1 comments about Michelin Must See Vancouver (Michelin Must Sees Vancouver).

1. I checked this book at Barnes and Nobles and looked like a perfect travel guide. I didn't buy it just because I'd already bought a more expensive guide to the Pacific Coast/Canada and I didn't want to travel with more weight. Otherwise, the Must See Vancouver guide looked perfect for somebody that doesn't want to spend too much and who rather read the essentials needed for a good trip. You can still get detailed instructions and pretty color pictures but you don't have to carry a heavy book with you. The Michelin star rating is very useful, for example if you have limited time to travel you can choose to see only the sites that are rated three stars and that way you don't feel like you'll miss anything good. The Vancouver book also included Vancouver Island and other short visits starting from Vancouver. I highly recommend this guide. It's too bad I didn't see it before I bought the other guide!

5 comments about Notes from a Big Country.

1. If you are able to laugh at your own faults and mistakes - this is a great book. Otherwise stay away because it'll just get you frustrated (as one of the reviewers mentioned, this book may only be a bestseller in the Middle East or a favourite of illegal immigrants).
   I definitely recommend.



2. One explanation of the conception of 'British humour' is that by laughing about it was the only way for the Brits to cope with the misfortune of loosing an empire. It this 'just wonder and laugh about it' attitude which Bryson applies to all kind of Americanisms and every day wonders and (mis)fortunes. And who better then a funny bloke like Bill Bryson to reflect on these in a combined 78 news paper columns as an American who lived in the UK for over twenty years who masters the art or exaggeration. This is the ideal book to pick up every now and then, read a few notes and move on with a smile on your face.



3. In spite of all the xenophobic rants from our "love it or leave it" reviewers, Bryson is not out to bring down the good ole U.S. of A., but only to give to British readers glimpses of America that they don't normally see on reruns of "Law and Order", "The O.C.", or the myriad other American TV imports that are slowly taking over British television. If some of his subjects might upset some of these readers, they need to get over it. The columns, and the book in which the columns were compiled, were NOT meant for them in the first place. The columns that make up this book were written between October 1996 and May 1998 and published in the Mail on Sunday's Night and Day magazine for a primarily British audience. The selling point for this run of articles was that Bryson would be returning to the States after some twenty years in Britain and that the America he would be describing would be seen by the eyes of an American, but an American that had absorbed enough of Britannia to become something of a hybrid. The resulting columns would naturally be informative, witty, and penetrating.
   
   Unfortunately, this goal was only partially successful. Bryson can be a very insightful observer, and his writing style is infectious enough, but now and then it seems that he is neither interested in the subject of which he writes nor is he able to bring the full talent of his art to the task. Both of these weaknesses are apparent in this collection of articles. The subject of his notes run the gamut from the obesity and ignorance of a goodly portion of the American population to the wonders and brilliance of the American landscape. And since these writings were intended for "light" reading there is an attempt to make them humorous. Bryson can be VERY funny when he is not TRYING to be funny; alas, most of the humor in this book is of the contrived type: Bryson acting the dunce for a few cheap laughs. Equally annoying is his way of ending each of his notes, where the reader is to believe that Bryson is bringing his weekly musings to a close because of some outside event like eating dinner, decorating the Christmas tree, or playing catch with his kids, rather than the fact that his word quota has been met.
   
   And since I'm being finicky here, it must be mentioned that ole Bill is triple dipping. First, he writes these 70 odd notes for a weekly periodical; he then incorportes them into this book; and then he incorporates THIS book (minus those Briticisms and British spellings so anathema to the "love it or leave it" crowd) into another book, I'm a Stranger Here Myself, which is intended for an American audience. Not a bad return for some random musings originally intended for British readers passing a lazy weekend.



