This book contains at least one serious error. If the rest of the book is as bad, nobody should buy it. The author/publisher printed MY home telephone number as the number for Hudson River Cruises. As a result, my family receives HUNDREDS of calls that should have been directed elsewhere. If the rest of the book is as sloppy as this nobody should buy it!

I have used this book on many of my forages into the Hudson River region and I have always found its inspired commentary, accurate information and insightful observations make it the perfect book for exploring this region. I highly recommend this book for all who visit and seek more information about the Hudson River Valley.

This guidebook to the historic Hudson River Valley, one of America's most beautiful and significant regions, is more than the usual travel book--it has a real literary flair to it.

I used this book to pick out a couple of places to stay in Vermont, and regretted it. I should have been tipped off by the fact that every single review in the book is glowingly positive; a dead giveaway that the book is not independent. It seems very likely to me that this is one of those guides where the inns and hotels pay to be included, and may even write their own reviews.

The book is divided up by types of place, so there's a "Country B&B" section, a "Romantic Getaway" section, a "Lakeside" section, and so on. We booked one of the "Gourmet Getaways" and one of the "Farms"; the former was a disaster, but the latter was OK. The gourmet place, a fancy inn in Ludlow, was described as providing "sumptuous feasts" for breakfast, with "excellently trained and most personable" staff, and the option of picking up a "sophisticated picnic lunch". It's hard to imagine the editors actually ate at this place: the staff clearly hated the management and were close-mouthed and unfriendly (and we overheard the owner loudly berating one of the waitresses); the cooking was very good, but not extraordinary, and the picnic was ridiculous--for $25 a head we each got a nice little ash bucket with a quarter bottle of very cheap champagne, a chunk of cheese, and a hunk of bread.

The farm was described a little more accurately--the views were truly incredible, and the cooking was home-cooking, wisely not praised in the guide book.

At the gourmet place, in Ludlow, we met up with a couple of friends from Britain. They'd booked on our recommendations, but had bought a guide book anyway, and we were alarmed to discover a much harsher evaluation of where we were about to stay. In the end, we enjoyed ourselves enough--good company and Vermont scenery can overcome most ills. When we shop for a vacation now, though, we always look for a guide book that seems willing to criticize.

This book has been an invaluable source for my business - New England B&B Reservation Services. What I like most is that many of the places I have called out of this book have been gracious and professional. I have to make a lot of "cold calls" in this business when I get requests for areas outside of my listings. It is nice to know that my call will be received well. We only carry those hosts who offer exceptional hospitality, so if I don't have a good conversation with the bed & breakfasts and country inns, then I cannot recommend them to my clients. The descriptions set forth in this book are generally true and honest. When I visit the places personally, I already know what to expect.

The Connecticut walk book over all is a good resource of the hiking trails in Connecticut. However, it does have flaws. When using this book as a guide be sure to read the description thoroughly. The book tends to jump around in its descriptions. The author discusses one trail and in mid paragraph begins to describe an intersecting side trail. With out missing a beat the author will fall right back to the original trail. This has proven to be a good technique for getting hikers off track and temporarily lost.

The book does provide maps for all the trails it discusses. However, not all the maps have north marked on them and many of them are hand-drawn. Several of the maps or not clear as to which trail is which but can be deciphered by reading the descriptions. A few maps have seemingly been reproduced so many times they are no longer clear. It is much like when you make a copy of a copy of a copy of anything, you start to loose information.

Although the descriptions may jump a little there is a great detail of information in them. These detailed descriptions often provide you with pinpoint accuracy as to where you are on the hike. If combined with purchased topographical maps of the area the book provides you with some outstanding hikes. Some great adventures have been had by many on these hikes and it is recommended you try some out for yourself. Overall the Connecticut Walk Book is an excellent research but the new hike should prepare properly before venturing on a hike.

