Book Description
John Steinbeck was never content to repeat himself, and his restless search for new forms and fresh subject matter is fully evident in the books of his later years. This volume collects four novels that exhibit the full range of his gift, along with a travel book that has become one of his most enduringly popular works.
In The Wayward Bus (1947), Steinbeck leads a group of ill-matched passengers representing a spectrum of social types and classes, stranded by a washed-out bridge, on a circuitous journey that exposes cruelties, self-deceptions, and unsuspected moral strengths. The tone ranges from boisterous comedy to trenchant satirical observation of postwar America. Burning Bright (1950), an allegory set against shifting backgrounds (circus, sea, farm) and revolving around the fear of sterility and the desire for self-perpetuation, marks Steinbeck's involvement with the drama in its fusion of the forms of novel and play.
Sweet Thursday (1954) marks Steinbeck's return, in a mood of sometimes frothy comedy, to the characters and milieu of his earlier Cannery Row. A love story set against the background of the local brothel, the Bear Flag, Sweet Thursday is for all its intimations of melancholy one of the most lighthearted of Steinbeck's books. It was subsequently adapted by Rodgers and Hammerstein into their musical Pipe Dream. Steinbeck's final novel, The Winter of Our Discontent (1961) is set in an old Long Island whaling town modeled on Sag Harbor, where he had been spending time since 1953. The book breaks new ground in its depiction of the crass commercialism of contemporary America, and its impact on a protagonist with traditionalist values who is appalled but finally tempted by the encroaching sleaziness.
Travels with Charley in Search of America (1962) was Steinbeck's last published book. A record of his experiences and observations as he drove around America in a pickup truck, accompanied by his standard poodle Charley, it is filled with engaging, often humorous description and comes to a powerful climax in an encounter with racist demonstrators in New Orleans.
Robert DeMott, co-editor, is the Edwin and Ruth Kennedy Distinguished Professor at Ohio University and the author of Steinbeck's Typewriter, an award-winning book of critical essays. Brian Railsback, co-editor, is dean of the Honors College at Western Carolina University and the author of Parallel Expeditions: Charles Darwin and the Art of John Steinbeck.
Customer Reviews:
Fititng Conclusion to Series.......2007-04-12
This volume is up to the LOA's customary magnificient standards. This is not Steinbeck's best work (although I persist in viewing "Sweet Thursday" as under-valued), but still worth every penny.
Steinbeck fans should have this on their shelves. DeMott's previous editorial work on The Grapes of Wrath establishes him as the editor of choice for any edition, and these Library of America editions are becoming, justifiably, the "standard" texts.
Average customer rating:
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Similar Items:
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Lonely Planet San Francisco
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San Francisco (Eyewitness Travel Guides)
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Frommer's San Francisco 2007 (Frommer's Complete)
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Not for Tourists Guide 2007 to San Francisco (Not for Tourists Guidebook)
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Frommer's San Francisco 2006 (Frommer's Complete)
ASIN: 0935039201 |
Book Description
STREETWISE(r) SAN FRANCISCO
Revised yearly, STREETWISE(r) is the best-selling map of SAN FRANCISCO, with coverage from McLaren Park to the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. Localities covered are Fisherman Wharf, China Town, and Golden Gate Park. Points of interest such as museums, hotels, parks, and popular sites are highlighted and fully indexed. Bus routes are clearly indicated on a map inset. Laminated for durability, accordion folded to fit in your pocket or purse, STREETWISE(r) gives you SAN FRANCISCO in a clear, concise, and convenient format.
Customer Reviews:
Great Map.......2007-10-19
Crams a lot of the city into a small, durable, portable map. It was even useful on the freeway.
This map rocks!.......2007-10-07
I live in SF and am so dependent on these maps that we have two copies in our household. I have one older copy, which doesn't have a BART map, but still was good enough to cause dependence. This new version with the BART map and the topographical coloring is even better! If you're going to be a tourist, this is much more detail than you'll need and you won't have to worry about crinkling and tearing as with other maps because of the hard paper and lamination.
great map series.......2007-05-13
love these maps. i own several for different cities and they are so handy.
Streetwise.......2007-03-22
This is a great tool for those visitors who are unfamiliar with San Francisco.
hard to read.......2006-03-30
The scale on this map is tiny. You will need very good eyes to read it while walking. Do not try to read it while driving.
