Save your pennies for a copy of the 1952 edition (out of print) from a used book dealer. The 1913 edition uses a set of names known as "American Code" that botanists haven't used since the 1950's; the services of a professional taxonomist is practically required to update the changes, and few people will know what you're talking about if you use an "American Code" name for a plant. The 1952 edition updates all of that, and includes quite a few more species. In my opinion, Dover did a real disservice to botany by reissuing the 1913 edition. Kay Lancaster (plant taxonomist)

Good, inexpensive material for starting out in the study of vegetation.

I purchased this book as a ROAD travel guide for exploring the country,expecting good local maps. The book consists of 100 pages of very brief comments on the attractions in each area, and 15 practically useles maps. No local secondary routes to explore an area are included, no walking maps of an area. Just useless major roads.

Another review here refers to an old edition of this book, it is no longer available. The Irish publishers have taken on board the criticism and introduced much better and more detailed maps - as a result a genuinely useable road atlas has now been incorporated in the latest edition of the guide, as well as a raft of new photographs by the world renowned photographer Anthony Cassidy.

This is the first work I have read by Don J. Snyder. "Night Crossing", has an inviting cover, with an interior that does not match. I understand that the notes inside the jacket are meant to interest a reader enough to proceed with the book, these notes tell the reader more than half the story, and the minority of the tale that remains is of little interest.

The novel begins with a promising look into plans of terrorists that are unusual as well as murderous. The plans are an example of any ends justifying the means. Some may find the plan ultimately acceptable; many readers will find this the most, and only enjoyable part of the book. The story begins with all the elements of a thriller, and then changes directions and locale, in a manner that can only be called jarring.

This may be a case of a male writer attempting to document extremely distressing circumstances for his female character. Some writers can write of either gender with skill, this is not the case with Mr. Snyder, at least in this book. I found the woman's behavior unbelievable when she encounters her first shock. I found the international trip, and descriptions of a visit to a lingerie shop, very funny, and that was absolutely not what the reader should be feeling. The writer then places Nora in a terribly humiliating situation that seemed to be gratuitous.

When Nora makes a decision to flee her home to a country that places a high value on Christian Religion, with the idea of solving a problem she has, any sense of a plot and a reasonable story come to an end. The circumstances she volunteers for, goes along with, or demands to be included in, are not credible. The tale dissolves into a series of events Nora has no ability to deal with, despite the writer forcing her through the tale.

I really did enjoy the start of the book, and had the story retained the elements of its introductory phase, "Night Crossing", could have been a good book. Unfortunately it slips into cliché, and then slides farther into events that require a suspension of disbelief that was beyond me. There were also numerous events that popped up, generally involving water, which read as though dropped into the tale as opposed to supporting it.

His other books may be tremendous, however, "Night Crossing", cannot be one of his better works.

I have little in common with the main character in this novel, Nora, but I feel connected to her throughout this story. It is not a thriller in the Tom Clancy sense (thank God) but more in a Joan Didion kind of way. The observations made about war in Ireland (the politics of as well as the horror) are moving. The questions Nora asks herself you'll ask yourself as well. I think this book is particularly well written, one of my recent favorites, and I encourage readers to try it. It is a relatively quick read but it stays with the reader... This is the kind of book that you carry with you in your mind for quite some time.

The title may be catchy but don't expect to get a book on modern day kings like Arthur. My humanities teacher assigned this book and our first impression was something along the lines of a movie but it really wasn't. This book is just about the people and influences that make a big influence in modern day Scandanavia. I am not saying that this book was stupid and horrible because it wasn't. If you're looking for something whimsical and romantic, then keep browsing.

This is an excellent book! It is full of important historical information, dates, names and descriptions of key figures in Royal history, and the like. If you are doing research on recent Scandinavian monarchs, this is a great place to begin! If you want to know how a Danish prince came to be the first 20th century King of Norway or how the son of a German Duke became King of Denmark, you can find out from this book. Detailed information on family relationships is included, and there are a number of highly entertaining anecdotes about several Kings in all three Scandinavian families.
The only problem I saw in this book is that it's language and grammer may sometimes be slightly intimidating; this is NOT a book for those accustomed to reading only in the vernacular. The occasional difficulty in the reading, though, is offset by the pure wealth of information offered. For a small and handleable book, it has a lot to offer. I believe it is one of the best like it on its subject.

Well, if you ARE going to visit 'Northern Cyprus' I guess you should have a guide. In fact, you would do well to have one with you. Otherwise you might think you landed in the wrong place.

