The Old-House Journal Guide to Restoration

Amazon.com

Since the 1970s, ambitious do-it-yourselfers have relied on Old-House Journal for authoritative information on the restoration of Colonials, Victorians, and Craftsmen Style Bungalows. The magazine was one of the few sources offering expert advice on repair issues unique to houses built before the 1930s. Now this much-needed advice has been compiled in an all-in-one guide for homeowners ready to put paintbrushes, hammers, putty knives, drills, sanders, and saws to good use. This resource includes a discussion of house periods and styles along with exhaustive instruction on interior and exterior restoration projects--supplemented with diagrams, photos, step-by-step illustrations, sidebars, and even mini-dictionaries of terms. With this guide, not only do readers learn how to fix leaky stem faucets but also what all the inner parts of a stem faucet are.

What's special about The Old-House Journal Guide to Restoration is that it answers questions specific to houses that have withstood the test of time and weather. How does one fireproof a balloon-construction home? How does one replace a rotting window frame without compromising appearance? Similarly, there's much practiced advice on repairing masonry, updating plumbing and electrical systems, straightening bowed floors and walls, and improving energy efficiency. The book's overall tone is "can-do." If something's broken or decayed, the Old-House Journal folks believe it can be fixed or restored--and they're not afraid to tell how in great detail. This is not just a lesson in stripping and refinishing wood floors, but rather extensive schooling in boosting an old house owner's confidence. --Karen Karleski

Customer Reviews:

Excellent reference book.......2007-07-22

The first house we bought was a 1920s-era Spanish Med Rev. It had been "updated" in a horrendous way in the 1980s and our first task was to undo the updates. The book has been an indispensable resource that helps us understand many of the basic principles involved in old house construction and trim work. Besides allowing me to perform DIY more effectively, it also has been very useful for understand when contractors do--and do not--follow the principles as they work on our old house. On one occasion, when a contractor started to do some work incorrectly, the book allowed me to discuss with him some aspects of the window trim that I wanted done differently. I've had this book for over 10 years and it is one of the most-used books in my collection. I don't want to lend it our because I'm afraid I won't get it back!

This Old-House Journal Restoration Guide.......2000-03-08

When we purchased and moved into our "remuddled" (the previous owners paneled over the fireplace in the living room) 126-year old home, we were completely overwhelmed. My husband and I took turns being stumped by all the things that needed repair. Then a friend told us about this book. I finally have answers to the questions I thought were unanswerable. I can tackle the calked-shut windows, the sagging staircase, and even the holes and cracks in the plaster. On some issues I even know more than the home improvement store people I used to seek out for help.

If you have a pre 1939 home, then you NEED this book. It is the owners manual!

Customer Reviews:

A captivating, well-written story, Sanji's Seed.......2001-05-16

B.J. Reinhard tells a wonderful story about honesty and perserverence in the book, Sanji's Seed. I enjoy reading the story to my little one who doesn't read on her own (even when she has me read it many times!) My elementary school age son selected the book to read to his class. He said they all really liked it and listened well (and that's a tough crowd to please). The illustrations are also beautiful. The story is timeless and the message is presented gently, so it's a fun way to learn. I highly recommend this book because of its artful use of language and the important values that it presents.

The Blessing Seed: A Creation Myth for the New Millennium

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A Creation Myth Without Guilt or Sorrow
A Wonderful Book
a loving rendition of the creation story

The Blessing Seed: A Creation Myth for the New Millennium
Caitlin Matthews
Manufacturer: Barefoot Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
Similar Items:

ASIN: 1841481548

Customer Reviews:

A Creation Myth Without Guilt or Sorrow.......2003-02-08

This re-telling of the mythical events of human creation resonates with great love and support of the human condition. It is a simple but profoundly moving story of how our human spritual journey began. I read this to my grandchildren so that they might not be isolated in the view of failure and rejection as the story is commonly told. This presentation, with its exhuberantly colored drawings and unique explanations of the paths we must all travel, encourages and inspires the reader to understand mistakes and the resulting growth while under the care and company of a loving God.

