This is a most impressive book on the African Elephant, with page after page of fabulous photos of these mighty beasts. It would make a great coffee table book just for the pictures but it is much more than that.

The main focus is on preservation of the species in the face of shrinking habitats and the poaching for ivory that continues today. The efforts of 16 African wildlife preserves and parks are fully described here.

Each region is profiled with information on its elephants and several photos of the elephants specific to that area. The mature huge tuskers of Kruger National Park are truly awesome.

There is also plenty of information on elephant history, physiology and social interaction. This is a beautiful and significant book on the life and challenges facing the African Elephant.

This is a wonderful book for anyone interested in African elephants. It combines outstanding photographs with interesting and entertaining text.

This book moved me beyond what feelings I have ever known. I learned a great deal of facts from this book and hope to share them with others. I urge other readers to cherish this book...as I do.

A Field Guide to the Birds of China is a must for any traveler who wants to identify birds in China. De Schauensee's earlier Birds of China is not really a field guide although it provides useful background reading. A Field Guide to the Birds of Japan includes a lot of the species occurring in eastern China, and the Beijing area is included in most of the range maps, so if you don't have the MacKinnon-Phillips new guide, this is second best.

All species of known regular occurrence somewhere in China are illustrated in excellent drawings by Karen Phillips, all but a few in full color. Colored range maps are on the page facing each of the 128 plates. The text for each species provides a detailed description, voice, distribution and status, habits (useful), and in some cases a note on taxonomy.

I used this book for more than two weeks in China during October 2001 and confidently identified every bird I got a decent look at. (Regrettably, eastern China is not exactly overrun with exotic birds, but you can find some interesting species even in the cities.)

The most noticeable problem with this book is its sheer bulk; at 256 pages of plates, 586 pages of text, and some front material, this monster tops out at well over 800 pages and won't fit in most fanny packs, not to mention pockets. So taking a utility knife with a new blade, I sliced the spine following the last plate and taped the last page to the spine, creating a book of front matter, 10 pages of introduction and all the plates and range maps--a tad over a third the thickness of the whole book. A few species are illustrated in black-and-white in the text, so I xeroxed those (with their black-and-white range maps) and pasted them below the range maps of appropriate plates. I left the text home.

The book is not without minor errors, of course. For example, the range maps on plate 35 mistakenly call the Red Phalarope the Red-necked Phalarope, with the same error in the scientific name (although, curiously, the Chinese name appears to be correct). Both species are illustrated. On plate 56 the illustration of the Red-throated Loon is mistakenly marked with the species number of the Common Loon (which is also illustrated and correctly numbered on the same plate). On plate 72 the female Japanese Paradise-flycatcher is so marked but the symbol for the male is missing. Most users can figure out such slips.

...

This book is absolutely essential for any birder who plans to visit any of the regions covered in this guide. The plates are very good and the descriptions are detailed. This is probably the most up-to-date guide for the region. The taxonomy is based on Sibley and Monroe, and nearly all subspecies and their ranges are listed. There is even an edition in simplified Chinese available in China and Hong Kong. However, covering such a broad region has its drawbacks, and at least in Taiwan, I recommend that this book be used more as a reference than field guide. A bird's voice often varies across its range, and the status of a species in one location can be completely different in another. For example, the White-bellied Green Pigeon, described by the book as "very rare," is in fact common in Taiwan. The quality of the plates is sometimes inconsistent (e.g. the geese and swans on plate 7 look very small!). Also, errors I've noticed include where the range map does not correspond with the descriptions (e.g. Eurasian Jay, plate 67), the bird number on the plate does not correspond with that of the range map and descriptions (e.g. Varied Tit, plate 88), and some typos (e.g. Pygmy Wren Babbler subspecies, plate 105). Although Appendix 2 lists the species endemic to the region, it left out at least three species from Taiwan (Yellow Tit, Collared Bush Robin, and Taiwan Whistling Thrush). In general, this book is excellent and highly recommended, but I do hope a new edition will be published in the future that fixes the errors and include new discoveries made since publication (e.g. Chinese Crested Tern, Taiwan Bush Warbler).

This field guide is a well done book introducing the birds of China to its readers. It is fairly standard as far as field guides goes in content. The book contains 128 color plates depicting the birds of China with the corresponding range maps opposite the plates. Next, the descriptions of the 1329 species are given. Herein lies the major problem with the book, the descriptions are not adjacent to the plates; however, had the book been arranged in this manner, the number of pages would have at least doubled and the book is already a bit cumbersome for use as a field guide at its present size.

A couple of other bits of useful information in this book include a map detailing vegetation type and an introduction to the region. Also, a list of protected and endangered species is included. For researchers, a nice bibliography is also included. Whether you just want to look at birds from a country you never plan on going to, or if you intend to go birding in China, this book is for you.

