As an author of a book that uses a fishing metaphor to illustrate how relationships work, I was approached by someone about this book. So I bought it and must say that it truly gives the more serious angler a better understanding about what fly fishing for trout is all about. Having read about a dozen books on trout fishing (in doing the research for my fishing analogy), I think this one is one of the very best. The pictures are beautiful and something that every California trout fisherman should have in his personal library.

Cutter's Sierra Trout Guide is more than just a how to catch fish book. It is a lovingly illustrated and highly readable narrative about the Sierras, the varieties of trout found there, where trout feed, and on what and when, how to know what the trout are eating and what best imitates today's insect selection. Equally important, Cutter provides a compelling history of each strain of Sierra trout and how man has done his best --luckily so far unsuccessfully-- to ruin this splendid fishery. Read this book and you'll weep at what our forefathers did to the once abundant Lahontan Cutthroat. But you'll also see the Sierras and their wild trout populations with a whole new appreciation for their magnificence.

Ralph Cutter has done a superb job with his revised edition of "Sierra Trout Guide". The book was originally published in a much smaller format with only a fraction of the information contained in this edition. The ten years between editions was well worth the wait.

Ralph introduces you to the various species of trout and char that you will find in the Sierra, along with valuable information on their preferred habitat and environmental preferences. His chapter describing the fishery will help you understand why the Sierra Nevada enjoys such a wide mix of trout, and will give the history buff a load of trivia to share at the evening campfire or while moon-watching from a granite bluff.

Backpacking is a minimalist's sport and yet fly fishers have a reputation for carrying everything with them but the kitchen sink. The chapter "Into the Backcountry" gives great guidelines on what to take, what to leave, and what to expect to run into on a fly-fishing/backpacking trip. The chapter on "Trout Foods" includes information on all the major insects on the Sierra trout's menu and includes a hatch chart with some general recommendations to compensate for elevation differences. Ralph again takes the well seasoned backpacker's approach to his recommended fly assortment. You really can imitate most of the available insects in the Sierra with just a handful of flies.

The chapter "Locating Productive Waters" will enable you to make an educated guess about where to find trout by analyzing the features of the 7 1/2 minute maps of the areas you wish to explore.

As if that was not enough, the book includes distribution charts (listed by county) of all the rivers and lakes found in the Sierra that hold trout. These charts also tell you which USGS map they can be found on, the watershed they belong to, the elevation, and even the species of fish you can expect to find in the area you're considering. For example, if you want to fish lakes in the EL Dorado County area of the Sierra for Golden Trout, you can use these charts to plan your trip. My brother and I used this information to find a lake a few years ago that contained golden trout at 8100 feet of elevation and only a 6 mile hike in. The full moon illuminating the granite cliffs over the lake that night, and a sparkling jewel of a 14" golden trout the next day, quickly made me forget any soreness from the effort it took to get there.

The book is printed on top quality glossy paper and the pictures alone make the book worth buying. The 8½" x 11" pages are easy to read and handle, and the softcover allows you to easily slip it into your backpack. Don't go into the Sierra without it.

This cookbook is great. It matches wines with foods as recommended by the experts--the wine makers themselves. You can't go wrong with it, whether you're cooking gourmet or casual, it's all there.

This thoughtful collection marries an interesting recipe with an intriguing wine within the unique ambiance of an individual winery. Nicely done!

Whether you're a gourmet chef or a weekend gourmet wannabe, a wine connoisseur or, like me, someone who just knows what she likes, you'll love "Signature Dishes". Tricia Volk and Mary Tartaglione are sisters from Southern California who have studied the wineries of California's Central Coast, and have presented to us a wonderful collection of favorite recipes from wineries in the area, along with suggestions for wines and side dishes to accompany the entrees. The recipes are clear and concise, without that air of presumption that so many cookbooks leave me with, implying that I couldn't possibly manage such a complicated endeavor. The dishes range from the simple (Grilled Salmon with Shiitake Sauce) to the sublime (Paraiso Springs Duck with Pinot Noir Sauce), each expressing the individual tastes of the winery owner. Which brings me to the best part of the book: learning about the wineries. Reading the pleasant descriptions of the wineries, the owners and their wines is like reading a travel guide of a trip I'd love some day to take, driving the Central Coast and tasting the foods and wines of the many vintners along the way. Volk's and Tartaglione's style give me the feeling that I know these folks well, and keep me coming back to this book time and again, to try more of the signature dishes, and experiment with wines I probably wouldn't have heard of or tried, without this book.

