The Elusive Eden


Book Description

California is a region of rich geographic and human diversity. The Elusive Eden charts the historical development of California, beginning with landscape and climate and the development of Native cultures, and continues through the election of Governor Gavin Newsom. It portrays a land of remarkable richness and complexity, settled by waves of people with diverse cultures from around the world. Now in its fifth edition, this up-to-date text provides an authoritative, original, and balanced survey of California history incorporating the latest scholarship. Coverage includes new material on political upheavals, the global banking crisis, changes in education and the economy, and California's shifting demographic profile. This edition of The Elusive Eden features expanded coverage of gender, class, race, and ethnicity, giving voice to the diverse individuals and groups who have shaped California. With its continued emphasis on geography and environment, the text also gives attention to regional issues, moving from the metropolitan areas to the state's rural and desert areas. Lively and readable, The Elusive Eden is organized in ten parts. Each chronological section begins with an in-depth narrative chapter that spotlights an individual or group at a critical moment of historical change, bringing California history to life.




The Elusive Eden


Book Description




Invented Eden


Book Description

In 1971, a band of 26 "Stone Age" rain-forest dwellers was discovered living in total isolation by a Philippine government minister with a dubious background. Or were they Tasaday farmers who had been coerced? In answering that question, Hemley has written a gripping and ultimately tragic tale of innocence found, lost, and found again.




Sleeping in Eden


Book Description

The lives of a middle-aged doctor and a love-struck young woman intersect across time in Sleeping in Eden, Nicole Baart's haunting novel about love, jealousy, and the boundaries between loyalty and truth. She knew what he wrote . . . One little word that made her feel both cheated and beloved. One word that changed everything. MINE. On a chilly morning in the Northwest Iowa town of Blackhawk, Dr. Lucas Hudson is filling in for the vacationing coroner on a seemingly open-and-shut suicide case. His own life is crumbling around him, but when he unearths the body of a woman buried in the barn floor beneath the hanging corpse, he realizes this terrible discovery could change everything. . . . Years before Lucas ever set foot in Blackhawk, Meg Painter met Dylan Reid. It was the summer before high school and the two quickly became inseparable. Although Meg's older neighbor, Jess, was the safe choice, she couldn't let go of Dylan no matter how hard she tried. Caught in a web of jealousy and deceit that spiraled out of control, Meg's choices in the past ultimately collide with Lucas's discovery in the present, weaving together a taut story of unspoken secrets and the raw, complex passions of innocence lost.




Taming the Elephant


Book Description

The final of four volumes in the 'California History Sesquicentennial Series', this text compiles original essays which treat the consequential role of post-Gold Rush California government, politics and law in the building of a dynamic state with lasting impact to the present day.




The Epic of Eden


Book Description

Does your knowledge of the Old Testament feel like a grab bag of people, books, events and ideas? Sandra Richter gives an overview of the Old Testament, organizing our disorderly knowledge of the Old Testament people, facts and stories into a memorable and manageable story of redemption that climaxes in the New Testament.




The Elusive Presence


Book Description

A study of the presence of God throughout biblical history.




Reflections of Eden


Book Description

Since 1971 Birute Galdikas has lived and worked in the forests of Borneo, documenting the lives of the orangutans. This text describes her groundbreaking scientific and conservation work that has been recorded in more than a dozen television documentaries




West of Eden


Book Description

West of Eden is the definitive story of Hollywood, told, in their own words, by the people on the inside: Lauren Bacall, Arthur Miller, Dennis Hopper, Frank Gehry, Ring Lardner, Joan Didion, Stephen Sondheim – all interviewed by Jean Stein, who grew up in the Forties in a fairytale mansion in the Hollywood Hills. The book takes us from the discovery of oil in the Twenties with the story of the tycoon Edward Doheny (There Will Be Blood) and traces the growth of corruption through the syndicates, the mob, and the movie studios – from the beginnings of the film industry to the end, with News Corp. and Rupert Murdoch (who bought the Stein mansion in 1985). West of Eden is about money, power, fame and terrible secrets: the doomed Hollywood of the late Fifties, early Sixties – ‘the rotten heart of paradise’. Like her last book, the best-selling Edie, this is an oral history told through brilliantly edited interviews. As this is Hollywood, it’s a book full of sex, drugs and celebrity glamour; but because it’s built from the firsthand accounts of people who were actually there, many of them writers, actors and artists, it’s also strangely claustrophobic, seductive, and completely compelling.




The Floating Boy


Book Description

Cloud Morgan floated from his fevered body, hovering near his bedroom ceiling, but the elusive Old One telepathically sent him back, promising to teach the boy to leave his body at will. Growing up in post-World War II Phoenix, Cloud enjoyed exploring out-of-body, but nightmares of impending tragic events caused him grief. Attending a nudist church eased his mind for a time. Then in college, he saw an enchanting dancer from the East in a dream so vivid he felt compelled to search for her. Two beautiful women with psychic gifts matched the image in Cloud's dream: the reluctant seer Xuan in Saigon, and in New Jersey, Terp, the brilliant scholar who could heal others yet not herself. Both women saw Cloud in visions. Both held profound power to shape his life. But which one was the enchanting dancer from the East?