For an urban dweller, this handy little book provides a great insight into beautiful rural areas. Without the book's guidance, I never would have thought to go bicycling in Eagles Mere, Wellsboro, or Thompsontown, but each ride proved delightful. The directions are excellent, and the writer gives a nice little insight into each place that he describes. Pennsylvania has many wonderful places to ride, and this book will take you to many of them.

I've had the pleasure of knowing Howard Stone since I was a kid and there is no one more devoted to Bike Riding in Rhode Island. If you are a Rhode Islander and are taking up Biking or are a Biker moving to our area, this one is really worth picking up.

Scott P. Morin, WebMaster, [e-mail]

Although the islands off the Maine coast have been photographed many times, no one has captured the islands and their people like Peter Ralston in Sightings: A Maine Coast Odyssey. There is a fundamental honesty and integrity to these photographs unavailable anywhere else. The beauty of the photographs comes from the tension between an unforgiving environment and the rugged individualism of the remaining year-round island residents' struggle to survive a declining fish population and a growing, homogenizing second-home tourist population. Sightings reflects Peter Ralston's unique perspective as both an observer and a participant in attempts to maintain the islander's unique way of life.

Peter's humility and willingness to let the islands and their residents to speak for themselves results in deceptively-simple photographs which gain impact with each repeated viewing. The simplest photographs involve the viewer by inviting speculation about both past and the future. Sightings also chronicles with brief, unobtrusive text Peter Ralston's role as co-founder of the Island Institute and an artistic eye fined-tuned by his personal friendship with the Wyeth family.

This book is the only one you ever need. It has descriptions of the resorts, directions, and surrounding area activities. I keep this book in one of my ski boots so I never hit the road without it. This guy really knows exactly what snow affecianiados want to know.

This guide is really great. I used it on a visit to Massachusetts, Maine and Vermont, the directions are very clear and the shops featured are wonderful. I recommend this book highly for a nice way to find the off the beaten path places. My personal favorites were in Georgetown and Rowely Mass and Bennington Vermont. will take it to New Hampshire next!!!!

I grew up in this town many years ago. I found the book interesting and hard to put down. The old names I remember hearing about (Lyman, Pomeroy, Clark, Frary and Searle) became a little more real to me. Looking at the old homes and trying to remember them as a kid is fun. It would be a great book to have on hand while driving through town. Thank you, it is a wonderful work.

The Smithsonian Natural Guides are my new bibles for travel. Who really cares about those guides for motels, restaurants and cheesy attractions anyhow? These guides take one to the real America behind (and often above) the tourist traps!

Finch and Wallen team up to the best of their expertise with splendid descriptive writing and photography (the latter always a trademark of this series!). Cape Cod, The Berkshires, the Connecticut and Rhode Island Coasts as well as other areas of natural interest are brought right to the reader and make you want to go there immediately and see what you've just read about.

These essays should be included in any personal collection of books on the Cape, because they fill a gap by paying sensitive tribute to some of the smaller natural areas owned and managed by local conservation commissions and private conservation trusts. The brief essays are artfully developed by Robert Finch and boldly illustrated by Ellen Raquel LeBow. Each of the twenty-four 'special places' that are the book's subject are visited by Finch on foot and the commentaries are filled with information about the land and its vegetation. But the real value behind this reading experience lies in the way the reader is able to vicariously participate in the luxury of unhurried reflection with the writer as he interacts with these diverse areas. There is no reason to hurry a reading of this book in the way you would not gulp a glass of fine wine. Finch's essays are intended as an "invitation" to experience those "unanticipated intersections between the place and the visitor which cannot be found in trail guides". Finch experiences many unforced special moments and readers will find their own favorite 'places' even before the opportunity to act on his offer to search them out. The essays take us from the base of the Cape through to Provincetown and across the water to Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket islands. Directions are given to each of the natural areas described. A helpful listing of various presiding conservation commission addresses and telephone numbers is provided at the back of the book.

I bought 2 copies, one for myself and one for my sister-in-law who lives in the Northeast. This is a great present. Jana does a great job! I can't wait for her next publication.

With Disney changing the face of Midtown Manhattan, "Stepping Out" is a wonderful look back at a rich and compelling history of New York City. Mr. Hurewitz's observations will appeal to any lover of New York - straight or gay. His witty prose, unique sense of humor, and detailed maps and photographs will force you to don a pair of comfortable shoes, "grab a cheese sandwich" and take to the streets. If only all travel books could be this good.