1 comments about Vietnam Travel Map: 2005/2006 Edition (Periplus Travel Maps).

1. Not as detailed as I would like. Map is more like one over the world.

5 comments about A Broad Abroad In Thailand; An Expat's Misadventures in the Land of Smiles.

1. Having been in Tailand myself, I just had to read this book.
   I found it enjoyable, easy reading and Dodie has a great sense of humor.
   I am looking forward to her next book.
   
   Eleanor G. Sargent



2. This book is written by my mother-in-law, I had no idea how funny she could be or the details of the life she had lived! I've always known how humorous she is but I had no idea what a great book she would write. I read it while sitting at soccer games/practices and laughed so hard that people around me asked me what the book was so that they could purchase it. Right on, Mom!!!



3. This book was like taking a vacation....while wearing my pajamas in my living room. The scenery was very realistic in all of the chapters, the characters were people I have met, or hoped to never meet, and the situations were believable/unbelievable to the extent I hope they never happen to me.
   
   I would recommend this book and it's chapters as a fun read to get away from the daily dramas or as a nice way to end the day. I often found myself laughing hysterically into my hand while my co-workers frowned because this book was on my Kindle, and couldn't get passed on. Reading this book was an adventure to remember and I'm glad I didn't miss it.



4. A Broad Abroad in Thailand is author Dodie's memoirs of her experiences and her life in Thailand when she found herself living there, based in great part by the fact that the man she was dating, at the time, and now her husband was transferred there.
   
   First off, I have to say that this book was quite funny. Dodie tells her life experiences in an almost "off handed" "oh shucks" way that both works well for the storyline but not so well for my opinion of her choices.
   
   Cross will be the first one to admit the fact that marrying a man she was not sure about and then leaving her whole life behind and moving thousands and thousands of miles away with him - may not have been the healthiest decision she has ever taken.
   
   Which is the part of the book that does not work for me. Anytime Dodie details anything about her life in Thailand that includes her husband, I feel an almost palpable dislike coming from Dodie when she talks about her husband. This made me dislike him in turn and wonder what the heck she could have been thinking about.
   
   If I stick with strictly the stories that Dodie describes of her shopping trips, massages, pharmaceutical runs and general description of all things Thailand, I find myself thoroughly enjoying the book.
   
   I think this would have worked much better for me if the story was Dodie's alone - I am glad that she finally sees the light (a little late for this story) though. I will probably enjoy her next memoir alot more.



5. A Broad Abroad in Thailand is a delightful read. I like to to be entertained by the books I read and this one certainly filled the bill for that! I did not want to put it down until I finished it. Dodie has a great sense of humor and does not mind poking fun at herself along the way. Oh, that we were all more like Dodie! I highly recommend this book.

5 comments about Tibet Through the Red Box: Through The Red Box (Caldecott Honor Book).

1. I first encountered this book in my elementary school library and have since looked it up again. At the time it struck me as magical and wonderfully illustrated, and now (years later) I can appreciate its historical signifigance as well as its obvious visual appeal



2. I once had the great good fortune of seeing Peter Sis speak before a large audience of New York City Public Librarians. Charming, blessed with an uncommon eloquence, and funny as well Sis spoke of his work over the last few decades. From this speech I learned that Sis designed the poster for the movie of "Amadeus", that he was originally from Prague, and that one of his best works was something called, "Tibet: Through the Red Box". I was intrigued, but months passed and I filed away "Tibet" into my To-Be-Read pile of picture books. It was only with my steady reading of every single Caldecott Honor (of which "Tibet" won one in 1999) that I at last came to the book itself. I expected a title that was some sort of early-reader-this-is-what-Tibet-is kind of a thing. I had apparently forgotten that this was the man who brought us that remarkable Charles Darwin biography, "Tree of Life". "Tibet: Through the Red Box" is no mere picture book. It's a personal history and unreliable memory combined into the ultimate tribute to the author's father.
   
