Miami: Then and Now Review

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(More customer reviews)I was born and reared in Miami, the fourth generation of my Pioneer South Florida family. I was delighted with this book, it brought back so many memories.
The old photographs are gems, and the descriptions well written and informative. I enjoyed the "then" pictures with the "now", in some instances they are almost unbelievable, the Coconut Grove Womens Club little Club House which I went to frequently is a good example, long may it survive!

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A look at the history of Miami, with stunning contemporary and historic photography and captions describing the development of this famous city. Part of the highly successful "Then and Now" series, this book looks at the changes in this exciting city.

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Mammoth from the Inside: The Honest Guide to Mammoth & the Eastern Sierra Review

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(More customer reviews)This "guide" is more like a printout of the Mammoth Lakes yellow pages. Page after page of listings with no added value. You'd be better off planning for your trip with some internet searches than by using this book.

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Every year, some five million people head for the hills—California's Eastern Sierra hills, that is. At long last, those millions of skiers, snowboarders, hikers, climbers, anglers, snowshoers, golfers, campers, cyclists, sledders, wildflower-hunters and sightseers have an indispensable resource: Mammoth from the Inside: The Honest Guide to Mammoth & the Eastern Sierra.This comprehensive new guidebook was a labor of love for Colleen Dunn Bates, author of Storybook Travels and The Unofficial Guide to California with Kids. An avid skier and hiker, Bates has combined her lifelong love for Mammoth and the Eastern Sierra with her extensive experience as a travel writer and guidebook editor. The result is a great read—a savvy book loaded with essential information for everyone headed to the mountains: rock-climbing 20somethings to car-camping seniors, skiing families to fishing buddies, backpacking adventurers to spa-loving sybarites.Mammoth from the Inside provides readers with in-the-know reviews of the best places to stay, camp, eat, ski, snowboard, hike, fish, bike and play in this mountain paradise. It's also full of great tips: where to rent and buy gear, how to find a babysitter, where to find Mammoth's best margarita, how to avoid speeding tickets on the 395, where to get a good massage, how to prevent altitude sickness, where to find a romantic cabin, and much, much more.Highlights include:>How to make the most of crowded holiday ski weekends>The best condos, cabins and motels for all price ranges>Memorable summertime hikes, from easy strolls to adventurous climbs>The top ten sights in the Eastern Sierra>The dos & don'ts of ski and snowboard school>Mammoth's best restaurants, coffeehouses and happy hours>Great places to sled, kayak, fish, snowshoe, bike, climb and hike . . . or doze by a lake>The best secret runs on Mammoth and June mountains>Gorgeous campgrounds from Bishop to June Lake>Incredible backcountry adventures, from pack trips to guided ski trips >Good eats on Highway 395

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Explorer's Guide Hawaii (Explorer's Complete) Review

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(More customer reviews)I have been dreaming of going to Hawaii for years but have never known how to approach it. Thanks to the explorer's guide, I have been able to map out a trip that meets my needs and will allow me to see the important sights (for me) on some of the islands.

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Six major islands. One indispensable guide.
A friend has gone before you and tells it like it is in the conversational guide to Hawaii. Veteran travel writer and photographer Kim Grant cuts through the tourist brochure clutter to help you maximize your precious time and money. Utterly reliable and comprehensive, she gives completely updated listings of resorts, condos, vacation cottages, and campgrounds, and hundreds of dining recommendations, from plate lunches and local grinds to seared ahi and Kona lobster at haute eateries.But Grant steers you where other guides don't. As a part-time resident, she guides you to waterfalls and volcanoes; takes you snorkeling and golfing; finds authentic luaus; illuminates the nuances of hula; and unearths fine contemporary craftsmen and Hawaiiana collectibles. She also includes musts for first-time visitors, ideas for repeat visitors, building blocks for perfect days, and much more.Other guide features include:' Suggested itineraries for varying lengths of stays and purposeful getaways' Sidebars on the Hawaiian language and Hawaii regional cuisine' Calendar guides to annual events and celebrations' An alphabetical 'What's Where" guide for trip planning' Handy icons point out best values, 'must dos," family-friendly activities, and rainy-day activitiesExplorer's Guide Hawaii: reliable insider's recommendations for the best of the best lodging, dining, and activities, complete with specialized itineraries, "must-see" lists and helpful advice for first-time visitors. 100 black-and-white photographs and maps

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A Golden Haze of Memory: The Making of Historic Charleston Review

