5 comments about The Dream Catcher Tour.

1. This book was a nice combination of serious and fun. My favorite line was "'Plan your lunch snacks accordingly,' she concluded, giving the cinnamon roll ladies a sharp look."
   
   Imagine my surprise, too, when Maddie and her friends joined the Iron Mountain Mine Tour. My grandmother was born in Iron Mountain in 1891. It's a small world and this book captures many of life's common joys and challenges.



2. I really enjoyed reading The Dream Catcher Tour. While it is a work of fiction, I appreciate the fact that the characters are based on real stories and accounts. The author does a fantastic job of telling this story in a way that makes the reader identify with the women and their personal journeys. The conversations are so real and honest.
   
   I went on many trips to the U.P. when I was young and while some of the sites are familiar to me, there are many I haven't seen. This book has inspired me to one day go back and visit the places mentioned. I would love to visit Pictured Rocks and photograph as Leslie does in the 'Peace' chapter.



3. Paula Buermele's The Dream Catcher Tours provides her readers with a peek into the lives of forty-seven women who together embark on a bus tour of the Great Lakes with Northern Experience Tours.
   
   What ensues is a potent collection of stories reflecting Buermele's affirmation that she is an attentive student in the classroom of life. Buermele moves effortlessly from one voice to another as her characters relate a variety of tidbits about their lives, some painful while others humorous. However, as one of the women remarks, "during the early days of the trip her companions had all seemed much the same, but with each passing day she had come to see the uniqueness of each woman."
   
   These accounts also reaffirm an old adage, that no matter where people find themselves, they can't help reminiscing and revealing some of their family and psychological baggage that echo the past and at times consume the present. The stories range freely, some sounding familiar while others stirring up sad emotions, as is the case with Leslie who is traveling with her late husband's Aunt Helen. Leslie recounts how she lost her college sweetheart and young husband Steve who had suffered a brain aneurysm shortly after they were married. We also learn that she had lost her parents at a very young age and it was her adopted Aunt Helen who took her under her wing and has been her mentor
   
   Then there is the familiar tale of Marianne, a wife and mother, who subjugated her own choices for those of her family and as she states, perhaps this trip will bring out the hidden Marianne. And Donna, the future mother-in-law, who is not exactly overjoyed with her son's choice of a wife. Barb, a divorcee, who after thirty-two years of marriage believed that the trip would mean a step into the world of self-determination and an escape from a controlling ex-husband who had left her for a trophy wife. Ruthie, who had visited her father in the hospital on her eighth birthday, recounts how she was pleasantly surprised when the Catholic nuns wheeled him in into the waiting room to wish her a happy birthday and thus shattering her stereotype of the "mean" nuns.
   
   Buermele can clearly write and her storytelling is extremely perceptive, demanding quick concentration into the lives of her characters. However, at times in truth I did feel cheated, as some of the stories were underdeveloped and I would have liked to be better acquainted with the raconteurs. In the end though, these stories leave us with something to ponder; the uncertainty of life, the meaning of home and family, and what makes us all tick, for in all of us there is a story to be told.
   
   Norm Goldman, Publisher & Editor Bookpleasures



4. Reviewed by Lori Plach for Reader Views (11/07)
   
   Buckle your seatbelts; you are in for an adventure you won't soon forget! Welcome aboard the Northern Experience Tours! You will be traveling with 46 other women on a trip around the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. You are certain to meet some of the most interesting people you have ever met and perhaps you will make some new friends along the way. Emily is our tour guide and she wants to spend some time with each individual tour group member and be certain that they have a good time.
   
   Of course, when you have this many different people from so many different walks of life, you are sure of having many life stories. As the group travels from one location to another, another person is spending time with Emily and sharing their life stories. From one city to another, you are able to enjoy the sites and unique characteristics of each locale. Some of the tourists' attractions are as follows: Mackinac Island, the Soo Locks bordering Canada, Munising, Houghton and Crystal Falls.
   
   Paula Buermele has done an excellent job in providing a great storyline and travel book all in one. Through the pages of the book, you will feel like you are right there on the bus and getting to know these people that you are traveling with. Through descriptive paragraphs you will feel like you are seeing these places with your own eyes. I certainly hope that Paula Buermele writes more books. I loved "The Dream Catcher Tour" and would definitely like to read more of her work.



5. The Dream Catcher Tour is a novel following a group of forty-seven women on an economical, no-frills tour bus excursion around the Great Lakes. As they take in the sights and sounds, they also trade favorite memories with one another. A leisurely delight brimming with female camaraderie, The Dream Catcher Tour glides gently along as it presents moments of interrelated insight, and makes for gentle, fun-loving leisure reading, bit by bit or cover to cover. Highly recommended.

2 comments about Tourists with Typewriters: Critical Reflections on Contemporary Travel Writing.