   In 1994 Peter Sis received a note from his father that said merely, "The Red Box is now yours". Rushing home, Sis found the box in question and opened it to reveal a diary kept by his father of his time in Tibet in the mid-1950s. Sis the elder was a documentary filmmaker, and as such he was sent by the army film unit to China to make and teach filmmaking. The job was supposed to be about the Chinese highway currently being built in the Himalayas that would open Tibet up to the rest of the world. While there, Sis was separated from his project and explored the world of Tibet deeper than (he suspected) any Czech citizen before him. In this book, Peter Sis takes sections from this diary and illustrates them with his signature dotty style. Interspersed with his father's written recollections, Peter includes his own childhood memories of the fantastical elements of the trip his father would tell him. There were Yetis that cared for him while sick, and lakes filled with fish that had human faces. The final meeting with the Boy-God-King, the Dali Lama himself, is expressed with riveting finesse.
   
   Back we go to that old question that comes up whenever a picture book doesn't fall strictly into a set category: Is it a book for adults or for kids? Which is to say, will kids want to read it, or get anything out of it if they do? And the answer, of course, isn't all that simple. As many of the reviews for this book already state, there are multiple uses for this title. Readers vary from reluctant teens to awe-struck ten-year-olds. What I've always loved about Sis's work is his ability to write something meaningful for people of all ages. So on the one hand you have a fun story about a father seeing fantastical things (it's no coincidence that Sis chooses to include a quote about Marco Polo at the end) and on the other hand you've a complex story of a son trying to figure out who his father is and at what price a world can be utterly destroyed.
   
   When I saw Sis speak, he made a self-deprecating statement that I've been turning over in my mind ever since. Sis said that when he was first trying to get jobs, he though the best way to distinguish himself from everyone else was to draw using millions of tiny dots. In retrospect, he realized this wasn't such a bright idea. For while the dot style was unique and much sought after, it meant he had to spend countless hours dotting and redotting his books. "Tibet" is dot-o-licious, this is true. And while not quite as insanely detailed as the aforementioned, "Tree of Life", it still an eye-popping wonder. My favorite section however, chronicled the father's trip through the magic palace of Potala, where every room is different. There's a red room that is "sunrise and sunset, heart of time" and a green room that is "square and circular, ear of earth". At this point the book begins to resemble nothing so much as the book, "Maze" by Christopher Manson. If you're a fan of crazy rooms leading nowhere at all, check out that book as well.
   
   Don't pick up "Tibet: Through the Red Box" if you're looking for some light picture book fare. That is the number one wrong way to approach this kind of material. Instead, fix yourself a hot cup of tea, snuggle on a comfy couch with a child or adult that you love, and page through the remarkable and touching story of one man's ode to his father. We should all be so lucky to have done so much, lived so well, and be remembered in such an evocative way.



3. I came upon this book accidentally while working in a public library. It is undoubtedly the best children's book for adults that I have ever read! It is my most favored possession and I read it 3 or 4 times a year and never cease to be inspired by it anew. Visually stunning with a magical story line that will leave you believing in miracles. Buy It!!!



4. promoted as a children's book, but truly a work of art for all to appreciate also informative for children



5. I originally bought the bought mainly because of its Asian theme, a subject my younger child is currently fascinated with. However, what was most compelling about it was not the subject but the perspective. It is through those Czechoslovakian eyes that the cultural experience became special: my son was not merely looking at Tibet from his perspective but was at the same time looking at a certain Czechoslovakia through Tibet's mirror.

1 comments about Wallpaper City Guide: Kyoto (Wallpaper City Guides) (Wallpaper City Guides (Phaidon Press)).

1. I purchased this at the last minute due to the Loney Planet Kyoto guide was changing editions & I couldn't get a copy.
   
   This book did provide some interesting places to go if you are into mostly modern architecture, and it did have some great pictures. Otherwise it was a waste if you wanted more general information. It's written in a "You can only hope to be as cool as us in finding these spots" tone and the recommendations on hotels & dining were all on the uber-tendy side.
   
   The map included in the book was very poor, and none of the sites mentioned in the book were called out on the map (due to the lack of detail) And if you have ever had to deal with addresses in Japan, they are very complex- that's why GPS units are such a big seller there, so it made it very difficult to use.
   
   Plus there appeared to be no flow or grouping to the locations, so if you tried to track things down on the fly, you were going back & forth across the town. After a while I gave up on the book & used a great free map the hotel gave me that was published by the Kyoto City Tourist Association. You can also get a copy of it on the second floor of the JR station at their info center.
   
   Use this book only as a supplement to a better book to find interesting architectural sites.

5 comments about In Xanadu: A Quest.

