Science writing is rarely both illuminating and entertaining, and that is why this book is exceptional.

Having read many science and nature writers, this was my first experience reading Quammen. I was thrilled. Quammen is a fabulous writer. This book is a collection of Quammen's essays on topics ranging from Sea Cucumber to cockroaches to crows to amimal rights to deserts to rivers to turtles and much more. I doubt if you'll find such a rich, diverse and eclectic collection of natural writings anywhere else. Must read and own.

Quammen's first work in book form is merely a collection of his various magazine articles. You may be slightly annoyed when reading the book in a couple days because some subjects are repeated. But when you realize they appeared 2 or 3 yrs apart in a magazine, its easily excusable. Especially when the writing is so superb, timely (actually ahead of its time, since much of it was written 20+ years ago), interesting and educational. Some of the more dire environmental predictions havent exactly come true (YET), but that does not diminish the urgency of our ecological nightmare.

Read this book as a primer, then read Quammen's "Song of the Dodo," to gain some true knowledge.

This book is the result of a three-way collaboration between a scientist, a philanthropist and artist dedicated to producing a diorama depicting 300 years of New England's natural and cultural history.

The work, started in the late 1920, captures the essence of the Harvard Forest approach to environmental science, in which a solid understanding of the landscape history provides a basis for interpretation and conservation of nature.

Lifelike and detailed, the dioramas' historical and ecological approach remains relevant today as it becomes more apparent that changes in nature can only be assessed through long-term perspectives.

Many people do not realize that Harvard University has its own forest in New England. The forest has been a source of study for silviculture since its founding in 1907 for almost 100 years.

In the late 1920s, Harvard professor Richard T. Fisher joined with a philanthropist, Dr. Ernest G. Stillman, and talented artisans in the studio of Guernsey and Pitman in Harvard Square to develop a remarkable series of dioramas to capture conservation issues for future generations of silviculture students to study. These dioramas are the basis for the text and illustrations in this book.

New England was mostly ancient forest when the European settlers arrived. The small Native American population cleared only a modest portion of the forests, and used the game from the forests rather more than the timber. With immigration, New England rapidly became one big farm. So much for the original forests. Next, the New England farms were put out of business by richer, midwestern farms shipping their goods to the east. Within a few decades, new forests arose to cover the temporarily cleared and abandoned fields. With rapid growth in pines, a second wave of clearing occurred about a hundred years ago, leaving the forests to start to regrow again. The current hardwood-dominated forests are a result of this man-driven process. These experiences provide many lessons for understanding the impact that people have on forests, and for suggesting better practices for the future.

In one sequence of seven dioramas depicting the same place over time, you can see the whole historical process take place. I found it fascinating. I recognized in each image places that I had visited in New England. Now I can connect each site to what it represents in terms of environmental circumstances. That is like learning to read nature in the way I can read a book to get a message.

Today, we think ahead further (but probably not yet far enough) to consider the implications of our actions on future generations and other species. These dioramas show the importance of capturing the natural history of an area to begin to draw those lessons.

Another set of dioramas were designed to exemplify the conservation issues in New England forests, including loss of old-growth forests, habitat needs for wildlife, natural losses due to hurricanes, erosion from cutting forests, imported pests that feed on forests, and the impact of natural fires and fighting forest fires.

To me the most fascinating part was in the suggested good principles of forestry management. Each stage of forest growth and regrowth is displayed, along with what needs to be done for each stage. This reminded me of being asked about what to do by a client with very large holdings of forests in Maine a few years ago. If I had known about these dioramas, I could have given much more appropriate and valuable advice. I do feel quite a pang of regret at the missed opportunity, as a result.

The final section of the book shows the detail of how the dioramas were created.

The book also tells you about the history of the Harvard Forest and how to reach the Fisher Museum where the dioramas are displayed. I recommend the visit!

The reference to Bullough's Pond in the title of this review is for the highly regarded book that slightly preceded this one, about the ecological history of a man-made pond in Newton, Massachusetts. If you have not yet read that fine work, you have a real treat ahead of you. Anyone who is interested in understanding the rhythms between humans and nature can learn much from these two books.

Having read these two books, a new question occurs to me. At one time, forest fires were aggressively avoided in New England. The current view is that these are a natural process and should not be so aggressively countered. Where else do our views need to be shifted to reflect the long-term best interests of all?

