Soon after moving to Hanover, New Hampshire, Bill Bryson discovers a part of the famous Appalachian Trail, a footpath that extends from Springer Mountain, Georgia to Mount Katahdin, Maine. Since Americans have the habit of driving everywhere instead of walking, Bryson decides to hike the Appalachian Trail, starting in Georgia. Because he does not want to go alone, a childhood friend of his, Stephen Katz, former drunk and drug addict, walks with him.

Starting out takes a lot of money and planning, as these two men learn. This trek involves specialised camping gear, such as three climate tents, stacking pots and pans, special boots, and a cook stove, run with propane gas. In all, the packs weigh about forty pounds each. Despite the hardships on the trail, this book is full of funny anecdotes about Katz, fellow hikers, and various characters they meet along the trail. It is also packed with factual information about the founding of the Appalachian trail, the wildlife to be found on the route, and history of the various places though which the trail runs.

This book is a delight to read because it is filled with humour and gives the reader a feel for what life is like for the hikers who walk this one-thousand plus mile hiking path each year. There is much information on plant life, the Park Service and their trials and tribulations, the mistakes of the Army Corps of Engineers, and the many projects along the way that were built by FDR's Civilian Conservation Corps in the Great Depression. This is a great book for a history buff, a hiking enthusiast, or anyone who has an interest in America's Eastern woods.

An Ethnohistorical Dictionary of China lists a large number of ethnonyms from all of China's ethnic frontiers and sometimes beyond, including even parts of Central Asia, with a number of small ethnic groups that might also be represented within China's current borders. James Stuart Olson's effort is commendable, yet the book cannot be recommended really. First of all, there is no clear-cut rule about spelling preferences or the choice of transcription.

The pinyin system is all-pervading. This causes problems, particularly when cross-references lead to entries under the current official Chinese term in its pinyin transcription, but with no information of the linguistic origin of the listed ethnonyms to indicate which are sinicisations and which derive from indigenous non-sinitic languages. One of the appendices, which enumerates the 56 officially recognised "nationalities" in China, is also an unexplained mix of names in different languages and spellings.

Olson's is not a historical guide to ethnonym use but a misleading enumeration of groups and subgroups, paired with a brief rehearsal of the Chinese evolutionist history of the corresponding official post-1949 Chinese "nationality." There are minor factual and typographical errors too. The population of the "Bouyei" (pinyin - "Buyi") is under three million, not twenty-five million as the appendix with population statistics points out. The price tag puts this out of reach for most, while the errors keep the experts away.