Now in a newly updated, revised and expanded fourth edition, Daniel Gotshall's Pacific Coast Inshore Fishes continues to be the premier guide in its field. This fourth edition is enhanced with forty-four new species along with a great many new photographs. Included are family descriptions which previous editions did not have. Each species descriptions include up-to-date information on sizes and geographic ranges. Pacific Coast Inshore Fishes is an essential and highly recommended reference for ichthyologists, aquarium staff, and anyone with an interest in the varieties and life cycles of fish dwelling in Pacific coastal oceanic habitats.

This is a great book!! If you live in, or are interested in visiting Alaska, be sure to read this. Then with all that is within you, attempt to check out what it says in the field. It is written by geologists who actually live in Alaska. It is great to read along with a rock and mineral identification guide, so you can more easily identify them in the field later. Buy it, read it.

Outstanding piece of geologic literature.

Arthur Conan Doyle (Author of Sherlock Holmes), EO Wilson (famous tropical biologist), W. Somerset Maughm, Joseph Conrad, Alfred Russel Wallace (of Wallace's Line), and Henry Morton Stanley (excerpt from "The Finding of Livingstone") are to name but of few of the all-star authors featured in this book. Contains a huge number of excerpts from fiction novels, non-fiction books and essays, most of which are well-written (see above) and ALL of which are well-chosen. I will be teaching a tropical field course for high school students, and this is a perfect literary journey to help them with theirs.

Being the great-great grandson of one of the surgeons mentioned in this book I had a special interest in this book. Over the years books abut Gettysburg have always been about the military strategies involved, key players in the battle, etc. Nothing was ever truly written about the aftermath of the battle the dark side of war with all it's carnage and bloodshed. As Walt Whitman once said "the real war will never get into the books" that is until now. Gregory CoCo's "A Vast Sea Of Misery" is the first real book of its kind and long over due. Much of the battlefield has been saved from destruction over the years with the exception of the hospital sites. Many of these sites have been lost forever to real estate developments and shopping centers. Mr. CoCo set out to document the 162 hospital sites in and around the Town of Gettysburg not only as a record for future generations but in the hopes that its readers would care enough to maybe save some of the surviving sites from future development. These hospitals were truly the second battle of Gettysburg with over 21,000 maimed, wounded, and dying soldiers fighting for their lives. The surgeons of these hospitals along with the townspeople, ambulance corpsman, nurses, and civilian agencies who supplied medicines, foodstuffs, and care for the wounded soldiers on both sides are some of the real unknown heroes of Gettysburg. Mr. CoCo does an excellent job of not only identifying the location of these hospital sites through photographs and maps, but takes you back 138 years into these field hospitals through the eyes of many of the actual participants of this great struggle for survival. My great-great grandfather's Union Second Corps Hospitals had over 3260 wounded with only 14 doctors to take care of them. They worked virtually around the clock to save the human refuse of war. This book is a fitting tribute to those who not only fought and died at Gettysburg, but who gave of their time, money, talent, and skills to save so many lives. This book is certainly not the whole story of this struggle for survival and Mr. CoCo points this out. He states "It is my anticipation that a Vast Sea of Misery will serve as only a forerunner of a more complete and elaborate work by some other writer in a not-too-distant day". This book is a must read for students of the Civil War and those just plain interested in what the aftermath of battle is all about. You won't be disappointed.

Excellent resource for those interested in getting into the field of Accounting. It's concise and gets right to the nitty gritty! I highly recommend it as a great starting point for career seekers interested in business, finance and/or accounting!

I really enjoyed reading Lord Alanbrooke's War Diaries -- six years of daily impressions from the fellow who managed World War II for Britain. I now have a much better understanding why the British and Americans were fighting the Germans in North Africa and why the first Allied invasion of Europe took place in Sicily and southern Italy. Although Britain was already at war and had broken the German military code, it seems unlikely its leaders had any advance warning of the Pearl Harbor attack. In the aftermath of Pearl Harbor, Britain sustained devastating defeats in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Burma leaving India and Australia vulnerable. Of course, Hilter's invasion of the Soviet Union was the turning point.