A Wonderful Book.......2000-12-08

I agree with the previous review and I wanted to add that this is a beautiful book, the art work is bold and colorful and the message is loving. I bought this book last year and was saving it to give to someone this Christmas. As I was starting to wrap it, I read the book to my children and I remembered how much I liked it. I am ordering a couple more for other friends!

a loving rendition of the creation story.......1999-11-09

This story retells the creation story without the judgemental overtones of "human sin" which most of us grew up with. It is a loving account of God's creation of us and all of our frailties, explaining how all of our lifes experiences, be they good or bad, are part of our growth in faith. An absolute must read for families who seek to give their children a view of a loving and forgiving God.

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Seeds of Corruption (Emerging Voices)
Sabri Moussa
Manufacturer: Interlink Publishing Group
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Historical | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Book Description

Set in the harsh desert of eastern Egypt, Seeds of Corruption is the tale of a Ulysses-like hero in search of himself and his ultimate salvation. The novel becomes a singularly compelling play between the peace and desolation of the desert, the corruption of the dissolute Egyptian king and his court, the purity of the hero's daughter, and the simple dignity of the fishermen and desert Bedouins.

Seeds of Corruption eloquently portrays the corruption of the Egyptian monarchy and the aristocracy before 1952 as aided by foreign influence.

Nicola, a mine engineer of European background, must decide his true identity. Is he an exploiter, like his bourgeois business partner, or is he more like the people of the desert whom he admires so deeply for their ancestral dignity and sense of honor?

The novel offers a vivid and colorful panorama of the Eastern desert by the Red Sea. Such a distant place is a refreshing departure and Moussa's style is rich in imagery and metaphors, making this book a masterpiece of fine Arabic writing.

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Beautiful, Big and Bright: The Journey of Sunny Sunflower Seed
Ruth E. Luongo
Manufacturer: BookSurge Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Mythology | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Fairy Tales | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
Action & Adventure | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1594573565
Release Date: 2004-06-15

Book Description

Bright, colorful, vivid and whimsical picture book, filled with changing faces and changing seasons. A wonderful lesson on the principles of sowing and reaping that is a great read aloud for the young as well as the young at heart!

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The Mysterious Golden Seed (Book 1)

Manufacturer: Christian Visionary Communications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0974686700

Product Description

Mystery, danger, excitement, fun! Lisa Clayman has life all figured out-until her six-year-old brother makes her plant a "magic" acorn. Lisa finds herself trapped inside a quirky fairy tale.

The romantic fairy tale: Seeds of surrealism

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The romantic fairy tale: Seeds of surrealism
Marianne Thalmann
Manufacturer: University of Michigan Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

German | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

Fairy Tales | Genre Fiction | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

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The Seed Cup
William Ward
Manufacturer: Writer's Showcase Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Contemporary | General | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Fantasy | Science Fiction & Fantasy | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0595090834

Book Description

The Seed Cup tells the story of a boy who sets out to gather the dreams of the people, in hopes that they might be planted in good soil. That they might grow tall and true. What he discovers leads him to a place at the edge of his imagination, beyond the limits of the town, where he must make his ultimate offering and plant his own dream. The Seed Cup is a rich, sumptuous earth fable that touches something deep and common across the age spectrum. It is a timeless story whose meaning has never been as pertinent as right now. Whenever that is.

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Seed Fairies (World of Fairies)
Marion St. John Webb
Manufacturer: Medici Society
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Instructional & How-To | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0855032502

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The seed (of war)

Seed, The
I. Pin
Manufacturer: Michael Neugebauer (North South Books)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Literature | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Ages 4-8 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Issues | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

Book Description

One day a seed drops from the sky and lands right on the border between two territories. The tribes on both sides of the border immediately claim it. "This means war!" their leaders declare. Both sides prepare for battle with great inventiveness, creating huge arsenals of deadly weapons, and drawing up complicated plans of attack. But ironically, in the midst of all these preparations, the seed itself is quietly providing the simple solution that the tribes, in their haste, have overlooked.

Customer Reviews:

The seed (of war).......2001-05-13

For those who enjoy the art of Dali, the "Nightmare Before Christmas," the illustrations of Lane Smith in James in the Giant Peach.... This book is for you. This is an unusual, refreshing "anti-war" book with the war ultimately being cancelled because there is no longer anything to fight about! Too bad real wars don't take so long to plan that they too are ultimately cancelled!

