1 comments about Living and Working in London (Living and Working Guides).

1. Although I have not yet moved to London I have plans to do so in the near future. This book goes through all the steps of finding a place to live, finding work, choosing a school for your children, and how to get around the city. Especially helpful is the section in the book that describes in detail the different areas in London including information on housing costs, crime rates, schools etc. This book really is a survival handbook and I expect that I will be more confident in moving to London after reading this book.

1 comments about Landmark Visitors Guide Oxford (Landmark Visitors Guides) (Landmark Visitors Guides).

1. This is my first Landmark book purchase and it won't be the last. This
   guide is enjoyable to read and the information for the visitor is excellently written.

1 comments about Discover the White Mountains of New Hampshire: A Guide to the Best Hiking, Biking and Paddling.

1. Discover the White Mountains of New hampsheris is an excellent introduction to the many wonderful outdoor activities in the area. The narrative and descriptions are a joy to read and the activity suggestions are very easy to follow. This book offers excellent suggestions on hikes and bikes and padles in the area. If you are new to the area this book is a must have. If you are an old pro in the White Mountains you will like the easy style author uses to delicately describe the various trails and adventure you will undertake. Even someone very familliar with the area may discover some new and exciting places to hike, bike and paddle. I've read many booka on hiking in the Whites and Discove the White Mountians is amoung the best I've found. The book is a real page turner or just put into the library for easy referance when you are in the area. Excellent!

5 comments about England as You Like It.

1. I first read this book several years ago, when it was newly published. In Susan Allen Toth I found a kindred spirit who shares many of my interests and would never, ever ask why I keep going back to England again and again! At the time I did not have a trip to England in the works, but devoured the book anyway and tucked its suggestions away for future trips.

   I have been to England three or four times since and each time I have incorporated some of Toth's ideas into my travel plans. I rented a car for the first time in 1997 (scary the first time), then this year spent two weeks driving around the Cotswolds (very successfully, and it enabled us to visit gardens and villages that we would not be able to reach by public transportation). I also rented a cottage for the first time this year, inspired by Toth's endorsement of this type of accomodation. (For those who are not ready or interested in a self-catering cottage, I recommend staying in high-quality B&Bs in areas outside London. Their rates are comparable to modest budget hotels in London, but they offer the amenities and decor of fine hotels. In contrast, small hotels--even outside London--are much more expensive.)

   This book will be loved by persons who love England, but perhaps not appreciated so much by those who can not imagine spending two or three weeks in one small country, let alone in a smaller geographical region. This is a book to read after you've had your first "sampler" trip to England, seen the tourist attractions, and can hardly wait to go back again. You will also find that the internet offers resources that were not available when the book was first published. Many of the organizations and resources referred to by Toth have websites, and publications can often be ordered online.

   I highly recommend this book for armchair travel, inspiration, and practical ideas to enhance your next trip to England. Of Toth's three books on England (all of which I have read and enjoyed), this my clear favorite.




2. I gave Susan Allen Toth's first travel memoir about Great Britain, My Love Affair with England, five stars. It was what I had hoped Ms. Joan Cornblath's "Beyond the Tower: London for Return Travellers" would be.

   This, the second book chronologically in her series of three, was a bit of a letdown after that stellar beginning, though it is still an enjoyable read if you are missing England and would like to read some affectionate reminiscences. There is a bit too much about gardens and fauna for my taste (though in a testament to the principle of "less is more" the anecdotes of the earlier book have inspired me to add some English gardens to my next itinerary). I love forests but don't necessarily want to read about them in such detail.

   There is some very good information about various British map series and suggestions for obtaining them. NB: When reading I had thought the suggestions probably out-of-date, i.e. with the opportunity to buy materials at Amazon.com.uk, but when I checked it out I didn't find very many maps available online, on Amazon at least. Perhaps that will change, or maybe they are available from the publisher online. I hope so. The editor and author may want to consider adding this information to a later edition.

   There is also good information about various options for accommodation, and the author goes a long way toward demystifying self-catering holiday rentals (reserving a furnished apartment or home).

