Book captures the view 'From the Air'

— -- The origin of those ubiquitous circular fields that dot the West's agricultural landscape, along with other mysteries visible from 30,000 feet up, are re-revealed in a new book that tracks on-the-ground highlights along the nation's 14 most heavily traveled flight paths.

In stores next week, America From the Air: A Guide to the Landscape Along Your Route by Daniel Mathews and James S. Jackson (Houghton Mifflin, $18.95), deciphers the so-called landscape puzzles viewed from the window seat. Detailed maps and aerial photos pinpoint specific geographical highlights, and the text offers lessons in geology and history. Those big, shiny Quonset-hut-style barns in a swath of Iowa house large commercial hog operations, for example. And those perfectly executed crop circles? They're created by something called center pivot irrigation systems that round off the corners of farm fields.