2 comments about Foghorn Outdoors Vermont Hiking: Day Hikes, Kid-Friendly Trails, and Backpacking Treks (Foghorn Outdoors).

1. This guidebook helps so much in planning a weekend getaway hike. Really, I don't know how I would have started without it. It's extremely useful and tells you about all the trails in the state! One of my favorites is the Robert Frost trail!



2. Easy to understand, good ratings system, and lots of great kid-friendly trails. (also more difficult ones). This book has something for everyone and is well written, and concise. Also helpful tips for hiking preparation.

5 comments about Dorling Kindersley Travel Guides : Kid's London.

1. This kids' version of the popular Dorling Kindersley guidebooks has many full color photographs on each page to help kids to visualize sites they may want to visit. The book contains a two-page spread about the Millenium Dome, and mention of the London Eye, two new sites you won't find in older travel books. The information in this book is similar to that in the adult version; it's just condensed so there is less text to wade through, and the information focuses on aspects of each area that will be of interest to the younger generation. For instance, under Covent Garden, you'll read about the street performers (who juggle swords and such) rather than the antique market. Basically, you can find this information elsewhere, but if you want to give your kids a guide that they can read on their own on the airplane, this is a nice book for the money. In the back of the book are some write-in quizes and journal pages for that interactive element. It even has a little pocket in the back for saving ticket stubs and other souvenirs.



2. Home sick, for a place you've never seen? It's a great book, not just for kids. Packed full of facts and trivia. The pictures are great.



3. We bought this book for our 10 year old as part of our vacation planning process. It really helped her feel part of the process and empowered her to choose things she was most interested in seeing. We bought a different more comprehensive guide for the adults but still really appreciated the information and presentation in this kids' book. I wish there were more books in this series. We would have loved to have similar ones for our trip to Rome or our upcoming trip to Paris.



4. This book was OK. It got my kids excited but it didn't have much practical info. This cannot be to only book you use to plan your trip.



5. We have a teddy bear who is traveling the USA and abroad. While he is visiting an area we learn more about it. Our teddy is in Englad so we check this book out at the library. It full of full color photos that gave us a good idea of places and things that our teddy may be seeing. Full of information! Great for kids!

No comments about Cape Cod: Illustrated Edition of the American Classic.

No comments about You Know You're in Rhode Island When...: 101 Quintessential Places, People, Events, Customs, Lingo, and Eats of the Ocean State (You Know You're In Series).

2 comments about Weird England (Weird).

1. Of the "Weird" series books that I've read, this is far and away the best. I think there are two reasons for that: 1) the book was written by the man who EDITED the books on the various parts of Weird America (and individual states), and he's a better writer/thinker than the usual writers and 2) England has been inhabited, heavily, for such a long time that it has greater depth of weirdness than we have here in dull young America!
   Like the other "Weird" books, this one is heavy on photos and a little shy on explanations. The histories and explanations in this one, though, are more complete and satisfying than those in the ones on America and its states.
   Topics include "art" created by obsessives in their own back yards; ghosts and hauntings; standing stones and ancient monuments; cemetery oddities; deserted towns and buildings; and much more.
   You'll luv it!



2. Weird England is a light, enjoyable read. You don't have to be an Anglophile (like myself) to be vastly entertained by the unique content and pictures. It's written with an open, objective slant, letting the reader decide the merits of the many folk tales, superstitions, and ghost stories that lie within its pages.

No comments about The Butterfly Effect.

2 comments about 50 Hikes in the Ozarks: Walks, Hikes and Backpacks in the Mountains, Wildernesses and Geological Wonders of Arkansas and Missouri (50 Hikes).

