I used this for an introductory Anthropology/Archaeology course and found it easy to understand and very informative. The vocabulary was easy to find and learn and the by using the index it was possible to find subjects easily. I really liked using this book. It also had great picutres.

Now in a revised and updated fourth edition, Human Antiquity: An Introduction To Physical Anthropology And Archaeology continues to be an ideal text for classroom curriculums. Absorbing, straightforward explanations of human origins and evolution are presented beginning with an innovative opening chapter surveying creation myths and comparing the methods and purposes of science with those of belief systems. Also included in this outstanding text are an overview of evolution, and offers up-to-date information on such controversial issues as the Human Genome project, scientific creationism, the "collapse" of civilization, and more. With this new edition is a section on the contribution of genetics to questions of the geographic source of Native Americans, a major revision and update on the archaeology of Catalhoyuk, the Indus Valley, and the Olmec, early hominid diets, new finds from Dmanisis, Georgia, and Bose in southern China, stone tools from West Turkana, and much, much more. Human Antiquity is reader friendly and an ideal text for the non-specialist general reader seeking to become introductorily acquainted with the latest developments in both physical anthropology and archaeology.

Kevin Kerney, once a well-regarded police detective, has retired from police after a serious injury. Now, he works a seasonal ranger saving up for his dream-buying and running a small ranch.

However, his investigating days are far from over. A series of big-game poaching put him in conflict with more senior Park Service staff, until a murder of a Mexican tourist take precedence in the investigation.

This is a colorful mystery, full of likable characters and the New Mexican nature; with the taste of conflict between ranching and environmentalism, as well as old greed; and even some unobtrusive romance.

Kerney and his friends are well-described, although the villains are rather shallow. The old mysteries are somewhat predictable, but the investigation holds much suspense and danger.

The resolution is satisfying, and the only (minor) flaw one finds in this enjoyable book is the switching between multiple viewpoints.
--inotherworlds.com

Many readers will make the error, just as I did, in thinking all southwestern mysteries were Hillerman copies, chock full of Native American lore, spirituality, and culture. Author Michael McGarrity has now proven me wrong, twice over, but in a pleasing way that will be having me read future installments of our hero Kevin Kerney.

Similar in style to Tularosa, the reader will find themselves involved in numerous, major plotlines, all seemingly unique from each other, but finally converging in the end into an explosive climax that does not let the reader feel cheated. On the contrary, the multiple story threads are well paced between each other so as one does not get lost in the overall story direction and forget about certain characters or situations like other novels are known to do.

Here we find ex-cop Kerney just months after his role in 'Tularosa' just making ends meet as a temp park ranger for the forest service investigating a recent string of animal poaching. It just so happens that two Mexicans (a grandson and grandfather) find themselves in the wrong place and the wrong time, and one of them gets murdered, Kerney finds himself as part of the investigations.

Enter his new pseudo partner, a young Jim Stiles, all too eager to impress Kerney and his superiors and ends up getting shot at, but by who? Kerney is impressed by this young mans detective skills, but realizes that he himself was the target.

Omar Gatewood, the local sheriff is more a politician than a cop, and proves to be inept at the worst times, or does he have a master plan?

A family feud between ranchers Edgar and Eugene Cox has kept the twin brothers from speaking to each other in over sixty years, but when a note is delivered to Edgar he breaks the silence to confront his oppressive and abusive crippled brother. Why did Eugene's wife disapear all those years ago?

Karen Cox returns to her roots as the new local ADA, and takes notice of the strong and silent Kerney. She likes him, but has to work with him, and how does she deal with her fathers lie, and ensuing family feud. And how does her current case and the assassination attempt on Kerney fit into all this?

The positive aspect of introducing a new female interest for Kerney is that the author really does not push it. In Tularosa, Kerney was smitten by Sara who left at the end, and the author realizes that a new woman can't pick up the pieces immediately, but develops Karen for future novels.

