In my often turbulent and traumatic travels in the American and international workplace, I have often asked myself, 'Just what is it about my superiors that makes them do the stupid things that they do?' This book goes to great length to answer that in plain and simple English. The book is less of a how-to guide to survival in a dysfunctional workplace than a detailed chronicle of truly stupid behavior among middle and upper management in corporate America. The book documents a limited number of instances of dumb behavior, which they define as inexplicably profound error (or what the man on the street would call stupid), and focuses on the new, improved corporate greed that firmly took hold in the nineties. The book is a layman's read on one rarely studied aspect of human behavior. Most other academic and popular books on behavior almost always focus on intelligence and/or truly aberrant, deviant behavior. This book, however, focuses on the stupidity of quasi-normal people (after all, how can anyone who works for corporate/institutional America confidently call themselves sane?), and as such should really be titled, 'Why Otherwise Normal Individuals Do Stupid Things'.

The authors offer the workingman and woman a valuable heads up, letting them know that stupidity is rampant in the new, global workplace, and that there is no truly safe haven from the idiotic behavior of the powers that be. The book presents the reader with a succession of harrowing workplace studies, and interprets each by offering a detailed analysis (meaning) and a few terse, common sense lessons to be learned from each experience. I had hoped that the book would offer more in the way of coping strategies for those of us trapped in the daily grind. However, this book did bring to my attention two important things: letting people know that they can't easily use you by standing up for yourself, and being careful to plan your (expedient) exit once you realize that personally harmful workplace stupidity is present and thoroughly entrenched.

The book gives equal treatment to dumb individuals, organizations, and those that must suffer them. The book also indirectly teaches the reader how to recognize the underlying dysfunction in crazy workplaces. Environments rife with mistrust, egomania and insensitivity characterize all dumb organizations. Such organizations allow management to make gross errors in judgment and expend vast resources to shield upper management from the terrible consequences of lower management's mistakes (Bear in mind that this is sometimes done as a prelude to axing a problem individual, department, or division- and is thus diversionary). The dumb organization not only condones, but also encourages counter-productive behavior, openly impedes and squelches alternative courses of action (no matter how convenient or prudent), and the flawed opinions of one individual substitutes for the rational, informed consensus of the group. Dumb individuals, groups, and organizations fail to grow professionally, intellectually and personally over time- they in fact devolve as time progresses. Dumb people and organizations feel that they already know everything there is to know- going forward, they simply fail to learn, period.

While the book bills itself as an anti-dote to the feel-good, New Age, self-help business craze which has swept the corporate arena by storm, in reality, it cleverly rebukes the team-building and empowerment mania that has overcome many workplaces, ultimately revealing it to be a sham. And they are right. Team building requires selflessness and empowerment requires an open, inclusive environment. How can either succeed when selfishness and greed are rewarded (and shamelessly revered), and the organization is closed and exclusive, and outwardly fears creative, initiative-taking employees, all the while vigorously cultivating an environment that strenuously compels allegiance to the whims of the reigning autocrat.

In conclusion, I would like to offer a few words of friendly advice. When asked to cover up for the stupidity of a superior, don't. When asked to clean up the mess upper management has made, don't. When asked by upper management to do the job that your immediate boss should have done or failed to do (while keeping him or her on the job), walk away at the earliest, most convenient opportunity. As long as you perpetuate the stupidity, openly participate in it and condone it, it will always remain and it will taint you. Finally, when your boss who is paid big bucks to think asks you, either directly or implicitly, to do his or her thinking for him or her, think for yourself. Don't let him or her use your brains and get paid for it. If they can't think, then they should not be there in the first place, and more importantly, NEITHER SHOULD YOU.

The Spanish have a colorful saying, 'Antes de te cases, mira lo que haces', which literally means- before getting married, look at what you are doing. Figuratively speaking, this expression is a Latin version of our own cautionary admonition- look before you leap.

Ms. Mitchell's The Ultimate Graduate School Survival Guide offers thoughtful advice to those motivated students interested in critically evaluating the decision to pursue and attain an advanced degree. The book is excellent and extremely valuable because it forces the prospective grad student to focus on the most important things before, during and after taking the grad school plunge. The book elaborates on the right way and the wrong way to approach prospective schools, choose which school to attend, play the graduate school game, and navigate the treacherous, shark-infested waters of academe. It also offers useful, practical advice on grant and proposal writing, publications, and time management. Additionally, the author has included a bibliography full of useful books to help grad students achieve their degree goals.

