No comments about Beijing and Shanghai (Eyewitness Travel Guides).

No comments about Ear Inn Virons: History of the New York City Landmark--James Brown House and West Soho Neighborhood.

3 comments about Vietnam: A Book of Changes.

1. Superb. Among the many books of pictures of Vietnam, this one stands out as simply smarter, prettier, more disturbing and deeper than the rest. Epstein works with images like a novelist or composer, stringing them together in long symphonic wavelike movements. The photos--of daily life deep within the country-are beautiful and upsetting at the same time. Almost impossibly, Epstein allows the complicity of the American involvement in Vietnam into the picture frame, and comments subtly, and at the same time, on his own presence as picture taker, while never losing his visual perfect pitch. A must buy for anyone interested in photography, or our legacy in Vietnam



2. The pictures in this book tell a wonderful story of a country in progress and still recovering from years and years of hardship....
   Epstein caught the soul of vietnam with this wonderful collection of photo's....



3. The photographs are fine (particularly the people photographs, which I wish there were more of), but a lot of the photos are thoughtlessly printed across two pages and break apart in the middle, in the gutter (the spine where the book is bound, where one page crosses over into another). This really ruins what would otherwise be a wonderful viewing experience.

No comments about Take a Trip to China (Take a Trip to Series).

5 comments about Lonely Planet Korea.

1. Some reviews of this book make it sound terrible. In fact, it's alright. You'll get the cultural and architectural information in much, much greater detail from the Moon Guide to Korea, and I think that's worthwhile. But you'll get lost if you use that guide; LP has better maps and practical information. So, with apologies to your wallet, I suggest getting both. If you're not going to leave Seoul, maybe just buy the Moon Guide and a map of Seoul; but still, you'll be missing LP's very practical recommendations.



2. I was lucky enough to live in Korea for a year teaching English and while I was there, the LP Korea was pretty much my travelling "Bible". While other people may not consider it indepth in locations to visit, it still has more than sufficient details for your average visitor who is going to travel around for a month or two. I was working so my travelling time was limited to weekends, so as it was, the LP Korea was perfectly adequate for my needs. There was always plenty to see and do. I wanted to see the most important and interesting stuff, which typifies what Korea is all about. If you are going to be visiting Korea for an extended period of time, or living there, then maybe after a while the guide book may appear to be superficial. However, all the major regions are covered, including Jejudo Island (and North Korea gets its own section at the back). All the usual hotels, resturants and transport details are there, as well as the bog standard travel advice. So if you are a short term visitor, then the LP Korea will, in my opinion, be more than sufficient.

   Besides, if LP does not meet your needs, the KNTO is reasonably well developed, with tourist maps and info of most destinations at railway stations, bus stations, and airports. At major tourist points, guides will speak english, and advise you of other interesting features of the area you are in. University students wanting practice their english are also good travel guides. I had my first introduction to Daegu in this manner.

   I disagree with some of the opinions expressed by other reviewers of this book. To be realistic, the minute this title came off the printing press it was out of date. For example, one cannot expect all the eateries listed to still be there by the time an individual gets to Korea. When I lived in Kumi (or Gumi, which ever way you prefer) for a year, there was a resturant down the street from where I lived that changed ownership three times, being reincarnated as something different each time it reopened. Some places stay, some go. Nor can one expect all interesting destinations to be featured; what would people want more; a small compact book with sufficient info for tourists planning to be in country for 2 months or so or alternatively an immense brick like book jammed with enough destinations to keep a traveller travelling for years and which cost a bomb and throws your back out every time you lift it. I know which I prefer.




3. You have to wonder when a guidebook starts off practically every section about a new city with: "Not many people come to (fill in city's name) but if you get stuck here then try this... I find Lonely Planet Korea to be very negative about the country and the cities within it (with the exception of Seoul). It gave very little practical information. I haven't seen the new edition, but I bought the previous one and was truly disappointed by it.

   A much better, more comprehensive, and upbeat guide is the Moon Handbook by Robert Nilsen. I see he's just come out with a new edition too. He seems to know a lot more about Korea than the Lonely Planet writers and offers a better view for the traveler who is going to be in Korea for a few months or more. If you are going for a week, maybe Lonely Planet is o.k., but for anything longer disregard it and use the internet or the aforementioned travel guide.




4. I just come back from Korea for 2-3 days.
   This LP book is really disappointed me.
   It lack of information, inaccurate data and undetailed map.
   Ok I know that i published about 2-3 years ago, the data
   might inaccurate but it almost inaccurate, also the bus route???
   If you follow the book guide on the way to Tongdosa you will probably get lost! Thats unacceptable.
   It is nothing more than a good introduction to Korea to read at home.

