Travel Books - Page 12

A Hard-Water World: Ice Fishing and Why We Do It

Greg Breining

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Editorial Review:

To the uninitiated, ice fishing seems improbable, wacky, and dangerous. But every winter, more than 2 million hardy northerners go to their place on the lake: literally on the lake.
 
Striking storytelling photographs by Layne Kennedy and engaging essays by outdoor writer and fisherman Greg Breining capture the quirky world of ice fishing-its natural beauty and solitary subzero vigils, along with its oddball practices and practitioners.

Kennedy and Breining take readers to fun-filled if bizarre festivals that include "Guys on Ice" in Door County, Wisconsin, and the supremely self-mocking International Eelpout Festival on Minnesota's Leech Lake, which honors a slimy, potbellied, finny critter. Photos offer peeks inside ice houses that range from a plastic-bag cocoon to an impossibly luxurious Adirondacks ice residence with front porch and wet bar. Travel to a frozen lake in the Boundary Waters, to ice cities that form and disband overnight, and to the Volga River near Moscow, shadowed by the KGB.
 
Most importantly, A Hard-Water World allows the reader to enjoy the beauty, wonder, and, yes, insanity of ice fishing in the comfort of home.

Layne Kennedy's photographs have been published in National Geographic Traveler, Sports Illustrated, Life, Newsweek, Smithsonian, and other magazines. Greg Breining writes frequently about the outdoors for national magazines and newspapers.

John Fielder's Best of Colorado

John Fielder

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 15 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Imagine what it would be like to take a trip through Colorado with John Fielder as your tour guide, or to be on location at a Fielder photo shoot. Now is your chance to do both! The celebrated photographer who has traveled the state for more than 20 years in search of its most beautiful vistas shares his love for Colorado's rugged beauty, as well as his knowledge of Colorado's historical, recreational, and cultural richness, in this extraordinary guidebook. Through lively text and spectacular images, John reveals more than 160 of his most treasured Colorado locations to photograph so you can work magic with your own camera. You can enjoy some of the state's prime offerings while you travel, as John profiles his favorite restaurants, hotels, hiking and biking trails, and area attractions. Local lore and cameos of influential Coloradans through the ages highlight the state's fascinating heritage. Whether you're a longtime local, a new resident, or an out-of-state visitor, John Fielder's Best of Colorado guarantees the ultimate insider experience!

Bikes of Burden

Hans Kemp

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 11 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Great Book 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This is a fantastic book and brought back some many great memories from travelling in that part of the world. A reccommended buy!

Awesome book!!! Must have after our trip to SE Asia. 5 out of 5 stars.
2 of 2 people found this review helpful.

This book was a must have after seeing much of this craziness first hand in Vietnam and Cambodia. You see this kind of thing everywhere over there but you can't ever seem to capture it on film since it is usually flying down the road heading the other direction.

THe pictures in the book are VERY true to everyday life in Vietnam 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

After a visit to Viet Nam this book really brings back wonderful memories of the various sights we saw everyday! The photography is beautiful. A great coffee table book to remind one of their travels!

Bikes of Burden 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 2 people found this review helpful.

For a photographer, this is an outstanding book. Both as examples, for clever shots/scenes, and as a how to.

Editorial Review:

In Vietnam the motorbike is the main mode of transport, not only for people but for every imaginable and unimaginable product and produce. Without the motorbike the economy would come to a halt. Bikes of Burden shows in 148 stunning, full color photographs how the motorbikes, the drivers and their loads ride around the cities and countryside in acts that defy your wildest imagination.

African Ceremonies: The Concise Edition

Carol Beckwith, Angela Fisher

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 13 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

An Africa that *does* exist, but that is vanishing 5 out of 5 stars.
15 of 16 people found this review helpful.

The "concise edition" of AFRICAN CEREMONIES opens with a preface by Dr. Malidoma Some, president of "Echoes of the Ancestors" and author of his autobiography OF WATER AND THE SPIRIT and THE HEALING WISDOM OF AFRICA. Malidoma is from the Dagara tribe of Burkina Faso. His name means "make friends with the stranger/enemy," and that is why he now lives in the West.

