Why We Drive: The Past, Present, and Fut...

I received this book as part of the current Humble Bundle that is going on as of this typing.

I agree with the author with some points about why we should drive less like the pollution concerns and the downgrade in community participation. I live in a suburban area where I have to drive out a lot to go shopping and eating out to name a few things. Unfortunately, I don't live nearby where my favorite locally-owned places are at, so I can only visit them infrequently. Most of the stores and food places that are close to where I live are chain places like Mcdonalds or Walmart. Sadly because of where I live, most of my money doesn't go to my local stores, which means the number of unique places to visit will eventually decrease.

The book is a quick read and does a well-done job on explaining the basics to the reader like the history of highways and the formation of the Department of Transportation. When it came to the arguments for depending less on cars, I thought they're too simplistic and presented an extremely black and white view on cars versus bicycles. I wish to stop being dependent on cars, but unfortunately, circumstances prevent me from ceasing. I also appreciate the guide for promoting car-free life and public transportation. However, many people would find it next to impossible to do. As much as I would like to do those activities, it won't work where I live. I live in an extremely conservative suburban area where many of my neighbors refuse supporting things like funding public transportation. I wish the guide shows how to respectfully talk about these issues to someone who is opposed to the ideas mentioned in the book. If I quote the text the way it is from the book, many people in my area will not appreciate the author calling or associating them all sorts of negative terms. 

The electronic version I have of the book has a weird layout like some sentences being more massive than the other lines. Also, I had difficulty reading some sentences due to the color of the words being lighter than the other words. I'm not sure if I'm the only one who has this problem, but I found this to be a minor nitpick. While it was annoying at times, it was at least readable unlike the times I tried reading manga on my Sony Reader.

As a beginner guide for automobile and public transportation issues, this is perfect. But veteran activists would not find anything new or ground-breaking in this small booklet.  

So here's a great idea: Take an archive of old photos of Bath then try to replicate them as accurately as possible to illustrate the changes and similarities between then and now. But "now" has become "then" too since we are talking about a project undertaken in '86-87. This actually adds to the charm as it is now a historical record twice over; we need an update - even a big project that takes images from every decade to show the slow evolution of the city.

The research about each image and what has changed in the intervening time is excellent and interesting - this is a fab little book.

On the worst day of Stuart Wilson’s life he has a chance encounter with a stranger on a street corner. He finds himself inexplicably drawn from the second their eyes connected. Over the following decade he has never forgotten the brief encounter, or the eyes that have haunted his dreams.

Finding his life has stalled, though successful and financially independent, Stuart feels his life is sadly lacking that one thing everyone wants, love. Making a decision to change, Stuart uproots himself from his life. On the recommendation of a friend he moves to a small island in the Irish Sea, where Stuart’s life takes several unexpected turns and twists when he offers to help his new boss.

Joe King has it all, or so it appeared, until he made a wrong choice which has left him reeling both emotionally and physically. Devastated by the turn of events he seeks refuge with his friend hoping to find some peace and quiet to lick his wounds. What he finds is an unexpected connection to his past that he struggles to accept. The present situation is hindered by a past he wants to escape that will not let go.

Will they find the true happiness Stuart believes can be theirs? Or will the threat from Joe’s past take away what Joe is only starting to realise could be his future, Stuart.

Guardian cats walk this earth, there to protect—if you are fortunate enough to be blessed by the fates. Princess is one such cat. Having found herself in trouble for breaking the rules, Princess believes that being paired with Stuart Wilson as his guardian is her penance. Unbeknown to her that is not the case.
Things turn ugly when Princess steps in to protect Stuart putting her own life at risk causing her new arch enemy Maximillian, an ancient guardian cat to make a decision that has far reaching consequences for them both. Will she accept or fight the changes, only time will tell.

Warning
The content of some of this book is sexually graphic, with the use of explicit language and adult situations involving two/three males. It is only intended for mature adults. There are also some potential triggers of violence and partner abuse.

TITLE:  The Attacking Ocean

AUTHOR:  Brian Fagan

DATE PUBLISHED:  2013

FORMAT:  ebook

ISBN-13:  9781608196951

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In this book, Brian Fagan takes a look at the changing sea levels over the entire span of human civilization, from the end of the Ice Age to our current levels.  He also takes a look at the complex relationship between the growing human population and the oceans along which we live.  

Fagan provides a variety of case examples over a variety of ages all over the globe that show how rising ocean levels are as ancient as the Earth and that humans have usually adapted to the changing sea levels.  There is also some discussion on how the Netherlands and a few other countries have dealt with reclaiming or at least keeping the ocean at bay; and how feasible (politically and financially) these options are for poorer countries.   Fagan also briefly discusses the deleterious effect that the destruction of coastal estuaries, mangroves, barrier islands and wetlands, as well as excessive ground water pumping, has on mitigating the effects of storm surges, hurricanes, tsunamis and floods etc.  Fagan also provides a brief explanation why rising sea levels are important, for example: in terms of loss of agricultural land and increased salinity in ground water resulting in less food production;   loss of living land resulting in large migrations to other places that don’t want or can’t afford an excessive influx of people; the destruction of coastal cities/villages; and large financial expenditure to rebuild damaged infrastructure or flood barriers etc.

The book is fairly interesting and well written, but the various examples tend to have a lot of similarities, probably made unavoidable by the nature of the subject.  One interesting feature of this book is the second table of contents which arranges chapters in terms of regions rather than chronologically, providing an alternative reading order.  Maps of the different regions are provided but these don’t show up very well in the ebook.

I have a thing for old barns and feed mills.. They are just beautiful to me. I love when my husband and I take trips and we see them in passing, I always try to snap pictures of them. This book is just filled with over 240 pictures of feed mills. The pictures are of the outsides and some David Hanks was able to go inside of and take pictures. There are also some historical pictures of some of the feed mills during their early years and a comparison against the pictures he took for the book. I also loved that not only were their pictures but there was also explanations of the feed mill industry and machinery. I also love how most of the pictures are in black and white. It really just adds to the beauty and the historical significance.  I was given a e-copy of this book but will be buying the hard copy as well. 

I received this book from the Author or Publisher via Netgalley.com to read and review.