No comments about Rock Art Savvy: The Responsible Visitor's Guide to Public Sites of the Southwest.

1 comments about Let's Go Ecuador 1st Edition: Including the Galapagos Islands (Let's Go Ecuador).

1. This book lacks some serious items, such as maps! The Lonely Planet guide is far superior.

No comments about Insight Pocket Guide Peru (Insight Pocket Guides Peru).

4 comments about Devil's Island: Colony of the Damned.

1. This book is a disappointment. It is not a serious work of scholorship. It has no notes, no index and is written in a rather breathless style that involves lots of exclamation marks and purported quotations of conversations that took place 75 years ago. The work also lacks structure and needed a good editor.

   Save your money.




2. If you are seeking fascinating history and a well researched book, try this one. However, as the previous reader mentions, the book is not well written and it would have been nice to see his sources.



3. Devil's Island was originally published circa 1934. It told of Dr Dreyfus'ordeal. The book you are listing is 1988. Is that an update of the original Devil's Island?



4. Before I review this book, I should say that I am a student of French history who is particularly interested in the French colonization process in the Caribbean and South America. Consequently, the prison colony in Guiana has come to my attention.
   
   After reading the book twice I've decided that I disagree with the other reviewers. No, this is not a sequel to or revision of the 1934 work about the Dreyfus affair, in response to another reviewer's question. Miles's work is a more all-encompassing one that includes information about the voyage from France to Guiana, the reasons why the convicts were sent there (among others) and the conditions within the colony. The work also explores the psychology of the French government and its motivations in attempting to keep the colony alive.
   
   I think what turns off some readers is the fact that this book is not academic. Don't get me wrong, Miles's research is very thorough, and contrary to what the other reviewers have claimed, there is a very long bibliography in the back of the book where all his information can be found. Miles's language is far from sophisticated, and I did notice a couple of grammar errors, but who cares? The book gets across its message in a clear, accessible, ENTERTAINING manner, which a more academic, sophisticated work may not be able to as effectively. I have always enjoyed entertaining histories, and so do most people, considering the types of history books that sell en masse.
   
   All things considered, I think it's only fair to give this book four stars. I was truly entertained by this book, and it did a great job of opening my eyes. Miles obviously put an enormous effort into it and I believe I succeeded. I also appreciate the photographs of the penal colony, prisoners, and other penal memorabilia. This book is easily worth the money, or at least a trip to the library.

3 comments about Amazon Extreme: Three Ordinary Guys, One Rubber Raft and the Most Dangerous River on Earth.

1. I had no idea that the Amazon was anything other than a flat meandering river flowing through the South American jungle. When my wife first gave me this book, I thought, 'so what? some guys went down a river.' I had no idea that only a select few have ever achieved this feat and that it was so incredibly difficult. Angus paints a magical picture of beauty and fear as they navigate the Amazon's treacherous headwaters. Snow-capped mountains, raging whitewater and excellent team-dynamics weave together to create a story like no other. I would definitely recomend this book to adventurers or adventurers at heart.



2. Several years ago, I read Joe Kane's "Running the Amazon" and I was interested to hear how Angus' journey compared. Not surprisingly "Amazon Extreme" proved to be every bit as exciting. The part that intrigued me the most was their budget. These three young men had just over ten thousand dollars for the entire five month journey - and that included their transportation and equipment. It is easy to see that the sheer determination of these men is what carried them across the South American Continent in one piece. For those of you who read this book, prepare to be inspired. Perhaps the writing isn't the best in the world, but the non-stop adventure more than makes up for it. Definitely worth reading!



3. This book simply wasn't all that good. The adventure was amazing, the book it's self not so much. While I love Angus' wander-lust, his writing is bit repetitive and makes the book somewhat forgetable. I have a hard time really seeing what he sees and trully understanding what his adventure meant to him. I think I was looking for something a bit different. I was hoping to read another person's account of a pilgramige. I want to hear a traveler's soul speak through the book. While the book is gushing with action and suspense, (Of course, they nearly died), it didn't fill me in the way I had hoped. A Dissapointment over all but if you're just looking for action in plain language, this is your book.

2 comments about A Great Plains Reader.

1. This is a great collection of stories. I have been reading it cover to cover and enjoy every story. Many of the stories are so well written that I can feel the wind and hear the meadowlarks that I remember from my childhood growing up near Wichita. I would recommend it for every Great Plains native and maybe for those who don't understand why anyone would want to live "out there."



2. 
   This hefty (700+ pages) anthology, far-reaching in scope and viewpoint, attempts to reflect "the historical and contemporary experience of life on the Great Plains." It includes many different types of writings (short stories, memoir excerpts, essays, tribal accounts) from scores of different writers (Mark Twain, Maria Sandoz, Hamlin Garland, Garrison Keillor, Wright Morris, Louise Erdrich, to name only a few). The book's sections are organized around specific themes:
   
   1) The lay of the land and natural history;
   2) Natives and newcomers: these include Indian accounts of the first Europeans and early explorer impressions (Louis & Clark, Stephen Long, etc.);
   3) Arriving and settling in: reflections of the first white settlers and the creating of communities.
   
