Fields Books

I gave this book to my husband. He is a rangeland management major and he is in love with the book. I do not know anything about plants, but he seems to love it and find it extremely useful. Compare to the expensive "weeds of the west" this book is relatively cheap for the amount of plants it has.

As a Range Conservationist in WA State a great book for all range mgrs, range techs., however, I was surprised to see Thurber needlegrass taken out of the most recent issue.

This is a great reference book for North American Range plants. It includes a detailed description of each plant along with sketchs and a maps to show distribution. Grasses, forbs and shrubs are included. This book also closely follows the lists for university range plant identification team contests. An excellent reference or study book for North American plants.

This book contains 200 of the most common range plants in North America. Each entry contains a detailed illustration, range maps, scientific and common names, complete written description, growth habit, origin, livestock value, and medicinal uses of the plant. I found the illustrations to be the best I've ever seen, especially the detail included in the grass spikelets. This is an excellent reference for anyone trying to familiarize themselves with common range plants.

North American Range Plants is a great book for any beginer, taxonomy student, layman, and expert alike. It is easy for the novice, because it's not in a key format, which may disappoint some more serious plant collectors. It contains 200 of the most common, and important plants found in the United States, Canada and Mexico. I have had this book for sometime now, and it has become an invaluable resource in my studies at Texas A&M University, where I have come to know one of the co-authors, Stephan Hatch. He has an unparralled knowledge of plants and a dedication like no other to put forth a good product, so i know from experience that this book was written by folks who are the top in their field of study. Being from Texas, i have worked internships in the plains of central North Dakota and the desert "outback" of eastern Oregon and have found the book to most useful, oftentimes referring to it before trying to "key out" a plant in a more technical publication. It just doesn't get any better than this.

The book I am reviewing is On the Field with... Emmitt Smith written by Matt Christopher. I give this book five stars. This book is about a person who loves to play football. A problem in this story is Emmitt Smith breaks his hamstring. Emmitt Smith played running back for the Dallas Cowboys. I'd recommend this book to a friend. Other books written by Matt Christopher are On the Field... with Terrell Davis and On the Court with...Shaquille O'Neal. This book is awesome!

Emerson, NJ Fifth Grade

If you like football and Emit Smith than On The Field With Emmit Smith is a great book for you. It also tells Emmit's life story. It tells where he went to collage and about when he became pro. I like the book because I want to be like Emit. I think it is a good book for people who like sports.

This book is really really good. Its dot life facts about him there all real, the records he set. All about his life and how hard he tried to make it to the N.F.L. and made it. I think its a really good book read it sometime.

I choose this book because I like the Dallas Cowboys. The book listed facts about Emmitt's career, and a little about his life. I think this book is similar to the book The Amazing Bo Jackson.

Emmitt Smith loved football from the time he was a baby. He would play and sometimes be too big to be able to play. In high school, he was a star running back but he had a time where he fumbled a lot. After he went into the NFL draft, the Cowboys, unlike many other teams, thought even though Emmitt didn't have very much speed, he could still be a really good running back. So the Cowboys were able to pick him as the 21st player picked. He became a star and led the Cowboys to three Superbowl victories and won four rushing titles for himself. It is a good book because it tells you about him at every time of his life.

I've been running for a few years to keep the fat off my hips and was pleased to stumble across this great running guide. I must say that i had been doing quite a bit wrong. Now that i've read this book, I've lost even more weight and am just lucky that the writer didn't charge by the pound.

I've been running for only a year, but have really improved since adopting the advice contained in this book. It is also reasonably priced. I recommend it to anyone who wants to improve their running experience.

This book was my first running book. For $10 it is a great buy. It is full of information, especially training tips for a marathon. It doesn't have much on injuries or nutrition but it is only a small book. I recommend it...

