California Books

This is one of the best family histories I have read. The genealogy is very good, but it lacks valuable information about the Italian ancestors, which would make it even more interesting. I will try to find out who these ancestors are and where they came from. Very good work Dr. Zeiter!

Flavio Andreatta
President
Italian Genealogy and Heraldry Society of Canada

Henry Zeiter's autobiography is a compelling account of an examined life. He tells of a delightful childhood in Christian Lebanon under the French mandate, a world long gone. He brings to his examination a mind honed by broad reading and deep pondering. He bares his thoughts honestly as he searches for essential truths across three continents, in science and religion, in the arts and philosophy, in family and society, and in the self-scrutiny that opens his mind to the universal human condition, a quest that brings him to a final phase of deepening faith and committed service. --Reuben Smith, Ph.D., Dean Emeritus of the Graduate School, and Professor Emeritus of History, University of the Pacific

I found this book very enjoyable. It is much more than an autobiography.
It is a learning experience, and fun at the same time. The reader is taken
on a voyage into philosophy and history, music and literature, science and medicine, and into moments of pure wisdom. I loved the many humorous anecdotes and the easy reading style. I could visualize all the places and people described vividly, that I thought I was there the whole time.
A remarkable book and a remarkable life story. ---Bob Unger

Dr. Zeiter weaves a touching story of his family's life in Lebanon and immigration to Venezuela, the United States and Canada in the 1950's. The story is splashed with a sense of humor, rich in cultural detail, and a good overview of Lebanon's history and geography. He doesn't dote on his personal success but rather reflects on how his Catholic faith and his upbringing inspired him to succeed as a renowned surgeon and successful businessman. The piece is splattered with pertinent quotes from the great philosophers and writers over the centuries that support his values and guide him through his life. Dr. Zeiter is a man filled with culture and an appreciation for life general. Not a light read, most autobiographies aren't, but this is fun and informational. Nice photographs and just enough detail to keep you interested but not labored.

This autobiography is a fascinating reflection on a life of experiences rich enough for three men. A testimony to family, friendship and faith, it is, like St. Augustine's Confessions, a spirited and frank account of the quest for the Eternal. Dr. Zeiter is driven throughout his life to find truth, goodness, and beauty, and it is particularly through the beauty and order of music that his imagination is captured and he is brought to see even more fully truth and goodness in their own intrinsic splendor. High culture is not some incidental acquisition for Dr. Zeiter, but part of the nurturing of his daily life for nearly three-quarters of a century, whether in Lebanon, Venezuela, Canada, or the U.S. Dr. Zeiter reveals in his autobiography his wit (evident in his healthy sense of humor), his insight, and his optimism, as well as his intellectual and spiritual depth. This book is a pleasant reminder to us all of the high destiny to which we are called.

This was a great book and brought me back to my childhood. I was born 1944 and lived in an Army Barracks for a while. My father served in WWII and died at age 39 so anything that brings back some memories of my childhood gets an A++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The book was well written and the plot was probably not unique for the times. However it gave me an insight into what was happening in America during the war on the home front.

I couldn't put this book down, as was the case with it's prequil, The Cape Anne. Gardenias is a great journey through the lives of real characters. Their dreams, loves and heartaches are made tangible by Ms. Sullivan's ability to write, with clarity, in her raw and gripping style. You will fall in love with Lark, the child through whom this world is lived. You will become acquainted with the perplexing nature of humans in their struggles to find happiness.

The long-awaited sequel to Cape Ann has finally arrived.

Lark Erhardt, her mother Arlene, and Aunt Betty arrive in San Diego in 1942, breaking away from their Depression-era lives in Harvester, Minnesota with abusive, gambling Willie Erhardt.

Aunt Betty is still suffering from the death of her baby and the abandonment of her husband, Stanley.

Arlene holds the family together, finding housing in a wartime project and a job as a secretary at Consolidated Aircraft. Betty finds work as a clerk in a big department store.

Lark must cope with a gang of violent and ruthlessly vicious boys who threaten her. She deals with it by mostly staying at home, writing and hiding.

Lark finds a magical painting of a cabin in the woods, and imagines it is in Minnesota and that she is living there. She starts fourth grade and is terribly alone, only her writing to hold on to. She misses Minnesota, but not her father. They attempt to make a home, planting a gardenia bush and some daisies that Lark carefully waters every day.

