United States Books - Page 12

PrairyErth (A Deep Map): An Epic History of the Tallgrass Prairie Country

William Least Heat-Moon

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 33 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Interesting and thought-provoking 4 out of 5 stars.
5 of 5 people found this review helpful.

If only every county in the United States had as passionate and articulate a chronicler as William Least Heat-Moon.

I came to "PrairyErth" after having read and loved "Blue Highways." This tome--though longer and less expansive, geographically--possesses many of the qualities I admired in Heat-Moon's earlier work: the narrative tone (there's none of that stuffy, impersonal, third-person prose one finds in some travelogues; the author is himself part of the story), the occasional dips into philosophy and history; the candid interviews with "locals"; and the intense search for meaning in the most ordinary of places.

I have never been to Chase County, Kansas, but after spending a month or so accompanying Heat-Moon through the pages of his book, I feel as though I have. The book is subtitled "a deep map," and that is indeed what the author provides here. Square mile by square mile, the reader is introduced to the prairie, its topography and history, its residents and its wildlife. Heat-Moon correctly understands that the essence of a place is often best captured through anecdote and observation. There is nothing sweeping or grand about his narrative, and that's what makes "PrairyErth" such a delight. It's a detailed, intimate read; one almost has the feeling of looking over the author's shoulder (and back through history) as he ambles and rambles about the quadrangles of Chase County.

If there's one criticism I would offer, it's that Heat-Moon sometimes lapses into needless digressions about himself and the challenges he faced while writing the book. It struck me as a bit self-absorbed--as did the occasional Faulknerian stream-of-conscious, punctuationless prose. These stylistic excesses add little to what is otherwise a magnificent and fascinating travelogue.

Editorial Review:

Three months on the New York Times bestseller list, PrairyErth is now in paperback. Robert Penn Warren pronounced Heat-Moon's Blue Highways "a masterpiece." Now Heat-Moon has pulled to the side of the road and set off on foot to take readers on an exploration of time and space, landscape and history in the Flint Hills of central Kansas.

On the Way Home: The Diary of a Trip from South Dakota to Mansfield, Missouri, in 1894

Laura Ingalls Wilder

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 19 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

I like Historical Diaries But This One Is Especially Meaningful 4 out of 5 stars.
10 of 10 people found this review helpful.

It's often said in tones of this-is-true-but-it's-also-heresy that Rose Wilder Lane, daughter of Laura and Almanzo Wilder, is the real unsung heroine in the Little House books, because while she let her mother have credit for the famous series, it was Rose, via her careful, invisible editing and re-writes, that turned cheery memoirs into beloved classics. I suspect that's true, but in the case of this book, it is beyond all doubt what happened. Rose took her mother's raw diary and prepared it for publication, and the product is the book On The Way Home, which tells of the journey Rose and her parents made in 1894, from DeSmet, South Dakota, setting for the final half of the Little House books, to the Ozark country, where the family would spend the next sixty years. The description is unsentimental, not glamorized (as it tends to be--for the sake of betterment--in the other books) and it paints a portrait of the difficult traveler's life on the by-then crowded prairie overrun with east-central European immigrants, many of whom being exactly the type portrayed in novels such as My Antonia. The Wilder family completes its draining re-location by covered wagon and arrives in Missouri, a state so much a promised land to them that a reader cannot help but share their relief when they safely arrive.

Editorial Review:

In 1894, Laura Ingalls Wilder, her husband, Almanzo, and their daughter, Rose, packed their belongings into their covered wagon and set out on a journey from De Smet, South Dakota, to Mansfield, Missouri. They heard that the soil there was rich and the crops were bountiful -- it was even called "the Land of the Big Red Apple." With hopes of beginning a new life, the Wilders made their way to the Ozarks of Missouri.

During their journey, Laura kept a detailed diary of events: the cities they passed through, the travelers they encountered on the way, the changing countryside and the trials of an often difficult voyage. Laura's words, preserved in this book, reveal her inner thoughts as she traveled with her family in search of a new home in Mansfield, where Rose would spend her childhood, where Laura would write her Little House books, and where she and Almanzo would remain all the rest of their happy days together.

101 Things You Never Knew About Walt Disney World: An Unauthorized Look at Tributes, Little Touches, And Inside Jokes

Kevin Yee

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Total reviews: 17 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Think you know Walt Disney World?

Do you know the backstory of Dinoland U.S.A. that unifies the entire land? Do you know how the former attraction named Dreamflight is commemorated in today's Magic Kingdom? Do you know how Ellen's Energy Adventure mentions the ride which preceded it? Do you know where the references to Horizons and World of Motion are? Do you know how Disney's Animal Kingdom pays tribute to the land it planned but never created? Do you know where the Hidden Kermit is located? Do you know how the four theme parks honor the years in which they opened?

You have probably heard a few "interesting facts" about Walt Disney World over the years. Perhaps you've heard that the windows on the second story of the buildings on Main Street honor individuals of note in WDW history? Or that the company plane Walt used to survey the eventual WDW property from the air now lives at the studios park? It's all true... but these are only two of the interesting facts pointed out in "101 Things You Never Knew About Walt Disney World." And those are only two of the best-known examples. Many of these stories deal with much more obscure, yet equally interesting, pieces of history of the theme parks. You haven't heard all these stories before!

Moleskine City Notebook New York (Moleskine City Notebook)

Moleskine

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Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The first guidebook you write yourself.