Book Description
Los Angeles has always been a place of paradisal promise and apocalyptic undercurrents. Simone de Beauvoir saw a kaleidoscopic "hall of mirrors," Aldous Huxley a "city of dreadful joy." Jack Kerouac found a "huge desert encampment," David Thomson imagined "Marilyn Monroe, fifty miles long, lying on her side, half-buried on a ridge of crumbling rock."
In Writing Los Angeles, The Library of America presents a glittering panorama in fiction, poetry, essays, journalism, and diaries by more than seventy writers. It brings to life the entrancing surfaces and unsettling contradictions of The City of Angels, from Raymond Chandler's evocation of murderous moods fed by the Santa Ana winds to John Gregory Dunne's affectionate tribute to "the deceptive perspectives of the pale subtropical light." Here are fascinating strata of Los Angeles history, from the 1920s oil boom to 1980s graffiti art, from flamboyant evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson to surf music genius Brian Wilson, from German emigré intellectuals to hard-bitten homicide cops. Here are fragile ecosystems, architectural splendors, and social chasms, in the words of writers as various as M.F.K. Fisher, William Faulkner, Bertolt Brecht, Evelyn Waugh, Octavio Paz, Joan Didion, Norman Mailer, Walter Mosley, Mona Simpson, and Charles Mingus. Art Pepper discovers the Central Avenue of the 1940s jazz scene; screenwriter Robert Towne reflects on Chinatown's origin; David Hockney teaches himself to drive; Pico Iyer finds at LAX "as clear an image as exists today of the world we are about to enter."
Writing Los Angeles is an incomparable literary tour guide to a city of shifting identities and endless surprises.
Customer Reviews:
What is Los Angeles?.......2006-06-26
What is Los Angeles? The utopical golden land of new beginnings or the ruinous end of the American dream? It is both, as this anthology will show. A precious book for everyone looking for a comprehensive collection of the manifold ideas and representations Los Angeles has inspired through its history, "Writing Los Angeles" comprises two centuries of great literature. From William Faulkner to Joan Didion, from Nathanael West to James Ellroy, every great author shows a different aspect of the City of Angels: City of noir, city of apocalypse, city of pictures, city of dreams and nigthmare, "autopia", "lost world" and what else?
I found this anthology pretty useful and inspiring. Though not all voices are heard with the same intensity, it comprehends works by novelists, architects, journalists, urbanists. There are American voices and European voices, angry ones and enthusiastic ones. A must-be for every kind of audience.
City of the Angels.......2003-06-17
Los Angeles has always meant/will always be/is many things to many people. Some write it off as the City of Pilates-loving, Yoga meditating, Chai Tea Consuming Crack Pots. Well, yes...it is that and so much more as exemplified in the mind expanding, colossally comprehensive, edited by David Ulin: "Writing Los Angeles: A Literary Anthology." That so many important writers have deemed Los Angeles as appropriate subject matter, both positive and negative, only supports the notion that the City of the Angels "gets" to everyone who comes in contact with it. Some like Faulkner and Fitzgerald came to Hollywood late in their careers and left disillusioned to say the least while Nathanael West and James M. Cain thrived and wrote some of their best stuff here.
"Writing Los Angeles" is exhaustively researched and some of the expected writers are represented here: Cain, West, Ellroy, Didion but what of Simone De Beauvoir and Umberto Eco? Probably the most important thing Ulin has done is introduce us to SoCal writers we didn't know or of whom we've forgotten: D.J. Waldie or Ruben Martinez, for example.
If nothing else, Ulin has proven that Los Angeles is fertile ground for the creation of writing of the highest order. And for this, we Los Angelenos are forever in his debt.
at long last!.......2003-01-01
"definitive" is a an overused adjective... but this volume is indeed just that. ulin's winning (and sometimes surprising) selection of material captures the breadth and depth of a literary milieu artfully and evenhandledly. (ulin must be uniquely well read and/or uniquely familiar with his material - some of his choices, e.g. robert towne's intro to chinatown screenplay, are fun just to consider in a potentially crusty dusty Lirbrary of America anthology). forget the heavy intellectual (and physical!) weight of this tome -- this is no door stop or boat anchor, its a joyous sojourn in the searing sun. brevity, clarity and wit!
