Central America Books

Donald Stokes has many field guides which give one or two page descriptions of interesting details about various species. I would recommend any of them. This guide covers virtually anything you would be likely to notice in the winter. It is divided into chapters on: weeds, snow, trees, insects, birds & nests, musrooms, tracks, and evergreens. In each chapter various species are arranged alphabetically by common name. The book is simply chock full of fascinating information. I will read several sections (or even chapters) at a time, and then am dying to get outside and look for these things. Highy recommended.

A Guide to Nature in Winter is an un paralleled introduction to the wintertime natural world. Nature is never dormant: on close observation, a silent, snow- blanketed winter landscape reveals itself as the setting for intense and purposeful activity in the plant and animal worlds. Because natural activity is greatly simplified in winter, though, it is the ideal season to introduce oneself to the complex series of relationships that tie the natural world together.

Perhaps this volume is better described as eight comprehensive field guides in one. Donald Stokes covers thoroughly the eight prominent aspects of winter most easily studied in the field: winter weeds, snow crystals, wintering trees, evidence of in sects, birds and abandoned nests, winter mushrooms, tracks in the snow, and ever green plants. For each topic, he provides a general introduction, a key to field identification of items within the topic, and a natural history description of each item (arranged alphabetically, by common name).

The 485 stunning pen-and-ink drawings that grace these pages make accurate field identification easy and convey a feeling for nature in its entirety. A Guide to Nature in Winter will inform and entertain nature lovers, winter walkers, cross-country skiers, campers, birdwatchers, armchair naturalists - in short, everyone interested in understanding the marvels held by nature in winter. The combination of an expertly organized text and splendid illustrations enables readers to see, clearly and piercingly, the winter landscape as a bountiful whole.

Donald Stokes is a naturalist and teacher. Deborah Prince is a freelance artist. Both live in Massachusetts.

"Harsh Justice is original, imaginative, and erudite. The mastery of
sources in many languages is awe-inspiring, and Whitman's argument resounds with daring suggestions and bold insights. A genuinely learned book, nothing short of brilliant."
--Lawrence Friedman, author of Law in America

"In this book James Whitman asks and answers questions in realms where others fear to tread. He confronts the brutal fact that we punish more harshly in the United States than do Europeans and forces us to think about the questions of social structure that lie behind this practice. He develops a thesis about the current impact of Nazi jurisprudence that is sure to trigger arguments from more conventional thinkers. This is a profound book, impeccably researched and documented, one that will change the way we think about criminal punishment and increase our appreciation of comparative legal studies."
--George Fletcher, author of The Secret Constitution

"Original, insightful, and provocative, Harsh Justice will start a conversation that has been importantly absent from modern criminology and criminal law. James Whitman asks fundamental questions about the cultural roots of modern differences in penal policy in developed nations and breaks new ground in addressing these issues."
--Franklin E. Zimring, William G. Simon Professor of Law, University of California, Berkeley

Anyone who pays attention to the criminal justice systems in America and in other Western democracies knows that the U.S. as a whole is more punitive in its responses to lawbreaking than any similar society. Professor Whitman's wonderful book addresses the question of why this is so. The book's answers, rooted in centuries of history and rich comparative analysis, are surprising, provocative, and persuasive. I know I'll be considering and reconsidering Whitman's major arguments for a long time to come.

I am an avid reader of books on the paranormal. This book is one of the best I've read! It's obvious a lot of historical research was done for each story. It was well written and really made me feel like I was on the ghost hunt with the writers. The website allows you to hear and see the evidence collected. This is a must read for anyone interested in ghosts, hauntings and the paranormal!

This book was one of the best on investigations into the paranormal. It is a very fast read and you also get to do interactive studies on the web to go with the book. The writers take you on a tour of each supposed haunted place in Michigan. They make you feel like you are actually with them as they investigate. The book is definitly worth buying!! After reading, you want to visit every haunted place.

