Travel Books

An outstanding book, kept my interest waiting to see what happened next. As a frequent visitor to Aruba, it was hard to tell what was fact and what was fiction. I can't wait until the next time I see Charlie (Nov/Dec) to get on the invitation list to one of his parties!!!
Daniel is a gifted writer and I can't wait until the sequel is published.

Mr. Putkowski has created an engaging drama about three very different souls whose lives converge in Aruba. He has cleverly developed their characters into the reader's new simpatico literary "friends." As the story developed, I could not put the book down, wondering what would come next. All three characters come to understanding of "who they really are." There are unexpected twists. The descriptions reminded me of Steinbeck, the drama and humor recalls DeMille. I would recommend this book to anyone who would enjoy a fresh new story from a brilliant new author. It has been a long time since I have enjoyed a novel to as much as this one.

A riveting story is woven out of the very well developed characters that live in or come to the non tourist part of Aruba. Hard to put down. Best read under a palm tree overlooking the water, but if this is not convenient, the author's vivid descriptions of the scenery and the "vibe" will transport you there and make you want to return.

I am a huge fan of Aruba and loved this book beginning to end. Definately a keeper that I will read again someday and I anxously await the sequal!

The author capture me immediately with this book. I was pulled to Aruba and the characters and felt as if I was there and knew everyone. One of the best books I have read in a very long time and I am anxiously awaiting the sequel now. Cannot recommend it highly enough.

This is a wonderful book for people that are relatively new to NYC. It provides lots of information on free or low budget activities that the city has to offer. If you follow the activities suggested in the book, they will keep you busy in a long while!

Well done Cheap Bastard!! You could take some of the ideas in this book and do them anywhere!! Some of the things you'd have to actaully live in New York but if you're trying to stick to a budget I'd recommend this book for sure, however...you NEED to plan!! Some things need to be booked at least 2 weeks in advance and if you leave a message be prepared to follow up...give yourself enough time to plan on some of the free tours!!

This was a great purchase!! It came in good time. I'm not sure about the content because It was a present for a friend but she hasn't had any complaints so as far as i know excellent!!

This book gives great info for the budget minded person who is planning a move to the Big Apple (me). It's written with a sense of humor. Very honest, good information!

If ever there was a city where it pays to be cheap, it'd be in New York, one of the most expensive cities in the world - and from a native New Yorker comes a book which packs in over a thousand listings of free opportunities to be found there, from wine tastings and music to dance, games and fitness. From small clubs and select, limited events to low-rent, no-fee apartments, THE CHEAP BASTARD'S GUIDE TO NEW YORK CITY is a must for any visitor or new resident on a budget.

Diane C. Donovan
California Bookwatch

The France guide went with me a few months ago, and it was great as always. No matter what my travel destination is, I try to take a Lonely Planet guide. I like the commentary and recommendations. I trust the lodging recommendations when I want to make reservations.

I like the Lonely Planet Series very much. It is candid, charming, lotsa tidbits and enjoyable read. I am going to Paris and bought this and the Paris one. My only criticism is that some of the hotels are on the low end, I not sure I would stay in. This series takes a fresh look at Europe and is very up to date enconomically, socially and politically. I found other travel books like reading those translators of literature using British accents for all novels regardless if they are French or Russian or whatever!

Up to date 2007 edition. Extremely informative about every corner of the country. A must have reference book if you are going to travel to France.

Lonely Planet guidebooks range from excellent (Thailand) to less than mediocre (France). I found the France guide to fall short, especially because there is no section on what constitutes an appropriate tip or gratuity at a restaurant. While there were many useful and interesting tidbits of information (the text box on Cemetaire Pere la Chaise for example) the absence of any mention of tipping jaded me against this particular guidebook.

What I liked best about this book was the overview of the country. It gave history of the country and then also gave ideas on what to see and do if you want to enjoy learning the history of the country. If you aren't into that sort of thing this book offers the traveler ideas of places to go and things to see that are more modern and not necessarily educational/historic. This book also offers time and money saving tips and off the beaten path places to see and experience while you travel. If one is interested in doing specific tours or seeing certian things the book offers different tour packages in terms of what one might want to see or experience while in France. It is a great way to help narrow down and/or increase the amount of things to do or see when you visit France.

How can you go wrong with Rick Steve's? It's just my kind of travel guide

Not a bad book all round. Disappointed there is nothing much about Cornwall though. This is one of the areas we plan to focus on.

