3 comments about Best Hikes With Children in Western Washington (Best Hikes With Children Series , Vol 1).

1. This book will give possibilities for varying degrees of difficulty hikes and day spots to visit. The best resource I have ever found.



2. We bought this book when my son was 3 and my daughter was still catching a ride in the backpack. We needed easy but nice hikes and boy did we find them. It gives good accurate directions and realistic difficulty rating. A big plus if you are hiking with toddlers. My kids are now 6 and 4 and is still our favorite hike book. You won't be disappointed and you will find a ton of hikes that are close to home yet you feel miles away.



3. This book (and it's companion volume) are highly appropriate for families, children of most ages and for less than highly active adults.

   Thoroughly Recommended!

1 comments about Washington, D.C.: A Pictorial Celebration.

1. I usually keep a copy on hand for my visitors to DC. This covers all the latest monuments and give a great history. Bought this item several times

No comments about Frommer's Washington, D.C. 2009 (Frommer's Complete).

3 comments about Washington Itself: An Informal Guide to the Capital of the United States.

1. This book was an excellent counterpoint to the usual 2 sentence blurbs in most guidebooks. Each entry gave a brief historical overview of each building or monument. I really enjoyed getting background information on buildings that I see every day. I thought for a new Washingtonian it is an excellent way to familiarize oneself with the landscape and for the tourist it is a more in depth way to get to know the whos and whys of Washington architecture. I have found myself refering to the book periodically whenever I find some new circle or park with an oddball statue or name. The book is organized by geography so it can also be helpful for any walking tour of the city. An excellent reference tool.



2. Where can you hear the first two notes of 'Swing Low, Sweet Chariot' in Washington? On the Metro, that's where.

   That's just one of the little tidbits in this gem of a book, which I bought in 1983 just before I came to Washington for a three-month internship. I didn't return until 1999, but I kept the book as a good guide for my visits.

   Applewhite pulls no punches, disparaging some of the more modern office buildings in the federal part of the city (he's brutal on the Rayburn House Office Building), but giving a wonderfully rich guide to Embassy Row and other areas that not everyone visits.

   If you want something more than your average travelogue travelguide, get this. It'll help you fall in love with our Nation's Capital. I know it did that for me.




3. The title is misleading: This is not a guide to Washington, but a personal and very subjective guide to the architecture of Washington. It is really best suited for Washington residents who have lived with these buildings for years, but never taken the time to appreciate their delights or to learn of the fascinating stories behind them. Applewhite spent his professional life as a bureaucrat at the CIA, across the Potomac from Washington. But it is clear from the book that his real love was architecture and history. It is a privilege to be able to share the author's insights about these buildings that he loved -- as well as some that he despised. The prose is a sheer delight.

No comments about Pauline Frommer's Washington, D.C. (Pauline Frommer Guides).

4 comments about Greater U Street (DC) (Images of America).

1. One of his many on the city's neighborhoods, this book captures the old balck U Street in all its glory. Nicely done indeed!



2. I really enjoyed the book, being a native Washingtonian it brought back some old memories.



3. I really enjoyed the book, being a native Washingtonian it brought back some old memories.



4. The U Street Area of Washington, D.C. has had a long and varied history. It is best known as Washington D.C.'s Black Broadway for the vibrancy of its nightlife and for the many African American performing artists and intellectuals it attracted during the 1920s - 1930s. But U Street included much more than entertainment. It was the center of a largely self-contained African American community whcih flourished during the years of segregation beginning in the early 20th Century. In the late 1960s, U Street was decimated by the riots that followed the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and the community was slow to recover. Today, with the completion of the U Street Cardozo Metro Station, the African American Civil War Memorial, and the Reeves Municipal Center, U Street is a thriving and lively neighborhood in a city very different from the segregated Washington D.C. prior to the 1960s The Greater U Street Area became a National Register Historic District in 1999.
   
   In his photographic history "Greater U Street" (2002), published as part of the "Images of America" series, Paul K. Williams offers an overview of U Street from its beginnings to the present day. Williams is a Washington D,C, historian who works with a firm that specializes in historic properties. He has written several books about Washington D.C. neighborhoods for Images of America.
   
