California Books

I am a new science teacher. I have found this book to be a necessity in my classroom. In talking with veteran teachers, they also see this book as vital to any biology teacher. It is easy to use and provides many innovative ideas.

This is one of three essential source books that includes A Sourcebook for Elementary Science and Geology and Earth Sciences Sourcebook (out of print). Professionals in business, science, engineering, agriculture and K-12 & university education keep these sourcebooks close at hand. These are the "how to" methods of science. You are cost-effective by efficient use of equipment, glassware, reagents and specimens. I regularly give the Sourcebook for the Biological Sciences as a gift to those I work with.

After majoring in biology decades ago, there are only two books that I did not sell. This is one of them. It is truly a "keeper". As a science teacher, I continue to find it useful every year.

The wealth of information encompasses such diverse topics as the solving of biological problems using the chi-square, the making of stock solutions (for example, Lugol's solution), examinations of onion cells, the testing for Vitamin C content, field classification of conifers, and the culturing of live animals in the lab or classroom. The latter include earthworms, daphnia, hydra, Drosophila, and brine shrimp.

A great resource for science methods and information.

This book provides descriptions of all the parks in the area it covers, with maps that show nearly all hiking trails and advice on when is the best time of year for each. I wish the equivalent books for other parts of the bay area were this complete.

For over a year this book has been my bible for selecting hikes in the south bay area. The authors' trail descriptions are vivid, and their routes are planned well. I have two major grievances: first, their loquacious style can make it hard to determine exactly what turns you're supposed to take and when. Secondly, finding a hike is too cumbersome: you go to page 18 to search the map for the park you want, then back to the table of contents to find the page number for the park, then forward to the actual content. The map should be in the very front or back of the book and should include page numbers. Despite those annoyances, I still bring this book with me every weekend, and can recommend it as a good guide.

This is a wonderful book that goes into great deatil about the many trails in and around the South Bay. It breaks down the area by specific parks and then suggested hikes, including mileage, elevation loss or gain, and time. It even has a neat little appendix outlining hikes by category (ie., short hikes, hikes to see spring flowers, etc.) The text is detailed, explaining what you will find around every bend, and the historical information on the parks is very interesting. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking to get out and away from the hustle and bustle of Silicon Valley.

I just replaced my battered copy of the first edition with the latest, third one, and it's a real winner! These authors' books are always educational, interesting and complete. And best of all they lead one into many fine hiking adventures around the bay. I've spent many a fine summer day following their instructions. It's about time they put out a new edition, because of all the new parks and trails they had to cover. Recommended!

Carey McWilliams has been called "the single finest nonfiction writer on California--ever." This book, along with *California: The Great Exception* (1949), helped establish that reputation. Drawing on McWilliams's deep insight and remarkable versatility--he moved easily between the worlds of politics, law, literature, and journalism--this book, even after six decades, still captures the spirit and energy of a region that seems to remake itself continuously. *Southern California* has influenced not only journalists and academics, but also artists. One of its chapters, for example, inspired Robert Towne's Oscar-winning original screenplay for *Chinatown* (1974).

Unlike most historians, McWilliams also made history by serving in state government, arguing against the Japanese internment during World War II, and defending the rights of workers, minorities, and the unjustly accused--frequently in high-profile cases such as the Sleepy Lagoon murder trial and the Hollywood 10. In one critical area after another, McWilliams mapped the social and political territory, raised the main issues, distilled the key facts, and proposed the most practical remedies. He's probably the most versatile American public intellectual of the 20th century, and *Southern California* is one of his masterpieces. Highly recommended.

Originally published in 1946, McWilliams describes the socio-historical and economic formations of Southern California from the "bottom up" in a way uncharacteristic for his time period. He unveils the racist, eurocentric, environmentally devastating, materialistic and otherwise ruthless basis for the area's hegemonic culture, economy, and social relations. Moreover, he adds great insight into the incorporation of California into the world capitalist system. He covers the use, abuse, and devastation of various peoples in the area including Native Americans, Californios, Chinese, Japanese, Oklahomans and Mexicans. He also offers insight into the materialism or 'fake' culture which has emerged from the area only to exploit the cultures it has destroyed. The book is a bit long winded at times, but overall is a must read for anyone intersted in the topics I've described. It would be of interest to anyone who appreciates Almaguer's Racial Faultlines, Pitt's The Californios, or even Montejano's Anglos and Mexicans in the Making of Texas.

