I may be a little biased in my review of this book, because I love dogs, hiking, dog sledding, and reading about extreme adventures. This book contains all of these ingredients.

First of all, hats off to the adventurer/writer for putting to work a dog breed, i.e., Alaskan Malamute (and actually 22 dogs representing the breed) for what it was designed - carrying huge loads across the arctic region, rather than keeping them as a pets only.

Second of all, I salute him for restricting himself to minimum of technology. The team of dog and one man are on their own deep in that frozen hostile region.

The book is written in a very interesting and involving manner, giving details of his various dogs, their characteristics and events associated with some of them. He also presents, in a very lively manner, various thrilling incidents (and accidents) he faced during his many forays. Stories about his experience with wildlife are both thrilling and engaging.

The book is easy to read and contains many pictures to give the readers an idea of what his dogs, sleds, and hostile environment looked like.

I had ordered this book through Amazon.ca and read it in May-June 2011. I decided to read it again and found that I have no memory of reading it, except for some errors that I had underlined and for a nice chapter of The Love Lukla Club. And I have a pretty good reason of why I don't have a memory from this book.

I am giving this book 4 stars, because of the information contained in it. I am 100% positive that the information is still good today. Therefore, it makes the book a good reference source for travelling in the regions it covers. They not only went to more easily accessible touristic resources, but also tried their hands on many off the beaten path kind of events and attractions. I also liked the husband and wife team for their positive attitude. Their ability to relate to the regions, the peoples, and the heritage is exemplary. They were appreciative of, friendly with, and helpful to whoever they met on their journey. They were never condescending to the local residents. They faced the adventure ordeals like true adventure travellers. Therefore, they can be a role model for the rest of us. This compared very favourably with the attitude of those 3 travelling girls of book `The Lost Girls'.

The book is more of a travelogue with author covering destinations after destinations in a very detailed manner. However, the book has two distinct flavours to it. The parts where he employed a travel writer's tool of 5 senses (seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and touching) and the `dialogue', especially with his wife, in a vivid manner, make it a very interesting read. The parts where he does not employ these tools, read very dull. It seems that in the latter parts the writer was going through writing trying to cover every destination and attraction he and his wife went to without putting emotions into it.

I was disappointed to see that although the book is titled `Following Marco Polo's Silk Road', it really never connects that great traveler of the past with the husband and wife team of the present. The writer and his wife went on a journey that only minimally crisscrossed with the route that Marco Polo took. Even in this scenario, the writer could have made the book interesting by adding excerpts from or giving references to already published accounts of Marco Polo and some history of the destinations they traveled to. They didn't do it, except briefly in few chapters.

The book is divided into chapters by destinations they journeyed to. The font size is good. The language is easy to follow. There are some factual errors like naming the cities and cuisine incorrectly. For example, time and time again, he calls the sheep of the region as flat-tailed sheep, whereas the correct name is fat-tailed sheep. Also, it would have been great if the writer had added a few pictures from his repertoire. Unfortunately, he told us that they lost a bag full of their camera equipment and pictures towards the end of their journey and that actually caused a terrible depression immediately afterwards that prevented them from travelling for many years. I can relate to that, as that calamity has struck me twice on my micro-adventures.

Overall, this is a very good book to read as a reference book to some of the regions where travelling can only be called adventurous.

First I was inclined to compare this book with Stanley Coran's `How to Speak Dog' with the former being the theory behind the practical aspect put in the latter. I found both the books useful, but the theory part in `Inside of a Dog' impressed me a lot.

Admittedly, it is a controversial book with reviewers having all sorts of comments from most positive to extreme negative. I read the book based on the premise that one should try to learn the most from reading and should absorb what one likes and discard the rest.

Let me say it straightaway. This is not a dog training book, although one can use concepts from it to train dogs better. This is mostly `how the dog thinks' book and `a memoir about a beloved dog' book. In my opinion, the `memoir' part was the best though.

As regards, `how the dog thinks' part, I can safely say that I know my dog at a personal level now. My knowledge about senses of dogs has increased many folds. For example, I didn't know that olfactory sense and taste senses in dogs take priority over other senses. The author explained `Vomeronasal' organ to explain why dogs like to taste everything.

