2 comments about Boat Navigation for the Rest of Us: Finding Your Way By Eye and Electronics.

1. I have read or skimmed dozens of works on navigation. I have also navigated a variety of small boats along the coasts of Nova Scotia. None of the other books provided the degree of realistic and practical advice that this one does. It takes a pragmatic view that the typical small boat operator will use visual navigation where possible, backed up by judicious use of GPS/Loran and/or radar. In my experience, this is the way that most of us navigate. The book provides lots of excellent tips based on the author's extensive experience in small boats, ships, and the coast guard. It also debunks common misconceptions about GPS and LORAN accuracy and clearly explains how to use these tools. One caveat is that the book is biased to North America. This makes it clearer for an audience on this continent, but not as useful below the equator or in Europe or Asia. All in all, if you buy one book to help you learn or improve your small boat navigation skills, this would be the one I recommend.



2. If you travel away from your home port, this book is invaluable. Simple, clear, useful. Combines traditional and GPS based methods.

5 comments about Weird California (Weird).

1. Photos, illustrations and stories are great. But I found the overall book lacking in one key area: Maps to show you where these places are located. Or even where some of the cities are located. Very fun book but but I felt I wanted more info. with greater detail.



2. I picked up this book out of facination. I realized that in the County where I live they spoke of the Olivas Adobe. But they had the facts of the place all wrong. One instance, they had the owner and builder of the Adobe, who in fact was a part of the Mexican Army under General Santa Ana, serving under General Santa Barbara. There never was a General Santa Barbara. Too bad. The legend of this ghostly place has a great story but told by the wrong people. They need to do a little bit more research than just crank out books with misinformation.



3. As others have stated, the one big thing lacking in this book is a map. It would be much more convenient if there was an overall map citing the locations of places described in the book so you could easily see what weirdness is near you to explore. Even a simple index by county would be more useful than nothing. I can't speak to the fact checking, but it is an entertaining read.



4. Perfect solution for weekend getaways if you live in or near California. Can't wait to start traveling to some of these cool places. Very well written with outstanding photography.



5. This is an interesting book, full of truly weird facts about our great State. Even folks that aren't heavy readers will have fun leafing through it's pages.

5 comments about The Cruising Guide to Central and Southern California: Golden Gate to Ensenada, Mexico, Including the Offshore Islands.

1. From a recent sailing trip out of Santa Barbara through the channel islands I can tell you that this book is invaluable. His treatment of safe ports and refuges (arranged very well but conditions) was fantastic and kept us out of danger.



2. We have used Brian Fagans guidebooks from SD to SF for many years, but this is the best of the lot. We recently led a cruise to the Channel Islands, and made this a "must" for the cruisers, all of whom praised it highly. Really THE guidebook to coastal cruising in Central-Southern California---and a bargain!



3. This is a good book for those interested in cruising the west coast, you can always get something out of the book if you plan to make that trip up the coast, lots of good information to research and make plans from.



4. After cruising in the Pacific NW for the past two years using the Douglass and Hemingway guides and the Waggoner Guide, we were admittedly spoiled. If that's the quality you expect, you won't get it here. On the other hand, we couldn't find an alternative, and this is better than nothing. The harbor diagrams were nice, but there aren't enough of them and what there are don't provide enough detail. The landmarks mentioned in the text often don't appear in the diagrams. We also noticed inaccuracies, but this could be due to time. For example, the fuel dock in Morro Bay wasn't where the guide said it was. However, the woman at the Visitor Information Center also thought it was in the direction indicated in the book. (For others looking for it, it's across from marker 12, not beyond 18.)



5. I found this book to contain many useful tidbits of information, especially about prevailing weather conditions. The author gives insightful and non obvious ways for determining the approach of Santa Ana's which itself is probably worth the price of the book

5 comments about Newcomer's Handbook For Moving To And Living In Los Angeles: Including Santa Monica, Pasadena, Orange County, And The San Fernando Valley (Newcomer's Handbooks).

1. This book is filled with all kinds of information that can be written about moving to any city like how to find a realtor. Has uninspiring reviews about neighborhoods.
   
   I have a hard time believing that the authors were even there. Has no more information than can easily picked up on the internet.



