California Books

This book was very interesting. Not only did it have plenty of photos, the text was actually useful and have a great message. Reading Galen's work is just as great as looking at it. I had never even heard of or seen most of the places in the book until I got the book. Now, I'm walking some of the same trails I discovered in the book.

An incredible photographic argument that nature is ever-present, fecund, and indomitable! Rowell and Sewell capture the majesty of one the world's most beautiful urban areas to describe nature's ability to adapt and thrive next to mankind. A surprising array of wild animals are photographed within the ex-urban landscape and combine with dramatic Bay Area landscapes to make a compelling story of the beauty that surrounds us--if only we can take time out from our busy lives to see it! This is a great gift to bring back East for the holidays.

Galen Rowell is showing here surely the nicest landscape shots I have ever seen. The Bay Area, that I didn't know, is here in spades, and if you know a little bit of tech, you see several uses of Galen special shooting way (flash, A2 Nikon filtering, s.o.)

Galen Rowell and Michael Sewell have compiled their photography of the San Franisco Bay Area's remaining natural areas into an excellent book. The photography in Bay Area Wild illustrates the Bay Area's vast greenbelts and natural areas. For someone who has only been involved in still photography for eleven years, Sewell is an amazing wildlife photographer. The text is extremely interesting and informative--Rowell reminds those of us who live in the Bay Area how lucky we are to have such a wonderful backyard abundant with a great diversity of flora and fauna. However, conservation of our wild places didn't come easy. Rowell discusses the many struggles involved in preserving these places. This is a book I've been waiting for!!!

Beloved Stranger
The seller was great and super quick delivery. I have always been a fan of Judith Pella and find that all of her books are fantastic. I've yet to find one that is mediocre.

This was an incredible book. Judith Pella kept you in suspense until the very last pages as she unfolded the story of Shelby and Frank. I encourage you to READ THIS BOOK!

Shelby has just lost her Dad, the only parent she has ever loved. She impulsively decides on a vacation in Puerto Vallarto, MX and while there, meets, falls in love and marries a man who is practically a stranger to her. Frank is a Mexican-American, well to do,and handsome man who shares her intense love in a whirlwind, one week romance.

However, coming back to their homes in Los Angeles, reality hits hard. Shelby learns of Frank's incredibly dysfunctional yet close knit traditional Mexican family. His mother makes no secret of the fact she hates Frank for his past mistakes. A grandmother adores him and a younger brother idolizes him.

When Frank's moods and behavior start taking wild swings, Shelby realizes there is much she has yet to learn about her mysterious new husband. The only things she is sure about is his love for her and for his boat and the sea. Both are about to be challenged.

Drugs and drug use figure hugely in this book and their effects on Frank and his brother Ray play an integral part. Illegal drug activity is at the root of most if not all the hatred, tension, loyalty and fast money which define the lives of the two brothers and their family.

Just when things are already confusing and volatile, Frank's ex-wife Gloria is found murdered. With drugs such a part of his past, Frank now has some major questions and decisions...who did kill his ex? Were drugs involved? The police seem dead certain that Frank is their man, but is he really? There is lots of circumstantial evidence, and Frank admits he was there the night she died.

At the very lowest point in this family's life, when there is no place to turn and no one else to help them, Frank and Shelby finally turn to the God of his grandmother and her mother, Dawn.

This is a really touching love story containing mystery and religion and is a book with deep emotion and lots and lots of surprises.

. . . but somehow, Judith Pella manages to create fresh, new characters with every book she writes--characters that aren't quite like any of the others she's introduced us to. Shelby and Frank are no exception! Shelby is at once endearing as the book opens with her father's funeral and the reader naturally sympathizes with her. Because of her impulsive nature, I found myself thinking so many times, "I would NEVER do that! " but it didn't make her any less appealing as the misguided heroine of the story. Frank, too, is a well-written character. He has the dark good looks, mysterious past, and serious passion that make him the ideal hero; but at the same time, there are his fun, flippant moods and his vulnerability which make him more than a cardboard stereotype. For a romance especially, the plot moves at near-hyperlight speed (once you get past the first chapter or so), with lots of twists and turns and interesting secondary characters. And as always, with Pella at the pen, the happily-ever-after ending isn't insultingly happy, but bittersweet. Wonderful job all around creating relationships between characters and intertwining lives in the most unlikely ways. Can't wait for her next book!