This book helped me train for my first marathon in 1997... and several after. It provides three suggested-training schedules, depending on goals and training level, for 10K & marathons. Easy to follow, easy to read. Excellent starting point for new runners. Have read other books by "more famous" authors, but none of their suggested training schedules gave me the confidence I obtained by using this book. (Qualified for Boston every time!!) Future editions could be improved by adding a chapter on recovery following the marathon.

I picked up this book on a whim, and have found it to be the most helpful, inspirational book on running ever. I am 3 months pregnant and the information for pregnant women was unparalleled. I highly recommend this book for anyone though. The information is useful, the book is concise and the tone is enjoyable. Two thumbs up!

As a former product design engineer, I learned a good manufacturers' representative is worth his weight in gold. The rep is the person you turn to if you have component selection or vendor problems. Likewise, a good rep is a conduit for the voice of the customer; the person who makes clear the needs, the wants, and the opinions of the customer. Both roles are essential to a successful product design effort and both are difficult to fill. Like other positions that demand specific knowledge and experience, the job of a sales representative is a job for an specialist.

In "Out-Sourcing the Sales Function", Anderson and Trinkle,- both experts on the topic- explain the intricacies of field sales show how, in many situations, an external sales force can outperform a traditional direct sales team. They give direct specific examples and show how the cost of the sales function can be accounted for accurately. Anyone who's livelihood depends directly or indirectly upon sales, will find this book revealing and useful. Highly recommended.

Bruce Long PhD, PE

Bob and Erin do an excellent job of frameworking the decision criteria of when to use outsourced sales professionals. Reviews the tough topic of the true costs associated with using OSP's vs. direct sales. This is the best book I have seen on this subject. If you are looking at your cost of goods sold and not currently using manufacturer's representatives, this book might give you insight into a great way to go to market !

These comments by Chicago PR consultant Laurence Kaufman, excerpted from a longer review, are right on the money.

Clearly directed at corporate executives with the responsibility for determining how their companies' goods are brought to market - CEOs and CFOs as well as their top sales executives - this book equally deserves careful scrutiny by manufacturers' representatives and their organizations, and by those who interface regularly with field sales people, i.e., distributors and other resellers, commercial and industrial end users.

A number of factors make this book noteworthy, but perhaps the most important is its authorship - a unique collaboration between an academic (Erin Anderson) who has been studying manufacturers' representatives and the decision to employ them for a quarter-century and a field sales professional (Bob Trinkle) who spent close to half a century practicing what he now preaches. And what Trinkle preaches, along with his professorial collaborator, is not that you should choose the rep route to market, but that you should make the choice intelligently - based not only on economic factors but also in full realization of the impact of corporate culture and product idiosyncrasies - and if you choose to outsource, the factors you need to consider in making the strategy work. Trinkle and Anderson do not say that outsourcing is the right thing to do - it may or may not be. But if you decide it is the right thing to do, they also tell you how to do it right.

Another noteworthy feature is the inclusion with the hard-cover book of a CD-ROM Cost Calculator©, that allows those responsible for making dollar comparisons between in-house and outsourced field sales to plug in their own numbers, reminding them along the way of the "soft costs" that go away in tandem with the decision to outsource.

Anderson and Trinkle have created a tool not only for making strategic decisions about how to take products into the field, but for creating a better understanding of the role of the rep as an advocate for buyers and for sellers. If you are a rep who wants to be thought of as an OSP (Outsourced Sales Professional), first read this book; and then make sure each of your principals reads it as well. If you are a customer or reseller, it will remind you of the benefits the OSP brings you in efficiency, advocacy, and continuity. If you are a manufacturer, it will help you analyze when to outsource, when to go or stay direct, and when to field a hybrid sales force, and prevent a decision from being made capriciously.