I have met Malidoma on a few occasions (participating in some of his rituals) and I corresponded with him for a time. He has been incredibly helpful and supportive in my own spiritual journey (he is an initiated shaman of his tribe and has recently become the youngest initiated elder), and therefore I trust what he says. Malidoma's preface makes it clear that, sadly, AFRICAN CEREMONIES documents a world that - unlike the claims of some - is not entirely gone, but that is quickly vanishing. Malidoma comments that these photographs are very important because they show the last time that some of these ceremonies will be performed in such elaborate nature, and perhaps they will never be performed again at all.

AFRICAN CEREMONIES continues the tradition of these well respected photographers by providing a beautiful volume of beautiful peoples.

Editorial Review:

Abrams are proud to publish a newly designed one-volume edition of this definitive work, containing more than half of the magnificent photographs that were in the original edition - plus several new ones. This carefully conceived work offers a complete introduction to the traditional rites and rituals of Africa, including baby namings, initiations, weddings, harvest blessings, coronations, healing exorcisms, and funerals, among others. Many of these rituals will never be performed again; few have been pictured and described with the intimacy, knowledge, and skill of Beckwith and Fisher. The book also includes an audio CD featuring tracks of intimate, secret and rarely heard ceremonies from many countries throughout Africa that were recorded over a period of six years by David Bradnum, a musician and award-winning composer.

Americana the Beautiful: Mid-century Culture in Kodachrome

Charles Phoenix

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Colorfully normal 5 out of 5 stars.
6 of 6 people found this review helpful.

Another selection of snaps rescued by Charles Phoenix just before they might have ended up in the local landfill. In the same format as his excellent 'Southern Californialand' (ISBN 1883318424) and so much better than the earlier 'God Bless Americana' book. The two hundred amateur slides feature a rich seam of everyday life full of white middle class detail (which of course does raise the question: didn't colored folk take photos back then or perhaps they never junk them).

Overall I thought the photo selection was fascinating and grouping them in themes worked well. The last few pages have some intriguing architectural and transport slides like the 1964 flying saucer style State Capitol Bank in Oklahoma City or the late fifties General Motors Aerotrain pulling into a station. On page thirty-six onward there are several pages of people at home showing all kinds of domestic activity, food on tables, kitchens, watching home movies or just enjoying company. It's interesting looking at these photos because they are so unlike anything taken by professionals though sometimes the composition, lighting and color does lift them out of the mundane.

Like 'Southern Californialand' the editorial format works well with photos one to a page, allowing for a deep caption or several slides butted together. My only criticism is that sometimes out of focus images are too large, for example the soft-focus Jefferson Drive-in on page ninety-seven would have worked better much smaller or even rejected. Also captions frequently describe in words what the reader can obviously see in the picture but fortunately many of them also have plenty of historical background detail about things in the photos.

Charles Phoenix has hit on a successful publishing genre and there surely will be more titles to come but until the next one you can follow the latest finds on his website.

