2 comments about Moon Minnesota (Moon Handbooks).

1. This is the very best guide to Minnesota that I've found! It has loads of detail for everyone - whether you're coming for the the culture, the man-made sights or the natural beauty. The recommendations are extremely helpful in planning a trip. This is the second Moon guide that I've purchased (their Peru guide is the best I've found on that area also) and I'm impressed by their thoroughness and knowledge. They're not as well known as other guides, but they sure know their stuff!



2. Now in an updated second edition, Moon Handbooks Minnesota is a solid, jam-packed guide for business and pleasure travelers to the Land of 10,000 Lakes. Chapters are filled with thumbnail descriptions of where to shop, sleep, dine, and experience local culture in Minnesota's many different cities and regions. Offering the firsthand perspective and experience of author Tim Brewer, Moon Handbooks Minnesota includes 21 detailed maps, and has a wealth of tips on everything from enjoying the great outdoors to learning about Minnesota history, and even a handy list special annual events visitors won't want to miss. A universally practical "must-have" for any Minnesota-destined traveler.

5 comments about A Lady's Life in the Rocky Mountains (The Western Frontier Library, 14).

1. Did you ever read any of the BEANY MALONE novels by Lenora Mattingly Weber? In them I first read about Isabella Bird and her remarkable life in the American West. Beany's older brother, Johnny Malone, is a teenager when the series begins, a young Denver boy with a remarkable passion for unearthing the memoirs and daguerrotypes of Colorado pioneers and taking notes on the old-timers who settled the state. Their colorful lives make his ordinary life seem rather pastel, so he often sinks into a nostalgia of the past, while his family members tease him about the dreamy look in his eyes. He helps a veteran journalist, Emerson Worth, complete his magnum opus, OUR CITY HAS DEEP ROOTS. And among the pioneers Johnny obsessed about was none other than Isabella Bird, so when I found this book on a recent trip to Boulder, I added it to my rucksack.
   
   If you are reading on horseback, as Isabella Bird did, this is perhaps the ideal book to carry with you. She was a woman used to the English-style horse with its Ascot breeding and high carriage. What she found in Colorado were, naturally, the horses of the West, more perfectly adapted to the mile-high atmospheres, but slung somewhat lower than anything she's been used to and slightly swaybacked. Bird adapted quickly, and the fun of her autobiography is to see her taking in her stride a series of calamities and hardships that would have Job complaining bitterly! No matter if it's an insect infestation or tumbling right through a sheet of ice into zero degree river chills, for Isabella Bird it's all part of a day's fun. Travel writing in the 19th century was, of course, the leading genre of prose. From no other source were English-speaking readers able to find out more about other people's lives, and the curiosity was immense.
   
   You'll like Isabella, and her crazy love affair with Colorado. She remains very much a lady, but will challenge your preconceived notions of what a lady is and isn't. Most of all you will thrill to follow the course of her journeys up and down the mountains through which, now, there are some better trails but still the same amazing sunrises which she describes with the thrill of one for whom every day's an adventure.



2. For many years I saw this book in National Park bookstores and passed it by thinking it would be an example of the overwritten, rather tedious journals of other Victorian travelers. When I finally found it at a used bookstore and rather reluctantly bought it, I was surprised to find out how exciting and relevant her story was.
   
   Because I live in Colorado, I recoginize and travel through many of the places she describes. Just this weekend as we traveled along Highway 67, my husband and I remarked on the likelihood, that this was the same route she'd taken out of Colorado Springs.
   
   Her accounts lend life to the grey, weatherbeaten cabins, abandoned roads and rusting rails that we see. Even though many parts of Europe and the US were relatively modern at the time of her adventures, it is surprising to read just how primitive and precarious was the life of many Colorado settlers.
   
   Even if you aren't from Colorado, read this book to become aquainted with a Victorian woman who found a way to live life fully. Read it to learn about life in the west. Read it just because it's a good read.