How should use of forests and water reserves be adjusted to reflect optimum benefits for the next ten generations? How would our use change if this question were stretched to cover twenty generations? Do we even know how to think about these questions? Do we have plans to be able to learn how?

Overcome the presumption that only the here and now is important. What we do here and now is very important, but our decisions need to be much more independent of momentary needs and perspectives.

Perhaps microcosm is not quite the world, Forests Through Time offers a fascinating angle of insight into one aspect of the ecological development of New England. For a wider angle, one reads Bullough's Pond, and for the complete picture of the land in colonial times, Changes in the Land. This however is a fascinating view and well worth perusing.

I got a copy of Eliot Porter's Glen Canyon book after reading Edward Abbey's "Desert Solitaire," a chapter of which is devoted to a downriver rafting trip along this stretch of the Colorado River just before the dam was built. While Abbey's descriptions are vivid, I wanted to see with my own eyes what he was describing. And Porter's camera is the closest you can get to doing that today.

His pictures are, of course, not the real thing, but they are about as breathtaking as photography can be. The colors, textures, reflections, and the play of light and shadow are wonderful, and each photograph is distinctly different. His own description of the canyon's display of color and light in the introductory essay "The Living Canyon" give an instructive insight into the eye of the photographer. His awareness of what he is looking at and his ways of choosing to look help the reader to see even more in the 80 photographs that follow.

While some of the photographs capture the monumental scale of the canyon walls and formations, many focus on the myriad surfaces that are revealed to the eye: erosion patterns, lichen, rippling water flow, the dark streaking mineral stains extending from seeps, the rough texture of weathered sandstone in glancing sunlight, smooth river stones, the layered stripes of exposed sediment, the trickling spread of water falling from overhead springs, the hanging tapestry coloration of the walls, whorled and striated rock, dry sand. There are also photographs of plants: moonflower, maidenhair fern, willow, tamarisk, redbud, columbine, cane. Above all, there is the rich array of colors, capturing a great variety of moods and attitudes.

Porter was recognized for his photography of birds, and while there are no birds visible in these photographs, his introductory essay makes mention of them, and when looked at with that awareness, many of the pictures also seem to capture a sense of "air space" for flight. Before turning to photography, Porter was a Harvard professor of biochemistry and bacteriology, and it's interesting to see the somewhat dispassionate eye of the scientist in the way he uses the camera. While the story of Glen Canyon may induce sorrow or anger, the photographs are strong for their lack of sentimentality.

The pictures also excite a curiosity about the geology of the river, and the book concludes with a short essay describing how the canyon walls reveal the geological ages that have gone into forming this part of the earth, going back millions of years. The book also includes a catalog of all the plants and animals that inhabited Glen Canyon before its inundation. Altogether, with its quotes from other writers, including Loren Eiseley, Joseph Wood Krutch, Wallace Stegner, and members of John Wesley Powell's expedition in the 19th century, this book is a fitting record of a great lost national treasure.

These photographs are just about all that is left of Glen Canyon. After the Sierra Club and other environmentalists had lost the battle to prevent the Glen Canyon River Dam from being built, Eliot Porter took this extraordinary series of photographs to memorialize the gorgeous area that has been lost forever. Few people at the time knew much about the Canyon. It was too remote, too difficult to get to. Although it was one of the areas that John Wesley Powell found most beautiful in his first expedition down the Green and Colorado Rivers, no access roads or paths were ever built to make it possible for many people to view the areas firsthand. As a result, very few people knew precisely what we were about to lose.

The tragedy is that these areas are really, truly are gone. Even if the Glen Canyon River Dam were magically removed, many of the areas viewed in these gorgeous photographs have already been silted up. The Green and Colorado Rivers carry extreme quantities of minerals, and when the dam stops the flow to form a reservoir, they tend to drop to the bottom. All dams have a limited life. They don't last for as long as one might imagine. Basically, they create a new landmass behind them over the course of a century or so. Many of the spots photographed in these pictures are now solid earth.