Many students do not realize that by deciding to attend graduate school, they often lose control over their own fate, as your advisers dictate both your course of study and the possible career choices in academe and the professional workplace- long after you have left the ivory tower. Although I balk at the book's wholehearted endorsement of conformity to the prevailing regime and using sycophancy at every opportunity in the face of tyrannical faculty, this book provides the real deal, the inside story on the realities of graduate training. The book covers everything important, and tries to provide helpful hints and suggestions geared to successful navigation of the capricious politics in the ivory tower. Additionally, the author manages to cover even the more objectionable topics, such as romantic liaisons between students and faculty, the theft of student ideas and research by faculty, the fickle favoritism for some students over others by faculty, and the thorny politics of inclusion.

However, there are a couple of noticeable caveats in the book. First, the author neglected to add that a student, in deciding which school to attend, should consider the cost of living in and around the school environment, and the difficulty of attaining minimum lifestyle requirements. Even when a student receives generous financial aid, it may not be enough to cover the cost of living. If the aid given is not in line with the cost of living in the particular environment, the student will be forced to depend on loans for some or most of his or her living expenses. Moreover, many campus environments face housing shortages, and as can be expected, rents are bid upward when housing is scarce. Not only is the cost of living exorbitant in many environments, housing for students tends to be scarce and costly. If working professionals living in these areas are paying five hundred to one thousand dollars for the privilege of sleeping in someone's attic (or in more than a few cases, a closet), one can imagine the difficulty students would face.

Moreover, in recent years, given the generally dismal economic outlook, many students increasingly look upon graduate school as a safe harbor from both social and economic turmoil. One should bear in mind that one may give up much more than one gains in attending graduate school, as the cost of graduate study, whether paid for by loans or by fellowships, and the income foregone by not working, quickly mount. Also, these costs worsen the longer it takes to complete the degree. Therefore, given the hidden, though very real costs of a graduate education, I suggest one consider working part or full-time (for pay), preferably in a field related to one's studies while pursuing the graduate degree, or having one's place of work foot the bill for graduate study. Otherwise, one just might be better off substituting practical, on the job experience for advanced education, as many graduate programs are not geared to providing students with marketable skills.

Second, one should make certain that whatever body of knowledge one acquires, this knowledge should be transferable to other endeavors, or at least something that one can build upon. Too many students have pursued graduate degrees, in the process learning obscure concepts, methodologies and techniques, only to learn after completing their studies that their knowledge is either impractical or obsolete (or in many cases both)- a situation which not only makes them ill-prepared for the realities of the workforce, but also forces them to play catch-up and spend valuable time and money picking up other skills. Being in such a situation is never pretty- especially when one has a family to support. Therefore, it behooves the prospective student to consider the expected payoff from an investment in advanced education very critically.

This book, along with RL Peters' Getting What You Came For and PJ Feibelman's A PhD Is Not Enough, should be required reading for all graduate students.

As a person coming from a hard-core science and engineering background, I never thought that poetry had any 'value'. I never once saw in poetry insight into the nature and state of affairs of human beings. So I was very surprised when I read Ms. Nelson's Carver, A Life in Poems. Ms. Nelson presents us with poetry so rich in texture, so layered in meaning that these few lines of prose convey much, much more information than hundreds of pages of dry text. The book skillfully combines anecdotal historical footnotes with powerful poetic prose to tell the story of the most influential man in American agricultural history.

Carver the man overcame severe hardship and the prejudices of others to achieve great things. Living in a time when opportunities were few and far between for American Blacks, and slavery was a vivid recollection, Carver blazed a trail that few have been able to even approach, let alone top, since then. Even though he dealt with his share of racism, not every person not of African-American ancestry was unkind to him. Given the least of all of his peers, black or white, Carver went on to achieve the most in life. In spite of the hardships, the racism, and even the slights and insults of his own people, he left behind a legacy of good work, compassion, and technical accomplishment that stands the test of time. As such, Carver takes a solid place among the great minds of antiquity- from Imhotep, Egypt's greatest builder, to Confucius, China's greatest thinker and statesman.

Although Carver's array of inventions is impressive, his ingenuity and knack for turning what others see as worthless into something valuable, as in the poems 'Chemistry 101' and 'The Wild Garden' and 'God's Little Workshop', is truly astounding. Carver had tremendous impact in a host of scientific disciplines- agronomy, botany, chemistry, and plant pathology to name a few. For me, Carver's life demonstrates the importance of a creative and spiritual base. Carver could not have developed the hundreds of practical uses for the 'goober', or peanut-the plant that African slaves brought to the United States, and that White farmers fed to their animals before eating themselves- if he did not have a highly developed creative side. Moreover, his unyielding faith in the Creator, and his reliance on his faith in times of great peril and suffering, enabled him to endure what I and most other people would consider to be the unendurable. Carver's creativity and great spiritual faith gave him the inspiration to make practical use of those things that others considered worthless. In many ways, Carver was the unassailable prototype of the entrepreneurial alchemist- he created something of value out of literally nothing. Professor Carver's many achievements clearly demonstrate the importance of the study of economic botany.

