Pacific Books

After reading this book, I felt it was a little "dated" but, overall, it's a great guide for the Gay and Lesbian Traveler to Hawaii. Many lists of what, where, why and when to go to Paradise!

I urge everyone to buy this book right away. It's the best damn book on Hawaii I ever read.

I urge everyone to buy this book right away. It's the best damn book on Hawaii I ever read.

Matthew Link presents a unique side to Hawaii in a complete, fun, and entertaining manner. The book is very well researched, and is suitable for anyone travelling to Hawaii or has been to Hawaii and wants to relive their experiences.

Rainbow Handbook Hawaii covers history, gay communities,interviews with local gays and lesbians, places to see, trivia, and photos. Also included in Rainbow Handbook Hawaii: detailed city and island maps - the same-sex marriage battle - homo bed and breakfasts - bars and clubs - eco-tours - restaurants - shops - vacation rentals - Hawaiian language glossary - and loads of gay island facts and pictures!

Not only is this a beautiful book but very informative about the Pacific Northwest's bounty of seafood. I work at an exclusive Country Club and took this book to our Chef; that week end he served a couple of recipes from it. Also I enjoyed reading the history of Ray's Boathouse.

Anyone who has had the opportunity to enjoy's Ray's Boathouse in Seattle knows what delicious food they serve! I was so excited to find that they had made a cookbook so that I could enjoy some of their dishes at home as well. From Dungeness Crab Cakes with Orange Tarragon Butter Sauce to Yakima Peach & Blackberry Crisp you will find making these Northwest treats easy and delicious for even the novice cook. The variety of seafood in the cookbook allows the rest of the country to experience the Northwest no matter where they live.

This is a rare find---a local cookbook which is first class, in both its layout and recipe accumen.

The photography here is breathtaking, as it would appear the views are from this Puget Sound restraurant. Their is early into this book a two-page sunset which is simply breathtaking. This is followed by nice history of the restaurant, which now includes as one of the owners Jack Sikma of Sonics fame.

Trying to find good Pacific Northwest recipes, this one certainly provides that in abundance. Especially seafood with its Ray's Cafe Seafood Margarita; Shrimp-Stuffed Artichokes with Herbed Cream Cheese; Dungeness Crab & Rock Shrimp Cakes with Ancho Chile Mayo; Grilled Copper River King Salmon with Pinot Noir Sauce; Ray's Cafe Salmon Burger with Basil Mayo and Wasabi Slaw; Parmesan Crusted Halibut with Roasted Tomato and Artichoke Ragout; Yakima Peach & Blackberry Crisp with Caramel Sauce;

Well thoughtout and balanced work with striking photos and accompanying prose to excite one to try these Seattle favorites. Meant to please and it delivers.

Anyone who has had the opportunity to enjoy's Ray's Boathouse in Seattle knows what delicious food they serve! I was so excited to find that they had made a cookbook so that I could enjoy some of their dishes at home as well. From Dungeness Crab Cakes with Orange Tarragon Butter Sauce to Yakima Peach & Blackberry Crisp you will find making these Northwest treats easy and delicious for even the novice cook. The variety of seafood in the cookbook allows the rest of the country to experience the Northwest no matter where they live.

Ray's Boathouse is a legendary restaurant at Seattle's Shilshole Bay. With an enviable panoramic view of the Olympic Mountains and Puget Sound, this has become a comforting location to enjoy a meal, watch boats sail by and enjoy entertaining conversations with friends and family.

My mother loves Coconut Prawns and I think that is why she purchased this cookbook. She has been so kind as to lend it to me for a few weeks. If you love seafood you will find recipes for everything from Black Pepper Dungeness Crab to Ray's Crab and Corn Chowder. You may enjoy trying recipes for the Parmesan-Crusted Halibut or the Pan Roasted Copper River Sockeye Salmon on a bed of sweet corn and fiddlehead ferns.

Tempting Recipes:

Spiced Peach-Currant Chutney
Shrimp Spring Rolls
Roasted Garlic Cheesecake
Boathouse Salad with Raspberry Vinaigrette
Dungeness Crab Cakes with Orange Tarragon Butter Sauce
Chardonnay Prawn Butter
Scharffen Berger Chocolate Indulgence - Chocolate Ganache with Chambord Sabayon
Deep-Dish Apple Pie
Lemon Mousse
Double Chocolate Walnut Brownies

The pictures in this cookbook make you want to run down to Pike Place Market to pick up fresh fish and other supplies. You might also want to visit Larry's Market to find a few of the produce items. Well, actually, if you are in Seattle, why not just visit this restaurant. We love Rays and I'm happy my mother bought this cookbook. She might not be seeing it for a few more months although she might be seeing me because I found a $10 off coupon for a lunch or dinner at Ray's Boathouse.

While many of the recipes look very gourmet in the pictures, they are not difficult to make and your only real concern will be where to find the freshest seafood possible in your local area. Amazon also has a gourmet food section so you can look for Scharffen Berger bittersweet chocolate for the chocolate indulgence recipe. You need at least three 9.7-ounce bars and the recipe serves 12.

