Cycle Jay Amberg 9781937484002 Books
Download As PDF : Cycle Jay Amberg 9781937484002 Books
Gold Medal Winner, Environmental Issues, 2014 Literary Classics Awards
Bronze Medal Winner, Nature Conservation, 2013 Living Now Evergreen Book Awards
Redwoods thrive for centuries in the coastal regions of America’s Pacific Northwest. A monarch butterfly takes the amazing journey from the Northern meadow of its birth to its winter roost in the mountains of Central Mexico. The mother of four wolf pups leads her family through the Arctic’s stark terrain and bitter storms. One of the greatest seagoing mammals roams the Pacific Ocean from the Gulf of Alaska to the Galapagos. All of these voices speak to us of the meaning we seek in our lives.
Jennifer Huffman, Independent Publisher Review “Finally, a book about nature written by nature. In a collection of four short stories, author Jay Amberg chronicles the lives and journeys of four life forms by giving them each a voice. In their own words, an Arctic wolf, a migrating monarch butterfly, a lone sperm whale, and a Pacific Northwest redwood tree paint a picture of how they interact with their environment, emphasizing their daily fight to survive.
“As the book unfolds, a reoccurring life cycle theme emerges. Throughout each story, the reader’s frame of mind is transformed to that of the organism because Amberg presents the struggle to survive from its point of view. To complicate the fight for survival, each story also contains ominous hints about the presence of man and evidence of his impact on the organism’s life and habitat.
“The first story revolves around the life cycle of a redwood grove. The redwood describes what physical processes affect the growth of the stand and how it thrives in a stable cycle of birth, growth, death, decay, and rebirth. But it is troubling when the redwood describes how, over time, the air has become drier, temperatures have increased, the river floods more frequently, the floods are more severe, and the rainy season is shorter.
“The themes of the remaining stories are similar. A monarch butterfly details the stages of his short life and basic needs. After succumbing to his urge to migrate, he takes his final journey but is not able to find the forested winter roosting area. An Arctic wolf courageously leads her pack in the fight against starvation, rival wolves, and brutal cold while she raises her litter of pups with tenderness and care. However, she is set on edge due to brief encounters with an unfamiliar creature that lurks about near the edge of her pack. Finally, a mature male sperm whale tells of his life experiences from birth to maturity and the never ending migration he must make between northern and southern oceans. His story is distressing as he recalls details of man’s historical slaughtering of his species along with the effects of global warming and environmental pollution on the oceans.
“In the end, by having the plants and animals tell their own stories about their fight for survival in delicately balanced ecosystems, Amberg effectively persuades the reader that protection of these systems is essential. By framing the stories from the creature’s point of view, he provides a sometimes warm, yet sometimes tragic, read which engages the reader from start to finish.”
Cycle Jay Amberg 9781937484002 Books
This book came through and caught my interest purely because it was different than anything else I had ever read.I wanted to go a bit out of my comfort zone and see how it went.
I am so glad I took a chance.
Cycle is divided into four parts. Written in the point of view of a Tree, Wolf, Butterfly and a Whale.
Each section was beautifly written. Sparing no details, our eyes are opened to the lives of the species as they seek meaning and survival.
I adored the Tree portion of the book the most. I found myself marking down page numbers. Quotes I wanted to remember. I honestly never gave trees much thought before, they really are more interesting than we give them credit for.
This section really made the book for me. It was beautiful
I've decided should there be another lifetime I want to come back as a redwood tree.
The most difficult to read, being the whale section. We're exposed to the effects of humans on the whale species. As a whale lover part of me can't help but get emotional thinking about the damage that's been done in their natural habitat. All for the mighty dollar by corporations who are too driven by greed to see the world around them and the beauty it holds.
Cycle is a book I thoroughly enjoyed. I found myself learning things about each subject. It was a smooth read that kept me engaged and wishing the book covered more than just four sections.
I highly recommend to anyone looking for a read that puts them in touch with the world around them. As well as anyone looking for a book that will pleasantly surprise them and take them out of their genre comfort zone.
So glad I read this book, definitely one I will be revisiting often. A beautiful well written book.
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Cycle Jay Amberg 9781937484002 Books Reviews
Jay Amberg uses four unique voices - a redwood, a mother wolf, a butterfly and a whale - to piece together his short story collection.
Amberg gives each living organism its own voice through first person narration. In "Redwood Ring", a redwood shares its experience with biological, ecological, and atmospheric processes that work together to both promote life and destruction in its forest. In the longest story of the collection, "Alpha", a mother wolf tells of her maternal instincts to protect her pups while fulfilling her tole as the pack leader.
Within each story there is also an element of warning. In "Whale Song" a mature sperm whale talks about the terrible effects that we humans have brought upon the ocean and his species. The mother wolf from "Alpha" describes the strange creatures around her den, the stress a nearby helicopter unleashes upon her pack, and so on. While these narration are excellent in getting their point across, it can also be difficult at times to imagine these animals as speakers and to stretch one's imagination beyond what we know to be natural.
Amberg does a superb job at explaining how complex and fragile our environment really is. He uses a mix of biology and fiction to get across the point that everything we do has an impact - an often a negative one - on the natural world around us.
Jay Amberg has, without doubt, done some serious research.
In Cycle, his tenth book, specifically written in a naturalist’s tone, Amberg deliberately and thoroughly offers the reader dramatized views of four living creatures a stand of ancient redwood trees, a monarch, an alpha wolf, and a mammoth whale. Amberg weaves two themes throughout, first, that life is a cycle; second, that man’s negative impact on nature is evident, even life-taking.
