5 comments about Prayer and the Art of Volkswagen Maintenance.

1. This book was given to me by a friend a couple of years ago and I've read it about 5 times now. It was given to me at a time when I was searching for a closer relationship with God. No, this book didn't give me any divine revelation, but it did help me realize that all I had to do was be honest and humble before God. Stop trying to control my life and turn it all over to God. One reviewer said that Donald Miller will never be the next C.S. Lewis and all I have to say to that is thank God. Yes, C.S. Lewis was a skilled man, but this is a book that most anyone can read and get something out of. I think christianity has too many puffed up wanna be intellectuals as it is. I'm glad that this book will also appeal to non-Christians and hopefully help lead them to Christ, which is what we're all here to do right, and not scare them away or make their heads hurt so bad their nose bleeds. Well, my point is that this is a great book..



2. There's something about the idea of "finding oneself" on the open road that really gets me going. I'm a sucker for any book along those lines, whether it's about a spontaneous summer road-trip across the States, or the tale of an epic backpacking journey around the world. There's a special place in my heart for the somewhat rare Christian-themed story of this nature, and that's where this excellent book comes in.

   Adventures like this tend to be lived out by the younger crowd - those in their late teens or early twenties, anxious to see what's "out there" in the world and learn something about themselves in the process. In "Prayer and the Art of Volkswagon Maintenance," the two protagonists fit this description to a tee. Donald and Paul are young twentysomething Christian men, and they have a desire to know God in a deeper sense. Their solution - a road trip! Starting from Texas, they decide to head off to Oregon in Paul's beat-up VW van. Along the way, they discuss the usual questions that young men wrestle with - relationships with women, their future, and so on. They also meet a number of interesting characters on the road, usually when struggling with their somewhat unreliable vehicle.

   However, since this book has a Christian slant, there is spiritual depth as well. Both of these guys really do want to go deeper with God, and they end up digging into some serious meat along those lines. Donald, driven by intellect and facts, repeatedly explores the book of Ecclesiastes during the trip in an attempt to make sense of the time we are given upon this world. Paul is more in tune with his feelings and emotions, and goes to a deeper level with God via prayer during some tense moments. Together they make the perfect team for this type of excursion, and both come to know more about themselves and their God. All of this is expertly chronicled by Donald's outstanding writing - he made me feel that I was right along with them every step of the way.

   The neatest thing about this book for me was their detour through my hometown, and the awesome consequence of that seemingly insignificant decision (SPOILER HINT: it has to do with marriage). How cool is that?! Absolutely recommended!




3. Okay, after reading the amazing book titled Blue Like Jazz, I wanted to buy all of Don Miller's other books. Prayer and the Art of Volkswagen Maintenance was his very first book (written well before Blue Like Jazz) and has been out of print for some time. For a while there, you could not find it for under $40-50. But, I have good news! After I purchased Through Painted Deserts by Donald Miller, I quickly discovered that it is in fact "Prayer and the Art of Volkswagen Maintenance" that has been reprinted with a new title under Don's current publisher! He explains it on the front dedication page to his mother. Hooray! Now you know, and you can get his first book for much less then the out of print version.



4. Through Painted Deserts
   AKA Prayer and the Art of Volkswagen Maintenance
   
   
   Some books that failed the first time should stay OOP (Out Of Print), and this is definitely one of them. It should have stayed way on the shelves collecting dust.
   
   Back in 2003 Donald Miller published a book called Blue Like Jazz and that book went gangbusters - constantly selling out at bookstores and going through a few printings. It appeared, at the time, that every time you turned around someone was recommending the book. It was a collection of penses, thoughts, and meandering recollections of a man who grew up to doubt religion but could not give up on faith. It was marketed as `Nonreligious thoughts on Christian Spirituality'. It was so popular it was even turned into a one-man stage show in Toronto, (jasonhildebrand.com/trailer(dot)htm) and has toured the country.
   
