This is the best detailed map that I have seen of Costa Rica. I highly recommemd it.

Over the years I must have read about 20 guidebooks about Costa Rica. Like the most of others this book does have something to offer the traveller. However, I prefer the author's other book, "The Costa Rica Handbook." If you're looking to move to Costa Rica or spend an extended period of time there, you should read "The Golden Door to Retirement and Living in Costa Rica." It offers an excellent introduction to the local scene.

The New Portuguese Letters written by the Three Marias is based on a volume of 17th century letters, supposedly written by a young Portuguese girl, Mariana Alcoforado, whose father placed her in a religious convent when she was sixteen. When she was 25, she had a love affair with a young French officer who, subsequently, abandoned her and returned to his country; he later became a Marshall of France. Her five love letters to him were published in France.

TheThree Marias have written letters between the nun and her former lover. In addition to those, they have created/invented poems, letters, essays to, by, and between a multitude of characters whose lives, directly or indirectly, through the generations have touched Mariana's.

The writing is , by turn, lyrical, haunting, heart-breaking, sensuous, condemning of the male-dominated society and begging to be read. The voices of women are being heard: a daughter who is [seduced] by her father; a mother who rejects the daughter she bears after being impregnated by a man other than her husband; a woman whose husband leaves for the New World and never sends for her; a daughter forced to marry a man she does not love; a dowry-less daughter exiled to a convent and condemned to a celibate life; women who are raped, actually and symbolically, by their husbands.

The letters, essays, poems reflect not just women in the 17th century, not just in Portugal, but today and in countries all over the world. The Three Marias speak for all women who have been or who are silenced... Although I enjoyed the book and recommend it highly, I gave the book a "4" rating because I found the poems difficult to understand.)

I bought this book in a bookstore in San José after i travelled around in Costa Rica for 20 days. It's the only book that i found with such a beautiful collection of images from all National Parks and i often look it in - to revive the days i spent in world's most beautiful country. Also, it's pretty informative for those who want to visit the National Parks of Costa Rica.

The folks at Hewlett-Packard certainly understand 100VG AnyLAN (having invented it after all). For anyone considering implementing this alternative to Fast Ethernet, this book is an essential element to understanding how to properly design a network to take advantage of the features of what HP hoped would be the next evolution in Ethernet and Token Ring. Although few vendors implemented this technology (when compared to Fast Ethernet's deployment), there are still hundreds of thousands of nodes using 100VG AnyLAN today. The book is written in an easy to understand and comprehensive fashion.

We love this book! My son received this book for his 1st birthday and it quickly became a favorite, even though he didn't know Pooh at the time. The pictures are bright and colorful, and my son finds new things to point out all the time (Pooh & his friends, flowers, balloons, etc.). For a paperback, it was pretty sturdy. After reading the book every day (sometimes multiple times each day!) for almost a year, we are just now looking to replace our original copy.

I am amazed that this little book is no longer in print. I would give one to every tourist who boards the St. Charles streetcar downtown. It gives a capsule of New Orleans history and fascinating detail of the machine itself, with special focus on the origon of the service... the St. Charles line was one of the very first street railways, and is THE oldest surviving one.

It's not easy to read the book straight through: only a third or so of the buildings described are illustrated. But then, you're expected to be viewing them from the streetcar, and the paper-bound booklet is about 5x7", small enough to be carried easily.

The pictures are line drawings rather than photographs. Side excursions through the neighborhoods are also described, and most would be still useful today, though shopping, eateries, and the Audubon Zoo have substantially changed. The descriptions of buildings is excellent, and fairly accurate.

I congratulate the authors for this reference work, which today is of benefit mostly to tour guides. I wish it could be updated and reprinted!

The struggle of a young bi-racial boy in an all-white environment is not a new subject, but in Sun Dance at Turtle Rock, the reader will experience an unusually realistic and contemporary saga. Cody, who visits his seemingly unsympathetic white grandfather in a small Pennsylvanian town for the first time, could have been visiting the town in which I grew up--all-white in 1953, all-white still in 1999. His experiences and conversation with the "natives" produce the tension and pathos one has come to expect of Pat Costa Viglucci. Especially notable is Viglucci's refusal to give in to the typical storybook ending in the resolution of the hero's relationship with his grandfather. As a seventh grade English teacher, I recommend this novel highly, as it could be used successfully in a multi-disciplined study by teachers of literature, social studies, and even the school social worker. If you are tired of the young adult stereotypical treatment on the subject of racism, pick up a copy of Sun Dance at Turtle Rock.

Edmund Wilson is, of course, one of the most critically acclaimed American authors. His book, "Upstate", is, to my knowledge, his only autobiographical work. This book was recommended to me by a brilliant, eccentric co-worker who knows I love great books and remembers that I was reared in the Empire State.

One of the initial chapters of "Upstate" contains the most eye-opening descriptive history of "American" religions I have encountered. I ensure that any reader will gather wonderful fodder for future cocktail parties simply by reading Wilson's chapter on Upstate religions.

The balance of this book will appeal mainly to true Wilson scholars and bibliophiles who appreciate great writing. While Wilson's hand is superb, the content consists mainly of a detailed recitation of the history of Wilson's, rather average, familial line.

Nevertheless, the mere fact that this is the only book review I have written since attending Colgate University twenty-years ago will demonstrate that I loved the book and would highly recommend it to any true reader.

-Thomas Moran, Houston, Texas