I have been to the 'Hammer'and visited my mother's childhood home where even today my relatives live. The factual details of the author brought many a laugh to my Mom as she read about streets that she walked and played, in a not too long ago time.

Thanks for allowing another generation who now live in the USA to read and understand the life of those once lived in the Hammer.

Eckert's Fatal Encounter explains in great detail the interesting circumstances surrounding the deaths of three young members of the IRA in Gibralter, off the coast of Spain. The three young operatives were killed in a raid in 1988 by elite British commandos called the SAS. From here, an unbelievable chain of events are unleashed that involves pain, heartache, disbelief and anger. While arguments can be made for both sides on who was in the right, Eckert leaves that choice solely to the reader. He pays great attention to detail; and when these details are woven together objectively, it allows the reader to determine for him or herself what made these main players act or react. Even if you don't endorse the beliefs of one side or another, you at least had the rare insight that made you emphathetic. This is a solid and accurate piece of history. But as the reader gets more involved, it would be quite understandable if you thought you were smack dab in the middle of a Tom Clancy novel.

I would recommend this book for both history buffs, and those who just want to read a great thriller.

I usually borrow books from the library instead of actuallypaying for a book, so it was with some hesitation that I plunked down[my money] for a paperback copy of _Field Notes From the Northern Forest_, by Curt Stager, biologist, educator, and cohost of the radio program "Natural Selections." As it turns out, it was money well spent. As a writer of popular science--biology, in particular--Stager's task is not simple. He must explain, in Darwinian fashion, why and how all the curious adaptations that make creatures so strange and wondrous, confer to them special advantages that make them better able to become ancestors, and this he must do clearly and simply. Stager succeeds resoundingly, with the added touch of playfulness and humor. And, owing to Stager's training in rigorous science (judging by the journals in which he has published), the book is well grounded in Science, mercifully lacking in New-Age nonsense and gut-wrenching appeals to our emotions.

_Field Notes_ is not a show & tell identification guide, nor is it a malediction, written solely to remind us of our reckless and wanton ravaging of the environment. Instead, it is a series of essays covering several years of Stager's careful observations of nature, bolstered by relevant information in the scientific literature. His research, importantly, is gleaned largely from primary sources of information, not from secondary, often cherry-picked and tendentious interpretations of scientific data we so often see in agenda-driven publications. With the flood of books, journal articles, and newspaper stories relating to the natural world that has swept into our everyday lives since the environmental movement emerged three decades ago--most of which is sullied by political correctness and environmental extremism--Stager's _Field Notes_ is a refreshing departure from the "the sky is falling!" message which so often suffuses the Nature genre. Stager does, however, caution us of

environmental degradation relevant in the Northern Forest caused by humans, such as the problems of acid rain, unchecked development, and insatiable resource consumption. But on the whole, the book remains delightfully non-alarmist and upbeat.

One thing that keeps the content of _Field Notes_ close to earth is Stager's ability to appreciate and mediate both sides of a contentious issue. The vast Adirondack Park, where Stager makes his home, contains more than its share of dichotomies--political, social, cultural, and economic--where land-use controls dictate how the area is to be developed, and where a constant battle is waged between many of the natives, who feel the controls are intrusive, and the preservationists, who want minimal human impact on the land. Stager, obviously keenly aware of the struggles that go on in the lives of the creatures around him, is also mindful of the cultural tug-of-wars that surround him, and his sensitivity to both sides resonates in _Field Notes_. For example, Stager risks incurring the wrath of the animal rights activists when he daringly proposes a radical method of controlling the burgeoning beaver population: by--perish the thought!--harvesting them!

Stager's essays probe and lay open to question many of our idealistic, romantic, and often intuitively-held notions of nature. He challenges us to rethink our tendency to regard all things natural as healthful and benign. Quite to the contrary, as he mordantly points out in his revelatory essay on plant defenses. In his chapter on native species, Stager reveals the dynamic and transitory nature of the natural world, one that is in a state of constant flux, thereby pulling apart our idea of stasis in nature, and invalidating such a thing as a "native" species. The well-intentioned foot soldiers waging war on invasive exotics might pause to consider this before brandishing their Round-up-filled spray guns.

My only disappointment with _Field Notes_ is (to me) a palpable omission in his essay on beavers. In it he talks about the modern beaver's giant six-foot-long ancestors, but he fails to speculate on what might have caused their demise, along with the extinction of several other species of magnificent megafauna that once roamed the Northern Forest a mere ten thousand or so years ago. He only cites a Native American folklore account, most likely based on mysticism and superstition, of how the present beavers came to be. But there is fairly convincing evidence in the scientific literature (of which I'm sure Stager is aware) that adduces their demise to over-hunting by Native Americans, and I suspect that this political-cultural hot-button, coupled with Stager's close friendship with local Mohawk Indian poet Maurice Kenny (to whom he co-dedicates the book), and Native American rights advocate Ray Fadden, colored stager's decision not to share this information with his audience. Had he shared this information, it would have been in keeping with much of the Nature myth-dispelling that runs through his essays, and the notion that Native Americans were intentionally careful stewards of the land could have been another popularly-held idea worthy of more scrutiny by his audience.