I would like to add that four of his most important contributions to agricultural science- resting the land, crop rotations, application of riparian sediments and the use of legumes to replenish the vital nutrients of intensively cultivated and depleted soils, closely parallel the ecological practices of the great agrarian societies of Asia and Central and South America. The Native Americans, and their Asian compatriots, were well aware of the benefits of these practices, and had developed strong, stable and successful agricultural methods which in turn allowed for the flowering of some of history's greatest civilizations- the Inca, the Maya and the Aztec cultures. In fact, as F H King pointed out in his groundbreaking work, Farmers of Forty Centuries, at the beginning of the 20th century, the farmers of Asia had been using these techniques continuously to maintain and perpetuate the cultivation of the same plots of land, feeding increasing numbers of their people, for over four thousand years. In effect, these ancient farmers had developed sustainable farming practices and projected them four millennia into the present. In this way, I see Professor Carver as not only the Father of the Peanut industry, he is, and rightly so, The Father of Sustainable Agriculture in America.

It is both refreshing and heart-warming to me to know that an African-American man of science can also be a Renaissance Man in the fullest sense of the word. Gifted in the arts and gifted in the sciences, Carver blended art and practicality in a way I can only hope to partially attain. From this book, I humbly receive a new and invaluable hero, a new and awesome role model- Professor Carver, Jack of All Trades, Renaissance Man Extraordinaire- a true man of the people, a true Titan of Science.

In this time of traumatizing economic upheaval, every advantage in the competition for jobs, no matter how slight, matters. As such, how one presents oneself is often more important than what one presents to the public. Jackson's book, Prepare Your Curriculum Vitae, gives the intelligent job seeker an advantage in the job search in two ways. First, it prepares the reader emotionally for the task of charting one's life and career via detailed documentation of events and achievements. Second, it clearly and skillfully guides the reader through the mechanics of putting one's best foot forward on paper. As such, the book combines an emphasis on content with important dimensions of style to give the job seeker a crucial and badly needed advantage in the competition for jobs.

The first chapter, 'Getting Started: The Emotional Dimension', offers excellent, quality exercises to put the reader in the proper frame of mind to write an outstanding and noticeable CV. A strong and successful CV is the product of considerable time and effort devoted to personal reflection. As such, the chapter helps to build a positive and realistic attitude toward CV preparation, and makes the writing process much easier to perform. After making an honest attempt to do the exercises in the first chapter, I was truly amazed at my own perspective, and what I as a person had accomplished. Before completing the exercises, I had held my accomplishments in very low regard, and I had the general impression that I did not know anything and had not done anything of true significance or value. As such, I see the first chapter as a psychologically beneficial means to boost both self-confidence and self-esteem.

Given the format and structure of the text, the second chapter on electronic resumes should have logically followed the chapters on drafting and preparing CVs and the chapter of sample CVs. The real work associated with CV preparation and writing begins with the third chapter, 'Listing Competencies and Skills'. Here, in a five-step process, the text encourages the reader to identify his or her competencies and skills. For each competency and skill, the reader learns how to make both broad assessments and exacting statements about his or her level, or degree, of proficiency. The reader finally reviews his or her competencies, and then chooses which to state on the CV based on individual career objectives, position sought and the degree of importance of each competency. The fourth chapter immerses the reader in the preparation of working drafts. After presenting the contents of a typical CV to the reader, each portion of the CV, from the objectives and education to the interests and references, are subjected to a three-step process of draft, revision and final version. Once each part of the CV is completed, the entire CV is stylistically assembled in a way most pleasing to the potential viewers of the document. The fifth chapter gives the reader the usual advice regarding the polishing of the final draft of the CV. Chapters six and seven go through the mechanics of writing effective cover letters and other correspondence associated with job seeking, and provides numerous, detailed samples of each type of correspondence, as well as the successful distribution of your CV. Chapter eight offers numerous examples of CV organization and style across all disciplines at the undergraduate, graduate and professional levels. Four appendices round out the book, and offer information on abbreviations, a list of action verbs used in resume preparation, contact information for selected professional organizations and societies, and a select list of books on style in writing.