~The Rebecca Review

We recently travelled in the Grand Canyon-Southern Utah area, and found this an invaluable resource. None of the reviews was off-base... although some of the prices are outdated at this point, it's to be expected. One thing that's nice about this guide is that it's pretty durable, so after several weeks of use in the planning of the trip, 10 days of being tossed about in backpack, car and luggage, and being used as a reference in my post-trip write-up of our travels, it still looks fairly new. I could probably sell it used, but I think I'll keep it for when I head back that way in a few years.

I travel in the Southwest frequently and have a diverse collection of guidebooks to the region. Rough Guide is my favorite, with the intelligently written descriptions and opinions. The other guidebooks are drier or shallower in comparison (Moon, Lonely Planet, Let's Go, DK, and Frommer's).

I usually carry multiple guidebooks on my vacations, but during my recent trip to the American Southwest I relied exclusively on this book.

One of the reasons I recommend this book is that it covers the Southwest as a single region, so it includes New Mexico, Arizona, southern Colorodo, southern Utah, and Las Vegas. Most other books are State-based, so it would take multiple books to cover the entire region.

Another reason to pick this book is that it is opinionated. It lists top ten sites in various categories (national parks, museums, etc.), so that you can plan your time effectively. The auther even recommends against some things, unlike most guidebooks.

I am picky about maps, and the maps in this book were uniformly accurate and reliable. Driving tips and recommended routes were quite useful.

You will also find this book compact and light. While some other books are loaded with pictures, I find these books best enjoyed at home, before and after my trip, because they are too heavy to lug around during my trip.

Finally, I stayed in 5 hotels, all recommended by this book, and they were all safe choices. If you are looking for a splurge, I recommend Goulding's lodge at Monument Valley, especially for fans of old movies. To my surprise, I enjoyed the museum on site. Also, I used the inroom VCR to watch Stagecoach, and this was the perfect setup for my Monument Valley visit the next morning. At Canyon do Chelly NM, I would recommend not staying at the overpriced, dreary lodge. It's cheaper to stay at one of the places just outside the park. In Santa Fe, the El Rey Inn is convenient, friendly, and has a Route 66 feel.

On our recent trip through the grand circle of national parks in the four corners area, we carried several paperback guides, but quickly discarded the others in favor of this excellent book. We started reading it out loud as we approached each new town because of its wry observations, but quickly came to trust its preview of each new stop. We were never disappointed when we chose a non-chain motel from its recommendations, and we never got a bad meal wherever it said the food was good (and this was a budget trip).

It isn't perfect -- things change too fast. For instance, there are many new motels within easy distance of the Grand Canyon, easing the squeeze many travelers have experienced, and more are under construction. And they didn't warn us to avoid the grossly mis-named Kodachrome state park. But wherever I travel next, a Rough Guide will be with me, you can be sure.

This is the mother of all Southwest guidebooks, and as one reviewer stated, it is most useful because it covers multiple states (New Mexico, Arizona, Southern Utah, and Southern Nevada).

The maps inside are second-to-none. I always trust these maps, especially when I need to get off the major highways to a less-traveled road.

This book has medium-to-small type and thin pages, so they pack a lot of information into a small space. This is great for the traveler who doesn't want to lug around a huge and heavy book.

Every town has a good description, history, and information, followed by a list of practicalities like where to eat, where to stay, where to get more information. The Indian reservations are covered in great detail, and this was essential for my trip.

Love this book and I highly recommend it to anyone driving through the Southwest.

My angle on this book is from an avid adventure & exploration reader's perspective. I enjoy reading the exploits of Franklin, Shackleton, Cooke, and such sea borne explorers.

One of the constants of all of the fantastic voyages of exploration is the inclusion of a physician / scientist. Almost in cliche style these doctors play a major role in the direction and guidance of the expedition. (If you will pardon the comparison, most ships doctors seem just like Bones on Star Trek.)

This book gathers together the biographies, anecdotes and histories of many of these physicians into a conherent historical theme.

Great book!! (Very readable and accessible.)

Medicine has long been an adventurous and rewarding profession - but these days we count those adventures in the halls of hospitals and rewards range from fat grants to the Nobel Prize. No modern physician, however, can tell the tale of being lionized by South Sea cannibals, tattooed from neck to toe, and then living to profit from several hit books about the experience.

That's just one of the unlikely thrillers found in the pages of Joan Druett's engaging and well-documented book Rough Medicine, a sweeping account of the lives of ships' physicians during the rough-and-ready times of the tall ship whalers. Armed with only a whiff of what would become modern medical knowledge and a sizeable chest of surgical tools, chemical cures, and organic nostrums they dealt with scurvy, malaria, yellow fever, bloody accidents and war wounds in ways the medical profession had never before dreamed. Indeed, if the surgeon was absent, the captain could fill in, administering a bit of bottle #6 with unguent #23 according to a book of symptoms and hope for the best!

What was so revolutionary about this? Everything. When the great sea trade routes were first established in the late Renaissance, medicine on shore was a bureaucratic tangle of licensed and often unionized doctors, surgeons, physicians, and pharmacists, all with their own conflicting turf, still mostly leaning on the antiquated texts of Galen to mete out their medical attentions.

That worked badly enough on shore, but at sea it was more or less useless. Starting with Dr. James Woodall's first all-in-one medicine-to-go sea chest in 1619, all the competing parts of the profession were packed into a single box and shipped off to sea under the command of one ship's surgeon. It was the ancestor of the modern emergency medical kit you now find in a paramedic's vehicle - designed to cut to the chase and get the job done, using whichever medical approach seemed to fit the emergency.