3. I bought this book while visiting Estes Park, CO...hungry for books about life in the West that may not be so readily available here in NJ. I found it to be one of the most enjoyable books I have ever read! Isabella's descriptions of the Rocky Mountains and the climate through which she travelled are vivid and gripping. But more than that, she gives a detailed and honest account of what life was like for settlers on the frontier. How she managed to ride thru the mountains where the only "trails" were tracks of wagons or animals, when often those were covered with the seemingly constant snow, boggles the mind. Her love for Colorado sings out in every word she writes. I too was deeply touched by its beauty, and hope to return again, this time with an enriched appreciation due to this wonderful recounting of Isabella Bird's journey.



4. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and the descriptive way the author wrote. I have been through Colorado and have seen the beauty she described. Also enjoyed the story because there wasn't a lot of violence and if there was any sex, it was only in our imagination which is the greatest kind. I was amazed at how the lady rode for miles in rugged wilderness without seeming to get lost. The fact that she could subsist on meager food was also interesting.



5. This book arrived in top condition and in time. In a college book store this book cost a lot more, so I am very pleased to be able to buy it from this seller.

No comments about Rhode Island Curiosities: Quirky Characters, Roadside Oddities & Other Offbeat Stuff (Curiosities Series).

5 comments about The Worst Journey in the World.

1. If you watch films like "The yourney of the penguins" you get not the slightest idea how brutally hostile for humans the environment of the South Pole is. If you read "The Worst Yourney In The World", you do. The book is a detailed description of the whole Scott Expedition, complete whith descriptions of packing lists, frostbite, snowblindness, awful food, recalcitrant ponys, and heroic English gentlemen. But the unpoetic language is exactly what makes the book such a worthwile read: The description is written in simple, honest words, that it gets your own imagination going. It reaches its climax with the Winter Yourney, where a small goup of men undertook a journey that was painful and horrific to a downright ridiculous extend, just to get their hands on some penguin eggs. Any romantic exaggeration would have destroyed the impact of this event in the readers mind, it is the simple, honest, sometimes even technial language that transforms this event into a classic tale. The character and the Winter Journey live on in literature, for example in Thomas Pynchons "V". The stuff of legends, on of my alltime favourites.



2. Cherry-Garrard is a literate,educated man, writing his experiences as well as including the memories, and journals of the other expedition members. Interesting how this young man of means who is accustomed to comfortable living,could endure such extreme hardship without complaint. The hardship and adventure begins with the terrible storm experienced on the ship from New Zealand to Antarctica. The description of this ordeal grabs hold and they haven't yet reached the Southern continent. The first year on the ice and the sledge trip during the winter months is gripping.
   
   A compelling aspect is the matter of fact descriptions of the unbelievable [to us] hardship and daily rigors of living, sledging, carrying out scientific experiments, etc., in -20 to -70 degrees. Wind conditions that regularly must have sent wind chill factors [they never recorded such a thing] to -80 to -100 degrees,and the physical exertion. They regularly experience frost bite, hunger, occasional ptomaine from spoiled food, symptoms of Dysentary, and scurvy. Yet, they are able to recover. They never lose their spirit and comeraderie.
   Until discovering the Pole parties' bodies the following year, Cherry-Garrard writes of his contentment and pride in being a member of this expedition.
   In the subsequent years, until he writes the book in 1922, he becomes guilt ridden as to whether he and the other survivors could have reached and saved Scott before they died,[it seems apparent they could not have reached them. [In fact, rescueres would probably have died in an attempt]. It's impossible to imagine living in such conditions for 3 years. Constant cold, diet of seal, penguin, sometimes dog and horse, blubber, biscuit, and tea. Occasionally, chocolate, butter and sugar as a treat.
   I agree with other reviewers that there is redundancy and repetition but I found it interesting to read how different members experienced the same events.
   I thought from reading other books that Scott was somewhat naive and a dreamer when it came to planning and preparing for this expedition. I now feel differently. Scott prepared and planned diligently. He was well liked and respected by his men, in general, he was a strong leader. A terrible mistake was deciding at the last supply depot, to take 5 men on the final push to the Pole rather than the 4 which was the original plan. The 5th man, for which they did not have adequate supplies and the physical collapse of one member after reaching the Pole, probably cost them their lives.
   Reading of a group of men living for years in these conditions, survival aways in doubt, out of touch with the rest of the world, gives perspective and toleration for what we think are trying experiences today. Early explorers are compared to to our astronauts. However,when one considers that communication is constant with space travelers. These men left and were never heard from again until they returned, if they did return, years later.



