A Color Atlas of Rocks and Minerals in Thin Section

Rating:
Summary: Avoid confusion!
Review: I agree with the reviewer from Fairbanks: this book should not be confused with the Mackenzie and Guilford atlas. The Atlas of *Rocks* and Minerals tries to be too comprehensive (by including both rocks and minerals) and in doing so has lost all of the information about less common and accessory minerals that was in the Mackenzie and Guilford text. Of course, much of what's in both books is now available on the Web, but it's still hard to find large format color photos like the ones in Mackenzie and Guilford.

Another (less expensive) alternative is A.R. Philpotts' "Petrography of Igneous and Metamorphic Rocks." In my experience as a student and then a TA in a mineralogy course, Philpotts' book does a better job of pointing out the distinctive characteristics of minerals than do the photographic atlases.

Rating:
Summary: Covers polarised and cross-polars nicely
Review: I believe this book is ideal for a second year University student to learn to identify rocks and common forming minerals under the microscope.
Regardless of earlier critics, this book is only intended as a help to identify common minerals and nothing else. I personally found it very useful, the colour images are worth more than a thousand printed words.

Rating:
Summary: MacKenzie produced a better text with C. Guilford
Review: This book is overpriced and almost useless. It only serves as eye candy for someone with exposure to the petrographic microscope. Outside of pictures it contains terse explanations and alot of blank wasted space.