Does anyone besides Seabury Blair's friends like this book? Marlene Kocur liked it but she has also drew the maps for the book. Another reader gave it 5 stars but also happens to live on the Olympic Peninsula. Probably another of Mr. Blair's friends. If you give this horrendous book a positive review please be completely honest about whether or not the author happens to be a friend of yours. Blair has written a pamphlet for beginning cross-country skiers and then stretched it into a book by printing the same route descriptions over and over again. Then he slapped a cover on it to try and sell it to backcountry skiers and snowboarders. A quick perusal at the bookstand would make this obvious but on the web we don't have that luxury.

The best thing about this guide is that you can use it all winter and put it away in the summer. I really like the relaxed style and the way the author makes me feel like I can do any one of these routes in a day.
I own both backcountry skiing and snowboarding guides to Washington, and this one is by far the best. Most of the routes in the other book are only open in the summer and it would be impossible to get to them in a day.

Seabury Blair's guide book appeals to those of us who don't jump off of cliffs for entertainment. When first starting out as a novice skier I would have appreciated having a copy of this book. Now that I'm skiing at an intermediate level this guide book is invaluable. It's formatted for all levels of skiing abilities. Most guide books are written with just the facts..very dry. Blair's guide book is informative but written with a sense of humor. Whether you are experienced or just beginning to take to the snow this book is for you. Very well done.

a collection of shockingly mediocre excerpts from excellent authors. the compiler failed even to pick the best scenes from the books represented, much less from other titles by the authors themselves or their contemporaries. and the intros to each excerpt are invariably valueless.

This is a great gift for someone when you are at that certain point in the relationship when something sexy is appropriate. The author really knows his (her?) "good parts". There is a second volume, The Hot Spots and together these books display an amazing knowledge of the more literate erotic writing. After reading some of the selections, you'll want to pick up the book from which they were excerpted.

This made the perfect gift for someone special.

In my 'thumbing' this book I immediately centered in the geographic area where I live and found that the text referring to the aerial photo had a gross error and questioned the information of other areas photographed since I would not be quite as familiar with the details of other areas as I would with my own. In particular, as an Altoonan, I was disappointed that the Cathedral of the Blessed Sacrament (towering above the city) was listed as the Blair County Courthouse. As most everyone knows (especially one who would publish a book) the courthouse of a community is in the county seat and the county seat of Blair County is Hollidaysburg not Altoona. Dah!!! Granted, it may seem like a trivial matter but how is one to continue with any certainty in reading the captions of the beautiful photographs that show the beauty of Pennsylvania. Sorry, my vote is a "thumbs down" considering that a more careful review of geographic details is a MUST in a book titled "Pennsylvania's Tapestry: Scenes from the Air.

I agree with Ron Talbott "Seitz's photographs are reminiscent of the invented landscapes of painter Richard Diebenkorn as they move us between representation and abstraction." A beautiful gift and beautiful conversation piece, a beauty to enjoy!

Mr. Seitz has found beautiful patterns in some things that I take for granted...e.g. highway interchanges! He also captures the more scenic farmland and forests and includes aerial shots of the state's major cities. As a transplant to Pennsylvania, I throroughly enjoyed this fresh perspective on this beautiful state.

Frothy and as unsatisfying as cotton candy - ok I suppose if you are REALLY bored. 3 women crazy about one man, one senator, one lecher and one boy, panting after these women - and no-one gets who they want in the end. A rainy day read if you have nothing else to read. I only finished it to see who gets who in the end... It's not a BAD book, but I found the writing a bit stilted and boring to read. For instance, by far not in the same league as writer Margaret Atwood, whose writing is a delight to read. THe storyline was ok and the characters not bad. But it is not a book I would recommend or read again.

I am so attracted to anything Victorian, that I thought this was the book for me. I found the descriptions of life in the Victorian age very accurate and on a whole I did enjoy the book. However, I absolutely hated the way it ended. Why would Kit want Senator James when he was so in love with someone else! Silly girl! There were to many questions left unanswered.