3. i had been meaning to read this book for ages and when i started it i could not put it down.....what a read. thank you Amazon and keep up the good work.. yours Fintan.



4. The Worst Journey in the World (purchased on 04/05/2008)
   by Apsley Cherry-Garrard
   
   This order has NOT been received. Please advise as what has happened to it.



5. You will NOT be sorry to embark upon this wonderfully written, dramatic, brave and heartbreaking story by a man who survived infinitely more than you and I ever will. With typical English stoicism, but with a beautiful and compassionate effort, he tried to understand Scott and all the others who travelled with him.
   And when you're finished, read "Cherry", an authorized biography by Sara Wheeler for more of his life and times.
   And sit by your warm fireplace...

1 comments about Best Short Hikes in Arizona (Best Short Hikes).

1. I long ago came to the realization that I would rather do several short hikes than one long one, especially when visiting a new area. Walking this way you come to see more of an area and get a better feel for its landscape and scenic features. So as a frequent visitor to Arizona I always appreciate guides like this one. Indeed, the 'Best Short Hikes' series from Mountaineers Books is simply the best format to explore these sorts of hikes.
   
   This volume does not disappoint. The authors divide the state into 8 regions and devote a chapter to each. Phoenix, Tucson, and Flagstaff receive the most attention, but readers will also find a good selection of hikes in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, Grand Canyon (of course) and Petrified Forest National Park. Each hike description includes a nice sketch map of the trail, an elevation profile, and a detailed write up. True to the series name, fully 3/4 of the hikes included are 3 miles or less. Interesting sidebars also provide wonderful introductions to natural and human history in the region. Readers will learn about "Brighty" the mule, the fabled gold mine of the Lost Dutchman, and how to tell a squirrel from a chipmunk. Finally, the book also includes a detailed listing of local campgrounds so that even if you are in the Phoenix area, you can find a way to escape urban sprawl.
   
   With all this going for it, one might ask why this book gets only 4 stars instead of 5. The answer is that the entire western half of the state (Oregon Pipe excepted) seems to have been left out of this book. I was amazed, for example, that the Phoenix section did not include the White Tank mountains, only 20 or so miles west of town. Lake Mead Recreation Area, the mountains around Williams, and my favorite Arizona park, Hualapai Mountain, are all missing. Still, I have walked over a quarter of the hikes the authors recommend and all were wonderful. This is an excellent book and I will use it the next time I travel to Arizona.

5 comments about San Bernardino Mountain Trails: 100 Hikes in Southern California.

1. The new edition has a much better map that shows where each hike is. Very solid. I didn't care for all the area background stuff though.



2. I own about 30 hiking guides and this book is the one I use the most often and consult before any hike. John Robinson is one of the gurus of Southern California hiking and his guides are usually dependable, accurate and full of information that will ensure your safety while in the mountains. He provides an adequate history of each hike, driving directions and fairly precise descriptions of where to locate each trailhead. It's important to note that some of his information is outdated; for example, you always must display your Forest Adventure Pass when parking your car in a California National Forest. Robinson doesn't mention this because his guide was written before the Pass became "essential."

   Another strength of this book is that Robinson usually provides separate descriptions of various ways to summit a peak. He details the standard way of climbing San Gorgonio, as well as three alternate treks to the peak and this is a valuable tool for the experienced hiker. He does the same for San Jacinto, perhaps the premiere hike in Southern California (as well as the most arduous!) The guide is tailored towards seasoned hikers and if you're a neophyte, this probably wouldn't be your best choice. But if you love to hike and live in the L.A. area, the Robinson guide provides indispensible information. Highly recommended.