   Her observations on souvenir shopping in British grocery stores is charming, and her suggestions on journal keeping and thumbprint travel are pragmatic.

   In the third section of the book, "Special Places", I was not totally pleased with the author's choices of which places to cover. Though I understand that she can only write about where she has actually been, many were very similar to things she had already discussed in the first book.

   A lot of useful information and a good index.




3. So far, this book is absolutely incredible. The amount of detail is a bit baffling at first, better too much than too little. It gives suggestions for how to find excellent hotels and B&B's, good maps, restaurants, there are even suggestions on packing and keeping a travel journal. We're leaving for the British Isles in a matter of days, and I've been planning for the last 9 months. It would have been so much easier if I'd had this book. I can't wait to start planning our next trip. I don't like to use travel agents because it's been my experience that unless you are paying them to plan your entire vacation, you will be far from the top of their priorities list. Also, it's so much fun to plan your own vacation. This book is invaluable.



4. What happens? Some don't get it, and others do. I agree wholeheartedly with Amazon.com's reviewers here insofar as the absolute wonder of these "essays" that are travel guides but not really the kind you would compare with a road map. This is great literature - along with its humor, savvy, sophistication and most importantly its understanding that America (albeit the beautiful) has a lot to learn from the ancient culture and art of that wonderous English Isle.



5. Having just finished Susan Allen Toth's earlier collection of essays "My Love Affair with England," I knew her travel-tastes run to gardens and rural pathways, and her writing-tastes run to lengthy descriptions of gardens and rural pathways. So I didn't have any hesitation in harvesting from "England as You Like It" a bunch of useful ideas, resources, and destinations, and then skimming over (or skipping entirely) yet more essays about gardens and paths. Other readers may well enjoy those parts of the book too -- I'm not slighting them: they seem popular enough with other reviewers. They're just not my particular cup of Twinings.
   
   What I found most memorable -- and pertinent to my own pending trip to England -- were things like the "thumbprint theory of travel," her methods for making long flights in the economy section more bearable, and her defense of the virtues of packing heavy instead of light. Her M.O. of staying in one set of lodgings for a week or two at a time, and using that as a base from which to explore nearby areas, certainly seems both more restful (as a vacation) and more worthwhile (as a means to get to know a place) than a frenetic rush from hotel to hotel as you check off one "must see" attraction after another. And her comment that the first thing she does on arrival in London is to hit a bookshop to stock up on good, detailed maps is an idea I definitely plan to appropriate.
   
   The first chapter, "How to Be Your Own Travel Agent," also had many useful ideas and recommendations for thing to look into. Since the book was published in 1995, however, many of the specifics she gives could be replaced by a red rubber stamp reading "Use the Internet!" Still, for giving a traveler enticing ideas of places to see and ways to see them, anyone England-bound could find this book worth spending a little time with.

No comments about Rand Mcnally Greater Hartford, Connecticut (Rand McNally Folded Map: Cities).

No comments about Vermont: A special Beauty.

2 comments about Maine's Coastal Cemeteries.

1. This is an excellent resource for those who love history and how cemeteries add to our knowledge of everyday life in Maine's past.
   The author not only takes us on very interesting tours but has also added the local history, legends and folklore associated with each cemetery. I would highly recommend this book for those who love New England and it's rich colonial history.



2. As author Karen Wentworth Batignani points out in the introduction to this book, telling someone that you're interested in cemeteries immediately makes them think you're more than a bit morbid. But cemeteries are among are most important and informative historical locations, especially those from the New England area where are earliest settlers first lived. Karen takes on a whirlwind tour of 38 cemeteries along the coast of Maine. She begins with a primer on cemeteries pointing out how in the 1800's cemeteries were major tourist attractions and also provides a bit of history stone-carving styles and epitaphs.
   