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

Robert Capa: The Definitive Collection

Richard Whelan

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

Robert Capa (1913-1954), one of the greatest photographers of the twentieth century and a founding member of the Magnum photographic agency, had the mind of a passionate and committed journalist and the eye of an artist. His lifework, consisting of more than 70,000 negative frames, constitutes an unparalleled documentation of a crucial twenty-two-year period (1932-1954) encompassing some of the most catastrophic and dramatic events of the last century. This book represents the most definitive selection of Robert Capa's work ever published, a collection of 937 photographs selected by Capa's brother, Cornell Capa (himself a noted Life photographer), and his biographer, Richard Whelan, who meticulously re-examined all of Robert Capa's contact sheets to compile this master set of images. This book opens with a biographical introduction illustrated with rare photographs of Capa, and closes with a chronology of his life. The main body of the book presents this definitive collection of 937 of Robert Capa's most important pictures. The photographs, arranged in chronological order and accompanied by commentaries and identifying captions, constitute an in-depth survey of Robert Capa's finest work over the entire course of his career. The pictures reveal the dramatic shifts in location and subject matter that Capa experienced from day to day, representing the trajectory of his life - from war-torn Spain to Picasso on a sunny beach in France; from carousing with Ernest Hemingway in London to Capa's historic images of the Allied landing on Omaha Beach in Normandy in 1944. The book design groups together pictures that constitute a story - for example, the Popular Front rallies in Paris in 1936, or the U.S. Army's entry into Sicily in 1943 - in order to maintain the original coherence of the work. Embodying the spirit of his photographs, Robert Capa's life itself was adventurous, romantic, and tragic. Born in Hungary in 1913, he hoped to become a journalist but was forced to flee to Berlin at the age of seventeen because of his leftist political sympathies. When Hitler became chancellor of Germany in 1933, Capa fled to Paris, the city that would become his home on and off for most of his life. It was there that he met Andre Kertesz, who became a mentor to Capa and introduced him to the extraordinary potential of the 35mm Leica camera as a tool for reportage. Capa also met two other photographers during his early years in Paris: Henri Cartier-Bresson and David "Chim" Szymin, with whom he founded Magnum, the co-operative photo agency, in 1947 along with George Rodger and William Vandivert. For the rest of his life, Capa would devote much of his time to guiding the operations of the Magnum offices in Paris and New York. Throughout the 1930s and World War II, Capa was present at many of the twentieth century's defining events and moments. His first assignment came in 1932, when he was working as a darkroom assistant at Delphot, the important Berlin photo agency. The agency's director, recognizing Capa's talent, lent him a camera and sent him to Copenhagen to photograph exiled Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky giving a speech to Danish students. From there, Robert Capa went on to photograph the Spanish Civil War, when he made his famous "Falling Soldier" picture showing a Republican soldier collapsing just after being shot. Capa reported on the increasing political tensions in Europe in the mid-1930s, including the Popular Front demonstrations in France, and on the presidential elections in Mexico in 1940 before being accredited by the U.S. Army as a war correspondent for Life. After documenting Londoners' stalwart survival of the Blitz, he went on to cover battles on many of the major fronts in North Africa, Sicily, mainland Italy, France, and Germany. In one of his most famous assignments, Capa landed with the first wave of American troops on Omaha Beach in Normandy on D-Day, June 6, 1944. Wading into the frigid water behind amphibious tanks, and dodging machine gun and rifle bullets, Capa shot 36 exposures before his hands were shaking so badly that he could not insert another roll into the camera. In an ironic twist of fate, a Life darkroom attendant damaged all but eleven of Capa's negatives. After the war, he did various stories for travel magazines and worked on writing projects with friends such as John Steinbeck and the noted journalist Theodore H. White. He also went to Israel several times to document the conflict and co-operation in the founding of the new nation. Capa's last assignment would be a trip to Vietnam to cover the French Indochina War: he was killed when he accidentally stepped on a Vietminh antipersonnel mine in the countryside on May 25, 1954. Though perpetually broke, Capa lived a glamorous life - through a combination of charm, luck, and talent (and an uncontrollable penchant for gambling), he frequented a wealthy circle of celebrities and cultural figures. He fell in love with Ingrid Bergman; was friends with Ernest Hemingway, the director John Huston, and other writers and directors; spent many an afternoon at the racetracks, and enjoyed all-night poker games. Seen together, however, the pictures in this book transcend the specific situations they portray to stand as timeless images of the human condition at its most terrible and inspiring; they are monuments to the strength of the human spirit.

Nantucket: Island Living

Leslie Linsley

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Editorial Review:

Imagine a place of unspoiled beaches, windswept dunes, and dramatic natural beauty. A place free of traffic lights and blaring commercial come-ons. A place whose rich historical heritage is visible everywhere—from the antiques-shop windows filled with handmade baskets and scrimshawed ivories to the spare, shingle-clad houses that coexist harmoniously with the surrounding land- and seascapes. Imagine a place designed, by man and nature, to relax and restore you.

 

Nantucket Island is that place. Thirty miles off Cape Cod, Nantucket is both geographically isolated and—as an internationally regarded vacation resort—culturally sophisticated. Nantucketers are rightly proud of a manner of living that couples the casual comforts of small-town life with an urbane sense of glamour, taste, and style.