Ships doctors, along the way, turned into keen scientific observers of the societies and medicines of the seven seas and often doubled as accountants and journal-keepers (they could read and write) and even found themselves in command of the quarterdeck when the captain was busy in a whaleboat with a harpoon in his hand.

Some got rich, some came back in rags, some never came back at all. But all found the necessity to turn the medical profession into a personal unified vision of problems, symptoms, and remedies, judged less by dated physical concepts and more by immediate physical necessity. In doing so, they presaged the modern emergency room, where quick common sense and triage ruled the day, along with a large dose of human understanding and compassion.

This could have been a windy, scholarly tome on medical history as it evolved upon the waves, but under Druett's skillful hand it is a page-turner, backed with what is clearly the understanding and background of a world-class maritime scholar. I read it straight through at one sitting, including the complete listed contents of two period sea medicine chests, much of which can be found today in an alternative medicine store. What goes around, comes around - thousands of years of hands-on medicine still has a lot to say to us. In Ms. Druett's wonderful book, it has surely found home port.

-- John Townley

Renaissance astrologer/physician to Capt. George Salley, 1985 Godspeed recreation Jamestown voyage,

Founder, The Confederate Naval Historical Society

Medicine has long been an adventurous and rewarding profession - but these days we count those adventures in the halls of hospitals and rewards range from fat grants to the Nobel Prize. No modern physician, however, can tell the tale of being lionized by South Sea cannibals, tattooed from neck to toe, and then living to profit from several hit books about the experience.

That's just one of the unlikely thrillers found in the pages of Joan Druett's engaging and well-documented book Rough Medicine, a sweeping account of the lives of ships' physicians during the rough-and-ready times of the tall ship whalers. Armed with only a whiff of what would become modern medical knowledge and a sizeable chest of surgical tools, chemical cures, and organic nostrums they dealt with scurvy, malaria, yellow fever, bloody accidents and war wounds in ways the medical profession had never before dreamed. Indeed, if the surgeon was absent, the captain could fill in, administering a bit of bottle #6 with unguent #23 according to a book of symptoms and hope for the best!

What was so revolutionary about this? Everything. When the great sea trade routes were first established in the late Renaissance, medicine on shore was a bureaucratic tangle of licensed and often unionized doctors, surgeons, physicians, and pharmacists, all with their own conflicting turf, still mostly leaning on the antiquated texts of Galen to mete out their medical attentions.

That worked badly enough on shore, but at sea it was more or less useless. Starting with Dr. James Woodall's first all-in-one medicine-to-go sea chest in 1619, all the competing parts of the profession were packed into a single box and shipped off to sea under the command of one ship's surgeon. It was the ancestor of the modern emergency medical kit you now find in a paramedic's vehicle - designed to cut to the chase and get the job done, using whichever medical approach seemed to fit the emergency.

Ships doctors, along the way, turned into keen scientific observers of the societies and medicines of the seven seas and often doubled as accountants and journal-keepers (they could read and write) and even found themselves in command of the quarterdeck when the captain was busy in a whaleboat with a harpoon in his hand.

Some got rich, some came back in rags, some never came back at all. But all found the necessity to turn the medical profession into a personal unified vision of problems, symptoms, and remedies, judged less by dated physical concepts and more by immediate physical necessity. In doing so, they presaged the modern emergency room, where quick common sense and triage ruled the day, along with a large dose of human understanding and compassion.

This could have been a windy, scholarly tome on medical history as it evolved upon the waves, but under Druett's skillful hand it is a page-turner, backed with what is clearly the understanding and background of a world-class maritime scholar. I read it straight through at one sitting, including the complete listed contents of two period sea medicine chests, much of which can be found today in an alternative medicine store. What goes around, comes around - thousands of years of hands-on medicine still has a lot to say to us. In Ms. Druett's wonderful book, it has surely found home port.

-- John Townley

Renaissance astrologer/physician to Capt. George Salley, 1985 Godspeed recreation Jamestown voyage,

Founder, The Confederate Naval Historical Society

In "Rough Medicine," Joan Druett continues the excellence of such previous works as "Hen Frigates" and "She Captains" in bringing to her audience everday life upon the sea when ships under sail roamed the oceans. Where these other books focus on women who found themselves on long voyages, usually with their husbands who captained the ships, this new volume of easy to read history looks at life on the whaling ships of the early 1800s. These ships left port in search of whales and did not return until the holds were full of their valuable oil. If the captain and crew were lucky, it only took a year or two. To be gone four years or even five was not out of the question. Ms. Druett tells this story through the surviving diaries and journals of surgeons who accompanied the crews on these long and hazardous voyages. Along with extraordinary eye-witness accounts of whaling methods, the reader is shown that to be put under the knife in those days of rough medical techniques was scarcely less dangerous than battling whales in tiny boats. A main requirement to be a surgeon, it seems, was to be strong enough to hold down the unwilling patient. Reading "Rough Medicine" will leave you thankful to be living in our modern age, while at the same time make you wonder how archaic our methods of medicince will seem a hundred years from now. In the meantime, sit back with this good read of a life at sea, as so many of us have often wished to experience. And be glad you have all your arms and legs, and that no well-intentioned sea surgeon has hacked them off. -Doug Kelley

A thoroughly engaging presentation of nautical history on the lives and times of the early ship's surgeons on British and American naval and whaling vessels. The drawings of the early surgeon's tools, the descriptions of the surgical procedures and the stories of illness and injury makes one wonder why did anyone sign on as a ship's surgeon? Very informative and highly recommended.

