While this book does give you ideas of things to do in Chicago, they are not the most original.

I have been to Chicago a few times (to date, anyway) & I think it is the most amazing city. That is why I have quite a collection of Chicago books. I thoroughly enjoyed this book because it approaches the city of Chicago from a very unique perspective. Sharon Lloyd Spencer lists 101 different things to do whilst in Chicago, & describes them in a very personal way. I loved it because there were still many things that I've yet to see even though I thought I knew Chicago. I had to deduct 2 points from my rating though because she left out (IMHO) 2 important choices: The Drake (hotel), & The Green Mill (Blues Bar) - places I would NEVER miss!!!

My rating - take it for what's it's worth - is based on the book's use to me, as a U.S. born Chicago newcomer. There are portions of this book, devoted to entertainment, dining, weather, and neighborhoods, that I found useful. Even the sociological aspects of America, as discussed in this book, were a bit of an eyeopener (seeing ourselves as others see us). Still, this is less of a Chicago guide and more "Welcome to America". For those of us who are already familiar with the logistics of opening a checking account, or the difference between a condo and an apartment, the definative published guide to Chicago culture remains to be found.

I've just relocated here from abroad and I can't praise this book enough for helping me to find my bearings and get on my feet in Chicago. The author knows and loves the city, and as a bonus, he has also provided many fascinating insights into urban Americans and how they interact with each other and with foreigners. I would recommend this book to anyone unreservedly who intends to make Chicago their home, whether for a month or for years.

Coming in around 15,000 words, this reads more like a long journal article than a book. Chion takes an unapologetically personal view of Eyes Wide Shut that ignores without comment many key elements of the film and treats the whole as a straightforward narrative. Evidently, we are supposed to ignore certain obvious things as they are only meant to add to an unexplainable atmosphere independent from the plot. Overall unsatisfying, although Chion does provide the occasional insight like his analysis of the various types of repetition in the dialog and his comparison of the characters Bill and Carl. Due to its length, we get almost no elaboration on why, for instance, Chion holds to the view that the entire story is told by Bill and Alice's unborn son, although I suspect that the tiny snippet of evidence he does provide for this odd view is indeed all that he has.

Stanley Kubrick must have been habituated to negative reviews, given the controversy that many of his films inspired. Still, there was something poignant about seeing Eyes Wide Shut scathed by the critics when Kubrick himself had just passed away. It is a great film, a masterpiece, and yet it seemed so vulnerable there without the director himself able to lend his considerable energy to its defense. Apparently everyone was expecting a Tom and Nicole lovefest and thus could not see the film for what it was -- a kind of fin-de-siecle film about love, albeit seen in a glass darkly.

Fortunately, defenders of the film are finally emerging from the woods, and at their forefront is Michel Chion. His book -- which is insightful, elegantly written, and unpretentious (a notable quality in film books) -- makes a very strong case for considering Eyes Wide Shut as the work of genius that it no doubt is. He writes with extreme sensitivity to the film's meticulous construction, luminescent cinematography, sinuous psychology, and stylized dialogue. Attentive to the smallest of details, Chion demonstrates how a simple transition shot -- Tom Cruise entering an apartment and knocking on a bedroom door (a scene that Kubrick apparently filmed dozens of times) -- plays an important part in the semantics of the entire film. And those who think of Kubrick as a cinematic purist will be surprised by Chion's convincing analysis of the film's deliberate use of language -- passwords, repetitions, even spelling, as when an incidental character spells her name aloud with such insinuation that no come-on ever sounded so alluring.

It is not always easy to explain the roots of admiration, and sometimes you simply do or do not love a thing -- a book, a film, an artwork. But Chion's book has the great merit of transforming the author's love for the film into insight and exegesis, and perhaps in this way it might inspire admiration in others too...

disappointing to say the least - much of the book looked as if it had been recopied at kinko's. the maps were extremely hard to read - no color at all. i can't quite figure what's supposed to be irreverent in the book unless it's the fact that every so often the author says something less than favorable about a site or restaurant. save your money.

I spent my first 18 years around and in Chicago, so I was very curious to see what the Irreverent people suggested about my hometown of sorts. A word of warning... there is the usual quibble that applies to all of the irreverent books: they are more designed for reading a whole section at once, as the organization scatters litle info-nuggets about one particular place across a number of different sections. With that being said, the index in the back can guide you to the relevant pages for a specific place you are looking for.

All in all, I found this an incredibly fun and informative book that covers a large range of establishments and attractions in the few hundred pages it was given. It seems aimed at the younger or more adventurous traveler. Let's face it, almost everyone knows the Field Museum, the Art Institute, Brookfield Zoo, Sears Tower, etc. What this guide will help you do is find a great nightclub buried in the industrial district (Crobar), the surreal summer sports customs (16-inch softball!), the famous Frank Lloyd Wright architecture that is spattered around the city (Roble House), alternative shopping complexes (Belmont and Clark), where to grab a drink before a Cubs game (Cubby Bear), and famous local theater (Steppenwolf).

