Wild Animals I Have Known

Book Description

Engrossing collection of 8 stories by a noted Canadian naturalist, illustrator, and painter masterfully blends scientific observation and romanticism. Memorable characters include Old Lobo, the leader of a wolfpack; Silverspot, a wise old crow; Raggylug, a young cottontail; Bingo, an errant hound; and other remarkable creatures. 200 engaging black-and-white illustrations by the author.

Download Description

THESE STORIES are true. Although I have left the strict line of historical truth in many places, the animals in this book were all real characters. They lived the lives I have depicted, and showed the stamp of heroism and personality more strongly by far than it has been in the power of my pen to tell. Please Note: This book has been reformatted to be easy to read in true text, not scanned images that can sometimes be difficult to decipher. The Microsoft eBook has a contents page linked to the chapter headings for easy navigation. The Adobe eBook has bookmarks at chapter headings and is printable up to two full copies per year. Both versions are text searchable.

Customer Reviews:

I like Silverspot the best........2007-05-07

Seton is pretty well known for his observations of crows. How many words they use, for instance, some are in the story. He watched this particular group of crows for many years, a task made easier because of Silverspot's silver spot. Silverspot's group could tell the difference between someone with a folded umbrella and with a gun, behaved quite differently for the difference.

I gave a copy to a friend who hates to read (and does it quite badly) but who has lived in the country for years and enjoys watching crows.

It got read in one sitting.

Might not work for everybody.

Happy Reencounter!.......2007-03-20

When I was growing up in Peru I read the animal stories of Ernest T. Seton with enormous pleasure. I read them in my mother tongue, German, without the slightest idea that they were translated, nor did I place them on the map of the world, I just read them as great animal stories!
I was very delighted to see that he is still in print, still in demand, and that now i can share them with my grandchildren!!!

Wild Animals I Have Known.......2007-01-10

A real tear-jerker!All of the animals die a tragic death. The book portrays the brutality and disregard that we humans hold for the natural world. BUT we are doing better these days.

Wild Animals I Have Known.......2004-07-17

This is a reprinting of a book of wonderful stories by Ernest Thompson Seton. But buyer beware. The publisher has excluded all 200 of the author's sketches and drawings that help the stories come alive for both younger and older readers. In addition, the design of the book is amateurish. Type is spread across the page, with extra spaces between paragraphs, nothing like the pleasing style of the original editions. This is a lifeless shadow of an American classic.

must read book to raise compassionate kids.......2004-03-18

I've read this book way back when I was a kid growing up in Russia. I cried while reading about the pidgeon's fate, was happy when the rabbit was released, filled with respect for Lobo the wolf... It was one of the books that I'll always remember as being one of the greatest collection of stories. The language is simple yet exquisite, and the story flows so smoothly, you can read past midnight and not notice.
Not only that, that book gave me a better understanding of animals - not as we humans tend to humanize animal emotions and actions, but as real animals think and feel. It definitely made me change my perspective on many subjects - my treatment of nature, of animals, even human relationships.
All that when I was in my early teens. All that without any grownup having to "have a talk" with me or me even noticing that I got a "better understanding" of things.

Now that my son is growing up here, I'm getting him his copy of the book, and I'm quite hopeful that it will bring him a lot of enjoyment as well as food for thought.

Wild Horses I Have Known
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Wonderful companion book to "America's Last Wild Horses"

Well written & informative book

Well Done!

Wild Horses I Have Known
Hope Ryden
Manufacturer: Clarion Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Nonfiction | Horses | Animals | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
General | Ages 9-12 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
General | Veterinary Medicine | Medicine | Subjects | Books
Mammals | Zoology | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
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America's Last Wild Horses: The Classic Study of the Mustangs--Their Pivotal Role in the History of the West, Their Return to the Wild, and the Ongoing Efforts to Preserve Them

The American Mustang Guidebook: History, Behavior, and State-By-State Directions on Where to Best View America's Wild Horses (Willow Creek Guides)

Among Wild Horses: A Portrait of the Pryor Mountain Mustangs

Cloud: Wild Stallion of the Rockies

The Last of the Wild Horses

ASIN: 0395775205

Book Description

Naturalist Hope Ryden's stunning photographs accompany clear, conversational essays telling of her observations and experiences as she tracked the mustangs of the West. Wild horses evolved and roamed in North America until becoming extinct ten thousand years ago. Not until the early sixteenth century, when the conquistadors brought tough mounts to carry them as they explore what is now Mexico and the Southwest, did the horse reappear on American soil. Hope Ryden describes how the Plains Indians adopted the horse, which transformed their culture. But many of their horses escaped into the wild and reverted to primitive behaviors-such as forming tight-knit social groups with complicated social hierarchies-that enabled them to thrive and survive. Horse lovers and history buffs, as well as all who relish a good true-life adventure, will be fascinated and moved by this compelling portrait of a national treasure. Bibliography.

