4 comments about Vermont Off the Beaten Path, 6th (Off the Beaten Path Series).

1. Author Lisa Shaw lives in New Hampshire. And she owns a company that publishes marketing materials. That should have been my tipoff to avoid "Vermont: Off the Beaten Path".

   Shaw's guide reads like a promotional tract from someone who took a few days to spin through the state, eat at roadside diners and jot down cute facts from historical markers.

   My wife and I learned nothing about where we were going from her sketchy, vapid musings about the towns she only saw long enough to eat lunches in.

   And to judge from the way Shaw raved about each place she snacked at, we figured owners gave her free meals and slipped a $50 under the table.

   She spends four paragraphs telling us about the Snack Shack in Barre, but only three telling us about the state capitol in Montpelier.

   In Windsor, Vermont, we learn only that there is a Thai restaurant. What distinguishes this place so much that one should travel perhaps thousands of miles to eat there? Well, Shaw notes, as if revealing a unique custom known only to native Vermonters, "Place your order at the window, sit down at one of the picnic tables inside, and the dishes will be brought to you, as they're cooked in the order they're received."

   Shaw has a knack for saying nothing in many words. But I should have known; that's the mark of an advertising copywrighter. She exhaustively promotes places where one can get a "handmade burger", as if they're unknown in Des Moines.

   As for sights, Shaw wastes pages telling us about such gems as the vintage Eureka Schoolhouse, which, she notes, has a telephone and space heater inside. "The roof looks absolutely ancient," she breathlessly describes. After extolling the school's interior she ends by mentioning that it isn't open to the public, "but feel free to walk around and look."

   In Chester she tells us to look at a building reading "PUBLIC TOMB 1850". That's it. And there's the abandoned copper mine she suggests we visit, because we can "...see what looks like a heap of copper-colored dirt...."

   Shaw's ability to highlight the mundane is world class. Worth an award from the Clios, the advertising Oscars, I think. At one restaurant she writes, "Classical music played throughout our lunch." At another, "...water and coffee are available", and at a third, "Blanche personally takes your order and then goes back and cooks it." I guess I have a little Vermont near my home, too, if these things are the measure of the state.

   Moreover, the book's layout is abysmal. It has no maps, just outlines of regions with numbers plastered around, which are supposed to correspond with the "unique" sights she highlights in each section, except those numbers are never used in the chapters themselves.

   She appears to have attempted to structure the book's chapters as a series of tours, but achieves only a jumble of confusing point-to-point anecdotes, which we found impossible to untangle.

   "Vermont, Off The Beaten Path" does have one redeeming quality about it. If you are a true adventurer you can read this travel guide and rest assured you will still be surprised at what you find wherever you go in Vermont, because Lisa Shaw won't have revealed any clues.




2. Only someone with a personal vendetta against th eauthor would go to such lengths to trash someone's work. If you don't like it, just say so and move on. And by the way, bitter folks like you should be vacationing in Detroit, not Vermont!



3. I bought this book hoping it would tell me things I didn't know or at least things I knew presented in a new light. At the time I was doing a lot of Vermont travel. I found this book quite useless, and was put off by its dismissive tone. Vermont is a complex place, but you would not know that by reading this.



4. I have used several of "The Off The Beaten Path" books over the years and have found them for the most part to be accurate. However, I was greatly dissapointed in the Vermont one. I tried for hours to find several locations only to be told by the "locals" that there was no such place or that the structure had been moved several years ago. Some locations were found right off but I found that I have been spoiled but the authors of the New Hampshire book and their accuracy. I have noted that the Rogers are doing the updates. GREAT, now I'll find the places I want to see.

1 comments about New England : Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut (National Geographic's Driving Guides to America).

1. Ideal for planing your trip to New England area. You will have several routs to explore this part of the country. Tips, Maps and Photographs that give you a very good picture of your trip. This will help you to don't miss any of the important places of the road.

1 comments about Touring Vermont's Scenic Roads: A Comprehensive Guide.