   Then some genius at the publishing company decided to resurrect his first book that had failed. That person is responsible for the unwarranted destruction of thousands and thousands of trees.
   
   This book is a classic road trip journey, in the vein of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig. Yet unlike that classic book, this one does not live up to all the hype. This book is a shameless money grab by the publisher and the author. This greediness is seen time and time again once an author has a successful endeavor. Everything they have written, or will write, is considered gold. That was not the case with this book. Not only is the publishing of this book shameless marketing and abuse of success, it also has a shameful plug for a band that the author listened to while `rewriting' the book. Miller states: `Robbie's CD Better Days is to me the soundtrack for the revised edition of this book. I am pleased to introduce it to you.'
   
   Miller's prose is weak, and his reflections are pedantic. He states: "We are one day out, and home seems an ocean away. My watch ticks inside my boot. I don't need it. I'm not late for anything. There is no disgruntled friend waiting for me at a coffee shop or office.' Are we are all suppose to be enthralled with the story of two guys traveling from Texas to Oregon? It was a chore to get through the book and I would not even recommend it for fans of Miller's writings. Another example is "But because we were born as babies and had to be taught to speak and to pee in a toilet, we think all of this is normal. Well, it isn't normal. Nothing is normal. It is all rather odd, isn't it, our eyes in our heads, our hands with five fingers, the capacity to understand beauty, to feel love, to feel pain." Ok so what do we do with Miller's thoughts? In my opinion, not much!
   
   It was just pretentious to republish this book and milk the readers of Blue Like Jazz for money better spent elsewhere.
   
   (First Published in Imprint 2006-07-14 as 'Hate It' in the 'Love It Hate it book Review section.)



5. I'm not sure what crawled up the backside of the guy who wrote the previous review, but don't let it sway you. I bought this book back in it's first "failed release" and have loved it since the first time I read it through.
   
   In my opinion, this book is far less pretentious than subsequent books by Don Miller. This was him when he was just writing what was on his heart and mind, just writing because he didn't want to forget what happened. Is it deep and theological? Probably not. Are there parts that will make you think? Sure.
   
   Like I said, I bought this book back in the day because the binding looked cool as I skimmed the shelves at my local Borders and I've never regreted the purchase. I have, in fact, since bought additional copies (both while it was still in print, and from the "used" option here on Amazon once it went out) for countless friends who have all likewise enjoyed reading this glimpse of a (mostly) true story about two guys on the road in a VW Bus.
   
   If you're looking for brain food, read Nietzsche. If you're looking for a book that's fun to read, read this.

No comments about Insiders' Guide to Denver, 8th (Insiders' Guide Series).

5 comments about Moon Handbooks Montana (Moon Handbooks).

1. The Montana Handbook gives very insightfull information on Montana. The book is throughly detailed and is far supior to the AAA tourguide. This book gives information on ghost towns that are in areas not well traveled, and is great for people who want to travel the 2 lane highways of America and see something besides Interstate Highways. If only the Idaho Handbook was half as good.



2. I bought this along with several other books on Montana. Its a good resource and has a lot of information, but I found it was hard to use. It was more like a textbook that required me to dig and take notes. While they did provide a few maps, they were sketchy and really didn't help me find where things were located. This is compared to the Montana Roadside Directory which I found to be nicely laid out, and easy to use. I would still recommend the purchase of this if your planning a trip as a supplement to other information. It was my second favorite book of the several I bought.



3. I would highly recommend any of the Moon Publication Handbooks, the Montana handbook is an excellent example of the accurate, in-depth coverage the Moon Company provides. There are many little things covered in the Moon handbooks that are omitted from the big travel names such as AAA and Frommers. This includes personalized information on ghost towns and local restaurants, and unique details on off the beaten path destinations often omitted from other major travel guides. Keep up the good work Moon!