There is often a schism between our everyday life and our dreams of someday. Someday often stays out reach of us like an carrot on a stick until circumstances that would have allowed the dream no longer exist. Michael Burke gently opens the someday window and steps through. He takes you with him. He gives a balanced and real look at what is on the other side. He speaks with a fine voice that puts you in the raft, in his head, till you smell the wet stuff and feel the angst. He makes a case for making someday happen while you can. He tells a tale that made me look forward to the quiet part of the evening, after the kids were in bed, so I could be back on the river again. The Same River Twice is fertile ground to plant you own someday seeds in. I found it an inspriation.

I guess I am lucky to be attending Univeristy of Maine at Farmington, where a lot of non fiction writing has come from recently (Gretchen Legler AND Michael Burke).
I went to Professor Burkes reading last night and it was so fun. His book is full of humor, at least, the passages he read were. I haven't read the whole book (yet).
But from what I heard, I am buying it and I would recommend it!

I read this book almost in one sitting. Micheal Burke tells a good story and gives the reader the feeling of being on the river and experiencing the beauty of situation while taking us along on his own personal journey. Very good read!

What happens to white-water guides when they leave the rivers? Michael Burke gives us one answer: they never leave the rivers, and the rivers never leave them. Burke's story is part memoir, part "road trip," and part love story about the wild places that "can't be improved by changes." His tale of a 1991 trip down the wildest of British Columbia's rivers is one hundred percent enjoyment.

Having guided seasonally since he was a college student, Burke at thirty-eight was married, a professor at a college in Maine, with a baby on the way. This ambitiously planned trip was a three-week-long pilgrimage to the places where a distant relative, Sid Barrington, had lived a life of legend on the wild rivers of long ago. Burke, along with a stranger named Max whose only qualification was availability, set out with an ancient rubber raft, a heavy load of gear, a rifle in case of bears, and jury-rigged arrangements with bush pilots. From this unpromising start, Mike and Max had a soul-stirring experience in this "humbling land."

Putting in by plane to breathtaking Chutine Lake, they worked their way down glacier-fed rivers with wild names: the Chutine, the Stikine, the Sheslay, the Taku. Along the way they encountered black bears, grizzlies, moose, and on one memorable evening a wolf with two pups. Burke's deep love of the challenging terrain is evident throughout the book.

Stories of the old river runner, Sid, are woven in, along with some hair-raising stories of Burke's younger days as a guide; a wild, adrenaline-saturated life that he remembers with affection at this settling-down time of life. Thoughts of his pregnant wife are with him always but he was unable to resist the pull of the river.

Why do this crazy, dangerous thing? Burke writes about the meaning of memory as a defining concept; about freedom and control. But mostly it's because he loves the rivers. "Rivers," he writes, "are an experience of time. The river is more human than the ocean, limited like humans are, yet sweeping forward in its implacable way, like time itself sweeping past. We are proportioned to rivers..."

Have you ever stood on the slope of a mountain and felt its age and power? Looked up into the weird blue ice of a glacier and heard its deep voice? Or even felt the edge of a river on your ankles and known that it flowed according to forces older than time? Then you should read this book. The geography is bewildering but just put in at the beginning and let the current take you to the end, rapids and all. You're sure to feel the awe and beauty of the planet's wild places. Go there, even if it's just in a book.

Linda Bulger, 2008

This work is a delightful memoir that is a pleasure reading, starting from the first page, right along to the last word of the last page. This is the story of a man; a middle aged man at the time the story takes place, and at the same time is a history lesson, a journey of enlightenment, and a tour into one of the truly wild areas left in North America. It is also, and most importantly, a very insightful look at human nature.

The author, Michael Burke, dropped out of the University of California-Berkeley, and became, through faking his lack of experience, a white water river guide. Burke has apparently been guiding now for over thirty five years. The author obviously continued his education, as he now teaches at a University, and beyond a doubt, the guy can certainly write. In 1991, when the author was 38, he found himself with a pregnant wife, two step-children, an academic career, living in Maine and driving a station wagon. Now, although the author does not admit to the fact, it is pretty obvious he is probably losing some of his hair, getting less muscle tone than he had when he was twenty, and, most importantly,(again, not really stated)is feeling rather trapped. Gosh, it does not take much of a creative leap to figure out that a gigantic mid-life crises is about to descend on this poor guy. This is okay though, at least Burke faced his crises with class, like a man, and did not go the route of gold chains around his neck, a little sports car, a poor comb-over and chase twenty year old undergrads around campus; something we see all too frequently. Rather, he returned to the roots of his youth, the river!

