3 comments about AIA Guide to Chicago.

1. Chicago is generally known as one of the centers of modernist architecture, and this visual guidebook, complete with maps, photographs and authoritative little essays on most of the important buildings, is a must-buy if you plan to tour this richly textured urban center. It's also one of the best small resources for anyone interested in architecture from 1850 to the present. Inexpensive, designed to slip in your pocket, it holds up well-- I depend upon mine to help me with the walking tours of the city I give on a regular basis, and it's still in one piece after three or more years of hard use.



2. Only one other city is so steaped in architecture history than Chicago and this guide does a commendable job of highlighting the most important Chicago buildings, the synopsis on each building is susinct, the only qualm I have is that there are not more pictures, I also wish the authors had ventured more into the suburbs and commented on some of the great houses in Lake Forest and Highland Park, but that omission does not mar the overall enjoyment of this scholarly guide. If you are interested in architecture at all, I recommend you pick up this book, Chicago is so steaped in architecture history and this is a good guide to the best examples.



3. Limited to the Chicago city limits and Oak Park, the selection of buildings is good, but certainly not exhaustive (Evanston would have been a nice addition). Since commercial architecture is so important to Chicago history, there is a palpable emphasis on these structures. The book is in standard AIA format, with short essays for each entry, some including a small photograph. In fact, the major flaw with this book, in my opinion, is the lack of effective photography. There's a photograph for, perhaps, one out of every ten building entries, and the entries that do include photos are often not that interesting. One tries to come away from this book with a mental image of Chicago, derived from the text, but with little assistance from photography. There are also more than a few entries that include no text, simply the building name, address, date and architect. Keep your favorite internet map program handy.
   
   There are so many magnificent things to see in Chicago, it's a shame this guide doesn't much help us to see them. That (critical) matter aside, it's a solid and important addition to the AIA-sponsored series.

5 comments about Return to the Scene of the Crime: A Guide to Infamous Places in Chicago.

1. Hail! Hail! The gangsters are all here, along with other unsavory characters and scenes from the seamy sides of Chicago.

   Home Boy Richard Lindberg has done a fine job of plotting tours with concise briefings, maps, and photos from Chicago's worst. Sure, there are some errors - but, as other reviews here attest, the True Crime buff knows what they are, for example: the perpetrators of the Brown's Chicken Massacre have been apprehended since the book's publication and this reviewer disagrees with Lindberg's speculation that, were it not for Nicole Brown Simpson's violent death, O.J "would have drifted into permanent obscurity remembered by a handful of autograph chasers at sports memorabilia shows and admirers from his football days." What is OJ doing in this book, you ask? Remember, he was flying out of LA that night? The Chauffeur came to get him at the house in Brentwood to take him to the airport to Chicago. The Hotel where he may or may not have cut his hand on a broken glass is on the Tour, just about a mile north of John Wayne Gacy's former residence.

   In the Grand Scheme, the errors or disagreements are a minor nuisance and the tour just moves on. The book is arranged in geographical groupings, so that a reader could take the walking tour of the Loop and Near Neighborhoods and then continue on by car. The Tours are:
   1. On the Waterfront: Downtown Chicago
   2. The Gold Coast and the Slum: the Near North Side from the Chicago River to Division Street
   3. North Side Pursuits: Lincoln Park to Rogers Park
   4. The Land Approaching O'Hare: Chicago's Northwest Side
   5. North by Northwest: Kenilworth to Barrington
   6. West Side Stories
   7. Residences of Organized Crime: the Western Suburbs
   8. South Side Sinners

   Tour takers will take in the sites of the St. Valentine's Day Massacre of 1929, John Dillinger's "bad date" at the Biograph, the office of Eliot Ness and "the Untouchables," Richard Speck's slaying of the Nurses, the "Police Riot" at the 1968 Democratic National Convention, and many other "low Lights" in Chicagoland history. All this and Mrs. O'Leary's cow, too! Reviewed by TundraVision, former friend of Garfield Goose, Amazon Reviewer




2. Mr. Lindberg clearly was absent the day that they taught research development and writing classes. His latest book, not unlike all of the previous selections, is sloppy, inaccurate and poorly written. Don't waste your time with this book. It is tedious and disappointing reading.