Betty and Arlene befriend lonely sailors, giving them home-cooked meals on the weekend. Shirley, another misfit girl, finds food, praise, and a safe haven with Lark's family from her own very dysfunctional family life. Shirley is prickly and even sometimes nasty to Lark. Almost a second child in the family, Shirley takes piano lessons from Aunt Betty, and the family helps clothe her and finance her further musical education. For Shirley, music is an escape--just as Lark's writing is a refuge.

Upheavals come in many forms: Willie comes to California to demand their return; Uncle Stanley shows up, telling them he has enlisted. Neighbors in the project become dear friends, as Lark learns their stories and tells them hers. Finally several events shatter all their lives, and change them forever.

Armchair Interviews says: Sullivan is a wonderful and evocative storyteller, making the 1940s and wartime San Diego, the labor movement, the death of Roosevelt, and social upheaval of women in the workforce, the music and the fear, all come alive.

I loved GARDENIAS. I could not put it down. With consummate skill and grace and the easy mastery of a mature writer, Faith Sullivan creates and populates a world that lives and breathes. The novel is funny and moving and suspenseful and deeply wise--both a pageturner and a literary classic. Read this novel, give it to your friends, pass it on to your children.

Faith Sullivan has written two previous novels set in the fictional small town of Harvester, Minnesota. Her first, THE CAPE ANN, was published in 1988 and focused on six-year-old Lark Erhardt, who narrated the story of her mother's desire for a better life and her father's repeated shattering of those dreams. Readers who fell in love with Lark's combination of innocence and observation, as well as with Sullivan's old-fashioned storytelling abilities, have had to wait a long time to find out more about Lark's story. Now, with GARDENIAS, the wait is finally over.

The novel begins in 1942, as nine-year-old Lark and her newly separated mother and aunt Betty travel by train from southern Minnesota to San Diego. Eager to obtain war work and as much distance as possible from her estranged husband, Lark's mother finds a good office job and a small house. While her mother concentrates on making a comfortable and beautiful home, and her aunt focuses on her rapidly advancing career in fashion, Lark comes to know the motley group of residents, many of them Midwestern transplants, inhabiting their housing project.

Among these neighbors is Shirley, a girl who's Lark's age. Although the bossy, overbearing girl often clashes with Lark, the adults in Lark's life warm quickly to Shirley. Neglected at best and abused at worst, Shirley also shows promising musical talent when she takes piano lessons from Lark's mother and another neighbor. Uncomfortably wise beyond her years, Shirley clues the more innocent Lark into the ways of the world.

During her few years in San Diego, Lark loses much of her innocence, in the wake of the war, her mother's secret love for another man, and her father's increasingly menacing letters. Her narrative voice, which combines a childlike impressionability with keen observation, is still winning, and readers can observe Lark growing into the writer she is obviously meant to become.

Although Sullivan's portrayal of wartime San Diego lacks some of the intimacy of her portrayals of her native southern Minnesota, her affection for the Erhardt family remains and will once again draw readers new and old into the lives of this small, determined and loving family.


--- Reviewed by Norah Piehl

Take a good helping of witty memoir, add a handful of very useful gardening/farming information, & a huge heap of garlic (and recipes) and you have a marvelous book. Highly recommended.

After reading Chester Aaron's Symptoms of Terminal Passion I needed to read a little more. Aaron's Memoir is a little premature, because his is still living and growing garlic more than 10 years later, using the garlic theme in all he writes.

It was fascinating seeing the real-life background for the stories I had read. I'm also looking harder for different kinds of garlics, and even tempted to try to plant a clove or two in one of the pots on our patio.

Strangely, I was reading this at the same time I read Out Stealing Horses: A Novel by Norwegian writer, Per Petterson. It was amazing how the two books complemented each other!

Both are written in the first person in beautiful, engaging prose. (Horses is so well translated that you don't notice that it was written in another language, except for the occasional Norwegian place names.)

Both utilize many flashbacks to childhood, Petterson's Trond mostly to 1948 in alternate chapters, Chester to the 30's in Pennsylvania.

Both have moved to the country to start over after losing their wives: Chester after a devastating divorce, Trond after a horrendous car accident.

Both recall strong relations to difficult fathers, who continue to influence the way they try to create new lives as 70-something "old men." (Their mothers are lurking in the background.) Both fathers are still lurking to show how to do practical things on their farms.

For both books the natural settings (fields, woods and ocean for Chester, forest, meadows and river for Trond) and the weather (wind, rain, and yes, also the sun) provide more than just the setting.

