A Sideways Look at Clouds - Hardcover

Ruth, Maria

3.85

62 ratings by Goodreads

9781680511185: A Sideways Look at Clouds

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1680511181 ISBN 13: 9781680511185

Publisher: Mountaineers Books, 2017

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2017 Silver Nautilus Book Award in Science and Cosmology

Written by a critically-acclaimed natural-history author
Shares author's fun journey to understanding clouds
Written for the curious--but non-science--minded

Author Maria Mudd Ruth fell in love with clouds the same way she stumbles into most passions: madly and unexpectedly. A Sideways Look at Clouds is the story of her quite accidental infatuation with and education about the clouds above.

When she moved to the soggy Northwest a decade ago, Maria assumed that locals would know everything there was to know about clouds, in the same way they talk about salmon, tides, and the Seahawks. Yet in her first two years of living in Olympia, Washington, she never heard anyone talk about clouds--only the rain. Puzzled by this lack of cloud savvy, she decided to create a 10-question online survey and sent it to everyone she knew. Her sample size of 67 people included men and women, new friends in Olympia, family on the East Coast, outdoorsy and indoorsy types, professional scientists, and liberal arts majors like herself. The results showed that while people knew a little bit about clouds, most were like her--they had a hard time identifying clouds or remembering their names. As adults, they had lost their curiosity and sense of wonder about clouds and were, essentially, not in the habit of looking up.

A Sideways Look at Clouds acknowledges the challenges of understanding clouds and so uses a very steep and bumpy learning curve--the author's--as its plot line. The book is structured around the ten words used in most definitions of a cloud: "a visible mass of water droplets or ice crystals suspended in the atmosphere above the earth." A captivating story teller, Maria blends science, wonder, and humor to take the scenic route through the clouds and encourages readers to chart their own rambling, idiosyncratic course.

Whether you are outside under the clouds, inside planning your next adventure, or curled up anywhere with a good book, A Sideways Look at Clouds will engage, inform, and inspire.

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Review:

A Sideways Look at Clouds, is an irresistible invitation into cloud land. Now you can walk with [Maria Mudd Ruth] --your neck flexing, shoulders back, and eyes searching upward. Her book guides you through the sky, an opportunity to rediscover floating beauty every day.--Marietta McCartney, New York Times Bestselling Author

This Northwest transplant assumed locals were experts in the many forms of fluffy white or aggressively gray clouds that are a near constant in the Pacific Northwest. However, she found Washingtonians knew precious little about identifying the clouds. Her book "blends science, wonder, and humor to take a scenic route through the clouds."--425 Magazine

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