Finally, a complete, comphrensive FIELD guide to the birds of India! Gone are the days of hauling 2 or 3 hardcover bird books to the subcontinent just to be able to identify relatively common species. The drawings in this book are excellent, the descriptions very detailed, and the range maps very helpful. My two criticisms are that birders familiar with the common names in Salim Ali's "The Book of Indian Birds" will be confused with the revised nomenclature in this guide (based on the Inskipp's Indian Checklist); some changes are relatively minor, while others are so dramatically different (and frankly puzzling) that cross-referencing is a chore. The second involves the seperation of many of the range maps from the plates and descriptions, sometimes by many pages. This was due to the large number of species featured on some plates- there just wasn't enough room for the maps also. A better strategy might have been to put them all in the back of the book. But the benefits of this book far outweigh the shortcomings- my next trip to India promises to be more rewarding and productive bird-wise (as well as easier on my back)due to this excellent and overdue field guide.

Fun on the run is a terrific way to keep everyone busy on those long car trips. Included are word games,songs,license plate games and jokes. Our family enjoyed all the songs and activities. This great book can be used by car,plane or dogsled,wherever you may go. Enjoy!

Great manual but there are not that many options to choose from in this field if you want a book small enough to carry in your lab coat. In every way this book is top notch and has practical application for daily practice. It includes plenty of "cut to the chase" advice on how to manage these medicines. My only complaint is that the book is from 1997 and plenty has changed since then in the field.

This was a pretty dumb book I already knew all of this stuff!

I bought this, along with several similar books, for my 11 year-old son. The Q&A format of this book made it easy to read, but many topics were handled in a clinical, vague manner and spent way too much time on trivial subjects (e.g., a whole chapter on "Crushes.") I actually checked the copyright, to see if it was written in the '50's. (It's 1988.) I was very troubled by the section, "What Happens if a Young Girl Gets Pregnant?" It ignored the boy's role & responsibility, and glossed over the topic with vague statements such as: "Her whole life will change, and not usually for the better." And, "She may feel upset for a long time afterward." There's even a section, "Why Would a Girl Let Herself Get Pregnant?" which suggests "Sometimes a girl secretly wants to get pregnant..." The section ends with: "The surest way to prevent pregnancy is not to have intercourse." I found a much better book for my son: "What's Going on Down There." Silly title, but much more thorough, balanced and practical.

I bought this book hoping to have an early broad conversation about sexuality with my 9 year old boy and found this book to be too detailed for someone that young. The illustrations are over-simplified and may be good for younger kids, but it doesn't jibe with the text which is more complex and biologically, fact-based. A great book- but I found I have to leave it on the shelf for another year or so. I don't think most 9-year olds will get this stuff yet so I'd advise you to hold off buying this unless you have an exceptionally mature child of this age. I'm sure it will be an excellent reference at 10 or 11.

This author is extremely biased and distorts the truth at every opportunity. As a Public Heath Microbiologist, I have first have knowledge on the topic and the subject material to which Mr Cole refers to. The only reason I gave this a star at all was the appendices are not writen but the author and are true. If you want to know about this topic, research the actual documents and read it yourself without his bias. The government bashing has got to stop. It just bad journalism.

An interesting book on biological weapons testing during the 1950's. Unfortunately understanding the behavior of biological weapons was and is a necessity. This book reviews a few of the 239 admitted tests. It does not provide in depth information on the individual tests such as plume spread or pattern. It does expose the use of U.S. cities as the test tubes for these experiments. Several times the author refers to alleged violations of the BWC by the former USSR. As history has proven, they were not alleged but rampant violations of the BWC. Open air testing is likely to remain a priority for biological defense. This book describes what may be happening in your own backyard.

I have read a few books on the topic recently, and this one is short (~150 pages) and concise. Cole gives well documented examples of bio-warfare "experiments" conducted within the US on it's own populace as well as in Europe. The best part of the book documents the lawsuit of an American citizen who sued the US over the death of a family member who died from the government flu and lost becuase the court said what the feds were doing were not illegal. How nice. Need a quick reminder that the military and judicial branches of the government are not your friend? Get this book.

"The Far Kingdoms" is one of the most pretentious fantasy novels that I've ever read, by which I mean that the authors apparently think that they've written something that's deep and meaningful and will have a big effect on the lives of their readers. In reality, this novel is completely forgettable. The plot deals with Amalric Antero, a spoiled rich kid who becomes a spoiled rich adult and joins with a soldier, Janos Greycloak, in several voyages. They hope to find the legendary Far Kingdoms, a land of wealth and happiness that supposedly lies a long distance to the East. Antero is one of the least likeable characters that I've ever seen in a fantasy novel. His men die, and he has no emotional reaction at all. His wife and child die, and he only mourns for a couple hours before taking off on another trip. He seems to drift through the book without caring about what he's doing or what happens to other people. In the end, I found that I didn't care whether or not Antero and Janos ever reached The Far Kingdoms.

In addition, it seems that not much thought was put into the plotting and writing of this novel. The pace is very uneven. Sometimes the authors dwell for pages on minute details, while other times they skip over months of action in just a few sentences. The first fifty pages are totally irrelevant to the rest of the book; I think that they were written just to include some rather insipid sexual content. After that, the plot falls into and endlessly repeating pattern. The main characters travel somewhere, get into a desperate situation, get rescued miraculously, travel somewhere else, get into another desperate situation, get rescued again, etc... Many of the scenes border on the absurd, such as an encounter with apparently intelligent tigers and monkeys in the middle of the desert, and by the time that a thirty-foot-long ghost ferret showed up to eat the bad guys, I was ready to throw this book into the garbage can. In short, don't waste your time with this pile of nonsense. If you want a short fantasy novel that's both creative and well-written, try "The High House", by James Stoddard.

The book gets quickly to the plot and sticks to it. A young man must go on a journey to discover a trade route so he picks to try to discover the far kingdoms. He has a few problems along the way and if he gets there (which you will have to find out for yourself)he might haave a disaster and a love to get him thruogh it.

Great book. I picked it up for 50 cents at a used book sale, and while I did put it down from time to time (school and all) overall it was excellent. Creative, well-written, and it has a good blend of humor that many fantasy novels seem to lack. It's a good book to just sit down and read, rather than ponder. My kudos to the authors.

I THINK THAT THE BOOK "SIX SICK SHEEP" WAS A FUNNY BOOK. I WAS READING IT AND COULDN'T PUT IT DOWN.NOW IN SCHOOL WE ARE DOING A FUN PROJECT ABOUT TONGUE TWISTERS AND I KNOW THEM ALL. THANKS TO THIS BOOK.