Eleanor Mathews
Auteur de Ambassador to the Penguins: A Naturalist's Year Aboard a Yankee Whaleship
Œuvres de Eleanor Mathews
Étiqueté
Partage des connaissances
- Sexe
- female
- Nationalité
- USA
- Études
- University of Washington (BS|Geography)
- Professions
- illustrator
software developer
cartographer - Courte biographie
- ELLIE MATHEWS holds a degree in geography from the University of
Washington with emphasis on cartography and graphic arts. Her illustrations
have appeared in books, magazines, newspapers, instructional videos, and
courtroom graphics. Later, she linked her interests in graphics with software
development; she designed the appearance of automated mapping, graphing,
and presentation systems. She taught short courses in Graphic Design,
Statistics Illustration, and Principles of Computer Graphics. She authored The
Presentation Design Book (Ventana Press) and published articles on digital type,
presentation graphics, and color mechanics. She worked for her own company,
for Florida Computer Graphics, Tektronix, and Aldus (now Adobe). Mathews
has developed illustrations for trials involving employment data, construction
timelines, scene-of-the-crime diagrams, and medical malpractice allegations.
She has produced maps for city, county, state, and federal agencies as well as
private entities.
Then she put all that aside and became a writer.
Some people think that winning a $1,000,000 annuity in Pillsbury's famous
Bake-Off is Ellie's greatest moment, but she puts more weight on being a mother
and a grandmother. After that she counts her publications among life's
accomplishments. The Pillsbury win was a stroke of good luck, pure and simple.
Very good luck indeed. (From the author's website: elliemathews.com)
Membres
Critiques
The Linden Tree par Ellie Mathews
This is a beautiful story of a young girl and her family coming to terms with the sudden loss of their mother from illness. From the first lines, you are pulled into the world of rural farm life in 1940s America and the sobering reality that life can indeed be very fleeting. It's a serious novel but there are moments of levity. Some would call this a "quiet novel" in that there aren't huge plot points and sweeping changes. But there don't need to be. I recommend giving this book a read.
A gentle read of a farm family in 1940's Iowa rooted in love who learn to cope with the sudden death of their mother. Winner of the Milkweed Prize and reminiscent of Sara Plain and Tall.
This book, prominently displayed at my local library, seemed to call me. So different from my last read The Prince of Frogtown, that at first it was hard to adjust to the different writing styles.
This is a story told in lyrical writing, filled with soft images. Unlike Bragg who packs a wallop in his writing, this author quietly, introspectively, portrays the effects of grief on three young children and their widowed father when the mother/wife unexpectedly, suddenly dies from meningitis.
This is a snapshot of four seasons after the loss and how the family is working through the process of grief. It is accurate in the depiction of of pain and of moving forward, placing one foot in front of the other after a severe loss. I admired the characters and the writing.… (plus d'informations)
This is a story told in lyrical writing, filled with soft images. Unlike Bragg who packs a wallop in his writing, this author quietly, introspectively, portrays the effects of grief on three young children and their widowed father when the mother/wife unexpectedly, suddenly dies from meningitis.
This is a snapshot of four seasons after the loss and how the family is working through the process of grief. It is accurate in the depiction of of pain and of moving forward, placing one foot in front of the other after a severe loss. I admired the characters and the writing.… (plus d'informations)
2 
Whisper1 | 3 autres critiques | Aug 16, 2011 |
Whisper1 | 3 autres critiques | Aug 16, 2011 | 
I believe Amazon recommended this book to me. I was looking to fill out the Travelogue category in my 999 challenge. This is not normally an area that I read, but I'm enjoying it and I think I'll continue this genre in the future.