Customer Reviews:

Wonderful companion book to "America's Last Wild Horses".......2006-02-16

Beautifully laid out & photographed.

Remarkable photographs by a remarkable woman. The author has spent the majority of her life documenting the last remaining herds of wild mustangs along the Wyoming-Montana Pryor Mountain range.

The last few pages in the book feature wonderful photographs of the various colours of these mustangs, from grulla, to medicine hat pinto, to buckskin, cremello, blue roan, etc - followed by text and commentary by the author describing these colours.

This is the companion book to the author's previous release: "America's Last Wild Horses".

Well written & informative book.......2005-08-02

Written by someone who has spent many years with these magnificent animals. Great photos and stories. I gave the book to my 13 year old niece and she loves it.

Well Done!.......2000-07-27

Hope Ryden has done an excellent job on her book. Beautiful pictures of horses are every where in this book. Hope has followed several herds of wild mustangs and observed their behavor. I am amazed at her knowledge of these horses and she has shared it with us in her book. Meet The Black King-the undisputed leader of his harem defend his mares against other stallions and the Bandidos. Read about Hope's narrow escapes and her funniest moments. Young and old will love reading this book over and over and gazing for hours at the beautiful pictures.

Wild Animals I Have Known: Polk Street Diaries and After

Average customer rating:

Those good ol' days
Every year the same honest story
A dramatic, vividly portrayed, and legendary gay milieu
Being young and gay in San Francisco during the late-1970s
Puts the sex back into homosexuality.

Wild Animals I Have Known: Polk Street Diaries and After
Kevin Bentley
Manufacturer: Green Candy Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

General | Specific Groups | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books

Gay | Biographies & Memoirs | Gay & Lesbian | Subjects | Books

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Gay & Lesbian | Subjects | Books

General | Nonfiction | Gay & Lesbian | Subjects | Books

General | Sex | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books

Let's Shut Out the World
My Lives: An Autobiography
Boyfriends from Hell: True Tales of Tainted Lovers, Disastrous Dates and Love Gone Wrong!
Slovakian Boy
Setting the Lawn on Fire: A Novel

ASIN: 1931160082

Book Description

Kevin Bentley faithfully kept a frank, literate diary of his experiences as a young gay man living in San Francisco in the 1970s. In passages that are arousing, thoughtful, and funny, he details a scene of unrivaled sexual hedonism. First and foremost an erotic record, Wild Animals I Have Known is also the diary of a bookish, terrified, exuberantly promiscuous, and laughably romantic gay man’s exploits during the heyday of San Francisco’s gay bohemia. “[Bentley’s] writing is direct, intelligent, savagely funny, and very, very erotic.” — Kevin Dax, author of D.O.C. Lust Letters

Customer Reviews:

Those good ol' days.......2005-07-13

I can't believe that Kevin Bentley is still alive after everything, or should I say--everyone he's had!!! This book was very special for me because I grew up in that area also and so know all the places he frequented. He was a busy guy. The book is very descriptive but somehow doesn't really seem pornographic. He must feel like a lone survivor in a nuclear wasteland having done everything he did and stills lives to tell about it. He writes very well and I liked this book and recommend it to all who want to relive those good ol' days when condoms were not used and there was nothing to be concerned about except where the next trick was coming from.

Every year the same honest story.......2002-08-03

The first part of the book gives an idea about gaylife in San Francisco at the glory days. No fear of AIDS, just 'concerning' being a top or a bottom and while kissing a man flirting with the bartender.
Then death comes to town. Kevin, the author, just describes he is missing his friends and in the meanwhile is still hungry for sex.

This book has no real message. It is a dating-report of twenty years full of sex. Like a pornmovie, that makes it quite boring after a few pages. On the other hand, it is very honestly and maybe that's the reason that you will read it to the end.