Outsourcing has become an accepted business practice because it can deliver demonstrable savings and improved services. However, while sales outsourcing is common, it has not been widely adopted by companies accustomed to having dedicated in-house sales staffs. Authors Erin Anderson and Bob Trinkle make a powerful case for the benefits of using outside sales reps, asserting that they cost less and sell more, particularly when they use the tactic of "portfolio selling." The authors explain how the two types of sales forces can co-exist and augment each other. Die-hard sales managers will find interesting material here, though the book belabors a few obvious points and lacks enough real-world examples to juice up the dry text. The authors include a CD with software for analyzing sales costs. Since this is a very specific book for anyone investigating whether to use reps, we recommend it to sales directors and executives who are facing that question. However, front line salespeople and reps should just keep to their appointment books - this text is not designed for you.

This ranks as one of the best written books and a must have. I recommend this to anyone in marketing and sales, from entry level sales people to marketing and sales managers and even CEOs/CFOs. I have over 20 years in establishing new markets, recruiting and managing the sales force and this book is a treasure that I could have utilized throughout my career. Why learn by trial and error when you have so much knowledge in a book? It is apparent to me, that this book is written from "boots on the ground" real-life experience. Concepts are clearly presented and backed up by real world examples. The included CD is a remarkable utility allowing one to caculate true cost of sales and compare business models. Compare current busines practices to a benchmark. An independent sales representative could use this to negotiate commission rates on new contracts with principals.

A really complete,exact and interesting guide to the observation of the North American Mammals.Very nice.

A thorough guide to North American animals. Lot's of color plates and informative. It even covers animals in their stages like a fox in winter and midsummer and how their coats change color.

To put it simply you won't be disappointed.

Fiona Reid has created a tour-de-force in The new Peterson Field Guide to Mammals of North America, the first update of the Peterson series on mammals in thirty years. This is the best Peterson Field guide ever, the ideal gift or stocking stuffer and a must have for anyone who loves environment, natural history, the outdoors and wildlife, from your budding naturalist eight-year old to your birder grandmother in Wisconsin.

The new guide combines all the best features of recent ground-breaking field guides in a completely new book. It is both encyclopeadic and accessible, beautiful to hold in the hand and, as has always been the case with the Peterson series, the perfect size to take to the field. It will also look very good on your window sill and be handy next time that bear or ermine comes to the feeder.

A revision was of Peterson's Mammal Guide was long overdue and Fiona Reid has gone about it masterfully. In comparing the new and the old guide, one need only look at the new paintings to realize how much we needed this brand new treatment of North American mammals and to see how beautiful a book this is. Our knowledge has advanced tremendously, even for better known groups such as the carnivores; but it is when you spend some time with groups such as the bats and the chipmunks that you begin to realize just how far we have come since the last edition in our understanding of the mammalian diversity we see around us. Brilliant author-biologist-artist Fiona Reid has captured the traditional basics of a field guide with astounding plates and just the right amount of detail on ranges, biology, morphology, and even environmental threats.

This is the new gold-standard of field guides.

As someone majoring in Wildlife Science, I needed to have a field guide for my studies. I bought the previous edition about 3 yrs ago, but found it lacking. For example, it showed the historic range of raccoons, but not the current (expanded) range. It also used older genera (plural for genus) names & had very few bat species depicted. These & other factors made it impractical for me to use the book in my studies.

However, this new edition appears to be much more applicable for someone like me. It has color maps (the 3rd edition's maps were black & white) which are included in the species accounts (rather than at the end). Introduced species & their populations are shown in blue; historic ranges are shown using dashed lines; & sea mammals' ranges are included (no ranges were given for them in the 3rd ed.). Select maps are even shown with county lines drawn in in large states like CA & TX so residents can easily determine whether a species is in their county or not.

The color plates are better too. Animals are depicted in more natural body positions & appear more lifelike. There are many many more bat species depicted than in the 3rd ed. Sea mammals are included in the color plates; in the third edition, they were only depicted in black & white drawings. Introduced species (like the Blackbuck) are also depicted in this section. Select black & white animal tracks are included in the color plate section, rather than on the inside cover.

Skull identification is very important to biologists, since skulls are often all you'll find of an animal. This book has color photos of various skulls. The 3rd ed. had only black & white photos, which wasn't so bad, but I like the color photos better. Also, the dental formulae are given in this section for the respective genera. I will say, however, that I did like the dental formulae chart in the 3rd ed. because it summarized them all in 1 place, rather than spreading them out over several pages.

