I have only my wife's word for the details of what childbirth feels like — none too good, to hear her tell it — but I have to imagine it's a lot like the process of giving “birth” to a book. Our daughter was born 19 years ago, so my recollections are dim (though my wife swears it's like it was yesterday), but I do remember a lot of tension, moaning and screaming, and that my wife could have only ice chips to quench her thirst. Birthing a book, I can report from recent experience, feels pretty much the same, only with gallons of coffee in place of the ice chips.

The book in question is The Family Tree Guide Book (Betterway Books), newly published and arriving in bookstores about the time that you read this. Though Betterway Books authors have been integral to the success of Family Tree Magazine since our launch, this is the first time we've returned the favor and created a book from the magazine. You can get a sampling of the book's scope — genealogy across the United States and Canada — in this issue's cover story, in which we pick 100 of the most useful Web sites from the more than 1,300 in The Family Tree Guide Book.