A dramatic, vividly portrayed, and legendary gay milieu.......2002-07-06

Kevin Bentley's remarkable memoir, Wild Animals I Have Known: Polk Street Diaries And After, is set in San Francisco during the late 1970s and is based on Bentley's personal diary. In 1997 he was 21 years old, bookish, exuberantly promiscuous, laughably romantic, terrified new arrival. A young gay man arrived in the "gay mecca" that was San Francisco, a place where he would stay until his fortieth year. Here detailed are the gay bars, baths, a quirky old financial district book store, a funky apartment building on Nob Hill, street fairs, and side trips to Monterey, Santa Fe, and even West Texas. But it is the stories of love, sex, self-doubt, friendship, and unapologetic partying that comprised the basic elements of the gay lifestyle that truly grab the reader's total attention. Wild Animals I Have Known is an autobiographical "picture window back through time" offering a dramatic, vividly portrayed, and legendary gay milieu.

Being young and gay in San Francisco during the late-1970s.......2002-06-29

The entries that Kevin Bentley has chosen to publish from his "Polk Street Diaries" of that era are primarily about sexual adventures, often comic misadventures. Anyone who does not want to read about men having sexual encounters with men should steer away from this book. Like Renaud Camus's TRICKS from the same pre-AIDS era, or Ricardo Ramos's FLIPPING about that time in San Francisco, Bentley was finding out who the men he met were through sex: what they did, how they did it, and the places they lived. It was often the books (or the total lack of books), the recorded music (LPs then),, and the artifacts in a trick's room or apartment that made incompatibility obvious.

"Getting laid" was a focus then and there for gay men (and for most young men most of the time in other eras and locales). However, it was necessary to make a living to have a place to live and to pay bar cover charges (and, perchance, to eat, bhough that was a low priority at the time). The gay novels of Manhattan/Provincetown/Fire Island sex, drugs, and disco elide this, leaving readers to guess how the characters acquired money. Something I particularly appreciate in Bentley's book is his chronicling the difficulty of making a living. It also chronicles what the Swedish investigator Benny Henriksson dubbed "the risk factor of love" (reducing "promiscuity" and having unprotected sex with an HIV-infected partner).

Like the fictional inhabitants of 28 Barbary Lane, Bentley paid no attention to politics (gay, HIV-prevention, or any other kind). Less sexually adventurous than Bentley, and writing in a "family newspaper," Armistead Maupin in his well-known "tales" only hint at what life was like for gay men during "the golden age of promiscuity." Written at the time (though culled recently), these diary entries tells it like it was--without apologies, without shame, and without the chauvinism of "lgtb pride."

Puts the sex back into homosexuality........2002-05-07

Too much gay writing these days tries to ignore the very thing that makes us gay - men having sex with men. Kevin Bentley's frank diary entries puts gay sex where it belongs, right in the center of his narrative.

Memoirs of gay life in San Francisco's golden age - between Stonewall and AIDS - are precious and few, in part because so many of the men who lived during that period are dead. "Wild Animals I Have Known", in my humble opinion, is the best memoir of 1970's San Francisco gay life that I have read so far. Though Bentley is as apolitical as most gays then or now - he ignored Harvey Milk and spent the White Night Riots getting the clap from a trick on a rooftop - by living an openly gay life he acted out the ideals of gay liberation. Bravo, Kevin!

WILD ANIMALS I HAVE KNOWN
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WILD ANIMALS I HAVE KNOWN
Ernest Thompson, Illustrated By The Autho Seton
Manufacturer: Charles Scribner's Sons
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000GTAYG0

Wild animals I have known;: Being the personal histories of Lobo, Silverspot, Raggylug, Bingo, The Springfield fox, The pacing mustang, Wully & Redruff
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Wild animals I have known;: Being the personal histories of Lobo, Silverspot, Raggylug, Bingo, The Springfield fox, The pacing mustang, Wully & Redruff
Ernest Thompson Seton
Manufacturer: Scribner's
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books | Classics | Comic | Contemporary | Literary
ASIN: B000859S46

Wild animals I have known,: And 200 drawings,
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Wild animals I have known,: And 200 drawings,
Ernest Thompson Seton
Manufacturer: C. Scribner's sons
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books | Classics | Comic | Contemporary | Literary
Zoology | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books | Amphibians | Anatomy | Animal Behavior & Communication | Animal Psychology | General | Genetics | Ichthyology | Invertebrates | Mammals | Ornithology | Pathology & Parasitology | Physiology | Primatology | Reptiles | Research & Ethics | Vertebrates
ASIN: B00085PBVU

Wild Animals I Have Known
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Wild Animals I Have Known

Manufacturer: Bantam Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000HTXRIG

Wild animals I have known, and 200 drawings: Being the personal histories of Lobo, Silverspot, Raggylug, Bingo, and Springfield fox, the pacing mustang, Wully, and Redruff
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Wild Thing!