4. How dare the curmudgeonly Mr. Byrson poke fun at the absurdities of American culture and society? You'd think that he'd been living in some odd little island-nation (like England, say) for the past two decades from the way he disparages the so-called dumbing down of America (we prefer "gravitating toward quiet imbecility," Mr. Bryson) and our beloved enthusiasm for formal procedure (for your information, red tape keeps our homeland stuck together). And when the author comments on our casual disregard for the environment and the American proclivity for predictability, he does so as though these are somehow bad things. And then, of course, Mr. Bryson attempts to cover up his unpatriotic tracks with anecdotes of how nice everyday Americans really are (like when new neighbors welcomed his family with freshly baked pies), but by then his agenda has already been exposed; the treasonous damage is done. What perturbs me most about Bill Bryson is his opinions and the fact that he seems to be filled up with them. Oh, and his humor. Someone needs to inform this man that humor is not always funny. Well, sir, you may have had the first laugh, but since the time you wrote this spiteful little tome, America has put itself on a new and correct political track and is determined to right all of the wrongs. And so I ask you, Mr. Bryson: who is laughing now?
   
   PS: I am currently reading your book on Shakespeare. It's quite good.
   
   Troy Parfitt, author



5. I recently finished Notes from a Small Island (which I thoroughly enjoyed), and was eager to dig into what I expected to be kind of an equivalent synopsis of life in America. I am very disappointed because it seems that Bryson spends most of the time pandering to the Brits who can never seem to find anything good to say about America. If things are really so dire over here, then why do they come in droves and never leave again? I was relieved when I finally reached a chapter in which Bryson's British wife points out that all he does is complain, and he finally got around to mentioning the friendliness of the American people.
   
   I lived in England myself, and it's funny that some of the same things he seemingly resents about America are the same things that I couldn't wait to return to. In his prior book he speaks endearingly about the many quirky aspects of life in Britain but seems not be nearly as receptive to America's quirks. Just when will America be entitled to its own culture and way of life without having to apologize to its stodgy European predecessors?
   
   There is an unspoken rule in English culture that one never (directly) brags about one's own family, or indeed anything. I suppose Notes from a Big Country is a good indication of just how 'English' Bryson became while he was there. By no means should he brag about America, particularly to his British audience, but the book could have been so much more positive.

No comments about Let's Go 2002: Alaska & the Pacific Northwest (Let's Go Alaska and the Pacific Northwest).

No comments about Michelin Western Canada Regional Road Atlas.

2 comments about Vancouver: Secrets of the City.

1. Vancouver; Secrets of the City is a fascinating read. It is different from many guide books in that it focuses on interesting, unusual and little known facts about the city. Some thing are useful (like the shortcut through the downtown traffic using a tunnel that runs past the law-courts), and some things are just entertaining, but almost everything is interesting. I would recommend this book for residents and visitors alike.



2. Vancouver: Secrets of the City is a thoroughly researched and enjoyable read that may stand as a proto-type of sorts in guide books for curious locals and tourists alike. It includes an impressive array of facts, tips, and social history as well as sections on Vancouver's art and literary worlds, its gathering places, festivals, accommodations, dinning, nightlife, shopping, transportation and of course its notoriety. Best of all, the mix is achieved with a rare and stylish flare for visual and textual interplay.

1 comments about Mobil Travel Guide: Canada 2006 (Mobil Travel Guide Canada (Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Quebec, Saskatchewan)).

1. Given the fact that I intend to travel to Canada in 2007, I have found this book an excellent starting point. It details quite a lot of information about where you can stay, what you can do and where you can eat in pretty much every city within canada, including those smaller places. I believe that it's a great starting point for those you that wish to research the place's you want to visit.

No comments about Where to Eat in Canada 03-04 (Where to Eat in Canada).

No comments about Women's Traveler 94: USA Canada Caribbean (Damron Women's Traveller).

1 comments about Vancouver Ultimate Guide (Vancouver Guide).

1. This travel book is very good and easy to read. It covers basically all the major attractions in Vancouver and it even gives you a list of the top ten activities not to miss. For every single attraction, you will find detailed description on how to get there (either by car or by taking the public bus), the admission fee, hours of service, and a phone number. The book includes about ten maps that are absolutely great. You will also find the information on restaurants very useful. They organize them by location, by cuisine, and by price range. This book is a great travel planner you will like to read before visiting Vancouver. And, do not forget to bring your umbrella and your rain jacket!

5 comments about Unknown Shore: The Lost History of England's Arctic Colony.

