Travel Books

I sipped this book much like one sips a glass of champagne. I began reading it the last week of May, and it took me until early this morning to complete it. Allow me to explain.

Gopnik is a columnist for The New Yorker, which means that his style can be...well, a bit thick. His prose is often syrupy like pouring thick molasses from a jar. It's best enjoyed in small bites. I would often read only a chapter at a time to digest what I'd read: in-depth descriptions of French bureaucracy, a sit-in at the brasserie Balzar, and other complicated scenarios that required contemplation. Another problem, if you can deign to call it such, is that Gopnik failed to define certain French terms to the reader who might not be familiar with the French language.

Perhaps the most enjoyable portions of the book are when Gopnik writes about his family, in particular his son Luke. Luke is an interesting character because he isn't quite American but neither is he quite French. He's held in limbo because of his expat parents. Curiously, Luke seemed to me more adult than child at times. In particular, his expressions are uniquely European. For instance, when he has a crush on a fellow schoolgirl, he says, "She's quite a dish!" What a way to describe someone, especially coming from a child of four or five!

Gopnik really doesn't write much about his wife, Martha. We know that she played a large part in the decision to move from New York City to Paris, but she actually plays a minor role in his book and is mentioned surprisingly infrequently.

Overall, it was an interesting piece about French culture if a bit difficult to read at times. I do think it would have been easier to read if I was a regular reader of his column at the time the family resided in Paris. And perhaps the average reader couldn't relate to just moving to Paris in a whim. But because I moved to a city on just such a whim, I felt a kinship with Gopnik and his family. It is his appreciation and attempts to understand the culture he suddenly became immersed in that caused me to continue to turn the pages.

This is a book for francophiles. It might be a good resource on French culture and attitudes if you will be spending an extended time traveling or working in France. But if you are looking for good literature, skip it.

Should have known by just opening the cover - the first SENTENCE in the book has 9 (count 'em - NINE) commas in it. The prose is self-centered, self-conscious, and self-congratulatory.

You are regaled by sentences like this one: "The lucidity of Parisian empiricism was bought at the price of the grandiosity of Parisian abstraction, and you couldn't have one without the other".

Gopnik is the sort of author who thinks when he breaks a fingernail, it's significant and we need to know. You get an entire chapter devoted to a bedtime story he made up for his son, end to end.

The author needs to get over himself, and the editor needs to go back to flipping burgers. Spend your valuable leisure hours reading something else!

PARIS TO THE MOON is a collection of essays by a NEW YORKER writer. Gopnik and his wife moved to Paris in 1995. When a young teen, he visited Paris in 1773. After the couple's child was born in 1994 they endeavored to fulfill Adam's desire to live in Paris while their son was still portable. The romance of Paris became the author's subject for his NEW YORKER pieces. There was no big story in France. There was a lot of peace amd prosperity in the world and a lot animosity directed toward the United States. When Adam Gopnik thinks of Paris he thinks of his wife Martha and his son Luke.

French politicians engage in ostentatious displays of detachment. The Parisian government has a clutch of domaine prive apartments. In reality, most apartments in Paris are not available to rent in a market sense. It seems that one of the politicians lodged his entire family in various domaine prive apartments. French life in general is chock full of entitlements. North African immigrants, though, have no entree. The French elites have now decided that the cure for hidden deals is transparency. Gopnik describes a strike. France is a centralized country and anything that mainly affects Paris is a national event. French people deal with an event by pretending it isn't happening. (Picasso and Sartre pretended the Germans didn't occupy Paris.)

The writer's son Luke enjoys the Luxembourg Gardens, even in November. Trying to join an American-style gym, the author discovers that the rhetoric, the cult of sport is absent in France. Talking about the bureaucracy takes the place of talking about sport. In France there is no retirement anxiety. People don't link the notion of stopping to work with stopping to live as people do in the U.S. It is believed that what France needs is its own Bill Gates. It has a philosopher, Habermas, who contends that the basis for the state is the human love of arguing.

