A good book to start your field and in hand bird identification specialty book shelf.

The pictures of birds flying over head are much improved over the paperback Peterson series book "Hawks" by Clark and Wheeler.

This is the best photographic guide to north american raptors available. The photos are very clear so you can see details on plumage. It also includes multiple photos of the species that have morphs, which is very helpful in the field. This is not a book I would recommend if you are using it for written reference. But I give it 5 stars for a field reference guide!

This is simply the best field guide for North American diurnal raptors that I have seen. Unlike some other photgraphic guides, it provides several images of each species in poses that one is likely to see in the field: perched and soaring from above and the side (showing field marks of top of wing and tail). It shows several examples of different morphs and ages for most birds. This is critical in understanding the variability in markings within a species. In addition, it has a section on field identification problems, detailing differences between similar looking birds. To my knowledge, there is no substitute.

However, the paperback version is somewhat cheaply produced. The publisher should improve the binding and the quality of paper for this book. Try not to get it wet.

I am part Cherokee, and I've studied about the Cherokees for years while doing research for a book I'm trying to write, but never did I know that there were rich Cherokees in Georgia. Never did I know that they owned large plantations. Of course, these large plantations were built by the Scots and Irish and English that came across the waters, but these men married Cherokee women and had children who were brought up rich.

In this book, The Proud and the Free, the story is pre-Trail of Tears, where thousands upon thousands of Indians were driven out of the east toward Indian Territory (later known as Oklahoma). It is the story of a young half-breed Indian girl who is very rich, very powerful, and very stuck up.

It is the story also of another young woman, a teacher from Pennsylvania who comes to teach the young girl and her siblings. This is a teacher who also winds up teaching the young slave children, even though the Indian girl and her siblings think they are so much better than the slave children. The slave children, especially the little boy, is extremely smart, and learns his alphabet quickly.

The young Indian girl is in love with a neighbor Cherokee, who from Janet Dailey's description is simply gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous, though not in those words.

This is a different look at the Cherokee way of life before the Trail of Tears and the determination of the Georgians, a group of white men, who literally drove the Cherokees out of Georgia.

I give this book 4 stars.

This book actually reached out and touched me. I couldn't put it down. I am now reading it for the 5th time i believe. This story was truly amazing.

This story has got to be one of the best books I've ever read in my whole life!!! It has opened my eyes on the things that's happening around me, mainly the discrimination between the two races. How could people who are equal in God's eye be so cruel to each other? Still, despite this barrier, the love of two people for each other has proven to be superior.

Gwen Edelman's thought-provoking War Story is a slim novel filled with enormous themes and two main characters, one who has experienced too much of life, and the other who has only begun to live. Joseph, a 60 year old Jewish playwright and survivor of the Nazis and Kitty, a middle class aspiring Jewish writer about 30 years younger that he fall into a passionate physical relationship after meeting one afternoon in a New York City bookstore. Kitty is immediately drawn in by Joseph's commanding personality and the story he reveals of his childhood eluding death in Europe. Joseph was raised primarily by his mother whose miserable marriage to an unfaithful man rocks his sense of trust early on. In order to protect him from almost certain death at the hands of the Nazis, his mother sends him from their home in Vienna to live with a family in Holland. Joseph, propelled by his wits and comforted by a never-ending stream of sexual relationships with worshipful women, manages to defy the Nazis and eventually emigrate to Israel and the United States. He is enthralled by Kitty's youth and beauty and takes great care in teaching her about his, and what is also her, history. The relationship is doomed because, due to Joseph's past, he cannot trust or fully invest in a relationship with a woman; he cannot engage in any relationship beyond sexual ones for the long term.

Kitty, on the other hand, is a Jew in name only. Her parents have never discussed the Holocaust, and have avoided any religious or cultural references to Judaism. Thus, Joseph's story fascinates her. It is only when she presses him him about the future of their relationship tht Joseph bolts. "I am a bird that cannot alight," he says. He does not want to expand the relationship--in fact, he cannot. He must leave America because it is too "new". Kitty is an empty vessel whom Joseph instructs and fills with his wisdom. She balks when Joseph says he has to leave her, becoming angry, clinging to him. After listening to him recite the story of his sad, painful life and admitted limitations, did she really hear him? Or did she hear too well: Is she terrified of loosing the life line of knowledge he is throwing to her?

