States Books - Page 3

The Unofficial Guide to Disneyland 2009 (Unofficial Guides)

Bob Sehlinger, Menasha Ridge Press

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

More than 4 million copies sold! This series is the only one that offers evaluations based on reader surveys and critiques, compiled by a team of unbiased inspectors.

• Hotels, attractions, and restaurants in all price categories

• Extensive information on shopping, nightlife, and sports

• Easy-to-use, two-color design

• Detailed, 2-color maps

From the publishers of The Unofficial Guide® to Walt Disney World®

"A Tourist's Best Friend!"
—Chicago Sun-Times

"Indispensable"
—The New York Times

Five Great Features and Benefits offered ONLY by The Unofficial Guide®:

1. Every attraction ranked and rated for each age group, based on interviews and surveys of more than 7,500 families
2. When and where to go: the best times of the year and the best days of the week for each park
3. All the Disneyland-area hotels ranked and rated for value and quality of rooms
4. Field tested itineraries for adults and families with children that can save more than three hours of waiting in line
5. Complete coverage of Disney's California Adventure® theme park and Universal Studios Hollywood

EAT, Los Angeles: The Food Lover's Guide to Los Angeles

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Subjects -> Travel -> Reference & Tips -> Food & Lodging -> Dining

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Where Shall We Go For Dinner? 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 6 people found this review helpful.

For anyone in the Los Angeles area, this book offers an astonishing number of possible answers to the question "Where shall we go for dinner?" (Or breakfast or lunch, for that matter.) There are thumb tabs for general categories, such as "Restaurants", "Food That's Fast", "Bakeries & Sweets", etc.

The text is then organized by the geographical regions of L.A.: whether one is looking for a steak house in Burbank or a tea house in Chinatown or a bistro in Venice, it's easy to track down. Capsule reviews for each of the hundreds of food establishments highlight the specialties of each place,as well as providing info about costs and clientele, and why it's noteworthy.

Editor Colleen Dunn Bates and the other contributing authors have all written extensively about the Los Angeles food scene for other publications; it's as if an all-star team was assembled to produce Eat: Los Angeles. They have delivered a winner!

Editorial Review:

L.A. is one of the world's great food cities, and here's the proof. "EAT: Los Angeles" is the first book to celebrate everything a food lover needs to know. A team of expert culinary journalists shares the Why, What and Who on more than 1,000 of their favorite places: restaurants, of course, but also caterers, ethnic markets, gourmet-to-go, breakfast cafes, taco trucks, kitchen supply, wine shops, bakeries, burger joints, farmers' markets, food festivals, ramen houses, butchers, coffeehouses, tea parlors, gelaterias, pubs, chocolatiers, pizzerias and much more. The geographic range is as broad as the culinary scope - the book covers all of L.A. County, from Long Beach to La Canada.

Frommer's Alaska 2009 (Frommer's Complete)

Charles P. Wohlforth

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

An Alaskan Perspective 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

As someone who lives in Alaska, operates a popular Alaska travel website (Alaska.org), and helps people plan custom Alaska vacations, I can confidently say this is the most useful general guidebook to our state. It's more comprehensive, more readable, and more detailed than other Alaska guidebooks.

I think this is mostly because Charles lives in Alaska and updates the book each year. Most travel publishers update their books every couple years and use writers who live in New York or somewhere else. As a result, this book offers details and specifics you learn only by actually doing what you write about--and these are the very details you need to plan your Alaska trip. For example, when writing about halibut fishing in Homer, he mentions the possibility of seasickness. When writing about other activities, he tells you what to bring and wear. Prices and schedules are exact.

Alaska is a complex and unfamiliar destination. Most people don't know where to start when planning a trip. Unfortunately, that's why so many people take a cruise when they might have enjoyed a land tour more--if they only knew how to plan it. That's where the "Planning A Trip" section comes in. It discusses the various travel styles and trip types possible in Alaska and why you would choose one over another.

It contains the kind of insight and authority that come from really knowing a destination. Charles writes, for example, "Studies by Alaska tourism experts have found that many people choose escorted packages to avoid risks that don't really exist." Or, "It's also possible for an independent traveler to obtain some of the predictability a package tour provides. You can reserve accommodations and activities and control your expenses by using a good travel agent experienced in Alaska travel." This is the type of authoritative, insider advice you need to plan a successful Alaska vacation.

This book seems to improve each year--I think because the author maintains a website for reader questions and incorporates the answers into subsequent editions. For example, the book has a section on Suggested Itineraries for trips of different lengths, for family trips, for winter trips, etc.. Itineraries are hugely helpful, because even if you know where you want to go and what you want to see in Alaska, it's sometimes really hard to figure out how long to spend in each place and how best to get from one to the next in a state with limited transportation infrastructure.