   In a brief opening chapter, William begins with the Civil War era when the area that became U Street was used as an encampment area for Union soldiers. William offers some rare views of Civil War life and of the hospitals and orphanages, and some of the people, that made U Street home before the 20th Century.
   
   The remainder of the book traces the development of what became black U Street, the "City Within a City". Williams offers a view of both change and continuity. Many historic buildings on U Street were designed by African American architects, flourished through the 1960s, and then fell into neglect. Williams traces the history of buildings such as the Whitelaw and Dunbar Hotels, the 12th Street YMCA. and the True Reformers Building, all of which have a long history within the community. Williams also devotes substantial space to old Griffith Stadium, located at the eastern boundary of the U Street Corridor, the site of the current Howard University Hospital. Griffith Stadium was on of the few Washington D.C. facilities which was never segregated. It was home to the old Washington Senators as well as to Washington D.C. teams in the Negro Leagues.
   
   Williams documents U Street as the "Black Broadway" and his book is replete with photographs of performers who appeared on U Street. These include Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Sarah Vaughn, Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Pearl Bailey,Louis Armstrong, and Harry Belafonte. The list could be extended. U Street was also home to the early African American lyric soprano, Lillian Evans Tibbs, known as "Madame Evanti" and to literary figures such as Langston Hughes, Jean Toomer, and Alain Locke who are also portrayed briefly in Williams's book.
   
   In the chapter from which I took the title to this review, Williams shows everyday life on U Street during the 1940s and 1950s. During this time, the area included many African American owned businesses some of which, such as the Industrial Savings Bank and the small Whitelaw Market, still operate today. For me the high point of the book is a series of photographs by the African American photographer Gordon Parks which show a wide variety of U Street life, from stores to homes to street. Parks's photographs together with others (pp. 71-84) bring the U Street area to life as little else can.
   
   Near the end of the book, Williams offers several photographs of the destruction resulting from the riots on U Street in 1968. He also tells the sad tale of the subsequent deterioration of many of the community landmarks. Recovery was slow, in part because the construction of the Metro station restricted access to U Street, driving out many of the businesses that tried to return to the area in the early 1970s.
   
   The final chapter of the book shows briefly the current resurgence of U Street, juxtaposed with photographs of historical buildings that remain in a state of decay. Appropriately, the book both begins and ends with photographs of a landmark U Street restaurant, Ben's Chili Bowl, which survived both the 1968 disturbances and the Metro construction to celebrate its 50th Anniversary in August 2008. Ben's Chili Bowl is itself the subject of a recent book in the Images of America series.
   
   Those who live in or visit Washington D.C. have the opportunity to visit U Street for themselves, to walk a historic trail, and to see the sites described in this book and more. But for those who may see U Street and for those who have no contact with it, this book captures something of a special community.
   
   Robin Friedman

2 comments about Mount Rainier National Park: Tales, Trails, & Auto Tours.

1. If your interested in Mt.Rainier,this is the book for you.Written by Jerry and his wife Gisela with illistrations by Larry Eifert, this book is great for if your interested in any aspect of the mountain.The interesting true storys make this an enjoyable book for even casual reading.Jerry Rohde is what is called a Home&Hospital teacher.He teaches children that can not go to school their school assiments.I had to go into this program due to surgery and luckfuly ended up with Jerry.He's a great guy and a great historian and I am glad to be one of his students.



2. Blending human & natural history, this book has opened me to an entirely new way of experiencing Mt. Rainier. I love the trail descriptions, & the auto tours are filled with information. A MUST HAVE for anyone visiting the Mountain!!!

3 comments about Mountain Biking the Puget Sound Area: A Guide to the Best Off-Road Rides in Greater Seattle, Tacoma, and Everett.

1. With 3-4 excellent guidebooks already covering these areas, this one is really a rehash of those books. In addition, many of the areas covered have incorrect landowner and access information, as well as poor instructions on how to ride the loops for maximum fun. Look to Zilly's books and local group rides for the best trail guides.



