4 comments about Alaska.

1. Art Wolfe's beautiful photos and Nick Jans' reader-friendly text blend in a beautiful coffee-table paperback edition of Alaska (1-57061-216-1, $29.95), featuring gorgeous full-page color photos of environments and animals and reflecting the contributors' familiarity with Alaska's many faces. Choose this as a keepsake memoir of the state's natural beauty.



2. WOW! Breathtaking photos of Alaska. He captures Alaska as it should be.



3. Whether this book of color photographs accurately shows what Alaska really looks like, I don't know, because I haven't been there yet. But having finished it, I'm planning my trip!

   But I can say this is a great book of photographs of nature. Anyone who loves to look at photographs will love this book. Wolfe demonstrates that he is one of the greatest living outdoor photographers. His sense of light and composition is unexcelled. Almost every picture has a strong sense of line, either vertical, horizontal or diagonal. And the range of light is exceptional, often including in the same picture the darkest blacks and the brightest whites.

   The handling of sky is as sublime as that of any of the 19th century American landscape painters. I'm certain that there must be plain blue skies in Alaska but every one of Wolfe's skies has clouds that are fleecy, or glowering, or mysterious. And the light that falls on the landscapes illuminates them with a strange beauty whether casting deep, hard-edged shadows that make a rugged peak look even more majestic; or soft shadows that fall across a brush-covered hillside and create a subtle modulation of green; or the red rays of the magic hours of dawn and dusk.

   Occasionally his pictures take on a strange abstraction that requires a careful examination to discover what one is looking at, like the pictures of white ice floes on the surface of an inky-black river or the network of crevasses on a glacier with a few spots of emerald blue in the white field, where the snow has melted into a pond reflecting the sky.

   Wolfe is a master of color field photography. Consider the brownish, grayish web of fine lines with several smears of white across it that resolves into a portrait of musk oxen with white horns and muzzles. Or the white arctic foxes in the snow with a bare hint of orange on their undersides. Or the receding green hillsides distinguished only by differing textures with a tiny browsing caribou in the foreground.

   The text by Nick Jans is sometimes overly poetic and almost unnecessary given the photographs although explaining just what it is that makes tundra tundra has some interest. However when I turn the page to see just the top halves of the heads of two fierce little owls peeking at me with yellow eyes hidden amongst a row of wildflowers in the Arctic Wild Life Refuge, words disappear from my mind.

   Most people agree that Alaska is one of the last great wildernesses and that we are unlikely to see anything more exciting in our lives. Art Wolfe has captured the excitement of Alaska. He has also captured the excitement of great photography.




4. Beautiful photography of the grandest state. If you've read any of Nick Jans work, you know the text is excellent as well.

5 comments about Hot Springs and Hot Pools of the Southwest: Jayson Loam's Original Guide (Hot Springs & Hot Pools of the Southwest: Jayson Loam's).

1. I gave this four stars because most of the book is awesome and we've good experiences with the other additions. My wife and I love to travel to natural hot springs and we bought this after visiting most of the springs in the Northwest US.
   We bought this edition just to get some idea of the springs in Texas. There is only one listed though which is pretty inaccurate. Nothing in the Austin area is included but the stuff in Hawaii was right on!



2. I got into hiking and discovered hotsprings a few years ago. This book is a great guide and map to many great springs all over the South west and more.
   Def. reccomend it for the adventurer



3. This is probably the best hot spring book in existence for the southwestern U.S.. It is great, it has everything you need. Beyond the locations themselves, the book lists temperature of the pools, driving direcetions, driving conditions, exact GPS coordinates, accessability and a great description of the springs along with some black and white pictures. It has all of the major hot springs in it (I am sure there are still some minor ones on private property). I have been to a couple of the sites in the book and it was easy to find them. I would highly recommend this book.



4. By using the GPS coordinate, we had a lot of fun searching the hot springs in the Mammoth Lakes area. The only reason I give it 4 stars is there is a wrong GPS coordinate (reading the direction eventually got me there). Great book.



5. If you like hot springs, this is the book for you! The most information in the easiest format to follow. The directions are better than most other books like it, Really I haven't found a hot spring book that compares, this one has been around a long time and it's still the best. Also has been revised so its up to date.

