North America Books

I grew up in So. California, so I've been fishing and diving the Pacific for many years. Now I live in Mexico and fish/dive the Gulf of California. I have never found a better field guide for these waters. I keep a copy on my boat and use it constantly.

The full-color illustrations are excellent and the descriptions are precise and accurate. It is laid out logically and is very easy to use. I've settled many arguments and won many bets on the docks with this book.

As a volunteer for the new Long Beach (CA) Aquarium of the Pacific, I needed to quickly learn about fishes of the Pacific coast and how to identify them. This book exactly suits my needs. It is interesting and informative, without being too technical. The color illustrations are beautiful. This is the perfect book for anyone who wants to learn more about Pacific coast fishes.

Fishes of the Pacific Coast is an excellent reference guide with beautiful full color illustrations of approximately 450 fish. I truly appreciated the inclusion of the fish of the upper Sea of Cortez. Small ecological and historical blurbs are fascinating. The handbook size makes it a must have on your diving or fishing boat.

I do a lot of fishing and own quite a few books on fish. I also keep a life-time fish list, a list of every species of fish I have ever caught that I was able to correctly ID. I have found Fishes of the Pacific Coast by Gar Goodson in particular to be very useful for ID purposes, but I also find it to be very good writing, highly interesting, and full of information that most other fish ID books usually lack. For example, he tells you here if a fish is considered good eating, or not. He tells you where they are found, in how deep of water, locals, tidbits of history about the fish, and also what they eat.
I recently bought two new books on fish, one about fish of the Gulf of Mexico and another on fish of the Atlantic Ocean and looking them over I kept finding things missing; I suddenly realized how much better this book of Goodson's is.
The many illustrations by the artist Phillip J. Weisgerber are all excellent and every single one of them is in color. I am a writer myself, author of some 5 published books now,... and I appreciate books that are put together with care, appreciate writing that is fun and interesting and highly informative. Fishes of the Pacific Coast is an inexpensive book and a darn good one. If you fish in the Pacific you'll want to own this book and will find that having it, and bringing it along on fishing trips will add a great deal to your pleasure. Also, I would certainly recommend this book as a present for anyone who is interested in nature,in fish, in fishing. A marvelous book and one of my favorites for sure!

I grew up reading the Famous Five in Denmark. My classmates and I would fight over them in the library. I used to hole up in my room with the Famous Five and wishing I was part of their adventures! I had every one of the books but unfortunately they were given away when I left home. I'm now in the process of collecting them all again.

I read all of Enid Blyton's books as an American child living in Pakiston in the late 1960's. I loved every one of them. I am now trying to find another children's series by Blyton called, "Mallory Towers" a schoolgirl series. There were six books in the series. END

I am german and have read probably all Enid Blyton Books around, they are very popular in germany. My favorite serises of hers was the five friends, it is about friendship, it is mystery, it is catching and it makes you want to read..like all of her books this one is a great present for any occassion and a TUMBS UP! I wish more of her works were available in the United States.

I have read most all of Enid Blyton's books, esply her adventure series of Famous Five, The Five Find-Outers and dog, and also her three boarding school series. Most children outside the US read a lot of her work. Her work is not only creative, thus appealing to children, but it establishes fundmental concepts of right and wrong, and a simple code of ethics. Some would call it old-fasioned, maybe. But in this world of violence, Ms Blytons books are a breath of fresh air. Wish they were available in the US!

Having spent a lot of time looking for information on imaginative & fun (and sometimes luxury) travel with kids, I can tell you that this is a really unique book. It is comprehensive, carefully researched and well written with loads of practical tips. Some 'travel with kids' books might as well just be bland advertising copy, this one really provides good editorial content, with positive and critical comments. It is a pleasure to read and we will use it for a long time. Fodor's should publish more of these for other parts of the US/world.

I loved this book and would recommend it to any family wanting to travel in the northeastern United States. The writers offer tips and reviews on places of interest, resorts, and campgrounds in a wide range of prices. In fact, we have visited some of those places and found a brand new vacation prospect in Lake George which we will be trying out this summer! Definitely one of the most informative travel books on the market today -- entertaining even if you do not go to these places.

Very useful book for locals and visitors. We liked the way it gave us recommended age groups and prices. We can now plan ahead places to visit within and on the way to our next holiday area. We have also used it for planning field trips from the school into San Francisco. Easy to use and enjoyable to read.