Seeds of a Settlement : a Perspective of Port Fairy in the second half of the Nineteenth Century through the Surviving Buildings and their Inhabitants

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Seeds of a Settlement : a Perspective of Port Fairy in the second half of the Nineteenth Century through the Surviving Buildings and their Inhabitants
Marten A. Syme
Manufacturer: Roebuck Society Publication No. 43
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000M4PKKO

Book Description

This important book uses empirical evidence to model and measure aggregate poverty and income dynamics in order to design appropriate policies to alleviate poverty. The book first provides an introduction to the measurement of inequality and poverty, using the Lorenz curve and the Gini and Atkinson measures. The author then draws together a number of studies concerned with the analysis of income distribution in both cross-sectional and lifetime contexts. He presents statistical models of income distribution and income mobility and examines the relationship between annual and lifetime distributions. The models are tested using US data from the current population survey to evaluate the empirical characteristics of income distribution. The book then turns to the evaluation of alternative tax and transfer systems and the debate over the use of means-testing. The author analyzes income dynamics, particularly the relationship between relative income mobility, inequality and social welfare. He then examines income dynamics in New Zealand for males and females using data collected by the Inland Revenue department to specify a simulation model of lifetime incomes. He concludes that information about the process of income dynamics is needed in order to implement appropriate policies to counteract poverty. The Dynamics of Inequality and Poverty will be essential reading for students and scholars of public sector economics, welfare economics and economic sociology.

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Successful Retailers Guide to Retail Lease Negotiations
David F. Turner
Manufacturer: Duguay, Dunn & Turner
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Spiral-bound

Retailing | Industries & Professions | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0970538502

Book Description

S.R.'s Guide to Retail Lease Negotiations was written for independent business people interested in saving "tens of thousands of dollars" opening a "brick & morter" retail store. Our Guide takes the retailer through the "minefield" of the Real Estate Lease negotiations step by step in plain English! Our Guide provides counter offers to standard Landlord proposals with proven arguements to reach a successful conclusion of your negotiations, plus insight to how National Tenants negotiate their Lease's. The S. R. Guide to Retail Lease Negotiation also includes actual Lease clause's from National Tenants Lease's providing thousands of dollars in savings over the term of the tenants lease and options.

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Making Right Turns in Your Relationship

With the proper tools we can make changes happen.

One of the more insightful books of this genre

Relationship book review

Making Right Turns in Your Relationship: How Couples Work Together to Create Change, Enhance Intimacy & Strengthen Communication
Myron Lewis
Manufacturer: Hansyd Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Interpersonal Relations | Relationships | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
Marriage | Relationships | Health, Mind & Body | Subjects | Books
General | Parenting & Families | Subjects | Books
Accessories:

Braun IRT 4020 ThermoScan Ear Thermometer

ASIN: 0975489615

Book Description

Whether dating or married, we want to feel valued, respected and appreciated. Lewis shows how to accomplish these using clear-cut guidelines for building and maintaining healthy long-term relationships. He clarifies basic rules and skills that allows relationships to be successful and helps individuals and couples identify personal action plans. Each chapter identifies easy-to-follow steps for creating change, enhancing intimacy and strengthening communication.

Customer Reviews:

Making Right Turns in Your Relationship.......2007-07-16

Making Right Turns in Your Relationship is a relationship communication exercise book. The author states that every individual has expectations of what a relationship should involve and how that relationship should look and feel. Unfortunately, couples rarely discuss these expectations and preconceived notions with their spouse. Therefore, when these individualized differences clash, each member of the couple expects the other person needs to conform to his or her way of thinking or doing. In other words, each member of the couple wants to win the fight.

Making Right Turns in Your Relationship relays information on how to explore individual expectations and preconceived notions toward the goal of collaborating these individual ideas into a more balanced situation where the relationship wins. The key to this method is respectful and honest communication and personal introspection. To this end, this book contains important subjects such as how to accentuate caring aspects of behavior and how to create a common marriage vision. Couples are encouraged to read the text and complete the practice exercises given throughout the book. This task can either be completed separately or as a couple. However, in either case, each member of the couple is encourage to share his or her thoughts about his or her expectations while learning to realign his or her behavior towards a happier, healthier relationship.

