Travel Books

As a woman who also took a road trip (well, OK, it was in a converted bus with my husband, pets, 200 pairs of shoes - and I still had to be dragged kicking and screaming), and lived to write about it, I had high expectations for this book. I was not disappointed. Even though I've never been that interested in "land art," Hogan nevertheless manages to bring it to life with humor and grace. I could also relate to her many misadventures as well as her growth during the trip, and I'm certain other readers will love going along for this ride.

Many art historians have written about the great modern earthworks of the American West and Southwest, but this is the first travel book to do so. What sets this book apart from others of its kind is the quality of the writing and the personality of the author, Erin Hogan. Hogan, an avowed urbanista from Chicago, writes with real comedic flair about the road trip she took in her trusty VW Jetta to visit the legendary Spiral Jetty, Lightning Field, Double Negative, Rodencrater, and Donald Judd's Chinati Foundation in Marfa (almost all of them funded by the Dia Foundation). Writing in a picaresque mode, along the way she encounters some pretty hairy and scary characters straight out of the old Wild West, but gone wrong, terribly wron. While her discussions of the formidable works of Judd, Smithson et al are excellent and accessible for general readers, the account of her accidental discovery of a folk-art site known as Hole 'n' the Rock is absolutely transcendent, right up there on a par with Perelman, Benchley, Woody Allen. A fabulous read. I hope we'll be seeing more from this talented writer--and soon.

Everyone who wants to eat well in NYC needs a Zagat guide. It lists almost every kind of cuisine, price level and restaurant location in the city. The reviewers are people just like you and me, they like to eat and they are willing to share their experiences. If you are visiting NYC for the first time, or for the 20th time, you need this book.

If you are planning to take a trip to New York City, be certain that you have the latest copy of Zagat's with you. It will totally enhance your dining experience. don't leave home without it.

i have been to new york city several times and always consult my zagat guide. it has never let me down! i would not dream of not going without it!

This book is awesome!! If you like to go out to eat and try new things this is the book to help guide you. I get one every year and use it all the time. I recommend this book to anyone who goes out to eat in NYC!

Where would we be without Zagat? I don't always agree with their reviews, but it's somewhere to start. After you read the review you can always check out the web site. If anything the reviews are more critical than they need to be. I have never been disappointed.

As usual the Sterns have published another delicious book. They list eating places all over the 48 states. These are those road food diners and joints where you might not stop, sometimes because you wonder what might lie in wait for you behind that door. This even includes new ideas for places you might not have known about in your own area. With this book you can have confidence that here is real food, not that processed, frozen brought to the building and warmed up stuff that passes for most food you get when traveling or even eating locally; but food like your mother - if she was a fantastic cook would have made you. It is true you can get this information and more on their web site, but this is so wonderful to carry in the car. I have never been to a place that they recommended and been sorry. In fact sometimes the places we have stopped have led to the highlights of a trip. We have met locals, gone down roads and stopped at spots we would not have traveled to. It has been our experience that when we enter these mostly beloved local eateries, we are welcomed and we know we are visiting the real America.
With this edition some much needed corrections have been done; there were a couple eating places that had been closed for a long time before their previous edition.
I do wish that more of an effort was made to review and include places that are nearer well traveled tourist sites, so we can avoid the chains and the same restaurants we could eat at while at home. There is a huge lack of information for central Florida and that would have been very welcome. There is almost nothing for traveling along the east coastline in ocean areas and the Outer Banks area with the exception of along the Maine coast; and some western states especially have very little listed. I know it would add to the effort and bulk of the book, but some more directions from interstates would really be nice.

My wife and I have been using this guide and it's predecessor for about 4 years now. This guide still is our first reference when taking a trip. The first 3 years, eateries were very good and mostly as advertised. Lately, and especially on a recent trip through Nevada, Colorado and Arizona it was hit and miss. Some of the reviews in the book are not up to date regarding the prices and food. We missed on 2 out of the three that we visited. We also figure that we are batting about .500 in our home area, San Francisco. We will continue to use the guide as we really enjoy finding good food on the road and there is little else to help us decide. Maybe a little more personal followup is needed before putting a restaurant in this guide.