The problem arises when you start looking for those sights and sites your old History or Geography Professor spoke about in College. They seem not to be there. They are of course, but under another name. After Turkey invaded Cyprus in 1974 it 'Ottoman-ised' all names in the territory it occupied. This is where this book offers sterling service: it diligently lists all annexed places by their new names but offers enough accompanying text to help one orient oneself.

You can still get confused at times, the more so as there are no Greeks around to help with the names you knew. The book does not mention that the locals have been expelled after Turkey annexed the island's North and christened it 'Turkish republic of Northern Cyprus'; but you can hardly blame a Travel guide for not being a comprehensive History book. In the end you learn to get along when you realise that 'Girne' is really the ancient town of KYRENIA you were looking for, 'Gazi Magosa' is in truth FAMAGUSTA - and so forth.

Concerning the breadth of the book it is quite adequate: the authors have certainly travelled throughout the occupied territory of Cyprus and listed all sights worth seeing. Well, almost all. For some reason they have neglected the likeness of the runaway statelet's flag etched on the Southern face of the Pentadaktylos (old name) mountainside. This is a serious omission as this is truly a sight to behold, the artwork of upturned stones and deforested land runs for more than a MILE.

In the final analysis though the acid test of a Travel guide is not so much its listings as the information it provides on each place of interest. And this is where the authors go grossly wrong (as does Diana Darke in the only other 'guide' of the island's occupied North): historical background is either distorted or downright fictitious.

But maybe this is to be expected: 'Northern' Cyprus is a blatant police state - how much should truth bother one who decides such a place is worth visiting? In the end, the very notion that an occupied territory deserves a guide would have been quaint - if it wasn't fascist.

If you are going to visit North Cyprus, this is an excellent guide for your visit...

A mismash of sociological, economic babble which doesn't seem to go anywhere. Are they trying to apologize for the shortcomings of the sectarian state or minimize them ? Their historical perspective is minimal. A complete waste of paper, ink and the readers time.

In this review, I will concentrate on the global approach of Bew, Gibbon and patterson on the Irish question. Their book itself is very good, especially their analyisis of contradictions within the unionist bloc. I recommend it to anyone interested in Northern Irish politics. But I think that what is highly contestable is their "red marxist" approach on the national question. in Ireland; they claim that the struggle for emancipation is opposed to the struggle for reuniting the country. They argue that "the democratic, that is to say the national stage of the Irish revolution seems to have been complete as it ever could in 1921." They claim elsewhere that recent "urbanisation and industrialization have relegated the national question to the margin of Irish politics" ; thus "there is nothing inherently reactionary about a national frontier which puts Protestants in a numerical majority". They even adavance that "Imperialism's real impact upon Irish society has not been a substantial one"!!! Thus, for them, the issue of partition has no substantial material basis, it divides catholic and protestant workers (thus hinders socialist struggle) they refuse to see it as a question of democracy and emancipation regarding it as an issue of "territorial completion". Socialists should work to democratize the two partition states and not concern themselves with national reunification as "reactionary nationalists" do. As to the mythical nature of the national question today, nothing could be further from the truth. Every single aspect of economic, political, and ideological life in the north of Ireland is overlaid, "overdetermined" by the national question. Until the national question is settled, there can be no "pure" class politics in Ireland. To presume that the left can organize solely on class issues is to judge that the national question will go away if we only ignore it. Or to presume that the working class in the north can forget about the national question and unite on social and economic isssues only is volontarism of the most crass kind. The conflict over territorial boundaries is not a question of some instinctual "territorial completion". It is not the struggle over the territorial extent of the NI state per se which, in an emancipatory perspective denies its legitimacy. The border is a geographical expression of the sectarian class relations through which the state operates, and on which its very existence depends. The border is the over-arching manifestation of the structural inequality between catholics and protestants. This is why socialists work to "smash the orange state", one of the main reasons being the irreformable caracter of the state. But, this is not to say that nationalism is suficient (or synonymous with) to bring socialism about. But, appart from their contestable views, it should be well stressed that the book is really worth reading, the authors are very rigorous in their analyses which attain a high level of quality, unfortunately abscent from most books relating to the questions relating to the north of Ireland. (For those who would like to have more bibligraphical informations on criticism relating to Bew, Gibbon, Patterson, contact me through e-mail). Liam O'Ruairc.

if anything was going to put me off the idea of going anywhere near italy, this book would be it. unfortunate tone, boring and uninfluential - (don't) keep trying.

