California Books

Painters are often their own worst enemies when speaking about their work, obscuring rather than enlightening. But not Matisse. The intelligent and painter knew the trap that speaking of his art could be, yet his own comments on it are intelligent and illuminating. This book is fine reading that's a help to the working painter, as well as the viewer. You'll look at Matisse's great paintings with a fresh eye after reading it. And that's what matters.

Painters are often their own worst enemies when speaking about their work, obscuring rather than enlightening. But not Matisse. The intelligent and painter knew the trap that speaking of his art could be, yet his own comments on it are intelligent and illuminating. This book is fine reading that's a help to the working painter, as well as the viewer. You'll look at Matisse's great paintings with a fresh eye after reading it. And that's what matters.

Here are compiled the writings of and interviews with Matísse. It is not only about his estethic concerns but also about his feeling for life. The latter was his underlying motif in his paintings. This book is very interesting also for people without artistic concerns since Matísse here conveys his fine-tuned philosophy of life. A highly rewarding book that one can return to many times.

Mats Winther

If you want to extend the boundaries of ordinary perception, in order to produce unique, distinctive visions read "Matisse on Art." It is a critical piece of literature written by a masterfully innovative painter. I recommend it as a professional artist for nearly 20 years and as an art professor.

IF YOU WANT TO SPEND AN EVENING READING A MOST INTERESTING LIFE STORY THIS BOOK IS FOR YOU. IT WILL NOT ONLY INTRIGUE YOU BUT ENTERTAIN AND EDUCATE YOU AS WELL. I COULDN'T PUT THE BOOK DOWN AND THOUGHT OF MANY FRIENDS TO WHOM I WANT TO RECOMMEND IT.....A VERY EXCELLENT BOOK.

Since the author is the main character, you know she lived to write about her tragic ordeal: breast cancer treatment that literally killed her heart. . . muscle. This story, as awesome as it sounds is a page turner. You won't be able to put it down. Any woman who has breast cancer or knows someone who has had it, should read this book. There is some excellent advice in it. And in the end, it's actually UPLIFTING!

This is human interest story that will move you to tears of joy and make you marvel at Nancy's indomitable will to live. Reading this story made me realize how lucky I am to have the health that I do. Nancy Pedder is a phenomenally strong woman who has never let her health issues cloud her positivity and zest for life. She has dealt with challenges that would make a lesser human crumble, in a way that is to be admired and respected. Nancy should be an inspiration to all that are organ recipients and the families of organ donors. I admire how she continues to make the most of the second shot at life that she got through her donated heart and how she is determined to lead the charge to promote organ donation.

Once I began reading, I couldn't put the book down until the I finished it! This book has numerous endorsements from the medical profession, but like Nancy Pedder, I too am a cancer survivor, and this book is an INCREDIBLE account of the author's ordeal. Pedder truly has a knack for telling her story; one which will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very last page. Not only will the reader be amazed and astonished at the incredible odds Nancy overcame and SURVIVED, but also this book tugs at your heart (no pun intended) and will hopefully be a positive impact on organ donation. Nancy's story makes you not only want to stand and cheer that you are allive, but also makes you want to thank God each day for the many blessings we sometimes overlook. This is the MOST positive book I have ever read on surviving cancer - and as a 17 year cancer suvivor, I should know. Everyone should read this book!

The idea of a book full of arguments for the war in Iraq from liberal authors seemed so interesting that I immediately ordered it and started reading it as soon as I had finished my book of conservative authors not so happy about the war.

Seeing the way liberals had reacted to Iraq was one of the biggest reasons why I have started calling myself moderate instead of liberal. I'm not trying to imply that the word liberal is monolithic by any means, but seeing the way so many different types of liberals were so strongly opposed to this war (many times out of pure hatred of George W. Bush and nothing else), really made me take serious look at what I thought.

Some of the articles in this book are a bit dense, and the average reader might not be able to get through them, but there are numerous other brilliant articles in this book that make a very strong case for their arguments. Put simply, the main point of this book is that a perfectly logical case can be made in favor of invading Iraq from a humanitarian perspective.