For all residents of Southern California past, present, or potential, there can be no better book about this unmatchable part of the world. Past residents (like myself) will sigh with fond remembrance, current residents will be amused, and potential future residents will be astonished. All will be entertained. The land, the geography, the history, and the weather. They're all discussed. The social outcasts, the wierd misfits, the kooks, the characters, and their schemes and dreams. It's all here, along with so very much more. Written by a longtime resident in a very entertaining style that combines dinner conversation with classroom lecture, this book will be a joy to anyone who has a love for the irreplacable experience of Living In Southern California. You will truly FEEL as though you are there. This book is one for the heart as well as the mind. Oh Los Angeles, how I miss you. Carey McWilliams, thanks for taking me back.

....California historian known to me, with his pithy style, his endlessly fascinating observations, and his anecdotes, rich in history and amusing in detail, which unlike the rivers of my state flow one after the other without any damming. I'm a native of Southern California, and I have yet to find a better book on this territory even though this one was originally penned in the late 40's.

The colonizers, the boosters, the flamboyant pillars of society who bamboozled, bulldozed, and boutiqued their way into California: they and other characters appear on the McWilliams stage in a fascinating--and at times disturbing--progression in which the land itself, that most neglected of characters, puts in appearances too. For we Southern Californians live in a land of constant paradoxes; to quote the author ("The Land of Upside Down"):

"To their amazement"--he means tourists--"they discovered that umbrellas were useless against the drenching rains of Southern California but that they made good shade in the summer; that many of the beautifully colored flowers had no scent; that fruit ripened earlier in the northern than in the southern part of the state; that it was hot in the morning and cool at noon...here, in this paradoxical land, rats lived in the trees and squirrels had their homes in the ground." No wonder we're all a bit topsy-turvy out here.

My one objection: I disagree with the author's description of the early Missions as "concentration camps." That through disease and, later, a mis-education that left the Native converts vulnerable to ranchero exploitation and settler genocide is beyond question; but however misguided their efforts, those early padres had no conscious agenda of wiping out a people. Nevertheless, McWilliams's detailed accounts of Mission life provide a much-needed antidote to the idealization and denial and Eurocentric bias that saturate most Mission histories.

If you want to know Southern California better, then of course you must stand on her soil and listen to her voices; but you could do much worse for an intro-at-a-distance than this fine book, which fellow natives will find confirming and eye-opening.

Like many of you, I'm a total advocate for human space exploration. Sure, robots are great, with their industructability and unquestioning loyalty, but there are times when you really need to get some human hands and eyes on location to provide some solid data and deal with the unexpected. But humans are soft, fragile, and can sometimes get a little grumpy.

Spacefaring: the Human Dimension by Albert Harrison helps fill a niche that I've found largely unfilled in most of the space exploration books I've read - how to keep humans alive, and stop them from killing each other during long space trips. And by focusing only on this aspect of space travel, Harrison gives the subject matter the time and respect it deserves. Each element is covered in tremendous detail, including the basics of food, air, water, heat, etc. but also the more psycological elements of coping with stress, group dynamics, training, and dealing with mistakes and disasters. Harrison throws in a plenty of anecdotes to give real world examples to the topics covered.

I'd recommend this book to anyone who finds this aspect of space exploration fascinating. I'd especially recommend it to folks like the Mars Society, as many of the issues have been largely ignored by NASA so far. And I'd force scriptwriters and directors to read this book before they make another Mission to Mars. Great book!

Al Harrison's book "SPACEFARING" has the qualities of an instant classic. It deals brilliantly with the central element in our ventures into space, the human being. It is a book about human factors in space. The work has the thoroughness and completeness of an academic treatise, but still reads easily. It is packed with little-known anecdotes and many cool historical and technical facts. The book's clear organization is particularly helpful, not just for guiding the layreader through a complex subject, but also for serving as a quick reference for space exploration professionals needing to read up on a specific topic. The book offers both a summary of lessons learnt and an analysis of our possible spacefaring future. For planners of a human mission to Mars, this is an ideal synthesis of where we stand on the subject of human factors.

Al Harrison, professor of psychology at the University of California, Davis, is doing some far-reaching and somewhat unique work on the psychological impact of the "high frontier". His previous book, After Contact, explored some of the possible psychological and social implications of contact with extraterrestrial intelligence. Now, in Spacefaring, he tackles these same issues as they apply to long-term human habitation, exploration, and settlement in space. This book is not just for the academic or space specialist. Soon, we shall all be involved and affected in some way with the human migration into the solar system and beyond. Essential - and entertaining - reading for those who want to know what lies on the journey ahead!

Al Harrison's new book is simply the best resource on the human side of spaceflight ever written. From radiation hazards to ergonomics to sex in space, Harrison provides a readable, comprehensive overview of the state of our knowledge. There are details aplenty, enough brilliant tidbits to add verisimilitude to any novel.

