I received a copy of this book as a gift and enjoyed it very much. The book has many views of the mountain scenery that are not in other books. The author obviously spent time hiking the trails to find good scenes. Picture quality is generally excellent. People who want to get a taste of the varied scenery will enjoy it.

"The Forts of Old San Juan" is the official National Park Handbook for touring Castillo de San Felipe del Morro and Castillo de San Cristobal in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The former, known as El Morro, was designed by Juan Batista Antonelli and built by 18th-century engineers. The fort covers over 5 acres and had the primary responsibility for defending the harbor of San Juan, doing so with batteries of cannon on four different levels. The latter, San Cristobal, is the largest of the San Juan forts, covering 27 acres, and protected the city's landward approaches. I wish I had this booklet when I visited the forts a couple of years ago because while visitors had a sense that these were an imposing pair of defensive positions, you get a more sophisticated understanding from reading it.

This booklet is divided in three parts: Part 1, Old Forts in a Modern World establishes the key idea that in fortifying San Juan the Spanish military engineers made maximum use of the city's natural defensive features and erected fortifications that controlled both land and sea approaches. Part 2, Gateway to the Indies provides the history of Puerto Rico and the importance of San Juan as a strategic seaport. This is where you will find a look at La Fortaleza, the first fort built to protect the harbor and city of San Juan. Small by European standards, its main purpose was to repel attacks by the Island-Carib Indians and not the Dutch (who destroyed the fort in 1625). However, it does give you a basis for comparison to the other forts. This chapter also looks at Sir Francis Drake's attack in 1595 and the Earl of Cumberland's attack in 1598 (a diagram explains how a siege worked circa 1700). Part 3, A "Defense of the First Order" explains how Puerto Rico's strategic significance compelled King Philip IV to repair and strengthen the fortifications to the massive edifices we can still see today. In 1797 the prolonged attack by General Ralph Abercromby and Admiral Sir Henry Harvey failed. However, the city fared less well when an American naval squadron commanded by Admiral William T. Sampson, including the U.S.S. Iowa, bombarded the forts.

Even though it has been a couple of years since I visited, the text is clear enough and the illustrations have enough details that it all readily came back to me. The handbook is illustrated with contemporary photographs, maps, and diagrams of the forts, along with a few historical paintings and illustrations. So if you are visiting San Juan and decide to visit the Forts of Old San Juan, pick up this handbook so you can not only understand the various architectural structures you will be seeing but also the history of the forts and the practical utility of the forts in defending the harbor and town of San Juan. If you have visited other National Parks and picked up other handbooks then you already know these are high quality efforts.

While I have all four of these books in Paperback and therefore have had no need to buy this book I have looked through this book and I think buying this one is a MUCH better idea than buying them seperately. This book includes pictures, Drawings by Al Hirschfield, Cut-Lyrics and more. All four of the shows are purely genius and provide you with laughter while provoking thoughts. This is a must for all Sondheim fans and musical fans and anyone interested in 4 great shows: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Sunday in the Park With George,Sweeny Todd, and A Little Night Music.

"Neo-Confucianism" is a term that refers to a broad range of thinkers and intellectual movements that developed in the "middle ages" in China, and then spread to Korea and Japan. Neo-Confucians sought to explicate, propogate, and defend the Confucian tradition against Buddhism and Taoism, which they saw as decadent. However, many people (including myself) think that Neo-Confucianism is itself heavily influenced by Buddhist metaphysical concepts (especially Zen Buddhist ideas). Nonetheless, Neo-Confucianism is a very interesting philosophical movement in its own right.

As this book's title indicates, the "four-seven debate" is the most famous controversy in Korean Neo-Confucianism. The topic initially seems pretty dry. The issue is how to reconcile the list of FOUR emotional reactions that the ancient Confucian Mencius identifies as the basis for human virtue (e.g., sympathy is the basis for benevolence, disdain is the basis for righteousness, etc.) with the list of SEVEN emotions that appears in texts such as the Mean. Now, before you say "Who cares?" and click on another link, let me give you an interpretation of what this is really about.

Neo-Confucians think that everything in existence is composed of LI ("principle"), an underlying metaphysical structure shared by all things, and CH'I, which is variously translated, but refers to an intrinsically unstructured "stuff." "Principle" cannot exist without CH'I to inhere in, but CH'I cannot exist without "principle" to structure it. So far so good. But in both Chinese and Korean Confucianism a question arises about how principle and CH'I are related. People in one tradition (that associated with the philosopher Chu Hsi, see Daniel Gardner's translation, Learning to Be a Sage) hold that the principle can be conceptually abstracted from its embodiment in CH'I, and that doing so makes it easier for us to be guided by principle. However, those in the other wing of Neo-Confucianism (that associated with the philosopher Wang Yang-ming, see Philip J. Ivahoe's Ethics in the Confucian Tradition) hold that it is a distortion to separate principle and CH'I even conceptually.

