5 comments about A Field Guide to Eastern Trees (Peterson Field Guides).

1. Great book, very short and to the point on the specific trees I was interested in researching.



2. This book begins with the basic explaination of how to identify and then follows through in a logical sequence. The Plates are clear and are a great aid in identifing.



3. Bought as a present for Fl. people. Great sections on Fl. trees and palms. Also what areas to find these trees



4. As you wander through the woods, don't you just wonder what kind of trees you are seeing? This book gives detail on determining types of trees by leaves, bark, etc. It is a small enough guide to carry with you when you are on a great adventure!



5. EASTERN TREES IS EXCELLENT
   
   GOOD CONTENT AND PROPER CONSTRUCTION
   
   YOU CAN ACTUALLY USE THIS AS FIELD GUIDE, AND IT
   
   WON'T FALL APART
   
   ITS MISLEADING WHEN YOU BUY BOOKS ALL FROM SAME SERIES
   
   PETERSON FIELD GUIDES, ALL THE SAME PUBLISHER, AND ALL ABOUT
   
   THE SAME PRICE.
   
   ONE IS CONSTRUCTED LIKE A FIELD GUIDE SHOULD BE AND THE OTHER TWO
   
   ARE OF POOR QUALITY

5 comments about American Map Road Atlas 2009 Standard (Road Atlas: United States, Canada, Mexico (Spiral)).

1. This is the second one of these maps I have purchased. They are very user friendly with the spiral binding. I am also pleased with the content and organization of the pages.



2. I ordered American Map Road Atlas 2009 Standard(as shown in the picture) but what I got is '2008' Edition!!! I spent $10.17 to buy this old 2008 Edition!! and it does not even look like new! Now, 2008 Edition can be purchased with only less 3~4 dollar! What is happening in Amazon these days. This is the second time in which I got wrong items from Amazon! I am so unhappy with this.



3. The spiral binding on this map made it really easy to use in the van to navigate our way all over New England.



4. I bought this map because I was finding that my 10 year old map was missing many newer, large roads. Throughout a cross-country trip, in 2009, I found many errors in this map. While in AR, I missed an entire new section of a state route that looked like it was completed years ago and lost about an hour drive time. I guess I was reading the map more than the unexpected road signs, but one buys new maps to be up to date and this one messed me up a little a few times. Other than the mistakes, the maps were clear and had details missing from most maps, like smaller roads.



5. This was purchased as a Christmas gift for my husband. He is totally delighted with it. He says it is the best atlas that he has ever owned and he is enjoying browsing in it now planning for good weather trips. Thank you for such a great product.

5 comments about Peterson Field Guide to Mammals of North America: Fourth Edition.

1. The wrong guide book was sent the first time. The second one was damaged but credit was given immediately. This dealer was not the best one I have dealt with on Amazon.



2. This is my second Perterson's Field Guide and I love them. So far I have found that these are the best field guides around. They are put together nicely, its easy to find what your looking for. They have drawings, actual photos and good write ups. Highly recommend any of the Peterson's guides.



3. My 12 yr old twins loved it. They are into tracking and all sorts of outdoor stuff and they have had this book in their hands almost every day since we bought it.



4. This Peterson Guide offers a very well-rounded selection of animals at a great price. You won't find a plate of every little-known vole species in existence, but you'll find more than you've likely ever heard of. An especially useful addition to this field guide is the extensive series of skull plates. No field guide on mammals is required to have a section dedicated to osteology, but this Peterson Guide goes above and beyond the call of duty in this respect.
   
   Inevitably, you'll find an animal here or there that is placed under a genus or species that has since been revised by the scientific community. Knowledge concerning mammalian taxonomy is simply increasing faster than revised editions can be printed, so this doesn't really represent a 'weakness' in the Peterson Guide.



