Related Subjects: Author Index Reviews Page 1 2
Book reviews for "Westebbe,_Richard_Manning" sorted by average review score:

Grassland: The History, Biology, Politics and Promise of the American Prairie
Published in Paperback by Penguin USA (Paper) (1997)
Author: Richard Manning
Amazon base price: $10.50
List price: $15.00 (that's 30% off!)
Used price: $7.50
Buy one from zShops for: $6.95
Average review score:

A treatise to save America's overlooked natural wonder
I found this book terrific. Manning taught me much about the biology of the great American prairie, or what's left of it, as well some of the ways to save it. Unlike other conservationist writers or thinkers, Manning puts a human angle on the subject, pointing out the personal and societal (political, economic) issues. Importantly, though, he spins this tale with an almost poetic quality that is accessible to all levels of readers. He also challenges some of the conventions of some parts of the environmental movement that is refreshing, uplifting and quite meaningful and relevant to all levels of ecological protection.

Intersection of ecology, agriculture and human society
I grew up in Iowa and was given this book a few years ago while living in Manhattan, Kansas. I now live near Fresno, California. Manning starts out by saying that he intended to write about science, politics, and journalism, and ended up with a more personal narrative. To which I say, "of course". This book seemed to me to flesh out for me how patterns of rainfall profoundly influenced the ecology, agriculture, and ultimately the societies of the various places I've lived. For one interested in these issues, I would further suggest (in this order) Wallace Stegner's "Beyond the 100th Meridian", Wes Jackson's "New Roots for Agriculture", Judith Soule and Jon Piper's "Farming in Nature's Image: an Ecological Approach to Agriculture", Ian Frazier's "Great Plains", and Aldo Leopold's "Sand County Almanac". But this book is an excellent start.

This book will change the way you think and possobly eat.
Reading Grassland was one of the best things I have done in a long time. The book will cause one to rethink the manner in which North American agriculture occurs and to question one's role in the web of life. It has caused me to question my being a vegetarian and is simply a profound work. The novel is truly enlightening, I highly recommend that everyone read it.


One Round River: The Curse of Gold and the Fight for the Big Blackfoot
Published in Hardcover by Henry Holt & Company, Inc. (1998)
Author: Richard Manning
Amazon base price: $25.00
Used price: $0.99
Collectible price: $12.71
Buy one from zShops for: $0.98
Average review score:

I've given this book to all of my family
Richard Manning has made me think of my home land in a new way. One Round River should be required reading for those of us who live or want to live in the West, as well as for everyone who uses the fruit of the West - lumber, beef, and especially gold. The message in this book is so important and so well written that I have made my family and friends read it too!

A voice for the New West built on the reality of the past.
Richard Manning understands the people, and the places, he speaks of in his sharp discussion about mining and its effects on the new (and old) Montana. Were we truly to learn from the past so ably told in One Round River, modern gold mining practice would be outlawed. Would that this could be true... A more honest connection with the Montana landscape, and the lives its people (of all types) will be hard to find. Buy the book. If anything because it's a good read.

This book is awesome !
Few of us experience life as passionately as Richard Manning: a writer, hiker, fisherman, and nature lover...with an ability to put it all into words. He is our modern day Norman McLean...and I enjoyed 'One Round River' immensely. I can not recommend a book more highly...a 10+++.


Mastering Mathematics: How to Be a Great Math Student
Published in Paperback by Brooks Cole (20 January, 1999)
Author: Richard Manning Smith
Amazon base price: $13.95
Used price: $6.65
Collectible price: $14.82
Buy one from zShops for: $8.00
Average review score:

Fantastic
Tank you Dr Richard Manning Smith for this fantastic book

College Math Instructors--Your students need this book.
This book includes a quiz encouraging students to "come clean" about their study habits in math classes. Then the score on their quiz directs them to specific chapters which offer practical suggestions as to how to become a better math student. Students love it because it brings their study habits up to the level needed to succeed in a math class in a non-confrontational way.


Oilfield Processing: Crude Oil (Vol 2)
Published in Hardcover by Pennwell Pub (1995)
Authors: Francis S. Manning and Richard E. Thompson
Amazon base price: $101.95
Average review score:

Excellent Reference
I encourage all process engineers to read this book. I took many courses with Dr. Manning at The University of Tulsa, he is one of the best professors I have ever met.