This book represents a revision and extension of Ms. Low's earlier work, An Index and Guide to Audubon's Birds of America (Abbeville, 1988). It is a valuable reference for anyone interested in Audubon's folio bird prints. If you have a choice, select this more recent version than the out-of-print Abbeville edition. As in her earlier book, Ms. Low includes sizes of the plate marks for Havell Edition prints, and adds more information on the variants she encountered in a systematic review of four complete Havell Edition sets. The book also includes a wonderful bonus -- a detailed description of the Bien Edition (sometimes called the second folio edition of The Birds of America). Ms. Low's treatment is by far the most comprehensive information available in one place on this important and neglected work. As an Audubon dealer, and someone who has prepared web-based study guides of all the major Audubon editions, I have found endless uses for this book. It is a must-have reference for all serious students and collectors of Audubon's art.

Susanne Low conducted years of painstaking research to write this lovely book. She examined four complete 435-print sets of Audubon's double elephant folio and this detailed, comprehensive Guide is the result. Every variant of every print is described including the birds depicted, the exact size of the plate mark, and where and when Audubon painted the original. A similar section describes the 150 Bien edition chromolithographs that were made in 1858-1860. The information presented is invaluable to antique dealers and collectors because it enables even the casual user to authenticate prints.

I especially like her cross-references and cross-indexes that make it easy to compare the double elephant folio prints with the Biens and the Octavos. She even included a biographical section that describes all the people who helped Audubon along the way. Writing my own book - Audubon Art Prints - would not have been possible without using Susanne's book as a reference.

Low's index has long been the bible for dealers and collectors of Audubon's Birds of America. Painstakingly accurate in its original edition, this new, updated and expanded version is produced with all the care of true booklovers. Elegant and useful. Thanks to Reese and Heald for making this invaluable tome available.

As a former student of John Winters, I can honestly say that this book does a terrific job with a subject that can be very complicated! After reading this text (and taking his class!) I came away with a clear understanding of the concepts discussed. And, of course, a little humor here and there helps. The chapters flow well together yet can be read individually, and I plan on keeping this text for future reference. Highly recommended!

This is a really great book for all students who want to learn sometfing about igneous and metamorphic petrology. Written exeptionally well, with good sence of humor, it covers all the topics related to the formation and evolution of igneous and metamorphic rocks, gives you comprehensive (and comprehensible -- that is also inportant) information about rock types, their classification, textures, structures, rock forming minerals, magmaism, volcanism, metamorphism, their relationships to the tectonic settings and global lithosphere plate motion, etc. It contains so much useful information that can even been used as a handbook for those who work in or study geology, petrology, geochemistry, and geophysics. Reading this book greatly improves your understanding of the subject, so, eventually, you feel you can easily get complicated concepts and ideas, even find beauty in them, and hence enjoy your reading -- the situation which is not usually met for petrology texts.
I used this book as a textbook when I took a course in petrology last year -- and it was great help for me. And I would like to say thanks to John Winter for his really good work.

This book is well worth its cost. It is full of information about the many fascinating minerals found on our planet's surface and below.

Loaded with interesting and unusual information about birds, this is a wonderful book for busy birders. It can be read from beginning to end (A to Z) or opened to any page; read for two minutes or an hour; and you will never lose your place! It will make a wonderful gift for your bird watching friends.

The enthusiasm of EH Stickney's writing is infectious. Her book is extremely readable, and is sure to put many a smile on your face as you peruse her entries on the common and not-so-common of our feathered friends. "A Little Bird" is an excellent compendium of fact and folklore that readily distills for the reader those tidbits that are likely to be of most interest. While packed with information, it is not a book that will bog you down. It opened new windows for me (someone who's been interested in birds all his life), but it also would be an excellent way to introduce inquisitive young minds to the world of ornithology. I recommend it highly.

Very informative and interesting history and mythology of the bird world

This is an unusual book. John Elder has written a book that blends the rhythms of life with the rhythms of nature.

Using Robert Frost's poem "Directive" as a springboard, Elder guides the reader through a series of year-long hikes that provide a rare glimpse into the writer soul, family and surroundings. His musings transport the reader from the glaciers that shaped his the plateau for the Village of Bristol, VT., the farmers who struggled and more often than not, failed to scratch a living from the rocky soil that surrounds his adopted home.

He carries us from broken china to Abenaki settlements, meditating on family relationships and deeper relationships with the land.

This is a beautiful example of nature writing, a work that draws a balance between the machinations of civilization and the beauties of wilderness. By inviting the reader to follow the last line of Frost's "Directive," to "Drink and be whole again beyond confusion.", Elder creates a sense of hope that Vermont's balance between nature and culture can speak to the rest of the nation.

