5 comments about America's Lost Treasure.

1. Tommy Thompson is one of those unusual individuals with the fantastic mind of an inventor/engineer, yet with the ability to work with people to bring out their best. Our government should take note of this man, or hopefully they have, and give him the freedom to let his mind find solutions to many of our problems, as he has shown he can do in this book. It was an adventure, filled with suspense and I would recommend the picture book to go along with the text so you can see the magnificent photos of his find.



2. Tommy Thompson is one of those unusual individuals with the fantastic mind of an inventor/engineer, yet with the ability to work with people to bring out their best. Our government should take note of this man, or hopefully they have, and give him the freedom to let his mind find solutions to many of our problems, as he has shown he can do in this book. It was an adventure, filled with suspense and I would recommend the picture book to go along with the text so you can see the magnificent photos of his find.



3. Tommy Thompson is one methodical scientist. He found a ship that sank in the Atlantic Ocean in 1857 that had eluded searchers for 130 years. He has taken the same methodical approach in creating this book "America's Lost Treasure".

   Gary Kinder wrote a 1998 bestseller on Thompson's search entitled "Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea". It is one of the best pageturners I have ever read! More amazing is that it actually happened! The ship was the United States Mail Steamship "Central America" which was making rounds between the Atlantic coast of Panama and New York City during the California Gold Rush era. She was a side paddlewheeler steamship and was hauling a huge cargo of gold ingots, freshly minted gold coins, gold nuggets, and gold dust along with 38,000 pieces of mail and 578 passengers. Much of the gold was being brought to New York to shore up the bullion holdings of banks that had been putting out too much paper money without the available gold reserves to back it. Most of the passengers were returning from the Gold Rush; many were women and children. The ship sank after a heroic battle with a hurricane in 1857 off the Carolinas taking about 425 lives with her and all the gold. Both books chronicle Thompson's epic adventure finding the ship and recovering the gold down 8000 feet underwater where even the US Navy couldn't effectively recover items. Kinder's book clocks in at over 500 riveting pages but, is largely without pictures of all the incredible finds. "America's Lost Treasure" fills in that photographic void quite admirably in it's 186 pages.

   "America's Lost Treasure" is broken down into a background history of America at the time leading up to the Central America's sinking, a detailed account of the CA's fateful last voyage, a background of the equipment and people involved in the search and rediscovery of the CA, the discovery of the ship and the 'Garden of Gold', a review of the personal items found at the bottom other than the gold, and a section on the other scientific discoveries made at the site such as decay processes and new species of life found. There are hordes of very appropriate photographs that perfectly illustrate the topic discussed in the very readable and concise narration. The page layout is very well done and makes full use of the book's ten inches by ten inches size. Particularly interesting is the discovery and opening of several intact passenger's trunks revealing intact clothing and still visible photographs! The gold, however, is the expected showstopper.

   Overall, I can't recommend this book enough when read in companion with "Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea". Some people will bristle with disfavor on the efforts in general to recover items from this wreck feeling it is a desecration of history and wrong. I couldn't help but be astounded by the disciplined and rigorous scientific and engineering skills put on display in the efforts. This is an absolutely fascinating pictorial account of a remarkable period in the history of America. It will rivet your attention from beginning to end and have you looking back at sections again and again. It is one of the best coffee table books in existence. The lost treasure found is truly breathtaking and this book is an absolutely worthy account of it! VERY highly recommended!




4. Category: treasure hunting
   
   Boats: SS Central America and a big, capable ROV
   
   Heroes: Tommy Thompson
   
   Location: USA, Midwest and East Coast
   
   Synopsis: Coffee table companion book to Gary Kinder's excellent Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea. Thompson has put together a very good set of photos and descriptive text that doesn't overlap the Ship of Gold story. It's great to see the systems and treasure recovered that you read about in detail in the earlier book.



