Shore Fishes of Hawai'i by Johne E. Randall serves as a valuable resource tool from snorkelers to ichthyological enthusiasts. The introduction gives a brief overview of the Hawaiian history of fishes, biogeographic theories of distribution as it pertains to Hawaiian fishes, and basic information on fish taxonomy. The balance of the book seperates in to sections on each family in a phylogenetic order. Each family section has a brief description of characters, life history, and observational notes. This is followed by a photograph of the species most likely to be seen by snorkelers, divers, and fishermen. Each photograph is captioned with information regarding characters to identify it, distribution and depth where it may be encountered, attainable size, diet, and other miscellaneous information. Each photo is labled with both common name and scientific binomial, as well as author and date of original (or valid) description of the species. Many of the species have photographs of multiple adult phases and juveniles. A glossary of terms follows the last family entry. An index by scientific name, family, common name, and Hawaiian name concludes the book. This book would complement the library of anyone comptemplating visiting Hawaii with an interest in the fishes, anyone with an interest in aquarium fishes, or to divers and ichthyologists seeking a good identification and reference guide.

For general information and a quality photo of each animal, this is a very hard book to beat. The book contains information on the most popular species kept as pets throughout the world. I have found it usefull in indentification of several species of turtles and lizards. I would highly recommend this book to anyone needing a quick reference for identification, general habitat and basic requirements of a large selection of reptiles and amphibians. This book gets an A+ on my list.

This compact little book includes postcards of six favorites from Audubon's watercolors in the Birds of America: Great blue heron, Wild turkey, American white pelican, Roseate spoonbill, Whooping crane, and American flamingo. The quality of the reproductions is very satisfactory, and the cards are well enough perforated to allow for easy removal without tearing into the images. The card size is small enough for postcard postage. All in all a nice value.

This is a great book to carry in your backpack when hiking through the woods in the Carolinas. If you get bit by a snake, you could look it up in the book to see if it has envenomated you so you can get home and go to a hospital. If it says it doesn't have venom then you can wash it with water and continue your hike.

John Alcock brings us with him on a tour of the Usery Ridge (north of Mesa, near Phoenix, Arizona) after the winter rains, but before the harsh heat of summer. The book mostly discusses evolutionary behavior of plants and animals found there. There are a few humorous passages which add an unexpected laugh. Dr. Alcock is concerned with the disappearance of the desert and its treasures.

Sonoran Desert Summer is another of John Alcock's easy to read introductions to this desert's more fascinating creatures. The reader not only gets to experience the desert inhabitants' comings and goings during a typical summer in the Sonoran Desert, he or she does it in comfort! As informative as it is entertaining, this book gives the reader valuable insights into the wonderful adaptations of some of the desert's most interesting plants and animals. Written by a biologist who can also write, this book is fun to read, easy to digest, and makes every jaunt into the desert just that much more meaningful. And, the illustrations are charming as well. All in all, a good buy whether you are a tourist or a long-time desert rat.

John Jerome has created a masterpeice, any person who enjoys thinking about physical work will delight in. Stone Work lets us in to the joys and disappointments of his life, that is, for a while centered around building a stone wall for purely aescetic reasons on his New England property. My five year old copy is in tatters.

I utilized Van Maanen's short, but essential text on writing ethnography throughout my dissertation ethnography research (now a book: Native Americans in the Carolina Borderlands: A Critical Ethnography, Carolinas Press, 2000). Unlike most "how to" texts on Ethnography, Tales of the Field focuses on writing as methodology. Van Maanen's writing is clear and concise. The reader is given several writing styles in ethnography, with ample examples from the author's, and other's, ethnographic writings. A great little book for fieldworkers, novice and veteran, as well as undergraduate and graduate students in research methods courses.

When it comes to describing the plants of a locale with all its ecological intricacies, it could be said that John Curtis did it first and best. The only way he could have done it better was to expand beyond Wisconsin's boundaries and write "The Ecology and Ecosystems of the Midwest." Still, and after 42 years in print, this book remains the definitive source for understanding the relationships among the plants of bogs, forests, prairies, lake dunes, and the other habitats of the Upper Midwest. Inset range maps, photos, lists of plants with their "commonness ratings (my term)" in the different habitats, brief histories of human uses of the habitats, and descriptions of the environment (soils, hydrology, etc.) complete the picture. Growing up in Michigan and working for years in Minnesota and the rest of the Midwest, I can attest that it serves these locales reasonably well, and currently there is nothing better. It would work in Iowa, northern Illinois and Indiana, and southern Ontario as well. As a child of the information age, I admit that the presentation of graphics, charts, etc. is not as sharp as it could be. Recent advances in ecology and statistical computing power unavailable to Curtis make some of his analyses a bit dated. Curtis was also somewhat doctrinaire in his view of plant species distributions across ecological gradients (a Gleasonian individualist, for those who wonder), leading him to ignore the important distinction between prairies on sand versus heavier soils, for example. All in all, this book is an excellent primer for anyone with the desire to become more familiar with the intricate composition and workings of midwestern ecosystems and, along the way, feel just a little more at home here.