Review Roundup: In Print, July and August ‘08

I’ve gotten a little behind on this. Here are some bird book and product reviews from magazines and journals published in July and August, 2008.

– Vol. 31 No. 1, Sept/October 2008

Flights Against the Sunset: Stories that Reunited a Mother and Son, by Kenn Kaufman
A very positive review,which states that you “may well find an entirely new and far greater appreciation of Kaufman as a naturalist, a storyteller, and a human being”.
Digital Photography Outdoors: A Field Guide for Travel and Adventure Photographers, by James Martin
“This book would be an excellent choice for someone who has recently purchased their first DSLR camera, or who has yet to fully take the plunge into the often intimidating world of digital photography”.

– Aug 2008 (Vol. 22, Issue 4)

Smithsonian Field Guide to the Birds of North America, by Ted Floyd
The reviewer obviously enjoyed this “excellent new field guide”.
Finding Birds On The Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail: Houston, Galveston, and the Upper Texas Coast, by Ted Lee, Jr. Eubanks, Robert A. Behrstock, Seth Davidson
“Don’t bird the northeastern portion of the Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail without this new guide.”
The Backyard Birdsong Guide: Western North America, by Donald Kroodsma
75 species of western birds are covered with sounds from the built-in audio player, and excellent essays by one of the foremost birdsong experts.
Woodland Birds of North America: A Guide to Observation, Understanding and Conservation, by Scott Leslie
Includes “great photos” of woodland birds, but also insights into their lives and especially conservation status.
Site Guide to the Birds of Veracruz, by Robert Straub
Maps, directions, and notes for 56 sites and 25 “sub-sites” in the Mexican state.

– Sept/Oct 2008

A Supremely Bad Idea: Three Mad Birders and Their Quest to See It All, by Luke Dempsey
A standout in the “birding adventures” genre.
The Backyard Birdsong Guide: Western North America; Eastern and Central North America, by Donald Kroodsma
“This book will help you enjoy and appreciate bird vocalizations on a deeper level”.
Birdwatcher: The Life of Roger Tory Peterson, by Elizabeth Rosenthal
Anyone interested in Peterson will enjoy this biography.

– Aug 2008, Vol 20, no 4

Fifty Places to Go Birding Before You Die: Birding Experts Share The World’s Greatest Destinations, by Chris Santella
Good for “someone looking for places to bird outside their hometown, but probably not as helpful to serious world birders”.
Lost Worlds: Adventures in the Tropical Rainforest, by Bruce M. Beehler
The reviewer “cannot recommend too highly” this book.
Flying over the Pyrenees, Standing on the Plains, by Steve West
Full of “charming tales” and “more than a few things to be learned”.
An Island Out of Time: A Memoir of Smith Island in the Chesapeake, by Tom Horton
This “memoir of a community” beautifully memorializes this area and its way of life.
A Passion for Birds, by Ong Kiem Sian
This book and accompanying DVD is full of “photographic marvels” of the birds of Southeast Asia.
Birds of North America, by Jim Roetzel
A collection of “portrait quality” photographs. Worryingly, though, it seems some captions may not be 100% accurate.
Rhapsody in Blue (A Celebration of North American Waterbirds), by Middleton Evans
A “splendid array of photographs” of 180 species of birds from North America’s wetlands.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 22nd, 2008 at 8:40 pm.
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