4. Just finished a 6 week trip through 6 states with the family. We used the Moon books in every other state because they were the best we could find. We (my wife and 8 and 10 year-old kids) thought they all had a lot of information, but were helpful only with pointing out highlights of an area. When it came to finding places, it was lacking in details. They all list restaurants, but only a few in the area. In Montana we were fortunate to find another, much more complete and easy to use book (The Ultimate Montana Atlas). The Moon Montana book went pretty much unread as it never seemed to give us the information we were looking for. Were it the only thing we had to use, it would have sufficed. It is small, which is one advantage, but you will need several other books to supplement it (ie maps, hikes, scenic drives, etc.). You get what you pay for with this book. My advice is to spend a few dollars more and get one that has everything in it.



5. Moon's guide to Montana is an unexpected delight. It's in the details: the small towns with unusual histories, the monuments that go unnoticed by the side of the road, the off-the-beaten path places for which we learned to divert our course. If you're interested (as we were not) in AAA Tour Guide type reviews, this will not do the trick. If you really want to learn something about the place through which you're traveling, this is the book. Some of the large attractions, like Glacier National Park, get shorter shrift than in other guidebooks (Foders was one of the others we used), but Moon has a guide specific to Glacier if you want additional info---and it is voluminous! We're converts.

4 comments about Streetwise Las Vegas Map - Laminated City Street Map of Las Vegas, Nevada - with integrated monorail lines and stations.

1. This small folding laminated map can be much more convenient that a standard paper folding road map. I've used both, and found that the Rand McNally road map uses such a small scale that it's annoyingly difficult to read. By contrast, the Streetwise Las Vegas map is much easier, as its scale is larger and the text is printed in an easy-to-read font.

   A word of warning: This map does not cover all of the city of Las Vegas. It definitely hits all of the main areas a tourist would be apt to go, from the airport to the downtown Fremont area, and from the strip to UNLV, and everything in between. But the suburbs of the city are not covered, so you'll need another map if you're planning on venturing out of the glitzy part of Vegas.




2. This is a great general reference map of Vegas...but is a little out of date as it only shows part of I 215- which is now finished. It also is only of Vegas proper.



3. Slightly out of date. Save your $5.95 and go to AAA!



4. This is my 3rd map from Streetwise. The first I bought when I moved to Orlando and the 2nd was for the streets of Sydney. Now I'm relocating to Las Vegas and these maps have always been a big factor in locating my apartments. Thank you!

5 comments about And Their Children After Them: The Legacy of Let Us Now Praise Famous Men.

1. Unfortunately, the synopsis left out that this book won the Pulitzer for Non-fiction in 1991. Maharidge and Williamson followed the footsteps of James Agee who had profiled sharecroppers during the Depression. They found their decendants, and showed that while cotton and sharecropping had died, rural poverty for these families had been passed down to new generations. The front section of the book is a series of photographs by Williamson, and they are tremendous. Moreover, in their reporting, they filled a gap left by Agee by finding a black family of sharecroppers to add to the others profiled. This is a tremendous book. It works on multiple levels, giving both the sweep of Southern social and economic history and bringing it down to individuals. Beyond that, the book is a metaphor for our own time. "If we understand the death of cotton," Maharidge writes in this book, "we understand many things about modern America." This is a tremendous work, highly readable and moving. The recognition these two craftsmen received for it is well-deserved



2. First introduced to "Let Us Now Praise Famous Men" by James Agee and Walker Evans through a PBS Documentary, which inspired a dash to the library to read the book iteself, it wasn't until years later I went back to the library to see if anyone had ever followed up on the story. Confronted with the then new computerized "card catalog" system, I wondered how I might search for any related writings when it dawned on me what a perfect title would naturally evolve from the verse the first book title was taken: ..And Their Children After Them. Imagine my amazement when I tried that title, and there it was! Maharidge and Williamson have followed in Agee and Evans footsteps to give readers "the rest of the story" of the tenant farmers' families and grandchildren, as well as the stories of Agee and Evans themselves. I congratulation them on an excellent book, and offer thanks to the families and their descendants for sharing their lifestories. Their lives did not take the path predicted for them by Agee: life refuses to be harnessed by prediction. Some went farther than anyone could have anticipated, while others came to a place, if possible, even worse than expected. As a second generation American, descended from Polish and Prussian immigrants who lived comparable lives, but who were blessed to own their own land, I identified closely with these stories, from the first page of "Let Us Praise" to the last page of "And Their Children".



