under the great northern stars
591735
Charlie has a fantastic baritone that carries the listener far away...like to under the great northern stars, and we never tire of listening to his recordings.
1306233
I give Under Vanishing Skies a 5 star review!  The descriptions the author gives allowed me to picture the story, the characters and the scenes.  I read the book quickly because I kept wanting to know what was going to happen next.  I look forward to the next book, maybe it will follow William and Aron in their new home.
441966
I picked these stars b/c I would get several different sizes of stars.  They worked out great and glow super bright into the night.  There are four different sizes included. A couple of very large and lots of small stars.
2541945
This is another volume in Isaac Asimov's series on the universe, primarily directed toward elementary school children. This book presents beautiful pictures and discussions of galaxies and galaxy groups. There is a 1995  updating of this 1988 book: It is titled "Our Vast Home: The Milky Way  and Other Galaxies" Children interested in the stars will love it.
3923176
My three year old daughter loves books--especially books about space and planets.  That's one of the reasons I backed this book on Kickstarter.  When I got the book, my daughter and I immediately flipped through the pages and...WOW.  The illustrations are beautiful composite images of the stylized Annabelle and Aiden overlain in pictures of fields of both stars and grass.  I love that this book exposes an inkling of how vast and how amazing is the cosmos while laying the framework that was instilled in me by one of my own childhood heroes, "We are made of starstuff."
4763439
Huskins did a great job with this post-apocalyptic world, the whole book occurring in space. It's a great underdog story. He used a symbolism/parallel with chess which was a lot of fun and led to a very satisfying plot, climax, and resolution. Also, he somehow was able to soundtrack the book, by including songs here and there which were very appropriate in their lyrics and tone (if you know the songs, you start the playback in your head as you read). Reading a great book like this, which is also little-known, makes me think: I keep trying to find good classics (which by definition means they're also popular), but every once in a while I stumble upon a great work that is definitely not in the canon of classics, but it blows me away with its unique greatness. Really fun.
751014
Stars of the North is an excellent follow-up to The Sugar House. Choice and consequence is a recurring theme of the stories within, as Sasha often finds herself paying the price for her own actions (or the actions of others); it feels like a natural evolution of the character and the previous novel, not merely more of the same. If you enjoyed The Sugar House, or you're a fan of low fantasy in general, don't miss this volume. (If you're unfamiliar with Sasha Witchblood, you're better off starting with The Sugar House.)
447936
This book is great for all stargazers. Geared more for kids, with it's cute illustrations and brief history recaps, but anyone will enjoy taking the book out into the dark and see the glow in the dark pages match the night sky. Easy to use. Highly recommend
4633787
This is an account of a voyage in search of the mythical land of THule, which the Ancient GReeks wrote about, a land beyond the edge of the maps, in the far North. Thule was remote, very cold, beautiful, and completely strange. No one knew where it was, but explorers set off for thousands of years, trying to discover it. Eventually it became a symbol of the north and of distant lands, becoming particularly important during the great race for the North POle.

Kavenna does a lot of hard-core travel in this book, including hitching up the coast of Greenland. She goes to Scotland, Iceland, Norway, Greenland, Spitzbergen. I really enjoyed her account of the US Air base in GReenland - that could have been a standard piece of anti-AMerican ranting, but she manages to show what a weird posting it must be for the soldiers without mocking them. As a writer, Kavenna is very unegotistical - she is much more interested in the people she meets and describing the places around her than in her own personal quest and her own biographical details. The subjects she is describing are really interesting and there's a lot of fascinating geographical and historical information about the countries she visits - some of them remote, like GReenland, and not very easy to visit. I have not visited the places she goes to, except Scotland, and I really wanted to travel there by the end, especially to Norway, which Kavenna writes about with particular enthusiasm. I enjoyed her love of the North, whcih comes through very clearly - she communicates that love without becoming sentimental. I also liked the fact she was able to derive wry comedy from some of the things that happened to her - not everything is incredibly momentous and amazing, sometimes she actually describes the experience of following a lead that doesn't really go anywhere. This trial and error approach might annoy you if you're extremely impatient, but if you're \prepared to get into the gentle rhythm of the book and enjoy the quality of the writing then you really appreciate what she's doing. I thought it was very enjoyable indeed, and was only sorry at the end that Kavenna didn't travel into Siberia which, though not one of the lands of Thule, might have been am interesting trip!
4730909
Being a National Parks enthusiast, biologist, astronomy buff, and teacher, I would have picked up this book anyway.  Now that I've read a majority of the pages, a copy of this book is now a new and permanent edition to my home.

What initially hooked me where Dr Nordgren's photos.  Although the book doesn't do justice by some, most are stunning, and capture a unique perspective of the night sky. As I read whatever chapter I desired, I found myself caught up in remarkable aspects of astronomy, native history, legends and quotes, and the author's personal experience all interwoven to highlight the awe of nature, and our links to the Universe through the eyes of the human spirit.

