This is the best "field" guide on Philippine Birds I've seen so far. I've quoted "field" because the book is too big to bring with you for birdwatching. The color plates are numerous and can give you an idea of how the birds look like. Though, I would prefer real pictures over colored illustrations. Nevertheless, this book is the best buy for Philippine birdwatchers until a book with real pictures come by.

First rate social history.

In spite of the mid-eighteenth-century crisis and subsequent decline of Quakerism in Pennsylvania after the American Revolution, the importance of domesticity in the lives of the Pennsylvania Quakers was fundamental to all other aspects of Quaker society, and has had a far-reaching impact on American family life well beyond the colonial era. Quakers (as opposed to New England Puritan emphasis on patriarchy, or the importance of public order and display for the Anglicans) intentionally created the model for the "modern" American family ideal of domesticity for the new republic. While this child-centered, economically and morally self-sufficient model thrived in Pennsylvania from 1681 until the 1750s, its influence extended well beyond the eastern seaboard colonies and the eighteenth century. It became the model for the later and larger national expansion of the American republic.

Quaker domesticity shaped Pennsylvania's tendencies towards pluralism and republicanism. But it is ironic that the universalization of the Quaker family model coincided with the decline of Quakerism and the rise of a secular republican ideology lauded by various Enlightenment philosophes. "While the separation of church and state was the dominant trend in Anglo-American society, the Quakers actually increased the conflation of Quaker church and Pennsylvania state during the eighteenth century" (p. 155). While political Whigs held Quakers and their pacifism in contempt during the American Revolution, the fall of Quaker political hegemony in Pennsylvania led to a correlation between the private virtue embodied in their form of family life, and the non-authoritarian public virtue of republican political ideology. Pennsylvania's commercial economy and "liberal" society were touted as the model for the new American republic, and it was hoped that it would spread to both New England and the South. In essence, Quaker family ideals were distilled into a source for American culture in general. "The Pennsylvania Quakers originated and established the institution of the morally self-sufficient household in American society" (p. 22). Hence, the modern, Western, child-centered, conjugal, nuclear family as idealized and desperately needed today.

My 4 instead of 5 star rating (it rates a 4.5) is based on the
minor quibble that Levy ignores the downsides of 18th century Quaker family life, and does not explain why if everything was so nurturing and "free," so many Quaker children left the fold and out-married non-Quakers, and hence were banished from the Society of Friends.

For more on the long-term national cultural influence of colonial Quakerism readers should seek out David Hackett Fisher's book, "Albion's Seed."

This book covers a lot of territory. I wish it included Virginia too. Its got lots of shops identified and makes it easier to figure out where "hot spots" could be so that you're not driving without purpose. A good guide to take with you if you plan a trip either for the purpose of antiquing or with antiquing as just part of the trip.

Slavery took place in Delaware while its men fought with the North during the Civil War. While most blacks in Delaware experienced a degree of freedom, there were still a large number of closely guarded and controlled slaves kept by owners in the state. This scholarly, sometimes data-heavy book recalls the rarely-examined and somehow contradictory life of slaves from the time of Dutch colonization to the end of the Civil War, using historical records including family records, financial reports, bills of sale and the words of free, indentured or enslaved blacks from the period. This is an important work that illuminates an issue of war that was far more complicated than the uniform subjugation of a race. It talks the lives of people under sometimes conflicting laws within a neutral state with southern heritage and northern leanings, with die-hard abolitionists and powerful businessmen who required slaves to keep their businesses running and, in turn, the Delaware economy moving. Many of the great national issues that tore the country apart during this period are experienced and dealt with in the microcosm that is the First State. This book is a necessary part of understanding Black History in America and I strongly recommend you read it.