5. The loss of the U.S. Mail Steamship CENTRAL AMERICA in a hurricane off the Carolina coast in 1857 still ranks as the nation's greatest peacetime disaster at sea -- 425 lives were lost (most of them passengers from the California gold fields) as well as an unbelievable amount of gold in the form of newly minted coins from the San Francisco Mint, assay ingots of many types, raw nuggets, and dust. Thompson, a multi-disciplinary "research engineer," spent years searching methodically for the deep-water wreck and finally located it and began recovering materials from it in 1989. Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea told that story in technical detail; this is the pictorial version, and a gorgeous volume it is. In addition to all that gold in all its many forms, the researchers used a robot to bring up passengers' trunks, discovering books and newspapers that were still readable and clothing that had faded but still maintained its structural integrity. A fascinating work in marine archaeology.

No comments about Rand McNally Los Angeles & Vicinity, California: Major Roads & Highways (Rand McNally Folded Map: Cities).

4 comments about Led Zeppelin Crashed Here: The Rock and Roll Landmarks of North America.

1. Chris Epting has once again made a book about all the places behind the history. As with his three other book I've purchased ("James Dean, "M. Monroe" & "Elvis Presley") it's a collection of cool facts about the historical value of the PLACE, in addition to the event. If you are a person that looks at a physical location (like a liquor store on the corner of 7th & Main in L.A.) and says "Wow! That is where U2 made that iconic video 20 years ago), then all of Chris' books are for you. There is just something about staring at an otherwise boring street corner in San Franciso and realising that you're gazing at one of the most famous album covers of the past 50 years. In a time when our imaginations are used very little, this author has really given mine a workout.



2. Lots of great stories about the places that were made famous by the big names in rock and roll.
   I was a concert promoter for many years and was able to relate to a lot of the events and places. One theatre that was left out of the book (The Capitol Theater in Passaic, NJ) I co-found. I emailed the author of this book. He called me within a few hours from California. He said he was very sorry for the oversight and would put the Capitol Theatre in the next addition of the book.



3. It was pretty cool seeing the local sites and history. I am sure the book won't let me down - if it is 1/1000th as good as the story on TV, I'll be happy.



4. Useful for dipping in and out of. Probably need to have the other books in the series.

5 comments about Savage Dreams: A Journey into the Landscape Wars of the American West.

1. Solnit's juxtaposition of the insidious nuclear poisoning of Nevada to the making of Yosemite National Park (that she shows has been "loved to death" since it was first discovered by whites more than 150 years ago)makes this book a must for all environmentalists. Solnit deals directly with themes of conquest and redemption in historic efforts to both tame and use these lands. Readers gain specific understanding about two places that are, after all, national icons. However, the deeper themes so well-developed in this book are being played out no less dramtically all across the country.



2. This book is classic eco paganistic 1/2 truths and full tripe. Solnit carries on a dreamy and irresponsible massive 'feel good' opinion piece about the handfull of people harmed by our successfull development of our deffensive nuclear weapons. The author fails to note that our development and limited use of our weapons saved millions of lives.
   If you are currently a eco pagan, here is more for your religion. If you want a full account of the history of our deffensive development of nuecs, don't waste your time reading this novel. However, if you want further insight into the basis that drives our planet's new pagan eco religion, then this book will help you to understanding their factualy fictionist journey into politics.



3. If you have an open and inquisitive mind, no matter what your political outlook, you will enjoy this exploration of western America and our relationship with this unique landscape. Solnit weaves discussions about the settlement of the west by Euro-Americans, native American rights, nuclear testing, and other critical issues, with ruminations about H.D. Thoreau, John Muir, country music, landscape painters, and other intriguing topics. This is an excellent book about an important subject that will delight you if you let it.