One would hope that such beautiful photographs as these, photos that create tremendous longing for what we have already lost, would make us more concerned to preserve what is left. But with the current presidency even today as I write this review opening the national parks to snowmobiles and with people speculating that there will be new attempts to open arctic areas in Alaska to oil exploration, we can't assume that in the least. These photographs may end up being emblematic of all endangered areas, of the ongoing fragility of all of nature.

I was expecting a reprint similar to the small-sized Ballantine issue of the late 1960s. I was surprised to receive a book almost as large as the original Sierra Club hardback! The color in several of the photographs is even better than in the original (and difficult to find/very expensive) book, thanks in part to the cooperation of the museum which received Porter's works as a bequest.

The book Thor is one of my favorites...assuming there are not two. The synopsis above does not seem to describe at all the book I and the reviewers have read. The book I so enjoyed described a loyal dog's silent, lonely, heroic struggle to protect his family from an enemy within which he had no chance of defeating. It's truly a wonderful book, in some ways in the spirit of Watership Down or Tailchaiser's Song. The book described in the synopsis, however, seems to be the story of a beloved pet in real life. Very confusing...if you find the suspense tale entitled Thor, on which I believe the movie "Bad Moon" (and equally bad movie, but not the author's fault) was based, pick it up. It's a wonderfully engaging one or two night read that will keep you up til dawn. I hope the author gives those of us who enjoyed the book so much another night or two of pleasure...it's a stretch, but if Bruice Willis continues to get into Die Hard situations, why not Thor? Thrilling, heartwrenching read. Poor kitty.

reviewer o.c., ca. certainly never saw or read the book. as a shepherd trainer and owner i would have to describe this a combinatin of poetry and fine art. genuinely touching. a remarkable epitaph to a dog that was loved and is missed.

Thor was one of my favorite books! When the secret of the family's uncle came out was very scary! When a wild animal keeps coming and kills the young cat that thor actually loves he is sent to the pound and the owner crys as he is taken away. It certainly made me cry after a dignified dog was thrown into the pound!

Mr. Quammen has made science seem like the most exciting fiction. Finally someone!

I bought this book just before going on a 2 week trip to Chile for scientific research. It surprised me. The essays were often on topics which I thought I had no interest-trout- but Quammen gives the subject an interesting philosphical slant.

I read alot of natural history books and these essays were not the usual style of writing that I have come to expect. Quammen incorporates science, history, and philosophy into his writing. I liked some of the essays so much I wished that he had gone into greater detail! And i will be looking up some of the references he cites at the end of his book! It was a great companion for 4 cloudy nights on a mt in chile.

I picked up 'Natural Acts' at the library's paperback book-swap. I only grabbed it because the first few pages seemed a bit humorous and witty. Upon further review, I realized that I was dealing with no ordinary author (if any of them can be called ordinary).

David Quammen has an unparalleled flair for putting nature in its place. By the end of 'Natural Acts' you'll be happily convinced that this world is as mystical and comical as you thought it was.

Some of my favorite topics in the book include (in my own words): The (exaggerated)Size of Anacondas, The Intelligent Crow, Why Are There So Many Damned Beetles?, and that whole 'Why Would Someone Drink Their Own Urine?' thing.

'Natural Acts' is a very intelligent and hilarious look at nature. I routinely recommend this book to anyone I find remotely interested in science.

I couldn't disagree more with the negative comments of your first reviewer. I devoured the text of this book and only hope that Mr. Gorman will continue to provide us with his thoughtful insights into the beautiful and historically important places this book makes accesible. His prose captures the imagination, and demonstrates Gorman's appreciation of and respect for the wonderful locations he has chosen for his subjects. The photographs Mr. Gorman has taken are, in a word -- spectacular. Any collector of photography, or anybody who shares Mr. Gorman's evident passion for nature and history will cherish this book. I am planning on giving copies of this book to all of my friends and family who are outdoor enthusiasts this holiday season.

Usually, I am leery, at best, about people who regard themselves as qualified to attempt to shape, influence, or form broad opinion about art. I find that more personal critiques of art (such as opinions shared by friends who have common interests) usually prove more palatable and valid. This is especially true when the art form in question is literary. An individual's collected experiences lend to a unique, and completely valid vantage or perspective when surveying literary terra incognita. Hence, more often than thinking about a book as being "bad or "good," I tend to think of books and their readers as being well- or ill-paired. After reading Ms. Ross's review of Mr. Gorman's book, The American Wilderness: Journeys into Distant and Historic Landscapes, I immediately thought Ms. Ross an ill-suited audience for this book. In her critique, I felt a significant injustice had been committed and felt that I would be committing a greater disservice to my fellow outdoorsmen, conservationists, and environmentalists, if I did not speak in favor of this book.

