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Summary: Emotionally Drawn In To Plight of Forests
Review: I read this book and was ordering more copies when I saw Robert Parker's review. I understand his dilemma -- wanting so much to tell the whole story and the feeling of lost opportunity -- but that's not the effect of the book on me. Rather, it engaged me, invited me inward, confronted me. For the first time, I finally understand why I should flip paper over in my computer printer -- it can save a Luna out there. I can now FEEL the connection that no amount of intellectual data would have given me. I needed to fall in love with Julia's Luna, find my own Luna, and embrace it. She writes as a woman writes -- not as a Leopold writes. I truly did grasp the enormity of the support operation. True, not the cold hard facts -- but the IMPRESSION of TREMENDOUS commitment and support by hundreds of people. I've never seen such a long list of acknowledgements! But that support is interwoven into the story like the living twigs that she slipped between her big and second toe to hold her safe on Luna.
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Summary: One person can make a difference
Review: Julia is definitely more of an activisit than a writer (and perhaps should consider a new editor) but this book provided the inspiration I needed to pursue my activist interests. All too often it is easy for me to feel discouraged, and think that one person cannot possibly make a difference, but this story proves the opposite. What she lacks as a writer, she definitely makes up for in dedication. The hardships that she endured for her cause would have broken most people down physically and mentally. Suddenly it became crystal clear all the everyday comforts that I take for granted. I think about what kind of person it takes to live on a samll platform of wood 180' in the air. How do some people muster such passion? I was a little disappointed that I didn't feel like I knew Julia more deeply by the end of the book, and I wish more of how she assimilated back into society would have been included. My favorite part of this book was that it proved that one person really CAN make a difference and with so many great causes out there, the overwhelming question is which one to get involved in.
Rating: 
Summary: Good Read - But Falls Flat
Review: This was good relaxing read for me - but it fell short. While I left with a good impression of Julia's life in the tree, I didn't feel that the book had any lasting significance. While I'd recommend the book, I wouldn't run out and buy it. I felt that the book did not give enough context and really show the true importance of what happened. Likewise, it didn't create an imperative for action or serve as any kind of a guide for others in the environmental movement. The ending, especially, seemed rushed. There were several typos in the text. Julia Hill really did make a difference - but her book doesn't help one expand beyond the realm of her action into greater significance... and, for this reason, her book is interesting (certainly have much more respect for her hardships) but not a classic of environmental literature.
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Summary: Read This Book!
Review: For Julia Butterfly, Luna became the focus of vast and eternal truth. We, trees, and all living things are a part of Nature's life. We are all connected by the same life force which circulates through us all. We humans, being the most advanced of Earth's life forms, must take responsibility for protecting, preserving, and promoting life - all life.This Julia dared and suffered to do, and if we will pay attention, we can all benefit from her tree-sitting adventure.
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Summary: Inspiring read of personal dedication
Review: I enjoyed this book for some of the reasons other reviewers have disliked it -- it is a very sincere story of personal transformation via dedication to following one's conscience, not a politically correct diatribe on environmental politics. I was surprised to read that Ms. Hill had little background in environmental activism prior to her sit-in and only gradually came to understand the economics/politics of the situation. Yes, this limits the value of the book as a source of info on the redwoods issue. But I found her heartfelt and courageous devotion to nature to be personally inspiring and perhaps a much needed reminder of what originally motivated many of us to be become involved in protecting our environment.
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Summary: Tree Girl
Review: On her twenty-fourth birthday Julie Butterfly Hill was living alone in a giant 1000 year-old redwood tree, 180 feet up in the sky. She spent over 2 years on a tiny platform wrapped in tarps. She never touched ground. The tree is named Luna. Her tree-sit saved Luna from loggers and breathed new life into the war to save the environment. And most of it wasn't pretty. Bonnie Raitt said she is proof that one person can make a difference. Her story is a detailed account of terror and spirit, of surviving lightening storms, frostbite, attacks by an angry lumber corporation, loneliness and undeniable strength. This may be one of the more passionate and truthful sagas of its kind because through it all, Hill's voice remains naively honest and ethically pure. She didn't plan to be on the "Today Show" or one of "People" magazine's "25 Most Intriguing People of the Year." There was no master plan by an environmental organization. She imagined the possibility of falling and dying though. "If I had seen what the Luna tree-sit had in store when I first got involved, I would have run screaming in the opposite direction," Hill stated. The book is a page turner and by all accounts, a fascinating tale of the madness of the times, as well as the blooming of a young woman. It begins when Hill, having barely survived a car wreck decides to travel to find meaning in her life. She takes the reader by the hand, gently nudging us toward a rollercoaster ride-to the smell of moss and rain in Northern California. As she yanks herself up a muddy slope, then up a rope and up into a tree, the hard facts of life begin. Hill admits she had a lot to learn about what the heck she doing but, as her knowledge grows, so does ours. This makes traveling with her very personal and though the journey is painful, learning the lessons isn't. We don't have to endure a relentless wind or freezing temperatures. She does it for us. "One of the best ways to find balance is to go to extremes," Hill writes. Her self discovery into the land of environmental activism as well as the clarity of a sould driven to the breaking point are spoken from the heart, simply, as it came to her. Hill clicks into a rythmn, discovering the bare-root life as an individual act snowballs into something amazing. This escapade from mind altering desolation and a numbing of the body by the elements to the vivid sickness of corporations- is magnificent, cradled by a lush forest and a magical relationship to a tree. A good read for anyone who seeks inspiration or wishes they could escape to the forest AND for the curious-how did she last without hot showers and caffe lattes-where did she pee? Hill tells (almost) all. So far so good for Julia-she survived the tree-sit and hasn't "sold out."
