Fields Books

Consider the "Federal Resume Guidebook, Fourth Edition," as the bible for serious federal job seekers. A few months ago I attended a Transition Assistance Program (TAP) class before I retired from the Air Force. The TAP instructor lightly covered federal resumes, KSA's, etc., I was totally confused. Family, friends, and former co-workers all provided me with advice on how a federal resume should be written, formatted, and distributed. After several misses on the job market I decided to purchase this book. HALLELUJAH ! This book will take you step-by-step on the federal resume process with some excellent federal resume samples you can use on your quest for a career with government agencies. I also decided to invest in the Entry-Level and Mid-Level Assessment Service offered by the authors company, The Resume Place. If your are serious about your federal job search I strongly suggest you purchase this service. You will not be disappointed. One last item, the author Ms. Kathryn Troutman personally provided me with the assessment and offered some great suggestions I had overlooked when I created my resume. WoW, what great customer service. This book certainly deserves a "Five Stars" plus rating. I'm certain I will catch the attention of the federal agencies where I want to work.

Now in a completely updated and expanded fourth edition, "Federal Resume Guidebook: Strategies For Writing A Winning Federal Electronic Resume, KSAs, And Essays" by federal resume expert, career consultant, and government human resources career trainer Kathryn Kraemer Troutman is a practical and superbly presented compendium of instructions that will readily enable anyone seeking federal employment to maximize the effectiveness of their online resume, analyze federal job announcements, and make the cut for interviews based on an effective presentation of their experiences and qualifications. Job seekers are provided with an illustrative wealth of federal resume samples, detailed procedures, and tips. Of special note is Troutman's advice for those transitioning from military service to a federal career, and for those transitioning from Wage Grade to General Schedule positions. With instruction on preparing for the new Behavioral Interview process and strategies for advancing a federal career, the "Federal Resume Guidebook" continues to be an indispensable and invaluable reference guide for job seekers regardless of the federal position being sought after. Simply stated, the "Federal Resume Guidebook" is essential for anyone seeking federal employment and is a fundamentally necessary addition to personal, professional, academic, governmental job center, and community library Jobs/Careers reference collections.

If you want to work for Uncle then you must have this book. After toiling for over a year trying to work for Uncle and getting nowhere, I bought this book. I spent a day revamping my resume as it describes and have been knee deep in responses ever since. If you want your resume to be in the right format to get you in the door then buy this book. If you want to continue hawking on the street or playing a fiddle for change then by all means do not buy this book.

I purchased this book after numerous failed attempts at being considered for various govt positions.
Literally after giving my resume a govt makeover with the suggestions from the book I've been considered for a total of four positions since purchasing the book last month.
I consider this a huge success only because I at least know my responses to the KSA questions are strong,
I highly recommed this book - definetly worth it!

I purchased this book based on the numerous reviews exclaiming its excellence. As a first note, the photo representation showing a CD that provides actual examples of resumes and KSAs is highly deceiving. There is no CD with this book. On the final page of the book, you will find directions on how to buy this for an additional fee at the authors website. No doubt the author has experience and expertise in the convuluted federal application process. From biographical information that is available it appears that she was a key player in creating it and then she went on to build a business that capitalizes off of the confusion created in the process. The inforation in this book is good and reliable; however, the same information is available for free on the internet from a variety of sources. I was sadly disappointed with this book and the other Troutman book Military to Federal Career Guide that I also purchased. The CD is included with the second book mentioned. I has 52 files in total; but, these provide very few examples because the same resume is repeatedly used to show examples of different resume builder formats (e.g paper resume, USA Jobs resume, and Resumix)and each example is given in a word document format and PDF so immediately the number of eamples is decreased from 52 to 26. As such, the CD amounts to 13 resume examples and one that provides separate KSAs. The best value that comes from this book is a profitable marketing tool for the author's website and other, quite pricey writing and coaching services. Before buying this book, I would recommend that you check with your local library or bookstore to see if they have a copy so you can review the content and decide how useful it might be in relation to your knowledge of the federal job market.