1. I really enjoyed this book! Each little observation is spiced with whit, and brilliant inuendo. Each story line intrigued me more and more and to each amateur adventurer out there, I say you'll love it!



2. Even if you did not know that this was one of Dalrymple's earlier works, there is quite a bit in the narrative to suggest this. That is not to say that book is not really worth your time - it definitely is - but what is even more interesting is to see & observe the elements of erudition & wonder, & story-telling, that have always been so compelling about WD.
   
   But this is also personal story of a twenty-two year old - complete with a heartbreak - dashing across two continents. WD has certainly tried to talk about many personal episodes - & some of these are as hilarious as they're self-deprecating - but there are definitely pieces, thoughts, & events that probably would not be part of a more mature WD work.
   
   This book is the story of WD & his companions chasing down of Xanadu in Mongolia with a phial of oil from the Holy Sepulcher & all that happens in between.
   
   Informed, eccentric, & never dull.



3. 
   Well not quite, but sort of.
   
   At least this is what I kept thinking of as the author (referred to as Fatso by Mick, an expatriate hippie in Kashgar) and his travel companion Laura (she's the one clad in black) head out across Iran.
   
   They are on a madcap quest, ostensibly to retrace the tracks of Marco Polo in his journey from Jerusalem to the seat of power of Kublai Khan in Xanadu, bearing oil from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.
   
   Dalrymple, a student at Cambridge, came up with this idea to kill time between college terms. Presumably the quasi academic cover was in some way necessary, and the intermittent references to Polo and his voyage are mildly interesting. But really this is a chronicle of a road trip plain and simple - a 1980's kind of On the Road.
   
   The Silk Road, that is.
   
   Anyway, all this makes for idle but entertaining reading, filled with intelligent observations and humorous snippets.
   
   Here, for example, is the English menu from a restaurant in Turkey:
   
   Kujuk Ayas Family Restrant
   
   Ingliz Menuyu
   
   Soap
   
   Ayas soap
   Turkish tripte soap
   Sheeps foot
   Macaront
   Water pies
   
   Eats From Meat
   
   Deuner kepab with pi
   Kebap with green pe
   Kebap in paper
   Meat pide
   Kebap with mas patato
   Samall bits of meat grilled
   Almb chops
   
   Vegetables
   
   Meat in eathernware stev pot
   Stfue goreen pepper
   Stuffed squash
   Stuffed tomatoes z
   Stuffed cabbages lea
   Leek with finced meat
   Clery
   
   Salad
   
   Brain salad
   Cacik - a drink made ay ay
   And cucumber
   
   Frying Pans
   
   Fried aggs
   Scram fried aggs
   Scurum fried omlat
   Omlat with brain
   
   Sweets and Rfuits
   
   Stewed atrawberry
   Nightingales nests
   Virgin lips
   A sweet dish of thinish batter with butter
   Banane
   Meon
   Leeches
   
   Recommended reading if ever you find yourself on an over civilized vacation.



4. I read this book on an airplane journey, and laughed so hard at some entries that I cried.
   And then I got depressed, because I realized that at the author's age, I would have been incapable of the deft writing and erudition he displayed.



5. In the mid 1980s, William Dalrymple (then in his early 20s) made a journey retracing the steps of Marco Polo's famous journey during the 1200s, from the church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem to the site of Shangdu (or Xanadu, as is better known in literature), the summer palace of Kublai Khan, in Outer Mongolia, China. In reality, though, since Soviet Central Asia was then barred to western travel, he deviated in part from Marco Polo's route, going through the Baluchi desert, in southern Iran and Pakistan, and then up the Indus river, and through the then newly opened Karakoram highway to western China, instead of traveling to China through Samarkand and other cities in Central Asia. The book itself is a mixed bag, there is some interesting things in it (at least he did some homework in terms of research) but there are far too many of the sort of banal, smug and self-centered comments and experiences you see in much of the travel writing of westerners as they go through the third world.

No comments about Vietnam Travel Set (LUXE City Guides).

5 comments about An Area of Darkness.

