Lavishly illustrated with nearly three hundred gorgeous full-color photos, this engaging guidebook carefully describes forty different edible species of wild mushrooms found around Illinois and surrounding states, including Iowa, Wisconsin, Missouri, Indiana, and Kentucky. With conversational and witty prose, the book provides extensive detail on each edible species, including photographs of potential look-alikes to help you safely identify and avoid poisonous species. Mushroom lovers from Chicago to Cairo will find their favorite local varieties, including morels, chanterelles, boletes, puffballs, and many others. Veteran mushroom hunters Joe McFarland and Gregory M. Mueller also impart their wisdom about the best times and places to find these hidden gems.

Edible Wild Mushrooms of Illinois and Surrounding States also offers practical advice on preparing, storing, drying, and cooking with wild mushrooms, presenting more than two dozen tantalizing mushroom recipes from some of the best restaurants and chefs in Illinois, including one of Food & Wine magazine's top 10 new chefs of 2007. Recipes include classics like Beer Battered Morels, Parasol Mushroom Frittatas, and even the highly improbable (yet delectable) Morel Tiramisu for dessert.

As the first new book about Illinois mushrooms in more than eighty years, this is the guide that mushroom hunters and cooks have been craving.

Visit the book's companion website at www.illinoismushrooms.com.

Illinois Politics: A Citizen's Guide sheds light on these important questions and more:

Why has corruption flourished in Illinois even as reformers struggle for ethical change?

How do the three regions of the state compete for resources?

How does the legislature work?

When did the state become so blue?

What powers do the governor and other elected officials really have?

How are judges appointed to and removed from the bench?

Why does Illinois have more units of government than any other state?

How did higher education lose ground as a funding priority?

What role did politics play in the current budget deficit?

And how can Illinois move beyond its status as the "most average state in the nation"?

From the editor of the nation's premier birding magazine, this convenient guidebook features 55 of the most common birds that you are likely to see in backyards anywhere in the Midwest.

Of all the classic American pastimes, perhaps none is as widely accessible as watching birds. Our unusually vast, diverse environmental landscape supports fascinating species and variations exclusive to each region of the country. While birders often spend their efforts in search of the rarest creatures, some of the most beautiful and intriguing birds are the ones that frequent our backyards (or nearby) daily. For that reason, where other larger volumes focus on bird types that the casual observer is never likely to encounter, Midwestern Birdsconcisely celebrates those species living under our very noses.

Written by Bill Thompson III, the editor and co-publisher of Bird Watcher's Digest, this portable 5" × 8" book contains the same variety of entertaining and informative entries that make Bird Watcher's Digest the most popular birding magazine in the US. Inside, you'll find profiles of the 55 most common birds in the Midwest, complete with:

• Large color photos
• Gender-specific physical descriptions
• Nesting and feeding information
• Bird call particulars
• Interesting stories about each species

Thompson also introduces you to the basics of bird watching: essential gear, bird-friendly food and plantings, housing tips, and observational techniques. This guide covers Indiana, Ohio, Iowa, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Kentucky, Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota.

Look for our other backyard bird guides covering the Mid-Atlantic, South, Northeast, and West regions of the United States.