Wild animals I have known, and 200 drawings: Being the personal histories of Lobo, Silverspot, Raggylug, Bingo, and Springfield fox, the pacing mustang, Wully, and Redruff
Ernest Thompson Seton
Manufacturer: Peregrine Smith
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Zoology | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0879050330

Customer Reviews:

Wild Thing!.......2000-01-10

Seton's unique gift brings us inside the minds and feelings of the wild creatures who share our continent. His groundbreaking empathy and insight foreshadowed the animal rights movement. A refreshing look into real life.

Lobo and Other Stories from "Wild Animals I Have Known"

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Lobo and Other Stories from "Wild Animals I Have Known"
Ernest Thompson Seton
Manufacturer: Hodder & Stoughton Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000O35O4A

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LOBO AND OTHER STORIES FROM WILD ANIMALS I HAVE KNOWN
ERNEST THOMPSON SETON
Manufacturer: HODDER AND STOUGHTON
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000SBUP1U

Outremer #6: The End of All Roads (Outremer, 6)
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Unusual and compelling historical fantasy

The final novel in a fabulously literary fantasy series

Loved everything except the end
Outremer #6: The End of All Roads (Outremer, 6)
Chaz Brenchley
Manufacturer: Ace
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
General | Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
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Outremer #1: The Devil in the Dust (Outremer, Book 1)

ASIN: 0441011144
Release Date: 2003-10-28

Book Description

The thrilling conclusion to the critically acclaimed Outremer series finds warriors from both the Knights Ransomer and the Sharai confronting the King on Mount Ascariel.

Customer Reviews:

Unusual and compelling historical fantasy.......2007-06-29

Over the last five volumes, Brenchley has laid out a large number of plot strands. Now he weaves them together in a final volume that sustains the tension almost to the end. The folded land of Surayon is folded no more, and has become a battleground for multiple warring armies, not all of them human. The different human armies are at war with one another, but face a greater enemy -- if they can recognise it in time. The central characters of the series face their own battle to protect the many people and things they love, not all of which are on the same side. Marron's battle is particularly harsh, for he has sworn, with good reason, to never again use the power of the Daughter to kill.

Even in the midst of battle, this is a character-driven story, and there's some beautiful development of character, as each of the surviving main characters is tested to the breaking point. That's "surviving", because right the way through this has not been your fluffy fantasy where only the redshirts die. There's no gratuitous gore, but that's not because the author flinches away from showing the reality of a land at war. As a result, there's genuine suspense right to the last chapter.

At the end of the battle for Surayon, there's one last conflict to resolve. The King of all Outremer has until now been an off-stage figure, shown only through what others say about him, and the effects of the magical power he wields. And the survivors from various sides have questions they would like answered about his failure to intervene in their war at an early stage. They get their answers, but answers that pose more questions.

While Brenchley answers the reader's questions, it's far from a neat and tidy ending. A satisfying one, with Julianne, Elisande and Marron pragmatic enough to be content with what they've got, but certainly not a tidy one.

As a whole then, this is a wonderful and unusual fantasy series, with this volume providing a fitting conclusion. And while romance isn't the be-all and end-all of the plot, the series is definitely one for fans of unconventional romance, so long as they don't insist on all parties getting an unambiguous Happy Ever After.

The final novel in a fabulously literary fantasy series.......2004-09-04

With The End of All Roads, Chaz Brenchley's distinctively literary Outremer fantasy series comes to a close, answering most if not all of the reader's questions about what has taken place over the course of the six gripping novels. As this novel opens, the Folded Land of Surayon, an "heretical" principality in the land of Outremer that has been magically hidden for forty years, is suddenly accessible to outsiders, including the armies that are converging there to destroy the land. From one side come the Knights Ransomers and the militant brotherhood of Outremer - led by a military zealot, they seek to destroy Surayon for its heretical ways. From another side come the tentatively united desert tribes of the Sharai. They seek to reclaim Surayon as a land taken from them decades earlier. Surayon has no army to speak of, and thus the death toll is writ large across the landscape.