2. Although the book provides a useful summary on a number of areas (for example descriptions of various villiages around LA) I missed practical information, such as:
   - How does the school system work in USA?
   - At what age need children go to school?
   - Practical information regarding moving to LA /USA such as can I use my European electrical equipment there (such as waching machines, etc)?
   - Practical tips on medical system, doctors, etc.
   I have seen better.



3. Very very good pocket (not pocket sized thought) book which covers things I would never had thought of. Great websites and contacts provided for all topics and the content is well thought of and carried off well in a nice manner.
   Am buying the New York one.... you never know.



4. Los Angeles is absurd sprawl of quasi-independent towns that can easily overwhelm a newcomer. Make a mistake, and you could end up living in Sun Valley - a nice name for a rather ugly place, and just wait until summer: the low rent won't compensate for the bill from the electric company. Add in a bizarre city government and top it off with California's own unique way of doing things (visit the DMV), and you'll begin to understand why a guide like this is essential to a newcomer.
   
   You may think, "I can find all this on the Internet for free," and you'd be right. That is if you can get the Internet to function. The cable company and the phone company are not exactly customer oriented in Los Angeles. It might help to have a guide book like this when you're trying to set all that up.
   
   Maybe you've got Internet on your phone so you can just go to Google and... yeah, I'll see you in Sun Valley. Since you're not a savvy resident you didn't know that the particular "Apartment Locator" site that you looked at was actually a scam or that a particular "church" was really shilling for Scientology.
   
   If you're moving to Los Angeles I'm sure this book will save you time and money. It'll also reduce your frustration (though it won't eliminate it--wait until you talk to the phone company).



5. I just bought and read this book. Being a foreigner temporally moving to LA, I appreciated all the general information on buying or renting a house, plus neighborhood information, since I had no clue where to start looking. Now I can confine the area searches to those that (supposedly) match my income and living expectations. The last edition (4th) is from 2005, talking about how the house and estate market will keep rocketing to the sky (and how you get a subprime loan)... Maybe time for an update?

5 comments about Old Glory : A Voyage Down the Mississippi.

1. Um, fellow reviewers, do you think that every little town in America is a picture postcard? Or do you not think there is a dark side to life in London, New York, or in any little burg one might chance upon, say, going down the Mississippi? Do you think that people don't have a disgruntled, distrustful side as well as a kind, generous side? Would you, in short, prefer a chintzy Hallmark postcard to a well-penned, thoughtful, erudite travel book, such as this?--If so, why did you bother reading or reviewing it?
   
   As Raban remarks to one of his inquisitors, he in not a journalist and this book is about him and his impressions on his, brave or quixotic, depending on how you view it, travel down the Mississippi inspired by dreams of it since a boyhood reading of Mark Twain.
   
   Yes, some of it is sad and melancholy. But often it is laugh-out-loud funny at the author's expense as much as at the expense of any of the people he meets. It is often very bracing and generous; and erudite, like all of Raban's writings.
   
   As a refutation to all the nay-sayers, please cast your eye on the last page of Chapter 10 where he opens the note from the tow captain he has been accompanying:
   
   "I opened it ten minutes later and read it by the light of a city streetlamp, with the paper dimpling in the warm rain.
   
   "I know very little
   of writers, but people
   I do no. You are a
   Good man to ride
   The River with, Jonathan Ravan
   Bob Kelley
   Master M/v Jimmie L.
   Dec. 7, 1979"
   
   It was the one certificate I had most wanted to earn."
   
   Another fantastic book by Raban, the greatest, most thoughtful, introspective, literate travel writer alive today.
   



2. Raban is a very special travel writer and this book, which I read 18 years after he drifted down the Mississippi, warmed me like few others.
   His conversations with such a diverse (but from my experience, typical) set of Americans were classic. I dont believe he is unduly pessimistic but rather realistic and in many ways he captured early , many growing influences that impact American society (and global politics) today.



