Hats off to Bradt for producing this guide in the first place. The three destinations covered in the book are about as "off the beaten track" as it's possible to get without falling off the edge of the Earth. They are 3 tiny islands floating in the middle of the South Atlantic. None can be reached by commercial air service. St. Helena is accessible by a regular, but quite infrequent passenger ship traveling between England and Cape Town. (The schedule of which requires visitors to spend either only a couple of hours/days on the island, or several weeks.)
Ascension is a stop on a few of the St. Helena runs. Tristan, the most remote of all, is served only by the occassional freighter or private vessel.
Not surprisingly, none of the destinations is exactly overflowing with tourist attractions [though St. Helena, of course, has some Napoleon sites], but this (along with their inaccessibility) means that they aren't exactly overflowing with tourists either. Which, for some people, is what gives them their appeal.

No, I won't be visiting these destinations any time soon. But the guidebook was a lot of fun to read, providing plenty of fodder for travel-dreams.

one of the best book i have read on latin america. much better than your favorites. Should be recommended to all interested in latin america. thank you.

I read a lot of fiction and, quite frankly, loved this book as much as anything I've read lately. Stough has written an unpretentious chronicle of Panama from the Spanish conquest to the present--and beyond. The story is told through people connected by blood and also by Panama's rich, varied culture. There are enough heroic, doomed, quixotic characters--spread over 350 years--to shame the Bard, a collection of natives, Spanish conquistadors, English pirates, opportunists of every ilk and, of course, French and American canal builders.

It's not often that staff officers receive the kind of attention combat commanders do, but even in the War Between the States, when staff officers frequently had as much front-lines time as private soldiers, Sandie Pendleton was something exceptional. W.G. Bean does an excellent job showing us why.

I first encountered Alexander Swift 'Sandie' Pendleton in Douglas Southall Freeman's essential 'Lee's Lieutenants,' in which he cites the need for a comprehensive biography of this important officer. A few years later (Freeman wrote in the 1940s, and 'Stonewall's Man' was first published in 1959), W.G. Bean -- appropriately, the Douglas Southall Freeman Professor of History at Pendleton's alma mater, Washington and Lee University -- took up the challenge. This is a sympathetic, but still thorough, look at the man 'Stonewall' Jackson 'loved like a son,' and Dick Ewell called 'the most promising young man' in the Army of Northern Virginia.

Pendleton was something of an intellectual, having graduated from Washington College (later W&L University) and entered the M.A. program at the University of Virginia when the War began. His quick and organized mind was ideally suited to the needs of a military staff, and he quickly made himself invaluable to Generals Jackson and Ewell. By the time of his death in 1864, shortly before his 24th birthday, he had risen to the rank of lieutenant colonel, and was assistant adjutant general (essentially, chief of staff) of the Second Corps.

Bean does a fine job of relating all this. He also doesn't skip on the equally important details of Sandie's personal life, particularly his romance with, and marriage to, Kate Corbin. This book is filled with excerpts from Sandie and Kate's personal letters, as well as those of their families and friends. By the time the book is complete, I felt I knew Sandie well, and, with his wife and family, genuinely mourned his untimely death.

Freeman said that part of his motivation in writing 'Lee's Lieutenants' was to rescue from obscurity some of the lesser-known commanders and officers of the Confederate armies. Today, when any acknowledgement (let alone defense) of the CSA is considered in some quarters a 'hate crime,' Freeman's mission is more important than ever. I'm very pleased, therefore, that 'Stonewall's Man' has been re-released, and urge its study by anyone interested in the Army of Northern Virginia. The staff corps, too, has its heroes, and Sandy Pendleton's is a life worthy of remembering and respecting.

This book is full of fantastic stories I have never read anywhere before. I especially liked the last story, which is a ghostly tale set in the jungle. The stories are very exciting but they also give you information about the rain forest. Saviour Pirotta visited my school in London for our book week and he told us some of his favourite stories. It made me buy the book. Saviour writes stories based in many countries round the world, not just England or America.

"Strangers in the Land of Paradise" by Lillian Serece Williams is a brilliantly written book about the creation of an African American community in Buffalo, New York from 1900-1940. Illuminating with new information, pictures and graphs, it answers many questions about the daily life experiences of a group of Americans adjusting to political and economic changes. The family support system that Williams delineated in this turn-of-the-century community is one of those strengths that too often are overlooked in contemporary literature on African Americans. Yet these are important strengths that are present in contemporary African American communities across the nation and upon which I frequently draw to treat some of my patients.

This timely, outstanding blend of scholarship and humanity places this work in the category of a genuine classic. The book is a "must" for every serious scholar of American history. "No Shame in my Game" by Katherine Neuman would be a wonderful contemporary companion.

If you want to read only one book on conservation in Amazonia, I would recommend this one. The author has a long experience in this field and is chairman of the international advisory group (IAG) consulting the "Pilot Program" of the G-7 states to save the rain forests in Amazonia. Hall's concept of "productive conservation" takes participation of the local population very seriously. Even if you know that the people living in the forest should be seen as part of the solution, you can still learn a lot from reading this book. Several projects of "productive conservation" are presented in detail: Rubber tappers, agroforestry and the Mamiraua fishery project. According to Hall, public awareness (in Amazonia) of conservation issues is about to reach critical mass. This book is of great help to reach that goal.

this was a very helpful and informative book about Tennessee. It contains facts concerning the counties, civil war and even different people from the area. This was a great resource for my research. I would recomend it to anyone

TERRA INCOGNITA is the telling of history from another point of view, connecting the dots between voyages, ships, cargoes & paymasters.

If you like to know the who, why, when & how of historical things & events, then TERRA INCOGNITA will thrill you. Into this little book is packed a ton of trivia that is both fascinating & extra-ordinary, about the exploration of the world from the "Twelve Wooden Plates" upon which a new map was secured for printing & what Amerigo Vespucci had to do with them, to "The Commercial Revolution" in which the Black Plague had people sailing away in fleets to the farthest reaches of the globe, to "A Young Genoan Arrives in Bristol" being excerpts from journals of the icon of exploration to "Bristol Ships in Lisbon and Huelva" where Christopher Columbus had been dwelling, to "Shipshape and Bristol Fashion" wherein a medieval proverb comes to life & so on into the stuff of legends, all the facts & the fictions.

Very well done...a superb history of mapmakers & voyagers...certainly for every history buff, & anyone interested in writing about merchant seamen, explorers & maps.

A comprehensive guide to keeping cichlids. There are also useful tables concerning plants and decorations suitable for cichlid tanks. The first 100 pages contain the more general info on natural habitats, aquarium selection, water requirements and filtration, heating and lighting, aquascaping, maintenance, feeding, health and breeding. The last section on breeding has separate sections on African, Central American and South American cichlids. This same division is used in the second part of the book, the species section. The descripion of the different fishes is very comprehensive and includes wonderful information such as sexing and compatibility. The index includes both scientific name as well as common name. Great reference book for the beginning and advanced hobbyist alike.