5 comments about How We Crossed The West: The Adventures Of Lewis And Clark.

1. A very good book about the Lewis & Clark expedition. The illustrations were vivid and the best part of the book. I would recommend this book



2. The adventure and thrill of the Lewis & Clark Expedition is brought to life here in a story that both children and adults could appreciate. In beautiful and carefully rendered folk-style illustrations, and with descriptive text from the actual journals of the participants, the book has the appearance of something that almost could have been written in the early 1800's, when the expedition occurred. Rosalyn Schanzer's personal interest in the subject, especially the journals and the Indian tribes, seems to bring out the best in the storytelling, which primarily illustrates the first 1 1/2 years of the Corps of Discovery's journey to the Pacific Ocean. The story is accessible and easily understood, yet the attention to detail should satisfy those trying to learn, and even researchers in this important chapter in early American History.



3. Wow! This is a wonderful book. An engaging layout, colorfully descriptive illustrations, captivating text, and numerous extra little tidbits of information all combine to make this a most enjoyable and informative book. And that's not all! Perhaps the best feature of all is the fact that the text, while slightly adapted for the younger reader, is taken from the original writings of Lewis, Clark, and other members of the Corps of Discovery. All in all, this is a can't-miss resource for studying the Lewis & Clark Expedition with children. My 12-year-old enjoyed it every bit as much as my 9-year-old... although I'm not sure how either of them could have enjoyed it more than I did!



4. We ordered this to complete a reading requirement for my child's project. It was packed with information yet illustrated nicely and easy to read.



5. I bought this book because our family is planning a summer vacation to Montana. We wanted to refresh our memory of the Lewis & Clark Expedition. We all enjoyed the diaries and illustrations in the book. It is the right amount of information to keep the story moving and keep all readers interested. It is full of interesting details of this famous journey.

5 comments about Jeff Shaara's Civil War Battlefields: Discovering America's Hallowed Ground.

1. Another great book. Read it in two days. Very informative and written well.



2. Product arrived in a timely manner and was in perfect condition. Can't ask for anything more.



3. I purchased this book in 2007 just before embarking on a mammoth civil war battlefield tour. I found it an excellent quick refresher course on the history of the battles. I found that reading the section specific to the following days battlefield exploration made it much easier to plan and understand what I was seeing. Gettysburg, Petersburg, Fredericksburg, and Shiloh were all made far more enjoyable by this well written travelling companion.
   I highly recommend this book to anyone considering exploring some of America's most hallowed ground.



4. ... I would have been interested in history sooner. It answers one of the most commonly asked questions a bored high schooler asks: "Why should I care about this?". Example, Antietam led to the Emancipation Proclamation being signed when did.
   
   I've read most of Shaara's work but this really brings the battle fields home in a way that is spooky. His descriptions are vivid since they juxtapose the way it was in 1864 with current scenery and instructs you to drive down this lane; park here; go down this road till you hit the fence and face north west. Your are standing where a general stood. Creepy and amazing.
   
   Someday, I taking this book on a road trip with me.



5. This is an interesting treatment of Civil War battlefields, providing background, tour information, and the author's perspectives. The chapters on each battle are the right length, and the graphics are very helpful. A very worthwhile purchase.

5 comments about Shoeless Joe & Me (Baseball Card Adventures).

1. Shoeless Joe was a fun book to read. It was about baseball. He was a good player but did not have power. I liked this book because it was about baseball. He was a player on the White Sox. The story was in Chicago where Shoeless Joe was a famous baseball player.
   The kid in the book went back in time. The boy wanted to meet Shoeless Joe, so he went to the store to buy the card. Then he packed his tooth brush and clothes. Then he went to his room. Then he hugged the card and went back to the past. This was the most exciting part of the book.



