I received this book as a gift from my husband the year I was going to visit my grandmother in Ireland. It was terrific!! Not only was it informative, but it actually made you feel as though I visited all of the places listed in the book. I have since re-read it and also just came back from my second trip in less than 10 months.

Just want to let the reader from Boston know, you have to go and visit Ireland. You will never forget it and you will always want to go "home" again and again.

Well, I've never been to Ireland, and now I'll never have to go! I just finished reading Let's Go: Ireland 1998 from cover to cover and it was fantastic. I never read so many restaurant reviews, hotel reviews, and pub reviews in my life. My favorite section was Practical Information where you can find out who to call in Dublin when you trip and fall or lose your luggage. I may not need that info right now, but who knows? If I ever go to Co. Cork, and furthermore lose my luggage, I may not know what to do but boy will I wish I was in Dublin. Even though the information in this book shines, it is the writing that makes this edition a classic in the annals of travel writing. I think it was the editing. The researchers did a good job, but I could tell that most of the value added to the book from the previous year came from the keen eyes and golden pens of these two fabulous editors. For instance, circumambulate! Who else would be able to work that word into a budget travel guide. Five stars!

Though the Jewish population of Westmoreland County is spread more thinly than it would be in Brooklyn or Miami Beach, anthropologist Mark Gruber sees the same themes repeated here he would associate with large Jewish settlements in urban areas -- themes that include "skills on how to live as a minority and how to do so with a dignified and decent kind of life. How to cope with the pressures of people who are anti-Semitic or who are ignorant. I just see such a marvelous ethnic heritage being passed on," he said. "I am strangely proud to be a son of the soil from which these storytelles have come," writes Gruber, a Benedictine monk, in his introductory notes to the book. "My people also figure in this narrative: we are `bit players' in their drama."

The subjects of the book range in age from their 50s to their 90s, representing the collective experience of several generations who arrived in Westmoreland County in three distinct waves: during the Civil War, at the turn of the 20th century and as mid-century refugees. Mostly of Russian and Lithuanian descent, they built several communities clustered around synagogues in Greensburg, Jeannette, Latrobe and Mount Pleasant. Many of the original settlers were Pittsburgh based peddlers who sought customers among the county's coal miners and farmers. They went on to develop a number of well-known mercantile fortunes. They took active roles in the civic organizations of the wider community. Most individual accounts reflect a common lifestyle built around Judaic law and tradition: the temple as central institution; the family name as sacrosanct; the male as leader and provider. Education, often not far below having food on the table and clothes to wear, was a paramount goal.----Diane McMullin, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Pittsburgh East, Wednesday, November 12, 1997

All right, I only spent 6 months in the city, which is hardly any time at all, but from what I saw and heard, Sally Belfrage's wonderfully ballsy and observant book hits it right on the head. I fell in love with Belfast, and when you read this book, you'll see why. I know a few people over there who swear by "Living with War," - which has none of that partisan nonsense, thank heavens. Finally a book as crazy, funny, sad, thought-provoking and phenomenonally surreal as the city itself!

Sally Belfrage is an American who lives in London and attempts to unscramble the obvious, intricate dissenion that exists in Northern Ireland. An almost impossible task for anybody. I was therefore sceptical at first when picking up this book and wondering how anyone, who has spent a fragmented year in Belfast (which is a short time) to write a book on this very complex problem. I was pleasantly surprised as she handles her topic in a professional, unbiased, journalistic approach. For the novice that knows little of the Northern Irish conflict, she summarises in brief but accurate detail the origins of each group and then progresses into introducing the different points of views, fears, anger of the various groups. She does this by introducting you to everyday people and their lifestyle, not limiting it to any one particular section of this multi-faceted area, always trying to show as many angles as possible. Her style of writing is swift and visually descriptive so that the reader is able to obtain a very accurate description of what it is like to actually be in Northern Ireland. It is filled with horrific stories but at the same time with inspirational reflections. Her stylistic tempo never wavers or slows down. I realised after reading this book, that it is often an outsider who will give a reader the broadest and most unbiased story of all if they have researched their topic sufficiently, which she has

Perhaps the best tribute possible for the people whose lives have been wasted over the last 30 years in Northern Ireland.

