Banana Slug of the Santa Cruz Mountains

Banana Slug of the Santa Cruz Mountains
Author: Gary Bartos
Publisher:
Total Pages: 46
Release: 2011-01
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 9781935914006

As author Gary Bartos explains in the introduction to this scientific and whimsical look into the lives of the infamous Banana Slugs of the Santa Cruz Mountains, "Someone needed to document the questions and legends of these unique creatures. Why are they yellow? How can we identify a male from a female? Where do banana slugs sleep at night? Who are their friends and enemies? How fast can they move? Do they like humans? How have they contributed to science? Are they edible? Why do they live in the Pacific Coast redwood forests? What is their relationship to the redwood tree? Is it true a giant slug hides in the forest?" These and other questions are explored and some of them even answered in this entertaining exposee of these at once grotesque and lovable forest creatures.

A Blistered Kind of Love

A Blistered Kind of Love
Author: Dustin (Duffy) Ballard
Publisher: The Mountaineers Books
Total Pages: 276
Release: 2003-09-19
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1594852103

* Winner of the 2003 Barbara Savage Miles from Nowhere Award * A blend of romance, humor, and adventure on the Pacific Crest Trail * Written in "he said/she said" alternating chapters, this young couple each tell their own story They're not sure which came first -- falling in love with each other or falling in love with the idea of hiking the Pacific Crest Trail (the length of California, Oregon, and Washington). At the trailhead, the young couple was warned that there would be tears, that each would have to find their own separate pace, and that at times the tent would seem awfully small for the two of them. They were told that their biggest obstacles to success would be . . . each other. Their first surprise: freeze-dried meals do funny things to your GI- tract. Their first fight: when Angela noticed that Duffy's long legs propel him along the trail faster than she can muster. But on they pressed -- encountering snakes, bears, and fellow thru-hikers with trail names like Crazy Legs and Catch 23. They baked in the deserts of Southern California, gazed awestruck at the snowy, serrated peaks of the High Sierra, and attempted to hide from Northern Washington's seemingly incessant rain. One hundred thirty two days of Pacific Crest Trail later, they made it -- blisters and all.

Lasting Value

Lasting Value
Author: Rick Pruetz
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 362
Release: 2017-11-20
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1351177427

Americans are committing 'country-cide', says Rick Pruetz, FAICP, converting farms into suburban yards and channeling streams that once provided flood control, water purification, habitats, and recreational opportunities. But rather than rail against overdevelopment, this book celebrates communities succeeding in preservation. For ten years Pruetz explored communities that excel in saving their natural environment. In twenty-four illustrated vignettes, he captures the character of places from the volcanic range near downtown Albuquerque, New Mexico, to Minneapolis’s Grand Rounds park system, to farmland improbably preserved on Long Island. As the longtime city planner of Burbank, California, Pruetz offers more than an appreciation of these communities. He brings a planner’s-eye view of the practices behind their achievements. His detailed reports of creative preservation solutions mark the trail for planners, commissioners, and citizens who seek to preserve the green legacy in their own backyards.

Growing Up with a Soul Full of Nature

Growing Up with a Soul Full of Nature
Author: Tim Corcoran
Publisher: Dog Ear Publishing
Total Pages: 150
Release: 2011-02
Genre:
ISBN: 1457501562

This book tells the incredible story of a boy growing into a man with Nature as his life's foundation and teacher. This book will inspire the reader to bring Nature back to our children as a foundation in their lives. As we move into the future and the attack on Nature continues from humankind, children being raised today will need a deep connection to the natural world in order to help heal nature, plus find stability and inspiration for their own lives. After all, Nature is an amazing teacher and constant friend; it just takes knowing how to listen and communicate to the Earth, and the teachings come flooding in. As Tim Corcoran always says-"Get out in the woods. It's the best place to be." This book is a must read for parents and children alike. It will change your life. Tim Corcoran's Irish heritage, as taught to him by his uncle and grandfather, has linked him deeply to Earth people's philosophy of life. He first went to the woods at age six. He knew then that it was his home. At seventeen he spent four months alone in the Canadian Wilderness practicing Earth living skills. Tim began a career teaching wildlife conservation in 1974. During this time he learned how to communicate with the spirits of the animals he worked with, enhancing his abilities to connect on an intimate level with them. He has an extensive background in working with wildlife. He has worked at the Alberta Game Farm in Alberta, Canada as an animal caretaker, the Crandon Park Zoo in Miami Florida as an animal relocation director, and Marine World Africa U.S.A. as a chimp and elephant trainer. Tim co-founded the Native Animal Rescue in Santa Cruz, California, rescuing and releasing injured wildlife. He also took that opportunity to speak at schools to educate hundreds of children on wildlife conservation.