It is the old teaching the young, the victim of the Holocaust teaching the next generation, the experienced explaining the inexplicable. Joseph has suffered and he feels the wiser for it, but his depression and damage are palpable. He needs to drink, smoke and eat to excess while admitting Kitty into his life. He is of another world, his own world, wrapped in a history which, he remids Kitty, she can never really feel because she has never experienced his life. And yet he tells her things she needs to know, things her parents never spoke of. He wants her to know, to be ready, to be safe, and he gives her her history. It is his gift, his own unique expression of love.

I did have some difficulty believing the first scene in which Joseph Kruger and Kitty Jacobs (JK and KJ, so near in the alphabet whether backwards or forward yet so distant in experience), meet, and within hours are completely obsessed with each other. One assumes that Joseph, whose physical appearance and habits the author describes in most unattractive terms, and Kitty, who seems to lack a core, recognize something in each other, a deep mutual emptiness and need which transcends the usual attractions.

I gave this book 4 stars, but the more I think about it, it could be 5.

Gwen Edelman has captured exquisitely the difficulties survivors and victims of World War II face in forming attachments and establishing normal human relations. While THE READER illuminates what is handed down from one German generation to the next, WAR STORY shows one of the most devastating, lingering effects of living beyond the Holocaust: The survivor desperately needs love and acceptance, yet, he or she is left with a basic inability to trust. This reality defines all of their relationships. These two books are part of a growing genre documenting the emotional legacy of World War II.

I was pulled right into this first novel by Gwen Edelman: a woman alone on a train moving through the winter landscape of Europe while simultaniously moving through her own inner landscape of love, guilt, the Holocaust and the memories of a turbulent love affair. There is an unexpected synergey between the present and another's past, all of it woven together in a seamless narrative. I don't always go for this kind of novel but found myself completely absorbed on the first page and look forward to this writer's next novel. War Story is a smooth and compelling read that I recommend highly.

RARELY DO I READ A MYSTERY THAT BRINGS BACK SUCH MEMORIES AS THIS BOOK DOES ; I LIVED IN L.A.DURING THE PERIOD OF TIME DESCRIBED IN MS. HORNSBY,S BOOK AND I ALSO FOUND HER DEPICTIONS OF THE ROMANTIC SC ENES BETWEEN HER MATURE CHARACTERS VERY REAL AND HONEST. AS A NEW FAN THE MAGGIE MCGOWAN ARE JUST RIGHT UP OUR CONTEMPORARY ALLEY.

I inhale mysteries, and am always needing to find new authors to read, because my favorites simply don't write them as fast as I can read them! I found Wendy Hornsby when I was browsing in the library, and picked up one book to 'sample'. It was so good, I've read every one of her Maggie McGowen novels, and also the two books written about her other heroine Kate (forgot last name). I recommend these books highly. They are good novels as well as good mysteries, with well drawn mature characters, believable emotions, and a storyline which continues from one novel to the next. If you like Sue Grafton and Marcia Muller and Lawrence Block, start reading Wendy Hornsby!

Of all the animals, man is only one that blushes -- or who needs
to. He is also the only one that laughs, or at least that's what
the naturalists claim. Perhaps it is because we humans are the
funniest of the animals, and who better to point that out than
the late Erma Bombeck?

In "All I Know About Human Behavior I Learned in Loehman's
Dressing Room", Bombeck shares some of the observations made by
the naturalists and then shows how humans are alike. The female
elephant, for example, carries her calf for 660 days before
giving birth and continues breeding until she is ninety years
old. But Bombeck doesn't feel too sorry for the elephant; after
all with her height she carries the extra weight quite well!

