Outdoors Books

Wonderfull book that in detail explains every accpecet of camp canoe and portage. I am a BWCA adventurer and this book helped with weather maps paddling packing everything you could think of

This is an especially good book on equipment. Lots of in depth information on canoe shapes and material trade-offs, paddle types etc. It's very interesting and fun to read. There are sections on paddling too but they are not as elaborately illustrated as some books. Also not a lot of pictures related to river reading etc. But you can't beat this book for equipment.

We have done canoe camping before but the new information we picked up about portaging, appropriate gear etc. was priceless preparing us for our trip into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

At Thanksgiving time this book is a feast for sport fans across the country. It is all inclusive,entertaining, and informative. Great snap shots in time. If you are a sports fan this book covers some of Americas top sport heros. Well written and extremely well organized

Boston has long been home to a number of professional and amateur athletes and sports teams. Curator of the Sports Museum of New England Richard Johnson's A Century Of Boston Sports celebrates this athletic heritage with a chronologically organized text comprised of illuminating, informative essays by journalist and historian Glenn Stout, historical vignettes, and more than 150 vintage photographs highlighting teams, events, and personalities that are indelibly associated with the city of Boston. A Century Of Boston is "must" reading for all Boston sports fans as well as students of American sports history.

Written with aplomb and great respect for all the athletes that are featured, A Century of Boston Sports is a joy to read. The variety of photographs and layout of the book are eye catching and unique. No matter your team loyalty, this book provides wonderful stories of athletes from all walks of sport. Humour and joy in sport make this a wonderfully inspiring read. Johnson shows a genuine fondness for each chosen member in this gem of a book. Give this book to any sports fan or anyone who would be inspired by reading all these diverse stories.

You can feel the love of chams in every word and in every picture.
It's a fun book, entertaining, informative, inspirational.
Thank you, Mary Lovein, for bringing such a delightful book into
the world.

Fantastic depth and color on each page of the this fine "coffee table" book. Mary Lovein has a way of capturing unreal colors in nature. The pages are thick and glossy. Most pictures are set in a deep black background, that brings out rich color.
You don't have to love chameleons to love this book.

I also own CHAMELEONS IN THE GARDEN, and I have been priviledged to visit Mary's garden many times!! Mary's sanctuary, perched on the side of Hualalai volcano, is a special and totally natural haven for the residing chameleons. Jacksons Chameleons came to Hawaii totally legally, and have survived in this special environment, which is fortunate -- because they're in danger of extinction in their native Kenya. Hawaii is the last bastion of hope for this species, and Mary's Garden, an especially special enclave for these wonderful creatures. No one should miss the opportunity to observe these magical creatures, and Mary's book is the next best thing to being there.

good materials, very good sizing and fitting, the colours are strongs and doesnt fade whit many laundryes

I'm very please with my shirt i already order 10 more, i highly recomend this shirt

JUST GOT THE TWO COTTON RAGLAN SLEEVE BASEBALL SHIRTS.THE QUALITY IS UNBELIEVABLE FOR THE PRICE.. MY HUSBAND LOVED THEM AND I WILL ORDER MORE FOR THE GRANDKIDS.. FAST SHIPPING TOO!!!!

What a GREAT book! The nature of this book has been needed for a long time. The Charcoal Forest addresses the need for an understanding of the benefits of fires in our landscape in a wonderfully drawn, interactive way for all ages including adults. Our current mentality of stopping fires lessens the benefits the birds, bugs, and other plants obtains from the ashes of a forest fire. A book which encourages thoughtful ideas about how nature recovers from devastating events.

Beth Peluso has written an informative and engaging book for children about how forests recover from fires. It is amazing how many plants and animals actually need fire. Additionally, her illustrations are superb, depicting wildlife from fascinating angles and perspectives. I highly recommend "The Charcoal Forest."

Written by avid birder, day camp counselor, and substitute teacher Beth A. Peluso, The Charcoal Forest: How Fire Helps Animals and Plants is an educational softcover picturebook about the ecology of fire in the Rocky Mountains, and plants and animals that actually depend upon fire to survive. From the black-backed woodpecker that depends on the beetle larvae in burned tree trunks (there's a woodpecker in every beautiful color picture!) to the deer mouse that feasts on seeds exposed by fire, to plants like the huckleberry bush that need space cleared so they can receive more light, and many more, The Charcoal Forest offers an amazing glimpse into species that thrive in the wake of regular or sporadic forest fires. A final section offers more fun facts about the forest species featured, a glossary, an index, and a list of resources that young readers can look up to learn more. Highly recommended, especially for elementary school and public library children's collections.

