essay is the one by Karl Shapiro written shortly after Thomas' death at the age of thirty- nine. Fellow poet Shapiro knows the canon of Thomas poetry and selects thirty of the poems as those he believes will truly stand the test of time (Thomas wrote "I advance for as long as forever is ")
The poems Shapiro selects are"
" I see the boys of summer", " A process in the weather of the heart","The force that through the green fuse drives the flower", "Especially when the October wind"," When, like a running grave", "Light breaks where no sun shines", "Do you not father me", " A grief ago", "And death shall have no dominion", "Then was my neophyte", "When all my five and country senses see"" We lying by seas and sand" "It is the sinners' dust- tongued bell"," After the funeral", "Not from this anger", "How shall my animal", "Twenty- four years", " A refusal to mourn", "Poem in October", "The Hunchback in the Park"" Into her lying down head" " Do not go gentle" " A Winter's Tale" " On the Marriage of a Virgin" " When I woke" "Among those killed in the dawn raid" "Fern Hill" "In country sleep", "Over the John's Hill" "Poem on his Birthday".
Shapiro discusses Thomas' major themes, of his moving " between sexual revulsion and sexual ecstasy, between puritanism and mysticism, between formalistic ritual ( this accounts for his lack of invention) and vagueness." Wain writes of " the note of doom in the midst of present pleasure, for concealed in each moment lie change and death." He discusses the difference between the obscure early poems and those of the more mature later poems. Wain speaks of a progress from a period in which "techniques of identification pressed too far through a period of occasional verse.. to a period of more limpid , open- worked poetry in which instead of endeavouring to leap outside time into a pantheistic cosmos beyond the dimensions, he accepts time and change and uses memory as an elegaic device".
This book throws light on a wide variety of aspects of the bard whose voice and presence powerfully moved his listeners and readers.
There is a Jewish teaching "that the evil are dead in their lives, while the righteous live after their death" Perhaps of Thomas it can be said as a poet" After the first life there truly is another"

The book condition was like brand new. The book content is impeccable. JRV writes very clearly and to the point.

This is a wonderful concise history of the East River and the neighborhoods in and around it. The book has a wonderful
collection of rare images of the river areas.

We keep telling amazon this is still in print but they ignore our messages so if this gets posted you can still order it via www.amazon.co.uk

A bilingual discussion of the water cycle that introduces concepts such as condensation, precipitation, and water vapor. Photos are colorful and text is clear. Contains a glossary and index. Karen Woodworth-Roman, Children's Science Book Review

DK Publishing Guías Visuales Series of nature books are all outstanding. This definitely includes El Mar. The pictures are outstanding. The book contains sections on oceans of the past, life in the sea, how the seas affect climate, coral, life in the coral, explorers of the sea, marine products, and more. Definitely for 8 year olds to adults. Great reference and reading book for students and teachers alike.