2. I wonder about the previous review and if writer isn't a friend of Zilly's. Did he even read Criscuolo's book and use it out on the dirt? Puget Sound Mountain Biking has several rides mapped out that have never been published in any book. For example, the Black Diamond Coal Mine and Tokul Creek. Maps are much more detailed than Zilly's books plus Criscuolo provides relevant commentary on the thrills or lack there of on each trail.



3. I just returned from a trip to Seattle. I bought all three Mountain bike guides available and I found Criscuolo's book to be the best. His maps were better that Zilly's, directions were better, and the descriptions of the trails were more accurate. I also appreciate that the trails in Crisculol's book are rides that are mostly 10-30+ miles. Zilly's book "Kissing the Trail" is loaded with "rides" that are 1 to 5 miles.

3 comments about Libby: The Sketches, Letters and Journal of Libby Beaman, Recorded in the Pribilof Islands, 1879-1880.

1. Libby gives her account of her life before and during her time on the Pribilof Islands. Her letters and journals provide a look at what life was like for the middle class woman of her era with an honesty I have never come across in any other widely-available account of the post-Civil War years. I read the book while I was Alaska, and it was startling to see both similarities and differences between the lives people live in the far north now and in Libby's experience. Libby has the intensity of a well-written novel, and a depth of truth only a woman writing for her eyes alone could present. If you're interested in women of her era, life in the north, or simply an interesting story by an excellent writer, Libby is worth the purchase.



2. ...evidently this is a very highly edited and perhaps even augmented version of her journal. In the editorial review from "500 Great Books by Women"--which does not appear on the Amazon page for this edition but is included on the page for for another, unavailable edition of the book (ISBN#0395493250)--it refers to the fact that some of the gaps have been filled in by the author's granddaughter, Betty John, who is the one who actually had the book published.

   In the forward of the edition I read (which has a different ISBN from both this edition and the one mentioned above), Betty John notes that when she got the sketches and journal some of the pages were missing. She then says, "In Libby's book, therefore, I've had to fill in some gaps by conjuring up memories of the stories she told me and by doing research into her times. Her story, nonetheless, is the true tale of a very real woman... ."

   In the epilogue, she adds "What was left of [Libby's] journal and sketches ... came to me after her death. Those pages have been the basis for the book."

   In the book itself, there are maybe one or two small bracketed notes--not longer than a few words--where the editor fills in details.

   So I am a little puzzled about how much of the book really is Libby's journal. The comments in the foreward and epilogue imply that more than just a few details are added, yet there isn't much notation in the text to show what has been added and what is original. I would rather the publishers had made it clear what parts of the text were added, edited, or paraphrased, and what were the real journal.

   The way it reads, like a novel (almost like a romance novel at times) and the sometimes modern-sounding prose makes me suspect it may have been heavily edited and/or rewritten. Also the fact that she was commiting some very personal things--things she probably did not want her husband to read--to paper made me wonder a bit. (She talks about her husband's boss's attraction to her and hers to him. These are the parts that read like a romance novel--complete with the gruff, aloof-seeming hero who often seems to be mocking her, but actually is attracted to her--total romance-novel stereotype!)

   That said, I found the book very enjoyable. Libby Beaman's family was very friendly with Abraham Lincoln and in the beginning she gives an interesting look at Lincoln's election and the circumstances under which he came into office--how he had to sneak into Washington because his life had been threatened by Southern sympathizers. Stuff I may have learned in school, but forgot. She was apparently an interesting woman, impatient with the restrictions that were put on her gender and class. (At the end of the book she recants a bit, though.) There are descriptions of the Alaskan wildlife and of the people and history, and just reading about how Libby and her husband coped with the culture shock and vastly different living conditions in Alaska was fascinating.

   I just would have liked to be able to tell what was her authentic voice and what was added or changed in the editing.




3. A very interesting accounting of an adventurous woman in the late 1800's. I would have given this 5 stars EXCEPT that the print is so small one almost needs a magnifying glass to read it.
   (I wanted to send it to my Aunt but knew she would not be able to read the print.)

No comments about National Geographic Traveler: Washington D.C. (3rd Edition) (National Geographic Traveler).