Michigan Books

This is an interesting, compact, eminently readable book, loaded with (unfortunately) ugly information about immigration laws, social attitudes about race, and our even uglier obsession with black and white. Although the book is full of depressing facts and figures, Fernandez finds energy and enthusiasm in our diversity, and makes this almost a "how-to" book, by challenging the reader to stop defining our country and its inhabitants in black and white terms. Once we understand how we got into such dichotomous thinking about race, we can stop doing it. Sure it's hard to avoid categorizing people by skin color but each of us can contribute our part by paying attention to what we say and how we think. This book has shown me how to make a positive difference in the world every single day. It probably helps that I am acquainted with the author--I work at the university where he teaches. Fernandez is as open minded, curious, tolerant and sharp as they come. No matter though since I'd give five stars to whoever wrote it.

This fascinating book, moving beyond classic sociology's approaches to immigrant acculturation and on the basis of ethnographic fieldwork; propose a great reflection upon us to bridge -or erase- the gaps between newcomers and the U.S. society. Fernández examines the extraordinary contributions of the immigrants to this country. Moreover, he invites us to think and redefine our culture and reduce the obsession over who we are as a human being, about how we fit into a nation that continues to treat us as outsiders after all this time. Remarkably timely book when the politicians are campaigning for the presidency of the U.S. The book also includes data from the US presidential libraries but real facts based on experiences with diverse people who don't necessarily see themselves as political activists at all. With unique style and punctual ideas, Fernández demystifies ethnic markers and skepticisms of our presence. After reading this book, I feel that I am belonging to this society.

In reading Dr. Fernandez' work, I marvel as his ability to capture the significance and relevance of immigrants in the fabric of American society. Amazing research, brilliant analisis and real contribution to the much polarized discourse on America's immigration. Dr. Fernandez has aptly captured how the current migratory trends have challenged racial definitions to the point that they will hopefully unite the racial divide that has plagued the United States since Reconstruction and have been responsible for the fracturing of American society. I am gay, I am Puerto Rican, I am American. Fernandez has helped me to realize that I am none and all of the above.

A friend mentioned the book to me. He thought I would like it. And he was right.
In substance and soul,there is a meaning and depth to, 'The
Americanist', beyond its 199 pages.
I knew nothing about the author and professor, Daniel Aaron, and his remarkable and fascinating personal and professional background. A life and carrer that covered teaching the combined fields of American literary history, politics, and cultural development in the 20th century and before-at Smith College in western, Massachusetts, and Harvard University, as well as teaching and lecturing in Europe and Latin America. No matter where, it was a challenge explaining America's ever evolving roaring diversity and confusing intensity, its huff and puff, its weeds with the wheat, its 'Big Shoulders' and proud posturing for the world to see what we as a nation have done and are capable of doing.
American, the promise land, as it came to be mystically called; open to the tired, the poor, and the outcasts of the world-to be reborn with a new idenity. The American personality. A definition we are still trying to figure out just what it is, and what it is meant to mean. There is a lingering beauty to this ongoing search.
In Daniel Aaron's, 'Americanist', with its mosaic literay structure of his personal and professional life-a life experience that is still going on for this vibrant man in his 90's who loves America with its scuffling bellicose history, its, "Heroes and Clowns", its vitrues and vices; its mystifying meaning, and that always potential greatness yet to be reached. With a mind and heart, in a some stranage and confusing way, that is open to the world.
Professor Daniel Aaron's life reflects the history of America. He lived and lives what he taught and teahces. And with a faith, believes.

Daniel Aaron - The Americanist

"He lives!" That was my happy reaction when, at my 50th Smith College reunion, a classmate showed me Michael Dirda's review of Daniel Aaron's The Americanist. He is alive at 95 and has produced another book. That in itself is a wonder. I am now 72 and was one of his students, one of those who majored in American Studies, then a newish, interdisciplinary major. Aaron pioneered the major which tried to deepen our understanding of our own culture through the optics of literature, history and art. His enthusiasm for his subject was contagious. Physically he was one of the most attractive figures on the Smith faculty.