1. With Touring Vermont's Scenic Roads: A Comprehensive Guide, native Vermonter Ken Aiken proves a splendid guide to Vermont's most spectacular roads showcasing Vermont's quintessential New England scenery, lovely farms and villages, historic sites, beautiful and awe-inspiring mountains -- all absolutely free from billboard road sign pollution. Touring Vermont's Scenic Roads is enhanced for the cyclists or motorist with fascinating histories, anecdotes, and glimpses of local color -- and provides precise road directions providing a true sense of Vermont's scenic splendor and New England charm. If you are touring Vermont for business or pleasure, don't leave home without your very own copy of Touring Vermont's Scenic Roads.

1 comments about Best Hikes With Children Vermont, New Hampshire & Maine (Best Hikes with Children).

1. A good book which largely delivers what it promises. However, it is best used in conjunction with a more comprehensive map and/or guide, if you're visiting a particular region. Give it 4.5 stars.

   Good Points: 1) The author points out "kid-friendly" features on hikes and gives good descriptions. 2) Most of the hikes have pretty good thumbnail maps

   Drawbacks: 1) Introductory map could be better (more detailed) to help reader find trails 2) Some hikes lack thumbnail maps. Why? 3) Abilities of children vary wildly. We found that a "moderate" hike can be strenuous for an inexperienced or out-of-shape child (or adult, for that matter).

1 comments about Vermont: A View from Above.

1. Okay, so why give it 5 stars if it's not "outstanding"? Because it's about Vermont, and Vermont is perfect. That's the rule. Objectively, I'd have to give the book 4 stars.

   This book is an ideal coffee table book because it contains only pictures with very little accompanying information aside from the caption. Obviously all of the pictures are aerial, but some are focused on a small area -- like a building or bridge -- and others are of landscapes. Most of them were apparently taken after foliage season and throughout Winter; I would've liked to have seen a little more seasonal diversity.

   My favorite picture is on page 79 because I hope to have one of those myself someday.

   My least favorite is, unsurprisingly, on page 27. For some reason Feil has a tradition of including a shot of an auto salvage yard in his books, but I thought it took up the space where a good picture could be.

   Overall, Feil (and Rooty) do a nice job of capturing some unique moments in a one-of-a-kind place.

3 comments about Reading the Mountains of Home.

1. I learned much about New England from this fine book -- and about Robert Frost.



2. I have read many of the reviews of Reading the Mountains of Home--both before and after I studied the book itself--in various magazines and newspapers, and, while many of them summarize accurately and manage to convey fairly clearly its complex and compelling structures, the musical grace of the sentences, the unique of John Elder's vision about the interlinking of language and place and time and family, of Robert Frost's "Directive" and of the concept of wilderness in America. There is a sense also in which he has taken nature writing--a broad genre forever in evolution--and brought it to new heights through this creative interweaving.

   But what I notice most is the book's quiet heroism. By this I mean simply that the author exhibits the courage to put all of his deepest convictions, his most strongly held beliefs, the raw stuff of his very life in a place for all to see. One does not see this very often in books. We need more writers like John Elder. We need people like John Elder, people who have the courage to write from the deepest parts of themselves for the greater good of all of us and the larger home we call earth. If there were six stars I would give it six stars.




3. This is an unusual book. John Elder has written a book that blends the rhythms of life with the rhythms of nature.

   Using Robert Frost's poem "Directive" as a springboard, Elder guides the reader through a series of year-long hikes that provide a rare glimpse into the writer soul, family and surroundings. His musings transport the reader from the glaciers that shaped his the plateau for the Village of Bristol, VT., the farmers who struggled and more often than not, failed to scratch a living from the rocky soil that surrounds his adopted home.

   He carries us from broken china to Abenaki settlements, meditating on family relationships and deeper relationships with the land.

   This is a beautiful example of nature writing, a work that draws a balance between the machinations of civilization and the beauties of wilderness. By inviting the reader to follow the last line of Frost's "Directive," to "Drink and be whole again beyond confusion.", Elder creates a sense of hope that Vermont's balance between nature and culture can speak to the rest of the nation.

No comments about Yankee Politics in Rural Vermont.

No comments about Audubon Guide to the National Wildlife Refuges: New England: Connecticut, Mane, Massachussetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Vermont (Audubon Guides to the National Wildlife Refuges).

No comments about Vermont Mountain Air for People Stuck Inside.

No comments about Roadside History of Vermont (Roadside History Series) (Roadside History Series).