I highly recommend this title. It has excellent information about some worthwhile but perhaps lesser-known wineries, rather than merely gushing about the best-known producers of Napa and Sonoma like so many winery guidebooks. My only complaint is that better, more comprehensive maps would be appreciated.

Famous for it's glitzy tourist meccas such as Hollywood, San Francisco and Venice Beach, many visitors - and not a few residents - are unaware that California offers breathtaking vistas and surprising varieties of experience only miles from the more popular tourist destinations.

Wyman's excellent guidebook sections out chunks of Northern California (as far south as Fresno, near Yosemite, and as far north as Eureka, near the Oregon border.) and guides you through these areas to genuine delights.

Some travel books are narratives of the author's adventures in some locale and are interesting reads mostly for the story they have to tell. This is not such a book. This book's value is in it's informative and clear descriptions of (and directions to) the treats in store for the traveller with a taste for the beautiful but unheraled, a sense of adventure and an independent mode of transportation.

Wyman starts his descriptions of each area with a brief and surprisingly interesting recounting of the geological and historical background to the current condition of the environ, then describes routes to particularly memorable attractions therein - goldminer ghost towns, forrested valleys, mountaintop overlooks and the like.

Mention must be made of the many photographs in the book. They are of museum quality and bring an element of visual delight to the read one associates more with a travel magazine than with a book. In fact, they are so numerous as to comprise as much of the volume of the book as does the text and the maps.

So if a California vacation is in your future, and the crowded and expensive tourist spots are not your scene, get a copy of this fine book and be inspired to travel off the beaten path and onto some glorious experiences. And don't forget to take your camera!

Another outstanding book compiled by Napa Valley author Leslie Mansfield (her husband is winemaker at Bradford Mountain). She takes recipes from wineries throughout Northern California and puts them in to nifty themed books. This one - Barbecue Dishes, is just one of the newest series of three books that includes Picnics and Vegetarian Dishes. The recipes are easy to read and execute and there is wine pairings reccomended with each dish. Also has a little background about each winery. Check some of the other books Leslie has produced and you won't be dissapointed.

As usual, noted armor export Stephen J Zaloga delivers the goods in Osprey Campaign #115, Battle of the Ardennes (I): St Vith and the Northern Shoulder. The northern sector of the "Battle of the Bulge" generally receives far less coverage than the fighting further south around Bastogne, but Zaloga clearly states that this was in fact, where the battle was decided. Zaloga's thesis - while not particularly original - is solidly crafted in a thorough narrative. Zaloga demonstrates that the German offensive was a poorly planned gamble, executed by marginally trained troops, over adverse terrain in poor weather against an adaptable foe. All these factors added up to rapid German culmination in a matter of days, which is why this volume only covers the period 16-25 December 1944.

Battle of the Ardennes (I) begins in standard Osprey format with a short section on the origins of the campaign and a chronology (up to 24 December 1944). There are three sections discussing opposing plans, opposing commanders and opposing armies. The section on opposing plans is quite good and includes a section on weather and terrain, both of which had a decisive impact on the German offensive. Zaloga notes that Patton's G-2 accurately predicted a German counteroffensive in the Ardennes and this gave Third Army a big edge in responding to the attack. The section on opposing commanders, as usual with Zaloga, is the weakest section due to its over-emphasis on high-level commanders at the expense of the junior officers who actually fought the actions discussed in this volume (why is Jochen Peiper not in this section?). The eight-page section on opposing armies is useful and notes the low quality of German replacements in even their supposedly elite Waffen SS and Fallschirmjäger units. Indeed, Zaloga demonstrates that despite better equipment, many of the German units had to employ much less sophisticated tactics than in previous years. On the other hand, the US Army's neglect of cold weather gear and the placement of the corps boundary in the Losheim Gap ("a traditional invasion route") were serious mistakes. The order of battle provided is too bare-bones, listing only division-level units, and in light of Osprey's Order of Battle series on this campaign Zaloga could have listed more of the vital engineer, artillery and tank destroyer units. Battle of the Ardennes (I) has three 3-D maps (Battle for Krinkelt & Rocherath, Kampfgruppe Peiper's route and the Battle at Dom Butgenbach); these maps are only so-so and the one on Peiper is practically useless since it covers too large an area. The five 2-D maps are fine (strategic situation, German planned routes, initial attacks of 6th Panzer Army, destruction of the US 106th Division, and defense of St Vith) but the maps do not fully portray the US defense of the Elsenborn Ridge and even Peiper's route is difficult to follow with these maps. The three battle scenes are: Panzer graveyard at Krinkelt, Kampfgruppe Pieper and the rearguard at St Vith. The photographs throughout the volume, culled primarily from the National Archives, are excellent - particularly if one enjoys photos of burning Panther tanks. The photographs of the American 99th Infantry Division's reinforced log bunkers with overhead cover are impressive examples of fieldworks.