The Same River Twice is the story of Michael Burke's journey down three rivers in the Canadian Wilderness of British Columbia. Using his old river raft, a left over from his youth, and in the company of a relative stranger, a fellow adventurer, who was chasing his own demons, the author starts on a very poorly planned adventure. The premise of the trip is to find and trace the territory traveled by distant relative of the author's, who himself was a famous river man during the Klondike glory days at the turn of the century. The author feels a connection with this long dead river man and wants to strengthen this connection with information. The story Michael tells of his trip is interwoven with stories of this old river man mixed with tales of the author's own glory days as a professional guide on some of the most famous white water rivers in North America. This three section story is wonderfully intertwined and the author has the ability to make you feel you are in all three eras with him, as he physically and mentally journeys through them.

Burke's ability as a descriptive writer is truly wonderful. His true love for the wilderness, for the wild places in our planet, for wildlife, solitude and yes, danger, comes shinning through on every page. You can actually squint in your mind's eye, as you read his prose and picture what he is seeing as he writes. The author makes a point that this sort of thing, once experienced, never quite leaves your blood. Great bodies of water have been apart of our souls throughout time...once you are hooked, you are hooked for life.

This work is truly a satisfying read, one of the better reads I have had in sometime now. I will quite likely give this one a second going over down the road. I must admit that I would love for this author to give us another book, telling of his adventures on the other rivers that he ran while learning his trade. The author can be quite humorous at times and I suspect was and is quite good at camp fire stories. It would be a delight to read some of them. NOTE: There seems to be a great deal of nonfiction writing coming out of Maine right now, and has been over the past few years. To be quite frank, the only thing I really knew about Maine was that they had Moose, potatoes, had a good store to order clothes from, and made good canoes...now I find the place is full of good writers...go figure.

I purchased this book for a weekend trip to SF based upon the Amazon reviews, and their comments were right on the mark. This was not only the most enjoyable guide book I've read, but also the most useful. I visited several of the restaurants, bars and stores they recommended, each of which were great.

I also was fortunate enough to meet the authors Josh and Helene when they introduced themselves after seeing me walk into a store carrying my copy of this book. They are passionate about wanting both visitors and residents to enjoy the many fun and interesting things about SF - and about making it as easy as possible for you to find those things. Even if you don't have my good luck of getting to chat with two SF experts, this book still contains everything you need for a great visit to the city.

The Unknown City series of alternative guides provides a fine focus on San Francisco, the hotbed of alternative culture in the 1960s, and identifies neighborhoods and places which reflect the city's hidden history and cultures. From the gay mecca Castro Street to offbeat museums, the scene of a duel, camping in the city, unique studios and performing arts venues, and more, it's fairly certain much of the attractions listed in SAN FRANCISCO: THE UNKNOWN CITY won't be listed in your standard travel guide.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

San Francisco: The Uknown City is not like the big name travel guides to SF such as Fodor's, Frommer's, etc...
Instead of the typical guidebook that only recommends seeing obvious sights such as the golden gate bridge, coit tower and pier 39, The Unknown City highlights museums, bookstores, restaurants, and other attractions of the city by the bay that may not be as well known as they should be. The Uknown City makes for great reading,and lots of interesting factoids about the city are dispersed throughout. As a SF resident, I am constantly learning new and interesting facts about my city as a result of this book. I have recommended this to friends and family as a required book to purchase before their visit to SF, and all of them have later thanked me for it. If you are planning on visiting San Francisco or if you've been a resident for years and wish to learn more about SF from a different perspective, then this book is for you!

I like the "Unknown City" series, I've used the New York and Vancouver book before. San Francisco is one of my favorite cities, and I've been there enough times to think this book couldn't tell me much. Boy, was I wrong. What I liked is that one the one hand it hit all the big highlights of all the main, and not so well known neighborhoods, but what was really neat is this "guidebook" is really a bunch of short stories--I knew there were colorful and crazy people in this city, but I had no idea that these people have been here since it first began. I really enjoyed it, and as someone how has a lot of guidebooks, this is a great book on an even greater city. Oh, and although some of the photography was just picturtes of what places (especially hard-to-find ones) looked like from the street, some of the photography was really funky and cool.

This is not a typical guidebook for the traveler. Most of those books are little more than directories of hotels, restaurants, tourist destinations and shopping areas. By contrast, this is the kind of book I could imagine even a non-traveler curious about San Francisco might sit down to read. One would probably know more after merely reading this book than after traveling to San Francisco and rushing around a few touristy areas, camera in hand. In an engaging narrative voice, the authors flesh out the locations with background details and historical context. The emphasis is less on the "must see" tourist locations that the business traveler might squeeze in after his convention is over, and more on the elements that make San Francisco the unique place that it is for those who live there. Make no mistake, practical details about the places covered are not ignored. The main text covers both these details and the bigger picture of what makes each location worth visiting. Smaller sidebar entries are like footnotes, dropping in little bits of trivia along the way. There are plenty of photos and quirky iconic illustrations ventilating the text throughout the book. Highly recommended as an alternative to the mainstream travel guides out there.

The Santa Cruz Mountain Trail Book is concise, well-written, accurate, well-organized, and comprehensive. Tom Taber has done an excellent job of providing the right information on city, county, and state hiking trails of the peninsula, from south of San Francisco to Santa Cruz, and from highway 101 to the ocean -- an invaluable resource.

