The Living Great Lakes

Posted on 03 May 2017 by Jerry Dennis

If fresh water is to be treasured, the Great Lakes are the mother lode No bodies of water can compare to them One of them, Superior, is the largest lake on earth, and the five lakes together contain a fifth of the world s supply of standing fresh water Their ten thousand miles of shoreline bound eight states and a Canadian province and are longer than the entire Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the United States Their surface area of 95,000 square miles is greater than New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island combined People who have never visited them who have never seen a squall roar across Superior or the horizon stretch unbroken across Michigan or Huron have no idea how big they are They are so vast that they dominate much of the geography, climate, and history of North America In one way or another, they affect the lives of tens of millions of people The Living Great Lakes is the most complete book ever written about the history, nature, and science of these remarkable lakes at the heart of North America From the geological forces that formed them to the industrial atrocities that nearly destroyed them, to the greatest environmental success stories of our time, the lakes are portrayed in all their complexity The book, however, is much than just history It is also the story of the lakes as told by biologists, fishermen, sailors, and others whom the author grew to know while traveling with them on boats and hiking with them on beaches and islands.The book is also the story of a personal journey It is the narrative of a six week voyage through the lakes and beyond as a crewmember on a tallmasted schooner, and a memoir of a lifetime spent on and near the lakes Through storms and fog, on remote shores and city waterfronts, the author explores the five Great Lakes in all seasons and moods and discovers that they and their connecting waters including the Erie Canal, the Hudson River, and the East Coast from New York to Maine offer a surprising and bountiful view of America The result is a meditation on nature and our place in the world, a discussion and cautionary tale about the future of water resources, and a celebration of a place that is both fragile and robust, diverse, rich in history and wildlife, often misunderstood, and worthy of our attention. Best Download The Living Great Lakes [ Author ] Jerry Dennis [ Kindle ePUB or eBook ] – kino-fada.fr Jerry Dennis is simply a great story teller, and he weaves together history, ecology, and memoir into a great yarn He clearly loves the Great Lakes as much as I love Michigan, and is on a mission to impress the reader with their rich histories, power, and environmental fragility I also appreciated that his adventure writing was not bogged down by machismo I would ve likeddetail about historical and contemporary Native American groups and their interactions with the Lakes In his re tell Jerry Dennis is simply a great story teller, and he weaves together history, ecology, and memoir into a great yarn He clearly loves the Great Lakes as much as I love Michigan, and is on a mission to impress the reader with their rich histories, power, and environmental fragility I also appreciated that his adventure writing was not b...I read this for the Weque summer bookclub, and it was very fun to read this so close to Lake Michigan, about which a good portion of the book is written This book contains so many fascinating scientific and historical facts, stories, anecdotes, and wonder, it is hard to summarize it in a few sentences There were so many familiar place names among the Great Lakes explorers Champlain, Hennepin, Charlevoix a priest, as it turns out Nicolet, Joliet, Marquette I found it fascinating to read ab I read this for the Weque summer bookclub, and it was very fun to read this so close to Lake Michigan, about which a good portion of the book is written This book contains so many fascina...This book was exactly what I was hoping it would be Ever since reading Blue Highways 35 years ago, I have enjoyed books that are about journeys, and this book is about a trip on a sailboat through the Great Lakes And like the other great books of this genre, it provides a look at the places that the author visits both in this journey and in previous boating expeditions , and touches on history, ecology, biology, and even some persona philosophy Not being a boat person, the book didn t real This book was exactly what I was hoping it would be Ever since reading Blue Highways 35 years ago, I have enjoyed books that are about journeys, and this book is about a trip on a sailboat through the Great Lakes And like the other great books of this genre, it provides...A boat and a crew sailing the Great lakes from Travers city to Bar Harbor, ME with lots of storms thrown in for excitement The author throws in a a a lot of history about the the areas they are sailing through The history of this area goes back to the 1600s I especially enjoyed this part ...This hit several marks for me It is written by a journalist it is about the Great Lakes, which surround me now but were not part of my childhood and the author tells relevant stories while explaining current situations I enjoy...Gave me an increased appreciation for the Great Lakes Also, beautiful imageryI had the honor of introducing Jerry after studying his work Jerry Dennis IntroThose of us who identify as book lovers, those of us who lived inside stories throughout our childhoods we know the work of a living legend when we encounter it on the page Similarly, those of us who have built careers out of the well shaped sentence, the fully formed paragraph, the intentionally crafted essay we know what it s like to learn from a colleague whose body of work represents a deeply significant contri I had the honor of introducing Jerry after studying his work Jerry Dennis IntroThose of us who identi...This was the 2015 Kalamazoo Public Library Reading Together book I felt the title was a bit mis leading, because it feltlike history It was still a good read It did seem to divert off the main story quite a bit, and I felt that was distracting.With one exception Have you ever seen, Everybody Loves Raymond In it, he has said that when is wife talks, sometimes all he hears is blah, blah, blah Turns out, I feel that wa...It s good to be surprised by a book sometimes This wouldn t normally grab my interest but I m glad the community read program nudged me to read it Jerry Dennis seems to have spent his life interacting with the great lakes He writes engagingly about their history and biology,including environmental concerns, business shipping concerns and human interest stories Dennis spent a month crewing a tall ship from Chicago all the way through all the lakes and then down the Erie Canal to the Atlantic It s good to be surprised by a book sometimes This wouldn t normally grab my interest but I m glad the community read program nudged me to read it Jerry Dennis seems to have spent his life interacting with the great lakes He writes engagingly about their history and biology,including environmental concerns, business shipping ...While it took me a bit to really get into this book, I thoroughly enjoyed it It is rich with historical and anecdotal stories that bring the Great Lakes to life This is the Kalamazoo library s community read this year I look forw...

English
03 May 2017

Jerry Dennis