Fields Books

Succint offshore guide that is perfect for outdoor seashore walks. Fits well in the pocket and has ideal illustrations packaged for convenient rapid reference. Text is pertinent and complements the colored illustrations in a concise relevant way. I can't wait for the next volume addressing the southern shores.

This field guide has it all -- a comprehensive catalog of off-shore life, excellent organization, and absolutely extraordinary illustrations that prove that the best illustration is better than photography for depicting archetypes. The authors are renowned in their fields and their skill, experience and knowledge shows in every page. The best guide I've found.

This book is a delight to look at: the illustrations are stunning, the design is clean and elegant. It's a delight to hold: the binding, the quality of the paper, the form factor. And it's a delight to read: the text is clear and concise, while packed with detail. For me, the most compelling aspect of the book is the illustrations, which Lynch brings to life on the pages. I unhesitantly recommend this book to anyone who takes pleasure in the wildlife of the North Atlantic.

The most striking aspect of this book to me, after taking in the richly and lovingly painted portraits of shoreline wildlife, is the depth of the included species. This book does not merely include the usual suspects, but includes the smallest foundation creatures at the base of the shoreline food chain on up. From the informative maps, and intuitive layout, this book is an easily pocketable gem and a great reference. -David Bolinsky

The quality of the information is surpassed only by the quality of the illustrations. Craftsmanship through and through. I look forward to seeing more titles from these two talented people. Bravo!

If you are interesting in plants, and you live in latin_america this is a book for you!! Al Gentry give us a view of tropical plats...in a taxonomic way... but includes practical and field tips to recognize families and some genera, and includes some simply and helpful illustrations . This "little" field guide it is some like the "Botanic Bible" of tropical American botanists (However I am a template Southamerican, I found this like a book of "head"....!!)

The best avaliable guide to the wood plants of this region of South America that I am aware of.

I'm an amateur naturalist -- and had the plants of the Eastern US pretty well under control. All that went out the window when I moved to Nicaragua. This is the first broad, clear, complete guide to neo-tropical woody plants (and lots of the herbaceous plants as well) I've seen. Although it was written for Columbia, Ecuador, and Peru, it does well enough for Central America. Just leafing through the illustrations has given me the family, and often the genus, of lots of the plants I've seen in our cloud forests. The author has a very readable style, laced with an understated sense of humour that bubbles to the surface on several occasions. See the entry for Euphorbiaceae, for example.

The book is not, however, for the complete beginner. Unless you are thoroughly familiar with the arcane botanical terminology, you will need a botanical dictionary. "Plant Identification Terminology" by Harris is a good one.

I'm an amateur naturalist -- and had the plants of the Eastern US pretty well under control. All that went out the window when I moved to Nicaragua. This is the first broad, clear, complete guide to neo-tropical woody plants (and lots of the herbaceous plants as well) I've seen. Although it was written for Columbia, Ecuador, and Peru, it does well enough for Central America. Just leafing through the illustrations has given me the family, and often the genus, of lots of the plants I've seen in our cloud forests. The author has a very readable style, laced with an understated sense of humour that bubbles to the surface on several occasions. See the entry for Euphorbiaceae, for example.

The book is not, however, for the complete beginner. Unless you are thoroughly familiar with the arcane botanical terminology, you will need a botanical dictionary. "Plant Identification Terminology" by Harris is a good one.

This book is the only one to cover so extensively the flora of Colombia in such an accessible way. You won't regret this purchase. It certainly deserves five stars.

Palms are a very conspicuous feature of the tropical landscape, whether in the wilds of Central and South America or in the suburban environments further north. They are also important economically (usually as fruit crops) and culturally (having uses as diverse as roofing, as material for weaving hammocks as fodder for edible beetle larvae!). Since everyone knows what a palm is, yet most non-specialists cannot get much beyond that, this guide to their identification should fill a niche.

This is a field guide to the 550 species of palm occurring naturally in the American tropics. The taxonomic treatment seems to this non-specialist to be eminently sensible and many knotty systematic probems appear to have been carefully resolved. A 40 page appendix of accepted names helps clarify what has happened to some of the older synonyms, hybrid names and such.

