The full color illustrations and brief, interesting descriptions make this a great gift for young fish enthusiasts and a wonderful resource for reports.

This title is actually one of the earliest in a very successful list of Golden Guides. It quickly brings the reader up to speed on the subject of insects in general and proceeds to lure him onward with fascinating information about each of the referenced insects in turn. When I arrived in New England, after an early childhood of city dwelling, my forays into woods and field, guidebook in hand, were some of the most educational times of my young life. I still have my original, ragged, copy of "American Insects" and treasure it.

I was fortunate to have the opportunity to read this book and it was an excellent book. The photography is stunning and writing is superb. It is worth every penny for this book.

Like the other book i reviewed for McManus (fine and pleasant misery), I must first note that one does not need to be active in, or even be interested in hunting or fishing to enjoy this book. It is funny because McManus is funny and intelligent and can string you along while he spins his tale. He lulls you into a false sense of comfort and then pulls the rug out from under you.

I am not sure if McManus could even write a full length novel, but that is ok. He is a master of the amusing short story.

The mountain car was my favorite story, even though it was a bit contrived, it was still funny. I use the "what does it run on, wet leaves?" line every chance I get.

Buy it if you are interested in having your funny bone tickled.

This is the second collection of stories by Patrick F. McManus that I have read, and while he is compared to many notable names on the jacket, and I compared him to other humorists I like the first time I read his work, he deserves to stand on his own. It is not an issue of his being as good, nearly as good, or better than another humorist. He is unique and very special, Mr. McManus is an original.

I think the title of this collection, "Never Sniff A Gift Fish", is unfortunate for no such activity takes place within the book. Not unlike the dozens of stories on hunting and fishing, all he generally brings back from an outing is new humor; he apparently catches and shoots virtually nothing. As I mentioned after reading his first book, his friends will stop by and ask that he not even think about whatever it is they are off to hunt or fish while they are off doing it. He has said he is so bad entire states have banned him, as he can single handedly destroy tourism for a state, and no one will lend him small motorized machines as he invariably causes them to cease to function.

This collection is much earlier than the first that I read, and the stories contain wonderful bits about his childhood, and also as a new husband and a father. These are great stories, many that include his young family and virtually everyone is G-rated, place them on film and they would probably be made by Disney. This is great reading, great fun and wonderful humor totally lacking in pretense or show. If this man records his stories on tape I might break a rule that has never been broken, that of listening to an author as opposed to reading his book. And I don't hunt or fish, neither activity is necessary to enjoy these tales as they are about human behavior, his humans are just generally outside.

NEVER SNIFF A GIFT FISH
By: Patrick F. McManus

Have you ever heard of a great outdoorsman? You know, the one whose fly-casting technique can be compared to an old lady fighting off a bee with a broom handle. Or maybe the one whose attempts to pitch the family tent terrorized entire campgrounds. Well, for those of you who haven't heard of him, this book, will give you a little insight into the life of the great outdoorsman. Never Sniff A Gift Fish, is a great source for those useful camping phrases. Here are some of them.

Corn Flakes: A common camp food. Often eaten dry with salt and pepper since no one thought to bring milk.

Camping manuals: Books filled with ingenious camping tips which are forgotten the instant the camper sets foot in the field. "I read about a way to cook a chicken with a camera lens and a wire clothes hanger, but I can't remember how," he says. "Better just fry it."

Downwind: Whichever side of the campfire you happen to be on.
And who could forget "When hell freezes over": An expression used by wives and mothers to indicate the next time you'll get them to go on another camping trip.

This book is a hilarious combination of philosophy and fishing, all rolled into one. I loved the book, and I would definitely recommend this book to any outdoorsman, great or not, that has a sense of humor and a sense of what the author is going through.

This is is a fine book devoted to famillar mammals of the US and Canada. It shows full-color illustrations and maps that show you where the specific critter lives for many different mammals. Plus it tells you what a specific mammal eats and wether it is dangerous or not. A must for all nature-lovers !