Each trail in this comprehensive book is described from start to finish with mileage given at each marker. The VERY detailed verbal descriptions of terrain, trail features, and surrounding flora MORE than make up for the maps, which are pretty unhelpful. In fact, for shorter hikes, the excellent descriptions render maps unnecessary (although I NOT endorsing hiking without a map). Although I'm rating this book a 4 out of 5 stars for the poor maps, I HIGHLY recommend this book to any and all hikers - you can get topo maps anywhere, but the top-notch trail guides in this book are hard to come by. Besides, it comes in a small 3-ring binder so you can take out just the pages you need or carry the tough, durable binder with you.

We used this book as our main guide for planning our first trip to NYC. We were REALLY disappointed with most of the shops that were recommended, and almost equally disappointed with the restaurants. In addition, some of the attractions rated "Not Worth It" were actually pretty cool -- specifically Mme. Tussaud's Wax Museum! I guess this book is pretty good for helping one get oriented and to figure out "what's out there", but I'd definitely take its recommendations with a big grain of salt, and leave myself open to trying things that appeal to me, even if this book recommends against them. (I must add that this was all very disappointing, given the good reputation that Frommer's enjoys as a reputable travel guide...)

Frommers still tends to somewhat gloss over things, but they've definitely gotten much more detailed since the old days. One of the best features is that they've completely embraced the Internet, providing web site and e-mail addresses for most things.

There's always been a rivalry between Fodors and Frommers. In this case, Frommers is pulling ahead.

From the standpoint of a cyclist who doesn't live near Baltimore, this book is no help at all. It offers a description of 16 bike rides, most of them near Baltimore or Anne Arundel county, and a few rides in Pennsylvania and Virginia. This may be helpful for anyone near the city, but I feel calling it a guide for Maryland is misleading.....However, their descriptions do go into great detail about directions, what kind of traffic you can expect, and the wildlife you may encounter. There are about 10 pages for each trail described.

If you're looking for good biking near the city then I highly recommend this book.....

At last a perfect guide for hiking and biking in Maryland! I don't have children but found this book to be a great resource for the short hikes and bike trips I enjoy with my husband. We went to the Cranesville swamp and had a difficult time finding information. This guide had the trails, directions, and plenty of interesting info on the natural history and ecology of the sites. I have used it for two of the other sites and have dogged-eared several more. I find it to be the perfect companion.

I had expected the author-resident of this book to reveal much more about the Hamptons rather than just a compiliation of names and addresses. In my estimation the book doesn't reveal much insight or short-cuts as the name ("Short-cuts") might infer.

Is does give you a shortened version of the yellow pages.

Jodi's Shortcuts is an excellent guidebook to the Hamptons. It has great reviews of all of the latest restaurants (including new ones that do not appear in other guidebooks), it has a great calendar of events that I could not find anywhere else, and it is chock full of every other service and listing you could ever want, plus lots of secrets, backroad maps, etc.I keep one in the car and one by the phone in the house at all times - it's the perfect resource! It's also got great tips from many famous people - their favorite restaurants and things to do. I loved it, and would highly recommend it to anyone! I hope they do guidebooks to other areas in the future!

Pretty good map. Sometimes very confusing though. Quite possible that it is the Dutch language. I found that they left the street prefix and suffix off of the name which made it rather hard to look up streets. Also the coordinates on the map were large areas leaving you searching a large part of the map for a street, once you were finally able to find it in the street locator section. I did order other maps because I wasn't to sure how this one would work with me once I was in the heart of it all. One other good thing that I found about it was the material the map was made of. It was a plastic that could hold up to the rain and also the wear and tear. It was also great because you could write on the map with dry erase marker which made it handy for noting the special "shops" incase you wanted to return later in your vacation.

relied on this map heavily while in Amsterdam and didn't have a single gripe about it. It's compact and sturdy and fairly easy to pinpoint the area you are wanting to find.

This guide is too condensed. There is not enough information to plan your trip to NYC! The maps are poor in content and lack many of the needed information. The sections of the book give general information but is not specific enough to help you decide what sites to take in. I suggest choosing another guide that, eventhough it may be a little bigger in size, will give you more information about New York.