I've been searching for a book like this for several years and haven't found one that fit the bill until now! I had a great time reading it - so well written - and got more useful information than I'll ever be able to use in one lifetime! Thanks so much to the writers and publishers!

I became really interested in a written compilation of folk music after having bought an excellent folk collection released by folkways. I picked this book out of only a few that looked decent and my guess is it may be the best single volume for the layman. I'm very pleased with the range of folk music and short histories.

This is the folk singer's Bible. There is a short synopsis of each song and the song listing includes the lyrics and a melody line as well as chords. There is an appendix written by Peggy Seeger that describes basic picking techniques for guitar and banjo. Each song is labelled with suggested techniques from that appendix. Finally there is a chord transposition chart included.

A wonderful resource for the beginning singer of traditional songs.

I bought this book when it was new 45 years ago. I learned to play the guitar and sing folk songs by going through the pages of this book and trying to do as many as I can. Some caught on, some didn't. Decades later I started to seriously listen to blues and banjo music, fiddling, and old time ballads. I started study old time music seriously.

I bought this book again and went through it. So many songs well known by lovers and students of the blues and old time music of banjo playing and fiddling of Black and Canadian Maritime folk music that I had not remembered or had not known were there as well as the obvious songs.

Having said that, this book reflects the particular weaknesses of Alan Lomax and his work. This is a book of public domain traditional music collected by Lomax and his father and others, but copyrighted in the name of Alan Lomax. The book hues pretty close to Lomax's general romantic "Americanism" and belief in some inherent superiority of "folk" music over "commercial music" whereas recent scholarship suggests the interaction between the two is more important than the difference.

However, this is the basic collection of American folk songs. The advances we have made in the availability of recordings of all kinds of traditional music, in the specialization and extension of scholarship of specific genre, specific cultures and sub cultures, and other aspects of the music mean probably no one today would attempt to publish one big book of general traditional folk songs. However, that has come in large part by musicians, scholars, and enthusiasts who came out of the generation who learned their folk songs through this book and other work Lomax and his colleagues did.

If you love real folk music, this is a good book to have.

This is a book that is the symbol of the work that Alan Lomax has put into collecting folksongs. The book is one of the greatest, and what some folksingers read and memorize. It is well worth whatever anyone would sell it for, and probably more than that. It also has a discography of some of Lomax's favourite folk albums up to 1960. A good investment.

Magnífico estudio de los diferentes grupos de algas de agua dulce presentes en el N del continente americano. Contiene claves, descripciones, y gran cantidad de documentos gráficos. Muy útil para quienes estén interesados en el conocimiento de estos organismos y no sólo de Norteamérica, también de Europa.

One thing I look for in a book are color photos from "the wild". I didn't see any of that, but there's plenty of information to go through and lots of references for further study.

This book is a must for the reference library or for the laboratory of pesons who study algae or microscopic aquatic organisms. While it does not substitute for the collective contributions of other scientists over time, it is a great first stop for those who are interested in these organisms. For many there will be no need to search further.
The book is organized in a conventional manner with major groups treated in separate chapters. It is easy to use and well-illustrated. It will find a home with scientists, students, and interested lay persons alike.

It has been over 50 years since the last edition (1950) of Smith's "Freshwater Algae of the United States" and much has changed in our knowledge of the classification of the "Algae". These are now known to contain several quite different organisms from Euglena to Chara and from diatoms to desmids and Spirogyra. The flora is huge and often poorly known. Thus it was with some enthusiasm that I welcomed the publication of this massive tome. A much-needed updating of Smith's classic book and more, it contains numerous black and white photos and drawings, plus extensive bibliographies for each chapter. I also much appreciate the keys, having been involved in writing several for spider genera. The only down side is the rather high price, which is quite a bit more than its companion volume on freshwater invertebrates.

I don't fault this book for lack of color because that might have easily made it even more expensive. If you want to see color photos of algae, and indeed very good ones, try "Freshwater Algae: Their Microscopic World Explored" by Hilda Canter-Lund and her husband J. W. Lund.

Despite the cost, I recommend this book as essential for anyone trying to understand the North American freshwater algal flora.