   At each cemetery detailed, Karen provides information on how to get to the cemetery, notes on the landscape and a brief history of each region noting when the cemetery was founded and its earliest dated tombstones, as well as noting some of the more interesting residents buried there. The descriptions are helped greatly by hundreds of photographs showing the various styles of stonework. Since many of the older markers are too difficult to read in the photographs, dozens of epitaphs are re-printed in the book. In addition to the cemeteries, the book also notes any other destinations of note in the nearby area such as museums, historical homes, etc and even provides the hours of operation and phone numbers.
   
   Touring these cemeteries is an enlightening trip back in time to meet many remarkable and courageous men and women who braved incredible dangers from both French and Indian attacks to settle these new lands.
   
   In the York Village Burying Ground we find the grave of Jeremiah Moulton, who was just four years old when his parents were massacred by Abenaki Indians. Young Jeremiah was allowed to go free because the Abenaki found him to be amusing. It's a mistake they would regret as Moulton would go on to become a vaunted Indian fighter. He died in 1765 at the age of 77. And then there is the grave of Samuel Moody, a true hellfire and brimstone minister cut from the same cloth as Cotton and Increase Mather.
   
   Off the beaten path is the New Town Cemetery in the tiny town of Arrowsic, population 501. Buried here is Brig. General Samuel McCobb who was a part of General Benedict Arnold's disastrous expedition into Quebec.
   
   In Ancient Cemetery in Beautiful Wicasset, you will find the burial place of Ezekial Averil who was a bodyguard to none other than George Washington and lived until the ripe old age of 95 before passing away in 1850.
   
   The harbor town of Machias features the O'Brien family cemetery, founded by Morris and Mary O'Brien in the mid 1700's. Machias was the location of the first naval battle of the Revolutionary War as Jeremiah O' Brien led a group of men on the successful attack of a British vessel.
   
   Cemeteries hold many great stories about the past if we take the time to listen to them. Whether the cemetery is spread over many acres or perhaps tiny like the Pioneer's Burial Ground with its two dozen markers, this is an informative and fascinating excursion into Maine history.
   
   Reviewed by Tim Janson

2 comments about Nairn's London: Revisited by Peter Gasson.

1. Lacking "no-stars," under duress I am forced to rate this book one star.

   Ian Nairn published the original in 1966. In 1988, Peter Gasson produced a major revision and updating of the original which I bought several years ago at a remainder store.

   Now, in 2002, I am about to revisit London. A friend tells me that Roger Ebert, my up until now favorite film critic has revised Nairns. So I buy a copy.

   Bad move.

   In it is the text from the 1966 original edition, which according to Gasson, in 1988, was then somewhat out of date.

   The 107 essential photographs from the original (and from Gasson's revision) "are not reproduced here."

   Plus, ". . .Gasson's updatings of Nairn's 'irreplaceable and intensely personal text [presented by Gasson as footnotes]' are, in their turn, sadly and inevitably out of date as well. . . ."

   From Ebert's introduction I surmise that neither he nor the publisher had the guts, expertise, insight, sensitivity, energy, or courage to do a creditable update. So they copped out and merely reprinted the original 1966 Nairn's with Ebert's comments pasted in the front.

   In my opinion, this book is a waste of your money.

   In my opinion, better you should hunt up a copy of Gasson's 1988 revision and spend an afternoon plotting the locations on a good London map and checking out the details in the 2002 Time Out London guide.

   I am returning the Ebert/Nairn guide to Amazon next week.

   Jerry Yares (jyares@aol.com)




2. Jerry Yares (below) is much too hard on this reprint of a classic. I have used it in rambles around the City and Westminster, and found it invaluable. It is also a great companion on a winter night, planning that next trip to London.
   
   Mr. Yares does us all a favor in pointing out the existence of a second, updated edition (1988). If this were a reprint of that edition, I would have given it five stars in a minute. Were there copyright problems? In any case, the 1988 edition is available from Amazon partners. The binding of my copy is old and breaking, and the type is hard on the eyes, but the updates are very valuable.
   
   Buy both, and take this one with you to London; keep the 1988 edition at home for reference.

No comments about Providence Ri (Greater) Street Map.

No comments about Moon Handbooks Cape Cod: Martha's Vineyard & Nantucket (Moon Handbooks : Cape Cod).