2. The book I am reviewing is Shoeless Joe & Me written by Dan Gutman. I think this book deserves five stars because Dan Gutman doesn't stretch the book and he does not rush it. This book is about a boy named Joe Stoshack who can travel through time with baseball cards. The problem in this story is that when Joe had lost a game because of a bad call, he complains to the sponsor of his team, Flip Valetini. He says that it wasn't fair, and Flip tells him about the Black Sox sandal and Joe Jackson. Now he wants to fix it. But the rest... you will have to figure out. I would recommend this book to anyone from 3rd to 5th grade that loves fantasy books.



3. Haven't you ever wanted to go back in time to prevent something that happened to you? Shoeless Joe Jackson was one of the best baseball players in 1919. His career was destroyed by a gambling scandal. Joe Stoshack was a young boy and he heard about the famous player from a guy named Flip who worked at the baseball card shop he always went to. Flip told Joe that Jackson was not allowed to make the Hall of Fame because of the scandal he was in. Flip gave him Joe Jackson baseball card and the little boy thought to himself what it would be like to go back in time to see what the scandal was all about and even maybe prevent it from happening. He thought if it works in movies then it should work now. The next day Joe Stoshack found himself going back to the 1919's and found Joe Jackson at the stadium. He talked to Joe and asked him to leave the game before it started. He told Joe if he didn't something bad would happen. He told Joe he came back from the future and he knew that if the great Joe Jackson did anything to lose this game, he would never get all the rewards he deserved. He wanted to prevent the "Black Sox Scandal" from happening so Shoeless Joe Jackson could get into the Hall of Fame.
   I would rate this book a 5, on a scale of 5, with 5 being the best. Grades 4th and up would love it and its great family story.



4. One of my students wrote the following review:
   If you are a baseball fan you should read this book. This book is about a kid with a power. He can go back in time. He goes to 1919 to make the White Sox win the World Series by not letting Shoeless Joe Jackson take money. What will happen next?
   It was so fun to read it! I couldn't stop reading this book. It is a long book but it is fun when you read it. There are more books that this author wrote about baseball.
   -Brian



5. Shoeless Joe and Me is one of my favorite books! The book is about a kid who can Time-Travel by using Baseball Cards. He tries to go back in time to stop the Black Sox Scandal. The Black Sox Scandal was when 8 players on the White Sox were tricked by gamblers into losing the 1919 World Series against the Cincinnati Reds on purpose.
   
   Even if you don't like Baseball, I'm sure you will love this book. I loved it SO much that I couldn't take my face away from the book. I recommend this book to ANYONE, as long as they love a good book. It is part of a series, which include:
   
   Honus and Me
   Jackie and Me
   Babe and Me
   Mickey and Me
   Abner and Me
   Satch and Me

5 comments about Off the Beaten (Subway) Track: New York City's Best Unusual Attractions.

1. Indeed, this travel book is truly unique. Blending fascinating information with humor, mild expletives, and Yiddish phrases, Ms. Reisman creates a relaxed writing style that is as appealing as the colorful cover is eye-catching. The perspective traveler wants to peruse the book from cover to cover as if it were a novel, and not just a catalog of destinations, in order to discover what she has to say. The reader is simultaneously enlightened and entertained. Whoever dreamed that guidebooks could be so much fun?!



2. Having recently moved out of NYC after a LONG time living there, reading this book makes me want to move back right now! I wish I knew about all these cool places while I was living close by.
   This book highlights a lot of little-known and interesting places all over the city that are easily accessible on public transportation. The wide range of places means that anyone can find something of interest. It is organized by location, so the visitor can plan on doing several things with one trip and gives great directions on how to get there and what to expect. A little bit of the history of each place rounds out the vivid descriptions, so I felt like I was actually visiting the places just by reading. What a great and out of the ordinary guide-book!



3. Suzanne Reisman is a wonderful guide through off-the-beaten-track New York City. This guide is well-written, entertaining, thoroughly researched, and full of wonderful gems for any traveler or NYC dweller looking for quirky, fun, and enlightening things to do around town. I love the troll museum. Highly recommend!



