House in the Sun: A Natural History of the Sonoran Desert

by George Olin

Book Overview

A profusely illustrated and lively primer on the plants and animals of the Sonoran Desert. This classic includes scores of photographs by top southwestern nature photographers. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1877856398
• ISBN13: 9781877856396
• Release Date: January 1994
• Publisher: Southwest Parks & Monuments Association
• Length: 210 Pages
• Weight: 0.92 lbs.

Customer Reviews

The Sonoran Desert...

In the southwestern part of North America there are three major deserts: the Mojave, the Sonoran, and the Chihuahuan. Only the Mojave is exclusively in the United States. The later two extend significantly into Mexico. This book concerns the flora and fauna of the Sonoran, most famous for its saguaro cactus. Most of southern Arizona is composed of the Sonoran, with half of the desert extending into eastern California and Mexico. George Olin does a solid job organizing his subject by first defining what a desert is, and then identifying the various types of desert terrain. As he says, the master sculpture of the desert is erosion. He has a total of five chapters on the principal terrain sections: the alluvial plain, the sand dunes, the bajada (this Spanish word means the decent, or coming down, and the area refers to the eroding mountainsides above the alluvial plain), the canyons, and finally the desert mountains. In each chapter he discusses their geology, and the flora and fauna that flourish in these terrains. There is also a chapter on a special fauna, pre-historic man, how he managed, and the artifacts that remain from his presence. At the end there is some practical advice for visiting the desert, including the various dangers that should be avoided. There is also some brief speculation on the future of desert areas, and finally a recommended list of desert destinations. There are several informative maps, but the real strength of the book is in the quality pictures of the topography, flora, fauna and artifacts of man. The cover photo, of saguaros with backlighting is most appealing. The most startling aspect of the book, one deeply grounded in the ecology of a certain area of the planet, is that "Orientalism" has appeared even here. On page 24, desert sands evoke an image of "...nomads still fold their tents and plod across the burning sands as a sheik riding a camel carries the heroine away to some distant oasis." Overall though, it is the essential guidebook to the Sonoran Desert, and few places are better for observing it than the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument in southern Arizona, adjacent to the Mexican border - and what better time than the Thanksgiving holidays? I regret that he did not write similar guides on the other two deserts, including the all important "differential diagnosis."