If you love great poetry, read this book. If you love nature, and suffer to see it destroyed, and want to learn to suffer without hating, read this book. Diane, you are truly a messenger of wonder.

Here is gorgeous, thoughtful poetry, both lush and precise, engaging both heart and mind. I can't imagine anyone coming away from the riches of this slim volume unmoved. Whenever you fear that the world is too drab, too grey, too hopeless, dip into the quiet, deep beauty of these pages and be renewed.

Diane Ackerman has given us an incredible gift. The everday becomes spectacular, humanity precious, and nature blessed. I really loved Wildflowers and Where You Will Find Me.

This book is lovely. The pictures are gorgeous. The text only compliments the pictures. The text is simple and easy to understand.

I used this book when teaching the gifted students math and science. The book is so lovely that many times my students would just read it because of that, not because they were trying to see a concept.

Now I use it as a goal for my personal photography. (I can only hope to be that good someday!)

This is a gorgeous book and well worth the money.

If I could give 10 stars to this book, I would. As a fellow nature photographer and instructor, we use this book as the text book for our photography programs, especially the ones on composition, patterns, and natural design. William Neill's photography is outstanding, each picture simple and clear to the point being made. The text is a reflection of the outstanding quality and precision of the photographs, making their point clearly and simply, yet capturing the imagination. You will start looking at the world differently after reading this book, having your imagination captured by the shadows and cracks on the sidewalk, the curls in the petal of a flower, the fascination of designs found in food, plants, the clouds, everywhere you look will seem fresh and new, seen through new eyes.

Interested in math and geometry, this book will open a new world to you in understanding the complexities of nature as well as geometry and other sciences to you. Fractals, rectangles, spirals, mathematical computations we all learned in school come alive under the simple and magical words and the gorgeous images by Mr. Neill. I would include this as a text book in any math class, inspiring and opening student's eyes to the possibilities found in nature.

For nature and photo enthusiasts, you will go back to this book time and time again for inspiration and information. It will help you understand why rose petals open as they do, how a drop of water can hold the most volume before it explodes, making yet another geometrical shape. You learn why cactus have spines, how lava cools, cracking in even shapes. A very exciting lesson comes in learning how scientists, after many frustrating centuries, with the help of computers finally came up with a mathematical computation for measuring mountains, coastlines, clouds, fog, the physical and ethereal elements of nature. The chapter on fractals really expands your understanding of the sciences.

Mr. Neill has done a sequel to this book and it is also worth getting, as is anything he touches. He is an inspired and dedicated photographer, who some say is carrying on the work of his mentor, Ansel Adams, but I say he is carving his own unique road, in someways surpassing the master's work.

Each page is worthy of framing itself! You feel as though you are with the photographer as each description of the picture is both clear and inviting the reader to feel what was happening at the time the photo was taken ...All aspects of nature, from flowers to underwater scenes....are creatively captured for the viewer. I loved this book and din't want to finish it...

Thematic books of poetry can be tricky, but Ackerman's latest--following several poetry collections and respected works of nonfiction, like A Natural History of the Senses, is a resounding success. The poems chronicle a year and a half of psychotherapy carried ou by telephone, a situation that Ackerman found comfortable because she once worked as a phone crisis-line counselor. Poets often take the content of their emotional lives as substance for their work, so Ackerman's explicit use of her therapy is a natural next step. Still, the proceedings could have been painfully (or boringly) self-conscious, but Ackerman is far too witty and honest a writer to sink us with pretense. After an opening poem that observes "Though my curiosity/ is swelling like a Magellanic Cloud/ filled with a luminous starfield of questions,/ I'll sacrifice them on the altar of our ineffable cause," Ackerman offers a dazzling exploration of memory, anguish, and desire. Why probe so deeply? "Because it is the way/ of our kind, you and I/ we ladle ideas like hot steel," she concludes. A good answer, and this is hot stuff. Buy it for all contemporary poetry collections.

this is another beautiful and profound collections of poems from Ackerman, one of her generation's most important poetic voices. The poems vary in tone, structure and intent, but underneath all is the poignant, sometimes sweet and often painful yearning to find our heart's center. A book to keep on the bedside table and go back to again and again.

