This classic guide was the first of its type, and thus probably got more people into birding than any other book. Peterson uses ink drawings to show the important "field marks" for identifying species. The downside to these drawings is that they tend to idealize the birds, showing them in perfect postures and making the field marks more prominent than they really are. Many competitors, such as the Audubon Guide and the Stokes Guide, use photographs instead. Photographs give a more accurate portrayal of the subtleties of color and pattern in plumage, but there are always those poor shots in a photographic guide that are blurry or show the bird at a bad angle. Whether you decide that a guide based on drawings or photographs is best for you, I would strongly suggest that you pick up an audio recording of birdsongs, such as "Birding by Ear," or the "Field Guide to Eastern/Central Bird Songs," both put out by Peterson's. As any experienced birder will tell you, the ear is just as important as the eye, especially in summer, when birds are often hidden by foliage.

The Peterson Field Guide to Eastern Birds is the best such guide you will find. The nice thing about birds and birding is that there are few enough species out there that you can get virtually all of them in one regional guide.

This book is outstanding. It relies on illustrations rather than photographs to show markings and other details used to ID birds in the field. I find that photos are often sub-standard, not showing characters essential for identifying birds due to the position of the bird, markings of the individual chosen for inclusion in the book, etc.

In this book each entry includes a bird's common and scientific names, a brief physical description of the body and coloration, a drawing(s) of the bird, a brief description of habitats where they are likely to be seen, a blip about their geographic distribution, notes on their song, and reference to similar species (if any). The entry also refers the reader to a map number that shows the summer and winter ranges for each bird.

This is "the bird book" to have for birds that live east of the Rockies for the novice and experienced birder alike. If you've never had much luck figuring out which birds you are looking at try this book.

5 stars all the way!

Note: if you travel much throughout the USA, you ought to pick up the Peterson Guide to Western Birds as well -- it is the sister book to this one. With both of those books in hand you will be in good birding shape.

Alan Holyoak, Dept of Biology, Manchester College, IN

I looked at nine or ten bird books over the weekend before finally deciding on this one. I like it's compact size, durable cover and it's very complete index. The most important reason for my decision, however, is the fact that it shows pictures of both male and female birds where the female bird's plummage and head differ from that of the male. None of the other books I checked showed female birds or only showed them in very rare instances. I also like this book because it shows most birds in both standing or swimming positions and also in flight. There are also occasional drawings of chicks.

The text that accompanies the pictures is necessarily brief but covers: Latin and common names, description, food, range, migratory pattern, habitat, voice and similar species. Also included is a "Systematic Checklist" so you can keep a "life list" of all the birds you've seen. There is a guide to identifying birds by visual categories (swimmers, birds of prey, waders, perching birds, etc), size, tail and wing patterns. The last part of the book contains maps illustrating each bird's range which makes it easy to compare the habitat of, for example, an Olive-Sided Flycatcher with an Acadian Flycatcher.

Obviously this is a guidebook and not the type of book you sit down and read through, but I have found myself reading the entries for the often amusing "voice" sections. Here's the one for the Chestnut-Sided Warbler: "Song, similar to Yellow Warbler's; 'see see see see Miss Beech'er' or 'pleased pleased pleased to meet'cha;' penultimate note accented, last note dropping." Hey, someone who knows what "penultimate" really means!

Master storyteller and social critic, Charles Dickens, turns this social treatise on shortcomings of Victorian society into an entertaining and heartwarming Christmas ghost story which has charmed generations and become an icon of Christmas traditions. Who, in the Western world has not heard, "Bah, Humbug!" And who can forget the now almost hackneyed line of Tiny Tim, "God bless us, every one!" or his cheerfully poignant observation, that he did not mind the stares of strangers in church, for he might thus serve as a reminder of He who made the lame, walk and the blind, see. Several movie versions: musical, animated, updated, or standard; as well as stage productions (I recall the Cleveland Playhouse and McCarter Theatre`s with fondess.) have brought the wonderful characterizations to the screen, as well as to life. This story of the redemption of the bitter and spiritually poor miser, and the book itself; however, is a timeless treasure whose richness, like Mrs Cratchit`s Christmas pudding, is one that no production can hope to fully capture.

It's hard to think of a literary work that has been filmed and staged in more imaginative variations than Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol"--there's the excellent George C. Scott version, the delightful Muppet version, the charming Mr. Magoo version, etc., etc. But ultimately true "Carol" lovers should go back to Dickens' original text, which remains a great read.

