No comments about Cartographies of Travel and Navigation (The Kenneth Nebenzahl, Jr., Lectures in the History of Cartography).

5 comments about Park Life: The Summer of 1977 at Comiskey Park.

1. ...your jaw will hit the floor upon opening this book, as mine did. Peter Elliott's photos capture the weathered, hard edged beauty that Comiskey Park and it's fans used to be. A photo book that focuses entirely on the old park and it's fans, this is a must have for any White Sox fan. 5 stars aren't enough to express how incredible this book is.



2. As a lifelong Sox fan it was a real treat to open this book and be swept back in time to old Comiskey Park. Looking at the pictures gave me a chance to appreciate and enjoy what I never had paid much attention to at the the time- other fans around me. The place was a dump and we all loved it anyway. With such great detail in the photos I felt right away like my godfather and I were watching one more game together. Thanks for the book Mr. Elliott, for me it's a memory album.



3. This book has nothing to do with baseball and everything to do with people and community and one unique little corner of the world as it looked 24 years ago. I enjoyed it and I wasn't there. Looking at it with someone who was is even more fun.



4. This book has been over-rated. Promoted as the "summer of 1977" this picture book is apparently the result of one or two afternoons (a Cleveland day game). Don't expect any pictures of baseball or the White Sox (there are 2-3), even though 1977 was one of the most exciting years in their history. While the pictures capture some of the parks' essence, they are very depressing. 90% are shots of forlorn fans that look like they are watching a last place team, when in fact this was a first place team. Old comisky had a lot of beauty that was missed here. I was there that summer and it didn't look like that.



5. What a great book. Forget about baseball players, this book gives credit to the blue collar hard working baseball fan that made this game so great. Forget about the shirt and tie crowd we see today. Back in 1977, the real fans were the steelworkers, truck drivers, stockyard workers and ditch diggers that not only made baseball a great game but made this city a great place to live. Hats off to Peter!

No comments about Free Chicago: Free things to see and do in the Chicagoland area.

2 comments about Chicago's Famous Buildings.

1. If you are thinking about ordering this book, think about why you want it. It is a small paperback book with only black and white photos, not a coffee table book. It is intended to be carried around the city with you while you look at the buildings. With that said, it contains photos and descriptions of 167 buildings and additional information such as a glossary and a list of buildings that have been destroyed since they appeared in previous editions.



2. This trade-sized paperback published by the University of Chicago provides concise facts and black-and-white photos of Chicago's major architectural achievements, from skyscrapers to city neighborhoods and beyond, to the suburbs. There are helpful maps at the beginning, with numbers for each building described in the following pages. It is an easy to carry size, and features an attractive typeface. The one update this book now needs is the addition of photos for the now mostly-completed Millennium Park.

3 comments about Bad Karma: Confessions of a Reckless Traveller in Southeast Asia.

1. In some, there is a deep desire driving them to escape the masses and to travel into the unknown. Born of this desire, Tamara Sheward and her best friend, Elissa, jump at the rare opportunity to spend three weeks backpacking in a foreign land. Their destination: Southeast Asia. Bad Karma Confessions of a Reckless Traveller in Southeast Asia, as told by Sheward is the result of their travels.
   
   Without any planning and certainly without any preparation but for the purchase (and theft) of some rather useless travel guides, the two set off an a haphazard adventure. This adventure would take them through Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam; countries ill-prepared for these two Australian guests. It would be an adventure they, nor the reader, will soon forget.
   
   Almost from the very beginning of their "vacation" trouble seems to follow the pair. Unwelcome as farang (or foreigners) at seedy hotels, their first night was a foreshadow of what was to come.
   
   Characters such as a Train Nazi, the Kip Kid, and Mama Hahn and her floating party dot the landscape of their journey. Prescription-free Valium, a flight only the stoned could appreciate and a slew of religious cults and varieties also played prominent. Accidentally cursing a host family with a death curse, hitchhiking in a bootlegger's truck and getting stuck in a Viet Cong secret sniper hole are all characteristic events found within the pages of this account.
   
   Surprising no national incidents were sparked along the way. While the two were not invited to leave (the majority of the time), it is not likely that they would be a welcome sight by many who encountered them. Determination ear-marked their travels and, as Sheward put it they found that "with a lot of harassment and a large vocabulary of abusive language you can achieve anything."
   
   This was a hilarious book. Chapter titles range from "The Annoyance of Being Earnest" and "Hello to What Unfortunately Is" to "Please Don't Do Anything Weird." The accounts would be horrifyingly embarrassing to most people, yet the realization of what continued to occur to this pair keeps the pages turning.
   
   The very premise behind the book is intriguing. Who wouldn't want to spend several weeks traveling with one's best friend, rambling wherever the map took you? No outside worries, or distractions - just whatever the journey handed you! Unfortunately constant use of crude and abrasive language, drunkenness and drug use, continued to a point of severe distraction, ruined what could have otherwise been a great book.



2. The next best thing to traveling is to read a well crafted travelogue -- plus you don't have to experience the dubious joys of crowded flights, strange foods, sanitation challenges, and personal encounters with 'swindlers, sleaze balls and sanctimonious hippies' yourself. In the case of "Bad Karma: Confessions Of A Reckless Traveller In Southeast Asia", Tamara Sheward has done it for you! With the humorous flair of a Maureen Dowd and the articulate storytelling skills of a Studs Terkel, Tamar Sheward is an experienced world traveler whose trek through Southeast Asian countries of Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia with her friend Elissa are recounted with a 'you are there' intimacy that is particularly vivid, energetic, witty, occasionally bizarre, and always entertaining. A highly recommended addition to community library Travel & Travelog collections, "Bad Karma" is especially appropriate and appealing for those who prefer to do their roaming of the world as an armchair traveler in the comfort of their own home.



3. As a female traveller and travel book fan, I was looking forward to reading about a part of the world that both intrigues and scares me. "Bad Karma" did a good job of reconfirming both those emotions. I forgot that they were only traveling for 3 weeks. I think it took me that long to read the book. Their journey felt much longer.
   
   It took me a while to get into the book. A lot of the initial experiences are just odd and foul. But as I neared the last 1/3 of the book, I found it hard to put down. Perhaps, just like the author took time to indoctrinate herself to a new part of the world, I needed some time to get indoctrinated too. The book really hits it's stride with the experiences in Vietnam. Some were laugh-out-loud funny. Cambodia was good too, but a little too short and the ending wrapped itself up a little too neatly.
   
   Overall, I'd say this is a good book if you're into travelogues and summer reading. Just don't expect to find yourself on the next plane to Bangkok when you're finished.

1 comments about Wax and Gold: Tradition and Innovation in Ethiopian Culture (Phoenix Book,).

1. Its stunning to me that someone would comment that this book is academic and that it is not useful because it is 32 years old. I guess we should throw out all literature from before the year 2000. Kant, Simmel, Marx, Kierkagard, Plato, the Constitution, Tolstoy, useless I suppose. Friend, if you are looking for a trashy novel you are in the wrong section of the bookstore. This is the classic sociological work on Ethiopia written by the renowned sociologist, Sensai, peacemaker and warrior Professor Donald Levine. This is the work that renowned author and historian Robert Kaplan recently cited to in a New York Times editorial as holding the key to peace in the Middle East.

No comments about Chicago Insight Pocket Map.

No comments about Nino Lo Bello's Guide to the Vatican.

No comments about Printer's Row, Chicago (IL) (Images of America).

No comments about Culture Shock! Chicago: A Survival Guide to Customs and Etiquette (Culture Shock! Guides).