4 comments about Discovering Washington Wines: An Introduction to One of the Most Exciting Premium Wine Regions.

1. This very attractively produced book serves as a terrific guide to the wines of Washington. I'm pretty much of an ignoramus when it comes to wines in general so I learned a great deal from this book and appreciated the non-exclusive tone of the writing, but feel sure there is ample depth here for the winoscenti. In addition to learning my Syrah from my Viognier I enjoyed the section on the history of the wine industry in the area and especially on the production and elements of winemaking.

   My favorite segment of the book may be the extensive appendix full of all kinds of great material in addition to the useful glossary and list of resources and directory of Washington wineries. The appendix includes indispensable advice on pairing wines with food, tips on selecting wineglasses, and how to remove corks from champagne and sparkling wine bottles.

   Now I'm waiting eagerly in hopes the author will start work on "Discovering Washington Beers."




2. I know many folks looking beyond California to Washington state for new directions in both wines and wine touring. Everyone seems to have visited California's wine country but Washington offers something new. I'm not a wine expert and didn't know much about Washington wines, but this guide brought me up to speed quickly on the history, wine regions, and other important facts. I'd recommend it as a gift to someone new to Washington wines or for keeping a copy in your car's glovebox when touring Washington wineries.



3. We've just ordered two more copies of Mr Parker's very useful and informative book, both for friends in Europe with educated palates who frequently journey to the Northwest for vacations. The book provides an interesting history of wine production in our state as well as quick-reference educational bits about wine types and other specifics. Maps, along with listings of dozens of wineries-- with addresses and websites-- are handy for visitors and residents as well. We enthusiastically recommend this guidebook!



4. This book is an easy read, and informative, though not nearly as detailed as some other books on Washington's wines which are available for comparable prices.
   
   I was bothered by the erroneous maps printed in the sections describing each of Washington's A.V.A.'s. These maps showed the Yakima River flowing south and east of the city of Yakima. In actuality, the river does go through Yakima, and extends north beyond Ellensburg.
   
   I wonder how much the authors really know about Washington wines, and how much care they put into their research, if this type of error slipped by them.

2 comments about Washington: Scenes from a Capital City.

1. When I first saw Mr. Cleave's book "Washington, Scenes from a Capital City", I thought...What a beautiful and interesting representation of all the wonderful architecture of our great city and its surrounding area. I found Mr. Cleave's choice of buildings and other structures, and the potpourri of other familiar landmarks, signs and other details to be superb. Many features were quite amusing and brought back nostalgic memories...haunts of my youth. Because of this, Mr. Cleave's book was chosen by me to give to all visiting guests attending my daughter's wedding from abroad; a gift they treasure, I've been told! Mr. Cleave's book has served as a wonderful housewarming and graduation gift for me but, more importantly, I believe it would make a splendid corporate gift for Christmas, and for delegates to conventions/conferences in our wonderful city; someone should investigate this marketing proposal.



2. This is not your typical "coffee table" book showing glossy photos of all the usual monuments and buildings that we already know from a thousand other pictures. This book is more of a work of art in itself, with photos marvelously re-worked into water-color-like portraits of scenes form Washington. The scenes too are different; familiar buildings seen from unfamiliar angles and unfamiliar buildings and views presented in a way that entices the reader to go and look. What this book does is to show Washington to be so much more than what we think we know about it. The city is shown to be as wonderful a work of art as the book itself.

No comments about Washington Wild and Beautiful.

No comments about Rand McNally Washington, D.C.: D.C., Virginia & Maryland : Local Street Detail.

No comments about Rails-to-Trails Washington & Oregon (Great Rail-Trails Series.).

5 comments about Day Hike! Olympic Peninsula: The Best Trails You Can Hike in a Day (Day Hike!).

1. I consider myself a moderate hiker and had no trouble traversing the trails described in this book in the time frame stipulated. When I'm hiking I'm not studying flowers or sitting still looking for birds. I usually trot along at the average pace that rangers have told me most hikers do, two miles an hour. That includes stopping to take photos, appreciate views and grazing in the occasional blueberry patch. Mostly, however, I'm there to hike.
   
