Ugh. This book manages to take the colorful underworld of Chicago nightlife and make it boring. I agree with the earlier posts that it's mean-spirited and sloppy, and many of the reviews are so off-base it makes you wonder if the author actually visited the bar.

But there's good news - the infamous red book ("official Chicag bar guide") that an earlier poster raved about *has* been updated. I just found it a minute ago. It comes out December 1.

A must-have for your coffee table or barstool. This book is an enjoyable trist into the strange, but true Chicago night life. Hyde Park never seemed so appealing! Give this book as a gift to all your happen'n friends!

I've had a copy of this book and enjoyed reading the often-snarky reviews, but I didn't really know how reliable the book was. I just showed the book to a friend of mine as we were driving into the city, and she confirmed the accuracy. She's worked in the city for years and has been to many of the places mentioned. She was howling at the descriptions because they were witty and astute. We even stopped in at one of the dive bars that night, and darned if it wasn't painfully on the money. A great guide to anyone looking for a good night out. I just wish they had more of these for other cities.

I agree 100% with Mr. Steven Epstein's review (February 7, 2000), about Dr America: The Lives of Thomas A Dooley 1927-1961 by James Fisher

The tale of Dr. Dooley is indeed worth telling but, sadly, this book misses the boat. The author is mired in arcane (and not terribly interesting) tales of intrigue among Catholic factions and almost lost me many times. And although this book is a biography, the author seems strangely ambivalent towards the good jungle doctor. You never get close to Dooley. Few evocative anecdotes. You get no feel for Laos. Reading it is liking eating dry toast.

Why does The Talented Mr. Ripley come to mind? I hope that someone will take another stab at writing about this remarkable man.

Certainly a provocative and interesting story, however, little context is given to set the time regarding Asia, and the Cold War. Organization is deplorable, reflecting both huge gaps and many redundancies. Three notable nonsentences make me wonder why these guys publish without an editor.

Was this book edited at all? It reads as though it was written in one weekend, with no references other than the Yellow Pages. For example, the author "helpfully" provides us with a listing of good temp agencies--suspiciously, every single one begins with the letter "A". You have to wonder if any real research was done in other parts of the book, or if the author just copied down names and addresses from the phone book (as she clearly did in this section). The writing is repetitive and full of generalizations, and many of her "facts" are just plain wrong. I moved to Chicago three years ago, and I wish I hadn't had this book then.

I bought this book before moving to Chicago six months ago and it has been almost a total lack of help for anything I've tried to use it for. For starters, the neighborhood information is completely out-of-date (I passed up good neighborhoods because of this book!). And unbelievably, this book for NEWCOMERS lacks a comprehensive index and instead organizes everything by neighborhoods. In other words, if you want to know where any major landmark is, you have to look it up by neighborhood--but wait, you don't know the neighborhoods yet because you're new. This was a real brainstorm by whoever organized this book, and it's a real fun way to waste 20 minutes when you're just trying to find an address. There is decent information here, but I can never find any of it when I need to. My advice: skip this title and go straight for Fodor's Cityguide Chicago or The Unofficial Guide to Chicago, both excellent guides with clearly organized and updated information. They would both be loads of help to a newcomer.

Not a bad guide ... *if* you're moving to the city. Suburbs are not covered at all, except for some off-handed remarks about the "hinterlands".

Also had some errors in radio station listings.

I find "Kansas Off the Beaten Path" (5th edition) to be an interesting guide to Kansas sights and attractions, but it seems to be loaded with inaccuracies.

Page 4 - "The term Huron is not really the name of a Native American Tribe..." Wrong - there is a Huron tribe.

Page 7 - "The Great Mall of the Great Plains - Kansas City" This is in Olathe - not Kansas City.

Page 38 - "Wealthy old Marblecrest Street has a panoramic view of the Marmaton River valley..." Marblecrest is neither wealthy nor old, and very little of it overlooks the river valley.

Page 38 - "The Good Ol' Days...is a celebration of life from the 1840s through today...." It is the recreation of an 1899 Street Fair.

Page 39 - "The Bourbon County Fair takes place the fourth week in July..." If you come then, you will miss it.

Page 41 - "Hollister Wildlife Area, 8 miles southwest of Fort Scott on Highway 69...." It's several miles off Highway 69.

Page 42 - "...Darnaby's Berry Farm and Country House...." It has been closed for several years.

