A Desert Bestiary
Author: Gregory McNamee
Publisher: Big Earth Publishing
Published: 1996
Total Pages: 196
ISBN-13: 9781555661762
DOWNLOAD EBOOKEssays on desert animals.
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A Chinese Bestiary
Author: Richard E. Strassberg
Publisher: Univ of California Press
Published: 2023-11-03
Total Pages: 338
ISBN-13: 0520922786
DOWNLOAD EBOOKA Chinese Bestiary presents a fascinating pageant of mythical creatures from a unique and enduring cosmography written in ancient China. The Guideways through Mountains and Seas, compiled between the fourth and first centuries b.c.e., contains descriptions of hundreds of fantastic denizens of mountains, rivers, islands, and seas, along with minerals, flora, and medicine. The text also represents a wide range of beliefs held by the ancient Chinese. Richard Strassberg brings the Guideways to life for modern readers by weaving together translations from the work itself with information from other texts and recent archaeological finds to create a lavishly illustrated guide to the imaginative world of early China. Unlike the bestiaries of the late medieval period in Europe, the Guideways was not interpreted allegorically; the strange creatures described in it were regarded as actual entities found throughout the landscape. The work was originally used as a sacred geography, as a guidebook for travelers, and as a book of omens. Today, it is regarded as the richest repository of ancient Chinese mythology and shamanistic wisdom. The Guideways may have been illustrated from the start, but the earliest surviving illustrations are woodblock engravings from a rare 1597 edition. Seventy-six of those plates are reproduced here for the first time, and they provide a fine example of the Chinese engraver's art during the late Ming dynasty. This beautiful volume, compiled by a well-known specialist in the field, provides a fascinating window on the thoughts and beliefs of an ancient people, and will delight specialists and general readers alike.
Encyclopedia of Deserts
Author: Michael A. Mares
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
Published: 2017-01-19
Total Pages: 695
ISBN-13: 0806172290
DOWNLOAD EBOOKEncyclopedia of Deserts represents a milestone: it is the first comprehensive reference to the first comprehensive reference to deserts and semideserts of the world. Approximately seven hundred entries treat subjects ranging from desert survival to the way deserts are formed. Topics include biology (birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians, fishes, invertebrates, plants, bacteria, physiology, evolution), geography, climatology, geology, hydrology, anthropology, and history. The thirty-seven contributors, including volume editor Michael A. Mares, have had extensive careers in deserts research, encompassing all of the world’s arid and semiarid regions. The Encyclopedia opens with a subject list by topic, an organizational guide that helps the reader grasp interrelationships and complexities in desert systems. Each entry concludes with cross-references to other entries in the volume, inviting the reader to embark on a personal expedition into fascinating, previously unknown terrain. In addition a list of important readings facilitates in-depth study of each topic. An exhaustive index permits quick access to places, topics, and taxonomic listings of all plants and animals discussed. More than one hundred photographs, drawings, and maps enhance our appreciation of the remarkable life, landforms, history, and challenges of the world’s arid land.
The Indie Author Bestiary II
Author: M.L. Ronn
Publisher: Author Level Up LLC
Published: 2023-06-05
Total Pages: 104
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKYOUR GUIDE TO SLAYING THE BEASTS OF THE WRITING WORLD, PART 2! When we think we’ve won the battle against the “beasts” of the writing world, more appear. The Indie Author Bestiary I taught you how to win the war against yourself. Part 2 will teach you how to thrive in a world that doesn’t always understand or appreciate writers. Learn how to: • Banish uncertainty from your life • Avoid bad advice • Defeat the stigma of being a writer (especially an indie) • And more! If you struggle with the “emotional” part of being a writer, The Indie Author Bestiary II will be your armor as you climb the ladder of success. This unique series continues the tradition of taking the emotional challenges of writing, converting them into monsters, and teaching you how to defeat them. Are you ready to conquer the beasts of the writing world? V1.0
Atlas of the World's Deserts
Author: Nathaniel Harris
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2004-03-01
Total Pages: 359
ISBN-13: 1135456135
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe Atlas of the World's Deserts examines the hostile and extreme environments that characterize deserts, and is divided into chapters that concentrate on specific aspects of a desert's geology, life forms, history, and future. For more information including sample pages, visit the Atlas of the World's Deserts web site. Also includes 160 color maps and photos.
