Where Kaplan's "Coral Reefs" manages to take a difficult field guide topic and conquer it, "Southeastern and Caribbean Seashores" Takes an impossible task and muddles it. I don't know what the people at Peterson's Field Guides was thinking! The topic is far to broad to include in one book, and Kaplan seems to try and make it broader. He includes coral reefs and things distinctly NOT on the shore as well as including topics already in other field guides. I do NOT want to belittle Kaplan (whom I enjoy) or Peterson's (who I think makes the best mass consumption field guides available) but unless you really need it, I would stay away from this book. It does win points for it's illustrations and Kaplan's knowledge and writing style.

I have taken Kaplan's field guide to seashores to Florida Keys, the Bahamas, the USVI, The BVI, Bonaire, Puerto Rico, Jamaica and Curacao, and have found the book to be indispensible. No matter which island, each seashore seemed familiar, and with a little judicious reading beforehand,I understood whatever natural phenomena I saw, from snorkelling in the shallows to walking the rocky shore to crawling around the red mangrove roots. I would no sooner leave this field guide home when I go to the Carribbean or Florida, than leave home my Michelin Guide to Europe when I go there. I recommend the Field Guide to Seashores to all nature lovers and snorkelers who want to make the best of their trip to the the Caribbean or Florida.

This book, "A Field Guide to the Atlantic Seashore" is a great field guide. It presents an excellent overview of the life one commonly finds along the Atlantic coast of the USA. The book is arranged taxonomically, and each entry contains a description of characters useful in determining what you are looking at. As a professional biologist, I find this book to be superior in many ways to the Audubon Guides. For example, this Peterson guide includes both common AND scientific names by each entry, the book is arranged taxonomically rather than by other less important characters like color, etc.

This book is not, however, what many casual naturalists are looking for in a field guide. They often look for a book filled by page after page of photographs or illustrations. This book is filled by page after page of information more useful to the more advanced amateur or to the professional. There are several illustrations, many are simple line drawings that show details of important characteristics used to tell one kind of organism from another.

All in all a great field guide for the advanced amateur and professional. This is not, however, a book that is as likely to be embraced by the casual observer.

5 stars for the more professional audience, but 4 stars for the casual observer.

You might be happiest doing what another reviewer suggested... to use this book along with a photo field guide such as an Audubon Field guide to the region.

Happy splashing!

Alan Holyoak, Dept of Biology, Manchester College, IN

saboettger@yahoo.com. The Peterson field identification guide to the Atlantic Seashore by Kenneth L. Gosner is a useful tool in fieldwork. Seaweeds and animals are arranged taxonomically and described in detail regarding their distinguishing characteristics. All weeds and animals are called by both their scientific and common name and are described in an easily understood manner. The plates with drawings of creatures found along the Atlantic seashore are helpful to establish visual identification of seaweeds and animals. It is useful that the book explains different marine habitats that you may encounter as well as going into detail on important physical marine features such as water currents, salinity, tides etc. The details on how to maintain and preserve animals are an additional plus of this book. The Peterson field guide is a good tool for the use in class as well as for you personal exploration of the seashore. I would recommend its use in combination with the Audubon Guide to Shore Animals of North America. These books would complement each other since the Audubon Guide displays a similar identification system but enhances it with pictures of animals rather than drawings. The combined use of these books would increase the accuracy of your identification.

it was an ok book it could of been better i didn't like how it jumped around a lot from scene to scene.

If I thought the first book in this series "Crimson Snow" was good, this one was even better. This story brings several of the characters from the first book into it. This one was suspenseful from the beginning with some wonderful twists thrown in - a bloody crate...a needle...a chainsaw...an explosion or two...and Mike Grogan isn't who he appears to be. One part wasn't very believable though - battery-operated boats - do they really have those? and did the DEA really think the drug lords wouldn't know they were being followed in those boats?

In the fall of 1918, forest and wild fires devastated significant areas of Minnesota, killing anywhere from 400 to 1000 people. This book tells the story of these fires and the subsequent recovery of the region. While a valuable work on the topic, the book is not that interesting. We learn many details about the event, but the fire comes across more as a distant historical event than as a great tragedy. And little is said about how the residents planned to handle future fires. The book seems to have been intended for a local audience. Outsiders may find it hard to identify with the communities described.