With the proper tools we can make changes happen........2005-01-25

With a realistic understanding that change is difficult, author Myron Lewis offers this no-nonsense, straightforward approach to relationship building. As an active member of the relationship rescue squad (I was divorced in '03 and remarried in '04), I can truly say this is the best couple's self-help book I've seen - and I've seen dozens.

Using a blend of Zen and Behavior Modification, Lewis asks couples to create a "relationship vision," a picture or movie of how we want to see ourselves together. Having such a vision to refer to helps us identify when we're off track and provides a model to hold ourselves accountable to. He stresses the need to keep the relationship a priority by setting aside time and reinforcing positive behaviors, and asks readers to list daily, weekly, monthly and yearly activities to continue or start doing together. Such lists are found throughout the book, but they are simple to understand and easily completed, unlike the more complicated workbook-style exercises found in similar books.

Accomplishing these simple but gratifying tasks helps battle the number one relationship killer: lack of communication. Even MEN should respond to this logical, step-by-step approach! In plain-spoken style, Lewis explains the characteristics of dependence, independence, and interdependence (test question: which is better?) and gives sample interactions to illustrate ways to create and reinforce the latter. He explains the importance of achieving emotional awareness and clarifies how rules in a relationship are choices that need to be made and negotiated. Communication + understanding = problem solving for positive change. All of us want to feel appreciated, valued and accepted, and this book is the perfect tool for bringing that to our relationships.

One of the more insightful books of this genre.......2004-12-28

In any relationship both partners will have to make choices and be responsible for their actions. Sometimes they will be the right choice and sometimes they will not. When you make a bad choice, or wrong turn, you cause the relationship to experience tension, frustration, and disappointment that you should not have to endure. Making the right turn allows you to avoid these problems and experience more satisfaction in the relationship. While nobody is perfect and so there will always be times when we make a wrong turn, it is possible to learn to identify them early and make the right choices more and more often. This is the goal of this book, to teach the reader how to identify and make those right turns.

The author starts by examining the characteristics of both a healthy and unhealthy relationship. From there he moves to understanding and respecting your relationship, creating a vision for where you want your relationship to be, and making it a priority in your life to move in that direction. By the time he gets the reader to this point the author starts asking the reader to consider their answers to various questions to help gain direction for their relationship. For example he asks, "What behaviors do you want to stop doing on a daily basis?", "What behaviors would you like to start implementing daily?", "Identify several positive characteristics or behaviors of your partner."

Other areas the author looks at include the rules and boundaries we live by, how to communicate better, better problem solving skills, creating change, and creating an action plan. If you want to take an active role in improving your relationship this book will help you understand how. There are other books on rescuing or improving a relationship but very few of them go as far as Myron Lewis has done in preparing insightful questions to help the reader decide what is important, what needs to change, and how to achieve that change. Making Right Turns in Your Relationship is highly recommended for anyone who truly wants to work through a plan with their partner to actively create change in their relationship and manage that change to create the best possible relationship.

Relationship book review.......2004-11-28

This book is highly reccommended for anyone who wants to get the best they can out of their relationship with a significant other. Which would included most people. I beleive that while you are working on developing a healthy relationship with your spouse,etc. You may use some of these thoughts and techniques to help strengthen other relationship with friends, family and even strangers. While it is based on the relationship of the significant other, some techiques of listening to others and understanding yourself will benefit your communications skills. We don't get an education on relationship and communication skills in school, and unless you had great examples of parents (which doesn't seem common enough) you can learn these skills now. Enjoy this book and good luck with your relationships. Maria BLackmer-Michigan

Book Description

Brave Men, Gentle Heroes presents the frank, moving, and harrowing stories of men who served in World War II and of their sons who served in Vietnam -- fathers and sons bonded as deeply by their common experience in war as by blood.

These are men who served in the army, navy, air force, and Marine Corps. Officers and enlisted men, career servicemen and citizen soldiers. Men of European, African, Asian, Latino, and Native American ancestry. Men who speak with the authentic voices of an Indiana farmer, a Brooklyn bus driver, a Louisiana businessman, a Seattle machinist. The contrasts between World War II and Vietnam are everywhere in these compelling accounts: the clear aims of World War II, the muddled goals of Vietnam; the heroes' welcome accorded World War II veterans, the scorn heaped upon their sons. But the stories in Brave Men, Gentle Heroes are also rich with elements intrinsic to all wars and all soldiers: courage, honor, service, duty, youth, adventure, fear, idealism, love of country and of family, exasperation with military bureaucracy. In these pages you will find war's carnage and war's heroism, war's purpose and war's futility, war's meaning and war's tragic meaninglessness.