A unique and diverse collection.......2002-11-11
Compiled and edited by David L. Ulin, Writing Los Angeles: A Literary Anthology is a unique and diverse collection of fiction, poetry, essays, journalism, diaries, and more, contributed by over seventy writers (ranging from William Faulkner, M.F.K. Fisher, and Bertolt Brecht, to Ray Bradbury, Norman Mailer, and Tom Wolfe), and showcasing the "City of Angels". Through varied eyes, the teeming and diverse West Coast metropolis manifests its best and its worst during its eventful history as Writing Los Angeles explores a wide range of issues and events ranging from the post World War I economic boom to recent and nationally televised violence. A very highly recommended compendium of artistic, emotional, severe, gritty, nostalgic, and clear-eyed literary pieces, Writing Los Angeles vividly brings a city and its people to life throughout the generations.
Book Description
California's Eastern Sierra: A Visitor's Guide explores and celebrates a unique western landscape. A rugged country of enchanting beauty, the Eastern Sierra lies at the junction of the Sierra Nevada, Great Basin, and Mojave Desert. The heart of this vast region is the eastern slope of the Sierra, extending from the 14,000-foot ramparts of Mount Whitney to the glacier-scoured peacks west of Mono Basin. No other area of North America encompasses more dramatic mountain and desert scenery, and this guidebook is the ideal companion for discovering its diverse natural history and fascinating human past.
California's Eastern Sierra: A Visitor Guide features more than 100 scenic and historic destinations. Some of the renowned landmarks and natural wonders it covers are Mount Whitney, Mammoth Lakes, Devil's Postpile, Mono Lake, Bodie ghost town, and the Ancient Bristlecone Pine Forest.
Customer Reviews:
Great Book.......2007-07-03
This book was fantastic! It was a great guide for the Eastern Sierra. It took us to places we wouldn't have otherwise gone and that I'm glad we didn't miss. For instance, without this book I would have had no idea that there were hot springs in the area (Hot Creek) or that the Alabama Hills would be both beautiful and interesting. The photography in the book is fantastic and it's just beautiful to look at even if you never intend to go. My only complaint is that the author didn't say more about the Little Lakes Valley. It was an absolutely spectacular hike, although I had to hear about it from a stranger at a campground. The author mentions it briefly, but in my opinion, it's a "can't miss" area that she should have said more about.
Outstanding!!!.......2006-04-30
The pictures are terrific. The coverage is complete, but doesn't go into excessive detail. The only problem with this being a great coffee table book is that people will won't stop reading it. Also the maps are very high quality.
Invaluable guide to the east Sierra region.......2005-09-09
This book has been a good friend to us over the last dozen or so years, as we have made many trips into the east Sierra/Owens Valley area, mostly for photography. The book is well-written, well-organized, and has thoughtfully-chosen sites to visit.
The photography, of couse, is wonderful, from some of the top landscape photographers in the western U.S.
If you might ever be headed in this direction, you need this book.
The best travel guide I ever bought........2004-06-24
I was fortunate enough to purchase this book on the first day of two-week vacation in the Sierra. Since part of the vacation was a planned visit to Mono Lake, the title attracted me. A brief perusal demonstrated the exquisite color photography throughout the book.
After reading sections of the book, plans were changed to include much more time in the Owens Valley and kindred points. We saw and experienced many things that I had never imagined, such as the Long Valley hot springs, the Owens River Canyon, rockhounding areas galore, Fossil Falls, the Coso Domes, Convict Lake, etc., etc.
The book is well writtten, and very well organized, taking the reader from south(Mojave Desert) to North(Bridgeport area, about 100 miles south of Reno) in successive chapters. Although written for any person with a high school background, the book is particularly well suited for students of earth processes, including physical geology, weather, and field biology. Attractions such as the Ancient Bristlecone pine forest, home of the worlds oldest trees, and the Mono Lake volcanic domes, one of America's most recent sites of volcanic activity, are especiall.y well discussed.
One of the most impressive features of this work is the careful road directions included at the conclusion of each subsection discussing a particular attraction. Without these guideline, finding some of the areas would have been much more difficult.
Mixed in with the recitation of attractions, and things to see and do, is a history of the area, where you will find discussion of the various mining ventures in area mountains and dry lakebeds, as well as a narrative of the Owens Valley Earthquake of 1872. America has not experienced a quake of this magnitude since that date.
The book was a treat to possess, both during my vacation and now. Its photography and text rekindle memories of this wonderful region of our country, and I recommend it as highly as possible.