If you're at all interested in Latin American culture you'll love this book and he's an amazing person. He'll tal kto you forever about the subject and he's highly intelligent.

While Juan Flores is perceptive in his discussion of the Puerto Rican component of Latino culture, and discusses other major critics like Perez Firmat and Stavans, I was frankly surprised not to see any discussion of William Luis's Dance Between Two Cultures: Latino Caribbean Literature Written in the United States, which in my estimation is as important as those written by the critics Flores discusses. The value of Luis's study is that he addresses the same Puerto Rican community mentioned in Flores' book, but Luis also contextualizes this community by considering its relation to the Cuban and Dominican components of Latino culture. Anyone interested in understanding Latino literature and culture should also read Dance Between Two Cultures, which contains perceptive readings of Latino Caribbean literature unavailable in any other study.

The title of Mr. Flores' book might be a little deceiving for those who are not familiar with the subject matter. Mr. Flores uses music as a jumping off point for some very thought provoking themes that pertain (in my opinion) to all Latino's. Juan Flores goes from scholarly themes like colonialism to thoughts on the funeral of Cortijo and the history of the Boogaloo phenomena in New York City.

Mr. Flores makes you stop and think, then think again about issues you may have had preconceived notions about. I really enjoyed being challenged intellectually as I read this book.

I recently attended a lecture/performance (at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York City) of "From Bomba to Hip-Hop" conducted by Mr. Flores, music historian Rene Lopez and Mike Wallace (who won a Pulitzer Prize for his book, "Gotham.") True to form, it was a very unique, educational and entertaining experience.

As a beginning graduate student in Latina/o Studies, I have been asking myself a simple question over and over: "Where have I been?" I have gone through public education in the United States for 17 years of my life, and have only recently found that there have been people writing since the start of the 1900s about the issues, experiences, struggles, and passions that I have thought were uniquely mine. Piri Thomas published _Down These Mean Streets_ in 1967. I just read it this past summer, my mother--right after I gave it to her. And the thought that has wondered in is, "why wasn't I told about his book earlier?" Is Piri Thomas' experience, a bond with African American culture that Juan Flores addresses in his book, such a marginal experience in American life, that it took a suggestion by Amazon.com for a man with 4 years of university education to be aware of the book? As the population of Latino/as in the United States grows to the levels of being the largest minority group in the country, there will have to be a shifting of Latina/o literature, theory, and any cultural products from the margins of American life to the center contemporary discussion. It is these products that Juan Flores probes and analyses with keen insight that places the Puerto Rican aspect of the Latino experience into mainstream intellectual thought. From "the Madonna incident" in Puerto Rico, to the ties that Puerto Ricans have with Hip-Hop, and the current status of Puerto Rico that he sadly calls a "Lite Colony," Flores' book is one that should be read by anyone interested in the affairs of American culture.

Great book to throw in your backpack and take with you on the cruise. You can bone up on a bit of the history and it will get some ideas ffor excursions or places to visit on the islands.

These books are great tools. I have cruised many times and I still consult them before every cruise. I would say they are must haves for first timers. They summarize the Caribbean, Alaska, Hawaii, as well as many debarkation ports. What I find most useful is the information provided on each of the cruise lines and cruise ships. If you are unsure which ship would be best for you and your family this book will definitely help you decide. I would caution potential buyers visiting very small or less popular islands. Places like Anguilla, Trinidad and Tobago are noticeably absent from the book.

I have always turned to Frommer's for honest reviews of just about any destination. Their website is full of great info too

I have cruised many times before and found this book to be quite honest in its observations. We are sailing to Hawaii and I was able to find the information I wanted. I think this is a great resource for anyone considering a cruise vacation.

The story of Norse Greenland, the settlement at the end of the earth, and its disappearance, has fascinated scholars and laypeople for 500 years.

Kirsten Seaver has produced the best and most readable work on the subject in 50 years, incorporating the large amount of very recent study being done in the field with acute insight and a clear narrative.

(Although it means there is not much point in me writing my book on the subject :( )

This is a very well-written intellectual piece tracing Greenland colonies from establishment, to explorations of North America, and subsequently, their disappearance.

The author portrays a history of over five centuries and has made discoveries that other researchers have missed. The author's conclusions are solid, however rather than sticking to solely historical facts, she speculates slightly on political issues. Nevertheless, the bulk of the book is thoroughly researched and well presented. An interesting read and a great way to learn some history as it is a book that is difficult to put down once you start.