   Try Moon Guide or something else

   here is my tips
   1 Need map? just go to Korea, find Tourism Information kiosk
   and you will find everything you want, good illustrate map
   valueable advise and everything you want to know about Korea!
   2 Use International cashcard (PLUS CIRCUS) will save you from deadly banknote exchange rate, but dont expect an international ATM in country side. (you can find a lot of them in subway Seoul) keep money, not credit!
   3 Dont use a network ATM (like Han-net, Easy-money) It will charge you! Use bank ATM (CHB KB)
   4 Dont bring this LP with you, burden!




5. I don't know how good the new edition is.
   (heard that the south korean national tourism organization
   helped a lot the LP team to revise the new edition)
   but the last edition is no match for the moon's handbook.
   go get the moon's one, if you plan to visit this country.

3 comments about Delano's Voyages of Commerce and Discovery: Amasa Delano in China, the Pacific Islands, Australia, and South America, 1789-1807 (American Classics).

1. Berkshire House Publishers and Eleanor Seagraves have performed a service of great value in resurrecting this account of sea voyages that played a critical role in establishing America's place in the field of maritime commerce and exploration. Truth can be stranger than fiction. Delano's extradordinary exploits are every bit as fascinating as the tales told by Patrick O'Brian and will appeal to the same readership. Handsomely illustrated.



2. Fans of Patrick O'Brian will love Amasa Delano's Voyages. Delano's travels took him through the same uncharted waters and touched the same exotic lands as O'Brian's intrepid Captain Jack Aubrey and his ever-curious companion Stephen Maturin, but with a difference: O'Brian's heroes live in fiction; Delano was for real.

   Seldom have I read a seafarer's account with so many varied and interesting observations about the world through which he traveled. Joseph Banks, Charles Darwin and other professional naturalists wrote a good deal about the flora and fauna they studied, of course, but Delano's curiosity takes him everywhere and informs the reader about an amazing range of contemporary details of life and human behavior.




3. The only reason I gave this review four stars instead of five is that this volume is abridged. It is missing a great deal of material about actual shiphandling and navigation in the period, including detailed descriptions of harbors. It is worth seeking out a used volume of the original.

No comments about Champion Writers' Travel Guide to Shanghai 2009.

1 comments about China: Kingdom of the Dragon (The Wanderer).

1. I purchased this book as a gift for a friend that will be my traveling companion to China in the spring. Phenomenial photography! This is an exquisite "coffee table" pictorial guide of China protraying the vast county in its diversity and the book intensified our excitement for our upcoming trip.

No comments about ACROSS CHINA ON FOOT.

2 comments about Far Beyond the Garden Gate: Alexandra David-Neel's Journey to Lhasa.

1. From early childhood, Alexandra David-Neel dreamed of traveling and exploring faraway places. "I craved to go beyond the garden gate, to follow the road that passed it by, and set out for the unknown," she later recalled. "I dreamed of wild hills, immense deserted steppes, and impassable landscapes of glaciers!" As a child, she traveled away from her ordinary life through books and museums, discovering a passion for Buddhism and Asian culture. Her talent as a singer, sent her to India, Greece, and North Africa to perform with opera companies, but that didn't satisfy her wanderlust. Finally in 1911 at the age of forty-three, she left her husband and home in Tunis, North Africa to begin the journey of her dreams. She would travel to the sacred and secretive city of Lhasa, the Forbidden City in Tibet. "Many travelers had been stopped on their way to Lhasa, and had accepted failure. I would not... I would reach Lhasa and show what the will of a woman could achieve!" Using his trademark eloquent prose and artwork, along with some of Alexandra David-Neel's own words, Don Brown weaves a clever and fascinating story in his latest picture book biography, Far Beyond The Garden Gate. Mr Brown's engaging text is filled with imagery, magic, history, mystery, and intriguing facts and details, and complemented by evocative illustrations in soft, dreamy hues. Together word and art transports the reader to Tibet for the arduous adventure of a lifetime. With an Author's Note to augment the story and further enlighten, Far Beyond The Garden Gate is a marvelous introduction to both an amazing woman and little known country that will whet the appetite of kids 8-12, and send them out looking for more.



2. while giving a slide lecture at the great neck public library on our biography THE SECRET LIVES OF ALEXANDRA DAVID NEEL I was handed you excellent children's book. You distilled just the right information with lovely pictures to show how fabulous her journey was.Our biography deals with her life and includes her journey which was amazing considering the Lhasa was so forbiddena at that time. CONGRATULATIONS1