Complete and Beautiful.......2001-01-04
The photos in this book jumped out at me and encouraged me to purchase it, yet I was very happily surprised by the thoroughness and readability of the text. I made a road trip down highway 395 this past summer through the Eastern Sierra region and this book proved to be an invaluable resource. It turned me onto many great places to visit off the beaten path. There is excellent history, wildlife and geological info, and descriptions of the towns along the way. The photos are just great, making this both a coffee table book and a great visitors guide. I stopped at the Interagency Visitor Center in Lone Pine (which I would recommend as a good starting point for anyone exploring the area) and among their large selection of books about the region I found this book to the best single source if choosing just one. You'll be very happy with this purchase.
Amazon.com
In a post-Jaws/Discovery Channel world, unearthing fresh data on great white sharks is a feat. So credit Susan Casey not just with finding and spotlighting two biologists who have done truly pioneering field research on the beasts but also with following them and their subjects into the heart of one of the most unnatural habitats on Earth: the Farallon Islands. Though just 30 miles due west of San Francisco, the Farallones--nicknamed the Devil's Teeth for their ragged appearance and raging inhospitality--are utterly alien, which may explain why each autumn, packs of great whites return to gorge on the seals and sea lions that gather there before returning to the Pacific and beyond. That Casey, via her biologist buddies Peter Pyle and Scot Anderson, can even report that sharks apparently follow migratory feeding patterns is a revelation. Throughout The Devil's Teeth, Casey makes clear that year upon year of observing the sharks have given Pyle and Anderson (and by extension, us) insights into shark behavior that are entirely new and too numerous to list. The otherworldly Farallon Islands, meanwhile, also dominate Casey's engaging tale as she charts their transformation from ultradangerous source of wild eggs in the 19th century to ultradangerous real-life shark lab and bird sanctuary today. Despite the plethora of factoids on offer, Casey's style is consistently digestible and very amusing. She also has a knack for putting things into perspective. Take this characteristic passage:
The Farallon great whites are largely unharassed. They might cross paths with the occasional boatload of day-trippers from San Francisco, but they're subjected to none of the behavior-altering coercion that nature's top predators regularly endure so that people can sit in the Winnebago... and get a look at them. This is important because despite their visibility at the Farallones, and despite the impressive truth that sharks are so old they predate trees, great whites have remained among the most mysterious of creatures."
By book's end, it's hard to know what's more captivating: The biologists' groundbreaking data, Casey's primer on the evolution of the Farallones, the islands' symbiotic relationships with the sharks, the gulls and sea lions they attract, or the outpost's resident ghosts. Frankly, it's a nice problem to have. --Kim Hughes
Getting to Know the Great White
It was a BBC documentary on great white sharks visiting California's Farallon Islands that turned Susan Casey from an editor of adventure and outdoors stories in such magazines as Outside to a journalist obsessed with an outdoors adventure of her own. In her Amazon.com interview, Casey recalls the fascinations and the follies of her time with the sharks in the Farallones and discusses everything from the ethics of adventure journalism to the stunning silence and size of nature's perfect predators. And in her answers to the Significant Seven (the seven questions we like to ask every author), she reveals her admiration for both Joseph Mitchell and Johnny Knoxville (once you've read her book, both choices seem appropriate).
The outer edge of the fearsome Maintop Bay, a spooky, boat-eating stretch of water that makes everyone uneasy. Not surprisingly, the sharks seem to love it. (Susan Casey) |
An 18-foot shark investigates a 6-foot surfboard. (Peter Pyle) |
A shark attack at the Farallones is not usually a subtle event. (Peter Pyle) |
Scot Anderson (in orange) observes a feeding. Also in the boat are director Paul Atkins and cinematographer Peter Scoones of the BBC film crew that visited the Farallones in 1993 to film The Great White Shark. (Peter Pyle) |
The Farallones researchers see some action from a shark named Bluntnose. (Peter Pyle) |
An unquiet cove: Just Imagine (Casey's temporary home) at its moorage in Fisherman's Bay, 150 yards west of Tower Point and 200 yards east of Sugarloaf. (Susan Casey) |
Book Description
Since Jaws scared a nation of moviegoers out of the water three decades ago, great white sharks have attained a mythical status as the most frightening and mysterious monsters to still live among us. Each fall, just twenty-seven miles off the San Francisco coast, in the waters surrounding a desolate rocky island chain, the worlds largest congregation of these fearsome predators gathers to feed. Journalist Susan Casey first saw the great whites of the Farallones in a television documentary. Within months, she was sitting with the programs two scientists in a small motorboat as the sharkssome as long as twenty feet, as wide as a semitrailercircled around them. From this first encounter, Casey became obsessed with these awe-inspiring creatures, and a plan was hatched for her to join the scientists and follow their research. The Devils Teeth is the riveting account of that one fateful shark season. An exhilarating adventure story, The Devils Teeth offers a glimpse into a violent, uncivilized world ruled by natures most powerful and mysterious predators, a world where man is neither wanted nor needed.
