I personally found the *gritty* style of this book annoying. I knew it was an intimate look at the circumstances surrounding the disasterous Hubbard expedition and the subsequent journey undertaken by his wife Mina, but this account reads more like a 1950s pulp novel or a Louis L'amour western. The prose is choppy and entirely too chatty, sinking at times to a veritable nadir of banality: "George stepped off the Williamstown train, feeling like a fox ready to have his heart pulled." (whatever hell that means), or "...a lot of trappers weren't interested in the idea of foolin' with someone dead" (too folksy). In short it's a slipshod narrative history written in the vein of an adolescent adventure story.

This is a fabulous narrative of a wilderness adventure, like many others filled with the hazards adventurers encounter when they stray far from home. What makes the story unique is not a side-bar intrigue of romance and mystery but a deep underlying question about human motivation, relationships and dreams - as lived through the minds and bodies of the adventurous. The story is told with skill and grace - and is spellbinding.

From two of the men who brought us "The Complete Wilderness Paddler" (a marvelous book in itself), this is a must read, preferably while you yourself are tucked comfortably at camp, or in the tent waiting out the storm, or late at night by the oil lamp. You won't miss with this one.

I thought this was a terrific introduction to the neotropics. The chapter on aquatic life was weak, and the author lowered himself to some unfortunate puns (he should have skipped the topic completely). The early chapters were the best.

I've had to choose between 3 and 4 stars, but I'll stick to 4 stars.
It's really a good introduction to the natural history of the Neotropics. Yet, I've got the feeling that Mr. Kricher wants to tell us about too many things in too few space, thus leaving much things for further explanation. Of course, it's a heavy task to pack such a diversity in so small a book. The general introduction is thorough, but in the group description some groups remain heavily underexposed.
He shouldn't be playing on words this much only to let every pun be followed by a hypocritical "no pun intendeed". There's nothing against making puns, though.
The colour pictures do not add much to the book. I think he'd better have fewer and larger pictures than this stamp collection that give a somewhat disorderly impression.
Nevertheless, I enjoyed reading it, making me wish to return to the neotropical rainforests.

Kricher's prose is easily read and digested with fascinating details of the workings in a tropical forest. A delightful read for both the student wishing to understand tropical ecology and the traveler who wishes to get a better feel for the environment in South America. Highly recommened.

This is the best singular book on Nature photography I have found. I have worn out one copy, purchased another for myself and am purchasing my fifth "give it to a friend" copy. If you only buy one nature photography book in your lifetime, this is the book to get.

ps: I have been a "paid" professional photography for over 31 years, have over 300 photography books in my studio and still use this book as a reference.

John Shaw has provided an excellent guide to those interested in outdoor photography. I just purchased a 500 mm lense for photographing wildlife. This book is filled with tips for this and many other purposes. The photos illustrating various techniques are excellent and full information is given on the settings for each photo. Don't let the word "Professional" scare you, this book can help anyone. For me, a great companion to the book he wrote on close-up photography.

This is another of John Shaw's excellent books on photography. Liberally illustrated with examples and interspersed with his commentary and notes I found tremendously useful.
Shaw covers almost all aspects of photography - from the rule of 16ths, exposure, film, tripods, lenses, closeups, depth of field, composition, backlit photography, etc... Reading this book before you start using that brand new SLR of yours will save you a lot of frustration and trial and error:) A lot of the tips in the book are also equally applicable to people using point-and-shoot cameras also.
A very useful feature in this book is that almost all photos have exposure details listed. Some of his other books do not have these details, which I miss.
This book is highly recommended if you are just beginning photography and are looking for a good introductory book.

What a worth buying book. This book provides an introduction to coral reef habitats and fish families. It's even suitable for a non-biologist person like me. As a scuba diver who interested in marine biology, this book written by Scott W. Michael really helped me to ditinguish most fishes I encountered.

This is a wonderful book. It give s agreat intor to the general aspects of anatomy, physiology and ecology of reef fishes. It then goes on into detail on several families of fish. Among these are: Eels, Frogfishes, Seahorses, Squirrelfishes, Lionfishes, Anthias, and several others.

At least 2 more volumes are planned.

Volume 2 has been due "soon" for quite a while now. I hope "soon" isn't much longer--it will include many of the most interesting fishes: Damselfishes, Butterflyfishes, Angelfishes, Dottybacks, Jawfishes, Grammas, and several more.

Volume 3 (who knows when it will arrive) will include wrasses, blennies, gobies, surgeonfishes, rabbitfishes, pufferfishes and several others.

This series will definitely be the "definitive reference on all fishes a marine aquarist might ever encounter." The author, Scott W. Michael, is a renowned expert in this field. He has more than 25 years experience as an aquarist and diver. He has written several other books and contributes regularly to Aquarium Fish Magazine.

