A delightful book of photographs ably supported by text, The Spirit of the Place is a celebration of the subtle rather than the spectacular. Although Indiana cannot lay claim to sensational snowcapped mountains such as the Rockies or vast geological formations such as the Grand Canyon, her gently rolling hills stained with autumn colors and her creekbeds sculpted by winter ice possess a quieter, no less profound beauty.

Photographer Darryl Jones not only finds this beauty, but he translates it with breathtaking immediacy: a field of black-eyed Susans against a cloudless blue sky; morning light playing against a complicated pattern of rows of cut hay; sunset reflected in the ripples of a pond--this is the understated beauty of southern Indiana's hill country. Accompanying these sublime images is James Alexander Thom's lyrical prose, which tells the story of the places and the people who settled them. The Spirit of the Place is contemplative, harmonious, and profound.