Visual Explorations in Finance: with Self-Organizing Maps (Springer Finance)

Book Description

Self-organizing maps (SOM) have proven to be of significant economic value in the areas of finance, economic and marketing applications. As a result, this area is rapidly becoming a non-academic technology. This book looks at near state-of-the-art SOM applications in the above areas, and is a multi-authored volume, edited by Guido Deboeck, a leading exponent in the use of computational methods in financial and economic forecasting, and by the originator of SOM, Teuvo Kohonen. The book contains chapters on applications of unsupervised neural networks using Kohonen's self-organizing map approach.

Customer Reviews:

Essential SOM.......2006-10-03

A classic for those who want rigorous mathematics applied to useful quantitative decisions. Despite being a collection of different chapters by different authors, do not worry. All of them, coordinated by Deboeck, make this book a "must" for those who, like me, are involved in the hard task of selecting Stocks, Bonds or Funds for the asset allocation process.

This is not the only book you should have in your shelves to know about this discipline. But it is the only one who will clearly show you the wide different applications of SOM in Financial Markets. Eminently practical (yes, it is true!), this is the perfect companion of the famous Kohonen's book.

Last, but not least, lots of examples very well documented and concisely explained. These can be easily implemented through the commercial software Mr Deboeck uses as tools.

Fascinating but the price isn't right..........2001-03-22

SOM are a kind of neural networks that are totally different from the feedforward multi-layered networks that everybody has heard about. The ideas behind SOM are remarkable intellectual stuff, first intellectual class stuff, and would certainly deserve to be more widely known. I found myself wondering how comes I rarely heard of Prof. Kohonen, and when is he going to win the Nobel prize... Prof. Kohonen and the development of SOM would make a good subject for the James Gleicks out there.

This book is in fact a collection of short articles about how SOM can be applied to financial visualisation and classification problems. Compilations of articles are a awkward genre, ranging from either the totally unitelligible or the totally trivial, and if you have graduate education in finance, you will find that most of the articles are pretty lame, if not downright amateurish, compared to standard academic finance literature; if you don't have grad education, I'm not sure whether you would want to buy this book in the first place, but there's nothing particularly hard about it. Art buffs may be attracted by the richly colored SOM maps (Vasarely-like) that come inside the book, and I could imagine somebody exposing these in an art gallery...

Anyway, after going through this book, one gets a decent idea of what can be done with SOM, so I would definitely say IT IS worth reading. I have to say I found it utterly fascinating, although I was disappointed with most of the articles.

Another thing I don't like about the book is the price (I mean, OUCH!)... The other thing is the fact that even after reading the theory article by Professor Kohonen in this book, I still couldn't understand intuitively how the basic SOM convergence algorithm worked. It is only after reading the first few pages of his masterpiece "Self-Organizing Maps", published at Springer in 1992 that I had the "haha!" experience and that I decided to put Professor Kohonen on the pedestal of my personal heroes of science...

Book Description

Today's interface between retailers and consumers is highly dynamic. Problems and opportunities like increased product complexity, rapidly changing consumer expectations, and the introduction of new technologies point to the need for explaining and understanding at suitable intervals the behavior of retailers and consumers in the modern marketplace. New Perspectives on Retailing and Store Patronage Behavior provides the reader with an in-depth understanding of the interface between retailers and consumers. The book includes several core areas:

-consumer choice factors,
-quality and value,
-store image,
-retail competition,
-location,
-modern quantitative techniques including LISREL and hierarchical Bayes modelling,
-future perspectives.

Book Description

In this collection of essays, James Boyd White continues his work in the rhetorical and literary analysis of law, seeing it as a system for the creation of social meaning. White's focus is on the intellectual and ethical possibilities of law, based on the view that law is not merely a logical enterprise, nor a mere matter of politics and power, but rather an activity of the whole mind, including its imaginative and affective capacities.

The essays here are united by two basic themes. First, the essays suggest that law can usefully be regarded not only as a set of rules designed to produce results in the material world, as it usually is regarded, but also as an imaginative and intellectual activity that has as its end the claim of meaning for human experience, both individual and collective. Second, they argue that education, including in the law, works by the constant modification of expectation by experience.