The book repeatedly emphasizes that care should be taken to describe accomplishments in clear, concise terms, and that the content of the CV should be slanted toward the particular objective in mind. The text also stresses that because the CV serves simultaneously as a calling card and as marketing, sales and promotional material for the individual, it pays to be a strong advocate of oneself and one's accomplishments.

Apart from some minor organizational problems, the book is an excellent source of information and inspiration for those who have no previous experience writing CVs. More experienced and advanced individuals can still use this book as a basis for CV preparation, albeit at a faster pace than those new to the endeavor. No graduate student or professional should be without this important and invaluable text.

The book itself is funny and insightful, and filled to the brim with notable faux pas committed by foreigners, particularly Americans, when working with or for the Japanese. While there is a certain amount of over-emphasis on the old stand-bys often associated with doing business with the Japanese, such as punctuality, bowing, and the appropriate way to dole out meishi, there are a few kernels of useful knowledge that are at once interesting, practical and effective. Each chapter is structured to give the reader some interesting facts upfront, the bad news on Japanese business and cultural practices, and finally an example, either real or imagined, of just how beneficial some Japanese managerial and cultural practices can be. A thoughtful and intelligently laid out glossary of key Japanese terms, along with a very useful bibliography for further reading, is included at the end of the book.

Some of the concepts from the book, such as apprenticeship and observational research, not only comprise very important aspects of Japanese culture, but also resonate with my own observations and experiences living and working with the Japanese. Finally, apart from the more interesting and colorful cultural and historical tidbits, the most important concept that I took from the book was the Japanese emphasis on non-verbal communication, and ambiguous, indirect speech. For many non-Japanese not of Asian heritage, this de-emphasizing of non-verbal communication can be quite daunting to comprehend and ultimately master.

After reading this book, I came to understand the importance of playing to Japanese strengths and matching my interests with Japanese needs and strengths. Working for a Japanese boss means emphasizing teamwork and group loyalty over individual accomplishment, and adroitly implementing your qualifications and expertise wherever appropriate as opposed to banking off of your experience, rank and seniority in the company. In short, the requirements for success when working for a Japanese boss are the same as those needed to work well with an American boss. Increasingly, your performance and results matter more, on both sides of the Pacific, than your willingness to work hard, which by now is a given in both Japan and the US. Those looking to work well with the Japanese must learn to pay very close attention to not only themselves, but also their surroundings in a way that is different from what they are accustomed to at home.

Written at the height of mass hysteria and public paranoia towards Japanese corporate influence, the book portrays an influential Japanese presence in America with exasperated resignation and tries to offer its readers keys to landing good paying jobs with the Japanese. That said, the reader should bear in mind that attitudes and behaviors have changed drastically on both sides of the Pacific in the twelve years since this book was published. Moreover, chapters such as 'Sex and the Japanese Salaryman' are clearly thrown in to make the book more commercial, and other chapters, such as "Why Women Are Over the Hill and Out of the Door by Thirty', clearly are playing to the author's and the public's pre-conceived and antiquated notions of Japanese business. Chapters such as these, while marginally informative, attest to the dated nature of the text and essentially serve to simultaneously entertain the reader and stoke the flames of an already biased public. As such, this book occupies the opposite extreme of those books lauding everything Japanese, such as Ezra Vogel's Japan as Number One, and ultimately does little to present the inquisitive reader with a clear, balanced representation of the Japanese people. The book would have been much stronger if some Japanese perspectives, particularly those of Japanese bosses, were included alongside those of American workers. If one really wanted to know how to work for a Japanese boss, then it stands to reason that one would rely heavily on the information and experiences of Japanese bosses who have managed non-Japanese personnel and firms outside of Japan. Instead, this book gives the reader copious anecdotal experiences from American employees of Japanese companies.

Nonetheless, the United States still is at the center of global trade, finance, and economy, and the specter of imminent and inevitable Japanese corporate rule is nothing more than a dim flight of fancy. Overall this book is better than most that I have read on the subject. In conclusion, given the unfolding events of the last decade, Ms. Bacarr would do well to write a similar text for the now economically insecure and lay-off threatened Japanese employee entitled 'How to Work for an American Boss'.

The authors of this book have made some compelling and thought provoking arguments- arguments that go beyond the topics they touch upon, namely, hunger, democracy, security, politics and economy. The implications of this book are far-reaching, as the larger issues it addresses call into question the very nature of modern development, and ultimately, the long-term viability of the human race.