We recently purchased the new edition of 'Roadfood' to take along with us on our recent road trip through the Southwest. In the course of the trip, we tried three places recommended in this guide. The first, the Nevada Dinner House, had been acquired by new owners and our dinners bore little resemblance to those described in the guide. The second meal, at Pasqual's in New Mexico, was excellent. Unfortunately, the total bill was not the $30-40 predicted by the guide, but rather $100 dollars for three diners (including tip). We ordered no alcohol, shared a dessert, and one of the diners was a child. Our final shot with the guide, at Old Smokey's Diner in Arizona was also a miss. The guide described the excellence of the five varieties of bread, along with a number of sweet breakfast bread options included with the breakfast or available for sale by the loaf. In actuality, the restaurant's bread was the standard store-bought bread, available at any Denny's and NOT for sale by the loaf.

While I'm sure that all of the places mentioned in the guide were at one time as wonderful as described, it appears that the authors may not be doing careful research on the continuing quality of some of their old favorites.

Despite this, I'm still giving the book two stars because it is excellent, mouth-watering reading. I wish the places they described actually existed, though!

Although I am a serious home cook I tend to eat out a lot due to my busy travel schedule. I am always looking for the out-of-the-way places that only the locals know about. This book is my inside guide to those hidden treasures.

First I checked out the cities that I know best and was amazed at how many of the small, jewel-like restaurants that I have visited in the past were included in this book. However, some cities get a lot of coverage and some equally deserving cities got little or no reports. I live in San Antonio and although some of the surrounding cities have restaurants that are included in this book, San Antonio, one of the largest and most unique cities in Texas, gets nothing. Same can be said for many other cities, especially in the Northeast. I understand that no book can adequately cover a subject as broad as this and still please everyone, but I would pay three times as much for a more extensive tome.

I have this book in the Kindle version and though I wish I could get to specific cities quicker, I am not as unhappy as other Kindle version reviewers.

Roadfood This book may be great on paper, but it's not usable in Kindle. That's too bad, because this is just the kind of book you'd like to be able to take along on your travels without being burdened by the physical book.

The organization of the book is by geographical region, with the smallest unit being a state. So if you're using Kindle to look for a restaurant in a particular city or region, you must page through all of the restaurants in the state, which are listed in alphabetical order by restaurant name. If the region bridges states, your problem is compounded.

The paper edition uses maps for indexes, with the names of featured restaurants in a particular area listed on the map. You thus go from the map to the alphabetical listing of the restaurants. Unfortunately the map pages are not legible on Kindle. They were simply scanned, not adjusted for screen size, and, as graphics, they do not respond to a change in print size.

Once again the transition to Kindle is thoughtless, taking no consideration of the practical need of the user to navigate the book.

The only place to read HOW STARBUCKS SAVED MY LIFE is on location--INSIDE Starbucks--where you can sample a steady supply of coffee and pastries, and mingle with the partners. Regardless of why Michael Gates Gill wrote this book (and if he has a speck of sense and an ounce of American blood he wrote it not only to champion Starbucks and the new friends he made there, but also to pay a few bills) there's a worthwhile idea at the heart of it--dignity and respect for everyone--service providers and guests alike...and yes, even sons of privilege. We could all do with a few more books that celebrate a good 'ol American work ethic at ground level. Unfortunately, there are plenty of "self-help" books on how to claw your way to the top of the corporate ladder--not so many on how to retrace your steps gracefully on the descent (the only one that comes immediately to mind is the lovely little book HOPE FOR THE FLOWERS). After reading Gill's book I have a new interest in Starbucks, its workers, its coffee, its pastries--yes, even its benefits. I hope they call me. In the meantime, BRAVO for Michael! He did what many people wish they could do--he got out of the rat race and he wrote a best seller that will soon become a movie. How many of us can claim similar success in the stretch of a year?

I picked up this book because the premise was intriguing.

The actual writing itself is dull and business-like. The narration has no flow, and the settings are jarring--moving back and forth from nostalgic waspy childhood memories to a present day Starbucks store. I realize those two concepts are supposed to juxtapose his upbringing with his current situation in life, but it's not a smooth delivery.

What I liked least about the book was its author. Michael Gates Gill reminds me of what is wrong with America. He comes across as a completely pompous ignoramus. He spends at least one third of the book advertising himself and his accomplishments at J. Walter Thompson.

