2 comments about New York, New York!: The Big Apple from A to Z.

1. We bought this book after our trip in New York.
   Our sons love it. They remenbered all they did there.
   To buy or to offer.



2. I bought this book for a six year old visitor who has the reading skills of an 8 year old. She was visiting Manhattan and used this book as a guide for herself as we took in the sites. The illustrations are charming and she was able to read the text by herself. Nice guide for the child to read while here in NYC!

No comments about The National Park Architecture Sourcebook.

No comments about Widerness Press Lassen Volcanic National Park: A Complete Hiker's Guide.

5 comments about Frommer's Alaska 2007 (Frommer's Complete).

1. Doing a road trip via Motor Home...great explanations of camp sites, fishing, etc. Very helpful for a first time visitor for sure!



2. This book has been very informative in helping us to select which cruise line, tours and offshore excursions we plan to take advantage of while in Alaska. I highly recommend reading this BEFORE BOOKING and taking it along as a guide on your trip. It gives insider tips you may not have thought about when planning a trip. JPB



3. What more can one say about Frommer? You can't, or shouldn't, take any trip without taking along Frommer's reviews/commentary, and what to see and do books. Our trip to Alaska was just fantastic, and the information provided in it on everything from travel by cruise ship, history and what land tours to take was outstanding. I purchased the book (and others like it) from Amazon, and they all arrived in a timely manner, and the "price was right".



4. I received the 2008 edition for Christmas...
   true to Frommer's form. Great "Best of Alaska"
   and "Planning your Trip" chapters...good inter-
   net links and current contact phone numbers.
   Nice section of "Alaska in Depth."



5. This book is all you really need to go to Alaska. If you are a fan of Frommers products you will not be dissapointed. It's a thorough and accurate overview of all the basics needed when planning an Alaskan getaway.

No comments about Moon Washington Fishing: The Complete Guide to Lakes, Streams, and Saltwater (Moon Handbooks).

5 comments about The Dog Lover's Companion to Washington, D.C. and Baltimore: The Inside Scoop on Where to Take Your Dog (Dog Lover's Companion Guides).

1. I highly recommend this book to dog owners who love to take their little four-legged friend(s) everywhere. It is well organized and the writing style used is perfect for dog lovers.

   It covers almost all the parks in the Washington D.C., Virginia and Baltimore. Have you ever looked up a park on a map and it looked huge and perfect for your dog, and when you got there, you and your dog were very disappointing with the park? Well, the review for each park is quite accurate. With this book on hand, you can look up a park and find out if it is suitable for your dog before driving there. It covers important information that a dog owner needs to know about the park/area - such as the poop scoop law and the leash law.

   It also contains information (ie. hotel, restaurant, pet stores, etc...) that is very useful for dog owners who like to take their pooches on vacation with them.

   Embedded into the book, you will find dog adoption information. The book encourages suggestions from readers. I've already written to the publisher suggesting to include information on various rescue organizations and local animal shelters - a way to help promote pet rescue/adoption.




2. I bought this book when it first came out for a friend of mine who was moving to Baltimore with her dog. Two years later, I borrowed it from her when I discovered I was moving to D.C. I found it enormously usefull for choosing a dog-friendly neighborhood with good access to parks. The authors understand the basic qualities of a good dog park: safety, space, a group of 'regular' neighborhood go-ers, and access to a good espresso bar for weekend dog walking. Overall, the writers do an excelent job.

   I have only a few complaints. One - due to the impossibility of visiting every park in this populous region more than once, I've found that the park's ratings can heavily reflect the day and time of the visit -- not necessarily what the park is like on a typical weekday at 6pm. Also, some park ratings reflect a nice place to go with a small dog on a leash, you won't necessarily have the same experience with your massive Great Dane tugging at every new smell. The writers also disapprove of dogs being off-leash, and rate more lowly some parks that are true jems for those of us with larger dogs that require more exercise.

   Overall, a great guide, and certainly unique. A must for all dog owners in this area, particularly if you moving to this region.




