Here are the deserts of the rain shadows, deserts of the winter's cold, deserts of the summer's dry, deserts of the lakes' and oceans' dunes, deserts of the wet; here are the plants and animals of the deserts. Here is the desert in text and photograph, its beauty and magnificence, its strange fascination. The desert becomes a presence, and yet there are no purple passages, no speeches. The rhythm of the prose and the author's simplicity accomplish more than any other's verbosity. A beautiful book yet utterly practical. The kind of book to take with you to the desert, the photographs and descriptions will help you identify anything you might see and place it for you. But also a book to read at home, for it brings the desert to you. Sell as a travel book for our own desert sections -- a nature book -- a fireside book.