4. If people would really read the TRUE history of Yosemite Indians they would find something interesting. First the Miwoks in the area were friends and workers for James Savage and Charles Webber, the founder of Stockton. The Miwoks had a working relationship with both white men and they dug gold for them. The real Indians of Yosemite were Mono Paiutes who tried to fight off the invasion, and not Miwoks. They were allied with the white invaders and they called James Savage "White father". I am a descendent of the original Indians of Yosemite and there is a problem. The defintion "Some of them are killers" for Yosemite was fabricated in 1978 and is not the original meaning of Yosemite. The real meaning was "The Killers" or "The Grizzlies" because the Miwoks were afraid of the Ahwahnees. It was Chief Bautista and Russio, who were helping the Mariposa Battalion, who coined that term "Yosemite" for the Indians in Yosemite Valley which they were afraid to enter. It is because the Miwoks were once enemies of Chief Tenaya and the Ahwahnees. 30 years Yosemite National Park Service hired a person named Craig Bates who was married to a Miwok woman and had a 1/2 Miwok son who created that new defintion. So it is increble that ONE person changed the meaning and defintion of one of the most important and well known parks in the whold world...and no one noticed. The Miwoks were actually the scouts and guides for James Savage and the Mariposa Battalion, but you would not know it because the information was controlled by the "Indian expert" at Yosemite, which causes wrong information to be written...like the actual defintion of Yosemite. For the real story read Lafayette H. Bunnell's Discovery of the Yosemite to find out the truth.



5. Wow, take a moment to read the other reviews of this book.
   
   I picked this book up off a bargain table, and months later happened to take it with me when I was visiting Yosemite without knowing 1/2 the book was about Yosemite. That was kind of a thrill.
   
   Solnit's historical and writing skills, her ability to build a world stage of activity and its interconnectedness with her narrative are extraordinary.
   
   As a landscape artist and photographer, I find this book to be a great resource. Understanding the history of Yosemite is frankly consciousness shifting.
   
   As the other reviewer says, nuclear weapons are our oyster.
   
   Indians, big bangs, Central Park, Fremont and the Heart of Darkness. How about that.

5 comments about A Thousand-Mile Walk to the Gulf.

1. One of John Muir's earliest works, this book traces his travels from Indiana to Florida, continuing on to Cuba, and ending up in California. At times, it is fascinating stuff. As he left in 1867, just after the American Civil War, he encounters many suspicious Southerners, although most are cordial to him. Muir wrote this as a journal of discovery, I think, to document the different flora and fauna he encounters in a part of the country with which he was not familiar. But this book is just as interesting as a social study - in other words, what was life like in America in 1867? How did the people act? How did they treat him? What were his impressions? If you have ever wondered about what America was like 150 years ago, you will find some answers here.
   
   Additionally, Muir has some fine moments of nature writing. Sometimes he delights in just stopping and observing: "I used to lie on my back for whole days beneath the ample arms of these great trees, listening to the winds..." He calls the birds he observes "feathered people from the woods and reedy isles." And despite being a God-fearing man, he disagrees with those who take a fundamentalist view of nature, ridiculing the claim that the world was made especially for man..."a presumption not supported by the facts," says Muir.
   
   Overall, I enjoyed this book. At times there is a little too much discussion on botany for my tastes, but that was OK. Muir's journal is rich with interesting anecdotes. With this journey, the founder of the Sierra Club was well on his way to making his mark in the world.
   
   Four stars.



2. The title sums up quite a bit of the review for me. Not only was he a brilliant naturalist and visionary, but he was a better than decent science and adventure writer. This book, thousand mile walk to the gulf, is from Muir's younger days when he basically dropped out and went exploring. He walked from Wisconsin to the gulf, shortly after the war, and literally slept wherever. Hedges, roadsides, the occasional house. His observations on reconstruction South are all the more insightful because they are unadulterated (is that a word?) by any agenda, and have the overpowering reality of truth.
   
   While his time in the Sierras is what he is most famous for, and the mountains more rugged and inspiring, this pre-Jenkins "Walk Across America" is a tamer warm-up for reading his journals from Yosemite days. I highly recommend it myself, it gives a bit of botany and a lot of background on Muir himself.



3. John Muir (naturalist and founder of the Sierra Club) left his home in Indiana at age 29 and "rambled" 1,000 miles through the woods of the southern US ending in Florida in 1867/68. It was just 2 years after the end of the Civil War and he ran into "wild negros" and long-haired horse-riding ex-Confederate bandits who would "kill a man for $5". He passed through uninhabited stretches of burnt out fields and deserted farms and was often seen as a northern interluder mistrusted by his southern guests. He lived mostly on stale pieces of bread, almost dieing of starvation while camping in a graveyard outside of Savannah, GA. He caught malaria and was bed ridden for 3 months, cared for by a kind family in Florida.
   