Excellent resource for anyone planning a first trip or their 10th trip to the UK. Price wise it's a steal for the wealth of information it contains. In addition to places to see, how to get there, where to stay, eating and entertainment, Rick also includes historical and cultural information to enrich your travel experience.

I really like this travel guide for the parts of Great Britain it actually covers. But Rick Steve is a bit too opinionated and therefore completely omits parts of the country that aren't his favorites. For example, there is no mention of Oxford, Brighton, Dover, or Canterbury in this book. No offense, Ricky dear, but since Tolkien and Lewis lived in Oxford, I sure as heck am not going to settle for visiting Cambridge!

This series just keeps me amazed!!! I have 9 books of the Eyewitness Travel Guide and it hasn't let me down just yet! This book has everything you need!! It has the maps of the Metros, helpful tips on how to save money, it has guided walks (I took them and they are fabulous!!) It has a very detailed map of the center of Barcelona with Street Finders (VEEERRYYY helpful). It has colorful pictures and the story behind them.

I went to Spain on the Easter Holiday. Spent 4 days in Madrid and 4 days in Barcelona. I had been to Madrid before, but not in Barcelona. I went there with my boyfriend and it was his first time too. With this book we covered everything and didn't leave anything important out!! We didn't need any tour guide, since this book was our savior. I feel like I already know Barcelona like the palm of my hand, thanks to this book.

With this book we found hotels to stay, places to eat, where to shop, how to get to Barcelona, important places to go with their explanation, daily schedules, where to save money, where to drink cocktails, how to go around Barcelona safely, how to use the metro (subway), how to get around Barcelona...in all, EVERYTHING!! The days we spent in Barcelona, we didn't feel like tourists, but like we actually lived there, like part of the crowd. We had a blast!

Its worth the money and it even serves as a great collection. Once you buy an Eyewitness Travel Guide, you won't look at any other Travel Guide again.

For those who already knows Eyewitness Travel Guide, its another great publication and guarantee you won't be sorry!!

Eyewitness Travel guides are always lavishly illustrated, with gorgeous color photos of a city's highlights, cutaways of museums or important buildings, and discussion of an area's culture and historical background. In that way, this volume on Barcelona and the surrounding Spanish province of Catalonia does not disappoint; there is good stuff on road trips to nearby towns of historical or cultural importance; on food and the people of the region. There is also a very good 'survival guide' covering information on travel, the airport, police and emergency services, and a fair general index. Good information and a convenient map for the subway and train system is also included; very helpful!

The heart of the book is in the breakdown of Barcelona into its key areas, Old Town, Eixample, and Montjuic. There are guided walking tours offered, museums and restaurants are pointed out with phone numbers and rough prices, etc. Maps of each area are provided.

The maps are unfortunately the weak part of the book. They do not extend to areas in the far north of the town that a traveler will very likely want to visit; and they do not provide direct information on driving to or from the airport.

The book can be covered and highlighted in a few hours on your flight over to Spain. It is a concise and nicely done introduction to the city and the area, beautifully illustrated, that will make you excited to see the individual attractions. But you will want to invest in a really good city map as well as this pocket guide to fully explore the city.

I have several DK travel books that I have used over the years. dK Barcelona is extremely helpful with its color photos and tips to make my travel to Barcelona a success!

I usually like using Eyewitness Guides when I travel because they are very visual and have good images and cut-away drawings. Unfortunately, their guide for Barcelona is sadly lacking. One clue is that the book is literally quite thin compared to all the things there are to see and do in this city.

They provide 6 pages for maps, going from the eastern side of Montjuic to the Born district, and north but not quite north enough to show where Gaudi's Park Guell is located. Many of the small streets in the Barri Gotic and Born districts are not even labelled. The northwest portion of the city is not shown and neither is the eastern third of the city, and there are many sights beyond the range of these maps that may interest visitors, including several Modernista (Art Nouveau) buildings. Methods of transport into and around the city are vague - there is only a mention about the very convenient aerobus that goes from the airport to the centrally located Placa de Catalunya with no specifics about cost, frequency of trips, and stops along the way. The listings for hotels and restaurants could easily have been double what they show. Information about getting to outerlying sights such as the monastery at Montserrat was cursory, and trip times were not accurate.

By comparison, we supplemented our trip using the Time Out guide for Barcelona. It was much more informative, had more detailed maps and a sizable quantity of hotels, restaurants and shops covered. Cafes and restaurants are also conveniently tagged on the maps so it's easy to find a nearby place to rest and have a drink or some tapas after an afternoon of sightseeing. We ended up relying more on that guide while over there.

