This is the best guidebook I've ever used. I've taken three trips to California - one to San Francisco, one to San Diego, and one driving the coast from LA to Seattle. Each time, I've used this book constantly. I've gotten some great bargains with his inexpensive hotel recommendations, his suggested itineraries are great guidelines, his maps are excellent. I wouldn't travel anywhere without one of the Fodor guidebooks.

It's a unique book with lot of illustrations and maps.

I was most interested in cabins for family trips in Northern California. This book has exactly what I was looking for. We've used its recommendations the last two summers and were very pleased. Tom Stienstra has easy-to-read descriptions of cabins and campsites, along with the important details. My only complaint is that the book is now three years old, and doesn't include websites. I'd like to see a new edition. But I still use the book and recommend it highly.

I bought this book hoping that it would give me a few suggestions for campsites in Marin County, since I have recently moved here. Within minutes I had found three campsites that I will be enjoying this summer and will easily find thanks to clear and concise directions. Tom Stienstra has an easy writing style to read and gives all the pertinent information to his readers about the sites he discusses. It is obvious that he loves the outdoors and wishes to not only spread this love, but his knowledge of great "easy" camping in Northern California and the beauty within this area that anyone can enjoy.

As one who was first shown the Northern Lights, alerted to a bull elk's bugle and introduced to Blue Flax (Linum lewisii) by Frank Craighead, one who was favored with the chance to rent a cabin from him facing the Tetons and enjoy many hours of conversation and dinners with him and his family, I feel qualified to say that this rare book, FOR EVERYTHING THERE IS A SEASON, is a portrait of the man as well as the biologist---there is nothing detached or dry in Frank's telling, but a thinly veiled almost poetic passion for the natural world he so intimately knows---and wants others to know as he does. For if you can love nature, you will want to save it; And I see that as one of Frank's primary goals. Yet he is generous, not hoarding, in his knowledge of secret sites where exciting biota interact: He could easily withold where and at what exact time of year one finds morel mushrooms or certain unusual flowers, but he doesn't. He trusts the reader enough to not harm what he discovers through Frank's book. A valuable, valuable read and resource. There could not be any better for that region.

For anyone who's in love with the land of the Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons, Craighead's book is required reading. What a joy to follow the changes of the seasons and the cycle of birth and migration of the area's animals with this knowledgeable man as a guide! Craighead focuses on weekly changes in climate and life, and each week is brimming with details of flora and fauna. I am constantly learning about my home, but this book isn't just for Jackson Hole dwellers - there are vivid photos on every page and extensive appendices for birders and amateur ecologists, as well as mammoth additional reading lists and a detailed index. Thanks, Frank.

A review of this book has been published in the following journal:

Houle, A. (1999). Book-Review: Foraging for survival: Yearling baboons in Africa. Behavioural Processes. (in press)

This is a story of how eleven juvenile baboons feed themselves. The setting: Amboseli National Park, Kenya. This is, however, much more than a simple story. Throughout, Altmann engages the reader with his elegant analysis - rich with ecological detail - of the costs and benefits primates must negotiate in their daily pursuit of requisite nutrients and energy. Baboons are exemplary eclectic omnivores; still, as Altmann quotes, "there is no such thing as a free lunch." Bearing this in mind, he sets out to evaluate the balancing act baboons must achieve in maximizing nutrient intake, while at the same time minimizing toxic accumulation of plant secondary metabolites.

At the outset, Altmann describes what the baboons ate, how they ate it, and what foods they avoided altogether during the study period (1975-1976). He then identifies what baboons should eat. A foraging strategy is an ultimate endpoint, achieved via an array of potential tactical routes. Altmann evaluates both the feeding tactics and the eclectic foraging strategy of his young baboons by identifying the degree to which they deviate from an optimum model of adaptive feeding traits. The baboons' actual dietary intake is compared to the specifications of adequate and optimal diets; this is done for both an average yearling's diet, as well as on individual variance from the predicted diets.

Deviations from the optimum are viewed as indicators of potential differences in reproductive fitness. Although the feeding data stem from research undertaken in the mid-1970s, Altmann takes advantage of the two succeeding decades to relate differences in juvenile diets to longevity and fitness outcomes later in life. This historical depth is particularly valuable because it tests the model by evaluating whether those baboons that come closer to the optimum as juveniles have higher fitness as adults.

Altmann expands on the extreme selectivity exhibited by baboons, providing details on the toxic load, protein, carbohydrate, water content, and load of various plant species and the manner in which baboons maximize (or minimize) their intake of these food components. Finally, he assesses the anatomical and behavioral attributes that may contribute to making baboons one of the most successful and broadly distributed primate species. To complement the main body of the text, Altmann includes a series of appendices and tables in which he evaluates various methodological and definitional issues relating to calculating feeding bouts and dietary intake. Here, he presents additional detail on diet composition and the nutritional and toxic attributes of plant foods.

