As the only child of troubled parents, author John Loomis was isolated from his peers and grew up shy, bookish, and knowing from an early age he was different in a seemingly serious and unacceptable way. Gradually, he made peace with being gay and continued his search for love, leading to many adventures, much happiness, and some heartbreak. He shares his story in the Wandering Heart trilogy.The first volume discussed his early years and young-adult life. In the second volume, Loom...

This book provides the first comprehensive economic valuation of U.S. National Parks (including monuments, seashores, lakeshores, recreation areas, and historic sites) and National Park Service (NPS) programs.The book develops a comprehensive framework to calculate the economic value of protected areas, with particular application to the U.S. National Park Service. The framework covers many benefits provided by NPS units and programs, including on-site visitation, carbon sequestrat...

John Loomis grew up in a small South Texas town during the last days of the Great Depression and World War II. As an only child, and with disturbed parents, he was isolated from his peers. Growing up shy, bookish, and knowing from a very early age that he was different in some unacceptable way, he was very distressed to find out from the high school library that he was gay. There was no one to turn to for help or information. He thought the only other gay person on earth was Andre Gide, th...

Located at the junction of gold-rich ravines, Auburn was the site of the first gold discovery in Placer County. Though the superficial gold was quickly panned out, by 1850, the town had become an important trading center. Auburn became a center for goods, services, entertainment, and a place for miners to "winter-over." More importantly, it became a transportation hub. As the county seat, Auburn's hotels, saloons, and merchants experienced a steady stream of customers as county residents c...

Water provides benefits as a commodity for agriculture, industry, and households, and as a public good such as fisheries habitat, water quality and recreational use. To aid in cost-benefit analysis under conditions where market determined price signals are usually unavailable, economists have developed a range of alternative valuation methods for measuring economic benefits.This volume provides the most comprehensive exposition to-date of the application of economic valuation metho...

Internationally bestselling novelist and American icon Tom Robbins' legendary memoir—wild tales of his life and times, both at home and around the globe.Tom Robbins' warm, wise, and wonderfully weird novels—including Still Life with Woodpecker, Jitterbug Perfume, and Fierce Invalids Home from Hot Climates—provide an entryway into the frontier of his singular imagination. Madcap but sincere, pulsating with strong social and philosophical undercurrents, his irreverent...

"In her memoir . . .the eldest sister in the famed singing family, attempts to set the record straight . . .Charming." — Washington PostIn this poignant memoir, Agathe von Trapp shares the true story behind The Sound of Music. As the oldest von Trapp daughter, Agathe's impeccable recall of her childhood brings fresh life to the events that forged enduring bonds within her family. Her memories of her idyllic Austrian home transport...

From the author of the wildly controversial books Liar and Paul's Case comes one of the most anticipated — and perhaps, in some quarters, feared — books of the year. This is author Lynn Crosbie at her most honest, most cutting, most hilarious, and most heartbreaking. The stories told here are at once a cache, a repository, of a seven-year period in the author's life; and, too, a gymnasium, a place where she can flex her prodigious wit and her dazzling stash of literary tricks Deft with mat...

This book evaluates the history, the present and the future of water markets on 5 continents, beginning with the institutional underpinnings of water markets and factors influencing transaction costs. The book examines markets in seven countries and three different U.S. states, ranging from village-level water markets in Oman to basin wide formal water markets in Australia's Murray-Darling River basin.Introductory chapters on the background of water markets and on transaction costs...

Memoir, biography, and outrageous comedy make for a perfect blend in the debut book from acclaimed writer Steve Burgess. Telling the tale of his mother's life and death, and along the way laying bare his own life and struggles, Burgess renders a memorable and deeply moving meditation on life and family.The author's mother, Joan, barely survived her thirteenth birthday: a rare disorder had made it almost impossible for her to swallow food. Her battle to survive this...

Japan’s weak economic performance in the 1990s has had implications not only for its own people, but for the world economy more generally, given Japan’s importance as a trading partner and supplier of capital. Therefore, it is essential that Japan unlock its growth potential. The IMF has worked with the Japanese authorities to identify the policies needed to bring Japan’s economy out of its recent slump. This book contributes to this ongoing debate, whose major topics include the need for an ...

One of These Things First is a wry and poignant reminiscence of a 15 year old gay Jewish boy in Brooklyn in the early sixties, and his unexpected trajectory from a life behind a rack of dresses in his grandmother’s bra and girdle store, to Manhattan’s fabled Payne Whitney Psychiatric Clinic, a fashionable Charenton for wealthy neurotics and Ivy League alcoholics, whose famous alumni include writers, poets, madmen, Marilyn Monroe, and bestselling author Steven Gaines.