Mr. Hans Henke, and immigrint from Germany, has done a fantastic job researching and compiling the photograhicl history of Patchogue. As an author and member of the Greater Patchogue Historical Society, I can tell you that reserecting the historical past of Patchogue is no easy task. Most of our historical landmarks and records were distroyed in the early 1960's in the name of progress and modernization. - Robert Garcia -

My first impulse upon receiving the book was to return it because I thought it would be illustrated in color of the flora and fauna in the Poconos. But I gave it a second look and discovered that it was quite thorough in its information. For instance, it gives you 'places to see'geological features of the mountains, where eagles winter, where to find Pocono bogs and wetlands,and places of natural history. The authors detail what animals, plants and amphibians can be found in the area. Overall the book is quite comprehensive on wildlife. With an Audobon guide for identifying plants in color, this is a very good book for taking along on hikes or camping or for just wanting to know 'what's around.'

This spiral-bound atlas is the book form of the Rand-McNally fold-out paper map (not to be confused with the EasyFinder laminated map, which has less coverage). Over half the pages are dedicated to the street index. One inch equals a half mile in this atlas, versus .7 mile to the inch on the fold-out paper version.

The atlas format makes it hard to get a "big picture" perspective of New York, but this format will be ideal for those locating minor residential streets in the outer boroughs. There is nothing here on commuter trains or the subway; this is not for tourists. Tourists will be better served by the hard-to-find "Hagstrom 5 maps in 1" fold-out map (not the atlas).

The coverage is reasonable, but there are a lot of omissions that would be difficult to justify. Check out The Best in Tent Camping, New England, by Lafe Low; the Frommer authors obviously did-- when they cover the same sites, the Frommer guide lifts whole phrases and sentences. On the other hand, Frommer covers a lot more sites, so you pretty much need both. Happy camping!

This guide book would be very useful for a first time visitor to this area of the battlefield. But for those wishing to spend more time in the Little Round Top/ Devil's Den area, or who wish for more complete and detailed guides, I recommend two other books: Little Round Top: A Detailed Tour Guide by Garry E. Adelman, and Devil's Den: A History and Guide by Garry Adelman & Timothy H. Smith

The best thing about this book is it's size it fits handilly in your pocket. Planning a visit to New York in February 2002 i did hope for more from this guide. Its size limits the entries to a few lines which is the books main problem. The Bars section may come in useful but Virgin will have to do better if they want to rival Time Out's NY guide.

I was very disappointed with this edition. I had seen some of the older Virgin guides and was impressed with their hipness and reviews of places that aren't mentioned in the standard guidebooks.

This pocket edition is very small (maybe 2/3rds the height of a standard paperback and less than one inch thick), consequently the listings are, shall we say, sparsely worded. Even the longer "reviews" are only one or two sentences.

Beware also that this book includes only places to eat, drink and shop. The hotel section is laughable - only a few pages long and one sentence per hotel. Hardly enough info on which to base a decision.

That's the overall problem with this book - it might contain the same number of individual listings as the larger version, but they decided to rip out the content (text) in order to make it fit into the pocket size.

Not recommended.

I bought this for my friend who moved to NYC from Portland, OR and she's used it to make a place for herself in that ever changing and ever confusing city! We also used it to pick places to go out to when we went clubbing and out to eat during my visit.

I only hope they put out an updated version soon - what was cool in NYC a year ago isn't always so "hot" now!

Who is this guy Margulis? He ought to be writing self-defense books! This is a "low-conscience" offering that disregards the ecosystem, uses other undocumented sources, and is pretty hard to use in the field. I can't recommentd anything about it.

This book is part of the problem, not part of the solution for increased access to mountain bikers. It ignores park management rules and regs (tons of illegal trails were listed in the first edition), and it totally peaved the local mountain biking community organizations (GORP, the Gunks OFF ROAD PATROL, and HUMbVA..the hudson Valley Mountain Biking Association)for harming some of the advocacy work they'd already done in the valley. Irresponsibly authored and represented. Needs major work.

Ok, if you live in NYC and always go to Lake Placid on holiday then this is the guide for you. If you want a guide to NY state then forget it- it really does only cover the south east and the north east, about 25% of the state.

Since central NY is so chock full of trails it has not occured to me to get a guide, I just get on my bike and explore. I was given this book for christmas and looked with interest to see if there were any trails within a couple of hours drive that I might try for a weekend change of scene. This book contains nothing of interest to those who live outside NYC.