It really is hard to believe that there is hunger in a world of plenty. Even when food production is increased, hunger is not abated- it only increases further. Although many famine-stricken countries have been written off as hopeless, a critical look at the histories of these countries will show that hunger and famine are recent phenomena. These phenomena result when time honored agricultural traditions of sustainable stewardship and subsistence cultivation are abandoned for export-led development trajectories heavily reliant on cash crops grown with imported goods, methods, and technologies. This state of affairs is a situation largely encouraged and increasingly demanded by the wealthy nations.

The wealthiest fifth of the world's population eats very well, of that I am certain. The wealthiest fifth can eat what it wants, when it wants, and how much it wants. It can do this by extracting and exporting the natural resources of the third world, in the form of luxury foods such as coffee, tea, pineapples and cashews. These natural resources would otherwise go into the production of subsistence crops, crops biologically suited for the specific climatic, topographic, ecological and cultural conditions found in the third world. As a result, the world's wealthy eats at the expense of the world's poor, all the while irreversibly depleting the productive capacity of the ecosystems at home and in poor nations.

Contrary to popular belief, natural disasters are not becoming more common. Although they may be becoming more severe, closer inspection tells us that despite advances in technology, people are becoming more vulnerable to disasters. In the same way, people are becoming more vulnerable to hunger, and despite considerable advances in agricultural production, technology, and even transport, hunger is more common today than it was fifty or even one hundred years ago. In fact, the specter of hunger is rearing its ugly head in places that we would never expect it- right in our own back yard. Famine and hunger can not be blamed on drought or war. It can not be blamed on a lack of food, or a lack of technology to produce food better or in larger quantities. Famine is ultimately caused by the failure of human institutions to secure critical resources for people. The authors correctly point out that a steady concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a decreasing number of people are to blame for our present situation of overwhelming poverty, hunger, and suffering owing to increasing intractable economic insecurity. However, they failed to underscore the critical point that such a state of affairs can only be perpetuated when a significant minority of the people- the middle class supporting the elites, fully endorse the actions of the elites. As Frantz O. Fanon demonstrated in his book, The Wretched of the Earth, in which he outlines in detail what he calls the psychology of the oppressed, only when the middle class feels threatened does the situation change.

As a scientist and engineer, it is now clear to me that science and technology can not solve any of mankind's fundamental problems. Whether it is the discovery of antibiotics or the development of the automobile, technology tends to create more problems than it solves, as with antibiotics comes the problem of resistance, just as greenhouse emissions and drunk driving go hand in hand with the automobile. Thus, the claims of agribusiness centering on biotechnology as the solution to world hunger now sound extremely hollow to me, just as improved birth control and family planning now look like interesting intellectual and social fantasies. Science and technology can not solve the problem of individual greed, and they can not solve the problems of anti-democratic behavior. Let me be perfectly clear- more technology is not the answer. Nonetheless, given our current political and economic ideologies, and the scientific and technological paradigms that support them, our individual freedom and ultimately our very survival as a species is at stake...

In the end, it all boils down to a choice between short-term economic gain and long-term factor (resource) productivity. As Aldous Huxley stated in the epilogue of his classic, Brave New World, "You pays your money and you takes your choice."

Wild Solutions is a beautifully written little book containing a well-reasoned, passionate argument for the conservation of all the creatures in the natural world, not just the ones that look cute on T-shirts or postcards. The over riding theme of this book is not that we should save nature because we can make a quick buck off of it; rather, we should save nature because the natural world is one big laboratory, available to humanity free of charge, that not only supports us with a variety of ecosystem services but also continuously shows us new and better ways of living. The message is that species must be conserved because it is impossible to determine which will be vitally important in the future. Humanity tends to judge the worth of a species based on its value to us now without knowing fully or even considering the role the species may play in nature. We really do not know what species will be important in the future. Moreover, we do not know yet to what extent how important the known species are in ecosystem processes. Too often we learn of the organism's role and importance in ecosystems only after it is gone. One important point of the book is that we do not realize or even appreciate the extent to which we are dependent on the natural world.

As the case of Biosphere Two clearly showed the world, placing a value on the importance of a species without knowing its role in ecosystems and food chains, merely based on arrogant and selfish notions of whether or not we derive some value from it is foolhardy. Biosphere Two also showed us that humanity can not do without Nature, but Nature, given its multi-billion year history, can and has done without us. The authors liken the world's creatures to a natural internet that is responsible for the air that we breathe, the water that we drink, and the rich fertile soil that we depend upon for the food that we eat. All of these gifts from Nature, unfortunately, are being tainted, damaged and destroyed by the greedy and selfish actions of humanity. Although many of the example organisms may not be new to some readers, the way in which these organisms interact, and the way in which Humanity has taken advantage of these interactions to enrich our lives gives all a deeper understanding of the importance of these and other organisms.

