Pacific

Hi,

I would say that this book is a must for anyone who wants to envision the early entry by non-Native Americans into the "Yo-Semite". One definitely gets a "You Are There" experience by reading this book and gains an understanding of the conflicts that brought Bunnell and his group to the area. ....

I love to read Insight Guides before I take a trip, and the Alaskan Wilderness guide is the perfect refrence book to sort out all the places and activities that you want to do before arriving in Alaska. Although I like to supplement the Insight Guide with other guidebooks for additional local information, I think that the Insight Guide is the best for an overview of natural history, expert advice, geographical information, enchanting photographs, and excellent travel tips. When I picked up Alaskan Wilderness, it met my expectations of other Insight Guides. If you want to know more about Alaska before you take off - I highly recommend this book!

This is such a stupendous laboratory manual, it could almost substitute as a text for the course. Nybakken verbally walks students though the dissections and gives thorough coverage to both external and internal anatomy. For each phylum or group of phyla there are large, clear diagrams of dissections for a huge variety of animals local to the California coast. (There are diagrams for 14 different organisms in the Gastropod section alone, and cover almost all of the animals students could possibly see in lab.) The text also includes taxonomic information and discussions on animal diversity including habitat, external morphology, feeding, behavior, etc. Plus, it is well written, well organized and easy to read!

I purchased this book as part of my preparation for a diving trip to Chuuk Lagoon. It contains many excellent colour photographs of wrecks, coral, artifacts and local inhabitants. I found the brief history that accompanies each of the wrecks featured especially interesting. Likewise the diagrams of some of the wrecks, along with their various inclinations on the lagoon floor is fascinating.

Invaluable for such a trip are the scale maps of the lagoon and islands which pinpoint the location of the wrecks and other major features/landmarks. Further, the book grades each of the featured sites using the Pisces Rating System for Dives & Divers and the Dive Site Icons, both of which I found gave an excellent feel for the dive.

Finally, the overview of the area given in the first few chapters is a nice touch. It contains a brief history of the area, information for travelling to Chuuk, items to bring, weather, food, shopping etc.

In this book, author Tim Rock, has improved greatly his previous work on Truk Lagoon in 1994. I thoroughly recommend this book to anyone planning a trip to Chuuk, or, who simply wants to read about The Most Spectacular Wreck Diving in the World (In my opinion).

We took Tim's advice to heart, and spent a great month in Bali. We toured the island anti-clockwise and dove and photographed all the sites Tim highlighted. We dove with the operators he suggested, as well as some others, and found that his suggestions were always always best.

Truk offers about the best u/w photography in the world, and this book gave me an idea of what to expect, and how to get ready. And was a great help in identifying some of my shots when i got back. Can't wait to go back. More wrecks are discovered every day there i hear, so i hope the author writes an updated version soon.

I don't know that I've ever read a better dive book or travel guide. The author covers every minute detail, and somehow, it still reads well--a fascinating and well-treated subject. David Leonard shows great wit and a solid knowledge of his subject.

The photographs are amazing, too.

I am a fan of Tim Bowling's poetry. I was a bit apprehensive about reading his first novel, Downriver Drift, after having enjoyed his poetry so much. I was not disappointed. Living in a British Columbia fishing community for 14 years, I found this book enlightening and engaging. I was most intrigued with the theme of the book, which is the Fraser River. We learn about the life of a fishing family--parents, Kathleen and Vic, their sons Corbett and Troy and young daughter Zoe. Kathleen maintains great pride in the lifetyle of her fishing family through good times and bad and she teaches this to them. The entertaining subplots add to the interest of the novel and show small town pastimes. We come to know the butcher and other unusual characters who live in Chilukthan. This is a truly British Columbian novel, not to be missed.

Jim Rawls was on the radio in San Francisco for many years. He told many stories about California's history and how it connects to the present day. Our family loved him!

The "Sampler," and "California Dreaming" are books to have in the house. They're especially good for children who might be studying California history in school.

Also, each story ends with suggestions to do, or go see something relevant to the story.

I first became a Howard Brodie fan after seeing several of his WW II drawings along the walls of the Pentagon. I then started research on him and found several issues of Yank with his work. Finding this book was the ultimate. It is a "must" for anyone who wants to get a true feel of the troops on the ground in war.