1 comments about The Journals of Hippolito Ruiz: Spanish Botanist in Peru and Chile, 1777-1788.

1. If you like plants and the ethnobotanical uses of them (like I do), along with exploration and adventure, then this book is for you. Hipolito Ruiz was a Spanish botanist in Peru and Chile from 1777-1788. Along with all the many hardships which he encountered back in those days, he observed and recorded the many different kinds of medicinal and non-medicinal plants which the natives used. It truly is a fascinating account of his travels and what it was actually like in the 1700's. Along with being an adventure in ethnobotanical exploration , it is also a cultural portrayal of the peoples who lived there. I also enjoyed the appendix at the end of the book which lists the medicinal plants in alphabetical order which are mentioned in the text. Maybe this book should be required reading for medical students (?). Could be a cure for cancer, aides, etc. down there (!)

3 comments about Lonely Planet Guatemala, Belize & Yucatan LA Ruta Maya (Lonely Planet Belize, Guatemala & Yucatan).

1. My husband and I used this book on both of our trips to Mexico and found it fabulous. Detailed maps of the major cities. It helped us get through Cancun, Chetumal and Merida which are difficult on your own - driving or walking. This book gave hotels and restaurants for all travel budgets and if ever in Merida, I recommend the Hotel Trinidad Galleria. Quite a sight! Also detailed the ruins and gave some background. This book gave good tips for traveling to other countries too. Highly recommended for Mexico traveling.



2. This guide is packed with a ton of great info. This book is indespensible for those traveling off the beaten path in the Yucatan, from the colonial cities to Mayan pyramids hidden in the jungle. With out this book I would have missed what became some of the highlights of my trip!



3. While being a good general guide it is not, as others seem to believe, for those of you interested in getting "off the beaten path". You will end up visiting the same sites as the rest of the thousands that have purchased this book and others like it. Also, keep in mind that this book has not been updated in three years and is not to be relied upon heavily. I do believe the Lonely Planet series is quite helpful, but remember that you are the true judge of what you see and experience.

1 comments about Jekyll Island Club, GA (Images of America).

1. A most compeling book about life on Jekyll Island. The author did his homework and provides you with interesting facts and clarification on previously misinterpreted information. The photos capture the true feeling of the times. A must read for those interested in history.

2 comments about Buenos Aires & the Best of Argentina Alive (Buenos Airies Alive and the Best of Argentina Alive) (Buenos Airies Alive and the Best of Argentina Alive).

1. There are other guides to Argentina, but this is the one I will take on my next visit. The author has visited Argentina more than 40 times, obvious from the wealth of information he gives you.



2. This book will generate yearnings in the traveler for a guidebook like the Frommers series or Rick Steves individual country guides. That is, a book that "guides" the traveler to lodging, major sites, transportation options, interesting side trips, brief restaurant recommendations and brief shopping suggestions. At times I felt that I was reading Conte Nast. Conte Nast is not a guidebook -- it is a travel magazine. There is an important difference. What a traveler needs are the facts.

   This book also lacks complete information demonstrating a lack of investigation of details on the part of the author. For example, a small chapter is devoted to Iguazu Falls. The book states that Aerolineas Argentinas has several flights daily for approximately $370. This is true. It does not mention other cheaper airlines. We were able to get a package deal from a local travel agent using LAPA airlines. The package included round-trip air, four nights at a four-star hotel in Brazil which included breakfast and dinner, and transportation to and from the hotel in Brazil and the airport -- all of this for $297! Also, the book never mentioned that U.S. citizens must have a visa to enter Brazil. The travel agent and the U.S. Embassy confirmed this. The book also stated that travelers should leave sweaters in Buenos Aires. It was 40 degree F. when we arrived!

   Another weak point in this book is the woefully inadequate index. This is unforgiveable in any book considering the publishing techniques that have been available for over a decade.

2 comments about White Savages in the South Seas.

