5 comments about The Best in Tent Camping: Southern California, 3rd: A Guide for Campers Who Hate RVs, Concrete Slabs, and Loud Portable Stereos (Best in Tent Camping - Menasha Ridge).

1. Okay, this book is actually so great I almost didn't want to write a review because then other people might buy the book and take up spaces at these awesome campgrounds. But I decided not to be selfish and give you the low down. Before I do, I will caution that this book is not for the faint of heart. If pit toilets and no running water aren't your cup of tea, don't buy this. Also, note the title. Don't get this unless you tent camp...some of the places listed don't even allow RVs.
   This summer, we've been on three great camping trips that were inspired by this book. The campgrounds in it are well off the beaten path...I doubt I would ever have discovered them on my own. If you're new to southern California like me, this book is essential. Also, the information on the different campgrounds is very reliable and useful, sometimes even better than that on state park websites. P.S. The map of the different campgrounds does have a key on the prior page page (just clarifying a point someone else brought up).



2. This book has opened up a world of camping possibilities for my family in Southern California. The ratings system is excellent, right on, for things like how quiet the sites are, etc, recommending what times of year to go to different areas,etc. We have camped in several areas that we never would have known about without this book that were stunningly beautiful, quiet, and not too crowded. Yes, the book could have been organized slightly better (a bit awkward matching up the maps with the campsites) which hopefully they will fix in the next edition. Great job, and a big thank you from a family who likes to camp and hopes to do more camping as our children grow older.



3. Some of the sites in this book are as advertised, but because of the way that it's organized, it's cumbersome to use while planning a trip. You can't really tell where each site is along different routes until you look up close, and the order doesn't help you.
   
   My biggest gripe is that some of these sites are FAR from quiet when you get there; RV's ARE allowed at some of these sites (and he doesn't say which ones).
   
   In my opinion, you're better off with a more comprehensive guidebook that tells it like it really is for each site.



4. I thought this book would be helpful in our move to socal, but I was not impressed with the selection of campsites, organization, or even the campsites featured. The first campground we went to that was supposedly the highest rated in the area had, guess what...RVs, concrete slabs, and loud radios. Maybe the problem is not the book, but southern california. I would suggest real tent campers find another book.



5. The book promised to show camping areas which avoided loud stereos. We stayed only one miserable night, rather than the two in our plan, because it did not deliver on that promise. It seems that any campground that cars can get too must have a host to control the trash that drives in to spoil the experience for others.

No comments about Zagatsurvey 2009 New York City Gourmet Shopping & Entertaining (Zagat New York City Gourmet Marketplace).

3 comments about Poor Man's Provence: Finding Myself in Cajun Louisiana.

1. All ethnic groups have their on distinct qualities and because of this most are completely misunderstood. Cajuns are no exception. I know when I was a kid I wanted be black. I truly didn't understand why then, but over the years thinking back I know it was because of the sense of pride that most of my black friends had. Ms. Johnson has tapped in to the Cajun pride. She conveys with humor and humility the love they have for their land and family, as well for others not of their ethnicity. Her love for them shines brightly. I love this book and highly recommend it to all.



2. Somewhat like the wonderful nonfiction works of Least Heat Moon's "Blue Highways" and Raban's "Passage to Juneau", only better, much better. Like those two travel novels, "Poor Man's Provence", entertains with unique true anecdotes and historical facts about the down home exotic people and places of the Acadiana ("Cajun") Country, Louisiana. Woven into the colorful quilt of her writing, Rheta Grimsley Johnson also gives us wicked irony, Twain like humor and a little subtle, sincere, simple human philosophy. Unlike "Blue Highways" and "Passage to Juneau", "Poor Man's Provence" is not a travelogue, but instead represents ten years of learning and loving the gentle folks of Cajun Louisiana. It's a great book to read if you think that you will ever want to see this part of the American South, and it's still plenty entertaining even if you just want to get to know the natives vicariously. If there is any justice in such things, this must read book should win lots of awards.



3. Poor Man's Provence: - Having a fair amount of familiarity with the area and people, I'd say Mrs. Grimsley wrote as good of a memoir of this part of Louisiana as any. Whether one is familiar with the area of not, it would be worth reading it ahead of time to get the most of the visit to Cajun Country. From beginning to end I felt like I knew the central figures in this non-fictional memoir, Johnelle & Jennette, and they didn't disapoint. The place is crawling with people like them and it'll please and even surprise them all to know a transplant appreciates them for just being themselves. Whether the writer, Miss Rheta(as locals would call her), intended it or not, she and Don are now a part of Cajun's lives forever and we're all grateful for her memoir and presence.