1. Good rough location map. Good spreadsheet on hikes. 1 for Mo and 1 for AR but I added page numbers to find the hike rather than use his hike numbers. I only checked some AK hikes but the MO hikes are of the same caliber. The hikes are in the north west part of AR in a tight cluster so you can stay at a central location. They range from 1 to 12 miles. Entering the state you can pick up flyers for the more public state park hikes further south. Directions to trailheads are good but sometimes you may have to ask for help. This is a function of location and nothing to do with lack of detail. GPS Coordinates are listed for each place. The hikes appear to be at more remote locations tnen are mentioned in some other MO and AR hiking books. Each hike has a black and white picture of a feature found on the hike.
   This is a worthwhile book to have and is in the same style and detail as his other books.



2. This is a very handy little book to own if you are into the hiking thing at any level. I say this, but always remember that not any one book can meet all needs. I certainly would not use this book, and this book alone to plan my entire book. I have hiked many of the trails; both in Missouri and Arkansas over the years, and can say for certain that the information in this volume is pretty accurate. That being said.....
   
   As the title would indicate, this is a book dealing with 50 hiking trails located in the Missouri and Arkansas Ozarks. It should be noted that a few of these trails are outside the area that traditionally are known as the Ozarks, some of those located in Eastern Missouri being the most notable. Each of the trails is given an entire chapter and one black and white photo to represent some aspect of the trail. The author has included total distances, hiking time, vertical rise, rating (easy, mild, difficult, etc.), and maps with GPS coordinates. The author has done a pretty good job of describing the trail, identifying and specific difficulties and letting the hiker know the nature of the facilities at each location. It should be noted here that the author's distances will differ somewhat from government and local literature. I would highly recommend that you go by the author's figures rather than the government figures as they are much more accurate. I would also recommend that you pick up local literature at the site of the trail before you begin the hike, ignoring the distances, but paying close attention to other trail tips and camp locations, if applicable.
   
   Some of the location directions of some of these trails are a bit general and I do recommend you purchase a map of the local area, or at least a good, detailed state map. The author's directions are very accurate, but due to the nature of Arkansas and Missouri roads, it is good to have all the information available possible.
   
   All in all, this is a useful book to have around if you are contemplating hiking the area. Most of these hikes are an absolute delight. Do keep in mind that some are quite difficult and you should take heed to the author's comments concerning these difficulties. Other trails are quite easy...all, easy or difficult are worth the effort. I am giving this one four stars as I feel some of the directions as to actually getting to the location of the trail are a bit confusing. Also, I have some mild issues with the author's opinion as to what constitutes the difference between "difficult, easy, moderate, etc." This is a pretty subjective area. Other than that, this is a fine book.

3 comments about Best Castles - England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales: The Essential Guide for Visiting and Enjoying.

1. I am a big fan of ruined castles. I like ancient, crumbling old buildings from times long past. There are many such castles in the British Isles, but there are also many more "modern" castles, built hundreds of years after the medieval period, filled with sumptuous carpets and luxurious wall coverings and such. I can see the allure of these castles for some people, but they do not hold the same wonder for me, and when I am paying a lot of money to visit a foreign country, I want to optimize my experience as much as possible.
   
   This book is wonderful because it lets me do just that. Many guidebooks (I use the Let's Go and Rough Guides) do not differentiate between different kinds of castles, and offer a brief description of each one. It's hard to know what you're getting into before you actually arrive. With this book, you can get a preview of each castle, so you're never surprised. I mentioned my personal love of ruins, but this book is great for any taste, or just the curious.
   
   The information on each structure is sparse, and much attention is paid to the glorious full color photographs. I never got the impression this book was trying to be the authority on castle information however, and I think it succeeds admirably at its chosen task. It is a good supplemental guidebook if you're interested in the topic.



2. Gorgeous photos, nice descriptions, but too short & not detailed enough. It would also have helped to have had captions under the photos; I frequently couldn't tell what I was looking at. I also wished it were longer. Overall a worthwhile book if a little on the shallow side.



