This is the type of book anyone with elder or soon to be elder family or loved one, needs to read BEFORE you need to provide care. The book takes you through a logical thought process that will remove a lot of the stress and anxiety that elder care can produce. The ideas presented go beyond elder care and address real life issues including work, family and self. My review is based on what this book brought to me with my personal experience of dealing with a sick parent. I highly recommend it.

If you are caring for an elderly loved one and employed too, then this book is A MUST. It provides practical information to help you sort through the overwhelming tasks of working and caregiving. It is a valuable resource for persons who are new or experienced with caregiving.

This is an excellent handbook for the working family caregiver. John Paul Marosy has presented us with a workbook that is easy to use and chock full of information. It is A MUST for both new and experienced working family caregivers.

I've had the pleasure of being taught by John Boatman at the University level... he is very knowledgeable and passionate about his subject. If you only read one book on this topic, this should be it.

The book is a quick read. It is written in plain language, but filled with forceful words. If all could read it- it would help make sense of alternative philosophies other than those of our European ancestors.

In this book, Boatman tells us the stories, myths and legends of Western Great Lakes Native Americans. It is an insightful book of stories rendered directly from tribal elders. Boatman explains the reverance of all life held dear by Native Americans. He also explains the inconsistancies normally beheld in books on the subject written by outsiders and Europeans. This book is thought provoking and enlightening. We can all learn from these teachings, weather we are Native American or not. This is a universal book, filled with timeless lessons

This is an unusual book. John Elder has written a book that blends the rhythms of life with the rhythms of nature.

Using Robert Frost's poem "Directive" as a springboard, Elder guides the reader through a series of year-long hikes that provide a rare glimpse into the writer soul, family and surroundings. His musings transport the reader from the glaciers that shaped his the plateau for the Village of Bristol, VT., the farmers who struggled and more often than not, failed to scratch a living from the rocky soil that surrounds his adopted home.

He carries us from broken china to Abenaki settlements, meditating on family relationships and deeper relationships with the land.

This is a beautiful example of nature writing, a work that draws a balance between the machinations of civilization and the beauties of wilderness. By inviting the reader to follow the last line of Frost's "Directive," to "Drink and be whole again beyond confusion.", Elder creates a sense of hope that Vermont's balance between nature and culture can speak to the rest of the nation.

I have read many of the reviews of Reading the Mountains of Home--both before and after I studied the book itself--in various magazines and newspapers, and, while many of them summarize accurately and manage to convey fairly clearly its complex and compelling structures, the musical grace of the sentences, the unique of John Elder's vision about the interlinking of language and place and time and family, of Robert Frost's "Directive" and of the concept of wilderness in America. There is a sense also in which he has taken nature writing--a broad genre forever in evolution--and brought it to new heights through this creative interweaving.

But what I notice most is the book's quiet heroism. By this I mean simply that the author exhibits the courage to put all of his deepest convictions, his most strongly held beliefs, the raw stuff of his very life in a place for all to see. One does not see this very often in books. We need more writers like John Elder. We need people like John Elder, people who have the courage to write from the deepest parts of themselves for the greater good of all of us and the larger home we call earth. If there were six stars I would give it six stars.

I learned much about New England from this fine book -- and about Robert Frost.

The sub-title of this book says it all when it comes to what you can expect to read..."Visions and Voices from Native America." Here are the voices of contemporary Native Americans and their visions for the future. Add to that the lavish and stunning photography and this book is WOW! Singers, musicians, writers, elders, leaders, actors and other outstanding individuals from many tribes contribute to this great reading and learning experience. Where many books offer Indian voices from a strictly historical perspective, this one offers a fresh vitality from people who are still here and have so very much to share about themselves.

Of Earth and Elders is important to anyone searching for knowledge. The interviews moved me. The many photographs are compelling to say the least. It is an original work of art. I have now heard the voices of Native Americans.