So if you are traveling to Chicago, and want to get a feel for the city that isn't completely upper-middle class and whitewashed (which the traditional Frommer's and such can fall prey to quite often), this book would be a great travel guide to help you out. It's even an interesting read for people living *in* Chicago, as there were a number of places in the book I was not familiar with which sound like quite a good time.

This is not a BOOK but a fold over, laminated pamplet. Contains a page on invertebrates pictures, 2 pages on fishes, 1 page on reptiles and amphibians, 3 on birds and 3 on mammals. The scientific name and the size of the animal is all the information that is listed. I was expecting some descripton that would help distinguish an organism from other similar ones. I was surprised that neither the carp nor the alewife was included.

all the animals in that book were overweight. it made me hungry.

The book gives a good overview of the areas with many addresses. Anyhow I found it a bit too black and white. It gives useful maps, but no coloured pictures from the areas, which would make it a bit more pleasant to read.

I highly recommend this guide to anyone who will be traveling in the Northeast as well as Canada. This guide gives you everything from upcoming events for the year to where to stay & eat. The maps are easy to read and follow. I have been a reader of the Mobil Guide for many years and it is continuing to give the most accurate, up-to-date travel information. This is the MUST-HAVE for the Northeast traveler.

I hope Wright researched other cities better than he did mine, because he lists a restaurant that closed in 1998, an inn that closed in 1998, industry that has 'recently sprouted' (but has been here since 1966), a park at an address that does not exist, and a golf tournament at the wrong course. I'd be afraid to
use this guide for other cities!!!

"Moon Handbooks Ohio" is one of the best tourbooks available for the state of Ohio. It is written in a breezy style with a sense of humor. In addition to the major tourist destinations, many less well known attractions are included, some of which won't be found in other tourbooks. So, for examle, there are locations for off-road bicycling and a guitar camp run by a former Jefferson Airplane band member. But this book is much more than a collection of attractions: there are historical overviews and asides on popular culture. Many annual local festivals are mentioned. At the end of the book, there are suggestions for further reading and a list of websites. This book is fun to read and provides many good ideas for places to go and things to do in Ohio.

This book is made mostly from second sources such as already printed books, but uses very few primary ones. In fact, it is missing key authors such as Hakluyt, he uses only the 1724 edition of Captain Johnson book (neglecting the 1726 which is the most complete), and it seems he used only a resumed version in one volume of Labat's massive work of more than 6 volumes, among other shortcomings. Then he puts in his bibliography the __Don Quixote__, but this novel has nothing to do with piracy in the Americas. I bought this book because it was advertised as being composed of many Spanish sources. But sadly, it has very, very few. In fact he only uses _one_ primary Spanish source (Alsedo), and about two or three books written by Spaniards of our time. His "select bibliography" is very short (68 books in all), and I doubt he read any more. In general terms, the information he provides is okay, and he is carefull not to make mistakes. Problem is, it is not an original book, nor it keeps up to what it promises. Readers that expect to find in it a rich quantity of Spanish references, archives, chroniclers, etceteras, do not be misleaded.

Kris Lane apparently grew up with the same wide-eyed awe of pirates that most of us grew up with. His "Pillaging the Empire" does it's best to reshape our opinions of pirates as a fun-loving bunch of misfits and saucy rogues, but like many recent works on the subject of piracy, he doesn't quite do it. One can't help but retain a skewed view of pirates, despite the unpleasant tales of how dirty ships were, how rotten the food was, how murderous the population was, etc. Like David Cordingly's excellent "Under the Black Flag", the pirate myth is largely debunked, the truth is revealed to be stranger than fiction, but you can still tell that at the end Lane (like Cordingly before him) still gets a kick out of recalling the pirate lifestyle.
The book itself tells the story of American piracy in a fun manner, but everything is presented scholarly; sources are cited and there are enough annotated footnotes to keep dorks like me happy. The sidebar pieces are handy, and cover related topics like gambling in the 17th century, a typical pirate's diet, etc. Interesting stuff for the curious and a good awakening to those who think pirates are all guff-talking, one-eyed parrot owners with scurvy and gangrene.

I want to be sympathetic to an established writer, so John Eastman's review from Jan, 99 sums it up for me in every detail. I ate up the History in his book, which was my reason for reading, but the kid stuff drove me crazy (I've got some of my own), and the writing, exclusive of the historical part, was bad. I think all poor Dan Spurr needed was a good honest editor.