In response to reader questions about inaccurate Mapquest information, Charles added a driving times table which sets the record straight on how long it takes to travel the various rural Alaska highways, how fast you can drive, where the best views are, and where you can get gas. Another really useful section is Charles' "Best of Alaska" list. Alaska is so vast, with so many travel options, that this section helps you cut to the chase if know your primary interests.

Two other things separate this book from others. First, it's written from the perspective of someone who seeks out unique and different Alaska travel experiences. Charles writes, "The mistake some people make is to focus only on the largest and most famous destinations." Accordingly, he gives quick coverage to the big attractions you can learn about online or anywhere else and instead gives more coverage to unusual, off-the-beaten finds. Examples include describing a hike near Seward to an old military fort where you can explore underground with flashlights, or explaining how to hook up with a local guide on in Barrow to go polar bear viewing on a Humvee. You won't get these ideas from other guidebooks--and they'll probably end up being your most memorable Alaska travel experiences.

The other thing that differentiates this book is how readable it is. Unlike most travel writers, Charles is a serious author with other non-fiction, non-travel titles to his name. His literary writing style is interesting and fun to read.

I don't really have any criticisms of the book. In fact, if the truth be told, it was Charles' authoritative, honest approach that inspired me when I wrote my own Alaska.org travel planning website. Even today, we keep a copy in our Anchorage travel agency call center for our agents to refer to when helping visitors plan trips to remote parts of the state the agent may not have personally visited.

Editorial Review:

America’s #1 bestselling travel series

Written by more than 175 outspoken travelers around the globe, Frommer’s Complete Guides help travelers experience places the way locals do.

• More annually updated guides than any other series
• 16-page color section and foldout map in all annual guides
• Outspoken opinions, exact prices, and suggested itineraries
• Dozens of detailed maps in an easy-to-read, two-color design

Fodor's Hawaii 2009 (Full-Color Gold Guides)

Fodor's

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Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Fodor’s. For Choice Travel Experiences.

Fodor’s helps you unleash the possibilities of travel by providing the insightful tools you need to experience the trips you want. Although you’re at the helm, Fodor’s offers the assurance of our expertise, the guarantee of selectivity, and the choice details that truly define a destination. It’s like having a friend on Hawaii!

• Your vacation never looked better. This Fodor’s full-color guide paints an unforgettable picture of Hawaii with vibrant maps, vividly illustrated features, and stunning color photos.

• Updated annually, Fodor’s Hawaii, 2009, provides the most accurate and up-to-date information available in a guidebook.

• Fodor’s Hawaii, 2009 features options for a variety of budgets, interests, and tastes, so you make the choices to plan your trip of a lifetime.

• If it’s not worth your time, it’s not in this book. Fodor’s discriminating ratings, including our top tier Fodor’s Choice designations, ensure that you’ll know about the most interesting and enjoyable places on Hawaii.

Experience Hawaii like a local! Fodor’s Hawaii, 2009 includes unique photo-features that impart the state’s culture, covering Hawaii Volcanoes National Park, Napali Coast, The Road to Hana, Pearl Harbor, and much more!

Indispensable, customized trip planning tools include “Top Reasons to Go,” “Word of Mouth” advice from other travelers, and tips to help save money, bypass lines, and avoid common travel pitfalls.

Visit Fodors.com for more ideas and information, travel deals, vacation planning tips, reviews and to exchange travel advice with other travelers.

The World That Made New Orleans: From Spanish Silver to Congo Square

Ned Sublette

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Subjects -> History -> Americas -> United States -> Colonial Period -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

New Orleans is the most elusive of American cities. The product of the centuries-long struggle among three mighty empires--France, Spain, and England--and among their respective American colonies and enslaved African peoples, it has always seemed like a foreign port to most Americans, baffled as they are by its complex cultural inheritance.

            The World That Made New Orleans offers a new perspective on this insufficiently understood city by telling the remarkable story of New Orleans’s first century--a tale of imperial war, religious conflict, the search for treasure, the spread of slavery, the Cuban connection, the cruel aristocracy of sugar, and the very different revolutions that created the United States and Haiti. It demonstrates that New Orleans already had its own distinct personality at the time of Louisiana’s statehood in 1812. By then, important roots of American music were firmly planted in its urban swamp--especially in the dances at Congo Square, where enslaved Africans and African Americans appeared en masse on Sundays to, as an 1819 visitor to the city put it, “rock the city.” 

This book is a logical continuation of Ned Sublette’s previous volume, Cuba and Its Music: From the First Drums to the Mambo, which was highly praised for its synthesis of musical, cultural, and political history. Just as that book has become a standard resource on Cuba, so too will The World That Made New Orleans long remain essential for understanding the beautiful and tragic story of this most American of cities.

Population: 485: Meeting Your Neighbors One Siren at a Time (Wisconsin)

Michael Perry

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Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Regional U.S. -> Midwest

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 64 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Welcome to New Auburn, Wisconsin (population: 485), where the local vigilante is a farmer's wife armed with a pistol and a Bible, the most senior member of the volunteer fire department is a cross-eyed butcher with one kidney and two ex-wives (both of whom work at the only gas station in town), and the back roads are haunted by the ghosts of children and farmers. Michael Perry loves this place. He grew up here, and now -- after a decade away -- he has returned.

