No comments about Frommer's Los Angeles 2008 (Frommer's Complete).

No comments about Los Angeles Mini.

5 comments about Newcomer's Handbook For Moving To And Living In Los Angeles: Including Santa Monica, Pasadena, Orange County, And The San Fernando Valley (Newcomer's Handbooks).

1. This book is filled with all kinds of information that can be written about moving to any city like how to find a realtor. Has uninspiring reviews about neighborhoods.
   
   I have a hard time believing that the authors were even there. Has no more information than can easily picked up on the internet.



2. Although the book provides a useful summary on a number of areas (for example descriptions of various villiages around LA) I missed practical information, such as:
   - How does the school system work in USA?
   - At what age need children go to school?
   - Practical information regarding moving to LA /USA such as can I use my European electrical equipment there (such as waching machines, etc)?
   - Practical tips on medical system, doctors, etc.
   I have seen better.



3. Very very good pocket (not pocket sized thought) book which covers things I would never had thought of. Great websites and contacts provided for all topics and the content is well thought of and carried off well in a nice manner.
   Am buying the New York one.... you never know.



4. Los Angeles is absurd sprawl of quasi-independent towns that can easily overwhelm a newcomer. Make a mistake, and you could end up living in Sun Valley - a nice name for a rather ugly place, and just wait until summer: the low rent won't compensate for the bill from the electric company. Add in a bizarre city government and top it off with California's own unique way of doing things (visit the DMV), and you'll begin to understand why a guide like this is essential to a newcomer.
   
   You may think, "I can find all this on the Internet for free," and you'd be right. That is if you can get the Internet to function. The cable company and the phone company are not exactly customer oriented in Los Angeles. It might help to have a guide book like this when you're trying to set all that up.
   
   Maybe you've got Internet on your phone so you can just go to Google and... yeah, I'll see you in Sun Valley. Since you're not a savvy resident you didn't know that the particular "Apartment Locator" site that you looked at was actually a scam or that a particular "church" was really shilling for Scientology.
   
   If you're moving to Los Angeles I'm sure this book will save you time and money. It'll also reduce your frustration (though it won't eliminate it--wait until you talk to the phone company).



5. I just bought and read this book. Being a foreigner temporally moving to LA, I appreciated all the general information on buying or renting a house, plus neighborhood information, since I had no clue where to start looking. Now I can confine the area searches to those that (supposedly) match my income and living expectations. The last edition (4th) is from 2005, talking about how the house and estate market will keep rocketing to the sky (and how you get a subprime loan)... Maybe time for an update?

4 comments about Top 10 Los Angeles (Dk Eyewitness Top 10 Travel Guides).

1. I bought this guide along with the Frommer's guide to LA and I must say, it's hard to say which is better. Obviously, there is less text in this version, but the essentials of a trip to LA are laid even more bare in this pocket-sized guide. And the pictures get you excited to go!
   
   If you're interested in experiencing a typical LA tourist-style vacation, I can vouch for this guide as a must-have! Use it by itself, or supplement it with one of the larger guides.



2. I took this guide book with me on my first visit to LA recently. I was interested in doing all of the typical tourist things. This book was indispensable. I also bought Frommer's guide book and I never opened it.
   
   I rented a car and traveled through LA. I was driving alone and the maps in this book were a huge help. They are very detailed and held up through being thrown in the car and in and out of bags. The pictures are great. The decriptions are short and to the point. I also loved the size of this book. It is small enough to easily carry in a larger purse or backpack.
   
   I didn't use the Top 10 book to plan my trip - only what to do and where to go when I got there. A more detailed book might serve you better if you need help decided where to stay and what hotels to use.
   
   You can't go wrong with this guide book - it is really the only guidebook you need for LA.



3. We visit the LA area two or three times a year.
   
   This is simply the best compact guide to LA that we've seen.
   
   It's quite usefully organized around several different communities in the LA area. This is the only way that's useful in LA since, if you're staying in Santa Monica, reading about a great restaurant in Pasadena isn't all that helpful.
   
   A very dense collection of useful information. It's introduced us to hotels (e.g. Magic Castle Hotel) and restaurants (e.g. Newsroom Cafe) that we've really enjoyed.
   
   Hopefully they'll be able to keep this updated every couple years or so.
   
   If you're going to LA, buy this. It's a steal.



4. During the past few years, I've become increasingly convinced that L.A. is one of the most interesting cities in America. Unfortunately, much of what is there is overshadowed by ersatz "attractions" like Disneyland and Universal Studios.
   
   This guide overcomes that problem by focusing upon different areas of interest and then listing the top 10 attractions within each area. Yes, Disneyland and Universal Studios are still covered, but so are the numerous museums, architectural landmarks (this book first made me aware of the Bradbury Building), parks, restaurants and hotels.
   
