Comparing many books on mushrooms I am still looking for a great combination of features. 1) must be portable and not the size of a large size volume; 2) color photographs, possibly full page, in a natural setting, possibly at natural size; 3) text adjacent to photograph; 4) warnings on look-alike mushrooms when looking at one mushroom specifically; 5) usage of scientific names as primary references instead of common names. While this field guide excells in many of the above, each page has three color photograps, thus often the mushroom displayed is 20% the size of the actual real mushroom. Also, the text pages are separate from the photograph pages due to different type of paper used (text is on white paper), so while the picture may be on page 200, the text is on page 400. Another disappointment was the prevalent usage of common names instead of scientific names, which can be a turn-off for readers who are not from North America and couldn't care less of the local mushroom naming.

This Field Guide is one of the best there is on the subject of mushrooms found in the North American continent. I hunt mushrooms regularly and use this guide when I encounter a mushroom that I am unfamiliar with or where there are simular features.

This guide has color photographs and an apt descriptions as to where and what a certain mushroom grows upon. Whether they are edible or not. I found this guide to be indispensable and keep it with me for accurate identification.

This guide is compact enough as to be with you on all hiking treks. It is worth the money as a very valuable tool for spore print color. Sometimes the only way to tell the difference between spieces.

Excellent and well worth reading. The best guide I found, but I own four others for cross reference. Before you harvest mushrooms from the wild you must be certain that what you harvest is what you've got.

Don't leave home without it. Be prepared...

The Audubon Society does it again, and again. This book is the most comprehensive field guide to North American mushrooms I've been able to locate. I loved it so much, I had to order another copy because my old one wore out.

The world was a lot more scared of nuclear war when this book was published in 1986, and the idea of digging tunnels to save us all seems a little silly to me today. The emphasis on the fact that that besides tunnels we also need the Lord to save us added no credibility to this book. I think the book's only redeeming quality is as some kind of historical document.

I can't add much to what the previous two reviewers have said, other than to add that the materials presented in support of a system of home and local civil defense preparations make total sense--far more than any kind of SDI system so far proposed. The Russians have a saying that "the Americans send men into space with the latest and most advanced technology. We send men into space in tin cans." There are times when low-tech makes the most sense, and in terms of civil defense, this is one of those times, as the authors make clear. One thing I found startling is the documented degree to which the Russians and the Chinese already have these low-tech solutions already in place, and so are not as threatened as we might think by the American "nuclear deterrence."

Buy this book. Read it. Figure out how to apply it to your own life even if you cannot persuade the politicians to abandon their high-tech fantasies for low-tech practical solutions. You will sleep better at night knowing that at the very least you are taking care of your family.

Technology as old as the spade is the centerpiece of this book's thesis on how Americans can be defended against nuclear attack. Leaving aside SDI or any other anti-missile system, this book concentrates on civil defense. The argument made is that MAD (Mutual Assured Destruction), in which each nuclear power holds the others' undefended cities hostage to ensure the peace, is seen as immoral (with which this writer agrees). The solution offered is to go low-tech. Pointing out how England and Germany bombed each other into rubble, North notes that war production was largely unaffected (Germany's peaked in August of '44), because bomb shelters protected the populace. Hiroshima survivors within several hunderd yards of ground zero lived because they had enough overhead cover to absorb both the blast and the radiation. (My own military training stressed that 2 feet of packed earth would absorb over 99% of the fallout of a nuclear blast.) The authors propose that America adopt a nationwide system of shelter construction, designed to house the population in the event of a nuclear confrontation. They take pains to discuss stockage of food, water, and medecine, as well as the likely amount of space per person. The benefits are that, by being defended, we are less a target for nuclear blackmail, and the system could be used for natural and man-made disasters. Gary North's reputation may have taken a deserved hit over his call on Y2K, but he's on the money here, and quotes Mao on Chinese thinking on the subject: "Dig tunnels dep, store grain everywhere, and never seek hemegeony." This book should be at the center of the national debate over defense policy in this year's election. -Lloyd A. Conway

I think that it is a great book but it is not informative about some of the common Psilocybe species it only contains one and it isn't the most common around southern states like California, Texas, and New Mexico... Etc... Etc. One of which is Psilocybe Cubanessis.

Execelent photos! However, the book tells you that it's o.k. to experiment with the amanita family-not a good idea when starting out or even for a pretty good mushroom hunter unless you want a one way trip through the great golden gates of heven!

I happen to love mushrooms and am very into identifying the ones that grow in my backyard. This book was a lot more helpful to me than any of the others I found. The beginning is extremely informative, and the species guide is huge-about 240 great pictures! No book can list every one, but this one covers a great many, especially common ones you're likely to see. Get it-it's a good buy.