While some may criticize the call to save the natural world for economic gain, no one can argue with the authors' assertion that the natural world has served and will continue to serve as a basis for the development of new industries. Nor can it be argued that the natural world will become more important as a springboard for the solution to some of mankind's most pressing problems. While I firmly believe that the preservation of species and habitats solely for present or future economic exploitation is both arrogant and shortsighted, it tends to remain the only way to convince the world powers and corporate sultans to tread lightly around environments and habitats. Such a state of affairs is at once both deplorable and depressing, but I am optimistic that sane minds will rise above the current economically inspired rapacious environmental pillage and eventually prevail.

I fully acknowledge that our callous interference in natural evolutionary processes is a foolish gamble, and this book serves as indisputable proof. Many lifetimes of benefits are waiting to be discovered among Nature's bountiful gifts, and this book inspires me to find a few of them.

Contrary to what many cultivation cognoscenti repeatedly say, this book is not the 'bible' of mushroom cultivation. Although the amount of information in this book is impressive, it is limited to a handful of species, and gives exact growth parameters for a few select mushrooms, principally those belonging to Agaricus, Pleurotus, Psilocybe/Panaeolus, and Stropharia. It should also be noted that while some species, such as Pleurotus and Agaricus are relatively easy to cultivate, others such as Stropharia and Psilocybe/Panaeolus may be difficult to cultivate even under the most favorable conditions. As many of the topics in the book are more appropriate for the small mushroom farm, the book is anything but practical for home-based cultivation. As a result, using this book as a basis for hobby cultivation will more than likely take the fun out of cultivation entirely.

That said, the book explains the science behind mushroom cultivation very well, but places considerable emphasis on composting and Agaricus/Psilocybe production. The emphasis on Agaricus is understandable, as it is a commercially cultivated mushroom with mass appeal, but Psilocybe species are covered in a bit too much detail for my taste. More lab techniques are presented in this book than in Stamet's Growing Gourmet Mushrooms, and the authors provide detailed info on starting cultures from scratch, spawn maintenance and propagation, as well as setting up your own lab. One very strong selling point of the book is the authors' elaboration on the importance of good environmental control and how to achieve it, although again, the information on this topic would be more appropriate for a farm than a home. The authors also include two very detailed chapters giving information on invertebrate (insect) and microbial pests/contaminants and provide an excellent chapter on trouble-shooting during cultivation, focusing in particular on microbial pests/contaminants. The book includes a fairly good run-down on cultivation using non-composted substrates, but it could be expanded to include more substrates, more cultivation strategies, and more mushroom species that grow well on non-composted substrates. However, Stamets and Chilton primarily refer to varieties of alder, which is readily available in riparian and montaine habitats in the Pacific Northwest, and while they do provide the reader with material properties on other suitable hardwood substrates such as oak, beech, and birch in an appendix, a future edition should endeavor to show the reader the same techniques using those substrates. The authors end the book with a chapter that briefly explains the fundamentals of genetics and reproduction of edible mushrooms. The book's appendices contain invaluable information such as the construction of air and environmental systems, the composition of various potential substrates, data collection records and conversion tables, all of which do much to enhance its appeal to mushroom farmers. Finally, the book also includes a comprehensive and understandable glossary of key terms, a detailed bibliography, and a comprehensive index.

Essentially, the book's emphasis is on those mushroom species that can be grown with ease on compost with a few commercial species, such as shiitake, enoki, and oyster thrown in to round out the mix. You really have to look elsewhere for more detailed information on the medicinal properties of mushrooms and mushroom growing resources. Additionally, I found the absence of good, reliable economic data on mushroom cultivation, especially from the small farm or business standpoint to be lacking in both of Stamet's texts. While this text in particular was very comprehensive when it came mushroom science, I found myself looking to Stamet's Growing Gourmet Mushrooms for historical, cultural, taxonomic and medicinal information on edibles. Additionally, Growing Gourmet Mushrooms emphasized the edibles more, while this book played up the hallucinogenic mushrooms. Finally, better quality pictures, especially those in color and high resolution, would add significant value to this book.

In sum, while the average hobby cultivator just embarking on mushroom growing may find the information a bit too complicated, those looking to turn their hobby into a small farm venture will find it to be invaluable. To fully employ the techniques and methods presented in this book, the aspiring cultivator would have to invest a considerable amount of time and money. As such, I believe that this book is an excellent complement to a small farm operation. Those individuals looking to embark on hobby mushroom growing should first read Hajo Hadeler's Medicinal Mushrooms You Can Grow, and Paul Stamet's Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms. Once the hobbyist is thoroughly familiar with the topic and the ins and outs of micro-scale (home-based) cultivation, I would strongly recommend that he or she pick up this book. As such, I see this as being more for folks who are serious about running a small farm or mushroom business, as most hobby growers would not even take the trouble to set up their own lab, or even maintain starter cultures beyond grain spawn. Thus, I recommend that this book be bought only after more basic information on mushrooms and their cultivation has been fully acquired.