The only pity is that the sheer numbers make it impossible to also tell the stories of all of the victims who who survived but had their lives shattered.

This book should be supplied as an antidote to those who find terrorism 'romantic' or seek to justify violence from any side in Ireland.

Many of the stories would make a stone weep; this is not an easy book to read. Nevertheless it is essential to anyone who wants an insight into the real cost of the troubles.

This is not a book for the faint of heart. Lost Lives is basically a compiled list of the victims of the Northern Ireland Troubles and gives the detail of their actual death, who they were, and what they were doing at the time. It would be easier to read the writings of Dante in a single sitting than it would be to spend more than a half an hour reading these most tragic tales.

If you care at all about people, this book will affect you deeply, because the majority of people listed here are merely guilty of being in the wrong place at the wrong time or perhaps their beliefs shading differently to their neighbors.

If you have ever endorsed or supported any form of discrimination, bigotry, or military action, and you consider yourself a rational individual, this book will surely make you reconsider your views on such matters.

The authors of this massive and heartrending work will be seen in the course of time to have made a most worthwhile contribution toward consolidating the Irish Peace Process.

Essential and worthwhile reading for any scholar of History.

Maura has a difficult life,growing up in war times and helping to take care of her severely retarded sister(who it turns out has a pure soul).She was also a twin,left twin-less after birth,like Elvis Presley was.Her twin was named Angela.One day Maura meets a girl who looks enough like her to be a twin,except that she is flawless without scars and stuff like that.Her name is Angela.Turns out she is an angel,and she has come to help Maura in all she does,and the longer she stays the more human she becomes.But the day comes that Angela must leave,in a human and a noble way.

Lynne Reid Banks is a unique author.A particularly good line was Angela's, "Our souls are the same" when speaking of males and females.We live in a twisted MArs and Venus,scientific mumbo-jumbo world,so thank you Lynne,for letting Angela say it so simply , Our souls are made the same.
We need more minds like Lynne Reid Banks.

Maura's Angel is a wonderful and unpredictable. The angel"Angela" is beautifully portrayed and the author did a fine job in Angela's role as a family member.I highly recomend this story to anyone.

Far too many accounts of life in New Mexico are written by people with an agenda, often Anglos who came here to "find themselves" or "get back to the land" and were outraged when they discovered that reality wouldn't cooperate with their fantasies. By contrast, Stanley Crawford arrived with an open mind and integrated his family so successfully into a small, predominantly Hispanic village that he became the "mayordomo" in charge of administering the community's irrigation system. This book recounts his experiences and describes the workings of the community, in which the water system performs an important symbolic function as well as a practical one. It's well written, sometimes almost poetic, and often very funny. I think this and Crawford's "A Garlic Testament" are far and away the best books on life in rural New Mexico, and I recommend both of them unreservedly.

In "Mayodomo" Stanley Crawford describes his experience as manager of an "acequia" or irrigation ditch system in arid northern New Mexico. The use of acequia-irrigation originated in Spain and was introduced to the desert Southwest by Franciscan monks over 300 years ago. Acequias feed from rivers or larger acequias, and from these larger tributaries water is run through farm land and orchards then back to the main source. Each year a manager (mayordomo) and three commissioners (comisiados) are democratically elected to oversee water rates and insure fair distribution of water to each "parciante" or landowner who farms along the ditch. Acequia association members are historically of Hispanic or Latino descent, so Crawford's anglo heritage creates an interesting viewpoint of an age old tradition. As mayordomo Crawford supervises the annual spring clearing of his association's acequia, determines the amount of water that each parciante will receive, and is partially responcible for record keeping and payrolls. A parciante's share of water is determined by the nature of his plantings and for a larger part, the weather. As manager of his ditch Crawford must also contend with family feuding, annual dues or "delincuencias" and parciantes who "cheat" by diverting water to their lands. Crawford's observations take more into account than the physical labor and political hierarchy associated with the maintenance of an acequia. His words create a meaningful perspective of life among the residents of an old northern New Mexican farming community and his story reveals a group of people that have been chronicled by few writers and generally ignored or forgotten by everyone else. It is a book with literary, anthropological, political, and historical significance. Spanish water laws, established long before state government regulations, support solidarity and insure the parciante's place in the community. Recent land and water legal disputes threaten to undermine an important aspect of life in northern New Mexico, one that keeps these communities together and has done so for hundreds of years.