This book contains a lot of information. The trouble is that I don't like the book very much. It seems to me to have a little bit of a slant. I love the Presbyterian Church and Presbyterian history. One of the best books on Presbyterian history is Charles Hodge's "Constitutional History of the Pesbyterian Church" (written in the 1800's and hard to find), and I have read the whole book. Charles Hodge was one of the most famous Presbyterian theologians. The author of the book, for which this review is written, mentions a few tiny bits and pieces (about 9 pages worth) of Hodge's book, however, it is obvious to me that he has never read the whole book or has not grasped it. Hodge is even presented out of context at one point (one of the only points it's even referenced). If you want to learn early American Presbyterian history, don't get the book under review here. Get Charles Hodge's book, which not only is more scholarly and accurately written, but also shows a deep respect and love to the principles of true Presbyterianism and the ministers of the early American churches. Hodge's book will build your knowledge and appreciation. I don't see that building and planting with the book under review here. This book doesn't even reference the great works of some of the greatest ministers of the Presbyterian church in America's history. Archibald Alexander and Samuel Miller are not even talked about. It appears that none of the works of Alexander, Miller, Witherspoon, Dickinson, Tennent, Blair, Thompson, Rogers, and so on, are even referenced; and these are the best works of early Presbyterianism. I'm sure this book is more useful for later Presbyterian history, but if you are interested in early history - from 1700 to 1850 - then you will not get well educated with this book.

(NOTE: This is one of those rare Gary North books which is not wildly controversial even within conservative circles. Conservatives of whatever variety will love this. Only Liberals will hate it.)

Gary North here accomplishes what no one else has even attempted: a thorough look at how the liberals took over the most prominent Mainline denomination. You may think this is old news: it's not. You may think it's irrelevant: you're wrong.

Southern Baptists should pay especially close attention (and North heavily tips his hat to Paul Pressler and Paige Patterson): this is the same general plan of attack that was used in the SBC up to the conservative resurgence. It is also the ongoing strategy in many of our state conventions and at schools like Baylor and Wake Forest.

Crossed Fingers is both a scholarly history that everyone from John Frame to Adrian Rogers will appreciate, and an action manual for how to defeat liberal takeovers. It's a big book (a very big book), and some people might get lost in the preface and the forward (if you sense yourself getting lost, just move on to the Introduction. I don't recommend this, but it's a valid option), but it is must reading for anyone who cares about keeping the church faithful to it's Master.

(See also Paul Pressler's new "A Hill on Which to Die.")

Gary North does an excellent job showing how the PCUSA became a liberal church. It is complete yet interesting. Too often Reformed people (and other Christians) do not understand what causes a denomination to be corrupted. North, armed with an optimistic postmillenial world view, shows that it is weak adherence to Reformed standards that brings about this corruption. An amillenialist could not have written a book this well or this interesting, because an amillenialist has no sure hope for the church's reformation. The only thing I wish North had included is a discussion of how premillenialism, a theology held to by most of the New School party in the 1920s, contributed to the final takeover by modernists. North is right when he says similliar books need to be written by conservatives in other apostate denominations. It is hoped that others will write on the United Presbyterian Church, the Reformed Church in America, and the United Church of Christ. If you are a Presbyterian pastor or elder, and you only read one book this year, make sure it is this one!

If you're a fan of the Braves, this is a great history. Really the only problem with it is that it stops just short of the 1995 postseason, which of course culminated in the first Atlanta World Series triumph (the third for the Braves organization). But every history book is slightly obsolete--and until this book is itself updated and republished, it remains the best. There is a season-by-season section with entries for every year from 1876-1994, with a description, team roster, and final (basic) batting/pitching stats for the year. There is a section of biographies of major players from every era. There are sections on the managers, the ownership, the ballparks, and the best-and-worst player transactions. There's accounts of every postseason appearance, with box scores. There are photos of players, uniforms, newspaper headlines, even souvenirs through the years. All nicely arranged. What more could a Braves fan want? Nothing, except a second edition.

This book contains a few short stories about the mischief that Coyote always seems to get into. They held the attention of my five-year-old. We found the last story - Coyote and the Grass People to be particularly amusing, but not for those who don't appreciate a little bathroom humor. The book has a few pictures in black and white. The narrative reads as if the author is really speaking the story the reader.

Gary North always manages to bring a lot of background and analysis into the subjects he covers. In DOMINION COVENANT, he conducts an economic analysis of the book of Genesis and shows why Christians have not only a rightful claim to the world around us, but that we have a duty to be legitimate stewards of the Earth.

Growing up as a dispensational Christian, the Old Testament was usually presented in my church as good history but generally irrelevant to daily living and overall worldview. DOMINION COVENANT does a good job of bringing the book of Genesis into the daily life of its readers.

The book is dedicated to Dr. Henry Morris, who has spent his professional career attacking modern evolutionary thinking by basing his scientific research on the presumptions of Genesis. What Morris did for geology, North expands into economics and the social sciences.