The authors in this book are not fans of Bush in any way, but yet they still make the case that getting rid of Saddam Hussein is a good thing. One of the contributors, Adam Michnik, put it best when he said "I believe you can be an enemy of Saddam Hussein even if Donald Rumsfeld is also an enemy of Saddam Hussein."

Throughout the book, the authors pose tough questions such as "If Bush really did lie about the weapons (and knew that none were in Iraq), why did the U.S. not arrange to plant the weapons after the invasion? A simple, but ironclad point in my opinion. The authors also tackle many of the liberal points used to argue against the war. Michael Moore is mentioned several times and because of this book, I am firmly cemented in my view that Moore has about as many positive contributions to make to the political world as Ann Coulter (which would be next to none).

Something I found particularly interesting was that a lot of what was said could be found coming from the right, but the point here is that the talk of liberating the Iraqi people from these authors are genuine. Hearing someone like Sean Hannity making these arguments isn't convincing because he's only for liberating another country if a Republican President is the one doing it. You never hear Hannity-types making the liberation argument in any other case.

I sincerely hope that anyone calling themselves a liberal that is opposed to the war in Iraq reads this book. It really challenges liberals to look at Iraq from the humanitarian perspective and I would venture to say that if you're a Michael Moore fan or a Noam Chomsky fan that could make it through this book and not have second thoughts, you're no different than the Republicans and conservatives you accuse of being blinded by ideology.

Irrespective of whether it leaves you believing that the Iraq war was just, this book is a fresh and valuable perspective. It explores important and critical arguments of a sophistication and depth that the lightweights and bigots of the contemporary media simply ignore (whether through bias or ineptitude).

Read the introduction here:

http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/10415/cushman.pdf

...and another example of the books chapters is here:

http://www.dissentmagazine.org/menutest/articles/wi04/berman.htm

Highly recommended.

With the exception of Roger Scruton, all of the contributors to this thought-provoking book come from the left of the political spectrum. It is most refreshing to see that there are still rational people on that side and that the strident, hateful and juvenile shrieking that one encounters in the media are not the only voices of the left.

Part One: Reconsidering Regime Change, contains contributions by the brilliant Christopher Hitchens, Jeffrey Herf, Jan Narveson and Mitchell Cohen. These essays state the case for the overthrow of the sadistic Saddam whilst discussing the liberal and humanitarian case for the liberation.

The next section, Philosophical Arguments, includes a reflection on national interest and international law by the conservative Roger Scruton, an essay on a just war against criminal regimes by Mehdi Mozaffari, and moral arguments on sovereignty, agency and consequences by Daniel Kofman.

Critiques Of The Left is the third section. This contains the most interesting dissection of leftist positions and thoroughly undermines the fallacy created by the mass media that liberals and leftists were unanimously against the war. My personal favourite essays in this group include Pages From A Daily Journal Of Argument by Norman Geras, Ethical Correctness And The Decline Of The Left by Jonathan Re and A Friendly Drink In A Time Of War by Paul Berman, a liberal.

In European Dimensions, people like John Lloyd, Michel Taubmann and Anders Jerichow reveal that many prominent European intellectuals, including Vaclav Havel, supported the war on liberal-humanitarian grounds.

Part Five: Solidarity, contains an interview between the compiler Thomas Cushman and the Polish intellectual Adam Michnik. There are also moving essays by Timorese leader Jose Ramos-Horta, Johann Hari, Pamela Bone and Ann Clwyd. It is quite clear that unlike the rest of the Left, these authors have genuine compassion for the weak and the oppressed. An important point made here is that indifference to the plight of the oppressed means abdication of the duty to protect them.

The volume concludes with Liberal Statesmanship that contains Prime Minister Tony Blair's full statement to the House of Commons on 18th March 2003 and another speech of his titled The Threat Of Global Terrorism. They are both eloquent arguments for the liberation of Iraq that are rooted in principle and morality.

This valuable book demolishes many myths perpetuated by the academic and media elites and more importantly, exposes their malignant mindsets to some extent. For example, Johan Hari points out how Anti-Americanism has become a religion and how leftists ignore the crimes of sundry third world dictators. It is made clear that the anti-war camp really did not care about Saddam's victims. Then again, this is nothing new - leftists of the past also tried to suppress knowledge of Stalin's atrocities and those of Pol Pot.

