Fresh Water

This is an amazing book. I am trained as an economist and lawyer, but I am actually reading and understanding the material covered. This is because the author is a great writer. It is a pleasure to follow her logic as she explains the basics, in easy language, then goes deep, incorporating the language of her field. My interest in water is as one who drinks, bathes, kayaks, and fishes in it. But the author has opened my mind to myriad other interests I have heretofore taken for granted. If only all writers had the grasp of their topic and the skill to transmit a part of it to others ... Everyone should read this book both for its subject matter and as an example of excellent technical/instructional writing!

Best simple water book ever written. If you want to understand earth's freshwater system and the ecosystem that contains all of us, this book is the place to start.

Book was shipped on time, in good shape, and it is an excellent book that is not immediately available to the public at large at general book stores.

Tristan Gooley's How to Read Water is good as a quite different book, but this is a highly readable and usefully illustrated account of the water cycle.

The author gives us a rare combination of the technical terms with thoroughly understandable explanations of water and what it does and what it means for us. The book seems comlete in its explanations of how water works whereever it occurs, which is all over our world. I thought, for example, I knew how water worked underground; now I really know, and that is important to efficient agriculture which will also preserve adjacent flora and fauna. Pielou tells both the good and the bad of human intervention with water no matter whether it is flowing in rivers and lakes or bound in permafrost or geological configurations. Even if you think you don't really care, this book will let you understand more about the arguments about dams and rivers and reservoirs and all that contentious stuff.

A clear and understandable look at fresh water, its various systems, its ecological impacts, and human impacts on water resources. Not only highly informative but easy to follow and interesting as well. A basic understanding of water chemistry and biology would be helpful, although not necessary when readin this book.

As a professional whitewater guide this book caught my attention as I was looking to better understand my "office". While I found the early chapters on groundwater a bit dry, (no pun intended) I was unable to put down Fresh Water once it got above the vadose layer. I found it informative without being overly scientific, and now have an entirely different outlook on the water cycle. It is obvious this book was written by someone who truly enjoys the subject matter.

If you enjoy reading college textbooks, then you'll love this one. Although it's well-written with many illustrations/diagrams, facts and definitions, I didn't find any pleasure reading it. Fresh Water lacked anecdotes, humor, interesting point-of-views etc....just a DRY, BLAND and extremely objective view of the cycles, forms and uses of water. However, Fresh Water would be excellent reference material.