5. I returned the Peterson Guide to Mammals and bought the Kaufmann Mammals Guide. The Peterson Guide is excellent and thorough, but the arrangement is not as easy to use as the Kaufmann Guide to Mammals. For my purpose as a quick reference guide in the field, my wife and I prefer the Kaufmann guide with its excellent photos and natural indexing.Kaufman Field Guide to Mammals of North America

5 comments about Alaska by Cruise Ship: The Complete Guide to Cruising Alaska with Giant Pull-out Map (6th Edition).

1. I was hoping for more ideas on things to do in port that were not already listed in ship excursions. Had good general info. Interesting facts about Alaskan culture.



2. This book does not provide any more information than could be found in brouchures at the ship's guest relations desk. It doesn't offer any interesting alternatives to shore excursions and fails to mentions the drawbacks of places listed. Here are two examples. First, Vipond says it is a must to take the White Pass & Yukon Route train in Skagway. Tickets cost over $100.00 per person. Vipond doesn't mention, however, that you can rent a car in Skagway for about $125.00 and drive almost the same route and have the chance to get out and take pictures. There is an Internet guide describing this route and you can download it for a price.
   
   Next, Vipond mentions Totem Bight State Park in Ketchikan and says there is a bus that takes you there for $2.00. That's true, but Vipod doesn't mention that between waiting for the bus to and from the park and time spent at the park itself, you will have spent 2 and 1/2 hours to see about 12 totem poles in 15 minutes. My kids would've rather have taken the duck tour in Ketchikan, which of course Vipond failed to mention.
   
   If it wasn't for the map and the historical and wildlife sections, I'd have given this book 1 star.



3. We found Alaska By Cruise Ship to be a great help on our cruise this summer. We bought two other guides and this one was by far the most helpful with good and useful information on attractions and shore excursions in each port. Hiking suggestions especially were great - trails to Mendenhall Glacier and Deer Mountain Trail were highlights for us. The background on wildlife and glaciers is very interesting and of course enhances the experience when you are actually seeing whales or otters up close. We have done quite a few cruises and I would highly recommend this book.



4. This book is great! The large pull out map is my favorite part. It shows all the distances to the ports and where whales can be sited and lots more. The book gives great information on the port cities and what to expect, places you should try and maps of the areas to help you get around. It is a really helpful book.



5. this book has a lot of good information for anyone taking a cruise to Alaska.

5 comments about Michelin 2010 North America Road Atlas (Michelin North America Road Atlas) (Michelin Road Atlas).

1. I ordered the Rand McNally 2010 Road Atlas Large Scale but amazon couldn't ship for 1-3 weeks so I went to a book store and looked at about 10 different road atlases, this Michelin one was the best I found. As the other reviewer said the inside front cover has a map with numbers in the various areas which refers to the page number, then on some pages there is a similar number for a blow up of a particular area. Also the size is more convenient than the large size. To check detail we always look for the tiny town my wife grew up in, this one and the previously mentioned Rand McNally had it but most did not. This one has Canada and Mexico, the one I ordered does not, which could be critical for some users. It also has coordinates for use with a GPS. Anyway I bought this one at the store and we will then have 2 when the amazon order arrives. We have a Garmin too so we shouldn't get lost anymore ( or probably any less either ! ).



2. Great detail and easy enough to use once you go through it a time or two. Note that it is organized by regions, not necessarily by state, so you may need to do some page turning. Also, it is smaller than the typical road atlas--may not be a problem for most but has led to disagreements about where it should be kept in our car.



3. I really like this Atlas. I won't mention the brand of my prior Atlas, but I will mention that I like this Atlas much better. I like the size and the map detail better. I would recommend the Atlas to anybody looking for a high quality Atlas.



4. The quality of this is atlas is good enouph so 2 stars. The problem for most is the useless tiled format. For example the state of California is on pg. 28-29, then again on pg. 36-37, then again on pg. 44-45, then again on pg. 52-53. City map of Los angeles on pg. 228, Santa Barbara on pg. 260 and so on. There is no order what so ever to this atlas. The first U.S. map starts with Washington. The last is Alaska??? Trying to find anything fast is futile. There are much better choices.



