Conveniently sized to fit in a backpack, this enticing, well-organized guidebook introduces outdoor enthusiasts to over 70 area waterfalls, from Naiad's Bath to Roaring Kill.  Dunn provides detailed directions to everything from roadside attractions (like the eponymous High Falls) to challenging backcountry treks, along with maps, old postcards, and glinting nuggets of local history.

Although Western spiritual seekers often turn to the East, many fascinating paths have emerged in our own hemisphere.  This thought-provoking anthology, compiled by the former editor of Gnosis magazine, includes essays on such Western esoteric and mystical traditions as Freemasonry, Wicca, Kabbalah, Tarot, Rosicrucianism, and the teachings of Emanuel Swedenborg, Rudolf Steiner, G.I. Gurdjieff, and others.

The invaluable Chelsea Green Publishing, which promotes "the politics and practice of sustainable living," has rushed this new release by cognitive linguist Lakoff into print with a pre-election Internet blitz from a wide variety of progressive Web sites.  Lakoff holds that conservatives and progressives speak different metaphorical languages, and that the key to persuasive communication is reframing the discourse.

Compiled by a doctor, a researcher and a chef (Laura Pensiero, co-owner of Rhinebeck's lauded Gigi Trattoria), with a foreword by Jacques Pepin, this informative cookbook features detailed nutritional and scientific data alongside over 100 non-punitive, healthy recipes by noted restaurant chefs.  Tandoori sea bass with minted couscous, banana salsa, and fresh coconut-mango chutney, anyone?

Stone Ridge resident Sylver provides an ex-haustively researched, cleanly written over-view of sauna therapy, including its history (dating back over 3,000 years to ancient Mayan practices), the physiology of sweating and its role in detoxification and preventive health care, types of wet and dry heat, sauna construction, safe usage, and the communion and spiritual purifications offered by ritual sweating.