The Americanist is a memoir centered on lively recollections of the greats of mid-century Academia, a remarkable number of whom taught or lectured at Smith College. These included Alfred Kazin, Newton Arvin, W. H. Auden, Mary Ellen Chase and Katherine Anne Porter. The memoir is also studded with choice morsels about long gone and almost forgotten progressive and left-wing writers that he interviewed and hung out with in the course of researching Men of Good Hope and Writers of the Left.

Aaron was also sent abroad by USIS as a visiting professor to bring the cultural and political history of the United States to students in both Western European and Soviet bloc countries. He says that he "paused at academic way stations to speak on contemporary American writers, but not long enough to get at the root causes" of whatever disorders (Hamburg in 1969) or apathy (China in 1980) were then characterizing those places. He is too modest. His observations of foreign cultures are telling ones. Because he so avidly pursed a deeper understanding of our own culture, he was also a keen observer of what was going on in foreign places.

He concludes by saying that he now feels he is a citizen of two Americas, one reckless and predatory and the other a cheerful and welcoming collective and that it is to the second that he is more culturally attuned. I don't see America in quite such a polarizing light. I think we may be more of a spectrum. But wherever my personal America may be I'm fortunate that Daniel Aaron is a part of it.

A concise, highly literate look back on the long and interesting career of a left-liberal univeristy professor. Sharp, insightful sketches of U.S. presidents--from Woodrow Wilson to Bill Clinton-- are placed throughout Daniel Aaron's main text. These are not a distraction to this memoir: instead they provide a common thread underscoring the author's main academic interest over a lifetime of study--the idea of the United States.


I have never heard, much less read anything by Dr. Aaron, but now appreciate his life as being a positive part of our country's generous intellectual hisory.

And Then, a novel by Natsume Soseki, opens with an image of extreme isolation: Daisuke, the protagonist, has woken up, and stares blankly at the ceiling with his hand on his chest, feeling his heart beat. He belongs to a wealthy family, has a cultivated aesthetic taste, is well-read, knows multiple languages, and has graduated from a prestigious university, at a time in Japan's history when universities were so new that the government had to hire Western expatriates to teach in them. It seems that Daisuke could get anything he wanted from life. Surely he was ambitious in his university days; it's difficult to imagine how a talented, educated, proud young man couldn't see himself as headed for greatness. But, by the time the book begins, Daisuke lives in seclusion, without an occupation, continuing to depend upon his rich father. He is about thirty years old.

The novel poses the following question: How could a man who showed all the promise in the world ultimately come to naught?

In his university days, Daisuke had two friends, who also had great plans for the future. But, when the thirty-year-old Daisuke meets them again, he learns that their hopes fell short of their mark. One of them, Hiraoka, sought to forge a brilliant career in Japan's civil service system, but fell into conflict with his superiors, mismanaged the money entrusted to him, and was fired. Daisuke's other friend, Terao, intended to become a world-renowned novelist, but failed to find a sponsor, and found himself having to scrounge, day by day, for one-time deals writing articles for cheap rags, or translating documents from English, in order to survive. Both men are now consumed with the fear of dying in poverty.

Daisuke has a strong sense of dignity, emerging from his refined aesthetic sensibilities. To him, such fear is degrading; his idleness becomes the only way to preserve his clarity of thought. Consequently, his reluctance to enter the "world of men" is confirmed in his mind, widening the gulf between him and his former friends, who view him as lazy and sheltered. When Daisuke writes to an acquaintance about a certain book he had sent, the acquaintance politely thanks him for the gift, but says, with regret, that he no longer has time to read. Soseki writes, "As he put the letter back in the envelope, Daisuke felt keenly the fact that this old friend, with whom he once shared the same inclinations, was now playing a different tune, governed by thoughts and actions that were nearly the precise opposite of those of the past."

Daisuke is adrift without ties to history. Unlike his father, he has no attachment whatsoever to traditional Japanese society; his education has given him the knowledge that the world is too vast to be confined to the boundaries delineated by tradition. Furthermore, Daisuke cannot help but notice that his father is motivated by selfish, ulterior motives as much as by any sense of obligation to tradition. Unlike his friends, however, Daisuke also cannot form a connection to modern society, which views education as a means to advancement in a bureaucratic order. He has no roots anywhere; one might say that he remains standing still at a crossroads after all other passersby have left. When Daisuke considers the occupations that he might be qualified for, were he to look for a job, he concludes that he would be incapable of doing anything other than begging on the street.

