Pacific

I've been carrying around a now-dog-eared copy of this book for about 25 years. It is an essential guide for those of us who want to know what we are looking at, but aren't out enough to memorize all those trees. Bravo!

The Pacifc Coast Tree Finder is an excellent way to tune in to those stately giants and miniture cousins of the forests surrounding us. Easy questions about the unknown start in the front. Simple choices (needles or scales vs. ordinary leaves?) lead logically from one choice to another. Quickly, one confidently identifies the tree they are quizical about. I always feel more at one with Nature when I am able to know what is around me. This book has been a great companion for many years. An excellent choice for those seeking quickness and simplicity without having to "wade" through thicker, complicated nature identifer books.

I first used the original "Tree Finder" as a Scout almost 30 years ago, and was delighted to find this Pacific Coast version on a recent trip to Big Sur. Like the original, it seems to be an absolutely foolproof means of identifying trees. I found it especially useful since I wasn't familiar with any of the trees of Big Sur, none of which grow here in the Midwest. Coastal California has some magnificent species -- such as the Pacific Madrone, the California Laurel, and above all the Redwood -- and any visitor to the region who spends time outdoors will find this little book helpful.

Shaffer is a gifted poet, generously allowing us to see the world from his sometimes tilted (like a pinball machine) but generally optimistic viewpoint. His verse is accessible without being simple, and often cheerful but not sappy. And it comes with instructions! If you like your poetry dense as ancient fruitcake and studded with indigestible pellets of unidentifiable allusions you may not enjoy this book, but I found it refreshing and strongly recommend it.

Portable Planet is that rare book of poetry that gives you both immediate pay-off and a lifetime of contemplation. From the opening poem, "At Play in the Fields of the Word," Eric Paul Shaffer makes you laugh ("None come to the door but grim vendors of an angry God and trademark plasticware") and makes you think ("Today, I define 'freedom' this way: with nothing done, the future is full"). Each of Shaffer's poems hits you with power and precision. Shaffer has more to SAY than any other living poet I've read. Unlike most acclaimed (and rather boring) poets, he never hides behind safely ambiguous imagery; his voice is loud and clear, and playfully challenging. For example, consider this line from his long poem "The Western Room:" "From Japan, America is the land of the rising sun, inscrutable." From his poem "Yadokari: Hermit Crab, Okinawa," you can also learn how to live your life: "Life is kind. Move on. Carry what you can." If I were forced to choose my favorite, I'd pick "On the Verge of the Usual Mistake." (His titles alone are both funny and thought-provoking.) If you buy only one book of poetry this year, make sure you buy Portable Planet. It doesn't get better than this.

Portable Planet liberates American poetry from the stuffiness of the Academy and the silliness of the Slam. Here is a book whistling with fresh air, open vistas, and good humor. Portable Planet should be made into our next National Park, but hurry and get your copy, before the next administration sells it off! If Walt Whitman had looked under his own boot soles, he would have found Eric Paul Shaffer--and Shaffer would have been giving old Walt a hot foot. This book burns!

It doesn't matter if you never go to San Francisco -- buy this book just for the sheer joy of reading it. Bonnie Wach has real opinions and does not dish out the usual everything-is-great travel-guide drivel. Her writing sparkles with personality, wit and humor. All the particulars for the places she writes about are listed in the margins, making the information easy to find when you're looking for it. If you have any interest in San Francisco or travel books in general, buy this book.

All I can say is that not only have I bought a copy, but I have given three away as gifts. It is great guide for anyone visiting San Francisco or for anyone hosting visitors.

As a San Franciscan, this book is the perfect gift and/or inspiration to entertain friends, family or even yourself.

The author's approach orients the reader and eliminates the clutter of the average guide book. The book also has a nice balance between indoor and outdoor activities that you will be tempted to do over and over.

This is the perfect book for those looking for both the obvious and the obscure in San Francisco.

Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk: The Early Years -- Never A Dull Moment by the daughter-father writing team of Chandra Moira Beal and Richard A. Beal, is a captivating collection of black-and-white photographs and thoroughly researched records that combine to paint a magical picture of the Santa Cruze California board walk of yesteryear. A nostalgic, poignant, and engaging presentation packed with curious minutiae of detail, the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk is highly recommended -- especially to those of us old enough to have memories of our own of the boardwalk's simple beginnings as a wooden bathhouse on the beach and its evolution and transformation into a contemporary City of Santa Cruze-based multi-million dollar business operation.

This book is a fantastic primer to become familiar with the rich history of Santa Cruz and its famous boardwalk. It will mesmerize you with recounting of events and beautiful historical pictures. I hope they make a movie of it some day.