At one point, naively, I opened the book to Chapter Two: Black Hole Sun.  Black holes are cool, I think, and I'm ready for a lesson like black holes, white dwarfs, neutron stars, etc.  I read about Moon and Sun eclipses, a special one over Grand Teton, Moon migration, its alignment with the Sun and the Earth, personal experience of the author in the National Park with his hand-made sextant at scenic spots a, how a location is related to Kepler and his understanding of the orbits, the advance of worldly  astro-scientific  knowledge  despite religious resistances, and once again back to the authors personal experience whereby his contemplation of the universe is disrupted by the end of  a solar eclipse. Somewhere I read a comment by a person saying, "I'll read this book tonight".  My effort to describe a chapter is but a meager attempt to describe the density and richness found in chapters, what experiences and basic  insights are within reach, if not already, of the everyday person, and how interdisciplinary each chapter is.  Not to mention the excellent photos, diagrams, and supplemental material that is within each chapter if not throughout the book.

Not to be read overnight, I think, but chapters are to be savored.  This reader appreciates the dialogue, the transitions and the care in a well-knit presentation of the universe represented in the National Park Night Skies.
3340929
I read all three of the Alaskan Skies Series in a matter of days.  The books portray a strong woman who knows what she wants but yet in discovering her strengths also discovers her weaknesses. The characters in these books are described in detail along with the Alaskan wilderness of the time.  It is a wilderness that is foreign to me but the reading of the series was fabulous. I admire the strength of the characters and what they faced in day to day living. The author paints a beautiful picture of the Alaskan scenery.  I found myself lost in the scenery and the lives of the characters. I would highly recommend the entire series.
2506956
Fill your imagination. Understand the history and the rich meanings of the stories written in the stars. When I look into the starry heavens I see the majesty of the cellestial dome and the starry night is full of marvels. For 1000's and 10 of 1000's of years men have wondered of the stars and Edith Hamilton as put them together in a beautiful easily read and fascinating book. Impress your wife and your friends, inspire your children to wonder and dream. Read and grow. I highly recommend any of Efith Hamilton's books but specifically this one.
1821594
For me as a beginner not having touched the subject for at least 27 years, this book was a very good introduction to the night sky. I was however surprised, that the included winter sky chart did not show the constellation where Mars can be found in January 2017. It is tabulated that the planet can be seen in the constellation Aquarius. When I checked the constellation chart for winter, I could not see any drawing of Aquarius nor a label for the constellation. If I would not have know that the Pisces are close to the Aquarius, I would not have found the place in the sky where Mars can be found. The Aquarius constellation is not named specifically in the winter charts, the Pisces are not drawn but labeled. The fact that not all constellations are depicted or labelled on the charts gives a better overview and a better introduction to the beginner avoiding too much confusion with too many constellations.
Besides the mentioned little inconsistency the book is really thought through and follows a clear line. Thank you for bringing all this knowledge in such a compiled form to the public!
1139125
A dramatic and gripping mystery, with loads of interesting information about the Arctic.

Whilst on a luxury cruise on the lookout for polar bears Tom's body is spotted, having been brought to the surface by a dramatic ice calving event.  How did Tom die?  What does Tom's friend Sean know that he is keeping quiet about?  There is a lot of mystery and intrigue to keep the reader interested in this thriller.  At the beginning of each chapter is a wonderful illustration, and at the end of each chapter is an excerpt from explorers, and others, who have written about the Arctic - absolutely fascinating.  A bibliography is included.

The spectacle of the ice is described in such a way that you feel you have seen it, and as you are drawn into this great story, the facts and storyline about the Arctic add extra depth to an already gripping book.  This is a 5* read for me, and I am now wondering how feasible a visit to the Arctic would be.

This is Laline Paull's second book and it is completely different to her first, The Bees, which I also rated 5*s.  The common theme is that this is an author who researches her topic thoroughly, and writes a great story, with lots of interesting details that will have you talking about her books for a long time after you have finished them.
4412014
This is another sumptuously produced book from the National Geographic Society. The text is a little "mickey-mouse" by my standards, but the photos, many from NASA planetary missions are Hubble, are beautifully reproduced and well worth the price of admission.
The book is divided into sections: inner planets, outer planets, and deep space, with text and photos (in that order) for each.
Nicely done and well worth browsing.
2204369
This is a very comprehensive study of the Great Northern. A good read, with several hundred black and white photo's... and a lot of color one too, that covers the history of the Great Northern from the first set of rails laid down, to the merger into Burlington Northern. This book is a MUST for any GN fan!
1304772
With Wagnerian starkness photographer Camille Seaman portrays the grandeur of natures ice sculptures in the polar regions.  Over a period of ten years this intrepid recorder has captured the massive silhouettes of the  glaciers and their birthing icebergs in the arctic and in the antarctic.  Each of the awesome photographs of the polar regions impresses the eye, but the filmed evidence of the erosive melting of these landmark features emphasizes the damage incurred by global heating.  Not only is the pristine terrain dissolving but with its loss the penguins, skua, polar bears, terns, and too many other species  are impacted.  Each illustration is affectingly described noting the mood of the scene and the past explorers of the regions.  Interspersed among these photographic treasures are short biographical sketches of this quixotic determined  researcher.  Child of an African American-Italian mother and a native American Indian Shinnecock father, the author developed her own unique set of values.  She elegantly relays the message that change is part of nature but that our fragile planet  is suffering and its biotic and abiotic forms should be revered and regarded as an interconnected ecosystem.  Both the photos and text impress the reader with their lyrical beauty.