Schumm does a brilliant job of explaining the conceptual underpinnings of the standard model of particle physics. He accomplishes this feat using only words and a few illustrations, making the book fully accessible to non-specialists. Even so, he does not "dumb down" the material as do most other books intended for a general audience. Instead, Schumm is able to convey the essence of complex mathematical and physical ideas without resorting to a heavy technical apparatus. The result is not light reading, but an up-to-date discourse on "natural philosophy".

Although I am not a physicist by training, I strongly suspect that this book would be useful even to aspiring professional physicists seeking a first introduction to what modern particle physics has accomplished.

"Deep" is an existence proof that it is possible to effectively communicate the conceptual essence of an extremely technical subject, the Standard Model of Particle Physics, without resorting to cutesy strained metaphors or wild-eyed speculation. Deep presents a remarkable overview of the framework and principle tools of particle physics that will serve not only to inform the non-specialist but to give the student who is about to embark on a physics curriculum a real sense of one of the more fascinating areas of physics.

This author is a master teacher. So often such books are filled with oversimplifications, mystifying metaphors, and ridiculous speculating which do nothing to further anyone's understanding of science. This book is an absolute gem in comparison.

Without getting bogged down in the nitty gritty mechanics of the mathematics, he systematically explains the mathematical concepts behind the standard model of particle physics, step by step and with much summarizing and review throughout. The result is an account that reveals the true nature and beauty of the scientific theories that any reasonably educated person can appreciate.

As a high school science teacher, I admire his rigorous but pedagogically sound style. Although I am keenly interested in physics, it is not my specialty so I learned a great deal I didn't know from this book. More than that, I was awestruck by the beauty of the mathematical theories that were brought to me by this masterful teacher. It takes a truly special writer to bring that experience to the lay person.

First a little about my background. I have a master's degree in mathematics, along with the usual undergraduate courses in physics (including introductory Quantum Mechanics). I am currently taking a survey course on elementary particle physics. This course is still at the undergraduate level, so there's no Quantum Field Theory (other than mentioning that there is something called QFT). Being a mathematician however, I am curious about the mathematical ideas, but not curious enough to read graduate level textbooks on QFT just for fun.

So why do I go on and on about my background? The reason is that if you, like me, are curiuos about the mathematical ideas behind elementary particle physics, and you are almost but not quite ready to dive into graduate level textbooks on the subject, this book could be a perfect match (it certainly was for me). What a relief to find a book that is both exciting and easy to read (I read it in five days), and at the same time elucidates a few of the ideas vaguely presented in "The ideas of Particle Physics" by Coughlan, Dodd & Gripaios, which is used in the course I'm taking. With my background I was also able to get a lot more from this book than the average lay person, since I can guess at some of the mathematical details.

It is also nice to know that if I do want to read graduate level textbooks on the subject, I now have a general idea of what the mathematical constructions are for. It is often a problem with graduate level books that it takes some time before you understand why certain abstract constructions are introduced.

This is a tough book for the lay person. I am perhaps not suitably qualified to review it, but as I bought it I will do so nevertheless. I fell short of appreciating the "breathtaking beauty of particle physics," although I am certain that particle physics itself is breathtaking. There is a superb introduction and the opening chapter lays the groundwork perfectly, but after that I battled with the algebraic formulae and the complex jargon of particle physicists. The author has so little to say on the metaphysical implications of his subject; it is as though he is sitting in his living room oblivious to an entire herd of elephants. If you are interested in quantum physics as it might relate to how you live your life, then this book is probably not for you. If you are looking for an in depth analysis of the sub-atomic interactions between the "ethereal world" and the natural world, then it is.

This was a great book with lots of information about building your own mud oven. It was easy to follow how to build the oven and there was a lot of explaining about how and why every little thing worked.