No one can fault a culture for behaviors based on mysticism and superstitions thousands of years ago, but today, more than two centuries since The Enlightenment, the notion of a scientically advanced culture clinging to such irrational beliefs is astonishing. And Stager, who has already warned us of the potential health-related dangers of our foolish New-Age belief in the supposed innocence and benignity of nature, in his chapter on bears again warns us of the potentially far-reaching and devastating consequences of the silly and superstitious belief that a bear's bladder (or a rhinoceros horn, etc.) can cure impotence. This irrational belief, largely based in Eastern cultures, is fundamentally no different from the New-Age belief system that has most recently emerged in scientifically and technologically advanced societies today. This sort of fuzzy thinking is anathema to science, and we may be facing another wave of extinctions of megafauna if it continues to manifests itself as an assault on the natural world. (That is, of course, if we don't manage to kill them all off some other way first.)

Stager's allusions to the folly of magical thinking add even more to the depth of _Field Notes_, already rich in content. Keeping in mind that his intent is to keep the content optimistic and hopeful, as well as instructive and entertaining, inviting too much controversy would only defeat this purpose. Field Notes will go up in my bookcase and share a space next to two of my favorite popular biology books, May Theilgaard Watts' _Reading the Landscape of America_, and Paul A. Colinvaux's _Why Big Fierce Animals Are Rare_.

In Finding Your Irish Ancestors: Unique Aspects Of Irish Genealogy, Brian Mitchell draws upon his many years of experience and expertise to provide the novice genealogist with a wealth of information and advice on conducting genealogical research utilizing Irish records and resources. The chapters comprising Finding Your Irish Ancestors include: Tracing Your Irish Ancestors: An Overview; The Importance of Surnames in Family History; The Importance of Place in Family History; Emigration and Irish Passenger Lists; Using Record Sources in the US and Canada to Identify Your Irish Ancestor; How to Make the Best Use of Church Registers; Genealogy Centres in Ireland: How To Make the Best Use of Them; Local History and the Family Historian; and an simple two-page index. Finding Your Irish Ancestors will prove invaluable for the beginning genealogist or family historian seeking to discover and organize their ancestry of Irish descent.

Ciaran Carson is a man driven mad by words. They bounce around his head, jig and reel until they feel the click of sound and then the meaning drunkingly meanders out. I have read all his work to date and I think that this book is a kind of plateau for him, after this book he shortens his line. For American readers comming to him for the first time, imagine C.K. Stead crossed with Baudelaire, drunk on powers whiskey, cursing the godhead Joyce.

If you live in New Mexico or southern Colorado and fish or tie flies you will like this book. It catalogs unusal regional fly patterns and the waters to fish them. I, of course, haven't tied or fished all of the patterns in the book but its an enjoyable read. Because these flies are not going to be found in even some of the best fly shops in the region the recipes and tying instructions are worth the price. The instructions also include a variety of techniques that are not as well described in other fly tying manuals. The only negative I can think of is the lack of color pictures, but I have a good enough imagination not to need them. Besides I'm a sucker for books from the University of New Mexico Press.

In The Flying Tiger: Women Shamans And Storytellers Of The Amur, storyteller/folklorist Kira Van Deusen draws upon her expertise and experience in the oral traditions of the peoples of Siberia (especially in the Amur region) to present more than fifty traditional stories she recorded from the people of the taiga forest in the Russian Far East. The stories bridge culture, history, and spirituality to reveal the lives of the storytellers, their adaptation to the environment, relationships with animals, and even their sense of humor. Readers are also provided with descriptions of the lives of the people of the Amur in the 1990s, a period of rapid and dramatic transition. The Flying Tiger is an impressive work that is especially recommended to students of shamanism, storytelling, folklore, Russia, indigenous cultures, women's studies, and ancient traditions.

Incredible, must-own for those interested in the Art and Artifacts of the Northern Cordillera of the philippines, and Tribal Jewelry in general.

As a direct descendant, I can vouch for the accuracy and effectiveness of this volume. I hold the first copies of the originals of these works and the originals were donated by my family to Craigavon Museum Service. This is a fantastic work, a must.

Do you really like to read? Do you enjoy a good story? Are you fed up with obvious endings? Give yourself a treat, read this. There are weaknesses in the text but not in the underlying themes or the gripping narrative. This is a film script in waiting, you can see it on the screen as you read, you can visualise the events as they happen. Buy it, read it, wait for the next book and buy that! There is a level of naievty to this author but that give you a freshness that is truly refreshing.