1. A thinking person's look at life in the South Pacific as seen through the eyes of an imaginative and involved participant in life. You'll laugh and you'll cry and you will get an insight into the lives of many unusual and colorful people. Definitely not a "travel book," but rather a carefully written volumne which will forever effect the way you see life in the South Pacific.



2. White Savages in the South Seas is a candid look at the not so glamourous lives of real people living in the South Pacific. This book is filled with fasinating characters like Susy No Pants and interesting adventures. Their stories are well written with great passion and witty humor. I enjoyed every moment.

1 comments about Peru: The Land (Lands, Peoples, and Cultures).

1. Consistently outstanding series on a variety of well known and obscure foreign countries. The "people", "land", and "culture" breakdown makes it easy for people to track information from one book to another through the series. Good info on religion, customs, cities, resources, ancient civilizations, history, etc. Probably best for advanced elementary school/middle school students, but also outstanding for ESOL students at any age level.

No comments about San Francisco: A Pictorial Celebration.

5 comments about Cuba--Going Back.

1. I,too,like Mr. Mendoza, was forced to leave Havana, Cuba, as a child because of my familys' political beliefs towards Castro. I was a child of 9 in 1967, when my parents and I uprooted ourselves from our beloved land because we had been politically betrayed by someone that a whole generation felt was to be their "savior" from the dictatorial regime of Batista. In the last few years I have started to rediscover my roots. I found this book extremely educating as to what to expect to see there, if you plan to "go home for a visit". It has convinced me that I must go home again even though it won't be the same as I remember as a child. This an easy to read book, with compelling sepia tinted pictures of scenes and people Mr. Mendoza came across throuhgout his travels. I highly recommend this book.



2. JAN. 12, 2001

   I FOUND THIS BOOK VERY EASY TO READ. IT WAS AS IF I WAS READING PART OF MY STORY, MY LIFE. IT ANSWERED MANY QUESTIONS I HAVE HAD. IT ALSO ANSWERED THE WHY OF MANY FEELINGS I HAVE. THE LAST TIME I WAS IN CUBA WAS 1953, MUCH LONGER THAN HIM. I WOULD LOVE TO BE ABLE TO GO BACK AS HE DID. MY HUSBAND AND I WOULD LIKE TO SEE IF THIS YEAR WE CAN GO BACK. WE JUST ARE NOT SURE OF HOW SAFE IT WOULD BE. WE WOULD LIKE TO GO TO SANCTI SPIRITUS, LAS VILLA, VERY FAR FROM HAVANA. I FOUND IT TO BE GREAT READING. IT WAS TOLD IN A VERY CLEAR WAY. IT EXPLAINED MANY THINGS I DID NOT UNDERSTAND. THIS BOOK CAN BE READ BY CUBAN'S AND THOSE WHO ARE NOT CUBAN'S IT IS VERY INTERESTING FOR ALL. ALSO ONE CAN APPRECIATE ALL WE HAVE.

   STILL WOULD OF LIKED MORE. I WOULD OF LIKED MORE PICTURES OF THINGS HE WROTE ABOUT. HIS SUMMER HOME, WOULD OF LIKED TO SEE OTHER PICTURES OF THE HOUSE. WOULD OF BEEN GREAT, FOR HIM TO HAVE BEEN ABLE TO MAKE HIS TRIP TO THE OTHER PROVINCES HAS HE HAD WANTED TO DO.

   I ALSO WOULD LIKE TO KNOW IF THIS BOOK IS AVAILABLE IN SPANISH.

   I WOULD LIKE TO THANK MR. MENDOZA FOR THIS BOOK. WISH HIM THE BEST, WILL BE LOOKING FOR OTHER WORK HE HAS DONE.