The authors have crammed an awful lot of new and useful information into the three-hundred and fifty odd pages. A main key permits identification to genera with further keys sprinkled throughout the body of the book. There are handy introductions to families and genera. The text is succinct and well oriented towards field identification while the 236 photographs at the back allow the user to quickly narrow down the search by visual means. Maps are provided for every species - this must have been a huge task! - and country checklists provide a further tool for homing in on the plant in question.

In resume, this is a master work which will be seen in the field for decades to come. It should be high on the list of any tropical landscape gardener, horticulturalist, anthropologist, botanist or naturalist.

Overall it would say that it 's the excellent job that authors has put together all the description of American palm species. It would be welcome among serious palm collectors as well as reserchers.

The only thing I don't like about this book and I think it is controversial among palm colleectors is that the book tends to lump down many named species into a synonymous for example, a genus Coccothrinax or the palms in the Attalea Group. Though not all of the recorded species are really distinct from each other, many of them are quite different and should be separately treated at least in a variety level i.e., genus Acrocomia which authors has lumped from 26 recorded species inot only 2 species. This is however not explicitly stated there at all.

This is probably the most useful book for anyone involved in plant identification, such as Forest Engineers, specially those working in tropical America, where one often encounters many kinds of palms in the field, but until now it was not easy to identify them, and palms are mostly overlooked because they have the reputation of being difficult to identify. This book changes it all, and it's definitely a must-have.

if you're interested in neotropical palms, you ought to buy this excellent guide. all three authors are considered to be highly esteemed authorities who know their stuff very well. the description said it had approximately 380 pages, but together with all the appendices and photo pages, the total number of pages gets to 500.

I use this book for field work, and it seems not fair that a book of three authors, appears as a one-author book, I know the other two people and they are scientist and work in the palms (Arecaceae) as well as Mr Henderson.

Any gardener with slugs within their gareden will
treasure this book. It's a mini 101 course that will
enlighten you about their behaviors and how to erradicate
them. An added bonus is a beautifully "illustrated
cover", worthy to sit on any coffee table.

This is a neat little package that gives a wealth of info about slugs. It was a little less technical than I had hoped. If you're looking to answer specific biology questions or have the hopes of a key, this is not the answer.

What on earth am I doing reviewing a book about slugs? Because I live in Slugland & I want to know more about those slithery slimers who mug my lettuces & ravish my sprouts. This little book is a gem, a must for anyone living among gastropods. This book inspired me to write a poem about these critters who have been around far longer than we! Still don't like 'em, I'll tolerate them because David George Gordon has written a funny, informative, charming book about a subject most would rather stomp on! So there!

I found this book to be a concise, thorough discussion of the subject of garden slugs. Every gardener has had to deal with them in some form or another and this little book is the perfect addition to your gardening library on the subject. Excellent artwork and drawings, also.

This is a great short non-fiction work on slugs, handy for identifying those little slimers. Just the right amount of detail for the mildly curious. Readable in about an hour, it includes brief chapters on "The Slug Family Tree," "The Slug in Brief," "Anatomy of a Slug," "Familiar Slugs of the Northwest," "Seven Wonders of Slugdom," "Controlling Slugs," "Observing Slugs in the Wild," and "at Home", "Plants Slugs Avoid Eating" and "Love to Eat", and a short bibliography

Anyone in search of first-rate movie material--whether screenwriter, director-producer, or development company--could do worse than to check out Rita Kramer's Flames in the Field, the true story of four courageous British agents who were dropped into occupied France during World War II to organize resistance groups against the Nazis. The fact that the agents were young women only adds to the poignancy of what is at once a tale of suspense and intrigue and a tragic story of possible betrayal. Biographer Kramer (she wrote the definitive life the 19th-century educator Maria Montessori) expertly recounts how these women and their colleagues sought to carry out Winston Churchill's injunction to "set Europe ablaze," all the while unknowingly caught in a Byzantine web of scheming on both sides. Kramer's original research (both among archives and survivors) is a substantial contribution to the scholarship on the cult of intelligence, and her elegant prose and flawless sense of pace make the book a page-turner, effortlessly readable. But it's the subjects themselves, too--the men and women of a heroic time--as well as the complexity of motives and events in a situation where almost any moral choice is tragic, that make her story such a stunning tableau.