This is a great atlas, and at a great price too! It gives you a good idea of what the topography is going to look like, so you can plan your week end getaways, and can be used as a road atlas too. Note that there is also one for Oregon that you can buy.

This atlas is highly recommended. The beautiful maps are great for looking at (and daydreaming) at home or as a navigation tool on the road. I have already given two as gifts. It is simply the best atlas of California on the market.

The folks at Benchmark have come up with a single-volume atlas of California that's easy to use, and beautiful to look at. The ergonomics are great -- the choice of text and line styles make roads and cities easy to locate, there are generous overlaps between adjacent map pages, and every 2-page spread has a scale of miles and a tiny California outline showing this page's coverage. Very clear lat & long grids aid in GPS navigation.

The most distinctive feature, though, is the topography. Color is keyed to altitude, and shading is also used to give a clear picture of the land's contours. Combined, they give a very detailed image of how the land will be shaped when you get where you're going.

For those interested in adventuring on California's back roads, the obvious comparison is with DeLorme's Southern California Atlas & Gazetteer, and its Northern California companion. I've used the DeLorme books for years, and have the following comments comparing the Benchmark atlas with them:

Pro: better ergonomics. The text fonts, road lines etc. are clearer in the Benchmark atlas. The "look and feel" makes it more of a pleasure to work with.

Pro: more discernable land contours (the new edition of the DeLorme books add some shading to help in the interpretation of the oft-confusing contour lines, which helps a lot, but it's still not as sharp as the Benchmark book. Note that I've seen this new contour shading in the Southern CA book, and haven't seen a new Northern CA book yet)

Pro: Seems to be more up-to-date (e.g. the Recreation Pages show a lot of the recent changes to the desert parks. The Benchmark book shows a new bypass through Barstow that isn't in the new DeLorme edition (confused the heck out of my group once))

Pro: All of California in one book!

Con: Not as detailed. There's a reason they can fit it all in one book: it's at twice the scale of the DeLorme's (1:300,000 instead of 1:150,000). Some small features, such as mine sites, aren't in the Benchmark book. I examined various regions I've visited, and most of the same dirt roads are in Benchmark book, but not as many of them are labeled. (In fairness, there's a corresponding "Pro", in that twice as much area is covered on a page, so there's less flipping around)

Con: Many park & base boundaries are not shown on the detailed maps. While the borders of some national parks are shown on the detailed maps, many of them only have a label in the middle, and you must turn to the less-detailed Recreation Maps section to get a sense of their borders. This can be frustrating when you're planning a drive in the region of an off-limits area like China Lake Naval Weapons Center. This shortcoming is the main reason I don't give it five stars -- I hope they correct it in future editions.

Con: No indication of land surface. The Benchmark book uses color exclusively for elevation; the forested Sierras look just like the mountains around Death Valley. DeLorme uses color to show levels of vegetation, etc. So, you can look at Desolation Wilderness near Lake Tahoe, and get a sense of which parts are forested and which are open granite.

So, which is better? I'd say it depends on what you want to do. If you mostly stick to the paved roads, and/or tend to supplement your atlas with more detailed maps (park service, forest service, USGS topos, etc.), and want something that gives a better sense of "the big picture" of what the land is doing, you might be happier with the Benchmark book. For a driving tour at highway speed, the detail of the DeLorme book is probably excessive -- you'll be flipping a lot of pages.

On the other hand, if you really want to get out on the dirt trails and find your own site in the backcountry, you'll appreciate the DeLorme's greater detail.

Personally, I like having as many different maps available as possible, so I'd say "Get Both". In particular, if you have an older edition of the DeLorme book, and are thinking about upgrading to the newer edition with contour shading, you might want to consider keeping your old one, and getting the Benchmark book instead.

No one map [or atlas] can serve all purposes. The Benchmark California Road And Recreation Atlas seems to fill a middle ground between the pure road atlas [the Thomas Guide California atlas is my number one pick in this category] and a topographic/backroads atlas [the DeLorme atlases are my favorites in this category]. The Benchmark atlases are good road atlases with color-coded and shaded relief added to indicate topography. Each map covers more territory than the maps in the DeLorme atlases. This means less detail than the DeLorme maps and I wouldn't want to do much backroad driving with only the Benchmark atlas available for reference. I generally bring my copy of the Benchmark atlas with me on road trips because I find it good for doing a visual and mental overview of the area I'm exploring. I think all travel enthusiasts should have a copy of this atlas in their map library and especially those who want information on topography, but are contour line phobic.