Wnen it comes to water and environmental issues, the United States looks much more like a third world banana republic than a first-world, top-of-the-heap military and economic superpower. Years ago, former US senator Paul Simon alerted our government to a problem that could be mankind's undoing: the uneven distribution and wasteful consumption of water for agriculture, industry, and urban consumers across the nation and the greater world. His book, Tapped Out not only explains the problems associated with world supply, it also engages the average the person to contribute to the solution.

Water is the only resource for which there is no substitute. The world's water resources are plagued with a great variety of problems, and they typically fall into one of five broad groups- availability, quantity, quality, distribution, and competing agendas. Rich countries are increasingly finding themselves pitted against poor countries for limited water resources. In many instances, large and wasteful consumers are taking needed, precious quantities from others to slake their insatiable demand. Furthermore, more societies are reaching farther and farther to acquire this precious and critical resource.

Tapped Out has a number of favorable attributes. The book introduces the reader to the problem in an easy to understand manner. All technical terms are clearly defined as they are presented, and the book succeeds immensely in achieving its stated goal- eliciting the reader's interest in water issues. Moreover, Mr. Simon goes beyond lamenting the situation, and offers practical solutions to the problem. Finally, Mr. Simon shows the reader how the average person can be part of the solution to the problem. The reader is not left feeling overwhelmed and powerless in the face of the sheer magnitude of the problem. As such, the book is a good call to action overall.

However, there are a few moderate demerits, primarily structural, to the text. First, Mr. Simon cites too many examples in the first half of the text. These examples, while informative, come one after another and at times made the reading rather plodding. Instead, each major point should have been isolated, described in general terms, and then two to three examples which elaborate on each point should have been cited. That way, the reader gets a true sense of the problem while at the same time learning and more importantly retaining the pertinent facts. Second, the book relies too much on text, making the book very monotonous at times. Pictures would have added considerable value to the text. In addition a global map that explicitly displayed the distribution of the world's water resources, as well as the areas where water shortages are a problem, would also have been helpful. Moreover, the inclusion of graphs depicting trends in population, water supply and water consumption would also have been useful. Finally, future editions of the text should include a more balanced discussion of the technical challenges associated with water purification, desalination, and energy requirements and costs.

While I agree in principle with many of the points that Mr. Simon raises in his book, I have very strong reservations about Mr. Simon's solution to the water supply problem. Unfortunately, American bays, coastlines, rivers and lakes have earned the dubious distinction of becoming our nation's 'Great Toilet'. Mr. Simon has very high hopes that one day in the near future, we will desalinate the dirty water from this make-shift natural toilet for the purposes of human consumption and agricultural production.

Given the current state of the art, it may not be possible to use reclaimed water or seawater on any appreciable scale to avert water shortages. Traditionally, wastewater treatment is used to bring microbial and organic loads down to a 'safe' level so that the wastewater can be discharged to natural water systems. These natural systems then do the rest, primarily via dilution, entrapment, and degradation processes. Considering the deplorable state of the nation's waterways and coastlines, a desalination plant on the coast would have to be immediately adjacent to and downstream of a wastewater treatment plant. Moreover, each step in the process would create waste- effluents that would either have to be disposed of or put in some way to use. Finally, the process would also require a dedicated energy source. Desalination schemes currently require large amounts of energy for their operation, and as they are envisioned, will require huge energy input. As such, I am afraid that these schemes will ultimately play into the already strong hand of the energy companies. Solar energy, while a possibility, depends on area, and a given area, usually quite large, is required to satisfy a very limited water demand. Should demand increase, one would have very little maneuvering room when looking to scale up a solar-driven process. Therefore, solar-driven processes may be extremely limited, leaving only fossil fuels and nuclear power to provide the necessary energy. As a result, the cost of desalinated water if deployed on a large scale would inevitably track the cost of energy very closely. Thus, I suspect that energy companies are salivating at the prospect of such large-scale desalination schemes becoming reality.

In conclusion, this book, along with J R McNeil's Something New Under the Sun, has forced me to seriously consider the social, ecological, and environmental consequences associated with the adoption and deployment of any techno-economic process. After reading this book, I am now one more person who is strongly motivated to work towards a practical solution to a problem that affects all of us in the global community.