Immediately following these plates is a section of illustrated shrew teeth & molars of sm mammals. On the page just before the Species Accounts section is a depiction of pocket gophers with grooves on their incisors, a feature often used to distinguish between them.

Although most color photos are found in the skull section, there are more throughout the species accounts.

Species' names have been updated too. In the 3rd ed, the author chose to stick w/ some of the older names. In this edition, the accepted names (like Spermophilus) are used & even Bison bison was updated to Bos bison.

In the species accounts, common names other than the one Reid used are written in sm uppercase letters below the line w/ the common & scientific names. For example:
COYPU Myocastor coypus (introduced)
NUTRIA

The species accounts describe the animal, sounds it makes, similar species, habits, habitat, range, & even its status (whether it's common or endangered, & which organization lists them as such, such as the USFWS & the CITES appendix #). The previous edition included eyeshine colors (which are included in some entries in this new edition), number of mammae, & economic impacts, but for the most part these features were left out of this edition. However, I doubt many people will miss them.

I think this edition is excellent. I only had my book for a day & yet I found all the improvements mentioned above. I recommend putting a self-adhesive plastic book cover on your book because the plasticized coating wears a bit quickly. (Note: I've had my book just over a year now and am slightly editing my comments to fix minor typos & improve the flow a bit :})

This new guide is hands down the best mammal guide for North America currently available. An impressive volume and effort by the author. The artwork is superb, the photography crisp, and the phylogeny and other science accurate and up to date.

To answer the extremely perseptive reviewer, who seemed to have gotten so much more from this book than any body else besides myself...yes, Eugene Field had a son who died. He wrote a poem about it too, and it is called "Little Boy Blue". My mother used to torture herself reading this poem..and it got so bad she just couldn't any more. This book of poetry is just wonderful. The illustrations by the renown artist Maxfield Parish are a pure delight, a treasure unto themselves.
By Eugene Field
Little Boy Blue

The little toy dog is covered with dust,
But sturdy and stanch he stands;
And the little toy soldier is red with rust,
And his musket moulds in his hands.
Time was when the little toy dog was new,
And the soldier was passing fair;
And that was the time when our Little Boy Blue
Kissed them and put them there.

"Now, don't you go till I come," he said,
"And don't you make any noise!"
So, toddling off to his trundle-bed,
He dreamt of the pretty toys;
And, as he was dreaming, an angel song
Awakened our Little Boy Blue---
Oh! the years are many, the years are long,
But the little toy friends are true!

Ay, faithful to Little Boy Blue they stand,
Each in the same old place---
Awaiting the touch of a little hand,
The smile of a little face;
And they wonder, as waiting the long years through
In the dust of that little chair,
What has become of our Little Boy Blue,
Since he kissed them and put them there.

This was a book from my childhood and which I have searched for many years. So happy to find it at Amazon's. Maxfield Parrish, the illustrator , with his imagination was the right choice for this book of poetry. Eugene Field's love of children and the sadness which was part of his life makes the poetry memorable.

I received this book as a gift when I was about 8 or 10, and it was one of my favorite all time books. The poems are dear and the illustrations are simply magical. This volume had poems I had heard before, like "Winken, Blinken, and Nod", and many that were new to me. Over the years, when I had to memorize a poem for school, it was always one of these I chose -- "Jest 'Fore Christmas", "The Gingham Dog and the Calico Cat", and "the Dickey bird is singing in the Amphalula tree."

One of my very favorite books of my childhood. The copy I have was given to my mother in her childhood, and she read the poems to me. This book introduced me to not only some wonderful poetry, but also to the amazing artwork of Maxfield Parrish. I'm delighted that Scribner's has reissued the book in the original design.

Some of these poems are for children. Some are merely about children. Some are for grown ups who love children. Some are for children who have no idea how dear they are to the grown ups in their lives.