As a local resident, Santa Cruz Boardwalk has been a fun destination for us for the last two decades. As I started reading the Santa Cruz Boardwalk book, I could not put it down. It is the most comprehensive historical recounting of the events assembled in one place. Meticulous details of the historical events, key characters that influenced and shaped the boardwalk, and wonderful photos provide a rich and fascinating journey through time. If you have ever been to the boardwalk or plan on going there, read this book to fully appreciate the beauty of the boardwalk.

I first discovered this book at my local library, and read it two times, and shared it with my husband to read before returning it, reluctantly, to the library's collection. I hastily decided that I had to have my own copy, and ordered one here, in the bundle with "From the Ground Up" which I also recommend.
Meg DesCamp takes you on a journey from the beginnings of home ownership, with mild self depricating humor similar to author Anne Lammott. Through interior decorating mishaps, adventures with her cats, sisters and husband, and adventures in gardening, we're there as her first garden becomes part of her family.

I learned so much about gardening from this book, and especially appreciate its Pacific Northwest climate references-being set in Portland, OR. I enjoyed her approach and prose, and look forward to another book by this great storyteller.

Plant journals may sound dull, but if you find the right one to read you will not only laugh your head off, but you'll learn a lot about plants as well. After reading Gayla's Plant Journal on YouGrowGirl.com, and then attempting to write my own, I was lucky enough to find this book crammed in the back of the gardening section of my favorite used bookstore. Slug Tossing: And Other Adventures of a Reluctant Gardener by Meg DesCamp is the hilarious saga of her attempt to grow flowers at her home in Portland. While she learns about soil, compost, feeding plants and so on, you do too. It's like taking a horticulture class where you spy on the worst student in the room. You'll find yourself giggling while reading about evil slugs, peat moss (as DesCamp says, "Peat moss. What the hell is peat moss?"), ladybugs and weed pulling. By the way, this is a great book to give as presents for your gardener pals.

I read this book in one day, and could not stop laughing. I learned a lot about gardening in the process. I think many of us come to love gardening in the same way. Great book!

A new edition of this handbook is now available and it can be found by searching for "Moon Handbooks: South Pacific" on this site.

As president of Sea For Yourself Snorkeling Tours, it¹s my professional obligation to remain attentive to both the world¹s best snorkelingsites and the logistical infrastructure that facilitates our group visits. For thesepurposes, (as well as my personal travel) David Stanley¹s travel handbooks have been a valuable and trusted ongoing source of reliableinformation. For travel planning, it¹s critical to use reference material that is accurate, up-to-date, and complete. The South Pacific Handbook satisfies all these criteria, and more.I was especially interested in the description of coral reefs. David does a superb job condensing this complex biological system ­ revealing it¹s essential ecological ingredients in the context of how we can responsibly interact with the fish, coral, and resident human communities.David¹s book is filled with the practical (and accurate) nuts and Bolts information so essential for planning your trip to the South Pacific. The extensive section of general advice (currency, health, food, recreation, visas, etc.) is then followed by detailed regional descriptions of virtually every inhabited island group in the entire South Pacific, including evaluations of restaurants, accommodations, and transportation issues.If I had to pick a single book, either to use in planning my South Pacific Odyssey or to take with me on the journey, it would be David Stanley¹s South Pacific Handbook.

South Pacific Handbook Review ... By Garry Hawkins

If you're thinking of travelling to the South Pacific (and go you definitely should), then David Stanley's 'South Pacific Handbook' is THE travellers bible for the region. It's the only guidebook that covers every single inhabited island in the region in one single volume, yet at 908pp remains sufficiently comprehensive to give you all the background information you could ever possibly ask for.

My first odyssey to the South Pacific came in 1991, at the end of a round the world trip. While total war was raging in the Gulf, here was I, languishing at the Royal Hotel in the old Fijiian capital of Levuka. But what a place to languish! I'll let David Stanley describe the scene to you:

"For the full Somerset Maugham flavour, stay at the 15 room Royal Hotel... In the lounge, ceiling fans revolve around the rattan sofas and potted plants, and the fan- cooled rooms upstairs with private bath are pleasant, with much needed mosquito nets provided. At US$8/12/14 for single/double/triple the colonial atmosphere and impeccable service make it about the best value in Fiji.... Everybody loves this place."

Well, I can vouch for that! Meanwhile however, cruise missiles were performing flybys past the Baghdad Hilton, but outside the Royal Hotel it was merely raining cats and dogs. Well - it was the wet season you know! But while I sat soaking up the colonial ambience, I had plenty of time to delve into my trusty South Pacific Handbook.

I began to realise that were so many different places to go in the region. You may have heard of Western Samoa, Tahiti, Tonga or even the Cook Islands? But have you ever heard of Tuvalu, Tokelau, Niue or Futuna? No? Well not many people have but from Solomon Islands to Easter Island - you'll find them all in David Stanley's book.

