Key to the Vascular Plants of Mongolia: (With an Atlas)

Book Description

Get ready to plan the family adventure of a lifetime! With more than 35 million people flocking to Las Vegas last year, the city is a hot spot for the traveling family. And with The Everything(r) Family Guide to Las Vegas, you have all you need to plan a trip that will keep everyone happy-even you!

The Everything(r) Family Guide to Las Vegas has it all, including an age-appropriate rating system for shows and entertainment. Whether you're traveling with your scrupulous parents, rambunctious kids, or night-owl teens, this guide has what you need to keep them all smiling. Navigate the Las Vegas Strip like an expert with:

Comprehensive information on each casino and resort property

Tips on finding the best deals online

Complete chapters on the top twelve family-friendly hotels and resorts

Listings of family-oriented attractions and shows

Safe places to leave the kids for the adults' night out

Photographs of resorts, shows, and attractions

Electrifying adventure ideas off the beaten trail
Give your family a vacation they'll never forget-Vegas style!

The Everything Guide to Las Vegas: Hotels, Casinos, Restaurants, Major Family Attractions, and More (Everything Series)

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A Great Book For A Great Trip
not worth the money
Everything?? Not quite...
The BEST guide for Vegas Hotels & Attractions

The Everything Guide to Las Vegas: Hotels, Casinos, Restaurants, Major Family Attractions, and More (Everything Series)
Jason Rich
Manufacturer: Adams Media Corporation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Guidebooks | Reference & Tips | Travel | Subjects | Books

North America | Travel | Subjects | Books

General | Travel | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1580624383

Customer Reviews:

A Great Book For A Great Trip.......2004-09-01

This book helped me plan a wonderful trip to Las Vegas. I didn't hit it big at te casinos (oh well), but I had a great time! This book was very informative.

not worth the money.......2004-01-22

This book is not worth the money. The book does not cover downtown and is only broken down by hotel names. No break down of catagories such as restaurants, buffets or other items of intrest. There are much better travel books available! This book was very disappointing.

Everything?? Not quite..........2003-03-26

I'm going to Vegas for the first time very soon, and I admit, I had high expectations of this book. Maybe too high, because the book fell well short of what I was expecting.

First off, it was published in 2000, when the world as a whole was a very different place, not to mention all the changes to Las Vegas since then. Next, yes, it does give very in-depth descriptions of the hotels it covers (which is really only those on the Strip), and the dining options in them. But if you're a Vegas virgin trying to decide where in Vegas to stay based on this book, you'll have a tough time, since all the hotels are comfortable, luxurious, and tastefully decorated, and all the dining is top-rated and cutting edge. As for attractions, those attached to the Strip hotels are given a decent enough description, but the free-standing places are pretty much given just a quick once over.

If you're web-savvy at all, there's no information here that you couldn't get yourself -- and what you'd find online would probably be much more current. If you just HAVE to have a Vegas guidebook, go with "The Unofficial Guide to Vegas." That book is everything I was hoping this one would be.

The BEST guide for Vegas Hotels & Attractions.......2002-02-23

This book has it all and more.... broken down by each hotel and includes the attractions/food/shops/gaming/shows available at each location, along with information on the hotel's rooms and rates. Doesn't skimp on knowledge, for example, there's 16 pages on the MGM Grand Hotel alone!! It's somewhat larger than most guide books, so don't think you'll be carrying it down the Strip with you but it's great for gaining an insight to what is available for the tourist at each hotel. The only drawback is that there aren't any color pictures or maps. Other than that, it's perfect!!

Book Description

It’s a land of riddles, where a winter night can last for weeks and where the ground is full of water though it rarely rains or snows. Bears, hares, wolves, and foxes roam the ice-crusted earth, as flowers follow the sun as it moves across the sky. Young readers may never come to the Arctic tundra, but now it can come to them—in a book chock full of fun-to-do experiments and activities for children ages 6 and up that help them to solve some of the mysteries of this strange and forbidding world. Arctic Tundra includes a picture field guide, a glossary-index, and a resource list.

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Alaska's 12 Days of Summer
Pat Chamberlin-Calamar
Manufacturer: Sasquatch Books/Paws IV Children's Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Baby-3 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

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

All 4-for-3 Deals | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
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ASIN: 1570613419

Book Description

The infectious rhythms of the classic song, "The Twelve Days of Christmas," inspired this clever and charming counting book. Here, the famous "partridge in a pear tree" becomes a "black bear in a spruce tree," while the fifth day of summer in Alaska yields everything from swans and wood frogs to bald eagles and moose. Author Pat Chamberlin-Calamar has spent every summer in Alaska since 1985, and through the book's witty repetitions she conjures a vibrant world of Alaskan fauna. Alaska's 12 Days of Summer is a book that children will want to sing along with again and again.