Was it the Thule Eskimos attacking the Norse Greenland colonies which cause these groups of hardy descendants of Vikings to fall off the map of the North Atlantic after 1408? Was it changes in climate that caused them to move? Where then did they go? Was it the fishing vessels of unfriendly foreign powers or neglect from the homeland which cause these settlements to fail? This well-written scholarly work is difficult to put down as it traces the Greenland colonies from their establishment through their explorations of North America until their existance was "forgotten" by the Western World. Drawing on the latest works in archeology, medieval studies, and related scientific fields, this book provides illuminating insight into a unique culture on the edge of the known world and its final destiny.

Author Seaver seems to have ramsacked the archives of Iceland and Norway to compile a thorough history of five centuries of Norse settlement in Greenland, including the famous and ill-fated Norse effort to establish a colony in North America about 1000 AD. There are enough Olafs and Sigrids here to people Lake Wobegone. The author is apparently Scandinavian -- or speaks Icelandic and medieval Norwegian -- and is thus able to dig deeper than most authors on this topic. She presents her findings in dry professorial prose that may tell some readers more than they really want to know about the internal politics of the North Atlantic back in medieval times.

The great mystery is, of course, why did the Norse colonies in Greenland disappear and when? A worsening climate, Innuit attacks, inbreeding, and isolation have all been cited as reasons. I won't reveal the author's conclusion except to say that she theorizes the Norse survived longer in Greenland -- perhaps after 1500 -- than most scholars believe. The most interesting and original part of the book for me was her examination of the important role of traders and cod fisherman from the English port of Bristol in the exploration of the North Atlantic in the 15th century. She makes a good case that these sailors might have reached the New World a few years before Columbus -- but like good fishermen everywhere kept their favorite fishing holes secret.

All in all, this is a well-researched scholarly history with just enough learned speculation to keep a history and exploration buff reading on. It's the kind of book that -- if you're really, really a fanatic -- you could read a second time and benefit from many small points you missed on the first reading.

Smallchief

After reading dozens of nature conservation books, it's a pleasure to read one that stands above the rest. The Future of the Wild is not "more of the same". It prescribes a new direction in conservation -- one where the size of the solutions matches the size of the problems. Adams paints a compelling vision of how conservation can succeed, then provides real world examples of how these ideas can be implemented on the ground. It's an important message, eloquently delivered.

This book presents the approaches and challenges of conservation efforts over the last few decades. I wish it had been more tightly edited -- it was repetitive and a bit tedious to read.

Essentially the points of the book are:

1) The best approaches for conserving species is more of a decision based on values than hard science. The complexity of understanding everything that affects a species is too much to expect science to "know all the answers".

2) Conservaton efforts based on today's isolated parks and reserves is inadequate because they're too small. Finding ways to expand their "effective boundaries" is important.

3) The influence of man and the interplay of nature in and around parks and reserves is important to understand well enough to make effective conservation choices.

4) It's imperative to include local communities in the discussion of the issues and obtaining committment to the solutions.

This is the best book ever on conservation of natural resourses--should be read by all: those who believe in individual property rights, those who believe in preserving our natural resources, and those who know that tradeoffs have to be made, but do not know how to articulate their beliefs.

A 'must read' for any serious ecologist.

The conservation of isolated parks and reserves alone will fail, but there's an alternative option: one that The Future Of The Wild: Radical Conservation For A Crowded World covers. Conservationist Adams ranges across the U.S. in showing how to tie together scattered remnants of this continent's wild places. Stories about the species endangered and the possibilities of wildlife conservation corridors which can help connect and save them make for chapters which blend conservation history and biology with tales of successful partnerships among groups concerned with land and wildlife management. The Future Of The Wild: Radical Conservation For A Crowded World is a 'must' for any seriously concerned about the fate of wild animals on the planet.

I have not counted the number of books and papers regarding Geronimo's surrender but they are many. Here are the facts, easy to read, accurate, and presented in a very enjoyable read. The author has done an excellent job presenting to the common man the story of bravery, death, and hardship of the early American soldier, and the betrayal of the American Indian. Many thanks to the author and publisher. Where are the awards for them?

