A mixed bag. Under the Snow and A Textbook Place for Bears, both about bears living in New Jersey, were good. Riding the Boom Extension about a guy who started his own telephone company in a remote Alaskan settlement, was not bad. Heirs of Common Practice, about the return of family doctors to Maine was OK at first but went on way too long — it took up half the book. Open Man on Senator Bill Bradley, and Ice Pond and Minihydro on small scale energy options, were all boring. The best essay was the last, North of the C.P. Line about a flying game warden in northern Maine who also happens to be named John McPhee.