4. I love love love this book! I've been to 3 of the places so far and love that everything is easily (mostly) accessible and pretty spot on with the descriptions in the book.
   
   Plus, each attraction's description is not only digestable, but filled with a great traveler's context, unlike some Lonely Planet versions where you never really get the context of WHY something is fun to visit!



5. There are so many books on New York's attractions that one might wonder at the need for yet another, but this book is a key and the first to focus on a hundred off-the-beaten-path destinations, from small museums and nearly forgotten historic places to odd shops and small oddities. A geographic arrangement aids in the journey, with chapters offering addresses, hours, directions, web sites, and long paragraphs of enticing description. Recommended for any travel library strong in New York City attractions.

5 comments about Rocky Mountain National Park Dayhiker's Guide.

1. A great guide! Very good photos of each area. Includes topo maps of each trail. Very informative.



2. We are planning our first hiking trip to the Rocky Mountain National Park and every hike I have considered is in this book with detailed information about hiking distance, elevation at destination and good descriptions including flora you might encounter on the trail. There are even pictures of frequently sighted flowers and animals. I love Mallitz's formula for difficulty ratings. Now I can use this formula on other hikes in other areas. I bought another book at the same time ROCKY MOUNTAIN NATIONAL PARK, THE COMPLETE HIKING GUIDE by Lisa Foster and haven't found it as useful although it contains a wealth of information.



3. I've lived less than an hour away from Estes Park for over 40 years and hike in RMNP quite a lot...
   
   This book covers a FEW destinations in RMNP and completely ignores many wonderful day hikes.
   
   Some of the route descriptions are actually TOO detailed for my taste (pages long in some cases) and I'd like to see more maps.
   
   I do like the format of the book, I just wish it had more information.
   
   I prefer Lisa Foster's Rocky Mountain National Park - The Complete Hiking Guide. Her book covers EVERY one of the 440 destinations in RMNP - and she has been to EVERY one of them. She knows what she's talking about and her book is EXCELLENT! I've been to about one hundred of the destinations, so I know that her book is accurate. As I said though, her book covers EVERYTHING in the park - short hikes and very long hikes. It's probably more information than most people need.



4. A nice, easy to read book with descriptions of some of the more popular hikes in the park. Descriptions are thorough enough to follow and enjoy major trails. Not recommended for the hardcore explorer; for this I recommend The Complete RMNP Hiking Guide by Lisa Foster. Malitz's book is pleasant and the trail descriptions are of moderate length, though it only covers a fraction of the hikes in the park.



5. I had the previous (original?) iteration of this book, and it was very useful. This has even more information, including a handy difficulty rating system (although one was wrong). If you plan on doing any hiking in/around RMNP, this is the one to get.

3 comments about Weird Michigan (Weird).

1. This book is great. Gives a very different view of Michigan. Interesting information not found elsewhere. I want to go on a long road trip and see these places.



2. This book is very interesting! It tells you about some of Michigan's little known places.



3. A fun, entertaining, 'coffee table' book. Lots of short articles from places all over Michigan that have interesting and odd stories.
   
   Accurate from the standpoint of a few of the places I already knew about.
   
   Perfect for you or your guests to spend a few minutes browsing through, reading a few articles.

5 comments about The 100 Best Vacations to Enrich Your Life.

1. The 100 Best Vacations To Enrich Your Life by Pam Grout is a new National Geographic travel guide book with a special twist: these vacations are not to get away and veg out but to get your creative juices flowing, or to educate you, or to heal you, or to enable you to share what you know to help others. The 100 best vacations book is divided into four sections, each focusing on one of the types of trips mentioned above. The vacation experiences are described in detail, as well as what you will learn, how you can give back, and the type of people who will enjoy such an experience. The trips are within the U.S.A., Canada, and Mexico and the book is written by an outstanding experienced travel writer, published frequently in top publications and the author of 13 travel books. This compilation of tour ideas and opportunities is meeting the needs of the new kind of travelers who want to have a meaningful vacation and give back to the places and people they visit, or to learn away from stresses of their normal environment. The book is EXCELLENT, with all the information you need to choose and sign up for leisure time well spent which will keep you smiling and promises to change you forever.



