2 comments about A Literary Companion to Travel in Greece.

1. Although I have bought other literary guides to Greece, this remains my favorite for its gentle humor, comprehensiveness, and generous enthusiasm. The writers range from classical to modern, and Stoneman realizes what passages you try to recall when faced with a breath-taking classical landscape. Or with a less-than-perfect road ambling gently over a precipitous mountain! This is a definite plus for the traveler's pocket.



2. Hi my name is Brian Cliette; I'm a Hospitality and Tourism major at North Carolina Central University in Durham, North Carolina. Firstly I would like to express my love and admiration for your Traveler's Companion books, personally I own close to Fifthteen of them. During High school and College my interest sparked by your books has allowed me to travel to many parts of the world. Never the less yours books have led me to the best sites, restaurants, night clubs and places of interest that these countries had to offer. In less than a month on July 19th, I will embark on yet another adventure abroad, to the land of Castro, great rum, cigars, the land of a beautiful people and unique culture. "Cuba" . But because funding (educational cuts in North Carolina) my school wont be able to furnish the Traveler's Cuba Companion for my fellow students. Which I feel with really enhance their travel abroad experience. So I was wondering if they're any charitable books available for educational endeavors such as this. Doing so would spark interest in your other great products. Any help that u may be able to offer would so greatly be appreciated. And if unable to furnish books or other learning tools that would aid are experience, your books are still great.

   Sincerely,

   Brian A. Cliette

5 comments about Knopf MapGuide: New York (Knopf Mapguides).

1. I have bought several editions of this handy little guide over the years and am now giving one to all the guests at my daughter's New York wedding. It is very easy to use and has great suggestions for dining, sight-seeing etc. with very simple sections for each area of the city. I call it my New York bible.



2. I went to New York for the first time for two weeks. This map is great. It's small, easy to carry, and easy to read. You won't feel so obvious if you have to pull it out on the street corner or on the subway. It was so much better than the full size map that I got from the hotel. Beware, it only covers Manhattan. So if you have to travel to the outer boroughs (Brooklyn, Bronx, Staten Island, Queens) you'll need a different map. However, since all the siteseeing, shopping, and eating I wanted to do was located in Manhattan, it was the only map I needed.



3. The first time I went to New York, my mom bought this for our trip. It's been a life saver since. The maps are very detailed but small enough to carry with you without looking obnoxious. The subway map is detailed as well and when you use them with your sectioned maps, it completes the whole picture. This is a must have especially for first time visitors as the maps are very easy to read. I'm going on my third trip in two months and had to pick up another copy of this, as I can't seem to find my older one. I couldn't imagine a trip to NYC without it!



4. This is the most ergonomically designed useful city guide I've seen.
   100 percent portable, no batteries, internet connection and user friendly.



5. Best travel guide bar none. Fits your pocket or small purse.. Visually great looking. There are actual pictures .... All high recommended hotels different prices..Great maps.. hard to get lost . Great recommends for food I am a shopper.. Absolutely great & unusual shops ..None of the bad tourist gear only the styling gear.. .I am familiar w/ New York but I still use this guide. This is the one I get around with...I do not go anywhere without this guide if there is one available for the destination Im will be traveling to....

5 comments about Travelers' Tales Ireland: True Stories.

1. I'm on my way to Ireland in a few days. This is just a note to say that I found this book on Ireland, to my surprise as so many nice things can be, enormously sensitive and moving and classy. Classy because the type style, the paper stock, and the interior arrangement of the stories and back-of-the-book tips and advice show a lot of editorial thought, being so well done. I was deeply moved by the selection of the tales, each its own chapter, and I definitely felt a sense of coming to know Ireland in a way no other book I could buy would bring me. Lots of laughter and tears and thoughts arriving as I stared out a window, enveloping the mood of a story I'd just finished. They were wonderfully written for me, to my standards, which are impossibly high -- I admire the best, even if I can't write at that level -- and overall I sensed that the editing was careful, thoughtful. There'd been plenty of work put into this volume. The end of the book with all the tips was very enjoyable, and I've read it through twice so far as I sense it will all come true for me, all prove to be good advice, on this, my first trip to Ireland.



