1 comments about Short Bike Rides in and around Chicago (Short Bike Rides Series).

1. It's a nice book, BUT sloppily edited. For example, we just went on the ride by the Skokie Lagoons. The books says to take I-94 north to Golf Road; guess what? there's no Golf Road exit. One has to go to Old Orchard, go west to Harms Road (which is shown on the map as Harris Rd.) and then turn south again and go down to Golf. Once there, the books says to park in the Chick Evans Golf Course parking lot. This necessitaes a 3/4 mile bike ride back to the trail-head, on a supremely busy 4-lane street, with no bike lane and hardly any shoulder.
   
   Given that one passes parking areas along Harms Road, in the Forest Preserve, right by the trailhead, this made NO sense. These parking areas are closer and safer...so why aren't we directed to park there instead?
   
   I am looking forward to more biking in and around Chicago this fall, but I'll doublecheck driving directions before I go.

2 comments about Off the Map: A Journey Through the Amazonian Wild.

1. I must admit that the cover photo caught my attention at the local library and I'm sure glad I found this hidden gem! John Harrison has the audacity to attempt an upstream traverse of a remote Amazon tributary...yes, upstream, against and around raging rapids, fallen trees, swift currents and for me, the horror of horrors...multiple hornet and wasp nests! Then he plans on hauling his canoe and all the gear 15 kilometers over a small mountain range to a river that makes it's way to the northern coast of South America. On an old Indian trail across these mountains that may not even still exist. And not by himself or with another seasoned, masochistic Amazon adventurer like himself, but with his wife! Need I say more? This book is a must read for anyone who enjoys REAL adventure stories where there is no quick rescue should things go wrong. So order it today (or go to your local library) and start reading because you won't be disappointed!



2. People who are interested in reading about the Amazon rain forest or French Guyana should in fact read another book called "Antecume", a true biography written by the Andre Cognat, who dared to venture alone on a small canoe on the Oyapock River (at the border of Brazil and French Guyana), got lost and injured, and was miraculously rescued by Amerindians (the "Wayanas", a tribe with whom he still lives among today), many years before Mr. and Mrs. Harrison and at a time when much of Guyana was still unexploired.
   
   I have my doubts as to whether the events narrated by the Harrisons have indeed truly happened or not, or at least the way they are depicted in this book. It is my impression that the authors' exploits have been quite exaggerated. I visited Guyana several times and I have not heard of the Harrisons. In fact, Guyana is no longer such a risky place in the wilderness to venture into! It has been quite modernized since colonial times and 'the bagne" over the past decades; especially after the rocket launching site was build near Kourou. There is now easy access to healthcare facilities, and transportation and telecommunication equipments are quite modern and widely available. In fact, the most remote areas located at the East and South of the Guyanese territory are stricly delimited and called "zone interdite": in other words, it is even illegal to enter them without the authorization of the local government.

No comments about Pictures of gold rush California.

1 comments about English Journey.

1. Priestley travels around the UK and in his dependable prose examines aspects of British life and landscape. His passage about the mythical 'Rusty Lane, West Bromwich' is a superb piece of writing. Occasionally he over-sentimentalises but mostly he stands up for the disenfranchised in the nation. Softer in tone than Orwell's Wigan Pier but similar in intention. A great read.
   The book reminds me of Louis Theroux's Kingdom by the Sea or the work of Bill Bryson although it details a more innocent age.

3 comments about The Unofficial Guide to Chicago (Unofficial Guides).

1. This guide offered everything I needed for my trip to Chicago. I found out where to shop, which beaches to go to, and all about the night life in the Windy City.



2. This guide has ratings for the places you can visit, by age range. This is helpful so that you know it your family members will be interested in visiting there. They gave helpful hints for some of the locations. We found they underestimated the amount of time needed at some of the sites. The maps were very well laid out and showed how things were related to each other. They didn't give many parking locations, but often places to park were easy to find. Take plenty of money for parking (usually $18 and for all the toll roads). Some of the restaurants were much higher priced than listed in the book.



3. No discussion of pre-theater dining! When you are going to see Wicked at the Ford Theater, there is not much more you care about than where to eat first. In fact, the restaurant guide does not even mention half the restaurants that are listed online as "the" pre-theater dining places (none of which "grabbed" me online, so I was hoping this book would be more enlightening).
   
   Also no full drawing of the various parts of the city. Small maps that show only two districts do not tell me where Bucktown is relative to The Loop. This is critical when all the hotels, restaurants, etc. are referred to by district.
   
   Overall disappointing, because The Unofficial Guides tend to be better than other guides, and they tend to be better than this.

3 comments about The Last Kings of Thule: With the Polar Eskimos, As They Face Their Destiny.

1. Insightful and introspective account of the author's extended study of the Polar Innuit of the Thule district in Greenland. The most recent edition includes the author's bittersweet reflections many years later on modern incursions that threaten the survival of this indigenous culture.



2. Fantastic background to the area both from the antropological and geographical points of veiw. However, when I visited Qaanaaq in 1990 and mentioned this book I found that the local inhabitants were not impressed by their protrayal. Particularly concerning the more private aspects of their society.