5. I love this atlas. I used it on my road trips across the USA from Key Largo to Washington state. It is set up for driving E to W or reverse. I like the idea that the next page is where you are going, instead of having the states set up alphabetically. If you are driving N to S or reverse, it is still easy to use. Much better than atlases that are set up alphabetically by state. The city maps are easy to find, too, as they are set up at the back of the book in alphabetic order. A handy guide, especially when driving by yourself, with no "navigator" person. I am now ordering a replacement as mine is now several years old.

5 comments about Frommer's Montreal and Quebec City 2010 (Frommer's Complete).

1. 
   The Frommer's travel book was very informative and helpful.
   The maps are excellent.



2. This book was extremely helpful for our recent visit to Canada. We ate at several of the recommended restaurants and used the walking tours in Old Montreal and Old Quebec. The maps were very helpful. I suggest marking out on the map sites you want to visit before you leave home. Some of the prices were out of date but the book was a very good guide to both cities. The subway system and pricing could be explained better. We bought more tickets than we needed. I checked several guide books before our trip and this was the best I found.



3. Having recently used the Eyewitness series of guide books in Italy, this book isn't in the same league. The organization, accuracy, and presentation are all less than perfect (and being unfamiliar in general with Montreal I can't comment on the coverage). It has the de rigeur sights, restaurants, and maps, but some maps don't have enough detail, and in one case, the location of a famous bagel store was off by a couple of blocks.
   
   In short, buy this guide if you are going and can't find something better, but expect a few hiccups.



4. Bonjour!
   
   Used it for a weekend in Montreal. Description of sites for the most part were accurate. Some inconsistencies (sloppy editing) around the completion of renovations regarding Insectarium de Montréal. Also,a couple of restaurants listed for Old Montreal were off in terms of their hours and one was no longer operating.
   
   Some of the cost information needs to be updated, regarding transportation from Dorval into Montreal. For parties of two or more, would recommend a taxi (flat rate at the time of review) of $38 is more prudent than the other options (bus) and yet convenient. Also, for the US travelers, keep in mind the ticket vending machines for the underground system *may* not accept debit / credit cards issued by US banks, so have some change handy.
   
   Overall, the purchase was worthwhile as it did provide some useful and handy tips. As all travel guides, details around logistics are best validated using web resources for various agencies.



5. This book has a lot of information in sufficient detail to help in travel planning. All of the important points seem to be covered. The walking tours and star ratings are really helpful giving the reader the benefit of the experts' opinions. We have yet to take our trip to these cities but after perusing this book, I am really looking forward to it.

5 comments about A Field Guide to Medicinal Plants and Herbs: Of Eastern and Central North America (Peterson Field Guide).

1. This book is great! It is one of the few books I use for references. The pictures are great quality.



2. My husband and I are making a conscious effort to live a more natural life, including natural remedies for illnesses. This book is wonderful. The illustrations are great, making it easy to identify the plants and the information provided is very thorough.



3. The contents are rich and the offerings (for the format and type of field handbook that it is) very complete. Really love this little gem. Love the way each plant has its common name and latin name, with the 'family' name, a brief description of the plant, appearance, general location found (i.e., pond edges), and warnings. There are also small icons/symbols next to the text to indicate those plants that might need caution in handling or be harmful in someway, (i.e., leaves may burn skin). Just wish the book also came in a larger format with larger print to leave on the coffee table or in one's library. I realize that the whole idea is to be able to carry it in a knapsack while one is on nature walks and identifying specimens. So it's perfect really. Some of the photos could be improved upon, maybe for the larger edition if it's ever published in the future. There are some plant specimens missing and medical vocab words listed in the glossary in the back are lacking a few here and there, but nothing that can't be looked up in a dictionary...Overall it's really a great reference book, one that you'll return to again and again.



4. The book is an excellent reference for north eastern medicinal plants. Being a botanist, I was looking for something that clearly explains the medicinal purposes of plants. Useful in identifying specific plants, it gives detailed descriptions of almost all the parts of the plants so identification is made easier during each season. I highly recommend this book for both amateur and professional libraries alike.