Not surprisingly, it took an Australian trained geographer/rock climber to point out the obvious beauty and value of East Bay geology in the landscape design for private homes and parks in this wonderful pictorial work.
If you think rock is something only the landscape architect has to design around, see the photos of how some banded rhyolite boulders look in a billiard room, or examine a mass of in situ chert protruding through a homeowner's bathroom wall (the geologist's 'dream' WC). Berkeley loves its rocks. While Chester never gets into it directly, this region's desire to protect rocks and outcrops is geoconservation in practice. For more on that, see my review of GEODIVERSITY.

Chester includes a Berkeley Area map to locate these local geologic treasures, and a decent map of the bedrock geology of the Berkeley Hills on page 14. My only complaints would be 1) the title--the word 'nature' should be changed to 'geology', and 2) references to geologic works mentioned in chapter one are not included in the recommended reading section.

We liked this enough that we bought a copy as a present for another Berkeley resident. This is a fun book to look through.

I grew up one block from Pinnacle Rock in Berkeley, where my dad (Dick Leonard) and his pal Dave Brower climbed every Sunday with their Cragmont Climbing club buddies (1940's, 50's). This is an absolutely wonderful book about Berkeley's beautiful rocks and architecture, most of which are very familiar to this Berkeley native. I gave it to my husband on Christmas, and everyone was glued to it. Thanks so much.

For much of my life I held hope to be able to own a home in
Berkeley with one of those great rocks filling the front of the lot and obscuring part of the house. It never happened, so finding this excellent book fulfilled part of my wish. The photography really captures the feeling of being near the geologic history of the area and there is a
great source of geologic detail in the text, for anyone who
wants to know why those rocks are there. Excellent photograpy and very informative text.

An amazing biography. A work such as this will most likely appeal to only 1 out of 100,000 Amazon customers, but those who read it will never forget it, and once having read it will listen to Berlioz's music with a knowing insider's grin.

Cairns has done what is extremely difficult: he has created an easy-to-read, engaging, yet methodical and thorough modern biography in English of a composer who was born 200 years ago and whose paper trail was written entirely in French. The book has good humor but is not fawning or hagiographic.

A little note (pun intended): this is about Berlioz the man, and not about Berlioz as an ethnomusicologist's project. In other words, this is the study of a young man and how he came to know and create music, but not about that music per se.

Bonne lecture!

This is a wonderful book both for the lay reader and for the musically knowledgeable. It says a great deal about how well written this book is that someone like me who knows nothing about music could still enjoy the book so much. Mr. Cairns takes the tale from the birth of Berlioz in 1803 up until 1832, when he was in his late 20's. You learn about his relationship with his parents, who were opposed to his choice of composer for a career, and his sisters. We are very fortunate that this was a great age for letter writing. Mr. Cairns makes judicious use of the correspondence between Berlioz and his family and friends to the point where you almost feel yourself to be a friend or family member. You get inside the young composer's mind as he tries to convince his parents that his desire to write music is not just a "whim", but something that he is absolutely passionate about and must do. Berlioz was also extremely sensitive and romantic. After seeing the English actress Harriet Smithson perform on stage in several works by Shakespeare he developed an obsessive love for her, even though he had never met her. He had an apartment across the street from where she lived and would longingly watch her comings and goings. He eventually wrote her several notes expressing his feelings but she rebuffed him, quite understandably one would think! (She had also heard a rumor, which was untrue, that he was an epileptic.) Shortly after coming to the realization that Smithson was unattainable Berlioz met the virtuoso pianist Camille Moke and they fell in love with each other and eventually got engaged. Alas, when poor Hector had to go to Rome to live in order to receive grant money from winning the Prix de Rome, Camille dumped him and opted for security by marrying a wealthy man. This soured Hector on women for awhile but did not diminish his love for music, nature and life. Mr. Cairns has been a professional music critic and is also a scholar, so he understands and ably explains the technical aspects of Berlioz's music. I was totally lost in these sections but my ignorance did not diminish my enjoyment of this sympathetic and wonderfully written book.