Highly recommended!!

Awesome book! So many wonderful pictures and more information than I hoped for!

The author did an outstanding job compiling the many varieties of reef animals present on Hawaii's reefs and including them in one book. This book has it all if you want to get familar with what you'll most likely run into while diving or snorkeling while in the islands, but one drawback is the author's lack of detail in listing and describing the sites in the first part of the book where you're most likely to see such animals. I specifically wanted to know where to find them and at what depths. Using this book and a good dive or snorkeling guide like the O`ahu Snorkelers and Shore Divers Guide by Francisco B. de Carvalho would make anyone's hunt for photographic opportunities a simple task.

This book features good pictures, meaningful information, lively style, and excellent attention to detail. For example, exact locations and depths are given for each photo. This information is at the end of each species description. Although detailed, it is not at all dry--a fun read in fact!

A look at the reverse of the title page reveals that it has been updated and revised several times, and reprinted 8 times! That is testimony in itself. Also, although not mentioned in the book, the author maintains a website where he posts updates and information on his books. The domain name is the title of the book.

I am in complete agreement with Mary Whipple's review of this book, I looked very hard and could not find a more comprehensive book than this. I spent the last six weeks on the island of Maui, diving and snorkelling, I did not see one fish that I could not identify through this book. It is simply the book you are looking for when you want to identify fish in Hawaiian waters. The same goes for the other book, on invertebrates, written by Hoover.

I have cows and live on a farm that was once a dairy farm. I purchased this book because I thought it might have some good pictures and information. I was 50% right. The information is very good. Each specific breed has it's own two pages to strut it's stuff. On the bottom of the page there is extra "did you know..." information. That is all really helpful. But the pictures. The pictures are all black and white. Even though it tells you what color the cow is, there should really be at least a couple real photographs. Other than the pictures, this is a really good book! Go for it!!

I bought this book for my girlfriend as a joke, but she had a lot of fun with it. It's nothing glorious or profound, it just briefly discusses the differences between breeds. For anyone who has driven rural roads thinking (or saying) "wow, look at all the cows" this book can be fun to skim through. Just a silly little book, really, but not every book needs to be serious ...

I am your basic cow enthusiast- someone who just enjoys looking at them on a back-road commute to work. I bought this book to learn a little bit more about the cows I see every day. I am also a classroom teacher and I hoped to share some of the info I learned here with my students. The book is terrific, has great facts and info about each cow. The only drawback is that the pictures are not in color and are not even photographs- they are kind of a sketched drawing of each cow. However, this doesn't take away too much from the quality of the book.

My husband bought this book in 1980 after his heart attack. He used it to go into the preserve across the street. He would get exercise as well as an education.

I had to collect wildflowers during the summer for an Honors Biology class. The field guides we were given were ones with drawings instead of photographs. It was very hard to correctly identify the wildflower with only a drawing. This field guide is excellent. You identify the flowers with color photographs, and the book gives a fairly in-depth description on the flower, habitat, range, and other comments about the flower. I would recommend this guide to anyone who has to identify wildflowers for school, or just enjoys identifying for pleasure.

I have another wildflower guide which I tried using and was very frustrated with their drawings and color plates. I bought this guide out of desperation---and am completely satisfied. Its simple and easy to use. The flowers are easier to identify with color photography, complete with close up caption. Descriptions are listed later. Not everything is jumbled together, so that your'e fumbling out there around through so many pages. So easy to use. The flowers are more generalized than specific---you won't find 50 examples of a violet--but you'll find several at best. It depends on how detailed you want to get. Quick, ready to use guide that fits perfectly in your husbands fishing vest or in a backpack. Go for it!

Geologic insight and humorous tangents abound in John McPhee's Basin and Range. In this book, McPhee describes to a more or less lay audience the formation processes of the Basin and Range. This book was written as part of a series of geology along Interstate-80. In this initial volume, McPhee lays the groundwork for the complicated processes that created the Basin and Range as well as giving readers a sort of compressed introduction to plate tectonics, geologic time and terminology.

He begins the book in New Jersey, three thousand miles from what readers know as the Basin and Range province. Though his motive is not entirely clear, one may be able to detect that McPhee is showing a possible evolutionary movement for the Basin and Range where the processes occurring in the province today may lead to a morphology similar to present-day New Jersey. Rather than straightforwardly addressing the Basin and Range (as a textbook may do), McPhee opts to intersperse his discussion of the landscape with discussions of nomenclature to geologic time to the unreliability of a geologist as a driver. When the author does directly confront the Basin and Range it is nothing overwhelming-some block faulting here, dry lakebeds there-in an attempt to make the geology sound simplistic when that could hardly be farther from true.

