No comments about Being Elsewhere: Tourism, Consumer Culture, and Identity in Modern Europe and North America.

1 comments about Michigan Curiosities, 2nd: Quirky Characters, Roadside Oddities & Other Offbeat Stuff (Curiosities Series).

1. This is a fun, fast-paced book highlighting some of the quirky things about Michigan. As a born and bred MICHIGANDER I really enjoyed learning more about this wonderful state I call home. My boyfriend is a CA transplant, and I am winning him over to the greatness of Michigan. The author does a great job keeping things short and simple, including interesting notes and history, and makes things easy to locate with directions and web site addresses.

1 comments about Mobil Travel Guide 2001 Great Lakes: Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin (Mobil Travel Guide Northern Great Lakes (Mi, Mn, Wi)).

1. Mobil guides in general have some of the info you need for your stay but I prefer location specific guides more. They only list a few of each (hotels, restaurants, attractions etc.) Overall it was helpful but I wouldn't use it by itself. There isn't enough info about each area.

1 comments about Muddy Boots and Ragged Aprons: Images of Working-Class Detroit, 1900-1930.

1. My mom was born in working class Detroit, shortly after the period coved by this book. It literally made her cry. I will bring back lots of memories for natives and give a new generation a glimpse into what life was like for inner city dwellers during this important part of Detroit's history. This book fills a great void. So much of Michigan history is focused on the auto industry, the lakefront or the fashionable "Pointes". This book addresses the visual history of Detroit from the working class point of view. Great factories dominated the landscape. This book finds beauty and passion in the grit.Not only great for Detroit natives, any student of inner city history will enjoy this book. The photographs are beautifully produced and the narrative is well written. The authors' familiarity and great research shine through. This book is a "must" for anyone interested in urban studies, photography and history.

5 comments about Michigan Off the Beaten Path, 7th: A Guide to Unique Places.

1. I'm from Michigan and I'm truly offended at this book...there are a lot of things to see in Michigan, everything from renting a cottage at one of Michigan's countless beautiful lakes both large and small, to hiking the Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes, to visiting it's many lighthouses. And that's just in the lower peninsula, I'm not too familiar with the U.P. Yet, the author mentions the attractions worth visiting as the 'bicycle spokes museum?', or the 'Be kind to your mother-in-law bridge?' I've never heard of either one and I've lived here all of my life? They make the state of Michigan and those who live here look foolish and backwards... If this is a book about locations that can be found 'off the beaten path', there is much to be said about Michigan. Some of the most beautiful attractions are located here, which do not appear to be in this book. If the sites described are the featured locations in the book, thanks but I'll pass. One would be better off picking up a free brochure from a travel agency...



2. As a native Michigander, and now a nearby Chicagoan, I found this book both amusing and helpful. I had no idea of some of the little sites and attractions of my native state and used the book on some car trips back home. Of course, the book assumes you are aware of the big tourist attractions so it concentrates on the hidden treasures. I have shared this with fellow Michigan natives and they loved it also.



3. This book was not intended to show tourists all of Michigan's wonderful attractions, such as the Mackinaw Bridge, Mackinaw Island, etc.(That is why those attractions are not listed in it). This book tells us about all of the "HIDDEN TREASURES" in Michigan. The treasures that one would find if they went down the back roads. This book is excellent. You will not be disappointed. Read the book, pack up your kids, pack some lunches, and go enjoy yourselves by visiting our "hidden" Michigan.



4. I should have listened to the reviewers about this book. VERY weak. Free state brochure gives far more info. Lesson learned



5. The jawdropping number of misspelled streets and towns in this book could form a book of it's own. There were also far too many attractions, restaurants, hotels, exhibits, etc; that have been closed for more than eight years that were included. I had hoped to give this book to relatives just moving back to "The Mitten State" after having lived in the Pacific Northwest for 40+ years. If I had given the book to them before reading it myself to point out favorites they'd be driving in circles and wasting oodles of gas. This book was a "tosser".

No comments about Travels in Arabia. Comp. and by Bayard Taylor..

2 comments about Mackinac Island: Historic Frontier, Vacation Resort, Timeless Wonderland.

1. I think Mackinac Island: Hisotric Frontier, Vacation Resort, Timeless Wonderland is the best all around book about Mackinac Island that is on the market today. It has detailed information about the Islands history and geological evolution that is still very readable. This book covers the many vacation and resorty aspects of the Island also. If you are looking for a readable text book with all the general information about Mackinac Island you could every want, this is the book for you!



