Mountains and minerals, rivers and rocks
a geologist's notes from the field
"In this collection of essays, M. Dane ('Duke') Picard takes the reader on journeys across deserts, mountains, canyons, and rivers from the American Southwest to Italy and France. His blend of vivid description and humor evokes the rugged days of field petroleum geology in the Great Plains and pastel Badlands of Utah and Wyoming in the 1950s and later days unlocking the geological secrets of sandstone in the Rockies. Along the way, he pokes gentle fun at the academic life in stories that will make anyone smile who's ever sat on a faculty committee or chaired a professional meeting. The final essays on his travels through Provence and Italy are rich with details of the beauty and the history - both human and geological - of the regions. M.D. Picard is the author of numerous professional articles and books, and has served as president of the National Association of Geology Teachers, the Society of Sedimentary Geology, and the Rocky Mountain section of the American Association of Petroleum Geologists. He is well known to the geological community for the essays and book reviews he has published over the last ten years in geoscience journals and magazines"--Publisher description.
Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.
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What the reading experience may hold
A fuller profile for choosing with more confidence—not just another copy of the preview.
Nonfiction
Use these as starting points rather than limits; the most memorable books often stretch beyond their catalog labels.
No specific content concerns can be confirmed from the available English catalog information. Consult a publisher or reader-supplied guide when detailed warnings matter.
These notes are inferred from available catalog information and may not be complete. Check a publisher or reader-supplied guide if you need comprehensive warnings.
Warm tone · Measured pace
Works well for a focused weekend or a few concentrated sittings.
A good fit if…
Readers who want a thoughtful experience and enjoy noticing the connections beneath a book’s surface story.
This book's DNA
A visual estimate based on this edition's categories, description, and length. Select a star to explore the signals.
This signal is descriptive, not a rating. It helps compare the kind of reading experience this edition may offer.
Spoiler-Free Emotional Arc
A broad estimate of the book’s emotional rhythm, shown without story events or outcomes.
This visualization is an interpretive estimate based on catalog description, categories, tone, pace, and content signals. It does not describe specific scenes.
A quick reading snapshot
Edition facts and catalog signals to help you decide whether this book fits what you want to read next.
- ISBN-13
- 978-0-4120-3711-5
- Language
- English
- Edition record
- OL1732800M
A more thoughtful way into this book
This guide uses the edition details and category signals above to help you choose deliberately. It does not replace the author's work or a full review.
Works well for a focused weekend or a few concentrated sittings.
Begin with its place in Nonfiction, then notice where the book resists that label.
Read for connection, not completion.
Mark one passage that sharpens the book's central concern and one that complicates it. That tension often reveals more than a quick summary.
Three questions to carry with you
- Whose perspective organizes the story, and whose perspective remains outside it?
- Which sources or lived experiences carry the author’s central argument?
- How does the book change the way you understand its larger subject?
Editorial framework by Wesley Bryan, BookenDeX Founder and Editor.
More Nonfiction books
These matches combine shared categories with author, publication-era, and reading-length signals.
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by Henry Fielding
Why it fits: shares Nonfiction, a similar reading length, a similar publication era.
Anxiety Disorders
by Brian F. Shaw
Why it fits: shares Nonfiction, a similar reading length, a similar publication era.
Monuments of Progress
by Claudia Agostoni
Why it fits: shares Nonfiction, a similar reading length, a similar publication era.
Self Neglect
by James G. O'Brien
Why it fits: shares Nonfiction, a similar reading length, a similar publication era.
The Monuments of Ancient Egypt:
by Jeremy Stafford-Deitsch, Foreword by T. G. H. James
Why it fits: shares Nonfiction, a similar reading length, a similar publication era.
The Rise of Nine
by Jeff Gabriel
Why it fits: shares Nonfiction, a similar reading length, a similar publication era.