Shiitake The Healing Mushroom represents a very good first attempt to bring detailed information about the nutritional and medicinal merits of this exotic Asian mushroom to the general public. According to Mr. Jones, besides tasting sinfully good steamed or sauted in butter and garlic, shiitake has many 'bioactive' compounds that either stimulate, boost, supplement or somehow enhance the disease fighting capability of our immune system.

The book, while relatively small (only about 80 pages of text), is very information-dense and overflows with some thirty pages of scientific, pharmaceutical and medical references. As such, Jones has managed to produce a compact and highly informative text. The book itself is divided into seven chapters with one section each for references and a handy index for future consultation. The first two chapters are devoted to the nutritional value of shiitake and its historical medicinal uses. Four individual chapters detail shiitake's anti-cholesterol, anti-cancer, cancer preventing, and anti-viral capabilities. A final chapter elaborates the mushroom's purported ability to alleviate chronic fatigue syndrome.

The first chapter gives information on the nutritional value, cultivation, and history of shiitake. In this chapter the reader learns that shiitake has a long and colorful history in Asia as a culinary and medicinal fungus. The reader also learns that shiitake is high in nutritional value, and that one can cultivate shiitake with ease on a variety of wood and agricultural residues. The second chapter gives the reader a brief review of the medicinal uses of shiitake, both past and present. This chapter elaborates on the surprisingly important role of shiitake in ancient folk medicine. In times both ancient and modern, shiitake has been and continues to be used to treat a variety of maladies ranging from high blood pressure and diabetes to hepatitis. The reader is given a brief introduction to the roles that shiitake has played in traditional Chinese medicine and its history as an aphrodisiac and therapeutic agent in ancient Japan. In particular, folk medicinal uses of shiitake focused primarily on cures for the common cold, diabetes and liver ailments. The chapter concludes with a few brief remarks about the safety and preparation of shiitake.

The remaining five chapters tout shiitake's ability to provide relief from a variety of modern day ailments. In short, Jones does not fail to mention shiitake's ability to bring relief to a variety of diseases that afflict those individuals living in wealthy, industrialized nations. On the one hand, it seems that Jones is attempting to use shiitake as a means of offsetting the effects of bad and unhealthy lifestyle choices. On the other hand, throughout the text, Jones seems to be offering up shiitake as a fungal reservoir of a variety of wonder drugs that can cure everything from high cholesterol, high blood pressure and diabetes to viral diseases such as AIDS, hepatitis, and herpes.

A lot of the research on mushrooms is conducted in areas of the world where English is not the dominant, or primary language. Thus, much of this research may be inaccessible to those inquiring minds that do not have abilities in languages other than English. As such, one good comment in favor of the author's book is his open admission that much of the research he cites is written in languages other than English, something that many other writers on this subject fail to cite or even admit.

However, there are three major drawbacks to the text. The first is Mr. Jones's many references to animal experiments. Animal experiments, while serving as a good indicator, are in no way conclusive, no matter how great the results were. Many of the experiments he mentions liberally throughout the text were performed on mice, and a few were performed on rabbits. Very few of the experiments were performed on humans. In addition, those experiments performed on humans left much to be desired because the number of trials and participants in each study mentioned sporadically in the text, as well as the way the experiments were conducted were not wholly sufficient to rule out the influence of pure chance. Only trials on humans, conducted in a randomized double-blind manner with a large number of participants, can give a good indication of efficacy. Unfortunately, there have not been any good, randomized, double-blind statistical studies that have explored the question of efficacy. Yet, Mr. Jones must be credited amply for pointing out that until more trials on humans are performed, we can only speculate on the efficacy of shiitake. Another major demerit of the text is its liberal use of scientific sounding terminology- words such as 'immunostimulating', 'immunoboosting', and 'immunomodulating'-that are not properly defined, and are often used liberally without the slightest regard to the knowledge level of the reader. Finally, as a third demerit to an otherwise strong and informative book, a number of anecdotal accounts were used to support the author's claims of efficacy. However, these accounts only served to cast an element of doubt as the reports of cures using shiitake were not only unverifiable but also very difficult to rule out the influence of other agents, including chance, in the affectation of a cure.

The author could have written a much stronger which, among other things, could include a glossary of terms at the end of the book and a conclusion which summarizes the main points of the text and indicates further directions for research and investigation. Nonetheless, Mr. Jones should be rightfully acknowledged for his attempt to present to the general public an important though controversial body of research which potentially could be used for the benefit of all- both sick and healthy.