5 comments about Chicago: City on the Make: 50th Anniversary Edition, Newly Annotated.

1. Well written though this is, ...City on the Make' does require a good knowledge of Chicago's history to keep going with it and to understand the connections.

   I gave up after chapter two because of my lack of background knowledge and because I felt that this was a piece of writing that had been worked at till it was little more than an exercise in style.

   It had a lot of energy but lacked the spontaneity to make it seem fresh. And it read like preaching to the converted, as opposed to being persuasive.




2. Although I have lived in Chicago for many years now, I am not a native Chicagoan, and I have to say that the attitudes and visions of Chicago that one finds in Nelson Algren's are not held by most of the people I have gotten to know well in Chicago. But, then, most of the people I know are also not native Chicagoans. The swagger, the love-hate, the cynicism, and the love and civic pride that manage to emerge despite the cynical pessimism are very definitely found in many of those I have come to know who were born and raised in the city.

   Nelson Algren's Chicago was one that was more strictly American than it is today, less international, more Midwestern, more radical, less conventional. It is a Chicago that in many ways no longer exists. This can be felt in the book's narrative voice. Algren writes in a prose that sounds like Carl Sandburg drenched in Baudelaire, and the various sections of the book sound more than anything like the kind of stuff that Baudelaire would have written had he strolled the streets of Chicago rather than Paris. The prose is always unique, frequently beautiful, oftentimes stunning. There are definitely times that it will be all but impenetrable to someone not well schooled in Chicago's geography and its history. If one really wanted to get all the references and historical citations, one should consider reading Donald Miller's CITY OF THE CENTURY, which will clue one in on most of the 19th century and more obscure references.

   But in a sense, being able to identify all the names and places isn't all that crucial. The heart of the book is intelligible regardless. An essential literary work about one of the world's great cities, by one of its great writers.




3. For a great American writer like Algren and with his love of the city, one could expect more. Perhaps this sort of loose style (it has been called a prose poem) just wasn't his forte. The book starts off strong, but breaks into highly personal memories, and gets a little slow as he covers the same ground again and again. In short, it needed editing. Many of the references are so particular that they don't translate well and have aged poorly- Algren failed to find the universal like Whitman did.
   
   Don't let this book turn you off to Algren's superb fiction writing. He remains a giant in American literature. This just wasn't his day.



4. I had the pleasure of reading Chicago: City on the Make in part, on a hot summer's day sitting in the back of a moving van with the door open, using a cargo strap as a seat belt. Riding along to the next job reading my first Algren made it an afternoon of twists and turns literal and figurative.
   
   As others have pointed out, this book is not a novel, novella or story collection, but a prose poem. They say it like that is a bad thing; as if any potential reader is such an idiot that the book should be printed with an I.Q.-based warning label ("Warning: unless you can handle Sartre in the original, this book might make your eyes bleed"). The book is a prose poem but so what? It's one of those rare and sometimes great books that can be read aloud for the language alone and for the most part, Algren makes every word about the cold wind off the river and the deep corruption count. When he is at his best, he makes the place sound positively holy--like something that glows.
   
   Chicago: City on the Make was like nothing I had ever read then and it is vastly unlike anything I have read since. I am re-buying it for someone else to read (a Chicago native, in fact) but I'm going to get to peek into it again before I give it to him. Chicago: City on the Make is more than just a book it is an experience, a way of doing things that only top-flight, internationally famous authors have the stones to write anymore.
   
   My experience of the book is old, in fact, so old, so that I remember only a few words from a few lines clearly and I am left with two major impressions in memory. The first is that it was a brilliant thing, fully worthy of being called "literature.'
   
   The second was that after an amazing job of keeping his prose flying high above what other authors could ever hope for, the thing bogs down in the end. Algren's voice becomes tired, his segues more and more stretched until there's nothing left of the energy you find in the beginning, but you soon find that you can't really blame him. Algren was not up to the task of finishing his amazing slender volume, but you can't blame him for it: it is certain that no one else could have done any part of it at all.