Another lie that is exposed is the myth of American unilateralism. Forty Eight countries had joined the Coalition by March 2003 and in Europe, states like the Netherlands, Italy, Hungary, Denmark, Poland, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Croatia and Macedonia strongly allied themselves with the USA. Many Asian states supported it too, including Australia, Japan, South Korea, Singapore and the Philippines. That puts the myth of unilateralism to rest.

In his introduction, Cushman mentions the relentless campaign of hatred and disinformation against Israel by the United Nations and the travesty of a UN Human Rights body that that includes representatives of cruel totalitarian states like Libya, Sudan and Zimbabwe.

He also mentions the shady motives behind the anti-war position of France, Germany and Russia. These essays were written and the book compiled before the full extent of the UN Oil For Food graft became widely known, but this scandal of the century only confirms the hypocrisy of the leadership of the aforementioned countries.

The book is not flawless. Some of the writing is perhaps too self-critical and as a Reaganite, I obviously disagree with many contributors on a range of other issues. But they are brave people who are willing to stand up for their convictions in a hostile environment. I regard the George Galloway/Michael Moore Moonbat Left as one would a hairy spider, but these authors are rational and decent. Their concern for the wretched of the earth is genuine. Their hearts are in the right place.

I also recommend A Long Short War: The Postponed Liberation of Iraq by Christopher Hitchens, Unholy Alliance and The Anti Chomsky Reader by David Horowitz, The Force Of Reason by Oriana Fallaci plus everything written by the wonderful Norman Geras.

The essays in this book about the Iraq War and international law are for the most part in clear and accessible English and do not rely on theories that are left unexplained in the body of the essay itself. For that reason I would recommend this collection to people who are interested only in the development of international law and mores and who are not much concerned with the Iraq War.

For those who are interested in the Iraq War, this collection is, I feel, indispensable. Not because the authors agree (they do not) but because the debate in this volume has about it a quality that has been largely absent from the Iraq debate: candor. Thus while the authors disagree on fundamental issues such as:

* was the war in Iraq, on balance, justified;

* did the governments that lead us to war lie or act in good faith;

* was the suffering of the Iraqi people alone sufficient justification for war; and

* do we have what it takes to see this war through

they do so without simplifying the arguments and without assuming that the Iraqi people agree with their positions.

For as profound as their disagreements are, the authors agree that:

* Saddam's regime was genocidal;

* leaving Saddam in place was not costless either (and most immediately) to the Iraqi people or (eventually) to the West; and

* the Bush administration has terribly botched the occupation, thereby endangering the whole enterprise.

And finally these authors point out that when in a public policy debate, the liberals sound like Henry Kissinger while the conservatives echo John Rawls, the political landscape is out of joint.

This is the sort of debate liberals like myself had every right to expect in the days and months preceding the Iraq invasion. We did not get it (for reasons addressed in this volume). We get it here; in this collection of essays. I highly recommend it.

As a new member of the club, I really appreciate Bert's candor throughout his experience. He's witty and a great story teller. I was hoping for more humor, but I guess there really isn't much in the process to laugh about. I am glad I waited until after having the procedure to read this book. My recovery has been much better than the author's, and the book may have been "too real" before the operation. However, I definitely was able to relate to his war stories after the fact and highly recommend reading this book durine recovery.

Take down the wallful of industry awards, put away the Clios, move over Beethoven, this is Bert Gottlieb's finest hour. Not that Beethoven would notice, nor Dicken's or Faulkner for that matter. This is not just a book. Not just a string of incisive words, carefully and beautifully crafted; it's more the struggle of a man who was suddenly scared witless, and emerges, witfully, I must add, scaring the boogey man.

This is a must read for anyone over 50. Not a manual about the aspects of Prostate Cancer, although it is that, rather a chronicle of the all too human being we all carry around in us and forget.

I read it in two sittings and I was moved. There were laughs, there were tears. I learned a lot. I hope I never have to use what I learned. If I do, I hope I can face it a bravely as Bert Gottlieb did.