I found it a very informative and wonderful book to read. I really learned a lot about the history of Black tennis pros. I would definetely recommend for everyone to read this book.

congradulations to the Williams sisters winning at WImbledon together and for them battling against one another for the championship. this Book is a Must read for the tennis fan in general and also from a basic rights and understanding of the history of Blacks in tennis. this book is very in depth and is a note for note line for line read. very informative. a must have.

CHARGING THE NET: A HISTORY OF BLACKS IN TENNIS provides a fine survey of the major black figures in tennis who forced the sport to integrate. Personal interviews and in-depth research details the challenges blacks faced in entering professional status in the tennis world, with chapters surveying the achievements of individuals, teams, and organizations alike. This is a top pick not just for sports libraries, but for any general-interest collection strong in integration issues and sports. Its lively presentation blends civil rights issues with tennis sports world insights.

Very good review of a variety of tricks. Will allow you to advance your juggling in complete isolation from the rest of the juggling communinity, something that would be difficult to do otherwise. Having all these tricks laid down in a hard copy rather than trying to find them online is very helpful. Contains a fair amount of juggling theory as well. This is a must for anyone looking to take the next step.

I love this book.
Easy to read and understand. Also, it is extremely funny.

Dancey's encyclopedia is the bible of ball juggling in my account. He has gathered amazingly many tricks, and does a good job explaining them too, often using helpful drawings. The fact that the book is all about ball juggling gives it a depth in ball-tricks that other books, written more generally about juggling, often lack. The structure of the book, giving the tricks in alphabetical order, makes it easy to find what you are looking for. It also encourages going back and forth in the book, which I find is a great way to constantly find new tricks to learn. Very inspirational.

I can't help but wonder whether I would have grown so fond of historic baseball had I not moved to St. Louis some years ago. Between that and reading Tom Hetrick's books on 19th century baseball, I have come to appreciate the fascinating history of America's game where the Missouri meets the Mississippi. And like his "Misfits!" chronicling the Cleveland Spiders, "Chris Von der Ahe and the St. Louis Browns" is meticulously researched, a fascinating story of one of baseball's most flamboyant owners ever and his colorful charges, and yet somehow a very human, very cautionary tale. I've commented before on Tom Hetrick's knack for turning an historic baseball phrase. Von der Ahe, after releasing a weak catcher in 1891, says, "He could not catch a string of sausages, nor hit a dead elephant with a club." The book is loaded with them. From the triumphant years where the Browns were world champions to the years when they stunk up the cellar, Hetrick's narrative unfolds quickly, competently, and with great entertainment. I could not stop turning the pages. Congratulations to Tom Hetrick on another fine outing!

This is a fine book telling the story of the first genuine "character" to own a major league baseball team. Chris Von der Ahe owned a beer garden and boardinghouse in St. Louis near the Grand Avenue baseball park where teams played their games. He realized that his bar always picked up before and after baseball games, and he decided to merge is primary business with a secondary one, baseball. He soon owned the American Association's St. Louis Browns. Mustachioed, Roman nosed, and speaking with the Dutch accent that betrayed his birth in an obscure Germanic province in 1851, Von der Ahe became the prototypical spotlight grabbing major league baseball team owner. He referred to himself, in his thick accent as "der poss bresident," and the fans loved it. He spent freely, indulged his players, and built the Browns into a baseball dynasty in the 1880s. Von der Ahe loved the celebrity his ownership brought him, for now he was not just a prosperous businessman but both a prosperous businessman and a public figure. It was an unbeatable combination, perhaps the real attraction for baseball ownership up to the present, and something repeated many times by many different owners since. In a city rich in baseball history, no one has been more significant in shaping the game in early St. Louis than Chris Von der Ahe.

Von der Ahe adored publicity for his baseball exploits, even going out of his way to garner it. He made every detail of running the team as a media event. For instance, immediately after each game the departing fans could watch Von der Ahe, flanked by armed guards, trundle a wheelbarrow containing bags with the day's receipts from the team's office to the bank. When the team's new press agent, Harry B. Martin, tried to persuade Von der Ahe that the fans should really hear more about the players in the daily newspapers, the Dutchman responded, "Martin, you was a good press agent but [predecessor George] Munson was the best press agent. Now you make the mistake of thinking that the people wish to read about them ball players. Martin they don't. What the American people like to read is about me."

Von der Ahe's Browns were an excellent team and dominated the American Association throughout the 1880s. Indeed, the Browns ran away with the pennant in 1885 and it won the championship each year between 1885 and 1888 under the leadership of manager-first baseman Charles Comiskey, later the owner of the American League's Chicago White Sox. When he first came to St. Louis from the Dubuque Rabbits minor league team, Von der Ahe paid Comiskey a measly $90 a month. Comiskey worked wonders with the team then demanded, and received, top pay of $5,000 per year. But Von der Ahe thought this a small price to pay for Comiskey's services since the team made him some $75,000 a year during its glory years.

