One of the very best area-specific wildflower books ever. Descriptions and photographs make identification easy. The guide to location includes best times to go, roads to travel and paths to follow.

CLEAR GLOSSY COLOR PHOTOS OF EACH FLOWER, THE SCIENTIFIC AND COMMON NAMES, HABITATS AND BLOOMING DATES MAKE YOUR COLUMBIA GORGE WILDFLOWER IDENTIFICATION A SNAP! THIS BOOK IS A MUST FOR THE LIBRARY OF THE GORGE HIKER, BOTANIST OR ANYONE WHO APPRECIATES THE SPECTACULAR BEAUTY AND DIVERSITY OF THIS NATURAL SCENIC AREA.

I bought this book in 1981 and it changed my life. No kidding. After I read it I moved to Florida, bought a 33 foot sailboat and spent the next 6 and a half years sailing around the world myself. My only regret was that I never met the author along the way although I met others who had. So if you are looking for a book that accurately describes the beauty, awfulness and sometimes frightening aspects of sailing a small boat around the world, this is the definitive book. First class.

I have read this book more than once. It the well told story of a young couple from the arctic who purchase a small wooden sailboat in England and sail it around the world on a five year voyage. They don't know much about sailing or traveling when they begin their journey. It is an, often times, humorous story about their experiences learning to travel under sail. It is full of wonderful stories about the people they meet and the sights they see along the way. Even non-sailors should love this story.

When this book first came out in 1987, it transformed the idea of "gardening" (previously in my mind the purview of elderly aunts and cranky bachelors) to something that I, myself, could play at -- "play" being a most important word when other responsibilities pressed fast and hard. Ann Lovejoy's light-hearted reporting on happenstance in her little (35 foot wide by 60 foot deep) lot stirred me to think that something beautiful could happen just outside my own front door. In this little book, organized helpfully (for maritime Pacific Northwest readers) by month, one chases the heady scent of the possible.

We have long since moved from our capacious lots in the Northwest to an unpromising tiny scrap of land in Zone 5 (if we're lucky) at about 5,000 feet (the altitude being something that can contribute to bad luck for gardeners). Surprisingly, I find myself turning again to this first book of Ann Lovejoy's, even though much of the specific data does not pertain. Here's what is so engaging. First, you will not find a more practical book about the vagaries of gardening on a postage stamp lot shared with cats, children, and the inevitable surprises of urban life. Second, some of the information translates beautifully across zones; see, for instance, her lovely idea about moonlight on white roses. Besides which, her homage to "Just Joey" pre-dated its award as favorite by many years. Finally, her enthusiasm infects the reader, sends her students out in search of their own tiny scrap of gardening paradise.

Here is a durable and informative guide to finding fulfillment on the tiniest plot, against what you thought were the odds of finding success in the garden.

A how-to book broken down month by month. Advice from a Seattle native on how to add color to your garden. The book is fun and takes you beyond the usual Northwest gardenscape. Did you know that the winter foliage of azaleas can be as spectacular as their Spring blooms?

Definitely worth the money. Very good paper back for seeing Yosemite

Yosemite National Park is full of interesting and amazing stops along the road. With the help of roadside markers, this book opens a wealth of information reguarding the geology, history and nature of Yosemite. Any person who goes through Yosemite with out this book, will leave Yosemite with only a small portion of the amazement that Yosemite gives.

The book follows the development of psychological warfare, at first with a little history and then getting into details about its use against the Japanese. The author points out that the use of propaganda was not very effective till the Japanese started to lose and till the Allies learned what did and did not work. Getting to know the enemy and finding his weak points is as important as selecting the right words to use and finding out if it's working. Truth is VERY important as you want the reader to trust you as a source of REAL information, information he/she can see as observable facts or can be checked on later.
The author breaks down the basics of GOOD psywar operations with a number of general conclusions near the end. A must for anybody interested in military history or the Pacific Theater during World War Two.

As a former US Psychological Operations (PSYOP) specialist, I found Allison Gilmore's study of the US PSYWAR efforts against the Imperial Japanese Army during the Pacific War not only historically interesting but also invaluable. Psychological Operations is often misunderstood as "mind-control" and evoke a dark image of disseminating lies through Tokyo Rose and Bagdad Betty. Although such kinds of "grey" or "black" PSYOP is practiced, it represents a small aspect of PSYOP. Especially in the US PSYOP, truth is held to be the most important weapon in persuading and convincing enemies to give-up resistence. A prime example is the Gulf War, in which the US PSYOP campaign was credited with contributing to the massive surrender of the Iraqi troops: US PSYOPers provided essential news and battle situations information to convince the Iraqi's of their inevitable defeat. Gilmore describes the evolution of Allied PSYOP efforts from the beginning to the end. Contrary to the widely-held view during the war in the US that the Japanese soldiers were impervious to any kind of persuation to give-up their fight because of their dedication to their Emporer, superiors, and their nation, Gilmore delineates, step-by-step, how the Allied PSYOPers analysed impact of battle conditions on the average Japanese soldiers, sorted-out psychological "weaknesses," and formulated proper messages to exploit those weaknesses and evetually defeat the Japanese "psychologically." In a sense, this book provides "how-to" knowledge and dispels myths surrounding PSYOP. As the saying goes, "honesty is the best policy," in PSYOP, verifiable truths, rather than lies, will win-over your enemies. Anyone interested in learning more about PSYOP or Pacific War, "You Can't Fight Tanks with Bayonets" should be an essential part of their reading.