"Carol" tells the story of cold-hearted miser Ebenezer Scrooge, who despises the Christmas holiday and scorns all who celebrate it. But a visit from a series of supernatural beings forces him to reevaluate his attitude--and his life.

With this simple plot Dickens has created one of the enduring triumphs of world literature. It's a robust mix of humor, horror, and (most of all) hope, all leavened with a healthy dash of progressive social criticism. One thing I love about this book is that while it has a focus on a Christian holiday, Dickens puts forth a message that is truly universal; I can imagine this story resonating with people of any religious background, and also with more secular-oriented people.

This is a tale of greed, selfishness, regret, redemption, family, and community, and is enlivened by some of the most memorable characters ever created for English literature. Even if Dickens had never written another word, "A Christmas Carol" would still have, I believe, secured his place as one of the great figures of world literature.

Charles Dickens writes this story in such detail that you almost believe you have just enjoyed Christmas dinner at the Cratchits home. The characters have so much depth. The made for t.v. or movie screen renditions do not truly depict what Ebenezer Scrooge witnesses with the three spirits that causes such a change in his outlook on life. Such as Scrooge's emotions being quickened by the past heartache in his childhood; seeing how his bad choices caused the hardening of his heart and how deeply it cost him in the end; seeing what could have been his to enjoy and then thinking it could still be his with the Spirit of Christmas Present only to find out the future does not hold any love or joy for him by the Spirit of Christmas Yet to Come and instead his actions leave him robbed at death and no one left to grieve for him. Read the book to hear how this story was really written. Even if you have seen every Christmas Carol movie every made, the book will offer so many gold nuggets that you will think you are hearing it for the very first time. Pictures are beautifully detailed throughout the book. Excellent!!!

As one of the poets featured in Will Work for Peace, one might expect me to be a bit biased, but nothing could be farther from the truth. Most poets work in a virtual vacuum, only tenuously connected to each other by the occasional workshop or shared membership in a 'poetry society'. When Brett Axel first approached me for a submission to an anthology he was considering, the names Marge Piercy, Lyn Lifshin, Moshe Bennaroch and so many others were abstractions to me as a fledgling poet. I knew these tremendous writers were 'out there' somewhere, beating down doors with their words and keeping a struggling artform alive. But to think that someday I would ever share a credit with these dynamic modern poets would be a pipe dream at best. It is through the sincere efforts of Brett Axel that many newer voices like mine have an extraordinary opportunity to appear with Pulitzer Prize winners and other poetic heavyweights. By way of an honest review, however, I will say this- not everything in this book will be to your particular liking. I myself came across some works that did not move me in the way the author may have intended. Some imagery can be raw and visceral, using shock value in place of craft at times. But to ignore those voices would be an even more shocking turn of events, so praise be to the editor for not sacrificing his vision to a senseless conformity. As Pete Seeger so aptly put it in his quote, trying to read all these poems at one time would be like trying 'to swallow Manhattan whole'. I say to you- buy this book, read this book, but understand that it's what you do after reading this book that will ultimately define who you could be. Poetry is alive and well, and lives in the blunt pages of Will Work for Peace.

Just amazing start to finish! I like the disregard for fame used in putting the book together. That great poems got in even if they were writtenby nobodys. Look at Roger Bonair-Agard's poem on page 74. Shortly after Will Work For Peace came out he won Slam Nationals, becoming Slam Champion of 1999, which will be getting him lots of offers. But Zeropanik Press didn't need to be told he was good by an award. They could tell by his writing! Good for them and good for all of us because Will Work For Peace is a literary milestone. It's a new standard for all future anthology editors to try to live up to. Thumbs up to Brett Axel and Thumbs up to Zeropanik Press for their guts and integrty.

Brett Axel visited my Church and I bought a copy of Will Work For Peace from him, not for poetry, but because I care about working for peace. I started reading through it thinking It'd just go on my shelf and that'd be the end of it, but the book grabbed me and kept me rivited. If I had known that poetry was this alive I'd have been into poetry. I've been reading some of the poems to my friends who also didn't think poetry was important and they are saying the same thing. Fantastic! There's no way to get through this book without having your old mindsets challenged. It's funny, powerful, sad, and uplifting. A book that deserves to be read by everyone. A book that really can make the world a better place!

wow, well, euhm, I don't know what to say, but I know that Peter Pohl is the best! ... you know that this isn't his best book, but I loved it anyway.
...
What I love about his books, is that they go straith to your heart, and you will never forget them. Mostly there's a really sad end, and I have cried more than once...
So I suggest you buy this book or go to a library, but anyway, you MUST read his other books!!