Harrison focuses on NASA's hostility to human-factors research, particularly in contrast to the Russians' long history of interest in crew selection and the effects of long-duration spaceflight. Given NASA's recent objections to the flight of Dennis Tito, this context is extremely timely.

His concluding chapter, on the drive to explore space, why we came so far so quickly, then walked away from human exploration, is well-reasoned, insightful and deeply passionate.

Tarnhelm. The very name of the great old house on the cliffs beside the Pacific Ocean spells hope and mystery. Here, with Uncle Dirk and his mother, Cory Winterslow will surely find a home. What she finds is a lot of mystery surrounding her Uncle Dirk. There is strange music in the night, the whispers of the town people, and even rumors about the unicorn necklace she wears.

I guess this is the same story as the other reviews - I loved this book when I was a young girl and checked it out of the library several times. I recently purchased a used version of the book and enjoyed it all over again - more than 30 years after I first read it. Eleanor Cameron's style lets your imagination run away but in a believable way. I recommend this book for young and formerly young people everywhere.

I have thought of this book often ever since I first read it as a child. I couldn't remember the name nor the author but knew it immediately when I came across it recently at the library. I agree with the previous review, Cameron's writing is mystical yet natural. I reread it and was instantly taken to that otherwordly realm full of shadows and possibilities, a place where the natural world and the fantasy world coexist. All of Cameron's books are written with a richness and beauty that challenge the young reader while entertaining her. I recommend any of Cameron's books most enthusiastically.

I fell in love with this book in the fourth grade and still read it periodically. Superstition and magic play a part in this story of a young girl searching for her place in the world. This is not really a fantasy; the plot is very down-to-earth, but Cameron's writing has a mystical feel to it that delights without creating over-imaginative horrors. Excellent for 4th and 5th grade readers, but interesting enough for older readers as well. Definitely a book to remember.

Great pictures of what has to be one of the nicest sports facilities in the world. I've been to one game here - and as a resident of Seattle, I honestly think that Safeco is a better place to watch a game. However, no stadium can match the asthetic views and its situation in one of the most beautiful cities in the world makes Pac Bell #1.

This it a really good book. The pictures are spectacular, the writing is good, and it includes newspaper articles written about the park. The information about the clubhouse, trainer's room etc. is great. I would recommend this to any baseball fan! (Non-Dodger fan anyway) :-)

Every fan of the the Giants should get this book and wallow in the beauty of Pacific Bell Park, if you can't get there yourself. The park really is probably the most beautiful ballpark in baseball, a tiny little gem that nevertheless plays like a huge pitcher's stadium thanks to the bizarre asymmetry of its outfield (and a San Francisco wind that the park's engineering turned into an ally, instead of the vicious Hawk it was at Candlestick Park.)

But it's also a great collection of essays from baseball writers including George Will and Peter Gammons, and local writers sharing memories of the team and the long years of waiting in the cold and fog for a world championship that still hasn't come. Those essays are some of the best parts of the book, moving and nostalgic in the best sense.

The body text, that tracks the long road from New York through Candlestick to the drama of building a new ballpark without the safety net of public money, then chronicles the great 2000 season, is little more than acceptable, but in a coffee table book what you want is gorgeous photographs and insightful vignettes, and "Splash Hit" has that in aces.

Finally, a coffee table book that was difficult to put down after looking at all the spectacular pictures.

After having "Splash Hit!" on order since first hearing about it's publication; I finally got my chance to actually own it. And read it and read it and read it, again. You cannot put this book down if you love ballparks, baseball, architecture and perhaps, the most intriguingly, beautiful city in America; San Francisco.

"Splash Hit" is the name adopted by San Francisco Giants fans that describes any home run hit just beyond the right field wall that land's in the San Francisco Bay waters aptly named McCovey Cove.

An amazing book by Joan Walsh and C.W.Nevius, "Splash Hit" explores the progression of Pacific Bell Park in San Francisco from it's initial conceptual brainchild of a downtown ballpark to it's wonderfully anticipated Opening Day Game and throughout 2000 season.

The tastefully cram-packed, 140-page book begins with incredible color photos of: an aeriel view of Pac Bell at night (with The City in the background), Giant and Dodger players standing for the National Anthem on Opening Day, another aeriel photo of The Park with the San Francisco Bay in the background, Ellis Burks sliding into home to score against the Cardinals, another night-time aeriel shot to a full cityscape at dusk of San Francisco and Pac Bell.