5. This book, one of the Peterson Field Guide series, should please naturalists, hikers through woods,meadows and thicket--and of course amateur and professional herbalists. The second edition fosters a new awareness of the need for ecological sensitivity and determination to preserve endangered species. Color photos are abundant. In addition to the indexes, there's a life list, similar to what you find in bird guides. I bought this as a companion to a herbal medicine handbook. It's a good companion for a walk, too, in woods or along roadsides.

5 comments about A Field Guide to Edible Wild Plants: Eastern and central North America (Peterson Field Guide).

1. Unfortunately this book is more like a cookbook for plants that one would find in a forest. Although it has a good deal of breadth I feel like it is more for the little house on the prairie experience than the Bear Grylls style existence.



2. Although this book was published in 1977 it is probably one of the better books in regards to organization and formatting. This book almost never fails to have some information on edible plants that I am curious about. If you are new to learning about edible plants please don't rely on this book or any other single book to identify a plant before you eat it!!! Other reviews about this book bash it because of its age and line drawings but the drawings should be looked at as an initial visual to assist in making sure you are identifying the plant correctly. Plants organized by flower color which is great for quick field identification. Has 15 color plates for some common plants totaling about 75 color pictures. Someone teaching themselves about edible plants should own numerous books with good color photos and defining characters to cross reference to be sure you are collecting what you think your collecting. Furthermore, some books, like this one, contain wrong information copied from others such as the tubers of Water Lilies (Nymphaea species) being edible (pg. 22) when according to other resources they are poisonous. In any case, here are the things I like about it: 1) no matter what time of year you can go to the "Finding Edible Plants" section in the back and look up common edible plants by habitat and season. 2) There is also a food uses section so if you want to make a spice for example you can go to the "Seasonings/Condiments" section and find plants by season 3) Each plant account gives brief but informative information about the plant such as scientific name, distinguishing characters, uses, warnings, where it is found, when it flowers, edible parts and the season for the edible parts. This book initiated my interest in edible plants. It is full of useful information and I recommend this book for anyone interested in edible plants.



3. I bought this book to use as field guide thinking it would be able to use quite easily but was quickly dissapointed. For starters the pics are all drawings, and not that great, you honestly cannot use a drawing of a plant to indentify it because so many plants look similar the leaves and the flowers can look a lot of like the color is what is different and this book limits the colors, some pic depict leaves as large when the are infact small, vice versa, buy a book with color pictures, I could identify 50% of plants with this book due to black and white illustration just to much of a pain to use really..



4. Bought this for my wife for christmas. We go hiking and this would be fun to try to find the plants together. I looked through the book ant it look sreally great. Of course the true test will come when my wife gets it.



5. I'm really disappointed with this book. The black and white pictures aren't hardly as detailed as they should be for such poor, colorless representation of the plants. How in the WORLD am I supposed to accurately spot edible wild plants when the drawings are so lame?! I'm not stupid, I know how to utilize a book to my best advantage, and at most I would say you could use this book as a cross-reference but this would not be the only book I would take with me while foraging. I initially had doubts about this book when I looked at the negative reviews, but was optimistic. Now I wish I had chosen another book. Lame Lame Lame.

5 comments about US Rolled Map (M Series World Wall Maps).

1. I LOVE that I found this on Amazon! I had gone to a "teacher store" and the US Map there was $23.00!! WHAT?!?! So when I saw this one at such a fantastic price I was very excited! I ordered the World Map, too. Nice, big size, and nice colors. The only reason I didn't give it five stars is because I wish it was laminated.



2. The map is very good quality and a good size. Perfect to have in any room.



3. This map is a bargain for the sheer size and detail (seriously, how many US maps put Hayward and Fremont, CA on them?). Whereas other maps I've owned are quite dull, the colors used to differentiate the states are quite vibrant and make this map actually enjoyable to look at.



4. The wall map of the US arrived in a large packing tube, in very good condition. Exactly what my husband wanted for marking the places we have been.