Trond's dog Lyra and Chester's cat Sadie are their constant companions, while sheep, horses, gophers and other creatures also play important roles.

Crops play important roles (garlic, of course, and fruit trees for Chester, trees for Trond.)

Neighbors and other humans provide insight and sometimes help, but occasionally are more of an irritant to their daily lives alone on their farms - although Garlic ends with a wedding!

But only Garlic provides you with numerous recipes for strange garlics, including 2 desserts!

Chester Aaron has something for everyone. His love of Garlic is only matched by his love of a richly varied life. The receipes are are a little simplistic and really a sidebar to the real story which is Aaron himself. I am buying several copies to Give to friends. This book is not a loaner

I have had the pleasure of interviewing Chester on my gardening show on a couple of occassions and found him charming, enlightening and certainly passionate about his garlic. I was thouroughly pleased when I found the book to be an extension of his interviews. This man at 80 something is more full of life than most twenty year olds and he exudes this energy and love of life into print in a way that makes you feel that you are in the field talking with him rather than reading a book. The recipies were devine. An absolute must for the Garlic aficionado.

This is an autobiographical slice of Chester Aaron's life as he waas intoduced to garlic growing and became a garlic devotee. Aaron and his cat take the reader into the world of garlic,its many varities, and how to best grow these bulbs of life. At the end of the book are thirty recipes for tasty garlic dishes. It is a very readable primer on garlic growing.

This book includes more about his personal life than his other books. Still some good stories though and you feel like you know him. Terry does repeat himself regarding his wife's support and various beliefs, but the game warden stories are so darn good that he is forgiven.

Terry Grosz is a 6 foot plus conservation law enforcement agent of great renown, but who is he really? Duck Cop introduces you to Terry's life from the eighth grade on and lets you watch his love of nature grow from the days when hunting and fishing were done to feed the family to when his greatest joy was protecting "God's creatures". Terry always believed that he had two guardian angels keeping watch over him and that there were many times they had very ruffled feathers. Writing in his own distinctive manner you find yourself crying, laughing hysterically and wondering how in the world will he get out of his current scrape. A wonderful read of "Memories & Milestones".

We have all his books and this one definitely show how and why he became the Wildlife Warrior he was. I bought this for my husband but had to read it as Terry always tells a good story.

This review of Terry Grosz's book is based in part on the response of my husband, to whom it was a gift for Father's Day. He was thrilled. The men in our family are all hunters, fishermen and lovers of the Great Outdoors so it made sense to me to get the
latest book in the series. Our men, who are not wide seaching readers, devour these books, quote from them and pass them around. Based on Mr. Grosz' extensive experience in Wildlife Management, these stories are sometimes hysterically funny, sometimes maddening (at people's greed, cruelty and general stupidity toward animals) and always entertaining. I'm looking forward to purchasing the next book as a gift for one of my deserving fellas.

I bought all his books and consider him the best wildlife writer in the world. I usually check out my books at the library but his are to keep. Terry exceeded himself in Duck Cop. This book should be required reading for the downtrodden and the underprivileged. Terry's family life would have broken the average man. Hard knocks gave Terry the will to succeed. Thanks Terry for being man enough to tell us when you fell short and how you got up again.

For me, this book was a fun and very usable introduction to a new world of foods...and the Rhone-style wines that go with them.

I admit it: I'd rather go to Sonoma than to Napa. And when I do go to Sonoma, I always try to visit the author's restaurant, The Girl and The Fig, located on the corner of the Town Square. When I can't be there, I love using the book at home to remind me of being there.

I like this book a lot and use it about once a month.

I purchased this for a Christmas present and she loved it! There are some recipes that are a little too fancy for my taste, but otherwise this book includes great recipes to serve with individual wines.

As a local who lives and works within two blocks of the girl & the fig restaurant, I admit to being biased, but I just have to correct the previous reviewer: the girl & the fig restaurant is not and has never been a chain! There's only one restaurant, and it's my favorite place to take visitors who want to experience authentic Sonoma Valley cuisine at its very yummiest and most inspiring. The cookbook is a delicious introduction to the area for foodies who are still planning their first visit ... and a great way to keep the experience alive for those who can't wait to come back. I highly recommend it.

This book by restaurant owner Sondra Bernstein, with recipes by executive chef John Toulze represents the cuisine served at a chain of Sonoma County based restaurants after which the book is titled. Based on the passions of Ms. Bernstein and her staff, the book and the restaurants focus on figs; dishes based on figs; the produce of Sonoma County; the cuisine of Provence, France; and the similarity of the terroir of Sonoma with Provence.

