5 comments about Moon Handbooks Honduras.

1. I found this guidebook invaluable on my Honduran journey. The book was for the most part, highly accurate, informed, and well written. It is clear that the author traveled extensively throughout Honduras and was able to learn about the culture and the people. I also found the historical references fascinating. They enhanced my trip. I highly recommend this book to anyone visiting Honduras.



2. Honduras Handbook has been very helpful to me in my travel through Honduras. It is comprehensive, and especially strong in historical references. I look forward to the 2nd edition which should reflect the reality of tourism in Honduras after Mitch. However, most of the information continues to be accurate and helpful.



3. I'm not sure there even is another country-specific guidebook for Honduras, but if you're going to be there for even a few days this is the one to get! I've used a lot of different guidebook series in many parts of the world, and I can confidently say that the country-specific Moon Handbooks for Central America are far and away the best guidebooks I've ever used. They're extremely complete in every way--both in the practical and the historical--and they include "hidden gems" not mentioned in other guidebooks. That's because these guidebooks are written by people who've lived in the countries they're writing about, and clearly care about these countries. It really shows through in the quality of the books. You might want to read the reviews of the Moon Handbook for Nicaragua to get a sense of the quality of Moon's Honduras handbook--they're similar in many ways.



4. Whenever you ask for directions in Honduras, this is what you'll be told: "alli no mas", just a little further down the road. Take this book with you instead.
   
   Christopher Humphrey's handbook gives you the "why", along with the "where" and the "how much". Conscientious travelers know that there's more to a place than cheap, clean hotels, or cheap, reliable restaurants. Traveling involves knowing what makes a place special, what to look for which is unique and different, and what is it about a place that guarantees it a place in our memories. This book provides the answers.
   
   I lived and worked in Honduras for two years in the 70's, and I return often. This is the book I take with me. The contributors have an excellent understanding of Honduran history and culture, and this book is a very good resource for understanding a beautiful and little-known country.
   
   So, if you go to Honduras, ride the campo busses, drink a couple of Salva Vidas, enjoy a fine cigar or two, and don't miss eating that fabulous North Coast sopa de mariscos. And don't leave home without this guidebook.
   
   Que les vayan muy bien!



5. I'm not sure if the other reviewers have a different outlook on travel, but I found this book to be completely useless. The writer couches critiques without telling you explicitly where to go and where to avoid. I found the book extremely frustrating. For example, one seedy place that we had planned on staying was truly miserable - the book describes it as "your best option" in this part of honduras... In my mind a guide should do just that - guide you to the good and help you avoid the bad. This book just fails to give you the straight facts.

2 comments about Travelers' Tales American Southwest.

1. This is just a fabulous book. It will bring the Southwest to life for all discerning readers.



2. The Travelers' Tales series is a set of anthologies of short pieces, typically 5-20 pages each, assembled around a particular theme. Many of the volumes are dedicated to a particular travel destination (e.g., the Southwest, Thailand, Italy), while some are thematically organized (Food, Spiritual Gifts of Travel, Women on the Road, etc).
   
   The collections run from the passable to the magnificent: reading them reminds of how terrific writing becomes when inspired by an exotic, memorable place. The best of these volumes bring back the flavors, the smells, and the breezes of distant places with an immediacy that your vacation photo album can't by itself match.
   
   This southwest volume is probably one of the better ones in the series, owing largely to the fantastic quality of the region. I consider myself a fairly experienced world traveler, and for my money the unspoiled beauty of the landscape in this part of America is unsurpassed anywhere in the world. (I haven't yet seen New Zealand, the Alaskan wild, or the Himalayas, so I'm still reserving an absolute final judgment.)
   
   I am a lover of desert landscapes, but I've come to understand that I don't love all deserts equally: I've seen deserts ranging from the Gobi to the Sahara, but have found nothing quite like the American southwest, with its canyons, its hoodoos, its towering red rock formations like so many giant goblins, its endless views, its rock labyrinths, its lizards, the peaceful shade of its cliffs, its scents of juniper, sage and pinion. The introduction to this book compares a journey into the desert southwest to a breath of fresh air in the soul, and that certainly fits.
   
   With such inspiring material, a collection of pieces by skilled writers could hardly miss, and this one delivers. The best piece in here is probably the excerpt "Water" from "Desert Solitaire," by the incomparable and curmudgeonly Edward Abbey. This piece is, however, closely rivaled by the also-magnificent "Bridge Over the Wind," a tribute to Landscape Arch in Arches National Park, vividly capturing not only the gorgeous improbability of that particular arch, but also the feel of a hike through Devil's Garden to reach it.
   
   Other fine pieces in the collection explore the hidden treasures of the Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument, the fascinations of Navajo country, and activities ranging from flying solo over Monument Valley, to hunting for obscure pictographs.
   