The work's emphasis on juvenile feeding behavior is an unusual yet valuable feature. This developmental stage is often overlooked in studies of non-human primate behavior and ecology, despite the fact that this period, and the transition from a milk diet to an adult diet, are undoubtedly critical to our understanding of adult fitness and life history patterns.

However, some caution is warranted: This book was not intended for the casual student of animal feeding behavior, nor for those new to optimal foraging theory. Altmann's models, food intake calculations, and feeding bout formulae are exacting, and quite abstracted from the experience of observing feeding behavior. Before embarking into this volume, non-modelers will have to review the technical terminology that necessarily accompanies Optimization Theory. In addition, I do not view the generalizations (outlined in Chapter Two) based on the relationships among body size, patch size, and dietary selectivity to be particularly illuminating. Too many exceptions to his proposed relationships can be found for such generalizations to be of much explanatory utility.

Nonetheless, this book is destined to become a classic in primate feeding behavior. It is exhaustive in its breadth, a pleasure to read, and sets the standard for amalgamation of modeling theory and ecological observation.

Allison Taylor hit a homerun with her brilliant epic, "The Future of Willow Springs Park." This is a must read for any small child. Taylor is an up and coming children's author with fresh and innovative ideas that will stimulate your child's mind. Hurry up and order this book now while it still lasts and jump on the Allison Taylor train, because it's about to leave the station! Hats off to Ms. Taylor for a fine piece of literary genius.

Allison Taylor is a brilliant author. Her inventive language and vivid imagery make this a must read. Once you start you can't stop. The ending is creative but I'm not going to tell you. You will just have to read it for yourself. Go out and get it today. People are ripping them off the shelves; get it while you still can.

Huber has done a terrific job! Don't go to Yosemite without acquiring this book first. Short, clear, and without a peer as a pocket guide for the layman and rusty professional. Use this book for Yosemite and also get James Moore's wonderful book "Exploring the Highest Sierra" (Kings Canyon and Sequioa parks)for a greatly enriched tour of the Sierra Nevada.

This is a great book for anyone who climbs or backpacks in Yosemite or the high Sierra. If you've ever looked at the knobs on Cathedral Peak, the dikes at Lover's Leap, the domes around Tuolumne, or the cirques and jagged peaks in the high Sierra and wondered what caused them to form, read this book. It gives a great background on the geology of the Sierra, specifically focusing on Yosemite. It is accessible to someone without a background in geology without being dumbed down.

This is a great book on the geology of the Denali National Park area and highly recommended. It is available and still in print; if you'd like a copy contact the Alaska Natural History Association to purchase one. The Denali branch would be the most expedient.

The geology of the Denali area is a fascinating mix where uplift from plate techtonics meet sharp glacially cut peaks. Mike Collier's book is the only one available for this area; and no, it is not out of print!

In this first volume of "Glaciers Secrets", George Ostrum delights readers with humor, excellent photography, and some very intriguing insight into one of the most beautiful places in the world; Glacier National Park- which he has hiked and explored his entire life. One becomes aware upon reading this book, that there is an emotional connection between the author and his special place. It produces some fun reading, and the adventurous will be prompted to explore the trails of the "Crown of the Continent" for themselves.

This book is thoroughly enjoyable from the first page. Local hero George Ostrom and his trailblazing geezer friends "the Over-the-hill gang", hike to incredibly beautiful places that most of us will never see.

This book was given to me as a gift by a dear friend who knew I had a deep interest in the communities of Gravesend and Coney Island being that I was born in Gravesend. The book is a paperback time machine. It starts at the humble beginnigs of the farming village of Gravesend in the 1600's and its founder Lady Moody and goes on to tell of the history of Coney Island, its land owners and people. This is not boring history lesson but an amazing recount of the highs and lows of the era. What's described within its pages can't fully be expressed within the small confines of this space. Its is a part of Americana as much as the Battle of Bunker Hill is. I whole-heartedly recommend this book to anyone who is curious how evil and how spirit lifting one place could be.

I think Tony the Tiger put it best "It's Great! "

If you've seen the Robert Altman film, "Gosford Park," and especially if you're sure you missed something critical but aren't sure just what it was, this is the book for you. Julian Fellowes' brilliant screenplay not only brings into the foreground all the dialogue and physical action that flowed through the film in typical Altman fashion, but it is accompanied by highly illuminating notes and photos identifying all the players and where they fit in the story. I bought it to use as an aid to my second viewing of the film, at home on DVD, but I found it so fascinating and well written that I read it long before the film was released on video. All screenplays should be this good.

This script is mesmerizing. The subtleties of the dialogue clearly define the constitution of the characters. It makes the film more enjoyable. I now understand more clearly what the actions on the screen represented and what many of the motivations were. So much went into this story that when you think about it, this was an incredible piece of filmmaking.