2. This is a short review. The book is fine and dandy for north america but there are quite a few of us who live in other countries that use the english language. It would have been helpful if the title of the book had been a bit more specific.



3. This book with help you find places to go that will enrich your spirit.
   What better way is there to spend your free time?



4. This book is great for old people. I bought this as a gift for my mother in law, and she loved it. She is well traveled and well read, so this is perfect for the person that has everything and needs nothing.



5. I have been an international volunteer vacationer for several years and have longed for a reference that focused on the North American Continent. Chapter Two of THE 100 BEST VACATIONS TO ENRICH YOUR LIFE does just that. From digging in George Washingtons' back yard in Virginia, sewing costumes for a theatre in to Kentucky, being your version of Patch Adams at his clinic in West Virginia, to cleaning up the 3000 mile long Continental Divide Trail, Ms. Grout offers something for everyone. With many people hoping to vacation closer to home recently, here are 24 options to consider if you want to volunteer while you vacation. Thank you Pam!

3 comments about Michelin Green Guide New York City (Michelin Green Guide: New York City English Edition).

1. 
   I had an older version of this guide when I lived in NYC. It was great. That was 30 years ago. I'm going back next week. After reviewing all the guide books, I still find this one the most useful. Wish me a good trip.



2. I purchased the Michelin Green Guuide New York City after borrowing it from the library several times. It was a worthwhile purchase, if only for the subway map. It gives a tourist all the information he/she needs to plan a trip to NYC, how to chose places to see, subway information and restaurant suggestions in the area of the attraction. The other plus about this guide is the shape, which fits into the pocket of cargo shorts or into a tote bag.



3. My husband bought me this guide as a gift for my first trip to New York. I must say that I could not have gotten along without it. Even though my traveling companion had been to Manhattan several times - she even lived there for a period - we were constantly consulting the manual. In particular, the subway map and the map of Central Park were very helpful. As an infrequent traveler, I also found it useful to have the expected gratuities spelled out of me.
   
   I will continue to use the guide to help me sort and identify the many photographs I've taken during my trip.
   
   This is a very valuable tool and the best of the many guidebooks I've come across.

5 comments about Hiking Great Smoky Mountains National Park (Regional Hiking Series).

1. This book made our trip! Adams' trail descriptions and ratings were spot on. We came to rely on this guide when planning our daily outings.
   
   Reverence for the Park and those who work there came across clearly in his prose, but there was plenty of delightful humor as well (as in the list of Hikes for People Training to be Couch Potatoes!).



2. Kevin Adams has written a succinct, yet thorough, guide book to the trails of the SMNP. Everything is here. Adams leaves out the platitudes and leaves in the practical. From advising on safety and comfort to equipment and nourishment, the author gives imminently usable information for these beautiful trails and makes them call the reader to the mountains. Great book!



3. It's a great, very detailed book if you're local and want to experience all the great day hikes. The author does a wonderful job dividing them into categories - from couch potato to training to be a navy seal! However, none of them are longer than 1 nighters - he says you can split some of them up into two nights... but if you're out there to backpack for multiple nights, you're probably not interested in 6 mile days, right? I would suggest buying a good map of the park to go with this, if you're interested in multiple night outings in the Smokies. That way, you can plan a longer route, but use the book to reference details on the trails you'll be on.



4. I found this to be a great hiking guide to a place I knew nothing about before arriving. It is very imformative on difficulty of the hikes and what the scenery will be like so you can plan your visit accordingly. I would recommend this book to any level of hikers wanting to leave their car and really see the Great Smokey Mountains from the trail. The guide is so thorough it made it hard to narrow my choices down for the five days of hiking I would be exploring. The only complaint (if you can call it that) would be to include a area map that showed the park in its entirety at the beginning of the book so you can begin to aclimate yourself to where trailheads are located, etc...The book does recommend picking up a map at the visitors center upon arrival, I am just a planner and want to know everything in advance.