White claims that as we grow, whether as individuals or as a community, we constantly shape our expectations to our experiences. This happens with particular force and clarity in the law, which seeks to create both a certain set of expectations--this is how it works as a system of regulation--and a series of occasions and methods for their revision. White's interest is in the way these understandings can affect legal teaching, practice, and criticism.

The essays in this book examine such topics as the nature of legal education; the possibilities for writing in the law for both judges and lawyers; the relation between the practice of making and claiming meaning as it works in the law and in literatures more usually though of as imaginative, such as poetry or drama; the ways in which the law talks, and ought to talk, about business corporations, religion, and individual judgments; and the ethical possibilities of the practice of law when it is conceived of as a field for the making of meaning.

From Expectation to Experience will be of interest to lawyers, legal scholars, as well as students of law, law and literature, and ethics and literature.

James Boyd White is Hart Wright Professor of Law, Professor of English, and Adjunct Professor of Classical Studies, University of Michigan.

Book Description

Extensive, introductory-level, coverage of mechanical properties and failure which is the most important materials considerations for many engineers.
* This book judiciously and extensively makes use of illustrations and photographs. The approximate 500 figures include a large number of photographs that shoe the microstructure of various materials.
* Current and up-to-date with the latest developments in materials science and engineering.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent.......2002-01-10

I think this is a good book, this will really help students to learn the mateiral

Book Description

This volume comprises works by two great physicists, whose contributions to thermodynamics and electromagnetism remain fundamental to classical physics. More than a survey of facts, these essays offer thorough and detailed explanations, with many examples, derivations, and topics not included in more recent studies. 168 diagrams. 1912 edition.

Book Description

A devilishly plotted romp through a high-desert landscape peopled with raving sinners and unlikely saints…

Hard-drinking, whore-mongering businessman Royal Shane (who nonetheless regards himself as a born again Christian) is in trouble. Nevada road department engineers want to close a stretch of highway that fronts his gambling joint—a move that will cost him not only his beloved border casino but the licensed brothel he operates as a sideline. Things get uglier when the cops accuse him of murdering his right hand man, Teddy Waters, in a drunken rage. Is he innocent…or not? Shane isn't sure himself.

Meanwhile, young Philip Hansen is mysteriously drawn to one of Shane's prostitutes, a foul-mouthed beauty with Gypsy roots and a talent for deceiving men. Trouble is, he's already dating the woman of his dreams, who knows nothing of his unhealthy obsession. While Hansen's love triangle slides toward disaster, Shane develops a devious plan to relocate his casino on the prostitute's spread. But first he has to grab her land, and Hansen will find himself drawn up in a counter-plot to stop him. Things could get downright dangerous here, if these characters weren’t so comically inept.

Above all this high desert scenery (which, prudes be warned, includes some voyeuristic glimpses into brothel boudoirs) looms a mystery: Who killed Teddy Waters?

Customer Reviews:

Tarantino meets the Coen Brothers in quirky comic mystery.......2001-03-21

Don't you hate it when you lose your handgun, have a mental blackout, and then find the cops accusing you of murder? You're pretty sure you wouldn't have killed anybody, right? Then these nagging doubts set in ...

There's a powerful romantic side-plot, involving a spaced-out California civil servant, an East Coast ingenue (millenium style), and a legal hooker.

Angstrom paints a vivid picture, and he keeps you wondering (and laughing) until the last page. It's a quick read, and it will keep you turning the pages.

A rollicking good read.......2000-11-22

Author Chris Angstrom has managed to pull off a remarkable feat in just 199 fun-filled pages. His new novel, DEVIL'S DOORKNOB, is at once a tantalizing mystery, an intriguing-and quite humorous -satire on the nature of religion and the so-called religious, and a slightly jaundiced romance.

The plot of DEVIL'S DOORKNOB is deceptively simple. Royal Shane, lanky, sixty-something owner of the Wee Pot O' Gold casino and the nearby Quail Ranch brothel, is in trouble. His thriving businesses, in a remote corner of Nevada just across the California border, are menaced by extinction, thanks to a proposed new highway that will permanently deflect traffic away from his gambling and pleasure emporium, and onto the doorstep of a hated rival casino operator. Shane would like to move his concerns onto nearby land which would make casino and bordello again readily accessible to passersby after the road goes through, but the property is owned by a motley collection of lowlifes who, unfortunately, have no intention of selling. Worse, the Wee Pot's manager, Teddy Waters, who has been contemplating quitting his job to work for the competing casino, is missing, and Shane-who's been overheard making threats while in his almost constant state of drunkenness-is the prime suspect in his disappearance.