3. A revised edition of a classic book on hiking San Bernardino mountains. This new edition of the book includes key GPS way points and multiple tables of the various hikes to make finding a hike that matches your criteria as easy as it could be.
   
   Furthermore, the descriptions of each hike are sufficient to permit the reader to determine if the hike would be of interest.
   
   The book concentrates on San Bernardino but also covers the Santa Rosa hikes more extensively than I have seen anywhere else.



4. Still the best guide for local hikes in the San Bernardino Mountains, though I'm a little nostalgic about John Robinson's retirement (the original author of the book, that I have carried on many a hike since the early 80's). I like the fact that the new book is slightly larger, which makes the photographs easier to examine. I also like the new map which is in color and on gloss stock, though I do miss the topography lines which have been omitted, making it less useful on the trail.
   
   One concern, is about some of the hikes that are replacements for a handful of the originals, as I'm finding it hard to consider them hikes. I would certainly delete hikes that are located in amusement parks, and consider instead more cross country locations and trails utilizing abandoned fire roads, if necessary, to keep the "100". That said, it is still a great book, and David Money Harris is certainly keeping the legacy alive.



5. This book is a must-read for anyone who enjoys hiking and wants to experience the San Bernardino National Forest. I bought it after a hike to the summit of Mt. San Gorgonio, when I realized I was not very well prepared and needed some good advice. I read the book and realized how little I have seen of the local mountains and all they offer. The book details the location and degree of difficulty of each trail, which is very helpful in planning your trips. I highly recommend it to anyone who ventures into the San Bernardino wilderness.

5 comments about Photographer's Guide to Yellowstone and the Tetons.

1. I bought this book to take along on a vacation trip to Yellowstone and the Tetons in mid-June 2007. I found it to be a great source to take photos of often photographed natural icons at different views and angles as well as some shots that the average traveler would not know about without this book. For instance I would not have known about the great shots that can be taken of the Mormon Row Barns with the Tetons in the background without this book. Perhaps more seasoned photographers may know about these different places but I for one would not have had a clue. I would have ended my vacation with the same shots of Yellowstone and the Tetons that everyone else has. The book took me off the beaten path where I got some great shots and expierenced the pleasures of getting away from the main road.
   
   Other valuable information was the instructions on what time of day is best to shoot a certain shot, tips about exposure, and valuable tips about using filters that made my pictures stand out.
   
   The book was concise, accurate, and very easy to follow and understand for an novice like me.



2. I would have given the Photographers Guide to Yellowstone & the Titons a 5 Star Rating if there was an index in the back of the book for easy reference while out in the field. It is difficult trying to remember what page the subject that your looking at is on. That being said, it is still a good reference book on the area and I do not regret buying it.



3. Good pointers for each geographic location.
   
   Could be updated to add digital photography tips, but my long experience enabled me to accommodate for that.



4. This is a very helpful book when photographing Teton and Yellowstone. I was able to decide exactly what equipment to pack prior to the trip and it was exactly what I needed.



5. I was a bit disappointed with this book. My expectations were too high after purchasing Photographer's Guide to Yosemite by Michael Frye and expecting the Yellowstone book would be as helpful or would at least come close to it. I specifically marked certain areas of the book to make sure to visit these areas at the times he suggested. Unfortunately after arriving there at the times specified he said were good times, I was greatly disappointed. Maybe his use of polarizers and possibly Photoshop to overly saturate his shots has lead him to believe that some of these sites at certain times are good times to go. I'm not against these at all because I use them as well but only to a certain degree. I would consider myself an advanced amateur photographer. This has been a serious hobby of mine for a few years now.
   
   He was precise on where to go for wildlife shots and times of day to shoot them as I think any photographer who has been doing this even for a short period of time would know that softer light such as close to sunset or sunrise are the best times to capture these types of animals. But overall, I rarely used the book when out there on where to find my next location to shoot. We spent the first day and a half driving the roads throughout the park to get acquainted with the park. From then on, we based our shoots on what we had already learned of the park by driving through it the first days there.

5 comments about Aftermath: World Trade Center Archive.