This beautiful book is filled with many wonderful maps as well as early western journals desribing the first explorations of the Ohio Country by white settlers and their encounters with the many native tribes that called Ohio home in the mid to late 18th century. Including such important accounts as Christopher Gist, who was the first white man to chronicle his explorations of the Ohio wilderness, John Heckewelder and David Zeisberger, the famous Moravian missionaries who founded a number of Christian Indian towns in eastern Ohio and who help support the American cause during the Revolution in the west, Col. Henry Bouquet, the leader of a military expedition into Ohio in 1764 to help put down Pontiac's Rebellion, as well as many others whose explorations and contact with the Indians proved valuable to posterity. Early maps are compared with modern versions to try to locate a number of vanished Indian villages in a way never done before, thus providing a new perspective on the locations of modern roads and cities to their old Indian counterparts, particularly in the areas around modern Coshocton at the Forks of the Muskingum River. This area was also the site of the ill-fated Fort Laurens, the first American military installation in the Ohio Country. This is a wonderful reference book and is highly recommended to anyone with an interst in Ohio or frontier history.

I bought the 1993 edition while I was living in Central NY and can only comment on the Central NY listings. I found the format easy to skim through and the maps/directions extremely helpful. All the information you might want is included--phone numbers, hours of operation, genres sold, etc. Occasionally the description of a store's offerings was not quite right, or the place in question no longer existed, but such changes can happen when there are several years between editions. I intend to buy the edition for NC once I get moved in.

This is a good book to bring along on day hikes. Clear photos and identifying information. It is not about gardening wildflowers.

Proably the best Alex Delaware mystery since..... Well, at least since before the disastorous THE WEB. Kellerman must know he needs to do something, and this one has a new idea -- it features Milo in individual third-person scenes. And truth to tell, Milo comes off a lot better than Alex, who you really see as annoying and hard-headed.

In this one, Alex is sent a book of crime scene photogrpahs. One of them is from Milo's first, still unsolved, case. Milo is still troubled by it. Alex has time on his hands, so they're off on another adventure, involving the old murder, and its massive cover-up by the rich and powerful.

Much of the plot, which goes on at least a hundred pages too long (when did they stop editing Kellerman?) revolves around the paranoia of conspiracy and cover-up. If you believe that the execution-style slaying of an LAPD Internal Affairs officer could be concealed to the extent that the LA TIMES wouldn't even mention it, and that even LA cops wouldn't know about it, than maybe this will be OK with you, but rational minds will have a problem with it.

The chronology is forced and wrong. This is supposed to be a twenty-year old murder, but if Milo was a young detective three years out of Vietnam, it would have to be closer to thirty. and the aging problem of series characters has now taken over this series. Milo and Alex have to be pushing 60. Hard to place Alex as a romantic lead anymore; Milo has got to be well past LAPD retirement age for his grade.

And is this the kind of book that will bring new readership to the series? Will new readers thrill as Alex does a Google search? Will they hold their breath while Milo searches court records and calls DMV? Will they on be edge of their seat while Alex reads microfilmed newspapers in the library? Will they be cringing as Milo pours maple syrup on chocolate chip peanut butter pancakes.

Will please fans more than most recent outings; a great beach book.

After a few years of Jonathon Kellerman experimenting with form, trying to expand the Delaware horizons, and exploring specific themes with some mixed results, he seemed to be getting back to basics in his last outing, Flesh & Blood, and has really regained his stride with this offering, The Murder Book.

The 16th in the Alex Delaware series, and Kellerman has caught his second wind and this story is a real page-turner and barn- burner! Kellerman is still playing with form, this time alternating between Alex Delaware's 1st person narrative, and a major portion of the book a 3rd person telling from his pal, Det. Milo Sturgis', point-of-view. He thereby gives us a deeper look at both Milo and Alex as we see Delaware from his friend's perspective.

Nice to see an author's interest and invigoration in a book so far down the line in a series. AND, the mystery and plot is a corker with Alex and Milo working a 20 year old case and uncovering really rotten people in the Hills of Beverly and Belair. Plenty of evil and fireworks.

Alex Delaware finally realizes what we have known all along. He isn't a police "consultant" because he likes to exercise his apptitude and training in psychology. He does it because he is an adrenaline junky and gets off on the danger! His beloved Robin has realized this and she has split. Permanently? More will be revealed.

Having hooked in to Kellerman many years ago, I had found several of the later books interesting, but lacking the bite and visceral grab of the earlier works. Well, Jonathon is back, full stroke, and I can't wait for the next Delaware novel. Five stars for this one, for Kellerman fans, of course.

