READIN' ON THE RIVER |
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Whenever I get invited into a home I've never visited before I tend to bee-line to the bookshelves, sooner than later. Here's an eclectic book list from River readers.
THE BOTANY OF DESIRE Pollan takes the question..."What if
plants have evolved to gratify certain human desires so that humans will
help them multiply?", and give the reader an interest reverse perspective
on mutual beneficiality. The author takes the apple, the tulip, the
potato and the marijuana to a talks about their relationship to humans,
from the plants perspective.
INVENTING A NATION Me? I like Gore Vidal. I like the
way he uses the English language. I like the way his mind works.
I like his sense of humor.
THE DaVINCI CODE This years summer and fall page turner. Lots of history wound around ancient secret religious societies and present day intrigue. It's like, open the first page and wait for the whooshing sound as you get sucked inexorably in for the page-turning ride.
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Most folks love spending time in San
Francisco, it's my favorite city. This book could change your mind.
THE DOGS OF WINTER Surf-noir... No jive. True blue
(and not the skin color of a surfer when he/she leaves the water)
northcoast surfing novel in the tradition of James M. Cain. The
book's settings include the cafe in Orleans (frying pans and all),
ceremonies at the mouth of the Salmon River, Hoopa and the ocean coves
along the trackless north coast.
THE KING OF CALIFORNIA Water. The biggest world issue of the
new millennium. This is a big book about the most fertile,
productive land in the world... and how one family controls most of it.
"It is the biography of a forbidding landscape tamed by the vision of one
man." A farming miracle... at what cost?
KRAKATOA Winchester is a wonderful writer (The Professor and the Mad Man) with a knowledge of history and geology that he combines to tell the story of the varied catastrophic events surrounding the eruption of the island volcano of Krakatoa and subsequent devastation felt world-wide.
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