3. This is one of my favorite books ever. Really. I moved to the D.C. area with my lab three years ago, and while we were used to having dozens of places to go for various reasons or times, I didn't know where to begin to find good places to take her around our new home. This book was a godsend for finding fun places to go, especially because I found the reviews to give a me a very accurate idea of what sort of place we were going, including what sort of "feel" it might have for dog-friendliness. Some of the features of the book I have found extremely helpful are:

   * Birds-eye maps showing where the reviewed locations are in the counties covered (perfect for finding a park near odd places that I might run errands)
   * How strict the leash law is followed (this is a biggie for me -- while the authors point out excellent reasons to use the leash, they very helpfully suggest where we can get away without it)
   * Rough idea how crowded the area in question might be, and how easy or difficult to get to (varies of course by time of day and season)
   * Whether there's a place for doggie swimming

   In my area (Sterling/Ashburn, VA) I've found the book to be amazingly comprehensive for my local and outlying areas, and find that the park descriptions have always given me a pretty accurate idea what to expect. The book covers a wide enough range (including some pseudo-local vacation destinations) that I've used it on countless occasions to find nice stopover while on short trips outside my "home turf". Highly recommended for anyone who enjoys finding varied places to visit with their pups.




4. I bought this based on the great reviews, so perhaps it was a let-down because I had high expectations. This is a guide book with a slight dog orientation, but honeselty, I didn't feel like this really gave me much valuable information about living and traveling in the DC area with a dog- other than telling me where parks are (info available on many web sites). The actual dog-friendliness of the parks, and rating system seemed totally off with how I would have rated parks. Seems like they are rated more for person-appeal than dog-appeal.
   
   But maybe I'm just biased as I have a hound and value FENCED off-leash parks above all :)



5. I had traveled to Reston, VA with my dogs to go to the Pet Fiesta while there I picked this book up and used it to travel all over the Washington D.C. area with my dogs. I am so glad that I did because I was not sure what I was going to do after the Pet Fiesta was over and this book opened up lots of options and lots of ideas for future trips.
   
   I advise taking a pen with you so you can write in additional things that you find that may not be listed in the book. While at Old Town Alexandria today we ate at an Irish restaurant that had a doggie menu that was not listed in the book but was a must go to if you travel there.
   
   I loved this book and only wish that there was one for my area.

3 comments about Plantation Homes of Louisiana and the Natchez Area.

1. This book just takes your breath away. The houses are so beautiful and the photographs so vivid. Louisiana is perhaps the most blessed with homes from the old south and this book does them such a great service. It's nothing short of amazing that so many of them have survived, it's a testement to the quality of the builders, mostly slaves, the cypress wood used so often and benign neglect. Thank God these wonderful homes where not burned during the Civil War or torn down by short sighted developers. It's really lucky for us that this part of Louisiana has been virtually asleep for 150 years, but in the last 30 years it has awaken like a Pheonix and these houses have been restored and cared for, I am so grateful to Mr. Gleason for having created this book and for the preservationists that saved the homes themselves. I have visited many of these grand plantations and you can't help but be in awe of the beauty and saddened at the same time about the cruel institution that created them. I most appreciate the homes that have maintained their slave quarters, everyone should have to see the way these people lived, it was not all zippidy do da zippidy aye, I assure you...one must always view the historic south through this prism to understand the struggle to overcome. I highly recommend this book to anyone with a love for all things beautiful.



2. First of all, I love the South, and love plantation homes. The photographs in this book are very good. I personally didn't enjoy the photos of the rundown and derelict plantations. I bought this book because I thought it contained BEAUTIFUL pictures of the finest homes. And most of them are very nice, BUT...First of all, this is a pricey book.I once had a slim volume offerred by the Travel bureau that was better than this book. If all you want is to have a pretty coffee table book, it's fine. I personally would have preferred they leave out the aerial photos high above the homes...and the photos of derelict, rundown plantations and included more interior shots or different angles of the really beautiful plantations. I found that I looked through it once, but will probably rarely look through it again. Though it is well done for what it is, when reading the reviews before purchasing, I had a different impression of what this book is.



3. This was purchased as a Christmas gift for my son-in-law who is originally from Louisiana. He loves it. From the narrative history to the beautiful pictures.

4 comments about Washington, D.C., Then and Now (Then & Now).