3. This is the first book I would recommend to anyone who wanted to understand the Mississippi River. It is the story of an Englishman who dreams of seeing the river, from Minneapolis to New Orleans, and so buys a 16' motorboat in which to ride downriver, see interesting cities, boring cities, and judge everyone he sees on the way. Telling a narrative of his journey, Raban takes time to meet the people who make the river work, from lock operators to barge drivers, and gives a clear picture of how the Mississippi lives. He offers colorful, clear descriptions of river features like boils, eddies, wing dams, and tows (which actually push). And still, he takes time out of his trip to campaign for a mayoral candidate.
   
   Nevertheless, in any book of this nature the author becomes the only major character, and I didn't find myself liking Raban the character very much. When I think of traveling the Mississippi, part of that dream is something of a wilderness adventure, but here is the wealthy Raban spending most of his nights in hotels, seeming rather weak and overly afraid of nature and wildlife. And while one's personal relationships during a solo journey like this are sure to be mostly superficial, Raban seems to take a uniformly negative, judgmental view towards the people he meets. Read this book to better understand the river, not mankind.



4. Raban left his wife in England and went to live in the States a number of years ago. He's written a number of great books about America and this is his best. He remarried and lived in Seattle, but is now divorced again. You won't see too many photos of a smiling, happy Raban- but apart from his Passage to Junea and his fiction, everything he's written is first class



5. Cerebral, yet accessable, Jonathan Raban is hard to peg in terms of genre. A book such as Old Glory could be considered travel writing, but such easy classification would fall far short of the mark. He incorporates history, some incredible descriptive prose, and sparse but welcome bits of dry British wit. In fact, his Englishness is part what makes the book so interesting - you see America, warts and all, from the eyes of an outsider. Raban is a stylist, who reveals himself to the reader slowly. I found him to be a very interesting, complex, slightly tortured figure. I will never look at the Mississippi as just some long line on a map ever again. The whirlpools, the logs, the dangers; always moving atop and into the unknown and on a vessel ridiculously undersized for such a trip; a metaphor, certainly. In terms of pure writing style, there cannot be many better than Jonathan Raban. This is a writer, you think, you will come back to.

3 comments about AMC's Best Day Hikes in the Catskills and Hudson Valley: Four-Season Guide to 60 of the Best Trails from New York City to Albany (Appalachian Mountain Club).

1. There are more than 600 miles of hiking trails in the Catskill mountains and the Hudson Valley, locales that are within just a few hours of New York City. "AMC's Best Day Hikes In The Catskills & Hudson Valley" is a practical "day trip" guide to varied and scenic terrains that range from Westchester County to Albany, showcasing sixty of the most scenic and spectacular of these trails which suited for anything from short family nature walks to day-long hikes with magnificent views. Each individual trail trip includes a detailed map and a summary of the trip time, distance, and difficultly. An icon indicates whether the trail is also good for snowshoeing or cross-country skiing in the winter, making "AMC's Best Day Hikes In The Catskills & Hudson Valley" an all weather, all-season reference of value for both local residents and vacationing visitors. Enhanced with hiking and safety tips, advice for hiking with children, an 'At-a-Glance Trip Planner' for finding the best hikes suited to the reader's aspirations and limitations, "AMC's Best Day Hikes In The Catskills & Hudson Valley" is the premier guide for anyone planning an excursion in New York's Catskills and Hudson Valley country!



2. We are not expert hikers, but we got around fine using this guidebook. We knew we wanted to go hiking during our B&B weekend in the Hudson Valley, but wanted to try somewhere other than Mohonk Mountain (which is very nice, and covered in the book, but we've done it a few times). We took his suggestion and rode out to Stissing Mountain. It was so worth it! Between the directions in the book and help from our GPS, we were able to find the trailhead. Climbing to the top was a little intense, but we were rewarded with amazing views from the firetower, just as promised! We can't wait to go back for more hikes!



3. An excellent guide at a great price. Included are an overall map, a chart summarizing the hikes, a map and details (difficulty, distance, time, elevation change) for each hike, directions to the starting point and lots of useful information about each trail. Several pictures are included and there's good reference information in the back of the book.

5 comments about Little Chapel on the River: A Pub, a Town and the Search for What Matters Most.

1. Wow, I feel like I missed the boat (or the train as it may be) on this one. I see all the posts from back in 2005 and wondered why I hadn't seen this book before. Now in August of 2007 I just finished reading this book (for the second time). What a superb tale, timely, well written and very touching. I live not far from Garrison and feel compelled to stop in at Guinans and have a beer.
   
