This book is quite insightful, especially for a Southeast Asian media professional like myself. I recommend this book to everyone, even to those who work in the upper regions of the power sturcture of the media conglomerates critiqued in the collection.

For starters, it is a wonderful overview of how the media economy is shifting all over the world. The US market is saturated, as the book said, and the rest of the world is ripe for picking, especially my country, the Philippines.

This book is a tool to launch our own media analysis of what's happenning in our own countries. And from an analysis, we launch a critique, and from a critique, we launch steps to face the situation.

This book, published by New Media, is invaluable. I first read about it in an issue of Utne Reader. I took down the title and hunted it down in Amazon. I found it, bought it, and consumed it. I loved it because it gave me useful insights to work with.

This is a book I will dog-ear in my attempts to understand what to do in my field, and how to start my own media conglomerate from scratch. I already have my ideas, which I hope aren't just soundbites in my head.

Some of the summaries are of essays from writers such as: Juliet Schor, Alan Durning, John Kenneth Galbraith (Forward also written by him), Colin Campbell, Frank Ackerman, and (of course) many others.

There are name and subject indexes in the back and a table of contents in the front, so it is very easy to find a particular essay's summary or just find summaries of essays on the subjects/by the authors you are interested in. In addition, each summary begins with a formal citation of the essay being summarized. This is a great way of finding good articles on various subjects!

I highly recommend this book as a tool for finding good essays, as a reference book on various economics and sociology subjects, or as an introductory book to major sociology and economic theories.

-- Kenneth Prewitt President, Social Sciences Research Council

The presentation of the material, with clear and comprehensive essays for each section, and brief summaries for each of the outside authors, make this book exceptionally accessible. It should be widely used by political and environmental scholars and in college classrooms as well.

Dobie talks about this land of shadows where we meet Alice Henderson, who faced down fifty cow thieves; Don Milton Favor, who built his own fort while making treaties with hostile Indians; and Cheetwah, a mystic Indian chief who vanished into the mountains to keep vigil over hidden treasures. These and other characters spring from the pages of Dobie's book with a vigor and purpose that makes the heart sing.

The Texas of the Big Bend country is where Dobie's prose satisfies, "Outlandish pictures painted down the sides of caves by aborigines which no white man can now decipher...a jagged and gashed land where legend has placed a lost canyon, its broad floor carpeted with grass that is always green and watered by gushing springs, its palisaded walls imprisoning a herd of buffalo...somewhere in this land credulity has fixed a petrified forest with tree trunks seven hundred feet long."

The author claims, "After I hear a tale I do all I can to improve it," and this is an understatement. Readers who possess a sense of wonder will enjoy this book. History often cloaks personages with dusty trappings, stuffy sayings, and mixed motives so time has faded the awe that Drake, Cortez, Raleigh, and Coronado experienced. Dobie illuminates the wonder of the children of Coronado as they chase their dreams and draws us into their world of enchantment.

Francisco Coronado never found his golden riches or the fabled Seven Cities of Cibola during his time in the Southwest. When he returned in 1542, and told the truth about his barren search, he wasn't believed. One person who did believe said, "Granted he did not find the riches of which he had been told -- he found instead a place in which to search for them."

And the search continues. For centuries Coronado's vision of wealth has lured countless thousnads to the Southwest where tradition and myth have marked mountains, rivers, and ancient ruins with boundless treasures. This book follows long forgotten Spanihs trails, buffalo trails, cow trails, and areas where there are no trails as searchers dig for riches which eludes their grasp. Others, rather than searching, have sat and told stories of lost mines, buried treasure and of ghostly patrones who guard the treasures -- adding layers to the myths that abound in the land of Coronado.

This book lovingly describes Spanish influence and tradition on the Sountwest and combines a terrific cast of characters, interesting situations, and Dobie's unmatched skill at weaving a tale. The author's footnotes are at the end of the text and are filled with tales and legends of lost mines and treasures. There's an interesting section on the elaborate Code of Treasure Symbols used by the Spaniards. An excellent glossary of idioms used in the Southwest follows that section.

There is more to the American West than gunfighters, farmers, bankers, cowboys, and miners. The author has given us the realm of the dreamers.

Author Frank de Courten is a palaeontologist, formerly at the You of You, now at Sierra College in California. De Courten, with handlebar mustachio and cowboy hat, fits comfortably into the romantic image of a Dinologist, and he's well-aware of the popular appeal of the critters. Fortunately he's literate too (another pretty-common trait in the trade, thank heavens), and his prose reads smoothly, though you're going to have to be *seriously* interested to get through all 300 oversize pages...

But it's a beautiful book, nice heavy smooth paper, full cloth binding, lots of color photos, some really *outstanding* color plates by artist Carel van Kampen -- really, it's a lot of book for [the money]. At the very least, check it out from your library, and of course if there's a dino-lover on your gift list...

The book covers equally the great dinosaurs of the midwest - especially the Jurassic dinosaurs the area is world famous for - and their environment (an asset or a negative depending on your interests). A particular strength is that almost equal space is given to the more obscure species and their more famous counterparts when the fossil record warrants it. Gorgeous artwork clinches this work as a gem - certainly in my top 10 dino books.

Over 170,000 varieties of butterflies and moths have been identified. The author estimates that an equal number remain to be identified in the future. How can a simple pocket book hope to cope?

Mr. Carter has developed a solid concept for this helpful volume. He gives you a little bit of information about all the things that are most likely to be of interest. Then, as you become more knowledgeable, you can graduate to more extensive works and experiences.