3. Although the primary objectives of Malaurie's work were cartographic and geological in nature, he became, by default, a primary voice in describing the Thule culture by recounting his personal experiences and lifestyle during the expedition. Surely, ethnography can never be a truly objective effort, but Malaurie seems to appreciate this and relates cultural information through an admitted cultural filter. Rather than stifle his own reactions in his writing, Malaurie has adequately described, with sensitivity, his personal paradigm shift as well as that of the culture he is inevitably impacting by his very presence. It is inevitable that in any ethnographic description it will be found that something is amiss, lacking, due to the inevitable loss of information that occurs whenever information is transferred across cultural and linguistic lines. This work is one of the few that I have read that treats cultural interaction and exchange with dignity on behalf of the observed and the one observing. And, after all, these lines of distinction regarding observer and the observed shift and change radically during such a period of cultural interaction. Malaurie wonderfully describes this process.

4 comments about Blue Trout and Black Truffles: The Peregrinations of an Epicure.

1. Wechsberg's book is an established classic on a par with those of A. J. Liebling and Waverly Root. Like those other authors, Wechsberg was a journalist who wrote about food, restaurants, and food cultures in the mid-20th century, and his insights and great storytelling give the writing a permanent appeal. This can be seen from the reaction after this essay collection (whose chapters were originally written as magazine articles) appeared in this reprint edition in the mid-1980s. I was at a Christmas party with some accomplished food folks, including Paul Bertolli of the Chez Panisse in Berkeley, and was recounting to someone one of the stories ("Tafelspitz for the Hofrat") from this book. When I finished I found that most of the room was listening, and that many of them, independently, had recently read the book too. That particular essay, by the way, has lately been re-discovered in Vienna, where it was set, and has been proudly adopted by some restaurants there. In this book Wechsberg interviewed, and popularized to US readers, the legendary Fernand Point, chef and owner of the 20th-century's most famous and influential restaurant in France (and for whom the _Guide Michelin_ reportedly debated adding a fourth star to their rating system for premium restaruants). Some of the chapters are interviews, some experiences and some celebrations of food. This book is well known and indispensable to food fanatics and those seeking more of the background and context from which contemporary western culinary culture -- high cuisine as well as comfort food -- emerged.



2. Wechsberg's name ought to be mentioned alongside M.F.K. Fischer's. His writing is evocative, precise, and vivid. Reading this book makes me wish I could board a time machine and eat in the restaurants he described in the 1950s. Like many Viennese, Wechsberg loves the old city, the city that vanished after the wars, and resurrects it in memory.



3. What a romp in the world of food! You'll feel satisfied at the end of the book... like a good meal.



4. Though Blue Trout and Black Truffles is billed as Culinary journey, and it is at that, it is also something completely unexpected, an introduction to European life in the 1920s through 1940s. The exploration of food and wine is coupled with vibrant characters and unforgettable settings.

1 comments about Moon Metro Chicago (Moon Metro).

1. Moon Metro Chicago is a unique and easily portable tourist guide in which every single two-page spread unfolds into a practical and durable map of this great midwestern city. In full color, printed on heavy stock paper, these detailed and up to date descriptions and "user friendly" maps make for an economical and handy guide for tourists, business travelers, and vacationers looking to explore Chicago's diverse greatness with a minimum of hassle and a maximum of efficiency.

No comments about Culture and the City: Cultural Philanthropy in Chicago from the 1880s to 1917.

3 comments about Unexpected Chicagoland.

1. There indeed is much "unexpected" in this book, some good, some bad. The good news is, there are several glimpses into nooks and crannies you'd probably never find on your own. There's also an homage to some truly great and unique Chicago landmarks, like the huge old railroad bridges, and a fascinating study of disappearing turrets on buildings. The bad news is, the author wanders rather far afield geographically, into Indiana and even Michigan. That would be OK for "Unexpected Midwest", but when you plunk down your money for a book on Chicago, it's an inexcusable heresy. Also unexpected is, a lot of space is devoted to things you may not really care about. You'll spend time inside the Bohemian National Cemetery Columbarium, exploring niches full of urns, photos, mementos, et al. Several pages are devoted to "extinguished neon signs", and six pages show seven different modern billboards. Four pages go to a single whale sign on a West Chicago building. If you're mainly interested in old buildings and architecture in general, look elsewhere. Otherwise, I'd strongly recommend you check this book out of your local library and see if it's to your taste, before buying a copy.



2. Unexpected Chicagoland is a fascinating, if disfunctional book. The book does a nice job portraying the decay of urban infrastructure through pictures-when it sticks to "Chicagoland". Apparently, this geographic area extends all the way into Michigan (why?). For the money, the author could have stuck to Chicago proper alone and produced a much better book. It's not like you have to go out of the city to find these types of areas. The section on the Pullman district was especially good. The photos have a haunting quality to them. You can almost hear the trains roaring by and the bustle of the little enclave.

   Worth taking a look at if you can find an open copy at a bookstore.




3. Unexpected Chicagoland is a gift to those devoted to the study of cities and surrounding areas and to those who worry about how fast the landscape and cityscape is changing. Though neither Camilo Vergara nor Tim Samuelson are rabid preserverationists, they know what symbols we are losing and do their best to memorialize them in text and pictures. Theirs is a unique partnership of artists with talent, concern, and reflection.

   I've bought 6 copies for friends.