Connecticut residents who love the outdoors should consider this guide. The Hardy family offers an impressive array of hikes for people of all skill levels.

Each hike is thoroughly researched and includes detailed maps and photographs. I relied heavily on the maps and found them to be 100% accurate. The site descriptions are especially helpful. They include driving directions, parking instructions, and well-informed commentary about the trail itself. You will know precisely what vegetation or bird life to look for at specific points during your trip. Keep this book open during your hikes to fully appreciate the experience.

Logical organization enables efficient selection of hikes by region or length. Readers should be assured that this truly is a Connecticut book. The authors do not discriminate in favor of the oft-traversed northwest region. Connecticut hikers would do well to have this guide in their backpack.

Now in an thoroughly updated and expanded, The Berkshire Book: A Complete Guide by hiker, newspaper publisher, and travel writer Lauren R. Stevens, is an informed and informative travel resource ideal for anyone vacationing in the Berkshire county of Massachusetts. After providing a history of the area, individual chapters are filled with information on transportation, lodgings, dining, fine arts, recreation, shopping, and much, much more in this packed, tell-all, detail-laden guide. If you are going to find yourself in Berkshire country, Lauren Steven's The Berkshire Book is the travel guide for you!

It was to my great advantage to be spending the summer of 1992 in Lenox when I read this book, purchased from the local village. Carol Owens has provided a supurb look into the lives and lifestyles of the gilded aged super rich as well as an excellent portrayal of the architecture of the summer cottages of the Berkshires. Filled with historical facts and "twice-told tales", this book is a rare gem giving the reader a vivid and pictoral view point of life during this era among the social ellete and powerful industrial magnates. I was able to see many of the homes by using Owens' book as a tour guide. It was thoroughly fascinating! I even got a bit carried away when I decided to take an unauthorized tour of the massive (and deserted) 92 room Elm Court, once owned by Emily Vanderbilt Sloane White. The local police were less impressed with my venture. Lookout for the flowershop owner who works out of what used to be Elm Courts' carriage house--he is a real snitch. If you enjoy reading about the "400" and the gilded age or the architecture of this period, you must read this book. It is a real treasure!

It is hard to imagine another region that can boast more consistently interesting writers per square foot than the beautiful Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts.
The present volume has gathered many, from the 1600's to our own time, always with an eye for local color and the good read. Along the way we meet some interesting residents and visitors (Francis Parkman, Charles Dickens), sample some old favorites, Hawthorne, Melville, and Wharton, among others, and are pleased to become acquainted with the fine writing of Paul Metcalf and Don Gifford.
Altogether a delight for anyone who cherishes good reading, and especially of course for those who love the area.

(The "score" rating is an unfortunately ineradicable feature of the page. This reviewer does not "score" books.)

Being a parent that lives Adirondacks I am always looking for new things for me and my children to enjoy. I thought this was a great book for both kids and adults to look through and find activities. I found it had a variety of activities to do in a large 16 county area. I think this is the perfect guide for the parent who like to do weekend activities with the kids. For me its simply choose a place to go and find something interesting to do there. And trust me, there are plenty of choices! This is an escpecially helpful book for kids 2-12. I easily give this book the full 5 Amazon stars for excellent research, easy to use layout, variety of choices, wide selection of locations, and knowledge of what families want. So if your a parent looking for a guide for where to bring your kids, buy this book. In fact any parent living in upstate New York should get this book, you never know when you might need it.

A great book-Scary, clever and clever!

Nature Walks In The Berkshire Hills is the latest title in the AMC "Nature Walks" series. This "hiker friendly" guidebook includes 42 nature-rich walks for all ages and abilities; detailed descriptions of flora, fauna, and geology; summaries of distance, time, and level of difficulty; detailed maps and directions for each walk; driving and parking information; local tales, legends, and lore; useful names, addresses, and phone numbers; trip planning and safety advice. This handy little pocket sized compendium is ideal for planning outdoor excursions in the beautiful and natural New England country that is just two hours from Boston and New York City.

In A Time Of War: A Northern Chronicle Of The Civil War, Stuart Murray draws upon Berkshire County, Massachusetts diaries, letters, newspapers, military reports, church journals, and gravestones to tell the stories of the black Union soldiers drawn from New England factories and farms, and comprising the 54th Regiment whose exploits and ultimate fate were vividly portrayed in the film "Glory". Here the reader will encounter Medal of Honor winners, Confederate generals, women volunteers, prisoners of war, leading abolitionists, pacifists, shopkeepers, poets, writers, artists, politicians, and a host of others, all contributing to a vivid portraits of the horrors and glories of the Civil War. A Time Of War is an outstanding contribution to the growing library of Civil War literature and a "must" for all dedicated Civil War buffs.

I purchased ISBN:0195283600. This particular edition differs a bit from other reviews I've read--no portraits, etc.

It's an Oxford, so if it were possible for me to have gotten an NRSV with the Apocrypha in genuine black leather from someone else, I'd have done it gladly. Oxford generally cuts corners in the Bible-making process.

Because it will be a secondary Bible for me, I'm not terribly peeved about Jesus' words NOT being red, there being no concordance, and there being no dictionary of any kind. The leather is nice but a bit stiff. The spine, however, is sewn and very flexable--a major plus for a long-lasting Bible.