The forward is written by Giants President Peter Magowan and Vice President Larry Baer. They discuss everything from the Giants rumored 1992 move to Florida to the "VISION" coming to fruition.

The book is graced with at least 140 color pictures (many two-page spreads) and some 20-plus black and white photos of the Giants illustrious past from John McGraw/Christy Mathewson to Willie Mays/Willie McCovey. The Giants ten homes are discussed in this chapter in detail. Their move to San Francisco is also closely chronicled. The photos take you around, over, inside and under this magnificent structure from it's humble beginning to it's fan-friendly completion in The City That Knows How.

The text is well thoughout and chronicled from beginning to end as well. Each chapter draws yo in further as to the hows, whens, whys and how-comes of PBP. If you like the wriiten history of Major League Baseball and how it came West; then this book explains it all in great detail.

But the real beauty of this book is the complete photograph history of Pacific Bell Park, Giants fans and The City of San Francisco. Never before have I seen a "love story" between a team and its city been told as well. How the City Fathers' vision of a rejuvenated China Basin area of San Francisco came to pass. And how the real beauty of this old-styled stadium is incorporated into the natural landscape of the most breathtaking City in the world.

The book contains views of many fans, celebrities and athletes such as ESPN's Chris Berman and Peter Gammons; famed writers George F. Will and Ron Fimrite. Local longtime Bay Area columnists Leonard Koppett, Ann Killion, Joan Ryan, Rick Clogher, Darryl Brock, Dave Newhouse and Nick Peters, who has authored the definative San Francisco Giants history in four books about the Giants; give a unique slant on the local residents' feelings about the ballpark and the team. There is even an essay by Joe Spears of HOK Sport, the company that designed Pac Bell, on early concepts of a downtown San Francisco baseball stadium.

The book is liberally sprinkled with quotations and thoughts of Giant players, Giants' Manager Dusty Baker and other Major League Baseball players. These qoutes give you a great players' perspective of the different attitudes, climate and aspirations as opposed to frigid Candlestick Park.

I got a big kick out of the chapter that details "B.A.R.K."- Baseball Aquatic Rescue Korps. It is a group of dogs (Portugese Water Spaniels, evolving from an idea by local comedian/Saturday Night Live regular Don Novella aka Father Guido Sarducci); that patrol the Bay for homeruns that land in the splashdown area called McCovey Cove just beyond right field.

This book is THE BEST I've ever owned about a baseball park or any other athletic facility. It makes a great companion to other related books: "Above San Francisco by Robert Cameron, "The Ballpark Book" by Ron Smith and The Sporting News and "Take Me Out To The Ballpark" by Josh Leventhal.

Get this book NOW while it is still in print. It is one you won't want to miss.

This book is a nice illustration of Yosemite Park.
It may serve as a good beginning for a little kid's spiritual path.

While the story alone is enough to engage even the most rambunctious children aged 4-8 and lead them to study nature, author-illustrator Emily Arnold McCully's natural watercolor artwork makes the words on the page come alive and awakens a yearning to experience nature too. There is more of the main character, a girl nicknamed "Squirrel," in most of us than we would like to admit! The book's images show us a spritely dynamo of a girl who goes from 'rebellious' to 'inquisitive' as her mentor, John Muir, a gentle giant of a man, teaches her many object lessons and observational skills in the great outdoors. This book won the 2005 Giverny Award, given annually for the best children's science picture book. McCully's artwork gives us a sense of moments of self-discovery in nature, frozen in time. In the story, Muir honed her powers of observation by his own example. He had not lost his childlike sense of wonder, even though, when he arrived at her father's hotel, SHE almost had. The sheer joy of studying nature with Muir gradually replaced her delight in causing trouble. Near the end of the story, Floy (Squirrel) even became a nature guide for the tourists who visited the Yosemite Valley. The torch had been passed to another generation.

This book is about John Muir--an early naturalist in Yosemite Valley who founded the Sierra Club--and his young daughter called "Squirrel" This beautiful picture book is designed for early elementary. I would put together information about Muir--e.g., http://www.sierraclub.org/john_muir_exhibit/ --along with photos of Yosemite Valley so the students could imagine what it would be like to want to protect the land. This book would make a good historical bridge to science and environmental studies.

When author/artist Emily Arnold McCully set her sights on famed naturalist John Muir and a little girl whom he met in Yosemite in 1868 the result was a splendid story which isn't totally true - but, it could have been.