No comments about Best Places Northwest (Best Places).

5 comments about Hiking Wyoming's Wind River Range.

1. The most complete descriptions of Wind River trails are in this book. Each trail is characterized as to its length, difficulty, and traffic volume. An elevation profile for each trail is provided as well as brief descriptions of key points along the trail and their mileage points. There are detailed driving instructions to each trailhead. There is also a fairly lengthy narrative regarding the topography of each trail. Additionally, each trail is numbered and it is fairly easy to use the maps in the book to string trails together to design a multi-day backpacking trip. The book is 262 pages long and is one the Falcon guide series. Other features of the book include brief sections on the history, vegetation, wildlife, and geology of the Wind River Mountains. There is information about US Forest Service Wilderness Regulations, and since part of the Wind River Mountains are contained in the Wind River Indian Reservation, there is information about that, too. To round things out there is a backcountry checklist (what to take), information about hiking with children, and information on zero impact camping. Drawbacks include the lack of an index, the lack of a bibliography and little, if any, information about off-trail hiking.
   If you plan to hike in the Wind Rivers on established trails and you don't mind the absence of an index, then this is book is excellent.



2. This is a frustrating book to use although the meat of it---the trail descriptions and stats---is very detailed and well written. The lack of an index, or any way to use all the maps together, and the fact that the maps are very incomplete, make it very annoying to use. Add to this that there is an almost explicit LACK of information or routes for any of the peaks, and one wonders why one bought the book at all. There is no route to the top of Square Top Peak, nor over Dinwoody Pass, or up to Gannett. Even the non-technical peaks are omitted. There is also no "About the Author" section (although it says that there is one), and this is important when one is going to rely on him to guide you into the Wind River Range.



3. This guide was a good introduction to a new hiking area for us. The trails were well described and easy to follow and the prose was useful in suggesting the prominent features of each hike.



4. I just completed a six day haike in Soutghern Wind River area and I found the book Hiking Wyoming's Wind River Range very informative prior to making the hike. However, it could be more complete as to the various hikes and it needs some update in regard to the tails that i took. I will at a later date give my comments in more detail



5. I have found this guide to hiking in the Wind River Mountains to be very informative. The author goes beyond just descibing the difficulty or lengths of hikes. He describes the geology, landscape, vegetation, and even whether a lake holds fish and what type of fish it holds. At times, I felt as if I was on the hike myself. I have been very pleased with this purchase.

4 comments about Alabama Atlas and Gazetteer (Alabama Atlas & Gazetteer).

1. This atlas is very comprehensive and adds new insight into local geography. My father-in-law lives in remote Cleburne County and visiting is always a challenge to find your way. Even he learned names for the roads he drives that are not posted anywhere but in this volume. The details are wonderful and this provides nearly all necessary maps to navigate the state.



2. All of the DeLorme Gazetteers are wonderful. We try to get one when we go to another state. The topo lines are clear and easy to read. The maps show just enough back roads to keep you from getting lost. Don't leave home without it!



3. These are fantastic maps! I have several others, and use them quite often. I don't know of another one that will be better than this one.



4. I currently own CO, TX, TN, VA and now AL atlas & Gaz.
   all are useful for home hunting, trying to locate a key area, etc.
   don't count on this for in depth directions. but a good look at contours and gps this works.
   this one isn't as good as the TX or TN version.

5 comments about Day Hike! Mount Rainier.

1. I really enjoy reading Ron C. Judd's books. He has a terrific sense of humor and is not afraid to call them the way he sees them.
   You can tell by the descriptions in this hiking guide that he's been out on every one of these trails. The book is organized so you can tell which hikes are best for beginners and which will be a long walk for any veteran hiker.
   This is one of a series of three guides that is specifically written for day hikers, but it would be just as useful for anyone planning a backpack. Most of the hikes have a section on extending the hike, so just about anyone who shoulders a pack would benefit by this book
   If you compare it to the other trail guides about Rainier, I think you'll find that this one is the most up-to-date and accurate book of all. Better than that, this one was produced by a real writer.