   This is a snapshot of the south right after the war and the contrast between Muir's beautiful nature writing and the devastation of war are just as striking today as they must have been for the many people who encountered this unusual walker in the woods. Muir's writing is under-stated - the book was published posthumously and is more a diary than a finished book, which gives it a truthfulness and matter of factness. Fundamentally a Romanticist world-view - the power of nature and mans relation to it - Muir delights in finding, sampling and discussing plants, animals and geography. The genre is best compared with Robert Louis Stevenson's Travels With a Donkey in the Cevennes and Thoreau's The Maine Woods.



4. After an accident in a carriage factory while working as an inventor left him temporarily blinded, John Muir vowed that he would break the moorings of life in Indianapolis and embark for wilderness places to study plants. His intention, which he later acknowledged as foolhardy, was to find his way to a tributary of the Amazon and float down that great river. He never made it to South America. He was lucky enough to survive a bout with malaria and be diverted to California.
   
   It's hard to imagine a much more dangerous undertaking than to set off alone soon after the Civli War to places unknown in the heart of the South. He was warned repeatedly by kind strangers and knew quite clearly of the dangers ahead: the guerilla bands of roving white bandits, displaced and desperate former slaves, a migration of rattlesnakes, the alligator-infested swamps, and the worst of all: catching malaria from mosquito bites (the thing that did catch up to him). It shows how single minded he was in his desire to study and learn about the natural world. As the blacksmith who took him in along the way characterized him: what a tough-minded man he needed to be in order to subordinate the dangers to what he wanted to do.
   
   Some do get rather tired of reading Muir's descriptive passages, but for anyone with a love of plants, this book offers a very unique and special view of the native vegetation along the route that he took to Florida. The cultural observations are less common, but they are keen and say a lot about the times: the people and how simply they lived. Then, there are some amazing experiences such as the time he spent in the natural refuge of the St Bonaventure graveyard in Savannah waiting for a parcel from his brother to arrive. There's a prophecy by a friend along the way about the coming prevalence of electricity long before the light bulb was invented. And, there are Muir's observations that plants do have secret lives, unknown to man, who tends to blow himself up out of all proportion to the rest of Creation.



5. I did not receive this product. One week after I ordered it I got an email stating that I would not receive this book & my account was refunded. Not sure what the deal is.

5 comments about The Biggest Boat I Could Afford: Sailing Up the U.S. Coast in a Dinghy.

1. This was a gift for my husband, & he loved it. He had a hard time putting it down, & finished it an a few days.



2. I found this to be a great read. It is a well written, and humorous story with just enough commentary to really see what was going on in the authors head. I highly recommend the book, and although I am a small boat Sailor, I see this as something that would be very entertaining to non-Sailors as well.



3. An interesting yarn, but not much technical or even practical info on solo sailing of small boats. I enjoyed the scathing criticism of the uptight Florida Marina Communities, but would have liked to see more details about his experiences in the Northeast Final leg of the voyage. If you're contemplating a long small boat voyage, don't bother reading this. Given the inexperience and naivite' of the author, it's a miracle he didn't get in more trouble or drown.



4. wish i hadnt bought the book it will end up being donated somewhere. The valuable information is that for beginners they should start with a small boat, preferably a dinghy and learn the craft. The author bought his boat fully equipped for crusing from frank dye whose books are well worth buying.
   Although the writing style is readable, I am convinced that the author really doesnt like sailing or the sea. There is a mechanical approach to getting from a to b and if it means breaking out the credit card or asking for a tow so be it. The final nail in the coffin is the authors cutting short the trip because?



5. It's refreshing to see that books are now being published about dinghy cruising. Throughout his trip Lee was very good at regularly updating the Canadian Wayfarer website about to his exciting trip and I had anticipated a really good book to be the end result. This was not the case though as I found his book to be of little merit from a "sailor's point of view" and falters to nothing more than a glorified log-book by a rookie sailor who quite frankly is lucky his inexperience on such an ambitious trip didn't kill him.
   