Definately the best job market book out there. I was new to the area, having relocated from D.C., and within 2 weeks following the guidelines in this book had several interviews lined up and quickly got a great job!

Highly recommended.

If you are in the midst of a career change or even just thinking about one that may involve relocating, this guide is the best place to start. In particular, it provides a comprehensive background on regional highlights that I was not able to find in any other job oriented material. The information is informal and local which indicates to me that it was written by local residents who understand the benefits about their community that keeps them there. Since this is an extremely important aspect of any relocation change one may be making, I highly recommend Job Source as the best place to start.

The bonus is that this additional information does not diminish the detail and up-to-date resource information available in the Job Source series books. Again, this is the only guide you will need to make a career change.

If you are looking for a job in Southern California, this book is for you. It has several sample resume's and cover letters, as well as a comprehensive article to help guide you on how to find a job on the internet. But the most valuable part of this book is the thousands of contacts it provides. Complete with addresses, phone numbers, web sites and the key contact people. It's a great tool to not only help you find the right job, but the right company.

While many books and much attention has been given to the Impressionists, little mention has been offered to the Society
of Six - California Colorists. The beautiful illustrations and enlightening text provide a case history for the needed aware-
ness of these talented and innovative artists. Nancy Boas has
obviously done a tremendous amount of research resulting in a
spectacular and much needed work on our California art history.
A perusal of this title will be richly rewarded.

One of the best art books around. It not only describes an important art movement, it captures the character of the artists, from the assertive leader, Selden Gile, to the gentle, inward August Gay and the troubled Bernard von Eichman. The book is illustrated with vigorously colorful paintings _ visual evidence of the influence the Six would have on artists for decades to come.

I was unaware of a Californian impressionist movement until I stumbled across this book -- well worth reading & wonderfully illustrated -- Stan Kelly-Bootle

Christy is a beautiful lyrical writer. She holds your interest throughout the entire book and you think you are right in the little fishing town and know all it's inhabitants. I have also read her other novels and am looking forward to the next one.

If you like stories that out of the unusual ~~ this book is definitely for you. Yorke writes a beautiful haunting story of love and life and death ~~ longings and dreams and heartaches. Kate packs up her father and foster son to an isolated fishing village up in northern California ~~ or as she likes to say, she followed the fog. Wayne read an article in a newspaper about the fisherman's life and enraptured by the lonely life of fishing ~~ he told Kate he was moving up there. Kate agreed to take him and her father followed along.

They come to the village slowly eroded by the salt water and the fog ~~ it is always cold and wet there. People are depressed and very supersititious ~~ and there was the laurel tree that oozes sap and "foretells" a fisherman's death at the sea whenever it oozes. There is the local witch/mystic. The village is not pretty nor is it peopled by friendly people. Undaunted however, Kate, Wayne and Gerald decide to stay and make a go of it. However, as they become ingrained in the village's life and with the residents, they wonder if tragedy would be worth the loss of love.

This is a thought-provoking book. It tells of perils of life and love and hope after tragedy ~~ it is a book that will haunt you with its vivid descriptions of the sea and life by the sea. It will lull you into thinking life is grand then tragedy hits ~~ then you wonder how you'll survive. Kate deals with losing Wayne to adulthood ~~ and deals with the news of her son that was abducted 18 years before. She deals with how to live life again ~~ and inspires those around her to believe in love again. Even after death.

This is one of my favorite books this year. It was by chance that I picked this book up ~~ and I hope to read more of her works ~~ as she is a promising writer who captures dreams and write them down for us to read. And she's a beautiful, lyrical writer. It's a definite must-read!

3-30-03

I bought Song of the Seals based on its cover, and am so glad I did! It turned out to be one of the best novels I've read in a long time. I fell in love with the characters. Kate Vegas has survived one of the worst things that can happen to a woman and mother, and faces whatever comes with strength. The teenaged girls, Jenny and Nicole, were so real and interesting, they reminded me of my own daughters. Even the fishermen struck a chord in me. I couldn't stop reading until three in the morning, and was sad when I was finished. Christy Yorke is a great writer, with sentences that are so beautiful they brought tears to my eyes. I'll definitely get her others.