The author is the student who excelled at the University of Toronto, where Thomas F. Homer-Dixon is a professor (and himself author of "Environment, Scarcity, and Violence"), and is now a professor at the University of Southern Florida.

Although the Central Intelligence Agency got this right in the 1970's, clearly warning U.S. policymakers that AIDS and related diseases were "the" catastrophic threat to national security and regional stability in the closing quarter of the 20th century, and although the United Nations and its various agencies have clearly understood the relationship between disease, environmental degradation, and instability--with all that instability brings in terms of crime, forced migration, and so on, the author gets five stars for doing an absolutely brilliant job of putting all of this knowledge--and his own original contributions--into a readable volume that can be understood by the most loosely-educated policymakers we have, as well as the voting public.

The author does a superb job of both crediting others (e.g. Laurie Garrett, whose stunning book "BETRAYAL OF TRUST: The Collapse of Global Public Health" we reviewed last year) while weaving his own insights into the story. ERIDs are "emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases." They matter more now because, as the author summarizes it, modern man is in a very different situation today: "individuals can travel around the world rapidly by airplane, and overpopulation and the growth of megacities have created entirely new 'disease pools' that will allow new pathogens to emerge and flourish."

The author has done a fine job of documenting how "human-induced worldwide environmental destruction" is both releasing pathogens from their hiding places in rain forests, launching new microbes that wreak havoc on aquatic life, and proliferating resistant strains of micobial terrorists we do not understand. Bacteria, in brief, are a thousand to a million times more deadly that any terrorist gang, and we would be wise to get our priorities straight as we set about pretending to govern.

As a general statement, the author appears to have done very very well as identifying intervening variables that could be analyzed, and his conclusions on what needs to be done are "President ready." He not only makes his case, he ends by calling for a massive increase in "health intelligence," and thereby demonstrates a wit lacking in most academics.

The notes are excellent, there is no bibliography, and the index is so mediocre it might as well not have been included--there is also no biography of this talented author, a grevious lack. The book should be reissued with this deficiencies being corrected.

For vexing reasons, political scientists have long neglected the role of health in understanding societal stability and regime transitions. Price-Smith begins to fill this void by offering this excellent genesis for the field of health security. Using some of the models developed by Thomas Homer-Dixon regarding nonrationality and complex causality, Price-Smith critically examines how HIV, malaria and TB, among other, could have potentially devastating consequences--for the developing and the developed world.

What makes this book all the more useful is that Price-Smith goes beyond the anecdotal or journalistic accounts that have dominated our understanding of public health's relationship to politics. He provides both rigorous statistical analysis and compelling case studies to prove his points. His writing style is clear and unassuming, a welcome approach for those without an extensive public health/biology background.

This book made me think of Julian Simon's book "The Ultimate Resource" because they both build the argument that ordinary people determine the fate of nations. That is they build the successful societies, the very few free and prosperous nations that have shown the way for others to follow. In the early days of growing economies the drive and motivation of all citizens works for the common good. Climate and natural resources are secondary to the genius of the people who will always find a way if given the chance "to make it happen." That is why Julian Simon calls them "the ultimate resource." The stories of such individuals make up the basis of this very enlightening book by Lodge and Roosevelt.

The brief biographies of these uncommon commoners shows how the brilliance of American freedom found expression in its ordinary citizens. The authors avoid the failings of the academics who seek to rewrite history to accomodate current agendas--the latter deliberately manipulate history in order to manipulate the future course of their country. Too many current books paint the pioneers of America with their anti-American brush. But in these stories, Lodge and Roosevelt strip away all that modern re-write and clearly reveal the great opportunities and upward mobility that was available to all and that served the nation so well. Each story is full of new information about the lives and times of the characters and demonstrates the past strength of our cultural and religious beliefs.