The French have been obsessed with Vichy for more than twenty-five years. Thus, they did not finally confront their past during Papon's trial in Bordeaux. Explanation turns first on romanticism, next on ideological rigor, and finally on the futility of explanation. In 1997 there was an incident at the Eiffel Tower. The French draw their identity from their jobs, the Americans from what they buy. Adam Gobnik decides that couture is romantic cartoon. Yves St. Laurent is still the favorite in 1997 of the Socialists in the government. He uses opera arias to show his clothes. The new Bibliotheque Nationale, a Mitterand grand project, is, according to Gopnik, in the totalitarian Luxe style. Other transformations of cultural sites have been undertaken at the Louvre and the Bastille Opera. Jazz, loved by the French, and Impressionism, loved by the Americans, confirm the simple physical basis of powerful emotion.

Alice Waters is in Paris at some point during the writer's stay. He offers to cook dinner for her and is nervous. Her ends up cooking lamb for seven hours where four would have been appropriate. It seems that the purpose of the visit of Alice Waters to Paris is to determine the feasibility of opening a restaurant at the Musee des Arts Decoratifs at the Louvre. She has reconciled utopian politics with aristocratic cooking. The crucial unit of French social life is the cohort. Members of the cohort inhabit neutral places such as parks and cafes.

The couple's daughter Olivia is born in Paris. Since Paris is beautiful, but France is not a life, the family returns to America. The book is both amusing and instructive.

An interesting collection of essays about family life in Paris. Gopnik's erudite, interesting descriptions of the City of Light will delight Francophiles, although his writing is fairly pretentious and pedantic at times. Nevertheless, this book is still a worthwhile read.

I picked up this book for insights on the less-touristy aspects of Paris, prior to a trip my family is taking. It's a very enjoyable book, and the author's descriptions definitely have raised my anticipation level for our visit, as well as given me ideas about places for kids. Plus (as many other reviewers noted), it's a funny and charming book. As the husband of a former chef, I enjoyed his discursions about cooking, too.

My one complaint comes from the occasional pretentiousness and preciousness of the author's lifestyle. How many of us could move to Paris for five years during the prime of our working lives? And how many of us could take a month's vacation to the US in the summer, or fly our kids back for two days of interviews for kindergarten? Kindergarten?

The author comes from a very small slice of our society, and he both downplays this and celebrates it at different times. And I don't like it. For example, his literary allusions -- whether French, English or American -- go over my head. I'm a well-read person, but I feel as if the author is trying to show that he has a greater range than his readers. To shift from Baudelaire to the New York Knicks within a few paragraphs is trying to have it both ways -- the intellectual and the common man.

The lonely planet helped as as always to plan our vacation. We spend only one week in this interesting country, but managed to plan an interesting and packed two day trip. Instead of booking through the hotel and spending at least $250 per person we took all the information out of the book. Besides saving some money, we had a lot of information and explored the country a lot better than with a pre booked trip. As the book is from 2006 some of the prices have already increased. I can highly recommend this book to anyone who likes to plan his trip on his own and/or wants background information on history, culture and people.

The detailed city maps are not very good, outdated with businesses that have gone away, etc. Moon guide books have way better maps than Lonely Planet. The hotel reviews I thought were way off base, and don't include some major hotels. All in all, let me just say this: Lonely Planet isn't the Bible. Check out other guide books and go with any of the major ones. If you buy Lonely Planet, also buy a map, because their city maps are wrong!

I generally find Lonely Planet Guides quite helpful. This volume, sadly, was written by a couple of Ugly American Backpackers.

Their coverage of San Jose was positively absurd. The author's overstate crime dangers by a comical margin, and come off sounding like the snide "Ugly American" of bygone decades, looking down their noses at the sad, dirty third world. They also fail to comprehend the obvious: if you want to see what life is like for Costa Rica's citizens, you might want to spend some time in the city where most of them actually live.