Even if you never get to visit some of these far flung and exotic sounding names, you can learn an awful lot about this splendidly diverse region of different cultures and customs. Plate tectonics, Darwin's theory of atoll formation, the greenhouse effect, French nuclear testing, fauna and flora, economics, politics, conservation and the environment. I could go on....

Since my initial visit to Fiji, I've managed to visit Samoa, Tonga, Niue, Tahiti, Cook Islands and Tuvalu - and still there's more to see. I'd love to visit the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu, Wallis, Futuna, New Caledonia, Easter and Pitcairn Island - so many islands to visit and so little time (and money!) to do it with.

Next time I'm headed for the South Pacific, I'll be sure to take David Stanley's South Pacific Handbook with me. Why carry a multitude of travel guides for different islands, when you need only take the one?

I love this book! I travel every week and I always find the packing for the trip to be the worst! I absolutely dread it each week. This book helped change that!

The different checklists are great for getting organized AND making sure that you pack every thing you need for your trip.

The bundling system is so incredibly simple and easy... with no wrinkles once you arrive at your destination.

The last part of this book is chock full of good reading on how to pack those bulky items such as shoes and winter sweaters and coats.

With all the security requirements with the airlines now (and tough limits on carry-ons), I really recommend this book... and I'm a road warrior that should've figured out how to pack by now!

After reading this book I found I could pack more "stuff" and arrive at my destination with wrinkle free clothing! The "bundle" method is a great idea. I recently bought this same book for my daughter-in-law and a friend's daughter who was traveling abroad.

Judith Gilford's book is aimed to the ones who have no clue about of how to pack, no matter if it is related to a weekend, business trip or a dreamy vacations. She makes the worst part of any travel experience mild and clear with her hints and tips throughout the book. It is a must-read if you need to know how to pack right. End of story!

This book is worth reading if you are looking for something different on your travels in Los Angeles. Read between the lines. There are hidden treasures for activity ideas, while other ideas are just for a good laugh. Even if you aren't going to make it out and about on the books recommendations, it is still a humors read. Ask yourself "Am I jocular" and/or "Am I adventurous" before taking the wild ride... that is... for the resident tourists.

This is a truly funny book. After living in LA for 10 years, I found some new and interesting places to visit. I never would have found some of these in a standard travel book.

Amuzingly hilarious as a frequent traveler I found this book to contain insights that most non-beaten path travellers can truly relate to. A must read for anyone who prides themselves on knowing the unknown about quite a few very cool locales in the Los Angeles and San Fernando Valley areas.

In a similar manner to Paula Scher and Charles Anderson, one of the main themes of Art Chantry's work is to take old images and give them a twist. While you can see an echo of this look in almost every graphic design award annual today, Chantry has been working in this style since the late 70's. And while many have borrowed his approach, few have been able to imitate it with the same sense of grit, humor, color and power.

True to the title of the book "Some People Can't Surf" there isn't one website design to be found, but that may not be a bad thing as Chantry is a master within his medium. A very large body of work that spans three decades is showcased which includes everything from his very first poster design for a school concert to promotional work for major Hollywood record labels. One pleasant surprise is seeing quite a bit of logo design work which involves the charm and craft of hand lettering. In end Chantry reminds one of a later day Milton Glaser with a punk rock point of view.

At some points the book can become too crammed by trying to jam several posters onto a page by shrinking them down to matchbook size, however the work holds up pretty well under the strain. This volume would be valuable to any graphic designer looking for inspiration or anyone who is a fan of the Seattle music from the 90's.

...is that Art Chantry's groundbreaking artwork (and yes--unlike some snooty traditionalist art-weenies--I DO consider graphic design to be "art"!) is more often than not gobs more compelling than the work of the people who have directly benefitted from his work (i.e. most of the so-called grunge bands from the Pacific Northwest). Yet almost nobody outside of Seattle, Tacoma or underground graphic-design circles knows who the hell he is, even though almost everyone has seen his work in one form or other (The Sub Pop logo is one example that immediately comes to mind).

In early 1991, I discovered and became obsessed with underground garagepunk & instro-surf music, the most exciting of which was coming out of the Pacific Northwest, and specifically Estrus Records, in Bellingham, Washington. It was the Estrus label that started my appreciation, and later, reverence, for Art Chantry's ir-reverent style of graphic design. When Nirvana's "Nevermind" was released later that year, the wall that previously kept mainstream riffraff from crashing "our" underground party came crumbling down, and as a result, grungy Northwest music had become suddenly (and inexplicably) marketable. The sudden onslaught of new bands inspired by this alleged "rebirth" of punkrock quickly caused the quality of Estrus' releases to assume an inversely proportional relationship to the quantity of records they put out (well, that's MY theory, at least...). Simply put, the really good music on Estrus soon became a rare commodity. Thankfully, what didn't change was the brilliant package design that thier slabs o' vinyl and silver frisbees were encased in. Art Chantry was responsible for the bulk of these designs, and is the only reason why a big chunk of my record and CD collection isn't fermenting in some used-record store somewhere. His artwork transcended the actual product it was emblazoned on, and made it worth keeping even if the music it promoted was supremely lame.

