Can't recommend more highly. This is fascinating history which is well-written and meticulously researched.

Dr. Daniel Schafer, the preeminent scholar of the Kingsley's of Northeast Florida, has written a riveting book exploring Anna, the African Princess turned Slave turned Plantation Owner. Anna is without a doubt one of the most interesting people of Florida's history. She has long been overlooked by historians, but now her story is told. Anna's story sounds like a movie script. Schafer has filled in one of the important blanks of Florida's history.

There's nothing like a guide that gives you interesting info that other guides don't: helpful restaurant reviews and guides to ethnic (and non-ethnic) neighborhoods, parking info, funny comments about our favorite city and its mayor, and general how-to-survive-in-Providence tidbits. Especially good for prospective Brown students. The bible for Brown students regarding restaurants, transportation, and everything else. If you are going to Providence for anything (to live, to visit) buy this book. It;s fun just to read, too... a great way to procrastinate.

This guidebook provides great restaurant reviews and hordes of information about the city. It may lack information about surrounding New England but for the short or long trip to Providence, this book will serve all of your needs. For the person interested in Brown University, this is ideal, providing info about student activities. With Providence coming out of its shell and this the only guidebook I could find, I highly recommend it.

An advertisement for Troubled Titan Peas hits us with the lines,"How Much Time Do You Have? YOU NEVER KNOW! In these TROUBLED TIMES, when it could be 'here today, gone tomorrow,' you need WHOLESOME food that you can 'heat 'n eat'! You need QUALITY...IN A JIFF!..." And then advertises bomb shelters. Nevertheless, the peas in this book are a gateway to a pubescent sexual fantasy come true. Kraft takes on all of the best parts of growing up in Babbington, NY (or any part of America in the late 50's) with this novel. It's smart, humorous, and as engaging a book as I've ever read.

Jump into the world of Peter Leroy. Kraft uses Peter Leroy to meditate beautifully on memory, imagination, longing, and loss while he spins a quirky and poignant tale which makes you wish you could remember every word, you wish you could create like Kraft, you long to spend more time with Peter and his friends, and mourn the loss of their company when the book ends. Read this book because you'll want to find out what the Glynns have Peter do with the peas.

I read the history background like a novel. The cultural information such as the drama, the dances, the religion, the art etc. is great. The photos are great too. I am back from Bali and I just take this book with me.

Insight Guide Bali is an exceptional travel guide. The history is well written and rich with interesting facts. I reads like a good novel. The maps are deteiled with plenty of cross references. There are plenty of travel tips from riding a bus to how to order food without MSGS. It appears that every possible travel issue has been addressed; from how not to get arrested to finding the swank resorts. The book is worth the price just for the exquisite pictures. I have never seen a travel book with photos as exceptional as these. Usually I purchase a couple of guide books before going to a new location, but this time I will only use the Insight Guide Bali.

When I first got the book in 1999, I read it cover to cover immediately, and learned much about the various beach finds I have been curious about for many years. It answered many of my basic questions and I still use it as a reference. Interesting and valuable information.

Althought the cover looks simplistic, it belies an excellent book for those interested in coastal and estuarine life forms and habitats in the Northeast US. Much more scientific than I expected. A great reference book!

In Tom House's The Beginning of Calamities, hero 11 year old Danny Burke bears the laughter of classmates at his humiliation in a Passion play he has written, and he bares all in his naked drive to be himself. I disagree with the Publishers Weekly review, to say that the book builds to a satisfying climax. It is a real page turner. I also do not agree with that review in its claim that the writing about the classroom rehearsals are repititious. House deftly gets us through the agony of those rehearsals, holding this reader's interest. We want to know if Danny will get to play Jesus, and will the play ever make it to the stage. Danny is a believable and lovable character. His mother is also especially sympathetic, harried, disappointed by older sons, wanting her life, incredulous at her son's religious devotion although nominally Catholic herself. There is also the humor, including Danny's imaginery friend Arram, who leads Danny on into the naked daring of his life.

The Beginning Of Calamities by Tom House is a "reader riveting" novel about Danny Burke, a shy, eleven-year-old, fifth grade Catholic school student, whose awkwardness, difficulty fitting in, genetic predisposition toward homosexuality contribute to his many difficulties growing up. Danny writes a play from the gospels called "The Passion of Christ," yet his involvement in seeing the drama through one disaster after another leads to a surprising climax. An engagingly wry and knowing tale, The Beginning Of Calamities is literate and recommended reading.