I have a hard time conjuring up any sort of pity or appreciation for his life and his story. He made millions during his years working in advertising at JWT. He is in his SIXTIES when he gets laid off, and acts like he is a major victim of corporate America. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you!

What did he do during his previous 30 years of prosperity? Did he save/invest his money like a wise person? No, he floundered it away. Did he work on his marriage? No, he had an affair instead. Did he spend time with his kids? No. He made a series of bad choices that brought him to where he ended up.

As for where he ended up, he does Starbucks no favors by romanticizing an unglamourous job. Most Starbucks stores do not have managers like Crystal. The employees are not always kind and courteous to one another, and the bathrooms are not always lovely and clean. I wonder how Crystal feels about the book. I would be offended to know that someone turned my career--my LIFE--into some sort of year-long anthropological study, and then published all the findings.

Overall, this book was a bum deal. I gave it two stars because I reserve one star ratings for the worst of the worst.

This is one of the best books ever written about mid-life career crisis. The story of the advertising executive who ended up cleaning toilets at Starbucks is filled with wonderful anecdotes that can be best appreciated by those who are middle aged and beyond. Young adult readers may not appreciate or understand the life-changing lessons (as seen by some of the one-star ratings from other Amazon reviewers) and some of the book comes across as almost too hard to believe. But the book is never preachy--just a narrative progression through a life that was changed due to corporate downsizing and personal selfishness. It is also very well edited, mixing the author's current progression at the coffee shop with his recollections of knowing Jackie Kennedy, Ernest Hemingway and others. The end result is a lesson in humility and the need for respecting others you would normally consider beneath you. It should be required reading for college career courses.

A friend of mine gave me this book so I felt like I HAD to read it.
It was painful though.
The fact that the author was an advertising copywriter is way too obvious in this, the longest infomercial I've been through.
If I could get paid for every time "Starbucks" was mentioned, I would be rich now.
Way too much focus on Starbucks products.
Having gone through business school I very much appreciate Starbucks' innovative Human Resource management and I share their views, particularly that one of respect to everyone. In fact, I'd heard about all this in case studies before.
The book however has blatant product placement. Why do we need to read lists of products, which cakes are carried, etc. No wisdom in any of these.
I'm sure some naive readers may end up spending a lot more money in Starbucks or getting a job there (nothing wrong with that) but the book should be given away for free as it seems to be a recruitment ad.
Spare yourself the pain

This book is one of the worst books I have ever read. Its suppose to be a memoir, but really it just brown-noses Starbucks. I think he wrote this book for ulterior motives. (I think he wanted some executive position and was hoping Starbucks would oblige after reading this book.) As I read the book, I kept thinking it would get better, a plot line would eventually unravel. It never does. He writes this book to feed his ego and the reader gets nothing out of it.

Although there are many RV campsites along the roadway a publication such as this gives the RVer the information of various RV campgrounds and their amenities so an informed decision can be made when selecting a good place to stop. This publication with its comprehensive information makes it easy to find a campground in any state. Selecting a campground is a breeze and that adds to the enjoyment of RVing.

The book is huge. It lists everything I have searched for so far. We are going on our first outting in a few weeks so will see if the parks are as described.
I think this will be a big help because we just go and see where we land.
It gives great discriptions of the parks and the amps etc so heres hoping.

This directory is HUGE, and filled with adds but I can't imagine setting off on a long trip without it. Calling ahead, or reserving a spot online is such a good idea when you are driving or pulling a large trailer. It really pays to have an idea of what you are getting into before you get there. If you are arriving later in the day to an area you are unfamiliar with this directory is a necessity.

I checked this book out from the library a while back and decided to give the diet a try since it seemed to me to be a really healthy way to lose weight. The premise is to eat the right things (lean meats, vegetables, fruits, whole grains) in the proper proportions (seems like sound advice to me). Tie this with a good exercise program (which you will have to find elsewhere) and you will lose weight.