Daisuke's peace of mind is dependent on such artificial circumstances that it essentially rests on the head of a pin, where the slightest vibration will send it tumbling down. The more intent he becomes on continuing to be a detached observer, the more difficult it is for him to do so. His family has long given up hope that he will do anything with himself, and is willing to support him for the rest of his life, but demands in return that he get married, and threatens to disown him if he doesn't comply. Daisuke prefers to deliberately take a self-destructive path by categorically rejecting his family's demands and falling in love with Hiraoka's wife Michiyo.

Of all Japanese writers, Soseki, the father of contemporary Japanese literature, is the most inscrutable. His works cannot be called "beautiful" in the same way Kawabata's works can; "precise" is a more appropriate adjective. Kawabata's books overflow with beautiful, painfully fragile imagery of nature, glass, fabric, arranging these things in a way that creates a mood of deep melancholy. Soseki, however, is concerned above all with his characters' thoughts, which he faithfully records with painstaking levels of detail. They are not told in interior monologue, or any other such device, but rather conveyed straightforwardly in the third person. The book is absorbed in Daisuke's situation, yet simultaneously detached from it. One may find this style of writing to be pedantic, even artificial, but it enables Soseki to describe emotional truths that are complicated to the point of abstraction.

Soseki's writing is not without flourishes. Until the very end, Daisuke regards his circumstances with a charmingly carefree air, and is witty in conversations with his family, which makes him quite likable. Soseki also uses colours to symbolize his themes. There is a recurring image of white lilies, perhaps representing an ideal of frail beauty that, as it turns out, is impossible to attain, and the novel's ending is painted in bright, fiery red, carrying an air of beautiful, tragic finality, conveyed in sharp, concise language.

And Then is the greatest work by Japan's greatest novelist. Like all of Soseki's works, it moves very slowly. There is no real action in it, and yet, when it ends, one feels that a great upheaval has occurred. This is not a book to read when one is living a peaceful, wholesome life; however, in times of personal crisis, when one is driven to sleepless self-analysis, there is no book more relevant than this one.

Let me start off by saying that I cannot do this novel sufficient justice. The words I have put down are those of a fan. Soseki is regarded most highly by literary critics, in as many ciruits as they run, and to this I can only toss in my own small verbal confetti. For more adroid renderings, please see Donald Keane, Edward Seidenstiker, and Norma Moore Field.

Of all modern Japanese writers, Soseki is one of my three most favorites. Of his books, I have read Kokoro, The Three Cornered World, Grass by the Wayside, Light and Darkness, and, And Then. Of these, And Then, is by far my most favorite. I probably love it for different reasons than most.

Whenever I begin re-reading it (I have read it four times now), it is initially for the feeling of being transported into Daisuke's beautiful, if fragile world, where he set against a cast of lovable if predictable characters. His lazy houseboy, Kodono ("is that right, Sensei?"), his niece, Niu ("I'm warning you, you'd better watch out") who changes her hair ribbon several times daily, his sister in law with her love of Western music and concern for Deisuke's future and keeping the peace with Father, and so on. But as the novel evolves, the imagery takes on stronger substance, while retaining the light touch of a master. Of the lighter: the time when Daisuke and Kadono strip down to their waists and toss water around in the garden; when Daisuke fills a bowl with water and floats white lillies to offset a pounding headache, how he sets off to take a trip (in an attempt to avoid facing the pressure from his family to choose a bride) and never quite goes anywhere, and his foolish mishandling of his personal affairs.

Daisuke sees no point in trying to overcome his enui and take a stand of any kind, nor to try and resolve a series of issues that offer no simple resolution. Daisuke is a man with his feet planted in neither the past nor the future, and as the story comes to crisis, he loses his already delicate equilibrium, and plunges into a near mad state, where, since he cannot conceive of hurting anyone else, he runs headlong into trouble.

It is unfortunate that my copy gives no credit to the translator, for the prose is of exceedingly high calibre.

I highly recommend this book.

"And Then" ("Sore Kara") is a perfectly beautiful novel. Soseki always writes with an elegant clarity, tackling complex emotions and situations that creep up just like life. Nothing seems forced or unreal.