Customer Reviews:
Great topic but self absorbed writer.......2007-09-22
Positives: stories about history of the Farallones and too-brief summaries of scientific information about white sharks.
Negatives: way, way too much information about her own personal struggles. Also, she seems to semi-idolize the scientists in a way that struck me as groupie-like: "He was a striking person, in his early thirties and athletically built, with jet-black hair and dark eyes and a smile that could light up a small midwestern city."
The author picked a great subject, and was clearly willing to do whatever it took to get a story, but she would have been better served by focusing more of her attention on the sharks and the islands. Nothing that happened to her personally seemed all that interesting to me.
Disappointing.......2007-09-20
- Subject: fascinating
- Author's writing style: disjointed and self-focused anecdotes
- Tone of writing: whiny
- Wanted to put it down after 20 pages.
- Despite effort to get through it, did put it down about halfway through.
the book you buy for everybody you know.......2007-09-12
I'm stunned that anybody gave this book less than five stars. Seriously. It's not just a story about sharks hovering around an inhospitable island like savage school buses, tearing apart unhappy sea lions and bubbling up buckets of frothy blood for three months out of the year -- it's an adventure tale, it's a biological mystery, and ... i suspect it's a love story. sharks, yachts, desert islands, divers, journalists ... it's hard to come up with a more gripping page turner. It's one of those books that you give to everybody you know. "Oh, it's your birthday is it, Horace, well, I know what you're getting! Har har har!" And so far, nobody's come back with less than a face of pallid horror, clutching my shirt and saying "I COULDN'T PUT IT DOWN!!" -- really. it's that good.
Good read.......2007-07-23
I just picked up this book in a discount bookstore in Orlando while on vacation for 4$ not expecting it to be such a great book. While learning about both the animal and natural world, I got to revel in Susan's destruction (of both herself as well as about anything she touched). She is the classic white hunter of years past. In short, it was extreme and I loved it. I recommend folks read it - but only with the attitude of looking for entertainment value.
Not a good ending.......2007-06-11
And not because of anything the sharks do.
Read between the lines and the obsession is not what the author claims. Not a bad first half, but, as other reviewers point out, the latter part of the book is an example of journalist endeavors gone wrong.
Did not leave me happy I had read it. There are too many great books to waste time on anything less.
Book Description
Where We Live presents more than 150 images from the Bruce and Nancy Berman collection of contemporary photographs. From Mitch Epstein's Holyoke, Massachusetts, to Camilo Vergara's Detroit, to John Divola's 29 Palms in Southern California, the images here concentrate on the American landscape
and the people and structures that can be found in its vast vistas--and its backyards. The photographs that the Bermans have been drawn to often represent changing American communities recorded by artists whose vision is passionate but unsentimental--a vision that acknowledges the present as
fleeting, desolate, and lyrical.
Beautifully reproduced in this volume--which coincides with an exhibition to be held at the J. Paul Getty Museum from October 24, 2006, to February 25, 2007--are works from twenty-four contemporary photographers, the majority working in color, from William Christenberry and William Eggleston to
Doug Dubois and Sheron Rupp. Accompanying the photographs are illuminating essays by Kenneth A. Breisch and Colin Westerbeck and an introduction by Judith Keller. An essay by novelist Bruce Wagner captures the mood that runs through this powerful assemblage of photographs.
Customer Reviews:
Landscape miners.......2007-09-16
The 198 photos in the book are part of the 450 that have very generously been given to the Getty by LA collectors Nancy and Bruce Berman. This lovely book was published in conjunction with an exhibition of the photos at the museum in 2006 and 7. The twenty-four photographers featured are probably the leading contemporary exponents in the US of this landscape image capture and one reason I like this type of book is that I get to discover photographers I was not aware of. My main discovery here was Jim Dow. In the back of the book there is an excellent biography of the photographers which nicely lists their books, I've already got my eye on one by Mr Dow.