3. This book, Best Castles, is, I thought, a congenial introduction to ye olde English, Scots & Wales fortresses. The small color photos are nice, and the text is concise & well-written, giving historical background. There are also in-depth pages on castle life at different times. I used this book to pick out some other British single-castle guidebooks from Amazon U.S. and U.K., such as Hever Castle (where Henry VIII & Ann Boleyn met) with its modern Tudor village.

5 comments about My Love Affair with England: A Traveler's Memoir.

1. Susan Allen Toth's "love affair" with England has little to do with the country or its people and their lifestyle. Her "love" seems to hinge upon its providing an excuse to use her walking stick. While endlessly describing footpath after footpath and public garden, Toth rarely raises her nose out of the turf to appreciate the culture around her. In fact at the conclusion of an anecdote about the few months she spent living in London, she freely admits that she discovered she couldn't stand to live there. So why spend hundreds of dollars on airfare when she could be walking uncomplainingly on the trails and in the gardens of her American hometown? Why so many travel writers ignore the people of the country they profess to love is beyond me. Perhaps it's the ugly American tourist attitude that every country would be perfectly enjoyable except for all the "foreigners."



2. This is a must read before traveling to England! Or even better, read it while you travel though England. She brings the country to life.



3. This is a lovely, personal account of the author's many trips to England. But this is not just a travelogue -- I would not recommend it for planning your trip. (I always like maps and pictures in my travel books, and there are neither here.) In fact, it's less a travel book than a peek at her very personal diary, looking at England from a unique, gentle and fun perspective as she talked about herself, her marriages, and her family. MY LOVE AFFAIR WITH ENGLAND made me very much want to go see the England she described. She obviously loves the place. My favorite part: the footpaths! After this, I plan to read her other books on England, too.



4. Within its genre, this is a 5-star book, but it's obviously just light entertainment. What makes it so endearing is the author's very personal anecdotes. Nowhere in the reviews on the jacket were there any references to the very personal romantic interludes she writes about. I am convinced that Susan Allen Toth fell in love with England because of whom she shared it with. Had she shared Prague, Czech Republic, in the same way with her significant others, we would be reading about Toth's "Love Affair with Prague." This will most be enjoyed by romantics, and those of us who were (or wished we were) flower-children of the 1960s. It must be a bittersweet memoir for Susan to re-read. It's the kind of book I would enjoy reading out loud to someone who has shared the same kind of traveling experiences.



5. I find it kind of interesting that a later Susan Allen Toth book (which I plan on starting about as soon as I finish posting this review) is called "England as You Like It." The England of this book is very much as *she* likes it.
   
   That's not a bad thing, since this is, as the subtitle says, her "traveler's memoir." Toth long ago crossed over the line that separates Tourist from Traveler, and she has the experience and the familiarity with the country that entitle her to experience England the way she wants it to be. "We know enough not to try to ogle the Crown Jewels at the Tower of London, file through Canterbury Cathedral, or pass the day at Stratford-on-Avon," she says on page 306 -- a statement I found a little discouraging since, as a well-read Anglophile who is nevertheless preparing for only his second trip to London, those are precisely some of the activities I plan on undertaking.
   
   Instead, she and her husband spend a lot of time wandering through gardens and exploring rural footpaths. While those seem to be the chapters some readers find especially praise-worthy, experiencing those gardens and paths in print seemed somewhat pale to me. Eventually, I found myself skimming. More interesting were the chapters that were less travelogue, more autobiography. In those, she charts her changing perceptions of the country from her earliest visit as a literature student, to subsequent returns as an unhappily married professor, a recently-divorced single mom, and finally as a very happily remarried writer.
   
   Susan Allen Toth's England is not the England I expect to experience. But then, no two people ever experience things identically -- especially not a place with as much to offer as England has. I can see why so many people respond strongly to this book as a romantic travelogue. I saw it more as her personal reminiscences of paths happily traveled, and I enjoyed it well enough on those terms, even if I never travel those paths myself.

No comments about Boston's Freedom Trail, 8th: Trace the Path of American History (Boston's Freedom Trail).