Into this brew is mixed Philip Hansen, a disgruntled welfare investigator looking into the validity of claims filed by those squatting on the land coveted by Shane. Soon thereafter, the reader meets Tessa Oulette, a realtor hired to sell Hansen's house, and Dora Dockery, a beautiful, middle-aged prostitute at the Quail Ranch and one of the landowners Shane is trying to persuade to sell-both of whom, for a time, become the lovelorn Hansen's romantic interests.

To tell more would spoil the unique treat in store for readers of DEVIL'S DOORKNOB. Suffice it to say, there is a whole cast of quirky characters who seem to step living off the page. Like Royal Shane, who sees no conflict between his fundamentalist religious beliefs and the fact that he drinks and swears and promotes gambling and whoring. Like his young wife Shawni, who is bimbo personified. Like the giant Dane, Aalborg, who has an unnatural attachment to a newborn fawn. Like Frank Graye, Hansen's anal-retentive superior.

Throughout the novel the dialogue is crisp and realistic. The many plot twists are unexpected, but logical. Even the desolate setting plays a major role. With its multitude of interwoven tones- swerving seamlessly between the devout, the profane, and the comical-DEVIL'S DOORKNOB may be the new prototype of what a cross-genre novel can be. In any case, author Chris Angstrom should be thanked for providing a rollicking good read.

Average customer rating:

Political Hack and Hash Job

A compelling history covering the wars of the 20th Century

War and Americans Spanning a Century

Voices of War: Stories of Service from the Home Front and the Front Lines
Chuck Hagel
Manufacturer: National Geographic
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Biographies & Memoirs | Subjects | Books
General | Military | History | Subjects | Books
General | United States | Military | History | Subjects | Books
Veterans | United States | Military | History | Subjects | Books
Military Science | History | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

Forever a Soldier: Unforgettable Stories of Wartime Service

Voices of War Compact Disk: Stories of Service from the Homefront and the Frontlines (The Library of Congress Veterans History Project)

Dear Mr. President: Letters to the Oval Office from the Files of the National Archives

Voices of Valor: D-Day, June 6, 1944

Warriors: Portraits from the Battlefield

ASIN: 0792278380
Release Date: 2004-11-01

Book Description

Voices of War is a verbal and visual mosaic of America's military history told in the words of those who were there, from the doughboys of Wold War I to the mechanized warriors of Operation Desert Storm. Selected from among the more than 30,000 personal interviews, private memoirs, photographs, and letters amassed by the Library of Congress Veterans History Project, Voices of War presents scores of unforgettable eyewitness accounts?-vivid vignettes of life in uniform and poignant tributes to fallen friends, battle scenes, and quiet moments behind the lines. Spanning five generations of veterans and the families who prayed for their safe return, this books is a moving chronicle of the courage and commitment of American men and women fighting for freedom all over the globe.

Customer Reviews:

Political Hack and Hash Job.......2005-11-22

The editor, Tom Wiener, who is also a Historian at the VHP, states that this book allows us to "experience war unfiltered by ideology or political agendas." That would be true if, oh, I don't know, one-tenth of this book weren't about senators or congressmen. Every member of Congress supports the Library of Congress' Veterans History Project. They should, but for all the wrong reasons. On the VHP website you will see their stories prominently displayed. This book is no exception.

As a Vietnam Veteran (see my other reviews) I found this oral history collection quite inferior to Al Santoli's oral history of Vietnam in his two books. Santoli also served in Vietnam as a grunt, but devotes his life now to international aid. Since Al is a veteran, however, you would never find the likes of Ron Hinsch. Only a non-veteran would be duped by the likes of this character.