The plot reminds me of a quote I heard once. "I was a soldier so that my children could be merchants, and their children could be artists." The main character, Daisuke, is a dilettante, an appreciator of life's fineries who has never turned his hand towards anything seriously in his life. His father was a famous soldier during the Russo-Sino war, and his older brother is successful in business, and neither of them can understand this luxury object of a younger sibling that they both maintain financially. Seeking to find some value in him, his family attempts to pressure him into an advantageous marriage, which Daisuke's refinements does not permit. Love, however, will destroy everything.

The story floats along at Daisuke's pace, with nothing hurried or in crisis. Inside of this veneer are heavy issues of family obligation, the distaste of working for food as opposed to working for pure artistry, and most of all the undeniability of love, something that none of us can choose for ourselves.

Like all of Soseki's novels, "And Then" lingers long after the last page is turned, forcing us to evaluate our own lives and wonder what we would do in similar circumstances. How much of our own dreams have been sacrificed for necessities, and what does it mean to be human besides eating, sleeping and making more humans?

This book (and series) is WONDERFUL! Super easy to use for a first time gardener. I still use the books weekly for reference. What makes this book special is it is easy to read and all the information is tailored to our Michigan weather. The books contain flowers alphabetically and all the basic care information. Think of the little tags that come staked in the flowers but you end up losing - all organized together in an easy care manual!

This is an excellent book. Hundreds of color photos and growing related information for the Michigan gardner. The book is a convenient size with rounded edges. The Perennials for Michigan book is a well written book as well and a good compliment to this one.

I don't believe I've ever seen a gardening book where the information was as well-organized as it is in "Annuals for Michigan" and its companion volume, "Perennials for Michigan." Often books of regional interest are thrown together and published on the cheap, but these books are tightly-bound, full of color illustrations, and above all, well written. And they're really about Michigan climate and Michigan soils. Someone didn't just go through and change, say 'Iowa' to 'Michigan' with a word processor, then rename the book.

According to the authors, Michigan ranks third nationwide in the production of annual plants, so we must have a pretty decent climate for growing them. I've only had a couple escape from their beds and attempt to take over the yard--the morning glory 'Grandpa Ott' and every kind of mallow I've ever tried--so don't be afraid to experiment. Our winters usually exterminate the overly bold.

The book begins with a pictorial guide called "The Flowers at a Glance" where photographs of the annuals are listed in alphabetical order, by common name. There is a short introduction on trends in annuals and a map of the average last-frost dates for Michigan, so that you will know when to plant out depending on where you live.

The next few sections explain how to start annuals, both by growing them from seed or by schlepping over to the nearest gardening center and buying them. There are chapters on caring for annuals, and the obligatory chapter on 'Problems & Pests' before we plunge into the heart of this book: the alphabetically-arranged sections on each of the 443 selected annuals.

Each species is described, including height, spread, and flower color. Each has subsections on 'Planting' (how and when to start your plants), 'Growing,' 'Tips,' 'Recommended' varieties, and (usually) 'Problems and Pests.' There are over 400 color photographs, usually (but not always) labeled by variety, to help with your decisions on what to plant. There is also a very nice 'Quick Reference Chart' in back that lists the colors, sowing method, height, hardiness, light and soil requirements for each species.

There is even a short list of companies and their websites where you can purchase seed, although a couple of my favorites aren't mentioned, i.e. Thompson and Morgan, and Park Seed.

Annuals are so much fun. If you hate the color combinations you tried one year, you can start all over again the following spring. Sometimes if you're lucky, a favorite annual like Love-in-a-Mist will reseed itself and return even more beautifully the following season. Of course, that could also happen with pests like Grandpa Ott--we finally had to concede defeat after five years of weeding purple morning glories out of the vegetable beds. We sold our house to someone who hopefully loves this old vine.

"What is poetry?" is a question often asked and never answered, indeed unanswerable except in a personal context. I tend toward the "elevated speech" school, or "gorgeous language" persuasion, but language focussed on expressing deeply felt and perceived truth. So I find Myrna Stone's poems immensely satisfying.