Well done!

An intimate and courageous encounter of one man's bout withprostate cancer. Bert Gottlieb treats his fears and anxieties withmegadoses of wit. Concurrently, Dr. Thomas Mawn open his notes to reveal his analysis of every phase of the case, never losing sight of the patient's and his family's feelings. Everyone with a prostate must read this book. All others will find it a well written, entertaining story. END

THIS IS AN EXCELLENT BOOK THAT ALL MEN SHOULD READ. I BOUGHT A COPY FOR MY DAD, FATHER-IN-LAW AND HUSBAND. IT IS IMPORTANT FOR THEM TO KNOW ABOUT IT.

Wonderful book.
Excellent exercises and full of history.
I'm not an expert in traverso, but the fingering chart is very complete and ideal for who want to learn by yourself.

This is one of the best method books I've seen for a historical instrument. Every essential topic is covered: tuning, intonation, articulation, fingering, baroque & classical ornamentation (fingering for trills off of each note, for instance). Period sources (notably Quantz, plus several others) are quoted frequently. There is also a good discussion on the differences between different historical models. Plus there is a wealth of exercises and tunes from the period. While not pretending to be complete in every sense, this is far superior to many methods I've seen for recorder and other instruments. It's also quite affordable.

I have been playing the modern, silver (Boehm system) flute for over 25 years as a hobby and a magnificent obsession. For some time, I had been thinking about playing the baroque or one-keyed flute. The thought of moving to an instrument with a softer, subtler sound fashioned from organic material (wood) appealed to me. Expressing this interest to my flute teacher recently, he very kindly volunteered to loan me two of his baroque flutes (a boxwood Folkers & Powell and an ebony Von Huene) to see which I preferred, along with this book. For the past two months, I have spent some time on a self-guided study of these new instruments with the help of this book which I am finding to be an amazingly informative, straightforward and an extremely practical introduction to this instrument. It takes the reader from a point of knowing very little about playing a one-keyed flute to a point of playing a full repertoire and then beyond to the "top 13" 18th century flute tutors. Starting with the history of the instrument and then moving to the very basics of holding the instrument, developing a sound, developing a tone, intonation and fingerings, it lays out very clear charts, trill tables and over 80 pages of exercises, scale studies and music to play.

As noted in the preface, this book is intended as a method book written for players of the Boehm-system flute who are already somewhat familiar with tone production and modern flute technique hoping to provide the flutist with information for the initial approach to the instrument. It is not intended as a musicological treatise, but a practical and useful guide which cites historical sources offering "a broad diversity of opinions which challenge us to explore the ideas of 18th century writers and incorporate them into our present-day experience."

Dockendorff Boland advises taking a little time each day to focus on learning the instrument, incorporating in that study readings from the early flute tutors such as Quantz On Playing the Flute: Second Edition, Hotteterre Principes de la Flute. Reprint der Amsterdamer Ausgabe von 1728 etc., as well as paying attention to the work done by players all over the world in developing their own expression.

This book goes a long way in demystifying the understanding and comprehension of a historic instrument making it accessible to anyone willing to take a little time to learn.

The book has great instruction at your fingertips to start learning the one-keyed flute. There is so much here! But it's not bogged down with copious trivia. This book is especially helpful for the Boehm flutist who wishes to transition into some baroque flute playing. When you purchase this volume, you'll have everything you need (apart from the instrument itself!) to get started, and also to avoid injury to your hands and fingers through incorrect position or over-practicing. Wonderful, sound advice clearly presented.

I purchased this before moving to San Francisco. While I only ended up living there for six months, this came in handy. I always made sure I had it in my purse.

The BART, MUNI and city maps are super helpful. I'd give this five stars just based on these maps. It takes a while to get used to the small size of the city map, spread out over 10-12 spreads in the book. But because the book is so small, I was able to carry it with me everywhere, and not look like a silly tourist when I pulled it out to consult the maps.

I used the rest of the book to record names and addresses of various places/businesses/events in the city, contact information for new people I met, and directions. I'd definitely recommend this to anyone new to the city. I just moved to Portland, OR and was disappointed when I found out there wasn't a City Notebook for Portland. Guess I'll just have to walk around with big ol' clunky maps and bus/train schedules again. I'm hoping Moleskine will expand the City Notebooks to include some smaller US cites.