Among other things, the author also explained why dogs find no interest in watching TV, why some guard dogs bark at everything and everyone, can they predict changes in weather, whether or not they have qualities to rescue their owners in survival situations, do they observe us, whether or not they are less intelligent than wolves, if they can hunt like wolves, so on and so forth. All of the things she said made sense to me.

There are weaknesses in the book too. For one, it rambles on and is hard to finish in one or two attempts. However, reading one chapter a day, this book turned out to be very informative. It has brought some drastic changes in my dealings with my dog. Overall, because of this book, I know my dog much better.

I routinely hike with my dog as a hobby. It was obvious that this book would be my first `go to' reference. It hasn't disappointed me.

The book has good advice contained in it, for example on, good hiking dog breeds, good dog backpacks, load carrying capacities, what to carry, trail etiquettes, etc.

There are some suggestions that I found extremely valuable. The writer, who has hiked with different dogs over a period of 30 years, suggests that during long distance energy sapping hikes, dogs be fed puppy food for its extra nutritional value. She again suggests that on a slope or decent, dogs should preferably be encouraged to follow behind the hiker. This is with a view to preventing its pulling one down the hill and causing a lost footing. Yet again, the author shows the way how to check dog pads for its ability to hike.

Overall, this is an excellent book for beginners. I found it user friendly and easy to read with many illustrations and many photographs to present the material in an interesting way.

I purchased this book via amazon.ca to see the fine points of nature photography. However, since I am always on the move when outdoors, my main objective was to learn only those photography techniques that could enable me take good pictures of nature on the go.

The author-photographer Sean Arbabi has provided content that someone could only wish in his / her dreams. Not only has he provided techniques, but he has also backed them up with advice based on his personal experience and with a number of jaw dropping pictures. This book is a good read even if you are not aspiring to be a professional photographer. For an amateur photographer like me, the book offers learning along three major lines:

(1) Techniques that I grew up using, but forgot over a period of time. There is a refresher of all those basics for me.

(2) Highlighting many features of our digital cameras that we hardly use, but we can and should to improve the quality of our pictures.

(3) Preparations required to take great shots. It is not all about camera gear, but also researching the location and the subject beforehand so as to avoid any surprises.

This book is definitely going to be an asset for me for many years to come. I recommend this book highly.

Since I hike long distances with my dog, a Kuvasz, in all weather conditions, I was looking for a raincoat just to prevent his fur from getting wet from rain, freezing rain, wet snow, snow, etc. I was also looking for just a raincoat, not a rain-winter jacket for my dog has a double coat that provides ample protection against cold / freezing weather conditions. For breeds with double coats, a winter jacket can become very warm indeed.

This raincoat turned out to be perfect. It snugs in over neck and spreads out over back and sides, providing total coverage. It keeps in place by tying an attached belt on the chest and two elastic loop bands that are hooked over the hindquarters. There is a slot on the back for tying leash to a harness, but I don't use it. There is a reflector lining on the raincoat and a small pocket on the back side too.

However, there are weaknesses as well. The attached belt has Velcro, but the placement on two sections of the belt is inadequate. I have to tie the belt instead of attaching the two Velcro sections. The two elastic loops for rear side appear weak and keep me thinking that they are going to break easily. Besides, putting the hind legs through those loops for a giant breed is a tricky exercise. However, I do note that this is perhaps the best solution to prevent raincoat from slipping away from the rear.

My dog seems baffled whenever I put the raincoat on him, but once he gets going, I don't think he minds it at all. In addition, we get compliments from other people all the time.

Finally, one compliment is in order here. The raincoat was delivered very quickly. I wasn't expecting that quick a delivery at all. My hats off to both the supplier and amazon.ca

I purchased this book just to read about real life adventures of different people caught is a survival for life situation. However, it turned out to be an excellent teaching and training book on survival situations.

Les Stroud, creator and host of TV program `Survivorman' has analyzed 7 survival situations for attributes of knowledge of survival, element of luck, survival kit, and will to live to determine what was the combination thereof for success or failure of a survival mission.

The accidents Stroud has chosen are of the extreme kind, but I can safely say that there is likelihood that anyone of the outdoorsy type can encounter one of those. Stroud keeps the incident going interesting and at the same time provides a hindsight analysis of what was going wrong and what was going right. In addition, he also provides insight from his own experience of what ought to have been done correctly in those dire circumstances.

