A person who pays $60 for a paperback volume on natural history might naturally expect to receive a fairly hefty tome. This book, however, is a mere 200 quarto pages cobbled together mainly from a series of technical papers. The language and style are classically dull, dry sciencespeak. Although said by its editors to be designed to appeal to a broad audience, it's strictly for bear bionerds. The clothbound version is even more outrageouly overpriced at $120! This thing is obviously aimed at people who have government grant money to throw around. And disregard the star at the head of this review; the software won't allow less than a one-star rating.

The authors did a wonderful job of compiling years of scientific research into a natural history book. This is definately a book for the more scientifically-oriented community. It is nice to see the technical aspects included, rather than oversimplifying the material into a "storybook." The missing star is for the price...but this is probably a matter related to the publisher rather than the authors.

I went into this book with great anticipation, but it left me cold. The prose is as dry as month-old bread. Good luck keeping your eyes open during this monotonous read. The book mentions that Hall is a college professor. For his students' sake, I can only hope that his classes are more interesting than this book. Avoid this book unless you are an imsomniac.