Wow! This is not just your normal big photo book to set on the coffee table for an occasional browse through. This is a book to savor, page by page, slowly and with thoughtful contemplation of the stunning images presented both by the photographers and the author. From the first paragraphs of the introduction, I realized this book offers an unusual journey, as the author explains, in elegant prose, his reasoning for taking the reader UP the Colorado River rather than down. Here is a book worthy of being used as a reference in any historical geography or geology class, yet read from cover to cover for its literary appeal. Even those who have not visited the Grand Canyon in person will gain an awesome appreciation for this wonder of nature by traveling with the author and photographers through the pages of this masterpiece.

Take this wonderful guide to the Grand Canyon. Not only is it informative and visually beautiful it enhances your spiritual understanding and love for the natural beauty of this magical place. Robert Hutchinson's text takes you on an awesome adventure.

Rob is the Man!!! I didnt double my money, I TRIPLED IT. and i owe it all to him. (And i'm not just saying this because he's my brother) His strategies and hints are the best, the casinos banned me now.

The animals around the misty Isles of Scotland get to tell this tale of adventure as escape of Bonnie Prince Charley through the Highlands in 1746. He's now a Scottish deerhound, beholding to Skye terrier Fora MacDonald. Robert Hutchinson and Rob Brown join forces to tell and illustrate the story beautifully. I especially liked the way Flora communicates with "free" animals who bravely come to her aid. Such a talented lady--she speaks otter, owl, porpoise, marten, and deer! A lovely, lyrical journey sure to delight parents and children alike.

What a wonderful book. If you are not familiar with the work of Stanley Sargent, I heartily recommend this book. For once Cthulhu Mythos aficionados can revel in a new, individual voice. Indeed, it is the distinct "voice" of each of the selections in this book that remains so impressive. That and the fact that Sargent (like Robert Bloch before him) is one of the few Mythos writers that successfully mixes horror and humor.

Probably one of the most satisfying aspects about the "Taint" is that the reader gets to sample Sargent in various aspects of his craft - from straight, Mythos horror, to subtle humor, to irreverent poetry and well-researched analysis. (The central novella, Nyarlatophis, set in ancient Egypt, is also superbly researched and delivered.) His range is as varied as is his manner of delivery - from a creepy "Live Bait," a sequel to H.P. Lovecraft's famous (and disturbing) "Shadow Over Innsmouth," to a thought provoking "Black Brat of Dunwich"-- a different interpretation of Lovecraft's "The Dunwich Horror." The two should be read side by side for the remarkable insights and conclusions Sargent manages to draw from Lovecraft's original story. To be honest, I found all the stories in this volume interesting and surpirsingly successful - despite their different construction and delivery. In the last story: "Double Screecher" Sargent manages to perfectly capture the claustrophobic paranoia of an insecure man in a movie theater. But don't be misled, you will think the story is going one way but then Sargent will pull the rug out from under you and go in an entirely different direction. Fabulous!

Another aspect of Sargent's savvy work that I found most appealing was his fluid style - and the individual timbre of each story which had a distinct feeling and "voice" all their own. Part of this is due to his gift of knowing how to give the reader just enough detail to prompt their mind into its own tangents of description. In other words, instead of describing something in complete detail, he gives the reader just enough key words or phrases which then propels their mind into creating its own mental scenarios. A rare gift. I found this especially impressive in such stories as "Live Bait."

If all that were not enough, the book has illustrations by D. L. Hutchinson, Allen Koszowski, Daniel Alan Ross, Peter Worthy, Jeffrey Thomas and Stanley Sargent himself! The book is also given a superb introduction by Richard A. Lupoff, which immediately establishes the quality of entertainment that will be found between the book's covers, and each story is prefaced by comments from none other than Robert M. Price - the respected and veteran Lovecraft scholar.

Do yourself a favor and get this book. Sargent is a vivid, colorful writer. It is most unfortunate that his first volume of stories, Ancient Exhumations, is now out of print.

Anne Bradstreet (1612-1672), a poet of colonial North America, is a pioneering figure in the history of literature of this continent. "To My Husband and Other Poems" gathers together 72 pages of her poetry. Hers is, despite the centuries that separate us from her, a very engaging and meaningful poetic voice.