1. Incisive, educated, fascinating. Great reading!



2. Travel "literature" traditionally has not been taken very seriously in academia, and so the authors (Professors at Harvard) have undertaken a scholarly examination of some popular post-WWII authors and works, while trying, they say, not to be polemical. To give a sense of what kind of book this is, here are two illustrative quotes: "Travel has recently emerged as a crucial epistemological category for the displacement of normative values and homogenizing, essentialist views." If your eyes have not glazed over yet, try this one:
   
   [Quote]"At first blush, it certainly seems there ought to be an affinity between travel writing and postmodernism; for among its many, not infrequently contradictory features, postmodern theory foregrounds the instability of the human subject, shifting ontologies of space and place, and the undermining of linear history, which characteristically assumes a fractured or palimpsestic structure."[End Quote]
   
   This is the kind of writing that gives scholarly books a bad reputation, at least among general readers without a degree in literature. Yet for the intrepid adventurer willing to put in the work, there is gold to be found within. The book is structured into four main chapters, along with a meaty Prologue, Introduction and Postscript that summarize and expand on the core ideas.
   
   Chapter 1 deals with colonial myths still lurking in modern travel literature, and the post-colonial "countertravel" writers who are not white, middle-class western males. A number of examples are examined including the "anti-racist" works of Caryl Phillip's The European Tribe and Jamaica Kincaid's A Small Place. The "resistance" work of Salman Rushdie's The Jaguar Smile. The "counter-Orientalist" narratives such as by Amitav Ghosh's In an Antique Land and Vikram Seth's From Heaven Lake: Travels Through Sinkiang and Tibet. And "anti-Imperialist" works such as Pico Iyer's Video Night in Kathmandu.
   
   Chapter 2 discusses the concept of geographic "zones", or how regions have travel mythologies built up by previous travel writers; new writers either attempt to re-discover what they pre-suppose to be there ("the dark heart of Africa"), or attempt to tear down the myths, in both cases reinforcing and continuing the mythologies. The chapter examines the zones of of the "tropical" (Congo and Amazon); the "Oriental" (Japan); the "exotic" (South Seas); and the "liminal" (Arctic). Within each zone there are 3 or 4 case authors and works discussed.
   
   Chapter 3 looks at women and gay male writers as alternative voices. Chapter 4 examines hybrids of travel literature such as "virtual travel" and the "eco-traveler" - some of the best examples of the later include David Quammen's The Song of the Dodo, Peter Matthiessen's Cloud Forest and Barry Lopez' Arctic Dreams.
   
   Overall I learned a lot, even though certain passages were opaque with academic verbosity. It has made me examine my notions about the trustworthiness of travel literature as an alternative to travel; the value of travel itself and the hidden complacency (co-dependence) between the travel industry and travel writing; my own inherit prejudices as a white, middle-class male and the mythologies that travel literature re-enforce; to expand my horizons on what kind of travel literature I choose to read; and helped place many well known authors and works in better historical context.

No comments about Wayne, The City of (MI) (Images of America).

No comments about The Smithsonian Guides to Natural America: The Great Lakes: Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin (Smithsonian Guides to Natural America).

No comments about Wild Michigan.

3 comments about Hunts Highlights of Michigan.

1. Anyone who has discovered the wonders of under-rated Michigan will want to keep this frank and comprehensive guide handy on vacation. The big attractions as well as the often-missed backroad oddities are highlighted. Rather than keeping a narrow focus, this book manages to zero in on something for everyone--but without sounding like the brochures every chamber of commerce hands out to the gullible. I know because I live in one of Michigan's premiere tourist towns (at least, according to our CVB hand-outs...) and what the Hunts' book says is right on the money. And speaking of that, unlike some guides, this book talks alot about free attractions and gives prices for admissions, etc.. There's plenty of family-oriented info, too. I really can't say enough good things about how valuable a resource this book is for people who like to explore when they travel. Go buy it



2. This book is marvelous! We have used it in our family for vacations and weekend trips and it has pointed us to many interesting places that we never would have heard of otherwise. The book describes places clearly, with no hype--the way a friend would tell you about a place they had visited. Things that sound interesting turn out to be so, and the Hunts don't lead you to expect more than what you actually find. The Hunts describe natural features, parks, towns, museums, shopping, interesting businesses--I'm sure that almost anyone could find something of interest in this book.



3. I keep buying this book and giving them to our friends and family from Michigan and across the country. We don't go anywhere without our Hunt's. The descriptions are honest and comprehensive and we've never been disappointed. This is a must buy for anyone who visits or lives in Michigan.

1 comments about A Travelers Guide to 116 Western Great Lakes Lighthouses.

1. This book, along with the other traveler's guides, give a good description of the lighthouses, plus accurate driving directions, including turn-by-turn directions and a map. This book is a must for anyone going on a lighthouse vacation.

No comments about Rand McNally Detroit: Southeastern Michigan (Rand McNally City Maps).

No comments about Michigan (America Series).

No comments about Maguey Utilization in Highland Central Mexico: An Archaeological Ethnography (Anthropological Papers (Univ of Michigan, Museum of Anthropology)).