Hinsch is a well-known fraud. Wiener could have found his real service records online at www.pownetwork.com (see the section "phonies and wannabies"). The photo of this "warrior" (VHP's words not mine) on page 147 is laughable. First of all, why no subdued patch? I briefly served in a Ranger company in Vietnam so I know that patch on his costume is incorrect. By the way, after pownetwork linked Hinsch's fraudulent stories to the VHP (go and see foryourself) they are now off the VHP website. Hinsch may have had his 15 minutes of fame on the VHP website erased, but he certainly lives on forever on acid-free paper in your local library or neighbor's coffee table. Weren't there any veterans involved in this project? Obviously not. Mr. Wiener's previous books are film histories so he seems to be out of his depth.

Aside from this glaring problem of Hinsch, I did not get much new from this. It is certainly balanced, in that Donut Dollies get their say alongside the soldiers. I think this is where the VHP as a repository can come in handy. It would be nice, for instance, to get the stories of nurses from WWI up to present day. Stories of how soldiers were transported to and from the theater of operations would also be cool.

In a final statement on this book, is it really right to take personal stories out of context? It would be right to publish a finding aid and synopsis, as well as try to arrange the VHP collection so historians can look up certain events (i.e. Battle of the Bulge) or everybody who served in the 82nd Airborne Division. This is where the VHP stories can be invaluable. Even I could see this through the campaign rhetoric oozing from the pages.

A compelling history covering the wars of the 20th Century.......2004-12-17

The Voices of War does an extraordinary job of melding together the experiences of average Americans who answered the call to service in any one of the major conflicts fought by the U.S. in the 1900s. Veterans from World Wars I and II, Korea and Vietnam contributed memoirs, sat for interviews, and sent letters that captured their impressions of their time in uniform.

The book is subdivided so that similar experiences are grouped together. For example, one chapter deals with the wait for and then the actual homecomings the contributors experienced, whether it was World War I, Korea, or another war. Another deals with the entry into military life, and the unique challenges that were far different from what they had known in civilian life.

One notable item about the book is its effort to provide a good amount of material concerning women veterans, with stories that span all four conflicts. While most of them are nursing related, each shares a personal, compelling narrative that shows the strong feelings that came with the jobs they performed, especially those that concern taking care of wounded soldiers away from home.

With a large number of World War II veterans disappearing each year now, this offers perhaps one last chance for the average person to know what happened, how it happened, and why things happened the way they did in the wars that challenged America's sons and daughters overseas.

War and Americans Spanning a Century.......2004-11-12

VOICES OF WAR is the product of the Veterans History Project form the Library of Congress. It is a book of letters, notes, memoirs, paintings, drawings, photographs, and other memorabilia from World War I through World War II through the Korean War through the Vietnam War to the Persian Gulf War. The quality of paper is the highest obtainable for books, the photograph and art reproductions are superb, and the graphic layout of the letters and memos and interviews are excellent. So as a book it ranks as an Art book.

But that is only the superficial gloss that binds this body of thoughts that have survived a century of warfare. Here are the responses of men and women who volunteered or were drafted, the families and sweethearts left on American soil to keep vigil for those who would return and those who would not. Images of entertainers such as Bob Hope and Martha Raye and the countless others who brought some sense of credibility to the 'cause' worth fighting for are juxtaposed with photos of buddies, of backhome families, and with posters and paintings that accompanied those wars.

The most impressive portion of this book is the interviews conducted by volunteers, young men and women who listened and recorded countless hours of reminiscences from veterans, nurses, families - the spectrum of those stamped with wars' tattoos. Some read as though script for Audie Murphy films: some read with hidden pain and permanent wounds like those of British poet Wilfrid Owen.

And in the end this book simply bears witness to the horror of the history of WAR. How timely for this book to arrive on the shelves when yet again we as a nation that should have learned from history are capturing more material for, unfortunately, another volume. When will we learn? Perhaps if everyone reads this excellent book, there may be hope. Grady Harp, Veterans' Day 2004

Average customer rating:
Freedom and domination: a historical critique of civilization
Alexander, and Rustow, Dankwart A. Rüstow
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000K06WDY

Average customer rating:
Freedom and Domination : a Historical Critique of Civilization
Alexander Rustow
Manufacturer: Princeton University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000O88JKG

Average customer rating:

Better Than Zinn's History!