3. It was a very interesting book, explaining what happened at the sight and then what is there now. It would have been nice to have more pictures for people who would not be able to tour the city. One big disapointment was that the picture on the front cover was never identified anywhere in the book.



4. Rich Lindberg's approach to Chicago history has a powerful similarity to that of Carl Sandburg, who immortalized the city forever in his violently loving poem "Chicago". In "Return to the Scene of the Crime", Lindberg gives specific and mesmerizing instances of the "painted women under the gas lamps luring the farm boys" and the "gunman (who) kill and then go free to kill again." The impact is the same as the Sandberg poem: dark, honest, and unforgettable.
   
   "Return to the Scene of the Crime" is popular history at its finest. Lindberg has an engaging writing style that grabs reader interest from the beginning, and his liberal use of street maps, crime scene photos, and recent images of historic tragedy sites make this volume equal parts guidebook and True Crime encyclopaedia. The crimes and disasters profiled include the 1889 murder of Dr. Patrick Henry Cronin, the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, the shooting of John Dillinger outside the Biograph movie house, and the Iroquois Theatre Fire. Some of the cases remain mysteries today, such as the identity of the Haymarket bomber, whereas others, like the Carl Wanderer wife slaying, saw the killer pay the ultimate penalty for his misdeeds.
   
   The St. Valentine's Day Massacre garage and other celebrated Chicago crime scenes may be gone now, but Lindberg's book is a literary preservation of the tragedies they witnessed.



5. The often imitated and seldom duplicated Richard C. Lindberg, a Chicago native, has compiled what may well be considered the standard reference book on Chicago's most notorious crime scenes.
   
   Compressing so much information into a single volume, complete with numerous illustrations, photographs and maps had to be a daunting challenge. There are several typographical errors contained in the book, but given the length of the work and the scope of the undertaking that is more than understandable. "Return to the Scene of the Crime" contains brief detailed summaries of many individual crimes that have been the subject of full length books by other writers. There are relatively few major errors or omissions that I could detect, but in a few instances an exact numeric address or street direction was misstated. It should be noted, however, that various Chicago streets have been renamed and addresses renumbered since the time of the original criminal occurrences.
   
   One other reader complaint related to the fact that the directions provided may be better suited for a windshield tour (for safety's sake, I recommend that you keep the motor running if you plan to visit some of the mean streets included in the book!) rather than a walking tour. Well, that's Greater Metropolitan Chicago for you. It is a big city with numerous suburbs that covers a large geographic area. Visiting these infamous places is nothing like following the Patriot Trail in Boston or the Hollywood Walk of Fame. You cannot tackle all of the locations without making multiple excursions.
   
   As Lindberg points out, in many cases vacant lots and urban brown fields occupy the actual crime sites today. You will not find the Everleigh Club, the SMC Cartage, Colosimo's Cafe or the Four Deuces if you drive to the approximate locations now. So you can save yourself the unnecessary trips and enjoy reading about the hot spots in this entertaining volume. If you still want to check out the real estate, the author has provided up to the date information on those buildings that still exist and those which have undergone remodeling or experienced gentrification. Be aware, however, that in the past eight or nine years since the book was published a few of these same sites have been demolished or renovated. You may be disappointed to find a taco stand operating at a former mortuary!
   
   Lindberg recites the conventional descriptions and well accepted accounts of various crimes, some of which have been disputed by revisionist historians or superseded by subsequent research, but most of the information is overwhelmingly on point. Lindberg also unearths some details that escaped other authors. For example, he pointed out that skeletal remains recovered from a shallow grave in suburban Wilmette may well have been left behind by the serial killer H. H. Holmes (a/k/a H.W. Mudgett). The bigamist Holmes abandoned one of his wives in Wilmette when he turned his satanic energies to operating his bizarre Murder Castle hotel in the Englewood section of Chicago. I cannot recall this corpse being referred to in "The Devil in the White City."
   
