John Hanson Mitchell recounts his travels by bike from Southern Spain through France and England finally ending up in Scotland all the while musing on the sun and the indelible mark it has left on our culture. The book is part travelogue, part philosophical musing, part anthropological study, part religious mediation. The accounts of the people and places he encountered are compelling and his descriptions of the food he ate along the way made me very hungry! It all adds up to a thought-provoking and entertaining read.

A couple of quibbles: It would have been great if there was a map included with the book that showed the route traveled. Mitchell writes eloquently about the geography and it's hard to visualize it without having a map handy (unless of course you are very familiar with the regions he's writing about). I also found it somewhat disturbing that it wasn't clear when exactly this journey took place. The book came out last year or the year before,but it seems that the actual trip took place long ago.

Whoever wrote that review that you say was in Publisher's Weekly obviously never read anything by John Hanson Mitchell! They must be confusing him with some other author. Mitchell's writing is always so good-hearted and generous--the opposite of caustic!
Following the Sun is so rich--a journey on two levels; a review of virtually everything under the sun, from myth to bird migration to the solar origins of Christianity. But it's also a delightful bicycle ride--all the way from the south of Spain to the Outer Hebrides in Scotland with journeys throughout the vineyards of Bordeaux, the chateaux of the Loire in France and the stone circles of the British Isles in between. Mitchell always has a way of falling in with eccebntric types, as I've seen in his other books eg. Ceremonial Time (a 15,000 year history of one square mile of land)and The Wildest Place on Earth (about Italian gardens and the American wilderness). He seems to be able to mix arcane facts about the setting of sugar in winegrapes, and the perversities of Roman emperors and the like with a sharp ear for story. There are some great ones here with some rollicking Old World characters. The author followed back roads all the way, and he did it before the establishment of the European Union when all the food was better, the wine sweeter, and the stories deeper. And Mitchell's writing style, lyrical and smooth, is a salve for whatever ails you. What a pleasure!

An extremely well-written and well-illustrated book with especially helpful and detailed text on habitat, behavior, and locales. On a recent trip to Puerto Rico for birding, we found this book to be extraordinarily helpful. Since we have come home to the Continental USA, it continues to be rich reading.

As a professional Puerto Rican biologist and bird watcher I found this book to be the best field guide of birds occuring at Puerto Rico. It covers as well, introduced, migratory, and endemic or native species with a full description of each bird characteristics and accompanying color plates that match the birds color patterns up to the last feather. It is a must have to any bird enthusiast living or visiting the Island, as well as for students or professional biologists.

A very inspirational and interesting book. Written from the journals of each of the authors, this book will never let go of your imagination. This book not only makes you want to become a falconer like the Craigheads, but to LIVE falconry like they did. As Stephen Bodio in the introduction puts it: " ...[the book]made me and children like me want to go and do, just just passivley watch."

A must have.

HAWKS IN THE HAND

by John and Frank Craighead

First published in 1939, HAWKS IN THE HAND was one of my favorite books growing up. Reading it (again and again) definitely fueled my passion for birds of prey and inspired my interest in bird photography. It's good to see this fascinating book in print again, now that most copies of the original edition have long since vanished from libraries and used book stores.

Although twin brothers Frank and John Craighead are perhaps most renowned now for their work studying grizzly bears in the Yellowstone region, they began their scientific careers as ornithologists. Indeed, their 1956 book, HAWKS, OWLS, AND WILDLIFE was a seminal work in the fields of raptor ecology, examining in detail the intricate relationship between predatory birds and their prey. But long before they became professional biologists, the Craigheads were studying, photographing, and writing about birds of prey. They were audacious enough, while still in their teens, to submit an article and photographs to NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC magazine-and it was published. The recognition they received from the article led to commissions for more articles and eventually to the publication of HAWKS IN THE HAND.