Peoples of the Tundra: Northern Siberians in the Post-Communist Transition

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Book of the Month
unorganized

Peoples of the Tundra: Northern Siberians in the Post-Communist Transition
John P. Ziker
Manufacturer: Waveland Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

ASIN: 1577662121

Book Description

On ethnographic grounds alone, Ziker's book is a unique and valuable contribution. Despite increased fieldwork opportunities for foreigners in the former Soviet Union in recent years, much of Russia and Siberia remains terra incognita to Western scholars, except for specialists who know the Russian literature. Ziker's account of the Dolgan and Nganasan peoples of the Ust Avam community is a fascinating analysis of how people adapt their hunting, fishing, and herding not only to the demanding Arctic environment but also to enormous economic and political adversities created in the wake of the Soviet Union's collapse. In this sense, the book fills a gap in the ethnographic literature on Siberia for Western students and, at the same time, serves as a microcosm of the devastating changes affecting rural communities and indigenous peoples generally in a disintegrating former superpower: that is, increasing isolation and a shift to nonmarket survival economies. Includes student study guide.

Customer Reviews:

Book of the Month.......2004-12-04

1 May 2003
Gail Fondahl, University of Northern British Columbia
John Ziker's Peoples of the Tundra provides an informative account of post-Soviet adaptations in the remote indigenous community of Ust-Avam on the Taymyr penisula. He suggests that, counter to global trends of even remote communities becoming increasingly linked with the world economy, in this region, isolation and independence is on the rise. Ziker pays specific attention to the evolution of property rights and land use, noting the significant disjunction between new legal provisions for land rights, and preferred property arrangements in situ.

Ust-Avam, populated mainly by Dolgans, Nganasans and Russians, has watched its connections to the `outside' atrophy, as the state has withdrawn transportation subsidies, and as the hunting enterprise which organized economic activities during the Soviet period has languished. Some scholars have argued that the post-Soviet transition toward a market economy will mean a partial return to `traditional' ways of life (e.g., Pika 1999). The Russian government in fact has allowed for land claims to be pursued on the basis of what some ethnographers have argued was the predominant pre-Soviet indigenous land tenure system, founded around the obshchina. Ziker asks why few native families have pursued such obshchina lands, and why most have made no attempt to gain formal title to land in this part of Russia. This is the core theme of his book; however his broader intent is to introduce the Dolgans and Nganasans, peoples poorly documented in the English language.

Ziker has directed his book toward an undergraduate anthropology audience, aware that it will also attract scholars of indigenous peoples in Russia. After outlining his general argument, he introduces the geography and basic economy of the region, focussing especially on the diversity of hunting techniques and hunted species. We then receive a historical overview of changing property relations in Taymyr since Russian penetration, with emphasis on the Soviet period of settlement and collectivization. The Volochanka Rebellion, a long-shrouded example of resistance to early Sovietization, is covered more thoroughly here than in other English-language sources (cf. Anderson 2000, Golovnev and Osherenko 1999). Ziker also underscores how many Native individuals view the late Soviet as the golden age - though he might have accentuated for an undergraduate audience that this remembering and re-presentation of that period must be considered in the face of current woes.

Chapter 4, curiously titled "Alcohol and Violent Death' records a much more comprehensive story of demographic changes in Ust Avam. Ziker reveals a substantially reduced birth rate since 1993. His discussion of mortality exposes differences along axes of gender and ethnicity: especially interesting is the comparison of Dolgan and Nganasan mortality. The grim picture of increased alcohol abuse, foreshadowed in the chapter's title, is all too representative of villages across northern Russia.

In Chapter 5, Ziker turns to a short introduction of Dolgan and Nganasan spirituality, discussing shamans and sacred places. It would have been interesting to have this discussion linked to the over-arching theme of the book, by noting whether any attempt has been made to claim and/or otherwise protect sacred places through new property systems. Chapter 6 attends specifically to property relations. It is here that scholars of Russia may find the most interesting material. Ziker reflects on why informal institutions of property division and common-pool resource management are supplanting Soviet property institutions, in direct contrast to global trends of formalization of property relations and erosion of common-pool resource management. He explains the lack of interest in indigenous `land claims' in terms of risk-minimizing strategies. Moreover, Ziker lucidly recounts how the several levels of government (federal, territorial, district) have viewed the roles and purposes of obshchinas differently - and their views have shifted over time - a factor also influencing locals' receptivity to `land claims'. Rather, locals fear that such land allocations may limit access to migratory resources. The few land claims which have been pursued reveal a geography of proximity to urban centers. Beyond these more easily accessed lands, as state controls and supports wither indigenous hunters and trappers rely not on the fixed land claims which new laws allow (and officials may permit), but on kinship relations that provide access to a wide range of hunting and foraging places. These observations challenge seemingly universal patterns of evolving property relations, and warrant more attention!