Page 51 - The account of the Civil War battle: "...a total massacre of the Fort Scott troops." This is incorrect.

Page 130 - The account of Squaw's Den Battleground: "Their escape took them through eastern Kansas...." their route was in western Kansas.

This could be a really good guide to out-of-the-way attractions in Kansas, but I could not trust its accuracy. If there are as many mistakes in the rest of the book as in the portion with which I am familiar, I question its value. A book in its 5th edition should have those inaccuracies corrected. The authors need to recheck some of their information.

The book is interesting, but seems to have a number of inaccuracies. i.e., the location of the Branding Iron Restaurant (p. 45), the military bridge, "...one of only two remaining structures..."(p. 43)[the bridge was dismantled many years ago (maybe 20 years); "Wealthy old Marblecrest Street .." (p. 42), [I guess this is Marblecrest Drive; I would not call Marblecrest Drive wealthy or old]; the Battle of Mine Creek, "...fought near Trading Post..."(p. 42) [Mine Creek Battlefield is several miles from Trading Post; it is about two miles from Pleasanton.]

I find the book interesting, but with these inaccuracies in the areas with which I am familiar would cause me to be afraid to trust the book for areas in which I am not familiar.

new smaller size and revized format inside makes the book much less reader-friendly.

The book has good information but the publisher has change the states included. The most Southeastern state, Florida is not in the 2001 edition (a separate book 16.95). With the additional states Arkansas, Louisiana, North and South Carolina the book is too thick over 750 pages, a new narrower page size and semi hard backs make it difficult to use.

Tidewater Dynasty is a fictional account of the Lee family. It is based upon historic dates and facts. The glimpses of the Lee family are not true to life. All the Lee husbands are good looking, intelligent, perfect husbands, unselfish, ... All the wives have the same traits. There is one Lee who does not comform to the Lee image. I suppose he embodies all the bad traits of the Lee family so that none of the others had any.

I've always been interested in the Lee family of Virginia, especially Richard Henry and Francis Lightfoot, the Declaration of Indpedence signers, so I ordered this book, hoping it would give me an insight into the world the two lived in. The book did, in a way. Some of the best points were when the authors described the society of Old Virginia, the relationships between the Virginia families, and how the colonists lived. Thankfully, the authors did a good job of portraying Richard H. and Francis L., but after that, the book sort of went downhill. I definitely did not enjoy how the authors portrayed Henry 'Light Horse Harry' Lee. He came off as some whiny, simpering man, and it really annoyed me. But, other than that, this book is a great insight into the society of Old Virginia and a fair look at the Lee family, and their roll in our history

This book has been superseded by "Don Wright's Guide to Free Campgrounds: Eastern Edition," which includes all of this book's information and a good deal more. There's little reason to spend money on this book; buy the more recent one instead.

This book, originally published in 1976 is just to dated I.M.O. for anybody looking to cruise the caribbean. I must admit I don't know of any other book that covers all of the carribean the way this one does, but I would rather spend my money on more up to date guides. Would I buy again? NO.

This book is organized by county, but it contains no map indicating counties. The index has serious omissions, rendering it almost useless. I wanted to know what was outside South Bend, but South Bend is not in the index. Neither is Gary, for that matter. Don't tell me it's because they're not "off the beaten path;" they are covered in the book. Counties are listed in the index, but of what use is that unless you know what county you're going to be traveling through? This book could be useful to someone with a good map who already knows where he is, but it does little to orient a newcomer or differentiate between one area and another. I have to cross Indiana this summer, and I'd like to take an interesting route, but I can't find one using this book unless I read nearly every page. This book needs itineraries near the major highways, a map indicating counties, and an entirely new index. To its credit, this book contains much information. Better referencing tools would help the reader find it.

This is a strange little book which offers no insight into the way Marconi thought about the technical aspects of radio or about many of the interesting issues associated with the early history of the Marconi Company. There are several photographs of early radio equipment but there is no discussion of what functions the devices have. There are no circuit diagrams. There are many pictures of Marconi and various notables; none of these are of archival value. If the reader wishes to learn more about how Marconi lost his eye, or about his extensive sexual adventures I recommend this book. If however the reader is a serious student of the history of radio I suggest the two volumes by Hugh G.J.Aitken or the History of the Marconi Company are much more valuable and interesting.