In the old days pregnancy was a real event in a woman's life; she
was told to give up exercise and could eat whatever she wanted.
Today, however, she has to exercise more than ever and everyone
is watching what she eats. Birth is so ordinary that a female

jockey delivered only a few hours after her third race. Surrogate
mothers made the old joke "Are you pregnant? No, I'm carrying it
for a friend" reality, and frozen embryos are part of the divorce
settlement!

Another notice tells of four dolphins who got lost and were
trapped in a New Jersey river. Of course we all know they had to
be men. Bombeck knows how to end all wars: "Let men give
directions on how to get there." Why don't men ask for
directions? It would compromise their masculinity.

Of course animals are involved in many laboratory experiments.
After wondering who got their permission, Bombeck continues: "I
have never been in a laboratory where mice are involved in
research. So when someone tells me they are being used to test
the effects of cigarette smoke and alcohol and the consequences
of too much sun, I have to believe there's a group of mice
sitting around the pool, smoking and drinking Mai Tais and
working on a tan."

When she thinks of animal speed, she thinks of the IRS cashing
your check (the fastest animal on earth) and giving a refund (the
snail is faster). When she reads about the devices that are used
to track animals in the wild, she remembers the various
electronic devices we have to stay in touch. What should you
record on that answering machine? "We're not home right now?"
That's obvious. "We'll return your call?" What if it is a
aluminum siding salesman?

This is not a connected narrative, but a series of sketches, each

based on a different piece of information about the animal
kingdom. As a result, you can read this in a hurry or stretch it
out. There are a few dry places, but this is a good book to bring
with you while you are waiting for your appointment with the IRS.

I love Erma Bombeck. She is the best author I've read. This book continues that tradition. Every chapter is a laugh. The best part is, you can reread and reread the book and still laugh. Only Erma could do such a thing.

I don't usually buy this type of book, but I saw it on a bargain book table a few years ago and picked it up. King Kong is the greatest monster movie of all time, and this illustrated account of the story looked interesting. In 92 pages, the familiar story of Kong's tragedy is told rather well, and the illustrations are quite good. Browne especially did a great job capturing the emotion and sadness of Kong at the end, lending him a much greater sense of humanity than can be found in the true monster of the story, filmmaker Carl Denham. One thing that could not help but strike me was the way in which Browne depicted Ann Darrow-there are definite similarities to Marilyn Monroe, and one early illustration is a perfect likeness of the blonde bombshell. I also noticed that one illustration of Kong on his abode atop Skull Mountain depicted what looks exactly like a bi-plane in the corner beside a basic V-shaped bird; I don't know if this is a mistake (the corner does closely match that of a later illustration of Kong atop the Empire State Building) but it did jump out at me.

Basically, this is a children's book, although I rather enjoyed it myself. This may not be a wise choice for bedtime reading for a small child (Kong's battles with several prehistoric beasts are vividly illustrated along with the horrors of Kong's escape in New York), but older children should enjoy it. The pictures pretty much tell the story themselves, so a child can enjoy the book even without reading the accompanying text. I think both the story and the illustrations convey an important message about the dangers of greed, one which parents can reinforce in their children by discussing Anthony Browne's King Kong with them.

I would like to know whether this book has already been translated and publlished in Japan. If it's coming in near future, when and which publisher.Thank you. (I have sent 2 other. I skipped my name then)

Are you eager for Christ's return? Do you worry about how you can survive the tribulation, the plagues described in Revelation 16? Then "The Appearing" is for you. Wheeler is a talented writer (and editor) whose tale of the tribulation is very personal. We follow several people on their path toward Christ as life as we know it in America collapses around them. We soon care about these "everyman" characters. Their heroism is found in their faithfulness and obedience to God in the face of persecution. We don't find, in this book, the clash of empires or cosmic events. We find little people surviving by the grace of God and gradually coming to understand what is happening and gradually surrendering themselves completely to God as their characters are tested and tempered and purified. Characters flee to the country for safety, then flee again, are caught, are imprisoned, or survive uncaught. We find, though, that though persecuted and imprisoned or fleeing, they are not touched by the terrible calamities that are wreaking havoc on the world. They are persecuted by God's enemies, yet protected from the vengeance God is visiting on His enemies because of what they have done to His people. This book is realistic and it is very faithful to the scenario presented in Revelation, but it offers great hope for God's people. It shows that while this time of trouble will be frightening, we will be surrounded by evidence of God's work on our behalf, His protection, His Spirit active among us. It gives us hope that if we surrender to God's grace, we will survive and be delivered.