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(More customer reviews)Stephanie Yuhl's study of Charleston is a great read, organized brilliantly with metaphors from theatre, and wonderfully well written. As a newcomer to Charleston but a long time South Carolinian, I was fascinated by her account of how Charleston has marketed itself. Her analysis of the literature of the Charleston Renaissance is extremely insightful as is her critique of Charleston's most well known painters. But perhaps most astute is her analysis of class and race relations. This book is definitely a prize winner!
Carolyn Matalene
Distinguished Professor Emerita
University of South Carolina

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Charleston, South Carolina, today enjoys a reputation as a destination city for cultural and heritage tourism. In A Golden Haze of Memory, Stephanie E. Yuhl looks back to the crucial period between 1920 and 1940, when local leaders developed Charleston's trademark image as "America's Most Historic City."
Eager to assert the national value of their regional cultural traditions and to situate Charleston as a bulwark against the chaos of modern America, these descendants of old-line families downplayed Confederate associations and emphasized the city's colonial and early national prominence. They created a vibrant network of individual artists, literary figures, and organizations--such as the all-white Society for the Preservation of Negro Spirituals--that nurtured architectural preservation, art, literature, and tourism while appropriating African American folk culture. In the process, they translated their selective and idiosyncratic personal, familial, and class memories into a collective identity for the city.
The Charleston this group built, Yuhl argues, presented a sanitized yet highly marketable version of the American past. Their efforts invited attention and praise from outsiders while protecting social hierarchies and preserving the political and economic power of whites. Through the example of this colorful southern city, Yuhl posits a larger critique about the use of heritage and demonstrates how something as intangible as the recalled past can be transformed into real political, economic, and social power.

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The Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink Review

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(More customer reviews)Don't let "Oxford" scare you. Although amazingly researched and documented, the book is written for everyone who has eaten a twinkie to a
buche du noel.
Amazing history lessons on everything you like or dislike to eat.
As a native marylander, i was happy to learn the derivation of "stuffed ham"
A great gift for anyone who eats.


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A sweeping reference work on food and drink in America, with fascinating entries on everything from the history of White Castle to the origin of the Bloody Mary, The Oxford Companion to American Food and Drink provides more than a thousand concise, authoritative, and exuberant entries, beautifully illustrated with hundreds of historical photographs and sixteen pages of color plates. This entertaining and informative reference serves up everything you could ever want to know about American consumables and their impact on popular culture and the culinary world. The Companion offers delightful entries on fast food, celebrity chefs, fish, sandwiches, regional and ethnic cuisine, food science, and historical food traditions. Readers will find fascinating discussions of Applejack and apple pie, barbecue and baked Alaska, Dairy Queen and Delmonicos, lemonade and licorice, mayonnaise and marshmallow fluff, Popcorn and pretzels, spinach and Spam, vegetarianism and Velveeta. The volume also includes informative lists of food websites, museums, periodicals, organizations, and festivals. Ideal for the food enthusiast and food scholar alike, it is equally appetizing for anyone fascinated by Americana, capturing our culture and history through what we love most - food!

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Chicago Jazz: A Cultural History, 1904-1930 Review

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(More customer reviews)I am more interested in Chicago life in the 20s than in jazz, and this book provides an interesting look at a little understood period. One wishes there were more details, but the sources are scanty. The author shows how jazz was transformed in Chicago, and why the music traveled East during the Depression. His tone is a little distant, but the scenes are vivid.

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The Age of the Bachelor Review

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(More customer reviews)Once in a while a book comes my way that gets me to see the world in a whole new way. Howard P. Chudacoff's THE AGE OF THE BACHELOR is one of those books. Chudacoff traces the influence on (and place in) American society of the unmarried adult male over roughly the last 120 years. Economics and demographics have played a big part in the changing role of unmarried men, from the days of the pitiable "old bachelor" who lived a lonely life in rooming houses of the 1800s to the glamorous "swinging single" of the late 20th Century. As more single men gained larger disposable incomes, entrepreneurs found ways to glamorize and exploit the unmarried condition, creating new markets and new values. This not only changed the lives of single men, but the society as a whole, as women, too, began to challenge the idea of the married state being the ideal one. I found this fascinating reading.
One of the major discussions of the book is the changing definition of what it means to be a man. How do men's lives differ from women's lives? Whereas females have a lot of generational interaction in their lives, males, with the advent of the move from agrarian to urban living, lost the mentoring influence of their fathers and developed same sex friendships almost exclusively among their contemporaries. Females tend to form relationships based on support and sympathy, whereas competition serves as the major tie among males. In the absence of time spent with the family, other venues of male camaraderie, like the saloon, the pool hall and the sports arena evolved.
The book contains many statistical tables and hefty appendices of notes and bibliography. But this is not a plodding book for specialists. I found it lively and entertaining with one insightful page after another. This is one of the most enlightening books I've read in a long time.