3. This book should be read right after reading James Agee's Let Us Now Praise Famous Mem. Unfortuantely I read it over four years before I read Agee's work. When I read this book--in Feb 1996--I wrote to myself: This is a book Newt Gingrich and the crazy House freshmen should read--people who are so intent that those who cannot make it on their own should not make it.



4. While I have Let Us Now Praise Famous Men on deck to read as well, the friend who loaned me the books explained she found And Their Children After Them first, and actually liked reading them in reverse order. So, I chose to follow her lead.
   
   The book, even standing alone, is an intensely personal and touching look into the lives of people who many of us who enjoy the luxury of writing reviews on the Internet can never really understand. The backgrounds, upbringings and challenges were so vastly different, and the book does a good job of showing us something different, something very real.
   
   I can understand the retiscence of some to participate in the book -- while reading passages in this book I often thought to myself what it would feel like to be the person being written about and to see the things about them in print. Like our society, there is a great deal of judgement in the book -- while they try to avoid it, it is there, and it's painful at times.
   
   But it's all worth it, in my opinion, to uncover the many thought provoking things that relate to our world today, and that give me a better understanding of history and people's place within it.



5. For readers of the original Agee/Evans collaboration, "And Their Children" is well worth the time. The reporter and photographer tracked down the 116 living offspring of the pseudonymous Gudger, Ricketts, and Woods families, as well as those who were part of the original book (12 of 22 who appeared in "Let Us Now" were still alive when they began their research in 1986). Not all were willing to be interviewed or photographed, but many were.
   
   As with the first book, the tale here is not a particularly happy one. The author begins by recounting the suicide of Maggie Louise Gudger, age 10 in 1936, a particular favorite of Agee's, and dead at age 45--the same age at which Agee himself died from drink. And yet there are varying degrees of hope in many of the stories, such as that of Maggie Louise's daughter Debbie and her children.
   
   The structure of the book follows each family through different periods: 1936-1940; 1940-1960; and 1960-1986. The author also includes sections on one of the local landowning families (which was far from rich!) and an African-American sharecropping family. Along the way, we learn surprising things about the evil (and Faulknerian) Fred Ricketts, the fate of Clair Bell (she did not die at age 4, as Agee had feared she would), the struggles of George Gudger, and the families' views on Agee, Evans, and the original book. About the children and grandchildren, we find out about those who ran away (and usually came back) and those who stayed; marriages; children; the end of farming; attempts at succeeding at school and at work; closeness and bitterness. It's all grippingly told. And the photographs that allow one to compare the state of things in 1936 and 1986 are excellent. Several photos exactly re-capture the originals.
   
   Quibbles: Naturally, I think, the sections on the two families who did not appear in the first book are less interesting. They could have been abbreviated. Also, the author's (negative) take on the state of America in 1986 is garden-variety journalism for that time. These sections are easily avoided, however, and do not detract from the writing about the original families.
   
   Counter to the author's gloomy opinions, his stories indicate that many of these descendents of share-croppers emerged from the Depression to enjoy a slow but steady material progress. Maggie Louise's grandchildren, now in their thirties, should do even better over the course of their lives. One hopes that another writer-photographer team will venture to Hobe's Hill in 2036 to test that proposition.

5 comments about PassPorter's Walt Disney World 2008: The Unique Travel Guide, Planner, Organizer, Journal, and Keepsake! (PassPorter).