   Day Hike! Olympic Peninsula is a good, concise, easy-to-use guide that provides perfectly useable directions to trailheads. A pet peeve of mine is wasting valuable outdoors time trying to navigate my way in a car to a trailhead. I never had that problem with this book. In fact, I appreciated the tip provided for the trailhead at the end of the 8-mile gravel road accessed near the Hurricane Ridge Visitors Center. I never would have known this narrow road leads to a trail.
   
   The walks listed are a good assortment for average day hikers. I only tried a few of them (Hoh River Trail being my favorite - not least of which is because there's basically no elevation gain and I saw 25 - 30 Roosevelt elk there!) so I can't vouch for the complaints of other reviewers. However, I've kept the book for future reference, meaning I'd definitely use it again. I can't wait to get back to the Pacific Northwest to explore more of the wonderful wilderness and hiking is the best way to do it.
   
   All in all I'd recommend this book. It's not perfect but for casual day hikers it can be mighty handy.



2. Just returned from the Olympic Peninsula and found this guidebook to be less helpful than expected. Perhaps things have changed their since the 2002 publication so double check info on hikes before heading out. Had trouble finding trailheads for #61, specific distances would have been helpful in the "Getting There" section, wasted 1 hr and lots of gas trying to find #59 Big Flat,never found it. A confusing time trying to locate #35 Mount Angeles Saddle, trailhead signage doesn't include this name, located it nearly a mile in. Recommend a more current publication.



3. I had high hopes for this book but, suffice to say, it's no longer in my collection. I have no question but that the author knows his topic. However, like a previous reader, I found myself confused and even lost (at $3.00+ a gallon) trying to follow directions that are too vague and in one case really led me astray.
   
   If you want someone's opinion (and don't we all have one), this book is okay. But do yourself a favor and cross reference suggestions and particularly directions. Or, better yet, just find a better resource. Sure wish I had.



4. I bought this book and "Best Easy Day Hikes Olympics" in 5/2007. I found this book, "Day Hike! Olympic Peninsula ...", to be much more substantial.



5. This is a very thorough hiking guide, no doubt about it. My only comment besides that is, the author is a VERY experienced hiker; so when he describes a hike as "easy", it might no really be the case! I am young and healthy, but the difficulty level seemed definitely more strenuous than described.
   On the other hand, if you are super fit, go for it, the book is good.

No comments about ADC the Map People Metro Washington, DC. Pocket Atlas.

1 comments about Washington State Place Names: From Alki to Yelm.

1. .....or for the heck of it. It has Geographcal landmarks, citys, countys, and the state iteslf all in one volume.

1 comments about Hiking Mount Rainier National Park, 2nd (Regional Hiking Series).

1. This is the second edition of a guidebook that I previously called "the best guidebook for hiking (as opposed to climbing) Mount Rainier National Park". That's still true.
   
   The book covers pretty much every official trail in the park, from quarter-mile long interpretive loops to the 90 mile round-the-mountain Wonderland Trail. The book is organized geographically, and includes a table of lists which show trails organized by features (such as easy trails that go to waterfalls, etc.).
   
   Surprisingly it does not contain an alphabetical index, which makes it hard to look up trails or places if you only know their names and not their locations. (For instance, the cover shows a wonderful view of Myrtle Falls, but I was unable to find out from the book how to actually get there! I had to be able to recognize that the view of the mountain was from the Paradise area, and then the falls were shown on one of the Paradise area trail maps.)
   
   It has been some time since I last read the first edition of this guide, but I remember it being quite personal, with descriptions of what the authors saw when they were actually there. There is nothing like that in this edition -- there is no sense that authors actually travelled to Mount Rainier. The writing style seems very professional but unfortunately also very dry.
   
   I spend most of my time in Mount Rainier going off the trails and up to the many peaks that are in the park -- and this book is useless for that purpose. It doesn't even tell you about such easy unofficial trails as Knapsack Pass or Third Burroughs Mountain. To get information like that I recommend Beckey's Guide, Smoot's Climbing Washington's Mountains, and Goldman's 75 Scrambles. (Or my own Seattle Scrambles website.)
   