The central characters of the Outremer novels are also in Surayon. This is a strongly character-driven series, so it is almost impossible to really describe the characters just in relation to this last of the six novels. Julianne, daughter of the King's Shadow, is now married (in name only) to both Imber, a baron of her own people, and to Hasan, the leader of her people's desert enemies. Marron, the young lad who took the mystical weapon called the Daughter into himself and became the Ghost Walker, now lies in distress after having been touched by evil. Both Marron and Hasan have been brought to Surayon in hopes of being healed by the princip of the land. The princip is the grandfather of Elisande, Julianne's loyal companion and the series' most significant tragic hero. Alongside Marron, as always, is the young but intentionally tribeless Sharai lad named Jemel. The relationship between the two young men (and there is a physical relationship involved) will be put to the test when Marron finally meets up again with Sieur Anton d'Escrivey, the knight he once served and a man with whom he established an even more controversial relationship.

It's difficult to see how everything will play out in this inevitable war that has now begun. While the Sharai and the Patrics both wish to destroy Surayon for their own reasons, they themselves are bitter enemies and could turn on one another at any time; the Sharai tribes themselves often fight amongst themselves and can only be united under a strong leader such as Hasan, but Hasan has been grievously wounded. The Ghost Walker would normally be expected to take a role in the fighting, but Marron has sworn to never kill again. On top of all this, you have a new, unnatural force entering the fray in the form of deadly 'ifrits and the fiendish ghuls they control. There is much more to this story than just the fighting, however, as the book does not end until final revelations are revealed in Ascariel by the king of Outremer himself, a king who has not been seen for the past forty years.

Generally, I thought The End of All Roads made for a pretty satisfying conclusion to a weighty and truly literary series, although I do feel as if a couple of the principal character resolution issues were a bit rushed or minimized. The Books of Outremer make up a highly unusual fantasy series, one made all the more singular by the ambiguous sexuality of the main characters. You have Julianne and her two husbands, the homosexual feelings of Marron and Jemel, the disturbing man-love relationship between Marron and Anton d'Escrivey, and poor Elisande's unrequited love for one of the boys. The distinctive atmosphere of this world is also a magical one with some similarities to what you might find in Arabian Nights. In this sixth and final book in particular, you have a number of thrilling fight scenes both between and among man and magical beast, but it really is the characters that bring this story to life. These are not heroes in the traditional sense - just the opposite, in fact, and each of them has done things I highly disapprove of - yet they remain fascinating and strongly sympathetic actors in the outré world Brenchley has created for them. The End of All Roads is a truly fitting conclusion to an extraordinary fantasy series.

Loved everything except the end.......2004-03-29

The good news is, I loved this series so much that, hours after I finished reading it, I can't stop thinking about the end. The bad news, I can't stop thinking about the end because it is ticking me off. One of the characters makes a choice that is politically unsustainable and grossly unfair, and I can't understand the character's (or the author's) logic. If the author ever writes a sequel about the consequences of the choice, though, I'd buy it -- the series really was interesting. --C.A. Sweeney

Book Description

Dale Bailey's literary fantasies have delighted readers for the past decade, and this collection brings together the best of his work. The title story, "The Resurrection Man's Legacy," has been optioned for a movie. In it, a young orphan must live with an elderly aunt who proves unable to supply all that the boy requires and purchases a robotic, surrogate father for him. In "The Anencephalic Fields," another coming-of-age story, a boy is isolated with his mother on a farm where humanlike plants are grown. "Sheep's Clothing" is a near-future science fiction tale of an assassin planning to kill a politician by assuming control of his daughter's body and using it to commit the murder. The ending novella, "In Green's Dominion," is the story of a spinster professor reflecting on her life as it nears its conclusion, settling her affairs and remembering the magic moments in her life. Other stories blend fantasy with reality, with the dead arising to vote, the painful burial of a firstborn child, a lost southern town where slavery still rears its ugly head, and other horrific, thought-provoking, terrible, and wonderful tales of life.