I didn't agree with the other reviews (I even had problems with the editorial review). This book really touched me. It had such a sadness to it. I didn't see the 3 women as being desparate as stated in the editorial review. 3 women are traveling on a cruise ship headed from America to England. They are of different ages, different backgrounds, with different goals in life. Miranda Cunningham is 40, a beauty (admired by all men) married to her sweetheart- who tends to be gone for long periods of time to excavation sights due to being an archeologist. She is missing him terribly, wanting passion back in her life. No man has turned Miranda's head until now. One stolen, passionate kiss shakes up her world. Cynthia Cunningham is a self-centered, spoiled 17 year old (niece to Miranda) being sent to London by her father to find a husband with a title for prestige of the family. Why not marry a handsome senator with money? Louisa "Kitt" McAllister is 25, unmarried (considering being a spinister at this age) independent, easy to talk to, wanting to see some of the world. Is there such a thing as love at first sight? Senator Steven James is 30, a widow, strikingly handsome (turns all of the women's heads) with personality but has never known true love. And now the one that has turned his head is married with strong commitment towards her husband and family. This is a story of lives that are tangled in a might fine web. This is a good examply how the act of 2 people can affect many others' lives. I don't understand why others had a hard time following the characters. Along with the main characters there are several others that are important to the story and that help it come to life. In the end, Miranda and Paul realized their love for each other was too strong to give up- it will take work but Miranda will recover what she almost lost with Paul. Cynthia realized Steven wasn't interested in her and settles for marriage to one with title, old family prestige, and a castle for a home. Kitt holds out for love- and gets it in the end. Stephen has turned to her for friendship and companionship in the past, missing her when she said "no more," protecting her heart. I was satisfied with the ending, though I would have liked a little more story of Kitt and Stephen coming together in the end. Oops! I hope I haven't spoiled the end for you. It is sweet- and my heart sang for Kitt, feeling that if Stephen had continued to miss her and have strong feelings for Kitt, it would develope into a strong love for each other, different from that of Miranda and Stephen's- the unforbidden love. It's a good book.

I was disappointed that a book this size had such limited descriptions of the animals. Nearly half of each page was devoted to a map which showed the areas where the animal might be found. The pictures of the animals are black and white sketchs with no color descriptions in the text. Can you imagine trying to identify birds without knowing what color they are? If the map had been scaled down there would be plenty of room to give more detailed descriptions of the creatures. The idea is very good, but the book is a disappointment.

With regard to the above comment, I'd just like to point out that this book is an atlas of Oregon wildlife, not an identification guide. If you've ever tried to scope out the range of a species from the tiny maps in most field guides, you'll appreciate the large size of these maps.

Jesse Winslow goes on a hunting trip with his cousin in the Black Hills Forest, where the Blair Witch supposedly roams.

Merrill's series is beginning to feel a lot like X-FILES. Time for a fresh story Cade--not rip-offs.

In, The Night Shifters, Jess Winslow experiences some unusual things. this book is hard to believe, but a part of me led me 2 believe that it was true. the humans changing into animals was kinda hard to believe. i still am questioning who Sylvannus is, is he really dead? i didn't like the fact that i predicted a lot of things b4 they'd happened. plus the ending sucked. i still think she should have survived, oh well!

... and then, it will be worth the read. (Sorry, Amazon.) Another Amazon reviewer gave this work five stars, which means he would have to give Bud Robertson's biography of Stonewall Jackson FIFTY stars.

While these essays are well prepared and documented the way only real historians can do, political correctness motivates some of the subject material, and other topics are ho-hum. (A well known historian I respect has told me that "ho-hum" is fine for historical writing. Groan!) Contrary to that other reviewer's opinion, Christian B. Keller's "Keystone Confederates" essay does NOT prove that 2,000 Pennsylvanians "defected" to the South, only that 2,000 Confederate soldiers were born in Pennsylvania, of itself, meaningless. (Where were they RAISED? Is that unique to Pennsylvania? Where were they living when they enlisted? etc.) Elizabeth Milroy's "Avenue of Dreams" essay on the Philadelphia Sanitary Fair started fine but slid into an overlong blow-by-blow account of the fair's details, but some may like that sort of thing. (My wife, for example.) The letters of black soldier John C. Brock were welcome because of their uniqueness, although I would have preferred that editor Eric Smith had not told me before each one what I was about to read. In "The World Will Little Note Nor Long Remember," Christina Ericson wrote that Jennie (actually "Ginnie") Wade's so-called fiancée "had been killed shortly before the battle" [of Gettysburg]. In fact, Cpl. Johnston Hastings Skelly, Co. F, 87th Pennsylvania Infantry, died ten days AFTER Miss Wade, and there has never been one concrete piece of evidence to prove they were engaged. The rest of Ericson's article is largely a rehash of well known facts about Gettysburg women colored with twenty-first century crayons, although I detect a good historian at work. Of William Blair's "The Brother's War," I can only conclude that he likes blood-and-guts films (he sure didn't like "Gettysburg") and put this essay in the pointless category. Mark Thistlethwaite's saga of the Peter Rothermel Pickett's Charge painting is the best of the bunch.