One thing that North does with this book is to document his sources for many of his assertions, making this book a good research too.

I do downgrade North on his overall writing. Although this book is more readable than some of his other works, DOMINION COVENANT is cumbersome and tedious. North often shoots his writings off on tangents (although there is a lot of interesting history here too) and also uses his writings to insult Christians of other traditions. While certain churches, such as the dispensational church I grew up in, do need to be brought to task, North often makes too much of using his otherwise serious scholarship to immaturely belittle those who don't see things his way.

On the other hand, North is the only person I know of who has published a contemporary commentary on the social relevance of the Old Testament to modern Christians. If this subject interests you, read the Bible, then pick up DOMINION COVENANT.

Paul Nabhan's latest book is a delight to read. His clear writing style and effective way of illustrating important points gives the reader a pleasant break from the more technical books on the topic of seed evolution and dispersion. But don't be deceived by its ease of reading, the book is full of facts about early native agricultural practices in North and Central America, contains warnings about our loss of natural vegetation, especially rain forests, and tells of our rapid loss of plant diversity.

Dr. Nabhan is the cofounder of an organization called Native Seeds and is currently Assistant Director of the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix, Arizona. In these dual roles he has had ample opportunity to observe what is happening to our natural vegetation and to record how the diversity of plants in our world continues to shrink at an alarming rate.

His book is divided into a series of chapters each with names intended to draw the reader's interest. Examples include: "Turning Foxholes into Compost Heaps," "Drowning in a Shallow Gene Pool," and "Invisible Erosion." Each of his 12 chapters focuses on an important point. The first one presents an interesting history of plant evolution from the earliest Paleozoic times through the late Cenozoic and explains how the large, plant gene pool created the wonderful diversity we have all come to enjoy. In the next several chapters Dr. Nabhan first addresses the great diversity of plants found in forests of the wet and dry tropics and next speaks about how this great diversity led to the emergence of many cultigens we now depend upon for our staples. He also points with alarm to how rapidly this diversity is being lost as large areas are converted to agricultural lands or are clear cut for their lumber. Other chapters focus on the need for saving examples of seeds from plants that are becoming extinct and the advantages in tropical areas of using local plant species and local farming techniques instead of introduced hybrid plants and "modern" agricultural techniques. In later chapters Dr. Nabhan chronicles the demise of wild rice in the Great Lakes region, the near loss of a species of rare gourd in Florida, and why the production of maize in many areas of the northern Great Plains is not nearly as great today as it was in past generations. Finally, he offers a word of caution to plant geneticists saying that they could learn a lot from looking at the problems associated with the raising of domestic turkeys.

The main theme of Dr. Nabhan's book focuses on the need for plant diversity and how the maintaining of a wide gene pool for each species is critical for the survival of each species. All of this, he cautions, has direct effects upon mankind because many of these plants form elements of our primary food supply. Throughout the book the author inserts brief warnings for the reader to ponder. On page 27, for example, the author notes the prevailing attitude among many plant geneticists. He quotes one of them as saying, "If we need rare strains to breed a stronger variety of grain in the event of an epidemic, we go out and collect them." The problem, as Dr. Nabhan notes, is that already for many plants there are no longer wild strains to use.

Book Review a Review of Canyons

I liked the book because it showed difference in time. It showed on how spiritual the boy was, and his code of ethics. It took place in the 1970's and 1860's. I think Brennan was smart with that. He wanted to be fair to everybody. He researched on Coyote Runs. He took newspapers from 1860 since a guns had to be only a little over 250 years ago. He wanted to return Coyote Runs to his home. He wanted Brennan to bring him to his home. His home was on top of the canyon. It made a steep loop, so the Americans did not know where they lived. I liked Coyote Runs, because he was shy, but he wanted to become a man. He was naive, because when the soldier missed, the soldier accidentally shot it away from him. He wanted to get to his medicine place which is parched land, but he left a trail of blood and he was surrounded by soldiers. I liked that Brennan did not want the skull to be in a museum. He was good with that, because he kept his promise even though he violated the rules of authority. He did newspaper research from the 1860's. He found it for 1864 when there was a raid with the Apaches to take the horses. The only thing wrong was that the Indians did not fire back at the soldiers fighting them. He did not do what his mother wanted but it was the right thing to do. He hiked 20 miles to do what Coyote Runs wanted. I liked Brennan since he was shy, but he was determined. I would recommend this book to anyone in 7th through 12th grade.