Birth of a New Brain

Birth of a New Brain
Author: Dyane Harwood
Publisher: Post Hill Press
Total Pages: 243
Release: 2017-10-10
Genre: Self-Help
ISBN: 1618688006

After the birth of her baby triggers a manic maelstrom, Dyane Harwood struggles to survive the bewildering highs and crippling lows of her brain’s turmoil. Birth of a New Brain vividly depicts her postpartum bipolar disorder, an unusual type of bipolar disorder and postpartum mood and anxiety disorder. During her childhood, Harwood grew up close to her father, a brilliant violinist in the Los Angeles Philharmonic who had bipolar disorder. She learned how bipolar disorder could ravage a family, but she never suspected that she’d become mentally ill—until her baby was born. Harwood wondered if mental health would always be out of her reach. From medications to electroconvulsive therapy, from “redwood forest baths” to bibliotherapy, she explored both traditional and unconventional methods of recovery—in-between harrowing psychiatric hospitalizations. Harwood reveals how she ultimately achieved a stable mood. She discovered that despite having a chronic mood disorder, a new, richer life is possible. Birth of a New Brain is the chronicle of one mother’s perseverance, offering hope and grounded advice for those battling mental illness.

Plato and Me

Plato and Me
Author: Dino Calabrese
Publisher:
Total Pages: 44
Release: 2020-03-16
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
ISBN: 9781952194009

Steven and Plato get advice and help from many interesting characters as Steven discovers new possibilities of communication with animals and all of nature.

My Name Is Will

My Name Is Will
Author: Jess Winfield
Publisher: Hachette+ORM
Total Pages: 356
Release: 2009-03-31
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0446537675

“Utterly delicious, original, witty, hilarious and brilliant. Shakespeare in Love on magic mushrooms. The Bard has never been this much fun.” —Christopher Buckley, New York Times-bestselling author A tale of two Shakespeares . . . Struggling UC Santa Cruz grad student Willie Shakespeare Greenberg is trying to write his thesis about the Bard. Kind of . . . Cut off by his father for laziness, and desperate for dough, Willie agrees to deliver a single giant, psychedelic mushroom to a mysterious collector, making himself an unwitting target in Ronald Reagan’s War on Drugs. Meanwhile, would-be playwright (and oppressed Catholic) William Shakespeare is eighteen years old and stuck teaching Latin in the boondocks of Stratford-upon-Avon. The future Bard’s life is turned upside down when a stranger entrusts him with a sacred relic from Rome . . . This, at a time when adherents of the “Old Faith” are being hanged, drawn, and quartered as traitors. Seemingly separated in time and place, the lives of Willie and William begin to intersect in curious ways, from harrowing encounters with the law (and a few ex-girlfriends) to dubious experiments with mind-altering substances. Their misadventures could be dismissed as youthful folly. But wise or foolish, the bold choices they make will shape not only the “Shakespeare” each is destined to become . . . but the very course of history itself. “Hilarious, fascinating . . . a cunningly witty, frolicsome, time-warping bildungsroman . . . Winfield slings bucketfuls of double-entendres and wily puns, and he slips in hilarious variations on Shakespeare’s best-known lines . . . Winfield’s high-spirited tribute is a celebration of the power of language and story.” —Los Angeles Times

Rare Bird

Rare Bird
Author: Maria Mudd Ruth
Publisher: Mountaineers Books
Total Pages: 342
Release: 2013-07-30
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 1594858365

“Rare insights into the trials and joys of scientific discovery.” —Publisher’s Weekly