2. After buying both this book and "Hiking Mt. Rainier National Park" by Schneider, I would say this book definitely takes second place. The nice features are the detailed elevations and the topographic maps. He also gives anecdotal descriptions, like if there are mosquitos or not. However there are a couple of detractors. A few of the hikes are not really even in the park. He also intersperses some snide comments that I do not find humorous, though I guess that is what he was meant by them. A good book if you ONLY intend to day hike and not explore the park in depth, but for a really complete guide Schneider's book is a lot better, as well as being more professional and emphasizing the care that we need to observe to preserve this beautiful national park. However, I do recommend buying both of them for an even more complete hiking guide. They really do not overlap too much and the writing styles are so different you benefit from the information found in both of them about the same hike.



3. I was extremely pleased with this book. It is geared toward hikers of every level of fitness and ability. I found the NPS website confusing in its description of hikes, but this book did a very good job breaking down the various hikes by location, length, difficulty, and change of elevation, as well as providing a good description of what to expect. I took several hikes while at Mt. Rainier and found the book to be very accurate. It also has a number of practical tips which I found useful since I had never hiked at altitude before. I encountered other hikers who lacked guides and they were clueless and missed out on a lot. If you are going to take the time to get to the park, you should spend a few bucks on a book to guide you the rest of the way.



4. We purchased two books on Mount Rainier hiking. This is by far the best. In fact we didn't even need to buy the other book. Ron does a surperb job of descriping each trail in detail. The ratings from easy to extremely difficult are very accurate. He gives elevation gain and rates each trail as far as beauty. The ratings of each trail is from 1 to 5 backpackers instead of stars and we found them to be completely true. We are backpackers as well as day hikers, but we wanted only to day hike these trails, so this book is just what we needed. My advise is to buy this book, it is really all you will need if you only want to day hike. Happy hiking!!!! I hope you enjoy Mount Rainier as much as we did.



5. I've spent a fair amount of days at The Mountain without any trail guide book, but decided I needed one to get full enjoyment out of the park. The book has all the information you need to choose a hike based on highlights, season, difficulty, and solitude.
   
   It is arranged by park region and even includes a few hikes from outside the park that have good views of Rainier. Directions on how to reach the hikes are clear, as are directions while on the trail. Maps are cropped USGS-style and show elevation gain well, along with adjacent elevation gain charts.
   
   I appreciated the inclusion of autumn in some hikes' "best seasons to hike". Far too many books base this designation on wildflower seasons, but leaf color change and mushrooms can provide just as much interest in season. The author's sense of humor is pretty good, although forced at times. Regardless, it does not detract from the discussion f each hike.
   
   All in all, I'd definitely recommend this book if you are only interested in day hikes.

1 comments about Hidden New England: Including Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont (Hidden Travel).

1. Like the book My wife and I like going to new places for a weekend .

5 comments about Through the Children's Gate: A Home in New York (Vintage).

1. Readers of The New Yorker who relish each issue that contains an Adam Gopnik essay will be delighted that 20 of them have been collected in this rich offering of his work. Those unacquainted with Gopnik's graceful and allusive prose are likely to become instant fans.
   
   Taking its title from the name of the Central Park entrance at Seventy-sixth Street and Fifth Avenue, the collection is unified by Gopnik's captivating insights into the lives of his precocious children, Luke and Olivia, as they adapt to life in their new home. That focus is apt, for, he observes, about the Upper West Side world into which they settle, comfortably but not entirely without unease, "a constant obsessive-compulsive anxiety about children --- their health, their future, the holes in their socks, and the fraying of their psyches --- is taken entirely for granted here."
   
   In September 2000 Gopnik and his family returned to New York, after five years in Paris that provided the material for his acclaimed book PARIS TO THE MOON. In that time, he notes, "The map of the city we carried just five years ago hardly corresponds to the city we know today, while the New Yorks we knew before that are buried completely." That first autumn is portrayed as an idyllic time, its innocence made more poignant when viewed backwards through the lens of 9/11.
   