Canyons is a great adventure story. The main characters are Brennan, Mr. Homesly and Brennan's mother. In this book Brennan stumbled over a skull with a bullet hole in it. After this, he had trouble sleeping. He had strange dreams, and he heard whispers. He finally realized that he had a quest from an Apache boy who was executed by soldiers for no reason. His quest was to return the skull to the medicine place. Could he do it? Once Brennan had a vision about Coyote Runs, the Apache boy. In his vision Brennan saw soldiers coming after him like they did to Coyote Runs. This reminds me of the time I was playing guns. I was climbing on the rough rocks of Devil's Den at Gettysburg, playing with my brother. I could see myself slipping, fearing that I might fall just like Brennan did when he climbed the cliffs with the rescue team behind him. When Brennan went camping, he was having a lot of fun. Then when he found the skull, he was scared. This reminds me of the time when I went camping in Canyonlands in Utah. It was a lot of fun at first, but then I got worried that the creek next to our tents was going to flood. That night in our sleeping bags, we heard the water come closer and closer. I was so scared I almost jumped out of my shorts! I felt just like Brennan did when he found the skull. When Brennan was doing research with Mr. Homesly, he was trying to find out more facts about Coyote Runs. He wanted to know who this boy was. When I was studying about the Civil War, I did alot of hard work looking into the past and trying to understand what happened. I was staying up late just like Brennan did looking at every detail. Canyons is a great book for kids. It's loaded with action, suspense and alot of adventure. I recommend it to every boy in our class

The novel, Canyons by Gary Paulsen is one of the best novels I've ever read. The beginning is rather strange because the author switches between two story lines and two characters in each chapter. One chapter will be about an American boy, Brennan Cole, then the next one tells about an Apache boy, Coyote Runs. Until the reader realizes this, it is a little confusing because Brennan is living in the present and Coyote Runs lived in the past. This writing style made me wonder what the two could possibly have in common. Not too far into the book, though, the story becomes very clear. As the book begins, Coyote Runs is searching for his manhood. He is anxious to take part in his first raid, hoping that the success will make him worthy of being considered a man and not a boy anymore. The raid starts out very well but in later chapters it turns sour and Coyote Runs is killed. The murder occurs in a savage way near Dog Canyon. As the life of Brennan Cole is introduced into the book, the reader eventually sees how the two lives are joined. Brennan takes a camping trip to Dog Canyon with his mother, her boyfriend, Bill, and some youth from Bill's church. While trying to get some relief from the other campers, Brennan goes to sleep in a secluded place away from them. When he wakes up, Brennan realizes he is lying on top of a skull, which he secretly takes home with him. It is during this night that the excitement and eerie feelings begin. The rest of the book leaves the reader in complete suspense as Brennan searches for answers to his many questions concerning the skull and his obsession with it. The way the author, Gary Paulsen tells the story, it makes the idea of the "Indian spirit" very believable. The words he uses and the way he repeats them, made me feel like I was running with the skull myself, just like Brennan Cole. The novel, Canyons is a very exciting, mysterious adventure that I would recommend to any reader.

This book was my introduction to the thought patterns of a school of thought that took seriously the idea that the Kingdom of God, inaugurated by Christ's first Advent, would, and more importantly, should grow and permeate the world, and not, as my teachers had told me, be relegated to a "ghetto" mentality or a merely spiritual "pie in the sky by and by" type of religion. Simple, easy to read, and chock full of thought-provoking problems your Bible College Religion Profs wish would go away, but won

If this book gets into the hands of enough serious young Christians, let the good times and Christ's kingdom roll... all over class and campus. North divides the book into three sections (sovereignty in salvation, law and the kingdom) of 25 questions all with respect to God's authority over man. Each question is answered by a passage of Scripture, some commentary, a questionable response (an instructor may give) and a reply to the questionable response. The appendices are packed with great advice in communicating in the classroom, Bible study and even course of action when the school administration takes action against assertive students. A must read for Christians entering Christian college. Gave away three copies this past month!

It seems fit to deal with the above review. Our reviewer, having read North's book, hasn't apparently read the Reconstructionist mantra of postmillennialism, Kenneth Gentry's "He Shall Have Dominion." Reconstructionism give Jesus a high five and whole heartedly agrees the His kingdom is not of this world. As Christians, we make up the Lord's kingdom, as is evident when Christ says, "If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would fight." Luke 16:16 tells us that since John the Baptizer, the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is pressing into it. A chapter later, Jesus says "the kingdom of God is within you." Notice the present tense "is." The kingdom -is- within us.

Now, I'm not a sharp guy, but I know that Reconstructionism does not seek to establish an earthly political kingdom. No, we believe the good Lord is going to Christianize the world as such that His servants are multiplied and societies seek to mimick His righteousness in an "all the Bible for all of life" sort of way. Whereas we are not pietistic, we are also not carnal in our imaginations. We look to the day of salvation, but do not let that engulf our eyes where we seek monastaries for study and prayer rather than being godly where we are.

Godly living and desiring to see others to live a godly living, does not constitute that Christ's kingdom is of the world.