There is no other guidebook focusing on the coastal mountains immediately south of the city of San Francisco, a rich mosaic of open-space preserves. Taber's diligent research and love of the area make this an essential reference

We live in Bay Area and have been using 9th edition of this book for several years exploring Santa Cruz Mountains. It has been a great experience!

The book has a map of Santa Cruz Mountains at the beginning of it, with the parks marked on the map and the list of the park names. There are pictures for you to get an idea of the area, and very good educational description of the park.

This is a great book for people living (or intending to visit) the bay area, who like to go hike, bike, picnic and camp.

I've bought several books in the past, but this one covers a lot more of the trails in the area and with better detail. It tells you if trails are open to bikes and/or horses, talks about the camping facilities, details how long a walk you will have and the types of things you can expect to see out there.

There are also little sections on the local history, how the geology stuff works and many more useful snippets of info.

Definately the best book I've found for picking places to go walk, but then, it is somewhat targetted to the area where I live.

It says a lot about a book that it is continuously in print and updated for 30 years. This edition, the 10th and printed in 2006, preserves the nice features of previous editions and also offers the author's reflections upon what remains to be done for conservation and recreation in the Santa Cruz Mountains.

The general format of the book has not changed. Every county park, state park, open space preserve, or land otherwise available to public access in the Santa Cruz mountains is described (in alphabetical order) with special attention to the hiking opportunities in each. Trail descriptions are a bit sparse, but Tabor includes a decent map of each area to allow you to find your own way. The book is also chock full of "Special Sections" which detail local and natural history and also discuss such practical matters as where you can actually walk a dog in this part of the distinctively 'canine unfriendly' Bay Area.

Tabor's suggestions for the future of the Santa Cruz Mountains are worth noting. He urges the construction of more campgrounds and backcountry trail sites, an absolute necessity. It is almost impossible to get camping reservations on weekends. He also suggests practical ways to extend trail systems and increase the salmon and steelhead runs in mountain streams. I'm less sympathetic to his demand that the gun club near Castle Rock be shut down. I'm not a gun owner, but I never felt I was near a "war zone" when visiting this state park. In my opinion, antagonizing outdoor sportsmen will not promote conservation, but I could be wrong on this. On the whole though, this book is an excellent guide to the region and hopefully it will inspire more efforts at conservation and preservation in the area.

Marjorie Randell's recollection of her life growing up in a close-knit family on a Michigan farm, and her subsequent heartbreak of losing her brother and the search for meaning in his death is both sentimental and memorable. She captures the innocence of the mid-West that was torn apart as her brother, and other small town boys, were thrust into the horrors of war. The story shifts with her brothers letters - both from his service days, and then more harrowing,when he was a POW. Through his letters, we see a boy turn into a man, and at age 23, we see how his death aboard a Japanese war ship at the hands of American bombers brought agony and questions to a family back home. Sweet recollections of an innocent time lost, and the loyalty of a sister that looks for answers, even 60 years later.

I just finished reading Searching for Friday's Child for the second time. Each time I couldn't put it down until I finished.
Searching for Friday's Child is more than a portrait of an intelligent sensitive young man, it is a book about warm human relationships. Although Jack, a prisoner of war being transported from one Philippine Island to another or perhaps to Japan by the Japanese aboard the Shinyu Maru, died in his early twenties (a result of the torpedoing of the Shinyu Maru by an American submarine toward the end of Second World War), he lives in this book! It is clear from his letters to his family, his girlfriend and to his friends that we all lost a person who had much to offer to those he loved and cared about and to society.
Jack's words, through his letters, show us that he had a gift for writing and storytelling, as does the author, his younger sister. Searching for Friday's Child tells us of the author's emotional journey to find her brother, to discover things about him she hadn't known before, on an intimate level that I haven't found in any other memoir, autobiography or biography about the courageous soldiers of World War II. I highly recommend this book.
Nancy Sampson, Woodbridge, VA

Marjorie Randell's recollection of her life growing up in a close-knit family on a Michigan farm, and her subsequent heartbreak of losing her brother and the search for meaning in his death is both sentimental and memorable. She captures the innocence of the mid-West that was torn apart as her brother, and other small town boys, were thrust into the horrors of war. The story shifts with her brothers letters - both from his service days, and then more harrowing,when he was a POW. Through his letters, we see a boy turn into a man, and at age 23, we see how his death aboard a Japanese war ship at the hands of American bombers brought agony and questions to a family back home. Sweet recollections of an innocent time lost, and the loyalty of a sister that looks for answers, even 60 years later.

Howard "Jack" Irish was born to Michigan farm life. His family was close, his friends were true. He was a 4H lad, strong and faithful. He went to college, joined the ROTC and was drafted after he graduated in May of 1941. He was commissioned a lieutenant after training and sent to the Philippines. The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in December and all of a sudden Jack's sweet duty in the tropics evaporated like steam on hot pavement.

Jack saw action on Corrigador before he was captured by the Japanese. He endured life as a POW as well as anybody could, but sadly he lost his life in September of 1944, while being transported along with 749 other prisoners of war on the Japanese freighter Shinyo Maru. The Shinyo Maru was torpedoed by the USS Paddle. The sub's commander had no way of knowing the POWs were on board.

