Michael Leach's book "The Great Apes" draws much of its strength and vigor from the anecdotal evidence he uses to explain ape behavior (or make it more baffling!) -- evidence he gleaned from spending time with apes himself. He's no Jane Goodall but he truly cares, and writes thoughtfully about gorillas, chimpanzees, orang-utans, and humans, endeavoring all the while to highlight the similarities which bind them. Conservationist at heart, this book is less an academic endeavor and more an apology for man's boorish behavior on a planet we share with other hominids like ourselves. Excellent color photographs show apes in their more pensive and photogenic moments.

Usually, whenever a mass-market science book is published, unless the author's name is Stephen Hawking, both its sales and impact are quite modest. Sometimes, however, the external world intrudes onto the public's consciousness and the topic of that text may become unexpectedly hot and salesworthy. I predict such an uplifting fate for THE GREAT EXTINCTION by Michael Allaby and James Lovelock, and the reason is February 1, 2019. That is the date that astronomers have recently predicted that there is a modest probability that an asteroid may slam into the earth, causing catastrophic climatic results.
It is generally accepted that the very long reign of the dinosaurs came to a crashing end some 65 million years ago when a six mile diameter asteroid collided with the earth off the southern coast of Florida. Allaby and Lovelock discuss the geological evidence for this calamity. They note the primary evidence is the world wide existence of a layer of iridium, an element that is not particularly abundant here but is common on asteroids. They describe the first moment of the impact: 'The sea blew up. Transformed into incandescent gas, the ocean leaped upward with a roar that would have been heard on the other side of the world.' They call this moment 'The Barrel of Fire.' This name is appropriate since the resultant release of energy would have equalled 5 billion Nagasaki-sized nuclear blasts. The destruction world wide had both short term and long term effects. For the short term: fire, earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions. For the long term: nuclear winter, decades long darkness, complete destruction of most of the world's eco-systems. The proud dinosaurs, which had ruled non-stop for tens of millions of years, died out overnight. The tiny burrowing mammals that survived were the default new rulers, and from them evolved humanity. THE GREAT EXTINCTION is a must read for anyone who wants to know what could happen to humanity if by 2019 we have not yet learned how to delay, destroy, or deflect the oncoming cosmic rock. The mute fossilized evidence of the remains of the magnificent beasts that used to tread this planet ought to spur us on to meet this latest challenge to our briefest of reigns as lords of the earth.

Ever since I researched my book "Tales of the Trees" I've been fascinated by the uses humans have made of plants throughout history. It's not just the practical uses - wood to build our houses, wheat, cabbages and apples to eat, oak for our ships - plants have had strong spiritual value too. Our religions have given us the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden, the Ceiba tree of the Mayans, the Bodhi tree (fig) or Tree of Enlightenment of the Buddhist religion and "Yggdrasil' (ash) the Norse world tree whose roots reached the Underworld and whose branches reached the heavens. Then there were the sacred oaks of the Druids - don't get me started.
Michael Jordan (no, not the athlete) has put together a masterly piece of research into the uses, practical and spiritual, of trees, plants and herbs of all kinds, in civilizations around the world. The book is well illustrated, using many of Jordan's own photographs.
In his overview of great writings about herbs Jordan quotes Charlemagne's definition of a herb "The friend of physicians and the praise of cooks." The oldest existing record of the use of herbs in medicine comes from Babylonian times, some 1700 years before Christ. The Chinese, however, were probably the first people to write "herbals" or documents about the uses of herbs.
A Greek philosopher, Theophrastus, was the first European to take a stab at classifying plants in 372 BC. His work strongly influenced other botanists for almost 2000 years. As recently as the 18th century the use of herbs in medicine was very hit or miss. Some pain killers, such as salicin, from the willow, were well-known and effective. Other nostrums relied on superstition - haemorrhoids were treated with a plant called Lesser Celandine because its roots were the shape of haemorrhoids.
It wasn't till the early 19th century that pure drugs such as morphine and quinine were extracted from plants. Meanwhile from time immemorial housewives had been growing herbs in their gardens and treating their family's illnesses with lore learned from their mothers and grandmothers. The church and paid physicians were not happy about this so they resorted to burning a few "wise women" as witches.
But Jordan does not restrict himself to actual real plants, he has a whole chapter on "Plants of the Imagination" which looks at plants featured in legend and mythology. In the Middle Ages it was said that a Barnacle Tree existed whose fruits matured into birds. In England it was said to grow at the edge of the sea and its fruits were barnacle shellfish. When these matured and fell off they split open, grew feathers and became Barnacle geese.
In his conclusion Jordan looks at gardening throughout the ages and ponders the possible effects of global warming and climate change on our "Green Mantle". He is hopeful that a new respect for our land and our environment is emerging and that the plunder of the Green Mantle is becoming less acceptable. Yet we are still losing plant species throughout the world. The Sahara desert is encroaching on vast areas that once were green; the forests of South America are being slashed and burned at an insane pace.
Jordan is hopeful, as I am, that our headlong race to destroy our Green Mantle may have been checked slightly. We have more knowledge now and even a little more understanding. We have made some small steps towards preserving our plant heritage. Will it be enough to counter the forces of ignorance and greed?