In general, the writing is typically academic, i.e., grammatically perfect and unengaging. As a group, these essays "reach" for subjects that add little to our knowledge of the Civil War in Pennsylvania (contrary to the book's title) and too often view the 19th century through contemporary eyes. They may have meant what they wrote - this gendre of writing appears to be the "in" thing - or they may have been playing the "Phd game." I cannot say. I readily admit that it's possible you may like this book. As we seek new topics about the overexposed Civil War, more of its type are inevitable. They get good students' and faculty's essays into print and are cheaper for a university press to publish. But are they worth the death of so many trees? Wouldn't it be better to publish them on the Internet?

Making And Remaking Pennsylvania's Civil War is a welcome compendium of new information about Pennsylvania during the Civil War including such noteworthy facts as their being as many as two thousand Pennsylvanians who defected to the Confederacy to fight for the Southern cause. The focus of the ten essays compiled in this excellent history are on our current understanding regarding the motivations of the soldiers and the impact of the war on civilians, rather than on the Civil War battles or military leadership. Making And Remaking Pennsylvania's Civil War is a highly recommended and informative addition to the growing body of Civil War scholarship.

Robert Blair Kaiser's book is a quick read- as he is a good writer overall and the matter is fascinating for someone who is interested in an existential account of pre-conciliar Jesuit religious life- if this is a true picture- even if it isn't, it reads like good fiction- and the inner conflicts of a young man. However, he tries to present himself in a very positive light and his "enemies" as all evil. It's a bit of a stretch if you critically look at the big picture. I just have many questions for the author: he claims the famous Malachy Martin seduced his wife and has him committed to a mental institution: that raised two questions in my mind: Why only make this charge after M. Martin is dead and can't defend himself? (I'm not a big M. Martin fan, but this is a logical question) And why do you blame Martin and others for getting you committed to a mental institution when you agreed to it? You could have said no. And if so, why blame your problems on others?
Additionally, the author talks over and over about "growing up" in relation to his Catholic faith- yet he seems to be a perpetual teenager in his faith development in that he seems to be obsessed with sex and rationalized the two adulturous affairs and one attempted one with the BBC producer, despite the fact that they are serious sins- I guess by feeling bad for himself that his wife no longer cared for him. And a bigger question is: Why would you pursue your wife, and once you get her back drop her like a bad memory, unless you are a sociopath yourself and just wanted to prove your superiority. "He wants the rules to work for him, as he says (p. 292). He fails to understand that to be a "mature" Catholic does not mean you can do whatever you want and God says o.k. because "He loves human stories" (p.293), but rather by imiating Jesus who was obedient unto death. Obedience, contrary to the modern secular mentality that the author obviously has bought into, is the way to holiness, salvation and Heaven. As Catholics, the saints show us this over and over again in their example for us of living the Gospel in daily life. Are they immature, Mr. Kaiser? Kaiser is a sad example of a person who has bought into the mentality of the world and has suffered for his rebellion. It's what Cardinal Ratzinger has called the sunny naive optimism of the 60's, and the fruits of that outlook have been bitter in reality: broken families, narcissism, abortion, rampant sexual perversity etc. Kaiser is constantly harping in the book on sexual issues. To cite just one example: I wonder if he can honestly say that advocating artificial contraception has made our world better? It doesn't show in reality to put it mildly. Kaiser lives in a self- created world of his own- in which it is mostly a pity party for Robert. It's hard to distinguish what is true from what is false in this book, but if it tells us anything it is: if you think you know better than the divinely instituted teaching authority of the Church, you are on the road to personal and spiritual diaster. As E. Michael Jones put it in Degenerate Moderns "either you conform your desires to the Truth, or the Truth to your desires." Kaiser has obviously done the later. This book does nothing to undermine the Church's teaching that sexuality is sacred, in fact he proves it in a backhanded way, by showing the chaos of his own life. And to the reviewers of this book who think his book is a revelation on the clerical scandal the Catholic Church has faced in the past year I say this: I suspect those [twisted] priests who have ripped apart the mystical body of Christ, as has come out in the last year, have a very similar rebellous attitude towards Church teaching, as Kaiser does, and thought by following their feelings all would be good: the result has been the destroyed innocence of countless children and adolescents as well as the faith of many. The wages of disobedience is destruction and death. Kaiser needs our prayers.