If nothing else, Lonely Planet would do well to hire a third author that isn't allergic to cities; especially third world cities.

The editors might also simply practice the lost art of editing. Much good information is lost here, in a sea of snide.

I'm an LP loyalist for all my travels, but of all the countries I've visited before, this LP guide seems to have the least accurate information. I only traveled to a small section of CR, flying into Liberia and staying in Playa Grande. Even in that narrow scope, I found listed restaurants that no longer existed and hotel descriptions that were quite off the mark. For example, I chose Hotel El Punto in Liberia as a staging place before flying out on my final night based on this description:

s/d/tr/q US$21/41/48/53 This converted elementary school is now one of the chicest hotels in Liberia, though it would definitely feel more at home in NYC than humble Guanacaste. Rooms here are ultramodern loft apartments with private showers, small kitchens, Japanese minimalist accents and plenty of MOMA worthy art. This spot is recommended as the rooms are severely underpriced.

The decor is more IKEA than Japanese or MOMA, but the room is decent and one of the nicer places in town. It cost $90 per night for 2 people, however. In Liberia, that is far from "severely underpriced" and more than double what was noted in LP. The staff said that they have been trying to tell LP for a long time that the prices are incorrect, as it doesn't suit them to have travelers becoming immediately disappointed upon their arrival.

LP was right in recommending Hotel Las Tortugas in Playa Grande, however. The value for what you get is incredible - right on the beach, great food, great staff, great price.

I did notice the negative tone that other reviewers mentioned, but being a person that typically wants to avoid tourist traps and exploitation of land or locals, it did not bother me that much.

If you want to enjoy traveling to Costa Rica I would recommend another book. If you want to spend your time lamenting about how Costa Rica has changed, how Americans are annoying, and be afraid to take your valuables out of your hotel safe than I recommend you check this book out. I would often read passages out loud to different people I was traveling with. You would think that Jaco is similar to Jersey but with more crack and lots of prostitutes from reading this book. In fact, when I went it was mostly families, a little sketch, but man get a grip. I read the chapter on San Jose and was to afraid to take my camera to the central market and downtown. What a regret! The people everywhere in Costa Rica were so nice. Downtown was crawling with tourists with their cameras and police. It wasn't even remotely sketchy. We could only get reservations in Tamarindo for Christmas day and I was terrified that it was going to be like Myrtle Beach on Spring Break. Yes there were lots of condos but it was still Costa Rica! Dirt Roads. you could walk from one end of town to the other in less then 10 minutes, everyone was nice, the beach was pretty. I just couldn't understand why the authors seemed to hate travel so much and be so hateful towards places where we were going.

Also, the book didn't give a lot of key information about how to get around without a car. We wasted so much time in La Fortuna trying to figure out how to get to the different places we wanted to go. It turns out there isn't a bus, there are only guided tours. They are all expensive. We finally hitchhiked which worked out well but I never go to go on the hanging bridges. I loved Cahuita (it wasn't dangerous) and Dominical. I loved Costa Rica. I am ready to go back.

I just wanted to warn people to stay away from this book. I love guidebooks. I am the kind of psycho that gets them from the library and reads through them even when I am not going anywhere. This one was the worst.

I am planning my first trip/cruise to Europe and I was hoping for a more in depth look at the museums, restaurants, sights, etc. More than anything it was a history lesson... But, overall it had good information and it a nice "catch all" guide.

This book is a great help in preparing for a cruise. It contains a wealth of information on cruising, but an unexpected & very interesting section is the "History of the Mediterranean.

This is a good book. Nice color pictures, lots of information on history, architecture, what to see in ports, where to eat and maps. A nice small enough to carry in you purse book.

