Authors James Hanock and James Kushlan, along with illustrators Robert Gillmor and Peter Hayman have put together a simply gorgeous guide to all the world's species of herons, egrets, and bitterns. A guide to herons on every continent except Antarctica, all 60 species as recognized by the book, it is a thorough treatment of each one. Each species has a breathtaking color illustration, many times an additional black and white illustration, the common name, genus and species name, alternate common names, when and who first described it as species, maps illustrating range (including directions of migration and areas of casual occurrences), several paragraphs describing in detail their physical appearance, notes on their distribution and population, migration, habitat, behavior flying, feeding, and breeding, descriptions of nests, eggs, and young, and a note or two on taxonomy. Subspecies are noted as well; for instance a two page color range map depicts the 30 subspecies of the green-backed heron, found throught the Americas, Africa, Asia, Australia, and several Pacific and Indian Ocean island groups.

In addition to being a thorough field guide and collection of natural history notes on the world's herons, egrets, and bitterns the first section of the book contains useful articles on heron classification, courtship, feeding, and tips on identifying herons and egrets, including several color plates that aid in identifying the many white herons and egrets that live around the world. An extensive bibliography closes out this work.

Whether you want to read more about the great blue heron or the black-crowned night heron that lives around the local river or swamp, or something more exotic, like the black heron of Africa or the zigzag heron of South America, then this is the book for you. The book will also be of interest to conservationists, as several species such as the slaty egret have very restricted ranges (in this case known to breed only in the Okavango swamp in northwest Botswana) or very small populations such as Malagasy heron.

This is a collection of reviews and essays written by the Oscar Wilde of art critics. Known for his witty and engaging column at the Village Voice, and his more recent post at the New Yorker, Schjeldahl has also contributed pieces to the New York Times, and most of the major art magazines. From the abstract expressionists to the simulationists, this book focuses mainly on the artists and movements of the last half of the 20th century.

I loved this book. It was informative, intelligently written, and highly entertaining. I found Schjeldahl to be a rare critic who is genuinely excited by the work he sees and admiring of the many artists he writes about. He may not always like the work, but he always gives it a fair and honest review. In turn, he opened up my mind to the possibilities of what art is and can be.

Such bleak times in our history. It brings it to life yet pulls you in and makes you feel like you are actually there.

Being a health care executive, I feel I am fairly qualified to write a review on health care books. This book was very impressive, and I especially liked hearing what other executives of health care companies think about the future of the industry. I have read too many business books by unknown authors-this was finally one with some insight from people in industry. I highly recommend this book to any one interested in health care or in the health care industry.

I know that there is infinity of books that contribute teachings to the nowadays managers. But Peter Senge in The Fifth Discipline goals offering a lot of different forms of approaching the problems, many different forms of thinking solutions, especially today, when managers should make decisions with very little time and very little information of the environment... or who has time today of reading all day's newspaper, know changes day by day in the market? Senge helps to invent every moment analysis tools, to synergy the company and all its members in that search, and those book is without doubts a pleasant reading for the bussinessman and woman.

Like many Americans, I didn't know much about our country's principles of government or its legal system. This book helped me to become more knowledgeable about both. I admit, this is not reading I would choose to curl up with in front of the fire; this was part of a requirement for my MBA. However, I will remember what I've learned in this text long after my class ends. Having previously been clueless about the legal system, it is now exhilarating to read about, say, how the nine US Supreme Court Justices are dealing with the aftermath of the Gore vs. Bush debacle and actually understand what is going on. The chapters are well-organized and easy to understand. There are even helpful study tips and ways to brief a legal case in the beginning of the text. After completing this book, I not only feel better equipped to handle business decisions, but also feel empowered and enlightened for better understanding our great country.

LENT SOURCEBOOK IS ACTUALLY 2 VOLUMES, PUT OUT BY A CHICAGO BASED lITURGY tRAINING pUBLICATIONS. THEY HAVE BOOKS FOR ADVENT, tHE eASTER tRIDUUM,BAPTISM, MARRIAGE,EASTER AND MANY OTHER LITURGICAL EVENTS. THESE TWO VOLUMES DEAL WITH THE DAYS OF LENT, FROM ASH WEDNESDAT,UNTIL THE EASTER TRIDUUM[HOLY THURSDAY].EACH DAY IS ALLOTED 10 PAGES OF READINGS,PSALMS,HYMNS AND APPROPRIATE QUOTES.HERE IS AN EXAMPLE,FROM TUESDAY OF THE FIRST WEEK OF LENT;MATTHEW6;5-15,A QUOTE FROM CYPRIAN OF CARTHAGE, A QUOTE FROM FREDERICK FARBER,SIMONE WEIL,ABRAHAM JOSHUA HESCHEL,J.T. PETEE,ISIAH 55:10-11,LANCELOT ANDREWS,CEASARIUS OF ARLES,HENRI NOUWEN,1 THESSALONIANS5:16-18,ORIGEN,THE WAY OF THE PILGRIM,ARTIN BUBER,COLLOSIANS4:2,BALTHASAR FISCHER,PAUL F. BRADSHAW,ORIGEN,ALEXANDER SHCHMEMANN AND ROMANO GUARDINI. tHIS IS JUST FROM one DAY! sEAMLESSLY WOVEN TOGETHER, THIS IS THE DIFINITIVE LENTEN DEVOTION BOOK. THERE IS SOMETHING HERE FOR ALL TASTES,THOUGH ALL OF IT IS GOOD AND EVEN HOLY. A MARVELOUS JOB.THE PAPER ITSELF IS HEAVY BOND,CLEAN A LOVELY TO LOOK AT.10 STARS!!!!!!!!!

This is a marvelous study not only of a poignant African-Brazilian woman persecuted for daring to state her beliefs, but one that reveals the different ways that American (Levine) and Brazilian (Meihy) scholars perceive the problems of race in society. A must read for anyone interested in Latin American society or the history of women or of blacks in the hemisphere.

This map and guide is beautifully designed and is an invaluable aid to anyone trying to hunt down lighthouses in the U.S. The Maine and Massachusetts guides by the same team are wonderful as well. Very helpful!