As a handbook with information about Boston buildings, the AIA guide is useful. And its treatment of older buildings is reasonable. But this book is most interesting as a historical memoir, a reminder that architectural critics were once smitten by poured concrete and vast, empty plazas.

Ever wonder how disasters like St. Louis's Pruitt-Igoe managed to win AIA awards? Read Susan & Michael Southworth's guide to Boston, and you'll understand.

The Southworths heap praise on the most unlikely monstrosities in the city. The execrable State HEW building is "a tour de force demonstrating the structural possibilities of concrete." The horrific Boston Architectural Center is "an admirable piece of contemporary architecture."

The Southworths absolutely fawn over modernist heroes, irrespective of their work. They have nothing but kind words for I.M. Pei - making them perhaps the only persons in Boston capable of defending Harbor Towers or the MIT buildings. They are positively giddy about Le Corbusier's Carpenter Center, a monstrous bunker. In their eyes, 'the spatial drama is stunning, as are the bold concrete forms ... it is the work of a master."

Now that architects have moved beyond blocky and dingy concrete boxes, the Southworths have very little favorable to say about them. They sniff at the varied facades, rooflines, and materials conceived for buildings like 75 State, 222 Berkeley, 500 Boylston and 99 Summer - if dingy concrete was good enough for Le Corbusier, why isn't it good for contemporary architects? Why can't we have more anonymous boxes like the "elegant" and "sleek" 28 State Street?

The Southworths bemoan the fact that downtown buildings of the '80s frequently destroyed little alleyways. Of course, when I.M. Pei wiped out entire streets and blocks of lovely townhouses in the '60s, as at Government Center and the Christian Science complex, that was perfectly OK, producing "dramatic forms."

Thankfully, the Southworths' era has long past. Their views would be more irritating if they weren't so absurd, and if anyone still had the audacity to build the concrete mausoleums they so passionately love.

This is a good guide book for walking around Boston and trying to understand some history behind the buildings. Too many buildings are covered, old and new buildings together. The general information about the construction date, architectural style is provided but not in detail. It is so grouped that it makes it easy to walk around the town and see good number of buildings in the neighbourhood. Information is not very detailed, State Haouse is described in two pages or so, other buildings in one short paragraph, just to give general idea about the architecture and history of the city. I found it more handy than other available books for it covers a lot and it has walker friendly sequencing.

This book may give me an excuse to take a vacation.

The book provides the most detailed description of the islands I have seen. It provides a good balance between geological, historical and practical information that will appeal both to the occasional visitor and the fan of Boston and New England history. The writing style is simple and friendly. The only critic would be that the book is ageing and an update taking into account the most recent travel and National Park Service information would be welcome.

I had read a few negative reviews about this book before purchasing it because I hoped they were wrong. Well, they weren't.

The book is, well, boring and hard to get through because of it's flatness. There are too many details when it comes to "he said, she said" descriptions and not enough detail of the actual hauntings that would draw the reader in, or at least throw a chill down your spine.

The cover boasts "Spine-Tingling Encounters with the Phantoms of New England," but I think the made-up ghost stories that are told by campfires and in the dark at sleep-overs are more enjoyable and "spine-tingling" than the ones in this book.

I found his story telling to be repetative, as another reader also mentioned. At times I thought my bookmark had been moved and I was re-reading a chapter, but it was just his style of writing repeating itself over and over.

Lastly, I'm not sure why this book makes it seem as if ghosts only haunt big, old houses. I'm sure there are plenty of ghosts out there that aren't haunting houses, but I guess Hans didn't hunt down any of those.

All in all, if you're looking for a nice book to curl up with late at night in order to get a good scare, this isn't the one. It's not even worth it for those who aren't looking for a scare, actually. Very disappointing.

I have read many books of this genre, more than one of Mr. Holzer's. This is by far his worst work. The biggest problem is the way that he writes. It is apparent in his other books, but not as prominent. He comes off as if he is the world's best ghost hunter and that his opinion's are fact. Many times he states in the book that he doubts and discredits any person that hasn't in the past had some kind of psychic occurence. There is no history to any "haunt". He and his medium are the only credible people in any story. My overall consenus is that he is getting old and is trying to cash in on a few more books. there was no thought or follow through, just cocky, arrogant fatigue in this book. If you want to read a real good ghost book, check out Citro.

I give this book only a two star rate. This book is ok, the author I feel is a little repateivtive in his writting. He relies heavy on channeling with very little history if any to back things up. Its interesting and belevable but over all its not a book I would buy new, buy it used. Its still a good read but most of the stories are a bit old.