Open her book at random, as I just have. "Penitential" says that on Saturday evening we went to church, perhaps for confession, perhaps for "devotions." Our religion impressed us with our guilt and need for penance. Still, walking home, we experienced the world as it was and knew that we would continue to need forgiveness. But this poem tells this ordinary tale in rich, magnificent language,

"...light has gathered,
luminous for a moment in its passage
into night, in its clear and familiar

sense of diminishing grace,
what the priests for years allowed us
from one summer Saturday to the next,
so that while feeding the dog or setting

the table, we might well look
up to find the kingdom of God suddenly
come, and ourselves, in our sparest
and smallest duties, surely wanting."

I don't think you have to be (or have been) Catholic to appreciate this poem.

There is variety in these poems, and wit, not always benign, for example, "Your Last Mistress" that begins
"Is older than I thought" and ends, after explaining that she has found a new lover,
"...She's back again
in the groove, in the saddle, back again
back on her back."

There are poems here that relate travel experiences, family difficulties and pleasures (sometimes experienced while travelling), and the pain of loss of parent - all with a very grown-up sensibility and mastery of expression to die for, or rather, to be most grateful for. To my mind and ear, these poems are a treasure.

In 'The Art of Loss' Myrna Stone starts with an ele-
giac poem to a poetry friend and ends with an elegiac poem to
her mother. Stone is doing tough and necessary work, namely:
Since we all lose in the end, how can we talk about being tri-
umphant? But in her mature, brilliant poems Myrna Stone does
triumph and bucks all of us up in the process-- with gems like
"Waiting for Daddy", "The Lost Boy", "Your Last Mistress", and
"Home Movies", to name just a few. And her poems dealing with
Van Gogh and Degas are superb ( "The Tub" is flat out aces.)
Stephen Dunn says that in Myrna Stone's poems "we
see pathos rise to the level of the sublime"-- a statement
that got me thinking of Charlie Chaplin, how he would have
loved these poems! Lucky for us, we can savor them:

And if you begin to speak to me
of what desire is like on the opposing
plane, of what extreme punishments
or pleasures await even the least of us

I would dissuade you,
I would kiss your cheek and lead you here
to this room, to this chair, this desk
and this window's suddenly luminescent view.
WORDS FOR MY MOTHER

'The Art of Loss'is one book we should keep close by as we
go through this crazy world.

Here is a poet who loves the language. Each word of each poem is finely tuned. I have followed her poems for years. Read The Art of Loss and you will not be disappointed. Her language sings and soothes. Simulacrum, From the Kitchen, My Mother's Room, Taraxacum Officinale and Words for My Mother, are just a few of my favorites. This book is a keeper!

If you are serious about studying and watching birds in Michigan this is an important book to have. It is dated (1991) but I would recommend having this and anticipate the new updated version to come out in 2009 or 2010 from the currently active atlas project.

This is an atlas, not a field guide or illustrated book. Most of the book is made up of accounts of all the species of birds that nest in Michigan with a summary of their habits, abundance, history and breeding biology with the facing page a map of Michigan townships with indications of breeding evidence for the species. For example the nearly ubiquitous American Robin has nearly every section in every Michigan Township shaded in (other than some underbirded areas)and birds that are rare or geographically limited are shown in their only areas (eg. Black Tern in coastal and large interior marshes). This helps the beginning birder to know where to search for species and illustrates graphically the need for conservation.

Two other books that are important adjuncts for this are "Birds of Michigan" by James Granlund, an illustrated natural history of birds of the state and "A Birder's Guide to Michigan" by Allen Chartier and Jerry Ziarno. "A Birder's Guide to Michigan includes 200 sites across the state for birding and additional information on bird migration through the state that complements the Michigan Breeding Bird Atlas.

In the 1980s, a thousand volunteers surveyed our entire state in an effort to record and map an atlas of the birds which breed in Michigan. This information is summarized and contained in "The Atlas of Breeding Birds in Michigan, which was published in 1991.

Starting in 2002, the Kalamazoo Nature Center began to coordinate the creation of a second Michigan Breeding Bird Atlas. The data collection portion of this process is scheduled to be completed in 2008, and I was fortunate enough to be one of the bird-watching volunteers involved in this second multi-year survey.

The 1991 edition of the atlas is a large hardcover book with a handsome dust jacket. The 594 pages are illustrated throughout with black-and-white drawings, and detailed maps of individual species locations. Each bird is described (in rather small print), along with its habitat, seasonal occurrence, and current status. There is also a conservation section included for rare, threatened, or endangered species.