Customer Reviews:

Just say "whoa.".......2005-06-07

Dale Bailey, The Resurrection Man's Legacy and Other Stories (Golden Gryphon Press, 2003)

A little over a year ago, I read and reviewed (quite favorably) Dale Bailey's novel House of Bones. (ed. note: May 10, 2004) I'd been meaning to get round to reading him again since then, but somehow a year passed before I picked up my next Bailey book: this substantial collection of short stories. I knew from reading House of Bones that I should be expecting good things, but then I read the introduction, penned by no less a personage than Barry N. Malzberg, author of more underrated science fiction classics than you can comfortably shake a small alder at (if you've not read The Sodom and Gomorroah Business, at least, shame on you). Malzberg's introduction to this book is jaw-dropping, especially for a man who, the few times he blurbs something, always seems to be damning with faint praise. Here, he is heralding a collection that, he intimates, should be canonized immediately, comparing it to the definitive collections of John Varley and Theodore Sturgeon. That, folks, is some heady stuff. Now, as I said, I knew Dale Bailey was capable of good, perhaps great, things. Malzberg's introduction had me believing I'd be placing this on the short shelf next to Piccirilli's A Choir of Ill Children as one of the finest achievements in modern dark fantasy.

The comparison turned out to be more accurate than I could have guessed. Bailey, a North Carolina boy, has assumed the mantle of southern gothic, mastered it, and bent it to his will in quite the same way Piccirilli has, and with similar results. This is not to say that The Resurrection Man's Legacy... is a collection of southern gothic tales; while a few are certainly in that vein ("The Census Taker," especially, has a distinct smell of whatever herbs were used in Carson McCullers' coffin), Bailey's palette of influences stretches a mite farther than Yoknapatawpha County. The collection's title story has its roots quite obviously in "I Sing the Body Electric," and anyone who's read that story knows what's going to happen here. (Not that this, either, was a surprise; House of Bones has its roots in more haunted house tales than one can count, from The House on Haunted Hill to Poltergeist III.) What separates Bailey from your run-of-the-mill plagiarist hack is that at no time while reading "The Resurrection Man's Legacy" will you get the impression you're actually reading "I Sing the Body Electric." Nor, for that matter, that you're reading anything other than Dale Bailey. His is a voice that is as distinct as the sound of winter wind down the face of Stone Mountain. Bailey has obviously taken into consideration the old saw that there's nothing new under the sun; here, he takes the old and makes it new again in a number of cases. Of course, there are others, where taking the old and making it new again takes on, well, a whole new set of meanings ("Death and Suffrage," for example, is a wonderful spin on the cliché that the dead have been voting in Chicago since Prohibition).

Dale Bailey is, in fact, a fantastic writer. If you haven't yet gotten to know his work, you should. The novels are likely easier to find these days, but if you get the chance, hunt this collection down. You'll be glad you made the effort.

The tone of these short stories is historical in style.......2004-02-08

The Resurrection Man's Legacy represents Dale Bailey's first collection, though his fantasies have been published for a decade: as such, it showcases the title story, slated for development as a motion picture, and combines this growing classic with tales of grief and family ties. The tone of these short stories is historical in style: Bailey's stories provide believable near-futures, science which could be real, and a literary, poetic bent to the language which is unusual and compelling. Highly recommended.

Masterful and Brilliant.......2003-11-17

Dale Bailey has been publishing short fiction for quite some time. Last year saw the publication of his first novel, the greatly atmospheric and horrific Fallen. Now, Golden Gryphon Press has published Bailey's first collection, which reunites most of the work he has published in the Fiction & Science Fiction magazine.

And what a collection it is! You probably won't read a better amalgation of sci-fi/horror stories this year (or in the next couple of years for that matter). The collection opens with the title story, a very touching and imaginative tale about a boy who's dead father is resurrected into a robot-like man. I dare anyone to read this story and not feel completely emotionally torn in the end.

Death and Sufferage is another great zombie story (a theme that Bailey often touches upon) that will remain in your mind for quite some time. Touched and Quinn's Way are stories about childhood, the kind of coming-of-age tales only an expert writer is able to write. These are stories that are effective in all the right places, pushing all the right buttons. And The Census Taker is a story that feels like vintage Stephen King but that is even more emotionally gripping.

It's impossible to pick a favourite out of this collection. Bailey's writing is reminiscent of the early Ray Bradbury, only with more feeling, more nuance. Bradbury's writing could often feel cold; Bailey's is very warm, rich and demanding. The author has a way with words that is worthy of poetry. Beautiful prose graces every story, a thing that isn't easy to find in genre fiction. If there is such a thing as literary sci-fi/horror, I guess this is it!

