I read this book over two years ago while exploring the Amazon rainforest in Ecuador as part of a college class. It was revealing and disturbing. I was left feeling overwhelmed by what humans have done and are doing to the rainforests of the world, for the sake of money and power. There is so much that could apparently be done, and yet it seems that world is spiraling downward towards an earth where there are few, if any, rainforests left. The fight against rainforest destruction appears unwinnable because the people fighting to prevent destruction tend to be money and power-less, while those who want to destruct are moving forward without any barriers to their work. Those who would wish to continue destroying rainforests need to remember that ultimately, they are fighing against their own existence. Yet this fact seems to slip by everyone because we have always figured that we have one more generation before WE feel the effects. When are we going to realize that those who are affected by destruction NOW are just as important as those of us who benefit financially from rainforest destruction without feeling its harmful effects?

It will certainly be interesting to see what happens in the next decades.

This is a very readable account of the logging industry in the Adirondack Woods from the totally exploitative days of the 1850s to the conservative and preservative methods a century later. This well-researched book interestingly discusses the initial primative methods of rugged and colorful men with axes and horses cutting and clearing the woods and driving the timber down rampaging and deadly spring rivers through to the industrialization of the process with power saws and diesel trucks beginning in the 1920s. The introduction of trains into the Adirondacks, the difficult life of the logging camp with adversity and pestilence, the ever-present danger of forest fires, the logger barrons more interested in profits than preservations, it's all in here, along with dozens of photographs that alone are worth the price of book. The only reason I didn't give it five stars: No map, which is a major ommission, especially since many of the locations have outdated names that can't be found on current maps. It's inconceivable that the publisher couldn't see the necessity of even a single map. But, beside that single fault, this is a very good book.

The cover of this book was what caught my eye. It was a Dave Mckean piece that I had never see before. So I read the book, it is a very intense book in a pseudo-near future in the San Francisco bay area after a strange event of overgrowth from the amazon jungle. The book is mostly quick paced and has enough to it to keep you reading to the end. The characters are strong and developed, the writing is thought out and some of the stranger ideas even catch on after awhile. All in all, a good book worth picking up if you can find it.

This is a very useful book that has clearly taken the author years of research. It is a reference book rather than a general read. It did not get a ten due to the fact it is unindexed. Good value for money as it may save you (like it did me) hours of research. Sharon Hawkins

Has anyone ever noticed that the UFP seems to get the most variety of starship designs seen in Star Trek? I mean, there are all kinds of Starfleet vessel classes, from Daedalus to Constitution to Miranda to Excelsior to Ambassador to Nebula to Galaxy to Akira to Sovereign, plus everything in between! There are many classes that we've seen. However, the other main Alpha and Beta Quadrant races, like the Klingons, Cardassians, and (especially) the Romulans, each seem to have only a handful of starship designs. That's always been a minor bone of contention I've had with Star Trek. However, this (unfortunately) out-of-print book, published by FASA, helps to fix that problem by detailing many different Klingon ship designs--some canonical, like the D7 or the Bird of Prey, and many that are not, like the D-10 Riskadh, the D-20 Death Rite, the D-2 Stingtongue, D-18 Gull, or the L-9 Sabre. Some designs are not as good as others, but there are many fine Klingon designs in this book. For anyone who is a Treknophile, I highly recommend the Klingon Ship Recognition Manual.

This was good, but I liked the other Laurel books better. At first the fire scared me. It turned out all right in the end and the pixies home was saved.

I thought this was a great activity book for kids as well as a good way to teach about the rain forest. It's great for traveling but I only give it 4 stars becuse markers will bleed through it's pages.

Australia does not have the strong tradition of Nature writing that America does. One exception to this is Western Australian writer William Lines. This book, the title of which pays its respects to an Eric Newby classic, is the story of his walk he did along a previous version of Western Australia Bibbulman Track which runs south from Perth. Lines deftly describes the every day aspects of the walk but intertwines his descriptions with an account of the history, a rather sad one, of Western Australian forests as a result of greed, ignorance and stupidity. An Australian environmental classic.

This is not the typical modern full-color-field-guide, buth rather a more traditional guide book. In 83 entries (describing one species each, but totalling 115 spp according to the publisher) it gives per entry: a page of text (name, common name, selected references, vernacular names, botanical description, field characteristics, ecology and distribution, notes); a page with a b&w line-drawing (giving excellent details, but overall not of the stunning quality found in, say, Voorhoeve's "Liberian high forest trees"); and in back of the book a color photograph (of very good quality, 5.7x9.1cm) each of the bark and of the slash. All in all a pretty good book, although notably the typography could be a lot better...

This is basically a coffee table book. Nice pictures, easy text, not too deep. A good reference if you want to choose which Maya big spots you want to visit in your next vacation. It does suffer from not reflecting more recent advances on the interpretation on Maya history, such as the Toltec influence. But it is not apparently the objective of the book. This reviewer thinks that what the author wants is for you to get interested in the Maya civilization, to respond to the beauty and greatness of its art, to give to research and protection funds... All very commendable goals but perhaps a little too weak for the more historically minded. Yet, even this last one can have a fine time reviewing this book which is always a nice reminder of the places we saw, or want to visit someday.