Great book and easy to read and follow. I built my first 22" over a couple days after reading the book. I'll make my bread for Thanksgiving in the oven!

This is a well written book, nicely illustrated and with a well thought out structure. It covers everything you should need to know on how to build an earth oven. The writing is clear and concise, while still conveying the obvious joy of someone who is genuinely inspired by their subject. I especially liked it because it contains a lot of technical detail illustrated with many examples and not much of the boring, preachy philosophical rambling that you find in so many books on hand building from natural materials. Not that there is anything wrong with philiosophising in its place, but I just wanted a book on how to build an earth oven and this is exactly what I got. I would also recommend, as a companion book, 'The Bread Builders: Hearth Loaves and Masonry Ovens' which is a more general and comprehensive book on masonry stoves and baking of bread.

This book is perfect for someone wanting to build an outdoor oven. It address every issue that you may encounter and provides many examples of the various styles and techniques. There are pages that tell you what kinds of materials are best for different applications, how to mix your mud, the various methods for insulating and how to use the completed oven.

I went to a major bookstore looking for information on wood fired ovens and got nothing......the book I bought at Amazon was just what I needed. Maybe next year we will have a wood fired oven in our back yard. Service was good and promt.

First of all, Amazon.com seems to have screwed up somehow and most of the reviews here are for "The Owl and the Pussycat" illustrated by Jan Brett which transfers this classic tale into a Caribbean setting bursting with colors. I collect versions of this poem so I have that book too and it is truly beautiful. But the one on this page was illustrated by James Marshall and according to the afterword by Maurice Sendak, this was some of his last work before his death. So please don't buy this one based on the reviews, this is not the Jan Brett book.

The pictures of this book are faithful enough to the story and whimsical, done in a little more cartoonish style than Jan Brett's realistic ones. They are full of subtle deadpan humor, especially if you look close enough and read between the lines. For example, what disturbs me greatly, the Pussycat changes colors in this book!!! First she is gray with stripes, then orange with stripes, then grey again, and once the Owl sings to a small guitar she turns white and remains white throughout the rest of the book. What is this??? Is this supposed to imply that the Owl ditched the original Cat for some other kitty while on board the beautiful pea green boat (which is a ship reminiscent of the Titanic, by the way)? Also, the Pussycat looks like a Tomcat in drag. Is this a deliberate allusion to Some Like It Hot? No wonder the Owl looks a little apprehensive in most pictures, rolling his eyes and probably thinking of ways to get out of this stew.

The poem, of course, is a classic... and the reason why I collect these books.

ISBN 0399231935 - A quick glance through the pages of the board book edition from G. P. Putnam's Sons didn't give me high hopes for this book, but I have - once again - been surprised by what can work in a board book!

The owl and the pussycat hop in a boat and head out to sea, where Owl proposes in song. They buy a ring from a pig and are married by a turkey... and that, you have to know, hardly tells the tale at all.

In few, very well-chosen, words, Lear's story can hardly be done justice in a simple recap. Jan Brett's illustrations are just slightly less difficult to put into words - the detail initially seemed to me to be a negative: young children tend to like simpler, less busy, illustrations. I think this is one time they will happily learn to love the busy-ness. The remarkable detail of everything, from Owl's feathers to the individual fronds on the palm trees, adds gorgeous depth to the book.

In addition, a second love story - told only in pictures - takes place, courtesy of Brett. Pussycat carries a yellow fish (we're going to call that one a girl) in a bowl onto the boat and the fish is seen on every page. Underwater, another yellow fish is seen "talking" to other underwater animals and each one he talks to joins him as he follows his trapped-in-a-bowl love, until Owl and Pussycat unknowingly have an underwater parade following them. Is everyone eventually with the one they love? Of course they are! Very well-worth picking up for your short person!!

This is a beautifully illustrated version of _The Owl and the Pussycat_. My three-year-old son absolutely loves looking at the whimsical pictures of the fish and other sealife that are abundant in this book. The pictures are done with beautiful colors and have their own story.