5. An inexpensive map for family room wall and used as a preliminary guide of directions, distance and points of interest. This map does not clearly highlight the major highways and cities that makes it less useful for travel planning.

5 comments about Rand McNally 2010 the Road Atlas: United States / Canada / Mexico (Rand Mcnally Road Atlas: United States, Canada, Mexico).

1. Each year, I buy one of these atlases. First, I want to have a Rand McNally Atlas in my car as a ready reference source. Second, I want to stay as current as I can, since roadways change over time. Third, the new features (online and GPS) add a solid component to the whole package. Fourth, I want my son to have an up-to-date atlas when he takes one of his long trips (I get the hand me down atlases, so I do update each year as I inherit his old atlases!).
   
   This atlas has maps of the United States, Canada, and Mexico. I like the feature in which maps show especially scenic routes. This atlas has a "Best of the Road" feature, indicating routes that are scenic but that also feature good places to eat and so on. Through the web site, one can determine what roads are under construction.
   
   But the thing I most enjoy about such atlases is the firing of one's imagination. Even when I was a kid, I would trace cross-country trips, to encompass places I really wanted to see. It was an adjunct to my geography classes! And I still enjoy looking at states (or provinces) and imagining how I might get from one place to another, while maximizing the cool places that I could visit in the process.
   
   In short, this is a terrific product, to my mind, and I am happy to make the acquaintance of the 2010 addition to the series--before it goes into my son's hands!



2. I found this atlas to be very well done with good detail and great graphics. It is a very good value



3. forget the Tom Tom!!! how many times is that worthless thing wrong...
   this Atlas is a must and I never leave home without it!!
   it's great and dependable!!



4. Rand McNally Road Atlases are a product with consistent quality and I have been relying on Rand McNally to guide me from place to place for more than twenty years. This road atlas has always come through for me, providing complete and clear maps indicating the different highways, cities large and small, and various points of interest to be found as you travel across the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
   
   Rand McNally includes maps for each of the U.S. states. Some of the more heavily populated states have multiple pages, due to their large number of roads, cities, etc. But even with the less populous states, Rand McNally's Road Atlas includes loads of information. The guide shows much more than roads- it also indicates counties, parks, historic sites, etc., along with other useful information to make travel more efficient. Mileage charts, a quick state summary that indicates the state's nickname, land area, population, largest city, a "Best of the Road" red ribbon to indicate roadways that offer great scenery, dining, and shopping, and small, close- up maps of the state's major cities and national parks are among the extras that you get with this road atlas.
   
   What I like best about Rand McNally's road atlas is its use of contrasting colors and words to indicate the different places on the map. Considering all of the information contained on these maps, one would assume that they are cluttered to the point where they would be unreadable. But this isn't the case at all and the reason is because of Rand McNally's use of contrast. Each item, whether it's an interstate highway, national park, county name, or something else, is labeled in its own unique way so that it becomes distinguished from everything else on the page. For example, the county names are printed in orange and the county lines are indicated with a dashed orange line. If you focus on these, you will distinctly notice them and have no trouble finding the. Now, take you focus off the counties and focus instead on the roads. It is almost as if the county lines and county names are no longer there. This method of contrasting works beautifully. It allows thousands of pieces of data to be presented on the same page without everything blending together.
   
   I use my Rand McNally Road Atlas for many purposes. Besides looking for different travel routes, one fun thing to do with the family is to pull out the road atlas and look for a new place to visit. It is often surprising to find points of interest right in your local area- places like a nearby National Wildlife Refuge, state historic site, or other point of interest that receives little or no publicity. There is no worry about getting lost. The maps contain so many pieces of information- from number of highway lanes, to rest areas, to mileage distances between cities- that you need not worry in any way.
   
   I have used other road atlases and found them acceptable, but I always come back to Rand McNally in the end. The overload of travel information and the excellent contrast make Rand McNally the best in its class.



5. This map book is the best for overseas travellers. Every trip that we have had to the states we buy a current map book and it is always a Rand McNally. We are from Western Australia.