As a huge Moleskine fan (I really can't get enough sketchbooks) I found the City Notebooks excitig. I was even more excited when I came across the one for San Francisco. Living in the Bay Area, San Francisco is nearby but I'm not there everyday. This book has become a great way to document my adventures and keep track of various places I go in the city and things I come across that I want to check out at a later date (like design firms I want to apply at or visit). Plus having the BART and MUNI maps (the actual ones) is very helpful for figuring out what lines I want to take without having to look for maps on the street. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who loves to document things. It's just the right size to tote around, paste pictures in, and keep track of things you do in a city.

Great for planning travel and journaling the adventure. I travel to San Francisco several times a year and there are always new places I want to go but never seem to have the time to fit them all in- so I record them in my little Moleskin book and I'm ready for the next visit. The maps are great too and I like the little clear plastic overlays so I can mark those for route planning instead of marking up the actual map. When I pull out my little journal to consult it, it doesn't look like I'm reviewing a tourist book at all :-) This book is what you make of it and I really like that about it. Happy traveling.

This is a very unusual product and I would strongly encourage anyone considering getting one to be completely aware of what it is before they purchase it. First, if you are looking for a single travel guide to prepare you for your trip to New York (or anywhere else there is a guide for), this is very close to worthless, if not entirely worthless. I would call one's attention to the title of the product. It is a "Notebook." That means that most of the pages are blank. This literally is a book for taking notes in.

So what do you get when you buy this? Every book in the series follows the same format. First there is a personal information page with address, phone, allergies, family doctor, passport number, then map information with public transportation maps. Then follows information on the various forms of transportation with phone numbers and websites, including cabs, buses, other forms of public transportation, and airports. There are some blank itinerary pages, measurement and speed conversion charts, size conversion charts (for shoppers), then a long series of neighborhood maps, including an index. And that's it. The final two-thirds of the notebook are blank. The next 20 or so pages are completely blank and unlined for whatever use you want to put them to. Next come several pages intended for writing down names of restaurants, bars, museums, historical sites, hotels, or whatever. The book also comes with unlabeled tabs with stickers to use as desired (for theaters, concert halls, or whatever you desire) as well as tracing paper for, as the label says, "Itineraries or Whatever." Finally, there is the usual pocket at the back that is found in all Moleskine products.

For some people this is going to be an absolutely useless product. But for many this will be remarkably useful. In fact, I can envision two uses for this notebook. First, those who are planning a trip to one of the places for which Moleskine has produced a book. Let's say one has consulted the Blue guide, the Eyewitness Guide (by DK), a Rough Guide, the Michelin guide, and the Let's Go guide. Maybe you've bought all of these, making for five guides. No way do you want to drag all of these on your trip or more than one on your flight. So what might you do? You might take the Moleskin Notebook, record into it all the places you want to see, restaurants you want to dine at, museums you want to stroll through, and anything else you want to do while in your destination of choice, and record it there. So the Moleskine City Notebook can serve as a distillation of all the various travel guides, web sites, and other resources you have consulted. And instead of hauling about a large Fodor's guide, you can carry about this small Notebook that can easily fit into a backpack, purse, should bag, or even pocket.

The only downside is that the Moleskine City Notebook is only as good as you make it. If you do a good job of planning your trip, it will be filled to the brim with useful and helpful information. If not, it will be as unhelpful as you have made it.

There is a second use to which the City Notebook can be put to use, though it is not one for which it was primarily designed. You could use it for the city in which you live, should you live in one of the cities for which one is made. I live, for instance, in Chicago. I have bought one of these so that I can over time use it to record every bit of helpful information that I might find useful or helpful. I can record what hours the Seminary Co-Op Bookstore (the real one, not the trade version on 57th Street) is open. The hours for the Chicago Public Library and the Newberry Library. Phone numbers of restaurants and addresses of bars. And so on and so forth. Granted, these books will only benefit those who live in one of those cities, but for the U.S. New York, Chicago, Boston, Washington D.C., Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles are pretty populated areas.