The only problems I had with this novel, keeping it from five stars, was the authors constant, almost unending reminders that Kerney has a bad knee suffered from an injury years back. Okay, I got it...knee hurt. Also Jim Stiles girlfriend Molly's dialogue seemed a bit...fake. I believed in all the characters in this novel except Molly...she seemed to stick out like a displaced soap star...thank God she was only a minor part of the novel and does not detract from any one else.

Other than those two quirks, I believe that Mexican Hat was an excellent adventure that had me guessing for quite a bit on how all these threads would weave together and I was happy with the end result. I will be reading future installments.

The second entry in this series shows that intimate knowledge of your subject, skillful writing, and a fine sense of place and history, can hook and entertain a reader. A hero, tough and competent, let's us follow the murderous plot to an old fashioned shoot out conclusion. Keep em coming.

I found that the book was directed more toward complete novices. The book was overly detailed for a person with even limited experience. The book also addressed specific types and brand names of equipment that the author used, while only brielfy touching on other options available. A novice wishing to follow the equipment recommendations to the letter should be aware that his choices were also very expensive, particularly for people who may only make one trip a summer. I much preferred Cliff Jacobson's "Boundary Waters, Canoe Camping with Style". Jacobson offers route recommendations, excellent illustrations, recipes and a miriad of equipment choices. He also provides a list of manufacturers in the appendix.

Furtman has vast experience in the canoe country of northern Minnesota and southern Canada. Through his writing he empowers the reader to make wise choices with regards to trip planing, packing, camping, canoeing and cooking. The book is well worth reading for anyone contemplating a trip to Canoe Country in the future. It even makes great reading for those of us who have experienced this great adventure. I found myself saying, "why didn't I think of that", time and time again.

Having read lots of other books on this subject, I have to say that this title is the only one that meshes with my experience. His recommendations are absolutely on the money due to a paring away of hype surrounding the gear you should use when canoe camping. A great book for the novice canoe-camper and one with opinions which happen to be borne out by the experience of others.

This is a very thoughtful and provocative collection of eight essays on various simulated spaces which have infiltrated the American landscape. The book's overall thesis is that public space and "authentic" urban life increasingly has been replaced by simulations of urban life, usually as spaces of commodification (e.g. malls, gentrified districts, theme parks). In this process of replacing public space, aspects of American public life--open space for assembly, the interaction of different people, concern for communities--also get erased. While simulated spaces may seem to improve public space and public life, they do so at a cost, one that the critics seem to suggest is the loss of real public space and perhaps even of democracy.

The purpose of this book is not only to describe these spaces, but to oppose them. Each of the authors point to the negative effects of simulated space. In many cases, the essays' implications jump right out of the page and into your neighborhood. Margaret Crawford's essay on the Edmonton shopping mall could be applied to any mall in Anytown, USA. Neil Smith's essay on gentrification points out the high price that comes with "revitalization"; one is reminded of many similiar projects outside his NYC example: Philadelphia, Detroit, Seattle,and so forth. Edward Soja and Trevor Boddy both contribute well-written essays which demonstrate growing chasm between the "haves" and the "have-nots." With these essays, extended and local comparisons with dying urban areas and suburbia, sprawl, gated communities, and so forth are appropriate. Michael Sorkin's own essay on Disneyland turns a well-wrought phrase, and gives the Disney Studies scholar much to think about. (NOTE: Those interested in Disney should read this article if nothing else in the collection, although many of the essays are applicable to the study of Disney.) Of the essays, it is perhaps the one least obviously applicable to "real" life. But then again, Sorkin notes the distance between the simulated environment of the theme park and the reality of the city is decreasing.

Of course, the scholars' analyses are dark and even depressing. And more than once, the authors manage to sound like angry young critics filled with more agenda than action. More than once, extended discussion of the issues raised in the essays would have helped--although many of these authors do have full-length treatments elsewhere--or perhaps alternative perspectives which would have varied the collection's tone and helped sustain readers' interest. And like any collection some of the essays are stronger than others. Overall, though, the collection makes a reader stop and think. Many readers will end up carefully reconsidering 1) the state of American life and its public space and 2) one's participation in these developments. Variations deserves recognition for addressing these issues.