Los Angeles psychologist Dr. Alex Delaware is stunned to receive the binder containing grisly police photographs of crime scenes with an outside logo, "THE MURDER BOOK". He shows his "gift" to his friend, long term police veteran Detective Milo Sturgis, who is equally shocked by the book, but one particular picture haunts him. The book includes the picture of one of his first cases, the mutilated body of Hollywood High student Janie Ingalls, killed two decades ago.

Milo remembers that as a rookie he was teamed with veteran Pierce Schwinn, but as they began to put the case together, they were removed. Milo believs his first detective partner sent the book in order to tease the duo into investigating the cold case. Milo and Alex follow a trail that takes back to high society, a place where Schwinn reached twenty years ago before they were yanked off the investigation, but the trail remains frozen though the duo methodically progress one slow clue at a time.

THE MURDER BOOK is a powerful police procedural that is the best Delaware tale in several years. The story line absorbs the audience with the systematic scrutiny of the evidence one ugly step at a time. The support cast is abundant and overwhelming at times, but the lead sleuthing couple keeps things in perspective and provides the bonus of seeing Milo as a tyro. Jonathan Kellerman, who has a mantelpiece filled with deserving awards, may have his SHAMUS this time.

Harriet Klausner

Jonathan Kellerman is a good writer. The Alex Delaware series used to be good, which keeps me coming back hoping it would be good again. This is still not happening.

All the recent Delaware novels have followed the same pattern. Delaware is presented with a mystery, he goes from person to person talking to them with a minimal amount of action, and finally there is a scene which presents some danger to Delaware as the murderer is revealed. In this case, Delaware doesn't really even solve the mystery but instead stumbles onto the killer, a minor character who physically appears in less than ten pages before the end.

The big flaw is that Delaware has become a non-character, more of an observer than an actual personality. Even Kellerman's attempts to create a little personal tension in Delaware's love life fail because Robin is also a non-character. She basically has had walk-on roles in the past few books, and here her appearance isn't much greater (she hardly appears at all in the first half of the book).

Kellerman still has talent, as evidenced in Billy Straight, but here he fails. I suppose he could revamp Alex, but that may actually be rather jarring. It would probably be better to start a new series altogether. Kellerman has enough marketability that he could easily do this. In the meanwhile, if you must read a Kellerman book, read one of his wife's instead: her series is actually getting better with time.

I love kellerman's alex delaware novels, have read just about all of them. One of the best things about them is the way he covers the map in L.A., every street, every neighborhood, all kinds of people from all walks of life. Alex, with a power of observation that may rival sherlock holmes's, tells you every detail of what every person looks like, including what they are wearing. with some authors this is tedious, but kellerman really gets me to picture every scene as if i were there. The biggest flaw in this particular book was that certain famous people were so thinly disguised i thought i was reading something by dominick dunne. If any of these stories are based on something that really happened, it should be on people and events that are a little-less well-known. Also, i thought it was about time alex and robin's relationship had a reality check, he could have taken this even further. Through most of the books it's a continuous round of gourmet meals, fine wine, fabulous sex, no money worries, and perfect harmony. We should all be so lucky. Still, the story captured and held my interest, and i like the character of milo a lot. He helps carry this one.

Alex Delaware chalked up his attempt at helping a young, defiant, angry teenager by the name of Lauren Teague, as a failure when she walked out of his office and out of his professional life. Years later, Teague and Delaware meet at a stag party where Teague appears as the night's entertainment. However, the reunion is brief and short lived when her body turns up in a dumpster. Delaware, the avenging angel in pusuit of justice, is determined to find the person who committed the crime. He becomes so intensely involved in his mission that he risks losing Robin, the love of his life, and Miles, his best friend and co-worker.

Kellerman takes a walk through the wild, seedy side of life where pornography is king and call-girls are nothing more than a replaceable commodity. Kellerman's latest book is jam-packed with suspense from cover to cover. While his previous novel "Dr. Death" may be seen as somewhat of a disappointment to many readers, Kellerman redeems himself in this one. This is, without question, the Kellerman readers have come to know and admire; here we have Kellerman at his finest.