If you go on a Mediterranean cruise...buy this book..if,like me,you really enjoy immersing yourself in a book about the trip of your dreams..buy this book...It is a perfect combination of facts,history and beautiful pictures and maps.The "must see" sections turn an overwelming siteseeing tour into one that is relaxed and enjoyable.My daughter and son-in-law are flying to Rome next month..she is looking forward to "borrowing" my book...it has wonderful suggestions for a Roman holiday....how romantic is that!...I would not go to the Mediterranean without this book..it would be like trying to make a delicious italian cream cake without reading the recipe..

I expected more from this book after reading some of the reviews. I do really like the diagrams of the ports and some of the maps seem helpful but other maps are bad with scale and distances just plain wrong. I have also found many spelling errors... who edited this?
My biggest complaint though is the pictures outnumber the information. Some pages have 4-5 photos making each one so small you can't see much of interest in them. And the photos aren't that good to begin with, many actually look like scanned postcards.
This book seems to be a very unprofessional attempt at a travel log. There are other books on the market which do a much better job... don't buy the book just for the diagrams of the ports!

We are now using the Eyewitness Travel Guides exclusively. We no longer need info about hotels, restaurants, etc., as we log on to Fodor's Travel to get the latest inside info from the Talk site. What we are looking for in a travel guide is inspiration, history and a sense of the country/city we will be visiting--we get all of that from Eyewitness Travel. We are now finishing the plans for our spring trip to Europe. The Amsterdam guide provides just what we need--lovely pictures to inspire us; practical info for visiting the city; history of the city to bring it to life. All this makes this guide just perfect for us.

Although Eyewitness Travel Guides may offer more visual guidance than other guide books, they are still quite terrible. Maps are difficult to read and information is inconsistent.

I Love the Eyewitness Travel Guides. They give you beautiful pictures, & lots of information. I usually buy one for each European City I travel to.

Eyewitness produces terrific City Guides. We used them in London and Paris last year and will 'test drive' the Amsterdam Guide next week.
They are very comprehensive and user friendly at the same time.

This book offers worthwhile information to a range of different readers. The first pages, "Four great days," offer itineraries for art lovers, shopping fans, history buffs, or families with kids to please. I don't think anyone will stop there, but I imagine many readers starting with those day-trips and filling in the edges.

The rest of the book presents the city in lush photography, legible maps, and clearly organized descriptions. The part of the book (about two thirds) divides Amsterdam into seven geographical districts. For each, the reader gets a bit of history and general layout, followed by detailed descriptions of many attractions. The remainder of the book talks about out-of-town points of interest and general information about food, culture, and other helpful travel information.

I'm going to Amsterdam soon on business, and have just a little time to enjoy this amazing city. This guide has been very helpful in planning those scraps of free time. Maybe this book won't meet every traveler's needs, but it meets mine.

-- wiredweird

A marvellous book. Remarkably written, griping, and inspiring. A must for all mountaineers.

This book may have began a genre of climbing/adventure accounts because it was written some time ago, and this, more than the content (in my opinion) is the reason this book is the number 1 mountaineering book of all time; at over 11 million copies sold.

The first part is a bit slow and sort of parallel's the teams slow slogging through the land to get to the mountain. Overall, this was a harrowing and heroic feat, and gripping to read. It also opens the door to following books which dispute Herzog's point of view.

Good, not great. And there are some great books about climbing.

Reading the other reviews of this book, I'm reminded of a quote from one of my favorite, although little known Sean Connery movies, where he plays an Arab pirate. At one point Connery says to his second in command: "It is good." "What is good?", replies the other man. "It is good to know where we are going," answers Connery. Alas, Herzog and his men didn't know where they were going, and spent a month wandering around looking. It would have been good to send out an initial recon group to find the mountain before they started out. Or, to paraphrase an english adventurer, "to lose a pack animal is unfortunate; to lose an entire mountain seems downright careless."

Wow! This is one of those real life adventure stories that has you wondering how much more the people can endure before they collapse and die. These guys climbed one of the world's most difficult mountains with old climbing technology. What they lacked in modern equipment, they made up for with strength and fitness. The more I read about mountaineering, the more I agree that it is 75% mental and 25% physical. Being in the best physical condition possible definitely gives you a better opportunity for success on high ground. If you liked this book, I encourage you to read my book "Rocky Mountain Adventure Collection". Best wishes on your adventures in life!