Despite having had my copy of �Poems of Childhood� for ten years, I know absolutely nothing about Eugene Field save what I can infer from the poems in this collection. From their recurring themes, and the order in which they appear, I can guess that Field lost a child who was very precious to him . . . was slowly healed of his grief by the love and presence of other children . . . and was given a second chance with the birth of a new baby.

There are about 15 poems that hint of that lost child and a handful that juxtapose sleep and death, making me wonder if the baby died in its sleep. Other sad poems are merely wistful about beloved children who have grown up. Thankfully, there are just as many happy poems as sad ones: cheery verses about toys, imaginary creatures, and playground games. Field also wrote several �lullabies� that are perfect for rocking children to sleep, whether or not they are put to music.

I don�t know any other poet who has brought such dignity to "babytalk." Toddlers in his poems are called names like Pittypat, Tippytoe, Googly-Goo and Luddy-Dud. His imaginary fairies include Amberglee, Daisybright and Pilfercurds. Moreover, I�m sure that no other collection of children�s poems has this many terms for "dreamland"--Blinkiwink garden, Shut-Eye town, and Hushaby street, to name a few.

Though Field could be accused of writing the same poems over and over again, most of his verses have such distinctive _personalities_ that this is not entirely true. What they _all_ have in common is his delicate touch--yes, even the ones in which his voice turns rustic and homey--that has endeared him to children and grown ups alike.

This book, without a doubt, is the finest book on deer hunting that I have ever read. As an avid reader, I have read a pile of books on deer hunting, most of which were the same information, recycled over and over again. The techniques and strategies in these books are just not applicable to hunting in my heavily pressured home state of South Carolina.
This book is full of fresh ideas that have challenged the way I have historically approached bowhunting. I would recommend this book to anyone, bowhunters and gunhunters alike. It is the most HONEST and PRACTICAL book on hunting mature deer that you will ever read. It will help you to rethink the way you hunt and give you more opportunities at big bucks. I cannot say enough good things about this book. If you live in a state or area where there is alot of stiff hunting pressure, you have got to read this book.

Excellent book. Easy to read, well organized, and insightful. No gimmicks or add-ons. Follow the straight forward practices to improve your odds. I used the knowledge for both bow and firearm hunting. I saw many more deer than in prior years. I purchased a copy for my son and a friend.

Chris and John have done it again. This is an incredible follow up to "bowhunting pressured whitetails". Their knowledge of the lore of the wood and the unique and creative take they have with hunting consistently shows their superior knowledge they are all too happy to share with those of you who are wise to purchase this book.

This book walks through the whole year, what you need to be getting done now, what you need to be getting ready to do. Its all here, how, when, and where you should be hunting through out the season. It rehashes some of his other book " bowhunting pressured Whitetails" both are books I would recomend to any bowhunter.

This book and the Eberhart's other book "Bowhunting Pressured Whitetails" are the two best whitetail deer bowhunting books I have read - and I have read a lot of them. Most deer hunting books discuss tactics for hunting unpressured deer (i.e. large, privately managed farms or ranches with limited access or high-fence operations) that most hunters will simply never have the chance to hunt. This book is different from other hunting books in that the Eberhart's explain their year-round system for consistently taking mature whitetail bucks from pressured areas in their home state of Michigan. I must say again that the Eberthart's bowhunting books are the best I have read. In fact, I re-read parts of their books before each hunting season.

Great book, contains a lot of material, will be useful to many as a reference on supersymmetry for years to come. Highly Recommended!

The whole current production run of this book has a defect. A glue is bleeding through on the inside of the hard cover fold, front and back. This does not seem to affect the structural quality of the book and is not visible from the outside. If you need this book and get it with this defect, don't bother trying to exchange it.

If the two first volumes of "The Quantum Theory of Fields" were considered masterpieces in a modern and original presentation of the basics of quantum field theory and its penetration in the recent development of particle physics, with the machinery of spontaneously broken gauge theories, the new volume embraces the wide subject of supersymmetry in Weinberg's typical style, which always means a self-contained treatment of the subject, from its foundations and motivations, to its most recent application as a possible scenario for new physics beyond the Standard Model.