A definite must for the oil & gas engineer
this book is a definite must for the graduate, practicing engineer,plant operator, manager and consultant. Not only does it cover understandable process descriptions, design methods, operating procedures and troubleshooting in great detail, it reinforces the understanding with review questions, practical numerical problems and worked examples. It provides the engineer with a comprehensive desk manual. This book is the definitive source on oil and gas processing. Topics addressed include: characterization of crude oil, phase behavior of crude oil, water in crude emulsions, 3 phase separation, dehydration of crude, desalting, crude sweeting and stabilisation, measurement of crude, all complimented with case histories. One of the best books on oil & gas processing


Cetacean Societies: Field Studies of Dolphins and Whales
Published in Hardcover by University of Chicago Press (2000)
Authors: Janet Mann, Richard C. Connor, Peter L. Tyack, Hal Whitehead, and Janet Manning
Amazon base price: $85.00
Average review score:

A very imformational book on cetaceans
This book goes into orcas, bottlenose dolphins, sperm whales, and humpbacks. It goes into every detail about their lives. Any piece of information you could possibly want to know about these animals is in this book. But it is heavy reading. Definately not an easy read, but very informative.


Oilfield Processing of Petroleum: Natural Gas
Published in Hardcover by Pennwell Pub (1991)
Authors: Francis S. Manning and Richard Thompson
Amazon base price: $101.95
Used price: $99.07
Average review score:

Natural Gas Processing
A comprehensive approach to gas tretment in the oilfield. Very practical, includes calculation methods, troubleshooting, equipment startup... all you'll ever need besides experience! Covers gas properties, sweetening, compression, dehydration, liquid separation, and lots more. Very little math skills required. An excellent reference and classroom book. Andres Philipps, Chem. Eng.


Salmon Nation : People and Fish at the Edge
Published in Paperback by Ecotrust (2003)
Authors: Elizabeth Woody, Seth Zuckerman, Edward C. Wolf, and Richard Manning
Amazon base price: $9.95
Used price: $5.95
Buy one from zShops for: $6.77
Average review score:

Great Book
Salmon Nation is a fascinating look at how the people, and salmon, of the Pacific Northwest have lived together for so long, and how they are now both threatened. Very informative, evocative read.


A Good House: Building a Life on the Land
Published in Paperback by Penguin USA (Paper) (1994)
Author: Richard Manning
Amazon base price: $11.20
List price: $16.00 (that's 30% off!)
Used price: $0.68
Collectible price: $13.54
Buy one from zShops for: $4.94
Average review score:

Honest, interesting, informative and entertaining
The approach is honest as the author wrestles with his desire to do what his conscience tells him is right for the land v.s. the market signals that make those decisions much more expensive. As a complete novice to homebuilding, it gave me a basic understanding of what is involved in building my own home, and made it seem less intimidating.

Thoughtful, honest and important
Richard Manning is an environmentalist writer who can write. He has a voice—an open, honest and emotionally engaging one—one that makes this book a pleasure to read. Manning puts his cards right out on the table, addressing the contradiction of trying to act in an environmentally sensitive way while embarking on a building project that from the start appears less than environmentally sound (building where there was no building before in “ranchette” fashion). Like most of life the resolution is in gray rather than black or white. But Manning succeeds in getting the reader to intimately understand the environmental impact of all facets of modern housing. Whether you build a new home like his or not this is worthwhile information. In my case it prompted me to give my 100 year-old home an “eco-overhaul,” a process which has to date reduced its energy consumption over 60%. And now my family, friends and students occasionally get an uninvited lecture on the virtues of compact fluorescent lighting, on-demand water heating, shutting off “ghost loads” and the like… And you can’t avoid Manning’s contagious love of the art of building and tools. There are all sorts of small gems hiding within this relatively straightforward work, and all of them are worth digging out and mulling over for a moment. ....


