“A more-than-welcome return to a classic idea of the novel . . . A wonder to read” (Los Angeles Times Book Review). The field is all around us. It’s our needs and our wants. This is what George tells Lydia. A disturbance, however, is something that keeps us from grasping and attaining the things we need. Usually, we can adapt to these disturbances and move forward. But, what happens if a disturbance becomes too great to move past? In this entrancing tale of loss and understanding, acclaimed author Lynne Sharon Schwartz plots the course of a woman’s life, through the cycles of love, loss, and acceptance. Lydia’s early life is marked by calm constants: a house in Cape Cod, a philosophy group in college. These remain her touchstones as she becomes a busy wife, mother, and music teacher. But when her family’s world is suddenly shattered, she struggles to regain her equilibrium. Will she be able to find her way in such a radically altered field?

This survey summarizes what is known about the magnetic field of the earth, based on information available through 1971. Observed phenomena are described and interpreted in terms of the most widely accepted physical explanations. An overview of the geomagnetic field and its dynamic relationship with its terrestrial and interplanetary environment is first presented as briefly as possible, followed by more detailed descriptions of geomagnetic measurements and experimental methods, precise current models and past behavior of the main field, regular variations in the field resulting from the motion of the earth, disturbance variations of the field produced by interplanetary environment, and dynamic processes occurring in the outer magnetosphere. Extensive references is a replacement for Chapter 11 of Handbook of Geophysics and Space Environment (Shea L. Valley, ed.), Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories and McGraw-Hill Book Co., New York, 1965.