Every book by Isabella is an adventure. This book is wonderful to read during and after a trip to the islands. It makes great bedtime reading and is a book that you can stretch out for a long time and read again and again.

The steamer Nevada left Auckland New Zealand in January of 1873. Onboard are a number of travelers including Isabella Bird, who is traveling for her health. When another passenger takes ill, his Mother asks Isabella to disembark with them at Honolulu so they are not in a foreign land all alone. Thinking she will be there a short while, she actually begins a six-month journey, which she chronicles in a series of unabridged letters to her Sister back home. For those who have visited Hawaii or those who wonder what the islands were like before being annexed to the United States, these writings are pure joy.

Isabella arrives as a foreigner, but in a short time learns of the beauty of the various islands and begins to understand the diverse culture of the people.

She travels as an unescorted woman in a country, which has recently converted from aboriginal customs and inter-island wars, to the relatively peaceful paradise known in modern times. From simple observations of looking down at clouds on Maui at sunrise, to the unexpected earthquakes while standing next to a bubbling caldron of creation itself, you follow her adventures in well-written communications, which inform and entertain.

As she stood in snow, gazing down at the crater 800 feet below her, she wrote "The mystery was solved, for at one end of the crater, in a deep gorge of its own, above the level of the rest of the area, there was the lonely fire, the reflection of which, for six weeks, has been seen for 100 miles."

What she witnessed upon King Lunalilo's arrival in Hilo, brought tears to my eyes. Although they were beginning life under a form of government, the natives treated their king to a touching procession unlike anywhere else in the world. Many of the citizens had little or no money for clothes and wore what they had to meet him.

Some also brought gifts as Isabella writes: "One woman, sorely afflicted with quaking palsy, dragged herself slowly along. One hand hung by her side helpless, and the other grasped a live fowl so tightly that she could not loosen it to shake hands, whereupon the king raised the helpless arm, which called forth much cheering." A poor cripple who had only the use of his arms, drug himself two miles to lie for a moment at his kings feet. He too carried a gift.

Reading Isabella Birds' letters allows you to see first hand the magic the islands has on a visitor's soul and how easy it is to fall under the spell of the Hawaiian people.

I highly recommend the book with only one useful hint. That is to find a detailed map and refer to it during the travels. Unfortunately, the maps in the book are not clear enough to use for this purpose.

A beautifully written first hand description of the hawaii of the 18th. century. The book is a series of letters written by a 40 year old english women to her sister in england. During her stay in the islands, she had the opportunity to travel to all of the main islands, and the stories of her experiences are most vividly described. For those of us who love the islands, it's people and their culture this is the book for you.

....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.

Center fielder, Harvey Blissberg, wasn't happy about the move. After five good seasons with the Boston Red Sox, they left him unprotected in the expansion draft, and before he knew it, he was on his way to play for the Providence Jewels. But that's baseball, and the season wasn't a total loss. This was his best year, yet. He was really in the groove, hitting above 300, leading the Jewels in batting, doubles and stolen bases, and dating the very beautiful and talented sportscaster, Mickey Slavin. But all that good fortune came crashing down around him when his friend and roommate, relief pitcher, Rudy Furth, was found murdered in the club house whirlpool. What kind of trouble could Rudy have been into that would get his head bashed in with a baseball bat? As the days drag on with the police investigation going nowhere, a frustrated Harvey decides to take matters into his own hands and find the truth..... It's easy to see why Richard Rosen's, Strike Three You're Dead, won the Edgar Award for best first novel. This is a very intelligent and entertaining mystery, full of subtle twists and red herrings, vivid scenes, marvelous, engaging characters, and witty and irreverent writing and dialogue. Mr Rosen's indepth knowledge and expertise in the world of baseball adds real credibility to the story and once you meet Harvey Blissberg, and the rest of the gang, you'll be hooked. So sit down and get comfortable; Strike Three You're Dead is about to grab you on page one and I can guarantee this mystery won't let you go until you've read the very last page.