   Two of the pieces, "The City and the Pillars" and "Urban Renewal," deal explicitly with the events of that day and its aftermath, but the fear and anxiety it engendered shadow much of Gopnik's narrative. In a characteristically arresting metaphor that captures the profound and yet curious effect the terrorist attacks had on the city, he notes, "It's as though the sinking of the Titanic had taken place right beside a subway station and been watched by a frightened or curious crowd who saw something unbelievable, the great ship listing and rising up and breaking in two and the people falling from the funnel, and then walked home from the disaster and showed their families that their hands were still cold from touching the iceberg." Yet despite the disaster, Gopnik writes, New Yorkers "learned to live on one foot, hopping along spiritually in more or less normal times." Again, he returns to his theme of children and families: "The real question that pressed itself upon us as parents was how to let our children live in joy in a time of fear, how to give light enough to live in when what we saw were so many shadows."
   
   The New York life Gopnik sketches in these essays is anything but unremittingly anxious or bleak. There are numerous moments of sly humor that leaven the more serious essays. Readers will chuckle as Gopnik, at best a casually observant Jew, grapples with the task of crafting a presentation about the Jewish holiday of Purim. His description of the unintended consequences of a "no-screen" weekend, as he and another father try to wean their sons from computers and video games, is hilarious. And few readers will be able to stifle the urge to "LOL" as fortysomething Gopnik is initiated by his son into the world of instant messaging.
   
   Gopnik also proves himself an erudite companion as he discourses on such subjects as the decline of the New York department store, the revival of Times Square and the story behind the Bill Evans Trio jazz classic, "Sunday at the Village Vanguard." While the collection is decidedly Manhattan-centric, he does leave the island briefly to introduce readers to the bizarre phenomenon of the wild parrots of Flatbush.
   
   Not every essay in the book hits the mark. "The Cooking Game," a description of a contest in which several prominent chefs prepare a meal with ingredients selected by Gopnik, suffers from an uncharacteristically narrow focus. "Death of a Fish" treads perilously close to the line of undue sentimentality. Yet these minor stumbles are more than offset by "Last of the Metrozoids," the understated and moving account of the death of Kirk Varnedoe, Gopnik's close friend and a noted art historian, as he delivers his final lectures and coaches, painstakingly and lovingly, Luke and his eight-year-old teammates on the Giant Metrozoids football team.
   
   Like all accomplished essayists, Adam Gopnik excels in moving seamlessly from the particular to the universal and back again. New York is too multifaceted a place to be captured in any single work, but THROUGH THE CHILDREN'S GATE is a generous and warmhearted place to start.
   
   --- Reviewed by Harvey Freedenberg



2. I should preface this review with some background: I am a pediatrician, working and living in New York, and this book first caught my eye just from the title. When I read the jacket liner and discovered it was, at least in part, about raising children in New York, I felt I had to give it a whirl. I was not too familiar with Gopnik's essays in The New Yorker, though his name was familiar to me and his writing had been recommended to me many times. It was with this background sense of his work that I began to read.
   
   And read, I did. From the first moment I picked up this book I was engulfed and enthralled. This book is a collection of essays written from the author's perspective. He had lived in Paris for 5 years on assignment for The New Yorker Magazine, and returned to New York City in 2000 primarily out of homesickness and out of a desire to raise his family there. Gopnik knows New York, but a lot had changed since the last time he lived here, and this collection of essays is really about his rediscovery of the city, through his own eyes as well as those of others: his children, most notably, but also his wife and some of his close friends. His essays, which feel at times more like stories, are of course tempered by and work through the enormity of 9/11. And the New York he describes is as much the New York of and around 9/11 as it is the New York that it always has been and yet also a new city formed by nothing other than the march of progress.
   
   His subject matter is of two parts, both close to my own heart--New York city and children. He does them both such amazing justice in this book.
   Gopnik's prose is a joy to behold, both familiar and formal, intricately planned yet at times stream-of-consciousness in style. His skill as a writer is as much in this, his technical mastery of the genre, as it is in his easy ability to depict emotions ranging from humor to pathos succintly yet poignantly. His skills suit his subjects perfectly. The city crackles to life underneath his pen, as he captures in amazing clarity what it is like to sit awake and look out at the windows around the city at 3 AM, or what it felt like to watch the city burn 5 1/2 years ago, or what central park means to the city and those in it. He is the quintessential New Yorker, and yet, perhaps because he left the city, he is able now to see it so much more clearly without taking it for granted as the rest of us do.
   