Succinctly stated, Mr. Gorman's book is brilliant! The photographs are, at least, gallery quality and the prose, quite near sublime. The book is an epiphany for the wilderness aesthete, for those few who are still capable of being profoundly moved by the beauty of the simple façade and the complex underpinnings of nature. I imagine Mr. Gorman as a modern-day Thoreau, complete with zoom lens, extolling the virtues of one of our last true Public Goods (the American wilderness). Often, it seems that Wilderness Advocates, like Mr. Gorman, speak to an indifferent or hostile audience. Having said all this, I believe that one must approach such a book with some intellectual curiosity and preferably the potential for appreciation, maybe even some great love or admiration of nature. Otherwise, one's comments are strictly academic, only as valid as the observations of an atheist on the nature of faith. Those who tend to agree with Ms. Ross's assertion that "... Perhaps nature is by nature boring," would probably be better-off proceeding to the "murder-mysteries" aisle. For everyone else, this is an insightful, well-conceived survey of the American wilderness.

This is a wonderful book. Unlike many other photo-essay/coffee table books, the prose is of the same high quality as the photographs. Indeed Mr. Gorman's writing is as light, airy and fresh as the snow beneath his skis during one of his midwinter telemark expeditions. His narrative is peppered with poignant historical sketches on the people and events that breathe so much life into the places he visits. These diversions add life and serve to frame his writings. Witness his harrowing descriptions of valorous US servicemen staring death squarely in the eye during the Battle of Midway. Similarly, his lively profiles of the picaresque outlaws and wanderers who have found refuge in the harsh landscapes of the Everglades and the Missouri Breaks add a heartbeat to such inhospitable regions. That Mr. Gorman finds wonder and beauty in these places and their people and so successfully communicates these feelings with pen and camera is a testament to his abilities as a writer, photographer, naturalist and historian.

Very good guide for the local birds. As with all guides some of the drawings could be better.

We had this family of birds in our front yard tree that were new and unique to us. I ordered this book for my husband, and within minutes we figured out what type of bird it was! A great book.

As a novice birder, identifying species is the most challenging facet. This book is set up to facilitate rapid identification of the birds you encounter. Thumbnail pictures in the front section allow for rapid scanning of various species' prominent features without paging endlessly through the book. The data on each bird in subsequent pages is succinct and interesting to the casual or begining birder. Esoteric information is pleasantly omitted. I use it more than my Sibley guide.

The author has put together a very clear and concise book which is essential for engineers. Whether using it as a reference or to read it cover to cover it is well worth the purchase. A+

This book covers 2900 Series up to 6000 Series Catalyst Switches including Catlayst 3500XL and 2900MXL Series. This book is not for CCNA wannabe's, cause it doesn't include Catalyst 1900 Series. Besides, you should know Cisco Switching before attempting to read this book. This book is more help on your day to day Cisco Catalyst administration job.

This book beats Cisco LAN Switching (CCIE Professional Development). It covers those topics that Cisco LAN Switching lacks - from Switch Functionality, SE Configuration, creating VLANs & Trunking, STP, Multilayer Switching, to QOS. More examples than LAN Switching.

This book, together with the Cisco Routers for IP Routing Little Black Book (by: Innokenty Rudenko) and Remote Access for Cisco Networks (by: William Burton and Bill Burton), your daily administration of Cisco devices will be easy as you have never imagined. Of course you need at least a CCNA Advanced Level or a CCNP level to use these three books.

I'm a CCNP/CCDA supporting Internet Data Centre / Internet Service Provider Core Routers/Distribution Switches/Access Switches and I found that this book is valuable to my daily administration tasks. I highly recommend this book for Cisco Catalyst administrators.

In becoming a CCNA and CCDA I had to study switches and switching techniques, both of which are covered very well in most study guides. What seems to be missing is coverage, extensive coverage, of switch configuration and management, that's why this book is so important.