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Insiders' Guide to El Paso (Insiders' Guide Series) Review

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(More customer reviews)Good book. Very informative but doesn't have any photos. I had hoped to see some photos of different sights in the area.

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A first edition, Insiders' Guide to El Paso is the essential source for in-depth travel and relocation information to this legendary Texas panhandle area with wild west charm. Written by a local (and true insider), this guide offers a personal and practical perspective of El Paso and its surrounding environs.

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Passive Revolution: Absorbing the Islamic Challenge to Capitalism Review

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(More customer reviews)I have read a lot of different analysis on political Islam in Turkey, and AKP in particular. However, Tugal's book was distinguished in many ways. First, he approaches the rise of RP-AKP with a strong theoretical framework, using the Gramscian "hegemony" and ..."passive revolution" concepts as his base. The locus of his research, Sultanbeyli, once a fortress of Islamists, is also a perfect place to follow the trends in political Islam. Moreover, he used to live there for years and was able to follow the change in peoples attitudes and ideas as a part of the society, over the years. He explains how the radical Islamic movements in Turkey were absorbed within market capitalism through interaction between the political society, the civil society, the economy, and the state. His broad knowledge on Egypt and Iran also enables him to make a convincing comparison between the Islamic movements in these 3 countries. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand contemporary Turkey.

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Over the last decade, pious Muslims all over the world have gone through contradictory transformations. Though public attention commonly rests on the turn toward violence, this book's stories of transformation to "moderate Islam" in a previously radical district in Istanbul exemplify another experience.In a shift away from distrust of the state to partial secularization, Islamists in Turkey transitioned through a process of absorption into existing power structures. With rich descriptions of life in the district of Sultanbeyli, this unique work investigates how religious activists organized, how authorities defeated them, and how the emergent pro-state Justice and Development Party incorporated them.As Tugal reveals, the absorption of a radical movement was not simply the foregone conclusion of an inevitable world-historical trend but an outcome of contingent struggles. With a closing comparative look at Egypt and Iran, the book situates the Turkish case in a broad historical context and discusses why Islamic politics have not been similarly integrated into secular capitalism elsewhere.

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Derelict Paradise: Homelessness and Urban Development in Cleveland, Ohio Review

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(More customer reviews)Why would anyone wish for vagrancy on anyone? How could anyone profit? "Derelict Paradise: Homelessness and Urban Development in Cleveland, Ohio" is Daniel Kerr's own attempts to answer such a question, focusing on the city of Cleveland in his search for answers. Looking at the market, politics, development, the law, and much more, he tries to put reason to the process and how many times in history there have been efforts to 'solve' the homeless problem and how the will and resourcefulness of survival have stopped it every step of the way. "Derelict Paradise" proves to be a fascinating breakdown of this complex issue, and offers many answers and food for thought.


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A revealing analysis of the origins and evolution of homelessness in a major American city--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Let's Go Vietnam 2nd Edition Review

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(More customer reviews)I bought this book and the Rough Guide to Vietnam. Thinking I didn't want to lug around both books, I left the Rough Guide at home and took this one. It seemed like it would be more useful given the proper Vietnamese writing of names/places and the more recent publication date. What a terrible mistake on my part. My traveling buddies had a boot-legged version of the Lonely Planet, which we relied on much more than this guide.
This book lacks information about sites, accomodations and restaurants that was easily found in the Lonely Planet, and was much better described in the Rough Guide. For the places we stayed, the descriptions of the accomodations were sometimes not at all accurate. Maps were also better in the Lonely Planet.
The only thing that was somewhat useful was the nightlife section, but even that was rather sparse in some areas.
Overall, would recommend Rough Guide above this (far above this) and Lonely Planet.