It all happened so long ago, but Marjorie makes it seem like only yesterday, so timeless is her writing. Jack was her brother and she lovingly tells this story through the numerous letters written by Jack to his family and friends before the war, the all to brief correspondence between Jack and his family after his family discovers he has been taken prisoner and the volume of letters between Jack's mother and different officials as she relentlessly sought to find out what happened to her son.

This book is so well crafted that at times it seemed as if I was reading a novel as I read the night away. I should have read the book long ago and I'm ashamed to say that that I did not, for you see, Marjorie's Uncle Ray was my grandfather. So many of the characters in her book have passed away, as has my father, Jack's cousin, who fortunately survived the war. Soon all the people from that time will have passed this mortal coil, but thanks to people like Marjorie Randall, who can tell a story without making it seem like dry history, there will be those of us left behind who remember.

I read this book in the past few days, only days after the beginning of America's 3/03 war with Iraq, which may be a partial explanation of why I found "Searching for Friday's Child" such a compelling read.

The book begins with the author's recollection of growing up on a Michigan farm, with her parents, and her brother, "Jack", four years her senior. We are then provided with copies of her brother's letters to home, and to his girlfriend, while he attends Michigan State College, when he is called into the Army Air Corps, from bootcamp, then when he is sent to the Philippines only months prior to Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941 and Japan's simultaneous attack on the Philippines.

As of 12/7/41, the letters from Jack stop, and we are treated with reply letters to Jack's family from U.S. military, the Red Cross, etc., as the family is desparately trying to find out what's happened to Jack, with the advent of the US/Japanese war. Subsequently, the family learns Jack is a POW in the Philippines, but they cannot find out how he is, whether he is alive, healthy, or been a victim of the myriad of attrocities committed by the Japanese solders in the Philippines upon our servicemen, as well as the Filipinos.

Jack's family is advised of the POW camp within which Jack is held, and advised they should continue to write Jack as he may receive their letters. They do continue to write, but have no way of ascertaining if Jack is receiving any of their letters. After several months, they receive the first of about four "postcards" from Jack, from the POW camp, but these tell little of Jack, as little can be said due to censorship by his captors.

Ultimately, the family is informed that Jack was aboard a Japanese ship, one of 750 POWs being transported in September 1944 by the Japanese to another island, or perhaps Japan, that on September 7, 1944, that ship is torpedoed by the US during which 83 POW's swim to shore and are rescued by Filipinos, and ultimately returned to the US. Unfortunately, Jack was not one of the lucky ones. Thereafter, he is listed as Missing In Action(MIA), and again the family has no way of knowing if Jack is alive or dead, whether he drowned, was shot by the Japanese, who were murdering all visible POWs after the torpedo struck, or whether he somehow survived.

We are then treated to many letters from several surviving POWs, some who knew Jack, were his friends at the POW camp.

This is a wonderful historical account of a family's desparate, yet compassionate, attempts to try to find out about Jack's well-being, his life during those years, anything to fill the gaps. It begins primarily with the efforts of Jack's mother, but is continued with those of the author, his younger sister, efforts which continued all the way up the late 1990's, over fifty years after WWII.

We are treated to the insights of several POW's, their own accounts of life in a Japanese POW camp, their accounts of life with Jack, Jack's excellent accomplishments in the Army Air Corps, his unique skills with operating anti-aircraft artillery, his command's success is shooting down 15 Japanese aircraft, which as I recall, was a record during the war.

By the time one completes Searching for Friday's Child, one feels one knows Jack Irish, his mother, father, and certainly his sister, the author, she who joined the U.S. Marines Reserves during WWII. One is certainly treated to a wonderful account of a close-knit family's quest during unimaginable times of the tragedies of war.

This is a wonderful read. I highly recommend it.

Regards,

Frank Rankin
Sacramento, CA

I made good use of this book to plan a wonderful cross-country trip in the Sierra. Roper was kind of vague at times, but I never got lost.

The route he described was breath-taking. I intend to use this book to plan next summer's trip.

My girlfriend and I recently took some of Ropers advice on a Mt. Conness Loop 5 day hike in Yosemite. It was an increadible trip. Roper gives just enough hints to get you there but few enough to make it still feel like exploring. Be advised however when he referes a section of your hike as 'adventurous' or 'exciting' he means it. We pushed ourselves to the physical and mental limit on this trip.

A FANTASTIC book about an awesome wilderness area! This is a must do hiking trail for me. I bought my brother this same book and I'm already planning our hike.

This book outlines a magnificent experience following an off-trail, higher version of the Muir Trail through the High Sierra. We have followed most of Roper's route over several years: sometimes we thought we were lost or overwhelmed, but it always turned out fine, and usually excellent. He treads a fine line between complete instructions that would allow no mistakes, and an experience that gives the hiker their own opportunity for route-finding, discovery, and growth. This is one of our favorite books, and we keep an intact copy plus another one torn apart for each journey and sometimes given away to people met along the way who need it. We still travel the trail some of the time, but genuinely value this alternative farther away from the crowds.

This book is the ideal companion for everyone who likes walking off-trail on uneven terrain with a heavy pack. We used it last summer to hike a section of "the high route" (from devils postpile to tuolumne meadows) and it was so marvelous, we are going back this summer for another section. Roper gives exactly the amount of indications needed for a successful trip, although some experience in off-trail mountain-hiking is required. The high route is not trivial, even if no technical climbing is involved. The only thing: for most people it doesn't matter to have a single connected route. It would be nice to have other (shorter) routes in the same style, which are not necessarily connected. Maybe in another book? I don't know of anything comparable.