5. This is a magnificent prose poem-eulogy even- by Nelson Algren to his city.
   He takes you through all the characters and diverse cultures and corruptions that ingrained the Chicago he grew up in and are either being erased from the image the commercial big guns want to promote,or have just fallen by the wayside.
   There's a lot of visceral anger coming through in this book, and it is significant that Algren wrote it during the odious McCarthy anti Communist witch trails that was stiffling the freedoms of speech Algren so valued (he dumped his communist party interests as soon as the lack of free thought became obvious to him-now 'free' society was doing the same!)and distorting and promoting a mythical America that just didn't exist outside of a Disney film!
   The afterword and annotations in the 50th anniversary edition are vital to get the maximum from this book. Algren re articulates what his views are, and -to my mind-makes a postumous apology to his friend Richard Wright who he slammed for leaving Chicago for Paris and 'not sticking it out'. What could one black man who had suffered a life time of rejection and abuse do but say he'd had enough. I liked Algren the better for this acknowledgement.

5 comments about Hawaii For Dummies (Dummies Travel).

1. The book is just what I was looking for. It met all my expectations.
   I am a conscientious shopper. I checked prices in Victoria. With the dollar at par I saved just under seven dollars buying through Amazon - this included the shipping. Until we start refusing to buy overpriced books in Canada we will be gouged by the retailers. Buy on line and save.
   
   Ron



2. I purchased this book about eight months before my husband and I went to Hawaii. I read it cover to cover, and felt very well-informed about all of our travel and accomodation choices. I suggest you really stick to the hotels and restaurants she reviews - the ones not in there are not mentioned for a reason - we stayed in a bad hotel in Waikiki that she didn't mention, and almost booked a terrible luau (Germaine's) that is also not mentioned in the book. Everything we did that she mentioned, however, was great! She offers a wealth of knowledge in a very easy to read book, we would have been lost without it. I bought several other books on Hawaii, but found myself returning to this one time and again.



3. The Dummies series is known for providing practical, easy to understand information to get you started on any topic. The Dummies book for Hawaii does this same thing - black and white, highlights, with short descriptions.
   
   It's important to understand this. This book has quality information - and they are helped out by the Frommer's team, so you are getting Frommer's advice here in the book. However, there are no lush full-color photos to help you absorb the beauty of Hawaii. There are not turn by turn directions to get to those secret locations like the Southernmost Point in the United States.
   
   The book does shine at what it provides. If you're looking for hotels, other travel books often skim over this information. The dummies book provides price ranges, 'best' choices and explains exactly what to look for based on your needs. You get phone numbers, website URLs and details about parking and specials.
   
   The same is true for restaurants. You're told what items on the menu are worth ordering, what seats give the best views and what is great for romantic couples vs for families. Often you are just on a given island for a day or two and don't have time to figure these things out for yourself. Following the advice can make the difference between a so-so dinner and an evening you will remember for a lifetime.
   
   The book in general is a great reference for people who are going to stay on land, with its heavy emphasis on hotels and restaurants. People who are cruising will find it far less helpful. It's description of the famous black sand beach on the big island of Hawaii is super short. The Southernmost Point gets 2 sentences and you aren't even told how to get there. The book is thick - but all in black and white, so you miss out on the gorgeous atmosphere of Hawaii. You learn how to find a good taco, but not the meaning behind the location you are visiting.
   
   So I'd suggest this book primarily for people who are staying on land, and make sure this isn't the only book you get. Go through this book to choose your hotels and restaurants, but get another book or two to go into the background of the location and to map out the sights you wish to see.



4. I bought this book in anticipation of going to Oahu for a week. I have read everything in it about getting to the islands, Oahu, and Waikiki. I also read other guide books on the islands and this one has been the best. It gives pretty much any information that you might need to get there and back.



5. This is the best travel book I have ever used. Very complete and easy to use. The recommendations are flawless. If you are going to Hawaii,especially for the firt time, make your trip better and get this book.

5 comments about Speedway to Sunshine: The Story of the Florida East Coast Railway.

1. Seth, you hit it out of the park on this one, baby!

   One could not possibly hope to find a more comprehensive, more enthusiastic, better written book about the Florida East Coast Railway.

   Buy this one and savor it - it's one of the best railroad books I've ever read!




2. Mr. Bramson has taken his long out of print history of the Florida East Coast Railway and updated it. "New and Improved" tend to be overused adjectives, but in this case they are totally accurate and well deserved.

   Mr. Bramson is the corporate historian for the FEC, and it's totally apparent in this work that he truly LOVES the railroad and it's people. The FEC is the railroad other railroads go to when they encounter problems because, in most cases, the FEC has "Been there, done that".

   In an age where railroad mergers have become commonplace, it's great to see one of the nation's finest railroads remaining independent.