Zaloga is particularly adept at demonstrating the relative combat efficiency of the American and German forces at this time. In one notable action on the first day of the German offensive, an American scout platoon from the 1/394th Infantry held off the German 5th Fallschirmjäger Regiment at the village of Lanzerath for the bulk of a day. Zaloga notes that both regiments of this worn-out airborne division mounted repeated frontal attacks across open ground in broad daylight and were mown down by US machine guns, which speaks volumes for the decline of German tactical competence. Although the US scout platoon was eventually overwhelmed and captured, this rearguard action unhinged the German timetable for the 1st SS Panzer Division's intended exploitation to the Meuse River, and this platoon became the most decorated American unit of the war. Zaloga also notes the huge difference in artillery capabilities. While the German preliminary artillery bombardment was relatively ineffective, time and again the Americans were able to mass huge amounts of artillery fire to smash or disrupt German forces preparing to attack (many accounts tend to portray US ground forces as helpless with air support - this was the German perception of US forces - which ignores the vital, all-weather contributions of US artillery). On the other hand, the loss of most of the US 106th Division - the biggest American surrender in the ETO - was due to a combination of inexperience and bad luck. Zaloga does not delve deeply enough into the personal factors involved at St Vith, including the relationship between MGN Alan Jones of the 106th Division and BGN Bruce Clarke of the 7th Armored Division, which go a long way toward explaining the situation there.

Zaloga does cover the German special operations Grief and Stosser, but his coverage of the defense of St Vith is rather brief. In conclusion, Zaloga points to many factors for the failure of the German operation: (1) Dietrich, commander of the 6th Panzer Army, under-estimated the US defenses, (2) the preliminary German artillery barrage was ineffective but alerted the US troops of imminent attack, (3) the German infantry units in the first wave assaulting units lacked sufficient armor support and (4) the Germans tried to push too many units down a few main roads, without using the numerous forest trails. These points are all valid, but they only explain how the Germans lost the battle, not how the Americans won it. In short, the US Army won in the Ardennes due to increased tactical competence, which enabled US forces to adapt and improvise ad hoc defenses with whatever was at hand, until overwhelming reinforcements arrived from the northern and southern flanks.

Len Beadell is regarded as Australia's last true explorer. His exploits in building over 6000kms of roads (such as the Gunbarrel Highway) through outback Australia in the 50s and 60s are legendary. This book is about building a road west of Alice Springs, near the Gibson Desert. It includes an account of Australia's longest towing exercise: a bulldozer towing a grader for 800kms at 3kph! A challenge to all who are leading a soft life!

This book is an overview of the different kinds of living situations for seniors who need help with daily activities. It describes different types of facilities, such as retirement communities, assisted living, and nursing homes, and includes checklists of questions you may want to ask if you are evaluating a place for yourself or a loved one. It does not contain any information specific to any part of New Jersey. It doesn't have listings of facilities. A better title would be "Senior Living & Eldercare Options in the US".

This is the only book that thoroughly covers all the local hiking options for people who live in Redding or Chico, or who vacation in that area. I've used it many times to explore the Whiskeytown Lake area, Shasta Lake, and Castle Crags. It also has a lot of trails down around Chico and Paradise, but I can't speak about those from experience. Although it came out in 1992, most of the information is still accurate, at least as far as I can tell. The areas it covers, like Shasta Lake and Whiskeytown, often don't have clearly marked trails and trail heads, so this book can save you a lot of hassle. The same author also wrote 75 Hikes in California's Lassen Park and Mount Shasta Regions. It's also really good. I take it with me whenever I go to Lassen Park. I give this book four stars instead of five because it is several years old.

I just got this guide last month. It has bright attractive illustrations and was an immediate hit with my kids and me. We didn't know much to start with, but this guide has a picture index in the front that makes it easy to find the mystery bug. For us, it helps that we don't need to know taxonomy. Because it is region specific, we don't have to waste a lot of time wading through all the bugs we're unlikely to see anyway--I assume this is something like the "top 100" of local bugs, so just about everything I see in the book looks familiar. I also like that the book provides a little narrative about each bug, not just its name, so we feel like we're really learning something. I suspect it's not big enough for all the bugs we'll come across, but so far it is serving us well by wetting our appetite.

"Children of Northern Ireland" is part of "The World's Children" series which uses photographs of smiling children to "lure young readers into learning a good deal about the history, geography, and cultures of countries of hte world." In this book written by Michael Elsohn Ross with photographs by Felix Rigau, young readers will meet the children of Northern Ireland, a country that has seen its share of troubles. In fact, this book deals with "the troubles" up front, explaining the history of the land that came to be part of the United Kingdom rather than a united Ireland. The photographs show kids playing rugby, doing Irish dances, and sailing mineature yachts, while the text talks about the agriculture, industry and customs of the land. Many of the photographs show the children in the lush green Irish countryside and there are some beautiful pictures of ruins on Devenish Island. A constant theme of the book is to highlight examples of Protestant and Catholic children playing together and refusing to continue the cycle of violence. Young readers will get a sense for the beauty of Ireland and how the culture is different from their own, but they will also understand that things are quite different for children their own ages who live in Northern Ireland. Other books in this series look at children from Vietnam, Guatemala and the Tlingit as well as the grandchildren of the Lakota.

Laurel Holliday has put together a powerful collection of sixty children's experiences during the violent and turbulent war of cultural differences known as "The Troubles" in Northern Ireland.

After posting advertisements in newspapers around Northern Ireland, Holliday received responses from both Catholic and Protestant individuals who had an experience to share about their lives during the "Troubles."

These powerful and sometimes disturbing stories show the bravery and danger these children (some of whom are now adults) faced during the conflicts prior to the cease-fire in 1994 as well as their tentative hopes for a peaceful future.

After personally experiencing New Years 2000 in Belfast, I can only hope that the peace agreement holds and that the differences between people can be embraced rather than fought. The future children of Northern Ireland deserve to experience a life of peace in a beautiful country with a tremendously difficult history.

"Children of the Troubles" is an excellent book for both adults and children. The stories are powerful and moving with photographs included of most of the children who bravely share their stories.