It is interesting that HAWKS IN THE HAND was reissued in the same year that Kenn Kaufman's KINGBIRD HIGHWAY was published. In some ways, the books have a lot in common. They are both, in a sense, coming of age stories about young Americans who have an overriding passion for birds-a passion that they follow unbridled, crossing and recrossing the continent to study birds. And yet the birding travels that the Craigheads and Kaufman took occurred more than 30 years apart. It was a vastly different world in the 1930s. At that time, a native population of Peregrine Falcons still nested across the East, and the Craigheads visited many of their eyries, photographing the eggs, young, and adults-decades later this would provide vital documentation on numerous traditional falcon eyrie sites that had been lost due to DDT and other environmental contaminants. But all was certainly not well in those times. In a poignant 1933 entry in the boys' journal (which was added to this edition), they described an autumn day spent at Cape May, New Jersey. Unlike most fall days now, few bird watchers were present to witness the spectacular stream of migrating hawks passing over. Instead, scores of hunters stood shoulder to shoulder, shooting at every raptor that passed over. "Shells were piled all over the road and hawks were piled all over the running boards of cars and scattered throughout the woods, for no one bothered getting a hawk that fell anywhere but in the road," they wrote. "It seems a crime that they should be so slaughtered."

The equipment available for rock climbing and photography was also much different from what's available today. You won't see any helmets, carabiners, or fancy synthetic climbing ropes in this book. These guys rappelled down sheer cliff, dizzyingly high above the ground, using ordinary manila ropes to reach falcon nests or climbed massive tree trunks with telephone lineman spurs to reach Bald Eagle or hawk nests. One day some nervous spectators, who were viewing the boys climbing to a Peregrine Falcon nest on a lofty cliff, called an ambulance, which parked below them for the entire time they were there. Frank joked, "To heck with them. If we fall, a broom is what we'll need, not an ambulance." And for all their photography, they used 4x5 press cameras-which are about as heavy, awkward, and unwieldy as you can get-but the pictures they took were great.

When I read this book again recently-for the first time in 25 years-I was amazed how well it held up. I highly recommend it.

When a friend urged me to buy John Mickels' "How to Know the Ferns and Fern Allies" I was skeptical. I didn't think it could top Boughton Cobb's guide in the Peterson series. I was genuinely surprised by what I found. Mickel's book is superior in several ways. The drawings of fern anatomy are cleaner, letting the neophyte focus on the important features of fern identification. Range maps (missing from Cobb's book) let you eliminate species not in your area. And being a more recent publication, Mickel's taxonomic treatment is more up-to-date. However, I miss Boughton Cobb's outline drawings of fern blades, which are really neat for developing a general search image for species. That's why I keep both guides handy. You can never own enough field guides.

When a friend first introduced me to John Mickel's "How to know the ferns and fern allies" I was skeptical that Boughton Cobb's book (in the Peterson's series) could be bested. I was pleasantly surprised. Not only is Mickel's book more up-to-date, but the drawings are all more cleanly rendered, allowing the beginner to focus on the most important features of fern identification. Range maps (which the Peterson guide lacks) let you eliminate many species not in your area. The price is a bit daunting, but for the serious field botanist this book is a must!

"In Flanders Fields" is the most celebrate poem dealing with the subject of war written in the 20th century. The poet was John McCrae, an idealistic army doctor who wrote the "In Flanders Fields" during the terrible Second Battle of Ypres in 1915. The poem derives its simple but potent power from combining a respect for the fallen soldiers with a longing for peace. It is, in simple terms, an anti-war poem.

Author Linda Granfield breaks McCrae's 15-line poem into three parts, each line illustrated by Janet Wilson's paintings. In between Granfield provides information about World War I and details on what life was like in the trenches for the soldiers, as well as McCrae's experiences in his field hospital and the story of how the doctor came to write "In Flanders Fields." This book is also illustrated with archival posters, postcards, photographs, and other artifacts that put the poem in historic context.

McCrae's poem is short, but by giving each line its own page and illustration, Granfield and Wilson insure that the poem itself is not overwhelmed by background information. In fact, more pages in the book are devoted to the actual poem than the story behind it. The result is a book perfectly composed to provide young students with an appreciation for both the poem and the fallen soldiers it memorializes. It would certainly be nice to see this idea extended to other poems, but it might not have the same effectiveness as this nice little book.