3. If you have Bramson's first book then you will know why this should be in your collection. This adds the history of the railroad from the 1980's to present day. For all the fans of the Florida East Coast Railway, this is the Bible of the FEC history. Many great photos that Seth has been able to save from the dumpters over the years. Seth lives in Miami and is known as Mr. FEC in railroad circles. If you are into the great history of the development of the east coast of Florida and the railroad that went to Key West, then this is the book.



4. recieved the book in 3 days in excellent condition, the book is worth reading.



5. Having ridden the FEC since I was a child, this book was a dream come true. The pictures, maps, and narrative are incredible, whether you rode the FEC, are a modeler, or simply interested in Florida history. I bought the second edition with the expectation that there would be new information, diagrams, etc. I was disappointed. Mr Bramson's book is still "the" book on the FEC, but I highly recommend you purchase the first edition.

No comments about Zagat 2008 America's Top Restaurants (Zagatsurvey: America's Top Restaurants) (Zagatsurvey: America's Top Restaurants).

5 comments about Hiking Yellowstone National Park, 2nd (Hiking Guide Series).

1. In preparation for a family vacation in Yellowstone I sampled 4 different hiking books, and this was by far the best. It had the best descriptions, maps, photos, and readability. I liked the way the author categorizes hikes by special interest: fishing, wildlife viewing, etc. It also provides good information on backcountry campsites if you're looking to backpack. There is no index, which is annoying, but otherwise it's a key buy.



2. This guide lists 109 trails, organized by region and sorted into short, medium, and long hikes. Like other Falcon guides, it provides maps of each trail and valuable information about elevations and steepness. The information is clearly organized, and summarized at the head of each trail listing.
   
   Like other Falcon guides it has a chart listing best flat terrain day hike, best wildlife viewing, most strenuous, best scenery, and so on. The information here is good for those hikes I've taken. Bill Schneider writes well and does a good job describing the hikes so that you can decide which ones are best for you. If you consult just one book on the trails of Yellowstone, this is the one to use.
   
   I'm not fond of the regional organization of the book, which sorts hikes into Northwest, Northeast, Southwest and Southeast. Reasonable as that sounds, it's not really how the park is organized spatially. The Belcher area, for example, is a region unto itself that has to be accessed from outside the park in Idaho. Yet this book lumps it together with the trails around Old Faithful. The Southeast trails include those on the South Entrance road, which is really much closer to Old Faithful, as well as trails around Lake and Fishing Bridge, which are closer to Canyon. This means that if you're staying at Old Faithful or Canyon and looking for day hikes nearby, you have to flip back and forth between two (or even three) sections. (See the Lonely Planet Guide for a more successful organizational scheme.)



3. I found this guide indespensible in planning (and executing) my family's trip to Yellowstone. As has been noted, there is a quirky regional grouping problem with this guide (it groups the trails geographically rather than by how they are accessed). Yet this book is far better than any of the others I investigated (Orville Bach's is a distant second still worth investing in).
   
   The Lonely Planet guide to the Yellowstone region really goes hand in hand with this one. The Lonely Planet gives a good overview with some regional coloring. This guide really lets you know what you're up against trail-wise.
   
   One thing that humored me greatly in our jorney across country were the varying uses of "easy, moderate, and strenuous" in the different parks between my house and Yellowstone. A free tip: An "easy" trail in Yellowstone is substantially more difficult than any "strenuous" trail at Mount Rushmore.
   
   Yellowstone is a place of haunting beauty. It was probably inadvisable for me to go at such a young age (I am in my twenties)--I will spend years longing to go back.
   
   Get this guide. Go to Yellowstone. Explore the trails, not just the boardwalks.
   
   You'll never regret it.
   
   There is no place on Earth that I give a higher recommendation (with the possible exception of the Tetons).



4. I generally like Schneider's guides, and appear to be in the minority here, but I did not love this one. It is a surprisingly thick book with lots of trails; unfortunately most of them are either short tourist strolls or long, multi-day back country excursions. We had difficulty finding hikes that called out to us in the 12-16 mile range (usually not a problem for us - most guides leave us wishing we had 2 weeks to do all the long day hikes we are interested in) and ended up going with ranger recommendations when we got there. If you have 5-10 days for a backcountry trek, this is definitely the book for you. But if you are looking for long day hikes you may want to look elsewhere.



5. This book breaks things down for easy use trail planning, including extra excursions and were to camp on both overnight an longer trips . It even gives you info on each camp site. complaint: sometimes the maps are not next to trail you are reading about but next to another trail in the area. All of the campsites on my topo map are not in the book map although they are described in the back.