What a beautiful version of Edward Lear's poem. I've always been a James Marshall fan, but this book is absolute tops for his illustrations. The colors are glorious, the characters, as his always are, deftly and lovingly handled. I understand that it was his last work, and it's a shame that it is out of print. Buy it, save it, and pass it around.

Jan Brett's Caribbean-inspired illustrations for the classic Edward Lear poem are teeming with life, and the effect is stunning. The colors, textures, and shapes are a visual treat. Each page also has a different pattern of "straw" border, adorned with a different tropical flower.

The pictures overflow with detail, to the point where there's even a sub-story (pardon the pun) involving two yellow fish.

I didn't give it the full 5 stars because the way the text is broken up across spreads makes it difficult to read the poem with any kind of flow, and because some of Brett's admittedly gorgeous illustrations could (and perhaps should) have had more of a connection to the text. For one notable example -- there's no pot of honey on the boat, and we never get a look at the money wrapped up in the five-pound note!

But there's no denying the beauty of the illustrations, and the Caribbean theme works surprisingly well. This is a great book for anyone -- for newcomers to the splendid silliness of the poem as well as for old fans of the poem who are looking for an edition with fabulous illustrations.

I was also shot down in Laos, very close to the spot the author had his experience. My back-seater and I (flying an Air Force F-4E, in 1970) were luckier and were rescued after just one night in the jungle. This book is an "easy read" and I personally related to much of what he experienced. This is one of the few books I've read that I had to keep reading till I was finished. I'd like to think that I could have survived for as long as he did, but honestly, I doubt I'd have done as well. The rescue forces were outstanding throughout the war. Knowing they would perform as those in this book did was a significant factor in keeping our spirits high in spite of the questionable political conduct of the war.

Wow! I feel like I have just escaped from the jungles and the enemy myself! This is a great book. It has the perfect blend of action, technical detail and personal information. The technical details on the aircraft, combat procedures (bombing runs, strafing, etc)and how a rescue mission is run are presented in a manner that is interesting to the reader; not boring. The descriptions of the on the ground action as the two pilots attempt to escape and evade are riveting. As I read, I could feel the heat of the jungle, my body was tense with apprehension when the enemy was near and I could feel my heart bursting with fear as the pilots burst through the jungle as the enemy chased and fired upon them! Outstanding book!

The true story of a US navy pilot forced down in Laos during the Viet Nam war. Surrounded by enemy troops, he was only feet away at times from being discovered. The suspense makes this a very difficult book to put down. The minute by minute account is heart pounding.

A well written first hand account of one of the most amazing rescues of a downed pilot in the Viet Nam war. The author puts you in the jungle with him and I found it difficult to put down even knowing that he would eventually be rescued. An excellent read.

This is a truly amazing story of determined, (real) heroism by both downed aviators and their airbourne rescuers. This very well written, technically detailed, story narrates some forty hours following a naval aviator's harrowing parachute descent into the midst of a large concentration of North Vietnamese army, complete with many light and heavy caliber AA artillery, in the Laotian jungle.
The evasion by Streetcar 304 and the truly dedicated and dogged attempts by airbourne rescuers, the Jollys and the Sandys, is almost beyond belief.
This saga will become a classic of the Vietnam Air War.

Nothing new to read here, just the same old marathon training instructions we have all heard.

This book is the finest Marathon Training Guide I've seen. It is written for any level runner from first time Marathoner to experienced veteran. The author explains in an easy to understand format the reasons behind his system. This system works! The better job I did of following the book the faster my times dropped. I've taken over 30 minutes off my marathon time in a 2 1/2 year period. The book has easy to follow running schedules for a wide variety of training circumstances.

This program is tailored for the "serious but busy" athlete.
A big plus are the scaled programs from <50 mpw to >70.
The main emphasis is on LONG HARD RUNS. It is no secret that this is the key to aerobic development (Canova, Noakes, Costill etc).
Pfitz puts it into practice w/ a well thought out program.