These stories will break your heart. Four courageous women go to their deaths after being captured one by one, usually because of treachery on the ground and sometimes stupid bureaucratic blundering in London. Rita Kramer -- whose abilities as a writer and researcher were already well established -- gives life and vitality to four forgotten heroines of history's most devastating conflict. "Flames in the Field" is a keeper.

"Flames in the Field" is a mesmerizing, eye-opening account of a World War II secret operation, still little known, and of four of its women operatives. It is the most vivid kind of historical writing and though it tells a story whose terrible ending the reader knows from the beginning-- all four died in a concentration camp in France because of their work-- it reads like a mystery or suspense tale. This is a book you cannot put down, because of the tension the author maintains as she weaves together different strands from different people, places and politics. The complex tapestry that results illuminates not just the role of women in the Special Operations Executive (SOE), not just the kind of anti-Semitism that the French as well as the Nazis practiced, but the Machievellian triage that goes on in wartime, the inescapable treacheries, the score-keeping and the record-keeping, the pettinesses and the heroism. This is one of the few history books I know that I will want to read again.

Flames in the Field is an exciting book that tells the story of women agents who operated behind enemy lines during World War II. The research is impeccable, and the story is fascinating and well-written. A must read for anyone interested in World War II history, as well as for aficionados of women's history.

Flames in the Field is a searing account of the heroic efforts of British and French resistance fighters during World War II. Rita Kramer manages to combine both historical detail and subtle character studies in a story that has suspenseful and surprising twists. Although the book is meticulously researched, it reads more like a spy novel that you can't put down. I recommend this book to anyone interested in reading about the unsung heroes who helped to vanquish the Nazis; the under-reported role of women in that courageous mission and the political machinations that turned heroes into pawns in a larger game plan. This book is exciting to read and an important contribution to uncovering the hidden story behind the Allied victory.

This is a great book for many reasons: The pictures are beautiful, the writer knows the topic and the most important is that I've tried some recipes and they are just delicious.

The variety of recipes for this fun and tasty bread are astounding! It serves not only to provides one with foccaccia for any occasion, but it stimulates the imagination, helping one to create any recipe they need! I love it!

Focaccia is my favourite bread, and since I live in Italy I get to eat it as much as I want. But I wanted to try making it on my own, and this book really helped me.
The recipes here are amazing and they really work. They are easy and tasty (they do taste better than the ones I buy at my local bakery). Also the variety is great. The one I like the best is "Focaccia Andrea Doria" but they are all excellent. The book is also filled with beautiful photos. Enjoy it.

Focaccia is my favourite bread, and since I live in Italy I get to eat it as much as I want. But I wanted to try making it on my own, and this book really helped me.
The recipes here are amazing and they really work. They are easy and tasty (they do taste better than the ones I buy at my local bakery). Also the variety is great. The one I like the best is "Focaccia Andrea Doria" but they are all excellent. The book is also filled with beautiful photos. Enjoy it.

The book is full of good recipes, most of them easy to make. The results are consistently good. For an unusual bread, try the potato focaccia recipe. Everybody in my family loves it, and it became one of the favorite lunches to take to work/school.

This book enables someone like me - born 1968 - to go back in time and immerse myself in wonderful stories, images and diagrams of this wonderful ballpark and the colorful players, personnel and fans that called it home field. It's a shame it had to go - but it is not forgotten. Current Pirate players should have this as required reading - for informational if not inspirational purposes. GO 2008 BUCS! SHOCK THE PLANET!!

I recently purchased and read this fine remembrance of Forbes Field, prompted by my visit to Pittsburgh in June, 2007, when my son and I visited the site of Forbes Field on the Univ. of Pittsburgh campus. The same remaining historic items we saw are duly recorded in this text...the Mazeroski plaque, the remaining center field wall, the home plate embedded in Posvar Hall.
Part I of this book is a remarkable and varied memoir of the ball
park, including the FABULOUS but all-too-short chapter on the annual gathering for a replay of the broadcast of Mazeroski's home run. However, I rated the book a 4 because Part II, the section with remembrances and recollections from players, media members, employees and fans has a bit too much " ya had to have been there!" feel to it that is not overly welcoming to the ballpark afficionado who never got to Forbes Field (that would be me!). However, this volume is well worth the purchase!

The stories re: Forbes Field are fascinating. The stories are told in such as way that you can almost hear that person talking. I enjoyed this book very much.