If you are familiar with recent landscape photography (and I think it's worth stating that this means the man-made landscape rather than natural) you'll most likely have seen some of the photos included: 'Petit's Mobil station' by George Tice, 'Red building in forest' by William Christenberry or '2nd Street, Ashland, Wisconsin' by Stephen Shore are three I've frequently seen but I feel the strength of the book is the opportunity to compare how these twenty-four photographers interpret the same subject.
The impressive page size: about eleven inches square, screen: 250dpi+ and quality paper and printing mean the photos sparkle on the page though I did wonder if maybe a few images had been taken from chromo prints rather than the original transparencies. I noticed a softness and lack of detail in a Stephen Shore photo of Easton, Pennsylvania for instance.
The book cannot be considered a definitive survey of contemporary landscape photographers, only those in the Getty Collection have been included so no Lewis Baltz, Jeff Brouws, Gregory Conniff or David Graham for example but those that are presented are clearly part of the top creative interpreters of man-made America
***FOR A LOOK INSIDE click 'customer images' under the cover.
fantastic book.......2007-01-16
I saw this show at the Getty Museum in LA and it was one of the best contempory photography show I have seen. the book is great!
Book Description
STRAIGHT TALK BY A PARENT FOR PARENTS
This cheerful book helps you to pick the right destination for your next family getaway. Loaded with general planning tips, the book profiles big cities, beach towns, and mountain resorts. It also looks at places of interest organized by subject:
• Historic Houses and Sites
• History, Art, and Science Museums
• Zoos, Aquariums, and Wildlife Refuges
• Natural Wonders
• State and National Parks
• Family Camps
• Outdoor Action
• Skiing, Skating, Snowboarding
• Family Resorts, Guest Ranches, Lodges, and Inns
• Theme and Amusement Parks
• Holidays, Festivals, and Seasonal Events
Family-friendly hotels and restaurants are reviewed and rated with an eye to their appeal to children and their parents. And throughout the guide, symbols highlight each attraction's interest to kids in various age groups. It's a wonderful planner that will help you zero in on the perfect getaway for you and your youngsters for years to come.
About the Author
Clark Norton's 14-year-old daughter and 18-year-old son have traveled all over the world in the course of their father's award-winning research for articles for the San Francisco Examiner, Parenting, Discovery, and other publications.
Customer Reviews:
Fantastic and unique.......2000-06-14
Having spent a lot of time looking for information on imaginative & fun (and sometimes luxury) travel with kids, I can tell you that this is a really unique book. It is comprehensive, carefully researched and well written with loads of practical tips. Some 'travel with kids' books might as well just be bland advertising copy, this one really provides good editorial content, with positive and critical comments. It is a pleasure to read and we will use it for a long time. Fodor's should publish more of these for other parts of the US/world.
An Investment for the Traveling Family!.......2000-05-31
I loved this book and would recommend it to any family wanting to travel in the northeastern United States. The writers offer tips and reviews on places of interest, resorts, and campgrounds in a wide range of prices. In fact, we have visited some of those places and found a brand new vacation prospect in Lake George which we will be trying out this summer! Definitely one of the most informative travel books on the market today -- entertaining even if you do not go to these places.
I can't tell you how long I've looked for a book like this!.......1999-05-11
I've been searching for a book like this for several years and haven't found one that fit the bill until now! I had a great time reading it - so well written - and got more useful information than I'll ever be able to use in one lifetime! Thanks so much to the writers and publishers!
Useful age-related guide for kids.......1997-12-01
Very useful book for locals and visitors. We liked the way it gave us recommended age groups and prices. We can now plan ahead places to visit within and on the way to our next holiday area. We have also used it for planning field trips from the school into San Francisco. Easy to use and enjoyable to read.
Book Description
From the best new hotspots in Todos Santos to the lush wine country of Valle de Guadalupe, Moon Handbooks Baja covers all the best destinations, both popular and hidden, on the Baja peninsula. Up-to-date, practical information includes useful maps, photos and illustrations, contacts, and insights into Baja's unique cuisine and culture, as well as a range of accommodation options to suit any budget. Complete with suggested driving loops including the historic mission route, tips on witnessing the annual gray whale migration, and coverage of the region's best surfing spots, this guidebook gives you the tools you need to create a unique and unforgettable trip.