1. Washington D.C., Then and Now, is full of many fascinating pictures taken in and around the Washington D.C. area. The city is rich in history and full of a number of buildings, monuments and historic areas. Through the years, the city has changed and developed around these landmarks. Washington D.C., Then and Now traces this development and change through pictures.

   The premise behind the book is to show the reader each area of the city as it appeared using archival photographs on one page, and comparing it to a recent picture of the same area, taken from approximately the same location, to demonstrate how the area has evolved.

   The author has organized the book by street name or area. The earliest known picture of the Capitol, taken in 1846, is the most famous picture (Only seven are known to exist). There is an interesting story about how the rare picture was obtained. You'll have to get the book to find out.

   Whether you have traveled to Wahington DC or are just interested in the pictoral history of our nation's capital, the book has a lot to offer. It also makes an excellent coffee table book for your guests to peruse.




2. Having seen a few other books showing historical photos of different cities' landmarks and their modern looks, I was interested to see what this book would offer. I was not disappointed, fiding the choice of subjects ranging form the famous to the obscure, painting a picture of a Washington long ago.
   
   With many of the more famous buildings in Washington having been built in the last 70 years, there aren't as many older structural pictures to hold up against a view of the current looks. This is often refelcted by what originally stood on the site, and then the facing page shows what is built on the site now. Obviously, there are pictures showing the White House, Capitol, and a few other notable buildings to examine for small changes, but the majority of the book features things the average visitor wouldn't normally notice.
   
   To people who have spent some time in this great city, they would greatly appreciate where the modern looks and everyday scenery has come from. To the average reader, this book would be an interesting coffee table book to entertain the curious.



3. This book is pretty good to see a historical comparison of Washington DC "then" vs. "now." The most disappointing aspect here is that a lot of the current pictures seem to have been taken on the same overcast late fall/early winter day. Washington DC is one of the most beautiful cities in the world but a lot of the current pictures don't capture that. The historical pictures and overall comparisons are pretty good though and I would have rated this a "5" if they had done a better job capturing the city's beauty. A solid "4" none the less.



4. Mitchell's book is the fifth in the "Then and Now" series that I've bought, and it is every bit as good as the others. If you are not familiar with the concept, old photographs of particular street corners or buildings are contrasted with corresponding current images. The author displays his detailed knowledge of the area as he recounts stories that accompany each set of photos.
   
   Due to the consistency of some of the buildings in Washington, D. C., the main difference between pictures of a certain structure from 100+ years ago and today is only that one is black and white while the newer one is in color. But some locations have been dramatically transformed over time.
   
   Any student of history and especially people interested in Washington, D. C. should really enjoy this book.

5 comments about Weird Illinois (Weird).

1. I enjoyed the book and it was an easy read, Short stories and local history. It made me want to go visit some of the sites written about. I didn't know Illinois had so much to offer.



2. and this is the second book of his that I have read. The first was Haunted Illinois, which was also very good. I love books about haunted places and local (Illinois and Chicagoland) history. I found this book quite easy to read and interesting.



3. I love all the 'Weird' books, especially the 'U.S.' and the 'Weird New Jersey' book, but amongst the other states, this one is a real treat. First off, it's well written by expert Troy Taylor. Secondly, the pulse of the book never ceases. From the start it grabbed me and had me turning pages, when usually these books are something you pick up and put down, just because there is so much to digest. there are some great ghostly tales and other-worldly visits that make this compilation stand on top of my stack of 'Weird' books.



4. I had bought a copy for myself about a year ago and loved it. When my friend was having a birthday this February I purchased a copy for him too. When I presented it to him he was very pleased as it turned out that he had seen it before and had considered getting it. As people that live in Illinois it's fun to read about strange things we know about as well as many things that are new to us. Since each "Weird" thing presented is a short read in itself it's a great book to have lying around for "fill in" reading.



5. This is a fascintating book. I didnt know alot of the oddities in this book existed and i learned alot to. Like the creator of Popeye is from Illinois. And that Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz is based on a little girl here. This is a truely fascinating read ....

5 comments about Letters from New Orleans.

1. This book started out as a nice snapshot of the characters in New Orleans. About halfway in, it devolved into a sociology disseration on the racial/class ills of the city. I grew up there and am well aware of the problems. Some of the ideas put forth by the author were simplistic at best. Otherwise, a pretty good book.