As Churchill's principal military advisor, Alanbrooke kept a daily account from September 1939 to August 1945. He describes the Dunkirk evacuation in May 1940; the nightly German bombings of London that continued for many months after September 1940; the defensive measures Britain took to guard against attack; the German defeat of France; and meetings with American allies to plan the invasion of Europe and the defeat of the Axis powers.

Alanbrooke dined with military and political leaders virtually every day and attended many meetings with Churchill, Roosevelt, Stalin, Eisenhower, Marshall, Dill, and Montgomery. In a typical entry (January 24, 1944), he tells of Churchill

". . . discussing Stalin's latest iniquities in allowing Pravda to publish the bogus information that England was negotiating with Germany about a peace. He said: 'Trying to maintain good relations with a communist is like wooing a crocodile, you do not know whether to tickle it under the chin or to beat it on the head. When it opens its mouth you cannot tell whether it is trying to smile, or preparing to eat you up.'"

Alanbrooke described the major role he played:

"The whole world has now become one large theatre of war, and the Chiefs of Staff represent the Supreme Commanders, running the war in all its many theatres, regulating the allocation of forces, shipping, munitions, relating plans to resources available, approving and rejecting plans, issuing directives to the various theatres. And most difficult of all handling the political aspect of this military action, and coordinating with our American allies."

He struggled to keep military strategy intact at Allied war conferences held in Washington, D.C., Casablanca, Teheran, Quebec, Moscow, Yalta, and Potsdam. Later, Alanbrooke inserted the following after one of his diary entries:

"According to [Eisenhower] when we stood on the bank of the Rhine on March 25th, I said to him: 'Thank God, Ike, you stuck by your plan. You were completely right, and I am sorry if my fear of dispersed efforts added to your burdens. The German is now licked. It is merely a question of when he chooses to quit. Thank God you stuck by your guns.' I think that when this statement is considered in connection with what I wrote in my diary that evening, it will be clear that I was misquoted. To the best of my memory I congratulated him heartily on his success, and said that as matters turned out his policy was now the correct one, that with the German in his defeated condition no dangers now existed in a dispersal of effort. I am quite certain that I never said to him 'You were completely right', as I am still convinced that he was 'completely wrong', as proved by the temporary defeat inflicted on him by Rundstedt's counter stroke, which considerably retarded the defeat of Germany."

Alanbrooke also took time to ponder the meaning of war:

"The suffering and agony of war in my mind must exist to gradually educate us to the fundamental law of 'loving our neighbor as ourselves'. When that lesson has been learned, then war will cease to exist."

His perceptive remarks ring true today. If you have the time, this book is definitely worth reading. The editors provide a useful introduction (including short descriptions of friends, comrades, politicians, and soldiers), a carefully prepared index, a handy list of abbreviations, and 8 pages of photographs.

This book is well organised, well written and beautifully illustrated. Written by people who truly know the Galapagos Islands and all that exists there, including landings and information on what one can expect to see on arrival at any one island. I actually used three other guides whilst in the Galapago this month and only accessed this one at the end of my trip. I have continued to read this book since arriving home and highly recommend it.

DO NOT judge this book by its cover!! The factual information in this edition presents wolves in a way that displays their true selves - intellegent, social, and amazing creatures that deserve the opportunity the not only survive, but thrive!

If Better Training for Distance Runners is too technical for your tastes then this is the book for you. Daniel takes the guess work out of finding the training paces that you need to know for sound training with his VDOT method. I'm currently using the program and this works. You don't have to worry about over-training with this program because it is where you are and is adjustable as you improve -- unlike other running programs that you have to run the course of the training plan. Daniels' plain language approach should have great appeal. Excellent book.

