All of the books written by Robert Thayer convey the true beauty of Acadia National Park. Robert is an outstanding photographer/ author and is an inspiration for my own work. I have seen many slides of Roberts work and I am always impressed. I give this book my highest recommendation for any person interested in learning about Acadia, nature, wildlife, and especially photography. He also has 3 other books available on Amazon.com of an equal caliber.

After throughly reading this book through 3 times I have come to the conclusion it is a wonderful book full of useful information. The pictures alone are beautifuly taken giving reason enough to purchase this book. Also Mr Thayer is an excellent chemistry teacher and I hope after reviewing this comment he will raise our grades

An excellent overall introduction to Acadia National Park and Mount Desert Island. Good overview of geology and natural and cultural history. Provides up-to-date information on roads and hiking trails. A wonderful guide or souvenir of the Acadian experience.

I found this book to be great in all phases that I donated a copy to the USS Leyte CV 32 Association. There it is exposed to thousands of members at their reunions.In Knowing Sean Milligan he has the know how of editing a book.

I enjoyed the rich historical knowledge that is shared in this volume of the Images of America Series which I admire very much. It is full of precious photos of P-51s, B-17s and many other planes. The book tells of the legendary Airbase known to all as Quonset Point, Rhode Island...

This book brings back memories for thoes who served in the military. It is also a useful tool for thoes interested in ecconomic development. You will see how different Naval Air Stations have the same things in common -deep water ports-landing strips-rail connections-access to roads to major cities. They are all perfect for industry or intermodal transportation. Sean Milligan has lots more information to share and there are more books to follow on these topics. The photos are great and everyone I let read my book were very moved. It was like watching someone look at an old school yearbook. I think you or your family will get a kick out of seeing this piece of history. ENJOY

Reclaiming the Commons is an excellent read for anyone interested in the natural history of New England, community farming, open space issues, and the value of farms in the landscape. This is a well written, thoughtful book that offers an inspiring vision for a future of locally produced food, protected farmland, and community involvement that farms help to create.

In Reclaiming the Commons, Brian Donahue has given us a remarkable portrait of a thriving community farm in Weston, Massachusetts called Land's Sake. In 1980 the nonprofit organization Land's Sake was formed in Weston, a suburb of Boston, to work closely with the town's Conservation Commission on managing and using the town's growing public land. Its three founding principles were to care ecologically for Weston's land, to involve the community and especially young people with the land, and to be as self-supporting as possible through the sale of products and services. By thinking of the land as a rural space that could "benefit from our presence, rather than need to be protected from us," they opened the possibility that they could engage suburban youth with the land and produce high-quality natural products for local sale, offering ample educational and recreational activities while striking "a balance between protecting natural ecosystems and making sustainable, productive use of the land."

Land's Sake sends about one-fifth of their fresh organic produce to Boston's homeless shelters and food pantries, as well as sponsoring a Harvest for Hunger every September, thus ensuring that their surplus finds an assured wholesale market (the town pays the price to send the food to the inner city) which benefits the disadvantaged and disenfranchised in the nearby urban areas. Donahue shows that suburbia "is the condition of residing outside the city proper with little functional connection to one's neighbors, aside from the schools, and almost no functional connection to the land," and he shows that community farms on common land offer a vibrant opportunity to keep farmland from being lost to development, and to transform the suburban condition from alienation to connection. This is a surprisingly powerful and exciting book that will show suburban and city readers how to become more connected to their land and to their source of food.

This book,written by a newcomer in the environmental landscape, will become a landmark. It points the way to transform the suburban way of life into one that is sustainable.This it would do by converting suburban open spaces into community sanctuaries for agriculture,husbandry and forestry, administered by suburbanites themselves,especially by their youngsters.The great strength of the proposals is that they have been demonstrated to work by the author and his associates in the upscale Boston suburb of Weston. Another plus is the grace and humor with which the book is blessed.

I have enjoyed many of the rides detailed in this book. They are among the most scenic I have experienced. But the author goes beyond simply choosing routes based on scenery, terrain, mileage, etc. He also seems to have a knowledge and appreciation for the different elements of the routes themselves. It's not uncommon for him to mention historical highlights of the communities the rides pass through, or the significance of landmarks along the routes. What the cyclist gets from this book is not just "go 1.2 miles, turn left and go to the end", but also a wealth of information about the rides that adds a whole new dimension to the cycling experience. This book is a must for anyone who enjoys a good bike ride.