The only reason I purchased this book was to find out what Kaiser had to say about Father(?) Malachi Martin. (I'm a middle of the road Catholic). I've read several of Fr. Martin's books and now Robert Kaiser is saying that this seemingly traditionalist (Latin mass, etc.) Catholic, was a serial seducer and more in his younger days! The second half of this book relates the author's experiences as a Time magazine journalist in Rome during Vatican II and if you believe everything Kaiser writes about Fr. Martin, you're bound to hate this priest by the end of this book. He's a love 'em and leave 'em type, with a string of jilted women. Martin also conspires to have the author committed to a mental institution, while sleeping in Kaiser's bed, with his wife, and in his "red nightshirt."
Well, Kaiser can be described as "hell hath no fury like a husband scorned;" he hired private eyes to follow his wife in Rome and London; Kaiser himself even has an affair with another woman who was also seduced and left by Fr. Martin. This would make a good soap on TV, and the second half of the book is a good read.
My basic problem with the book is whether it is believable, and if so, how much is truth or fiction. The author is definitely wrong on one point, he cites Fr. Martin as being 47 when Kaiser first met him in late 1962. However, all biographies state that Martin was born in 1921, making him only 41 at the time.
My biggest problem with the book is the author's veracity in describing the religious views of Fr. Martin. How could Martin be portrayed as an ultra-liberal Catholic priest at the time of Vatican II, only to immediately become ultra-conservative as soon as he left the priesthod, moved to NYC and began his writing career? Usually, it's the liberals who leave the priesthood, and it's not to spend the rest of their lives writing about the virtues of traditional Catholicism. Maybe Martin was as the author stated, a sociopath. I feel, in jest, that maybe Martin was doing penance for the sins of his younger years, or possibly he was just an opportunist. Whom do you believe?
I have two wishes - First, that the author would have at least theorized on how or why Fr. Martin could have almost instantly turned from a religious liberal to ultra-conservative. Secondly, maybe there are readers of this review who know or knew Kaiser and Martin and could offer further insight about what the whole truth really is.

This book is well worth the read. In view of the fact that it was written prior to the breaking of the current scandal, it seems almost prophetic at times. When the author gives his scathing critique of celebacy, however, he assumed that the indescretions of the clergy involved adult men and women. Even Kaiser could not imagine the depth of horrific betrayal of trust in the abuse of children that so many clergy would be capable of.

This book is a "must read" for anyone seriously interested in reform in the Roman Catholic Church. It so speaks of its systemic abuse and misuse of power.

One more reason for RCs to get out of our pews and take back the church.

Mr. Kamin's obvious lack of experience in actually constructing anything other than useless "Architect-talk" is all over this book. Slanted for those who cannot find their own voice - Kamin reveals nothing but garbled particles of writing, framed within his false exhalted position as critic-extraordinaire.

Why buildings matter should be re-released and re-titled "why do we need architecture critics?" I have walked down the streets of NYC and learned more about why architecture matters. Buildings are inert without the culture surrounding them. Critics are inert without practical experience to draw from.

pass on the book, grab a coffee and stroll the streets of your hometown instead.

Pass of Kamin and his pretentious thesaurus of architectural "criticism".

He makes clear the difference between a building as a structure and a building as part of a living city. While the examples are mainly from Chicago, this book is a must-read for anyone who loves cities.

At the heart of this book, a collection of Kamin's Chicago Tribune articles spanning nearly a decade, is the author's adherence to his "consistent but flexible principles" of Activist Criticism. His critiques are not mere assessments of buildings as works of art; they are convincing arguments that as a whole show us the significant role architecture plays in a city. Far too many urban-dwellers blindly take whatever buildings go up around them and fail to realize how architecture shapes their lives, for better or worse, but Kamin implores us and our civic leaders to be more discerning, demanding worthy projects that will strengthen our cities.

Blair Kamin is not just a great critic with sharp insight: he's a terrific writer whose articles are seasoned with wit and a highly readable eloquence. Upon reading his work, it is no surprise that he won a Pulitzer Prize for criticism. It helps to be familiar with Chicago's landmark buildings, but that is not a prerequisite to learning some important lessons. This book is not just pleasure reading for architecture students, but for anyone who cares deeply about the architectural decisions being made in his or her city. By frequently reviewing proposed projects, Kamin goes on the offensive, raising some keen questions that go alarmingly unasked by the developers and politicians involved. This approach, with the resulting influence he wields, has altered the course of events in Chicago many a time (though, sadly, not always). One wishes he had the final approval on all the city's projects before groundbreaking. Architecture, as he says, is the "inescapable art" we all have to live with on a daily basis, and Kamin's activist criticism encourages us to learn from past mistakes in order to form a more livable city.