   But it is an excellent resource for what it does cover: official, maintained hiking trails in Mount Rainier National Park. Each trail is described with a qualitative overview, a detailed description of the hike, a list of points of interest, a map, and a table of vital statistics like the estimated hours it will take to hike the trail and the official source of information on current trail conditions.
   
   (The maps show some topographical detail and some trail detail, but they are not really replacements for serious topo maps. They do show UTM coordinates, but they don't say which datum they are using. The maps probably do suffice for summertime, good weather use -- when you are unlikely to lose the trail as long as you stay on it.)
   
   The book also has some chapters in the back covering things like "leave no trace" ethics, dealing with cougars and bears, how to hike in springtime snow, and subjects like that. Nothing in any great detail, but it could be useful information.
   
   For the person who wants to explore the official hiking trails of Mount Rainier, from the popular to the obscure, this is the book I would recommend.

5 comments about Degas in New Orleans: Encounters in the Creole World of Kate Chopin and George Washington Cable.

1. Maybe the most important thing for you to know about this book is that it isn't just, or even mostly, about Edgar Degas. If you're in the market solely for an art book about Degas, you may not like this book. What this book is really about is 19th century New Orleans. Degas' 1872-1873 trip is the main theme which the author has used as his framework. Mr. Benfey "improvises" on this theme and goes off in interesting directions. He talks about what made New Orleans unique- the early Creole settlers vs. the "Americans" that arrived after the Louisiana Purchase; the free black population (pre-Civil War) vs. the slaves who became free because of the war; the rupture caused by the war- as New Orleans was occupied by Federal forces through almost all of the conflict. (Many of the local women proved to be fairly feisty in showing their contempt for the Yankees. One woman in the French Quarter supposedly downloaded the contents of a chamber pot onto Admiral Farragut's head. On another occasion, the soldier in charge of keeping order, General Benjamin "Beast" Butler, was riding by some women and they all turned their backs to him. Butler remarked, "those women evidently know which end of them looks best.") After the Civil War the economy, based almost solely on King Cotton, took a beating in the Depression of the 1870's. Yankee "carpetbaggers" were despised. Liberals who wanted integration of the races did battle, sometimes literally, with reactionary forces who yearned for a return to the days of slavery. Mr. Benfey works in some analysis of the writers Kate Chopin and George Washington Cable, who were interested in some of the above themes. The author does devote a fairly good portion of the book to discussing Degas' "Louisiana Connection," (his mother was born in New Orleans; he had relatives who were involved in the cotton trade; and his younger brother, Rene, left France to try to make his fortune in New Orleans). If you enjoy Degas' art, you will find Mr. Benfey's musings on the portraits and "genre scenes" that Degas did during this period to be interesting and informative. For example, from a purely painterly standpoint, Degas enjoyed the juxtaposition of black and white skin, as well as the white of cotton against the black suits and hats commonly worn by businessmen of the time. Mr. Benfey also, convincingly, shows that Degas' started to use, in these paintings, certain compositional effects- such as slanted floors, the arrangement of figures in interior spaces, and certain hand and head movements- that would shortly reappear in the more famous "ballet paintings." We also see Degas in transition from his early "realistic" phase to a looser, more "Impressionistic" style of painting. I also found it interesting that Degas was fascinated by many things he saw while walking around New Orleans, but he was limited mostly to painting interior scenes because the light of New Orleans was bothering his eyes. (He started to have problems with his vision while serving in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. By the time of his death in 1917 he was nearly blind.) There was enough about Degas and his family and art in this book to satisfy me, plus I enjoyed Mr. Benfey's "improvisations." If, in addition to being a Degas fan, you have any interest in the antebellum and post-Civil War worlds of New Orleans, I think you will get a lot of enjoyment and intellectual stimulation from this book.