This short novel begins with a 1764 setting in the forests of central Ohio (near present-day Coshocton, Ohio) at the junction of the Muskingum, the Tuscarawas, and the Waldhoning Rivers. The book presents a somewhat romanticized picture of the American Indian at that time. The central character is John Cameron Butler, known as True Son in the Delaware tribe with which he has lived since he was four years old. He is now fifteen and his life is being uprooted once again. The Indians have signed a treaty in which they have to return all white captives to their original families, even those who don't wish to go. All John knows is his life as an Indian and now he has to return to the family (in Paxton, Pennsylvania, on the Susquehanna River) he hasn't seen for eleven years. But, he doesn't fit in there and he finds himself caught between two cultures. Although very well written, it appears that Richter is suggesting that Indian/colonists interactions were doomed from the very beginning. One culture had to win and one had to lose. He presents the case where neither culture appeared willing to tolerate nor to understand the other. And, in more general terms, in my opinion Richter seems to hint that all such cultural conflicts are fated to fail. This is a rather sad commentary on man. I certainly hope it is not true and that there are good chances for Serb/Albanian, Irish/English, Indian/Pakistani, etc., interactions. This book is often used in reading assignments for students ranging from ages eleven through fourteen. I find it also a depressing thought that such a dark vision of man's capacity for tolerance and understanding is being presented to young, impressionable minds. I would have hoped that teachers in the 1990s would have found literary sources with a less negative outlook. It would appear that some of the negative reviews provided by earlier, and much younger, readers have some validity.

'The Light in The Forest' is a book about a young White boy from 18th century America who was born as a "frontier child" but was then stolen by Indians when very young and brought up as an Indian for ten years. His Indian name is True Son, and his white name is John Butler. When he is about 15 years old, he is forced to go back and live with his real White family. He is devastated because he was brought up to hate the Whites, and now he is being forced to live with them and to practice their culture. At first True Son refuses to comply at all with the Whites and tries to escape. After a while, and after spending much time with the Whites though, it seems that True Son is beginning to accept and become used to their culture, and is starting to lose his Indian ways. It looks as if all of the Indian in him has been run over and destroyed, when one night, he finds his old Indian friend / cousin and escapes with him from the Whites to a long journey back home to his old Indian town. It seems now that all the Indian he left behind has been renewed to him and most of what the whites forced into his head is gone when, with little warning, True Son must make a life-altering decision that will decide his fate, and that will decide what culture he is to live with.

I really enjoyed this book; it showed the conflict between whites and Indians in 18th century America very well. It was filled with action and adventure, and although short, it still developed the characters and the plot so that you had a broad understanding of what kind of decisions this young man had to make, how it must have been like being bounced from culture to culture (especially in that day), and how hard things must have been in general. This understanding of the character is what keeps you reading and keeps you itching to find out where fate will put John Butler/ True Son. I would recommend this book because of these reasons, and because of the way the author attacked the overlying conflict between Whites and Indians: he spoke of it from both the White's and the Indian's sides. Because of this the reader can understand the conflict from both sides, and can not easily pick a side to support, which made things interesting. Lastly, in my opinion, this book is quite unpredictable, and you can't tell how it will complete itself until the very end, which made the book more fun to read. If you enjoy history, and adventure you will probably enjoy this book.

A Light In The Forest centers around a fifteen-year-old boy named True Son, who lived with the Lenni Lenape for eleven years, ever since the Indians had captured him during an attack on a farm. He was adopted by Cuyloga and Quaquenga, a family of the Lenni Lenape, and became one of them.
One day, his village learns that all white prisoners must be returned to their birth families, and his father takes him to the camp of soldiers that will take True Son to Pennsylvania. True Son's experiences in an English town and his desire to return to his village are the storyline of the book. This book is appropriate for eight graders, though the author, Conrad Richter, portrays some scenes almost too vividly. Children who have been in a divorce situation can relate to True Son and his feelings of abandonment. The book does an excellent job of informing readers of how the English and the Indians viewed each other, and gives the reader the unique viewpoint of True Son. For entertainment, the book falls a little short, occasionally losing your attention by attempting to summarize events without going into any detail. Overall, the book is not a bad read, and would be especially enjoyable if you like historic novels from this period.