Being a mystery writer with my debut novel in its initial release, I genuinely enjoyed Richard Rosen's STRIKE THREE, YOU'RE DEAD. Having written, early in my career, a series of mystery short stories set against a bush league baseball backrop, I know well the territory Mr. Rosen is exploring. Harvey Blissberg is a star player on the expansion Providence Jewels. He was once a star for the Boston Red Sox. His best friend is murdered, and Harvey finds himself forced to solve the crime. This book won an Edgar in its initial release. FADEAWAY, STURDAY NIGHT DEAD, and WORLD OF HURT followed it. Now a decade later, Mr. Rosen is resurrecting his series in a few months with DEAD BALL. Mr. Rosen's series is a fine one, mixing equal parts of mystery and baseball ( and as Robert Parker once wrote about Troy Soos's excellent baseball mystery series,"Equal parts of baseball and mystery are the perfect combination.") Read this book as soon as you can.

If you're a baseball fan and a murder mystery fan then you will enjoy this work from R.D. Rosen. Harvey Blissburg, star player on a hapless expansion team, is suddenly involved in a sensational mystery as his best friend and star reliver Rudy Furth is found murdered in the whirlpool. With the help of Mickey, his sportscaster girifriend, Harvey doggedly puts together the pieces of the puzzle trying to find out who murdered his best friend. One red herring after another intervenes - a love struck fan, an inept and unscrupulous cop, the team manager's amourous wife who has a story of her own to tell and a small time hood. But Harvey presses on, all the while trying to hang on to his fading career and reach a .300 batting average.

The book gives an amzingly detailed portrait of a baseball season as a backdrop for the murder. This will appeal to baseball fans (such as me). But the author does not spare any detail in providing the reader with clues as to who the murderer is. He balances the drama of a baseball season with the drama of a murder mystery and does it very well. I read this book in a day because I did not want to put it down.

Strike Three You're Dead has alot to offer for baseball fans and murder myatery fans. It is very entertaining and spellbinding.

Dan and Dave Davidson have written a super helpful book. Who doesn't battle with a little lust? Who doesn't struggle with sin? Who hasn't been sucked into Temptation Island? Who hasn't paid the cost of "giving in to temptation?"

I have and so have my kids. This book brings PRACTICAL help from a source many of us would never dream of - - the Bible!!?! But this is no preachy book or a book for cissies. The authors are direct, challenging, inspiring and encouraging even for those of us who have failed. I never knew so many in the Bible failed!

Not only do the authors share God's method for surviving temptation but more importantly for AVOIDING temptation. As Garrison Keilor used to say, "If you don't want to go to Minnesota, don't get on the bus!"

There are quotes and practical pointers from famous people and regular Joes who have learned how to stay pure with God's Word. Get it, read it, live free! Gread book for teens, college kids and "anyone with a belly button."

Surviving Temptation Island is a very helpful book if you want to avoid the pain and real destruction of "doing your own thing" and giving in to temptation. Creative, witty, to the point yet substantive. Most importantly, the authors teach us how to avoid and survive temptation. Guess what their source is?? Shock of all shockers - - it is the Bible!

But this is not a preachy book. It is one that weaves quotes and wisdom of God's Word with hints from folks who have learned how to avoid or survive temptation. Some of these folks are famous people some are regular Joes, but all have lived in the real world facing and overcoming real temptation. I am 41 and loved this book. My 12 year old son told me it was "helpful" and a teenager I know was surprised that God had so much to say on the subject!

... You don't have to stay a brokenhearted castaway. Purity is not only possible; it is God's plan and provision. God is ready willing and able to rescue and restore you. No matter what circumstance you're in - it's up to you to respond. Whatever you've done, thought or said God is ready to make it right with you by His grace. Take the challenge to keep pure by living by God's Word.

We pray you will take the truths that follow to heart and this book will be a rich blessing to you and your family. We humbly present this material to both men and women trusting God will give you a solid understanding about His love for you and a newfound hope for purity. It's time to stand strong amidst so many temptations that can drag us down like quicksand. Take the P.U.R.I.T.Y. pledge and think wow about God's plan of purity in your love life. Take God up on His promises!