This is an amazing cookbook. If the bilingual recipes didn't give it away, the recipes would -- this is incredibly authentic and varied cooking. The other positive reviews here are exactly on the mark. The photos are a good indication of the real food you will cook.

After having now tried almost every recipe in this book, I can say that they are all absolutely delicious! This cookbook is essential for anyone who wants to learn how to cook Indo/Malay/Sing food. My boyfriend is Indonesian and had been bugging me for some of his childhood favorites such as Lontong. The satay is the best I have ever had, in or out of Indonesia. The recipes are also super easy. There is no complicated preparation for any of the recipes. Even someone who is a novice could make these with ease (and they will taste great!). I live in Tallahassee and we have one not too big Asian market. With a little searching, I found virtually all of the ingredients needed. Most of the ingredients are readily availible in your average grocery store. If you do have an Asian market, even a small one, they can often find something that you need, so don't be afraid to ask. The book itself is perfectly laid out and there are color photos of every single dish. I highly recommend this cookbook!

This cookbook is a 'must have' for those who want a taste of Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia. The instruction is easy to follow, and the result is amazing! My first attempt on some of the dishes featured was already a hit with friends. Among the favorites are Spicy Crab (pg 37), Grilled Fish with Sweet Soy Sauce (pg 87) and Mixed Vegetables with Grated Coconut (pg 53). Creative presentation of the dishes captured in the full color photographs is another plus factor of this book.

Authentic taste! Great for entertaining or home dining!

Finally, a cookbook that satisfies my frequent cravings for foods like padang spicy beef, sate, and hainan chicken!! After living in Southeast Asia for a number of years, I fell in love with the cuisine of this region and since then, I've been searching long and hard for a cookbook like this one to come out. It's easy enough to find decent cookbooks for Thai food or Vietnamese food these days, as a single search will turn up thousands of results, but it's truly a rare find to come across a cookbook on the foods of Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore - especially one of this quality! The recipes, each of which is accompanied by a large, beautiful picture, are concise and easy to follow, and the food itself is simply amazing. Now that I have this book, I no longer have to suppress my cravings or fight the urge to fly back to the islands to get my fix of Gado Gado (Java styled salad), Kari Sapi (Malaysian beef curry), or Kangkung Tumis (spicy, Singaporean water spinach). Funny thing is, I never thought I would ever be able to make these foods myself! But what surprised me most was the fact that these dishes tasted even better than I remembered, coming out of my own kitchen no less! (now *that* is truly incredible). So do yourself a favor and buy this book - you'll not only save tons of money you'd otherwise spend at mediocre Malaysian/Indonesian/Singaporean restaurants in the area (if there even are such restaurants available to you), but you'll also be able to impress everyone with your newfound ability to cook dishes as delicious and as hard to come by as the ones shared in this cookbook. Definitely worth every penny and more!

Being a native Indonesian far away from home, I crave for the rich and savory flavor of the cuisine from these three countries. Unlike Thai cuisine, Singaporean, Malaysian and Indonesian cuisine is still not well known here in United States. Therefore there are limited restaurants that offer this cuisine. You can imagine my agony of having to suppress my craving until I make a trip to these restaurants in NYC or Toronto. It all changed after I bought this cookbook. This cookbook is amazing! It contains 68 recipes that are divided into Singaporean, Malaysian and Indonesian recipe sections. A one-page spread picture accompanies each recipe, which is very helpful for people who are not familiar with this cuisine. The author starts by introducing the countries and their cuisine followed by glossary of ingredients, seasonings, spices and herbs. It then continues with recipes for stocks, condiments, pickled salads, sambal chilli sauces (used like chutneys in Indian cuisine), and assorted spice pastes. These spice pastes are used in a lot of the recipes and they are what give this cuisine its fragrant, rich and savory flavors. This book offers specialties from Singapore (Hainan chicken rice, spiced sparerib soup, spring roll, laksa, spicy crabs, sweet coconut rice balls, etc), Malaysia (fried noodle, coconut rice, sate, beef curry,vegetable with grated coconut, etc) and Indonesia (beef rendang, eggs in spicy red sauce, java salad or gado gado, turmeric fried chicken, etc). I have tried more than a dozen of the recipes and they all taste fantastic! Most of all they taste authentic. They are a huge hit with my American boyfriend and roomate. There are some ingredients that are hard to find, even in Asian markets (especially in small towns). I had to shop online at an Indonesian grocery store to find most of the hard to find ingredients like candlenut, dried galangal, pandan leaves, palm sugar, kaffir leaves and shrimp paste. However, they are worth it. I use dried galangal because I don't have access to fresh ones. I substitute fresh red chilli with bottled ground chilli paste called Sambal Oelek. It works just as wonderful! I think this is the most authentic and remarkable cookbook I have. It is simple, clear, precise and a gem. I would recommend this cookbook if you want to bring authentic new flavors to your table. It helps ease my homesickness. Nowadays, I call my mom up to say "I made beef rendang today!"... something I had never said before this cookbook.