Customer Reviews:
Pretty helpful.......2007-07-10
I bought this book prior to our one-week vacation outside of Ensenada. The information was very good and up-to-date (which is hard to accomplish sometimes in ever changing Mexico). I used it mostly for suggestions on site-seeing, restaurants, accommodations, and wineries.
The map for Ensenada and the surrounding area was pretty good (better than anything else I could find), but the map for Tijuana wasn't that helpful. We were re-routed to the Otay Mesa border crossing but were not able to locate it because it was not listed on the map. We ended up having to figure out another route to the San Ysidro border crossing.
I live in San Diego, so I will likely continue to use this book as reference for when I venture to the other side of the border.
Baja Guide.......2007-02-16
My interest was in Nature of the Baja Penninsula and the Pacific Coast. The Baja Handbook gives an excellent summary of what is there but also, especially in the case of the Whales, something of their life cycle. It was a very usefull Guide for my purposes
Better than Lonely Planet Book.......2006-12-26
I purchased the lonely planet book first, then misplaced it. Then I found this book and i have to say it is much better. The history, natural history and other tidbits included made me that much more excited about traveling in Baja. Not to mention it is more thoroughly written, better descriptions of destinations and how to get there. I feel this book will better prepare me for the trip. As others have already mentioned it's not just a great book on Baja, its a superbly written travel book in general.
Unpretentious and Comprehensive.......2005-12-24
This is an unpretentious travel book but fairly thick almost 600 pages long. I say unpretentious because unlike many other travel books it features mainly black and white photographs that give it a certain aura like an old black and white movie that seems to suit the Baja. The book is very detailed like a Michelin guide with page after page of details and information on all aspects of the Baja peninsula including roads, maps, beaches, entertainment, restaurants, hotels, etc. It is an excellent guide and makes a nice souvenir.
Cummings Covers the Waterfront...And the Backroads.......2005-10-17
You couldn't ask for a better travel book on Baja. I found myself reading it repeatedly on my trip, not just for hotel and restaurant info, but like a novel--for the sheer pleasure of it. The sidebars and thumbnail histories are so well-researched and expertly delivered that I rank it not just among the best travel books on Mexico, but among the best books of any kind. The concise discussion of the ejido system and of the changing rules for foreign real estate purchases are just two small examples. Cummings touches on every aspect of Mexican society and its interaction with the people to the north, in addition to giving the essentials on gas stations and bus schedules and airports and resorts-all in the delightfully understated style that has become his hallmark.
Especially useful for me were his mention of side roads that lead away from the transpeninsular highway into the mountains of the interior. I took a number of them and often found pristine desert, unchanged for centuries. The route from Loreto to the Mission of San Javier was particularly good. The landscape was similar to Arizona, except that many canyons had oases of palm trees with only the cries of roosters and goats breaking the silence so that you could feel you were in a bygone time in ancient Mexico or Mesopotamia. Cummings calls the road suitable only for 4wd high clearance vehicles. It must have been improved since, because I drove it with an economy rental car with wheels the size of oreos and a hefty 3.5 inches of clearance. If one proceeds slowly and carefully there is no problem, though I would not have gone on if there were any sign of rain.
The best beach by far that I found was that of Todos Santos. It is very clean and unsullied by automobiles, probably thanks to a sign near the parking area that not only warns against taking vehicles onto the beach, but also notes the amount of prison time assigned to violators. And the waves are fabulous: 15' rolling tubes that explode into 40' towers of spray, a natural drama one can watch for hours with only pelicans and the occasional crab for company. It's typical of Cummings' sense of the drama of travel that he tells the best way to get to this great beach: "follow Calle Topete across the palm-filled arroyo...the first sand road on the other side...turn left just before the low rock wall...", but let's you find out on your own what a delight the access road itself is: an inconspicuous lane that runs about a half mile between high stone walls on one side and a line of mango trees on the other, ending in a tunnel through a thicket of bamboo that emerges onto the parking area (shaded!). Bicycles and walkers are on an equal footing with autos, and the tiny scale of the sandy track almost compels you to roll down your window and say hola. Ojala that it stays that way.