I agree that the recipes in the book are sometimes involved to prepare and often require kind of expensive ingredients. I'm a bit of a foodie and love to cook so this really isn't a problem for me and I've enjoyed making many of the recipes in this book and in the companion 'Sonoma Diet Recipes' book (which I highly recommend). Those people that claim, however, that the diet takes too much work or is inflexible did not read the book very carefully. You are by no means restricted to the recipes outlined in this book. You are given lists of allowable foods (quite extensive) and you can eat anything that is made from those foods so long as they are prepared in a healthy manner. Yes, you will have to prepare some food at home, but we need to be doing that anyway. Let's face it, there just really aren't too many healthy options when you eat out and our insistence on convenience food was probably a major factor in our current need to lose weight. That said, I also believe that preparing healthy food at home does not have to be excessively time consuming. Throw some rice in a rice cooker, steam some vegetables (frozen is even faster), put some meat on the grill and you can have a great healthy meal in less time than you will wait for the food to get to your table at the restaurant! Find a cookbook for quick meals (15 min, 30 min, whatever) or search online and find some recipes that use sonoma diet foods. Substitute a few things if you have to (e.g. olive oil instead of butter) and cook away. This doesn't have to be that complicated! If you are looking for some great easy recipes, I would recommend subscribing to 'Everyday Food' magazine. I do and find that a good majority of the recipes are very sonoma friendly, they are easy, and they taste great.

Now, as far as my personal experience with this diet goes, I lost about 15 pounds in about 5 weeks (which was my goal). One of the things that I liked best about this diet is that I feel so good while I am doing it. I have more energy, I sleep better, and I actually look forward to eating again! Plus, I reached the point where the thought of consuming a quarter pounder or a bottle of soda actually made me feel ill. My body did not want them anymore because the food I was eating made me feel so much better. So, my advice is to give this a try but remember that it's not an exact science, it does not have to be complicated and it's more of a philosophy on eating right than anything.

My purchase was received in Excellent condition and in an extremely timely manner. I was very pleased with the process including the kind e-mails advising me of the various steps taken to expedite my order.

Wonderful receipes with delicious tastes! Appropriate wines to go with wonderful food. Excellent book! Delightful reading and association.

I did not follow the diet itself, but I used and continue to use many of the recipes, which I find delicious. Since I like all of the "power foods," I'm happy to cook from this book. As so many reviewers have said, it doesn't feel like you're on a diet.

I lost 100 pounds in less than a year and a half, in part because I changed my way of cooking and eating, thanks to "The Sonoma Diet."

I've followed the plan faithfully. YES the diet works best if you cook at home. YES cooking at home requires time and effort. YES you have to plan your meals ahead of time. YES you have to plan your grocery list before you go to the store. But what diet doesn't require these things?

I've faithfully been on the diet for 5 weeks now and as such I've tried almost every recipe in this book. The recipes are well written, easy to follow, contain ingredients easy to find in most grocery stores, and produce great results. Many of the recipes use cilantro, parsley, marjoram, rosemary or cumin as flavor enhancers. Particularly good is the Marinated Flank steak recipe in Wave 1. I've served it 3 times for dinner parties and have gotten rave reviews on it. Conversely, none of the "en papillote" recipes turned out very well (vegetables always turn out undercooked and don't have much flavor).

Bottom line: Like all diets, this one requires effort. The extra effort does pay off in weight loss. The delicious recipes and variety of foods are what help make this diet easier to stick with. I'd recommend buying the cookbook as well for a larger variety of dishes.

Drawbacks: this is definitely a book for carnivores. Most of the vegetarian recipes are side dishes and do not have enough substance to carry themselves as main dishes.

Bonus: My husband and 2 year old daughter enjoy the food as much as I do.

I WANT MORE !!! These books were so good I did not want them to end. Nora Roberts just puts you there !!!

Excellent book in the trilogy. Must read to get the ongoing, full picture. n Highly recommend.

Knowing Nora Roberts writing as JD Robb hooked me as a fan. I knew she was a romance writer but until her writing of the Circle Trilogy had no idea she had written a Sword and Sorcery/Fantasy nover much less a series. I highly recommend this series for anyone over 14 years of age. It moves along steadily and the characters and delightful. The plot has quite a few twists that add to the enjoyment and each book expands the Depth of Characters. Will not expound on the plot but leave it to you to read and enjoy.

I only read the second two books in this trilogy because I read the first book and felt obligated. I think she writes too many books and the quality is poor. There were so many typos in this book that I found it distracting. The language was poor and just didn't seem like much effort was put into this book. She dragged this story out into 3 books when it really could have been told effectively in one novel. I really don't recommend this trilogy at all.