Taken together, the stories in Brave Men, Gentle Heroes tell the history of two wars, each the defining experience of a generation. This is history told not at the level of presidents and generals, but through the recollections of men who shouldered the rifles, manned the ships, and flew the planes. We're familiar with the effects of the two wars on world politics. But what did they do to American families? Molded by the awful crucible of war, these seemingly ordinary men offer extraordinary insights into what it means to be a warrior, an American, a father, and a son.

Brave Men, Gentle Heroes is a book for those who have been to war and those who have been spared its horror. It is a book for individuals to reflect upon and families to share.

Customer Reviews:

If you really want living history.......2004-12-23

For the first 200 pages or so I wondered what the point of the book was. After that I figured it out. If you really want some "feel" for how men thought before, during, and after these wars, one way is to immurse yourself in their stories told first hand. By the end of the book I really felt like I had a better understanding of what people experienced.

Viet Nam was primarily a political war and many viewpoints are represented among those interviewed. It was nice not to have those opinions sanitized. I could not tell if their was an agenda to this book since many viewpoints were portrayed.

I felt I got my money's worth from just reading the chapters from the Novosels and Tarbells. You could make a great movie about the Novosels or Tarbells with no problem!

An unexpected thrill for me was reading the kind things said by Albert Tarbell about my uncle and our family. I knew that Albert had been interviewed for a book, but had no idea what he said until I read it. In real life you will not meet a nicer, humbler person.

If you are bored by living history, do not read this book. If you want to raise your level of understanding about what happened to the lives of men during and after wartime by a notch or two, this book is a valuable resource. (Dr. Phil Rosenkrantz, Cal Poly University, Pomona, CA)

Not a celebration of our troops.......2004-10-19

I read this book with great interest, having just finished Mike Jackson's exciting and inspirational Naked In Da Nang. This book also features Lt. Col. Jackson's story as well as his father's (Edmund Jackson served in World War II, hence the father/son connection). But I was terribly disppointed. Brave Men is disjointed and awkward and it seems to play to those who want to believe that veterans are semi-dysfunctional, given the horrific acts they experienced. Instead of humanizing our fighting men, Mr. Takiff's book seems hell-bent on showing only the grim and disturbing side of military service. While Jackson's book doesn't sugarcoat the realities of war, it maintains a very optimistic stance -- one that leaves the reader proud of our men in uniform, not concerned about sitting next to them on a bus!

listening to our Veterans.......2004-06-01

Rebeccasreads highly recommends BRAVE MEN, GENTLE HEROES as a treasure. Warriors telling their memories, fathers & sons thinking about the time that defined their lives. A unique weaving around specific aspects of their experiences & memories, complete with photographs, historical contexts & commentary by Michael Takiff, whose father fought in WWII.

It's like listening to everyone's grandfather..........2004-04-17

I have always been interested in history and the wars that come along with it. My grandfather served 30 years in the Navy and fought in WWII, Korea, and 'Nam. Because of all that time he had spent serving his country he felt that nobody else in the family should ever have to enter the military. I didn't know why until I read this book. The stories of the fathers and their sons were so vivid and grim and sometimes humorous. My grandpa would only ever tell me the humorous stories he had throughout his service. This book is like listening to a bunch of grandfathers and fathers tell their stories in a most intimate way. No glossing it over, just the raw truth. Now I understand why my grandpa refused to let me join the Navy after highschool. He had done enough for all of us. He didn't want us to go because of all of the trauma he still deals with! These men in the book are wonderful men. They're not perfect and don't claim to be. Read this book and reflect on the men and women in the military, past and present.

A new way to look at two wars.......2004-01-31

This splendid book pairs off fathers and sons from two wars, and lets them tell their stories. (On the cover: Gene Swanson, U.S. Marine at Iwo Jima; and Gary Swanson, army infantryman in Vietnam.) It works best when there are recognizable pairs, which is not always the case. Then it reverts to a run-of-the-mill oral history.