   If the proof of the pudding is in the tasting, one measure of how well Lindberg has done his homework is to check most of the recent books written on true crime in the Second City. You will lose count of the number of times that Lindberg is cited in the acknowledgements, footnotes and bibliographies.
   
   One portion of the book that I especially enjoyed was the summarized list of books for additional reading. I was especially intrigued by the number of obscure, rare and out of print books that were included by the author. To simplify matters, if you liked this book as much as I did, you may well choose to read its worthy sequel, "Return Again to the Scene of the Crime."

2 comments about Oddball Florida: A Guide to Some Really Strange Places (Oddball series).

1. I live in Florida, so was very curious about this book. I found it to be very good. If you are the type of traveler to get off the Interstate and Turnpike because it all looks the same to you, then you need this book!



2. We as snowbirds travel to florida each winter, this books is full of info of places we visited that now after reading it, we must revisit some of those places. "Great Book full of info"
   DWS

No comments about The New Chicago: A Social and Cultural Analysis.

1 comments about Chicago: A Pictorial Celebration.

1. Most of the pictures were great, some were just lame- like they took a bunch of pictures indiscriminately and threw the book together. But I got the book supercheap and my uncle loves it.

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

2 comments about From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow: How Maps Name, Claim, and Inflame.

1. No "Nigger" has been on the US map for fifty years, and most instances of "Squaw" and "Jap" were eliminated shortly thereafter, but we still have the occasional "Wop" or "Chink". You may not even know what a toponym is (it is simply a name for a place), but cartographers not only use toponyms, they try to get them right, and they don't mean to offend anyone, but sometimes they do. The offense isn't always ethnic; it might be international or personal or salacious. You might think that toponymy (the study of toponyms) would be a fairly dull academic endeavor, and surely this is the case most of the time. However, _From Squaw Tit to Whorehouse Meadow: How Maps Name, Claim, and Inflame_ (University of Chicago Press), professor of geography Mark Monmonier shows just how contentious map naming and renaming can be. The book is an academic reflection on problems humans make for themselves in their busy name-finding (and name-calling) efforts, but with its illustrations of problems in naming, it is also a greatly amusing book.
   
   It is hard to blame the original mapmakers. People attached names like Nigger Pond, Chinks Peak, or Squaw River because that is the way settlers talked. Then the mapmakers and surveyors came in, and "conscientiously but uncritically recorded local usage." The U.S. Board on Geographic Names handles requests to change objectionable names. In 1963, every cartographic instance of "nigger" was eliminated. Thus, "Niggerhead Point" which had appeared on a map of Port Bay in upstate New York could not stand. The solution for 1963 was to substitute the then current replacement term so that the feature became "Negrohead Point". Monmonier writes, "In the early 1960s, Negro had not yet acquired the distaste that led to its sequential replacement among more ethnically sensitive speakers, if not on maps, by _black_, _African American_, and _people of color_." It remains "Negrohead Point" on federal maps, but local New York agencies have simplified the issue, thankfully not changing it to "People of Color-Head Point" but to "Graves Point", perhaps because of a cemetery there. Sometimes the renaming is not that simple. The use of "squaw" is "the thorniest issue in applied toponymy." While there are those who say the term only means a Native American woman, many have argued that it is an ugly synonym for vagina which is then applied to women. There has been a proposal for another blanket change, from "Squaw" to "Moose", so that Maine now has a Moose Bosom. At least it still has a bosom. There are many other instances of naming naughtiness here. In Oregon is Whorehouse Meadows, a bawdy toponym that did record the historic instance of a field bordello. The Bureau of Land Management changed its maps to the silly name "Naughty Girl Meadows", but residents and historians agree that the original name is best.
   
