Books about Redwood from Amazon.com

Hidden away in foggy, uncharted rain forest valleys in Northern California are the largest and tallest organisms the world has ever sustained–the coast redwood trees,Sequoia sempervirens. Ninety-six percent of the ancient redwood forests have been destroyed by logging, but the untouched fragments that remain are among the great wonders of nature. The biggest redwoods have trunks up to thirty feet wide and can rise more than thirty-five stories above the ground, forming cathedral-like structures in the air. Until recently, redwoods were thought to be virtually impossible to ascend, and the canopy at the tops of these majestic trees was undiscovered. In The Wild Trees, Richard Preston unfolds the spellbinding story of Steve Sillett, Marie Antoine, and the tiny group of daring botanists and amateur naturalists that found a lost world above California, a world that is dangerous, hauntingly beautiful, and unexplored.

The canopyvoyagers are young–just college students when they start their quest–and they share a passion for these trees, persevering in spite of sometimes crushing personal obstacles and failings. They take big risks, they ignore common wisdom (such as the notion that there’s nothing left to discover in North America), and they even make love in hammocks stretched between branches three hundred feet in the air.

The deep redwood canopy is a vertical Eden filled with mosses, lichens, spotted salamanders, hanging gardens of ferns, and thickets of huckleberry bushes, all growing out of massive trunk systems that have fused and formed flying buttresses, sometimes carved into blackened chambers, hollowed out by fire, called “fire caves.” Thick layers of soil sitting on limbs harbor animal and plant life that is unknown to science. Humans move through the deep canopy suspended on ropes, far out of sight of the ground, knowing that the price of a small mistake can be a plunge to one’s death.

Preston’s account of this amazing world, by turns terrifying, moving, and fascinating, is an adventure story told in novelistic detail by a master of nonfiction narrative. The author shares his protagonists’ passion for tall trees, and he mastered the techniques of tall-tree climbing to tell the story in The Wild Trees–the story of the fate of the world’s most splendid forests and of the imperiled biosphere itself.


From the Hardcover edition..
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Taunton's Code Check series is widely recognized as the most reliable and up-to-date code reference available. Now, the thousands of builders, remodelers, and inspectors who have relied on their Code Checks for accuracy and thoroughness will delight in this handsome new edition that combines all the codes into a single, lay-flat volume. This comprehensive manual spotlights the safety issues behind all the codes. Up-to-date and featuring more than 400 illustrations, Code Check Complete is cross-referenced to the International Residential Code, Uniform Plumbing Code, Uniform Mechanical Code, and the National Electrical Code. It is the only resource any builder or inspector needs to be completely up to code..
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In the prologue to his latest novel, Nicholas Sparks makes the rather presumptuous pledge "first you will smile, and then you will cry," but sure enough, he delivers the goods. With his calculated ability to throw your heart around like a yo-yo (try out his earlier Message in the Bottle or The Notebook if you really want to stick it to yourself), Sparks pulls us back to the perfect innocence of a first love.

In 1958 Landon Carter is a shallow but well-meaning teenager who spends most of his time hanging out with his friends and trying hard to ignore the impending responsibilities of adulthood. Then Landon gets roped into acting the lead in the Christmas play opposite the most renowned goody two-shoes in town: Jamie Sullivan. Against his best intentions and the taunts of his buddies, Landon finds himself falling for Jamie and learning some central lessons in life.

Like John Irving's A Prayer for Owen Meany, Sparks maintains a delicate and rarely seen balance of humor and sentiment. While the plot may not be the most original, this boy-makes-good tearjerker will certainly reel in the fans. Look for a movie starring beautiful people or, better yet, snuggle under the covers with your tissues nearby and let your inner sap run wild. --Nancy R.E. O'Brien.
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Oprah Book Club® Selection, December 1999: In A Map of the World, appearance overwhelms reality and communal hysteria threatens common sense. Howard and Alice Goodheart, the couple at the center of Jane Hamilton's 1994 novel, have labored mightily to create a pastoral paradise in a Wisconsin subdivision. Their 400-acre dairy farm is the last in Prairie Center, and they're working flat out to raise their two young girls in a traditionally bucolic manner. Yet paradoxically, they strike their neighbors as unacceptably modern, and have been treated as interlopers since the day of their arrival. Howard, in love with his vocation, chooses not to believe that they've been frozen out. But Alice, flinty and quick to judge, finds things harder. And her job as school nurse doesn't work wonders for her reputation either. Happily, there's one exception to this epidemic of unfriendliness: their closest neighbors. Theresa and Dan, who also have two young daughters, function as a virtual lifeline for the embattled family.

But in June 1990, whatever idyll the Goodhearts have worked for comes to a permanent end. On a beautiful morning--marred by her 5-year-old's tantrum but still recuperable--Alice looks forward to taking her children and Theresa's youngest for a swim. Distracted for several minutes, she has no idea that the 2-year-old is no longer in the house:

Lizzy had run to the pond and splashed in. It had felt good on her hot feet and she kept running and then she was pedaling and pedaling. She tried to grab hold of the water, pawing for the metal bar, a ladder rung, her mother, but there was nothing. She clutched and flailed.... She sank. The trout that Howard had stocked in the pond swam along through the dark water. They noticed Lizzy out of the corner of their eyes. They had inherited the knowledge of that look, and they knew it by heart.

This is only the first of Alice's body blows. Next, she's questioned about one of her students, a memorably bad seed. On the verge of collapse, she cries out, "I hurt everybody!"--which will later be construed as a confession. Charged with sexual abuse and unable to come up with $100,000 in bail, she is forced to await trial in jail.