Ziker ends his book with a bit of a potpourri: Chapter 7 deals with social/kinship organization of the Dolgans and Nganasans (including quantitative measures of relatedness); and a quick introduction to recent trends in the political organization of indigenous peoples across Russia. He notes rightly that while indigenous organization activities have expanded rapidly, as has international cooperation, the regions receive little benefit. This in fact is a predicament acknowledged by the top leaders of the Russian indigenous leaders.

A study guide consisting of discussion questions aids the utility of Peoples of the Tundra for an introductory anthropology course. The book is nicely illustrated with numerous photos, helping the reader to better understand the people and landscapes discussed. (That there are five times as many pictures of men as of women does seem curious, especially for a book pointed at an early undergraduate audience.) Unfortunately, the maps are poor, containing inadequate or ambiguous information, and some are not introduced early enough. Most frustrating for the specialist is the lack of clarity in terminology during discussions of property relations: Ziker uses the term "ownership" (e.g. p.136), but it is not clear whether this is his translation of vladenie or soobstvennost' - a nuance perhaps lost on early undergraduates but of critical importance to specialists. Yet these and other minor editorial oversights don't jeopardize the book's utility for either readership. It is not easy to maneuver between producing a book for one's colleagues and a text for early undergraduates. Peoples of the Tundra provides the latter with an accessible text that challenges some widely held lore on global processes. It whets the specialists' appetite for further development of Ziker's original observations and arguments in forthcoming academic articles.

References
Anderson, D.G. 2000. Identity and Ecology in Arctic Siberia. The Number One Reindeer Brigade. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Golovnev, A. and G. Osherenko (1999) Siberian Survival. The Nenets and Their Story. Ithaca: Cornell University Press

Pika, A. (editor). 1999 [1994]. Neotraditionalism in the Russian North. Indigenous Peoples and the Legacy of Perestroika. Edmonton: Canadian Circumpolar Institute.

unorganized.......2003-12-01

This book is poorly written. Ideas are vague and never expanded to completion. Ziker seems adept at starting one topic, and then branching off into so many other aspects that one gets lost and is unable to follow the original point of the discussion. I never got a feel for the people or their lifestyle except for the rare generalized glimpses that Ziker offers into their basic behavior. For a man that lived among these people, he doesn't leave the impression that he got to know them at all. Unless this is required text I would pass.

Living in the Tundra (Rookie Read-About Geography)

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Living in the Tundra (Rookie Read-About Geography)
Donna Loughran
Manufacturer: Children's Press (CT)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding

General | Science, Nature & How It Works | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

General | Ages 4-8 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0516227386

Arctic Tundra: Life At The North Pole (Watts Library)

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Arctic Tundra: Life At The North Pole (Watts Library)
Salvatore Tocci
Manufacturer: Franklin Watts
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding

General | Ages 9-12 | Children's Books | Subjects | Books

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ASIN: 0531123669

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Artists of the Tundra and the Sea
Dorothy Jean Ray
Manufacturer: Univ of Washington Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Sculpture | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

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Fun with Paper & Wood, Stones & Knives | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0295957328

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The Hungry Giant of the Tundra

Manufacturer: Alaska Northwest Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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

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ASIN: 0882405365

Book Description

At sundown, a group of children ignore their parents' calls to come home. Suddenly a huge form darkens the horizon. It's the hungry giant, looking for his supper.

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The Moorlands of England and Wales
Ian Simmons
Manufacturer: Edinburgh University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0748617310

Book Description

This is a history of the moorlands and the part they have played in English and Welsh history over ten millennia. Ian Simmons draws on natural science, archaeology, social history and historical geography, as well as his own forty years of exploring and studying the moorlands. He describes their origins and how they changed under the impact of human and natural forces. He shows how perceptions of the moors have been influenced by writers, artists and the media, and how these perceptions have resulted in great changes in attitudes to their use and management. The moors provide grazing land, wood, water, recreation and scenery for people, and unique habitats for birds, mammals, insects, and plants.

The book begins by offering a concise understanding of their physical and natural characteristics. It then moves quickly to an account of how hunter-gatherers of the Mesolithic period altered their surroundings using fire. It describes how millennia of agricultural production wrought distinctive moorland landscapes and how these in turn were affected and sometimes transformed by industrialization, deforestation, and changes in farming methods. The twentieth-century's renewed impetus for environmental management and conservation brings the story near to the present. The North Pennines, Dartmoor, and South Wales are the subject of detailed accounts that reveal the common characteristics of the moorlands as well as their marked contrasts. The author then offers a brief history of the moorlands in the artistic and literary imagination. Beyond the recent crises of overgrazing and the 2001 foot-and-mouth outbreak, Ian Simmons lays out some possible futures for the moors.

Life in the Tundra (Ecosystems in Action)

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Life in the Tundra (Ecosystems in Action)
Cherie Winner
Manufacturer: Lerner Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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

Natural History | Nature & Ecology | Science | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0822546868

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Among the Tundra People
Harald U. Sverdrup
Manufacturer: Univ of California San Diego
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Former Soviet Republics & Siberia | Europe | History | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0896260046

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