In planning a 16 day driving tour of Northern Italy, I found this book to be enormously useful. I have driven around Portugal, Norway, Switzerland, etc. but had never been to Italy. Maps in the front show specific stretches of road and areas of particular interest, and give the page number of the chapter that describes each route. The introduction to each chapter gives a succinct overview of the route that gives one a good sense of what to expect, and then describes the route in greater detail--direct route vs. scenic route, sights and towns along the route, accommodations and food, sightseeing, etc. For my purposes, I was especially pleased with the descriptions of the scenery and with the "side tracks" feature, which describes worthwhile sidetrips. I was able to note the routes that I preferred and plot out a practical itinerary. Then I turned to other books (Rick Steves and the Rough Guide to Italy) to get more detail about some of the places we were going to visit.

In summary, I think this is a great book for planning driving tours of Italy--vastly better than any other I have found, including Frommer's "Italy's Best-Loved Driving Tours".

First published in 1983, this lyrical novel, superficially straightforward but full of stories within stories, first brought Bernard MacLaverty's work to public attention. In the novel, a young Irish Republican Army operative who wants to break the cycle of violence seeks out a woman whose Ulster policeman husband he helped to murder. As their relationship grows, so do Cal's guilt and sorrow, until, in the end, he is forced to make a sacrifice of himself in order to gain redemption. Rich in ideas and history, this book helps us understand the situation in Northern Ireland--which "is not just there," MacLaverty has remarked, "as a colorful background."

Bernard MacLaverty's prose is absorbing and breathtaking. His stories are beautifully woven to give the reader a glimpse into the lives of intriguing characters at their most intriguing moments. The stories focus on epiphanies, emotions, relationships, and are tender and moving while simoultaneously harsh and biting. I would reccomend this book to anyone who appreciates beautiful short prose.

I was thrilled to find a book that was exactly what I needed, but a bit frustrated when I dug into it. For one, I couldn't even decipher how the book is supposed to be organized from the Table of Contents. Another example: the book shows maps of the various counties of Northern California, but it never shows them in relation to one another or the state as a whole. It would be like showing you all the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle, but never showing you what it's supposed to be when it's put together!! If you're from out of the area, you're out of luck! With a book that's this poorly edited I don't trust some of the critical information. For example, can I REALLY bring a marriage license from out of state? There are lots of good leads here. But lots of follow-up will be needed.

This is a wonderful book for anyone who is looking for a winery location for a wedding in Sonoma, Napa, or the San Francisco Bay area. The lists are thorough, and the descriptions helped my fiance and I narrow down our choices without taking several days to explore the myriad of area sites ourselves. We did find that some of the information was out of date, such as a winery which no longer hosts weddings and some phone numbers which were incorrect (all seven digits, not a typo). All told, however, the black and white photographs are a good introduction to the "personalities" of the wide variety of options in this increasingly popular area.

There are also some day trip suggestions around the area, and if you can get past the editing, which gets terrible in parts of this section, they are some fun and informative ideas.

I was very surprised to find that the Table of Organization Quarrie provides for each of the six infantry divisions involved includes radical errors in the battalion makeup. Quarrie correctly shows three infantry battalions in each regiment. But his listing of companies within each battalion is quite wrong, as follows:

1st Bn.: A, B, and C Cos.

2nd Bn.: D, E, and F Cos.

3rd Bn.: G, H, and I Cos.

In fact each of the three infantry battalions was composed of three rifle companies and a heavy weapons company (armed with Browning .30 cal. water-cooled machine guns and 60mm and 81mm mortars), as follows:

1st Bn.: 3 rifle companies, A, B and C, and D Co. (heavy weapons).

2nd Bn.: 3 rifle companies, E, F and G, and H Co. (heavy weapons).

3rd Bn.: 3 rifle companies. I, K and L, and M Co. (heavy weapons).

(To avoid confusion, 'J' was not used as a company designation.)

Quarrie's T/O charts make no mention of the three heavy weapons companies in each regiment, D, H and M, one assigned to each battalion.

This fundamental error raises real questions as to Quarrie's account of the Ardennes offensive, insofar as he references specific infantry units below regimental size.

My knowledge of this is first hand. From May 1944 through December, 1944, I was a member of H Co., 2nd Bn, 393rd Inf. Regt., 99th Infantry Division. This period includes its engagement in the Battle of the Bulge and on Elsenborn Ridge. After a hospital stay in Wales I rejoined H Co. in March, just after it had crossed the Rhine at Remagen.