Craig Hanken has given us a magnificent book on landscape painting written as a reflection of how paintings and a body of work develop over time. As a former student of the artist, I am continually taken with Leake's ability to use a narrow palette of color, and sometimes the same landscape over and over, to express an amazing range and depth of feeling about the landscape. This book is a joy to read and to use as a resource - Leake explains his use of color and choice of locations in terms that the general specator can appreciate and the student can try an emulate. The numerous images are well chosen and well reproduced. A classic.

I have owned this book for quite some time. My favorites include the recipe for Maryland Crabcakes and the Stuffed Mushrooms. There are several recipes from some of my favorite restaurants such as Phillip's Crab House and Rod 'n' Reel (just to name a few). There are also picture discriptions on how to fillet, shuck, clean, dress and freeze many of your favorite fish, crabs, lobster, clams, and oysters. This book is a must for a beginner on seafood preperation.

This book is very well written. This book has offered me several ways to enhance my knowledge-base. A must read if you want to keep up with the changes taking place in Maryland.

Maryland trivia compiler Shirley Menendez and others have performed a very worthwhile service with this excellent book. It encompasses a broad spectrum of topics. You will be amazed by some obscure facts you never knew existed.
The history chapter of this book by accident omits a significant event in the history of Baltimore. My great-grandfather was a German immigrant named Boston Fear. He created Walbrook: Baltimore's very first suburb. Walbrook was originally named Fearville in honor of Boston Fear. The movie industry's very first superstar, Francis X. Bushman, was given his very first job in life by Boston Fear.
Few books have ever been written pertaining to the subject of Maryland trivia. I highly suggest you own a copy of this book!

Paul Hanyok has done a wonderful job of telling us the history of wildlife enforcement in Maryland. Anyone who collects Maryland hunting & fishing licenses needs a copy. Very extensive research on the years of issuance, on the numbers issued. Many photographs of licenses and more. The first part of the book really tells the story of the early days of wildlife enforcement. Also tells the history of conservation laws in Maryland. Very interesting reading. I learned of many licenses I didn't even know existed. Thank you Paul for the fine book!

As franchises, strip malls,highways, fast food and outlets become more prevelant in America, it is refreshing and enlightening to read John Sherwood's, "Maryland's Vanishing Lives." His colorful and poignant portraits of ways of life in Maryland (a one-room schoolhouse;Tool bridge operator etc.) are a reminder of how things have been, but are quickly giving way to the mass marketing approach in our nation. Sherwood preserves the varied ways of life that are quickly going by the wayside in our impersonal age, and does so with an exquisite human touch. Bravo!

I think it was a great book and it teaches you a lot about Maryland Its past and present.

Jane Sewell, who unfortunately died earlier this year (with a glowing obituary in THE SUN), was one of the best historians Maryland has ever had. Her ability to combine brevity with comprehensiveness shines nowhere better than in this volume on Maryland's 200 year history in American medicine.

Ms. Sewell touches on all aspects of the state's medical history, from the heyday of Baltimore medicine (which, thanks to Johns Hopkins and UM, continues to this day) to the impoverished conditions of the state's western and southern fringes. The grand scope of this book is executed with such mastery of content, voice, and detail that I would not hesitate to call this one the most outstanding histories of medicine ever written. I found the chapters both informative and inspiring, and advise any person studying or practicing medicine in the Free State to secure a copy for his or her library.

Bode's biography of Mencken changed my life, in that is was an introduction to the Baltimore critic Mencken's role in shaping libertarian thought and appreciation. Actually, I daydreamed back in college through a linguistics class that used Mencken's American Language textbook, but it took Bode's biography to teach me how important Mencken was to realism and the fight against puritans and Big Government pablum. While I ignored the classics in school, Bode's story of Mencken's critique of the great writers of the 20's and 30's gave me a list of books to read. As a libertarian Mencken's favorites -- Theodore Dreiser, Joseph Conrad, Sinclair Lewis, etc. -- have delighted me as much as Bode's biography. The lonely, creative individualist in Dreiser's "The Genius" and Conrad's "Victory" is the same character that Mencken is. For that matter, Ayn Rand seems to be in a similar class as Mencken. Thank God I stumbled upon Bode's book.

Love shipwreck stories? Like to dive for treasure? Like reading about Eastern states history? GET THIS BOOK! I read this book non-stop, I couldn't put it down. Anyone familliar with east coast shore towns will love reading about the fantastic treasures lying hidden somewhere "down there" off the coast! I guess the average person would not be interested in this book, but I often stand at the waves at the New Jersey shore and think about ships laden with gold and silver, from 200 years ago and wonder how many are still buried beneath the waves. Arm-chair historians, treasure divers and ship wreck romantics: find this book!