My only issue would be that there is no "anaerobic threshold" training e.g. 6x2k @ 10k pace. While maybe a bit of overkill, training at this pace worked well for me in the past, and is advocated by others (Vigil, etc).

Definitely worth it - I will be following the 18 week cycle (with a few of my own modifications) for my next race.

I really can't say enough good things about this book. I'll start by saying that having just followed the "below 70 miles per week" training plan pretty faithfully, I just lowered my personal best in the marathon by 19 minutes, breaking 2:50 for the first time. I also actually enjoyed running the marathon, right to the finish, did not hit "The Wall", and sustained my highest weekly mileage ever without sustaining injury. I attribute a lot of this success to this book.

You need to be fairly serious about training to benefit from this book - the training plans are best suited for those who are willing to do 60 miles per week or more. (The 70+ mile per week plan contains a section "When 93 miles per week just aren't enough"). But the book places a strong emphasis on recovery and nutrition, which I think were critical in allowing me to increase mileage without getting hurt, sick, or run-down. And you certainly don't need to be elite - just willing and able to find the time and energy for a fairly large amount of training.

There are a lot of things to get right in a marathon, and almost all of them seem to be addressed here: all the different types and intensities of training, how to make sure you recover on your "easy" days, how to replenish carbohydrate stores after long runs, how to taper, race day strategy, carbo-loading, hydration, and even how to recover intelligently in the month after the race. Impressively, the book manages to cover all these aspects while being readable and quite easy to comprehend and remember.

A lot of ideas in this book are quite similar to Daniel's Running Formula (another good book) but tuned specifically for the marathon and made a bit easier to digest because it only covers that one event.

This book totally transformed my marathon training. It took me from a middle of the pack runner to a Boston qualifier. It explains the demands placed on your body in training for a marathon and what it needs to recover and how to focus your runs so that each time you hit the pavement, you do it with a purpose (i.e., no more "junk" miles). I use the training guides in the back of the book religiously. If I'm ever away from home more than a few days, this book goes with me!! I've given it to at least 4 other people. In my opinion, no runner should be without this book.

I am an evangelical Christian and I have recommended this book to many fellow believers about to embark on a mission somewhere. As far as I'm concerned, it's essential reading for anyone taking the Gospel to people who have never heard it.

I also have lived and worked in the so-called "Third World" and seen the remnants of Christian mission work over the past several centuries -- the great, the good, the bad and the ugly.

Matthiessen tells a story here of mostly bad, of course, and some ugly. Narrow-minded, holier-than-thus, do-good Christians come in and almost destroy a native culture. That, in itself, is indeed a fascinating if predictable story line.

But the story does indeed include some of the good -- of self-discovery and loving sacrifice by one of the do-gooders, and of self-discovery and perhaps "deliverance" of another major character, a Native American Indian. All involved leave changed -- one way or another -- after the arrival of the do-gooders and their attempted intervention.

It is an outstanding story that will stand the test of time, worth telling for a very long time to come.

I highly recommend it to any thinking person anywhere.

This is a very good book, but not great. Matthiessen's writing is engrossing and it is difficult to put it down. However, the vileness of some of the subject matter is a bit hard to swallow. This is, no doubt, a realistic tale, written after Matthiessen had traveled throughout the continent. The movie does have an influence, as one keeps thinking of Ms. Hannah. The plight and evolution of the natives and their values is intriguing. The disaster that results from outsiders forcing culture and religion down the throats of the "savages" is thought provoking and relates to many situations one sees. The characters aren't all that likable, but certainly very real. Hazel is a sad case. The jaguar shaman-to-be is a character about which it would be nice to learn more. Matthiessen says that he rewrote the last journey many times. This is the toughest part of the book to follow; is it real or a dream? I actually did reread parts of the end. There's no escaping the depression that comes from dwelling on the conflict in the jungle. I still feel that, despite the author's beliefs, his nonfiction work is better. But this is an enjoyable novel, regardless.

