Without a shred of doubt, one of the funniest books to ever exist. If you have an even slightly avant garde sense of humour, you will be needing a hernia operation shortly after completely this jovial tome.

One of the very best of the wise cracking, tough guy characters ever is W.L. Ripley's Wyatt Storme. Ripley has created a "Midwestern Travis McGee" with some extremely interesting side kicks and an outlandish, but somehow believable, cast of characters. This is a great introduction to Storme with a huge promise of even better things to follow and the promise is fulfulled in the sequels - Storme Front and Electric Country Roulette. Not since James Lee Burke has an author captured the "True Testosterone Essence" with such humor, excitement and humanity. Read all three and then you too can wait with anticipation for Ripley's next Storme mystery

Fort Center, near Lake Okeechobee Florida, is one of the most fascinating archaeological sites in America. The Indians who lived there built mounds and gigantic circles of dirt, may have been the first in America to cultivate maize, and participated in a mortuary cult.

This book chronicles the excavation of the site and discusses the finds.

Appropriately illustrated, this book is a model of how archaeological research should be reported.

Ripley's Believe it or Not has been an absolute favorite of mine ever since visiting one of its numerous museums. Its revealings of many of the world's strange and unusual facts had me from the start. This rare book collects many of these facts, culminating in a great read. Very straight forward. Each fact is accompanied by a small comic like strip approach. A must have for any and all Ripley fans.

Tony Kozol is a disbarred attorney and professional musician who lands a dream gig with the hot country music act, Clint Cash and the Cowhands, only to find himself surrounded with intrigue as his bandmates are singled out for murder. Lost In Austin is set against the backdrop of Austin, Texas and the Southwest music Conference as Tony must struggle to keep his job -- and his life! Also very highly recommended are two earlier Tony Kozol mystery novels: Stiff In The Freezer (1892339048, (price)) and Skulls Of Sedona (1892339072, (price)).

habitats,reproduction,protection,spesis,family and photo

Karen Ripley has taken a fresh approach to fantasy writing. As a long-time fantasy and science-fiction reader, I found her novel intriguing. This series is a MUST for fantasy readers everywhere!

I used this book for three years while living in India. While its illustrations are not as robust or detailed as those of western field guides, they are usually adequate. First, and foremost, though, is that this volume is currently the ONLY book that contains all the species. Others contain a mere fraction. For that reason alone, this is the one book you should get for IDing birds in India. The rest lead only to disappointment, unless used in conjunction with this one.

This book is the illustration subset of the much larger Handbook, which comes in a 10-volume set (or in one tiny-print "compact" volume). The two work well together: one for your field forays, and one for the bookshelf back home. Be warned, though: the compact Handbook, while an exhaustive study of each species (including migration maps and exhumed stomach contents, etc.) is expensive when you can find it.

Few people are aware of the earthmound remains of Precolumbian peoples in the US. William Morgan's little book does much to change that, and in a highly readable manner. Organized by epochs, this comprehensive illustrated catalogue of over 100 important sites is a must for early-history buffs. Most important, each site is "reconstructed" and illustrated with a clear to-scale map which is at the same scale as all the other mapped reconstructions. The book is a model for such studies, as sites of interest can be quickly compared in scale with the Acropolis, the Giza pyramid complex, and other more famous sites. Highly recommended.

Cliched reviewers say, "you can't put this book down." In the case of poet Richard Hugo's autobiography, I found I needed to put it down occasionally. The book is so intense, so brutally truthful, that the reader has to take a break and walk away from it periodically, just a prize-fighter needs that break between rounds. Growing up on West Marginal Way with his grandparents in Seattle, going through his tour as a bombardier, his early life and eventual emergence as one of the top nation's best poets - and certainly one of the top poetry teachers - Hugo spares neither himself nor the reader. Although modern-day Americans are accustomed to seeing blood and gore on the TV screen, few are prepared for the concussive effects of Hugo's unflinching reminiscences. When the book finally is put down at the end, it stays with the reader, as does an admiration for the extreme courage Hugo took in putting all this down on paper.