If you can read this book without crying, you are strong. Even if it's about death, it's a book, that celebrates life.

I loved this book. There is no other way to describe it. All through it my face was wet with tears. And they actually made see things in a new light. It was moving and described how people should deal with life. You never know when you're going to lose a beloved one. And this book really showed me what life is all about. I think the fact that Peter Pohl actually did that...is a great accomplishment in itself.

This is great book for someone that wants to get up to speed quickly with Delphi. The author mixes a good technical discussion of the language with humor and the end effect is learning without falling asleep. The goal of this book is to get you started, and it takes a firm hands-on approach to accomplish this task. By the time you finish (and at 500 pages, you CAN finish it), you'll have touched base with all of the major features that Delphi provides

This book is really great ! Even if You are not familiar to programming, with this book you could soon have a good base on programming in Delphi. The book is very easy to understand because it is writen in very simple way, with many examples. I wolud suggest this book to everyone who is novice to programming, and who plans to make programs in this great developing tool, Delphi 2.0

Of all the beginning Delphi texts, this is probably the best. Peter Wright does an excellent job in touching on the many aspects of Delphi, without becoming tangled in time wasting examples and exercises. As a bonus, the last exercise is the development of a complete application, kind of a graduate exercise if you will. Highly recommended.

This book starts off well enough, with a fascinating chapter on the limits of mathematics, focusing on Godel's refutation of formalism (the idea that the whole of mathematics can be derived from a set of logical statements), followed by a brief history of computers and the computation. But once the authors begin their explanation of complexity, they come off as smug and overzealous about their field. They seem to take every opportunity to belittle other fields of science, and try to convince us that complexity will provide the ultimate explanaion of every facet of the universe, from biology to physics to chemistry to social sciences.

This may sound like an exaggeration, but it really isn't: at the beginning of their chapter on complexity in chemical reactions, they dismiss the idea that chemistry (and by extension, biochemistry) can be explanied by quantum physics because the calculations it requires are too complicated. I understand that it is difficult to use quantum physics, and that its effects are only significant on the atomic level, but that does not mean that quantum effects do not exist! The chapter on chemistry marks the end of any reasonable explanation of complexity, and by end of the book complexity is almost completely forgotten, as the writing gushes on about neural networks and aritficial life.

It is these later chapters on life and aritificial life that are the most poorly written. The authors commonly say things like "It is becoming clear that obstacles to creating aritfical consciousness may not be as formidable as we had thought", yet provide little proof of this. They basically claim that neural networks are only a few innovations away from becoming fully funcitoning human brains, but they provide a one-sided explanation of their usefulness and fail to mention their failings, especially in cognitive science (which is the study of the brain, of all things). They strongly hint that current ALife programs are creating new life, when they are pretty must just clever programs that manipulate computer memory according to a set of rules. They just don't seem to realize that simulating certain aspects of life with computers and life itself are very different things! We are not even certain that neurons are the basic building block of the brain, yet they are claiming that we now know enough about the brain to create a computerized one in no time. Their argument is very smug and one-sided: the only time they ever mention a criticism to current ALife and AI practices is when they present Roger Penrose's very reasonable hypothesis about how computers cannot simulate intelligence in large part due to their reliance on mathematical logic, which, as Godel proved, can sometimes break down. Yet they quickly dismiss this view, seeming to think that Godel's theorems are nothing more than irrelevant parlor tricks. Their claim that a neural network can be taught to do anything, and therfore can overcome Godel's theorems, is especially poor: we could never teach a human brain to fly, for example, because it (and the body it is in) are not equipped to do this. So why do they think that our arcane artificial neural networks are equipped to create consciousness?

Despite this heavy criticism, however, this book is still quite interesting if you are new to complexity, chaos, and artificial life. The author's overexcitement about their field seems to be common when new branches of science emerge, like when AI was first getting off the ground. If you read this book, just realize that its bold claims may be grounded in false hope.