3 comments about Insiders' Guide to South Dakota's Black Hills and Badlands, 4th (Insiders' Guide Series).

1. We are planning a trip to the Badlands and Black Hills in September. Insider's Guide provides a wealth of information and I'm finding it a valuable asset. Combined with info from the internet, we will have a well organized trip with knowledge of this area's history.



2. We just got back from a week-long trip to the Black Hills using this guidebook, and while it was better than nothing, and the information was generally correct, it was very hard to use. Instead of being arranged by location, the attractions are arranged by category, with each category subdivided yet again. And the index is no use, since they're not indexed by location. This means that if you're sitting in your motel in (say) Deadwood, and wondering what to do in town, you literally have to thumb through the entire book to figure out! Very frustrating. And the book lacks detailed maps where they are needed (the Deadwood-Lead area, where the roads are rather confusing, or the area around Keystone, Mt. Rushmore, and Crazy Horse). The maps mention the Mickelson Trail, but it's not in the index, and we didn't find out what it was until we were actually there (hint: it's not a scenic highway). And the book needs to be more emphatic about the need to stay away from this whole region in early August because of the motorcycle madness.



3. We just returned from over a week in the Badlands and Black Hills. Although this book had a lot of very useful information, I hated searching through it. Everything is divided into its own category: hotels, restaurants, activities, etc. So when we were in one place for a day or two, we had to search through different sections to find all of the info for that one place. Even worse, each section is divided out by Northern Hills, Central Hills, etc. or by the type of food you're looking for. There was no central location to find all of the restaurants in Deadwood, for example. Apart from that, I found most of the info to be correct and useful. A few of the entry fees were higher in reality, but my biggest problem was with the book's organization. It was a great vacation, and I had a hard time coming home...

5 comments about Pennsylvania Waterfalls: A Guide For Hikers And Photographers.

1. This book made my insatiable quest for waterfalls very easy with great directions. Ricketts Glen State Park is one awesome hike!!



2. Well written, put together so we could easily choose which hikes were for us. Excellent directions to some outstanding out of the falls. I can't rate this book highly enough. Just got back from our trip which this book planned.
   
   Bob (Southern Illinois)



3. Pennsylvania Waterfalls is an excellent book on waterfalls in the Keystone state. While he doesn't cover every known falls in PA, Scott Brown hits almost all of the major, publicly accessible waterfalls. His inclusion of GPS coordinates, maps, and written directions makes them very easy to find (in most cases). His skill as a photographer is readily apparent throughout the entire book, and his insight into the composition of and equipment used for each picture should aid budding photographers. The book is well written, well researched, and covers a subject that's of interest to many but rarely published.
   
   I did find a number of mistakes in the GPS coordinates and/or written driving directions to some of the falls, however. As a geocacher, I rely on accurate coordinates to find locations and in one instance I couldn't find the falls mentioned in the book. East Branch falls in Sullivan County wasn't in the location described by the book; it was actually 4/10ths of a mile away. The book's map was accurate but the coordinates and driving directions were not, and I missed out seeing that waterfall when I was in the area since I ran out of time hunting for it. Other falls where I've found the coordinates to be incorrect in the book include Second Falls, Logan Falls, and Seven Tubs. Still, in a book of 50+ falls, a few mistakes are bound to slip through. Unless you're using a GPS to navigate as I do, you'd probably never even notice most of these mistakes.
   
   Even with the few errors, this book is extremely valuable for waterfalls hunters. I've added it to my own library, and I'd recommend anyone in the Keystone state with an interest in the magnificent beauty of falling water do the same.



4. Really well written, beautifully photogaphed, and easy to understand guide, I absolutely love this. He tells you everything you need to know in order to get great shots at significant PA waterfalls. I'm a PA transplant currently living in Atlanta and bought this book for my trip next week. There's tons of falls I've never seen or heard of listed in the guide. I typically go to Ricketts Glenn every time I return home but im going to some of these other spots instead on this trip. BTW, his self portriats are really funny.



5. Very good guide to all the photogenic spots in the entire PA as opposed to only specific parts of PA. There is very in depth suggestions for the serious photographers (of which I am not) that "point and shoot" photographers are really not going to use, but can at least use his recommendations for site location for the scene. I found the rating system very useful to help me decide which hikes were worth my time seeing on limited time. See also:
   
   Pennsylvania Mountain Vistas: A Guide for Hikers and Photographers