The St. Louis franchise did not fare well in the 1890s, in part due to poor management by Von der Ahe. It was not entirely his fault, however. The combination of poor investing and economic depression as a result of the Panic of 1893 sent his resources into a downward spiral. This led to his drinking excessively and that, coupled with a succession of mistresses that infuriated his wife, prompted her to sue for divorce. By 1898 Von der Ahe was a hollow shell of what he had been a decade earlier. The final blow, and the other owners enjoyed levying it because of the animosity they had for both Von der Ahe's lifestyle and showmanship, happened when the league forced him to sell the club to more stable owners.

"Chris Von der Ahe and the St. Louis Browns" is an excellent baseball biography of a significant figure in the development of nineteenth century baseball. Enjoy!

Major League baseball has had its share of controversial owners. But after reading "Chris Von der Ahe and the St. Louis Browns," I never thought I could meet a gent who could build a ballclub to prominence like Ted Turner, then break the team up quicker than Wayne Huzienga did with the Marlins. Von der Ahe also possessed the innovative streak of Charles O. Finley (what other owner, besides Chris, had a ball park with both a horse-race track and a "Shoot-the-Chutes" ride?), could fire a manager quicker than you can say "Steinbrenner," and may have known even less about the game than Marge Schott.

Tom Hetrick's biography vividly takes us to the wild and wooly days of late-19th century baseball, when 10 home runs could get you the home run crown, pitchers never heard the term "pitch count," and umpires had good days if they could go the entire game without getting pummeled. This is the milieu for German immigrant Von der Ahe, as we follow his rags (a modest grocer and back-of-the-store saloon keeper) to riches (real estate magnate and self-proclaimed "Boss President" of the 4-time American Association champion St. Louis Browns franchise) to flaming rags (scandal, prison, bankruptcy and his Browns' ownership wrested away from him) story.

Hetrick presents meticulous research on the largely obscure Von der Ahe. As a lover of baseball history, I liked his outstanding treatment into the history of the American Association, the league that, for ten years (1882-1891), challenged the established National League and ushered in the precursor of today's World Series. But this book is not just for "seamheads." Hetrick presents a rich portrait of St. Louis in its golden era. He also breathes life into the bombastic and often-outrageous Von der Ahe -- fractured English and all. I laughed out loud as Von der Ahe tells his team's press agent, Harry B. Martin, "Now you magke der mistake of drinkin [thinking] dat der beable [people] vish to read about dem bum ball players. Mardin, vot der American beable like to readt is aboudt me, Chris Von der Ahe." To this reader, "Der Poss Bresident" seems to have enough hot air to inflate a Zeppelin.

As biographies go, Tom's book is a home run. A lively and fast read, it is a great account of the game as it was played in the 19th century as well as a portrait of a common immigrant who became a great success -- only to allow that success to eventually destroy him. And don't forget, the next time you're at the ballpark with a cold beer, make a toast to Chris Von der Ahe - the man who put beer and baseball together.

This volume gives us a very unusual and refreshing glimpse of virtually every aspect of the game. The patience and thoughtfulness given to analyzing and selecting from among the half-million images in the USGA photo archives is amazing enough in itself, but what Marty Parkes and his collaborators at Golf House have put together here will stir the imagination and thrill the soul of anyone who has ever held a golf club. Whether it's Tiger with his Dad or Old Tom Morris and Harry Vardon at St. Andrews, Ouimet blasting out of a bunker at the '23 Walker Cup or, perhaps one of the most poignant photos, a group of uniformed servicemen on a practice green at Camp Gordon, Georgia during World War II, this volume has it all ... and all of us will be the better for spending time with it!

I am fortunate and I am forever grateful to be the proud holder of this beautiful book.

I purchased this book as a Father's Day gift for my golfer husband. He loved it! Our golfer son came to visit and he loved it! National Geographic has produced an excellent product with this beautifully photographed and extremely well written volume. My husband placed it on our bookcase...face forward...it's that beautiful!

Excellent pictures, beautiful book and fun to see all the different sizes, areas, and ideas about those homes that were around me in my childhood in Pacific Palisades/Brentwood. Loved the book - it was very well presented! I certainly didn't appreciate how inovative Cliff May's architecture was.

I can wholeheartedly recommend this book to all Cliff May owners and prospective owners. Gregory does a wonderful job of balancing academic research and analysis with colorful anecdotes about the man behind the homes. The photography is top-notch, especially the archived images brought to life from the past.

I bought this as a gift for my son and daughter-in-law as they live in a Cliff May that they need to update. They need to make changes to the kitchen but want to maintain the integrity of the design. They have both told me that this is a wonderful book and it has given them many good ideas. So, based on their recommendations, I would have to rate this highly. I am looking forward to a visit with them so I can actually see the book in person!!