3. Like Tony I am a cuban american who left Cuba in the early 60s for political freedom to study in the States. I came from a successful middle class family and a history of political successes and upheaval. I have always wanted to go back to re-live my youth in Havana, Tarara y Santa Maria del Mar (like Tony in Varadero) where I spent the happiest time of my youth. I have known of the misery of our people because I kept in touch, however Tony has been able to portray that misery in his wonderful black and white pictures. His writtings and dialogues are very easy to read but with a real message for everyone to understand. This is a great book for those who will like an honest and unbias portray of the cuban situation today. Tony has let these people speak out their feelings (pro and against) for the world to judge. I envy Tony for having the opportunity to return. His book has made me very sad because we are limited in our ability to help them. I cried for the younger generation unable to better themselves. Only the beauty of our land and sea remains untouched. Someday our people will be free again to make their choices and Cuba will be a wonderful place to visit. I promised myself to be in the first plane to help rebuild it.



4. An excellent behind the scenes look at Cuba today. No better example of a failed yet still forced socialist state. This is not some itellectual dissection of the situation but a "person on the street" documentary. Must read for those who take democracy and free enterprise for granted and for those who even think Cuba is better now than in pre-revolution time.
   As a Cuban born US citizen I applaude this book.



5. An excellent travel/biography book interspersed by b&w pictures of many Havana et al locations in Cuba.
   
   The author had to flee Cuba with his family when he was 18, just months after the thake over by dictator-narcissist Castro. In '96 he visists Cuba again briefly and takes with him his camera. This is not a touristic approach to Cuba. This is the personal and nostalgic -not angry- brief comeback of a Cuban exile. And man, does he succeed in making us feel like exiles too!
   
   Themes visited:
   
   -How does Cuba's socialist regime make it to survive so long?
   Interviewee. "It's their fault (the Americans') Castro is still here making everyone's life in Cuba hell. Time and time again they've saved Castro. How? By permitting immigration. In 1980 Cuba was ready to explode. What does the US do? They allow a hundred thousand Marielitos to emigrate. I tell you, those people were ready to kill. So Fidel lets them go ... He's a master at duping the Europeans into thinking this a democratic socialist paradise. And he is a master of repression."
   
   -Discrimination?
   "Cuban leadreship is almost exclusively white, and out of a hundred generals in the army, ninety are white, while the majority of Cubans are black. The prison population is reported to be overwhelmingly black."
   
   -A sharp question
   "I've heard this joke: 'socialism or death: what's the difference' How come I don't see antigovernment graffiti? -Because we have the most sophisticated repression in the world ... the jails are full of people they have caught doing graffiti. We still have plenty, but it gets painted over immediately."
   
   -The US embargo
   "A visit to a dollar store makes it clear to everyone that the embargo doesn't prevent Cuba from acquiring whatever American products Cuba wants or needs since they can get them fairly easily through Panama or Mexico."
   
   "The embargo provides Castro with his last excuse why the Cuban economy is in shambles. Also, Fidel functions best when he is attacked. He becomes energized. He needs an enemy, a scapegoat. And the Helms-Burton law is to order ... the way to fight him is to hit him where his system is vulnerable. Flood Cuba with American tourists, American dollars, with ideas and information. The socialist state cannot withstand that ... If something doesn't work for forty years, you try something else."
   
   Out of 200 people he met, only 5 still supported the revolution. And they were professors or people with privileges.
   
   I'd like to find another good book like this, even without pictures, only updated for the 12 years that have elapsed.
   
   The author immigrated to the Northern states and his personal view reflects: he is not so radical as the people in Miami are, he claims. If I had to live in Cuba without freedom I'd even be more "radical" than the Miami exiles. I'm sure he changed his mind a little, after his excursion on the island, because the people there think more like me.

4 comments about Incidents of Egotourism in the Temporary World.

1. I read this in between 'Desolation Angels' and '100 years of sollitude'--a large theme of the book is being in-between adventures and finding weird magic in the middle planes--so it fit its position very well. It's a gentle read (goes very fast) that brings together random characters in highly detailed ways to deepen the many themes it juggles--aging, transition, ennui, loss and those rare moments of suburban magic. The way I read it at least, at its confused, uncollected, strangely beautiful center, it is both a coming of age work and the photo negative of this--a discovery of childhood in your twenties.