I like the fairly handy size very much. Bibles are gennerally made way too big. The paper is very quality and the font selection and paragraph-style page layout is very nice as well.

Reguarding the translation itself: I'm particularly pleased with the traslating of the Old Testament and Apocrypha, well done and very readable. I'm not at all offended with the gender-inclusive rendering with certain passages, as footnotes mark each diversion from the originals. When I began reading the Bible, I started with an original Living paraphrase because the KJV was just too much for me. I soon learned that the translation was so terribly compromised for readability, I was missing out on a lot of important meaning. The NRSV is a fantastic balance between readability and accuracy, if you ask me. Thinking of giving a Bible to new believer or someone just starting to study it? Give them an NRSV!

If you're considering this particular printing for your main Bible, I'd suggest shopping around first. But overall, I'm satisfied.

This Bible contains hard to find family-genealogy pages in a NRSV edition. It is oversized, leather bound, and has large type. As a bonus, there are colorful portraits of old testament characters, and maps and an index. A fine gift for a new family.

This is a superb example of one of the most scholarly translations of the Holy Scriptures available! The large print makes it immensely readable and the price is reasonable for such a quality book. The addition of the Apocrypha makes it the essential Bible to have in your home library and a family treasure for generations! I highly reccommend this translation and this particular copy! Modern language, large print, this Bible can reach every member of your family with it's timeless message of hope.

The Old Scofield Study Bible (KJV) is one of a kind. Let me be honest right from the start by saying that God's Word does not make any sense unless it is understood with a dispensational perspective. Anything less than that, and your stuck with a Bible that contradicts itself all over the place. All a believer has to do is allow God's Word to interpret itself, instead of listening to the so-called scholars of higher Christian education. They are the main reason for the Laodicean apostasy we find ourselves in today. Scofield did a good job at letting God's Book speak for itself. I have discovered by experience that most of the study bibles out there on the market today are filled with nothing but the authors private interpretation of the scriptures. What's so difficult about just believing what God's Word says, and not adding your own thoughts to it. The Scofield Study Bible does have it's weaknesses on certain passages, but overall it surpasses any other study bible currently out there. With all due respect, people that haven't discovered this have never really searched and studied the Book "with their hearts" well enough to make any worthwhile comment on the subject. Given the choice, I choose to listen and trust God's Word, and not the liberal Christian scholars. Ahhh, there's nothing like a King James Bible to clear up a college education.

C.I. Scofield's notes are written from a dispensational approach to theology. It is based on a belief in a historical/gramatical approach to the Bible. Many would say it is a system helps make sense out of Scripture. I agree. Understanding the difference between Israel and the Church and that God administered His faith/grace relationship with people differently throughout human history is clearly taught in these wonderful notes. Some of the material is obviously outdated because of new discoveries in archeology and science. However, the basic notes on the biblical covenants and prophesy are as rich today as the day they were written.

This is a wonderful Bible for people who are trying to make sense out of the Bible.

Thank you Dr. Scofield, Oxford Press and Philadelphia College of Bible.

The Scofield study bible has useful, and in some ways unique features, which enhance the King James or Authorised version of the bible. Scofield had a problem in that at the time of writing he knew that the KJV was not the best text available. New Hebrew and Greek biblical documents had been discovered since 1611, and textual criticism had advanced greatly. However, Scofield manages to preserve the universally recognised beauty of the Authorized whilst enhancing the textual accuracy at vital points with in-line glosses (word or phrase substitutions), with the original King James text moved to the margin. These glosses are indicated by a pair of vertical line | like this |. A good example of this is found in John chapter 1, verse 12: the phrase 'sons of God' is rendered as 'children of God'. This had the double virtue of being a more accurate translation of the Greek 'tekna theou', and is also gender-neutral - politically correct before his time! An Old Testament example would be Ex. 20 v.13, the well known 'Thou shalt not kill'. Here 'kill' is footnoted, and there is a one sentence explanation that, while there are several Hebrew words for 'kill', this instance means 'murder' as it has our modern legal sense of unlawful premeditated killing.

Other features include doctrinal summaries in the form of extended footnotes on the great themes of scripture, such as the section in John's gospel on grace. I think these are best described as conceptually rich and information dense. The coherence of the Old to New Testament sweep is such that several sermons or bible studies could be culled from any one of these summaries. Their usefulness in personal study is immense and sometimes saves the cost of a specialist reference book. The chain reference system enables one to follow a very extensive line of thought from the first bible occurrence of a word or concept through to the last. There are useful organised expositions of Judaistic culture, worldview, and thought habits. An excellent example of this would be the handling of the Hebraic habits of naming and word play (I don't call them 'puns'). One of the most potent of these is his analysis of the Names of God, from Elohim to 'Alpha and Omega'.

Having said all I have to say in a laudatory vein, I have to add that sometimes Scofield's conciseness is too clipped for his own good. He gives cut-and-dried answers to things which would be better handled as 'maybe this, or maybe that', and this is guaranteed to irritate the true scholar at times. He can also make comments which are so text-critically controversial that he would be better off passing over them in silence, an example of this would be the four line footnote on the 'woman taken in adultery' in John chapter 8. But buy it and not regret it is my only advice.