This atlas begins with a detailed discussion of Michigan ecology, plus a chapter on "The Original Avifauna and Postsettlement Changes." It ends with a huge bibliography, appendices, a list of contributors, and an index of common and Latin bird names. It is absolutely the most detailed reference atlas of Michigan birds on the market. The only thing it lacks is color photographs of each bird species, so it needs to be supplemented by a good field guide.

For more information on this atlas, go to www.michiganbirds.org/bba/

This is an excellent bird book. It itemizes observed breeding evidence of birds by township. It is very detailed and very well done. Excellent descriptions of each species. I also liked the intro. It provides bird habitat information such forest, wet lands, fields. Good history of the changes in bird species over time. Only weakness- it was written in 1991. In the past decade, several birds have expanded their territory (i.e. turkeys and bald eagles). If you live in Michigan and watch birds, this is the book to buy.

This is a coffee table size book. It is a little large to take in the field. Book uses drawings not photographics. The drawings are well done be do not replace color photos.

Being a chronic pain sufferer, this book has helped me cope with the debilitating pain. Very well written in layman terms. The writer demonstrates that there is hope for the future.

"Beyond Pain" is an informative and important book for any person in chronic pain. Well-written, readable, sensible, and up-to-date, it illuminates general aspects of pain theory and treatment while providing fascinating case studies / anecdotes. The mind and the body are shown to be not only interrelated but inseparable. And the qualifications of Dr. Mailis-Gagnon are indisputably impeccable.
I suffer from chronic pain myself. I have read a lot of books on chronic pain of various types, even a couple of medical texts, but I found this book newly informative and mind-expanding. This book is aimed to a general reader; no prior medical knowledge is assumed.
This book will be useful for anyone in chronic pain, including sufferers of fibromyalgia, myofascial or muscle pain, neuropathic or nerve pain, back pain; women, men, Canadians, whomever. It will even give you a few good laughs.
Three words: READ THIS BOOK!

Beyond Pain: Making The Mind-body Connection isn't a scholarly analysis of pain management but a set of firsthand stories of patients and problems which are used to illustrate the condition of chronic pain and the complexities surrounding its management. Case studies from the authors' own practices and experiences describes options, techniques to block pain, lasting effects of chronic pain, and how pain experiences differ between patients. A fine study which outlines many different causes, experiences, and solutions surrounding pain.

This is a large beautiful edition of Michigan birds written by many of Michigan's ornithologists and most knowledgable birders. The illustrations and artwork are superb and I wish I could have them as artwork in my home without tearing them out of the book.

This is not a field guide or identification book but a resource of most of the knowledge about each species of bird seen in Michigan up to the publication date of the book.

I refer to this often when I wish to get more information on a birds history of occurance in the state or its population status or biology.

More recent information on species status and sightings can be found on the Michigan Bird Records Committee website.

Anyone that is interested in the birds of Michigan would treasure this book.

The Natural History of Michigan avifauna presented includes population fluctuation, habitat changes, current status; historical records verified from as far back as the 19th c. in some cases. Reasons for decline or increase in numbers and range are usually well known or theorized by ornithologists (there are a few unsolved mysteries) A less pedestrian look at these details: " Maurice Gibbs in 1879 reports the Cardinal or 'Red Bird' as an "accidental visitor"

Artwork: Full sized color plates = full page layouts featuring the male and female set amongst their preferred habitats or a vegetaional sample. A Bobolink chortles in his mellow hay field, The Towhees scratch leaves under the brambles and the Great Gray Owl is caught in the act of enchanting his Northern starlit forest.

Includes species extinct and extirpated as well as all species that have visited the State at least once on record. As an example, a McCown's Longspur is listed as a Michigan bird, a species that rarely if ever seen anywhere beyond it's breeding range in the Upper Midwest, (Colorado to Alberta), yet a verified record exists at Whitefish Point - Chippewa County in May, 1981.

What else? If anything it manages to capture the great beauty found in the details of a birds life. (The Great Horned owl female sits through yet another snowstorm on an old heron nest to keep her two eggs warm in the late winter incubation period.)