   But the real heart of this book lies in his portrayal of his children. Through his writing we see his love for Olivia and Luke leap off of the page and, without being overly trite, right into our hearts. The way he describes himself already preparing for when they leave home...the way he opines on what the earth must feel like when zen masters leave it--his children are his life, and it shows brilliantly. As someone without children of my own, but who works with them on a daily basis, I can attest to the accuracy with which Gopnik captures their idiosyncracies while still making painfully clear how alike they truly are. By the end of this book, the reader feels he or she knows Gopnik, his family, his children, and the reader feels for him. Or at least I did.
   
   This is, once again, a wonderful read. Light, funny, and yet undeniably heavy and full of rich sadness and depth, and at times all at once. Gopnik has outdone himself. As we step through the Children's Gate, we enter his world, and when the book ends we just don't want to leave.



3. I have some sympathy with the caustic review of "Mr Picky" below, not because I have the same distaste for Adam Gopnik's work (quite the reverse), but because I agree that all of Gopnik's work is, essentially, about himself. Not only that, but where his subject veers away from himself, or those closest to him, he becomes far less interesting and insightful.
   
   Having said that, there is no doubt that Gopnik is a very, very good writer. It is his lucid and insightful writing that not only saves this (and his other) book from the pretentious and self-indugent exercise that it would have been from just about any other writer, but which provides genuine pleasures that make it a very entertaining and rewarding read.
   
   Gopnik's subjects are, as others have noted, New York and his children. The best sections by far are those dealing with his relations with his children. The further he moves from that subject, the less interesting his writing becomes, and the duller his prose style. There is a chapter on "switch hotels" and parakeets. I am still not sure what that chapter is about, or why switch hotels needed an essay written about them, or what the connection is with parakeets. There is also an article on the great Bill Evans and his Village Vanguard recordings. There is an enormous amount to say about these performances, but Gopnik struggles to say anything genuinely interesting. These pieces seem sincere but dutiful, and somewhat laboured. Even his 9/11 pieces suffer from a worthy but dull quality. It is only when Gopnik turns back to his children and his close friends that his writing again becomes enlivened and interesting.
   
   I agree with Mr Picky that there is a certain amount of literary pretentiousness which comes through many of Gopnik's essays. The names of literary heavyweights are dropped with a little more regularity than is strictly necessary. But in a way, these kinds of allusions have their own charm, in the same way that they do in many of Woody Allen's movies. In fact, Gopnik and his friends could well have walked straight out of Woody Allen's "Manhattan".
   
   I always enjoy reading Gopnik. Ever since I first encountered the essay "Man Goes to See a Doctor" in the New Yorker many years ago (the essay is also collected in this book), which I regularly re-read, I have always looked out for Gopnik's work and always read it with considerable pleasure. The only reservation I have is that, as noted above, Gopnik is only at his best with the subjects of himself, his children, his friends and his immediate vicinity; and those subjects have a certain banality which is evaded only by the quality of his writing. Every generation re-discovers the experience of raising children as if it is the first ever to do so. Almost every Sunday paper in every major city has a columnist describing the amusing antics of their young family. Only Gopnik's intelligence and insights save his essays from the usual Sunday column banality.
   
   Despite some reservations about the limitations of his subject matter, this is genuinely a very enjoyable book, and Gopnik is undoubtedly a talented writer. "Through the Children's Gate" is highly recommended.



4. I received this book as a Christmas present, and took it with me on holiday to Japan ... because I wished that I were going to New York but was not.
   
   I expected a book of stories about life in New York. While I got this in some ways I got it in such a way as to be at times rendered speechless. This book contains laugh out loud elements (stories of his children) and parts which brought me to tears (the ending of the Giant Metrozoids). It has also inspired me to do a whole lot more reading, all the books which Gopnik refers to are now on my reading list.
   
   I am not a New Yorker, but, after a week there in 2006 now miss this city so desperately from my home in Australia, that I am amazed. Gopnik captured my feelings in this book. The moments of clarity that I had to share with the people I was travelling with, and will become pearls of wisdom for staff meetings when I am required to talk.
   
   Would I recommend this book? Of this I am unsure. It is a highly observationalist book, looking at the society in which the author lives and grasping for the truth that is found within. It is also in the nature of critical literacy, so some deep thinking is required on the part of the reader. I usually read a book every day or two when travelling (particularly when in a country where English is not found readily) my addiction is to the pages, not the 'screens or cards'. But this book took me nearly two weeks, and I feel a need now to re-read it. To high light and mark the pearls I have discovered in the manner of a university text so that I can give these the true depth of consideration they deserve.
   