Freedom and Domination: A Historical Critique of Civilization
Alexander Rüstow
Manufacturer: Princeton Univ Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | World | History | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0691053049

Customer Reviews:

Better Than Zinn's History!.......2006-01-12

Alexander Rustow was a sociology professor at Heidelberg University in Germany. He lived through Hitler's nightmare and was a leading opponent of the Nazis. When Rustow originally wrote this history in his native German language, he filled three volumes. In his reputation of writing history, he was Germany's version of our William Appleman Williams or our Howard Zinn. He wrote "I affirm freedom and reject domination, I affirm humaneness and reject barbarism, I affirm peace and reject violence. The pairs of opposites are the great poles between which the drama of human history is enacted".

His research led him to uncover the root of what ails mankind and by assuming the role of a self-conscious "pathologist", he sought the origins for the Nazi horrors of the twentieth century. His discovery was not a popular one in his time. He learned that the root of conquest and domination was the establishment of the state. In other words, government is the problem - not the solution. During the twentieth century, too many people were dreaming about a welfare state that would take care of their needs or a warfare state that could do the same, both by robbing from Peter to pay Paul.

Rustow's book is able to lay out the historical development of domination in a easy-to-understand drama. Libertarians, true conservatives, progressives, and others concerned about the global corporatists and the neocons who rape the Bill of Rights while they bomb and kill our global neighbors would benefit from reading this one-volume condensation of Rustow's history.

Book Description

New Englanders talk as much about their weather as about all other subjects combined. Anyone who's scampered for shelter during a summer shower or shoveled a path through snow in May knows that bending to the weather's whims is a way of life in New England. But what do you actually know about New England's weather or climate?

Combining a scholarly appreciation of weather systems and events with an ability to transmit their passion to a general audience, Gregory A. Zielinski and Barry D. Keim have written a one-of-a-kind guide to New England weather and climate. Not only are weather patterns in New England more changeable and more extreme than almost anywhere in the country, New England is the ultimate destination of nearly all storm tracks nationwide. Recently, newsworthy items such as global warming, El Nino, and La Nina have significantly impacted our local weather, in both the short and long term. Luckily, the science of meteorology and climatology and their tools of observation and analysis have made great strides in the past few years.

The authors offer an in-depth explanation of the latest theoretical insights into New England's weather along with a flurry of stories and lore about the vagaries of our clime. The book is divided into the seasons as we actually experience them--ski season, mud season, beach and lake season, and foliage season. It includes photos and illustrations: some all too familiar, many hard to believe. Zielinski and Keim succeed in providing an illuminating and entertaining analysis and commentary while whole-heartedly embracing our region's atmospheric peculiarities. This book won't do anything about New England's weather or climate but it will help you understand each of them.

Customer Reviews:

Fantastic.......2005-03-13

Being from central Connecticut and a budding weather hobbyist, this book is fantastic. Besides being easy to read and well organized, it has a wealth of relevant information.

There are six parts: 1) what makes New England's weather and climate unique; 2) causes of change in New England's weather and climate; 3) diversity of New England's weather and climate -- from the mountains to the beaches; 4) seasons of New England; 5) the weather events that influence the lives of New Englanders; and 6) changes over time.

Each part shows both the experience and research of the author. I could have lived with fewer quotes from Mark Twain and fewer mentions of Mount Washington, but everything else more than makes up for it. A very professional book. Highly recommended.

Life at the Top: Tales, Truths, and Trusted Recipes from the Mount Washington Observatory

Average customer rating:

Not Worth Your Time
I read it and Recommend it
You think you have bad weather?
From one from the top...

Life at the Top: Tales, Truths, and Trusted Recipes from the Mount Washington Observatory
Eric Pinder
Manufacturer: Down East Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | New Age | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books

Rivers | Earth Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books

General | Physics | Science | Subjects | Books

Weather | Environment | Outdoors & Nature | Subjects | Books
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Not Without Peril: 150 Years of Misadventure on the Presidential Range of New Hampshire

ASIN: 0892723963

Customer Reviews:

Not Worth Your Time.......2004-01-02

As a transplanted east coaster, I was hoping for something to evoke the flavor of what life at the top of one of my favorite hikes is like. Instead, this is a mish-mash of poorly related musings: a half-baked geology lesson, a half-baked history lesson, a few stories about bad weather and hikes, but nothing that comes across as heartfelt or compelling.