I think that it is one of the best books that I have ever rea

As with all abridgements, this version by Sunset is very badly edited, and leaves out significant parts of the book that make it the 4star work it is. Whoever does these abridgements has no literary sense at all.

Most writers of mystery in Soviet Russia are boring without the KGB "badguy" holding their hero back. Kaminsky does a terrific job with the new problems of Russia. Read his series from the beginning as the character development from book to book is worth it!

The poems of this book are wonderful, as are all of the author's writings. But this particular edition looks as if someone has simply zeroxed a copy of the original edition (and it isn't even a very nice copy). I would suggest buying this one used rather than this version.

Ella Wheeler Wilcox is an amazing poet that allows her readers to feel exactly what she was feeling at the time she wrote this wonderful prose. "Solitude" is an wonderful poem with ideas that will always timeless and true.

Ella Wheeler Willcox is a true poet. Check out The Birth of the Opal for the poem that convinced me right off the bat that she was a master of her craft. Contemporary poets who write in the romantic tradition (and are not afraid to rhyme) will find Willcox to be a great inspiration.

Professor Thackston has done admirably with this translation of "Fihi ma fihi." Especially since, in my opinion, this is the hardest of Rumi's works to translate.

In his poetry, Rumi is sublime, and accordingly difficult to translate, but any translator can only do so much with a poem. If you miss some nuances, it's just the tradeoff that the translator of poetry must make. The "Masnavi", on the other hand, is a lengthy work, but it has a coherence that makes the translator's life relatively easy and compels the reader on.

"Fihi ma fihi", however, very often seems to ramble off in a thousand directions. Indeed, sometimes it's hard to escape the feeling that this book was Rumi's attic, all full of jumbled odds and ends, many of them beautiful, but not necessarily in any coherent order. In fact, however, a second reading can reveal that the book is a great deal more than that. If you have been under the impression that Rumi is a sort of Omar Khayyam for the New Age, this book can convince you that just possibly he belongs in company with Shakespeare, Goethe and Pushkin.

This translation is eminently readable and even prods the reader on. Professor Thackston has certainly succeeded in translating Rumi's infallible knack to make us look at the world through different eyes. The one sacrifice was Rumi's elegant rhetoric, which just can't be translated. For that you'll have to learn Farsi. In the meantime, this book is to be enjoyed.

Rumi's discourses are really not so different from his poetry. In each he tries to make the listener (because his style is essentially teacher speaking to apprentice) understand that it is LOGICAL to see how much God loves each person. Because it is more difficult for the rest of us to see what is obvious to those so touched with delight by the intimate presence of God, he uses emotions to convey what to him is the logic. He thus uses poetic language to convey the message, since we find it easier to "understand" an emotive content. Much as Christ spoke in what must have seemed to many impossibly hard-to-understand metaphors, Rumi's discourses do often require an extraordinary "letting go" to sense the logic in his argument. An important work for all the ages.

It is the translation of Fihi Ma Fihi, which is full of Rumi's discourses. It sort of dispells all notions of "sufism vs islam" rather sufism is Islamic Mysticism in the truest sense and Rumi explains why the outter conformity to the Sharia (Sacred Law)is very important (i.e. the religous dispensations that are given to mankind through the last of the revalatory Porphet, according to Islam; Prophet Muhammed saws). He himself was a Hanafi (one of the four schools of law within the Orthodox Islam).

The book really clarifies his thoughts and ideas behind the poems. Lot of western readers of his poems tend to use his semantics and syntex to project their own meaning to it rather than discover the deep insights and the Reality he is trying to point toward.

"I am the servant of the Qur'an While I am still alive.

I am the dust on the path of Muhammad, the Chosen One."

(Mevlana Jelaluddin Rumi) http://www.jerrahi.org/writings_english/invitation.htm