Jack Daniels is recognized to be one of the world's leading authorities on distance training. This book encompasses the bulk of his wisdom, with a detailed approach to training for all races between 1500m and marathon distances. Daniels focuses on utilizing periodization training, with blocks of about 4 weeks dedicated specifically to repetition, threshold, interval, or aerobic training. The blocks are arranged according to your long-term season, resulting a very serious and demanding training program.

While extremely detailed and effective, Daniels' book is clearly oriented toward the serious runner with the ability to plan out his or her season and make regular visits to a track. Daniels provides specific workouts for each type of training (repetition, threshold, interval, or aerobic) and offers sample training programs for various distances. He devotes a good portion of Daniels' Running Formula to the physiological mechanisms of faster times, as well as racing, training conditions, taking time off, etc.

Ultimately, it is his extensive approach to periodized training that truly stands out. Complete with detailed explanations of each kind of training and effective workouts for serious runners, Daniels provides the kind of coaching that the elite use. Nevertheless, the specificity and dedication demanded by his training program is clearly oriented toward intermediate/advanced runners, and beginners would be at a loss with this otherwise exceptional book.

Jack Daniels, the author of this book, holds a PhD in Exercise Physiology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He first got involved with running when he used to compete in triathlons. He is currently the head coach of the SUNY-Cortland women's Cross Country team. This book is FULL of EASY TO UNDERSTAND technical information that will make you FASTER...period.

Personally, I am a high school distance runner and on our cross country team we run about 40 miles / week. Our coach started using this book before our outdoor track season started. I ran a 5k road race in 19:50 (6:23 pace) on March 11th, 2001 before the track season had started and before we started using Daniels' formula. Daniels' book has you establish a VDOT based on recent race performances. He explains the PURPOSE of every workout you do. He believes it's important that you realize what you're trying to accomplish with every running session that you do. Therefore, Daniels has easy to use tables which set intensity guidelines to prevent overtraining and injury. He shows you that if you train anywhere in between the intensities, then you're training in "no-man's land." This means that you are doing "junk-training." There are four training paces in all for high-quality running sessions: the easy/everday training pace(65-75 percent of VO2 max), the interval pace (designed to stress VO2 max or maximum oxygen uptake, performed at 98-100 percent of VO2 max), the threshold pace (designed to improve lactate threshold, about 86-88 percent of VO2max), and the Repetition Pace (designed to improve running strength and economy, at a pace greater than one's VO2 max).

For me, I ran a 5:15 mile at the beginning of the track season so my coach used this to determine my VDOT. According to the book's tables, my VDOT was 56. I trained by doing "R Pace workouts," "T Pace Workouts" and "I Pace Workouts." R Pace workouts, designed to improve running strength and economy, consisted of 200, 200, 400 meter repeats with a 1 to 4 effort to rest ratio. For a 56 VDOT, the paces would be 39 and 80. The T Pace Workout, designed to improve lactate threshold, was 6 x 1000 for me with only 1 minute rest, at 3:53 pace. The I pace workout, to stress VO2 max, is also repeat 1000s. However, we do only 4 x 1000 at a faster pace, 3:34, but get 3:34 rest as a result of the 1 to 1 effort to rest ratio.

In addition, he shows you exactly how to schedule your training sessions around races so you can be in peak physical fitness to set a HUGE PR!!! As a result of his training for less than 2 months, I ran an 18:14 5k (5:53 pace) on May 6th, 2001. I was 7th overall out of 166 runners in the race. In the race last March 11th, 2001, where I ran 19:50, I was 47th in my race, PATHETIC!!! I have no idea what I would run the mile in if I were to race it now, but I would guess that I'd be around 4:50 thanks to his workouts which have resulted in an increase in my fitness level.

Jim Ryun, a former world record holder in the 800, mile, and 1500m says "Simply put, Daniels' formula works. This book is a must read for every runner and coach interested in achieving peak performance."