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Summary: Good read for non-treehugger
Review: I picked up this book not because I'm an environmentalist. I knew little or nothing about clear cutting or the redwoods other then they were in danger and grow for hundreds of years. This book inspired me to pay more attention to our environment. It was easily read and motivating. I found Julia's journey during the two years she spent in Luna refreshing. She spoke of spirituality and struggles we all face rather we are residing in a tree or not. I see "Legacy of Luna" more as Julia's story of finding her soul... then Luna's legacy. I'd love to know what Julia is persuing now and how Luna is fairing. I believe if you are looking for an inspirational read and if you are a non-tree hugger like me you will find this book interesting (not bogged down with facts, figures and verb-age). If you are looking for something intellectual you may hunger for something with more substance.
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Summary: GREAT Reading!
Review: This is a "must read" for anyone that needs a boost of what it's like to be extremely passionate about saving & helping something you love. In this case, Julia is determined to save an ancient tree called Luna. How people treated her & what she goes through is beyond belief! If each one of us had even a small portion of that type of passion, just think what we could accomplish in our lives with our jobs, families & helping save this planet from it's current road to devastation.
Rating: 
Summary: Swinging from Treetops
Review: I love redwood trees and hate to see clear cutting as much as the next person, but Ms. Butterfly-Hill is what gives so-called treehuggers a bad name. (And what's with the flower child name 'Butterfly'? Are we a Woodstock alumna? What?) Oh, an can't I please be left alone to live in my 21st Century, yet still have redwood trees, but not have to live in a strawbale-bermed house and wear politically correct hemp clothes and deploy "Love Your Mother" bumperstickers on my Volvo wagon? And why can't I read a good book by electric lights rather than candle light? Lights powered by clean, peaceful (Goddess strike me for saying the N-word) Nuclear Power? Do I really have to buy into the whole eco movement even when it's stupid? Must I tilt at romantic windmills to be a good steward of the Earth? Sure I can. I just don't buy the thesis of the bankrupt political philosophy behind this book and so many like it. I refuse to get on board Butterfly-Hill's peace train bound for the 13th century. It just won't solve the problems she so desperately wants to protest. This book is ultimately insipid; it embarrased me by its sheer lack of reality. Why do we celebrate the neo-primitive desire by some modern intellectuals to return to a primeval pre-Eden world where trees have pet names and wild nature is romanticized? The cover photo of this book pictures the author as a pale-faced lemur, cute barefeet gripping sequoia bark, and hanging on to her simian past for dear life! Well, we may be "apes" but we're a different kind of ape. Oh, and we have come down from the trees, Ms. Butterfly-Hill or hadn't you noticed? To paraphrase the greatest writer of the past 1,000 years: Our future is in the stars, Horatio, not in the treetops.
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Summary: Julia Butterfly Hill: as revolutionary as Rachel Carson
Review: This book is comprised of two parts, the shocking reality of logging and the spiritual lessons one can learn from nature, which Julia Butterfly Hill has woven together using the words of a poet. What I learned about logging practices has opened my eyes in much the same way that "Silent Spring" opened people's eyes decades ago. If read by enough people Julia could follow in Carson's footsteps and bring about a new awakening of environmental concience which is much needed in this fast paced modern life. What allows Julia to make such an impact is that she has completely bared her soul to the public. She talked about life from the persepctive of 100-180 feet up in the air, and also told us how this made her feel. She also talked about what she learned from Luna, and the forest in genral. These observations she makes bring the forest to life in such a way that most people never would have thought possible. This book has given me more food for thought than any other book has in quite a long time. I have developed huge respect for Julia Butterfly (not just as a writer, an environmentalist, or someone who held out completely for her beliefs) but as a woman.
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