As I watched this year's mind numbingly dull World Series between the Boston Red Sox and the Colorado Rockies, I thought back to the to the 1960s when baseball was different--and better.

Because I had just finished reading Forbes Field: Memories and Essays of the Pirates Historical Ball Park, 1909-1971 by David Cicotello and Angelo Louisa, uppermost in my mind was the great 1960 World Series when the once-lowly Pittsburgh Pirates upset the mighty New York Yankees.

Until I enrolled at the University of Pittsburgh in 1961, my relationship with the Pirates was distant. I had grown up in Los Angeles where the Pacific Coast League Hollywood Stars, the minor league affiliate of the Pirates, were my team. By rooting for the Stars, fans automatically pulled for the Pirates.

In the late 1950s, my family moved to Puerto Rico where Pirate great Roberto Clemente played winter baseball. I followed Clemente's team, the Santurce Cangrejeros. (Read Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball's Last Hero, by David Maraniss)

But avid baseball fan though I was, by the time I reached Pittsburgh, I had only seen one major league game. The Dodgers didn't get to Los Angeles until after I left.

I was starved for baseball and, even though the 1961 Pirates were out of the running for most of the year, as soon as I got to college I headed for Forbes Field and what would be a lifetime's worth of happy memories.

Authors Cicotello and Louisa have brought those recollections back home. Their book chronicles Forbes Field from its first days of construction in 1909 through the final game on June 28, 1970. The book includes a transcription of the last home game broadcast on KDKA by the immortal Bob Prince and his sidekick, Nellie King.

The second part of Forbes Field includes reminiscences from former players, managers, club officials and employees as well as several sports writers.

I wasn't able to submit my own personal Forbes Field experiences in time to meet the publishing deadline. But I'll recount them to you now.

Every September when classes started and each April and May as the school year wound down, my friends and I wandered over to Forbes Field, an easy walk from the university campus, and entered the left field bleachers during the sixth or seventh inning. By then, the ticket taker had gone home so we just waltzed in to catch the last of the game.

One might think that in September with classes beginning and football underway or in April with final exams and papers closing in that students would have other things to do (like study!) than watch an average baseball team play out the season's string.

But Forbes Field and all the wonderful players on its field was irresistible.

No matter which team was in town, a Hall of Famer was on its roster.
When I think of the players I watched!

Among them, to name only a few, were the Cardinal's Stan Musial, the New York Giants' Willie Mays, the Phillies' Robin Roberts, the Braves' Hank Aaron and Warren Spahn, the Cubs' Ernie Banks and the Dodgers' Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale.

Forbes Field is long gone, torn down 35 years ago. It was a wonderful old park filled with die-hard fans during baseball's glory years.

But Forbes Field lives on.

Mention it in Pittsburgh and everyone lights up. Each year fans young and old gather at the site (a small portion of the brick wall left standing) where the Pirates' Bill Mazeroski's 1960 bottom of the ninth homer won the seventh game of the World Series, 10-9 for Pittsburgh's beloved Buccos.

I had looked forward to this book since it was first shown on Amazon and it was worth the wait.

Forbes Field was the second of the all steel and concrete ballparks opening in 1909 and closing on June 28, 1970. Until now, no book has covered the history of Forbes Field like it should.

The factual information in this book is amazing. There are diagrams of the field dimensions through the years, comparisons of statistics in Forbes versus other parks, important dates in its history, and a list and descriptions of 62 memorable games. Events other than baseball held at Forbes like football and boxing are also covered.

Also included are memories from players and fans of their time spent there and a complete transcript of an interview with Roberto Clemente before the last game ever played there as well as the transcript of the radio broadcast of that last game.

This isn't a photo history, no color photos are included, but a lot of the photos included are rare ones I had never seen before in other books and even online.

Whether you're a Pittsburgh fan, a ballpark historian, or a baseball fan in general you will not be disappointed with this book.

This book left me breathless! I was stunned! A perfect blend of comedy, drama, and even science fiction! Everything was written just as it was should have been written. Genius. Simply genius. Pure genius.

I like Garfield. He is the greatest cat and funniest I have ever read. He is great and funny. He is MAD PHAT. He always makes me say WORD when I get a new book.