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Packed with travel information, including more listings, deals, and insider tips:

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Roof Gardens: History, Design, and Construction (Norton Books for Architects & Designers) Review

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(More customer reviews)Greenroofs.com inaugurates our new Recommended Readings column with this highly informative reference standard for roof garden aficionados and design professionals alike. While Roof Gardens is clearly focused on the more traditional concept and practice of creating aesthetically pleasing garden space on flat roofs, Mr. Osmundson does address greenroof technology and the industry's advances in the field. In particular, the German market is credited for testing and developing highly effective yet lightweight greenroof components and systems, and case studies are presented.
The veteran landscape architect shares his practical expertise of roof garden design, research and travel, and the richly illustrated hardcover book is full of photos, plans and construction details of sixty projects in North America, Europe, Australia and Japan. Roof Gardens also offers a historical perspective and advice on site considerations, design elements, maintenance, and appendices of useful data and sources of supply and information.
Rooftop landscape architecture promises to greatly beautify our environment by greening our buildings. We highly recommend this easy to understand, invaluable reference for anyone interested learning about in-depth roof garden design and construction, from homeowner to city planner.

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In the first comprehensive study published in English, respectedlandscape architect Theodore Osmundson provides the practicalinformation professionals need to be able to include well-designed andwell-constructed roof gardens in their projects.
Roof Gardens covers site considerations, construction, design elements, and maintenance, as well as useful data and sources of supply and information. It presents a wealth of material, including typical sections and details of raised planters, walls, paving, drainage, and lighting. It also discusses planting soils and root-proofing, reviews useful new construction techniques-largely unknown in the United States-and offers a richly illustrated tour of roof gardens around the world and through history. 100 in color pages

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The Least of These: Lessons Learned from Kids on the Street Review

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(More customer reviews)In "The Least of These: Lessons Learned from Kids on the Street" Ruthruff passes on lessons learned at the seminary of the sidewalk. These lessons are not just sprinkled with the color of the street for creditability, but permeated with the pigment of a life spent bearing witness in hard places. Dr. Ron is no ivory tower observer; he is a street-level scholar who has penned a prophetic book that is powerfully practical.

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Through concrete detail, current statistics, and qualitative insights from more than 25 years living among and ministering globally to youth mired in tough and dangerous street life, Ron Ruthruff provides a tried model for serving not only troubled youth but others as well. Ruthruff tells stirring, biblically relevant stories of the real young people whom he and his family have loved and served—and what these kids have taught him in return about truly Christ-centered ministry. These stirring stories compel us to reach the least, the last, and the lost, and to appreciate what they can teach us as well. Readers will hear the voice of Job from the hospital bed of a heroin addict, read the story of the demoniac in Mark 5 from the perspective of an "untouchable" in an orphanage in Bombay, India, and discover that the children who sit on our city streets around the world are not just a problem to be solved, but have the potential to become some of our greatest teachers in both their depravity and their dependence on God.

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Time and Place in New Orleans: Past Geographies in the Present Day Review

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(More customer reviews)I admit to being fascinated by pictorial histories of cities. I enjoy being able to stand on a street corner, or on the observation deck of a tall building, with such a book in hand and "see" into the past. All cities are formed by their geography and this is perhaps truer for New Orleans than most. Campanella, an environmental analyst and historical geographer, and the author of _New Orleans Then and Now,_ begins with the problematic founding of the city (the malarial swampland between the river and the lake wasn't anyone's first choice). As the city expanded, land reclamation became necessary, but this was complicated by the high water table and the need for a complex drainage system. Its geography also formed the city's culture, its districts, neighborhoods, nodes, street patterns, and shifting industrial center. But many readers may be less interested in the civil engineering case studies and more attentive to this coffee-table volume's glossy photographs, many of them aerial. And most residents of the Crescent City will agree with his description of St. Charles Avenue as the city's "spinal cord" and perhaps be surprised to learn that many of the radiating streets of their city are the exact descendants of footpaths traced on early maps.

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New Orleans seems to occupy a special geography as unique as its spicy cuisine or its spirited jazz music.

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Your Children Are Under Attack Review

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(More customer reviews)Dr. Jim Taylor has written a book that needs to be written. Parents, teachers and interested individuals need to be aware as to what our Ameican culture is doing to our children and the values that are being propogated. Dr. Taylor exposes what messages the " media " are sending. Dr. Taylor shows what values corporations in America are esposing. He knows that greed, corruption, materialism and just plain stupidity are out there on our television sets, magazines and what values permeate our culture. Taylor knows what a steady diet of The Osbournes, Friends and of course Paris Hilton will do. We all need to be aware of the messages that are sent to our children on a daily basis and how these messages influence our kids and our culture. Instead of integrity, cleavage is respected in American society. Instead of honor and truth, mascara and designer jeans are extolled as being important. More than ever, parents need to work at discussing values, things of importance and integrity with their children. Parents who do want to help raise their children should read this. Teachers who want to understand the values of their students should read this. And lastly greedy, money hungry corporate American leaders should read this and understand what their crass commercialism is doing to America.