SB

"The Birds of Michigan" is more than an oversize picture book. It's a treasure. The 200 species of birds that nest in Michigan are depicted in original, full color paintings by Michigan artists, and the detailed text on over 400 birds that have been seen in the state is compulsive reading. The species accounts were written by some of the state's leading ornithologist-naturalists, including their own field observations, and I learned something new about my favorite birds on almost every page. Originally, I'd checked "The Birds of Michigan" out of the library, but once I'd read it, I had to buy a copy of my own.

The careful observations and the level of detail about each species sets a standard none of the field guides can match:

* The earliest published spring arrival date for Chimney Swifts in Detroit is 04/05/1981.
* Belted Kingfishers excavate nesting burrows in river banks, usually taking a week to dig a tunnel three to six feet long.
* Forest regeneration and winter feeding stations have extended the range of the Red-Bellied Woodpecker to the Northern Lower Peninsula.
* I'm glad I'm not the only birder in Michigan who misidentifies the Pine Warbler for a Chipping or Swamp Sparrow!

My heart-felt thanks to the artists, ornithologists, editors, and sponsors of this book: Sarett Nature Center; Kalamazoo Nature Center; and First of America Bank. It must have very expensive to produce, but the results are worth every penny spent. My only suggestion for the next edition would be the inclusion of a CD of Michigan birdsongs.

"A Black and White Case" provides a comprehensive history of affirmative action of value to anyone interested in race in America. As the subtitle ("How Affirmative Action Survived its Greatest legal Challenge") suggests, Stohr tends to favor the proponents of affirmative action. At the same time, however, he shows sympathy and insight into its opponents. For example, Stohr's portrait of Carl Cohen -- the Michigan philosophy professor who first unearthed Michigan's statistics on affirmative action -- reveals that the intellectuals behind the recent challenges come from backgrounds far from the mainstream of the conservative movement.

Stohr also presents an account of the Supreme Court that in many ways outshines that of Bob Woodward's and Carl Bernstein's in The Brethren. In contrast to Woodward and Bernstein, Stohr lacks Woodward and Bernstein's instictive hostility to the Court's right wing.

Finally, Stohr does an admirable job tying together chacters and events covering a broad scope of time and space into a book with suprisingly strong narrative force. Shelby Foote once said that in writing, plot is the last thing that a writer masters, if he masters it at all. Stohr succeeds in this important respect.

This is an excellent book.

Whether or not we choose to acknowledge it, every student who has entered an American university over the past 50 years is a product of the affirmative action and diversity policies of our nation's education system. The U. of Michigan case that is the heart of "A Black and White Case" is a landmark ruling that impacts the admission policy of every U.S. university. The issues described in this book are extremely important to each of us as citizens. Everyone interested in the American higher education system sould read this book.

Greg Stohr provides an incredibly balanced account of the highly charged issue of race-based admissions policies. Mr. Stohr also does an excellent job of taking very complicated legal facts and analysis and turning them into a fast-moving story that non-legal scholars can follow and understand. This is the most important legal book I have read in several years. It is also a terrific read. I highly recommend this new author.

Stohr's book reminded me of an old television program hosted by Walter Cronkite. It reenacted significant events in history and he always ended it by saying, "You were there." I felt as though I had been behind the scenes as those involved with the two affirmative action cases worked for victory. Stohr explains the legal terms clearly without being condescending. He delves into the personalities and the politics which determine the outcomes. I especially enjoyed his coverage of the Supreme Court. Stohr is an excellent, fair minded reporter.

I was very fortunate to read a book that gave you a feelimg that there are few football coaches out there who can coach football the old fashion way: physical discipline, honesty, and being a great motivator. For Bo to share the stories about Woody Hayes was just awesome. I feel that Bo went thru a great experince in his life time. I have read this book probably 10 times and I like what he critcizes about the NCAA making these ridiculous standards. May God bless him.

If you are a fan at all of michigan, or know anything about Bo Schembechler you will love this book. It's a great biography about a great coach. This book takes you to a small family in Ohio to a assistant coach under Woody Hays then to Ann Arbor to become one of the most famous coaches in NCAA history, I HIGHLY recomend this book... GO BLUE!

If you love football this book is a must read. The stories about Bo and Woody are tremendous. I wish all young coaches would read this book before establishing a coaching philosophy. The character of Bo is inspiring and proves that you can still win and do it the right way.