So this is a very well conceived product though it absolutely has to be stressed that it is a specialized one. Please note: THIS ISN'T FOR EVERYONE. If you don't want to use the Notebook to plan your trip it is going to be very close to worthless. I'll emphasize again: this is only as good a product as you make it. But if you use it to help you plan your trip, it could be the single item you would most loathe to be without after your notebook.

The funiest book I have read in years. If you liked The Mouse That Roared you will love this one.

Moonlight Bowl Manifesto is a bit wacky, a little wicked and lots fun. Barbara Jones dissects contemporary California society with wit and humor. When the bowling team 'kidnaps' the chi chi California crowd, chuckles and even belly laughs are inescapable. A wonderful read--thought provoking in the best tradition of well written satire.

This book registers 7.5 on the laughter Richter Scale. Ms. Jones' talent for satire is brilliantly displayed in her first work, Moonlight Bowl Manifesto. She not only skewers the stereotypical Californian, but the rest of us-reviving us with large doses of common sense and kindness. What a funny, subtle, wise dissection of our society this is!

In "Moonlight Bowl Manifesto: A Cure for California," Barbara Jones has fashioned a wild satirical romp over social and political correctness. When a member of a bowling team comes up with an instant wood-eating formula, the bowlers hold hostage an auditorium filled with famous people by threatening to destroy a forest, particularly a famous tree called General Sherman. The book is filled with memorable characters, such as a woman who believes her pig is the reincarnation of her dead husband, and a lawyer who has to share her body with Margaret Mitchell and a hippie. Among the other strange folks is a celebrity who has to take medication to lighten his skin and maintain his feminine characteristics, until his privileges are taken away and strange things begin to happen to his mind and body. A fun read, one that won the 2000 Georgia Author of the Year Award for First Novel.

Morning Glory: A Biography of Mary Lou Williams is an interesting work that captures the personality of the wonderfully talented musician. The biography captures the struggles and achievements of Williams; it also shares some amusing details that make the book hard to put down for anyone interested in the careers of early black musicians.

An engagingly written book on a much ignored, extremely talented musician. Mary Lou Williams was (and is) respected by music giants the world over, including the likes of Duke Ellington. This book puts Williams' importance to American music in perspective, and gives her the overdue credit she so obviously deserves.

My recommendation is to put on a MLW disc, sit back and read. It will be a rewarding experience.

Mary Lou Williams' jazz experiences are detailed in a biography which covers both her life and career and her role as an Afro-American female musician. Dahl was given unlimited access to the Williams archive and her first full-length biography of Williams makes for an important coverage.

It's too easy (and condescending) to say that Mary Lou Williams was one of the greatest female jazz artists; she actually was one of the greatest, period. Her compositions and arrangements for the Andy Kirk band while she was a member throughout the 1930s brought much praise and admiration at the time (and still do today). (She also arranged for Benny Goodman, Tommy Dorsey, and other top-rated swing band leaders.) She was a sensational pianist, too, one of the finest boogie-woogie and stride players in jazz; she was also a great innovator and was among the first to master and play bebop in the 1940s. She greatly influenced many modern pianists, and personally changed the styles of Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk. Mary Lou was a deeply religious person and wrote much religious music and kept very close relations with the Catholic Church (Ms. Dahl covers this aspect of Mary Lou's life very thoroughly.) Williams was a demanding player and seemed to have her greatest difficulties dealing with incompatible bass players (she once fired the great bassist Richard Williams during a New York club engagement). Linda Dahl has written a detailed and comprehensive biography of Mary Lou, covering all her musical and extra-musical activities. Included is a nicely organized selective discography. Anyone familiar with Mary Lou's playing or arranging and would like to learn more about her will benefit greatly by reading this excellent biography.

Punchlines from this book keep coming to mind as I consider how to title this review. ("I've come to kill the worms." "You're Catholic, huh Doc?" "Elixir of Seconal! You got trouble!")

Miller is an old hand at veterinary humor. He pulls no punches, yet manages to offend almost nobody because his writing, like his cartoons, is sharply, realistically funny while refusing to turn away from the ugly facts of veterinary work.