I urge anyone who hasn't tried Dale Bailey to do so, and fast. That is one name that will, soon enough, become a major player in genre fiction. The fact that his stories are accessible to all and not just a small core audience only broadens his horizon. A major and important collection by a man who hasn't finished impressing us.

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authentic chinese recipes

The wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen

Excellent Read and Reference book on Chinese Recipes

very specific to the author's own immigration background

Good source of info....

The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen: Classic Family Recipes for Celebration and Healing
Grace Young
Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
Chinese | Asian | Regional & International | Cooking, Food & Wine | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0684847396

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Grace Young is a culinary sister to novelist Amy Tan. In The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen, along with sharing recipes from her family, Young immerses the reader in Chinese culture and the Chinese American experience of San Francisco's Chinatown, where she grew up. This personal book began with Young's wish to preserve the Cantonese dishes prepared by her parents and extended family. Since they cooked by instinct, the only way to record their recipes was by observing her mother, father, and aunties while they cooked, and by asking endless questions. These kitchen conversations also became a way to elicit untold family history from her deeply traditional and reticent parents.

Each chapter opens with an essay intertwining biographical stories with information about Chinese food and healing. The blending of culinary information and cultural observations is powerfully realized, perhaps because Young shows old-fashioned respect along with a contemporary perspective. The result is both affectionate and enthralling. You can vividly picture the meticulous choreography as her parents make dinner in their tiny kitchen, reaching over steaming pots and rushing the steaming food to the table.

Young delves into the hows and whys of Cantonese home cooking, with particular attention to technique and ingredients: Chinese broccoli with flowers should be avoided because the bright yellow blossoms indicate the stalks are too old. Steaming is valued because it draws out the intense flavors near the bone in chicken, fish, and meat, leaving them tender and moist.

Many dishes are elementally simple. Hot-and-Sour Soup is fired solely by aromatic white pepper. White Chicken is perfumed just with ginger and garlic. Some choices are quick and easy, as in stir-fried Bean Sprouts, while others require long and elaborate preparation, like savory Rice Tamales stuffed with pork, Chinese sausage, and duck egg yolks and wrapped in bamboo leaves. Anyone who enjoys eating Chinese food or has experienced the generational differences in immigrant families will get lost in The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen. --Dana Jacobi

Book Description

The Wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen, with its 150 recipes culled from a lifetime of family meals and culinary instruction, is much more than a cookbook. It is a daughter's tribute -- a collection of personal memories of the philosophy and superstitions behind culinary traditions that have been passed down through her Cantonese family, in which each ingredient has its own singular importance, the preparation of a meal is part of the joy of life, and the proper creation of a dish can have a favorable influence on health and good fortune. Each chapter begins with its own engaging story, offering insight into the Chinese beliefs that surround life-enhancing and spiritually calming meals. In addition, personal family photographs illustrate these stories and capture the spirit of China before the Revolution, when Young's family lived in Canton, Shanghai, and Hong Kong.

The first part, "Mastering the Fundamentals," provides instruction on the arts of steaming and stir-frying; the preparation of rice, panfried, and braised dishes; the proper selection of produce; and the fine arts of chopping and slicing. Part Two, "The Art of Celebration," concentrates on the more elaborate, complex, and meaningful dishes -- such as Shark's Fin Soup and West Lake Duck -- that are usually made with rare ingredients, and sweets such as Water Chestnut Cake and Sesame Balls. The final part, "Achieving Yin-Yang Harmony," explores the many Chinese beliefs about the healing properties of ginseng, gingko nuts, soybeans, dong quai, and the many vegetable and fruit soup preparations that balance and nourish the body. The stories and recipes combine to demonstrate the range of Cantonese cooking, from rich flavors and honored combinations to an overall appreciation of health, well-being, and prosperity.

In addition to the recipes, Young provides a complete glossary of dried herbs, spices, and fresh produce, accompanied by identifying photos and tips on where to purchase them. Unique traditional dishes, such as Savory Rice Tamales and Shrimp Dumplings, are also illustrated step by step, making the book easy to use. The central full-color photo section captures details of New Year's dishes and the Chinese home decorated in celebration, reminding one that these time-honored traditions live on, and the meals and their creation are connections to the past.

Customer Reviews:

authentic chinese recipes.......2007-05-23

yep! it brings me back home when i read through this book and taste the recipes!

glad this book was published!

The wisdom of the Chinese Kitchen.......2007-01-10

The book is amazing and everything I had hoped it would be.