   There are serious issues in Monmonier's book. A chapter covers the knotty problems, for instance, of toponyms in disputed areas like Cyprus or around Israel. There are implications to mapping that can cost millions; when Microsoft released Windows 95, it used a time-zone map that omitted disputed provinces claimed by India, which thereupon refused to allow Windows 95 to be imported. (Microsoft has subsequently established a Geopolitical Product Strategy Team to cover cartographic pitfalls.) But it is in less consequential details that the book is the most amusing. Who would have thought, for instance, than canny mapmakers would deliberately place nonexistent streets on their maps and give them names, just to see who copied their work in violation of copyright? Then there was the Finnish family in Paska, Ontario, who objected that their town (named for the word "shallow" in Cree) sounded too much like the Finnish word for excrement, and got the name changed. Every two years a bill to keep "Mount McKinley", rather than the local and native "Denali", for the Alaskan peak is submitted by an Ohio Congressman who is a fan of the Ohio-born President McKinley and who knows that the Board of Geographic Names cannot change a name if the matter is also being considered by Congress. There is even a section on how features on the Moon and planets are named, and how for $54 you can get a parchment certificate that shows that a particular star has been named for you, although such names have exactly zero support from the official celestial namers, the International Astronomical Union. This is a delightful book about a serious and amusing subject that few readers will have ever before encountered.



2. The best thing about this book seems to be its amusing title. It stars out very technical with `map terms' and things that would only interest serious cartographers- which I am not. It is very unfortunate, because this book could have been a really interesting narrative on American history and its conscience.
   
   Though there are a few interesting examples of words used to describe places or geographic anomalies, the story is quite flat. One read-through of the back cover is all that is needed to know that once in the US there were many places that took the name of `nipple', `jap', `nigger' and `squaw' which he says is translated loosely to mean `whore' in many Indian languages. But the background information on these is lacking and the reasons for change are boring.
   
   The author obviously knows his subject, and likes to use numbers and facts to support his case, but do we really need to know what number of `japs' were on a certain State Dept map? The answer is obviously no. It suffices to say that there were any at all, that is is unacceptable. The most interesting parts of the book were the sections discussing naming places in space (like on the moon) and on the sea floor. But this too was thin and just didn't tell much.
   
   Much of the book is very repetitive and keeps brining up the few shocking examples of place names as mentioned above. But these spares examples quickly became tiresome and are not enough to base an entire book on! I was really looking forward to finding out new information, but was thoroughly bored and sorry I bought the book. This subject- as this author has attacked it- should have been a journal article and not a book.
   
   This is all really unfortunate, because this book could have been so much more. It reads more like a report by the United States Board on Geographical Names. A simple list of current names and all its derivations- historical and linguistic would have been preferred, as it would have saved the time of reading a text with no depth. I think all the positive reviews of the book are misplaced and based on the title and a quick scan of the book. Because as soon as the shock of some of the place names wears off the text shows it true dull colors.

4 comments about Chicago In and Around the Loop : Walking Tours of Architecture and History.

1. An excellent set of tours of all neighborhoods of downtown Chicago, profusely illustrated with contemporary and archival photos, with a lively and user-friendly text. Especially helpful for the first-time visitor, although I understand it has been adopted by the Chicago Architecture Foundation as a guide to train its docents who give walking tours. I have not come across any better guide to the Loop and its surroundings, with a crisp style and useful historical facts. Dr. Gareth Shellman (shellman@csd.uwm.edu) Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA



2. I currently live in Chicago and have had a great time exploring and learning about new (to me) places with the help of this book. There is a good amount of info. to give the reader a decent background on many of the buildings in the Loop. It omits lengthy and unnecessary history topics to focus on the highlights of each walking tour, leaving the lengthy history for other books to explore. I've learned alot about my own city by reading this book and highly recommend it.



3. Gerard Wolfe has produced an inclusive and engaging book concentrating on the area in and around the Loop in Chicago. In a series of walking tours, he weaves history and architecture into a "must see" for tourists, native Chicagoans and armchair travelers, alike.



4. For those of us who grew up around Chicago and know downtown, this is a great book not just a vague coffee table book. Lots of good photos and history.
   
   I loaned this from the library and am planning on buying it on Amazon.
   
   Highly recommended!

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

1. Got this as a gift for my husband, but we both laughed our arses off!:)
   Who knew Minnesota was so entertaining?! Quite a depature from Lake Wobegon!

No comments about Rand McNally Streets of Chicago (Rand McNally Folded Map: Cities).