One object of the book is to publicize the chain of restaurants and the line of products based on the owner's love of figs. This is not too unusual, as I am certain this is one of the motives behind every celebrity chef / restaurant owner's cookbook. Some, like Tom Colicchio are less obvious about this interest. Others, like Emeril Lagasse, are pretty out front about this objective. All restaurant based cookbooks aim at providing the reader with some twist to their cuisine or it's presentation which adds sugar to the bait to create an interest in the restaurant(s).

One special feature of this book is borrowed from Ms. Bernstein's distinguished California culinary neighbor, Thomas Keller of the French Laundry. This is the addition of sidebars on some of the restaurants' more important, or, at least, more interesting suppliers. This includes fig, mushroom, and cheese vendors, past and present. This highlights one weakness to the book, in that it is so thoroughly based on what is available from the gardens and vineyards of Sonoma County. Not everyone in the United States is blessed with access to wild mushrooms and the talented foragers who supply them, or to cheeses from artisinal cheese makers. Happily, the chef / recipe writer has supplied generally available products to substitute for his Sonoma pantry.

The cornerstone of the book's cuisine is the parallel between the Sonoma and Provence produce and the cuisine which can be based on that similarity. Therefore, it should be no surprise to see most recipes appear to be straight out of the pages of books by Patricia Wells and Lydie Marshall. One of the most pleasant parallels is that the Bernstein / Toulze cuisine is based on fairly simple recipes, often with the kind of recipe modularity of sauces and pantry preparations common to an influence from Julia Child. The recipes for stocks, for example are about as simple as they come. There is no Thomas Keller / Judy Rodgers obsessiveness about technique here. Most recipes follow a recent quote I heard from Wolfgang Puck who said that the trick was to start with great ingredients and try not to mess them up. There are some unusual twists, such as the cooking oil of choice, a `blended oil' of one part olive oil and three parts canola oil. I am totally baffled that disciples of Provencal cuisine should eschew pure olive oil.

The recipes are organized by size and role of the dish rather than by main ingredient. Recipe chapters are:

`a small bite' hors d'ourves with figs, radishes, mushrooms, olives, shellfish, charcuterie, and crackers
`from the garden to the stockpot' soups, including many Provencal classics
`in the salad bowl' with lots of vinaigrettes, figs, asparagus, beans, endive, beets, walnuts, and cheese
`large plates' 25 familiar dishs such as pastas, coq au vin, duck cassoulet, and lamb shanks
`sauce over and under' with lots of butter, aioli, pistou, rouille, citrus, shallots, remoulade, and figs
`on the side' with lots of balsamic reductions, familiar vegetable, polenta, couscous, olives, mushrooms...
`sweets' with lots of figs, apples, pears, nuts, lavender, cheese, and cream

The cuisine owes a fair amount to the exchange of cuisine between Provence and northern Italy, with a fairly substantial contingent of recipes involving pasta, risotto, polenta, cipollini onions and balsamic vinegar. This makes the abandoning pure olive oil in favor of the blended oil even more puzzling. In spite of this mystery, I am certain that these recipes, especially those based on figs, are superior to many and worthy of the authors' dedication to Provence.

One very serious aspect of the restaurants' connection to Provence is Ms. Bernstein's commitment to wines based on varietals originating in the Rhone valley rather than the wines which made Napa and Sonoma wines famous. These are the Carignane, cinsault, Grenache, Roussanne, Syrah and Vognier grapes. All but the Syrah are unfamiliar to me, but that's just a symptom of my ignorance of wine. Each recipe gives a very simple recommendation of wine selected from this list. The emphasis on simple is important to contrast it to the elaborate, sometimes arcane recommendations given by Patricia Wells and others.

The authors' dedication to their chosen cuisine and their featured product is genuine and fruitful, producing many simultaneously simple and worthy recipes. There are occasionally long recipes for standards such as cassoulet and coq au vin, but that should be no surprise. They have convinced me to look forward to a visit to their restaurants if I ever get to northern California.

Recommended recipes for even novice cooks. A good read at a fairly reasonable list price. If you already own 10 books on Provence cuisine, you may want to take a pass.