2. Like other books in the Travelers Tales series - this book gives excellent insight into the Irish way of life and provides excellent reading (I am slightly biased, having written one of the short pieces that is included - titled Cycling to Dun Aengus). The overall quality of the book is excellent and the descriptions pull you right into the landscape and geography of Ireland - from sitting in smoky pubs to driving past weather beaten coasts. Some of these pieces are also hilarious. Highly recommended not only as a prerequisite to a visit - but for a great read. TJLMullen@cs.com



3. This book consists of a wide variety of stories from the humourous to the profound to the historical. There are stories that you want to sit down with a friend and read it to them: specically, "A Pub Fairy Tale" by Pamela Ramsey tells of a visit to an Irish pub by the author who wanted to take in the "ambiance" of the music and dancing. She hoped that she would be asked to dance, but as closing time drew near, her hopes seemed slim. Then an energetic old gentleman finally asked her, and she describes it this way: "I could feel the other dancers watching us, nodding, laughing, giving us encouragement, but the old man and I had eyes only for each other. We were two odd strangers caught in a moment of tenderness. A moment of magic. I was Cinderella, the belle of the ball, dancing with my Prince - an old, almost-blind man, wearing a black beret." Beautiful. Another story tells of the estrangement of a son and his father when he married outside the faith, and how, when the father died, a reconciliation of sorts was established with his brother with they go hiking on the hills where there father had hiked with them, and how he came to understand his father's secret strength and connection with the isle: "Walking the Kerry Way", by Tim O'Reilly. This brief description of Mr. O'Reilly's story does it a gross injustice, because there is a depth of feeling that only the author can convey. The brief biographical descriptions at the end of each story are informative and to the point. At the end of the book, there is an extensive, "The Next Step" which includes a number of websites, and a good bibliography. The book is well put together, and succeeds very well in conveying "true stories of life on the emerald isle."



4. I really enjoyed this book on Travler's tales from Ireland. It had some great stories. You really got to know about the country, and it's people from reading this. I highly recommend it.



5. I am giving one less star than the other commentators here not out of contrariness but simply to let readers know of the very uneven quality of the 44 entries, most of which are excerpts from longer works by established writers, although a minority appear to be written for this anthology. Not to say that the latter suffer necessarily; the best essay in here, and the only one that examines the other side of the tourist's encounter, is Janine Jones' "Tea With Mr. Curtain." Jones ponders what to do when the more unsavory side of a revered local man is revealed to apparently only her "privileged" view as a visitor. She opts for reticence rather than revealing his secret side to the rest of the village that she will soon leave but he never will.
   
   The familiar authors mingle with the unknown, and to the editors' credit, they offset their knowingly but fulsomely lavish encomium of the oul' sod's charm prefacing this collection with a final section highlighting the shadowy scandals of an Ireland beyond the postcard views too often limiting many of the writers here included. The best sections are this last portion, for its frankness, and the beginning that in its "Essence of Ireland" does set out neatly such observant scenes as that of a kayaker, Brian Wilson, who finds his moored craft suddenly whisked away under the local Conamara customs of flotsam and jetsam belonging to those who live by the sea's bounty; Rosemary Mahoney's look (from her excellent "Whoredom in Kimmage: Irish Women Coming of Age") at how the Legion of Mary's volunteers work in inner-city Dublin; David Blaker's decision to call himself a Jew when hitching rides in the North to avoid uneasy conversations; and David W. McFadden's meeting with an amateur archeologist in the Tipperary town of Cahir. The second section is most disappointing: the contributors are either too blase or mundane about their activities, or what they report matters little to engage the imagination of the reader.
   
   Valuable essays in part three about destinations are those of Katharine Scherman on Skellig Micheal; poitin-making by John McLaughlin; Thomas Flanagan on the real Mayo that inspired his "Year of the French" novel; and Jonathan Harrington's brief but moving tale of finding and meeting distant relatives one uncomfortable night. In the last section, Scott Anderson exposes the racketeering and an even more dangerous climate of intimidation that because of its underground impact on both sides of the sectarian divide has followed the decline in paramilitary violence; Martin Dillon gives a literally awful anecdote from his "God and the Gun" about a priest forced to hear the confession of a man the IRA is about to execute; Fintan O'Toole offers a typically nuanced examination of the Bishop Casey-Annie Murphy scandal.
   
   The listings at the back, with succinct advice for tourists, are helpful and cogent, if by now of course dated a bit. The bibliography is well-chosen. Finally, sidebars in the text give additional observations from other texts, and these snippets are placed often to play off the longer essays in nimble fashion.

No comments about Knopf MapGuide: Montreal (Knopf Mapguides).

3 comments about The Traveler's Key to Ancient Greece, New Edition: A Guide to Sacred Places.