Redwood Ring moves through life lived and witnessed by a large grouping of ancient trees. The feeling of this tale is ethereal, almost ghostly and eerily foreboding, as the stand of trees, speaking in one voice, deliver the message that they are rhythmic descendants of time, survivors of prior extinctions, and owners of this earth way before man. At face value, it appears to be a poetic and majestic tale of trees and their colleagues wind, air, light and water; but underlying the canopy of boughs and cones, the message is we have been here since the dawn of time, we have never had any natural enemies, and if you leave us be, we will be here forever. Emphasis on no natural enemies, their only threat forever and always, man.
Each quadrant of the book uses a life cycle to deliver layer upon layer of scientific fact—chlorophyll and chloroplasts, abdomens and chitin, migratory patterns, ice floes, flukes and blowholes. Although I found the detail interesting,--and I applaud Amberg for the enormous time it must have taken to gather and categorize such volumes of data-- I felt as though I had found a piece of plastic in my pudding. As I was falling into the warmth and beauty of his descriptive stories, I was continually jerked awake by a cold, matter-of fact intruder, a scientific term that made me hit pause until I could work through what the term meant. Then, back onto the task of falling back into the story. It was a bit distracting.
I looked forward to reading Flutter the most, the tale about a monarch’s life, but was left with a mild frown. I followed both the descriptive and scientific account closely, and in its detail could find no fault. Yet I once again had that stop and start feeling as the story jerked from butterfly to caterpillar to butterfly again, perhaps an artistic interpretation but rendering me frustrated. Once the adult butterfly cracked out of his chrysalis and took flight along his destined migratory path, at last, I could settle into his story. Man’s impact is less veiled here, as the monarch tells us that he knows he has traveled to the right place, but the forest here has disappeared. Descriptive and exciting until the time when he mates, the ending left me longing for a little more detail into the butterfly’s legacy, or what made such a long and arduous trip really worth the while, to his offspring to come.
Alpha was by far my favorite of the tales, and I indeed would have loved a book on this topic alone. The cycle begins as an Arctic she-wolf delivers a litter of pups, with her mate, older offspring and hapless brother looking on from outside the den. This story is so thoroughly understandable that I forgot it was written about an animal; Her struggles, desires, heart and emotions were easily recognized. In this story, man’s impact is again present, although not direct His machines, sounds and presence disrupt the wolves’ world. One is left to wonder if it played a part in the disappearance of one of her cubs. Here, the author gets my heartiest applause for delivering a story of life, death, family, tradition, survival and parenting so splendidly. It is fluid, engrossing and kept me engaged to the point that I began to read more slowly—I didn’t want it to end.
In Whale Song, the gloves come off. As a whale begins with the story with his birth, and continues through the cycle of his life in the deep blue sea, his attacks on humankind’s presence in this world are abundant. From whale spearing, sea hunting, whale watching, pollution, plastics, global warming, oil spills and chemically poisoning waterways and water creatures, the whale flatly charges us with irresponsibility, selfishness and murder, saying our human busyness, business hurtles us towards apocalypse. He claims that it’s not too late to change our wicked ways, but gives us no solution, only attacks on prior and current sin.
Although I do not share in all of Amberg’s views, as I believe in a Creator and this book speaks not of one, I would gently remind Amberg that although I sympathize for all living creatures whose lives have befallen the hand of human selfishness, I have never been a whale, nor a butterfly, nor a tree--and nor has he. Mankind’s presence and work allowed this book to take form. Had it not been for the tirelessness observations of men and women scientists, naturalists and students of all creation, Amberg would not have had the knowledge available to write tales from the point of view that he has. Of the fate of these majestic trees, magnificent monarchs, regal wolves and breathtaking whales, the fact that mankind has so despondently affected these life cycles for selfish gain is a given. We have made a horrible mess of the planet. Yet not all man continues on that path. Not the ones who celebrate , honor and respect these life cycles, as Amberg himself does. In that, there is hope.
Alicia C. Accardi
Closed the Cover
This book came through and caught my interest purely because it was different than anything else I had ever read.
I wanted to go a bit out of my comfort zone and see how it went.
I am so glad I took a chance.
Cycle is divided into four parts. Written in the point of view of a Tree, Wolf, Butterfly and a Whale.
Each section was beautifly written. Sparing no details, our eyes are opened to the lives of the species as they seek meaning and survival.
I adored the Tree portion of the book the most. I found myself marking down page numbers. Quotes I wanted to remember. I honestly never gave trees much thought before, they really are more interesting than we give them credit for.
This section really made the book for me. It was beautiful
I've decided should there be another lifetime I want to come back as a redwood tree.
The most difficult to read, being the whale section. We're exposed to the effects of humans on the whale species. As a whale lover part of me can't help but get emotional thinking about the damage that's been done in their natural habitat. All for the mighty dollar by corporations who are too driven by greed to see the world around them and the beauty it holds.
Cycle is a book I thoroughly enjoyed. I found myself learning things about each subject. It was a smooth read that kept me engaged and wishing the book covered more than just four sections.
I highly recommend to anyone looking for a read that puts them in touch with the world around them. As well as anyone looking for a book that will pleasantly surprise them and take them out of their genre comfort zone.
So glad I read this book, definitely one I will be revisiting often. A beautiful well written book.
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