1. I have 4 Disney books, and this one is the ONLY one that gives a complete guide to everything Disney! It's packed with SO much information and has helped me tremendously with the planning of our up-coming trip! You don't need any other book! (This is the small version that you can carry with you to the parks, they do offer a larger one that I wish I had known about first)



2. Loved this book. A must have if you are going to Disney for the first time or for the 100th time. Gave me lots of inside advice, great restaurant reviews, which were right on, and the maps were so much better than the ones you get at Disney. This is a must have. I will get a new one each time I go to Disney. I suggest getting it as eary as you can as it was so much fun to read and review before the trip. Made the vacation feel longer than just one week for me . . . .



3. This book has answered just about every question that me and my family has about WDW. It truly helped us make our decisions about our upcoming WDW vacation.



4. I've bought a few books for our upcoming WDW trip, and this one has by far the most detailed maps that I've seen. It shows where the restaurants are, the bathrooms, shopping areas, etc. so you can get yourself well-oriented with the layout of the parks before actually getting there. As far as the whole WDW complex, the map is not too bad, but I've been looking at google earth for that kind of detailed information - the proximity from the hotels to the different parks, where the toll plazas and parking lots are - things of that nature. This book doesn't have extremely detailed touring plans - just some general guidelines, but still a lot of very helpful information. It has some good tips and info regarding the dining plan - the breakdown of prices, which I thought was very useful because then you can straight up compare how much money you are actually "saving" if you choose to purchase the Disney Dining Plan. And it has a little journal where you can keep records/memories of your trip, and it's spiral bounded, which I love. So if your looking for planning info, it's great, but if you've already planned and want actual touring plans, you might be happier with a different purchase.



5. This is the best WDW guidebook for planning and organizing your vacation at Walt Disney World. It reviews and rates all the attractions at all the resorts, as well as all the resorts and restaurants. The maps are very useful. Of all the WDW guide books, this one is best at helping you prioritize each day of your trip.

1 comments about Frommer's Grand Canyon National Park (Park Guides).

1. Save your money the Lonely Planet Guide "Grand Canyon National Parks Guide" is much better. Better written, better descriptions, more information and I found more accurate. An all around better guide. It is also available through Amazon.Lonely Planet Grand Canyon National Park (Lonely Planet National Park Guides)

4 comments about Virginia Plantation Homes.

1. In my opinion this coffee table book is the one by which all others should be judged. Gleason is one fine professional photographer who needs to expand into yet more regions on this same subject of old plantation homes



2. Beautiful photos, good text, but awkward size (doesn't fit on book shelf)



3. Gleason really excelled in books of this kind, he really knew how to capture these old grand buildings. This book is first rate and it covers all of the well known homes as well as some that may not be so familiar. All of his books of this genre are consistantly top notch. The colors are vibrant and just pop off the page. I recommend this book to anyone interested in the grandeur of the Old South, it's just amazing how many of these houses survived the Civil War, with battles often within earshot of the veranda.



4. I would recommend this book if you're looking for something with great pictures and a brief narrative. The photos were good in that they weren't all taken in the summer, as in most books of this type. It was nice to see these historic homes in the spring bloom, fall colors and winter white-scape. Of course the summer shots were also beautiful. A good book for your own or for a gift.

2 comments about Utah's Incredible Backcountry Trails.

1. I have been hiking Utah's trails for many years, and I am always looking for new places to explore. I have already looked through most of Utah's other hiking guides, and I have to tell you that this one is without a doubt the best one out there. It is informative, easy to read, the maps are excellent, and, most of all, the color photographs that illustrate the trails will blow you away. It is a little more expensive than the other guides, but definately worth it!



2. This is a beautiful book with color pictures and wonderful detail. This book is worthwhile reading even if you don't hike, you can be an armchair hiker and learn about all the beautiful places Utah has to offer. I bought it for my son and now it is on my want list.

No comments about Santa Fe-Taos Hiking Guide.