“The Starship and the Canoe is neither a wilderness survival manual nor a book of blueprints. It is another of those rare books impossible to define: the kind that seeks you in time. And you will know it, live it, and consult it thereafter simply by name.” --Chicago Sun-Times “Brower’s superbly written book clutches at one’s imagination.” --Publishers Weekly “In the tradition of Carl Sagan and John McPhee, a bracing cerebral voyage past intergalactic hoopla and backwoods retreats.” --Kirkus Reviews Originally published in 1978, The Starship and the Canoe is the remarkable story of a father and son: Freeman Dyson is a world-renowned astrophysicist who dreams of exploring the heavens and has designed a spaceship to take him there. His son George, a brilliant high school dropout, lives in a treehouse and is designing a giant kayak to explore the icy coastal wilderness of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. Author Kenneth Brower describes with stunning impact their lives and their visions of the world. It is a timeless tale framed by modern science, adventure, family, and the natural world.

Back in print: A revised second edition of a classic how-to book on canoe building. The new edition is updated to include advances in glues and techniques since the original was published, as well as five new canoe plans, builder tips and paddle carving.

The Old Town Canoe Company has a rich and diverse history now spanning a century, and its story is told here in rich and colorful detail, from the earliest wood-and-canvas canoes to today's sleek polymer models. Wonderful illustrations and motifs have been selected from a hundred years of Old Town Canoe Company catalogs, along with stunning photographs, past and present, of Old Town's canoes, launches, runabouts, dinghies, sailboats, kayaks, and more.

Fish and herons, turtles and dragonflies, beaver lodges and lily pads—a multitude of wonders enchant both the child narrator and any other nature lovers along for the ride in this tender, beautifully illustrated picture book. Baby ducklings ride their mama’s back; an osprey rises with a silver fish clutched in her talons; a loon cries in a star-flecked night. Rhythmic, rhyming quatrains carry the story forward in clean paddle strokes of evocative imagery. In the Red Canoe celebrates the bond between grandparent and grandchild and invites nature lovers of all ages along for the ride.

Follow the red canoe from page to page as it journeys down river carrying the family on a camping tour. It's the next best thing to paddling it yourself.

A comprehensive history of North American canoe traditions.

Within about seventy-five miles of downtown Houston, some 1,500 miles of rivers, creeks, lakes, bayous, and bays await discovery. Canoeing and Kayaking Houston Waterways, by longtime paddler Natalie Wiest, is the perfect companion for anyone who wants to experience Houston’s well-watered landscape from the seat of a kayak or canoe. Before introducing readers to the quiet, green world that lies within and around the heart of the city, Wiest gives some pointers on water safety (including swimming and boating); on weather, flood stages, and legal access; and on an often unseen but always present paddling companion—alligators. She also provides a gear checklist for a day trip, a brief guide to boats and paddles, and a “sampler” list of easy places to paddle for true beginners. Presented in nine chapters, each organized around a river system or coastal basin and comprising a “suite” of paddling trips, the excursions described by Wiest offer a general description of the destination, directions (both driving and paddling), and details about the paddling conditions and access sites, which are all publicly owned or managed. Each chapter lists mileages, USGS gauging station numbers, and GIS locations when applicable. Also including ninety color photos and more than thirty detailed maps, Canoeing and Kayaking Houston Waterways offers both novice and experienced paddlers a helpful and enjoyable reference for experiencing nature at water level, in and around Houston. To learn more about The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment, sponsors of this book's series, please click here.

The beauty of this book is that the construction bugs have already been worked out of the designs. Plans, step-by-step instructions, material lists photographs and detailed diagrams.

A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice, Ben Schrank’s Love Is a Canoe is a smart, funny, romantic, and hugely satisfying novel about the fragility of human relationships and a heartwarming reminder of what it really means to be good to those we love. The author of a classic self-help guide to love and relationships, Peter Herman has won the hearts of romantics and cynics alike. But decades have passed since Marriage Is a Canoe was published and a recently widowed Peter begins to question his own advice. Much to his chagrin, he receives a call from Stella Petrovic, an ambitious young editor in New York City who forces him to reconsider his life’s work, not to mention the full force of his delusions. The book’s fiftieth anniversary is approaching, and Petrovic has devised a contest to promote the new edition. The prize? The chance for the winning couple—a pair of outwardly happy Brooklynites named Emily and Eli—to save their relationship by spending a weekend with the reclusive author. If Peter is going to help the contest’s winners, he must discover what he meant when he wrote Marriage Is a Canoe—and also find a way for himself to love again...

Buck, government name Michael Fineday, Ojibwe name Miskwa' doden (Red Deer) has just been served divorce papers by his wife Naomi, who is fed up with his savior complex and the danger it often attracts to their door, and is on the brink of suicide. Living on the border of Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community reservation--thus back on the edge of his origins--Buck makes a good living as a boatbuilder and carpenter. He spends his days alone, trying to win the trust of a feral cat...until a semi-feral girl shows up, attracted by the canoe Buck's building. Lucy, Ojibwe name Gabe' bineh,"(Everlasting Bird), lives in a trailer alone with her father, a local policeman struggling with PSTD from the Iraq war, compounded by the loss of Lucy's mother. She's also mostly alone. Just barely fifteen, since her mother's death she's been systematically molested and raped by her father's colleagues on the force without his knowledge. Threatened that if she ever spoke out, her father would bear the consequences. Buck senses Lucy is in trouble, and doesn't hesitate to plunge into it head-first as usual. On the foundation of their shared Ojibwe heritage, together they build more than a canoe, but a friendship, and together trace Lucy's abuse to a ring that extends farther than either of them ever imagined.