   It's not a flawless collection: there are a few too many New Age-y pieces for my taste. The southwest seems to draw a fair number of spiritualist pilgrims, so for every Edward Abbey withdrawing to the wilderness to see himself and the society around him more starkly, there are plenty of folks who luxuriate in reducing Native American culture to a collection of comforting but absurd talismans and superstitions. A reader with a perfectly healthy respect and appreciation for Native American cultures might well come away, as I did, annoyed at some of the insipid romanticization of their folkways.
   
   But, in a sense, it is what it is; this phenomenon is definitely part of the southwestern cultural landscape, and it's therefore appropriate that it be reflected in this book.
   
   The collection is a pleasant read throughout, and will inspire both real and armchair travelers to direct their attention to this most beautiful of American places.

No comments about Ohio (The America Series).

5 comments about Stairway Walks in San Francisco.

1. Great book to have for anyone who enjoys an adventure. Lots of walking options within the city



2. San Francisco has over 50 hills with scenic vistas and small neighborhoods - so these nearly 30 urban walks are top picks for any who want to walk the city's byways. The revised expanded edition has been updated with new maps and color photos and adds three new walks, while an appendix lists the City's 600-plus public stairways. It's a 'must' for any San Francisco travel collection going beyond the general-interest city guide.
   
   Diane C. Donovan
   California Bookwatch



3. Adah's book is a great collection of walks all over the city. As the name implies, all the walks focus on the stairways for which San Francisco is so well known. This has two implications: one is that these walks will wear you out; the second is that, on sunny days, you get incredible views from the tops of all the stairways Adah has you climb.
   
   For locals, the 27 walks cover the entire town from Glen Canyon to Lands End to Potrero Hill. No matter how long you've lived in San Francisco, I guarantee you'll see great spots you've never been to before.
   
   Most of the walks are well off the beaten path for visitors, but a couple cover the classic tourist areas of North Beach, China Town, and Telegraph Hill. The Russian Hill North walk, done on a sunny day, will have anyone believing San Francisco is the most beautiful city on earth.
   
   Adah provides maps, directions, and a great deal of color commentary for each walk. She tends to focus on eccentric details of the local architecture and flora for each walk, lending a whimsical quality to the whole experience.
   
   Two last things to keep in mind. First, because the views are such a big part of these walks, Adah's trips are much better in good weather than in bad. Second, Adah is sometimes a little loose with her directions; I recommend cross checking the directions and the map often.



4. I love this book!! We live an hour north of S.F. and when ever we go to the city we start with one of these great walks. We have gone and explored neighborhoods we never would have without this book. San Francisco is such a beautiful city and getting to the top of some obscure staircase always gives you a unique and beautiful view. It is a must for anyone who lives in or near S.F.



5. I found this book (rather thick - 251 pages) on the shelves of my local Santa Cruz library shelves. At first I thought it was rather boring - the cover is dizzying to look at. Then as I opened and perused thru more pages, I realized that this was a work of love - Adah Bakalinsky's love (a San Francisco local, and an emigrant to the US).
   
   Adah Bakalinsky has expended previous editions and the January 2007 is the 6th edition.
   
   What I liked about this book:
   * informs the reader on some cool areas to walk in San Francisco, with cool architecture, and routes that will have your blood pumping.
   * the 27 walks are all detailed with a map layout, interesting points of interest, photographs, and many factoids.
   * Appendix 1 contains "An Informal Bibliography" (one pager with more info on the San Francisco)
   * Appendix 2 lists all the staircases (across 36 pages) for each neighborhood in San Francisco and rates each one according to a 1 to 5 scale of combined: steepness, length, location, elevation, and beauty.
   * and ... it was FREE.
   
   Whether you are from out of town visiting San Francisco, a local denizen, or a Bay Area suburbian, you are sure to enjoy this book, even if not completing a walk from start to finish. The details are worth reading before each walk, as one is sure to add more mental details and moments of enjoyment as one walks across the beautiful city of San Francisco.

5 comments about The Hidden West: Journey in the American Outback.

1. Rob's imagery and cutting edge mind put him up there with the best - I like him better than the proverbial Ed Abbey (Rob's a little more cerebral). I'm an avid reader of anything to do with the desert Southwest (and West), as well as a desert rat myself, and I was hard put to find anything I'd read to date that was this good. You won't be disappointed with this book - buy an extra for your friends, because they'll "borrow" it and never return it (I've now bought 3 of them and can't find my latest copy...hmmm, now that I think of it, I suspect it went to Hawaii with a friend...)



2. A cousin tipped me off to this little known masterpiece, which consists of a short, well-written series of anecdotes and tales about the West. An expert in verbal imagery, Schultheis takes you gambling at Native American pow-wow, canyon ratting in Utah, meeting a jack rabbit who lures motorcyclists to their doom, and other esoteric topics with equal aplomb.

