For a person who needed information on growing Irises outside England and the Pacific Northwest, this would be not be the best first purchase. I can't judge how well it would describe cultural best practice in England but with Irises climate is extremly important. What works in one climate will not work in another, Iris Borer, for example, only lives in North America but it is a terrible pest there. It would make lovely winter reading for most of us because of the artistic photographs and excellent botany of the various Iris species. However don't expect to be able to buy many of the varities shown, the English have their own set of Iris varities and only rarely import the American ones.

"The Gardener's Guide to Growing Irises" by Geoff Stebbings is more readable and less usable than many of the gardening books I own. It is a wonderful book to curl up with in the winter when your garden is covered with snow. The pictures are beautiful and in color, although I wish there were more of them (I think I've been spoiled by the photos in the Iris catalogues that show up in my mailbox every Spring). The author has definite opinions as to which varieties work best in the garden. In his chapter on "The Value of Iris in the Garden" he states the following:

"Perhaps it is because the bearded iris show such variety that many gardeners do not look elsewhere in the genus for garden plants. This is a mistake, however, because although the deep, blackcurrent purple of 'Superstition' may have a velvety sheen, a ruffling and size that are hard to match, the deep purple of forms of 'I. Chrysographes' are augmented by bright golden markings on a flower of refinement and poise that makes the other look clumsy and almost grotesque."

The tall, bearded Iris also gets short shrift in the popular "The Well-Tended Perennial Garden" by Tracy DiSabato-Aust, but I would venture to say that theirs is the minority opinion among gardeners. Most of us love the bearded irises for their gorgeous colors and perfumes, and in spite of their short season of bloom. This book's longest chapter is on the Tall Bearded Iris, so it can't be said that the author neglects them. There are also chapters on the Siberian Iris, the Pacific Coast Iris, the Water Iris, the Spuria Iris, the Stinking Iris, the Dwarf Bulbous Iris, and "Iris for the Specialist".

As interesting as this book is to read, it is not really organized to help you locate a quick paragraph on what to do about the Iris borer grub that you just discovered in your 'Beverly Sills' rhizome. In fact 'iris borer' isn't even listed in the index. If you flip to the lone page on 'pests', you won't find them there, either-just a few miscellaneous paragraphs on aphids and wet rot.

Buy "The Gardener's Guide to Growing Irises" if you love irises and would like to learn more about them. However, you might want to look elsewhere for a straightforward guide to growing and caring for these lovely flowers.

This book is informative and entertaining. Unfortunately, it is poorly written (many non-sentences and incorrect grammar). That and the numerous typos are distracting.

I really enjoyed this book because, though I don't "believe" in ghosts, I enjoy ghost stories. I enjoy folk tales as well. Further, I am interested in the history of the area I live in. This book has all three: ghost stories, folk tales, and history of the area I live in. So I find it a lot of fun. I didn't find the typos or occasionally poor sentence structure to be much of a distraction.

I also enjoyed the bibliography in back of the book that lists internet sites pertaining to ghosts and the paranormal. The Table of Contents is as follows:

Introduction
I. Native American and Sacred Places
II. The Portland Basin
III. Western Oregon
IV. Western Washington and Puget Sound
V. The Northwest Coast
VI. The Columbia River Gorge
VII. Eastern Washington
VIII. Strange Critters
IX. Thoughts on Ghost Hunting
Index

Trust me, this book is a lot of fun if you live in the Northwest and are interested in ghosts and other folklore, such as Bigfoot. It might even be fun for someone who doesn't live in the region.

Really really bad, jingoist, myopic, unthrilling thriller. I usually like T. Jefferson, but I hated this one. Blech!

As a reader of all T. Jefferson Parker's novels, I held back on buying and reading this one for some time, but since I enjoyed his other books I gave this a try.

Boy was I happy! For me this was definetly the sleeper hit for T. Jefferson Parker. The excitement and plot twists kept my attention. I was really bummed to finish. It was a great insight into the Vietnamese culture of Westminister, CA.

A few flashback scenes really helped explain the motivations of some of the key figures.

Exceptional

Joseph's book is interesting, but only as a piece of fantasy. His jumps in logic are enormous and difficult to believe as a serious work of science. Certainly, there are more intelligent and reasonable explanations for pyramids in Rock Lake, that could be answered by scientific investigation. Linking civilizations of the New World with the Canary Islands and Egypt are yet another attempt to trivialize the important and complex communities that have existed in North America for centuries. This book definately has entertainment value, but that is all it has to offer and should not be taken for more.

Ancient Civilizations are a mystery almost as deep as the mystery of what tomorrow will bring, and almost as deep as Rock Lake. In this narrative the Author takes you scuba diving in search of ruins in the heart of America. From pyramid builders to Ancient Mariners hoarding copper, this book answers many questions but leaves the reader dangling by the thin thread that ties us to an unknown past.

Although easy enough to read and laced with numerous Jeffersonian quotations, this book, on balance, is far more concerned with Professor Sheldon's appraisal of contemporary society than it is with the opinions of the nation's third president.

Sheldon's conservative Christian viewpoint is obvious throughout and gives rise to the legitimate concern that he may have been quite selective in his use of substantiating information, employing only those ideas which are consistent with his own stance on issues while creating the illusion that he is presenting the reader with an unbiased, factual perspective. Some of the supportive evidence for his conjectures is anecdotal at best and may well have little or no basis in fact.