Unless the Eyewitness Guide is revised and expanded in the future, I do not recommend this as the only guide to use for Barcelona.

Very useful guidebook. Compact and easy to carry around. Easy to read with great pictures and street maps (includes metro line maps too). Very helpful in deciding which sites are most important to visit. I would highly recommend this book to anyone wanting an easy guide to travel around Barcelona and Catalonia.

After reading Crichton's explanation of the science behind time travel, I've developed an even simpler way to travel through time. All you need to do is shoot yourself in the head. At that exact moment, another copy of you will appear in a parallel universe that is exactly like our own, except that it is in a different time. You may wonder how shooting yourself in the head transports you to another dimension. The answer is that it does not. You see, the copy of you did not come from *our* universe, but from another universe that is exactly like our own, except that they know how to travel through time. True, the copy of you in our universe will be dead, but at least you can get a decent burial, since your body won't have been utterly annihilated as it would have been if you had used Crichton's inferior time-travel device. Plus, my method of time travel is a lot less expensive to develop.

Just my cup of tea! A mixture of science, history, and the underlying social ramifications - if time travel becomes a reality. No fluff, no extraneous drawn out descriptions, just right into the action. Crichton, with his medical and science background infuses a sense of reality into his stories.

A great read I recommend to everyone.

A great book for someone looking for a deep, constantly changing, and different plot. There are no books that I know of that are anything like this book.

I remember reading Timeline by Michael Crichton
and getting sucked in by the high concept quantum
foam wormholes and by the debunking of various medieval
myths about height and bathing habits. It was a combination
SF novel and history lesson. I started to notice some things.
Some clumsy childish use of words like when a literary speed freak
runs out of pills or powder. It kept happening and then I
realized that behind the concept there was a vacuum.
Then I asked myself, WHO THE HELL WROTE THIS THING?
I knew who wrote it but I couldn't believe
any one person could write such crap.
It was manifestly and blatantly bad.
I've heard the guy is kinda sadistic but
what did I ever do to him?

It was like he was bored and, after
too many martini's, announced I'm going to write
a crap book and we'll see if any reviewer has
the nerve to call me out and say he wouldn't use it for toilet paper.
Better yet I'll write the chapter outlines and I'll give
it to my ten year old granddaughter to write.
Nah, then they would say I'm writing a childrens book.
Wait, I'll give it to Ann Rice and she'll
get bored and farm it out to her editors and that
will be my manifestly dedicatedly crap book.
Not only won't any reviewer have the nerve to
write a bad review but all my dedicated readers
won't notice the difference even after the see the crap movie.
They'll keep coming back for more crap.
Not this time you wormhole.

Excellent story of rising in the past, medieval history in the Perigord. A book also well documented. No stop in midair. Very good book.

The story line is good,the only thing that didn't get 5 stars from my wife and I was that the author read the book. She should have used a proffesional. The book and the DVD got our 5 stars. J.A.A.

How is it that this even got published? I am a voracious reader, even books I don't really care for I finish just because I want to see what happens in the end. But I just couldn't do it with this one. How can you be so possibly boring?? Have you ever been stuck on the phone with someone who just loves to talk about themselves? You listen, occasionally give a few grunts as acknowledgement, and sigh in relief when they finally run out of words and use for your ear. This book was that, in text form. Frances Mayers needs someone to talk to, I guess no one would listen, so she wrote it all down in book format. If this is all it takes to publish a book, maybe I'll become a writer!

This is a wonderful, wonderful, journey, adventure, book. By all means, it should be read....just not aloud by the author. Why do people think that if they write a book they have the skill to read it??

ISBN 0767900383 - As a fan of lists, I'm always curious about books that make bestseller lists. I rarely read them, but I'm always curious. This was the case with Under the Tuscan Sun until a rather beat-up, unsellable copy fell into my hands. My curiosity, but little else, has been satisfied.

A recap of the plotline is usually the second paragraph for me. The trouble here is that this book doesn't actually have a plotline. The author and her boyfriend bought a house in Tuscany, living there during the summer and restore it and the land around it. Seriously, that's it: no actual point, no build up, not a character to root for (although there were moments I admit to rooting for the house to fall down on them, just to liven things up). So much for the recap!

Beautifully written, Under the Tuscan Sun isn't without redeeming qualities. Tuscany sounds like a bit of Heaven on Earth and Mayes, reputed to be a good cook, turns out to be a decent writer, at least so far as descriptive writing goes. A few short sections are even well-done humor. For that, the richness of language, the way you can nearly smell the food and hear the quiet of the countryside, for that, Mayes gets 5 stars. For boring me nearly to death, ZERO stars! An average of 3 stars seems a reasonable compromise. There are definitely readers for this type of book, I just happen to not be one of them. If you're looking for a relaxing read, this one certainly fits your needs; if you want a storyline, something more exciting than recipes, this book is a snore - if your blood flowed to the rhythm of this book, you'd be dead.