Unable to polka or repair his own pickup, his farm-boy hands gone soft after years of writing, Mike figures the best way to regain his credibility is to join the volunteer fire department. Against a backdrop of fires and tangled wrecks, bar fights and smelt feeds, he tells a frequently comic tale leavened with moments of heartbreaking delicacy and searing tragedy. Tracing his calls on a map in the little firehouse, he sees "a dense, benevolent web, spun one frantic zigzag at a time" from which the story of a tiny town emerges, building to a final chapter that is at once devastating and transcendent.

The Walt Disney World Trivia Book, Volume 1: Secrets, History & Fun Facts Behind the Magic

Louis A. Mongello

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 60 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Trivia details are great 3 out of 5 stars.
2 of 5 people found this review helpful.

the organization of the trivia could be less test like and more immediate with answers closer to the questions...

Good information and details

Great Fun! 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

If you love Disney, this book is really fun. Even if you have read a lot of other books and websites about Disney, there will be things in the book that will suprise you. My husband and I found that there were lots of new things to learn. Reading the book was a fun way to add a new dimention to our disney travel. We bring it on the plane and read it to get us motivated for our next trip.

Editorial Review:

Check your WDW know-how, quiz your friends, or open "The Walt Disney World Trivia Book" at random to brighten your day with new nuggets of WDW knowledge. This unique and entertaining collection of hundreds of multiple choice trivia questions is filled with secrets and fun facts about all aspects of America’s most magical destination. You’ll find a chapter on each theme park, plus a chapter on specific parts of WDW beyond the theme parks (for example, the monorail), and a chapter that takes you all around the "World." An index lets you check out all the tidbits in the book about your favorite rides and places.

Alaska by Cruise Ship: The Complete Guide to Cruising Alaska with Giant Pull-out Map (6th Edition)

Anne Vipond

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Total reviews: 26 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The new sixth edition of Alaska By Cruise Ship has been completely updated with new attractions and shore excursions for cruisers to this beautiful state.

Over 400 color photographs and dozens of color maps support the narrative describing this exciting cruise. Comes with a large color pull-out map with inside page references and a mile-by-mile locator system showing distances traveled. All base ports and ports of call of an Alaska cruise are included with comprehensive shore excursion information (with port walking maps) and land tour options for each stop. Extensive detail on history, wildlife, native culture and natural phenomena also are included as well as hiking tips and trail locations. A detailed chapter deals with the diverse wildlife and also includes a special full-page map to help you locate and identify the different species of whales.

Covers details of ports from Seattle to Fairbanks and beyond and draws on authorities from the Universities of Alaska and British Columbia.

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.

Kauai Trailblazer: Where to Hike, Snorkel, Bike, Paddle, Surf (

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 69 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The latest edition of the Sprout's top-selling guide is packed with new and updated activities, dozens of fresh photos, and a special Trailblazer Kids section for families headed to Hawaii's "adventure island." Popular among independent and active travelers, Trailblazer guides are known for their user-friendly format, readability, and sharp graphics. You'll find all the mountain ridges, tropical gardens, beaches, coves and lagoons, jungles, rivers, historic landmarks and cultural sites, coral reefs, ancient ruins, and coastal bluffs-all the places to get wet, muddy, and have fun on Kaua'i. Less energetic visitors will appreciate the book's driving tours, which hit the headliners along with the island's out-of-the-way charms. The authors have spent years exploring Kaua'i, and it shows. A Resource Links section gives visitor information and cultural contacts, recommended recreational outfitters, museums and attractions, Hawaiiana shops and hula shows, as well as a! hand-picked list of restaurants and places to stay. Safety precautions and traveling tips are not to be overlooked, and a Best Of section lets you select among activities to suit your mood.

119 hikes and strolls to mountain ridges, tropical gardens, beaches, jungles, coves, reefs, historic landmarks and ancient ruins, swamps, craters, forests, coastal bluffs and tide pools, towns, canyons, waterfalls and river valleys

- 68 beaches, including 22 reachable only by trail - 42 snorkeling pools, both the island favorites and hidden coves - 61 mountain bike rides along forest, coastal, and countryside trails - 27 kayaking waters: 13 rivers and streams, 14 bays and lagoons - 36 surfing spots - a special Trailblazer Kids section - 10 maps and 175 photographs - 4 driving tours, featuring heiaus, wildlife sanctuaries, cultural and historical sites,tourist attractions and natural wonders - Resource Links to recreational outfitters, stables, golf courses, camping, transportation, accommodations, local-style eats and shops - Appendices of Hawaiian words, place names, movie locations, hula performances, farmer's markets, weather, flora, history