Geography Books

Today was my great-niece's tenth birthday. One of the things she wanted to do on her birthday was cook supper for the family. I have all four of the cookbooks in the "I'm the Chef" series: Italian, French, Chinese, and Mexican. The choices of likely-to-be-eaten dishes for her, her brother and sister came from the Italian book and one from the French book.

So-o-o-o, we sat down, selected the dishes, listed the ingredients to buy, and off we went to the grocery store. The cooking event was going to be a sibling thing, but the nine-year-old brother chose to ride his bike instead of shop. Go figure. We took the three-year-old. She was happy as a lark, singing and riding in the grocery cart. BD girl selected all produce, meat, and drinks (with guidance).

At home we lined out everything and began. We had work stations for all three children. Sometimes they switched out, going from the pounding cutlet station to dicing tomatoes to swishing cutlets in egg wash and rolling them in bread crumbs. I did all the hot grease work. I didn't figure they were ready for that yet.

The little one rubbed garlic on sliced French bread, then picked up the garlic chips to place on the bread. She also sprinkled bread crumbs on the cutlets. When the adults were seated, both the older ones poured wine, lay out silverware, and served plates.

The dinner was a smashing success. All three were so proud of themselves and a new tradition was born. Oh, the menu? Here it is in its simplicity and probability factor to be eaten. The two older ones loved everything!

Bruschetta (the adults LOVED this, no child ate it)

Cotolette alla milanese (We couldn't find veal, so substituted beef
cutlets) It may come as a surprise (it did to me) that Wierner Schnitzel is not Austrian in origin but Italian!

Fried potatoes (cheated and heated frozen ones).

Gratin de macaroni (from the French cookbook) These children mostly eat
yellow and brown foods. I'm just the aunt. My goal is to please.

Torta al cioccolato (chocolate torte with buds of whipped cream around the perimeter). It wasn't made because the aunt was too tired by this time. So we sprayed whipped cream from a can into our mouths. That was really fun. All the other adults left the table.

Extra note: I cannot honestly recommend this cookbook for completely inexperienced young cooks. However, under watchful supervision and in the method described above, this is a great way to start. Still highly recommended.

This book was so COOL!!! I could actually do the recipes by myself! I am the daughter of Meher Darakshan and the recipes turned out to be deeeeeee-licious!!! When my father indulged in that first bite of the tiramisu he said I have a REAL cooking talent!!! But I have to give some of the credit to the book, too because I tried to make an omelette once and it turned out sloppy and that wasn't with the great help of the book.The recipes are not even that basic. I totally recommend this book to anyone under 14 years of age!!! If you like this book you will like the other ones, too. There's chinese, italian, and french. In each book there are appetizers, soup, main meal, and dessert. Enough for a four course DINNER!!! This is another great reason I love this book. It gives a substitute for alcohol and they have GREAT pictures and not like the model-photos and closeups of Giada de Laurentiis in her italian book. Gotta LOVE this book!!!

This book amply covers topics pertaining to beginning Spanish. The exercises are clearly laid out, and the answer keys in the back are easy to use and very helpful for independent study. I recommend it!

"Big Book 2" is as important a reference work as the original edition. Everyone who is a serious student of GIS needs to have access to this resource. It covers the foundations and frontiers of GI *SCIENCE* with contributions from many of the most well-known researchers in the field. A must have.

Good review book, my teacher and my tutor recommended this book for the Global Regents.

Has great exercises and review studies. I highly recommend this book for those taking the regents this year.

An absolutely fascinating compendium of essential trivia. A "must" for every Jeopardy wannabe.

This book was about Abraham Lincoln, who was the president of the United States during the Civil War. The book told about when he was a young boy and told about his life. He had two sons that died. He was killed when he was president by John Wilkes Booth. He was at a theater when he was killed.

My kids and I laughed and laughed as Adam Sharp and Magna Carter (great name!) tried to get Big Ben back from the Texans who had invaded London. This is a great series for kids who like spies. My sons hope to see Adam Sharp on televisio one of these days. A wonderful series.

A super useful book- even if it is small! There is so much easily read interesting info in these pages you won't believe it. Great color pics and a quiz, a game, activities and stickers and picture cards to keep! All in a 63 page book.

This was the book that I used to learn aerial photo interpretation almost 30 years ago- and it still appears to be the best book on the market. We used it in Geology (specifically, geomorphology- the study of landforms) but it also has applications in geography, conservation, forestry, and surveying.

The best part of the book is its organization by type of landform: wind action (dunes), ground water (Karst topography), mass movements (landslides, slumping, and flows), glaciers, effects of glaciation (U-shaped valleys, moraines, kettles, drumlines, cirques, etc.), lakes, marshes, and abondoned shorelines, desert land forms, marine coastlines, stream deposits (meanders, oxbow lakes, braided channels, and deltas), stream erosion and erosion cycles, volcanic features, and meteor crators. There is also a section on lithology (descriminating of rock types.) In addition there are sections on vegitation types, soils, and cultural features and urban areas. All of these subject areas are illustrated by multiple examples.

You will of course need a stereoscope to use this book, but the inexpensive student model will work just fine. In fact, the vertical exageration really makes the features "pop" out- even to the untrained eye. You will be able to spot most types of landforms from the air after studying this book, as well as, outcrops of strata and structures. This is a big help in preliminary mapping- and prospecting- surveys.

In light of the deteriorating situation in the Middle East, Monk's An Aesthetic Occupation offers an enlightening perspective on the tired discourse of recrimination and counter-recrimination that has guided the Palestine conflict for over a hundred years. Monk's analysis of architecture as the focus of the accusations fired from both sides does not recreate the rhetoric of the historical actors he engages. Rather, as Monk himself would put it, his book is a history of the history of how architecture has been deployed in the conflict. And as such, the book both gets at the very emptiness of the ideologies that drive this conflict, and demonstrates the eternal return of that emptiness as both sides re-invoke architecture as the epicenter of historical ethnic claims on the land. In this, we need only remind ourselves that the current violence was sparked by Ariel Sharon's visit to the Temple Mount in the autumn of 2000, in a blatant disregard (and repetition) of a history of ideological discourse about architecture and ownership of place that goes back at least to General Charles Gordon, the nineteenth-century British imperialist with whom Monk begins his study.

In short, this is an excellent book, excellent because it is able to articulate and theorize the discursive and aesthetic apparatus in which Middle Eastern politics of the conflict have been caught. Monk does not offer explicit solutions out of that morass, but one is still forced to believe that enlightenment and analysis are the first step toward a solution. It is here that Monk's book offers something for the present and for the future.