   Thank you Wendy Bounds for telling this story. I am going to look for more tales from Ms. Bounds. Hope to see some soon.
   
   Must read for any one looking for a great story.



2. I couldn't think of a better title to my review, then to sum it up with my feelings after reading this book. THANK YOU Wendy for sharing your experiences at Guinan's with us. For introducing us to the wonderful cast of characters - human, animal, logistical. Your writing placed me right at a stool at the "chapel", or on a wind swept hill overlooking the Hudson. Thank you for forever memorializing this place and time and people. Grand job!



3. I enjoyed this book very much. The author did a beautiful job describing the area and I felt like I knew the patrons and Jim by the time I finished the book. A very nice read!



4. Probably the most "quiet" post-9/11 book I've seen, this is a touching tale of a woman's senses being awakened and values shifted by being immersed in completely new surroundings. More than a fish-out-of-water tale, it's a thoughtful exploration of the way a tragedy can prompt you to re-think the course your life is taking. But even without the 9/11 connotations, it's a rich, rewarding read. Highly recommended.



5. This is a book to treasure for its warm and friendly tale of how a place and its people can become a home, of how what matters most in life is warm and loving friendship, the caring concern that true friends offer one another, unconditionally. It also demonstrates, unknowingly, that our search for what matters most is more a matter of unexpected discovery, typically surprising us when we're searching the least.
   
   Wendy writes well, with sensitivity and savvy discernment. She focuses on a special place, Guinan's pub in Garrison, and she shares enough historical background to fill in between the gaps of what she learns firsthand. Overall, it's a thoughtful and heartfelt book that pulls a reader ever closer to the Hudson Valley.
   
   I often felt jealous of the author and her friends at the pub, wanting my own place where "everyone knows [my] name," as another quotes from "Cheers," wanting my place at the Guinan's. If I weren't so far away, and if gas prices weren't so ugly, I'd have planned a visit to Guinan's and be on my way by now. I'd like to sit a spell, share a few beers and few stories with the author. I would consider the time sacred, for that's what she's done for the pub and its people, memorializing their time time together at "the little chapel on the river."
   
   Three cheers to Gwendol! What a fine tribute! I'm buying a round for everyone. Drink and be glad for all that's good in life ... and all that we can do to help one another. It's the unsolicited gestures that count, always.

4 comments about Down the Santa Fe Trail and into Mexico: The Diary of Susan Shelby Magoffin, 1846-1847 (Yale Western Americana Paperbound, Yw-3.).

1. Magoffin was a name familiar to the Mexicans who had trading relations with Susan's husband for years before he married her and took her with him from the states on an expedition to Chihuahua, Mexico. She kept a diary from which she drew her information for the only book I know written by a woman, young and pregnant, whose fate it was to die in her 26th year, at home. Accounts from her perspective at such a crucial time in relations between the United States and Mexico, in a venacular peculiarly her own, make her work one of considerable importance to the serious student of the time. Revealing also are individual encounters with men, some from her own country, and her opinion of Gen. Stephen Watts Kearny, commander of the U.S. Army of the West stationed in Sante Fe. Susan was a young lady of class the exercise of which makes the reader proud, and whose elegance charmed all who came to know her.



2. 
   Many journals of travelers along the Santa Fe (and Oregon and California) Trail have been published, but Susan Magoffin's ranks among the best of them. Susan Magoffin was born of a wealthy family in Kentucky and had recently married the successful Santa Fe trader Samuel Magoffin. They had spent six months on a honeymoon trip to New York and Philadelphia (about which Susan also kept a journal, though to my knowledge it has not been published), and now, two months after their return to Independence, Missouri, she was to accompany her husband on a caravan transporting goods along the Santa Fe Trail to northern Mexico. She was 18 years old.
   