The importance of this debate is that the Chu Hsi wing thinks you can read the classic texts to learn the abstractions of principle, and thereby cultivate yourself ethically. The Wang Yang-ming wing insists that all right action is inherently context sensitive, so you have to rely more on your innate moral sense than classic texts.

Scholars will note that I have oversimplified a bit, but I hope I've brought out some of the reason that this book is interesting. I should also note that the translation seems very good, and that the parties to the debater wrote very clearly about this issue, so if you're willing to think carefully about philosophical issues you can follow the debate.

Cynthia Zaitzevsky leaves nothing out of this heavily-illustrated explanation of how and why Boston's Emerald Necklace parks were constructed. In addition to the history, she includes draft plans, planting lists, and a full survey of all the architecture and bridges orginal to the park system. After reading of all these accomplishments, you will want to visit the parks to see what remains today.

This beautifully photographed book celebrates the abilities of kids with disabilities. Like most other kids, they like to throw balls, play follow the leader and swing as high as they can. The color photographs accurately show wheelchairs, leg braces and most of all, the faces of kids having fun. As the aunt of a child with cerebral palsy, I am constantly searching for books for my nephew depicting other kids with physical challenges. Parents, early childhood educators, and special education professionals should search out this excellent book.

it teaches me a lot how difficult it is to try to live along with a back ward society. And how hard it is to establish a natural/park in beurocratic & feudalistic society . I admire the author /nicole/ for his courage& consistency to reach his goal,teach people about the use and beuty of siemen mountain who had no idea to their share of distruction of forest & natural habitat.I learned a great deal about my country's natural beauty. I highly recommend the book for every Ethipian to read.

Yosemite is one of my favorite places. I fall in love with this majestic park on my first trip there, and try to spend at least several days every year hiking Yosemite trails. I also like Sequoia and Kings Canyon, which are great parks for hikers and backpackers. Since I am not new to these parks, I was curious how the judgement and advice of this book would agree with my own impressions. I was pleasantly surprised. In this book, Frommer's made an outstanding example of how good a pocket-size guide can be. It has only 170 pages on three parks, and yet all essentials are covered - how to get there, what to see, where to stay, it has maps of the parks and of the hiking trails, it has lists of the best views accessible from the road and ratings of hikes, it has information for backpackers (based on the personal experience of the author). In my opinion and experience, the ratings of trails are very accurate, and descriptions of hotels and restaurants are unusually unbiased. In fact, I could not find a single one which I would not agree with. All ratings/descriptions maintain positive attitude, but it is very easy to read between the lines, e.g., if the book says that a certain restaurants has "a simple but adequate menu" and does not give it a single star, it means that it is a crappy and overpriced snack bar, but it will help you to survive until you get to a better place; when it says that the place is excellent and gives it three stars, then it is really good. One can surely find more detailed books on day hikes or backpacking in Yosemite. However, no other travel guide gives so much practical information and good advice in a condensed form. If you are planning to visit Yosemite for a day or two and do not know where to start, I cannot think about a better book to recommend.

This guide proved to be an excellent resource during our recent trip to the Zion and Bryce Canyon National Parks. Highlights of this book include how comprehensive it was despite its relative brevity, the easy-to-read writing style, and its off-the-beaten-path recommendations.

The authors discussed all the subjects I was looking for in a travel book. They covered the usual "where to stay" and "where to eat" topics very well, including reviews of the campgrounds in the parks. We were very satisfied staying and eating at the places recommended by the authors.

A particular strength of the book was its overview of the numerous hiking trails of the two parks. The trails were organized by length, and the authors gave good recommendations about which trails to do. One hike that they recommended as a "find" was a beautiful, short stroll to an icy cave, but because of its location off the main park road, we were completely by ourselves. The authors even discussed some of the backcountry hiking, if you are inclined to strap on your pack and head off into the wilderness.

The chapter on the natural history of the parks was also excellent. There was a description of the geological events that formed the parks, the flora and fauna, and the diverse ecosystems. The geological discussion in particular was especially helpful for understanding how the layers of rock were laid down over millions of years.

The authors gave good sample itineraries for experiencing the park in a day or two. Recommendations on seeing the sunrise across the hoodoos of Bryce Canyon and on visiting some of the less traveled sections of Zion were very worthwhile.

Nice bonuses in the book included information for kids, RVers, and people with disabilities. The book also had information on practical things like where to get gas, buy supplies, do your laundry, etc. There is even a section on places to visit near the national parks such as some of the Utah state parks and nearby national monuments.

Overall, I would highly recommend this book to anyone heading to Zion and Bryce Canyon. It definitely enriched our experience and made planning a whole lot easier.

I really love this book. I'd been buying Michael Frome's National Park Guides for years (he used to publish for Rand McNally). I've been looking for his next edition for years and just recently found out that he retired shortly after publishing this issue. Good for him, but sad for his loyal readers. I'll hang onto the issue I have. The best audience is the car traveler who takes day hikes. There is a "Practical Guide" section for each National Park, that is very useful. It tells what is the best season, how long it takes to adequately see the park (from the road w. day hikes), nearby accommodations, and major sites.