REVIEWER'S CHOICE Notes from Little Lakes Mel Ellis The Cabin Bookshelf 1234 Hickory Dr., Waukesha, WI 53186 0-9653381-0-X  $23.95  1-800-402-2246 For many years, Wisconsin's Milwaukee Journal readers enjoyed a newspaper column Notes from Little Lakes , in which the late Mel Ellis described the joys and sorrows, triumphs and disappointments of turning a tract of worn out pasture land into a haven for trees, flowers and wildlife. The best of these writings was carefully assembled by Ted Rulseh with the help of the Ellis family and now appears for the first time in book form. In the lore and landscape of Wisconsin, Mell Ellis' Little Lakes is as familiar and as important as Aldo Leopold's Sand County. Highly recommended! Dictionary of American Regional English, Volume III: I-O Frederic G. Cassidy, Chief Editor Joan Houston Hall, Associate Editor Belknap/Harvard University Press 79 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138 0-674-20519-7   $75.00  1-800-448-2242 Reviewers of Volumes I and II have already pointed out that this reference is a valuable tool for linguistic and sociological research at the college level. But DARE, with its emphasis on regional and folk speech, is also a valuable teaching resource for language arts and social studies classes at the elementary and secondary levels. Liberally illustrated with unique, computer-generated maps demonstrating the regional distribution of many words and phrases, DARE is also a gold mine for browsers with an interest in American English as it is spoken. Vol. III of DARE would be an extremely useful addition to the reference section of any school or public library. Wordplay Robertson Cochrane University of Toronto Press 10 St. Mary Street, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, M4Y 2W8 0-8020-7752-8  $18.95  1-800-565-9523 Robertson Cochrane has a life-long love affair with the English language. In Wordplay: Origins, Meanings, And Usages Of The English Language is a delightful, insightful, informative, humorous and witty collection of Cochrane's erudite commentary from his writings for the Globe & Mail and Verbatim: The Language Quarterly. Cochrane delights in quirk and coincidence. He enjoyed debunking popular myths about word formation; but simultaneously defended the health of our language finding it as robust as it ever was, and probably more so . Wordplay is must reading for anyone with an interest in the history of the English language. Lobsticks and Stone Cairns Richard C. Davis, editor University of Calgary Press 2500 University Drive, NW, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, T2N 1N4 1-895176-69-7  $29.95 (pb) 1-895176-88-3  $44.95 (hc) Lobsticks and stone cairns are landmarks that mark paths and commemorate events. The one hundred biographies in Lobsticks And Stone Cairns: Human Landmarks In The Arctic also offer themselves as paths to be taken. Centuries of human endeavour, hardship, folly, and suffering are collapsed into stories through which we can discover what the Arctic is and has been. Profiled in Lobsticks And Stone Cairns are human landmarks' dating from as far back as the sixteenth century to those still active in the North today. Included are stories of adventurers, military officers, authors, guides, culture heroes, police, traders, and even the occasional charlatan. The biographies are of Inuit, European, American, Indian, and Canadian men and women. What appears here is the essence of each person, rendered by an expert and put in a new context, bringing the history and geography of the North to life. Lobsticks And Stone Cairns is a fascinating series of biographical windows in time and highly recommended for Arctic history reading lists. The Pearl Book Antoinette L. Matlins Gemstone Press Box 237, Rte. 4, Woodstock, VT 05091 0-943763-15-0  $19.95  1-802-457-4000 The Pearl Book is the definitive buying guide for pearls either as jewelry or collectible investments. The Pearl Book features everything necessary to become an expert in an practical, comprehensive, easy-to-read, easy-to-understand, format answering all the questions on how to select, buy, care for, and enjoy the oyster fruit . The Pearl Book is for anyone wanting a reliable source of information to guide them, filled with insider tips and advice. Especially on what to do after you've acquired your pearls. Eccentrics David Weeks & Jamie James Kodansha International 114 Fifth Avenue, NY, NY 10011 1-56836-156-4  $14.00  1-800-788-6262 Eccentrics: A Study Of Sanity And Strangeness is an original and provocative work showing that eccentrics are usually mentally and emotionally healthier than the rest of us - more creative, idealistic, opinionated, and much more fun to read about. Eccentrics is filled with fascinating case studies such as the story of Joshua Abraham Norton who (from 1859 to 1880) proclaimed him to be Emperor of America