My first experience with Girl and the Fig was it's first home in Glenn Ellen, CA. which is still there. The restaurant quickly became a favorite. The newer restaurant in the town of Sonoma, also excellent, has a wonderful bar. Great place to join friends for a glass of wine from their excellent wine list or enjoy one of the best martinis. They have also opened a restaurant in Petaluma, CA.
I am delighted that they have finally come out with this wonderful cook book. It represents the best of the Girl and the Fig's cuisine. I love to cook and I am thrilled to have this cook book in my collection.

I found this in a used book store and encouraged my 8 year old daughter to buy it. She agreed reluctantly, but I thought she needed a little summer reading that depicted active, goal oriented teenagers. She loved the book! Now we wish there were more than just three, but we are going to buy the other two. These books depict 5 girls with varied cultural and ethnic backgrounds all working toward a goal. Wholesome and healthy. For once I am glad to have my daughter reading about teenagers!

I like the book, GIRLS R.U.L.E because it is very well written. I like the way that Kris Lowe made each of the main characters tell a part of the story from their point of view. I suggest that you should read this if you like adventure books or reading about girls your age.

The great thing is that there are two more books in the series already!

this book was exciting i picked it up i day 5 days later i was done, and i'm not a big reader. i only read about 3 books a year if that. This book the whole time kept saying keep reading me go on go on it was so good and how the girls handle some of the parts was so good. I liked how it was in parts of 5 girls point of view like first 4 chapters one person and it got better and better as i read i hope more come out soon.

I to know Kris Lowe and I urge Girls to read them. There are 3 great books about 5 girl park rangers and there adventures in a California park. If you think this is good for you or somone you know buy it NOW! If you love the books and needto reed more about Becka, Kayla, Carson, Alex and Sophie PLEASE buy the books there is a possibility of no #4. SO BUY THE BOOKS NOW!!!

Kris Lowe, my friend, is a great person, let alone writer.She has a great book klub, whick I belong to and I've read, and helped to edit all her Girls rule books.She and her books rock!!!!!!

Mark Logan is minding his own business on a bicycle tour from Wichita, Kansas, when suddenly he's stuck in the small town of Acreage, California. Little does he know that the next few weeks will bring havoc in his life.

I laughed so hard at the colorful and crazy-kooky characters that I could'nt put this book down to find out if he'll ever get out of town.

This is 'Fargo'without snow. David Kenney's characters are intriguing. Can someone of such underwhelming intellect as Whiteout be so dangerous? Yes they can!

Would my favorite character be rubbed out by such a dimwit? It was entirely possible, there was only one way to know.....I read on. I was hooked.

Both funny and shocking, this book is so fast-paced and absorbing that I couldn't put it down. I stayed up all night to finish it, and then was sorry that I was done. I loved the dialogue, particularly the villian's. I felt as if I had a horrifying peak into into this oddly casual murderer's mind. It gave me just the right amount of chills to keep me riveted, but still kept me laughing!

A delightful sense of humor lightens this truly gripping tale about a psychopathic killer and an innocent caught in the toils of small-town law.

Goodbye Wichita was a fun read, a suspenseful who-done-it that kept me laughing and turning the pages. In my estimation, David Kenney's fertile imagination and puckish humor puts him right up there with Carl Hiaasen and Donald Westlake.

If you like Craftsman style homes or even Post and Beam homes this is a fabulous book. I have never regretted buying it. Ever time I open it I see some thing I missed before and a new idea comes alive. I am glad I bought the soft cover.

If you want one lush, visually opulant but also well-researched book on the Greene brothers and their unique accomplishments in the arts & crafts style, and money is no object, this is the one to get. If it IS an object, Makinson's earlier, smaller paperback, Greene and Greene: Architecture As A Fine Art, will do nicely as a overview of their residential architecture career, but be warned----eventually you'll probably want color photographs. If you've ever visited one of their remaining houses that are open to the public, you know that the color tonalities of the rooms are a considerable part of their charm, and you've probably already bought this book. If you havn't, don't wait 'til it goes out of print. This is THE Greene and Greene book, coffee table or otherwise.

These are among the most beautiful architectural photographs ever produced. Most of these houses are difficult to see and quite difficult to capture in such vivid detail that it must have taken years to assemble such a portfolio. The writing parallels the images. The Blacker House in particular is so opulent and complex that it needs a monograph of its own. One only wishes this book were twice as long with even larger photos and lots more information! Thanks for taking the time to do this right.