   Despite the enormous amount of material covered, the guide is compact enough to easily fit in a pocket or purse, yet still offers attractive graphics and intuitive organization. I bought Fodor's guide at the same time, but despite its greater amount of text, found that I used the Top 10 Guide virtually exclusively.
   
   The 10 to 12 pages on Pasadena are quite good. Pasadena is a city worth a visit, especially the Norton Simon Museum which offers a fine collection of art in a peaceful, uncrowded setting. Highly recommended.
   
   Since "The Loved One" has just come out on DVD, I especially wanted to visit Forest Lawn, the cemetery satirized in that film. Interestingly, none of the guide books I scanned provided directions, although the Top 10 Guide does provide directions to the Hollywood cemetery where some of the top stars are buried. As it turned out, there are six Forest Lawns scattered about the LA area, with the Mother Church being on the west side of Glendale along I-5 [Los Feliz exit]. Well worth a visit.
   
   Since I visit LA on a regular basis, I plan to use this book a lot in the future, but to augment it with other, special purpose (e.g., architectural) guides.
   
   If you can find a copy, there's a fine book about LA, L.A. Lore: A Scintillating Exploration of Los Angeles by Stephen Brook, that provides a narrative overview of the city. Brook is an English journalist who came to LA in 1990 with an excellent list of contacts, and visited virtually every section of the city. His observations are intelligent and generally unbiased.

5 comments about Streetwise Los Angeles Map - Laminated City Street Map of Los Angeles, California - with integrated red line tracks and stations.

1. Do not waste money. Small laminated map, expensive, need a magnified glass to read it. You won't find any street there. Better pick-up a free map at in the metro area.



2. This map of LA includes detailed maps of all the essential areas you're likely to want to visit. It even has the location of major hotels and attractions on it. The overview map of LA is also good for information at a quick glance. All of this is made even more useful and handy by being packaged in such a relatively small and DURABLE laminated map (and it folds up nice and small too!). This map will be with me at all times on my upcoming trip to LA.
   
   UPDATE: Just got back from a week in L.A. and this map was a true lifesaver... perfect, spot-on, with all the right landmarks and coverage of just about all the most common areas you may visit. Within two days, the map helped me feel like I was an old-hand at the L.A. streets. Study it ahead of time, too!



3. I am an avid fan of Streetwise maps. They are handy to carry and waterproof. Before visiting cities, I use a permanent marker to locate my hotel, places of interest, subway/bus stops, one-way streets, etc. I recommend them highly.



4. I love L.A., but getting around the city, even for a native can be very arduous, especially if you get into the hollywood hills. This map, though limited, is a very good item to have it you get lost in west L.A., as with all of these streetwise maps, it focus's on the most traveled part of town, and in the case of L.A. it's downtown and the Westside. As for quality, these maps rate high, they are easy to access, are well crafted, and the font is easy to read and the map graphics are first rate. If you are in west L.A. or downtown often, then i highly suggest this map, you can really get lost on the westside of L.A...ever seen the beginning of Pretty Woman, Gere should have picked up one of these along with the Lotus.



5. Durable, portable and easy to fold! Great for navigating the downtown LA area. Street names and intersections very clear. However, not a very useful resource for navigating the outer fringes of the city.

2 comments about Zagat 2008 Los Angeles Restaurants.

1. This book is completely useless.
   
   It claims to cover Southern California. Apparently this East Coast firm is unaware that San Diego is part of Southern California. But, hey, it's only the 7th largest city in the US, so maybe they didn't notice its presence. It could happen. After all, the book is only trying to show a level of expertise about the area.
   
   The inside cover says "Zagat has it all covering hundreds of cities..." San Diego is not one of them. Too small? Who knows. If you still want to get one of these guides, you need to look inside to make certain it covers the area you are most interested in, even if it claims to cover the broader area.
   
   Not often, but once in awhile I do travel north an hour or two to "Southern California", will this help me there? No. You'd have to look through pages and pages of restaurants all over LA county to find something in the area you want go. I can't figure out how to find say, something in the airport area, etc.
   
   Quality control? Open this book and the first page is ... 31. Yep. It's missing the first 30 pages. I have no table of contents, no key to their symbols and numbers, I have no way to know what they mean.
   
   Customer service? If one would like to be insulted, give them a call. They were rude, arrogant, and dismissive. The best they would do was, if I wanted to mail the book to them *at my expense*, they were willing to replace it, with the same useless book.



2. I've used this book to find cheap restaurants in L.A. that have great food. It hasn't steered me wrong yet. I especially love finding places less than a mile from my home that I wouldn't have otherwise noticed.
   
   I've never cared about the decor of a restaurant, but if I did, the guide would help me find those too.

