Books about Gessner from Amazon.com

An irreverent, absorbing, and insightful tale of one man's adventures following the great 7,000-mile osprey migration across two continents

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David Gessner has long been fascinated by ospreys, graceful raptors with wingspans of up to six feet, renowned the world over for their swashbuckling dives into the ocean. One year, inspired by their annual trip south that crosses numerous borders, Gessner picks up and follows them. With early mornings fueled by strong Cuban coffee, evenings passed sampling local beers, and days spent alongside a cast of international characters in cars, ferries, planes, or on foot, Gessner discovers the beauty of impulsively following what you love.

"An engaging, lyrical guide to osprey migration, Cuba, and a common humanity."
—Orion Magazine

"Gessner's travels are filled with small delights. He has a great gift for conveying reverence without sanctimony, and even at his most sardonic and self-deprecating, his sense of wonder at the osprey never falters. As he stands on a rock above Cuba's Sierra Maestra, watching ospreys rocket past, we wish we could be up there beside him, binoculars in one hand, a cold beer in the other."
—George Black, OnEarth

"A grand and cheering journey on the wings of one of nature's most sociable predators."
—Carl Hiassen, author of Nature Girl

"From the tidal marshes of Cape Cod to jungle lakes in Venezuela, David Gessner lets nothing—not language barriers, not empty pockets, not steely-eyed Cuban bureaucrats or American embargoes—stop him from following the migration of the osprey. Just reckless enough to be lucky, Gessner wins over everyone he meets. Soaring with Fidel has wings."
—Scott Weidensaul, author of Living on the Wind

"Because of its robust passion and focus, Soaring with Fidel would have probably been a favorite of Teddy Roosevelt's. It's Gessner's finest book, unpredictable in the best way, and funny, too; an adventure book and much more—a book of contact, written by a writer who quickly becomes an audible and visible presence. Soaring with Fidel demonstrates that you can 'pick up one thing and find the rest of the world hitched to it.' If you've experienced a passion that you failed to follow—or that you did follow—then this is your book."
—Clyde Edgerton, author of Solo

"Exhilarating, hilarious, tender, this is David Gessner at his best. Call it whatever you want—osprey lust, wanderlust, migratory unrest—but when Gessner decides to follow the birds he loves from Cape Cod to Cuba to Venezuela and back north, over thousands of miles of mountain, swamp, and sea, we all benefit."
—James Campbell, author of The Final Frontiersman

"Equal doses of Jack Kerouac and Roger Tory Peterson promise to enshrine Soaring with Fidel in the pantheon of great travel writing and natural history."
—Keith L. Bildstein, author of Migrating Raptors of the World

"Gessner seldom sets out deliberately to be funny, as Bill Bryson does, but his deadpan, self-deprecating humor ("I had vast experience in not seeing birds") makes him an ideal traveling companion and guide. Soaring With Fidel lets you hover for a while in the thermals of fine language, seeing the same old world from a fresh and invigorating altitude."
—Wilmington (NC) Morning Star News

"David Gessner, author of Soaring With Fidel, said, 'There will be a huge hole in the Cape literary community. I have done a brunch for every one of my books and had planned on doing them for each future book. Each time Jack and Bess made it a personal celebration. It was a great way to interact with Cape people, and Cabbages and Kings will be deeply missed.'"
—Shelf Awareness

"This probing investigation of the migratory flight of the osprey embraced several unexpectedly, exciting adventures . . . I found Gessner's book a most interesting read."
—NH Union Leader

"He gives an occasional nod to Henry David Thoreau, perhaps to assure us that, yep, he's read the masters, but his style—well, imagine Hunter Tompson gone birding, pen in hand."
—Hartford Courant

"As Gessner pursues [the ospreys] down the Eastern Seaboard and even into Cuba with a BBC documentary team at his heels, a lively tale of fish-eating raptors, broken embargoes and a nail-biting race to the finish line ensues . . . Gessner finds his Mecca not in the thrilling launch or triumphant end of his own 7,000-mile migration, but in the living done in between."
—Jennifer Winger, Nature Conservancy Magazine

"An interesting and complex book . . . In a surprisingly short amount of time, David Gessner has evolved into one of our most accomplished and singular writers about nature. While many authors treat their experiences in nature with a hushed earnestness and a suspect neatness, Gessner writes about the messy humanness of being outside."
—Mark Lynch, Bird Observer.
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David Gessner had always known of John Hay. A nature writing legend, Hay was a hero to the younger writer. But it wasn't until Gessner returned to his childhood home on Cape Cod that he befriended the older man. At first, Gessner thought he might write Hay's biography. But that idea gradually changed as the two talked and walked through the fifty acres surrounding Hay's house on Dry Hill. The book that resulted is a dramatic record of what the younger man learned from his elder.