Now in an thoroughly updated third edition, Hill Guide Sonoma Valley : The Secret Wine Country provides an outstanding food and wine guide to California's wine country, pairing walking tours with features of restaurants and wines and even including recipes from featured chefs. The inclusion of rates and prices makes it easy to choose lodging and attractions.

My wife and I and two other couples will travel to Sonoma Valley soon, and I've been designated trip planner. I got out this book, a copy of which I had purchased on a previous trip, and found using it a great pleasure. It's extraordinarily thorough, very nicely organized, and well-written. It is, in fact, the best guidebook I've read.

Written by two longtime residents of the area, "Sonoma Valley the Secret Wine Country," is not only an indispensable guide for those planning a trip to the Sonoma Valley, it is also a great read for the "armchair adventurer" simply wishing to learn more about Sonoma's unique history and culture. This is a travel guide that one wants to continue reading long after the trip is over. The book is organized in a somewhat non-traditional format, a format that I found far superior to the familiar one. Instead of there being "restaurants" and "lodgings" sections, the book is organized by area, so that if you find yourself in say, Glen Ellen,(the tiny hamlet of Jack London and the Valley's only winery "tram" tour) you can simply open up the book and find out what attractions, be they eateries, wineries or antique stores, are in the immediate vicinity. This format, along with the detailed "insider's" information the authors have compiled, allows you to get to know the places you are visiting in a much more intimate and realistic way than a traditinal travel guide. You will never have that dreaded feeling of seeing youself as a tourist with this book. After reading about the Sonoma Valley's freindly, but sometimes strained relations with it's more famous rival, the Napa Valley, you'll know not to say something like "oh, that Cabernet is excellent-almost as good as the one I tasted in Napa last weekend!" There is also a number of little extras in each section, such as recipies from the locals, ratings for the level of rommance in each place, and brief histories on each of the places you are visiting. Again, I found this to be a really great book, not only for travelling, but simply as an entertaining read about a very interesting place. Indeed, the book prompted me to remove myself from my laurels and write my first online review. This guide definitely earns five stars, the online reviewer's highest praise.

....California historian known to me, with his pithy style, his endlessly fascinating observations, and his anecdotes, rich in history and amusing in detail, which unlike the rivers of my state flow one after the other without any damming. I'm a native of Southern California, and I have yet to find a better book on this territory even though this one was originally penned in the late 40's.

The colonizers, the boosters, the flamboyant pillars of society who bamboozled, bulldozed, and boutiqued their way into California: they and other characters appear on the McWilliams stage in a fascinating--and at times disturbing--progression in which the land itself, that most neglected of characters, puts in appearances too. For we Southern Californians live in a land of constant paradoxes; to quote the author ("The Land of Upside Down"):

"To their amazement"--he means tourists--"they discovered that umbrellas were useless against the drenching rains of Southern California but that they made good shade in the summer; that many of the beautifully colored flowers had no scent; that fruit ripened earlier in the northern than in the southern part of the state; that it was hot in the morning and cool at noon...here, in this paradoxical land, rats lived in the trees and squirrels had their homes in the ground." No wonder we're all a bit topsy-turvy out here.

My one objection: I disagree with the author's description of the early Missions as "concentration camps." That through disease and, later, a mis-education that left the Native converts vulnerable to ranchero exploitation and settler genocide is beyond question; but however misguided their efforts, those early padres had no conscious agenda of wiping out a people. Nevertheless, McWilliams's detailed accounts of Mission life provide a much-needed antidote to the idealization and denial and Eurocentric bias that saturate most Mission histories.

If you want to know Southern California better, then of course you must stand on her soil and listen to her voices; but you could do much worse for an intro-at-a-distance than this fine book, which fellow natives will find confirming and eye-opening.

