Get a taste of the real Vietnam and its people on a sometimes funny, always fascinating journey from the bustling cities to out of the way villages, into Buddhist monasteries and along the Mekong - a real delight for armchair travellers and those contemplating their own adventure. From the crazy heat and colour of Saigon to the quieter splendour of Hanoi, Walter Mason gives us a rare, joyous and at times hilarious insight into twenty-first century Vietnam.
When people enter the northwoods, Mason the beaver's peaceful environment is threatened leading Solomon to explain the gentle balance that must exist between humans and wildlife. The popular Solomon Raven series (Cinnamon and the April Shower, Mason Moves Away, Lewis Cardinal's First Winter, A Home for Pearl Squirrel) features seasonal stories with recurring north woods animal friends. The woodland settings offer insight into the changes of the forest landscape, and each story involves a subject that affects children on a day–to–day basis. No matter what the issue, Solomon Raven, the wisest bird in the forest, has the answer. Reading Level: Grade K-3
Music journalist Mason, a former pirate radio and club DJ in London,
explores how open source culture is changing the distribution and
control of information and harnessing the old system of punk capitalism
to new market conditions governing society. According to Mason, this
movement's creators operate according to piratical tactics and are
changing the very nature of our economy. He charts the rise of the
ideas and social experiments behind these latter-day pirates, citing
the work of academics, historians and innovators across a multitude of
fields. He also explores contributions by visionaries like Andy Warhol,
50 Cent and Dr. Yuref Hamied, who was called a pirate and a thief after
producing anti-HIV drugs for Third World countries that cost as little
as $1 a day to produce. Pirates, Mason states, sail uncharted waters
where traditional rules don't apply. As a result, they offer great ways
to service the public's best interests. According to Mason, how people,
corporations and governments react to these changes is one of the most
important economic and cultural questions of the 21st century.
Well-written, entertaining and highly original, Mason offers a
fascinating view of the revolutionary forces shaping the world as we
know it.