Since its first appearence in 1965,"Guide to Fossil Man" was considerably updated trough subsequent editions,so it is quite usable today as handy refference to main paleoanthropological finds,before more advanced atlases,encyclopedias,and other literature dealing with Human evolutionary anatomy,replace it for upper division courses.It containts selected osteological finds,presented in the form of files containing history of finding the specimen,faunal and sedimental contexts,estimated chronological framework,as well as detailed discussion on fossil find-descriptive,comparative,with some anthropometric data plus illustrative material.But there are also separate discusions on particular issues,with exposure of various hypothesis,and with particular refference to Neanderthal enigma Per Se,as well as their relation with origin of modern Humans.After every file,Author provided solid bibliography.This book is best scrutinisation of key finds,suitable for begginers in paleonthropology and archaeologist whose focus of interest is Peopling of Paleolithic.

The editorial review basically says it all. I'm using the book quite a bit -- I'm trying to attract birds that will eat insect pests. Few other sources have such detailed information about feeding habits, and the information on houses is quite adequate, although you can find birdhouse designs which are much more visually appealing (to humans!) in other books. The one thing I really wish they had done is to put the pests in the index; finding what pests birds like particular to eat requires tedious entry-by-entry searching.

Michael's first encounter with wolves was at age 12 and he can't get enough of them. He considers himself very lucky to have been drawn to the natural world at a young age and this beautifully written book shows it. I'm not just saying this; I really like his writing style because it's so down to earth. The timber wolf has had a bad rap and it's about time we realize its importance in the natural scheme of things. Incidentally, there's a great chapter on Algonquin Park's annual wolf howl event, which is in August. Ever been to one?

This 1995 harcover describes Illinois' natural beauty beyond its highways, towns, and scattered villages. Sadly, Illinois ranks 49th of the states (Iowa is 50th) in the amount of land preserved in its virgin beauty before the arrival of European settlers, farmers, and lumberjacks. The authors catagorize the landscape of Illinois into 15 natural areas which include the following: unglaciated woods, gravel prairies, lake shore, marshes, bogs, seep springs, tallgrass prairie, prairie groves, sand prairies and savannas, hill prairies, easter n forests, rock ledges, southern ravines, southern swamps, and coastal plain forests. The photos are stunning and very beautiful. However, the location (e.g. state park, natural area, county) of where each photo was taken is rarely given! The text is short and easy to read for the layman, but long enough to give the hiker/outdoorsman/naturalist a basic understanding of the area described. A great book for anyone who wants to enjoy more of Illinois than can be seen from his or her car on I-55!

My whole family (father, mother, and son) enjoyed this beautiful book. I enjoyed the wonderful photographs and accompaning quotations. Each was complementary to the other. Sometimes I just looked at the photographs. Sometimes I just read at the quotations.

Michael Impellizzeri is a gifted photographer. My son and I met him at Isle Royale National Park in June of 2000. I assume he was creating material for a future book which I look forward to enjoying.

The most detailed and complete field guide on insects I've ever seen....plenty of color drawings and descriptions on morphology, habitat, ecology and ethology of each species. If you love the nature you can't loose it!