1. I first saw photographs from this collection at the Museum of Modern Art in Salzburg, Austria. Anyone who entered the gallery was immediately struck by a panorama of ground zero on one wall, each emitting an audible gasp, then standing before it for several minutes in silence. Meyerowitz is an extremely gifted photgrapher, and I recommend other of his collections for viewing. Cape Light: Color Photographs by Joel Meyerowitz, Tuscany: Inside the Light: Inside the Light (Photography). The "Aftermath" collection is the only archive of the activities following 9/11 at ground zero, and it is quite moving. Meyerowitz had access to many vantage points to capture for posterity the many facets of ground zero and this tragic event in our history. Viewing these photos takes time and thought, as Meyerowitz has also included brief descriptions and stories about each photograph. You will be struck by many emotions, sadness, anger, shock, and awe. But, there is an eeriness and a beauty, as well as hope in these photographs, inspired by the photographer's exquisite eye for detail, composition, lines, faces, and light. Photographers, professional and amateur alike, will deeply appreciate and learn from these aspects. Anyone to whom I have shown this book has been as immensely moved as I, from the UPS driver who delivered the package, to my father, a refugee of WWII, who still cannot speak easily of the events of 9/11. This book is highly recommended as an addition for one's library.



2. Meyerowitz his taken a step out of his usual repetoire in making these remarkable photographs. He has provided us with a devastating and incredibly imporant record of all that transpired in the Aftermath of the 9/11 tragedy. We have been staurated with images of the event itself; what we see here is the heroic and painstaking recovery work that followed.



3. Aftermath: World Trade Center Archive
   Book received in perfect sealed condition,would use this seller again in a heartbeat



4. I bought this book for my dad for Christmas. He is a history nut and thought he would enjoy it. The pictures were phenomonial and eerie. He has not put it down yet. It was definately the best present he received this year. Amazon was half of what the bookstore in the mall wanted. Would definately purchase from them again.



5. I was on top of the World Trade Center about 3 years before they came down. I first found this book in the mall, I sat down and started looking through it and it made me cry. I enjoyed looking at it then I looked at the price tag and decided it was just to much right now. When I got home later I decided I would check it out on Amazon and found it for about half price. I could have bought it for less but I didn't want a used one and I was thrilled that I could get it for the price I did. I ordered it and received it a few days later. I have enjoyed reading it and looking at the pictures.
   I am married to a soldier, and it just helps you remember why we are still at war.

2 comments about Best Places Portland (Best Places).

1. BEST PLACES PORTLAND is a great guide to the city of Portland, Oregon, and the surrounding area, with incredible discussion about the best outdoor activities, dining, nightlife, shopping, museums, lodging, and other attractions. There's also a section on day trips within a couple of hours' drive. Overall, the Portland metropolitan area has a great deal to offer, so pick this book up, and you can't go wrong.



2. This is a basic guidebook with short descriptions of locations and venues. I wish they had stepped it up a notch and included cross streets for each location.

2 comments about Skyscrapers Of The Midwest.

1. I first came across SoTM at a comic shop in Atlanta, GA. The artwork on the cover (it was issue # 1) just grabbed me. Upon glancing at the comic, it had a unique kind of sarcastic humor to it. I connected with the comic, and in turn...the comic connected with me. I think it's a rare thing to read a piece of literature (be it comics, article, novel, etc.) and to think to yourself...wow this really connects with who I am, what I enjoy, how I feel about life, etc.
   
   This comic does just that for me. Thoughts of childhood, overall life frustrations, and really a sense of humor that I can totally relate to.
   
   In terms of art, this hardcover book is wonderfully illustrated, beautifully bound together, and does the comics (originally separate issues 1-4) 100% justice. There is also a nice addenda included...which displays much of the extra artwork/sketches, which lets you into the mind of the creator, Josh Cotter. SoTM is definitely my favorite comic line of 2007 and 2008, and quite possibly could be my favorite comic of all time.



2. ...you should own this book.. It's worth a tumble if you collect The Acme Novelty Library.