Many of the poems in this volume are about her family members, and about the joys and sorrows of family life. Bradstreet writes with great warmth and sensitivity about her husband, children, parents, grandchildren, and daughter-in-law. Her poem "To my Dear and loving Husband" is, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful love poems ever written. Overall, her family-related poems give real insight into the struggles faced by women of her era, but these poems also have a universality that transcends her time.

There is a lot of other good stuff in this volume. Bradstreet's voice is often quite witty (especially in "The Author to her Book"). "The Prologue" is a fascinating proto-feminist defense of female literary aspiration. Also fascinating is her tribute to England's Queen Elizabeth I. Bradstreet's poetry is essential for scholars of American literature. But her work should be read not just for scholarship, but also for the real humanity and artistry of her voice.

Robert Hutchinson captures the innermost workings of western civilization in his moving photographic tribute to the spirit of New York. Its power and beauty are symbolized by the World Trade Towers. And now in the aftermath of 911 so is its passion. I hazard that many of us who once lived in Manhattan and have since moved away have forgotten how much we loved New York. Hutchinson reminds us how much of a state of mind the city is. For you can never truly move away. Just as we can never truly move away from the verity infused in the Bard's sonnet that the author briliantly matches to the stretchings and tragedy of modernity in the tower's tragic end. In a single allusion, he redeems the tragedy. The coldly compelling text describing the impacts and collapse of the towers stands in bleak and deathly juxtaposition to the soaring inspiration of New York. For as real as the towers is the kind of society that built, used, and toiled in it. It is an international, indeed global society, a triumph of western ideas of tolerance, inclusion, vibrancy, freedom. In my Columbia University days we used to refer to the neighborhood as "Bagdad on Hudson," in celebration of the rich diversity and energy of the place. That in the end was the target of the attack. Hutchinson's memorial helps us weep for the victims, recognize the simple heroism of ordinary inhabitants ... and holds up a mirror to our glory.

Browntrout Publishers, the writer Robert Hutchinson, and the photographer Jake Rajs have achieved something extrordinary. Six weeks after September 11, 2001, they have produced a gripping, breathtaking, timeless memorial to the World Trade Center. "Sometime Lofty Towers" (the Shakespearean sonnet to which the title alludes seems eerily prescient) tells the story of the creation and destruction of the Twin Towers with heartbreaking, riveting photographs by Rajs and an equally heartbreaking, riveting essay by Hutchinson. There is a grandeur, solemnity, and physicality to Hutchinson's style that perfectly suits the subject. He seems to build the Twin Towers for us from the ground up, making us marvel at the ingenuity of their design; his concluding account of precisely how the two terrorist-guided planes annihilated the towers thus seems all the more awful and tragic. This is a fitting tribute indeed for the World Trade Center--and for those to whom Hutchinson eloquently dedicates the book, "the heroic rescuers who died striving in the name of mercy."

When sometime lofty towers I see down razed,
And brass eternal slave to mortal rage ....

It will always be difficult to grasp the enormity of September 11. The immense loss of life, the towering buildings reduced to rubble, the massive amounts of ensuing information, all left me feeling helpless and overwhelmed. The sheer volume of the catastrophe made me long for something tangible, something I could hold in my hands.

What I finally found was Sometime Lofty Towers, a quiet, beautifully compiled tribute to the World Trade Center. The breathtaking photographs by Jake Rajs (et al) of the towers - which at one time would have been memorable for their composition and technical expertise - are now infused with loss. From the elegant long shot of the towers rising through a night sky, to the inspiring ant's-eye view of soaring steel, to the chilling sight of a smoke-filled skyline forever altered, each portrait has been transformed into something uniquely emotional.

The photographs do not stand alone. The introduction, by Robert Hutchinson, was a revelation. Mr. Hutchinson has the uncanny ability to take a dizzying amount of information and make it instantly comprehensible. He takes us through the buildings' conception and creation and makes their vital statistics meaningful. He describes the two airliners that brought them down, then, most importantly, explains how they brought them down, using a skillful mix of hard numbers and easily understood comparisons. ("The weight ratio between one WTC Tower and one Boeing 767-200ER equals that between a 275 lb human being and a 1 ounce sparrow. How could (one airplane) have such a devastating effect on a WTC Tower?")

I was grateful for the dignity of this book. Its prose was beautifully written, sorrowful without being overwrought; its photographs were striking, memorable without being graphic. And it even let me help: the publishers will donate a portion of the sale of each book to the Uniformed Firefighters Association's Widows' and Children's Fund. I highly recommend it.