The authors take a specific subject, the Catalyst Switch, and break it down to the lowest level. They give extremely detailed information about the switches, from the 2950 series to the 600 series, from configuration for both layer 2 and 3, to VLANs, VTP, STP, multicasting and access control.

Leaving virtually no stone unturned the authors have taken area of Cisco certification and made it the focus of study. What I found most impressive was the real world examples, coupled with coding screen shots, so you can see what things look like rather than have to guess.

Overall this book can work for the CCNA, CCDA and CCNP Switching exams. Cisco Press needs to add this to the Preparation and Certification libraries for the exams as well.

The Sibley Guide to Birds, as most mention, is a great guide but too heavy to tote into the field...this field guide solves that problem.

Yes, the illustrations are smaller, but just as useable. Yes, some of the illustrations in the original guide have been deleted, but the guide you take with is better than the one at home. (You should have the original at home anyway!)

I find that the addition of Status, Habitat and Behavior in the text more than makes up for fewer illustrations.

Well made and sturdy...buy it!

As a beginner bird-watcher, I was looking for a field guide that was easy to understand and contained plenty of information about the habits of birds. This book certainly meets those criteria. It is easy to read and understand, and contains lots of helpful information. It is also beautifully and accurately illustrated, making it easy to identify birds by sight.

I would recommend this book to anyone, beginner or advanced, who is interested in observing birds in eastern North America. This guide has something for everyone.

I started birdwatching a year and a half ago and the Sibley Guide to Birds was the first guide I purchased. Although I had been told it was for "expert" birders, I just thought the illustrations were much clearer than any other guide. It was a joy to look at, at home on my couch. But I never wanted to take it with me in the field because it's too darn heavy.

So the Sibley FIELD Guide is the exactly the guide I've been wishing for. The illustrations are just as clear, even though they've been scaled down, and the format is a managable size and weight. The original guide had many variations, by region, sex, age, etc., and I think they had to drop a few of these, but at my level of birdwatching I don't miss them. The guide DOES still show male and female, first year, etc. I took this guide with me to Prospect Park, Brooklyn, last weekend, and I saw and ID'ed 45 species. Not bad for an amateur!

Expert birders will already be familiar with Sibley and can make up their own minds, so I would like to say to beginning birdwatchers, give this guide a shot. I really think the illustrations are the best and most helpful.

Various topics are discussed, such as percentages, units and measurements, probability, statistics, etc., with a strong emphasis on rounding numbers to perform quick calculations in one's head in order to get ball park estimates of the desired results. It is also emphasized that producing results to n decimal places is rarely necessary in day to day calculating. Although this book is clear and well-written, it may, nevertheless, instill fear into the minds of those people who are uncomfortable with numbers. I therefore agree with a prior reviewer that the book may be aimed at the educators; the book's last chapter would seem to support this.

This book, by a friend and former colleague, is a wonderful introduction to the ways that numbers are used, and misused, in our work and everyday lives.

If you are uneasy with quantitative reasoning, you will never read the business page, or your medical chart in quite the same way after reading this book. If you fancy yourself more sophisticated, you will still learn a lot, and you will swoon with joy at the emphatic debunking of much humbug: predictable flaws of Olympic judging, hidden messages in the Bible, and so on. the chapter on measures is my favorite. I never understood the difference between an acre and a hectare.

I have assigned Chapters 2 and 3 to my masters' level students in policy analysis. I think this is a nice addition to the bookshelf of any manager, investment manager, or reader of the sports page.

This book, co-written by a friend and former colleague, is a surprisingly fun read.

For all the wisecracks about Olympic judging and the Lakers, this book presents a sophisticated roadmap to the use and misuse of numbers in work and everyday life. You won't listen to the business report--or your doctor's advice--in quite the same way after a careful read. If you are already numerate, you will laugh at the careful but emphatic debunking of frustrating humbug that goes uncorrected on the local news, the sports report, and more serious venues.

I especially like Chapter 2, "The 10 habits of highly effective quantitative thinkers." Investors who read their chapter "For good measure," might still have gotten ripped off in the Enron scandal. At least they would have understood what happened. I will use both chapters in my Masters'-level courses in policy analysis.

All in all, this is a valuable addition to the bookshelf of any policy analyst or private-sector consultant.