McPhee's illuminating account of travels in the company of geologist Kenneth S. Deffeyes along Route 80 from Utah to California, a volume in his four-book series on North American geology. After this book, you'll never look at this austete landscape -- or a roadcut, quite the same way again. McPhee is a genious at exploring the things we often take for granted -- in this case, how simple road cuts expose aeons of earth's history.  (GEO13, $14.00)

Nevada & the Great Basin