sample page spread, Primates of the World

This goes with the post just previous. In the US edition it’s out from Princeton U Press, 2013, created by Jean-Jacques Petter and Francois Desbordes, and translated by Robert Martin. Art work is exquisite. Taxonomy seems okay (I’m no expert) — probably more splitty than lumpy, as the trends seem to be. Range maps a bit small at times: it’s a nice, uniform visual design but not as useful as it could be. They should look at bird guides: it’s okay to zoom in on just a PART of South America. We really don’t need Patagonia shown each and every plate. Dust jacket claims 72 color plates and nearly 300 species. I didn’t count but take their word for it. Humans are not shown but everything else I could think to check looked good. My personal list is only around 50 primates but the plates looked good compared to my memory, and they certainly are a pleasure to spend time with. Front matter (ecology, lineage) is adequate but not coffee-table-book thick. I had never seen the French one so this was a bit of a surprise for me.

— Charles Hood, Palmdale, California