I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading about animals or amusing anecdotes from the experiences of a veterinarian. This book opened up the possibility for me to pursue a career as a veterinarian. I recommend it to anyone and everyone. I only wish I could contact the author to thank him for writing this book, and giving me the opportunity to read it.

I just couldn't stop reading it ! THIS is the book you'll want to read to pass the time in an airport or waiting for someone in a restaurant, and yet you VALUE every book you read, not just some so-and-so story to pass time with but a really good novel with exciting, refreshing, humorous (humor IS the underlined word in this book - my belly ached, my eyes wet reading the book), yet down-to-earth story in which you'll also find sorrow, embarrassment, pride, and joy, all through the life of a humble (yes Mr.Herriot - he IS also a genious (and funny !) story teller)veterinarian. A great, compact, binded pieces of paper this surely is. Oh, and Doc Miller, if you're reading this, in chapter 15 about the nice people - the widow and her daughter, I think you LIED and YOU're the one who bought them the pu...well, any would be readers just have to derive their own conclusion about the story of the pretty and polite 16 years old and her widowed mother in chapter 15, when The Lord decided it's payback time to the nice people. Buy it, borrow it, in any case, read it. It's a great book. You'll have wonderful time reading it. Many people including me did. I still giggle everytime I remember some of his funny stories and look up at the sky everytime I remember the incident with the nice people.

I recieved this book as a gift. I read it in less than a day. It's absolutlry delightful and one those books one just can put down. It's filled with stories that warm the heart. It also is filled with unique, humorous, and tear jerking stories. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys animals or day-to-day life.

Picked this up for an extended Northern California hiking and riding trip. I purchased about four others as well and I used all of them as each has a little something different. Not a single one was useless and none warranted less than 4 stars. I would reccomend doing the same rather than just picking one for your trip.

As a serious S.F. Bay Area cyclist for over 40 years I approach any guidebook to my "back yard" with a certain degree of skepticism, as in "What new can you possibly show me?" I was delighted to find that Ms. Jackson did indeed show me some new mountain biking delights I'd overlooked, but along the way I learned even more new tidbits about what I supposedly already knew. Almost every featured ride has "enrichment" far beyond the necessary trail and topographical stats. No doubt the author learned things from her literary predecessors, which is as it should be, but there is also no doubt she has written the currently definitive off-road guide for mountain bikers of this region. The miracle of the S.F. area is that 5 million people can live so close to so much open space. It is no mean feat to review it all personally, provide directions that are simultaneously explicit and open ended, and simultaneously appeal to the first time rider and a "show me" old time rider such as myself. But Ms. Jackson has done this much, and more. I mean her guide book is not only that, but a fun read as well. Imagine!

If you love moutain biking in the San Francisco Bay Area, then this book is your new best friend!

Detailed maps, great photos and tons of great rides that will challenge and inspire you as well as leave you breathless (both figuratively and literally). This book's detailed descriptions of where to catch the trails and navigate some of the best mountain biking in the world is a must for both locals and visitors to the birthplace of mountain biking. I especially loved the Marin trails section because it opened my eyes to some rides I didn't know about which have now become some of my favorites. And if you love single track riding, then Jackson will take you on some of the most harrowing rides you can imagine -- I've got the scabs and scars on my knees and thighs to prove it!

Buy this book!

Mountain Biking the San Francisco Bay Area is what the title says it is and much more. Lorene Jackson has tackled a huge subject (argueably the area with the largest number of mountain biking options in the country) and covered it well, providing the rider with all he/she needs to know before hitting the trail. But she does more than that. Beyond describing the ride, the terrain, and what's of interest, she makes each ride enticing.

Beyond offering detailed descriptions of 40 rides around the Bay Area, plus 17 more "Honorable Mentions," she provides much background material and information that will equip the novice and intermediate rider to be prepared and assured of a pleasureable experience.

But what I enjoyed most was her breezy enthusiasm that will draw many armchair riders to actually get on a bike and head for the mountains. Lorene Jackson and this book should spread the mountain biking "gospel" beyond it's current circle. I can't wait for her book on Lake Tahoe rides!