Inside Passage: A Journey Beyond Borders
Published in Hardcover by Island Press (2000)
Author: Richard Manning
Amazon base price: $25.00
Used price: $11.00
Collectible price: $11.00
Buy one from zShops for: $15.75
Average review score:

The Art of Zen Ecological Repair
Richard Manning takes his readers on a very interesting journey into a new terrain of environmentalism hinted at by his subtitle, "A Journey Beyond Borders". Traveling by sea kayak and light plane, as well as by land, he paints a grim picture of environmental degradation along the "inside passage" between Astoria Washington and Juneau Alaska. At the same time he is pricking some of the hallowed sacred cows of the conservation establishment. The primary focus of this book is on the decline of the salmon along the Pacific slope of North America. In the process he explains its relationship to lumbering and dams. He also takes a fast tour of the ecological ruin caused by the exponential growth of aquaculture around the Pacific Rim. Manning describes himself as a science writer, but he excels at turning a mixture of personal observation, interviews, and historical data into a vivid picture of decline -- not only of the salmon and the forest -- but of the people who depended on them for a livelihood.

One of Manning's interesting conclusions is that, as the size and technological complexity of our food-producing and timber-harvesting efforts have increased, their efficiency has plummeted. A modern rancher in Idaho, using large quantities of subsidized water and energy, cannot begin to match the protein production of the wild salmon that once teemed the rivers of his state. His calves would have to grow into 50,000-pound cows in order to match the four-year weight gain of a wild salmon. The salmon harvested the bounty of the sea and returned it to the land without any expenditure of fossil fuel. Unfortunately, the salmon run in Idaho's Snake river has declined from 2,000,000 to less than 9,000 -- despite taxpayers spending, Manning says, "$3 billion on a Rube Goldbergian scheme of hatcheries, fish ladders, and barges that give young salmon a ride past the dams." We have traded a very efficient form of food production for a very inefficient one.

Manning adds his voice to the growing chorus that argue that salmon hatcheries are not just inefficient but counterproductive. The young hatchery salmon have a very low survival rate (100 return for each million released), but they still compete with remaining wild salmon for scarce resources in stream and ocean. The kind of conservation Manning espouses is being practiced at a former salmon hatchery in Chinook Washington. The local community took it over and has turned it into a center for long-term restoration not just of a wild salmon run, but also of the habitat in the clear-cut drainage around it.

Manning and his concept of borderless environmentalism is as radical as those who claim trees cause air pollution and Caspian terns are responsible for the decline in the Columbia salmon run. He thinks that most well-intentioned protectors of "wilderness" from Theodore Roosevelt and Gifford Pinchot down to present-day conservationists have not adopted a sound strategy for presserving the environment. His point is that when you draw a line around a piece of land to protect it from clear-cutting and strip mining you are tacitly accepting those practices everywhere else. It also means that if one President has the power to protect an area like the Arctic Wildlife Refuge then another has the power to un-protect it. Manning's solution is for everyone, everywhere, to walk more lightly upon the land every day and perhaps to lend some help to small scale preservation activities in their own back yard. He reminds the reader that those areas of the west that we now revere as "wilderness" were occupied continuously by moderately-dense populations of human beings for ten thousand years before the coming of Lewis and Clark without any noticeable ecological damage. The real message of "Inner Passage" is that we must each internalize environmentalism in the inner passages of our soul.

I enjoyed Mr. Manning's novel analysis of the serious ecological problems outlined in this book and I admire his faith in a utopian soluction, but I don't share that faith. Too many of the people who conscientiously lend their effort and money to worthwhile enviromental causes still drive SUV's home to their 6000 sqaure-ft starter castles and a dinner of farm-raised prawns.

How to save the northwest
Manning does for the Northwest what he did for the Prairie in his other great book, Grassland. Both are great reads.


Illustrated Key to Skulls of Genera of North American Land Mammals
Published in Paperback by Texas Tech University Press (1999)
Authors: Richard W. Manning and J. Knox, Jr. Jones
Amazon base price: $11.95
Used price: $10.00
Collectible price: $10.59
Average review score:

Fine taxonomy key down to GENERA, only, of N.A. mammals.
This work can be utilized by experienced field personnel. Lacks definitions of many terms and techniques for identifications, referred to in the dichotomous key. Common names for the family and genus are rarely used. However, the photos and illustrations provided are of very good quality. The guide provides the necessary detail required for general field use of mammal skulls.

An excellant diagnostic book
This is an outstanding book for field identification of mammal skulls. I highly reccommend this book for any student of mammology or any one interested in Zoology


Related Subjects: Author Index Reviews Page 1 2

Reviews are from readers at Amazon.com. To add a review, follow the Amazon buy link above.