Nuts and Seeds Books

Excellent book containing the lineage and qualities of many fruits, nuts and berries. A great reference book for any enthusiast. Used by many retailers as a guide for their products.

Thanks to this wonderful book, we have added many unusual fruits to our orchard and discovered some amazing mail order suppliers. Before we purchase any plants, we always refer to "THE BOOK" to make sure that the tree is one we really want and that it will thrive in the harsh Maine climate. I would recommend it to anybody wanting to successfully plant fruits, berries or nuts.

For the fruit nut, this reference is indispensible. When ordering specific varieties, we use it to source stock from nurseries. When searching for trees with certain characteristics, we peruse the descriptions, hunting for certain words (in the pear section, "fireblight-resistant", in the apricot section, "excellent flavor", etc.).
Few complaints: not revised often enough to list new varieties as they come on the market. For example, 'Goldrush' apple is not listed. Descriptions are very brief, probably due to space limitations. Descriptions are also generally a summary of the nursery catalog's text, and therefore not as useful as they could be.
In general, a very fun reference to keep on the shelf.

In the third edition of this excellent reference, the Seed Savers Exchange has provided a very useful tool for nurseries and gardeners to locate sources of heirloom fruit, nut and berry varieties. But it is much more than just a sourcebook, as there are brief descriptions of each fruit variety and indications of how rare or threatened each variety is based on the number of sources. Nursery operators and fruit gene bank managers will find this book to be indespensible!

This book gives general information about a various different selections of nuts, seeds, and berries. It is wonderful, my 8 year old sister found it to be quite fun and learned much from it. This book would be great for any child wanting to learn and have fun. I would suggest it for ages 5-11

This book has been an invaluable A to Z reference guide for me over the years. Each item listed in the encylopedia is alphabeticized with its botanical info, nutritive values, reported health benefits, as well as 1 or more ways of preparing the item all in one easy to read quick guide. It has been my number one source for my understanding and preparation of vegetables, fruits, nuts, and seeds including those I wasn't aware of. There is also a Part I that describes (also aphabetically and in easy to read format for the generally sophisticated reader) the components of the medicial and healing agents in the foods and their corresponding description, such as descriptions of vitamins, fats, acidity, enzymes and more along with the effect on the body. I would like to see this version or another similar guide expanded upon and updated while keeping witin the format simply readable as Joseph M. Kadans, PhD has done.

The delivery time was very quick, that was good, and the price was great. The condition of the book was very used and they said it was like new. Other then that I guess it was O.K.

This is the Eighth Edition of a truly superb textbook for an introductory astronomy course, or for anyone (amateur astronomers?)who is looking for a great and beautifully illustrated general reference source on astronomy. I've been teaching intro astronomy for many years and keep my eye on all the textbooks. Aimed primarily at non-science majors, Seeds' book is a hum-dinger and really the best I see out there at this time.

The author has a very clear and quite intertaining writing style, and each edition of the book is even more beautifully illustrated than the last. The artwork especially in the last two editions is simply super, and clearly illustrate many phenomena that students often have trouble with. This textbook covers every topic needed in a survey course from the nature of light, a bit of astronomy history and telescopes, properties and formation of stars and galaxies, the planets, and very current data on cosmology, dark matter, life in the universe and so on. Very up to date!

Mike Seeds' book goes fairly easy on the math (although all important concepts are covered)compared to some other "intro astronomy" books. Overall, I find this book ideally suited to a survey course for non-science majors. For science majors or a textbook that might also be useful in somewhat higher level astronomy courses, I would recommend Kaufmann/Freeman's "Universe" as an excellent choice.

Seeds' book is comprehensive and about 500 pages in length - similar to almost all intro astronomy textbooks. To a great extent, literally all these 500 page textbooks are way too lengthy for a one semester survey course. It is difficult to get students to read this much for each class. I keep hoping that Mike Seeds, and excellent author, will produce a 250-300 page (maximum) version of Horizons specifically for one semester courses. Until someone creates a shorter version of the same high quality, I'll keep recommending this textbook.

I adopted this text for my first try at teaching intro astronomy. It has lots of pretty pictures but I was not impressed with the content. This includes the text, the organization and the question/problem sets. If this text is better than most of its competitors, I am in real trouble. =-)

All beginning astronomy books have to cover about the same material. You know what they are: the Big Band, the Time-Line of the Universe, the Sun, the Solar System, the stars -- and that's just what this book covers.

So why would I recommend this book over others?

1. It's updated frequently. This gives Dr. Seeds frequent opportunities to update it with the latest theories (i.e. Pluto, Planet No More), and even more important the latest pictures, which seem to be coming at us with ever increasing speed.

2. It's about the right length. At 516 pages it seems like a bit much for an introductory course. But that's before you consider how profusely illustrated the book. Were it reduced to just text, like the first course I took oh so many years ago, it would probably be about a hundred and fifty pages.

3. It has a student centered approach. It's not just a dry lecture on what's happening to the Cosmos, it's a 'where are we,' 'how do we know that,' 'where are we going' approach that (hopefully) the student can see to relate herself to a bigger world.

4. Beyond just astronomy, this book teaches the whole scientific approach: peer review of articles, use of theories to predict discoveries, etc. This is a subject sadly lacking in today's education.

This book could be used as a course taught at either a first year background course for science/physics/astronomy majors, or would be good for a non-science major science course.

As a freshman in college (majoring in Astronomy) I had to use Horizons 4e for an Intro Astronomy course, and fell in love with it. I loved it so much that I bought Horizons 6e! I think this great book just keeps getting better! The art and photos are fantastic, and tie in well with the text, which is an easy read, great for majors and non-majors alike. In summary, Horizons 6e is a great text, well worth the money.