1. The Traveler's Key To Ancient Greece: A Guide To Sacred Places is the ideal guidebook for exploring sacred locations that once were home to the secret mysteries at Eleusis, the oracle at Delphi, the Labyrinths of Knossos, the vast theater and healing center at Epidauros, the perfect symmetry of the Parthenon, and more! This unique and very special travel guide offers informative and expert commentary on the Hellenic world's palace and temple cultures and sites; Greek drama, philosophy, art, and sculpture; sacred geometry and architecture; and gallery collections in three major museums. Whether you are an armchair explorer or plan to be an on-site visitor, The Traveler's Key To Ancient Greece is a compelling, informative, superbly written and flawlessly produced introduction to understanding as well as visiting these sacred sites of antiquity.



2. This book is an excellent starting point for
   anyone remotely interested in the ancient Greeks --
   not merely the most famous ones of the 6th and
   5th centuries B.C. Here interweave myth,
   mystery, knowledge, mysticism (Pythagorean and
   Orphic introductions), plus excellent explanations
   of attributes and psychological aspects related
   to the gods.
   [here is a section from the "Introduction"]
   Each site has its "myth," a term which means
   a story of the life of a place, human being, or
   god. All myths have meaning, and the task has
   been to translate the myth into the myth-language
   of our own era. For the most part, the language
   of our mythology is the language of psychology.
   And of course there are several styles of
   psychological language: Jungian, Freudian, Adlerian,
   and so on. In this case, the language goes back
   to Plato and has been brought to the present
   idiom through the work of Paul Diel, the late
   Austrian psychologist.
   Plato, the great voice of the journey of the
   human soul, was the first Western writer to speak
   of the idea of spiritual development, the idea
   that a human being might lead his life in such a
   way as to AWAKEN [my caps] within himself the
   divine life. The possibility of such a discovery
   makes Plato's works a psychology, or a study of
   human behavior in the physical, intellectual,
   and spiritual sense. Plato was indebted to the
   voices of his own culture and his predecessors in
   philosophy, both Eastern and Western [Orpheus;
   Pythagoras]. These fragments from the past form
   a living mythology which still has power to
   transform lives. -- Richard G. Geldard.
   *The Traveler's Key to Ancient Greece.* (1989).
   * * * * * * * * *



3. If your intention in Greece is to explore the wonders of the ancients, this is the best book to take. Of the several books I had with me, it was the most complete, detailed, informative and enjoyable--it was the one I came to trust and refer to the most often. Small enough to stuff into a pocket, it allows you to sit at the sites and read while looking at the ruins. The facts and suppostions were generally supported by other sources, so being able to rely on its accuracy is another plus.

3 comments about Crete (Eyewitness Top 10 Travel Guides).

1. This book is a perfect size for travelers, it fits nicely in a pocket, but in shrinking the size, the publishers shrank the type as well, to the point where it is difficult to read.
   
   More serious is the lack of organization -- much of the information is redundant and poorly classified. It appears to have been thrown together without much editing.
   
   For larger cities, these defects would render it unacceptable, but it is difficult to find good travel books on Crete, and the content is better than most, which is why I rated it 3 stars.



2. This book had a variety of interesting tid-bits, but was not very useful. The Top 10 format (Top 10 Tavernas, Beach Resorts, Eating and Drinking Tips, Cafes, Mountain Walks, Moments in History,etc.)isn't good for planning your trip. The information provided under each top 10 items is only a few sentences long, so it isn't even comprehensive enough for you to decide if you want to visit that place. It was also impossible to look anything up in this book because its order made no sense to me. I wouldn't buy another Top 10 book. I got Fodor's Greece guide and found that much better. The only thing better about Top 10 was actually the map of Crete.



3. Having travelled the world with several Top 10 Guides, I can confidently state that no one should buy a Top 10 Guide expecting to use it as a travel bible, particularly if one is traveling on one's own, rather than a group itinerary. With that caveat, Top 10 Crete is another great entry in the Top 10 series. As always, cross-reference it with your tour guide or a comprehensive guidebook, then tuck it in your bag and you're good to go. The maps will never leave you lost, and the restaurants in particular are always tasty. The top 10 list format the guides use divides the island into manageable chunks and gives a good idea of what's a must-see and what can be done without.
   
   My biggest complaint is the few niggling inaccuracies in some of the details about the archaeological sites (which no traveler to Crete should miss), but these will be noticed by (and bother only) the expert.

No comments about Buying a Home in Greece, 3rd Edition.

2 comments about Wallpaper City Guide: Athens (Wallpaper City Guide).