For example, twice Sheldon mentions a comparison of surveys regarding educational problems in 1940 and 1990 in an attempt to prove a decline in educational and moral standards. These "surveys," however, are a fiction concocted by former Ft. Worth businessman T. Cullen Davis, an evangelical Christian who has openly admitted that he fabricated the polls years ago in order to advance his personal views.

Lack of precise documentation is the most disturbing feature of this book. Statistics are quoted and anecdotes are related, but virtually nowhere is it possible for the reader to easily verify much of what the author states. Given Sheldon's obvious bias, a reader who wants a more scholarly, objective, accurate overview of Thomas Jefferson's thoughts would do well to look elsewhere, for instance Joseph Ellis's "American Sphinx."

This work provides a good survey of Jefferson's political thought, as well as an excellent piece concerning the intellectual battle over the classical republican paradigm. This piece, by the way, is well worth the price of the book. Nevertheless, although this is a worthy work, it pales in comparison to David N. Mayer's "The Constitutional Thought of Thomas Jefferson." If you are truly interested in Jefferson's political thought, Mayer's is the foremost work on the subject.

This beautiful hard bound book with the picture of Thomas Jefferson on the cover is deceiving. It contains 18 essays on Thomas Jefferson and his views on citizenship, education, slavery,and religion. Of the 18 only about 4 essays are really fair and bereft of the political correctness that has infected the American history "profession". Douglas L. Wilson, on Jefferson's views on Literacy, David Mayers's of Jefferson's views on constitutional change ,Suzanne Morse on the "ward republics, and finally Liu Zuonchang's essay on the overall progrssivness of Jefferson are really the only good essays. The rest are libels on Jefferson using 20/21st century standards to judge an enlightened and progresive of the 18th/19th century. Overall, poor deconstruction scholarship.

The "Education of a Citizen" is probably the best compilation of critcal essays and reviews on Jefferson's educational theory in bookstores today. Gilreath has selected writings that in and of themselves stand out with high merit, and when read together, they blend with one another and make for a truly enlightening experience. Those who wish to learn more about Jefferson's stance on education in a young America should look to this text for knowledge, and I can personally say hat they will not be sorry.

The ultimate conclusion of this report is that the closing and transfer of the Philadelphia naval should yard ought to be an example/model fo rthe US military in the future. Although not overwhelming, this report is a good introduction to the issue of base restructuring in the evolving structure of the post-Cold War military. As a case study, it has a lot of useful historical and analytical information that could be beneficial for policymakers in other situations.

It deals heavily with the procedures of the transfer. Though it does address them significantly, a deeper analysis of the political interests and conflicts surrounding this is as equally useful as any procedural analysis. Helpfully, the report also deals with the court issues that arose out of the case. Since it is a common tactic in these issues, understanding the uses and limits of the court system in these transfers is useful as well.

The report lacks an index, but the table of contents is extensive. A thorough bibliography is also included.

There is some interesting information in this book. However, the amount of typos and grammatical errors are a serious distraction.

The Mogollon people, along with other ethnic groups, flourished at Grasshopper Pueblo in the Arizona mountains for an astonishingly brief few generations from around 1300 to 1400. This followed the Great Drought of the late 1200s, an event which changed prehistoric life in the American southwest. Authors Reid and Whittlesey conceived of their book as a popular synthesis, distilling for a general audience 30 yrs of archaeological research at Grasshopper Pueblo. And the book is certifiably general, often frustratingly so. Practically every page includes some reference to life at Grasshopper Pueblo that could/should have been amplified. Here are random examples:

• The authors describe the period prior to the founding of Grasshopper Pueblo as being characterized by "elaboration of the mountain adaptive pattern and by the continuation of regional differences" (p. 17). Which is a rather dry way to describe the intriguing notion that archeology can infer evolution and variation in life style of a mobile people inhabiting only several hundreds of square miles -- a notion many readers will want to hear more about and, perhaps, need to know about, in order to understand the meaning and value of southwestern archeology.

• "The 1300s mark a special time in Mogollon prehistory when the mountains of Arizona experienced the largest year-round population ever" (p. 62). But doesn't the current population of the region (at least) deserve to hear the authors' estimate of what the largest population might have been? or to be given a statistic on the region's current population, as a benchmark for appreciating prehistory?

• "The threefold division of the main pueblo into room blocks and plazas continued throughout the Aggregation period and was accompanied by distinctions in architecture, use of fuel wood, diet, and other differences, indicating that the people living in each room block maintained particular ways of doing things that may have been a product of their different origins or affiliations" (p. 116). Wow -- How could the authors *not* explicate the methodology, data and alternative interpretations pertaining to every facet of that prehistoric pluralistic society? is anything like it seen among historic puebloan people?

The authors restrain themselves throughout the book, presenting only the broadest sketch of their and other's findings. Also problematically, the authors unconvincingly apply the archeological concepts of aggregation and abandonment to the history of the University of Arizona Field School, which convened each summer at Grasshopper Pueblo for 30 yrs. And lastly, the text is maddeningly repetitive, as if paragraphs were independently written and then collated, without regard to the duplication of material -- Where was the editor?

Overall, the book provides an introduction to the archeology of Grasshopper Pueblo. Many readers will be intrigued by the cohabitation of Mogollon and Anasazi peoples and by the peoples' remarkably poor health, but I suspect only introductory readers of southwestern prehistory will benefit greatly from most of the book's narrative.