Costa Rica: A Journey through Nature is a hard cover coffee-table book that is prominently featured in the new motion picture "The Librarian" (to be released in 2013) starring Oscar-winning actress Marcia Gay Harden. It plays a key role in the movie"s plot and appears in scenes filmed both in the US and in Costa Rica. The book is a magnificent illustrated testimony to Costa Rica"s fragile beauty and is packed with stunning photographs from Costa Rica that represent 13 years of field work by the author. This exquisite book, brilliant in color and enchanting in subject, takes readers on a personal journey through the jewelled treasure that is Costa Rica. Images of spacious beaches, muddy river banks, crystal clear waterfalls, and lush jungles adorned with tropical blooms and prehistoric plants will stay in the reader"s mind for a long time to come. The book is organized by region -- the Central Divide, Guanacaste, the Central Pacific, the Osa Peninsula, the North Caribbean and the South Caribbean. It closes with a discussion on conservation and responsible tourism. Like an informed tour guide, the extended captions provide interesting facts and valuable context, all from the perspective of the author / photographer. Highlights on the journey include Arenal, one of the world"s most active volcanoes, Tortuguero National Park, where a lone jaguar trots across the sand, giant tree ferns -- evolutionary relics that predate flowering plants - in the Monteverde Cloud Forest Preserve, a blood-scarlet passion flower emerging through leaf litter, a partially submerged crocodile, its riveting stare fixed on the photographer and poison arrow frogs, vividly painted in deadly reds, blues and greens. Overflowing with brilliant page-filling photographs and informative text, this book is as close as one can get to Costa Rica without a passport.