This book is like a nice walk with a good friend who has a talent for telling great stories. You go along for the pleasantness of the walk, and find yourself transported right into the middle of the story. Here you are, some forty feet above the current level of the sea, standing on a shelf of land that contains the perfectly preserved remains of a coral reef. In another area, some 260 feet above sea level you come across a fossilized seabed jammed with the shells of thousands of oysters. Ancient shark teeth litter the ground on top of a 130-foot high mesa. Your friend walks on a few yards and, with infectious enthusiasm, reads the next chapter of the story to you.

Six hikes around the Punta Chivato area on Baja's Gulf coast introduce you to the fascinating story of Baja's geologic history. If you love Baja, love geology, or just love a nice hike, you'll LOVE this book!

This very attractively produced book serves as a terrific guide to the wines of Washington. I'm pretty much of an ignoramus when it comes to wines in general so I learned a great deal from this book and appreciated the non-exclusive tone of the writing, but feel sure there is ample depth here for the winoscenti. In addition to learning my Syrah from my Viognier I enjoyed the section on the history of the wine industry in the area and especially on the production and elements of winemaking.

My favorite segment of the book may be the extensive appendix full of all kinds of great material in addition to the useful glossary and list of resources and directory of Washington wineries. The appendix includes indispensable advice on pairing wines with food, tips on selecting wineglasses, and how to remove corks from champagne and sparkling wine bottles.

Now I'm waiting eagerly in hopes the author will start work on "Discovering Washington Beers."

Hi,

I would say that this book is a must for anyone who wants to envision the early entry by non-Native Americans into the "Yo-Semite". One definitely gets a "You Are There" experience by reading this book and gains an understanding of the conflicts that brought Bunnell and his group to the area. ....

I love to read Insight Guides before I take a trip, and the Alaskan Wilderness guide is the perfect refrence book to sort out all the places and activities that you want to do before arriving in Alaska. Although I like to supplement the Insight Guide with other guidebooks for additional local information, I think that the Insight Guide is the best for an overview of natural history, expert advice, geographical information, enchanting photographs, and excellent travel tips. When I picked up Alaskan Wilderness, it met my expectations of other Insight Guides. If you want to know more about Alaska before you take off - I highly recommend this book!

This is such a stupendous laboratory manual, it could almost substitute as a text for the course. Nybakken verbally walks students though the dissections and gives thorough coverage to both external and internal anatomy. For each phylum or group of phyla there are large, clear diagrams of dissections for a huge variety of animals local to the California coast. (There are diagrams for 14 different organisms in the Gastropod section alone, and cover almost all of the animals students could possibly see in lab.) The text also includes taxonomic information and discussions on animal diversity including habitat, external morphology, feeding, behavior, etc. Plus, it is well written, well organized and easy to read!

I purchased this book as part of my preparation for a diving trip to Chuuk Lagoon. It contains many excellent colour photographs of wrecks, coral, artifacts and local inhabitants. I found the brief history that accompanies each of the wrecks featured especially interesting. Likewise the diagrams of some of the wrecks, along with their various inclinations on the lagoon floor is fascinating.

Invaluable for such a trip are the scale maps of the lagoon and islands which pinpoint the location of the wrecks and other major features/landmarks. Further, the book grades each of the featured sites using the Pisces Rating System for Dives & Divers and the Dive Site Icons, both of which I found gave an excellent feel for the dive.

Finally, the overview of the area given in the first few chapters is a nice touch. It contains a brief history of the area, information for travelling to Chuuk, items to bring, weather, food, shopping etc.

In this book, author Tim Rock, has improved greatly his previous work on Truk Lagoon in 1994. I thoroughly recommend this book to anyone planning a trip to Chuuk, or, who simply wants to read about The Most Spectacular Wreck Diving in the World (In my opinion).

We took Tim's advice to heart, and spent a great month in Bali. We toured the island anti-clockwise and dove and photographed all the sites Tim highlighted. We dove with the operators he suggested, as well as some others, and found that his suggestions were always always best.

Truk offers about the best u/w photography in the world, and this book gave me an idea of what to expect, and how to get ready. And was a great help in identifying some of my shots when i got back. Can't wait to go back. More wrecks are discovered every day there i hear, so i hope the author writes an updated version soon.

Once again we have an excellent combination of Author and Publisher who have collaborated to provide an invaluable guide book for any diver contemplating a trip to Hawaii. "Diving Hawaii" is another Scuba Diving guide book in the medium size format favoured by Aqua Quest. These publishers have a reputation for high standards - in terms of quality of information and standard of photography, and it is easy to see why.

"Diving Hawaii" is clearly laid out with chapters on; An introduction to the Hawaiian Islands, Diving in general, the specific dive sites of Oahu, Maui, Hawaii and Kauai and local Marine Life. The book concludes with some very useful Appendixes containing; Emergency information, details of local Scuba Diving centres, miscellaneous useful numbers for visitors and some brief notes on another 20 dive sites.

Chapter One begins with an all-important historical précis of Hawaii. This gives the visitor a brief insight into the country's first Polynesian settlers, the way in which the country was then ruled by it's own system of chiefs for something like 1,000 years, the islands' discovery by Captain Cook, the importance of sugar plantations, the time when Hawaii became a US territory and, eventually (in 1959) the 50th State. All of which is followed by equally important notes on present day Hawaii and all the essential information the visitor needs to know.

Chapter 2 is an overview of Diving in general with notes on; boat, shore and night diving as well as conservation. There is also a very important and well written description of the unusual underwater lava tubes and cave formations created by the flow of volcanic lava into the sea. These are probably very different from any other form of Cave Diving found anywhere else in the world and Page 21 is rightly devoted to a full-page warning of the dangers involved here.

We now come to those Chapters individually dedicated to each of the four main islands in the Hawaiian group and these take in any smaller adjacent islands as well. Once again, we are treated to an introduction to the island itself before getting down to diving specifics. This commences with a map of the island(s) showing the primary dive sites as numbers - each of which is then described in more than adequate detail and headed by the relevant depth, experience level required and access.

Altogether a well-rounded book containing all the information required by anyone considering a diving trip to Hawaii.

According to the Author's biography on the back page, Steve Rosenberg specialises in underwater photography. As a fellow professional "Underwater Photographer & Author," I congratulate him on some truly outstanding pictures.

NM

I don't know that I've ever read a better dive book or travel guide. The author covers every minute detail, and somehow, it still reads well--a fascinating and well-treated subject. David Leonard shows great wit and a solid knowledge of his subject.

The photographs are amazing, too.