This trilogy is probably the best I ever read. It has everything you could want, fantasy, love, war and a lot more. It ends just perfect. You are missing out if you don't read this series!

Handy map, with excellent info on bus routes and all manners of public transit!!!! Can't do without this map if you're on your own and want to use public transit!

I stayed at The Red Vic in Haight-Ashbury, a little off the beaten path. This map and my weeklong muni pass paid for themselves a gabillion times. The map worked great; I was never lost. The way they depict the touristy section of Lombard Street makes me giggle.

great map to quickly find your way around SF and to avoid you admitting you're totally lost. And being plastic, it can play with water (it rains seomtimes in SF...) and will not tear, whatever your level of frustration is.

These "streetwise" laminated maps are the best there is to get you around any city. Walking OR driving. We wore this one out on our recent trip to San Francisco.

I have a few of these for various cities and they are all very good and great for residents, new residents or even vacations or as a gift for someone moving to a new place.

It provides laminated clearly written and very detailed for it's size. It provides, buses and subway lines, landmarks and tourist attractions for many major cities.

Our 4 y.o. loves this series (we also have the audio) he can listen to them for hours. When a child would rather listen to books than watch tv, it's a winner! To the educator from Hawaii, GET OVER IT. It's a series about Jack and Annie, they go around helping/saving everyone. Jack saving 2 Hawaiian kids and his little sister from a devastating tsunami, you found that offensive? Now if you want to criticize the book how about the lack of research, there is no B in the Hawaiian alphabet. Kama would have never been allowed to climb a coconut tree, in ancient times women did not gather or prepare food until after menstruation ceased. Boka would not have been making kapa (aka tapa) that was women's work. Lastly, poi is NEVER made with fruit juice! But what she did get right makes up for the mistakes, she captured the Aloha Spirit. Reading this story with my son makes me miss home!

I read a story that will take you to Hawaii! If you want to go to Hawaii, Magic Tree House book #28, High Tide in Hawaii is waiting for you.

Jack and Annie are solving rhymes and this book is the last rhyme. Jack and Annie will learn how to surf and dance.

The rhyme from Morgan le Fay (the long ago Librarian) is to "build a special kind of ship that rides the waves, both high and low, on every kind of trip".

There is trouble by tsunami, but you have to find out in this book!

I love this book because it makes me laugh. Just like this, Jack was trying to stand and surf but he kept fell down. Hawaiian friends ( Kumu and Boka) will help him stand.

I recommend this book to people who love Magic Tree House series and people who have been to Hawaii before. Go ahead and check this book out!

My children have several books in this series (Magic Tree House). I bought this one for my 9 year old. This one is about going back in time and learning about friendship. It's a nice story.

The only part I didn't like was the peer pressure for one character to surf (a child who was afraid to surf) with no lessons or safety info. At least they did show some danger in doing so later on in the story. (I don't think you should stop kids from learning new sports but there should be parental supervision, "how to" lessons and safety instructions.)

Overall, I feel this is a great book.

My 1st grader hates to put it down, he would rather read Magic Tree House books, than play video games. He even reads them to his class and explains the story for show and tell. In his kindergarten class the teacher would also let him read the Magic Tree House books out loud, not to give her a break, but to promote reading out loud. Great books!

While I appreciate that this is a popular series, as an elementary educator from Hawai'i I would like Amazon customers to consider not buying this particular installment of the Tree House books. It perpetuates the most ridiculous stereotypes of Hawai'i and Hawaiians. It makes Native Hawaiians out to be ignorant and indebted to a boy for his superior knowledge -- this is simply a repetition of the old story that Pacific Islanders needed to be saved by the West. At the risk of being cynical, how about a book that explains how the kids did not save Native Hawaiians from the near genocide that followed contact with the West? There are many good books for kids set in Hawai'i, written by people who know the Islands, its history and traditions. Please look for books like these -- The Fish and Its Gifts/Na Makana a Na I'a, Bon Dance in Hawai'i, To Find the Way, or Mr. Miyataki's Wonderful Machine.

I would highly recommend any of the Rick Steve's European guide books. We used this one in Italy and found it very helpful. And it was amazing to see so many others using it, too! Everywhere we went, walking, flying or on the train, there was at least one other person reading their Rick Steve's book!