   This book is defintely NOT to be used as a reference guide for dinghy cruisers.

No comments about A Description of New Netherland (The Iroquoians and Their World).

5 comments about In the Shadow of Denali: Life and Death on Alaska's Mt. McKinley.

1. Heck of a book. Kudos to Jon Waterman on putting together a terrific collection of stories related to Denali. For those not well versed in mountaineering I think you can still enjoy this book a great deal. It will give you an honest look into the experience.

   In addition, Waterman doesn't try to glamorize it. Sure he'll give you a good look at the many men full of character who have risked life and limb for a chance the climb the high one (as they call Denali). Also some of the stories take place when Jon was younger and you can see how he has matured. He doesn't make any attempt to hide the brashness of his youth. Finally, the climbers themselves really make the book. Read about the 'Pirate', the other Waterman (an especially intriguing story), Wilcox, the inimitable Mugs Stump, and others. A fine book that will having you turning pages and keep your attention.




2. The author falls into the trap of thinking that climbing is going to give him and some other fellow climbers an insight into life beyond that of the ordinary man.

   No doubt he has done some amazing things but the fact is when you get off the mountain you are the same jerk you were before you started. Being a great climber does not make you a better person than someone else.

   I thought the chapter about his winter ascent was really self indulgent. Under the circumstances of his physical condition he had no business being there.

   On the positive the author has a knowledge of the Denali area that is very impressive but ...




3. I've always been fascinated by Denali (Mount McKinley)and its lands, but most literature about the mountain is similar to most other mountain writing: dry hubristic stories that don't give the deep-down-dirty. Much to my surprise, Waterman includes those hidden details of mountain climbing and Northern life in this incredible book. This is a timeless addition to the mountain writing genre, and what I believe is Waterman's best book. If you don't have it on your shelf, get it, read it, and read it again -- then share it with a friend.



4. This book helped me to get a good "feel" for Denali and its surroundings. It was easy to read and entertaining. Waterman recounts his life, first in New Hampshire in the white mountains and then later in Denali as a park ranger.

   I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to get a little history of Denali and its beautiful surroundings through entertaining short stories while not getting bogged down in factual details and structured story lines.




5. A real look into the world of mountaineering that hasn't been glamorized or overly dramatized (in the case of other authors). The primary focus is Denali, but the book often shifts attention away from it, giving the reader a good look into the mountaineering career of Jon Waterman and a bit of insight upon many others. For the experienced mountaineer, they can most likely relate to many of Jon's experiences. To the less experienced, it will give a sobering wakeup call to the realities of mountaineering. I must disagree with the reader from NY listed below as stating that "The author falls into the trap of thinking that climbing is going to give him and some other fellow climbers an insight into life beyond that of the ordinary man." For anyone who has survived a truly epic climb, one does gain a bit of insight into life that they failed to notice beforehand, and that many others do not completely understand...do this regularly enough, and it can in fact change a person. The book was NOT self-indulgent in the least...merely giving a first hand account of his experiences, both good and bad. If you are planning a trip to Denali, this should be required reading....

2 comments about The Hotel Book: Great Escapes North America.

1. Beautifully photographed to take you away to places that you may not have heard of. I like it because the hotels are not your typical hotels, this book highlights those that have original architectural value, and interior design.



2. Great Book and Great Hotels. Feel like traveling all the time.

3 comments about The Ultimate Guide to Asheville & The Western North Carolina Mountains, 3rd Edition.

1. I didn't find this book to be at all what I expected. It has alot of lists, may be more helpful for someone moving to North Carolina than visiting or vacationing.



2. This book is just a bunch of lists. It has no information that you couldn't find in the phone book. Unbelievably bad. Do not get this book



3. My husband's book is 476 pages long, and contrary to the negative reviews of the two other reviewers, it is not just a bunch of lists. Far from it, it is a comprehensive reference book, written in the format of a traditional guidebook, with commentary on restaurants, accommodations, natural and cultural attractions in the mountains, history, architecture and much more. It is proven guidebook,covering every aspect of Western North Carolina that would be of interest to visitors, and over 20,000 copies have been sold.