Customer Reviews

Nature As Teacher and Healer: How To Reawaken Your Connection with Nature

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I've read about a quarter of this book and already I can deeply relate personally to the author's own story of his gradual holistic connection to Nature and the Spirit of Nature. I highly recommend it. He is intelligent and an academic but he writes in a highly personal way that is easy to read and even exciting at times. I appreciate his recommendations at the end of some of the chapters as guidance to enter into similar connections as his.

Noel Browne, Director Emeritus of the United Nations Environment Programme called it "Most appropriate for a world desperately in need to reconnect with a source that is all." In 1994, The Sustainable Futures Society named this book "One of the Best Environmental Books of the Last Five Years." The University of Michigan Alumnus said, "Reading this book you may find that you perceive nature in an entirely different way." Psychiatrist John Weir Perry says "...wise counsel and a rich store of valuable and accurate information. One's interest is kept at a high pitch and one's enjoyment to the full. It is written from the heart." Environmental psychologist Dr. Robert Sommer writes -- "A creative synthesis of the wisdom of native peoples, concepts of environmental psychology, and the activism of the environmental movement." Brooke Medicine-Eagle and Ted Nugent concur.

This book has a lot of potential for helping people understand their interaction with nature, but I was extremely disappointed to find grammar and punctuation errors within the first 20 pages! I haven't been able to read further because those sorts of mistakes really turn off my interest. I'm surprised that a book written by a PhD (as James Swan is) could leave so many errors. Who was his editor? This is also disappointing because the book appears to be useful for my thesis, but instead of highlighting interesting points for my research paper, I'm correcting his spelling mistakes! I really would have liked to have given this book 4 stars because I believe there is a wealth of knowledge, but I also don't want to misinform others who might pick up his book. I hope Dr. Swan will get this book properly and thoroughly edited so more people can fully understand and appreciate his message.