I spent 9 days this spring in Florence and Tuscany & found this book to be absolutely wonderful--full of great tips to get the most of your trip. Obviously, a lot of other people found him useful too, as everywhere we went, we saw people toting his book around! My German sister-in-law found it comical!

I am so glad that my friend introduced me to Rick Steves! I now own 3 of his books and am actually shopping for a couple more to use in the coming year!

We just returned from a tour to Florence and Tuscany region, and feel this book is inadequate for the Tuscany region in general. It was very helpful for Florence, but many of the cities we visited were not even listed in the book. Therefore, I would consider this mainly a Tuscany guide book.

came across this in an apartment in Florence, wisely jettisoned by a traveler who had more useful things to carry in their luggage.

Steves' book IS quite good at the very practical nitty gritty of Florence: for example precisely how one collects pre-reserved Uffizi tickets, but his comments on cultural aspects are at best token and often stupid. Not everyone will want, like me, to know all about as much of the art as possible in a book about Florence, but for a travel guide to cover, say, Santa Croce and make reference to only one painting when the place is full of the most glorious and important fresco cycles by major figures is inexcusable. If the information is there, one can ignore it, but if it isn't, you might return to the US (the prime market, I imagine) and realise that you have been within yards of great paintings but the guide book didn't GUIDE you to go and look at them. Instead, in Santa Croce, he refers to admittedly interesting monuments, but fails to refer to the finest (Bruni's), he's only interested in the famous names.

His grasp of the art is very poor and he seems to address his readers as though they are 12 year olds needing asinine jokes to keep their attention. For him medieval painting is a world of never-neverland (his phrase) where the poor painters are struggling desperately to paint realistically but just can't do it! Simone Martine's Uffizi Annunciation is patronised: he can't see its beauty and sees it as a mere stone on the pathway to realism. Mary 'doesn't look too impressed': a good point if he only had the wit to see that perhaps the responsibility of her role is frightening and overwhelming - it's a very moving and human piece, but his approach seems to be,'Why try to elucidate when you can be folksy and jocular'. An early crucifixion is mocked for having Christ's head raised as on a wedge as though this is a pathetic effort at three-dimensionality when it is pretty obvious that the angle would enable viewers to see Christ's face (and suffering) more clearly from ground level and has little to do with aspiring to realism. He also says that the Siena Pinacoteca (a gallery full of wonderful Sienese painting) would tempt him in only if there was a downpour! (I dread to think what nonsense Steves writes about, say, Picasso, if REALISM is the criterion by which all is judged.)

A cardinal sin, for me, is the advice to 'leave this guide face up' in a number of restaurants to gain a reduction. When I travel I like to try to be as little like a tourist as possible, while still obviously being one. I know I stand out like a sore thumb, but Steves seems happy to be as obvious as an amputated leg. And what sort of arrangement leads a guide book writer to 'negotiate' deals for his readers? All very sad, especially as Steves seems to be the Guru of European travel for Americans. Perhaps he suits those, like the previous reviewer who praises Steves for enabling him to 'do' Pisa in 45 minutes and not miss anything, though how he would know he hadn't missed anything is beyond me.

The Rough Guide does everything Steves does well just as effectively, while the cultural stuff, whether great art, architecture etc or jazz clubs, bars, cinemas, clubs - is in another league. If you want a detailed guide to the art and history of the city, see American art historian Eve Borsook's Companion Guide: it has the art, the history and is a really good unfussy read, but most travelers don't want to carry a library with them so they need a book that covers the practical and the cultural at least competently.

And if you want to get a guide to the UK, PLEASE don't buy Steves': I dread to think what rubbish he writes, on the basis of this offering.
Not even worth the one star the site requires me to give!

We lived by this book for 4 days around Florence. The restaurants Rick suggests were really great (we tried 6 places), map is detailed, museum guides are adequately informative. He was wrong on a couple of museum prices - sometimes by 50%. I'm not sure if they are anticipating fee decrease in 2008 (we were just there last week). There are other guidebooks with color pictures and more detailed descriptions of sights - might also want to have those if you are not going to do a guided or audio tour. His suggestions on side trips to the hill towns were great. We went to Siena, Pisa, San Gimignano and Volterra by car. We are really glad to have had this book. Definitely recommend and will definitely buy Rick Steves books for our future travels.