   Each passage is fully introduced by the editors in terms of its message and social/historical significance. The anthology provides a comprehensive overview of the Great Plains as a section of North America (Canada included) remarkable for its special, in some ways even unique, life offerings it gave to those who came in contact with it. Excellent for use in college survey courses dealing with the Plains, it's also an interesting book for anyone wanting to gleam insights on the region from a wide array of perspectives.

1 comments about Brazil Map (International Series).

1. This is a very comprehensive map of Brazil and we find it very useful.

No comments about National Geographic Driving Guide to America, Florida.

5 comments about Off-Season: Discovering America on Winter's Shore.

1. Do you ever feel like getting away for awhile, leaving family and friends for a brief vacation - but can't? Pick up a copy of this book to have on hand when the mood hits. Like the armchair athlete, you will have a vicarious experience, but you won't find a more enjoyable or relaxing way to "go".

   Author Ken McAlpine left on this trip initially because "the world seemed to be sliding with exponential speed into a cesspool of trouble ...terrorism, murder, corporate fraud...the woeful list...familiar to anyone who reads today's news".

   (Does this sound like anything YOU may have felt lately?)

   McAlpine believes (and seeks to confirm) that "most of the world isn't like this...that the clamor and flash of mayhem and mistrust have drowned out the better behavior of the world at large". His trip is a test of sorts: does he find the "proof that the world still rests on a quiet foundation of hope and community"?

   He decides to visit oceanside communities in winter, exploring the reality that exists when they are uncluttered by tourists and the usual summer distractions. McAlpine is a travel writer, so he beautifully describes the locales he visits up and down the eastern seaboard. But he is also an astute observer of human behavior and has a degree in environmental science, so his perceptions are interesting and informative as he shares stories and chats with the locals about their way of life. I found myself happy to be "traveling" with Ken because his wonderful, dry sense of humor puts much of what he finds into a warm, compassionate and often hilarious perspective.

   Does he find what he's looking for?

   Pick up a copy and put it on your nightstand. Keep it for when you aren't sure if you can watch yet another evening newscast, or read another depressing headline. Then savor McAlpine's take on our modern world.




2. Throughout his life the ocean has mesmerized Ken Alpine; the effect on his soul by the ocean has been tremendous. He even states that he was almost born and he kissed his true love by the ocean's edge. What interests him are individuals who are also connected to the ocean and who live within its vicinity year round. In OFF SEASON Ken Alpine embarks on a physical, albeit emotional, journey north from Florida to Maine during the autumn and winter months after the departure of the tourists to ascertain the authentic edge of the Atlantic Ocean.
   
   I have very little experience with the East Coast so reading this book was refreshing. I gained a new perspective of how these small communities survive and have evolved throughout the decades and their inhabitants. Soon after beginning this book it is clearly apparent that Alpine is no fan of tourism and the development of the oceanfront. He continually laments the commercialization and homogenization of society and it's destructive forces; during his journey he deliberately avoids the large tourist resorts in favor of the unforgotten fishing towns that border the Atlantic.
   
   If you don't mind repeatedly being bombarded with Alpine's political agenda OFF SEASON is a meaningful, innovated travelogue of one man's fascination and concern with the ocean and the individuals who make their living near it year around. Recommended.



3. Journalist Ken McAlpine's decision to travel slowly from Florida to Maine in the dead of winter could not have been more appropriate. Familiar miasmic tourist locations like Key West, the Outer Banks, the Jersey Shore, Long Island's East End, coastal Connecticut, Rhode Island and the Cape all take on new sheen and character under McAlpine's pen. I couldn't help but be jealous for all the solitude and friendship he found on his frigid but warm winter trips. Anyone who has appreciated a quiet, special location when the tourists were all gone will doubtless appreciate the dialog, the characters and the voyage itself. As several reviewers have already noted, McAlpine's fresh travel log achieves and instills an admiration, respect and vigorous hope for an America in which there is still so much originality, warmth and community. Thanks to McAlpine, we can recognize that hope. I loved this book.



4. This book sings of the eastern coast of the United States in much the same style as my favorite Poet-Novelist, Pat Conroy. I can feel the salt spray, and the cold, and the emotional ups and downs of the author as I savor each chapter!
   
   I have craved my own experiences in these locations, and maybe someday, I'll use McAlpine's book as a tour guide!



5. I really had high hopes for Ken McAlpine's Off-Season:Discovering America on Winter's Shore. When I got to Quoddy Head I just didn't feel fulfilled. Not that this travel book didn't have its good moments, but you know that point in a vacation where you just want to get home, that's how I felt reading this book. In the author's quest to give us "local color" he at times drones on. The highlights of the book were his trips to Tangier and Hog Islands. But, the last third of the book was rushed. In the beginning of the book McAlpine dawdled and this might be the reason why there just wasn't any meat at the end. His constantly reminding the reader how he just wasn't another tourist and endeared himself to the "locals" started to make my teeth hurt after awhile. Finally, I grew up within 30 minutes of the Atlantic Ocean and Delaware Bay and it seemed to me like in the Mid-Atlantic and New England states the author skipped over quite a bit. This tome to the loneliness of a winter's sea is just OK, kinda like a soggy peanut butter sandwich at the end of a day at the beach.

No comments about Washington D.C. Destination Map by National Geographic.