First of all, this is not so such a biography of Doc Holliday as Myers WRITING a biography about Holliday. What I mean by this is that Myers is a VERY self-indulgent writer. He loves to play around with words, include quick humorous phrases on a whim, and make self-referencial comments throughout any book he writes, which includes this one.
His research tends to be strong, and he tends to take rather radical views of his topics, views which challenge what is normally held as the truth about his subjects. (His book on the San Francisco vigilante committee days completely deflates the idea that the vigilantes stood for anything other than their own personal vendettas and profits.)
This book is pretty tame by Myers conventions, but is still a bit indulgent. It's a good read, but do expect to have to re-read pages, get side-tracked by witty comments, and indulge in wordplay. That's the Myers way!
List price: $34.95 (that's 30% off!)
The book does fill a unique niche, that of ecology and natural history guide to these two unique wild places. No other book that is easily carried provides as much enjoyable natural history reading on the Amazon and Pantanal. The illustration plates are uniformly excellent, but it is not noted whether species occur outside of the Pantanal and Amazon. Many species do occur outside, as I quickly found out. Eliminating the rest of Brazil all together just seems a bit restricting. An average traveller to Brazil is most likely to make a stop in Rio de Janeiro, perhaps visit the easily accessible Parque National de Tijuca, and wonder if what they're seeing is that similar looking bird in their book.
Brazil is a big country, and no guidebook has yet to cover all its flora and fauna in one volume, in English, and travel-sized. This guidebook attempts to cover at least the animals and birds of Brazil's largest natural treasures, and succeeds for the most part. Given its quality of illustrations and plates, written descriptions of behavior, ecology and geography, this book is a good when used in conjunction with other bird and mammal guides.
I'm working since 2 years with inventor and this book was a welcome addition to my inventor knowledge.
I would recommend this book to everybody !!
Myers' writing style is dense, with many clever phrases thrown in, apparantly for his own amusement. It is a style that can be difficult to cope with at first, but just as a new style of food takes some getting used to and can be ultimately rewarding, the reader who sticks with Myers usually ends up enjoying the ride, as well as eagerly anticipating the next bizarre phrase or incident.
A reader who enjoys history and stories of unlikely heroes will be in for a treat with this book.