While the book has definite merit as a primer on geologic formation processes of the Basin and Range, the reader is forced to compete with McPhee's flowery stream-of-conscience writing style. A reader with no geologic background may be able to glean some information from this book. That which is gained, however, will be more subtle and anecdotal than anything else. While McPhee's simplification of the processes that formed the Basin and Range may be helpful at an amateur level, it may as well be frustrating and cannot compete with the knowledge one would gain from reading a more formal publication.

John McPhee's Basin and Range is a layman's geology explaining the formation of mountains and valleys between the Great Salt Lake and the Sierra Nevadas. McPhee intersperses his geology with an alluring mix of personal insight and travelogue commentary which enlivens an otherwise potentially dry subject matter. McPhee makes geology approachable and uncovers the deep intrigue of a science which can be punishing when presented in textbook style. Basin and Range is a short, interesting, and enjoyable explanation of the earth's early shifts of magnitude.

John McPhee's Basin and Range kept me wanting to read more, right up to the very end. His style was very interesting, keeping his story on basin and range full of knowledge. He describes two of North America's past basin and range provinces. An ancient one which was once along America's eastern seaboard and the active basin and range which is centered in Nevada. Even for those who are not knowlegdable on geology this is an easily understood book. I would recommend this book to anyone that enjoys to read, especially someone that is interested in learning about our natural environment.

The saving grace of this bird book is its portable nature. It is small enough to fit in a back pocket when traversing over hill and dell tracking down that Northern Flicker. The cover is also of durable material to weather the dirt, grass, the weather, or whatever you put it through. Those are the good things.

The detractors are that when compared to other bird books, the format isn't the friendliest. To find all the scoop about a particular bird it is easy to locate the picture, however there is a separate section identifying habitat, range, behavior, etcetera. Then there is a numbering system separate from the page numbers that make all this cross-referencing and flipping back and forth between the pictures and the descriptions somewhat confusing. Another confusing thing about the picture sequencing is that two different views of the same bird aren't always placed together. For instance, on frame number 185 (not the page number mind you) we find the Pied-billed Grebe winter plumage and then a couple pages over oddly enough on frame 195 we find what the Pied-billed Grebe looks like the rest of the year. So now we want to know more about this feathered-floater, we are directed back to the back of the book...pg. 341 (we are back to going by page numbers) to find out that this little guy has earned the local name, "Hell Diver."

So for an easier to use guide to read from the comfort of your living room or from a car's passenger seat, I would point you to the Stokes Guide to Birds. Audubon's book does have some good info and unique details on particular birds that can't be found elsewhere, can be carried into the field with ease, and does include some pretty good pics. The two complement each other nicely, but if I had to choose one...it'd be the Stokes.

The pictures and how they are categorized are good. The only issue that I came across was that when given pictures of what some birds look like in Winter and Spring they weren't always next to each other. One would be on one page and then a few pages later there would be the other shot.
I would have liked to have seen shots of both male and female versions of the birds since in most cases they do look quite a bit different. And in some cases with this book there were those shots.
I liked the fact that it gave you what pages to go to to read about the birds. Instead of having to look up alphabetically.
The cover of the book is durable to withstand the turmoils of bird watching.
Overall the book is good for a newbie to bird watching.

The National Audubon Society has long been respected as, among other things, the publisher of a series of top-notch field guides to the natural world in North America. Their volumes include birds, trees, butterflies, insects and spiders, wildflowers, mammals, rocks and minerals, mushrooms, fish... you name it. Several of the books are specific to geographic regions. This review is of the National Audubon Society FIELD GUIDE TO BIRDS - WESTERN EDITION.

This book is compact; it measures 4" x 7-1/2" x 1-1/2" thick, just the right size to fit into your pocket or day-pack if you're inclined to take it on a walk.

It's very thoughtfully and logically organized with four major sections, as follows:

INTRODUCTION
This includes a discussion of both the art and science of birding and the organization of the book. It includes a highly detailed rendering of a "typical" bird with all the anatomical points used in the book identified by their common names.

COLOR KEY
The avian kingdom is broken down into categories (long-legged waders, gull-like birds, owls, pigeon-like birds, hawks, tree-clinging birds, hummingbirds, perching birds, and so on.) Each category is assigned a silhouette. The categories are further broken down into families. So, in the category of hawks, we have ospreys, caracaras, vultures, hawks, falcons, harriers, kites, and eagles. Each family has its own silhouette symbol.

COLOR PLATES
This is a series of color photographs of 676 birds. The photographs are organized by the categories mentioned above. Most of the color plates show adult males, but some distinctive females and juveniles are also shown, along with seasonal changes in plumage. Each photograph identifies the bird by its common name, gives its overall length, and cites the page on which you can find more complete details about it.