I liked the way, the book has been organized with colored blurbs appearing every now and then on some salient points to take note of. The book has got some good colored and black and white pictures as well.

Finally, it is the learning that lovers of the outdoors will get from Stroud on survival situations that I liked the most. In a way, this book reminded me of Ed Viesturs' K2: Life and Death on the World's Most Dangerous Mountain, with much advice coming from that legendary mountain climber.

I am a Muslim and I am lover of dogs. Although Muslim countries have their own dog breeds; such as Anatolian Shepherd Dogs and Akbash Dogs of Turkey, Bully Kutta of Pakistan, Salukis of north Africa and the Middle East, Afghan hounds of Afghanistan and Pakistan, etc. which are popular among the local populations; in general, Muslims have a general dislike for dogs. I bought this book from amazon.ca to confirm Islam's position on dogs.

The author considers 3 sources (4 in my opinion) to determine dogs' position in Islam. These are (1) Holy Quran, which the Muslims believe is the Word of God (2) Sunnat, that is, how Holy prophet lived his life, (3) Hadith, that is, sayings of the Holy Prophet, and (4) Way of the Sufi, that is, how Muslim saints lived and what they said and wrote. After reading the book, the final take is that the Holy Quran, Sunnat, and Saints had favourable opinion of dogs. Its only the Hadith or saying of the Holy Prophet, quoted by a chain of people who originally heard him saying and then passed it on to the next generation, which conveys a negative opinion about dogs. However, the author quotes a number of sources that tells us that pro-dogs Muslims have always, and correctly, doubted the authenticity of those sayings.

One other interesting take from the book is that historically, unlike Judaism and Christianity, Islam and Muslims accorded high esteem to dogs.

The book itself is easy to read with big fonts.

The biggest flaw, other than a hefty price, is that Author has chosen Turkish and German fonts for several terminologies and that she has left many German quotes untranslated into English. Even after all these shortcomings, it is a very informative research work that should be used to educate Muslims of today with respect to animal rights, especially regarding the dogs.

To quote another reviewer at amazon.com, "The raw power of Start From The Dark (2004) + the energy and modern feel of Secret Society (2006) + the classic rock vibe of Last Look At Eden (2009) + some classy blues influences = Bag of Bones (2012)."

With the best from Norum and Tempest, this is truly a wow outcome. Every song is instantly listenable. For some albums, I have to listen to them a few times before I like them. Not for this album. From the very first song on my very first listening, I fell in love with the product. It defines what Europe is all about. The less known band in the US and Canada comes out with the best blues based hard rock album ever. Buy it. You will not be disappointed.

It is a story told in a captivating way by William Stolzenburg about eradication of invasive animals on various southern and northern islands of the globe in order to save native island species, such as Kakapo and least Auklet, etc. from extinction.

When the inhabitants of Polynesia started sailing towards Australia and New Zealand several centuries ago, they landed on islands that had that awesome Avifauna that we know as flightless birds. While the Polynesian settlers destroyed the native flora to cultivate lands and their hunters massacred the larger birds for food, their pigs and rats; who they had brought with them intentionally and unintentionally; made a quick meal of smaller clueless avifauna. These Polynesian explorers were followed by European explorers, who brought their own rats, rabbits, stoats, ferrets, pigs, cats, goats, and foxes, etc. that started taking a heavy toll of native fauna and flora. These two events of humongous magnitude are estimated to be causing, at one point of time, extinction of one species of birds every single day.

However, the reality dawned on the conservationists on both sides of the globe that this cannot last long. This book details many island rescue missions and how the invasive species were and are being taken care of and how avifauna that was close to extinction, and still is in case of Kakapo, is being protected. Stolzenburg knows the art of storytelling and like his first book `Where the wild things were', does an excellent job again.

The book is interesting and easy to read, although I started losing the track of various rescue missions towards the end. This is because there are so many of them narrated in this book, island by island, species by species, tragedy by tragedy, and joy by joy.

While I felt pretty good about the number of native island fauna that is being saved even today, the tragedy caused by Polynesian and early European explorers leaves a bad taste in the mouth. I wish our forefathers and rulers of the time all around the globe had woken up to the reality soon after the calamity had stuck several centuries ago and that would have given us pleasure of living among the magnificent fauna today that went extinct at their hands.