David Cairns is a great Berlioz scholar. Like to meet him someday. His translation of "Memoirs" is much superior to Newmans.I bought the 1st volume of the biography some years ago when it first came out and the second a couple of years ago when it was first published. I revisit these volumes frequently. Berlioz was one of the really great romantics. At least 50 years before his time. Glad to see SF opera is planning on staging Cellini & B & B over the next few years. Sixtus Beckmesser

This really is one of the best biographies of any subject to come my way.I didn't know a lot of Berlioz's music before approaching this but it didn't actually matter.All the elements of a gripping novel are here only for they're true!-fighting paternal disapproval,living in poverty in Paris,eloping with a virtuoso pianist-it's all here and Cairns paints such an intimate picture that you can't but fail to admire Berlioz and his dogged determination to be a composer and write HIS music only to be continually rebuked in his native homeland.The efforts that the man had to go to just to hear his own music is truly heartbreaking.Biography doesn't get much better than this-especially if you're only even remotely interested in music or art.

An excellect selection of schizz-flows and machinic couplings, looking at this book is like watching a film by the Brother's Quay (and I believe the Brother's have made a new film based on one of the artists in this book, "In Absentia"). A beautiful and fetishistic stroll through the "Outside" of those who were locked up "inside". Take flight!

I am a senior student of fine arts at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, and I purchased "Beyond Reason" with hopes of injecting new influences into my own art. I cannot explain what this book showed me -- I did not anticipate being so taken by the works I discovered. On virtually every page, profound works of art are shown by men and women not seeing themselves as artists, but merely as human beings desperately needing to express their inner emotions. I was humbled, to the point that I am second guessing my own artistic ambitions. I was very, very moved by the works -- their frenzied grasps at order apparent with every stroke and line. Whether you are an art student, art historian, or student of the psychology, I highly recommend this edition. Beautifully reproduced and presented with respect for their creators ... "Beyond Reason" is among the finest art books in my personal library.

I first discovered the Prinzhorn Collection in late 1996 when selected paintings and drawings were put on display at the Hayward Gallery in London. The experience was extremely memorable.

More than just an art exhibit, "Beyond Reason" represented a provocative view into the inner workings on the human mind. (This is especially meaningful if you accept the argument that an understanding of the ailing mind can elucidate the functions of the healthy one.)

As you view the entire collection, patterns begin to emerge. "Circular" thinking, fear of being "trapped" in one's mind, and the desire to "escape" mental illness are common motifs. The cover of the book shows a great example. Painted by a schizophrenic, he successfully depicts his irrational fear of weightlessness; here, he must wear a blindfold and use hand-stilts to prevent himself from floating away.

Needless to say, I purchased a copy of the "Beyond Reason" book. Nearly 200 (mostly color) high-quality reproductions are presented, and the commentary is wonderful. I highly recommend this book.

Our first acquaintance with the Prinzhorn Collection of psychotic art at the University of Heidelberg was in the paperback edition of Ernst Kris, Psychoanalytic Explorations in Art (New York: Schocken Books, 1967), a book it may help to refer to while reading this one. This is the full-color catalog of a 1996-1997 exhibition at the Hayward Gallery in London of more than 200 examples of artÑdrawings, paintings (some using "body color"), collages, and sculptureÑproduced by mental patients in European psychiatric hospitals. The full collection, which includes nearly 5,000 items from the period of about 1890 to 1920, was named after Hans Prinzhorn (1886-1933), a German art historian and psychiatrist who did not initiate the collection, but was largely responsible for its promotion, use, and preservation. He became famous overnight when he published a book in 1922 titled Artistry of the Mentally Ill, which praised the "authenticity" and "primordiality" of psychotic self-expression. It attracted the attention of many Modern artists, especially Surrealists and Expressionists, and was used by the Nazis as proof of the underlying sickness of what they condemned publicly in 1937 as "degenerate art." Suppressed but thankfully not destroyed, the Prinzhorn Collection was stacked in a cupboard until the early 1970s, and has now been restored. These haunting yet fascinating inventions, all beautifully reproduced, are prefaced by scholarly essays about Prinzhorn, psychotic expression, and social conditions in Europe between the wars. (Review from Ballast Quarterly Review, Vol 14 No 1, Autumn 1998.)