At age 23, Bob Stahl volunteered to become a radio operator and cryptographer for the largely forgotten and often overlooked Allied Intelligence Bureau (AIB). In You're No Good to Me Dead: Behind Japanese Lines in the Philippines, Stahl uses the southeastern portion of the Philippine Islands from 1943 to 1945 as the lense through which he viewed the world as an agent gathering intelligence information in helping pave the way for the Allied victory over Japan. Inserted miles behind enemy lines, Stahl and his fellow AIB agents from the 978th Signal Service Company, First Reconnaissance Battalion, established intelligence networks via a series of radio stations deep in the Philippine jungle. Here they conducted coastwatching, weather reporting, and air warning operations for the Allies, in addition to establishing contact with and, often times, operating as part of the organized guerrilla effort fighting the Japanese. You're No Good to Me Dead is a riveting account of a young battlefield commissioned lieutenant working autonomously as a clandestine agent. Stahl's memoir brings us from the days of hanging out at ice-cream parlors in the Anthracite country of central Pennsylvania to the difficult lifestyle struggling to survive in the crude camps and disease-infested jungles on the island of Samar and the Bondoc Peninsula on the southeastern portion of Luzon. Portraying his odyssey, Stahl shares his riveting, informative and often humorous story detailing his personal battles to keep station S3L "on the air" every day for fifteen straight months. Often times in short supply of batteries, arms, and food, Stahl accomplished unseemingly difficult missions, moving frequently to avoid Japanese patrols in order to make good on MacArthur's earlier admonition to be careful, because "you're no good to me dead." Having completed two years of research in writing a book title Surviving Bataan and Beyond, I have had the pleasure in reading a number of first-hand accounts on the struggles in the Philippines during the Second World War. I can honestly say that none, even remotely, measure in terms of substance, originality and readability to Bob Stahl's You're No Good to Me Dead. With this book Stahl has filled a void in the narrative history of the Philippine campaign. It is a significant contribution and more importantly, it is extremely enjoyable to read. I strongly recommend it.

At age 23, Bob Stahl volunteered to become a radio operator and cryptographer for the largely forgotten and often overlooked Allied Intelligence Bureau (AIB). In You're No Good to Me Dead: Behind Japanese Lines in the Philippines, Stahl uses the southeastern portion of the Philippine Islands from 1943 to 1945 as the lens through which he viewed his world as an agent, gathering intelligence information to help pave the way for the Allied victory over Japan. Inserted miles behind enemy lines, Stahl and his fellow AIB agents from the 978th Signal Service Company, First Reconnaissance Battalion, Philippine Region, a counterpart of the more commonly known, Office of Strategic Services (OSS), established intelligence networks via a series of radio stations deep in the Philippine jungle. Here they conducted coastwatching, weather reporting, and air warning operations for the Allies, in addition to establishing contact with and, often times, operating as part of, the organized guerrilla effo

I purchased this book for my mother in North Carolina and was quite surprised to find that it contained information for the Pacific Northwest Region. Oops.

This book is a must have for hiking Washingtonians. To start with the way the contents is set up you can quickly locate the area you want to hike. For each hike there is the distance, time, elevation, elevation gain, season when to hike, kind of hike and map number listed on the first page. Plus each hike has a simple map. There are a lot of day hikes, the kind I like to do in here, just a few 8 hour or more. This book along with "Don't Waste Your Time in the North Cascades" are essential for the weekend hiker in Washington.

This book features an excellent range of hikes: from challenging longer hikes to short hikes suitable for families with kids, well known hikes and little known gems. The author has done a great job selecting hikes that explore the mountains and high desert of Easter Oregon, and his written descriptions are precise and descriptive. Sullivan's maps and photos add a lot to the book. A great book for hikers in Central or Eastern Oregon -- or those of you visiting.

This book is not for the serious researcher, but is tremendously interesting for those curious about the sometimes zany history of California's place names. Most entries include an interesting tangle of history and culture and the usual mispronunciation of Native American names by early white settlers. Its a fun book that would make a great stocking stuffer and should brought along on any California road trip. Two thumbs on this one.