I was so looking forward to reading, "Under The Tuscan Sun". An avid traveler, I love to explore various places through books since having 3 kids doesn't allow me to travel as much as I used to. I assumed the book would be good considering it was a #1 New York Times Bestseller.

Maybe my expectations were too high. I found the book to be monotonous, laborious and rather self-indulgent. The relationships Mayes appears to have developed seem superficial at best and imagery of the old, deep south conjured in my mind as I read about her cook "Wille Bell" and her seamstress as a child in Georgia. I thought I would relate to this part of Mayes' life as I too grew up in Georgia, but, again, the absence of any emotional impact left me wanting just to finish the book and be done with it.

Aside from the rehabilitation of her home in Tuscany which was written about mostly at the beginning of the book, I found the book to have a lack of continunity and really any depth. The self-proclamed pagan describes churches and locations, but doesn't capture the romance, innocence and intrigue that will keep you flipping pages.

Mayes does appear to be a fabulous cook and I would probably like a cookbook by her. However, if you are looking for a novel with a plot to sink your teeth into, this is definitely NOT it. I much prefered "Eat, Pray and Love" and the first chapter (which I am now reading) of "Almost French" is wildly more clever and intriguing.

for any one, any age who has done a tour in SE Asia. Or not done a tour and wants to.

I bought this to read while in Thailand. I was staying on the beach in Chawaeng, thinking this'd be a great read. The best I can say is that it's an ok holiday read. It seems to take itself a little too seriously - like it's trying to become great literature, but needs just a little more. The dramatic point comes a little too late and is too obvious in coming - so the tension doesn't build as it should. Also, it seems like there was a storyline that got dropped entirely - there was a whole bunch of foreshadowing, but nothing ever came of it. I guess this might have been the authors attempt at a "twist", but it came off feeling more like "oops, forgot that one" :(

Ah well - it's still worth reading once and provided an interesting fictional context to where I was staying. I never got out to the lagoon cos it was raining and high swell - yep, it exists and yep, you can go there on the tour.

Maybe next time will be better. ;)

The Beach is an easy book to read that should leave any traveller nodding their head in recognition, dismay, or both.
While it doesn't explore the complexities of the modern, post-colonial relationship between "east" and "west" to a great extent, it does explore that relationship just enough to keep the book interesting.
It's not really a thriller; it's written in the fast-paced, easy-flowing style of a thriller and it contains a lot of violence, but the narrator's perspective is too focused on the mundane aspects of things for the book to really be called "thrilling."
Richard, the protagonist is not really that "shallow," "immoral," or a "slacker," as people have commented. But he is simple. He's a lonely person who travels and does drugs - two very primitive sources of stimulation, really - because more grounded, consistent ways of life don't seem to work for him. He's not a rebel nor does he have much angst. Like many travellers, he hides from himself by putting himself in unfamiliar surroundings.
Many travellers may complain about the protagonist's "narrow" view of the world, but they are missing the point. Richard reveals a truth about travel that many readers may be afraid to face: no matter how much we talk about "experiencing another culture," and "getting to understand the world," most of travel really consists of hanging out with people like ourselves, and what we ultimately like about travel, more than any kind of deep learning, is excitement and fun.
But, yes, Richard's level of consciousness is ultimately quite shallow (Perhaps Garland's is as well?), and sometimes I, too, found myself disappointed by that fact: sometimes, I wished that the book would offer more insights into the problematic relationship between backpackers and their destinations and the ultimate silliness of the Western desire to find "unspoiled," "natural" places, and I wished for more interesting sentences (I appreciate the simplicity and straight-forwardness of the narration, but there are many simple writers who still manage to create great sentences, and Garland is not one of them, nor do I think he wants to be.)
But I was grateful for the absence of something else from the book: pretentiousness. In recent years, and even moreso in the 1990s, "depth" consisted of vague pop culture references and poetic, ironic, self-congratulatory writing.
Garland's voice, on the other hand, is so modest as to be almost boring, and his pop culture references are done without any irony: he talks about video games merely because they are a big part of his life. He doesn't attempt to comment on the nature of pop culture, he just talks about it a lot. He doesn't say that pop culture has "shaped" our "postmodern" culture, or "replaced" anything "real"; really, video games are just one of the many things that influence his life.
The Beach, for its lack of pretentiousness in dealing with potentially "big" subjects (the relationship of east and west, pop culture, alienation), would almost merit five stars.
It is refreshing that The Beach doesn't seem to be trying to "add up to much," but it is nonetheless frustrating that it doesn't add up to much. When the narrator references Vietnam movies and draws superficial parallels between The Beach and the Vietnam war, the result is just that: superficial. Garland did not develop this motif enough for it to be interesting, nor did he keep it minimal enough for it to not get annoying.
The constant barrage of phrases along the lines of "This is Vietnam, boy!" are neither as silly nor as scary as they should be.
At times, it appears that The Beach will become either an action-packed adventure story or a profoundly developed reflection on the world, but it does not really deliver on either of those levels unless you ignore certain aspects of it or put too much energy into reading between the lines.
In the end, however, The Beach is a satisfying, commendable novel. It is an easy-to-read piece of pseudo-travel lit that, if it does not define a generation, certainly does, to a small extent, define a certain type of traveller that existed in that generation.