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Children under the age of six spend two hours a day in front of a television or computer screen. Unbelievably, two-thirds of toddlers spend over two hours a day in front of a screen. Why does it matter? Because that child also sees more than twenty thousand commercials a year and absorbs unhealthy values that hurt their development. Dr. Jim Taylor's Your Children Are Under Attack exposes how today's kids are bombarded by the value of popular culture. Advocating greed, blatant sexuality and violence, today's popular culture excites children into a state where more is bought, less is questioned and values are discarded.This groundbreaking work shows parents how to work with children to fight back against this assault. Parents will learn six essential values that are most threatened by popular culture, and how to instill these in ways that are clear, practical and grounded in the real world of twenty-first-century parenting.

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Kids on the Trail: Hiking With Children in the Adirondacks Review

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(More customer reviews)The Adirondack wilderness area in northern New York State has hundreds of various types of hiking trails, from the 4-5,000+ foot High Peaks area, to short hikes to waterfalls and other ecologically interesting places. The authors provide excellent recommendations on hikes that are appropriate for families with children. They provide clear directions and maps to specific trails and describe the length and degree of difficulty. For people who live in the region, or anyone thinking of vacationing in this beautiful area, this book would be an outstanding resource. The Adirondack Mountain Club is also sponsoring the Kid's Challenge Patch, which hikers can receive for completing a certain number of hikes from those listed in the book.

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Describes 62 hikes throughout the Park for children. How to get to the trailhead, round-trip distances, and ascents. By Rose Rivezzi and David Trithart. 176 pages. Softcover.

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Eight Hours for What We Will: Workers and Leisure in an Industrial City, 1870-1920 (Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Modern History) Review

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(More customer reviews)It is interesting how the focus of leisure has changed among social historians to include elements of working-class leisure. In Eight Hours for What We Will: Workers & Leisure in an Industrial City, 1870-1920 by Roy Rosenzweig. Rosenzweig first offers theories as to why labor historians have traditionally shied away from studying leisure as an academic subject, citing the silliness and frivolity old-fashioned academics associate with the subject. After referring to these types of intellectuals as "narrow-minded,' Rozenzweig continues to use the town of Worcester, Massachusetts to discover what constituted pastimes and amusement for Worcester workers by asking three questions. The first asks what have been the traditional values among the American working class, the second asks about the character of interclass relations in America's industrial communities, and the third question asks how class culture and relations changed from the nineteenth century to the twentieth. By examining these questions, Rosenzweig believes that a town like Worcester "offers the best opportunity for capturing workers' lives in all their complexity." (Rosenzweig, 3)
The first two sections of Eight Hours for What We Will are concerned with the saloon and the effect of temperance on workers as well as the use of July Fourth celebrations "to mark out [Worcester's immigrants'] cultural distance not only from the city's elite and native middle class but also from fellow immigrants. (Rosenzweig, 65-86)
Eventually, Rosenzweig writes about how interrelationships of workers led to the rise of a leisure market, an outgrowth of both the saloon and Fourth of July celebrations. One of Rosenzweig's main arguments is that the development of amusement park, continual importance of saloons as leisure arenas, and the beginning of a film culture were all a gradual process that grew with the Worcester community itself. Less a study on the nature of leisure, Rosenzweig effectively indicates how leisure is transformed within the bounds of a working class community.

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In the first comprehensive study of American working-class recreation, Professor Rosenzweig takes us to the saloons, the ethnic and church picnics, the parks and playgrounds, the amusement parks, and the movie houses where industrial workers spent their leisure hours. Focusing on the city of Worcester, Massachusetts, he describes the profound changes that popular leisure underwent. Explaining what these pastimes and amusements tell us about the nature of working-class culture and class relations in this era, he demonstrates that in order fully to understand the working class experience it is necessary to explore the realm of leisure. For what workers did in the corner saloon, the neighbourhood park, the fraternal lodge hall, the amusement park, and the nickelodeon had a good deal of bearing on what happened inside the factories, the union halls, and the voting booths of America's industrial communities.

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