An excellent adventure story that is both fast paced and well developed. I've read a number of books by Matthiessen. This is the best I've read yet by him. His fiction is far better than his non fiction in my opinion.

I see there are many 5 star reviews here on Amazon. I 2nd these reviews. Recommended.

I am reading this book as a book on tape which is a good way to "read" it. This is a "good read" and worth your time. Recommended. Email Boland7214@aol.co

This case study of culture clash is the story of Protestant missionaries trying to bring the Word of God to jungle savages. They think themselves heroes of The Lord, but there are no heroes here save, perhaps, Louis Moon a reservation half-breed who lost his faith. Moon is now an aimless mercenary staggering through life, bouncing off one obstacle after another. When it becomes his job to massacre the indigenous people, he is revisited by drug-induced dreams of his youth and instead joins them as their rain god fallen from the sky (and a failing airplane).

Self-righteous missionary Martin Quarier, becomes less certain of his beliefs as the novel progresses, but seems incapable of moving beyond them. He sees the absurdity of the doctrinal feud between Catholics and Protestants, yet cannot think of priests as anything but the Enemy, in league with Satin. And Satin seems to be working on him, as well, churning up lust for the wife of another missionary.

The religious beliefs of the natives give a glimpse of how faith gets started. Their minor gods clearly provide more for them on a day-to-day basis than the major one Quarier tries to serve. He creates a "rice convert" or two, but is ultimately a miserable failure.
At Play in the Fields of the Lord is a classic tragedy of misunderstanding and miscommunication. If you haven't read it, it's worth that first read. If you have, it was probably long enough ago that it deserves a second look.

I had taken a course in modern physics in college and read several books on special relativity, but I never really got it until after I read this book. The thought experiments and progression of the book allow the reader to gain understanding conceptually and with virtually no mathematics. This book is so lucid and concise that you don't need to dwell on concepts that aren't clear (since they're all made clear in the text) and you're able to move on quickly. I believe this was the only 'laymans' guide to relativity that I actually finished.

My fondest wish is that someday Professor Epstein will write on quantum mechanics, since that may be the only way I'll ever understand it.

I have canvassed many books seeking to get an intuitive understanding of relativistic gravity and spacetime. No book anywhere does it better than this one! This book is without peer in providing a visualized understanding of the issues of relativity.

The one 3-star reviewer on this site failed to read the book carefully. Epstein shrewdly talks about "myths," that we all must have what he calls "myths" to understand anything. In other words, we are limited to our human cognitive abilities to understand and build models for any concept. So, he warns us that he is about to build on our "myth" about spacetime in that chapter. So right on! Epstein clearly gets it, but that particular reader did not.

Superb book. If you want to have a gut feel for relativity, grab this book.

This is an amazing book. The concepts make immediate sense as they are explained. Once the book is finished, you will have a thorough conceptual understanding of how and why relativity must work.

This book is a precious aid to help you develop your intuition about both special and general relativity. If you, like me, are someone who relies and feels comfortable more with intuition then reasoning, memory and abstractions, you have probably experienced quite a bit of discomfort studying and thinking about relativity. In other areas of physics, even quantum physics, you might have been able to come up with some sort of intuitive feel, but relativity, just a big void and a sense of "what this guys are taking about?". It's just about the fact that light velocity and strong gravitational fields are so outside of our reach that our intuition has nothing to work with, not even the "little balls" of particle physics.
Well this book is really helpful in starting to develop a visual and "gut" feel about relativity. Sometimes the drawings get a bit too fancy and confused, and you should avoid the pitfall of being led to believe you areally understand relativity just because you made something out of this book, but still it's a worthy, interesting and unusual read that will surely add something to your understanding.

