No comments about Mysterious Wales (Paladin Books).

2 comments about Chicago Impressions.

1. Great book, with great pictures. You get a real feel for the Chicago area after paging through the many terrific images!



2. An impressive compilation of full color photographs taken by Gerald D. Tang, "Chicago: Impressions" is a visual tour-de-force of Chicago's landmarks, street scenes, buildings, and architectural details. Each individual photograph has a succinct caption identifying the image taken. A browser's delight, "Chicago: Impressions" also demonstrates an artist's eye through the medium of the camera lens. Perfect for the armchair traveler, "Chicago: Impressions" is the perfect visual souvenir and will prove to be of immense interest to anyone who has ever lived or visited the Windy City, a truly iconic metropolis of the American Midwest.

No comments about The Creature in the Map: A Journey to El Dorado.

No comments about Behind the Lions: A Family Guide to the Art Institute of Chicago.

3 comments about Chicago's 50 Best Places to Find Peace and Quiet (City and Company).

1. I'm the author, so I am, admittedly, biased. But I want to let prospective buyers to know that every spot in my book is open to the public, and that nearly all the places are free or low cost. After all, peace and quiet should be accessible to everyone, not just the wealthy. I cover all regions of the city, as well as at least one or two suburban spots in each direction. "Chicago Tonight" and WBEZ both did features on the book--I think you'll be pleased if you buy it.



2. This book is great for an afternoon get away! Also my husband and I have used it for great inexpensive dates!



3. It's about time. In a city that's louder than hell, this book was long overdue. The author did the subject justice - her choices prove that she really knows Chicago inside and out - and her writing is always entertaining.
   
   I highly recommend this book, not just for Chicagoans in search of some solace, but tourists who don't just want to hit the usual (overcrowded) spots. Whenever my mom comes to visit, everything is too loud for her. This book solves that problem. Seek it out!

No comments about Mapquest Chicago: City Map (Z-Map).

1 comments about Insideout Chicago City Guide (Insideout City Guide: Chicago).

1. The Inside Out Maps are a great way to navigate your way around a city that you've been to before and somewhere completely new. The maps offer a great guide to the city's events and the fold out map feature is great. It folds so compactly and without hassle, and is in full color. You can easily open and close the map, and easily navigate around. It easily fits inside your pocket. The compass is a great feature too.
   
   Great product, A+. But it Now!

1 comments about Hungry? Chicago Family.

1. Tired of chain food restaurants when on vacation? Pick up a copy and discover hidden secrets only the locals know about!
   
   The book is broken down by area, then alphabetically. The back includes a listing based on food choices: ethnicity and vegetarian. Each listing includes a dollar sign that tells you how much it will cost per family of four. It also tells you whether small children are welcome or not, if there is outside seating, and what types of foods are served.

1 comments about Adam Broomberg & Oliver Chanarin: Chicago.

1. When I first flipped through this book, these pictures of cans of coke, watermelon, birdcage, walls full of graffiti's and car wrecks followed by pages without numeration containing explanatory comments written in big bold letters really surprised me. Each reproduction seems to be a piece of a surrealistic scenery. Unfortunately, it is not fictional. This kind of surrealism is part of the Israelis and Palestinians' real life. These items that at first sight appear benign because they belong to our daily environment might actually hide a bomb made by a warrior who fights with asymmetrical means against the so-called "occupation policy" applied by Israel. With these pictures, Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin want to demonstrate how the metastases of war invade each organic fiber of the society. The book starts with the unveiling of the existence of a fake military town called Chicago built in the middle of the Negev desert where, as they write: "Everything that happened, happened here first, in rehearsal". All wars led and to be led by Israel in the future are being practiced in Chicago. From the pictures we can deduct that, though artificial and phantasmagoric, this town has a lot in common with the territories destined to be occupied by Israel. It is therefore not neutral that the book begins with a description of this ghost town that expresses only desolation.
   As a matter of fact, in that region, war is omnipresent, tangible. It is particularly observable in the architectural structure of the occupied territories. But the worst is that the phenomenon of war would surreptitiously become incrusted in the collective unconscious of Israeli people, so that it converts itself into a quasi natural occurrence in their daily life. This could be interpreted as a trend of alienation, since taking war as a natural phenomenon or even as a contingency is a symptom of alienation. That may be particularly true if one considers that the "civilian occupation" is supported by a whole theological and philosophical system. In the frame of a strategy for reshaping the Jewish "Memory", a new semantical approach infuses the Jewish "mission" with an aura of holiness. Biblical symbols such as a rock, a tree, a hill chosen to express the original suffering and resistance of the Jewish people against the Gentiles, are used as a mythical rallying point in the implantation of a new Israeli colony. Another consequence of this process of sacralization is the systematical appropriation of strategic hilltops which provide Israeli settlers with an extraordinary capacity of control over the neighborhood and convert them into good sentinels of the policy of reconquest.
   Eyal Weizman, author of "Hollow Land" who contributes with his comments in the elaboration of this book, insists on the fact that a demystification of the biblical symbols used in the frame of the policy of civil occupation is a must. Also, one should learn to look at those apparently innocent objects like cans of coke, watermelons, etc... and be aware of the role they might play in this environment of conflicts. Each of them could hide a little bit of this awful war. As Weizman stresses, it is precisely the purpose of this book: Broomberg and Chanarin have the great merit of having been able to translate into an accessible language the hidden mechanisms of this war and the pernicious consequences that they have on people.

2 comments about King Khama, Emperor Joe, and the Great White Queen: Victorian Britain through African Eyes.

1. This book does an excellent job of telling the tale of the visit of three great African kings to England in the late 1890s. Provides an accurate portrayal of King Khama and his interaction with Joe Chamberlain and Cecil Rhodes. An excellent, factual, entertaining story of successful African resistance.



2. This book examines the 1895 trip of Batswana Chiefs Khama, Sebele and Bathoen to London to negotiate a deal with Minister of Colonial Affairs Joe Chamberlain that would secure their land against seizure attempts by Cecil Rhodes. It relies primarily on archival sources including correspondence, diaries, papers and newspaper clippings and, to a lesser degree, on oral histories. Once the chiefs arrive in London, the book is organized by day and the author provides copious information about that day whether it is significant or simply a matter of who stayed in bed or who purchased souvenirs. At times, it seems that the main narrative will be overwhelmed by minutiae. Yet, Parsons does a brilliant job of showing how the chiefs and London Missionary Society administrator Willoughby used the temperance issue and the Non-Conformist sensibility in general to build a more sympathetic case for their position. He also demonstrates well how the journalism of the times seemed to drive much of the context and sometimes the actual negotiations.
   
   This book will be a fascinating read for anyone interested in turn-of-the-century Southern Africa or for that matter Britain due to the many excerpts from archival sources. Parson's style is quite accessible to the lay-reader with little previous background in the subject though I would recommend he or she read the last chapter first for a framework. It is particularly important for scholars of the region and of Botswana. It addresses one of the central controversies of Botswana history, i.e., whether Botswana's non-absorption into Rhodesia was the result of the chiefs' visit or the failed Jameson raid. (Parson's comes down in favor of the former.) More generally, it is a revealing look at the agency of African colonial elites.