A complete review is published in CERN Courier, May 2000

Finding good introductions to supersymmetry can be difficult. Most introductions concentrate on N=1 supersymmetry in four dimensions, and there the superfield forumlation can be useful. However, when you go to N=2 supersymmetry (e.g. when considering theories in five or more dimensions), component fields can be better. Many times it's a matter of taste. For those cases, you have to go to review articles. Anyway, Weinberg concentrates on N=1 4D supersymmetry and supergravity using the superfield formalism. However, he ventures into the N=2 strong-weak coupling results of Seiberg and Witten, which are now a fundamental part of (supersymmetric) field theory. The text is, as the previous volumes are, a fantastic resource for learning the subject, and as a reference (for things like gravity- and gauge-mediated supersymmetry breaking, as well as the minimal supersymmetric standard model, which are open areas of reserach). As for all modern areas of research, the body of knowledge is stacked higher every year; but the topics covered here stand as solid fundamentals of supersymmetry. For more advanced topics, one is forced to go to the recent literature.

I'm a beginning graduate student in theoretical physics, who learned SUSY from the ground up from Weinberg's text. Weinberg is (in my opinion) by far the best text I could find on SUSY. It is totally self-contained* - every equation can be checked by the reader; the idea's are solidly explained, and the choice of topics is extremely relevant. However, I should say that this is probably not a book for those looking for a quick introduction, or a sketch of the subject (which are valuable in their own right).

In the very beginning (I knew very little SUSY) my impulse was to avoid this book, as the "notation" seemed kind of heavy, there were too many long equations (superfield identities), and it was clear that reading the book was going to be a serious endeavor**. Instead I was looking for a quick fix. However, having found the other sources inadequate***, I gave Weinberg another try. I learned how to read his book (from the point of view of a beginner; a veteran can easily use it as a reference)~ read it actively, checking the equations at the level of looking for typos. I poured in many hard hours, and have a binder full of derivations to show for it****. But as a result one is very well equipped to tackle the literature.

I especially appreciate how Weinberg builds SUSY from the ground up. He makes it come together so logically, and coherently, it is nice to watch, and I feel one is rewarded in deeper understanding.

His treatment is often original and improves in many ways upon the original literature. For example, his treatment of SUSY representation theory and constructions of superfields. Also his treatment of holomorphy arguments is the best I've found anywhere (literature included). His treatment of Seiberg-Witten is his own pedagogically minded retelling of that story ~ it takes a slightly different angle than the original work, and fills in many of the details. Reading the original Seiberg-Witten afterwards was much facilitated.

A word on prerequisites: A basic knowledge of QFT is needed ~ if you have Weinberg's Vol I, II, this is overkill. However, you should be comfortable with the representation theory of the Lorentz group ~ especially spinors. Weinberg provides useful appendices on spinors in Vol III, and has the rep. theory in Vol I (an understanding of angular momentum at the level of say Sakurai ch 3 helps here). To understand the interesting non-perturbative results (chapter 29) you must be comfortable with 1-loop beta functions in YM, and the chiral anomaly (covered in Vol II as well as many other texts).

A caution on typos: There are many minor typos which you probably won't notice unless you rederive the particular offending equation. I know of about fifty (over a range of about 300 pages). The nature of the subject is such that there could have been many more though (lot's of long equations with many indexes). Luckily, the errors often do not propagate ~ subsequent equations are usually typo free. There doesn't seem to be an errata website, which is unfortunate.

Finally, there are a few exercises after each chapter. Some of them seem intellectually gratifying, and some are rather messy algebra.