This book provides a basic look at the What of relativity... but is seriously flawed when explaining the Why. And this is very problematic in a book that is constantly claiming that it's "showing" you why a fact about relativity is true. Epstein keeps "proving" things but when you really look at it he hasn't proven anything at all and you don't really understand relativity any better. For example, he loves schematic diagrams, and showing how something is true because it looks a certain way in a diagram. But just drawing something in a diagram and saying, "See, that's the way time works because that's how the line looks on the diagram" proves nothing. Why does the diagram represent reality? And why must the diagram be drawn in exactly the way he did? And the "diagram proofs" are just a symptom of the bigger problem here: a lack of valid argument to back up conclusions, and an overall lack of rigor throughout the book, from the terms used to the methods utilized for demonstration. Read this book if you are new to relativity and want to get an initial grasp of what it's about and the kind of phenomena it entails. But don't make the mistake of being fooled into thinking you're really undertsanding relativity, because for the most part you're not.

I have been teaching for awhile but this book is great for new and experienced teachers and excellent for college students studying courses in child development curriculum. It is broken down alphabetically by themes. Some examples include-seasons, holidays, ants, just to name a few. At the beginning of each theme there is a parent letter that explains what will be happening in your class. Then for all aspects of your students learning, the subject is broken down into different areas that support ways to implement the material- songs,fingerplays,math,science,language(supporting stories), art activities etc...
Overall, a great resource for early educators-especially if you run out of ideas!!!!!

This book is a great resource for teachers. It has wonderful ideas in it.

This book was purchased as a classroom requirement for my daughter's community college course. As a teacher, I don't generally buy resource or idea books, but this is a good one for the beginner or someone who does not have the time to search for ideas. Although it is costly, its a better investment than numerous small books. I feel that the way that the author chose to organize it could have been better; so be sure to read through the entire book as ideas for what you're looking for may be hidden under other topic headings!

I am a stay at home mom and have used this book to help keep my toddler busy. It is great. Every theme has activities for all areas of learning and has great book/DVD/website resources. If it's this great for a parent - it would be wonderful for a teacher!!

This is a great book. Used it as a college student, and kept it handy in the classroom like a bible. Great stuff!!!

This book is a treasure. I am especially impressed with the strong reception it receives from some environmental activists, teachers and students I have shared it with.

I hope someone like Ken Burns will want to make it into a TV documentary.

Jack Malinowski
Phila. Pa.

For me, this book brought a new level of fun to driving around. Another take on the many things that 'make civilized life possible.'

This engrossing book leads the reader on a tour of industrial features that one would encounter on both a cross-country or cross-town trip. After reading this book, you will find yourself---as I did---pointing out industrial installations and explaining their use to friends and family.

The glossy, full-color pictures are the most striking feature of this large book. They superbly complement the already excellent, clear, and well-organized text. I was also particularly impressed by the further reading listed at the back of the book. It is organized by chapter and ranked from "Kids" to "Geeks". It filled my stack of reading for several weeks after I finished Infrastructure.

My only criticism of the book echoes the author's apology in the preface: there are many technologies and industries necessarily absent from the book. I can only hope that the author will produce further books of similar quality in the future.

A proviso that must be made is that this is a very-USA-centric book. No disrespect intended as it is a beautifully photographed and relatively detailed (plus references for a lot more information) tome. Just something to keep in mind as the world is not (yet?) flat in infrastructure.

I like to think of myself as pretty knowledgeable, but I learned quite a bit in each chapter. I can imagine a similar book for Infrastructure 1925 (or so). Would be fun to see what has been lost (trains/streetcars/twice-daily-mail delivery) and gained (more obvious).

If you go for a walk and start actually looking around, you'll see a lot of things that most of us don't really understand -- power lines, sewer systems, the mysterious blue telephone junction boxes. This book explains why and what these things are -- think of it as a Nature Guide for the human-made environment. Do you have Sibley's Guide? Well, you should have one of these, too. My only quibble -- the pages are below standard quality for a hardback book. But never you mind -- don't be picky, like me! Get this book!