Herzog provides a detailed perspective of the famed Annapurna climb that has inspired numerous high altitude and arm chair climbers.

Suffering frostbite and unimaginable suffering, Herzog has made a statement, worth reading in his epic account. No other sport has it's center pieces so open in sharing their innermost feelings.

The b/w photos were relatively scare and of only fair quality.

This is the kind of writing/reflecting many people do while travelling and is not a "how to" type of travel guide. I've recommended this book to several thoughtful people, given it to many thoughtful teens as they begin to self-discover, and re-read the book twice. VERY nice writing, good thoughts, great ideas about humans.

The first sentence sounded promising:"In Alice Springs - a grid of scorching streets where men in long white socks were forever getting in and out of Land Cruisers - I met a Russian who was mapping the sacred sites of the Aboriginals." And indeed what follows in the next thirty or so chapters is a very readable and insightful travelogue of a British (author? archaelogist? historian?) "going bush" with Arkady Volchok, trying to learn about the mythical Aboriginal songlines. Not understandably, then, the author throws in bits and pieces of the protagonist's notebooks, which all more or less anthropological citations and thoughts from very different sources. The concept reminded me a bit of the motif in "The English Patient", where Almasy carries a copy of Herodotus' The Histories with him, adding his own notes and observations. Fortunately, in Ondaatje's novel, this remains a motif which does not disrupt the plot itself. With "The Songlines", however, I found myself flicking impatiently through the interjection-pages in order to get back to the story.

The Songlines really captured my attention. Human ecology, cultural anthropology, human evolution, cultural imperialism, Songlines, Native Australians ("aborigines"), travels... this is a book with information about a people and a place. I enjoyed the flow and pace of the story, and I hope I learned the reality of Native Australian culture.

However, Bruce Chatwin chose to use this book to publish assorted observations, quotes, and reflections from other travels. For me (me), they affected the flow of his storytelling, my ability to focus on the theme - Australia, not nomads - and the ending. Perhaps this is a style thing, and I don't know if Chatwin applies this style in his other books.

Didn't work for me. I wanted a conclusion to his original story.

In Alice Springs the narrator called Bruce meets Arkady Volchok, an Australian citizen who is mapping the sacred sites of the Aboriginals. Arkady is fascinated by them, by their grit and tenacity and their ways of dealing with white people. Arkady speaks a couple of their languages and he is often astounded by their intellectual vigour, their memory and their capacity to survive.
It was during his time as a schoolteacher in Walbiri that Arkadi learned of the labyrinth of invisible pathways which meander all over Australia and are known to Europeans as Songlines - a way for Aboriginals to sing out the name of everything that crosses their path during their wanderings: birds, animals, plants, rocks, waterholes and so sing the world in existence.
When a route is suggested for a new Alice to Darwin railway line, Arkady's job is to identify the traditional landowners, to drive them over their old hunting grounds and to get them to reveal which rock or soak or ghost-gum is the work of a Dreamtime hero. Bruce is happy to join Arkady and to spend some time "out bush".
The reader of this novel learns a lot about Australia and the Aboriginals. The plot and the characters however are a bit thin. One finds it hard to sympathise with the Aboriginal figures appearing in the story. What they have to say and the way they express themselves amounts to practically nothing. It seems as though they need the white people to tell their stories and traditions.

As i never wanted to go to Australia, i have to say that after reading this book i have not changed my mind, but it is not a point. It is not a book about traveling in Australia. It is more a book about walking, for example. As i like walking, i have found in this book so many great examples of what the walking is about, it is not just moving from one point on the Earth to another, it is also philosophy. And so on...this book is highly recommended for those who knows what the word "travel" means. In present time many people travel, but just a few ones deserve to be called "traveller". Bruce Chatwin is among them.