The most stunning chapters are the first two, relating the stories of Mike Novosel senior and junior. Mike Sr. was a career officer: he flew B-29s against Japan and a "dust-off" helicopter in Vietnam. In the latter work, he was joined in 1970 by Mike Jr. So here they were, 47-year-old father and 20-year-old son, pulling wounded men out of the rain forest and giving them another chance at life. Today the two men live side by side in houses that are mirror images of one another. "Dad is both my father and an Army buddy," Mike Jr. says. What a fortunate pair of men!

What's most striking about these pairs of stories is how different the two wars played out. World War II was a narrative with a beginning, a middle, and an end: the soldiers started green, learned to fight, and returned as heroes. Vietnam was a surreal painting, a black novel, an existential mess where men counted bodies in lieu of winning battles; when they came home, they took off their uniforms for fear that they would literally be stoned in the street.

Eminently worth reading -- Dan Ford

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Brave Men, Gentle Heroes: American Fathers and Sons in World War II and Vietnam
Michael Takiff
Manufacturer: Harper Paperbacks
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OESNPQ

Book Description

In 1887 the middle-class Czechs dominating Prague's City Hall announced that they had a plan for the large-scale destruction and reconstruction of the city's former Jewish ghetto. The plan, involving the razing of nearly all of the roughly 260 buildings inside the ghetto, was carried out in the name of sanitation. To fund this ambitious project, city officials borrowed a vast sum of money. They also expelled the area's impoverished residents from their homes without making any effort to secure new affordable housing for them.

This book examines the social and ethnic interest-group struggles that fueled this project, suggesting possible continuities between nineteenth-century politics and twentieth-century authoritarianism. Giustino shows how middle class officials who held nineteenth-century liberal values shrewdly used municipal power to pursue their group interests, sometimes at the expense of outsiders, and in the process, contributed to persistent anti-Semitism.

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Encyclopedic Information

Status of South Texas Birds

Nesting Birds Of A Tropical Frontier: The Lower Rio Grande Valley Of Texas (Perspectives on South Texas)
Timothy Brush
Manufacturer: Texas A&M University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Birdwatching | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books
Reference | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books
Ornithology | Zoology | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

The Shorebird Guide

Chasing Birds Across Texas: A Birding Big Year (Louise Lindsey Merrick Natural Environment Series)

Pete Dunne's Essential Field Guide Companion: A Comprehensive Resource for Identifying North American Birds

National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America, Fifth Edition (National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America)

The Tos Handbook of Texas Birds (Louise Lindsey Merrick Natural Environment Series, No. 36)

ASIN: 1585444901

Customer Reviews:

Encyclopedic Information.......2007-02-25

The Lower Rio Grande Valley of southern Texas, the LRGV to any knowledgeable birding enthusiast, is THE place to witness the widest diversity and greater number of bird species anywhere in the United States including even Alaska. More than 500 different species have been seen at one time or another in the Valley including dozens of birds from Mexico that rarely if ever get more than a few miles north of that nation's boundary. Though there have been several interesting guides to the "where" of these birds--guides that highlight the best spots in the area to see the wonderful diversity that exists--there has not until now been a careful, encyclopedic examination of those birds. Timothy Brush, a biology professor at the University of Texas-Pan American, has filled that void in Nesting Birds of a Tropical Frontier.

No-one would argue that Brush's wonderful study is the type of book that anyone would want to curl up with in front of a warm fire on a cold night but for anybody interesting in the fauna of southern Texas, it is a proverbial gold mine. Brush provides an extremely thorough examination of each of the many birds which nest throughout the Lower Rio Grande Valley. His volume is filled with scientific data galore but it is never uninteresting thanks in large part to the many frequent personal asides which the author includes and which allow us to see not only a scientist but also an avid birder at work.

Unquestionably this relatively small volume will remain the authoritative study of southern Texas' birdlife for decades to come.

Status of South Texas Birds.......2005-11-25

An excellent overview of the breeding birds along the Rio Grande of South Texas. Covers historic status of most species unique to the region, if they have been documented to have bred there. Photos and artwork uneventful.

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