2 comments about Our Chicago (Our States Series).

1. Our Chicago is a visual smorgasbord of the great sights and highlights of this grand city. Full-color photographs by Ron Schramm, enhanced with an engaging text and informative captions by Marilyn D. Clancy vividly illustrate this visual tour of this American Midwestern city, from its homey neighborhoods to its fast-paced commerce and high culture. An excellent and memorable souvenir of vacationing or living in the Windy City, Our Chicago is a welcome and highly recommended work, which could well serve as a template or example for similar visual showcase tributes for other major American cities.



2. Although it has been 20 years since I left Chicago, I still miss it with a passion. It was good to me. I was young and found plenty of opportunity in that great city. I meet some wonderful people as well. I just got this book today but it is a keeper, I can tell. The photos are great and the facts in it are educational, I learned something already; I never saw a picture of the oldest remaining house in Chicago until now.
   So, if you are a Chicagoan, former Chicagoan, or just someone that would like to learn about a great city, buy this book.

1 comments about Frommer's(r) Memorable Walks in Chicago, 4th Edition.

1. We made good use of this walking guide to Chicago, and found the information acurate, informative and fun. There are ten tours: Architecture Tour of the Loop, Sculpture Tour of the Loop, South Michigan Avenue and Grant Park, Magnificent Mile, Gold Coast, Old Town, Lincoln Park, Wicker Park, Oak Park and Hyde Park. each tour starts with information about the starting and end points, public transportation, time of the walk, best time to walk and worst time. The walks feature building and places of interest, with stories and eateries along the way. Lots of fun and very useful!

3 comments about A Native's Guide to Chicago, Fourth Edition (Native's Guide).

1. Now in a thoroughly updated and significantly expanded fourth edition, A Native's Guide To Chicago continues to be the premier guide to what Chicago has to offer its residents, suburbanites, out-of-town tourists, scheduled business travelers. Every chapter provides "user friendly" mainstream information and offbeat suggestions side by side. Ranging from touring, recreation, food, and entertainment, to lodging, shopping, walking, and keeping informed, A Native's Guide To Chicago is enhanced with photos, maps, an index, and is a "must" for anyone wanting to spend quality time making memories in America's foremost heartland city.



2. One of the best Chicago guides, from streets to attractions and beyond... and the ONLY guide that I keep near my desk!
   
   Lake Claremont Press is a small operation with awesome dedication to doing the midwest right and I trust them much more than any corporate-produced glossy guide; Native's Guide is GREAT!



3. Very simply put, this is the ABSOLUTE BEST, MOST INCLUSIVE guide book to Chicago that you will EVER find, so stop searching, and buy this guide book!
   
   A Native's Guide to Chicago, Fourth Edition (Native's Guide)

No comments about The Architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright: A Complete Catalog, Updated 3rd Edition.

1 comments about A Photo Tour of Chicago (Photo Tour Books).

1. This was a gift for a young lady that was visiting the States from Beijing and she was delighted as was I, in presenting it to her. The quality of the pictures is wonderful,the diversity of the areas shown in Chicago really give the reader a true sense of our wonderful city of Chicago. It has enticed her to want to visit the city even sooner but the pictures will suffice in the meantime!

1 comments about Oddball Iowa: A Guide to Some Really Strange Places (Oddball series).

1. I bought this book for my recent foray down to Des Moines for a conference. On the way home, I took a cornfield tour guided by Jerome Pohlen's fun book. Try it, you & your kids &/or whoever you're travelling with will love it!
   
   After Des Moines, (Hey! Pohlen doesn't include this in the tour - but if you are ever in DM the evening before the start of the Iowa State Fair - (think Pat Boone & the movie) you just HAVE to watch the State Fair Kick-Off Parade. 3 Hours of Americana - not a rose-decked float to be found - but there are plenty of High School marching bands and gubernatorial candidates, and lots and lots of John Deere tractors. Makes ya hanker for a corn dog!) I went on to the Amana Colonies, the movie set for "The Field of Dreams" - Kevin Costner & Company Built it - and the people are still coming!, and cantered the cornfield - actually it's planted in soybeans this year, the corn is on the other side of the barb wire - where Richie Valens, the Big Bopper, and Buddy Holly's plane went down, as Don McLean later called it, "the (Night) the Music Died" - to see the Memorial. (You'll need this book to find that - it is literally off the beaten path.)
   Awesome - all of it!
   /TundraVision, Amazon Reviewer

No comments about Chicago in Photographs.

1 comments about Frommer's Portable Chicago (Frommer's Portable).

1. I read several travel books on Chicago from the library, and I felt that the regular Frommer's guide to Chicago was the best of them all.
   
   However, I bought "Frommer's Portable Chicago" because the smaller size makes it easy to take with you and it includes all the most important information - including the insightful reviews - from the regular version.
   
   This is an excellent book.

1 comments about Progressive Nation: A Travel Guide with 400+ Left Turns and Inspiring Landmarks.

1. This book has been so needed. So often, as we travel the U.S., the only radio options we have are right-wing blowhards like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. The corporatist and militarist control over our media Orwell Rolls in His Grave misleads people into thinking that America is a right-wing country, but Jerome Pohlen's book helps to set the record straight. Even at 400 pages, it only touches the surface of this country's rich tradition of popular struggle People's History of the United States: 1492 to Present (P.S.). "Progressive Nation" includes famous and not-so-famous sites in every state, from Grafton, WV where we learn of the anti-war origins of the first Mother's Day, to Stafford, CA where we find the tree where Julia "Butterfly" Hill conducted her famous tree-sit. We also learn of current progressive actions taking place, such as in Tucson, AZ where solidarity groups like "No More Deaths.org" provide water and medical assistance to immigrants who risk death crossing the desert to flee the economic destruction of NAFTA and other "free" trade deals The Selling of "Free Trade": NAFTA, Washington, and the Subversion of American Democracy.
   "Progressive Nation" has an appealling layout, and is filled with photos, quotes, and media suggestions for more information.
   
   The author is a 2008 Green Party candidate for Congress in Illinois. I'm going to donate to his campaign as a token of thanks for this important book that brings to life America's proud left-wing history.
   If Pohlen doesn't win his electoral race, hopefully he'll write more books like this. Maybe more detailed state-by-state progressive travel guides.
   
   A couple related DVDs:
   Red State Road Trip
   Independent America: The Two-Lane Search for Mom & PopIndependent America: The Two-Lane Search for Mom & Pop
   Anthem
   
   A related book:
   Lies Across America: What American Historic Sites Get Wrong

2 comments about Barrio: Photographs from Chicago's Pilsen and Little Village (Chicago Visions and Revisions).

1. I really liked the combination of the pictures and the journal entries. It feels as if the book is the complete story, you get to see the images of the neighborhood and read the story of the photographer. Both the pictures and the words are beautiful. Although the photographer is an outsider in the neighborhood he is able to capture images of the inside.



2. If Goya had a camera (this goes for Caravaggio also) his photographs would look like Paul D'Amato's. Within the pages of this compelling book live the supreme photographs of their genre. Fine Art? Documentary? D'Amato's vision is not simply positioned and categorized. These photographs are of people's lives. "Barrio" hugs Mexican life in Chicago. This book reveals a culture and people that are truly beautiful, unvarnished splendor in the direction of labor, guts, water and light. The most respect a photographer can give their subject is to make the strongest (possible and out of the question) photographs. Paul D'Amato repeatedly shows his respect with these photographs.