Thank you for the book i am sure that i will be using it a lot during school. Thanks for the quick service, also the book looks brand new. :)

My husband and I just returned from our trip to Tennassee and then to Florida. We stayed in hotels the entire time and we found them all by this book, its an essential and the ratings are so very helpful. I would recommend this to anyone traveling with their dog.

Very good information for places to stay with a pet. We use this book every time we travel and it has never failed us.

Although I haven't actually put the information to use, I have read the listings and feel this book would be very helpful on the road. It will definitely go with me when I move!

I wish I would have known about this book years ago. I can't tell you the number of times we have pulled into a motel - exhausted - only to be told "we don't take pets"! Included in this book are the rates, exact locations, exit numbers, phone numbers, motel ratings, discount information, and much more. Everyone with a pet needs this book. Your pet will love you!!!

I find this book essential for traveling cross-country with our dog. It is particularly useful to know about additional fees and if the AAA discount applies. This is our second copy (we own the previous edition, too). I can't imagine setting out without it! I sometimes find the 'alphabetical by place' arrangment a little frustrating, especially when you just want to know what motels are along a particular Interstate that you are driving on. New users, be careful of the metropolitan area groupings, too. This source is best used in conjunction with a detailed road map.

This book is beautiful, but not in the traditional sense. It shows well-loved and decaying mainstays of small towns all across the U.S. Not so much the "Route 66" kitchy America, but the regular, everyday sights and signs that we seldom focus on but are there, nonetheless. The photographer took pictures of what was on the other side of the street, and it is poignant and a little sad to see some of that stuff in such a state of decline. I'm glad I purchased the book and I love to remember the small town I grew up in as I flip through its pages.

This book is full of wonderful pictures - too many, in fact. It could be half as long as it is and still be worth the cover price and more. The result of such overly generous editing is that the layout is downright awful - crowded, jumbled and ugly. But that in no way diminishes the fact that there are some stunning, evocative pictures in here, pictures of the backbone of America many of us have never seen and will never see. A book to come back to again and again.

The subtitle to this fascinating book is The End of Main Street and Michael Eastman has taken it upon himself to record as much of it as possible before progress or neglect flattens what's left. Flick through the pages and you'll see more than two hundred shots of small town commonplace. The five chapters (Theaters, Churches, Hangouts, Doors, Signs, Stores, Services, Autos, Hotels and Restaurants) pretty much cover what you'll see in any town across the country.

Nearly every photo is an exterior and I thought one of the strengths of Eastman's work is the no-nonsense straight-on compositions. These buildings with their signs, peeling paint or structural modifications are visually intriguing enough not to require odd angles, soft focus or other gimmicks and even though they are photos of record the rich color and choice of subject lifts the contents of the book above similar photography.


The book's production is as impressive as the photos, the square format, matt art paper and 175 screen all come together beautifully. Four stars? Though the book was designed by Pentagram it does have, in my view, a rather annoying fault: there are several pages where photos are butted together which makes for initial visual confusion and I think weakens each relevant photo. A thin black or white line, just to give the minimum separation, would have solved the problem. Fortunately most pages don't have butted photos and on the rest the photos are allowed to sparkle by themselves and they do.

***FOR AN INSIDE LOOK click 'customer images' under the cover.

If You're a fan of Michael Eastman's fine art photography, as I am, you must get a copy of his latest book, "Vanishing America." You must get it, but you'll be disappointed in it--disappointed in the layout, particularly, but also in the reproduction.

As to the layout, the photographs are given no respect. They are presented full bleed, that is, without margins. A typical two-page spread has a large picture full-bleed on the left side, and an array of smaller pictures--also full bleed and butting up against each other so it's hard to tell where one ends and the next begins--on the right.

This is not a book of photographs so much as it is a book of Americana, the kind you see on the bargain racks of the large chain bookstores.