I've loved the art of this period for years, but had little academic grounding in it. This book lets me return to old favorites with new eyes.

This, in common with other volumes in the "Perspectives" series, offers high quality (though small) reproductions of important works, up-to-date analysis and discussion of the art and the contexts in which it was created. Harbison's tone is informative, if ocasionally a little too sententious. But it's a very small price to pay, given the overall excellence of his work in this volume. It's obvious that Harbison loves this period, and he transmits his excitement for these works to the reader in concise language that is accessible to a lay audience.

Of particular interest is the discussion of how the Northern Rennaisance related to and differed from what was going on in Italy at the time. The only major weakness: not enough of a focus on Durer. But it's hard to get sufficient focus on any artist in a book this condensed.

An excellent book for those familiar with the period, or those wanting to get acquainted with a school of art often unjustly overshadowed by its southern contemporary.

Informative, smart and well-written, Craig Harbison's "The Mirror of the Artist" provides an excellent, brief introduction to the sensibility, historical context, and practice of art in the North. From the attitude toward realism, to patronage among the growing class of government bureaucrats, to the market for art or the influence of the Reformation, the book offers an enhanced understanding of artistic interest and social situations in which the paintings were made -- without ever forgetting their aesthetic dimension. The best tribute I can offer is that I immediately went back to Amazon to order Harbison's "Jan Van Eyck: The Play of Realism", a $35 large format paperback. Minor quibble: Although well-illustrated for a paperback this size, with the book just about 6.25" x 9.5", more details should have been illustrated when details were discussed in larger works. (I'm still looking for the barely visible figure of the devil above the cow in the "Portinari Altarpiece".) But this is a rare problem.

This is a beautifully photographed book with very good information on the moose.

What a wonderful book this is and the photography is excellent. Contains a wealth of information about our favorite animal - the moose!!

As a new resident to the area, I found this book to be very helpful, as well as fun to read.

The author's writing is smooth and fun to read. As far as I know there is no other guide book like this around. I live in Chicago, but read A Native's Guide to Chicago's Northern Suburbs to learn about new recreation and entertainment outside of the city. Who knew they had a "leaning tower" in Niles!

I agree that this book is very good; however, the title is misleading. I live in northern Vermont and expected to see some nature walks in my area; however the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont was totally ignored! The title of this book should be "Nature Walks in Northwestern Vermont, Especially the Champlain Valley" because that is the area addressed.

Take a hike but bring along Nature Walks in Norhtern Vermont when you do. In clear, concise prose, Elizabeth Bassett describes natural phenomena and explores human history as she leads you through the 43 walks. The book includes maps, driving instructions and a clear set of walking directions for each walk. You will better understand the geology, flora, and fauna which surround you and have a clear picture of how this land has been used over the millenia. Historic tidbits include Native American settlements, colonial artifacts, Revolutionary War lore, and tales of the Vanderbilt Webb familiy's environmental showcase at Shelburne Farms. The walks include ecosystems not always associated with northern Vermont: sand dunes, bogs, pitch pine forest, and river chasm. More traditional walks include waterfalls, potholes, Arctic-alpine tundra, and northern forests. Grab a copy and take your sturdy shoes, snow shoes or cross-country skis and set out!