The Bronx is up the Battery's down and the Moleskine City Notebook New York has space for everything in between. The Key Map summarizes the overall city layout showing the sequence and location of the 14 zone maps. Map of the subway system and list of stations plus the alphabetical street index of the zone maps. Blank pages for jotting down notes and recording your thoughts stories and memories. 32 removable sheets for loose notes and exchanging messages. 12 translucent sticky sheets for tracing your routes and sharing itineraries. A 96-page tabbed archive for collecting everything that matters most and keeping it at your fingertips. The first 6 tabs are printed; the others await your personalization with the enclosed adhesive labels.

Each pocket sized Moleskine City Notebook is thread bound and has a cardboard bound cover with rounded corners acid free paper three bookmarks an elastic closure and an expandable inner pocket that contains the Moleskine history.

WALT DISNEY WORLD TRIVIA 2009 BOX

THE INTREPID TRAVELER

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Editorial Review:

Like the author's popular Walt Disney World Trivia Books books, this fun-filled page-a-day calendar serves up a treasure trove of Disney secrets, fun facts, and fascinating history, along with quizzes, puzzles, and games. Even die-hard Disney buffs are sure to learn something new. Fun for any trivia lover who enjoys Disney, it's also a great way to count down the days till that next trip to Disney World.

Thomas Guide 2009 Los Angeles & Orange Counties, California (Los Angeles and Orange Counties Street Guide)

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Nature's Metropolis: Chicago and the Great West

William Cronon

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 19 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A review from an armchair historian. 5 out of 5 stars.
13 of 13 people found this review helpful.

There are going to be other reviewers who can provide more erudite reviews-- reviews better grounded in the study of cities or economic history. I am nothing more than an average reader who enjoys non-fiction.

First of all, potential readers should be aware that this is an economic history. It follows flows of goods and capital rather than following the lives and careers of the men and women of Chicago. I knew what to expect, but for people looking for a more standard history of Chicago this may make Nature's Metropolis difficult to engage.

I really enjoyed reading the book. It stretched my understanding of the economic growth of cities and raised issues that I had not considered about the role of the city *in* nature (not as opposed to nature). The examination of elements that made Chicago into both a city and The City was fascinating. The chapters tracing grain, lumber and meat as goods were clearly written and underscored the central theses.

I guess it goes without saying that Nature's Metropolis is far from a light read, but that does not make it less rewarding. As someone who does not have a background in history, I only longingly wished that the bibliography had been annotated to help support further reading.

Editorial Review:

In this groundbreaking work, a Yale University professor of history gives an environmental perspective on the history of 19th-century America. "No one has written about Chicago with more power, clarity, and intelligence than Cronon. Indeed, no one has ever written a better book about a city."--Boston Globe. Photographs and maps.

Coming into the Country

John McPhee

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Total reviews: 28 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

A trip around Alaska in the 70's 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

I traveled to Alaska in 2006 but lived there in the early 70's. Why I delayed so long in reading "Coming into the Country" I don't know, but John McPhee has taken me back to that earlier day. Both his character and place descriptions are wonderful and make me long for the cabins, the ice break-up, the dogs, the bush planes, and the 55 gallon drums. The Anchorage of today is much changed, but the bush is still there -- Thank God.

Editorial Review:

Coming into the Country is an unforgettable account of Alaska and Alaskans. It is a rich tapestry of vivid characters, observed landscapes, and descriptive narrative, in three principal segments that deal, respectively, with a total wilderness, with urban Alaska, and with life in the remoteness of the bush.

Readers of McPhee’s earlier books will not be unprepared for his surprising shifts of scene and ordering of events, brilliantly combined into an organic whole. In the course of this volume we are made acquainted with the lore and techniques of placer mining, the habits and legends of the barren-ground grizzly, the outlook of a young Athapaskan chief, and tales of the fortitude of settlers—ordinary people compelled by extraordinary dreams. Coming into the Country unites a vast region of America with one of America’s notable literary craftsmen, singularly qualified to do justice to the scale and grandeur of the design.

Here is New York

E.B. White

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Total reviews: 20 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Chosen by The New York Times as one of the ten best books ever written about the city.

In the summer of 1949, E.B. White sat in a New York City hotel room and, sweltering in the summer heat, wrote a remarkable, pristine essay, Here Is New York. Perceptive, funny, and nostalgic, the author’s stroll around Manhattan -- with the reader arm-in-arm -- remains the quintessential love letter to the city, written by one of America’s foremost literary figures. Like most of White’s prose (his essays, his "Talk of the Town" columns, The Elements of Style), this book is of modest length. Yet, like Charlotte’s Web, it speaks more eloquently about what lasts and what really matters than other, more expansive pieces. The New York Times has chosen Here Is New York as one of the ten best books ever written about the grand metropolis. The New Yorker calls it "the wittiest essay, and one of the most perceptive, ever done on the city." This edition of Here Is New York marks the 100th anniversary of E.B. White’s birth, and appears with a new introduction by Roger Angell.

Zagatsurvey 2009 Washington, DC Baltimore Restaurants (Zagatsurvey: Washington Dc/Baltimore Restaurants) (Zagatsurvey: Washington Dc/Baltimore Restaurants)

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Editorial Review:

Washington, DC Baltimore Restaurants covers over 1,100 restaurants in Washington, Baltimore, Annapolis, the Eastern Shore and Northern Virginia. You ll find trusted ratings and reviews based on the opinions of over 6,700 avid restaurant goers. The trademark reviews and corresponding ratings for Food, Décor, Service and Cost are organized alphabetically in a user friendly format.