At that time Muir was 30-years-old. He'd been to college, worked at several jobs, and felt a strong call to commune with nature and discover its laws. When he arrived in Yosemite hoping to prove his theory of glacial formation, he was hired by James Hutchings, an English journalist bent on attracting tourism to the area. Hutchings was also bent on one other task - taming his spirited daughter, Floy. Here was a girl who never wanted to grow up because then she'd have to be a lady. A thought quite repellant to the rebellious young miss whose nickname was Squirrel. She happily spent hours "talking to the family's pet parrot, balancing on a plank by the woodpile, making mud pies, and capturing frogs."

As the story develops Muir and Squirrel soon become the best of friends as he shows her how to see through his eyes the incredible surroundings in which she lives.

It is not known whether or not Floy grew up to be a lady, but it is known that John Muir became famous and the world has benefitted by what he learned.

- Gail Cooke

This is a lovely book with wonderful photographs of Hollywood fashion icons. Another thing that is great about this book is that it features those who are not as popularly remebered, such as Delores Del Rio, along with more popular icons such as Audrey Hepburn. Great book! Highly recommended!

This book is so pleasing I made sure I bought two copies. Very
Beautiful fashion summaries for some very beautiful Hollywood leading ladies. My favorite fashion icons are Audrey Hepburn, Marilyn Monroe, and
Dolores Del Rio. I wish the author would do another book that highlight current fashion icons such as Jennifer Lopez, Nicole Kidman, Halle Berry etc.

I think this is the best Hollywood fashion book there is! The photos are great and the stories are fun.

I bought the hardcover edition -- it was my favorite fashion book. But now, the revised edition with the introduction that involves new stars and their photos (Gwyneth Paltrow, Whoopi Goldberg, Drew Barrymore and Cher) adds a new dimension to the story. I'm really happy and for a paper back, the quality is EXCELLENT. Thanks Patty Fox!

It is easy to forget what it was like before Roe vs. Wade. This important work reminds older women and shows younger women the tremendous impact the issue of choice has on lives. It reads like a mystery and develops into a can't-put- it-down good read.

Sometimes people forget that mid-twentieth century California was not just Hollywood, but a large, sparsely populated state, with hundreds of small rural communities. In _Staying Under_, Carol Alma McPhee recreates that California for readers. As a woman who grew up in a similar environment, I want to vouch for her accuracy of detail as well as her ear for dialogue. Maureen and Joann, her two main characters, sound just the way my friends and I did fifty years ago.

McPhee uses her setting to provide a sense of what frightening challenges might face young women emerging from such a protected rural environment in 1948. She also uses the setting to show how all kinds of isolation and separation affect the development of women: isolation from knowledge about themselves, isolation from sensible help from the community, isolation created by the lies told each other.

Though Staying Under is not a mystery, it reads like a mystery. The answer to the question of what Joann is going to do about her pregnancy in 1948--before Roe vs. Wade-- and how she might find help becomes more and more frightening as you read on. This is especially true as McPhee contrasts the life Joann has led as an adult and her strong and passionate character as an adolescent. In general, characterization is one of McPhee's strong points. Maureen, the friend who tries to help the teen age Joann, hasn't changed as much as her friend as she has grown older, but she has developed into a competent and active woman who loves to make fun of herself. Of the men in the book, Paul Ridley, Joann's father who pursues strange religions is the most interesting, though Collie, who keeps an imaginary frog in his pocket, adds to the suspense at the end.

I had forgotten how little information girls had in 1948 about ANYTHING that mattered and how hard it was to find out what we needed to know about ourselves and the world around us. This book reminded me of how our close friendships with other girls helped to nourish our survival.

debbie yamada visited our school

her book has so much history in it

did you know that the 2 kids in the story are the names of her children

I just finished reading "Striking It Rich," and I think it's a wonderful book. Using the story device of finding old letters from the 1850s worked very well; it brought the characters to life. I learned many things about Chinese immigrant life in the U.S. that I didn't know before--the novel is very informative.

I would strongly recommend this book to anyone (both adults and students) who wants a greater understanding of the reasons why the early Chinese immigrants would risk so much to come to a distant land and the hardships they faced upon their arrival.

I hope that the author, Debbie Leung Yamada, continues to write and produce more books such as this one. I think she has a fine talent and a voice that is needed to be heard.

This book is one of the most facinating books that I have read in a long time. It was captivating from beginning to end. I couldn't put it down once I started reading. This book taught me much about the history of Chinese-Americans during the Gold Rush Era. I recommend this book for all ages to read.

This is an exciting historical fiction book. The story starts when two kids visit their grandma's house and find a mystery room. Many exciting chapters await you as the secret unfolds. I read this book in one sitting because I couldn't wait to see what happened! Ms. Yamada brings this story to life! I enjoyed this book immensely.