To my taste, and for my money, the cream of contemporary American poetry is the three women Mary Oliver, Pattiann Rogers, and most of all Diane Ackerman, also renowned for her melodic, phrase-making prose. Ackerman's new book of poems, startlingly personal for her, details a course of therapy she undertook, holding nothing back and casting familiar situations in unusual ways. It is a marvelous, profound, brilliant collection, as moving as authoritative, and an astute, tender account of what it feels like to have a first-rate mind in the presence of an enigmatic world. Ackerman is not exactly a philosopher, but her mind tends that way, and anyone in any kind of doubt about the world that kills us all off sooner or later had best consult Ackerman's candid poems, in which she burrows away into the old problems and the trickiness of traditional ways out. Continually she invites the discerning reader to share her problems, which she exposes with stunning, phrase-making gravity in this, in many ways the most heartfelt of her superb poetry books. She is a non pareil, to be lauded along with the best of poets of the ages-- Rilke, Dylan Thomas, Wallace Stevens. We are lucky to have her and the harmonies of her distinguished mind, the startling poise of her lines.

When someone of Diane Ackerman's ability writes about learning to fly, the result is poetic and inspiring. Her life-long love of flight and her journey to take herself into that world is one that can be appreciated by anyone. If you're a flight instructor or student yourself, you will appreciate it even more.

I take this book whereever I go. It is a superb comment on life,placed in that wonderful aviation world. There is nothing that comes close to reading and learning from this book.

Two very good friends of mine bought me this book last November and I can't get tired of it at all!

The book is systematically grouped into categories such as Desert landscapes, ancient landscapes etc which necessarily makes it an easy read for a light reader or those who love pictures.

Most of the pictures depict natural features in the U.S.A. and some from Canada and islands in the Indian Ocean. Even though many, such as the Delicate Arch, are very well-photographed, the lively colors seem to want you to pay attention to the pictures again. For example, Delicate Arch was taken with a backdrop of a brewing thunderstorm. Due to the presence of other comparable features behind or near the main focus, one will be kept intrigued, truly appreciating the sheer size of each of the features and marveling at the wonderful hand of God.

The captions are informative, and I would say, rather detailed - so much so they can pass for simple Geographic text. Some even add a sense of humor, describing huge corestones on the Bowling Balls Beach to have "roll[ed] over to join its companion".

My only complaint is that there are too few photos. There should be more on Grand Canyon, and other beautiful features not covered such as Big Horn Canyon, Gates of the Mountains, Yosemite Falls, Crater Lake, Shoshone in Wyoming and Niagara Falls, whose histories can be equally alluring.

The Earth has many lessons to teach us. These lessons are written on the ground at your feet, on the mountains across the river from my house, in the rocks of a riverbed, in the trees all around us. Once you learn to read them, you'll see them everywhere.

This inspired collaboration between Photographer William Neill and the Staff of San Francisco's acclaimed science museum, the Exploratorium, Traces of Time, beautifully illustrates the effects of time on our natural surroundings.

The Exploratorium was the one place in the Bay Area where I could take my chickadees for an entire day & know we would all be learning things that were both strange & curious about everyday objects & events. It is the only hands-on museum where you never hear a discouraging word & are invited to play. There are now over 650 exhibits which people can investigate with impunity.

This is a gloriously illustrated, thoughtfully written introduction to how the passing of time can be seen in the moment - rushing rivers captured in the camera's lens & over the eons - geology explained.

Traces of Time will make an excellent gift that will keep on giving. For my full review do check out: [my website].

This book is full of beautiful pictures and an interesting story of how author Diane Ackerman got to "meet" some monk seals. She was fortunate enough to be able to tag some seals for protection and research and describes the experience in detail. Recommend this book for your young aspiring marine biologists and animal lovers of all ages.

Great, great, great!

In this exquisite coffee table book Fellman captures the essence & ethereal beauty of flowers. With selective focus there is more feeling than substance. It is as if the flowers have their own secret world that we can only know part of.

A wide variety of flora are presented in 62 sepia toned prints, including delicate roses, elegant calla lilies, exotic orchids & magnificent sunflowers. I love her use of soft focus & the numerous close-ups of petals.

These are the most sensual flower pictures I have seen. The images convey a combination of mystery with remarkable intimacy as you see extraordinary detail emerging from the subtle shapes and tones of the background.

Each plate is numbered with several images spread across two-pages. The type of flower & the year the photo was taken are listed in the back. There is also background information about Fellman and 2 essays on her work.