I believe this is a cause for restoration. This book made me believe that the wolf should be released in to the Adriondack mountians. It also had me believing that the ecosystem needs the wolves to survive. I was especially fascinated by Kristen Deboer's idea of creating corridors between parks in Canada ans the northeast, to help creat migratrion routes for animals. I believet he book itself aswell was ans informative, great, intertaining read.

The Return of the Wolf is an eye-opener as it gives four very distinct and honest evaluations of the possibility of our northeastern forest communities welcoming the timber wolf back to it's native haunts. Let us not confuse the eastern coyote which has hybridized with the eastern wolf as the as the easts top canid predator.....The wolf, just as in Yellowstone and Minnesota is the true predator of the moose , Caribou Elk and Beaver. The coyote, even if hybridized with wolf genes is still not a large enough creature(maximum of 70 pounds whereas the true timber wolf can be 100-150 pounds)to bring down the northeasts growing moose population and hopefully one day a restored caribou herd. Let the voice of Rick Bass,Kristen DeBoer and Bill McKibben weigh heavy.......let us set aside the lands, educate the "Little Red Riding Hood" believers and politic effectively with the state house representatives who tend to buckle to the pressure of corporations who favor short term extraction versus long term sustainability. Give the wolves the chance to push the coyotes to their rightful "fringe" of the forest allowing the true timber wolf and restored(hopefully) Cougar to stand atop the food chain as top predators of the land. Our forests have returned after 400 years of being chopped and burned.Let us stop the shopping malls and second home developments from destroying our wonderful open lands.Let the land be restored to it's glory and allow the current residents of the backwoods to continue their sustainable forestry and wsoodcraft busines while reaping some benefits from a contrulled and managed Ecotourism. What a great thing for us to have the pomeans and will to return and restore our woodlands in the most populated part of the U.S. to their former majesty. We can be a model for the conservative western United States and the emerging 3rd world countries to emulate......The Return of the Wolf speaks of all of these things and more........Fantastic writing! Rivals Charles Little storytelling in the "Dying of the trees". Please pass on to a friend.......Let the restoration of the north woods begin!

Andrea Olsen's book wakes up your conscious being and brings back your connectedness to earth. It makes you grateful for gravity and the nature that surrounds you and you might begin to be in awe of yourself and others. As Bebe Miller already said, this book will be with you for a long time. Body and Earth touches all your senses with its beautiful art work and its suggested exercises are easy and joyful to complete if you wish to do so. Here are just some of the "exercises" the book suggests: Water - notice how just by sipping some nice clear water it transitions from an external to an internal state. Movement - imagine creating a short dance for every day of the week and how this might wake up your senses and might relate to your sense of space. Food - write your own story of digestion as food moves through you to nurture you. Oh, and your place. Choose a small area outside and investigate it: where is water, what insects live on it, how is life like from the perspective of an insect, what plants are on this chosen place of yours and how do they smell and even taste? The book truly invites you to investigate yourself and all that surrounds you. This book is so much fun and so enjoyable that you learn a lot along the way without even noticing. It's a great gift for anyone.

This is also a wonderful book for body workers and their students. As a Yoga teacher I have had the opportunity to work with Andrea and I know that her suggestions really work because you have a chance to experience yourself what she teaches. It brings anatomical teachings back to life. To paraphrase Andrea, this book will make you feel and as you feel you are becoming a caretaker of body, a caretaker of earth. I think we have already caused too much pain to both, so this book might encourage us to heal and act.

In this collection of essays, John Elder, a professor at Middlebury College in Vermont, explores his observations from a sabbatical in Kyoto, Japan. He discusses everything from Japanese calligraphy to haiku to Zen to whalemeat, and even for the uninitiated, he makes these aspects of Japanese culture accessible. His observations carry some real depth, too: he looks well beyond a tourist's superficial awe, well beyond an academic's obsession with paradigm. In these essays Elder discovers what it is about bonsai trees, for example, that makes them uniquely Japanese, and he is able to articulate what their prevalence says about Japan's relationship to nature. Without idealizing Japan, he leaves the reader with a greatly deepened understanding of a distinctly eastern view toward the natural world, and perhaps provides us--both Japanese and American--with new ways of seeing our human relationship to the environment. This is an ambitious book, and a highly successful one. I recommend it enthusiastically!