2. Maybe the most important thing for you to know about this book is that it isn't just, or even mostly, about Edgar Degas. If you're in the market solely for an art book about Degas, you may not like this book. What this book is really about is 19th century New Orleans. Degas' 1872-1873 trip is the main theme which the author has used as his framework. Mr. Benfey "improvises" on this theme and goes off in interesting directions. He talks about what made New Orleans unique- the early Creole settlers vs. the "Americans" that arrived after the Louisiana Purchase; the free black population (pre-Civil War) vs. the slaves who became free because of the war; the rupture caused by the war- as New Orleans was occupied by Federal forces through almost all of the conflict. (Many of the local women proved to be fairly feisty in showing their contempt for the Yankees. One woman in the French Quarter supposedly downloaded the contents of a chamber pot onto Admiral Farragut's head. On another occasion, the soldier in charge of keeping order, General Benjamin "Beast" Butler, was riding by some women and they all turned their backs to him. Butler remarked, "those women evidently know which end of them looks best.") After the Civil War the economy, based almost solely on King Cotton, took a beating in the Depression of the 1870's. Yankee "carpetbaggers" were despised. Liberals who wanted integration of the races did battle, sometimes literally, with reactionary forces who yearned for a return to the days of slavery. Mr. Benfey works in some analysis of the writers Kate Chopin and George Washington Cable, who were interested in some of the above themes. The author does devote a fairly good portion of the book to discussing Degas' "Louisiana Connection," (his mother was born in New Orleans; he had relatives who were involved in the cotton trade; and his younger brother, Rene, left France to try to make his fortune in New Orleans). If you enjoy Degas' art, you will find Mr. Benfey's musings on the portraits and "genre scenes" that Degas did during this period to be interesting and informative. For example, from a purely painterly standpoint, Degas enjoyed the juxtaposition of black and white skin, as well as the white of cotton against the black suits and hats commonly worn by businessmen of the time. Mr. Benfey also, convincingly, shows that Degas' started to use, in these paintings, certain compositional effects- such as slanted floors, the arrangement of figures in interior spaces, and certain hand and head movements- that would shortly reappear in the more famous "ballet paintings." We also see Degas in transition from his early "realistic" phase to a looser, more "Impressionistic" style of painting. I also found it interesting that Degas was fascinated by many things he saw while walking around New Orleans, but he was limited mostly to painting interior scenes because the light of New Orleans was bothering his eyes. (He started to have problems with his vision while serving in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870. By the time of his death in 1917 he was nearly blind.) There was enough about Degas and his family and art in this book to satisfy me, plus I enjoyed Mr. Benfey's "improvisations." If, in addition to being a Degas fan, you have any interest in the antebellum and post-Civil War worlds of New Orleans, I think you will get a lot of enjoyment and intellectual stimulation from this book.



3. This is one of the best books I have read. It's so fascinating, easy to read, and just interesting in general. I highly recommend it.



4. Benfey's study is an elegant, exciting study with many facets. He truly evokes a vanished world. An interdisciplinary study which does not meander or bore. Highly recommended.



5. This book is quite informative, just not about Edgar Degas. For the first few chapters I had the feeling that all this information about everyone else was setting the stage for Degas to become, as the title would suggest, a focus of this book. I still had that same feeling while reading the final chapter.
   
   The book would have been more aptly titled "New Orleans from 1865 to 1879, with a Brief Visit by Edgar Degas in 1872". If you've been to New Orleans or are interested in its history or never gave it much thought until Hurricane Katrina and are now curious, this book could be good for you. If you really want a book that focuses on Degas the artist, man, etc... this is not your book.
   
   Beyond that, 1 thing that still bothers me is that I've never read anything by Kate Chopin. In fact I'd never heard of her or Cable until I grabbed this book. I was substantially into their portions of the book, so much so that I'd decided to see which (if any) of their books I could find at my library. I was none too pleased when this book suddenly gave away the ending of one of Chopin's books I'd already planned to read. Let that warn you. In those last couple chapters if you're beginning to care about those books being discussed, skip those sections until you've already read the books.
   
   Of the 2 books I've just reviewed, All Poets Welcome: The Lower East Side Poetry Scene in the 1960s, Includes 35-track CD of audio clips of poetry readings was greatly preferred.