2. I could write a better book than "Incidents of Egotourism in the Temporary World" by bashing my head repeatedly against a computer keyboard while the machine was running "Microsoft Notepad." I could take a cr@p in one of those grade school composition books with the black and white camouflage pattern on the front and rear covers, place said book in a lawn and leaf garbage bag full of beer cans and stray whiskey bottles, shake the contents, reach inside the bag, and remove a much finer novel.

   But then again, I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Kwisatz Haderach, the Dog's Bollocks. My f@rts smell like roses and sound like Tchiakowski. My urine cures all known diseases while tasting like a 1991 Beaujolais...

   In short, even though i may be able to defecate a better book then this, that doesn't mean it isn't a good book, one that I highly recommend.




3. Man I love this book. The title alone, when you stop and consider it will make the hills and valleys resound with the peals of your hysterical laughter. (At least that's what happened here in Vermont. Maybe your laughter will be absorbed by the fabric walls of your cubicle, but laugh you will.)

   The title makes you think that you are going to be in for some Gödel/Escher/Bach type philosophical/mathematical/existential noodling, until you realize that this mysterious "temporary world" is merely the world of the minimum wage earnin' water cooler gabbin' no health insurance havin' Temp Employee!!

   But when you get comfortable with that idea, you find that you are plunged into that more mysterious and philosophical world of the Mobius strip of the Egotourist's life.

   If anyone can change the inherent blandness of an MFA writing program, the redoubtable Mr. Lee Klein is the man who might shoulder this write man's burden. In IOEITTW we find raw talent that contains the spark of life and an individual pov on the many things that have made up Mr. Klein's sparkly life.

   But will this young firebrand of a writer be tamed? Will his work be so muted by the various proprieties of the academic writing life that we won't even recognize him when he comes out the other end of the writer mill smiling sheepishly, holding in his hand (to extend the wooly metaphor beyond good sense or taste) the sheepskin he has earned?

   Or will he maintain his unique voice? I must believe the later to be true and I await his next fully realized work, which IOEITTW presages will be a thundering success. And I think finding out the answer to these questions holds no small degree of excitement. That is, if you care about writing, and this writer in particular.

   Who, remember, is one Lee Klein, of whom it could be said: "Non destare il cane che dorme". A phrase he might have done well to remember at the Black Sabbath band picnic he so nimbly limns in IOEITTW.

   "Egotourism" has a banal grandeur -- the sort of hyper-real moments in our lives when something happens and we get chills though we don't know why.

   It was James Joyce who described those moments as "epiphanies". There are a lot of those in this book.

   Or as I like to think of it -- it is one long chill, from start to finish. And the magic of it is we don't even know why we are feeling that. Does Klein know? Who knows? Not me, that's for sure.

   (Disclaimer -- I have met Mr. Klein and we have traded words back and forth, though not enough to be considered friends or anything of the sort, really. In fact, he might harbor some dislike for me, lord knows why, but he might. And he might consider me nothing more than a speedbump on his road to literary fame and fortune. If so, forget the good things I said about his book. If not: Yo Lee! You go!!!)




4. I typically enjoy reading non fiction, however this book by Lee Klein embodies every inner monologue that I have dreamed. It is uplifting, entertaining, and quite brilliant.

2 comments about Compass American Guides: Texas, 3rd Edition (Compass American Guides).

1. This is definately NOT the type of Fodor's guidebook I was expecting. Do not get this book if your expecting a Fodor's Gold Guide. I guess I'll donate the book to the local elementary school. There seems to be a paucity of guidebooks about Dallas. Maybe I should watch reruns of the show



2. This is the kind of book you should read if you're interested in learning more about Texas than just where to eat and sleep. It's beautifully illustrated with great photos and very good maps, including ones that detail the larger cities. It contains glimpses into the culture and history of the state, the information that help you understand what you'll be seeing once you're there. The front cover contains a quote by the highly esteemed travel writer, Jan Morris, who says of the Compass American Guides: "The most literate and elegant series of guides ever written about North America." I agree. It's worth reading even if you don't intend to visit Texas.