I love this book. Benjamin Nathans really captures the thoughts of an average russian man. I know this because im his close friend.
thankyou and good night

You should know that having been selected a Slavic Studies award it was not going to be all plot and laughs. Though if you read it with the right mindset, some of it looks like it was made-up by Myron Cohen. Probably the most interesting part of the scholarship brought up by Nathans was that once Russian Jews were allowed into law schools, they turned out to be recognized as the most expert in the law.

Anyone who has studied under a talmudic system will know that you must learn not only the law itself, but learn to read between the lines as to it's intent. Even the non-Jewish lawyers admitted that the Jewish lawyers were much more committed to their clients and their clients welfare. Many non-Jews hired Jews as apprentice lawyers because of their attention to detail.


From the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies (AAASS) awards committee:

Benjamin Nathans' masterful study provides a fresh look at an age old problem, the entry and integration of Jews into larger territorial, cultural and political communities. The book takes us, literally and figuratively, "beyond the pale" of Jewish life in late imperial Russia to the encounter of Jewish professionals and intellectuals with Russian civil institutions.

Through exhaustive and innovative research, from newly available archives to private family memoirs, Nathans brings to life key personalities and social interactions that redefine the Jewish presence in St. Petersburg, and in turn reshape ties to the other subjects of the empire and to Russian Jewry. Through these vibrant portraits of the Jewish-Russian encounter, the author paints a much larger canvas tracing a cultural world of understandings and misconceptions, a social existence beset by advances and setbacks, and a political discourse of emancipation and reaction.

This is a fascinating study of the Jews in Russia. The book description is accurate... it is a highly detailed and first rate work of scholarship. The only concern is that it is not casual reading-- it is an in-depth and comprehensive study that rewards the devoted reader.

Beyond the Pale: The Jewish Encounter with Late Imperial Russia won the 2003 Wayne S. Vucinich book prize awarded annually by the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies (AAASS) for the most outstanding monograph in Russian, Eurasian, or East European studies in any discipline of the humanities.

The book prize selection committee wrote the following about this volume:

Benjamin Nathans' masterful study provides a fresh look at an age old problem, the entry and integration of Jews into larger territorial, cultural and political communities. The book takes us, literally and figuratively, "beyond the pale" of Jewish life in late imperial Russia to the encounter of Jewish professionals and intellectuals with Russian civil institutions.

Through exhaustive and innovative research, from newly available archives to private family memoirs, Nathans brings to life key personalities and social interactions that redefine the Jewish presence in St. Petersburg, and in turn reshape ties to the other subjects of the empire and to Russian Jewry. Through these vibrant portraits of the Jewish-Russian encounter, the author paints a much larger canvas tracing a cultural world of understandings and misconceptions, a social existence beset by advances and setbacks, and a political discourse of emancipation and reaction.

This exemplary, insightful book, argued with balance and nuance and written with flair, provides an original interpretation of a central problem in Russian history and politics. More, the intellectual journey goes well beyond Russia to recast our understanding of broader, ever-present issues of identity, integration, and conflict.

I have reviewed the 4th Edition of "Bicycle Rides in Los Angeles County," published June 2000, by Don and Sharron Brundidge. This guide has something for every type and level of bicyclist: family outings, sightseeing buffs, distance workouts, and elevation workouts. This edition is greatly expanded compared with the previous editions, with 21 added rides. Also several of the previous rides have been updated.

I especially like the maps and elevation contours. Starting points and parking are indicated, as well as parks, special points of interest for sightseers, restrooms, water sources, and occasional eateries along the way. At the beginning of the book there is a Master Trip Matrix that is an excellent starting point for planning a ride. The Trip Matrix has items like the general location, level of difficulty, mileage, vertical gain characteristics (hills), percentages of pure bike trail, marked bike lane, signed bike lane, or none of the above (called Class X), and other trip features and highlights. The latter include general scenery, landmarks, and special sightseeing attractions.

I have checked the distances and elevation gains with my own GPS and Avocet vertical gain watch and found the guides to be quite accurate. Options are described for shortening certain rides. Another feature I liked was the description of the connectivity between near-by rides for ambitious riders who want to do multiple rides in a day's outing. I can't think of a more complete guide for either the serious or casual cyclist.