There is a growing theory that the lesson of history--the explanation why some societies Rose and others stagnated, is simply a question of whether the bulk of the ordinary people had economic freedom. Only in free and open societies can all the people strive to contribute to the nation's success. And that massive and combined effort is what brought success. This theory has been summarized and dubbed "The Radzewicz Rule" in my recent book COMMON GENIUS: Guts, Grit, and Common Sense: How Ordinary People Create Prosperous Societies and How Intellectuals Make Them Collapse That book like the biographical stories by Lodge and Roosevelt recognizes that the famous and powerful characters of history often did more harm than good, and that the overwhelming forward progress was driven by the genius of common people.

This is definitely a book to read and re-read. It is a refreshing look back to the times when we had heroes--people who acted based on strong principles rather than expediency. It is to be noted that all those selected did good things--such individuals, fiercely independent and self-reliant, built the nation. (They never looked on themselves as "victims" of asked for a hand-out.) Such people do not ever cause a nation to decline, stagnate, or Fall. Today there is a new elite that have usurped the role of ordinary people, and that may be our downfall, but in this fine volume you can relive the exploits of those who helped create our great "city on a hill." Bill Greene

I learned so many possible things that TR has done for us and his country. In my opinion, TR was a hero. He established U.S. leadership in the world as no other president had before. He was truly amazing.

I've been writing reviews of books about Central America for several years for a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer publication. This is by far the best book I've ever read about the region. Carr was a biologist, botanist and teacher, best known for his sea turtle research and establishment of the Tortuguera National Park in Costa Rica. This book details his early exploration of Honduran and Nicaraguan ecosystems in the late 1940's, experiences which were to change his life and change the face of Central American environmentalism. Carr's curiosity, humor and understanding shine in every page. A scientist and trained observer, he maintained a sense of wonder, and was not above being awed by a landscape or a bird sighting. He writes possibly the best line ever written about Olancho, the rich, wild eastern part of Honduras where anything can happen: "It's not the light." he writes. "It's Olancho."

Anyone hoping to make a trip to Honduras or hoping to better understand this fascinating region would benefit from this book.

I believe that this book was very informative on the geography of Nicaragua and Honduras. Archie Carr ventured through the cloud forests and jungles of Honduras and Nicaragua, portraying in impecible detail the beasts, men, and plants of the villages, jungles, forests, and rivers, while siting some of the history of Honduras and Nicaragua. The author was a sea turtle expert, naturalist, author and scientist. I highly reccomend this book to any who seek knowledge of jungle creatures and plants.

Armenia is a land with a complex and diverse history, full of tragedy. "History's Twists: The Armenians" is a collection of poetry from highly published and award winning poet Helene Pilibosian. With a degree from Harvard, she applies her expertise of Humanities in a look at the Armenian people. "History's Twists: The Armenians" is a well crafted and highly recommended addition to any poetry lover's collection. "The Orange Taste": It's a constant summer/where Armencia vulgaris/plays its sonata in the minor key,/its tunes derived from the fertile crescent/of geological geography/or holistic history.//This taps the ancient worth/of the standard apricot/as emigrant to California,/fruit that hasn't lacked in accepting earth's many berths/with sweetness in its sweep.

Helene Pilibosian is a unique, fine poet, a woman overflowing with her Armenian heritage which she celebrates throughout this book of poems, weaving the ancient history, the not so distant history of the early 1900s and the current reflections of the many transplanted Armenians who have settled in many countries after the Diaspora that followed the 1915 horror on her colorful and richly detailed loom. She has a profound respect and understanding of the place of Armenia in world history and for those readers whose knowledge of that country's changing geography and relationship to the great kingdoms and conquerors, Pilibosian has a technique that allows entry into this under-appreciated past.

But what makes Pilibosian's poetry most interesting and seductive is her interlacing the immigrant experience with the voices of 'those who stayed behind'. Some of these poems, written in a narrative style with a refreshing respect for language as it describes and plays with itself in rhyme, address contemporary issues peculiar to Armenians while others step into the universal arena, a space enlightened by a mind whose focus and devotion has been honed by a respect for roots.