2. I read an older edition of this book from the library (1988, I believe). It's very informative and entertaining to read, and even covers some landmarks on the island which are no longer existent--something I have not come across in other Mackinac Island guides just yet. The authors even made use of "flashbacks" to try to transport the reader into past eras--a soldier in Fort Mackinac, Victorian visitors to the island, a yacht race, etc. (Though these did get a little silly at times.)
   
   However, the entire text was filled with numerous horrible typos, spelling errors, and grammatical errors which should have been learned about in grade school and eradicated in a simple line edit. As informative as the text was, I quickly lost a lot of respect for the authors seeing as they didn't comprehend simple English. It was a library book and I itched to use a red pen throughout the entire thing. Does nobody use copy editors anymore?
   
   I sincerely hope that in subsequent editions of the book, including this one, the authors checked out a grammar manual and fixed their errors so that the book would read more professionally, as any published document should. This would have been a great book, deserving of four stars, if not for such simple yet repetitive and irritating problems.

5 comments about Michigan Atlas and Gazetteer (State Atlas & Gazetteer).

1. This is better than a collection of county maps! The state is divided up into sections and you can easily follow a road or trail across the whole state! Highly recommended for "taking the long way home"!



2. Although the books detail looks impressive, when you get onto the small back roads, where you really need detailed information, the maps too many times are not reliable and not accurate. They show roads where none exist, roads that do exist are not on the map, road names are often wrong, and all sorts of other innaccuracies.



3. This book is good for the southern half of the lower penninsula, but it is lacking in the Northern half from what I have found. I too have discovered that it shows roads where there are none, doesn't show roads that are there, and quite frequently (probably 30%) has the wrong road name. Don't venture into Norther Michigan and depend on this map or you'll end up in the middle of a National forest lost with out a reliable map to get you out. However, it is usually accurate in regards to highways and most main county roads.



4. I'm sorry to see some of my fellow Michiganders give this gazetteer a poor review, because I think it is excellent. My mother has a fear of driving on the interstate highways, so she's getting a copy for Christmas. And imagine how much better your vacations could be if you took to the back roads!



5. Exploring the U.P. and northern lower Michigan has become a weekend tradition for myself and my friends over the past year or two, and since picking up a copy of this book, our DeLorme Atlas has become dogeared from all the use it has gotten. There is simply no better map in existence unless you have access to USGS maps (and those aren't very portable). With this atlas and a GPS you could be knocked out and dropped anywhere in Michigan, and when you came to, you could find your way out. Even without a GPS it is an incredible resource. This is, quite simply, THE definitive Michigan atlas. Accept no substitute.

5 comments about Quest for Kim: In Search of Kipling's Great Game.

1. While not as scholarly or well written as FOREIGN DEVILS ON THE SILK ROAD, this was an enjoyable book to read. Hopkirk combined a bit of travelogue, detective story and literary criticism in writing this volume.

   The essence of this volume is Hopkirk's search in the Northwest Frontier of Pakistan and northern India for Kipling's Kim. While few of the characters in Kim have direct historical parallels, there were models Kipling drew on for many of them. Kim himself was probably based an orphan of mixed parentage; his father was probably a British army soldier and his mother a Tibetan. Colonel Creighton was probably modeled off of Colonel Montgomerie of the Survey of India, while Lurgan
   is believed to be modeled off of A. M. Jacob, a notorious jeweler in Simla. St. Xavier's in Lucknow was probably the source for La Martiniére.

   Hopkirk does an excellent job in setting Kim into the Great
   Game-the Russo-English rivalry over Afghanistan and the Anglo-French rivalry over the India trade. Throughout the book he also discusses whether Kipling was a racist or not. Unlike many critics who would judge Kipling by today's standards, Hopkirk tries to judge him the mores and values of Victorian England.




2. That Mr. Hopkirk comes to the study of "Kim" as an historian and not as an author of literature is immediately apparent to the reader of "Quest for Kim". The prose could hardly be called beautiful, and phrases and large passages are repeated throughout the work. With that fact recognized, Hopkirk's pedestrian prose is certainly sufficient to convey the information he has put together, and even the most ill-formed of his writing cannot cover his deep and passionate love for his subject. And this is what makes "Quest for Kim" such a joy to read, even for one who knows much of what Hopkirk says: his love of the work is contagious and inspiring; it brings pleasure to see how much pleasure he gets from it. Many readers may, as this one was, be uninterested in whether the characters in "Kim" were modelled after real-life contemporaries of Kipling, let alone where these real-life men lived, and yet the sections -- and there are many of them -- seeking out the homes of Colonel Creighton and Lurgan Sahib never fall into dullness because they are buoyed up with their historically interesting descriptions of late 19th-century India and the fun that Hopkirk clearly had looking into the matter.
   On finishing "Quest for Kim", one may be left with the feeling that the historical information contained therein could have been greater in both quantity and detail. One will certainly not feel greatly informed on the literary qualities of "Kim", beyond that Hopkirk is extremely impressed by them. "Quest for Kim" is not a great scholarly tome, but it is an enjoyable read, encompassing a light, welcoming introduction to a study of British India and "Kim" itself wrapped in a pleasant narrative of one man's brief travels through Pakistan and India.