This book enlists many different authors, who all have an amazing point of view on the built environment. From gated communities to Disneyland, every chapter expresses concerns of fast-changing developed environments. Our cities are quickly becoming cold, enclosed enclaves. This book helped me realize how our society has snubbed the utilizaton of public space. This is definitely a book for every person interested in city planning, urban studies,or sociology. Whether a student or leisure reader, this book will open your minds to what is really taking place in our cities, suburbs, resorts, and recreational facilities. Any place in which society is forced to interact with one another is referred to in "Variations on a Theme Park". Read it. It will open your mind!

Good and helpful book, would have wished some more details for east Coast National Parks.

Modern Korean history has often been looked upon as a long, dark chapter with the darkness eminating from Japan. This has been increasingly the view put forth in Korean education and scholarship the further Japan's rule of the peninsula fades from actual memory. Nationalism was used in post-war Korea as a useful and powerful tool to rebuild the country, and now is perhaps having the exact opposite effect: leding to many blind spots in terms of what the Japanese reign of Korea actually meant to the country, even on an academic level.

This book takes the first steps towards pulling away the entrappings of nationalism from historical inturpretation, critically examining what exactly it was the Japanese were doing in Korea from a more objective stance.

Research of this kind was too long in the coming, and it is hoped that this will not be the last to analyze an all too often misunderstood (if realized at all) part of Korean, Japanese, and East Asian history.

Easy to follow guide for planning a family vacation to the Algonquin. Provides just the right amount of detail to whet your appetite for a trip without clouding the desriptions with too much detail. Not the best book for planning a 4 day canoeing trip into the wilderness but perfect for a varied trip including canoeing, cycling, hiking and wildlife viewing.

This book, while having little to do with the book, "Jurrassic Park" reasonably documents the events of the film. While the prose is often clunky, it does its job as a piece of merchandising for a huge movie. It is entertaining, and makes the reader long to own more things, such as the REAL book.

The animal descriptions are very brief and basic. This book might be good for someone with little knowledge of wildlife but doesnt go into much detail on any animal. It also spends too much time on animals that it even states are rarely found in Yellowstone(ie Lynx) and says almost nothing about more common, although less exciting animals(various bird and small mammals).

After buying many books like this I would suggest checking them out of the library for the length of your visit. We did not see the animals in this guide to back up the information and the locations but found it good for basic information about the animals and their habitats etc.

I found the book to be very helpful. Especially paired with "Scenic Driving in Yellowstone & Grand Teton". Other than the cats, we where able to get out early and find the wolves, grizzly, moose etc.

I had just finished reading Jurassic Park, and was so excited by it that I rushed right out to a bookstore on my lunch break to buy The Lost World. I had seen the movie, and heard the rumors that it was nothing like the book. I figured, "Of course it's not, because for one thing, Malcolm and Hammond die in the first book." Needless to say, I was shocked to see Malcolm still alive in this book! I don't know what Crichton was thinking, maybe keeping Malcolm was akin to Conan Doyle brining Holmes back by popular demand. But you can't talk about the Costa Rican government not permitting the BURIAL of Malcolm and Hammond in the first book, then bring Malcolm back in the second, simply waving off the greatly exaggerated news of his death. Observant readers will catch that, Mr. Crichton, I'm sure I'm not the only one! Also, I was annoyed at the flip dismissal of Grant in The Lost World. At the end of Jurassic Park, he noticed that the raptors were very likely migrating. So where are these migrating raptors, huh? To sum up: if I hadn't read Jurassic Park, I would have liked The Lost World a lot better. The sequel pales in comparison and frankly, just fails to satisfy.

I don't know if the dinosaurs bring out the best in Crichton or what. I've read a few of his books and haven't really cared for them, but I loved Jurassic Park and I really enjoyed this one too. It's a rollicking adventure story that doesn't stop very often. When it does, though, with some long scientific asides, it stops dead.