2. In my 65+ years, New Orleans is the place I have returned to most often, almost like a second home. This compilation of writings--done before Katrina--echo mine experiences so closely, I get the feeling that the "Spell" of this great city affects others like it did and does me.
   I was in New Orleans when as Katrina approached and the Mayor urged visitors to leave. I was lucky to get three connecting flights home to California. "Letters from New Orleans" was like a balm which I needed to feel something other than sorrow.



3. If you've yet to visit New Orleans, the candid "snapshots" of Walker's letters will surely entice. If you're familiar with the city, you'll nod your head & sigh in remembrance - & hope for the future to be as sadly sweet & savory - & unsavory; yeah that, too, as the past. These "letters" capture the crazy ambience of the whole package perfectly.
   I am curious about one small detail, why DID the author leave?



4. I've never drunk and eaten my way through an hours' long lunch at Galatoire's. I don't own a white suit nor do I normally hang out in jazz clubs. Sleazy bars may possess charms, but I seldom indulge. I've never dug the Comus or Zulu krewes or jumped for mass-produced Chinese beads in the streets. This is all because I've never been to New Orleans. But I've done the next best thing---read Rob Walker's LETTERS FROM NEW ORLEANS. What I liked about Walker's emailed letters to his family and friends that later got collected into a slim volume is that they offer a view of the city that is far more sombre and penetrating than the one we used to get before Katrina turned the place into a bad news hub. Yeah, "The Big Easy" definitely had its downside even before floods killed hundreds and destroyed the low-lying sections. Murder in the projects was not unknown pre-Katrina, corruption, decay, and poverty ruled much of New Orleans behind the tourist glitz. Your quaint atmosphere of down-at-heel tradition rested on the stunted lives of a lot of black folks who were caught in an old web. I never had a great desire to visit the place, not thinking someone else's misfortune very picturesque. Still, reading Walker's letters, I felt that I got the feel of it---small details, a chance conversation that you might not have elsewhere, strange characters in electric blue suits, church music. He doesn't intrude much into his descriptions, yet you feel that he liked the place, he didn't judge it with the amused or jaundiced eye of many others. Small incidents reveal many facets of the city---the controversy over a fired waiter, explorations of a freeway ramp, attending a jazz funeral, a burning teddy bear at an annual bonfire. I liked the conclusions Walker drew--not sweeping, drastic ones, but more like collections of observations and questions left to the reader. The small black and white photographs that fill the book are strangely obtuse. They hint at things rather than illustrate them grandly and perhaps that sums up this charming little book.
   
   P.S. If you ever wanted to know stuff about the song "St. James' Infirmary" but were afraid to ask, rest easy. It's all in here.



5. Rob Walker may use his day job as a New York Times Magazine Columnist to support himself, but with the publication of LETTERS FROM NEW ORLEANS he clearly steps into the arena of fine writers whose messages stand solidly on their own. This collection of shared letters via email does not come across as yet another Blog site, but instead reveals a writer of sensitivity of observation, calm excitement of discovery, and an artist who can enter a space apparently foreign to him and make it not only his experience but also that of his reader.
   
   This too short book covers a period of time when Walker moved to New Orleans and adapted to the idiosyncrasies of that magical city in daily exploration of its peculiar wonders. With his companion 'E' he attends a New Orleans church service (as the only white people present) and learns to appreciate the gospel singing, the attire and the unconditional love that pours from the congregation; he dresses for Carnivale and participates in the traditions of bead throwing and costuming that have only been images in films and photos; he takes us on a journey through the celebration of a New Orleans funeral - which is anything but morose - and teaches us about the 'cemeteries' of tombs above ground in this city below sea level; he ponders on the traditions of firing guns into the sky to celebrate most any event; he explores the famous 'St James Infirmary' of song fame, sharing the origins of the place and the myths; and he mixes with the people in this city of poverty of pocketbook but wealth of mind.
   
   Reading Rob Walker could be experienced as a prelude (or postlude) to appreciating the art of Tennessee Williams and the Jazz Greats. His technique in writing is to keep it simple and observational, and in doing so he raises his writing to the level of poetry - succinct with themes and variations that always return us to the spirit of one of America's most treasured cities. Highly recommended reading. Grady Harp, February 08