John Elder, in this Credo Series book, intertwines observations of his three loves of - literature, nature and his family - into a celebration of life itself.

The book's title marks the moment between winter and spring when the tree frogs commence croaking, warning of the last maple tree sap good for distilling into syrup. The Credo Series offers contemporary American writers an opportunity to discuss the fluid and subtle issues of a world in constant change. Elder offers a message of hope; a hope grounded his lineage, literature and the land; how he found balance building a sugarhouse with his sons in the Vermont Woods.

My favorite essay in the collection is "Starting with the Psalms: A Reader's History" where he weaves memories of the 23rd Psalm into a discussion of John Milton's Paradise Lost with a little Annie Dillard, Robert Frost and Gary Snyder thrown in to season the discussion. Grounded in his experience as a professor and writer living in the Green Mountains of Vermont, Elder connects literature with the landscape that inspired it.

Elder is a treasure; a man who seamlessly weaves the dots of his existence into a portrait that honors his observations of his place on earth.

This is the most comprehensive guide I've seen so far for the difficult issue of balancing elder care with work duties. It lays out realistic case histories in a way that managers and employees can relate to.

Author John Paul Marosy is a former family caregiver, and has also served as CEO of leading organizations in elder and home health care. He takes a pre-emptive approach to management intervention, proffering simple and elegant ways for managers to avoid, for example, the tension-related blowups that happen when employees are stressed.

He also suggests dialogues that put both managers and employees at ease when discussing what for most people is an intensely personal, family issue. He details how managers can collect resource information that empowers employees to make their own decisions and includes a list of national organizations.

This book should become a resource on every manager's shelf. It's one thing to strive to run a family friendly company and another to run such a company WELL. This book, if utilized properly, could save a lot of jobs and well being.

Christina L. Pappas Managing Editor Worcester Business Journal, Worcester, MA 4/14/99

For those of you who wish to get acquainted with Pliny, learn more of ancient customs and practices, or if you just look for something different and enlightening to read for a change this book is highly recommended.

As the title rightly suggests this Penguin Classic consists of eclectic samples taken from the 37 books that comprise the Natural History. It is based on an updated, accurate and easy to read translation by John Healy and includes a 32 page introduction, the official section numbering, a key to ancient places mentioned in the text and an index. At 400 pages it is substantial enough to offer many pleasurable hours of thought provoking reading, although, to be honest, I had expected considerably more material to be included. This selection also reflects the translators interest in mineralogy and metallurgy (22 pages are for example devoted to a treatise on gold and silver while no selections have been made from book XIX on vegetable gardening). A curiosity which deserves a note here is book XIV (pp. 182-193 in this edition) in which Pliny gives an eminent account of the art of wine and viticulture. It is an absolute must read for all connoisseurs of good drink.

Considering that the complete works are both very expensive and bulky this is a good introductory option. But this is only an appetiser. Those who wish to indulge in more serious reading, or look to read Pliny in a more scholarly manner for the possibility of making good and well informed quotes, will undoubtedly do better by consulting the separate volumes which contain the whole unabridged text (eg. H. Rackham's authoritative translation with parallel Latin-English text published in 10 volumes by Harvard University Press). Had this Penguin edition covered more material I would have rated it at 5 stars.

// J. Silvennoinen

This book was pretty good although I had to constantly check most of Pliny's 'facts' with a natural science textbook nearby. I was shocked to find how wrong he was and on so many things. Its like he was just guessing and not performing the necessary experiments. I don't know where this guy got his degree, but that place probably wants to rethink their ciriculum. Quite frankly, with Scientists has ill-informed as Pliny was, its amazing that the Roman Empire lasted so long. What else can you really say?

This book has many of the best parts from the full version of Naturlis Historia, and is much easier to read than the 1000+ pages in the many volumes. Great if you don't the time for all of the volumes, or to find them all. This is a book well worth reading.