   Magoffin is as charming as any 18 year old could be, and it's a joy for the reader to share her sense of adventure. She is obviously having the time of her life, despite the inconveniences of broken wagon bows and stormy weather. We also get a view of what life was like for typical travelers on the trail. There is also intrigue to a degree: Samuel's older brother James was on a mission for President Polk preceding Stephen Kearny's troops during the initial stages of the Mexican War, and news about James enters the journal at certain points, including once where he was robbed by the Apaches but somehow escaped with his life. After the trading caravan reached Santa Fe, the Magoffins contined on into Mexico, spending time at Chihuahua. The journal ends on September 8, 1847, and does not include her contracting yellow fever at Matamoras where she also gave birth to a son (he died a few days later). The couple then sailed across the Gulf of Mexico to the Mississippi River and to Susan's family in Kentucky. (Susan would live only another eight years, dying of childbirth at age 27.)
   
   It's a wonderful first-hand account. My only complaint is that I wish editor Stella Drumm had identified locations (camping sites, geographic sites, etc.) mentioned by Magoffin in the journal. Other than that, it's a chronicle that can be read often and always seem fresh and exciting. A must-read record of an important and lively adventure.



3. I am an author. I am writing a novel based on my grandmother's life. I'm using this book as a guide to writing her story. She was born in 1863 in Clinton, Iowa and traveled west. The route she took is not know but this book gives a vivid account of the trail and its tribulations and high points.



4. It is with some awe in my own breast that I write a review for this remarkable little book, which is a "Historical Diary" and therefore of importance to those who would study history from the human element rather than strictly through footnotes. I offer a quote taken from her that struck me as one of the most unique I have heard uttered - flowing from the mind through the pen and on to posterity from of one of the Pioneers; the raw honesty springing from the personal epic she never designed for others other than family to ever see:
   
   "There is such Independence, so much free, uncontaminated air, which impregnates the mind, the feelings, nay, every thought, with purity. I breathe free without that oppression and uneasiness felt in the gossiping circles felt in the settled home."
   
   The writer is not polished; but her work was never intended to be published. What makes it so intriguing is that she managed to capture the moment, the time, complete with names, descriptions of the country and the peoples as she was thoughtfully living it, something most of us would either not think of doing, or be distracted in the monumental tasks of everyday work in such an environment. Which brings me to the crux of the matter in a hurry: this woman, though very young, was educated, had married a mature, much older man man who had a thriving, though fraught with danger Trade business established on the fringes of the frontiers. She was pampered throughout the journey; yet never seemed to take it for granted. As a result, she could write enthusiastically of events and gather wildflowers at will, almost as a scientific mode arising unintentioned from the moment; this free, unencumbered freedom from heavy responsibility obviously was one of the things that allowed her to devote her time, energy and full attention to matters of the day that were happening around her, while her servants did the mundane work. This alertness is felt throughout the book, even in the midst of the terror of Mexican and Indian attacks that came within miles of their supply train. I don't know how much of this she went back and wrote with a steadier hand, but it appears that she was in full self-control at all times, even during these times of high stress.
   
   Her devotion to her husband is genuine, and is felt in a way much different than many diaries I have read. It seems as though their union was one of love, companionship; yet comprised of a strong sense of individualism, another idea that was rare within that era of female domination. She describes the grass, the cold, sweet limestone water, the suffering of the animals when lack of feed and water arose - it made no difference - the wagons must travel on.
   
   In short, she wrote what is possibly one of the most accurate, historical accountings, unembellished of the Santa Fe Trail at that time simply because she didn't know she was doing it.
   
   If you love old Southwest history, American Frontier History of any kind, you will enjoy this book.

1 comments about Insiders' Guide to the Oregon Coast, 3rd (Insiders' Guide Series).

1. THE INSIDERS' GUIDE TO THE OREGON COAST should be purchased with THE INSIDERS' GUIDE TO PORTLAND, OREGON, in order to give you a complete picture of Western Oregon. It's interesting to note that certain topics in this book are broken up into different sections of the coastal region, including town listings and tourist accomodations. Certain radio station categorizations, however should be taken like the humor in comedy movies featuring Melissa Joan Hart, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Cameron Diaz, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Jennifer Garner, and Natalie Portman, as they are incorrect. This is a minor quibble however, as this book is generally a great guide for anyone looking for things to do in coastal Oregon to get in shape for their significant other and/or their favorite celebrity.

No comments about Fodor's Santa Fe, Taos & Albuquerque, 1st Edition (Fodor's Gold Guides).