1. This is a book that heartily annoyed me as I read it, but the last 60 pages changed my tune. I would never want to read this book again, nor would I recommend it to others unless they knew what they were getting into--but the endless historical essays on caste and English colonialization did eventually end, and did lead into a really interesting place for Naipaul. One of my chief complaints with the book as I read was that Naipaul kept himself aloof, that so much of the book was abstract historical essay instead of real stories of his travels. There was a chunk in the middle of the book where Naipaul stayed at a particular hotel and got to know the people there, which was really intriguing, but otherwise I was dead bored. The last 60 pages, however, were almost entirely of Naipaul's experience and dealt with the real people he met and the terrible misunderstandings he had. All of the earlier material on caste and colonization had been building up to this point: the point when he visits his grandfather's village and, though charmed at first, ultimately cannot connect with his relations there for the same reasons that he can't connect with the rest of India. Overall the ending was very moving and very powerful.



2. I like travel books that have a sense of adventure, and where one identifies with the writer. This failed on both acounts, and after struggling through half of it a I threw it away.



3. I really loved this book! It'snot history, it's not politics, it's not a cultural review, it's not sociology ... but all the above in one astonishing piece of jewelry. I loved reading it rom the beginning to the end...



4. I read this book in preparation for recent trip to India. While it may be a bit dated, Naipaul writes beautifully. He describes India's people and places as he found them in the early 60's (pre Beatles and Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, and even, apparently, before Nehru shirts were known as such)givin and interesting perspective and historical context to the India I experienced on my recent trip.



5. The author, Sir V.S. Naipaul, won the Nobel Prize in 2001. He is known for both fiction and non-fiction works concerning Asia and Latin America. He was born in Trinidad and is of Indian heritage. Reading the excerpts about his book from well-known magazines to well-known authors gave me the impression that Naipaul wrote well and that his books were excellent. So I picked up this book, written in the 1960's and considered one of Naipaul's classics.
   
   After reading this book, I can only wonder what the reviewers were thinking. Naipaul's prose is often dense and stilted. His narrative style is jerky and anything but reader-friendly.
   
   This book starts with Naipaul going to India for a year or more to work on writing and to visit parts of India including the village from where his grandfather emigrated to Trinidad. He wrestles with a typical 3rd world bureaucracy trying to import some booze. This episode was humorous although I don't think the author was particularly trying for humor. Then Naipaul settles into a hotel near a lake and takes occasional side-trips. Then Naiapul leaves the hotel, travels through India a bit more, and then leaves. That's about it for the action.
   
   This book does include long passages on the after-effects of British colonialism, commentaries on the caste system, and quite a bit of cranky complaining about the culture of India beginning with a rant on the Indian proclivity for defecating anywhere and everywhere and not cleaning up. I've never been to India, so I can't comment on the veracity of this account.
   
   But the book took a long time to cover a very few subjects. Occasionally there would be passages or incidents that were funny or invoked despair or thought. But these passages were not the rule and there were too many pages in-between of filler about the hotel staff or Kipling's influence.
   
   I did finish the book, and there were note-worthy parts, just not as many as I had been led to believe. I love travel writing, I enjoy cranky accounts more than gushing accounts (try Thubron and Theroux). But I honestly doubt I will read any other books by this author. So overall, a grudging 3 stars.

No comments about Qatar Complete Residents' Guide.

No comments about Beijing, China Travel Map (China Regional Maps).

1 comments about The Promise of the Revolution: Stories of Fulfillment and Struggle in China's Hinterland.

1. This year or next, China is expected to be the world's third largest economy, as measured by exchange rates. Currently it is the fourth, behind Germany. The last 30 years have been an amazing saga of economic development. Yet, amidst all the positive news and glitter, Wright provides a salutary tale. He explains that outside the large cities, in the countryside, life is still often one of hard, manual labour. As it has always been in China's history.
   
   Wright focuses on Guizhou, a poor interior province. Far from the glitter of Beijing or cosmopolitan Shanghai. Much of the book looks at peasants that he has extensively interviewed. In sympathetic portrayals, he lets their words speak for themselves. We see why so many have migrated to the cities in search of jobs. There is massive underemployment on the farms, with minimal cash flow causing very low incomes. Many peasants know someone who has found better paying work in factories elsewhere. The book's accounts suggest that the growth of Chinese cities will continue unabated. With millions of peasants willing to migrate if conditions do not improve for them.
   
   The book explains the Chinese government's search for a more even development, that benefits farmers. Prosperity gives the government legitimacy with the people.