I have been collecting articles and books on Greene and Greene for over thirty years and this book tops them all as an authoritative overview by the man who opened our eyes to a national treasure. What a treat for anyone who appreciates Greene & Greene architecture or who enjoys well organized, readable and lushly photographed architectural books. I purchased the book on October 17th at the Blacker House and can give eye witness testimony that these photographs do justice to the Greene and Greene masterworks.

Though author Randell Makinson has written several superb books about the art and architecture of the brothers Greene, and each of his other books is a definitive work on particular aspects of the historical importance of, say, the Blacker House, this book is the finest of them all. Not only is Makinson the final authority and historian for the Greene brothers, he has lived in their creations, supervised restorations, researched every document and drawing extant, and crowns this plethora of knowledge by his immensely fine writing style.

There is nothing didactic about GREENE & GREENE: THE PASSION AND THE LEGACY. Here Makinson treats the reader to the less publicized facts and impressions of two brothers who forever altered the concept of the private home in California. It is this emphasis on the personalities and the private innuendoes, the matters less public that marked their careers, and the end product of their visions that Makinson elects to share. The information is valuable and more: the spirit of the brothers Greene is very much a part of this homage to two important artists.

Gratefully Makinson has elected to include superb photographs that highlight his narrative. The photographs are both contemporary and historical and provide almost as many visual insights as Makinson provides verbal ones. This is THE book for lovers of art and architecture combined as only a few other architects have attempted. Highly recommended. Grady Harp, December 05

The latest collection of poignant and highly entertaining tales of life in a small Mexican town, with all the turns and twists of the first two volumns. Reading these short stories is instant transportation to Tecate!

Daniel Reveles is a charming and humorous writer who spins tales that have their roots in the oral tradition of Mexico. His latest short-story collection is "Guacamole Dip" (Sunbelt Publications, $15.95 paperback), which uses as its stage the border town of Tecate. In his introduction, Reveles invites readers into his world and sets the tone for the stories that follow: "I'm so glad you could make it down to Tecate today. Let's take a shady bench here in the plaza and watch a live show as good as any musical you'll see on Broadway." Of course, the "show" features of the lives of ordinary people who live, love and die in Reveles' beloved town. Not surprisingly, Reveles has been likened to John Steinbeck and Mark Twain. [The full review first appeared in the El Paso Times.]

As a fan of Daniel Reveles' work I was happy to see his new book lives up to his outstanding reputation. It was full of enticing short stories with a Hispanic flavor that lingers on.

If you liked Gabriel Garcia Marquez' Love in the Time of Cholera or 100 Years of Solitude, you'll LOVE Daniel Reveles' Guacamole Dip: From Baja, Tales of Love, Faith and Magic!

A collection of short stories centered in a small Mexican border town. Simple, thoughtful characters. Stories that leave you with a smile and make you wish you lived in a town where people had time for each other, still sing with joy in their heart, had contentment without irony. A nice change from the cynicism and oppression one finds in so much contemporary writing.

Once again, Daniel Reveles has managed to make me care about the wonderful, sweet, noble and sometimes crazy people that live in his world...Care, and laugh, and even cry a bit. I'm only sorry I finished the new book so fast, as I am already "hungry" for more...

I purchased this book just to get an idea of trails at the places we often camp. Full of information! Now my husband is even reading it.

There's lots of off road variety in this book. You can four wheel on easy dirt roads to rock hoppin heaven. This book is well laid out and the descriptions of the trails are accurate.

I'm a newbie off-roader, and have only driven one of the "easy" trails in my stock wrangler. It was a lot of fun, and the scenery was awesome, but I think I realized we weren't really off roading when we crossed paths with a brand new mustang convertible going in the other direction. At that point I figured I should take it out of 4wd-low.

So I think there's definitely something for everyone in this book. However, deciding on the right trail and actually driving to it are two different things. Some of my off roading plans fizzled out when I realized I had to drive 4 hours in each direction just to get to the trail I wanted! Living in the SF bay area, I was hoping to have more options within a reasonable day drive...but that's probably just naive of me.

I have had the opportunity to drive trails I know with Chuck Wells, and his books are well written and easy to follow. The trail rating he uses is juged on the roughest section of the trail, if a trail is moderate and has a difficult section that cannot be avoided it will receive a difficult rating. All the trails in his books have been driven by him and not judged by someone else.

I was a first time off-roader with my stock 06 Chevy truck. So far, I've driven 3 of the courses in the book, the descriptions are very accurate, the odometer settings are great and the GPS coordinates are very helpful. I won't be tackling any of the "Hard" courses and this guide spells out the difficulty level of each. Get this book!