When I was a kid my uncle gave me a copy of this book and it opened up a world which still intrigues me...reptiles and amphibians. Even today I consult the book for info on some lizzard I don't recognize or to see if salamanders actually spend a lot of time out of water. In fact, I'm sharing it with my own nephew now--age 11--who's discovering this new world of life for himself. This book is well-presented and easy-to-use, as well as full of great illustrations that alone make it worth reading through. Profiles of each reptile and amphibian are thorough withough being overwhelmingly scientific. A timeless classic for young or old...one to share over the generations.

This was either the first or second guide that I started out with when I was very young. I will always have respect for it. It contains full-color drawings of the most common birds that a person is likely to see. A total of 129 of the most common American birds is included. Text and range maps are also included in this pocket-sized guide. The drawings display spring plumages of adult male birds, and normally females or young if they are very different. The text is good and gives the common name, length, description, behavior, verbal descriptions of vocalizations, and sometimes abundance. The text also points out the differences between males and females, and related birds that are similar. This guide contains some nice introductory information. Some of the information deals with how to use the guide, how to identify birds, equipment, where to look, bird classification, and attracting birds. There are also two illustrations that detail the parts of a bird. I find all of the drawings throughout this guide to be pretty good. Most of the drawings share the same page as the text and range map, but a few of the drawings are on the right page, while the text and range maps are on the left page. This guide has some very useful information that is located in the back. For each bird that is illustrated, there is information dealing with migration, eggs, nests, and feeding habits. The back of the guide also contains a listing of scientific names for the birds illustrated and an index. I used to take this guide out with me when I first started birdwatching. I still have the older and also the newer edition. Whenever I would identify a particular species of bird, I would write all of the important information about it on the page. Even though I don't take this guide into the field anymore, it's not because I don't like it. I feel confident with the organization, drawings, and information; however, this guide does not contain all of the birds of North America--only the common ones. That aside, I still think that this guide is a good choice and starting point for beginners.

This was either the first or second bird guide I ever owned. It's a birding guide that contains the most common species of birds that you'll see. The maps are good, the drawings are excellent, and the information on each bird is great. Greater starter guide for beginners and children.

This book is an advanced treatment of field theory and Galois theory and is meant for those readers who have a substantial background in graduate algebra. The subject matter used to be thought of as purely mathematical, but due to the influence of the field of cryptography, it now has many applications. I only read part 1 of the book, so my review will be confined to this part.

The author begins the discussion with field extensions. One can view a field L containing another field K as a vector space over K, and the dimension of L (as a vector space) is then called the 'dimension' of L over K. If one considers a subfield K of a field M, and an additional element u in M, then there is a smallest subfield of M containing K and u. Calling this field K(u), u can be either transcendental or algebraic over K. The author then proves some elementary properties of the field K(u), showing the existence of an irreducible polynomial for u over K. This then motivates him to call a field L containing K 'algebraic' over K if every element of L is algebraic over K. Otherwise L is called 'transcendental' over K. The dimension of K(u) over K is called the degree of u over K. Finding the degree of u can be done by finding the irreducible polynomial for u. The author also proves the arithmetic relation between the dimensions of towers of fields, and this allows him to prove the famous results on the impossibility of ruler and compass constructions. For a field L that lies between fields K and M the author studies the 'stability' of L over K, meaning that every automorphism of M/K sends L into itself. The correspondence between stable fields and normal subgroups of the Galois group of M/K is proven. Splitting fields are introduced as devices to obtain fields that are normal over a given field. A criterion for a splitting field that does not involve polynomials is proven, and the author gives tools that deal with fields of non-zero characteristic, these tools motivating the definition of separability. Splitting fields are normal in characteristic 0, but one must add separability for the same to hold in characteristic p. The unsolvability of the quintic is shown via a discussion on radical extensions of fields. For a field K of characteristic 0, and for a field L lying between K and another field M, where M is a radical extension of K, the author proves in detail that the Galois group of L/K will be solvable. Then if one has a polynomial with coefficients in K, then the Galois group of this polynomial is defined to be the Galois group of a splitting field of the polynomial over K. The Galois group of the polynomial is thought of as a group of permutations of the roots of the polynomial. The author then proves that if K has characteristic 0 and L is a radical extension of K which contains a root of the polynomial, then the Galois group of the polynomial over K is solvable.