The bulk of the book is a field guide to 5 butterfly and 22 moth families that are most common throughout the world. Over 600 color photographs are contained here. In this way, you have a decent chance of identifying whatever is flying in your garden during the good weather. Each species is beautifully illustrated with the wings outspread and a map showing where the species is usually found. Some species also have illustrations of both sides of the wings, caterpillars and other distinctive views.

Although moth varieties outnumber butterflies by about 9 to 1, the book wisely displays mostly butterflies. The moths chosen rival the butterflies for their wonderful designs and vibrant colorations.

For those with a casual interest in the subject, the beginning will be especially valuable. Here you can find out about the differences between butterflies and moths, the details of the life cyles of these insects, how to best observe them, and tips for building a garden that will attract the largest possible population. I thought that last information was most worthwhile.

At the end of the book are listed some of the many gardens you can visit that are populated by collections of living butterflies. I have found those to be remarkably good fun, and very relaxing. You have to slow down to enjoy butterflies. It's good for each of us to move at butterfly speed more often.

The current edition was published in 2000, and contains corrections to the original 1992 edition so be sure to get this second edition.

After you have finished enjoying this beautiful visit to nature's paintbrush and invention workshop, I suggest that you consider how else you can enjoy studying nature. For example, have you ever looked at flowers with a high-power magnifying glass? Like butterflies, they look quite different (and more wonderful) when you can see more details.

Overcome your stalled thinking that you have to wait for a butterfly to cross your path before you can enjoy one!

Hodge could have written a simple, to-the-point guidebook, but his Steinbeck-like opus is full of observation and insight into Texas as well as the human and canine condition. Writing about a park in Houston, for instance, he mentions that he went to a nearby branch library to re-read a passage from the classic novel, "Old Yeller," by the late Mason writer Fred Gipson. Hodge and his two dogs put 25,000 miles on his sport utility vehicle (Hodge says his Sport appreciates the fact that Detroit bestowed her name on a whole vehicular genre) in researching "The Texas Dog Lover's Companion." Following a 20-page, philosophy-filled introductory overview on traveling with dogs (and in which Sport and Samantha are brought on stage), Hodge covers the state region by region. He and his co-researchers sniffed their way across the state, checking parks, places to eat and sleep and even places where you can take your pet shopping. Hodge found most of Texas pretty accommodating when it comes to dogs, but it's clear that he didn't mind leaving Lubbock in his rearview mirror. "Unfortunately, for dogs there are few positives," Hodge writes of Lubbock. "Dogs must be leashed everywhere, and we could find few places that actually welcomed them. For dogs, anyway, Lubbock seems destined to remain a stop on the way to someplace better." One "someplace better," he wrote, is Amarillo. Hodge likes its climate and friendliness -- to people and their pooches. Hodge's guidebook is a sometimes funny and always entertaining and useful travel reference even if you aren't traveling with Rover. If a hotel, eating place or park won't accept dogs, who would want to go there anyway? As Hodge writes, "Texas is going to the dogs. And it's about time." Hodge's book is a delightful salute to Texas and to dogs, from Old Yeller to Sport, Samantha and -- in sentiment, to Rosie. "It's the land that brings out what's inside us," Hodge quotes one savvy Big Bend resident as saying about her corner of Texas. "There's a beauty and clarity I believe you find only in open spaces." And, Hodge adds, "in the eyes of a dog."

I moved away from Downeast Maine twenty years ago and I have missed it ever since. I miss the smell of the salt air and the nice cool breeze that always seems to be there. I miss the endless hay fields and the way the trees produce unheard of colors every fall. Most of all I miss the people. They are kind, honest, and carry an accent that could make anyone feel at home.

I bought the book Downeast Maine: A World Apart a month ago and I read it every day. The stories and black and white photos give the reader a true feeling for what it is like living in Downeast Maine. Reading it, I can almost smell the salt air and feel that unforgettable summer breeze. The book really brings me home again. It's wonderfull book!

Van Riper, a former White House correspondent for the New York Daily News ably handles both camera and notepad to record vivid, full-frame images of his neighbors. This is fundamentally a book about people, and he has clearly managed to transcend that putoffishness that Maine residents are known for to get their stories alongside their pictures. The text doesn't merely accompany, nor do the photos merely illustrate; they are inseparable components.

There is a timeless quality to these images of people, most seen at work. Only at times does a modern watch or a radar dome on a boat remind you that clams are still dug through back-breaking labor and lobster hauled up one or two at a time. The book was collected over a number of years, and italics note where the subject portrayed died between the portrait and publication -- and you feel the loss.

This is serious documentary, with more than a hint of Walker Evans and Sebastián Salgado, but with light touches as well. Van Riper devotes a page to the peculiar delight of Maine's own Grape Nuts ice cream, a confection that predates -- and in his view, outrates -- Ben and Jerry's chunky conglomerates.

A visually stunning series of what happens when a dead whale washes ashore in his small town of Kennebec closes out the book. The sharply mottled skin of the whale amid the wash-fade of a foggy illustrate the beauty of his corner of Maine, as Van Riper also tells us of hard choices a financially strapped, self-reliant community must face as it struggles to get rid of what is, after all, tons and tons of rotting flesh.

This sensitive portrayal proves that what it means to be from Maine has nothing to do with what bottled water you drink.

His "moment" photographs are some of my favorites, including the photo of the boy at the pie-eating contest. It's an ageless photograph captured with precision timing and artful composition. These are traits of photographs throughout the book and share the essence of great documentary photojournalism--the ability to capture a simple (almost unseen) moment with artisitc and historic sensibilities. Van Riper captures this quiet beauty in medium format which lends itself to the superb reproductions.

Van Riper's fine images coupled with his words showcase his great ear for telling dialogue honed during his "other" career as a newspaper writer.