Eric Walston

The saga of Garfield, Odie, and Jon continues. This dramatic and moving yet highly disturbing portrait of late-nineties domestic suburban sexual denial forces the reader to delve into his/her own tortured sexual psyche, much like Catherine and Heathcliff but as a trio each exploring their own unrequieted desire. The tension is unbearable, and Garfield's repeated replacement of food for sexual yearning is telling of late twentieth-century sexuality. Odie's alienation as a result of Garfield's spurning for the love of his inanimate replacement for Jon, in the form of Pookie, is obviously a compelling metaphor for post-colonial AIDS isolation. Alone in the confusing mire of mixed signals that is their home, poor Garfield has no choice but to seek solace in the soft, safe, squishy bosom of Pookie, denying the pain and self-loathing so apparent in his everyday encounters. Odie, much like Hillary to Bill, pointlessly attempts again and again to win the affections of a reckless, wanton, yet powerful force who has become consumed by his meager life, ironically encouched in power. Jon's unrealized quest for gratification is symbolic of the fall of Communism and is a clever representation of the fall of the wall and the troubles of subsequent unification. Supplanted in a landscape of repression and denial, our three protagonists seek comfort in their base desires: coffee becomes the drug of choice, providing escape from the hell that is life, much like today's "raver" youth seeking comfort in "ecstasy" and "techno". Woe to he/she who proceeds beyond the cover of this prophetic tome! Another masterpiece accomplishment by Davis, sure to keep him in literary courses of the future.

Have been for a long time now and i'm glad that i decided to start back. Buying the books and its really convenient with them being released in a 3 pack. Its like a bunch of classics all wrapped together, love it.

My son recently became interested in Garfield, and he just loves the books. Its fun and very easy reading, so he enjoys it, while still practicing his reading skills. Its the best of both worlds! The service was great, the shipping was very quick, and the quality of the book was excellent. Thank you for putting many smiles on our faces!

In a sentence, and it would not matter if I wrote several more, there is nothing that we are called upon to do in this lifetime but to be here in this present moment, fully awake. Why? It is because all worlds exist and so does every conceivable being that can inhabit them. That is, we do not need to change our reality to make it holy; we are tasked with making it whole by unifying the observer with the observed.

I mean grounding our sense of self -- ego -- with Our Great Self unifies the outer regions of inner space within us. What does that do, really? It nullifies the tension contained within polar opposites, light and dark, good and evil, male and female, war and peace, thus invoking compassion.

In truth, it makes each of us a self-sacrifice to the mission of God, a clone of Christ, as I put it.

Thus, as the Gnostics and Taoists before them intimated through parables and koans, "To Make the Two One" again is the ultimate state of being here now and will resolve the archetypes of the apocalypse if we can achieve a critical mass of enlightened souls by the cut-off date, the End-Time, circa 2012.

Dr. John Jay Harper is author of the book Tranceformers: Shamans of the 21st Century and the DVD Science of Soul: The End-Time Solar Cycle of Chaos in 2012 A.D..

The Great Field is an absorbing read. It is both a scholarly and an approachable account of the field from which we all manifest, and to which we all vitally contribute. John James's knowledge base is vast, and this is a book that must first be read from cover to cover, then 'dipped into' at regular intervals. A lovely, healing book from a modest and wise man.

Reviewed by Cherie Fisher for Reader Views (1/08)

So many people today are asking questions about why we are here, the truth behind the soul and the greatest spiritual debate last year seemed to be about whether we really attract things into our lives through our thoughts. This book examines the relationship between soul and science and so much more, and it makes more sense than most of the hundreds of books that I have ever read on the subject of spirit. The author suggests that the first couple of chapters might be too full of scientific jargon and that they can be skipped but I found his translation to be very easy to understand and full of valuable information.

What is the Great Field? "A holistic tapestry of independent influences" (page 66, Paul Davies). The author describes the Field as "does not exist in either space or time. It exists everywhere simultaneously. It has no movement, but only presence." I thought his beautiful description of the Great Field was best summed up by the following: "She was utterly still and attentive. It felt that there was no time, no space and yet every sense was exquisitely attuned to each subtle nuance of the physical plane where she sat. She was within everything, and without, simultaneously, and flooded with such knowing and compassion of that perfection that there was nowhere else to be but now. This was the realization of Samadhi, of the pure bliss of the saints and the gurus of every denomination. She had crossed the veil within herself and had united the material world of time and the desires of the senses with the Great Field. There was no distinction any more, but only pure bliss and unbearable compassion. (page 15).

