Fun with the Family in Maine is a comprehensive guide for activities and fun destinations for kids. Our family has already used the guide several times on our excursions to Maine and all of the tips we took from the book have been a big hit with all 5 of our kids. It helps immensely that the author is a parent of young children and that she adds her own personal experiences with some of the destinations. This is a fun-filled and very well written travel book that I would highly recommend to anyone who plans a trip to Maine!!

Agricultural history threatens to be dull and tedious; hence this highly personal account of the adventures of the author from age 9 to 19 on a family farm in the Northeast. A series of vignettes describing chores and other farm work are interspersed with high humor, pranks and harsh physical effort.

The farm setting was the family home of aggricultural leader, economist and teacher, Howard E. Babcock, for years Chairman of the Board of Trustees at Ithaca's Cornell University. Introducing many new farm practices, he told readers of his popular page "Kernels, Screenings and Chaff," in the American Agriculturist magazine of new ways to manage grasslands, employ used auto tires to ease operation of farm equipment. He counseled them to buy open-formula farm feeds from the huge farm cooperative he organized and managed, The GLF (now Agway).

Babcock also introduced farmers and ultimately all consumers, to prepare and consume frozen farm produce and meats. Home freezers were one of the most important contributers to improved diet and life style not only of farmers, but all consumers.

Young John Babcock tells of shooting woodchucks and rats, tending livestock, and operating new farm machines that his dad started to promote in the midst of the Depression decade. After the 1933 Bank Holiday, loan rates fell to the lowest in many years.

Life was hard, but this farm family never missed a meal, nor the chance to enjoy life to its fullest in an era marked by sweeping change. I submit it as a high spirited and readable account.

If you want to appreciate NY's Bravest what better way then to get a glance at 12 of their most beautiful. Every month is filled with one yummy guy after the other. A must have for any fan of a man in bunker gear!

A Field Guide to the Pine Barrens of New Jersey could easily be called "Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about the Jersey Pines". Part history lesson, part field guide, it covers its past and present in quite some detail. Its an amateur naturalist's dream, and an outstanding resource for native New Jersyites who want to know a bit more about this uniquie wilderness area.

The book can be divided into two parts. The first part covers the Pine Barren's . It starts with its ecological history (soil, climate,etc.) followed by utilitarian and development uses(from mining of iron ore to cranberry farming), then its historic sites and folklore (from Smithville to Batsto to the infamous Jersey Devil) and finally, it touches upon current and future uses and preservation.

The presentation in the first part is short, straightforeward, fact-based essays taking up less than the first 100 pages.

The next 300 pages or so serve as the Golden Book/Peterson Field Guide to the plants, mammals, birds, reptiles/amphibians, fishes and arthorpods/insects of the Pine Barrens, respectively. There is a plethora of illustrations accompanying the text, and although lacking the ID markings of the Peterson Field Guides, are excellent nontheless and seem to cover nearly all (if not all) of the species presented here.

In addition, there are plenty of footnotes and references for those with a bent towards the scinece part of nature, as well as a decent index with both latin and common names.

I also recommend a Natural History of Trees, Peterson's Field Guide to Ecology and the Tracker, by Tom Brown, Jr.

I found this book to be a great way to learn about public hiking trails in CNY area. It has many details about access, estimated time, and conditions on the trails. One particularly useful feature is that it has a copy of a topographic map of the area with the trail clearly marked. Has a map showing the relative positions of each trail across the region with the table of contents. I like this book because it gives me ideas about new places to explore with lots of specific information.

Finally, I found it. I moved to the Finger Lakes area (Rochester, NY) in 1996 and every time I visited a local book store I looked for some kind of travel guide for the area and I could never find one that wasn't hiking or cycling related. When I saw this one, I had to buy it and I don't regret it. It came very handy for the summer so far. It includes some of the history of each of the finger lakes and its towns. It also includes places to see and visit, where to stay and where to eat. A very good section is the one that lists all the area festivals and the dates when they usually occur. The list can help you plan ahead, either to visit when the festivals are taking place or to avoid them. Another part of the book that is very helpful is the maps section. It has maps for the different finger lakes areas, w/ main roads, etc. And if you want to know about the area wineries, it has a whole chapter on wineries. I have found that this book can be used by a local as well as tourist to the Finger Lakes area, it is very complete.

Even though I live in New York, I refer to the NYC addition weekly. On a visit to DC, I found it in some cases to be easier to use and read than those of AAA. The book format is also handy to carry around while strolling DC's neighborhoods.

I always travel with Fodors. They have a very easy setup. They have listings for nightlife, hotels, recreation and shopping. Restaurants and hotels are divided up according to price and reviewed. Maps are given of popular tourist areas. It's great for planning ahead.

Recommend the book.

Bound to enrich the life of anyone that has lived in NYC and is still exploring.

I'm ordering a replacement copy of Fodors Exploring Boston & New England (97 version). It did such a good good of supplementing our tour guide's very good materials, that she was going to get her own. She was nice, so we gave her ours. Wonderful blending of short synoptic items, great selection of points of interest, and excellent photographs with additional two-page extended essays on pertinent subjects ranging from early Americana to Native American gambling institutions. Very attractive and lively layout, good indexing, and very informative. The text is not burdened down with lots of places to stay, eat, or pay for entertainment. But suggestions abound in separate compact sections at the back of the book. Good maps. Very convenient size. A great book to point you in the right direction, then to bring back the memories. Both my wife and I give it a 10: which means it does an excellent job of satisfying both right- and left-brain appetites for information on this marvelously rich region.