For all residents of Southern California past, present, or potential, there can be no better book about this unmatchable part of the world. Past residents (like myself) will sigh with fond remembrance, current residents will be amused, and potential future residents will be astonished. All will be entertained. The land, the geography, the history, and the weather. They're all discussed. The social outcasts, the wierd misfits, the kooks, the characters, and their schemes and dreams. It's all here, along with so very much more. Written by a longtime resident in a very entertaining style that combines dinner conversation with classroom lecture, this book will be a joy to anyone who has a love for the irreplacable experience of Living In Southern California. You will truly FEEL as though you are there. This book is one for the heart as well as the mind. Oh Los Angeles, how I miss you. Carey McWilliams, thanks for taking me back.

Originally published in 1946, McWilliams describes the socio-historical and economic formations of Southern California from the "bottom up" in a way uncharacteristic for his time period. He unveils the racist, eurocentric, environmentally devastating, materialistic and otherwise ruthless basis for the area's hegemonic culture, economy, and social relations. Moreover, he adds great insight into the incorporation of California into the world capitalist system. He covers the use, abuse, and devastation of various peoples in the area including Native Americans, Californios, Chinese, Japanese, Oklahomans and Mexicans. He also offers insight into the materialism or 'fake' culture which has emerged from the area only to exploit the cultures it has destroyed. The book is a bit long winded at times, but overall is a must read for anyone intersted in the topics I've described. It would be of interest to anyone who appreciates Almaguer's Racial Faultlines, Pitt's The Californios, or even Montejano's Anglos and Mexicans in the Making of Texas.

I bought the hardcover edition -- it was my favorite fashion book. But now, the revised edition with the introduction that involves new stars and their photos (Gwyneth Paltrow, Whoopi Goldberg, Drew Barrymore and Cher) adds a new dimension to the story. I'm really happy and for a paper back, the quality is EXCELLENT. Thanks Patty Fox!

This is a lovely book with wonderful photographs of Hollywood fashion icons. Another thing that is great about this book is that it features those who are not as popularly remebered, such as Delores Del Rio, along with more popular icons such as Audrey Hepburn. Great book! Highly recommended!

I think this is the best Hollywood fashion book there is! The photos are great and the stories are fun.

I just finished reading "Striking It Rich," and I think it's a wonderful book. Using the story device of finding old letters from the 1850s worked very well; it brought the characters to life. I learned many things about Chinese immigrant life in the U.S. that I didn't know before--the novel is very informative.

I would strongly recommend this book to anyone (both adults and students) who wants a greater understanding of the reasons why the early Chinese immigrants would risk so much to come to a distant land and the hardships they faced upon their arrival.

I hope that the author, Debbie Leung Yamada, continues to write and produce more books such as this one. I think she has a fine talent and a voice that is needed to be heard.

This book is one of the most facinating books that I have read in a long time. It was captivating from beginning to end. I couldn't put it down once I started reading. This book taught me much about the history of Chinese-Americans during the Gold Rush Era. I recommend this book for all ages to read.

This is an exciting historical fiction book. The story starts when two kids visit their grandma's house and find a mystery room. Many exciting chapters await you as the secret unfolds. I read this book in one sitting because I couldn't wait to see what happened! Ms. Yamada brings this story to life! I enjoyed this book immensely.

These touching short stories left me wanting to know more about the writers, but also reflecting on my own past and future. Well written, sometimes funny and sometimes sad, this book would make a wonderful gift for sisters, moms, grandmothers and friends. Highly satisfying read!

Though these writers have in common their roots in San Francisco and their participation in a writers' group of long standing, each of their voices is distinct. The authors bring to their experiences as girls, sisters, wives, mothers, grandparents, and professionals- in other words, as modern American women - an array of attitudes unique to each of them. Some of these pieces are humorous, some poignant, some even painful, but each illuminates a significant moment or event that will provoke readers to pause and reflect upon moments in their own livesthat might otherwise have gone unacknowledged. An engaging and delightful collection.

Every piece in this collection delights, but several stand out: Sue Renfrew's "Cycle's End"--the life of a washing machine reflects the life of its owner--Margaret Gault's "How To Be Married to a Lawyer and Still Be Happy"--we learn how to win arguments against our husbands no matter what they do for a living--and Rosemary Patton's "The Library"--the story of a daughter helping an elderly mother to dismantle a library of 5,000 books before she moves to a retirement home. Every woman will identify with the life experiences described in this book.