I read this book while resting my feet at Book Expo 2000. At least three people stopped to ask me about it because they were so taken by the illustrations. This picture book for young people intersperses breathtaking illustrations for the poem "In Flanders Field" with background on World War I and the story of the writing of this poem. A deeply affecting and touching book, it will give young people a personal view of war, particularly this war. Unfortunately, many children as well as adults know nothing about World War I. This book is a fine introduction and a good war to broach a painful topic. By any standard, it is well-well written and thoughtful.

Ranking my favorite running books is like choosing favorite children. You love 'em all equally, right? While the Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner is a better literary achievement and Once a Runner is a more believable account of what it is like to be a runner, there is something special about Iron Duke that sets it apart. A good read for young adults and runners Iron Duke has that rare combination of great story and heart; Tunis certainly caught Lightning in a bottle with this one! But don't take my word, read for yourself.

Tis is what u call a great book. It can be really funny at times, but also very serious. Tunis' writing styles effect his book tremendously. I really enjoyed it and i can almost guarentee u will love it to.

A great writer writing about great things - you'll feel like you're in the middle of the Sierra yourself. Endlessly enjoyable.

In a world brimming with wonderful volumes of the work of John Muir, here is the one edition in which you may find virtually everything you seek. To find it in such a handsome, handy, easy to negotiate book makes this a must for all lovers of Muir's writing. Eight inches tall by six wide and two inches thick, it is a durable and willing partner for excursions through the wilderness. Created for long life among library shelves and scholarly studies, this sleek little friend stows away quite comfortably in backpack or oversized coat pocket. Those who don't know Mr. Muir will meet the great lover of wildness (and perhaps history's most influential advocate of preservation) presented in a lovingly researched volume which includes informative notes on the evolution of Muir's field journal entries into published pieces, a chronology of his life and literary career, and all of the major writings for which he is known. A generous selection of his published essays and magazine articles reveal many previously unsuspected jewels of poetic prose. As a lifetime devotee of the works of Shakespeare, the Bible, and the immortal Scottish bard Robert Burns, Muir could recite extensive passages from all. Likewise, his writing breezes through the imagery and lessons drawn from these potent sources. Coffee table books brimming with Ansel Adams photography, biographies of Muir, and collections of his correspondence are all aspects of any comprehensive Muir collection. The words themselves, however, simple and elegantly bound, are where the journey might well begin.

Mitchell created his own Walden experience on land just 16 miles away from the original site in northcentral Massachusetts. He built a cottage at the edge of his property when he and his wife separated, and so he distanced himself from the trappings of civilization at the same time. Most of them, at least. Here he relates stories from his first year at the cottage, complete with woodland encounters with wildlife, bizarre and unique individuals, and unknown shapes and spirits. He doesn't spend all his time there: he works, he travels, he investigates a local computer company. Like Thoreau, Mitchell is no hermit. And there's so much Thoreau in this volume that when you finish turning *these* pages, you might very well find yourself reaching next for _Walden_. A thought-provoking and entertaining book.

Ever since Thoreau went down to the Walden woods, writers have been going down to the woods to emulate him. "Living at the End of Time" recounts John Hanson Mitchells own shack dwelling period, and it is a very engaging account of his experiences. Particularly interesting are his accounts of his varied and eccentric neighbors, and anyone who has done a bit of construction will sympathise with his opinions on housebuilding. Its too bad this book is out of print.

This book should be required reading by every professional entering the field of hydrogeology - especially those with limited experience in groundwater science. the authors present the material in an easy to read format as though they were mentoring entry level geologists. A job well done.

I've been working as a geologist for an environmental firm specializing in UST remediation for about six months. Having been working in a tangentally related field for six years, I needed a quick refresher. This book is providing that refresher - it will also prove an excellent reference for years to come. I found especially useful the portion on slug testing - my old college texts discuss slug testing but in a highly theoretical and impractical manner.

I took the time to review this book because I feel strongly that it contains excellent photographs which deserve a wider audience. Michael Smith is one of the best living photographers and a national treasure of the US. He is known well in the photographic community but remains fairly obscure outside this group. I recommend this book to anyone interested in excellent photography.

Michael A. Smith has traveled many miles photographing the land, the cities, and the people across America, and is possibly the greatest photographer of our time. Not only is his subject matter interesting, every picture in this publication reveals his mastery of seeing, composition, and print quality. An excellent book.