This book is as much, or more, of a parental odyssey than a historical one. What information Spurr presents on LaSalle and current thinking and research about this fascinating French explorer is solid and intriguing. Far less engaging, at least to this reader, is Spurr's own family story. Long, dreary episodes tell us considerably more than we want to know about father, mother, and children (his wife mercifully escapes our scrutiny); he even quotes at length some of the clever little bedtime stories he makes up for his son. While all of this wordage is significant to him, no doubt -- and even mildly interesting, perhaps, to other daddies and mommies -- it provides a less than enchanting gift to the general reader. The book belongs on the parents' shelf of "what I did with my kids last summer" rather than with serious historical travelogs. One comes away with the impression that the relatively minor focus on LaSalle emerged as an incidental by-product of a family jaunt. Also, Spurr is not an especially gifted writer, making some of his too-frequent, ruminative, pretentiously insightful passages less than crystalline at best, murky and obscure at worst. Unfortunately, his prose comes alive only when he's discussing his boat or his kids. We learn precious little about the mighty river itself, its dwellers and endless permutations. Spurr's bankside activities mostly revolve around acquiring fuel for his boat. Still, Spurr's book is worth reading for its useful gleanings about current discoveries relating to LaSalle -- one must just tread a lot of water in order to find the good stuff.

When I saw La Salle in the title, I was almost put off this book, but I am glad I took the time to look a bit further. Being a Mississippi River travelog buff, I hoped to find something of interst in this book and indeed I did. Skipping all the entries on La Salle and focusing only on Daniel Spurr's here and now story, I felt as if I were traveling along with him as "a fly on the wall" in the cramped quarters of Spurr's boat, Pearl. The author and his family seemed to be involved with the waters and the banks of this river as opposed to just skimming past to be getting somewhere. I empathized with the author over the myriad uncertainties, irritations and feelings of guilt that go hand-in-hand with parenting. I understood the deisre to introduce his young son to a world far removed from the two-dimensional-virtual-reality vortex Steve was fast becoming addicted to. Travel can be about getting away from or going toward, but I think this story was ultimately about going along WITH. And in this case, I think Mr. Spurr and his children were traveling in spirit with the son Peter, who died in a train accident. I felt a deep heartache coming through in Spurr's words, but also his hope of renewal and his sense of the circle of life. Pre-America barely exisits anymore within the 48 contiguous states, but along the banks of The Mississippi, this author came close to finding it, in spirit and in fact.

i

I must state that the author of the book seems to want to make a point that Billy the Kid wasn't much of a well-known outlaw. Maybe in the Lincoln County War, but what about after? The author really glosses over the events following the War and tries to "revise" Billy out of history. Just another revisionist taking the stance that nothing important or interesting happened in the Old West. Unfortuante. Further, the review by Canfield is clearly a shill's piece. No one who had read the Utley book on Billy the Kid would then classify the Kid as a "hanger-on who became famous overnight and was killed shortly thereafter." Canfield, like Jacobsen, appears to be jealous of Billy the Kid. Keep in mind that Jacobsen, as a government official, would have good cause to try to downplay the life of the Kid. Canfield is either a partner in crime, or another guy who hates Billy the Kid 'cause his girlfriend saw Young Guns and thought Emilio Extevez was cute. The book may be worth reading, but don't fall for the revisionist scam!

I can smell revisionist history and political correctness a mile away, but I must say, I didn't find any in this book. I'm a bit surprised that another reviewer felt that way. The probability that a shifty, shadowy 21 year old "kid" was not the mover and shaker in this sordid little war should surprise no one. I don't know Mr. Jacobsen's political leanings, but his writing is crisp, clear and a pleasure to read. This in spite of the fact that the Lincoln County War's causes were the rather mundane ones of protection of business and political interests that escalated out of control. Jacobsen has his opinions no question, but he still makes a good case and he is a very lucid writer. He doesn't preach an agenda. I found the book interesting and informative.

The most revealing, entertaining and well-written factual account of the Lincoln County (NM) wars since Utley's last book. No less a newspaper than The Washington Post calls this a "lively, lucid, compelling account of complex and confusing events about which scholars are still puzzling." The Post is correct (Kirkus is wrong). If you're a Billy the Kid junkie, first read Utley's "Billy the Kid: A Short and Violent Life." THEN, read this book by Jacobsen. From Utley, you'll get to know Billy. From Jacobsen, you'll discover that Bill Bonney was mostly a hanger-on who became an overnight celebrity and was killed shortly thereafter. The REAL players in this story are Tunstall and Murphy and Dolan and McSween and Catron and Brady -- so much so, that not until the final third of the book does the Kid REALLY come into play. If you like your history unvarnished, the sources impeccably reproduced, the background thorough -- this is the book for you. Whoever wrote the Kirkus review is wrong. This is not only entertaining, it is fascinating in its human portrayals of people out to make a buck and control county politics in the new territory of New Mexico. Trust the Chicago Tribune, which describes Jacobsen's book as "...a tonic to the hysterical and sensational accounts of the past."