If you don't feel capable of wading through the Western history in this book, I suggest you see the movie "Geronimo." It's an excellent, slightly-fictionalized story of the Apache war chief Geronimo played by Wes Studi and Lt. Charles Gatewood played by Jason Patric.

Gatewood, the U.S. army's foremost expert on the Apaches, persuaded Geronimo to surrender in 1886. Both Geronimo and Gatewood were betrayed by the U.S. government. Geronimo was sent to Florida to prison; Gateway was sent to oblivion, remaining a lieutenant until the end of his military career.

Geronimo is remarkable as a cunning, cruel guerilla leader fighting to keep his freedom from the encroaching Whites; Gatewood is remarkable for the integrity he brought to his job as an indian agent and soldier. It's comforting to see Gatewood's qualities are remembered in book and movie long after more conventionally successful men have been forgotten.

This book maintains a high standard of accuracy and scholarship. It tells one of the best stories from the old West.

KLIATT, November 2000 Reviewed by Raymond L. Puffer, Ph.D., Historian, Edwards Air Force Base, CA

Most historical accounts of Geronimo and the lengthy struggle of his Apache warriors against white settlement have focused upon either the Chiricahua leader himself, or the two U.S. Army generals usually credited with forcing their bitter surrender. George Crook and Nelson Miles were indeed instrumental in planning and leading the campaigns that hounded the remnants of the Apache people into their inevitable subjugation. Neither, however, could convince the holdouts ot lay down their arms and put themselves at the white man's mercy. That role fell to a weary cavalry lieutenant, Charles B. Gatewood, who had won the Indians' grudging respect through hard fighting and his sympathy to their plight. In the course of a final meeting, which was as poignant as it was historical, Gatewood at length persuaded the exhausted "renegades" to lay down their arms to General

Miles, and to accept his offer of farmland and aid. When Geronimo did so, the last native resistance to federal hegemony came to an end. Ultimately, though, Geronimo and Lieutenant Gatewood were betrayed by the federal government.

Louis Kraft has written an important and historically significant study of the final phase of the Apache Wars. Unusual for such books, this one is as readable as popular history, and it will be enjoyed by those who have an interest in looking behind the scenes of history. The book is a fine reminder that earnest, hardworking and suffering people were responsible for the events in their textbooks.

Publishers Weekly, April 17, 2000

This recent addition to the parallel lives genre is a superbly told tale of the vicious Apache wars of the 1880s in Arizona, New Mexico and Mexico. Drawing upon a variety of original sources, Kraft (Custer and the Cheyenne) reconstructs the complex story of the famous Chiricahua leader Geronimo, a medicine man who came forward as a tribal leader and headed resistance to the coerced settlement of his people on reservations where they were to become farmers instead of nomadic hunters. Lt. Charles B. Gatewood of the 6th U.S. Cavalry was posted to Arizona in 1878 and became a respected leader of Apache scouts, who tracked Apache guerrillas for the U.S. The frail lieutenant, sent to administer the Apache reservation, seemingly treated his charges fairly, earning the enmity of civilians and army brass, which led to a stalemated career and a lengthy court case brought by a man whom Gatewood arrested for defrauding Apaches. After meeting at various times and maintaining a mutual respect, Gatewood and Geronimo came together again in 1886, when the former was ordered to track the latter to Mexico and convince him to surrender, even as columns of American and Mexican troops searched for Geronimo's elusive group. The tension and frustrations of what was Gatewood's final mission are palpable, as he convinces Geronimo to allow the tribe's "relocation" to Florida. Gatewood, who gets much fuller treatment here than his counterpart, never got his due for brilliant service in tragically misguided cause, and Geronimo never again saw his homeland or many of his family, from whom he was separated.

"Gatewood and Geronimo" by Louis Kraft documents the heroic deeds of a man of unheralded greatness, of one Charles B. Gatewood. Many lesser men rose to the rank of general while Gatewood died holding the same rank he held when he played the key role in efecting the surrender of the formidable Apache warrior, Geronimo. The surrender of Geronimo effectively ended the American Indian Wars. Kraft's volume brings focus on the long neglected importance of Gatewood's role in American history, and on the long term effects that one ordinary man's moral integrity can have on human history, even though it was ignored, and even despised while Gatewood was alive.