We are never quite sure how many of Helene Pilibosian's characters are real and how many are convenient creations for poetic dialogue. She can be very first person personal: 'I spilled my American hopes/of many afternoons/on the pavements that wore my life./An Armenian daughter doesn't forget/the name that gets her born,/ the long curls that were shorn.' She can be a resource for history: 'Oral history is a vagrant goat...Orphans were necessary for survival./ America and Europe were the pills....Remembrance is the epitaph/for ghosts of humble glory.' She pays homage to some of the great Armenian artists as in 'Letter to Khachaturian on his 100th Birthday, 2003'. But for this reader she is most effective in her longer, rapturously beautiful poem 'Letter to Nazeli', an exchange of thoughts and feelings between one who stayed in the homeland and one whose physical presence is in a foreign Gilead.

Doubtless with the publication of this book Helene Pilibosian's importance as a contemporary poet will be more widely recognized. She deserves her special place in the pantheon of humanistic artists. Grady Harp, August 08

This powerful book is an indictment of U.S. intervention in Central America. Unlike the numerous accounts of the CIA involvement in the wars against democracy, however, Porpora focuses on American public's reaction - or non-reaction - to the genocidal policies of our "allies" in Central America. He draws strong parallels between the US in the 1980-90's and Germany in the 1920-30's and demonstrates that it is the moral indifference of the general public that allows evil to flourish, and that ultimately it is the general public that is responsible.

This very acute work tells two tales, that of the Holocaust, and of the imperialism of the United States in Central America. Although some might disagree with the author's Holocaust interpretation it is well reasoned and documented. But his basic point is unsettling: We say 'never again' to the Holocaust, yet we barely register what has happened in Guatemala, El Salvador in the past generation. If we wonder at the reason Germans were passive during the era of Hitler, we should find an example in our own behavior.

My third graders like this book very much and it sparks a lot of discussion about America and freedom. It's about a family that must flee a Caribbean island because of political persecution. They escape in a crowded boat, where they face hunger and fear. On their trip they are even robbed and shot at. Finally, they reach a friendly shore where they are welcomed and invited to share a feast, for it is Thanksgiving Day in America. They agree there is much to be thankful for. The text is very simple and the illustrations convey the mood of fear and uncertainty. This little book may bring tears to your eyes, and will definitely make you proud to be an American.

Eve Bunting has managed to describe at a child's level the fear, anticipation and exhaustion that often accompanied many of our ancestors as they came to America. This book is a reminder of the people who both came before us and those that still come with hope to America.

It is a beautiful, meaningful and heartwarming book to share with elementary students and families either during the Thanksgiving season or while studying history and immigration.

This is perhaps the most original book written about Val Lewton's famous horror movies in decades. Nemerov looks at four images from Lewton's movies, images that center on little-known character actors Nemerov then shows how these tie into Lewton's Russian background, Lewton's career as a novelist, and American pop culture during World War II.

Rarely have I seen Lewton's films subjected to this kind of close analysis. While I might have wished that Nemerov focused on something from "The Seventh Victim" or "The Body Snatcher," I have to say that what he said made very good sense and placed Lewton in a broader context. (As opposed to the common idea that Lewton was such a genius that his films stand apart from everything else in the horror genre.) This is the rare book of which it can be said that I wish it were longer. Nemerov's enthusiasm for Lewton shines through, but he also has balanced judgment on Lewton's limitations as well. Strongly recommended for anyone interested in horror films or films of the Forties.

"Icons of Grief" is a fascinating critical study of producer Val Lewton's RKO horror films within a World War II context. Historian Alexander Nemerov examines the subtle power of Lewton's low-budget chillers (notably "Cat People," "I Walked With a Zombie" and "The Ghost Ship") and the cultural reflection upon wartime America. By providing new insights on Lewton and his work, Nemerov encourages the reader to seek out these remarkable films.