Playa San Pedrito, a dozen miles to the south, is also charming and unspoiled, but far from any place to buy food and drink. Punta Conejo, sixty miles to the north, is the most desolate section of Pacific coast I've ever walked. In three days I saw not one person, nor one bit of shade of any kind: no palapas, no trees, no cliffs...even the towering cacti keep at least a quarter mile between themselves and the surf at all times. If Mexico were a nanny state, one would be required to purchase a parasol before venturing onto the beach.
The beaches on the other side of the peninsula are also very nice, but lack large waves, the Sea of Cortez being much like the Red Sea, a huge body of saltwater separated from the ocean by miles of desert. I was there in September, and I often had to get out of the water to cool off, rather than the reverse, which holds true on the Pacific year round. The eastern coast of Baja is probably ideal in January and February. Here, too, Cummings is comprehensive. Nothing escapes his notice, with the exception of the exceptional qualities of the Hotel Moro just outside Santa Rosalia. Senor Espinosa's rambling hacienda style hotel is a work of art. Cummings makes unjustly short shrift of it in calling it "tourist-oriented". I would call it beauty-oriented, with its elegant terrace overlooking the water, and its aviary, and its cool pool set in a profusion of tropical flowers. It's a far greater value than the "venerable Hotel Frances", where you pay twice the money for a room in the midst of a lovingly restored industrial plant far from the water.
Product Description
Folded road and travel map in color. Scale 1:650,000. Distinguishes roads ranging from expressways to rural roads. Legend includes tracks, trails, international airports, domestic airports, airstrips (private), border crossing points, points of interest, archaeological sites, beaches, scenic viewpoints, hotels, motels, active volcanos, cave painting/petroglyph sites, gates, campgrounds, filling stations, golf courses, hiking, fishing, caravan sites, caravan/camping sites, water sports ares, wild life preserves, inundation zones, National Parks. Includes inset map of Tijuana (1:10,000), Mexicali, La Paz. Map includes information on cities/areas and extensive index.
Customer Reviews:
Water Proof, not Typo Proof.......2007-08-06
Great map. Water resistant would be more accurate description. A must map for Baja travel. Only complaint of its functionality would be some typos in names and legend icons. Complaint of its aesthetics would be the hideous photo on the cover. Baja is a beautiful peninsula, surely there were a thousand better images to feature on the cover of this map. Get it anyway.
Ms. J.T........2007-07-21
I love maps, and getting one that is water proof is the best laminate for the fact it still folds nice an stores in the map drawer or libary shelf. This came fast and was in perfect condition.
Quite a nice map.......2007-06-22
This is an excellent map. It helped us wander our way through Baja over spring break. It's plasticized material stands up to all kinds of abuse, and it contains an impressive amount of detail and useful information. Couple it with The Rough Guide to Baja California (Rough Guide Travel Guides) and you're ready for a guide time.
The only other map for Baja I'd recommend is the AAA one, free to members.
Book Description
Successor to the Wilderness Press classic Pacific Crest Trail: California, this essential volume covers the PCT from Tuolumne Meadows in Yosemite National Park north to the Oregon border. Complete 2-color topographic maps enhance comprehensive descriptions, including mileages and elevations. Trail descriptions and maps are divided into several sections, convenient for people who only want to hike a portion of the trail. Each section introduces up-coming scenery, possible hazards, supply locations, and mileages between major points. Includes information on the history of the trail as well as the geology and natural history you will encounter.
Customer Reviews:
A good guide, but needs a few more data points.......2007-08-28
We've used this guide for the entire Northern California section, and haven't gotten lost. The only problem is that some of the jeep roads mentioned in the guide are now invisible, at least to our aging eyes, and also, some of the data points indicate zero elevation change, when there might be a 1000 ft up or down between the points. Add a few more data points, please.
Poorly updated edition of excellent book.......2003-11-08
The earlier editions of this book were one of the best mapping job ever to be found in a trail guide for the West. However, this new edition seems not to have been field-checked. In my neck of the woods (Lassen National Forest) re-routes made a few years ago are left out of the new edition. Specifically, the re-route in Chips Creek is missing. Also, the new view point on Hat Creek Rim is missing, although the old dirt trail was converted to a paved sidewalk for 100 yards. New 1:24,000 maps have been published by the USGS, but Wilderness Press still uses the old 1:62,000 maps in Chips Creek and other places. The earlier editions were nearly flawless, but this effort is Wilderness Press resting on its laurels and re-issuing old material with a new cover.
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