Dan & Dave Davidson & George Verwer

Ken Stokes has obviously studied his subject thoroughly. This book is well-written, informative and inspiring. Those of us on the mainland (really just a bigger island) can benefit from the approach Ken takes in his work on rejuvenating Kauai as a true "Garden Island".

"Our development model is more about making a living in our garden than about making a garden to live in". (page 2)

This simple approach offers fundamental lessons on sustainability, not only for the smaller environment of the island of Kauai but for the planet as a whole, which is really the larger garden within which we all must learn to make our living in order to survive with dignity and provide for the future in that is both healthy and nurturing.

In-depth, eye-opening social, historical, political, and geophysical data; a surprisingly positive progress report; and a compelling vision for moving Kaua`i forward.

A good read for anyone interested in state-of-the-art thinking on "globalization from below"--especially those who think it can't be done. Using an artful mix of demographic data, environmental indicators, and ecological theory--but all based on traditional native Hawaiian cultural understandings--Stokes demonstrates how to weave together an attractive vision of how to do sustainable development in ways that are at once politically, economically, and demographically feasible.

Love this cookbook. Recipes are from the Caribbean, as well as a number of Florida's best restaurants. I use this book all the time and have for years. It's fun!

I have a libary of cookbooks and "Tropic Cooking" is the one I constantly use.

This is one of the best, easy-to-follow cookbooks and guides on how to cook lowfat, delicious Caribbean foods. I was the "hit" of many dinner events with family and guests using this great guide to unique and delicious recipes. I recommend "Tropic Cooking" by Joyce LaFray for the experienced chef or the novice cook who's looking for an easy to follow, hard to find cook book to yummy Island dining.

There are lots of books that do their best to guide you toward successful sailing but they never tell the whole picture. They all leave something out so you have to buy several books to get all that you need. This is the best and most complete single book on what it takes to do practical sailing, specializing in the tropics. Everything to think about... food and it's preservation,repairs to the boat, weather(cyclones) and forcasting, tropical diseases and how to stay healthy, and my favorite- pirates..how to stay away from them and be safe...of course much more. It's highly readable,too. If there was a fault I guess would have to say I wish there was more story telling of the author's experiences in his 25 year cruising time.But this book can't be beat for practical teaching and price. So I guess I read stories another time.

I have been a "wannabe" tropical cruiser for several years. I have read several 'cruising guides' and many magazine articles, but when I do go this is the one that will be on board. It is all there, well presented and in language we all understand. A gold-mine of solid, practical information, excellent value.

I am not a person who is easily impressed, but having recently received and read "Tropical Cruising Handbook" by Mark Smaalders and Kim des Rochers I felt the need to write and congratulate the authors on producing a truly excellent book. The book is a superb and comprehensive guide to all that you need to know to make your tropical cruise a rewarding and safe experience. In particular, I was very impressed with the authors' sensitivity to the cultures and people of the tropics.

This book has reinforced my desire to sail the tropics.

I can't wait to cast off and set sail.

The measure of a great book is not in the total sum of its pages; it is a book written concisely, informatively, clearly and with an abundance of information- "We Few: The Marine Corps 400 in the War Against Japan" is that kind of book. For a book of only 248 pages Dickenson is able to fill those pages with details, facts, statistics, profiles of courage and much more.... Dickenson amasses large amounts of valuable data on the American military build up and, sadly, its losses in men and military armament during the war in the Pacific.

Dickenson describes the purpose for the creation of the Special Officers Candidate School, or the SOCS Program; the motives of young college students into the SOCS and the training they went through to become lieutenants in the Marine Corps. Although the focus of Dickenson's book primarily focuses on telling the story of the SOCS Marine, but the book also devotes a good portion of its words to describing the World War II generation-a generation that when the "call to arms" went out, it was quickly answered by young Americans from all walks of life and from all over the country. They scurried to enlist in the United States Army, Navy, Air Force, and naturally the Marines and the Marine, and the Marine "Special Officers Candidate Schools" (SOCS). Those who would make it through the SOCS Program would became Marine Lieutenants.