5. My family and I just returned from our vacation in the Smoky Mts. This was one of the two guides we used during our stay and it was very helpful. As parents of two smaller children, ages 5 and 8, we needed a guide that included shorter day hikes and not just the overnight type. This guide did just that. Here's what I liked and didn't like about the book:
   
   Things I liked: The way it broke down each hike with acurate descriptions of the trail, what you can expect to see while hiking it (the highlights), where to find the trail head, a topicgraphical-type picture showing where the hills are on the hike, personal information about the trail and its history as well as beautiful pictures. The trails are organized by location within the park so when you're at a particular part of the park, you can zero-in on those hikes in that area. There are also maps to show you where the trail meets up with other trails in the area.
   
   Things I didn't like about the book: Though the maps are helpful for showing the specific location, I found myself having to check our park map to be able to pinpoint exactly where the trail was located. I wish the book would include a more "overview" park map as well. Also, since we were looking for trails which were around 6 miles round trip or less, the author had a habit of running two or more trails together to form one big hike. Many of these hikes were ten-plus miles long. He did this to form a loop rather then having to back-track, but it would have been nice if he could have given the shorter version as an option.
   
   Overall, I would certainly recommend this book to anyone. For those seeking to take 8-10 mile hikes or some over night hikes, this book is ideal.
   
   We also purchased at the park visitor center, two maps - Water Falls and Day Hikes ($1 each) - which were actually VERY helpful! The dayhikes were about 5 miles round trip or less with a very brief description. At the visitor center, we also purchased a book called Smokies Road Guide which gave some background information about each section of the park and has beautiful colored pictures. For those who like to plan ahead, the maps and book can be ordered off the internet at the park's website.

3 comments about Seattle (City Guide).

1. This book is perfect to guide you through the must see sights and the restaurants that are convenient. As always, Lonely Planet proves to be very reliable.



2. LONELY PLANET SEATTLE, whose last edition was great, just got even better with this edition. This book includes a copious amount of information on where the best recreation, shopping, and dining are, as well as including an updated list of radio stations and a description of the best and worst neighborhoods in both the city and its immediate suburbs. Overall, LONELY PLANET SEATTLE shows the Seattle area to be a metro region where the median income is higher than the national, in both the city and the suburbs. This is a book you must own if you're interested in travel in any way.



3. My wife and I have traveled the world to all but four countries using Lonely Planet and as always Lonely Planet is the only book to travel with. A bit of information on Seattle travel expenses. For a USA city, Seattle is very expensive to visit (about 38% more than the average USA city). We have friends of 40 years who relocated to Seattle and they too say it is expensive. Eating for two in a standard lunch restaurant is going to cost $60 (with gratuity).
   I spent two months researching Seattle rooms (talking with hotel concierges and club member services). All room rates are hiked 40% for the summer months (May-mid Sept). All the rooms are small in square footage - similiar to NYC. The lodging with the largest rooms is Springhill Suites by Marriott on Yale Avenue. This was confirmed by fellow experienced travelers we met at Springhill - having done the same research as myself.
   Due to their major highways (I-5, and others) needing to be wider I would opt to stay in downtown otherwise you will spend 30% of your time in the car. If you want to travel to Vancouver Island (during the summer season)- make your reservations a month in advance.
   Their intra bus service does not provide good information on their web. Inside the inner city, all bus service is free (due to their lack of parking facilities and too many cars). On the weekend (Fri-Sun) one can purchase a weekend on-off pass for $1.50 - if you are traveling outside the inner city. Inner city is from Anthony's Seafood (excellent food and lowest priced in the city) to the Seahawk's stadium. There is still plenty of the city outside this area - and the rooms are less expensive on the fringe of the inner city.
   Seattle is a beautiful city, and we will visit again. But one needs some money to visit.