No comments about Thomas Guide 2008 Los Angeles & Orange Counties Street Guide (Los Angeles and Orange Counties Street Guide).

3 comments about Los Angeles & Southern California (Regional Guide).

1. These guides are always helpful. There is something for everyone. There's a good mix of everything you could want; from shopping to dinners etc etc. I've always found their books to be 99% acurate (as far as prices etc for sights), and they are well detailed. This book is no different. You'll find your travels much easier with this.



2. This is not the first LP guide that I buy and you could say I really am a regular customer
   It was so helpful and useful that my trip without it couldn't have been the same... A must for all LA visitors



3. We spent a week in the LA area visiting a long term resident and used this book every day! We wanted to visit both tourist sites and places off the beaten track, and were able to do both. Our family had a diverse list of places to go and things to do - see a star or two, visit hollywood, visit some ethnic areas (such as Little Saigon for an article for chaobannewsletter.com), visit an aquarium, eat family friendly food, hit the beaches, go to an amusement park, etc. It helped us with everything.
   
   My only quibble is that we could have used even more family oriented advice and recommendations.
   
   I looked at five or six guidebooks before picking this one - both because I have used their guides before and because it seemed to do the best job with details and off the beaten track exploration. This definately was the right choice. We used it every single day - to plan, to get to each place and also to eat.

5 comments about Not for Tourists 2008 Guide to Los Angeles (Not for Tourists : Los Angeles).

1. The title says it all. A great way to see and do things you'd want to do and see if you lived there. Also full of helpful hints regarding traffic.



2. I have read Lonely Planet books on Los Angeles, and these are great if you are a tourist and interested just in seeing the major tourist sites. But this book gives relevant information for familiarising yourself with LA generally and the 50+ neighborhoods that make it up. The layout is really user friendly and the information really relevant for a longer stay or (particularly) for a person moving to the city.



3. Everytime I leave my NFTO book behind I always regret it. Whether it is to find the nearest bank ATM or because I am too busy playing tourist in LA and get lost, I miss having it near me on the front seat of my car. The handy phone numbers and venue information in the back are great and the little elastic band helps you find your place so you can read in traffic!



4. Just received this in the mail and have to note that this book is not what I expected. Coming from NY where I loved my NFT and always stuffed it in my pocket (or bag, because it's a bit larger than pocketsize) I must warn all fellow New Yorkers that this NFT is gigantic. It's bigger than the average paperback. Which makes sense since you're always in the car in LA, but still.
   
   From my quick skim the book looks great.
   
   Only other qualm is that there are advertisements in it, which seem ridiculous with the cover price...



5. Helpful for finding all streets and points of interest throughout the LA area. Great for those new to the area. Use for walking OR driving.

5 comments about Kindred (Bluestreak Black Women Writers).

1. This is my first Octavia Butler book and surely not my last. The story of a modern black woman transported into the days of slavery is compelling enough even just from her perspective; the perspective of the people who surround her is even more fascinating. It is as vivid as if Ms. Butler had actually been the traveler. I loved it.



2. What a thought provoking book.
   From the beginning till the end, this story fascinated me, kept me thinking about the world today.
   I've always wondered why people in general let things happen to them...like slavery. Why did the enslaved people not stand up their enslavers?. This story gave me the answer dead on. Before you know it you adjust to your situation. You become a product of your environment, slaves and enslavers alike.
   This book is a must read!!
   The world lost a great treasure with Ms Butler's dead...



3. Kindred is an okay book. It got boring for me in the middle. As some people have pointed out, it is written from an African American point of view, which is unlike Bulter. She usually seems to write from the perspective of a being, flawed and connected to all others somehow. Race is usually a minor detail. I think that she attempted to connect African American's with the past in this book.She wanted to make slavery more real to us, so that we wouldn't forget the history of this country and our history in it. But she is a science fiction writer and this was not science fiction, so it wasn't one of her more focused and consice books. It is my least favorite of all her writings, but I urge everyone to read all of her sci-fi books because she is truly an amazing author.



4. Well written, challenging and emotional. The book really draws you in like a great story should, makes you feel the hope, pain and loss which the characters go through. I am glad I read it.



5. THIS BOOK IS SO MUCH BETTER THAN JAMES MCBRIDES NEW BOOK.
   THE CHARACTERS ARE RICH AND SO BELIEVABLE THAT YOU FEEL YOURSELF GETTING ANXIOUS WHEN SHE TRAVELS BACK FROM THE MODERN 70'S TO THE HORRIBLE TIMES OF SLAVERY.
   
   A REAL PAGE TURNER, IT'S ONE OF THOSE BOOKS YOU REMEMBER YEARS AFTER YOU READ IT. ALSO RECOMMEND A BOOK "GAL" FOR THOSE WHO LIKED THIS BOOK.