   His best tale, and the one you won't forget, is the last in order, a fictional episode during the next great Western drought, when the xerothermic climate brings disaster west of the Mississippi.

   Schultheis is very readable, and each essay is thought-provoking. I predict you will enjoy this wonderful book. As the previous reviewer cautions, however, loan it out at your own risk.




3. I first read this book in the mid-1980s, and have been a huge fan of it ever since. It was out of print from a long time after the original publisher, North Point Press, went out of business. I am delighted that it is now available once more. It deserves to be read by anyone interested in the American West.

   This is a wide-ranging book that deals with many aspect of the American West in general and the desert areas in particular. Schultheis is a gifted writer, and has a knack not only for telling a good tale but also for turning a wonderful line. He is highly attuned to the remarkable and the humorous in almost every situation, and the book is a marvelous blend of the unexpected, the reflective, and the funny.

   My favorite moment might be an occasion he recounts of visiting a store in Navajo territory. While in the store, an elderly Navajo stumbles up to him and says, apropos of nothing, "Hey, I hear that Elvis died," in a tone that almost suggests the Schultheis and The King were lifelong pals. After replying, that yes, Elvis had died and that he had evidently been pretty sick, the Navajo, ignoring what Schultheis had said, continues, "Yeah, Elvis and Hitler, two of your greatest leaders, dead." (I am quoting this story from memory, so don't call me to task for specific inaccuracies.)

   This is a book filled with many wonderful and marvelous moments. I would heartily urge anyone with an interest in literature about the American West or the desert to read it as soon as possible.




4. I first read this one in 1982 and have returned to it time and again. I, like a couple of other reviewers, cannot understand why this book has not recieved more attention. It is well written, funny, informative and just simply fun to read. It is a collection of tales, stories, or what have you, of the western portion of our country. The author has wonderful insight and certainly knows his subject. I cannot think of a page of this work I did not absolutely enjoy. Highly recommend this one.



5. Let me just start by saying that the previous reviewer who said that this author is better than Edward Abbey is sorely mistaken. But anyway...
   
   Beautiful book. Wild, imaginative visual imagery. His insights into life are profound and really hit a chord with me. There are a lot of spiritual overtones in this book that hooked me from the beginning.
   
   I recommend this book to anyone interested in the natural history or native american history of the southwest canyonlonds, prairelands and honestly...just an interest in wilderness in general is enough.
   
   Buy! Enjoy! Share! Guard with your life!

1 comments about Touring Swedish America: Where to Go and What to See.

1. If the title interests you, then you'll find what you expect inside. It's good.

No comments about Travels Among the Dena: Exploring Alaska's Yukon Valley (McLellan Books).

No comments about In the Lands of the Christians: Arabic Travel Writing in the 17th Century.

No comments about Moleskine City Notebook Miami (Moleskine City Notebook).

5 comments about Greenwich Village: A Guide To America's Legendary Left Bank (New York Bound Books).

1. I am giving it to everyone I know as a Christmas present. Since I grew up in the village, it is a joy to be able to share the rich history of my hometown.



2. Having planned a trip to NYC for the first time, I wanted to use a different guidebook that would give me a historical perspective with walking tours. I found it in this beautiful book. It made my trip to NYC a most memorable one. I highly recommend this book to anyone travelling to NY who wishes to learn more about this great city's history.



3. This book is a beautiful and well written guide to my favorite area of New York. An excellent read for anyone who enjoys the village.



4. I couldn't stop reading this book! It's funny, smart, full of surprises and as beautiful as any book I've seen this year. It's like a box of candy -- almost impossible to put down, easy to pick up again, and delicious wherever your fingers happen to land.



5. Originally, Greenwich Village was settled by the rich and merchant class of lower Manhattan as an escape from the recurring ravages of yellow fever and cholera. For this reason Greenwich Village was, essentially, never really mapped out; never really settled in accordance to any public plan. Perhaps this haphazard beginning is what gave the area its combined refined yet anarchic flavor that exists until this day.

   And this was also the reason for the area becoming attractive to free-thinkers and artists, which is the focus of the valuable book, "Greenwich Village: A Guide to America's Legendary Left Bank" by Judith Stonehill. Complete with maps, illustrations and a walking tour of the four sections which make up Greenwich Village, the guide reveals the extraordinary number of famous artists, writers, performers, etc who made the place their homes. Artist Edward Hopper, poet Walt Whitman, playwright Eugene O'Neill, and novelist Willa Cather, are just a few of the famous names who lived and created work here. But more important, as the subtitle to this guide suggests, they created something uniquely American.

   "Greenwich Village: A Guide to America's Legendary Left Bank" is a great book for people who will visit the village, and is great for New Yorkers, themselves, to learn about this neighborhood that they thought they knew so well.

   Rocco Dormarunno, author of The Five Points