The Prophet of Dry Hill is the compelling story of two men and the year they spent together. But more than a book about friendship, it's a lyrical primer on the importance of living a life connected to the wild. John Hay has lived deeply on one piece of land for sixty years. As a consequence, he has much to tell Gessner—and us—about the importance of creating a strong relationship with the land we live on. His words speak to our forgotten need for space and for reaching beyond ourselves to the world outside. Seeing is the great discipline that nature teaches, Hay proclaims. Nature, not psychology, is the path to our true selves.

In our split-second world, a life like John Hay's—rooted, connected to nature—provides a radical counterpoint to our technology-filled indoor existences. Gessner learned much from this man on the hill. We too will be challenged and changed..
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For six luminous months–an entire nesting season–David Gessner immersed himself in the lives of the magnificent osprey’s that had returned to his seagirt corner of Cape Cod. In this marvelous book–part memoir, part paean to a once-endangered species, part natural history of the Cape–Gessner recounts the many discoveries he made in the course of that magical season.

Hailed by Roger Tory Peterson as the symbol of the New England coast, the osprey all but vanished during the 1950s and ‘60s because of the ravages of DDT. But now these breathtaking birds are returning. Writing with passion, humor, and a reverence for the natural world, Gessner interweaves the stories of the nesting osprey pairs he observed with the narrative of his own readjustment to life on a windblown, beautiful, and increasingly developed landscape he had known as a child. For Gessner, spotting an osprey dive for fish at forty miles an hour becomes a lesson in patience and focus, watching the birds build their nests illustrates the vital task of making a home, and following the chicks’ attempts to fly shows him the value of letting go.

A story of recovery and connection, Return of the Osprey celebrates one of nature’s most remarkable creatures as well as our own limitless capacity for wonder..
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A young writer confronts life, death, and literary ancestors amid the stark beauty of Cape Cod..
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David Gessner's Return of the Osprey is "among the classics of American nature writing," said the Boston Globe. So why does this critically acclaimed nature writer now declare himself to be "sick of nature"?

In diverse, diverting, and frequently hilarious essays, Gessner wrestles with father figures both biological and literary, reflects on the pleasures and absurdities of the writing life, explores the significance of place for both his work and his sense of well-being, and rails at the confines of the nature genre even as he continues to find fresh inspiration for his writing in the natural world. In the end, he learns to embrace--or at least tolerate--the label he once rejected.

Whether kicking at the limits of his category or explaining why he was fired from his job as a bookstore clerk; whether recalling his youthful obsession with Ultimate Frisbee or recounting an adventure in the jungles of Belize; whether lampooning his own writerly envy of Sebastian Junger or raging at the over-development of Cape Cod or searching for solace in nature in the wake of September 11, Gessner ranges from the personal to the natural in lyrical reflections on writing, self, and society.

In a powerful concluding essay, Gessner moves from the arrival of coyotes in the suburbs of Boston to the birth of his first child in an extended meditation on his characteristic themes of wildness, place, and creativity..
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Revisit the 1950s, when poodles were all the rage and ceramic artists were busy experimenting with a technique suited to portraying these canines More than 400 photos explore the use of spaghetti ceramic art from the 1930s through the 1960s, primarily as used on poodles, but with special sections on other animals, holiday figurines, and other applications. Market values are provided for these increasingly rare and fragile collectibles. .
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Since most explanations are dominated by North American and European legal scholarship and practice, a second concern of this book is to open up the discussion to competing explanatory frameworks. Specifically, it develops the notion that global legal convergence may not be the immediate, inevitable result of increased global economic interaction. Rather, less formal mechanisms for achieving normative understanding and predictability in business dealings may also flourish..
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