* With the exception of some of the MSSM stuff, but this is clearly stated, and totally reasonable.
** But alas, for a beginning student, this is the nature of the subject.
***There is one fantastic supplement to Weinberg (after you've gone through the first couple of intro chapters), these are Argyres' notes. They nicely cover Seiberg duality which Weinberg doesn't talk about (but he does a great job with Seiberg-Witten).
**** The meat of the book can in principle be covered in < 2.5 months by a super-dedicated student (skipping the SUGRA chapter) and of course depending on one's incoming background and interest!

Living in Colorado you have no choice but to see all the different rock formations. I remember seeing people/students on the side of the road in Morrison looking for fossils on my way to watch the drag races at bandimere. We picked this up when we went to the florissant fossil beds and have left in the 4Runner ever since. It's easy to read and you would be surprised how many hours can go by while just talking about formations you see out the window.

This is a very handy book. It's arranged by road name and by stretch of road--if you find yourself on, say, I-70 westbound from Denver, go to the table of contents and you'll quickly find something like "I-70, Denver to Dillon Reservoir." Go to that section and you'll find a small map, geological diagrams, and probably a photograph. There's also an introductory chapter that gives an overview of Colorado geology and geological history, as well as very clear explanations of geological terms.

Driving on Colorado highways you see some pretty amazing rock formations, and visitors to the state are always asking about them. This book will tell them (and you) anything you might want to know, and explain it clearly. I keep my copy in the car, and consult it often.

Intended especially for travelers and vacationers interested in taking in Colorado's geological sites, yet accessible to budding geologists everywhere, Roadside Geology of Colorado is now in an updated second edition with new tours of Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park, Rocky Mountain National Park, Dinosaur National Monument, and much more. Written in nontechnical terminology for lay readers, and featuring numerous two-color maps and black-and-white photographs, Roadside Geology of Colorado is filled cover to cover with eye-opening driving tours. A glossary and index round out this excellent traveling companion for anyone interested in observing the natural rocky beauty of Colorado firsthand.

This is a very good series of "Roadside Geology" of various states. The writers are experts in their states and highly qualified geologists. The series does not cover all states and there is one large gap - not a roadside geology book on Michigan. This is one of the significant states in the mid- west and has a lot of interest. It is close by Lake Michigan and there are interesting questions about the formation of this lake as well as Lakes Huron and Superior - all surrounding the land mass of Michigan.

I like to travel throughout Colorado and have found this book to be very useful in understanding the form and geologic history of the landscape I am travelling through. The book is well illustrated and detailed enough to be useful, at least for the person with a non-professional interest in geology. My major regret is that it is not available on CD or tape so that it could be more efficiently used with only one person in the car!

Rome's Saxon Shore: Coastal Defences of Roman Britain is a slim book that details the defenses that Rome erected to protect Britain against the many Germatic raiders that plauged the provance for over three centuries. Do not let the small sized fool you though it is a very well written and researched work that helps bring light upon a forgotten part of Roman history.

This is a very well written, scholarly (although short) book on the Saxon Shore forts of Roman Britain that fills a gap in the literature nicely. It is beautifully printed, has many useful maps, illustrations and photos, and has a nice bibliography. Some of the books in this series are rather lightweight; I am happy to report that this one is much better than average for the Osprey series.

Nic Fields' ROME'S SAXON SHORE: COASTAL DEFENCES OF ROMAN BRITAIN AD 250-500 provides a technical survey of the design, history and technology of key fortresses and defensive systems of early Roman Britain, making it a pick for military collections and libraries strong in early history. The 'Saxon Shore' forts of Britain are among the most impressive monuments of the Roman occupation of the British Isles: their ruins are part of today's British landscape and their history is surveyed here with maps, photos and black and white and color illustration throughout.

Osprey keeps pumping out titles for history lovers everywhere. This is a concise, and easy to follow narrative of the defenses of Eastern Britian through the Arthurian period. Great illustrations as per usual, and brief time line make it quick study for Roman history buffs.

The typical Osprey title, concise, well-written, well-researched, and interesting. It is supplemented by excellent full-color plates depicting the fortifications themselves, and their soldiers in combat or on civilian duty.