This book provides a great collection of love-related essays, poems, and stories, as well as book excerpts. I tried, mistakenly, to read this book from cover to cover and got too bogged down. I think it is great for a reference (I used it to find one of the readings for my civil ceremony wedding), and great to pick up every now and then, open it randomly, and start reading. But, don't try to read it beginning to end!

This is a delightful collection, containing both the arcane and well-known classics. If I could send one book free to everyone I know, this would be the one.

I very much enjoyed this compilation. It contains a wonderful piece by Joe McConkey, "Idyll", that I am grateful to have discovered. I read a library copy, but plan to buy one to keep.

When I first read Diane Ackerman's book it opened my eyes, just as these other reviews testify. It does seem to be a book people either love or hate (I have some friends who thought it was sentimental babbling) but that doesn't change how extravagantly Ackerman uses language itself to convey the lush world of the senses. I teach a creative writing course at SFSU and I use the book to promote both that poetic description and the possibilities for experience and awareness the book evokes. An excellent example of the ways poetry can be used to explain science and experience.

It is no surprise that author Diane Ackerman has also written several books of poetry. Her poet's sensibility is certainly put to good use here. She uses beautiful, evocative prose to consummate what is clearly a long-standing love affair with the five senses. Although this book is well-reasoned and researched, including much fascinating information about how the senses operate, this is not really a rigorously scientific book. Rather, it is a collection of essays that often have little apparent connection to each other apart from the particular sense under discussion. One moment we might be reading about the latest (at the time of publication) scientific findings about our sense of smell; on the next page we may encounter profiles of people who work as professional smellers for the perfume industry; from there we might move to Ackerman's own garden or a memory of time spent in a eucalyptus grove. The result is an interesting, highly idiosyncratic journey through our senses and what they mean to us.

"A Natural History of the Senses" by Diane Ackerman is such a wonderful book; poetic and informative, it is among the best creative non-fiction that I have found. After having read the book, I find myself taking extra care when I touch my husband, listen to the sounds around me, and eat and experience food.

I love to acquire knowledge about, everything, and I love to do it by reading unfortunately, I have a short attention span when it comes to reading the usual book or journal entry about science or health. While this book only touches the surface of the senses and the how and why of them; she only has so much space after all, Ackerman gives the reader enough information about the senses so that the reader can go research more about the subjects if she is so inclined.

Ackerman's literate and scientific mind combined with her masterful and poetic use of language has created a wonderful book and if I could give this another ½ star, I would.

Basically, as stories about animals we don't have much contact
with, this is a pretty good book. As science, well... Two sentences that floored me read, "How could anything that heavy float? But doesn't the moon float?" Uh, Ms. Ackerman, the moon is outside the earth's gravitational pull and ships float. What exactly was your point?

Here is an author I would like to call and thank. Not only is she articulate, poetic and interesting, but her fascination with and love for her subjects shines in every essay she writes.

Here is the very special world of a woman who sees with the clarity of a scientist and writes with the perception of a poet. Moreover, she writes from her own experiences hanging out in front of bat caves, tackling 500 pound alligators and cuddling baby penguins in refrigerated nurseries. Nothing stops her and not much phases her, but a lot of what she sees and experiences makes her stop and think. It is the thinking that attracts me as much as her stories. She is hard at work on her own vision of the world and the place human beings occupy in it. It is a vision worth considering.

Expect to be drawn with lyrical, insightful writing into the worlds of the creatures Ackerman studies, but expect to find yourself looking down the throat of some tough questions as well. I always come away from one of her books with some new thoughts to chew on. This book shouldn't be missed.

This book is like an adventure from the coast of America to the long mystery Nile River and finish up in the Antarctic. Each person in this world has an individual characteristic and an individual life; animals are the same. From small creature like bats to large creature like whale each has its own life and living habit. By reading this book, I obtain a lot of informative scenes which the author, Diane Ackerman, describes it beautifully. I love this book because the author portrays the attractive living environment and the living habit of the bats,whales, crocodiles and penguins. Every one should read this book. I highly recommend this book for those student who need to read a non-fiction science book. Here is a little information for all students: "This is a wonderful science book." Don't panic if you have to do a non-fiction book report next time. "The Moon by Whale Light" is your best choice.