This book describes events concerning a large forest fire that destroyed the town of Cloquet, Minnesota on October 12, 1918. It is technically accurate and informative.

Exceptionally detailed, very easy to follow, doesn't leave much to be desired as far as guide books go. One thing that would have made it better is a Stockholm underground map.

I am planning a trip to Sweden this Summer and bought 2 books on sweden. (the only 2) This book is good but I like the berlitz Sweden book better. It had more details. I suggest that you get both of the books.

I enjoyed this book on the emerging Great Lakes steelhead fishery. The authors cover the basics on steelhead biology, behaviour, leaders, casting techniques, and flies. I liked the chapters on the guides from Ontario, Wisconsin, Michigan, and New York. Even though Lake Superior tributaries are different form Lake Ontario tributaries you can still apply the same techniques. All of the guides shared their strategies and tips with the authors. The book has a great chapter on popular steelhead flies in colored plates. I also found the fly tying and leader recipes very helpful.

The book contained a lot of useful information for both novice and seasoned steelhead anglers alike. I especially liked the drawings and explantions of techniques. Also helpful is the equipment list at the end of the chapters. I only wish they would have included more detailed information on walk-in and put-in locations for fishing the many rivers. Overall a good addition to your fishing library.

Having studied under Mary LaChappelle, I know her to be a warm, smart, perceptive individual. I also know that her more recent writing (yet to be published, sadly...)is superior to most of the pieces collected here. She knows this, too. That said, the title story is brilliant and worth the price of this book alone--it is one of those sad, piercing tales that sticks with the reader for years. In other words, it is a perfect short story. Some of the other works collected here too readily reveal the author's mind and pen at work, lurching and jerking along with very little insight and far too much forced whimsy. I'd recommend this book, but only for about three of the stories.

A sublime, honest, and beautiful first collection. The stories in "House of Heroes," most of them set in the small towns of Minneosota, portray women taken to the line between sane and insane, between grace and redemption

Dr. Dalhouse has provided those interested in the history of Christian fundamentalism with an intriguing, outsider's look at Bob Jones University. He is correct when he states that the role of BJU in fundamentalist history has been largely overlooked and minimized by secular historians. This work helps to correct that oversight. Dr. Dalhouse's study is quite even-handed, especially when compared with typical comments and reviews of BJU. Dalhouse probes some of the paradoxes in the BJU worldview, but at times he overly magnifies these issues. Four stars for Dalhouse's book. Must reading for anyone interested in understanding Bob Jones University.

Dalhouse has done a service to the history of Fundamentalist Christianity in this book. For whatever reasons, the Joneses and Bob Jones University have been routinely overlooked by the historians of fundamentalism, making Island a nearly unique study. For a second look at BJU, scholars and interested readers should take note of Daniel L. Turner's Standing Without Apology. This more recent history of BJU, when paired with Dalhouse's book, give a thorough look at a most unique Christian educational institution.

This is an excellent book. Set in the year 2025, it follows two main characters, Hector and Diana, and what they experience as two teenagers in a world that is so no longer "normal". The story is told from both perspectives - Hector's story and Diana's story. It is about strangers who learn to trust each other in a world where a disaster has wiped out all but a few of the world's population. Keeping in mind that this is a book written for young adults, it is well written and easy to follow - complex enough to be interesting to adults and simple enough to keep the attention of a young reader. My only complaint is that it left me wanting more - it really needs a sequel. My husband and 11 year old daughter give it 4 stars as well and also believe there should have been a sequel.

If you love suspense, you'll certainly love this book! MacDonald does a wonderful job of portraying the future. It's the kind of story you can read again and again.

I really enjoyed reading this book. But all along, something bothered me. I finally figured out at the end what it was...I just couldn't FEEL for these characters. I couldn't relate to the depth of their love, it just didn't 'move' me that way. I did enjoy the other aspects though, the story line and twists.

"The Lake Dreams the Sky" has at its center the story of Rose and Cody, and how they had a love so powerful it could set the lake on fire. This sounds like an impossible myth, but as the story unfolds Rose and Cody become real people with a fascinating story to tell. Like Wolfe's work "The Woman Who Lives in the Earth," this beautiful story has a mystical feel to it. But unlike a pure fable, this novel contains the sense of a real place and characters which make a book truly memorable.