Chantry's work led me to notice and gain an appreciation for artists such as Stealworks' John Yates, Frank Kozik and even Roy Lichtenstein. But as great as those artists are, Chantry's work is the perfect amalgam of irony, humor, subversion, obnoxiousness and kitsch, and no one that I'm aware of has yet to outshadow him in this regard, even though he is without a doubt a man with many imitators. In fact, many people directly point the finger at him for popularizing the now passè movement in "grunge" design and layout. Whether this is actually true or not is debatable (although it certainly makes sense), but "Some People Can't Surf" is interesting in that it showcases a non-"grunge" (god, I hate that term) side of Chantry that most people would be very surprised to see. The same man responsible for some of the most outrageous and iconoclastic posters and album covers in music history was at the same time designing nondescript logos and brochures for boring, faceless corporations--biotech companies, architectural firms, airlines, etc.--and it's extremely interesting to see this real-world dichotomy brought to light in this book.

Another notable section of the book recalls the time when Art creatively attempted to get around a draconian 1994 Seattle anti-postering ordinance by posting up 'zine-like tabloids to telephone poles instead, ostensibly daring the city to attempt to fine him for what is fundamentally a First Amendment issue. As someone who firmly believes that graphic design and traditional "art" are not mutually exclusive, I found it refreshing to read this shining example of how designers can use their talent to actively influence and challenge the cultural status quo, instead of simply generating pretty pictures for passive consumer consumption.

When I first saw Art years ago in the documentary film, "Hype!" (which I also HIGHLY recommend), talking about the early Northwest music scene, and then proceeding to chop up his super-rare (and super-expensive) posters with a paper cutter, it completely validated what I always thought--this man is an ironic and wonderfully irreverent genius. "Some People Can't Surf" bolsters this fact even further, and I enjoyed reading this book's narrative at /least/ as much as looking at all the cool, full-color images of his brilliant work. I highly recommend this to any graphic designer who is tired of all the c.r.a.p. that tries to pass itself off as "cool", "grungy" or "retro" nowadays.

Thee-anti-cool-subversive-godfather-backroad-bar-b-que shack-genius. If you are in school but this book. If you are over 50 buy this book. If you are successful buy this book. If you are struggling-steal this book.

I've been making Thai Drumsticks for a Crowd for potlucks for the last two years. They're a real draw on a table full of tahini and tabouli! These recipes are easy and the authors descriptions are engaging. Not for people who are looking for serious ethnoculinary books, but easy to dazzle with.

I've been through a lot of Asian Cookbooks but this is one that I keep comming back to for new and orginal reciepes.

Asian Fusion is the Theme, particularly Southest Asia. Thai, Indonesia, Phillipines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore and Fusion Recepies from Australia and New Zenland dot the pages as well as receipies that are had to classify other than really good. They blend ingredients and techniques for some awesome dishes.

The book is more or less organized by theme and ingredient, finger foods, poultry, deserts, salads, soups etc.
In addition to the organization of the book the receipies are organized in a reasonable fashion as well. To many cook books haphazardly organize the steps and ingredients so that you miss something or do it out of sequence (oh, I was supposed to boil this first).

This is not a book for beginners though. The reciepies here are generally moderate to very complex and are generally not the sort of thing you throw together at the last minute. Not to say they don't have some quick and easy ones but the theme is more towards those with gormet inclinations and farmiliarity with Asian cooking already.

One downside to the book is they assume you have access to an incredible variety of ethnic ingredients. In Austin we have Asian Markets and Central Market (an awesome store that specializes in gormet ingredients) but from time to time I find myself unable to locate something needed for some dishes. I've learned some substitutions. Also some of the reciepies can run up your food bill a bit. They are best left for those yearly special occasions.

Still its an EXCELLENT cookbook. Every time I get bored I go back to it and find something new and interesting. Its just loaded with great stuff. Buy it, you won't regret.

I'm a cookbook junkie, and I have dozens of books I just look at and never actually cook from. This isn't one of them. It's stained and dog-eared, from trying exotic but not terribly difficult recipes like Pot Roast with Asian flavors, stir-fried spinach and a terrific pineapple upside-down cafe with rummy, coconutty whipped cream. A great way to cook Asian without resorting to fattening, take-out-style recipes. The small sections about markets in Southeast Asia and such are also good...they make you want to try this food in person!