Excellent Read and Reference book on Chinese Recipes.......2007-01-02

Grace Young's writing style is very thoughtful and a testament to her ability to embrace her Chinese Heritage and prescribe its finer aspects in cooking to a reader who has only a basic familiarity of that culture.

Her writing is reflective, beautiful, nostalgic, concise, thoughtful, and with an elusiveness that only a true philosopher could have that motivates the spirit in wanting to learn more not only about cooking, but about how everything in life is balanced together.

I've been reading this book while I've had a very bad flu and her sections on the medicinal values of ingredients in Chinese cooking has been a blessing to me.

The book is well organized with a vivid introduction of her life growing up in San Francisco Chinatown; her observations thru family anecdotes. Then she breaks down recipes with wonderful introductions in categories from rice, wok cooking, steam cooking, and two broader sections related to cooking and "The Art of Celebration" and "Achieving Ying Yang Harmony."

There are excellent instructions, pictures, and descriptions of key ingredients written in chinese with a photo so that while in a Chinese supermarket, you can find the ingredients.

There's also and excellent reference section in the back on the ingredients.

Little things such as eating congee (jook) when ill to aid the body in releasing toxins had an immediate effect on my health. Also, her recipe for "Dried Fig Apple Almond" soup immediately cured me of my coughing problems.

Her instructions on the recipe are very concise. If you follow her instructions academically, you will achieve the intent of the dish.

After reading this book, I look at eating more than just as a pleasure, but as a means of sustaining a longer and healthier life.

I only had one problem and that relates to the phonetics used in the pronunciation of some of the terms in chinese. People at the stores seldom understood what I was asking for, but fortunately, there were pictures.

Great read and a book that is a permanent reference guide.

very specific to the author's own immigration background.......2006-11-15

The author was very generous in sharing her family recipes which I think are authentic because I am familiar with American Born Chinese with a similar ancestry. The pronunciation is not Cantonese but perhaps the author has generalized her specific dialect to make it easier for the lay person to understand that she is from a Southern immigrant background with strong ties to San Francisco's Chinatown pre1980's generations.

I get the feeling that when the author refers to "The Chinese" that she is really referring to her own subgroup of Southern (Toisanese?) immigrants in America. The ingredients, the soup recipes and the beliefs while common in the South are interpreted in a specific visceral manner that is more oral history than official Chinese culinary rules. I am aware that there is disagreement over the handling of gingko nuts for example and that is not covered in this book.

I found Grace Young's book interesting and actually delightful though I minded the presumption of speaking for The Chinese and a certain accompanying dogmatism but overall, I appreciate the author's willingness in sharing her private family history and recipes. I think this does represent the author's subgroup extremely well and that many Americanized Chinese with her background will find this book very useful. Plus if they like the tone of the Joy Luck Club, they will love the writing style in this book.

The recipes are not complicated and you will find yourself with a simple but tasty vegetable soup in half an hour. Go for it!

I urge anyone who has come across the book to also read
My Shanghai: Through Tastes & Memories (Hardcover)
by Sandy Lam

which is also sold through Amazon. If you like Joy Luck Club and agree with the cultural proclamations in Grace Young's book, you will gain hopefully some perspective by reading Sandy Lam's book and if you disagree with the conceits in Joy Luck Club-type American Chinese of Chinatown of a certain intellectual background, then Sandy Lam's book will be something of a palate cleanser.

Since this book is an anthropoligical treasure, I intend to order Breath of Wok as well. Also, I will order all of Eileen Yin Fei Lo's books because she is from Sun Tak which is also not Canton proper however the people of Sun Tak have a reputation for cooking talent and I have found their accent to be charming.

Trivia: William Hung of American Idol fame is said to be of Sun Tak origin.

Good source of info...........2006-05-06

The books consist of mainly comfort food that are simple and easy to cook. In my opinion, it's a good source of info for chinese who doesn't know how to read chinese. It does not have fancy recipes like restaurant style dishes. If you're looking for homestyle chinese cooking recipes, this is the book for you. I really enjoyed some of the dishes in this book. However, there were lots of dishes that I already knew how to cook(and I don't really know how to cook that well either). I bought this book for the dessert recipes like peanut soup, sesame balls, sesame soup....

If also has a good various of chinese herbal soup recipes. I've been wanting to make chinese wine soup and pickled Pig's feet for so long and wasn't able to locate the recipe anywhere. I'm glad I found this book.

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