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Reviews
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
As an explainer, John McPhee is a national treasure. The longtime "New Yorker" staff writer has taken us inside the world of art museums, environmental groups, fruit markets, airship factories, basketball courts, and atomic-bomb labs the world over. Here he covers the complex geological history of California, the source of much news today. As Californians daily await the inevitable great earthquake that will send their cities tumbling down like so many matchsticks, McPhee piles fact on luminous fact, wrestling raw data into a beautifully written narrative that gainsays a sedimentologist's warning: "You can't cope with this in an organized way," he told McPhee, "because the rocks aren't organized." As always, McPhee enlarges our understanding of the strange, making it familiar--and endlessly interesting. --This text refers to the paperback edition of this title Synopsis
The final volume of a continental tetrology that tracks the author's travels along the fault lines of the earth's shifting plates discusses how a half a dozen large pieces of country have drifted from far and near to coalesce as California. 60,000 first printing. $50,000 ad/promo. Synopsis
At various times in a span of 15 years, John McPhee has made geological field trips in the company of Eldridge Moores, a tectonicist at the University of California at Davis. The result is Assembling California, a cross section in human and geologic time which reveals how large and separate pieces of country have drifted in to coalesce as California. Synopsis
At various times in the past 15 years, McPhee, accompanied by tectonicist Eldridge Moores, has made geological field trips across California. The result of their treks is a cross-section of the state in both human and geologic time, from the Sierra Nevadas to the Great Central Valley, from wine country to the fault lines. --This text refers to the paperback edition of this title
Customer Reviews
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Test book writers could take lessons from John McPhee
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Reviewer:
A reader
from San Ramon, California
October 29, 1998
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I read the series in the New Yorker. When the book published a short time later, I bought the book, read it gave it to a friend, who gave it to a friend and so forth. Bought another copy which I gave to my daughter's third grade teacher. So I am on my third copy, but found value from re-reading this book several times. I now go by quarries and road cuts wishing I could stop and get the understanding of what is happening in the geology. This is our world and McPhee does an excellent job of allowing us to understand how it works. .
--This text refers to the Paperback edition.
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Well written account of I-80 geology
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Reviewer:
reid@io.com
from Austin, TX
May 15, 1998
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John McPhee is more than a "science writer" in the sense of Sagan or Gribbin. His style is more prose than essay, making the book more like the story of California geology than "just the fasts". Mcphee has a way of drawing the reader in with him as he drives along I-80 for the heights of the Sierra-Nevada Range at the eastern edge of California to the Coastal Range on the Pacific. This work also includes some of the manmade history of the region during the gold rush as well as the geologists who have studied it in the past and the ones who are still fascinated by one of the most complex geologic regions in the world. This book is a great introduction to geology, geophysics and the wonderful writings of John McPhee.
--This text refers to the Paperback edition.
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No geology background? It's OK to read this one.
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Reviewer:
A reader
July 26, 1997
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Engagingly written with humor and common-sense analogies for the neophyte geologist and curious traveler through this earth. A bit of a stretch for the uninitiated, hungry mind, but it was well worth the time. My husband and I digested this book in read-aloud sessions during our commute to work from California's gold country to Sacramento, passing along the way, sites described by the author. It has inspired us to learn even more and I can't think of a higher compliment
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Part of an outstanding intro to geology and geologists.
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Reviewer:
A reader
January 29, 1997
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This book is the final chapter in McPhee's transect of North America along Interstate 80. The author gives a gentle introduction to the complex geology of California. But behind the geology are the geologists, and McPhee gives us insight into the people who do the geology. Assembling California is a must-read for anyone with even a vague interest in geology and geologists
--This text refers to the Paperback edition.
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