Narrated first by Alice, then Howard, and then Alice again, A Map of the World moves from intimate domesticity to courtroom drama with grace and subtlety. Hamilton wrote her book when accusations of abuse in schools and day care were peaking, yet this is not a modish work or an "issue novel" but a lasting creation of several complex lives. At one point, fed up with civil mechanisms, Alice tells her lawyer: "'Let Oprah be the judge.... Let Robbie and me, Mrs. Mackessy, Howard, Theresa, Dan, Mrs. Glevitch--let all of us come before Oprah. Let the studio audience decide. They're nice suburban woman, many of them, dressed for a lark. They have common sense and speak their minds.'" Apparently La Winfrey was listening, since she chose this beautifully observed novel for her book club. --Kerry Fried.
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A young woman named Julia Butterfly Hill climbed a 200-foot redwood in December 1997. She didn't come down for 738 days. The tree, dubbed Luna, grows in the coastal hills of Northern California, on land owned by the Maxxam Corporation. In 1985 Maxxam acquired the previous landlord, Pacific Lumber, then proceeded to "liquidate its assets" to pay off the debt--in other words, clear-cut the old-growth redwood forest. Environmentalists charged the company with harvesting timber at a nonsustainable level. Earth First! in particular devised tree sit-ins to protest the logging. When Hill arrived on the scene after traveling cross-country on a whim, loggers were preparing to clear-cut the hillside where Luna had been growing for 1,000 years. The Legacy of Luna, part diary, part treatise, and part New Age spiritual journey, is the story of Julia Butterfly Hill's two-year arboreal odyssey.

The daughter of an itinerant preacher, Hill writes of her chance meeting with California logging protesters, the blur of events leading to her ascent of the redwood, and the daily privations of living in the tallest treehouse on earth. She weathers everything from El Niño rainstorms to shock-jock media storms. More frightening are her interactions with the loggers below, who escalate the game of chicken by cutting dangerously close to Luna (eventually succeeding at killing another activist with such tactics). "'You'd better get ready for a bad hair day!'" one logger shouts up, grimly anticipating the illegal helicopter hazing she would soon get. Celebrity environmentalists like Joan Baez and Woody Harrelson stop by, too. The notoriety has, on balance, been good to Hill and her cause. George magazine named her one of the "Ten Most Fascinating People in Politics," Good Housekeeping readers nominated her one of the "Most Admired Women" in 1998, and she was featured in People's "Most Intriguing People of the Year" issue. As a result, more Americans know about controversial forestry practices; it remains to be seen, however, whether public outrage is enough to save California's unprotected and ever-shrinking groves of redwoods. While an agreement allowed Hill to descend from her aerie and Luna to escape the saw, most of the surrounding old-growth forest in the region has been felled or will fall shortly. Still, Hill is optimistic: "Luna is only one tree. We will save her, but we will lose others. The more we stand up and demand change, though, the more things will improve." --Langdon Cook.
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Code Check: An Illustrated Guide to Building a Safe House, 5th Edition, emphasizes life-safety principles underlying building codes. Using clear language and helpful diagrams, this edition reflects the most up-to-date changes in the 2006 International Residential Code. It is also cross-referenced to the Uniform Plumbing Code, Uniform Mechanical Code and the National Electrical Code. The spiral-bound "Code Check" series is endorsed by the International Conference of Building Officials (ICBO). With durable laminated pages, it is designed to be used on-site for quick reference..
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Code Check Plumbing outlines the principles behind the various accepted plumbing codes and provides information on the code requirements for all types of plumbing installations, including all supply, drain, and vent systems. It is cross-referenced to the current International Residential Code, Uniform Plumbing Code, and Uniform Mechanical Code.

The Code Check Series is one of Taunton's most successful book lines. Spiral bound, with durable laminated pages, the books in this series are designed to be used on-site for quick reference, ensuring that all jobs meet the highest safety standards while drastically reducing code violation call-backs. The Code Check Series is endorsed by the International Conference of Building Officials (ICBO)..
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Code Check Electrical, 4th edition, outlines the principles behind the various accepted electrical codes and provides information on the code requirements for all types of residential electrical systems. It is cross-referenced to the most recent National Electrical Code.

The Code Check series is one of Taunton’s most successful book lines, selling over 400,000 copies. Spiral bound, with durable laminated pages, the books in this series are designed to be used on-site for quick reference, ensuring that all jobs meet the highest safety standards while drastically reducing code violation call-backs. The Code Check series is endorsed by the International Conference of Building Officials (ICBO)
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A complete reference to current national building codes, in a handy spiral-bound format.
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When the redwoods are what you came for: a guide to the best short hikes in five renowned northern California parks.

*More than 60 hikes-from half-hour to half-day-with camping and park facilities information *Handy quick-guide for selecting hikes by difficulty, mileage and features (flowers, water, views, etc.) *Little-known gems as well as world-famous Founders Grove and Fern Canyon trails

A stand of towering old-growth redwoods, where sounds are dampened to near silence, where only the dimmest rays of light penetrate...or are you looking for redwood hikes with beaches? Redwood hikes known for wildflowers? You'll find those, too, in this guide devoted to the best hikes in Redwood National Park and the state parks-Prairie Creek, Del Norte Coast, Jedediah Smith and Humbolt Redwoods State Parks.

Most trailheads are adjacent to paved roads, accessible within five miles of Pacific Coast Highway 101. This guide includes many short hikes off Avenue of the Giants and Newton B. Drury Scenic Parkway. It will take you to the Boy Scout Tree and to the Tallest Tree, a 367.8-foot skyscraper. But it also includes trails for solitude even at the height of the tourist season. Background information on redwood biology rounds out your experience..
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