The book provides 71 on-road trip descriptions (83 total rides) in Los Angeles County. Rides vary from those for short-length family trips on separated bike paths, many longer exploratory and workout trips for more experienced riders on various quality bike routes, and a few "gut-buster" tours for the most physically fit and motivated bikers. There are over 1100 one-way miles of biking described. Included are a coastal century (up and back) from the City of Santa Monica to Port Hueneme in Ventura County and a tour of Avalon on Santa Catalina Island. Trip domains include beaches, parks, valleys, canyons, harbors, rivers and lakes.
Included is a master map to show ride locations within the county and a master matrix that identifies ride location, level of difficulty, route composition (percentage of route on bike trail, signed bike lanes or open roadway) and a general trip characterization (i.e., Is the trip scenic? Is it in a natural setting? Are there landmarks and/or sightseeing attractions along the way? Is this a mileage and/or elevation workout?).
Each trip description contains a detailed trip map and elevation-distance profile (non-flat rides) and scenic or character-interest photographs are scattered throughout the book. The route maps note the location of water sources, landmarks, sightseeing attractions and campsites among other points of interest.
Condensed Table of Contents:
Introduction
How to Use This Book
Trip Organization
Trip Description/Terminology
General Biking Considerations
Los Angeles County Trips
-- The Coast (18 trips)
-- River Trails (Rivers/Creeks) (7 trips)
-- Inland (21 trips)
-- Potpourri (City of Los Angeles and Avalon, Santa Catalina Island) (4 trips)
-- New Trips (South and East County, San Fernando Valley, Canyon Country) (21 trips)
Index

I have reviewed the 4th Edition of "Bicycle Rides in Los Angeles County," published June 2000, by Don and Sharron Brundidge. This guide has something for every type and level of bicyclist: family outings, sightseeing buffs, distance workouts, and elevation workouts. This edition is greatly expanded compared with the previous editions, with 21 added rides. Also several of the previous rides have been updated.

I especially like the maps and elevation contours. Starting points and parking are indicated, as well as parks, special points of interest for sightseers, restrooms, water sources, and occasional eateries along the way. At the beginning of the book there is a Master Trip Matrix that is an excellent starting point for planning a ride. The Trip Matrix has items like the general location, level of difficulty, mileage, vertical gain characteristics (hills), percentages of pure bike trail, marked bike lane, signed bike lane, or none of the above (called Class X), and other trip features and highlights. The latter include general scenery, landmarks, and special sightseeing attractions.

I have checked the distances and elevation gains with my own GPS and Avocet vertical gain watch and found the guides to be quite accurate. Options are described for shortening certain rides. Another feature I liked was the description of the connectivity between near-by rides for ambitious riders who want to do multiple rides in a day's outing. I can't think of a more complete guide for either the serious or casual cyclist.

I bought this edition a few years ago just when I was starting to do more than ride to & from work & the store.

This edition has over 60 routes for Los Angeles County.

The maps are detailed, the turn by turn description of each ride includes places to see, tips for preparation, & a bit of history.

The terrain covered includes Beaches, Parks, Canyons, Harbors, Lakes, & Mountains.

There are safety tips & equipment tips as well as other sources of info.

The only drawbacks are not the books fault, & with a brand spanking new 4th EDITION just released in June that includes another 20 rides & a complete update of many of the old ones, these problems have been solved.

Use this edition with a current THOMAS BROTHERS MAP as a way to check changes in route & terrain & you will be ok.

Phone numbers & addresses may be outdated in this edition as well.

All in all, well worth the price of admission.

I also recommend the ORANGE COUNTY & INLAND EMPIRE editions as well, with the same reservations on account of age.

This book is quite suspenseful and Artie Weatherby is a likeable protaganist. I read through the book quickly as it is a great mystery. It says it is the first in the series, but I just picked up another book by the name of "Weatherby" and it introduces Artie Weatherby for the first time so I guess this is actually the second about this private eye! I ordered a book titled "Weatherby, On A Dead Man's Chest" also about this guy, Artie, which I am looking forward to reading. ....