Each color plate page has a thumb index with the silhouetted symbol for the birds on that page. The birds are arranged within their families by their predominant color, and the silhouettes are colored accordingly, to make it even easier to find your bird.

SPECIES ACCOUNTS
These are the write-ups cited in the color plates. Each citation gives the pages on which photographs may be found, the common and Latin names for the bird, and brief descriptions of the birds physical appearance. It also includes information on its voice, habitat, nesting habits and eggs, and range. There's even a tiny map of North America with its range shaded in gray.

At the end of this section is information about bird-watching, conservation, a glossary of terms used in the Guide, photographers' credits, and an index in both English and Latin.

What makes this Guide so easy to use is the way the color plates are organized, Without knowing anything at all about birds, I was able to identify a brightly colored bird that was hopping around my garden one day, and it took me less than one minute to do so. All I had to do is flip through the color plates, using the silhouettes, until I found the one of the right shape and color. My bird was on the second page of that section.

I also love the compact size and sturdy leatherette binding. This book will fit easily into a pack or pocket, and will stand up to damp weather.

If you're a life-list birding obsessive, this book might not be enough for you because it doesn't picture every color variation of every bird in every species and family. For that, you probably need Sibley. But for people like me, who enjoy backyard birding and want to know what we're looking at, it can't be beat.

Pond Life is like a general biology introduction to life found in ponds. All types of life are covered, albeit in very brief introductions. Plants and animals (microscopic to mammals to birds) each receive tertiary coverage. The book does not get into specifics on how wetlands function relation to other ecosystems, and such coverage would have been useful, but the overall emphasis is still relevant.

The book is likely not intended to be read from cover to cover, as it is a field guide. Field guides are really meant to be brought along in a pocket for easy reference when making field identifications. In this respect, I am a big fan of other field guides in the series.

This volume and its companions should be readily available at nature centers, but the price is low enough for people to purchase it for their own libraries. What it lacks in detail it makes up for in compactness and readability.

Golden Guides are often described as books for children just discovering the natural world. While the series is eminently usable by young naturalists, Golden Guides are solid introductory field guides. One of the strengths of "Pond Life" is its comprehensive scope covering everything from protozoa to plants to mammals. Indeed, it provides more good basic information on identifying types of water plants than any other source I know complete with measurements and color illustrations. The same applies to its coverage of invertebrates as well, though the minor objection of the previous reviewer concerning its scanty treatment of protozoa is a valid one. I would add to the strength of "Pond Life" its portability, which packs a plethora of information into a small package. Another weakness (of the Golden Guides in general) is its datedness to the 1950's and 60's. This does not affect its basic science in most cases, though it is strange (albeit nostalgic for some) to see the equipment suggested for pond watching.

E.O. Wilson, in his beautiful and brilliant autobiography, has stated that if he could live his life again, he would do so as a microbiologist who would dedicate himself to the study of a single tree and the area immediately surrounding it. He would investigate the organisms and the ecology of that small space, finding enough there to occupy his interest for a lifetime of exploration and research.

Given the same choice, I would choose a pond as my area of study, and this book would be one of the first field guides I would use. It is a basic introduction to the study of small bodies of fresh water: their defining characteristics, the forms they take through the seasons, the cycle of their lives, and the distinct forms they take throughout the United States. It also touches on the physical and chemical characteristics of water, and the importance these have for the organisms that live in or near the pond. The book introduces the concept of food webs and the multiple habitats of lakes and ponds, and also lists and describes some of the basic collecting tools of the limnologist (one who studies bodies of fresh water). The majority of the book is dedicated to the plants and animals which are frequently found near ponds. As one would expect, the emphasis is on how these organisms relate to the others in this environment, whether they are full or part time denizens, and in what types of ponds they can be found. More than merely a book about creatures found in ponds, it presents information about the pond itself and how its many inhabitants and visitors relate to one another there.

The book has two small weaknesses. The first is a slight bias towards organisms found only east of the Mississippi. There is enough information about ponds in general, however, to make this guide useful for any budding limnologist. The second flaw is that the sections on the protozoa and other microscopic organisms are far too short, but as a protozoologist I am perhaps biased. Still, I think that even a few more pages would have added to the value of this section by demonstrating the amazing complexity of these phyla.

As it is, however, the book functions admirably as an introduction to the study of ponds: it will lead beginners into the natural world, and to help them identify what they find there. It is suited for older children and adolescents, and will still be of some use at the college level, if only because it includes a list of more technical reference books. I recommend it for anyone who wants to "take the plunge" into the study of this fascinating environment!