1. This is a tale about an English pirate-turned-explorer who few people have ever heard of, and the establishment of British colony on an Arctic island that is perhaps even less known...but that's short-changing this elaborate true adventure. Bought this one because I liked the author's last book, "Jericho," which was a history of a place, but also of archaeology itself and of wave after wave of quirky scientists who came to study the ruins of the famous city. This new book has an even broader sweep, from pre-naval power London where morality always took a back seat to fortune-seeking, to the coast of West Africa where a ship's crew was worth less to investors than a few tons of pepper, to the Czar's palace in Moscow, the roiling North Atlantic and the confusing, ice-packed passages above North America. This is a tale festooned with accurately-drawn characters. The scholarship is so clearly reliable that you know that you're not getting the pop-magazine caricatures of, say, Sebastian Junger's "The Perfect Storm." Also, with Ruby's style of examining a place through the eyes of multiple adventurers from several eras, you're getting a deeply-textured tale that makes Krakauer's "Into Thin Air" seem one-dimensional. And you also get a fun - and often funny - yarn featuring modern reporters in polar bear pants, privateers who seize all shipping - even that of their countrymen - a pompous alchemist, mutual puzzlement as white man meets Inuit, horrific storms at sea, and discussions of the how Queen Elizabeth's sex life affected exploration. By the end, I had not only enjoyed myself but absorbed an extraordinary amount of the FEEL of an era - or two - and a place. In this sense it's also comparable to Patrick O'Brien's seafaring Maturin and Aubrey series.



2. Robert Ruby's Unknown Shore is a little misleading in its subtitle (The Lost History of England's Arctic Colony) in as much as the history was not quite lost nor was there actually a colony, only the briefest of attempts at a colony in a farcical plan to mine the soil for gold. That said, the book is quite entertaining as it pieces together the story of Martin Frobisher and his ill-fated Elizabethean Arctic adventures and the always fascinating Charles Francis Hall's discovery of the location of Frobisher's Meta Incognita in the nineteenth century. (For a wonderful and full account of Hall, see the very fine Weird and Tragic Shores by C. Chauncey Loomis). The two stories blend fairly well and the author keeps the narrative sparkling along at an entertaining clip. This was a good Arctic read for those addicted to these books and a good place to begin for someone who wants to learn what the addiction to these Arctic books is all about from a book that shows men whose addiction to that cold world ran so much deeper than merely reading about it.



3. An unfortunately rare example of an eminently readable work of history. Ruby does an outstanding job of setting his story in the context of the times with a modern historian's insight into social and cultural history. This is far more than just another in a series of the latest vogue in Arctic exploration narratives. Through skillful use of his sources, the author brings both his European and Inuit protagonists to life. The reader is left with the haunting image of fragments of a remote Arctic island studding the landscape of a prosaic London suburb as testimony to both the folly and awe-inspiring tenacity of the sixteenth-century explorers. This is fascinating complementary reading for students of the colonization of other areas of the world.



4. I was very interested in Frobisher Air Base now Iqaluit Airport. My interest centered around the part it played in the US nuclear war plans, early warning, communications and strategic location during the 80s and 90s. First I needed to learn about the history of the area and exploration. Unknown Shore provided that first glimpse of early life and exploration. The cast of characters and the way their names became geographic locations are explained to a lesser degree though. If you like reading about remote and harsh areas of the world you will like this book. It could use a few more maps and pictures but I say that for every book I read.



5. This is an OK read about the Arctic. There are actually two stories here. The first revolves around English explorer and pirate Martin Forbisher and the second about an American Charles Francis Hall. Forbisher was searching for the northwest passage to China and found what he thought was a passage way and a black stone. Assayers felt the stone could yield a fortune in gold. The passage Forbisher found was a bay and the stone contained little in the way of precious metals. Hall searched for the survivors of an earlier Artic expedition of Franklin. He was disappointed too. What he found were the traces of Forbisher's expedition. Both explorers searched for something that was not there.
   The book is of interest to those historians who like the explorations of the Arctic and Antarctic. What is facinating is the life of the Inuit or native peoples who inhabit this inhospital land. It was interesting to read of how these people adapted to their environment. The white man may have thought them savages. They were far more civilized than the white man. As stated an OK read about a little known expedition.