   All in all though, this was a book I can see myself reading again and again one which spoke to my soul so truly that I can hear the sirens of NYC echoing down the streets, smell the hotdog venders and feel the wind in my face. This book will tide me over until I get to go back again.



5. A selection of beautifully written essays on life in New York as a father, husband, and observer of the cultural scene. There is a particularly moving and enlightening description of the Bill Evans trio's storied sessions decades ago at the Village Vanguard.

5 comments about USA by Rail, 6th (Bradt Rail Guides).

1. The guide is very informative. It covers the Canadian rail systems, also.



2. Everything you need to plan (or dream about) a vacation across the USA by train!



3. I strongly recommend this guide for those who expect to take any substantial Aamtrak trip. We have taken a number of them and I throughly believe this is one of the best guides that is out. Not only does it provide information you can use as the trip progresses, but helps with distances so you can pick the right stop or what train to take while planning your trip. Some of the trains have small, specific brochures that provide similar information, but by the time you have boarded its a little late for the planning advantages. Even then, this book provides more detail than the pamphlets. The route maps alone are worth the price.



4. 
   In planning a trip for 2008 I have found USA by Rail to be very helpful in deciding routes to criss cross the USA and Canada. Covers a multitude of important subjects in easy armchair reading or to use as a guide in route.



5. Having looked at several other books on train travel, I believe that this is the one you need to have when embarking on a journey with Amtrak. With the price of gas having gone up as much as it has, there is still a whole land to see, so I highly recommend this book. We used it extensively on a 28-state, almost 9,000-mile trip. The book gives plenty of things to look for and helped us to better understand the geography (and landmarks) we were seeing. Each route is specifically detailed, including the stops. There are also sections with important information that should be read before embarking. I notice that the 7th edition is due this fall, so there were a few errors (scheduling, stopping, etc) that I'm sure will be corrected. So if you are not leaving until next year, you may want to wait for the newest edition. But again, don't leave home for Amtrak without this important guide.

3 comments about Go, Go America.

1. This book has been a hit amongst my students. They like to read the fun, silly facts that belong to each state. They are constantly sharing the fun facts with me as they read.



2. This book can be enjoyed by children and grownups alike -- there's fun here for everyone -- and good information too.



3. Dan Yaccarino created this great travel book for kids just in time for summer trips. Using this book as a learning tool to expand your child's knowledge will be a wonderful thing. I estimate the reading level is 6-10, depending on the child and the reading interest is 6-12.
   
   Each state is represented with 6-9 facts per state, including the capital.
   Some of the facts are fun, some mundane, and some inane. For example, Louisiana (my home state) contains these facts:
   
   1. "In New Orleans, a fire engine must STOP for a red light, even if it is on the way to a fire." Why would the publisher include such a fact!? This is an example of inane and I took off a point for this. Or, "the honeybee is Louisiana's official state insect." I just wish we had more honeybees. I have seen very few this sumer.
   
   2. "Guiden is known as the Duck Capital of America.!"
   
   The state of Maine has these things:
   
   1. 90% of the Blueberries in the United States come from Maine, so save some room for dessert!
   
   2. More toothpicks are produced in Maine than is any other state--100 million a day are made.
   
   3. Augusta is the captal of Maine.
   
   Let's try Pennyslvania:
   
   1. "Did you know that Philadelpia is home to the Liberty Bell?
   
   2. "The nation's largest insectarium is in Philadelphia. Watch Tarantulas,
   Cockroaches, and Assorted Bugs."
   
   Florida rates two pages:
   1. The Overseas Highway, which runs from Miami to Key West, is known as one of the longest over-water roads in the world."
   
   2. Did you know that Forida is known as the Alligator State and has the world's largest Alligator population?
   
   And so it goes!. In the back of the book is a another great feature for travel: For each state is a long list of answers to these topics:
   Statehood, Order of Statehood, square miles, bird, flower, tree, motto, and nickname.
   
   I have just one more question: When do we Go, Go America?