Howard's routes are excellent - he always finds the most scenic routes through towns, managing to avoid the larger busier roads in most cases. He pays close attention to safety details - ie: when you take his trips, you won't come across a stop sign at the bottom of a steep hill unless he specifically mentions it.

I have done several of the rides, and highly recommend this book or any of the others he has done.

Brad Charbonneau

I concur with rweiner's review. Over the past 8 years I have enjoyed many of the routes that Howard has written about. I have found that his ride descriptions, directions, and assessment of the level of difficulty are very clear and consistent. His books have introduced me to areas of New England that I never would have experienced any other way. I look forward to enjoying more of his rides in the future as I continue to try out new routes from his books.

Beth Dugger finds the roads less traveled in this popular New England state. The book is broken down into six regions: White Mountains, the Lakes Region, Dartmouth and Lake Sunapee, the Monadnock Region, Merrimack Valley and the Coastal Region, each offering full details on fun things to do. Hiking, fishing, skiing and canoeing are but a few of the activities covered, with the best outfitters listed for each, along with contact numbers. Dugger says, "This book is for people who see themselves doing things, not just going places."

The New Hampshire Adventure Guide also explores the best dining options (usually off the beaten track), including small town bakeries where the steaming hot bread is to die for! Lodging choices are also profiled. 40 detailed maps plus photos throughout

"... an excellent and comprehensive guide to adventure.... The book is logically organized and well indexed, and directions and maps are clear and easy to follow. Highly recommended."

"Dugger gives interesting factoids, tells what equipment you'll need, and is clear on the difficulty of each adventure. She shares the most romantic hike to Dome Rock and also reviews what to do in cities and towns." Chicago Daily Herald

Vermont has many attractions, no matter what season. Visit during the flowery summers, or in the spring when blooms are just showing their heads. Venture here in autumn when the mountains are bathed in color, or in winter when ice and snow create a winter wonderland. Whenever you visit, be sure to have this book in hand.

From cycling on backroads and hiking along ridgetops to swimming in tranquil lakes and skiing on powdery snow, Beth Dugger introduces you to the many adventures of Vermont. Recommended accommodations include family-run B&Bs, secluded log cabins and five-star resorts. Selected restaurants cover everything from roadside BBQs to intimate dining rooms to picnic suppliers.

"...intended for the adventure-minded travelers with special affection for the outdoors and nature. Each Adventure Guide packs in outdoor-oriented activities set in different regions. There's something for nearly everyone." Midwest Book Review

"The leading guide for information and activities... knowledgeable in its details." Library Booknotes

Adventure Kayaking: Trips On Cape Cod is "user friendly" guide to enjoying safe and fun kayaking on Cap Cod. David Weintraub showcases twenty-five exciting trips from Falmouth to Provincetown with detailed route descriptions for each trip. Also included are USGS topographic maps (showing routes, parking areas, launch sites); travel directions; parking information, as well as nearby scenic and historical attractions. Adventure Kayaking is highly recommended reading for anyone seeking out Cape Cod's impressive landscape, bird sanctuaries, flora and fauna, all within the recreational framework of the kayaking experience.

Adventure Kayaking is "user friendly" guide to enjoying safe and fun kayaking on Cap Cod. David Weintraub showcases twenty-five exciting trips from Falmouth to Provincetown with detailed route descriptions for each trip. Also included are USGS topographic maps (showing routes, parking areas, launch sites); travel directions; parking information, as well as nearby scenic and historical attractions. Adventure Kayaking is highly recommended reading for anyone seeking out Cape Cod's impressive landscape, bird sanctuaries, flora and fauna, all within the recreational framework of the kayaking experience.

I have a kayak and live on Cape Cod. this book is a great source to search out places to explore via kayak. Maps, directions, general information are all provided. anyone who likes to kayak, and in search of a places to explore on the Cape will love this book. Great price too !

A gardening book focused on New England wouldn't generally be my first choice for reading material -- unless they were all like Ruah Donnelly's wonderful Adventurous Gardener. Even for a confirmed non-plant type such as myself, this book is pure delight.

Ostensibly a where-to-find book of New England plant resources, The Adventurous Gardener is part plant education, part local New England travel book, and part expose, albeit in the kindest of ways. For those of you who wondered just how those flower obsessives might be a bit.....odd.......,Ms. Donnelly pulls back the curtain and delivers the straight skinny. Her thumbnail sketches of nurseries and their keepers nail the nature of both plants and their guardians in the most satisfying way. This book is like popping bonbons.