 

In this handsomely illustrated book, longtime Nantucket residents Leslie Linsley and Terry Pommett give you an insider’s look at the on-island lifestyle: the restored historic homes of Nantucket town and ’Sconset village, the appealingly humble beachfront cottages that dot the island’s shoreline, and the beautifully tended gardens—formal and informal—that grace Nantucket’s private houses and public buildings. More than 200 color photos document the other attractions—panoramic views, home-grown handicrafts, seasonal celebrations —that make Nantucket such a rewarding place to spend a day, a summer, or a lifetim

Boston Then and Now (Then & Now)

Elizabeth McNulty

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

A good backstop to any trip to Boston's sites 4 out of 5 stars.
14 of 15 people found this review helpful.

We purchased this book in Boston and found almost all of the sites we saw in town in this book. In this book, the older, up to 150-year old photo of the original structures on the current site, or older pictures than offered a juxtaposition of the surrounding landscape of buildings present in the past and now around selected sites.

While I was a little disappointed in no picture of Fenway Park, or in a map to help locate where some of these pictures were taken in the city (after all, I'm not a native of Boston), I found the book to very ably support the exhibits we saw on Boston's history, and add greatly to my understanding of the city and the growth of urbanism in general. The architecture depicted is often unique, and the descriptions offer a bit of information on who the architects were, how the areas shown were constructed, and more.

Overall, I came out pretty pleased by what is found in this book.

Editorial Review:

America's oldest major city, Boston has adapted to the modern age while still retaining an old-world charm. With many of her streets tracing original ox-cart paths to historic waterfronts, Boston is "America's Walking City." This volume documents the amazing changes that Boston has undergone during the last 150 years. Seventy modern color photographs are compared side-by-side with seventy archival photographs from the 1850s to the 1950s. While focusing on famous vistas and familiar landmarks, it also explores well-known neighborhoods. The Then and Now series includes: New York, Washington, Boston, and San Francisco.

The Tree Where Man Was Born; The African Experience

Eliot Porter, Peter Matthiessen

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Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 4 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

A loving and detailed account of a difficult journey 5 out of 5 stars.
37 of 41 people found this review helpful.

Is there anyplace wild enough to lift the weight that Occidental culture has placed on our shoulders? Africa, where the first man walked erect, may be the last place where man can feel awed enough by Nature to try and remember that he, also, is just another among the millions of other species that populate the planet. Paul Bowles, Bruce Chatwin, Doris Lessing, Isaak Dinesen and Peter Mattieshen found that answer, and shared the experience. In Mattieshen's poetic account, the tragic and fabulous beauty of a continent that has been devastated by greed and war is revealed, as the impossibility of traveling Africa and not falling in love with it and being changed by it forever.

Editorial Review:

In this classic volume, Matthiessen exquisitely combines both nature and travel writing to bring East Africa to vivid life. He skillfully portrays the daily lives of herdsmen and hunter-gatherers; the drama of the predator kills; the hundreds of exotic animals; the breathtaking landscapes; and the area's turbulent natural, political, and social histories.

City in Time: New York (City in Time)

William Hayes

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Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Past and Present 5 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

Beautiful pictorial of a city emerging and growing but yet unchanging. Some of the most well-known areas are captured in this book using a glimpse of the past and a current image without attempting an exact recreation of the previous. It shows an evolution of time but yet a real dimension to the city itself.

Editorial Review:

From the Bronx to the Battery and beyond, New York is a wonderful town—and one that was centuries in the making. With the Statue of Liberty raising her torch high, it became the shining symbol of a promised land for immigrants throughout the world. Follow the city’s growth, and look at her buildings old and new, from Trinity Church to today’s glass and steel skyscrapers. The trip passes through Ellis Island, first stop for many new Americans; Battery Park City, where Castle Clinton still stands; Hester Street, once filled with peddlers selling their wares; the original and new Penn Stations and Madison Square Gardens; and more. Sidebars look in depth at such New York attractions as the subway.