"Love is what's in the room with you at Christmas if you stop opening presents and listen" (page 247 - by a six-year-old) is my favorite of the many wonderful quotes throughout the book that is used to define concepts. He also uses many examples of scientific studies and clinical therapeutic studies to prove how our fields of energy impact not only our immediate environment but people, animals and environments a long distance or time away. Holistic healing, reincarnation and the soul's purpose are also up for discussion in the book.

"The Great Field: Soul at Play in a Conscious Universe" is packed full of good information. I don't want to give away too much more except to say that it is definitely worth reading for those people who want answers about spirit.

Well i am an avid reader of books that help humanity expedite their psychological evolution. I started off with quantum physics when i was in grade 10th and ingested most of the good stuff i could get my hands on: authors like stephen hawkings, david bohm, michio kaku, brian greene etc.

Then had the accedental encounter with NLP and then Seth stuff from jane roberts. Well this books comes in comparison with Genie in Your Genes, The Biology of Belief and The Human Antenna and all three has solid research and a lot of personal touch, which to me is heart warming when i read a book.

Dr. James's tone is of a researcher. The Great Field is great and it must be a part of the library. It has very similar information that is in the other three i mentioned but the information is not very much in a flow as those three books. So 4 stars it is :)

I have struggled with religious views on soul because they dont feel right, they dont fit my experiences and my dreams.
John James has shown me how soul has been in my life always, how she can suffuse my life with fullness and beauty. Having read this I no longer feel there is something wrong with my spirituality, that has to be fixed so my soul can go to heaven.
There is nowhere for my soul to go to, it is already there. I only have to meet it.

I've got it and you don't! Too bad. It's outta print. I called the publisher and they are not reissuing. Go find it used. It is worth every penny ($85 I paid) if you need or desire to ID gulls.

This book is a must have for every birdwatcher! If you have problems with indentifying gulls, this is the book to have! It anwers all my questions I have about gull distribution and indentification. Now I know how to Indentify those Ring-billed Gulls that I see in the parking lot. Also I have a better outlook on where they came from as Well!

The size and massive detail in this new book on identifying the gulls of the Northern Hemisphere is likely to deter most readers from more than a cursory leafing through its lovely paintings and photographs. But if you're curious to learn more about these common but highly varied, many-shades-of-gray birds around us, and you happen to live in a coastal area as I do, with more than a few gulls that are hard to identify during the winter, this might be a book to look into more thoroughly.

A caution though: gulls can be notoriously difficult to identify accurately, since they have so much finely detailed, age-related plumage variation. But an effort to simply knuckle-down and learn more about all this, such as this book amply provides, can pay off greatly in much greater detective-fun trying to figure out all these heretofore anonymously gray gulls sailing and prowling around us here each year. It's already helped me develop better skills in figuring out nearly all the varied groups of gulls around us here more quickly than I would have heretofore thought possible. And to more quickly decide which birds you can or cannot more accurately identify...and why.

The detailed accounts and maps of the distribution and relative abundance of various gull species have also helped me better understand where the gulls that migrate through or winter in our area are likely to have come from. And, finally, as you delve more deeply into what's known about all these gull species, and their European and Asian counterparts, it becomes obvious that the series of beautiful, comparative paintings and color photographs provided in such detail for each species in its various age-plumages, subspecies, and hybrid-forms is worth the price of the book alone.

Well....maybe not easy....but, not through any fault of this book! The book starts with a lesson on the various body parts, as you will need to know many of these in order to ascertain what gull you have sitting in front of you. A comparison of the wings comes next. Then, it goes through each gull species and all of its plumages, including the months you might expect to see them in that plumage. It ends by discussing the various hybrids. If you ever hope to get beyond referring to gulls as "gull sp.," this book will do it. When you hear other birders refer to "the gull bible," this is it!!! However, don't think that this is a field guide you might want to carry in a fanny pack...it's a heavyweight!

growing up with the knowledge that there are just a few "kinds" of gulls and realising after a while that all the gulls you knew are now called somthing compleatly different (the whole herring,yellow legged,caspian,armenian,lesser black backed,sibirian etc. complex). this is the book we were all looking for, easy to use and extremly proffesional.
another good birding book to have around.