The Serpent's Tale
Author: Gregory McNamee
Publisher: University of Georgia Press
Published: 2000
Total Pages: 164
ISBN-13: 9780820322254
DOWNLOAD EBOOK“We travel the world,” writes Gregory McNamee, “and wherever we go there are snake stories to entertain us.” Here are some fifty diverse and unusual accounts of serpents from cultures across time and around the globe: snakes that talk, jump, and dance; snakes that transform into other creatures; snakes that just . . . watch. Many selections are drawn from the rich oral traditions of peoples in every clime that supports reptiles, from the Akimel O’odham of North America to the Mensa Bet-Abrahe of Africa to the Mungkjan of Australia. Included as well are such writings as prayers from the Egyptian Book of the Dead, fairy tales collected by the Brothers Grimm, a poem by Emily Dickinson, and a journal entry by Charles Darwin. What we read about snakes in The Serpent’s Tale is just as fascinating for what it says about us, for there always will be something primordial about our connection to them. That bond is evident in these stories: in how we associate snakes with nature’s elemental forces, how we attribute special qualities to their eyes and skin, and how they preside over all phases of our existence, from creation to death to resurrection.
Bestiary
Author: Robert Masello
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 2006
Total Pages: 470
ISBN-13: 9780425212806
DOWNLOAD EBOOKWhen Beth Cox, an art curator, is hired to restore an ancient bestiary illuminated with creatures from the Garden of Eden, her husband unwittingly opens the gates of hell after the artifact leads him into a world of horror.
The Bestiary
Author: Nicholas Christopher
Publisher: Dial Press
Published: 2007-06-26
Total Pages: 322
ISBN-13: 0440337046
DOWNLOAD EBOOKFrom “a writer of remarkable gifts,” “Borges with emotional weight, comes a tale that is at once a fantastical historical mystery, a haunting love story, and a glimpse into the uncanny—the quest for a long-lost book detailing the animals left off Noah’s Ark. Xeno Atlas grows up in the Bronx, his Sicilian grandmother’s strange stories of animal spirits his only escape from the legacy of his mother’s early death and his stern father’s long absences as a common seaman. Shunted off to an isolated boarding school, with his father’s activities abroad and the source of his newfound wealth grown increasingly mysterious, Xeno turns his early fascination with animals into a personal obsession: his search for the Caravan Bestiary. This medieval text, lost for eight hundred years, supposedly details the animals not granted passage on the Ark—griffins, hippogriffs, manticores, and basilisks—the vanished remnants of a lost world sometimes glimpsed in the shadowy recesses of our own. Xeno’s quest takes him from the tenements of New York to the jungles of Vietnam to the ancient libraries of Europe—but it is only by riddling out his own family secrets that he can hope to find what he is looking for. A story of panoramic scope and intellectual suspense, The Bestiary is ultimately a tale of heartbreak and redemption.
A Nietzschean Bestiary
Author: Christa Davis Acampora
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Published: 2004
Total Pages: 416
ISBN-13: 9780742514270
DOWNLOAD EBOOK'A Nietzschean Bestiary' gathers essays treating the most vivid & lively animal images in Nietzsche's work, such as the howling beast of prey, Zarathustra's laughing lions, & the notorious blond beast.
Getting Over the Color Green
Author: Scott Slovic
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
Published: 2001
Total Pages: 416
ISBN-13: 9780816516643
DOWNLOAD EBOOKAn eclectic anthology of contemporary nature writing from the Southwest, including nonfiction, fiction, field notes, and poetry, through which artists of diverse backgrounds both celebrate and illuminate the vitality and complexity of southwestern nature and literature.