Excellent New York guide book: filled with many places to eat, go, visit, and simply ejoy. Also features detailed pop out maps of the city and surrounding areas. Imporant NYC phone numbers. Includes NYC history and information about specific areas and things to do. For example, let's say you want to know about Central Park. The book has a color picture of the park. It also has the parks location listed, information about the visitor center, a phone number, which buses you can take to get there, what hours it is opened, the cost, the website, and restaurants. There. The book is also entirely in color. Very cheap too!...

This book does have some cultural/sociological worth, but if you buy it new, you've got gross emotional problems. Buy it used--as long as you can find a dependable seller, and it looks like there's a good one already up here, you'll be much happier for it. Trust me on this one--save the few dollars and the years of therapy.

Four stars seem appropriate for an abridged edition of a work rating five stars for the complete version. For more detail, see my review of "On Our Own Ground" with the same date. The spectacle of Apess delivering his "Eulogy on King Philip" to the descendants of the Puritans who destroyed the Wampanoag leader should cause many Americans to rethink their image of our country's history.

"A Son of the Forest and Other Writings," by William Apess, is an important resource in United States history and literature. The book is edited by Barry O'Connell, who also provides an introduction. Apess (1798-1839), of the Pequot Indian people, was a pioneer Native American writer. In addition to his 1831 autobiography, "A Son of the Forest," this volume also contains "The Experiences of Five Christian Indians of the Pequot Tribe" (1832) and his "Eulogy on King Philip" (1836).

Apess' writing is dominated by his fervent evangelical Christianity, and also by his articulation of a Native American consciousness. "Son" is at times a very gripping autobiography. In it Apess writes about poverty, child abuse, alcoholism, ethnic identity and religious conversion: all topics that remain very relevant over the centuries. This volume contains, in addition to the primary texts, a useful bibliography and chronology. This book is an excellent choice both for the classroom and for the independent reader.

"Traces of Thoreau" is a pretentious, self-congratulatory narrative, and rather a bore as a result. For this reviewer, it failed both as a personal story and as a descriptive work about Cape Cod.

The author just isn't as compelling to us as he clearly finds himself. (I strongly disagree with the editorial reviewer who said that Mr. Mulloney largely "absents himself from the narrative." It just isn't so.) Although he fancies himself a modern "H.T.," there's nothing particularly insightful about Mr. Mulloney's walk on the beach, which unfortunately leaves Cape Cod shortchanged as a subject. The book does contain some informative passages about natural history, but there are some great guidebooks that are much better in that regard.

This book would best have been kept as a personal journal. You know, the kind that gets tossed out when it is reread it in a few years and found embarrassing even to the author.

For really fun and insightful travel/nature writing, try Bill Bryson's "A Walk in the Woods"!

As I sat on the ferry steaming across to Martha'a Vineyard, I could not help but constantly gaze to the Northeast and attempt to see past the horizon to the Cape Cod beaches on which Mulloney was strolling. Admittedly, I have never read a page of Thoreau and I embarked on reading this book with some serious trepidation. However, I was more than pleased when I found myself along side him, watching the waves crash along the seashore, listening to the locals tell tales of how it used to be, and generally feeling right at home, even though I had never visited a single place he was describing. And to top it all off, his references to Thoreau ( or H.T. as Mulloney calls him) were not only clear and pertinent, they were solid enough that I now feel as if I am some sort of junior varsity expert on the Concord native. This is perfect summer New England beach reading. It's also perfect winter New England reading for when you're wishing you were at the beach. And it's perfec! t Autumn reading, for that was the season when Mulloney embarked upon his retracing of Thoreau's steps down America's outer rim. And I suppose I must say it's perfect Spring reading, for when you are preparing for the summer's events. "Traces of Thoreau" is summer escapist non-fiction reading at its best. It is a timeless work, to be appreciated for summers and summers to come. Enjoy.

Boston area readers should check out a review by a local columnist for a Dedham paper that in itself is a masterpiece in that it places Thoreau's book among the greats of late 1800s.