The little summary on the back of the book caught my attention and didn't lose it until I read the last page. It is obvious that the author put a lot of time and research into the subject. The book is a look into the reality of the New Age movement and how innocent it can tend to look until one delves into it. It is written in first person so the reader feels like the main character. The writer is knowledgable in many areas and in conveying that through the main character, Artie Weatherby, a private investigater. He is hired by a woman to investigate her murder and is handed a check written exactly ten years ago on the day she was murdered...

As one other reviewer stated the plot synopsis on the back of the book got my attention and never lost it. Clever, well researched mystery unravels into a serpentine plot involving L.A.'s elite and ultra-rich, East coast mobsters, a former hitman now operating a skid row mission, a woman who's griefing husband affirms she's dead - but has suddenly appeared and asked the novel's protagonist to solve her murder........and it all hinges on the members of a secret fraternity of a New Age cult.

This novel is very pointed about the nature of New Age cults and is definitely not sympathetic, pulling no punches about its subject matter. The only liability that I can note is that the author provides no foreword, afterword or even a summary about her research - even a footnote or two would've lent more credibility to the investigative documents and books her main character uses in solving the mystery. Still a very worthwhile book and far more compelling than most above average Mystery novels you are likely to consider reading.

I am a fan of mystery and suspense novels. This book fits both categories. It is well written with a likable protagonist in private investigator Artie Weatherby. He is asked to investigate a murder by the victim...
This book goes in depth behind the scenes concerning the New Age movement and its more sinister elements and beliefs. It is a real eye-opener and keeps your attention from start to finish. It is the third book in a series about Artie Weatherby; the others being "Weatherby" and "Weatherby: On A Dead Man's Chest". They are both good, but "The Big Lie" is the best of the three. Unfortunately, this author is deceased, so there will be no more books in this series. However, she did write some other fiction series under the name of Janice Miller. They are good as well (P.I. Alexis Albright).
I highly recomend this book to anyone who likes mysteries or suspense.

This book is very informative and is a great book on Gila Monsters and Beaded Lizads. This book was so good I could hardly put it down. This book gave me a greater understanding of Gila monsters and Beaded Lizards. This book is for anyone who wants to learn all aspects of Heloderma Lizards. I Recommend this to anybody who is Interested in them.

An Excellent book. If you want to know anything about Heloderms then this is the book for you. it covers just about every aspect of Gila Monsters and Beaded Lizards that you could hope to know. it has great pictures that that help you understand even better what he's speaking about in the book.

As a member of the Tucson Herpetological Society, I have been hearing of the genesis of this book for years. I wondered, "How could a scientist in cold, wet, Washington write about Gilas and Beadeds?"
The answer was simple. Dan Beck spent many long, hot months in the Deserts of Arizona and surrounding states as well as in the Tropical Dry Forests of Mexico and Guatemala.
The result is a book that has been sorely needed for about a half-century. I picked it up and read it straight through in a few days as if it were a novel or a Harry Potter Book. I actually bought the book as a birthday present for my biologist son but after presenting him the first one, found I really needed to get one for myself as an easy reference to keep on my bookshelf.
I do not pretend to understand all the graphs and charts but I know they are necessary. Maybe someday I shall.
What I did like was the easy flow of the words as Dan Beck told the story of two of the most mysterious animals in the world. So little is known about these two species that often, writers are content to say, "They spend 95% of their time underground" or similar. Dan Beck fleshes out the story of why Heloderma spend so much time out of view and, presumably, underground. I also liked the manner in which the author introduced the next chapter in the last few words of the preceding chapter.For example, the last words of Chapter 4 on Physiological Ecology are,"we must consider their use of habitat and patterns of activity." Chapter 5 is appropriately titled, " Habitat Use and Activity Patterns." This is done a number of times but it took me several chapters to catch on.
One thing that greatly impressed me was the author's use of anecdotal information as well as research driven data from trusted sources. Many "stories" would have been dismissed years ago but are now considered as valuable information due to his own research.
Maybe this will be the beginning of a true understanding of these mysterious reptiles.

This is one of those books every serious herpetologist interested in Heloderms should have. As a former zookeeper, this book would have been very helpful in solving some of the smaller problems with breeding the several subspecies of H. suspectum such as charlesbogerti and alvarezi. Anyone who wants to learn more should own this book for their reference collection.