3. In this study of Kipling's novel Kim, Peter Hopkirk attempts to follow the story as he travels approximately the same route as Kim does in his adventures. On the way he discusses many of the characters and places, attempting to put them in their real world historical context. So the book is part travel narrative, part literary study and part historical research. This interesting melange is mixed very well.
   Hopkirk is writing from an imperialist perspective; that is: the agents of the British empire are the good guys. But as long as you understand where he is coming from, there is nothing to detract the value of this book as a historical study.
   It is very readable, and an interesting approach to a great book. But don't read it before reading Kim itself, because this book gives away too much of they story.



4. Peter Hopkirk has written an enthralling, easy to read account of his trip following Kim's travels from Lahore to Delhi, Simla and beyond. Hopkirk displays boundless energy and resourcefulness following leads in his determination to locate residences, shops and schools mentioned in the original book and the reader gets carried along in his efforts. I've purchased another copy of Kim to read again and I'm planning a visit to India to check out some of the locations myself! Nice map and pen and ink sketches.



5. Among Kiplingiana available for the 21th Century Kipling fan,. Hopkirk's "Quest for Kim" holds a well conquered place. Written in 1996 after many excellent books on British exploration, adventure and espionage in Asia, this small gem that stands between travelogue, literary commentary and pure act of loving memory toward one's own childhood dreams and expectations has become a classic.
   Rudyard Kipling's "formation" novel "Kim" is one of the most loved books of English literature (I personally read it over 10 times) and many of its readers have asked themselves if the plot and characters are true or imaginary. Well, Peter Hopkirk went further and actually explored the possibility that every single aspect of the novel was inspired by real people and happenings.
   After a brief introduction that updates on early and modern critical appraisal of RK's novel (colonialism? Racism? Orientalism?) we are introduced to the principal characters and a plot synopsis of the book. Kim would be half RK himself and half a mysterious Anglo-Tibetan "Doola" (from Doolan) a half-caste born from a British soldier that had eloped with a Sikkim girl and had gained some newspaper fame during the period RK was working in Lahore. Teshoo Lama really existed and had visited Kipling's father Lockwood, the Curator of the Lahore Museum, when Kipling was a child. Mahbub Ali as well was a real person, a horse dealer in the Sultan Sarai that used to visit Kipling when in Lahore. The Te-rain still runs today even if interrupted at the Pakistanian-Indian frontier, and the whole line has witnessed atrocious bloodshed during the Separation in 1947. The Colonel's Bungalow in Umballa is almost impossible to trace but some similar still stand in memory of colonial England. Colonel Creighton was definitely inspired by Colonel Thomas Montgomerie of the Survey of India a great spy master whose few selected pundits made the story of the Great Game. Huree Chunder Mookerjee Babu among these was probably a Bengali graduate from the University of Calcutta named Babu Sarot Chandra Das towards whom Kipling had an ambiguous feeling describing him as physically repulsive but extremely intelligent. The real Babu was one of the major experts on Tibet and wrote a Tibetan-English Dictionary. St. Xavier, Kim's school, was modelled on La Martiniere as recognized by many of those that had attended this prestigious institution. Lurgan Sahib, and here comes the surprise, was the mysterious A.M.Jacob, a jewel dealer, occultist and hypnotist of Madame Blavatsky stature and owner of the famous Victoria diamond later known as Jacob's diamond. Jacobs appears also in other Nineteenth Century novels such as "Mr. Isaacs" by F.Marion Crawford and in Newnham Davies' "Jadoo".
   Of the Russian and French spies Hopkirk surely identifies the Frenchman as a certain Bovalot that penetrated into India from the North and maybe the Russian as the famous Captain Gromchevsky who went out to meet Younghusband on the Himalaya.
   The Great Game was in full progress in the years 1865-1875, when the novel is set and greater information is present in the book. But what captures the reader most is the feeling of living anew Kim's adventure for the second (or the hundredth if you prefer) time in an exponential form.
   Truly a great companion book to RY's chef d'oeuvre "Kim".

No comments about Michigan (America Series).