1. This book was a total waste of money. There was not one thing in it which was useful on our trip to Greece.



2. Many trendy, interesting and cool places listed in this book! I go to Athens every summer and still found this very useful!

5 comments about Facing Athens: Encounters with the Modern City.

1. It was the first book I read from one end to the other in a long time. Captivating and realistic it shows parts of Athens that may not be evident to the eye of the first time visitor. While not a travel book it is however a good book for one who tries to understand modern Athens and modern Greece. The glory of the city shines from ancient times till today but this is not where the author puts the strongest accent in the book. The accent is on the modern society according to me. I loved the book and even if you get a bitter taste at times while you get to know the city ....it feels all so real.



2. When you travel to Cairo, or Beijing, or Athens, you can focus your tourist eyes and attention on Pyramids, the Forbidden City, the Parthenon, and the people of the past. Or you can open your eyes and mind wider and also attempt to understand the cities and the people who live today in the shadows of antiquity. "Facing Athens" is for the latter group of travelers.
   
   George Sarrinikolaou faces Athens with eyes and mind wide open, with the memories of an Athenian child, and with a transplanted heart and soul that he also must open wider to accomplish his search for discovery and rediscovery.
   
   What results is a not only deft portrait of today's realities in a great and changing city, but a study that often can be applied, at least in part, to other cities (and countries). From it, a reader's own mind can formulate glimpses of what the future may hold for Athens and the world.
   
   "Facing Athens" is must-read for any thoughtful traveler who believes she/he is, or wishes to be, a true world citizen...and any armchair traveler who enjoys seeing through the eyes of the beholder.



3. This is mostly a book about urban decay and the flight to the suburbs. While the specific examples are from Athens, the same words could describe the Bronx or the French banlieus. Because ownsership of cars spread in Greece later than in the United States its effects start appearing in the 1970s, later than in the US. I lived in Athens between 1940 and 1961 and when I visited the country in the late 1970's what struck me was that the Greeks were repeating all the errors that led to American (and Western European) urban problems. However few people ever learn from the errors of others. Other parts of the book deal with the superficial Greek church attendence, common in any country where there is an established church, and corruption, also common in several countries and certainly in the Middle East. (The heritage of the Ottoman empire of which the Balcans and the Middle East used to be part of.) He describes the contrast between affluent Greeks and the illegal Albanian immigrants who tend their gardens but, again, the same words could also describe American suburbanites and the illegal Latin American immigrants who tend their gardens.
   
   Because the author left Greece when he was only 10 years old, he may have had an idealized image of the place and was disappointed by the reality. I left Greece as an adult (after college and military service) and any time I go back I enjoy the place. Overall it has changed for the better. (I stay away from the blighted urban areas for the same reason I stay away from blighted urban areas anywhere else.)
   
   The best thing I can say about the book is that it short, only 144 pages, so I did not waste too much time reading it.



4. I think the author does a good job of describing and capturing the 'uglier' aspects of today's Athens (which certainly need to be discussed further), but leans towards the dour, missing many of the more positive aspects of life in Athens. As with many large, compact cities, our impressions can change from day to day. With Athens, and Greece in general, the best and the worst of humanity seem to become more apparent and immediate to the senses. I don't know why; maybe it's the close quarters.
   
   The issues that Sarrinikolaou artfully raises can be unsettling to those in the Greek Diaspora and should stir discussion. Our impressions of Greece and what it means to be Greek are based (for myself and for many, I believe) on the rural/island traditions and kinship ties of our parents/grandparents. The problems that face modern Athens are not a part of that inherited image and can be easily overlooked.
   
   But,I find that the more time I spend in the city and settle into its peculiar rhythm, the 'village' is made visible in many of the neighborhoods. From late night group sings in a small apartment and familiarity of corner shops and kiosks, to an entire street helping someone park their car, the city is different from what I expected it, or even may want it to be. But it's also more exciting, unpredictable, provocative, and yes, often comforting.



5. An exile returns home and these are his musings. Being Greek, he is under no obligation to invoke the ancients at every turn and he provides an unvarnished look at a city that is dysfunctional and charming at all once. He'll speak of Greek racism (the Albanians are blamed for nearly everything, the Gypsies for the rest), the total disaster of traffic through the city center, and the pull of the old neighborhoods now destroyed by callous development that is turning everything into concrete block apartment buildings.
   
   I've been to Athens and seem most of what he is talking about. The magic of Athens is not that it is perfect, but that in its great imperfections it still tugs at something inside you.

No comments about Knopf MapGuide: Dubrovnik (Knopf Mapguides).