Those readers involved in cryptography will find a discussion of finite fields in Part 1. The author's goal is to find the finite fields and determine their structure. He first proves that every nth power of a prime number p will yield a field with p^n elements. The author shows that the Galois theory of finite fields is simple by proving that if K is a finite field contained in another finite field L, then L is normal over K and the Galois group of L/K is cyclic.

The author also shows how the Galois group of an equation can be found explicitly for the cubic and quartic equations. He shows first that for the Galois group of a separable irreducible cubic over a field K is either the alternating group A(3) or the symmetric group S(3). If the characteristic of K is not equal to 2, then it is A(3) if and only if the discriminant is a square in K. For a separable irreducible quartic over K, then for the degree over K of the splitting field of the resolvent cubic of this polynomial, the Galois group is S(4) if the degree is 6, A(4) if the degree is 3, V (a particular normal subgroup of S(4)) if the degree is 1, and either the group of order 8 or cyclic of order 4 if the degree is 2.

Also in part 1, the author studies the reducibility of an equation of the form x^n -a over an arbitrary field. He addresses this reducibility by first proving that one only need be concerned for the case where n is a prime power. Then if p is prime, and "a " does not have any pth root in the field K, then if the prime is odd, then the equation is irreducible over K for any n. If p = 2 and the characteristic of K is 2, then the equation is irreducible over K for any n. If p = 2, n is greater than or equal to 2, and the characteristic of K is not 2, then the equation is irreducible over K if and only if -4a is not a fourth power in K. The author also proves the fundamental theorem of algebra using Galois theory. He does this by first showing that if every extension of K has degree divisible by a prime p, then every extension of K has degree a power of p.

When David Smith died in 1966 he left his own personal field of dreams at his home/studio in upstate New York. Over 80 gigantic sculptures populated the grounds, pitting man against nature and daring to compete in size and moxie with the mountains around them.

After an initial flirtation with New York City, Smith retreated to the solitude of the Adirondacks. These mountains formed a somber monumental backdrop to the brooding nature of the artist. The sculptures were the landscape of his imagination, his spiritual domain, and his homage to the majesty of being human. Additionally, Smith created drawings, paintings and collages that filled his home with the living presence of art.

This is a lavish book that clearly reflects the artist's magnificent obsessions.

Irving met Erhard Milch in Dusseldorf in the late 1960's, and admits that he was intrigued by the life of this old man who was once Gorings Deputy, the second most powerful man in the German Air Ministry, the chief architect and mobiliser of the Luftwaffe, a Field Marshal and the man Hitler said knew more about aviation than any other in Germany.

It is obvious that Irving respected and liked Milch (you don't spend four years researching someone's life if you don't respect them and I doubt you can spend four years with someone without ending up liking them) The feeling was mutual as Milch gave all his diaries and notebooks to Irving. It is natural then to expect this book to be the most authoritative, well researched and detailed account of Milch's life. That it is. It is also one of the best histories of the Luftwaffe. The book tells the story of the Luftwaffe from the earliest days with the formation of the Air Ministry in 1933 through to its eventual defeat. Defeat was not by way of battle or any specific incident but was indicated by the Luftwaffe's impotence and total inability to stop the massive allied bombing raids on the Reich beginning in late 1943.

Wheras the story of the Luftwaffe is about Milch and Goring it's also about others such as Ernst Udet and aircraft designers such as Willy Messerschmitt and Ernest Heinkel. It's about the successful planes Messerschmitt Bf109, Focke Wulf 190, Junkers 87 (Stuka) and the abject failures such as the Me 210 and He 177. There is discussion of those great 'might have beens' such as the Dornier 355 (front and rear, push-pull design) and perhaps the greatest example of a design that was too little, too late - the Me 262 jet fighter. Armaments, radar, production quotas, innovations and secret projects are all mentioned. So is the politics and infighting (such as the dislike that Milch and Messerschmitt had for each other) and the inefficiencies, bureaucracy and meddling that characterised the Air Ministry. If you have an interest in the Luftwaffe then this is a good item to add to your collection, but be warned, the writing style is very dry and I found it hard to read through.