Worse, the second half of the books is filler -- recipes. One of the first listed is (I kid you not), Grilled Cheese: Butter the bread, put on cheese, grill! Pinder's insight into the mystery dish: it may be fattening.

Not to be too cynical, but I can hear the editor's words: "Eric, there's not quite enough here for a book -- what can you fill it out with?...Recipes? Okay."

I don't like to trash anyone's work, but I'd advise you to save your money -- this one's a disappointment.

I read it and Recommend it.......2000-07-16

This is a good read. Witty, warm, engaging--I was thoroughly immersed in the environs of Mt. Washington that the book related. The mood evoked both the warm cozy feeling of being tucked away indoors with a fire going (safe from the rugged outdoors), as well as the electric thrill of experiencing harsh, brutal weather first-hand. Believe it or not, I was actually hungry for a hot meal from reading this!

You think you have bad weather?.......1998-12-26

Great stories of life on top of Mount Washington. Interlaced with the stories like shovling snow from the kitchen and sliding 8 miles to the bottom of the mountain are explainations of our weather, how it forms and why. They also have cooking contests (what eles can you do when it's 41 below) and tell you how to make their great foods for warming the cockels of your heart on those cold winter days.

From one from the top..........1997-10-14

Eric's book is a delightfull source of both light hearted stories and easy to understand weather knowledge. If you love The Rockpile or just have a desire for a good weather book, then this book will not disapoint.

Average customer rating:
The Country Journal New England Weather Book
David McWilliams Ludlum
Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin (T)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Physics | Science | Subjects | Books
General | Geology | Earth Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0395242991

Average customer rating:
The Country Journal New England Weather Book

Manufacturer: Houghton Mifflin Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0395244021

Average customer rating:
New England's Changing Climate, Weather and Air Quality
Climate Change Research Center
Manufacturer: Climate Change Research Center, UNH
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000KI8DII

Average customer rating:
New England's Disastrous Weather: Hurricanes, Tornadoes, Blizzards, Dark Days, Heat Waves, Cold Snaps ...and the Human Stories Behind Them

Manufacturer: Rodale Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | United States | Americas | History | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0899093647

Average customer rating:
The effect of abnormal weather conditions during 1934 on vegetation in the northeast (Occasional paper / Northeastern Forest Experiment Station)
H. F Morey
Manufacturer: Northeastern Forest Experiment Station
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Trees | Plants | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0008BVVB8

Average customer rating:
The freezing index in New England: George D. Gilman (Special report - Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory)
George G Gilman
Manufacturer: U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0007EYXDY

Average customer rating:
New England's Disastrous Weather

Manufacturer: Rodale Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 9992390212

Average customer rating:
Weather information for boaters, Cape Cod to Watch Hill (Marine bulletin / University of Rhode Island)
Elisabeth Keiffer
Manufacturer: University of Rhode Island
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Boating | Water Sports | Sports | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0006XSJLS

Customer Reviews:

Accessible to lay readers, natural history enthusiasts and scientists alike........2007-03-06

Edited by natural historian Richard Stephen Felger and research associate Bill Broyles, Dry Borders: Great Natural Reserves of the Sonoran Desert is an in-depth natural history reference and resource of the Sonoran Desert in southwestern Arizona and northwestern Mexico. Chapters examine the Sonoran Desert's geography, geology, flora and fauna, indigenous people, aquatic life of the adjoining gulf, and much more. An inset selection of color plates a geographic dictionary of place names, and an index round out this comprehensive guide accessible to lay readers, natural history enthusiasts and scientists alike.

An incredible compilation.......2007-02-05

I recommend this book for anyone who has any curiosity about desert ecosystems, the Sonora and the Gulf of California. Rarely does one find a book that is both highly authoritative and immensely readable. This one is both.

The book is richly illustrated with photographs, diagrams and tables. The authors personally discuss their journeys of discovery. By the time one goes through this book they have had a first hand tour of the desert, the people of the Sonora and their great personable travel guides.There is also mention of the impact of time and "civilization" on the Sonora.

I recommend this book highly for Sonoran and desert hikers as a field book and those looking for a reference. You can't beat the price.

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