I have read many of the reviews of Reading the Mountains of Home--both before and after I studied the book itself--in various magazines and newspapers, and, while many of them summarize accurately and manage to convey fairly clearly its complex and compelling structures, the musical grace of the sentences, the unique of John Elder's vision about the interlinking of language and place and time and family, of Robert Frost's "Directive" and of the concept of wilderness in America. There is a sense also in which he has taken nature writing--a broad genre forever in evolution--and brought it to new heights through this creative interweaving.

But what I notice most is the book's quiet heroism. By this I mean simply that the author exhibits the courage to put all of his deepest convictions, his most strongly held beliefs, the raw stuff of his very life in a place for all to see. One does not see this very often in books. We need more writers like John Elder. We need people like John Elder, people who have the courage to write from the deepest parts of themselves for the greater good of all of us and the larger home we call earth. If there were six stars I would give it six stars.

I learned much about New England from this fine book -- and about Robert Frost.

John Murray is one of the best writers on the West practicing today, perhaps the best. He has authored or edited more than forty books including such classics as Desert Awakenings, Cactus Country, and the highly acclaimed American Nature Writing series.

This book is a collection of fifteen essays and fifteen stories, both fiction and nonfiction, that celebrate what Murray describes as the most beautiful desert in the American Southwest, the Red Rock Desert. It is loosely located in a triangle shape anchored by the Gates of Ladore to the north, the Grand Wash Cliffs to the southwest, and the Zuni Mountains on the southeast. All things considered, a pretty good boundary description for the Colorado Plateau and the four-corners area. Indeed, the twenty-one locations of his stories and essays are in southern Utah, northern Arizona, and western Colorado.

In his incomparable style of graceful prose and lyrical musings Murray takes the reader into the world of form and color that define such diverse locations as Monument Valley, Escalante Canyon, Navajo Mountain, Grand and Coyote Gulch, Wilson Mesa, Professor Valley, the Burr Desert and a host of other locations that form this wonderland of incredible beauty and harmony and time and space. Using the desert as a metaphor the stories tell of life and death, greed, togetherness and separation, hope and despair and a myriad of other conditions that are so like the West itself. The essays describe the ever changing beauty and danger of the rivers and canyons and space, indeed all of the flora and fauna that comprise the Red Rock Desert and reveals Murray's deep affection for, and encyclopedic knowledge of, this special place. The following from the Afterword will give the reader an idea of the special talent of Murray: "I only know this. There are few things as beautiful as the shapes a desert river carves in the rock of a country, or the way a canyon rose holds it wine-colored blossom toward the sun, or the sound of the wind as you climb to the summit of a solitary peak. To have been among these places is to have known a happiness not often found elsewhere in this world."
Truly a special book about a special place.

John A. Murray's latest book, "Another Country: Encounters with the Red Rock Desert," is a tour de force. Murray has created a new genre, alternating non-fiction nature writing with gutsy, O. Henry-surprising short stories. A lesser writer might founder with this format, but Murray brings home the goods.

From a touching elegy for his mother ("Sandpainting") to hard-ball, edgy murder and action ("The World Behind the Sun"), the author writes with a deft, sure hand and leaves no false notes.

Tying the work together is the place, the sun-splashed, crimson walls of the Four Corners region, Hillerman country, Abbey country - and, now, Murray country. You can't fail to want to grab your sleeping bag, lace up your boots, and head out for a hike to the Red Rock wilderness after reading this book. And after reading the title story, a gut-wrencher with a surprise ending, you'll also remember to bring along a gallon or two of water.

This book is great stuff. Buy it.

I have owned a copy of these books since I first heard them reviewed on NPR. I still laugh every time I pull them from the shelf. Excellent gifts for your naturalist friends and others!!

This spoof of field guides really shows the wit and ingenuity of its creators. You'll laugh through the entire guide.

This is sure to be the definitive piece of work on the Battenkill. The author went to great lengths to document the river's history and it has an extensive bibliography. Perhaps most interesting is the peeling away of the layers of the Battenkill's mystique of fly fishing. I particularly enjoyed the stories about Charles Orvis.

Merwin goes to great lengths to give a balanced and careful history of the region. The book is certainly to be the definitive Bible of Battenkill, written with the obvious love and endearment felt for the subject. I can hardly wait to visit in the coming years and will use this book as my guide.

I've owned this book a while and find and it to be an excellent source of information on individual species of birds. For some of us, just learning to recognize birds just isn't enough. Behavior is very interesting also, and this book contains interesting informative information on different birds. This is a must have for the library of every birder.

The best thing about this comprehensive and well-researched reference is the illustrations by Amelia Hansen. If the publisher had only printed these pen-and-ink drawings larger, the book would have been more helpful. Hansen obviously understands the way birds move, rest and interact.