Alright, seeing "this book should be on the shelf next to Roger Penrose's 'The Emperor's New Mind' and James Gleick's 'Chaos'", and another review saying that the book denies Godel's Theorom, confused me for a while. Then I realized that the latter refered to nueral nets. Assuming that the nets referred to are analog, there is no contradiction. Godel's Theorom proved the incompleteness of formal language systems, a.k.a. digital systems, which constitute a smaller information set than analog systems. Mathematically, analog systems do not meet the neccessary conditions for Godel's Proof to apply. However, the claim to 'completeness', if it be made, is ungrounded. Analog systems simply represent a higher information dimension, not an infinite information dimension.

This book will give you some genuine insight into the emerging (no pun intended) field of Complexity. It presents historical and current research in a way that allows both the researcher and informed layman to get a good grasp on the concepts presented. Both provocative and educational its only flaw is a perhaps too doctrinaire belief that Complexity is the "next step" in science instead of another branch. If you want a good in-depth view of the current state of Chaos and Complexity theories without having to learn all the math this book will give you what you need. It belongs on the shelf next ot Roger Penrose' "The Emperors New Mind" and Gleick's, "Chaos".

I first came across Roger Schank's writing during my undergarduate studies at Eastern Michigan. In doing a research project on how the mind learns, I ventured into artificial intelligence (Schank's specialty). As a teacher I was quite taken by the idea of learning via inquiry or question. Though this is typically thought of as the Socratic method, it is surprising that so few of us are willing to utilize this concept. Schank takes you down a road where failure only enhances the possibilty for success; where questions open an entirely new world of answers. After reading this book, I wondered "why" anything followed tradition and set my own course for facilitating knowledge for myself and my students.

Roger Schank has written a great book on creativity. He shows how asking the right question(s) in the right place lead you to innovative solutions.

He describes how we think unconsciously using scripts. It is only when this script fails do we consciously start to think. He calls this an anomaly. It is by asking questions and using "remindings" as inputs to questions that we can develop creative solutions to these anomalies. Anomalies + Explanations = Creative Thought.

The author has thought very deeply on the creative process. You must read it several times to fully apply his techniques. He gives you plenty of lists and questions to use as suggestions. He tells you how to form questions, and how to tweak them.

This is one of the best books on creative thinking that I've read.

John Dunbar
Sugar Land, TX

detailed review of emergency thou suffers from a lack of information on certain key areas.can be verbose at times thou is a generally a good read

The book comes in 3 hardback volumes, well worth the price. I am a practicing Paramedic with a desire to know more about the how's and why's of patient care. The book is well organized, with a reading level of college sophomore. The section on resucitation takes ACLS just a little bit further. I consider this book recommended reading for Paramedics who want to stay on top

Every time I read this book I gain an incredible amount of energy. It is unbelievable that someone I don't even know can translate his passion for life to me in a book. It is hard to put this book down. Books like this should be required in school because it unleash a human's desire to success in a positive way. You will discover all your inner potentials and wonder why you never knew it before. Yes, there is a better YOU to be discover and if you dream big (in a positive way). Someday. you will find success. This book will show you how to get there.

I first read this book when I borrowed it from a friend. Since that time, I have bought it for myself, as well as at least 5 of my friends! What I lvoe most of all about it is that you don't have to read it from beginning to end. You can skim the table of contents and find what you need! Just flip to the fear section, for example, and get over it! I am an actor and bring the book to my auditions sometimes. I think it's really great and I highly recommend it.

This book can help ANYONE achieve anything they ever desired, period. As an already sucessful person, I have dismissed the entire self-help industry as garbage appealing to those who have no inherent desire to be the creative force in their own lives. I picked up this book because the author, McWilliams shared my political ideology and I admired him greatly (unfortunately he is now dead). What I found in this book is rationality applied consistently throughout. The presentation of the material, and his selection of quotes simply boggle anyone's mind. The sucessful or unsucessful or not. "Do or do not. There is no Try." Its all so inherently obvious when you read this book! You are not in opposition to yourself, you've just got a mindblock! BUY THIS BOOK. It will fundamentally change ANYONE's life.

I consider this the best book in print for self-help for anger. Many of us get angry and then feel guilty for our anger. This helps explore what is behind one's anger. What is healthy and what is not. And when it is not healthy, how to deal with it. Best how to I have seen.

As a therapist, I recommend this book for people dealing with anger in my daily practice. It is easy to read, and people can really open the book anywhere and get useful information. I find anyone can benefit from this book,not just for anger issues, but is helpful for anyone wanting to improve their communication.

I am a therapist, and I do lots of one-on-one counseling with clients who have anger issues. I always recommend this book for "homework" in the first session. McKay presents the most important issues with clear instructions of what to do.