No comments about We'll Always Have Paris: American Tourists in France since 1930.

No comments about Beyond the Mexique Bay (Paladin Books).

No comments about Night+Day Chicago (The Cool Cities Series).

No comments about Market Day in Provence (Fieldwork Encounters and Discoveries).

1 comments about Let's Go Pocket City Guide Chicago, 1st Ed. (Let's Go: Pocket City Guide Chicago).

1. I first used this guide when we began visiting Chicago several years ago. We stumbled upon it at a Borders on Michigan Ave. It has truly proved invaluable. To this day (as residents of Chicago), we use this guide to figure out where L stops and landmarks are. I will keep this map until it falls apart. Not only that, it's laminated, which makes it easy to "rough up" without worrying if it will tear.

5 comments about The Best Christmas Decorations in Chicagoland.

1. This book has it all! It has precise directions and maps that make it easy to find the most spectacular holiday displays; it has fascinating stories about the decorators; and it even has helpful hints on decorating your own home for Christmas. The photographs are beautiful--they really inspire the yuletide spirit! This book helped my family experience a delightful holiday adventure--my kids are still talking about it! I think we've created a new Christmastime tradition with the help of Ms. Edsey''s glorious book!



2. Perhaps one of the fondest memories of any Chicago childhood is the Christmas lights. We love our decorations, and in some parts of the city, we go all out, turning our homes into little "winter wonderlands" for our own pleasure and that of our friends, neighbors, and often carloads of strangers who cruise the more decorated neighborhoods. That's why I snarfed up this book as soon as I knew it existed, and for the most part, I wasn't disappointed. Edsey covers a lot of the best areas for decorations, gives some historical background, and displays a real love for her subject, which strikes a responsive chord in me. However, I was disappointed in the photography which was a bit fuzzy and rather darker than I would have liked. Now, granted, all this has to be shot in the dark for maximum effect, but holiday magazines manage to make their photographs crisp and clear, with little loss of architectural detail. And I know it's not about the architecture, but that always will inform the way the decorations appear to onlookers. To lose those details is to lose some of what makes the lights and decorations so appealing.

   However, nothing else like this exists, and I have to give high marks to this volume if only on that count. It's way better than nothing! So if you're a Christmas junkie and a Chicago lover, then by all means, buy this book, and enjoy.




3. Some of my fondest memories are of driving around with my parents, and later with my children, to wonder at the displays of those few festive folks that help make Christmas more joyous for us all. My mother and father drove us to the two streets in our small town where people bothered to sparkle as a community in tribute to the birth of love. In Chicago, those communities are in abundance....but who would ever know...unless somebody told them. In her book Mary Edsey tells everybody . She shows them, too. She seems to know everything about Christmas lights in Chicago...the history, the story behind the families that make the displays, the whereabouts, the types of bulbs and figurines used. And she shows us everything in detailed photos. It's like looking at a family album. Plus...She has maps to every display! It's great table entertainment as well as a wonderful guide. I highly recommend this book to any lover of Christmas and the lights that come with it!



4. This uplifting book provides numerous photographs of creatively-decorated properties. Of course, this was now 12 or more Christmases ago. The decorations are secular and religious, and traditional as well as non-traditional. For example, some have tropical motifs.
   
   A very helpful feature of this book is the division of the Chicago area into areas, each of which has a map that locates every photographed property. The homes are indexed by name. One of the best-known decorated properties occurs in the Sauganash community on the north side of Chicago.



5. This is a great christmas book and not only am I not from Chicago, I'm not even from the USA. Doesn't matter.
   
   This book is filled with great pictures of christmas displays throughout Chicago and no matter where you live, if you like to look at christmas displays, you should like this book.
   
   Each display gives you some information about that particular display, not just directions but sometimes history, personal feelings/descriptions, reasons why the person/people used what they used, etc........ A real nice christmas mood book.
   
   It would have been nice to have larger pictures, though, so as to really capture the full beauty of the displays, but don't worry about that as it's only minor. The pictures are still big enough to enjoy and the writing/descriptions with each picture add a really nice 'christmas' touch to this most recommended book.
   
   Oh, and on a plus side (despite the small, but not too small pictures), there are a ton of pictures so you will really get a visual, eye-candy, christmas treat with this book.
   
   100% recommeded for those who like christmas displays/christmas images.

1 comments about The City in a Garden: A Photographic History of Chicago's Parks (Center for American Places - Center Books on American Places).

1. This book received an Award of Merit from the American Society of Landscape Architects Professional Awards Program in 2003.

2 comments about The Crippled Tree (China : Autobiography, History, Book 1).

1. All the masses of people who loved "Wild Swans" will love this one too. It gives a slightly different perspective on the same situation. Gives less recent history, but more information on colonial exploitation in pre-communist times than Wild Swans does. This author has written a few other books too.



2. Very good reading for those who love history which is told in a simple way, thrue a live story of an Europen - China couple and their children at the beginning of the 20th century ; and for those, who are always seeking the real truth and are never satisfied with just one point of view.

No comments about Selling Power Meetings Newsletter - July 7, 2008 (Meetings Newsletter).

No comments about VanDam Street Smart Chicago, IL (Streetsmart).