"This is an insider's view, and Raskin offers readers insights into a hidden California. The impact of his book is to return culture to agriculture in a state dominated by agribusiness."--Gerald Haslam, author of The Great Central Valley: California's Heartland "Jonah Raskin has lived and taught in this area for well over thirty years and has the credibility to write about the evolution of farming here. His book is a magical mixture of journalism and memoir. I loved his interviews with local farmers and growers. He explores the questions that we all are asking about our relationship to food and what it means to eat locally, who grows it, and will they be able to continue to do so."--Ianthe Brautigan, author of You Can't Catch Death: A Daughter's Memoir "'Think global, buy local' takes on new meaning in this intriguing synthesis of memoir and reportage on the slow and local food movements."--Peter Laufer, author of Wetback Nation and The Dangerous World of Butterflies "Anyone wanting to know what it's like to live in the paradise that is Sonoma County must read Field Days . Jonah Raskin brings this blessed region and its communities of environmental champions vividly to life."--Jeff Cox, author of The Organic Cook's Bible and The Organic Food Shopper's Guide "In Jonah Raskin's wonderfully observant ramble through Sonoma County's farms, orchards, and vineyards, it becomes abundantly clear that American farming has not been killed off by agribusiness, or the Department of Agriculture's call to 'get big or get out'. With Raskin we meet a rich community of amazing people who have stayed on the land, or gone back to it, sharing a new kind of ecologically informed consciousness about our intimate connections to the land and the people who work it. Anybody who reads this book, wherever they live, will gain a new appreciation of this new generation of farmers. Thanks to them, we're learning to eat well--a basic necessity in the hard times ahead."--Ernest Callenbach, author of Ecotopia "In Field Days , Jonah Raskin becomes the George Plimpton of organic farming. Instead of getting out on the playing field to measure his stuff against pro athletes, he toils long days beside farm workers. Soulful and always curious, Raskin traces the tradition of responsible farming practices in Northern California, and explores the meaning of living locally."--Bart Schneider, author of The Man in the Blizzard

Heterocyclicmoleculesplayasigni'cantroleinlifeprocessesandhaveplayed a major rolein industrial developments of the last century, for instance in the ?eld of dyes, pharmaceuticals, pesticides, polymers etc. They comprise not onlysomeofthemostinterestingandbiologicallyimportantnaturalproducts like alkaloids, carbohydrates, nucleic acids, and antibiotics but include many practical drugs and a large segment of known synthetic organic compounds. Hencescientistshavedevotedagreatamountofeffortto'ndoptimalsynthetic approachesto a variety ofheterocyclic compounds. Amongthemostsuccessfulandselectivesyntheticprocessesarecycload- tionreactions, since theyinvolvesimultaneous orsequential formationoftwo or more bonds often with a high degree of stereoselectivity and regiosel- tivity.Forinstance, 1,3 dipolar cycloadditions, whichare electronicallyequ- alent to Diels-Alder reactions, are among the most-common 5-membered ring-forming systems. In addition they usually proceed with a high degree of stereo-andregio-control.Itistherefore, notsurprising thatsynthesisofmany important classes ofheterocycles, including thoseof useful biologicallyactive molecules, have utilized cycloadditionsteps intheirformation.Furthermore, many heterocycles serve as intermediates in the synthesis of polyfunctional molecules. Volume I of "Synthesis of Heterocycles via Cycloadditions" featured ?ve chapters onthe followingtopics: - Isoxazolines fromNitroCompounds: Synthesis and Applications; - Cycloaddition Reactions of Azides Including Bioconjugation; - Enantioselective Cycloadditions ofAzomethine Ylides; - Heterocyclesby Cycloadditions of CarbonylYlides Generated fromDiazo Ketones; - HeterocyclesfromUnsaturated Phosphorus Ylides. In this volume we present four selected contributions by well-known authors, each an authority in his ?eld. The ?rst chapter is devoted to the use of oximes in cycloadditions which leads to formationof isoxazolines and isoxazolidines and from there to synthesis of macrolides like amphotericin and of other natural products and bioactive molecules. Furthermore, 4+2 cycloadditions of nitrosoalkenes are also included. This chapter complements the one in the X Preface previous volume which discussed access to isoxazolines via nitroalkanes.