The Adventurous Gardener has ended up my bedside reading, with me dogearing pages of places I can't wait to visit on a day with little to do. I am contemplating whether an orchid could survive my care. If you are at all interested in New England, go ahead, indulge.....buy this and don't worry if plants aren't your thing.

This is a true gem of a book for the gardener who is looking for unique plants. I have throughly enjoyed the book and having visited many local nurseries listed in the book for Massachusetts, I would say that the descriptions are very accurate. I have recommended the book to several gardening friends. My friends and I have already visited a couple of new places after having owned the book for a mere few weeks! I look forward to discovering a few more nurseries this summer. The only problem I found was that the driving directions do not include which city the driver is approaching from so I was lost once in Connecticut.

While this book is something of a paean to New England gardening in general, and I do not live in New England, I still found it wonderful. Donnelly hasn't simply reviewed the big, obvious names (White Flower Farms, etc), but has also investigated many interesting, off-the-beaten-track nurseries that specialize in unusual and hard-to-find plants. She provides clear directions to all of them from the main roads.

The book is well-written and entertaining, with excellent profiles of each nursery. The author obviously is a knowledgeable and devoted horticulturalist, judging from the names she rattles off and her intriguing descriptions of some of the more unusual varieties mentioned here. Reading this book was an education, and a fun one.

I suspect it could also serve as a fine vacation guide. Some of the nurseries seem to be fairly out of the way, and given that they are located in some picturesque parts of New England (Berkshires, northeastern Connecticut, central Vermont), it's tempting to tie them together into a spring or summer driving trip.

Hopefully, The Adventurous Gardener will consider some other parts of the country to sift through as well.

I liked this book. It had a lot of good recipes in it and when you make the recipes they are GOOD!

Of all the cookbooks that my wife and I have, this is the one that we treasure most. Filled with traditional and non-traditional New England recipes that make your mouth water by just reading them. I strongly encourage everyone to purchase this cookbook first and then you will have something to compare all other cookbooks with. I especially like the Macaroni and Cheese!

Since life (in rural Vermont anyway) seems to revolve around seasonal events, this cookbook was perfectly arranged for me. The recipes are grouped by month with each month represented by a type of food. For instance July is berries, August is the garden harvest, November is apples and pumpkins. This makes finding an appropriate recipe easy. A must try recipe is the Applesauce Raisin Cake. It is truly delicious! From the lovely cover, the interesting photographs of Ashfield MA, the weather statistics, the tidbits of information about the town, to the terrific down-home recipes, this book is a wonderful addition to my cookbook collection.

This book is a basic introduction to woodlot management with a focus on the forest ecosystem, basic valuation metrics for trees, and tax and other financial concerns associated with selling your trees.

The major difference between this title and the Hilts et al text is that this book devotes substantially more space to financial, legal, and logistical issues associated with harvesting trees. Conservationists will probably prefer Hilts while the reader focused on income from his or her woodlot will prefer this book.

Neither text goes very far helping the reader identify specific health problems in a woodlot; look more to Pirone et al. for an excellent introduction.

Having bought a woodlot in the past year, I praise this book based on real-life experience. This book is an excellent introduction to the forestry terms and practice. I learned all the background I needed to understand a forest management plan and discuss it intelligently with a professional forester. This book discusses forestry issues in detail, but without getting bogged down in arcane minutiae.

I disagree with a previous reviewer that the Hilts book is preferable to the conservationist. I bought both books, but found the Hilts book unsatisfying. It is geared more to people who are considering how to return former farmland to a wooded state. It sidesteps the detailed forestry issues, such as thinning overcrowded stands, usually by saying that a forester will provide the information. These are the areas where the Beattie book is especially strong. Since my land is already forested, I appreciated the breadth of information on forest management techniques in the Beattie book. But the book can also be helpful to people who are undecided about whether or not to actively manage their forest land. It provides good background on how northeast forests have developed, and how a woodland would mature without intervention.

1/8/2002
I'd like to add a recommendation for a companion book: Reading the Forested Landscape by Tom Wessels. See my review there.

If you own even a few acres of New England forest, you should read this book. "Working With Your Woodland" gives a thorough introduction to forestry for the landowner. Even if you do not own any woodlands, and are just curious about the forestry profession, this book will acquaint you well with the issues. From the history presented of the New England forest through Forest Management to their postscript on stewardship, the three authors present their information clearly and sensitively. Highly recommended.