This book is not a novel. It is a detailed description of almost all aspects of the Ora (the Komodo inhabitant's name for the Komodo monitor), not permitting the some anatomical details of the monitor. As the title implies, the Ora's behavior is magnified greatly. The book is a leading authority on the behavioral aspects of the book. Morphology, grow analysis, predator-prey coactions, and ecology information is also included and is very complete and well recorded (as is everything in the book). This is a must have for any person interested in this lizard, but is serious reading.

Perhaps biased by a fascination for really large lizards, I was enthralled by this book. Walter Auffenberg, wife, kids, and various others spent almost a year on Komodo Island in 1970 doing the first comprehensive study of Komodo Dragons. The depth is awesome, everything from detailed morphology to studies of prey species to inventories of flora. Mixed in with the tables and charts are wonderful accounts of sharing a photo blind with an 8-foot lizard looking for shade, and how to measure a Dragon's maximum speed (chase him with a motorcycle). Sixty dollars and well worth it

I think this book is definetly a good research piece. I am the 2nd generation of Cape Verdeans living here in the U.S. Unfortunetly my parents did not speak the language to us. The author made herself very knowledgable regarding our culture, struggles and thoughts through generations. My father told us how my grandfather worked on a whaling ship going back and forth from Cape Verde to the U.S. til he bought property on Cape Cod, which I continue to tell my children and nieces and nephews and they are also proud of that. The author mentions interviewing some Cape Verdeans on the Cape where some of them have last names of relatives of mine....what great lengths this author has gone with this research to get accurate data, I am very impressed. I now say I am African-American rather than the black Portuguese which I was taught from my Grandmother, however since I am fair complexed I do tell people that I am Cape Verdean American when asked what am I...complextion was another issue brought up in this book which we are very familiar with. GREAT JOB!!! I was very please to read about my culture...One day I hope I do get to visit the Cape Verde Islands.

I have read just about every piece on this subject. This bookis definitely the best researched piece to date. It refers to peopleplaces and things that I am quite familiar with. I am Third GenerationCape Verdean living here in the U.S. I have traveled to the Cape Verde Islands and I speak the language fluently. Ms. Halter... captured the very essence of this culture by detailing specific facts such as: differences in Island to Island,language accents, living conditions,resources,cultural celebrations,etc. I am quite familiar with many of the characters in her book and her research references. She speaks of the history and culture just as I have heard about it from my grandmother and grandfather. I have read other writings that I feel do not compare, simply because they are not as clear and complete as Ms. Halter's book. Her book covers the many facets of this very complex nationality in a way that is more simple to understand than any other book on this subject that I have read. This is highly important to someone who not in the least educated in this culture. I have shared my knowledge of this subject to hundreds of people along my path... END

I recently had the honor of meeting Ricky at a conference on ocean science at the Scripps Instituion of Oceangraphy where I work as a writer and where Grigg was a grad student. Ricky is a true hero; rare these days, and I believe one of the last of the genuine Great Watermen of the '60s. If I could climb inside a book and live there, this might just be it!

It's not just that Ricky Griggs (aka Richard Griggs) is a world-renowned expert in the geography, formation, and function of coral reefs. It's that he happens also to be a nearly life-long surfer, and this book is a perfect example of bringing passion to one's practice of geography (and consensual relations; the title is an exquisite double-entendre). There are some wild turns.

It's a beautiful book, and one also consumately energetic. The color plates show someone who has lived in Hawai'i through the modern evolutions of surfing. That he did it as a famed scholar is all the more amazing. This is a better book that Kary Mullis's autobiographical tome (*Dancing Naked in the Mind Field*) -- and were I asked, as a betting man, to wager on who's the better surfer, I'd settle on the esteemed Prof. Griggs in the proverbial New York minute. A majorly fine read.

Even though this is a postcard book, you won't want to part with the postcards, and keep it as a memento and a reminder at Block Island's incredible beauty, serenity, and uniqueness.

...So when it's January...and I'm sitting at O'Hare Airport...and it's snowing like crazy...and flights are iffy...I can at least PRETEND that it's a balmy August afternoon in "Bermuda-of-the-North." Malcom Greenaway's photos are stunning.