This book overflows with stories of leadership, heroism, and sacrifices by young Marine lieutenants. Dickenson writes of the enormous responsibilities that fell upon these young lieutenants. They were charged with leading their men, but leading by example. In the battles against Japanese forces, the Marine Lieutenants would make decisions that determined the fates of men under their command. In some instances these young lieutenants would make the ultimate sacrifice-their life. A clear and moving example of this can be read in the case of Lt. Jack Lummus;

"Lt Jack Lummus, rose up to rally his men and was knocked down by a grenade blast. He got up, charged the position and killed its defenders with his submachine gun, and was seriously wounded in the shoulder by another grenade. He attacked another emplacement and killed its occupants. Directing the fire of supporting tanks, he again moved into the open, rushed a third heavily defended position, and killed the Japanese in it. He led his men in attacking individual foxholes and spider traps, and, twenty yards in front of his platoon, he motioned them to follow him forward again. He suddenly disappeared in a huge explosion. When the rocks and debris finished falling, his men could see Lummus and it looked like he was standing in a hole. He had stepped on a mine that blew his legs off. He yelled at his cursing, weeping men as they stopped to help him and urged them on to a three hundred yard advance across the area's ravines and ridges. The surgeons in the division hospital could only relieve his pain and give him blood transfusions to try to keep him from bleeding to death. They kept him alive for several hours "... He was smiling as he closed his eyes and died".

"We Few: The Marine Corps 400 in the War Against Japan" is a grand ccomplishment of military history, the statistics are awesome and saddening, the profiles in leadership and courage are inspiring, the details are at time frightening. It forces the reader to think of war in a different light. It is a winner and belongs on the shelves with other great military history books on World War II.

A worthy companion to "With The Old Breed" and "We Were Soldiers Once and Young" both harrowing tales of horror and heroism in war "on the ground". "We Few" provides another insight into what these men marched into "doing what needs to be done" without much fan fair. Many of these men found bravery and fortitude they did not know they had, but cared little to share more that a few words about it. Not something to brag or even talk much about unless with those "where were there". I know as my father is on the back cover. Thanks to the author for writing it..

This is a fascinating and well organized story covering the rather unique Navy-Marine Corps "V-12" college officer program in World War II. The program was much larger than might be assumed. Using oral history, interviews and historical facts, the author follows a dozen or so members of a special USMC officer training program in 1944 -- abbreviated so that the men could be rushed into Pacific combat (Iwo Jima and Okinawa). Emphasis of the book is well balanced between early training and later combat experiences. This is a very good peek into the activities in our country "behind the scenes" of the grand theaters of war. It is also a rewarding affirmation of the quality and character of the nation's young men at that time. Good work, author Dickenson.

This book was the greatest book I've ever read, and I recommend it to everyone. Its about two cousins, Molly and Caleb. They consider themselves "double first cousins" because Mollys mom and Calebs dad were brother and sister, and Calebs mom and Molly's dad were brother and sister. They find they are attracted to each other, but know that their love can never be. The also are haunted by a ghoast named Evaline Bloodsworth, whoose story is similiar to their own.

I read this book and it was phenomenal. I loved it! The tradgedy of loving someone so much, yet knowing that it could never be. The story was great, but it was like two stories in one book. I loved it, along with another book by the Author, Summer endings

This book will give you the story of a little-known episode that occurred on September 11, 2001. Specifically, this book is told from the perspective of boat captains who rescued people from Manhattan Island after the attacks. Also, the stories of people who were evactuated are given. Surprisingly, this story has not been told in detail until this book. After reading it, you will realize that the men and women who commanded these boats deserve their place among the other heroes of that terrible day. Highly recommended!

I HATE READING BUT I SAW AN ARTICLE IN MY BOATING MAGIZINE ABOUT THIS BOOK SO I HAD TO GET. I READ THE WHOLE THING IN 2 DAYS. THIS IS FULL OF INFO THE NEWS STATIONS NEVER TOLD YOU ON THIS DAY WE WILL NEVER FORGET. THIS IS A MUST FOR ANYONE. NEVER FORGET 9/11