Crichton sure is capable of writing an exciting tale. I wish he'd do it more often. Lost World has many exciting sequences as various dinosaurs (mostly Tyrannosaurus and Raptors) chase the humans all around the island. The action is breathtaking as, just when you think the humans have solved their problem (or at least are on the road to solving it), things take a turn for the worse. I am not one for hyperbole, but throughout the middle of the book, I couldn't put it down. I stayed up much later than I should, and only turned out the light because it was getting too late and I still had too far to go.

This really isn't much more than an action yarn with some scientific ideas attached to it, though, so don't get the idea that it's really deep. In fact, the scientific ideas are one of the problems with the book. I'm not saying they're not accurate, as I don't know enough about them to make that judgment. However, there are times where Crichton just stops the action dead to go on for a page or two about chaos theory, evolution, or something. These are interesting, but they completely destroy the mood of the book. It's almost like mixing chocolate and shrimp: sure, some people may like it, but for the rest of us who like both but hate them together, it makes the finished product just a little less palatable. Thankfully, the asides don't come at you too much at one time, so once each one stops the ball starts rolling again.

Being an action thriller, the characters aren't that complex. They seem like it at times (such as when they're spouting scientific theories), but they aren't really. Malcolm is scarred by the events in the first book, and there's an interesting sequence where this comes into play. Thankfully for himself and for the others, he snaps out of it fairly quickly. I liked his character, though, because he's a combination of a realist and a cynic. However, he uses his scientific knowledge and his intelligence to get them out of more than one scrape. He's probably the most broadly defined of the bunch. The other members of the expedition have their character hooks too, but they aren't that deeply explored. Crichton spends a lot of time detailing their background, but when events start happening, they're more fodder for these events than anything else. They are distinctive, they just aren't complex.

The villains of the piece, though, are pretty dull and stereotypical. Dodgson is your typical greedy and lazy villain. His specialty is stealing other people's research after it's been tested, because that's easier and more lucrative than doing your own research and possibly going down numerous blind alleys. His allies are the typical nervous bunch, with one person worried that they're doing the wrong thing and the other one worried that they're doing the right thing but that it will go horribly wrong (which it inevitably does). Thankfully, once they get events rolling to their inevitable conclusion, they're pretty much sidelined and we don't hear much about them again until the end.

The plot is kind of a runaround, but I really enjoyed it despite that. There are definitely predictable events in it, such as when a character does something and you know immediately what the consequences of that action are going to be, long before any of the characters do. That does mar things a little bit. But it's easy to look past them because Crichton writes the action so effectively. When characters aren't spouting scientific stuff, I almost held my breath as events happened. Especially effective is the trailer scene, where Malcolm and Sarah have to figure out how to get safely out of a trailer that's being pushed, prodded and smashed by two enraged Tyrannosaurs. It's hard to tell what's going to happen there, or who will survive this sequence. Nobody (with the possible exception of Malcolm) is safe in this book, so there is a lot of tension. I will say that not everybody dies, but there certainly is doubt when certain people are in danger.

I wish Crichton would write more like these. To me, he seems at his best when he's writing scientific action thrillers. I wish there were a way that he could limit the scientific asides, though, as they really slow things down. I don't mind the asides themselves, but I think they could be included better. Still, this is one book that you won't be able to put down. And it has dinosaurs eating people. What could be wrong with that?

"The Lost World" is one of the best books I have ever read. Crichton was ingenious while writing it, although I have head that he very much hated it himself, when writing it, until he read it once again. I have read it 5 times and have seen the movie 6. It is one of my favorites along with "Sphere", "Airframe", and several others of his. His characters, such as Ian Malcolm, Sarah Harding, Doc Thorne, and Eddie Carr are very strong, and it seems as if you could actually meet them once you get into the book. The movie was not as good, but much better than "Jurassic Park". The original had much more research dedicated to it, but when Malcolm describes this information, which he does often, he begins to drone, and becomes especially boring. He is not near as boring in the sequel, but, as one other person remarked in their own review, Malcolm was said to be dead by Muldoon, who would have surely known. The others left the island--Isla Nublar--in helicopters, and the island was obliterated with bombs, unless other choppers came to the compound, taking Malcolm's 'dead' body away, and fixing him up. Anyway, "Lost World" is a magnificent book, and I would advise others to read it.