Reading this book really made me think. As someone who has suffered from wanderlust my entire life this book hit home. Its a great adventure story but its also about self exploration and friendship. Great Book.

The Beach is about a man named Richard, not Leonardo DiCaprio. Richard is someone who is looking for an interminable paradise. A vacation that never ends. A beach where society isn't waiting for you to get back. He, Etienne, and his girlfriend Franchoise are all in search of a place that isn't just another ordinary vacation. They want to be free, free of society's demands.

This books is our generation's Lord of the Flies. Where the children were exposed to their own evil capabilities, the small village that has developed on The Beach also falls prey to a similar Lord of the Flies. In this case, the evil comes out of what they believe to be self preservation. While the boys fought each other in LotFlies for power and control, the villagers begin to experience evil through their own selfish need of preservation. They never let go of The Beach, and this is what corrupts the very essence of The Beach.

Overall, this book began amazing. It ran about 50-100 pages too long,as the book seemed to lose massive amounts of steam towards the end. I made a friend, who hates books, read this book and he actually did in just a period of 2 days. It is that easy to be consumed by it. He too agreed it lingered on for too long and it lost its amazing feel to it.

I still love this book and will forever keep it close to me for re-reading pleasure. I hope that I am allowed to post an exerpt from the book within here because I find this simple chapter discussing the possibilities of Infinity to be one of the finest written pieces I have ever read. I truly love this chapter and I hope it reveals enough that you too will read this book and forget the failure of a movie.

-------------The Beach-----------------
"Do you want me to tell you something funny?"

"What about?"

"Infinity. But it isn't that complicated. I mean, you don't need a degree in-"
Francoise waved a hand in the air, tracing a red pattern with the tip of her cigarette.

"Is that a yes?" I whispered.

"Yes."

"Okay." I coughed quietly. "If you accept that the universe is infinite, then that means there's an infinite amount of chances for things to happen, right?"
She nodded and sucked on the red coal floating by her fingertips.

"Well, if there's an infinite amount of chances for something to happen, then eventually it will happen - no matter how small the likelihood."

"Ah."

"That means somewhere in space there's another planet that, by an incredible series of coincidences, developed exactly the same way as ours. Right down to the smallest detail."

"Is there?"

"Definitely. And there's another which is exactly the same, except that palm tree over there is two feet to the right. And there's another where the tree is two feet to the left. In fact, there're infinite planets with infinite variations on that tree alone..."

Silence. I wondered if she was asleep. "So how about that?" I prompted.

"Interesting," she whispered. "In these planets, everything that can happen will happen."

"Exactly."

"Then in one planet, maybe I am a movie star."

"There's no maybe about it. You live in Beverly Hills and swept last year's Oscars."

"That's good."

"Yeah, but don't forget, somewhere else your film was a flop."

"Oh?"

"It bombed. The critics turned on you, the studio lost a fortune, and you got into booze and Valium. It was pretty ugly."

Francoise rolled on to her side and looked at me. "Tell me about some other worlds," she whispered. In the moonlight her teeth flashed silver as she smiled.

"Well," I replied. "That's a lot to tell."

Etienne stirred and turned over again.

I leaned over and kissed Francoise. She pulled away, or laughed, or shook her head, or closed her eyes and kissed me back. Etienne woke, clasping his mouth in disbelief. Etienne slept. I slept while Francoise kissed Etienne.

Light-years above our garbage bag beds and the steady rush of the surf, all these things happened.
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