The text is good & well researched, but only if you are looking for an indepth history of the breed ... it's a book that requires careful reading to bring out the best ...

The Editorial Review by Dr. Bernard W. Ziessow provides a very precise summary of its content, read the Editorial Review and make sure the book serves your purpose and interest before committing to a purchase.

As far as the photography goes, the book doesn't quite make the grade, there are several coffee tables books on the market that contain much better photographs of Labradors ...

The superb color photos of Labs led me to choose this book as a gift for a fellow Lab-lover. But I found I could not part with it bacause the text is equally captivating and one I want to refer to again and again. The author's very careful research and citations of source material befits the scientist he is; his delightful writing style entices the reader to continue reading to delve deeper into this historic puzzle. Hutchinson's conclusion is like the surprise ending of a mystery story - perfectly reasonable in light of the evidence and explanations presented, but still unexpected, and a fascinatingly different extension on the usual story. Buy two copies - one to give, one to keep!

Well, I just got back from a trip to Rome and read this book on the plane. Yes, at times it was funny --- as the other reviewers have noted. Yes, I learned some things about the Vatican I didn't know before. But the book is also disjointed, repetitive, poorly edited, and written in a style that was wordy, manipulative of the reader, and with barely veiled sexism in his repeated references to the physical appearance of the women he sees or meets. I had the impression the author was just trying to fill enough pages to make it book length. It was not a pager turner.

Living in Rome (I even work for the Vatican), I found the 1998 version (subtitled "An Unofficial Guide to the Vatican") a very pleasant read, with many of the same wry observations I myself have made on more than one occasion. The author provided me with an entertaining experience, and I was also inspired by his evident love of the Catholic Church, despite all the superficial evidence to the contrary. Although I have lived here for about a year and a half now, I learned some interesting tidbits about places I walk by every day, and laughed out loud on more than one page. The book is now making the rounds of all my American friends in Rome. In fact, I received it as a gift from another temporary Roman!

Have you ever wondered just what goes on "behind the scenes" in Vatican City? Well, wonder no longer! When in Rome reveals many innermost and often-hidden secrets buried deep in the depths of the Vatican's cellars. It's an absolutely superb book. The few negative reviewers missed the humor... and concentrated on a few insignificant details. Most of them appear to be ultra-conservative Catholics who won't tolerate the least bit of criticism (even when meant in fun) by the author.

In fact, the author tells his first-hand investigative tale with passion, insight and a great deal of wit -- so much so that he had me bursting into laughter chapter after chapter. Hutchinson pulls no punches and is one of the few honest writers about the Vatican to go directly into the bowels of this treasured city. He plainly loves and admires the Vatican, Italy and even the Italian language -- which he said time and again he wished he knew better. When in Rome is truly a great read to be enjoyed by people of all faiths. It's such a light-hearted, yet fascinating book. Highly recommended.

I bought this book hoping it would be more of a textual history of the banjo in America -- its development, construction, artistry, and unique place in American history. This book is NOT a history of the banjo per se; it's the companion book to a museum exhibit that ran at MIT a number of years ago. As such, it does a competent job giving a very general overview of the history of the banjo -- without much detail -- with numbing descriptions of the banjo manufacturers featured in the exhibit. I'm sure it would've done the trick nicely for the exhibit, but there's not much meat for the bone if you're looking for a more comprehensive book. Nice pictures, though.

Among the very few available resources on early banjos I rank this book very highly.

Essentially the catalog of the 1984 banjo exhibition at the MIT Museum, it presents Webb's informative and highly readable brief history of the banjo, and more. I love looking at the excellent photographs of early players, ephemera and banjos from the exhibition, but my favorite part of the book by far is Jim Bollman's information packed section entitled "The Banjomakers of Boston".

This book has proven a reliable and surprisingly complete compilation of hard to find information. I highly recommend it to banjo collectors, historians, players of vintage banjos and anybody interested in the story of "America's instrument" and how it came to be.

This book is a pleasure to read, because it not only contains beautiful full-page, color calendar-quality photos of Goldens, but also gives the history of the breed as it became differentiated from other retriever breeds. The author has carefully documented the early geneology of the breed, and describes the scientific rationale for the program of inbreeding, line-breeding and outcrossing which established the breed characteristics. It was a real treat to find such depth of explanation presented so clearly. Experienced breeders as well as newcomers to the fancy will enjoy and learn from this book.