Firstly, I believe the book is mis-titled. The word penguin doesn't even appear until page 186. Once they reach South Georgia Island there is some interaction with penguins, but in my opinion, not enough to name the book as it is. The subtitle is much more accurate. This book is about the year Robert Cushman Murphy spent with the crew of a whaling vessel. Much of the book is about the hunting of whales and elephant seals for their oil. If you can get past the barbarity of the hunting, clubbing and shooting of these animals and the seabirds, it really is a fascinating book and it's well written. In this modern age not many of us have the experience of being on the open water for such an extended period and certainly not under the circumstances Murphy endured.
Many times during this book I was struck by the duality of the men aboard this vessel. They had no compunction of killing sperm whales but when sailing beside other species of whale they did not care to hunt, they would marvel at the beauty and grandeur of the creature. When faced with a large-scale, mechanized whaling factory they balked at the brutality of it. Likewise, Murphy was infatuated with birds yet his mission was to kill hundreds of them as specimens for the museum.
Also in this book is the telling of Murphy's longing for his wife. He had such great anxiety over getting letters out to her. And she prepared a year's worth of messages for him to ration out during the voyage. The few letters reproduced in the book were very moving. It's hard to imagine a newlywed woman finding the strength to encourage her husband to leave her for a year to travel to the ends of the earth. Murphy was quite the romantic and for me, that was really a respite from all of the violence.
I knew going into it that this book is a re-writing of Murphy's Logbook for Grace. It incorporates his photographs from the voyage and I think that's a wonderful addition to the text. However, I wasn't thrilled with the third-person voice. Everytime a quote in first-person would appear it made me think how thrilling it would be if all of it was first-person. That said, Logbook is out of print, so I am grateful that I was able to read Murphy's story at all. I would not recommend this to those who are sensitive to violence towards animals or young ones inspired by the current penguin-craze. But I would definitely recommend it to people who enjoy books on exploration and seafaring, bird enthusiast and even to those who enjoy biographies.… (plus d'informations)
Firstly, I believe the book is mis-titled. The word penguin doesn't even appear until page 186. Once they reach South Georgia Island there is some interaction with penguins, but in my opinion, not enough to name the book as it is. The subtitle is much more accurate. This book is about the year Robert Cushman Murphy spent with the crew of a whaling vessel. Much of the book is about the hunting of whales and elephant seals for their oil. If you can get past the barbarity of the hunting, clubbing and shooting of these animals and the seabirds, it really is a fascinating book and it's well written. In this modern age not many of us have the experience of being on the open water for such an extended period and certainly not under the circumstances Murphy endured.
Many times during this book I was struck by the duality of the men aboard this vessel. They had no compunction of killing sperm whales but when sailing beside other species of whale they did not care to hunt, they would marvel at the beauty and grandeur of the creature. When faced with a large-scale, mechanized whaling factory they balked at the brutality of it. Likewise, Murphy was infatuated with birds yet his mission was to kill hundreds of them as specimens for the museum.
Also in this book is the telling of Murphy's longing for his wife. He had such great anxiety over getting letters out to her. And she prepared a year's worth of messages for him to ration out during the voyage. The few letters reproduced in the book were very moving. It's hard to imagine a newlywed woman finding the strength to encourage her husband to leave her for a year to travel to the ends of the earth. Murphy was quite the romantic and for me, that was really a respite from all of the violence.
I knew going into it that this book is a re-writing of Murphy's Logbook for Grace. It incorporates his photographs from the voyage and I think that's a wonderful addition to the text. However, I wasn't thrilled with the third-person voice. Everytime a quote in first-person would appear it made me think how thrilling it would be if all of it was first-person. That said, Logbook is out of print, so I am grateful that I was able to read Murphy's story at all. I would not recommend this to those who are sensitive to violence towards animals or young ones inspired by the current penguin-craze. But I would definitely recommend it to people who enjoy books on exploration and seafaring, bird enthusiast and even to those who enjoy biographies.… (plus d'informations)
Prix et récompenses
Statistiques
- Œuvres
- 2
- Membres
- 54
- Popularité
- #299,230
- Évaluation
- 4.1
- Critiques
- 7
- ISBN
- 14