As to the reproduction, I remember seeing a large (50x40 inch) print of "Shotgun House, New Orleans" at a show a few years ago. It was $5000 framed and I wanted it, but I had neither the wall space nor the money, so I contented myself with a free, postcard-size promotional reproduction. This reproduced the colors of the larger image very well and it served as a good reminder of why I liked it. This picture is reproduced in the book, slightly cropped, for no good reason, and with a decided magenta cast, compared to my postcard copy. Looking at the picture in the book, it doesn't remind me at all of my feelings for the original print.

I assume books of American are more profitable than books of photographs. If so, I can forgive this disappointing book. Fine art photographers need all the support they can get.

Ned Henry and Verity Kindle are historians from the second half of the 21st century. Their job is to travel back in time and study the past up close and personal. Ned has been stuck in 1940 for the past several weeks searching for a monstrosity called the Bishop's Bird Stump (which was located in Coventry Cathedral) for a wealthy patron of Oxford University and which was lost during the bombing of Coventry.

Verity finds herself in Victorian England (1888) and while there inadvertently brings something back to the 21st century that could change the course of history itself.

Now, Ned is sent to 1888 to help correct the timeline and get historic events back on track. There, along with Verity, both must not only figure out what has gone awry with history, but must also locate the Bishop's Bird Stump in time for the consecration of the newly rebuilt Coventry Cathedral in the 21st century.

To Say Nothing of the Dog is a wonderful old-fashioned mystery, awash with hints and clues throughout the book, yet the final puzzle is not solved (at the end, of course) until the characters use a path of logic way too complicated to ever to be fully understood...let alone determined by the reader before the ultimate denouement. And yet... the characterizations are extremely solid and the setting exquisitely detailed.

The main drawback to this book is that it took way too long for the plot to approach anything near interesting for more than brief half-page/page mini-spurts. Indeed, it took a full third of the book for the plot to begin focusing on the what the story was actually about (finding the Bishop's Bird Stump and getting history back on track) in a coherent manner that went beyond mere exposition. While exposition is generally a good thing and certainly necessary to construct a solid, focused plot, too much exposition, as in this book, can leave the story floundering to a point where some may just give up reading it entirely.

And that would be a shame... because once one gets past the first third of this book, one would see that it is a true work of art (even looking back on the first third) with an incredibly intricate plot, rich characters that one actually cares about and full of a literary "flavor" that one rarely sees in science fiction these days.

Hmm. Let's see. This is kind of complicated. First of all, we've got a "historian", Ned, whose mission is to find something called the bishop's bird stump from Coventry Cathedral which was destroyed during an air raid in 1940. (There's a certain Lady who wants to have the Cathedral restored.) This isn't quite as simple as it should be, and to give him a break (traveling back and forth in time can give you a really bad "time lag"...) and to save him from the hands of the aforementioned lady - who does have quite tyrannical tendencies - he is sent on a very simple mission to correct one mistake of a colleague in 1888, where he is afterward supposed to spend some time getting rested. Of course, things start to get wrong here (even more wrong than they were, that is.) He happens to meet a young man who as a consequence of this meeting does not meet the girl he was going to marry. Instead he meets someone else - someone he wouldn't have met without this historian, and falls in love with her. Moreover, this girl just happens to be the great-great-great grandmother (I'm not sure of the number of greats there) of that aforementioned lady. (Here I couldn't help thinking that hey, here you've got your chance to get rid of the lady for good...)

This grandmother-girl in question is, of course, supposed to marry someone else, but funnily enough they don't know who. Even though this girl is an aristocrat, there doesn't seem to be any record of her marriage but in her diary, which conveniently is damaged so that all they know is that his name begins with C. I'm not at all sure how likely this is, but whatever. It's too small a thing to ruin a fabulous book.

All in all, it's a lovely mess. A cat plays an importnat role in it, and there's also a fake medio, an Oxford professor who keeps on sprouting quotes (mainly in Latin, naturally), and of course, a dog. Everything is, in the end, connected to everything. Much of the book consists of the main characters trying to keep the two lovebirds apart and finding out who this Mr. C is, though there are much... should I say "grander" things behind it all.

I thoroughly enjoyed the characters, and also Willis' portrayal of the Victorian society. As for the problem other reviewers have pointed out, Willis's use of American expressions... I'll take their word for it. I'm not a native English speaker, so I didn't notice anything... (I keep on happily mixing American and British expressions in my English, I know that.) In my mind, this is a well-written and very fun book, and I'm certain to check out what else Connie Willis has written. (Well deserved Hugo, I think.)

TO SAY NOTHING OF THE DOG is considered one of the best sci-fi novels of the last several decades, and I can see why. Connie Willis does a great job here of blending multiple genres, including sci-fi, romance, a comedy of manners, and alternate history. Once this novel gets moving, it's quite hilarious as well. I'm amazed TO SAY NOTHING OF THE DOG works as well as it does, and it's a remarkable achievement.

This book does start quite slowly, and I found the first fifty pages or so to be a struggle. Too many characters and strange concepts are introduced at once, which makes for a confusing experience. But once the characters are transported to Victorian England, the story finds its rhythm, and it becomes quite engaging and enjoyable.

TO SAY NOTHING OF THE DOG isn't for everyone. Willis is clearly an Anglophile, and enjoys writing about the silliness of day-to-day Victorian life. She is also an intellectual who is fascinated with history, science, and philosophy. If you don't share her passions, it's possible that you may find this book rather dry in certain sections. This novel does tend to split people, although most people I know really enjoy it.

This is considered by many to be Willis' best novel, and I encourage all fiction lovers (not just SF ones) to give TO SAY NOTHING OF THE DOG a try.

I wish l lived in a parallel universe where every book in the world was written by Connie Willis. And, if possible, was a prequel or sequel to To Say Nothing of the Dog.

Denied that, I'll just continue with my life, reading the book again from time to time just in order to remind myself how witty, multi-layered and joyable a work of science fiction can be. It's a masterpiece, and to quote the Man in the Black Mask looking at Inigo Montoya's blade in the Princess Bride, "I have never seen its equal".

It's one of the best time travel books I've read; Willis' explanation of how the universe allows time travel is so brilliant that at times I think it's actually true.

It's also one of the best detective stories set in a sci-fi environment I read. Asimov did it many times, but never to this extent.

It's also a charming love story.

It's definitely a tome of knowledge on day to day life in the Victorian Era, making you wonder if this wasn't the best time you could have ended up in if your time machine left you stranded.

It's also the funniest fiction book I ever read. In fact, To Say Nothing of the Dog is so full of wit, humor, intelligence and charm that if someone photos you as you're reading, chances are the photo will come up with you having a grin on your face.

Bottom line: this is a must for every sci-fi reader. Unless you're completely lacking a sense of humor and devoid of any shred of intelligence, you will LOVE this book.

To Say Nothing of the Dog is an extremely entertaining and very fun read. This book is an odd hybrid - a cross between hard (time travel) sci-fi, historical (or should I say, hysterical) fiction, and good, old fashioned mystery. It is classic time travel verses paradox book. It is a laugh-out-loud comedic romp through the Victorian era, with an extensive collection of literary allusions. (Most are recognizable; a few you need to look up. But I like that in a book - when it makes me go learn something.) It is also a traditional "whodunit" mystery...with the traditional culprit, of course!

Connie Willis has created a true treasure. Fast paced and full of laughter, the plot is top-notch; the characters are well developed, memorable, and extremely enjoyable; the writing is crisp and clever. To Say Nothing of the Dog is a page turner from beginning to end. I could not put it down.

I first heard of this book on an Amazon forum where the participants were discussing sci-fi favorites that they re-read for comfort and pleasure. This book appeared on numerous lists, so I felt I had to give it a try. I am so glad I did. It has become an instant favorite. One I KNOW I will re-read again and again.